Harris to release new economic proposals this week on US wealth creation

Harris to release new economic proposals this week on US wealth creation
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris walks over to speak to members of the media upon her arrival at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, on September 22, 2024. (Pool via REUTERS)
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Updated 23 September 2024
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Harris to release new economic proposals this week on US wealth creation

Harris to release new economic proposals this week on US wealth creation
  • Harris said she would outline her vision for the economy in a speech this week
  • The plan is about investing in the aspirations and ambitions of the American people while addressing the challenges they face

WASHINGTON: US Vice President Kamala Harris plans to roll out a new set of economic policies this week that aim to help Americans build wealth and set economic incentives for businesses to aid that goal, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.
The new policies, which have not been previously reported and could be announced in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, come as undecided voters continue to ask for more information about how Harris would help them economically if she were elected president in November, including those in critical swing states, the sources said.
Harris, speaking to reporters on Sunday after Reuters reported the expected rollout, said she would outline her vision for the economy in a speech this week.
She added that the plan is about investing in the aspirations and ambitions of the American people while addressing the challenges they face.
The rollout would follow heated debate in Democratic circles over whether releasing more economic policies so close to election day is a smart strategy.
“It’s not just about affordability, it’s also about showing (voters) they have a path to building wealth,” said one of the sources with direct knowledge of Harris’s economic plans, adding she wanted to show Americans how they can “get a foot in the door.”
None of the sources would provide specific details on the expected new policies, and the Harris campaign would not comment on any new proposals. However, Harris’ 2020 presidential run and President Joe Biden’s administration included plans with similar goals.
In her 2020 campaign, Harris proposed significant pay hikes for the millions of public school teachers, forcing companies to disclose their pay gap between men and women and penalizing those who are not narrowing it. The Biden and Harris administration have pushed to eliminate bias in home appraisals and use the over $700 billion federal contracting budget to buoy minority businesses.
Harris has released a basket of economic policies focused on the high cost of housing, taxes, small business expenses, childcare and goods. Her plans often build on Biden’s policies, like increasing the child tax credit and lifting the corporate tax rate to 28 percent.
Campaign spokesman James Singer did not comment on the story. He told Reuters that Harris “will continue to present her opportunity economy agenda to lower costs, make housing more affordable, and spur economic growth across America.”
Releasing new economic policy with less than 50 days left in a tight presidential election race could mean the new measures never reach crucial voters, some advisers acknowledge.
“Typically you’d see a campaign wrap up persuading voters by September and move to mobilizing people but this is not a typical campaign,” said a source with knowledge of the new plans, referring to Harris’ jump to the top of the ticket in late July. “We have to continue persuading and mobilizing folks at the same time until the very end.”
Republican Donald Trump’s economic proposals aimed at working-class Americans include eliminating taxes on tips and Social Security benefits, opening up federal lands to housing construction and deporting millions of immigrants to the country who Republicans say are driving up costs.
The former president has also proposed new across-the-board tariffs on goods not made in the US that could raise costs for American consumers and inflation, but that is backed by a slim majority of voters.
Trump has tried to pin on Democrats inflation that popped globally as the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns eased and has made the still-high cost of groceries, particularly bacon, a rally speech staple. From 2019 to 2023, the food Consumer Price Index rose by 25 percent, the US Department of Agriculture reported.

Harris gains on economy
Republicans have traditionally polled better on the economy than Democrats, and Trump beat Biden and then Harris on the topic earlier this year.
Some polls, however, are shifting in her direction.
A Financial Times-Michigan Ross poll this month showed 44 percent of registered voters trusted Harris’ economic stewardship compared with 42 percent who backed Trump, and Reuters/IPSOS polling in August showed her narrowing the gap on the economy.
The Federal Reserve’s decision to cut interest rates by half a percentage point last week, reflecting the belief that inflation risks have fallen, could lower some costs for consumers.
Some Harris supporters have urged the campaign to double down on the economic message that is already out there instead of rolling out new ideas.
“My recommendation is to do more show-and-tells. Rather than address this with endless white papers, go to grocery stores and apartment buildings and more,” said Donna Brazile, a longtime Democratic strategist.
“Inflation may have gone down, but the cost of living hasn’t changed. Some of this is post pandemic and that still must be addressed,” she said.
Others believe more economic policy is not a priority. Adam Newar, a money manager and Harris donor said “it’s a character election” and not a policy election.
“I’m not sure what more policy information actually brings to the table. She really has to continue articulating a vision, communicate that vision to people who really feel like they’ve been left behind,” Newar said.
Many of Harris’ proposals would require congressional approval, and would be unlikely to pass unless Democrats win both the House and Senate.


