California has become the first U.S. state to require solar installations on most new homes, by the year 2020. Mike O’Sullivan reports that the state is leading a national effort to reduce carbon emissions as Washington adopts less ambitious goals.
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Month: May 2018
The head of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) on Tuesday said the North Korean leadership is hopeful that following a possible denuclearization deal, the international community will increase humanitarian aid for millions of people in the country who are living in poverty and suffering from malnutrition.
“There is a tremendous sense of optimism by the leadership, by the people I met with, in the hopes that they will be turning a new chapter in their history, a new page,” said David Beasley, the Executive Director of the WFP during a briefing in Seoul.
The WFP director visited North Korea for four days last week, spending two days in Pyongyang and two visiting rural areas outside the capital. Beasley said he was given “remarkable” access during his visit to the restrictive state where contact with foreigners is tightly controlled. Government minders also accompanied him during his visit.
Beasley, a former governor of the U.S. state of South Carolina, was nominated to head the WFP last year by U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, who is also a former South Carolina governor.
With the upcoming summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un now scheduled to be held in Singapore on June 12, there are increased expectations that an agreement will be reached to dismantle the North’s nuclear, missile and chemical weapons programs that threaten the U.S. and its allies.
Details over the scope and timing of the denuclearization process must still be worked out, but the North Korean leader has indicated he wants to resolve the dispute to focus on improving the economic conditions of the country.
Widespread malnutrition
Ending the severe U.S. led sanctions banning 90% of North Korean trade that were imposed for the North’s repeated nuclear and missile tests, would open the door to increased economic investment and cooperation.
Humanitarian assistance has been exempted from the economic sanctions, but Beasely said import restrictions has made it more complicated to bring in aid, and made potential donors reluctant to contribute for fear of inadvertently violating sanctions.
Beasley’s North Korean itinerary included trips to WFP funded projects, including a children’s nursery in South Hwanghae province, located near the inter-Korean border, and a cookie factory in North Pyongan province, near the border with China. In the last year the WFP has made over 1,800 site visits to assure that aid provided went to those who need it most.
The WFP director said poverty and food shortages were prevalent, particularly in rural areas.
“Going from village to village while we did not see starvation, there were clearly issues of under-nutrition or malnutrition,” he said.
WFP provides food aid to an estimated 650,000 women and children in North Korea every month, although funding shortfalls, the organization says, have caused rations to be reduced or suspended in some cases.
The WFP is hoping to greatly increase food aid to North Korea after a nuclear deal is reached and sanctions are revoked. But Beasely said the leadership in Pyongyang must provide even greater access and transparency to clearly demonstrate the need for assistance, and to assure donors that their contributions will go to those who need it most.
“I said very clearly that we want to work with you, we want to help you, but you must help us,” said Beasely.
Agriculture reforms
The U.S. provided North Korea significant food aid in the 1990s to ease severe famine conditions that caused widespread starvation and deaths that were due in part to the loss of Soviet support and a failed communist agriculture model that caused food production to decline.
However Washington ended the bilateral aid program later due in part to concerns that assistance was being redirected to support the North Korea’s military, and to free up more resources for the country’s nuclear development program.
North Korea currently produces five million metric tons of food a year, but the WFP estimates it needs between six and seven million metric tons annually to feed its population of 25 million. Around 10 million North Koreans suffer from malnutrition or under-nutrition, according to the WFP director.
Farmers in North Korea also face significant hardship in producing enough food for the population, with only 15 to 20 percent of land suitable for agriculture in the mostly mountainous terrain, and often lacking fertilizers and modern tractors to cultivate the fields.
In recent years North Korean leader Kim Jong Un instituted agricultural reforms allowing farmers to keep or sell a portion of what they produce. These financial incentives have been credited with helping to stabilize food production despite floods and droughts that regularly occur.
Lee Yoon-jee contributed to this report.
Even before US and Chinese officials sit down this week for a second round of high-level trade talks in Washington, both sides have been signaling a willingness to try and make a deal or at least meet the other halfway.
Whether or not that will be enough to get them across the finish line remains to be seen, analysts say.
Late last week at a forum sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington D.C., Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai signaled China’s willingness to address a range of issues from the deficit to the protection of intellectual property rights.
Deficit detente
Cui said that while it is overly simplistic to say trade deficit means loss and surplus means gain, there is a clear need for better macroeconomic coordination between the two countries.
“A huge deficit for you and a huge surplus for us – I don’t think this should continue,” he said. “I don’t think it will continue. For us, such an imbalance is already a problem rather than a benefit.”
When Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and China’s Vice Premier Liu He led trade delegations earlier this month in Beijing, the deficit loomed large. A leaked list of some of Washington’s demands included a request that China help cut the trade deficit between the two countries by $100 billion a year over the next two years.
Many have scoffed at the figure and the possibility that Beijing could bridge such a seemingly huge gap, but Cui’s remarks are telling.
Gene Ma, head of China research at the Institute of International Finance, said that even though negotiations may be hard, messy and ugly, that is better than not negotiating.
And while there is room for hope, any agreement is unlikely without some compromise, he said.
“A lot of the tough measures put out can eventually be watered down, the tariffs can be postponed, some sectors can be wavered, China can buy more products from the U.S.,” he said. “There is something that both sides can do, but of course there are other sectors that are harder such as technologies.”
