Month: August 2018

Mind-Altering Breast Milk? New Pot Study Poses That Question

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Marijuana’s main mind-altering ingredient was detected in nursing mothers’ breast milk in a small study that comes amid evidence that more U.S. women are using pot during pregnancy and afterward.

Experts say the ingredient, THC, has chemical properties that could allow it to disrupt brain development and potentially cause harm, although solid evidence of that is lacking.

 

The new study involved 50 nursing mothers who were using pot and provided breast milk samples to researchers at the University of California, San Diego. Lab testing found small amounts of THC, the psychoactive chemical that causes marijuana’s “high,” in 34 of 54 samples up to six days after they were provided. Another form of THC and cannabidiol, a pot chemical touted by some as a health aid, were detected in five samples.

 

The study authors said “it is reasonable to speculate” that exposing infants to THC or cannabidiol “could influence normal brain development,” depending on dose and timing.

 

The results echo findings in case reports from years ago, when pot was less potent than what’s available today, said study co-author Christina Chambers, a pediatrics professor. It’s not known if the amounts detected pose any risk, but she said her research team is studying children whose moms’ were involved to try to answer that question.

 

Two small studies from the 1980s had conflicting results on whether pot use affects breastfed infants. One found no evidence of growth delays; the other found slight developmental delays in breastfed infants, but their mothers had used pot during pregnancy too.

 

Most pediatricians encourage breastfeeding and its health benefits for infants, but “they’re stuck with a dilemma” with infants whose mothers use pot, Chambers said.

 

A new American Academy of Pediatrics report recommending against pot use while pregnant or nursing acknowledges that challenge.

 

“We still support women breastfeeding even if using marijuana but would encourage them to cut down and quit,” said Dr. Seth Ammerman, a report co-author and Stanford University pediatrics professor.

 

“In counseling patients about this, it’s important to be nonjudgmental but to educate patients about the potential risks and benefits,” Ammerman said, to ensure “a healthy outcome for themselves and their baby.”

 

The study and report were published Monday in the journal Pediatrics .

 

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has similar advice.

 

The academy report says its advice is based on theoretical risks to developing brains, but it acknowledges conflicting evidence and a dearth of research. Some studies have linked pot use during pregnancy with lower birth weights or preterm birth, along with developmental delays and learning difficulties in older children. But additional factors including women’s use of other drugs during pregnancy complicated the results, the report says.

 

Marijuana is legal for recreational use in nine states and Washington, D.C., and for medical use in 31 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

 

As more states legalize marijuana, its use is increasing along with the “false impression” that it is safe, the academy’s report says. Ammerman said caution makes sense, given the uncertainties.

 

According to U.S. government data, about 1 in 20 women report using marijuana during pregnancy. Estimates for use among breastfeeding mothers vary, but a study in Colorado, where recreational marijuana is legal, put the number at almost 20 percent among women in a government supplemental food program.

 

The report, study and a journal editorial all said more research is needed.

 

Last year, a federal advisory panel said lack of scientific information about marijuana poses a public health risk.

 

Research has been hampered by federal government restrictions based on its view that marijuana is an illegal drug.

 

That has contributed to a stigma and shaded doctors’ views, said Keira Sumimoto, an Irvine, California, mother who used marijuana briefly for medical reasons while pregnant and breastfeeding. She said smoking a joint daily helped her gain weight when she was sick before learning she was pregnant, and eased childbirth-related pain, but that she quit because of backlash from marijuana opponents.

 

She said her daughter, now 8 months old, is healthy and advanced for her age.

 

Sumimoto runs @cannabisandmotherhood , an Instagram account that she says aims to present truthful information about marijuana so women can make their own choices.

 

She said she agrees with advice to be cautious, but that the academy’s stance is “is just a little too much.”

 

“The fear is taking over and the need and want to understand this plant is being ignored by the stigma,” Sumimoto said.

 

 

 

 
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Neil Simon, Broadway’s Master of Comedy, Dies at 91

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Playwright Neil Simon, a master of comedy whose laugh-filled hits such as “The Odd Couple,” “Barefoot in the Park” and his “Brighton Beach” trilogy dominated Broadway for decades, has died. He was 91.

