'Made in China' could soon be made in the US

cnbc.com - It's Chinese-made in America.

Yes, you read that right. Contrary to widespread belief, China isn't the cheap place to manufacture that it once was, and rising costs have been forcing manufacturers to explore new countries to make their goods.

The U.S. may not be top of mind for all industries, but some manufacturers are taking a second look at the country — and many of them are Chinese. Throw in the possibility of lower corporate taxes under President Donald Trump, and more will likely come looking.

"The reason we want to invest in the U.S. isn't only because the Trump administration is encouraging it," Xiao Wunan, deputy chairman of Asia Pacific Exchange and Cooperation Foundation, who takes Chinese business executives to the U.S. on investment tours, told CNBC. "The U.S. has natural advantages for [Chinese] investment."

Why go to the U.S.?

The cost advantage

John Ling, president of the Council of American States in China, makes a living finding prospective investment locations in the U.S. for Chinese companies.

"In every project I help to land in the U.S., if I cannot present evidence that they can lower their costs, my chance of doing [the deal] in the U.S. is almost zero," he told CNBC. "Cost is driving this."

American workers earn a lot of money compared to their counterparts in China, but the U.S. can still come out on top when costs are taken as a whole.

For Hangzhou-based textile manufacturer Keer Group, American workers were paid on average twice as much as workers in China, according to the firm's president, Zhu Shanqing. In aggregate, however, producing in the America is significantly less compared to China.

"In the U.S., land, electricity and cotton are all much cheaper," Zhu said. "My production cost per ton of textiles is 25 percent lower [there]."

In addition, he said, wages for him in China have been increasing 30 percent each year for much of the past decade. He has pledged $220 million to build and expand a facility in South Carolina and plans to eventually move the entire business to the U.S. where he plans to employ more than 500 people by the end of the year.

Add in the possibility of a lower corporate tax to as little as 15 percent, as proposed by Trump, and the U.S. becomes a no-brainer for many manufacturers Zhu said.

"If Trump cuts the corporate tax even by 5 percent, companies that left America a few years ago, will be back," he said. (ontinueReading

Ancient Egyptians more closely related to Europeans than modern Egyptians, scientists claim

independent.co.uk - Scientists who managed to obtain full genome sequences of Ancient Egyptians for the first time have concluded the people of the pharaohs were more closely related to modern Europeans and inhabitants of the Near East rather than present-day Egyptians.

But the claims sparked suspicion from one leading Egyptologist, who questioned whether genetic analysis could justify such a sweeping statement and pointed to a long history of spurious attempts to separate ancient Egyptians from the modern-day population.

The mummies were taken from a single archaeological site on the River Nile, Abusir el-Meleq, which was inhabited from 3,250BC to 700AD and was home to a cult of Osiris, the god of the dead, making it a good place to be buried.

A complete genome sequence was obtained for three mummies and mitochondrial DNA, which is passed through the female line, was obtained from 90 individuals. They were dated to between about 1,400BC and 400AD.

The researchers, writing in the journal Nature Communications, admitted their sample “may not be representative for all of ancient Egypt”.

Nevertheless, they concluded the mummified people were “distinct from modern Egyptians, and closer towards Near Eastern and European samples”.

“Our analyses reveal that ancient Egyptians shared more ancestry with Near Easterners than present-day Egyptians,” they wrote.

And they added: “We find that ancient Egyptians are most closely related to Neolithic and Bronze Age samples in the Levant, as well as to Neolithic Anatolian and European populations.

“When comparing this pattern with modern Egyptians, we find that the ancient Egyptians are more closely related to all modern and ancient European populations that we tested, likely due to the additional African component in the modern population.”

In contrast to the changes between the ancient and modern period, the researchers, from Cambridge University and institutions in Germany, Poland and Australia, found the genetic make-up of the mummies was remarkably constant despite the arrival of the Romans and other foreign powers.

Dr Wolfgang Haak, group leader at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, said: “The genetics of the Abusir el-Meleq community did not undergo any major shifts during the 1,300-year timespan we studied, suggesting that the population remained genetically relatively unaffected by foreign conquest and rule.”

However Professor Stephen Quirke, an Egyptologist at University College London, expressed caution about the researchers’ broader claims.

“There has been this very strong attempt throughout the history of Egyptology to disassociate ancient Egyptians from the modern population,” he said.

“I’m particularly suspicious of any statement that may have the unintended consequences of asserting – yet again from a northern European or North American perspective – that there’s a discontinuity there.

“When we are discussing it, we have to be much more sensitive to how these kinds of statements are read outside where we are at the moment.”

Professor Quirke added that he felt “we are not yet anywhere near” being able to make “very drastic conclusions” about the tens of millions of people living in Egypt.

While there have been a number of influxes of people from outside Egypt, he suggested that the impact could sometimes be over-stated.

For example, Professor Quirke said many thousands of soldiers had taken part in the Arab Invasion of Egypt in the 7th century, but they were still vastly outnumbered by the resident population of about six million. (ontinueReading

Putin visits France, hopes to mend strained ties with West

washingtonpost.com VERSAILLES, France — On a visit likely to shape Russia-France ties for years, French President Emmanuel Macron hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin at the sumptuous Palace of Versailles on Monday for what the newly-elected French leader said would be “demanding” talks on Syria, the Ukrainian crisis and other thorny issues driving the rift between Russia and the West.

The leaders’ first handshakes — relatively brief and cordial — after Putin climbed out of his limousine at Versailles were far less macho than Macron’s now famous who-will-blink-first handshake showdown with President Donald Trump when the two leaders met for the first time last week.

Monday’s visit offered Putin and Macron a chance to reset a relationship that got off on a less-than-ideal foot during Macron’s presidential campaign. Macron had strong words for Russia in his race for the presidency, saying France and Russia don’t share the same values. Putin bet — wrongly — on Macron’s far-right opponent Marine Le Pen, hosting her at the Kremlin in March, before Macron then handily beat her.

Macron is the first Western leader to speak to Putin after the Group of Seven summit over the weekend, where relations with Russia were a key topic.

The Kremlin hailed the visit as a chance for Putin and Macron to get to know each other and better understand their views on a range of disputed issues, including the Ukrainian crisis, the war in Syria and Russia’s ties with the European Union.

During his G-7 news conference on Saturday, Macron promised to have a “demanding dialogue” with Russia, especially on Syria. He called it a failure that European nations were not involved in the talks over Syria’s future but were being hit by the effects of that crisis, including the huge number of Syrian refugees trying to get to Europe.

“We must talk to Russia to change the framework for getting out of the military crisis in Syria and to build a much more collective and integrated inclusive political solution,” Macron declared.

Macron’s invitation for Putin was a surprise after his tough stance on Russia during the French election. Macron’s aides also claimed that Russian groups launched hacking attacks on his presidential campaign. Moscow strongly denied all allegations of election meddling.

Monday’s visit offers both sides an opportunity to improve ties that steadily deteriorated in the closing months of the presidency of Macron’s predecessor, Socialist Francois Hollande.

“As a person who pays utmost attention to personal contacts, Putin believes that only a one-on-one meeting could give answers to many questions about Macron as a person and as president of France, as well as his future foreign policy course and his stance on Russia,” Tatyana Stanovaya of the Center for Political Technologies, an independent Moscow-based think-tank, wrote.

In October, Putin abruptly shelved a trip to Paris after Hollande alleged that Russia could face war crime charges for its actions in Syria. Hollande also refused to take part in the opening of the newly built Russian Orthodox Spiritual and Cultural Center in Paris and was only interested in talking with Russia about Syria.

Later Monday, Putin is to visit the center near the Seine River that includes the Holy Trinity Cathedral. The site was sold to Russia under former President Nicolas Sarkozy amid criticism from rights groups.

After their talks at Versailles, Putin and Macron will tour an exhibition there marking the 300th anniversary of Russian Czar Peter the Great’s trip to Paris that was prepared by St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum.

With Peter the Great widely seen as a ruler who modernized Russia and sought to open it up to the West, the exhibition offers a symbolic backdrop for both to talk about the importance of Russia-France ties.

Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Russia was dissatisfied with the current level of political contacts and that the meeting “is very important for both Russia and France.”

Ushakov said he expects an “interesting discussion” on ways to implement a 2015 Minsk deal for eastern Ukraine, which was brokered by Germany and France. The U.S. and the EU have made the prospect of lifting economic and financial sanctions against Moscow contingent on fulfilling the peace agreement.

