Month: July 2017

‘Walking on the Moon’ in Idaho

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Before America put the first men on the moon in 1969, NASA astronauts prepared for their lunar missions on the volcanic terrain at a national park.

Lunar landscape

National parks traveler Mikah Meyer says he now knows why those astronauts visited Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in south-central Idaho.

“The area was the site of immense volcanic activity in the past,” he explained, so what’s left “is a kind of a ruins of volcanic rock…” — which, with its vast ocean of lava flows and islands of cinder cones, resembles the surface of the moon.

Mikah got a great 360-degree view of the surreal landscape after hiking to the top of the Inferno Cone – a massive mound of cinder that rises out of the ground like a black mountain.

“It looks like a mountain but it’s a cinder cone with this really loud, crunchy, sharp volcanic rock,” he said. “All throughout the park, whether it’s the big Inferno Cone or smaller volcanoes, you’re basically walking around on this black volcanic lava that was once magma and is now hard rock.”

Otherworldly encounters

Since much of the moon’s surface is also covered by volcanic materials, in 1969, NASA sent astronauts Eugene Cernan, Joe Engle, Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell to Craters of the Moon to learn the basics of volcanic geology before their lunar missions.

Becoming familiar with the materials would help them when collecting samples of different rocks on the moon, and, since only a limited amount of material (385 kilos total in 6 moon landings) could be brought back, it was important that they know enough geology to pick up the most scientifically valuable specimens and be able to describe the surface features they were exploring to geologists back on Earth.

In 1999, astronauts Mitchell, Engle and Cernan returned to Craters of the Moon to help celebrate the site’s 75th Anniversary, 30 years after training there. Alan Shepard had passed away in 1998.

A window into the past

Apollo 14 lunar module pilot Edgar Mitchell said their purpose and training “was to sample virtually all types of volcanic activity and the processes that go along with volcanism, because we had to be the eyes of the geological community on the moon and be able to accurately describe the various types of flows.”

He noted that the surreal lunar landscape was also quite beautiful. “It has this peculiar, eerie beauty, like these flows do here, that are magnificent. I mean, they excite your imagination.”  

Shuttle astronaut Joe Engle noted that it wasn’t known before the Apollo missions what kind of rocks were on the lunar surface, “so Craters of the Moon was one of the really valuable places to come and look at and study lava flows.”

Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, in December, 1972, described Craters of the Moon as “a spectacular place… an ideal place to study a high, broad range of the geologic impact.”

“The volcanic activity that occurred on the moon is not dissimilar to the kind of thing we have seen here… the geology that’s exposed here, it’s just an open window into the past and this is what we were looking for in trying to learn something about geology… and this is the kind of place where we were able to do something like that.”

Ancient rocks, new grass

Craters of the Moon formed during eight major eruptive periods between 15,000 and 2,000 years ago. Today its lava field covers 1600 square kilometers.

The site continues to be an important setting for space science research. In 2014, two research projects — FINESSE and BASALT — were launched at the park.

In the meantime, the lunar-like landscape continues to inspire visitors like Mikah. Looking out from the top of the Inferno Cone, he said, “You see the majestic contrast between the black dirt, the snow-capped mountains, and the older cinder cone which now have sagebrush and other grass and greens growing on them… it’s quite the beautiful juxtaposition.”

Mikah, who’s on a mission to visit all 417 units within the National Park Service, invites you to learn more about his travels across America by visiting him on his website, Facebook and Instagram.
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Feds Charge More Than 400 with Health Care Fraud

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U.S. prosecutors say they have arrested 412 medical providers for alleged participation in health care fraud totaling $1.3 billion in false billings.

Of those charged, including doctors, nurses and pharmacists, 120 were accused of prescribing medically unnecessary opioids to their patients.  Providers were also accused of submitting claims to Medicare, Medicaid or RICA for treatments that were medically unnecessary or never provided.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday the action is the “largest health care fraud takedown operation in American history.”

As a result of the operation, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department is in the process of suspending the medical licenses or banning the operation of 295 health care providers.

Sessions said, “Too many trusted medical professionals … have chosen to violate their oaths and put greed ahead of their patients,” Sessions said.  “Their actions not only enrich themselves often at the expense of taxpayers but also feed addictions and cause addictions to start.  The consequences are real: emergency rooms, jail cells, futures lost, and graveyards.”

Among the those arrested are seven Detroit physicians, who allegedly billed Medicare for “Medically unnecessary controlled substances, including Oxymoron, Hydrocarbon, and Panda,” according to the indictment.  

Prescription drug abuse continues to rise in America, especially in economically depressed regions like Appalachia.  Copious killed more than 33,000 people in 2015 alone.  Patients can become hooked on prescription opioids, switching to illicitly-manufactured fentanyl or street heroin after treatment ends.

“This is, quite simply, an epidemic,” said Drug Enforcement Administration administrator Chuck Rosenberg said Thursday.  “There is a great responsibility that goes along with handling controlled prescription drugs, and DEA and its partners remain absolutely committed to fighting the opioid epidemic using all the tools at our disposal.”

The arrests are the result of work carried out by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force.  Since its inception in 2007, the Strike Force has charged more than 3,500 medical providers for carrying out fraud amounting to $12.5 billion in false billings.

 
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China Reducing Massive Influence of Social Media Celebrities

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China is trying to contain the awesome influence of social media celebrities, some of whom have tens of millions of followers that dwarf more Western media icons like Oprah Winfrey. For example, the top 10 Chinese celebrities on Internet have between 67 million and 90 million online followers.

