Month: December 2018

Report: Distributors, DEA Failed to Slow US Opioid Crisis

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

A congressional report on prescription pill dumping in West Virginia blames U.S. prescription drug distributors and the Drug Enforcement Administration for not doing enough to help mitigate the nation’s opioid addiction and overdose crisis.

The 324-page report released Wednesday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee followed an 18-month investigation and focused on the three largest U.S. wholesale drug companies, McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen, and regional distributors.

The report cited examples of massive pill shipments to West Virginia, which has a population of 1.8 million and has by far the nation’s highest death rate from prescription drugs. McKesson shipped an average of 9,650 hydrocodone pills per day in 2007 to a now-closed pharmacy in Kermit, which has a population of about 400. The shipments were 36 times above a monthly dosage shipment threshold the company had established that year.

Compliance questions

The Charleston Gazette-Mail previously cited federal records that showed drug wholesalers shipped 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to West Virginia from 2007 to 2012, a period when 1,728 people fatally overdosed on the painkillers. Gazette-Mail reporter Eric Eyre won a Pulitzer Prize last year for investigative reporting on the subject.

The committee report calls the shipments “troubling” and said it raises serious questions about compliance with the DEA-administered Controlled Substances Act. Until at least 2010, the DEA didn’t proactively review usage data to combat the diversion of drugs for illicit purposes, the report said.

Drug distributors are required to submit suspicious orders to the DEA, which “still does not have a centralized way to analyze suspicious order reports submitted by drug distributors,” the report said. Instead, suspicious orders are typically reported to local DEA offices, resulting in inconsistent handling under varying regulatory interpretations.

“As the country continues to feel the effects of the opioid crisis, neither distributors nor the DEA can shirk their oversight responsibilities,” the report said.

​Additional rules urged

The report suggests pharmacies with suspicious orders should be subjected to heightened monitoring, Congress should enact additional requirements on suspicious pill orders to clarify database registrant responsibilities, and the DEA should work to provide more real-time data to registrants.

Earlier this year the DEA approved a rule change requiring drugmakers to identify a legitimate need for opioids to justify their production in an attempt to rein in their diversion for abuse.

More than 351,000 people have died of opioid overdoses in the United States since 1999, and far more people die each year from opioid misuse than from traffic accidents or violence, the report said.

“This investigation is a start to establish some accountability and understanding about the epidemic, but this inquiry is only a look at a piece of the overall puzzle,” the report said. “There are other actors involved in the epidemic including manufacturers, pharmacies, physicians, and drug traffickers.”

Company statements

Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania-based AmerisourceBergen said in a statement it has proactively enacted many of the report’s recommendations but has “virtually no interaction with physicians and limited legal ability to gather information on their practices and prescribing behavior.”

Dublin, Ohio-based Cardinal Health said it would “continue to implement rigorous anti-diversion controls.” A company statement said it is an intermediary in the pharmaceutical supply chain that “plays a limited but vital role.”

The DEA and San Francisco-based McKesson Corp. didn’t immediate respond to requests for comment.
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Vehicles, Guns Are Leading Causes of Death for US Youth

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

Motor vehicles and firearms kill young Americans more than any other cause, like disease, which has significantly declined, according to a new study. 

The New England Journal of Medicine reports that less than 2 percent (or 20,360) of all U.S. deaths — including adults — occur among children and adolescents 1 to 19 years old.

“By 2016,” the year for which the most recent data are available, “death among children and adolescents had become a rare event,” study authors Dr. Rebecca M. Cunningham, Maureen A. Walton and Dr. Patrick M. Carter of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor wrote in the Dec. 20 edition. 

But in the second largest cause of death among young people — death by firearms — the U.S. leads the world.

“The rate of firearm deaths among children and adolescents was higher in the United States than in all other high-income countries and low-to-middle-income countries with available 2016 data,” the authors wrote, or 36.5 times as high as 12 other “high-income” countries.

Data for 2017, which are not included in the NEJM article, show a continued increase in firearm deaths for children and adolescents, Cunningham said. 

“One in three U.S. homes with youth under 18 years of age has a firearm, with 43 percent of homes reporting that the firearm is kept unlocked and loaded, which increases the risk of firearm injuries,” the authors reported. “In addition to differences in availability between the United States and other countries, there is wide variability across countries in laws relating to the purchase of firearms, access to them and safe storage.”

At the same time, “early diagnosis, vaccinations, antibiotics, and medical and surgical treatment” resulted in “declines in deaths from infectious disease or cancer,” the report said. 

And while motor vehicle events were the leading cause of death for young people, that cause has declined 38 percent over the past decade, the authors wrote.

What caused the declines? 

“Seat belts and appropriate child safety seats, the production of cars with improved safety standards, better constructed roads, graduated driver licensing programs, and a focus on reducing teen drinking and driving,” the authors wrote, noting that the decline occurred at the same time as increases in the number of U.S. vehicles and annual vehicle-miles traveled.

