As plastic pollution continues to get worse, a number of people and countries are trying to fight the problem, piece by piece. From Africa to South America, homegrown efforts to collect and dispose of plastics are making a small but increasing impact. Kevin Enochs reports.
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Day: March 25, 2019
Congo’s Ebola epidemic has now exceeded 1,000 cases, the country’s health ministry said Monday, with a death toll of about 629 in the world’s second-worst outbreak.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC), an aid group, cautioned that case numbers were on the rise and the outbreak could last another six to 12 months in a region beset by violence and poverty.
Here are some key facts and figures about Ebola:
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The world’s worst epidemic of Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever, began in Guinea in December 2013 and swept through Liberia and Sierra Leone, killing more than 11,300 people.
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Ebola causes fever, flu-like pains, bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea and spreads among humans through contact with bodily fluids of an infected person.
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The world’s second-biggest outbreak of Ebola began in August 2018 in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
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By March 2019, Congo’s Ebola outbreak surpassed 1,000 cases with a death toll of 629 and spread to the city of Bunia, the second-largest city in eastern Congo.
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The IRC said in the past week there had been 58 new reported cases — the highest number in a week in 2019.
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Its staff were working in about 59 health clinics to train health workers to recognize symptoms and safely triage and transfer suspected Ebola patients to treatment centers.
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Five Ebola centers have been attacked since February 2019.
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The head of medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) earlier in March warned that the battle against Ebola was being lost because ordinary people did not trust health workers and the response was overly militarized.
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The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots warns chances of achieving a U.N. treaty banning the development, production and use of fully autonomous lethal weapons, also known as killer robots, are looking increasingly remote. Experts from some 80 countries are attending a weeklong meeting to discuss the prospect of negotiating an international treaty.
Representatives from about 80 countries have been meeting on lethal autonomous weapons systems since 2014. They have to decide by November to begin negotiations on a new treaty to regulate killer robots.
Nobel peace laureate Jody Williams says Russia has been in the forefront of a group of countries, including the United States and Australia, trying to block movement in this direction. At the opening session, she tells VOA that Russia argued for drastically limiting discussions on the need for meaningful human control over lethal autonomous weapons.
“It is very unlikely as they finish up this year that there will be a mandate to meaningfully deal with meaningful human control, which is fundamental in our view to how you deploy such systems,” Williams said. “There would be no utility in continuing to come here and hear the same blah, blah, blah over and over again.”
Williams said the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots may have to resort to civil activism to get an accord banning killer robots. She said such tactics successfully achieved international treaties banning land mines and cluster munitions outside the United Nations framework.
But for now, the activists are not giving up on persuading U.N. member countries to take the right course. They said delegating life-and death decisions to machines crosses what they call a moral red line and should not be allowed to happen.
They said they have strong support for their stance from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. In a statement to delegates attending the meeting, he warned of the dangers of giving machines the power and discretion to take lives without human involvement.
He called this morally repugnant and politically unacceptable. He said these weapons should be prohibited by international law.
The chairman of India’s private Jet Airways has quit amid mounting financial woes which have forced it to suspend 14 international routes and ground more than 80 planes.
A statement by the airline says its board on Monday accepted the resignations of Chairman Naresh Goyal, his wife and a nominee of Gulf carrier Etihad Airways from the board. It said Goyal will also cease to be chairman.
Goyal has been trying to obtain new funding from Etihad Airways, which holds a 24 percent stake in the airline, which was founded 27 years ago.
The statement said the airline will receive 15 billion rupees ($217 million) in immediate funding under a recovery plan formulated by its creditors.
When polo comes to Lagos, the champagne flows and exuberant fashion colors adorn the green fields.
While most Nigerians would never trade their love of soccer, the commercial capital still hosts the biggest polo tournament in West Africa, with trophies fiercely disputed against a backdrop of glitz and glamour for the upper class.
“Polo has shifted from just the sports to a fashion statement,” said Mudrakat Alabi-Macfoy, wearing an airy white kaftan with a multi-colored floral necklace and head wrap at the Lagos Polo Club.
“For me it is something fun, something playful, something whimsical, something comfortable… a bit of color, a bit of pop,” said Alabi-Macfoy, who works as a lawyer when not watching polo.
In a nation with the world’s highest number of people in extreme poverty, the often-dubbed “sport of kings” is prohibitively expensive for the majority.
