InternationalOct 28. 2020Nissan unveils its electric vehicle Ariya at the Beijing Motor Show in Beijing on Sept. 26. (Yomiuri Shimbun file photo)
By The Japan News/ANN
Nissan Motor Co. will increase its production capacity in China by about 30% by the end of 2021, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. The capacity will be raised to 1.8 million cars per year from the current 1.4 million.
Nissan’s consolidated financial results for the fiscal year ending March 2020 showed a loss of about ¥670 billion in final profit. The company hopes to find a toehold to improve its business performance in China, where demand is quickly recovering among major countries hit by the coronavirus crisis.
The company confirmed at a board meeting held in mid-October that it will proceed with the plan. Nissan will open its own production lines in plants owned by its joint venture partner, Dongfeng Motor Group Co., in Wuhan, Hubei Province, and Changzhou, Jiangsu Province.
The number of Nissan’s passenger vehicle production sites in China will increase from four to six. When completed, Nissan will have a production capacity well over the 1.49 million units for Honda Motor Co. and the 1.27 million units for Toyota Motor Corp.
Nissan will also strengthen sales of new models. By 2022, seven models, including the new Ariya electric vehicle, will be successively launched in the China market. The company will also actively market models that use Nissan’s unique hybrid technology, the e-POWER system, which combines an electric motor with a gasoline engine that charges the vehicle’s battery.
China is the largest market for new vehicles. In 2019, 25.77 million new vehicles were sold there, which represented a 10% drop from 2017 but was still much higher than the second-largest market, the United States, where 17.48 million units were sold.
New vehicle sales have been making a notable recovery. Although they fell by 80% in February compared with the same month last year, they have recovered steadily since then. And since May, new vehicle sales have been exceeding the previous year’s level by more than 10%.
Automakers other than Nissan are also counting heavily on the China market.
This summer, Toyota began building two plants in Tianjin and Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, which it says will serve as production sites for EVs and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHVs). Honda has added production lines at two plants in Wuhan and Guangzhou this year, increasing its production capacity by 240,000 cars.
Excessive focus on the Chinese market could be a risk because China is at odds with Japan’s main ally, the United States. Delicate balancing is required for Japanese automakers since they cannot ignore China or the U.S., which are the world’s largest and second-largest markets, respectively.
Metro Manila, 6 other areas to retain quarantine status until Nov. 30
InternationalOct 28. 2020QUARANTINE RESTRICTIONS President Duterte presents figures showing the COVID-19 situation in the country during a meeting with members of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases at Matina Enclaves in Davao City on Monday. He approved the recommendation of the task force to keep Metro Manila and six other areas under general community quarantine. —MALACAÑANG PHOTO
By Jerome Aning Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday approved the recommendation of the government’s coronavirus task force to keep Metro Manila and six other areas under general community quarantine until Nov. 30.
The cities of Bacolod, Iloilo, Tacloban and Iligan, as well as the provinces of Batangas and Lanao del Sur will also be under the same restrictions up to the end of November.
In a televised address on Tuesday morning, Duterte said the retention of the restrictions was subject to appeal from the concerned local governments.
In his daily press briefing on Tuesday, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Oct. 29 was the deadline for the appeal.
Earlier, the Metro Manila Council said the mayors of the metropolis favored keeping the region under general community quarantine until year-end to contain COVID-19, although with eased restrictions on mobility, transport and business.
No tough restrictions
With the announcement of the extension, Malacañang said no region in the country was subject to stricter quarantine levels in November.
Meanwhile, Duterte said he favored government-to-government transaction, most likely with China, for the purchase of vaccines for COVID-19 to avoid corruption.
The President said Chinese pharmaceutical companies had already developed a vaccine for the severe respiratory disease and it would just be a matter of how to purchase and distribute it.
“But let me tell everybody that we will not beg for it. We will pay. So it would be good if the transaction is government to government. No corruption, because everything is government to government. I’m offering it to China because they already have it (vaccine),” he said.
He said Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian also told him in a meeting that a vaccine was already available.
“He (Huang) said that the vaccine is there. It will be in a matter of … how to distribute it, and of course what kind of transaction would it be for them and for us,” he said.
In his briefing, Roque said he disagreed with the OCTA Research statement that easing restrictions on public transport would lead to a surge in coronavirus infections in Metro Manila in the next two weeks.
Health standards
Roque said respected doctors consulted by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, the temporary government body overseeing the administration’s coronavirus response, believed otherwise as infection could be avoided if commuters observed the minimum health standards.
“We disagree with the research group. I think Filipinos will [do] everything they have to do because it is important that they can go to their jobs again,” he said.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief Rolando Enrique Domingo said at Roque’s briefing that foreign pharmaceutical companies that had completed clinical trials overseas for their vaccines would not need to conduct trials in the Philippines.
Domingo said the pharmaceutical companies just needed to register their vaccines with the FDA and submit documents showing they had complied with Philippine and Southeast Asian standards.
He said only FDA-licensed manufacturers or importers may distribute COVID-19 vaccines in the Philippines.
The FDA, Domingo said, would also meet with the World Health Organization to set standards for an acceptable COVID-19 vaccine.
New travel rules
In an online briefing on Tuesday, Police Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, chief of law enforcement for the government’s coronavirus response, said new travel rules would be issued soon as local governments had been given the option to continue requiring travel authority of people who were not allowed to go out and who were not stranded due to lockdowns.
Eleazar said these people must first determine if the local governments in their destinations and in the places they would pass through were enforcing travel restrictions.
If there are no restrictions, then the travelers do not have to get authorization to travel, he said.
The UN has expressed serious concerns over the human rights violations, including the right to political participation of minority groups such as the Rohingyas and Rakhines, ahead of the general elections in Myanmar on November 8.
