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Fans Find Superheroes Relevant in US Political, Social Debate

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At Comic-Con 2018, fantasy can come to life. Fans dress up as Superman, Spider-Man and Captain America, just to name a few.

These names have become some of the most familiar heroes in American popular culture. The values they represent have captured the imaginations of fans from around the world. 

Superman fan Dorian Black was dressed in a blue costume, a red cape, yellow belt, red boots and a big “S” on his chest.

At Comic-Con in San Diego, Black said he becomes the alien from the planet Krypton who represents the immigrant spirit. A story, he adds, that is just as relevant today as it was when Superman was created in 1938.

“There was a lot of anti-immigrant sentiment happening at the time that he was created, and I don’t feel like that’s ever changed,” Black said. “We’d like to pretend that America has changed greatly from that time period. A lot of ways it has for the better, but we’re still having this argument of do we let in refugees? How much is too much?”

Relevant today

Superman is not the only superhero fans find relevant in today’s political and social climate in the U.S. The female comic book superhero Captain Marvel will be featured in a movie in 2019. Many female fans are excited about what she represents. 

“Strength and female strength especially, which I think is really important in our current world,” said Hayley West, who dressed as Captain Marvel, complete with a red, dark blue and gold jumpsuit with a star on her chest. 

Seeing a superhero’s relevance in politics and social issues is not a new phenomenon. Superman’s character first appeared during the Great Depression.

“He’s (Superman) almost a kind of anarchist, socialist,” said English professor Ben Saunders, who directs a University of Oregon comics and cartoon studies minor, the first of its kind in the U.S. 

Saunders said Superman originally fought representatives of the oil companies and advertising executives who were out to fleece the public, and campaigned for prison reform. He then became more socially conservative in the 1940s and 1950s as American values changed, but what stayed consistent was Superman’s ability to always do the right thing, Saunders said.

“Of course, our notions of what the right thing is changed. It’s culturally contingent. It changes month to month sometimes, and that’s what makes Superman a particularly challenging character to write,” he added. 

“The characters become the voice of whoever’s creating them at the time. Whoever the writer is or the artist. The things that are important to them are going to get interjected into those characters,” said Aaron Lopresti, a comic book artist who has drawn superheroes, including Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, for publishers DC Comics and Marvel Comics. 

Lopresti said modern-day writers tend to have more liberal views on what is happening in society, which is often reflected in their work.

“When things change or different ideas come into view, I think a lot of times you see those things reflected in the characters or the situations they’re in, in their comics,” Lopresti said.

Timelessness of values

Fans, however, also see a timelessness in values held by their favorite superheroes.

“I believe that Captain America holds really good values of staying true to your family and really just making sure that you stick to what you’re going to say and what you’re going to do,” said 18-year-old Valencia Garcia, a movie fan who proudly held a replica of Captain America’s shiny red, silver and blue shield with a silver star in the middle.

“I like all of them. They’re all heroes to help save the people, and they do good deeds,” said Sonya Flores, a Laotian American who loves superhero movies.

Fans say these superheroes represent an ideal that people and those in positions of power should try to emulate.

“I feel like, as a society, we’re so jaded to the idea of power that if you have power, you’re just by default corrupted by it. And there’s that saying that absolute power corrupts absolutely. But Superman is sort of a counter argument to that. You can be all powerful and be good, but you have to try to be good,” said Black. 

In Spider-Man’s story, there is a famous line that says, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

“There are people in positions of power today who I think will be well-advised to remember that power and responsibility go hand in hand,” Saunders said.
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Sergio Marchionne, Who Saved Fiat and Chrysler, Has Died

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Sergio Marchionne, a charismatic and demanding CEO who engineered two long-shot corporate turnarounds to save carmakers Fiat and Chrysler from near-certain failure, died Wednesday. He was 66.

The holding company of Fiat’s founders, the Agnelli family, announced Marchionne had died after unexpected complications from surgery in Zurich. That came days after a deterioration in his health led the company to hastily appoint a successor.

 

At Fiat Chrysler Automobiles headquarters in the Italian city of Turin, corporate flags flew at half-staff while inside the building, Marchionne’s successor led a minute of silence ahead of an earnings presentation. Workers at a plant near Naples that Marchionne had brought back to life halted production for 10 minutes in tribute.  

 

“Unfortunately what we feared has come to pass,” said John Elkann, Fiat heir and head of the Exor holding company. “Sergio Marchionne, man and friend, is gone.”

The news agency ANSA reported the cause of death as cardiac arrest. He suffered one while recovering from shoulder surgery late last month, landing him in intensive care, followed by a second, fatal event. Fiat Chrysler declined to comment, citing privacy issues.

 

The Italian-Canadian had planned to step down after first-quarter earnings next year, but the transition was accelerated after the company announced that the complications, which it did not detail, would prevent his return. He also was replaced as CEO of sportscar maker Ferrari and heavy truck and equipment maker CNH Industrial.

 

Marchionne turned around the dysfunctional Fiat and Chrysler, merging them into the world’s seventh-largest carmaker, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, almost by personal force of will, living on a corporate jet crossing the Atlantic to push employees to accomplish what most people thought was impossible amid a devastating global recession.

 

Marchionne, who was born in Italy and emigrated to Canada at age 14, had revived Fiat by 2009 when he was picked by the U.S. government to save U.S.-based Chrysler from its trip through bankruptcy protection after being owned by a private equity company.

 

 “It’s highly unlikely that Chrysler would exist today had he not taken that gamble,” said Autotrader.com analyst Michelle Krebs. “The company was in such bad shape, being stripped of any kind of resources by the previous owners.”

 

Marchionne met most of his goals, even though at times he was doubted by nearly everyone in the automobile business. But he didn’t live long enough to complete his last two: personally hand over the reins of Fiat Chrysler to a hand-picked protege and lay out plans for transforming supercar maker Ferrari.

 

The manager, known for his folksy, colorful turns of phrase and for his dark cashmere sweaters no matter the occasion, was the darling of the automotive analyst community. Even when expressing doubts at his audacious targets, they showed admiration for his adept deal-making. That included getting General Motors to pay $2 billion to sever ties with Fiat, key to relaunching the long-struggling Italian brand, and the deal with the U.S. government to take Chrysler without a penny down in exchange for Fiat’s small-car technology.

 

Marchionne joined Fiat after being tapped by the Agnelli family to save the company. Fiat had for generations been a family-run enterprise and having someone at the helm from outside Italy’s clubby management circles — even a dynamo like Marchionne — was an enormous change.

