President Trump reveled in the 3.9 percent U.S. unemployment rate Friday, following the release of figures by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But some say that these numbers don’t tell the whole story. From Washington, VOA’s Jill Craig has more.
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Month: May 2018
The Trump administration has drawn a hard line in trade talks with China, demanding a $200 billion cut in the Chinese trade surplus with the United States, sharply lower tariffs and advanced technology subsidies, people familiar with the talks said Friday.
The lengthy list of demands was presented to Beijing before the start of talks Thursday and Friday between top-level Trump administration officials and their Chinese counterparts to try to avert a damaging trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
A White House statement did not mention specific demands, but said the U.S. delegation “held frank discussions with Chinese officials on rebalancing the United States-China bilateral economic relationship, improving China’s protection of intellectual property, and identifying policies that unfairly enforce technology transfers.”
The statement gave no indication that U.S. President Donald Trump would back off on his threat to impose tariffs on up to $150 billion in Chinese goods over allegations of intellectual property theft.
Trump, delegation to meet Saturday
The delegation was returning to Washington to brief Trump and “seek his decision on next steps,” the White House said, adding that the administration had “consensus” for “immediate attention” to change the U.S-China trade and investment relationship.
Trump said he would meet with the delegation Saturday.
China’s state-run Xinhua news agency described the talks as “constructive, candid and efficient” but with disagreements that remain “relatively big.”
Tariff threats have roiled stock markets in recent weeks, but the inconclusive outcome of the Beijing talks did little to stop a rally in U.S. shares prompted by jobs data that eased fears of faster Federal Reserve rate hikes. Stocks in Shanghai ended 0.5 percent lower while they fell 1.3 percent in Hong Kong.
Trump told reporters in Washington that he was determined to bring fairness to U.S.-China trade.
“We will be doing something one way or the other with respect to what’s happening in China,” Trump said. He added that he had “great respect” for China’s President Xi Jinping. “That’s why we’re being so nice, because we have a great relationship.”
Intellectual property
China during the meetings asked that the United States ease crushing sanctions on Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Washington’s demand for a $200 billion cut from China’s U.S. goods trade surplus doubles Trump’s previous request for a $100 billion cut. China had a record U.S. goods trade surplus of $375 billion in 2017.
Trump has also demanded “reciprocity” between U.S. and Chinese tariffs, frequently complaining about China’s 25 percent car tariff while the U.S. equivalent is 2.5 percent.
The U.S. team, led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, demanded that China lower tariffs to levels no higher than those imposed by the United States, two people familiar with the demands said. The delegation also asked China to halt subsidies for advanced technology linked to its “Made in China 2025,” the sources said.
At the heart of the dispute are U.S. allegations that Chinese joint venture requirements and other policies force American companies to turn over their intellectual property, costing them billions of dollars annually and giving China’s state enterprises an edge in the race to develop new industries crucial to future growth.
China denies such coercion. Its 2025 industrial plan seeks to upgrade China’s manufacturing sector to more advanced products, including information technology, semiconductors and aircraft.
“I think the U.S. is asking for the impossible. Reducing the deficit by $200 billion by 2020 is quite an unrealistic demand, but it may also be a negotiation tactic to start high first,” said Tommy Xie, economist at OCBC Bank in Singapore.
Beijing offers
China offered to increase U.S. imports and lower tariffs on some goods, including cars, according to the sources.
But Beijing asked the United States to treat Chinese investment equally under national security reviews, refrain from new restrictions on investments and halt a proposal to impose 25 percent tariffs under its “Section 301” intellectual property probe.
China also offered to reconsider anti-dumping duties on U.S. sorghum, according to a proposal it submitted.
Xinhua said there had been exchanges of opinion on intellectual property protections, expanding U.S. exports and bilateral services trade. It gave no indication of what actions might be taken but said the two sides committed to resolve their trade disputes through dialogue.
U.S. negotiators agreed to bring up the ZTE sanctions with Trump after new representations from the Chinese side, Xinhua said. ZTE was hit last month with a seven-year ban on American companies’ selling components and software to it after the U.S. Commerce Department found ZTE failed to comply with an agreement to settle breached U.S. sanctions on Iran.
“My impression was that (the talks) didn’t go well given the rhetoric,” said Kevin Lai, senior economist at Daiwa Capital markets in Hong Kong. “I think the divide is still very big.”
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A Malaysian businessman and his Chinese partners have set their sights on a traditional American pastime — horse racing. As VOA’s Abby Sun reports, two horses partly owned by the China Horse Club are among the top contenders to win this weekend’s Kentucky Derby. Robert Raffaele narrates.
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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Peoples Bank of China (PBoC) have agreed on a currency swap worth $2.5 billion to reduce their reliance on the U.S. dollar in bilateral trade.
CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele led Nigerian officials, while the PBoC governor, Yi Gang, led the Chinese team to the signing ceremony in Beijing last week.
The agreement is aimed at providing sufficient local currency liquidity for Nigerian and Chinese industrialists and other businesses and to reduce difficulties as they search for a third currency.
The deal, purely an exchange of currencies, also will make it easier for Chinese manufacturers seeking to buy raw materials from Nigeria to obtain naira, the Nigerian currency, from Chinese banks to pay for their imports.
According to Nigerian economist Yusha’u Aminu, excluding United States in the agreement would help to lower the exchange rates between both countries.
