Day: October 1, 2018

Trump Hits Brazil, India Commerce After Clinching N. American Trade Deal

Fresh from clinching an updated North American commerce pact, U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday criticized Indian and Brazilian trade tactics, describing the latter as being “maybe the toughest in the world” in terms of protectionism.

Addressing reporters at a White House event to celebrate the agreement of an updated trilateral trade deal between the United States, Mexico and Canada, Trump added India and Brazil to a growing list of countries that, he argues, treat the world’s top economy unfairly in terms of commerce.

“India charges us tremendous tariffs. When we send Harley Davidson motorcycles, other things to India, they charge very, very high tariffs,” Trump said, adding that he had brought up the issue with Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi, who he said was “going to reduce them very substantially.”

Modi’s office could not immediately be reached for a request for comment. India’s government has become more protectionist in recent months, raising import tariffs on a growing number of goods as it promotes its ‘Make in India’ program.

After criticizing India, Trump turned to Brazil, the second-largest economy in the Americas behind the United States.

“Brazil’s another one. That’s a beauty. They charge us whatever they want,” he said. “If you ask some of the companies, they say Brazil is among the toughest in the world – maybe the toughest in the world.”

Brazil is one of the world’s most closed major economies, and in recent months has tussled with the Trump administration over trade in sectors such as ethanol and steel.

After Trump’s comments, Brazil’s Foreign Trade Minister, Abrão Neto, defended the relationship, saying it was “very positive.” He added that over the last 10 years, the United States has enjoyed a trade surplus with Brazil of $90 billion in goods, and of $250 billion in goods and services.

Neto pointed out that the United States was Brazil’s second-largest trading partner, behind China, and that the two countries had a “complementary and strategic” commercial relationship that could, nonetheless, be improved.

Trump’s “America First” trade policies, particularly his escalating trade war with China, are aimed at boosting U.S. manufacturing, but they have spooked investors who worry that supply lines could be fractured and global growth derailed.

There are now U.S. tariffs active on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, with threats on additional goods worth $267 billion.

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US Christian TV Network Enters World of 24-hour News

A Christian TV network is entering the crowded world of 24-hour news broadcasting at a time when the mainstream news media is under increasing attack by President Donald Trump and some of his supporters, many of them evangelicals.

 

The Christian Broadcasting Network’s news channel will provide a religious perspective that other channels lack, CEO Gordon Robertson told The Associated Press in an interview in advance of the network’s formal launch Monday.

 

The CBN News Channel, to air on local television stations in 15 U.S. cities, will produce original programming and commentary on everything from the power of prayer to Justin Bieber’s faith and Christian persecution in the Middle East, Robertson said last week.

 

Robertson, son of evangelist Pat Robertson, said he wants the channel to bring people together. But it is making its debut in an increasingly fractured media landscape and divided nation. Trump sometimes uses evangelical outlets to reach supporters, while shunning other news outlets.

 

“Trump’s modus operandi is not essentially to reach out to new audiences, but to create division and polarization to energize his base,” said Mark Ward, an associate professor of communication at the University of Houston-Victoria, who writes about evangelical mass media.

 

“If that’s your strategy and evangelicals are such a huge part of your base, why would you not use the media organs that are available?” Ward said.

 

Pat Robertson helped revolutionize religious TV through the Christian Broadcasting Network. He also ran for president in 1988 and worked to galvanize conservative Christians into a political force in the 1990s.

 

Last year, Trump told Pat Robertson on his show, “The 700 Club,” that he has “a tremendous audience.”

 

“You have people that I love, the evangelicals,” Trump said.

 

David Brody, CBN’s chief political analyst in Washington, also has interviewed the president as well as Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, among others in the White House. Brody recently co-authored the book, “The Faith of Donald J. Trump.”

 

Critics have accused Brody and the elder Robertson of being less than objective.

 

“Brody has bragged about having unprecedented access to this White House, which makes sense because he’s throwing them softballs,” said Kyle Mantyla, a senior fellow for the liberal organization People For the American Way, which runs the Right Wing Watch project.

 

Gordon Robertson said critics are missing the point.

 

“What I think is missing is an opportunity for someone to come in and just tell their story from their point of view, not give it an angle, not try to be argumentative,” he said. “I think we’ve been criticized for allowing people to speak. But from my point of view, we want that.”

 

For the past two decades, CBN has produced shows and run them on the ABC Family channel, now known as Freeform, as well as CBN’s own online platforms.

 

Many of those shows will run on the new channel, which is airing on the sub-channels that local stations started broadcasting after switching to a digital signal.

 

Among the shows included in the news channel’s lineup are “Jerusalem Dateline” which will focus on Israel, and “Faith Nation” which is centered on politics. The channel also will provide programming about healthy living and entertainment, Gordon Robertson said.

