Every year more than 15 million people worldwide suffer injuries and illnesses that leave them unable to walk according to the World Health Organization. But new technological advances and physical therapy could help some of them walk again. Among the most promising – is the use of robotic exoskeletons. As Erika Celeste reports, scientists at the University of Notre Dame are leading the way with their work on wearable robots that allow patients to regain some or all of their mobility.
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The government Papua New Guinea is considering blocking Facebook while it investigates how to best to regulate the social networking site. Critics say the move would be authoritarian.
Authorities in Papua New Guinea, or PNG, say Facebook has become a magnet for illegal and unsavory activity. The government is considering a temporary ban on the site while it works out the best way to regulate the social media platform.
Only about 10 percent of the nearly 7 million people in PNG use Facebook, but some officials have become increasingly agitated by content being posted online.They have asked experts to help in their search for the best way to impose controls on the social media site.
PNG Communications Minister, Sam Basil, says illegal use of Facebook must be curbed.
“Defamatory publications or the fake news, identity theft and, of course, unidentified Facebook users. Most of those users are the ones that are really breaching all the laws in terms of posting pornography materials and, of course, posting fake news,” he said.
But critics believe the government’s attempts to muzzle Facebook are an attack on free speech. They believe that ministers are motivated by a desire to silence those who expose official corruption and wrongdoing online.
Lawrence Stephens, the chairman of Transparency International PNG, says a temporary ban of Facebook would be a draconian move.
“To talk about stopping this for a month whilst someone, somewhere does an analysis of what we should be able to see sounds pretty authoritarian and pretty worrying,” said Stephens.
The move to temporarily ban Facebook comes as PNG prepares to host the 2018 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, leaders’ summit later this year.
PNG is a South Pacific nation and is Australia’s closest neighbor.
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British civil servants have warned of shortages of food, fuel and medicines within weeks if the U.K. leaves the European Union without a trade deal, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The Sunday Times said government officials have modeled three potential scenarios for a “no deal” Brexit: mild, severe and “Armageddon.”
It said under the “severe” scenario, the English Channel ferry port of Dover would “collapse on day one” and supermarkets and hospitals would soon run short of supplies.
Britain wants to strike a deal on future trade relations with the EU before it officially leaves the bloc on March 29, 2019, but officials are also drawing up plans for negotiations ending without an agreement.
The U.K.’s Department for Exiting the European Union rejected the downbeat scenario, saying it was drawing up no-deal plans but was confident “none of this would come to pass.”
Britain and the EU are aiming to strike an overall Brexit agreement by October, so parliaments in other EU nations have time to ratify it before Britain leaves the bloc.
But British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative government is split between ministers who favor a clean-break “hard Brexit,” that would leave Britain freer to strike new trade deals around the world, and those who want to keep the country closely aligned to the EU, Britain’s biggest trading partner.
EU leaders are frustrated with what they see as a lack of firm proposals from the U.K. over how to resolve major issues around customs arrangements and the status of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. That will be the U.K.’s only land border with the EU after Britain leaves the bloc.
Irish Deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney said Saturday that the U.K. must produce “written proposals” for the border within two weeks, ahead of a June 28-29 EU summit.
British Home Secretary Sajid Javid said Sunday that the British government would have “a good set of proposals” to submit to the bloc at its June meeting.
China has warned that any agreements with Washington in their talks on settling a sprawling trade dispute “will not take effect” if threatened U.S. sanctions including tariff hikes go ahead.
The statement Sunday came shortly after delegations led by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and China’s top economic official, Vice Premier Liu He, held another round of talks on China’s pledge to narrow its trade surplus with the United States by purchasing more American goods.
The Chinese statement said the two sides made “positive and concrete progress,” but neither side released details.
The statement said, “If the United States introduces trade sanctions including increasing tariffs, all the economic and trade achievements negotiated by the two parties will not take effect.”
Ross said U.S. and Chinese officials have discussed specific American export items Beijing might buy as part of its pledge to narrow its trade surplus with the United States.
The two sides began a new round of talks in Beijing this weekend aimed at settling a simmering trade dispute.
Ross gave no details at the start of his meeting Sunday with Liu, China’s top economic official. But Chinese envoys promised after the last high-level meeting in Washington in mid-May to buy more American farm goods and energy products.
President Donald Trump is pressing Beijing to narrow its politically volatile surplus in trade in goods with the United States, which reached a record $375.2 billion last year. He’s threatening to hike duties on up to $150 billion of Chinese imports.
“Our meetings so far have been friendly and frank, and covered some useful topics about specific export items,” Ross said.
Ross was accompanied by agricultural, treasury and trade officials. Liu’s delegation included China’s central bank governor and commerce minister.
There was no indication whether the talks also would take up American complaints that Beijing steals or pressures foreign companies regarding their technology. The White House renewed a threat this week to hike duties on $50 billion of Chinese technology-related goods over that dispute.
Private sector analysts say that while Beijing is willing to compromise on its trade surplus, it will resist changes that might threaten plans to transform China into a global technology competitor.
Ross had a working dinner Saturday evening with Liu, also at the same guesthouse in Beijing.
China has promised to “significantly increase” purchases of farm goods, energy and other products and services. Still, Beijing resisted pressure to commit to a specific target of narrowing its annual surplus with the United States by $200 billion.
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The French news agency AFP is reporting five new suspected cases of the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
AFP reported Saturday that DRC health authorities had recorded two new cases of illness in the Wangata area and three new cases in Bikoro. Both areas are in the northwest Equateur province.
A new Ebola virus outbreak was declared in DRC on May 8 in Bikoro. Since then, about 50 cases of infection have been reported, with 25 of them leading to death.
This is the most serious outbreak of Ebola virus since a massive outbreak in western Africa that ended in 2016 after infecting more than 28,600 people.
On May 30, the World Health Organization said there had been 37 confirmed cases and 13 probable cases in DRC since the start of this outbreak. The fast-acting virus has killed about half its victims in the current outbreak.
Meanwhile, the WHO has been involved in an effort to create a vaccine against the Ebola virus, which has broken out nine times in DRC since its discovery in the 1970s.