This report originated in VOA’s Hausa service.
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A group of Cuban artists plans on Saturday to launch a biennial independent of state institutions on the Communist-run island, despite fierce opposition from the government, which has called it a “provocative maneuver.”
Organizer Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara said he came up with the idea of the “00Biennial” when the government postponed the official one by a year to 2019, saying it had to prioritize funds on rebuilding after Hurricane Irma.
His project is controversial in a country where the state dominates all aspects of society, including culture, which it has promoted heavily since Cuba’s leftist 1959 revolution. Many Cuban artists told Otero Alcantara they fear their careers could be affected if they participate, he said.
Still, more than 100 artists, including several foreign ones, have agreed to participate and will display their work in the independent studios that have flourished in Havana in recent years, said Otero Alcantara.
That so many Cuban artists are backing the 00Biennial reflects both the eagerness of those already working outside institutions for an alternative platform and the increasing independence of others.
The growth in tourism, the private sector and internet access has made it easier for them to gain visibility and make money.
“I would like… to break with the myth built over 60 years that to do something independent, separate from the state, is the devil, or counterrevolution,” said Otero Alcantara.
Cuba’s National Union of Writers and Artists issued a statement on Thursday saying the 00Biennial aimed to “create a climate propitious to promoting the interests of the enemies of the nation” using “funds of the mercenary counter-revolution.
“We will not allow the name and significance of the Biennale of Havana to be tarnished,” it said.
Cuba’s longtime foe, the United States, has in the past provided funds to promote its alternative arts scene like rap as part of efforts to foster democracy on the island.
Otero Alcantara said he aimed for the 00Biennial to be inclusive and non-political.
But Jorge Fernandez, head of Cuba’s Museum of Fine Arts and director of the last official biennial, said that was either naive or disingenuous.
“Unfortunately, everything that is done in Cuba is politicized,” he said, standing in front of a vibrant work by Cuban surrealist Wifredo Lam inside the museum. “Even if they are not trying to, it can be done from abroad.”
The most famous participant is set to be Cuban performance artist Tania Bruguera, who works in both Havana and New York and won the Tate Modern’s coveted commission for the Turbine Hall this year.
She has had several run-ins with Cuban authorities over works testing the boundaries of freedom of expression, although she still has pieces exhibited on the island. In 2015, she set up an “Institute of Artivism” in her Havana home, holding workshops to “foster civic literacy and policy change.”
Foreign artists said they had not been aware of the controversy surrounding the 00Biennial when they applied to participate.
“I just thought – this is a way to show my work,” said Diego Gil Moreno de Mora, who plans to hang rows of skinned pig heads representing the people society chooses as scapegoats.
Given the 00Biennial’s meager funds, raised mainly through crowdfunding, according to organizers, participants were told they would have to finance their own flights and accommodations, and should present a work they could easily create on site.
One reason for this, they later learned, was that their work risked being confiscated by customs officials at the airport.
Colombian artist Natalia Lopez arrived early to create thousands of cubes of dirt in Havana’s parks for an installation in which visitors would walk on them, turning them once more into part of the earth.
The underlying concept was the importance of the earth as a whole rather than divided into territories, she said.
Some artists operating outside Cuban state institutions, like Osvaldo Navarro, part of the rap group La Alianza, said there was a need for alternative platforms.
He chose to leave the state-run Cuban Rap Agency a few years ago to be more free with his lyrics, but struggled to reach his public due to the state monopoly on the media and spaces.
“I hope they understand what we want to do,” said Navarro, after filming a video for a rap song about the 00Biennial on a Havana rooftop, “which is to showcase artists who don’t have a space elsewhere but who do good, pro-social art.”
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The Kilauea volcano sent more lava into Hawaii communities Friday, a day after forcing more than 1,500 people to flee from their mountainside homes, and authorities detected high levels of sulfur gas that could threaten the elderly and people with breathing problems.
After a week of earthquakes and warnings, the eruption that began Thursday threw lava into the sky from a crack in a road and sent another line of molten rock snaking through a forest. On Friday, the activity continued, with reports of lava spurting from volcanic vents on two streets. Areas downhill from the vents were at risk of being covered up.
The community of Leilani Estates near the town of Pahoa on the Big Island appeared to be in the greatest danger. Authorities also ordered an evacuation of Lanipuna Gardens, a smaller, more rural subdivision directly to the east. But scientists said new vents could form, and it was impossible to know where.
Civil defense officials cautioned the public about high levels of sulfur dioxide near the volcano and urged vulnerable people to leave immediately. Exposure to the gas can cause irritation or burns, sore throats, runny noses, burning eyes and coughing.
Maija Stenback began to get nervous when she noticed cracks in the streets near her home. On Thursday, she shot video of the lava as it bubbled and splattered across a street about six blocks from her house.
“You can feel it all the way into the core of your being,” she said. “It’s just that roaring and unbelievable power of the lava bubbling up and spitting up into the air.”
Stenback, her daughter and grandchildren packed as much as they could into their car. The two kids were each allowed to select three toys to take before the family left for a friend’s home about a 30-minute drive away.
“I have lived through a lot of lava flows here, but never this close before,” Stenback said.
There were no immediate reports of injuries, but at least 100 people were staying in shelters Friday, with many more evacuees believed to be with relatives and friends.
