Month: January 2019

Tia Fuller, Fierce Woman in Jazz, Takes Shot at 1st Grammy

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Saxophonist Tia Fuller was crying in bed. And praising God.

 

She’d just received the news that she was nominated for her first-ever Grammy Award — but it’s not just any nomination: Her inclusion in the best jazz instrumental album category is a historic moment for women because they have rarely been nominated for the coveted award throughout the Grammys’ 61-year history.

 

And if Fuller wins, she becomes just the second women to take home the prize.

 

“I feel really blessed. Anytime I think extensively about being in the category and (anything) Grammy-wise, I start tearing up,” said Fuller, this time smiling ear-to-ear with light tears of joy in her eyes. “It’s really a dream come true. I’m realizing that dreams can become reality and everything is tangible.”

 

Her nominated album, “Diamond Cut,” is a smooth and striking collection that has brought the skilled performer, who once played with Ray Charles during her college years and toured with Beyonce, to the next level. The album, her fifth, was produced by another woman making critical waves in jazz, Terri Lyne Carrington. The drummer, who came to national prominence decades ago in “The Arsenio Hall Show” band, became the first female to win best jazz instrumental album at the 2014 Grammys.

 

Carrington describes the win as bittersweet because of the “many great female instrumentalists that weren’t nominated ever, so that was really disheartening.”

 

“It just shows that there’s a lot of work to do when it comes to gender equity in jazz and the music industry in general,” she added.

 

It’s one of the reasons Carrington, a three-time Grammy winner, is excited for Fuller’s success and has been a mentor to the artist.

 

“I feel like this record is showing her growth and her evolution,” Carrington said. “If nothing else, I believe that she’s really motivated to keep pushing herself and keep evolving into all that she can be.”

 

“Diamond Cut” is Fuller’s first album in six years. She’s been busy as a professor at the prestigious Berklee College of Music since 2013, and that decision to move to Boston to fulfill a lifetime dream came at a crossroads: In the same 24-hour period that Fuller was offered the teaching position, Beyonce asked Fuller to perform again with the band.

 

“That was the year I think they were doing the Super Bowl and she was going back out on tour,” recalled Fuller, who performed with Beyonce from 2006 to 2010.

 

“While I was on tour with her something came over me and spoke, ‘You have to move in faith and not fear. Don’t be afraid of what may not happen, or get attached to the artificial result of, ‘I’m playing with Beyonce,'” she said. “So the reason why that I ended up not going back is because I realized that it was time for me to move on.”

 

Fuller’s decision was very Beyonce-like: “She’s always pressing forward. Always growing. Always evolving. …I sat back and I just watched how she would never take ‘no’ for an answer. She would always find a ‘yes.’ And that’s something that now, I’ve incorporated into me being a leader, a band leader, a businesswoman, a professor at Berklee, all of that.”

 

The 42-year-old, who was born and raised in Aurora, Colorado, has followed in the footsteps of her parents, who are also musicians and educators. Fuller first started playing the piano at three, then moved on to the flute. But once her grandfather handed her a saxophone, she was hooked.

 

“I was in the upper level of my parent’s house, like the loft. I just remember how it reverberated throughout the house. I was like, ‘Oh this is way better than flute, I can be loud.'”

 

Fuller has making noise ever since, and doesn’t plan on slowing down. She wants to be a voice for women in jazz, especially instrumentalists, who don’t get as much as credit as the men.

 

“I’m representative of all of these women out here that are grinding. Terri (Lyne Carrington) served as that for me prior to me even knowing who she was. Seeing her on Arsenio Hall’s show, and then of course hearing her name on the scene, watching her on different TV shows. That was an unspoken, internal narrative that spoke to me, ‘She’s doing it, you can do it,'” she said. “For me, I don’t think it’s necessarily a historical thing, but hopefully I’m a beacon of light for not only other women, but men, too. And also changing this inadvertent narrative, the male, patriarchal perspective in the jazz world, actually in the musical world. (Women) have always had just as much influence over the music.”

 

Her career — and success — has not come without challenges: “I’ve dealt with sexism, inadvertent sexism, sometimes racism — sometimes a combination of both.”

 

She recalls coming to New York in the early 2000s to build buzz as a performer, going from jazz club to jazz club to share her music and sound with listeners. “There was a long line of people, of course I’m the only woman up there, so I go onstage and I’m about to play and somebody just cuts me off and starts playing. That was like my first year. That was the first and last time that happened.”

 

She’s also faced people assuming she’s dating a successful musician to justify her seat at the table, or “even club owners trying to hit on you, not taking you as serious.”

 

But Fuller has preserved, and she’s using her role as a teacher to help change the narrative in jazz, and in music.

 

“I was directing a band full of young men. I’m like, ‘What is your job and what is your role in this whole thing?’ You can’t just sit back passively,” she said. “Accountability to me is key for not only women to hold men accountable, but for men to hold their brothers accountable.”

 

In 2017, along with Carrington and 12 other female artists, Fuller developed We Have Voice, a collective that has created a code of conduct that performing arts venues, jazz festivals, schools and others have adopted. The goal, she said, is “to bring the level of consciousness up.”

 

“I think slowly but surely we’re doing the work and there is some shift happening,” she said. “I especially see it with my students and the younger generation. That’s something that’s near and dear to my heart. I’m seeing the pain, psychological, physical, emotional pain that it’s caused with women and sometimes men, too.”

 

And in between the teaching and playing — she’s also busy dress shopping for her big day at the Grammys, taking place Feb. 10 in Los Angeles.

