The Native American celebration known as a pow wow is typically a day-long event of singing, dancing, socializing and playing traditional games. The Narragansett tribe word “pow wow,” means “spiritual leader.” But in popular American culture it has come to mean any gathering of Native Americans, though such use is considered offensive. As VOA Russian’s Maxim Moskalkov reports from a recent public pow wow, the events attract many who are interested in indigenous cultures and communities.
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Month: September 2017
Amblyopia or Lazy Eye, as it is called, is a vision problem in which the brain doesn’t receive or process signals from the affected eye. It can be caused by any number of physical issues, but the real problem is that it can’t be fixed with glasses. But it can be fixed, through therapy, and that therapy is now getting a high tech makeover using VR technology. Kevin Enochs reports
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Two of Italy’s biggest coffee houses are reinforcing their brands with flagship cafes in Milan near the spot where U.S. rival Starbucks is set to begin operations next year.
Lavazza opens its first flagship cafe in the coffee-obsessed city on Tuesday, not far from the renovated 19th century palazzo where Starbucks will open its first Italian store, a ‘Reserve Roasteries’ outlet offering specialty blends and fine food.
Another top Italian brand, illycaffe, opened its own luxury cafe close to the Starbucks site in May, in a cozy courtyard in Milan’s most fashionable street.
Lavazza, which is opening near the city’s famous La Scala opera house, and illycaffe both deny their moves are a response to a global rival’s impending arrival, a first step in what may become a 200-store expansion.
Industry experts suspect it is no coincidence.
“Lavazza and illycaffe are the purists of coffee, they want to show they are there when Starbucks arrives,” says Jean-Paul Gaillard, who ran Nespresso for 10 years before founding the Ethical Coffee Company, a Swiss firm selling coffee pods.
Milan’s battle of the coffee palaces reflects global competition among major brands to capture a growing market for people who are prepared to pay a premium for quality espresso coffees in upmarket boutique cafes.
Nestle last week bought California-based Blue Bottle Coffee, one of the top boutique U.S. chains whose single-origin and cold-brewed coffees have proven popular with hipsters and have made inroads into the Starbucks franchise.
JAB Holdings, the investment vehicle of Germany’s Reimann family, has also been buying up independent start-ups selling premium brews around the world, from Europe to the Americas.
Starbucks Chief Executive Howard Schultz hopes his company’s arrival in Milan, which he calls the home of the “perfect espresso”, and the inspiration for his Starbucks vision, will show discerning Italian coffee-lovers that “we got it right.”
“We are happy to hear about Lavazza’s growth,” said a Starbucks spokesman when asked to comment on Lavazza’s opening.
The U.S. chain will open its 2,400-square-meter cafe in late 2018, seeking to attract tourists, young Italians and the business crowd. If the Milan experiment succeeds, Starbucks and its local partner, Antonio Percassi, could open more than 200 stores in Italy over six years, according to Percassi.
Some analysts are skeptical that Starbucks can crack a market where espresso typically sells for just one euro ($1.20), a fraction of the price of a Starbucks coffee.
But the local brands are also gambling Italians will spend much more than one euro for a restaurant-style experience: illycaffe charges around three times that for coffee brought to the table.
Nestle, JAB Holdings and Starbucks are the three largest players in the global coffee market, followed by several mid-tier players including Lavazza and illycaffe.
“As the biggest get bigger, mid-tier companies are in a position where they must either expand or risk being left behind or swallowed up by their massive rivals,” said Matthew Barry, an analyst at market research firm Euromonitor International.
Lavazza’s chief executive and some of its family owners will cut a ribbon to launch their cafe, where customers can sip a blend of coffee specifically crafted for the store, taste gourmet food and buy single-origin coffees.
“The opening of the new flagship store has nothing to do with Starbucks,” a Lavazza spokeswoman said, adding that it was solely aimed at giving people an exclusive Lavazza experience.
The group is primarily a roaster and supplier to independent cafes and restaurants rather than a retailer and its new store is a way of boosting brand visibility on the high street.
