About 1 percent of the world’s population lives with the mental condition called bipolar disorder, characterized by swings between elevated and depressed moods. In most cases, timely interaction with psychotherapists, family and friends can alleviate the symptoms. Researchers in Denmark say modern technology can help by keeping track of a patient’s symptoms and summoning help quickly when needed. VOA’s George Putic reports.
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Month: April 2018
Facebook: Public Data of Most Users Probably Has Been Scraped
Facebook’s acknowledgement that the personal data of most of its 2.2 billion members has probably been scraped by “malicious actors” is the latest example of the social network’s failure to protect its users’ data.
Not to mention its seeming inability to even identify the problem until the company was embroiled in scandal.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg told reporters Wednesday that Facebook is shutting down a feature that let people search for Facebook users by phone number or email address. Although that was useful for people who wanted to find others on Facebook, it turns out that unscrupulous types also figured out years ago that they could use it identify individuals and collect data off their profiles.
The scrapers were at it long enough, Zuckerberg said, that “at some point during the last several years, someone has probably accessed your public information in this way.”
The only way to be safe would have been for users to deliberately turn off that search feature several years ago. Facebook had it turned on by default.
Several investigations
“I think Facebook has not been clear enough with how to use its privacy settings,” said Jamie Winterton, director of strategy for Arizona State University’s Global Security Initiative. “That, to me, was the failure.”
The breach was a stunning admission for a company already reeling from allegations that the political data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica inappropriately accessed data on as many as 87 million Facebook users to influence elections.
Over the past few weeks, the scandal has mushroomed into investigations across continents, including a probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Zuckerberg himself will be questioned by Congress for the first time Tuesday.
“The FTC looked the other way for years when consumer groups told them Facebook was violating its 2011 deal to better protect its users. But now the Cambridge Analytica scandal has awoken the FTC from its long digital privacy slumber,” said Jeffrey Chester, executive director for the Washington-based privacy nonprofit Center for Digital Democracy.
Problem found after Cambridge Analytica
Neither Zuckerberg nor his company has identified those who carried out the data scraping. Outside experts believe they could have been identity thieves, scam artists or shady data brokers assembling marketing profiles.
Zuckerberg said the company detected the problem in a data-privacy audit started after the Cambridge Analytica disclosures, but didn’t say why the company hadn’t noticed it — or fixed it — earlier.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday on when it discovered the data scraping.
In his call with reporters Wednesday, Zuckerberg said the company had tried “rate limiting” the searches. This restricted how many searches someone can conduct at one time from a particular IP address, a numeric designation that identifies a device’s location on the internet. But Zuckerberg said the scrapers circumvented that defense by cycling through multiple IP addresses.
Public information useful
The scraped information was limited to what a user had chosen to make public — which, depending on a person’s privacy settings, could be a lot — as well as what Facebook requires people to share. That includes full name, profile picture and listings of school or workplace networks.
But hackers and scam artists could then use that information, and combine it with other data in circulation, to pull hoaxes on people, plant malware on their computers or commit other mischief.
Having access to such a massive amount of data could also pose national security risks, Winterton said.
A foreign entity could conceivably use such information to influence elections or stir up discord, exactly what Russia is alleged to have done, using Facebook and other social media, in the 2016 presidential elections.
Oversharing
Privacy advocates have long been critical of Facebook’s penchant for pushing people to share more and more information, often through pro-sharing default options.
While the company offers detailed privacy controls — users can turn off ad targeting, for example, or face recognition, and post updates that no one else sees — many people never change their settings, and often don’t even know how to.
The company has tried to simplify its settings multiple times over the years, most recently this week.
Winterton said that for individual Facebook users, worrying about this data scraping won’t do much good, after all, the data is already out there. But she said it might be a good time to “reflect on what we are sharing and how we are sharing it and whether we need to.”
“Just because someone asks us information, it doesn’t mean we have to give it to them if we are not comfortable,” she said.
She added that while she no longer has a Facebook account, when she did she put her birth year as 1912 and her hometown as Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Neither is true.
This story was written by the Associated Press
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Venezuela Cuts Commercial Ties With Panama Officials, Firms
Venezuela said on Thursday it was halting commercial relations with Panamanian officials and companies, including regional airline Copa, for alleged involvement in money laundering, prompting Panama to recall its ambassador.
The resolution names Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela and nearly two dozen Cabinet ministers and top-ranking officials, adding that Panama’s financial system had been used by Venezuelan nationals involved in acts of corruption.
Venezuela said the individuals named in the resolution “present an imminent risk to the [Venezuelan] financial system, the stability of commerce in the country, and the sovereignty and economic independence of the Venezuelan people.”
The statement came a week after Panama declared President Nicolas Maduro and about 50 Venezuelan nationals as “high risk” for laundering money and financing terrorism.
