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BAHAMAS






TRINIDAD & TOBAGO







PUERTO RICO







ASIA

Trade deal
A trade deal covering nearly a third of the global economy has been signed by the European Union and Japan. The deal -- which cuts or eliminates tariffs on almost all goods between EU members and the Asian nation -- stands in contrast to the approach taken by Trump, who has imposed tariffs on a large range of foreign goods.  Lawmakers on both sides have to OK the trade deal, so it's not expected to kick in until next year. [Good Morning from CNN , July 18, 2018]




Melati, a seafood worker at a shrimp processing plant in Indonesia, was often put to work cleaning the conveyor belts with a chlorine mixture. The plastic gloves she was given didn't cover beyond her wrists, but she had to put her arms in the bucket of chlorine mixture to prepare the cleaning cloth. "My hand was burning, and I was out of breath because of the strong chlorine. When I came home, I still couldn't breathe properly."
Thousands of people working on fishing boats and in factories toil long hours in inhumane conditions like the ones Melati experienced to produce the seafood sold at supermarkets like Whole Foods, which is now owned by Amazon.
Many of the workers that produce the food sold at supermarkets like Whole Foods barely earn enough to feed their families. It would take a woman seafood worker in Southeast Asia 4,000 years to earn what a top supermarket executive makes in the US.
We've requested meetings with Whole Foods to discuss ways of working together to make improvements for seafood workers. We even reached out to Amazon for an opportunity to talk. Unfortunately, we've heard nothing back from either company. Whole Foods and Amazon are ignoring our requests, and the silence is deafening.
Whole Foods has a reputation as a responsible company that "lives its values." But Oxfam assessed them and other major supermarkets in the areas of transparency, worker's rights, small-scale producers and women's equity – and Whole Foods received just a 2% rating, the second lowest among the six US supermarkets we evaluated.

Supermarkets hold power over the huge network of farmers and workers producing food for their shelves – but they also face intense competition for customers. The people in charge of big supermarkets care what their customers think about them...especially when we stand together. Please raise your voice on Facebook and Twitter to help secure safe working conditions and livable wages for the people who produce our food.
Thank you for continuing to stand with us to ensure that the people who are at the heart of producing our food can earn a living from their work, in a safe environment – free from fear, poverty or suffering.
Sincerely,
Gina Cummings
Campaigns Director
Oxfam America [July 16, 2018]

https://www.facebook.com/oxfamamerica



NORTH KOREA







READ







MEXICO








LÒPEZ OBRADOR TO TALK NAFTA WITH TOP TRUMP OFFICIALS: Mexican President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador will get to meet three more top White House officials Friday: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner. That's in addition to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was already set to meet López Obrador and his team in Mexico City to discuss the bilateral relationship.
The leftist former Mexico City mayor will be accompanied by some of his cabinet picks, such as Marcelo Ebrard for foreign minister, Graciela Márquez Colín for economy minister and Jesús Seade for chief NAFTA negotiator.
Topics of discussion: López Obrador's team and the U.S. delegation are expected to discuss the NAFTA renegotiation, economic development projects and migration. López Obrador reiterated on Tuesday that he will continue to respect the negotiating positions from current Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto's administration.
"We consider that [NAFTA] should be maintained. In this time, we're going to be observers. We recognize the work from the negotiating team, and we're going to be with them as observers to support and achieve a good deal," López Obrador said in a press conference outside his campaign office.

López Obrador will also discuss with the U.S. officials his proposal for large-scale economic development projects that would strengthen cooperation between North American and Central American countries. His idea, which he mentioned to Trump in a call last week, aims to create jobs and raise wages in the region to help reduce migration and improve security. [POLITICO's Morning Trade, July 11, 2018]





EUROPE

NEXT NGO BATTLE — NET ZERO EMISSIONS: The European Commission will soon launch a public consultation on its planned mid-century emissions reduction strategy, which it wants published before the global climate summit in Poland in December. Environmental NGOs, keen to ensure that the debate will focus on natural (rather than technological) solutions (such as planting trees), are already setting out their positions. The WWF wants Europe’s emissions to be balanced by 2040, requiring a phase-out of fossil fuels and an increase in the capacity of forests to act as carbon sinks. [POLITICO Brussels Influence, July 20, 2018]



MACEDONIA
(North Macedonia)






DENMARK







RUSSIA


✊ 81st time is the charm?

Eighty times in the past two and a half weeks, the Sverdlovsk region’s Public Security Ministry has denied requests from the “Left Front” movement for a permit to stage a protest against Russia’s planned pension reforms. The activists say they have tried to get permission to hold a demonstration at one of the four venues where officials have said they will allow political rallies during the FIFA World Cup. Last year, Vladimir Putin signed an executive order suspending most public assembly rights in host cities during the soccer tournament.

Left Front members say they’ve repeatedly requested permits for times and venues that are vacant, only to be told by officials that the spaces are already occupied. The activists have even lined up outside the ministry early in the morning, to be certain that they were the first ones who could possibly request a permit for a given time and location. The authorities still turned them down. [The Real Russia. Today. July 12, 2018]


More problems for Forbes Russia 📰

Russia’s Federal Tax Service has reportedly frozen the funds on accounts held by the “AC Media” publishing house at two banks, Otkritie and SMP Bank, according to the TV network Dozhd. A part of the ACMG Group, AC Media is the publisher of Forbes Russia, which has been engulfed in scandal recently. Public banking records show eight rulings, dated June 28, ordering the suspension of operations on the company’s accounts.

Recently ousted Forbes Russia chief editor Nikolai Uskov previously claimed on air at Ekho Moskvy that the magazine’s bank accounts had been frozen. Uskov says Forbes Russia faces several lawsuits from the media research company Mediascope. In March 2017, the Federal Tax Service blocked AC Media’s bank accounts because of unpaid taxes. [The Real Russia. Today. July 12, 2018]

It's all fun and games until you mention gas, Donnie ⛽

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has fired back at Donald Trump over his criticism of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project in Brussels on Wednesday. Putin’s press secretary says the U.S. president is trying to bully Europeans into buying more expensive liquefied natural gas from the United States. “This is nothing more than an attempt to force European buyers to purchase more expensive liquefied gas that can be supplied from alternative places,” Peskov said, arguing that consumers should have the right to choose their own gas suppliers.

On Wednesday, President Trump slammed Germany for its energy dependence on Russia, saying the country is “totally controlled by Russia” because of gas supplies. The U.S. is a major producer of liquefied natural gas. [The Real Russia. Today. July 12, 2018]


NOTE: I have no official connection to any organization from which information is shared.. Occasionally, I post informational material and/or an opportunity to donate or join as  a "community service" announcement.  These again are shared for their varying perspectives.


Any commercial or business interest information shared is purely informational, not an endorsement.  I have no connection with any such commercial or business interest.

Any books listed are random or topic-related to something else in the post.  Think of these as a "library bookshelf" to browse.  They are shared for informational or entertainment value only, not as being recommended.
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