More than a century after being unearthed in Egypt, a nearly 2000-year-old mummy is giving scientists, museum curators and medical researchers a unique look at the ancient world. Faith Lapidus reports.
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Month: December 2017
Therapy Robot Suggests Personal Rehab Exercises
Physical therapists can be a vital part of getting injured people back on their feet. But the therapy they recommend can sometimes be less than precise. Some new technology now being used in Italy could be a valuable tool for helping people recover from their injuries. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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Prop From ‘The Ten Commandments’ Pulled From California Dune
Archaeologists working in sand dunes on the central California coast have dug up an intact plaster sphinx that was part of an Egyptian movie set built more than 90 years ago for Cecil B. DeMille’s epic The Ten Commandments.
The 300-pound sphinx is the second recovered from the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes.
Dunes Center Executive Director Doug Jenzen told the Santa Barbara news station KEYT-TV that it’s unlike other items found on previous digs because most of it is preserved with the original paint intact.
The set of the 1923 movie included more than 20 sphinxes. After filming, DeMille ordered everything buried in the dunes 175 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
They lay undisturbed for decades before recovery efforts began. The newly recovered sphinx is expected to go on display at the dunes museum next summer.
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San Diego Opens Giant Tents for Homeless to Battle Hepatitis A Outbreak
The U.S. city of San Diego has opened the first of three large tents that together will house 700 homeless people in an effort to contain an outbreak of hepatitis A that is being spread among the homeless population.
About 20 people made the tent their temporary home Friday. The first tent erected will house 350 single men and women. The other two tents, which will open later this month, will be for families and veterans.
Bob McElroy of the Alpha Project, the nonprofit group that is operating the tent that opened Friday, said he expects the tent to be filled to capacity by the middle of next week.
City officials are using the tents as a way to get people off the streets where they have been living in such poor conditions that it has led to one of the worst outbreaks of hepatitis A in years. The disease, which is spread through feces, has left 20 people dead and sent hundreds to the hospital.
The new tents will provide a range of services to the homeless, including help with mental health issues, addiction and employment. The tent grounds also include portable showers and toilets.
The tents are not the first of their kind in the city. Officials had previously erected two large tents as winter shelters but took them down two years ago and moved the residents to a local shelter.
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US Officials Drop Mining Cleanup Rule After Industry Objects
President Donald Trump’s administration announced Friday that it won’t require mining companies to prove they have the financial wherewithal to clean up their pollution, despite an industry legacy of abandoned mines that have fouled waterways across the U.S.
The move came after mining groups and Western-state Republicans pushed back against a proposal under former President Barack Obama to make companies set aside money for future cleanup costs.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said modern mining practices and state and federal rules already in place adequately address the risks from mines that are still operating.
Requiring more from mining companies was unnecessary, Pruitt said, and “would impose an undue burden on this important sector of the American economy and rural America, where most of these jobs are based.”
The U.S. mining industry has a long history of abandoning contaminated sites and leaving taxpayers to foot the bill for cleanups. Thousands of shuttered mines leak contaminated water into rivers, streams and other waterways, including hundreds of cases in which the EPA has intervened, sometimes at huge expense.
The EPA spent $1.1 billion on cleanup work at abandoned hard-rock mining and processing sites across the U.S. from 2010 to 2014.
Since 1980, at least 52 mines and mine processing sites using modern techniques had spills or other releases of pollution, according to documents released by the EPA last year.
In 2015, an EPA cleanup team accidentally triggered a 3-million gallon spill of contaminated water from Colorado’s inactive Gold King mine, tainting rivers in three states with heavy metals including arsenic and lead.
The Obama-era rule was issued last December under court order after environmental groups sued the government to enforce a long-ignored provision in the 1980 federal Superfund law.
“It’s galling to see the Trump administration side with industry polluters over the America taxpayer,” said Bonnie Gestring with Earthworks, one of the plaintiffs in the case.
“We’ll see them back in court,” she added.
The proposal applied to hard-rock mining, which includes precious metals, copper, iron, lead and other ores. Coal mines already were required to provide assurances that they’ll pay for cleanups under a 1977 federal law
Hard-rock mining companies would have faced a combined $7.1 billion financial obligation under the dropped rule, costing them up to $171 million annually to set aside sufficient funds to pay for future cleanups, according to an EPA analysis.
The mining industry and members of Congress from Western states welcomed Friday’s announcement.
National Mining Association President Hal Quinn said the Obama proposal resulted from environmentalists using litigation to force the government into what he said was an unnecessary rule.
“Today’s action shows that reason can prevail,” Quinn said.
Hard-rock mines in the U.S. produced about $26.6 billion worth of metals in 2015, according to the association. Of those mines, the EPA had said 221 would be subject to the dropped rule.
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After Flurry of Deals, Senate GOP Passes Tax Bill
Republicans used a burst of eleventh-hour horse-trading Friday to edge a $1.4 trillion tax bill to passage in the Senate. The bill, passed mostly along party lines, is a giant step toward giving President Donald Trump one of his top priorities by Christmas.