The Hawaii governor activated the National Guard to help with evacuations and provide security to about 770 structures in Leilani Estates and 130 lots in Lanipuna Gardens left empty when residents sought shelter.
Kilauea has erupted periodically for decades, and scientists said they have no way of predicting how long the eruption will continue.
A key factor will be whether a magma reservoir at the summit starts to drain in response to the eruption, which has not happened yet, said Asta Miklius, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
“There is quite a bit of magma in the system. It won’t be just an hours-long eruption probably, but how long it will last will depend on whether the summit magma reservoir gets involved. And so we are watching that very, very closely,” Miklius said.
County, state and federal officials had been warning residents all week that they should be prepared to evacuate because an eruption would give little warning.
The geological survey on Thursday raised the volcano’s alert level to warning status, the highest possible, meaning a hazardous eruption was imminent, underway or expected.
Henry Calio said the first sign that something might be wrong happened when cracks emerged in the driveway of his home in Leilani Estates. His wife, Stella, then received a call from an official who told them to get out immediately.
The two feared they might lose their house.
“This is our retirement dream,” Henry Calio said.
Kilauea’s Puu Oo crater floor began to collapse Monday, triggering the earthquakes and pushing the lava into new underground chambers. The collapse caused magma to push more than 10 miles (16 kilometers) downslope toward the populated southeast coastline of the island.
The magma later crossed under Highway 130, which leads to a popular volcano access point. Civil defense authorities closed the area to visitors and ordered private tour companies to stop taking people into the region.
Over the decades, most of Kilauea’s activity has been nonexplosive, but a 1924 eruption spewed ash and 10-ton (9-metric ton) rocks into the sky and killed one person.
A 1983 eruption resulted in lava fountains soaring over 1,500 feet (457 meters) into the sky. Since then, the lava flow has buried dozens of square miles of land and destroyed many homes.
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Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk acknowledged on Friday that it was “foolish” of him to snub analysts on a conference call earlier in the week, but further needled Wall Street with a series of accusatory tweets.
In a post-earnings call on Wednesday, Musk refused to answer questions from analysts on the electric vehicle maker’s capital requirements, saying “boring, bonehead questions are not cool,” before turning questions over to a little known investor who runs HyperChange, a YouTube investment channel.
The outspoken performance shocked many analysts, sparked a fall in Tesla’s share price and led some to question whether Musk’s behavior could risk the company’s ability to raise capital.
In early-morning tweets on Friday, Musk said the two analysts he cut off — RBC Capital Markets’ Joseph Spak and Bernstein’s Toni Sacconaghi — “were trying to justify their Tesla short thesis.”
‘Shorting’ means they were betting the stock would fall, but the two have ‘hold’ or ‘neutral’ ratings on the stock, according to Thomson Reuters data. “I should have answered their questions live. It was foolish of me to ignore them,” Musk tweeted.
The two analysts were not immediately available for a comment.
The spat comes at a crunch time for Tesla, when it is struggling to ramp up production of its Model 3 sedan, on which its profitability depends. It is trying to build 5,000 of the vehicles per week by the end of June and overcome manufacturing hurdles that have delayed its rollout.
Although Musk has insisted the company neither needs nor wants new funding, many believe the company will seek to raise more capital by the end of 2018.
Tesla’s stock recovered a little on Friday, up 2.4 percent at $291 in early afternoon trade. But short sellers, who shorted nearly 400,000 shares on Thursday, doubled that amount on Friday, according to financial analytics firm S3 Partners.
“Musk’s meltdown will change Tesla’s ability to raise capital when he needs it with a sector of investors,” said Eric Schiffer, chief executive of the Patriarch Organization, a Los Angeles-based private-equity firm.
“At this critical point, he needs to reinforce confidence, not raise a narrative of him as unstable and whose rational side is lost in space,” said Schiffer, who does not hold Tesla shares.
Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois said the underlying business fundamentals were more important in any capital raise, although “management credibility” was also a factor.
“That has an impact but it’s not something that will prevent them from raising capital,” Houchois said.
Nord LB analyst Frank Schwope said that Musk’s refusal to answer questions or receive criticism was “not very clever” but added that his ability to find new money was still intact.
‘Dry’ questions
The questions Musk cut short on Wednesday related to Model 3 reservations and capital requirements.
“The ‘dry’ questions were not asked by investors, but rather by two sell-side analysts who were trying to justify their Tesla short thesis. They are actually on the opposite side of investors,” Musk tweeted on Friday.
“HyperChange represented actual investors, so I switched to them,” he wrote. On the call, he devoted 23 minutes to 25-year-old Tesla investor, Galileo Russell, who runs HyperChange TV.
At least three brokerages cut price targets on the stock following the call.
Sacconaghi, one of the rebuffed analysts, wrote: “We do worry that such theatrics will unnecessarily undermine investor confidence in Tesla’s outlook.”
Sacconaghi has a price target of $265 on Tesla’s stock and Spak lowered his target to $280 from $305 on Thursday. Tesla’s median Wall Street price target is $317.
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Google said Friday in a blog post that it would do a better job of verifying the identity of political ad buyers in the U.S. by requiring a government-issued ID and other key information.
Google will also require ad buyers to disclose who is paying for the ad. Google executive Kent Walker repeated a pledge he made in November to create a library of such ads that will be searchable by anyone. The goal is to have this ready this summer.
