Search

"There's no way": Man receives $52 billion tax bill

An American man has been left confused after receiving a letter from the government claiming he owed $52 billion in unpaid taxes. Barry Tangert got two letters in the mail from the state of Pennsylvania, opening the first to find a refund check from the federal government for over $900. His joy was short-lived though as he opened the second letter to find the income billing notice from the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue claiming that he owed a jaw-dropping $52,950,744,735.28 ($34,576,826,561.47 AUD). “I knew it was an obvious blunder. I don’t even make over $100,000 a year, so there’s no way I could owe anywhere near that,” Barry Tangert told local outlet News 8. The total sum was so large it didn’t even fit on a single line on the document. Tangert immediately knew it was a mistake, with the astonishing number being more than triple the $11 billion America’s richest man Elon Musk says he owed the government in 2022. How the error made it all the way to his doorstep is still a mystery to Tangert. “I don’t know if it was a computer glitch in the transmission or if it was an input error from my tax preparer,” Tangert said, noting that his tax preparer filed an amendment after noticing an error on his 2022 return. He reached out to the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue’s customer service line, which also provided little help to the baffled man. “The first thing he said was, ‘You had a good year.’ And I said, ‘I wish,’” Tangert said. Fortunately, the state department has since resolved the issue, which it chalked up to wrong numbers simply being put into the system. Image credits: WGAL News 8

Money & Banking

Property tycoon sentenced to death over $27 billion fraud

A Vietnamese billionaire was sentenced to death on Thursday in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, an estimated $27 billion in damages - a figure equivalent to six percent of the country’s 2023 GDP. Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, was found guilty of embezzlement, after looting from one of the country's biggest banks, Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) for over a decade. “The defendant’s actions... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the (Communist) Party and state,” the verdict read at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After a five-week trial, 85 others were also charged for their involvement in the fraud, with charges ranging from from bribery and abuse of power to appropriation and violations of banking law. Four were given life imprisonment, while others received jail terms ranging between 20 years and three years suspended. Lan's husband was Hong Kong billionaire Eric Chu Nap Kee, was sentenced to nine years in prison. Lan and the others were arrested as part of a national corruption crackdown. Lan was initially believed to have embezzled $12.5 billion, but on Thursday prosecutors have said that the total damages caused by the fraud now amounted to $27 billion. The property tycoon was convicted of taking out $44bn in loans from the bank, according to the BBC, with prosecutors saying that $27 billion of this may never be recovered. The court ordered Lan to to pay almost the entire damages sum in compensation. It is also <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68778636" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that she is one of very few women in Vietnam to be sentenced to death for a white collar crime. “In my desperation, I thought of death,” Lan said in her final remarks to the court, according to state media. “I am so angry that I was stupid enough to get involved in this very fierce business environment -- the banking sector -- which I have little knowledge of.” Police have identified around 42,000 victims of the scam, and many of them were unhappy with the verdict. One 67-year-old Hanoi resident told the AFP that she had hoped Lan would receive a life sentence so she could fully witness the devastating impact of her actions. “Many people worked hard to deposit money into the bank, but now she’s received the death sentence and that’s it for her,” they said. “She can’t see the suffering of the people.” The resident has so far been unable to retrieve the $120,000 she invested with SCB. Police have said that many of the victims are SCB bondholders, who cannot withdraw their money and have not received interest or principal payments since Lan’s arrest. Authorities have also reportedly seized over 1000 properties belonging to Lan. Image: Twitter

