Colombia’s Supreme Court has ordered former President Alvaro Uribe to be placed under home detention while he is being investigated on charges of fraud and witness tampering.   The court said in its unanimous ruling on Tuesday that it was ordering Uribe to be confined to his home out of concern that he would attempt to obstruct justice.  The ruling marks the first time a former Colombian president has ever faced legal detention. Uribe served as president from 2002 to 2010, and remains a powerful figure in Colombian politics in his current role as a senator and mentor to current President Ivan Duque.   The case against Uribe stems from his accusations that Sen. Iván Cepeda, a longtime political foe, had fabricated evidence tying Uribe to a right-wing paramilitary group.  But the court closed its inquiry against Cepeda in 2018 and instead opened an investigation into Uribe for allegedly bribing witnesses who could testify against him. The former president said on Twitter that his detention had caused him “profound sadness for my wife, for my family and for the Colombians who still believe that I have done something good for the country.” Uribe’s presidency was marked by an aggressive effort to weaken Marxist rebels who had engaged in a decades-long fight against Colombian soldiers and right-wing paramilitary groups funded partly by drug traffickers. The conflict left hundreds of thousands of Colombians dead, missing or displaced.   
…

When lecturer Shiu Ka-Chun received a letter from his university last week, he was shocked to find that he had been effectively fired.     Shiu, also a legislator, has taught social work at the Baptist University of Hong Kong for 11 years, where his teaching had been consistently rated as excellent. He was jailed last year for “inciting public nuisance” in the 2014 civil disobedience Occupy Central movement and after his release, he was removed from teaching duties pending disciplinary proceedings linked to his conviction. Shiu said his effective dismissal amounted to “political persecution” but the university gave him no explanation.  He said he felt “angry, upset and insulted.”  The university declined to comment on his case.   Law professor Benny Tai, one of the founders of the 2014 occupy movement jailed last year on public nuisance charges for his role, was also fired by the University of Hong Kong last week. Tai lamented that academics in Hong Kong are “no longer free to make controversial statements about politically or socially controversial matters.”   Shui and Tai’s dismissals occurred the same week as the arrests of four students on national security charges, the disqualification of 12 pro-democracy legislative candidates and news of Hong Kong police issuing arrest warrants for six Hong Kong activists abroad.  The incidents took place within a month of the passing of a strict, broadly defined national security law that, among other things, bans acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.   Although Tai’s dismissal was widely considered an indicator of the demise of the city’s academic freedom, China’s liaison office and the Beijing-owned press in Hong Kong triumphantly declared it as “a deed of justice” for an academic who has spread “poisonous” political thinking among youngsters.  The Wen Wei Po newspaper compared Tai’s dismissal to the removal of “a poisonous cancer” and portrayed Tai in a cartoon as a virus being dusted away by a broom. Hong Kong and Chinese officials have escalated their rhetoric on the education sector in recent months, accusing teachers of “inciting” anti-China sentiments and encouraging students to oppose the authorities, and blaming them for the mass, anti-government protests last year.  The national security law is aimed at stamping out activities like the pro-democracy protests, which turned increasingly violent as frustrations mounted.   Hong Kong’s top leader, Carrie Lam, told a forum days after the national security law was passed last month that social movements, from the Occupy movement in 2014 to last year’s anti-government movement, indicate that “anti-China forces have infiltrated school campuses.”Protesters walk on top of a bridge near Hong Kong Baptist University, in Hong Kong, Nov. 16, 2019. Most anti-government demonstrators abandoned their positions Saturday.Citing statistics that some 40% of those arrested in the anti-government protests were students and 45% of them were under 18, she vowed to push national security law in schools and colleges across Hong Kong, saying the law would put education “back on the right track.” The national security law stipulates that the government tighten supervision of schools to “safeguard national security” and prevent terrorist activities. Hong Kong’s security minister, John Lee, a member of the newly formed national security committee, also told the China-owned Ta Kung Pao newspaper last week that his first priority would be to “deal with the schools” and the authorities would get rid of the “bad apples” to “rescue students from being poisoned.” “The national security committee… would punish public enemies severely and take preventive measures to obliterate viruses that endanger national security within one or two years,” Lee said.   The education authorities have been putting pressure on schools and teachers to increasingly toe the government line.   The education secretary told schools in June to discipline students or teachers who protest the national security law.  The authorities also launched new mandatory requirements for new teachers to be trained on professional conduct and national development. After the law passed, the education chief banned students from singing protest songs, posting political slogans or forming human chains.  He also told schools they could call the police if students showed disrespect toward the national anthem. A teacher had her contract terminated after she allowed students to sing protest songs at their music examination. The education bureau also told schools to review their library books to avoid falling afoul of the new law after public libraries pulled several titles by pro-democracy politicians.   The bureau has also warned that if schools do not cooperate with the bureau’s investigation of teachers who had “conduct issues” including advocacy of their political positions, it could revoke the principals’ and teachers’ licenses. With some receiving warnings and under the threat of having their contracts terminated, teachers say the atmosphere has been increasingly stifling. A teacher who taught liberal studies — a subject widely vilified by officials for supposedly promoting critical views of the authorities — was given a warning by the education bureau and removed from his duties after airing anti-police brutality rhetoric online. He said he now chooses his words very carefully.   “Self-censorship has become a common practice among many teachers,” he said. “Now, we avoid discussing politics. Every single word can be used against us.”   Many critics say the restrictions on the freedom of thought and expression will deal a heavy blow to Hong Kong’s education. Kenneth Chan, political scientist at the Baptist University of Hong Kong, said the message that has been sent to academics is “behave and stay within the perimeters of the ivory tower or face the consequences of prosecution.” Ip Kin-yuen, a legislator for the education constituency, said teaching quality will be heavily compromised when teachers cannot air their views freely. “If teachers are worried about being punished for what they teach and say, the quality of education will suffer,” he said. “Just having the national security law there is enough to stifle teachers.”   Sociology professor Chan Kin Man, who has also been jailed as a co-founder of the 2014 Occupy movement, said the new law has proven to be an effective tool for silencing free speech as it punishes non-violent acts that supposedly threaten national security.   “This is having a huge impact on speech,” he said. 
…

