One of the oldest zoos in the U.S., the Chicago Lincoln Park Zoo, is celebrating a big milestone: its 150th anniversary. The zoo opened in 1868 with just two pairs of swans. It has a considerably larger collection today, but its priorities have not changed that much. As Roman Verkhovsky reports, the zoo remains focused on conservation: preserving rare species; organizing educational programs and setting an example for future generations of animal lovers.
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Month: August 2018
At NYC’s Enchantments, Magic For Sale
Black cats, candles, mysterious ingredients and ancient books. It’s not a scene from a scary Hollywood movie, just a few of the items passers-by will see through the shop window of a New York boutique that specializes in witchcraft and magic. Enchantments, has been a fixture for more than 35 years in the traditionally Ukrainian neighborhood in Manhattan’s East Village called Little Ukraine. Reporter Olga Loginova takes us inside, where the magic begins.
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Iran: French Firm Out of South Pars Gas Project, China’s Is In
Iran’s official IRNA news agency is reporting that China’s state-owned petroleum corporation has taken a majority share of the country’s South Pars gas project after French oil and gas company Total announced it would pull out because renewed U.S. economic sanctions against Iran.
The Saturday report quotes Mohammad Mostafavi, an official in Iran’s state oil company, as saying CNPC now owns 80 percent of the shares in the $5 billion project, having bought shares from Total.
CNPC originally had about 30 percent of shares in the project.
The renewal of U.S. sanctions took effect on Tuesday.
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What Industrial Revolution Art Says About America’s History
Hugo Kohl has been interested in art and design since he was a child. In college, he studied finance, but also took several jewelry-making classes to satisfy his curiosity about this form of art and the history behind it.
Upon his graduation, he started a career in financing, but after six weeks he quit to pursue his passion. Over the last 25 years, Kohl has developed his own style of vintage jewelry using the same techniques as industrial revolution artisans at the end of the 18th century.
Hugo Kohl’s Museum of American Jewelry Design and Manufacturing in Harrisonburg, Virginia, is the culmination of his dream, preserving history while doing business.
Art made the Industrial Revolution way
Part museum, part workshop and part showroom, visitors can buy handmade antique-style jewelry and watch the artist create them, using vintage machines. These machines were made before electricity and are literally man-powered as artisans use their physical strength to press the design on the metal.
In reproducing these old designs, Kohl has revived a centuries-old technique for jewelry-making, called die strike or die roll.
“The things I’m talking about are being die struck and die rolled, which means a lot of pressure among two pieces of steel,” he explained. “When you die strike something or die roll something, typically it’s going to go last a couple of generations. A lot of times people will be in love with vintage jewelry for a number of reasons, one is the design. The process of die striking allows for tremendous detail. It’s very crisp, very clean.”
Stumbling across a treasure
Kohl creates these details using thousands of 3-D molds he collected over more than two decades. He acquired one collection in Providence, Rhode Island, which was the jewelry-making capital of the world at the start of the Industrial Revolution.
He says there is an interesting story behind this collection.
In 1993, while on tour of a vintage jewelry machinery warehouse, Kohl noticed workers cleaning up the debris of a nearby collapsed building.
“They were picking up the debris and throwing it in the back of a dump truck,” he said. “One of the things that they picked is that tiny little cabinet. It was going to the side of this dump truck, it breaks open and the contents literally fall at my feet. I picked them up and what they are is what this place is built around.”
Those items that were about to be sold as scrap metal were part of a collection of antique, hand-engraved jewelry molds that dated to the late 1800s and early 1900s.
James Madison University art professor Cole Welter says rescuing these pieces was Kohl’s first step toward reviving the art of vintage jewelry-making.
“You ask somebody who is your great-grandfather, your great-great-grandmother, you go back to just a short period of time. Here, somebody was your ancestor. These pieces are the ancestors of the American metalsmithing and silversmithing. And they bring to a very tangible way the processes, the technical skills that are involved and the meaning of what these pieces meant to people.”
Beyond aesthetic
Artist Kohl says his fascination with Industrial Revolution-age jewelry goes beyond its artistic beauty. This industry, he says, started a social shift in America.
Before the Industrial Age, only wealthy, elite people had the means to commission a goldsmith to handcraft a ring or brooch or other piece of jewelry. This was extremely expensive, not something that ordinary people could afford.
“Now that we stepped into the Industrial age, beside the technology, we have the middle class,” Kohl said. “So this is the first time that symbols can be mass-produced and people could have them. The wealthy people still had jewelry that was made in gold. This new class had things that were made in silver and clad metal, and poor people had the same art work in brass and copper.”
That’s also when the American cultural symbols were exported to the world.
“What these symbols are speaking to are very new ideas about American liberty and romantic love,” he said. “So we look at these things, we start seeing this uniquely American identity take shape. This was happening in Providence (Rhode Island). But Providence is not big enough as a marketplace to cover the cost of manufacturing, but Providence is a seaport and ships were going all over the world carrying these symbols.”