But there’s a hitch: Between 2013 and 2016, research showed the decline leveling. And while researchers said they didn’t know for certain, they suspected that distracted driving by teenagers, by other teens in a car or by cellphone use, explained the leveling. The report also wondered about marijuana use and drugged driving leading to “decreased risk perceptions among adolescents.”

Among firearm deaths, 59 percent were homicides, 35 percent were suicides, and 4 percent were unintentional injuries such as accidental discharges of firearms, which aligns with incidents among Americans older than 20. 

Death by firearms 

Among the unintentional firearm deaths — less than 2 percent of all U.S. firearm deaths — 26 percent occurred among children and adolescents, the report said.

“Malignant neoplasms,” like cancer, were the third-leading cause of death, representing 9 percent of deaths among children and adolescents. That was followed by suffocation (7 percent) because of “bed linens, plastic bags, obstruction of the airway, hanging or strangulation.” 

Among the youngest children, 1 to 4 years-old, drowning in swimming pools, rivers and lakes was the most common cause of death, the report said. Death by drowning was more rare in older children, “which potentially reflects widespread swim training among school-aged children.”

Among youth 10 to 19 years of age, injury deaths from motor vehicle crashes, firearms and suffocation were the three leading causes. Researchers said these causes reflected “increased risk-taking behavior, differential peer and parental influence, and initiation of substance use.”

Drug overdoses or poisonings rose to the sixth-leading cause of death among children and adolescents in 2016, the report said, attributed to an increase in “opioid overdoses, which account for well over half of all drug overdoses among adolescents.”

Mortality was higher among blacks (38.2 per 100,000) and American Indians or Alaska Natives (28.0 per 100,000) than among whites (24.2 per 100,000) and Asians or Pacific Islanders (15.9 per 100,000), the authors wrote. Deaths related to firearms were the leading cause of death among black youth and occurred 3.7 times the rate of such deaths among white youth. 

Drowning deaths

Black youth also had higher rates of drowning deaths (1.6 times as high) and fire-related deaths (2.3 times as high) than white youth. Blacks had death rates from heart disease and chronic lower respiratory diseases such as asthma that were 2.1 and 6.3 times as high, respectively, as the rates among white youth.

“Such disparities probably reflect underlying socioeconomic issues, including poverty, environmental exposures and differential access to health care services,” the researchers wrote. 

“Progress toward further reducing deaths among children and adolescents will require a shift in public perceptions so that injury deaths are viewed not as ‘accidents,’ but rather as social ecologic phenomena that are amenable to prevention.” the authors concluded. 

Researchers compiled their report on data from the Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER) system of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 57 vital-statistics jurisdictions.
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Dow Sinks Another 464 Points as Slowdown Fears Worsen

By Uponbiz | | No Comments | Business

It was another miserable day on Wall Street as a series of big December plunges continued, putting stocks on track for their worst month in a decade.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 464 points Thursday, bringing its losses to more than 1,700 points since Friday.

The benchmark S&P 500 index has slumped 10.6 percent this month and is almost 16 percent below the peak it reached in late September.

The steady gains of this spring and summer now fell like a distant memory. As we’ve entered the fall, investors started to worry that global economic growth is cooling off and that the U.S. could slip into a recession in the next few years. The S&P 500 is on track for its first annual loss in a decade.

The technology stocks that have led the market in recent years are now dragging it down. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite is now down 19.5 percent from the record high it reached in August.

The market swoon is coming even as the U.S. economy is on track to expand this year at the fastest pace in 13 years. Markets tend to move, however, on what investors anticipate will happen well into the future, so it’s not uncommon for stocks to sink even when the economy is humming along.

Slowing economy a concern

Right now, markets are concerned about the potential for a slowing economy and two threats that could make the situation worse: the ongoing trade dispute between the U.S. and China, which has lasted most of this year, and rising interest rates, which act as a brake on economic growth by making it more expensive for businesses and individuals to borrow money.

The selling in the last two days came after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the fourth time this year and signaled it was likely to continue raising rates next year, although at a slower rate than it previously forecast.

Scott Wren, senior global equity strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, said investors felt Fed Chairman Jerome Powell came off as unconcerned about the state of the U.S. economy, despite deepening worries on Wall Street that growth could slow even more in 2019 and 2020. Wren said investors want to know that the Fed is keeping a close eye on the situation.

“He may be a little overconfident,” said Wren. “The Fed needs to be paying attention to what’s going on.”

Powell also acknowledged that the Fed’s decisions are getting trickier because they need to be based on the most up-to-date figures on jobs, inflation, and economic growth. For the last three years the Fed told investors weeks in advance that it was almost certain to increase rates. But things are less certain now, and the market hates uncertainty

‘Completely overblown’

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the market’s reaction to the Fed was “completely overblown.”

Investors have responded to a weakening outlook for the U.S. economy by selling stocks and buying ultra-safe U.S. government bonds. The bond-buying has the effect of sending long-term bond yields lower, which reduces interest rates on mortgages and other kinds of long-term loans. That’s generally good for the economy.

At the same time, the reduced bond yields can send a negative signal on the economy. Sharp drops in long-term bond yields are often seen as precursors to recessions.

