An Ecuador court ordered the release Thursday of a Swedish national who has ties to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and who was accused of computer hacking, because his detention was deemed “arbitrary.”

Ola Bini had been arrested while trying to travel to Japan April 11, the same day Ecuador rescinded Assange’s seven-year claim to asylum in their London embassy.

“There was effectively a violation to (Bini’s) right to freedom,” and his detention was “illegitimate and arbitrary,” Judge Patricio Vaca said in his ruling, ordering his immediate release.

The court will require Bini to periodically appear before authorities and banned him from leaving the country as investigations continue over his alleged hacking attacks.

“Today we have shown my innocence for the first time and we will continue to demonstrate my innocence,” Bini told reporters after being released a few hours after the hearing.

“I am not free as long this illegitimate investigation is going on,” Bini said earlier, and his lawyers insisted the entire case against him was baseless.

Ecuador has linked Bini to WikiLeaks’s Assange, a damaging charge because Quito has declared that any person close to the Australian was therefore involved in a plot to destabilize President Lenin Moreno.

Assange’s case, which has upset defenders of press freedoms and human rights, revolves around WikiLeaks publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents in 2010.

He is currently spending a year in prison in Britain for violating bail when he fled to the Ecuadoran embassy in 2012 to avoid sexual assault accusations in Sweden.

And Assange could face 175 years in prison under U.S. charges of violating the Espionage Act. An extradition hearing is set for February.
 

What would you do if you found a lost wallet? New research suggests that your answer may depend on what you find inside.

In 38 out of the 40 countries studied, people were more likely to return a lost wallet if it contained money. The finding, which goes against existing models of human behavior, could help policymakers find ways to encourage people to be more honest in social and business settings.

Economic models predict that people are more likely to be dishonest if there’s money on the line. Financial self-interest isn’t the only important factor, though. The new study suggests that it’s also important for people to see themselves as honest.

Self-interest versus self-image

In order to investigate how self-interest and self-image interact in the real world, a research team led by Alain Cohn of the University of Michigan used a classic moral dilemma: finding a lost wallet.

The researchers turned in 17,303 “lost wallets” to employees at public places like banks, theaters and post offices in 355 cities spread across 40 countries. The transparent plastic showcased the contents: business cards, a grocery list and a key. In addition to those personal items, some wallets contained money, $13.45 in local currency, adjusted for the country’s purchasing power, and others contained none.

The researchers tallied the number of wallets returned and investigated whether the people who received them were less likely to return them if they contained money, as expected.

“To our surprise, the answer is overwhelmingly no,” Cohn said in a teleconference.

Money made a difference

In nearly all of the countries studied, people were more likely to return a lost wallet that contained money than one that didn’t. Participants in Switzerland and Norway were most likely to reach out to the owner, and those in China and Morocco were least likely, but the trend persisted across the globe. On average, the return rate rose from 40 percent when the wallet didn’t contain money to 51 percent when it did.

Raising the financial stakes strengthens the effect.

In the U.S., U.K. and Poland, the researchers increased the amount of money from $13.45 to $94.15. With even more to gain from dishonesty, people were more likely to return the lost wallet. The average percentage of wallets returned jumped from 61 percent to 72 percent when the amount of money was increased.

“While the results were initially surprising to us, we were not the only ones who did not anticipate this pattern,” Cohn said.

The researchers asked economists and non-economists to predict the outcome of the study. Both groups incorrectly predicted that the more money the wallet contained, the less likely the participants would be to return it.

Although the respondents believed that people were more likely to keep lost wallets that contained money, another group surveyed felt that the more money they found in a lost wallet, the more it would feel like stealing if they kept it. 

“The evidence suggests that people tend to care about the welfare of others and they have an aversion to seeing themselves as a thief,” Cohn said.

Selfless tendencies

Do people think only of themselves when considering a dishonest act, or do they think of others as well? To test this, the researchers removed the keys from some of the wallets in the U.S., U.K. and Poland and found that the average return rate was 9.2 percent higher when the wallets contained a key.

Since the key is valuable to the wallet owner but not the wallet finder, an increase in the return rate for wallets with a key shows that people consider how others may be harmed by their dishonesty.

While other studies have shown that people weigh the monetary rewards against the damage done to their self-image when acting dishonestly, this is the first field study to show that this is a global phenomenon.

“It’s so much work to run a study across so many national cultures and with so many observations. This is not an easy thing to pull off and to do it in such a controlled, really well-organized way, this is really something,” said Nina Mazar, a professor of marketing at Boston University who was not involved in the study.

In the case of a lost wallet, the right thing to do is clear. 

Most scenarios aren’t so obvious, though, and researcher Cohn suggests that a next step could be to study cases “where perhaps it’s less clear whether doing the wrong thing is actually being seen as wrong.” 

The study underscores the importance of self-image concerns in decision making, and exploring the more nuanced situations can help researchers understand why people choose to act dishonestly, which can help policymakers encourage civic honesty around the world.

