Ціну на газ можна знизити, якщо продавати його з рентабельністю в 30%, заявила в ефірі Радіо Свобода кандидатка в президенти України Юлія Тимошенко. Вона висловила своє схвалення з приводу того, що уряд не став продовжувати контракт із чинним директором «Нафтогазу» Андрієм Коболєвим, і пояснила свою позицію щодо підвищення ціни на газ (яке Тимошенко послідовно критикує). Читайте також: «Газовий зашморг» як аргумент на виборах «Аксіома №1: в Україні не існує ринкової ціни на природній газ. Чому? Тому що не існує ринку. У нас на 100% монополія. І цю монополію створили вручну. Саме тому, коли ціна монопольна, вона не є ринковою. Якщо немає ринку, то ціну на газ «ринкову» встановив уряд своєю постановою. При цьому, заклали для українського газу рентабельність між 200% і 300%, що саме по собі є економічним грубим безглуздям. Це корупція, яка прикрита непоганими гаслами. Ця корупція буде демонтована», – сказала лідерка партії «Батьківщина». Вона також вчергове запевнила, що потреби населення повністю покриває газ власного видобутку. І додала, що ціну на газ можна знизити, якщо продавати блакитне паливо з прибутковістю в 30%. «Тоді ми з вами чітко будемо розуміти, що ціна на український газ для населення і для бюджетної сфери буде формуватися так: видобуток, транспортування до споживача, безпосередньо до конфорок людей, далі – податки, 30% прибутки. І все це складає 3 гривні 50 копійок за кубометр. А сьогодні український газ людям продають по 8 гривень 55 копійок. І це не ринок. Це величезна прихована корупція», – вважає Тимошенко. Читайте також: Крим має бути темою переговорів ТКГ і підписантів Будапештського меморандуму …
US Wages Wide-Ranging Campaign to Block Huawei
VOA’s Xu Ning contributed to this report. Over the past several weeks, the U.S. government has launched a seemingly unprecedented campaign to block the Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies from competing in the global rollout of next-generation 5G mobile networking technology, claiming that the company is effectively an arm of the Chinese intelligence services. In an effort that has included top-level officials from the departments of State, Justice, Defense, Homeland Security, and Commerce, as well as the president himself, the Trump administration has taken steps to curtail Huawei’s ability to operate within the U.S. It has also mounted an extraordinary effort to convince U.S. allies to bar the firm from operating on their soil. Huawei has long been viewed with suspicion and distrust in many corners of the global economy. The company has a documented history of industrial espionage, and its competitiveness on the global stage has been boosted by massive subsidies from the government in Beijing. Still, the scope of the U.S. government’s current offensive against the company is remarkable. “Huawei has been accused of many things for a very long time. This is nothing new. What is unique is the extent of the pressure campaign,” said Michael Murphree, assistant professor of International Business at the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business. “In the grand scheme of international technology competition, this is certainly a very strong effort against a specific firm.” The push to keep Huawei from playing a major role in the rollout of 5G comes …
Mental Health ‘Epidemic’ Hits Generation Z
Nineteen-year-old college student Margaret Pisacano can usually feel a panic attack coming on; her thoughts start to spiral, her breathing speeds up, and her heart races. “It’s as if a tornado and a tsunami of emotions just like overcame your body and you couldn’t control anything,” Pisacano says. “It was like almost a total loss of control over any feeling or thinking in your body.” The Arizona native, who attends college in Florida, was first diagnosed with general anxiety disorder in middle school. She is among millions of stressed-out members of Generation Z — the group of young people born roughly between 1995 and 2015, who are currently between 4 and 24 years old. A report released Thursday by the American Psychological Association finds the rate of adolescents reporting symptoms of major depression increased 52 percent between 2005 and 2017 — from 8.7 percent to 13.2 percent — among youth from the ages of 12 and 17. The increase was even higher — 63 percent from 2009 to 2017 — among young adults between the ages of 18 and 25. The survey examined data from 611,880 adolescents and adults. The researchers did not find a similar increase in adults older than 26. Today, one in three teens between the ages of 13 and 18 has an anxiety disorder. “The current rate of anxiety is 31 percent in adolescents,” says Dr. Elena Mikalsen, head of the Psychology Section at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio in Texas. “It’s an epidemic. It’s …
