Danish tennis star Caroline Wozniacki won her first grand slam title Saturday at the Australian Open in Melbourne, besting Romanian Simona Halep, 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-4.

“I have to take a second to hug Daphne,” Wozniacki told reporters after being awarded the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup at the prize ceremony. “It’s a dream come true, and my voice is shaking. It’s a very emotional moment.”

Wozniacki is the first player from Denmark to win a major singles title. It came nine years after her first attempt in 2009, when she lost the U.S. Open final to Kim Clijsters. She also lost the U.S. Open in 2014, to Serena Williams.

Wozniacki also paid tribute, apologetically, to her opponent. “I want to congratulate Simona. I know today is a tough day and I’m sorry I had to win,” she told reporters. 

Halep, like Wozniacki, had played two major singles finals in the past without a win.

“Maybe the fourth time will be with luck,” she said before leaving the court at Laver Arena.

The competitors both took medical timeouts in their final, grueling match on a sweltering summer day.

Halep complained of dizziness and a headache when taking her timeout. After the end of the match, she said she was spent. “It was close again, but the gas was over in the end,” she said of her loss. Wozniacki, she said, “was better. She was fresher. She actually had more energy in the end.”

Wozniacki told reporters that the best thing about Saturday’s win was that she would never again have to answer a question about when she was going to win a Grand Slam title.

Now, she said, “I’m just waiting for the question, ‘When are you going to win the second one?’ ”
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From: MeNeedIt

The world has another ally in the war against microplastics. Just before Christmas, the Italian government voted to ban the tiny beads that show up primarily in beauty products by 2020. Italy joins a growing list of countries, the United States included, that have banned microplastic products. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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From: MeNeedIt

In a surprise move, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reversed itself Friday and stopped the approval process for the proposed Pebble Mine copper and gold mine project in southwest Alaska’s Bristol Bay region.

“It is my judgment at this time that any mining projects in the region likely pose a risk to the abundant natural resources that exist there,” EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said in a statement.

President Donald Trump has championed increased domestic mining, and the EPA’s decision to halt the Pebble Mine’s approval process comes as a surprise.

“Until we know the full extent of that risk, those natural resources and world-class fisheries deserve the utmost protection,” Pruitt said.

The Obama administration blocked the proposed mine in 2014 over environmental concerns. Last year, Pruitt reversed that decision, allowing the Canadian company behind the mine project to apply for a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Pebble Limited Partnership, comprising Canadian miners Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd and First Quantum Minerals Ltd, is planning to mine 1.2 billion tons of material, including 287 million pounds of copper.

Environmentalists, commercial and sport fishermen, many Alaska Native tribal organizations and even some Republican politicians have all criticized the project, which would be built on land near Lake Clark National Park.

Alaska Governor Bill Walker, an independent, applauded the decision and thanked Pruitt “for listening to my input and that of thousands of Alaskans” who oppose the mine.

Pruitt indicated the mine could ultimately be approved.

“This decision neither deters nor derails the application process of Pebble Limited Partnership’s proposed project,” he said.

“The project proponents continue to enjoy the protection of due process and the right to proceed. However, their permit application must clear a high bar, because EPA believes the risk to Bristol Bay may be unacceptable,” he said.
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From: MeNeedIt

One of the world’s most famous toys turns 60 on Jan. 28. The Lego building block, a tool of innovation and cause of severe pain to anyone who’s ever stepped on one, celebrates a milestone. Arash Arabasadi reports.
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From: MeNeedIt

Alaska’s all-Republican congressional delegation three weeks ago praised Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke after he announced nearly all federal waters off the state’s coast could be offered for petroleum lease sales.

But after hearing from critics who do not want drilling in their home waters, U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Rep. Don Young are backtracking.

In a letter Friday to Zinke, the delegation requested that most Alaska waters from the state’s Panhandle to the Bering Strait be removed from the proposed five-year drilling plan.

Instead, they urged lease sales in only three areas: Cook Inlet, where petroleum platforms have extracted oil and natural gas for decades, and the Arctic waters of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.

