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Farmers say extreme temperatures caused a huge drop in the output of olive oil in Spain, the world’s largest producer, triggering a big jump in world olive oil prices. Elizabeth Cherneff narrates this report from Alfonso Beato in Barcelona, who says Europe’s leadership is blaming climate change.
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Police in southern China have detained some staff at China Evergrande Group’s wealth management unit, suggesting a new investigation that could add to the property giant’s woes.

“Recently, public security organs took criminal compulsory measures against Du [Liang] and other suspected criminals at Evergrande Financial Wealth Management Co.,” Shenzhen city police said in a social media statement Saturday night.

During protests by disgruntled investors at Evergrande’s Shenzhen headquarters in 2021, Du Liang was identified by staff as general manager and legal representative of Evergrande’s wealth management division.

Reuters could not confirm that Du was among those detained, and the police statement did not specify the number of people detained, the charges or the date they were taken into custody.

China Evergrande did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday outside of normal business hours.

The police said the investigation into the financial management unit was ongoing and urged investors to report any further financial crimes.

China Evergrande 3333.HK, the world’s most indebted property developer, is at the center of a crisis in China’s property sector, which has seen a string of debt defaults since late 2021 that has dragged on the growth of the world’s second-largest economy.

The group, currently undergoing a protracted debt restructuring which has seen it offload a range of assets, said Friday it has delayed making a decision on offshore debt restructuring from September to next month.

Trade in Evergrande’s stock was suspended for 17 months until Aug. 28.

Moody’s on Thursday cut the outlook on China’s property sector to negative from stable, citing economic challenges it said would dampen sales despite government support. 
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Nearly one in 10 of America’s unionized auto workers went on strike Friday to pressure Detroit’s three automakers into raising wages in an era of big profits and as the industry begins a costly transition from gas guzzlers to electric vehicles.

By striking simultaneously at General Motors, Ford and Chrysler owner Stellantis for the first time in its history, the United Auto Workers union is trying to inflict a new kind of pain on the companies and claw back some pay and benefits workers gave up in recent decades.

The strikes are limited for now to three assembly plants: a GM factory in Wentzville, Missouri, a Ford plant in Wayne, Michigan, near Detroit, and a Jeep plant run by Stellantis in Toledo, Ohio.

The workers received support from U.S. President Joe Biden, who dispatched aides to Detroit to help resolve the impasse and said the automakers should share their “record profits.”

Union President Shawn Fain said workers could strike at more plants if the companies don’t come up with better offers. The workers are seeking across-the-board wage increases of 36% over four years; the companies have countered by offering increases ranging from 17.5% to 20%.

Workers on the picket lines said that they hoped the strikes didn’t last long but added that they were committed to the cause and appreciated Fain’s tough tactics.

“We didn’t have a problem coming in during COVID, being essential workers and making them big profits,” said Chrism Hoisington, who has worked at the Toledo Jeep plant since 2001. “We’ve sacrificed a lot.”

In its 88-year history, UAW had always negotiated with one automaker at a time, limiting the industrywide impact of any possible work stoppages. Each deal with an automaker was viewed as a template, but not a guarantee, for subsequent contract negotiations.

Now, roughly 13,000 of 146,000 workers at the three companies are on strike, making life complicated for automakers’ operations, while limiting the drain on the union’s $825 million strike fund.

If the contract negotiations drag on — and the strikes expand to affect more plants — the costs will grow for workers and the companies. Auto dealers could run short of vehicles, raising prices and pushing customers to buy from foreign automakers with nonunionized workers. It could also put fresh stress on an economy that’s been benefiting from easing inflation.

The new negotiating tactic is the brainchild of Fain, the first leader in the union’s history to be elected directly by workers. In the past, outgoing leaders picked their replacements by choosing delegates to a convention.

But that system gave birth to a culture of bribery and embezzlement that ended with a federal investigation and prison time for two former UAW presidents.

The combative Fain narrowly won his post last spring with a fiery campaign against that culture, which he called “company-unionism” and said sold out workers by allowing plant closures and failing to extract more money from the automakers.

“We’ve been a one-party state for longer than I’ve been alive,” Fain said while campaigning as an adversary to the companies rather than a business partner.

David Green, a former local union leader elected to a regional director post this year, said it’s time for a new way of bargaining. “The risks of not doing something different outweigh the risks of doing the same thing and expecting a different result,” Green said.