Simon died early Sunday of complications from pneumonia in New York, said Bill Evans, his longtime friend and the Shubert Organization director of media relations.

 

In the second half of the 20th century, Simon was the American theater’s most successful and prolific playwrights, often chronicling middle class issues and fears.

 

Starting with “Come Blow Your Horn” in 1961 and continuing into the next century, he rarely stopped working on a new play or musical.

 

The theater world mourned his death, with actor Josh Gad calling Simon “one of the primary influences on my life and career.” Playwright Kristoffer Diaz said simply: “This hurts.”

 

Simon’s stage successes included “The Prisoner of Second Avenue,” “Last of the Red Hot Lovers,” “The Sunshine Boys,” “Plaza Suite,” “Chapter Two,” “Sweet Charity” and “Promises, Promises,” but there were other plays and musicals, too, more than 30 in all. Many of his plays were adapted into movies and one, “The Odd Couple,” even became a popular television series.

 

For seven months in 1967, he had four productions running at the same time on Broadway: “Barefoot in the Park”; “The Odd Couple”; “Sweet Charity”; and “The Star-Spangled Girl.”

 

Simon was the recipient of four Tony Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, the Kennedy Center honors (1995), four Writers Guild of America Awards, an American Comedy Awards Lifetime Achievement honor and, in 1983, he even had a Broadway theater named after him when the Alvin was rechristened the Neil Simon Theatre.

 

In 2006, he won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which honors work that draws from the American experience. The previous year had seen a popular revival of “The Odd Couple,” reuniting Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick after their enormous success in “The Producers” several years earlier.

Simon received his first Tony Award in 1965 as best author, a category now discontinued, for “The Odd Couple,” although the comedy lost the best-play prize to Frank D. Gilroy’s “The Subject Was Roses.” He won a best-play Tony 20 years later for “Biloxi Blues.” In 1991, “Lost in Yonkers” received both the Tony and the Pulitzer Prize. And there was a special achievement Tony, too, in 1975.

 

Simon’s own life figured most prominently in what became known as his “Brighton Beach” trilogy: “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “Biloxi Blues” and “Broadway Bound”, which many consider his finest works . In them, Simon’s alter ego, Eugene Morris Jerome, makes his way from childhood to the U.S. Army to finally, on the verge of adulthood, a budding career as a writer.

 

Simon was born Marvin Neil Simon in New York and was raised in the Bronx and Washington Heights. He was a Depression-era child, his father, Irving, a garment-industry salesman. He was raised mostly by his strong-willed mother, Mamie, and mentored by his older brother, Danny, who nicknamed his younger sibling, Doc.

 

Simon attended New York University and the University of Colorado. After serving in the military in 1945-46, he began writing with his brother for radio in 1948 and then, for television, a period in their lives chronicled in Simon’s 1993 play, “Laughter on the 23rd Floor.”

 

 
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Mexico Minister says in ‘Final Hours’ of Bilateral NAFTA Talks

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Mexico’s Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said on Sunday that bilateral negotiations with the United States about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) were in the “final hours.”

Speaking as he arrived for talks at the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, Guajardo said the negotiators would need at least a week to work with Canada, the third country in the trilateral trade pact, pushing any possible final deal into at least September.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the United States could reach a “big Trade Agreement” with Mexico soon as incoming Mexican trade negotiators signaled possible solutions to energy rules and a contentious U.S. “sunset clause” demand.

 

 
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The Success Story Behind ‘John’s Crazy Socks’

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John Cronin has never been one to let disability hold him back. The 22-year-old from Long Island, N.Y., was born with Down syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes developmental and intellectual delays. Motivated by his family’s love and encouragement, Cronin teamed up with his father 18 months ago to open a business. But not just any business. John’s Crazy Socks sells, you guessed it, socks. And as Faiza Elmasry reports, it’s a business worth $4 million. Faith Lapidus narrates.
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From Stick Insects to Giraffes, Animals Get Measured at London Zoo

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It’s a good idea for people to get an annual physical … and it’s important for animals, too. The London Zoo hosted its annual weigh-in for thousands of its animals recently, enticing the creatures with food to get their measurements. The documentation process is an extensive and time-consuming exercise for the zoo keepers, but a crucial one, say zoo officials. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.
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Glass Harpist Awes Tourists With Sassy Tunes

