US to Proceed With Mexico Trade Pact, Keep Talking to Canada

U.S. President Donald Trump notified Congress on Friday of his intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico after talks with Canada broke up earlier in the day with no immediate deal to revamp the tri-nation North American Free Trade Agreement.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said U.S. officials would resume talks with their Canadian counterparts next Wednesday with the aim of getting a deal all three nations could sign.

All three countries have stressed the importance of NAFTA, which governs billions of dollars in regional trade, and a bilateral deal announced by the United States and Mexico on Monday paved the way for Canada to rejoin the talks this week.

But by Friday the mood had soured, partly on Trump’s off-the-record remarks made to Bloomberg News that any trade deal with Canada would be “totally on our terms.” He later confirmed the comments, which the Toronto Star first reported.

“At least Canada knows where I stand,” he later said on Twitter.

Ottawa has stood firm against signing “just any deal.” 

​’Making progress’

But at a news conference Friday afternoon, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland expressed confidence that Canada could reach agreement with the United States on a renegotiated NAFTA trade pact if there was “goodwill and flexibility on all sides.”

“We continue to work very hard and we are making progress. We’re not there yet,” Freeland told reporters.

“We know that a win-win-win agreement is within reach,” she added. “With goodwill and flexibility on all sides, I know we can get there.”

The Canadian dollar weakened to C$1.3081 to the U.S. dollar after The Wall Street Journal first reported that the talks had ended Friday with no agreement. Canadian stocks remained 0.5 percent lower.

Global equities were also down following the hawkish turn in Trump’s comments on trade.

Lighthizer has refused to budge despite repeated efforts by Freeland to offer some dairy concessions to maintain the Chapter 19 independent trade dispute resolution mechanism in NAFTA, The Globe and Mail reported Friday.

However, a spokeswoman for USTR said Canada had made no concessions on agriculture, which includes dairy, but added that negotiations continued.

The United States wants to eliminate Chapter 19, the mechanism that has hindered it from pursuing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases. Lighthizer said on Monday that Mexico had agreed to cut the mechanism. For Ottawa, Chapter 19 is a red line.

Trump argues Canada’s hefty dairy tariffs are hurting U.S. farmers, an important political base for his Republican Party.

But dairy farmers have great political clout in Canada too, and concessions could hurt the ruling Liberals ahead of a 2019 federal election.

At a speech in North Carolina on Friday, Trump took another swipe at Canada. “I love Canada, but they’ve taken advantage of our country for many years,” he said.

Poland Counts WWII Damages It Wants to Seek from Germany

Poland says it lost more than 5 million citizens and over $54 billion dollars (46.6 billion euros) worth of assets under the Nazi German occupation of the country during World War II.

A parliamentary commission announced the numbers as part of the current Polish government’s declared intent to seek damages from Germany.

Poland spent decades under Soviet domination after the war and wasn’t able to seek damages independently. However, Germany is making payments to Polish survivors of Nazi atrocities.

Preliminary calculations done for the commission put the number of Polish citizens killed from 1939 to 1945 at 5.1 million, including 90 percent of Poland’s Jewish population.

Losses in cities were estimated to be worth 53 billion zlotys ($14 billion; 12 billion euros). Additional losses in agriculture and transportation infrastructure also were factored in.

Nicaragua to Expel UN Team Following Critical Report

The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is expelling a United Nations human rights team two days after the body published a critical report blaming it for the violent repression of opposition protests.

Guillermo Fernandez Maldonado, chief of the U.N.’s human rights mission in Nicaragua, said Friday that he and his team were leaving the country.

“We are suspending any planned activity,” he said.

In a statement, the U.N. human rights regional office for Central America said it had received a letter Thursday from the foreign ministry notifying it that the government’s invitation was over.

“The letter indicates that said invitation was extended with the purpose of accompanying the Verification and Monitoring Commission and that with the reasons, causes and conditions finished that spurred said invitation, the invitation is considered concluded,” according to the statement.

The U.N. statement said the team will continue monitoring and reporting on the situation remotely.

It was a rough day for the U.N. in Central America. While the human rights mission was preparing to leave Nicaragua on Friday, military vehicles surrounded the U.N.-backed anti-corruption mission headquarters in Guatemala’s capital. Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales is facing an attempt to strip his immunity so he can be investigated for illicit campaign financing.

The U.N. Security Council will discuss the situation in Nicaragua on September 5.

The report released Wednesday by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights described repression in the country that stretched from the streets to courtrooms, where some protesters face terrorism charges.

More than 300 people have been killed since popular protests began in mid-April triggered by cuts to the social security system. Ortega reversed the cuts, but demonstrations quickly expanded and turned into a call for him to step down.

In July, the government forcefully cleared the last of the roadblocks erected by protesters that had snarled the country’s traffic. It also retook the last of the university campuses occupied by students.

The U.N. report called on the government to immediately halt the persecution of protesters and disarm the masked civilians who have been responsible for many of the killings and arbitrary detentions. It also documented cases of torture and excessive force through interviews with victims and local human rights groups.

In response, the government said that the report was biased and did not consider that its actions occurred in the context of what it alleges was a failed coup attempt. It said the report ignored the violence afflicted against members of his Sandinista party.

Ortega has called the protesters “terrorists” working in coordination with domestic and foreign interests which want him removed from office.

The government also accused the U.N. team of overstepping its authority in violation of Nicaragua’s sovereignty and said the U.N. had not been invited to evaluate the human rights situation, but to accompany the commission working to end the crisis.

A national dialogue aimed at finding a resolution ultimately stalled, and Ortega accused the Roman Catholic bishops who were mediating talks of working with coup mongers.

Denis Moncada, Nicaragua’s foreign minister, met with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres this week in New York.

Guterres’ spokeswoman said after the meeting that Nicaragua’s path out of the crisis had to be “politically inclusive.”

UNHCR: Asylum Seekers on Greek Islands Live in Squalid Conditions

The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) warns asylum seekers and migrants who came ashore on the Greek islands are living in conditions unfit for human habitation. The agency is urging the Greek government to speed up the  transfer of these individuals to the mainland so they can receive proper care.

According to UNHCR, thousands of asylum seekers and migrants who made the perilous journey across the Aegean Sea are forced to live in squalid, overcrowded centers on the Greek islands of Lesbos, Samos, Chios and Kos.