Lavazza went on an acquisition spree three years ago, buying up three coffee suppliers in Europe and Canada, boosting sales to nearly 2 billion euros last year. It has overtaken Starbucks in supermarket sales, Euromonitor International says.
Illycaffe sells its coffee both through independent cafes and 230 mono-brand stores, some of them directly owned, in 43 countries, and says it wants to develop the network further, though not via major acquisitions.
“The new store wants to be a landmark for the global nomad in search for the real Italian lifestyle experience,” illycaffe said, without commenting on the arrival of Starbucks.
Milanese coffee society is divided on whether Starbucks can make its name at the high-end of Italian market, the world’s fourth-largest coffee consumer.
“I am curious about Starbucks, I will give it a try when it arrives in Milan,” office worker Giuseppe Gaggiano, 55, said at a small, upmarket independent cafe close to the Starbucks site.
However, another customer there, Alberto Paparusso, 31, said he wouldn’t abandon his usual cafe: “I don’t like Starbucks coffee. It’s not worth going there.”
($1 = 0.8371 euros)
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Mexico’s economy minister said on Monday a successful retool of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) would hinge on two or three complex areas that he called “elephants in the room,” just days before the next round of treaty talks in Canada.
Speaking at an event in Mexico City, Ildefonso Guajardo said four chapters in the agreement could be renegotiated in the third round of talks, due to take place Sept. 23-27 in Ottawa.
The areas cover smaller companies, transparency and food safety.
The “elephants,” such as the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico and rules of origin, will determine the success of the trade treaty’s renegotiation, he said. Rules of origin specify the percentage of components in a product that must be from the three NAFTA nations for it to qualify as duty free.
“This challenge of resolving two or three un-traditional topics at the trade negotiation tables is what is going to determine if, at the end of the day, we’re going to have an agreement or not,” Guajardo said in a Forbes Mexico talk.
In addition, Guajardo added that as many as 13 other chapters would also be tough to negotiate.
Asked by journalists if Mexico would accept national content rules that would require a portion of products to be made in the United States, the minister said the topic had yet to reach the negotiating table.
“We would analyze it, but I believe as of today there is no trade agreement that contains this type of clause,” he said.
Guajardo reiterated that Mexico was ready to modernize the agreement, which U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to scrap, and to find solutions with the United States and Canada.
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The WTO dispute settlement system is “deficient” and has often ruled in favor of free trade that overlooks details of a trade agreement, U.S. trade envoy Robert Lighthizer said on Monday.
Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Lighthizer, a trade lawyer, made clear that the administration was poised to push for major changes to the global trade system during upcoming meetings of the Geneva-based trade body. WTO member countries will meet in Buenos Aires on Dec 10.
U.S. President Donald Trump called the World Trade Organization a “disaster” during his presidential campaign and his administration has sought to unilaterally go after countries like China that it thinks is breaking trade rules.
“There are a number of issues on which there is pretty broad agreement that the WTO dispute settlement understanding is deficient,” said Lighthizer, highlighting problems with WTO staffing and transparency.
“The United States sees numerous examples where the dispute settlement process over the years has really diminished what we’ve bargained for or imposed obligations that we do not believe we agree to,” he said.
He added: “There have been a lot of cases in the trade remedies laws where in my opinion the decisions are really indefensible.”
Since its launch in 1995 the WTO has become the main venue for resolving trade disputes between countries. The Trump administration has begun to launch trade investigations under statutes seldom used in the WTO era, including a “Section 301” probe of China’s intellectual property practices.
Lighthizer did not threaten a U.S. withdrawal from the WTO, but emphasized his own dissatisfaction with some of its rulings.
In a letter in March, the Trump administration made clear that U.S. law supersedes WTO rules — a view that could be invoked should Congress adopt policies that are later challenged by other member countries as violating WTO rules.
“We’ve had tax laws struck down, we’ve had other provisions where the WTO has taken…the decision they were going to strike down something they thought shouldn’t happen, rather than
looking at the agreement as a contract,” he said.