Hong Kong police sharply criticized anti-government protesters for besieging their headquarters but refrained from using force to disperse them, in a contrast to the violence that erupted in the city last week.

The protesters ended their overnight siege of the police headquarters building Saturday morning, leaving peacefully after a night of throwing eggs and drawing graffiti on the walls of the complex.

“Police have shown the greatest tolerance to the protesters who assembled outside PHQ, but their means of expressing views have become illegal, irrational and unreasonable,” a police statement said.

Hong Kong police were criticized for using force last week, when they sprayed tear gas and shot rubber bullets at protesters. The violence left dozens injured on both sides.

Demonstrators are demanding the full withdrawal of a controversial extradition bill and the resignation of the territory’s pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam.

Mostly peaceful protest

On Friday, thousands of mostly student protesters dressed in black set up roadblocks in a generally peaceful protest. The protests again forced the temporary closure of Hong Kong’s government offices over security concerns.

Friday’s demonstrators also urged Hong Kong officials to retract the description of the June 12 protest as a riot; to release all the protesters arrested and drop charges against them; and to conduct an inquiry into the use of force by police during recent protests. The government has not responded directly to these demands.

On Tuesday, Lam had offered an apology for the political crisis and unrest sparked by the proposed law.

Challenge to Xi

The Hong Kong protests pose the greatest challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he took office in 2012. The Chinese government had supported the extradition proposal and accused protest organizers of colluding with Western governments.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said President Donald Trump plans to discuss the Hong Kong issue with Xi at the upcoming Group of 20 summit in Japan, June 28-29.
 

Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz has defended the continued detention of a blogger who has served jail time for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

Cheikh Ould Mohamed Ould Mkheitir came to world prominence when he was sentenced to death in December 2014 for blasphemy.

He then repented, and an appeal court in November 2017 downgraded the sentence to a two-year jail term.

His lawyers say he should have been released immediately, having spent four years behind bars, but he is still in custody.

Speaking at a press conference late Thursday ahead of presidential elections, Abdel Aziz defended Mkheitir’s continued detention, saying it was justified by “his personal security as well as the country’s.”

“We know that from the point of the view of the law, he should be freed, but for security reasons, we cannot place the life of more than 4 million Mauritanians at risk,” he said.

“Millions of Mauritanians took to the streets to demand his execution. His release would mean that chaos would be allowed to take root in the country,” he added.

Mkheitir’s lawyer, Fatimata Mbaye, told AFP that the president’s comments were “shocking.”

Her client, she said, was being held in “arbitrary detention. … This young man is not being held in a place known to the judicial system.”

Abdel Aziz is scheduled to step down after presidential elections, whose first round is taking place Saturday.

He came to power after a military coup, was elected in 2009 and again 2014, and cannot serve beyond a two-term limit.

In an open letter published Friday, a group of 10 rights groups, including the media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters without Borders, RSF), called on Abdel Aziz to use his final weeks in office to end the “illegal detention.”

Failing to resolve this problem would greatly overshadow his legacy, they said.

Mkheitir, believed to be in his mid-30s, was accused of challenging decisions taken by the Prophet and his companions during holy wars in the seventh century.

In April, Justice Minister Dia Moctar Malal told the National Assembly that Mkheitir was in “temporary detention” and that “only the Supreme Court can rule on his fate.”

The case surrounding Mkheitir, also spelt Mkhaitir, unleashed fierce passions in the conservative Muslim state.

The appeal court decision triggered angry protests, prompting the government in April 2018 to harden religious laws so that showing repentance for blasphemy and apostasy could no longer prevent the death penalty.

The law was approved despite an appeal by the African Union’s human rights body for the government to review the bill.

The Mkheitir case contributed to Mauritania falling 17 spots in RSF’s 2018 World Press Freedom Index, the biggest drop of any African nation.
 

Pakistan’s Punjab province Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) this week said it killed two prominent Islamic State (IS) operatives in the province and closed “a big chapter” in the history of Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) in the country.

The CTD statement Thursday said security forces acted based on credible intelligence and raided a house where the suspects were staying. It added the ensuing nighttime shootout led to the death of Rizwan and Saqi, members of IS’s Khorasan branch.

“CTD Team Multan got a credible source information from a secret agency on four to five terrorists belonging to the Terrorist Organization DAESH (IS-K) including most wanted Red Book POs (Proscribed Persons) Rizwan and Saqi,” the statement said, using the Arabic acronym for IS. 

The “CTD team raided the place and challenged the terrorists to surrender, but the terrorists started firing at CTD officers,” the statement added.

Officials say three other suspected IS members fled, leaving behind a large cache of weapons.

The group, staying in Multan city’s Royal Orchard Housing Society neighborhood, was allegedly planning a terror attack against Pakistan’s security forces, according to officials.

Officials said a search continues for the other suspects.