Secrets and stories
Professor Welter says he’s happy that Kohl is passing his passion and the secrets of his craft to people who visit his museum and workshop.
“I really enjoy the entire scope of what happens here,” he added. “It’s not just the preservation of the work, but it’s the recreation of the works and it’s the selling the works to the public. So they all become part of the culture again.”
And to customers like Sarah Brown, it’s nice to own part of the American heritage.
“When I come in, I love to be able to look and see the jewelry is made right here,” she said. “Hugo is often here. It feels very personal and the pieces, like I say, are unique and beautiful. They have a timelessness about them that just feels really good. It feels like they kind of tell a story.”
And Hugo Kohl enjoys bringing those stories to life.
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Explore the Rivers of Chesapeake Bay Without Getting Wet
A strange looking motorized raft, loaded with all kinds of cameras, sensors and high-tech widgets, looks like an invader from outer space. But it serves the down-to-earth purpose of making extraordinary maps of waterways of the Chesapeake Bay watershed in the Eastern United States.
The pontoon raft has a 4-meter-tall silver metal column in the center, with a white box on top that points toward the sky above the scenic Patuxent River in Maryland.
The unique craft was designed and built by Ryan Abrahamsen, founder of Terrain 360, a hiking trail and waterways virtual mapping company. Inspired by Google Street View, Abrahamsen has loaded the raft with photo cameras to create 360-degree virtual tours of some rivers in the United States from the perspective of sitting in a canoe.
Abrahamsen said creating a virtual map is challenging and requires many cameras working together.
How it’s done
“On the heavy column, there are six cameras at the top, a light sensor and GPS unit. Near the bottom of the raft there is a waterproof PC, with an ultra-bright touch screen. The cameras are triggered by the computer, which at the same time records the GPS coordinates, barometric pressure, humidity and temperature.”
As the raft motors along the Patuxent, the extreme wide-angle lens cameras shoot photos simultaneously every 12 meters. It takes hundreds of thousands of the high-resolution images to create the virtual online panoramic tour. A separate computer program uploads the photos in order, according to the GPS coordinates.
Abrahamsen is adding 20,000 new photos taken from just one of the Patuxent River’s coves. He said all kinds of things are captured along the way, including trees, birds, homes and people fishing.
Following in Smith’s footsteps
The Patuxent is among the 11 rivers that Abrahamsen has recorded, following the journey of English explorer Capt. John Smith, who some 400 years ago traveled around the Chesapeake Bay, the country’s largest estuary. Smith mapped about 4,800 kilometers of the bay and nearby rivers.
Now, Abrahamsen is providing an entirely new way to experience the waterways through his spectacular online tour. Viewers can zoom in and adjust the viewing angle to get a close-up look at boats, rocks beneath the surface, and even fish jumping out of the water.
The Chesapeake Bay project is funded by an Annapolis, Maryland, environmental group, the Chesapeake Conservancy.
“We wanted to give people the information and inspiration to get on our rivers, and explore the Chesapeake Bay area, so that they can enjoy the beauty and think about protecting it,” said Joel Dunn, Chesapeake Conservancy president.
Although a recent report card indicated that the health of the Chesapeake Bay estuary is better than it has been in 33 years, the watershed was still given a “C” grade because rivers like the Patuxent are still in the recovery process.
Environmental issues
Abrahamsen said the virtual tours reveal some of the environmental issues.
“There’s shoreline erosion, pollution, and lot of tires in the waterways,” he said. “It shows the public that some things need to be cleaned up.”
The Patuxent and others rivers that flow into the Chesapeake Bay are near major cities, such as Washington and Baltimore, giving many people the opportunity to enjoy them, Dunn said.
“People can use the virtual tour to plan their trips from their desk at home or at work. But they can also use them out on the water on their smartphones from wherever they are,” he said.
The online tours can be viewed on the websites of the Chesapeake Conservancy and Terrain 360.
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Confusion Reigns in Italy Over Child Vaccination Mandate
Italians are divided between those who think parents should have the right to decide whether to vaccinate their children and those who feel immunization programs must be decided by the government, which they believe has better access to information. Vaccine regulations differ widely across Europe, and the current situation in Italy is in limbo.
Italians enrolling their children in state-run nursery schools currently are uncertain if they need to provide evidence their children have had 10 vaccinations required by a law that came into effect in March. A week ago, the upper house of parliament voted through an amendment to remove that obligation. But to become law, it must also be approved by the lower house.
Parents have been told that for the time being they can simply provide a self-signed declaration that their children have been vaccinated. Many remain unclear whether their children will be allowed to go to school if they fail to provide a declaration or other evidence of the vaccinations.