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Musician Jamey Turner chose an unconventional career path by becoming a glass harpist. He plays music with glasses filled with water. He uses his fingertips to rub the rim of the glasses to create a range of musical tones. VOA’s Deborah Block watched Turner play the glass harp in Alexandria, Virginia, where people seemed to be awestruck by the sounds he created.
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Russian Artist Builds Cameras out of Wood

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A Russian artist is going back to the roots of photography, rejecting the digital trappings and the assembly-line convenience of the modern age, by designing and creating wooden cameras the way they were built a hundred years ago. Combining craftsmanship with the principles of old school photography, some consider his creations art forms in themselves. And as VOA’s Julie Taboh reports, his wooden cameras, and the unique photographs he takes with them, are attracting buyers from around the world.
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WWII Shipwreck Found off Alaska, Sunk After Only Battle on US Soil

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Scientists have used multibeam sonar and a remotely operated craft to locate the remains of the USS Abner Read, which was sunk nearly 75 years ago after hitting a Japanese mine off Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. The ship had been sent to look for Japanese submarines following the only World War II battle to be fought on North American soil. VOA’s Jill Craig has more.
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AI Tools in Classroom Help Teachers Keep Students Engaged

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A school in Massachusetts is using artificial intelligence tools to help teachers keep students engaged. Faith Lapidus reports.
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Musk Says Investors Convinced Him Tesla Should Stay Public

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Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk says investors have convinced him that he shouldn’t take the company private, so the firm will remain on the public stock markets.

The eccentric and sometimes erratic CEO said in a statement late Friday that he made the decision based on feedback from shareholders, including institutional investors, who said they have internal rules limiting how much they can sink into a private company.

Musk met with the electric car and solar panel company’s board on Thursday to tell them he wanted to stay public and the board agreed, according to the statement.

In an Aug. 7 post on Twitter, Musk wrote that he was considering taking the company private. He said it would avoid the short-term pressures of reporting quarterly results.
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‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Breaking Stereotypes, Box Office

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Crazy Rich Asians, a romantic comedy by filmmaker Jon Chu, showcases lavish sets and beautiful, rich people. Set against the exotic and ultramodern backdrop of Singapore, the film rewards its audience with an uplifting modern day fairy tale. But what makes this Hollywood film stand out, is its all Asian cast and the clear message: Not all Asians are the same.

Based on Kevin Kwan’s book of the same title, the film starts with a young Asian couple in New York. Rachel Chu, played by Constance Wu, an Asian American economics professor at New York University. Nick Young is from Singapore. Having dated for over a year, the couple is starting to get serious about each other but have yet to take the next step. NIck, played by Henry Golding, invites Rachel to his best friend’s wedding in Singapore. Nick’s idea is to introduce Rachel to his family.

As the couple sets out for Singapore, what Rachel does not know is that Nick is the scion of one of the city-state’s wealthiest families and one of its most eligible bachelors. Before she even gets there, her picture has gone viral on social media, and as soon as she arrives, she becomes the target of many wealthy young women who aspire to marry Nick.

Nick’s formidable mother Eleanor Young, played by Michelle Yeoh, feels that American-born Rachel, played by Constance Wu, is not suitable for her son. She rejects the young woman’s American values of independence and self-determination as an affront to Singapore’s traditionalist values.

Rachel’s and Nick’s relationship unfolds against the sophisticated backdrop of the Asian island’s exotic landscape, and mouthwatering culinary creations. Their relationship is tested but grows despite the antagonism and cruelty Rachel faces from Nick’s mother and her snobbish friends.

Throughout the bitter sweet roller coaster, the cast features funny, quirky, and serious characters, among them, Hip Hop artist Awkwafina. She plays Peik Lin Goh, Rachel’s former roomate and friend from the States now living in Singapore. Peik Lin helps navigate Rachel through various cultural hurdles and provides comic relief. The cast is impeccably dressed, impossibly rich, and all of them, Asian.

Lead actress Constance Wu touts the all Asian international cast of the film. “I love the fact that we have Asians from Australia, from England, from Costa Rica, from America, from Singapore, from Malaysia, we have Asians from all over.”