Caracas did not detail whether the move would halt the operations of Copa in Venezuela, which is one of the crisis-stricken country’s few providers of international flights following a sharp reduction in airline services.
Copa’s website showed its planned Panama City-Caracas flight later Thursday was canceled. Copa flights Friday between the two cities were listed as scheduled.
The company did not respond to a request for comment.
Panama’s Varela, in brief comments to reporters Thursday, described the Venezuelan announcement as nonsensical.
“We have not heard anything about breaking relations but rather about a set of supposed sanctions, it’s gibberish,” Varela said.
The South American country has been hit with sanctions by Canada, the United States and a number of other countries over issues ranging from human rights violations to corruption and drug trafficking.
Maduro says the country is victim of an “economic war” led by his adversaries with the help of Washington, and says the sanctions are part of foreign countries’ efforts to undermine his government.
This story was written by Reuters.
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Facebook Fined $33 Million for Failing to Aid Brazil Graft Probe
A Brazilian judge has ordered that Facebook Inc pay 111.7 million reais ($33.4 million) for failing to cooperate with a corruption investigation, federal prosecutors said on Thursday, prompting Facebook to say it was exploring “all legal options.”
The judge fined Facebook for failing to give access in 2016 to WhatsApp messages exchanged by individuals under investigation for defrauding the healthcare system of Brazil’s Amazonas state, the prosecutors said in a statement. In an emailed comment sent to Reuters, Facebook called the fine groundless.
“Facebook cooperates with law enforcement. In this particular case we have disclosed the data required by applicable law,” the statement said. “We understand this fine lacks grounds, and are exploring all legal options at our disposal.”
According to federal police, a Brazilian judge ordered in April 2016 that Facebook give authorities access to the WhatsApp messages in question.
The fine amounted to 1 million reais plus interest for every day Facebook did not comply with the order, beginning when it took effect in mid-June 2016, and ending when the corruption investigation was made public that September, police said.
Through the probe known as “Operacao Maus Caminhos,” or “Operation Bad Paths,” federal police exposed the embezzlement of tens of millions of reais of public funds.
This story was written by VOA News
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Jury Awards $37 Million in Talc Cancer Risk Case
Johnson & Johnson and Imerys SA must pay at least $37 million in a lawsuit claiming a man developed cancer because of his exposure to asbestos in
talc-based products including Johnson’s Baby Powder, a New Jersey state court jury said Thursday.
The verdict by jurors in New Brunswick, New Jersey, came in the second trial nationally to center on claims that J&J’s talc products contained asbestos as the company separately fights thousands of cases claiming they can also cause ovarian cancer.
The verdict came in a lawsuit by Stephen Lanzo, who alleged that he developed mesothelioma after inhaling dust that was generated through his regular use of J&J talc powder products since his birth in 1972.
Mesothelioma is a deadly form of cancer closely associated with exposure to asbestos. It affects the delicate tissue that lines body cavities, most often around the lungs, but also in the abdomen and elsewhere.
The jury awarded Lanzo $30 million and his wife $7 million. It found J&J was responsible for 70 percent of the damages and Imerys, its talc supplier, responsible for 30 percent.
The jury will return Tuesday for further proceedings to determine whether it should award punitive damages, according to an online broadcast of the trial by Courtroom View Network.
J&J denied the allegations and says that Johnson’s Baby Powder, which has been on the market since 1894, does not contain asbestos or cause mesothelioma or ovarian cancer.
“While we are disappointed with this decision, the jury has further deliberations to conduct in this trial and we will reserve additional comment until the case is fully completed,” Johnson & Johnson said in a statement.
Imerys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This story was written by Reuters.
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Trump Says US Will Weigh Tariffs on Another $100B Worth of Chinese Goods
U.S. President Donald Trump ratcheted up the trade war rhetoric with Beijing on Thursday, saying he had instructed the U.S. trade representative to consider tariffs on an additional $100 billion worth of Chinese goods.
The move came a day after China issued a list of U.S. goods, including soybeans and small aircraft, worth $50 billion for possible tariff hikes. Beijing’s response came after the U.S. proposed tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods earlier this week.
U.S. stock futures dropped on Trump’s latest trade directive. Dow futures fell and were down about 400 points in after-hours trading.
Financial markets have swung wildly over the past few days in response to fears of escalating trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.
“Rather than remedy its misconduct, China has chosen to harm our farmers and manufacturers,” Trump said.
Since the start of this week, the United States and China have been engaging in a tit-for-tat trade spat. On Monday, in response to earlier tariffs on steel and aluminum imposed by the Trump administration, China started tariffs of up to 25 percent on 128 U.S. products, including fruits, nuts, pork, wine, steel and aluminum.
Later on the same day, the USTR proposed to increase tariffs on 1,300 imported goods from China, mostly aerospace, medical and information technology products.