Trump Attacks General Motors for Laying Off Auto Workers
U.S. President Donald Trump is attacking General Motors, the country’s biggest automaker, for costing 5,400 factory workers their jobs when it closed a manufacturing plant where it built a compact model car that Americans were increasingly not interested in buying. Trump said on Twitter he talked with Mary Barra, GM’s chief executive, on Sunday, telling her he was “not happy” that the automaker closed the manufacturing plant in the industrial heartland of the country in Lordstown, Ohio, where GM manufactured the Chevrolet Cruze, a smaller car the company says is still popular overseas but not in the U.S. He said he was miffed that the Lordstown plant was closed earlier this month “when everything else in our Country is BOOMING. I asked her to sell it or do something quickly.” The plant closure was an indication that prosperity is uneven geographically across the U.S., the world’s largest economy. But with Trump facing several investigations surrounding his 2016 presidential campaign and his actions during the first 26 months of his presidency, he is counting on the country’s mostly robust economy as a key talking point to voters that he should be re-elected to another four-year term in the November 2020 election. He wrote on Twitter that he is not happy about the closure. Trump on Monday tweeted that GM, the fourth biggest automaker in the world, and the UAW are opening negotiations on a new contract in September and October. But he demanded, “Why wait, start them now! I want jobs …
OPEC Scraps April Meeting but Keeps Oil Cuts in Place
Oil producer group OPEC on Monday scrapped its planned meeting in April and will decide instead whether to extend output cuts in June, once the market has assessed the impact of U.S. sanctions on Iran and the crisis in Venezuela. A ministerial panel of OPEC and its allies recommended that they cancel the extraordinary meeting scheduled for April 17-18 and hold the next regular talks on June 25-26. The energy minister of OPEC’s de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, said the market was looking oversupplied until the end of the year but that April would be too early for any decision on output policy. “The consensus we heard… is that April will be premature to make any production decision for the second half,” the Saudi minister, Khalid al-Falih, said. “As long as the levels of inventories are rising and we are far from normal levels, we will stay the course, guiding the market towards balance,” he added. The United States has been increasing its own oil exports in recent months while imposing sanctions on OPEC members Venezuela and Iran in an effort to reduce those two countries’ shipments to global markets. Washington’s policies have introduced a new level of complication for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries as it struggles to predict global supply and demand. “We are not under pressure except by the market,” Falih told reporters before the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) meeting in the Azeri capital, Baku, when asked whether he was under U.S. pressure to …
Japan to Make Crater on Asteroid to Get Underground Samples
Japan’s space agency said Monday that its Hayabusa2 spacecraft will follow up last month’s touchdown on a distant asteroid with another risky mission — to drop an explosive to make a crater and collect underground samples to get possible clues to the origin of the solar system. Hayabusa2 made history on Feb. 22 when it successfully touched down on the boulder-rich asteroid, where it also collected some surface fragments. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said Hayabusa2 is to drop a copper impactor the size of a baseball and weighing 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) on the asteroid on April 5 to collect samples from deeper underground where they had not been exposed to the sun or space rays. The new mission will require an immediate evacuation of the spacecraft to the other side of the asteroid so it won’t get hit by flying shards from the blast, JAXA said. While moving away, Hayabusa2 will leave a camera to capture the outcome. The mission will allow JAXA scientists to analyze details of a crater to find out the history of the asteroid, said Koji Wada, who is in charge of the project. Hayabusa2 will start descending toward the asteroid the day before to carry out the mission from its home position of 20 kilometers (12 miles) above. It will drop a cone-shaped piece of equipment containing explosives that will blast off a copper plate on the bottom. It will turn into a ball and slam into the asteroid at the speed of …
