President Donald Trump’s commission on the opioid crisis called Wednesday for more drug courts, more training for doctors and penalties for insurers that dodge covering addiction treatment. The panel’s final report stopped short, however, of calling for new dollars to address the worst drug crisis in U.S. history. Instead, the commission asked Congress for “sufficient funds” and suggested giving the White House drug czar’s office the ability to review federal spending on the problem. “If we are to invest in combating this epidemic, we must invest in only those programs that achieve quantifiable goals and metrics,” the report said. The drug czar’s office “must establish a system of tracking and accountability.” But adding a new layer of oversight was met with skepticism from addiction treatment advocates. The Office of National Drug Control Policy, known as the drug czar’s office, “is not a watchdog agency,” said Andrew Kessler, a behavioral health consultant in Washington, D.C. Trump launched the commission seven months ago, tapping his friend and former rival New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to lead the fight. Since then, it has held five meetings and, in July, issued an interim report urging the president to elevate attention by declaring a national emergency. Last week, Trump did so, talking in a White House speech about his brother’s alcoholism and declaring the crisis a national public health emergency. “The president did exactly what I asked him to do,” Christie said Wednesday, addressing reports that a different type …
Facebook Profit Soars, No Sign of Impact from Russia Issue
Facebook reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue on Wednesday as it pushed further into video advertising, showing no sign of financial damage from the controversy over how Russia used the social network in an attempt to sway voters in the 2016 U.S. election. The company’s shares, which hit a record earlier in the day, initially rose in after-hours trading, but later fell into negative territory. They have gained almost 60 percent this year. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg condemned Russia’s attempts to influence last year’s election through Facebook posts designed to sow division, and repeated his pledge to ramp up spending significantly to increase the social network’s security, something he said on Wednesday would affect profits. “What they did is wrong, and we are not going to stand for it,” Zuckerberg said of the Russians, on a conference call with analysts. Facebook is at the center of a political storm in the United States for the ways it handles paid political ads and allows the spread of false news stories. U.S. lawmakers have threatened tougher regulation and fired questions at Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch in hearings this week. Facebook, in a series of disclosures over two months, has said that people in Russia bought at least 3,000 U.S. political ads and published another 80,000 Facebook posts that were seen by as many as 126 million Americans over two years. Russia denies any meddling. Facebook’s total advertising revenue rose 49 percent in the third quarter to $10.14 billion, about 88 percent …
Trump Expected to Name Powell As New Fed Chief
President Donald Trump is expected to name Jerome Powell as the new head of the U.S. central bank. Trump is scheduled to formally announce the pick Thursday in the White House Rose Garden. “I think you will be extremely impressed by this person!” he teased in a Twitter post. WATCH: Who Will Be the Next Fed Chief? Sucessor to Yellen The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported late Wednesday that White House officials have notified Powell that he will replace Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen when her term expires early next year. Other media outlets also said Powell is Trump’s choice. Powell is one of the Federal Reserve’s governors. Analysts say he is a Republican centrist who appears inclined to continue the Fed’s strategy of gradually raising interest rates. The Journal story cautioned that Trump, who has praised Yellen recently, might still change his mind. Powell would be a middle-ground pick for Trump, who is also considering current Fed Chair Yellen as well as Stanford University economist John Taylor and former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh. Powell may relax rules While Powell is expected to continue Yellen’s cautious approach to raising interest rates, economists say he might relax some of the financial rules designed to prevent another financial crisis like the one that caused chaos in the markets during the 2007-2008 recession. Trump has complained that those rules hurt banks and economic growth. Yellen, who was selected as Fed chair by President Barack Obama, has been an outspoken advocate …
Trump Signs GOP Repeal of Consumer Banking Rule