 

Those profiled by CBN include Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who went to jail in 2015 for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The network also has been monitoring the story of Andrew Brunson, a U.S. pastor detained in Turkey on charges of espionage and terrorism-related crimes.

 

The battle over Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee, fueled much of the channel’s news shows last month during its soft launch in a handful of U.S. cities.

 

“We don’t always sit here and say, ‘Is there a Bible story that corresponds with this today?'” news director Rob Allman said during an interview last week at CBN’s studios in Virginia Beach. CBN also has studios in Washington and Jerusalem.

 

CBN is launching the new channel in part to appeal to a growing number of viewers who cancel cable subscriptions in favor of streaming services and free broadcast TV.

 

The nonprofit channel’s success will mostly depend on donations, not advertisements.

 

Most donors are older and like to watch TV.

 

“There’s something that happens to people after the age of 50,” Gordon Robertson said, “where they start thinking about legacy and they start thinking about eternity.”

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US Economists Optimistic About Growth, Worried About Tariffs

The economy should grow at a healthy pace this year and next, though the Trump administration’s trade policy will likely act as a drag, a group of business economists said. 

Growth should reach 2.9 percent this year, according to a survey of 51 economists by the National Association for Business Economics, released Monday. That would be up from just 2.3 percent in 2017. And growth is forecast to be 2.7 percent in 2019, the survey found. 

Overall, the economists are slightly more optimistic than they were when last surveyed three months ago. Buoyed by solid consumer spending and a healthy increase in business investment, the survey respondents expect the economy will overcome any negative impacts from higher tariffs. 

Just over half of the respondents expect that the next recession won’t arrive until 2020 at the earliest, while one-third said it wouldn’t occur until 2021. 

Inflation should remain in check, the survey found, rising to just 2.5 percent this year from 2.1 percent last year. Yet price gains will then likely moderate to 2.3 percent in 2019, the survey said. 

Still, worries over trade policy have darkened the outlook for many. Nearly 80 percent of the economists surveyed cut their growth forecasts for next year by up to one-half a percentage point, the NABE said, because of trade concerns. The Trump administration has slapped tariffs on most steel and aluminum imports and on nearly half the imports from China.

And one-half of the respondents have increased their inflation forecasts because of the import taxes.

More economists cited “trade policy” as the greatest risk to future growth, the NABE said, than any other issue. Higher interest rates and a large drop in the stock market were tied as the second-most likely risk, while just a few economists cited rising inflation and “labor shortages” as risks to growth. 

 

 

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Eurozone Nations Sharply Criticize Italian Spending Plan

Eurozone nations put Italy’s government under immediate pressure Monday over its budget proposals, which they said would pile more debt on Italians and skirt the rules of good fiscal housekeeping shared by the 19 nations using the euro currency.

Italy’s populist government announced last week it would increase spending next year, pushing the budget deficit out to 2.4 percent of GDP, past a 1.6 percent limit the government had earlier said it would observe. While still below the EU limit of 3 percent, the move breaks with Italy’s recent efforts to reduce its debts and sets up a clash with the country’s European partners.

“We are all bound by the euro and need sound policies to protect it,” eurogroup President Mario Centeno said after Italy was forced to explain itself at the monthly meeting of the group’s finance ministers.

A runaway budget deficit and massive debt load already brought eurozone member Greece to the brink of bankruptcy three years ago and threatened to break up the eurozone itself. No one wants that scenario to be repeated.

Italy has the eurozone’s highest debt load in Europe after Greece, and financial markets fell sharply last week when the Italian government unveiled its spending proposals.

“I cannot see how these figures can be compatible with our rules,” EU Financial Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said Monday as he joined the eurozone finance ministers.

He said Italy’s spending plans for the next three years were “a very significant deviation from the commitment which had been taken.”

Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra said “the signals we are getting so far are not very reassuring.”

Italy sought to reassure its partners, with Italian Finance Minister Giovanni Tria saying they should “remain calm” and await his explanations.

The eurozone sets overall targets of 3 percent annual deficits and commits countries to move toward 60 percent overall debt. Currently, Italy’s debt stands at about 130 percent of GDP.

“I just want to be very clear, that there are rules,” said French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire. “Rules are the same for every state, because our futures our linked. The futures of Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Luxembourg — all the members of the eurozone — are linked.”

The Italian budget will go to the European Commission for vetting this month.

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Cuban Artist Brings Strangers Together With Migrants — and Menthol

Cuban artist Tania Bruguera’s new exhibition looking at neighborly behavior and the movement of people will leave you in tears.

Her interactive installation at London’s Tate Modern features a crying room, where a menthol-based organic compound fills the room and makes visitors cry in a bid to create empathy with the strangers around them.