UK Prime Minister in Last-Minute Push to Win Brexit Support
British Prime Minister Theresa May was making a last-minute push Monday to win support for her European Union divorce deal, warning opponents that failure to approve it would mean a long — and possibly indefinite — delay to Brexit. Parliament has rejected the agreement twice, but May aims to try a third time this week if she can persuade enough lawmakers to change their minds. Her aim is to have the deal agreed before EU leaders meet Thursday for a summit in Brussels. But there was no sign of a breakthrough, and the government faces a deadline of the end of Tuesday to decide whether they have enough votes to pass the deal, so that a vote can be held on Wednesday. May’s spokesman, James Slack, said Monday that the government would only hold a vote if there is “a realistic prospect of success.” May is likely to ask for a delay to Brexit at the Brussels summit. If a deal is approved, she says she will ask the EU to extend the deadline until June 30 so that Parliament has time to approve the necessary legislation. If it isn’t, she will have to seek a longer extension that would mean Britain participating in May 23-26 elections for the European Parliament — something the government is keen to avoid. May’s goal is to win over Northern Ireland’s small, power-brokering Democratic Unionist Party. The DUP’s 10 lawmakers prop up May’s Conservative government, and their support could influence pro-Brexit Conservatives to drop …
НБУ послабив гривню ще на 12 копійок щодо долара – довідковий курс
На українському міжбанківському валютному ринку триває зростання курсу долара США. Станом на 12:00 за результатами торгів Національний банк України встановив довідкове значення 27 гривень 12,85 копійки за долар, що майже на 12 копійок більше за офіційний курс, встановлений на 18 березня. Минулого тижня фахівці відзначали, що на торги для придбання значних обсягів валюти виходила «Укрзалізниця», якій треба було погасити частину зовнішніх запозичень. Також були активними ще кілька покупців долара. Експерти припускали, що цього тижня зростання долара може уповільнитися або й припинитися, адже для здійснення обов’язкових бюджетних платежів українські економічні агенти продаватимуть валюту. …
Tens of Thousands Join Climate ‘March of the Century’ in Paris
Tens of thousands of people gathered in Paris over the weekend to demand action on climate change. The initiative started with a 16-year-old Swedish girl and ballooned to what environmental groups called the “March of the Century” in France. Arash Arabasadi reports. …
France Starts New Chapter in National Debate Aimed to End Yellow-Vest Crisis
After wrapping up thousands of town hall meetings, France starts a new chapter of its “great debate,” aimed to address longstanding public grievances and offer solutions to the yellow vest protest movement. But the broader crisis lingers, seen with upsurge of violence in Paris Saturday, where about 10,000 yellow vests marked their 18th straight week of protests. Demonstrators smashed and looted businesses on the iconic Champs Elysees and hurled cobble stones at police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons. Others participated in a peaceful climate march that brought together tens of thousand of people—underscoring the diffuse, unorganized complexity of the leaderless protest movement. Eight weeks of citizen debates, launched in January by an embattled President Emmanuel Macron, have received mixed reviews. Some consider them a groundbreaking experiment in participative democracy. Others dismiss them as a public relations stunt. The bigger question is whether and how Macron’s centrist government plans to transform the public feedback into tangible policy change that can address pent-up resentments and find an exit to the unrest. “The problems start now” said analyst Jean Petaux of Sciences-Po Bordeaux University. “To totally finish with the yellow vests, the government has to address at least part of their demands, which are very disparate. And give the sense it is offering credible solutions.” For Macron, the immediate takeaways have been largely positive. Up to half-a-million French participated in 10,000 town-hall-style meetings nationwide that tackled pre-set topics, ranging from taxes and pubic services, to democracy and the environment. Organizers …
UK Leader to Lawmakers: Back my Deal or Face Lengthy Delay