First introduced by British colonial servicemen, polo has been played in Nigeria for over a hundred years and nearly all the teams are owned by local multi-millionaires.
“It is an expensive sport because, you know, your horses are like babies,” said Koyinsola Owoeye, who has been playing polo since 2007, seduced by his father’s love of the sport.
A horse can cost about $40,000 — then there is upkeep.
“Maintenance is not easy. Today they can be well, tomorrow they can have, you know, malaria, fever, colic, or even get injured on the field or on their way to the tournament,” Owoeye said.
The 2019 Lagos International Polo Tournament, which wound up on Sunday, fielded 33 teams from Nigeria, Argentina, South Africa, Kenya and the United Kingdom.
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U.S. sportswear maker Nike was hit with a 12.5 million euro ($14.14 million) fine on Monday for blocking cross-border sales of soccer merchandise of some of Europe’s best-known clubs, the latest EU sanction against such restrictions.
The European Commission said Nike’s illegal practices occurred between 2004 to 2017 and related to licensed merchandise for FC Barcelona, Manchester United, Juventus, Inter Milan, AS Roma and the French Football Federation.
The European Union case focused on Nike’s role as a licensor for making and distributing licensed merchandise featuring a soccer club’s brands and not its own trademarks.
The sanction came after a two-year investigation triggered by a sector inquiry into e-commerce in the 28-country bloc. The EU wants to boost online trade and economic growth.
European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Nike’s actions deprived soccer fans in other countries of the opportunity to buy their clubs’ merchandise such as mugs, bags, bed sheets, stationery and toys.
“Nike prevented many of its licensees from selling these branded products in a different country leading to less choice and higher prices for consumers,” she said in a statement.
Nike’s practices included clauses in contracts prohibiting out-of-territory sales by licensees and threats to end agreements if licensees ignored the clauses. Its fine was cut by 40 percent after it cooperated with the EU enforcer.
($1 = 0.8839 euros)
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Apple attempted to reintroduce itself on Monday as an entertainment and financial services company that also makes iPhones as it launched a streaming television service, a credit card and an online gaming arcade.
The world’s second-most valuable technology company lifted the curtain on a television and movie service called Apple TV+ that will stream original television shows and movies to a television-watching app for users of its 1.4 billion gadgets worldwide, as well as owners of smart TVs and other devices.
But Apple, known in the tech industry for keeping its products secret until they are finished, left out key pricing details for several of its new services, unnerving investors and sending its shares down slightly.
The move could be seen as a first step to challenging streaming video leaders Netflix and Amazon, although Apple is taking a different approach by offering paid “channels” from HBO, Starz and Showtime alongside its own content.
Its revamped app for subscribing to channels from others will come out in May, but Apple’s own original shows will not arrive until autumn, with pricing not yet announced. Apple said both its TV+ shows and the new version of the TV app will be available in more than 100 countries.
Apple also introduced a credit card, a video game arcade, and added hundreds of magazines to its news app at an event at its Cupertino, California, headquarters.
As Apple struggles with saturated markets and sales of its iPhone fall, the company is turning more of its attention to services that provide regular subscription revenue.
Hollywood celebrities helped debut the revamped television offering. Apple has commissioned programming from Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg.
Throughout the presentation, Apple executives stressed privacy protections for consumers as they shop and consume content across a range of Apple phones, iPads or other hardware.
They also emphasized content that would appeal to young audiences, potentially setting the stage for a rivalry with Walt Disney Co. Winfrey announced a global book club.
The company, second only to Microsoft in market value among tech giants, led off the event with an announcement that its free news app will now come in a paid-subscription version, called Apple News+, which curates a range of news articles and will include 300 magazines including National Geographic, People, Popular Science, Billboard and the New Yorker. Apple said it would cost $9.99 a month.
Apple also introduced a titanium, laser-etched Apple Card backed by Goldman Sachs Group and Mastercard that can track spending across devices and pay daily cash back on purchases.
Cook also said Apple Pay, its digital wallet, will soon be usable on public transit systems in Portland, Oregon, Chicago and New York City. Apple Pay will be available in more than 40 countries by the end of the year.
Crowded Field
With its new media push, Apple joins a crowded field where rivals such as Amazon.com’s Prime Video and Netflix have spent heavily to capture viewer attention and dollars with award-winning series and films.
The big tech war for viewers ignited a consolidation wave among traditional media companies preparing to join the fray.
Walt Disney Co., which bought 21st Century Fox, and AT&T, which purchased Time Warner Inc, plan to launch or test new streaming video services this year.