Lighthizer emphasized that the Trump administration was reviewing all trade agreements and would seek to renegotiate those that did not benefit U.S. workers and businesses.
“I believe, and I think the president believes, that we must be proactive,” he said, “We must demand reciprocity in home and international markets. So expect change, expect new approaches and expect action.”
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Lady Gaga on Monday called off the European leg of her world tour, saying she was suffering from severe physical pain and was seeking medical treatment.
The “Born This Way” singer, 31, who says she suffers from fibromyalgia, also canceled an appearance at a music festival in Rio de Janeiro last week and posted pictures of herself in a hospital with a drip on her arm.
She said on her social media accounts on Monday she was disappointed at comments from people online that “suggest that I’m being dramatic, making this up, or playing the victim to get out of touring. If you knew me, you would know this couldn’t be further from the truth.”
“I have always been honest about my physical and mental health struggles,” Gaga added. “It is complicated and difficult to explain, and we are trying to figure it out.
“As I get stronger and when I feel ready, I will tell my story in more depth, and plan to take this on strongly so I can not only raise awareness, but expand research for others who suffer as I do, so I can help make a difference,” the singer added.
Fibromyalgia is a musculoskeletal pain disorder, often accompanied by fatigue and mood issues, that can be triggered by physical trauma or psychological stress.
Gaga’s European tour to promote her latest album “Joanne” was due to start on Sept. 21 in Barcelona, Spain, and continue for six weeks. The dates have been postponed until 2018.
“She plans to spend the next seven weeks proactively working with her doctors to heal from this and past traumas that still affect her daily life, and result in severe physical pain in her body,” promoters Live Nation said in a statement.
The singer was hospitalized in 2013 for a hip injury, and a new documentary, “Lady Gaga: Five Foot Two,” documents her struggles with chronic pain.
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The Emmy statuette depicts a winged woman, and this year’s Emmy telecast celebrated a TV season in which women, as never before, were able to soar.
Strong roles about strong women abounded. And they were rewarded. The winning drama series and limited series (”The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Big Little Lies,” respectively) focused on issues of women — rather than defaulting to the male point of view — as a vivid way to explore the human condition. “Veep,” which stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the former president of the U.S., won best comedy series.
Women also made inroads behind the camera, with Lena Waithe winning best comedy writer Emmy for “Master of None.” She’s the first woman winner ever in that category.
For many of the winners as well as many fans who were cheering them on, the Emmycast unfolded as a bracing rebuttal at a time when surveys continue to expose unfair representation by women in Hollywood.
“Let’s hope that this is the beginning of something even better in our country and the world,” said Louis-Dreyfus, savoring her record-breaking sixth win as Selina Meyer on “Veep.” “I think the world would be a better place if more women were in charge.”
“We’ve made incredible progress, obviously,” said Elisabeth Moss, who won the best actress Emmy for her starring role in “The Handmaid’s Tale” as one of the few fertile women left in a world ruled by a totalitarian regime that treats women as property.
But she added, “There’s still a lot of work to be done. There are still meetings you walk into and wonder if they say ‘no’ because it’s a show by or about a women.”
The answer, Moss said, is “not only women in front of the camera but it’s women behind the camera.”
“Feud: Bette and Joan,” starring Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange in a robust saga of clashing queens of the silver screen, was a promising entry in the Limited Series category.
But “Feud” was edged out by another woman-centric drama, “Big Little Lies,” which followed a group of mothers who each have secrets threatening to crash down upon her. The series collected eight Emmys also including best actress (Nicole Kidman), best supporting actress (Laura Dern) and best supporting actor Alexander Skarsgard, who, in accepting his trophy, thanked his colleagues for letting him be “one of the girls.”
Indeed, two of the series’ executive producers were Kidman and her co-star Reese Witherspoon.
Backstage, Witherspoon voiced delight that “we created four roles for women, and all got nominated.”
The characters those women portrayed “were complicated. They were complex,” she noted. “They were good and bad.”