During his more than two-decade career at General Motors, Green saw the company close an assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, that employed 3,000 workers. The union agreed to a series of concessions made to help the companies get through the Great Recession. “We’ve done nothing but slide backward for the last 20 years,” Green said, calling Fain’s strategy “refreshing.”

Carlos Guajardo, who has worked at Ford for the past 35 years and was employed by GM for 11 years before that, said he likes the new strategy.

“It keeps the strike fund lasting longer,” said Guajardo, who was on the picket line in Michigan Friday before the sun came up.

The strikes will likely chart the future of the union and of America’s homegrown auto industry at a time when U.S. labor is flexing its might and the companies face a historic transition from building internal combustion automobiles to making electric vehicles.

The walkouts also will be an issue in next year’s presidential election, testing Biden’s claim to being the most union-friendly president in American history.

The limited-strike strategy could have ripple effects, GM CEO Mary Barra said Friday on CNBC.

Many factories are reliant on each other for parts, Barra said. “We’ve worked to have a very efficient manufacturing network, so yes, even one plant is going to start to have impact.”

Citing strike disruptions at its Wayne plant, Ford told about 600 nonstriking workers at the plant not to report to work on Friday, Ford spokeswoman Jennifer Enoch said.

Even Fain has called the union’s demands audacious, but he said the automakers are raking in billions and can afford them. He scoffed at company claims that costly settlements would force them to raise vehicle prices, saying labor accounts for only 4% to 5% of vehicle costs.

In addition to the wage increases, union negotiators are also seeking: restoration of cost-of-living pay raises; an end to varying tiers of wages for factory jobs; a 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay; the restoration of traditional defined-benefit pensions for new hires who now receive only 401(k)-style retirement plans; and pension increases for retirees, among other items.

Starting in 2007, workers gave up cost-of-living raises and defined benefit pensions for new hires. Wage tiers were created as the UAW tried to help the companies avoid financial trouble ahead of and during the Great Recession. Even so, only Ford avoided bankruptcy protection.

Many say it’s time to get the concessions back because the companies are making huge profits and CEOs’ pay packages are soaring.
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China’s factories picked up their pace and retail sales also gained momentum in August, the government reported Friday, suggesting the economy may be gradually recovering from its post-pandemic malaise.

However, despite busy activity in restaurants and stores, the figures showed continuing weakness in the all-important property sector, where real estate developers are struggling to repay heavy loads of debt in a time of slack demand. Investment in real estate fell 8.8% in August from the year before. The decline has been worsening since the beginning of the year.

Acting to relieve the burden on banks, the People’s Bank of China, or central bank, announced late Thursday that the reserve requirement for most lenders would be cut by 0.25 percentage points as of Friday.

That would free up more money for lending, “In order to consolidate the foundation for economic recovery and maintain reasonable and sufficient liquidity,” the central bank said.

Friday’s report showed retail sales rose 4.6% in August from a year earlier, with auto sales climbing 5.1%. Retail sales rose a meager 2.5% in July.

Consumers grew more cautious about spending in the past year, even as China loosened stringent policies to contain outbreaks of COVID-19.

Industrial output grew at a 4.5% annual pace, up from 3.7% in July and the fastest rate since April.

“Overall, in August, major indicators improved marginally, the national economy recovered, high-quality development was solidly advanced, and positive factors accumulated,” Fu Linghui, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics, told reporters.

But Fu added that there were “still many external factors of instability and uncertainty” and that domestic demand remains weak, so that “the foundation for economic recovery still needs to be consolidated.”

The trends in August were somewhat better than expected, Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a report.

“Fiscal support shored up investment, but the real bright spot was a healthy pick-up in consumer spending, suggesting that households may be turning slightly less cautious,” he said.

China’s economy expanded by 0.8% in the three months ending in June compared with the previous quarter, down from 2.2% in January-March. That is equivalent to a 3.2% annual rate, which would be among the weakest pace in decades.

Roughly one in five young workers is unemployed, a record high, adding to pressures on consumer spending.

The downturn in the housing market, which spills into many other sectors in addition to construction and materials, also has weighed on China’s recovery from severe disruptions of the past several years as the ruling Communist Party tried to eliminate waves of COVID-19 infections.

Share prices advanced Friday after the figures were released, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gaining 1.7% while the Shanghai Composite index rose 0.3%.