The S&P 500 index skidded 39.54 points, or 1.6 percent, to 2,467.42. The Dow fell 464.06 points, or 2 percent, to 22,859.60 after sinking as much as 679.

The Nasdaq fell 108.42 points, or 1.6 percent, to 6,528.41. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies dropped another 23.23 points, or 1.7 percent, to 1,326.

Stocks for smaller companies suffer

Smaller company stocks have been crushed during the recent market slump because slower growth in the U.S. will have an outsize effect on their profits. Relative to their size, they also tend to carry more debt than larger companies, which could be a problem in a slower economy with higher interest rates.

The Russell 2000 is down almost 24 percent from the peak it reached in late August and it’s down 13.6 percent for the year to date. The S&P 500, which tracks larger companies, is down 7.7 percent.

The possibility of a partial shutdown of the federal government also loomed over the market on Thursday, as funding for the government runs out at midnight Friday. In general, shutdowns don’t affect the U.S. economy or the market much unless they stretch out for several weeks, which would delay paychecks for federal employees.

Oil prices still dropping 

Oil prices continued to retreat. Benchmark U.S. crude fell 4.8 percent to $45.88 a barrel in New York, and it’s dropped 40 percent since early October. Brent crude, used to price international oils, slipped 5 percent to $54.35 a barrel in London.

After early gains, bond prices headed lower. The yield on the two-year Treasury rose to 2.87 percent from 2.65 percent, while the 10-year note rose to 2.80 percent from 2.77 percent.

The gap between those two yields has shrunk this year. When the 10-year yield falls below the two-year yield, investors call it an “inverted yield curve.” That hasn’t happened yet, but investors fear it will. Inversions are often taken as a sign a recession is coming, although it’s not a perfect signal and when recessions do follow inversions in the yield curve, it can take a year or more.

“The bond market has been telling us something for about a year, and that is there’s not going to be much inflation and there’s not going to be a sustained surge in economic growth,” said Wren, of Wells Fargo.

Around the world

In France, the CAC 40 lost 1.8 percent and Germany’s DAX fell 1.4 percent. The British FTSE 100 slipped 0.8 percent. Indexes in Italy, Portugal and Spain took bigger losses.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 2.8 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gave up 1 percent. Seoul’s Kospi shed 0.9 percent.

As investors adjusted to the prospect of a weaker economy and lower long-term interest rates, the dollar fell to 111.11 yen from 112.36 yen. The euro rose to $1.1469 from $1.1368.

The British pound rose to $1.2671 from $1.2621. That sent the price of gold higher, and it gained 0.9 percent to $1,267.9 an ounce. Silver rose 0.3 percent to $14.87 an ounce and copper, which is considered an indicator of economic growth, fell 0.7 percent to $2.70 a pound.

Other fuel prices also fell. Wholesale gasoline lost 4.6 percent to $1.32 a gallon and heating oil slid 3.1 percent to $1.75 a gallon. Natural gas gave up 3.8 percent to $3.58 per 1,000 cubic feet. 
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9 US States Seek to Stop Trump Administration’s Atlantic Oil Testing

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

Attorneys general from nine U.S. states sued the Trump administration on Thursday to stop future seismic tests for oil and gas deposits off the East Coast, joining a lawsuit from environmentalists concerned that the tests harm whales and dolphins. 

Seismic testing uses air gun blasts to map out what resources lie beneath the ocean. Conservationists say the testing, a precursor to oil drilling, can disorient marine animals that rely on finely tuned hearing to navigate and find food. The tests lead to beachings of an endangered species, the North Atlantic right whale, they say. 

New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood said the tests would harm marine species, jeopardize coastal ecosystems and pose a “critical threat” to the natural resources, jobs and lives of New Yorkers. “The Trump administration has repeatedly put special interests before our environment and our communities,” Underwood said in a statement. 

The lawsuit, which names Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and the National Marine Fisheries Service as defendants, says the prospect of seeing marine mammals is an important draw for tourists to the states and helps coastal economies. 

The Department of Commerce declined to comment. 

Permits to harass

Last month, the fisheries office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, part of the Commerce Department, issued permits to WesternGeco LLC, a subsidiary of Schlumberger Ltd., and CGG to harass, but not kill, marine mammals with air gun blasts in a region of the Atlantic from Delaware to Cape Canaveral, Fla. 

Jennie Lyons, a spokeswoman at the fisheries office, declined to comment on the lawsuit but said the department only authorized harassment, not outright killing, of the marine animals in issuing the permits. A marine biologist at the office told reporters last month that no seismic tests have been known to cause whale beachings. 

The permits, part of President Donald Trump’s “energy dominance” agenda to boost oil output for U.S. consumption and for exports, also went to ION GeoVentures, Spectrum Geo Inc. and TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Co. 

The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

The other attorneys general are from Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia. They joined a suit filed earlier this month by groups including the Coastal Conservation League, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Oceana. 
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China Trade War Rattles Investors in New US Soy Processing Plants

By Uponbiz | | No Comments | Business

The U.S.-China trade war is spooking potential investors in soybean crushing plants planned for Wisconsin and New York state, developers said, casting doubt on the future of a sector that had been a rare bright spot in the U.S. farm economy.