 

Other key corporate moves included the spinoff of the heavy industrial vehicle and truck maker CNH and of the Ferrari supercar maker. Both deals unlocked considerable shareholder value for Agnelli family heirs led by Elkann. Elkann, 42, came into his own under Marchionne’s stewardship, taking over as chairman in 2010 having been tapped more than a decade earlier by his grandfather, the late Gianni Agnelli, to run the family business.

 

As Marchionne’s health failed following surgery, a clearly emotional Elkann delivered what amounted to an impromptu eulogy and message of gratitude to a man he called his mentor.

 

“He taught us to think differently and to have the courage to change, often in unconventional ways, always acting with a sense of responsibility for the companies and their people,” Elkann said over the weekend. “He taught us that the only question that’s worth asking oneself at the end of every day is whether we have been able to change something for the better, whether we have been able to make a difference.”

 

It was Marchionne’s success in turning around a pair of Swiss businesses that drew the attention of the Agnelli family. He joined Fiat’s board in May 2003, four months after the death of Fiat scion Gianni Agnelli. He became CEO in June 2004, after the death of Gianni Agnelli’s brother, Umberto, Fiat’s chairman, left a family void in the company.

 

As an outsider, Marchionne was unfettered by local loyalties and he set about cutting jobs and expenses, slimming management ranks and increasing shareholder value along the way. He brought in other outsiders to key positions and relaunched the iconic 500, which became one of the new Fiat’s calling cards and a sign of rebirth as it expanded abroad.

 

While he started small with limited industrial alliances, his ambitions soon grew. The bankruptcy of Chrysler gave him the opportunity to create a global car company with brands including Jeep, Ram, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and Maserati that he envisioned would grow to 6 million cars a year. A global economic crisis that bottomed out car sales in key U.S. and European markets prevented him from reaching that goal, but his industrial vision never faltered as he spun off CNH and Ferrari into stand-alone entities.

 

His most quoted presentation to analysts, titled “Confessions of a Capital Junkie,” argued that consolidation was inevitable in the investment-heavy car industry. But though he tried for another merger with General Motors, talks never led to a deal. Still, newspaper photographs of a chain-smoking Marchionne awaiting talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel outside the Chancellery in Berlin on the role of GM’s then-subsidiary, Opel, made clear just how personally he took the negotiations.

 

Marchionne had always insisted that his successor would come from inside — so it was no surprise when British manager Mike Manley, who helped boost Jeep to global success and get Fiat a foothold in Asia, was named CEO.

 

“Clearly, this is a very sad and difficult time, and our thoughts and prayers go to Sergio’s family, friends and colleagues,” Manley told an analyst conference call presenting second quarter result. “Personally, having spent the last nine years of my life seeing or talking to Sergio almost on a daily basis this morning’s news is heartbreaking.”

 

“There is no doubt Sergio was a very special, unique man and there is no doubt that he’s going to be sorely missed.”

 

Marchionne had never indicated plans to leave either Ferrari or CNH, leaving many to speculate that the tireless manager known for his short sleep cycles and globe-trotting style would use those positions to keep a foothold in the automotive world.

 

In June, he laid out Fiat Chrysler’s five-year plan, which included launching electrified powertrains across Fiat brands — a tacit acknowledgement that the company had lagged in introducing hybrid, hybrid-electric and full-electric engines. They also were to put Ferrari engines in Maserati cars as Marchionne sought to take on electric-car pioneer Tesla.

 

Marchionne’s penchant for numbers was always clear in his attentive quarterly presentations. He let his real satisfaction show during the June 2018 presentation when he announced the company had reached zero debt, by briefly donning a necktie for the first time in a decade.

 

Other automotive leaders paid tribute to Marchionne’s skill, creativity and determination.

 

General Motors CEO Mary Barra praised his “remarkable legacy in the automotive industry.” Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford called Marchionne “one of the most respected leaders in the industry whose creativity and bold determination helped to restore Chrysler to financial health and grow Fiat Chrysler into a profitable global automaker.”

 

At his last public appearance as CEO, Marchionne in June attended a ceremony in Rome where a Jeep was presented to the paramilitary Carabinieri police. Marchionne began his brief remarks noting that his father had been a Carabinieri officer.

 

He said he recognized in the Carabinieri “the same values at the basis of my own education: seriousness, honesty, sense of duty, discipline and spirit of service.”

 

Marchionne was divorced. He is survived by his companion, Manuela Battezzato, and two grown sons, Alessio and Tyler.
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Grammy-winning Rockers Halestorm Don’t Care About the Haters

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When four-piece hard rock band Halestorm went back into the studio to work on their fourth album, they had already thrown out a bunch of songs they felt sounded too much like songs they had recorded before.

 

Led by frontwoman Lzzy Hale, the group has been dealing with critics for years saying they leaned too pop and didn’t shred hard enough. But the band wasn’t trying to please everyone, because they just wanted to keep evolving.

 

“We’re on our fourth record on a major label and we won a Grammy Award, and there’s this misconception that you’ve had the success and therefore it gets easier,” said 34-year-old Hale. “It really doesn’t because you’ve put so much out in the world and you’re like, ‘OK, what’s next?'”

 

Their new album “Vicious,” out Friday, came out of a lot of experimentation in a Nashville, Tennessee studio working with acclaimed rock producer Nick Raskulinecz, who has worked with bands like Foo Fighters and Alice in Chains. Hale and her brother Arejay Hale, Joe Hottinger and Josh Smith have been performing together for more than 15 years and Raskulinecz wanted to capture that live sound as much as possible.

 

The Pennsylvania-based band will also start the second leg of a tour with all female-fronted rock bands — including In This Moment and New Year’s Day — on Friday in Kansas City, with additional stops in Albany, Seattle and San Francisco. A third leg of the tour was just added starting in November.

 

Lzzy Hale and Hottinger, who plays guitar, talked with The Associated Press about dealing with critics, finding new inspiration and touring with other female rockers. Answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.

 

AP: What was it like in the studio this time?

 

Hottinger: We were really like, “How do we push this band forward? How do we do something interesting that’s hard rock these days?” Because it seems like it’s really hard to find good rock music and something that is pushing the boundaries a little bit. And (Nick) is like, “Well, let’s just start with the four of you in a room and who’s got a riff? We’ll start there.”

 

Hale: He was a Halestorm fan before we ever started working together. So when we would be excited, like this is really cool, he would say, “No, no, no. I’ve seen what you can do live. I know you can sing harder, I know you can play faster, I know your brother can be crazier. Let’s push everything that makes you guys who you are. Let’s push it forward.”

 

AP: Is there a democratic process to making decisions as a band?

 

Hale: It’s interesting because we’ve been a four-piece for over 15 years now and it’s interesting how you settle into your roles. Everybody has a tremendous amount of respect to what everybody brings to the table. And not everybody has to be interested in the same thing.