On Friday, Peter Salama, the head of emergency response for the WHO, told VOA that teams had vaccinated about 500 people who had contact with Ebola cases discovered recently in Equateur’s capital, Mbandaka.
So far, he said, it appears that the highly contagious virus has not spread in the city.
VOA’s Jackson Mvunganyi and Kate Pound Dawson contributed to this report.
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Britain will not sign a trade agreement with the United States that is not in the country’s best interests, Trade Minister Liam Fox said Saturday after European Union officials filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization over stiff U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
“If we can’t come to an agreement that we believe is in the interests of the United Kingdom, then we wouldn’t be signing any trade agreement,” Fox said Saturday in an interview with BBC radio.
Fox’s comments came one day after European Union officials submitted a formal complaint to the WTO, the first in a series of retaliatory actions, including possible tariffs, against the U.S. Fox said the tariffs are “illegal” and that British Prime Minister Theresa May would raise the issue at the Group of Seven meeting next week in Canada.
Trans-Atlantic and North American trade tensions escalated when the U.S. imposed on Friday a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports from the European Union, Canada and Mexico. The U.S. also negotiated quotas or volume limits on other countries, such as South Korea, Argentina, Australia and Brazil, instead of tariffs.
In a separate dispute, China is prepared to target billions of dollars in U.S. products, many of which come from America’s agricultural heartland, where Trump enjoys strong voter support.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross arrived in Beijing Saturday in an attempt to avert an all-out trade war between the world’s two largest economies. On China’s target list are U.S. soybean farmers, who export about 60-percent of their soybeans to China.
A dairy farmer who also grows soybeans in the midwestern state of Nebraska, Ben Steffen, is angry about the U.S. tariffs “because it hits me in my pocketbook from multiple angles.”
California farmer Jeff Colombini, who grows walnuts, cherries and apples, is concerned about the financial damage a trade war could bring.
“With these tariffs, its going to make the product[s] too expensive for the consumers in Mexico and in Canada and in the EU,” he said. “I have 200 employees, and they depend on the success of this operation for their jobs and to feed and clothe their families.”
The imposition of the tariffs is also not popular with some members of Congress, including those from Trump’s own party, whose states are dependent on exports.
“Imposing steel and aluminum tariffs on our most important trading partners is the wrong approach and represents an abuse of authority intended only for national security purposes,” said Bob Corker of Tennessee, who is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“You don’t treat allies the same way you treat opponents,” Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska said on Twitter. “Blanket protectionism is a big part of why we had a Great Depression. ‘Make America Great Again’ shouldn’t mean ‘Make America 1929 Again.’”
Tennessee has three major auto assembly plants. Nebraska is a significant exporter of cattle, corn, soybeans and hogs.
Mexico said, in response, it will penalize U.S. imports, including pork bellies, apples, grapes, cheeses and flat steel.
“There’s a reason why” the countries are carefully selecting which American products to target in response, said William Reinsch, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Most of bourbon is made in Kentucky, which is the state of the Senate majority leader. Harley Davidsons are made in Wisconsin, which is the state of the speaker of the House,” Reinsch told VOA News. “Usually when other countries retaliate, and the Chinese have done something similar, is they’re good at maximizing political pain by picking out products that are made in places where people are politically important.”
“Tariffs on steel and aluminum imports are a tax hike on Americans and will have damaging consequences for consumers, manufacturers and workers,” said Republican Orrin Hatch, who chairs the Senate’s finance committee and is a longtime advocate of breaking down trade barriers.
Expected higher prices for U.S. consumers on some products is only one side of the equation, said Ross, who noted that steel and aluminum makers in the U.S. are adding employment and opening facilities as a result of the U.S. government action.
“You can create a few jobs, however, you’re going to lose more in the process,” as consuming industries will be placed at a disadvantage of paying more for raw materials compared to their foreign competitors, Simon Lester, trade policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute, told VOA News.
An anonymous bidder offered more than $3.3 million Friday for a private lunch with Warren Buffett, an amount just short of the record paid in 2016 and 2012 for the chance to pick the brain of the renowned investor and philanthropist.
An online auction that raises money for the Glide Foundation’s work to help the homeless in San Francisco ended Friday night on eBay with a winning bid of $3,300,100. The winner wished to remain anonymous.
Third highest price paid
The price was the third highest in the 18 years Buffett has offered the lunch. Winners paid $3,456,789 in 2012 and 2016, which remain the most expensive charity items ever sold on eBay.
Buffett has raised more than $26 million for the Glide Foundation through the annual auctions. Bidders continue to pay high prices for the chance to talk with Buffett, who leads Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway, and the event raises a significant part of Glide’s $20 million annual budget.
Buffett supports Glide because of the work the charity does to help people. His first wife, Susie, introduced him to Glide after she volunteered there.
“Glide really takes people who have hit rock bottom and helps bring them back. They’ve been doing it for decades,” Buffett said.
Glide provides meals, health care, job training, rehabilitation and housing support to the poor and homeless.
One topic off limits
Buffett has said he gets asked about a variety of topics during the lunch. The only subject that’s off limits is what Buffett might invest in next.
The winners of the lunch auction typically dine with Buffett at Smith and Wollensky steak house in New York City, which donates at least $10,000 to Glide each year to host the lunch.
Buffett’s company owns more than 90 companies including insurance, furniture, railroad, jewelry, utility and candy businesses. Berkshire Hathaway also has major investments in companies including Coca-Cola Co., Apple, American Express and Wells Fargo & Co.
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Birds and airplanes share the sky, so inevitably collisions occur. But airport authorities try to limit those encounters because bird strikes cause costly damage to jet engines and can lead to crashes. Some airports employ trained dogs, others use loud noises to frighten birds away. A company in the Netherlands says its robotic predator Robird is much more efficient. VOA’s George Putic has more.
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The U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs in May, sending the unemployment rate to an 18-year low of 3.8 percent. The Labor Department says hourly wages also grew, bumping average worker pay up 2.7 percent from this time last year. And yet, despite the improving job picture, economists say there may be dark clouds forming on the horizon. Mil Arcega reports.