 

“I actually reached out to one of Beyonce’s stylists and he responded, so he’s going to help and connect me with some of his designers,” she said. “I’m trying to find a healthy mix between making a statement and me being me.”
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Tom Hanks to Present SAG’s Lifetime Award to Alan Alda

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One of America’s sweethearts hands the torch to another when Tom Hanks presents Alan Alda with a lifetime achievement award at the upcoming Screen Actors Guild Award ceremony.

The 82-year-old Alda, a Golden Globe- and Emmy-winner, will become the 55th recipient of the annual award given to an actor who fosters the “finest ideals of the acting profession.” Hanks will hand it to him in a Jan. 27 ceremony.

“I’m so thrilled that Tom agreed to that. I had no idea they were even asking him. And it’s so generous of him,” Alda told The Associated Press.

Alda and Hanks worked together on the film Bridge of Spies, and Alda said they “have run into each other casually over the years at awards ceremonies and on airplanes and things like that. So, I remember him when he was just a kid.”

Throughout a career that has spanned seven decades, Alda has appeared in The West Wing, The Aviator and Manhattan Murder Mystery, but is perhaps best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the television series MAS*H. Alda has won six Emmy Awards and was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2004 for his role in The Aviator.

Alda has also been involved in numerous charities and organizations that have supported children’s causes, women’s issues and the sciences. The latter inspired the formation of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University in New York.

That combined with his affable personality has earned Alda his “nice guy” reputation over the years. He jokes that the “niceness” compensates for a profession that is not always viewed kindly.

“It’s a counterbalance, I guess, to the rowdy reputation that a lot of actors have had over the last couple of hundred years, including the guy who shot Lincoln. So it’s good to balance the reputations of the acting profession,” Alda said.
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Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’ to Premiere as Opening Film at SXSW

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Jordan Peele’s “Us,” his anticipated follow-up to “Get Out,” will make its world premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival
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Malawi Campaigners Seek to End Sex in Girls’ Initiation Ceremony

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In rural Malawi, families send girls as young as 12 years old for “initiation,” a traditional, cultural practice that marks a child’s entry into adulthood. But child rights campaigners say the ritual entices young girls into early sex, marriage, and teenage pregnancy — forcing many to drop out of school. One local organization is seeking to change this by teaching initiation counselors to give girls age-appropriate information. 

Madalitso Makosa was 13 years old when she underwent a traditional, Malawian initiation ritual to become an adult. 

She says after the initiation ceremony, the counselors advised her to perform a Kusasa Fumbi or “removing the dust” ritual with a man of my choice. She chose to sleep with her former boyfriend but, unfortunately, became pregnant.

“Removing the dust” refers to a girl losing her virginity, often without protection, to become an adult.  Those who become teenage mothers pay the price for this tradition.

Makosa says when she discovered she was pregnant, she was devastated because she had to drop out of school. She is now struggling to get support to take care of her baby.  She wished she had continued with her education.”

During the initiation, counselors show how they prepare girls for marriage and for sex.

Agnes Matemba, is an initiation counselor. 

She says she gives girls these lessons so that they should keep their man and prevent him from going out to look for another woman. Because, if he goes out and finds excitement in other women, he is likely to dump her.

Child rights campaigners say the initiation ritual fuels Malawi’s high rate of child marriage.  Half the girls here marry before age 18.

Malawian group Youthnet and Counselling, YONECO, wants to keep girls in school with a more age-appropriate initiation ritual.

MacBain Mkandawire is YONECO’s executive director.

“This is a traditional cultural thing that people believe in, and it will be very difficult to just say let us end initiation ceremonies,” Mkandawire said. “But what we are saying is that can we package the curriculum in such way the young people are accessing the correct curriculum at the correct time?”

YONECO is working with initiation counselors and traditional leaders to tone down Malawi’s initiations. Already, some areas are banning the practice of encouraging sex after the ceremony.

Aidah Deleza is also known as Senior Chief Chikumbu.

“We say no, no, no,” Chikumbu said. “This is why we have a lot of girls drop out from school, that is why the population has just shot so high just because of that, just because a lot of girls now they have got babies, most of them they are not in marriage.”

To further discourage teenage pregnancy, traditional leaders like Chikumbu are dividing girls’ initiation rituals into two camps.

One is a simple ceremony for teenage girls like Makosa, while the other provides some sex education for older girls who are preparing to marry.  
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Peru AG Resigns After Outcry Over Odebrecht Probe

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Peru Attorney General Pedro Chavarry resigned on Tuesday after a public outcry over his handling of the high-profile corruption investigation involving Brazilian builder Odebrecht.

His departure from the public prosecutors office marks a fresh victory for President Martin Vizcarra and supporters of his measures to uproot entrenched corruption in one of Latin America’s fastest-growing economies.

Chavarry prompted widespread scorn and days of street protests after he announced on New Year’s Eve that he was removing two lead prosecutors from the Odebrecht inquiry, which has targeted former presidents and presidential candidates.

Vizcarra responded by sending Congress legislation to suspend Chavarry and overhaul the prosecutor’s office.

Resignation protects prosecutor?

Chavarry denied he was trying to meddle in the investigation and said he was stepping down to protect the independence of the prosecutor’s office, which he portrayed in his resignation letter as under attack by Vizcarra’s government.

Vizcarra had repeatedly called for Chavarry to step down since he was appointed by a panel of prosecutors in July despite his ties to an alleged criminal group of judges, lawmakers and businessmen. Chavarry was later named by a prosecutor in his office as a suspect in the probe. He denies wrongdoing.