In a second room, visitors lie down and leave impressions of their bodies on a heat-sensitive floor. All the imprints together, seen from above, look like the face of a refugee.

“There is a big area that requires people working together with their neighbors, the whole piece is about how can we change the idea of community,” Bruguera told Reuters on Monday.

“You are not together because you have the same agenda you are together because you are people and you should work together for the good of everybody.

“This is a very big public moment, then you have a private moment in a room where you can cry and feel for others.”

The title of the exhibition changes every day, based on International Organization for Migration data on the ever growing number of people who move or attempt to move location.

“The title is a number,” said Bruguera, who is renowned for her work looking at migration.

“It is understanding we live in a moment of movement, constant human movement and to understand every situation has two sides.”

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As Climate Risks Rise, Scientists Call for Rules on Solar Engineering

Technologies to reflect some of the sun’s rays away from Earth, as a way to cool future runaway climate change, are moving closer to becoming a reality, and rules are needed now to govern them, scientists and other experts said Monday.

“There is no risk-free path at this point” in dealing with climate change, said David Morrow, research director for the Forum for Climate Engineering Assessment at the Washington-based American University.

Around the globe, research is pushing forward on potential cooling techniques such as spraying particles into the upper atmosphere to mimic volcanic eruptions or artificially brightening sea clouds, experts said in a report.

Such sun-dimming technology is designed to reduce the risks associated with accelerating warming in coming decades, from fiercer storms to harsher heat waves.

But the report by a group of international climate and governance experts warned the technology could create new risks — “including climatic, environmental, social, geopolitical and ethical risks.”

For example, it might dissuade countries from curbing their climate-changing emissions, in the hope a technological fix is on the way.

Or a single nation might deploy the technologies in its own interests, without international rules in place, in an effort to quell a political outcry at home or shift scarce rainfall to drought-hit farmers, the experts said.

“Desperate people do desperate things,” warned Andy Parker, who runs a governance initiative on solar engineering technologies backed by Britain’s Royal Society, the World Academy of Sciences and the Environmental Defense Fund.

The report aims to guide research and policy on “solar radiation management” (SRM) through 2025 with a set of principles.

It recommends that efforts to curb climate change and adapt to its impacts must remain the top priority, ahead of technological fixes.

The report also calls for the risks and benefits of SRM to be “thoroughly and transparently” evaluated, and for research to focus on the social needs of the world’s poor.

It says “robust” governance, including a mechanism to resolve conflicts, must be in place before any deployment of the technologies is considered.

“The starting point was that research is happening and we need to talk about it,” said Aarti Gupta, an expert on governance of technological risk at Wageningen University in the Netherlands and one of the report authors.

The 14-member panel that developed the principles included academic experts in fields such as policy and governance, social sciences, international relations and conflict resolution.

The group “fundamentally disagreed” on whether research on the technologies should even be allowed to go ahead but accepted the need to discuss them publicly, said Simon Nicholson, co-head of the Forum for Climate Engineering Assessment.

Warming ‘overshoot?’

The paper comes ahead of the release of a report on Oct. 8 by the world’s leading climate scientists, who will say the world is not on track to meet its emissions-cutting goals.

If global warming continues at the same pace, it will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius — the most ambitious goal set in the Paris Agreement — by 2040, the report is expected to say, threatening everything from world food supplies to economic growth.

Growing fears of an “overshoot” of climate targets are one reason research is expanding on efforts to dim the sun and suck carbon dioxide back out of the atmosphere.

Such research, once confined to laboratories, “is beginning to move outdoors,” the report noted.

“Whether or not this [technology] is part of our toolbox … the debate has to be had” on whether it should play a role, said Janos Pasztor, executive director of the Carnegie Climate Geoengineering Governance Initiative.

The report recommends that a code of conduct should be created governing research on the technologies, and that researchers make public the sources of their funding.

Intellectual property around the technologies would not have to be in the public domain, “but it should be in the public interest,” said Prakash Kashwan, a University of Connecticut political science professor and report author.

‘Foresight’ key

Governing bodies charged with making decisions about the technologies should put in place “foresight” capabilities to predict how and where they might be researched or used rather than reacting after the fact, he said.

Poorer countries on the frontline of climate impacts — from worsening water shortages to crop failures — must have a significant say in how the technologies are researched and potentially used, the authors added.

Both pushing ahead with research on sun-dimming technologies or rejecting them present significant risks, the report warned, ranging from investors in the technology having a financial incentive to see it used, to banned research moving underground.

SRM technology “is likely very far off” in terms of use, the report noted, but “the need for governance is imperative.”

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‘Candle in the Wind’ Diana Lyrics Head for Auction

The lyrics of some of Elton John’s biggest hits — “Rocket Man,” “I’m Still Standing,” and the Princess Diana funeral version of “Candle in the Wind” are going up for auction as the British musician’s longtime collaborator clears out his archives.

