From Walmart Inc to Best Buy, retailers have overhauled Black Friday shopping, with some assigning clerks in orange vests to serve as traffic cops, taking shoppers’ temperatures and offering “grab-and-go” merchandise, including toys, bikes and kitchen appliances to discourage lingering in store aisles.Most major retailers closed on Thanksgiving this year in a nod to the stress endured by their workers during a global health pandemic. Walmart reopened stores at 5 a.m. on Friday, directing shoppers to turn right upon entering and proceed along main aisles to shop deals before paying at registers surrounded by plastic barriers.Best Buy is opening its doors at 5 a.m. and Target, which introduced contactless self-checkout and doubled the number of parking spots for its contactless “Drive Up” pick-up service this holiday season, set a 7 a.m. opening.Traditionally, Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, has launched the holiday shopping season in the United States, with retailers offering steep discounts and turning a significant profit.But during this pandemic-ridden year, major retailers from Target Corp to Kohl’s Corp and Walmart rolled out online winter holiday promotions in October to capture any holiday-related spending as early as possible.Overall, the National Retail Federation (NRF) forecasts U.S. holiday retail sales will increase between 3.6% and 5.2% over 2019, for a total of $755.3 billion to $766.7 billion. That compares with an average annual increase of 2.5% over the past five years.A Walmart spokeswoman said the world’s largest retailer was not selling traditional “hot-ticket doorbuster” items in stores this Black Friday. But even as health officials around the globe encouraged people to stay home and shop online, Walmart set aside some deals only for shoppers who came into its stores—advertising items including “in-store only” savings on $5 packs of Wonder Nation’s girls’ and boys’ underwear and socks. The spokeswoman declined to comment on the ads.Lindsey Cox, 43, of Thomasville, North Carolina, said she noticed Walmart’s advertised in-store price for Christmas gnomes was much lower than on Amazon.com Inc. But she said she doesn’t plan to visit Walmart stores on Black Friday.”I could not justify going into the store right now,” the stay-at-home mother of three told Reuters. The savings is “not worth the tradeoff” of her or her family potentially being exposed to people who may be infected with coronavirus, she said.On Nov. 19, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) deemed “going shopping in crowded stores just before, on, or after Thanksgiving” as a high-risk activity.More than half of U.S. shoppers expect to shop online on Black Friday, despite 75% of consumers taking advantage of seasonal sales, which started earlier this year, an Adobe Analytics survey predicts.However, 55% of consumers reported that sales on the Black Friday weekend feel less special due to promotions in the run up to the event, according to Adobe.Adobe expects Thanksgiving Day to come in below $6 billion in total sales, with Black Friday set to cross $10 billion in sales.The volume of Black Friday payment transactions in Britain as of 0900 GMT was down 13.2% versus last year, initial data from Barclaycard showed, with retailers of non-essential goods still shut and many in the sector spreading out online discounts throughout the month.The end of England’s second national lockdown on Dec. 2 is predicted to see a surge in transactions, surpassing Black Friday, Barclaycard, which processes nearly one pound ($1.33) in every three pounds spent in the United Kingdom, said.
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China used to be the world’s biggest buyer of recycled materials around the world. But that stopped in 2018, when the country banned importing recycled plastics and other scrap materials, forcing the United States and many other countries to look for a new alternative. VOA’s Keith Kocinski has more from New York.