Police violence probed after Amsterdam pro-Palestinian protest

Police violence probed after Amsterdam pro-Palestinian protest
Updated 8 sec ago
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Police violence probed after Amsterdam pro-Palestinian protest

Police violence probed after Amsterdam pro-Palestinian protest
  • Dutch police said Thursday that they have opened an inquiry into alleged police brutality during and after a banned pro-Palestinian protest in Amsterdam in which 281 demonstrators were detained
AMSTERDAM: Dutch police said Thursday that they have opened an inquiry into alleged police brutality during and after a banned pro-Palestinian protest in Amsterdam in which 281 demonstrators were detained.
Social media footage showed riot police shouting at protesters and hitting them with batons after they were released from a bus on the outskirts of the Dutch capital following Wednesday night’s protest.
Several hundred demonstrators, dressed in Palestinian scarfs and chanting slogans, gathered on the city’s famous Dam Square despite a ban following last week’s attacks on Israeli football fans.
The city did grant an exemption for a protest on Wednesday, but on the condition that it take place at the city’s Westergast terrain, outside of the center.
“Videos are circulating on social media showing members of the Mobile Unit (riot police) acting against protesters who have just been removed from a bus,” police said in a statement.
“These protesters were transported to this location after they were previously arrested on Dam Square for violating the emergency ordinance,” police said.
“The exact reason for the Mobile Unit’s action in this specific video fragment is being investigated,” police said, without specifying which footage they were referring to.
AFP reporters at the protest saw police dragging demonstrators to waiting buses, with some putting up heavy resistance.
The demonstration came almost a week after the attacks on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans after a football match with local club Ajax, when Israeli fans were chased and beaten up by men on scooters.
Five Maccabi fans were briefly hospitalized in what Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof called an incident of “unadulterated anti-Semitism,” after the attacks were sparked by calls on social media to single out Jews.
The attacks also sparked outrage in many Western capitals.
But Amsterdam authorities also reported incidents involving Maccabi fans before the match who were chanting anti-Arab slogans and burning a Palestinian flag.
The violence took place against the backdrop of an increasingly polarized Europe, with heightened tensions following a rise in anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli and Islamophobic attacks since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

Earth’s projected warming hasn’t improved for 3 years. UN climate talks are still pushing

Earth’s projected warming hasn’t improved for 3 years. UN climate talks are still pushing
Updated 8 min 14 sec ago
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Earth’s projected warming hasn’t improved for 3 years. UN climate talks are still pushing

Earth’s projected warming hasn’t improved for 3 years. UN climate talks are still pushing
  • The group also said that recent developments in China and the United States are likely to slightly worsen the outlook
  • They said Earth is on a path to be 2.7 degrees Celsius, or 4.9 Fahrenheit, warmer than pre-industrial times