Songwriter Bernie Taupin, the man behind more than 40 of John’s hit songs, is selling a collection of his original lyrics, as well as colorfully illustrated versions of songs like “Bennie and the Jets” and “Yellow Brick Road,”  Julien’s Auctions said on Monday.

Taupin’s typed and annotated rewritten lyrics of “Candle in The Wind,” which John performed at Princes Diana’s funeral in London in 1997, are expected to fetch about $10,000-$15,000 at the November auction in New York.

The song was originally written in 1973 as an ode to Marilyn Monroe but the 1997 version, dedicated to “England’s Rose,” is the second-biggest selling physical single of all time.

Taupin is also auctioning an original program for Diana’s funeral, along with hand-drawn, illustrated lyrics to songs including “Daniel” and “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me.”

Taupin, who was brought together with John through a British newspaper ad in 1967, said he wanted to share his work with others.

“I hope these items that have shaped my work and fueled my passions will inspire and give as much joy to others as they’ve given to me,” Taupin said in a statement.

A portion of the proceeds will go to the Elton John AIDS Foundation and the Wounded Warrior Project.

Taupin’s decision to sell coincides with John launching his final tour last month, called “Farewell Yellow Brick Road,” that will take the singer around the world for three years.

The auction will take place at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York on Nov. 9.

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In Chicago, Can Art Unite a Deeply Divided Neighborhood?

Charlie Branda is not an artist. When she opened an art studio on a stretch of asphalt known as Sedgwick Street, the 53-year-old mom and former commercial banker simply wanted to get to know her neighbors and to connect two sides of a thoroughfare that divides black and white, haves and have-nots. “The way it is now isn’t the way it has to be,” she remembers thinking.

Branda had lived for years in and around Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood when she, her husband and two children moved into a red-brick house on the east, and wealthier, side of Sedgwick in 2008.

Initially, she joined with her neighbors to demand that the city, police and absentee landlords do something about drug-dealing and occasional gunfire in the neighborhood. But she also spent a lot of time walking around, ignoring those who advised her to stay on “her side” of the street.

“Hello!” she’d chirp, smiling as she greeted strangers from Marshall Field Garden Apartments, a subsidized complex on the west side of Sedgwick.

Then in 2013, a young African-American father was fatally shot while on his way to buy diapers, just steps from the Brandas’ home. Some residents were ready to move, and at least one family eventually did. But Branda couldn’t shake the idea that she didn’t even know the family that had lost a loved one.

“She saw us as neighbors,” says Adell Thomas, a longtime resident of Marshall Field and president of its tenants’ association.

Branda had been reading a book — “Make the Impossible Possible” by William Strickland Jr., a community activist in Pittsburgh who credits a high school art teacher with helping him find his way in life. She kept thinking about an image Strickland described: a ball of clay and how “you can make a miracle with your hands,” she recalls.

She began telling people about her vision for a neighborhood art studio, and eventually presented the idea at community meetings. Thomas was inspired and quickly decided: “I want to be part of that.” As she got to know Branda, Thomas was surprised to learn she’d grown up in Anchorage, Alaska, with a single mom and modest means. Branda, meanwhile, saw a bit of her tough yet compassionate mom in Thomas.

A board was formed, and in October 2015, the first Art on Sedgwick studio opened in a tiny storefront across the street from Marshall Field Garden Apartments. That day, neighbors stopped to write on a large chalkboard outside the studio that had rows of the unfinished sentence, “Before I die, I want to –––––.”

“Do Art,” one girl wrote. And so it began.

The first classes, including cartoon drawing and embroidery, were small but consistently attended. The victories also were small but satisfying. It started with “just showing up,” says Cory Stutts, middle school director at the private Catherine Cook School, two blocks east of Sedgwick Street.

Last year, an effort known informally as “the kite project” brought together sixth-graders from Catherine Cook and Manierre Elementary, a public school tucked behind the Marshall Field apartments. The kids were paired off and instructed to interview one another, asking questions like: “What do you dream about?” ″Do you think about dying?” ″Are you scared?” Then came a portrait session; the photos then were made into kites.

“A group of white kids and black kids playing together — you really don’t see that nowadays,” marveled Manierre student Eric Evans.

With each art show, class and community event, more people have trickled into Art on Sedgwick. One Saturday each month, a faithful group of adults from varied backgrounds gathers at the studio for a “Sip and Paint,” a chance to do art, chat and drink a little wine. Branda and Thomas, now friends, often take part.

“In some ways, I feel like we’ve accomplished so much in terms of building community and maybe changing the discussion,” Branda says. “On the other hand, I feel like we’ve just barely scratched the surface.”

