Nome, Alaska, Gets Fresh Review as Possible US Arctic Port

Federal officials will take another look at the historic Alaska community of Nome as a possible port serving ships heading for the Arctic.

 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced it has signed an agreement with the city of Nome to examine whether benefits justify costs of navigation improvements, said Bruce Sexauer, chief of civil works for the Corps’ Alaska District.

 

“The study will look at economic and social reasons to see if expanding the port is in the federal interest,” he said.

 

The study process generally takes three years and could culminate in a Corps’ recommendation to Congress to authorize port improvements, Sexauer said.

 

Alaska lacks deep-water ports along most of its west and northwest coast. The nearest permanent U.S. Coast Guard station is Kodiak more than 800 miles (1,287 kilometers) away.

 

Arctic marine traffic continues to grow and Nome, though south of the Arctic Circle, is well situated south of the Pacific chokepoint to the Arctic, the Bering Strait, Sexauer said.

 

A joint federal-state study started in 2008 looked at alternatives for Arctic ports in the Bering and Chukchi seas. Nome became the top choice because of infrastructure already in place, including an airport that handles jets, a hospital and fuel supply facilities.

 

“It just needed to be bigger and deeper,” Sexauer said

 

However, economic justification for the port diminished in late 2015 when Royal Dutch Shell PLC drilled a dry hole in the Chukchi Sea and suspended its U.S. Arctic offshore drilling program.

 

“The benefits for a project at Nome went away, at least the oil and gas benefits,” Sexauer said. The Corps paused its study with the state and officially terminated it last month, Sexauer said.

 

The study with the city will again look at how a Nome port would aid marine traffic for petroleum development, mining and regional delivery of fuel and other products.

 

Federal law changed in 2016 to allow the Corps to also consider social benefits, such as support of search and rescue operations, national security and aid to communities to help them be sustainable.

 

The Port of Nome remains too shallow to handle large ships. Fuel tankers stay anchored in deep water and fuel is lightered to Nome.

 

Nome’s inner harbor in 2014 was just 10 feet (3 meters) deep and its outer harbor was less than 23 feet (7 meters) deep. The Corps that year looked at constructing docks up to 1,000 feet (305 meters) long and dredging to 35 feet (10.7 meters).

 

The Corps in late April has scheduled a planning meeting in Nome to detail the scope of the new study.

Glasses Capture 360 Video From Wearer’s Perspective

Imagine putting on a pair of glasses and immediately being able to record 360-degree video, hands free, regardless of what you are doing. It will soon be possible with glasses made by Orbi.

“We’re making the first 360-degree video recording eyewear,” said Adil Suranchin, chief of operations at Orbi, a company headquartered in Berkeley, California, with its software team in Russia and with hardware developed in Taiwan, Japan, China and Canada.

Pair of glasses, four lenses

The glasses have a built-in camera with four lenses, two in front and two in the back. The result is 4K resolution immersive video. The glasses allow video to be recorded from the user’s perspective.

“You put them on, press the button, and you can say goodbye to all the mounts and rigs and tripods required for current action cameras.” Suranchin continued, “Every camera has a field of view of 180 degrees so it allows you to capture a complete dome view.”

The dome view means if the person wearing Orbi’s glasses isn’t looking down when recording, the video will have an area where it is just black.

Privacy concerns

Video-recording glasses also raises privacy concerns of the people being recorded.

“We have LED indicators, LED lights that light on when the recording is being done so that all surrounding people would know that the recording is happening,” Suranchin said.

The video can be shared instantly, and the files are saved on an SD card. The glasses are water-resistant, polarized and can be pre-ordered for $399 to be shipped starting August.

Draghi: Too Early to Call Time on Money-Printing Stimulus

European Central Bank head Mario Draghi said Monday that it’s too soon to declare victory over weak inflation – indicating it would be premature to set a definite end date for the bank’s money-printing stimulus despite a strengthening economy.

Draghi’s statement to a session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, said that continuing economic growth means inflation would eventually tick up toward the bank’s goal of just under 2 percent, from an annual 1.3 percent in January. 

“While our confidence that inflation will converge towards our aim of below, but close to, 2 percent has strengthened,” Draghi said, “we cannot yet declare victory on this front.”

