China is putting pressure on the European Union to issue a strong joint statement against President Donald Trump’s trade policies at a summit

this month, but it’s facing resistance, European officials said.

In meetings in Brussels, Berlin and Beijing, senior Chinese officials, including Vice Premier Liu He and the Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, have proposed an alliance between the two economic powers and offered to open more of the Chinese market in a gesture of goodwill.

One proposal has been for China and the European Union to launch joint action against the United States at the World Trade Organization.

But the European Union, the world’s largest trading bloc, has rejected the idea of allying with Beijing against Washington, five EU officials and diplomats told Reuters, ahead of the Sino-European summit in Beijing on July 16-17.

Instead, the summit is expected to produce a modest communique that affirms the commitment of both sides to the multilateral trading system and promises to set up a working group on modernizing the WTO, EU officials said.

Liu has said privately that China is ready to set out for the first time what sectors it can open to European investment at the annual summit, expected to be attended by President Xi Jinping, China’s Premier Li Keqiang and top EU officials.

Chinese state media have promoted the message that the EU is on China’s side, officials said, putting the bloc in a delicate position. The past two summits, in 2016 and 2017, ended without a statement because of disagreements about the South China Sea and trade.

“China wants the European Union to stand with Beijing against Washington, to take sides,” said one European diplomat. “We won’t do it and we have told them that.”

China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Beijing’s summit aims.

In a commentary on Wednesday, China’s official Xinhua news agency said China and Europe “should resist trade protectionism hand in hand.”

“China and European countries are natural partners,” it said. “They firmly believe that free trade is a powerful engine for global economic growth.”

China’s moment?

Despite Trump’s tariffs on European metals exports and threats to hit the EU’s automobile industry, Brussels shares Washington’s concern about China’s closed markets and what Western governments say is Beijing’s manipulation of trade to dominate global markets.

“We agree with almost all the complaints the U.S. has against China. It’s just we don’t agree with how the United States is handling it,” another diplomat said.

Still, China’s stance is striking, given Washington’s deep economic and security ties with European nations. It shows the depth of Chinese concern about a trade war with Washington, as Trump is set to impose tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese imports on Friday.

It also underscores China’s new boldness in trying to seize leadership amid divisions between the United States and its European, Canadian and Japanese allies over issues including free trade, climate change and foreign policy.

“Trump has split the West, and China is seeking to capitalize on that. It was never comfortable with the West being one bloc,” said a European official involved in EU-China diplomacy.

“China now feels it can try to split off the European Union in so many areas — on trade, on human rights,” the official said.

Another official described the dispute between Trump and Western allies at the Group of Seven summit last month as a gift to Beijing because it showed European leaders losing a longtime ally, at least in trade policy.

European envoys say they already sensed a greater urgency from China in 2017 to find like-minded countries willing to stand up against Trump’s “America First” policies.

No ‘systemic change’

An April report by New York-based Rhodium Group, a research consultancy, showed that Chinese restrictions on foreign investment were higher in every single sector save real estate, compared with the European Union, while many of the big Chinese takeovers in the bloc would not have been possible for EU companies in China.

China has promised to open up. But EU officials expect any moves to be more symbolic than substantive.

They say China’s decision in May to lower tariffs on imported cars will make little difference because imports make up such a small part of the market.

China’s plans to move rapidly to electric vehicles mean that any new benefits it offers traditional European carmakers will be fleeting.

“Whenever the train has left the station, we are allowed to enter the platform,” a Beijing-based European executive said.

However, China’s offer at the upcoming summit to open up reflects Beijing’s concern that it is set to face tighter EU controls, and regulators are also blocking Chinese takeover attempts in the United States.

The European Union is seeking to pass legislation to allow greater scrutiny of foreign investments.

“We don’t know if this offer to open up is genuine yet,” a third EU diplomat said. “It’s unlikely to mark a systemic change.”
…

President Donald Trump continues to turn up the heat on trade, a tactic that he insists will result in better deals for the American people. But the president’s rhetoric has economists concerned about a trade war. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has more.
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In the busy summer travel period in Cuba, a long line of people wait for hours in the sweltering heat outside the Havana office of state-owned airline Cubana, many of them eager to visit families in the provinces.

