Researchers in Moscow are testing a battery-powered driverless vehicle with a guidance system based on human eyesight. They say it will be cheap to produce and could soon be seen on closed roads, such as technology parks and college campuses. VOA’s George Putic reports.
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Month: August 2017
In middle school, Junior Alvarado often struggled with multiplication and earned poor grades in math, so when he started his freshman year at Washington Leadership Academy, a charter high school in the nation’s capital, he fretted that he would lag behind.
But his teachers used technology to identify his weak spots, customize a learning plan just for him and coach him through it. This past week, as Alvarado started sophomore geometry, he was more confident in his skills.
“For me personalized learning is having classes set at your level,” Alvarado, 15, said in between lessons. “They explain the problem step by step, it wouldn’t be as fast, it will be at your pace.”
As schools struggle to raise high school graduation rates and close the persistent achievement gap for minority and low-income students, many educators tout digital technology in the classroom as a way forward. But experts caution that this approach still needs more scrutiny and warn schools and parents against being overly reliant on computers.
The use of technology in schools is part of a broader concept of personalized learning that has been gaining popularity in recent years. It’s a pedagogical philosophy centered around the interests and needs of each individual child as opposed to universal standards. Other features include flexible learning environments, customized education paths and letting students have a say in what and how they want to learn.
Personalized learning
Under the Obama administration, the Education Department poured $500 million into personalized learning programs in 68 school districts serving close to a half million students in 13 states plus the District of Columbia. Large organizations such as the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation have also invested heavily in digital tools and other student-centered practices.
The International Association for K-12 Online Learning estimates that up to 10 percent of all America’s public schools have adopted some form of personalized learning. Rhode Island plans to spend $2 million to become the first state to make instruction in every one of its schools individualized. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos also embraces personalized learning as part of her broader push for school choice.
Supporters say the traditional education model, in which a teacher lectures at the blackboard and then tests all students at the same time, is obsolete and doesn’t reflect the modern world.
“The economy needs kids who are creative problem solvers, who synthesize information, formulate and express a point of view,” said Rhode Island Education Commissioner Ken Wagner. “That’s the model we are trying to move toward.”
At Washington Leadership Academy, educators rely on software and data to track student progress and adapt teaching to enable students to master topics at their own speed.
Digital tool finds problem
This past week, sophomores used special computer programs to take diagnostic tests in math and reading, and teachers then used that data to develop individual learning plans. In English class, for example, students reading below grade level would be assigned the same books or articles as their peers, but complicated vocabulary in the text would be annotated on their screen.
“The digital tool tells us: We have a problem to fix with these kids right here and we can do it right then and there; we don’t have to wait for the problem to come to us,” said Joseph Webb, founding principal at the school, which opened last year.
Webb, dressed in a green T-shirt reading “super school builder,” greeted students Wednesday with high-fives, hugs and humor. “Red boxers are not part of our uniform!” he shouted to one student, who responded by pulling up his pants.
The school serves some 200 predominantly African-American students from high-poverty and high-risk neighborhoods. Flags of prestigious universities hang from the ceiling and a “You are a leader” poster is taped to a classroom door. Based on a national assessment last year, the school ranked in the 96th percentile for improvement in math and in the 99th percentile in reading compared with schools whose students scored similarly at the beginning of the year.
It was one of 10 schools to win a $10 million grant in a national competition aimed at reinventing American high schools that is funded by Lauren Powell Jobs, widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs.
‘Female Bill Gates’
Naia McNatt, a lively 15-year-old who hopes to become “the African-American and female Bill Gates,” remembers feeling so bored and unchallenged in fourth grade that she stopped doing homework and her grades slipped.
At the academy, “I don’t get bored ‘cause I guess I am pushed so much,” said McNatt, a sophomore. “It makes you need to do more, you need to know more.”
In math class, McNatt quickly worked through quadratic equations on her laptop. When she finished, the system spitted out additional, more challenging problems.
Her math teacher, Britney Wray, says that in her previous school she was torn between advanced learners and those who lagged significantly. She says often she wouldn’t know if a student was failing a specific unit until she started a new one.
In comparison, the academy’s technology now gives Wray instant feedback on which students need help and where. “We like to see the problem and fix the problem immediately,” she said.
Still, most researchers say it is too early to tell if personalized learning works better than traditional teaching.
A recent study by the Rand Corporation found that personalized learning produced modest improvements: a 3 percentile increase in math and a smaller, statistically insignificant increase for reading compared with schools that used more traditional approaches. Some students also complained that collaboration with classmates suffered because everybody was working on a different task.
“I would not advise for everybody to drop what they are doing and adopt personalized learning,” said John Pane, a co-author of the report. “A more cautious approach is necessary.”
New challenges
The new opportunities also pose new challenges. Pediatricians warn that too much screen time can come at the expense of face-to-face social interaction, hands-on exploration and physical activity. Some studies also have shown that students may learn better from books than from computer screens, while another found that keeping children away from computers for five days in a row improved their emotional intelligence.
Some teachers are skeptical. Marla Kilfoyle, executive director of the Badass Teachers Association, an education advocacy group, agrees that technology has its merits, but insists that no computer or software should ever replace the personal touch, motivation and inspiration teachers give their students.
“That interaction and that human element is very important when children learn,” Kilfoyle said.
Scientists have not been able to develop a vaccine against the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea, despite working toward one for more than 100 years.
However, they may have stumbled onto something that could provide clues to advance the development of such a vaccine.
