Tesla Electric Car Explodes After Hitting Tow Truck in Moscow - The Moscow Times

A Tesla electric car caught fire after crashing into a tow truck on a Moscow motorway late on Saturday.

Footage of the incident on state TV channel Rossia 24 showed the car by the side of the road engulfed in flames and thick black smoke. Two small explosions occurred within a few seconds of each other.

It was not possible to tell which Tesla model the car was and only the metal frame remained after the fire.

Tesla Inc stood by safety claims for its Model 3 earlier this week in the face of regulatory scrutiny, while documents showed the top U.S. automotive safety watchdog issued at least five subpoenas since last year seeking information about crashes involving the company's vehicles.

The state-run RIA news agency website posted a video showing the car driving in the left-hand lane of Moscow's ring road, known as the MKAD, before crashing into a tow truck parked by a safety fence that separates the carriageway from oncoming traffic.

The accident took place at around 9 p.m. Moscow time. The speed limit on the ring road is 100 kilometers per hour.

Tesla was not immediately available for a comment on the incident outside normal business hours.

The driver, 41-year-old Alexei Tretyakov, and his children were injured in the crash but escaped from the vehicle before it was destroyed by the fire, Rossia 24 reported.

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https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/08/11/tesla-electric-car-explodes-after-hitting-tow-truck-in-moscow-a66803

2019-08-11 13:32:21Z
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EV Items Offers Affordable Accessories For Your Electric Vehicle - CleanTechnica

Sponsored

Published on August 11th, 2019 | by Sponsored Content

August 11th, 2019 by Sponsored Content 

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As electric vehicles continue to move into the mainstream, more owners are seeking out and creating accessories to make their vehicles look and function in ways that better fit their personalities. EV Items*, a company created by a former Tesla employee and current Tesla owner, has built up an impressive array of affordable accessories for the Tesla Model 3, S, and X that give owners new options to customize their rides without breaking the bank.

Their Model 3 Wireless Qi Charger, for instance, is just $59.99, compared to other options that will set you back more than $100 for a similar device, including Tesla’s own wireless phone charger at $125.

Image credit: EV Items

Other offerings provide additional utility in the spacious Tesla Model 3 center console. Their Premium Vegan Center Console Storage Cubby gives owners a safe place to put smaller items like sunglasses or loose change without having to worry about where it might end up after the next zero to sixty launch onto the freeway. The small tray comes in either black or a bright red for those looking for a little more pop in the interior. EV Items isn’t just for Tesla Model 3 owners, they also have a full line of products for the Model X and Model S including a cubby drawer that helps owners make better use of the awkward shelf under the display.

Image credit: EV Items

Speaking of the center console and its fingerprint magnet finish, EV Items makes a vinyl wrap that lets owners throw down one of a handful of vinyl colors over the high gloss factory black. Give your center console a satin black, satin white, black or white carbon fiber or brushed stainless look with just a few minutes work and a Tesla Model 3 center console wrap kit.

Floor mats are a common first upgrade for Tesla owners, especially for owners living in areas with lots of rain, sleet, and snow. EV Items has a great set of all weather floor and trunk mats custom fit for Teslas. They are cut from a nice thick rubber mat that not only provide protection for the car from kids, animals, feet, sleet, snow, and the like, but they are easy to clean.

The protector from all things kid. Image credit: EV Items

Being made of thick rubber means they can just be pulled out of the car, hosed off, and hung out to dry as needed. That’s a lifesaver for parents and those just looking for a life hack that minimizes the amount of time spent cleaning their car so they can spend more time out on the road just enjoying it.

Finally, and most importantly, an air freshener. I know, I know, they have those down at your local gas station. But remember, where we’re going, we don’t need gas stations. But we will still have kids and pets and other visitors that might not leave the interior of your car smelling fresh and happy. We all want the inside of your car to smell fresh and happy, and EV Items knew that.

Image credit: EV Items

They came up with a few air fresheners that come free with any order, and make great add on items to any cart and any car. The air fresheners come in two different builds. The first one depicts a fictitious “starman” flying through space near a blue-green planet in a sporty red car and another that features the starman character standing proudly, helmet in hand. They look a lot like the starman and roadster that were launched into space by SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy launch, but the little disclaimer says they are works of fiction, so they couldn’t be. But they’re awesome and they’d fit right into the interior of your Tesla.