But they are not waiting to book flights. Instead, they hope to get their money back on plane tickets or exchange them for bus tickets across the island.

Cubana, which has a virtual monopoly on domestic flights, has suspended nearly all of them due to a lack of working aircraft, plunging travel on the Caribbean’s largest island into chaos and highlighting problems at what was once a vanguard of Latin American aviation.

The flight suspensions were made a month after a Cubana flight crashed after takeoff from Havana airport in May, killing 112 people. They come at a time when Communist-run Cuba is trying to stimulate tourism, one of the few bright spots in its economy, by promoting beach resorts and colonial towns hundreds of kilometers (miles) from the capital.

“Now I will have to take a 16-hour bus ride to Guantanamo, but what other options do I have?” said kindergarten teacher Marlene Mendoza, who was bathed in sweat and got a bus ticket to eastern Cuba after queuing for more than seven hours.

Analysts say Cubana’s troubles stem largely from dual ills that afflict the whole state-run economy: the U.S. trade embargo and a problematic business model.

Cubana did not reply to requests for comment for this story.

Founded in 1929 as one of Latin America’s first airlines, Cubana was nationalized after Fidel Castro’s leftist 1959 revolution. In its heyday, it flew Cuban troops to Africa and passengers to allied socialist countries around the globe.

For decades it got around U.S. sanctions that restricted it from buying planes with a certain share of U.S. components — including European Airbus and Brazilian Embraers — by acquiring first Soviet and then Russian aircraft.

The carrier maintained a decent safety record, but its reputation for mediocre service and delays prompted many foreign tourists to use mostly land transport.

Then, over the past year, it started canceling more flights than usual, often putting passengers up in hotels for days, without commenting publicly on the disarray.

After the Boeing 737 crashed on May 18, Cubana said it had leased the plane from Mexican company Damojh due to a lack of its own aircraft. A second Damojh plane has been grounded pending a safety audit of its fleet by Mexican authorities, data from Flightradar24 shows, aggravating the shortage.

Cuban, Mexican and U.S. authorities are still investigating the crash and have not commented on possible causes. Damojh has said in a press release that is fully cooperating with those investigations into the “lamentable accident.”

Just four of Cubana’s own 16 planes are flying, according to a Reuters examination of data on Flightradar24 and Planespotters.net.

Not flying high

Over the past month, the airline announced it was axing several routes mainly used by Cubans and reducing the frequency of flights to Santiago, Holguin and Baracoa, all popular tourist destinations. In a statement, it said it was working to resolve the situation and apologized for the disruption.

Cubana also suspended all international routes except to Buenos Aires and Madrid, several staff told Reuters. The company did not comment publicly, leaving would-be travelers sharing their confusion on online forums.

“It has lost a lot of prestige. It’s already not the famous Cubana that used to fly to all parts of the world,” said one former employee, who asked to remain anonymous, who retired 6-1/2 years ago after working for Cubana for 40 years. “Anywhere else in the world, a company like Cubana would have folded.”

Cubana said in mid-June it did not have enough aircraft largely because of maintenance issues and lack of parts, which aviation experts say can cost millions of dollars.

The airline sells tickets to Cuban citizens at heavily subsidized prices. Its budget is also stretched by ferrying official delegations around sometimes at a financial loss, a former Cuban diplomat familiar with Cubana operations said.

Cash-strapped Cuba points the finger at the 56-year-old U.S. trade embargo, saying it has cost its flagship carrier millions of dollars.

The coup de grace was possibly the purchase of six AN-158 regional jets from Ukrainian manufacturer Antonov since 2013.

Cubana has said those planes have had technical problems and getting parts for the joint Russian-Ukrainian project has proven difficult since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

An Antonov representative told Reuters that Cubana had not been paying for the necessary work, but it had signed a deal in April with the airline to cooperate “to resume the use of AN-158 planes before the end of the current year.”

Typically, airlines lease planes when theirs are undergoing maintenance or there is a spike in demand, but the U.S. embargo and financial constraints likely complicate this for Cuba, said Richard Aboulafia, vice president of U.S. aviation consulting company the Teal Group.