Crushers in the United States have been posting near-record profits by snapping up cheap and plentiful soybeans no longer purchased by China and making soymeal and soy oil for export to Europe and Southeast Asia.

But margins are not predictable as the United States and China attempt to resolve their trade differences before a March 2 deadline, adding another puzzle as investors parse out the costs and impacts of a trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies.

WSBCP LLC, or the Wisconsin Soybean Crushing Plant, is struggling to find backers for the state’s first soy processing facility because of uncertainty in agricultural and financial markets over the trade conflict, said Phil Martini, chief executive of industrial contractor C.R. Meyer & Sons Co, who is overseeing the project.

“I’m not a mental giant, but it doesn’t take one to think people are uncertain about what’s going on,” Martini said. “The crush margin is very good, but it can go the other way.”

China bought about 60 percent of U.S. raw soybean exports last year in deals worth $12 billion, but has mostly been buying beans from Brazil since imposing a 25 percent tariff on American soybeans in July in retaliation for U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods.

U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed on Dec. 1 not to impose additional tariffs for 90 days, a truce that spurred Chinese purchases of a few million tons of U.S. soybeans this month.

It is unclear when or if Beijing will remove its soy tariff, a move that would spur more deals and lift U.S. soybean prices in a boon to U.S. farmers and a blow to crushing margins.

Construction on the $150 million plant in Waupun, Wisconsin, is set to begin in 2019, with a projected opening in 2020, according to a June statement from the city, which owns the land where the facility would be located.

Martini said it remains to be seen whether the timetable needs to be postponed. He is also looking for livestock producers to commit to buying the plant’s products.

Kathy Schlieve, Waupun’s economic director, said the project would likely be delayed because the investor pool is not finalized.

“It’s different dynamic and we’re really trying to understand that,” Schlieve said about the trade war.

Shift from 2017

The uncertainty is a turnaround from last year when farmer-owned agricultural cooperatives were building new soybean crushing plants at the fastest rate in two decades after several years of large crops.

U.S. grain merchant Archer Daniels Midland Co set a new record for crush volumes in the third quarter and benefited from strong margins.

But after months of soybean futures prices hovering around 10-year lows due to the lack of Chinese buying, farmers have little room for new ventures.

“There isn’t a lot of extra money out there to invest in something like that,” said John Heisdorffer, an Iowa farmer and chairman of the American Soybean Association.

New York plant

The trade war also prolonged the search for investors for a $54 million soybean crushing plant that St. Lawrence Soyway Company is planning for Massena, New York, near the border with Canada, CEO Doug Fisher said.

Fisher tried to win over investors worried by the trade war with charts and graphs showing how the conflict improved margins for U.S. crushing plants.

“These tariffs with China rattle them, when in fact they have increased crush plant profits,” Fisher said.

As of Wednesday, the company had raised about 85 percent of the total, Fisher said.

St. Lawrence Soyway’s plant is projected to process soybeans into feed for dairy cows. The livestock industry has also been hit by Chinese tariffs on dairy products and pork, though.

“As those farmers are not doing as well, their ability to buy meal at higher prices is not there,” Fisher said.
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Italians Find Evidence of Largest, Oldest Meat-Eating Dinosaur

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

Italian paleontologists say the largest and oldest meat-eating dinosaur ever to have been found was from what is now the northern area of Lombardy.

In the scientific journal PerrJ, the Italians recently published their study on the fossils discovered years ago in a large marble quarry in the Italian Alps.

The scientists said the dinosaur lived 200 years ago, and its skeleton was the first known to have been found in Italy from the Jurassic age.

They named the creature Saltriovenator zanellai, which means Zanella’s Saltrio hunter, in honor of Angelo Zanella, the amateur hunter who accidentally unearthed the bones, and for the area where the bones were found.

Zanella has said he will never forget that day. The bones appeared in large blocks of rock in a marble quarry near Saltrio in the summer of 1996. He reported his find to the Natural History Museum in Milan, which further scouted the area and found more fossils. Many of the bones bore the feeding marks of ancient marine invertebrates.

Cristiano dal Sasso of the Natural History Museum led the research. He said this dinosaur fossil was the first to be found in Lombardy and the oldest and largest dinosaur of the lower Jurassic in the world.

Dal Sasso said 132 bone pieces were recovered and that it was not easy to extract the bones from the hard rock. The team worked systematically, fragment by fragment, to recompose and position the bones. He said the discoveries were very exciting.

Measurements

In their study, the paleontologists outlined the characteristics of the dinosaur. They said the carnivore had estimated body length of 7.5 meters (24.6 feet), an 80-centimeter (31.4-inch) skull and weighed at least a ton.  It had very sharp teeth, and its lower limbs had four fingers, three of which had powerful claws.

Dal Sasso and his team said this dinosaur was a real war machine. He said it was one of the predators at the top of the food chain and therefore must have preyed on large herbivore dinosaurs.