For example, the agency said more than 7,000 asylum-seekers and migrants on Lesbos are crammed into shelters built to accommodate just 2,000 people, one-quarter of them children.

UNHCR spokesman Charlie Yaxley said these conditions are having a devastating impact on peoples’ well-being.

“We are seeing increasing numbers of people including children presenting with mental health problems,” he said. “… We are seeing rising levels of sexual assaults because there is insufficient security in place and the sanitary facilities as well. On recent missions to the islands, staff have commented that the sanitary facilities are essentially unusable in some cases.”

Yaxley noted an average of 114 people are arriving on the islands every day — more than 70 percent are families from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He said the new arrivals are adding to the congestion and deteriorating conditions.

The UNHCR said Greek authorities must do more to overcome bureaucratic delays that are preventing the speedy transfer of people to the mainland. If no ready solution can be found, it said extraordinary measures should be considered, including the use of emergency accommodations, hotels, and other alternative housing facilities.

However, at the request of the Greek government, the UNHCR said it has “exceptionally agreed to continue its support in transport of asylum-seekers to the mainland in September in order to avoid further delays.”

Ukraine Separatists Report Leader Killed in Cafe Blast

The leader of the Russia-backed separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region was killed Friday by an explosion at a cafe, the separatists’ news agency said Friday.

Rebel news agency DAN said the afternoon explosion killed Alexander Zakharchenko, 42, the prime minister of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic. The separatist government’s revenue minister, Alexander Timofeev, was severely injured in the blast, Russian news agencies reported.

The Donetsk People’s Republic, along with a separatist republic in neighboring Luhansk, has fought Ukrainian forces since 2014, the same year Zakharchenko became DPR’s prime minister. More than 10,000 people have died in the armed conflict.

Russian President Vladimir Putin lauded Zakharchenko as “a true people’s leader” and promised residents of Donetsk that “Russia always will be with you.”

The cafe in the city of Donetsk that was hit by the explosion, named Separ, was separatist-themed and had camouflage netting hanging from its eaves, recent photographs show.

It was not immediately clear if a bomb caused the blast or it resulted from something else. Russia’s Interfax news agency cited local sources as saying suspects had been detained, but there was no official confirmation.

Denis Pushilin, the speaker of the separatists’ parliament, blamed Ukrainian forces for the explosion, calling it “the latest aggression from the Ukrainian side,” according to DAN.

A spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Security Service, Elena Gitlyanskaya, said “The Ukrainian special services don’t have any kind of connection to this.”

There have been several assassinations or attempted slayings of prominent rebels in recent years. It never was established if pro-Kyiv attackers were responsible or if the violence resulted from factional disputes within the rebel ranks or Moscow’s possible desire to eliminate individuals it found inconvenient.

Among the prominent separatists who have been targeted are former Luhansk leader Igor Plotnitsky, who was severely injured in 2016 when a bomb exploded near his car; Arsen Pavlov, a feared squadron leader known as “Motorola” who died when the elevator of his apartment building was bombed; and fighter Mikhail Tolstykh, whose office is believed to have been hit by a shoulder-fired rocket.

Russia denies providing troops or equipment to the separatists despite widespread allegations it has done so. Russia is believed to have supplied a mobile Buk missile launcher that a team of international investigators claims shot down a Malaysian passenger jet while flying over rebel territory in 2014, killing all 209 people aboard.  

The rebellion in Donetsk and Luhansk arose soon after pro-Russia Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was driven from power amid mass protests in February 2014. Russian-speakers predominate in the two regions, and separatist sentiment skyrocketed.

Encouraged by Russia’s annexation of Crimea, which also came after Yanukovych’s ouster, rebel leaders initially hoped their regions would be absorbed by Russia as well.

Fighting fell off significantly after the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France in 2015 signed an accord in Minsk, Belarus, on ending the conflict. But most of the agreement’s provisions remain unfulfilled and clashes break out sporadically.

“Instead of fulfilling the Minsk accords and finding ways to resolve the internal conflict, the Kyiv war party is implementing a terrorist scenario,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said of Zakharchenko’s death. “Having failed to fulfill the promise of peace, apparently they decided to turn to a bloodbath.”

Pope Francis ‘Serene’ Despite Hovering Sex Abuse Scandal

Pope Francis was described Thursday by a top aide as ‘serene’ in the face of the unprecedented public skirmishing breaking out among Catholic prelates over an explosive charge that the pontiff knew about sexual misconduct allegations against a U.S. cardinal but chose to ignore them.

The Vatican’s secretary of state said Francis is maintaining his grace despite “bitterness and concern” in the Vatican over the accusation leveled against him by a onetime top Catholic envoy, who has demanded the Pope resign.

The Pope’s accuser, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a former Vatican ambassador and a doctrinal opponent of Francis, has gone into hiding after making his claim last Sunday in a scathing 11-page document that was crafted with the assistance of a well-known Italian journalist and a stalwart critic of the Pope. According to Vigano, Francis ignored misconduct allegations against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

The incendiary document, which also warned of a homosexual culture in the church, was leaked to several conservative Catholic newspapers and blogs, all determined foes of Francis. They agreed to publish it on the second and final day of Francis’s trip to Ireland, in a coordinated effort, say Francis loyalists, to cause him maximum damage.

The publication of the letter upended the visit to Ireland, where Pope Francis had hoped to stanch the damage being done to the Holy See by the clerical sex abuse crisis that has roiled the Roman Catholic Church worldwide for decades. Just two weeks before the Ireland trip, the Church was rocked by further clerical abuse allegations with the release of a grand jury report in the U.S. which detailed the abuse of children in six Pennsylvania dioceses over the past seven decades by hundreds of “predator priests.”

In Ireland, Pope Francis met Irish abuse victims and asked for the faithful to forgive the church for its failings. “We ask forgiveness for the times that we did not show [abuse] survivors compassion or the justice they deserve in the search for truth,” he said. And he then added: “We ask forgiveness for members of the Church hierarchy who did not take care of these situations and kept quiet.”

But Vigano says Francis is one of the church leaders who’s colluded in covering up abuse or has been too ready to overlook abuse allegations when leveled against friends and progressive allies. He has also claimed that a tolerant attitude towards homosexuality in the Vatican — even alleging a progressive gay cabal in the upper echelons of the Church — is the root cause of clerical sex abuse. Francis supporters scoff at that charge, noting that clerical sex abuse has been going on for decades and for most of that time traditionalists were in control of the Vatican.