У серпні ціна на газ для населення зросте, повідомила компанія «Нафтогаз».

«Серпнева ціна на природний газ для побутових клієнтів ГК «Нафтогаз України» становить 3,24 грн/куб.м з ПДВ та без урахування вартості розподілу (доставки) в рамках тарифу «Місячний». Ціна газу зросла на 0,27 грн/куб.м через те, що ринок входить у сезон високих цін, який зазвичай настає з наближенням опалювального періоду», – заявили в «Нафтогазі».

У компанії повідомили, що із завершенням дії режиму ПСО (Положення про покладення спеціальних обов’язків на суб’єктів ринку природного газу) компанія публікуватиме ціни в рамках тарифу «Місячний» на початку місяця споживання.

«Нафтогаз» пояснив, що тариф «Місячний» – перший тариф, який компанія пропонує своїм клієнтам. Наразі всі побутові клієнти автоматично переведені на цей тариф. Він передбачає пост-оплату за спожитий газ.

Згідно з тарифом, споживачі можуть зекономити 1% від загального рахунку за газ, якщо клієнт сплачуватиме за спожитий ресурс до 15 числа місяця, наступного за місяцем споживання через особистий кабінет my.gas.ua та чат-бот GASUA.

До 1 серпня ціна газу для побутових клієнтів компанії була єдиною та публікувалася лише після 22 числа місяця споживання.
…

There’s been a three-fold rise in the number of cases of COVID-19 among young people over the last five months, the World Health Organization says, blaming the jump on a lack of attention to social distancing. The WHO reports that 15% of the six million cases that emerged between late February and mid-July were in people between 15 and 24 years old. Before late February, that number was 4.5%. “We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again: young people are not invincible,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says. “Young people can be infected; young people can die; and young people can transmit the virus to others.” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization attends the virtual 73rd World Health Assembly during the coronavirus disease outbreak in Geneva, May 19, 2020.Health experts say young people tend to be less likely to wear masks and social distance. They are also more likely to go to their jobs, to the beach, a bar, or shopping.  The United States, France, Germany, Spain, and Japan are among the countries reporting the largest growth in infections among young people.  Officials in Tokyo have said they plan to carry out coronavirus testing in the city’s entertainment district, where many young people gather. They are also asking nightclubs to ensure partygoers have plenty of space. Also Tuesday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the world is facing a “generational catastrophe” because COVID 19  has shut out young people from their schools.  Guterres says as of last month, more than 1 billion children in 160 countries are missing out on formal studies, and 40 million toddlers are deprived of pre-school. He says this puts disabled children, minority groups, refugees, and internally-displaced children at particular risk of missing out on the educational opportunities they deserve.  “Now we face a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress, and exacerbate entrenched inequalities,” Guterres said.  He said getting students back in classrooms “must be a top priority” once the COVID-19 outbreak has been brought under control. ‘Generational Catastrophe’ Possible as Pandemic Creates Education CrisisAntonio Guterres says pandemic has created the largest disruption to education in history    His comments came as the U.N. launched a new campaign dubbed “Save Our Future,” aimed at restoring and bolstering formal education in a post-pandemic world. Honduras announced Tuesday it will reopen ins airports to domestic flights next week and international flights August 17. Airports in the Central American country have been closed since March. The coronavirus has brought the struggling Honduran economy to a near crawl. The government hopes that allowing more travel and tourism will give it a boost. But most public transportation, bars, restaurants, schools, and sports stadiums remain closed. They’re as scarce as the proverbial hen’s teeth and will be for many more months – Clorox disinfecting wipes. Th California-based company said Tuesday grocery store shelves will not be fully stocked again until some time in 2021.  Clorox is the world’s top manufacturer of cleaning products and the wipes are its biggest-selling product. The company says the coronavirus pandemic has created a six-fold demand. “Disinfecting wipes, which are the hottest commodity in the business right now, will probably take longer because it’s a very complex supply chain to make them,” Clorox  CEO Benno Dorer  says. “That entire supply chain is stressed. We feel like it’s probably going to take until 2021 before we’re able to meet all the demand that we have.” Other companies making  disinfectant wipes are also seeing demand outstrip supplies. Stores that manage to receive a shipment limit sales to one package per customer. 
…