Wu says the film moves away from the clichéd image of the Asian as a disenfranchised minority in the US. “So frequently Hollywood thinks that Asians are this one monolith. Like there isn’t a difference between Asian Asians and Asian-Americans. Or British Asian, or Australian Asians. And there is a difference! Because there is a cultural difference. The fact that this movie really differentiates that, it’s something that doesn’t happen a lot.”

The film’s message and its lavish cinematography appears to have paid off. Crazy Rich Asians has become a box office hit – elevating the hopes of cast and fans that Asian actors are finally becoming part of Hollywood’s mainstream. A day after the film’s premiere in Singapore, Victoria Loke, who plays wealthy socialite Fiona Cheng, spoke to VOA about the film’s success.

“During filming,” she said, “we never really thought about how big an impact that was going to make. So many Asian-American audiences have messaged us separately as actors, our director, our producers, thanking us for having a stake and being a part of this representation of the Asian American community.”

Despite the film’s box office success, Loke said it also has had its share of criticism.

“There has been a lot of conversation in Singapore and Asia about how this film only represents the 1 percent of Singapore: she said. “There are a lot of people who don’t relate to that. This is about Crazy Rich Asians, it’s about a very small niche, and of course there will be lot of fair criticism about the fact that it doesn’t represent fully the entire population. ”

Representative or not, the film has played to sold out theaters in Asia and the U.S. And Victoria Loke confirmed that the film has already been green-lighted for a sequel.
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Robin Leach of ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’ Dies

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Robin Leach, whose voice crystallized the opulent 1980s on TV’s “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” died Friday. He was 76 

Leach’s family said through a public relations firm that he died in Las Vegas, where he made his home.

Leach had a stroke in November while on vacation in Mexico that led to a months-long recovery, much of which he spent at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio before returning to Las Vegas in June. 

The Las Vegas Review-Journal, which ran Leach’s columns before he became ill, said he suffered another stroke Monday. 

“Champagne wishes and caviar dreams” was Leach’s sign-off at the end of every episode of his syndicated show’s decade-long run that began in 1984.

The catchphrase captured excesses and sometimes gaudy style of the 1980s, a time before oil billionaires, titans of industry and Wall Street traders gave way to sneaker-wearing tech execs as the world’s richest people.  

Leach appeared occasionally on the show, but he and his unmistakable English-accent narrated throughout, taking wishful viewers on tours of mansions with diamond-crusted chandeliers, yachts with Jacuzzis, and champagne that ran to four figures. It was much like rap videos would do in future decades. 

Leach and producer Al Masini coined the catchphrase and conceived of the show. 

“He asked me if I could get magnates T. Boone Pickens or Sam Walton to do the show,” Leach told The Huffington Post in 2016. “In my naivete, I said, ‘Of course.’ And thus, ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.’” 

Leach said in later years that someone still shouted “champagne wishes and caviar dreams” at him almost daily. He was constantly parodied, and like other distinctive voices of the age like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Howard Cosell, everyone had a Leach impression. 

“Saturday Night Live” consistently satirized him through the years, with Harry Shearer as a subdued Leach hosting “Lifestyles of the Relatives of the Rich and Famous” in the 1980s, and Dana Carvey as a brash, shouting Leach on “Weekend Update” in the 1990s. 

Even decades later, in 2011, Snoop Dogg spotted Leach at a news conference in Las Vegas and was thrilled, rushing to grab the mic and breaking out his impression, touting his career earnings in an over-the-top English accent. 

“Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” was the core of Leach’s career that spanned six decades and included stints with CNN, People magazine, Entertainment Tonight and the Daily Mail, where he began as a writer in Britain at 18. 

In the mid-1970s, he tried out TV as a regular contributor to “AM Los Angeles” with hosts Regis Philbin and Sarah Purcell, and found his calling. He became a regular on television’s morning news and entertainment shows, practicing a sort of tabloid journalism that was more celebratory and light-hearted than tawdry. He often became friends with the celebrities he covered. 

Then, in 1984, he landed “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” and gained his own fame. The gaudy show became wildly popular, but never with critics. 

“They wrote that television had reached an all-time-low,” Leach told The Huffington Post. “But I looked at the ratings every Monday morning, and I was rubbing my hands with glee.”