The deal has helped reduce the scale of fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, but clashes have continued and political elements of the agreement have stalled. Ukraine and Russia have blamed one another for the fighting that has left some 10,000 people dead.

Ushakov said that the two leaders will also have a “frank” discussion on Syria, where Russia has backed Syrian President Bashar Assad and France has pushed strongly for his removal. He added that last week’s suicide attack on Manchester Arena emphasized the need to pool efforts in the fight against terrorism.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday urged European Union nations to stick together in the face of emerging policy divisions with the U.S., Britain’s decision to leave the bloc and other challenges. Merkel also stressed the importance of being good neighbors “wherever that is possible, including with Russia, but also with others.”

Human rights activists protested Monday in Paris over the situation of gays in the Russian republic of Chechnya, holding a banner “Stop homophobia in Chechnya” near the Eiffel Tower. (ontinueReading

Merkel: Europe can no longer rely on US and Britain

dw,com - The German chancellor's comments came after contentious meetings with US President Donald Trump at NATO and G7 summit meetings. Trump clashed with America's allies over global warming, mutual defense and trade.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday that Europe has to forge its own path forward, as the United States and Britain were no longer reliable partners.

"The times when we could fully rely on others have passed us by a little bit, that's what I've experienced in recent days," she said while speaking at a campaign rally in Munich.

Her reference was to the contentious G7 Summit meeting in Sicily, which ended Saturday with the world's democratic powers divided. Most notably they were split "six against one," as Merkel described it Saturday, on the man-made threat posed by global warming.

Even though Britain agreed with its European allies on the need to combat climate change, its decision to leave the European Union means it, too, will be going its own way on a range of issues.

US President Donald Trump, who campaigned as a global-warming denier - calling it a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese - refused to go along with his six counterparts in reaffirming their support for the 2015 Paris Agreement, which aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit the rise in global temperatures.

"For that reason," Merkel continued, "I can only say: We Europeans really have to take our fates in our own hands."

Of course, that must be done in a spirit of friendship with the United States and Britain, she said, "But we have to wage our own fight for our future, as Europeans, for our fate." (ontinueReading

CEOs got biggest raise since 2013 as stock gains boost compensation

- The typical CEO at the biggest U.S. companies got an 8.5 percent raise last year, raking in $11.5 million in salary, stock and other compensation, according to a study by executive data firm Equilar for The Associated Press. That’s the biggest raise in three years.

The bump reflects how well stocks have done under their watch. Boards of directors increasingly require that CEOs push their stock price higher to collect their maximum possible payout, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index returned 12 percent last year.

Over the past five years, median CEO pay in the survey has jumped by 19.6 percent, not accounting for inflation. That’s nearly double the 10.9 percent rise in the typical weekly paycheck for full-time employees across the country.

But CEO pay did fall for one group of companies last year: those where investors complained the loudest about executive pay. Compensation dropped for nine of the 10 companies scoring the lowest on “Say on Pay” votes, where shareholders give thumbs up or down on top executives’ earnings.

Other measures that would highlight the income gap between CEOs and typical workers are on the way, but governance watchdogs worry that Congress will kill or dilute their strength.

“It’s all out of whack right now,” said Heather Slavkin Corzo, director of the AFL-CIO Office of Investment, which says CEOs for major U.S. companies make 347 times more than the average worker.

The AP’s CEO compensation study includes pay data for 346 executives at S&P 500 companies who have served two full consecutive fiscal years at their respective companies that filed proxy statements between Jan. 1 and May 1.

The highest-paid executive in the survey was Thomas Rutledge of Charter Communications, which absorbed Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks last year to become the nation’s second-largest cable operator.

His compensation totaled $98 million, about $88 million of that from stock and option awards included as part of a new five-year employment agreement. For Rutledge to collect the full amount, Charter’s share price will need to rise 155 percent over six years.

CEOs typically got more than half their total compensation from stock and option grants last year.

No. 2 was Leslie Moonves at CBS, who made $68.6 million. That included $63.9 million in bonus and stock awards the company’s board said he received for presiding over a 36.6 percent return for CBS shares in 2016 and for keeping CBS the top-rated network in the 2015-16 season, among other performance measures.

The highest-paid executive in North Texas — and the state of Texas — was AT&T’s Randall Stephenson, who collected compensation worth $28.4 million, according to a Star-Telegram analysis.

Next came Rex Tillerson, the retired Exxon Mobil chief who is now secretary of state, who was paid $27.4 million in his final year atop the oil giant.

Another former CEO, Gregg Tanner of Dallas-based Dean Foods, was next at $22.4 million, while D.R. Horton founder and Chairman Donald Horton earned $17.8 million.

Eighteen North Texas executives collected more than $10 million, and more than 40 were paid in excess of $5 million. (ontinueReading

Texas teachers give ‘most likely to become a terrorist’ award to 13-year-old

washingtonpost.com - Seventh-grader Lizeth Villanueva has been in her school’s academic honors program for two years. She gets good grades and has never been a discipline problem. Yet on Tuesday, her teacher gave her a “most likely to become a terrorist” award.

It was supposed to be a joke, part of a mock end-of-the-year awards ceremony at Anthony Aguirre Junior High in Channelview, Tex., near Houston, where a group of teachers hand certificates to students. Lizeth, 13, said her teacher “just laughed” when she signed and handed her the certificate, just one day after the Manchester arena terrorist attack in Britain.

But Lizeth’s mother Ena Hernandez didn’t find the award funny at all.

“I was upset and very mad when I saw the award,” Hernandez told The Washington Post. “I was surprised because my daughter has been doing well in the honors program.”

Lizeth, who is Salvadoran American, wasn’t laughing either. Her emotion was one of shock, she said.

She said two honors classes were brought together for the fake ceremony. Other awards included “most likely to cry for every little thing” that was given to a girl and “most likely to become homeless” that was presented to a boy.

The three other teachers in the room laughed when the awards were handed out, according to Lizeth.

Channelview Independent School District spokesman Mark Kramer told KPRCthe awards were a “poor attempt to poke fun” and it “wasn’t well thought out.”

Hernandez said the principal Eric Lathan personally apologized during a meeting at the school.

In a statement the school district said:

“The Channelview ISD Administration would like to apologize for the insensitive and offensive fake mock awards that were given to students in a classroom. Channelview ISD would like to assure all students, parents and community members that these award statements and ideals are not representative of the district’s vision, mission and educational goals for our students.

“The teachers involved in this matter have been disciplined according to district policy and the incident is still under investigation.”

Hernandez says she wants them fired or else “they will continue doing the same thing.”

Lizeth hasn’t been back to school because she “feels uncomfortable.”

Serbia FM: "Serbia doesn't want to join NATO, or any other alliance"

B96.net - Ivica Dacic on Tuesday organized a reception for a delegation of the National Defense College of Nigeria.

The delegation is on a geo-strategic world study tour.

Addressing the gathering, the Serbian foreign minister said that "relations with Africa occupy a very important place in the context of Serbia's foreign policy priorities - Serbia, as one of the main successor states of the former Yugoslavia, is trying to achieve a strategic partnership and cooperation with African countries."

According to the Serbian government, Dacic said that Serbia highly appreciates the position of Nigeria regarding the non-recognition of “Kosovo," and underlined and expressed his hope that Nigeria will continue to support Serbia’s positions on Kosovo and Metohija, especially in terms of “Kosovo” efforts towards membership in international organizations, primarily in UNESCO.

One of the strategic goals of Serbia, Dacic added, is full membership in the EU and in this regard we support the European aspirations of our neighbors, and we believe that the European process is the best way to overcome issues of the past and that the whole region becomes a member of the European family of nations and peoples.

In military-security terms, Serbia is committed to a policy of military neutrality and has no aspirations to become a member of NATO or any other military organization in the world, he concluded. (ontinueReading

* * * * 

Related: Serbia wants "intensified high-level dialogue" with US

Magic mushrooms are ‘safest drugs' for recreational use, scientists say

- The hallucinogenic drug psilocybin, commonly known as magic mushrooms, are the “safest drugs” for recreational use, according to the annual Global Drug Survey.

The study, which surveyed more than 120,000 people in 50 countries, found that those using psychedelic mushrooms needed significantly fewer emergency medical visits than those using other drugs like cocaine, MDMA, LSD and even alcohol.

he rate is considerably lower than with LSD, presumably because of intrinsic safety of magic mushrooms (the greatest risk is picking the wrong type),” according to the survey

he research scientists also found those using mushrooms were better prepared for drug use.