A former vice president, Vizcarra has made fighting corruption a focus of his government since taking office last year to replace Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who stepped down in one of several graft scandals to grip Peru in recent years.

Vizcarra, however, lacked the authority to dismiss Chavarry. Under Peru’s constitution, only Congress, where Chavarry enjoyed support with the opposition majority, can oust the attorney general.

Avalos is acting attorney general

Supreme Prosecutor Zoraida Avalos, one of several prominent prosecutors to call for Chavarry to resign in the past week, was named as acting attorney general on Tuesday.

The prosecutors whom Chavarry had dismissed last week — Rafael Vela and Jose Domingo Perez — were reinstated amid the outcry.

The two are seen as pivotal figures in the Odebrecht investigation and recently drew up a plea deal that commits the company to providing evidence on about $30 million in bribes it acknowledges it paid to local politicians.

‘Car Wash’ probe

Odebrecht is at the center of the “Car Wash” investigation in Brazil, which has rippled across Latin America and which U.S. prosecutors have said is the biggest political graft scheme ever uncovered.

In late 2016, Odebrecht acknowledged it had paid millions of dollars in bribes to officials in a dozen countries to secure public works contracts dating back over a decade. The company has committed to paying billions of dollars in fines.
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Activists Warn of Gaps as EU Lifts Ban Threat on Thai Fishing Industry

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Labor rights campaigners warned against complacency as the European Union on Tuesday withdrew its threat to ban Thai fishing imports into the bloc, saying that the country has made progress in tackling illegal and unregulated fishing.

The EU’s so-called “yellow card” on Thai fishing exports has been in place since April 2015 as a warning that the country was not sufficiently addressing the issues.

“Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing damages global fish stocks, but it also hurts the people living from the sea, especially those already vulnerable to poverty,” Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for environment and fisheries said.

“Today’s decision reverses the first step of a process that could have led to a complete import ban of marine fisheries products into the EU,” he said in a statement.

Thailand has amended its fisheries legal framework in line with international law, and improved its monitoring and surveillance systems, including remote monitoring of fishing activities and more robust inspections at port, the EU said.

The country’s multibillion-dollar seafood industry has also come under scrutiny for slavery, trafficking and violence on fishing boats and at onshore processing facilities.

After the EU threatened to ban fish exports, and the U.S. State Department said it was failing to tackle human trafficking, the Southeast Asian country toughened up its laws and increased fines for violations.

Thailand has introduced modern technologies — from satellites to optical scanning and electronic payment services — to crack down on abuses.

But the International Labor Organization said in March that fishermen remained at risk of forced labor, and the wages of some continued to be withheld.

The EU on Tuesday said it recognized efforts by Thailand to tackle human trafficking and to improve labor conditions in the fishing sector.

Thailand voted in December to ratify ILO convention 188 — which sets standards of decent work in the fishing industry — becoming the first Asian country to do so.

But important gaps remain, said Steve Trent, executive director at advocacy group Environmental Justice Foundation.

“We still have concerns about the workers. We need to see that the reforms are durable,” he said.

Thailand is yet to ratify two other ILO conventions on the right to organize and the right to collective bargaining, both of which are essential to protect workers, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

This is particularly important in the fishing and seafood processing industries, as most of their estimated 600,000 workers are migrant workers.

“There is a risk that with the lifting of the yellow card, complacency will set in. We need to see a culture of compliance, and more being done to protect vulnerable workers in the industry,” Trent said.
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Forest Fire Insurance Costs Soar

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Forest fires caused by climate change are costing insurers more than ever, with the deadly fire that ravaged northern California the single most expensive natural disaster in 2018, Munich Re said in its catastrophe report Tuesday.

The California wildfire that devastated the small town of Paradise in November caused losses of $16.5 billion, of which $12.5 billion were insured.

Worldwide natural disasters caused $160 billion in economic damage in 2018. That was down from $350 billion the previous year, but a number of devastating hurricanes had contributed to the high losses in 2017.

Insurers and reinsurers paid out $80 billion for natural disaster claims last year, down from $140 billion a year earlier but almost double the 30-year average of $41 billion, the reinsurer said.

Munich Re board member Torsten Jeworrek said that 2018 was marked by several severe natural disasters with high insured losses.

“These include the unusual coincidence of severe cyclones in the U.S. and Japan, and devastating forest fires in California,” he said, adding that climate change appears to be making such large fires more common.

Insurers spent $18 billion on two huge fires in the United States in 2018 — equivalent to one in every four dollars they paid out as a result of natural disasters.

Ernst Rauch, the reinsurer’s chief climatologist, told Reuters that forest fires were entering a whole new dimension, costing tens of billions of dollars.

“Higher and higher temperatures are leading to ever greater droughts, and high humidity in the winter means that shrubbery grows quickly, creating an easily flammable material in dry summers,” he said.

Rauch said it was questionable whether areas at high risk could continue to be populated without taking additional measures, such as building houses farther from forests and with better safety standards.

Reinsurers act as a financial backstop to insurance companies, paying a chunk of the big claims for storms or earthquakes in exchange for part of the policy premiums.

The review gave no claims figures for Munich Re itself. The reinsurer is due to report fourth-quarter results on Feb. 6.
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WHO Study Likens Palm Oil Lobbying to Tobacco, Alcohol Industries

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The palm oil industry is deploying tactics similar to those of the alcohol and tobacco industries to influence research into the health effects of its product, a study published by the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

Evidence of the health impact of palm oil is mixed, with some studies linking consumption to several ailments, including increased risk of death from heart disease caused by narrowing arteries, the report said.

