Two truck owners have filed a class-action lawsuit against General Motors, alleging the company rigged diesel pickups to cheat government emissions tests.

The suit was filed Thursday in federal court in Detroit, home of the country’s largest car builder.

GM is accused of installing three devices on hundreds of thousands of trucks, allowing them to spew less pollution in tests than they would on the road, under real-life driving conditions.

Plaintiffs Andrei Fenner of Mountain View, California, and Joshua Herman of Sulphur, Louisiana, said they wouldn’t have purchased, or wouldn’t have paid as much for, their vehicles — a 2011 GMC Sierra and a 2016 Chevrolet Silverado, respectively — had they been aware of the alleged rigging.

The lawsuit also names the German-based Bosch company for allegedly working with GM to develop the devices.

GM called the allegations “baseless,” while Bosch refused to comment on an outstanding legal matter.

The price of GM shares fell about 2 percent Thursday on the news.

GM is the latest automobile giant charged with trying to fix emissions tests. The U.S. Justice Department sued Fiat Chrysler this week, claiming it used illegal software to fake emission test results on its diesel vehicles, and  Germany’s Volkswagen paid billions of dollars after admitting it had cheated on government emissions tests.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Scientists looking at the first pictures of the planet Jupiter sent by the NASA probe Juno were shocked at what they saw: monster cyclones, hundreds of kilometers wide, tearing across the planet’s north and south poles.

The scientists said the poles are nothing like the planet’s familiar placid and colorful equatorial region.

“That’s the Jupiter we’ve all known and grown to love,” Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute, an applied research and development organization in San Antonio, Texas, said in an article released Thursday in the journal Science.  “And when you look from the pole, it looks totally different. … I don’t think anybody would have guessed this is Jupiter.”

Bolton called the findings “Earth-shattering. Or, should I say, Jupiter-shattering.”

Along with the fierce storms, the researchers saw a huge river of ammonia gas extending from Jupiter’s deep atmosphere down to its interior. They said they thought the ammonia might be part of what’s causing the huge storms.

NASA launched Juno in 2011, and it reached Jupiter’s orbit last year. The scientists said Juno’s next fly-by would come in July, when it will take pictures of the planet’s trademark Great Red Spot — a huge, hurricane-like storm that experts say has been raging for hundreds of years.
…

From: MeNeedIt

National parks traveler Mikah Meyer had plenty of fun among giant powdery dunes recently, as he celebrated a milestone. He’s exactly one-third of the way through his 3-year journey to visit all 417 sites within the U.S. National Park Service. The young adventurer shared highlights of his 139th site visit with VOA’s Julie Taboh.
…

From: MeNeedIt

California-based company Rocket Lab said Thursday it had launched a test rocket into space from its New Zealand launch pad, although the rocket didn’t reach orbit as hoped. 

The company said its Electron rocket lifted off at 4:20 p.m. Thursday and reached space three minutes later. 

“It has been an incredible day and I’m immensely proud of our talented team,” company founder Peter Beck said in a statement. 

Beck, a New Zealander, said the early stages of the mission went well. 

“We didn’t quite reach orbit and we’ll be investigating why, however reaching space in our first test puts us in an incredibly strong position,” he said. 

More tests approved

Rocket Lab was given official approval last week to conduct three test launches from the remote Mahia Peninsula on the North Island. The company hopes to begin commercial launches later this year and eventually launch about one rocket every week. 

The company said it will target getting to orbit on the second test and will look to carry the maximum payload. 

New Zealand has never had a space program but officials hope regular launches could change perceptions of the South Pacific nation and generate hundreds of millions of dollars each year in revenue. 

Rocket Lab plans to keep costs low by using lightweight, disposable rockets with 3D-printed engines. It sees an emerging market in delivering lots of small devices into low Earth orbit. The satellites would be used for everything from monitoring crops to providing internet service. 