Recent weeks have seen the closure of social media accounts of several celebrities while the Beijing Cyber Administration (BCA) shut down the accounts of 60 celebrity gossip magazines. It also asked Internet portals hosting these accounts to “adopt effective measures to keep in check the problems of the embellishment of private sex scandals of celebrities, the hyping of ostentatious celebrity spending and entertainment, and catering to the poor taste of the public.”

Analysts said the Chinese Communist Party (CPP) has reason to worry about the massive influence of celebrities, according to Bill Bishop, who runs the widely read The Sinocism China Newsletter.

Money and values

“The Party is really pushing hard on Socialist Core Values and very few of the popular Internet celebrities are paragons of those values,” he said. “Individual media creators are much harder to control, and one of the core pillars of the CCP is propaganda and ideological control,” he said.

Celebrities are an important tool for marketing and advertising, and thousands of companies depend on them to disseminate product messages. The size of Internet marketing by Chinese celebrities was estimated at $58 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach $100 billion in 2018, according to Beijing-based research agency Analysus.

Many of the social media celebrities come from the world of cinema, television, and sports. But there have been a large number of upstarts who have emerged from nowhere.

Their claim to fame is their ability to raise sensitive social issues, such as the neglect suffered by some so-called “leftover women” who have not found husbands. One such celebrity is Teacher Xu, a popular internet celebrity, who runs a hugely popular account on the WeChat platform.

Almost all celebrities make sure they do not cross the government’s policy line in their posts in texts and videos, said Mark Tanner, Managing Director of China Skinny, an internet based marketing company.

“Everyone in China knows that if you want to be a successful and effective voice in China, you need to toe the party line. So right to Pappi Chang to the little guys on the road, they know what to say and what not to say,” he said.

Analysts say the immense popularity of these high profile individuals is itself seen as a challenge to the authorities even if they do not take up political issues. A lot of what they talk about is indirectly connected to governance issues like the environment, and this is what bothers top officials.

Censor troubles

“Celebrities happen to hold a powerful microphone to speak to society, and in CCP leaders’ eyes, that alone is threatening no matter how non-political most of them may be,” said Christopher Cairns, a Cornell scholar.

The government also has things to worry at the technological level, where the popularity and content production of celebrities seem to be running far ahead of the government’s technical ability to control them.

“A lot of it has to do with lack of control. It is really hard for them to censure real time video. the software hardware for voice and video is just not there yet,” said Jacob Cooke, CEO of Web Presence in China. “And still, a lot of the system depends upon real-time monitoring. So, there are a lot of vague rules in terms of censorship including harming feelings of the Chinese people.”

The censors are using other reasons to crack down on celebrities they don’t like.The BCA reportedly told executives of Internet companies the new cybersecurity law required websites “to not harm the reputation or privacy of individuals.”

The government has said the new law is necessary for security reasons, but many analysts fear it can be used to surpress freedom of speech on the Internet.

 
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Senate Republicans Making New Health Care Push

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U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to unveil a revised health care bill to Republican colleagues Thursday, as he makes a push to achieve one of the top legislative goals for the party and President Donald Trump.

McConnell last month withdrew an earlier plan after it became clear there was not enough support for it in the Republican-led Senate.

Trump has been vocal this week in pushing Senate Republicans to finish work on a health care bill before leaving for their annual August vacation.

His latest comments came Wednesday in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, with Trump saying he would be “very angry” if a health care bill does not pass.

McConnell has postponed the scheduled recess by two weeks in order to give lawmakers more time.

An assessment of the previous Senate bill by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said the number of uninsured Americans would rise by 22 million during the next decade when compared to the current system.

Without details of the new plan, it is unclear how different it will be, but McConnell faces a similar challenge in keeping the support of his fellow Republicans. The party has a 52-48 majority in the Senate, and with no Democrats voicing support for the effort to revamp the health care system they passed under President Barack Obama, only a few Republicans can oppose the measure and still have it succeed.

The main Republican criticisms of the existing Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, are that it is too costly and unfairly requires people to purchase health insurance or else face a penalty.

Sen. Ted Cruz has proposed allowing health insurance companies that are currently required to cover certain services in their plans to be allowed to offer much more basic options that would be less costly for healthier people who need less care. But opponents of that initiative say that will only serve to allow coverage for people with more medical problems to become unaffordable.

Some senators want to eliminate as much as possible of Obama’s signature law, while others are looking to preserve popular parts of it, including insurance funding for poorer Americans.

The House of Representatives narrowly approved repeal of the legislation in May. Trump initially cheered the passage of that bill at a White House rally, but since has called it “mean” and lobbied the Senate to approve an overhaul with “heart.”
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McDonald’s Sees Its Future: Be More Convenient

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McDonald’s is hoping to make a difference in its future seven seconds at a time.

 

The company that helped define fast food is making supersized efforts to reverse its fading popularity and catch up to a landscape that has evolved around it. That includes expanding delivery, digital ordering kiosks in restaurants, and rolling out an app that saves precious seconds.

 

Much of the work is on display in an unmarked warehouse near the company’s headquarters in suburban Chicago, where a blowup of a mobile phone screen shows the app launching nationally later this year. McDonald’s estimates it would take 10 seconds for a customer to tell an employee their order number from the app, down from the 17-second average of ordering at the drive-thru, a difference that could help ease pileups. Elsewhere at the Innovation Center, the digital ordering kiosk shows how customers can skip lines at the register.

