Archives for April 2021

UN warns over 27 million Congolese suffer from acute hunger

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Two U.N. agencies warned Tuesday that over 27 million people in Congo are suffering from acute hunger, a record high representing almost one-third of the conflict-wracked African nation’s estimated population of 87 million.

The Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program said those facing acute hunger include nearly 7 million people at the emergency level on the standardized IPC scale which analyzes the nature of a food security crisis.

The estimated 27.3 million Congolese need urgent action to save lives, reduce gaps in food availability, and protect livelihoods, the agencies said. At the IPC emergency level, at least 20 percent of households face extreme food consumption gaps, resulting in very high levels of acute malnutrition and excess deaths.

WFP’s representative in Congo, Peter Musoko, said: “For the first time ever we were able to analyze the vast majority of the population, and this has helped us to come closer to the true picture of the staggering scale of food insecurity in the DRC.” Those are the initials of the country’s official name, the Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to FAO and WFP, the Congolese most affected are the displaced, refugees, returnees, host families, those affected by floods, landslides, fires and other natural disasters and the poorest people in landlocked and urban and nearby areas.

The U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on Congo after the end of back-to-back wars that destroyed much of the central African nation by 2002. Sporadic violence has continued to plague the vast nation’s mineral-rich eastern border region where local militias regularly clash with one another, as well as with Congolese army forces and perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The FAO and WFP said “conflict remains a key cause of hunger with large swathes of the conflict-affected eastern provinces of Ituri, North and South Kivu and Tanganyika, as well as the central region of the Kasais, the scene of recent conflict, the worst hit.” Other key factors include the slump in Congo’s economy and the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, they said.

“We need to urgently focus on growing food where it is needed most, and on keeping people’s sustenance-giving animals alive,” the FAO’s Congo representative, Aristide Ongone Obame, said in a statement. “The main agricultural season is around the corner and there is no time to waste.”

Expressing great concern at the recurring conflicts in eastern Congo, he said, “social and political stability is essential to strengthen food security and boost the resilience of vulnerable populations.”

WFP said it is is providing food to 8.7 million people in Congo and FAO said it aims to assist 1.1 million people in areas of high acute food insecurity with assistance to farm and raise livestock.

WFP’s Musoko said Congo should be able to feed its people.

“We cannot have children going to bed hungry and families skipping meals for an entire day,” he said in a statement.

Electric Chevy pickup to get estimated 400 miles per charge

DETROIT (AP) — An electric version of the Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck will get an estimated 400 miles of range per charge, General Motors says.

The company announced the range in a webcast on Tuesday and said the truck would be built at a factory straddling the border of Detroit and the enclave of Hamtramck. It also announced that the plant would build the new 2024 GMC Hummer SUV.

The pickup announcement raises the level of competition for future buyers in the hot truck market. Ford already has announced plans to build an electric F-150 starting next year in Dearborn, Michigan, while Fiat Chrysler (now Stellantis) has said it plans to have an all-electric Ram pickup.

GM would not say when the electric Silverado would arrive in dealerships, but the company plans to sell 30 electric vehicles globally by the end of 2025. It also has set a goal of making all of its passenger vehicles electric by 2035.

Ford’s F-Series pickups are the top-selling vehicles in the U.S., followed by the Silverado and Ram pickups. In addition to conventional automakers, electric vehicle leader Tesla plans to start selling a futuristic “Cybertruck” pickup later this year, and EV startup companies Bollinger Motors, Nikola, Rivian and Lordstown Motors are planning to enter the market.

GM President Mark Reuss said the electric Silverado will be designed from the ground up as an an electric truck for commercial and individual users. “This announcement affirms Chevrolet’s commitment to build on 100 years of truck expertise leadership while transitioning to an all-electric future in the light vehicle space,” he said.

The Detroit-Hamtramck plant, named “Factory Zero” by GM, is being retooled to build four electric vehicles with an investment of $2.2 billion. Eventually it will employ 2,200 workers to make the two GMC Hummers, the electric Silverado and the Origin, an autonomous passenger vehicle for GM’s Cruise subsidiary.

Reuss said the factory has built 4 million vehicles since 1985 and “will help lead us into the future of transportation.”

United Auto Workers Vice President Terry Dittes said that in November of 2018, GM announced it would close the factory. But it became part of the 2019 negotiations with the union that resulted in a 40-day strike, and was brought back as one of four North American electric vehicle factories. The others are in Orion Township, Michigan, north of Detroit; Spring Hill, Tennessee; and in Ingersoll, Ontario.

In the next two years, GM will build more electric models than any other manufacturer, Dittes said. “It’s always a good day when GM tells us there is more product coming into our location. Because that is more jobs,” he said.