A surge of more than 5,000 measles cases last year – the second largest outbreak in Europe – led the government run then by the Democratic Party to pass a bill requiring mandatory vaccinations. However, in the run-up to general elections this year, the 5-Star Movement led by Luigi Di Maio and the League led by Matteo Salvini said they would do away with the law. Now in power, they appear to be keeping their promise
Speaking at a recent political rally near Florence, Salvini admitted he had vaccinated his own children and said that parents who have the best interests of their children at heart should be able to make that choice. He added that 10 vaccines are simply too many for some children and it is unthinkable that Italian children may not be able to enroll in school because they have not been vaccinated.
Salvini said a state that requires 10 vaccines must also give parents the certainty that nothing will happen to their children through pre-vaccine tests, which today do not exist. There are 15 European countries, he added, that do not even have a single mandatory vaccine. Noting that Italy now has the most compulsory vaccinations of any country in Europe, Salvini expressed the concern that some multinational or pharmaceutical company may have chosen Italian children as a testing ground.
Italy’s health minister, Giulia Grillo, a doctor and a member of the 5-Star Movement, has made clear the government believes the right balance must be struck between the right to education and the right to health.
Grillo said the 5-Star Movement is not opposed to vaccines and recognizes their importance and usefulness. She added that citizens need to be informed properly about vaccinations and that the National Health Service must provide support to parents and children before and after they are inoculated.
According to a 2010 survey of 27 EU states, plus Norway and Iceland, 15 countries do not have any mandatory vaccinations; the other 14 have at least one. The most common mandatory vaccine is against polio, followed by diphtheria and tetanus.
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Nobel Prize-Winning Author V.S. Naipaul Dies; He Was 85
V.S. Naipaul, the Trinidad-born Nobel laureate whose celebrated writing and brittle, provocative personality drew admiration and revulsion in equal measures, died Saturday at his London home, his family said. He was 85.
His wife, Nadira Naipaul, said he was “a giant in all that he achieved and he died surrounded by those he loved having lived a life which was full of wonderful creativity and endeavor.”
Naipaul was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001 “for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories.”
‘Barefoot colonial’ to knighthood
In an extraordinary career spanning half a century, the writer traveled as a self-described “barefoot colonial” from rural Trinidad to upper class England, picked up the most coveted literary awards and a knighthood, and was hailed as one of the greatest English writers of the 20th century.
Naipaul’s books explored colonialism and decolonization, exile and the struggles of the everyman in the developing world — themes that mirror his personal background and trajectory.
‘Great art, dreadful politics’
Although his writing was widely praised for its compassion toward the destitute and the displaced, Naipaul himself offended many with his arrogant behavior and jokes about former subjects of empire.
Among his widely quoted comments: He called India a “slave society,” quipped that Africa has no future, and explained that Indian women wear a colored dot on their foreheads to say “my head is empty.” He laughed off the 1989 fatwa against Salman Rushdie as “an extreme form of literary criticism.”
The critic Terry Eagleton once said of Naipaul: “Great art, dreadful politics,” while Caribbean Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott complained that the author’s prose was tainted by his “repulsion towards Negroes.”
C. L. R. James, a fellow Trinidadian writer, put it differently: Naipaul’s views, he wrote, simply reflected “what the whites want to say but dare not.”
Born in Trinidad
Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, Vidia to those who knew him, was born Aug. 17, 1932 in Trinidad, a descendant of impoverished Indians shipped to the West Indies as bonded laborers.
His father was an aspiring, self-taught novelist whose ambitions were killed by lack of opportunity; the son was determined to leave his homeland as soon as he could. In later years, he would repeatedly reject his birthplace as little more than a plantation.
“I was born there, yes,” he said of Trinidad to an interviewer in 1983. “I thought it was a great mistake.”
In 1950, Naipaul was awarded one of a few available government scholarships to study in England, and he left his family to begin his studies in English literature at University College, Oxford.
There he met his first wife, Patricia Hale, whom he married in 1955 without telling his family.
After graduation, Naipaul suffered a period of poverty and unemployment: he was asthmatic, starving and depending on his wife for income. Despite his Oxford education, he found himself surrounded by a hostile, xenophobic London.
“These people want to break my spirit. … They want me to know my place,” he wrote bitterly to his wife.
Breakthrough novel
Naipaul eventually landed a radio job working for BBC World Service, where he discussed West Indian literature and found his footing as a writer. His breakthrough came in 1957 with his first published novel “The Mystic Masseur,” a humorous book about the lives of powerless people in a Trinidad ghetto.
Naipaul caught the eye of book reviewers, and in 1959 he won the Somerset Maugham Award with the story collection “Miguel Street.”
In 1961, Naipaul published “A House for Mr. Biswas,” which was widely acclaimed as a masterpiece. That novel, about how one man’s life was restricted by the limits of colonial society, was a tribute to Naipaul’s father.