Decades ago, in the late 1990s, a strain of meningitis B was reaching epidemic proportions in New Zealand. A vaccine, MeNZB, was developed to protect young people who were at the highest risk of getting this particular type. It did not provide protection against any other strain.
Between 2004 and 2006, MeNZB was given to anyone under the age of 20. Babies and preschoolers were routinely immunized until 2008. People with a high medical risk continued to get the vaccine until 2011. Once the epidemic was over, the vaccination program was stopped.
However, scientists noticed that the meningitis vaccine also seemed to offer some protection against gonorrhea. A study published in the Lancet last month showed that one-third of the people who had received MeNZB did not get gonorrhea, compared to a control group who was not inoculated. The lead author noted that the bacteria causing both diseases share between 80 and 90 percent of their primary genetic sequences.
Dr. Steven Black, an infectious disease expert at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, noted, “This is the first time it’s been shown that you could have a vaccine that would protect against gonorrhea. And if these results are confirmed in another setting, that would mean that it would be very reasonable … to go forward with developing perhaps a more targeted vaccine.” Black’s comments were published in the current issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The World Health Organization reports that gonorrhea is becoming harder, and sometimes impossible, to treat, warning that it could become incurable in the not-too-distant future. At the moment, there no new antibiotics being developed to treat this disease.
“The bacteria that cause gonorrhea are particularly smart. Every time we use a new class of antibiotics to treat the infection, the bacteria evolve to resist them,” according to Dr. Teodora Wi, a medical officer involved in human reproduction at the WHO, quoted in a news release from the UN agency.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that gonorrhea is the second most commonly reported notifiable disease in the United States. All known cases must be reported to the CDC, but officials there estimate that they are notified of fewer than half of the 800,000 new cases each year.
Women may not have any symptoms, but untreated gonorrhea can cause serious health problems. It can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease. It can cause life-threatening ectopic pregnancies, and pregnant women can pass the disease to their babies. Gonorrhea can lead to infertility for both men and women, and can make those who have it more likely to get HIV.
The study about the New Zealand epidemic may change the approach toward developing a vaccine against gonorrhea.
The JAMA article concludes that ultimately, a preventive vaccine could be the only sustainable solution to a fast-changing bug that has proven adept at developing resistance.
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American workers are facing a paradox – many of them cannot find work while a lot of companies say they cannot find suitable candidates for job openings. Experts say the problem is in the so-called ‘skill gap,’ the incompatibility between available skills and job requirements. VOA’s George Putic has more.
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Bonobos are primates that are very closely related to chimpanzees, and humans. They are found exclusively in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It’s not completely clear how many of them there are, but it is known that their numbers are on the decline. But the world’s only bonobo sanctuary is committed to ensuring these animals survive and stay wild. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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Ever so slowly, the world is edging towards the demise of the gasoline-powered engine. It likely won’t come for decades, but it’s coming. Two new entries in the alternative powered vehicle department are showing off ways that technology is slowly changing the automobile marketplace. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports
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In spite of many attempts to replace it with a more suitable material, asphalt concrete remains the best and cheapest material for paving roads. Vulnerable to heat, ice, ultraviolet light and mechanical stress, it has a relatively short lifespan and has to be repaired or replaced at regular intervals. Swiss engineers say they may have found a formula for asphalt with self-healing properties VOA’s George Putic reports.
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A new device, developed by an Israeli start-up, could make routine visits to the doctor’s office a thing of the past. Faith Lapidus reports.
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The Olive Ridley Sea Turtle is classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the IUCN. Threats come on land and sea. Thousands of turtles die every year in fishing nets, and their eggs are considered a delicacy. But on one protected beach in Mexico, the Olive Ridley turtles are swarming. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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Reports of cyberattacks against companies and governments around the world seem to be appearing in the headlines more frequently this year. Cyber security experts explain why the risk of being hacked is now greater, who is doing the hacking and what can be done to prevent or minimize the damage. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details.
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Marine authorities in the U.S. and Canada said Friday they will marshal resources to try to find out what’s behind a string of deaths of endangered North Atlantic right whales.
The animals are among the rarest marine mammals in the world, with only about 500 still living. The countries will collaborate on a report that could help craft future regulations that protect the vulnerable whales, representatives said.
Representatives of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Fisheries and Oceans Canada both said ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear have played roles in the deaths of the whales, and that other factors also could have played a role.
The goal of the countries is to find out more about why 13 of the whales have been found dead this year and respond with solutions, said David Gouveia, protected species monitoring program branch chief for NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region.
“The North Atlantic right whale is fragile, and one of NOAA and DFO’s most difficult conservation challenges,” Gouveia said. “Every factor impacting their ability to thrive is significant.”
This year, 10 dead whales have been found off Canada’s coast and three off the coast of Massachusetts, prompting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to declare the deaths an “unusual mortality event” on Thursday and to launch an investigation. The agency said that designation triggers a “focused, expert investigation” into the cause of the deaths.
The report will take months to assemble, and a budget for the investigation has not been developed, officials said. The effort will involve collecting data on each whale that died and considering factors such as changes to the environment and habitat, they said.
An average number of dead right whales would be about four, Gouveia said. Representatives for both countries said strategies to protect the whales could include fishing gear modifications, ship speed restrictions and changes to shipping traffic patterns.