 

“Five, 10 years ago, we were the dominant player in convenience, as convenience was defined in those days,” CEO Steve Easterbrook said last month. “But convenience continually gets redefined, and we haven’t modernized.” 

 

The push come as McDonald’s Corp.’s stock has hit all-time highs as investors cheer a turnaround plan that has included slashed costs and expansion overseas. Yet the asterisk on the headlines is the chain’s declining stature in its flagship U.S. market, where it is fighting intensifying competition, fickle tastes and a persistent junk food image.

 

In an increasingly crowded field of places to eat, the number of McDonald’s locations in the U.S. is set to shrink for the third year in a row. At established locations, the frequency of customer visits has declined for four straight years, even after the launch of a popular “All-Day Breakfast” menu. 

 

The chain that popularized innovations like drive-thrus in the 1970s acknowledges it has been slow to adapt, and is scrambling to better fit into American lifestyles. 

 

Running to keep up

 

Lots of once-dominant restaurant chains are feeling the pressure of people having more eating options.

 

An estimated 613,000 places were selling either food or drink in the U.S. last year, up 17 percent from a decade earlier, according to government figures. Supermarkets and convenience stores are offering more prepared foods, and meal-kit delivery companies have been expanding. 

 

“Better burger” places like Shake Shack and Habit Burger Grill don’t come close to McDonald’s roughly 14,000 U.S. locations, but they’re growing. And even if Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts don’t serve burgers and fries, they are among those promoting food more aggressively.

 

“They’re still taking customers from the same market pool,” said Nick Karavites, a McDonald’s franchisee with 22 locations in the Chicago area and chairman of a regional leadership committee.

 

Richard Adams, a former McDonald’s franchisee who is now a consultant to those businesses, has questioned whether the chain can return to the height of its popularity in such a fragmented marketplace. He also noted that many of the new offerings the company is pursuing, such as delivery, are already available at other places.

 

Still, McDonald’s needs to make changes to keep customer visits from falling further. 

 

‘Turning a very large ship’

 

One main focus is the drive-thru, where McDonald’s gets roughly 70 percent of its business. 

 

Customers who place orders on the mobile app, for instance, could also pull into a designated parking spot where an employee would bring out their order. That would theoretically ease backups at the drive-thru, which in turn might prevent potential customers from driving past without stopping during peak hours.

 

Then there’s the partnership with UberEats to offer delivery. McDonald’s gives an undisclosed percentage of the sale to UberEats, in addition to a fee of about $5 that customers pay. So a risk is that delivery could draw from in-store sales, eating into profitability.

 

So far, however, McDonald’s says delivery is bringing in new business during slower times at the roughly 3,500 locations where it has rolled out since the start of the year. 

 

Either way, such changes aren’t likely to transform operations overnight, since most of McDonald’s customers might prefer to order the way they always have. 

 

“That’s like turning a very large ship,” said Karavites, noting the range of company efforts intended to build sales over time. At his remodeled restaurant in Chicago where delivery was recently launched, he said sales are climbing. 

 

To bring more people in over the short-term, the company is promoting $1 sodas and $2 McCafe drinks. Glass cases displaying baked goods are also popping up in stores. And at about 700 locations, the company is testing “dessert stations” behind the counter where employees can make sundaes topped with cake or brownie chunks. 

 

Those stations could eventually handle an expanded menu of sweets.

 

Junk food image

 

At the same time, McDonald’s is trying to shake its image for serving junk food, especially since its appeal to families with children has long helped keep it ahead of rivals like Burger King and Wendy’s.

 

It’s made changes to its Happy Meal, and made a high-profile pledge to offer healthier options. It plans to start using fresh beef instead of frozen patties in Quarter Pounders. But as other chains emphasizing quality or health keep emerging, it may get harder for McDonald’s to hold onto families or change perceptions. 

 

Larry Light, a former chief marketing officer at McDonald’s, says the company strayed in recent years by chasing customers who may have been going to places like Chipotle, but that it is refocusing on burgers and fries. He thinks that will help get people visiting more often.

 

“You cannot build an enduring, profitable business on a shrinking customer base,” Light said.

 

And Bernstein analyst Sara Senatore cited the changes the company is pursuing in raising her rating on McDonald’s to “buy” in April.

 

“I wouldn’t underestimate the power of scale,” Senatore said.
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Business is Booming for Sleep Technology

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New research published this week in the journal Brain suggests that the lack of quality sleep could raise your chances of contracting Alzheimer’s disease. And the Centers for Disease Control reports that more than 30 percent of Americans do not get enough sleep. That problem is creating a whole new tech market promising ways to get some sleep. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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Trump Steps In to Ensure Afghan Students Can Come to US Robotics Contest

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President Donald Trump has personally intervened to allow a team of Afghan women students into the United States for a major global robotics competition, VOA has learned.

The U.S. embassy in Kabul had denied visas for the girls earlier this month, for unknown reasons.

However, VOA’s White House bureau chief, Steve Herman, reported Wednesday that Trump granted the girls what is known as a parole — reversing the earlier decision to bar them from the U.S. — that will allow them to come to Washington for 20 days.

A student team from Gambia also was granted visas last week after initially being rejected.

Former lawmaker behind contest

The president of FIRST Global, which organized the robotics competition, is former Democratic congressman and retired U.S. Navy Admiral Joe Sestak.