Traveling and writing
In the years that followed, Naipaul was to travel for extensive periods to pen journalistic essays and travel books. He flew three times to India, his ancestral home, to write about its culture and politics. He spent time in Buenos Aires, Argentina to write about its former First Lady Eva Peron, and went to Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia for books about Islam.
Years before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Naipaul devoted attention to Islamic radicalism. Naipaul’s nonfiction often provoked much anger, and many were offended by his views about Islam and India — Rushdie, for example, thought Naipaul was promoting Hindu nationalism.
He also continued to publish award-winning novels. “The Mimic Men” won the W.H. Smith Award in 1967, and in 1971 “In a Free State,” a meditation on colonialism in Africa, was awarded the Booker Prize. Naipaul received a knighthood in 1990, and in 2001 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Stinging memoir
As his literary stature grew, so did his reputation as a difficult, irascible personality. Naipaul was a private man and did not have many friends, but his personal life entered the public domain when the American writer Paul Theroux, a one-time friend whose relationship with Naipaul turned sour, published a stinging memoir about Naipaul in 1998.
“Sir Vidia’s Shadow” described Naipaul as a racist, sexist miser who threw terrifying tantrums and beat up women.
Naipaul ignored Theroux’s book, but he did authorize a candid biography that confirmed some of Theroux’s claims. The biography, published in 2008, devoted chapters to how Naipaul met and callously treated his mistress, an Anglo-Argentine woman who was married and about a decade younger than he was. It recalled Naipaul’s confession to The New Yorker that he bought sex and was a “great prostitute man,” and recorded Naipaul’s frank and disturbing comments on how that destroyed his wife, Hale, who died of breast cancer in 1996.
“It could be said that I had killed her,” he told biographer Patrick French. “I feel a little bit that way.”
Two months after Hale died, Naipaul married his second wife, Pakistani newspaper columnist Nadira Khannum Alvi. Naipaul’s later books lost their playful humor, and some say much of their appeal.
He spent much of his time living quietly in an isolated cottage in Wiltshire, in the English countryside.
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France Fumes at Proposed Post-Brexit EU Sea Trade Links
France deems unacceptable a European Commission proposal to exclude French ports from a rerouting of a strategic trade corridor between Ireland and mainland Europe after Brexit, the government said.
At the moment much of Ireland’s trade with the continent goes via Britain in trucks. However, with less than eight months to go until Britain leaves the European Union, there is still little clarity on its future trade relations with the bloc and on the nature of the Irish Republic’s border with the British
province of Northern Ireland.
The new route put forward by the commission would connect Ireland by sea with Dutch and Belgian ports, including Zeebrugge and Rotterdam. French ports such as Calais and Dunkirk would be bypassed.
“France and Ireland maintain important trade channels, both overland via Britain and via direct maritime routes. The geographical proximity between Ireland and France creates an obvious connection to the single market,” French Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne wrote to the EU’s transport
commissioner in a letter dated August 10.
“Surprisingly, the commission proposal in no way takes this into account. This proposal therefore is not acceptable to France.”
At stake are jobs, millions of dollars’ worth of port revenues and possibly EU infrastructure funding.
Borne said that French ports had the necessary resources to ensure they could handle the likely increase in trade flows, hinting at concerns about congestion in ports such as Calais, France’s busiest passenger port.
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Cars Powered by New Fuel Type Tested in Australia
Australian scientists have test driven two cars powered by a carbon-free fuel derived from ammonia. A team from the Australian government’s research agency, the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization), says the pioneering technology will allow highly flammable hydrogen to be safely transported in the form of ammonia and used as a widely available fuel.
Researchers have found a way to use a thin membrane to turn Australian-made hydrogen into ammonia. This could be shipped safely to markets in Asia, as well as parts of Europe. At its destination, the liquid ammonia would then be converted back into hydrogen, and used to power cars and buses, as well as for electricity generation and industrial processes.
David Harris, CSIRO research director says “the special thing about the technology that we have is that it allows you to produce very pure hydrogen directly with a membrane system from ammonia.”
The technology has the support of Japanese car maker Toyota and South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Company.
‘Watershed moment’
Scientists say hydrogen, a highly-flammable gas that can be volatile and hard to transport safely, creates a low emission fuel for cars. The Australian team describes the membrane technology that separates hydrogen from other gases as a “watershed moment for energy.”
Claire Johnson, the chief executive of Hydrogen Mobility Australia, an industry association, says the pioneering research could forever change the transport sector.
“We see that as a really exciting opportunity to decarbonize the transport sector, but also position Australia as one of the lead suppliers of hydrogen around the world. There is some competition to play that role, however. Norway, Brunei and Saudi Arabia have all flagged that they wish to be an exporter of hydrogen around the world.”
There are only a handful of hydrogen-powered cars in Australia, but there are tens of thousands across Japan, South Korea and Singapore. The South Korean government has recently announced plans for 16,000 more hydrogen-fueled cars and 310 special refilling stations.
