For the past 50 years, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington has been telling America’s story with images of people who helped shape the history and culture of the United States. It recently added 28 pictures in an effort to tell a more diverse and more complete story of U.S. society. The display features well-known people like baseball player Alex Rodriguez and former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy — and sheds light on some “hidden figures.” VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.
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From: MeNeedIt

There are a number of reasons why Americans like to have a live tree for their Christmas centerpiece It just smells like Christmas, they grew up with a real tree, they feel it’s better for the environment than an artificial one. And although trees can be chipped into mulch after the holiday, there are other ways to environmentally dispose of a Christmas tree that’s passed its prime. Faith Lapidus reports.
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From: MeNeedIt

 The Golden Globes kick off the show business awards season on Sunday with Hollywood apparently in the mood for a party, and with plenty to celebrate.

After a record $41.7 billion global movie box-office in 2018, crowd-pleasers like “A Star is Born,” “Black Panther,” “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Mary Poppins Returns” are competing for Golden Globe honors.

This year, the boozy, informal dinner in Beverly Hills, organized by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, is expected to leave politics behind.

‘Time to laugh’

Golden Globe hosts Andy Samberg and “Killing Eve” nominated actress Sandra Oh say they are aiming for a fun evening.

“Everyone is depressed and maybe that’s as good a reason as any that everyone could use a little time to laugh and celebrate,” Samberg told the Hollywood Reporter.

Oh said she is “not interested at all” in talking about U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been a focus of attacks at award shows since his 2016 election campaign.

Last year’s Golden Globes were marked by celebrities turning out en masse in black in solidarity with the #MeToo sexual harassment scandal that was roiling Hollywood.

“After Trump’s election and #MeToo, people felt like they had to speak up,” said Tim Gray, awards editor at Hollywood publication Variety.

“This year it’s, ‘let’s celebrate the work’. They are looking forward to the fun of the Globes,” Gray added.

‘Vice’ leads with six nominations

Lady Gaga, Idris Elba, Bradley Cooper and veteran Dick Van Dyke will be among dozens of famous faces turning out on Sunday.

Scathing comedy “Vice,” about former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, has a leading six nominations, including for actors Christian Bale, Sam Rockwell and Amy Adams.

But competition is strong for the best comedy or musical statuette, with historical romp “The Favourite,” romantic comedy “Crazy Rich Asians,” 1960s road trip “Green Book” and “Mary Poppins Returns” all vying for honors.

“‘Vice’ director Adam McKay really takes chances with that movie. Sometimes he goes too far, and some people love it and some people are having a hard time with it,” said Gray.

Pop star Gaga and actor-director Cooper are seen taking home statuettes for “A Star is Born,” with Gaga’s version of “Shallow” widely viewed as a shoo-in for best original song.

Musicals vie for top drama

Despite being musicals, both “A Star is Born” and “Bohemian Rhapsody,” starring Rami Malek as the late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, will compete in the more prestigious best movie drama category. They will face off against three films focusing on racial issues — superhero movie “Black Panther,” “BlacKkKlansman” and “If Beale Street Could Talk.”

Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron’s lovingly shot “Roma” is expected to win the Golden Globe for best foreign language film.

The Golden Globes ceremony will be televised live on NBC on Sunday, starting at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT.
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From: MeNeedIt

It sounds like a Hollywood caper: A group of investors and officials convince European banks to loan a total of $2 billion to a resource-rich African nation trying to rebuild after a bruising civil war.  

The money promptly disappears, and then this caper turns tragic.  The government doesn’t learn of the loans until three years after they happen. It defaults on the loans, and that triggers an economic crisis: the currency tumbles, prices rise, hospitals run out of basic supplies and key roads go unrepaired.  Thousands of people contract cholera – an easily preventable and treatable illness that is often caused by a breakdown of health services.

This isn’t Hollywood. This, allegedly, is Mozambique, according to an indictment that has resulted in the arrests of at least four figures in recent days, including a former finance minister.  The men are now awaiting extradition to the U.S. for their role in defrauding U.S. investors when seeking the loans.

VOA obtained a redacted copy of the indictment, issued by the U.S. District Court’s Eastern District of New York.  It accuses the four, plus another man who has not been arrested and two others who were not named, of “creat(ing) the maritime projects as fronts to raise money to enrich themselves and intentionally divert(ing) portions of the loan proceeds to pay at least $200 million in bribes and kickbacks to themselves, Mozambican government officials and others.”