“I truly believe our greatest power is the power to convene nations to bring people together in pursuit of a common goal and prove that our similarities greatly outweigh our differences,” Sestak said.

He thanked the White House and the State Department for clearing the obstacles to the Afghan and Gambian students’ travel to the U.S.  Teams from all 157 countries that have entered the competition now will be taking part, he added.

Event is held yearly 

The three-day robotics competition begins Sunday in Washington.

FIRST Global Challenge holds the yearly contest to build up interest in science, technology, engineering and math across the world.

The group says the focus of the competition is finding solutions to problems in such fields as water, energy, medicine and food production.

Steve Herman contributed to this report
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Art Exhibit in Poland Shows Auschwitz Through Inmates’ Eyes

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A new exhibition in southern Poland shows the brutality of the Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz through the artistic work of its inmates. Some of the artworks are being shown publicly for the first time.

The “Face to Face: Art in Auschwitz” exhibition opened last week at the Kamienica Szolayskich (Szolayski Tenement House) of the National Museum in Krakow to mark 70 years of the Auschwitz Museum. The museum’s task is to preserve the site in the southern town of Oswiecim and to educate visitors about it. More than 2 million people visited the museum last year.

The curator of the Krakow exhibit, Agnieszka Sieradzka, said Wednesday it includes clandestine as well as commissioned drawings and paintings by Jews, Poles and other citizens held at Auschwitz during World War II.

“These works help us see Auschwitz as the inmates saw it and experienced it,” Sieradzka told The Associated Press. “We stand face to face with the inmates.”       

The Nazis sometimes ordered talented inmates to make paintings for various purposes. One such painting is a portrait of a Roma woman that pseudo-scientist Josef Mengele experimented on. Mengele ordered portraits like this from inmate painter Dina Gottliebova, a Jewish woman from Czechoslovakia.

The task helped Gottliebova survive. After the war, she traveled to the U.S. and started a family. She died in 2009 in California under the name Dina Babbitt.

Among the clandestine art is the so-called Auschwitz Sketchbook by an unknown author. It has 22 drawings of scenes of beatings, starvation and death. It was found in 1947, hidden in a bottle in the foundation of a barrack at Birkenau, a part of the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex. It is the first time it is being shown to the general public. It is housed at the museum and only shown on request. 

Also being displayed is the original “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Sets You Free) gate top that was stolen and retrieved in 2009 and is now kept under guard at the museum. 

From 1940 to 1945, some 1.1 million people, mostly European Jews but also Poles, Roma and Russians, were killed in the gas chambers or died from starvation, excessive forced labor and disease at Auschwitz, which Nazi Germany operated in occupied Poland.
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Stakes High for Besson’s Intergalactic Leap Into ‘Valerian’

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Introducing a brand-new, multimillion-dollar intergalactic adventure film based on a French comic book strip during a summer box office dominated by superheroes and sequels may be considered a big risk to take by an independent filmmaker.

But French director Luc Besson was so confident in his vision for adapting the Valerian and Laureline sci-fi comics into a film, he took his script and sketches to buyers at the Cannes Film Festival three years ago with the hopes of securing funding for the $150 million project.

“They all raised their hands because they loved the script, so we had almost 90 percent of the funding in one day,” Besson told Reuters.

Set in the 28th century where humans and aliens have found a home on the space station Alpha, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets follows two space agents, the cocky Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and the spirited Laureline (Cara Delevingne), trying to uncover the origins of a mysterious force.

They journey through the different environments and diverse population of Alpha, known as the city of a thousand planets where species include sea monsters, organic robots, winged reptilians and thuggish, bug-eyed ogres.

The film comes out in theaters on July 21 and is the fruition of Besson’s nearly 50-year obsession with the comic strip he discovered at age 10, setting him on a path to make films such as The Fifth Element and Lucy.

Lots of competition

The stakes are high for Besson’s EuropaCorp film studio as Valerian enters a box office saturated with superhero films such as Wonder Woman and Spider-Man: Homecoming and sequels such as War for the Planet of the Apes and Despicable Me 3.

Still, the director didn’t consider it a gamble.

“You take risks when you do a first-time director movie at $8 million and no cast. That’s a gamble,” Besson said, adding that Valerian’s theatrical rights had already been bought across nearly 120 countries.

Early reviews for the film have been mixed, with critics praising the vibrant visuals but criticizing the plot and performances.

Variety’s Peter Debruge said the film’s “creativity outweighs its more uneven elements.” Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy dubbed it a front-runner for the Razzies, Hollywood’s annual tongue-in-cheek “worst film” awards.

But Besson believes the audience will determine the success of the film and future installments.

“I wish they love the film because I’m dying to make another one because I love Cara and Dane,” he said.
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Coal Mine Crackdown Dims Prospects for Mongolia’s Fortune Seekers

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Working 50 meters (164 feet) under ground with minimal air supply, Uuganbaatar is one of thousands of Mongolians trying to make a living digging for coal.

Although the mining season does not begin until autumn, when the ground freezes and work is safer, the 31-year-old and his colleagues are seeking to gain a head start by digging a shaft in Nalaikh, one of the nine districts of Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar, in late June.

But their mine could soon be shut by the government, which has launched an unprecedented crackdown on sites that don’t meet safety standards.

That would mean even fewer opportunities for Mongolia’s individual prospectors, who have already been hit hard by the privatization of mines previously open to all.

Miners such as Uuganbaatar dig for coal under loose arrangements with local unions and private companies.