“The priority is to protect these whales,” said Matthew Hardy, aquatic resources management division manager for Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
Conservationists have said the right whale population is so small that a year of poor reproduction and heavy mortality could threaten its survival. Only a few baby right whales were born this year, said Charles “Stormy” Mayo, a senior scientist at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Biologist Regina Asmutis-Silvia of Whale and Dolphin Conservation has called this year’s number of deaths “unprecedented.” She and other conservationists have said right whales haven’t suffered such high mortality since the whaling era, when their populations were decimated. Hunting right whales became illegal 80 years ago.
The whales migrate north every summer to feed. Scott Kraus, who heads the New England Aquarium’s right whale research program, has said it’s possible the whales are more vulnerable to hazards because they are traveling more due to changes in the availability of food.
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Iranian media are reporting that Apple Inc. has removed all Iranian mobile apps from its App Store.
In reaction to Apple’s decision, Telecommunication Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said Apple should respect its Iranian consumers. He also sent out this tweet:
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jahromi tweeted: “11 percent of Iran’s mobile phone market share is owned by Apple. Giving respect to consumer rights is a principle today which Apple has not followed. We will follow up the cutting of the apps legally.”
Apple is not officially in Iran or any other Persian Gulf countries, but many Iranians purchase its products from stores inside Iran.
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People smugglers are using Facebook to broadcast the abuse and torture
of migrants in order to extort ransom money from their families, the U.N. migration agency said on Friday.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) lambasted the tech giant for failing to police the platform and help crack down on traffickers.
One video hosted on the site since June shows Libyan gangmasters threatening emaciated and abused migrants – mostly Somalis and Ethiopians – huddled in a concrete room.
IOM said the traffickers had sent clips to the captives’ families via the encrypted messaging service WhatsApp – a Facebook channel – along with threats that their loved ones would be killed unless ransoms of up to $10,000 were paid.
One young Somali man is seen lying face down with a concrete block on his back. “I was asked for $8,000,” he says, according to the IOM. “They broke my teeth. They broke my hand. I have been here 11 months. They put this stone on me for the last three days. It’s really painful.”
British newspaper The Times, which ran the story on its front page on Friday, also quoted a young Ethiopian who had been held for 15 months. “They beat me with iron bars,” he said. “They ordered me to pay $8,300 and my family cannot afford to pay that amount.”
Hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants have crossed the Mediterranean from North Africa to Europe since 2014, and thousands have died trying.
Facebook, which has also been criticized for failing to stop traffickers using the platform to advertise their services, said posts by smuggling groups would be removed if reported.
“We encourage people to keep using our reporting tools to flag this kind of behavior so it can be reviewed and swiftly removed by our global team of experts, who work with law enforcement agencies around the world,” a spokesperson said.
But Facebook said it had not removed the June video as it had been posted by a Somali journalist and was important for raising awareness of the problem.
However, IOM spokesman Leonard Doyle accused Facebook of “arrant nonsense”, adding that the smugglers had used the journalist to publicize their demands.
He told the Thomson Reuters Foundation it was totally inappropriate for Facebook to host a video showing the faces of vulnerable people being abused.
“Don’t let Facebook off the hook here,” he said. “It’s an absolutely nonsensical argument that it’s up to the public to notify Facebook of stuff that’s happening on Facebook.
“They should invest heavily in policing their platforms to stop vulnerable migrants being exploited, extorted and murdered.”
Doyle said the IOM had tried without success to talk to Facebook about targeting smugglers.
“They should stop smugglers telling people there’s an El Dorado waiting for them in Europe when it’s a lie,” he added. “It’s not good enough to say, ‘we are a technology platform, it’s got nothing to do with us’.”
Doyle said the IOM had tried to find the people in the video, but they had disappeared.
The Saffir-Simpson scale of a hurricane’s intensity is used to estimate potential property damage and coastal flooding caused by storm surge. The scale is determined by wind speed. Storm surge is an abnormal rise of water above the normal tide, generated by a storm. Flooding from storm surge depends on many factors, such as the track, intensity, size, and forward speed of the storm and the characteristics of the coastline where it comes ashore or passes nearby.
Category 1
Winds of 74-95 mph (120-150 kph). Storm surge of 4 to 5 feet (1 to 1.5 meters) above normal. Damage primarily to unanchored mobile homes, shrubbery and trees. Some damage to poorly constructed signs and piers. Extensive damage to power lines and poles likely will result in power outages that could last a few to several days.
Category 2
Winds of 96-110 mph (155-175 kph). Storm surge 6 to 8 feet (1.8-2.4 meters) above normal. Some roof, door and window damage to buildings. Considerable damage to mobile homes, small watercraft, trees, poorly constructed signs and piers. Flooding of coastal and low-lying areas. Many shallowly rooted trees will be snapped or uprooted and block numerous roads. Near-total power loss is expected with outages that could last from several days to weeks.
Category 3
Winds of 111-129 mph (180-210 kph). Storm surge 9 to 12 feet (3 to 4 meters) above normal. Some structural damage to small homes. Mobile homes destroyed and large trees blown down. Coastal flooding destroys smaller structures and floating debris damages larger structures. Terrain lower than 5 feet (1.5 meters) above sea level may flood as far as 8 miles (13 kilometers) inland. Hurricane Katrina, the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, was a Category 3 storm at landfall in 2005 after being a Category 5 in the Gulf of Mexico. At least 1,800 people died.
Category 4
Winds of 130-156 mph (210-250 kph). Storm surge 13 to 18 feet (4-5 meters) above normal. Wall failures and roof collapses on small homes, and extensive damage to doors and windows. Complete destruction of some homes, especially mobile homes. Power outages will last for weeks to possibly months. Major coastal flooding damage. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months. Two 2004 storms were Category 4: Hurricane Ivan, which made landfall near Gulf Shores, Alabama, and Hurricane Charley, which hit the Florida Gulf Coast near Fort Myers. Charley killed at least 21 people and left thousands homeless. The total U.S. damage was estimated to be near $15 billion.
