Month: December 2018

At Least 8 Killed in Sudan Protests, State of Emergency Declared

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A state of emergency has been declared in two eastern Sudan states after at least eight protesters were killed in mass demonstrations against rising prices.

Thousands of protesters marched in cities and towns across Sudan Thursday, angry over widespread corruption and the rising costs of basic goods, including bread.

Eyewitnesses in al-Qadarif said men wearing uniforms were among the protesters. Prices for food have skyrocketed in recent months, with inflation topping 60 percent. This comes after the government cut subsidies earlier this year.

Protesters there torched government buildings, including the headquarters of the ruling National Congress Party. Eyewitnesses in Atbara say the building was burned to the ground.

States of emergency were declared in the cities of al-Qadarif and Atbara.

Some of the Sudanese protesters are demanding a regime change. Many say they cannot earn a living or pay for basic needs like bread and fuel.

A Khartoum resident said students were planning to stage more protests Thursday around Khartoum University, but government security agents intervened and the students were ordered off the streets.

Police fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters within a kilometer of the presidential palace in Khartoum. Demonstrations were reported in Atbara, Port Sudan, Barbar, Nohoud and other cities.

The economy has deteriorated over the past several years after South Sudan became independent, depriving Khartoum of much of its oil revenue.

Carol Van Dam Falk and Kenneth Schwartz contributed.
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Virginia House With Over-the-Top Christmas Spirit

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Christmas is a time for giving. For one man that means decorating his house with over-the-top Christmas displays to warm people’s hearts. It’s a family tradition that Kurt Farmer took over from his father. VOA’s Deborah Block takes us to the home full of Christmas spirit in Alexandria, Virginia.
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Wildlife Bridge to Reduce Car Collisions with Animals

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A bridge over a busy interstate highway — not for cars or pedestrians, but for wildlife — is under construction in Washington state. The aim is to keep the animals off the road while reconnecting their forest habitat. VOA’s Steve Baragona has more.
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Cuban, US Major League Baseball Sign Historic Player Deal

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Cuban baseball players no longer have to risk their lives if they want to become stars in the U.S. major leagues.

Major League Baseball and the Cuban Baseball Federation signed a historic deal Wednesday allowing Cuban players to come to the United States without having to defect or place their lives in the hands of criminal human traffickers.

“We believe this agreement accomplishes that objective and will allow the next generation of Cuban players to pursue their dream without enduring many of the hardships experienced by current and former Cuban players who have played Major League Baseball,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said Wednesday.

Under the deal, Cuban players who are at least 25 years old and have played in the Cuban Leagues for six seasons can negotiate with a U.S. team. Other players would need special permission.

Major League Baseball would pay a release fee to the Cuban federation for every player it signs.

Unlike in the past, Cuban players would be allowed to return home without fear of arrest or persecution and could spend their U.S. salaries any way they see fit.

The Cuban federation said Wednesday’s agreement lets players play baseball “without discrimination, in equal terms, in the MLB without being compelled to break their ties of any kind with their country.”

Cuban-born superstar Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox, who defected to the U.S. in 2013, said, “Words cannot fully express my heartfelt joy and excitement. Knowing that the next generation of Cuban baseball players will not endure the unimaginable fate of past Cuban players is the realization of an impossible dream for all of us.”
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US Central Bank Boosts Benchmark Interest Rate

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The independent U.S. central bank raised borrowing rates Wednesday for the fourth time this year, dismissing President Donald Trump’s contention that policymakers ought not tinker with the country’s robust economy, the world’s largest. 

 

The Federal Reserve board voted 10-0 after a two-day meeting to increase its benchmark short-term interest rate — which is the rate that banks charge each other on overnight loans to meet reserve minimums — by a quarter percentage point to a range of 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent, its highest point in a decade.  

 

But the Fed also took note of clouds on the horizon for the U.S. economy, saying it expected to increase rates again only twice in 2019, not three times as it had previously projected.

It also cut its 2019 economic growth forecast for the U.S. from 2.5 percent to 2.3 percent, both figures well off the 4.2 percent U.S. growth in the April-to-June period and the 3.5 percent figure from July to September. 

Stock prices have sunk 

 

Policymakers said they would closely watch “global economic and financial market developments and assess their implications for the economic outlook.” In the last several weeks, stock market indexes in the U.S. and elsewhere have fallen sharply, a plunge for some U.S. market indicators that wiped out all previous 2018 gains. 

 

The interest rate set by the Fed often affects borrowing costs throughout the U.S., for major corporations and consumers, and often sets the standard for global lending rates. 

 

Trump had no immediate comment on the latest boost in interest rates, but earlier in the week implored policymakers to forgo another increase: 

But central bank policymakers operate independently of White House oversight, and Wednesday’s quarter-point increase had been widely expected.

Trump has basked in a robust U.S. economy, even as numerous investigations engulf him and his 2016 presidential campaign, and key advisers have quit his administration or been forced out.

U.S. trade disputes are ongoing with China, and world stock market volatility has cut investor gains in recent weeks. But the 3.7 percent jobless rate is the lowest in the United States in 49 years, worker wages are increasing and consumers — whose activity accounts for about 70 percent of the U.S. economy — are spending. 

​Unhappy with Powell

But Jerome Powell, the Fed board member Trump named a year ago as chairman, had drawn the president’s ire by overseeing three interest rate hikes this year ahead of the latest one.

Trump last month said he was “not even a little bit happy” with his appointment of Powell.

