Denmark Hopes to Set Example With Ambitious Carbon-Cutting Program
Denmark’s official in charge of climate matters says his country hopes to set an example for the world with an ambitious scheme to cut carbon emissions by 70% in little more than a decade, but it has no illusions that it can have a meaningful impact on global warming by itself.
“To be honest, for the climate, even if we just close down our country tomorrow, it wouldn’t help much,” Dan Jørgensen, Denmark’s top climate and energy official, told VOA during a visit to Washington this week. “I guess you can argue: Does it really matter what you do?”
Jørgensen said Denmark accounts for just 0.1% of the world’s carbon emissions, a drop in the bucket compared with emissions from the largest polluters such as China, the United States and India. But he said, “The reason we do these things anyway is that if we succeed in doing that, then hopefully we’ll inspire others.”
Jørgensen, who will be in New York next week to promote his country’s climate agenda at the United Nations, said his country hopes to demonstrate that it can carry out a green transformation and still be competitive in the global marketplace. In the process, it expects to develop new technologies that “other countries can also use.” Stages of debate
According to Jørgensen, the climate debate in Denmark has gone through several stages since the issue started to enter the public’s consciousness about 15 or 20 years ago.
At that time, he said, some in Denmark still questioned how real climate change was and whether humans had anything to do with it. That was followed by a period in which the public by and large understood that climate change was real, but some remained reluctant to devote resources to the problem, concerned that efforts by Denmark alone would be futile. People hold placards during the Global Climate Strike at Raadhuspladsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, Sept. 20, 2019.Now, he said, most people agree on the nature of the problem. Looking out the window, “they see droughts, they see flooding, they see extreme weather phenomena,” he said. “We are also a nation that’s closely connected to Greenland,” one of the places where climate change is most evident in the form of melting glaciers.
With that consensus, the debate has shifted to an energetic discussion about the best policy instruments to address the problem.
The issue so dominated Danish general elections in June that the campaign has been described as the country’s “first climate election,” with the question of how to achieve a green transformation topping the agenda in debates among the candidates for prime minister and other posts.
Looking beyond Denmark, Jørgensen said Denmark and its partners in the European Union were sad to see the United States withdraw from the Paris climate agreement and hope it will reconsider. “There’s nothing I would hope more than the U.S. taking leadership on the global stage also on green issues,” he said. Join the battle
Meanwhile, Jørgensen said, all countries and especially the “big growing economies” must join in the battle to prevent climate change “from becoming irreversible and having the most catastrophic consequences.”
But he acknowledges the frustration of newly developing countries, which are only now acquiring energy-intensive amenities that the developed nations have long enjoyed.
“It’s not up to us who’ve been polluting and emitting greenhouse gases for more than 100 years — when I say us, I mean the West, the United States, Europe — it’s not up to us to tell them, ‘No, you cannot drive a car, you cannot buy a fridge or an air conditioner, no, you can’t start to eat meat a few times a week because you can afford it all of a sudden because you’ve come out of poverty.’ ”
Rather, he said, it is up to Denmark and the other developed countries to say, “Can we help you in any way to make that growth green?”
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Could Smart Mirrors Get Consumers Offline and Into Shops?
With online shopping becoming more and more popular, traditional retail stores are doing everything they can to get shoppers to visit real stores. They are hoping one new piece of tech might do the trick. Anna Rice narrates this report by VOA’s Julia Vassey in San Francisco, California.
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‘I Want a Future’: Global Youth Protests Urge Climate Action
Young people afraid for their futures protested around the globe Friday to implore leaders to tackle climate change, turning out by the hundreds of thousands to insist that the warming world can’t wait any longer.Marches, rallies and demonstrations were held from Canberra to Kabul and Cape Town to New York. More than 100,000 turned out in Berlin.
Days before a U.N. climate summit of world leaders, the “Global Climate Strike” events were as small as two dozen activists in Seoul using LED flashlights to send Morse code messages and as large as mass demonstrations in Australia that organizers estimated were the country’s largest since the Iraq War began in 2003.
“You are leading the way in the urgent race against the climate crisis,” U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres wrote in a message to the young protesters on Twitter. “You are on the right side of history. Keep pushing us to do the right thing.”
In New York, where public schools excused students with parental permission, tens of thousands of mostly young people marched through lower Manhattan, briefly shutting down some streets.
“Sorry I can’t clean my room, I’m busy saving the world,” one protester’s sign declared.
Thousands marched to the Capitol in Washington, including 15-year-old high school sophomore A.J. Conermann.
“Basically, our earth is dying, and if we don’t do something about it, we die,” Conermann said.
Thousands packed the streets around Seattle’s City Hall, following a march where tech workers from Amazon and Google joined students demanding an end to fossil fuel use.
Demonstrations came in smaller cities as well. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who recently abandoned his climate-focused presidential run, addressed a rally in Spokane, and a crowd chanted inside the rotunda of the state Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin.
“It’s really unbelievable and really startling to know how little time we have to reverse the damage,” said Maris Maslow-Shields, a high school student from Santa Rosa, California, who marched in San Francisco.
In Paris, teenagers and kids as young as 10 traded classrooms for the streets. Marie-Lou Sahai, 15, skipped school because “the only way to make people listen is to protest.”
Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg testifies at a Climate Crisis Committee joint hearing on “Voices Leading the Next Generation on the Global Climate Crisis,” on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Sept. 18, 2019.The demonstrations were partly inspired by the activism of Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, who has staged weekly “Fridays for Future” demonstrations for a year, urging world leaders to step up efforts against climate change.
“It’s such a victory,” Thunberg told The Associated Press in an interview in New York. “I would never have predicted or believed that this was going to happen, and so fast – and only in 15 months.”
Thunberg spoke at a rally later Friday and was expected to participate in a U.N. Youth Climate Summit on Saturday and speak at the U.N. Climate Action Summit with global leaders on Monday.
“They have this opportunity to do something, and they should take that,” she said. “And otherwise, they should feel ashamed.”
The world has warmed about 1 degree Celsius since before the Industrial Revolution, and scientists have attributed more than 90 percent of the increase to emissions of heat-trapping gases from fuel-burning and other human activity.
Scientists have warned that global warming will subject Earth to rising seas and more heat waves, droughts, storms and flooding, some of which have already manifested themselves.
Climate change has made record-breaking heat twice as likely as record-setting cold temperatures over the past two decades in the contiguous U.S., according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data.
Nations around the world recommitted at a 2015 summit in Paris to hold warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius more than pre-industrial-era levels by the end of this century, and they added a more ambitious goal of limiting the increase to 1.5 C.
But U.S. President Donald Trump subsequently announced that he would withdraw the U.S. from the agreement, which he said benefited other nations at the expense of American businesses and taxpayers.
