Climate change is turning Israel into a permanent wintering ground for some of the 500 million migrating birds that used to stop over briefly before flying on to the warm plains of Africa, Israeli experts say.

The birds now prefer to stay longer in cooler areas rather than cross into Africa, where encroaching deserts and frequent droughts have made food more scarce.

“In the last few decades Israel has become more than just a short stopover because many more birds and a greater number of species can no longer cross the desert,” said ornithologist Shay Agmon, avian coordinator for the wetlands park of Agamon Hula in northern Israel.

“They will stay here for longer and eventually the whole pattern of migration will change,” he said.

Cranes are one of the most abundant species to visit the Hula wetlands and Agmon said that the number that prefer to stay in Israel until the end of March has risen from less than 1,000 in the 1950s to some 45,000 currently.

Although migrating birds are a welcome attraction for ornithologists and tourists, their hunger for food from crop fields makes them a menace to farmers.

Workers at the lush Hula reserve, which lies in the Syrian-African Rift Valley, have lured the birds from surrounding fields by feeding them at the wetlands site and offering them a far more comfortable existence.

“It’s harder for the birds to cross a much larger desert and they just cannot do it. There is not enough fuel, there are not enough ‘gas stations’ on the way, so Israel has became their biggest ‘gas station,’ their biggest restaurant,” Agmon said.

Yossi Leshem, a zoology professor at Tel Aviv University and bird expert, cautioned that changes in migration patterns were also affecting the global food cycle because birds eat insects and also protect crops.

“If birds are not present, farmers will have to use more pesticides, which costs more money, kills birds, damages soil and contaminates the water. If one part of the environment is affected, the others collapse in a domino effect,” Leshem said.

Agmon said that because fewer species will be able to survive in traditional wintering grounds and more will spend winter further north, permanent human intervention will become ever more important in assisting nature.

“We will have to deal with it all the time. We will be in charge of the health and wellness of every species around us,” he said.
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From: MeNeedIt

Diplomats are searching for ways to prevent the global trade dispute resolution system from freezing up, after the Trump administration blocked appointments to the body that acts as the supreme court for global trade.

U.S. President Donald Trump has vetoed the appointment of judges to fill vacancies on the seven-member Apellate Body of the World Trade Organization, which provides final decisions in arguments between countries over trade.

“Members are already having a conversation about what to do with this situation,” WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo told reporters. “They are floating ideas, they are discussing. We have to see how that evolves.”

The WTO normally has seven judges and needs three to sign off on every appeal ruling. But two have left and another goes in December, leaving only four — just one above the minimum — to deal with a growing backlog of trade disputes.

Azevedo said he did not think the situation was a threat to the WTO’s survival but it was already having an impact, and the longer it went on the more acutely it would be felt.

In a confidential note sent to all WTO members on Monday, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, the Appellate Body said departing judges would continue working after they left on appeals filed before their terms ended. The United States has objected to that practice in the past.

Appointments to the Appellate Body are meant to be unanimously agreed by all 164 members, like all decisions at the WTO. The fine print says the WTO can switch to majority voting if necessary, but diplomats are reluctant to do that for fear of unravelling a system that relies on consensus as a bulwark to protectionism.

Azevedo said the Trump administration had made clear it had misgivings about the way the world trade system has functioned, although it had not linked any specific demands for reform with the decision to halt appointments to the appeals panel.

The Trump administration has not publicly explained why it is blocking the appointment of judges to the trade panel. The U.S. mission to the WTO in Geneva declined to comment.

‘True emergency’

Several trade experts said the move seemed to fit Trump’s ideology of favoring bilateral trade deals over the multi-lateral system embodied by the WTO.

Pieter Jan Kuijper, professor of law at the University of Amsterdam, said Trump’s trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, preferred the pre-WTO practice of negotiating the outcome of trade disputes rather than being bound by WTO rulings.

Although Trump regularly says Washington has been hurt by trade disputes, WTO experts mainly say the United States has actually been a big winner at the WTO. But negotiating the outcome of trade disputes rather than leaving them to judges might tip the balance further in Washington’s favor.