While the elections represent an important milestone in Myanmar’s democratic transition, the civic space is still marred by continuing restrictions on freedom of expression and access to information, it said in a statement yesterday.
“Myanmar’s discriminatory citizenship and electoral laws confer different sets of political rights to different classes of citizens, affecting most clearly the Muslim minorities who are largely excluded from citizenship,” Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a briefing in Geneva.
Additionally, there has been significant disenfranchisement as the elections will not take place in 56 townships, including in Rakhine State. The Election Commission did not provide public justification for its decision, she said.
Also, an internet shutdown effectively remains in place in eight townships in Rakhine and Chin states, severely limiting the ability of residents to avail their right to receive and impart information, including on Covid-19 and the elections.
Blanket internet shutdowns may be counterproductive and contravene international law. Again, the measure disproportionately affects minority groups, including the ethnic Rakhine, Rohingya, Kaman, Mro, Daingnet, Khamis and Chin communities, Ravina Shamdasani said.
“While the restrictions on freedom of expression continue to mount, we deplore the unrelenting proliferation of hateful speech against Muslims on Facebook,” she said, calling on Myanmar to take action to denounce such hateful language publicly and to promote tolerance, non-discrimination and pluralism in speech by public officials and electoral candidates.
The UN said it is troubled by the intolerance of criticism against the government or the military.
Over the last two months, at least 34 student activists faced legal measures after they demanded an end to the conflicts in Rakhine and Chin states and reinstatement of 4G mobile internet services in those areas.
“We also call on the government to take measures to ensure that the right to political participation can be exercised by all, without discrimination of any kind,” Ravina said.
WASHINGTON — South Korea’s participation in a NATO-like multilateral military alliance in the Indo-Pacific may destabilize, rather than promote security, in the region as China will treat Seoul as an enemy, a special adviser to South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Tuesday.
The adviser, Moon Chung-in, also insisted the US’ drive to form a regional coalition against China may prompt a counter-reaction from Beijing to form an alliance with Russia and North Korea.
“The United States is our number one ally while China is our strategic cooperative partner. Therefore, our priority goes to the United States, but in doing that we have some concerns,” the South Korean presidential adviser said in a webinar, co-hosted by the Atlantic Council in Washington and the East Asia Foundation in Seoul.
Washington is currently involved in a four-way dialogue, known as the Quad, that includes Australia, India and Japan, and is seeking to build upon the regional dialogue to form a multilateral structure that it says will counter aggression from the Chinese communist party in all domains.
The US is calling on its other regional partners, including South Korea, to join the forum, though Seoul says the US has yet to extend a formal invitation.
The South Korean adviser insisted such an invitation, if made, would create an “existential dilemma” for South Korea.
“If the United States forces us to join some kind of a military alliance against China, then I see that will pose a very existential dilemma to us,” Moon said at the virtual seminar.
“Suppose we joined a military exercise along the (inaudible) strait, as well as (in the) South China Sea, then China will treat us as an enemy,” he insisted.
The professor emeritus at Seoul’s Yonsei University also argued a coalition against China may encourage Beijing to resume its military assistance to North Korea under a tripartite alliance that would also involve Russia.
“China will be strengthening the northern tripartite alliance system involving China, Russia and North Korea. China has not provided North Korea with any military assistance and weapons and logistics support since 1958. But if that happens then, China will resume its assistance of military weapons, logistics support for North Korea, including oil,” said Moon.
“Then, the conventional threat from North Korea, in addition to nuclear set, will be further strengthened,” he added.
Instead, to promote peace and security on the Korean Peninsula, the special adviser said the countries must seek to declare a formal end to the Korean War as the start of North Korea’s denuclearization process.
“Dr. Park Jin argues that the end-of-war declaration should be an exit rather than entrance,” Moon said, referring to earlier remarks made at Tuesday’s webinar by Rep. Park from South Korea’s main opposition, the People Power Party.
“But I would argue in (a) different way. The end-of-war declaration should be an entrance that can facilitate the denuclearization of North Korea. as well as the overall peace process on the Korean Peninsula,” the adviser added.
His remarks highlight a recent controversy over Seoul’s intentions.
In a Sept. 22 speech at the UN General Assembly, President Moon called for international efforts to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War, saying the end-of-war declaration will open the door to North Korea’s “complete denuclearization.”
His call, however, prompted speculation that Seoul may be moving to make a concession to the communist North, despite Pyongyang’s refusal to denuclearize, let alone return to the negotiating table.
Seoul’s top national security adviser, Suh Hoon, earlier dismissed such concerns, saying the end-of-war declaration cannot be dealt with separately from North Korea’s denuclearization process, and that only remaining issue is when such a declaration should or could be made.
Moon also dismissed concerns that a declaration of the end of the Korean War may lead to a drawdown or change in the status of US Forces Korea.
“President Moon Jae-in made it very clear. The status of American forces in South Korea is a matter of alliance between Washington and Seoul. There is no room for North Korea to intervene in that issue,” said the adviser.
Should North Korea insist on changes to the status of USFK as a precondition to the end-of-war declaration, “then the end-of-war declaration may not be adopted,” he added. (Yonhap)
SAN FRANCISCO – As November’s general election enters its home stretch, Uber, DoorDash and other gig economy companies are bombarding TV airwaves, social media and even their own apps with ads and marketing materials promoting a ballot initiative that they say would improve drivers’ financial situation and working conditions but that would also deny them the right to be classified as employees in California.
The ballot measure, known as Proposition 22, would establish drivers as an independent class of workers with access to limited job benefits, along with wage and worker protections they’ve so far lacked under the gig economy model. Labor groups and many of driver advocates say the companies’ efforts, however, do not go far enough to protect workers and are merely an attempt, cloaked in friendly marketing materials, to quash a new law that would guarantee drivers access to the minimum wage, employer-provided health care and bargaining rights.
