Canada’s minister responsible for trade with the U.S., Dominic LeBlanc, is due to meet U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Thursday at 12:15 p.m. EDT (1615 GMT)

International News via Reuters:

Top trade negotiators from Canada and the U.S. will meet for the second day running in Washington on Thursday in a bid to finalize a trade deal that could help reduce months of tariffs and counter duties.

Canada’s minister responsible for trade with the U.S., Dominic LeBlanc, is due to meet U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Thursday at 12:15 p.m. EDT (1615 GMT), his office said. Canada’s chief trade negotiator, Janice Charette, will also attend the meeting.

LeBlanc and Greer met on Wednesday and reported significant progress toward a deal that would stave off a U.S. threat to impose extra tariffs starting on Saturday.

Separately, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to meet Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand at the White House later on Thursday.

The meetings come as the U.S. and Canada close in on a deal under which Washington could reduce tariffs on Canadian-built cars and trucks as well as steel and aluminum, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

The proposed deal is expected to cut the top-line tariff on Canadian-built vehicles to 15% from 25% and halve tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum to 25%, the source said.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Washington would make some tariff concessions and suggested that a deal would also remove Canadian tariffs on U.S. goods.

Prime Minister Mark Carney briefed Canada’s provincial premiers after LeBlanc’s meeting with Greer on Wednesday.

Some of the premiers later noted that Carney urged them to end a ban on U.S. alcohol, which is a particular irritant for Washington, if Canada manages to reach a deal with the U.S.

The U.S. and Canada, long-standing trading partners whose economies are deeply integrated, have been embroiled in a trade dispute since Trump imposed tariffs on imports of Canadian steel, aluminum and vehicles last year, prompting countermeasures from Ottawa.

Trump this week postponed until 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT) on Saturday a new 50% tariff on about $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, citing progress in negotiations and a deal subject to finalization of documents.

Reporting by Promit Mukherjee; Editing by David Ljunggren and Mark Porter

The 6.2-magnitude earthquake and aftershocks destroyed much of Amatrice’s historic centre and many outlying areas, leaving several thousand people homeless

International News via Reuters:

In the early hours of August 24, 2016, Giorgio Cortellesi stumbled through the dust and darkness of Amatrice, fearing his children were dead, buried beneath tons of rubble.

His two young sons had been staying overnight with their grandparents when an earthquake levelled much of the central Italian hilltown.

Rushing over from a nearby hamlet, Cortellesi found the streets in ruins, muffled cries rising from collapsed homes. Then he caught the sound of one of his sons calling for help.

“I didn’t think I would find them alive, but when I heard his voice, it was as if I started breathing again,” said Cortellesi.

He promised himself that if his boys survived he would help rebuild Amatrice, which bore the brunt of the calamity, with 237 people dying in the town out of a total death toll of 303.

Elected town mayor in 2021, Cortellesi is trying to make good on his pledge, but it isn’t easy.

LIFE ON HOLD

The 6.2-magnitude earthquake and aftershocks destroyed much of Amatrice’s historic centre and many outlying areas, leaving several thousand people homeless.

The state has promised to pay for the vast bulk of the reconstruction and has so far approved private and public sector projects worth €22.7 billion ($26.3 billion) across the disaster zone. Around €10 billion has been paid out to date.

In Amatrice, 38% of the damaged properties have been restored, with the pace of building picking up markedly over the past 12 months. Cranes dot the town and clusters of pristine new homes have sprouted amidst the desolation.

Even so, only a small proportion of the structures flattened in 2016 have been rebuilt. Much of the historic centre remains behind barriers, where two lone towers that survived the earthquake gaze over the blasted wasteland.

Around 1,000 people, roughly 60% of the population, still live in small, prefabricated shelters, while each year a few families drift away, seeking a brighter future elsewhere.

“After 10 years many people have lost faith,” said Cortellesi. “We need to keep on encouraging them, but we can’t do more than we are already doing.”

LONG ROAD BACK

As with other major Italian earthquakes, such as L’Aquila in 2009, Amatrice’s reconstruction got bogged down in bureaucracy, legal disputes and shifting priorities.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted rebuilding efforts, while Italy’s generous “Superbonus” renovation scheme, intended to revive the virus-hit economy, pushed up the cost of building materials and siphoned off labour to more lucrative projects across Italy.

“The Superbonus led to an almost total stop that lasted two years. It was a disaster,” said Cortellesi.

Rebuilding densely packed medieval neighbourhoods was complicated by multiple owners, inheritance disputes and unresolved property claims that made every planning application a legal minefield.

Officials say fears of mafia interference in the adjudication of multi-million-euro contracts added further layers of scrutiny that snarled some projects for years.

Yet for some survivors, the slow pace of reconstruction has been only one part of a much deeper struggle to remain.

Daniele Bonanni lost his mother, sister and nephew in the earthquake, leaving just him, his niece and her baby daughter alive. A sought-after chef, Bonanni could easily have moved on. Instead he stayed put.

“It seemed wrong to abandon the place where I grew up and where my family built a life,” he said. “Perhaps it was a mistake. Even today I cannot say for certain.”

For years, descendants of Amatrice families returned each August to homes inherited from parents and grandparents, but many of those properties were lost.