He said that “new headwinds” had arisen from a recently stronger euro. The stronger currency can hurt exporters _ and therefore growth _ and makes it harder to raise inflation, since it reduces the costs of imports. The euro was little changed after Draghi spoke, trading around $1.242, down 0.3 percent on the day. 

Draghi offered no indication of any looming change in the bank’s statement that it would continue purchasing 30 billion euros ($37 billion) per month in bonds at least through September, and longer if necessary. The purchases pump newly created money into the economy, driving down longer-term interest rates in an effort to raise inflation and growth.

The ECB head said that “overall, while we can be more confident about the path of inflation, patience and persistence with regard to monetary policy is still warranted for underlying inflation pressures to build up and inflation to converge durably towards our objective.”

An end to the purchases would eventually mean higher long-term borrowing costs for governments and companies. The ECB’s stance is being closely watched in currency markets, which tend to send the euro higher against the dollar on any indication that the stimulus might come to an end. Monetary stimulus tends to lower a currency’s exchange rate, while interest rate increases tend to raise the exchange rate against other currencies. 

The ECB has made clear that interest rate increases will only occur well after the end of the purchases. That means the next rate increase likely won’t happen until sometime in 2019. Currently, the bank’s main benchmark interest rate is at a record low of zero.

Nigeria’s President Signs Order to Boost Local Production, Employment

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday signed an executive order aimed at boosting the local production of goods and create jobs in the west African country.

Buhari, a 75-year-old former military ruler, has frequently spoken about ending the OPEC member’s dependence on oil exports while also creating jobs by boosting local food production.

And in 2015, months after Buhari came to power in May of that year, the central bank restricted access to foreign currency to import certain goods in a bid to stimulate local manufacturing.

The president “ordered that all ‘procuring authorities shall give preference to Nigerian companies and firms in the award of contracts, in line with the Public Procurement Act 2007,'” said the presidency in a statement circulated on Monday.

“The executive order also prohibits the ministry of interior from giving visas to foreign workers whose skills are readily available in Nigeria,” added the statement.

Around four out of every 10 people in the country’s workforce were unemployed or underemployed by the end of September, according to data released by the statistics office in December.

The order states that consideration will only be given to a foreign professional, “where it is certified by the appropriate authority that such expertise is not available in Nigeria.”

The country, which has Africa’s largest population and biggest economy, in 2016 fell into its a recession largely caused by low oil prices and militant attacks on energy facilities in the Niger Delta region.

It emerged from recession in the second quarter of 2017, largely on higher on oil prices.

ECB Experts: US Tax Law Could Erode Europe’s Tax Base

Economists at the European Central Bank say that the U.S. corporate tax cut should lift the world’s largest economy in the short term but warn it could erode the tax base in European countries by intensifying global competition for lower rates.

In a short article released Monday, the ECB’s economists say that the cut in business taxes will provide a “significant fiscal stimulus” to growth in the U.S. in the short term. It warned that long-term effects were less clear, especially if the cut leads to larger U.S. budget deficits.

Effects on the 19-country eurozone were “highly uncertain and complex” but could include an erosion of the tax base if countries around the world compete by lowering their tax rates to attract businesses.

“Lower U.S. corporate tax rates raise the tax attractiveness of the United States relative to other countries,” the report said. “Prior to the reform, the U.S. corporate tax rate stood above the rates of all large euro area countries, while, after the reform, it is close to the lower end of rates in those countries.”

The legislation, which was pushed by President Donald Trump and signed into law in December, lowers the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent, among other changes. The changes took effect January 1.

Meanwhile, the U.N.’s trade and development agency said that as multinational companies return an estimated $2 trillion to the United States because of the tax law, there could be “sharp reductions” in foreign direct investment worldwide.

The U.N. Conference on Trade and Development noted in their own preliminary report that the tax law includes a one-time tax on accumulated foreign earnings that could free up funds overseas to be repatriated.

UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi said the impact on investment in the developing world remains unclear.

The agency says nearly half of all global investment is in the United States or owned by U.S. multinationals, which have kept about $3.2 trillion in earnings overseas.

Agency officials said the main impact could come over the longer-term, as multinationals reassess their foreign investment portfolios and the effects of the tax reform play out.