For a limited time, they are offering 20% off to CleanTechnica readers using this special link or promo code “CLEANTECHNICA” which is a nice chunk off the top of any order. If you’re rocking a new Tesla and in want of some accessories to make it yours, head over to EV Items and pick up some of their gear, then come back here and let us know what you think.

*This post was sponsored by EV Items; all images from the company (used with permission) 
 

Tags: Center Console, EV Items, Floor Mats, Tesla Model 3, Vinyl Wrap

About the Author

Sponsored Content CleanTechnica and our parent company, Important Media, occasionally choose to work with select clients for paid promotion on our network sites. This is the account for all paid content. For information about paid outreach, please contact our Accounts Manager Andrea Bertoli.

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2019-08-11 13:01:24Z
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Women Lost More Jobs Than Anyone Else In Canada Last Month - Narcity

Canada's workforce gender gap debate may rear its ugly head again thanks to surprising data from Statistics Canada's latest labour report, which shows that women between the ages of 25 and 54 lost thousands of jobs. Meanwhile, men of the same demographic actually gained new jobs this past month. Now that Canada's unemployment rate has climbed to 5.7%, women account for a vast majority of jobs lost throughout the nation. 

Every month, Stats Canada releases new data measuring the employment and unemployment rates across the country for every working-age demographic. The most recent report from July 2019 came as quite the shock to many Canadians, with a total job loss of 24,200 jobs.

Compared against the rest of the year, the 2% unemployment increase is not a massive leap by any means. But when you look at the statistics on gender, that's when things get really interesting. 

Of the 24,200 jobs that Canadians lost last month, 18,000 of those lost jobs belonged to women between the age of 25 and 54. Yet, during the same month, men of the same age actually gained 22,000 jobs, decreasing the unemployment rate for men between the ages of 25 to 54. 

Male youth between the age of 15 and 24 also took a sizable hit on job loss, as employment fell by 19,000. Yet, when it comes down to it, women are still losing more jobs than anyone else in Canada. 

So where in Canada are these lost jobs most common? Alberta, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick each lost many jobs. Alberta was hit the hardest, loosing 14,000 jobs across the province.

Unemployment rates in Quebec, P.E.I increased slightly, and the rates everywhere else saw little to no change at all.  

Regardless of age or province, the numbers don't lie — women across the country are definitely bearing the brunt of Canada's growing unemployment rate.

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August 10, 2019 at 04:43AM

How currency war could affect yuan's global status | Opinion - Asia Times

The relationship between China and the United States headed toward a more delicate and complex phase when, on August 1, the Trump administration announced tariffs on an additional $300 billion of Chinese goods, highlighting the failure of the meeting between Xi Jinping and the American president at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan.

This inspired little confidence among members of the international community, who were alarmed to see tensions escalate. The US tariff move was not as successful as the Trump administration had expected. The “Tariffs Hurt the Heartland” campaign underlined how farmers and manufactures are being hit by the negative consequences of the trade war, with losses caused by Chinese retaliation on agricultural products imported from the United States and by higher taxes.

Several American companies are concerned about the costs they are facing, and the dissatisfaction leaves room to wonder if the commercial measures implemented by the government are exclusively intended to protect citizens’ interests or rather to contain China’s influence, which is challenging the US’s leadership status.

On the other side, Beijing could not remain passive in the face of aggressive American economic policy. Last Monday, the People’s Bank of China set the yuan’s daily reference rate at 6.9225 per dollar, leading to the devaluation of the currency to support the manufacturing sector. Indeed, exchange rates have a central importance on the international chessboard, where devaluation makes national exports cheaper, thanks to a fall in the price of goods. This can also boost production due to increased foreign consumer demand.

Trump harshly accused China of “currency manipulation,” sparking a debate on whether or not the trade war will become a currency war

Trump harshly accused China of “currency manipulation,” sparking a debate on whether or not the trade war will become a currency war. But Chinese experts and authorities said they refused to engage in a competitive devaluation, rejecting any criticism.

However, the yuan depreciation could have serious repercussions even within the Asian nation where the strategy could slow down the progress made in the internationalization of the currency, a plan launched in 2009 with the promotion of offshore yuan liquidity hubs whose main goal is to develop the utilization of the currency in trading and investments even outside China.