“We have the votes,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., declared after leaders swayed holdout senators by agreeing to fatten tax breaks for millions of businesses and let people deduct local property taxes.
Party leaders received Senate approval later Friday on a measure that focuses the bulk of its tax reductions on businesses and higher-earning individuals, gives more modest breaks to others and would be the boldest rewrite of the nation’s tax system since 1986. Debate stretched into Saturday morning as lawmakers waited for Republicans to unveil the final version of their measure.
Corker balks at debt increase
Republicans touted the package as one that would benefit people of all incomes and ignite the economy. Even an official projection of a $1 trillion, 10-year flood of deeper budget deficits couldn’t dissuade nearly all GOP senators from rallying behind the bill.
“Obviously I’m kind of a dinosaur on the fiscal issues,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the only announced GOP opponent, who battled to keep the measure from worsening the government’s accumulated $20 trillion in IOUs.
The Republican-led House approved a similar bill last month in what has been a stunningly swift trip through Congress for legislation that impacts the breadth of American society and is hundreds of pages long.
After spending the year’s first nine months futilely trying to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law, GOP leaders were determined to move the measure rapidly before opposition Democrats and lobbying groups could blow it up. The party views passage as crucial to retaining its House and Senate majorities in next year’s elections.
Democrats deride gift to wealthy
Democrats derided the bill as a GOP gift to its wealthy and business backers at the expense of lower-earning people. They contrasted the bill’s permanent reduction in corporate income tax rates from 35 percent to 20 percent to individual tax breaks that would end in 2026.
Congress’ nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation has said the bill’s reductions for many families would be modest and said by 2027, families earning less than $75,000 would on average face higher, not lower, taxes.
“Every time the choice is between corporations and families, the Republicans choose corporations,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Democrats took to the Senate floor and social media to mock what they said was a 479-page, amended version of the bill that included changes in barely legible handwriting. They also criticized Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., for a proposed amendment they said would give a tax break to only conservative Hillsdale College in Michigan. Toomey, one of the chamber’s more conservative members, acknowledged the language would help Hillsdale but said other schools might benefit, too.
Tax panel: $1 trillion added to debt
The bill hit rough waters Thursday after the Joint Taxation panel concluded it would worsen federal shortfalls by $1 trillion over a decade, even when factoring in economic growth that lower taxes would stimulate.
Trump administration officials and many Republicans have insisted the bill would pay for itself by stimulating the economy. But the sour projections stiffened resistance from some deficit-averse Republicans.
But after bargaining that stretched into Friday morning, McConnell and other leaders said victory was assured in a chamber they control 52-48. Facing unyielding Democratic opposition, Republicans could lose no more than two GOP senators and prevail with a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Mike Pence.
Under the changes leaders agreed to, millions of companies whose owners pay individual, not corporate, taxes on their profits would be allowed deductions of 23 percent, up from 17.4 percent. That helped win over GOP Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Steve Daines of Montana.
People would be allowed to deduct up to $10,000 in property taxes, a demand of Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. That matched a House provision that chamber’s leaders included to keep some GOP votes from high-tax states like New York, New Jersey and California.
Collins, a moderate and frequent maverick who opposed her party’s Obamacare repeal drive, said she’d back the tax bill.
The changes added more than $300 billion to the tax bill’s costs. To pay for that, leaders agreed to reduce the number of high-earners who must pay the alternative minimum tax, rather than completely erasing it.
They’d also increase a one-time tax on profits U.S.-based corporations are holding overseas and require firms to keep paying the business version of the alternative minimum tax.
Deal on DACA?
Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who, like Corker, had been a holdout and has sharply attacked Trump’s capabilities as president, said he’d back the bill. He said he’d received commitments from party leaders and the administration “to work with me” to restore protections, dismantled by Trump, for young immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally as children. That seemed short of a pledge to actually revive the safeguards.
Overall, the Senate bill would drop the highest personal income tax rate from 39.6 percent to 38.5 percent. The estate tax levied on a few thousand of the nation’s largest inheritances would be narrowed to affect even fewer.
Deductions for state and local income taxes, moving expenses and other items would vanish, the standard deduction — used by most Americans — would nearly double to $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for couples, and the per-child tax credit would grow.
The bill would abolish the “Obamacare” requirement that most people buy health coverage or face tax penalties. Industry experts say that would weaken the law by easing pressure on healthier people to buy coverage, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said the move would push premiums higher and leave 13 million additional people uninsured.
It would also explicitly let parents buy tax-advantaged 529 college savings accounts for fetuses, a step they can already take but which anti-abortion forces hailed as a victory by inscribing that right into law.
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Venezuela Arrests Relative of Powerful ex-Oil Boss Ramirez in Graft Probe
Venezuela has arrested Diego Salazar, a relative of former oil czar Rafael Ramirez, as part of an investigation into a money laundering scandal in Andorra, the South American country’s state prosecutor said on Friday night.
