Year: 2018

Luxury air travel faster than the speed of sound: A US start-up is aiming to revive commercial supersonic flight 50 years after the ill-fated Concorde first took to the skies. Blake Scholl, the former Amazon staffer who co-founded Boom Supersonic, delivered the pledge this week in front of a fully-restored Concorde jet at the Brooklands aviation and motor museum in Weybridge, southwest of London. The company aims to manufacture a prototype 55-seater business jet next year but its plans have been met with scepticism in some quarters. “The story of Concorde is the story of a journey started but not completed — and we want to pick up on it,” Scholl said at an event that coincided with the nearby Farnborough Airshow. “Today … the world is more linked than it’s ever been before and the need for improved human connection has never been greater. “At Boom, we are inspired at what was accomplished half a century ago,” he added, speaking in front of a former British Airways Concorde. Boom Supersonic’s early backers include Richard Branson and Japan Airlines, and other players are eyeing the same segment. Speaking to AFP at Farnborough on Wednesday, Scholl indicated that the air tickets could be beyond the reach of some. “What we’ve been able to do thanks to advances in aerodynamics and materials and engines is offer a high speed flight for the same price you pay in business class today,” he said. He said this works out to around $5,000 (4,300 euros) …

Critics See Japan Anti-Smoking Law as Lax

Japan on Wednesday approved its first national legislation banning smoking inside public facilities, but the watered-down measure excludes many restaurants and bars and is seen by critics as toothless. The legislation aims to lower secondhand smoking risks ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics amid international calls for a smoke-free event. But ruling party lawmakers with strong ties to the tobacco and restaurant industries opted for a weakened version. The upper house approved and enacted the bill into law Wednesday after it was approved earlier by the lower house. Last month, Tokyo separately enacted a stricter ordinance banning smoking at all eateries that have employees, to protect them from secondhand smoke. The ordinance will cover about 84 percent of Tokyo restaurants and bars. But the law still allows many exceptions and the Tokyo Games may not be fully smoke-free. Japan often has been called a smokers’ paradise. Until now it has had no binding law controlling secondhand smoke and ranked among the least protected countries by the World Health Organization. That has brought pressure from international Olympic officials. The new national law bans indoor smoking at schools, hospitals and government offices. Smoking will be allowed at existing small eateries, including those with less than 100 square meters (1,076 square feet) of customer space, which includes more than half of Japanese establishments. Larger and new eateries must limit smoking to designated rooms. Violators can face fines of up to 300,000 yen ($2,700) for smokers and up to 500,000 yen ($4,500) for facility …

Elon Musk Apologizes for Comments About Cave Rescue Diver

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has apologized for calling a British diver involved in the Thailand cave rescue a pedophile, saying he spoke in anger but was wrong to do so. There was no immediate public reaction from diver Vern Unsworth to Musk’s latest tweets. Musk’s initial tweet calling Unsworth a “pedo” was a response to a TV interview Unsworth gave. In it, he said Musk and SpaceX engineers orchestrated a “PR stunt” by sending a small submarine to help divers rescue the 12 Thai soccer players and their coach from a flooded cave. Unsworth said the submarine, which wasn’t used, wouldn’t have worked anyway. “My words were spoken in anger after Mr. Unsworth said several untruths …” Musk tweeted. “Nonetheless, his actions against me do not justify my actions against him, and for that I apologize to Mr. Unsworth and to the companies I represent as leader. The fault is mine and mine alone.” Musk’s Sunday tweet, later deleted, had sent investors away from Tesla stock, which fell nearly 3 percent Monday but recovered 4.1 percent Tuesday. Unsworth told CNN earlier this week that he was considering legal action. He did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press. In his latest tweets, Musk said the mini-sub was “built as an act of kindness & according to specifications from the dive team leader.” Musk has 22.3 million followers and his active social media presence has sometimes worked well for Tesla. The company has said in its …