Legal

Backlash to new kids clothing line sees Target lose billions

Target has lost billions in market valuation as its Pride-themed kids line continues to face backlash. Target shares were trading at $160.96 (A$246.18) a share, which means their market valuation was roughly around $74.3 billion (A$113 billion) The Minneapolis-based retailer’s stock value dropped drastically following the calls to boycott their “PRIDE” collection, at just $138.93 (A$212) a share as of Friday, which is a 14 per cent drop in value to around $64.2 billion (A$98 billion) , according to The New York Times. This roughly translates to a $10.1 billion (A$15 billion) loss in valuation. The plummet is the retailer's lowest stock price in nearly three years, and the last time any company’s stock plummeted this intensely was in 2022 after the stocks equalised during the pandemic. Target has since moved its Pride section away from the front of the store in some Southern states, following displays being knocked over by protesters, who also confronted the workers. They also said they would remove items from the collection but didn’t specify which ones. Some of the clothes receiving backlash were the rainbow-themed children’s clothing, and a “tuck-friendly” swimsuit for trans women, who have not yet had their gender-affirming surgeries, to conceal their genitalia. Target CEO Brian Cornell has defended the LBGTQ-friendly clothing line and has said that selling them was “the right thing for society.” Images: Getty

Money & Banking

Caught in the act: supermassive black hole 8.5 billion light years away enjoys violent stellar snack

A supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy some 8.5 billion years way has ripped apart a nearby star, producing some of the most luminous jets ever seen. When stars and other objects stray too close to a <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/how-big-is-a-black-hole-watch-how-it-eats/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">supermassive black hole</a> they are destroyed by the black hole’s immense gravity. These occurrences, known as <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/a-star-is-torn/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tidal-disruption events (TDEs)</a>, result in a <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/the-sleeping-giant-black-hole-that-awoke-to-destroy-a-star/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">circling disk of material</a> that is slowly pulled into the black hole and very occasionally, as in the case of supermassive black hole AT2022cmc, ejecting bright beams of material travelling close to the speed of light. Luminous jets are produced in an estimated 1% of cases and are known as a type of astronomical occurrence known as a transient, because they are short-lived. Bright flashes from the jets were spotted in data from the <a href="https://www.ztf.caltech.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF)</a> in <a href="https://astronomerstelegram.org/?read=15232" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">February this year</a> using a special new technique which can comb through the equivalent of a million pages of information every night. Due to the rapid results produced by the novel data analysis method, a research team in the US was able to swiftly follow up on the transient event with multiwavelength observations of the system from different observatory facilities. The jets were visible across many wavelengths, from X-rays to radio, and follow-up observations enabled the European Southern Observatory’s <a href="https://www.eso.org/public/australia/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/vlt/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Very Large Telescope</a> to place AT2022cmc at a whopping distance of 8.5 billion light years away, while optical and infrared observation from NASA’s <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hubble telescope</a> were able to precisely pinpoint AT2022cmc’s location. “The last time scientists discovered one of these jets was well over a decade ago,” said Michael Coughlin, an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and co-lead on the paper <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05465-8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">published in Nature</a>. “From the data we have, we can estimate that relativistic jets are launched in only 1% of these destructive events, making AT2022cmc an extremely rare occurrence.” Exactly why this behaviour is so rare remains an enigma, however, the research team believe that AT2022cmc’s rapid spin powers the jets, adding to the current understanding of the physics of these behemoth dead stars at the centres of galaxies. This detection – and the method used to discover it – are valuable as a future models for astronomers as they scour the skies for more events. “Scientists can use AT2022cmc as a model for what to look for and find more disruptive events from distant black holes,” says lead author Igor Andreoni, from the Department of Astronomy at UMD and NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre. This includes using ground-based optical surveys, as opposed to gamma-ray observatories in space – how previous jets were primarily discovered. “Our new search technique helps us to quickly identify rare cosmic events in the ZTF survey data,” says Andreoni. “And since ZTF and upcoming larger surveys such as <a href="https://www.lsst.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Vera Rubin’s Large Synoptic Survey Telescope</a> scan the sky so frequently, we can now expect to uncover a wealth of rare, or previously undiscovered cosmic events and study them in detail. More than ever, big data mining is an important tool to advance our knowledge of the universe”. <img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=226753&title=Caught+in+the+act%3A+supermassive+black+hole+8.5+billion+light+years+away+enjoys+violent+stellar+snack" width="1" height="1" data-spai-target="src" data-spai-orig="" data-spai-exclude="nocdn" /> <div id="contributors"> <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/supermassive-black-hole-stellar-snack/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on Cosmos Magazine and was written by Clare Kenyon. Image: Getty Images </div>