Trump called global warming a “hoax” before becoming president. He has since said he’s “not denying climate change” but is not convinced it’s man-made or permanent.
New York protester Pearl Seidman, 13, hoped the demonstration would tell the Trump administration “that if they can’t be adults, we’re going to be adults. Because someone needs to do it.” At least one Trump supporter waved a large “Trump 2020” flag as the demonstrators marched in Manhattan.
In Florida, high school students shouted “Miami is under attack” in Miami Beach, where some worried about losing their homes to rising water. On the West Coast, student-led protests drew in some Google and Amazon employees.
Amazon, which ships more than 10 billion items a year, vowed Thursday to cut its use of fossil fuels, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai told the Financial Times in a story published Friday that eliminating the company’s carbon emissions by 2030 did not seem “unreasonable.”
Friday’s demonstrations started in Australia, where organizers estimated 300,000 protesters marched in 110 towns and cities, including Sydney and the national capital, Canberra. Demonstrators called for their country, the world’s largest exporter of coal and liquid natural gas, to take more drastic action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack – filling in while Prime Minister Scott Morrison was on a state visit to the United States – said Australia was already taking action to cut emissions. McCormack called the climate rallies “a disruption” that should have been held on a weekend to avoid inconveniences.
Many middle schools in largely coal-reliant Poland gave students the day off so they could participate in the rallies in Warsaw and other cities. President Andrzej Duda joined school students picking up trash in a forest. German police said more than 100,000 people gathered in front of Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate, near where Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet thrashed out the final details of a $60 billion plan to curb Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions .
Thousands of schoolchildren and their adult supporters demonstrated in London outside the British Parliament. The British government said it endorsed the protesters’ message but did not condone skipping school – a stance that did not sit well with some of the young protesters.
“If politicians were taking the appropriate action we need and had been taking this action a long time ago when it was recognized the world was changing in a negative way, then I would not have to be skipping school,” said Jessica Ahmed, a 16-year-old London student.
In Helsinki, the Finnish capital, a man dressed as Santa Claus stood outside parliament holding a sign: “My house is on fire, my reindeer can’t swim.”
Smaller protests took place in Asia, including in Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Hong Kong and India. In the Afghan capital of Kabul, an armored personnel carrier was deployed to protect about 100 young people as they marched, led by a group of several young women carrying a banner emblazoned with “Fridays for Future.”
“We know war can kill a group of people,” said Fardeen Barakzai, one of the organizers. “The problem in Afghanistan is our leaders are fighting for power, but the real power is in nature.”
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Walmart to Stop E-cigarette Sales in US Stores, Company Memo Says
Walmart Inc. told staff on Friday that it was discontinuing the sale of e-cigarettes and electronic nicotine delivery products at its U.S. stores. In an internal memo seen by Reuters, the retailer said growing federal, state and local regulatory complexity and uncertainty were behind its decision.
“We will complete our exit after selling through current inventory,” the company said.
The growing crackdown on e-cigarettes comes on the heels of bans on sales of flavored vaping products in New York and Michigan and after the Trump administration last week announced plans to remove all flavored e-cigarettes from store shelves, as officials warned that sweet flavors had drawn millions of children into nicotine addiction.
President Donald Trump and other top U.S. officials also expressed concern about surging teenage use of e-cigarettes at a time when health officials are investigating hundreds of reports of vaping-related lung disease and some deaths. Marijuana products
One possible culprit identified so far is a line of illicit marijuana vape products sold under the brand names “Dank Vapes” and “Chronic Carts.”
The New York State Department of Health identified “Dank Vapes” and “Chronic Carts” as products containing Vitamin E acetate, a thickening agent in THC oil that has been a focus in its investigation into the illnesses.
Leading makers of nicotine e-cigarettes, including Juul Labs Inc., British American Tobacco Plc and Imperial Brands Plc, said last week their products did not contain Vitamin E compounds.
Last week Amazon.com Inc. said it took down vape paraphernalia in line with its policies, though the company did not specify the exact products it removed.
In May, Walmart raised the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21 in all its stores and said it would stop selling fruit-flavored e-cigarettes. The move came after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration called out the company for illegally selling tobacco products to minors.
Walmart shares were little changed after being higher than less than 1%. Shares of Altria Group Inc. were up 1.3%.
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Revelers Reach Gates of Area 51 Then Peacefully Rejoin Party
Hundreds of curious Earthlings from around the world traveled to the secret Area 51 military base in the Nevada desert after seeing an internet hoax dubbed “Storm Area 51.”About 100 made it all the way to the gates of the remote site that has long been the focus of UFO conspiracy theories.
A Canadian was cited for indecent exposure, but nobody broke down the gates in search of three-eyed aliens and no UFOs appeared in the sky.Police officers guard an entrance to the Nevada Test and Training Range near Area 51 near Rachel, Nevada, Sept. 20, 2019.It wasn’t long before the revelers peacefully rejoined 2,000 other people at alien-themed festivals in the tiny towns of Rachel and Hiko.As he walked away from one of the gates, 25-year-old Cyril Soudant of Lille, France, said he was disappointed at how few people were at the event.
He took video for his YouTube channel and said he would wait until Friday night to make his final assessment on the experience.”If we get together, have some music, have some beers, that would be a success,” Soudant said.
Among the revelers was Jade Gore, who quit her job at a Dairy Queen in Worthington, Minnesota, and drove to Nevada with Tracy Ferguson. They wrote “Area 51 bound” and “Comin 4 Dem Alien Cheeks” in green paint on the windows of their car.”People were taking pictures and laughing the whole way,” said Gore, 19, who sported dyed green hair and eyebrows.
Ferguson, a truck driver, said they decided to make the trip after seeing the social media post in June calling for people to converge on the remote U.S. Air Force test site.”It started as a joke and now people are getting to know each other,” said Ferguson, 23, of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Authorities expected more people to arrive throughout the day for the festivals offering music and other alien-related activities.
They were sternly discouraged by the military and other law enforcement from acting on the internet hoax that joking said, “They can’t stop all of us. Let’s see them aliens.”People holds signs at an entrance to the Nevada Test and Training Range near Area 51 near Rachel, Nevada, Sept. 20, 2019.A music group called Wily Savage erected a stage Thursday near the Little A’Le’Inn in Rachel and began playing after dark for several hundred campers who braved temperatures that dropped to about 45 degrees (7 Celsius).”It started as a joke, but it’s not a joke for us,” Wily Savage guitarist Alon Burton said. “We know people will come out. We just don’t know how many.”Daniel Martinez, 31, a dealer of Pokemon collectible cards from Pomona, California, was among the first to whirl and dance at the dusty makeshift festival grounds. He stayed warm beneath a wolf “spirit hood” and faux fur jacket.”Here’s a big open space for people to be,” he said. “One person starts something and it infects everybody with positivity. Anything can happen if you give people a place to be.”Another gathering was planned Friday and Saturday at the Alien Research Center souvenir store in Hiko. Owner George Harris said his “Alien Basecamp” would focus on music, movies and talks about extraterrestrial lore.Hiko and Rachel are a 45-minute drive apart on a state road dubbed Extraterrestrial Highway, and a two-hour drive from Las Vegas.Michael Ian Borer, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas, sociologist who researches pop culture and paranormal activity, called the festivities a blend of interest in aliens, the supernatural, government conspiracies and the desire to know what is unknown.”Area 51 is a place where normal, ordinary citizens can’t go. When you tell people they can’t do something, they just want to do it more,” Borer said.