Trump’s Top Economic Adviser Accuses China’s President of Delaying Trade Deal

U.S. President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser accused Chinese President Xi Jinping Thursday of stalling efforts to resolve a growing trade dispute with the U.S. White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said he believed lower-level Chinese officials want to end tariffs the world two largest economic powers have imposed on each other, but that Xi has refused to amend China’s technology transfer and other trade policies. “So far as we know, President Xi, at the moment, does not want to make a deal,” Kudlow said in an interview on CNBC. “I think Xi is holding the game up,” Kudlow said, and added, “The ball is in his court.” Kudlow said China could end U.S. tariffs “this afternoon” if it took measures that include cutting tariff and non-tariff barriers to imports. The U.S. has also called on Beijing to end the “theft” of intellectual property and allow full foreign ownership of companies operating in China. Kudlow also said he expects European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to make a trade offer when he meets with Trump at the White House next week. Trump has demanded that the EU cut its 10 percent tariffs in auto imports at a time when his administration is conducting a national security study that could result in a 25 percent U.S. tariff on imported vehicles. A 25 percent tariff would have a significant financial impact on European and Japanese automakers, and while Juncker has said he would make an trade offer to Trump next week, …

China Looks to Stronger EU Trade Ties Against Threat of US Tariffs

China bolstered ties with the European Union this week with more large markets in the pipeline to keep its exports healthy as the United States levies import tariffs, analysts say. At the 20th China-EU leaders’ meeting Monday in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping said his country stands ready to promote bilateral economic development. Premier Li Keqiang noted at the summit China had recently cut import tariffs on autos, medicine and consumer goods from the EU. The 28-member European Union, including some of the world’s wealthiest countries, received $437 billion in exports with China last year, which accounted for 20 percent of the bloc’s total shipments from overseas. Officials in Beijing have also pledged to ease trade friction with India this year. “The EU is the second largest trading partner to China,” said Felix Yang, an analyst with the financial advisory firm Kapronasia in Shanghai. “While Trump’s tariffs hit the prospects of the Chinese economy, the EU is becoming a more important market for China.” A reserve in case of trade war China and the United States have headed toward what economists call a “trade war” for much of the year. U.S. President Donald Trump believes China trades unfairly, giving it a $375 billion trade surplus in 2017. This month Trump approved import tariffs of 25 percent on more than 800 Chinese products. The taxes, already in effect, hit Chinese goods worth about $34 billion. Trump has threatened tariffs on goods worth another $450 …

Can Polio Workers Overcome Complacency, Conflict, Donor Fatigue to End the Virus?

The world is close to eliminating the threat from polio, but to eradicate the disease, it must be eliminated everywhere. Health officials say that’s the tricky part, because if the virus responsible for the crippling disease exists anywhere, it can still spread worldwide. Sadie Witkowski reports on the challenges that face polio eradication efforts. …

Can Polio Workers Overcome Complacency, Donor Fatigue to End Virus?

The move to end polio started in 1985 with Rotary International. At that time, polio paralyzed hundreds of thousands of children every year. There is still no cure, but two scientists developed vaccines against the virus in the 1950’s. Dr. Jonas Salk produced one with an inactivated virus that could protect against polio without spreading the disease. Later, Dr. Albert Sabin developed an oral vaccine with weakened strains of the virus. In 1988, public and private groups joined the effort in the Global Polio Eradication Program. Members included governments, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Rotary International, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Since then, the number of polio cases has dropped by 99.9 percent. Last year, 22 children were crippled by this disease. The wild polio virus exists in only three countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria, but it’s still a global threat. Dr. John Vertefeuille, from the CDC said, “This last mile is a complicated mile.” It’s not just because of conflict or terrorism. “It’s extreme remoteness. It’s very fragile health systems.” And in these remote conflict prone areas gaining access to children can be a major problem. If polio exists anywhere, it can once again spread everywhere. Vertefeuille and other experts discussed strategies to realize a polio-free world July 10 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Widespread unrest in Afghanistan has kept thousands of children from receiving polio vaccines this year. Conflict …

Museum of Natural History Provides Glimpse of New Dinosaur Display

The fossilized skeleton of a ferocious Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur will be on exhibit next year in the new fossil hall at the Museum of Natural History in Washington. Excavated in Montana, it is one of the largest and most complete T-rex skeletons ever discovered. The dinosaur, called the Nation’s T-rex, will become part of a larger showcase that explores billions of years of life on earth. VOAs Deborah Block takes us on a sneak peak. …