‘Conspiracy of silence’

Midweek Vigano reemerged to give an interview to La Verità newspaper, saying he spoke up out of a sense of duty to the Catholic Church and not because the Pope had passed him over for promotion. “I have never had feelings of vendetta or rancor,” he said, adding that there is a “conspiracy of silence” in the Church “not so dissimilar from the one that prevails in the mafia.”

Vigano says Francis was aware of the grave allegations of sexual misconduct against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who’s been accused of abusing young priests and molesting seminarians for decades. Unlike his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI, who imposed sanctions on McCarrick, Francis and his circle of advisers chose to rehabilitate the U.S. cardinal, argues Vigano.

The claims are shaking Francis’s five-year papacy.

Amid the swirl of charge and counter-charge between church liberals and conservatives locked in a power struggle, there’s mounting anxiety in the Vatican that traditionalists, opposed to the Pope’s efforts to make the Church more inclusive and less rigid doctrinally, are determined to use the clerical sex abuse scandal to gain politically.

The pope’s supporters say Francis’ doctrinal opponents won’t be satisfied until they have either forced him to resign, or so damaged him that he’s stripped of the authority needed to drive the reforms they’re determined to halt. They say traditionalists have been emboldened by the resignation of Benedict, whose stepping down as leader of the Catholic Church in 2013 made him the first pope to relinquish the office since 1415, setting a modern-day precedent for pontiffs not having to stay in office until they die.

Abuse survivors are also suspicious of the motives of Vigano and the circle of traditionalists supporting him. Despite their own frustrations with Francis at what they see as a failure by his Vatican to take concrete steps to root out corrupt clergy, they worry traditionalists are enlisting homophobia in their campaign against Francis and are not truly focused on the well-being of abuse survivors.

Not a word

Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga, one of the Pope’s closest advisers, dismissed Vigano’s attacks, telling La Repubblica newspaper Thursday, “Transforming information of a private nature into a bombshell headline that explodes around the world damaging the faith of many people doesn’t seem to me to be a correct action.” But Maradiaga did not engage with the details of Vigano’s central charge — that the pope ignored misconduct allegations against McCarrick, who last month resigned, becoming the first cardinal to do so since 1927.

Francis, too, has continued to remain silent about McCarrick.

The 81-year-old pope told journalists who accompanied him on his two-day visit to Ireland that he wouldn’t comment. Asked in an impromptu press conference on board his plane on the return to Rome about Vigano’s accusation, the Pope said he left it up to the journalists to judge for themselves. “I won’t say a word about it,” he said.

Vatican analysts say the Holy See appears to be hoping that by ignoring the substance of the claim against Francis, the storm can be ridden out.  But they warn that appears to be a forlorn hope — by shunning the charge, Francis is fueling it and prompting the question, ‘why won’t the pope answer?’ If the claim is inaccurate, “why wouldn’t the pope correct it, just as he has spoken so openly about so many other things?” queried commentator Tim Stanley in a commentary for the London Sunday Telegraph.

Francis’ conservative critics are gearing up to press formally for an answer. In an open letter to his diocese in Tyler, Texas, Bishop Joseph Strickland midweek said: “Let us be clear that they are still allegations, but as your shepherd I find them to be credible.” He says he will agitate for an investigation.

Other prelates are plotting to do so as well, next month in Rome at a synod of bishops to discuss young people and faith.

The Diocese of Dallas in Texas has petitioned the Pope to hold a special synod, or summit, of bishops on the clerical sex abuse scandal.

Progressives started to rally Friday around Francis with prelates from Latin America, the pope’s home continent, as well as Portugal  leading the charge.

Of the accusations, Cardinal António dos Santos Marto, of Fatima, Portugal, told the Observador newspaper, “It’s a campaign organized by ultra-conservatives to mortally wound the pope.”

Marto predicted Francis will be strengthened by the controversy, adding, however, that “in this moment it’s necessary for the entire Church to manifest her support for the pope.” He said Francis may soon switch tactics and address head-on the accusations against him.

Francis also received backing from a top aide to his predecessor, Benedict XVI. Archbishop Georg Ganswein dismissed Vigano’s claim that Benedict had informed Francis of the misconduct allegations against McCarrick. He told Italian newspapers Friday: “It’s all rubbish.”

 

 

Merkel Wraps Up Africa Tour with Talk of Business, Migration

German Chancellor Angela Merkel wrapped up a tour of three African nations Friday. She said her goals during the visit were two-fold: to promote business ties with Germany and to curb the wave of migration from the continent to Europe.

But Merkel faces many other issues on the continent, analysts say: the rise of China, the declining image of the United States, and a still-festering wound in Namibia over Germany’s actions in that country more than 100 years ago.

Analyst Jakkie Cilliers of the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies notes that Merkel’s trip follows recent visits by French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May.

“So, in one sense, one could make the argument that Merkel is playing catch-up,” he told VOA. “But I actually think these [visits] reflect, to a large degree, real concerns in Germany about migration and, of course, radicalism and radical terrorism in West Africa.”

Merkel’s tour included stops in three of West Africa’s most vibrant economies: Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria. Nearly a dozen German CEOs keen on promoting business ties accompanied Merkel on her trip.

Cilliers also says that Merkel may be trying to fill a vacuum created by what he described as a “faltering” of U.S. leadership in the last two years.

“Africa is, in my view, an important pivot, a battleground in a certain way, about the future of rules-based order at a time when American leadership clearly is faltering,” he said. “So you can, in that context, make the argument that to a degree perhaps, Angela Merkel is partly stepping into the vacuum that has been left by the U.S. retreat.”

Merkel’s tour coincided with a major development in Berlin. Earlier this week, her government handed over the remains of indigenous Namibians killed by German forces in the early 1900s. German troops are believed have killed tens of thousands of indigenous Herero and Nama people after they revolted against colonial rule.

Vekuii Rukoro is the elected chief of the Herero people, who number about 400,000, and he attended the ceremony in Berlin. He says he welcomed the gesture.

“We feel happy that after more than 114 years we were able to bring back these remains, back home to the land of their ancestors, and reunite them with the spirits of the ancestors,” he told VOA.

But, he says, it’s not enough. His group is suing the German government in U.S. District Court in New York — which is home to a large concentration of expatriate Hereros — seeking an apology and group reparations.

Until Germany does more, he says, he sees no point in a visit from Germany’s chancellor.