Less than 12 hours later, China said it would impose retaliatory duties of 25 percent on 106 politically sensitive American goods, including soybeans, automobiles and aircraft.
The proposed U.S. list is now entering a “public notice and comment process, including a hearing,” the USTR said. After this process is completed, the USTR will issue a final determination on the products subject to the additional duties.
China’s commerce ministry said the question of when the measures would go into effect would depend on when the U.S. tariffs became active.
China’s ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, told reporters on Wednesday, “Negotiation would still be our preference, but it takes two to tango. We will see what the U.S. will do.”
A senior U.S. official told Reuters late Thursday that the United States was willing to negotiate with China on trade, but only if talks were serious, as previous attempts produced little progress.
No formal negotiating sessions have been set, but there have been “ongoing communications with the Chinese on trade,” said the official, who requested anonymity to discuss the Trump administration’s trade strategy.
Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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Bollywood in Shock Over Superstar’s Jail Term
Hundreds of disbelieving fans flocked to the home of Bollywood superstar Salman Khan on Thursday in protest against the five-year jail term given on the action hero for poaching endangered antelopes.
Khan’s army of devotees took selfies outside the Galaxy apartment complex in the Indian film capital Mumbai as their hero was taken off to spend the night in jail in Rajasthan.
Police set up barricades outside the building overlooking the Arabian Sea where actors and tycoons are the main residents.
The Bollywood elite also rallied behind the 52-year-old star of blockbusters such as Sultan and one of the world’s most highly paid actors.
Many fans were angry and stunned at the jail term imposed by a court in the Rajasthan city of Jodhpur over the killing of two rare black bucks 20 years ago.
Mohammad Arif Khan, 26, traveled from his home in Uttar Pradesh vowing to spend three days in Mumbai in the hope that his hero will be released.
“Khan’s absence will have a big impact and mistakes do happen. But he has paid for his crimes and shouldn’t be made to go to jail. The decision is extremely appalling and not a good one,” he said.
“Salman Khan is a good man and a humanitarian who runs his own charity helping people.”
‘A great star’
He added: “The court and the government should take note of all his good deeds as his absence will affect not just Bollywood but also those in need of help and who get assistance from his charity.”
Many fans wore “Being Human” T-shirts named after his charity.
Seventeen-year-old student Abdul Rashid said Khan’s “loyal fans” will stand by him.
“I am not sure where our justice system is headed as the … punishment doesn’t feel justified for killing an animal. I was at the airport last night and met Salman. He waved at us. He is such a great star and impacts all our lives by helping needy people. He should not be punished.”
Sagar Raza Khan, a 50-year-old writer, said the verdict had come out of the blue as the case has been going on so long.
“He’s already suffered enough and should not have to go through it again. His family will again face a lot of suffering if he is incarcerated. Plus, his impact on Bollywood is too huge to be ignored.”
Sheikh Alimuddin, 43, traveled from rural Maharashtra to get to Khan’s home.
“Khan is an epitome of kindness and has helped cancer patients and children requiring medical assistance. There are numerous ongoing cases where the guilty have not been punished.”
Alimuddin called the guilty verdict and punishment “sensationalized.”
Financial losses
Jaya Bachchan, a veteran Bollywood actor and lawmaker, said so much money was invested in Khan’s films that “there will be losses.”
“After 20 years, they have realized he is guilty. But law takes its own course, what can one say. He does a lot of charity. I am worried for the producers,” Bachchan told reporters.
Leading Bollywood director Subhash Gai said he was “extremely shocked” at the jail term.
Gai called Khan “a most loved person” in the film industry, but also said he had “full trust” in India’s appeal procedure.
Actor Arjun Rampal said on Twitter he felt “helpless” over the action taken against Khan.
“The last thing @BeingSalmanKhan is, is a criminal. I feel this is too harsh. I do hope he gets the relief he deserves.”
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Amid Trade Spats, Trump to Push US as ‘Partner of Choice’ for Latin America
President Donald Trump will make the case that the United States – and not China – should be the trade “partner of choice” for Latin America when he speaks at a regional summit next week, a senior administration official said on Thursday.
Trump is due to make his first visit to the region late next week to attend the Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru. The trip comes as his government is waging a trade battle with China and pushing to overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“President Trump has been very clear … in terms of his economic policies that the Chinese economic aggression in the region has not been productive for the hemisphere and that the United States should remain the partner of choice for them,” the official told reporters on a conference call.
Substantive discussions on NAFTA are not expected at the summit, the official said.
Trump will deliver an address to the summit where he will talk about “shared values” in the hemisphere and the need to reduce drug trafficking, the official said.
It was unclear how much emphasis Trump would place on stopping illegal immigration from the region into the United States – one of his main promises in his presidential run for office.
