Nearly a dozen U.S. states and Washington, D.C., on Tuesday promised to defend federal automobile efficiency standards against a rollback proposed this week by Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. “All Americans … deserve to enjoy fuel-efficient, low-emission cars and light trucks that save money on gas, improve our health and support American jobs,” the attorneys general from 11 states said in a statement responding to Pruitt’s proposal on Monday to ease the Obama-era standards. The standards called for roughly doubling by 2025 the average fuel efficiency of new vehicles sold in the United States to about 50 miles (80 kilometers) per gallon. Proponents say such standards help spur innovation in clean technologies and cut emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. California has long been allowed by an EPA waiver to impose stricter standards than Washington does on vehicle emissions of some pollutants. Twelve other states follow California’s lead on cleaner cars. The attorneys general, from states including New York, Iowa and Massachusetts, said they would challenge a rollback in court. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has already threatened to sue in defense of the standards. The statement, also signed by more than 50 mayors from around the country, said automakers have been making progress in meeting the national standards and that compliance costs have been lower than projected. Auto industry executives have not publicly sought specific reductions in the requirements negotiated with the Obama administration in 2011 as part of a bailout deal. But they have urged Pruitt and President Donald Trump to revise the standards so it becomes easier and less costly to meet the targets. …
IMF: As Myanmar Economy Rebounds, Sanctions Risk Gives Some Investors Pause
The government of Aung San Suu Kyi is opening the economy and growth is rebounding in Myanmar, though the possibility of broader Western sanctions over the Rohingya refugee crisis is nevertheless giving some foreign investors pause, according to a senior IMF official. Shanaka Jay Peiris, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) mission chief to Myanmar, said in a recent interview that initial data reviewed by the IMF indicated that some foreign investors were delaying final approval of projects until there was clarity about how the situation may unfold. “The numbers we have for FDI [foreign direct investment] aren’t showing it yet … but foreign investment approvals are slowing down, so there is some indicator that going forward FDI may be weaker,” Peiris told Reuters following the publication last week of the IMF’s latest review of Myanmar’s economy. “Since August, investors are taking a pause. It isn’t a surprise,” he said. He said it was unclear which projects were being delayed and added that more data was necessary to better understand whether the “pause” was temporary or not. However, leading indicators such as FDI project amounts approved by Myanmar’s government for the first 10 months of fiscal 2017/18 from April show “a marked slowdown” since September 2017, according to the IMF. For now, FDI inflows for 2017/18 still look to be a “solid number,” Peiris added. While it is too soon to know what it could mean for the overall economy, Peiris said: “We have to see whether project approvals were temporarily …
New Gene Editing Tool May Yield Bigger Harvests
Bread and chocolate are staples of the American diet. And a scientific team in California is working hard to make sure the plants they’re made from are as robust as possible. They’re using a recently discovered bacterial gene-editing tool called CRISPR to create more pest-resistant crops. CRISPR is a feature of the bacterial defense system. The microbes use it like a molecular pair of scissors, to precisely snip out viral infections in their DNA. Scientists at the Innovative Genomics Institute in Berkeley, California, are using CRISPR to manipulate plant DNA. Managing director, Susan Jenkins, says the technique is so much faster and precise than other plant transformation methods, it will likely increase the speed of creating new plant varieties by years, if not decades. “What CRISPR is going to allow,” she explains, “is for us to go in and make these changes, and then within one generation of the plant actually have the trait we want.” Rust-resistant wheat While CRISPR speeds up plant breeding, Jenkins says it’s not a magic wand — changing a plant takes a lot of steps. She points to the Institute’s efforts to develop a wheat variety that resists a fungal rust that can reduce yields by nearly 50 percent. First, scientists had to figure out just which gene was making the wheat vulnerable to fungal rust. Then they used CRISPR to remove that gene. “So in this case, we use CRISPR to actually knock out a gene that is in the wheat,” Jenkins says. …