Technology

Pumping loud music is putting more than 1 billion young people at risk of hearing loss

Music is an integral part of human life. It’s all around us, just like sunshine, lifting our mood. We enjoy it so much that many of us take it with us everywhere on our phones or we spend weekends hitting the club scene, live-music venues or concerts. Meanwhile, many of us may have felt annoyed by loud sound from music venues or remarked on sound emanating from someone else’s headphones. We’re probably aware we should prevent hearing loss from loud industrial noise at work or from using power tools at home. A systematic review released today in <a href="https://globalhealth.bmj.com/lookup/doi/10.1136/bmjgh-2022-010501">BMJ Global Health</a> reports unsafe listening practices in adolescents and young adults from using personal listening devices (such as phones or digital music players) and going to loud clubs and gigs are common, and could be a major factor contributing to hearing loss. In fact, the authors estimate the pumping tunes could be placing up to 1.35 billion young people at risk of hearing loss worldwide. <h2>What the study looked at</h2> Systematic analysis involves looking across multiple studies to identify consistent findings. In this study, the authors included 33 peer-reviewed studies published between 2000 and 2021, involving over 19,000 people, aged 12–34. In the study, unsafe listening was identified as listening at levels above 80 decibels for over 40 hours per week. For context, this is the level above which most Australian states <a href="https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/safety-topic/hazards/noise/overview#:%7E:text=Workers%20must%20not%20be%20exposed,on%20decibels%20and%20time%20exposed.">require industry</a> to implement noise protection processes such as use of hearing protectors. The study confirms the rate of unsafe listening practices is high in adolescents and young adults: 23.81% of them were listening to music on personal devices at unsafe levels and 48.2% at loud entertainment venues (though this rate is less certain). Based on global estimates of population, this translates to up to 1.35 billion young people at risk of hearing loss globally. The World Health Organization <a href="https://www.who.int/health-topics/hearing-loss#tab=tab_1">estimates</a> over 430 million people worldwide already have a disabling hearing loss and prevalence could double if hearing loss prevention is not prioritised. The results tally with our previous studies conducted by Australia’s National Acoustic Laboratories and HEARing Cooperative Research Centre. More than a decade ago we <a href="https://acc.hearingservices.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/hso/f1f6299d-96f3-408e-be4b-0775af6d7f41/Lifetime_profile_exposure_sound_what_safe_HLPP2.pdf?MOD=AJPERES">reported</a> a high potential for hearing loss from attendance at nightclubs, pubs and live concerts in young Australians aged between 18–35 years. Back then, we found 13% of young Australians (aged 18–35) were getting a yearly noise dose from nightclubs, concerts and sporting activities that exceeded the maximum acceptable dose in industry. In 2015, the WHO launched the <a href="https://www.who.int/activities/making-listening-safe">Make listening Safe</a>initiative to encourage young people to protect their hearing. <h2>Why it’s bad for your hearing</h2> So what’s the problem with loud