In the framework of the yuan’s global journey, China studied different steps to internationalize the currency, which could be analyzed following the “functional approach” suggested by Yongding Yu, an academic at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences:

• Making the yuan available to non-residents thanks to the promotion of its use for imports from Hong Kong, along with the accumulation of yuan assets within the special administrative region fostered by mechanisms created to pay favorable interests on deposits with Chinese banks, attracting more investors.
• Giving to PRC’s importers the chance to use the yuan as a settlement currency. This stage is strongly influenced by variations in exchange rates and by market expectations of them, which in turn influences businesses that would like to use it for trade invoicing.
• Denominating financial transactions with the sale of panda bonds. In 2005, the Asia Development Bank and the International Finance Corporation were authorized to issue the first two bonds, opening up the onshore bond market in China. In spite of the warm growth, in 2015 panda bonds were back to play an interesting part within the financial world when foreign central banks and organizations were allowed to issue them in the China Interbank Bond Market. According to the World Bank, panda bonds’ volume will exceed 320 billion yuan by 2020.
• Providing liquidity through yuan swaps with foreign central banks, which can sell an amount of their currency, obtaining yuan deposited in accounts held with the People’s Bank of China. Over the years, 30 countries, including Ukraine, Brazil, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates were involved in these arrangements.

The internationalization of the yuan could represent for Beijing an essential element needed to complete the construction of the “Chinese Rejuvenation,” a project that goes beyond the lines marked by financial and economic purposes to also embrace a common dream with solid cultural and historical roots. However, the efforts and the commitment needed to facilitate the rebirth of China could appear difficult to interpret by Western counterparts, especially the United States.

Currency wars, as well as trade conflicts, are a signal of the lack of adaptability to the new multipolar order’s features, where protectionist policies cause impairment for all the actors in the global and interconnected economy.

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August 10, 2019 at 03:59AM

Volatility in China's yuan due to escalating U.S. trade friction: PBOC official - Reuters

FILE PHOTO: Chinese 100 yuan banknotes are seen in a counting machine while a clerk counts them at a branch of a commercial bank in Beijing, China, in this March 30, 2016 file picture. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo

YICHUN, China/ SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Volatility in China’s yuan since August is a normal market reaction to escalating trade frictions stoked by the United States and was caused, to some extent, by Washington’s decision to raise tariffs, a senior Chinese central bank official said.

Zhu Jun, director-general of the People’s Bank of China’s international department, made the comments on Saturday to a forum held in the northern Chinese province of Heilongjiang.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday labeled China a currency manipulator, hours after China let the yuan drop through a key support level to its lowest point in more than a decade. The moves jolted financial markets, fueling fears of a global currency war.

Days earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump had vowed to impose a 10% tariff on $300 billion of Chinese imports from Sept. 1, ending a temporary truce and sharply escalating the trade dispute.

Zhu said that the yuan’s move was a normal reaction to Trump’s tariff threat.

“The labeling...violates basic, common economic sense and international consensus, and is unconvincing,” Zhu said, adding that the Chinese economy was resilient and capable of coping with various situations.

The year-long trade war between the world’s two largest economies has already spread beyond tit-for-tat tariffs on goods to other areas such as technology, and analysts caution retaliation could widen in scope and severity, weighing further on business confidence and global economic growth.

The yuan CNY=CFXS lost 1.6% against the dollar last week, but there were signs in the last few sessions that authorities were trying to stabilize it.[CNY/]

Reporting by Li Zheng, Hongwei Li and Brenda Goh; Editing by Kim Coghill

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-cenbank/volatility-in-chinas-yuan-due-to-escalating-u-s-trade-friction-pboc-official-idUSKCN1V105D

2019-08-11 05:57:00Z
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Even Trump's Advisors Think He's Losing The Trade War With China - The Ring of Fire

According to new reports, Donald Trump’s economic and financial advisors agree that his tariffs are a really bad idea, but he continues to choose to ignore them and their warnings. The United States is paying the price for Trump’s arrogance, and the stock market suffered one of the worst days in history on Monday as a result of his idiotic policies. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.
 
Link – https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/04/trump...