Category 5
Winds greater than 157 mph (250 kph). Storm surge greater than 18 feet (5 meters) above normal. Complete roof failure on many homes and industrial buildings. Smaller buildings and mobile homes blown over or completely blown away. Major damage to lower floors of all structures located less than 15 feet (4.5 meters) above sea level and within 500 yards (460 meters) of the shoreline. Massive evacuation of residential areas on low ground within 5 to 10 miles (8 to 16 kilometers) inland may be required. The last Category 5 storm to hit the United States was Hurricane Andrew in 1992. An estimated 250,000 were left homeless and the storm caused more than $20 billion in damage in the Bahamas, Florida and Louisiana. Fifty-five people were killed.
Source: National Hurricane Center
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The head of the U.S. central bank says the financial system is safer now than it was before the recession, and urges Washington to make some adjustments in financial regulations, rather than trash them.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen says the recession of 2008 cost nine million American jobs and meant millions of people lost their homes. She says financial reform regulations were intended to make it less likely that big institutions would fail in the future and to provide an orderly way to resolve the debts of big financial companies that do fail without government bailouts.
She says financial firms, particularly very large ones that could hurt the entire economy if they fail, are now required to keep larger reserves. That way if one loan goes bad, the firm is less likely to have to hastily sell off other assets at bad prices to cover the losses. Low reserve levels prompted a downward spiral when many fragile firms ran into trouble all at once, all of them trying to sell assets and no one willing to buy them.
Yellen acknowledges that over-regulation could hamper the lending and risk-taking needed for economic growth, but she says some research shows the current level of regulation hurts lending, while other research shows it helps.
In a Friday speech to a gathering of top economic officials from around the world at a resort in Wyoming, she said Fed officials are looking at ways to simplify regulations for small banks that would not cause problems for the national economy if they failed.
Small banks complain the cost of complying with complex regulations makes it hard to make loans. Small banks are important because they are often the source of capital for small companies, and such small, growing firms are the source of most new jobs.
Yellen’s closely-watched speech at the annual gathering of economists at a resort in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, comes after criticism from Republicans and others that stricter regulation is hurting lending and economic growth.
President Donald Trump has called for repealing a key part of the regulations called “Dodd-Frank” named after the legislators who crafted the law.
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South Korea this week pushed back against the United States’ demand to renegotiate the free trade agreement (FTA) between the close allies.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the five-year-old Korea-U.S. (KORUS) FTA as a horrible deal that created a $27 billion U.S. trade deficit with South Korea last year, and has said his administration would either renegotiate or terminate it.
Agree to disagree
At Washington’s urging, an initial special session was held on Tuesday by video conference between South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong and his American counterpart, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer, to negotiate amendments to the trade pact.
Afterwards the South Korea trade minister said the two sides disagreed on the need to amend the trade deal.
“We have found that the two sides have different views on the effects of the U.S. and South Korea Free Trade Agreement, the reason behind the trade deficit, and necessity for an amendment to the U.S. and South Korea FTA,” said Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong.
South Korean officials maintain the bilateral trade deficit is not the result of the FTA, but of the underperforming South Korean economy, where demand for imports have declined, contrasted with the more robust U.S. economy.
“For the last 10 years, South Korea’s market economy was not good, so the U.S. did not get opportunities to sell its products (to South Korea). If South Korea’s economy gets better and the U.S. economy gets worse, we may face the opposite situation,” said Chung Sye-kyun, the speaker of the South Korean National Assembly on Thursday at an event organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea.
KORUS supporters in Seoul also argue the FTA benefits the U.S. economy and American workers. Last year, Korean companies like the electronics giant Samsung and the automaker Hyundai, employed 45,000 Americans and contributed $138 billion to the U.S. economy, according to the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea.
‘Korea unique standards’
The USTR released a statement Wednesday saying it will continue bilateral talks to amend or modify the agreement and specifically identified the “burdensome regulations which often exclude U.S. firms or artificially set prices for American intellectual property” as a major issue of contention.
The auto industry accounts for nearly 80 percent of the bilateral trade deficit, as American car sales in South Korea have been slow, while Korean automobile sales in the United States have soared. The American business community has long blamed the deficit in part on non-tariff related “Korea unique standards,” often linked to environmental regulations or certification procedures that they say are imposed to protect the domestic market. Foreign companies are then forced to spend an inordinate amount of time and money to deal with these regulations that are often introduced without notice or clear explanations.
South Korean authorities have downplayed charges of unfair trade practices, saying most complaints have been resolved through negotiations without the need for amending the FTA.
The South Korean Trade Minister said while this week’s meeting did not reach any agreement on how to proceed, neither side talked about terminating the FTA.
The Korea Times newspaper in Seoul on Friday published an editorial advising the South Korean government that “a good offense is the best defense” in any upcoming trade negotiations. It recommended Seoul press Washington to loosen its intellectual property rights protections and rules regarding disputes between investors and the state, and to threaten to reduce agriculture and energy imports if the situation becomes overly contentious.
The potential rift over trade comes at a time when Washington and Seoul have been emphasizing their close military alliance and joint support for increasing sanctions on North Korea to pressure the Kim Jong Un government to return to international denuclearization talks.
