The European Union insisted Tuesday that Brexit negotiations with Britain will not move on to the question of future relations until enough progress has been made on divorce issues, such as how much the country’s exit bill should be.

Britain desperately wants talks to move on to future trade and security arrangements but EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that more needs to be done on the withdrawal issues first.

Juncker told the European Parliament that “we have not made the sufficient progress needed” and the legislators backed him, approving a resolution underscoring the same point with a vote of 557 to 92 with 29 abstentions. It further underscored the unity of the 27 EU nations as they face off with Britain in the talks.

The EU wants London to commit to guaranteeing the rights of EU citizens already in Britain, making sure border posts do not reappear between the U.K.’s Northern Ireland and Ireland itself and pay up for everything it had agreed to while it was a member.

Juncker said “the taxpayers in the EU 27 should not pay for the British decision” to leave, while the bloc’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said “serious differences remain” on how many bills the U.K. still has to settle. Estimates vary widely from 20 billion euros ($27 billion) to over three times that amount.

“Serious rifts remain, especially on the financial settlement,” Barnier said. “We will not pay at 27 what has been decided at 28, it is simple as that.”

The parliamentary resolution called for postponing any move to widen the talks with Britain unless “a major breakthrough” takes place during the fifth round of negotiations in Brussels next week.

Observers said decisive progress was highly unlikely. Tuesday’s moves further dampened hopes that the EU leaders might give the green light to an expansion in the talks at a summit on Oct 19-20.

Many lawmakers were also dismissive of Britain’s Conservative government, which is widely seen as insecure and bumbling.

The head of the biggest party group in the European Parliament called for the sacking of British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson for stoking confusion over the Brexit talks.

The European People’s Party chairman, Manfred Weber, appealed to Prime Minister Theresa May: “Please sack Johnson, because we need a clear answer who is responsible for the British position.”

Weber turned Henry Kissinger’s famous observation about the many leaders in the EU onto Britain: “Who shall I call in London? Who speaks for the government? Theresa May, Boris Johnson, or even (Brexit negotiator) David Davis?”

Others are speculating that Britain might actually be stalling to make sure that the member states that trade heavily with the U.K. would buckle and concede at the last moment, sowing discord among the 27.

EPP member Tom Vandenkendelaere said the strong backing of the resolution proved differently. “If the Brits they can play their old divide-and-rule game, they’d better think again,” he said.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Scientists Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish and Kip Thorne have won the Nobel Prize in physics for their work in detecting gravitational waves.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the award Tuesday along with its $1.1 million prize.

Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity predicted the existence of gravitational waves that are created anytime a mass accelerates, but it was not until recently that the waves were actually observed.

Weiss, Barish and Thorne were key figures in the work done by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), which measures tiny disturbances the waves make to space and time as they pass through the Earth.

LIGO made the world’s first-ever detection of gravitational waves in 2015. Scientists say those waves were produced as two black holes collided and merged into a single, massive black hole.
…

From: MeNeedIt

After several years of struggling to make a living doing odd jobs in and around his village, 26-year-old Pushkar Singh came to New Delhi from the northern Uttarakhand state three months ago to hunt for a job.

The high school dropout is willing to do anything — cook, work as a security guard, a peon in an office. But not only has he failed to secure a job, he has not even got an interview so far.

“It’s a huge worry, not having work,” said a despondent Singh as he wondered how long he can continue staying with his relatives.

The hopes of young people like Singh had been fueled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise of creating millions of jobs for the country’s huge young population when he took power in 2014. Optimism rose after India won the tag of the world’s fastest growing economy. 

But the Indian economy has hit a sharp slowdown, leaving tens of thousands of people struggling to find work in mega cities like New Delhi, which are magnets for migrant labor.

The economy clocked a growth rate of 5.7 percent in the April to June quarter, its most sluggish pace in three years.

The bleak number has set alarm bells ringing and raised fears that India could struggle to return to a high growth path.

“It is a cause for concern, the economy has slowed down much more than most had expected,” said D.K. Joshi, Chief Economist at rating agency Crisil in Mumbai.

Reasons for the slowdown

The slowdown has prompted critics to accuse Modi’s government of economic mismanagement.

Most attention has turned to two major measures that have disrupted the economy in the last year. Critics have slammed the government for imposing a currency change last November to flush out illegal cash, saying it slowed down businesses amid massive currency shortages and gave an unnecessary shock to a cash dependent economy.

