China’s crackdown on imports of plastic trash should be a signal for rich nations to increase recycling and cut down on non-essential products such as plastic drinking straws, the head of the U.N. Environment Program said on Monday.

Erik Solheim, a former Norwegian environment minister, urged developed nations to re-think their use of plastics and not simply seek alternative foreign dumping grounds after China’s restrictions took effect this month.

“We should see the Chinese decision I heard some complaints from Europeans as a great service to the people of China and a wake-up call to the rest of the world,” he said in a telephone interview from Nairobi. “And there are lots of products we simply don’t need.”

Prime examples, he said, were microbeads – tiny pieces of plastic often used in cosmetics which have been found to pollute the world’s oceans, rivers and lakes – and drinking straws.

“The average American uses 600 straws a year,” he said, generating vast amounts of plastic waste. “Everyone can drink straight from the bottle or the cup.”

He suggested restaurants and bars could put up signs along the lines of: “If you desperately need a straw we will provide it.” 

Some companies have already cut back on straws.

He praised bans on microbeads, sometimes used as abrasives in facial scrubs or toothpaste. The United States passed a law in 2015 to ban microbeads and a ban in Britain took effect this month.

Piles of waste have built up in some western ports after China, the main destination for more than half of plastic waste exported by western nations, banned “foreign garbage” including some grades of plastics and paper.

Solheim said companies including Coca-Cola, Nestle and Danone were taking steps to raise plastic recycling or to shift to biodegradable packaging. Kenya has banned plastic bags.

“But the problem is so huge that a lot more needs to be done” by governments and businesses, Solheim said.

“It’s a much better idea if nations overall take care of their own waste,” rather than seek new dumping grounds, he said, adding that: “It’s not obvious that well-run nations like India and Vietnam want to be taking over this waste,” after China’s ban.

Last week, the European Commission outlined a new policy push to promote recycling of plastic. It said it was mulling a tax, curbs on throwaway items such as plastic bags and new quality standards.

In December, almost 200 nations signed a U.N. resolution to eliminate plastic pollution in the oceans, with the U.N. Environment Agency projecting that there could be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050.
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From: MeNeedIt

U.S. Democratic senators have blocked a bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks, ensuring that the procedure stays legal through the later terms of a woman’s pregnancy.

Republican leaders in the Senate knew the bill had little chance to pass, but wanted to pressure Democrats to take a stance on abortion, particularly vulnerable Democrats facing re-election and from states that voted for President Donald Trump.

The bill fell short by a 51 to 46 vote. It needed 60 votes to end a filibuster and proceed to a vote.

The vote largely fell along party lines, with only two Republicans voting against it — Susan Collins from Maine and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska. Three Democrats voted for the measure. All three — Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania — are from states that voted for Trump in the 2016 election.

More than half of the Senate’s Democrats and independents are up for re-election this year, and 10 of them are in states Trump won.

“This afternoon, every one of us will go on record on the issue,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor Monday ahead of the vote.

The legislation passed the House in October largely along party lines. The bill calls for a ban on abortions after five months, and would also threaten doctors who perform abortions after that time to five years in jail. The bill exempts women who need an abortion to save their lives, as well as rape and incest survivors.

Democrats criticized the Republican leadership on Monday for prioritizing an abortion ban less than a week after a government shutdown and before issues on spending and immigration are resolved.

“While the country is waiting for us to come together and solve problems, Republicans are wasting precious time with a politically motivated, partisan bill engineered to drive us apart — and hurt women,” said Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, ahead of the vote.
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From: MeNeedIt

The European Union says that if U.S. President Donald Trump initiates unfair trade measures against the 28-nation bloc, it would stand ready “to react swiftly and appropriately.”

In a weekend interview, Trump said he was annoyed with EU trade policy since he claims the U.S. cannot sufficiently export to the EU. He said his problems with the EU “may morph into something very big” from a trade standpoint.

EU spokesman Margaritis Schinas retorted Monday that “while trade has to be open and fair it also has to be rules-based.”

Schinas said: “The EU stands ready to react swiftly and appropriately in case our exports are affected by any restrictive trade measure from the United States.”

 
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From: MeNeedIt

North and South Korea are reporting outbreaks of different strains of influenza, less than two weeks before thousands of visitors from around the world arrive for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics in the South.