Economy Doing Well, But Not All Americans See It That Way
By most indicators, the U.S. economy is doing well. An achievement that President Donald Trump has boasted about on many occasions. But whether Americans see it that way, may depend on which side of the political aisle they’re on. This report by White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara explores partisanship and the American economy.
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Turkish Lira Plummets; Erdogan Pledges Economic War
The White House issued a proclamation Friday evening officially announcing the doubling of steel tariffs on Turkey, slated to go into effect Monday.
Earlier Friday, the Turkish lira suffered its worst one-day loss in a decade after President Donald Trump announced the United States would hike metals tariffs, prompting investor confidence to slump.
Trump announced the doubling of aluminum and steel tariffs in a tweet Friday morning, citing bilateral strains.
Ties between the countries have been strained, as Washington is urging Ankara to release Andrew Brunson. The American pastor is currently held under house arrest on terrorism charges. The White House dismisses the charges as baseless and accused Ankara of hostage taking. Turkey wants Brunson to stand trial.
The Brunson dispute triggered the collapse in the Turkish currency as investors feared U.S. financial sanctions. All week the lira has been under pressure, which accelerated with the failure of diplomatic talks in Washington this week.
‘Just the stick’
U.S. patience with Turkey is seen to have ended, experts say.
“Most of the actors in the Washington scene think that carrots just don’t work with Turkey, just the stick,” said political analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners.
Friday saw the lira falling more than 15 percent, bringing the decline to more than 40 percent since the beginning of the year. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed supporters in the provincial city of Bayburt.
“We will not lose the economic war,” Erdogan said Friday. “Turkey will fight economic hitmen just as it fought the coup plotters.”
The Turkish president alleged Western powers are seeking to oust him from power through the creation of a financial crisis, after failing to so during a 2016 coup attempt.
“Some countries have engaged in behavior that protects coup plotters and knows no laws or justice,” he said. “Relations with countries who behave like this have reached a point beyond salvaging.”
Analysts suggest Erdogan could have Washington in mind, given Ankara is demanding the extradition of U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed for masterminding the botched 2016 military take over.
Erdogan’s claim of a Western political plot against him sparked alarm in investors and prompted an acceleration in the currency sell-off.
Ankara is under pressure to adopt orthodox steps to protect the lira by aggressively increasing interest rates to rein in double-digit inflation, a move Erdogan has publicly opposed.
Adding to investors’ concerns, Erdogan pledged a continuation of his debt-fueled construction policy to boost the economy, which is blamed for Turkey’s rampant inflation and has added to currency weakness.
‘A national struggle’
The Turkish president Friday dismissed such concerns and called for people to defend the currency.
“Those who have dollars, euros or gold under their pillows should go and exchange them into (Turkish) lira. This is a national struggle. This will be my nation’s response to those who have declared an economic war,” Erdogan said during a rally of supporters.
The drop in the lira has put increasing pressure on Turkish banks, given that many companies have borrowed heavily in foreign currency. Corporate foreign currency loans are around $250 billion, much of which is due to be repaid in a year.
“I don’t think foreign banks will be willing to lend to Turkish banks. There are so many rumors percolating that large companies are going bankrupt,” said analyst Yesilada. “I am afraid there will be a bank run in Turkey, people rushing to withdraw their deposits.”
The Turkish president his indicated possible support from Beijing and Moscow, but analysts are skeptical given the scale of support the Turkish economy needs.
But the souring in U.S.-Turkey relations could give new strength to Russia-Turkey ties, already a source of concern among Turkey’s Western allies.
“There are historical and geopolitical reasons for limits with relations with Moscow, limits I think we’ve reached,” said international relations expert Soli Ozel of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University. “But if the United States can’t handle relations with Turkey … then a further deepening of relations with Moscow is an option. It may be not the best, but it is an option.”
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Russia Not Expected to Stand Up for Tanking Ruble Amid Sanctions
A threat of more U.S. sanctions has sent the ruble tumbling to its weakest since mid-2016 but authorities are not expected to leap to the currency’s defense after weathering a similar storm in April, analysts said.
The ruble crashed to 67.67 versus the dollar on Friday, losing more than 6 percent of its value in just one week, as the United States said it would impose fresh sanctions against Moscow.
The ruble’s slide was akin to its drop in April when, also battered by sanctions from Washington, it lost 12 percent in just a few days.
Lack of action
The lack of action by authorities back then is convincing market players now that they will not intervene this time either.
“When we think about what has happened in April, when sanctions were introduced and we saw a similar reaction in the ruble … this is not a move in the ruble that would make policy makers extremely worried,” said Tilmann Kolb, an emerging market analyst at UBS Global Wealth Management in Zurich.
Liza Ermolenko, an economist at Barclays in London, said that given the central bank refrained from intervening in the market in April, it is clear that a more sudden and deeper drop in the ruble would be required to make it step in now.