“There’s a growing sense of optimism among a cohort of investors who believe that Beijing’s recent initiatives to stimulate the economy and stabilize financial markets are showing signs of success,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary. 
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About 13,000 U.S. auto workers stopped making vehicles and went on strike Friday after their leaders couldn’t bridge a giant gap between union demands in contract talks and what Detroit’s three automakers are willing to pay.

Members of the United Auto Workers union began picketing at a General Motors assembly plant in Wentzville, Missouri, a Ford factory in Wayne, Michigan, near Detroit, and a Stellantis Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio.

It was the first time in the union’s 88-year history that it walked out on all three companies simultaneously as four-year contracts with the companies expired at 11:59 p.m. Thursday.

The strikes will likely chart the future of the union and of America’s homegrown auto industry at a time when U.S. labor is flexing its might and the companies face a historic transition from building internal combustion automobiles to making electric vehicles.

If they last a long time, dealers could run short of vehicles and prices could rise. The walkout could even be a factor in next year’s presidential election by testing Joe Biden’s proud claim to be the most union-friendly president in American history.

“Workers all over the world are watching this,” said Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, a federation of 60 unions with 12.5 million members.

The strike is far different from those during previous UAW negotiations. Instead of going after one company, the union, led by its pugnacious new president, Shawn Fain, is striking at all three. But not all of the 146,000 UAW members at company plants are walking picket lines, at least not yet.

Instead, the UAW targeted a handful of factories to prod company negotiators to raise their offers, which were far lower than union demands of 36% wage increases over four years. GM and Ford offered 20% and Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, offered 17.5%.

Even Fain has called the union’s demands audacious, but he maintains the automakers are raking in billions and can afford them. He scoffed at company statements that costly settlements would force them to raise vehicle prices, saying labor accounts for only 4% to 5% of vehicle costs.

“They could double our raises and not raise car prices and still make millions of dollars in profits,” Fain said. “We’re not the problem. Corporate greed is the problem.”

In addition to general wage increases, the union is seeking restoration of cost-of-living pay raises, an end to varying tiers of wages for factory jobs, a 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay, the restoration of traditional defined-benefit pensions for new hires who now receive only 401(k)-style retirement plans, pension increases for retirees and other items.

Starting in 2007, workers gave up cost-of-living raises and defined benefit pensions for new hires. Wage tiers were created as the UAW tried to help the companies avoid financial trouble ahead of and during the Great Recession. Even so, only Ford avoided government-funded bankruptcy protection.

Many say it’s time to get the concessions back because the companies are making huge profits and CEOs are raking in millions. They also want to make sure the union represents workers at joint-venture electric vehicle battery factories that the companies are building so workers have jobs making vehicles of the future.

Top-scale assembly plant workers make about $32 per hour, plus large annual profit-sharing checks. Ford said average annual pay including overtime and bonuses was $78,000 last year.

Outside the Ford plant in suburban Detroit, worker Britney Johnson, 35, has worked for the company about 3 1/2 years and has yet to reach top union wages. “I like the job. It’s just that we deserve more,” she said.

She’s after higher pay, the return of pensions, cost of living raises and an end to different tiers of wages.

Johnson said this is her first strike, but she’s been preparing for it for months and putting away money. “It’s not fun. There are a lot of people who are not going to get paid,” she said. She guesses that the strike will last a couple of weeks.

“We’re the ones for the last 20 years who have been kind of hoping things would change and we would get back some of the stuff that we lost with the bankruptcy,” said Tommy Wolikow, who delivers parts to an assembly line at GM’s pickup truck plant in Flint, Michigan, which is still making vehicles. “And every contract, it just seemed like we didn’t get what we deserved.”

Wolikow called this year’s talks huge, and said meeting the company in the middle isn’t good enough. “I think it needs to be a little bit closer to the top of what were asking for,” he said.

The automakers, however, say they’re facing unprecedented demands on capital as they develop and build new electric vehicles while at the same time making gas-powered cars, SUVs and trucks to pay the bills. They’re worried that labor costs will rise so much that they’ll have to price their cars above those sold by foreign automakers with U.S. factories.

GM CEO Mary Barra told workers in a letter Thursday that the company is offering historic wage increases and new vehicle commitments at U.S. factories. GM’s offer, she wrote, “addresses what you’ve told us is most important to you, in spite of the heated rhetoric from UAW leadership.”