President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed the repeal of a banking rule that would have allowed consumers to join together to sue their bank or credit card company to resolve financial disputes. The president signed the measure at the White House in private. Journalists were not present to witness the signing. The Republican-led Senate narrowly voted to repeal the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s regulation, which the banking industry had been seeking to roll back. The Trump administration and Republicans have pushed to undo regulations they say harm the free market and lead to frivolous lawsuits. Democrats contend the rule would have given consumers more leverage to stop companies from financial wrongdoing. CFPB Director Richard Cordray, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, has called the move a “giant setback” for consumers. The repeal means bank customers will still be subject to what are known as mandatory arbitration clauses. These clauses are buried in the fine print of nearly every checking account, credit card, payday loan, auto loan or other financial services contract and require customers to use arbitration to resolve any dispute with their bank. They effectively waive the customer’s right to sue. The overturning of the rule marks a notable victory for Wall Street. After the financial crisis, Congress and the Obama administration installed tough new regulations on how banks operated and fined them tens of billions of dollars for the damage they caused to the housing market. But since Trump’s victory last year, banking lobbyists have worked hard …
US Central Bank Keeps Benchmark Rate Unchanged as Focus Shifts to Next Fed Leader
Officials of the U.S. central bank decided to keep the key U.S. interest rates steady at a relatively low 1-1.25 percent level Wednesday. In a statement, Federal Reserve officials left open the possibility of raising rates in December because of a “strong” labor market and “solid” economic activity. During the recession, the Fed cut the interest rate to historic lows in an effort to boost economic activity. Lower borrowing costs help to stimulate investment, but officials say the recovering economy no longer needs so much help. Keeping rates too low for too long risks sparking damaging inflation, so the bank has been gradually raising rates closer to their historic averages. Fed experts say the economy grows best when inflation is a modest two percent. But outside the volatile areas of food and fuel, prices in the overall economy now are growing at an annual rate of just 1.3 percent. Bankrate.com chief financial analyst Greg McBride is skeptical that inflation will rise to a healthier level soon. He says the Fed insists inflation is going to “move back to 2 percent” but “the evidence doesn’t materialize. Either the data-dependent Fed has started to ignore that data point, or they know something we don’t.” Policymakers also downplayed the impact of recent storms, calling a decline in hiring in September a temporary blip. Recent government data show the economy grew at a better-than-expected 3 percent annual rate in the third quarter. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is expected to name a new …
With Masks and Flair, Indian Dance Aims to Spur Audiences to Climate Action
Plenty of words have been written and spoken about climate change. But residents of Kolkata and other Indian cities are being given the opportunity to get to grips with the issue in a new way: via dance and music. Ekonama: The Beginning in the End is a contemporary dance work that challenges audiences to consider what humans will have to live for if the environment is ravaged beyond sustainability. The creators of the hour-long performance hope that the combination of dramatic choreography, folk dance, vivid costumes and music will raise awareness and compel viewers to become climate change activists. “I find art is extremely impactful in cases where you want the audience to have an emotional response,” Paramita Saha, co-director of Sapphire Creations Dance Company in Kolkata, said in an interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The performance depicts members of a secluded Indian tribal community going about their lives, reliant on their masked gods to protect them. One day a storm comes and the villagers find themselves caught in the throes of extreme weather brought on by climate change. The dance depicts a future where hurricanes, droughts, floods and pollution have turned the planet’s last survivors into half-naked creatures scrounging and even killing for food, water and shelter. Their gods, stripped of their regal costumes, turn out to be themselves only human. “You could read three textbook chapters on the environment and feel bored, but when the same subject is turned out as an hour-long creative dance you get …
On Climate Change, It’s Trump vs Markets
Though the Trump administration has taken steps to undo regulations aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions, experts say economic forces are helping to push down U.S. emissions anyway. U.N. climate negotiators will meet in Bonn, Germany, November 6-17. It will be their first gathering since President Donald Trump announced the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. Trump considers efforts to fight climate change a barrier to economic growth. Promising to dominate global energy markets and put struggling U.S. coal miners back to work, he has taken a series of steps to roll back regulations aimed at fighting climate change. They include moving to revoke the Clean Power Plan, former President Barack Obama’s primary tool for cutting carbon emissions from power plants. Energy transition Losing those regulations won’t stop the transition in energy sources that’s already underway, according to George Washington University Solar Institute Director Amit Ronen. “We’re still going to meet the goals of the Clean Power Plan in most states, even if it’s withdrawn,” he said, “just because we’re substituting so much natural gas and renewables for coal.” Coal-fired power plants — the most climate-polluting source of electricity — are shutting down across the country. More than 500 closed between 2002 and 2016, and additional plants are slated for closure, according to the Department of Energy. Electric utilities are replacing them with cheaper, cleaner natural gas. And renewable sources, such as wind and solar, are booming. Prices have plummeted. Renewables are beginning to be cost-competitive with …