Drawing on a nearly $200 million campaign war chest that Uber, Lyft, food delivery app DoorDash and other tech companies have raised, they are seeking to convince California voters that the ballot initiative reflects the will of drivers. They’ve cited limited survey data saying the vast majority of drivers want to remain contractors.
But critics see the measure as a last-ditch effort to strong-arm a tough law.
The gig companies are following a long history in California of powerful groups “manipulating the way the public understands propositions,” said Veena Dubal, an associate professor at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, who focuses on the gig economy and is an advocate for classifying drivers as employees in California. “They are working to trick the public … into voting in favor of this. And they’re getting traction.”
The heated battle could well result in major implications for gig workers not just in California, but across the country.
Here’s what you need to know.
– – –
– What is the current status of drivers?
In most of the country, drivers are independent contractors who are able to work for Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart and others on demand. That comes with pros such as flexibility. But it also means there are no guaranteed hours or health care.
The companies have thrived on their ability to rapidly scale up their services by contracting as many workers as possible for maximum convenience, connecting an Uber passenger with a driver around the corner, for example. But they also avoid major expenses associated with an established employee base.
In California, lawmakers and a major court ruling have now classified drivers as employees. (The ruling has been appealed and a stay has been granted in the meantime, allowing Uber and Lyft to keep operating as usual. The appeals court sided with the state on Thursday, forcing Uber and Lyft to classify drivers as employees, but the order does not take immediate effect.)
The gig companies have argued that the new state law known as AB5 mandating them to convert drivers to employees would harm their business models and limit access to their services. And in Uber’s case, it has argued the law should not apply at all because as a technology firm it merely connects those in search of work with opportunities.
Their combined effort to oppose driver employment is the most expensive such proposition in history, the Los Angeles Times has said.
– What is Prop 22?
California Proposition 22, the App-Based Drivers as Contractors and Labor Policies Initiative, is a measure that would classify drivers as independent contractors under California state law.
It would provide workers limited benefits typically associated with employment but without the minimum wage, sick pay and job protections afforded to employees. For example, Prop 22 would guarantee drivers 120 percent of the minimum wage for “engaged time,” meaning time giving rides or en route, rather than time logged into a specific app. Drivers are also promised a payment of 30 cents per mile while on a trip or en route for expenses.
It also carries heavy protections against further action targeted at gig companies, requiring a seven-eighths supermajority of the legislature to amend it, according to the proposition’s text.
“It’s a very extreme proposition in that regard,” said Stanford University law professor emeritus William Gould, a labor lawyer whose research focuses on the gig economy. “And I think it would be virtually impossible to ever reverse it other than through another ballot.”
– Why was AB5 enacted?
Assembly Bill 5, the law that prompted Prop 22, aimed to correct years of instability and wage fluctuation and establish worker protections in the gig economy. Companies such as Uber and Lyft were once seen as promising start-ups offering flexibility and opportunity to the labor market. But as the gig economy ballooned to millions of workers and the companies came under increasing pressure to cut their losses, they demanded more and more out of workers for less money.
Stories emerged of workers juggling impossible schedules, barely scraping by. Those created pressure to provide workers with a living wage and benefits, such as health care, vacation, sick leave and unemployment. More recently, the pandemic has only exacerbated that pressure.
The law passed in 2019 and went into effect this year. The companies challenged the law in court before turning to voters.
But a San Francisco judge ruled in August that Uber and Lyft had to make their drivers full employees under the law, a ruling that was stayed while the companies appealed. On Thursday, the state appeals court sided with the lower court judge in ordering Uber and Lyft to stop classifying drivers as independent contractors. Uber and Lyft were given 30 days from an expected later filing, which typically takes about two months, to begin classifying drivers as employees. The companies are expected to explore further appeal options, including taking their case to the state supreme court, but the Prop 22 vote is likely to force the issue before that.
– What about health care?
Under an employment scenario, large companies such as Uber and DoorDash probably would have to provide health insurance to drivers working full time. That’s anyone working an average of at least 30 hours per week for more than 120 days a year, according to the Affordable Care Act.
Under Prop 22, drivers would receive a health care “contribution equal to 100 percent of the average employer payment” under the Affordable Care Act if they work 25 hours per week. Drivers who worked 15 hours would receive the equivalent of a 50% contribution. Hours would also again be measured by “engaged time.”
There’s a plus for some drivers, labor experts note.
“If you work between 15 to 25 hours under Prop 22 you are getting something that you wouldn’t have gotten if you were an employee under the employer mandate,” said Joanna Kim-Brunetti, vice president of regulatory affairs at the regulatory data firm Trusaic, who focuses on employer health-care compliance.
However, it’s difficult to tell how many real hours of driving would need to occur to collect 15 hours of “engaged time.”
“They have not really spelled that out,” she said.
– Why are Californians getting spammed with “Yes on 22” messages?
Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Postmates and Instacart are spamming email inboxes with pro-Prop 22 messaging and, in some cases, using the apps to promote it directly. The messaging warns of the potential consequences such as higher fares, longer wait times and even service suspension in less-trafficked areas if the measure does not pass.
“Your ride prices and wait times are likely to substantially increase while most drivers will lose their incomes,” Uber said in one such notice.
Blasting people with text messages or in-app messages count as a “non-monetary contribution,” a required disclosure. Uber filed one Sept. 10 with the California secretary of state, for a contribution that was estimated to value nearly $850,000.