Kuijper compared Trump’s stance to that of Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe killing off the court of the Southern African Development Community by blocking new judges when the court became too troublesome.

“That example doesn’t make one optimistic,” he said. “We are in a true emergency where we should take into account that the end of the Appellate Body may come, either by design or by accident.”

Possible solutions

At a panel discussion Monday for trade officials and diplomats, Kuijper and other trade experts discussed possible ways to avert a crisis if more vacancies come open.

One solution would be to switch to majority voting for appointing judges. Another would be for the judges to change their own working procedures, refusing to take any more appeals until there are more judges.

Nicolas Lockhart, a trade lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP, suggested the WTO could use its arbitration process more to resolve disputes and rely less on appeals.

All three approaches have drawbacks, including the risk of further alienating the United States.

“A process that could lead to a situation where the United States leaves the WTO in a huff is actually a situation where everyone loses, and the last thing we should be aiming for,” said Alice Tipping, a former New Zealand trade diplomat now at the International Center for Trade and Sustainable Development.
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From: MeNeedIt

Britain’s Prince Harry is officially engaged to American actress Meghan Markle.

Harry’s father, Prince Charles, made the announcement in a statement Monday.

“His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales is delighted to announce the engagement of Prince Harry to Ms. Meghan Markle.”

The statement said the wedding will take place in Spring 2018 and “Further details about the wedding day will be announced in due course.”

The couple became engaged in London earlier this month, according to the statement.

Harry “informed The Queen and other close members of his family,” the announcement said, and “. . . also sought and received the blessing of Ms. Markle’s parents.”

An official announcement had been expected after Markle said in a recent interview in Vanity Fair about her relationship with Harry:  “We’re a couple. We’re in love.”

Markle’s parents also released a statement, saying “We are incredibly happy for Meghan and Harry. Our daughter has always been a kind and loving person. To see her union with Harry, who shares the same qualities, is a source of great joy for us as parents.”

Markle’s parents, Thomas Markle and Doris Ragland, are divorced.

Markle is best-known for her work in the television drama Suits.

She is a Global Ambassador for World Vision Canada, which campaigns for better education, food and healthcare for children around the world. As well as her humanitarian work, she is known for campaigning for gender equality.

She was married briefly in 2011 to film producer Trevor Engelson, but they split two years later.

The prince and the actress made their first public appearance in September at the Invictus Games in Toronto, a sports event for wounded veterans.

Last year, Harry, who is fifth in line to the throne, issued a statement decrying the media coverage of his girlfriend, condemning the “outright racism and sexism of social media trolls and web article comments,” as well as the racial stereotypes used in some newspapers.

Markle is bi-racial. Her father is white. Her mother is black.
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From: MeNeedIt

Guillermo Miranda Vazquez starts his day in a parking lot near the Home Depot where he easily finds work alongside other day laborers who are cleaning up Houston after Hurricane Harvey.

Some days, he clears rotted drywall and hauls out furniture and carpet destroyed by Harvey’s floodwaters. Other days, he chops fallen trees or helps to lay the foundations for new homes. He ventures daily into homes wearing a T-shirt, work pants and tennis shoes, often while surrounded by the pungent stench and raw sewage that flowed into homes during the flooding.

“I always wash and scrub myself, and I use alcohol or something similar so that I don’t get infected,” said Miranda, a native of Guatemala. “I haven’t gotten sick yet.”

Hundreds of day laborers like Miranda have quietly become an integral part of the recovery from Harvey, toiling in dangerous conditions amid the fear of being picked up by immigration authorities.

Harvey damaged or destroyed 200,000 homes and flooded much of Houston and smaller coastal communities with record amounts of rain and high winds. In a construction industry that already had labor shortages before the storm, it created a massive demand for the kind of work that day laborers have long performed after hurricanes and tropical storms.