In May, Lithuanian lessor Avion Express and Italian lessor Blue Panorama both ended their contracts with Cubana, the companies told Reuters, without explaining why. Data from Flightradar24 shows they withdrew respectively four Airbus A320s and one Boeing 737.

That is around the time when Cubana turned to the little-known Damojh, leasing the 39-year-old Boeing 737.

Damojh has faced safety concerns in other countries in the region. Guyana’s aviation authority told Reuters it had revoked Damojh’s permit to fly there last year due to issues such as overloading planes. The airline declined to comment on the matter.

The crash in May has undermined trust in Cubana.

“I like to travel by plane. It’s faster and more comfortable,” said Maylin Lopez, 48, waiting at Havana’s bus station for her 15-hour ride to eastern Cuba. “But I can’t even imagine doing that now.”
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Major U.S. trading partners including the European Union, China and Japan voiced deep concern at the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Tuesday about possible U.S. measures imposing additional duties on imported autos and parts.

Japan, which along with Russia had initiated the discussion at the WTO Council on Trade in Goods, warned that such measures could trigger a spiral of countermeasures and result in the collapse of the rules-based multilateral trading system, an official who attended the meeting said.

More than 40 WTO members — including the 28 countries of the European Union — warned that the U.S. action could seriously disrupt the world market and threaten the WTO system, given the importance of cars to world trade.

The United States has imposed tariffs on European steel and aluminum imports and is conducting another national security study that could lead to tariffs on imports of cars and car parts. Both sets of tariffs would be based on concerns about U.S. national security.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on June 29 that the probe would be completed in 3 to 4 weeks.

But the European Union has warned the United States that imposing import tariffs on cars and car parts would harm its own automotive industry and likely lead to countermeasures by its trading partners on $294 billion of U.S. exports.

A Russian official told the WTO meeting that the issue of U.S. investigations had been raised over the past year in different WTO meetings, only to see things change for the worse.

The United States was losing its reputation as a trusted trade partner, the Russian delegate told the meeting, adding that the United States could soon start an investigation into the case for import tariffs on uranium products.

China, Canada, Switzerland, Norway, Turkey, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Venezuela, Singapore, Brazil, South Korea, Mexico, Qatar, Thailand and India all echoed the same concerns and said they doubted the U.S. tariffs were in line with WTO rules.

The U.S. diplomat at the meeting said the matter was already the subject of formal disputes at the WTO, so it should not be on the committee’s agenda, the official who attended the meeting said.
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Worried that Walmart’s $16 billion deal to takeover India’s biggest e-commerce company will force millions of mom and pop stores out of business, hundreds of shop owners in several cities have led protests against the U.S. retail giant.

India’s fast-growing retail trade is dominated by millions of small traders that have long opposed efforts by Walmart to establish its stores in the country. Now they are concerned its entry in the online market will drive down prices, making them uncompetitive, and are demanding the government block the deal.

WATCH: Anjana Pasricha’s video report

Raising slogans such as “Walmart Go Back” at a sit-in protest Monday in New Delhi, Praveen Khandelwal, the secretary general of the Confederation of All India Traders expressed fears that “Walmart will dump globally sourced material in India and ultimately the level playing field will be vitiated.” He says they fear practices like “deep discounting and predatory pricing” by large chains with deep pockets will “kill the competition.”

Although Walmart has eyed India’s retail market for more than a decade, its efforts to make inroads have been hampered by tough regulations for overseas retailers in opening brick and mortar stores. The regulations are meant to protect the livelihood of 15 million small store owners.

Flipkart Deal

But Walmart’s deal with Indian e-commerce retailer Flipkart, which sells goods ranging from soaps to appliances, clothes and accessories, will allow it to access Indian consumers through the online route and establish a foothold in a fast growing market. In the past five years, millions in India have begun logging onto websites to shop and the e-commerce market is expected to grow exponentially during the next decade. Flipkart has approximately 100 million users.

In a statement, Walmart said it has been supporting local manufacturing in India by sourcing from small and medium suppliers, farmers and businesses run by women. “Our partnership with Flipkart will provide thousands of local suppliers and manufacturers access to consumers through the marketplace model,” Rajneesh Kumar, senior vice president, Walmart India, stated.