New space club member

Politicians are rushing through new space laws and the government has set up a boutique space agency, which employs 10 people. 

“So far, it’s only superpowers that have gone into space,” Simon Bridges, New Zealand’s economic development minister, told The Associated Press last week. “For us to do it, and be in the first couple of handfuls of countries in the world, is pretty impressive.” 

Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket is unusual in many respects. It carries only a small payload of about 150 kilograms (331 pounds). It’s made from carbon fiber and uses an electric engine. Rocket Lab says each launch will cost just $5 million, a tiny fraction of a typical rocket launch. 

It’s a different plan than some other space companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which uses larger rockets to carry bigger payloads. 

Rocket Lab was founded by Beck and is privately held. The company has received about $150 million in venture capital funding. 
…

From: MeNeedIt

A new study suggests that probiotics, so-called “good” bacteria that aid in digestion, may also ease symptoms of depression. The finding adds to a growing body of evidence that what happens in the gut affects the brain. 

Some 300 to 500 bacterial species inhabit the human gut, many aiding in digestion and the proper functioning of the gastrointestinal tract.

Experts say some of these bacteria produce proteins that communicate with the brain. 

Your gut, your mood

The gut flora not only play a role in helping to orchestrate the neural responses that regulate digestion, scientists say, but evidence is emerging that gut bacteria can also affect a person’s mood.

Premysl Bercik, a gastroenterologist at Ontario Canada’s McMaster University, researches what he calls the microbiota-gut-brain axis, or the communication between the gut and the brain through the millions of bacteria that live in the gastrointestinal tract.

Bercik said between 40 and 90 percent of people with irritable bowel syndrome, a distressing intestinal disorder, also battle symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Research led by Bercik suggests the gut bacteria themselves may have an effect on mood.

In Bercik’s pilot study of 44 patients with irritable bowel syndrome and mild to moderate anxiety or depression, half of the patients received a daily probiotic — a beneficial gut bacterium called Bifidobacterium longum — and the other half were given a placebo. The participants were followed for 10 weeks.

“What we found was that the patients that were treated with this probiotic bacterium improved their gut symptoms but, also surprisingly, decreased their depression scores,” Bercik said. “That means their mood improved. And this was associated also with changes in the brain imaging.”

Depression, anxiety improve

At the beginning of the study, the patients’ levels of depression and anxiety were scored. The patients also underwent high-tech brain imaging to see which structures were activated in response to happy and sad images.

At six weeks, 64 percent of patients taking the probiotic had a decrease in their depression scores compared to 32 percent of the placebo patients. 

A second round of imaging showed changes in multiple brain areas involved with mood control in the patients who felt better. 

While the participants’ gut symptoms improved, Bercik said it was not to a statistically significant degree, suggesting the probiotic may have improved their anxiety and depression independent of symptom relief.

Results of the study were published in the journal Gastroenterology.

More study needed

Bercik says larger studies are needed to confirm the findings.

“However, I think that it shows a great promise,” he said. “I mean new treatments, not only for patients with functional bowel disorders like irritable bowel syndrome, but it may also offer some new treatments for patients with primary psychiatric disorders like depression or anxiety.”

B. longum was developed by Nestle, a Swiss food and drink company, which funded the study. It is not yet commercially available. 

However, Bercik says it’s possible other probiotics found in the gut have the potential to improve mood. And he doesn’t stop there. Bercik says he envisions a form of personalized medicine using genome sequencing techniques to create microbiome profiles of individuals, which can be tweaked with oral probiotics for maximum health.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Just as President Xi Jinping was launching the One Belt, One Road initiative to expand China’s geo-economic footprint, a former high-level U.S. trade official raised concerns that Beijing has been reversing its policies of reform and keeping the market to itself.