Gay Dating App Grindr to Stop Sharing HIV Status
The gay dating app Grindr will stop sharing its users’ HIV status with analytics companies. Chief security officer Bryce Case told BuzzFeed News on Monday that the company had decided to stop the sharing of such information in order to allay people’s fears. Analytics firms Localytics and Apptimize were paid to test and monitor how the app was being used. Grindr said the firms were under “strict contractual terms that provide for the highest level of confidentiality,” and that data that might include location or information from HIV status fields were “always transmitted securely with encryption.” Grindr said it was important to remember that it is a public forum and that users have the option to post information about their HIV status and date when last tested. It said its users should carefully consider what information they list in their profiles. …
Rare Dinosaur Prints Found on Scotland’s Isle of Skye
Dozens of rare footprints belonging to dinosaurs made some 170 million years ago have been discovered on Scotland’s Isle of Skye, offering an important insight into the Middle Jurassic era, scientists said on Tuesday. “The more we look on the Isle of Skye, the more dinosaur footprints we find,” said Dr Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences. “This new site records two different types of dinosaurs — long-necked cousins of Brontosaurus and sharp-toothed cousins of T. rex — hanging around a shallow lagoon, back when Scotland was much warmer and dinosaurs were beginning their march to global dominance.” The find is globally important as it is rare evidence of the Middle Jurassic period, from which few fossil sites have been found around the world, the university said on its website. The footprints were difficult to study owing to tidal conditions, the impact of weathering and changes to the landscape, it added. But researchers managed to identify two trackways in addition to many isolated footprints. They used drone photographs to make a map of the site while other images were collected using a paired set of cameras and tailored software to help model the prints. The study, carried out by the University of Edinburgh, Staffin Museum and Chinese Academy of Sciences, was published in the Scottish Journal of Geology. …
As US China Trade Frictions Heat up, Optimism for Negotiations Dims
As trade frictions heat up between China and the United States, the two countries are talking tough and giving assurances at the same time that the situation will not spiral out of control. Despite assurances, analysts both in China and in the United States are divided over just how bad the situation could get. “Right now, the markets are reacting, farmers are reacting, trade groups are reacting and most of us are expecting a counterproductive end in the short run,” said Dave Swenson, an economist at Iowa State University. “What we think this is right now is truly a skirmish, boundaries being drawn, what we don’t know is just the extent to which both sides are willing to go to make their points.” President Donald Trump is expected to announce a new tariff list aimed at punishing Beijing over its technology transfer policies and intellectual property theft. And while the two sides have stressed that negotiations and talks are being pursued, there has been little evidence that that is happening. China has said it will take proportional measures to respond to any tariffs enacted by the Trump administration. In response to earlier tariffs on steel and aluminum, China launched levies of up to 25 percent this week on 128 products, including fruits, nuts, pork, wine, steel and aluminum. China’s actions so far have shown self-restraint, but there is there is much more Beijing could do, said economist Hu Xingdou. “For example, China owns lots of U.S. treasury and corporate bonds, buys airplanes …
Asian Markets Move Lower After US Stock Plunge