Trump has said he thinks the Fed is “way off base” by raising rates, but has been powerless to stop it from boosting them. Central bank policymakers have raised interest rates to keep the inflation rate in check and keep the economy from expanding too rapidly. 

“I’m doing deals and I’m not being accommodated by the Fed,” Trump told The Washington Post last month. “They’re making a mistake because I have a gut and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else’s brain can ever tell me.”

Some economists are predicting, however, that the decade-long improving U.S. economy could stall in the next year or so and perhaps even fall into a recession, which, if it occurs, would in most circumstances call for cutting interest rates to boost economic activity. 
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DC Sues Facebook Over Cambridge Analytica’s Data Use

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The attorney general for Washington, D.C., said Wednesday that the nation’s capital had sued Facebook over reports involving Cambridge Analytica’s use of data from the social media giant.

“Facebook failed to protect the privacy of its users and deceived them about who had access to their data and how it was used,” Attorney General Karl Racine said in a statement. “Facebook put users at risk of manipulation by allowing companies like Cambridge Analytica and other third-party applications to collect personal data without users’ permission.”

The lawsuit came as Facebook faced new reports that it shared its users’ data without their permission.

Cambridge Analytica, which worked for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign at one point, gained access to personal data from tens of millions of Facebook’s users. The D.C. attorney general said in the lawsuit that this exposed nearly half of the district’s residents’ data to manipulation for

political purposes during the 2016 campaign, and he alleged that Facebook’s “lax oversight and misleading privacy settings” had allowed the consulting firm to harvest the information.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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US, China Spar Over Trade at WTO

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The United States and China blamed each other for the crisis in the world trading system during a two-day “trade policy review” of the United States at the World Trade Organization.

The Chinese representative to the WTO, Hu Yingzhi, accused the United States of deforming the rules of world trade, which is having a detrimental impact on the economy and on American workers.

U.S. Ambassador to the WTO Dennis Shea retorted that the crisis was caused by China’s trade-distorting practices. He disputed the charge that the United States is the center of the crisis, saying instead that the U.S. is the epicenter of the solution.

WTO Trade Policy Review Division Director Willy Alfaro described the two-day debate as lively and engaged. He told VOA that member states expressed a number of concerns, including worry about a shift of focus in the U.S. trade policy, which is based on five pillars.

“The first one is the adoption of trade policies supporting the national security policy,” Alfaro said. “The second one is building a stronger U.S. economy and [third is] negotiating better trade deals, [fourth is] vigorous enforcement of domestic trade laws and rights under existing trade agreements, and finally reform of the multilateral trading system.” 

Alfaro said the U.S. has received a lot of support from member countries on the need to reform the multilateral trading system and to make it more transparent.

However, WTO officials said members also raised concerns regarding the introduction of new “Buy American” provisions, which could result in unnecessary trade barriers and increased protectionism. 

They also criticized U.S. agricultural policy, particularly the limited market access for certain commodities, high tariffs, and the continued use of trade distorting support.
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FDA Panel Backs Prescribing Overdose Reversal Drug With Opioids

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An advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday narrowly recommended prescribing the opioid overdose reversal drug, naloxone, along with addictive painkillers.

The panel voted 12-11 in favor of labeling changes for opioids that recommend co-prescribing the overdose antidote, concluding a two-day discussion on ways to make the potentially life-saving drug readily available.

The recommendation underscores concerns about the growing opioid overdose epidemic that claimed more than 49,000 American lives last year.

When administered quickly, naloxone helps reverse the effects of an overdose and saves lives.

The prescription of naloxone could facilitate a healthy dialog between patients and the healthcare provider, Maryann Amirshahi, a panel member who voted in favor, said.

But co-prescribing naloxone to all patients who are prescribed painkillers could increase annual healthcare costs by $63.9 billion to $580.8 billion, according to FDA studies.

“I think co-prescribing is an expensive way to saturate the population with naloxone. The at-risk population is not necessarily the ones that are being prescribed new narcotics,” said Mary Ellen McCann, associate professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, a panelist who voted against the decision.

“I’m concerned about a person going in with a broken arm and ending up with $30 of a codeine product and a [naloxone] autoinjector at $4,000 plus.”

Branded versions for treating opioid overdose include Adapt Pharma’s Narcan nasal spray and Kaleo Inc’s Evzio autoinjector.

Robert Kramer, chief operating officer of Emergent BioSolutions Inc, which bought Adapt Pharma this year, said the FDA’s cost estimates were “inflated,” adding the number includes the price of Narcan and Kaleo’s Evzio, which has a list price of over $4,000.

The list price is not necessarily what patients actually pay and “out-of-pocket” costs vary depending on the duration of the treatment and individual healthcare plans.

A pack of Narcan containing two doses lists at a price of $125, while generic naloxone retails at around $40 per dose. “A fully implemented co-prescription program targeting opioid prescription associated with the highest risk of opioid overdose would cost an estimated $115 million per year as opposed to the $64 billion number,” Kramer said.

Kaleo announced last week an authorized generic of Evzio, which will be available at a list price of $178 for a pack of two doses.

Naloxone is currently made available through distribution and prescription programs in pain clinics and opioid treatment centers, as well as “take-home” programs among high-risk patients.
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Poland Signs 20-Year Deal to Buy Natural Gas From the US

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Poland has signed a long-term deal with a U.S. company for supplies of liquefied natural gas as part of an effort to reduce its dependence on Russian energy, the two sides announced on Wednesday.

Port Arthur LNG, a subsidiary of San Diego-based Sempra Energy, and Poland’s state gas company PGNiG jointly announced the agreement for the sale of 2.7 billion cubic meters per year of gas to Poland over a 20-year period.