Revenue from its “services” segment – which includes the App Store, iCloud and content businesses such as Apple Music – grew 24 percent to $37.1 billion in fiscal 2018. The segment accounted for only about 14 percent of Apple’s overall $265.6 billion in revenue, but investors have pinned their hopes for growth on the segment.
The company also introduced Apple Arcade, a game subscription service that will work on phones, tablets and desktop computers and include games from a range of developers.
Apple said the gaming service will feature more than 100 exclusive titles from gaming partners such as Annapurna Interactive and that the service will arrive this autumn.
But as with its original content service, Apple did not say how much its gaming service will cost consumers. With details about the new services missing, Apple shares fell 1.7 percent on Monday.
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Apple is expected to announce Monday that it’s launching a video service that could compete with Netflix, Amazon and cable TV itself.
It’s a long-awaited attempt from the iPhone maker, several years after Netflix turned “binge watching” into a worldwide phenomenon.
The new video service is expected to have original TV shows and movies that reportedly cost Apple more than $1 billion — far less than Netflix and HBO spend every year.
Also expected is a subscription service consisting of news, entertainment and sports bundled from newspapers and magazines.
Apple is making the announcements at its Cupertino, California, headquarters during an event likely to be studded with Hollywood celebrities.
The iPhone has long been Apple’s marquee product and main money maker, but sales are starting to decline. The company is pushing digital subscriptions as it searches for new growth.
Making must-have TV shows and movies that are watchable on any device has propelled Netflix into a force in both Silicon Valley and Hollywood.
But Apple remained focused on making on gadgets: iPhones, iPads, computers and its Apple TV streaming box for TVs. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs began toying with the idea of building a powerful TV business, but he couldn’t pull it off before his death in 2011. It has taken his successor, CEO Tim Cook, nearly eight years to draw up the script that the company will now try to execute.
“Apple is very late to this game,” eMarketer analyst Paul Verna said. “Netflix has become the gold standard in how to create and distribute content, using all the data they have about their viewers.”
Netflix’s prowess has attracted 139 million subscribers worldwide. But Apple will have several other deep-pocketed competitors fighting for consumers’ dollars. Amazon has also become a formidable force in video streaming. Walt Disney Co. is launching its own service this year, armed with an imposing library that became more formidable with its purchase of 21st Century Fox’s films and TV series. AT&T is debuting another streaming service built around HBO.
Apple has plenty of money to spend, though, with about $245 billion in cash and marketable securities. It must prove itself attractive to Hollywood even without a track record for supporting high-quality programming and then ensuring it gets widely seen.
As part of its efforts to make quick connections, Apple hired two longtime Sony television executives, Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, in 2017. They have reportedly signed up stars such as Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg and Jennifer Aniston.
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Vietnam’s cheap workers might not be the country’s stars for much longer: low wages helped to propel the communist nation to some of the fastest growth rates in the world, but analysts say it needs a new economic model now.
After a slow recovery from the Vietnam War, the Southeast Asian country saw gross domestic product rise year after year from the 1990s on. That was built on the back of low-cost labor and factory-driven exports, as well as companies’ increasing tie-ins to foreign investment.
Vietnam is currently at a turning point, looking back at simple exports like rice and Reeboks that helped it develop, and looking forward to a more advanced economy along the lines of Taiwan or South Korea. Locals do not want “Made in Vietnam” to signal low quality. They also want to integrate into global trade, without the backlash against globalization seen among populist voters from Europe to the United States.
“What has been working in the past 30 years may not necessarily work in the future,” said Ousmane Dione, the World Bank director in Vietnam. “The impacts of initial institutional and structural reforms seem to have reached their limit.”
He was referring to the Doi Moi reforms that began three decades ago, when Vietnam started to introduce more and more traits of a market economy into its system, like private ownership of firms and houses. Hanoi is conducting a review of how well Doi Moi turned out, and how to chart an economic path for the next three decades.
Advisers have put forward ideas of how the new economy could look in Vietnam, among which are three common themes: the internet and other high-tech sectors will dominate; businesses will move into services and other value-added industries rather than physical goods; and employees will constantly update their skills through life-long learning.
For example, Vietnamese factory hands are accustomed to assembling phones and cars, but could they one day move up the value chain, such as by providing tech support to people who buy these products?
