A true treasure overlooks the city of Kinshasa on top of Ngaliema Hill. An exhibition room of a few dozen square meters is too small to contain the 45,000 pieces that have been collected from across the Democratic Republic of Congo. But this is the temporary solution to keep some of this collection open to the public until a new and bigger museum, opens in 2018. Abdourahmane Dia has this report.
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Month: January 2018
Tech Startups Hope to Impress at CES
The Consumer Electronics show opens this weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada. There are a host of new tech startups descending on the city, hoping to become the next big thing. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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East of the Rockies, North America Shivers
A life threatening cold front swept across North America, bringing piles of snow and icy conditions. The National Weather Service issued wind chill advisories and freeze warnings covering a vast area from South Texas to Canada and from Montana through New England. VOA’s Carol Pearson reports doctors are issuing warnings about injuries from frostbite and ice.
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No Australia Open for Defending Champion Serena Williams
Defending champion Serena Williams has withdrawn from the Australian Open, saying she is not ready to return to tournament tennis.
The season’s first major starts Jan. 15 at Melbourne Park and seven-time Australian Open champion Williams will be missing it for the first time since 2011.
Williams was pregnant with her first child when she won here last year to collect her Open-era record 23rd Grand Slam singles title.
She gave birth to her daughter, Alexis, in September.
Abu Dhabi exhibition
Williams played in an exhibition tournament last week in Abu Dhabi and indicated after her loss to French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko that she might not make it to Melbourne.
“After competing in Abu Dhabi I realized that although I am super close, I’m not where I personally want to be,” Williams said in a statement released Friday by Australian Open organizers.
“My coach and team always said ‘only go to tournaments when you are prepared to go all the way.’ I can compete — but I don’t want to just compete, I want to do far better than that and to do so, I will need a little more time.
“With that being said, and even though I am disappointed about it, I’ve decided not to compete in the Australian Open this year.”
The 36-year-old Williams needs one more Grand Slam singles title to equal the all-time record held by Margaret Court, who won 24 titles before and during the Open era.
Murray out, too
Her withdrawal comes less than 24 hours after fellow former world No.1 Andy Murray withdrew from the men’s event with a chronic hip injury.
Several other stars, including top-ranked Rafael Nadal, six-time champion Novak Djokovic and 2014 winner Stan Wawrinka, also are dealing with injuries.
Williams last year beat sister Venus in the final, and later revealed she played the tournament despite knowing she was pregnant.
Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said Williams waited as long as she could before letting organizers know she wouldn’t be able to compete.
“I’ve been in constant contact with Serena and her team and know this is why she has pushed it and pushed it until the 11th hour to make her final decision,” Tiley said.
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Apple to Issue Fix for iPhones, Macs at Risk From Chip Flaw
Apple Inc. will release a patch for the Safari web browser on its iPhones, iPads and Macs within days, it said Thursday, after major chipmakers disclosed flaws that leave nearly every modern computing device vulnerable to hackers.
On Wednesday, Alphabet Inc.’s Google and other security researchers disclosed two major chip flaws, one called Meltdown affecting only Intel Corp. chips and one called Spectre affecting nearly all computer chips made in the last decade. The news sparked a sell-off in Intel’s stock as investors tried to gauge the costs to the chipmaker.
In a statement on its website, Apple said all Mac and iOS devices were affected by both Meltdown and Spectre. But the most recent operating system updates for Mac computers, Apple TVs, iPhones and iPads protect users against the Meltdown attack and do not slow down the devices, it added. Meltdown does not affect the Apple Watch.
Macs and iOS devices are vulnerable to Spectre attacks through code that can run in web browsers. Apple said it would issue a patch to its Safari web browser for those devices “in the coming days.”
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Starfish Eating Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Alarm Scientists
A major outbreak of coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish has been found munching Australia’s world heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef, scientists said Friday, prompting the government to begin culling the spiky marine animals.