Day laborers interviewed by The Associated Press said they’ve been hired by a mix of individual homeowners, work crews from out of state, and subcontractors working on residential and commercial buildings. Mostly immigrants, they operate in plain sight, gathering early in the morning in parking lots near construction stores and gas stations, and waiting to be offered work.

Advocates from the National Day Laborer Organizing Network recently fanned out to these sites with pens and clipboards to survey the workers about the conditions they’re experiencing. Interviews suggested most are routinely exposed to mold and contamination, and aren’t aware of legal protections they have even if they’re not in the country legally. Advocates have been passing out flyers with information and holding worker trainings.

About a quarter of the more than 350 workers surveyed said they had been denied wages promised for cleanup work after Harvey, sometimes by employers who abandoned them at work sites after they had completed a job, according to a report on the survey by Nik Theodore, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Around 85 percent had not received safety training.

More than 70 percent of the day laborers are in the U.S. illegally, some of them having previously been deported, the survey found. Their wages have stayed at around $100 a day, according to the survey, though some individual laborers said they were being paid more after the hurricane.

The problems they face have cropped up after every major recent storm. Day laborers were an integral part of Houston’s rebuilding after Hurricane Ike in 2008 and more recent storms that flooded neighborhoods in 2015 and 2016. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, one survey found that workers without legal authorization were being paid less and were less likely to have protective equipment than those who were in the country legally.

But while the federal government temporarily suspended some work-authorization laws after Katrina, the Trump administration ramped up immigration-related arrests this year and resumed field operations after Harvey. And Texas this year passed a law that prohibits police departments from stopping their officers from asking people about their legal status or cooperating with federal immigration authorities. Much of the law took effect a month after Harvey hit, when an appeals court overruled a federal judge’s ruling against it.

Martin Mares, a native of Mexico who settled in Houston in 1995, said he’s not worried about police stopping him or turning him over to immigration authorities while in the city, which joined several others in fighting the new law in court. But he said he’s concerned about working in the suburbs or outlying areas, where law enforcement was more supportive of it.

The demand for labor has also drawn in people who are unaccustomed to the work and untrained in basic safety measures, Mares said. He recently saw a pregnant woman cleaning an apartment building that had flooded without wearing gloves.

“People don’t analyze it. They don’t see the consequences,” Mares said. “They go to work without knowing whether the business will even pay them.”

In Houston, which has an estimated 600,000 residents who are in the country illegally, community leaders worry about the impact of immigration policies on worker safety. Even day laborers without legal residency are entitled to federal protections against wage theft and safety hazards.

“These people are scared,” said Stan Marek, who owns a Houston-based construction company and has long pushed for a program to legalize workers. “They’re not going to go to the police if they get robbed. It’s a formula for disaster in our community.”

Sitting on the curb outside the Home Depot recently, Miranda said he has often dealt with employers — or “patrones” — who didn’t pay what they promised, but that he hadn’t reported anyone to the police.

“This is a country where I’m here as an immigrant. I don’t have anything,” Miranda said. “The day they catch me, they’ll deport me.”

 
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From: MeNeedIt

Chuey Quintanar has been creating art on living canvas for more than 20 years. A friend gave him a tattoo machine when he was 14 years old, and he has been tattooing ever since.

“When I started tattooing, they were still looking at it (tattoos) as a bad thing, but I always saw tattoo as an art form,” Los Angeles tattoo artist Quintanar said.

When a museum asked him to contribute a piece to the traveling exhibit called Tattoo, he realized something more positive was evolving from the older stereotypes.

WATCH: Tattoo history

“It’s like a dream to be in a prestigious museum,” Quintanar said.

“This exhibition is one of the very first exhibitions on tattoo that come from people from the tattoo culture. All the other ones, and there have been a number of them, were put together by doctors or criminologists,” Stéphane Martin, president of the Musée du Quai Branly, said.

Self-identity

More recently, having a tattoo has been associated with the criminal element, and as a way for gang members to self-identify.

Now, though, it has become common for A-list celebrities to show off their inked bodies, and tattoos have become mainstream in many cultures. 