The study, “The palm oil industry and non-communicable diseases,” called for more research and tighter regulation of the $60 billion industry, and said researchers should be wary of being influenced by lobbyists.

“The relationship between the palm oil and processed food industries, and the tactics they employ, resembles practices adopted by the tobacco and alcohol industries. However, the palm oil industry receives comparatively little scrutiny,” it said.

Palm oil plantations, mainly in Malaysia and Indonesia, cover an area roughly the size of New Zealand, and demand is expected to grow as more countries ban trans fats, which the WHO wants banned globally by 2023.

Trans fats are prepared in an industrial process that makes liquid oils solid at room temperature, and are now widely recognized as bad for health.

Palm oil is naturally more solid than most other vegetable oils, and the demise of trans fats will leave it as an easy choice for ultra-processed foods, said the study, co-authored by researchers at the U.N. children’s fund UNICEF, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Britain’s University of Exeter.

The study said labeling is often unclear, and palm oil can be listed under any one of more than 200 alternative names, turning up frequently in foods such as biscuits and chocolate spread. “Consumers may be unaware of what they are eating or its safety,” the study said.

The authors of the study, published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, said they found nine pieces of research showing overwhelmingly positive health associations, but four of them were authored by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board.

“The contested nature of the evidence suggests the need for independent, comprehensive studies of the health impact of palm oil consumption,” they wrote.

The study also pointed to the health effect of the production of palm oil in countries where it is grown, with slash-and-burn agriculture causing air pollution and haze linked to premature deaths, respiratory illness and cardiovascular diseases.

“Of major concern is the effect of exposure to particulate matter on fetal, infant and child mortality, as well as children’s cognitive, educational and economic attainment.”
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US Carbon Emissions Spike in 2018

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After three years of decline, U.S. carbon emissions shot up last year, based on early estimates from an independent research group. The Rhodium Group routinely monitors carbon emissions and their preliminary estimates suggest U.S. output was up 3.4 percent in 2018.

This is the largest annual increase since 2010, when the nation was bouncing back from a financial crisis known as Great Recession.

The research also suggests that despite the Trump administration’s efforts to revive the coal industry, it continues to decline in the face of cheap and plentiful natural gas.

Bad news for coal

According to the Rhodium report, coal-fired plants generating 11.2 gigawatts of power had closed by October of last year, with more scheduled for closure over the following months. While the numbers are still preliminary, if they pan out, that would make 2018 the biggest coal plant closure year on record.

Far and away, natural gas is now the energy of choice in the U.S. with an increase of 166 million kilowatts per hour through October.

U.S. power consumption – and carbon emissions – increased in 2018. But the transportation sector of the economy contributed the most to the nation’s record emissions. The good news is that gasoline demand is down modestly, as the hybrid and electric car industry have begun to make a small dent in the demand for gasoline. But increases in the demand for diesel and jet fuel still made transportation the biggest source of carbon emissions throughout the U.S.

Another big source of emissions that often doesn’t get noticed, according to the report, is in the building sector of the economy. Emissions from buildings and homes was way up, due in part to an exceptionally cold winter in parts of the U.S. last year.

The Paris question

2018 is an anomaly because each year, since 2015, U.S. carbon emissions had been decreasing, if modestly, as the nation worked to reach its commitments to the Paris Climate Agreement. U.S emissions declined by 2.7 percent in 2015, 1.7 percent in 2016, and 0.8 percent in 2017. But even with those reductions, the U.S. was already off track to meet reductions agreed to by the Obama administration.

The U.S. joined almost 200 other countries to sign the agreement in 2015. Under the deal, the U.S. committed to cutting its carbon emissions by at least 26 percent from 2005 levels by 2025.

But the Trump administration announced its intention to pull the U.S. out of the deal this year, and will formally exit the global compact in 2020.

 
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We’re Techy, too! Deere, Tide Maker Head to CES Gadget Show

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The companies founded by blacksmith John Deere and candle-and-soap-making duo Procter & Gamble may not be the hip purveyors of new technology they were in 1837.

But they’re first-time exhibitors at this year’s CES gadget show, along with other unlikely newcomers such as missile-maker Raytheon, outdoorsy retailer The North Face and the 115-year-old motorcycling icon Harley-Davidson.

The four-day consumer-electronics show opens Tuesday with some 4,500 companies exhibiting products and services and more than 180,000 people expected to attend. It’s the place startups and established tech giants alike go to unveil everything from utilitarian apps to splashy devices.

So what are these legacy companies doing here?

“Every company today is a technology company,” said Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, which organizes CES.

Shapiro said many companies already send executives to Las Vegas each January to gauge trends, so it’s not surprising that they eventually unveil their own new technology as well.

It’s also part of a more fundamental economic shift as consumers increasingly expect to buy not just goods and services, but a personal experience, which often skews digital, said Dipanjan Chatterjee, a brand analyst at Forrester Research.

“We’re still doing old-fashioned things: Ordering clothes, buying detergent, getting a cup of coffee, but there are new-fangled ways of doing it,” he said. “Brands have no choice but to play a role in this new technology space.”

That’s one reason Harley-Davidson is using the show to announce the commercial launch of its first electric motorcycle LiveWire. The motorcycle will have a cellular connection, as many cars do these days, so people can keep track of their motorcycle’s charge or check where they parked it through an app.