The predator starfish feeds on corals by spreading its stomach over them and using digestive enzymes to liquefy tissue, and the outbreak hits as the reef is still reeling from two consecutive years of major coral bleaching.
“Each starfish eats about its body diameter a night, and so over time that mounts up very significantly,” Hugh Sweatman, a senior research scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio.
“A lot of coral will be lost,” he said.
That would be a blow for both the ecosystem and the lucrative tourism industry which it supports.
The crown-of-thorns starfish were found in plague proportions last month in the Swains Reefs, at the southern edge of the Great Barrier Reef, by researchers from the reef’s Marine Park Authority, a spokeswoman for the authority told Reuters by phone.
The remote reefs, about 200 km (120 miles) offshore from Yeppoon, a holiday and fishing town some 500 km north of Queensland state capital, Brisbane, are well south of the most-visited sections of the Great Barrier Reef, where most culling efforts are focused.
But the government’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority already killed some starfish at Swains Reefs in December and will mount another mission this month, a director at the authority, Fred Nucifora, told the ABC.
“The complexity with the Swains Reef location is … they are logistically difficult to access and it is actually quite a hostile environment to work in,” Nucifora said.
Previous outbreaks
There have been four major crown-of-thorns outbreaks since the 1960s in the Great Barrier Reef, but it recovered each time because there were always healthy populations of herbivorous fish. The outbreaks are usually triggered by extra nutrients in the water but the reason for the current outbreak was unclear, Sweatman said.
The reef is still recovering from damage wrought by the worst-ever coral bleaching on record, which in 2016 killed two-thirds of a 700 km stretch of reef.
On Friday, a report published in the journal Science found that high ocean temperatures are harming tropical corals much more often than a generation ago, putting reefs under pressure.
The Great Barrier Reef, covering 348,000 square kilometers, was World Heritage listed in 1981 as the most extensive and spectacular coral reef ecosystem on the planet, according to the UNESCO website.
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Who Is Michael Wolff?
Michael Wolff, an American author, essayist and journalist, has written Fire and Fury, a book that portrays a chaotic initial year for the presidency of Donald Trump. What’s his background?
Michael Wolff
Age: 64
Early life: Wolff was born in New Jersey to a father who worked in advertising and a mother who was a newspaper reporter. He attended Columbia University in New York and worked as a copy boy at The New York Times while in school.
The journalist: Wolff published his first book of essays, White Kids, in 1979. He was most recently a media critic and columnist for USA Today, Hollywood Reporter, New York Magazine and, before that, Vanity Fair and Newser.
In 2011, he briefly was at the helm of AdWeek magazine, but left after less than a year.
The author: In 1997, he wrote the bestseller Burn Rate, about his early dotcom company Wolff New Media.
In 2004 he published Autumn of the Moguls, about the decline of mainstream media that would occur later in the decade.
He was perhaps best known for his 2009 biography of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, The Man Who Owns the News.
Accolades: Wolff has won two National Magazine Awards, which recognize excellence in the magazine industry in both print and digital mediums.
One of the awards was for a series of columns he wrote from the Middle East at the start of the Iraq War in 2003.
Controversies: Wolff’s work has often drawn criticism from his fellow journalists as well as his subjects. Just before the publication of The Man Who Owns the News, Murdoch took issue with several parts of the book, just as U.S. President Donald Trump has over Wolff’s latest work.
In a 2004 cover story for The New Republic, reporter Michelle Cottle characterized Wolff’s writing by saying that “even Wolff acknowledges that conventional reporting is not his bag.” Rather, she said, “he absorbs the atmosphere and gossip swirling around him at cocktail parties, on the street, and especially during those long lunches.”
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Investors Skittish, but Marijuana Growers, Sellers to Stay the Course
Marijuana-related stocks plummeted, cannabis boosters worried about the industry’s future and defiant growers and sellers vowed to keep operating after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions signaled a tougher approach Thursday to federal pot enforcement.