British Prime Minister Theresa May warned Sunday that it would be “a potent symbol of Parliament’s collective political failure” if a Brexit delay meant that the U.K. has to take part in May’s European elections — almost three years after Britons voted to leave the bloc. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, May also cautioned that if lawmakers failed to back her deal before Thursday’s European Council summit, “we will not leave the EU for many months, if ever.” “If the proposal were to go back to square one and negotiate a new deal, that would mean a much longer extension… The idea of the British people going to the polls to elect MEPs [Members of the European Parliament] three years after voting to leave the EU hardly bears thinking about,” she wrote. May is expected to try to win Parliament’s approval of her withdrawal agreement for the third time this week. After months of political deadlock, lawmakers voted on Thursday to seek to postpone Brexit. That will likely avert a chaotic withdrawal on the scheduled exit date of March 29 — though power to approve or reject an extension lies with the EU. The European Commission has said the bloc would consider any request, “taking into account the reasons for and duration of a possible extension.” By law, Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, with or without a deal, unless it cancels Brexit or secures a delay. May is trying to persuade …
Preeclampsia Test Can Identify Dangerous Condition Quickly, at Home
A new test can quickly identify preeclampsia, a common and dangerous condition during pregnancy and help keep mothers and babies healthy and safe. When Jessi Prizinsky was pregnant with her first child, her feet started swelling. “Well, you hear, everybody tell you, you know, the swollen ankles, and get your feet up and all that,” Prizinsky said. “That was where I thought, ‘OK.’ And then it started to be, it kind of looks like it’s in my arms and hands, too.” Most women expect some swelling when they are pregnant. But these symptoms can also be signs of preeclampsia. It’s a complication of pregnancy that raises the mother’s blood pressure and affects the blood flow to the placenta. This can lead to smaller or premature babies. Untreated, it can be fatal to mom, or baby, or both. Fast, easy test developed Researchers at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center have developed a fast, easy test to diagnose preeclampsia. That’s where Dr. Kara Rood practices maternal and fetal medicine. “One of the hard parts with preeclampsia is there’s a lot of symptoms of just pregnancy alone, and other medical conditions that have similar symptoms that the women experience, like high blood pressure, headaches, changes in vision. Those can be attributed to a lot of other things,” Rood said. Preeclampsia is more serious if it occurs earlier in the pregnancy, or in a woman who had high blood pressure before getting pregnant. Rood says managing this condition early is best for both …
New Test Can Identify Dangerous Condition in Pregnancy
A new test can quickly identify a common and dangerous condition during pregnancy and help keep mothers and babies healthy and safe. VOA’s Carol Pearson has more. …
Low-Level Flooding Dampening Tourists’ Enthusiasm
As climate change heats up, we can expect more extreme weather events, more hurricanes and droughts over time. But small flooding events will also become more common, and while not catastrophic, according to a new report, these events are taking a toll on some local communities. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …
Brazil Reportedly Weighing Import Quota for US Wheat
Brazil is considering granting an import quota of 750,000 metric tons of U.S. wheat per year without tariffs in exchange for other trade concessions, according to a Brazilian official with knowledge of the negotiations ahead of President Jair Bolsonaro’s visit to Washington. That is about 10 percent of Brazilian annual wheat imports and is part of a two-decade-old commitment to import 750,000 metric tons of wheat a year free of tariffs that Brazil made — but never kept — during the World Trade Organization’s Uruguay Round of talks on agriculture. Bolsonaro is scheduled to arrive in Washington on Sunday and meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday. Farm state senators have asked that wheat sales be on the agenda, in a letter to Trump seen by Reuters. They estimate such a quota would increase U.S. wheat sales by between $75 million and $120 million a year. Brazil buys most of its imported wheat from Argentina, and some from Uruguay and Paraguay, without paying tariffs because they are all members of the Mercosur South American customs union. Imports from other countries pay a 10 percent tariff. The Brazilian official, who asked not to be named so he could speak freely, said the wheat quota could be sealed during a meeting between Brazil’s Agriculture Minister Teresa Cristina Dias and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue on Tuesday. In return, the Brazilian government is hoping to see movement toward the reopening of the U.S. market to fresh beef imports from Brazil that was shut down after a meatpacking industry scandal involving bribed inspectors. Brazil is also seeking U.S. market access for its exports of limes …