music? Like sunshine, overexposure can lead to harm. Loud noise, including music, can <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/hearing_loss/how_does_loud_noise_cause_hearing_loss.html">kill off hair cells and membranes</a> in the inner ear (the cochlea). Once hearing is lost, a person mightn’t be able to hear or understand speech or sounds around them. <a href="https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/noise-induced-hearing-loss">Research</a> shows hearing loss results from a combination of sound being too loud (and it doesn’t need to be painful to cause hearing damage), listening to loud sound too long (and the louder the sound, the less time you can listen before your hearing is at risk) and how often you are exposed (and hearing damage is cumulative over time). A good “rule of ear” is that if you hear ringing in your ears at or after listening, you are at risk of damaging your hearing. This type of hearing loss is <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/hearing_loss/how_does_loud_noise_cause_hearing_loss.html">permanent</a> and may require use of hearing aids or cochlear implants. <h2>Wait, so no loud music at all?</h2> So what can we do, short of throwing away our headphones and avoiding clubbing and live music? First, just like with the sun and skin, we need to be aware of the risks to our hearing and take the necessary steps to protect ourselves. We need to be aware of how loud sound is around us and how to keep our exposure within safe levels. We can do this by using personal hearing protection in clubs (such as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-earplugs-for-concerts/">ear muffs or ear plugs</a> that are fit for purpose), or limiting how often we visit noisy music venues or how long we stay at really loud ones. In Australia, people can access a free <a href="https://knowyournoise.nal.gov.au/">noise risk calculator</a> to calculate their personal risk using an online sound level meter, and to explore how changes in lifestyle could protect their hearing while still allowing them to enjoy music. Most phones now come with software that can <a href="https://www.headphonesty.com/2022/03/iphone-headphone-safety/#:%7E:text=Key%20features%20of%20the%20iPhone%20Headphone%20Safety%20feature&text=According%20to%20the%20WHO%20standard,risk%20of%20sustaining%20hearing%20damage.">monitor safe listening levels</a> and limit exposure. Hearing protection at the venue level is more challenging and may require regulatory and industry-based approaches. Our <a href="https://academic.oup.com/annweh/article/64/4/342/5811673">2020 research</a> identified hazard controls for entertainment venues, such alternating volume between louder and softer levels, rotating staff, providing quiet rooms, and raising speaker locations above head height. We also showed DJs and venues were open to initiatives aimed at reducing the risk of hearing loss for their patrons and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19338244.2020.1828241?journalCode=vaeh20">staff</a>. Compromises are possible and they could enable enjoyment of music at live-music venues, while still protecting hearing. That way everyone will be able keep enjoying music for longer. Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/pumping-loud-music-is-putting-more-than-1-billion-young-people-at-risk-of-hearing-loss-194537" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Music