The Tattoo exhibit at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County shows the long and varied history of tattoos. It transports visitors through thousands of years of tattoos, spanning myriad continents and cultures.

“It’s basically a universal impulse and practice,” said Gretchen Baker, vice president of exhibitions at the museum.

“There’s lots of reasons that people may have tattooed in the past, and certainly tattoo today — whether it’s to mark a rite of passage, mark a moment in time that’s important to them, or simply to put something beautiful on your body that matters to you,” Baker noted.

Through photos and videos, the exhibit shows examples of the many reasons why people go through the painful process. One video, taken during the annual Thai festival of Wai Kru, shows how tattoos seemingly embody magic.

“Tattoo has a strong spiritual and religious purpose in a lot of cultures where the tattoos themselves have a power,” Baker said.

Defiance, shame, honor

A tattoo also can be a sign of defiance, shame or honor.

“Tattoos [existed] everywhere, in every continent for two main reasons,” Musée du Quai Branly head Martin said.

“One was for adornment and making you different and proving, for example, your lineage or your connection with your tribe or with a kingdom — but also for punishment. One of the main uses of tattooing was to mark people down and to exclude them, to punish them, like the Greek, the Roman, Japanese for example,” he added.

Martin said a traditional tattoo often was not one of choice, but rather was decided upon by a family for the person. Now, of course, a person can choose what, where and when to tattoo onto one’s body.

The exhibit also features close to 280 square meters of space dedicated to the history of the tattoo scene in Los Angeles.

Baker said it started with the Pike, a waterfront amusement park, in Long Beach, a city that had a naval presence located south of Los Angeles.

“The Pike became a place where all the sailors are coming home from Asia, and they were kind of exchanging tattoos that they had received when they were in Asia,” she said.

The Pike was a popular place for L.A.’s early tattoo scene. The “black and gray” tattoo style of that era emerged from East Los Angeles, which remains largely Latino.

“The black and gray style — the Chicano style — that’s the style that I do,” Quintanar said.

He said he had always seen tattoos as art, and now his view has become widely accepted. “I wanted to show my art to the world and what better place to do it than at a museum.”
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From: MeNeedIt

The U.N. child agency said Sunday that it has flown 1.9 million doses of vaccines to war-torn Yemen, its first aid delivery since a Saudi-led coalition fighting Shiite rebels tightened a sea and air blockade earlier this month.

Regional UNICEF director Geert Cappelaere described Saturday’s shipment as a “very small step” at a time of immense need and warned that it must not be a one-off.

The coalition had promised to reopen Yemen’s main airport in the capital of Sana’a and the Red Sea port of Hodeida to humanitarian traffic by late last week.

However, two UNICEF vessels carrying food, water purification tables and medicines heading to Hodeida have not yet received clearance to dock, Cappelaere said.

“We hope all will live up to their promises,” Cappelaere told reporters in the Jordanian capital of Amman. “These supplies are urgently needed.”

More than 11 million children in Yemen are in dire need of aid, and it is estimated that every 10 minutes a child in Yemen dies of a preventable disease, he said.

New alarms were raised by an outbreak of diphtheria, with suspected cases already reported in five governorates, said Cappelaere. Cholera and acute watery diarrhea spread rapidly in recent months, including among children, with close to 1 million suspected cases reported.

“The war in Yemen is sadly a war on children,” he said. “Yemen is facing the worst humanitarian crisis I have ever seen in my life.”

Yemenis have endured an intensified 2-1/2-year war.

It involves Iranian-backed Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, who control many population centers in western Yemen, and an internationally recognized government that has the backing of Saudi Arabia and several other key Persian Gulf states.

The Saudi-led coalition tightened its Yemen blockade on Nov. 6, in response to rebel missile fire toward the Saudi capital.

Since then, the coalition has come under growing international pressure to ease the restrictions.

Last week, it said it would reopen Sanaa airport and the port of Hodeida to humanitarian aid shipments by the end of that week.

U.N. flights to Sana’a resumed Saturday, including the shipment of vaccines.