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On Monday, Donald Trump's escalating trade war sent the stock market spiraling even further downward in what analysts have actually called. One of the worst days in the history of the stock market. Dropped over 900 points late yesterday afternoon as tensions between DC and China heat up. You've got Donald Trump over here saying, we're putting more tariffs on your remaining $300 billion worth of goods. China's manipulating their currency. They're saying they're not going to work with the U.S. Maybe we're going to throw some more tariffs out there. And all of that sent the market spiraling downward. And here's the kicker, folks. You know, Trump announced these new tariffs last Thursday, but his advisors knew that this crap was going to happen because they were actually already over in China at the time when Trump announced this new tariff on Twitter, you know, week ago, you had Steven Mnuchin and US trade representative Robert Lighthizer over in China, actually engaging in trade negotiations.

They were sitting at the table trying to get this worked out so we didn't have to escalate anything. And then they came back and told Donald Trump, hey, uh, things didn't go the way we wanted. You know, we weren't able to finalize any kind of deal. I don't even know if we came close to reaching a deal. So, you know, that's kind of where we're at right now. And Trump responds by saying, well, I'm going to put a 10% tariff on $300 billion worth of their goods to which Mnuchin and Lighthizer said, no, you can't do that. That is horrible. Not to mention you have a truce with the president of China. You've already agreed not to do this. You can't do it. They're going to retaliate. Things are going to go badly. And then you had John Bolton, Larry Kudlow, Trump's economic advisor and chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, who also in the Oval Office, came in and said, don't do this.

You more on, you cannot escalate this trade war. This is going to end badly for everyone. And according to reports, this then resulted in a two hour debate between Donald Trump on one side and everyone else on the other side. And as we all know, Donald Trump apparently won because he decided to put more tariffs in place on Chinese goods. But at the end of that little meeting, when Donald Trump announced these tariffs on Twitter, by the way, that's how we get our official now announcements now as a country on Twitter. Um, they did help him craft the tweet, you know, so it wouldn't be ridiculously insulting and just make things worse. But then flash forward four or five days later and China retaliates the stock market crashes and Donald Trump is still out there telling us on Twitter, things will be fine. Don't worry, China can't hurt all of us.

Don't worry. Poor farmers, my bailout is on the way for you so you can still vote for me in 2020 I'm looking out for you. These people don't want a handout. They just want to be able to sell their goods. But thanks to Donald Trump's trade war, they can't in sending them a, a check right now isn't going to do enough to buy their votes back. Sure. I'm sure some of them will, but the majority of them understand like, hey, this is a great check. You get, send me another one next month and the month after and for however long you continue this disastrous trade war because a one time check to buy some of my crops to let them go rotten.

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August 11, 2019 at 03:01AM

Developers can't get enough of Canada's new loans to build rental housing - Financial Post

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has ramped up loans to boost rental housing in Canada and developers are snapping them up.

Demand has been so hot for the low-cost loans from Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. that the government plans to increase the program to almost $14 billion (US$11 billion) over the next nine years. That’s up from $2.5 billion when it was launched in 2017.

“I’ve been fielding a lot of calls,” Robyn Adamache, senior specialist of affordable housing for the housing agency, said by phone. “There’s been really little rental buildings across Canada because the economics have been so difficult for builders and this could actually make numbers work to build rental.”

Canada is expanding initiatives to increase housing supply amid growing affordability pressures. Home prices have soared almost 40 per cent in the past five years across the country, largely driven by Toronto and Vancouver, and rents continue to jump. The rental construction financing initiative is part of a $55 billion national housing strategy promising 125,000 new homes.

CMHC has conditionally committed to $3.7 billion in loans to fund about 12,000 rental units under the rental construction financing initiative. Of that, $810 million are formal commitments for 2,754 rentals — including affordable units — in cities such as Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary.

Cheap Rates

Rates for the loans usually range from 1.5 per cent to 3 per cent, depending on the interest-rate environment, and are locked in for 10 years. That’s about 100 basis points to 300 basis points cheaper than conventional construction loans.

The biggest loan so far was for $357 million to fund the construction of three rental towers in the Toronto’s West Don Lands by developers including Tricon Capital Group. and Dream Unlimited Corp. Out of the 761 units that will be funded by CMHC, 229 will be deemed affordable.

Canada has also launched a $13 billion affordable-housing fund, which offers cheaper loans for development and financing.

RioCan REIT is currently exploring its first CMHC-backed financing to help fund a rental building in Toronto. “Hopefully we’ll do a lot of them,” Ed Sonshine, chief executive officer of of RioCan, said in an interview in May. “The cheapest debt in town is CMHC-guaranteed debt.”

Bloomberg.com

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August 09, 2019 at 08:57PM