Google’s blog post comes short of declaring support for the Honest Ads Act, a bill that would impose disclosure requirements on online ads, similar to what’s required for television and other media. Facebook and Twitter support that bill.
Google didn’t immediately provide details on how the ID verification would work for online ad buys.
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We’re unwrapping the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, for the week ending May 5, 2018.
Last week, we had a Hot Shot Debut in the Top Five … that doesn’t happen this time, but we do get a new entry.
Number 5: Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey “The Middle”
It happens in fifth place, where Zedd, Maren Morris and the U.S. duo Grey jump a slot with “The Middle.”
Current pop songs often travel a winding road to the countdown and this is no exception. Variety magazine reports that many singers auditioned for this song before Maren got the nod … among them Charli XCX, Camila Cabello, Carly Rae Jepsen, Tove Lo, Bebe Rexha, Demi Lovato, Elle King and others.
Number 4: Post Malone & Ty Dolla $ign “Psycho”
Post Malone and Ty Dolla $ign chill in fourth place with “Psycho.” Post dropped his second album “Beerbongs & Bentleys” on April 27, and it shattered some first-day streaming records. Spotify tweeted that the album posted record numbers both domestically, with 47 million streams, and globally, with 78 million. And that was only on the first day!
Number 3: Bebe Rexha & Florida Georgia Line “Meant To Be”
Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line continue to dominate the Billboard Hot Country Songs list with “Meant To Be,” while holding in third place on the Hot 100. On April 25, James Cordon’s Carpool Karaoke Twitter page posted a selfie from Bebe and Wiz Khalifa … meaning we should probably look for them both in the popular show’s upcoming season. No release date has yet been announced.
Number 2: Drake “God’s Plan”
It’s no longer your Hot 100 champ, but “God’s Plan” hasn’t fallen far, spending another week in the runner-up slot. Drake’s next album “Scorpion” won’t appear for another month, but the roll-out points to an even bigger opening than “Views” in 2016. Forbes magazine writer Bryan Rolli credits Drake with using his stature to build up others through his music on this album cycle … which benefits everyone.
Number 1: Drake “Nice For What”
We’re not done with Drake yet: “Nice For What” spends a second week atop the Hot 100. Along with debuting atop the Hot 100, it also opened at No. 1 on the Streaming Songs Chart. It’s Drake’s fourth Streaming champ – tying him with Justin Bieber for the most victories on this list.
Will Drake keep his streak alive next week? We’ll find out in seven days.
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Adults and children should consume a maximum of 10 percent of their daily calories in the form of saturated fat such as meat and butter and one percent from trans fats to reduce the risk of heart disease, the World Health Organization said Friday.
The draft recommendations, the first since 2002, are aimed at reducing non-communicable diseases, led by cardiovascular diseases, blamed for 72 percent of the 54.7 million estimated deaths worldwide every year, many before the age of 70.
“Dietary saturated fatty acids and trans-fatty acids are of particular concern because high levels of intake are correlated with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases,” Dr. Francesco Branca, Director of WHO’s Department of Nutrition for Health and Development, told reporters.
The dietary recommendations are based on scientific evidence developed in the last 15 years, he added.
The United Nations agency has invited public comments until June 1 on the recommendations, which it expects to finalize by year-end.
Saturated fat is found in foods from animal sources such as butter, cow’s milk, meat, salmon and egg yolks, and in some plant-derived products such as chocolate, cocoa butter, coconut, palm and palm kernel oils.
An active adult needs about 2,500 calories per day, Branca said.
“So we are talking about 250 calories coming from saturated fat and that is approximately a bit less than 30 grams of saturated fat,” he said.
That amount of fat could be found in 50 grams (1.76 oz) of butter, 130-150 grams of cheese with 30 percent fat, a liter of full fat milk, or 50 grams of palm oil, he said.
Trans fats
Trans fats occur naturally in meat and dairy products. But the predominant source is industrially-produced and contained in baked and fried foods such as fries and doughnuts, snacks, and partially hydrogenated cooking oils and fats often used by restaurants and street vendors.
In explicit new advice, WHO said that excessive amounts of saturated fat and trans fat should be replaced by polyunsaturated fats, such as fish, canola and olive oils.
“Reduced intake of saturated fatty acids have been associated with a significant reduction in risk of coronary heart disease when replaced with polyunsaturated fatty acids or carbohydrates from whole grains,” it said.
Total fat consumption should not exceed 30 percent of total energy intake to avoid unhealthy weight gain, it added.
The recommendations complement other WHO guidelines including limiting intake of free sugars and sodium.
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NASA’s next Mars explorer is going to have company all the way to the red planet: a couple of puny yet groundbreaking sidekicks.
Named after the characters in the 2008 animated movie, the small satellites WALL-E and EVE are hitching a ride on the Atlas V rocket set to launch early Saturday morning from California with the Mars InSight lander.
Similar in size to a briefcase or large cereal box, the satellites with pop out from the rocket’s upper stage following liftoff and hightail it to Mars, right behind InSight.
It will be the first time little cube-shaped satellites, CubeSats as they’re known, set sail for deep space. The journey will span 6 1/2 months and 300 million miles (485 million kilometers).
A brief look at the $18.5 million experiment tagging along with InSight:
Mini sats
Miniature satellites, or CubeSats, have been piggybacking on big-ticket space missions for well over a decade, providing relatively cheap and fast access to orbit for students and other out-of-the-mainstream experimenters. Until now, the hundreds of CubeSats have been confined to Earth orbit. That’s about to change with NASA’s Mars Cube One project, or MarCO.