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US Kid Population Shrinking Faster than Expected
Sixty years ago, children accounted for more than one-third — 36% — of the U.S. population. Today, that CLICK ON GRAPHIC TO ENLARGE — Courtesy Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT Data CenterMeanwhile, the overall adult population has continued to climb since 2009.The decline in births might be attributable to the fact that young American adults in their 20s and 30s, among the hardest hit by the Great Recession of 2007-2009, are still recovering professionally and financially from their rough entry into the workforce, prompting them to postpone starting their families.Meanwhile, the graying of America continues. By 2030, all Baby Boomers — those born between 1946 and 1964 — will be over the age of age 65, meaning that 1 in every 5 residents will be of retirement age.Experts had expected the U.S. birth rate to stabilize by now. America’s senior citizens will need more young workers, not fewer, to help bolster economic safety net programs like Social Security, which was designed in 1935 primarily to provide retired workers with a continuing income.The program currently also serves disabled workers and their dependents as well as survivors of deceased workers.In 2014, there were 35 workers per every 100 people drawing Social Security benefits. By 2030, the number of workers is projected to drop to 44 for every 100 beneficiaries.As of June 2018, about 175 million workers paid Social Security taxes while approximately 62 million people received monthly Social Security benefits.
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Worldwide Protest Launched Against Climate Change
A day of worldwide protests against climate change is underway that organizers predict will draw more than one million participants, the largest-ever expected demonstration decrying the man-made causes of a warming planet.Friday’s protests began across Asia, where hundreds of thousands of students and others took to the streets calling for action against climate change ahead of a United Nations summit on the issue. The protests later spread to Africa and Europe, with huge crowds filling the streets.In Australia alone, more than 300,000 children and adults rallied with the backing of some local authorities, schools and businesses. School Strike 4 Climate in Australia said the throngs of protestors represented the largest climate protest in the country’s history. Warmer weather patterns have taken a toll on Australia, sparking drought, flooding, more intense brushfires and the whitening of the Great Barrier Reef.Activists call for action against climate change at a rally in Karachi, Pakistan, Sept. 20, 2019.Smaller protests occurred across Asia, from the Philippines to Hong Kong and India.Rallies are also underway in the United States, where organizers say more than 800 events have been planned, including several high-profile demonstrations in New York. More than 1 million students in some 1,800 New York City public schools have been allowed to skip school in order to participate.In Africa, protests were held in Nairobi, Kenya and in the South African cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria. Experts say Africa is the most vulnerable continent to climate change and the least equipped to deal with the phenomenon.Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg helped inspire the protests, staging weekly demonstrations for the past year calling on world leaders to bolster efforts to combat climate change. Friday’s Global Climate Strike is the third of several worldwide climate rallies organized by students and led by the 16-year-old Thunberg.Kenyan protesters, predominantly young people, march demanding their government take immediate action against climate change, in Nairobi, Kenya, Sept. 20, 2019. (M. Yusuf/VOA)Thunberg is scheduled to speak at an emergency U.N. climate change summit on Monday, when Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to urge world leaders to exceed their commitments to the 2015 Paris climate accord.Guterres has demanded that countries present plans of direct action, including ending construction of coal-fired power plants and reducing fossil fuel subsidies.Countries that are committed to the Paris agreement have pledged to limit the long-term rise in the Earth’s average temperature to two degrees over pre-industrial levels.A U.N. report to be released next week is expected to conclude that global warming and pollution are devastating oceans and polar regions, raising risks for ecological devastation around the world.The Trump administration has cast doubt on a broad scientific consensus that the earth is warming and human activity is mostly to blame.
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Ugandan Youth March Against Degradation of Environment
Nearly 1,000 young people marched Friday in Kampala to protest land, forest and wetland degradation around the country.Statistics from Uganda’s forest authority show that between 1990 and 2015, the country’s forest cover dropped by half — from 24 percent to 12.4 percent.In addition, a 2015 report by the U.N. Development Program indicated that Uganda loses about 2 percent of its wetlands annually.FILE – Dirt is cleared and dumped, destroying a wetland in Entebbe, Uganda, July 8, 2013.The protesting youth, accompanied by a matching band, carried placards that read, “Act Now for Climate Justice,” “Stop Pollution” and “Stop Land Degradation and Deforestation.”Noah Osbert, a student of Kyambogo University, said world leaders need to listen to young people on issues that affect their future.”It is incumbent upon them and upon us to show that we have that spirit of compassion to plant trees, to conserve nature for the future generation,” Osbert said. “For example, we are looking up to having industrialization, how are we counter measuring for industrialization? Because it comes along with the negative side of it.”Research from Makerere University School of Public Health in May 2019 indicated 31,600 people die in Uganda from air pollution-related illnesses linked to dust and industrialization.In addition, the researchers say Kampala’s annual mean pollution levels are five times above the level recommended by the World Health Organization.”I am going to get lung complications, just because the atmosphere is not safe,” said Akello Harriet Hope, program manager for Climate Action Network Uganda. “Am going to go to the water sources, I consume water that is already contaminated. Because waste management is zero. We are getting health issues related to emissions from the preconditioned cars. So, we need justice now.”Exporting coalIn February 2018, Kenya imposed a logging ban. In November, the government extended the logging ban for a year, to enforce reforms aimed at restoring forest cover. However, Uganda immediately became a source of charcoal in Kenya, leading to more logging in the country.Working with the government, activist group Youth Go Green says it intends to plant 10 million trees in the next five years.”Charcoal is being exported to Kenya, to Tanzania and other East African countries,” said Edwin Muhumuza, the group’s leader. “But, I think, we are going to put it before government to see that trade is stopped.”The protest march comes just a day before the first youth Climate Summit in New York, which will provide a platform for young leaders to showcase their solutions and engage with decision-makers.