Consumer goods giant P&G, best known for Pampers diapers and Tide detergent, is showcasing heated razors, a toothbrush with artificial intelligence and a wand-like device that scans the skin and releases serum to cover up age spots and other discoloration.

P&G is also showing off an internet-connected scalp adviser: The Head & Shoulders-branded device uses ultraviolet light and other techniques to uncover scalp issues and recommend products. The device is available only in Europe and Asia for now.

Expect these gizmos to cost more than the plain-old “dumb” versions. P&G’s Oral-B toothbrush, for example, is expected to cost $279, while a regular Oral-B electric toothbrush can be had for less than $30.

And every new connected device means more data collection about people’s personal habits — a gold mine for advertisers and hackers alike.

The North Face is using virtual reality to provide a fine-grained look at its waterproof fabrics.

Raytheon is demonstrating the everyday applications of GPS anti-jam technology, which was originally designed to protect military forces.

And John Deere has hauled in self-driving tractors and a 20-ton combine harvester aided by artificial intelligence. The combine has cameras with computer-vision technology to track the quality of grain coming into the machine so that its kernel-separating settings can be adjusted automatically. Farmers can monitor it remotely using a smartphone app.

It’s hard to imagine what 19th century Illinois blacksmith John Deere might think if he were plopped into his company’s 2019 booth at the flashy Vegas convention center, but Deanna Kovar believes he’d be “amazed and astonished.”

“His innovation was making a self-powering steel plow that could cut through the heavy, rich soils of the Midwest,” said Kovar, the company’s director of production and precision agriculture marketing. “We’ve been a technology company since the start.”

Kovar said American farmers have been using self-driving tractors for decades — and CES is a chance to let everyone else know.

Chatterjee said such messages are directed not just at a company’s customers, but to investors, potential corporate partners, startup acquisition targets and the technically skilled employees these more traditional firms are hoping to attract.

“These are brands that are aggressively looking to work tech into their DNA,” Chatterjee said. “They want to be perceived all around as a tech-forward innovative brand.”
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What Maps Reveal About America’s Hidden Past

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Maps do more than show us how to get to where we want to go.

They also can chart a journey into America’s past, offering insight into the everyday lives of ordinary people, while highlighting their hopes, dreams and fears dating all the way back to the birth of the nation.

“There is practically no area of American history where maps don’t sort of enrich our understanding and also give us a new angle of vision,” says historian Susan Schulten, author of A History of America in 100 Maps. “Maps record past scenarios, past situations, past relationships of power, but they also influenced people at the time in terms of future decision making.”

Schulten, a University of Denver professor who studies American cartography, was enchanted by a series of maps made by American schoolgirls in the early 1800s. The detailed maps appealed to her not only due to the fact they are beautifully rendered, but also because of what they tell us about a period of American education we know little about.

“New schools educating young women for the first time outside the home prepared a curriculum that involved teaching them not just geography but map drawing,” she says. “What they were teaching them was very specific techniques of art and penmanship and understanding geography by creating their own maps.”

The maps these schoolgirls left behind give us a firsthand glimpse into the daily experience of education in the early republic.

Those early maps also helped establish a national identity and nurture nascent patriotism in the earliest days of the republic.

“There’s such an emphasis after the Revolution on using education to help create a civic identity and it becomes readily apparent,” Schulten says. “Prior to the American Revolution, your chief loyalty was to your colony and then to the crown in terms of political of political organization. The revolution creates a nation and Americans have to be taught to be loyal and to identify with their fellow Americans.”

Maps drawn by Native Americans offer insight into indigenous people’s perspective of power relationships at a time when Southeast tribes were competing for supremacy in the deerskin trade with the British colonies.

A 1721 map, most likely drawn by a Cherokee leader, includes a number of circles, and their sizes correspond with the perceived power of the individual tribes.

“It’s a representation of space from a non-European perspective,” says Schulten. “It isn’t a representation of absolute space, but instead renders geography in terms of power relationships and that’s really fascinating to think about.”

The map also underscores the fact that Native Americans were distinctly different groups of people with competing interests, even though the Europeans viewed them as one monolithic group.

Maps also can recall other dark moments in American history.

An 1885 report on San Francisco’s Chinatown highlights the racism endured by Chinese laborers who’d once helped build the transcontinental railroad. After the railroad was complete, many Chinese immigrants settled in San Francisco.

A report commissioned by city supervisors described the Chinese “race” as “the rankest outgrowth of human degradation that can be found upon this continent.” A related map of Chinatown points out Chinese-run opium dens, gambling establishments and takes care to distinguish between Chinese and white houses of prostitution.

“There’s a long history of maps as tools of propaganda and persuasion,” Schulten says. “Those thriving businesses and communities, as they grew, were understood by whites in San Francisco to be increasingly threatening…The beauty of the maps belies the intent, which is to highlight the argument that the Chinese must go.”

From political maneuvering and gerrymandering, to advertising, to red and blue states, maps tell a variety of American stories. They can also be used to push reform, helping to set the country on a new course.

“Maps are used to convey the importance or temperance in the anti-alcohol movement or the opposition to slavery or the need to extend the vote to women,” Schulten says. “All of these reform movements throughout modern America used maps as a way to amplify their message.

Some of the maps in her book have never been published, according to Schulten, while others are well known. But what they all offer, if examined carefully, is a unique snapshot of America’s past.
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Olympian Michael Phelps Honored for Mental Health Advocacy

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Michael Phelps is picking up more hardware — this time for what he’s been doing outside the pool.