UNCTAD says much will depend on how big multinationals respond. It said five technology companies — Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, Alphabet and Oracle — together hold over $530 billion in cash overseas, or about one-fourth of the total “liquid assets” believed to be available for repatriation.

US Regulators to Back More Oversight of Digital Currencies

Digital currencies such as bitcoin demand increased oversight and may require a new federal regulatory framework, the top U.S. markets regulators will tell lawmakers at a hotly anticipated congressional hearing on Tuesday.

Christopher Giancarlo, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Jay Clayton, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, will provide testimony to the Senate Banking Committee amid growing concerns globally over the risks virtual currencies pose to investors and the financial system.

Giancarlo and Clayton will say current state-by-state licensing rules for cryptocurrency exchanges may need to be reviewed in favor of a rationalized federal framework, according to prepared testimony published on Monday.

Reporting by Michelle Price.

‘Heartwrenching’ Study Shows FGM Prevalent Among India’s Bohra Sect

Three quarters of women among India’s Dawoodi Bohra sect have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM), according to a study published on Monday which comes just weeks after government officials said there was no data to support its existence.

Campaigners hope the survey – the largest of its kind – will bolster calls for a law to ban the secretive ritual which they say causes physical, emotional and sexual harm.

One mother told how she feared her daughter would bleed to death after she was cut. A third of women believed the procedure had damaged their sex lives. Others spoke of emotional trauma.

Traditional circumcisers told researchers they had cut thousands of girls.

Masooma Ranalvi, founder of campaign group WeSpeakOut which commissioned the study, said the stories were “heartwrenching”.

“This report not only proves FGM does exist in India, but also shows how harmful it is,” Ranalvi told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Children are still being cut today. This must end.”

The year-long study – published on the eve of International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM – includes 94 interviews with supporters and opponents of the practice.

The Dawoodi Bohra, a Shi‘ite Muslim sect thought to number up to 2 million worldwide, considers the ritual, known as khafd, a religious obligation although it is not mentioned in the Koran.

The procedure, which entails cutting the clitoral hood, is performed around the age of seven.

India’s Supreme Court is considering a petition to ban FGM. Campaigners were shocked in December when the women’s ministry told the court there was no official data or study supporting its existence.

FGM is more commonly linked to a swathe of African countries where cutters may remove all external genitalia.

Supporters of khafd told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that the ritual was a “harmless” cultural and religious practice.

The Dawoodi Bohra Women’s Association for Religious Freedom said the study did not represent the views of most Bohra women.

A spokeswoman said in an email that khafd and FGM were “entirely different” practices, and that there was “no place for any kind of mutilation” in the Bohra culture.

But the World Health Organization says FGM includes any injury to the genitalia.

One gynaecologist told researchers it would be easy to damage the clitoris if a girl struggled during the procedure which is done without anaesthesia.

Ranalvi said khafd was rooted in beliefs a woman’s sexual desire must be curbed, but it was “mired in secrecy” and few women dared speak out for fear of ostracisation.

The practice made headlines in 2015 when three members of the Bohra diaspora in Australia were convicted of FGM-related offences. Bohras in the United States face similar charges.

Respondents to the survey said Bohra girls from diaspora communities were now travelling to India to be cut.

Survivors of Female Genital Mutilation Say #MeToo

The #MeToo campaign against sexual abuse should include the stories of survivors of female genital mutilation (FGM), activists said ahead of a global day on Tuesday to raise awareness about the internationally condemned ritual.

Leyla Hussein, one of the first FGM survivors to come forward in Britain, urged people to use the #MeToo hashtag when posting about the practice on social media on Feb 6, the annual International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM.

“It’s a shame the #MeToo campaign doesn’t include FGM,” said Hussein, founder of the London-based Dahlia Project, which provides counseling for women who have been cut.

“FGM is a form of sexual abuse, but yet again we’ve been left out,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

At least 200 million women and girls globally have undergone FGM, U.N. data shows. The ritual, involving the partial or total removal of the external genitalia, is practiced in about 30 African countries and parts of Asia and the Middle East.

Campaigners say the tradition – often justified for cultural or religious reasons – is underpinned by the desire to control female sexuality. It can cause serious health problems.