The FBI has opened more than 300 domestic terrorism investigations since late May and arrested nearly 100 people in Portland, Oregon, a focal point of the George Floyd protests, a top federal prosecutor said on Tuesday.Erin Nealy Cox, U.S. Attorney, Northern District of Texas, testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on police use of force and community relations on on Capitol Hill, June 16, 2020, in Washington.Erin Nealy Cox, the U.S. attorney for the northern district of Texas and co-head of a recently formed Justice Department task force on “antigovernment extremists,” told congressional lawmakers that the investigations were opened after May 28, three days after Floyd, an African American, died while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His death sparked nationwide protests.“That does not include any potential civil rights investigations or violent crime associated with the civil unrest,” Cox said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the protests that have at times been marked by violence.Attorney General William Barr announced the creation of the Justice Department task force in late June, saying “antigovernment extremists” had “engaged in indefensible acts of violence designed to undermine public order.”Justice Department U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 9, 2020, to examine COVID-19 fraud.The task force, co-headed by Craig Carpenito, the U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey and composed of prosecutors and FBI agents, is charged with developing “detailed information about violent antigovernment extremist individuals, networks and movements.”“Any group, regardless of their name, if they’re violent and antigovernment, we will be looking at them,” Cox said during the hearing. “If it is a white supremacist that is engaging in gang or drug activity, that would not fall under the purview of our task force.”The establishment of a task force focused on antigovernment extremists has raised concern that the Justice Department is giving short shrift to investigating white supremacist groups at a time the threat from far-right extremists is on the rise. Last year, FBI Director Christopher Wray said most of the bureau’s domestic terrorism cases are linked to white supremacy.Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois asked Cox why the Justice Department “has stopped tracking white supremacist incidents as a separate category of domestic terrorism.” Cox said she did not know.The hearing brought into sharp relief partisan passions over at times violent confrontations between protesters and law enforcement officers in recent weeks.Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said the protests over police brutality and racism had been hijacked by “rioters and looters and those who cynically exploit the protests for their own evil ends.”“Peaceful protests must be protected. Riots must be stopped,” Cruz said, accusing Democrats of refusing to condemn the violence.Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee business meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 11, 2020.Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono, saying “no one is condoning violence,” accused federal law enforcement officers of unleashing violence against peaceful protesters.“In Portland, federal agents used excessive and discriminate force to break up people gathered to peaceably protest,” Hirono said.Last month, the Trump administration sent dozens of federal law enforcement agents into the city, with President Donald Trump accusing the city leadership of losing “control of the anarchists and agitators” targeting a federal courthouse.Subsequent reports that the agents had used excessive force against protesters and grabbed demonstrators off the streets of Portland while driving in unmarked vehicles provoked a backlash, eventually prompting the federal personnel to agree to pull out of the city.Ken Cuccinelli, a senior official with the Department of Homeland Security, denied that the situation has grown quieter since the department agreed to withdraw its agents.“Last night, the local police declared a riot,” Cuccinelli said. “Not the federal but the local police.”Since the protests started in May, 140 law enforcement officers have sustained injuries in Portland, he said. 
…