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U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross arrived in Beijing on Saturday for talks on China’s promise to buy more American goods after Washington revived tensions by renewing its threat of tariff hikes on Chinese high-tech exports.
The talks focus on adding details to China’s May 19 promise to narrow its politically volatile surplus in trade in goods with the United States, which reached a record $375.2 billion last year.
President Donald Trump threw the status of the talks into doubt this week by renewing a threat to hike tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese goods over complaints Beijing steals or pressures foreign companies to hand over technology.
Compromise on surplus
Private sector analysts say that while Beijing is willing to compromise on its trade surplus, it will resist changes that might threaten plans to transform China into a global technology competitor.
China has promised to “significantly increase” purchases of farm goods, energy and other products and services. Still, Beijing resisted pressure to commit to a specific target of narrowing its annual surplus with the United States by $200 billion.
Following Beijing’s announcement, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the dispute was “on hold.” But the truce appeared to end with this week’s announcement that Washington was going ahead with tariff hikes on technology goods and also would impose curbs on Chinese investment and purchases of U.S. high-tech exports.
Technology competitor
The move reflects growing American concern about China’s status as a potential tech competitor and complaints Beijing improperly subsidizes its fledgling industries and shields them from competition.
Foreign governments and businesses cite strategic plans such as “Made in China 2025,” which calls for state-led efforts to create Chinese industry leaders in areas from robots to electric cars to computer chips.
“The U.S. focus on so-called industrially significant technologies heightens the risk of escalation between the two countries,” BMI Research said in a report. “Indeed, while China has shown itself willing to compromise in the area of trade deficit reduction, it will not take any actions which threaten its strategically important ‘Made in China 2025’ program.”
Trump also has threatened to raise tariffs on an additional $100 billion of Chinese goods, but gave no indication this week whether that would go ahead.
Earlier, China responded with a threat to retaliate with higher duties on a $50 billion list of American goods including soybeans, small aircraft, whiskey, electric vehicles and orange juice. It criticized Trump’s move this week and said it reserved the right to retaliate but avoided repeating its earlier threat.
Tariffs on Canada, Europe Mexico
Trade analysts warned Ross’s hand might be weakened by the Trump administration’s decision Thursday to go ahead with tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Europe and Mexico.
That might alienate allies who share complaints about Chinese technology policy and a flood of low-priced steel, aluminum and other exports they say are the result of improper subsidies and hurt foreign competitors.
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Google says it will not extend a contract into next year to help the U.S. military analyze drone videos following complaints from company employees.
U.S. media reports said Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., told Google employees about the decision Friday. The development was first reported by tech publication Gizmodo.
Google employees say the tech giant will continue to work on the Maven Project until the contract ends next March. The military project uses artificial intelligence to increase defense capabilities, including using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze aerial drone imagery.
Thousands of Google employees signed a petition urging the company to cancel the contract, arguing that helping the military would violate Google’s motto of “Don’t be evil.”
Reuters reports that several hundred Google employees had planned to hold a public rally in San Francisco in July to protest the military contract.
Google had earlier defended the company’s involvement in the project saying it was limited to helping the military with nonoffensive tasks and said the project would help save lives.
Google says it will soon release new company guidelines related to the ethical uses of AI.
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U.S. health officials say five people have now died from an E. coli outbreak involving romaine lettuce.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday that another four people had died from the outbreak. The patients who died were from Arkansas, California, Minnesota and New York.
The agency said 197 patients from 35 states have become ill from eating contaminated romaine lettuce or from coming into contact with those who did. At least 89 people have been hospitalized.
The CDC said many of the new cases involved people who became ill two to three weeks ago, when contaminated romaine lettuce, which is popular in salads, was still being sold.
Health officials have linked the E. coli outbreak to romaine lettuce grown in Yuma, Arizona. Officials urged people to throw away all romaine lettuce after the first outbreak was reported in March and now officials say the growing season in Arizona has ended.
While the danger has mostly passed, reports of the illness are still coming in because of the time it takes officials to collect hospital information.
Most E. coli bacteria are not harmful, but some produce poisonous substances known as Shiga toxins, which can cause severe stomach cramps, bloody diarrhea and vomiting.
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Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is scheduled to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington on Monday amid souring relations between the NATO allies and trading partners over economic and other issues.
The talks come as Turkish sectors, such as the major steel industry, reel from the higher tariffs imposed by the U.S. administration on Turkey and other nations.
“Huge, huge effect, steel producers are desperate, the psychology is terrible among producers,” said Tayfun Senturk, a Turkey-based international steel trader. “For the last three months, there have been no new U.S. orders, and the U.S. is a major market for Turkish producers, especially in piping. If it continues for a few years, there will be closures.”
In March, President Donald Trump introduced 25 percent tariffs on steel from several primary producers. Turkey didn’t enjoy an exemption given to the European Union, Canada and Mexico that ended Friday.
“This is mainly a dispute with China and secondly the European Union. Why was Turkey targeted? I don’t understand,” Senturk said.
Turkey is the eighth-largest steel producer in the world and second only to Germany in Europe. Last year, Turkey was the sixth-largest exporter to the United States.
There are growing suspicions among Turkish steel producers that politics rather than economics is behind the steel tariffs.
“There have been steps by the steel industry to try to build an understanding with the USA. As far as I know, it is not progressing, because of political reasons,” steel trader Senturk said. “They [steel producers] are saying this would not have happened if the situation [between the U.S. and Turkey] was all right like it was 10 years ago.”
In addition to the manufacturing industry, Turkey’s financial sector could be next to feel the repercussions from strained U.S. relations. U.S. regulatory authorities are considering a significant fine against Turkish state-owned Halkbank after one of its senior officials was convicted in a New York court in January of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran.
“Everybody is expecting a huge fine against Halkbank, but this is a political decision,” political scientist Cengiz Aktar said. Analysts predict the fine could exceed the $9 billion imposed on France-based BNP Paribas bank for breaking U.S. sanctions on Iran.
The fallout of such a fine could be considerable given international investors’ concerns about the Turkish economy.
