He fears that a disorderly Brexit would reduce the economy’s “speed limit” — the rate at which GDP can grow before inflation spirals above 2 per cent. The Bank currently estimates that to be 1.5 per cent a year.

A deterioration in productivity, which determines how much more firms can produce with the same resource, would lower the speed limit. A disorderly Brexit could hit productivity. For example, engineers that source parts from the EU or sell product to the EU might find that their supply chains are obsolete.

His company, The Machhoffs, has halted U.S. projects worth up to $30 million and may move some operations overseas. Investing in domestic operations now would be “ludicrous” as China and others retaliate against U.S. agricultural goods, Maschhoff said from the firm’s Carlyle, Illinois headquarters.

Across the globe, Chinese pig farmer Xie Yingqiang sent most of his 1,000-pig herd to slaughter in May to limit losses after Chinese tariffs on U.S. soybeans hiked feed prices and left him unable to cover his costs.

“It did not really make sense to keep raising them,” said Xie, from eastern Jiangsu province.

The dueling salvos of the U.S.-China trade war are landing particularly hard on the pork industries of both nations – and spraying shrapnel that has damaged other major pork exporters such as Brazil, Canada and top European producers. In contrast to many industries that trade war has divided into winners and losers, the world’s pork farmers and processors are almost universally shedding profits and jobs from a crippling combination of rising feed costs and sinking pig prices.

 Its report said pollution levels were slowly improving in EU countries but remained far higher than EU and World Health Organization (WHO) standards.

 Air pollution is the main cause of premature death in 41 European nations and remains "too high", the EEA said.

 The findings are based on 2015 data from more than 2,500 sites.

 "Air pollution is an invisible killer and we need to step up our efforts to address the causes," said the head of the agency, Hans Bruyninckx.

 The air quality report commissioned by the European Commission comes weeks after an EU watchdog said most of the 28 EU states failed to meet the bloc's air quality targets.

 It had warned the toll on health was worse in eastern European countries than China and India.

“Through your actions, you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation,” McRaven wrote in the piece, published in August. “If you think for a moment that your McCarthy-era tactics will suppress the voices of criticism, you are sadly mistaken. The criticism will continue until you become the leader we prayed you would be.”

McRaven’s op-ed was written in reaction to Trump’s stripping of former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance.

 The situation in the once peaceful fishing village of 3,000 has become so bad that disturbing reports of child exploitation and human trafficking are now emerging.

 The town hit national headlines after a former Israeli soldier and local hotelier was expelled from the country for allegedly providing drugs and prostitutes to travelers.

 Since then, local and regional authorities are trying to retake control over the village that could be a tourism hotspot if it is able to regulate drug use and prostitution.

 ‘Foreigners brought drugs, prostitution and AIDS’ to Colombia tourist hotspot

Policemen Wilber Rentería, Luis Carlos Torres and Yemison Gómez Correa, soldier Jesús Alberto Ramírez Silva and civilians Yilson Delgado Murillo and Edison Cuero Rentería were all freed on Wednesday after 38 days under ELN custody in a move indicating a desire to return to peace talks with the Colombian government.

The successful release of the hostages had been done under the guidance of the Human Rights Ombudsman (Defensoria del Publica), an Episcopal group led by the Bishop of Quibdó and the Red Cross. The logistics of the release had not been priorly discussed with the government and was conducted in a peaceful manner.

Following the release, Ombudsman Carlos Alfonso Negret Mosquera said that  “the peace process (with the ELN) has to continue, it must continue to be promoted, because nobody really knows what is happening in the rural, indigenous and Afro-colombian areas within the jungles of Chocó.”

The ELN have a prominent presence in the department of Chocó and, following the peace accord between the government and the FARC, have been profiting from the department’s coca crops and illegal gold mining. Since 2009, they have been in conflict with the Urabeños–one of Colombia’s most powerful criminal groups–in addition to carrying out militant acts against public infrastructure and civilians. There remain six hostages in their control in the department of Arauca.