The CTD statement traces the IS group to the kidnapping of U.S. citizen and aid worker Warren Weinstein from Lahore in August 2011. A suspected U.S. drone strike against al-Qaida in Pakistan in January 2015 inadvertently led to the death of Weinstein.

According to Pakistani officials, the same IS operatives were involved in the kidnapping and subsequent killing of several Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officers in Multan city.

IS in Pakistan

Pakistani military officials in the past have repeatedly denied IS-Khorasan is thriving in the country, alleging the group only imposes a threat from neighboring Afghanistan. They say their raids on the group’s members are rare and minimal.

IS-K was founded in 2015 as IS’s branch for Central Asia, targeting parts of modern-day Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Analysts and government officials were initially expressing skepticism about IS-K’s existence. Since early 2017, however, the group has been responsible for nearly 100 attacks against civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as roughly 250 clashes with U.S., Afghan and Pakistani security forces, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Amjad Shoaib, a defense analyst and retired army general, told VOA that despite efforts by officials in Islamabad, IS-K officials have been able to conduct isolated attacks, mostly by crossing the border with Afghanistan. He said that most IS-K members belonged to Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a U.S.-designated terror group. 

“The IS has been unable to find recruits who are willing to pledge allegiance to [IS leader] Abu Bakr (al-)Baghdadi,” Shoaib said. 

According Shoaib, “Unlike the TTP, IS has no organized cell, no commander, and no command and control center within Pakistan.”

IS in Baluchistan

In May, IS’s Amaq news agency claimed the group had created a new branch called Islamic State Province of Pakistan (ISPP). The group a month earlier claimed a suicide attack against the Shiite Hazara minority that left 21 people dead and more than 50 others injured in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province.

Some observers charge that after IS lost its self-proclaimed caliphate territory in Iraq and Syria, the group is likely seeking to find refuge in less stable areas such as Balochistan.

According to the Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS), an Islamabad-based research group, IS-K in the region is likely using al-Qaida’s strategy by creating “regional affiliates” to help establish itself in Pakistan. It found that militant organizations and separatists could be easy targets for the group.

PIPS concluded, “Banned organizations have contributed to waging the attacks claimed by IS.”

The World Food Program says it has begun a partial suspension of food aid in Sanaa, Yemen, which is controlled by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, because food is being diverted from the beneficiaries. 

The World Food Program reported Thursday that 850,000 Yemenis in Sanaa would miss out on desperately needed rations.  The agency said it could not reach agreement with Houthi authorities to take measures to prevent the diversion of food from the most vulnerable people in Yemen.

It said it had been forced to take the measure as a last resort because of a breakdown in negotiations.  WFP spokesman Herve Verhoosel said Houthi authorities had refused to introduce a biometric registration system that would ensure those in need of aid would receive it.

“WFP’s priority remains to feed the hungriest children, women and men in Yemen.  But as in many conflict areas, some individuals seek to profit from preying on the vulnerable and diverting food away from where it is most needed. … Unfortunately, we are yet to reach agreement,” Verhoosel said.

UN Food Chief Warns Aid Suspension in Yemen Likely to Start This Week

David Beasley calls on Houthis to implement agreements to allow
World Food Programme to operate independently

Verhoosel said the integrity of WFP’s humanitarian operation was under threat and its ability to help those in need had been undermined by the criminal actions of a few.  He said WFP would continue to seek cooperation from Sanaa-based authorities.  

He said the agency was ready to immediately resume food distribution once an agreement was reached on an independent identification exercise and the rollout of a biometric registration system.

In the meantime, he said, WFP will maintain nutrition programs for malnourished children and pregnant and nursing mothers during the suspension period. 

George Weah once heard the roar of adoring crowds as one of Africa’s greatest soccer players. He became Liberia’s president in January 2018, and a year and a half later, crowds are sounding less positive about him.
 
About 10,000 people attended an anti-government protest in Monrovia earlier this month. Most were angry about Liberia’s struggling economy. Many feel that Weah is not doing enough to tackle rising inflation.

Some accuse senior officials of stealing the country’s money, including $25 million intended to be infused into the economy to mop up an excess of local currency.
 
Precillia Dehme, 33, runs a dry goods stall. She voted for Weah in 2017 but regrets her decision.
 
“I sell for my children to survive. … I’m finding life difficult for my children” as the cost of living rises, Dehme said. “We don’t know what’s going on in the country.” She said Weah was doing “nothing for me” and that she would not vote for him again.

But not all people have turned their backs on Weah. Money changer Munya Sherif, 35,  doesn’t blame him for the country’s economic difficulties.
 
“All the problems in this country were caused by the past government. We need to give the government a chance to do their work,” Sherif said. “Other people think that George Weah is not able to run this country. But I believe that if they give George Weah a chance, he would do better.”
 