Their statement said that is enough to meet about 15 percent of Poland’s daily gas needs.

“This agreement marks an important step toward Poland’s energy independence and security,” the U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry said.

Sempra Energy’s CEO Jeffrey Martin said the deal helps his company “advance our vision to become North America’s premier energy infrastructure company.”

No financial details were disclosed, in line with the secretive nature of gas deals, which are sensitive politically given Russia’s dominance of Europe’s energy market.

In recent weeks Poland also signed long-term deals for gas with American suppliers Cheniere and Venture Global Calcasieu Pass and Venture Global Plaquemines LNG.

These deals have been sealed as both Poland and the United States have been trying to stop Nord Stream 2, a pipeline under construction that, when finished, would transport gas from Russia to energy-hungry Germany.

Poland, along with several other European countries, see Nord Stream 2, which bypasses Ukraine, as a political project meant to weaken that country and gain leverage over Europe by making it more dependent on Russian gas.

Officials for the Nord Stream 2 dispute that view, saying it is merely a commercial project and would not cut off Ukraine, pointing to diversification of Europe’s gas market.

Also Wednesday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan met with Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz in Warsaw, the last stop in a visit to several countries in the region.

Ahead of his visit the State Department said he would meet with Polish leaders to discuss shared concerns over Nord Stream 2, among other issues.

Czaputowicz told reporters in Warsaw that Nord Stream 2 is “harmful to the security of all of the European Union.”

He called Germany’s support for the project “anti-European” and also faulted Austria for using its six-month EU presidency, which ends this month, to keep the issue off Europe’s agenda.

 
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European Officials Agree on Ban of Some Single-use Plastics

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Plastic knives just won’t cut it any longer, if the European Union has its way.

The 28-nation bloc moved closer to banning single-use straws, plates, cutlery and cotton swabs, after officials from EU member states and the European Parliament on Wednesday backed recommendations by its executive branch designed to reduce marine pollution.

Environmental campaigners have been calling for curbs on throwaway plastic that’s accumulating in the oceans because, unlike organic materials, it doesn’t decompose but simply breaks down into ever smaller pieces.

Scientific studies have found minuscule particles known as microplastics are being consumed by animals throughout the food chain, though the impact on human health is unclear.

“When we have a situation where one year you can bring your fish home in a plastic bag, and the next year you are bringing that bag home in a fish, we have to work hard and work fast,” said Karmenu Vella, the European commissioner for environment, maritime affairs and fisheries.

The EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, estimates that almost 60 percent of the 25.8 million metric tons (28.4 million tons) of plastic waste produced in the bloc each year comes from packaging, with much of it exported to third countries rather than recycled.

German environmental group NABU claims that about 350,000 metric tons of plastic waste could be prevented in Germany alone with the ban.

Once the ban is formally approved, countries will have two years to restrict the use of single-use plastic products, which will also include drink stirrers, balloon sticks, and polystyrene food and beverage containers, though plastic cups are exempt for now.

PET bottles sold in the EU will have to contain at least 25 percent recycled plastic from 2025, rising to 30 percent by 2030.

The EU also wants to work with manufacturers to inform consumers of the presence of plastic in wet wipes and cigarette filters.

The move comes a day after the EU executive, member states and the European Parliament agreed to lower emissions limits for new vehicles from 2030. According to the plan, automakers’ fleet-wide emissions of carbon dioxide — the main greenhouse gas — will need to be cut by 37.5 percent compared to 2021.
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Facebook Defends Data Sharing After New Report on Partner Deals

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Facebook defended its data sharing practices Wednesday after a report revealing that certain partners of the social network had access to a range of personal information about users and their friends.

The New York Times late Tuesday reported that some 150 companies — including powerful partners like Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix and Spotify — could access detailed information about Facebook users, including data about their friends.

The report marked yet another potential embarrassment for Facebook, which has been roiled by a series of scandals on data protection and privacy and has been scrutinized over the hijacking of user data in the 2016 US election campaign.

Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, Facebook’s head of developer platforms and programs, said in a blog post early Wednesday that the Times report was about “integration partners” which enabled “social experiences — like seeing recommendations from their Facebook friends — on other popular apps and websites.”

Papamiltiadis added that “none of these partnerships or features gave companies access to information without people’s permission,” and maintained that the deals did not violate a 2012 privacy settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission.

According to documents seen by the Times, Facebook allowed Microsoft’s Bing search engine to see names of Facebook users’ friends without consent and gave Netflix and Spotify the ability to read private messages.”

The report said Amazon was able to obtain user names and contact information through their friends, and Yahoo could view streams of friends’ posts.

While some of the deals date back as far as 2010, the Times said they remained active as late as 2017 and some were still in effect this year.

‘We’ve been public’

Papamiltiadis said however that “we’ve been public about these features and partnerships over the years because we wanted people to actually use them.”

“They were discussed, reviewed, and scrutinized by a wide variety of journalists and privacy advocates,” he said.

But he said most of the features are now gone.

“Still, we recognize that we’ve needed tighter management over how partners and developers can access information,” he added.

Netflix said in a statement the feature was used to make the streaming service “more social” by allowing users to make recommendations to friends, but that it stopped using it in 2015.

“At no time did we access people’s private messages on Facebook or ask for the ability to do so,” Netflix said in an emailed statement.

Spotify offered a similar response, indicating the music service “cannot read users’ private Facebook inbox messages across any of our current integrations.”