“If we see major sanctions on Turkey, politically driven ones, the pressure on the currency could be substantial,” said economist Inan Demir of Nomura International, a Japan-based financial holding company.
This year the Turkish lira has already fallen more than 20 percent.
Worse could still be in store for Turkey, analysts say. Washington’s withdrawal from the international-brokered nuclear deal with Tehran could put Ankara and Turkish business in a tight spot. Trump has announced the introduction of trade sanctions against Iran. The U.S. has also warned that companies in violation of the measures could become targets themselves.
Ankara appears unfazed by Washington’s warnings.
“It is an opportunity for Turkey,” said Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci. “We will continue to have trade with Iran while complying with the U.N. resolutions on nuclear activities. We believe in this: The stronger Iran gets in this region, the stronger Turkey becomes as well.”
Analysts suggest Zeybekci’s combative stance could be just political rhetoric, given Turkey is in the midst of campaigning for general and presidential elections set for June 24. Taking a tough stand against Washington is seen to play well with the ruling AKP nationalist voting base.
Complying with U.S. sanctions on Iran, however, could come at a substantial cost for Ankara.
“Turkey is in a difficult position. We have to remember Iran is one of the main actors, along with Russia, providing oil and gas to Turkey,” said former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who served in Iraq and Washington.
“It will be difficult for Turkish banks and Turkish companies to do business in Iran, but it will be difficult to find an alternative for natural gas and oil from Iran. So Turkey will have to tread carefully,” he added.
The prosecution in Turkey of U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson on terrorism charges threatens further measures by Washington against Ankara.
“It’s a show trial taking place, and it has already hurt the bilateral relationship,” U.S. Ambassador-at-Large Sam Brownback said Wednesday in a press briefing. “I think there will be more items to follow … from the United States towards Turkey if they continue to hold him.”
Ankara says Brunson’s trial is a matter for the courts, but, analysts warn, as U.S.-Turkish relations continue souring, the economic price Ankara will pay is likely to rise.
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There is hope that the world’s latest Ebola virus outbreak may be contained in the coming weeks, top experts from the World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders (Medicins San Frontieres) say.
However, they told VOA this week that dangers remain as hundreds of international and local workers battle the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“Yes, we are confident we can eventually contain this outbreak,” said Dr. Peter Salama, the WHO’s head of emergency response, but questions about speed and logistics remain. “Remember, we’re talking about very remote rural villages surrounded by hundreds of kilometers of forested area.”
One encouraging sign is that epidemiologists have tracked the origins of the outbreak in rural DRC, said Dr. Hilde de Clerck, who is part of the aid group’s response command center in Brussels.
“It’s definitely too early to say it’s under control, but it seems rather positive,” she said Thursday. The epidemiologists have tracked what she called the transmission tree, locating the patients and their families, which gives scientists a good overview of the origins of the outbreak and how it has spread.
“It’s a good sign that we have this vision, and it’s also a good sign that our teams seem to say these people seem linked,” and confined to a few families and a few villages.
This outbreak raised fears that it could spread like the West Africa epidemic in 2014-16, which killed more than 11,000 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. That was the worst outbreak in the known history of the disease.
Understandable pace
De Clerck said it was not a surprise that the current outbreak seemed to be moving slowly. Rural outbreaks in the DRC generally are contained fairly quickly because villages are isolated and people are not likely to travel to other areas.
In the West African outbreak, which started in Guinea, better roads and the willingness of people to travel to other towns allowed the virus to spread more quickly, she said.
Other factors also are in play, Salama said Thursday. Reforms in the WHO emergency response program over the past few years allowed a very rapid reaction to the outbreak, he said. In addition, other aid agencies mobilized quickly. MSF was able to deploy a Congolese team from Kinshasa immediately to the first village where the disease was suspected.
What’s more, this time, a vaccine program has been used from the start. “We didn’t have a possibility of using an Ebola vaccine in previous outbreaks,” Salama said.
Medical teams are using a process called ring vaccination with a new drug developed by the company Merck. “We find a confirmed case, and then vaccinate all the close contacts of that case and then the contacts of those contacts,” he said.
The immunization program may be key to halting the spread of the virus in Mbandaka, the capital of Equiteur province. Four cases were confirmed in the city of more than 1 million people, raising fears of a wider spread, as the city sits on the Congo River, which connects to Kinshasa and Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo.
However, Salama said, teams have vaccinated about 500 contacts of the Mbandaka cases, and it appears the virus hasn’t spread in the city.
“Still we should be vigilant for the city, because indeed Mbandaka is a big city and the River Congo is not far, with indeed the boats on the river. But the good news for now is that Mbandaka reports extremely few cases and they seem all linked one to the other,” de Clerck said.
With any outbreak, de Clerck said, medical teams must build trust in communities, especially with something like Ebola, which has a high mortality rate.
“People are very often afraid, or sometimes people think it could be witchcraft or something that is causing those deaths. So we have health promoters on the field to explain to people what is going on and encouraging people actually to come to the health structures,” she said.
Respect for residents, traditions
Health teams need to respect communities and traditions. For instance, she said, it’s not necessary to quarantine contacts of Ebola patients. People are not contagious if they don’t show symptoms, she said. MSF encourages contacts of patients to continue their daily lives, but to check in frequently with medical providers.
And when people do fall ill, the best treatment centers don’t bar visitors. “People are isolated, but we always say an isolation is not a prison. You need to have patient terraces, you need to have windows and people can talk over the windows, over the terraces to their family members, to their neighbors,” as long as visitors stay at least two meters away from patients and don’t touch them, she said.
In the burials of Ebola victims, there can be compromises to allow mourners to follow some traditions safely. It takes more time, de Clerck said, to do such things as allowing a family member to wear a protective suit to help prepare a loved one’s body for burial, or to arrange ways for mourners to gather safely, but it’s possible.
There is a need for promptness in treatment and burial, “but you cannot destroy all traditions, because people will not trust you … and they will refuse to participate or to follow your advice. It’s way better to have the community on your side,” she said.