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Nigeria’s Disabled Athletes Face Surprising Challenges
Nigeria’s paralympic athletes have outshined their able-bodied counterparts in world competitions year after year. Yet, these athletes face such challenges as lack of proper training facilities and inadequate funding. Abdulazeez Ibrahim, who’s known as Nigeria’s para powerlifting champion, is training hard for the powerlifting competition at the Paralympic Games next year in Japan.In 2016, he was part of the disabled team who won medals for Nigeria at the Rio Paralympic Games.FILE – Roland Ezuruike of Nigeria kisses his gold medal following the men’s Paralympic Powerlifting competition, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sept. 9, 2016.Despite dominating world championships, Abdulazeez says the performances of Nigeria’s paralympic athletes are a result of their personal sacrifices and fighting spirits.”I’m a champion, but when you see me along the road, I’m not looking like a champion,” he said. “But go abroad, you see their champions. They’re disabled, see their lives, see their cars. It’s different. Every day, we always make Nigeria proud, and they don’t make us proud. Why?”Nigerian paralympians say they are treated like second-class athletes and get less funding than their able-bodied counterparts, who win fewer medals.Queen Uboh, president of Nigeria’s para powerlifting federation, agrees.”If they can give 10% of the attention they give to soccer or football to para powerlifting or para sports, I think that’s a good start,” Uboh said.Nigeria’s paralympians lack proper training facilities, too.At an underequipped facility in Abuja, para athletes like Abdulazeez say they’re making do with what’s available as they train for the Olympic Games.But a new sports minister, Sunday Akin-Dare, who took over a few months ago, is promising to address their issues.”I think what you do for this country in spite of the circumstances is very commendable. We invest so much in the able-bodied sports men and women. I think we should invest equally in the paralympics,” Akin-Dare said.Nigeria’s paralympic team won all four gold medals in the powerlifting category at the Commonwealth Games, followed by Malaysia and India.While Abdulazeez and his fellow athletes don’t have much to show for their wins, they’re hanging on a hope that things will get better.
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Maryland Gem: Extravagant Art House Made of Scraps
One person’s trash is another person’s treasure is Clarke Bedford’s philosophy. The former museum conservator spent his first career overseeing art, but then decided to make his own. His palette, a world of leftovers. Maxim Moskalkov traveled to Hyattsville, Maryland, to meet with the artist.
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Google Plans to Invest 3 Billion Euros in Europe
Google is planning to invest 3 billion euros to expand its data centers across Europe in the next two years.The tech giant’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, says it will bring the company’s total investments in the continent’s internet infrastructure to 15 billion euros since 2007.Pichai met with Finnish Prime Minister Antii Rinne on Friday in Helsinki and said that the investments “will generate economic activities to the region” and support 13,000 full-time jobs in the European Union every year.He said that Google is “taking another big step by making the biggest corporate purchase of renewable energy in history” – a 1,600-megawatt package of agreements that includes 18 new energy deals. Ten of these will be in Europe.
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Music Starts for Earthlings Around Area 51 Events in Nevada
Sound checks echoed from a distant main stage while Daniel Martinez whirled and danced at dusty makeshift festival grounds just after sunset in Rachel, the Nevada town closest to the once-secret Area 51 military base.Martinez’s muse was the thumping beat from a satellite set-up pumping a techno tune into the chilly desert night Thursday.Warm beneath a wolf “spirit hood” and matching faux fur jacket, the 31-year-old Pokemon collectible cards dealer said people, not the military base, drew him drive more than six hours from Pomona, California, alone.“Here’s a big open space for people to be,” he said. “One person starts something and it infects everybody with positivity. Anything can happen if you give people a place to be.”Minutes later, the music group Wily Savage started, and campers began migrating toward main stage light near the Little A’Le’Inn.The music kicked off weekend events — inspired by an internet hoax to “see them aliens” — that Lincoln County Sheriff Kerry Lee said had drawn perhaps 1,500 people to two tiny desert towns.Lee said late Thursday that more than 150 people also made the rugged trip on washboard dirt roads to get within selfie distance of two gates to the Area 51 U.S. Air Force installation that has long fueled speculation about government studies of space aliens and UFOs.The Air Force has issued stern warnings for people not to try to enter the Nevada Test and Training Range, where Area 51 is located.Lee said no arrests were made.“It’s public land,” the sheriff said. “They’re allowed to go to the gate, as long as they don’t cross the boundary.”Authorities reported no serious incidents related to festivals scheduled until Sunday in Rachel and Hiko, the two towns closest to Area 51. They’re about a 45-minute drive apart on a state road dubbed the Extraterrestrial Highway, and a two-hour drive from Las Vegas.Earlier, as Wily Savage band members helped erect the wooden frame for a stage shade in Rachel, guitarist Alon Burton said he saw a chance to perform for people who, like Martinez, were looking for a scene in which to be seen.“It started as a joke, but it’s not a joke for us,” he said. “We know people will come out. We just don’t know how many.”Michael Ian Borer, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas, sociologist who researches pop culture and paranormal activity, called the festivities sparked by the internet joke “a perfect blend of interest in aliens and the supernatural, government conspiracies, and the desire to know what we don’t know.”The result, Borer said, was “hope and fear” for events that include the “Area 51 Basecamp” featuring music, speakers and movies in Hiko, and festivals in Rachel and Las Vegas competing for the name “Alienstock.”“People desire to be part of something, to be ahead of the curve,” Borer said. “Area 51 is a place where normal, ordinary citizens can’t go. When you tell people they can’t do something, they just want to do it more.”Eric Holt, the Lincoln County emergency manager overseeing preparations, said he believed authorities could handle 30,000 visitors at the two events in Rachel and Hiko.Still, neighbors braced for trouble after millions of people responded to the “Storm Area 51” Facebook post weeks ago.“Those that know what to expect camping in the desert are going to have a good time,” said Joerg Arnu, a Rachel resident who can see the festival grounds from his home.Those who show up in shorts and flip-flops will find no protection against “critters, snakes and scorpions.”“It will get cold at night. They’re not going to find what they’re looking for, and they are going to get angry,” Arnu said.Some cellphones didn’t work Thursday in Rachel, and officials expect what service there was to eventually be overwhelmed.The Federal Aviation Administration closed nearby airspace, although Air Force jets could be heard in the sun-drenched skies, along with an occasional sonic boom.George Harris, owner of the Alien Research Center souvenir store in Hiko, said Friday and Saturday’s “Area 51 Basecamp” will focus on music, movies and talks about extraterrestrial lore.Electronic dance music DJ and recording artist Paul Oakenfold is Friday’s headliner in Hiko.The event also promises food trucks and vendors, trash and electric service, and a robust security and medical staff.Harris said he was prepared for as many as 15,000 people and expected they would appreciate taking selfies with a replica of the Area 51 back gate without having to travel several miles to the real thing.Sharon Wehrly, sheriff in adjacent Nye County, home to a conspicuously green establishment called the Area 51 Alien Center, said messages discouraging Earthlings from trying to find extraterrestrials in Amargosa Valley appeared to work.She reported no arrests or incidents Thursday.Her deputies last week arrested two Dutch tourists attracted by “Storm Area 51.” The men pleaded guilty to trespassing at a secure U.S. site nowhere near Area 51 and were sentenced to three days in jail after promising to pay nearly $2,300 each in fines.