 Tatacoa, also called “The Valley of Sorrows,” is the country’s second-largest arid region after La Guajira, Colombia’s most northern province.

 The desert lies in the southwestern Huila province, some 20 miles north of the provincial capital Neiva. From Bogota, it takes between six or seven hours by car or bus.

 Tatacoa got its name in 1538 when Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Jimenez discovered the area and named it after the speckled worm lizards he found there.

 The desert, or tropical dry forest really, is a paleontologist’s wet dream because of its abundance of fossils, some dating back hundreds of millions of years.

From Wednesday until Election Day, the president will make campaign stops in Florida, Missouri, West Virginia, Indiana, Montana, Ohio, Georgia and Tennessee, the officials said.

Trump, who was making campaign stops in North Carolina on Friday night and in Illinois on Saturday, is scrambling to head off a Democratic push to take control of the U.S. House of Representatives and possibly the Senate.

Officials said Trump wants to go to places where races are competitive and where he can make a difference.

“No one Republican, no surrogate, no person can better move the political needle than President Trump,” White House political director Bill Stepien told Reuters.

Democrats had appeared to be in a good position to capture the House, but many races have tightened in recent weeks to the point that some analysts think it is conceivable Republicans could hang on to control.

The 89 eighty-nine -year-old was discovered unresponsive at the maximum security facility shortly after being transferred there from a Florida jail.

A prison union official told the Associated Press news agency the death was being investigated as a homicide.

The former leader of South Boston's Winter Hill gang inspired the film Black Mass featuring Johnny Depp, and The Departed, which won the Academy Award for best picture in 2007. Two thousand seven

His death comes on the same day that he was transferred to the Hazelton penitentiary in West Virginia, which houses 1,385 one thousand three hundred eighty five inmates, according to reports.

An inmate with mafia ties is under investigation for Bulger's killing, three sources briefed on the incident told the Boston Globe.

Bulger was severely beaten by one or more of his fellow inmates shortly after arriving at the prison, law enforcement sources told CBS.

Boston-based WFXT-TV, a Fox affiliate, reports that Bulger was killed hours after being admitted to the general inmate population.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46036058 

 

What does it take to help bring the Korean peninsula back from the brink of war? It turns out that there are two key ingredients: soccer and soju.

Last December, as US President Donald Trump was threatening Pyongyang with fire and fury and Kim Jong-un was describing the US president as a "dotard", others were looking for opportunities to ease the rising tensions.

Choi Moon-soon, the governor of Gangwon province, hoped he could give sports diplomacy a chance.

His region sits on the border with North Korea and he describes it as one of the last divided provinces in the world. Gangwon was also getting ready to welcome countries from across the world to the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. But there was one key country missing - South Korea's neighbour.

Mr Choi wondered what he could do to change this. His next move was a long shot but it paid off. He travelled to the Ari Sports Cup which on that occasion was being held in Kunming, China.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46027494 

Violence against Colombia’s community leaders and human rights defenders has escalated to the point that a leader is assassinated almost every day, according to a leading think tank.

According to conflict monitoring NGO Indepaz, 416 leaders have been assassinated between the beginning of a peace process on December 1, 2016 and Thursday.

Duque has fiercely opposed the peace process that effectively reduced violence to a record low in 2017.

Losing count

The Ombudsman’s Office and the United Nations confirmed Saturday that another social leader, Maria Caicedo from the southwestern Cauca province, was also murdered, making her the 417th victim.

Caicedo was kidnapped from her home in Argelia on October 20 by armed men. Neighbors found the tortured and half-naked body of the 62-year-old women’s rights activist on Friday.

The UN’s human rights office urged the government “to protect the human rights defenders and to investigate, try and punish this crime.”

https://colombiareports.com/the-duque-effect-one-social-leader-assassinated-in-colombia-almost-every-day-now/