Iran’s Oil Minister Blames US for Market Tensions
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Saturday that frequent U.S. comments about oil prices had created market tensions, the ministry’s news website SHANA reported. U.S. President Donald Trump, who has made the U.S. economy one of his top issues, has repeatedly tweeted about oil prices and the Organization of the Petroleum Producing Countries. He has expressed concern about higher prices, including last month and ahead of OPEC’s meeting in December. “Americans talk a lot and I advise them to talk less. They [have] caused tensions in the oil market for over a year now, and they are responsible for it, and if this trend continues, the market will be more tense,” SHANA quoted Zanganeh as saying. U.S. crude futures briefly hit a 2019 high on Friday but later retreated along with benchmark Brent oil as worries about the global economy and robust U.S. production put a brake on prices. OPEC and its allies including Russia, an alliance known as OPEC+, agreed last year to cut production, partly in response to increased U.S. shale output. Washington granted waivers to eight major buyers of Iranian oil after the U.S. reimposed sanctions on Iran’s oil sector in November, after withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. “We do not know whether U.S. waivers would be extended or not. We will do our job but they [the U.S.] say something new every single day,” Zanganeh said. South Pars Zanganeh was speaking at a news conference ahead of the planned inauguration on Sunday of four development phases at South Pars, the world’s largest gas field, by President Hassan Rouhani. He said Iran had invested $11 billion to complete the phases 13 …
НБУ: долар відіграв тритижневе падіння
В останній цього тижня день торгів на українському міжбанківському валютному ринку основна валютна пара подолала психологічну позначку, і котирування сягнули 27 гривень 2 – 6 копійок за долар. На такому рівні котирування перебували три тижні тому, коли пара гривня-долар балансувала поблизу позначки 27. Національний банк України відбив це у офіційному курсі, який на 18 березня становить 27 гривень 1 копійку за долар. «Ситуація залишається дуже напруженою. Попит перевищує пропозицію, і це продовжує підтягувати котирування вгору», – так профільний сайт «Мінфін» описав ситуацію на міжбанку. Фахівці відзначали, що цього тижня на торги для придбання значних обсягів валюти виходила «Укрзалізниця», якій треба було погасити частину зовнішніх запозичень. Також були активними ще кілька покупців долара. Наступного тижня зростання долара може уповільнитися або й припинитися, адже для здійснення обов’язкових бюджетних платежів українські економічні агенти продаватимуть валюту. …
Students Worldwide Skip School to Protest Global Warming
They’re angry at their elders, and they’re not taking it sitting down. Students worldwide are skipping class Friday to take to the streets to protest their governments’ failure to take sufficient action against global warming. The coordinated “school strikes,” being held from the South Pacific to the edge of the Arctic Circle, were inspired by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who began holding solitary demonstrations outside the Swedish parliament last year. Since then, the weekly protests have snowballed from a handful of cities to hundreds, driven by social media-savvy students and dramatic headlines about the impact of climate change. Thunberg, who was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, was cheered for her blunt message to leaders at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland this year, when she told them: “I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day.” Friday’s rallies are expected to be one of the biggest international actions yet. Protests were under way or planned in cities in more than 100 countries, including Hong Kong; New Delhi; Wellington, New Zealand; and Oulo, Finland. In Berlin some 10,000 protesters, most of them young students, gathered in a downtown square, waving signs with slogans such as “There is no planet B” and “Climate Protection Report Card: F” before a march through the capital’s government quarter. The march was to end with a demonstration outside Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office. Organizer Carla Reemtsma, a 20-year-old university student, said social media had been key in …
В уряді ініціюють переговори з МВФ для уникнення росту цін на газ