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Hundreds of Thousands Rally Across Australia, Asia Against Climate Change
The Associated Press contributed to this report.SYDNEY/BANGKOK — Thousands of students took to the streets of Australia and other Asia-Pacific countries Friday to kick off a global strike demanding world leaders gathering for a U.N. climate summit adopt urgent measures to stop an environmental catastrophe.“We didn’t light it, but we’re trying to fight it,” read one sign carried by a student in Sydney, as social media posts showed huge demonstrations around the country, including outback towns like Alice Springs.“The oceans are rising and so are we,” read another sign held by a protester wearing school uniform in Melbourne.Protests inspired by the 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg are planned in about 150 countries Friday as people rally to demand governments take immediate action to limit the harmful effects of manmade climate change.Incredible pictures as Australia’s gathering for the Thousands of protesters, many of them school students, gather in Sydney, Sept. 20, 2019, calling for action against climate change. Australia’s acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack has described ongoing climate rallies as “just a disruption.”By early afternoon, the Sydney protesters were overflowing out of a 34-hectare (84-acre) open space in the city. Similar crowds were reported in Brisbane and other state capitals.Organizers estimate more than 300,000 protesters took to Australian streets in what would be the largest demonstrations the country had seen since the Iraq War began in 2003. Protests were staged in 110 towns and cities across Australia, with organizers demanding government and business commit to a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2030.School Strike 4 Climate said 265,000 protesters turned out at demonstrations in seven Australian cities alone. The largest crowd was an estimated 100,000 in Melbourne, followed by 80,000 in Sydney.Danielle Porepilliasana, a Sydney high school student, had a blunt message for politicians like Australian Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, who told parliament Thursday that students should stay in class.“World leaders from everywhere are telling us that students need to be at school doing work,” she said, wearing anti-coal earrings. “I’d like to see them at their parliaments doing their jobs for once.”Rising seasThe U.N. summit brings together world leaders to discuss climate change mitigation strategies, such as transitioning to renewable energy sources from fossil fuels.The issue is vital to low-lying Pacific islands, which have repeatedly asked wealthier nations to do more to prevent rising sea levels.Environmental activists play dead as they participate in a Global Climate Strike near the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment office in Bangkok, Thailand, Sept. 20, 2019.Children in the Solomon Islands rallied on the shoreline wearing traditional grass skirts and carrying wooden shields in solidarity with the global movement.In Thailand, more than 200 young people stormed into the Environment Ministry and dropped to the ground feigning death as they demanded government action on climate change.“This is what will happen if we don’t stop climate change now,” said 21-year-old strike organizer Nanticha Ocharoenchai.The Thai Environment Ministry’s deputy permanent secretary, Adisorn Noochdumrong, supported the students.“This is how the young people express their concerns, which we deem as a good sign and not at all a nuisance,” he said.A youth inhales from an oxygen can as he being treated during a Global Climate Strike rally as smog covers the city because of the forest fires in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan province, Indonesia, Sept. 20, 2019.Marching in heavy smogIn Palangka Raya, in Indonesia’s Central Kalimantan province, youths carrying placards marched through heavy smog caused by forest fires.In the eastern Indian city of Kolkata around 25 school children handed out flyers at busy bus terminals and held placards that read “Save Our Planet. Save Our World.”“This is the only planet we have. We wanted to stand for it before we went to school for the day,” one of the children said.No protests were authorized in China, the world’s biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions, but Zheng Xiaowen of the China Youth Climate Action Network said Chinese youth would take action one way or another.“Chinese youth have their own methods,” she said. “We also pay attention to the climate and we are also thinking deeply, interacting, taking action, and so many people are very conscientious on this issue.”Students attend a climate change protest in Marovo Island, Solomon Islands, Sept. 20, 2019 in this picture obtained from social media.Global warming caused by heat-trapping greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels has already led to droughts and heat waves, melting glaciers, rising sea levels and floods, scientists say.Carbon emissions climbed to a record high last year, despite a warning from the U.N.-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in October that output of the gases must be slashed over the next 12 years to stabilize the climate.Organizers said demonstrations would take different forms around the world, but all aim to promote awareness of climate change and demand political action to curb contributing factors.
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Study: North American Bird Population Falls 3 Billion Since 1970
If the skies above North America seem quieter, it’s because of the massive drop in the bird population in the past 50 years.A report in the journal Science says there are 3 billion fewer birds in the United States, Canada and Mexico than 1970 — a 29% drop.Conservationists call it a widespread ecological crisis.“One of the scary things about the results is that it is happening right under our eyes. We might not even notice it until it is too late,” lead author of the study Kenneth Rosenberg of Cornell University says.More than 90% of the losses were among 12 species with the common house sparrow at the top of the list.The experts blame the disappearance of natural meadows and grasslands in favor of farmland for the drop.They also say pesticides are killing the insects that many birds use for food.“We see fields of corn and other crops right up to the horizon. Everything is sanitized and mechanized. There’s no room left for birds, fauna, and nature,” Rosenberg said.The study also cites free-roaming domestic cats and birds slamming into windows that reflect the sky.But the study says the duck and goose population has actually grown since 1970 because of less hunting and more protective measures.Ornithologists say the drop in bird populations can be reversed by simple measures including keeping pet cats inside, window treatments that can prevent birds flying into them, and avoiding pesticides and insecticides.
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FDA Opens Criminal Probe into Vaping-Related Lung Illnesses
Federal regulators have opened a criminal probe into e-cigarette-related lung illnesses in the United States.There were seven deaths and 530 confirmed or suspected cases of serious illness related to vaping by late Thursday.The Food and Drug Administration says it has no intention of prosecuting e-cigarette users, but says its criminal investigations division can help federal authorities figure out why people are getting sick.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging people to stop vaping. But it says no one should go back to smoking tobacco cigarettes, urging smokers to get counseling or use FDA-approved products to stop smoking.Health experts have been unable to pinpoint an exact cause of vaping-related lung illnesses, including a specific brand or ingredient in e-cigarettes. But some suspect the use of the marijuana component THC in vaping devices.E-cigarette devices have been marketed as a safer alternative to tobacco. Federal regulators have warned the largest e-cigarette maker, JUUL, against making such claims, saying they have not been proven.New York this week became the first state to immediately ban flavored e-cigarettes, saying the fruit and candy flavors used in vaping devices are meant to appeal to young people.Only tobacco and menthol flavors can be sold in New York. Michigan has also approved a ban on flavors, but it has not taken effect yet. Other states are also considering a ban.