Leading up to the summit, Trump announced this week he wants to post National Guard troops along the southern border with Mexico, and has also ramped up tough rhetoric against illegal immigrants from Honduras and other parts of Central America.
“I think the president is a very straight speaker. He speaks what’s on his mind,” the official said.
Trump also plans to address the crisis in Venezuela with regional leaders, the official said. But the U.S. government is still examining its next steps for sanctions on Venezuela with new announcements not expected for several months, the official said.
your ads here!High-Tech Treadmill Uses Virtual Reality to Encourage Cardiovascular Fitness
Virtual reality, or VR, is finding more applications as the technology matures. It is no longer only used for gaming or entertainment. One Austin-based company, Blue Goji, is using VR to improve health by making cardiovascular workouts more fun.
The company featured its prototype Infinity treadmill at Austin’s South By Southwest.
The treadmill is paired with a virtual reality headset worn by the user. Before starting the treadmill, the user is hooked up to a belt to prevent falls while running on the treadmill and playing a VR game.
The fully immersive experience transports the user into a virtual world where he or she can be racing against virtual people.
“You have much more motivation to actually get running and do something that pushes your limits. It was pretty cool,” said Leonardo Mattiazzi, who tested the Infinity treadmill. He said it took the boredom out of running inside without actually going anywhere.
Motion sickness less likely
In addition to encouraging better cardiovascular health, the active use of virtual reality also helps solve a common problem while wearing a VR headset said Blue Goji’s marketing associate, Kyra Constam.
“A lot of VR experiences cause motion sickness because there’s a disconnect in the brain, just psychologically. You’re moving in the game, but you’re not moving in real life, and we have come up with the solution. When you’re moving on the treadmill and you’re moving in the game, it mitigates that motion sickness, and you really get full immersion without all of the negative side effects.”
Constam added that any disorientation usually goes away quickly.
However, users who tested the Infinity treadmill wearing the VR headset each had a different experience.
“Pretty quickly you adjust to it,” said Mattiazzi, who took 10 seconds to adjust to running in the virtual world.
VR learning curve
“All I could think of when I was doing it was if my wife was doing this, she would have been barfing all over that because it’s interesting how the brain works. Going downhill, it felt like I was on a roller coaster,” said first time user Mark Sackler, who added, “I don’t get motion sickness easily, but I got a little, felt a little queasy at one point when I was out of control. So it’s surprisingly realistic.”
“There’s a bit of a learning curve for VR in general. I believe that the first time you do it is definitely going to be the most disorienting time, and the more you do it, the more you get used to it,” Constam said.
The cost for the hardware and software is fairly steep at $12,000. However, Constam said the virtual reality treadmill is ideal for high-end gyms, rehabilitation centers and physical therapy clinics. Blue Goji plans to make the Infinity treadmill ready for the public in 2019.
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Opioid Addiction Costs Employers $2.6B a Year for Care
A new report shows large employers spent $2.6 billion to treat opioid addiction and overdoses in 2016, an eightfold increase since 2004. More than half went to treat employees’ children.
The analysis released Thursday by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation finds such spending cost companies and workers about $26 per enrollee in 2016.
Employers have been limiting insurance coverage of opioids because of concerns about addiction. The report finds spending on opioid prescriptions falling 27 percent from a peak in 2009.
Researchers analyzed insurance claims from employers with more than 1,000 workers. Most are self-insured, meaning they assume the financial risk.
Workers share the costs. Steve Wojcik of the National Business Group on Health says for every $5 increase, employers typically cover $4 and pass $1 to workers.
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YouTube Shooter’s Bizarre Videos Key to Suspected Motive
The woman who police say shot three people at YouTube’s headquarters was prolific at producing videos and posting them online, many of them bizarre, such as a clip in which she removes a revealing purple dress to expose fake breasts with the message, “Don’t Trust Your Eyes.”
In others, Nasim Aghdam exercises, promotes animal rights and explains the vegan diet, often in elaborate costumes or carrying a rabbit.
The videos have become central to the motive authorities have settled on for the shooting: Aghdam’s anger with the policies of YouTube – the world’s biggest online video website.
Nasim Aghdam, who was in her late 30s, posted the videos under the online name Nasime Sabz, and a website in that name decried YouTube’s policies, saying the company was trying to “suppress” content creators.
“Youtube filtered my channels to keep them from getting views!” one of the messages said. “There is no equal growth opportunity on YOUTUBE or any other video sharing site, your channel will grow if they want to!!!!!”
People who post on YouTube can receive money from advertisements that accompany their videos, but the company “de-monetizes” some channels for reasons including inappropriate material or having fewer than 1,000 subscribers.
YouTube had no comment about any actions related to Aghdam’s videos.