China has long been criticized for its trade policies, for forcing foreign companies to hand over technology in return for access to its markets and its rampant problem of intellectual property theft.
In a bid to change that, the Trump administration launched an investigation into Beijing’s policies and trade practices related to technology transfer, innovation and intellectual property.
The president has threatened to levy up to $150 billion in tariffs against China and the deadline for that action is fast approaching.
A public hearing will be held on Tuesday in Washington to discuss the tariffs, and if he chooses, President Trump could place a levy on Chinese goods as early as next week.
If he does, China has pledged to respond in kind, threatening to raise tariffs on some $50 billion in American goods, including soybeans.
IC Bargaining Chip
As for Beijing’s demands, one big concern is Washington’s recent decision to place a seven-year ban on the sale of American components to Chinese mobile phone maker ZTE.
In the first round of talks, Beijing demanded that the United States amend the ruling. And then late last week, just days before talks were set to resume in Washington, the company claimed that its main business operations had ceased due to the ban imposed by the U.S. government.
The move has highlighted the incredible leverage Washington has when it comes to technology, but also limits as well.
Over the weekend, however, U.S. President Donald Trump said that he was working with Chinese President Xi Jinping to throw a lifeline to the company. Trump’s about-face has sparked outrage from some and concern from others. Some argue that if Trump does anything to reverse the ruling, he would be interfering with law enforcement.
Others said the move will conveniently buy the administration more time to strike a deal.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that the two sides are narrowing in on a deal that could see Washington use the ZTE ban in exchange for a reprieve of Chinese tariffs on billions of dollars of American agricultural products.
But there are other obvious reasons for Trump’s shift. The most glaring of them is that while the ban would hurt ZTE and highlights how China lags far behind in the computer chip industry, it is also an issue of American jobs.
“Unlike soybeans, finding customers for such a large amount of semiconductor chips in such a short period of time is not easy and that would not only impact on American jobs but go against Trump’s campaign promises,” said Eric Zhou, a Beijing-based commentator. “And because of that it’s more pragmatic [for Washington] to use the ban as a policy measure and trade war bargaining chip.”
Brian Kopczynski contributed to this report.
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In a warehouse on the outskirts of Indonesia’s capital, supervisors at e-commerce company Lazada use bikes or electric scooters to zip around a floor the size of four soccer fields, where up to 3,000 staff pack and dispatch goods around the clock.
The warehouse is one of five that Lazada has opened across Indonesia to cut costs and expand its reach in an archipelago whose 17,000 islands are sprinkled across an area bigger than the European Union.
Chinese tech firms, including Lazada’s top investor, Alibaba Group Holding, have poured at least $6 billion into nearly every aspect of Indonesian e-commerce.
Lazada uses Alibaba’s inventory management systems and has tied up with ride-hailing companies, often using their motorbikes to deliver goods in a country with creaking infrastructure and traffic-clogged cities.
The payoff could be huge. It is a market forecast to grow from about $7 billion last year to $63 billion by 2027, according to Morgan Stanley.
“Indonesia, both in terms of the customers and behavior, is a very unique challenge and we need to adapt,” Florian Holm, co-chief executive at Lazada Indonesia, told Reuters.
Lazada and Tokopedia, in which Alibaba is also an investor, dominate Indonesia in customer traffic, with more than 117 million monthly website visits each, according to data from e-commerce aggregator iPrice.
Alibaba doubled its investment in loss-making Lazada to $4 billion in April, underscoring its global ambition to secure a bigger share of the e-commerce market.
Between the investment and the rewards, however, lie enormous complexities.
The World Bank has said logistical costs swallow up around a quarter of Indonesia’s gross domestic product, citing bottlenecks in supply chains, long dwelling times in ports and lengthy trade clearances.
Lazada has opened warehouses in places like Balikpapan, on the coast of Borneo, to avoid hauling everything from Jakarta.
Holm said that had in some cases reduced shipping costs by 90 percent.
Competitive pressure is growing. Another Chinese heavyweight, JD.com, arrived in Indonesia in 2016. And the U.S. giant Amazon, which opened a warehouse in Singapore last year, may be prepared to dip a toe into the Indonesian market soon.
Chinese influence
Indonesia’s e-commerce sales are set to rise from 3 percent of retail activity now to 19 percent by 2027, Morgan Stanley estimates. The same report said there were 159 million smartphones in Indonesia at the end of 2016, a number that could rise to 275 million by 2021.
Indonesia’s young population and room for improvement in transportation and communications add to the prospects for growth, the bank said.
That has attracted other Chinese companies. Tencent Holdings, which owns regional e-commerce player SEA, has entered the fray.
Tencent and JD.com have stakes in Indonesia’s ride-hailing firm Go-Jek, while JD.com has invested in online travel company Traveloka.
But Usman Akhtar, a partner at Bain & Co. in Jakarta, said Indonesian companies such as Blibli, backed by a unit of the Djarum group, remain a force.
“I would not characterize Indonesia as turning into a replica of China’s e-commerce market, at least not yet,” said Akhtar, referring to how JD.com and Alibaba dominate in China.
Kusumo Martanto, who heads Blibli, told Reuters the company had seven warehouses in Indonesia with seven more planned, and said it was important for local e-commerce companies to compete against Chinese players.
Alibaba founder Jack Ma is on an Indonesian government steering committee for e-commerce, advising on areas such as tax, cyber security and human resources.