“What would she come and do,” he said, “in the absence of them having acknowledged genocide, them having even issued an appropriate apology?”

Canada, US Push Toward NAFTA Deal by Friday

Top NAFTA negotiators from Canada and the United States increased the pace of their negotiations Thursday to resolve final differences to meet a Friday deadline, with their Mexican counterpart on standby to rejoin the talks soon.

Despite some contentious issues still on the table, the increasingly positive tone contrasted with U.S. President Donald Trump’s harsh criticism of Canada in recent weeks, raising hopes that the year-long talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement will conclude soon with a trilateral deal.

“Canada’s going to make a deal at some point. It may be by Friday or it may be within a period of time,” U.S. President Donald Trump told Bloomberg Television. “I think we’re close to a deal.”

Trilateral talks were already underway at the technical level and Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo was expected to soon rejoin talks with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, possibly later on Thursday, people familiar with the process said.

Trump said in a Bloomberg interview: “Canada’s going to make a deal at some point. It may be by Friday or it may be within a period of time,” Trump said. “I think we’re close to a deal.”

Negotiations entered a crucial phase this week after the United States and Mexico announced a bilateral deal on Monday, paving the way for Canada to rejoin talks to modernize the 24-year-old accord that underpins over $1 trillion in annual trade.

The NAFTA deal that is taking shape would likely strengthen North America as a manufacturing base by making it more costly for automakers to import a large share of vehicle parts from outside the region. The automotive content provisions, the most contentious topic, could accelerate a shift of parts-making away from China.

A new chapter governing the digital economy, along with stronger intellectual property, labor and environmental standards could also work to the benefit of U.S. companies, helping Trump to fulfill his campaign promise of creating more American jobs.

Trump has set a Friday deadline for the three countries to reach an agreement, which would allow Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto to sign it before he leaves office at the end of November. Under U.S. law, Trump must wait 90 days before signing the pact.

The U.S. president has warned he could try to proceed with a deal with Mexico alone and levy tariffs on Canadian-made cars if Ottawa does not come on board, although U.S. lawmakers have said ratifying a bilateral deal would not be easy.

Dairy, dispute settlement

One sticking point for Canada is the U.S. effort to dump the Chapter 19 dispute-resolution mechanism that hinders the United States from pursuing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases. Lighthizer said on Monday that Mexico had agreed to eliminate the mechanism.

Trump also wants a NAFTA deal that eliminates dairy tariffs of up to 300 percent that he argues are hurting U.S. farmers, an important political base for Republicans.

But any concessions to Washington by Ottawa is likely to upset Canadian dairy farmers, who have an outsized influence in Canadian politics, with their concentration in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.

 “Ultimately, we’ve got huge issues that are still to be resolved,” said Jerry Dias, head of Canada’s influential Unifor labor union. “Either we’re going to be trading partners or we’re going to fight.”

Microsoft to Contractors: Give New Parents Paid Leave

Microsoft will begin requiring its contractors to offer their U.S. employees paid leave to care for a new child.

It’s common for tech firms to offer generous family leave benefits for their own software engineers and other full-time staff, but paid leave advocates say it’s still rare to require similar benefits for contracted workers such as janitors, landscapers, cafeteria crews and software consultants.

“Given its size and its reach, this is a unique and hopefully trailblazing offering,” said Vicki Shabo, vice president at the National Partnership for Women and Families.

The details

The new policy affects businesses with at least 50 U.S.-based employees that do substantial work with Microsoft that involves access to its buildings or its computing network. It doesn’t affect suppliers of goods. Contractors would have to offer at least 12 weeks of leave to those working with the Redmond, Washington-based software giant; the policy wouldn’t affect the contractors’ arrangements with other companies. Leave-takers would get 66 percent of regular pay, up to $1,000 weekly.

The policy announced Thursday rolls out over the next year as the company amends its contracts with those vendors. That may mean some of Microsoft’s costs will rise to cover the new benefits, said Dev Stahlkopf, the company’s corporate vice president and general counsel.

“That’s just fine and we think it’s well worth the price,” she said.

Microsoft doesn’t disclose how many contracted workers it uses, but it’s in the thousands.

The new policy expands on Microsoft’s 2015 policy requiring contractors to offer paid sick days and vacation.

Facebook

Other companies such as Facebook have also committed to improve contractor benefits amid unionization efforts by shuttle drivers, security guards and other contract workers trying to get by in expensive, tech-fueled regions such as the San Francisco Bay Area and around Washington’s Puget Sound.

Facebook doesn’t guarantee that contract workers receive paid parental leave, but provides a $4,000 new child benefit for new parents who don’t get leave. A much smaller California tech company, SurveyMonkey, announced a paid family leave plan for its contract workers earlier this year.

Washington state law

Microsoft said its new policy is partially inspired by a Washington state law taking effect in 2020 guaranteeing eligible workers 12 weeks paid time off for the birth or adoption of a child. The state policy, signed into law last year, follows California and a handful of other states in allowing new parents to tap into a fund that all workers pay into. Washington will also require employers to help foot the bill, and will start collecting payroll deductions next January.

A federal paid parental leave plan proposed by President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, could rely on a similar model but has gained little traction.

“Compared to what employers are doing, the government is way behind the private sector,” said Isabel Sawhill, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who has urged the White House and Congress to adopt a national policy.

Sawhill said it is “very unusual and very notable” that Microsoft is extending family leave benefits to its contract workers. Microsoft already offers more generous family leave benefits to its own employees, including up to 20 weeks fully paid leave for a birth mother.

Pushing the feds

Microsoft’s push to spread its employee benefits to a broader workforce “sends a message that something has to happen more systematically at the federal level,” said Ariane Hegewisch, a program director for employment and earnings at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Until then, she said, it’s helpful that Microsoft seems willing to pay contracting firms more to guarantee their workers’ better benefits.

“Paid family leave is expensive and they acknowledge that,” Hegewisch said. Otherwise, she said, contractors with many employees of child-bearing age could find themselves at a competitive disadvantage to those with older workforces.

Republican state Sen. Joe Fain, the prime sponsor of the measure that passed last year, said Microsoft’s decision was “a really powerful step forward.”

By applying the plan to contractors and vendors around the country, “it really creates a pressure for those state legislatures to make a similar decision that Washington made.”