Hibo Wardere, a British activist who was cut as a child in Somalia, said both the #MeToo campaign and the global drive to end FGM were about “women having ownership of their bodies”.

Countless women and girls have taken to social media in recent months using the #MeToo hashtag to talk about their experiences of sexual harassment, abuse and rape.

The campaign was sparked last year after a slew of sexual harassment and assault allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. The scandal has since engulfed many other celebrity figures across various industries.

”FGM is a form of sexual violence – of course it should be part of #MeToo,“ Wardere said. ”Being attacked because of our gender unites us.

“FGM is a way of controlling our sexuality, our bodies, our thoughts,” she added. “It’s a way to make you feel like nothing but a commodity that belongs to a man … That’s what we’re all fighting against.”

Some campaigners said conflating FGM with the sexual abuse highlighted by the #MeToo campaign could wrongly imply there was sexual gratification involved with the ritual.

They said FGM should be seen as child abuse, not sex abuse.

But Hussein said sexual assault was not about gratification.

“It’s about having power over someone,” she said. “When someone does FGM, it’s all about power.”

Samsung Heir Released from Prison

A South Korean appeals court suspended a jail sentence handed down to billionaire Samsung Electronics heir Lee Jae-young and ordered his immediate release from prison Monday.

The Seoul Central District Court had sentenced the 49-year-old Lee in August to five years in prison for bribery in connection with a scandal that brought down the country’s president Park Geun-hye.

The appeals court on Monday struck down several of the convictions and reduced the penalty on the remainder to a suspended prison sentence of two and a half years.

Four other Samsung executives convicted alongside Lee also had their sentences reduced, with the two who had been given prison terms similarly having their sentences suspended.

The case centered on payments Samsung made to Park’s secret confidante Choi Soon-Sil for which prosecutors argued they were intended to secure government favors.

Lee pleaded not guilty to charges that he used Samsung corporate funds to bribe Park.

He was also convicted of other offenses, including embezzlement, money laundering, sheltering assets overseas and perjury of parliament.

Prosecutors had sought a 12-year prison term for Lee at the appeals court. The appeals court ruling is expected to be appealed to the country’s supreme court.

Working Too Much and Moving Too Fast? Recharj Offers Solutions

Working for long hours as an IT consultant, Daniel Turissini used to always feel tired by the middle of his workday. He asked other business professionals around him about what they do and where they go to re-energize. The answers varied, from having a nap in their cars in the garages or a nearest hotel lobby, to just falling asleep at their work desk. Seeing a need and an opportunity he founded recharj, a place where professionals can go to take a quick rest. 

Need to Recharge?

Washington DC, the nation’s capital, is home to government agencies, financial institutions and all kinds of firms and corporations.

In the heart of this busy city, where people work for long hours, recharj opened a few months ago. People drop by from around the city for a break. 

After turning off all electronic devices, customers go to any of the sleep “cocoons,” separated by white curtains hanging from the ceiling. Inside these pods, bean bag beds, blankets and lavender scented eye-masks allow them to fall asleep to soft music. 

After a 20-minute nap, they’re awakened and go back to work refreshed.

recharj founder, Daniel Turissini, says his place offers the answer to our fast-paced lifestyle; an opportunity to slow down. 

“Some of the distractions that we’re facing today we’ve never seen before, like the smartphones tethered to our belts 24/7 so your boss can contact you at all hours at night or when you’re on vacation,” he says. “There is a challenge we really never had a generation ago. There’s a load of other challenges we’re facing today that wellness and life style changes, habit changes are critical to a sustainable life, to a long happy life.”

Sounds Invite Relaxation

To help clients improve their physical and mental wellness, recharj also offers guided sessions on meditation and mindfulness. Senior teacher, Page Lichens, uses different tools to help her students stay mindful of the moment.

“Listening to relaxing sounds allows them to step into a place of putting away other thoughts and lay back and listen,” she explains. “The sounds specifically have different areas where they’re working into different vibrations on the person’s body. So beyond that a lot of them would end up talking about the experience of lightness or floating. They were uncertain where they were, but they just relaxed deeper than having just to lay down, trying to sleep.”