Stock markets in Asia and Europe saw declines Tuesday, but did not suffer losses as steep as those Monday in U.S. markets where continued fears about a U.S.-China trade war and a verbal attack on an online retailer by President Donald Trump sent stocks lower. China’s Shanghai Composite Index finished down about 0.84 percent, while Japan’s Nikkei fell about one-half percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rallied in afternoon trading to close up about one-quarter percent. Early trading sent markets in Britain and Germany lower. The U.S. Down Jones Industrial Average closed down 1.9 percent Monday, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 dropped 2.3 percent and the NASDAQ fell nearly three percent. Trump has strongly criticized online giant Amazon three times in the last few days. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also owns The Washington Post, whose revelatory stories on Trump and his administration frequently draw the president’s ire. The U.S. leader says Amazon’s large-scale operations are detrimental to the business success of small retailers that cannot compete with its high-volume sales. Trump has also complained that the fees Amazon pays to the U.S. Postal Service to deliver merchandise the retailer sells are too low, costing the quasi-governmental agency hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue, although the Postal Service says its contract with Amazon is profitable. “Only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon,” Trump said in his latest broadside against Amazon. “THEY LOSE A FORTUNE, and this will be changed. Also, …
US vs. China: a ‘Slap-Fight,’ Not a Trade War — So Far
First, the United States imposed a tax on Chinese steel and aluminum. Then, China counterpunched Monday with tariffs on a host of U.S. products, including apples, pork and ginseng. On Wall Street, the stock market buckled on the prospect of an all-out trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. But it hasn’t come to that – not yet, anyway. “We’re in a trade slap-fight right now,” not a trade war, said Derek Scissors, resident scholar and China specialist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. China is a relatively insignificant supplier of steel and aluminum to the United States. And the $3 billion in U.S. products that Beijing targeted Monday amount to barely 2 percent of American goods exported to China. But the dispute could escalate, and quickly. Already, in a separate move, the United States is drawing up a list of about $50 billion in Chinese imports to tax in an effort to punish Beijing for stealing American technology or forcing U.S. companies to hand over trade secrets. China could respond by targeting American commercial interests uniquely dependent on the Chinese market: the aircraft giant Boeing, for example, and soybean farmers. The possibility that the U.S. and China will descend into a full-blown trade war knocked the Dow Jones industrial average down as much as 758 points in afternoon trading. The Dow recovered some ground and finished down 458.92 points, or 1.9 percent, at 23,644.19. For weeks, in fact, President Donald Trump’s aggressive trade actions have depressed the stock …
Library Helps ‘Left-behind’ Nepali Women Gain Cash, Confidence
For farmers trying to figure out how to heal a sick cow or grow tomatoes commercially in this Himalayan community, help is at hand in the form of a crumbling, earthquake-scarred library. In a rural area where searching for information online or paying for expert advice is rarely an option, the library is a first stop for female farmers daunted by their new role: running the family farm while their husbands are away looking for work. “Most of the men have migrated for money now in Nepal. It’s a very huge problem,” said Meera Marahattha, the “human Google” who runs the library. But there’s an upside. “Because of this male migration, females have the opportunity to lead,” she added – sometimes for the first time. Migration is growing around the world among families hit by disasters, conflict or shifting weather patterns. In Nepal – and many other places – women are often left behind in rural areas as men seek work in cities or overseas. Taking on all the work can be exhausting, and being alone is dangerous for some women. But for others, the absence of men can open up opportunities to try out their own ideas, learn new skills and gain confidence. In Nepal, the Tribeni community library in Bhimdhunga is one of 22 that are part of a “Practical Answers” program jointly run by READ Nepal, a literacy and anti-poverty organization, and Practical Action, a British charity. Besides providing resource books, the hubs collect queries from across …
Mercury Rising: Gold Mining Takes a Toxic Toll on Kenyan Women