Charlene Barshefsky, who worked as the U.S. Trade Representative under President Bill Clinton and witnessed China’s accession to the World Trade Organization, told a group of corporate executives gathered in Tokyo that “China has stopped the process of economic reform and opening, and instead has put in place a spate of measures that are zero-sum, highly mercantilist, and discriminate against U.S. and foreign companies.”

Sinicizing the Chinese economy

Barshefsky accuses Beijing of “Sinicizing” the Chinese economy, all the while taking advantage of other countries’ open markets.

The former U.S. trade representative’s remarks echo sentiments revealed in the latest Business Climate Survey put out by the American Chamber of Commerce in China, which represents nearly 1,000 companies doing business there.

Respondents to the survey said it seems “China has gone backwards … more regulations, taxes and local company market share protectionism.” Others noted that “despite a long track record of employing and training locals and investing in the local community, when the economy gets tough, the foreign firm is always seen as somehow not friendly to China.”

Golden days over?

William Zarit, head of AmCham China, tells VOA that “25 percent of our companies are either reducing investment or not increasing investment — that’s one out of four companies. Some companies are looking elsewhere in Asia, and some companies are looking back to North America.”

In another sign of how China is losing its luster in the eyes of foreign investors, the latest Business Climate Survey shows the percentage of companies that consider China a high priority investment destination has dropped below 60 percent. Zarit points out that nearly 60 percent “would seem to be good except that three or four years earlier, it was over 80 percent.”

Watch: William Zarit, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China

Dangers despite continued presence

“Every company has to be in China, to a certain extent,” says Georgetown University’s Ted Moran, professor of business and economics.

While a majority of companies may choose to maintain a presence, their decisions to expand less rapidly “are also a danger,” Moran says. 

“They may be there, but they’re not going to have as strong value-added, they’re not going to expand as rapidly, they’re not going to introduce their best technology,” which in turn will confine China to a work bench economy, instead of one where companies feel comfortable bringing in operations with higher technology components.

Watch: Ted Moran, Georgetown professor of business and economics

‘A lot of things we have to consider’

Barshefsky, the former trade official, calls on President Donald Trump to either renegotiate the trade relationship with China or to revive the Trans-Pacific Partnership led by the United States. 

A Chinese trade official, speaking at the same forum, defended Beijing’s policies, saying the reform, although having slowed down, is still going on, and “there are a lot of things we have to consider.” The official, Long Yongtu, who now presides over the Boao Forum for Asia, also warned foreign companies to buckle up for stiff competition coming from Chinese domestic companies.

Resurgence of the state in the Chinese economy

Ever since China started accumulating more and more capital and demonstrating less and less hesitancy to use that capital to advance its interests abroad, many have voiced the concern that as Beijing’s investment spreads, so will its politics. Lately, concern over expansion of the state sector in the Chinese economy as well as the government-guided overseas investment strategy and potential consequences have grown louder.

In a report issued earlier this year by the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, Nicholas Lardy, a senior fellow, pointed to official figures released by the People’s Bank of China that corporate loans issued to government-backed firms rose from 35 percent in 2013 to 60 percent in 2014, the latest year official figures were available.

While one negative of pumping money into state-owned enterprises is that less capital and less market share would be available to smaller, private firms, other concerns have to do with both the financial viability of this approach and how it could impact not only China but the United States and other countries.

In a sign of both the ballooning footprint of Chinese state-owned companies in the world economy as well as the uncertainties of their fates, three Chinese state-owned companies made Fortune Magazine’s Global 500 list in 2016, but two of the three, China National Petroleum Corporation and Sinopec (a producer of chemical products) saw significant reductions in revenue in 2016 (more than 30 percent from the previous year), and a loss of profit of 56.7 percent and 30.6 percent, respectively.

Rory MacFarquhar, a former White House economics and finance official, warns that if the Chinese government continues to prop up state firms that he says are “more indebted, less profitable and less productive than private firms,” and use them to channel China’s plans and objectives abroad, it could have serious spillovers for other countries, including the United States, because the presence of these companies could potentially “distort the competitive playing field, and their outward investment may raise national security concerns.”