Прем’єр-міністр України Володимир Гройсман заявляє, що доручить Міністерству фінансів і «Нафтогазу» почати переговори із Міжнародним валютним фондом, щоб запобігти росту тарифів на газ для населення в майбутньому. «Вчора «Нафтогаз» заявив, що він закуповує за імпортом дешевий газ… Тому я сьогодні доручу «Нафтогазу» спільно з Мінфіном розпочати робочу дискусію з МВФ, щоб не допустити будь-яких підвищень ціни на газ», – сказав Гройсман 15 березня під час години запитань до уряду у Верховній Раді. Меморандум про економічну і фінансову політику за програмою фінансової допомоги stand-by між Україною і Міжнародним валютним фондом передбачає, що Національна акціонерна компанія «Нафтогаз» до січня 2020 року вирівняє ціни на газ для населення із ринковими. Читайте також: Енергія-2019: що чекає на українську енергетику в новому році В Україні з 1 січня зросли тарифи на опалення і гарячу воду внаслідок росту цін на газ. Підвищення цін на газ було однією з умов схвалення МВФ та іншими глобальними фінансовими організаціями нових програм співпраці з Україною. У грудні 2018 року МВФ затвердив нову програму фінансової підтримки України на суму 3,9 мільярда доларів США. …
Students Worldwide Skip Class to Demand Action on Climate
They’re angry at their elders, and they’re not taking it sitting down. Students worldwide are planning to skip class Friday and take to the streets to protest their governments’ failure to take sufficient action against global warming. The coordinated ‘school strike’ was inspired by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who began holding solitary demonstrations outside the Swedish parliament last year. Since then, the weekly protests have snowballed from a handful of cities to hundreds, driven by social media-savvy students and dramatic headlines about the impact of climate change. Thunberg, who was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, was cheered for her blunt message to leaders at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland this year, when she told them: “I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day.” Protests in 100 countries Friday’s rallies are expected to be one of the biggest international actions yet. A website coordinating the protests lists events in more than 100 countries, from New Zealand to the United States. Some politicians have criticized the students, suggesting they should be spending their time in school, not on the streets. “One can’t expect children and young people to see all of the global connections, what’s technically reasonable and economically possible,” said the head of Germany’s pro-business Free Democratic Party, Christian Lindner. “That’s a matter for professionals.” But scientists have backed the protests, with thousands signing petitions in support of the students in Britain, Finland and Germany. “We are the professionals …
Deep in US Oil Country, Students Set to March for Climate
Oil is everywhere in Oklahoma, says local student Luke Kerr. But that has not deterred him from planning a protest calling for its phasing out in the state’s capital city on Friday – mirroring similar events due to be staged around the world by students skipping school. “It is very important that strikes and marches take place in fossil-fuel producing areas of the country, like Oklahoma,” the high school senior said on Thursday. “We are showing the rest of the country that we can fight for climate.” With strikes planned in at least 168 U.S. cities and towns, mostly progressive communities, a handful of them like that set up by Kerr stand out for taking place deep in oil country. The students are taking their cue from Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg whose weekly “school strike for climate” has sparked a global movement. The school strike movement – which hopes to raise awareness on climate change and force policymakers to take action – has taken the world by storm in recent months, prompting school walkouts mostly in Europe and Australia. Kerr and his fellow student protesters will rally just feet away from monumental, mock oil derricks next to the State Capitol in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma ranks fourth among all 50 states for oil production, whose burning is blamed for climate change. The southern state recently left its mark on the country when its former attorney general, Scott Pruitt, angered environmentalists due to his skepticism of mainstream climate science when he headed the …
Study: C-Sections 50 Times More Deadly in Africa