Argentina Boosts Interest Rate to 60%; Peso Sinks

Argentina’s Central Bank on Thursday increased its benchmark interest rate to 60 percent — the world’s highest — in an effort to halt a sharp slide in the value of the peso, which plunged to a record low.

The peso fell more than 13 percent against the dollar, closing at an all-time low of 39.2 per greenback, after slipping about 7 percent the day before.

The Central Bank said in a statement that it was hiking its benchmark interest rate by 15 percentage points to 60 percent in response to the currency problems and the risk of greater impact on local inflation, which is already running at about 30 percent a year.

The tumult in the exchange market came a day after President Mauricio Macri said he was asking for an early release of some International Monetary Fund money under an $50 billion backup financing arrangement approved earlier.

Some experts said the announcement, combined with the interest rate hike, had the unintended effect of fueling the crisis of confidence.

“I think today’s interest hike announcement will do nothing but leave investors even more jittery,” said Monica de Bolle, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

“I’m finding it difficult to understand why, after yesterday’s announcement about front-loading more of the IMF funding, the government thought the hike was warranted,” she said. “Hyperactivity starts to look like desperation.”

Macri has struggled to calm markets and bring confidence to Argentines who continue to lose purchasing power. Many are frustrated with layoffs, higher utility rates and a rise in poverty levels.

Many also have bad memories of the IMF and blame its free-market economic policies for contributing to the country’s worst crisis in 2001-02, when one of every five Argentines went unemployed and millions fell into poverty.

Seeing journalists filming screens showing the exchange rates in downtown Buenos Aires, Ruben Montiel, 55, burst out: “Macri is an embarrassment!”

“You can’t live like this. The prices of everything go up on a daily basis,” he said. “There’s no work, utility rates have gone through the roof … people are sleeping on the streets.”

Macri, a pro-business conservative who came into office in 2015, had promised to trim Argentina’s fiscal deficit, reduce poverty and curb inflation. He cut red tape and tried to reduce the government’s budget deficit by ordering layoffs and cutting utility subsidies, but it triggered labor unrest.

Then in December, officials announced a rise in the inflation target, which caused investors to begin doubting Macri’s commitment to taming price rises.

Meanwhile, the peso slumped against the dollar as rising U.S. interest rates lured investors to pull greenbacks out of Argentina.

That caused jitters among Argentines, who have been used to stashing away dollars as a cushion since the 2001 crisis, when banks froze deposits and put up sheet-metal barricades as thousands of protesters unsuccessfully tried to withdraw their savings. Dozens died in protests and looting in December 2001 as the economy unraveled and Argentina eventually suffered a record $100 billion debt default.

“The government will need to shuffle its cabinet and strike deals with provincial governors for next year’s budget,” said Argentine economist Marcos Buscaglia. “In the short-term, the government just needs to stop this crisis.”

IAEA Says Iran Is Sticking to Nuclear Deal

Iran has remained within the main restrictions on its nuclear activities imposed by a 2015 deal with major powers, a confidential report by the U.N. atomic watchdog indicated Thursday.

In its second quarterly report since President Donald Trump announced in May that the United States would quit the accord and reimpose sanctions, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran had stayed within the caps on uranium enrichment levels, enriched uranium stocks and other items.

In its last report in May, the IAEA had said Iran could do more to cooperate with inspectors and thereby “enhance confidence”, but stopped short of saying the Islamic Republic had given it cause for concern. Thursday’s report to member states seen by Reuters contained similar language.

It said the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog was able to carry out all so-called complementary access inspections needed to verify Iran’s compliance with the deal.

“Timely and proactive cooperation by Iran in providing such access facilitates implementation of the Additional Protocol and enhances confidence,” said the report, which was distributed to IAEA member states.

“The production rate [of enriched uranium] is constant. There is no change whatsoever,” a senior diplomat added.

With the United States reimposing its sanctions on Iran that were lifted under the nuclear deal, many diplomats and analysts now doubt that the accord will survive despite European Union efforts to counter some of the effects of Trump’s move.

Sticking to the nuclear accord is not the only way forward for Iran, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Thursday. “Being the party to still honor the deal in deeds & not just words is not Iran’s only option,” he said on Twitter.

​EU action urged

Speaking after the IAEA report was sent to the agency’s member states, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the deal was still holding, despite the U.S. withdrawal.

He urged his fellow ministers, who met in Vienna on Thursday to discuss EU policy on Iran, to do more to protect Tehran from U.S. sanctions, calling for “permanent financial mechanisms that allow Iran to continue to trade.”

The EU implemented a law this month to shield European companies from the impact of U.S. sanctions on Tehran and has approved aid for the Iranian private sector, although large European companies are pulling out of Iran.

Adhering to the deal should bring Iran economic benefits, Zarif said. “If preserving [the accord] is the goal, then there is no escape from mustering the courage to comply with commitment to normalize Iran’s economic relations instead of making extraneous demands,” Zarif wrote on Twitter.

On Wednesday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cast doubt on the ability of EU countries to save the agreement and said Tehran might abandon it.

Khamenei told President Hassan Rouhani not to rely too much on European support as he came under increased pressure at home over his handling of the economy in the face of U.S. sanctions, with key ministers under attack by parliament.

Le Drian, whose country signed the Iran deal along with Britain, Germany, China, Russia and the United States under then-President Barack Obama, said Tehran should be ready to negotiate on its future nuclear plans, its ballistic missile arsenal and its role in wars in Syria and Yemen.

Those issues were not covered by the 2015 deal, and Trump has cited this as a major reason for pulling Washington out of it.

Le Drian said Iran, which says its missiles are only for defense, was arming regional allies with rockets and allowing “ballistic proliferation,” adding: “Iran needs to avoid the temptation to be the [regional] hegemon.”

Iran has ruled out negotiations on its ballistic missiles and broader Middle Eastern role.

Afghan Taliban Urges Retaliation for Planned Dutch Cartoon Contest

The Taliban urged Afghan soldiers on Thursday to attack Dutch troops serving in the NATO-led Resolute Support mission in retaliation for a contest of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad planned by far-right

politician Geert Wilders.

The Taliban threat was issued shortly before Wilders announced Thursday that he was calling off the contest because it posed too great a threat of provoking violence against innocents.

In a statement, the Taliban’s main spokesman called the contest a blasphemous action and a hostile act by the Netherlands against all Muslims.