He was also an executive producer and occasional writer on the show, and hosted a brief spinoff, “Runaway with the Rich and Famous.” 

For the show’s final year, with producers looking to liven up the aging property, he had a younger co-host, actress Shari Belafonte. The show was retitled “Lifestyles with Robin Leach and Shari Belafonte” but the new look didn’t save it. 

In 1999, Leach went to Las Vegas to work with celebrity chefs at the Venetian casino-resort, and made the move permanent, becoming a fixture in the city as he covered the destination’s entertainment and lifestyles for America Online and his own website. He also wrote for the Las Vegas Sun and, most recently, for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. 

He made frequent appearances on the celebrity reality TV circuit, hosting VH-1’s “The Surreal Life: Fame Games” and appearing on the celebrity editions of “Wife Swap” and “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” 

He was among the founders of the Food Network, selling his equity for a big payday when the channel took off. 

Married once and divorced, Leach spent much of his later years in the company of his three sons, Steven, Rick and Greg, and several grandchildren. 

“There is this image of a guy in a hot tub, drinking champagne with two buxom blondes,” Leach told the Las Vegas Sun in 2011. “But that is not the real me. I am a father, and I am a grandfather, too.” 
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Brazil Health Ministry: 4 Million Kids Need Vaccinations

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Brazil’s health officials say more than 4 million children still need to be vaccinated against measles.

More than 1,380 people have been infected in an outbreak linked to cases imported from Venezuela.

To stop the disease’s spread, Brazil’s Health Ministry launched a campaign this month to vaccinate all children between 1 and 5 — regardless of their vaccination history. It said Friday that 4.1 million children still had not been vaccinated as the campaign enters its final week.

Among the places with the lowest vaccination rates is Roraima, one of two border states with Venezuela where cases are concentrated.

Health services in the neighboring country have collapsed amid economic and political turmoil, which has caused more than 1 million people to flee.

Tens of thousands have migrated to Brazil.
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US Commerce’s Ross Picks ZTE Monitor After Rejecting ‘Never Trump’ Lawyer

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U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has appointed a former federal prosecutor to monitor China’s ZTE Corp — after people familiar with the matter said he rescinded an offer to a former U.S. official for signing a “Never Trump” letter before the 2016 presidential election.

A new monitor for ZTE is required as part of a June settlement that ended a ban on U.S. companies selling components to China’s No. 2 telecommunications equipment maker. The ban threatened ZTE’s survival and became a source of friction in trade talks between Washington and Beijing.

Roscoe Howard, a former U.S. attorney in Washington, will lead a compliance team designed to help ensure that ZTE does not illegally sell products with American parts to Iran and other sanctioned countries.

Howard, who got his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1977, is a partner in Barnes & Thornburg’s litigation department in Washington, and served as associate independent counsel during the Clinton and George H. W. Bush administrations.

Howard was not the first choice of Commerce Department officials.

Peter Lichtenbaum, a former assistant secretary for export administration at the Commerce Department, received a letter on Aug. 15 offering him the post, sources said.

Ross then learned that Lichtenbaum was among the dozens of former national security officials who signed a letter in August 2016 saying Trump was not qualified to be president and they would never vote for him, the sources said on condition of anonymity.

Last Friday, two days after making the offer, the department withdrew it, the sources said.

“This is the final decision. Period,” a Commerce Department spokesman said about Ross’ decision to rescind the offer to Lichtenbaum and choose Howard.

Trump, a former real estate magnate and reality television star, drew opposition from establishment Republicans who opposed his candidacy during the 2016 presidential campaign. His administration has been known to reject people who opposed him.

Violations by ZTE

ZTE, which relies on American-origin components for its smartphones and computer networking gear, pleaded guilty last year to violating U.S. sanctions by illegally shipping U.S. goods and technology to Iran.

The ban on ZTE was imposed in April after officials said the company made false statements about disciplining 35 employees tied to the wrongdoing.

As part of the 2017 guilty plea, ZTE paid nearly $900 million. To lift this year’s ban, it paid an additional $1 billion penalty, placed $400 million in escrow in case of future violations, and installed a new board and senior management.