Scorching sun beats down on half a dozen women as they carry large sacks of crushed ore on their backs at the Osiri-Matanda gold mine near Kenya’s border with Tanzania. On wooden tables, they sieve the powdered ore into metal pans, add mercury, and heat the mixture over a charcoal fire. The air fills with fumes as the liquid metal evaporates – leaving behind a lump of gold. The women complain the work is hard, hours long and wages meager. But the job brings bigger concerns: exposure to toxic mercury could be killing them. “Many women here know the risk,” said Eunice Atieno, 40, dumping a sack by the side of her table at the mine in Kenya’s southwestern Migori county. “But we do not know what else to do for a living if we stop working here,” she said, describing health problems, such as weight loss, body weakness and trembling hands, which she has experienced after a decade working in the mines. Atieno is one of more than 1,000 women across 25 countries including Kenya, Myanmar and Indonesia, whose hair samples were tested for mercury by IPEN, a Stockholm-based network of charities focusing on health and environment. IPEN found that more than 40 percent of those tested, including Atieno, had mercury levels greater than 1 part per million — exceeding the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s safe exposure level. High mercury levels can damage the nervous, digestive and immune systems and poison the lungs, kidneys, skin and eyes, says …
Most Distant Star Ever Detected Sits Halfway Across Universe
Scientists have detected the most distant star ever viewed, a blue behemoth located more than halfway across the universe and named after the ancient Greek mythological figure Icarus. Researchers said on Monday they used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to spot the star, which is up to a million times more luminous and about twice as hot as our sun, residing 9.3 billion lights years away from Earth. It is a type of star called a blue supergiant. The star, located in a distant spiral galaxy, is at least 100 times further away than any other star previously observed, with the exception of things like the huge supernova explosions that mark the death of certain stars. Older galaxies have been spotted but their individual stars were indiscernible. The scientists took advantage of a phenomenon called “gravitational lensing” to spot the star. It involves the bending of light by massive galaxy clusters in the line of sight, which magnifies more distant celestial objects. This makes dim, faraway objects that otherwise would be undetectable, like an individual star, visible. Peering back in time “The fraction of the universe where we can see stars is very small. But this sort of quirk of nature allows us to see much bigger volumes,” said astronomer Patrick Kelly of the University of Minnesota, lead author of the research published in the journal Nature Astronomy. “We will now be able to study in detail what the universe was like — and specifically how stars evolved and what their …
SpaceX Launches Used Supply Ship on Used Rocket for NASA
SpaceX has launched a used supply ship on a used rocket to the International Space Station. The Falcon rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Monday, hoisting a Dragon capsule full of food, experiments and other station goods for NASA. The Dragon and its 6,000-pound shipment should reach the space station Wednesday. The station astronauts will use a robot arm to grab it. It’s the second trip to the orbiting lab for this particular Dragon, recycled following a visit two years ago. The Falcon’s first-stage booster also flew before — last summer. SpaceX has combined a recycled Dragon and a recycled Falcon once before. The company aims to reduce launch costs by reusing rocket parts. The space station is currently home to astronauts from the U.S., Russia and Japan. …
Поліція: викрито хакера, що крав сторінки українців у соцмережах і вимагав за них викуп
Кіберполіція повідомила про викриття 23-річного хакера з Києва, що за допомогою фішингу відбирав у власників доступ до їхніх персональних сторінок у соцмережах, після чого вимагав за нього гроші. «Крім персональних сторінок, він також орієнтувався на профілі Інтернет-магазинів у соціальній мережі Instagram. Використовуючи фейкові сторінки та електронні листи, нібито від адміністрації Instagram, зловмисник отримував доступ до зазначених сторінок. Після чого надсилав потерпілим Email-повідомлення, в яких пропонував за 10 тисяч гривень розблокування сторінки», – йдеться у повідомленні на сайті відомства. Під час обшуку у чоловіка вилучили для експертизи комп’ютерну техніку та мобільні телефони з різними сім картками, які той, як підозрюється, використовував для реєстрації фейкових доменних імен, а також – блокнот з чорновими записами, де записані усі операції по руху коштів. Кількість кіберзлочинів в Україні щороку зростає, повідомив перший заступник начальника Департаменту кіберполіції Олександр Гринчак в ефірі Радіо Свобода. 2017 року кіберполіція супроводжувала близько 7 тисяч кримінальних проваджень, з них 4,5 тисячі – винятково кіберзлочини, повідомляв раніше голова Департаменту кіберполіції виданню «Економічна правда» …