 

AP: Do you pay attention to critics and reviews of your albums?

 

Hale: We pay attention to critics and reviews, but we’ve never paid any mind to what people think of us. I think that comes with literally growing up on the stage. Since we were 13 we were performing.

 

Hottinger: Like the first record came out and nobody really cared and the only thing you’d see about us was positive things ’cause people would take the time because they were excited.

 

Hale: We always said once people started hating on us, then we’ve got it.

 

Hottinger: You can’t make everyone happy and we’re not going to. I think it’s great actually when you get some of the good, creative criticism.

 

Hale: We’ve always been our biggest critics and like any obstacle that is in front of us or judgment that’s in front of us, we usually put it there.

 

AP: That feels like a theme throughout the album, especially on songs like “Uncomfortable,” of being unapologetic.

 

Hale: I was trying to figure out how to be OK with not being the person that makes everybody happy. And writing an album and moving this band forward specifically for myself and my bandmates and not for anybody else. So it came through very honestly in the lyrics.

 

AP: By touring with other female-fronted rock bands, did you hope to change perceptions about what rock fans will pay to see?

 

Hale: Halfway through this tour we realized the audience is no longer 60/40 male to female, which is usually kinda what happens at a rock show. It’s either 50/50 or it’s completely turned on its head. So we’re seeing this kind of sea of girls that are like us. We’re kind of proving on this tour that this heavy music is genderless.

 

Hottinger: You look at the crowd and there’s these girls that are like embracing these traditionally masculine moments, like heavy moments or these screams, and these girls are loving it. And you realize these are just rock ‘n’ roll moments and there’s no gender.

 

Hale: I think the goal with this next leg is to really show these girls that this is a place for you.
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Egyptian Art School Helps Poor Children Swing into a Better Future

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Underprivileged children in an ancient neighborhood in Cairo are getting the chance to trapeze into a brighter future.

The al-Darb al-Ahmar arts school, named after the more than 700-year-old neighborhood where it is located, hopes that teaching children performing and circus arts they will also learn valuable life skills.

The area has long been known for its mosques from the Fatimid and Mamluk eras of 1,000-or-so years ago, and in more recent years unofficial settlements have taken root, with many small workshops and factories that are often dependent on child labor.

Dozens of children have enrolled since the school opened in 2012, performing locally and in festivals around the country, and some going on to pursue a career in the performing arts, said Adel al-Bahdaly, a coach at the school.

The children learn to sing, act, and play music, but for 14-year-old Atoota, a student at the school for the past six years, there was more to take away than dance routines.

“I benefited a lot. I learned how not to be shy around people, and to have the confidence to speak to them and share ideas,” she said.
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Toronto Film Fest Lineup Includes ‘Star is Born,’ ‘Widows’

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Films starring Timothee Chalamet and Hugh Jackman as well as Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut “A Star Is Born” with Lady Gaga are among the selections announced Tuesday for this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

 

“Beautiful Boy” stars Chalamet and Steve Carell and will be one of several films having their world premiere at the festival, a launching pad for Hollywood’s awards season.

 

Other world premieres include “The Front Runner” starring Jackman as former presidential candidate Gary Hart, “Life Itself” from “This Is Us” creator Dan Fogelman, the police shooting drama “The Hate U Give” and Steve McQueen’s “Widows.”

 

Tuesday’s announcement was scaled back and handled by press release because of Sunday’s attack in Toronto’s lively Greektown neighborhood left two people and a gunman dead. Among the 47 films announced, 13 are directed by women.

 

Chalamet, an Oscar nominee for last year’s “Call Me By Your Name,” plays a meth addict whose recovery is seen through the eyes of his father, played by Carell. “The Front Runner,” from director Jason Reitman, chronicles Hart’s rise and fall as the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee after his extramarital affair became tabloid fodder and a national scandal.

 

Other notable films screening at the festival include the Neil Armstrong film “First Man,” which stars Ryan Gosling as the astronaut. It is directed by Damien Chazelle and is his first film since the Oscar darling “La La Land.” Barry Jenkins’ “If Beale Street Could Talk,” based on a novel by James Baldwin, will also premiere at the festival. “Moonlight” beat out “La La Land” for best picture at the 2017 Academy Awards.

 

The festival’s opening film will be “Mouthpiece” from Canadian director Patricia Rozema. The closing film will be Cannes Film Festival winner “Shoplifters” from Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda.

 

The 43rd annual festival will run from Sept. 6-16.
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Global Gaming Enters New Era With E-Sports Stadiums

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Video games are so popular that one US company is betting that it can lure players to leave the comforts of gaming at home and travel to local arenas to play for bragging rights and maybe even some cash. Michelle Quinn reports.
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Mexico, Latam Allies Commit to Free Trade Amid Trump Threats

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Led by Mexico, major Latin American nations pledged to deepen commercial and economic ties on Tuesday as they sought to counter the risk of a deepening trade war sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” policy.

Leaders of the Pacific Alliance and Mercosur trading blocs met in the Mexican resort city of Puerto Vallarta, seeking to present a united front against potential disruptions stemming from Trump’s threats to slap new tariffs on major markets.

“The aim was to strengthen the links between the two most important trade blocs in Latin America,” said outgoing Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, who has spent much of the past two years mired in trade negotiations with Trump.

“Today we’re sending the world a clear signal we’re moving onward with regional integration and free trade,” he added.

Later this week, top Mexican officials will renew talks with the Trump administration in Washington aimed at renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Mexico is heavily dependent on the United States as an export market and Trump’s threat to pull out of NAFTA have rattled investors and put pressure on the peso currency.

Pena Nieto said the Pacific Alliance, which comprises Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru, agreed with Mercosur – made up of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay – to explore new ways of cooperation to boost trade in areas of common interest.

The eight countries pledged to undertake a series of steps, including making goods trade easier, helping small and medium-sized firms do business internationally and boosting the knowledge-based economy, Pena Nieto told the summit.

Trump has slapped billions of dollars worth of duties on Chinese goods and is weighing fresh steps against auto imports.

Still, Jesus Seade, the incoming NAFTA negotiator of Mexico’s next president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, said on Tuesday he believed a new NAFTA deal would be reached in the next few months ahead of the talks in Washington.
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Ankara Rules Out Compliance with US Sanctions on Iran

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Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Tuesday ruled out his country’s compliance with U.S. sanctions on Iran, a move that threatens to exacerbate tensions between the NATO allies.

“We have told them we will not join these sanctions,” said Cavusoglu, referring to a meeting last Friday with senior U.S. officials in Ankara. “While we are explaining why we will not obey these sanctions, we have also expressed that we do not find these U.S. sanctions appropriate.”