The protest organizers are a group of opposition and civil society activists who call themselves the Council of Patriots. Radio talk show host Henry Costa, one of the leading figures, said, “We want the president to publish his assets. We think it’s very important. We want to know what he had before becoming president, how he is able to build all of these properties and acquire new ones in a relatively short period of time when he didn’t do that before coming to power.”
 
The protest group has issued a long list of other demands, including extensive reform programs and the firings of several officials, including the finance minister. The group is threatening more protests if the government fails to act on its petition within a month.
 
Weah has called for a national round-table discussion to hear people’s views on how best to revive the economy.  

“As Liberians they have a right to make their views clear,” said Eugene Nagbe, minister for information. “As a government our response is a nationalistic one, a general one, and this is why Mr. President recognized that there are alternative views. Because of the alternative views, he said, ‘Come to the table so that we can have a discussion.’ ” 
 
Talks have started with the International Monetary Fund about a program to address poverty and inflation. But until the effects of this trickle down to the masses, the protests against Weah are likely to continue.

U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered immigration enforcement officials to conduct a mass roundup of migrants who have received deportation orders, in an operation that is expected to begin Sunday, according to The Washington Post.

The newspaper said the operation would target up to 2,000 families in large cities that are major immigration destinations, including Houston, Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles. It said the information about the raids was based on three U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Trump tweeted Monday that the United States would start deporting “millions of illegal aliens” from the country next week, but the announcement appeared to catch the country’s immigration officials by surprise.

Administration officials said the deportation plans have been under consideration for months, but immigration officials said earlier this week that raids on migrant families were not imminent.

The Post said discussions about the scope of the operation continued Friday at the White House, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan has warned that an operation to arrest migrants in their homes and at work sites risks separating children from their parents.

Acting ICE Director Mark Morgan told reporters this week that the operation was necessary for the integrity of the immigration system.

He said families could not be exempted from immigration law and said the law “must be applied fairly and equally.” He urged families with deportation orders to turn themselves in to immigration officials.

The Post said ICE was planning to “use hotel rooms as temporary staging areas to detain parents and children until all the members of a family are together and ready for deportation.”

Trump administration officials say the 1 million migrants who have been issued final deportation orders but are still living in the U.S. will be targeted first in the operation. However, the highest U.S. deportation total for a single year was recorded in 2013, when about 435,000 were sent home.

It is unusual for public officials to disclose law enforcement raids in advance, for fear of alerting the targets of the raids, and possibly endangering police and other law enforcement personnel.

Immigration activists say the president is using the operation for political purposes and warn that it is causing fear in the immigrant community, leading migrants to miss work and school.

Administration officials say such operations can have a deterrent effect on other migrants considering crossing into the United States illegally.

Join us every Wednesday as Shaka and his guests discuss topics of special interest to Africans, including politics, economic development, press freedom, health, social issues and conflict resolution.

 

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Attention to Roblyn Hymes.

If you want to know what’s trending in news, health, sports and lifestyle, then tune in to Africa 54. Airing Monday through Friday, this 30-minute program takes a closer look at the stories Africans are talking about, with reports from VOA correspondents, and interviews with top experts and analysts. Africa 54 also serves viewers with timely information about health, education, business and technology. And for the young and young at heart, Africa 54 provides a daily dose of pop culture, including music, fashion and entertainment.

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Meet the Team:

Vincent Makori is the Managing Editor of Africa 54, Voice of America’s daily TV program for Africa. He also serves as a producer and writer for Africa 54. Vincent is a versatile journalist with 20 years of experience, working in Africa, Europe and the U.S. He has been at VOA for more than 11 years.

Vincent has covered a wide range of stories including the Africa Union Summit in Lusaka, Zambia, The U.N. General Assembly in New York, International Trade and Technology Fairs in Berlin and Hanover Germany. The International AIDS Conference, in Mexico City, Mexico, and the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

He has interviewed people of all walks of life, including high ranking officials and presidents, among them, former U.S. President George W. Bush, President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi, former President of Ghana John Kufuor, President Ifikepunye Pohamba of Namibia ; Noble Laureate Wangari Maathai and academic luminaries like Professor Ali Mazrui.

He holds a post-graduate degree in mass communication from the School of Journalism of the University of Nairobi and a Bachelor of Arts Degree, majoring in English Literature from Moi University, Kenya. He has attended numerous training programs in journalism, in Kenya, Germany and the U.S.

Linord Moudou is the producer & host of the Africa Health Network on Africa 54. She also produces and hosts Health Chat on the Voice of America radio, a live call-in program that addresses health issues of interest to Africa.

She started her career with Voice of America television as the producer & host of Healthy Living, a weekly health news magazine covering African health issues including malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS. She also shared new discoveries and medical breakthroughs, and provided tips and advice on how to prevent diseases and live a healthier life.

