Medicare and Social Security go-broke dates pushed up due to rising health care costs, new SSA law
WASHINGTON (AP) — The go-broke dates for Medicare and Social Security 's trust funds have moved up as rising health care costs and new legislation affecting Social Security benefits have contributed to earlier projected depletion dates, according to an annual report released Wednesday.
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Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Township mechanics in South Africa unite to turbocharge their small businesses
BRAKPAN, South Africa (AP) — Themba Maseko quickly wipes oil and grease off his hands with a rag as he breaks away from repairing one car to assist another customer who needs parts for a low-riding BMW 325is that he's pulled up in, exhausts booming. As soon as Maseko returns beneath the hood of the first vehicle to continue his work, yet another man arrives desperately wanting his car to be looked at. 'It gets hectic,' said the 39-year-old mechanic, sweat plastering his face. The father of three runs a small motor repair shop in the township of Tsakane, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of South Africa's biggest city of Johannesburg. His hopes for his business to succeed when it's up against established urban car service and repair centers have been boosted by a new initiative started at the end of last year. Maseko has joined with other mechanics from townships to form a cooperative. Together, they now have combined purchasing power to ensure they can source official car spares and equipment for their shops and don't get cut out of the market. The Motor Spares Collective means they can place orders to an online spares shop through WhatsApp and authentic parts are usually delivered to them in 24 hours. That avoids what Maseko says is his biggest challenge: spending hours away from his garage queuing for parts, sometimes to find there aren't any in stock because they've been bought up by larger chains. As one busy day at his shop showed, the customers are lining up for Maseko's services, he just needs the parts. 'Now with the collective it's much easier. I don't have to go stand in queue and waste time,' said Maseko, who changed career from an electrician to a full-time mechanic in 2008. 'Plus, it's at a cheaper price.' Small enterprises are part of a big informal sector The Motor Spares Collective is one initiative designed to unlock the potential of small township businesses in South Africa, which the government has identified as key to driving growth and creating jobs in areas where unemployment and poverty are high. Various studies indicate that more than 21 million people in South Africa live in townships on the edge of major cities or towns — a third of the population — and they have a combined spending power of billions of dollars and generally prefer local businesses. South Africa has over 700,000 registered small businesses. In the townships these include hair salons, taverns, car repair shops, laundromats and others sometimes operating out of people's homes. According to a report by financial services group Lesaka, South Africa's informal sector generates an estimated $33 billion in revenue, or more than 6% of GDP. 'People don't respect the trade in the townships,' said Sharief Bartus, another member of the motor spares collective. For a $10 monthly membership fee for the first year, Maseko and the others get more than just access to car parts and tools for their garages. The collective also offers skills development opportunities, help with business registration and financing. 'The more members we get, the more discounts we get, the more work we have,' said Dorian Slimmerts, another mechanic in the collective who is operating not far from Maseko. Mechanics discover a thriving opportunity Township mechanics offering a local option for car owners have long battled on the fringes of the country's commercial auto manufacturing and repair sector. A regulation change in 2020 also made a big difference. New 'right to repair' rules in South Africa mean car owners can now have their vehicles serviced by registered independent mechanics and not lose their warranties. That's opened the door a little more for township mechanics. Car maintenance is especially needed in South Africa, where there are around 12 million automobiles on the road and people are keeping their cars longer. The demand for affordable pre-owned cars has outpaced new cars since the COVID-19 pandemic. Time is the critical element for township mechanics, though. Their businesses see lots of walk-in clients, prices are often negotiated and customers expect quick service — or they will look elsewhere. 'All the mechanic sells is time,' said Amanda Gcabashe, managing director of UBU Investment Holdings, an economic advisory company that helped set up the cooperative. 'And that's why we came with this to say, how do we make sure that we then solve that pain point by making spares easily accessible?' She said that as well as the business help, the collective is also looking to offer life insurance packages and other social safety net services for its mechanics. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. Bulelani Balabala, the founder of the Township Entrepreneurs Alliance, said cooperatives were a powerful way to harness the potential of small businesses serving millions of people in townships. 'It's a market that can't be ignored,' he said. ___ For more on Africa and development: The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Truckers practice English skills as US language policy takes effect
LINDEN, New Jersey (AP) — At a trucking school in New Jersey, students are maneuvering 18-wheelers around traffic cones. Other future drivers look under hoods to perform safety checks, narrating as they examine steering hoses for cracks and leaks. An instructor glides between speaking Spanish and English as he teaches Manuel Castillo, a native Spanish speaker, how to inspect a school bus. They're using a printed script of English phrases to practice what Castillo would say during a roadside inspection. Brushing up on English has taken on new urgency for future and current truck drivers after President Donald Trump issued an executive order saying truckers who don't read and speak the language proficiently would be considered unfit for service. 