Indonesia’s communications minister, Rudiantara, said there was no conflict of interest in Ma’s role, describing him as a “guru” who could help sell the country’s potential.
But some policies seem to be turning toward Ma’s home turf.
Indonesia, which is trying to tackle a shortage of talent in the digital sector, dropped sponsorships for 20 students to study in places like Australia and the United States.
Instead, 10 students will go to India and 10 to China to study this year “because the future of the digital economy is in China and India,” said the minister, who uses one name.
Eying Amazon
Caterine, a 30-year-old housewife who lives west of Jakarta, used to shop in conventional stores once a week, but after her baby was born six months ago, she has been shopping online two to three times a week for convenience.
“I prefer online shopping because it is quick. I can just click and click and the goods will arrive,” she said, adding she mostly used Shopee and Tokopedia for goods such as diapers and clothing.
Morgan Stanley said delivery times of all types across Indonesia are down to about 3 days from 10 days, while deliveries in big cities can take 24 hours or less.
While in urban areas delivery times have greatly improved, other parts of Indonesia’s e-commerce supply chain are still inefficient, said Willson Cuaca, co-founder of East Ventures, a tech investment fund.
“To send goods from point A to B, the logistics company needs at least two modes of transport,” he said, referring to the complications of operating across so many islands.
Amazon, by contrast, prefers to control its own supply chains from start to finish. But entering a market like Indonesia could require it to revisit that strategy.
Amazon Singapore did not respond to a request for comment on whether it had plans for Indonesia.
Much of the U.S. giant’s international focus has been on developing its business in India, even though some view its entry into Singapore last year as a stepping stone for expansion in the region.
“At this moment, I believe it is trying to test the market, by selling products through third-party sellers,” said Daniel Tumiwa of the Indonesian e-commerce Association.
Zhang Li, who heads JD.com’s Indonesian joint venture with Provident Capital JD.ID, was not overly concerned about competition from the likes of Amazon.
“E-commerce is a global and borderless business, so we have to prepare and do continuous improvement to make our customers happy,” Zhang said.
Kenya took its first step into space with the launch Friday of a nano-satellite made at the University of Nairobi. Engineers involved in creating the cube-shaped space capsule described it as Kenya’s joining the space club, although much remains to be done to get the Kenya space program off the ground. VOA’s Daniel Schearf reports from Nairobi.
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For the first time, the World Health Organization is taking steps to eliminate a substance that leads to a non-communicable disease: heart disease.
The World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced a plan Monday to eliminate trans fat from the global food supply by 2023.
Trans fat raises LDL, the “bad” type of cholesterol, and increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. Trans fat also reduces the amount of HDL, the “good” cholesterol that protects your heart.
Trans fat is artificially made. Liquid vegetable oils are processed with hydrogen to produce a solid fat, like stick margarine or ghee, which is frequently used in south Asian cooking. Trans fat is often present in snack foods like potato chips, baked foods, crackers and fried foods.
The advantages of trans fat is that it is cheap, lasts longer than natural oils, can be heated and reheated over and over again, and it’s almost ideal for making baked goods. “Almost” because it can kill you.
WHO estimates that every year consumption of trans fat leads to more than 500,000 deaths from cardiovascular disease.
At his announcement at WHO headquarters in Geneva Monday, Ghebreyesus asked, “Why should our children have such an unsafe ingredient in their foods?”
Several high-income countries have virtually eliminated industrially produced trans fat through legally imposed limits on the amount that can be contained in packaged food.
Denmark, the first country to do it, saw a marked decline in deaths from cardiovascular disease. Then other countries followed Denmark’s lead. About 40 countries currently have laws banning trans fat.
Dr. Tom Frieden, former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, joined Ghebreyesus at the rollout of the WHO program. Frieden now heads a nonprofit called “Resolve to Save Lives.” He told VOA, “We estimate that if trans fat is eliminated, 17 million lives will be saved over a 25-year period.”
Frieden was behind the initiative to get trans fat banned in New York City, prior to joining the CDC, when he was the city’s health commissioner.
“Trans fat is tasteless. It’s solid at room temperature, but it’s also solid at body temperature in your coronary arteries,” he said. “Trans fat is an unnecessary toxic chemical that kills, and there’s no reason people around the world should continue to be exposed.”
Frieden also said it is easy and inexpensive to replace trans fats with healthier oils.
More than 80 percent of deaths from cardiovascular disease are estimated to occur in low- and middle-income countries, according to a 2014 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The WHO initiative, called REPLACE, calls on countries to implement six strategies.
REview dietary sources of industrially produced trans fats and the landscape for required policy change.
Promote the replacement of industrially produced trans fats with healthier fats and oils.
Legislate or enact regulatory actions to eliminate industrially produced trans fats.
Assess and monitor trans fats content in the food supply and changes in trans fat consumption in the population.
Create awareness of the negative health impact of trans fats among policymakers, producers, suppliers and the public.
Enforce compliance of policies and regulations.
Although trans fat is present in cheese and other dairy products and in some meats, the amounts are so small that it is not considered dangerous.
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People nixing vacations to Hawaii’s Big island has cost the tourism industry millions of dollars as the top attraction, Kilauea volcano, keeps spewing lava.
Cancellations from May through July have hit at least $5 million, said Ross Birch, executive director of the island’s tourism board.