One Belt, One Road

President Xi promised that China would add billions of dollars’ worth of investment to the One Belt, One Road initiative. Asked if it is true that American companies are giving the initiative the “cold shoulder,” as some media reports have suggested, Zarit, the president of AmCham China, replied: “A number of AmCham China members are closely following OBOR developments to gauge progress and substantive opportunities for their respective companies, although some members still view the project with a bit of skepticism.

“Despite OBOR still being a fledgling initiative, the Chinese have rolled out this Xi Jinping presidential priority through an oversized summit with undersized substance. Having said that, American companies are interested in OBOR if it makes business sense.”
…

From: MeNeedIt

According to a recent analysis, in about 15 years, depending on the country, up to 38 percent of jobs performed by humans may be turned over to robots. Experts who gathered last week at a robotic expo in Paris say we have to prepare for the new reality if we want to avoid disruptive social changes. VOA’s George Putic reports.
…

From: MeNeedIt

There are an estimated 39 million blind people in the world. Another 200 million, people like Julissa Marquez, are visually impaired. A knife attack left her with a less than 10 percent chance of having useful vision. But some new technology has literally opened her eyes. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
…

From: MeNeedIt

As he wrapped up his journey through southwestern Texas, national parks traveler Mikah Meyer admits he didn’t allocate enough days for his visit to the huge — and hugely popular — Big Bend National Park and Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River.

“Big Bend is so huge that to go from the western edge of the park to the eastern edge is about 50 miles (80 kilometers),” he said. “I planned three days for Big Bend and one day for the Rio Grande and I really should have had more days.”

But he still managed to squeeze in an impressive number of adventures in that relatively short amount of time.

Stark beauty

Driving through a mountainous region of the park, he was immediately struck by its beauty. “It was just stunning,” he recalled. “It looks like something out of a painting or a movie or a postcard.”

That rugged terrain was just one of the features of the park’s diverse landscape, which spreads across 324,000 hectares. The rest is made up of hot, dry desert, and part of the Rio Grande, which forms the natural 1600 kilometer long border between Texas and Mexico.

“It’s like something straight out of a wild, wild west movie,” Mikah remarked as he stood on a hill overlooking the river that separates the two countries. “It’s kind of dry and flat desert and then suddenly these gorgeous mountains just appear, scattered everywhere like little sprinkles on ice cream.”

A lick of ice cream would have been a refreshing welcome from the searing 37 degree Celsius heat as Mikah navigated his way along the Rio Grande Village Nature Trail on the banks of the river.  During his hike, he got to observe some of the park’s many plant and animal species. He marveled at the variety of cactuses, many blooming with colorful flowers, and peered into a shallow pool of water that was so clear, he could see the scales on the fish swimming around in it.

Nature’s hot tub

Hot and dusty after that, Mikah immersed himself in the park’s ancient hot springs – which are believed to have healing powers. He described it as “a hot tub basically made out of local rocks.”

“They used to be part of a Hot Springs resort, but now they are free and open to the public.” He relaxed in the calming waters as the river around him rushed by. He called it a “pretty cool experience,” to be able to enjoy the waters “out in the wild, out in the open, at a national park.”

Day 2 – Cool peaks

On day two of his trip, Mikah waded across the Rio Grande into Mexico, rode a kilometer or so into the border town of Boquillas for a tasty lunch, then headed back to the U.S. just in time to start a climb up to the Chisos Mountains. The entire range, including a large swath of the Chihuahuan Desert, is contained in Big Bend National Park.

The tough workout put Mikah’s fitness to the test. “I worked so hard to get to the top of this mountain,” he recounted. “It was dry and my glasses were fogging up and I had sunscreen in my eyes and I was sweating and my nose was running because it was cold up there… I felt so miserable but it was so gorgeous that I couldn’t help but keep a pep in my step and keep going.”