“People who use psychedelics are generally very sensible and show some of the best preparation and adoption of harm reduction practices of any drug,” according to the study.

However, the founder of the Global Drug Survey, Adam Winstock, told the Guardian that magic mushrooms are not without risks and can cause confusion or panic attacks.

“Combined use with alcohol and use with risky, unfamiliar settings increase the risks of harm, most commonly accidental injury, panic and short-lived confusion, disorientation and fears of losing one’s mind,” Winstock said.

People in Columbia, New Zealand, Norway and Mexico, respectively, were most likely to grow or pick their own mushrooms, according to the survey. (ontinueReading

Duterte declares martial law on southern Philippine island of Mindanao

- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law Tuesday on the southern island of Mindanao as security forces battled heavily armed militants linked to the Islamic State in a provincial capital.

Duterte issued the declaration in Moscow, where he was on an official visit.

Earlier Tuesday, Philippine forces clashed with militants in Marawi City, the capital of Lanao del Sur Province on Mindanao, during a government attempt to capture Isnilon Hapilon, the leader of an Islamic State branch in Southeast Asia who pledged allegiance to the terrorist group in 2014.

At least two soldiers and one police officer have been killed and a dozen other soldiers wounded in the fighting, Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said, according to ABS-CBN News.

He described the militants as members of the Maute group, a radical Islamist organization also known as the Islamic State of Lanao. It is said to be made up of former members of a long-standing Muslim separatist group on Mindanao and some foreign fighters.

Mindanao has been the center of a decades-old insurgency by Muslim rebel factions in the predominantly Roman Catholic country.

Lt. Gen. Eduardo Ano, the armed forces chief of staff, said nearly 50 gunmen entered Marawi City, which has a population of about 200,000, and burned houses and other buildings to sow confusion during the fighting, the Associated Press reported. (ontinueReading

Nato to welcome Former Yugoslav Republic of Montenegro to the defence alliance in first expansion of membership in eight years

Independent.co.uk - The tiny Balkan country of Montenegro will take a huge step towards integrating with the West when it becomes the 29th member of Nato this week, but it risks paying a heavy price for spurning Russia.

For nearly a decade after Montenegro split from Serbia in 2006, Moscow cultivated close ties with the former Yugoslav republic, and money poured in from Russian investors and tourists. It was a love affair underpinned not just by commercial and diplomatic logic but also by historic, religious and linguistic ties between the two Slav countries.

"Back in 2006 Montenegro was advertised as a desirable destination for Russians, because it is a beautiful country and an Orthodox Christian one," says Vadim Verhovski, a Russian investment banker who, with partners, has invested €25m (£21.6m) to buy land near the coastal town of Budva.

Now the romance has turned to rancour. Montenegro blamed Russia for an alleged plot to assassinate its prime minister last October which officials said was aimed at blocking its entry to Nato. The Kremlin called that absurd.

In April, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned of a "surge of anti-Russian hysteria" in Montenegro.

The chill is hitting tourism: latest available data, for March, showed Russians accounted for 7.3 per cent of all tourist overnight stays that month compared to nearly 30 per cent in March 2014 and 19 per cent in March 2016. Advertising hoardings in Russian, promoting luxury apartments with views of the Adriatic, were once ubiquitous along the coastal highway. Now they have vanished, and Russian-language signs have largely disappeared from shops.

Prime Minister Dusko Markovic said a recent Russian ban on imports of wine from Montenegro was linked to its Nato membership. Moscow said it had discovered banned pesticides in the wine.

"We are prepared for any decision [by Russia] and nothing is going to deter us from the path we decided to take," Markovic told reporters. "The Balkans for centuries has been the scene of a struggle between the West and the East. Like other states in the region, Montenegro has strong links with the East, but in the 2006 we made a key decision that we would like to adopt Western standards and values."

For a country of just 650,000 people with 2,000 military personnel and an area smaller than Connecticut, Montenegro has strategic value out of proportion to its size. Its dramatic Adriatic coastline, the source of its appeal to tourists, is also attractive in strategic terms because of its easy access to the Mediterranean. A former senior government official, who declined to be named, said Moscow made an official request in September 2013 to use the Montenegrin port of Bar as a naval logistics base en route to Syria. After pressure from Nato, the government declined.

"The strategic position of our country is important [to Nato] and especially the Adriatic Sea," Markovic said.

When the alliance welcomes Montenegro at its summit in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday, it will mark its first expansion since neighbours Albania and Croatia joined in 2009. The country is surrounded by Nato members or hopefuls, except for Serbia, which maintains military neutrality.

"Montenegro may be small, but its presence at the Nato summit as a new member is a message to the Western Balkans to show that the path towards Europe is open," a senior Nato official said. "It is also a message to Donald Trump that Nato is growing, it has new friends."

Still, Nato is a divisive issue among Montenegro's own people. Many see Russia as a historic friend – a traditional ally against the Ottoman Empire, and the first nation to establish diplomatic relations with Montenegro in 1711.

Many remember a 1999 Nato bombing raid that killed 10 people in Montenegro, part of a wider intervention by the alliance to end Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic's campaign of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. (ontinueReading

Thousands of cars banned from roads as Mexico City chokes in longest pollution alert for two decades

yahoonews - Authorities in Mexico City have ordered cars off the streets and warned people about exercising outdoors as sprawling metropolis chokes in its worst smog for nearly two decades.

Hundreds of thousands of less efficient vehicles have been banned from the roads in the Mexican capital, where a pollution alert has been in place since Monday.

Ozone levels topped the 150-point threshold that typically triggers a smog alert for the following day again on Friday.

The last time the stage 1 warning remained in place for five days was May 1998, although back then alerts were triggered at 200 points.

The stage 1 alert has doubled the number of vehicles not allowed to drive in the sprawling metropolis on a given day and place additional emissions requirements on factories.

Children, elderly people, pregnant women, and people with respiratory and cardiovascular problems are urged to stay indoors between 1pm and 7 pm.

Authorities have also warned people about strenuous activities outdoors as the city is engulfed in murky skies.

According to government air quality records, in March and April 1992 the city experienced 20 consecutive smog alert days. (ontinueReading

Single mosquito bite might be enough to transmit multiple viruses, study finds

abcnews.com - Mosquito bites aren't just a nuisance but can be a serious public health threat as seen during the mosquito-borne Zika outbreak that spread through much of the globe last year.

A new study published today in the Nature Communications journal reports that mosquitoes might be even more adept at spreading disease than previously thought. The researchers wanted to find out if the infamous Aedes aegypti mosquito may be able to spread multiple diseases at once. The insect, also called the cockroach of mosquitoes, is known to be among the primary way diseases like chikungunya, dengue and Zika virus spread.

Researchers from Colorado State University exposed hundreds of mosquitoes to either chikungunya, Zika or dengue and different combinations of the three. They also exposed 48 mosquitoes to the three viruses--chikungunya, Zika and dengue--to see if one or all three of the diseases could appear in the saliva, which could then potentially infect a person.

The researchers examined the saliva, gut and legs of the insects for signs of viral infection. They found that 92 percent of the mosquitoes tested positive for all three viruses.

Of the 48 just one remained uninfected.

They found that six saliva samples from the mosquito tested positive for all three viruses 14 days after the insects were exposed. Another two saliva samples tested positive 21 days after exposure.

While not all the insects had the virus in the saliva, the researchers pointed out that the virus' presence in the saliva occurs only after the infection has traveled through the body. As a result, the other mosquitoes that tested positive may still have been able to transmit the disease in the future even if the virus was not found in the saliva.

"Based on what I know as a virologist, epidemiologist and entomologist, I thought that the viruses would either compete or enhance each other in some way," Greg Ebel, director of the Arthropod-borne and Infectious Diseases Laboratory and co-author of the study, said in a statement today. "On the one hand, all of these viruses have mechanisms to suppress mosquito immunity, which could lead to synergy. On the other hand, they all likely require similar resources within infected cells, which could lead to competition."

But Ebel said, "we didn't see much evidence of either one of these things in mosquitoes that were infected in the lab by multiple viruses."

Ebel told ABC News that with Zika and chikungunya newly arrived in the western hemisphere, it's important to understand how these diseases are spreading and how people are impacted by these new viruses.

Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said that the study was "fascinating notion" but noted researchers will need to find evidence of this coinfection in the wild.