BAKU: For the third straight year, efforts to fight climate change haven’t lowered projections for how hot the world is likely to get — even as countries gather for another round of talks to curb warming, according to an analysis Thursday.
At the United Nations climate talks, hosted in Baku, Azerbaijan, nations are trying to set new targets to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases and figure out how much rich nations will pay to help the world with that task.
But Earth remains on a path to be 2.7 degrees Celsius (4.9 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial times, according to Climate Action Tracker, a group of scientists and analysts who study government policies and translate that into projections of warming. Recent developments in China and the United States are likely to slightly worsen the outlook.
If emissions are still rising and temperature projections are no longer dropping, people should wonder if the United Nations climate negotiations — known as COP — are doing any good, said Climate Analytics CEO Bill Hare.
“There’s an awful lot going on that’s positive here, but on the big picture of actually getting stuff done to reduce emissions ... to me it feels broken,” Hare said.
Climate action is stifled by the biggest emitters
The world has already warmed 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times. That’s near the 1.5-degree (2.7 F) limit that countries agreed to at 2015 climate talks in Paris. Climate scientists say the atmospheric warming, mainly from human burning of fossil fuels, is causing ever more extreme and damaging weather including droughts, flooding and dangerous heat.
Climate Action Tracker does projections under several different scenarios, and in some cases, those are going up slightly.
“This is driven highly by China,” said Sofia Gonzales-Zuniga of Climate Analytics. Even though China’s fast-rising emissions are starting to plateau, they are peaking higher than anticipated, she said.
Another upcoming factor not yet in the calculations is the US elections. A Trump administration that rolls back the climate policies in the Inflation Reduction Act, and carries out the conservative blueprint Project 2025, would add 0.04 degree Celsius (0.07 Fahrenheit) to warming projections, Gonzales-Zuniga said. That’s not much, but it could be more if other nations use it as an excuse to do less, she said. And a reduction in American financial aid could also reverberate even more in future temperature outlooks.
“For the US it is going backwards,” said Hare. At least China has more of an optimistic future with a potential giant plunge in future emissions, he said.
“We should already be seeing (global) emissions going down” and they are not, Hare said. “The political system, politicians are not reacting. And I think that’s something that people everywhere should be worried about.”
Experts say $1 trillion is needed in climate cash for developing nations
The major battle in Baku is over how much rich nations will help poor countries to decarbonize their energy systems, cope with future harms of climate change and pay for damage from warming’s extreme weather. The old goal of $100 billion a year in aid is expiring and Baku’s main focus is coming up with a new, bigger figure.
A special independent group of experts commissioned by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued its own estimate of costs and finances on Thursday, calling for a tripling of the old commitment.
“Advanced economies need to demonstrate a credible commitment” to helping poor nations, the report said.
A coalition of developing nations at the Baku talks are asking for $1.3 trillion in annual climate finance. The independent experts’ report said about $1 trillion a year is needed by developing nations from all outside sources, not just government grants.
Negotiators are still working out how much money will be on the table for the final deal, but indications late Wednesday suggested many options were still on the table.
“Developing country needs are in the trillions and its clear such an amount can’t be provided from public funding, rather private investment has to be brought to the table,” said German climate envoy Jennifer Morgan. “All financial players need to do their part.”
COP29’s lead negotiator, Yalchin Rafiyev, called getting a deal on money for developing nations is “our top priority.”
The report detailed how expensive decarbonizing the world’s economy would be, how much it would cost and where the money could come from. Overall climate adaption spending for all countries is projected to reach $2.4 trillion a year.
It’s personal for many activists from the countries experiencing the worst and most immediate impacts of climate change, like Sandra Leticia Guzman Luna, who is from Mexico and is the director of the climate finance group for Latin America and the Caribbean. “We are observing the climate impacts causing a lot of costs, not only economic costs but also human losses,” she said.
“I’m from one of the countries that needs to pay up and is historically responsible,” said Bianca Castro, a climate activist from Portugal. “Year after year, we come to COP and we are heartbroken with what doesn’t happen but we know needs to happen.”
Fraught politics isolates some nations
Argentina withdrew from the climate talks on Wednesday on the orders of its president, climate skeptic Javier Milei, as first reported by Climatica. The Argentine government did not respond to requests from The Associated Press for comment.
Climate activists called the decision regrettable.
“It is largely symbolic and all it does is remove the country from critical conversations going on climate finance,” said Anabella Rosemberg, an Argentina native who works as a senior adviser at Climate Action Network International. “It’s difficult to understand how a climate-vulnerable country like Argentina would cut itself from critical support being negotiated here at COP29.”
At the same time, France’s environment minister, who was set to lead the delegation, pulled out of the talks after Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev called out France and the Netherlands for their colonial histories in a speech on Wednesday.
Agnès Pannier-Runacher called Aliyev’s remarks on France and Europe “unacceptable.” Speaking at the French Senate on Wednesday, Pannier-Runacher criticized Azerbaijan’s leader for using the fight against climate change “for a shameful personal agenda.”
“The direct attacks on our country, its institutions and its territories are unjustifiable,” she said, adding it was “ironic that Azerbaijan, a repressive regime, gives human rights lessons.”


Thousands flee as Typhoon Usagi hits north of Philippines

Thousands flee as Typhoon Usagi hits north of Philippines
Updated 14 November 2024
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Thousands flee as Typhoon Usagi hits north of Philippines

Thousands flee as Typhoon Usagi hits north of Philippines
  • The national weather agency had initially raised its highest storm alert, but downgraded to its second-highest as Usagi made landfall
  • More than 5,000 Cagayan residents were still in shelters following the previous storms