Cappelaere said the 1.9 million doses are meant to vaccinate 600,000 children across Yemen against diphtheria, meningitis, whopping cough, pneumonia and tuberculosis.

Close to 180 cases of diphtheria have been reported in the past two months, starting from the governorate of Ibb, but spreading to four other districts.

The delivery of vaccines Saturday “cannot be a one-off,” he said, adding that many more supplies, including vaccines, are needed.

Like other aid officials in recent months, he appealed for a swift end to the war. “The absence of a political solution to the Yemeni crisis is deplorable,” he said.

Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation, has been caught up in the rivalry between regional powerhouses Saudi Arabia and Iran that has also helped fuel conflicts elsewhere, including in Syria.

 
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From: MeNeedIt

New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Las Vegas are among scores of police departments across the country quietly using a highly secretive technology developed for the military that can track the whereabouts of suspects by using the signals constantly emitted by their cellphones.

Civil liberties and privacy groups are increasingly raising objections to the suitcase-sized devices known as StingRays or cell site simulators that can sweep up cellphone data from an entire neighborhood by mimicking cell towers. Police can determine the location of a phone without the user even making a call or sending a text message. Some versions of the technology can even intercept texts and calls, or pull information stored on the phones.

Part of the problem, privacy experts say, is the devices can also collect data from anyone within a small radius of the person being tracked. And law enforcement goes to great lengths to conceal usage, in some cases, offering plea deals rather than divulging details on the StingRay.

“We can’t even tell how frequently they’re being used,” said attorney Jerome Greco, of the Legal Aid Society, which recently succeeded in blocking evidence collected with the device in a New York City murder case. “It makes it very difficult.”

At least 72 state and local law enforcement departments in 24 states plus 13 federal agencies use the devices, but further details are hard to come by because the departments that use them must take the unusual step of signing nondisclosure agreements overseen by the FBI.

An FBI spokeswoman said the agreements, which often involve the Harris Corporation, a defense contractor that makes the devices, are intended to prevent the release of sensitive law enforcement information to the general public. But the agreements don’t prevent an officer from telling prosecutors the technology was used in a case.

In New York, use of the technology was virtually unknown to the public until last year when the New York Civil Liberties Union forced the disclosure of records showing the NYPD used the devices more than 1,000 times since 2008. That included cases in which the technology helped catch suspects in kidnappings, rapes, robberies, assaults and murders. It has even helped find missing people.

But privacy experts say such gains come at too high a cost.

“We have a Fourth Amendment to the Constitution,” said Jennifer Lynch, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, referring to the protection against unreasonable search and seizure. “Our Founding Fathers decided when they wrote the Bill of Rights there had to be limits placed on government.”

Lawmakers in several states have introduced proposals ranging from warrant requirements to an outright ban on the technology; about a dozen states already have laws requiring warrants. Federal law enforcement said last year that it would be routinely required to get a search warrant before using the technology – a first effort to create a uniform legal standard for federal authorities.

And case law is slowly building. Two months ago, a Washington, D.C., appeals court overturned a conviction on a sex assault after judges ruled a violation of the Fourth Amendment because of evidence improperly collected from the simulator without a proper warrant.

In the New York murder case argued by the Legal Aid Society, a judge in Brooklyn last month ruled that the NYPD must have an eavesdropping warrant signed by a judge to use the device, a much higher bar than the “reasonable suspicion” standard that had previously been required.

“By its very nature, then, the use of a cell site simulator intrudes upon an individual’s reasonable expectation of privacy, acting as an instrument of eavesdropping and requires a separate warrant supported by probable cause,” wrote state Supreme Court Judge Martin Murphy.

New York City police officials disagreed with the ruling and disputed that a StingRay was even used in the case, even though there had been a court order to do so. Police officials also said they have since started requiring a higher stander of probable cause when applying for the devices.

Legal Aid Society’s Greco said he hoped the ruling will push the nation’s largest department into meeting the higher standard, and help judges better understand the intricacies of more cutting-edge surveillance.