Ankara strongly opposes U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to impose sanctions after pulling out of an international agreement with Iran on its nuclear energy program. Stringent sanctions are to start taking effect at the end of August, with measures against Iranian energy exports beginning in November.

Energy-hungry Turkey is heavily dependent on its Iranian neighbor for oil and natural gas, while Turkish businesses are eyeing Iran as an increasingly important market.

On Friday, Marshall Billingslea, assistant secretary of the Treasury for terrorist financing, visited Ankara to meet with Turkish officials and business representatives. Billingslea described the talks as “positive” and acknowledged the difficulties faced by Turkish companies, but warned, “The Treasury sanctions will be enforced very, very aggressively and very comprehensively.”

Washington says no to any waivers for countries trading with Iran, which puts it on a collision course with Ankara.

“We’ve seen this in the past. Turkey will not comply with U.S. sanctions. It will not stop importing Iranian gas and oil,” said Sinan Ulgen, head of the Istanbul-based Edam research institution. “Maybe the Turkish banks will be more careful because of what happened to Halkbank, but that’s about it.”

Earlier this year, a New York court convicted a senior executive of the Turkish state-controlled Halkbank for violations of previous U.S. sanctions on Iran. Analysts suggest the conviction will result in Turkish banks being reluctant to offer services to Turkish companies operating in the Islamic Republic. The Halkbank conviction also provides Washington powerful leverage over Ankara.

“The Halkbank case is still open. The Treasury still has to decide on what kind of fine to impose,” said analyst Atilla Yesilada of GlobalSource Partners. “I hear it will receive some kind of fine, from $1 billion to $10 or 11 billion. I think what kind of opinion is formed about [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan and whether he can be won back to the Western camp will affect the size of that fine.”

Analysts warn that hefty fines by U.S. authorities could also hit other Turkish banks implicated in the Halkbank case.

Iran, Russia

Turkey’s deepening relations with both Iran and Russia have strained ties with its Western allies. On Monday, the U.S. Congress delayed the delivery of F-35 jets to Turkey because of Ankara’s plans to purchase S-400 Russian missiles.

Ankara maintains that it is committed to its strategic alliances with the West, claiming trade motivates ties with Tehran and Moscow along with the need to cooperate to resolve the Syrian civil war.

Ilnur Cevik, a senior adviser to Erdogan, penned a column Monday, citing growing concerns over Iran. Cevik accused Tehran of a lack of gratitude over Ankara’s stance in breaking previous U.S.-Iranian sanctions.

“Turkish goodwill and friendship were not reciprocated by Tehran. As soon as the Iranians signed the nuclear deal with the West, they turned their backs on Ankara and started to hurt Turkish interests. Turkish companies were unable to win contracts in Iran,” wrote Cevik in the Turkish Sabah newspaper.

Cevik also warned of the threat posed by Tehran. “There is also Iran displaying Persian expansionist policies throughout the Middle East,” Cevik wrote.

Turkey and Iran historically are regional rivals. They back opposing sides in the Syrian war. Ankara is also privately voicing frustration over Tehran’s lack of cooperation in fighting the Kurdish insurgent group, PKK.

The PKK has been waging a decades-long battle for autonomy in Turkey and has its headquarters in neighboring Iraq, close to the Iranian border. A senior Turkish official, speaking anonymously, acknowledged that an ongoing military operation to seize the PKK headquarters is undermined by Tehran’s refusal to seal its border to prevent the rebels from escaping.

“Iran is definitely a regional competitor of Turkey, no doubt about that, whether it’s PKK or in the case of many other points,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci at Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.

Bagci suggests Ankara could be more flexible toward Washington over Iranian sanctions if Washington changes its approach.

“America unconditionally expects from Turkey that Turkey follows the line on its sanctions. Turkey cannot do this. It is economic suicide. If Turkey would follow the America policy, America should contribute to the economic losses of Turkey,” Bagci said.
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Ivanka Trump to Shutter Fashion Line, Focus on Government

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U.S. President Donald Trump’s oldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, is closing her fashion line to focus her energies on advising her father’s White House, she said through a representative on Tuesday.

Trump, whose fortune comes from real estate development, came into office carrying a broad family business portfolio that trades heavily on the family name.

The president has made regular visits to Trump-branded properties during his time in office, prompting some critics to complain that he is using the profile of his office to promote his private businesses.

“After seventeen months, without a time frame for her return, Ivanka made the difficult decision that to be fair to the brand’s partners and its employees, the business should be wound down,” a representative for Ivanka Trump’s fashion line said in a statement on Tuesday.

The company said licensing contracts would not be renewed and those in place will be allowed to run their course.

Trump’s combative style on the campaign trail and as president have drawn the family’s brands into political fights, with some supporters hosting events at the luxury Trump International Hotel blocks from the White House while opponents have called for boycotts of the family’s businesses.

In early 2017 retailers including Nordstrom Inc, Sears Holdings Corp and Kmart dropped or sharply scaled back their assortment of Trump-branded products, though they typically attributed those decisions to poor sales rather than political messages.

Ivanka Trump’s brand said in a statement that retailers including Bloomingdale’s, owned by Macy’s Inc, Dillard’s and Amazon.com continued to carry her wares.

 
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Trump, Mexico Expect Progress in Stalled NAFTA Talks

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U.S. President Donald Trump spoke warmly of Mexico’s incoming leftist president on Monday, saying he expected to get “something worked out” on NAFTA, while a top Mexican official said there was scope to revive the trade talks this week.

“We’re talking to Mexico on NAFTA, and I think we’re going to have something worked out. The new president, terrific person,” Trump said in a speech at the White House about American manufacturing.

“We’re talking to them about doing something very dramatic, very positive for both countries, he said, without giving more details.

Talks to reshape the 1994 trade accord have been underway since last August. But they stalled in the run-up to the July 1 presidential election in Mexico, which produced a landslide victory for veteran leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The United States, Mexico and Canada have been at odds over U.S. demands to impose tougher content rules for the auto industry, as well as several other proposals, including one that would kill NAFTA after five years if it is not renegotiated.

Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo, who last week expressed hope an agreement in principle on NAFTA could be reached by the end of August, is due to hold talks with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer at the end of the week in Washington.

He will be accompanied by Jesus Seade, the designated chief NAFTA negotiator of the incoming Mexican administration.

“There’s clearly a window of opportunity to be able to bed down a series of open issues which are not numerous, but are very complex,” Guajardo said on the sidelines of a summit of the Pacific Alliance trade bloc in the western coastal city of Puerto Vallarta.

Guajardo is due to meet his Canadian counterpart Chrystia Freeland on Wednesday, also to discuss NAFTA.