He made it all the way to Emory Peak, which – at 2385 meters – is the highest point in Big Bend National Park.

“The view at the top was just so gorgeous that it was worth it,” Mikah said. “The whole latter half of the hike, you’re high enough that you can look down at the Chisos Mountains Lodge,” a rustic refuge nestled in the basin of the mountain range where he had stayed the night before.

Day 3 – Ancient lands

By day three of his trip, Mikah was ready for some canoeing with the Far-flung Outdoor Center. He grabbed an oar and headed out onto the Rio Grande.

Starting at the mouth of the Santa Elena Canyon, a popular destination in and of itself, he had a spectacular view of the majestic canyon from the base of its 450 meter high cliffs while he enjoyed a guided, multi-hour float down the river… at least until the the water got too shallow to float the canoes.  

“One of the guides is pulling two canoes at the same time to help get people over these really shallow parts,” Mikah said. “So it was not like the wild rafting excursion you might imagine, it was more like a very shallow canoe float.”

“As I was looking up at these massive canyon walls, I realized that if you were a Native American or somebody from hundreds of years ago, this was probably the biggest, highest thing you’ve ever seen. And I understand now why people saw these massive rocks and mountains and thought they were gods,” he said.

Day 4 – Bumpy ride

On his fourth and final day in the park,  Big Bend Overland Tours took Mikah was taken on a long and bumpy tour through some of the park’s most remote areas – a day-long adventure most visitors don’t get to experience.

“What made this so special is that there’s a lot of roads in the park that you really can’t get to unless you have a four wheel drive or a high-clearance Jeep, and so this company, Big Bend Overland Tours, takes people on these back roads that you can’t access without a vehicle.”

Mikah said that despite being exhausted and “disgustingly dirty and dusty” by the end of the day, he also felt “fulfilled that I had really fully experienced this park and got to see portions of it that I never imagined I would get to see.”

In fact, after his time in Big Bend National Park, Mikah says it’s now one of his favorites.

Looking back… and ahead

Mikah wrapped up his adventures in Texas with a visit to Guadalupe Mountains National Park in West Texas, which stretches into the state of New Mexico.

Just as he did in the Chisos Mountains, Mikah hiked to Guadalupe Peak, at 2666 meters, the highest point in Texas .

“The coolest part was getting to the top and getting to look across Texas and seeing both the diversity of land in Texas, everywhere I’d just come from, then also look to the north to New Mexico,” Mikah said. “Everywhere I was about to go.”

Mikah, who plans to visit all 400 plus sites within the U.S. National Park Service, invites you to learn more about his ongoing journey across the American southwest by visiting him on his website, Facebook and Instagram.
…

From: MeNeedIt

A tattoo artist in California has created what many of us can’t imagine — a tattoo that also produces sound. Artist Nate Siggard inks audio soundwaves onto the skin that makes it possible to hear music or someone’s voice by using a smartphone app. VOA’s Deborah Block explains how he does it.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Ethiopian official Tedros Adhanom Gheybreysus has been elected director-general of the World Health Organization. Tedros won the post in two rounds of balloting Tuesday, defeating Dr. David Nabarro of Britain and Dr. Sania Nishtar, a Pakistani cardiologist. The vote by 185 member states took place by secret ballot after the candidates made last minute pitches.

The candidates have been campaigning for this fiercely contested post for the past year-and-a-half.  As they approached the final stretch, each in turn presented his or her most persuasive arguments for becoming the new director-general of the World Health Organization.

Tedros, a former Ethiopian health minister, told the assembly that he has dedicated his whole life to improving health, reducing inequalities, and helping people everywhere to lead more productive lives.

He noted that while the WHO has never had a director-general from Africa, no one should elect him just because he’s from Africa.

“But, there is a real value in electing a leader who has worked in one of the toughest health environments and transformed the health system.  I bring a fresh perspective, an angle with which the world has never seen before,” Tedros said.