But the future for workers is also a bit of a mystery. Electric vehicles have 30% to 40% fewer moving parts than those run on internal combustion engines, so companies will need fewer workers to put them together. Also, jobs making complex internal combustion engines and transmissions could be in jeopardy when more electric vehicles are on the road.

Churning stocks wobble a day after reaching record highs

U.S. stocks wobbled between gains and losses on Wall Street in afternoon trading Tuesday as investors shifted to a more cautious mood a day after the market reached its most recent record high.

Technology stocks slipped after seesawing earlier in the day. Financial stocks fell as bond yields eased. That countered broader gains from companies that are depending on continued economic growth to recover.

The S&P 500 index was up 0.1% as of 2:22 p.m. Eastern, within striking distance of another all-time high. Stocks within the index were nearly evenly split between gainers and losers. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 52 points, or 0.2%, to 33,474 and the Nasdaq rose 0.2%.

Much of the churn within the market is occurring as Wall Street assesses the health and speed of the economic recovery. Investors have been weighing concerns about higher inflation as the economy grows, along with expectations that retailers and other service sector stocks will make solid gains as the world moves past the pandemic and returns to some semblance of normalcy. Gap rose 3.4%, while Wynn Resorts gained 4.7%.

There’s been strong support for many of the sectors and companies beaten down by the pandemic as vaccine distribution helps businesses reopen, while government stimulus helps shore up businesses in the interim. Even as that shift occurs, technology and other stocks that benefitted from the shutdowns still look fundamentally strong, said Jeff Buchbinder, equity strategist at LPL Financial.

“We’re seeing this battle play out here in markets every day,” he said. “That’s going to drive some churn.”

Bond yields fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 1.65% from 1.72% late Monday. That helped pull banks lower, as they rely on higher yields to charge more lucrative interest on loans. JPMorgan Chase fell 0.9%.

The International Monetary Fund expects global economic growth to accelerate this year as vaccine distribution ramps up and the world rebounds. The 190-country lending agency said it expects the world economy to expand 6% in 2021, up from the 5.5% it had forecast in January. That would be the fastest expansion in IMF records dating back to 1980.

The Labor Department in the U.S. reported that job openings reached the highest level on record in February, a harbinger of healthy hiring and a hopeful sign for those looking for work. That upbeat report follows encouraging reports over the last week on job growth and improvements in the services sector, which is one of the hardest hit areas of the economy from the pandemic.

Swiss bank Credit Suisse said it expects a $4.7 billion loss related to a default of by a U.S. hedge fund. Two top executives are leaving the bank. Credit Suisse also suspended a stock buyback program and cut its dividend. The bank’s U.S.-listed shares, which already fell sharply last week after initial news of the default came out, were little changed on Tuesday.

In Europe, France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.5%, while Germany’s DAX rose 0.7% and Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 1.3%. Markets in Asia were mixed.

Cuban cooks overcome shortages with ingenuity on Facebook

HAVANA (AP) — If you don’t have potato, use malanga root. If you can’t find zucchini, replace it with cucumber.

Can’t find the ingredients you want? No problem: Yuliet Colón will help you whip up a dessert using the eggs you ran across, swap pork for the ground chicken in that recipe, even peanuts for beans in your Cuban-style rice.

She’s among a number of Cubans who, with more ingenuity than resources, help their compatriots cope with shortages exacerbated by the new coronavirus pandemic with Facebook posts of culinary creations designed around what they’re actually likely to find at the market or with government rations.

“I love Master Chef Spain, but where do I get liquid nitrogen in this country?” joked Colón, a 39-year-old mother of two and one of the creators of the Facebook page, ”Recipes from the Heart.”

The site, launched in June, how has more than 12,000 members — many of them on an island just becoming accustomed to social media due to recently improved internet access.

The combination of COVID-19, which shut off income from tourism on the island, local economic productivity woes and sharpened U.S. sanctions imposed by former President Donald Trump has led to increased scarcities in Cuba, where gross domestic product decreased by 11% in 2020.

Long queues became noticeable last year, and 2021 opened with government economic reforms that effectively raised both prices and pay — though not always at the same rate.

Colón last week visited an agricultural market near her house and, after standing in lines for about 40 minutes, bought the few vegetables she found.

She used them to create something that she called “Cuban-style pisto manchego” which includes onion, peppers, tomato, eggplant and cucumber — winning admiring comments from other group members.

These days, Cuban household staples come and go without warning. When toothpaste appears, deodorant disappears, and when it returns, soap and the toilet paper have vanished. The same is true for rice, beans, milk, cheese, onions, tomato and or garlic. Fruit has not been seen for weeks.