Schaffner said more research is key to understand these risks of mosquito-born disease, since some blood tests can not easily identify the virus a person is infected with.

"That's part of the difficulty if you use the blood test, the viruses are sufficiently similar so that the blood test are nonspecific and you're not sure," Schaffner said.

This raises the concerning possibility that patients presenting with infections from more than one of these viruses may only be diagnosed with one disease, given the similarity in symptoms between these illnesses.

Co-infection with humans is unknown because doctors rarely check for all three viruses. As a result, it is not clear if there are increased risks for people. Some studies have found little or no risk and others have found some link to complications.

"There might be some indications, but it is still fairly unknown what the effect is from co-infection," said Claudia Ruckert, post-doctoral researcher in CSU's Arthropod-borne and Infectious Diseases Laboratory.

The only way to protect yourself from mosquito-born illness is to prevent the bite by using insect repellent. The CDC recommends using EPA-registered insect repellents that include at least 20 percent DEET. Though products with higher DEET concentration does provide longer protection, this peaks around 50 percent DEET.

When applying insect repellent with sunscreen, apply the sunscreen first and allow it to dry before applying repellent. Consider using clothes treated with permethrin (an insecticide). Try your best to minimize exposed skin, long shirts, pants, socks and hats.

Do no use insect repellent on babies younger than two months old, protect them by draping a mosquito net over carrier. Oil of lemon eucalyptus products and par-menthane-diol should not be used on children under the age of three. DEET is approved for use on children with no age restriction.

Japan cabinet approves bill allowing emperor's abdication

- The Japanese government on Friday approved a one-off bill allowing ageing Emperor Akihito to step down from the Chrysanthemum Throne, in the first such abdication in two centuries.

The bill is likely to receive swift final approval in parliament, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet signed off on the legislation.

Abdication must take place within three years of the bill becoming law.

Earlier this year reports suggested that 83-year-old Akihito could step down at the end of December 2018 and be replaced by Crown Prince Naruhito on January 1, 2019.

Reports of his desire to retire surprised Japan when they emerged last July.

In August he publicly cited age and declining health, which was interpreted as his wish to hand the crown to his eldest son.

But current Japanese law has no provision for abdication, thus requiring politicians to craft legislation to make it possible.

The status of the emperor is highly sensitive in Japan given its 20th century history of war waged in the name of Akihito's father Hirohito, who died in 1989.

Revered as a demigod before and during the conflict, Hirohito was reduced to a mere figurehead as part of postwar reforms.

Akihito has won plaudits for seizing upon the constitutionally-prescribed role of national symbol and there is wide sympathy for his wish to retire.

He has been treated for prostate cancer and also had heart surgery. And though he has cut back on some of his duties, he still maintains a busy official schedule, including occasional overseas visits.

A majority of the Japanese public supports a permanent law on abdication and they have also expressed support for the current bill to help enable Akihito's smooth transition from the throne.

"He hasn't had a way to retire, but I think he should be able to and enjoy his golden years," 75-year-old Seio Ichijo told AFP as he strolled outside the Imperial Palace with his wife.

- 'Real danger' -

The leading opposition Democratic Party has argued the law should be permanently changed to ensure stable future successions, but has reportedly agreed to the current one-off bill after talks with the ruling bloc.

Some scholars and politicians have argued that changing the law to allow any emperor to abdicate would risk Japan's monarchs becoming subject to political manipulation.

While abdications are far from unknown in Japanese history -- the last one was in 1817 -- some people still believe being emperor is a lifetime job.

Akashi Kiyomiya, 81, who was also walking near the palace, said he was taught as a child that rulers serve until the end.

"I don't want him to retire. I want him to be emperor until he leaves this world," he said.

The abdication issue has highlighted concerns over a potential succession crisis in one of the world's oldest monarchies.

A government panel in April issued a warning over the dwindling number of male heirs.

Only men are allowed to become emperor under current law, though Japan has been ruled by empresses in past centuries.

Female members of the imperial family must give up their royal status when marrying a commoner, a convention highlighted by news this week that one of Akihito's granddaughters plans to marry her college sweetheart.

When Naruhito, who has a daughter but no sons, ascends the throne, his younger brother Akishino will be next in line, followed by Hisahito, Akishino's 10-year-old son.

But after that there are no more eligible males, meaning the centuries-old succession would be broken if Hisahito fails to have a son in the future.

Many Japanese believe the issue can be solved by allowing for female succession, but traditionalists vehemently oppose the idea.

Other ideas floated include allowing women to retain royal status upon marriage -- meaning their male children would be eligible -- or reinstating the titles of families stripped of their ranks under cost-cutting reforms during the US occupation of Japan after World War II.

"The sustainability of the imperial system is in real danger," Takashi Mikuriya, head of the government panel on the abdication issue, told the Mainichi Shimbun daily after the body released recommendations last month that the succession crisis needed to be addressed quickly.

When caffeine becomes deadly: How much is too much?

cbsnews.com - The recent death of a South Carolina teen blamed on too much caffeine has once again propelled the popular stimulant and questions over its safety into the national spotlight.

Sixteen-year-old Davis Cripe collapsed last month at his high school and died at a hospital after consuming a large soft drink, a latte and an energy drink over a short period, according to Richland County coroner Gary Watts.

Davis was a healthy and active teen who shunned drugs and alcohol, his parents said.

A classmate who was with Davis the day he died said he "basically chugged" an energy drink during class, CBS News correspondent Tony Dokoupil reports.

"These drinks, this amount of caffeine, how it's ingested can have dire consequences and that's what happened in this case," Watts said.

Watts determined the high school sophomore experienced a "cardiac event" after consuming so much caffeine in less than a two-hour span.

Over the last few years, there have been several highly publicized deaths attributed to caffeine overdose — particularly in healthy teens and young adults — raising questions about the safety of America's favorite stimulant.

There have also been new challenges for state and federal health officials and lawmakers struggling with how to regulate and control the sales of certain novel, highly caffeinated products, including Four Loko, a caffeine-spiked alcoholic drink which was banned in several states and reformulated under pressure from the FDA in 2010.

Though caffeine itself is of course legal and widely used, caffeine is still a stimulant drug. It is generally very safe for most people, but consuming too much of it can be dangerous.

According to the Mayo Clinic, up to 400 milligrams of caffeine a day appears to be safe for most healthy adults. That's about the amount of caffeine in four cups of brewed coffee, 10 cans of cola or two "energy shot" drinks.

Consuming more than that could start to affect your health.

"You know it when it happens. You start to feel dizzy. You can feel it in your chest," said CBS News medical contributor Dr. David Agus.

A major issue is that many people may not realize how much caffeine is in the beverages they consume.

According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a venti Starbucks Blonde Roast contains 475 mg of caffeine, while a 2 oz. 5-hour Energy Shot contains 200 mg. Most 16 oz. energy drinks, including Monster, Rockstar, and Venom, contain 160 mg.

Agus says energy drinks send more than 20,000 people to the emergency room annually.

"The problem that we're learning is that it's not just caffeine, it's the other stimulants that are in there," he told "CBS This Morning" Tuesday. "In a cup of coffee, you may have [it] over 45 minutes or 60 minutes. These energy drinks you're having all at once. And so all the caffeine give this big peak in the body and that's when bad things happen."

Other ingredients in energy drinks vary, but can include herbal substances, vitamins, sugars, and taurine, an amino acid found in meat and fish.

In 2012, the FDA announced it was investigating five deaths linked to Monster Energy Drinks.

The American Academy of Pediatrics advises against children and teens drinking energy drinks of any kind.

CBS News contacted the American Beverage Association, which represents the makers of almost all energy drinks sold in America, and they referred us to their fact sheet on caffeine. The trade group says energy drinks can be safely consumed in moderation. (ontinueReading

UK wage growth lags inflation for first time since mid-2014

BBC - Wage growth is lagging behind inflation for the first time since mid-2014, official figures show.

Average weekly earnings excluding bonuses increased by 2.1%. in the three months to March, while inflation rose by 2.3% in the year to March 2017.

In the first three months of this year, wages fell by 0.2%.

Meanwhile, the number of unemployed people fell by 53,000 to 1.54 million in the three months to March, said the Office for National Statistics.

The UK unemployment rate has fallen to 4.6%, its lowest in 42 years,

The jobless rate has not been lower since the June to August period of 1975.