The plunging stock prices reversed a weekslong rally driven by optimism for legal recreational sales that started Monday in California. Several marijuana stocks saw double-digit losses in the hours after Sessions’ announcement, including the largest pot-producing company that is publicly traded.
Canopy Growth, a Canada-based company with the ticker symbol WEED, lost $3.58 a share, or 10 percent, to close at $32.32 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Shares of garden-supply company Scotts Miracle-Gro also skidded Thursday, following a steady rise last year after it added fertilizer, lights and other products to serve marijuana growers. The company’s share price fell by as much as 7 percent before closing down 2.3 percent, or $2.49, to $106.17 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Investors spooked
“Jeff Sessions’ decision to rescind the Cole memoranda puts the marijuana industry and marijuana legalization efforts in a precarious position,” said Aaron Herzberg, a California lawyer and founder of the cannabis investment company CalCann Holding, referring to an Obama-era memo that limited U.S. crackdowns on pot in states where it’s legal.
Brent Kenyon, a consultant who helps advise and establish recreational marijuana businesses in Oregon, said his phone had been ringing all Thursday with calls from worried clients. Investors, including some who are involved in his businesses, are spooked, he said.
“I’m just telling people to hold off. We need more information, we need to see what the president is going to say about this,” he said by phone from a cannabis conference in Hawaii.
Andy Williams, CEO of the Medicine Man Denver dispensary, is taking a wait-and-see approach to the new policy but pointed out the economic impact of legal pot.
“This industry around the United States has attracted a lot of investment. Billions of dollars in investment,” he said. “Just talking about what Sessions wants to do today has dropped the market.”
’Business as usual’
Steve DeAngelo, owner of California’s largest marijuana retailer, said it will be “business as usual” at his Harborside dispensary in Oakland.
“I think the main impact of this is really going to be on investors, more than anything else,” he said. “Some investors might get a bit nervous about putting more money into the cannabis industry until the situation resolves itself.”
Another of California’s largest marijuana operators said it also plans no changes in response to Sessions’ announcement.
“For this industry and for this community, we are really based on resilience, going against the tide. This is no different,” said Michael Steinmetz, CEO of Flow Kana, which distributes cannabis products from small, outdoor farmers. “From my perspective, things don’t change.”
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Intel Shares Fall as Investors Worry About Costs of Chip Flaw
Intel Corp shares fell nearly 2 percent Thursday as investors worried about the potential financial liability and reputational hit from recently disclosed security flaws in its widely used microprocessors.
The largest chipmaker had confirmed Wednesday that flaws reported by researchers could allow hackers to steal sensitive information from computers, phones and other devices. Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp and other software makers have issued patches to protect against the vulnerabilities.
Intel may be on the hook for costs stemming from lawsuits claiming that the patches would slow computers and effectively force consumers to buy new hardware, and big customers will likely seek compensation from Intel for any software or hardware fixes they make, security experts said.
“The potential liability is big for Intel,” said Eric Johnson, dean of Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management. “Everybody will be scrambling over the next few days to figure out just how big it is.”
Intel has said that the patches for the bugs would slow its chips down somewhat but that most users will not notice.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), the largest seller of cloud computing services, said in a statement it does not “expect meaningful performance impact for most customer workloads.”
Microsoft and Alphabet Inc’s Google both said in statements on their websites that they expect few performance problems for most of their cloud computing customers.
Financial repercussions
But the incident is likely to spur cloud companies to press Intel for lower prices on chips in future talks, said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh, which owns shares in Intel.
“What [Intel’s cloud customers] are going to say is, ‘You wronged us, we hate you, but if we can get a discount, we’ll still buy from you,'” Forrest said.
Forrest also expects Intel will have to increase its chip development spending to focus on security.
Government agencies and security experts said they knew of no cyberattacks that had exploited the vulnerabilities.
Financial services firms were studying information on the vulnerabilities to determine how to best respond, said the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a global industry group known as FS-ISAC that shares data on cyberthreats.