'A driver who can't understand English will not drive a commercial vehicle in this country. Period,' Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said last month while announcing enforcement guidelines that take effect on Wednesday. Updated U.S. Department of Transportation procedures call for enhanced inspections to determine if commercial motor vehicle operators can reply to questions and directions in English, as well as understand highway traffic signs and electronic message boards. Truckers who learned English as a second language are concerned they may lose their jobs if they make a mistake or speak with a heavy accent while under questioning. Some have worked to improve their English fluency by taking classes, reciting scripts and watching instructional videos. 'If it's not the language that you prefer to use daily, you may get a little nervous and you may feel, 'What if I say the wrong thing?'' said Jerry Maldonado, chairman of the board of the Laredo Motor Carriers Association, a trade association in Laredo, Texas, that represents approximately 200 trucking companies. 'It's going to be, at the end of the day, the interpretation of the officer, so that makes people nervous.' The guidance applies to truck and bus drivers engaged in interstate commerce. It aims to improve road safety following incidents in which truck drivers' inability to read signs or speak English may have contributed to traffic deaths, the Transportation Department said. English requirement isn't new Requiring truck drivers to speak and read English isn't new, but the penalty for not meeting the proficiency standard is becoming more severe. To get a commercial driver's license, applicants must pass a written test and be able to name the parts of a bus or truck in English as they check tire inflation, tread depth, lug nuts and coolants. The revised policy reverses guidance issued nine years ago, near the end of then-President Barack Obama's final term, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. In 2016, the agency said drivers whose English skills were found lacking could receive a citation but not be prohibited from working. Before that, the penalty was getting placed on 'out-of-service status.' 'We have bridges that get hit because drivers don't understand the signs on the bridges for things like height clearance,' Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association President Todd Spencer said. Practicing English phrases In Laredo, a border city where many residents speak a mix of English and Spanish, Maldonado's association is offering free English classes on weekends to help truckers feel more confident in their ability to communicate. 'Everybody knows what a stop sign looks like,' Maldonado said. 'But if there's construction or if there is an accident five miles down the road, and they have to put up a sign — 'Caution, must exit now, road closed ahead,' and you are not able to read that or understand that, that could potentially be a safety issue.' At Driving Academy in Linden, New Jersey, multilingual instructors teach students how to inspect vehicle parts in their first language and then provide explanations in English, according to founder Jonathan Marques. The school created scripts so students could practice what to say if they're stopped, he said. Students are advised to watch training videos as homework, while licensed truckers can listen to English language apps instead of music when they're on the road, Marques suggested. Instructor Paul Cuartas helps students prepare but worries that inspectors will now expect truckers and bus drivers to have perfect English. 'I'm concerned because now for all the Spanish people it's more difficult,' he said. Castillo, who moved to the U.S. from Ecuador in 1993, said he has no problem understanding English but has been watching videos to study industry terms. 'Some words I don't understand, but I try to learn more English,' he said. Asked whether he supports the president's executive order, Castillo said he voted for Trump but doesn't agree with the president's push to deport some immigrants who haven't committed crimes. 'He makes a lot of problems, especially for Hispanic people,' Castillo said. GTR Trucking School in Detroit also has offered students ESL classes. Co-owner Al Myftiu drove a truck after moving to the U.S. from Albania in 1993. He said he wants to create a small book of phrases that truckers need to learn. For students with a thick accent, 'I tell them, 'Slow down, speak slowly and people can understand you, and if you don't understand something, you can ask,'' Myftiu said. How it will work Roadside inspections can be initiated over issues such as a faulty brake light or on a routine basis, and often take place at weigh stations. The guidance directs inspectors who suspect a driver doesn't understand what they're saying to administer an English proficiency test, which includes both an interview and a highway traffic sign recognition component. In the past, some drivers used translation apps to communicate with federal inspectors. The updated policy bars the use of interpreters, smartphones, cue cards or other aids during interviews. Several truck drivers taking a break at Flying J Travel Center in New Jersey said they support Trump's order, adding that drivers who heavily rely on translation programs probably wouldn't be able to read important signs. 'We try to ask them questions about the business just to strike a conversation, … and they're not able to communicate with us at all,' Kassem Elkhatib, one of the drivers at Flying J, said. Fear of discrimination It's unclear how safety inspectors will decide whether a driver knows enough English because that portion of the instructions was redacted from the guidance distributed by Transportation Department. The department advised motor carriers that drivers should be able to answer questions about shipping documents, the origin and destination of trips, and how long they've been on duty. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. A trucker placed out of service and the company they work for are responsible for ensuring a language violation is corrected before the driver hits the highway again, the Transportation Department said. Truck drivers who practice the Sikh religion already face discrimination in hiring and at loading docks, according to Mannirmal Kaur, federal policy manager for Sikh Coalition, an advocacy group. Now they are worried about inspectors making subjective, non-standardized determinations about which of them are proficient in English, she said. 'A truck driver who does speak English sufficiently to comply with federal standards but maybe they speak with an accent, or maybe they use a different vocabulary that the inspector isn't used to hearing: Is that person then going to be subject to an English language violation?' Kaur asked. 'And under the new policy, are they then going to be designated out-of-service, which could result in unemployment?' ___ Video journalist Mingson Lau contributed from Carneys Point Township, New Jersey.
Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Trump heads to the NATO summit on the heels of a possible Israel-Iran ceasefire
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's first appearance at NATO since returning to the White House was supposed to center on how the U.S. secured a historic military spending pledge from others in the defensive alliance — effectively bending it to its will. But in the spotlight instead now is Trump's decision to strike three nuclear enrichment facilities in Iran that the administration says eroded Tehran's nuclear ambitions as well as the president's sudden announcement that Israel and Iran had reached a 'complete and total ceasefire.' The sharp U-turn in hostilities just hours before he was set to depart for the summit is sure to dominate the discussions in The Hague, Netherlands. The impact of the strikes had already begun to shape the summit, with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte dancing around the issue even as hundreds of people showed up in The Hague on Sunday to denounce the conflict in a protest that was supposed to be focused on defense spending. Still, other NATO countries have become accustomed to the unpredictable when it comes to Trump, who has made no secret of his disdain for the alliance, which was created as a bulwark against threats from the former Soviet Union. Trump's debut on the NATO stage at the 2017 summit was perhaps most remembered by his shove of Dusko Markovic, the prime minister of Montenegro, as the U.S. president jostled toward the front of the pack of world leaders during a NATO headquarters tour. And he began the 2018 summit by questioning the value of the decades-old military alliance and accusing its members of not contributing enough money for their defense — themes he has echoed since. In Brussels, Trump floated a 4% target of defense spending as a percentage of a country's gross domestic product, a figure that seemed unthinkable at the time. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will also attend the NATO summit this week. She said if Trump does anything to sow division within the alliance, it would benefit Xi Jinping of China, which NATO countries have accused of enabling Russia as it invades Ukraine. 'That does not help America, does not help our national security,' Shaheen said in an interview. 'What it does is hand a victory to our adversaries, and for an administration that claims to be so concerned about the threat from (China), to behave in that way is hard to understand.' Trump heavily telegraphed his attitude toward global alliances during his presidential campaigns. As a candidate in 2016, Trump suggested that he as president would not necessarily heed the alliance's mutual defense guarantees outlined in Article 5 of the NATO treaty. And during a campaign rally in 2024, Trump recounted a conversation with another NATO leader during which Trump said he would 'encourage' Russia 'to do whatever the hell they want' to members who weren't meeting the alliance's military spending targets. In The Hague, Trump will want to tout — and take credit for — the pledge to hike military spending, which requires other NATO countries to invest in their defense at an unprecedented scale. The president went as far as to argue that the U.S. should not have to abide by the 5% spending pledge he wants imposed on the other NATO countries. That 5% is effectively divided into two parts. The first, 3.5%, is meant to be made up of traditional military spending such as tanks, warplanes and air defense. What can comprise the remaining 1.5% is a bit fuzzier, but it can include things like roads and bridges that troops could use to travel. According to NATO, the U.S. was spending about 3.4% of its gross domestic product on defense as of 2024. Most NATO countries — with Spain as the key holdout — are preparing to endorse the pledge, motivated not just by Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine to bolster their own defenses but also perhaps appease the United States and its tempestuous leader. 'He hasn't said this in a while, but there are still a lot of worries in Europe that maybe the United States will pull out of NATO, maybe the United States won't honor Article 5,' said Matthew Kroenig, vice president and senior director of the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and a former Pentagon official. 'I think there is a real fear among Europeans that we need to deliver for Trump in order to keep the United States engaged in NATO.' Kroenig added: 'Like it or not, I do think Trump's tougher style does get more results.' European allies have taken note of potential signs of a broader U.S. retreat. France and other NATO countries have been concerned that the Trump administration is considering reducing troop levels in Europe and shift them over to the Indo-Pacific, which Cabinet officials have signaled is a higher priority. Still, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matt Whitaker have underscored the U.S.' commitment and have said the Trump administration is only seeking a stronger alliance. 'There's sort of — in some ways — not a coherent view coming from this administration, the Trump administration, about how it sees NATO,' said Max Bergmann, the director of the Europe, Russia and Eurasia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 'And right now, Europeans can kind of see what they want from the United States.' The White House has not said which world leaders Trump will meet with at the World Forum in The Hague. It's unclear whether Trump's path will cross with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's; the two leaders were scheduled to meet at the Group of 7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, earlier this month before Trump abruptly cut his trip short and returned to Washington. Rutte has stressed before that Trump's tariff war has no impact on NATO since the alliance doesn't deal with trade. But it will be hard to ignore the issue as the U.S. and the European Union continue to negotiate a trade deal after the U.S. president threatened 50% import taxes on all European goods. Trump has set a July 9 deadline for the U.S. and the 27-country EU to strike a trade deal. But in recent days, he's said the EU had not offered a fair deal as he reiterated his threat to force Europe to 'just pay whatever we say they have to pay.' ___ Associated Press writer Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed to this report.