The Canadian bank RBC, also cited in the New York Times, said the deal with Facebook “was limited to the development of a service that enabled clients to facilitate payment transactions to their Facebook friends,” and that it was discontinued in 2015.

Facebook has already been called before lawmakers in the US and elsewhere to defend its data policies since news broke this year on the misuse of personal data in 2016 by Cambridge Analytica, a British consultancy working on Donald Trump’s campaign.

A report prepared for US lawmakers revealed this week showed detailed information on how Russian entities manipulated Facebook and other social networks to support the Trump effort.

Senator Brian Schatz said the latest revelations highlight a need for tougher controls on how tech companies handle user data.

“It has never been more clear,” Schatz tweeted. “We need a federal privacy law. They are never going to volunteer to do the right thing.”
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US Teams to Play in European Snow Volleyball Tour

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When USA Volleyball asked four-time Olympian Lloy Ball to put together a team for a snow volleyball tournament in Moscow this week, the 2008 gold medalist was eager to accept.

Never mind that he’s never played on the snow before.

Or that, at 46, he’s not a likely candidate for the U.S. Olympic team if the discipline eventually is added to the Winter Games.

“I’ve been playing volleyball my entire life. It would just be an amazing feeling to know that me and my friends would be able to help volleyball grow,” Ball said. “To help be one of the forefathers, to get another discipline of volleyball into the Olympics, it would be awesome.”

The son of a volleyball coach and a member of the U.S. indoor team that won gold in Beijing, Ball played professionally in Russia for six years and was a natural choice to be a part of the first American team to play on the European snow volleyball tour. After what he is calling an exploratory mission, he hopes to report back to the national governing body on how it can help the sport grow.

The ultimate goal: helping snow volleyball earn a spot in the Olympics — perhaps by 2026. If it does, volleyball will be the first sport to be included in both the Summer and Winter Games.

“We want to climb this mountain step by step. We do not want to rush,” said Fabio Azevedo, the general director of the sport’s international governing body, adding that snow volleyball will join the Olympics “as soon as the discipline has an amazing relevance in the world.”

“We have our road map, we have our timeline,” he said. “We really believe it is premature now to mention anything about Winter Olympic Games. I cannot say to you 2026 is realistic or not.”

Still, they are plowing ahead.

U.S. team

After a demonstration at February’s Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the European governing body held its first snow championships in March. With its 2018-19 tour starting this weekend in Moscow, it has invited teams from the United States to compete. (Teams from Kazakhstan and Brazil were also offered wild-card entries.)

Knowing that he spent time in Russia and would make a good ambassador, USA Volleyball chief Jamie Davis called Ball, who remains active as a coach and a semi-pro grass and beach volleyball player. He pulled together a team with Will Robbins, Kevin Owens and Tomas Goldsmith.

Although they have been training outside in Indiana to get used to the cold, the first time they will play on a snow court will be in Moscow.

“I’m going to rely on my massive amount of repetition and skill training and experience,” Ball said with a laugh. “Hopefully we won’t embarrass ourselves too badly and hopefully we’ll know what to do better next time. I’m going to come back and sit down with Jamie, and maybe say `Hey, this is something that can take off.”‘

The women’s team for the Moscow tournament, which USA Volleyball put together, consists of Allie Wheeler, Emily Hartong, Katie Spieler and Karissa Cook.

“It’s a milestone for us,” Davis said. “We’re starting at level zero and building this up from scratch.”

“My hope is that we’ll get more and more athletes that are concentrating on snow, in addition to beach and indoor,” he said. “What I would hope for snow volleyball is that we’re going to be able to have players — north, south, east or west — be able to go outdoors to play the sport they love to play.”

Growth of snow volleyball

Although snow volleyball has kicked around Europe for a decade, its growth has accelerated over the last five years. The European volleyball federation officially recognized the sport in 2015, and a seven-stop European tour is planned for 2018-19, starting with this week’s event in Moscow.

Azevedo said the FIVB is hoping to add three more events of its own, including one in Argentina that will be the first outside of Europe. Davis said he hopes to host one in the United States next winter.

From there, the FIVB is planning for a snow volleyball competition at the Youth Olympics and World University Games in 2020 and the winter Military World Games in 2021, along with a possible world championship.

“We are really shaping this new discipline around the world,” Azevedo said, adding that it would have much lower barriers to entry than many winter sports, which require ice rinks or luge runs or mountains.

That could help open the Winter Olympics to countries with successful volleyball programs but no ice or snow.

“Possibly snow volleyball is the only winter sport you can just pass by and play,” Azevedo said. “You just need proper clothes, football cleats and you can play.”

Rules in snow

An earlier incarnation of the sport had two-person teams, like beach volleyball, but organizers have tinkered with the rules and settled on three-on-three, with a fourth teammate as a substitute. While indoor sets go to 25 and the beach goes to 21, snow volleyball games are up to 15.

“Thank God, because it is minus 20 in Russia — Celsius,” Ball said.

Although the court layout is similar to beach, the ball is heavier when it gets wet and players wear thermal clothing and soccer cleats for traction. Ball said the sport puts a premium on ball control and serving, because it’s harder to move quickly in the snow.

“As long as you control the serve receive and serve well, I think on any surface you can be successful,” he said.

Martin Kaswurm, who is credited with inventing the sport when he set up a court outside his restaurant in Austria, said having different rules helps distinguish the sport from “its older brother beach volleyball” and could make it more appealing to Olympic officials.