The rejuvenating experience keeps customers coming back. Connor Garitty, an IT consultant, says he comes to recharge almost every day.

“I feel, I guess, like the day is just beginning instead of (thinking) ‘Oh my God how am I going to get through the rest of the day?’ I come here a lot at the middle of the day and after work. And even that is just as helpful because you’re energized,” he says.

Mari Aponte, a lawyer, says she feels tired and stressed out after hours of sitting down working. “What I like most about coming here is that I can breathe, whereas my morning is very crazy. I drink a lot of coffee and I’m like moving too much, too fast. So, I come here, it helps stop time and just balance my day.” Guided meditations help Aponte relieve her physical tension as well.

“A lot of the things that they do includes a full body scan,” she says. “So, you can check and see which areas you’re carrying more stress, and which areas you can soften. My problem is usually here, in my jaws. This is where I hold my tension. So, it helps me loosen this area.”

Recharging Workplace 

recharj’s experts also offer wellness workshops at workplace. 

“The companies now are understanding that not only is there so much goodwill involved in treating your employees and educating them on health and wellness and lifestyle, but also there is a bottom line to it, there is a return on investment that the companies get from ensuring and promoting health, wellness activities with in organizations,” recharj’s Turissini says. “So, we teach them different tools that are attainable in an office environment so that they can find a little of calm in the middle of the day, but more than that, they can learn to manage their angry thoughts and they can actually be more productive.”

As the trend of promoting wellness and healthy habits continues, the business of midday breaks is expected to grow and thrive. Daniel Turissini, recharj founder, is proud to be one of the pioneers.

Stock Sell-off Creates Market Jitters

Recent losses on global financial markets, including those in the U.S., have some investors concerned about expectations for their holdings and plans for the future.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 2.5 percent Friday, its largest percentage drop since Britain’s decision in June 2016 to leave the European Union.

The Dow and the broader U.S. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index ended the week roughly 4-percent lower, their biggest weekly drops since early 2016, amid fears of inflation and disappointing quarterly corporate earnings results.

Key stock indexes in Europe also fell Friday. Germany’s DAX index dropped 1.7-percent, while France’s CAC 40 Index declined 1.6-percent.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index slid nearly 1-percent and South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.7-percent.

Meanwhile, U.S. bond yields climbed and contributed to the sell-off after the U.S. government reported that wages grew last month at their fastest pace in eight years.

The wage data helped stoke investor concern that the Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank, will respond to higher inflation by hiking its key interest rate more quickly than anticipated.

Darrell Cronk, head of the Wells Fargo Investment Institute, said an extended period of low interest rates has helped create the uncertainty.

“We’ve enjoyed low interest rates for so long, we’re having to deal with a little bit higher rates now, so the market is trying to figure out what that could mean for inflation.”

The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes rose to 2.852-percent, its highest level in more than four years. The rise in bond yields hinders stock performance in two ways: it makes corporate borrowing more expensive and it makes bonds more attractive to investors compared to riskier stocks.

Bond strategists were unwilling Friday to predict what lies ahead for interest rates this week after the markets’ unusual volatility in the past week.

Investors may get a hint of the direction of interest rates when trading resumes in Asia early Monday, and possibly more insight after the U.S. Treasury’s $66 billion in auctions of 3-, 10- and 30-year bonds from Tuesday to Thursday.

Early Diagnosis, Treatment for Cancer Saves Many Lives

To mark World Cancer Day, the World Health Organization urges the adoption of healthy life styles as a way to lower cancer risks. WHO also emphasizes that early diagnosis and treatment for cancer can save many lives.

Much progress has been made in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. But, the statistics regarding this disease remain terrible. Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally, killing nearly nine million people yearly, with about 14 million new cases being diagnosed.

The most common causes of cancer death include lung, liver, colorectal, stomach and breast cancers. The World Health Organization reports tobacco use is the most important risk factor, followed by alcohol use, unhealthy diet and lack of physical activity.

WHO technical officer for cancer control, Andre Ilbawi says approximately 70 percent of cancer deaths are in low-and middle-income countries, while the number of cases in these countries is increasing at a fast and worrying rate.

He agrees this is a cause of concern, but tells VOA simple actions can be taken even by the poorest countries to address this issue.