In short, the apps have become ground zero for a high-dollar political campaign and a way for companies to reach millions of eyes like never before. A group of gig workers sued Uber last week alleging the onslaught of pro-Prop 22 messages in the app violates their employment rights. The workers are seeking up to $260 million in penalties for what they regard as a campaign of illegal political coercion urging them to support the company’s position on the ballot measure. The plaintiffs include workers who are active in labor organizing and the campaign against Prop 22. Uber called the lawsuit “absurd” and “without merit,” questioning its motives in a statement issued through a spokesman last week.
– Who opposes it?
Labor advocates, unions supporting gig workers and many drivers themselves have come out against Proposition 22, which they say is an effort to maintain the status quo.
Legislators including state Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, who introduced the bill, oppose it. And it has garnered statewide and national attention. Vice-presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., wrote on Twitter, “I urge Californians to join me in standing with these essential workers by voting NO on Prop 22.”
Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for president, wrote a similar message in May: “I urge Californians to vote no on the initiative this November.” And Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., are backing full employment.
On Monday, leaders of the campaign to oppose the proposition held a news conference taking aim at their opponents’ messaging, which has leaned on the notion that support of the measure would advance racial equity. The Yes on 22 campaign had garnered the support of several state and local conferences of the NAACP, including the state conference, along with Latino and Asian American advocacy groups.
Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., took issue with the campaign’s framing, noting how 78 percent of app-based workers were people of color, according to a study looking at San Francisco’s gig economy. Lee argued the gig economy had failed them.
“You have very clearly crossed the line when you’re trying to claim the equity mantle for [multibillion dollar] corporations,” she said. “Prop 22 will make racial equity worse in California at the worst possible time.”
Gonzalez, the state assemblywoman, said the companies had whitewashed their platform, which omits a living wage, health care and the right to organize.
“This is just audacious what these companies are doing,” she said, later calling their efforts “outrageous.”
Meanwhile, Sanders voiced his objection to a piece of pro-22 campaign mail being distributed that implied an affiliation by featuring a campaign’s slogan of his, “Feel the Bern,” and promoting itself as a voter guide.
“This mailer in CA is a lie and I call on Uber and Lyft to publicly denounce the deception,” a message posted to Sanders’ Twitter account read. “I’m opposed to Prop 22 because people working full time deserve decent wages and good benefits.”
Still, those opposed to the measure face an uphill spending battle. By Monday, the effort to oppose Proposition 22 had raised $19.6 million, less than a tenth the figure of the campaign pushing the initiative. Its fundraising has accelerated, however.
Earlier this month the “Yes” campaign stood at more than $186 million compared to Monday’s more than $199 million, while the “No” effort had netted less than $15 million compared to Monday’s nearly $20 million.
The “Yes” campaign had a more $90 million head start dating back to last fall, when Uber, Lyft and Doordash pledged to take their fight against AB5 to the polls.
– Where do drivers stand?
There is no clear, scientific polling outlining drivers’ stance. The gig companies and the Yes on 22 campaign have repeatedly cited surveys that they say show the vast majority of drivers want to remain independent contractors.
Uber in particular cites two surveys, one unscientific and another it paid for, to support its argument that drivers favor being independent contractors.
“If Prop 22 doesn’t pass, there’s a really high likelihood that all of that flexibility will be gone, the ability to work across platforms will be lost and hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost,” said Geoff Vetter, a spokesman for the Yes on 22 campaign.
The issue has illuminated a gulf within the gig economy between those who use the apps merely to cover expenses and generate discretionary income, and those who work for them as a full-time job. Uber says 91 percent of its drivers across the country work fewer than 40 hours per week.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a blog post this week that if the company were forced to make all drivers across the country employees, for example, it could only support 260,000 full-time roles. That compares to 1.2 million active drivers the company was hosting on its app before the coronavirus pandemic.
– Will this have national implications?
California, home of Silicon Valley and the world’s fifth-largest economy overall, has a history of driving national policy when it comes to instituting regulations and reining in large corporations. Experts say if California’s effort to make drivers employees is successful, it won’t be long before other states and jurisdictions follow suit. And the gig companies probably would take similarly aggressive measures against them, seeking to codify drivers’ contract status.
Meanwhile, other areas have taken similar steps already – albeit less-sweeping ones. Seattle recently became the second U.S. city, following New York in 2018, to institute a minimum wage for ride-hailing drivers.
– – –
The Washington Post’s Scott Clement contributed reporting.
Airstrikes kill or injure dozens in camp for Turkish-backed rebels in Syria
InternationalOct 27. 2020A funeral is held in Idlib, Syria, for 10 fighters with the Sham Legion, a Turkish-backed rebel group, who were killed in what the rebels said was a Russian airstrike Monday. (AP Photo)
By The Washington Post Sarah Dadouch, Kareem Fahim
BEIRUT – Airstrikes on a training camp for Turkish-backed rebels in northwestern Syria killed or injured dozens of fighters Monday, according to a rebel spokesman, who estimated that more than 170 people died or were wounded.
The strikes killed 35 fighters from the Sham Legion, a rebel group that falls under the Turkish-backed National Front for Liberation, an umbrella organization for rebels in northwestern Syria, a member of the group said. Another 77 were wounded.
The attack was one of the most serious breaches of a cease-fire struck between Turkey and Russia in March, said Maj. Yousef Hamoud, a spokesman for the rebel Turkish-backed National Army, which is part of the National Front for Liberation. Hamoud said the attack was carried out by a Russian aircraft that took off from Russia’s large Hmeimim air base in Latakia province in northwestern Syria. The Russian state-owned Sputnik news agency, however, said the raid was conducted by Syrian warplanes.