After the election, top officials from both the outgoing and new Mexican governments met in Mexico City with senior Trump administration officials led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Seade said the visit had sent out “excellent” signals.

“We hope these signals translate into a willingness to move forward,” Seade told reporters in Puerto Vallarta.

The talks have been clouded by tit-for-tat measures over trade after the Trump administration slapped tariffs on U.S. steel and aluminum imports.

The United States is also exploring the possibility of imposing tariffs on auto imports, though Guajardo said it was too early to speculate on how that would play out.

Mexico’s foreign ministry said on Monday that South Korea had initiated the process of seeking associate membership in the Pacific Alliance, which comprises Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Peru and is seeking to deepen free trade.

Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Canada were last year admitted as associate members by the alliance. For Mexico, the expansion is part of a push to diversify its trading partners in the wake of Trump’s previous threats to pull out of NAFTA.

Guajardo indicated that despite his optimism about reaching a deal, risks still exist.

“The biggest risk is that instead of moving forward with an agenda of opening and integration, we move backwards, closing our economy and really undoing what we’ve built in the last two and a half decades,” Guajardo said.
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IMF: Venezuela’s Inflation on Track to Top 1 Million Percent

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Inflation in Venezuela could top 1 million percent by year’s end as the country’s historic crisis deepens, the International Monetary Fund said Monday.

Venezuela’s economic turmoil compares to Germany’s after World War I and Zimbabwe’s at the beginning of the last decade, said Alejandro Werner, head of the IMF’s Western Hemisphere department.

“The collapse in economic activity, hyperinflation, and increasing deterioration … will lead to intensifying spillover effects on neighboring countries,” Werner wrote in a blog post.

The once wealthy oil-producing nation of Venezuela is in the grips of a five-year crisis that leaves many of its people struggling to find food and medicine, while driving masses across the border for relief into neighboring Colombia and Brazil.

Shortages in electricity, domestic water and public transportation plague millions of Venezuelans, who also confront high crime, the IMF noted.

If the prediction holds, Venezuela’s economy will contract 50 percent over the last five years, Werner said, adding that it would be among the world’s deepest economic falls in six decades.

Socialist President Nicolas Maduro often blames Venezuela’s poor economy on an economic war that he says is being waged by the United States and Europe.

Maduro won a second six-year term as president despite the deep economic and political problems in a May election that his leading challenger and many nations in the international community don’t recognize as legitimate.

The IMF estimates Venezuela’s economy could contract 18 percent this year, up from the 15 percent drop it predicted in April. This will be the third consecutive year of double-digit decline, the IMF said.

Werner said the projections are based on calculations prepared by IMF staff, but he warned that they have a degree of uncertainty greater than in other countries.

“An economy throwing you these numbers is very difficult to project,” Werner said at a news conference. “Any changes between now and December may include significant changes.”
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A Hurricane Sends Kenny Chesney on New Musical Mission

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At Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field this June, Kenny Chesney flew in a large group of VIP guests to visit with him before performing for some 55,000 fans. They weren’t music industry bigwigs.

 

They were school children and teachers from the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Hurricane Irma made landfall last year and caused massive destruction. And they also happened to be his neighbors on the island of St. John.

 

“I’ve spent the majority of my adult life walking those beaches and hanging out in those bars and writing songs,” Chesney, 50, recalled later in his manager’s office in Nashville, Tennessee. “All of a sudden, it was a place that was very beautiful and that was very broken.”

 

St. John was among several Caribbean islands hit last September by the most powerful hurricane to develop over the open Atlantic. Throughout the Caribbean, the Category 5 storm knocked out power and cell phone towers for weeks or months, damaged roads, airports and hospitals and smashed up boats, businesses and homes.

 

Chesney was not on the island, but he opened his home there to friends and neighbors so they could ride out the storm. They survived, but his home was destroyed.

 

“I could hear the anxiety and the stress on everyone,” Chesney said. “The people that actually rode the storm out in the bottom of my home, I was able to get them off the island a couple of weeks after the storm. And you know when they got to my home, they were wearing the same clothes they had on that morning (of the storm).”

 

Immediately after the storm hit, he wrote the title track of his new album, “Songs for the Saints,” out Friday.

 

“I was writing the songs as a lot of the destruction and devastation was happening,” Chesney said. “I’ve never made a record like that in the middle of such anxiety.”

 

Although born in landlocked East Tennessee, Chesney has become an islander at heart. On St. John, he made friends and enjoyed the peace and isolation away from the demands of his superstar life. There were years where he’d step off a tour bus and head straight for a boat.

 

“The people that I met there didn’t care what I did,” Chesney said. “They had no idea. It was great.”

 

He turned that island lifestyle into his brand and the loyal No Shoes Nation that pack out stadiums. The island had fed his human spirit and his creative side as a songwriter, but now he had his chance to give back.

 

Within days, Chesney set up a foundation called Love for Love City, also the title of the second song he wrote after the storm. He helped bring in medical supplies and equipment, had crews clear out debris and rescue pets and bought new musical instruments for the St. John School of the Arts.

“Not many people know what Kenny has done and is still doing for the rebuilding efforts in the Virgin Islands,” said his friend and country star Eric Church. “It’s a place that is a part of his DNA, of his story. It tells you the kind of person he is and how big his heart is to see him helping in this way.”

 

Chesney was also in the midst of working on a new record deal with Warner Music Nashville, making his move from Sony after more than two decades. He called up John Esposito, the chairman of Warner Music Nashville, and told him he was ready to work with Warner, but he had a caveat.

 

“He says, ‘The first record I’m doing is a charity record,'” Esposito said.

 

Esposito absolutely agreed that proceeds of the record should go to the foundation, but beyond that Esposito said the record is just a great album.

 

“I’ve actually listened to this album 250 times and not only am I never bored with it, I hear something else unveiled with every listen,” Esposito said.

 

The album has already produced Chesney’s 30th No. 1 single, “Get Along,” making him the artist with the most songs to top Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, surpassing Tim McGraw, Alan Jackson and George Strait.

 

On the title track, Chesney’s vocals take center stage at the beginning with an acoustic guitar and a single drum beat, as he sings that “God lifted these islands from the ocean.” On “Love for Love City,” Chesney adds delicate steel drums and Ziggy Marley to the loping, reggae-inspired song in which he promises to be a part of the island’s encore.

 

The songs aren’t sad odes to what was lost, but reflective of the grit and hope necessary to keep going. At the end of the album, Chesney covers a song called “Better Boat,” written by Travis Meadows and Liz Rose, which is a poignant description of the struggle of personal recovery.

 

Others like “Trying to Reason (With Hurricane Season),” a duet between Chesney and Jimmy Buffet, who wrote the song, are more lighthearted. Mac McAnally, an acclaimed guitarist and songwriter who worked on the record, said that Chesney kept the instrumentation to a minimum to keep the focus on the lyrics.