The employment rate, the proportion of 16 to 64 year olds in work, was 74.8%, the highest since records began in 1971. (ontinueReading

US: Trump defends his 'absolute right' to share information with Russians

Reuters - Facing a deluge of criticism over his handling of highly classified information, U.S. President Donald Trump defended having shared "facts" with senior Russian officials, saying on Tuesday he had an "absolute right" to do so and had been trying to get Moscow to be more active in combating Islamic State militants.

Trump's acknowledgement that he had given sensitive information during a White House meeting last week undercut intense efforts by senior aides to play down the incident on Monday evening, after news reports emerged of Trump's conversations about a planned Islamic State operation.

The president took to Twitter on Tuesday to defend his actions in the face of intense criticism, including from some of his fellow Republicans.

Two U.S. officials said Trump shared the intelligence, supplied by a U.S. ally in the fight against the militant Islamist group, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak during an Oval Office meeting last Wednesday.

The disclosures roiled the administration as it struggled to move past the backlash over Trump's abrupt firing on May 9 of FBI Director James Comey, who was investigating potential ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

Russia has denied such meddling, and Trump bristles at any suggestion he owed his Nov. 8 victory to Moscow.

"As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety," Trump said on Twitter. "Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism."

A U.S. president has the authority to disclose even the most highly classified information at will, but multiple U.S. and allied officials told Reuters that Trump had endangered cooperation from an ally that has some intelligence on Islamic State.

In his tweets, Trump did not dispute media reports, initially from The Washington Post, that he revealed details that could jeopardize intelligence capabilities.

That appeared to put him at odds with members of his own senior staff. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster denied on Monday that Trump had revealed intelligence sources and methods or military operations at the Russia meeting. (ontinueReading

Cholera outbreak in war-ravaged Yemen kills 115

SANA'A, Yemen — The U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Yemen says a cholera outbreak has killed 115 people over the past two weeks.

Jamie McGoldrick told reporters Monday that another 8,600 people were believed to have been infected, and that medicine was arriving. But he also urged donor countries to fulfil more than $1 billion in aid pledges made in Geneva last month.

A Saudi-led coalition has been battling Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 2015, in a war that has killed more than 10,000 civilians.

The World Health Organization said last month that fewer than 45 percent of health facilities in Yemen are now fully functioning, and that the flow of “essential medicines” has fallen by nearly 70 percent. (ontinueReading

Emmanuel Macron sworn in as president of a divided France

Washingtonpost.com - PARIS — First-time politician Emmanuel Macron was inaugurated Sunday as France’s president, facing the difficult task of transforming electoral success into political strength in a society beset by unemployment and divided by anger.

The solemn ceremony in the gilded halls of the Elysee Palace capped Macron’s rise from political obscurity just a year ago, when he was the economy minister starting a long-shot centrist bid against the parties that had run the nation for decades. Now the 39-year-old is France’s youngest leader since Napoleon.

Macron won after a bitter campaign against a strong far-right opponent, Marine Le Pen, who delivered the best-ever result for the country’s far-right party after her furious denunciations of immigration and open borders.

He is an outlier in this era of crusading populist politicians: a head of state who unapologetically embraces the borderless European Union and the economic opportunities and disruptions of globalization. The stakes are high in his effort to deliver on his promises. If he fails to budge France’s stubbornly high joblessness, the far-right National Front may roar back stronger than ever in 2022 elections, a step that could bring the entire European Union tumbling down.

On Sunday, Macron sought to inject fresh optimism into a French public so disillusioned with the political establishment that in the first round of the presidential elections nearly half of its voters opted for candidates who wanted to blow up the nation’s political order. Macron’s predecessor, Socialist President François Hollande, broke records for unpopularity after a five-year term filled with political failure.

“The world and Europe need France more than ever,” Macron said in a brief speech to a packed Elysee ballroom filled with the country’s political elite, his supporters and his family. The address came after he walked down the red carpet at the entrance to the palace to be received by Hollande, who launched Macron’s career by appointing the ex-investment banker as an economic adviser, then elevating him to the economy ministry. The two huddled privately for an hour, and then Hollande departed the presidential palace for the last time in a modest Citroen sedan.

“The power of France is not declining,” Macron said. “We hold in our hands all the strengths of a power of the 21st century.”

Acknowledging the fears of the third of French voters who opted for his opponent, he said that “the French men and women who feel forgotten by this vast movement of the world have to be better protected.”

A president who has said he is “neither of the right, nor of the left” pledged to “give back the French their self-confidence.”

After the ceremony, he took part in a slow procession down the Champs-Elysees, walking and riding in a military vehicle until he reached the Arc de Triomphe and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at its base. The warm spring day in Paris was punctuated by showers, prompting one observer to joke on Twitter that it was a “very Macronian” inauguration: “it’s raining AND AT THE SAME TIME it’s lovely.”

Macron has vowed to overhaul France’s slow-growing economy by implementing business-friendly reforms while also strengthening the country’s social safety net. He has pledged to push for increased integration of countries that use the euro currency, a step that would mean rich nations such as Germany would have to pay more to support poorer ones such as Greece.

But his power to deliver change will be determined by a breakneck legislative campaign over the next four weeks. June elections will determine whether he can sweep in a majority for his new political party, Republic on the Move, which is too new to hold any seats and has nominated hundreds of people to run, half of them newcomers to political life.

If Macron fails, he will be forced to share power with his political opponents, an arrangement that could force him build a piece-by-piece majority for his reforms and sap much of his political energies.

Macron on Monday will visit German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, a traditional first trip to France’s most important partner that will be a test of his ability to jump-start the relationship that has driven Europe since the end of World War II. Macron already has a warm relationship with Merkel after two Berlin visits this year, but she has pushed back on some of Macron’s most ambitious plans for Europe. (ontinueReading

New Ebola outbreak declared in Democratic Republic of Congo

- The World Health Organization has confirmed an Ebola outbreak in a remote forested part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the first in that country since 2014. At least nine people are suspected of being infected, and three have died.

The outbreak has raised alarms about the possibility of a new epidemic.

"An investigation team led by the Ministry of Health and supported by WHO and partners has deployed and is expected to reach the affected area in the coming days", said Peter Salama, WHO's executive director for emergencies, in a statement.

The WHO said it was informed on Tuesday of a cluster of undiagnosed illness and deaths, including hemorrhagic symptoms, in the northeastern part of the country, bordering the Central African Republic. On Thursday, the DRC's health ministry informed WHO that of five laboratory samples tested, one tested positive for Ebola virus at a laboratory in Kinshasa. That confirmed case was one of the three people who died.

The Ebola infection was confirmed from tests on a group of people exhibiting symptoms since April 22 in the province of Bas-Uélé in northeast DRC.

The ministry said it is beginning to trace the contacts of those who may have been infected and that it is issuing protective kits for the health workers involved.

"Our country must confront an outbreak of the Ebola virus that constitutes a public health crisis of international significance," the ministry said.

On April 22, the confirmed Ebola victim drove across part of the vast province on motorbike to reach medical care. He had blood in his vomit and stool. There are conflicting accounts of whether he was able to reach the regional hospital in Likati. A sample of his blood was taken to Kinshasa, but because Bas-Uélé is so remote, it took 10 days before the sample arrived in Kinshasa, the capital, and was tested.

By that time, both the original patient and the driver of the motorbike who took him to the hospital, his brother, had died, according to Alima, a medical humanitarian organization working in the country.

The body of the original patient was taken back to his village for burial, and a follow-up ministry health team later identified six others who had fallen ill in the same village, according to officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who are participating in coordination meetings but not yet been asked to provide epidemiological or laboratory support.

The health workers who treated the patients without protective gear are now also in grave danger of contracting the disease. Because the confirmed case traveled across Bas-Uélé, contact tracers will now have a more difficult task ahead of them, seeking and isolating possible Ebola cases in at least two disparate villages, according to Alima.

But health personnel dispatched to the region are hopeful that the outbreak will mirror previous, limited Ebola outbreaks in the country.

"There will be more cases, but it is more likely to look like other outbreaks in Congo, a smaller outbreak, ending faster," said Susan Shepherd, Alima's medical coordinator.

"It's very isolated there," said Silvain Yuma, chief of staff at the ministry of health

One of those previous outbreaks was in the neighbouring province of Haut-Uélé in 2012. There were 41 cases there and 18 deaths. The outbreak lasted for around four months.