But that has failed to reassure Indian shopkeepers and traders. Ajay Bajaj, of Bajaj Vacco in New Delhi, has been selling household appliances for more than five decades and sells his goods through online companies like Flipkart. He is not opposed to e-commerce, but he says he worries Walmart will make his business unviable as it procures cheaper goods from countries like China.

“Our apprehension is only that instead of me or my colleagues who are producing in India, if foreigners were to come here and make produce [goods] elsewhere and then sell here, first of all we will be out, because it will certainly be survival of the fittest and also the money game,” says Bajaj.

$700 billion market

But retail analysts dismiss worries that cheaper goods sourced from outside India would be a threat to small shop owners.

Ankur Bisen of retail consultancy, Technopak, points out that such products already flood the Indian market and are sold in thousands small stores across the country. “You are getting containers of Diwali lighting, containers of idols, of cheap stationery in India, why are you not stopping that?” he questions. “Same mom and pop stores are selling Chinese goods, they are selling imported goods.”

The protests against Walmart this week were however much smaller than those witnessed about a decade ago when traders feared the U.S. retailer would be allowed to open stores.

India’s retail market is worth about $700 billion. “It’s a growing space, it’s a profitable space,” says Bisen pointing out there is ample space for big and small retailers.

But traders continue to be suspicious, pointing out that Walmart has traditionally been a brick and mortar retailer. “Walmart is an off-liner, why Walmart is coming through e-commerce? Naturally there is a hidden agenda to control the vibrant retail trade of the country,” says Khandelwal.
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Zimbabwe’s government is denying a report from Human Rights Watch that documented extensive child labor on the country’s tobacco farms. Some of the children are as young as 10 years old, and the report says many have experienced acute nicotine poisoning from handling tobacco plants.

The 105-page report, titled “A Bitter Harvest,” documents how children working on tobacco farms in Zimbabwe are denied time in school and have to perform tasks that threaten their health and safety.

According to Human Rights Watch, one of the most serious risks is “Green Tobacco Sickness,” which is caused by absorbing nicotine through the skin from tobacco plants.

The rights group said the 14 child workers it interviewed, and most of the adults, said they had experienced at least one symptom consistent with acute nicotine poisoning, such as nausea, vomiting, headaches, or dizziness.

In an interview with VOA, the secretary for the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, Ngoni Masoka, said the Human Rights Watch report is “not factual” and has not been independently confirmed.

But he acknowledged that the youngsters face hazards working on Zimbabwean farms.

“What we need to do, we need to do a survey to determine the nature and extent of the child labor problems in our farms; that’s what we want to do,” said Masoka.

Masoka noted the problem is not limited to Zimbabwe. Millions of children around the world perform work on farms for little or no pay. Some are helping their families; others are working for low wages. In Zimbabwe, kids on tobacco farms earn less than $10 per day.

Ida Tsitsi Chimedza is programs coordinator of the International Labor Organization in Zimbabwe. She said the issue of child labor persists because of chronic poverty, which she called “the key driver of child labor,” and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which forces children to support themselves when a parent dies.

Zimbabwe’s government has ratified the ILO convention that calls for the elimination of the worst forms of child labor, she notes. She says employers now have to get the message.

“We also talk of sensitization because it’s important that the people who employ should be aware that it is not right to employ children who are underage.”

Labor Secretary Masoka said the government has a commitment toward eliminating child labor in all forms.
…

Понад 3,2 мільйона українців постійно працюють за кордоном, заявив міністр соціальної політики Андрій Рева.

На церемонії запуску проекту із поліпшення управління ринком праці «Інклюзивний ринок праці для робочих місць в Україні» 3 липня в Києві Рева також повідомив, що трудова міграція на сьогодні має сезонний характер і в цьому процесі задіяні до дев’яти мільйонів українських громадян.

Рева додав, що на даний момент одна з актуальних проблем ринку праці – рівень безробіття серед молоді і неможливість працевлаштування великої кількості внутрішньо переміщених осіб.

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Однією з найбільших цільових країн для трудової міграції з України є Чехія. Загалом у цій країні нині працює понад 100 тисяч українців.