President Nicolas Maduro is overseeing what his administration calls a “crusade” against corruption in the member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Some 65 oil executives have been detained in a deepening purge that could also see the leftist leader consolidate his grip over the energy sector and sideline rivals.
The Salazar case appears to relate to what the United States in 2015 said were some $2 billion in laundered funds from Venezuelan state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., known as PDVSA, at the private bank Banca Privada D’Andorra (BPA).
Saab did not specify Salazar’s role or details on the money laundering, except that it involved around 1.35 billion euros in 2011 and 2012, but he said the case was bound to grow.
“I want to highlight that this citizen will likely not be the only one detained and the only one investigated,” Saab said in a phone call to state television announcing the arrest.
The arrest is bound to cast the spotlight on Ramirez, who was the powerful head of PDVSA and the oil ministry for a decade before Maduro demoted him as a envoy to the United Nations in 2014.
A protracted rivalry between Maduro and Ramirez has increased in the recent weeks, sources close to the situation said this week, especially after Ramirez wrote online opinion articles criticizing PDVSA’s production slump and the government’s handling of Venezuela’s crisis-hit economy.
Maduro sacked Ramirez, who was thought to have presidential ambitions, from his job this week and summoned him back to Caracas from New York, the people with knowledge of the situation said.
Ramirez and PDVSA did not respond to a request for comment on Friday. Salazar could not immediately be reached for comment.
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Health Care Fallout: Fate of 8M Low-Income US Children in Limbo
TC Bell knows what life is like without health insurance after growing up with a mother who cobbled together care from a public health clinic, emergency room visits and off-the-books visits to a doctor they knew.
That memory makes Bell, of Denver, grateful for the coverage his two daughters have now under the Children’s Health Insurance Program — and concerned about its uncertain future in Congress.
“There’s an incredible security that I have with CHIP,” said Bell, 30, who has gone back to community college to reboot his life after working a series of low-paying jobs. “If my daughters get sick or seriously injured, we can take them to their doctor, rather than when I was growing and had to go through the emergency room. We always kept our fingers crossed back then.”
Political stalemate
CHIP provides low-cost coverage to children in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. But it has become caught up in a political stalemate over how to fund it.
Congress failed to reauthorize the program before it expired in September. Several states are expected to deplete their remaining funds for it by next month. The uncertainty has left states scrambling — and causing worries for families that depend on the program.
“The fact that they want to play politics with our kids’ health care is appalling,” Bell said. “All we’re asking for is an investment, not a handout. CHIP was built for the working class.”
Different situations for each states
Each state designs its own version of CHIP with different rules and coverage, so each faces a somewhat different situation. But Arizona, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Ohio, Oregon and the District of Columbia are among the first expected to exhaust their CHIP allotments.
“We’re seeing every month more and more states running out of their funding for their CHIP programs, so it’s becoming more of a national issue,” said Emily Piper, Minnesota’s human services commissioner.
Fresh federal money for CHIP, which was created in 1997, dried up Oct. 1. Legislation to extend the program for five more years passed the House earlier this month.
However, majority Republicans decided to pay for it partly by cutting a public health program created under former President Barack Obama’s health care law, and by raising Medicare premiums on upper-income recipients. Those provisions make the bill less palatable in the Senate. Senators have agreed on a bill extending the program for five more years but remain divided over how to pay for it.
“Congress was really focused this summer on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, and there wasn’t a lot of oxygen left in the room to talk about just about anything else in health and human services,” Piper said.
Solution to be part of spending bill
Now Congress has turned its attention to its tax bill, she added. “The CHIP program has been a bipartisan program for a really long time, and it’s more to do with other priorities than, I think, to do with people not wanting to fund CHIP.”
An eventual fix is expected to be part of a huge year-end spending bill aimed at preventing a federal government shutdown, but that’s not guaranteed.
Now, with funds running out, states are struggling with what to tell families who rely on CHIP, said Samantha Artiga, an analyst with the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“They’re really trying to hold off as long as possible or on providing any notice to families,” Artiga said. “They don’t want to create confusion or fear or instability for families who are covered under the program.”
Colorado isn’t waiting
Colorado isn’t holding off any longer. The Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, which administers the Child Health Plus program, Colorado’s version of CHIP, began sending letters to enrollees Monday advising them that they need to look at private insurance coverage options if Congress fails to act. Formal termination notices could go out in mid-December.
The department estimates that Colorado’s federal funding won’t last beyond Jan. 31. More than 75,000 children and 800 pregnant women in Colorado are enrolled in CHP Plus.
States set their own eligibility rules for the program. Colorado covers children 18 or younger and pregnant women 19 and older when household income is no more than 260 percent of the federal poverty guideline; for example, a family of four with income of $63,960 or less.