Jordan Faces Looming Water Crisis
A recent report by the World Health Organization and the World Bank says climate change and pollution are damaging the health of millions every year. Add to that the increasing impact of water scarcity, and the future is troubling for places like Jordan. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …
Report: China’s Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei to Set Up Anti-pollution Body
The smog-prone northern Chinese region of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei will set up a joint environmental protection agency in an effort to coordinate the region’s war on pollution, the official China Securities Journal reported on Wednesday. The new agency, part of wider efforts to improve cross-regional environmental governance, will be in place by the end of the year, the paper said, citing Ministry of Environmental Protection officials. The region, also known as Jing-Jin-Ji, was home to eight of China’s 10 smoggiest cities in September and is involved in a winter campaign that will slash industrial output and restrict traffic in a bid to meet air quality targets. Creating unified environmental standards across the region was a key element of a regional economic integration plan launched by President Xi Jinping in 2014. According to academic studies, around a third of the smog drifting across the capital, Beijing, originates in neighboring Hebei, China’s biggest steel-producing region and also a major producer of cement. Regulators have already promised to establish a unified system of environmental governance that will create cross-regional emission standards and prevent non-compliant firms in Beijing from shifting operations to neighbouring Hebei. They have also vowed to implement coordinated emergency response plans during heavy smog outbreaks. …
California Governor Heads to Europe for Climate Talks
California Governor Jerry Brown is continuing his international fight against climate change with an 11-day trip to Europe starting Saturday that includes stops at the Vatican and a U.N. conference in Germany. Brown is a chief adversary to Republican President Donald Trump in the battle over U.S. climate policy, promising to help the country reach its emissions reductions targets even as Trump withdraws from an international climate accord. He’s been named the special adviser for states and regions at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany. “While the White House declares war on climate science and retreats from the Paris Agreement, California is doing the opposite and taking action,” Brown said in a statement announcing the trip. “We are joining with our partners from every part of the world to do what needs to be done to prevent irreversible climate change.” The nonprofit California State Protocol Foundation, which accepts donations from private businesses, pays for Brown’s international travel. Travel for Brown’s staff members will be partially covered by money from the nonprofit Climate Registry and the Climate Action Reserve, a program that deals with carbon offset projects, spokesman Evan Westrup said. Summit next year Brown’s November trip follows visits to China and Russia earlier this year to promote international collaboration on climate change. Next year, he plans to host a summit in San Francisco. He will give a speech Saturday to the Vatican Pontifical Academy of Sciences symposium. During the week, Brown will address European Parliament leaders and the …
US Trade Panel Recommends Varying Solar Panel Import Restrictions
Members of the U.S. International Trade Commission on Tuesday made three different recommendations for restricting solar cell and panel imports on Tuesday, giving President Donald Trump a range of choices to address injury to domestic producers. The recommendations range from an immediate 35 percent tariff on all imported panels to a four-year quota system that allows the import of up to 8.9 gigawatts of solar cells and modules in the first year. The president’s ultimate decision could have a major impact on the price of U.S. power generated by the sun. Both supporters and critics of import curbs on solar products were disappointed by the proposals, which were unveiled at a public meeting in Washington. Trade remedies were requested in a petition earlier this year by two small U.S. manufacturers that said they were unable to compete with cheap panels made overseas, mainly in Asia. The companies, Suniva Inc and the U.S. arm of Germany’s SolarWorld AG, said Tuesday’s recommendations did not go far enough to protect domestic producers. “The ITC’s remedy simply will not fix the problem the ITC itself identified,” Suniva said in a statement. The company, which is majority owned by Hong Kong-based Shunfeng International Clean Energy, filed the rare Section 201 petition nine days after seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April. It had sought a minimum price on panels of 74 cents a watt, nearly double their current cost. One analyst said the stiffest remedy recommended, a 35 percent tariff on solar panels, would add …
California Wildfire Insurance Claims Top $3.3B