MANILA: Typhoon Usagi slammed into the Philippines’ already disaster-ravaged north on Thursday, as authorities rushed to evacuate thousands of people from coastal areas.
Usagi made landfall in the town of Baggao in Cagayan province at 0530 GMT with winds of 175 kilometers an hour, the national weather service said — the fifth storm to strike the country in just three weeks.
The brutal wave of weather disasters has already killed 159 people and prompted the United Nations to request $32.9 million in aid for the worst-affected regions.
The national weather agency had initially raised its highest storm alert, but downgraded to its second-highest as Usagi made landfall.
It said the winds could cause “considerable damage to structures of light materials,” moderate damage even to structures otherwise considered “low-risk,” and uproot large trees within the next 12 hours.
“Intense to torrential rain” and potentially “life-threatening” coastal waves of up to three meters (nine feet) were also forecast over two days.
President Ferdinand Marcos, visiting storm-affected areas to dole out emergency cash assistance, urged residents to comply with evacuation orders.
“We know that it is difficult to leave your homes and possessions, but sheltering could save lives,” he told residents of Mindoro island south of the capital Manila, according to an official transcript of his speech.
“While we cannot prevent typhoons from hitting the country, we can take steps to reduce their impact,” he said, calling for better infrastructure to cope with worsening storm effects he blamed on climate change.
In Cagayan, officials worked in driving rain Thursday to evacuate residents along the coasts and on the banks of already swollen rivers.
“Yesterday it was preemptive evacuations. Now we’re doing forced evacuations,” local disaster official Edward Gaspar said by phone hours before landfall, adding 1,404 residents were sheltering at a municipal gym.
“There are many more evacuees in nearby villages but we haven’t had time to visit and count them,” he added.
Cagayan’s civil defense chief Rueli Rapsing said he expected local governments to take 40,000 people to shelters, roughly the same number that were preemptively evacuated ahead of Typhoon Yinxing, which struck Cagayan’s north coast earlier this month.
More than 5,000 Cagayan residents were still in shelters following the previous storms because the Cagayan river, the country’s largest, remained swollen from heavy rain that fell in several provinces upstream.
“We expect this situation to persist over the next few days” as Usagi brings more rain, Rapsing said.
After Usagi, Tropical Storm Man-yi is also forecast to strike the Philippines’ population heartland around Manila this weekend.
A high-pressure area in southern Japan will cause the storm to follow a more southerly track than Usagi, the weather service said.
“Typhoons are overlapping. As soon as communities attempt to recover from the shock, the next tropical storm is already hitting them again,” UN Philippines Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Gustavo Gonzalez said.
“In this context, the response capacity gets exhausted and budgets depleted.”
A UN assessment of the past month’s weather disasters said 207,000 houses had been damaged or destroyed, and nearly 700,000 people were seeking temporary shelter.
Many families were without even essentials like sleeping mats, hygiene kits, and cooking supplies, and had limited access to safe drinking water, it said.
The storms destroyed thousands of hectares of farmland and persistent flooding is likely to delay replanting efforts and worsen food supply problems, the report added.
About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the archipelago nation or its surrounding waters each year, killing scores of people and keeping millions in enduring poverty.
A recent study showed that storms in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly forming closer to coastlines, intensifying more rapidly and lasting longer over land due to climate change.


Corruption overshadows Ukraine’s multi-billion reconstruction progam

Corruption overshadows Ukraine’s multi-billion reconstruction progam
Updated 14 November 2024
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Corruption overshadows Ukraine’s multi-billion reconstruction progam

Corruption overshadows Ukraine’s multi-billion reconstruction progam
  • Transparency International ranked Ukraine 104 out of 180 countries in its ‘corruption perceptions index,’ up from 144 in 2013