“We’re hoping we can use this decision among other decisions being made across the country to show that this logic is right,” Greco said. “Part of an issue we’re facing with technology, the judges don’t understand it. It makes it easier if another judge has sat down and really thought about it.”
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From: MeNeedIt

More than six years after a tsunami overwhelmed the Fukushima nuclear power plant, Japan has yet to reach consensus on what to do with a million tons of radioactive water, stored on site in around 900 large and densely packed tanks that could spill should another major earthquake or tsunami strike.

The stalemate is rooted in a fundamental conflict between science and human nature.

Experts advising the government have urged a gradual release into the Pacific Ocean. Treatment has removed all the radioactive elements except tritium, which they say is safe in small amounts. Conversely, if the tanks break, their contents could slosh out in an uncontrolled way.

Fishermen protest

Local fishermen are balking. The water, no matter how clean, has a dirty image for consumers, they say. Despite repeated tests showing most types of fish caught off Fukushima are safe to eat, diners remain hesitant. The fishermen fear any release would sound the death knell for their nascent and still fragile recovery.

“People would shun Fukushima fish again as soon as the water is released,” said Fumio Haga, a drag-net fisherman from Iwaki, a city about 50 kilometers (30 miles) down the coast from the nuclear plant.

And so the tanks remain.

​March 11, 2011

Fall is high season for saury and flounder, among Fukushima’s signature fish. It was once a busy time of year when coastal fishermen were out every morning.

Then came March 11, 2011. A 9 magnitude offshore earthquake triggered a tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people along Japan’s northeast coast. The quake and massive flooding knocked out power for the cooling systems at the Fukushima nuclear plant. Three of the six reactors had partial meltdowns. Radiation spewed into the air, and highly contaminated water ran into the Pacific.

Today, only about half of the region’s 1,000 fishermen go out, and just twice a week because of reduced demand. They participate in a fish-testing program.

Lab technicians mince fish samples at Onahama port in Iwaki, pack them in a cup for inspection and record details such as who caught the fish and where. Packaged fish sold at supermarkets carry official “safe” stickers.

Only three kinds of fish passed the test when the experiment began in mid-2012, 15 months after the tsunami. Over time, that number has increased to about 100.

The fish meet what is believed to be the world’s most stringent requirement: less than half the radioactive cesium level allowed under Japan’s national standard and one-twelfth of the U.S. or EU limit, said Yoshiharu Nemoto, a senior researcher at the Onahama testing station.

That message isn’t reaching consumers. A survey by Japan’s Consumer Agency in October found that nearly half of Japanese weren’t aware of the tests, and that consumers are more likely to focus on alarming information about possible health impacts in extreme cases, rather than facts about radiation and safety standards.

Fewer Japanese consumers shun fish and other foods from Fukushima than before, but 1 in 5 still do, according to the survey. The coastal catch of 2,000 tons last year was 8 percent of pre-disaster levels. The deep-sea catch was half of what it used to be, though scientists say there is no contamination risk that far out.

​Not yet psychologically ready

Naoya Sekiya, a University of Tokyo expert on disaster information and social psychology, said that the water from the nuclear plant shouldn’t be released until people are well-informed about the basic facts and psychologically ready.

“A release only based on scientific safety, without addressing the public’s concerns, cannot be tolerated in a democratic society,” he said. “A release when people are unprepared would only make things worse.”

He and consumer advocacy group representative Kikuko Tatsumi sit on a government expert panel that has been wrestling with the social impact of a release and what to do with the water for more than a year, with no sign of resolution.

​More radioactive water

The amount of radioactive water at Fukushima is growing, by 150 tons a day.

The reactors are damaged beyond repair, but cooling water must be constantly pumped in to keep them from overheating. That water picks up radioactivity before leaking out of the damaged containment chambers and collecting in the basements.

There, the volume of contaminated water grows, because it mixes with groundwater that has seeped in through cracks in the reactor buildings. After treatment, 210 tons is reused as cooling water, and the remaining 150 tons is sent to tank storage. During heavy rains, the groundwater inflow increases significantly, adding to the volume.