On the technology side, Vietnam could do more to collaborate with the rest of Southeast Asia, according to Pham Hong Hai, CEO of HSBC Vietnam. That may range from ensuring electronic payments go off without a hitch across borders, to cooperating on a response to cyber threats, he said.
“Businesses are crying out for tangible developments that will smoothen intra-regional trade,” Hai said. Vietnam “should continue the momentum to further integrate into the region and gain most benefits from globalization.”
Left Behind?
The other vital theme has to do with the workforce, making sure its productivity and skill levels improve. Millions of Vietnamese now rely on entry-level jobs to make a living, whether it’s gluing together wallets at a factory, or picking coffee cherries on a farm.
That was the work that used to attract foreign investors to the country in droves, but not all of those jobs will last. So groups from government agencies to charities are enacting education and training programs to equip locals with skills for the future.
This is meant not just to increase job security, but also to prevent Vietnamese from feeling left behind or bitter if jobs get off-shored to cheaper countries. Vietnam hopes to avoid the populist resentment of other parts of the world, as well as the trade protectionism that has created.
To that end Vietnam is turning to partners like Australia, which has supported projects that allow the fruits of economic success to be spread more widely.
Vietnam set out on a new “chapter that embraces innovation, promotes bold reform, and helps Vietnam achieve its ambitious development goals,” said Craig Chittick, the Australian ambassador in the country of 100 million people.
His government has backed programs in Vietnam like the KOTO center, which teaches hospitality skills to street children, as well as a contest to invent technologies useful to rural women and a forum to promote impact investing. The idea is that not all groups have benefited from past economic growth, but there is still a chance to change that in the new Vietnam.
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A number of workers at Libya’s largest oilfield, El Sharara, and two other facilities are demanding a salary increase by two-thirds at a time when the OPEC country’s oil output is surging.
The comments are the first sign of dissent at the 315,000-barrels-per-day (bpd) field in southern Libya since it reopened this month. State guards and tribesmen had closed El Sharara in December in an apparently successful attempt to clinch salary payments and development funds.
Workers at the National Oil Corporation, like other public-sector employees, have suffered because of a quasi-devaluation of the Libyan dinar, which has fueled inflation as Libya imports most of its food and other needs.
Some 50 to 60 workers at El Sharara, wearing blue jumpsuits, appeared in a video demanding a salary hike of 67 percent, a figure that the government decided in 2013. That planned pay rise was never implemented. Soon after the government settled on the amount, public finances took a hit from a series of oilfield blockades by armed groups and protesters.
Workers at two other fields also posted pictures that show them demanding a pay increase, calling their movement “Sabaa Wa Steen”, the Arabic word for 67.
There has been no impact on oil production.
The El Sharara workers also complained about what they said was a three-month delay in salary payments and demanded the release of colleagues, including a foreigner, who were kidnapped by gunmen in July.
El Sharara, operated by NOC and foreign partners, has been pumping oil intermittently due to blockades mostly by armed groups and other incidents.
It is now controlled by the same state guards who had closed it in December, working with the Libyan National Army, which rivals the internationally recognized government based in Tripoli and took control of the south in a military campaign.
“We don’t want anything except a salary increase. We work in the desert and are trying to increase production at El Sharara to its normal level,” an engineer from the field told Reuters, asking not to be identified.
State oil firm NOC expressed support for the salary demand, saying its omission from the government’s 2019 budget had come as a disappointment.
“The oil workers continue to perform their national duty, serving the interests of all Libyans in the most difficult circumstances,” NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanalla said in a statement.
Libya’s oil output has risen to 1.2 million bpd after the reopening of El Sharara, the Tripoli-based finance minister said last week. This is nearly the highest level since 2013. Whenever output hits 1 million bpd, salary demands tend to go up as NOC workers compare their earnings with those of employees at foreign firms who are paid in hard currency.
Most state institutions in Libya, particularly oil sites, have been subjected to repeated attacks and sabotage since the overthrow of Muammar Gadhafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.
In June 2017, El Sharara workers went on strike over a lack of medical treatment for a colleague who died in a swimming pool accident.
The head of Ethiopian Airlines said “many questions on the B-737 MAX airplane remain without answers” and he pledged “full and transparent cooperation to discover what went wrong.”
“Until we have answers, putting one more life at risk is too much,” CEO Tewolde Gebremariam said Monday in a statement.
“Immediately after the crash and owing to the similarity with the Lion Air Accident, we grounded our fleet of Max 8s. Within days, the plane had been grounded around the world. I fully support this,” Gebremariam said.