“First and foremost, the greatest priority is to diagnose cancer early.This is a more significant intervention than, as you mentioned, the advanced technologies and the expensive medicines that can be prohibitive in low-income countries.Identifying cancer early is the most effective way to treat it and by offering that population basic treatment, you can, in fact, save a large percentage of cancer patients even with minimal resources,” he said.

Ilbawi says important actions that developing countries can take to improve cancer outcomes include improving community awareness of the disease, early detection through better diagnosis in primary health care and accessing affordable treatment.

The World Health Organization also stresses the importance of a healthy lifestyle. It says eating more fruits and vegetables, regular exercise, no tobacco use and moderate alcohol intake can cut cancer deaths by one third.

Screening for Alzheimer’s May Become Cheaper

Finding a cure for Alzheimer’s is an extremely complex task. Scientists still do not know what causes the disease. Once the symptoms appear, the gradual memory loss is inevitable and available drugs can only slow down the process. Researchers, however, believe the disease develops slowly, over years, so detecting it before the symptoms appear may give the patients a better chance of a longer life. VOA’s George Putic reports.

Guest Workers Leave Behind Big Houses, Ghost Neighborhoods

Over the last decades, growing economic hardships forced people in cities and villages around the world to leave their hometowns to find work in other countries. Dreaming of returning one day and enjoying a better life where they grew up, many invested most of their savings buying houses back home. But often, these houses remain empty, making many communities look like ghost towns. Faiza Elmasry has the story. Faith Lapidus narrates.

Tillerson Visits Argentina to Talk Conservation, Economics

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s Latin American tour took him Saturday to Argentina, where he talked with officials about conservation and diplomacy.

Traveling from Mexico City after meeting with the Mexican president and other senior officials on Friday, Tillerson arrived in Bariloche, a lakeside resort town in Argentina’s Nahuel Huapi National Park.

Local news reports said Tillerson met with park rangers to discuss progress made in joint U.S.-Argentine projects on science and conservation issues. He also met with a student selected for the U.S. Fulbright scholarship program.

Tillerson was scheduled to visit the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, to meet with his counterpart, Jorge Faurie.

On Monday, Tillerson is set to meet with Argentina President Mauricio Macri to discuss regional issues, including upcoming elections and the political crisis in Venezuela.

Before his visit, Tillerson told reporters that he hoped other countries would follow Argentina’s lead on making economic reforms and generating growth.

On Friday in Mexico, Tillerson said that immigrants bring “enormous value” to the U.S., but added the U.S. government lacked “good discipline” in regulating who enters the country to live.

‘Out of normal order’

After meeting in Mexico City with Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, Tillerson told reporters the U.S. had put “many mechanisms in place” over the years to control immigration, but had “never gone back to clean this up.”

“Let’s make sure we have systems in place where we understand who’s coming into the country,” Tillerson said. He said immigration in the U.S. had “gotten out of normal order,” which is why President Donald Trump is pushing Congress to “fix these defects that have risen over the years.”

The Mexican government has repeatedly expressed opposition to Trump’s proposals to curb illegal immigration and have Mexico pay for a reinforced border wall.

Differences over the issue did not preclude Videgaray from praising the U.S. He said the Mexican government’s relationship with the Trump administration was “closer” than it was under former President Barack Obama’s administration. Videgaray acknowledged the two countries “do have some differences” but said “we are working closely and we are about results.”

Tillerson later held a closed-door meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto during a time when relations have also been strained by U.S. threats to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

NAFTA, which Trump alleges costs American jobs, was discussed at the trilateral meeting, along with energy development and drug interdiction.

Tillerson’s travels through Latin America will also take him to Peru and Colombia, with a final stop in Jamaica on February 7.

Hidden Mayan Civilization Revealed in Guatemala Jungle

Researchers using a high-tech aerial mapping scanner have discovered the ruins of tens of thousands of ancient Mayan structures that have been hidden and preserved for centuries under northern Guatemala’s thick jungle.  

The 60,000 newly discovered structures include raised highways, urban centers with sidewalks, homes, terraces, industrial-sized agricultural fields, irrigation canals, ceremonial centers, a 30-meter high pyramid, fortresses and moats.