Property damage claims from a series of deadly October wildfires now exceed $3.3 billion, California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said Tuesday. The figure represented claims for homes and businesses insured by 15 companies and was more than triple the previous estimate of $1 billion. Jones said the number would continue to rise as more claims were reported. The amount of claims now reported means that the fires caused more damage than California’s 1991 Oakland Hills fire, which was previously the state’s costliest, with $2.7 billion in damage in 2015 dollars, according to the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America. Forty-three people were killed in the October blazes that tore through Northern California, including the state’s renowned winemaking regions in Napa and Sonoma counties. They destroyed at least 8,900 buildings as more than 100,000 people were forced to evacuate. It was the deadliest series of fires in California history. Several dozen buildings were also damaged or destroyed in fires in Southern California’s Orange County. “Behind each and every one of these claims … are ordinary people, Californians who lost their homes, lost their vehicles, in some cases whose family members lost their lives,” said Jones, a Democrat who is running for attorney general. Jones said there were just over 10,000 claims for partial home losses, more than 4,700 total losses and about 700 for business property. There were 3,200 claims for damaged or destroyed personal vehicles, 91 for commercial vehicles, 153 for farm equipment and 111 for watercraft. The figures do …
Pruitt to Put New Members on EPA Science Panels
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday he intends to replace the outside experts that advise him on science and public health issues with new board members holding more diverse views. In announcing the changes, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt suggested many previously appointed to the panels were potentially biased because they had received federal research grants. The 22 boards advise EPA on a wide range of issues, including drinking water standards and pesticide safety. “Whatever science comes out of EPA shouldn’t be political science,” said Pruitt, a Republican lawyer who previously served as the attorney general of Oklahoma. “From this day forward, EPA advisory committee members will be financially independent from the agency.” Pruitt has expressed skepticism about the consensus of climate scientists that man-made carbon emissions are the primary cause of global warming. He also overruled experts that had recommended pulling a top-selling pesticide from the market after peer-reviewed studies showed it damaged children’s brains. Pruitt said he will name new leadership and members to three key EPA advisory boards soon — the Science Advisory Board, Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, and the Board of Scientific Counselors. It was not clear from the EPA’s media release if all current board members serving out their appointed terms were immediately dismissed. EPA’s press office did not respond to messages seeking clarification on Tuesday. As part of his directive, Pruitt said he will bar appointees who currently in receipt of EPA grants or who …
Britain Accelerates Brexit Plans; Talks Also to Speed Up
Britain is accelerating preparations for “all eventualities” when it leaves the European Union, but both sides are hopeful an agreement on stepping up talks to unravel more than 40 years of partnership will be sealed soon. With only 17 months remaining until Britain’s expected departure, the slow pace of talks has increased the possibility that London will leave without a deal, alarming business leaders who say time is running out for them to make investment decisions. British and EU negotiators met in Brussels on Tuesday to try to agree a schedule for further divorce talks, with an initial proposal from the bloc to hold three more rounds before the end of the year not winning instant approval from London. The pressure has spurred the British government to step up its Brexit plans, employing thousands more workers and spending millions to make sure customs posts, laws and systems work on day one of Brexit, even without a deal on a future relationship. At a meeting with her ministers Tuesday, Prime Minister Theresa May was updated on plans for the tax and customs authority to add 3,000 to 5,000 workers next year and for spending of 500 million pounds ($660.45 million) for Brexit. Domestic preparations “Alongside the negotiations in Brussels, it is crucial that we are putting our own domestic preparations in place so that we are ready at the point that we leave the EU,” May’s spokesman told reporters. “The preparatory work has seen a significant acceleration in recent months. Departments …
Mexico GDP Shrinks Amid NAFTA Uncertainty, Disasters
Mexico announced Tuesday that its economy shrank 0.2 percent in the third quarter compared with the previous period amid uncertainty related to renegotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement and local slowdowns caused by natural disasters. Alfredo Coutino, Latin America director at Moody’s Analytics, said the contraction came after Mexico posted GDP gains of 0.7 percent and 0.6 percent in the first two quarters and confirms an expected deceleration in the second half of 2017. “Investment decisions were affected by uncertainty over the possibility that NAFTA negotiations would break off,” Coutino wrote in a report. He added that monetary tightening and high inflation “restrained consumption,” while “activity was partially interrupted in cities affected by the two earthquakes in September and the hurricanes that struck the southern part of the country.” The government’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography reported the contraction and said that GDP for the third quarter was 1.7 percent higher than in the same period last year. Coutino forecast that Mexico’s economy will grow about 1 percent in the fourth quarter and hit about 1.8 percent on the year, down from 2017 and short of target. …