North Korea’s Ministry of Public Health reported over 80,000 confirmed cases of the influenza strain H1N1 that is endemic in pigs, known as swine flu, between December 1, 2017 and January 16, 2018, according to a bulletin issued by the International Foundation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Aid and sanctions

The Red Cross cited North Korean health ministry officials saying that three children and one adult have died so far in the outbreak and that there are over 120,000 suspected swine flu cases in the country, and that the outbreak is nationwide with 28 percent of the cases reported in the capital of Pyongyang.

The North Korean government has requested medication to vaccinate high-risk individuals from the World Health Organization and the U.N. International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), as well as training and equipment for prevention, detection, and treatment to limit the impact of the influenza outbreak. The WHO and UNICEF have not publicly commented on the request.

The Red Cross is planning for $270,000 in emergency aid that includes sending volunteers with masks and protective clothing to conduct training in at risk areas in North Korea.

“The majority of the component of what we are gong to do is hygiene promotion and health education,” said Gwendolyn Pang, acting head of the Red Cross office in Pyongyang.

In September, the South Korean government reportedly delayed sending an $8 million humanitarian aid package to North Korea after Pyongyang conducted its sixth nuclear test earlier that month. The planned donation included $3.5 million going to UNICEF for medicine and nutrition to help children and pregnant women, and $4.5 million to the World Food Program for food aid to North Korean hospital South Korea suspended all humanitarian aid to the North in 2016 following Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test.

Last year’s delay of aid by the administration of South Korean President Moon Jae-in was seen as a show of support for U.S. President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” strategy that emphasizes strong economic sanctions along with the threat of military action to force the Kim Jong Un government in Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.

Cross border exposure

This year, Pyongyang has taken a seemingly more conciliatory approach to Seoul by agreeing to participate in the Olympics in South Korea, and has so far refrained from conducting any further provocative missile or nuclear tests. Washington has also supported this Olympic truce by agreeing to postpone joint military exercises with South Korea, until after both the Olympic and Paralympic games end in late March.

However increased Olympic related inter-Korean travel, with South Korean athletes training for skiing events at Kumgang Mountain in North Korea, and a large delegation of North Korean athletes, artists and cheering squads poised to compete and perform across the South, has raised concerns of the virus spreading across borders.

“We are continuing to monitor trends in the North Korean flu. And I will do my best to be more thorough about quarantine (contingencies) in relation to the North Korean people ’s visitation and our visit to North Korea,” said Ministry of Unification spokesperson Baek Tae-hyun on Monday.

The majority of human infections of the highly contagious H1N1 flu virus come from direct contact with infected animals or contaminated environments, according to WHO, and the virus can be be transmitted through human to human contact.

Once transmitted to humans, the influenza virus may cause a mild upper respiratory tract infection (fever and cough), and in some cases a rapid progression to severe pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome and even death.

South Korean outbreak

This weekend a highly pathogenic strain of H5N6 avian influenza was also found on a chicken farm in South Korea near Seoul. Provincial authorities have reportedly ordered that over 500,000 chickens be culled and more than 450,000 eggs destroyed in farms where the virus was detected. . The government is also conducting inspections and disinfections at all poultry farms in the area, quarantining workers at infected poultry farms for a week, and imposing a regional ban on poultry distribution to urban areas.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs there have been a total of 15 cases of bird flu in South Korea since last November, which has forced the authorities to cull nearly 2 million birds.
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From: MeNeedIt

Top trade representatives from Canada, Mexico and the United States are set to give an update Monday on the process of renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, while people familiar with the process say a final deal could be pushed far beyond a March target date.

The three nations had tried to complete the talks by the end of 2017, but delayed the informal deadline as they worked to find common ground on several contentious issues.

The latest round of talks in Montreal included work on a dispute resolution mechanism and rules for the auto industry.

The United States wants to largely eliminate the dispute settlement panels and increase the percentage of U.S. content required to be in a vehicle. It has also proposed a clause that would end the trade agreement after five years unless all three countries agree to keep it going.

U.S. Representative Dave Reichert expressed optimism Sunday after he and a group of other lawmakers met with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. He said Lighthizer is “hopeful” while also recognizing “there’s a great deal of work to be done.”

Canada’s chief negotiator Steve Verheul said Saturday, “We’re moving in a slightly more positive direction.”