Boeing Gets $3.9B Contract for New Air Force One Jets

Boeing has received a $3.9 billion contract to build two 747-8 aircraft for use as Air Force One by the U.S. president, due to be delivered by December 2024 and painted red, white and blue, officials said on Tuesday. The Pentagon announced the decision on Tuesday, saying Seattle-based Boeing’s previously awarded contract for development work had been expanded to include design, modification and fielding of two mission-ready presidential 747-8 aircraft. The contract followed the outlines of the informal deal reached between Boeing and the White House in February. That agreement came after President Donald Trump objected to the $4 billion price tag of a previous Air Force One deal, complaining in a Twitter post that “costs are out of control” and adding “Cancel order!” The White House said in February the new deal would save taxpayers more than $1.4 billion, but those savings could not be independently confirmed. Air Force budget documents released in February for fiscal year 2019 disclosed a $3.9 billion cost for the two-aircraft program. The same 2018 budget document, not adjusted for inflation, showed the price at $3.6 billion. The Boeing 747-8s are designed to be an airborne White House able to fly in worst-case security scenarios, such as nuclear war, and are modified with military avionics, advanced communications and a self-defense system. A congressional official briefed on Tuesday about the deal indicated it was little changed from the informal agreement reached in February, calling for two 747-8 aircraft to be built for $3.9 billion and …

Fashion Firms Upend Design Routine to Focus on Speed, Trends

Prototypes? Passe. Fashion company Betabrand saw that knitwear was a hot style in sneakers and wanted to quickly jump on the trend for dressier shoes. It put a poll up on its website asking shoppers what style they liked, and based on that had a shoe for sale online in just one week. What web shoppers saw was a 3-D rendering — no actual shoe existed yet. Creating a traditional prototype, tweaking the design and making a sample would have taken six to nine months, and the company might have missed out on the interest in knit. “The web attention span is short,” said Betabrand CEO Chris Lindland. “So if you can develop and create in a short time, you can be a real product-development machine.” Shoppers looking at the shoe online could examine the peekaboo detail or check out how the sole was put together, as they would from photos of a real product. They don’t get the actual shoes instantaneously — they have to wait a few months. But the use of digital technology in designing and selling means hot trends are still getting to people far faster than under the old system. “Retailers and brands who are embracing this are going to be winners of the future,” said David Bassuk, managing director of consulting group AlixPartners. “This is flipping the business model on its head.” It’s a big cultural change for clothing makers. For decades, the process meant designers sketched ideas on paper, …

Trade Pain: US Small Companies Hit by Import, Export Tariffs

Time and effort have gone down the drain for Steve Gould, who is scrambling to find new customers for his gin, whiskey and other spirits since the United States has taken a tough stance on trade issues. Before the European Union retaliated against new U.S. tariffs with taxes of its own, Gould expected revenue from the EU at his Golden Moon Distillery in Colorado to reach $250,000 or $350,000 this year. Now he’s concerned that European exports will total just $25,000. Golden Moon already saw an effect when then-candidate Donald Trump made trade an issue during the 2016 campaign. Gould lost one of his Mexican importers and an investor, as overseas demand for small-distiller spirits was growing. “We’ve lost years of work and hundreds of thousands of dollars in building relationships with offshore markets,” says Gould, who’s hoping to find new customers in countries like Japan. President Donald Trump’s aggressive trade policies are taking a toll on small U.S. manufacturers. The president has imposed tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum imports from most of the world, including Europe, Mexico and Canada, driving up costs for companies that rely on those metals. And he has slapped 25 percent taxes on $34 billion in Chinese imports in a separate trade dispute, targeting mostly machinery and industrial components so far. Trump’s tariffs have drawn retaliation from around the world. China is taxing American soybeans, among other things; the European Union has hit Harley-Davidson motorcycles and Kentucky bourbon; Canada …

Solar Power Seen as Tool Against Extremism in Sahel

07/17/2018 selleco

Grinding poverty and climate change are pushing communities in West Africa’s Sahel region into the arms of extremist groups like Boko Haram, but providing people with clean energy could help slow that trend, said a top international official. Rachel Kyte, CEO of Sustainable Energy for All, set up by the United Nations, learned on a trip to Niger this month how women and girls are being recruited by Islamist militants who offer them work, food and other essentials. Kyte, who serves as the U.N. secretary-general’s special representative on energy access, said Boko Haram “is moving into the provision of basic social services.” At the same time, in impoverished Niger, recurring and more intense drought “is absolutely punishing,” she said. The Islamist group is based in northeast Nigeria but active in other West African states. Kyte said villagers need better ways to grow crops to feed their families and boost incomes to make them less susceptible to the extremists targeting them. U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed, who visited Niger with Kyte, last week spelled out the links between climate change stresses and regional insecurity in remarks to the U.N. Security Council. In rural Niger, where only about 1 percent of people have access to electric power, supplying cheap and green energy — mainly from the sun — could make a difference, Kyte said. Irrigation, cold storage For example, solar pumps could drive simple, efficient irrigation systems, and installing small-scale local grids could power cold storage, enabling villagers to process their crops and earn more money, she noted. “It just became very, very clear that without energy, there’s no way to improve incomes …