Banks and other firms are trying to understand what it will cost to respond to the issue, FS-ISAC said in an emailed statement.
“In addition to the security considerations raised by this design flaw, performance degradation is expected, which could require more processing power for affected systems to compensate and maintain current baseline performance,” FS-ISAC said. “There will need to be consideration and balance between fixing the potential security threat vs. the performance and other possible impact to systems.”
Lawsuit filed
Lawyers filed a lawsuit in San Jose, California, federal court on Wednesday that sought class-action status and compensation for people who had bought vulnerable Intel chips or computers that came with them already installed.
Intel did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday about the lawsuit.
While more lawsuits are expected, Intel’s biggest customers are likely to quietly seek compensation for any harm caused by the vulnerabilities, including costs to patch machines or replace microprocessors, Johnson said.
Legal experts said that consumers would have to prove concrete damages and harm to proceed with claims.
Intel shares fell 1.8 percent, following a 3.4 percent decline Wednesday.
Shares in rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc climbed 4.9 percent as investors speculated the No. 2 maker of microprocessors would woo customers away from Intel.
Still, researchers had said some of AMD’s chips had one of the two vulnerabilities disclosed on Wednesday, as do processors from ARM Holdings.
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Wall Street’s Love of Tax Cuts Drives Dow to 25,000 Mark
Wall Street sure loves the tax bill, even if polls show most Americans don’t.
The Dow Jones industrial average surged past 25,000 Thursday, a strong signal of investor enthusiasm for President Donald Trump’s $1.5 trillion tax cut. The milestone comes less than a year after the Dow topped 20,000.
“We broke a very, very big barrier,” Trump said Thursday at the White House. “Every time you see that number go up on Wall Street it means jobs, it means success, it means 401(k)s that are flourishing.”
It’s easy to see why investors like the tax overhaul: Businesses will benefit from a steep cut in the corporate tax rate. They’ll also be able to fully deduct the cost of major purchases from their taxable income, reducing the amount they owe. And companies with large stockpiles of cash overseas can bring the money back to the United States at new, lower rates.
All told, Wall Street analysts estimate the tax package should boost earnings for companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index by roughly 8 percent this year. That’s much more generous than the average tax cut of 1.6 percent that middle-class families will receive, according to the Tax Policy Center.
“All else being equal, this should go straight to the bottom line,” said David Joy, chief market strategist for Ameriprise Financial, a financial services company based in Minneapolis. Improved corporate profits contributed to the market’s gains last year.
The public has been less enthusiastic about the tax law. A Monmouth University poll last month found that nearly half of Americans disapproved of it, with only 26 percent in support.
Where profits will go
Still, some workers have seen a benefit: So far, nearly 20 large companies have announced bonuses and higher minimum wages as a result of the tax cut. AT&T, Comcast, Bank of America, and American Airlines have all pledged to pay $1,000 bonuses to their employees.
Investors also appear less concerned than many politicians about how the additional profits will be used. The Trump administration says it expects companies will plow much of the extra profit back into their businesses, purchasing more software, machinery, and other equipment. Those investments will make workers more productive and provide a key boost to the economy’s long-run growth. They should also boost wages and salaries for employees.
Opponents of the tax law respond that companies are more likely to pass the windfall on to shareholders in the form of higher dividend payments and share buybacks, which raise the price of those shares still in investors’ hands. Previous cuts in corporate tax rates, in the U.S. and overseas, haven’t always led to higher wages.
For Wall Street, it’s all good, at least in the short run. Most analysts take the view that either way, companies and the economy will benefit. Whether businesses pass most of the extra money to workers or to shareholders, consumer spending should increase and lift economic growth.
Trump has repeatedly made highly optimistic claims about the impact of his tax cuts and other policies on the economy, speculating that they would lead to annual growth of 4 percent or higher.
Expectations
Last month, the Treasury Department estimated that the economy will expand at a 2.9 percent annual rate for the next decade.