Nasim Aghdam also ran a Farsi-language public channel on the messaging app Telegram, which had 6,000 followers. Telegram reportedly has some 40 million users in Iran. In one post she says, “Internet crackdown and filtering is increasing in the West.”
Police who found Nasim Aghdam sleeping in her car early Tuesday in the city of Mountain View about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from YouTube headquarters said she was calm and said nothing about being angry with YouTube or having any plans to harm others or herself.
“It was a very normal conversation. There was nothing in her behavior that suggested anything unusual,” said Mountain View Police Chief Max Bosel.
Later that day, Aghdam went to a gun range before walking through a parking garage into a courtyard at YouTube’s campus south of San Francisco, where she opened fire with a handgun and wounded three people, police said. She then killed herself.
Two women wounded in the shooting were released Wednesday from a San Francisco hospital. The third victim, a 36-year-old man, was upgraded from critical to serious condition.
The suspect’s father, Ismail Aghdam, told the Bay Area News Group he warned police the day before the attack that his daughter was upset with how YouTube handled her videos and might be planning to go to its offices.
Police in Mountain View said they spoke to Ismail Aghdam twice after contacting the family to report finding his daughter and that he never told them she could become violent or pose a threat to YouTube employees. During her 20-minute interview with officers, Nasim Aghdam said she was having family problems and had left her home, police said.
Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on Wednesday searched two homes where Nasim Aghdam had lived – one in Menifee, which is southeast of Los Angeles, and another in 4S Ranch, north of San Diego.
Nasim Aghdam referenced a since-deactivated website, PeaceThunder, in a 2014 interview promoting veganism. The state attorney general’s website shows a charity group named PeaceThunder affiliated with Nasim Aghdan was dissolved at her request in 2011. She gave no reason but said she was its only member and the group had no assets.
John Rundell, who lives next door to the family in Menifee, said the parents, son and daughter moved from San Diego about five years ago, but he hadn’t seen Nasim Aghdam in months.
The entire family was “very, very friendly,” according to Rundell, who spoke most often with the father, an electrical contractor. Topics of conversations included Persian cooking.
“They were just perfect neighbors,” Rundell said. “If I had to pick neighbors, I’d have them all around.”
Nasim Aghdam painted the house after the family moved in and Rundell said he gave her his own paint to finish the job. She once told Rundell that her pet rabbit was unhappy and asked where he got his.
The family turned away reporters outside the family home in Menifee Wednesday. A woman named Leila who identified herself as an aunt said Nasim Aghdam was a “really good person” and had no history of mental illness. She did not give her last name.
The family later distributed a statement saying they were “in absolute shock and can’t make sense of what has happened.”
“Although no words can describe our deep pain for this tragedy, our family would like to express their utmost regret, sorrow for what has happened to innocent victims,” the statement read.
Nasim Aghdam walked onto the YouTube property through a parking garage and it’s not clear whether she encountered any security.
The company said Wednesday it will increase security at its headquarters and offices around the world.
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Kim Kardashian West Shares First Photo of Her Family
Kim Kardashian West has shared the first photo of her family.
The reality star posed with husband Kanye West, daughters North and Chicago, and son Saint in the photo, which was taken on Easter.
Kardashian wrote on Facebook : “I don’t think you really understand how hard it is to take a good family pic.” She said it was all they got before “all three kids started crying.”
The 37-year-old said she thought she also cried.
She also tweeted that while she was holding her baby, Chicago, in one hand, her other hand had ahold of Saint, who kept running away.
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Shock, Pity for Iranian-American YouTube Shooter in Tehran
Tehran residents have expressed pity and shock that an Iranian-American woman, relatively known in Iran’s social media circles, was the shooter at YouTube headquarters in California who wounded three people before killing herself.
Many said on Thursday they don’t understand what could have prompted Nasim Aghdam – who posted videos under the online name of Nasime Sabz – to resort to shooting.
Hossein Naderi, a 23-year-old art student, questioned why Aghdam chose to “live in the U.S. though she didn’t like it there.” He says: “I wish I was there to use YouTube freely.”
Aghdam also ran a Farsi-language public channel on the messaging app Telegram, which had 6,000 followers. Telegram reportedly has some 40 million users in Iran.
Hamideh Heidari, a 35-year-old veiled teacher, says Aghdam needed “psychiatric help.”
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Bollywood Star Salman Khan Convicted in Poaching Case
Bollywood star Salman Khan was convicted Thursday of poaching rare deer in a wildlife preserve two decades ago and sentenced to five years in prison.
The busy actor contends he did not shoot the two blackbuck deer in the western India preserve in 1998 and was acquitted in related cases.
He was in court for the ruling in the western city of Jodhpur on Thursday. He is expected to be taken to a local prison while his attorneys appeal the conviction and seek bail, which could take days.