The authorities have made few public comments on the latest falls, which started on Wednesday, when the U.S. State Department announced a new round of sanctions that pushed the ruble to two-year lows and sparked a wider sell-off over fears Russia was locked in a spiral of never-ending sanctions.
Last intervention in 2014
On Friday the central bank said it had tools to prevent risks to financial stability, without specifying what they were.
The central bank, which last intervened in the market and raised rates to save the ruble from tanking in 2014, described the ruble’s drop on news about more U.S. sanctions as natural reaction.
As in April, the central bank has reduced its daily buying of foreign currency for state reserves this week to lift extra pressure from the ruble, which has fallen by around 15 percent versus the dollar so far this year.
“Authorities do not set a goal of avoiding a ruble drop at the moment. That’s why they won’t do anything,” said Pyotr Milovanov, currency trader at Metallinvestbank in Moscow.
Analysts say the other possible option to support the ruble would be a hike to the key interest rate, now at 7.25 percent, but this also seems to be off the table for now.
Rate hikes?
“At this stage we don’t expect policymakers to resort to rate hikes,” Ermolenko from Barclays said.
Kolb from UBS said he would “expect a bigger reaction if we got perhaps towards 70 (rubles per dollar) but this also depends on how we get there, if at all.”
“I wouldn’t expect Russian policymakers to use their available tools to support the ruble at current levels,” he said.
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‘See’ a River Without Getting Wet
Some 400 years ago, English explorer Captain John Smith traveled around the Chesapeake Bay in the eastern United States, the country’s largest estuary. Smith mapped about 4,800 kilometers of the bay and nearby rivers. Now, 11 of those rivers can be seen in an entirely new way through a unique virtual online tour. VOA’s Deborah Block got on board a small raft in the Patuxent River loaded with camera and computer equipment to find out how it is done.
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What Industrial Revolution Age Art says About America’s History
Hugo Kohl has been interested in art and design since he was a child. In college, he studied finance but also took several jewelry-making classes to satisfy his curiosity about this form of art and the history behind it. Twenty-five years ago, Kohl turned his passion into a career. And over the years, as Faiza Elmasry tells us, he developed his own style of vintage jewelry using the same techniques as industrial revolution artisans at the end of the 18th century. Faith Lapidus narrates.
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Trump Doubles Tariffs on Turkish Steel, Aluminum Imports
U.S. President Donald Trump further escalated tensions with Turkey Friday by announcing a sharp increase in tariffs on steel and aluminum imports in an early morning post on Twitter.
In announcing 20 percent tariffs on aluminum and 50 percent tariffs on steel, Trump said “the Turkish Lira, slides rapidly downward against our very strong Dollar!”
Trump’s announcement came two days after a Turkish diplomatic delegation visited Washington in a bid to to ease tensions between the two countries.
Analysts have warned that rising U.S.-Turkish tensions are threatening a financial crisis in Turkey.
On Monday, the Turkish lira suffered its most significant drop in a decade following reports the Trump administration was considering ending Turkey’s duty-free access to the U.S. market. Trump’s Friday tweet caused a further drop in the Turkish currency.
U.S.-Turkish tensions began to escalate last week, with Trump targeting two Turkish ministers with sanctions over the detention of U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson. Brunson is currently under house arrest in Turkey while standing trial on terrorism charges.
The White House dismisses the charges as baseless and accused Ankara of hostage taking.
Saying Friday Turkey faced “an economic war,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged citizens to support the lira by exchanging foreign money for the local currency.
“If you have dollars, euros or gold under your pillow, go to banks to exchange them for Turkish lira,” he said on national television. “It is a national fight.”
Erdogan called on Turks to not be concerned about exchange rate movements, mockingly declaring “the dollar, the mollar will not cut our path.”
Erdogan added that Turkey was not afraid of “threats” and said it had many alternative sources of economic cooperation “from Iran, to Russia, to China, and some European countries.”
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Some NFL Players ‘Raise Awareness’ During Anthem
Player demonstrations took place during the national anthem at several early NFL preseason games Thursday night.
In Philadelphia, Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins and cornerback De’Vante Bausby raised their fists during the anthem, and defensive end Chris Long placed his arm around Jenkins’ shoulder. Jenkins had stopped his demonstration last December.
Defensive end Michael Bennett walked out of the tunnel during the anthem and walked toward the bench while it played. It appeared all the Steelers stood.
“Everybody is waiting for what the league is going to do,” Jenkins said. “We won’t let it stop what we stand for. I was very encouraged last year with the direction and that obviously took a different turn.
Need to fight for others
“I think it’s important to utilize the platform as we can because for whatever reason, we have framed this demonstration in a negative light, and often players have to defend why we feel the need to fight for everyday Americans, and in actuality we’re doing the right thing.”