The booking pace for hotels and other activities, such as tours for lava viewing, zip lines and glass bottom boats have fallen 50 percent. A handful of cruise ships have also decided not to come into port even in Kona on the west side of the island, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) away from the volcano.
This is the “first leak we’re seeing out of the bucket,” Birch said.
Tourism is one of Hawaii’s biggest industries and a big part of the local economy. The Big Island topped other islands in the archipelago pulling in $2.5 billion in revenue last year.
On Monday, another fissure spewing lava and unhealthy gas opened up, and a crack in the Earth that emerged a day earlier was sending molten rock on a slow run for the ocean, officials said.
The National Weather Service has warned residents of “light ashfall” throughout the day in Kau, the island’s southernmost district, after a burst of volcanic emissions around 9 a.m.
Nearly 20 fissures have opened since the Kilauea volcano started erupting 12 days ago, and officials warn it may soon blow its top with a massive steam eruption that would shoot boulders and ash miles into the sky.
A fissure that opened Sunday led authorities to order 10 people to flee their homes, Hawaii County Managing Director Wil Okabe said. Overall, nearly 2,000 people have been told to evacuate since May 3, and lava has destroyed more than two dozen homes.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said the flow from the crack that emerged Sunday was heading on a path that would take it to the ocean, about 2 miles (3 kilometers) away. No homes or roads were threatened by the flow.
Lava on Sunday spread across hundreds of yards of private land and loud explosions rocked the neighborhood not far from the Leilani Estates subdivision, where more than a dozen other active vents opened over the past week.
Nearby resident Richard Schott, 34, watched from a police checkpoint as the eruption churned just over a ridgeline and behind some trees.
“I’ve actually seen rocks fly over the tree line, and I can feel it in my body,” Schott said. “It’s like a nuclear reaction or something.”
Few fissures, ground deformation and abundant volcanic gases indicate eruptions on the eastern flank of Kilauea are likely to persist, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said.
“The appearance of the fissures in the past couple of days does not change the overall picture or concern,” Geological Survey scientist Steve Brantley said.
Christian and Maritza Ricks, who moved to the area from California in April, stopped at the side of the road to watch and listen to the latest eruption.
“I guess it’s just part of living on the island,” Ricks said.
He said he wasn’t really afraid of the destruction happening around him.
“In a way, it’s kind of exciting to see what’s going on and be this close to it,” Christian Ricks said.
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported a fissure opened Saturday just east of the Puna Geothermal Venture energy conversion plant, where steam and hot liquid are brought up through underground wells and the steam feeds a turbine generator to produce electricity.
As a precaution, plant workers last week removed 50,000 gallons (189,265 liters) of a flammable liquid stored at the site.
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A 1917 painting by Amedeo Modigliani of a reclining nude woman that was once considered obscene in Paris sold for over $157 million at an auction in Manhattan on Monday.
“Nu couche (sur le cote gauche)” was the highlight of Sotheby’s “Impressionist & Modern Art” sale featuring Pablo Picasso works spanning seven decades, and paintings by Claude Monet, Edvard Munch and Georgia O’Keeffe.
Modigliani shocked Europe at the turn of the 19th century with his series of 22 nudes reclining in every possible position. When the Italian-born, Jewish artist’s nudes were unveiled at a Paris gallery, police demanded that it be shut down, offended by the unflinching strokes of his oil brush that thrust art’s nude figure into the modern era.
In the past half-dozen years, prices for Modigliani’s works have soared, from $26 million the current owner paid for “Nu couche (sur le cote gauche)” in 2003 to as much as $170 million.
Picasso’s “Le Repos,” an image of his lover and “golden muse,” Marie-Therese Walter, sold for $40 million. It was one of 11 Picasso works that were offered Monday evening.
Claude Monet’s “Matinee sur la Seine” (Morning on the Seine), part of a lineup of river landscapes he painted while on a boat, capturing the changing light from sunrise to a lightning storm, brought in $20.6 million.
Both Munch’s “Summer Night” and O’Keeffe “Lake George with White Birch” each fetched over $11 million.
Modigliani’s painting, which had the highest pre-auction estimate at $150 million, was still well short of the record for the most expensive painting ever sold.
Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” sold last year at Christie’s for $450 million.
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A new look at old data is giving scientists a fresh reason to view Europa, a moon of Jupiter, as a leading candidate in the search for life beyond Earth, with evidence of water plumes shooting into space.
A bend in Europa’s magnetic field observed by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft during a 1997 flyby appears to have been caused by a geyser gushing through its frozen crust from a subsurface ocean, researchers who reexamined the Galileo data reported on Monday.
Galileo was passing some 124 miles (200 kilometers) above Europa’s surface when it apparently flew through the plume.
“We know that Europa has a lot of the ingredients necessary for life, certainly for life as we know it. There’s water.
There’s energy. There’s some amount of carbon material. But the habitability of Europa is one of the big questions that we want to understand,” said planetary scientist Elizabeth Turtle of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
“And one of the really exciting things about detection of a plume is that that means there may be ways that the material from the ocean — which is likely the most habitable part of Europa because it’s warmer and it’s protected from the radiation environment by the ice shell — to come out above the ice shell.
And that means we’d be able to sample it,” Turtle told a NASA briefing.
The research, headed by University of Michigan space physicist Xianzhe Jia, was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
The findings support other evidence of plumes from Europa, whose ocean may contain twice the volume of all Earth’s oceans.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in 2012 collected ultraviolet data suggestive of a plume.