Lighthizer is meeting Monday with Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo to review the progress made by their teams and to make an announcement about the state of the negotiations.

One reason the countries were targeting a March end date is the looming July presidential election in Mexico. 

Another round of negotiations is expected to start in Mexico City in about a month. A lack of an agreement by the end of March could push the process deep into 2018 with a potential break for the Mexican election and similar considerations surrounding the November U.S. congressional elections.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the trade agreement if changes favorable to the United Sates are not made.
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From: MeNeedIt

Politics took the stage at the 60th annual Grammy awards this year, along with some great music. 

Hillary Clinton, who ran against Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential campaign, made a surprise appearance in a pre-taped skit about people auditioning to be the voice for the spoken word recording of Michael Wolff’s best-seller “Fire and Fury” about Trump’s first unconventional year in office. 

Clinton followed John Legend, Cher, Snoop Dogg, Cardi B and DJ Khaled who also “auditioned.” Grammys host James Corden told Clinton that she beat out the competition to win. 

“The Grammys in the bag,” Clinton said at the end. Political observers say Clinton thought her presidential win was “in the bag.”

U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley did not see the humor. “I have always loved the Grammys, but to have artists read the Fire and Fury book killed it,” she tweeted. “Don’t ruin great music with trash. Some of us love music without the politics thrown in it.

Neil Portnow, head of the recording academy, told the Associated Press that he thought Clinton’s appearance was more satirical than political. 

The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., tweeted: “Getting to read a #fakenews book excerpt at the Grammys seems like a great consolation prize for losing the presidency.” 

Singer/actor Janelle Monae, meanwhile, reminded the audience that the music industry needed to face its sexual harassment and gender discrimination issues. “To those who would dare try and silence us, we offer you two words: Time’s Up,” 

Monae introduced singer Kesha who has long sought to break her deal with her producer whom she says raped her. 

Kesha’s song “Praying” included the lyrics, “After everything you’ve done, I can thank you for how strong I have become.” 

Cuban American singer Camila Cabello spoke out for legal protection for “dreamers,” the immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children and do not have legal status. “This country was built by dreamers for dreamers,” she said. 

Cabello introduced a pre-recorded performance by the band U2, who sang their song “Get Out of Your Own Way” on a barge in the New York harbor with the State of Liberty, the beacon that welcomed millions of immigrants to their new lives in the U.S. in the background. 
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From: MeNeedIt

The North Korean women’s ice hockey team is in South Korea to prepare for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. The two governments reached an agreement to play together wearing the same jerseys and marching under a unified peninsula flag. Arash Arabasadi reports.
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From: MeNeedIt

U.S. President Donald Trump touted the continued growth of the U.S. economy on Sunday, saying it is “better than it has been in many decades.”

“Businesses are coming back to America like never before,” Trump said in a Twitter remark, a likely theme of his State of the Union address on Tuesday. “Unemployment is nearing record lows. We are on the right track!”

He said, “Chrysler, as an example, is leaving Mexico and coming back to the USA,” an exaggeration of Chrysler’s expansion plans. Fiat Chrysler, the world’s eighth biggest auto manufacturer, says it is investing $1 billion to manufacture its profitable Ram pickup trucks in the midwestern state of Michigan, shifting the production from Mexico, but at the same time is not cutting any of its vehicle manufacturing jobs in Mexico.

The U.S. jobless rate has held steady at 4.1 percent for the last three months, the lowest figure in 17 years. The U.S. economy, the world’s largest, advanced at a 2.3 percent pace last year, Trump’s first year in office, up from 1.5 percent in 2016.

The U.S. economy, however, slowed in the last three months of 2017, expanding at a 2.6 percent annual rate, down from the 3.2 percent figure in the July-to-September period.

Attack on Jay-Z

In praising the U.S. economic performance, Trump also attacked Jay-Z, after the rap musician had assailed Trump in a Saturday news talk show over the president’s recent reported vulgar descriptions of people from Haiti and Africa as he seeks to block their immigration to the United States.

“Somebody please inform Jay-Z that because of my policies, Black Unemployment has just been reported to be at the LOWEST RATE EVER RECORDED!” Trump said. The black unemployment rate in the U.S. has fallen to 6.8 percent, which is still higher than the 3.7 percent figure for whites.