“People once came for the summer, now they come for lunch,” said Bonanni, who runs a chic restaurant in a food village established for chefs who had lost their businesses.

“If you create a generational break of 10 or 15 years, the bond dies,” he said.

FINANCIAL TRAP

Few embody the frustrations of reconstruction more than brother and sister Alfredo and Elisabetta Perilli.

They lost many relatives and their respective homes in the centre of Amatrice. Alfredo still has to pay the mortgage on his old house, trapping him financially.

“The building no longer exists, but the bank wants its money every month,” he said.

The Perillis also lost their family-run restaurant and hotel, with the land it once occupied now serving as a temporary access route for the reconstruction of a hospital. Building work was scheduled to finish in 2022.

Until they get their site back, they cannot submit reconstruction plans for approval. “If they go on much longer I won’t have the strength to start rebuilding,” said Elisabetta.

Such delays have left Cortellesi wondering whether some of the choices made after the earthquake were the right ones, including the core decision to recreate much of the town on its original site and largely in its former image.

“What we will have is a facsimile,” he said, acknowledging that much of the medieval masonry had gone.

“Personally, I would have redesigned the town in a modern way. Once everything had been wiped away, I think something new could have been created, but it is too late to turn back.”

Editing by Janet Lawrence

Otunnu spoke in an informal dialogue with U.N. member states and civil society groups aimed at assessing the candidates to replace Guterres, who steps down at the end of the year after two five-year terms

International News via Reuters:

Ugandan diplomat Olara Otunnu, one of eight candidates seeking to succeed Antonio Guterres as U.N. secretary-general next year, on Wednesday called for continued reform of the world body and the restoration of its moral authority.

Otunnu, a former U.N. under-secretary-general who served as a special representative for children and armed conflict, invoked St. Francis of Assisi as he spoke of the need for the world body to help bridge growing global divisions.

“Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy,” he said, quoting the Prayer of St. Francis.

Otunnu spoke in an informal dialogue with U.N. member states and civil society groups aimed at assessing the candidates to replace Guterres, who steps down at the end of the year after two five-year terms.

At 75, Otunnu is the oldest of the candidates. Ecuadorean diplomat Ivonne Baki, who joined the contest on Tuesday, is also 75, but was born several months later.

Guterres’ successor faces the task of revitalizing an organization in crisis and declining stature amid pressure to reform what critics say is a bloated, costly bureaucracy and reduce duplication across its agencies.

Like other candidates, Otunnu stressed the need to continue the process of reform.

“Reform is no longer an optional choice. It is an imperative. Without it, the institution is at grave risk. We cannot continue to do business as usual,” he said. 

Denmark, the current chair of the 15-member U.N. Security Council, plans to hold a second informal poll among council members on Friday as part of the process of selecting the next U.N. head.

A first so-called straw poll took place at the end of July and showed former Costa Rican Vice President Rebeca Grynspan as a narrow early frontrunner, followed by former Guyanese Foreign Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett and Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Precedent suggests multiple rounds of polling could continue in the coming weeks and conclude in late September or early October. Other candidates can still join the contest and the process could take longer if no consensus candidate emerges.

Avoiding a veto by any of the five permanent members of the Security Council – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States – is vital, and the countries have widely differing worldviews.

The other candidates are former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, former Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa and former Senegalese President Macky Sall.

Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Don Durfee and Sonali Paul

Katalyst’s LINK craft was launched in early July to approach the observatory, also known as Swift, some 216 miles (347 km) in space, grapple onto it and then tug it to a higher orbit of roughly 373 miles (600 km), extending its life by years

International News via Reuters:

A mission to rescue NASA’s aging Swift observatory in space was canceled on Wednesday after the spacecraft that was launched to tug the satellite to a higher orbit suffered irredeemable technical issues in space, the rescue craft’s owner, Katalyst Space, said.

Katalyst’s LINK craft was launched in early July to approach the observatory, also known as Swift, some 216 miles (347 km) in space, grapple onto it and then tug it to a higher orbit of roughly 373 miles (600 km), extending its life by years.

But the LINK craft began spinning uncontrollably soon after reaching space. Katalyst engineers spent weeks trying to regain control of the craft, uploading new positioning control software last week that slowed but did not stop its errant spinning.

“Following continued monitoring and assessment of the LINK spacecraft, Katalyst Space and NASA together have concluded that due to ongoing attitude control issues, the mission will not include the capture and boost of NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory,” Katalyst and NASA said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

The mission failure means NASA’s prized $500 ‌million Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which has been studying gamma-ray bursts and other cosmic phenomena since 2004, will likely fall into Earth’s atmosphere naturally and burn up later this year.

The goal to boost the observatory’s orbit and extend its life by years, the first U.S. mission of its kind, was an ambitious endeavor for Arizona-based startup Katalyst, which said it built and tested the LINK rescue vehicle ​on an unprecedented nine-month production schedule under a $30 million NASA contract.

“We took on this high-risk, high-reward challenge and are proud of the milestones we reached along the way,” Katalyst CEO Ghonhee Lee said in a statement.

He added that the company, founded in 2019 to build fleets of autonomous robotic spacecraft, has learned a “tremendous amount” during the mission and plans to implement those lessons on future flights.

Reporting by Joey Roulette in Washington; Editing by Chris Reese and Matthew Lewis