Цього року Чехія більш ніж удвічі збільшила ліміт для видачі робочих віз для українців. Якщо раніше вони могли подати тільки 9 600 заявок, то з цього року ліміт піднявся відразу на 10 тисяч і сягнув майже 20 тисяч робочих віз.
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За таке рішення проголосували 239 народних депутатів
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Українці добре обізнані з курсом гривні до долара, проте набагато гірше знають, який в Україні рівень інфляції, безробіття й середньої заробітної плати. Такі результати дало дослідження центру «Соціальний моніторинг» та Українського інституту соціальних досліджень імені Яременка, результати якого публікує VoxUkraine.

Згідно з результатами, якщо 55% українців впевнені, що знають курс долара за офіційним курсом Нацбанку, то щодо середньої заробітної плати по країні називають себе обізнаними трохи більше 20%, щодо інфляції – 10,7%, щодо безробіття – 9,4%.

Читайте також: «Іван Міклош про найважливіші досягнення України за чотири роки»

При цьому максимально правильно (із точністю до 95-100%) курс долара змогли назвати 95,7% респондентів дослідження. Найгірше учасники знали рівень інфляції – 6,2% назвали правильну відповідь – та рівень безробіття – 0,5%.

Поточний рівень інфляції в Україні складає 13,6%, тоді як середнє значення відповідей респондентів – 34,1%. Рівень безробіття вони оцінили в 35,1% при реальному показнику 8,9%.

Автори дослідження у висновках зазначають, що така увага українців до валютного курсу може свідчити про недовіру до гривні, а громадяни, скоріш за все, отримують дані про стан економіки не з офіційних джерел.

Раніше Bloomberg відзначив гривню як валюту, яка найбільш стрімко зміцнювалась протягом першої половини 2018 року на фоні інших країн, що розвиваються.
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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Monday denounced President Donald Trump’s handling of global trade disputes, issuing a report that argued tariffs imposed by Washington and retaliation by its partners would boomerang badly on the American economy.

The Chamber, the nation’s largest business lobbying group and a traditional ally of Trump’s Republican Party, said the White House is risking a global trade war with its push to protect U.S. industry and workers with tariffs.

The group’s analysis of the harm each U.S. state could suffer from retaliation by U.S. trading partners painted a gloomy picture that could bring pressure on the White House from Republicans ahead of congressional elections in November.

For example, nearly $4 billion worth of exports from Texas could be targeted by retaliatory tariffs, the Chamber said, including $321 million in meat the state sends to Mexico each year and $494 million in grain sorghum it exports to China.

Trump has slapped tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of steel and aluminum imports from China, the European Union, Canada and others, prompting retaliation against U.S. products.

He is considering extending the levies to the auto sector.

The Chamber, which says it represents the interests of three million companies, had praised Trump for slashing business taxes in December, but mounting trade tensions have opened a rift with the White House.

“The administration is threatening to undermine the economic progress it worked so hard to achieve,” Chamber President Tom Donohue said in a statement. “We should seek free and fair trade, but this is just not the way to do it.”

Asked at a briefing about the Chamber’s report, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters: “The president is focused on helping protect American workers and American industries and create a fair playing field.”

The Chamber is expected to spend millions of dollars ahead of the November elections to help candidates who back free trade, immigration and lower taxes. It has already backed candidates who share those goals in Republican primaries.

Retaliation

Perhaps most unsettling to businesses and investors, Washington and Beijing have engaged in tit-for-tat tariffs and threatened retaliation that has raised the prospect of a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

The United States is set to impose tariffs on $34 billion worth of additional goods from China on July 6. China has threatened to retaliate in kind with its own tariffs on U.S. agricultural products and other goods.

Although Trump has previously been persuaded to back off trade threats based on the fact that they would hurt states that supported him in the 2016 presidential election, he has taken a more aggressive tack in recent months.

On Monday, he threatened to take action against the World Trade Organization after media reports said he wanted to withdraw from the global trade regulator. Trump says the WTO has allowed the United States to be taken advantage of in global trade.

Trump initially granted Canada, EU members and other nations exemptions on the metal tariffs — 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum. But he lifted the exemptions the same week he met with Group of Seven leaders in Quebec last month.

Trump railed against his trading partners during the meeting, according to sources, and withdrew his support for a joint communique after leaving the summit, angering and bewildering some of Washington’s closest allies.