This week some 17,500 American and 50,000 South Koreans troops are participating in joint strategic military exercises that deal with how to respond to possible North Korean attack scenarios.
Youmi Kim in Seoul contributed to this report
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South Korea this week pushed back against the United States’ demand to renegotiate the free trade agreement (FTA) between the close allies.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the five-year-old Korea-U.S. (KORUS) FTA as a horrible deal that created a $27 billion U.S. trade deficit with South Korea last year, and has said his administration would either renegotiate or terminate it.
Agree to disagree
At Washington’s urging, an initial special session was held on Tuesday by video conference between South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong and his American counterpart, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer, to negotiate amendments to the trade pact.
Afterwards the South Korea trade minister said the two sides disagreed on the need to amend the trade deal.
“We have found that the two sides have different views on the effects of the U.S. and South Korea Free Trade Agreement, the reason behind the trade deficit, and necessity for an amendment to the U.S. and South Korea FTA,” said Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong.
South Korean officials maintain the bilateral trade deficit is not the result of the FTA, but of the underperforming South Korean economy, where demand for imports have declined, contrasted with the more robust U.S. economy.
“For the last 10 years, South Korea’s market economy was not good, so the U.S. did not get opportunities to sell its products (to South Korea). If South Korea’s economy gets better and the U.S. economy gets worse, we may face the opposite situation,” said Chung Sye-kyun, the speaker of the South Korean National Assembly on Thursday at an event organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea.
KORUS supporters in Seoul also argue the FTA benefits the U.S. economy and American workers. Last year, Korean companies like the electronics giant Samsung and the automaker Hyundai, employed 45,000 Americans and contributed $138 billion to the U.S. economy, according to the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea.
‘Korea unique standards’
The USTR released a statement Wednesday saying it will continue bilateral talks to amend or modify the agreement and specifically identified the “burdensome regulations which often exclude U.S. firms or artificially set prices for American intellectual property” as a major issue of contention.
The auto industry accounts for nearly 80 percent of the bilateral trade deficit, as American car sales in South Korea have been slow, while Korean automobile sales in the United States have soared. The American business community has long blamed the deficit in part on non-tariff related “Korea unique standards,” often linked to environmental regulations or certification procedures that they say are imposed to protect the domestic market. Foreign companies are then forced to spend an inordinate amount of time and money to deal with these regulations that are often introduced without notice or clear explanations.
South Korean authorities have downplayed charges of unfair trade practices, saying most complaints have been resolved through negotiations without the need for amending the FTA.
The South Korean Trade Minister said while this week’s meeting did not reach any agreement on how to proceed, neither side talked about terminating the FTA.
The Korea Times newspaper in Seoul on Friday published an editorial advising the South Korean government that “a good offense is the best defense” in any upcoming trade negotiations. It recommended Seoul press Washington to loosen its intellectual property rights protections and rules regarding disputes between investors and the state, and to threaten to reduce agriculture and energy imports if the situation becomes overly contentious.
The potential rift over trade comes at a time when Washington and Seoul have been emphasizing their close military alliance and joint support for increasing sanctions on North Korea to pressure the Kim Jong Un government to return to international denuclearization talks.
This week some 17,500 American and 50,000 South Koreans troops are participating in joint strategic military exercises that deal with how to respond to possible North Korean attack scenarios.
Youmi Kim in Seoul contributed to this report
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When Ha Tran of Ho Chi Minh City shops for food, clothes or electronics, she avoids merchandise she can tell comes from Vietnam’s giant neighbor, China. It might not work, she said, and China is no friend of Vietnam anyway.
“China exports many low-quality products to Vietnam, but we know they don’t export products to other countries around the world (that are) that bad, so we try to avoid the products that are made in China,” said Ha, 24, a design company worker in the Vietnamese financial hub city. Vietnamese prefer to buy stuff from Japan or the West. “We’ve tried (Chinese goods) many times in the past but it turns out like they get broken very easily.”
Political ties between Vietnam and China are another “factor” discouraging purchases, she said.
Ha is hardly a shopping renegade. Consumers around Vietnam typically shun “Made-in-China” purchases to protest what they see as poor-quality goods from a country that already has a record of disputes with their country. The two sides dispute, for example, a tract of territory in the South China Sea east of Vietnam. Competing claims sparked naval battles 1974 and 1988. The two also fought a land border war in the 1970s.
Vietnamese feel China has an unfair upper hand in the maritime dispute by using its larger military to control the contested Paracel Islands.
Consumers make up a growing force in Vietnam, as the Boston Consulting Group forecasts more than a third of the country’s nearly 93 million people to be middle class or higher by 2020. Fast growth in export manufacturing has added to Vietnam’s wealth since 2012 by creating jobs.
“If they find a product that might be the same price, and they find out that one product is Chinese and another product is from Japan, Korea or anywhere else, you know which one they’re going to go for,” said Oscar Mussons, senior associate with the Dezan Shira & Associates business consultancy in Ho Chi Minh City. “Vietnamese people see them not as big brothers, but as rivals.
“This is also because of recent problems, like Chinese are hitting national icons like the islands in the South China Sea,” Mussons said. “For Vietnamese, this is something that cannot be accepted in any way, even through you don’t hear much about or the government doesn’t try to make much publicity about it.”
Vietnamese officials have tried to sideline political disputes with China since anti-Chinese riots of 2014 killed more than 20 people and threatened to scare off investors. China’s go-ahead to construct an oil rig in the disputed sea touched off the rioting.