The airstrike came amid an escalating air campaign in northwestern Syria over the past week by both Syrian and Russian warplanes. On Friday, online videos circulated showing the bombardment of fuel tankers in the Syrian town of Jarabulus, killing seven civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitoring group. A few days earlier, a Turkish army withdrawal from Morek, a military post in northwestern Syria, was immediately followed by Russian airstrikes, Reuters and local Syria opposition media reported.
A rivalry between Russia and Turkey has heated up as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expands his military reach abroad, including into areas where Moscow is also pursuing its own interests. Over the past few years, the primary area of Turkish-Russian competition has been Idlib, Syria’s impoverished and rebel-held northwestern province. Last year, Russia backed a Syrian government attempt to recapture the province, and Turkey countered by supporting rebel groups and deploying in its own military to prevent the Russian-Syrian advance.
Moscow and Ankara have backed opposing sides in Libya’s civil war, notably by sending Russian and Syrian mercenaries as proxy forces. The fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region has also caused friction between Russia, which has a security pact with Armenia, and Turkey, a strong military backer of Azerbaijan.
Russian officials have criticized Turkey for sending of Syrian mercenaries to fight on behalf of Azerbaijan, saying this could allow hard-line Islamist fighters to enter Russia. Turkey has repeatedly denied dispatching mercenaries.
S&P 500 tumbles most in a month on virus spread: markets wrap
InternationalOct 27. 2020UBS’s Haefele Sees Opportunity in Volatility, Uncertainty
By Bloomberg News Claire Ballentine, Vildana Hajric
The S&P 500 Index posted its biggest drop in a month on concern rising coronavirus cases will hurt the global economy and as prospects dimmed for fiscal aid from Washington before the presidential election.
Losses for energy and industrial companies sent the benchmark gauge down 2.9% at one point, though stocks pared losses in the afternoon amid recoveries for the biggest technology companies and as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi voiced optimism on a stimulus deal. Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies slid on China’s plan to sanction the companies over arms sales to Taiwan.
In Europe, a gauge of tech stocks fell the most since March after German software maker SAP SE plunged 22% following a cut to its sales forecast and warnings that the pandemic will hurt business through mid-2021.
The dollar strengthened and Treasuries rose, sending yields on the 10-year lower. Oil futures and copper declined, while gold was little changed.
Investors remain focused on the prospect of a U.S. stimulus deal, even as time runs out to finish an aid package before the election. On the virus front, U.S. infections have hit a record in recent days. Europe took a step closer to the strict rules imposed during the initial wave of the pandemic, with leaders struggling to regain control of the spread while confronting growing opposition to restrictions.
“Fiscal stimulus seems to not be coming as quickly as we thought and the virus is coming quicker than we imagined,” said Keith Buchanan, portfolio manager for GLOBALT Investments in Atlanta. “Putting those two together is somewhat of a reality check for the markets.”
In Washington, Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin again attempted to reconcile differences on a virus relief package. Differences between the two sides “have narrowed,” but “the more it narrows, the more conditions come up on the other side,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters.
“The overwhelming consensus in the market is that while the economic recovery to date is impressive, it still needs help,” said David Donabedian, chief investment officer of CIBC Private Wealth Management. “It’s not ready to stand on its own, and so some fiscal support is necessary and does not really seem to be forthcoming before year-end.”
In other markets, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped, with Japan and South Korea posting declines. Emerging-market stocks were also lower.
Turkey’s lira weakened past 8 per dollar for the first time. The central bank rattled investors last week by unexpectedly keeping rates on hold, and geopolitical risks have sapped interest in Turkish assets.
These are some events to watch this week:
– The Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee holds its all-important plenum, where it’s expected to chart the course for the economy’s development for the next 15 years. Through Oct. 29.
– Brexit negotiating teams have started intense daily negotiations, and these are likely to continue as both sides push to finalize a deal by the middle of November.
– Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank have monetary policy decisions Thursday, followed by briefings from Governor Kuroda and President Lagarde.
– The first reading of U.S. 3Q GDP Thursday is anticipated to be the strongest on record following a record dive in the prior quarter as many businesses were shuttered by the pandemic.
Here are the major moves in markets:
Stocks
The S&P 500 Index decreased 1.9% as of 4 p.m. New York time.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 1.8%.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dipped 0.4%.
The MSCI Emerging Market Index declined 0.6%.
Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.4%.
The euro fell 0.5% to $1.1807.
The British pound fell 0.2% to $1.3019.
The Japanese yen weakened 0.1% to 104.85 per dollar.
Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined four basis points to 0.80%.
Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at -0.58%.
Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 0.27%.
Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude declined 3.2% to $38.56 a barrel.
Gold was little changed at $1,902.20 an ounce.
– – –
Bloomberg’s Andreea Papuc and Anchalee Worrachate contributed to this report.
InternationalOct 27. 2020U.S. markets fall sharply amid uncertainty over stimulus talks and the increase in the number of coronavirus infections. (Mary Altaffer/ AP)
By The Washington Post Taylor Telford, Hamza Shaban
U.S. markets slumped Monday as investors grappled with uncertainty about economic stimulus negotiations and soaring coronavirus cases around the country.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 650 points, or 2.3%, to 27,686. The S&P 500 index tumbled nearly 1.9% to 3,401, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index dropped 1.6%, to 11,359. The sell-off erased all of the blue-chip index’s gains for October.
The United States hit a record high in new coronavirus cases Friday, with more than 83,700 reported, according to data from Johns Hopkins. The resurgence is compounding volatility in the countdown to the presidential election, according to Craig Erlam, an analyst with OANDA.
“Financial markets are getting a reality check, as investors come to terms with the failure of Congress to agree to a pre-election stimulus package and surging covid-19 cases,” Erlam wrote in commentary Monday. “Just over a week to go until the U.S. election, it was always likely we could see a little more risk aversion this week given the level of uncertainty.”