There are people on both sides of Sedgwick who aren’t so sure the neighborhood’s divides can be bridged. Even as property values on his side of the street have increased, Branda’s next-door neighbor, Jerry Capell, says the disconnect is “as wide as it’s ever been,” and that saddens him.

From her apartment on the other side of the street, Eric Evans’ mother, Sherise McDaniel, also still sees very separate worlds.

“I would consider Charlie the exception. Charlie is like a vein connecting those people to us and us to them,” says McDaniel, who is African-American and a special education aide at a high school. “I love this neighborhood. … I love this city. I wish it loved me back.”

Branda still walks the neighborhood and greets residents, many of whom know her now. “You can’t ‘un-connect’ us,” she insists.

She gets teary when she says this. “I think I’m tired of the divisiveness,” she explains.

A while later, outside the Art on Sedgwick studio, a few kids from Marshall Field run to hug her, as they often do.

“Hi, art teacher! Hi, art teacher!” they shout. Branda wraps her arms around all of them, closing her eyes as she squeezes tightly.

She still doesn’t consider herself an art teacher.

But she is their neighbor.

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Instagram Names Adam Mosseri as New CEO

Adam Mosseri, a veteran 10-year Facebook executive, will become the new head of Instagram, outgoing co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger announced Monday.

“We are thrilled to hand over the reins to a product leader with a strong design background and a focus on craft and simplicity,” Systrom and Krieger said in a press release.The pair announced their resignation last week without giving a clear explanation.

Mosseri, 35, has been Instagram’s head of product since May. He began as a designer at Facebook in 2008, and recently ran its News Feed. His appointment comes among fears that with the departure of Instagram’s independent-minded founders, the app will become more like Facebook: Cluttered with features, and invasive of user’s personal data.

Instagram was founded in 2010 and bought by Facebook two years later for $1 billion. While Facebook has struggled to hold onto younger users, Instagram remains popular with teens. It has also remained scandal-free, while Facebook has taken heat for numerous scandals including the spread of fake news, alleged exploitation of user data with third parties, electoral interference, and its use as a platform for radical leaders to spread propaganda in developing countries.

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Tobacco Industry Uses Social Media to Circumvent Bans

Delegates from 137 countries are attending a week-long anti-tobacco conference to exchange ideas and propose policies for tackling the worldwide tobacco pandemic. Organizers say progress has been made since the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control came into force in 2005, but more needs to be done.

Organizers of the 8th Conference of the Parties to the WHO Convention, known as COP8, credit high taxes on cigarette packages for discouraging sales, as well as the designation of smoke-free environments, improved packaging and labeling, and bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. 

But Head of Convention Secretariat Vera da Costa e Silva says cross-border advertising remains less regulated and difficult to enforce. She tells VOA the tobacco industry has circumvented the bans by using Instagram, Facebook and other social media.

“By using social media, not only they capture the attention of young people who are the biggest users of social media, but they also keep tobacco as socially acceptable,” she said.

WHO reports there are more than one billion smokers in the world, with around 80 percent living in low- and middle-income countries. More than seven million people die prematurely from tobacco-related causes every year, according to WHO. 

Da Silva says the emergence of new and novel tobacco products is one of the biggest barriers to the work of the COP. She says the group is calling on governments to regulate and forbid practices such as e-cigarette use and vaping until more evidence of their effects is available.   

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Can Wireless Challenge Cable for Home Internet Service?

Cellular companies such as Verizon are looking to challenge traditional cable companies with residential internet service that promises to be ultra-fast, affordable and wireless.

Using an emerging wireless technology known as 5G, Verizon’s 5G Home service provides an alternative to cable for connecting laptops, phones, TVs and other devices over Wi-Fi. It launches in four U.S. cities on Monday.

Verizon won’t be matching cable companies on packages that also come with TV channels and home phone service. But fewer people have been subscribing to such bundles anyway, as they embrace streaming services such as Netflix for video and cellphone services instead of landline.

“That’s the trend that cable has been having problems with for several years, and a trend that phone companies can take advantage of,” Gartner analyst Bill Menzes said.

That’s if the wireless companies can offer a service that proves affordable and effective.

T-Mobile and Sprint are also planning a residential 5G service as part of their merger proposal, though few details are known.

Verizon’s broadband-only service will cost $70 a month, with a $20 discount for Verizon cellular customers. According to Leichtman Research Group, the average price for broadband internet is about $60, meaning only some customers will be saving money.

Even so, Verizon can try to win over some customers with promises of reliability.

Verizon says its service will be much faster than cable. That means downloading a two-hour movie in high definition in two minutes rather than 21. The service promises to let families play data-intensive games and watch video on multiple devices at once, with little or no lag.

“The things that really matter to a customer are how fast it is and how reliable it is,” longtime telecom analyst Dave Burstein said. In tests of Verizon’s 5G so far, he said, “reliability is proving out quite nicely.”