Last week, South African officials arrested Mozambique’s former finance minister, Manuel Chang, on an Interpol warrant as he transited through the country.  

This, says analyst Alex Vines of the Chatham House think tank, is a very big deal. This matter has been investigated by both an independent firm and also by the British government, and until now, nothing has come of it.

“So it looked as if nothing would happen about these many millions, probably billions, of U.S. dollars that were (un)accounted for,” Vines told VOA. “So the indictment that has occurred from the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, for key characters involved in this loan scandal, is very very significant and is a game-changer, I think.”

The reaction: Public vs Party?

That’s certainly the case in Mozambique, where commentator Fernando Lima notes the public has largely applauded the arrests, while the ruling Frelimo party has been silent.

“There is a sentiment of huge enthusiasm and joy, which causes a lot of irritation on the other side, meaning people related to the Frelimo party,” he told VOA  “…It caused this huge, huge embarrassment for the current government. And up to now, which is also very, very surprising, no Mozambican authorities have said anything related to the arrest of Mr. Chang. Neither the government, neither Frelimo party, neither the attorney general’s office, or our parliament.”

Vines says it’s unclear how President Filipe Nyusi – who was defense minister at the time of the secret loans – will come out of this scandal, but he says there may be a bright side for investors who are eager to put money into the nation, which will start exporting natural gas in 2023.

“The International Monetary Fund, IMF, and bilateral donors to Mozambique had suspended lending to Mozambique, or direct government lending, should I say,” he said. “They do want to move on, and so again, I think this might help clear things up so that longer term, the relationship of Mozambique with some of its international creditors and international partners can be improved.”

Rudi Krause, the South African lawyer representing the former finance minister, Manuel Chang, says they’ll fight the U.S. extradition request.

Krause said attorneys had not been given a full copy of the indictment by South African officials at the time of Chang’s arrest and so could not comment on the allegations.

VOA was unable to reach Krause after receiving the U.S. copy of the indictment, for further comment.

Chang will appear in a South African court on January 8. But the court of public opinion will also have its chance to weigh in, when Mozambique goes to the polls in October.

 
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From: MeNeedIt

Ebola control operations have been restored in Democratic Republic of Congo’s conflict-ridden North Kivu province, following pre-election protests late last year, the World Health Organization reports.

Anti-government demonstrations preceding presidential elections on December 26 disrupted key Ebola response activities in some affected areas of the province, notably in Beni and Butembo.

Crowds of people, angry at the government’s decision to bar the region from voting in the election, vandalized an Ebola transit center and other health facilities. The damage prevented health workers from going to communities at risk and providing services needed to control the spread of the deadly disease.

But WHO says full operations have been restored in all locations as of Jan. 1. While the situation is now calm, WHO spokesman Tarek Jasarevic tells VOA that any interruption could lead to increased transmission of the virus.

“There is a risk that all this work that is being put in place, and WHO has more than 380 people on the ground, alongside hundreds of people deployed by the Ministry of Health and other partners, that this effort may be put in danger if we are not able to go and put response activities in the community,” Jasarevic said. 

The number of reported Ebola cases stands at 608, including 369 deaths. WHO says no new cases have been reported among health care workers in 2019, leaving the number affected at 54, including 18 deaths.  

Jasarevic says it is yet to be seen whether the temporary disruption of Ebola activities prior to the elections will result in an upsurge in cases.
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From: MeNeedIt

A suspected case of the deadly Ebola virus has been reported by a Swedish hospital, officials said Friday, adding that the patient has been isolated.

Region Uppsala, which oversees several hospitals and medical clinics north of Stockholm, says a test had been carried out on the patient, who was not identified, adding a result would be available late Friday.

In its statement, Region Uppsala said it was so far “only a matter of suspicion,” adding “other diseases are quite possible.”

It did not say where the patient had traveled, but Sweden’s TT news agency said the patient had returned from a trip to Burundi three weeks ago and had not visited any region with the Ebola virus.

The authorities said the hospital in Enkoping where the patient was first admitted had its emergency room shut down and the staff who treated the patient were “cared for.” The patient was eventually transferred to an infection clinic in Uppsala.