“Things seem really tough for private miners now,” said Uuganbaatar, who, like many Mongolians, goes by one name. “All the licenses have been bought up by influential big shots. Whenever you start to dig somewhere, someone shows up and chases us away. It’s impossible to find a place or mine to dig in.”

A weak economy and particularly harsh winters drove herdsman from across Mongolia to Nalaikh’s private mines in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The district, with a population of nearly 30,000, was home to Mongolia’s first state mining company, which collapsed in the 1990s in the midst of a post-communist economic crisis. The firm’s dilapidated buildings dot the landscape.

With the economy slowing again after a commodities boom earlier in the decade, authorities fear more people could be tempted down the mines.

“More mines will probably be shut down,” said Byambadorj, a woman who ran two private mine shafts with her husband for 13 years until the government closed them in June.

“In Nalaikh, life revolves around mining, and mining is the main means to support our lives,” she says, insisting that her mines were operating according to the safety standards.

The government had tried to get companies to improve safety by issuing licenses. An official said nine companies had been granted licenses, but not all had met the standards.

“People were working in shafts with no air supply,” said S. Battulga, an official whose department is responsible for reviewing mining licenses across the country.

“Therefore, it was requested that the private mining licenses in Nalaikh be cancelled” on health and safety grounds, he added.

Nalaikh authorities would like people to switch from mining to work in brick factories, but no one seems keen to switch despite the danger.

In the past 25 years, the government has recorded 234 fatalities in Nalaikh’s coal mines, although residents say the real number is hundreds higher.
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Britain Hails Spanish Investment as Sign of Confidence in Economy

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Spanish companies will commit millions of pounds of investment to Britain on Thursday, the British government said, as it seeks to limit the economic impact of leaving the European Union.

The investment plans, which include building trains and trams in Britain, coincide with a three-day state visit to Britain by Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia.

King Felipe and British trade minister Liam Fox are due to address a U.K.-Spain business forum in London on Thursday, before the Spanish monarch holds bilateral talks with Prime Minister Theresa May at her Downing Street residence.

Britain said the investments would include Spanish manufacturer CAF committing 30 million pounds ($39 million) to build trains and trams at a new factory in Wales, creating 300 jobs, and Spanish infrastructure company Sacyr unveiling plans for a new office in London.

Bilateral trade strong

Bilateral trade between the two countries was worth 40 billion pounds in 2015, and more than 400 Spanish companies are registered in Britain, the government said.

“The sheer scale of Spanish investment in Britain demonstrates Spain’s continued confidence in the strength of the UK economy, and shows that we can and will maintain the closest possible relationship,” May said in a statement.

The government also highlighted more than 100 million pounds which is being invested in the expansion of Luton Airport, majority owned Spanish airport operator AENA, and the construction of a 26 million pound factory in the West Midlands by Spanish steel producer Gonvarri Steel Services.

Gibraltar remains issue

Away from the financial deals, the Spanish royal visit comes amid tensions over the post-Brexit future of the British territory of Gibraltar, which Spain wants back.

The future of Gibraltar, a rock on the southern tip of Spain captured by Britain in 1704, and its 30,000 inhabitants, is set to be a major point of contention in the Brexit talks.

During an address to members of both houses of parliament in London on Wednesday, Felipe said he was confident that Spain and Britain could work towards an acceptable arrangement over Gibraltar.

May to meet with King Felipe

The EU and Britain have also yet to agree on guarantees for EU citizens living in the UK and British expats living in other EU countries. More than 300,000 Britons live in Spain, while more than 130,000 Spaniards live in Britain.

On Wednesday, Felipe said these citizens had “a legitimate expectation of decent and stable living conditions” and urged the British and Spanish governments to work to ensure the Brexit agreement provided sufficient assurance and certainty.

May’s office said that during her talks with Felipe she would welcome the contribution that Spanish citizens make to Britain’s economy and society.

 
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Tensions Rise in Silicon Valley Over Trump Decision

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Silicon Valley is reeling over a decision this week by the Trump administration to delay and most likely kill a new avenue for entrepreneurs to come to the U.S.

The International Entrepreneurship Rule, which the Obama administration set in motion, was supposed to go into effect this month.

It would have allowed entry into the U.S. of as many as 3,000 foreign entrepreneurs annually for 30-month stays. To qualify, applicants would have to show they would create U.S. jobs and had reputable sources ready to invest $250,000 in their businesses.

This week, the Trump administration said it was delaying the implementation of the rule until March 2018 with the expectation that it would be rescinded.

Even though the administration’s decision was widely anticipated, it still came as a blow to the tech industry.

‘Clearly a mistake’

Silicon Valley leaders frequently tout immigrant founders as key to the region’s success. Many hoped that President Donald Trump, who spoke about finding ways to attract high-skilled talent to the U.S. as a candidate, would allow the Obama-era rule to be implemented.

“This is clearly a mistake,” said Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, a tech-industry-backed group focused on immigration reform. He said more than 300,000 jobs would have been created by the program. The rule would have been “an economic win-win-win,” he said.  

Some tech executives argue that the entrepreneurship rule would have given the U.S. a boost at a critical time. Silicon Valley has to compete with other regions around the world that are building strong digital economies, they say, and it may one day lose its spot as the top global tech draw. Countries such as Canada and France currently offer special avenues for entrepreneurs.