Мін’юст назвав найбільших боржників із зарплат в Україні
«Харківське державне авіаційне виробниче підприємство», «Суднобудівний завод імені 61 комунара» на Миколаївщині та харківський футбольний клуб «Металіст» очолюють список підприємств – найбільших боржників із заплат в Україні. Перелік оприлюднило Міністерство юстиції на своєму сайті. За його даними, обсяг боргу співробітникам першого зі згаданих підприємств становить 73,7 мільйони гривень, Миколаївський суднобудівний заборгував 30,3 мільйони, а «Металіст» – 28,6 мільйонів. До п’ятірки найбільших боржників також увійшли ПАТ «Київсоюзшляхпроект» та ПрАТ «Сєвєродонецьке об’єднання «Азот»» на Луганщині, чий борг становить 17,6 та 15,2 мільйони гривень відповідно. Як повідомив заступник Міністра юстиції з питань виконавчої служби Сергій Шкляр, у всіх регіонах України створено штаби з координації, моніторингу та контролю за станом виконання рішень про стягнення заборгованості з виплати заробітної плати та інших виплат, пов’язаних з трудовими правовідносинами. …
Amazon Shares Fall 4 Percent as Trump Renews Attack
Shares of Amazon.com Inc fell 4 percent on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump again attacked the online retailer over the pricing of its deliveries through the United States Postal Service and promised unspecified changes. “Only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon,” Trump tweeted. “They lose a fortune, and this will be changed. Also, our fully tax paying retailers are closing stores all over the country … not a level playing field!” Trump has been vocal about his opposition to Amazon’s use of the postal service and Monday’s tweet adds to investor worries that the company could see more regulation. Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for a comment. Details of Amazon’s payments to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) are not publicly known, but some Wall Street analysts have estimated it pays the postal service roughly half what it would to United Parcel Service Inc or FedEx Corp to deliver a package. “President Trump’s comments are consistent with industry sources we have spoken to in the shipping industry, who often label Amazon’s deal with the USPS as a sweetheart deal,” DA Davidson analyst Tom Forte wrote in a note. “An argument, however, could be made that the USPS was losing billions before it expanded its service offerings for Amazon and would, still, likely lose billions if Amazon discontinued its use of the USPS tomorrow,” Forte said. Trump last Thursday accused Amazon of not paying enough tax, making the postal system …
Buffett Son Criticizes President Donald Trump’s Border Wall
Investor Warren Buffett’s oldest son usually focuses on finding ways for his foundation to help farmers in the developing world or get the most out of the crops he’s growing in Illinois. But now Howard Buffett has jumped into the border security debate with a book criticizing President Donald Trump’s proposal to build a massive wall along the Mexican border. At first, the subject might seem like an odd fit, but the book is based on Howard Buffett’s experience as a philanthropist, an Arizona landowner near the border and a volunteer sheriff’s deputy in Arizona and Illinois. Buffett sees a clear connection between our nation’s porous border and the drug crimes and addiction he investigates in Decatur, Illinois, as interim sheriff. He’s also seen drug trafficking and illegal immigration in Cochise County, Arizona, where he owns a ranch and has served as a volunteer deputy. “There is a lot of pain that is affecting many people in this country that’s not getting addressed, and it starts at the border,” Howard Buffett said. He knows he may not be able to change some people’s minds because of the strong views Trump’s supporters and detractors hold, but he thinks the best solution is a combination of properly equipped law enforcement, some barriers in places and cooperation with Mexico and other countries. “The biggest single impediment is the politics of it,” he said. Trump has yet to secure funding to build a wall on the border. The budget deal …
Overcoming Barriers, African Scientists Creating Award-winning Innovations