Two monitors​

Under the latest agreement, the Commerce Department is selecting a monitor to oversee compliance for ZTE and its worldwide affiliates for 10 years. Howard will have a staff of at least six people funded by ZTE, including at least one expert in export controls, the Commerce spokesman said.

The government monitor has been designated as a “special compliance coordinator” to distinguish from another monitor for ZTE appointed by a U.S. judge in Texas when the company pleaded guilty last year.

That monitor, James Stanton, a lawyer who has handled personal injury cases among others, was picked by U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade, sources told Reuters last year. Kinkeade has control over that monitor.

A key reason the Commerce Department sought a second monitor, according to sources, was to have a qualified person police the company and report directly to the department and the company.
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Face Recognition Nabs Fake Passport User at US Airport

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Facial recognition technology was credited with the arrest this week of a man attempting to use a fake passport to enter the United States at Washington’s Dulles airport, officials said.

Officials said that on the third day of deployment of the new technology, border agents were able to determine that the man was using a fake French passport.

US Customs and Border Protection, part of the Department of Homeland Security, said Dulles is one of 14 “early adopter airports” using facial recognition technology for the entry process, and began deploying it Monday.

On Wednesday, a 26-year-old man traveling from Sao Paulo, Brazil sought to enter with a French passport but the facial comparison biometric system determined he was not a match to the passport he presented.

A search revealed the man’s authentic Republic of Congo identification card concealed in his shoe. His name was not released.

The use of facial recognition has been growing for law enforcement, border control and other uses, even as concerns have risen on privacy.

Privacy activists say there are few safeguards on the databases used and that the technology evokes fears of a “Big Brother” surveillance state.

Heightening those concerns are studies showing facial recognition may not always be accurate, especially for people of color.

The technology is being adopted around the world, with China a heavy user of facial recognition for law enforcement.

The airport border agents use the biometric system to determine if the person is using a real passport, claiming it speeds the entry and exit process.

The agency is also assessing the use of biometric technology as part of a process from check-in to departure in which travelers use biometrics instead of their boarding pass.

The agency said in a release it is “committed to its privacy obligations” and has published several privacy impact assessments.

Facial recognition came into play earlier this year when a suspect arrested for a shooting at a newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland, refused to cooperate with police and could not immediately be identified using fingerprint
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WHO: Doctor in Eastern Congo Contracts Ebola in ‘Dreaded’ Scenario

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A doctor has become the first probable Ebola case in one of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s “high insecurity zones” which are dogged by militia violence and hard to access, a scenario “we have all been dreading,” the WHO said on Friday.

Since the outbreak erupted on August 1, 103 confirmed and probable cases of Ebola have been identified in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, including 63 deaths, the health ministry said in an overnight update.

The doctor living in Oicha town in North Kivu has been re-hospitalised with Ebola symptoms after his wife was confirmed as having the disease when she traveled to the nearby city of Beni, said Dr. Peter Salama, the World Health Organization’s head of emergency operations.

Oicha is almost entirely surrounded by ADF Ugandan Islamist militia, there are “extremely serious security concerns,” he said. Aid workers, priests and government officials are held hostage in the area, he said.

The doctor’s initial test for Ebola — which causes vomiting, fever and diarrhea — had been negative, but fresh results are awaited, Salama told Reuters.

So far 97 of the doctor’s contacts who may have been exposed to the virus have been identified, and vaccination has begun in the town, he added.

“So for the first time really we have a confirmed case and contacts in an area of very high insecurity. It really was the problem we were anticipating and the problem at same time that we were dreading,” Salama told a news briefing.

WHO and health experts reached Oicha with armed escort by MONUSCO troops this week, he said, adding: “We know from that incident now in Oicha we are going to have to operate in some very complex environments due to security and access concerns.”

In a further worrying development, angry youth burned down a health center in another village, where vaccinations were under way, after learning of a death from Ebola, Salama said.

More than 2,900 people have been vaccinated against Ebola since the outbreak began, he said.

“We are at quite a pivotal moment in this outbreak in terms of the evolution of the outbreak epidemiologically and in terms of the response,” he said.
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Experts Warn of a Return of the AIDS Epidemic

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Thirty-six million people currently live with AIDS, a disease that claimed the lives of nearly 1 million people last year. Experts predict that by 2030, 100 million people will have been infected with the HIV virus.