The Boston-based Ruderman Family Foundation, a leading voice in calling for more opportunities for the disabled, said Tuesday the Olympic champion is the recipient of its fifth annual Morton E. Ruderman Award in Inclusion.

The foundation told The Associated Press it picked the world’s most decorated swimmer of all time to recognize his advocacy for people with disabilities and “his own journey with mental health.”

Phelps has gone public about his struggles with depression and thoughts of suicide.

Last year, the 23-time Olympic gold medalist announced a partnership with Talkspace, which provides online therapy for those who are going through tough times. Phelps said helping people overcome the dark chapters in their lives is “way bigger than ever winning gold medals.”

In a statement, the 33-year-old Olympian thanked the Ruderman Family Foundation for “their continued efforts to help eliminate the shame and stigma that surrounds mental illness.”

“Together, we can normalize the mental health conversation and recognize the potential in every person — with or without mental illness — to contribute to our world in their own unique way,” Phelps said.

The foundation works for more inclusion and opportunities for the disabled. Previous recipients of its award include Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin and former Democratic U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, of Iowa, a driving force behind the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Jay Ruderman, the foundation’s president, called Phelps an example of the importance of self-care and of reaching out for help when it’s needed. That helps take the stigma and shame away from mental health struggles, he said.

Phelps “has changed the landscape of mental health awareness,” Ruderman said.

Since retiring from competition after the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, the swimmer has been promoting the importance of not just physical fitness but mental health. In 2017, he was honorary chairman of the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Mental Health Awareness Day.

He’s also served as an ambassador for the Child Mind Institute, a nonprofit group working to help children who struggle with mental health and learning disorders.
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At Consumer Electronics Show, Sensors and Robots are the Stars

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More than 4,000 exhibitors from 155 countries are in Las Vegas this week for the Consumer Electronics Show, one of the year’s biggest conventions for companies to show off their latest technology. Michelle Quinn got a look at some of the products that are hoping to make a splash.
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Zimbabwe’s Hospitals Turn Away Patients as Doctors’ Strike Drags On

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Hospitals in Zimbabwe are turning away patients as a strike by doctors enters its sixth week. There is no end in sight to the strike, as President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government says it cannot meet the doctors’ demands.

The Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, Zimbabwe’s largest treatment center, is largely empty as a doctors’ strike that began December 1 drags on.

Sixty-nine-year-old Kasirina Zibveka had a lung infection in September, according to her medical records. After numerous tests were done, it was confirmed that her right lung had gone bad and needed to be removed.

 

But by then, doctors were on strike. She was discharged December 13 and was told to return Monday for the ailing lung to be removed. But with the strike unresolved, that did not happen.

 

Her daughter, Margret Chikoti, says the family has paid for her treatment, but only nurses are attending to her mother.

 

“We have no idea what is really happening to her since December 13,” she said. “All we see is her discharging some blood stained stinking fluids [through a hole pierced by nurses under her right breast]. What is happening inside her body? Is it getting worse? We just give her painkillers and use ointment to clean her wound. We hope that their negotiations [doctors and government] bear fruit and they return to work.”

Doctors held a meeting Monday and resolved to remain on strike until their demands are met. The doctors want the government to equip hospitals with modern technology, sufficient medicine and protective clothing for doctors.

 

They also want to be paid in U.S. dollars instead of Zimbabwe’s depreciating currency, known as bondnotes.

 

“We will not accept the money that they are refusing. We want the money that buys,” Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association Vice President Marambire Sinaravo Jongwe said this to his members. “We are very understanding people, we are very lenient to our government. They are just trying to ignore us, they are very insincere to doctors. But yet we are saving the public, the general of Zimbabwe. For our patients we care, the government does not care.”

 

The doctors also say they do not want to prescribe drugs that are not in stock, a practice that forces patients to seek out black market drugs.

The Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe has warned about such drugs being fake, expired and unsafe to use.

 

The government, meanwhile, said last week it is not in a position to pay doctors or any civil servants in U.S. dollars.

Officials say they have imported medicines and are now stocking hospitals. But with doctors still on strike, that news might not be enough to help patients like Kasirina Zibveka.
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US Expresses Optimism About Trade Talks with China

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U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said there is “a very good chance” that the United States and China will reach a trade agreement. 

Ross told CNBC he is hopeful such a deal would address “all the key issues.”

Working-level trade talks between the United States and China began Monday in Beijing with negotiators for the world’s two biggest economies trying to resolve tariff disputes that have roiled world markets in recent weeks.

In a sign the meeting was off to a good start, China’s economic czar, Vice Premier Liu He, dropped by the talks on Monday to encourage the negotiators.

While Chinese officials expressed optimism at the start of the two-day talks, Beijing at the same time complained about the sighting of the U.S.S. McCampbell, a warship, in what it said were Chinese waters near disputed islands in the South China Sea.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China had made “stern complaints” with the United States about the sighting of the destroyer, but the trade talks went ahead as scheduled.

There was no immediate U.S. response to the Chinese complaint.

Few details have emerged from the trade talks, which are scheduled to run through Tuesday.

​The trade talks are the result of an agreement last month between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to stop the tit-for-tat tariff conflict between the two countries for 90 days starting on New Year’s Day. 

Trump said last week, “I think we’ll have a deal with China.” 

Lu said the two countries have agreed to hold “positive and constructive” discussions.

“From the beginning we have believed that China U.S. trade friction is not a positive situation for either country or the world economy,” Lu said. “China has the good faith, on the basis of mutual respect and equality, to resolve the bilateral trade frictions.”