Verizon could also capitalize on many people’s frustration with their cable companies. Consumer Reports magazine says customers have long been unhappy with perceived weak customer service, high prices and hidden fees.

The residential 5G service is part of a broader upgrade in wireless technology.

Verizon has spent billions of dollars for rights to previously unused radio waves at the high end of the frequency spectrum. It’s a short-range signal, ideal for city blocks and apartment buildings, but less so for sprawling suburbs or rural communities. That’s why Verizon is pushing residential service first, while AT&T is building a more traditional cellular network for people on the go, using radio waves at the lower end.

AT&T is aiming to launch its 5G mobile network this year in 12 cities, including Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina. Dish also has plans for a 5G network, but it’s focused on connecting the so-called “Internet of Things,” everything from laundry machines to parking meters, rather than cellphones or residential broadband.

Sprint tried to introduce residential wireless service before, using a technology called WiMax, but it failed to gain many subscribers as LTE trumped WiMax as the dominant cellular technology. This time, Verizon is using the same 5G technology that will eventually make its way into 5G cellular networks.

The Verizon service will start in parts of Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, and Sacramento, California.

“These are small areas but significant,” said Ronan Dunne, president of Verizon Wireless. “Tens of thousands of homes, not hundreds of thousands of homes.” Eventually, Verizon projects 30 million homes in the U.S. will be eligible, though there’s no timeline.

For now, Verizon isn’t planning to hit markets where it already has its cable-like Fios service. Verizon stopped expanding Fios around 2010, in part because it was expensive to dig up streets and lay fiber-optic lines. Verizon can build 5G more cheaply because it can use the same towers available for cellular service.

That said, Verizon might not recoup its costs if it ends up drawing only customers who stand to save money over cable, said John Horrigan, a broadband expert at the Technology Policy Institute.

And while Verizon says the new network will be able to handle lots of devices at once, anyone who’s tried to use a phone during concerts and conferences will know that the airwaves can get congested quickly.

What Verizon’s service won’t do is extend high-speed internet access to rural America, where many households can’t get broadband at all, let alone competition. Cable and other companies haven’t found it profitable to extend wires to remote parts of the country. But Verizon will face the same problem, given that its short-range signal will require several wireless towers closer together. That’s feasible only in densely populated areas.

That’s not good enough, said Harold Feld, senior vice president of the advocacy group Public Knowledge. He said internet service at reasonable prices is “fundamental” for all Americans — not just those who live in populated areas.

T-Mobile and Sprint want to jointly create a 5G network that would also offer residential wireless broadband, but not for a few years. In seeking regulatory approval, the companies say 20 percent to 25 percent of subscribers will be in rural areas that have limited access to broadband. But the companies offered no details on how they would do so. T-Mobile and Sprint declined to comment.

 

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New California Internet Neutrality Law Triggers US Lawsuit

California Gov. Jerry Brown has approved the nation’s strongest net neutrality law, prompting an immediate lawsuit by the Trump administration and opening the next phase in the battle over regulating the internet.

Advocates of net neutrality hope California’s law, which Brown signed Sunday to stop internet providers from favoring certain content or websites, will push Congress to enact national rules or encourage other states to create their own.

However, the U.S. Department of Justice quickly moved to halt the law from taking effect, arguing that it creates burdensome, anti-consumer requirements that go against the federal government’s approach to deregulating the internet.

“Once again the California Legislature has enacted an extreme and illegal state law attempting to frustrate federal policy,” U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement.

The Federal Communications Commission repealed Obama-era rules last year that prevented internet companies from exercising more control over what people watch and see on the internet.

The neutrality law is the latest example of California, ground zero of the global technology industry, attempting to drive public policy outside its borders and rebuff President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Brown did not explain his reasons for signing the bill or comment on the federal lawsuit Sunday night.

Supporters of the new law cheered it as a win for internet freedom. It is set to take effect January 1.

“This is a historic day for California. A free and open internet is a cornerstone of 21st century life: our democracy, our economy, our health care and public safety systems, and day-to-day activities,” said Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener, the law’s author.

It prohibits internet providers from blocking or slowing data based on content or from favoring websites or video streams from companies that pay extra.

Telecommunications companies lobbied hard to kill it or water it down, saying it would lead to higher internet and cellphone bills and discourage investments in faster internet. They say it’s unrealistic to expect them to comply with internet regulations that differ from state to state.

USTelecom, a telecommunications trade group, said California writing its own rules will create problems.

“Rather than 50 states stepping in with their own conflicting open internet solutions, we need Congress to step up with a national framework for the whole internet ecosystem and resolve this issue once and for all,” the group said in a Sunday statement.

Net neutrality advocates worry that without rules, internet providers could create fast lanes and slow lanes that favor their own sites and apps or make it harder for consumers to see content from competitors.