“The patient came in Friday morning and reportedly was vomiting blood which may be a symptom of Ebola infection,” hospital spokesman Mikael Kohler told local newspaper Upsala Nya Tidning. He was not immediately available for further comment.

Eastern Congo currently faces an Ebola outbreak. All major outbreaks have been in Africa, though isolated cases have been reported outside the continent. The hemorrhagic fever’s virus is spread via contact with the bodily fluids of those infected.
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From: MeNeedIt

After an official inauguration last month, Senegal finally opened the Museum of Black Civilizations to the general public this week

The four-story structure is home to one of Africa’s largest art collections and has room for 18,000 works in all.

Visitors on the first day, like Solange Lopes, expressed enthusiasm for the new institution.

She says she loves it and “it is really impressive. It is really magnificent to have so much African art brought together here,” she says, “because it is from here, it is from Africa.”

Calls for art to be returned

The museum opening comes amid global calls for European countries to return African art looted during the colonial era.

A recent report commissioned by French President Emmanuel Macron identified 46,000 objects at the Musee du Quai Branly museum in Paris that would qualify for repatriation.

Corinne Diagne from the U.S. state of Texas visited the museum on opening day with her husband, Amdallah Diagne, who grew up in Senegal.

She thinks the museum would be a great spot for visitors to see African art on the African continent. She says European countries should return the artifacts.

“This is the time,” she said. “I think this will be a great way to bring African art back to Africa and give people a central location they can go and see.”

​Conversation on global scale

Museum Director Hamady Bocoum says the museum will be a space for conversation on a global scale.

The museum is not for Senegal, or just Africa, or the diaspora, he says, “it is a museum of black civilizations throughout the world.” It has to be a space where we celebrate black culture, he says, but also a space where the black cultures dialogue with other cultures.

With contemporary exhibits at the museum as well, artists from Dakar hope the Museum of Black Civilizations can also lend exposure to the city’s vibrant contemporary art scene.

Senegalese visual artist Djbril Drame says he thinks the global spotlight on Dakar can help local artists.

“The museum is new, but already it has international coverage that can bring them a lot of credibility,” he says, “for Senegalese artists and contemporary African artists.”

For now, the new museum’s workers are happy to welcome visitors.

Soon, many in Senegal, and beyond, hope the museum can also welcome African art back to the continent.
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From: MeNeedIt

Three former Credit Suisse Group AG bankers were arrested in London on Thursday on U.S. charges that they took part in a $2 billion fraud scheme involving state-owned companies in Mozambique, a spokesman for U.S. prosecutors said.

Andrew Pearse, Surjan Singh and Detelina Subeva were charged in an indictment in Brooklyn, New York federal court with conspiring to violate U.S. anti-bribery law and to commit money laundering and securities fraud, according to spokesman John Marzulli. They have been released on bail.

The arrests came five days after former Mozambique finance minister Manuel Chang was arrested in South Africa as part of the same criminal case, which was brought by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.

The prosecutors will seek to have all of the defendants extradited to the United States, according to Marzulli. Lawyers for the defendants could not immediately be reached for comment after business hours in New York and London.

“The indictment alleges that the former employees worked to defeat the bank’s internal controls, acted out of a motive of personal profit, and sought to hide these activities from the bank,” Credit Suisse said in a statement. It added that the bank will continue to cooperate with authorities.

Chang oversaw Mozambique’s finances when it failed to disclose government guarantees for $2 billion in international borrowing by state-owned firms. The disclosure of those loans in 2016 plunged the southern African country into a suffocating debt crisis it is still struggling to climb out of two years later.

 
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From: MeNeedIt

After studying a space rock some 4 billion miles (6.4 billion km) from Earth, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft set off on a new hunt for moons in the solar system’s most distant edge, searching for clues on our solar family’s creation, scientists said on Thursday.

The piano-sized probe is traveling deep into the ring of celestial bodies known as the Kuiper Belt looking for small, icy moons that spun off the snowman-shaped Ultima Thule formation, a pair of icy space rocks that fused in orbit billions of years ago.

“If we’ve seen bodies one and two, the question is what about bodies three, four and five?” Mark Showalter, a New Horizons investigator, said during a news conference at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland.

New Horizons on New Year’s day came within 2,200 miles (3,500 km) of Ultima Thule, which represents a pristine time capsule dating to the birth of the solar system. The fly-by marked the farthest close encounter of an object within our solar system.