At Miami, Dolphins receivers Kenny Stills and Albert Wilson and defensive end Robert Quinn protested during the anthem. Stills and Wilson kneeled behind teammates lined up standing along the sideline. Quinn stood and raised his right fist. There were no apparent protests by the Buccaneers.
“As a black man in this world, I’ve got an obligation to raise awareness,” Quinn said. “If no one wants to live in unity, that’s why we’re in the situation we’re in.”
Stills kneeled during the anthem during the 2016-17 seasons and has been vocal discussing social injustice issues that inspired the protest movement by NFL players.
Kaepernick tweets support
Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, a leader of the movement, tweeted support for Stills and Wilson.
“My brother @kstills continued his protest of systemic oppression tonight by taking a knee,” the tweet said. “Albert Wilson joined him in protest. Stay strong brothers!”
And in Seattle, three Seahawks players ran into the team’s locker room before the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Defensive linemen Branden Jackson and Quinton Jefferson, and offensive lineman Duane Brown left the field following team introductions and before the start of the anthem. They returned to the sideline immediately after it concluded. All three were among a group of Seattle players that sat during the anthem last season.
Brown and Jefferson said they intend to continue the action all season. Seattle coach Pete Carroll said the team discussed the topic and decided to support individual decisions. Brown said he didn’t believe there had been much progress made from the demonstrations of last season.
“Everyone was clear on my decision and understands and supports it,” Brown said. “We all have different realities in this country and they understand my perspective. We’re all on good terms.”
Around the league
In Jacksonville, four Jaguars remained in the locker room during the national anthem, and team officials said it would be up to the players to explain why they weren’t on the field. Cornerback Jalen Ramsey, linebacker Telvin Smith, and running backs Leonard Fournette and T.J. Yeldon joined teammates on the sideline after the anthem.
“As a man, I got certain beliefs,” said Smith, who wore “Salute the Service” cleats. “You know what I mean? This is not going to become a distraction, and Jacksonville’s not going to become a distraction for this team. I got beliefs. I did what I did. I don’t know if it’s going to be every week, can’t answer if it’s going to be every week.
“But as a man I’ve got to stand for something. I love my team, I’m dedicated to my teammates, and that’s what we’re talking about. I did what I did. It was love. I hope people see it and respect it. I respect views.”
At Baltimore, both teams stood, but while most of the Ravens lined up shoulder to shoulder on the sideline, second-year linebacker Tim Williams stood alone in front of the bench with his back toward the field.
All of the players on each team at New England appeared to stand for the national anthem, some bowing their heads and others placing their hands on their hearts. The Patriots observed a moment of silence beforehand for Weymouth, Massachusetts, police officer Michael Chesna, who was killed last month in the line of duty.
The league and the players’ union have yet to announce a policy for this season regarding demonstrations during the anthem after the league initially ordered everyone to stand on the sideline when “The Star-Spangled Banner” is played, or remain in the locker room.
“The NFL has been engaged in constructive discussions with the NFL Players Association regarding the anthem and issues of equality and social justice that are of concern to many Americans,” league spokesman Brian McCarthy said in an email.
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Brazil Surpasses 2020 Target to Cut Deforestation Emissions
Brazil cut its greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation in 2017 to levels below its internationally agreed 2020 climate change targets, the country’s Environment Ministry said Thursday.
Brazil reduced its emission from deforestation in the Amazon rainforest by 610 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), compared to its 2020 target of 564 million tons. In the Cerrado savanna, emissions were reduced 170 million tons of carbon dioxide versus a target of 104 million tons.
The Amazon, the world’s largest tropical rainforest, and the Cerrado, South America’s biggest savanna, soak up vast amounts of carbon dioxide, and their preservation is seen as vital to the fight against climate change.
But destruction of the forest releases large quantities of CO2, one of the main greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. Large-scale Amazon deforestation has made Brazil one of the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters, because of fires and the spread of agriculture and cattle ranching.
The 2020 emission goals were set out in the 2009 Copenhagen Accord to combat climate change. Under the more ambitious Paris Agreement in 2015 on climate change, Brazil has set goals for further steep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions for 2025 and 2030.
“The policy message is that we can and should remain in the Paris Agreement (because) it is possible to effectively implement the commitments that have been made,” said Thiago Mendes, secretary of climate change in the Environment Ministry.
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Wildlife Official Who Stirred Fears on Species Law Will Leave Post
The head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is stepping down after a 14-month tenure in which the agency proposed broad changes to rules governing protections for thousands of species and pushed for more hunting and fishing on federal lands, officials said Thursday.
Greg Sheehan will leave the agency next week to return to his family and home in Utah, spokesman Gavin Shire said. He has led the wildlife service since last June as the senior political official appointed under President Donald Trump in a newly created deputy director position.
Under his tenure, the wildlife service moved recently to end a long-standing practice that automatically gave the same protections to threatened species as it gives more critically endangered species. The proposal also limits habitat safeguards meant to shield recovering species from harm and would require consideration of the economic impacts of protecting a species.