Retaliation for his tariffs came swiftly.

Early last month, Mexico imposed tariffs on U.S. products ranging from steel to pork and bourbon, while the EU levied duties of 25 percent on 2.8 billion euros of U.S. imports, including jeans and Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Harley-Davidson, which dominates the heavyweight U.S. motorcycle market, subsequently announced it would shift some U.S. production overseas to avoid higher costs for EU customers.

Trump slammed the company’s move, saying it was tantamount to surrender, and threatened punitive taxes.

Canada, a member of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the United States and Mexico, on July 1 imposed retaliatory measures on C$16.6 billion ($12.63 billion) of American goods, including coffee, ketchup and whiskey.

Global equities fell Monday as investors worried about an escalation of the trade disputes.

The Chamber based its state-by-state analysis on data from the U.S. Department of Commerce and government agencies in China, the EU, Mexico and Canada.
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Carlos Garcia was three years into his first job in technology at Merrill Lynch when he first learned what a 401K retirement savings account was. He was floored when he learned that a colleague had already saved $30,000 in three years, and the company had matched it.

The concept of making money off money was foreign to Garcia, an MIT graduate who was born in Texas to immigrants from Mexico. His story is not uncommon among U.S. Hispanics, who lag behind other demographic groups when it comes to saving for retirement. But for Garcia, the episode became the inspiration many years later for Finhabits, a bilingual digital platform designed to make savings and investment accessible for Latinos.

Finhabits launched last year into a crowded world of robo-advisers, savings apps, online lending platforms and other financial-technology companies.

But it is one of the few aimed at demystifying stocks and bonds for Hispanics, particularly young professionals who have the means to start investing but may have inherited a fuzzy understanding of the financial system from their immigrant parents.

“Hispanics are very hard workers and we are able to generate quick income for our families. Sometimes we are good at savings but we put the money under the mattress,” said Garcia, who previously founded two other companies, including an internet analytics service for hedge funds.

Other financial-tech startups aimed at Latinos have focused on immediate financial needs: paying off debt, building credit and gaining access to loans. Few besides Finhabits are dedicated to encouraging investing and long-term financial planning.

Another is Mi Dinero Mi Futuro, a personal financial planning platform started by Ramona Ortega, a former New York corporate attorney who became preoccupied with the lack of financial literacy among Latinos while working in bankruptcy and securities litigation.

“No one talked to me about money,” said Ortega, the daughter of Napa Valley farm worker and the first in her family to go to college. “The fact is that our communities have not had a legacy of talking about money.”

Finhabits follows in the footsteps of robo-advisors Betterment, Wealthfront and Acorn, which use computer algorithms instead of a traditional wealth adviser to manage customer funds across various types of investments. Ortega’s platform is similar to more well-known personal finance apps Mint and Credit Karma; it offers personalized budgeting tools and recommendations for affiliated financial products.

More than competing with established players, the founders of Finhabits and Mi Dinero Mi Future see themselves as creating a new market among Latinos, who they believe are overlooked by traditional financial institutions and even many of the digital newcomers.

It is not an easy market to penetrate, however.

According to a 2014 Prudential Research study, just 19 percent of Latinos had individual retirement accounts and less than 10 percent had investments in individual stocks, bonds of mutual funds. Only about 60 percent of Hispanics had a savings account, compared to 80 percent of the general population. The study cited various factors, including uncertainty among immigrants about what will happen to investments if they leave the country, distrust of financial institutions and difficulty understanding products.

Another study, done in 2016 by the Pew Charitable Trusts, found that more than 60 percent of Latino workers lacked access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan, compared to 40 percent for white workers.

“This demographic has been very tough to crack historically,” said William Trout, head of wealth management research at Celent, a consulting firm focused on financial services technology. “Will that second generation look for a platform that is speaking to a Hispanic population? Well, somebody has to test it. I think it’s worth a shot.”

With Finhabits, beginner investors can start with $5 weekly contributions into traditional IRA, Roth IRAs or taxable investment accounts for shorter-term goals. Finhabits asks users about their priorities and risk tolerance and then recommends investment portfolios. The money goes into low-fee exchange trade funds from Vanguard and BlackRock.