Stephen Houston, professor of archaeology and anthropology at Brown University, told the BBC that the revelation of the sprawling Central American civilization was “breathtaking.”  He said, “I know it sounds hyperbolic, but . . . it did bring tears to my eyes.”  

An alliance of U.S., European and Guatemalan archaeologists worked with Guatemala’s Mayan Heritage and Nature Foundation on the project over the past two years.  

The Mayan culture was at its peak about 1,500 years ago in what is present day southern Mexico, Guatemala and parts of Belize, El Salvador and Honduras.  

Marcello Canuto, a Tulane University archaeologist and one of the project’s top investigators, said the discoveries are a “revolution in  Maya archeology.”

The new information suggests that millions more people lived in what is now Guatemala’s Petan region than previously thought.

Researchers say they now believe that instead of five million that as many as 10 to 15 million people lived in the region.  

The researchers used a remote sensing method known as LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) to discover the hidden treasures of a civilization that National Geographic now compares to ancient Greece or China.  

LiDAR  bounced pulsed laser light off the ground, revealing contours hidden by dense foliage in the 2,100-square-kilometer mapped area.

“Now it is no longer necessary to cut through the jungle to see what’s under it,” said Canuto.   

“We’ve had this western conceit that complex civilizations can’t flourish in the tropics, that the tropics are where civilizations go to die,” Canuto told National Geographic.  “But,with the new LiDAR-based evidence from Central America and [Cambodia’s] Angkor Wat, we now have to consider that complex societies may have formed in the tropics and made their way outward from there.”

Former Utah Monument Lands Open to Claims, but No Land Rush in Sight

The window opened Friday for oil, gas, uranium and coal companies to make requests or stake claims to lands that were cut from two sprawling Utah national monuments by President Trump in December, but there doesn’t appear to be a rush to seize the opportunities.

For anyone interested in the uranium on the lands stripped from the Bears Ears National Monument, all they need to do is stake a few corner posts in the ground, pay a $212 initial fee and send paperwork to the federal government under a law first created in 1872 that harkens back to the days of the Wild West.

They can then keep rights to the hard minerals, including gold and silver, as long as they pay an annual fee of $155.

It was unclear if anyone was doing that Friday.

​Inquiries, but no claims yet

The Bureau of Land Management declined repeated requests for information about how they’re handling the lands and how many requests and claims came in.

The agency says it must comply with a complex web of other laws and management plans.

Steve Bloch, legal director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said he was told by the BLM Friday afternoon that inquiries were made but no claims sent in.

He said other conservation groups that have sued to block the downsized monument boundaries are watching closely to ensure no lands are disturbed in the short-term, hoping a judge will side with them and return the monuments to the original boundaries.

Two of the largest uranium companies in the U.S., Ur-Energy Inc. and Energy Fuels Resources Inc., said they have no plans to mine there. The price of uranium, which has fallen to about $22 per pound, down from more than $100 in the mid-2000s, would “discourage any investment in new claims,” said Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the National Mining Association.

Colorado-based Energy Fuels asked for a reduction of Bears Ears last year in a public comment, but spokesman Curtis Moore said in a statement that the company has higher priorities elsewhere. He noted the lands were open to claims for 150 years before President Barack Obama creating the national monument in 2016.

“There probably isn’t any land available for staking that would be of much interest to anyone,” Moore said.

Coal in Grand Staircase-Escalante

In Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, part of a major coal reserve that a company was preparing to mine before President Bill Clinton protected the lands in 1996, has been made available again but it appears unlikely any company will immediately jump at the chance this time.

Out-of-state demand for Utah’s coal had led to a drop in coal production to about 14 million tons in 2017, down from about 27 million tons in the mid-2000s, said Michael Vanden Berg, energy and mineral program manager at the Utah Geological Survey.

“If a new mine were to open, it would be competing with existing mines in Utah for limited demand,” Vanden Berg said.

Popovich called it “doubtful given market conditions and other factors” that companies interested in coal would put in a lease request.

Vanden Berg noted that a potential coal port in Oakland, California, could open up an Asian market and that technology could be developed to change market forces.