The remains of ​Saltriovenator zanellai were the second set to have been found in Italy. The first were fossils of the tiny dinosaur Scipionyx, which were unearthed in southern Italy in 1980.
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UK Airport Chaos Highlights Difficulty in Stopping Drones

By Uponsil | | No Comments | Silicon Valley

When drones buzzing over the runway forced London’s busy Gatwick Airport to shut down, many travelers wondered why it’s so hard for authorities to stop such intruders.

Shoot them down, some said. Jam their signals, others suggested.

Experts say it’s not that easy.

Britain and the U.S. prohibit drones from being flown too high or too close to airports and other aircraft. In Britain, it is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.

Still, there is little to stop a drone operator bent on disrupting air traffic, which British officials say was the case with the Gatwick incident that began Wednesday evening.

The number of close calls between drones and aircraft has increased dramatically in recent years as the popularity of drones has soared. Basic models for amateurs sell for under $100; larger, more sophisticated ones can cost hundreds more.

Britain had 120 reports of close encounters in 2018, up from 93 last year. In 2014, there were six, according to the U.K. Airprox Board, which catalogs air safety incidents.

In the United States, there were nearly 2,300 drone sightings at airports in the year ending June 30, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. Runways have been temporarily closed, but an FAA spokesman said he could not recall drones ever leading to the shutdown of a U.S. airport.

Drone dangers

A drone hit a small charter plane in Canada in 2017; it landed safely. In another incident that same year, a drone struck a U.S. Army helicopter in New York but caused only minor damage.

“This has gone from being what a few years ago what we would have called an emerging threat to a more active threat,” said Patrick Smith, an airline pilot and author of askthepilot.com. “The hardware is getting bigger and heavier and potentially more lethal, and so we need a way to control how these devices are used and under what rules.”

Even small drones could cause severe consequences by damaging a helicopter’s rotor or getting sucked into a jet engine. A drone could also crash through a windshield, incapacitating the pilot, though that’s mainly seen as a risk to small aircraft.

“On an airliner, because of the thickness of the glass, I think it’s pretty unlikely, unless it’s a very large drone,” said John Cox, a former airline pilot and now a safety consultant.

Drones that collide with planes could cause more damage than birds of the same size because of their solid motors, batteries and other parts, according to a study released by the FAA.

Stopping drones

Authorities could capture drones with anti-drone “net guns” that fire lightweight netting, but such equipment can be pricey and have limited range, and it is not widely used.

As for taking one down with a rifle, hitting a small, fast-moving object like a drone would be difficult even for a marksman, and the bullet could hit someone, experts say. There’s also the risk of damage or injury from a falling drone.

Jamming systems could disrupt the signals between drone and operator, but that could interfere with the many vital communication systems in use at an airport, said Marc Wagner, CEO of Switzerland-based Drone Detection Sys.

Local laws might also prevent the use of such electronic countermeasures. Wagner said it is OK in Switzerland to use jamming systems, while Britain and the U.S. prohibit them.

Dutch police experimented with using eagles to swoop down on drones and pluck them out of the sky over airports or large events, but ended the program last year, reportedly because the birds didn’t always follow orders.

“The only method is to find the pilot and to send someone to the pilot to stop him,” Wagner said.

That can be done with frequency spectrum analyzers that can triangulate the drone operator’s position, but “the technology is new and it’s not commonly used,” said Wagner, whose company sells such gear and other counter-drone technology, including radar, jammers and powerful cameras.

China’s DJI Ltd., the world’s biggest manufacturer of commercial drones, and some other makers use GPS-based “geofencing” to automatically prevent drones from flying over airports and other sensitive locations, though the feature is easy to get around.

DJI also introduced a feature last year that allows authorities to identify and monitor its drones. It wasn’t clear what brand was used in the Gatwick incident.

British authorities are planning to tighten regulations by requiring drone users to register, which could make it easier to identify the pilot. U.S. law already requires users to register their drones and get certified as pilots.

But Wagner warned: “If somebody wants to do something really bad, he will never register.”
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Then One Foggy Christmas Eve, Reindeer Got Connected

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

Rudolph and friends no longer need to rely on the famous reindeer’s red nose to avoid getting lost. Now they have wireless technology.

To keep track of their animals in Lapland, Northern Finland’s vast and remote snow-covered forests, reindeer herders are turning to technology by fitting them with internet-connected collars.

Herders who previously spent weeks searching for their reindeer in sub-zero wilderness can now instantly see where they are on a mobile app that receives up-to-date location data.

“In all sectors of society, this (tech) efficiency is playing a big role. It’s the same in reindeer husbandry,” said Seppo Koivisto, whose hundreds of reindeer roam Lapland’s 4,000 square-kilometer (1,545 square-mile) Palojarvi District.

Lapland’s reindeer are the main source of livelihood for about 1,500 herders, so there’s high interest in technology that can help manage them. Koivisto is using the latest generation of wireless collars made possible by a group that includes Helsinki-based communications firm Digita and Finland’s Reindeer Herding Association. The association is based in Rovaniemi, which bills itself as the “official hometown of Santa Claus.”