 

“That kind of framework lets you be a little more contemplative as you listen,” McAnally said. “A song that’s got some depth to it benefits from being listened to a little quieter.”

 

In February, Chesney visited students and their teachers at St. John School for the Arts after donating new instruments and he talked to them about life post-Irma.

 

“It was a really emotional day when we went there, just to see the look on their faces when you give them a guitar or a steel drum,” Chesney said. “You never know what one of those guitars will do. I know what one guitar did for me.”

 

There’s still a pressing need for help in the islands as hurricane season starts anew this year. Chesney, who says he is a firm believer in global warming, predicts that the catastrophic storms will continue to be a threat to the Caribbean as well as the United States. He’d like the foundation to help build up the infrastructure of the islands, possibly even opening a hospital on St. John and improving schools.

 

Chesney isn’t always comfortable talking about his philanthropy and he’s quick to point out that many people have been helping with hurricane recovery. But he does know how his music can affect people, which is why he considers this album among the best of his career.

 

“If you believe music heals and rebuilds the human spirit, this has the potential to be one of the most important albums I’ve made,” Chesney said.
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From Dumbo to Mr. Toad, Disneyland Collection Goes Up for Auction

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For years, Dumbo the Flying Elephant hung from his living room ceiling, a Mr. Toad Wild Ride car was parked in his library and Bashful’s cart from Snow White’s Scary Adventures sat on his front lawn in suburban California.

Now collector Richard Kraft is selling off his 750-item collection of theme park vehicles, props and artifacts spanning six decades of Disneyland history.

Kraft, a Hollywood agent, began his collection 25 years ago, spurred by nostalgia for his visits with his late brother to Disneyland in southern California.

Van Eaton Galleries in Los Angeles said the result was an extraordinary array of Disneyland memorabilia.

“Through Richard’s passion for the park and his love for his brother and family, he has amassed a collection that is unequaled,” co-founder Mike Van Eaton said.

Such is its scale that hundreds of the items are being displayed for a month at a free public exhibition called “That’s From Disneyland” at a 20,000 sq. ft. (18,500 sq. meters) abandoned store in suburban Los Angeles ahead of the auction on Aug. 25 and 26.

Visitors will be able to dance along with six singing animatronic dolls from It’s a Small World, or board one of the pirate ships from Peter Pan’s Flight.

“Real artisans made this and I love putting it in an exhibit setting so it could be admired differently. You never actually see this stuff up close and personal the way you would see it in this exhibit,” Kraft said.

“We had Dumbo hanging in the living room of our house – 800 pounds (360 kg.) of elephant hanging over people’s heads,” Kraft said. “We used to decorate Dumbo for Christmas.”

The Dumbo the Flying Elephant vehicle is expected to be among the top sellers with an estimate of $100,000-$150,000, while a Peter Pan’s pirate ship vehicle is seen fetching $75,000-$100,000.

Other artifacts include a Disneyland ticket booth, an animatronic singing bird from the Enchanted Tiki Room, as well as original drawings, concept sketches and posters from the 63-year-old theme park.

Kraft intends to donate a portion of the proceeds to two organizations benefiting children who, like his four-year-old daughter Daisy, suffer from the rare genetic disorder Coffin-Siris Syndrome, and other special needs.

“She’s in a special school program that is so underfunded. This collection I’ve had for all these years can be put to good use in helping kids and people with disabilities,” he said.
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Ink And Needles: New York Holds Its Annual Tattoo Expo

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It was three days of needles, containers of ink and thousands of striking designs that attracted hordes of tattoo enthusiasts and artists to New York’s annual Empire State Tattoo Expo (held July 15-18). The action took place in a mid-town hotel in Manhattan, and VOA’s Elena Wolf was there. Robert Raffaele narrates her story.
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Pakistani Engineering Students Develop Filtration Device To Create Clean, Safe, Water

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Access to clean and drinkable water is challenging for residents in Lahore because the tap water in many parts of the Pakistani city is polluted. A team of engineering students is working hard to create an affordable filtration system so every home can have safe water. VOA’s Saman Khan visited their lab and filed this report. Miguel Amaya narrates.
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Trump Reviews ‘Made in America’ Products at White House

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Checking out a speedboat, a fighter jet and a giant industrial magnet parked on the White House driveway, President Donald Trump showcased an array of “Made in America” products Monday as his administration pushes back aggressively against critics who say his punishing tariffs on imported goods threaten to harm the U.S. economy.

Trump’s event with a smorgasbord of American goods came at the start of a week in which trade discussions are expected to dominate, including talks with European officials and a trip to Illinois in which the president is planning to visit a community helped along by his steel tariffs.

Trump has vowed to force international trading partners to bend to his will as he seeks to renegotiate a series of trade deals he has long argued hurt American workers. But as he deepens the U.S. involvement in trade fights, it raises questions on whether American consumers will feel the pain of retaliatory tariffs — and whether the president will incur a political price for his nationalistic trade policies in the 2018 midterm elections.

“Our leaders in Washington did nothing, they did nothing. They let our factories leave, they let our people lose their jobs,” Trump said at the White House. “That’s not free trade, that’s fool’s trade, that’s stupid trade and we don’t do that kind of trade anymore.”

Trump noted that he would be meeting Wednesday with European officials, including European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. The U.S. and European allies have been at odds over the president’s tariffs on steel imports and are meeting as the dispute threatens to spread to the lucrative automobile business. “Maybe we can work something out,” he said.

On Thursday, the president will visit Granite City, Illinois, the home of a U.S. Steel Corp. mill that has reopened after he imposed tariffs on steel imports.

On the South Lawn, the president walked among a number of products manufactured across the nation, including a Lockheed Martin F-35 aircraft from Maryland, a Ford F-150 pickup truck from Michigan, a Newmar recreational vehicle from Indiana and a Ranger speedboat from Arkansas.

National security

Trump has already put taxes on imported steel and aluminum, saying they pose a threat to U.S. national security, an argument that enrages staunch U.S. allies such as the European Union and Canada.

He’s threatening to use the national security justification again to slap tariffs on imported cars, trucks and auto parts, potentially targeting imports that last year totaled $335 billion.

And he’s already imposed tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese imports in a separate dispute over Beijing’s high-tech industrial policies. He has threatened to ratchet that up past $500 billion.

“He likes tariffs,” said William Reinsch, a former U.S. trade official under President Bill Clinton now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “His preferred remedy is always tariffs, whether it makes any sense or not.”

“It’s a policy of victimization: ‘Other people have been taking advantage of the United States for years. … Now they have to pay,”‘ Reinsch said, echoing the president’s argument.