Despite the alarming numbers, there have been great strides in treatment. HIV is no longer a death sentence, and researchers say people receiving treatment for HIV are able to live normal lives and do not pose a risk to others when they are being treated proactively.

But success carries a price: complacency. Funding for AIDS research and treatment has declined, and in some places, so has government interest.

“When we talk to ministers of finance, they always say to me, ‘I thought HIV was over because I don’t see anybody dying,’” said Dr. Deborah Birx, a U.S. Global AIDS coordinator who oversees the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

J. Stephen Morrison of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said, “We’re not reaching goals.” He added, “There’s going to be a struggle to hold ground. … There’s a widening deficit of political will and financial capacity that we face some really daunting challenges in prevention.”

Dr. Chris Beyrer, with Johns Hopkins Medicine, predicted that things will get worse if governments and civilians continue their complacency. 

“We are not done with AIDS,” he said. “It is much too early to declare victory, and the risks of a resurgent epidemic are real.”

Birx, Morrison and Beyrer discussed the challenges in ending AIDS at a program in Washington to evaluate the messages from this year’s International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam.

New infections are down from 3.4 million a year, but they’re stuck at 1.8 million per year. And there are 17 million people living with HIV who cannot be reached. They are in high risk groups: young women, particularly young African women; men who have sex with men; IV drug users; those in prisons and other closed settings; sex workers and their clients; and transgender people.

“Those key populations and young women account for over 50 percent of new infections, and they are really hard to reach,” Morrison said.

Though it’s relatively easy to prevent HIV transmission during childbirth, Beyrer said about 30 percent of all infants born with HIV worldwide are born in Nigeria.

​In the U.S., HIV is increasingly an infection in communities with high rates of poverty and in black and Hispanic populations.

The National Institutes of Health announced Aug. 20 that getting these groups into care is critical to ending the HIV epidemic in the U.S. NIH also announced an international program to reduce the stigma around the virus so more people with the disease can seek treatment.

Experts agree it is possible to end the HIV pandemic, even without a vaccine. But to do this, governments and communities need to be involved, funding needs to be continued, and everyone with HIV needs to be treated.
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Fed Watchers Listen for Rate Hints in Powell Speech Friday

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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will not lack for urgent topics to address when he gives the keynote speech Friday to an annual gathering of global central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Fed watchers will be listening for anything Powell has to say about financial turmoil in emerging markets, the economic threats posed by the growing trade war launched by President Donald Trump, and Trump’s criticism of the Fed’s recent interest rate hikes.

Investors will especially want to hear whether Powell addresses the central question of whether any of those developments might lead the Fed to alter its plan to raise interest rates two more times this year and to keep raising them next year as well.

If Powell sounds confident that the economy won’t be unduly hurt by the administration’s tariffs on imports and the retaliatory tariffs they have provoked or by a currency crisis in developing markets, Fed watchers will likely conclude that the central bank will maintain a course of gradual rate hikes to reflect a robust economy.

But if Powell strikes a message of concern, it could be read as a sign that the Fed is considering slowing its hikes. A slower pace of rate increases would be intended to encourage continued borrowing and spending by companies and individuals to drive economic growth.

​Political pressure

Amid the grandeur of the Grant Teton Mountains, Powell will be the lead-off speaker at the conference, which has been sponsored for more than three decades by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

It will be Powell’s first chance to respond publicly to Trump’s recent criticism, which critics say amounted to an intrusion on the Fed’s longstanding independence from political influence. Two top Fed officials made clear Thursday that Trump’s criticism won’t affect their decisions on whether to continue raising rates. The Fed is widely expected to resume doing so at its next policy meeting late next month.

“Our job at the Fed is to make decisions on monetary policy and supervision without regard to political considerations, and I’m confident we’ll continue to do that,” Robert Kaplan, head of the Fed’s Dallas regional bank, said in an interview with CNBC. Kaplan said he foresees three to four more rate hikes over the next nine to 12 months.

Similarly, Esther George, head of the Kansas City Fed, said she expects the central bank to raise rates twice more this year, with more next year.

“Expressions of angst about higher interest rates are not unique to this administration,” she said in a separate interview with CNBC.