Private economists, as well as the Federal Reserve, forecast a more modest impact. Most expect growth will be closer to 2.5 percent in 2018 and slower than that in subsequent years.
Some companies and sectors will likely benefit more than others, particularly if they derive most of their income from the United States. Analysts at Goldman Sachs estimate that large banks will see their earnings rise by 13 percent as a result of the corporate rate cut. Wells Fargo will likely see the biggest gain, at 18 percent.
Analysts at Stifel, an investment bank, project that some restaurant chains could see earnings boosts of 20 percent or more, including Chipotle, Wingstop and Domino’s Pizza.
Barclays, another bank, says that technology and pharmaceutical firms, which are already paying lower taxes because they have lots of cash overseas, will see much smaller increases of less than 4 percent.
The legislation’s corporate tax cut is not necessarily as dramatic as it seems, because most corporations don’t end up paying the full 35 percent rate. Barclays estimates that the “effective” tax rate — what companies actually pay — will drop from 26 percent to 20.1 percent.
Shareholders vs. investment
Joy and other analysts think that most of the money brought back from other countries will go to shareholders, rather than investment. That’s what happened in 2004, when companies were given a one-time low rate on repatriated cash as an inducement.
Opinions differ, however, when it comes to the additional profits that result from the tax cut. Many economists expect that most of those dollars will also be passed on to shareholders.
Glenn Hubbard, an economist at Columbia Business School and former top economist for President George W. Bush, says the corporate tax cut will eventually benefit workers through higher pay. That will also boost the economy and most businesses by lifting spending.
“Any way you slice it, it’s good for companies,” Hubbard said.
For much of last year, the stock market’s gains were helped by a synchronized global recovery, with economies from Europe to Asia to Latin America expanding simultaneously for the first time in a decade.
Since November, investors’ anticipation of a tax cut has pushed markets higher, said Keith Parker, an analyst at UBS.
Still, the market’s outsize return only benefits a narrow slice of the population. According to research by Edward Wolff, an economist at New York University, just 10 percent of the population owns 84 percent of the stock market’s value.
“That benefit won’t accrue to everybody, certainly,” Joy said.
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Childish Gambino, Lady Gaga to Perform at Grammy Awards
Childish Gambino, Lady Gaga, Little Big Town and Pink will perform at the 60th Grammy Awards, which will also feature Broadway musical tributes by Patti LuPone and Ben Platt in honor of the show’s return to New York City.
The Recording Academy announced Thursday the first round of performers for the January 28 awards show, held live from Madison Square Garden.
Gambino will make his Grammy stage debut after being nominated for five awards, including album of the year and record of the year.
LuPone will reprise her 1981 Grammy performance of “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina,” while Platt, who is nominated for his work on the musical album “Dear Evan Hansen,” will perform a classic from “West Side Story” honoring the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Leonard Bernstein.
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CBS News Fires Political Director for ‘Inappropriate’ Acts
CBS News has fired its political director, Steve Chaggaris, for “inappropriate behavior.”
CBS News says in an emailed statement that “accounts” of his behavior were brought to their attention in the last two weeks and were “immediately investigated.” He was fired Wednesday for “violating company policy.”
The company did not specify what Chaggaris was accused of and declined to answer follow-up questions. Chaggaris was not immediately available for comment.
Chaggaris had led the news team’s political coverage and appeared on-air. He was a longtime employee, having started at CBS News in 1999, with a two-year gap from 2010-2012 working for a news startup and Yahoo.
CBS News fired Charlie Rose in November from its morning show after several women accused him of unwanted sexual advances.
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YouTube Star Logan Paul Steps Away From Posting After Outcry
YouTube star Logan Paul has stepped away from posting videos following an outcry when he uploaded images of what appeared to be the body of someone who killed themselves in a Japanese forest.
Paul took to Twitter on Wednesday to say he was suspending his video blog “for now” and “taking time to reflect.”