“This should help to position snow volleyball as a unique version of the game,” he said.
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White House, Congress Appear Headed Toward Funding Extension

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The White House and Congress appeared headed toward agreement Wednesday on a stopgap spending plan to avert a partial government shutdown at midnight Friday, but it does not include the $5 billion President Donald Trump wanted for construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate would vote later in the day on the measure funding operations for a quarter of the U.S. government until Feb. 8, when Trump and lawmakers could again face the possibility of a partial closure.

Democratic leader Charles Schumer said Democrats would support the temporary spending plan, with the remainder of the U.S. government already funded through the end of next September.

Trump made a pledge during his 2016 campaign to build a border wall to thwart illegal immigration and make Mexico pay for it. The president, however, has not been able to secure U.S. taxpayer funding for it even though both houses of Congress currently are under the control of his Republican Party.

He faces an even more daunting political challenge in the new year, when Democrats, who are adamantly opposed to the wall, take control of the House of Representatives, while Republicans retain their Senate majority.

On Twitter, Trump said, “One way or the other, we will win on the Wall!”

Trump aide Kellyanne Conway told reporters that the U.S. leader would “take a look at” the stopgap funding plan, “certainly.”

Trump last week said he would “proudly” own a shutdown in order to get $5 billion in funding for construction of a wall along the 3,200-kilometer border with Mexico; but, without enough votes in Congress, Trump retreated Tuesday, with the White House saying it would look for “other ways” to secure funding by trying to tap unused money from several federal agencies.

“We’ll see what happens,” Trump said. “It’s too early to say. We need border security.”

Democrats have proposed keeping 2019 funding at $1.3 billion for border security fencing and other improvements, but not specifically for the wall.

In a pair of tweets, Trump blamed opposition Democrats for the spending impasse, although some Republicans also oppose construction of the wall.

“In our Country, so much money has been poured down the drain, for so many years, but when it comes to Border Security and the Military, the Democrats fight to the death,” he said.

Trump wrongly claimed that “Mexico is paying (indirectly) for the Wall” through the new U.S. trade deal with Mexico and Canada, with “far more money coming to the U.S.” But the pact has yet to be ratified by Congress and has not taken effect.

Congress has approved funding for three-quarters of U.S. government operations through Sept. 30, but the remaining quarter left without a 2019 spending plan includes the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees border control operations, and the State Department handling U.S. diplomatic operations.

If a deal is not reached to avert the partial government shutdown, the affected agencies would start winding down nonessential operations Friday, with more than 800,000 federal workers furloughed or working for no pay.

On Tuesday, McConnell proposed $1.6 billion for border fencing — money already agreed upon in a bipartisan Homeland Security bill — and an additional $1 billion Trump could use to spend on the border.

McConnell called the offer “reasonable.” Democratic leaders said no.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said she and Schumer could “not support the offer they made of a billion-dollar slush fund for the president to implement his very wrong immigration policies.”
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Uber Loses Lastest UK Legal Bid to Block Worker Rights for Drivers

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Uber lost its latest court bid Wednesday to stop British drivers from being classified as workers, entitling them to rights such as the minimum wage, in a decision which jeopardizes the taxi app’s business model.

Two drivers successfully argued at a tribunal in 2016 that the Silicon Valley firm exerted significant control over them to provide an on-demand service and that they should cease to be considered self-employed, which gives few protections in law.

An employment appeal tribunal upheld that decision last year prompting Uber to go to the Court of Appeal, which ruled against the firm in a decision handed down Wednesday.
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EU Gives US Two Months to Name Data Privacy Ombudsman

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The European Union on Wednesday gave U.S. President Donald Trump two months to name an ombudsman to tackle EU citizens’ complaints under a data protection deal sealed by predecessor Barack Obama’s team.

Brussels has previously sought assurances the Trump administration is committed to the deal to protect Europeans’ personal data held in the United States by internet giants like Google and Facebook.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said an annual review found that Washington “continues to ensure an adequate level of protection for personal data” under the 2016 Privacy Shield.

But it said the United States should “nominate a permanent ombudsperson by February 28, 2019 to replace the one that is currently acting.”

If this does not happen, the commission warned it could take “appropriate measures” under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which was adopted in May.

The privacy shield came into force in August 2016 to replace a previous arrangement that the EU’s top court struck down over concerns about U.S. intelligence snooping.

“Today’s review shows that the Privacy Shield is generally a success,” said Andrus Ansip, the Commission vice president for the digital single market.

More than 3,850 companies have been certified, including giants Google, Microsoft and IBM, creating “operational ground” to improve how the deal works, he said.

During the first review more than a year ago, the Commission said more than 2,400 companies had been certified.

“We now expect our American partners to nominate the ombudsperson on a permanent basis, so we can make sure that our EU-US relations in data protection are fully trustworthy,” Ansip said in a statement.

After the first review, the Commission said the Trump administration had dispelled initial EU doubts about its commitment to the privacy deal despite its “America First” policy.

Officials say the Privacy Shield lays down tough rules to prevent U.S. intelligence agencies accessing European data. Companies face penalties if they do not meet EU standards of protection.

The European Court of Justice threw out the earlier Safe Harbour arrangement after Austrian activist Max Schrems sued Facebook in Ireland, citing U.S. snooping practices exposed by former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.
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Christian Readers Keep the Faith

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The bestselling book of all time is believed to be the Bible, but the holy book is not the only title attracting readers looking for books that reflect Christian values.

Christian publishers produce a variety of fiction novels covering traditional commercial genres — historical, suspense, romance, contemporary — but their readers desire more than a good story.