Slow Flow of Human Migration May Have Doomed Neanderthals
What killed off the Neanderthals? It’s a big debate, and now a study says that no matter what the answer, they were doomed anyway. Our close evolutionary cousins enjoyed a long run in Europe and Asia, but they disappeared about 40,000 years ago after modern humans showed up from Africa. The search for an explanation has produced many theories including climate change, epidemics, or inability to compete with the modern humans, who may have had some mental or cultural edge. The new study isn’t intended to argue against those factors, but just to show that they’re not needed to explain the extinction, says Oren Kolodny of Stanford University. He and colleague Marcus Feldman present their approach in a paper released Tuesday by the journal Nature Communications. They based their conclusion on a computer simulation that represented small bands of Neanderthals and modern humans in Europe and Asia. These local populations were randomly chosen to go extinct, and then be replaced by another randomly chosen population, with no regard for whether it represented the same species. Neither species was assumed to have any inherent advantage, but there was one crucial difference: Unlike the Neanderthals, the modern humans were supplemented by reinforcements coming in from Africa. It wasn’t a huge wave, but rather “a tiny, tiny trickle of small bands,” Kolodny said. Still, that was enough to tip the balance against the Neanderthals. They generally went extinct when the simulation was run more than …
Exxon Promises Air Pollution Controls in Settlement with US Government
ExxonMobil has promised to upgrade pollution controls at eight of its manufacturing facilities along the U.S. Gulf Coast under an agreement it reached with federal authorities. The petrochemical giant will spend about $300 million to install pollution controls at the plants to settle allegations that it violated U.S. environmental law by failing to properly monitor industrial flares at its petrochemical plants, resulting in illegal air pollution. The U.S. Justice Department, in a statement, said the Exxon facilities — located in Louisiana and Texas — will operate new air pollution control and monitoring technology to reduce the harmful emissions. “Once fully implemented, the pollution controls required by the settlement are estimated to reduce harmful air emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by more than 7,000 tons per year,” the DOJ said in a statement. “The settlement is also expected to reduce toxic air pollutants, including benzene, by more than 1,500 tons per year.” The Justice Department describes VOCs as key components in the formation of smog, which can irritate lungs and inflame respiratory issues like asthma. Chronic exposure can lead to leukemia and adverse reproductive effects in women, the DOJ said. Exxon also will be required to spend $1 million on a project to plant trees in Baytown, Texas, and purchase a $1.5 million mobile air quality monitoring vehicle for use by Louisiana’s environmental protection agency. …
Water Up! Re-Think Your Drink
The suburbs of Washington are the setting for a pilot project to promote healthier eating habits, a partnership between leaders of the Latino community there and researchers at George Washington University. The “Water up Project” encourages the community to drink more water and reduce their consumption of sugary beverages. Faiza Elmasry reports. Faith Lapidus narrates. …
Kushner Partner All But Kills Plan for Fifth Ave Skyscraper
The co-owner of a Fifth Avenue skyscraper controlled by the family of Jared Kushner says demolishing the tower to build luxury apartments is not practical and the building will likely remain as offices. Vornado Realty Trust CEO Steven Roth told investors on Tuesday that the Kushner family’s plan to raise billions from investors to rebuild the tower is “not feasible.” He added that “it’s likely that the building will revert to an office building.” The project drew criticism after media reports that the Kushner Cos. was negotiating with a Chinese insurer with ties to the ruling Communist Party, among other big foreign investors. Critics say such deals would raise conflicts of interest issues with Jared Kushner serving in the White House as an adviser to his father-in-law, President Donald Trump. …
Україна піднялася на 4 позиції в рейтингу Світового банку Doing Business
Україна поліпшила свої позиції в рейтингу легкості ведення бізнесу за версією Світового банку Doing Business на чотири позиції і піднялася на 76-е місце із загалом 190. Щорічний рейтинг був оприлюднений 31 жовтня. Україна опинилася між Бутаном (75-е) і Киргизстаном (77-е місце). За даними експертів Світового банку, Україна продемонструвала зростання, зокрема, за такими пунктами: «отримання дозволів на будівництво», «захист міноритарних інвесторів» і «сплата податків». Загалом рейтинг Світового банку складається за 10 критеріями. Минулого року Україна посіла 80-е місце в рейтингу, піднявшись на три позиції порівняно з попереднім роком. Очолюють нинішній рейтинг Нова Зеландія, Сінгапур, Данія, на останніх місцях – Венесуела, Еритрея, Сомалі. Росія в нинішньому рейтингу піднялася на 35-у позицію. Мінекономрозвитку раніше прогнозувало, що Україна може піднятися в рейтингу легкості ведення бізнесу від Світового банку Doing Business 2018 на 10 позицій – до 70-го місця, що потенційно може приносити до країни щороку додатково мільярд доларів інвестицій. Раніше про те, що Україна піднялась у рейтингу Doing Business, заявляв президент Петро Порошенко. …
UN Environment Report Urges Revived Effort to Cut Emissions