A petition on Change.org that demands his YouTube channel be deleted had been signed by more than 125,000 people by Thursday morning.
Paul created a furor when he posted a video of him in a forest near Mount Fuji showing what seemed to be a body hanging from a tree.
The video was viewed some 6 million times before being removed from Paul’s YouTube channel, a verified account with more than 15 million subscribers.
A storm of criticism followed despite two apologies, with commenters saying Paul seemed disrespectful and that his initial apology was inadequate.
In Paul’s initial apology, he said he had wanted to raise awareness about suicide and possibly save lives, and he denied his goal was to drive clicks to his social media content.
“I thought I could make a positive ripple on the internet, not cause a monsoon of negativity,” he said in his Twitter post.
“I don’t expect to be forgiven. I’m simply here to apologize,” he said on the more somber video apology uploaded on YouTube and Twitter late Tuesday. “None of us knew how to react or how to feel.”
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Death Rates After Surgery Twice as High in African Hospitals
Patients in African hospitals are twice as likely to die after surgery than the global average, according to a new study.
Although African patients were younger and at lower risk than average, 1 percent died of complications after elective surgery, compared to a 0.5 percent death rate worldwide.
“It’s really concerning when you see how high the mortality is, considering that the patients are generally fit and they’re having a lot more minor surgeries,” lead author Bruce Biccard of the University of Cape Town said.
Workforce and resource shortages across the continent are likely a major factor, the authors of the study write in the journal The Lancet.
The group of more than 30 African researchers took a one-week snapshot of surgeries at 247 hospitals in 25 African countries, from Algeria to Madagascar.
The study found a severe shortage of African surgeons, obstetricians and anesthesiologists. Previous research has found that fewer patients die after surgery when there are 20 to 40 specialists per 100,000 population. Across the continent, this study found an average of less than one per 100,000.
In addition to the high death rate, “the most alarming finding was how few people actually received surgery,” noted a commentary accompanying the study. An expert panel has estimated that 5 percent of the population needs surgery in a year. African hospitals on average performed less than one-twentieth of that figure.
It noted that patients were receiving surgery later in the course of their diseases. Nearly 60 percent of the operations were urgent or emergency procedures, compared with about a quarter in high-income countries.
Most of the patients who died did not do so on the operating table, but in the days following surgery.
“We’re actually failing to recognize patients who are having complications in the post-op period,” study author Biccard said. “So a minor complication becomes a major complication.”
That offers an opportunity for improvement, Biccard noted. Since increasing the number of doctors is unlikely in the short term, his group is working on a method “that will tell us before surgery which patients we think are going to get into trouble.”
His group is planning a study in 2019 to see if they can reduce patient deaths by focusing limited resources on patients at the highest risk.
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Dow Breaks 25,000 Barrier for First Time
The Dow Jones Industrial Average broke through the 25,000-threshold for the first time Thursday, and notched another 1,000-point milestone. The index of blue-chip stocks is studded with industrial heavyweights such as Boeing and Caterpillar.
Among the biggest gainers were technology companies and banks. Wells Fargo jumped 1.9 percent and Microsoft rose 0.7 percent.
U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted Thursday morning, “Dow just crashes through 25,000. Congrats! Big cuts in unnecessary regulations continuing.”
The Dow increased 118 points, or 0.5 percent, to 25,037. The Nasdaq edged up 16 points to 7,081.
This latest record came in early trading Thursday — only five weeks after closing above 24,000 points for the first time.
Other major indexes also rose to new levels, driven by a strong report on private jobs.
The recent rally has been spurred by faster economic gains around the world, along with a more optimistic outlook from businesses and consumers.
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Cate Blanchett to Head Cannes Film Festival Jury
Australian actress and campaigner against sexual harassment Cate Blanchett will head this year’s Cannes film festival jury, organizers said Thursday.