In July, India implemented a long overdue and widely welcomed tax reform — a goods and services tax (GST) meant to clean up a complex tax regime and make it easier to do business.

But many worry that faulty implementation and multiple tax rates have created confusion for businesses struggling with the new system.

Economists point out that the currency change and GST, coming within months of each other, have made the slowdown sharper and deeper for virtually all sectors of the economy, which had already started losing pace last year.

The impact is evident in the markets of the Indian capital, which are usually the most crowded at this time of the year. It is India’s main festive season, when consumer spending hits a high. But shop owners are disappointed because customers are not opening their wallets easily.

A usually buzzing upmarket area in New Delhi wears a deserted look. Manu Talwar, the owner of a shop selling high-end mobile phones, has been struggling to make a sale in a country counted as the world’s fastest growing smart phone market, where a new device is coveted by an aspirational generation. 

“You can see the market, it does not look like Diwali, the market is so down. Mobiles, accessories, people were crazy about it. As of now, iPhone 8 has launched, but there is no market,” said Talwar.

The government says it is looking for ways to rev up the economy — according to reports, it is considering spending billions of dollars to give investment a push.

Prime Minister Modi, seen as a business-friendly, reformist leader, recently announced the formation of a five-member panel to advise him on economic issues.

At the heart of the challenge is the need for jobs in a country where about 10 million enter the workforce every year. Modi had hoped to give manufacturing a push to create jobs for low-skill labor, but a flagship “Make in India’ program he launched to woo foreign investors has yet to show significant results. And a slowing economy means that jobs are even being lost in several sectors.

“To think of an overall manufacturing push of the kind China gave, or many East Asian economies that we observed in those economies, that does not seem to be a reality in India. There is a lot of ground to cover to reach that level,” said economist Joshi.

Officials are striking an optimistic note, calling the slowdown transitory, but economists warn recovery will be gradual.

That means Pushkar Singh’s hunt for a job and shop owner Manu Talwar’s hopes of the market picking up may not happen anytime soon.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Facebook Inc plans to hire 1,000 more people to review ads and ensure they meet its terms, as part of an effort to deter Russia and other countries from using the social media network to interfere in others’ elections, it said on Monday.

Facebook said last month that it believed people in Russia bought about 3,000 politically divisive ads on its network in the United States in the months before and after the November U.S. presidential election.

Since its disclosure, Facebook has faced questions and calls for increased U.S. regulation from U.S. authorities. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has outlined steps that the company plans to take to deter governments from abusing the social media network, the world’s largest.

In a statement on Monday, Facebook said it would add more than 1,000 people over the next year and invest more in software to flag and take down ads automatically.

“Reviewing ads means assessing not just the content of an ad, but the context in which it was bought and the intended audience – so we’re changing our ads review system to pay more attention to these signals,” the company said.

Facebook said it had 17,048 employees at the end of 2016, excluding contractors. In May, it said it would hire 3,000 more people over the following year to speed up the removal of videos showing murder, suicide and other violent acts that shocked users.

Like other companies that sell advertising space, Facebook publishes policies for what it allows, prohibiting ads that are violent, discriminate based on race or promote the sale of illegal drugs.

With more than 5 million paying advertisers, however, Facebook has difficulty enforcing all of its policies.

The company said on Monday that it would adjust its policies further “to prevent ads that use even more subtle expressions of violence.” It did not elaborate on what kind of material that would cover.

Facebook also said it would begin to require more thorough documentation from people who want to run ads about U.S. federal elections, demanding that they confirm their businesses or organizations.
…

From: MeNeedIt

U.S. factory activity surged to a more than 13-year high in September amid strong gains in new orders and raw material prices, pointing to underlying strength in the economy even as Hurricanes Harvey and Irma are expected to dent growth in the third quarter.

The economic outlook was also bolstered by other data on Monday showing a rebound in construction spending in August. The acceleration in manufacturing activity and the accompanying increase in prices could harden expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in December.

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its index of national factory activity surged to a reading of 60.8 last month, the highest reading since May 2004, from 58.8 in August.

A reading above 50 in the ISM index indicates an expansion in manufacturing, which accounts for about 12 percent of the U.S. economy. The ISM said Harvey and Irma had caused supply chain and pricing issues in the chemical products sector. There were also concerns about the disruptive impact of the storms in the food, beverage and tobacco products industries.