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Senate Tech Critic to Facebook CEO: Sell WhatsApp, Instagram
As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met Thursday with President Donald Trump and other critics of the tech industry, the Senate’s most vocal detractor offered a challenge: Sell your WhatsApp and Instagram properties to prove you’re serious about protecting data privacy.It may have been more than Zuckerberg expected from his private meeting with Sen. Josh Hawley, a conservative Republican from Missouri, in his Capitol Hill office. Zuckerberg left the hourlong meeting — one of several with lawmakers on Capitol Hill — without answering questions from a throng of reporters and photographers pursuing him down a hallway.FILE – Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., speaks during a hearing of a Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, March 6, 2019.Hawley, though, had plenty to say. “The company talks a lot. I’d like to see some action,” he told reporters. “I will believe Facebook when I see some real action out of Facebook.”Rather than moving users’ personal data from properties such as WhatsApp and Instagram to the core Facebook platform, the company should put a wall around the services or, better yet, sell them off, Hawley said he told Zuckerberg.Zuckerberg, who requested the meeting, “did not think that was a great idea,” he said.Zuckerberg “had a good, constructive meeting with President Trump at the White House today,” a Facebook spokesman said. On Facebook and Twitter, Trump posted a photo with the caption, “Nice meeting with Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook in the Oval Office today.”Nice meeting with Mark Zuckerberg of @Facebook in the Oval Office today. https://t.co/k5ofQREfOcpic.twitter.com/jNt93F2BsG— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 20, 2019No details were given on the meeting, first reported by the Axios website.
Trump has persistently criticized social media companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon and his platform of choice, Twitter, embracing conservative critics’ accusations that they censor religious, anti-abortion and politically conservative views. Trump has claimed, without evidence, that the companies are “against me” and even suggested U.S. regulators should sue them on grounds of anti-conservative bias.
A Facebook spokesman declined to comment on Hawley’s remarks concerning his meeting with Zuckerberg.The popular services WhatsApp and Instagram are among some 70 companies that Facebook has acquired over the past 15 years or so, giving it what critics say is massive market power that has allowed it to snuff out competition.Zuckerberg’s discussion with Hawley touched on industry competition, data privacy legislation, election security and accusations by conservatives that Facebook and other social media giants are biased against right-leaning content.FILE – Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 30, 2019.During his visit, Zuckerberg also met with other senators including Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee; Mike Lee, R-Utah, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee; and John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Tom Cotton, R-Ark. He also declined to answer reporters’ questions when he left Lee’s office earlier in the afternoon.Lee’s office said the two discussed bias against conservatives on Facebook’s platform, regulation of online services, enforcement of antitrust laws in the tech industry and data privacy issues.Congress has been debating a privacy law that could sharply rein in the ability of companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple to collect and make money off users’ personal data. A national law, which would be the first of its kind in the U.S., could allow people to see or prohibit use of their data.’New rules’ neededActing preemptively, Zuckerberg last spring called for tighter regulations to protect consumers’ data, control harmful online content, and ensure election integrity and data portability. The internet “needs new rules,” he said.It was Zuckerberg’s first public visit to Washington since he testified before Congress last spring about privacy, election interference and other issues.Facebook, a social media giant based in Menlo Park, California, with nearly 2.5 billion users, is under heavy scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators following a series of privacy scandals and amid accusations of abuse of its market power to squash competition.The Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission and the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee are all conducting antitrust investigations of the big tech companies, and a bipartisan group of state attorneys general has opened a competition probe specifically of Facebook.FILE – Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner, D-Va., departs after a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 9, 2019.At Facebook’s request, Warner helped organize a dinner meeting in Washington on Wednesday night for Zuckerberg and a group of senators.Warner told The Associated Press he wanted Zuckerberg to hear his Senate colleagues’ “enormous concerns about privacy and about protecting the integrity of our political system.”Their message for the Facebook chief was “self-regulation is not going to be the answer,” Warner said. “I think Zuckerberg understood that.”Warner and Hawley have proposed legislation that would force the tech giants to tell users what data they’re collecting and how much it’s worth. The proposal goes to the heart of Big Tech’s hugely profitable business model of commerce in users’ personal data. The companies gather vast data on what users read and like, and leverage it to help advertisers target their messages to individuals they want to reach.The tech companies view with particular alarm a separate legislative proposal from Hawley that would require them to prove to regulators that they’re not using political bias to filter content. Failing to secure a bias-free audit from the government would mean a social media platform loses its long-held immunity from legal action.
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Millions of Youths to Strike for Climate Action
With world leaders about to gather in New York for a U.N. Climate Action Summit next week, millions of young people from Australia to Iceland will take off from school or work on Friday to demand urgent measures to stop environmental catastrophe. Protests, inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, 16, are planned in 150 countries. The aim is for students and others from around the world to speak in one voice about the impending effects of climate change on the planet. “Soon the sun will rise on Friday the 20th of September 2019. Good luck Australia, The Philippines, Japan and all the Pacific Islands. You go first!” Thunberg posted Thursday on Instagram. Solo startThunberg has galvanized young people around the world since she started protesting alone with a sign outside the Swedish parliament building in August 2018. Over the past year, young people in other communities have staged scattered strikes in solidarity with her Fridays for Future movement. FILE – Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish climate activist, speaks in front of a crowd of people after sailing into New York harbor aboard the Malizia II, Aug. 28, 2019.In conjunction with the U.N. summit this week, organizers on Friday will hold coordinated strikes around the world for a third time, with Thunberg spearheading a march and rally in New York, home of U.N. headquarters. In a show of support, New York City education officials will excuse the absences of any of its 1.1 million public school students who want to participate. Demonstrators will gather in Lower Manhattan at noon and march about a mile to Battery Park at the edge of the financial district for a rally featuring speeches and music. Thunberg, who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in March, sailed to New York from England aboard a zero-carbon-emissions vessel to partake in the U.N. summit. It brings together world leaders to discuss climate change mitigation strategies, such as transitioning to renewable energy sources from fossil fuels. Effects being feltGlobal warming caused by heat-trapping greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels has already led to droughts and heat waves, melting glaciers, rising sea levels and floods, scientists say. Carbon emissions climbed to a record high last year, despite a warning from the U.N.-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in October that output of the gases must be slashed over the next 12 years to stabilize the climate. FILE – Youths demonstrate for climate change during a “Fridays for Future” school strike, in front of the Ecology Ministry in Paris, France, Feb. 15, 2019.Organizers said the demonstrations would take different forms, but all aim to promote awareness of climate change and demand political action to curb contributing factors to climate change, namely carbon emissions. Demonstrators in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa, planned to dance on the beach in a celebratory pledge to protect their natural heritage. Protesters in Istanbul were heading to a public park for a climate festival with concerts and workshops scheduled throughout the day. On Wednesday, Thunberg appeared before several committees of the U.S. Congress to testify about the next generation’s view on climate change. In lieu of testimony, she submitted a 2018 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that urged rapid, unprecedented changes in the way people live to keep temperatures from rising 1.5 degrees C by 2030. “I want you to unite behind the science. And then I want you to take action,” she said.