The limited strikes will help to preserve the union’s $825 million strike fund, which would run dry in about 11 weeks if all 146,000 workers went on strike.

Under the UAW strategy, workers who go on strike would live on $500 per week in strike pay from the union, while others would stay on the job at full pay. It’s unlikely the companies would lock the remaining workers out of their factories because they want to keep building vehicles.

But Fain has said the union would increase the number of plants on strike if it doesn’t get fair offers from the companies.

It’s tough to say just how long it will take for the strikes to cut inventories at dealers and start hurting the companies’ bottom lines.

Jeff Schuster, head of automotive for the Global Data research firm, said Stellantis has the most inventory and could hold out longer. The company has enough vehicles at or en route to dealers to last for 75 days. Ford has a 62-day supply and GM has 51. All have been building as many highly profitable pickup trucks and big SUVS as they can.

Still, Schuster predicted the strikes could last longer than previous work stoppages such as a 2019 strike against GM that lasted 40 days.

“This one feels like there’s a lot more at risk here on both sides,” he said.
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Italy is considering whether to leave the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s multibillion-dollar global trade and infrastructure program, by the end of the year. The dilemma comes amid geopolitical pressures from Western allies and domestic disappointment that the program has not delivered the economic benefits that the country hoped for.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni spoke to reporters after meeting the Chinese delegation at last week’s G20 summit in New Delhi.

“There are European nations which in recent years haven’t been part of the Belt and Road but have been able to forge more favorable relations [with China] than we have sometimes managed,” Meloni said. “The issue is how to guarantee a partnership that is beneficial for both sides, leaving aside the decision that we will take on the BRI.”

BRI benefits?

Italy signed on to China’s BRI in 2019, the only member of the Group of 7 most advanced economies — including Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States — to do so. But Italy has not received the expected economic benefits, Filippo Boni, a lecturer in politics and international studies at the Open University in England, told VOA.

“From the Italian side, the idea was to both try and boost its exports but also to make a political move towards Brussels, as a signal that Italy was able to sign successful deals with third countries independently from the European Union,” Boni said, adding that Meloni is seeking to make a clear break with previous [Italian] governments by forging new relationships with China and the EU.

“There is a growing realization that the memorandum of understanding that was signed with China in March 2019 did not really bring the benefits that were expected,” he said. “Trade balance is still heavily tilted in China’s favor, and Italian exports to China did not pick up, did not see the increase that those who wanted [the BRI] were envisaging and hoping for.”

Geopolitics

There are also geopolitical reasons for Italy rethinking its membership in China’s BRI, said Luigi Scazzieri, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform.

“There’s come to be a certain diplomatic stigma attached to it, partly because the whole of the West is rethinking its relationship with China,” Scazzieri told VOA. “And Italy being the only G7 country having signed up to the Belt and Road makes it, on the other hand, look like it’s trying to get closer to Beijing.”

Italy’s Western allies are reducing their reliance on some Chinese imports and restricting the sale of technologies such as advanced semiconductors to Beijing.

In recent years, Italy’s government has blocked the sale of some of its biggest companies to Chinese firms, such as the tire maker Pirelli, under its so-called Golden Power rules.

“It’s really a clear signal the government in Rome is sending to its partners in the European Union, and Washington most importantly, about Italy’s position on the international chess board,” Boni said.

China’s response

Questioned about Italy’s potential departure from the BRI this week, China’s Foreign Ministry insisted the program brings benefits to its members.

“The Belt and Road Initiative has attracted more than 150 countries and a wide range of partners in various fields over the past 10 years and has brought tangible benefits to the people of all countries,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters. “It is in the interests of all participating countries to further tap the potential of cooperation.”

Italy is choosing its language carefully and said it wants to boost trade with Beijing outside the BRI, Scazzieri said.

“The fear of Beijing reacting in a negative way has been precisely why Meloni has been quite careful about how to go about extracting Italy from BRI,” he said.

Italy already has a strategic partnership with China, an agreement Beijing has signed with many countries aimed at fostering economic and cultural ties. It’s likely Rome will seek to amend that document in the hope of replacing its BRI membership with a looser relationship.

“Given the centrality that ‘strategic partnerships’ have in China’s foreign policy — as of the end of last year, there were 110 strategic partnerships that China signed with countries globally — I think it might be a good way out of the Belt and Road Initiative for both countries to say, ‘We’re still engaged in bilateral cooperation,’ ” Boni said.
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