Four other stars also accused in the case, Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabu and Neelam, were acquitted by Chief Judicial Magistrate Dev Kumar Khatri. They were in the jeep that Salman Khan was believed to be driving during the hunt. Tabu and Neelam both use just one name.
Khan had been sentenced to prison terms of between one and five years in related cases before being acquitted by appeals courts for lack of evidence.
The blackbuck is an endangered species protected under the Indian Wildlife Act.
Khan has had other brushes with the law.
In 2014, the Mumbai High Court acquitted him in a drunken-driving, hit-and-run case.
The judges found that prosecutors had failed to prove charges of culpable homicide, in which they accused Khan of driving while intoxicated in 2002 and running over five men sleeping on a sidewalk, killing one of them.
The government of Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, has challenged his acquittal in the Supreme Court.
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High-Tech Treadmill Uses Virtual Reality to Encourage Cardiovascular Fitness
Virtual reality, or VR, is finding more applications as the technology matures. It is no longer only used for gaming or entertainment. One Austin-based company is using VR to improve health by making cardiovascular workouts more fun. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details.
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Surgeon General: More Americans Should Carry Overdose Antidote
The nation’s chief doctor wants more Americans to start carrying the overdose antidote naloxone to help combat the nation’s opioid crisis and save lives.
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams is expected to speak about the new public health advisory Thursday morning at the National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit in Atlanta.
In a news release, Adams said he hopes those who are at risk, as well as their friends and family members, will keep the antidote on hand and learn how to use it.
“Each day we lose 115 Americans to an opioid overdose, that’s one person every 12.5 minutes,” Adams said in a statement. “It is time to make sure more people have access to this lifesaving medication, because 77 percent of opioid overdose deaths occur outside of a medical setting and more than half occur at home.”
Fatal opioid overdoses
More than 42,000 Americans suffered fatal opioid overdoses in 2016, his statement said.
Naloxone can restore a person’s breathing after it is injected or sprayed in the nostrils, quickly bringing overdose victims back from near-death.
The drug, which, is often referred to by the brand name Narcan, is available over the counter in most states and is regularly used by first responders across the country. A two-dose pack of Narcan is among many options available and the drug is increasingly covered by insurance, according to The Network for Public Health Law, a nonprofit that helps government agencies.
As of July 2017, all 50 states have passed laws improving naloxone access, the nonprofit said.
A safety net?
Maine’s Republican Gov. Paul LePage has been one of the most outspoken opponents of the push, arguing that naloxone doesn’t treat addiction and merely discourages people from seeking treatment by essentially offering a safety net if they do overdose.
Proponents, however, argue that greater access to naloxone doesn’t draw people to illegal drug use or foster an addiction.
“To manage opioid addiction and prevent future overdoses, increased naloxone availability must occur in conjunction with expanded access to evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder,” Adams said in a statement.
Adams’ recommendation for more people to possess naloxone comes a month after Philadelphia’s health department urged residents to do the same.
Before his current role, Adams had been Indiana’s health commissioner, where he promoted needle-exchange programs aimed at stemming the spread of diseases among intravenous drug users.
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Australia Begins Privacy Investigation into Facebook
Australia’s Privacy Commissioner said on Thursday she had opened a formal investigation into social media giant Facebook Inc after the company confirmed data from 300,000 Australian users may have been used without authorization.
The investigation will consider whether Facebook has breached Australia’s privacy laws, Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk said in a statement.
Facebook said on Wednesday that the personal information of up to 87 million users, mostly in the United States, may have been improperly shared with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, up from a previous news media estimate of more than 50 million.
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Trump Administration Seeks to Temper China Trade War Fears
President Donald Trump said Wednesday the United States is not in a trade war with China, after Beijing announced plans to impose tariffs on $50 billion worth of U.S. goods in response to a similar package announced by the United States.
In a Twitter post Wednesday, Trump contended, “We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the U.S.” He added, “Now we have a Trade Deficit of $500 Billion a year, with Intellectual Property Theft of another $300 Billion. We cannot let this continue!”
On the same day, White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Bloomberg News, “None of the tariffs have been put in place yet, and these are all proposals.”
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told CNBC, “Even shooting wars end with negotiations. … So it wouldn’t be surprising at all if the net outcome of all this is some sort of negotiation.”
Tit-for-tat trade spat
Since the start of this week, the United States and China have been engaging in a tit-for-tat trade spat. On Monday, in response to earlier tariffs on steel and aluminum imposed by the Trump administration, China started tariffs of up to 25 percent on 128 U.S. products, including fruits, nuts, pork, wine, steel and aluminum.
Later the same day, the U.S. Trade Representatives (USTR) proposed to increase tariffs on 1,300 imported goods from China, mostly aerospace, medical and information technology products.
Less than 12 hours later, China announced it plans to impose retaliatory duties of 25 percent on 106 politically sensitive American goods, including soybeans, automobiles and aircraft.