In a statement, top Cannes officials Pierre Lescure and Thierry Fremaux expressed their delight in welcoming “such a rare and unique artist whose talent and convictions enrich both screen and stage.”
A two-time Academy award winner, Blanchett follows Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, who headed the 70th edition of the festival last year. This year’s star-studded event on the French Riviera will take place from May 8-19.
The appointment of Blanchett, 48, comes months after she expressed her support to the dozens of women who came forward with allegations of sexual assault and harassment against Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced Hollywood mogul.
More recently, she joined the Time’s Up initiative alongside other high-profile actresses including Reese Witherspoon and Emma Stone. The campaign aims to clamp down against sexual harassment and inequality in the workplace.
Cannes organizers did not mention the Weinstein scandal or Blanchett’s commitment to the fight against sexual harassment.
“I have been to Cannes in many guises over the years; as an actress, producer, in the marketplace, the gala-sphere and in competition,” Blanchett said.
“But never solely for the sheer pleasure of watching the cornucopia of films this great festival harbors. I am humbled by the privilege and responsibility of presiding over this year’s jury.”
Blanchett won the 2014 Oscar for best actress for her part in Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine,” ten years after being awarded the Oscar for best supporting actress in Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator.”
In 2012, she was honored by the French government and awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister for Culture.
“This festival plays a pivotal role in bringing the world together to celebrate story,” Blanchett said. “That strange and vital endeavor that all peoples share, understand and crave.”
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Chicken Waste Could Generate Power Plant Electricity
Coal-fired power plants release greenhouse gases into the air, causing pollution and contributing to climate change. But as much as 10 percent of the coal used in power stations could be replaced … by chicken waste. VOA’s Deborah Block has a report.
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Marijuana Sales Brisk in California Following Monday’s Legalization
The recreational use of marijuana is now legal in California. But only a few cities in the U.S. state are ready to start selling pot, which was officially legalized on Jan. 1. The logistics of creating new business models is complicated, but it’s clear the demand is high. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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Australia Plans Legal Cannabis Exports to a Lucrative World Market
Australia said Thursday it planned to become the fourth country in the world to legalize medicinal marijuana exports in a bid to score a piece of the estimated $55 billion global market.
Cannabis cultivation in Australia is still relatively small, as recreational use remains illegal. But the government hopes domestic medicinal use, legalized last year, and exports will rapidly boost production.
“Our goal is very clear: to give farmers and producers the best shot at being the world’s No. 1 exporter of medicinal cannabis,” Health Minister Greg Hunt told reporters in Melbourne.
Company shares rise
Shares in the more than a dozen Australian cannabis producers listed on the local exchange soared after the announcement.
Cann Group ended the day up 35 percent; AusCann Group rose nearly 54 percent; and BOD Australia closed up about 39 percent. All were record highs for those companies. Hydroponics Company finished up 30 percent, hitting its highest price in five weeks.
Peter Crock, chief executive of Cann Group, which cultivates cannabis for medicinal and research purposes, said medicinal marijuana production had been stymied by limited demand from Australian patients.
“While the Australian patient base is growing, it is very small,” Crock told Reuters. “Being able to export will allow us to have the scale to increase production.”
Hunt said the new legislation would include a requirement that growers first meet demand from local patients before exporting the remainder of their crop.
Three countries export
Despite growing demand, only Uruguay, Canada and the Netherlands have so far legalized the export of medicinal marijuana. Israel has said it intends to do so within months.
The Australian government’s proposal needs to pass federal parliament when it returns to session in February. The country’s main opposition Labor Party has signaled it would support the move. Exports would then likely begin within months.
Fuelled by a growing acceptance of the benefits of marijuana to manage chronic pain, moderate the impact of multiple sclerosis and to soften the effects of cancer treatment, several countries and 29 states in the United States have legalized cannabis for medicinal use.
Australia’s chief commodity forecaster does not publish data on cannabis production, but rough estimates by the University of Sydney estimated the legal industry at A$100 million ($78 million), well below the C$4 billion ($3.19 billion) that Canada estimates its market to be worth.