“What was so wonderful,” said Kidman, “is that we had so many people, men and women of different ages, watching the show that went far beyond what we expected. As much as it was about women, it was for everyone.”
In accepting her Emmy as one of the series’ producers, Kidman implored the industry to create “more great roles for women, please.”
But Witherspoon pointed out that “it’s great to be the architect of your own destiny, and create material for yourself and . so many roles for women — award-winning roles. It turns out we know how to do it for ourselves!”
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Peru’s prime minister said on Monday that the country’s new Cabinet will focus on reviving public investments as it seeks to mend fences with the opposition party that forced President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski to form a new government.
Congress ousted the former Cabinet last week following a dispute over education reforms, fueling fears that political fighting might hurt economic growth that has already slowed sharply this year due to floods and a graft scandal.
Mercedes Araoz, Peru’s new prime minister, said on local broadcaster RPP that she was optimistic about rebuilding a working relationship with the opposition. A key test will be efforts to rapidly rebuild parts of Peru hit by flooding, Araoz said.
Congress will likely vote on whether to give Araoz’ Cabinet a vote of confidence in the first week of October, she added.
Araoz is a ruling party lawmaker and former finance minister in the 2006-2011 term of former President Alan Garcia.
Forecasts for an economic recovery in Peru hinge on the government increasing public investments that fell 10.4 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2017.
“Now’s the time. We can’t fall behind in this process” of increasing public investments, Araoz said.
President Kuczynski, a center-right politician and former Wall Street banker, vowed to work to modernize Peru and strengthen the economy of the world’s second-biggest copper producer.
But his first year in office has been marked by slowing economic growth and clashes with Congress, where the right-wing populist party of his former rival Keiko Fujimori has a majority.
Fujimori welcomed the new Cabinet on Twitter after it was sworn in on Sunday and said Kuczynski’s government still has four years to “mend its ways and make progress.”
Similar remarks from opposition lawmakers signaled Congress would likely give the new Cabinet a vote of confidence. But after previous efforts to reset relations failed, it was unclear how long the new truce might last.
Verisk Maplecroft, a global risk analysis company, said Peru has a score of 4.44 out of 10 – a “high risk” ranking – on its government effectiveness index.
Despite Fujimori’s support for the new Cabinet, “the re-tooled team will remain hostage to the Fujimorista-controlled Congress, with Kuczynski’s political credibility continuing to ebb,” said Maplecroft analyst Eileen Gavin.
If Congress fails to approve of the new Cabinet, Kuczynski can summon new legislative elections.
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Protesters gathered in several West African capitals Saturday to demand their countries abandon the CFA franc in favor of a common African currency. It Is not a new debate, but passions have been reignited since Senegal arrested and expelled an activist for burning a CFA bill at a rally last month. Sofia Christensen reports for VOA from Dakar.
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Alphabet unit Google has offered to display rival comparison shopping sites via an auction as part of an EU compliance order following a landmark fine for favoring its own service, four people familiar with
the matter said on Monday.
The proposal, submitted to the European Commission on August 29 following a record 2.4-billion-euro ($2.87 billion) penalty, would allow competitors to bid for any spot in its shopping section known as Product Listing Ads, the people said.
Three years ago, the world’s most popular internet search engine made a similar offer in an attempt to settle a long-running investigation by the European Commission and stave off a fine. The offer was ultimately rejected following negative feedback from rivals and discord within the EU executive.
Under this earlier proposal, Google had reserved the first two places for its own ads. The new offer would also see Google set a floor price with its own bids minus operating costs. The company has sought feedback from competitors.
The offer does not address the issues set out by EU competition regulators, the people said. The Commission had ordered Google to treat rivals and its own service equally.
“This is worse than the commitments,” one of the people said, declining to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The Commission was not immediately available for comment.
Google did not respond to a request for comment. Google has until September 28 to stop its anti-competitive practices or its parent company Alphabet could be fined up to 5 percent of its average daily worldwide turnover.