NASA will get a close-up look from a new spacecraft during its Europa Clipper mission that could launch as soon as June 2022, providing a possible opportunity to sample plumes for signs of life, perhaps microbial, from its ocean.
Europa is considered among the prime candidates for life in our solar system, but is not the only one. For example, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft sampled plumes from Saturn’s ocean-bearing moon Enceladus that contained hydrogen from hydrothermal vents, an environment that may have given rise to life on Earth.
A bit smaller that Earth’s moon, Europa’s ocean resides under an ice layer 10 to 15 miles (15 to 25 km) thick, with an estimated depth of 40 to 100 miles (60 to 150 km).
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Uber Technologies’ growth has slowed as a series of scandals has allowed the ride-hailing company’s chief U.S. competitor, Lyft, to grab more market share, digital research firm eMarketer said in a report on Monday.
The research firm has lowered its forecasts for Uber’s growth for the next several years. It projects 48 million U.S. adults will use Uber at least once this year, up 18 percent from last year but well off eMarketer’s earlier forecast of more than 51 million.
EMarketer based its analysis on data from Uber and Lyft, such as trip numbers and app downloads, as well as customer surveys from researchers at JP Morgan and other firms.
Series of scandals
The report quantifies the effect of a series of scandals at Uber last year, which included an internal probe of sexual harassment and workplace behavior; a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into whether Uber managers violated U.S. laws against bribery of foreign officials; a lawsuit by Alphabet alleging trade secrets theft that Uber settled for $245 million; and the departure of Uber’s chief executive officer, who was pushed out by investors concerned about the growing list of problems.
Uber did not respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, Lyft has grown quickly, adding more than 160 cities last year, benefiting from Uber’s tarnished image and as a later entry into markets where people are already familiar with ride-hailing services, eMarketer said. On Monday, Lyft said it has 35 percent of the national ride-hailing market, and in 16 U.S. markets its share exceeds 40 percent.
“Uber’s brand image took an even bigger hit than expected as it grappled with a series of scandals and PR disasters in 2017,” said Shelleen Shum, eMarketer’s forecasting director. “Lyft, which had been rapidly expanding its coverage, seized on the opportunity to brand itself as a more socially conscious alternative.”
Lowered forecast
The research firm said it has lowered its forecast for Uber’s growth every year through 2021, reflecting the company’s competitive disadvantage after last year’s problems. EMarketer’s previous projections pegged the number of Uber users in 2017 at about 44 million, but the actual number ended up being fewer than 41 million.
Even so, Uber remains the dominant U.S. ride-hailing company. At the end of this year it will have about 77 percent of the market, down from 90 percent in 2016, while Lyft will have 48 percent, up from nearly 29 percent, according to eMarketer.
EMarketer’s projections for 2022 show Uber with nearly 74 percent of customers and Lyft with 59 percent of ride-hailing customers. Some people use both services.
Lyft operates in roughly the same number of U.S. cities as Uber, as well as in Toronto. Uber operates across the globe, although it has retreated from Southeast Asia, Russia and China after losing billions of dollars competing with local rivals.
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Spike Lee’s Ku Klux Klan crime drama “BlacKkKlansman” received a rousing, lengthy standing ovation at the 71st Cannes Film Festival.
Lee’s film tells true-life tale of a black police detective in Colorado who infiltrates the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. It was among the most highly anticipated titles at Cannes this year and immediate reaction was positive.
“BlacKkKlansman” ties its story to the violent protests of Charlottesville, Virginia. It stars Denzel Washington’s son, John David Washington, alongside Adam Driver and Topher Grace, who plays David Duke.
Lee was outfitted in a shiny purple-and-orange tuxedo and wore one ring declaring “love” on one hand, and “hate” on the other. He bounced into the premiere announcing: “Brooklyn’s in the house!”
The “love” and “hate” rings pay homage to his film “Do The Right Thing”; the same jewelry was worn by character Radio Raheem.
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Tesla’s chief executive officer told employees on Monday the company is undergoing a “thorough reorganization,” as it contends with questions over its production schedule and two crashes last week involving its electric, self-driving cars.
CEO Elon Musk said in an email that as part of the reorganization it was “flattening the management structure to improve communication, combining functions where sensible and trimming activities that are not vital to the success of our mission” in an email that was confirmed by Tesla after being disclosed earlier by the Wall Street Journal.
Senior Tesla executives have departed or cut back work
Waymo, Alphabet Inc’s self-driving unit, said on Sunday that Matthew Schwall had joined the company from Tesla, where he was the electric carmaker’s main technical contact with U.S. safety investigators. Last week, Tesla said Doug Field, senior vice president of engineering, was taking time off to recharge.
Tesla is at a critical juncture as it tries to fix production problems that have slowed the rollout of its Model 3 sedan, a mid-market car seen as key to the company’s success, and as it expands on other fronts.
The company has registered a new car firm in Shanghai, China, in a likely step toward production in China.
Musk said on a May 2 earnings call that the company was “going to conduct sort of a reorganization restructuring of the company … this month and make sure we’re well set up to achieve that goal.”
He added that “the number of sort of third-party contracting companies that we’re using has really gotten out of control, so we’re going to scrub the barnacles on that front. It’s pretty crazy. You’ve got barnacles on barnacles. So there’s going to be a lot of barnacle removal.”
Tesla will still rapidly hire critical positions “to support the Model 3 production ramp and future product development,” Musk said in the email.