In Minnesota, CHIP serves about 125,000 children. Since Minnesota provides CHIP coverage through its Medicaid program, it has been able to secure some temporary emergency federal funds and plans to keep those children covered even if it needs to use its own money. But without a congressional solution Minnesota would eventually have to cut off about 1,700 pregnant women and new mothers, Piper said.
Arizona was in danger of running out of money by mid-December, but Republican Gov. Doug Ducey’s administration came up with a complicated plan to shift some funding around to make CHIP last until March, said Christine Corieri, the governor’s health policy adviser.
“There’s a lot of things I think that we can argue about. There’s a lot of things that divide us,” Ducey said. “Taking care of these kids in this situation I think is something that should unite us.”
Delay tough on families
Arizona has about 74,000 children covered under Medicaid expansion and 23,000 under its CHIP program, known as KidsCare. Those include Corina Mejia’s two sons.
Mejia, a single mother in Phoenix, works as a school community liaison officer. She has health insurance for herself through her job but needs KidsCare to make insuring her children affordable. Her older son, Isaiah, 11, has asthma and requires regular checkups and medication, while infant Jorge was born prematurely. Mejia said she doesn’t know what she’ll do if lawmakers keep balking.
“They need to put themselves in our position and have an open mind,” Mejia said. “A lot of us parents do work, but we just happen to not make enough to be able to provide the medically necessary needs that we have to provide for our children.”
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Beleaguered World Cup Gets Dreary Opener: Russia-Saudi Arabia
A World Cup shrouded in corruption controversies and struggling to attract sponsors could have the dreariest of starts on the field: a meeting of the lowest-ranked teams in the 32-team field.
Host Russia and Saudi Arabia play June 14 at Moscow in an opener lacking global appeal, but things pick up the next day when 2010 champion Spain and defending European champion Portugal meet in Sochi.
The Iberian neighbors were drawn into Group B at a Kremlin ceremony Friday. Morocco coach Herve Renard hoped to avoid the “two ogres” but will face them along with Iran.
“It’s a complicated group,” Spain coach Julen Lopetegui said. “It will be tough. Portugal is a great team. It is the defending European champion and has a squad filled with top players.”
None more so than Cristiano Ronaldo, who recently joined Argentina’s Lionel Messi as the only five-time winners of FIFA’s player of the year award. Messi’s quest for his first World Cup title begins the following day when Argentina takes on Iceland — at 334,000 the least-populous country to qualify for the World Cup.
Iceland coach Heimir Hallgrimsson already knows what he must tell his team: “Watch out for No. 10.”
The United States is missing from soccer’s top event for the first time since 1986 and four-time champion Italy will be watching from afar for the first time since 1958.
Germany remains the favorite. Its depth was clear when an experimental squad won the Confederations Cup in Russia in July. Germany opens against Mexico in its quest to become the first country to win back-to-back World Cup titles since Brazil in 1962. The Germans then face Sweden and South Korea in Group F.
“We got opponents that are not unknown to us,” Germany captain Manuel Neuer said. “That’s what I like best, when we know what to expect.”
Germany is hoping to be based in Sochi along with Brazil. The only five-time world champion does not intend to move its training camp despite a schedule that has none of its games in the Black Sea resort. The Selecao, beaten 7-1 at home by Germany in the 2014 semifinals, were drawn in Group E with Switzerland, Costa Rica and Serbia.
“Despite the distances, there are quick ways to get there,” Brazil coach Tite said.
England, eliminated in the group stage three years ago, was drawn into Group G along with newcomer Panama, Tunisia and Belgium. Gareth Southgate’s first World Cup game as a coach will be a repeat of his first as a player — Southgate made his World Cup debut in England’s 2-0 win over Tunisia in 1998.
“We’ve been good at writing off teams and then getting beaten by them,” Southgate said.
Roberto Martinez also will be making his World Cup debut. But the Belgium coach knows England well after spending two decades there as a coach and player.
“It is going to be one of those games with no secrets,” said Martinez, a former Everton manager. “We have 25 players in the British game. That brings that understanding. That brings that competitive level.”
Peru, the last of the 32 teams to qualify for Russia, is in Group C with 1998 champion France, Australia and Denmark.
“It could have been worse,” France coach Didier Deschamps said.
The only group without a former World Cup champion is H — Poland, Senegal, Colombia and Japan.
The Russians have been placed with the winners of the first World Cup — Uruguay — in Group A along with Egypt and Uruguay. At No. 65, Russia is the lowest-ranked team at the tournament, with Saudi Arabia only two places higher.
“I’ve never seen them,” Russia coach Stanislav Cherchesov said.
Russian hosts
The ceremony was opened by Russian President Vladimir Putin, one day short of the seventh anniversary of the FIFA executive committee vote that awarded the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 tournament to Qatar — the subject of bribe allegations against soccer executives brought up nearly daily in New York during a corruption trial against top soccer officials. Putin urged fans to visit and enjoy his “big and multifaceted” country, a rallying cry that comes amid concerns about racism and hooliganism.