The European Space Agency, meanwhile, has its CubeSat sights on the moon. A recent competition yielded two winning proposals: a CubeSat to explore the moon’s far side from lunar orbit, another to probe a permanently shadowed crater near the moon’s south pole, also from lunar orbit. NASA is also looking to send CubeSats to the moon, as well as an asteroid.
Movie connection
It turns out that these twin cubes are equipped with the same type of cold gas propulsion system used in fire extinguishers to spray foam. The movie WALL-E uses a fire extinguisher to propel through space. Team members couldn’t resist the connection, thus the names WALL-E and EVE for the two mini spacecraft. Engineers want to test this compact propulsion system for guiding the 30-pound (13.6-kilogram) cubes to Mars.
Getting to Mars
Once free from the rocket’s upper stage following liftoff, WALL-E and EVE will trail a few thousand miles (kilometers) behind InSight en route to Mars. The two mini spacecraft will also be a few thousand miles (kilometers) apart from one another. That’s to prevent any collisions or even close calls. While that may seem far apart, it’s actually fairly close by space standards, according to Brian Clement, an engineer on the project at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
While InSight will be stopping at Mars on November 26, WALL-E and EVE will zoom past the planet from about 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) out. Don’t expect any Thunderbird pilot-theatrics as the cubes fly by, like a tilting of the solar wings in salute. “That would make a great movie, but that’s definitely not the way we’re going to do it,” Clement said.
Extra ears
Besides testing the cubes’ maneuvering system, NASA wants to see if WALL-E and EVE can transmit data to Earth from InSight during its descent to Mars. If the experiment succeeds, it should take just several minutes for flight controllers to hear from the cubes. No worries if they’re silent. NASA will rely on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter already circling the planet as the main communication link with InSight during descent and touchdown. It will take a lot longer, though, to get confirmation. The beauty of a CubeSat relay system is that it could provide descent information at planets and other cosmic stop-offs lacking established communications.
Post-Mars
Once past Mars, WALL-E and EVE will remain in an elliptical orbit around the sun, together for years to come. But they won’t work for long. Once they run out of fuel, they won’t be able to point their solar wings toward the sun for recharging.
The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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A prosecutor says more people will be charged in the criminal investigation of a cult-like group that included former “Smallville” actress Allison Mack.
At a court hearing on Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Moira Penza told a judge the government plans to file a new indictment naming more defendants, but he didn’t go into specifics.
Mack appeared at the hearing along with Keith Raniere, the leader of the group NXIVM. Both are charged with coercing women who joined the organization into becoming sex slaves.
Some of the women were branded with a symbol that prosecutors said contained Raniere’s initials.
Mack and Raniere have pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking. They have denied wrongdoing.
Raniere has been held without bail. Mack was freed with restrictions after a court appearance last month.
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Meghan Markle’s divorced parents will meet with Queen Elizabeth II and other royals before her May 19 wedding to Prince Harry and will have special roles in their daughter’s wedding, a palace spokesman said Friday.
At the wedding, the royal couple also plan to honor the memory of the late Princess Diana, Harry’s mother, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997.
Officials didn’t predict the weather — springtime in England can be glorious or horrid, sometimes on the same day — but they outlined plans for a celebration designed to spread from the privileged environs of Windsor Castle throughout Britain and the world, via television and the internet.
Here are some of the plans disclosed by Harry’s press secretary, Jason Knauf, during a briefing at Buckingham Palace:
Meghan’s parents to meet the queen, take part in wedding
Markle’s parents, Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland, will arrive during the week before the May 19 wedding so they have time to meet Harry’s family.
Knauf says they will visit with the queen, her husband Prince Philip, Harry’s father Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, and with Harry’s brother Prince William and his sister-in-law Kate.
Ragland will travel with her daughter by car to Windsor Castle on May 19 and Thomas Markle will walk his daughter down the aisle of St. George’s Chapel for the ceremony.
Knauf says Markle is “delighted” that her parents will be by her side. He did not say whether Markle’s half brother and half sister will attend the wedding.
Princess Diana’s family will have a role as well
The press secretary says Harry is “keen to involve his mother’s family in the wedding” and that all three of Diana’s siblings will be present. One of Diana’s two older sisters, Jane Fellowes, will give a reading during the ceremony to represent Diana’s family.
No Maid of Honor
Markle, an American actress who came to prominence in the TV series “Suits,” will not have a maid of honor during the ceremony.
Harry has chosen William as his best man.
Young bridesmaids and page boys
Knauf says all the bridesmaids and page boys will be children. That may mean a role for Prince George, 4, and Princess Charlotte, 3, the children of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge. But don’t bother looking for Prince Louis — born in late April — as the youngest prince will not attend the wedding.
Don’t ask about the dress
Palace officials are determined that the style and designer of Markle’s wedding gown will be kept secret until the moment she gets out of the car to walk into the chapel. They say this tradition is very important — but that won’t keep speculators from trying to guess who has received the most important dressmaking assignment of the year.
Separated the night before
The press secretary says Harry and Markle will spend the night before the wedding apart. They have been living together in recent months since announcing their engagement. They will spend their first night as a married couple in Windsor Castle.