“We believe the strongest near-term offshore program in Alaska is one that focuses on the Chukchi, Beaufort and Cook Inlet,” they wrote. “Such a program will maximize agency resources and reflect the areas with the broadest support for development among Alaskans.”

Zinke announced the proposed lease sale plan Jan. 4. He said revisions could be made after public comment.

Immediate opposition

The proposal excluded only one area of Alaska: the North Aleutian Basin, home to Bristol Bay and the world’s largest run of sockeye salmon.

The proposal drew immediate opposition from governors in East and West Coast states. After Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, met with Zinke, the secretary announced that drilling would be “off the table” for waters in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean off Florida.

Subsistence resources

In Alaska, proposed lease sales in the Bering Sea drew strong condemnation from the Bering Sea Elders Group, an association of Alaska Native elders appointed from 39 tribes, and Kawerak Inc., a regional nonprofit organization, which said oil and gas activities pose a serious threat to marine life.

“These basins are where tribes from our region have harvested subsistence resources for millennia and where local people from our region fish and crab commercially,” Kawerak said in an announcement.

Drilling in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, home to polar bears, walrus and ice seals that support the subsistence economies of coastal villages, is strongly opposed by environmental groups. They say the harsh climate makes spills inevitable and that cleanup of a major spill would be impossible in waters choked by or covered in sea ice.

Oil estimates

However, federal regulators say the Beaufort Sea, off Alaska’s north coast, holds an estimated 8.9 billion barrels of oil and the Chukchi, off Alaska’s northwest coast, holds an estimated 15.4 billion barrels.

Royal Dutch Shell spent $2.1 billion on Chukchi Sea leases in 2008, invested another $5 billion overall in U.S. Arctic waters, and pulled out after drilling a dry hole in 2015.

Murkowski, Sullivan and Young contend drilling in Arctic waters can be done safely. They said they strongly support the inclusion of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas for lease sales between 2019 and 2024, while at the same time urging “meaningful consultation” with communities.
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From: MeNeedIt

A U.S. trade commission on Friday handed an unexpected victory to Bombardier Inc. against Boeing Co., in a ruling that allows the Canadian company to sell its newest jets to U.S. airlines without heavy duties, sending Bombardier’s shares up 15 percent.

The U.S. International Trade Commission’s unanimous decision was the latest twist in U.S.-Canadian trade relations that have been complicated by disputes over tariffs on Canadian lumber and U.S. milk and President Donald Trump’s desire to renegotiate or even abandon the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Trump, who did not weigh in on the dispute personally, took his “America First” message to the world’s elite on Friday, telling a summit that the United States would “no longer turn a blind eye” to what he described as unfair trade practices.

The ITC commissioners voted 4-0 that Bombardier’s prices did not harm Boeing and discarded a U.S. Commerce Department recommendation to slap a near 300 percent duty on sales of the company’s 110- to 130-seat CSeries jets for five years. It did not give a reason immediately.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement that the commission’s finding “shows how robust our system of checks

and balances is.”

Boeing’s shares closed flat.

“It’s reassuring to see that facts and evidence matter,” said Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “This part of the trade policy process works unimpeded despite President Trump’s protectionist rhetoric.”

Removing ‘uncertainty’

The decision will also help Bombardier sell the CSeries in the United States by removing “a huge amount of uncertainty,” at a time when its Brazilian rival Embraer is bringing its new E190-E2 jet to market, a source familiar with the

Canadian plane and train maker’s thinking said.

The ITC had been expected to side with Chicago-based Boeing. The company alleged it was forced to discount its 737 narrow-bodies to compete with Bombardier, which it said used government subsidies to dump the CSeries during the 2016 sale of 75 jets at “absurdly low” prices to Delta Air Lines.

Bombardier called the trade case self-serving after Boeing revealed on December 21 that it was discussing a “potential combination” with Embraer. Boeing denied the trade case was motivated by those talks.

Boeing to look at options

The dispute may not be over. “This can still be appealed by Boeing,” Andrew Leslie, parliamentary secretary to Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia

Freeland, told reporters in Montreal.

Boeing said it would not consider such options before seeing the ITC’s reasoning in February.