“We will do everything to make it a major sporting festival,” Putin said, anticipating a World Cup of “friendship and fair play, values that do not change with time.”
The Olympic doping scandal surrounding Russia hung over the final countdown to the draw. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko, head of the local World Cup organizing committee, defended himself against accusations he helped orchestrate state-sponsored doping at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
“Nowadays everyone is trying to make some kind of axis of evil out of us, just because we’re a great sporting power,” Mutko said.
The International Olympic Committee executive board will decide Tuesday whether to ban Russia from the upcoming Pyeongchang Olympics.
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Top 5 Songs for Week Ending Dec. 2
We’re gathering the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, for the week ending December 2, 2017.
The hit list seems comfortable with offering one new song a week, because that’s what we have once more.
Number 5: Cardi B. “Bodak Yellow Money Moves”
Let’s start in fifth place, where Cardi B slides two slots with “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves).”
The 2018 Grammy nominations came out on November 28, and Cardi competes in two categories. “Bodak Yellow” is nominated for both Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance. The 60th annual Grammy Awards ceremony will take place on January 28.
Number 4: Imagine Dragons “Thunder”
Imagine Dragons gains a slot in fourth place with “Thunder.” The Las Vegas band may win its second Grammy Award: “Radioactive” took Best Rock Performance in 2014, and “Evolve” is currently nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album.
Beyond that, the band’s music also appears in many advertisements. The song “Believer” alone currently has more than 32 placements, ranging from Nintendo and Microsoft to Jeep vehicles.
Number 3: Lil Pump “Gucci Gang”
Lil Pump places himself right in the middle of our countdown, as “Gucci Gang” jumps from 12th to third place. Hailing from Miami, Florida, Lil Pump – real name Gazzy Garcia – began uploading songs to SoundCloud last year. After earning millions of streams, he became a leader in “Soundcloud Rap,” a genre which also includes Lil Uzi Vert and Lil Yachty. Lil Pump’s self-titled debut mixtape hit third place on the U.S. pop album chart in October.
Number 2: Camila Cabello Featuring Young Thug “Havana”
Camila Cabello and Young Thug remain stuck in second place with “Havana.” However, it’s a different story on the Billboard Pop Songs chart, where it jumps to number one.
This is Camila’s second Pop Songs victory, following her collaboration with Machine Gun Kelly, “Bad Things.”
Number 1: Post Malone Featuring 21 Savage “Rockstar”
Up at number one, as you may have guessed, Post Malone and 21 Savage log a sixth straight week at the top with “Rockstar.”
Speaking recently with Polish media, Post said words to the effect that whenever you want to feel something, don’t listen to hip-hop. Post later said he meant no disrespect to hip-hop, which he loves…he just meant to say that when he needs to reflect on life, Bob Dylan is his go-to artist.
We’re your go-to source for the biggest hits every week, so join us again in seven days!
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First Baby from a Uterus Transplant in US Born in Dallas
The first birth as a result of a womb transplant in the United States has occurred in Texas, a milestone for the U.S. but one achieved several years ago in Sweden.
A woman who had been born without a uterus gave birth to the baby at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.
Hospital spokesman Craig Civale confirmed Friday that the birth had taken place, but said no other details are available. The hospital did not identify the woman, citing her privacy.
Baylor has had a study under way for several years to enroll up to 10 women for uterus transplants. In October 2016, the hospital said four women had received transplants but that three of the wombs had to be removed because of poor blood flow.
The hospital would give no further information on how many transplants have been performed since then. But Time magazine, which first reported the U.S. baby’s birth, says eight have been done in all, and that another woman is currently pregnant as a result.
A news conference was scheduled Monday to discuss the Dallas baby’s birth.
A doctor in Sweden, Mats Brannstrom, is the first in the world to deliver a baby as a result of a uterus transplant. As of last year, he had delivered five babies from women with donated wombs.
There have been at least 16 uterus transplants worldwide, including one in Cleveland from a deceased donor that had to be removed because of complications. Last month, Penn Medicine in Philadelphia announced that it also would start offering womb transplants.
Baylor transplants
Womb donors can be dead or alive, and the Baylor study aims to use some of both. The first four cases involved “altruistic” donors — unrelated and unknown to the recipients. The ones done in Sweden were from live donors, mostly from the recipients’ mother or a sister.
Doctors hope that womb transplants will enable as many as several thousand women born without a uterus to bear children. To be eligible for the Baylor study, women must be 20 to 35 years old and have healthy, normal ovaries. They will first have in vitro fertilization to retrieve and fertilize their eggs and produce embryos that can be frozen until they are ready to attempt pregnancy.