​The talks are occurring as Chinese growth — 6.5 percent in the July-to-September period — fell to its lowest point in a decade. There are concerns that U.S. growth, 3.4 percent in the third quarter, is also slowing even as the country’s unemployment rate remains nearly at a five-decade low.

Even so, Lu said, “China’s development has ample tenacity and huge potential. We have firm confidence in the strong long-term fundamentals of the Chinese economy.”

The United States has long complained about access to the vast Chinese market and Beijing’s demands U.S. companies reveal their technology advances.
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Chinese Scientist Criticized for Risking ‘Gene-edited’ Babies’ Lives

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A leading geneticist who ran the conference where a Chinese scientist said he had made the world’s first “gene-edited” babies condemned him on Monday for potentially jeopardizing lives and having no biology training.

Robin Lovell-Badge, organizer of the November 2018 event where China’s He Jiankui made his controversial presentation, described him as a rich man with a “huge ego” who “wanted to do something he thinks will change the world.”

He Jiankui, associate professor at Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, sparked an international scientific and ethical row when he said he had used a technology known as CRISPR-Cas9 to alter the embryonic genes of twin girls born in November.

He could not be immediately reached to respond to Lovell-Badge’s comments. Chinese authorities are investigating him and have meanwhile halted this kind of research.

In videos posted online and at the conference, He said he believed his gene editing would help protect the girls from infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Lovell-Badge, a professor and gene expert at Britain’s Francis Crick Institute who led the organizing committee for the November Human Genome Editing Summit at Hong Kong University, said it was impossible to know what He had actually done.

“If it’s true (that he edited the genomes in the way he says) then it is certainly possible that he has put the children’s lives at risk,” he told journalists in London. “No-one knows what these mutations will do.”

Lovell-Badge said he originally invited He to the conference after hearing in scientific circles that he was “up to something.” Lovell-Badge hoped that asking He to interact with specialists would encourage him to “control his urges.”

“Pretty much everyone he talked to had said to him: ‘Don’t do it,'” he said. “But clearly it was all too late.”

Lovell-Badge said he learned of He’s claims on the eve of the conference, and had an emergency meeting with him.

“He thought that he was doing good, and that what he was doing was the next big thing,” Lovell-Badge said. But he had “no basic training in biology” and the experiments he said he had carried out “ignored all the norms of how you conduct any clinical trial or clinical experiment.”

“He should certainly be stopped from doing anything like this again,” he said.

Lovell-Badge said he had not heard from He since early December, but understood he was in Shenzhen in a guarded apartment during the probe.

Chinese authorities and institutions, as well as hundreds of international scientists, have condemned He and said any application of gene editing on human embryos for reproductive purposes was against the law and medical ethics of China.
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After a Tame Globes, Is a Less-Charged Awards Season Ahead?

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The Golden Globe Awards looked like it had gone entirely back to frothy, bubbly business as usual, until Regina King did the impossible: She got the orchestra to stop playing her off. Not even Lady Gaga had that much power. 

King used her platform on stage accepting the supporting actress award for “If Beale Street Could Talk,” to shed a light on Time’s Up x 2, the second year iteration of the legal defense fund founded in the wake of the sexual misconduct revelations that shook Hollywood. 

“We understand that our microphones are big and we’re speaking for everyone,” she said before pledging that every project she produces for the next two years will have at least 50 percent of women working on it. “And I challenge anyone out there who is in in a position of power, not just in our industry, in all industries, I challenge you to … stand with us in solidarity and do the same.” 

It would be one of the rare show-stopping moments of the night. After last year’s Golden Globes were host to such a powerful display of female solidarity, in which top actresses walked the carpet in all-black alongside prominent activists in support of Time’s Up and #MeToo, this year, statements were no longer collective. They were individual.

A few actresses, Gina Rodriguez and Rachel Brosnahan among them, wore Time’s Up x 2 ribbons on the carpet; Patricia Clarkson said that her “Sharp Objects” director Jean-Marc Vallee “demanded everything of me except sex which is exactly how it should be in our industry”; Glenn Close implored women to “find personal fulfillment” and follow their dreams; Co-host Sandra Oh got emotional saying she said yes to hosting so that she could, “Look out on this audience and witness this moment of change”; And Emma Stone even shouted out an apology from the audience for playing a part-Asian character in “Aloha.”

​Sunday’s Globes could be a sign that awards shows in general are going to return to business as usual: The occasional snide political remark (Christian Bale thanking Satan for inspiration playing Dick Cheney, or positing that Mitch McConnell might be a good “uncharismatic” role to play next, adding an expletive), or showbiz joke (Oh and Andy Samberg saying in unison that “one lucky audience member will host the Oscars!”). 

Harrison Ford presented the directing award and did not, as Natalie Portman did last year, note that all the nominees were men (again). Patricia Arquette, who three years ago called for equal pay while accepting her supporting actress Oscar, kept her speech to standard HFPA, fellow nominee and producer thanks (albeit with two F-bombs). And following two years of show-stealing Cecil B. DeMille award speeches from Meryl Streep and Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bridges brought the honor back to earth with a heartfelt, nostalgic and, interestingly wide-ranging vamp about everything from Peter Bogdanovich and the Coen brothers to geodesic domes. Even Carol Burnett, as the first-ever recipient of an award named after her, stayed in the past as well, speaking about how her show would never get made today. 