Tesla faces a variety of issues
Investors gave a rare rebuke to Musk after he cut off analysts on the earnings call asking about profit potential, sending shares down 5 percent despite promises that production of the troubled Model 3 was on track.
In the latest of two reported crashes last week that have drawn attention, a Tesla Model S sedan was traveling at 60 miles per hour (97 km per hour) when it smashed into a fire truck stopped at a red light in South Jordan, Utah, about 20 miles south of Salt Lake City on Friday night, police said on Monday.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Keith Holloway said on Monday “at this point it doesn’t appear that NTSB is investigating” the Utah crash.
The Tesla driver suffered a broken ankle and was taken to a hospital while the firefighter was not injured, the police said.
Witnesses said the Tesla sedan did not brake prior to impact, police said in a statement, adding it was unknown if the Autopilot feature in the Model S was engaged at the time.
“Tesla has not yet received any data from the car and thus does not know the facts of what occurred, including whether Autopilot was engaged,” the company said in a statement on Monday.
The NTSB said last week it was investigating a Tesla accident in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on May 8 that killed two teenagers and injured another — the agency’s fourth active probe into crashes of the company’s electric vehicles.
Autopilot, a form of advanced cruise control, handles some driving tasks and warns those behind the wheel they are always responsible for the vehicle’s safe operation, Tesla has said.
A U.S. traffic safety regulator on May 2 contradicted Tesla’s claim that the agency had found that its Autopilot technology significantly reduced crashes.
Tesla shares dipped 0.5 percent to $299.45 on Monday.
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As the sun sets Tuesday, Muslims will begin observing the fasting month of Ramadan, the holiest on the Islamic calendar. They abstain from food and water from dawn to dusk, pray, and recite Quran.
But, there is also a fun, festive side of the observance. That’s the social gatherings for family and friends when they break their fast each evening, known as “Iftar.” There are also special treats for kids who haven’t yet reached the age when they are required to fast. And many Muslim families put up Ramadan decorations.
Though it’s not a religious requirement, decorating the house for Ramadan is a lovely, must-do tradition for Inas El Ayouby, who lives in Vienna, Virginia, with her family.
“It gives my house such a nice, warm feeling and it makes it an extra special time,” she explains. “And it’s amazing how the decorations have the ability to create such a great delightful atmosphere and joyful mood throughout the month.”
Decorations, she adds, are especially important for children, teaching them about the month and making them love and anticipate it every year.
To El Ayouby, who loves decorating her house for various occasions, from birthdays and Thanksgiving to Easter and the Fourth of July, says decorations are part of any celebration. Growing up in Egypt, El Ayouby recalls how her mother used to be creative, designing and making Ramadan decorations herself, as they were not sold in stores.
That’s what she did when her two kids were young, growing in America, when Ramadan was not a well-known event to non-Muslims.
“I used to get most of my Ramadan decorations from Egypt where it’s become a huge business and lucrative market. I also used to go to nearby craft stores. I also used to go on line and get beautiful post cards with different scenes of Ramadan, really beautiful. I print them out and put them in colorful frames, like red, blue and yellow to add to the decorations.”
Party City makes it easier
This year, when the U.S. retail chain Party City introduced its Ramadan decorations line, El Ayouby was excited.
“Everybody just went crazy. I can see all my friends on Facebook saying, go to Party City, go buy Ramadan stuff, you’re going to find lovely things.”
“I was able to get the hanging decorations, the balloons, the napkins and plates, which is great because in the past, I used to get solid red-color paper plates and use colorful napkins to go with it to add some coloring. Now, we have the whole theme from Party City. That’s really great.”
Ryan Vero, Party City’s president of retail, says the company created its Ramadan line based on requests from customers. “We always look to support our customers in all of their party needs, for every type of celebration or event,” he says. “We listened to our customers and recognized an opportunity to fill this underserved category of party good items.”
And, he notes, it’s a lucrative market, with about five million Muslims living in North America, according to a 2014 study by the American Muslim Consumer Consortium.
The new line includes tableware, banners, decals, gift bags and balloons in purple, blue, green and gold, embellished with mosques, stars and crescent drawings. Beside Ramadan decorations, the company also offers similar items commemorating Eid, the end of month celebration.
“At this time, our decorations are predominantly sold out, both online, and in our stores,” Vero says. “We were extremely pleased with the response and are working to get them back in stores.”
Ramadan decorations in the classroom
El Ayouby also bought Ramadan decorations for her grandson, Jad, who is in second grade.
“Over the past few years, his mother has been doing in-class Ramadan presentations. She takes the decorations like the balloons, the plates and stuff in addition to food, juice and paper activity to his classroom. She takes a basket full of dates, and she tells all about Ramadan.”
With major public attention paid to the Christmas and Hanukkah holidays, she says this recognition gives Muslim children a sense of inclusion.
“With the decorations and other stuff, they feel they are integral part of the community and that their religious occasions are explained and celebrated.”
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Congo has agreed to allow the World Health Organization to use an experimental Ebola vaccine to combat an outbreak announced last week, the WHO director-general said Monday.
The aim is for health officials to start using the vaccine, once it’s shipped, by the end of the week, or next week if there are difficulties, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“We have agreement, registration, plus import permit — everything formally agreed already. And as you know that vaccine is safe and efficacious and has been already tested. So I think we can all be prepared,” he said. “All is ready now, to use it.”