But Boeing said it was disappointed the commission did not recognize “the harm that Boeing has suffered from the billions of dollars in illegal government subsidies that the Department of Commerce found Bombardier received and used to dump aircraft in the U.S. small single-aisle airplane market.”

Bombardier, Delta and the U.S. consumer advocacy group Travelers United all called the ITC decision a victory for consumers and airlines.

The decision may end up helping Trump’s goal of boosting U.S. jobs as the CSeries jets for U.S. airlines will be built in the United States rather than Canada.

Through a venture with European planemaker Airbus SE, which has agreed to take a majority stake in the CSeries this year, Bombardier plans to assemble CSeries jets in Alabama to be sold to U.S. carriers starting in 2019.

Sweet surprise

Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders promised to push ahead “full throttle” with the Alabama plans. “Nothing is sweeter than a surprise, a surprise victory,” he said.

The case had sparked trade tensions between the United States and its allies Canada and the United Kingdom. Ottawa last year scrapped plans to buy 18 Super Hornet fighter jets from Boeing.

The well-paid jobs associated with the CSeries are important both to Ottawa and the British government. Bombardier employs about 4,000 workers in Northern Ireland.

The British prime minister’s office said it welcomed the decision, “which is good news” for the British industry, while Canada’s innovation minister said the ITC came to the “right decision” on Bombardier.

Former ITC Chairman Dan Pearson praised the decision. “Not a single commissioner was willing to buy Boeing’s arguments,” he said. “I think ‘America First’ is a policy of the White House and the Commerce Department. But it’s not the policy of an independent agency [like the ITC].”
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From: MeNeedIt

Billionaire casino mogul Steve Wynn is denying allegations of sexual harassment after a report in the Wall Street Journal detailed allegations of misconduct and caused shares of his casino company to drop 10 percent Friday.

Wynn said in a statement Friday “The idea that I ever assaulted any woman is preposterous” and accused his ex-wife of being behind the accusations.

“The instigation of these accusations is the continued work of my ex-wife, Elaine Wynn, with whom I am involved in a terrible and nasty lawsuit in which she is seeking a revised divorce settlement.”

Several incidents

The Journal article detailed several incidents in which Wynn allegedly pressured staff to perform sex acts. The allegations include those from a manicurist who claims she was forced to have sex with Wynn in 2005, shortly after he opened his flagship Wynn Las Vegas. The paper said she was later paid a $7.5 million settlement.

The Journal said it contacted more than 150 people who work or had worked for Wynn while investigating the story.

“We find ourselves in a world where people can make allegations, regardless of the truth,” Wynn said, “and a person is left with the choice of weathering insulting publicity or engaging in multiyear lawsuits.”

Wynn, 75, is a towering figure in the gambling world; his company helped to revitalize Las Vegas in the 1990s. Wynn Resorts built the Golden Nugget, The Bellagio and Mirage Resorts.

Republican National Committee post

In addition to being a business mogul, Wynn is the finance chairman of the Republican National Committee and has been a large contributor to the Republican Party.

Stocks for Wynn Resorts plummeted 10.1 percent Friday after the Journal report was published. The Wynn Resorts board of directors formed a committee Friday to investigate the allegations, Reuters reported.

There has been a wave of sexual misconduct claims against celebrities, politicians and media personalities since reports surfaced last year detailing alleged harassment by movie producer Harvey Weinstein. However, this is the first time that the sexual harassment claims have centered on the CEO and founder of a major, publicly held company.

Wynn Resorts said in a statement that there has never been a complaint made about Wynn to the company’s independent hotline for reporting harassment.

“The company requires all employees to receive annual anti-harassment training and offers an independent hotline that any employee can use anonymously, without fear of retaliation,” it said.
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From: MeNeedIt

U.S. health officials say the flu outbreak this winter is on track to be one of the most severe in the past 15 years.

In their latest weekly report Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the flu is now widespread in every U.S. state except for Hawaii. The CDC said at this rate of infection, by the end of the flu season, around 34 million people will have come down with the flu.

Officials say last week, 1 in 15 doctor visits across the country was for symptoms of flu.