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The World Health Organization reports some progress is being made in reducing premature deaths from non-communicable diseases. But it says much more needs to be done to save the lives of nearly 40 million people who die every year from preventable causes.
In this latest global assessment, the World Health Organization reports cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases, cancers and diabetes continue to be the world’s biggest killers. Every year, it says 15 million adults in the most productive period of their lives, between the age of 30 and 70, will die prematurely.
The biggest risk factors are tobacco, the harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diets and lack of physical activity. WHO director for the prevention of non-communicable diseases, Douglas Bettcher, said the world is not on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goal of cutting premature NCD deaths by one third by 2030.
“The window of opportunity to save lives is closing. This is playing out before our eyes in many ways, including increasing numbers of people, particularly children and adolescents suffering from obesity, overweight and diabetes. If we do not take action now to protect people from NCDs, we will condemn today’s and tomorrow’s youth to lives of ill health and reduced economic opportunities,” Bettcher said.
Despite common perceptions, Bettcher told VOA premature deaths from non-communicable diseases are not just a rich country problem.
“Eighty percent of the deaths are in countries that are already often stressed, their health systems are stressed with the usual, the conventional burdens of disease, communicable diseases, maternal-child health problems. And, then this is an added, extremely large burden for the health system,” Bettcher said.
WHO reports Costa Rica and Iran lead the 10 best performing countries in reducing deaths from non-communicable diseases. It says six countries have achieved no progress at all. Five are in Africa: Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Sao Tome Principe and South Sudan. The sixth country is Micronesia in the western Pacific.
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Canada-born designer Erdem Moralioglu has turned the Old Selfridges Hotel into a glamorous speakeasy for his London Fashion Week show.
With classics “Stormy Monday” and “My Funny Valentine” playing, the fashion house named Erdem on Monday displayed glamorous, full-length evening gowns with full-length gloves and sparkly accessories.
Many had floral themes and remarkable detailing, adding to the show’s exuberance and opulence.
While many designers are showing more and more skin, Erdem opts for a subtle celebration of feminine beauty. There were some sheer and lacy outfits, but most were more modest, with either high necklines or sweetheart ones.
The effect was entrancing. Nostalgia was in the air – the program featured a photograph of Queen Elizabeth II meeting Duke Ellington in 1958.
London Fashion week continues later Monday with Christopher Kane, and others.
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An emergency vaccination campaign is getting under way in northeastern Nigeria to prevent a deadly cholera outbreak from spreading to other countries.
The World Health Organization reports the potentially devastating cholera situation is emerging in Borno State in northeastern Nigeria. During the past few months, it says 2,600 suspected cases of this fatal disease, including 48 deaths, have occurred in this former stronghold of Boko Haram. The militant group has been waging war to establish an Islamic state in northeast Nigeria.
Dominique Legros is cholera coordinator for WHO’s department for pandemic and epidemic diseases. He says the outbreak, which is centered in camps for internally displaced people, is spreading to other areas of northeastern Nigeria, toward Chad and northern Cameroon.
He says 900,000 people in the state will receive the oral cholera vaccine to quickly contain the spread of the disease.
“Once it is out of the box, once it has spread, it is very, very difficult to contain and we have a huge number of cases and deaths,” he said. “So, this outbreak in Nigeria, hopefully, will not reach Chad, because in Chad already, we have an alert in the eastern part of the country towards the border with Sudan, 344 cases, 49 deaths.”
Legros says this comes to a 14 percent case fatality. He notes this is very high for a cholera outbreak, which usually has a case fatality rate of less than one percent.
WHO estimates the global cholera disease burden at around 2.9 million suspected cases, including 95,000 deaths. It reports Yemen has the world’s worst cholera epidemic, with nearly 690,000 suspected cases and more than 2,000 deaths.
The agency expresses concern about the situation in Africa, where it reports tens of thousands of suspected cases and thousands of deaths in, among others; Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya and Tanzania.
U.S. researchers have identified a genetic difference between dogs and their wild cousins, wolves, that could explain why dogs are so friendly. Faith Lapidus reports.