Another government panel recommended last year that the utility, known as TEPCO, dilute the water up to about 50 times and release about 400 tons daily to the sea — a process that would take almost a decade to complete. Experts note that the release of radioactive tritium water is allowed at other nuclear plants.

Tritium water from the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in the United States was evaporated, but the amount was much smaller, and still required 10 years of preparation and three more years to complete.

A new chairman at TEPCO, Takashi Kawamura, caused an uproar in the fishing community in April when he expressed support for moving ahead with the release of the water.

The company quickly backpedaled, and now says it has no plans for an immediate release and can keep storing water through 2020. TEPCO says the decision should be made by the government, because the public doesn’t trust the utility.

“Our recovery effort up until now would immediately collapse to zero if the water is released,” Iwaki abalone farmer Yuichi Manome said.

Some experts have proposed moving the tanks to an intermediate storage area, or delaying the release until at least 2023, when half the tritium that was present at the time of the disaster will have disappeared naturally.
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From: MeNeedIt

Wildfires that swept through Northern California in early October killed 42 people, destroyed hundreds of homes, and caused an estimated $6 billion in damage to the region. The fires have also frozen an income stream the region relies on: tourism. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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From: MeNeedIt

Brazil’s President Michel Temer is recovering after undergoing a successful angioplasty in three coronary arteries.

The presidential palace said Saturday that at least one stent was implanted in the procedure late Friday. It said Temer was recuperating in a hospital in Sao Paulo.

The 77-year-old president was admitted to the hospital on Friday night to have a coronary catheter inserted. That’s typically a procedure to check for blockages in arteries.

Earlier this year, Temer was diagnosed with a partial coronary obstruction. His office had said he planned to treat it with aspirin and a low-fat diet.

Temer also underwent a urological exam on Friday. Last month, he had surgery to reduce the size of his prostate after doctors diagnosed a urological blockage.
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From: MeNeedIt

A major London bookmaker has suspended betting on whether Prince Harry will marry American actress Meghan Markle in 2018 amid rumors an engagement may be announced soon.

Jessica Bridge of Ladbrokes said Friday that it seems an engagement announcement “is to be confirmed imminently.”

The bookmaker has stopped taking bets on a 2018 royal wedding after Markle was seen shopping in London this week.

The British press has reported that Markle has met in private with Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.

The couple has been dating for more than a year, and Harry has asked the press to grant them a certain amount of privacy.

Markle is believed to be in the process of moving to London.

Palace officials say they will not comment on the rumors.
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From: MeNeedIt

Chinese street barber Xiong Gaowu deftly scrapes a straight razor along the inside of his customer’s eyelid.

“You should be gentle, very, very gentle,” said Xiong, who performs traditional eyelid shaves at his roadside location in Chengdu, the capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan.

Customers swear by the practice of “blade wash eyes,” as it is known in Mandarin, saying they trust Xiong’s skill with the blade.

“No, it’s not dangerous,” said 68-year-old Zhang Tian. “My eyes feel refreshed after shaving and I feel comfortable.”

Xiong, 62, said he learned the technique in the 1980s and serves up to eight customers a week, charging 80 yuan ($12) per shave.

“It was difficult at the beginning, but it became a piece of cake afterwards,” he said.

Risk of infection

The technique appears to unblock moisturizing sebaceous glands along the rim of the eyelid, said Qu Chao, an opthalmologist who works at a nearby hospital in Chengdu.

“Patients will feel their eyes are dry and uncomfortable when the glands are blocked,” she said. “When he is shaving, it is most likely that he is shaving the openings of these glands.”

She said there was a risk of infection if the equipment was not sterilized.

“If he can properly sterilize the tools that he uses, I can still see there is a space for this technique to survive,” Qusaid.

Onlookers unsure

While customers insisted their eyes felt better after a shave, onlookers cringed at the sight of Xiong wielding his razor.

“I am afraid to do it,” said He Yiting, 27, who winced as she watched.
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From: MeNeedIt