When Cameroonian medical doctor Conrad Tankou won the top health award at an international innovation competition, he breathed a sigh of relief. Winning the $25,000 prize at the Next Einstein Forum in Kigali, Rwanda, last week was the culmination of years of struggle. “Sometimes, I doubted I would get this far,” 30-year-old Tankou said. “We’ve come a long way. It’s the first time this project is actually getting any recognition. So, many people didn’t believe in it in the beginning, and up ‘till now, some people are still doubting.” WATCH: Next Einstein Forum Tankou, a general practitioner based in Bamenda in northwestern Cameroon, led a team to invent what he calls GIC Med. It’s a portable digital microscope that connects to a smartphone to remotely scan for cervical cancers for medical analysis. About 7,000 cases of cervical cancer are discovered yearly. The disease is the second most frequent cancer among women in Cameroon. While creating his technology and seeking support, Tankou said he faced resistance from medical professionals. There was also the challenge of an unreliable internet, which he said is necessary for today’s scientists. Only about 25 percent of Cameroon’s population has Internet access, and the connection is prone to blackouts. Some of the blackouts are political. The Cameroonian government has periodically shut down the internet in Anglophone regions, including Bamenda, where citizens are accusing the Francophone-dominated government of marginalizing English-speaking people. One blackout last year reportedly lasted a record 93 days. Tankou said he also had to confront …
New Hope for Frog Once Feared Extinct in Australia
Sydney’s Taronga Zoo has released a specially-bred group of critically endangered yellow-spotted bell frogs into the wild. Yellow-spotted bell frogs were thought to have become extinct until a chance discovery a decade ago. It allowed scientists to breed a so-called insurance population’ in captivity to help the species recover. Historically, yellow spotted-bell frogs were found in two separate highland ranges in the north and south of New South Wales state in eastern Australia. But disaster struck in the 1970s following an outbreak of an infectious disease that affects amphibians around the world. For 30 years there were no recorded sightings of yellow-spotted bell frogs and scientists thought they were extinct. However, a small group of these rare frogs was found near the New South Wales town of Yass in 2009 on the Southern Tablelands. Researchers moved quickly to harvest eggs and they became part of a so-called insurance population. It has been a success.This week experts from Taronga Zoo in Sydney released 200 juvenile frogs back into the area near Yass in an attempt to re-establish a wild population. Michael McFadden is a supervisor at the zoo. “In the Northern and Southern Tablelands this species used to be extremely common up until the late 1970s and at that time the species almost went extinct over a couple of years. So it disappeared, it was thought to have gone extinct. The reason for that decline was due to the introduction of an introduced pathogen called chytrid fungus. Unfortunately for this species …
China Raises Tariffs on US Pork, Fruit in Trade Dispute
China raised import duties on a $3 billion list of U.S. pork, fruit and other products Monday in an escalating tariff dispute with President Donald Trump that companies worry might depress global commerce. The Finance Ministry said it was responding to a U.S. tariff hike on steel and aluminum that took effect March 23. But a bigger clash looms over Trump’s approval of possible higher duties on nearly $50 billion of Chinese goods in a separate argument over technology policy. The tariff spat is one aspect of wide-ranging tensions between Washington and Beijing over China’s multibillion-dollar trade surplus with the United States and its policies on technology, industry development and access to its state-dominated economy. Forecasters say the immediate impact should be limited, but investors worry the global recovery might be set back if it prompts other governments to raise import barriers. Those fears temporarily depressed financial markets, though stocks have recovered some of their losses. On Monday, stock market indexes in Tokyo and Shanghai were up 0.5 percent at midmorning. Beijing faces complaints by Washington, the European Union and other trading partners that it hampers market access despite its free-trading pledges and is flooding global markets with improperly low-priced steel and aluminum. But the EU, Japan and other governments criticized Trump’s unilateral move as disruptive. The United States buys little Chinese steel and aluminum following earlier tariff hikes to offset what Washington says is improper subsidies. Still, economists expected Beijing to respond to avoid looking weak in a high-profile …
Ефект холодної зими: запаси газу в ПСГ нині менші, ніж торік