The hurricanes are expected to chop off as much as six-tenths of a percentage point from gross domestic product growth in the third quarter. Harvey, which pummeled Texas at the end of August, has undercut consumer spending and weighed on industrial production, homebuilding and home sales.

Further weakness is likely after Irma struck Florida in early September, causing widespread power cuts. Manufacturing outside the areas affected by the hurricanes remained strong in September. The ISM survey’s production sub-index rose 1.2 points to a reading of 62.2 in September.

A gauge of new orders jumped to 64.6 in September from 60.3 in August. Factories reported paying more for raw materials, with the survey’s prices paid index surging 9.5 point to 71.5, the highest reading since May 2011.

The dollar rose against the euro after the data. Prices for U.S. Treasuries were trading higher as were stocks on Wall Street.

Construction spending rises

In separate report Monday, the Commerce Department said construction spending rose 0.5 percent to $1.21 trillion. July’s construction outlays were revised sharply down to show a 1.2 percent plunge instead of the previously reported 0.6 percent drop. Construction spending increased 2.5 percent on a year-on-year basis.

The government said Harvey and Irma did not appear to have impacted the construction spending data as the responses from the Texas and Florida areas affected by the storms were “not significantly lower than normal.”

In August, spending on private residential projects increased 0.4 percent, rising for a fourth straight month.

Spending on nonresidential structures increased 0.5 percent, snapping two straight monthly declines.

In the wake of Harvey and Irma, nonresidential construction spending could fall in September. According to the Commerce Department, Texas and Florida accounted for 22 percent of U.S. private nonresidential construction spending in 2016.

Investment in nonresidential structures such as oil and gas wells has been slowing as the boost from recovering oil prices fizzles. Private construction projects spending increased 0.4 percent in August.

Outlays on public construction projects rebounded 0.7 percent in August after slumping 3.3 percent in July. Spending on state and local government construction projects increased 1.1 percent in August. Gains in September are likely to be curbed by the hurricanes.

Texas and Florida accounted for 15 percent of U.S. state-and-locally owned construction spending in 2016, according to the Commerce Department.

Federal government construction spending tumbled 4.7 percent to its lowest level since April 2007.
…

From: MeNeedIt

When Alfred Nobel established the literature prize in his name, he perhaps could have benefited from an editor. The terms of his will leave the prize’s exact intentions tantalizingly vague – making the literature award one of the most debated and entertaining of the Nobel Prizes.

The Swedish industrialist said he wanted the prize to recognize “the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction.”

On Thursday, the Swedish Academy will announce whom it considers to have met the criterion of “ideal” for the 2017 laurels.

A look at some aspects of the Nobel Prize in Literature:

What is ‘Ideal Direction?’

The Swedish Academy hasn’t ever had a consistent view of this, but appears to cycle through concepts.

In an article on the Nobel Prize website, academy member Kjell Espmark traced at least seven distinct periods in the 20th century interpretations, ranging from the early years’ “conservative idealism” honoring church and family, through an Everyman period in the 1930s when Sinclair Lewis and Pearl Buck won, and more recently, a determination to award the prize to writers outside Western traditions.

Just five countries have accounted for nearly half the literature prizes since 1901: France, the United States, Britain, Germany and Sweden.

What counts as literature?

In 2015 and 2016, the award went to writers outside the conventional conception of “literature” as novels and poetry. Svetlana Alexievich’s books are artistic sociopolitical reportage, and Bob Dylan’s lyrics arguably have more power as song than on the page.

If the academy is determined to be adventurous, it could find other forms of art to consider as literature.

Graphic novels, for example, arguably have built up the moral weight and imaginative power to be considered literature that goes beyond entertainment.

A Nobel prize for graphic novels “doesn’t seem unreasonable at all,” Gabriel Winslow-Yost, an editor at the New York Review of Books, told The Associated Press.

Like Alexievich, “some of the best of the past couple of generations of American cartoonists have been especially concerned with the effects of large-scale political forces on particular individual lives; that’s true of Art Spielgelman, true of (Chris) Ware, true of Dan Clowes,” he said.

And if Dylan’s song lyrics count as literature, is there a case to be made for opera librettos?