A gleaming new bridge in Genoa built after the deadly collapse of a viaduct opened Tuesday, but critics say not enough has been done since the 2018 disaster to overhaul Italy’s crumbling infrastructure.The first cars crossed the sleek steel structure just after 2000 GMT, nearly two years to the day the Morandi highway gave way during heavy rain, hurling dozens of vehicles into the abyss and killing 43 people.The San Giorgio bridge, designed by famed Italian architect Renzo Piano, was inaugurated to much fanfare on Monday.But many of the relatives of the victims declined to attend, saying the ceremony overshadowed the 2018 tragedy.”We’re still there, at the collapsed bridge, with the people we lost under the bridge. We’re stuck in 2018,” Giorgio Robbiano, 43, who lost his brother, sister-in-law and nephew in the disaster, told AFP Tuesday.However he said “the bridge had to be built and we’re happy for the city.”It was also important to show that large works could be successfully finished in time, without complications,” he said.The tragedy shone a spotlight on the country’s decaying roads, bridges and railways.The Morandi’s speedy demolition and replacement has been hailed by many as an example of what Italy could be, should it scrap its infamous red tape.The centre-left coalition government promised during the coronavirus pandemic this year to use major infrastructure projects to reboot the battered economy, as Italy slid towards its worst recession since World War II.It said it would radically simplify bureaucracy to unblock some 62 billion euros of construction work, and promoted the “Genoa model”: a code-word for work done efficiently and quickly under the watch of a special commissioner.The country has at least 50 large infrastructure projects that are stalled, from a high-speed train in Sicily to the widening of a motorway in Tuscany, Italy’s construction lobby ANCE said.’The Wild West’ Projects stutter to a halt or fail to get off the ground due to lengthy legal challenges to tenders, companies going bankrupt, political point scoring or local council spats, including one in Liguria over which town should host the station on a new train line.The funds are there: according to the Cresme research institute, there were some 200 billion euros earmarked for the sector at the end of 2019, ranging from government and EU funds to private contributions.Last month the government approved a “simplification decree” — touted by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte as “the mother of all reforms.”But detractors said it failed to make serious inroads into red tape, and could even prove damaging.Infrastructure executive Angelica Donati said it takes twice as long in Italy to carry out a large-scale infrastructure project than in the rest of Europe, so speeding up the process and improving efficiency and transparency would be much welcomed.But she warned that the new decree crushed competition, by effectively excluding the small and medium enterprises that make up the backbone of Italy from tenders for projects worth over 5.3 million euros.For the next two years, the public administration can rule such projects be treated as an emergency “because of the COVID-related crisis … which would exclude them from all public tender regulations, apart from anti-mafia ones”, she told AFP.A small number of specific companies can be invited to participate individually in the tender — penalizing those who would have made joint venture bids, or are simply excluded.”Using the commissioner structure and throwing out the rule book, saying you have full power to do whatever you want, is not the right way to ensure transparency and protect competition,” Donati said.”The Genoa model is a very bad idea, it’s very dangerous,” and risks turning Italy into “the Wild West”.
…

Students in Indian-controlled Kashmir have had a difficult year.  Authorities closed schools in August 2019 after political disturbances in the once-semi-autonomous region.  Schools opened in February but promptly closed again because of the coronavirus pandemic. As VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, students may have found a solution to their education problem right under the sun.Produced by: Arash Arabasadi 
…

European Union antitrust regulators announced Tuesday they’ll launch an investigation into Google’s plan to buy Fitbit.Google, a U.S. tech giant owned by Alphabet, is hoping to break into the wearable technology market, and hopes to buy Fitbit for $2.1 billion. Fitbit makes wearable watch-like fitness devices. A variety of groups advocating for privacy and consumer rights want to block the deal because of antitrust and privacy concerns.The EU and many other groups say they are concerned the deal will increase the amount of data to which Google has access, making it increasingly difficult for other companies to compete effectively in the online advertising space.The EU’s executive commission stated “the proposed transaction would further entrench Google’s market position in the online advertising markets by increasing the already vast amount of data that Google could use for personalization of the ads it serves and displays.”EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager added that the “investigation aims to ensure that control by Google over data collected through wearable devices as a result of the transaction does not distort competition.”Google’s senior vice president for devices and services, Rick Osterloh, countered that “this deal is about devices, not data,” and he added that “we’ve been clear from the beginning that we will not use Fitbit health and wellness data for Google ads.”The EU antitrust enforcer said this promise alone was not adequate.Fitbit was one of the first companies to market wearable fitness devices, which are used to monitor physical activities, heart rates, sleep patterns, and a variety of other factors. Fitbit has more than 28 million active users, and upwards of 100 million devices have been sold.  
…