Past outbreaks 

Health officials say more people are seeking care for flulike illness than at any other time since the 2009 swine flu pandemic that swept the country. Apart from that outbreak, the last time the country experienced such high levels of seasonal flu was in 2003-04. 

The CDC said the virus this winter has caused nearly 12,000 people to be hospitalized and killed 37 children. Officials say the death toll of children is likely to rise as pediatric deaths must first be reported to a medical examiner and can take longer to be documented. 

Differences this year

The flu typically affects children and the elderly the most. However, hospitalization rates for people 50 to 64 — those who mostly fall under the baby boomer demographic — has been unusually high this season. Officials say the rate of hospitalization for baby boomers is 44.2 per 100,000 people, which is nearly triple what it was last season.

The CDC does not track adult flu deaths directly.

This year’s flu strain, mostly the H3N2 flu virus, is the same main bug from last winter, which did not have as severe an outbreak. Experts say that they are not sure why the pandemic is so bad this year and that flu seasons are notoriously hard to predict. 

Dr. Dan Jernigan, director of the influenza division at the CDC, told reporters on a conference call Friday that one notable difference in this year’s flu outbreak is that the pandemic hit almost all states in the country at the same time. “We often see different parts of the country light up at different times, but there is lots of flu all at the same time” this year, he said.

Jernigan said a surge of cases in January could have been caused by children returning to school after the Christmas break and spreading the virus. 

Flu peak

The flu season usually peaks in February. Influenza activity has already begun to taper off in some parts of the United States, particularly in California, which has been one of the hardest-hit states. Officials say this flu season also began early and so could end earlier.

Flu is a contagious respiratory illness that causes such symptoms as fever, cough, muscle aches, headaches and fatigue. Most people who get the flu get better within a week or two. However, some people develop serious complications caused by viral infection of the nasal passages and throat and lungs. 

The CDC recommends a flu vaccine for everyone older than 6 months. However, officials say this year’s vaccine is only about 30 percent effective in preventing infection.
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From: MeNeedIt

Michigan State University Athletic Director Mark Hollis resigned Friday, two days after the school’s president stepped down amid a storm of criticism about how it handled the sexual assault scandal that led to the conviction of former school faculty member and USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar.

Nassar was sentenced Wednesday to 40 to 175 years in prison after pleading guilty of sexually abusing more than 150 female gymnasts, some as young as 6 years old, under the guise of medical treatment, for more than two decades.

Hollis disclosed his resignation to a small group of reporters on campus. When asked why he was stepping down, Hollis tearfully said, “Because I care.” Hollis also said he hoped his resignation “has a little bit, a little bit, of helping that healing process.”

More than 150 of Nassar’s victims gave emotional statements at his sentencing hearing in Lansing, Michigan. Several of the victims who addressed the court were former athletes at the university, and many victims charged the school with mishandling complaints about Nassar as far back as the late 1990s.

Nassar was also accused of molesting other young gymnasts while employed by USA Gymnastics, the sport’s U.S. governing body. Olympic gold medalists Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber, Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas and McKayla Maroney are among victims who said in recent months they were assaulted by Nassar during treatment. Many victims have accused USA Gymnastics of ignoring or concealing their complaints in an effort to avoid negative publicity.

University President Lou Anna Simon submitted her resignation late Wednesday, just after Nassar’s sentencing. The school’s governing board expressed support for Simon, but she eventually succumbed to pressure from students, faculty and lawmakers. There is no evidence Simon was aware Nassar was committing acts of abuse, but some of the more than 150 accusers said their complaints to the school over the years were not addressed.

University board members, who are elected in statewide votes, are also under intense scrutiny, prompting two members to say they would not seek re-election. Board member Joel Ferguson apologized this week for saying previously that some victims were ambulance chasers seeking a payday.

Michigan State had long resisted pleas for an independent investigation, but last week asked state Attorney General Bill Schuette to review the scandal.

In a Twitter post Friday, university trustee Mitch Lyons expressed regret that the school had failed to respond appropriately.