Through its app, blogs and text-messaging services, Finhabits explains financial concepts (portfolio diversification? It’s like ordering different types of tacos) and compound interest to persuade people that investing their money is safer and wiser than trying to “hit the fat one,” as Latinos refer to the lottery jackpot.

Crucial to the Latino community, Finhabits lets users open an account with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, a processing number issued by the Internal Revenue Service for people who are required to pay taxes but do not have Social Security numbers. That makes the service accessible to immigrants who are not legal residents but still pay federal taxes.

Savvier investors can simply set up accounts directly with Vanguard or BlackRock, which require more active knowledge of investing. But most often, those big players don’t have formal marketing strategies for Hispanics.

Garcia said Finhabits has about 10,000 active clients who invest an average of $40 a week. It is signing up about 1,000 new clients each week and aiming for 50,000 by the end of the year.

One challenge for financial start-ups is earning the public’s trust. Finhabits and Mi Dinero Mi Futuro are trying to that through partnerships with institutions already targeting minority and underserved communities.

Finhabits is a provider in Washington state’s newly established Retirement Marketplace, which helps individuals and small businesses find low-cost retirement saving plans. Nearly 80 percent of the West Coast state’s 385,500 Hispanic workers are not covered by an employer-sponsored plan, said marketplace director Carolyn McKinnon.

Finhabits also has partnerships with credit unions, including Neighborhood Federal Credit Union, which serves New York City’s predominantly Latino neighborhoods of West Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood.

Rosa Franco, director of lending at the credit union, said the partnership is still in development. She anticipates a challenge in marketing the service to her clients, many of whom are consumed by pressing concerns like debt repayment and or sending money to relatives abroad.

“It’s difficult for many people to think about the future. They live paycheck to paycheck. Many people just think Social Security is their only option for retirement,” said Franco, who used the Finhabits app herself to open a Roth IRA.

Ortega, who recently received a new round of investment from venture fund Backstage Capital for Mi Dinero Mi Futuro, crisscrosses the country giving workshops at universities and Hispanic professional organizations.

At a financial boot camp in Los Angeles City Hall, Ortega won over Liliana Aide Monge, who moved to the U.S. from Mexico at age 5 and is now the co-founder of Sabio, web development and cybersecurity training company.

Growing up, Monge said her family was “not part of the formal banking structure at all. The money came in and you pay the rent and you pay for food.”

Now a mother of two boys, Monge has used Mi Dinero Mi Futuro to budget her money, buy life insurance and open a high-yield savings account.

“It was an eye-opening experience,” she said.
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The world’s top cocoa producer Ivory Coast plans to build a 60 to 70 megawatt (MW) capacity biomass power generation plant running on waste from cocoa pods, part of its aim of developing 424 MW of biomass power generation capacity by 2030.

The plant, which will enable Ivory Coast to diversify its electricity generation sources, was among five projects to receive grants from the U.S. agency for trade and development (USTDA), the U.S. embassy in Abidjan said in statement on Monday.

Others included a hydropower project in Kokumbo and two smart grid power projects.

The biomass power station, the first in Ivory Coast, would be based in the southern cocoa region of Divo. The USTDA has earmarked $996,238 for feasibility studies, the statement said.

Although Ivory Coast produces around 2 million tons of cocoa annually, thousands of tons of pods are discarded after the beans are removed. They are left to rot or burned after the harvest.

Unlike many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Ivory Coast has a reliable power supply. It exports electricity to neighbors Ghana, Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo and Mali, and plans to extend its grid to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone this year.

But with domestic consumption rising by about 10 percent a year, the government is under pressure to boost supply at home and aims to increase installed capacity to 4,000 MW by 2020, from the current 2,275 MW.
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Гірники першої та другої змін шахти №10 «Нововолинська» 2 червня відмовилися підніматися на поверхню, повідомляє голова Незалежної профспілки гірників Михайло Волинець.

«Загалом під землею наразі перебуває 47 осіб. До такого кроку вони змушені вдатися через заборгованість із заробітної плати, яка вже становить три місяці. Із шахтарями не розрахувалися за квітень, травень і червень. Окрім погашення заборгованого протестувальники вимагають виділення коштів на добудову копальні», – написав він у Facebook.