Before joining VOA, Linord worked as a broadcast and print journalist, traveling between Africa, Europe and the United States. In 2000, she created, produced, and hosted “Spotlight on Africa,” a bilingual (French-English) television and radio program on Public Access Television and New World Radio in Washington, D.C. With “Spotlight on Africa,” Linord dedicated herself to promote a more positive image of Africa internationally, through information and entertainment.

Her print experience includes “Africa Journal,” a Corporate Council on Africa publication, and AMINA Magazine, a Paris-based magazine about women of Africa and the Diaspora.

Linord Moudou was born and raised in Côte d’Ivoire. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and media productions from George Mason University, and a certificate in television and radio productions from the Columbia School of Broadcasting. The veteran broadcaster is fluent in French, English and conversational in Spanish and Creole.
 

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Attention to Clara Frenk.

Each morning, Daybreak Africa looks at the latest developments on the continent, starting with headline news and providing in-depth interviews, reports from VOA correspondents, sports news as well as listener comments.

Officials in Charlottesville, Virginia, have voted to divest the city’s operating budget investments from any entity involved in the production of fossil fuels or weapons.

 

WVIR-TV reports the City Council voted 4-1 last week to complete those divestments within the next 30 days.

 

Supporters of divestment argued that weapons and fossil fuels do not align with the city’s strategic plan goals, including being responsible stewards of natural resources.

 

Officials said fossil fuel and weapons companies make up only a small portion of the city’s operating fund investment portfolio. They said the divestment will have little or no financial impact on the city.

 

Several cities worldwide have fully committed to divestment from fossil fuels according to 350.org’s Fossil Free project, including other college towns like Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Berkeley, California.

 

 

 

A U.S. State Department official has called for an end to Kosovo’s taxes on Serbian goods so that European Union-mediated talks on resolving the dispute between the former war foes could resume.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Palmer said Monday full normalization of relations between Serbia and its former province is “essential” for the future of Western Balkans.

Kosovo declared independence in 2008 which Serbia does not recognize. The EU-mediated dialogue has stalled after Kosovo introduced a 100% tariff on all goods coming from Serbia and Bosnia last year.

Palmer said the tariffs present an “obstacle” for the dialogue and should be “lifted or suspended in such a way that would allow for the parties to return to the negotiating table.”

Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is stepping up his campaign to be Britain’s next prime minister by challenging the European Union over Brexit terms.

Johnson told the Sunday Times he would refuse to pay the agreed-upon 39 billion-pound ($50 billion) divorce settlement unless the EU offers Britain a better withdrawal agreement than the one currently on the table.

 

The contest for leadership of the Conservative Party officially begins Monday. The post was vacated Friday by Prime Minister Theresa May, who will serve as a caretaker until a new leader is chosen and moves into 10 Downing Street.

 

The party expects to name its new leader in late July.

 

Johnson, the early frontrunner in a crowded field, told the newspaper he is the only contender who can triumph over the Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn and Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.

 

Johnson is a hard-line Brexit advocate who vows to take Britain out of the EU on the Oct. 31 deadline even if there is no deal in place.

 

He and other contenders say they can get better terms from EU leaders in Brussels than the deal that May agreed to but was unable to push through Parliament. Those failures led to her decision to resign before achieving her goal of delivering Brexit.

 

But EU officials have said they are not willing to change the terms of the deal May agreed to.

 

One of Johnson’s main rivals for the post, Environment Secretary Michael Gove, continued to be sidetracked Sunday by questions about his acknowledged cocaine use when he was a youthful journalist.

 

He told BBC Sunday that he was “fortunate” not to have gone to prison following his admission of cocaine use. He said he was “very, very aware” of the damage drugs can cause.

 

Nominations for the leadership post close Monday afternoon.

 

 

Rising trade tensions between the U.S. and China have sparked worries about the 17 exotic-sounding rare earth minerals needed for high-tech products like robotics, drones and electric cars. 

 

China recently raised tariffs to 25% on rare earth exports to the U.S. and has threatened to halt exports altogether after the Trump administration raised tariffs on Chinese products and blacklisted telecommunications giant Huawei.  

  

With names like europium, scandium and ytterbium, the bulk of rare earth minerals are extracted from mines in China, where lower wages and lax environmental standards make production cheaper and easier.  

  

But trade experts say no one should panic over China’s threats to stop exporting the elements to the U.S. 

 

There is a U.S. rare minerals mine in California. And Australia, Myanmar, Russia and India are also top producers of the somewhat obscure minerals. Vietnam and Brazil both have huge rare earth reserves.  

  

“The sky is not falling,” said Mary B. Teagarden, a China specialist, professor and associate dean at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Phoenix. “There are alternatives.” 

 

Simon Lester, associate director of the center for trade policy studies at the Cato Institute think tank in Washington, agreed. “Over the short term, it could be a big disruption, but companies that want to stay in business will find a way,” he said.    

Although the U.S. is among the world’s top 10 countries for rare earths production, it’s also a major importer of the minerals, looking to China for 80% of what it buys from other countries, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. China last year produced 120,000 metric tons of rare earths, while the United States produced 15,000 metric tons.  