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The World Health Organization has expanded its Ebola vaccination campaign in the Democratic Republic of Congo to include high risk people in three areas. Latest WHO figures show 37 confirmed cases and 13 probable ones.
Since the start of the Ebola vaccination campaign in May, the World Health Organization said 682 people have been vaccinated, among them nearly 500 in Mbandaka, a city of more than one million people.
The campaign recently was expanded to include Bikoro, where Ebola was first discovered on May 8 and the Iboko health zone, which is the most remote of the three areas. Those immunized include health workers, responders and other people at high risk of falling ill from the fatal disease.
WHO officials say the vaccine, which has not been formally approved, appears to be providing protection and giving rise to hope that it can help stop the spread of the Ebola virus.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who was president of Liberia during the unprecedented Ebola epidemic in West Africa, shares that hope. Ebola broke out in West Africa in late 2013. By the time it was brought under control in 2016, the disease had killed more than 11,000 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Liberia lost 4,800 people during that outbreak.
While on a visit to Geneva earlier this week, she told VOA there has been an improvement in health care delivery systems, including infection control since the experience with Ebola.
“So the capacity to be able to address any outbreak is now improved in the affected countries, as well as in other places,” she added. “I think there is an important new dimension in the fight for Ebola and that is vaccines.
Sirleaf said vaccine trials in Guinea and now in the DRC have shown good results.
“We are hoping that DRC like others will have a capacity to deal with it, to stop the spread,” she said. “… We are hoping that DRC will come out of this without the major effect, the major results that we saw in the three countries that were not prepared for this.”
The vaccine developer, Merck, has contributed 7,500 doses of the Ebola vaccine to the DRC. The company says as many as 300,000 more doses are available in case of a serious outbreak.
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After President Donald Trump said the United States was getting out of the Paris climate agreement because it put the U.S. at a “big economic disadvantage,” the last two holdouts said they were getting in.
Nicaragua and Syria announced late last year that they would join the global agreement to reduce emissions of planet-warming gases.
Experts said it’s one way that Trump’s decision to pull back from tackling climate change has galvanized others to step up.
But whether others will fill the gap the U.S. has left remains an open question.
No other country has followed his lead, said former lead climate negotiator Todd Stern.
“The first, most important piece of good news, and it wasn’t a foregone conclusion, is that other countries stayed in,” he said.
Stepping up
Some countries have announced plans to step up their efforts. China, France, Britain and several other countries have said they will end sales of fossil fuel-powered vehicles, though not all have set a deadline.
More than 60 countries, states, cities and companies have promised an end to coal-powered electricity generation.
In the U.S., experts note that states, cities and businesses have been taking action to fight climate change, even when the federal government has not.
Following Trump’s announcement, an alliance representing more than half of the U.S. economy pledged to meet the nation’s Paris greenhouse gas-reduction commitment anyway.
Counted among the “We Are Still In” coalition’s 2,770 members are New York, California and seven other states; 230 cities, including nine of the 10 most populous; and Unilever, Intel, Gap Inc. and other Fortune 500 companies.
Some states announced plans to do more to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Virginia and New Jersey moved to require power plants to pay for their carbon pollution, joining a nine-state cap-and-trade program.
“A lot of this work would have occurred naturally,” noted Virginia deputy secretary of commerce and trade Angela Navarro, but Trump’s decision “gave us a galvanizing point.”
More than 400 companies worldwide have promised to reduce their emissions in line with global climate goals, and 26 U.S.-based companies, including McDonald’s, Walmart and PepsiCo, have already set targets.
Market forces have also helped U.S. greenhouse gas emissions fall steadily since 2007. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has created a boom in natural gas, replacing dirtier coal in power plants. And the cost of wind and solar energy has been plummeting.
Tipping the balance
But it’s unclear whether the trend will continue. The Trump administration is working to undo regulations aimed at limiting greenhouse gases from power plants, vehicles and other sources.
“The question is, how will it all pencil out?” asked Rhodium Group climate policy analyst Kate Larsen. “Are the federal rollbacks more than enough to tip the balance?”
State, city and business action is “a really good place to start,” she added, “but over time, it’s not a great replacement for federal action.”
The world pledged in Paris to keep global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. It is currently falling far short of that goal.
All countries have to ramp up their efforts. But with the Trump administration stepping back, former U.S. climate negotiator Todd Stern said other countries may be less willing to step up.
“You see the United States — the biggest historic emitter, the second biggest emitter now — suddenly saying, ‘Never mind.’ What’s the impact of that? Obviously not good,” Stern said.
Negotiators will meet in Poland in December aiming to finalize the “rule book” for how to implement the Paris climate agreement. Experts said that will be one of the first indications of how serious countries are about increasing efforts to meet their climate goals, with or without the United States.
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U.S. employers extended a streak of solid hiring in May, adding 223,000 jobs and helping lower the unemployment rate to an 18-year low of 3.8 percent.
The Labor Department says average hourly pay rose 2.7 percent from a year earlier, a slightly faster annual rate than in April. But pay growth remains below levels that are typical when the unemployment rate is this low.
Still, the report shows that the nearly 9-year old economic expansion – the second-longest on record – remains on track. Employers appear to be shrugging off recent concerns about global trade disputes.
The job market is also benefiting a wider range of Americans: The unemployment rate for high school graduates reached 3.9 percent, a 17-year low. For black Americans, it hit a record low of 5.9 percent.
The solid hiring data coincides with other evidence that the economy is on firm footing after a brief slowdown in the first three months of the year. The economy grew at a modest 2.2 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter, after three quarters that had averaged roughly 3 percent annually.
Some economists remain concerned that the Trump administration’s aggressive actions on trade could hamper growth. The administration on Thursday imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from key allies in Europe, Canada and Mexico. Earlier in the week, it threatened to hit China with tariffs on $50 billion of its goods.
Still, while Trump has made such threats since March, most employers so far haven’t suspended hiring.
And consumers have started to spend more freely, after having pulled back in the January-March quarter. That gain could reflect in part the effect of the Trump administration’s tax cuts, which might be encouraging more Americans to step up spending. Consumer spending rose in April at its fastest pace in five months.