The International Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labor has been universally ratified. The International Labor Organization said this is the first time in its history that all 187 of its member states have ratified an International Labor Convention.An estimated 152 million children are in child labor. Seventy-three-million are involved in hazardous work that the International Labor Organization defines as the worst forms of child labor.International Labor Organization Director-General Guy Ryder attends a news conference after a meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Oct. 1, 2019.ILO Director-General Guy Ryder said the universal ratification of the convention means that children now will benefit from critical legal protection against the worst forms of child labor.“In the past, it has too often been the lot of children to be used to fight in armed conflict, to be sold as slaves, forced into work in the drug trade or in the production of child sexual abuse material or exposed to hazardous substances and long hours,” Ryder said. “In every country, now these practices have been condemned, and clear legal prohibitions against them have been established everywhere.”However, Ryder warns against complacency. He said countries must do more to end impunity for violators and for violations of children’s right to be free from child labor. He said governments must implement and enforce the provisions in the convention.Since the ILO convention was adopted in 1999, the incidence of child labor and its worst forms dropped nearly 40% by 2016. However, progress has slowed in recent years, particularly among children five to 11 years of age, and in some geographical areas.Africa is the region with both the highest absolute number of child laborers and the highest prevalence. Ryder tells VOA the situation in Africa is very worrying.“Just over 72 million African children are in child labor. Of those, 31.5 million in hazardous work,” Ryder said. “The prevalence rate then is nearly 20%. Nearly one in five of all African children are in child labor. … Progress seems to have stalled in Africa, and child labor in absolute terms actually increased in sub-Saharan Africa from 2012 to 2016.”The ILO chief fears years of progress in reducing child labor are at risk of being reversed by COVID-19. He notes the pandemic has caused global unemployment to skyrocket. As more and more people lose their livelihoods and means of survival, he said the danger and temptation to push children back into the labor market will grow.   
…

Ціна золота 4 серпня вперше сягнули 2000 доларів за унцію, свідчать дані біржових торгів. 

Ціна золота, яке є захисним активом під час економічної невизначеності, в цьому році зросли більш ніж на 30%, оскільки спалах коронавірусної інфекції в усьому світі спричинив значні втрати.

«Це не дивно, зважаючи на велику кількість нових випадків COVID-19, дискусій, що тривають у Конгресі США щодо додаткового пакету економічної допомоги, дедалі поширеніших негативних реальних процентних ставок та високо оцінених фондових ринків», – пише у своєму аналізі німецький Commerzbank.

Попередній історичний максимум ціна золота оновила 27 липня. Раніше абсолютний рекорд був установлений у вересні 2011 року, коли унція золота коштувала близько 1921 долара.
…

Національний банк України встановив на 5 серпня курс 27 гривень 82 копійки за долар, це на 8 копійок більше за офіційний курс на сьогодні.

На українському міжбанківському валютному ринку в першій частині сесії 4 серпня котирування піднімалися до 27 гривень 85–88 копійок за долар, але станом на 16:55 опустилися до 27 гривень 76–79 копійок за долар, свідчать дані Finance.ua.

«Торги по долару вже давно пройшли пік активності. Відбуваються поодинокі операції по лотах до 300 тисяч доларів при зміні перевищення то попиту, то пропозиції. Періодично покупці скуповують долар, що подешевшав, і це на деякий час підтягує котирування вгору. Але тільки-но попит слабшає, котирування знову знижуються», – відзначали експерти сайту «Мінфін» станом на 16:00.

У широкому коридорі 26,5–27 гривень за долар національна валюта перебувала понад два місяці – від кінця квітня до початку липня. Зроблена 1 липня заява ексголови НБУ Якова Смолія про відставку через політичний тиск на нього спричинила зростання котирувань до 27 гривень 20 копійок за долар і навіть вище.

Після призначення головою НБУ Кирила Шевченка девальвація національної валюти прискорилася. Впродовж кількох останніх сесій регулятор показав учасникам ринку нові орієнтири – НБУ продав минулого тижня понад 300 мільйонів доларів за курсом дещо нижче від 28 гривень за долар. Нижній параметр нового коридору міжбанківський ринок знаходить переважно без активної участі Нацбанку.
…

The advent of the smartphone has changed human behavior.  Will smart glasses be the next big intelligent technology? Google tried it more than six years ago with the Google Glass. It did not take off, largely because of privacy concerns. But companies big and small in several countries are still working on smart glasses, including Facebook. There are also reports that Apple is working on a version. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has more on what’s currently on the market and their varied applications.
…