It’s likely to be an eventful week on Wall Street as investors parse central bank decisions from Canada, Japan and Europe, third-quarter gross domestic product data from the U.S. Commerce Department and financial results from the biggest names in tech, including Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Alphabet. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
“The double whammy of a stalled stimulus bill and new highs in cases is a harsh reminder of the many worries that are still out there,” said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist with LPL Financial. “Most of the recent economic data has been strong, but when you see parts of Europe going back to rolling shutdowns, it reminds us this fight is still far from over.”
Investors have been closely tracking negotiations over a new round of emergency coronavirus relief, which would pump hundreds of billions of dollars into the U.S. economy. Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., signaled optimism that prolonged talks with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin would yield progress. Each day’s updates on the status of a roughly $2 trillion package coincided with ups and downs in the markets, as investors tried to divine the chances for a deal.
On Friday, however, Mnuchin offered a downbeat assessment of the talks, noting that “significant differences” remain between the two sides. Pelosi had set an earlier, informal deadline to give Congress enough time to pass the legislation before Election Day. But that timetable is now seen as less likely.
“The COVID-19 situation is worrying to investors because they are looking across the pond to Europe, where many countries are increasing stringency measures and implementing a variety of targeted lockdowns, and wondering if that is the future for the US as well,” said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco. “This suggests fiscal stimulus is needed now more than ever, but it looks like it is not forthcoming any time soon. Add to that concerns about a contested election and you have a recipe for market gyrations and sell-offs.”
With just eight days to go until the presidential election, former Vice President Joe Biden leads Trump by 9 percentage points nationally, 52% to 43%, according to an average of national polls since Oct. 12.
The market slide also coincides with another covid-19 outbreak at the highest levels of U.S. government, infecting at least five aides or advisers to Vice President Mike Pence, who leads the White House’s coronavirus task force.
“Ultimately, until the underlying health care issue truly begins to resolve, we should expect a cloud to continue hang over the global economic outlook and the markets to continue their choppy path,” said Nicole Tanenbaum, partner and chief investment strategist, at Chequers Financial Management.
Oil prices sank in response to the rising infections around the globe, which is starting to cause the reinstatement of movement restrictions in some places. Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, fell more than 2% to trade at $40.92 a barrel.
In another reflection of volatility, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell as investors flocked to safer ground. Bond yields fall as prices rise.
In Gettysburg, Trump supporters clash with Black Lives Matter protesters as election nears
InternationalOct 27. 2020Supporters of President Trump gather as a Gettysburg police cruiser goes by on the square in Gettysburg, Pa., on Oct. 10. Washington Post photo by Michael S. Williamson.
By The Washington Post Peter Jamison
GETTYSBURG, Pa. – The white GMC Acadia slowed to a crawl, windows rolled down. The message its driver had for the small band of Black Lives Matter protesters on the town square was not a friendly one.
“All lives matter, a–hole!” he shouted hoarsely before the vehicle rumbled off. From a silver SUV behind him, a passenger blared an air horn, screaming more obscenities at the half-dozen protesters holding aloft signs in the October sunlight.
“Why are they angry? That’s what I want to know,” said Irish Whaley, 61, the sole Black woman attending the tiny Saturday demonstration. “You’re going to tell me all lives matter, but you’re going to yell and scream at me like my life don’t matter.”
Nearly 160 years after a battle here helped turn the tide of the Civil War, Gettysburg is once again riven by conflict. The acrimony – including angry confrontations and arrests – has not yet led to serious violence, let alone the kind of bloodshed this town endured over three days in 1863. But clashes have gradually escalated, and Saturday a Democratic state senate candidate attending a Black Lives Matter demonstration was shoved to the ground.
The divisions on display in Gettysburg are emblematic of tensions gripping Pennsylvania and the nation as the presidential election approaches. Disputes over race, social justice, identity and Americans’ understanding of their own history have played out here in vivid fashion, with Black Lives Matter demonstrators facing off against counterprotesters toting AR-15 rifles in plain view of the diners at the Blue and Gray Bar & Grill.
Jacob Schindel, president of the Gettysburg Borough Council, lamented the extent to which demonstrators on both sides appear to be talking past each other.
“I think Gettysburg is really just a microcosm of the larger environment,” he said.
The trouble began on the Fourth of July, when armed right-wing militias descended on the town’s battlefields in response to hoax predictions on social media of a flag-burning. Calm did not return after they left.
For months, the town square has been a stage for protesters on the political left and right screaming each other down. Homegrown “Trump trains” – caravans of dozens of cars, trucks and motorcycles, honking and waving flags for the president’s re-election campaign – have regularly roared through the mostly White borough of 8,000.
Gettysburg Police Chief Robert Glenny Jr. said residents are tired of the clashes. Washington Post photo by Michael S. Williamson.
“A lot of folks have just had it with the hubbub of what’s going on,” said Gettysburg Police Chief Robert Glenny Jr., whose department of a dozen full-time officers has repeatedly been called into the fray and this month arrested three demonstrators for disorderly conduct.
The conflict is being fanned by Pennsylvania’s role as a pivotal swing state in the presidential race, with polls showing a tight contest between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. Gettysburg is home to a left-leaning liberal arts college but sits deep in a swath of rural Pennsylvania that strongly supported Trump in 2016.
But the debate is also about this town’s symbolic stature in American consciousness – what Gettysburg should mean and to whom. The battle that made it famous, some residents note, is seldom celebrated for what it was: A victory that advanced the cause of ending slavery and led to Abraham Lincoln’s vow that the nation “shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Instead, visitors often immerse themselves in the minutiae of the opposing sides’ military tactics. The reverence exhibited for soldiers’ valor can at times blur uncomfortably into “Lost Cause” nostalgia for states that fought to defend white supremacy. Confederate statues have been toppled across the country, but Gettysburg’s 40 monuments to the slaveholding states and their soldiers remain untouched.