Others in the running

Not to be outdone, the second candidate, David Nabarro of Britain, put in a vigorous performance.  He touted his long experience in global health and described the work he has done in tackling infectious outbreaks and emergencies, such as the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.  He said he was the best person to lead the fight against newly emerging diseases and ongoing old diseases, including tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS.

“Governments and other investors rightly expect value for money in everything that WHO does.  As director-general, I will make sure that the organization’s goals are results-focused, transparent and measurable.  All staff, myself included, will be held to account for delivering,” said Nabarro.   

The third candidate, Pakistani physician Sania Nishtar, said she had a proven record of dealing with hard issues and would make constructive changes to the WHO if elected.

“I promise to run WHO in the same manner in which I ran my campaign – cost-effectively, with full transparency, with a global outlook, with integrity, and respect for all .… I have the ability to accelerate the reforms that you have championed.”  

Ethiopia’s Tedros takes over as new WHO director-general, on July 1.
…

From: MeNeedIt

One of the largest cancer prevention studies of its kind to date reached a sobering conclusion.  Just one alcoholic drink per day can increase the risk of breast cancer in women.  But researchers also concluded there are things women can do to decrease their risk of breast cancer.  

The study by the American Institute for Cancer Research was a review of 119 prior studies involving 12 million women, 260,000 of who had developed breast cancer.  

Lead author Anne McTiernan is a cancer prevention expert at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington.

In 10 of the studies involving 4,000 women of childbearing age who developed breast cancer, McTiernan said investigators uncovered a connection between alcohol consumption and increased risk of breast cancer.

“We found that those women who drank an average of just 10 grams of alcohol a day had a five percent increased risk of breast cancer.  So, five percent is a small amount but it was statistically significant so it gives us more confidence that it’s probably real,” said McTiernan.  She noted, “Ten grams of alcohol is like a small glass of wine.”

In another subset of studies involving 35,000 post-menopausal women who developed breast cancer, McTiernan said alcohol was found to be a greater risk factor.

According to McTiernan, “We found that there was a nine percent increased risk of drinking that same amount of alcohol, drinking 10 grams per day of alcohol.  Again, small glass of wine, eight ounce of beer, one ounce of hard liquor.”

McTiernan said the World Health Organization considers alcohol a carcinogen, or cancer-causing agent.  It contains a metabolite called acetaldehyde that is damaging to DNA, according to McTiernan.

Lowering risk

On the positive side, investigators found that vigorous exercise, such running or bicycling fast, decreased the risk of breast cancer in young women by 17 percent and 10 percent in post-menopausal women.  

Moderate activity, such as walking and gardening frequently, was found to reduce the risk of breast cancer by 13 percent in the most active women compared to the least active.

There was also evidence too that eating a non-starchy, plant-based diet is beneficial.

“That does not mean becoming a vegetarian,” said McTiernan.  “It just means eating a lot of fresh vegetables and fruit.  Making sure most of the vegetables are non-starchy, not potatoes.  Eating dairy products because they are high in calcium and they have some benefit on their own.”

To the extent that being overweight has been found to increase an older woman’s breast cancer risk, McTiernan said eating a diet full of fruits and vegetables can help women keep their weight down.

According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, an organization concerned with cancer prevention, one in three breast cancer cases in the United States could be prevented if women did not drink alcohol, stayed physically active and maintained a healthy weight.

McTiernan said the evidence of “this comprehensive and up-to-date report … is clear: Having a physically active lifestyle, maintaining a healthy weight throughout life and limiting alcohol, these are all steps women can take to lower their risk” of breast cancer.

The American Institute for Cancer Research is part of the World Cancer Research Fund, which collects and analyzes data from around the world on cancer prevention, drawing conclusions on how attention to weight, diet and exercise can reduce the risk of developing cancer. 
…

From: MeNeedIt