But Vietnam still counts China as its biggest trade partner. Combined imports and exports came to $25.5 billion in the first four months of the year, according to Vietnamese media reports. Export manufacturers in Vietnam rely as well on China for raw materials.
On top of the political issues, Vietnamese consumers widely suspect China sends lower-quality merchandise to its shelves. Giant Chinese firms, often bigger than Vietnamese counterparts, can send over excess merchandise for sale at low prices because of their production run sizes.
“Generally amongst Vietnamese, China-made products are perceived to be of low quality. Some of this is fact, but some of this is also driven by social media posts and ensuing perceptions,” said Jason Moy, principal with the Boston Consulting Group in Singapore. Lower-income, less educated consumers are particularly prone to those perceptions, he added. “Hence, Chinese products are generally selected when they are the last or only option.”
Trade in shoes, toys and daily necessities along the land border particularly leaves cheap but possibly suspect Chinese goods in Vietnam, where lower-income people buy them for their low prices, said Le Hong Hiep, research fellow with ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. Goods trucked across the border in some cases have “pushed Vietnamese merchandise out of their traditional markets,” Le said.
An organized boycott against Chinese goods after the riots of 2014 gained little traction because poorer people couldn’t afford merchandise from other places, he said.
Although Chinese smartphones are gaining a solid reputation, Ha said she once bought a made-in-China phone for her mother because it was all they could afford. It broke after “several months,” she said, so the family bought another phone.
Only Chinese thong flip-flops are worth the money, she said, because at about $1 per pair you can afford to scrap and replace a pair after a few uses.
“People are conscious of the kind of low standards, low quality of Chinese products,” Le said. “I think one of the reasons is that many of these products are consumer items and small items, and they are imported by border trade, not through official channels which normally have stricter regulations and inspections to ensure the quality.”
Shoppers with more money prefer Japanese products as top quality, especially ever-popular motor scooters and consumer electronics, Moy said.Korean food and consumer electronics are also gaining favor with consumers, he said.
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The billionaire head of South Korea’s Samsung Group, Jay Y. Lee, was jailed for five years for bribery on Friday after a six-month trial over a scandal that brought down the president.
Lee had paid bribes in anticipation of favors from then president Park Geun-hye, according to a landmark ruling by a Seoul court, which also found him guilty of hiding assets abroad, embezzlement and perjury.
Lee, the 49-year-old heir to one of the world’s biggest corporate empires, has been held since February on charges that he bribed Park to help secure control of a conglomerate that owns Samsung Electronics, the world’s leading smartphone and chip maker, and has interests ranging from drugs and home appliances to insurance and hotels.
Lee denied wrongdoing.
One of his lawyers, Song Wu-cheol, said Lee would appeal the lower court ruling.
“The entire verdict is unacceptable,” Song said, adding that he was confident his client’s innocence would be affirmed by a higher court.
Under South Korean law, sentences of more than three years can not be suspended. The five year-sentence is one of the longest prison terms given to a South Korean business leader.
The Seoul Central District Court said Samsung’s financial support of entities backed by Park’s close friend, Choi Soon-sil, constituted bribery, including 7.2 billion won ($6.4 million) in sponsoring the equestrian career of Choi’s daughter.
In return for the contributions, prosecutors say, Samsung sought government support for a controversial 2015 merger of two of its affiliates, which helped Lee tighten his control of the conglomerate.
His lawyers had argued that the merger was done on business merits but the court did not accept that.
Park, who was forced from office in disgrace, is facing her own corruption trial, with a ruling expected later this year.
Prosecutors have argued that Park and Lee two took part in the same act of bribery so Lee’s conviction would appear ominous for Park.
Hundreds of rowdy, diehard Park supporters rallied outside the court earlier in the day to demand Lee’s acquittal.
“The trials of former President Park Geun-hye and Samsung Jay Y. Lee go hand in hand,” said Son Tong-sok, 63, who heads a conservative group, holding a Korean flag.
Son said prosecutors had built their cases on circumstantial evidence and unsubstantiated claims reported in the media. “Arresting these two innocent people are violations of human rights,” he said.
Samsung, founded in 1938 by Lee’s grandfather, is a household name in South Korea and a symbol of the country’s dramatic rise from poverty following the 1950-53 Korean War.
But over the years, it has also come to epitomize the cosey ties between politicians and powerful family-controlled business groups – or chaebols – which have been implicated in a series of corruption scandals.
South Koreans, who once applauded the chaebols for catapulting the country into a global economic power, now criticize them for holding back the economy and squeezing smaller businesses.
South Korea’s new president, Moon Jae-in, who replaced the Park after a May 9 election, has pledged to rein in the chaebols, empower minority shareholders and end the practice of pardoning corporate tycoons convicted of white-collar crime.
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After decades of a one-therapy-fits-all approach to fighting deadly diseases such as cancer or cystic fibrosis, physicians and researchers around the world are increasingly turning to a new tactic called personalized medicine. Practices are tailored to individual patients because different people’s response to the same drug may be different. And instead of testing various drugs on patients, researchers are now testing them on mini copies of their organs. VOA’s George Putic has more.
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Environmentalists are condemning a decree by Brazilian President Michel Temer allowing mining in the heart of the Amazon.
The measure strips protection from a national reserve between the northern states of Para and Amapa and clears the way for the private mining sector to explore the forest.
The gold-rich area is larger than the Netherlands, measuring roughly 18,000 square miles (47,000 square kilometers). It is also home to numerous indigenous tribes.
The Brazilian branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature says Wednesday’s decree will create conflicts between miners, indigenous peoples and conservationists working in the area.