Good wishes for Prince Philip’s health
Palace officials say they’re hopeful that 96-year-old Prince Philip, Harry’s grandfather, will be well enough to attend the wedding festivities . The queen’s husband has been recovering from hip replacement surgery and has not participated in any public events since being discharged from the hospital in mid-April.
Follow the wedding at home
The palace plans to publish the Order of Service on its website the morning of the wedding so people watching it on television will be better able to follow what’s taking place inside the church.
Delayed honeymoon
Knauf would not reveal where the newest royal couple will spend their honeymoon, but he said they won’t be leaving right after the wedding. Instead they plan to make their first public appearance as a married couple during the week following the ceremony. In the past, they have traveled in Africa together.
U.S. employers stepped up hiring modestly in April, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.9 percent, evidence of the economy’s resilience amid the recent stock market chaos and anxieties about a possible trade war.
Job growth amounted to a decent 164,000 last month, up from an upwardly revised 135,000 in March. The unemployment rate fell after having held at 4.1 percent for the prior six months largely because fewer people were searching for jobs.
The overall unemployment rate is now the lowest since December 2000. The rate for African-Americans — 6.6 percent — is the lowest on record since 1972.
Many employers say it’s difficult to find qualified workers. But they have yet to significantly bump up pay in most industries. Average hourly earnings rose 2.6 percent from a year ago.
The pace of hiring has yet to be disrupted by dramatic global market swings, a recent pickup in inflation and the risk that the tariffs being pushed by President Donald Trump could provoke a trade war.
Much of the economy’s strength, for the moment, comes from the healthy job market. The increase in people earning paychecks has bolstered demand for housing, even though fewer properties are being listed for sale. Consumer confidence has improved over the past year. And more people are shopping, with retail sales having picked up in March after three monthly declines.
Workers in the private sector during the first three months of 2018 enjoyed their sharpest average income growth in 11 years, the Labor Department said last week in a separate report on compensation. That pay growth suggests that some of the momentum from the slow but steady recovery from the 2008 financial crisis is spreading to more people after it had disproportionately benefited the nation’s wealthiest areas and highest earners.
The monthly jobs reports have shown pay raises inching up. At the same time, employers have become less and less likely to shed workers. The four-week moving average for people applying for first-time unemployment benefits has reached its lowest level since 1973.
The trend reflects a decline in mass layoffs. Many companies expect the economy to keep expanding, especially after a dose of stimulus from tax cuts signed into law by Trump that have also increased the federal budget deficit.
Inflation has shown signs of accelerating slightly, eroding some of the potential wage growth. Consumer prices rose at a year-over-year pace of 2.4 percent in March, the sharpest annual increase in 12 months. The Federal Reserve has an annual inflation target of 2 percent, and investors expect the Fed to raise rates at least twice more this year, after an earlier rate hike in March, to keep inflation from climbing too far above that target.
The home market, a critical component of the U.S. economy, has been a beneficiary of the steady job growth. The National Association of Realtors said that homes sold at a solid annual pace of 5.6 million in March, even though the number of houses for sale has plunged. As a result, average home prices are rising at more than twice the pace of wages.
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Each morning, in a small Bangladeshi kitchen on the edge of the world’s largest refugee camp, a group of cooks stir rice, lentils, spices, and vitamin powder in steaming cauldrons to serve to thousands of hungry Rohingya refugees.
More than 700,000 ethnic Rohingya Muslims arrived in Bangladesh last year from neighboring Myanmar, escaping what the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing by Myanmar’s army, an allegation Myanmar denies.
Upon arrival in Bangladesh, many of the refugees were destitute, starving after fleeing army attacks on their villages.
But nearly nine months later, hunger persists for the Rohingya in Bangladesh, even though aid groups hold regular food distributions.
As a result, many families depend on the hot meals handed out at this kitchen by the Action Against Hunger aid group in the town of Ukhiya. The group also provides biscuits to children to take home after their meal to further supplement their diets.
One regular visitor to the kitchen is Abdu Sobee, who says he comes almost every day with his brother’s children.
“I need money to buy fish, vegetables, and chili to cook,” he explains, while his two nieces scoop handfuls of yellow rice into their mouths. “I don’t have this. Where will I get it? So I brought my children here because they give food for free.”
Despite the free lunches, not everyone is able to stay healthy.
In the camps, one-fifth of Rohingya children younger than 5 are malnourished, with 12 percent suffering from severe stunting as a result of their hunger, according to Action Against Hunger.
Next to the busy kitchen, the aid group operates a clinic to treat stricken children.
Currently, there are 120 children enrolled at the clinic with severe acute malnutrition, the affliction’s worst form, said Dr. Jashim Uddin Akon, who runs the Ukhiya clinic. A total of 5,000 Rohingya children are receiving treatment for severe malnutrition at 15 clinics across the camps.
During VOA’s visit, a refugee named Roshida brought her 6-month-old daughter to the doctors. The skin on the child’s arms was loose; her head lolling on a thin neck.
“She was breastfeeding for two months, and now I cannot produce enough milk, so she became malnourished,” Roshida told VOA.
A clinician measured the baby’s upper arm and determined she was a severe case. They immediately started treatment, spoon-feeding the child a high energy peanut paste mixed with water.
The baby may recover after a few weeks of this daily treatment, but the deeper problem is that Roshida herself is not fully healthy.