“Very few Black people, in my experience, come to Gettysburg. It’s not a very welcoming place, and the emphasis is on strategy rather than emancipation,” said Karl Mattson, who retired as Gettysburg College’s chaplain 19 years ago and still lives in town. “The hope is that a different narrative will develop.”
To that end, Mattson, White and 86, has begun distributing hundreds of signs around town aimed at rebranding Gettysburg’s legacy: “This battle was fought because Black lives matter.”
– – –
Not long after he came to Gettysburg as a Pennsylvania State Police officer in 1994, Shawn Palmer made a traffic stop that would stay with him.
As a Black officer in overwhelmingly White Adams County, Palmer was accustomed to uncomfortable encounters. But as he approached the pickup truck he had pulled over for speeding, he braced himself: It was decorated with the Confederate battle flag, and the vehicle bore a license plate with the words, “Don’t worry, boys. The South will rise again.”
After an amiable interaction, Palmer gave the driver a warning, then asked if he was from the South.
“He said, ‘Oh, no. I’m from Chambersburg,'” Palmer recalled – a small town 25 miles west of Gettysburg that was burned by Confederate cavalry during the Civil War. “I just laughed.”
Black Lives Matter protester Irish Whaley holds a sign in the Gettysburg town square. Washington Post photo by Michael S. Williamson.
As Palmer began to study the Civil War in greater detail, he became increasingly perplexed by the worship of the Confederacy evident around Gettysburg. “It’s comical, but in another sense its almost alarming,” he said, “that people will fly the Confederate flag and the American flag together as if they were the same country.”
On July Fourth, Palmer joined a friend – Scott Hancock, a Black professor of history and Africana studies at Gettysburg College – on an excursion to some of the battlefield’s Confederate monuments. Hancock had been organizing similar trips for several years. He and those who joined him would carry signs displaying historical documents with information about Confederate leaders’ views on race and on why the war was fought.
This year, the group met with an unprecedented reaction. Hundreds of armed men and women had turned out in response to online rumors of an American flag-burning. Hancock said some people yelled at him to go back to Africa or said that he just wanted to collect his welfare check. At Mississippi’s monument, camouflaged men were lying in the grass with rifles. Hancock’s group ultimately left and were trailed by men on motorcycles until they reached a police command station.
“It felt like we went so far back on that day,” Palmer said, recalling his feeling that America, again, “was almost on the brink of Civil War.”
Demonstrations had begun in town after the killing of George Floyd in late May. But in August armed men and women began to appear alongside the Black Lives Matter protests, which were increasingly dominated by activists from out of town.
Frank Marrone, the Gettysburg resident who organized some of the counter-protests, said his goal was to offset the protesters’ message with a “pro-America, pro-gun, pro-Trump” argument that supported rather than attacked the police. He said the weapons were not meant to intimidate those on the other side.
“We believe in law and order. They believe in feelings. So if they feel uncomfortable with a rifle, they’re going to cry about it,” Marrone said. “I’m no terrorist. I’m no Nazi. I’m not going out there to do a mass shooting in the square.”
Marrone, who said he was a Democrat for 25 years and voted for Obama in 2008, said he recognizes the right of Black Lives Matter protesters to speak out but that they should not be allowed on the town square using vulgar language and spooking the tourists who are finally returning to restaurants and shops devastated by the coronavirus pandemic.
“Who’s to say that freedom of speech has to be on the main square in one of the most historic towns in America, where there’s diners?” Marrone said. “I don’t like what happened to George Floyd no more than anyone else. It has nothing to do with Gettysburg, and they’re not changing anything.”
On Oct. 3 – just a few days before Biden delivered a campaign speech at Gettysburg calling for national unity – demonstrators on both sides faced off in what had become a Saturday ritual. Police made three arrests, including two Black Lives Matter protesters.
– – –
One of them was Leslie Mon-Lashway, 43, a White former overnight baker at Giant Food who was accused by police of “shouting vulgarities” and was cited for disorderly conduct.
Mon-Lashway, who lives in Hanover, about 15 miles east of Gettysburg, said she and other Black Lives Matter activists have been unfairly targeted by Gettysburg police, while their armed antagonists have been ignored.
Mon-Lashway acknowledged using profanity on her signs and in some of her dealings with counterprotesters and belligerent passersby but said police should also be cracking down on the counterprotesters.
“It’s definitely something that’s been escalating,” she said, “and when they’re not held to the same standard, that physical, violent behavior is not going to stop.”
On Saturday afternoon, a small group of Black Lives Matter demonstrators was marching near the town square with Rich Sterner, the Democratic challenger to incumbent State Sen. Doug Mastriano (R). When a young man approached and began screaming at the group, the 65-year-old Sterner said he tried to calm him down and was shoved to the ground. Sterner later received stitches in his hand.
“We need human decency to rise up again,” Sterner said Monday. “This is just beyond the pale that this kind of stuff is going on in the United States.”
Gettysburg resident Zachary Moore, 22, was arrested for pushing Sterner and cited for harassment, said Glenny, the police chief. The charge can lead to a fine of up to $300 and up to 90 days in jail. Moore could not be reached for comment.
Glenny said that vulgar language to accost or intimidate others also merited the previous arrests made by his officers and that he had no authority to forbid counterdemonstrators from carrying guns in public. He also said he fears an effort to clear out counterdemonstrators could provoke more radical elements to descend on the town.