Sometimes potato disappears, prompting Cubans to turn to other tubers popular in the region, yuca or rough-skinned malanga.

The Facebook site has become a home for proposals on how to chicken when it’s the only meat available or create artisanal cheeses with others aren’t available.

“There are a lot of shortages”, lamented Colón in the small kitchen of her house while she prepared her “pisto manchego,” chopping the vegetables and photographing the process before uploading the images.

She added a bit of fresh basil and oregano she took from a small flowerbed that a relative grows at the side of her house.

“What I like the most is making desserts, but now it’s hard to get eggs, milk or flour,” Colón said.

The Facebook page is an internet-era democratization of earlier efforts to help Cubans make due in hard times, notably following the collapse of the Soviet Union, which devastated the economy of its Caribbean ally in the early 1990s. A TV cooking show at that time once offered suggestions for cooking grapefruit rind steaks.

Thanks to arrival of internet access, services to manage food or deliver merchandise have proliferated and relatives abroad can even directly pay telephone bills for those on the island. Cubans can share tips on WhatsApp or Twitter about which stores are stocked with which products.

They’ve also helped make authorities more accountable in some cases — as when a state factory distributed croquettes that cooks complained seemed to explode when put in oil and authorities responded with explanations in the local press.

Colón relies on the internet to communicate with her mother, whose deposits help pay for web access that keeps her on Facebook.

Colón usually adds a few family anecdotes in her posts.

“The kitchen is my happy place, where I am calmer and I feel better,” she said.

Italy to allow fans at Euros, other host nations yet to say

Italy is ready to let fans back into stadiums in time for Rome hosting European Championship games. Other countries are yet to offer the same assurances.

The pandemic-delayed tournament is being staged in 12 cities in as many countries, and UEFA told hosts to let them know by this week about its plans to let supporters into games.

Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza informed the country’s football federation on Tuesday that fans can attend the four matches in Rome’s Stadio Olimpico based on protocols from scientific advisors.

“The willingness obtained from the Italian government is an excellent result that is good for the country, not just football,” FIGC President Gabriele Gravina said.

There is a risk that cities could be cut from the hosting if they can’t say if crowds will be allowed by June. Those guarantees are yet to come from countries including Scotland, which is due to stage four games in Glasgow, and Ireland, which also has four fixtures in Dublin.

While parts of Europe are in the midst of a third wave of coronavirus infections, the city of Munich says it has now submitted updated plans to UEFA.

“It is of course conceivable and desirable that spectators can be in the stadium for the four games in Munich,” local authorities said Tuesday.

Italy will play Turkey in Rome on June 11 in the first match of the competition, which was postponed by one year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Italy will also play its other two matches at the Olimpico, which will also host a quarterfinal.

Fans have been banned from matches in Italy for the majority of the past year, apart from a brief period shortly after the start of the season when up to 1,000 spectators were allowed into stadiums.

“A strong signal has been sent to us heading towards recovery and we will promptly pass it on to UEFA,” Gravina said.

The city with the most games is London, which will stage seven fixtures at Wembley including the semifinals and final. Wembley will see the return of fans this month for the first time in more than a year when 4,000 spectators are allowed into an FA Cup semifinal and 8,000 will be permitted at the League Cup final. The FA Cup final will then have a crowd of 21,000 in May thanks to England’s success in rolling out a vaccination program and bringing down coronavirus cases.

“This is an important first step towards getting fans back, with the end goal of full stadia — hopefully by the end of the men’s Euros,” English Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham said.

In Scotland, no date has been set for the return of fans but provisional proposals will be submitted to UEFA this week. Scotland will host the Czech Republic and Croatia at Hampden Park after its men qualified for a first major tournament since the 1998 World Cup.

“We are well aware of the deadline and while these are not final decisions for us, I am optimistic we will have matches played here in Scotland with a number of spectators, a reasonably good number of spectators in Hampden for them,” First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said. “But obviously these are discussions and deliberations and decisions that have to be made by the appropriate authorities.”

Russia has already confirmed that St. Petersburg’s 65,000-seat stadium will be filled to at least 50% capacity for its four games. Denmark is planning on up to 12,000 fans being allowed into the four matches at the 38,000-capacity Parken Stadium. A similar number could be attending games in Romania under government plans for the 55,000-capacity national stadium in Bucharest to be at least a quarter filled.

UEFA also remains hopeful of retaining Baku (Azerbaijan), Budapest (Hungary) and Amsterdam (Netherlands) as host cities with fans allowed.

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Daniella Matar in Milan contributed to this report.

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More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Archives for April 2021

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