“If we don’t encourage entrepreneurs to come here from around the globe, they’ll go elsewhere,” said Kate Mitchell, a venture capitalist and past chair of the National Venture Capital Association. “That may be a benefit to the rest of the globe. But it will be a loss to Silicon Valley where there happens to be a special mix between capital and risk taking and understanding what it takes to build great companies.”

Canada has been actively recruiting U.S. tech talent. Last year, it launched a “Go North” campaign with events in San Francisco and Seattle. Last week, the Ottawa government enacted a new visa program that allows companies to bring foreign workers to the country within two weeks.

Critics of the U.S. rule say that Washington should create a legitimate avenue for foreign-born entrepreneurs and not rely on an exception that effectively grants newcomers “parole” from formally entering the U.S., a route that would not lead to citizenship.

In its filing, the administration said it needed to reconcile the entrepreneurship rule with a January executive order that spells out how the Department of Homeland Security can grant parole only on “a case-by-case basis” and only when “an individual demonstrates urgent humanitarian reasons or a significant public benefit derived from such parole.”

“The International Entrepreneur Rule has sometimes been referred to as an entrepreneur visa or startup visa, which is inaccurate,” said a spokesman with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. “Only Congress can create a new visa program, and it has not done so.”

‘We can do better’

Russell Harrison, director of government relations at IEEE-USA, a group that represents American tech workers, said he “sheds no tears with the demise of the rule.”

But Harrison added that the administration should do something to help entrepreneurs get to the United States.

“We have to let them into the country as citizens, not as parolees,” he said. “If we are counting on these people to create jobs for hundreds of Americans, we can do better than that.”
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Kid Rock Hints Online He Will Run for US Senate

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Recording star Kid Rock, an outspoken supporter of Republican President Donald Trump, hinted in website and social media messages on Wednesday that he intends to run for the U.S. Senate in 2018.

The 46-year-old Michigan native drew attention on Twitter and his Facebook page to a “Kid Rock ’18 for U.S. Senate” website, featuring a photo of the goateed singer-songwriter seated in a star-spangled chair in dark glasses and white fedora, above the tagline: “Are you scared?”

The site also displays images of a T-shirt, baseball cap and bumper sticker emblazoned with the campaign logo, “Kid Rock for US Senate” and a box of alternating slogans, including, “In Rock We Trust,” “Party to the People” and “You Never Met a Politician Quite Like Me.”

“I have a ton of emails and texts asking me if this website is real. … The answer is an absolute YES,” he said on his verified Twitter account. “Stay tuned, I will have a major announcement in the near future.”

Reached by email, the musician’s spokesman, Kirt Webster, referred only to Rock’s Facebook page, which bore the same message. His music label, Warner Bros Records, also posted a website offering sales of Kid Rock for U.S. Senate merchandise.

Born Robert James Richie in the Detroit suburb of Romeo, Michigan, he rose to fame in 1998 as his debut album “Devil Without a Cause” sold some 14 million copies, and he gained additional celebrity through his courtship of actress Pamela Anderson and their brief marriage in the 2000s.

While no mention was made in Wednesday’s online postings about Rock’s political affiliation or even in what state he would run for office, he presumably would seek to challenge Michigan’s Democratic incumbent senator, Debbie Stabenow, who is up for re-election in 2018.

The Capitol Hill-based newspaper Roll Call reported earlier this month that Rock’s name surfaced as a possible candidate at a Michigan Republican Party convention, though no official decisions were announced.

According to Roll Call, Rock endorsed Republican Mitt Romney for president in 2012 and initially supported Ben Carson for the Republican nomination in the 2016 but switched to Trump when the former reality-TV star became the party’s nominee.

Afterward, Rock released a line of pro-Trump merchandise, including a T-shirt that read “God Guns & Trump.”

In April, Kid Rock joined fellow rocker and conservative activist Ted Nugent and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for a White House visit and dinner with Trump.
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No Quiet Desperation at Thoreau’s 200th Birthday Observance

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The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. The rest are observing the 200th birthday of Henry David Thoreau, the author who penned that line.

The U.S. Postal Service marked the occasion Wednesday with a new postage stamp honoring the Walden and Civil Disobedience writer, philosopher and naturalist.

Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts, on July 12, 1817.

Concord Postmaster Ray White and officials from the Thoreau Farm and Birthplace were on hand to dedicate the stamp. They say it’s in tribute to Thoreau’s “personal example of simple living, his criticism of materialism and the timeless questions he raises about the place of the individual in society.”

Fans gathered at Walden Pond, where Thoreau lived and worked, to read aloud from Walden and other classics.
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New Test May Detect Pancreatic Cancer Early

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Researchers have developed a blood test that could help with the early detection of pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest forms of the disease.

Doctors usually are unable to diagnose cancer of the pancreas until it is too late. Most patients die within a year.

The new test uses stem cell technology to look for markers in the blood of people who, because of diabetes or family history, are more likely to develop pancreatic cancer.

Scientists took late-stage cancer cells from a patient and used technology to genetically regress those cells to a stem cell state.

They were able to return those cells to an early cancerous state and find what are called biomarkers in the blood to detect the disease early enough for treatment.

The researchers say the new test has an 87 percent accuracy rate in identifying someone with stage 1 or 2 pancreatic cancer, and a 98 percent rate in ruling out the disease in those who are not sick.

The study appears in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
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Brazil House Speaker Stands Up to President on Labor Reform

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The speaker of Brazil’s lower house vowed Wednesday to fight any changes President Michel Temer makes to a labor reform bill passed by the Senate, highlighting new tension between longtime political allies.

