The Speaker Editors

Trump Agrees Not to Terminate NAFTA

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After phone calls with Trudeau and Nieto, the White House said that Trump “Agreed not to terminate NAFTA at this time and the leaders agreed to proceed swiftly, according to their required internal procedures, to enable the renegotiation of the NAFTA deal to the benefit of all three countries.”

Trump also wrote in a statement, “It is my privilege to bring NAFTA up to date through renegotiation. It is an honor to deal with both President Peña Nieto and Prime Minister Trudeau, and I believe that the end result will make all three countries stronger and better.”

During the campaign trail and until very recently, Trump made strong statements against NAFTA and in favor of possibly ending the treaty.

Coca-Cola to Cut 1,200 Jobs as People Drink Less Sugary Drinks

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Coca Cola said it would cut 20% of its corporate workforce to save $800m, and will increase cuts to save $3.8b by 2019.

The current corporate staff is 5,500, around 5% of the total workforce of over 100,000.

The company expects profits to be down 1 – 3% this year.

Sugary drink and snack companies are looking towards new technology to reduce sugar while keeping sweetness.

In India, Chocolate Consumption Is Growing Fast

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Due to low cost, a belief the treats are healthy, and Indians’ general liking for chocolate, sales of the food have grown rapidly in the past few years.

Sales grew by 13% last year, according to global market analysis agency Mintel, and the rapid growth is expected to continue to 2020. It’s one of the fastest-growing markets. Mintel thinks it will hit Rs32,000 crore by 2020, up 160% from 2015.

The price for a chocolate bar is around 8 to 16 cents, and 2 in 5 Indians think sugary chocolates and cakes are healthy, according to Mintel.

India’s 228,000 tonnes of consumed chocolate for the year is still well below the much less populated U.S. and U.K., which consumed around 1,300,000 and 600,000 respectively.

U.S. Sanctioning Syrians Tied to Government Chemical Weapons

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As part of the U.S. government’s response to alleged use of chemical weapons by Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, it is placing sanctions on 271 individuals linked to the Syrian agency that produces that country’s chemical weapons and ballistic missiles.

The sanctions include travel blacklisting and financial restrictions.

Assad has said that the accusation he used chemical weapons on his people was a “fabrication” and “a pretext for the attack” the U.S. launched on a Syrian military base after the chemical attack story broke.

95% of India’s Engineers Unfit for Software Development, Study Says

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Despite the large number of engineers in India, most are not fit for software development jobs, according to Aspiring Minds, a private company that does employability assessment, reported Business Line.

Aspiring Minds assessed test results when 36,000 engineering students from over 500 colleges wrote Automata (which tests software development ability). Over 2/3 could not even write code that compiles. Most of the other 1/3 wrote incorrect or inefficient code. 1.4% were found to write good code.
While the overall assessment of India’s engineer’s was this low, India’s tier I colleges fared much better than it’s tier IIIs. From India’s top 100 colleges, almost 70% of students could write compilable — even if incorrect or inefficient — code, compared with 31% for tier IIIs.
Another dimension to the assessment is the test itself, Automata, which has been criticised for poor or incorrect questions, as well as the company which is the source of the results.

U.S. Navy Towards Korea

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A significant force of U.S. Navy craft is making their way towards the Korean Peninsula and is set to arrive in days. The force held routine exercises with Japanese craft in the Philippine Sea this week.

France is holding the first stage of its national election. Of five candidates, the two who receive the most votes will proceed to the next stage of the election to be chosen through another vote.

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Much talk about the most recent Islamist attack in Paris and how that might swing the vote towards the Right and anti-immigration Marine Le Pen. In the attack, a gunman opened fire on police and killed one before being killed by police fire.