“If you tell these folks who are carrying the guns now, ‘You can’t come,’ then my fear is what we get is the – what’s the word I’m looking for – the ultra, ultra folks, the anti-government folks,” he said.
Even some in town who support the movement for Black lives have reservations about the actions of Mon-Lashway and her fellow protesters.
Jenny Dumont, a Spanish professor at Gettysburg College and head of the left-leaning activist group Gettysburg Rising, said she was “really alarmed” by the presence of armed, right-wing activists on the town square. But she also took issue with the tactics used by some of the Black Lives Matter protesters, saying they were too quick to let themselves be drawn into profanity-laced confrontations with the other side.
“I don’t want to come off as if I’m criticizing them,” she said. “But I don’t understand what their long-term goal is.”
Dumont is taking a different approach, working to include more Black history in the town’s public school curriculum and advocating alongside Hancock for new monuments on Gettysburg’s battlefields to honor enslaved people. Like Mattson, she believes the town is overdue for a rebranding that recognizes the battle as a milestone in the centuries-long Black struggle for freedom.
In the meantime, as what may be the most divisive presidential election in modern U.S. history approaches, Americans continue to visit Gettysburg in an effort to understand a different era of division.
On a recent Saturday, after the shouting and signs had disappeared from the town square, visitors quietly wandered Little Round Top several miles to the south. An ember-red sun was dipping into the hills above Plum Run Valley, better known by its nickname: the Valley of Death. The scene was steeped in an eerie serenity that often impresses visitors to the site of one of America’s bloodiest battles.
Heather McClintock-Racz stood on the slopes wearing 19th century widow’s weeds and a broad hat.
“I do Union,” said McClintock-Racz, a historical re-enactor from Downingtown, Pa. Nevertheless, she said, Confederate memorials have an important place on the battlefield. “When you come out here,” she said, “how are you going to understand the terrain without these monuments and these markers?”
McClintock-Racz marveled at the scale of the violence that once swept over the fields around her – roughly 50,000 casualties over three days.
“Think of the damage that happened to the country,” she said. “My question is: Did we not learn from that?”
What, exactly, should Americans have learned? McClintock-Racz admitted she didn’t know.
New York mayor, police commissioner sued over clashes at George Floyd protests
InternationalOct 27. 2020A protester is arrested on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue in June. (John Minchillo/ AP)
By The Washington Post Shayna Jacobs
NEW YORK – Eleven people sued New York City and its police department Monday over officials’ handling of racial-justice protests earlier this year, saying their rights were violated when law enforcement employed heavy-handed tactics to quell demonstrations sparked by the death of George Floyd.
The civil complaint, filed in federal court by the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Legal Aid Society, names Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, among others. To date, it is the largest lawsuit brought against City Hall in response to the nightly clashes that gripped New York following Floyd’s death while in the custody of Minneapolis police.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified financial damages.
“Over and again, at protests throughout the City in May and June, NYPD officers descended on protesters with unjustifiable fist and baton strikes, chemical pepper spray attacks, and other acts of physical violence,” the complaint says.
One of the plaintiffs, Charlie Monlouis-Anderle, suffered a broken arm at the hands of police, the complaint alleges. Another, Vidal Guzman, was pepper sprayed in the face, it says. Eight others claim they were wrongly arrested while exercising their right to protest.
“We will review the lawsuit if and when we are served,” an NYPD spokesperson said Monday. The city’s legal department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jarrett Payne, 34 of Queens, was arrested June 2 after the city’s 8 p.m. curfew while marching along Fifth Avenue outside of Central Park. The complaint says he was struck in the face by a police baton without any warning. He was then shoved to the ground even though he was not resisting, it says.
“Payne’s body struck something hard – possibly a bench – and then fell into the wall of Central Park and onto the ground, knocking his glasses off his face so he could not see properly,” the lawsuit says, alleging that several police officers continued to beat him with batons while pinning him to the ground.
Payne’s summonses were eventually dismissed by the district attorney’s office.
In an interview, he said he still experiences pain from his injuries and for a time was unable to jog or do other exercise.
“I couldn’t really do anything. I couldn’t ride a bike, couldn’t run at all,” he said, noting that only within the last month did he start exercising again.
Law enforcement advocates have pointed out that, during the protests, there were numerous incidents of violence against police, leading to aggressive arrests.
But Corey Stoughton, one of the lead attorneys on the case, said the conduct alleged in the lawsuit was not in response to the rioting or looting that plagued parts of the city during the protests.
“This pattern started before the looting and it continued after the looting,” Stoughton said, adding that the aggressive tactics were “not about enforcing the curfew [but] . . . about the NYPD’s reaction to the protests calling for police accountability.”
Nissan unveils its electric vehicle Ariya at the Beijing Motor Show in Beijing on Sept. 26. (Yomiuri Shimbun file photo) 
QUARANTINE RESTRICTIONS President Duterte presents figures showing the COVID-19 situation in the country during a meeting with members of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases at Matina Enclaves in Davao City on Monday. He approved the recommendation of the task force to keep Metro Manila and six other areas under general community quarantine. —MALACAÑANG PHOTO 
(Yonhap) 
A funeral is held in Idlib, Syria, for 10 fighters with the Sham Legion, a Turkish-backed rebel group, who were killed in what the rebels said was a Russian airstrike Monday. (AP Photo) 
UBS’s Haefele Sees Opportunity in Volatility, Uncertainty 
U.S. markets fall sharply amid uncertainty over stimulus talks and the increase in the number of coronavirus infections. (Mary Altaffer/ AP) 
Supporters of President Trump gather as a Gettysburg police cruiser goes by on the square in Gettysburg, Pa., on Oct. 10. Washington Post photo by Michael S. Williamson. 
A protester is arrested on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue in June. (John Minchillo/ AP) 
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