DRC officials said the confirmed infection involved the Zaire strain, which was the most common one present during the 2014-15 outbreak. Scientists are in the late stages of developing a vaccine that targets that specific strain, and it is likely to be made available for use if the outbreak is found to be large enough to warrant such an intervention. The vaccine has not yet been approved the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but could be made available under an emergency use authorization.

An agreement between Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and Merck, the developer of the vaccine, ensures that the vaccine is available in case of an outbreak, said Gavi's chief executive, Seth Berkley, in a statement. "The fact that this is a country that has experience dealing with Ebola should give us hope that we won't see a pandemic on the scale of the 2014 outbreak that hit West Africa," he said.

The WHO and others will determine if and when deployment of vaccine into this outbreak is warranted. The WHO has previously said it was preparing to make an initial 300,000 doses of the vaccine available in case of an outbreak. (ontinueReading

J.C. Penney’s Turnaround Is Failing and Investors Are Fleeing

Fortune.com - Wall Street has completely lost faith in J.C. Penney's (JCP, -10.02%) turnaround.

After the struggling department store chain on Friday reported a much worse than expected drop in sales for the first quarter, Penney shares, already near 40-year lows, plummeted 8% below $5 to hit a new all-time record.

Penney said on Friday that comparable sales, which include e-commerce but exclude recently closed or opened stores, fell 3.5% in the three months ended April 29, a much deeper drop than the 0.7% decline Wall Street analysts had been forecasting, according to Consensus Metrix. It was also Penney's biggest quarterly drop in years.

For a company that had been showing signs of coming back from near-death after an ill-advised attempt to be hip in 2013, reporting a fourth quarter of declines in the last five is disheartening.

So much for being the comeback kid in the department store world.

It's not that Penney has been sitting idly by. On the contrary, CEO Marvin Ellison has been moving quickly to try to keep Penney on track with moves such as bringing back appliances last year after 33 years, expanding the number of Sephora beauty shops within a Penney store, and introducing new plus-size apparel lines. What's more, giving in to reality, Penney is now finally closing 138 stores, the better to focus its resources on stores those with potential to survive the retail storm.

And that's precisely why investors are so bearish on the company. Those efforts, while apparently successful, show just damaged the rest of Penney's overall business is.

Ellison told analysts on a conference call that Penney's home section (at one point it was 21% of sales, now it's 13%) had seen sales growth. So the company is expanding its appliance area, aimed at taking advantage of Sears' ongoing implosion, and testing home services like heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.

The retailer also touted its beauty business, lifted by its ongoing Sephora expansion as well as the remaking of its large salon business, one it says brings shoppers to stores.

But given how expensive appliances are, and how productive the beauty areas are by sales per square foot, it's fair to expect them to give a bigger kick to results. The dismal results suggest Penney's sales in apparel, its largest category, were catastrophic.

A case in point: athleisure. Executives said on a conference call with Wall Street that "the casualization of America continues" and pointed to the growth of activewear. But given that Penney launched its own line a few years ago, Xersion, and one it has featured prominently in stores, it shouldn't have seen apparel sales decimated by this trend.

To that end, Penney is upgrading its Nike (NKE, +0.17%) areas at 600 of its 1,000 stores, and adding women's gear to suddenly resurgent Adidas at 400.

Good moves, but it's worth remembering that Nike is also available at Macy's and Kohl's, both of which also sell Under Armour. (That brand gave Kohl's, struggling as mightily as Penney to keep shoppers, a shot in the arm last quarter.)

Given that Penney wants house brand items to eventually become 70% of sales, as outlined last year in a multi-year road map, it may want to rethink as its own brands are apparently not catching on.

Penney and those rooting for it can take some comfort in how abysmal results have been for its most immediate rivals, like Macy's, Kohl's, Sears and even Target.. And Penney did stick to its 2017 sales forecast, despite the weak start to the year.

But the travails of its rivals have not provided much of a boost to Penney or prevented it from entering another period of decline. (ontineReading

Can left-wing populism win the UK election?

London (CNN)Theresa May's main challenger for prime minister in next month's general election is offering UK voters the most left-wing, big government policy agenda for nearly 40 years.

Under a plan which amounts to a charter for left-wing populism, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn wants to renationalize large chunks of British industry, the railways and postal service, increase spending on health and schools, put up taxes for business and hike pay for public sector workers.

The plan was revealed in leaks to the British media on Wednesday evening, and the details were not disputed by party officials during the day. The final version of the plan was agreed on Thursday afternoon, and Corbyn said the policies would prove "very popular" when they are published in the next few days.

There has already been a predictable backlash from Corbyn's critics, including Britain's Daily Mail newspaper, whose front page headline described it as "a manifesto to drag us back to the 1970s" -- a reference to an era of nationalized, unionized industry and high taxes under a Labour government.
But beyond Westminster, the policies -- which Labour says are "for the many, not the few" -- are likley to appeal to voters who are concerned about rising energy bills, overcrowded commuter trains and real-terms cuts to school budgets.

Polling suggests that the brand of left-wing populism that Corbyn represents could have broad appeal and translate to an electoral surge, similar to the surprise grassroots support for Bernie Sanders in the United States and Jean-Luc Melenchon in France, when Britain votes in a snap UK general election on June 8. (ontinueReading 

How Marijuana Might Help Aging Brains

YahooNews - Marijuana isn’t exactly synonymous with mental sharpness, but surprising new research has found that it might help protect the brain from the effects of aging.

A German study on mice published in the journal Nature Medicine found that low, regular doses of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient found in marijuana, may help to keep our brains from slowing down as we get older. For the study, researchers from the University of Bonn and Hebrew University spent a month giving daily THC to mice that were two months, one year, and 18 months old, and studied the effects on each.

Scientists first tested the mice on their ability to recognize familiar objects and navigate a water maze without the influence of THC and found that, while younger mice did well, older mice struggled. Once they were given THC, the younger mice had a drop in performance, but older mice showed improvement that lasted for weeks afterward — and even did as well as younger mice that had no THC.

Researchers say that THC in older mice might stimulate the brain’s endocannabinoid system, a group of brain and nervous system receptors that become less active as we age.

Of course, the study was conducted on mice, not humans, and it’s too soon to recommend that adults start taking daily doses of THC based on this. But The Guardian reports that the scientists are planning to start a clinical trial to test this on humans later this year. “If we can rejuvenate the brain so that everybody gets five to 10 more years without needing extra care, then that is more than we could have imagined,” study co-author Andras Bilkei-Gorzo told The Guardian.

Norbert E. Kaminski, PhD, director of the Institute for Integrative Toxicology at Michigan State University, tells Yahoo Beauty that while it’s too soon to draw any conclusions from the research, there may be something to it. “If low doses of THC decrease decline in cognitive function in senior citizens, this could be beneficial,” he says.

Kaminski also notes that many diseases that cause a decline of cognitive function, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, are thought to be due, in part, to chronic inflammation in the brain. Cannabinoids like THC have anti-inflammatory properties, he says, which may be beneficial for some older patients suffering from certain neurodegenerative diseases.

Gary Wenk, PhD, a professor in the departments of Psychology & Neuroscience & Molecular Virology, Immunology, and Medical Genetics at the Ohio State University and Medical Center who is a member of the Governor’s Marijuana Advisory Committee, agrees. He tells Yahoo Beauty that the research “presents clear evidence for the cognitive and neurological benefits of low-dose marijuana use in the aging brain.” Wenk, who also has studied the impact of low-dose cannabinoids, says THC acts by reducing brain inflammation and its consequences upon normal brain function as people age. “It’s a very positive effect that is seen at quite low doses,” he says.

Seth Ammerman, MD, a clinical professor at Stanford University’s department of pediatrics in the division of adolescent medicine, tells Yahoo Beauty that THC affects younger brains differently because it can disrupt normal pathways of brain development. But once a person’s brain has fully developed, Ammerman says, it’s “possible” that THC can help stabilize elements in the endocannabinoid system so that the effects of aging on the brain are tempered in a way.

Of course, THC is responsible for the high that people feel from marijuana, so dosing is important. Women’s health expert Jennifer Wider, MD, tells Yahoo Beauty she has some concerns.

“It has been well-established that THC comes along with side effects — even in older people,” she says, listing anxiety, paranoid thinking patterns, drowsiness, slowed sense of time, and dizziness as examples. “More research will be needed before this could become an accepted therapeutic modality.” Ammerman agrees, noting that “there are still a lot of unanswered questions.”

Moon Jae-in wins Korea’s first snap presidential election

- Moon Jae-in, the nominee from the liberal Democratic Party, was elected Korea’s 19th president on Tuesday in what has been seen as an indictment of the country’s conservative establishment.