“We have fewer workers, so their actions should be more and more efficient all the time,” and this technology lets them do that, said Koivisto. Since he started using the technology, he has only had to hire half the usual number of workers.

The technology can also help herders account for attacks from predators such as wolverines and lynx that roam across the Russian border.

At least 5,000 reindeer are killed every year, according to the herding association. Most that die in Lapland’s forests are never found. Koivisto says he loses about 8 percent of his herd annually.

The collars, which use GPS satellite positioning and special long-distance wireless networks, help herders find reindeer corpses so they can claim valuable compensation from the Finnish government.

If a collar-fitted reindeer doesn’t move after about four hours, its icon changes from green to red on the app, signaling a potential attack.

To best locate groups of reindeer, which are bred for their meat, milk and fur, the trackers are fitted on the herd’s female leader.

“In the old days, we roughly knew reindeer locations, in which part of the district they were,” said herder Jarno Konttaniemi. “But today, with this technology, we know exactly where they are.”

Digita built the long-range network, which it says is the world’s most northerly “Internet of Things” network. The “Internet of Things” refers to the next generation of devices and everyday objects that are connected to the internet.

While reindeer herding has roots going back hundreds of years, “at least some of the reindeer owners are really up-to-date when it comes to using technology,” said Ari Kuukka, Digita’s head of “Internet of Things” services.

The herding association has been working for years on a reliable GPS reindeer tracking system. The main challenge was coming up with a device that was cheap but had a long-lasting battery.

The third and latest prototype is the size of a deck of cards, stays charged for about a year, and costs about 90 euros ($102).

The herding association hopes to eventually shrink the transmitter down to a coin-sized microchip that can be attached to a reindeer’s ear, said Matti Sarkela, the herding association’s head of office who has previously helped develop a mobile app that alerts drivers to reindeer near Finland’s often icy roads.

He hopes embracing new technologies can inspire the younger generation to carry on the herding tradition.

“It has brought a lot of young people into our industry all the time,” said Sarkela. “It’s a really positive thing.”

 
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Sex Abuse Case Against Movie Mogul to Proceed

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

A New York judge on Thursday refused to dismiss sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood movie mogul who came to symbolize the #MeToo movement which exposed sexual harassment by powerful men against women in the workplace.

Weinstein’s lawyers had sought to get the charges dismissed, claiming that the case against him was “irreparably tainted” by a police detective who allegedly coached a potential witness and one of the accusers. Prosecutors said there was plenty of evidence to proceed with the case.

Judge James Burke denied the defense request and set the next hearing in the case for March 7.

“We are obviously disappointed that the charges were not dismissed today,” said Weinstein’s lawyer, Ben Brafman. He predicted that Weinstein, who faces life imprisonment if convicted, will be “completely exonerated.”

Weinstein, 66, who faces five charges linked to an alleged rape in March 2013 and a forced act of oral sex in 2006, has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex. More than 80 women have accused him of sexual misconduct.

After allegations against the powerful movie producer first surfaced, dozens of women throughout the U.S. made their own public accusations of sexual abuse against men in their lives, often bosses in the corporate world, the media and academia.

As the MeToo movement took hold, powerful men across the country were forced to apologize for their actions, with many of them resigning or being fired from their positions.
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At Least 8 Killed in Sudan Protests, State of Emergency Declared

By Uponbiz | | No Comments | Business

A state of emergency has been declared in two eastern Sudan states after at least eight protesters were killed in mass demonstrations against rising prices.

Thousands of protesters marched in cities and towns across Sudan Thursday, angry over widespread corruption and the rising costs of basic goods, including bread.

Eyewitnesses in al-Qadarif said men wearing uniforms were among the protesters. Prices for food have skyrocketed in recent months, with inflation topping 60 percent. This comes after the government cut subsidies earlier this year.

Protesters there torched government buildings, including the headquarters of the ruling National Congress Party. Eyewitnesses in Atbara say the building was burned to the ground.

States of emergency were declared in the cities of al-Qadarif and Atbara.

Some of the Sudanese protesters are demanding a regime change. Many say they cannot earn a living or pay for basic needs like bread and fuel.

A Khartoum resident said students were planning to stage more protests Thursday around Khartoum University, but government security agents intervened and the students were ordered off the streets.

Police fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters within a kilometer of the presidential palace in Khartoum. Demonstrations were reported in Atbara, Port Sudan, Barbar, Nohoud and other cities.

The economy has deteriorated over the past several years after South Sudan became independent, depriving Khartoum of much of its oil revenue.

Carol Van Dam Falk and Kenneth Schwartz contributed.
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Virginia House With Over-the-Top Christmas Spirit

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

Christmas is a time for giving. For one man that means decorating his house with over-the-top Christmas displays to warm people’s hearts. It’s a family tradition that Kurt Farmer took over from his father. VOA’s Deborah Block takes us to the home full of Christmas spirit in Alexandria, Virginia.
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Homeowner Captures Christmas Spirit Never-Too-Many Decorations

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

You cannot miss the annual over-the-top Christmas lights and decorations at the Farmer house on a quiet street in Alexandria, Virginia, outside Washington. They are everywhere — in the yard, on the house, and even covering the roof. Visitors are greeted by arches over the driveway strung with thousands of colorful tiny lights.