“Your reader is looking for something consistent with the biblical world view,” says Andrea Doering, editorial director for Revell Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group, one of the dominant Christian publishers in the market. “They are not going to run into language that’s offensive, they’re not going to run into premarital sex being celebrated as a real lifestyle or having affairs as something that is commonplace or OK. It’s not that that doesn’t happen in the plotline, but it’s not considered the best way of living. They want the story, but they don’t want to have to put a filter on.”

The Christian book market accounts for 7 percent of the total book market so far in 2018, earning $44 million, up from $39 million, or about 6 percent of the total book market, last year, according to The NPD Group. Between 2016 and 2017, the Christian market saw a revenue increase of 5 percent.

These steady increases over the past three years have continued despite a decline in Christian book distributors and the shuttering of Family Christian Stores, the largest retailer of Christian books and merchandise in the country, which closed all 240 of its stores in 36 states in 2017, after declaring bankruptcy in 2015.

Nonfiction titles tend to dominate the Christian publishing market. In December 2018, the top five Christian bestsellers were nonfiction, according to The NPD Group.

One of 2018’s overall breakout publishing stars is blogger Rachel Hollis. Her self-help book, Girl Wash Your Face, has sold more than 2 million copies since its publication in February 2018 and has stayed on The New York Times bestseller list for 34 weeks. Hollis’s runaway hit was published by Thomas Nelson, a division of HarperCollins that focuses on providing Christian content.

At Baker Publishing Group, the current bestselling title is a “clean” joke book for kids. Other big moneymakers for the publisher include Manual to Manhood and The Girls’ Guide to Conquering Life, which offer basic tools for living for adolescents.

“Revell publishes books for people with a faith-based background that are looking for hope and help in their everyday life. They’re looking for inspiration. They’re looking for tools to live better,” says Doering. “In all of our fiction even, hope is definitely an element, even in the suspense. You know, the good guy wins, justice is always served. We want to show basically that there is power in the truth and there’s power in the gospel.”

The average Christian book buyer is a woman, about half of Christian book buyers are over the age of 45, and almost half of Christian book-buying households earn less than $50,000, according to a 2015 report released by Nielsen BookScan (which was acquired by The NPD Group in 2017).

On the fiction side, suspense, romantic suspense and romance are among Revell’s bestselling titles, according to Doering. Stories set in America, including in Amish country, have the most appeal to readers.

Certain rules apply in Christian fiction. For example, cursing and premarital sex are big no-no’s.

Author Vanessa Riley, a Stanford graduate with a PhD in mechanical engineering, says she rarely thinks about guidelines when writing her faith-filled historical romances. Her books are influenced by her upbringing in the American South, the so-called Bible Belt, and her own 30-day Christian courtship, during which she met and became engaged to her husband of 22 years.

“As a woman of faith, writing a story of faith, there’s just things that you’re just not going to do,” Riley says. “If you have an inground faith, if you have a passion to tell a story that’s going to edify the soul and make people think that there’s hope, you don’t really need a list of this, that and the other thing to make sure your stories fit.”

Riley, whose historical romances feature multicultural characters, has been published by both mainstream and Christian publishers, but she says it’s been a challenge to find a home for her stories in the Christian publishing world.

“I think that the inspirational market as is, is telling very similar stories to what they’ve always told and I think there is a definite market for that,” Riley says. “If they want to diversify their readership so they look like more of middle America, the urban cities, the South as we see it every day, then they’re going to have to look for more stories and I think that’s their quandary. They don’t know how to tap into these other markets.”

Doering, who has not worked with Riley, says she welcomes all kinds of characters.

“If someone positions a book as ‘This would be great to add to your multicultural or your diversity landscape,’ I would say, ‘Well, you tell me a great story and then let’s talk.’ That’s the key. For a reader, it’s all about the story.”

Although author Shawn Smucker is the son of a pastor, he says he didn’t set out to write overtly religious books, yet his young adult mysteries do reflect his Christian values. When his agent tried to sell his first book, Smucker ran into obstacles from both mainstream and Christian publishers.

“Most of the Christian houses that we sent to said, ‘Well, I’m not sure this is Christian enough. It’s a good story, it’s good writing, but we kind of are looking for things a little bit more straightforward, more easily recognizable as Christian,’” Smucker says, “and then the secular houses that we sent out to said, ‘Oh well, this is too religious.’”

Smucker eventually found a publishing home at Revell, which also published Smucker’s latest book, Once We Were Strangers, a nonfiction account of his friendship with a Muslim Syrian refugee.

Reaching a mainstream audience continues to be a challenge for authors who write books that reflect their Christian faith.

“You want to reach as many people as possible with hope,” Doering says, “and so the desire to write something that’s going to be scripturally consistent, but that would reach beyond the borders of someone who is going to church and would reach someone who needs hope…I think that’s a challenge for authors. They would really love to keep the door open and reach those people.”
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Onward Christian Readers: Keeping the Faith with ‘Clean’ Novels, Self-help Books

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The bestselling book of all time is believed to be the Bible, but the holy book is not the only title attracting readers looking for books that reflect Christian values.

Christian publishers produce a variety of fiction novels covering traditional commercial genres — historical, suspense, romance, contemporary — but their readers desire more than a good story.

“Your reader is looking for something consistent with the biblical world view,” says Andrea Doering, editorial director for Revell Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group, one of the dominant Christian publishers in the market. “They are not going to run into language that’s offensive, they’re not going to run into premarital sex being celebrated as a real lifestyle or having affairs as something that is commonplace or OK. It’s not that that doesn’t happen in the plotline, but it’s not considered the best way of living. They want the story, but they don’t want to have to put a filter on.”