Mountain Pass Mine

 

The United States also depends on China to separate the minerals pulled from Mountain Pass Mine, the sole rare earths mine in the U.S., which was bought two years ago by the Chicago-based JHL Capital Group LLC .  

  

“We need to develop a U.S.-based supply chain so there is no possibility we can be threatened,” said Ryan S. Corbett, managing director of JHL Capital. 

 

The mine’s top products are neodymium and praseodymium, two elements that are used together to make the lightweight magnets that help power electric cars and wind turbines and are found in electronics such as laptop hard drives. 

 

Mountain Pass, located in San Bernardino County, Calif., was once the top supplier of the world’s rare earth minerals, but China began taking over the market in the 1990s and the U.S. mine stopped production in 2002.  

  

Mountain Pass later restarted production, only to close again amid a 2015 bankruptcy. Corbett said extraction resumed last year after JHL Capital purchased the site with QVT Financial LP of New York, which holds 30%, and Shenghe Resources Holding Co. Ltd. of China, a nonvoting shareholder with 9.9%.  

  

Since then, Mountain Pass has focused on achieving greater autonomy with a $1.7 billion separation system set to go online late next year that would allow it to skip sending rare earths ore to China for that step. 

 

China could hurt itself in the long run by cutting off the U.S., specialists said.  

  

David Merriman, a rare earths analyst for Roskill commodity research in London, said that during a similar trade flap with China in 2011, Japan began looking to other countries, including Australia, for the minerals needed to manufacture electronics.   

Australian rare earths production giant Lynas Corp. Ltd. this month announced a proposed deal with Blue Line Corp. of Texas for a separation facility at an industrial site in Hondo, Texas.  

Other deposits

  

There may be other options, too. Deposits of rare earths have been detected in other U.S. states, including Wyoming and Alaska, as well in several remote areas of Canada. The Interior Department is calling for more prospecting and mining of “critical minerals,” including on public lands currently considered off-limits, and even in oceans. 

 

“We have to be more forward-thinking,” said Alexander Gysi, an assistant professor in geology and geological engineering at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. “It would be better for the U.S. to have a greater range of sources for rare earths.”

Financial leaders of the Group of 20 gathered Saturday to brainstorm ways to adapt global finance to an age of trade turmoil and digital disruptions.

The central bank governors and other financial regulators meeting in this southern Japanese port city also flagged risks from upsets to the global economy as Beijing and Washington clash over trade and technology.

Asked if other financial leaders attending the meetings in Fukuoka were raising concerns over the impact on global markets and trade from President Donald Trump’s crusade against huge, chronic U.S. trade deficits, especially with China, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said no.

Trump and members of his administration contend that the ripple effects of the billions of dollars in tariffs imposed by Washington on Chinese exports over the past year are creating new business opportunities for other businesses in the U.S. and other countries.

But Mnuchin acknowledged that growth has been slowing in Europe, China and other regions.

“I’m hearing concerns if we continue on this path there could be issues. There will be winners and losers,” he said.

The G-20 officials were expected to express their support for adjusting monetary policy, for example by making borrowing cheaper through interest rate cuts, in a communique to be issued as meetings wrap up on Sunday.

Their official agenda on Saturday was focused on longer-term, more technical issues such as improving standards for corporate governance, policing cyber-currencies and reforming tax systems to ensure they are fair for both traditional and new, online-based industries.

Ensuring that governments capture a fair share of profits from the massive growth of businesses like Google and Amazon has grown in importance over the many years the G-20 finance chiefs have been debating the reforms aimed at preventing tax evasion and modernizing policies to match a financial landscape transformed by technology.

One aim is to prevent a “race to the bottom” by countries trying to lure companies by offering unsustainably and unfairly low tax rates as an incentive.

Mnuchin said he disagreed with details of some of the proposals but not with the need for action.

“Everyone, we are now facing a turning point,” Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso told the group. “This could be the biggest reform of the long established international framework in over 100 years.”

Some European members of the G-20, especially, want to see minimum corporate tax rates for big multinationals. France and Britain have already enacted stop-gap tax systems for digital businesses, but they are not adequate, said French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire.

“For the time being there is no fair taxation of this new economic model,” Le Maire said, adding that the hope is to have an agreement by the year’s end.

The issue is not confined to the wealthiest nations. Indonesia, a developing country of 260 million with more than 100 million internet users, is also struggling to keep up.

“The growth has been exponential but we cannot capture this growth in our GDP as well as in our tax revenue,” said Indonesian Finance Minister Mulyani Indrawati.

Mobile banking, big data, artificial intelligence and cloud computing are among many technologies that are expanding access to financial services for many people who in the past might not have even used banks.

But such innovations raise questions about protecting privacy and cybersecurity, Aso said.

“We need to stay vigilant against risks or challenges,” Aso said.

Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, is hosting the G-20 for the first time since it was founded in 1999. The venue for the annual financial meeting, Fukuoka, is a thriving regional hub and base for start-ups.

The G-20 groups include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.

One down, still others to go. President Donald Trump claimed a victory after Washington and Mexico agreed on measures to stem the flow of Central American migrants into the United States.

Trump called off plans to impose a 5% tax on Mexican exports, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, speaking to reporters Saturday in Fukuoka on the sidelines of a meeting of financial leaders of the Group of 20 major economies, urged China to follow suit and return to stalled negotiations.

Mnuchin said he planned to have a private conversation with the head of China’s central bank, Yi Gang. In a G-20 group meeting later in the day, the two were seen exchanging friendly remarks, but there were no fresh signs Beijing is ready to compromise in the dispute over trade and technology.

“From our perspective of where we are now, it is a result of them backtracking on significant commitments,” Mnuchin said. “I don’t think it’s a breakdown in trust or good or bad faith. … If they want to come back and complete the deal on the terms we were negotiating, that would be great.”

Mnuchin said he had no direct message to give to Yi, who has participated in the 11 rounds of talks so far on resolving the dispute between the world’s two largest economies over technology and trade.

He said there were no plans for trade talks in Washington or Beijing before Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are due to meet in Osaka for the G-20 summit on June 28-29.

“This will be a one-on-one with Gov. Yi to talk alone about the trade issues,” Mnuchin said. But he added, “I would expect the main progress will be at the G-20 meetings of the presidents.”

The Trump administration began slapping tariffs on imports of Chinese goods nearly a year ago, accusing Beijing of using predatory means to lend Chinese companies an edge in advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics and electric vehicles. Those tactics, the U.S. contends, include hacking into U.S. companies’ computers to steal trade secrets, forcing foreign companies to hand over sensitive technology in exchange for access to the Chinese market and unfairly subsidizing Chinese tech firms.

The deal with Mexico helps alleviate uncertainty over the deal Washington recently reached on revising the North American Free Trade Agreement. The new U.S.-Mexico-Canada deal has been heading toward a vote in Congress and might have been stymied by new tariffs. But the U.S. is still negotiating new trade deals with Japan after withdrawing from a Pacific Rim arrangement, the Obama-era proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership.

America’s huge trade deficit with China — a record $379 billion last year — is one factor driving Trump’s frustrations with Beijing.

The United States now is imposing 25% taxes on $250 billion in Chinese goods. Beijing has counterpunched by targeting $110 billion worth of American products, focusing on farm goods such as soybeans in a deliberate effort to inflict pain on Trump supporters in the U.S. heartland.

The U.S. side has been preparing to expand retaliatory tariff hikes of 25% on another $300 billion of Chinese products, and Mnuchin indicated it was prepared to take that step if negotiations with Beijing fail. But he said Trump had not yet made a decision on that, suggesting room for further delays depending on the outcome of his discussion with Xi later this month.

“As the president has said, if we can get the right agreement, that’s great. If we can’t, we will proceed with tariffs,” he said.

 

In May, Arkansas became the latest state to cash in on the sale of medical marijuana. Lines of people wrapped around a newly opened dispensary, drawing in customers from all four corners of the Southern U.S. state.

“I see them standing outside the window with a big smile on their face,” said Bud Watkins, manager of Doctor’s Orders RX in Hot Springs. “They love it.”

In the first week of business, Arkansan dispensaries sold more than 22.6 kg (50 pounds) of cannabis in nearly 5,000 transactions.

According to Marijuana Business Daily, that revenue will contribute to a growing national market of retail medical and recreational cannabis that is expected to eclipse $12 billion in sales by the end of 2019.

​Business good, money managing isn’t

Passed in the 2016 general election by popular vote, the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment made the state one of only a few in the South to allow legal purchase of the drug. It joined, however, a majority of U.S. states that had passed similar legislation.

While business is doing well, managing the money is difficult. Despite more states coming on board, plant-touching businesses are still operating as mostly cash-only enterprises.

Plant-touching businesses handle the cannabis plant itself, either cultivating, distributing or processing it. These tend to be the businesses most people think of when they imagine the cannabis industry. Plant-touching businesses are generally subject to the strictest regulations and licensing processes in the industry, as well.

“The vast majority of the businesses that touch the plant have a very difficult time finding banking partners,” said Sal Barnes, a director at Marijuana Policy Group. “The majority of those that do (bank) are going to be through credit unions and state banks, especially in California and Colorado, where we have what we like to call an adult-use market, and that is essentially just a glorified checking account.”

​Federally outlawed since 1970

Since 1970, cannabis has been officially outlawed at a federal level for any use, including medical. This means that federally insured banks operate under prohibitive restrictions about doing any business with any plant-touching businesses, which affects everyone along the supply chain, from the growth of the plant to the production or sale of a cannabis gummy.

In spite of this, states have increasingly passed legislation to allow for the legal purchase, putting them at odds with the federal government.