Some of the spending reflects more money needed to pay higher gas prices, a potential trouble spot for consumers in the coming months. The average price of a gallon of gas nationwide reached $2.96 on Thursday, up 15 cents from a month ago, according to AAA. Some economists calculate that higher gas costs could offset up to one-third of the benefit of the tax cuts.
Companies are spending more on industrial machinery, computers and software _ signs that they’re optimistic enough about future growth to expand their capacity. A measure of business investment rose in the first quarter by the most in 3{ years. That investment growth has been spurred partly by higher oil prices, which have encouraged the construction of more drilling rigs.
Manufacturers have benefited from the healthier business spending and have increased hiring. In April, factories expanded production of turbines and other heavy machinery by the most in seven months.
Macroeconomic Advisers, a forecasting firm, says it now foresees the economy expanding at a robust 4 percent annual pace in the April-June quarter, which would be the fastest in nearly four years. That is up from its forecast last week of less than a 3 percent rate for the current quarter.
Yet even with unemployment at an 18-year low, wage growth has been chronically sluggish in most industries, leaving many Americans still struggling to pay bills, particularly as inflation has ticked up. Still, companies are starting to pay more to lure workers from other companies, a trend that could lead to broader pay gains in coming months.
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said higher pay for job-switchers tends to augur more robust raises for everyone else.
At the same time, Martha Gimbel, head of economic research at the job listing site Indeed, notes that wages for people who remain in their jobs have actually declined in recent months. That suggests that many employers have yet to worry about their workers being lured away.
Student photographer Madeline Morales takes her camera everywhere she goes. She is always looking for something interesting to shoot.
“I try to look at things with a lot of light; a lot of what draws me is positivity – something that means love or happiness,” said Morales.
At 15 years of age, she has lived through experiences most teens have not had to deal with. She has faced cancer, chemotherapy and radiation, but she stays optimistic and tries to find beauty through her camera lens. Today, she will see something most people will never see in their lifetime.
“It makes me feel excited, a little bit nervous,” said Morales, whose photos were on display at a gallery show in Los Angeles.
“I think with photography and having that faith in God has really helped me a lot to staying positive and being motivated to want to keep fighting this disease,” she said.
Morales was one of 23 students who shared their experiences with cancer through photos at the Pablove Foundation’s gallery show of its advanced photography class. The foundation aims to improve the lives of children living with the disease through its Shutterbugs photography program. The Pablove Foundation also provides money for underfunded pediatric cancer research. Proceeds from the students’ prints will go toward pediatric cancer research grants.
The Pablove Shutterbugs program offers photography classes in eight cities across the United States.
“Being in these classes with other people that completely understand their experience and can be a community with them has been really impactful and has really made them feel a lot more comfortable in what they’ve been through and where they’re going with it,” said Ashley Blakeney, program manager of Pablove Shutterbugs.
She said the photography classes give students living with cancer a sense of community at a time when they often feel isolated in their experience. Photography also helps build confidence, said Blakeney.
“Pavlove Shutterbugs serve as a distraction for these students while they’re going through their treatment because it literally is an out of hospital experience first and foremost,” she said, adding, “Because they are able to build this skill set and to be the really great photographers that they are. They’re incredible. It gives them something to brag about in a sense that they can now say “I am an artist. I am a photographer. I have this voice, and I have this story to tell” and they’re able to do that through their images.”
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Another student photographer featured in the gallery show is Bayu Lukman.
“Most of my photos’ themes focused on hope,” said Lukman
Lukman was diagnosed with cancer after graduating from elementary school. He described the devastating emotional side of living through cancer and its treatments of chemotherapy and radiation.
“You kind of get really depressed and you don’t want to live anymore.” Lukman continued, “You need to stay optimistic and push yourself through.”
With photography, many young students see the world through the lens of optimism, where their identity is not dictated by cancer.
“There’s more to us than just having cancer, that we have more of a story to tell besides cancer. We want people to see what we see even if it’s through the lens,” said Morales.
“Pablove helped me understand more about the struggles of cancer and has given me a small chance to actually assist in the world a bit with photography, I’d say, to express my story and allow it to hopefully to reach other kids so they understand how to deal with it hopefully,” said Lukman.
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Cancer is not just an illness of the body, it also takes a toll on a patient’s emotional well-being. To fight feelings of isolation and depression, an organization called the Pablove Foundation created a program that teaches photography to children living with cancer. Through a camera lens, young cancer patients can focus on the beauty in life. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee reports from a gallery show in Los Angeles where some of these students’ pictures are on display.
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Some U.S. trading partners are vowing to retaliate against U.S interests over President Donald Trump’s decision to impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports from the European Union, Canada and Mexico beginning on Friday.
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U.S. employers are thought to have hired at a solid pace in May and helped extend the economy’s nearly nine-year expansion, the second-longest on record, despite uncertainty caused by trade disputes.
Economists have forecast that employers added 190,000 jobs last month and that the unemployment rate remained at a 17-year low of 3.9 percent, according to data provider FactSet.
The Labor Department’s May jobs report will be released at 8:30 a.m. EDT Friday.
Economy firm footing
Solid hiring data would coincide with other evidence that the economy is on firm footing after a brief slowdown in the first three months of the year. The economy grew at a modest 2.2 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter, after three quarters that had averaged roughly 3 percent annually.
Some economists remain concerned that the Trump administration’s aggressive actions on trade could hamper growth. The administration on Thursday imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from key allies in Europe, Canada and Mexico. Earlier in the week, it threatened to hit China with tariffs on $50 billion of its goods.
Still, while Trump has made such threats since March, most employers so far haven’t suspended hiring.
Consumer spending up
And consumers have started to spend more freely, after having pulled back in the January-March quarter. That gain could reflect in part the effect of the Trump administration’s tax cuts, which might be encouraging more Americans to step up spending. Consumer spending rose in April at its fastest pace in five months.
Some of the spending reflects more money needed to pay higher gas prices, a potential trouble spot for consumers in the coming months. The average price of a gallon of gas nationwide reached $2.96 on Thursday, up 15 cents from a month ago, according to AAA. Some economists calculate that higher gas costs could offset up to one-third of the benefit of the tax cuts.