Запаси природного газу в українських підземних сховищах газу (ПСГ) за останній тиждень березня скоротилися на 4,4% – до 7,681 мільярда кубометрів з 8,035 мільярда кубометрів. Про це свідчать дані оператора газотранспортної системи України держкомпанії «Укртрансгаз». Нинішні запаси є меншими за ті, з якими Україна завершила опалювальний сезон у 2017 році – у 2016 році в опалювальний сезон країна ввійшла із запасами «блакитного палива» на рівні 14,7 і завершила сезон на рівні 8,4 мільярда кубометрів. Україна увійшла у 2018 рік з найбільшими порівняно з початком п’яти останніх років запасами газу у підземних сховищах – 14,7 мільярда кубометрів газу. До початку опалювального сезону 2017 – 2018 років (15 жовтня 2017 року) у ПСГ було накопичено 16,8 мільярда кубометрів газу. (Близько 5 мільярдів – це технічний газ, необхідний для функціонування сховищ). Опалювальний сезон в Україні зазвичай стартує в середині жовтня. За багаторічними стандартами, він розпочинається тоді, коли середньодобова температура повітря впродовж трьох діб становить вісім або менше градусів. Тривалість опалювального сезону становить близько півроку, але в Києві у 2017 році комунальники через суттєве потепління вимкнули опалення 1 квітня. Натомість у Львові опалювальний період фінішував лише 25 квітня, хоча перед тим навесні комунальні служби двічі вимикали тепло. …
African Scientists Compete at 2018 Next Einstein Forum
Sixteen African scientists competed in Rwanda last week for a chance to solve some of the most pressing problems in their communities. Chika Oduah reports for VOA from Kigali, which hosted the 4th annual Next Einstein Forum March 26-28. …
Chinese Space Lab Burns Up in the Atmosphere
A defunct Chinese space lab met its expected end early Monday morning as its remaining fragments plunged into the South Pacific. China’s Manned Space Engineering Office said the Tiangong-1 spacecraft “mostly” burned up in the atmosphere. Any pieces that failed to disintegrate during the fiery trip back to Earth fell harmlessly into the ocean. It took about two hours for the craft burn up once it hit Earth’s atmosphere. There had been predictions parts of the space lab would land in the South Atlantic with some pieces posing a very small threat to people on the ground Tiangong-1, was the size of a school bus and weighed eight and a half tons. Tiangong-1, which means “Heavenly Palace” in English, was the largest manmade object to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere in a decade. It was launched in 2011 and served as an orbiting laboratory for manned Chinese space missions until officials determined its lifespan was complete. It was taken out of service in 2016. …
Міністр зв’язав монетизацію субсидій з посиленням відповідальності за несплату ЖКП
Міністр соціальної політики Андрій Рева в ефірі програми «Завтра» – спільного проекту Радіо Свобода та телеканалу «112 Україна» – розповів про те, як буде проходити монетизація субсидій, старт якої запланований на 1 січня 2019 року. «Повинна бути посилена відповідальність за несплату послуг. Якщо ми дали людині гроші, то у неї повинен бути місяць для того, щоб вона розрахувалась за послуги», – розповів чиновник. Відповідно, пояснює він, організації, які постачають житлово-комунальні послуги, повинні мати право припинити постачання таких послуг, якщо протягом місяця людина не сплатила за споживання ЖКП. Рева навів приклад будинку в селі площею в 60 квадратних метрів, в якому проживає одна пенсіонерка з мінімальною пенсією. В такому випадку вона могла б отримати субсидію на 300 кубічних метрів газу. Читайте також: Що буде із субсидією після монетизації? «Беремо умовну ціну газу в сім гривень. Це 2100 грн, а ще електроенергія. Мінімальна пенсія – це 1500 гривень. З неї треба зробити обов’язкову оплату – шість відсотків, це сто гривень. Таким чином, пенсіонерка отримає від держави 2000 гривень субсидії живими грошима», – пояснив міністр. Він прогнозує, що можливість заощадити саме живі гроші на субсидіях дозволить знизити загальне споживання газу: «Яка реакція буде? Люди будуть економити, що зберегти ці гроші». Нагадаємо, Кабінет міністрів схвалив запровадження в Україні монетизації субсидій на рівні постачальників послуг від 1 січня 2018 року. Рішення ухвалили на засіданні уряду 8 листопада. …
Exhibit Highlights Inclusive Design for People with Disabilities
More than 1 billion people around the world have some sort of disability. Rong Shi of VOA’s Mandarin service toured an exhibit in New York that showcases the latest gadgets and inventions designed to help those with a range of physical, sensory or cognitive abilities lead more independent lives and engage more fully in the world. Faith Lapidus reports. …