“I cannot produce milk because I cannot eat well,” Roshida said. “I only depend on handouts of rice. If I only eat the handouts, how will I produce milk?”
Roshida says the major issue is that she has no money to buy extra food to supplement the basic diet provided by aid groups. Her husband has a job in the refugee camp, but isn’t paid for his work. Bangladesh’s government prohibits Rohingya refugees from paid employment.
“My husband is an Islamic teacher. He’s taught for free for three months,” she said. “That’s no money.”
Recently, the World Food Program launched an initiative to close this gap. WFP’s basic food distributions include only rice, lentils and oil — hardly a balanced diet.
To fix this, WFP now gives vouchers to refugee families, which they can redeem in local markets for up to 19 different food items, including fresh vegetables, chilies, eggs, and fish, in addition to the staple rice and lentils.
Still, many refugees haven’t received the vouchers yet. With no work, another option would be to return to Myanmar, where Rohingya once had enough food. But Roshida says this is impossible.
“I’m not going back, because if we return, they will give us trouble again. We need to get our rights first. We are here in Bangladesh for justice. If we don’t get it, why will we go back?”
The past violence in Myanmar affects the nutrition of babies in another way: Mothers who suffer mental trauma from last year’s attacks struggle to properly care for their children, Akon said.
“They are not psychologically well. They have trauma. They lost their house. They lost their country. They lost their relatives,” he said. “When a mother is psychologically affected, the mothers don’t give proper caring to the babies.”
For Rohingya mothers, keeping their children well fed requires more than food handouts.
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Dr. Paul Offit is an infectious disease specialist and an expert in vaccines. He’s been at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia since 1992. Since then he says not a year has gone by when he has not seen a child die from a vaccine-preventable disease. It’s largely, he says, because the parents chose not to vaccinate their child.
Far from Philadelphia, along the rugged border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, health workers are desperately trying to vaccinate every child against polio so no child will ever again suffer the crippling effects of this disease. If they can complete this task, polio will be a disease of the past.
Offit says the difference between parents in this mountainous border region of southcentral Asia and those in the U.S. is that in Pakistan and Afghanistan, people know the devastating consequences of polio. He says previous generations in the U.S. did, too.
WAYCH: Some Parents More Wary of Vaccines Than the Diseases Vaccines Prevent
“For my parents, who were children of the 1920s and 1930s, they saw diphtheria as a routine killer of teenagers. They saw polio as a common crippler of children and young adults, so you didn’t have to convince them to vaccinate me, my brother and sister.”
Offit says parents in his generation were also quick to vaccinate their children.
“I had measles. I had mumps. I had German measles (rubella). I had the chickenpox so I know what those diseases felt like, and it was miserable,” he said.
23 viruses, two cancers
Vaccines can prevent 23 viruses and two types of cancer, and more vaccines are in the works, including one for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Offit is the co-inventor of a life-saving rotavirus vaccine.
But some parents are not getting their children vaccinated. Last year there were more than 14,000 cases of measles in Europe, mostly in Romania. Nearly 40 children died. It exasperates health officials like Miljana Grbic, head of the World Health Assembly in Romania.
“We cannot fight this disease if we do not increase vaccination coverage,” she said. “… But we also have to understand why vaccination coverage is going down.”
For some parents, it’s the inconvenience of the trip to the doctor’s office. Others think good hygiene and nutrition are all children need to stay healthy. Still others believe vaccines can give their children autism, diabetes and other diseases.
Offit says persuading these parents to vaccinate their children is hard.
“It’s hard to compel people to vaccinate against something that they don’t fear,” he said. “And when they don’t fear that, what they’ll do is, they’ll fear the vaccines, and I think that’s where we’re at.”
Vaccine refusal spreads
A study published in BMJ suggests that in the U.S., vaccine refusal is contagious. It spreads from communities with a high number of parents who oppose vaccines to other communities nearby when parents who oppose vaccines talk to their friends and parents of their children’s schoolmates.
“Collectively, this factor is driving vaccine refusal and delay,” said Professor Tony Yang, one of the principal authors of the study.
Yang, from George Mason University, and his co-authors looked at the number of non-medical exemptions for vaccines from 2000 to 2013. They found these exemptions increased in geographical clusters.
Some governments are now making it harder for parents not to immunize their children. After a measles outbreak, California passed more restrictive laws. Yang says parents trust their pediatricians, so health care providers need to be more pro-active in getting children vaccinated.
Australia HPV work
Despite hesitancy in some parts of the world, some countries are leading the way in promoting vaccines. Australia has provided the HPV vaccine to school-aged girls since 2007.
The Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) causes cervical cancer, the second most common type of cancer in women worldwide. It also causes head and neck cancers and genital warts.
By 2013, a study showed a significant reduction in the number of young women with abnormal cells of the cervix and a 90 percent decline in genital warts in young women.
Cervical cancer takes 20 to 30 years to develop. By 2035, Australia expects to see up to a 45 percent decline in deaths from cervical cancer all because of a vaccine and the government’s policy.
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The Nobel Prize in literature will not be awarded this year following sex-abuse allegations and other issues that have damaged the public image of the Swedish Academy that selects the winner.
The academy said Friday the 2018 prize will be given in 2019. The decision was made at a weekly meeting in Stockholm a day earlier, on the grounds that the academy is in no shape to pick a winner after a string of sex abuse allegations and financial crimes scandals.