After the uterus transplant, the embryos can be thawed and implanted, at least a year after the transplant to make sure the womb is working well. A baby resulting from a uterine transplant would be delivered by cesarean section. The wombs are not intended to be permanent. Having one means a woman must take powerful drugs to prevent organ rejection, and the drugs pose long-term health risks, so the uterus would be removed after one or two successful pregnancies.
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine issued a statement Friday calling the Dallas birth “another important milestone in the history of reproductive medicine.”
For women born without a functioning uterus, “transplantation represents the only way they can carry a pregnancy,” the statement said. The group is convening experts to develop guidelines for programs that want to offer this service.
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Los Angeles Set to Embark on a Smart City Experiment
From cellphones and cars, to televisions and refrigerators, more devices are being connected to the Internet.
This network of connected devices is call the “Internet of Things” (IoT). Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States, is planning to use the prevalence of these IoT devices as a testing ground for becoming a city of the future.
“By putting computers in parking meters, you already have computers in your car, and you have computers in the street lights. The ability to connect them to the Internet of Things allows a better way for your car to know where parking spots are available, allows better for it to communicate when street lights should turn green to maximize traffic flow,” said Ted Ross, chief information officer for the city of Los Angeles.
WATCH: Los Angeles About to Embark on a Smart City Experiment
What is I3?
Los Angeles is a part of a consortium called “I3” that includes the University of Southern California (USC) and tech companies. This partnership is developing and will soon test an Internet of Things system. It aims to connect sensors placed around the city with other connected devices to make L.A. a smart city.
It is an endeavor that will also rely on residents’ participation, said Raman Abrol of Tech Mahindra. It is one of the I3 tech companies and will provide a platform for an online marketplace called Community Action Platform for Engagement or CAPE.
“Communities can collaborate with businesses and cities and share data in a manner where privacy’s enforced,” Abrol said.
In the online marketplace, neighborhoods could be shopping for a cheaper source of renewable energy or water filtration system. Companies can then compete for their business.
CAPE is just one of the many elements in the I3 system that will make up the Internet of Things network in Los Angeles.
“The I3 is an Internet of Things integrator. Through I3, we’re (Los Angeles) working with the University of Southern California and vendor partners to aggregate the data and give us a better ability to make decisions, decisions to maximize traffic flow, decisions to help reduce crime, decisions to help improve business prosperity,” Ross said.
Privacy, security concerns
As connected devices become more ubiquitous and the flow of personal data increases, privacy and security concerns will be more scrutinized.
“I think that this is one piece of a huge emerging problem, of figuring out how we protect privacy and limit government power in an era of rapidly expanding information availability and rapidly expanding data processing abilities. So it’s not just that there are more and more data points that are available for the government to look at. It is also that we are rapidly expanding our ability to analyze data,” said Stanford University Law School professor, David Alan Sklansky.
Sklansky has been closely following a U.S. Supreme Court case, Carpenter v. the United States, which examines whether police need a warrant to obtain cellphone location information. Sklansky said the decision from the case will impact other applications of technology and data in the modern age.
“The more powerful the technology, the more powerful the unintended consequences,” said Yannis Yortsos, dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.
“How do you make sure to possibly regulate this because there has to be regulation so that they have legal and ethical issues taken into consideration as well,” Yortsos added.
Choose to connect
In Los Angeles, people will largely choose whether they want to provide data to the city.
“For someone who’s going to be able to let’s say, connect through their smart phone or through their vehicle, it’s extremely important that they agree and they consent to such matters,” Ross said.
While there was an initial forecast of a big demand in the Internet of Things, over time, the demand dropped, said Jerry Power, executive director of the USC Institute for Communication Technology Management.
“So we started looking at it and trying to understand why and what the problems were,” he said. “We looked at it from a perspective of privacy from the users’ standpoint. We realized privacy was an important issue. We realized that trust was an important issue, and we realized that incentives (was) an issue in the process as well.”
Power continued, “what incentive has to go back to the users to get them to opt-in? The level of incentive depends on how much the user of the data, who wants the data, how much they disclose about what they’re going to do with the information and how well-trusted that person is.”
“The exchange of data.” Power added, “if you think about it, it almost becomes like a form of currency, and it’s part of a transaction.”
The smart city experiment will begin at the University of Southern California and expand to the city of Los Angeles.
Some of what works from the program will be be made available for other cities to use.
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Virtual Reality Allows Patients to Preview Their Own Surgery
Most of us would be shocked and afraid if a doctor told us we needed brain surgery. But imagine how much calmer you’d be if you could get inside your skull to navigate the path the surgeon will take? Technology can now make that happen. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti takes us to the Stanford Medical Center in Silicon Valley to see how virtual reality can get patients into their own heads.
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Dozens of Runners Compete in Antarctica’s Only Marathon
Something extraordinary happened last week at the bottom of the world: 55 very determined, possibly crazy people participated in a marathon on the continent of Antarctica. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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UN: 17 World Heritage Sites in Arab World in Danger
The new head of the U.N. cultural agency has called for greater protection for cultural heritage sites, especially in conflict zones.