As for the winners, while the choices of the 88-member Hollywood Foreign Press Association has no direct relation to the nearly 8,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a win on a stage of the Golden Globes doesn’t go unnoticed, and Oscar nomination voting began Monday. Some probably didn’t need a bounce, like Olivia Colman’s win for “The Favourite,” or “Shallow” winning best original song. Some did, like Glenn Close who upset Lady Gaga with her best actress drama win for “The Wife” and gave one of the best speeches of the night. And two divisive-for-different-reasons films got high-profile boosts winning the top film awards and key acting awards: The Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” (which won over “A Star Is Born”) and the inspired-by-a-true-story Jim Crow-era South road trip movie “Green Book.” 

“Bohemian Rhapsody” was not well-received by critics, who pointed out its factual inaccuracies and music biopic trappings, but resonated with audiences (it’s made over $743 million worldwide to date), and its awards profile is growing. “Green Book,” meanwhile, went from winning the audience award at the Toronto International Film Festival to being scrutinized for its racial politics. 

“Green Book” director Peter Farrelly also got the orchestra to back off, but, in his case it was so that he could talk about his film.

“This story gave me hope and I wanted to share that hope with you,” Farrelly said on stage. “If Don Shirley and Tony Vallelonga can find a common ground so can we.” 

Both pleased enough crowds and HFPA voters, despite the backlash, to win out over “A Star Is Born,” a film that everyone, wrongly, presumed would dominate Sunday night. 

But everyone loves an underdog, and now, it’s “A Star Is Born’s” turn to find its way back to the top.
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Mexico Fuel Theft Crackdown Sparks Shortages, Puts Govt. on Defensive

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Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday that his crackdown against fuel theft was yielding positive results, even as the intervention sparked severe fuel shortages in parts of the country and long lines of angry motorists.

In a bid to eliminate years of mounting theft, state oil firm Pemex has changed its distribution, triggering shortfalls in at least six states, including Guanajuato, a major car-making hub in central Mexico.

Guanajuato’s state government said that less than one third of the state’s gas stations were open on Monday.

Lopez Obrador told a news conference the government had not established a date for when operations would return to normal, but stressed that supply was not in danger.

“We are changing the whole distribution system, that’s the reason for the shortage. We have enough gasoline,” he said.

Mexican television showed long lines of drivers waiting to fill up in central states as well as Jalisco in the west and Tamaulipas in the north.

Years of fuel theft by criminal groups and others by tapping pipelines and stealing tanker trucks has led to losses totaling billions of dollars for public coffers.

Lopez Obrador’s government has ordered the armed forces to intervene in Pemex’s facilities, including one refinery.

“The supply will normalize, and at the same time we are going to guarantee that fuel is not stolen,” said Lopez Obrador, who took office in December. “We have seen a reduction in theft like never before … but we still have work to do.”

Guanajuato’s governor Diego Sinhue told local radio that of the state’s 415 gas stations, only 115 were open. In Leon, Guanajuato’s biggest city with a population of more than 1.5 million, only 7 of 196 stations were open on Sunday, he said.

“Fuel is becoming a serious problem,” said Sinhue, a member of the opposition center-right National Action Party (PAN). “People are really angry about this shortage.”

Sinhue said the army had informed him it had taken control of the state’s Salamanca refinery on Monday morning. There, members of the armed forces were monitoring tankers going in and out of the facility, as well as the pressure of pipelines.

Energy Minister Rocio Nahle offered an apology on Mexican radio for the shortages. Asked when the problem would be fixed, she said it was in the process of being “normalized.”
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Iguanas Reintroduced to Santiago Island in Galapagos

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A group of more than 1,400 iguanas have been reintroduced to an Ecuadoran island in the Galapagos archipelago around two centuries after they disappeared from there, authorities said on Monday.

The Galapagos land iguanas from North Seymour Island were freed onto Santiago Island as part of an ecological restoration program, the National Galapagos Park authority said in a statement.

The last recorded sighting of iguanas in Santiago Island had been made by British naturalist Charles Darwin in 1835.

“Almost two centuries later, this ecosystem will once again count on this species through the restoration initiative,” said the park authority.

Its director, Jorge Carrion, said the iguanas became extinct due to the introduction of predators such as the feral pig, which was eradicated in 2001.

The program is also aimed at protecting the population of iguanas on North Seymour, said to number around 5,000, where food is limited.

“The land iguana is a herbivore that helps ecosystems by dispersing seeds and maintaining open spaces devoid of vegetation,” said Danny Rueda, the park authority’s ecosystems director.

The Galapagos archipelago, some 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) from the Ecuador coast, contains unique wildlife and vegetation, and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

But it has one of the most fragile ecosystems in the world.
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Outlandish Claims at Indian Scientific Gathering Spark Outcry

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A group representing Indian scientists say they will screen speakers at their yearly meeting more carefully after several made outlandish claims during their lectures.

“We have decided that all the people, even the top scientists who want to interact with anybody at the Science Congress, would be asked to submit their abstracts, not to deviate … and we will place one of our members there as a moderator,” Indian Science Congress general secretary Premendu Mathur said Monday.

One speaker at the just-completed congress doubted the findings and achievements of Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking.

Another insisted the people of ancient India had airplanes and missile technology, carried out stem-cell research, and created test tube babies.

Scientists in several Indian cities held silent demonstrations and carried signs to protest the speeches and the damage that such claims can do.

“This is very harmful for the growth of scientific temper because these ideas are being propagated through the Science Congress which gives it reproducibility,” retired professor Dhruba Mukhopadhyay said.
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