U.S. consultants Grand View Research last year forecast the global medicinal cannabis market would be worth $55.8 billion by 2025.
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Astronauts: Trump’s Proposed Moon Mission Will Take Time
American astronauts aboard the International Space Station told VOA on Wednesday that their excitement about recently announced plans to restore U.S. manned space missions to lunar orbit was eclipsed only by their skepticism about the logistical feasibility of completing the mission within six years.
“Going back to the moon is a bigger project than a lot of people think,” said Expedition 54 Flight Engineer Scott Tingle, who joined fellow NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei at the ISS on December 19.
Just last month, David Kring, head of the Lunar and Planetary Institute at the Universities Space Research Association, said the first unmanned launch in the program to get back to the moon could come in a little more than a year.
Kring, who was present at Trump’s signing ceremony for the new lunar policy directive, which came 45 years to the day after Apollo 17’s final moon landing on December 13, 1972, said an unmanned mission to lunar orbit could happen by 2019.
“That will launch the Orion crew vehicle and will orbit the moon without astronauts,” Kring told VOA. “Then in 2023 the vehicle launches again, this time with astronauts who will orbit the moon and return. After that is successful, we can actually deploy the astronauts in space [in between the Earth and the moon].”
US, Russia to cooperate
Russia and the United States in September agreed to cooperate on a NASA-led program to build the first lunar space station as part of a longer-term mission to send humans to Mars. Both countries said a manned lunar spaceport could be orbiting the moon by 2024, when the International Space Station program is slated to end.
Speaking with VOA’s Russian service via an ISS live-feed broadcast by NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas, Tingle said successfully launching a manned vehicle into lower-moon orbit by 2023 might not be as simple as it sounds.
“Just because we’ve done it before doesn’t mean we’re that close to doing it now,” Tingle said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, a lot of engineering to do, a lot of planning to do, a lot of operations to do, and it’s going to be expensive. It’s going to take a lot of manpower, and it’s going to take a lot of thinking outside the box to make it as quickly and efficiently as we can.
“And we can’t do that alone,” he added. “We’re going to need to do it with international partners. So I do believe the international partnership will work; I believe it will be necessary to have a really good product to be able to achieve success with that mission goal.”
‘A wise step’
Despite the logistical challenges, Tingle’s U.S. colleague aboard the ISS, Mark Vande Hei, expressed optimism about the new lunar directive.
“I think it’s an extremely wise step,” Vande Hei said. “I think the moon provides us an excellent opportunity to rehearse, relatively close to the Earth, inhabiting a planetary-sized object with the ability, if things go wrong, to get people back relatively easily when compared with going to Mars.
“I think it’s going to be a huge step for humanity to have a lasting presence anyplace other than lower-Earth orbit,” he added. “I’m really looking forward to getting people on the moon, keeping them there for long periods of time, and then using that as a way to test out equipment to get ready to make sure we do it safely when we finally do get to Mars.”
Tingle was part of a trio of U.S., Japanese and Russian astronauts to join Vande Hei aboard the ISS on December 19.
Vande Hei, who has been aboard the ISS since September, floated aside Tingle and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency throughout the interview.
New Year’s in space
The three astronauts, Tingle said, shared a New Year’s Eve dinner with the three Russian astronauts inhabiting another wing of the ISS.
“New Year’s Day, we took a little bit of time off, but more importantly we celebrated by having a nice, good dinner with our Russian colleagues down in the Russian segment,” Tingle said. “They were hospitable to us, and it was fun to sit and relax with them.”
Asked if they popped a bottle of champagne to ring in 2018, Tingle paused, passing the microphone to Vande Hei.
“No, we’re not allowed any alcohol,” said Vande Hei. “But our Russian crewmates went ahead and made us some grape juice with labels that made it look like we had champagne, so that was kind of fun to pretend.”
This story originated in VOA’s Russian service.
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