Moon’s victory in the snap election, which follows the first removal of a democratically elected president, was confirmed by the JoongAng Ilbo at 1:25 a.m. Wednesday morning when 67.15 percent of all votes had been counted.

Moon won 39.65 percent of the votes counted thus far. Runner-up Hong Joon-pyo, the candidate from the conservative Liberty Korea Party, trailed with 25.99 percent. People’s Party candidate Ahn Cheol-soo came in third with 21.37 percent, followed by Bareun Party nominee Yoo Seong-min and Justice Party contender Sim Sang-jeung with 6.56 and 5.86 percent each.

While about a quarter of all votes cast were yet to be counted as of press time, Moon’s wide gap ahead of his closest rivals was enough for him to declare victory. The liberal candidate led in every region of the country save for the two Gyeongsang provinces and Daegu, considered a traditional stronghold of the conservative Liberty Korea Party (LKP).

In a sign of confidence in his victory, Moon delivered a speech to his supporters gathered at Sejongno Park in central Seoul at around 11:45 p.m. Tuesday. The presumptive president-elect pledged to be a leader for national unity and serve all the people regardless of whom they had voted for in the election.

“Starting tomorrow, I will become a president of all the people,” Moon said before an enthusiastic crowd that continually chanted his name. “I will serve all Koreans, including those who voted and did not vote for me, to be a president of unity. I will make a country that serves justice and the rule of law and where the people’s will triumphs.”

With Moon, a former human rights lawyer who fought military dictatorship in the 1980s, as president, Korea will likely see a leader who stands in sharp contrast to the two previous presidents, Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye, who backed conservative policies, especially regarding North Korea.

On the campaign trail, Moon stressed he would try to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table in an attempt to dissuade the reclusive country from furthering its nuclear program. He emphasized resuming dialogue with the Kim Jong-un regime as a way to ease growing tension on the peninsula.

Such a stance contrasts the North Korea policies of Lee and Park, who stood firm on the condition that Pyongyang give up its nuclear ambitions before resuming talks or inter-Korean cooperation.

Moon, 64, was narrowly defeated by Park in the 2012 election. Then, as now, he promoted a series of liberal policies that included greater engagement with North Korea and reform of South Korea’s powerful chaebol, or family-run conglomerates. He also pledged to overhaul the country’s criminal justice system and amend the constitution to introduce a new governing system that would reduce the power of the president.

Because this year’s election came early to fill the vacancy created by Park’s removal from office, the five-year tenure of the new president will begin as soon as the National Election Commission finalizes the winner this morning. Moon won’t have time to form a transition committee and will immediately take control of the military.

His first official event as president is a scheduled visit to the National Cemetery in Seoul this morning. He will then be sworn into office at the National Assembly and head to the Blue House, the official residence of the Korean president.

Tuesday’s election was a landmark in the country’s political history, taking place after Park’s presidency was terminated in March through an impeachment process in the aftermath of a massive abuse of power and corruption scandal. Throughout the two-month campaign that followed, almost all the candidates pledged to end or combat decades of cozy relations between the government and big business. (ontinueReading

Internet Meme Pepe the Frog has been killed off by its creator

Newsweek.com - In 2005, illustrator Matt Furie released an online comic book called "Boy's Club" that featured four animated characters. One was a frog named Pepe, whom Furie has described as "a chill frog who represents doing nothing." Twelve years later, Pepe was officially classified as a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League, after the character was co-opted by web-savvy white supremacists supporting Donald Trump's candidacy for president of the United States. In other words, the internet is weird as hell.

After the classification was made official, Furie told Newsweek: "The whole thing just seems a bit rushed. The fact that the ADL put Pepe the Frog as a whole as an official hate symbol, I don’t really think it’s true.”

Furie then launched a campaign to #SavePepe, calling on people to post "peaceful or nice" images of the frog. It didn't work, and Furie has decided to kill off his now-infamous character. As was first reported by Comic Book Resources, Furie posted a new installment of "Boy's Club" that features Pepe in an open casket, surrounded by the strip's other three characters.

"It kind of melts my spirit a little bit because a cartoon I made had evolved to become somebody's symbol for hate," Furie, who supported Hillary Clinton in the election, told Super Deluxe when he announced the #SavePepe campaign last fall. "It's ultimately quite brutal to be up there with the most heinous symbols you can imagine. It's pretty terrible. Life isn't supposed to be easy. You're supposed to have challenges. This is a unique challenge for myself right now."

Around the same time, Furie wrote an op-ed for Time about the experience of watching Pepe go from a chilled-out stoner frog to a rallying symbol for white supremacists. "It's a nightmare, and the only thing I can do is see this as an opportunity to speak out against hate," Furie wrote.

"The problem with Pepe is that he's been stamped a hate symbol by politicians, hate groups, institutions, the media and, because of them, your mom," he continued. "Before he got wrapped up in politics, Pepe was an inside-joke and a symbol for feeling sad or feeling good and many things in between. I understand that it's out of my control, but in the end, Pepe is whatever you say he is, and I, the creator, say that Pepe is love."

Unfortunately for Furie, the most accurate part of his essay might be that the fate of his creation was ultimately out of his control. The idea of a peaceful Pepe has finally been put to rest, and hopefully the hateful version will be short-lived as well. (ontinueReading

Israeli cabinet approves defining Israel as Jewish nation-state

May 7 (UPI) -- Israel's cabinet on Sunday approved legislation that officially defines the country as a Jewish nation-state.

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation voted unanimously to endorse Likud Minister Avi Dichter's Jewish state bill, which also downgrades Arabic from designation as an "official language" and says "the national language is Hebrew."

The legislation, which faces a lengthy process in the Knesset, says that "the State of Israel is the national home of the Jewish people, in which it realizes its aspirations for self-determination according to its cultural and historic traditions. The realization of national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people."

It would join the so-called 11 Basic Laws, which is similar to a constitution, and guides Israel's legal system.

Religious authorities control many aspects of life, including marriage but Basic Laws pertain to state institutions like the Knesset, the courts or the presidency.

"This is a small step for the Jewish state bill, which establishes that Israel is and will be a Jewish and democratic state, and it's a big step toward defining our identity, not only in the eyes of the world but primarily for ourselves, Israelis. To be a free people in our land," Dichter said after the cabinet's decision.

He said that the bill counters Palestinian efforts to deny Jewish rights to Israel. "Events of recent months prove that this is a battle for the Israel's image and national identity. The Palestinians no longer hide their goal of erasing the Jewish people's nation-state," he wrote in defense of the legislation.

Dichter first introduced the bill in 2014 but it faced criticism from opposition members and even liberal-minded members of his own Likud party. A number of versions of the legislation have been drafted by right-wing lawmakers.

In 2015, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed his own version of the legislation. He said the state lacked "adequate expression" of Israel's "existence as the nation-state of the Jewish people" in the Basic Laws.

"For too long, we've been trying to discuss and reach a decision regarding the law – a basic law that's not clear how it hasn't been enshrined in legislation until now – and whose simple goal is to protect Israel's status as the state of the Jewish people," said the acting head of the ministerial committee, Tourism Minister Yariv Levin,

The latest version reached out to liberals by including the phrase "Jewish and democratic" and omitting a previously included affirmation of the importance of settlement throughout Israel's borders.

Critics said that the bill is discriminatory to Israel's Arab and other minority populations. (ontinueReading

Gander Mountain, popular gun and hunting store, closing nationwide

CharlotteObserver.com - Gander Mountain, a popular gun and hunting store, is closing all of its stores nationwide, the retailer announced.

The company filed for bankruptcy in March, and announced it would close 32 under-performing stores, including a location in south Charlotte.

Under the current move, all 126 stores will close from the chain, including locations in Gastonia and Monroe. It wasn’t immediately clear when the stores will close.

In a statement on its website, the company said it was acquired by Camping World Holdings Inc. last week. Gander Mountain said the move means it will continue to be a part of the “specialty outdoor market,” though it’s unclear from the statement how it will continue to serve customers.


Gander Mountain has been in business for 57 years and has locations in 26 states. The company sells guns, hunting equipment, camping gear and other items for outdoor activities.

The company’s closing is yet another reminder of the current climate in retail, where companies have competed with the growth of online shopping and customers flock to juggernauts like Amazon.