Universal Music Group to Open Nigeria Division

07/17/2018 selleco

Vivendi’s Universal Music Group (UMG) will launch a new division in Nigeria as part of efforts by the world’s largest music label to expand into Africa’s most populous nation and the wider region. The music entertainment group said on Tuesday its new strategic division, Universal Music Nigeria, will operate from Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos. Nigerian music, much like its Nollywood film industry, is popular across much of Africa. Nigerian music artists have popularized the Afrobeat musical genre and gone on to sign record deals, sell out concerts and work with international artists to increase the global reach of African music. Music revenue in Nigeria – mostly derived from sales of mobile phone ringtones – grew 9 percent in 2016, year-on-year, to reach $39 million and is expected to rise to $73 million by 2021, auditing firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) said last year. Sipho Dlamini, Managing Director of Universal Music South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa said that the Nigeria division will focus on developing artists and musicians from West Africa countries, particularly Nigeria, Ghana and Gambia. “Our Nigeria team will support, nurture, and help develop artists, while creating opportunities for new talent from the region to reach the widest possible audience,” said Dlamini. UMG said the new division will work alongside the label’s existing operations in Ivory Coast and Morocco. Universal Music Nigeria also plans to open a recording studio in Lagos, which would be the label’s second fully purposed studio in Africa alongside another in Johannesburg, South Africa. Nigeria’s music …

Jupiter’s Moon Count Hits 79; One New Find Is Tiny ‘Oddball’

Astronomers are still finding moons at Jupiter, 400 years after Galileo used his spyglass to spot the first ones. The latest discovery of a dozen small moons brings the total to 79, the most of any planet in our solar system. Scientists were looking for objects on the fringes of the solar system last year when they pointed their telescopes close to Jupiter’s backyard, according to Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institute for Science in Washington. They saw a new group of objects moving around the giant gas planet but didn’t know whether they were moons or asteroids passing near Jupiter. “There was no eureka moment,” said Sheppard, who led the team of astronomers. “It took a year to figure out what these objects were.” They all turned out to be moons of Jupiter. The confirmation of 10 was announced Tuesday. Two were confirmed earlier. The moons had not been spotted before because they are tiny. They are about one to two kilometers across, said astronomer Gareth Williams of the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center. And he thinks Jupiter might have even more moons just as small waiting to be found. “We just haven’t observed them enough,” said Williams, who helped confirm the moons’ orbits. The team is calling one of the new moons an “oddball” because of its unusual orbit. Sheppard’s girlfriend came up with a name for it: Valetudo, the great-granddaughter of the Roman god Jupiter. Valetudo is in Jupiter’s distant, outer swarm of moons that circles …

EPA Proposal to Limit Science Studies Draws Opposition

Democratic lawmakers joined scores of scientists, health providers, environmental officials and activists Tuesday in denouncing an industry-backed proposal that could limit dramatically the scientific studies the Environmental Protection Agency considers in shaping protections for human health. If adopted by the Trump administration, the rule would allow an EPA administrator to reject study results in making decisions about chemicals, pollutants and other health risks if underlying research data is not made public because of patient privacy concerns or other issues. Opponents said the move would throw out the kind of public-health studies that underlie enforcement of the Clean Air Act and other landmark environmental controls, since the studies drew on confidential health data from thousands of individuals. Democratic Rep. Paul Tonko of New York said the proposed rule was “a thinly veiled campaign to limit research … that supports critical regulatory action.” The rule was proposed by then-Administrator Scott Pruitt before his resignation earlier this month amid mounting ethics scandals. At the public hearing Tuesday, opponents outnumbered supporters. It “enables the public to more meaningfully comment on the science” behind environmental regulation, said Joseph Stanko, a representative of industry trade groups and companies affected by what he said were increasingly stringent air-pollution regulations. Backers have expressed their own worries about how the broadly written rule would apply to confidential trade secrets. Ted Steichen of the American Petroleum Institute said his group supports the initiative to “enhance transparency while ensuring privacy.” Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., said the EPA proposal was the latest …