Members of the Afghan security forces, “if they truly believe themselves to be Muslims or have any covenant towards Islam, should turn their weapons on Dutch troops” or help Taliban fighters attack them, the statement said.

Around 100 Dutch troops are serving in the 16,000-strong Resolute Support mission to train and advise Afghan forces, according to the Dutch defense ministry. About half of the NATO-led force is made up of Americans.

Wilders’ far-right Freedom Party, which has become the second largest in the Netherlands, announced the competition in June, saying it had the right to hold it under freedom-of-speech laws.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte had said that he didn’t support the planned contest but that he would defend Wilders’ right to hold it.

Images of the Prophet Muhammad are traditionally forbidden in Islam, and caricatures are regarded by most Muslims as deeply offensive.

In 2005, a Danish newspaper published cartoons of the Prophet that sparked a wave of protests across the world. Ten years later, Islamist gunmen killed 12 people in an attack on the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which had published similar caricatures.

Republican US Senator Asks FTC to Examine Google Ads

U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch on Thursday added to the growing push in Washington to have the Federal Trade Commission rekindle an antitrust investigation of Alphabet Inc’s Google.

Hatch, the Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter to FTC Chairman Joseph Simons recounting several news reports that identified complaints about Google’s anti-competitive conduct and privacy practices.

Alphabet shares were little changed after the release of the letter. The company declined to comment.

Lawmakers from both major parties and Google’s rivals have said this year they see an opening for increased regulation of large technology companies under the FTC’s new slate of commissioners.

Google’s critics say that ongoing European antitrust action against the web search leader and this year’s data privacy scandal involving Facebook Inc and political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica demonstrate their concerns about the unchecked power of the tech heavyweights. About 90 percent of search engine queries in the United States flow through Google.

Facebook and Twitter executives are expected to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on September 5 about their  efforts to deter foreign campaigns from spreading misinformation online ahead November’s midterm elections. Lawmakers have criticized Alphabet for not scheduling a top executive, such as Chief Executive Larry Page, for the hearings.

In 2013, the FTC closed a lengthy investigation of Google after finding insufficient evidence that consumers were harmed by how the company displayed search results from rivals. President Donald Trump accused Google’s search engine on Tuesday of promoting negative news articles and hiding “fair media” coverage of him.

Trump’s economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, later said the White House was “taking a look” at Google, and that the administration would do “some investigation and some analysis,” without providing further details.

Earlier this year, Representative Keith Ellison, a Democrat, and Representative Todd Rokita, a Republican, sent separate letters asking the FTC to probe Google.

Simon, the new Republican chairman of the FTC, said in July the agency would keep a close eye on big tech companies that dominate the internet.

An FTC representative was not immediately available for comment.

Hatch, at event hosted by reviews website and Google rival Yelp Inc in May, said moves made by “an entrenched monopolist” deserve extra skepticism.

“They may well be used, not to further consumer welfare, but to foreclose competitors,” he said, according to prepared remarks.

Yelp, a local-search service, said in a statement that Hatch’s letter was “heartening to see” as it underscored the bipartisan plea for FTC scrutiny of Google.

US Warns Russia to Stop Harassing Ships Headed to Ukraine

The Trump administration told Russia on Thursday to stop what it said was harassment of international shipping vessels in the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait aimed at trying to weaken Ukraine’s economy.

“Russia’s actions to impede maritime transit are further examples of its ongoing campaign to undermine and destabilize Ukraine, as well as its disregard for international norms,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. 

The U.S. accused Russia of delaying commercial ships since April and stopping at least 16 commercial ships from reaching Ukranian ports.

Relations between Russia and Ukraine have deteriorated since Moscow illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region and provoked conflict between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko observed Ukraine’s Independence Day last week by announcing that his country had “cut all ties with the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.”

The Kremlin did not immediately respond to the U.S. request. 

Thousands of Yemeni Civilians Caught in Conflict Need Protection, UN Says

The U.N. refugee agency reports it is scaling up its operation in Yemen to meet the urgent protection needs of thousands of Yemenis displaced by fighting in the strategic port city of Hodeidah. 

More than 300,000 people have fled their homes since the Saudi-led coalition began its military offensive in June to capture the Houthi-held port city of Hodeidah.

So far, U.N. and international pressure has prevented an all-out attack on the port itself, a situation that most agree would be calamitous. About 80 percent of all food and humanitarian aid is imported through this Red Sea port. Were it to be knocked out, the U.N. fears this could trigger a famine throughout the country.

The conflict has escalated significantly over the past three months. The U.N. refugee agency reports this is increasing the dangers for civilians trying to leave conflict areas. UNHCR spokesman, William Spindler, said some people are particularly vulnerable and in need of urgent protection.

“Most prominent among them are the specific needs of children who may be separated from their families, and of women, who may be at risk of sexual harassment and violence either during flight or when living in overcrowded settings,” Spindler said.

“Another common concern is the loss of livelihoods, exacerbated by a decline in purchasing power due to increasing food prices, and the decline in value of the Yemeni currency, the riyal,” Spindler added.  

Spindler said UNHCR and partners have identified more than 70,000 of the most vulnerable displaced people throughout the country. He says they are being provided with a wide-range of assistance, including multipurpose cash, rental subsidies and referrals to specialized services, such as psychological counseling and legal assistance.

 

TV Cameraman Shot Dead in Cancun

A cameraman from a TV station in the Caribbean beach destination of Cancun has been shot to death, according to local authorities.

The Quintana Roo state prosecutor’s office said Javier Rodriguez Valladares of the Canal 10 station was shot to death along with another man Wednesday evening.

Authorities were investigating, but initially said it didn’t appear to be work related because he was off duty. Journalists have often been targeted while not working.

The Quintana Roo Human Rights Commission said in a statement that Valladares was the third journalist killed in the state this year.

In July, Ruben Pat Cahuich, the director of the online news site in Playa del Carmen, Playa News Aqui y Ahora, was killed. In June, police reporter Jose Guadalupe Chan Dzib from the same outlet was killed.

Paris-based Reporters without Borders condemned Rodriguez’s murder.

“Quintana Roo authorities must undertake an exhaustive investigation of this case and identify as soon as possible those responsible for this cowardly killing,” said Emmanuel Colombie, director of the group’s Latin America office.

Rodriguez is at least the ninth journalist killed in Mexico this year. More than 30 have been killed during the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto who leaves office in three months.