A student march and protest was scheduled for Friday evening.
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From: MeNeedIt

Around the world, an area larger than all of South America has been deforested, eroded, drained or salinized. A new report says there’s money to be made restoring that land. VOA’s Steve Baragona has more.
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From: MeNeedIt

The U.S. economy likely maintained a brisk pace of growth in the fourth quarter, driven by an acceleration in consumer and business spending, which could set it on course to attain the Trump administration’s 3 percent annual growth target this year.

Gross domestic product probably increased at a 3.0 percent annual rate also boosted by a rebound in homebuilding investment and a pickup in government outlays, according to a Reuters poll of economists. The strong growth pace would come despite anticipated drags from trade and inventory investment.

It would follow a 3.2 percent pace of expansion in the third quarter and mark the first time since 2004 that the economy enjoyed growth of 3 percent or more for three straight quarters.

The Commerce Department will publish its advance fourth-quarter GDP estimate Friday morning.

​Global rebound

The economy’s growth spurt is part of a synchronized global rebound that includes the euro zone and Asia.

It has also benefited from President Donald Trump’s promise of hefty tax cuts, which was fulfilled in December when the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress approved the largest overhaul of the tax code in 30 years.

Despite the economy’ strong performance in the last three quarters of 2017, overall growth for the year is expected to come in around 2.3 percent, because of a weak first quarter.

That would still be an acceleration from the 1.5 percent logged in 2016. Economists expect annual GDP growth will hit the government’s 3 percent target this year, spurred in part by a weak dollar, rising oil prices and strengthening global economy.

Modest boost from tax cuts

While the corporate income tax rate has been slashed to 21 percent from 35 percent and taxes for households have also been lowered, economists see only a modest boost to GDP growth as the fiscal stimulus is coming at a time when the economy is almost at full employment.

“We are encouraged by the current breadth of economic strength and … we expect the pace of U.S. real GDP to accelerate from the expansion average, increasing 3.0 percent in 2018,” said Sam Bullard, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Fed hawks

Robust economic growth has been accompanied by record gains on the stock market and a strong labor market, with the unemployment rate falling seven-tenths of a percentage point last year to a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. Economists said this could put the Federal Reserve on a more aggressive path of interest rate increases than is being anticipated.

“I think that gives the hawks at the Fed more ammunition to say we should contemplate a more aggressive path on rates going forward,” said Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of the West Economics in San Francisco.

The U.S. central bank has forecast three rate hikes this year, the same number as in 2017.

Consumer spending

Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, is expected to have increased by as much as a 3.9 percent rate in the fourth quarter. That would be the quickest pace in three years and would follow a 2.2 percent rate of growth in the July-September quarter.

Consumer spending is likely to remain supported by rising household wealth, thanks to the stock market rally and higher house prices, tax cuts and firming wage growth as companies compete for workers and some states raise the minimum wage.

“Since the election the consumer has been exuding confidence, which is the willingness to spend money, and we see he has got even the ability to spend money too because personal income is creeping up,” said Dan North, chief economist at Euler Hermes North America in Baltimore.

“So, you have the willingness and ability to spend. We think consumption is going to pick up and drive the economy.”

Business investment in equipment is expected to have picked up from the third-quarter’s 10.8 percent growth pace. Spending on equipment is likely to be underpinned this year by the corporate income tax cuts and recent increase in crude oil prices.

Investment in homebuilding is expected to have rebounded after contracting for two straight quarters. An acceleration is expected in government spending from the July-September period’s pedestrian 0.7 percent growth pace.

Trade a drag

But trade was likely a drag on GDP growth as the burst in consumer spending was probably satiated with imports, offsetting a rise in exports, which is being driven by dollar weakness.

Economists at JPMorgan estimate that trade cut one percentage point from fourth-quarter GDP growth after adding 0.36 percentage point in the third quarter.

Inventory investment also probably subtracted from GDP growth last quarter after adding 0.79 percentage point to output in the prior period.
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From: MeNeedIt

Musician William Close holds the world record for the longest stringed instrument, a device he invented and has played around the world called the Earth Harp. Mike O’Sullivan visited the musician in Malibu, California, to see how it works.
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From: MeNeedIt