“It’s magical and overwhelming at the same time,” said Ela Macander, who came for the first time. “You don’t know where to look, there’s so much going on.”

And that’s the whole idea, explained Kurt Farmer, who spent 300 hours putting up the spectacular displays of hundreds of plastic and inflatable carolers, snowmen and toy soldiers. And a large collection of Santas, including Santa with his reindeer, which was hung from a tree.

“The flying Santa, that takes me right back to my childhood,” Farmer said. “It’s in the exact same place it has been for 40 years.”

Father’s production, family tradition

When he was 10, Farmer began helping his father put up the decorations that started small and over the years grew into a big production that included dancing toys, a nativity scene, Disney characters and “Star Wars” heroes.

After Farmer’s mother died, his father moved out of the house. Then Kurt Farmer moved into the family home and carried on his father’s tradition. He wanted to continue what his father started: “making people happy and kind of forget about the real world for a little while.”

Now, his 9-year-old daughter Lilly lends him a hand.

“I just like helping him and doing some of the work,” she said.

Visitor Jenny Kaur has been coming to the house for the past few years to see what is new.

“It’s great that people keep the traditions going,” she said. “So much joy, and it’s just lovely. It’s like you’re transported into a different Christmas world.”

A list for Santa

That world includes a big snowman with a snow globe on the bottom with gently falling snow, and an inflatable Santa waving from his helicopter with spinning blades.

Farmer asks for the same Christmas present every year — more decorations.

“I make a list for Santa,” he said, smiling. “Santa’s been very good to me. We leave the lights on so he never misses the house.”

Three years ago, Farmer fell while putting decorations on top of the house, shattering his pelvis. He spent months learning how to walk again. But despite his injuries, he was back on the roof the following year determined to set up his cherished display.

Farmer often feels his mother’s spirit with him. 

“Her hand is on my shoulder telling me, ‘This looks pretty neat,’” he said.

Thousands to visit

More than 3,000 people are expected to visit the house during the three weeks it is decorated for the holidays. Some visitors find out about the house from the internet, like Laura Broughton from Washington, who was enjoying the worn vintage figures that “look like they have been around a long time.”

Ann Small’s two young sons were enjoying the Mickey Mouse cartoon characters.

“I think it’s spectacular that someone would take the time to put this much effort into it for the kids,” she said.

Farmer likes watching the children get excited. But he said he enjoys seeing the reaction from the adults even more.

“The adults can walk through and see something somewhere that reminds them of when they were growing up. It’s important to make people happy and take them back to their childhood,” he said.

Farmer hopes visitors will leave feeling “like they just got a nice, warm hug.”
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One Million Lights Shine Brightly at Chinese Festival Near Washington

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

Imagine a magical place where lights are designed in the shape of the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower and dragons. It’s a place where children can enjoy a maze made of Chinese lanterns or see death-defying acts by gymnasts. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti takes us to Light-Up, a Christmas festival near Washington designed, built and managed by Chinese workers visiting the U.S.
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Wildlife Bridge to Reduce Car Collisions with Animals

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

A bridge over a busy interstate highway — not for cars or pedestrians, but for wildlife — is under construction in Washington state. The aim is to keep the animals off the road while reconnecting their forest habitat. VOA’s Steve Baragona has more.
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Cuban, US Major League Baseball Sign Historic Player Deal

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

Cuban baseball players no longer have to risk their lives if they want to become stars in the U.S. major leagues.

Major League Baseball and the Cuban Baseball Federation signed a historic deal Wednesday allowing Cuban players to come to the United States without having to defect or place their lives in the hands of criminal human traffickers.

“We believe this agreement accomplishes that objective and will allow the next generation of Cuban players to pursue their dream without enduring many of the hardships experienced by current and former Cuban players who have played Major League Baseball,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said Wednesday.

Under the deal, Cuban players who are at least 25 years old and have played in the Cuban Leagues for six seasons can negotiate with a U.S. team. Other players would need special permission.

Major League Baseball would pay a release fee to the Cuban federation for every player it signs.

Unlike in the past, Cuban players would be allowed to return home without fear of arrest or persecution and could spend their U.S. salaries any way they see fit.

The Cuban federation said Wednesday’s agreement lets players play baseball “without discrimination, in equal terms, in the MLB without being compelled to break their ties of any kind with their country.”

Cuban-born superstar Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox, who defected to the U.S. in 2013, said, “Words cannot fully express my heartfelt joy and excitement. Knowing that the next generation of Cuban baseball players will not endure the unimaginable fate of past Cuban players is the realization of an impossible dream for all of us.”
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US Central Bank Boosts Benchmark Interest Rate

By Uponbiz | | No Comments | Business

The independent U.S. central bank raised borrowing rates Wednesday for the fourth time this year, dismissing President Donald Trump’s contention that policymakers ought not tinker with the country’s robust economy, the world’s largest. 