Jay-Z told CNN interviewer Van Jones that economic advances for blacks do not outweigh Trump’s attacks on predominantly black countries.

“Everyone feels anger, but after the anger, it’s really hurtful because he’s looking down on a whole population of people. And he’s so misinformed because these places have beautiful people,” Jay-Z said, adding, “It’s not about money at the end of the day. Money doesn’t equate to happiness. It doesn’t. That’s missing the whole point.

“You treat people like human beings,” he said.

 
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From: MeNeedIt

To mark World Leprosy Day, the World Health Organization is calling for the eradication of this ancient disfiguring disease by combating the stigma and discrimination that discourages people from seeking the help they need.

Leprosy, a hideously disfiguring disease that has blighted the lives of countless millions since Biblical days, is curable. And yet, the World Health Organization reports more than 200,000 people, most in Southeast Asia, are affected with the disease and new cases continue to arise every year.

Leprosy is a chronic bacterial disease with a slow incubation period of about five years. In some cases, symptoms may occur within one year, but can take as long as 20 years to appear.

Leprosy was eliminated globally as a public health problem in 2000, but the disease persists in individuals and communities. WHO spokesman, Tarik Jasarevic, tells VOA this is unacceptable, as an effective treatment exists that can fully cure people of leprosy.

“Since ’95, WHO has provided this multi-drug therapy free of cost to all leprosy patients in the world,” he said. “In 2016, WHO launched global leprosy strategy, 2016-2020, accelerating toward a leprosy-free world. This is basically to revamp the efforts for leprosy control. The strategy focuses on avoiding disabilities, especially among children.”

This year’s World Leprosy Day focuses on preventing disabilities in children. WHO reports children account for nearly nine percent of all new cases of leprosy, including almost seven percent of those with visible deformities.

The U.N. health agency notes early diagnosis and early treatment can prevent disability. It says disabilities do not occur overnight, but happen after a prolonged period of undiagnosed and untreated disease.

Unfortunately, it notes many people do not seek help until it is too late and deformities already have appeared. This is because of the stigma and discrimination associated with leprosy.

WHO is calling for laws discriminating against people with leprosy to be abolished and replaced with policies promoting inclusion of such people within society.
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From: MeNeedIt

For musicians from the West African nation of Burkina Faso, a nomination for a Grammy Award should have been the crowning achievement of a musical career.

Instead, musicians based in Bobo-Dioulasso, whose work is featured on the three-disk compilation “Bobo Yeye,” didn’t even know they had been nominated or that the album even existed.

“As a musician, I am totally disappointed to learn that we have spent time moaning, suffering and that someone else can just make a compilation of our music and that it is going for an award,” musician Stanislas Soré told VOA French to Africa Service on Friday.

Soré is a member of the Volta Jazz group, whose songs are part of the album titled “Bobo Yeye, Belle époque in Upper Volta,” which is nominated for two Grammy Awards.

It is a compilation of recordings in the 1970s in Bobo, second-largest city of Burkina Faso, then known as Upper Volta.

The news of the Grammy nomination surprised the musicians, who wondered how their music was put on CDs and distributed worldwide without their knowledge or consent. It turns out French music producer Florent Mazzoleni made the compilation produced by The Numero Group, a Chicago-based production company.

“These are artists that I have always admired and I wrote about 20 books on African music, including a book in 2015 called ‘Burkina Faso Modern Music Voltaic,’” Mazzoleni said in a phone interview.

Mazzoleni said he wanted “to pay tribute to all those people in the shadows, who made the culture of Bobo-Dioulasso.”

At the time, he said, Upper Volta was a poor country with limited ability for people to communicate with the outside world or record music. “People recorded with what they could get and yet they managed to create one of the most fascinating modern music of the continent,” Mazzoleni said.

Disagreement over book, compilation

But the artists themselves are not happy, saying he has been unfair to them. They pointed out that when they met him, he talked only about a book project.

“All I know, there was this white guy who came here; he tried to get information on what life was like in the orchestras of the old days. We understood he was going to make a book of the history of our music. But when it comes to producing a compilation or stuff like that, we’ve never talked about that, never, never, ever,” Soré, of Volta Jazz, said.

His account was backed up by Nouhoun Traoré Banakourou, saxophonist and guitarist of the group Echo Del Africa, who acknowledged that he worked with Mazzoleni on a book project, but not a compilation.