The outbreak was announced last week in Bikoro, in Congo’s northwest. Health officials traveled there after Congo’s Equateur provincial health ministry on May 3 alerted them to 17 deaths from a hemorrhagic fever.
As of May 13, Congo has 39 suspected, probable and confirmed cases of Ebola since April, including 19 deaths, WHO reported. Two cases of Ebola have been confirmed.
Congo’s Ministry of Health has requested that WHO send 4,000 doses of the vaccine, said ministry spokeswoman Jessyca Ilunga, who said they should arrive by the end of the week.
“The vaccination campaign starts next week, everything depends on the logistics because the vaccine must be kept at minus 60 degrees Celsius, and we need to assure that the cold chain is assured from Geneva to Bikoro,” she said.
The Ebola vaccination campaign will first target health workers, Ilunga said. Three nurses are among those with suspected cases, and another is among the dead.
The teams on site have already identified more than 350 contacts, who are people who have had contact with the patients, she said.
Mobile laboratories were deployed to Mbandaka and Bikoro on Saturday, she said, adding that results from the first 12 samples tested with that method should be available tomorrow.
This is the ninth Ebola outbreak in Congo since 1976, when the deadly disease was first identified. Congo has a long track record with Ebola, WHO said. The last outbreak that was announced a year ago, was contained and declared over by July 2017.
None of these outbreaks was connected to the massive outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone that began in 2014 and left more than 11,300 dead.
There is no specific treatment for Ebola, which is spread through the bodily fluids of people exhibiting symptoms.
The new experimental vaccine, developed by the Canadian government and now licensed to the U.S.-based Merck and has been shown to be highly effective against the virus. It was tested in Guinea in 2015.
Though the Congo outbreak is of a different strain, the experimental vaccine is still thought to be safe and effective.
WHO chief Tedros had led a delegation to the affected region on Sunday.
The Bikoro health zone is about 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Mbandaka, the capital of the Equateur province, and 45 kilometers (28 miles) from Ikoko Impenge, where there are other suspected cases.
WHO is working with Congo’s government and other international organizations, including Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), to strengthen coordination to fight and contain the Ebola outbreak.
Drake is going on tour.
The 31-year-old announced the “Aubrey and The Three Amigos Tour” on Monday. Drake will be joined by “Walk It Talk It” collaborators Migos and special guests on the North American leg through the summer and fall.
The 41-date tour starts July 26 in Salt Lake City.
Drake has released the singles “God’s Plan” and “Nice For What” ahead of his anticipated fifth studio album “Scorpion.”
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Viewers hoping Wim Wenders’ documentary about Pope Francis will be a critical portrait of the head of the Catholic Church will be disappointed. The German director makes no excuses for the fact this is a work of love for a man he respects.
Wenders, who won the Palme d’Or for “Paris, Texas” in 1984, has made several successful documentaries, including “Buena Vista Social Club” about the Cuban music scene, and “Pina” on dance choreographer Pina Bausch – subjects that, like the pope, are things he has great affection for.
“I didn’t want to make a critical film about him, other people do that really well, television does it all the time,” Wenders told Reuters in Cannes where “Pope Francis – a Man of His Word” had its premiere.
“My documentaries are expressions of love and affection for something that I want to share with the world … Right now I think there is nobody who has more important things to say to us [than] the pope, so I wanted to share that.”
“We are living in an utterly immoral time and our political leaders, powerful leaders, are emotional dwarfs. So I wanted to have this emotional giant talk to us.”
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, born in Argentina in 1936, became pope in 2013 after the unexpected resignation of Pope Benedict.
He chose his papal name after Francis of Assisi, a figure Wenders calls “a revolutionary” for his work with the poor and nature.
“Today Saint Francis would be the first ecologist of the world. Pope Francis took on a heavy duty prog by choosing that name,” Wenders said.
He filmed four two-hour interviews with Francis in which the pope talked directly into camera.
He said a kind of “teleprompter in reverse” allowed him to get that intimate look, by imposing Wenders’ face on a transparent screen with a camera behind it “so by looking into my eyes he sees everybody’s eyes”.
“This man communicates in such an honest direct and spontaneous way … even with the greatest actors you find that very rarely,” Wenders said.
With no prerequisites from the Vatican, Wenders insists his film is more than a promotional video.
“It is not propaganda,” he said.
“It’s not a commission. I was free to do what I wanted to do and this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to give a platform for his work, period.”
The Cannes Film Festival runs to May 19.
Margot Kidder, the Canadian actress who starred as a salty and cynical Lois Lane opposite Christopher Reeve in the “Superman” film franchise of the 1970s and 1980s, has died. She was 69.
Kidder’s manager Camilla Fluxman Pines said she died peacefully in her sleep on Sunday. Police in Livingston, Montana, said in a statement that officers were called to Kidder’s home, where they found her dead. An autopsy will be performed to determine the cause, but no foul play is suspected.
“Superman,” directed by Richard Donner and released in 1978, was a superhero blockbuster two decades before comic book movies became the norm at the top of the box office. Makers of today’s Marvel and D.C. films cite “Superman” as an essential inspiration.
Kidder, as ace reporter Lane, was a salty, sexually savvy adult who played off of the boyish, farm-raised charm of Reeve’s Clark Kent, though her dogged journalism constantly got her into dangerous scrapes that required old-fashioned rescues.