That’s alarmed wildlife advocates who fear a weakening of the Endangered Species Act, which has been used to save species as diverse as the bald eagle and the American alligator. The proposed changes were cheered by Republican lawmakers and others who say the endangered species law has been abused to block economic development and needs reform.
A request to interview Sheehan was declined.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke had sought to make Sheehan acting director of the 9,000-employee wildlife service, which would have given him certain legal authorities. However, Sheehan was barred from that role because he did not have the science degree required for the position under federal law, Shire said.
Vacancies at Interior
His departure comes amid a spate of vacancies at the Interior Department more than a year and a half after Trump took office. Those include the heads of the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service and the assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks.
Before coming to the federal government, Sheehan worked for 25 years in Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources, including five years as its director.
National Wildlife Federation President Collin O’Mara — who considers Sheehan a friend — said during his watch the service had done good work collaborating with state officials and conservation groups. But O’Mara said there needed to be less emphasis on removing regulations and more on making sure wildlife issues are considered, such as during decisions on energy development.
“Given the magnitude of the wildlife crisis, there’s always more that can be done,” O’Mara said.
Another conservation group, the Center for Biological Diversity, had a more critical response, saying Sheehan’s departure was “welcome news for America’s wildlife.”
“In just one year in office, he inflicted incredible harm on imperiled animals by consistently putting special interests ahead of science and the environment,” said Brett Hartl, the group’s government affairs director.
The Interior Department issued a statement saying Sheehan was “an incredible asset to the Interior team and was tremendous in helping Secretary Zinke expand access for hunting and fishing on over a quarter-million acres of public lands across the country.”
Deputy Operations Director Jim Kurth will lead the agency pending another appointment, Shire said.
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US Court Orders Trump EPA to Pull Pesticide
A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration endangered public health when it overturned an Obama-era rule banning a dangerous pesticide.
In a 2-to-1 decision, the Seattle-based court gave the Environmental Protection Agency 60 days to pull chlorpyrifos from the market, one of the most widely used pesticides in the country.
The judges said the administration was unjustified in overturning the ban and ignored the science proving that residue of it on food is linked to brain damage in babies.
Former EPA chief Scott Pruitt reversed the Obama decision to extend an earlier ban on the product from general household use to its use on food.
Pruitt called it a return to “sound science” and a move away from “predetermined results.”
Dow Chemical, which manufactures chlorpyrifos, has in the past defended the pesticide as a product helping farmers feed the world while respecting “human health and the environment.”
“The court has made it clear that children’s health must come before powerful polluters,” the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Erik Olson said Thursday. “This is a victory for parents everywhere who want to feed their kids fruits and vegetables without fear it is harming their brains or poisoning communities.”
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Kenya Banks on Human Milk to Reduce Newborn Mortality
Joshua Okumu’s wife, Mary Mwanja, died during childbirth 18 years ago at Pumwani Maternity Hospital in Nairobi. But their daughter survived.
When he picked up his newborn baby at the nursery, grief-stricken and shocked, Okumu was not entirely sure how to feed her.
“So when I reached home, I started feeding her with a packet of milk called Tuzo,” he said. “By that time, Tuzo was not diluted like nowadays. So, that is what I was using to feed the small baby when I took her from the hospital. If the mum was there it would have been healthier to be fed by her mum.”
For Kenyan widowers like Okumu, there will soon be another option: human donor milk.
Pumwani is getting Kenya’s first breast milk bank, which will be only the second of its kind on the continent. The other one is in South Africa.
The bank is a joint initiative by Kenya’s Ministry of Health and PATH, a U.S.-based nonprofit health organization. It will open in September for donations and offer free breast milk by prescription for babies who cannot get it from their mothers.
‘Next best option’
Dr. Elizabeth Kimani Murage, head of maternal and child well-being at the African Population and Health Research Center, is behind the project.
“The World Health Organization recommends that if the mother’s own breast milk is not available for the baby for any reason, the best next option would be the donor milk,” she said. “So the recommendation is to make donor milk available to such vulnerable babies.”
The milk bank aims to help orphaned and malnourished babies get the nutrients essential to healthy development.
Murage said mother’s milk has an enormous impact on child survival, especially during the first month of life.
“Despite improvements in infant mortality, neonatal mortality is reducing at a very slow rate, so those are the children we want to target. According to the Every Newborn Action Plan [from the World Health Organization and UNICEF], we should actually reduce neonatal mortality to 12 deaths per 1,000 live births. But, you see, we are very far [from that goal]. We are at 22.”
There are misconceptions and concerns about hygiene and the spread of disease to newborns in the use of donated milk. Murage noted that all donors’ health would checked at the hospital and that the milk would be pasteurized to ensure that only safe and healthful breast milk is given to babies in need.
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