Stephen Wadsworth, director of opera studies at the Juilliard School and author of one libretto, said he could envision the prize going to an author whose work had been adapted for opera, noting laureate Maurice Maeterlinck’s play, “Pelléas and Mélisande,” was the basis for Debussy’s famous opera.

Aside from that “there are probably a few librettists who would tell you that they should get Nobel prizes. But they would be wrong,” he said.

The presumed favorites

Kenyan novelist, playwright and essayist Ngugi wa Thiong’o leads the speculation at many bookmakers, with perennial favorite Haruki Murakami behind by a nose.

Another name that surfaces year after year may find her chances marred by popularity. “We’ve had to cut Margaret Atwood’s odds … following ‘The Handmaid’s Tale”s Emmy win last week,” Alex Apati, a spokesman for Britain’s Ladbroke’s betting house, said in an email.

In any case, setting Nobel odds appears to be less rigorous than assessing sports teams’ prospects, relying on the wisdom of the crowd rather than deep reading.

“While we don’t employ someone specifically to work on pricing up this market, between them the traders keep a close eye on things,” Apati said.

Amos Oz, Ismail Kadare, Adonis and Don de Lillo also are regarded as strong contenders, according to the odds.

Outliers: Trump?

Bookmakers are offering potentially lucrative bets upwards of 1000-to-1 on Kanye West and President Donald Trump. One might make a credible argument for West – metrical complexity and inventive rhymes constitute a kind of poetry.

But Trump’s prose rarely rises above the entertainingly pedestrian – and it’s unclear whether the books are his work or the production of ghostwriters.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Facebook Inc founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg asked for forgiveness for ways his work was used to divide people in a Facebook posting marking the end of Yom Kippur, the Jewish holiday of atonement on Saturday.

“For the ways my work was used to divide people rather than bring us together, I ask forgiveness and I will work to do better,” Zuckerberg said in the post.

He did not refer to specific issues in the message, which comes as Facebook and other technology companies are under increased scrutiny amid a U.S. investigation into potential Russian involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign.

Facebook said on September 6 it had found that an operation, likely based in Russia, spent $100,000 on thousands of U.S. ads promoting divisive social and political messages in a two-year-period through May.

Facebook, the dominant social media network, said 3,000 ads and 470 “inauthentic” accounts and pages spread polarizing views on topics including immigration, race and gay rights.

Facebook has launched an overhaul of how it handles paid political advertisements, after U.S. lawmakers threatened to regulate the world’s largest social network over secretive ads that run during election campaigns.

Probes being conducted by several congressional committees along with the Department of Justice, have clouded U.S. President Donald Trump’s tenure since he took office in January and have threatened his agenda, which has yet to secure a major legislative victory.
…

From: MeNeedIt

What makes autistic children different and how can their parents make the best choices to integrate them into daily life, especially with an overwhelming amount of clinical research to consider? In the United States, where an estimated one in 68 children suffer from the condition, thousands of parents are faced with these questions. VOA’s Anush Avetisyan introduces us to a mother who has first-hand experience.
…

From: MeNeedIt

To mark the International Day of the Older Person, the World Health Organization is calling for a new, integrated approach to meet the health needs of an aging population.

By mid-century, the World Health Organization reports one in five people in the world will be aged 60 or older. As people age, it says they are likely to be afflicted with numerous health problems.

WHO Department of Aging and Life Course Director, John Beard, says older people probably will have more than one chronic disease at the same time. He says knowing how to treat these complex conditions is challenging.

“It has been demonstrated that integrated care that is already into a holistic system of the individual provides much better outcomes than just health services, which respond independently to a specific condition every time somebody presents with them. And, so one of the things we are trying to emphasize is the need to develop these systems of integrated care and chronic care,” he said.

Ed Kelley is Director of the Department of Service Delivery and Safety at WHO. He personally identifies with a health system that does not comprehensively assess the problems of older persons.

“If you take my own father, I have these parents we are dealing with — he is 90 years old, he takes 13 medications, he has got five doctors. None of them talk to each other. And, he is relatively healthy. That is a very typical situation for your average elderly person around the world,” he said.

The World Health Organization says the health of older people would improve if all ailments were taken into consideration when an individual seeks relief for one specific illness or disease. For example, chronic pain might be linked to an individual’s difficulties with hearing, seeing, walking or performing other activities.