“What he is doing now is not what he offered me. When he came for the book, my son asked him for a gift for me. He gave me 200,000 CFA francs (around $380) that day,” Nouhoun Traoré recalls.

“He took a recording of our boss, Tanou Bassoumalo, an old recording, and told me he would see if he can recover the tracks and fix them. He left and never came back. Nor did he call me, or say anything else,” Traoré said.

The French producer denies these allegations. He claims to have followed all the necessary steps. “I have all the permissions, all the contracts,” he told VOA.

“I met the founders of the group, the people who had the contracts at the time, what more do you want me to tell you? Obviously, I cannot meet everyone. Obviously, when you have a project like this that comes to fruition, people talk about it and the fact that it is nominated for the Grammy Awards, it attracts the interest of some people,” Mazzoleni said.

Whatever the outcome at the award ceremony on Sunday in Madison Square Garden, Burkinabe musicians and citizens see it as an honor for their music and culture, which is getting world exposure, despite the controversy.
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From: MeNeedIt

Without the use of traditional instruments and in an interconnected world, what makes a Chinese composition distinctively Chinese? The Juilliard School’s Focus! Festival 2018 seeks to challenge our preconceptions of the 1.4 billion-population nation, led by a cast of contemporary Chinese composers and acclaimed Juilliard orchestral students. VOA’s Ramon Taylor sat down with one of China’s most prominent young conductors and the festival’s founding director on the evolving commonalities and differences of orchestral music, East and West.
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From: MeNeedIt

Officials trying to settle differences over how to update the North American Free Trade Agreement have made some progress and hope politicians decide the talks should continue, Steve Verheul, Canada’s chief negotiator, told Reuters on Saturday.

The United States, Canada and Mexico are due to finish the sixth of seven planned rounds of NAFTA discussions on Monday, with several major issues far from being resolved.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who describes the $1.2 trillion pact as a disaster, has frequently threatened to walk away from it unless major changes are made.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo will hold a news conference later Monday to announce the next steps.

Asked whether he thought the three ministers would decide there is enough momentum to continue with the next round, Verheul said: “Well, that’s our hope.”

Later in the day, he told reporters: “We’re moving in a slightly more positive direction. We’ll take that encouragement where we can.”

On balance, a ‘positive’

A Mexican official, who asked not to be named, said “we don’t foresee a negative reaction to the round. We believe the balance will be positive.”

Work is moving ahead on less contentious parts of NAFTA, the Mexican official and a Canadian source close to the talks said Saturday, and the three nations have closed a chapter on measures to fight corruption.

Canada and Mexico initially dismissed some of the main U.S. demands as unworkable but later made it clear they were ready to be more flexible.

During the sixth round, Canada raised what it called creative ways of meeting U.S. demands for higher North American content in autos, a sunset clause that would allow one party to quit the treaty after five years, and major changes to existing conflict resolution mechanisms.

“I think we have demonstrated we have engaged on most of the big issues,” Verheul said in his remarks to Reuters. “We’ve made progress on some of the smaller ones, so I think [it was] not a bad week.”

The Mexican official said that Canada’s proposals on rules of origin for autos, the sunset clause and conflict resolution mechanism were “positive, inasmuch as they are an attempt to move things forward.”

Speaking separately, a second Canadian government source said Ottawa was cautiously optimistic about the round, given that the U.S. side had not summarily rejected the proposals for compromise.

But the source, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said much would depend on Lighthizer’s reaction on Monday.

Fear for pact’s future

Markets and industries are worried about the possible collapse of the $1.2 trillion pact.

“It’s unclear to us that anything that anyone does here will be enough … which is concerning for agriculture,” said Brian Innes, president of the Canadian Agri-food Trade Alliance.

“Our position with all the political parties is that the negotiations must go on,” said Juan Pablo Castanon, president of the Consejo Coordinador Empresarial, the umbrella group representing Mexican private sector interests at the talks.

“We want free trade, but not at any cost,” he said.

The talks were initially scheduled to wrap up by the end of March to avoid clashing with Mexico’s presidential election in July. Guajardo told Reuters on Friday that the process could be extended if need be.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leftist front-runner in the presidential race, said on Friday that the renegotiation should wait until after the election so that the next government, which he aims to lead, would get a say in the treaty’s future.
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From: MeNeedIt