 

The Federal Reserve board voted 10-0 after a two-day meeting to increase its benchmark short-term interest rate — which is the rate that banks charge each other on overnight loans to meet reserve minimums — by a quarter percentage point to a range of 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent, its highest point in a decade.  

 

But the Fed also took note of clouds on the horizon for the U.S. economy, saying it expected to increase rates again only twice in 2019, not three times as it had previously projected.

It also cut its 2019 economic growth forecast for the U.S. from 2.5 percent to 2.3 percent, both figures well off the 4.2 percent U.S. growth in the April-to-June period and the 3.5 percent figure from July to September. 

Stock prices have sunk 

 

Policymakers said they would closely watch “global economic and financial market developments and assess their implications for the economic outlook.” In the last several weeks, stock market indexes in the U.S. and elsewhere have fallen sharply, a plunge for some U.S. market indicators that wiped out all previous 2018 gains. 

 

The interest rate set by the Fed often affects borrowing costs throughout the U.S., for major corporations and consumers, and often sets the standard for global lending rates. 

 

Trump had no immediate comment on the latest boost in interest rates, but earlier in the week implored policymakers to forgo another increase: 

But central bank policymakers operate independently of White House oversight, and Wednesday’s quarter-point increase had been widely expected.

Trump has basked in a robust U.S. economy, even as numerous investigations engulf him and his 2016 presidential campaign, and key advisers have quit his administration or been forced out.

U.S. trade disputes are ongoing with China, and world stock market volatility has cut investor gains in recent weeks. But the 3.7 percent jobless rate is the lowest in the United States in 49 years, worker wages are increasing and consumers — whose activity accounts for about 70 percent of the U.S. economy — are spending. 

​Unhappy with Powell

But Jerome Powell, the Fed board member Trump named a year ago as chairman, had drawn the president’s ire by overseeing three interest rate hikes this year ahead of the latest one.

Trump last month said he was “not even a little bit happy” with his appointment of Powell.

Trump has said he thinks the Fed is “way off base” by raising rates, but has been powerless to stop it from boosting them. Central bank policymakers have raised interest rates to keep the inflation rate in check and keep the economy from expanding too rapidly. 

“I’m doing deals and I’m not being accommodated by the Fed,” Trump told The Washington Post last month. “They’re making a mistake because I have a gut and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else’s brain can ever tell me.”

Some economists are predicting, however, that the decade-long improving U.S. economy could stall in the next year or so and perhaps even fall into a recession, which, if it occurs, would in most circumstances call for cutting interest rates to boost economic activity. 
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DC Sues Facebook Over Cambridge Analytica’s Data Use

By Uponsil | | No Comments | Silicon Valley

The attorney general for Washington, D.C., said Wednesday that the nation’s capital had sued Facebook over reports involving Cambridge Analytica’s use of data from the social media giant.

“Facebook failed to protect the privacy of its users and deceived them about who had access to their data and how it was used,” Attorney General Karl Racine said in a statement. “Facebook put users at risk of manipulation by allowing companies like Cambridge Analytica and other third-party applications to collect personal data without users’ permission.”

The lawsuit came as Facebook faced new reports that it shared its users’ data without their permission.

Cambridge Analytica, which worked for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign at one point, gained access to personal data from tens of millions of Facebook’s users. The D.C. attorney general said in the lawsuit that this exposed nearly half of the district’s residents’ data to manipulation for

political purposes during the 2016 campaign, and he alleged that Facebook’s “lax oversight and misleading privacy settings” had allowed the consulting firm to harvest the information.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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US, China Spar Over Trade at WTO

By Uponbiz | | No Comments | Business

The United States and China blamed each other for the crisis in the world trading system during a two-day “trade policy review” of the United States at the World Trade Organization.

The Chinese representative to the WTO, Hu Yingzhi, accused the United States of deforming the rules of world trade, which is having a detrimental impact on the economy and on American workers.

U.S. Ambassador to the WTO Dennis Shea retorted that the crisis was caused by China’s trade-distorting practices. He disputed the charge that the United States is the center of the crisis, saying instead that the U.S. is the epicenter of the solution.

WTO Trade Policy Review Division Director Willy Alfaro described the two-day debate as lively and engaged. He told VOA that member states expressed a number of concerns, including worry about a shift of focus in the U.S. trade policy, which is based on five pillars.

“The first one is the adoption of trade policies supporting the national security policy,” Alfaro said. “The second one is building a stronger U.S. economy and [third is] negotiating better trade deals, [fourth is] vigorous enforcement of domestic trade laws and rights under existing trade agreements, and finally reform of the multilateral trading system.” 

Alfaro said the U.S. has received a lot of support from member countries on the need to reform the multilateral trading system and to make it more transparent.

However, WTO officials said members also raised concerns regarding the introduction of new “Buy American” provisions, which could result in unnecessary trade barriers and increased protectionism. 

They also criticized U.S. agricultural policy, particularly the limited market access for certain commodities, high tariffs, and the continued use of trade distorting support.
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