The Christian book market accounts for 7 percent of the total book market so far in 2018, earning $44 million, up from $39 million, or about 6 percent of the total book market, last year, according to The NPD Group. Between 2016 and 2017, the Christian market saw a revenue increase of 5 percent.

These steady increases over the past three years have continued despite a decline in Christian book distributors and the shuttering of Family Christian Stores, the largest retailer of Christian books and merchandise in the country, which closed all 240 of its stores in 36 states in 2017, after declaring bankruptcy in 2015.

Nonfiction titles tend to dominate the Christian publishing market. In December 2018, the top five Christian bestsellers were nonfiction, according to The NPD Group.

One of 2018’s overall breakout publishing stars is blogger Rachel Hollis. Her self-help book, Girl Wash Your Face, has sold more than 2 million copies since its publication in February 2018 and has stayed on The New York Times bestseller list for 34 weeks. Hollis’s runaway hit was published by Thomas Nelson, a division of HarperCollins that focuses on providing Christian content.

At Baker Publishing Group, the current bestselling title is a “clean” joke book for kids. Other big moneymakers for the publisher include Manual to Manhood and The Girls’ Guide to Conquering Life, which offer basic tools for living for adolescents.

“Revell publishes books for people with a faith-based background that are looking for hope and help in their everyday life. They’re looking for inspiration. They’re looking for tools to live better,” says Doering. “In all of our fiction even, hope is definitely an element, even in the suspense. You know, the good guy wins, justice is always served. We want to show basically that there is power in the truth and there’s power in the gospel.”

The average Christian book buyer is a woman, about half of Christian book buyers are over the age of 45, and almost half of Christian book-buying households earn less than $50,000, according to a 2015 report released by Nielsen BookScan (which was acquired by The NPD Group in 2017).

On the fiction side, suspense, romantic suspense and romance are among Revell’s bestselling titles, according to Doering. Stories set in America, including in Amish country, have the most appeal to readers.

Certain rules apply in Christian fiction. For example, cursing and premarital sex are big no-no’s.

Author Vanessa Riley, a Stanford graduate with a PhD in mechanical engineering, says she rarely thinks about guidelines when writing her faith-filled historical romances. Her books are influenced by her upbringing in the American South, the so-called Bible Belt, and her own 30-day Christian courtship, during which she met and became engaged to her husband of 22 years.

“As a woman of faith, writing a story of faith, there’s just things that you’re just not going to do,” Riley says. “If you have an inground faith, if you have a passion to tell a story that’s going to edify the soul and make people think that there’s hope, you don’t really need a list of this, that and the other thing to make sure your stories fit.”

Riley, whose historical romances feature multicultural characters, has been published by both mainstream and Christian publishers, but she says it’s been a challenge to find a home for her stories in the Christian publishing world.

“I think that the inspirational market as is, is telling very similar stories to what they’ve always told and I think there is a definite market for that,” Riley says. “If they want to diversify their readership so they look like more of middle America, the urban cities, the South as we see it every day, then they’re going to have to look for more stories and I think that’s their quandary. They don’t know how to tap into these other markets.”

Doering, who has not worked with Riley, says she welcomes all kinds of characters.

“If someone positions a book as ‘This would be great to add to your multicultural or your diversity landscape,’ I would say, ‘Well, you tell me a great story and then let’s talk.’ That’s the key. For a reader, it’s all about the story.”

Although author Shawn Smucker is the son of a pastor, he says he didn’t set out to write overtly religious books, yet his young adult mysteries do reflect his Christian values. When his agent tried to sell his first book, Smucker ran into obstacles from both mainstream and Christian publishers.

“Most of the Christian houses that we sent to said, ‘Well, I’m not sure this is Christian enough. It’s a good story, it’s good writing, but we kind of are looking for things a little bit more straightforward, more easily recognizable as Christian,’” Smucker says, “and then the secular houses that we sent out to said, ‘Oh well, this is too religious.’”

Smucker eventually found a publishing home at Revell, which also published Smucker’s latest book, Once We Were Strangers, a nonfiction account of his friendship with a Muslim Syrian refugee.

Reaching a mainstream audience continues to be a challenge for authors who write books that reflect their Christian faith.

“You want to reach as many people as possible with hope,” Doering says, “and so the desire to write something that’s going to be scripturally consistent, but that would reach beyond the borders of someone who is going to church and would reach someone who needs hope…I think that’s a challenge for authors. They would really love to keep the door open and reach those people.”
…

Nine In 10 Babies Born With A Cleft Condition Could Die Without Corrective Surgery

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One of the most common birth defects throughout the world is a cleft lip. Babies born with a cleft lip may also have a cleft palate, where the roof of the mouth is split. These birth defects can be repaired surgically. But unless that is done, it can result in significant disabilities and even death.

Before Daniel Truglio was born, an ultrasound showed Daniel had a cleft lip and a cleft palate. That’s when Dr. Albert Oh at Children’s National Medical Center started planning Daniel’s surgery. Oh says the ultrasound shows how severe a cleft is.

“You can also tell whether it’s one-sided or both sided, and it also gives you a chance to look for other potential associated problems that these babies can have,” Oh said.

Daniel was also born with a small jaw — a complication that can accompany a cleft palate or lip. Doctors created a hole from the front of his neck into his windpipe, so Daniel could breathe. The procedure is called a tracheostomy, or trach for short. 

Nine in 10 children with a cleft lip or palate can die without surgery according to Dr. William McGee. McGee founded Operation Smile to repair cleft lips and palates more than 35 years ago.

“More people die from lack of access to surgery, than from malaria, AIDS and TB combined,” McGee said.