The death rate among women undergoing a C-section to deliver a baby is about 50 times higher in Africa than in most wealthy nations, researchers said Friday. One in 200 women dies during or soon after a cesarean in a sampling of nearly 3,700 births across 22 African countries, they reported in The Lancet Global Health. By comparison, maternal mortality is about one woman per 10,000 operations in Britain. Death rates related to C-sections are roughly the same across most developed countries. Urgent need to improve safety “The findings highlight the urgent need for improved safety for the procedure,” said researchers led by Bruce Biccard, a professor at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Preventable C-section deaths mostly stemmed from a ruptured uterus, in mothers who had pre-existing placental complications, bleeding before birth or during surgery, and problems related to anesthesia. “Improvement of C-section surgical outcomes could substantially improve both maternal and neonatal mortality,” Biccard said. He also called for a better assessment of the risk related to bleeding, and less restrictive use of drugs to treat post-partum hemorrhaging. In many African nations, there is a chronically short supply of blood for transfusions. Blood products with a greater shelf life and better use of anesthesia by non-doctors — through mobile and online training, for example — could also help boost survival rates, the researchers said. Surgical study The findings are part of the Africa Surgical Outcomes Study, which tracks all patients who received surgery at 183 hospitals across …
Wolves Prove Resilient, but Proposal Could Curtail Expansion
A proposal to strip gray wolves of their remaining federal protections could curtail their rapid expansion across vast swaths of the U.S. West and Great Lakes, yet the predators already are proving to be resilient in states where hunting and trapping occur. Thursday’s Interior Department proposal to remove threatened and endangered species protections for wolves would end a decades-long restoration effort that saw a remarkable turnaround for an animal once nearly exterminated across the Lower 48 states. Now more than 6,000 gray wolves live in portions of nine states. Authority over wolves would revert to state wildlife agencies with no obligation to maintain current numbers. Critics say that amounts to a death sentence for thousands of the animals, shrinking well-established populations and preventing wanderers from carving out new territory. The track record suggests otherwise in parts of the Northern Rockies, where wolf numbers have not noticeably flagged in the face of aggressive hunting and trapping. When legal wolf harvests began in Montana and Idaho in 2009, wildlife advocates and some scientists argued their numbers would plummet. Hunters and trappers have since killed almost 4,400 wolves in the two states, according to data from state wildlife agencies obtained by The Associated Press. About 1,500 more were killed by government wildlife agents and property owners following attacks on livestock and similar conflicts. Bounced back But wolves are such prolific breeders that after each hunting season, their numbers bounced back the next spring. That continued even as …
US-Russian Crew Blasts Off to International Space Station
Russian-American crew of three has blasted off to the International Space Station, their second attempt to reach the outpost following an aborted launch in October A Russian-American crew of three blasted off to the International Space Station early Friday, making a second attempt to reach the outpost after October’s aborted launch. A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Christina Koch along with Roscosmos’ Alexei Ovchinin lifted off as planned from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:14 a.m. Friday (1914 GMT Thursday). Their Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft reached a designated orbit about nine minutes after the launch, and the crew reported they were feeling fine and all systems on board were operating normally. They are set to dock at the space station in about six hours. On Oct. 11, a Soyuz that Hague and Ovchinin were riding in failed two minutes into its flight, activating a rescue system that allowed their capsule to land safely. That accident was the first aborted crew launch for the Russian space program since 1983, when two Soviet cosmonauts safely jettisoned after a launch pad explosion. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine congratulated the crew on a successful launch. “So proud of Nick Hague for persevering through last October’s launch that didn’t go as planned,” he tweeted. Speaking at a pre-launch news conference at Baikonur, the crew said they trusted the rocket and fully believed in the success of their mission. “I’m 100 percent confident in the rocket and the spacecraft,” Hague said. “The events …