Trade analysts say the United States has not pursued such aggressive trade policies in decades.

“I can’t think of another time when you had as many battles and, particularly, as many battles with no resolution in sight,” said Edward Alden, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Trade war

In 1971, President Richard Nixon imposed a broad 10 percent import tax for four months to pressure Japan and European countries to drive up the value of their currencies. The idea: provide relief to American exporters, who were being put at a price disadvantage by a strong dollar.

In 1930, the U.S. raised tariffs dramatically to protect American industry, encouraging other countries to do the same in a global trade war that made the Great Depression worse.

Economists said the tariffs that Trump has imposed so far — and the resulting retaliation — are unlikely to do much economic damage. But things could escalate rapidly.

“If you look at what’s teed up, particularly with China and with the auto tariffs, pretty soon you are talking about some pretty large numbers. Those will do some real damage,” Alden said.

Oxford Economics has calculated that a full-blown U.S.-China trade war — in which each country taxes all the other’s imports — would shave 1 percent off the U.S. economy and wipe out 700,000 jobs in the United States by 2020.

The Peterson Institute for International Economics has estimated that a trade war over autos could cost up to 1.2 million American jobs.

Critics said Trump’s aggressive approach makes it tough for other countries to offer concessions, lest they be seen by their own people as caving in to bullying.

“The Trump administration has not left an easy path to walk away from the fights they’ve created,” Alden said.
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Gala Opens Countdown to 50th Anniversary of 1st Moon Landing

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Former NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin was noticeably absent from a gala kicking off a yearlong celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing, even though his nonprofit space education foundation is a sponsor and he typically is the star attraction.

Aldrin said he didn’t attend because of objections over the foundation’s current aims and ongoing legal matters associated with the foundation. The former astronaut is locked in a legal battle with family members who say he is suffering from mental decline.

The black-tie Apollo Celebration Gala was held Saturday under a Saturn V rocket at the Kennedy Space Center, featured a panel discussion by astronauts, an awards ceremony, and an auction of space memorabilia.

Hundreds of people attended the sold-out event, including British physicist Brian Cox, who presented Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson with the ShareSpace Foundation’s Innovation award.

Branson, whose company is developing a new generation of commercial spacecraft, said in a recorded video that the Apollo missions influenced his generation.

“Space is still hard, really hard. It still really matters,” Branson said. “There would be no Virgin Galactic, no Virgin Orbit and no spaceship company had it not been for Apollo astronauts and the thousands of talented people who made their mission possible.”

Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins took part in the historic Apollo 11 mission, landing the first two humans on the moon on July 20, 1969. Armstrong was first to walk on the moon, joined soon after by Aldrin while Collins remained in orbit aboard the command module.

Dr. Carolyn Williams of the nonprofit From One Hand To AnOTHER received the foundation’s Education award, and former Johnson Space Center director Gerry Griffin, a flight director for all of the crewed Apollo missions, was honored with the Pioneer award.

“It’s very humbling, it kind of came out of the blue,” Griffin said. “It is so neat to know that we’ve passed the torch that will let this next generation take us to this next step.”

That next step, Griffin said, is a return of Americans to the moon and, eventually, Mars — something former Apollo astronauts Walt Cunningham, Harrison Schmitt, Rusty Schweickart and Tom Stafford discussed during a conversation with Cox.

“We’re sort of going through a second door here. The door isn’t all the way open — we haven’t gone all the way through it — but it’s cracked open,” Schweickart, who flew as the lunar module pilot on Apollo 9, told The Associated Press. “Space is going to be much less expensive to go to, and that’s going to open up not just opportunities for people to fly, but because of the decreased cost, real opportunities for innovators to generate new ideas and to do things that have never been done before.”

Aldrin’s ShareSpace Foundation is one of the sponsors of the annual gala, which raises money for Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics — or STEAM education — and Astronaut Scholarship Foundation scholarships.

Renowned Brazilian pop artist Romero Britto donated artwork from his “Buzz Aldrin Space Series” for the auction, which also included a behind-the-scenes tour of Virgin Galactic in California and autographed space memorabilia. Tickets for the event ranged from $750 to $2,500 per person.

​Aldrin lawsuit

Aldrin sued two of his adult children and a former business manager last month, accusing them of misusing his credit cards, transferring money from an account and slandering him by saying he has dementia. Weeks before that, Andrew and Jan Aldrin filed a petition claiming their 88-year-old father was suffering from memory loss, delusions, paranoia and confusion.

Andrew and Jan Aldrin and business manager Christina Korp are on the foundation’s board and attended the gala. Aldrin’s oldest son, James, isn’t involved in the legal fight.

Buzz Aldrin said in a statement that he didn’t attend “due to the present course of events related to my space initiatives, also current legal matters linked to the ShareSpace Foundation.”

“I formed ShareSpace Foundation in 1998 for the promotion of individual space voyagers,” Aldrin added. “The Foundation is, in my view, now being used to promote quite different objectives.”

Andrew Aldrin acknowledged his father’s absence during the gala.

“We’re sorry Dad can’t be here, I know some of you are disappointed,” Aldrin said. “Ultimately, what we’re about is creating the first generation of Martians.”
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Bowie’s First Recording to Go on Auction

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The first-known recording by David Bowie, when he was the 16-year-old singer of a band called The Konrads, is going up for auction.

Omega Auctions in northwestern England said Monday that the reel tape would go on sale Sept. 11, with an expected price of 10,000 pounds ($13,100).

The song, “I Never Dreamed,” was recorded in a studio in 1963 when The Konrads asked Bowie, then known by his given name David Jones, to sing lead vocals.

A harmonious rock ‘n’ roll song in the vein of classic Beatles, “I Never Dreamed” was submitted to record label Decca in an unsuccessful bid for a recording contract.

Konrads drummer David Hadfield said he had “decided that David was the best person to sing it and give the right interpretation. So this became the very first recording of David Jones (Bowie) singing 55 years ago!” he said in a statement.

The tape was recently discovered in a loft, the auction house said.

Bowie left The Konrads shortly afterward and did not achieve stardom until six years later when, already a solo artist, he released “Space Oddity” about the fictional astronaut Major Tom.

Bowie earned a reputation as one of the most innovative voices in rock over a half-century career that experimented with soul, disco, jazz and ambient music.

He died in 2016 from an undisclosed battle with cancer, two days after releasing his final album on his 69th birthday.
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China Pivots to Europe for Technology Transfers

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Amid escalating trade friction with the United States, China appears to be courting Europe to fill the gaps in providing opportunities for technology transfers. Analysts, however, are urging Europe to be wary in its dealings with China. They say it will be political and economically unwise for Europe to take advantage of the Sino-U.S. dispute and allow China to continue unfair trade practices that include forced tech transfers and intellectual property theft.