Oil and gas potential

There’s some potential for oil and gas at Grand Staircase, Vanden Berg said. But Kathleen Sgamma, president of an oil and gas industry group called Western Energy Alliance, said heavy oil shale in the area would require an intensive mining operation that doesn’t make sense in today’s market.

“There’s no fracking trucks at the border waiting to rush in,” Sgamma said.

President Trump downsized the Bears Ears National Monument by about 85 percent and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by nearly half. It earned him cheers from Republican leaders in Utah who lobbied him to undo protections by Democratic presidents that they considered overly broad.

Bears Ears, created nearly a year ago, will be reduced to 315 square miles (815.85 square kilometers). Grand Staircase-Escalante will be reduced from nearly 3,000 square miles (7,770 square kilometers) to 1,569 square miles (4,063.71 square kilometers).

Conservation groups called it the largest elimination of protected land in American history.

Britain Buys Into China’s ‘One Belt’ Initiative, but Washington Offers Warning

Britain has made clear its desire to be part of China’s so-called ‘One Belt One Road Initiative’ — a cornerstone of President Xi Jinping’s vision to boost Chinese investment and influence across Asia, Europe and Africa. There are, however, concerns over the financial and humanitarian costs of the vast infrastructure projects being undertaken. As Henry Ridgwell reports, the United States has issued a blunt warning over what it sees as the dangers of being tied to China’s huge investment projects.

Federal Reserve Imposes New Penalties on Wells Fargo 

The Federal Reserve announced Friday that it was imposing more penalties on Wells Fargo, freezing the bank’s growth until it can prove it has improved its internal controls. In addition, bank agreed to replace four board members.

It’s the latest blow against the San Francisco bank that has had its reputation tarnished by revelations it opened phony customer accounts and sold auto insurance to customers who did not need it.

The new penalties were announced on Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s last day at the central bank.

“We cannot tolerate pervasive and persistent misconduct at any bank,” Yellen said in a statement. “The enforcement action we are taking today will ensure that Wells Fargo will not expand until it is able to do so safely and with the protections needed to manage all of its risks and protect its customers.”

The Fed said it was restricting the bank’s assets to the level where they stood at the end of last year until it can demonstrate that it has improved its internal controls.

Stock price drops

The announcement came after the close of trading on Wall Street. The bank’s stock fell more than 6 percent in after-hours trading.

Wells Fargo has 16 members on its board of directors. It agreed to replace three directors by April and another one by year’s end. The letter did not say whether particular board members were being singled out. Fed officials referred questions about who will be replaced to the bank.

In a statement, Wells Fargo said it was “confident” it would satisfy the Fed’s requirements.

“We take this order seriously and are focused on addressing all of the Federal Reserve’s concerns,” the bank’s CEO, Timothy Sloan, said. “It is important to note that the consent order is not related to any new matters, but to prior issues where we have already made significant progress.”

Sloan said that “while there is still more work to do, we have made significant improvements over the past year to our governance and risk management that address concerns highlighted in this consent order.”

The Fed’s new order marked the latest chapter in a series of scandals that have rocked the bank in recent years.

Fake accounts

Wells Fargo has admitted that employees opened more than 3 million fake accounts in order to meet sales quotas. It ended up paying $185 million to regulators and settled a class-action suit for $142 million.

It also has admitted it signed up hundreds of thousands of auto loan customers for auto insurance they did not need. Some of those customers had their cars repossessed because they could not afford both the auto loan and insurance payments.

And Wells Fargo also offered refunds to customers last year after acknowledging that its mortgage bankers unfairly charged them fees to lock in interest rates on mortgages.

The Fed’s action came on a 3-0 vote. Randal Quarles, who is the Fed’s vice chairman for supervision, has recused himself from participating in matters involving Wells Fargo.

With Yellen’s departure, Fed officials said that the central bank would still be able to deal with Wells Fargo issues with the two remaining board members — Jerome Powell, who has been a member of the Fed’s board since 2012 and is taking over for Yellen as chairman on Monday, and Lael Brainard.

Marvin Goodfriend, an economics professor from Carnegie Mellon University, has been nominated by President Donald Trump for one of the vacancies on the seven-member board, but the Senate has not yet acted on the nomination. Trump has not yet nominated people to fill the other vacancies.