The government says indigenous groups will be protected and the mining will attract foreign investors and create jobs.
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Stonehenge is dry and has been for too long — seven years too long. You can taste the dust well before you cross the cattle grids that cut the only road into town.
More than 1,700 kilometers (1,056 miles) northwest of Sydney, Australia’s Stonehenge could not be more different from its famous namesake, the World Heritage prehistoric monument of Stonehenge in England.
Stonehenge in England averages 10 days a month of rainfall and a maximum temperature of 22 degrees Celsius (72 Fahrenheit).
The town in Australia averages 325 sunny days a year and summer temperature of about 45C (113F), and forget regular rain.
How the town got its name is a mystery.
“In the mid-1800s, dingo [wild dog] trappers built a stone fortress which they used as a shelter, but no one is really sure,” said resident Judy Baldry as she drove along a dusty road on the outskirts of town.
Another possibility is the stony landscape, with rocks ranging in size from marbles to boulders scattered across the plains as far as the eye can see.
The stones lure tourists to an area known as “The Address Book” on the outskirts of town, where people create their names or love messages using stones, such as “Jim loves Kerry” and “Dan 4 Jan.”
Praying for rain
Stonehenge’s remaining 23 residents say they are struggling to survive one of the longest droughts in memory.
“Certainly, this is the worst drought I’ve seen in the last 28 years because of its longevity. It’s just gone on for so long,” said cattle and sheep farmer Tony Jackson.
Jackson’s Hill View Park Station property of more than 150,000 acres (60,000 hectares) is excellent wool country because of the stones. Less dirt means better quality wool.
He manages 800 cattle and about 6,000 sheep on the drought-hit property, but he fears he will have no feed or water if there is no rain by Christmas.
Jackson and his neighbors have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on feed.
Debt levels for broadacre farms, which include cattle, sheep and crops, is estimated to have increased by 7 percent during 2015-16 to average A$560,500 per farm, the Australian government’s agricultural bureau said.
Other parts of Australia have seen the drought break, and farmers there are looking at a bright future. Cash incomes on cattle farms are estimated to be the highest in more than 20 years, at A$204,000 per farm, because of rising beef prices.
But the drought has a stranglehold on Stonehenge.
For the first time in more than 34 years, the main water supply, the meandering Thomson River, has stopped flowing.
Farmer Dick Smith says it has been seven years since the last decent rain filled the river.
“This is drought country. No one forced me to live here. We have to expect a drought, but this one’s gone on too long,” he said on the veranda of his home on the Depot Glen property.
Smith usually manages about 1,500 cattle but has destocked to survive and now has just 47 cows and calves.
He said that because of droughts over the past decades, he had “completely destocked three times,” and the potential for a fourth was high.
When the rains do come, the farmers of Stonehenge will struggle to pay for new stock at a time when cattle prices are at record levels because of demand for beef.
Hard on families
The drought has taken its toll on families, with the emotional and financial stress contributing to poor mental health, according to a study by the Australian National University.
The study examined 8,000 people living in drought and found that the more severe the drought, the more severe the impact on the mental health of a farmer and his family.
Sue Smith knows the burden. She runs Depot Glen alone for many months while her husband, Dick, is away driving a grader or fixing fences thousands of kilometers away in the Northern Territory.
“You really have to love your husband to live out here,” said Sue, a champion equestrian when she was young.
“We’re not isolated up here. We have bitumen roads, telephones, internet, but I do miss white sheets,” she said, referring to the groundwater that stains her sheets.
Stonehenge has suffered a huge loss of people because of the drought. The town many years ago boasted three hotels, and until just a decade ago, a population of 106.
Frank Irwin, who used to work on a farm, now runs the Stonehenge Hotel, a tin building with a bar crowned with empty beer bottles and rodeo memorabilia.
Stonehenge, like its English namesake, will survive, he said. “We just batten down the hatches until it does rain.”
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Tesla next month plans to unveil an electric big-rig truck with a working range of 200 to 300 miles, Reuters has learned, a sign that the electric car maker is targeting regional hauling for its entry into the commercial freight market.
Chief Executive Elon Musk has promised to release a prototype of its Tesla Semi truck next month in a bid to expand the company’s market beyond luxury cars. The entrepreneur has tantalized the trucking industry with the prospect of a battery-powered heavy-duty vehicle that can compete with conventional diesels, which can travel up to 1,000 miles on a single tank of fuel.
Tesla’s electric prototype will be capable of traveling the low end of what transportation veterans consider to be “long-haul” trucking, according to Scott Perry, an executive at Miami-based fleet operator Ryder System. Perry said he met with Tesla officials earlier this year to discuss the technology at the automaker’s manufacturing facility in Fremont, California.
Perry said Tesla’s efforts are centered on an electric big-rig known as a “day cab” with no sleeper berth, capable of traveling about 200 to 300 miles with a typical payload before recharging.
“I’m not going to count them out for having a strategy for longer distances or ranges, but right out of the gate I think that’s where they’ll start,” said Perry, who is the chief technology officer and chief procurement officer for Ryder.
Tesla responded to Reuters questions with an email statement saying, “Tesla’s policy is to always decline to comment on speculation, whether true or untrue, as doing so would be silly. Silly!”
Tesla’s plan, which could change as the truck is developed, is consistent with what battery researchers say is possible with current technology. Tesla has not said publicly how far its electric truck could travel, what it would cost or how much cargo it could carry. But Musk has acknowledged that Tesla has met privately with potential buyers to discuss their needs.