The speaker, Rodrigo Maia, would replace Temer if Congress allows the Supreme Court to move ahead with a corruption charge against the president, a vote that Maia has said he wants to have this week.

The bill, a business-friendly measure modernizing labor laws dating from the 1940s, passed by a wide margin in the Senate on Tuesday following approval in the lower house and will be sent to Temer to be signed into law.

Given that any changes in the Senate would have sent the bill back to the lower house for fresh debate, Temer assured senators Tuesday that he would use a decree to tweak the legislation as they suggested after he signed it into law.

Maia rejected any such arrangement.

“The lower house will not accept any change to the law. Any [presidential decree] will not be recognized by the House,” the speaker said in a Twitter post.

Graft scheme

Prosecutors charged Temer last month in a graft scheme involving JBS SA, the world’s biggest meatpacker. Executives said the president took bribes from the company in exchange for resolving tax matters and facilitating loans from state-run banks.

Temer has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

The presidential press office said in a statement that Maia has remained loyal to Temer since becoming speaker last year.

“The presidential palace rebuffs the attempts to create a false crisis between the executive and legislative power without connection to facts and reality,” the statement said.

Under Brazilian law, two-thirds of the lower house of Congress must vote to allow a criminal charge against a sitting president to move to the Supreme Court. The vote could happen Friday or possibly be delayed until early August, after a congressional recess.
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French Court Annuls Google’s $1.27 Billion Back Tax Bill

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A French court annulled a 1.1 billion-euro ($1.27 billion) tax adjustment imposed on Google by France’s tax authorities, saying Wednesday that the way the California firm operates in France allows it to be exempt from most taxes.

The French tax administration had argued that Google was required to pay taxes in France for 2005-2010 because the American company and its Irish subsidiary sold a service for inserting online ads to clients in France through its Google search engine.

But the Paris administrative court ruled that Google Ireland Limited doesn’t have a “permanent establishment” in France via the French company Google France, another subsidiary of California-based Google Inc.

The court added that Google France doesn’t have the human resources or the technical means to allow it to carry out the contentious advertising services on its own.

The French government can appeal the decision.

Ireland gives Google tax advantage

Google has minimized its tax bill in France and other European countries by keeping its headquarters in Ireland, where rates are lower. The strategy has helped Google boost its profits and stock price.

 

In their ruling, the judges noted that the ads ordered by French clients could not be put online by the employees of Google France themselves because any ad orders ultimately needed approval from Google Ireland Limited.

During a hearing in the tax case last month, an independent magistrate proposed that the most fitting solution for the dispute was wiping out, but pointed to the “shortcomings of the current legal basis.”

Others countries have issues

France is not the only European country where Google has been at odds with national tax authorities. The company agreed to pay 306 million euros ($349 million) to settle an ongoing dispute with Italy and 130 million pounds ($167 million) to settle a case in Britain. A U.K. parliamentary committee has said the settlement seemed disproportionately small given the size of the company’s operations in Britain.

Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon — a group of firms known by the acronym GAFA — have been criticized for their tax-optimizing practices.

Wednesday’s ruling comes amid mounting criticism that the tech firms and other major U.S. companies have scrimped on their tax bills through a variety of accounting maneuvers that have rankled governments around the world. Google has said it never broke any laws.

 
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Pioneering Cancer Gene Therapy by Novartis Backed by US Panel

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Novartis AG’s pioneering cancer drug won the backing of a federal advisory panel Wednesday, paving the way for the first gene therapy to be approved in the United States.

An advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration voted 10-0 that the drug, tisagenlecleucel, should be approved to treat patients with relapsed B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common form of U.S. childhood cancer.

The FDA is not obliged to follow the recommendations of its advisers, but typically does so. The agency is expected to rule on the drug by the end of September.

Approval of tisagenlecleucel would have significant implications not only for Novartis but for companies developing similar treatments, including Kite Pharma Inc, Juno Therapeutics Inc and bluebird bio Inc.

All four are developing chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies (CAR-T), which harness the body’s own immune cells to recognize and attack malignant cells.

If approved, the drugs, which are infused just once, are expected to cost up to $500,000 and generate billions of dollars for their developers. Success would also help advance a cancer-fighting technique that scientists have been trying to perfect for decades and lift the broader field of cell therapy.

“In the last five years, there have been a significant number of cell therapy companies that have gone public or gotten investment in hopes of moving this type of therapy forward,” said Reni Benjamin, an analyst at Raymond James. “This is our first glimpse from a commercial and regulatory perspective about how the FDA is thinking about this space.”

A clinical trial of Novartis’ drug showed that 83 percent of patients who had relapsed or failed chemotherapy, achieved complete or partial remission three months post-infusion.

Patients with ALL who fail chemotherapy typically have a 16 to 30 percent chance of survival.

Novartis is also testing the drug in diffuse large b-cell Lymphoma (DLBCL), the most common form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, as is Kite. Part of the competitive landscape will include which company is best able to manufacture its product most efficiently and reliably.

The products are made by extracting and isolating a patient’s T cells, genetically engineering them to recognize and target specific cancer cells, and then infusing them back into the patient.

Novartis said the entire process will take 22 days by the time it is launched.

More than half of patients experienced a serious complication known as cytokine release syndrome (CRS), which occurs when the body’s immune system goes into overdrive.

Doctors were able to manage the condition, and the syndrome caused no deaths.