740,000km of fishing line and 14 billion hooks: we reveal just how much fishing gear is lost at sea each year

Two per cent of all fishing gear used worldwide ends up polluting the oceans, our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abq0135" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new research</a> finds. To put that into perspective, the amount of longline fishing gear littering the ocean each year can circle the Earth more than 18 times. We interviewed 450 fishers from seven of the world’s biggest fishing countries including Peru, Indonesia, Morocco and the United States, to find out just how much gear enters the global ocean. We found at current loss rates, in 65 years there would be enough fishing nets littering the sea to cover the entire planet. This lost fishing equipment, known as ghost gear, can cause heavy social, economic and environmental damage. Hundreds of thousands of animals <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11160-018-9520-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">are estimated to die</a> each year from unintentional capture in fishing nets. Derelict nets can continue to fish indiscriminately for decades. Our research findings help highlight where to focus efforts to stem the tide of fishing pollution. It can also help inform fisheries management and policy interventions from local to global scales. <h2>14 billion longline hooks litter the sea each year</h2> The data we collected came directly from fishers themselves. They experience this issue firsthand and are best poised to inform our understanding of fishing gear losses. We surveyed fishers using five major gear types: gillnets, longlines, purse seine nets, trawl nets, and pots and traps. We asked how much fishing gear they used and lost annually, and what gear and vessel characteristics could be making the problem worse. This included vessel and gear size, whether the gear contacts the seafloor, and the total amount of gear used by the vessel. We coupled these surveys with information on global fishing effort data from commercial fisheries. Fishers use different types of nets to catch different types of fish. Our research found the amount of nets littering the ocean each year include: <ul> <li>740,000 kilometres of longline mainlines</li> <li>nearly 3,000 square kilometres of gill nets</li> <li>218 square kilometres of trawl nets</li> <li>75,000 square kilometres of purse seine nets</li> </ul> In addition, fishers lose over 25 million pots and traps and nearly 14 billion longline hooks each year. These estimates cover only commercial fisheries, and don’t include <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-97758-4_15" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the amount</a> of fishing line and other gear lost by recreational fishers. We also estimate that between 1.7% and 4.6% of all land-based plastic waste travels into the sea. This amount likely exceeds lost fishing gear. However, fishing gear is designed to catch animals and so is generally understood as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X15002985" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the most environmentally damaging</a> type of plastic pollution in research to date. <h2>Harming fishers and marine life</h2> Nearly 700 species of marine life <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0025326X14008571?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" rel="noopener">are known to</a> interact with marine debris, many of which are near threatened. Australian and US <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X15002985#bib6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">research in 2016</a> found fishing gear poses the biggest entanglement threats to marine fauna such as sea turtles, marine mammals, seabirds and whales. Other marine wildlife including sawfish, dugong, hammerhead sharks and crocodiles are also known to get <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1442-8903.2010.00525.x" target="_blank" rel="noopener">entangled in fishing gear</a>. Other <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12781" target="_blank" rel="noopener">key problematic items</a> include balloons and plastic bags. Lost fishing gear is not only an environmental risk, but it also has an economic impact for the fishers themselves. Every metre of lost net or line is a cost to the fisher – not only to replace the gear but also in its potential catch. <figure></figure> Additionally, many fisheries have already gone through significant reforms to reduce their environmental impact and improve the sustainability of their operations. Some losses are attributable to how gear is operated. For instance, bottom trawl nets – which can get caught on reefs – are lost more often that nets that don’t make contact with the sea floor. The conditions of the ocean can also make a significant difference. For example, fishers commonly reported that bad weather and overcrowding contributes to gear losses. Conflicts between gears coming into contact can also result in gear losses, such as when towed nets cross drifting longlines or gillnets. Where fish are depleted, fishers must expend more effort, operate in worse conditions or locations, and are more likely to come in contact with others’ gear. All these features increase losses. <h2>What do we do about it?</h2> We actually found lower levels of fishing gear losses in our current study than in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/faf.12407" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a previous review</a> of the historical literature on the topic. Technological improvements, such as better weather forecasts and improved marking and tracking of fishing gear may be reducing loss rates. Incentives can further reduce losses resulting in ghost gear. This could include buyback programs for end-of-life fishing gear, reduced cost loans for net replacement, and waste receptacles in ports to encourage fishers to return used fishing gear. Technological improvements and management interventions could also make a difference, such as requirements to mark and track gear, as well as regular gear maintenance and repairs. Developing effective fishing management systems can improve food security, leave us with a healthier environment, and create more profitable businesses for the fishers who operate in it. This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/740-000km-of-fishing-line-and-14-billion-hooks-we-reveal-just-how-much-fishing-gear-is-lost-at-sea-each-year-192024" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. Image: CSIRO