“The industry is hindered. Right now, the current as-is method is not safe. You literally have companies hiring ex-Marines to guard their cash, and that just doesn’t fly,” Barnes said.

Not having access to banking services means that cannabis businesses must pay for everything in cash, from salaries to taxes. And, because the cash is usually stored on-site, robberies are very common.

“We have one of the most secure buildings in the state,” said Watkins, who didn’t want to go into too many details.

Marijuana in the mainstream

Legalizing marijuana is no longer considered a fringe issue. According to a 2018 Gallop poll, two-thirds of Americans support legalizing marijuana.

There is also bipartisan traction in Congress. In March, a U.S. House of Representatives committee passed the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act of 2019, more commonly known as the SAFE Banking Act. It would provide legal protection from persecution for banks and federally regulated creditors that do business with state-legal cannabis businesses.

State attorneys, including Arkansas’ Leslie Rutledge, are now also applying pressure to see changes in federal law.

“After careful consideration and speaking with members of the banking industry, as well as our state regulatory authority, the attorney general felt that it was important for the office to support the SAFE Banking Act to help minimize fraud, tax evasion and money laundering that arises from cash only businesses,” said Rutledge’s office in an emailed statement.

Earlier this month, 38 Republican and Democratic state attorneys general sent a letter in support of the SAFE Banking Act.

“This is not just an issue facing Arkansans, but affects a majority of states,” Rutledge’s office stated. “If passed, this legislation will help Arkansas minimize the dangerous problems seen by other states, such as burglaries and robberies of dispensaries who can maintain a large quantity of cash, while at the same time, allowing legitimate businesses and service providers to also conduct business within the regulated banking system.”

As for whether the SAFE Banking Act eventually makes it to a vote, or future federal bills attempt to change banking regulations, Barnes said it’s only a matter of time.

“Next year, no. Next two to three years, possibly. Within the next four to five, definitely,” he said.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Saturday that he plans to speak privately with China’s central bank governor about trade on the sidelines of annual Group of 20 finance talks in southern Japan, but has no direct message to give him.

Mnuchin and Yi Gang, chairman of the People’s Bank of China, are to hold routine talks on various issues and then break away for their discussion on trade. Yi, he noted, has participated in now-stalled talks between Washington and Beijing over the trade and technology dispute between the two largest economies.

“This will be a one-on-one with Gov. Yi to talk alone about the trade issues,” Mnuchin told reporters in the Japanese city of Fukuoka. But he added, “I would expect the main progress will be at the G-20 meetings of the presidents.”

He said there were no plans for trade talks in Washington or Beijing before Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are to meet in Osaka for the G-20 summit June 28-29.

​Trump tariffs

The Trump administration began slapping tariffs on imports of Chinese goods nearly a year ago, accusing Beijing of using predatory means to lend Chinese companies an edge in advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics and electric vehicles. Those tactics, the U.S. contends, include hacking into U.S. companies’ computers to steal trade secrets, forcing foreign companies to hand over sensitive technology in exchange for access to the Chinese market and unfairly subsidizing Chinese tech firms.

Trump has also complained repeatedly about America’s huge trade deficit with China, a record $379 billion last year.

The United States now is imposing 25% taxes on $250 billion in Chinese goods. Beijing has counterpunched by targeting $110 billion worth of American products, focusing on farm goods such as soybeans in a deliberate effort to inflict pain on Trump supporters in the U.S. heartland.

The U.S. side has been preparing to expand retaliatory tariff hikes of 25% on another $300 billion of Chinese products, and Mnuchin indicated it was prepared to take that step if negotiations with Beijing fail. But he said Trump had not yet made a decision on that, suggesting room for further delays depending on the outcome of his discussion with Xi later this month.

​‘Hearing concerns’

Asked if other financial leaders attending the meetings in Fukuoka were raising the issue, Mnuchin said no. But he acknowledged the slowdown in Europe, China and other regions.

“I’m hearing concerns if we continue on this path there could be issues. There will be winners and losers,” he said.

Mnuchin and other officials in the Trump administration assert that the winners from the tariffs standoff, including the United States, will benefit from investments by companies moving their operations out of China to avoid the tariffs.

Countries were welcoming news that after a flurry of negotiations, Trump said he would refrain from imposing 5% tariffs on products from Mexico after it “agreed to take strong measures” to stem the flow of Central American migrants into the United States.

The tariffs that had been scheduled for Monday were “indefinitely suspended” after the two sides signed an agreement, he said in a tweet.

“It’s a good thing,” Japan’s central bank governor, Haruhiko Kuroda, told reporters.

On the agenda: taxes and crime

The agenda for the G-20 talks in Fukuoka on Saturday were mainly concerned with reforms of tax policies, combatting money laundering and cybercrimes, and innovations in financial technologies.

Japan is hosting the G-20 for the first time since it was founded in 1999.