This week, Trump complained in an interview with Reuters that he was “not thrilled” with Powell’s Fed for raising rates. It marked the second time this summer that Trump had publicly criticized the policymaking of the Fed.

That broke a tradition that the White House should refrain from attacks on the Fed because such criticism can shake the confidence of financial markets and that the Fed is committed to keeping inflation under control without regard to political considerations.

Seven interest rate hikes

The Fed has raised its key policy rate seven times since late 2015 after seven years of keeping the rate at a record low near zero to help the economy recovery from the Great Recession. Five of those rate hikes, including two this year, have occurred with Trump in the White House. In June, the Fed boosted its projection for expected hikes this year from three to four.

The Fed’s policy rate stands in a range of 1.75 percent to 2 percent. The rate hikes are intended to prevent the economy from overheating and inflation from accelerating. But higher rates make borrowing costlier and can depress stock prices. Trump has complained that the Fed’s efforts are hampering his attempts to boost growth with his $1.5 trillion tax cut, deregulation and tougher enforcement of trade agreements.
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Powell Signals More Hikes Ahead if US Economy Stays Strong

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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell signaled Friday that he expects the Fed to continue gradually raising interest rates if the U.S. economic expansion remains strong.

Powell added that while annual inflation has risen to near the Fed’s 2 percent target rate, it doesn’t seem likely to accelerate above that point. That suggests that he doesn’t foresee a need for the Fed to step up its rate hikes. Late next month, the Fed is widely expected to resume raising rates.

Speaking to an annual conference of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Powell said the Fed recognizes that it needs to strike a careful balance between its mandates of maximizing employment and keeping price increases stable. He said a gradual approach is the best way for the Fed to navigate between the risks of raising rates too fast and “needlessly shortening the expansion” and moving too slowly and risking an overheated economy.

“My colleagues and I,” the Fed chairman said in his speech, “are carefully monitoring incoming data, and we are setting policy to do what monetary policy can do to support continued growth, a strong labor market, and inflation near 2 percent.”

Powell made no mention of the recent public criticism from President Donald Trump, who has said he’s unhappy with the Fed’s rate hikes. The president has complained that the Fed’s tightening of credit could threaten the continued strong growth he aims to achieve through the tax cuts enacted late last year, a pullback of regulations and a rewriting of trade deals to better serve the United States.

Many have seen Trump’s complaints about the Fed’s rate hikes as an intrusion on the central bank’s longstanding independence from political influence. On Thursday, two top Fed officials made clear Thursday that Trump’s criticism won’t affect their decisions on whether to continue raising rates.

Powell also made no mention in his speech of what many economists see as the most serious threat to the economy: The trade war that Trump has launched with America’s main trading partners — a conflict that risks depressing U.S. and global economic growth the longer it goes on.

The Fed chairman focused his remarks in part on the difficulty the Fed faces in setting interest-rate policies at a time when the economy seems to be undergoing changes that challenge long-standing beliefs of how low unemployment can fall before it ignites inflation pressures. He said there is also much uncertainty over the “neutral” rate of inflation —  the point at which the Fed’s policy rate is neither stimulating economic growth or holding it back.

The Fed’s economic projections, compiled from estimates of all Fed officials, estimates the current neutral rate at 2.9 percent. But Powell noted that there’s a wide difference of opinion about it.

After having kept its key policy rate near zero for seven years to help lift the economy out of the Great Recession, the Fed has raised rates seven times, most recently in March and June this year. Most Fed watchers foresee two more hikes this year — next month and then in December.

Powell said the Fed’s incremental approach to raising rates has so far succeeded.

“The economy is strong,” he said. “Inflation is near our 2 percent objective and most people who want a job are finding one. We are setting policy to do what monetary policy can do to support continued growth, a strong labor market and inflation near 2 percent.”
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How ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Broke Stereotypes, Box Office

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Jon Chu’s romantic comedy “Crazy Rich Asians” showcases lavish sets and beautiful people. Set against the exotic and ultramodern backdrop of Singapore, the film rewards its audience with an uplifting modern day fairy tale. But what makes this Hollywood film stand out is its all Asian cast. VOA’s Penelope Poulou looks at the movie’s box office success and the significance it has on the Asian community.
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