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French Experts Restore Three Sudanese Relics
A team of French diggers has restored three Sudanese artifacts, including a 3,500-year-old wall relief, and it handed them to the African country’s national museum Thursday, a French archaeologist said.
The three artifacts were discovered at separate archaeological sites in recent years in Sudan and were restored by a French team of experts.
The items are a wall painting of an ancient Kandaka Nubian queen, a Meroite stela and a wall relief inscription believed to be almost 3,500 years old. A stela, discovered at Sedeinga pyramids, is displayed at the National Museum of Sudan in Khartoum, Sept. 19, 2019.”The idea is to give back to the museum the most important archaeological pieces discovered and restored,” said Marc Maillot, director of the French archaeological unit deployed in Sudan.
The wall painting was found at El-Hassa site, the stela at Sedeinga and the relief at the temple of Soleb, where French diggers along with Sudanese counterparts have conducted extensive archaeological work for several years.
On Thursday, the three artifacts were handed over to the Sudan National Museum to mark the completion of 50 years of French archaeologists’ presence in the country.
For decades, international archaeologists have worked extensively in Sudan, proving that the northeast African nation has its own extensive wealth of ancient relics and was not merely a satellite of neighboring Egypt.
Archaeologists are convinced that many kingdoms still lie buried, waiting to be discovered.
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Huawei Faces Public Test as it Unveils Sanction-Hit Phone
Chinese tech giant Huawei launched its latest high-end smartphone in Munich on Thursday, the first of its mobile devices not to carry popular Google apps because of U.S. sanctions.”Today because of the U.S. ban … we cannot pre-install” Google’s applications, said Richard Yu, who heads Huawei’s consumer business group, as he unveiled the group’s latest Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro models.But heading off fears that a phone without popular apps like Whatsapp, YouTube or Google Maps could not succeed, he stressed that the equivalent platform by the Chinese giant offered a choice of 45,000 apps through the Huawei App Gallery.Richard Yu, head of Huawei’s consumer business group, speaks on stage during a presentation to reveal Huawei’s latest smartphones Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro in Munich, Germany, Sept. 19, 2019.Yu added that the Chinese giant was investing US$1 billion (900,000 euros) into its Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) core software ecosystem, as he urged app developers to bring their creations to the system.Huawei, targeted directly by the United States as part of a broader trade conflict with Beijing, was added to a “blacklist” in Washington in May.Since then, it has been illegal for American firms to do business with the Chinese firm, suspected of espionage by President Donald Trump and his administration.As a result, the new Mate will run on a freely available version of Android, the world’s most-used phone operating system that is owned by the search engine heavyweight.OS warsWhile Mate 30 owners will experience little difference in the use of the operating system, the lack of Google’s Play Store — which provides access to hundreds of thousands of third-party apps and games as well as films, books and music — could be unsettling.Household-name services like WhatsApp, Instagram and Google Maps will be unavailable.The tech press reports that this yawning gap in functionality has left some sellers reluctant to stock the new phones, fearing a wave of rapid-fire returns from dissatisfied customers.With the trade conflict with the U.S. unlikely to be resolved imminently, Huawei has little choice but to ramp up the development of its own “ecosystem” of devices, apps and services that would bind users more closely to it.The world’s second-largest smartphone maker after Samsung, Huawei earlier this month presented its proprietary operating system HarmonyOS, a potential replacement for Android.The Mate 30 will not yet have HarmonyOS installed.But it could make for a new round in the decades-old “OS wars” between Microsoft’s Windows and Apple’s Mac OS, then Android versus Apple’s iOS.European roleMeanwhile, Eric Xu, current holder of Huawei’s rotating chief executive chair, has urged Europe to foster an alternative to Google and Apple.That could provide an opening for Huawei to build up Europe’s market of 500 million well-off consumers as a stronghold against American rivals.”If Europe had its own ecosystem for smart devices, Huawei would use it … that would resolve the problem of European digital dependency” on the United States, Xu told German business daily Handelsblatt.He added that his company would be prepared to invest in developing such joint European-Chinese projects.
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Washington Monument Reopens
The Washington Monument is reopening to the public after years of closure to replace its aging elevator and security system.First lady Melania Trump helped with the ribbon-cutting ceremony and took a ceremonial first ride to the top of the monument with fourth-graders from nearby Amidon-Bowen Elementary School.Fourth graders from Amidon Bowen elementary school in Washington DC with their “Every Kid in the Outdoors” that gives them free access to national parks, Sept. 19, 2019. (P. Widakuswara)The iconic landmark in the nation’s capital has been closed for most of the past eight years, after a 5.8 magnitude earthquake left 150 cracks in its stones in 2011.The monument briefly opened in 2016 but closed again after a series of elevator malfunctions.”We completely rehabbed the elevator,” said Jeffrey Reinbold, National Mall and Memorial Parks superintendent. “There’s new cabling with it, new electronics with it, we refurbished the motor with it. And we also added a new screening facility.”Reinbold said at first they will limit the number of visitors to 40 to 50 people every half an hour until they figure out the best flow for the security screening system. He said they hope to return to the previous average of about 500,000 visitors per year.Tickets are available on a first come, first served basis as of Thursday. Online reservations begin October 19.Named after George Washington, the first president of the United States, the monument is one of the most dramatic, iconic features of the Washington skyline and one of the most popular attractions on the National Mall.The Washington Monument, Washington, DC. (Photo: Diaa Bekheet)The 169-meter-tall stone obelisk was constructed in 1848, and took nearly 40 years to complete due the Civil War and lack of funding. At the time of its completion, it was the tallest building in the world, but was soon overtaken by the Eiffel Tower in 1889.This time, the monument’s repair was funded not only by taxpayer money, but also millions of dollars in donations from philanthropist David Rubenstein and other donors.The Washington Monument remains the tallest building in the nation’s capital.The National Park Service is hosting a variety of events to celebrate the monument’s reopening.