The U.N.’s environment program said Tuesday countries and industries need to do more to meet targets to trim emissions of greenhouse gases that experts say are contributing to global warming. In its latest “Emissions Gap” report issued ahead of an important climate conference in Germany next week, the program takes aim at coal-fired electricity plants being built in developing economies and says investment in renewable energies will pay for itself — and even make money – over the long term. Tuesday’s report comes as U.N. officials are making a renewed push to maintain momentum generated by the Paris climate accord of 2015. It aims to cap global temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius (Fahrenheit) by the year 2100 compared to average world temperatures at the start of the industrial era. “The Paris agreement boosted climate action, but momentum is clearly faltering,” said Edgar Gutierrez-Espeleta, Costa Rica’s environment minister who heads the 2017 UN Environment Assembly. “We face a stark choice: up our ambition, or suffer the consequences.” A new round of U.N. climate talks known as COP 23 starts in Bonn, Germany, on Monday, when countries will take stock of their achievements and prepare more ambitious national goals. In a summary of the report, UNEP says that current trends suggest that even if current national commitments are met, a temperature increase of 3-degrees Celsius by the end of the century is “very likely — meaning that governments need to deliver much stronger pledges when they are …
Eurozone Recovery Helps Unemployment Fall to Near 9-Year Low
Official figures show that the robust economic recovery across the 19-country eurozone persisted during the third quarter, helping unemployment fall to a near 9-year low. Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency, said Tuesday that the eurozone economy grew by 0.6 percent during the July to September period. Though that’s slightly down on the stellar 0.7 percent tick recorded in the second quarter, it’s modestly higher than expectations for a 0.5 percent rise. Separately, Eurostat said unemployment fell to 8.9 percent in September from 9.0 percent the previous month. That’s the lowest rate since January 2009. Elsewhere, Eurostat said annual inflation in the eurozone dipped to 1.4 percent in October from 1.5 percent as the core rate, which strips out volatile items, surprisingly fell to 0.9 percent from 1.1 percent. …
Uber Scrambles to Head Off Brazil Bill Regulating Ride Software
Hundreds of drivers for the internet based ride-hailing firm Uber drove through Brazil’s largest cities on Monday to protest legislation that would turn them into regular taxi drivers subject to the same local licensing and taxation rules. The chief executive of Uber Technologies Inc, Dara Khosrowshahi, arrived in Brazil to lobby against the bill that is due to be voted on by the Senate on Tuesday and which threatens the company’s business in a fast-growing foreign market. Brazil is Uber’s third-largest market, with 17 million users, and the city of Sao Paulo sees more trips on the ride-hailing service than any other city in the world, ahead of New York and Mexico City, according to the company. A spokesman for the company said the application as it exists could not operate under the new rules, including the use of a taxi license plate on cars owned by Uber drivers. “The business model we have today would not longer be viable,” Uber’s executive spokesman in Brazil Fabio Sabba told Reuters. Uber is already battling to keep operating in London after the city’s transport regulator deemed it unfit to run a taxi service and refused to renew its license. Police said 800 Uber drivers drove through the center of Brazil’s capital Brasilia to protest the bill that many say will put them out of business. Similar protests in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro snarled downtown traffic. Uber did not organize the drivers’ protests but alerted authorities that they would happen. “The …
Want to Know When Ebola Will Strike Next? Look to the Forest
Ebola outbreaks tend to occur two years after trees have been cut down or forests cleared in West and Central Africa, researchers said on Monday, suggesting that deforestation data could be used to predict outbreaks of the deadly disease. A study published in online journal Scientific Reports was the first to find a time correlation between deforestation and the onset of Ebola, caused by a virus which humans catch from infected wild animals that can then be transmitted between humans through direct contact. Ebola ravaged Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in 2014-2016, killing around 11,300 people in the world’s worst recorded outbreak, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). There have been dozens of smaller outbreaks since the disease was discovered in 1976, typically in remote villages near tropical rainforests in West and Central Africa, WHO said. By analyzing 27 outbreak sites for the period 2001-2014, researchers found that the Ebola was significantly more likely to emerge in areas with surrounding forest loss, typically two years after the damage was done. Deforestation likely pushes infected wild animals into human areas, but how exactly this works – and why it takes two years – is not yet known, said John Fa, a professor at Manchester Metropolitan University and one of the authors of the report. “The next step is to pinpoint areas that were deforested two years ago,” Fa told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “If we know where they will occur, we might be able to prevent future outbreaks.” Fa hopes …