At the local level, Gander Mountain joins stores like Macy’s, J.C. Penney, Kmart and Hollister to close locations in the Charlotte area.

The company said all sales are final and there will be no refunds. Gift cards are being accepted until May 18. (ontinueReading

German Interior Minister: Our Culture Trumps Multiculturalism

- Immigrants to Germany need to conform to German culture, Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière wrote on Sunday in German newspaper Bild. Deutsche Welle summarized Maizière’s article as advocating “a dominant culture in Germany.”

In the most popular newspaper in Germany, Maizière sparked the debate over what defines Germany’s dominant culture. His proposition: a German guiding culture instead of multiculturalism. Once Germans knows who they are and who they want to be, he indicated, integration and unity will follow. His 10 theses have sparked much controversy in Germany, not least because of Germany’s past as a nation that saw its culture as superior to the point of violently and systematically destroying other cultures.

In his article titled “We Are Not Burka,” de Maizière presented his principles for helping Germans define what the “guiding culture” consists of. Some of the points he discussed included: Germans show their face, Germans lay a high value on performance and quality, Germans have a high cultural value that influences the whole world, Germans have an enlightened patriotism, and Germans live in a Christian-dominated country that uses religion to build unity.

He wrote that German patriotism has been misguided in the past. Nazi Germany used patriotism to motivate the fight against other nationalities and races. In the decades after World War ii, most did not dare speak about their own country with any form of pride. Both concepts are wrong, he wrote; Germans need to love their country and yet not hate others. What defines Germany today is still a highly controversial topic, Deutsche Welle reported in another article:

Germany was successful in rebuilding its bombed and charred cities after World War ii, but it was less successful in healing the deep wounds German culture and the national psyche suffered after 12 years of Nazi rule.

For decades, the phrase “German pride” was considered an oxymoron, something that had been rubbed out of existence after Auschwitz. But that began to change after reunification, and in 2000, conservative politician Friedrich Merz asked the question publicly: Could Germans be proud of their achievements and should there be common cultural guidelines that people ought to live by? It evoked some angry responses.

Today, however, top-ranking German ministers say that Germans need a guiding culture to know who they are and how to cope with the crises they are facing. If done right, it will show immigrants what they have to accept to successfully become part of Germany. Maizière wrote, “If we clearly understand what defines us, what our guiding culture is, who we are and who we want to be, then cohesion will remain stable, and integration will also succeed—today and in the future” (Trumpet translation throughout). The guiding culture will then not only guide native-born Germans but also those coming into Germany.

Maizière suggested that this would even increase German tolerance toward other nationalities. Here his opponents see a direct contradiction. Politicians from the opposition parties said that such a defined guiding culture would do just the opposite, namely arouse hatred toward others. That is exactly what happened in the past when Germans saw their culture as superior to others. The idea of a German guiding culture, however, is most strongly promoted and advocated by the largely Catholic Christian Social Union that rules in Bavaria. (ontinueReading

In Minnesota's worst measles outbreak, a battle of beliefs over vaccines

abcnews.com - An evolving community in the big city of Minneapolis is fighting a dangerous virus -- and a battle of beliefs.

The largest measles outbreak in the Minnesota city in 25 years, this April, affected 34 people primarily between the ages of 0 to 5, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. Eleven have been hospitalized.

The majority, 29, of the measles cases were among Somali Minnesotans, according to the state health department, which has been working to improve vaccination rates in their community.

State and local officials have been searching for any other people exposed to the virus –- potentially 3,000 more -- who may be unvaccinated and vulnerable, to try and stop the spread of the disease.

While the overall vaccine compliance rate for Minnesota kindergartners is around 90 percent, it is only about 40 percent in the Somali community, according to Kris Ehresmann, director for infectious disease at the Minnesota Department of Health.

"We've known it's going to be a matter of time before something happens," she said about the recent outbreak.

In 2011, a similar outbreak occurred in the Somali community in Minnesota after a toddler who had visited Kenya contracted the virus. In that outbreak, 19 children and two adults were infected, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state health department.

A report from the American Academy of Pediatrics found that in the Minneapolis Somali community, the vaccination rate had dropped precipitously from over 90 percent in 2004 to 54 percent in 2010, likely helping that outbreak to spread.

Vaccination rates are believed to have dropped over concerns about autism, despite definitive research that refutes a link between vaccines and autism, according to Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and former state epidemiologist.

"Vaccinations have dropped drastically, but autism rates have stayed the same," Osterholm said about the sizable Somali population in Minneapolis.

Osterholm said that some groups who are skeptical about vaccines have expressed distrust in public health officials trying to stop the outbreak. In addition to other concerns, some have said the vaccinations are unnecessary because the measles outbreaks have ended quickly. Osterholm said the reason is the response and "thousands of hours" spent by public health workers to treat the sick and isolate and vaccinate people exposed to the virus.

But advocates for limiting or eliminating vaccinations have encouraged the Somali community in Minneapolis to be skeptical. (ontinueReading

Healthy hearts: Gluten-free diets don't help people without celiac disease, study finds

cbc.ca - Gluten-free diets shouldn't be promoted to prevent heart disease among people without celiac disease, gastroenterologists say after a large U.S. study.

The food industry has stimulated popularity in gluten-free diets. Recognizing this public interest, researchers at Harvard Medical School said they wanted to see whether avoiding gluten actually has health benefits for those without the disease.

To that end, Dr. Andrew Chan, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard, and his team used diet and health outcome data collected from 110,000 health professionals over 26 years to link estimates of gluten in the diet to diagnoses of coronary heart disease.

Celiac disease affects one to two per cent of Canadians, or about 300,000 people, Health Canada estimates.

The researchers recognized that celiac disease is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease, which is reduced after these individuals go gluten free. (ontinueReading

South Korea’s likely next president warns the U.S. not to meddle in its democracy

SEONGNAM, South Korea — South Korea is on the brink of electing a liberal president with distinctly different ideas from the Trump administration on how to deal with North Korea — potentially complicating efforts to punish Kim Jong Un’s regime.

He’s also a candidate who fears that the U.S. government has been acting to box him in on a controversial American missile defense system and circumvent South Korea’s democratic process.

“I don’t believe the U.S. has the intention [to influence our election], but I do have some reservations,” Moon Jae-in told The Washington Post in an interview.

Barring a major upset, Moon will become South Korea’s president Tuesday, replacing Park Geun-hye, who was impeached in March and is now on trial for bribery. Because Park was dismissed from office, Moon will immediately become president if elected, without the usual transition period.

With Moon pledging to review the Park government’s decision to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) antimissile system, the U.S. military has acted swiftly to get it up and running. This has sparked widespread criticism here that the United States is trying to make it difficult, if not impossible, for Moon to reverse it.

The final components for THAAD were taken onto the site into the middle of the night last week, triggering protests, and the system became operational Monday. It is designed to shoot down North Korean missiles, but many in South Korea fear it will make them more of a target.

“It is not desirable for the [caretaker] South Korean government to deploy THAAD hastily at this politically sensitive time, with the presidential election approaching, and without going through the democratic process, an environmental assessment or a public hearing,” said Moon, sitting on the floor in a Korean restaurant after an evening rally in Seongnam, south of Seoul.

“Would it happen this way in the United States? Could the administration make a unilateral decision without following democratic procedures, without ratification or agreement by Congress?”

Privately, Moon aides say they are “furious” about what they see as the expedited installation of THAAD. U.S. Forces Korea said the deployment is in line with plans to have the system operational as soon as possible.

But Moon warned that the U.S.’s actions could contribute to rising anti-American sentiment in South Korea and complicate the countries’ security alliance.

“If South Korea can have more time to process this matter democratically, the U.S. will gain a higher level of trust from South Koreans and therefore the alliance between the two nations will become even stronger,” Moon said. (ontinueReading

US: Appeals Court Won't Reconsider Net Neutrality Ruling

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court says it won't reconsider its ruling to uphold the government's "net neutrality" rules that require internet providers to treat all online traffic equally.

The decision on Monday means the rules favored by consumer groups but despised by telecom companies will remain in place for now. But the Trump administration has signaled that it intends to scrap the Obama-era policy.

A divided three-judge panel ruled last year to preserve regulations that ban service providers from favoring some content over others. The 2-1 ruling was a win for the Obama administration and consumer groups that sought the rules.

Cable and telecom industry companies like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T say the rules threaten innovation and undermine investment in broadband infrastructure. (ontinueReading

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Related: What Is Net Neutrality and Why Does It Matter?