KYIV: When Bart Gruyaert agreed to help rebuild destroyed apartment blocks outside Kyiv, he hoped to be one cog in Ukraine’s vast reconstruction program, repairing just some of the damage wrought by Russia’s invasion.
But when the French company he works for, Neo-Eco, applied for building permits in the town of Gostomel, the local military administration asked the company to transfer the funds for the multimillion-dollar project to its bank account, under the pretense that it would run the project directly.
Officials told Gruyaert, “it’s better if you transfer the money you received to our account,” he recalled.
“But it doesn’t work like that,” he said.
The company refused, and progress on the initiative, which had secured €20 million in private funding, immediately slowed.
It marked the latest example of the endemic corruption that has plagued Ukraine since it became independent after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
After Neo-Eco’s refusal on the bank transfer, the local administration started dragging things out, adding new requirements to the contract and trying to incentivize the company to “give envelopes” to the right people, Gruyaert alleged.
The company reluctantly decided to abandon the project in September 2023, saying it was “impossible” to work under such conditions.
Following the saga, Ukrainian investigators said they had uncovered a system of “embezzlement” in the Gostomel military administration and accused its head Sergiy Borysiuk of appropriating around 21 million hryvnia ($470,000) meant for the reconstruction of houses and apartments.
In June 2023, after the allegations surfaced, Borysiuk was dismissed by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
He had pre-empted his removal with a press conference several days earlier in which he said he had done “everything possible” to ensure reconstruction efforts.
“It seems to me that you are looking for the enemy in the wrong place,” he said.
The case is far from isolated.
Even though Ukraine has stepped up its anti-graft measures over the past decade to advance its ambition of joining the European Union, corruption scandals are still rife.
Transparency International ranked Ukraine 104 out of 180 countries in its “corruption perceptions index,” up from 144 in 2013.
For some officials, Russia’s invasion has provided new opportunities for personal enrichment.
Several high-profile cases of alleged embezzlement of reconstruction funds, as well as the arrest of officials for selling army exemption certificates, have emerged throughout the war.
While a potential embarrassment for Ukraine, which relies on billions of dollars in Western financial support, Transparency International Ukraine’s director Andriy Borovyk said attention to the cases showed the problem was not being “forgotten.”
And authorities also tout the uncovering of such schemes as a sign of “effective” enforcement.
Just 10 years ago, “who could have thought that senior officials could be accused of crimes?” said Viktor Pavlushchyk, head of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention.
“Now we have some very good examples,” he said.
Around 500 corruption cases have been opened this year and 60 convictions secured, according to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau.
But there are lingering fears the persistent problem will hamper Ukraine’s massive reconstruction agenda, deterring international partners from putting up funds.
The total cost of reconstructing Ukraine stands is estimated at $486 billion, according to a joint study by the World Bank, UN, EU and Ukrainian government.
Gruyaert has not been deterred by his experience in Gostomel, which was occupied by Russian forces in the first weeks of the February 2022 invasion.
Ukraine is “making a lot of progress” on corruption, Gruyaert said, adding that Neo-Eco has had to learn how to “zigzag between the various obstacles.”
The company is still working on several other projects and encourages other foreign investors to get involved.
But, bruised by the Gostomel experience, it now prioritizes working with cities where it has confidence it will not be asked for kickbacks.
Most concede that much remains to be done in Ukraine’s anti-corruption fight, especially when it comes to reconstruction.
It is still common for local officials to have stakes in construction companies through their relatives, several figures said.
Ukraine is trying to weed out such conflicts of interest and make the whole process more transparent.
Last year, the country launched a platform listing all open projects.
Called “DREAM,” the aim is to enable investors, journalists and Ukrainians to track the progress of construction projects, said its head Viktor Nestulia.
A commitment to such openness will be key to reassuring foreign investors, said Mustafa Nayyem, an activist and journalist who headed the reconstruction agency until earlier this year.
“The war is not an excuse not to fight corruption,” he said.
Corruption, “is not in Ukrainian DNA, it’s simply a question of will.”


BRICS offered Turkiye partner country status, Turkish trade minister says

BRICS offered Turkiye partner country status, Turkish trade minister says
Updated 14 November 2024
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BRICS offered Turkiye partner country status, Turkish trade minister says

BRICS offered Turkiye partner country status, Turkish trade minister says
  • Turkish officials have repeatedly said potential membership of BRICS would not affect Turkiye’s responsibilities to the Western military alliance

ANKARA: Turkiye was offered partner country status by the BRICS group of nations, Trade Minister Omer Bolat said, as Ankara continues what it calls its efforts to balance its Eastern and Western ties.
Turkiye, a NATO member, has in recent months voiced interest in joining the BRICS group of emerging economies, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Ethiopia, Iran, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan attended a BRICS leaders’ summit hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Kazan last month, after Ankara said it had taken formal steps to become a member of the group.
“As for Turkiye’s status regarding (BRICS) membership, they offered Turkiye the status of partner membership,” Bolat said in an interview with private broadcaster TVNet on Wednesday.
“This (status) is the transition process in the organizational structure of BRICS,” he said.
Ankara sees the BRICS group as an opportunity to further economic cooperation with member states, rather than an alternative to its Western ties and NATO membership, Erdogan has said.
Turkish officials have repeatedly said potential membership of BRICS would not affect Turkiye’s responsibilities to the Western military alliance.
Aside from full membership, BRICS members introduced a “partner country” category in Kazan, according to the declaration issued by BRICS on Oct. 23.
Bolat did not say whether Ankara had accepted the proposal.
An official in Erdogan’s ruling AK Party told Reuters this month that while the proposal had been discussed in Kazan, partner country status would fall short of Turkiye’s demands for membership.