Будівництво шахти у Нововолинську розпочалося ще у 80-х роках, але донині його не завершили. За даними Волинця, на завершення робіт потрібно ще 500 мільйонів гривень , але цього року вирішили припинити будівельні роботи.

Очільник профспілки анонсує також акцію шахтарів перед Верховною Радою 5 липня.

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Кілька тисяч ветеранів війни в Афганістані, ліквідаторів аварії на Чорнобильській АЕС, ветеранів АТО і шахтарів 19 червня зранку проводили свої акції під стінами парламенту.

Вони вимагали скасувати монетизацію пільг на проїзд, збільшити компенсацію ветеранам-інвалідам до 6-8 прожиткових мінімумів, відповідно до групи інвалідності, а також виділити понад 6 мільярдів на розвиток вугільної галузі.

Між протестувальниками й правоохоронцями сталися сутички.

Начальник поліції Києва Андрій Крищенко повідомляв, що під час зіткнень біля будівлі парламенту правоохоронці затримали двох людей. За його словами, постраждали вісім поліцейських та троє цивільних громадян.

 
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Поки що стара і нова системи фінансування медичних закладів первинної допомоги працюють паралельно, але з 2019 року буде працювати лише нова. 

Про це повідомила в.о. міністра охорони здоров’я Уляна Супрун на прес-конференції 2 липня, передає кореспондент Радіо Свобода. 

Як наголошують в міністерстві, ті лікарні, які не укладуть угоди із Національною службою здоров’я, – будуть вимушені самостійно шукати джерела фінансування. 

При цьому фінансування лікарень, які укладуть угоди із Нацслужбою, збільшиться і залежатиме від кількості підписаних декларацій з людьми, стверджує заступник міністра МОЗ Павло Ковтонюк. 

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«Заклади, які будуть працювати з Національною службою, не будуть обмежені старими тарифними сітками, штатними розкладами та іншими закладами, які регулювали це. Заклади самі будуть встановлювати ті зарплати, які вони можуть встановити, згідно доходів, які мають», – наголошує він.

До 2020 року на нову систему фінансування Міністерство охорони здоров’я планує перевести не лише первинну медицину, а й всі медичні послуги.

Загалом декларації із лікарями підписали майже 11 мільйонів людей – це кожен четвертий українець, звітують в МОЗ і вважають динаміку реформ доброю.

Раніше Супрун повідомила, що зі 161 закладу, які уклали договори із Національною службою здоров’я, – 12 приватних медичних закладів. На сьогодні поки що близько 10% медичних закладів первинної допомоги подали заявки на укладання угод.

1 липня офіційно стартував черговий етап медичної реформи. Медичні заклади, які підписали договір з Національною службою здоров’я, почнуть отримувати фінансування за новою моделлю. Також набуває чинності перелік послуг, які входять до гарантованої первинної медичної допомоги та оплачуються державою.
…

З 161 закладу, які уклали договори із Національною службою здоров’я, – 12 приватних медичних закладів, таку інформацію 2 липня на прес-конференції озвучила в.о. міністра Уляна Супрун, передає кореспондент Радіо Свобода. 

На сьогодні поки що близько 10% медичних закладів первинної допомоги подали заявки на укладання угод, зазначає голова Національної служби здоров’я України Олег Петренко. Він додає, що друга хвиля прийму заявок розпочнеться 25 липня, а третя хвиля – у грудні. 

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2 липня в Міністерстві охорони здоров’я оголосили про початок фінансування медичних закладів за новою системою згідно із реформою. Наразі нова модель діятиме паралельно зі старою, але лише до кінця року. 

«Сьогодні нарешті офіційно запрацювало фінансування за принципом «гроші ходять за пацієнтом». До середини липня 161 медичний заклад отримають перші оплати від Національної служби здоров’я України за надання чіткого пакету послуг первинної медичної допомоги», – сказала Супрун.

1 липня офіційно стартував черговий етап медичної реформи. Медичні заклади, які підписали договір з Національною службою здоров’я, почнуть отримувати фінансування за новою моделлю. Також набуває чинності перелік послуг, які входять до гарантованої первинної медичної допомоги та оплачуються державою.
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