Iceberg Looming Over Greenland Village Spotted From Space

An iceberg that has drifted perilously close to a remote Greenland village is so big it can be seen from space. The European Space Agency released an image Tuesday showing the giant iceberg just off the coast of Innaarsuit in northwestern Greenland. Dozens of residents were evacuated to higher ground last week due to concerns that the 11 million-ton iceberg could break apart, creating high waves that could wash away coastal buildings. The image captured July 9 by ESA’s Sentinel-2 satellites also shows several other large icebergs in the vicinity. Separately, Greenland broadcaster KNR published a video taken by a resident showing a time lapse of the huge iceberg drifting past the village. KNR reported that strong winds and elevated tides moved the iceberg northward, away from the harbor, over the weekend. …

Bill Gates Backs $30 Million Push for Early Alzheimer’s Diagnostics

Billionaire Bill Gates and Estée Lauder Cos chairman emeritus Leonard Lauder on Tuesday said they will award $30 million over three years to encourage development of new tests for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease. For Microsoft co-founder Gates, launch of the Diagnostics Accelerator program follows an announcement in November of a personal investment of $50 million in the Dementia Discovery Fund, a venture capital fund aimed at bringing together industry and government to seek treatments for the brain-wasting disease. The effort, Gates said, was fueled in part by his personal experience with family members struggling with Alzheimer’s. The most common form of dementia, Alzheimer’s affects nearly 50 million people worldwide and is expected to rise to more than 131 million by 2050, according to Alzheimer’s Disease International. Gates and Lauder provided seed money for the diagnostics collaboration through the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), which was founded by Lauder. They will be joined by other philanthropists, including the Dolby family and the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation. Funding provided through the initiative will be open to scientists and clinicians globally working in academic settings, charities and biotechnology companies. As a philanthropy vehicle, the ADDF Diagnostics Accelerator venture will invest in riskier projects that may not have immediate commercial return, the group said in a statement. Drugmakers have poured billions of dollars into scores of failed attempts to produce a treatment that can arrest the ravages of Alzheimer’s, a fatal disease that robs people of their memories and ability to care …

«Нафтогаз» пояснив, чому зараз неможливо провести відокремлення оператора ГТС

07/17/2018 sellbiz

Компанія «Нафтогаз» заявляє, що негайне проведення відокремлення оператора газотранспортної системи зараз неможливе через чинний транзитний контракт з російським «Газпромом». «Негайне проведення відокремлення оператора газотранспортної системи вимагатиме або отримання письмової згоди «Газпрому» на приєднання до контракту нового оператора, або досягнення домовленостей з «Газпромом» про внесення змін до існуючого контракту. Жоден із цих варіантів не є досяжним», – йдеться у заяві компанії. «Нафтогаз» опублікував частини арбітражного рішення, що стосуються анбандлінгу (передачі функцій видобування газу, його транспортування і розподілу незалежним компаніям – ред.). «Що буде, якщо провести анбандлінг зараз, і чому ті, хто наполягає на цьому, ллють воду на газпромівський млин? Ми не хочемо надавати «Газпрому» можливість достроково розірвати чинний транзитний контракт, за яким ми, зараз вимагаємо у Стокгольмі ще понад 11 мільярдів доларів США», – зазначають у компанії. У «Нафтогазі» нагадують, що однією з позовних вимог у Арбітражному інституті Торгової палати Стокгольма було внесення змін до чинного контракту на транзит газу, які б дозволили «Нафтогазу» передати свої права та обов`язки за цим контрактом без письмової згоди «Газпрому» будь-якій третій особі – це мало дозволити Україні зберегти транзит газу за чинним контрактом і одночасно провести відокремлення оператора ГТС. Проте ці вимоги трибунал відхилив. Читайте також: Майбутнє «Нафтогазу»: відділення ГТС і ліквідація надбудов? «Тепер, щоб здійснити відокремлення, «Нафтогаз» і новий оператор ГТС мають отримати згоду «Газпрому» на приєднання незалежного оператора до чинного контракту. Отримання такої згоди є малоймовірним, враховуючи неодноразово оприлюднену позицію Газпрому», – наголошують в українській компанії. «Нафтогаз України» здійснює повний цикл операцій розвідки та розробки родовищ, експлуатаційного та розвідувального буріння, транспортування та зберігання …

Lab-grown Meat Could Be in Restaurants in 3 Years