More hiring, more growth
Companies are spending more on industrial machinery, computers and software, signs that they’re optimistic enough about future growth to expand their capacity. A measure of business investment rose in the first quarter by the most in 3½ years. That investment growth has been spurred partly by higher oil prices, which have encouraged the construction of more drilling rigs.
Manufacturers have benefited from the healthier business spending and have increased hiring. In April, factories expanded production of turbines and other heavy machinery by the most in seven months.
Macroeconomic Advisers, a forecasting firm, said Thursday that it now foresees the economy expanding at a robust 4 percent annual pace in the April-June quarter, which would be the fastest in nearly four years. That is up from its forecast last week of less than a 3 percent rate for the current quarter.
Wage growth lagging
Yet even with unemployment at a 17-year low, wage growth has been chronically sluggish in most industries, leaving many Americans still struggling to pay bills, particularly as inflation has ticked up.
Average hourly pay rose just 2.6 percent in April from a year earlier, before adjusting for inflation. That’s far below historic trends: Paychecks were rising at roughly a 4 percent pace in 2000, the last time unemployment was this low.
Still, companies are starting to pay more to lure workers from other companies, a trend that could lead to broader pay gains in coming months. Workers who switched jobs received annual pay increases averaging 4 percent in April, compared with average gains of 2.9 percent for those who stayed in their jobs, according to data compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said higher pay for job-switchers tends to augur more robust raises for everyone else.
“Employers will have no choice but to adjust their pay scales to ensure wage parity across their entire workforce,” Zandi said.
At the same time, Martha Gimbel, head of economic research at the job listing site Indeed, notes that wages for people who remain in their jobs have actually declined in recent months. That suggests that many employers have yet to worry about their workers being lured away.
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The United States’ allies in the G-7 vowed Thursday to push back against Washington’s decision to impose tariffs on their steel and aluminum exports, saying as they gathered for a meeting that the move threatens global growth.
The escalating trade conflict between the United States and many key allies will dominate the three-day meeting in Canada of financial leaders from the Group of Seven industrialized nations that began Thursday, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin the top target for their complaints and lobbying.
The United States said it was moving ahead to impose tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum, starting at midnight (0400 GMT Friday), ending months of uncertainty about potential exemptions and sending a chill through financial markets.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire demanded a “permanent and total exemption” from the tariffs and said that European Union countries would respond with their own measures.
The U.S. tariff decision “is unjustified and unjustifiable and will have dangerous consequences for global growth,” Le Maire said in comments to media on his way to the meeting of policymakers from the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Canada in the mountain resort of Whistler, British Columbia.
His German counterpart, Olaf Scholz, said EU member states would show their unity and sovereignty by acting in a determined way. “Our response should be clear, strong and smart,” Scholz told Reuters.
Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau said the tariffs would color the G-7 meeting.
“There will be some challenging discussions I’m sure,” Morneau told a news conference as top policymakers gathered. “We are not saying there won’t be frictions,” he added. “We’re not saying we won’t have strong words. We’re not saying we won’t be able to send messages.”
Mnuchin, who was not at the introductory discussion panels focused on development and sharing the benefits of global growth, is scheduled to meet individually with many of his global counterparts during the three-day meeting.
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said the U.S. decision to target trade in goods, not services, was misplaced.
“This focus on goods trade, bilateral goods, is not the right focus in a hyperconnected world where most of the economic activity, most people work, most small businesses, most women work in the service sector,” Carney told a panel.
“If we were to liberalize services to the same degree as we have liberalized [trade in] goods, these balances would be cut in half for the United States and for the U.K.,” Carney added.
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said if trade was “massively disrupted,” the level of public trust in leaders would be severely damaged.
“First of all, those who will suffer most are the poorest, the less privileged people, those who actually rely on imported goods to have their living,” she said, adding that long-standing supply chains also would be disrupted.
The U.S. actions on trade policy, which also include potential tariffs and investment restrictions on China and a national security probe that could lead to tariffs on auto imports, are expected to also dominate the G-7 summit of world leaders in Quebec next week.
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Outside Facebook’s annual shareholders meeting Thursday, a lone protester paced on the sidewalk, carrying a U.S. flag and a sign that read “Zuckerberg destroys shareholder value.”
Above, a small plane pulled a banner that read “You Broke Democracy.”
Inside, Facebook shareholders offered both praise and criticism of the company’s leadership.
The social media giant has been in a constant spotlight over how foreign actors used its service to try to influence elections worldwide. It suffered a double blow when it was revealed that 87 million users’ information had gone to a political consulting firm without the users’ knowledge.
The company continues to face inquiries from federal and state regulators about privacy and user data issues. And Mark Zuckerberg, its chief executive, recently testified in front of the European Parliament after appearing in front of Congress on the issues.
Shareholders sound off
Facebook shareholders provided another sort of oversight. Many expressed their displeasure by selling shares in March after it was disclosed that Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm, obtained user data without their knowledge. Facebook shares have more than recovered since then, rising 2 percent Thursday to $191.78, which was up 26 percent from the company’s three-month low of $152 in March.
“We didn’t do enough to see how people could abuse these tools,” Zuckerberg told the shareholders.
“The main thing we need to do right now is take a broader view of our responsibility to the community we serve,” he said.
Investors applauded Zuckerberg several times during the meeting. And they followed the company’s advice and appeared to vote down shareholder proposals, including one that would change the voting power of company shares. Currently, Zuckerberg, 34, and insiders hold a class of stock that gives them more than 60 percent of the voting power.
Shareholders also appeared to vote against other proposals such as requiring the company to report on its gender pay gap and a content report that would show how the company enforces its terms of service worldwide. (Official results of the tally will be posted in the next several days.)
Despite the defeats, shareholder proposals are worthwhile, said Natasha Lamb, managing partner at Arjuna Capital, an activist investment firm behind two proposals.
They “send a signal to management, send a signal to the board,” she said.
Diversity of ideas
Amid the applause, there was also sharp criticism.