In the first six months of 2018, the coastal state of Quintana Roo saw homicides rise 132 percent, to the equivalent of about 35 killings per 100,000 inhabitants.

Spain Orders Mass Deportation of African Migrants

Spain, known for having one of the most tolerant immigration policies in Europe and accepting boatloads of migrants when no other EU nation would, was expected to open its doors even wider under its new socialist government. But that policy now appears to be going in reverse.

In a country that has shunned anti-immigration currents prevalent in much of Europe, the mass expulsion of 166 Sub-Saharan Africans who forced their way through barbed wire fences last month and attacked guards along the Spanish north African enclave of Ceuta’s border with Morocco, has become an embarrassment for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, officials and analysts say.

“Humanitarianism is not permissiveness” said Spanish interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska before a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday .”Orderly, secure and legal immigration is possible, but not violent migration that threatens our country and its security forces.”

More than 600 migrants stormed across six-meter-high fences onto Spanish territory on July 26, hurling acid and feces, and firing home made flame throwers at border guards.Several members of Spain’s Civil Guard police force were seriously injured in the struggle, triggering calls from their top commanders for an immediate crackdown.

Spain has generally enforced a policy granting asylum to migrants who reach Spanish soil by sea or through land borders around Ceuta and Melilla, enclaves that are surrounded by Morocco.

The asylum seekers are generally housed at temporary shelters while NGOs process their applications for EU free circulation passes.

Many come with plans to continue on to northern Europe where wages and benefits are better, causing other EU governments to complain about Spain’s relatively open border policies. French President Emmanuel Macron recently ordered the deportation of large numbers of African migrants who crossed into his country from Spain.

Within days of the Ceuta border assault, Spanish police rounded up 166 migrants from a shelter in Ceuta and drove them back across the border to Morocco, invoking a special extradition agreement negotiated between the two governments 25 years ago and which had rarely been implemented before.

The expulsions generated a political crisis for the new, untested prime minister Pedro Sanchez. The hard left United We Can party coalition, known in Spanish as “Unidos Podemos,” as well as Basque and Catalan nationalists on whose parliamentary support Sanchez’ minority government depends, accused him of violating human rights and of breaking his promises of a more compassionate policy.

Sanchez began his term in May with a decision to allow the migrant ship Aquarius to dock at Spanish ports after it was denied entry by Italy’s recently elected right wing government.He had also pledged to remove rolls of razor-sharp concertina wire attached to the border fences as requested by various human rights organizations.

Quoting the International Organization for Migration, conservative opposition leader Pablo Casado said immigration to Spain had tripled since the new government took office in June. He said authorities were taking emergency measures to strengthen border defenses that had been previously rejected by the socialists.

Spain’s daily newspaper El Mundo reported that angry calls from chiefs of the militarized Guardia Civil who threatened to resign if drastic measures were not taken to counter the attack on border units, forced the government’s hand.

A retired Civil Guard general who acts as a top advisor to the interior ministry, speaking anonymously, told VOA the gendarme forces were already strained in southern Spain.

“We have to start removing some these people and prevent too many more from getting here,” he said.

While last month’s forced entry at Ceuta was the most dramatic and violent experienced until now, it was not the first and could initiate a trend of even more serious future attacks, according to security analysts.

Grande-Marlaska said the group that broke through the fence displayed a high degree of organization. The interior minister said they used cutting tools, improvised weapons and coordinated tactics by which shock units held back police to open holes through which hundreds of others slipped through the fence.

Police arrested 10 more immigrants on Wednesday and authorities accused of them of leading the attacks against the Guardia Civil. Officials said the group’s ringleader is of Togolese origin and had experience in his country’s armed forces, including some paramilitary training.

Court Quashes Canada’s Approval of Pipeline

Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal on Thursday quashed the approval of the contentious Trans Mountain pipeline expansion that would nearly triple the flow of oil from the Alberta oil sands to the Pacific Coast.

The decision means the country’s National Energy Board will have to redo its review of the pipeline. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government approved Trans Mountain in 2016 and was so determined to see it built that it announced plans this spring to buy the pipeline.

It faces stiff environmental opposition from British Columbia’s provincial government and activists. Houston-based Kinder Morgan earlier halted essential spending on the project and said it would cancel it altogether if the national and provincial governments could not guarantee it.

In a written decision, the court said the energy board’s review was so flawed that the federal government could not rely on it to approve the pipeline. The court concluded the federal government failed in its duty to engage in meaningful consultations with First Nations before approving it.

“Meaningful consultation is not intended simply to allow indigenous peoples “to blow off steam,” the decision said.

The court decision is a blow to Trudeau, whose government is having a bad week after Canada was left out of new free trade deal with the U.S. and Mexico. Talks to include Canada are now taking place in Washington.

The pipeline would allow Canada to diversify oil markets and vastly increase exports to Asia, where it could command a higher price. Canada has the world’s third largest oil reserves, but 99 percent of its exports now go to refiners in the U.S., where limits on pipeline and refinery capacity mean Canadian oil sells at a discount.

Kinder Morgan shareholders voted overwhelmingly to approve the sale of the pipeline to the government not long after the court decision was announced.

Canada’s finance minister is due to speak later Thursday.

The court decision is a victory for indigenous leaders and environmentalists, who have pledged to do whatever necessary to thwart the pipeline, including chaining themselves to construction equipment. The Trans Mountain expansion would cause tanker traffic to balloon from about 60 to more than 400 vessels annually as the pipeline flow increases from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels per day.

Analysts have said China is eager to get access to Canada’s oil, but largely gave up hope that a pipeline to the Pacific Coast would be built.

Trudeau approved the expansion, arguing that it was “economically necessary,” and it enabled him to overcome opposition to a carbon tax plan that will help Canada cut its greenhouse emissions.

But many indigenous people see the 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) of new pipeline as a threat to their lands, echoing concerns raised by Native Americans about the Keystone XL project in the U.S. Many in Canada say it also raises broader environmental concerns by enabling increased development of the carbon-heavy oil sands.

“This is a great victory for Indigenous communities everywhere fighting against destructive projects being imposed upon their territories,” said Patrick McCully, climate and energy program director at Rainforest Action Network.

Norman Grows Into Category 4 Hurricane in Pacific

The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Norman has grown into a Category 4 storm in the eastern Pacific Ocean and could become even stronger, though it poses no threat to land.