Operation Smile and similar charities teach repair techniques to doctors in developing countries. Also, McGee says Operation Smile is heavily involved in research. 

“We know there’s a genetic connection to it and we have now the largest collection of genetic specimens in the world,” McGee said.

Three siblings provided the clue for the gene that causes this condition. Dr. Yang Chai led the research at the University of Southern California. Dr. Chai explained his research in a Skype interview. 

“Normally you would only see one child in the family of three or four children that develop this birth defect,” Chai said.

A genetic mutation accounts for only about a third of the cases so scientists are still searching for other causes. 

As for Daniel, he had his cleft palate fixed in May 2017. He needs more surgeries to extend his jaw and fix his teeth. But there’s a world of difference between the baby he was then, and the toddler he is today. 

Robilyn Truglio, Daniel’s mother, reflects on these changes.

“He was getting sick a lot…frequent colds, and he got pneumonia a few times…and he needed a lot more care at that time. He needed a lot of suctioning through his trach, and with getting sick all the time, he was in the hospital a couple of times, but right now if he doesn’t get sick, and if he does, it’s resolved quickly. And, he is definitely living a happy, health life right now,” Truglio said.

Daniel can now breathe on his own. He’s a happy toddler, and he is doing many of the things a two-year-old normally does.
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Composer Duo Faces Challenge of New Music for ‘Mary Poppins’

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Everyone involved in the making of “Mary Poppins Returns” felt the pressure to do justice to the original 1964 film.

 

Rob Marshall worked on it for three straight years. Animators came out of retirement to do hand-drawn animation in the style of the first. Sets were built. Cast members moved their family to London for a year. But perhaps no one short of Emily Blunt and Marshall were as heavy with responsibility as composer Marc Shaiman and his co-lyricist Scott Wittman. They had the Oscar-winning songwriting duo Robert and Richard Sherman to live up to, after all.

 

Shaiman, who composed the score and nine original songs for the new film, credits the Shermans for getting him interested in music to begin with. He remembers being four years old and listening to the “Mary Poppins” album and thinking, “This is what I want to do with my life.”

 

“He was a precocious 4-year-old,” added Wittman, who has known Shaiman for over four decades. The two are Broadway mainstays and have worked together on the “Hairspray” and “Catch Me if You Can” musicals.

 

As a framework, Marshall said he “didn’t want to reimagine the music and have it be a contemporary version of “Mary Poppins,” or Mary Poppins singing ‘Let It Go’ or something.” He wanted it in the style of the Sherman brothers and classic movie musicals, which became an opportunity for Shaiman and Wittman.

 

“We realized this was our chance to thank them via music and lyrics,” Shaiman said. “The whole movie is to say thank you, you’ve taught us all of these things, let us show you what you’ve given us by doing our take on the story.”

 

The process of writing the score and the songs was long and laborious, and a true team effort: Four months of twice-a-week sessions with Marshall and screenwriters David Magee and John DeLuca to hammer out the story, the script and the direction of the songs together, and decide which moments in the P.L. Travers books to musicalize.

 

“Very often we would say to David, can you write a monologue of what you think this should be?” Wittman said. “And then we’d say OK thanks we’re taking that and we’re going to write a lyric to it.”

 

They also were able to write specifically for Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda, playing to their strengths. The two men said Blunt has the rare gift of “perfect pitch.”

 

“I loved working with those two guys, they’re a rip,” Blunt said. “They’re just hilarious to be around.”

 

Wittman likes to quote Lin-Manuel Miranda’s summation of the music.

 

“He said this Mary Poppins rhymes with the first movie,” Wittman said. “We felt it was important that they both live in the same world. That influenced the writing.”

 

Wittman, the co-lyricist, had books upon books about London in the 30s, dictionaries of cockney rhyming slang and encyclopedias of odd Victorian words piled up in his studio that he studied and would go back to in crafting the new lyrics. He laughed that despite his extensive research, there were a few times he and Shaiman, both Americans, got caught with a rhyme that didn’t quite work with an English accent. One was pointed out by Miranda’s dialect coach, the other by the young actors portraying the Banks children.

 

The lyrics in question that the kids caught, “hand” and “command,” were to be sung by Meryl Streep, who, because of the “bizarre, bouillabaisse” of an accent she was affecting was able to make it work.

 

The whole experience has been something of a dream for Shaiman and Wittman. They got the rare privilege of getting to record the actors singing along with a 100-piece orchestra before filming began. They’ve also gotten to spend time with Richard Sherman (Robert Sherman died in 2012), and hear legends like Dick Van Dyke and Angela Lansbury sing their songs.

 

“As someone who usually can’t shut up, I have yet to find the words to describe what it is to hear them,” Shaiman said.

 

Sherman has told them that he’s happy with what they’ve done. As is their director.

 

“Marc and Scott have written this very sophisticated, hummable, fun (piece),” Marshall said. “The lyrics are so clever and so smart. You feel like you’ve heard them and know them but they’re new.”

 

Wittman said they’re, “Just proud of the movie the way it came out. It could have gone wrong in so many ways.”

 

“My agent said that!” Sherman added. “He said there are so many ways this could have gone so terribly wrong. And it’s such a miracle that none of those things happened.”
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Fans Mourn Death of Hollywood’s Penny Marshall

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American actress and filmmaker Penny Marshall, known for the television comedy “Laverne & Shirley,” is fondly remembered by friends and fans. She died late Monday at the age of 75. A spokesperson for the family announced her death Tuesday, citing complications from diabetes as the cause. Zlatica Hoke has the story.
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