 
…

From: MeNeedIt

Casinos in the world’s biggest casino hub of Macau extended a 14-month winning streak in September with revenue up 16.1 percent, priming for a bumper national holiday week, which is expected to see strong visitor traffic in the southern Chinese territory.

Macau, a former Portuguese colony and now special administrative region, is the only place in the country where casino gambling is legal.

Government data Sunday showed monthly gambling revenue was 21.4 billion patacas ($2.66 billion) in September, within analyst expectations of growth between 11-17 percent.

Two typhoons

September saw the tail end impact from two typhoons in August, which caused massive destruction and unprecedented flooding.

Many casinos shut down for several days and had problems accessing fresh water and power, but big resorts on Macau’s Las Vegas style Cotai strip were left relatively unscathed.

Macau’s government this week will release a 15-year plan to boost tourism with key objectives including rebranding Macau into a multiday destination and managing local tourism capacity.

Typically during national holidays, Macau’s tiny peninsula and adjoining islands are inundated with swarms of visitors putting pressure on creaking infrastructure and transport. 

Casino executives have said that hotels are fully booked for the official holiday period, Oct. 1-8.
…

From: MeNeedIt

American rap artist Macklemore will perform a gay anthem at a rugby league final in Sydney on Sunday, thanks to the sport’s officials rejecting pressure from opponents of same-sex marriage as Australia votes on liberalizing its marriage laws.

Macklemore will perform the hit song Same Love before more than 80,000 fans of a sport traditionally associated with macho values as the North Queensland Cowboys take on the Melbourne Storm in the National Rugby League Grand Final.

NRL bosses resisted pressure last week to stop the song despite a petition signed by just more than 7,000 people calling for the performance to be banned.

Song No. 1 on Australian iTunes

Instead, the song rose to No. 1 on the Australian iTunes chart where it remained ahead of the match Sunday.

Macklemore pledged Friday to donate proceeds from the Australian sales of the song to help the campaign to legalize same-sex marriage.

After becoming the third major American celebrity to weigh in on the debate, the singer from Seattle, Washington, said music had the power to help people talk about the issue.

“I want to donate my portion of the proceeds from Same Love that I get off of that record here in Australia to voting YES,” Macklemore said in a Channel Nine interview posted on his twitter feed Saturday.

Voting underway

Australians began voting last month in a non-binding poll, conducted by mail, to inform the government on whether to become the 25th nation to permit same-sex marriage. The results of the poll will be declared Nov. 15.

Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman said he was surprised Australia didn’t have marriage equality yet, in an interview with NewsLtd’s online service news.com.au published Saturday.

U.S. pop star Meghan Trainor entered the fray in August after her image was used without her permission to urge Australians to vote against legalizing same-sex marriage.

“I support marriage equality. Someone in Australia is illegally using my picture for a campaign against marriage equality. So wrong. Not okay,” Trainor tweeted.

The debate has divided the nation of 24 million people along religious and generational lines and at times has threatened to turn nasty, prompting parliament to strengthen laws preventing hate-speech.
…

From: MeNeedIt

The Invictus Games for wounded veterans came to a close Saturday with a rousing ceremony featuring stars such as Bruce Springsteen and Bryan Adams, though some of the attention focused on Britain’s Prince Harry and his girlfriend, American actress Meghan Markle. 

The prince, a veteran of service in Afghanistan, created the Paralympic-style games as a way to inspire soldiers toward recovery. About 550 competitors from 17 countries competed in 12 sports over the last week.

Harry and Markle made their first public appearance together at the event earlier in the week.  

At the closing ceremony, Harry sat beside the wife of Canada’s prime minister in the stands while Markle sat in a luxury box with her mother. Harry later joined her in the luxury box as Springsteen performed. Harry gave a smiling Markle a kiss on the cheek at one point. The 36-year-old actress known for her portrayal of a paralegal in the television show Suits recently told Vanity Fair they’re in love. 

The seven days of inspirational athletic performances closed in spectacular fashion as Springsteen sang three songs, including his classic Dancing in the Dark, before joining Adams on Cuts Like a Knife.

Harry paid tribute to the athletes in his closing speech, saying, “Our world needs your dedication and passion like never before.”

“And you never know, this may just be the missing piece of the puzzle to help you regain that satisfaction of serving others once again,” he added.

About 550 competitors from 17 countries competed in 12 sports over the last week. This is the third Invictus Games. They are in Sydney next year. 
…

From: MeNeedIt