“We contend that Facebook’s poor stewardship of user data is tantamount to a human rights violation,” said Christine Jantz, chief investment officer at Northstar Asset Management.
Another investor asked what Facebook was doing to understand political bias among its employees and how that affects decisions about content on the site.
Zuckerberg said the company was “committed to being a platform for all ideas.”
The company ended the meeting, but not before a shareholder pleaded, “Engage with us on these issues. We are on the same team.”
Company leaders said they would.
Deana Mitchell contributed to this report.
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When Oregon lawmakers created the state’s legal marijuana program, they had one goal in mind above all else: to persuade illicit pot growers to leave the black market.
That meant low barriers to entry that also targeted long-standing medical marijuana growers, whose product is not taxed. As a result, weed production boomed — with a bitter consequence.
Now, marijuana prices here are in free fall, and the craft cannabis farmers who put Oregon on the map decades before broad legalization say they are in peril of losing their now-legal businesses as the market adjusts.
Oregon regulators on Wednesday announced they will stop processing new applications for marijuana licenses in two weeks to address a severe backlog and ask state lawmakers to take up the issue next year.
California takes heed
Experts say the dizzying evolution of Oregon’s marijuana industry may well be a cautionary tale for California, where a similar regulatory structure could mean an oversupply on a much larger scale.
“For the way the program is set up, the state just wants to get as many people in as possible, and they make no bones about it,” Hilary Bricken, a Los Angeles-based attorney specializing in marijuana business law, said of California. “Most of these companies will fail as a result of oversaturation.”
A staggering inventory
Oregon has nearly 1 million pounds (453,600 kilograms) of marijuana flower, commonly called bud, in its inventory, a staggering amount for a state with about 4 million people. Producers told The Associated Press wholesale prices fell more than 50 percent in the past year; a study by the state’s Office of Economic Analysis found the retail cost of a gram of marijuana fell from $14 in 2015 to $7 in 2017.
The oversupply can be traced largely to state lawmakers’ and regulators’ earliest decisions to shape the industry.
They were acutely aware of Oregon’s entrenched history of providing top-drawer pot to the black market nationwide, as well as a concentration of small farmers who had years of cultivation experience in the legal, but largely unregulated, medical pot program.
Getting those growers into the system was critical if a legitimate industry was to flourish, said Sen. Ginny Burdick, a Portland Democrat who co-chaired a committee created to implement the voter-approved legalization measure.
Lawmakers decided not to cap licenses; to allow businesses to apply for multiple licenses; and to implement relatively inexpensive licensing fees.
The Oregon Liquor Control Commission, which issues licenses, announced Wednesday it will put aside applications for new licenses received after June 15 until a backlog of pending applications is cleared out. The decision comes after U.S. Attorney Billy Williams challenged state officials to address Oregon’s oversupply problem.
“In my view, and frankly in the view of those in the industry that I’ve heard from, it’s a failing of the state for not stepping back and taking a look at where this industry is at following legalization,” Williams told the AP in a phone interview.
But those in the industry supported the initial decisions that led to the oversupply, Burdick said.
“We really tried to focus on policies that would rein in the medical industry and snuff out the black market as much as possible,” Burdick said.
Consolidation
Lawmakers also quickly backtracked on a rule requiring marijuana businesses have a majority ownership by someone with Oregon residency after entrepreneurs complained it was hard to secure startup money. That change opened the door to out-of-state companies with deep pockets that could begin consolidating the industry.
The state has granted 1,001 producer licenses and has another 950 in process as of last week. State officials worry if they cut off licensing entirely or turn away those already in the application process, they’ll get sued or encourage illegal trade.
Some of the same parameters are taking shape in California, equally known for black-market pot from its Emerald Triangle region.
The rules now in effect there place caps only on certain, medium-sized growing licenses. In some cases, companies have acquired dozens of growing licenses, which can be operated on the same or adjoining parcels. The growers association is suing to block those rules, fearing they will open the way for vast farms that will drive out smaller cultivators.
Beau Whitney, senior economist at national cannabis analytics firm New Frontier Data, said he’s seeing California prices fall.
In contrast, Washington knew oversupply could draw federal attention and was more conservative about licensing. As the market matured, its regulators eased growing limits, but the state never experienced an oversupply crisis.
Colorado has no caps on licenses, but strict rules designed to limit oversupply allow the state to curtail a growers’ farm size based on past crop yields, existing inventory, sales deals and other factors.
Chain stores
In Oregon, cannabis retail chains are emerging to take advantage of the shake-up.
A company called Nectar has 13 stores around the state, with three more on tap, and says on its website it is buying up for-sale dispensaries too. Canada-based Golden Leaf Holdings bought the successful Oregon startup Chalice and has six stores around Portland, with another slated to open.
William Simpson, Chalice’s founder and Golden Leaf Holdings CEO, is expanding into Northern California, Nevada and Canada. Simpson welcomes criticism that he’s dumbing down cannabis the same way Starbucks brought coffee to a mass market.
“If you take Chalice like Starbucks, it’s a known quantity, it’s a brand that people know and trust,” he said.
Amy Margolis, executive director of the Oregon Cannabis Association, says that capping licenses would only spur even more consolidation in the long-term. The state is currently working on a study that should provide data and more insight into what lies ahead.
“I don’t think that everything in this state is motivated by struggle and failure,” she said. “I’m very interested to see … how this market settles itself and (in) being able to do that from a little less of a reactionary place.”
Craft growers
For now, Oregon’s smaller marijuana businesses are trying to stay afloat.
A newly formed group will launch an ad campaign this fall to tell Oregonians why they should pay more for mom-and-pop cannabis. Adam Smith, who founded the Oregon Craft Cannabis Alliance, believes 70 percent of Oregon’s small growers and retailers will go out of business if consumers don’t respond.
“We could turn around in three to four years and realize that 10 to 12 major companies own a majority of the Oregon industry and that none of it is really based here anymore,” he said. “The Oregon brand is really all about authenticity. It’s about people with their hands in the dirt, making something they love as well as they can. How do we save that?”
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