Audrey Azoulay told a U.N. Security Council meeting Thursday that of 82 UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Arab world, 17 are on a danger list.
“All six Syrian World Heritage sites have been severely affected, including Palmyra and the fabled city of Aleppo, one of the oldest cities in the world, now reduced to rubble,” Azoulay said.
She also told the council that more that 100 cultural sites across Iraq have been damaged.
Azoulay said she was encouraged by the council’s adoption of a resolution in March condemning the unlawful destruction of cultural heritage and warning Islamic State, al-Qaida and other combatants that such attacks may constitute war crimes.
But she said countries need to do a lot more, including improving data collection and information sharing on trafficking routes, and better damage assessments.
U.N. counterterrorism chief Vladimir Voronkov called for a stronger focus on investigations and cross-border cooperation, and on bringing in collectors, art dealers, auction houses and the tourism sector to stop the illegal trade in stolen cultural items.
Voronkov said the “looting and illicit trafficking of cultural objects leads to the financing of terrorism and criminal networks.”
Yury Fedotov, head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, told the council that “the art market and museums should pay special attention to the provenance of cultural items that they are considering for acquisition, or with which they otherwise come into contact.”
Fedotov said there needs to be international cooperation in investigating, prosecuting and adjudicating cases related to trafficking cultural property.
“Only in this way can we protect precious cultural heritage from being lost forever,” he said.
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Senate Republicans Postpone Vote on US Tax Overhaul
Senate Republicans delayed a final vote on an overhaul of the U.S. tax code late Thursday amid furious, behind-the-scenes efforts to fine-tune the legislation to satisfy a small group of fiscal hawks whose support is needed to pass one of President Donald Trump’s core campaign promises.
“Senators will continue to debate the bill tonight,” Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said, adding that further votes pertaining to the tax bill would occur later Friday.
Only hours earlier, Republicans appeared poised to pass a massive restructuring of federal taxes and deal a stinging defeat to Democrats. Several wavering Republicans had signaled support for the bill, including John McCain of Arizona.
Late in the day, however, three Republicans, led by Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, clung to a demand that proposed tax cuts would be pared back if future U.S. economic performance did not meet projections.
Republicans have a two-seat Senate majority. Three defections from their ranks would torpedo the bill, given unified Democratic opposition.
With time needed to rewrite portions of the bill to satisfy the Corker contingent, Republican leaders opted to postpone further votes.
Details of plan
The underlying proposal would permanently cut corporate taxes, temporarily cut taxes on wages and salaries, boost some tax deductions Americans can claim while eliminating others, and increase the U.S. national debt, which currently is more than $20 trillion.
The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation issued a report Thursday estimating the Republican plan would sap federal coffers by more than $1 trillion over a decade, even taking into account more than $400 billion in new revenue generated by a projected increase in economic activity.
“The [JCT] score ends the fantasy about magical growth, about unicorns and growth fairies showing that tax cuts pay for themselves,” Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon said.
Republicans insisted a vibrant economy was necessary for fiscal health, and that tax cuts would promote growth.
“If this legislation is signed into law, we are going to have a smaller deficit in future years than we are on the path to have now,” Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said. “The right incentives lead to stronger growth.”
Democrats shot back that the federal deficit and income inequality both expanded after every tax cut enacted in recent decades.
“Trickle-down economics did not work under Ronald Reagan, did not work under George W. Bush,” independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who caucuses with Democrats, said. “It is a fraudulent theory.”
“All we are doing is shifting the tax to our kids,” Maine Senator Angus King, another independent who also caucuses with Democrats, said. “If 5-year-olds knew what we were doing and could vote, none of us would have a job.”
Corporate tax rate
The tax plan would cut corporate taxes from a maximum rate of 35 percent to 20 percent.
“Other countries have learned how to use their tax codes to entice U.S. businesses overseas, businesses around the globe, to their country — to move away from the United States to their countries’ more competitive tax code,” Republican Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado said. “That disparity between the U.S. tax code and foreign tax rates has literally chased jobs and wages out of this country.”
Some Democrats agreed that U.S. corporate taxes should be lowered, but insisted the Republican plan goes too far and would eventually trigger painful cuts to federal programs that benefit the poor and elderly in the future.
Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey accused Republicans of mounting a “con game” in which they tout tax breaks but gloss over “their brutal, vicious cuts to programs for the poorest, the sickest, the elderly, neediest in our country.”
In a sign that Republicans were confident of passing the bill, House Speaker Paul Ryan laid the groundwork for creating a bicameral committee to reconcile differences between the Senate’s legislation and a House version that was approved several weeks ago.
A unified tax plan would have to pass both chambers before it could go to the White House for Trump’s signature.
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Venezuelan Airline Barred from European Union Skies
Venezuela’s Avior Airlines has been banned from European Union skies after a commission determined it no longer meets international safety standards, another blow to troubled nation’s already beleaguered flight industry.