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UN: Most Child, Maternal Deaths Occur in Sub-Saharan Africa
New U.N. data shows sub-Saharan Africa lags behind all other regions in the world in reducing child and maternal mortality. Estimates by the World Health Organization and U.N. children’s fund UNICEF reveal conflict, fragile health systems, and poverty are some of the factors accounting for millions of preventable child and maternal deaths.Presenting their report Thursday in Geneva, he two U.N. agencies said since 2000, child deaths have dropped by nearly one-half and that maternal deaths are down by more than one-third, mostly due to better access to affordable, quality health services. The new estimates, however, show 6.2 million children under the age of 15 died last year and nearly 300,000 women died of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth in 2017. The agencies report a pregnant woman or newborn dies every 11 seconds somewhere in the world, mostly of preventable causes.Peter Salama, WHO’s executive director of universal health coverage, says women and children in sub-Saharan Africa are at higher risk of death than in all other regions.“In 2017, for the first time, half of all child deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. Because of increasing fertility rates, we project that number to reach more than 60 percent of all global child deaths. For maternal deaths today, two-thirds occurred in sub-Saharan Africa,” he said. Salama says the lifetime risk of a woman dying of pregnancy-related causes is about one in 37 in Africa, compared to one in 7,800 in Australia, his home country. He says the risk of delivering a baby in countries with a stable government is far than less in countries affected by conflict.He says countries with modest means can make progress in reducing child and maternal mortality. He cites Belarus, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Malawi and Zambia.“It is clear one reason is they have made a heavy investment in sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health. They are choosing the right programs and they are investing accordingly in them. But that is not the whole story. They are investing in primary health care and in universal health coverage. In short, they are investing in more comprehensive and integrated systems,” Salama said.The U.N. Sustainable Development Goals aim to reduce maternal mortality to less than 70 per 100,000 live births and under-five child mortality to at least 25 per 1000 live births by 2030.WHO and UNICEF say the world must act now and invest the money needed to reduce these deaths. They warn that otherwise, 62 million children under the age of 5 will die between now and 2030, and more than a million maternal lives will be lost.
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Nancy Pelosi Unveils an Ambitious Plan to Lower Drug Prices
Putting her stamp on the health care issue that worries consumers the most, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday unveiled an ambitious plan to lower drug prices for seniors on Medicare and younger people with private insurance.Pelosi, D-Calif., would empower Medicare to negotiate prices for the 250 costliest drugs, including insulin. Pharmaceutical companies that refuse to negotiate could face steep penalties. Additionally, drugmakers that hike prices beyond inflation would have to pay rebates to Medicare.The plan would limit copays for seniors covered by Medicare’s “Part D” prescription drug program to $2,000. And Medicare-negotiated prices would be available to other buyers, such as employer health plans.The plan is Pelosi’s marker in what’s shaping up as a high-stakes negotiation to determine if a drug pricing compromise can pass Congress this year or if Democrats and Republicans will take their differences into the 2020 elections.The sweeping legislation leans left politically and appears to be tailor-made for Pelosi’s Democratic majority in the House. But in a signal that Pelosi wants a deal, it also incorporates ideas from the Trump administration and from Republican and Democratic senators.A solid majority of Americans, regardless of partisan affiliation, says lowering prescription drug costs should be a top priority for Congress this year. Overall, 70 percent deemed that a top priority in a poll earlier this month from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.President Donald Trump appears eager to sign prescription drug legislation and lower costs, but most Republicans oppose the Medicare negotiations that are the centerpiece of Pelosi’s plan. The 2003 law that created Medicare’s prescription drug benefit barred the program from negotiating prices, a restriction Democrats have long opposed.As a candidate, Trump backed Medicare negotiations. But after Trump was elected president, he seemed to revert to the traditional Republican position that price negotiations are best left to private players like insurance companies.With tens of billions of dollars in profits at stake, drugmakers are determined to block any major changes to payment policies. But the industry’s powerful lobbying group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, has been taking fire from all sides, from liberal Democrats to pro-business Republicans. Trump once accused drug companies of “getting away with murder.”
Pelosi’s proposal would:► Authorize Medicare to negotiate prices for the drugs with the greatest total cost to the program and the U.S. health care system. That includes pharmacy drugs covered through the popular “Part D” prescription benefit, along with “Part B” medications dispensed in doctors’ offices, a category that covers many cancer drugs. The maximum price would be determined using a blend of international prices, an idea similar to a more limited proposal from the Trump administration. Insulin prices would be subject to negotiations. Drug companies that balk at making a deal would face penalties that start at 65% of sales for the drug at issue and would escalate if they hold out.► Require drugmakers to pay rebates to Medicare if they hike their prices beyond the increase in inflation. That idea resembles a bipartisan plan from Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore. The senators’ proposal has already cleared a key committee, with Trump’s support. But many Senate Republicans oppose inflation rebates, and it’s unclear what Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., plans to do next.► Limit what seniors pay out of pocket for their medications to $2,000 a year. Currently, Medicare’s pharmacy benefit has no cap on copays, and the advent of drugs costing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year has left some seniors saddled with bills that rival a mortgage payment. An out-of-pocket limit also is part of the Grassley-Wyden bill, and the idea also is backed by the Trump administration.Pelosi’s office says her plan is to have the legislation introduced and moved through House committees to a vote on the floor. If compromise can be reached among House Democrats, the Trump White House and lawmakers in the Senate, a drug pricing package could be added to year-end budget legislation.Movement in Congress comes at a time when criticism of the industry – from Trump and lawmakers of both parties – appears to be having an effect on prices.The Commerce Department’s inflation index for prescription drug prices has declined in seven of the last eight months, which is highly unusual. That index includes lower-cost generic drugs.The story is different for brand name drugs, however. A recent analysis by The Associated Press shows that on average prices are still going up but at a slower pace. The cost of brand name drugs is most concerning to consumers, because it translates to steep copays for insured patients.The AP analysis found that in the first seven months of 2019, drugmakers raised list prices for brand name medicines by a median, or midpoint, of 5%.That does reflect a slowdown. Prices were going up 9% or 10% over those months the prior four years.But there were 37 price increases for every decrease in the first seven months of 2019.Pricing data for the AP analysis came from the health information firm Elsevier.
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At 98, D-Day Vet Jumps Again, With Eyes on the Big 100
Jump by jump, 98-year-old D-Day veteran Tom Rice is nudging closer to his goal of leaping out of planes at age 100.
The American who caused a sensation in June by parachuting into Normandy for the 75th anniversary of the 1944 D-Day landings was at it again on Thursday.
This time, his landing zone was in the Netherlands.
Rice, strapped to a younger parachutist who steered the canopy, jumped as part of commemorations for massive airborne landings September 1944.
He described their jump as “perfect” and said: “I’m going to do it until I’m 100.”
Rice jumped with the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division on D-Day.
Thursday’s jump with hundreds of parachutists was to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Operation Market Garden, a 1944 land-and-airborne thrust through the Netherlands.
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California Police Employs Robocop to Patrol Parks
The city of Huntington Park in the state of California has hired a new police office to patrol local parks. It’s always on duty and monitors the park 24 hours a day to make sure things are in order. Khrystyna Shevchenko met with this supercop and watched him work. Anna Rice narrates her story.
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