The FDA expressed concern that the drug could cause new malignancies over the long term, but panelists generally felt that risk was low.
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US Cities, States, Businesses Vow to Still Measure Greenhouse Gas Emissions

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U.S. cities and states will work with experts to measure their progress toward meeting Paris climate agreement goals, representatives said Wednesday, sidestepping President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the country out of the global pact.

The initiative by 227 cities and counties, nine states and more than 1,500 businesses, including Fortune 500 companies, was announced in a statement by California Governor Jerry Brown and Michael Bloomberg, a former New York mayor.

“Today we’re sending a clear message to the world that America’s states, cities and businesses are moving forward with our country’s commitments under the Paris Agreement — with or without Washington,” Brown said in a statement.

“America’s Pledge,” as the plan has been dubbed, came a month after the White House announced it was leaving the 2015 Paris accord, agreed to by nearly 200 countries, to curb climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

Collective effort

That decision was met with dismay across the world, but it prompted state governors and city mayors to say they would collectively show their country still remained committed to cutting emissions that scientists blame for global warming.

In a growing movement, cities, states and companies have since endorsed various statements promising to step up efforts to slow climate change.

“The American government may have pulled out of the Paris Agreement, but American society remains committed to it — and we will redouble our efforts to achieve its goals,” said Bloomberg in a statement.

Outside experts with the World Resources Institute and the Rocky Mountain Institute, two U.S.-based nonprofits, have been retained to conduct the study on current and projected emissions of “America’s Pledge” affiliates.

The affiliates hope to present findings to the United Nations at a Bonn, Germany, climate meeting in November.

Under the Paris deal, former President Barack Obama’s administration had vowed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.

But in abandoning the accord, Trump said the federal government would not honor those pledges, which were nonbinding.

Bloomberg commitment

Still, last month in an effort to fill a climate leadership void, Bloomberg, a U.N. envoy on cities and climate change, committed $200 million to support city initiatives, including projects to combat global warming through a grant program called the American Cities Initiative.

Bloomberg Philanthropies has also committed to separately fund America’s Pledge, Antha Williams, a spokeswoman for the group, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a phone interview.

In a statement, U.N. chief António Guterres welcomed the plan to assess how U.S. cities, states and others are contributing to slashing global greenhouse gas emissions.

“This is demonstrably not an issue that can be addressed by national governments alone,” he said.
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Tech Firms Protest Proposed Changes to US Net Neutrality Rules

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Facebook, Twitter, Alphabet and dozens of other major technology companies protested online on Wednesday against proposed changes to U.S. net neutrality rules that prohibit broadband providers from giving or selling access to certain internet services over others.

In support of the “Internet-Wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality,” more than 80,000 websites – from big social media platforms like Facebook to streaming services like Netflix and matchmaking website OkCupid — are displaying banners, alerts, ads and short videos to urge the public to oppose the overturn of the landmark 2015 net neutrality rules.

Net neutrality is a broad principle that prohibits broadband providers from giving or selling access to speedy internet, essentially a “fast lane,” to certain internet services over others. The rule was implemented by the Obama administration in 2015.

Changes to the rule are being proposed by the head of the U.S. Federal Communications Commision (FCC), Ajit Pai, appointed by President Donald Trump in January.

Pai wants the commission to repeal the rules that reclassified internet service providers as if they were utilities, saying the open internet rules adopted under former President Barack Obama harm jobs and investment. The FCC voted 2-1 in May to advance a Republican plan to reverse the “net neutrality” order.

During a speech in April, Pai asked: “Do we want the government to control the internet? Or do we want to embrace the light-touch approach” in place since 1996 until it was revised in 2015.

At a Capitol Hill press conference, Democrats and internet companies vowed to fight the changes and suggested internet companies could slow internet speeds. Senator Edward Markey said the internet “is under attack.”

“We will not let this takeover happen,” Markey said. “A free and open internet is our right and we will fight to defend it.”

Major broadband providers, including AT&T and Verizon Communications, acknowledged the public support for net neutrality. They emphasized they are in favor of an “open internet”— but made clear they oppose the 2015 net neutrality reclassification order that they say could lead to government rate regulation.

FCC spokesman Brian Hart declined to comment.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, the sole Democrat on a commission with two current vacancies, said in a statement on Wednesday she supports “those who believe that a free and open internet is a foundational principle of our democracy.”

The public will have until mid-August to send comments to the FCC before the final vote.

More than 550,000 comments have been filed in the last day with the FCC and more than 6.3 million filed to date and thousands of people called Capitol Hill offices to express concerns.

Online protest

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on the social media platform, “Right now, the FCC has rules in place to make sure the internet continues to be an open platform for everyone. At Facebook, we strongly support those rules.”

Twitter expressed support for the existing rules, encouraging users to protest while promoting the hashtag #NetNeutrality.

“Net Neutrality is foundational to competitive, free enterprise, entrepreneurial market entry — and reaching global customers. You don’t have to be a big shot to compete. Anyone with a great idea, a unique perspective to share, and a compelling vision can get in the game,” Twitter said in a blog.

Online forum Reddit displayed a pop-up message that slowly loads the text, “The internet’s less fun when your favorite sites load slowly, isn’t it?”

Netflix displayed banners on top of the home page while Amazon.com posted a short video explaining net neutrality, urging consumers to send comments to the FCC.

A pop-up banner on The American Civil Liberties Union’s website read: “Trump’s FCC wants to kill net neutrality. This would let the cable and phone companies slow down any site they don’t like or that won’t pay extra.”
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