Forecasters say Norman had maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (240 kph) Thursday morning. It was centered about 630 miles (1,015 kilometers) west-southwest of the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula and was moving west at 8 mph (13 kph).

The Hurricane Center says Norman could grow even stronger before starting to weaken Friday night or Saturday.

Meanwhile, forecasters say a disturbance off the coast of Africa is likely to become a tropical storm over the next day or so as it moves westward. A tropical storm warning was posted for parts of the Cape Verde Islands.

Trump OKs Tariff Relief for Three Countries

U.S. President Donald Trump has signed proclamations permitting targeted relief from steel and aluminum quotas from some countries, the U.S. Commerce Department said on Wednesday.

Trump, who put in place tariffs on steel and aluminum imports in March, signed proclamations allowing relief from the quotas on steel from South Korea, Brazil and Argentina and on aluminum from Argentina, the department said in a statement.

“Companies can apply for product exclusions based on insufficient quantity or quality available from U.S. steel or aluminum producers,” the statement said. “In such cases, an exclusion from the quota may be granted and no tariff would be owed.”

Trump, citing national security concerns, placed tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum imports.

The tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the European Union, Canada and Mexico took effect June 1, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said May 31 that arrangements had been made with some countries to have non-tariff limits on their exports of the two metals to the United States.

Ross said the arrangement with South Korea was for a quota of 70 percent of average steel exports to the United States in the years 2015 to 2017.

The Brazilian government said at the time the U.S. quotas and tariffs on Brazil’s steel and aluminum exports were unjustified but that it remained open to negotiate a solution.

Brazilian semi-finished steel exports to the United States are subject to quotas based on the average for the three years from 2015-2017, while finished steel products will be limited to a quota of 70 percent of the average for those years.

Trump, Trudeau Upbeat About Prospects for NAFTA Deal by Friday

The leaders of the United States and Canada expressed optimism on Wednesday that they could reach new NAFTA deal by a Friday deadline as negotiators prepared to talk through the night, although Canada warned that a number of tricky issues remained.

Under pressure, Canada rejoined the talks to modernize the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement after Mexico and the United States announced a bilateral deal on Monday. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said late on Wednesday that talks were at “a very intense moment” but said there was “a lot of good will” between Canadian and U.S. negotiators.

“Our officials are meeting now and will be meeting until very late tonight. Possibly they’ll be meeting all night long,” Freeland said. She and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer had agreed to review progress early on Thursday.

U.S. President Donald Trump has set a Friday deadline for the three countries to reach an in-principle agreement, which would allow Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto to sign it before he leaves office at the end of November. Under U.S. law, Trump must wait 90 days before signing the pact.

Trump has warned he could try to proceed with a deal with Mexico alone and levy tariffs on Canadian-made cars if Ottawa does not come on board, although U.S. lawmakers have said ratifying a bilateral deal would not be easy.

“They (Canada) want to be part of the deal, and we gave until Friday and I think we’re probably on track. We’ll see what happens, but in any event, things are working out very well.” Trump told reporters at the White House.

The upbeat tone contrasted with Trump’s harsh criticism of Canada in recent weeks, railing on Twitter against Canada’s high dairy tariffs that he said were “killing our Agriculture!”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he thought the Friday deadline could be met.

“We recognize that there is a possibility of getting there by Friday, but it is only a possibility, because it will hinge on whether or not there is ultimately a good deal for Canada,” he said at a news conference in northern Ontario on Wednesday.

“No NAFTA deal is better than a bad NAFTA deal.”

 Freeland, who is Canada’s lead negotiator, was sidelined from the talks for more than two months, and will be under pressure to accept the terms the United States and Mexico worked out.

She declined comment on the issues still in play, but said on Tuesday that Mexico’s concessions on auto rules of origin and labor rights had been a breakthrough.

Ottawa is also ready to make concessions on Canada’s protected dairy market in a bid to save a dispute-settlement system, The Globe and Mail reported late on Tuesday.

Sticking points

One of the issues for Canada in the revised deal is the U.S. effort to dump the Chapter 19 dispute resolution mechanism that hinders the United States from pursuing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said on Monday that Mexico had agreed to eliminate the mechanism.

To save that mechanism, Ottawa plans to change one rule that effectively blocked American farmers from exporting ultra-filtered milk, an ingredient in cheesemaking, to Canada, the Globe and Mail reported, citing sources.

Trudeau repeated on Wednesday that he will defend Canada’s dairy industry.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Trump administration’s own anti-dumping duties on Canadian paper, used in books and newsprint, were thrown out by the U.S. International Trade Commission.

The independent panel ruled that about $1.21 billion in such paper imports from Canada were not harming U.S. producers.

Other hurdles to a NAFTA deal include intellectual property rights and extensions of copyright protections to 75 years from 50, a higher threshold than Canada has previously supported.

Some see the tight time-frame as a challenge.

“There’s nothing here that is not doable for Canada,” said Brian Kingston, vice president for international affairs at The Business Council of Canada.

“We’ve got the best negotiators in the world, but they can only stay awake so many hours of every day.”

Brazil Presidential Candidate: Let Police Kill Criminals

A leading candidate in Brazil’s presidential election said police should be given license to kill criminals and those who do should receive medals not face prosecution.

Hard-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro said in an interview Tuesday night that he would “leave good people out of range of the shooting” and go at criminals full steam.

“This kind of people (criminals), you cannot treat them as if they were normal human beings, OK? We can’t let policemen keep dying at the hands of those guys,” Bolsonaro said on TV Globo’s main nightly news program. “If he kills 10, 15 or 20 with 10 or 30 bullets each, he needs to get a medal and not be prosecuted.”

Bolsonaro is polling second in Brazil’s October presidential election, with jailed former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the lead. But da Silva is likely to be barred from running by electoral authorities for a corruption conviction.

History of controversy

Bolsonaro has a history of controversial comments. He has defended Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship and made comments opponents have called homophobic and racist.

Political analysts say his get-tough-on-criminals rhetoric appeals to many Brazilians weary of rampant crime but could backfire.

“His adversaries might use that quote saying he will kill people using many bullets. He is saying you can fight violence with more violence, and average Brazilians don’t agree with that,” said political science writer Alberto Almeida.

Police already killing suspects

Human rights groups say police killings of suspects in Brazil are already common.

Earlier this month a report showed a record 63,880 people were slain in Brazil last year. Brazil has long been the world leader in overall homicide numbers, and its homicide rate is also one of the highest.