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With air drones now being a fixture in nearly every army’s arsenal, defense industries are hard at work developing ground and underwater robotic vehicles, trying not to fall behind others. Most of the technology has already been developed for industrial robots, and the rapidly expanding self-driving vehicle segment of the automotive industry. VOA’s George Putic looks at the state of warfare robots.
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The hurricanes that brought howling winds and destructive floods to the Houston area and much of Florida are now swamping insurance companies with a multi-billion dollar wave of claims. Some insurance firms are using aerial photography to gather facts to help settle claims. Aerospace firm Airbus is offering free access to one of the world’s largest libraries of satellite images to speed the claims process — and build its business. As VOA’s Jim Randle reports, speed can save money.
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The Tottori sand dunes, on Japan’s west coast, attract some two million visitors a year. Many come to see the huge sand sculptures created for an annual exhibit hosted by the Tottori Sand Museum, the world’s first indoor sand museum. With the recurring theme of Touring the World in Sand, previous exhibitions featured iconic images from Africa, southeast Asia, Italy and Russia, among other locales. This year, for its 10th exhibit, Tottori had sand artists explore American history and culture. Faiza Elmasry tells us how. Faith Lapidus narrates.
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Six NASA-backed research subjects who have been cooped up in a Mars-like habitat on a remote Hawaii volcano since January emerged from isolation Sunday. They devoured fresh-picked tropical fruits, vegetables and a fluffy egg strata after eating mostly freeze-dried food during their isolation.
The crew of four men and two women are part of a study designed to better understand the psychological impacts a long-term space mission would have on astronauts.
The data they produced will help NASA select individuals and groups with the right mix of traits to best cope with the stress, isolation and danger of a two-to-three year trip to Mars. The U.S. space agency hopes to send humans to the red planet by the 2030s.
The crew was quarantined for eight months on a vast plain below the summit of the Big Island’s Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano. After finishing their stint, they feasted on pineapple, mango and papaya.
While isolated, the crew members wore space suits and traveled in teams whenever they left their small dome living structure. They ate mostly freeze-dried or canned food on their simulated voyage to Mars.
All of their communications with the outside world were subjected to a 20-minute delay — the time it takes for signals to get from Mars to Earth. The crew was tasked with conducting geological surveys, mapping studies and maintaining their self-sufficient habitat as if they were actually living on Mars.
The team’s information technology specialist, Laura Lark, thinks a manned voyage to Mars is a reasonable goal for NASA. The project is the fifth in a series of six NASA-funded studies at the University of Hawaii facility called the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, or HI-SEAS. NASA has dedicated about $2.5 million for research at the facility.
“There are certainly human factors to be figured out, that’s part of what HI-SEAS is for,” Lark said in a video message recorded within the dome. “But I think that overcoming those challenges is just a matter of effort. We are absolutely capable of it.”
The crew played games designed to measure their compatibility and stress levels and maintained logs about how they were feeling.
To gauge their moods they also wore specially-designed sensors that measured voice levels and proximity to other people in the, 1,200 square-foot (111-square meter) living space.
The devices could sense if people were avoiding one another, or if they were “toe-to-toe” in an argument, said the project’s lead investigator, University of Hawaii professor Kim Binsted.
“We’ve learned, for one thing, that conflict, even in the best of teams, is going to arise,” Binsted said. “So what’s really important is to have a crew that, both as individuals and a group, is really resilient, is able to look at that conflict and come back from it.”
The study also tested ways to help the crew cope with stress. When they became overwhelmed, they could use virtual reality devices to take them away to a tropical beach or other familiar landscapes.
Other Mars simulation projects exist around the world, but Hawaii researchers say one of the chief advantages of their project is the area’s rugged, Mars-like landscape, on a rocky, red plain below the summit of Mauna Loa.
The crew’s vinyl-covered shelter is about the size of a small two-bedroom home, has small sleeping quarters for each member plus a kitchen, laboratory and bathroom. The group shared one shower and has two composting toilets.
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