The proposed list is now entering a “public notice and comment process, including a hearing,” the USTR said. After this process is completed, the USTR will issue a final determination on the products subject to the additional duties.
China’s commerce ministry said the question of when the measures will go into effect will depend on when the U.S. tariffs become active.
China’s Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai told reporters on Wednesday, “Negotiation would still be our preference, but it takes two to tango. We will see what the U.S. will do.”
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders reiterated at Wednesday’s press briefing that this measure is now going through the review process, and “it will be a couple of months before tariffs on either side would go into effect and be implemented.”
“We’re hopeful China will do the right thing. Look, China created the problem, not President Trump. We’re finally having a president who’s willing to stand up and say enough is enough, we’re going to stop the unfair trade practices,” Sanders said.
She also warned if China doesn’t stop the unfair trade practices, the administration will move forward to the next step.
Already in a trade war
Scott Kennedy, deputy director of the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he believes that the U.S. and China are already in a trade war.
“It started several weeks ago when the United States instituted penalties on Chinese steel and aluminum, and then the Chinese responded with penalties that also went into effect, so we haven’t just put our guns on the table, we’ve actually pulled the trigger. In the last few days, we’ve announced additional tariffs that will come into effect in the coming weeks. If this isn’t a trade war, I don’t know what one is,” Kennedy told VOA.
Farming first to be hit
At the frontline of this war is America’s farming industry.
China, which buys nearly $20 billion in U.S. agricultural products annually, has become one of the most important export markets for U.S. farmers, but many agricultural products, including soybeans, cotton, frozen beef and sorghum, will be subject to tariffs if it goes into effect.
American Farm Bureau Federation Policy Communications Director Will Rodger told VOA, “Right now, we export about 20 percent of what we produce. We are very, very dependent on exports. We are looking at 25 percent being placed on soybeans into China.
“The actual economic impact will not be good, it will certainly be bad, the question is how large it’s going to be, we don’t know exactly,” Rodger said.
He said farm income is already at a 16-year low, resulting in many farmers in economic distress.
“While we haven’t reached the crisis point, we have one or two more years of declining income, we will be there pretty quickly,” he noted.
Rodger said the current trade dispute is obviously not a good thing.
“We need it to stop, we need China and the United States to sit down and come up with a reasonable agreement in a reasonable fashion,” he added.
Losses in the short term
If the tariffs go into effect, China trade expert Kennedy pointed out, there will be potential job losses by the reduced export opportunities, but the most important impact in the short term will be on the financial markets.
Kennedy said the trade dispute between the U.S. and China is not about how fast this is resolved, but the way it is resolved.
“The issues the Trump administration has raised are issues American presidents have raised with China for almost two decades now, and not made the progress that they want. We shouldn’t be looking for a quick deal and put this behind us, we should be ready for a sustained level of tension until China relents,” he said.
Kennedy said China won’t do that easily.
“China has an economic governance system which is distinctive and critical to the way the Communist Party runs the country, so it’s going to take a lot for them to move fundamentally,” he said.
“The two sides may make some type of short term deal to address superficially the challenges, but this is not something that will go away in the next few weeks,” Kennedy added.
State Department correspondent Nike Ching contributed to this report.
your ads here!Wall Street Closes Higher as China Tariff Fears Ease
Wall Street’s three major indexes staged a comeback to close around 1 percent higher Wednesday as investors turned their focus to earnings and away from a trade conflict between the United States and China that
wreaked havoc in earlier trading.
After investors fled equities in the morning because of proposed retaliatory tariffs from China, their concerns about a potential trade war eased by the afternoon after President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said the administration was in a “negotiation” with China rather than a trade war.
Investors said they were comforted by the fact that any tariffs would not take effect immediately, if at all.
Strategists also cited the Standard & Poor’s bounce above a key technical
support level and said they expected equities to rise further around the first-quarter earnings season, due to start in mid-April.
“We’re starting to feel that while markets hate uncertainty, Trump’s bark is worse than his bite when it comes to trade,” said Robert Phipps, a director at Per Stirling Capital Management in Austin, Texas.
“It’s earnings that’s going to lift us off this bottom. It wouldn’t shock me if we chopped around sideways for a little bit before earnings season. … The trade stuff is really a sideshow. We’re waiting for real economic data, like the jobs report Friday, and for earnings. For now, it’s going to be all about the technicals,” he said.
A rebound
The S&P opened below its 200-day moving average, a key technical level, but inched above it as the session progressed, and by afternoon was in positive territory.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 230.94 points, or 0.96 percent, to close at 24,264.30; the S&P 500 gained 30.24 points, or 1.16 percent, to 2,644.69; and the Nasdaq Composite added 100.83 points, or 1.45 percent, to 7,042.11.