Camera: Nick Jastrzebski    Producer: Keith Kocinski 
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U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he will leave the White House if the Electoral College votes for President-elect Joe Biden, the closest he has come to conceding the Nov. 3 election, even as he repeated his unfounded claims of massive voter fraud.Speaking to reporters on the Thanksgiving holiday, Republican Trump said if Democrat Biden, who is to be sworn in Jan. 20, is certified the election winner by the Electoral College, he will depart the White House.But Trump said it would be hard for him to concede under the current circumstances and declined to say whether he would attend Biden’s inauguration.”This election was a fraud,” Trump insisted at the White House while continuing to offer no concrete evidence of widespread voting irregularities. Earlier Trump spoke by video link with members of the U.S. military for the holiday.Biden won the election with 306 Electoral College votes — many more than the 270 required — to Trump’s 232, and the electors are scheduled to meet Dec. 14 to formalize the outcome. Biden also leads Trump by more than 6 million in the popular vote tally.Trump has so far refused to fully acknowledge his defeat, though last week, with mounting pressure from his own Republican ranks, he agreed to let Biden’s transition process officially proceed.Asked if he would leave the White House if the Electoral College votes for Biden, Trump said: “Certainly I will. Certainly I will. And you know that.””But I think that there will be a lot of things happening between now and the 20th of January. A lot of things,” he said. “Massive fraud has been found. We’re like a third world country.”Desperate efforts by Trump and his aides to overturn results in key states, either by lawsuits or by pressuring state legislators, have failed, and he is running out of options.In the United States, a candidate becomes president by securing the most electoral votes rather than by winning a majority of the national popular vote. Electors, allotted to the 50 states and the District of Columbia largely based on their population, are party loyalists who pledge to support the candidate who won the popular vote in their state.Biden, Trump stay close to homeBiden and Trump both stayed close to home to celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday as the coronavirus pandemic raged across the country.Biden spent the holiday in the small seaside town of Rehoboth, Delaware, where he and his wife, Jill, have a vacation home. The Bidens hosted daughter Ashley Biden and her husband, Dr. Howard Krein, for the holiday meal.The former vice president, appearing with his wife in a video message posted to his Twitter account on Thanksgiving, said his family typically holds a large gathering on the island of Nantucket off Massachusetts but would remain in Delaware this year “with just a small group around our dinner table” because of the pandemic.In the presidential-style address to a nation that has lost more than 260,000 lives to the coronavirus, the Democratic president-elect said Americans were making a “shared sacrifice for the whole country” and a “statement of common purpose” by staying at home with their immediate families.Trump often likes to celebrate holidays at his Mar-a-Largo resort in Florida. But on Thursday he remained in the Washington area, spending part of the morning at his Trump National Golf Club in Virginia, where he played a round of golf.
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No other country has been involved in Somalia’s future as much as the United States. Now the Trump administration is thinking of withdrawing the several hundred U.S. military troops from the Horn of Africa nation at what some experts call the worst possible time.Three decades of chaos, from warlords to al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabab to the emergence of an Islamic State-linked group, have ripped apart the country that only in the past few years has begun to find its footing. The U.S. Embassy returned to Somalia just last year, 28 years after diplomats and staffers fled.Somalia faces a tense election season that begins in the next few weeks to decide the presidency and parliament. United Nations experts say al-Shabab, supporting its 5,000 to 10,000 fighters on a rich diet of extorting businesses and civilians, is improving its bombmaking skills. And an ever bigger military force, the African Union’s 19,000-strong AMISOM, has begun its own withdrawal from a country whose forces are widely considered unready to assume full responsibility for security.It is not clear whether President Donald Trump will order the withdrawal of the estimated 700 U.S. military forces from Somalia, following his orders for Afghanistan and Iraq, or whether the reported urge will pass before he leaves office in January. But the idea is taken seriously, even as U.S. drone strikes are expected to continue in Somalia against al-Shabab and IS fighters from neighboring Djibouti and Kenya — where al-Shabab carried out a deadly attack against U.S. forces early this year.The U.S. Africa Command has seen a “definitive shift” this year in al-Shabab’s focus to attack U.S. interests in the region, a new report by the Department of Defense inspector general said Wednesday — and the command says al-Shabab is Africa’s most dangerous and imminent threat.Here’s what’s at stake:Counterterrorism”The first thing … it’s disastrous for Somalia’s security sector. It just causes that first panic reaction — you know, ‘Why now?’ said Samira Gaid, a Somali national security specialist who served as senior security adviser to the prime minister and special adviser to the head of AMISOM. “Especially since over the past 3½ years in particular the security sector really improved, and we tried to work closely with” the U.S., she told The Associated Press.FILE – U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Damian T. Donahoe, deputy commanding general, Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, center, talks with service members during a battlefield circulation, Sept. 5, 2020, in