That could limit consumer choice or shut out upstart companies that can’t afford to buy access to the fast lane, critics say.

The new law also bans “zero rating,” in which internet providers don’t count certain content against a monthly data cap — generally video streams produced by the company’s own subsidiaries and partners.

Oregon, Washington and Vermont have approved legislation related to net neutrality, but California’s measure is seen as the most comprehensive attempt to codify the principle in a way that might survive a likely court challenge. An identical bill was introduced in New York.

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Two Artists + Two Media = Creative Community Space

Twice a week, a group of women gathers in downtown Leesburg, Virginia, to get their hands dirty. They’re taking an art class at the Clay and Metal Loft. The studio was founded by two local artists and serves two purposes: it’s a work space for producing and selling pottery and jewelry, and it’s a community space for the aspiring local artists to gain the skills and confidence needed to start their own business.

Hands in clay

 

In the Clay Hand-Building class, ceramist Amy Manson shares techniques with participants who seem to be enjoying what they are learning, which today is using the pinch pot process to create a pumpkin. “So, we’re making two pinch pots and closing them to make a round orb and sculpt it to look like a pumpkin. The first time might be a little bit scary. They are not sure, a little bit intimidated on how hard to push or how the clay is going to react, but after one time, they get a little more confidence and feel good about it.”

Barbara Johnson is one of Mason’s students with a background in art. She started doing pottery three years ago.

 

“I do lots of painting, very much crafting,” she said. “I love to do decorating. I’ve done stained glass. I’ve done all kinds of things. I like to go from thing to thing to thing. I don’t think I’ll ever stop doing pottery though. Having your hands in clay is just this calming kind of thing and it’s so creative because you may start out thinking you’re going to make this piece, and it turns to something totally different.”

 

Johnson set up a pottery studio in her home and has recently begun selling her work to a local retailer. She admits, “I’m humbled a lot of times, when someone says they want to want to purchase my things, and have them in their home. It’s just one of the things that make you feel so good.”

 

Even though she’s selling her work, Johnson still enjoys Manson’s class. “Amy is amazing as far as allowing us to learn her different techniques, all the things she learned over the years. She shares all of it. Just the little things that you go. ‘Ah, that’s amazing. I can incorporate it in doing my pottery at home.’ Being with other gals, I’m loving just the idea of being with women who are amazing potters and you’re in the process of learning all the time from everyone else.”

 

Transforming experiences

 

For her part, Manson says inspiring others, passing on skills and watching them grow is rewarding.

About five years ago, she and her friend, Ann Andre, started looking for a space to start this business. “We thought it would be a lot of fun to give back a little bit,” says Andre, who has 30 years of experience as a goldsmith and metalsmith. “We had been working in our own businesses, but then to teach and have other people work. We thought wouldn’t it be great to do something that was more clay and jewelry making because we didn’t see anything like that before?!”

The feedback from students, she says, has all been positive. “When they start, they see a project that we’re going to do for two hours and they don’t think they can do it,” she explains. “Then, they realize, ‘Oh, I can. I can transform this.’ They hammer the metal. They get an effect. They never thought they could do themselves. They form things like a bracelet. They’re just excited they made this and they go out wearing it, which is really nice.”

 

That’s how her student, Jennifer Metesh, feels, when she wears the turquoise and silver pendant she made. “I’m a country girl grew up with horses,” Metesh says. “Turquoise is always a kind of a symbol of that rustic look.”

 

Considering a second career beyond horses, she’s finding a potential in jewelry making. “I wanted it to be my fun thing. I feel that there has been such a revival of the handmade items that people are more willing to pay for something that is made by a single artist than something that’s mass produced.”

 

The founders of Clay and Metal Loft want to be part of that revival. Through summer camps, they want to inspire kids. And through their monthly ladies’ night workshops, they try to help busy professionals unwind.

 

Their goal is to become a creative, fun space for the entire community of Leesburg.

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Charles Aznavour, Beloved French Crooner, Dies at 94

French singer Charles Aznavour, who stole the hearts of millions with decades of haunting love songs, has died aged 94, his spokeswoman said on Monday.

Aznavour passed away overnight at one of his homes, in the village of Mouries north of the French port city of Marseille.

The singer, who sold more than 100 million records in 80 countries, began his career peddling his words and music to the Paris boulevardiers of the 40s and 50s: Edith Piaf, Maurice Chevalier, Charles Trenet.

But it became evident that Aznavour himself best interpreted the bittersweet emotions of such songs as “Hier Encore” (Yesterday When I Was Young), “Apres l’Amour” (After Love) and “La Boheme”. Others were “She” and “Formidable”.

In his autobiography, “Aznavour by Aznavour”, he recalls that after a period trying to play the role of a tough guy, he was goaded one evening into climbing on the bandstand to sing.