The turnaround marked the first time the S&P had showed gains for two consecutive days since early March.
Despite big swings in stocks, trading activity in U.S. equity options was muted as expectations for strong corporate earnings quelled the urge to load up on contracts that benefit from a surge in market volatility.
The CBOE Volatility Index, the most widely followed barometer of expected near-term volatility for the S&P 500, closed down 1.04 points at 20.06.
The technology sector rose 1.4 percent with only two of its stocks ending the day in negative territory, including Facebook Inc., which was pummeled after news its chief executive would testify in Congress over a data privacy scandal.
It too closed well off its session low with a 0.6 percent drop to $155.10.
Boeing was the biggest drag on the Dow because of its exposure to China, and ended the day well off its session lows with a 1 percent decline to $327.44 after falling as low as $311.88.
Farm machinery company Deere & Co ended down 2.9 percent at $148.57 as it could be hurt by China tariffs if its customers’ exports are curbed.
After being a laggard for much of the session, the S&P 500’s industrials sector turned positive late in the day to close 0.4 percent higher.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 2.19-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.95-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted one new 52-week high and eight new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 40 new highs and 94 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.04 billion shares, compared with the 7.3 billion average for the last 20 trading days.
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After 35 Years, First Cinema to Reopen in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia’s first movie theater in more than 35 years will open on April 18 in the capital Riyadh.
AMC Entertainment, the world’s largest movie theater chain, said Wednesday it has been granted the license to open up to 40 theaters in 15 Saudi cities over the next five years.
The deeply conservative Muslim kingdom had some cinemas in the 1970s but its powerful clerics managed to force them to close.
The theaters won’t initially be segregated by gender like most Saudi public spaces, AMC’s chief executive officer Adam Aron said. But there might be some show times set aside exclusively for single gender audiences.
The move to reopen cinemas is part of a modernization drive by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmon, who is seeking to boost domestic spending in an era of low oil prices.
Saudi Arabians are avid consumers of Western media and culture. Despite the cinema ban, Hollywood films and recent television series are widely watched at home and discussed.
To serve a population of more than 32 million, the majority of whom are under the age of 30, Saudi Arabia wants to set up around 350 movie theaters with more than 2,500 screens by 2030, which it hopes will attract nearly $1 billion in annual box office sales.
your ads here!Graceland Opens Vault for Elvis Documentary to Air on HBO
A new television documentary about Elvis Presley takes advantage of the vast collection of footage, pictures, documents and music from his estate to give a behind-the-scenes look at the king of rock ‘n’ roll.
“Elvis Presley: The Searcher,” a two-part, three-hour documentary, will premiere April 14 on HBO. Director Thom Zimny, who worked on several Bruce Springsteen documentaries, had full access to Graceland’s vault and made ample use of it to unearth little-seen footage.
“That was one of the exciting parts because every day I was discovering new gems of Elvis Presley’s archives,” Zimny said.
“He came up with pieces of footage that Priscilla and I had never seen before, and we grew up with Elvis,” said Jerry Schilling, one of Elvis’ longtime friends and an executive producer on the documentary along with Priscilla Presley, his ex-wife.
Along with his family and friends, Zimny interviewed studio musicians, producers, engineers and directors, as well as artists like Springsteen, Tom Petty and Emmylou Harris. Zimny uses only voiceovers for the narration instead of seeing the interviewees’ faces to keep the focus on the music and footage of Elvis over his career.
“Most documentaries, you see people talking, and I think that takes you out of the film,” Priscilla Presley said. “So you do get distracted, where here, you take on the flow, you can see what’s going on visually and you’re not taken out of that moment, and I think that’s brilliant.”
Zimny makes heavy use of footage from Elvis’ 1968 television special, considered his comeback to music after a long period of movie acting.
“He had been out of performing for years, almost 10 years,” Presley said. “This to him was the make or break of his career.”
Zimny said he had no limitations on addressing any aspect of Elvis’ career, and the film does touch on the controlling influence of his manager Colonel Tom Parker as well as Elvis’ prescription drug abuse.
Priscilla said Presley began using prescription drugs when he was given them during his Army stint. Even after years of using medications, she said Elvis never realized his addiction.
“He didn’t think he was addicted,” Presley said. “It was a part of his life, really. There was no Betty Ford. There were no rehab centers. But he didn’t think he had to go to a rehab center. There were prescribed to him. The doctors knew what they were giving to him. So that was pretty much a part of his life.”
Presley said there’s still a lot for music fans to learn about the star, who died in 1977.
“He was in uncharted territories,” Presley said. “There was no other that reached the heights that he did as far as changing style, changing music.”
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Female Shooter Targets YouTube Headquarters
Police say a woman shooter entered YouTube headquarters in California Tuesday and wounded at least three people before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Mike O’Sullivan reports, the shooter’s motive is unknown.
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