The European Commission announced Thursday that Avior had been added to a list of international airlines prohibited from flying within the union because the European Aviation Safety Agency detected “unaddressed safety deficiencies.”
No further details were provided.
The Venezuelan airline is one of a handful still offering international flight destinations as major carriers like United and Delta halt operations in the crisis-ridden nation. Air carriers have cited financial and safety concerns as reasons for suspending service.
An Avior flight made an emergency landing in Ecuador earlier this month after passengers described seeing fire and smelling smoke. Videos posted on social media showed nervous passengers wearing deployed oxygen masks.
“We thought it was our final moments,” one passenger said.
Avior operates flights within Venezuela, throughout Latin America and to Miami, Florida, and lists an office location in Madrid on its website.
The airline is certified under U.S. federal aviation regulations and Venezuela remains in good standing with the International Aviation Safety Assessment, the Federal Aviation Administration’s program to determine whether foreign countries provide sufficient safety and oversight of airlines that fly to the U.S.
Venezuela has grown increasingly isolated as an expanding list of airlines cancel service amid low customer demand and financial distress. The head of the International Air Transport Association has said that Venezuela owes $3.8 billion to several international airlines, a debt it is unexpected to repay anytime soon. The government defaulted on billions of dollars’ worth of bonds earlier this month.
The last United Airlines flight departed Caracas in late June, with crewmembers waving a Venezuelan flag out of the pilot’s window. American Airlines, Air France and Iberia are among the large international carriers that still offer service to the South American nation.
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National Christmas Tree Lit by Trump and Family
U.S. President Donald Trump and his family have lit the National Christmas Tree at the White House.
The White House tree lighting took place on the White House Ellipse, where the national tree and smaller trees representing each of the 50 states are placed each year for visitors to Washington to enjoy.
This year’s event was hosted by talk show host Kathie Lee Gifford and actor Dean Cain. The event featured musical performances by the Beach Boys, the U.S. Navy Band, Mannheim Steamroller and other musicians, including Jack Wagner, Wynonna, Craig Campbell, the Texas Tenors, and the young-adult group Boys II Bow Ties.
This year’s ceremony was the 95th tree-lighting celebration, started in 1923 by President Calvin Coolidge. The tradition was even carried on in 1941, just two weeks after the United States entered World War Two.
In fact, at that event on Dec. 22, 1941, there were surprise appearances by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Norway, whose country had been occupied by Germany one year earlier.
The tree was not lit during the later years of the war due to the need to conserve power, but local schoolchildren donated ornaments for the National Christmas trees of 1942, 1943 and 1944. With a patriotic theme and tags with the names of U.S. servicemen accompanying the ornaments, the national tree became a symbol of patriotism in troubled times.
Later in 1980, the national tree remained largely dark, except for 417 seconds, to remind people of the 417 days that a group of 52 American hostages had then been held by militants in Iran. The hostages were released in January 1981 after 444 days, and the tree was re-lit to welcome them back to the United States.
Today, the National Christmas Tree is lit early in the holiday season to kick off a month-long Pageant of Peace, meant to inspire goodwill and holiday spirit among all people and religions in the United States.
Tourists may walk among the trees, peek through the fence at the White House, take photographs, enjoy performances or recorded music, and view other displays such as an electric model train, a Jewish menorah, a yule log, and a Christian nativity scene.
Both the menorah and the nativity scene have withstood legal challenges centered on separation of church and state.
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Record-setting Atlantic Hurricane Season Ends
The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season has finally ended
In all, 17 named storms swept across the Atlantic this year and 10 rose to hurricane status. But the season will be remembered for the deadly trio — Harvey, Irma and Maria — that brought death and destruction to Caribbean nations and the southern U.S.
This was the first year on record in which the continental United States was hit by two Category 4 hurricanes, Harvey and Irma.
Harvey made landfall in South Texas on August 25, leading to days of downpours that dumped an unprecedented 152 centimeters (60 inches) of rain. It was the greatest rainfall amount recorded from a single storm in U.S. history.
Harvey also damaged or destroyed about 200,000 homes as the storm system flooded much of Houston and smaller coastal communities.
Then, on September 11 came Irma — the strongest storm on record in the Atlantic, outside the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. With maximum winds of nearly 300 kilometers an hour, Irma destroyed the Caribbean island of Barbuda, shredded vast sections of the Virgin Islands and knocked out power in much of Florida.
September also saw the arrival of Hurricanes Jose, Katia and Lee, before Category 4 Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico on September 20.
It was the U.S. territory’s strongest hurricane landfall since 1928. With sustained winds of 250 kilometers per hour, Maria knocked out power across the island, causing the biggest blackout in U.S. history. The island is still struggling to restore power as millions remain without electricity two months later.
Bloomberg News reports the 2017 hurricane season was the most expensive on record, with an estimated $202.6 billion in damage. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is expected to release the official damage tally early next year.
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