Reuters reported earlier this month that Tesla is developing self-driving capability for the big rig.
‘Manufacturing hell’
Musk has expressed hopes for large-scale production of the Tesla Semi within a couple of years. That audacious effort could open a potentially lucrative new market for the Palo Alto, California-based automaker.
Or it could prove an expensive distraction. Musk in July warned that the company is bracing for “manufacturing hell” as it accelerates production of its new Model 3 sedan. Tesla aims to produce 5,000 of the cars per week by the end of this year, and 10,000 per week sometime next year.
Tesla shares are up about 65 percent this year. But skeptics abound. Some doubt Musk’s ability to take Tesla from a niche producer to a large-scale automaker. About 22 percent of shares available for trade have been sold “short” by investors who expect the stock to fall.
Musk, a quirky billionaire whose transportation ambitions include colonizing the planet Mars, has long delighted in defying conventional wisdom. At Tesla’s annual meeting in June, he repeated his promise of a battery-powered long-haul big rig.
“A lot of people don’t think you can do a heavy-duty, long-range truck that’s electric, but we are confident that this can be done,” he said.
Trucking’s sweet spot
While the prototype described by Ryder’s Perry would fall well short of the capabilities of conventional diesels, Musk may well have found a sweet spot if he can deliver. Roughly 30 percent of U.S. trucking jobs are regional trips of 100 to 200 miles, according to Sandeep Kar, chief strategy officer of Toronto-based Fleet Complete, which tracks and analyzes truck movement.
A truck with that range would be able to move freight regionally, such as from ports to nearby cities or from warehouses to retail establishments.
“As long as [Musk] can break 200 miles, he can claim his truck is ‘long haul’ and he will be technically right,” Kar said.
Interest in electric trucks is high among transportation firms looking to reduce their emissions and operating costs.
Electric motors require less maintenance than internal combustion engines. Juice from the grid is cheaper than diesel.
But current technology doesn’t pencil when it comes to powering U.S. trucks across the country. Experts say the batteries required would be so large and heavy there would be little room for cargo.
An average diesel cab costs around $120,000. The cost of the battery alone for a big rig capable of going 200 to 400 miles carrying a typical payload could be more than that, according to battery researchers Shashank Sripad and Venkat Viswanathan of Carnegie Mellon University.
Battery weight and ability would limit a semi to a range of about 300 miles with an average payload, according to a paper recently published by Viswanathan and Sripad. The paper thanked Tesla for “helpful comments and suggestions.” Tesla did not endorse the work or comment on the conclusions to Reuters.
A range of 200 to 300 miles would put Tesla at the edge of what the nascent electric truck industry believes is economically feasible, the researchers and industry insiders said.
Short-haul trucks
Transportation stalwarts such as manufacturer Daimler AG and shipping company United Parcel Service said they are focusing their electric efforts on short-haul trucks. That’s because smaller distances and lighter payloads require less battery power, and trucks can recharge at a central hub overnight.
Daimler, the largest truck manufacturer in the world by sales, will begin production this year on an electric delivery truck. The vehicle will have a 100-mile range and be capable of carrying a payload of 9,400 pounds, about 1,000 pounds less than its diesel counterpart, according to Daimler officials.
Daimler has been joined by a handful of startups such as Chanje, a Los Angeles-based manufacturer that has a partnership with Ryder to build 100-mile-range electric trucks for package delivery.
Ryder and its customers believe electric trucks could cost more to buy but may be cheaper to maintain and have more predictable fuel costs. As batteries become cheaper and environmental regulation increases, the case for electric trucks could strengthen.
“This tech is being seen as a major potential differentiator. Everyone wants to understand how real it is,” said Perry, the chief technology officer.
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A new, high-tech yarn that generates electricity when stretched or twisted could use ocean waves and human motion to lower man’s dependency on fossil fuels, researchers said Thursday.
An international team of scientists said in a study they had developed a stretchy yarn made of carbon nanotubes — tiny strands of carbon atoms up to 10,000 times smaller than a hair — that produces electricity from a host of natural sources.
“The easiest way to think of twistron harvesters is you have a piece of yarn, you stretch it, and out comes electricity,” said Carter Haines, a lead author of the study published in the journal Science. The device, which exploits the ability of nanotubes to transfer springlike motion into electrical energy, has numerous possible applications, according to the paper.
In the lab, tests showed that yarn weighing less than a housefly could light up a small LED.
When sewn into a T-shirt, it could power breathing sensors — like those used to monitor babies — using the stretch caused by the chest expanding at every inhalation.
The innovation could be used to power internet-connected devices and smart clothing, said the study’s senior author, Ray Baughman, a professor at the University of Texas-Dallas.
“Electronic textiles are of major commercial interest, but how are you going to power them?” Baughman said in a statement.
“Harvesting electrical energy from human motion is one strategy for eliminating the need for batteries,” he said.
Seawater operation
But the twistron’s most compelling feature was the ability to operate in seawater and potentially harvest vast amounts of energy from the ocean, he added.
“The grander dream is to make a real difference in the energy economy of nations,” Baughman told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.
A trial in South Korea showed that a small twistron attached between a buoy and a sinker on the seabed produced electricity every time a passing wave pulled it.
Baughman said that the technique could be scaled up in the future to create sea-power stations that can light entire cities, though harvesters are currently too expansive.
Under the Paris accord reached in 2015, rich and poor countries committed to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases generated by burning fossil fuels that are blamed by scientists for warming the planet.
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