Since then, the probe has sent images revealing Ultima Thule to be a contact binary — two bodies that formed separately and then got stuck together. The formation, resembling a red-hued snowman — caused by irradiated ice — is just over 21 miles (34 km) long.

Scientists deduced that the conjoined bodies — one named Ultima and the other Thule — were once part of a cloud of smaller, rotating space rocks that eventually bound together into two larger bodies orbiting at a much slower speed.

Pluto and beyond

“We’re looking for the objects that put the brakes on these objects,” Showalter said. Finding the moons, which would orbit Ultima Thule up to 500 miles (800 km) from its surface, would also reveal details about the space rock’s mass and density.

The spacecraft, now 3 million miles (5 million km) beyond Ultima Thule, will ping back more detailed images and data in the coming weeks, NASA said.

Since its launch in 2006, New Horizons has traveled 4 billion miles (6.4 billion km) to the solar system’s edge to study the dwarf planet Pluto, its five moons and hundreds of icy Kuiper Belt objects.

Scientists had not discovered Ultima Thule when the probe was launched, according to NASA, making the mission unique in that respect. In 2014, astronomers found the rocky formation using the Hubble Space Telescope and the following year selected it for New Horizon’s extended mission.

While the mission marks the farthest inspection of an object in our solar system, NASA’s Voyager 1 and 2, a pair of

deep-space probes launched in 1977, have reached greater distances on a mission to survey extrasolar bodies. Both probes are still operational.
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From: MeNeedIt

The government says 8.4 million Americans have signed up for coverage next year under the Obama health law, reflecting steady enrollment even as supporters of the law appeal a court ruling that declares it unconstitutional. 

Thursday’s numbers underscore the unexpected staying power of  “Obamacare,” which President Donald Trump failed to repeal after promising a better health insurance plan in its place. 

The numbers from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reflect the 39 states served by the federal HealthCare.gov website. The final count will be higher, after major states like California and New York report. 

Also on Thursday, Democratic-led states announced they’re appealing a recent ruling by a conservative federal judge in Texas that declared the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. 

The law remains in place while the lawsuit continues.
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From: MeNeedIt

Behind Apple’s disconcerting news of weak iPhone sales lies a more sobering truth: The tech industry has hit Peak Smartphone, a tipping point when everyone who can afford one already owns one and no breakthroughs are compelling them to upgrade as frequently as they once did.

Some manufacturers have boosted prices to keep up profit, but Apple’s shortfall highlights the limits of that strategy. The company said demand for iPhones is waning and revenue for the last quarter of 2018 will fall well below projections, a decrease traced mainly to China.

Apple’s shares dropped 10 percent Thursday on the news — its worst loss since 2013. The company shed $74.6 billion in market value, amid a broader sell-off among technology companies, which suffered their worst loss in seven years.

Apple’s news is a “wake-up call for the industry,” said analyst Dan Ives of research firm Wedbush Securities.

And it’s not just Apple. Demand has been lackluster across the board, Ives said. Samsung, long the leading seller of smartphones, has been hit even harder, as its phone shipments dropped 8 percent during the 12 months ending in September.

“The smartphone industry is going through significant headwinds,” Ives said. “Smartphone makers used to be like teenagers, and the industry was on fire. Now it feels like they’re more like senior citizens in terms of maturity.”

Victim of its own success

Tech innovations in phones grew in leaps and bounds earlier in the 2010s, with dramatic improvements in screen size, screen resolution, battery life, cameras and processor speed every year.

But the industry is a victim of its own success. Innovation began to slow down around 2014, once Apple boosted the screen size with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models. While phones kept improving, new features tended to be incremental, such as a new flash technique to already excellent phone cameras. It’s the stuff consumers won’t typically notice — or want to shell out for.

“Since the iPhone 6 you’ve seen it has been tough to innovate to continue to raise the bar,” Ives said.

Apple customers now upgrade every 33 months on average, longer than the 24 or 25 months three years ago, he said.

Apple’s diminished growth projections, fueled by plummeting sales in China, have reinforced fears the world’s second-largest economy is losing steam. Its $1,000 iPhone is a tough sell to Chinese consumers unnerved by an economic slump and the trade war with the U.S. They also have a slew of cheaper smartphones from homegrown competitors such as Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo to choose from.