“There, I had a revelation. I saw that the girls looked at me much more, their eyes moist and their lips apart, than when I played a terror… I was only 15 or 16, but I understood,” he wrote.

Aznavour’s ability to achieve an intimate rapport with audiences in solo concerts also brought him acclaim as an actor in non-singing roles, notably in movie director Francois Truffaut’s “Tirez Sur le Pianiste” (Shoot the Piano Player, 1960).

He discovered his songwriting talent while doing the rounds in cabarets with partner Pierre Roche, with Roche playing the piano and Aznavour singing.

Following the war, Piaf noticed the duo performing and took them with her on a tour of the United States and Canada, with Aznavour composing some of her most popular hits.

After living in the shadow of stars like Piaf, for whom he also penned hits, Aznavour’s career finally took off in his mid-30s with gold albums and world tours.

Obsessive writer

Sometimes described as France’s Frank Sinatra, Aznavour was

born in Paris on May 22, 1924, to Armenian parents — his birth

name Shahnour Aznavourian.

He grew up on Paris’ Left Bank and began performing at the

age of nine. His father was a singer, cook and sometime

restaurant manager, and his mother an actress. His first public performances were at Armenian gatherings where his father and older sister Aida sang and Charles danced.

Short in stature at 160 cm (five foot three inches), Aznavour possessed a magnetic stage presence that brought rapt audiences to their feet at venues such as the Olympia in Paris and New York’s Carnegie Hall.

Fans admired his mature storytelling ability and quavering vibrato voice, rich in sensitivity and range.

“I have the kind of voice that gels with the type of songs I write,” wrote Aznavour in his biography.

His ability to perform in French, Spanish, English, Italian and German helped.

As a student, French President Emmanuel Macron was a big fan of Aznavour and sang his songs at karaoke nights, according to former classmates.

In an August 2011 interview with Paris Match magazine, Aznavour described a gruelling self-imposed work schedule.

“I write. Every day. For hours,” he said. “I would be bored to death if I couldn’t write songs anymore.”

Most of his hundreds of songs deal with relationships, misfortune and a romantic nostalgia punctuated with irony.

He did not hesitate to tackle more controversial topics, such as the lonely life of a drag queen in “Comme ils Disent” (translated as What Makes a Man).

Armenians mourn

Aznavour’s gaze turned political at times. He wrote a song in 1975 in memory of the Armenian genocide and donated profits from another song, “Pour toi Armenie,” (For you Armenia) to help rebuild the country after its 1988 earthquake.

Armenia in 2009 named Aznavour ambassador to Switzerland, where the singer resided in later years. He was also made UNESCO’s ambassador and permanent delegate of Armenia in 1995.

People gathered on the streets of the Armenian capital Yerevan on Monday to mourn him.

Aznavour launched a farewell tour in 2006, but his goodbye was short-lived, and he went on to tour again and again, until months before his death. He leaves behind his third wife, Ulla, and six children.

After the news of death on Monday, Macron tweeted: “So profoundly French and so viscerally attached to his Armenian roots, known all over the world… his masterpieces, his tone and his unique appeal will long outlive him.”

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Cancer Researchers Win 2018 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine

The 2018 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to James Allison of the University of Texas and Tasuku Honjo of Japan’s Kyoto University for their discoveries in cancer therapy.

“Allison and Honjo showed how different strategies for inhibiting the brakes on the immune system can be used in the treatment of cancer,” the Nobel Assembly at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute said in a statement on awarding the prize.

The prize for physiology or medicine is first Nobel Prize awarded each year.

The prizes for physics, chemistry, and peace will also be announced this week. The literature prize will not be given this year because of a sexual misconduct scandal at the body that decides the award. The Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Sciences will be announced on Monday, October 8.

The prize comes with an award of $1.1 million.

Who are they?

James P. Allison was born 1948 in Alice, Texas, USA. He received his PhD in 1973 at the University of Texas, Austin. From 1974-1977 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, La Jolla, California. From 1977-1984 he was a faculty member at University of Texas System Cancer Center, Smithville, Texas; from 1985-2004 at University of California, Berkeley and from 2004-2012 at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York. From 1997-2012 he was an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Since 2012 he has been professor at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas and is affiliated with the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.

Tasuku Honjo was born in 1942 in Kyoto, Japan. In 1966 he became an MD, and from 1971-1974 he was a research fellow in the USA at Carnegie Institution of Washington, Baltimore and at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. He received his PhD in 1975 at Kyoto University. From 1974-1979 he was a faculty member at Tokyo University and from 1979-1984 at Osaka University. Since 1984 he has been professor at Kyoto University. He was a faculty dean from 1996-2000 and from 2002-2004 at Kyoto University.

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