A March 10 Ethiopian Airlines crash and Indonesia’s Lion Air crash in October were both Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes. Everyone on board the two flights was killed.
The Ethiopian Airlines flight data recorders revealed that there were “clear similarities” between the two doomed flights.
Gebremariam asserted that his crews were “well trained” on this aircraft.
“We are the the only airline in Africa, among the very few in the world, with the B-737 full flight Simulator,” he said. “Contrary to some media reports, our pilots who fly the new model were trained on all appropriate simulators.”
“In a nation that sometimes is saddled with negative stereotypes, accidents like this affect our sense of pride,” Gebremariam said. “Yet this tragedy won’t define us. We pledge to work with Boeing and our colleagues in all the airlines to make air travel even safer.”
Millions of people live with the constant pain of fibromyalgia. It’s a disorder that’s often misdiagnosed. And while lab tests can help identify a lot of diseases, until recently there was no test for fibromyalgia. Now, a simple blood test could finally give these patients scientific proof of their condition.
Constant pain is a symptom of fibromyalgia. Barb Hartong suffered from this disorder for a long time before she finally got the right diagnosis.
“It was almost a relief because I finally knew what was wrong with me,” Hartong said.
Fibromyalgia is a disorder with symptoms of widespread muscle and joint pain, accompanied by fatigue and problems with sleep, memory and mood. Researchers believe that with fibromyalgia, the brain amplifies the pain signals it gets.
About 75 percent of those who suffer from fibromyalgia are undiagnosed. Some people live with pain for years. Many patients receive treatment that’s ineffective or even harmful.
Researchers at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center formed a multi-disciplinary team to see if they could develop a laboratory test to diagnose this disorder and make it easier for patients to get some relief.
Dr. Kevin Hackshaw led the study.
“Many of the patients with chronic opiate use turn out to have underlying fibromyalgia. So in fact, if that was recognized then we could realize that we can stem the tide of treating them inappropriately with opiates,” Hackshaw said.
The result was a simple blood test that could diagnose fibromyalgia with nearly 100 percent accuracy. Hackshaw worked with researchers at the Ohio State food science and technology department. They found that same technology used to quickly analyze different components in food, like protein and fat, can also analyze chemicals in the blood. Dr. Luis Rodriguez-Saona was the study’s co-author.
“We use infrared in many companies to determine protein, fat, moisture, starch levels, fiber in seconds,” Rodriguez-Saona said.
Rodriguez-Saona says each person’s blood is unique, like a fingerprint, and this test can show the intricate details of that fingerprint. It can distinguish fibromyalgia from other chronic pain conditions with nearly 100 percent accuracy.
The test uses a color-coded computer program.
“The brown colored squares, these belong to the fibromyalgia, the red ones are rheumatoid arthritis and the green ones are lupus,” Rodriguez-Saona said.
Hackshaw says when people learn the results they feel relieved just like Barb Hartong did.
“A test like this provides confirmation and validation of the symptoms they’ve been suffering for years,” Hackshaw said.
There is no cure for fibromyalgia, but medication, exercise and stress reduction measures can help control the symptoms. Hartong takes medication and sticks to a daily routine.
“It’s not just giving me a pill, it’s how do I live? For me, it’s exercise,” Hartong said.
The researchers now want to use the test on a larger group of patients to see if they get the same results. If the test is approved, doctors will be able to diagnose fibromyalgia instantly and save patients years of suffering.
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At the 27th annual Environmental Film Festival in the nation’s capital, over 100 hundred films were showcased in 25 locations around the city. Many of them focused on the human impact on Climate Change worldwide, pointing to severe weather phenomena already underway, such as rising sea levels, and disappearing biodiversity. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with filmmakers who came to DC to present their work.
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At the 27th annual Environmental Film Festival in the nation’s capital, over 100 hundred films were showcased in 25 locations around the city. Many of them focused on the human impact on Climate Change worldwide, pointing to severe weather phenomena already underway, such as rising sea levels, and disappearing biodiversity. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with filmmakers who came to DC to present their work.
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March 26 will mark the fourth anniversary of the Saudi-led coalition campaign to oust the Houthi rebels from parts of Yemen they had occupied. The fighting has caused what the UN calls “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” displacing people from their homes, creating food shortages, a growing civilian death toll and undermining children’s development. The UN estimates that about 10 children die every day in Yemen from preventable diseases caused by hunger. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has this story.
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