“We find it necessary to commit time to recovering public confidence in the Academy before the next laureate can be announced,” Anders Olsson, the academy’s permanent secretary, said in a statement. He said the academy was acting “out of respect for previous and future literature laureates, the Nobel Foundation and the general public.”
It will be the first time since World War II that the prestigious award is not handed out. Last year, Japanese-born British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro won the prize.
Sexual abuse scandal
The Swedish Academy’s internal feud was triggered by an abuse scandal linked to Jean-Claude Arnault, a major cultural figure in Sweden who is also the husband of poet Katarina Frostenson, an academy member.
The academy later admitted in a report that “unacceptable behavior in the form of unwanted intimacy” took place within its ranks, but its handling of the allegations shredded the body’s credibility, called into question its judgment and forced its first female leader to resign.
A debate over how to face up to its flaws also divided its 18 members, who are appointed for life, into hostile camps and prompted seven members of the prestigious institution to leave or disassociate themselves from the secretive group.
At this week’s meeting, members agreed to review the academy’s operating practices, according to a statement released by the body.
The academy said that “work on the selection of a laureate is at an advanced stage and will continue as usual in the months ahead but the Academy needs time to regain its full complement.”
Nobel Foundation
The Nobel Foundation reacted promptly, saying it presumes that the academy “will now put all its efforts into the task of restoring its credibility as a prize-awarding institution and that the Academy will report the concrete actions that are undertaken.”
“We also assume that all members of the Academy realise that both its extensive reform efforts and its future organizational structure must be characterized by greater openness toward the outside world,” Carl-Henrik Heldin, the chairman of the Nobel Foundation Board said in a separate statement.
Allegations denied
Last fall, Dagens Nyheter, one of Sweden’s largest newspapers, published sexual misconduct claims from 18 women against Arnault, who runs a cultural center the academy used to help fund.
Arnault also has been suspected of violating century-old Nobel rules by leaking names of winners of the prestigious award, allegedly seven times, starting in 1996. It was not clear to whom the names were allegedly disclosed.
Bjorn Hurtig, the lawyer for the 71-year-old Arnault, has denied the allegations, telling The Associated Press that his client is the victim of “a witch hunt” and the claims “may only have the purpose of harming” him.
Other missed years
The world’s most prestigious prizes in science, medicine, literature and peacemaking have been withheld 49 times in all since the honors based on the will of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel began in 1901.
No Nobel prizes at all were awarded during the World War II years of 1940-42. The Nobel literature prize has not been given out on seven occasions so far: 1914, 1918, 1935 and 1940-43 — in 1935 because no literature candidate was deemed worthy of the prize.
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Bombs. Destruction. Chaos. This is what it’s like to be in Syria.
It’s a part of the world many will never visit, but a virtual reality experience called “Hero,” puts viewers on the ground there.
“Hero” was part of the Immersive program at the recent Tribeca Film Festival in New York, where it won an award for its innovative approach to storytelling. More than 30 virtual reality and augmented reality projects were on display at the event.
Not a ‘lean back’ experience
Virtual reality fans say they love the technology for its ability to transport and immerse them in new worlds. More and more, these experiences are becoming physical and interactive, not just a “lean back” experience where the viewer watches passively.
For “Hero,” viewers don a high resolution headset by StarVR and an HP Z VR backpack, a wearable computer that allows for an untethered, free-roaming VR experience.
In real life, users are instructed to close their eyes as a guide leads them by the hand into a room constructed with surfaces and objects that correspond to what they’ll see as the film starts.
When a bomb drops out of the sky, it’s not only the noise that’s unsettling, but the grit and gravel that they suddenly feel against their skin. As the dust settles, a young child’s voice faintly calls out for help. Participants can find and rescue her.
“That moment when a person realizes they can actually step around, they can actually lean on a thing, they can reach out and touch a wall, they can grab a piece of rebar, it’s a powerful moment,” said Brooks Brown, global director of Starbreeze Studios, one of the key collaborators behind “Hero.”
For a few unnerving minutes during the search for the child, disbelief is suspended. The combination of realistic graphics and participants’ ability to physically navigate the terrain makes it feel as if real lives might be in danger.
Different impact
When it comes to war-torn Syria, “We’ve seen movies about it and documentaries, and yet none of them have this same kind of impact” as a VR experience, said Navid Khonsari, founder of iNK Stories, which created “Hero.”
“When you’re fully encompassed in it, when everything is stripped away and you’re actually in that experience, then only can you acknowledge what’s actually taking place for others,” Khonsari said.
For Mathias Chelebourg, a virtual reality director, live VR experiences represent “the birth of a new format.” Chelebourg is the director of the VR experience “Jack: Part One,” which was also part of the virtual reality lineup at Tribeca.
Viewers are in the movie
In the retelling of the children’s fairy tale Jack and the Beanstalk, viewers can pick up and move physical props and interact with live actors who are outfitted with motion capture markers. Cameras track the markers and movements are rendered simultaneously in virtual reality.
With a format that mixes reality and fantasy, it can take some getting used to, even for the actors.
“Some people don’t dare to move, to touch or just, respond,” said Maria McClurg, one of the actresses in Jack. “Some people give me a really hard time,” she added. “As a performer, it’s always interesting. And at the same time you’re like, ‘How am I going to get through this?’”
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