Kidder had many of the movies’ most memorable lines, including “You’ve got me?! Who’s got you?!” when she first encountered the costumed hero as she and a helicopter plunged from the top of a Metropolis building.
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige called the moment “the best cinematic superhero save in the history of film” at an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences event honoring Donner last year.
Kidder and Reeve were relative unknowns when they got their leading parts in the first of the films in 1978, which also included big names Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando.
Kidder and Reeve went on to star in three more “Superman” movies, the fourth and last in 1987.
She said she and Reeve, who died in 2004, were like brother and sister, both in their affection and animosity for each other.
“We quarreled all the time,” Kidder said May 9 in an interview on radio station WWJ in Detroit, where she had been scheduled to appear at Motor City Comic Con later this month. “The crew would be embarrassed. They would look away. Then we’d play chess or something because we were also really good friends.”
Both would remain known almost entirely for their “Superman” roles and struggled to find other major parts.
Kidder also had a small part in 1975’s “The Great Waldo Pepper” with Robert Redford, and starred as conjoined twins in Brian De Palma’s 1973 “Sisters,” and as the mother of a terrorized family opposite James Brolin in 1979’s “The Amityville Horror.”
Mark Hamill was among those tweeting tributes to Kidder on Monday.
“On-screen she was magic,” the “Star Wars” actor said. “Off-screen she was one of the kindest, sweetest, most caring woman I’ve ever known.”
B-movie buffs say 1974’s “Black Christmas,” with Kidder as a sorority sister, is a must-watch.
“It introduced some elements that are now genre tropes and she’s fantastic in it,” comedian and actor Kumail Nanjiani said on Twitter Monday.
Kidder had a debilitating car accident in 1990 that left her badly in debt, confined her to a wheelchair for most of two years and worsened the mental illness she had struggled with for much of her life.
That struggle became public in 1996 when she was found dazed and filthy in a yard not far from the studio where she once filmed parts of “Superman.”
She fought through her illness and continued working, however, appearing in small films and television shows and amassing credits until 2017, most notably “R.L. Stine’s the Haunting Hour,” which earned her a Daytime Emmy Award as outstanding performer in a kids’ series in 2015.
“I don’t act much anymore unless I’m broke, and then I’ll take a job,” she told the Detroit radio station with a laugh.
She spent the last decades of her life living in Montana and engaging in political activism, including protesting the U.S. military action in Iraq.
Kidder was born in Yellowknife, Canada, and graduated from a Toronto boarding school before pursuing acting.
She dated then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in the 1980s, calling him the “love of my life, my true love” in her radio interview last week.
Kidder was married and divorced three times, including a brief marriage to actor John Heard, and is survived by a daughter, Maggie McGuane.
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The European Union on Monday warned Britain time was running out to seal a Brexit deal this fall and ensure London does not crash out of the bloc next March, adding to pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May.
May’s spokesman, however, said the “focus is on getting this right” rather than meeting a deadline.
The EU’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told 27 ministers of the bloc meeting in Brussels on Monday that “no significant progress” had been made in negotiations with London since March, the Bulgarian chairwoman of the talks said.
Diplomats and officials in Brussels have raised doubts about whether the bloc and London will be able to mark a milestone in the negotiations at the summit of EU leaders on June 28-29.
The current schedule puts progress in June as an important step towards a final Brexit deal in October, which would leave enough time for an elaborate EU ratification process before the Brexit day.
“October is only five months from now and still some key issues related to the withdrawal agreement need to be settled.
In June we need to see substantive progress on Ireland, on governance and all remaining separation issues,” said Deputy Prime Minister Ekaterina Zakharieva of Bulgaria, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency.
‘No clear stance’
German, Austrian and Dutch ministers all echoed the same concern, saying Britain has not made its position clear in detail on parts of the negotiations.
“We are concerned that there is no clear stance, no clear position from the British. The clock is ticking,” German EU Minister Michael Roth told his EU peers.
“We need now to be making substantial progress, but that is not happening. What is worrying us in particular is the Northern Ireland question where we expect a substantial accommodation from the British side.”
At home, May is stuck between a rock and a hard place with staunch Brexit supporters pushing to sever ties with the EU and others advocating keeping close customs cooperation with the bloc to reduce frictions in future trade.
May’s spokesman said London was working on two options for post-Brexit customs cooperation.
Under a customs partnership, Britain could collect tariffs on goods entering the country on the EU’s behalf. Under a second idea, for a streamlined customs arrangement, traders on an approved list would be able to cross borders freely with the aid of automated technology.
Pressure
But the EU has said London must come up with a solution for the Irish border conundrum and highlights that has not happened.
Both sides worry that reinstating a physical border between EU-member Ireland and Britain’s province of Northern Ireland – including to manage customs – could revive violence there.
Other outstanding issues include guarantees for expatriate rights, agreeing on security cooperation and trade rules after Brexit.
With May’s cabinet, her ruling Conservative party and the British split on Brexit, the prime minister has come under increasing pressure at home in recent weeks to make a decision on customs.
The Brexit schedule is tightening, sources said, which helps the EU negotiating strategy to pile pressure on London before the June summit but mostly is due to lack of substantial headway in the talks.
Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said it was too early to discuss an extension of the timeline, but added: “The aim is now to conclude a deal in the time schedule that has been agreed on … I very much hope we will agree but there are no guarantees, unfortunately.”