The fact that even Apple’s iPhone juggernaut is suffering cements a larger trend for all major smartphone makers. After a steady rise for a decade, worldwide smartphone shipments fell 3 percent to 1.42 billion in 2018, the first annual drop, according to International Data Corp., which tracks such movements. IDC estimates that shipments will rebound 3 percent in 2019 to 1.46 billion, but that still falls short of 2017 levels.

No ‘silver bullet’

It doesn’t help that top phones come with four-digit price tags — $1,100 for the iPhone XS Max and $1,000 for Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9. The top-end Max model sells for $1,450 in the U.S.

“They’re getting more and more expensive while offering fewer and fewer new, innovative features that I’ll actually use,” said Zachary Pardes, a tech-savvy 31-year-old in Fairfield, Connecticut. “I’ll upgrade when the battery stops working. When I’m forced to buy a new phone, I’ll buy a new phone.”

Vivian Yang, a manager at a Beijing technology company, also balked at the price. “Nobody needs such a phone,” she said.

IDC analyst Ramon Llamas said the cycle might bottom out and start growing again in 2021 or 2022, when people’s current phones start reaching the end of their useful life. “People will still replace their phones. It’s going to happen eventually,” he said.

But there’s no “silver bullet” that will spur growth to levels seen in the past when the industry was less mature.

Foldable smartphones, with screens that unfold like a wallet to increase display size, are one thing that could spur excitement, but they’re expensive and not due out until at least the end of the year.

Another thing that might spur growth: 5G, the next-generation that telecom companies are currently in the process of building, expected to be faster and more reliable than the current 4G network. The first 5G compatible phones are due out this year.

“There’s more pressure on 5G as the next-wave smartphone,” since sales are so lackluster, said Ives. “There will be a battle royale for 5G phones.”

But 5G will take years for broad, nationwide deployment, so the new 5G smartphones coming out this year are not likely to make much of a splash immediately either.

Analysts say smartphone makers need to push into under-saturated areas like Africa and elsewhere, and also sell more services like cloud storage, streaming music and phone software. But the glory days of untrammeled growth appear to be over.

“It’s going to be a slow slog,” Llamas said. “By no means is this the end of the smartphone market. But this is an indication that the smartphone market can be a victim of its own success.”
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From: MeNeedIt

Stock markets around the globe dropped Thursday after tech giant Apple said that sales of its devices had fallen sharply in China last month, perhaps signaling a broader slowing in the world economy.

The widely watched Dow Jones industrial average of 30 prominent U.S. stocks plunged 2.8 percent — more than 660 points — by the close of trading, after stock indexes in Europe and Asia closed with smaller losses. Apple’s stock was down nearly 9 percent.

The stock declines came after Apple announced late Wednesday that its holiday sales were lower than it had expected, especially in China, the world’s second-biggest economy after the United States. In addition, a key gauge of U.S. manufacturing unexpectedly hit a two-year low in December, indicating weak demand and exports.

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook blamed the company’s sales shortfall on the trade battle President Donald Trump is waging against China. 

“While we anticipated some challenges in key emerging markets, we did not foresee the magnitude of the economic deceleration, particularly in greater China,” Cook wrote. “In fact, most of our revenue shortfall to our guidance, and over 100 percent of our year-over-year worldwide revenue decline, occurred in greater China across iPhone, Mac and iPad.” 

​More to come

Kevin Hassett, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said the contentious U.S.-China relations would force other U.S. companies to cut their sales estimates in China. 

“It’s not going to be just Apple,” Hassett told CNN. “There are a heck of a lot of U.S. companies that have sales in China that are going to be watching their earnings being downgraded next year until we get a deal with China.”

He said slowing consumer demand in China would give Trump an edge in trade negotiations. 

“That puts a lot of pressure on China to make a deal,” he said. “If we have a successful negotiation with China, then Apple’s sales and everybody else’s sales will recover.”

The U.S. economy remains strong, with the country’s 3.7 percent jobless rate at a nearly five-decade low. But economists say the U.S. economy could be slowing, and uncertainty in global economic fortunes has led to volatile daily swings in stock indexes in recent weeks.

In 2018, U.S. stock indexes suffered their worst year in a decade, with most of the losses recorded in December. The Dow was off 5.6 percent for the year, with the broader Standard & Poor’s index of 500 stocks down 6.2 percent.
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From: MeNeedIt