Somalia.Recent progress includes a “war council” between the U.S. and Somali governments, she said, where the U.S. helps to draw up military plans. “We call them Somali-led operations, but really the U.S. is hand-holding us through it.”The U.S. military also trains Somalia’s elite Danab special forces that now number around 1,000, and is providing Danab with air cover and intelligence, Gaid said.Danab units are now operational in four of Somalia’s five member states, the U.S. military says, and they conducted about 80% of the Somali national army’s offensive forces in the quarter ending September 30 and nearly all operations against al-Shabab.The Danab forces also serve as a model for how the rest of Somali military forces can develop to be “more meritocracy and less clan-focused,” said Omar Mahmood, an analyst with the International Crisis Group.The loss of U.S. forces is widely seen as a gain for al-Shabab, and for the far smaller presence of hundreds of IS-affiliated fighters in Somalia’s north.Al-Shabab’s messaging has always stressed the extremist group’s staying power, national security specialist Gaid said: “These external forces will always leave.” A U.S. withdrawal will play into that narrative.SecurityWithout U.S. forces, al-Shabab “will find it easier to overrun AMISOM, let alone the Somali national army,” Vanda Felbab-Brown, co-director of the African Security Initiative at the Brookings Institution, told an online event this week. And with neighboring Ethiopia’s conflict increasing pressure to withdraw more Ethiopian forces from Somalia, a U.S. troop withdrawal “is really just the worst time.”The U.S. has said implementation of the plan for Somali forces to take over the country’s security next year is “badly off track,” said the new report by the Department of Defense inspector general.FILE – U.S. Army Spc. Dominic Deitrick, assigned to the 1-186th Infantry Battalion, seen through a night-vision device, provides security, June 12, 2020, at an undisclosed location in Somalia.Somali forces cannot contain the al-Shabab threat on their own, the report said. They still rely on the international community for financial support, and yet they “sometimes go unpaid for months.”The U.S. has been the most engaged security partner in Somalia “willing to get down and dirty,” Mahmood said. But no other country appears to have the willingness to replace what U.S. forces are doing on the ground.And a withdrawal of both the U.S. and AMISOM would risk leaving the impression that “Somalia increasingly can rely less and less on external security partners,” Mahmood said.Political stabilitySomalia is on the brink of elections, with the parliamentary vote scheduled in December and the presidential one in February. What was intended to be the country’s first one-person-one-vote election in decades instead remains limited by disputes between the federal government and regional ones, which the U.S. has said also weakens command and control of Somali forces.At least keep U.S. forces in Somalia until after the elections, Felbab-Brown wrote this week, warning of possible postelection violence or al-Shabab taking advantage of any chaos.Even though U.S. forces don’t provide election security, “our problem is, with the U.S. focused on a drawdown of troops, it would not be focused on how the elections are going politically,” Gaid said.The U.S. has been one of the most vocal actors on Somalia’s election process, she said. “We were all expecting after November that the U.S. would be clear on a lot of stuff. Now it seems we have to wait.”
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A U.S. oil executive jailed for three years in Venezuela said all he hopes for is a fair trial so that he can walk free with his name cleared and go home to his family in the United States.In a letter from prison provided exclusively to The Associated Press, Tomeu Vadell said it’s especially painful to be separated during the Thanksgiving season from his wife, three adult children and a newborn grandson he’s never held.”Before living this tragedy, these celebrations were very special times for our family,” Vadell wrote, saying he embraced the traditional American holiday after moving in 1999 from Caracas to Lake Charles, Louisiana, for a job with Venezuelan-owned Citgo. “Now, they bring me a lot of sadness.”It’s the first time Vadell or any of the other so-called Citgo 6 have spoken publicly since being arrested and charged with a massive corruption scheme. He’s held at a feared Caracas jail called El Helicoide.Despite his circumstances, Vadell held out hope for a brighter future.”During the trial, the truth has proven undeniable,” Vadell said in the four-page handwritten letter. “It proves that I am innocent.”2017 meetingVadell, 61, and the five other Citgo executives were summoned to the headquarters of the Venezuelan state-run oil firm PDVSA, the parent company of the Houston-based Citgo, for what they had been told was a budget meeting on November 21, 2017. A corporate jet shuttled them to Caracas, and they were told they’d be home for Thanksgiving.Instead, a cadre of military intelligence officers swarmed the boardroom, taking them to jail.Their trial started four months ago and closing arguments took place Thursday. That began a wait for the judge’s verdict.With their arrests, President Nicolás Maduro’s government launched a purge inside Venezuela’s once-thriving oil industry, built on the world’s largest crude reserves. It later arrested the head of PDVSA, a former oil minister and dozens of others.FILE – This undated photo posted on Twitter on June 18, 2020, by Venezuela’s foreign minister shows, from left, CITGO executives Jose Angel Pereira, Gustavo Cardenas, Jorge Toledo, Jose Luis Zambrano, Tomeu Vadell and Alirio Jose Zambrano in Caracas.The men accused along with Vadell are Gustavo Cárdenas, Jorge Toledo, brothers Jose Luis Zambrano and Alirio Zambrano, all now U.S. citizens, and Jose Pereira, a permanent resident.They’re charged with embezzlement stemming from a never-executed proposal to refinance $4 billion in Citgo bonds by offering a 50% stake in the company as collateral. Maduro at the time accused them of “treason.” They all have said they are not guilty.The trial has played out one day a week in a downtown Caracas court. Because of the pandemic, sessions are held in front of a bank of dormant elevators in a hallway, apparently to take advantage of air flowing through open windows.Reporters and rights groups have been denied access to the hearings. There was no response to a letter addressed to Judge Lorena Cornielles seeking permission for The Associated Press to observe.The office of Venezuela’s chief prosecutor said in a statement to the AP that investigators found “serious evidence” that corroborates financial crimes potentially damaging to the state-run company.”The Citgo case has developed normally during all the stages established by the Venezuelan criminal process,” the statement said. “In the next few days, we’ll know the verdict.”Held for ‘all the wrong reasons’Vadell’s attorney, Jesus Loreto, said his client appears to have been caught up in a “geopolitical conflict” of which he’s not a part. He said Vadell’s name never appeared on any of the documents prosecutors read into evidence.”There’s nothing that refers to Tomeu in any way — directly or indirectly,” he said. “This is the story of a good guy being held against his will for all the wrong reasons.”Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who has negotiated the release of other Americans held by hostile governments, traveled to Caracas in July and met with Maduro.He didn’t win their freedom, but days later two of them — Cárdenas and Toledo — were freed from jail and put in house detention. Two weeks later, the long-delayed trial began.Richardson told The Associated Press that conversations with the Venezuelan government continue, despite his meeting with Maduro being “a little stormy.”Jesus Loreto, an attorney representing Tomeu Vadell, one of six U.S. oil executives jailed in Venezuela, shows a letter written by Vadell, in Caracas, Venezuela, Nov. 25, 2020.Richardson said he believes there’s an opening tied to President-elect Joe Biden’s election and a desire by Maduro to improve relations with Washington.”I think the Venezuelans have been straight with me, but more progress needs to be made,” he said. “My hope is to have something positive by Christmas.”It’s not clear what approach Biden will take toward Maduro. Trump aggressively pressed to remove Maduro through sweeping financial sanctions, and the U.S. Justice Department has indicted Maduro as a “narcoterrorist,” offering a $15 million reward for his arrest.Vadell’s letter steered clear of politics. He didn’t mention Maduro or speak about his jailers, though he did express concern about the “consequences” of speaking out.With encouragement from his family, Vadell broke his silence, taking a risk relatives said was necessary.’Light of hope illuminates us'”I believe it’s more important that the light of hope illuminates us,” Vadell wrote. “May the light of hope put an end to the sadness of my family.”The five other men did not respond to invitations The Associated Press made through their lawyers to comment.Vadell’s daughter, Cristina Vadell, 29, said in a phone interview from Lake Charles that her father isn’t the kind of person who seeks attention. Rather, he prefers to focus on work and his family.During his 35-year career with PDVSA and Citgo, Vadell ended up running a massive refinery in Lake Charles and then became vice president of refining. The letter attempts to expose this side of his life, she said.”I think he was willing to take some risks and open some hearts to allow him to come home,” she said. “I think he’s still wondering, ‘What happened?’ He went to a work meeting and never came home.”She shared photos of the family with her father, standing around a Thanksgiving turkey. Each year, they would give it a name, something like Charlie or Phillip. The past three Thanksgivings just haven’t been the same without him, she said.Vadell wrote that he’s proud to be the son of Spanish immigrants to Venezuela, where he was educated as an engineer. He brought his family to the U.S., bringing the best of the two countries together, he said.”I’m now reaching an intersection where if justice is done, I will be able to rebuild my life and try to compensate my family for all the lost moments,” Vadell wrote. “The light is intense — the hope is great — give me freedom.”
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Thanksgiving just got a little bit better for the Maine lobster industry.
The European Union parliament on Thursday approved a mini trade deal with the United States, which includes the elimination of customs duties on U.S. lobster imports. The passage with 638 votes for, 45 against and 11 abstentions was the last major political step for the deal to come into effect.
As a result, the 27-nation EU will drop its 8% tariff on U.S. lobsters for the next five years and work to make the move permanent.
U.S. lobster imports to the EU came to about $111 million in 2017 before falling off in the face of rising tensions between the trading partners, and an EU trade agreement with Canada that allowed its lobsters to enter the bloc tariff-free.
Because of it, said EU legislator Bernd Lange, “we have seen a drop in demand by 50% in Maine, which is obviously quite serious. So now we are making an offer to allow American lobster to come tariff-free into the EU.”
For its part, the U.S. agreed to cut in half tariffs on EU imports worth about $160 million a year, including some prepared meals, crystal glassware and cigarette lighters. The tariff cuts will be retroactive to Aug. 1.
The deal approved on Thursday covers only a tiny portion of trans-Atlantic trade with the U.S., but the EU hopes it will have some symbolic value. And for the lobster industry, already hit hard by the coronavirus crisis, every piece of good news is welcome.
For the EU, which has had acrimonious relations with the Trump administration, a sign of goodwill will never hurt.
“We have more in common than divides us,” said Lange. “This piece of legislation is an offer: it’s not about lobster for all. It’s about cooperation instead of confrontation.”
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