 

The U.S. has accused China of using “state-led efforts to force, strong-arm and even steal U.S. technology and intellectual property.”

Rob Atkinson, who heads the Washington, D.C.-based Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF), says Europe should stop cutting deals with China that he says will offset the Trump administration’s efforts to punish Beijing.

In early July, the U.S. launched a first round of tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods. China’s tariffs on $34 billion of U.S. imports, including soybeans, also took effect at the same time. U.S. President Donald Trump last week vowed to impose tariffs on all $505 billion worth of Chinese imports. China has vowed to retaliate if the U.S. slaps more tariffs on Chinese goods in the coming months.

The U.S. and China are the world’s two biggest economies.

Made in China 2025

 

China’s tech ambition, unveiled in its “Made in China 2025” program, is believed to be at the core of its trade war with the U.S.

To avoid upsetting Washington, China has downplayed the initiative, which was first introduced in 2015 with the goal of comprehensively upgrading China’s high-tech industries at home. A recent official report, however, concluded that China is still far from being a global tech leader.

According to the South China Morning Post, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently learned that 30 of the country’s largest conglomerates rely heavily on imported components used in industries that produce rockets, large aircraft and even automobiles.

Exaggerated tech prowess

“The Chinese leadership wants to have it both ways. They want to tell their domestic population that they are [tech] leaders and they want to tell the rest of the world that they are not because they are afraid that, if they are seen as really big technology leaders or close to leaders, other countries will more actively push back against its unfair trade practices,” ITIF’s Atkinson said.  

Chris Dong, director of China research at market intelligence firm IDC, called the tech gaps between the two economies “significant” in not only components, but also innovation competency, fundamental engineering and business-sector transformations. Dong says China focuses its IT spending on hardware and infrastructure buildouts while the U.S. spends mostly on software and service in transforming digital technology.  

“The prosperity of China’s Internet economy, fueled by vast consumer technology adoptions, abundant capitals, and government’s policy and financial support, should not mislead domestic perception away from the true fact that China has an overall growing but weak technology strength,” Dong said in an email to VOA.

Forced tech transfer to continue

The U.S. boycott, however, is unlikely to stop China from advancing technological developments, according to an industry insider.

“China for sure will continue its technology development regardless, if [the U.S.] has turned hostile. We still hope to seek cooperation, whether it is cooperation between China and the U.S. or Europe. Collaboration will lead to a win-win situation,” the insider said on condition of anonymity.

“China still keeps a certain level of R&D capacity. [The trade dispute] will only slow down its pace of catching up. The U.S. is unfriendly now. But Europe still looks friendly. China may turn to Europe for [coveted] tech transfer as long as Europe isn’t as hostile as the U.S.,” said Kuo-yuan Liang, president of Taiwan-based Yuanta-Polaris Research Institute.

The economist said he expects China to continue its forced technology transfer practices from foreign investors to Chinese operations, using its market access as an incentive to achieve its technological goal.

Recent statistics released by the Baker McKenzie and Rhodium Groups also supported the trend.

China’s pivot to Europe

The firms’ research found that the value of China’s merger and acquisition activities in Europe reached $22 billion in the first half of this year – nine times of that in North America during the same period.

Adam Dunnett, secretary-general of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, believed the sharp ratio has more to do with a decrease in capital flows to the U.S. than an increase into the EU.  

 

He added that investment intended to acquire technology isn’t problematic, but that what is at issue is the degree of state involvement and the true motivation behind certain investments.

 

“If these decisions are demonstrably driven by market forces, then Europe welcomes them; however, due to the lack of transparency of many Chinese investments, even perfectly legitimate capital flows are increasingly being scrutinized,” Dunnett wrote in an email to VOA.

 

He added that European businesses shared similar concerns with the U.S. about China’s “market-distorting actions” including forced tech transfer and infringements of intellectual property rights.

 

“China has …taken some action to improve the situation, but the overall actual impact has been very limited. Tensions will remain, and potentially worsen, until results are felt by international firms on the ground,” he concluded.

 
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Wall Street Lower as Amazon, Technology Stocks Drag

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U.S. stock indexes dipped on Monday, led by losses in shares of Amazon and technology companies, as investors awaited quarterly reports from a host of marquee names to gauge the impact of an escalating trade conflict between the United States and China.

Amazon.com slipped 1.4 percent and was the biggest drag on the benchmark S&P 500 and the Nasdaq after U.S. President Donald Trump renewed his attacks on the online giant.

The S&P information technology sector fell 0.55 percent. Apple was down 0.83 percent, while Google-parent Alphabet dipped 0.4 ahead of results after markets close.

A drop in shares of chipmakers such as Intel, Nvidia, Micron also pressured the index, the biggest decliners among the 11 main S&P sectors.

Investors are also worried that the U.S.-Sino trade war could spill over to the currency markets. Trump has criticized the dollar’s strength, while accusing China of manipulating the yuan, which Beijing has denied.

“We have a whole plate of issues for investors to deal with, including currency manipulation, which is going to tie into the trade war,” said Andre Bakhos, managing director at New Vines Capital LLC in Bernardsville, New Jersey.

“Investors are waiting for more earnings news to create a convincing direction for the market.”

About 180 S&P companies, including Ford Motor, 3M Co and Boeing, as well as a host of high-flying technology names such as Facebook, Twitter and Intel will report later in the week.

Second-quarter earnings season has been healthy so far, with analysts’ profit growth forecast now at 22 percent, up from 20.7 percent on July 1, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Hasbro rose 11.1 percent, the most on the benchmark S&P 500, after the toymaker’s quarterly revenue and profit topped analysts’ estimates.

At 9:57 a.m. EDT the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 27.15 points, or 0.11 percent, at 25,030.97, the S&P 500 was down 4.76 points, or 0.17 percent, at 2,797.07 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 40.45 points, or 0.52 percent, at 7,779.75.

Investors are also tracking the bond market, where yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury note hit a one-month high of 2.90 percent.

The financial sector rose 0.81 percent, the most among the three S&P sectors trading higher.

Among stocks, shares of Illinois Tool Works dropped 6.9 percent after the industrial company cut its full-year profit forecast and margins forecast, blaming the strong dollar.

Tesla’s shares fell 5.2 percent after a report that the electric car maker has turned to some suppliers for a refund of previously made payments in a bid to turn a profit.

Hospital operator LifePoint Health surged 33.8 percent on agreeing to be bought by Apollo Global Management LLC in a deal valued at about $5.6 billion.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.56-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and for a 1.63-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 10 new 52-week highs and three new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 40 new highs and 25 new lows.
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