Travel Trouble

The world is about to hit eight billion people

The world is expected to have eight billion people living on it by 15 November this year, according to the United Nations. And India will become Earth’s most populated country in 2023. These are among the latest projections <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/sites/www.un.org.development.desa.pd/files/wpp2022_summary_of_results.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">published</a> by the UN in its World Population Prospects report, which also highlights the rapid decline in global population growth – now at its slowest rate since 1950 – continuing into the second half of the century. “The cumulative effect of lower fertility, if maintained over several decades, could be a more substantial deceleration of global population growth in the second half of the century,” says UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs population division director John Wilmoth. The UN predicts global population could reach a further 8.5 billion by the end of this decade, 9.7 billion by 2050, and peak at 10.4 billion by the end of the century. That’s a reduction of around 300 million people in 2100 from its estimates <a href="https://population.un.org/wpp/Publications/Files/WPP2019_Highlights.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">three years ago</a>. It’s still higher than other projections in recent years, suggesting the world population might peak before the end of the century. <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2820%2930677-2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Research</a> from the University of Washington, US, published in 2020 predicted that the world population would peak at about 9.73 billion in 2064, observing that increases in female education and access to contraception would see declines in fertility and population growth. That followed a 2018 <a href="https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/15226/1/lutz_et_al_2018_demographic_and_human_capital.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a> from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre that predicted a peak of 9.8 billion between 2070 and 2080, but also suggested rapid social development and education reach in line with sustainable development goals could see a peak of 8.9 billion by 2060. The reason for these different projections comes down to the assumptions researchers make along the way. At the most basic level, explains Associate Professor Gour Dasvarma, from Flinders University in Adelaide, a population projection considers trends in birth and death rates. “Projections are done by extrapolating past trends, long term trends in fertility, mortality and migration for a country population,” he explains. “For the world population, migration doesn’t matter. “One of the things with the projections is that as and when new data become available, people will revise those. “The latest predictions for the UN is that the world’s population will peak at 10.4 billion by 2100 and then it will start declining. “By that time, the trends indicate that fertility in most of the countries of the world will have declined to a sufficiently low level, the ageing of the population will take hold, and the so-called momentum of population growth will slow down.” <div class="newsletter-box"> <div id="wpcf7-f6-p197949-o1" class="wpcf7" dir="ltr" lang="en-US" role="form"> </div> </div> What are the world’s population trends? Nations transition through <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/people/society/watch-the-human-population-skyrocket-in-200-years/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" data-type="URL" data-id="https://cosmosmagazine.com/people/society/watch-the-human-population-skyrocket-in-200-years/">cycles of population growth</a>, stability and decline as their economies develop. From periods of stability with high birth and death rates, populations increase as mortality drops. Over time, fertility rates begin to decline, causing stabilisation in population numbers. It’s only when death rates nudge above births that populations begin to naturally decrease. For nations like those in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, this demographic transition was completed between the pre-industrial era and the mid-20th century – a period of about 200 years. “But after 1950, some developing countries like China, other parts of Southeast Asia […] and also Latin America have done it within 70 years because of the increase of contraceptives and faster decline in fertility,” says Dasvarma. With life expectancy projections increasing, nations in the Global South will continue to see their populations to do likewise. Although more than half of the world’s population lives in East, South-east (29% of global population), Central and Southern Asia (26%), the UN expects these regions along with Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe and Northern America to begin declining before the end of the century. In contrast, sub-Saharan African nations are likely to keep growing through 2100, while the next quarter century will see over half of the world’s population increase come from just eight nations. They include India – which will overtake China to be the world’s most populous nation next year – the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania. Populations are ageing quickly Two thirds of the world’s population now live in areas where lifetime fertility has dropped below 2.1 births. Long term, that equates to zero population growth: one child to replace each parent in nations with low mortality. COVID-19 has also impacted population data – with a drop in global life expectancy (now 71, down from 72.9 before the pandemic) and short-term decreases in pregnancies and births. But the pandemic’s impact was unevenly distributed around the world. In regions hardest hit by deaths, life expectancy at birth dropped by nearly three years. In contrast Australia and New Zealand saw this indicator increase by more than a year, likely thanks to border closures imposed throughout much of 2020. These decreases in national fertility rates will see populations age further in the coming years. By the century’s midpoint, 16% of the global population is expected to be aged over 65 – the same proportion as people under 12 years of age. It’s prompted the UN to recommend nations with ageing populations invest in social safety nets to meet the needs of older people. <img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=197949&title=The+world+is+about+to+hit+eight+billion+people" width="1" height="1" /> <div id="contributors"> <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/people/world-population-eight-billion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cosmos Magazine</a> and was written by <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/matthew-agius" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Matthew Agius</a>. Matthew Agius is a science writer for Cosmos Magazine. Image: Getty Images </div>

Caring

Top Gun: Maverick surpasses $1 billion worldwide

Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick has officially surpassed $1 billion at the worldwide box office. Over the weekend, the film saw a huge $30.5 million domestically and $44.5 million in overseas markets. This overall totals to $521 million domestic and $484 million international, putting it just past $1 billion globally. According to Paramount, more than 16 percent of the Top Gun: Maverick audience has seen the film more than once in theatres, while four percent have seen it four times or more. This is only the second time since the pandemic began that a Hollywood title jumped over the $1 billion behind Sony and Disney’s Spider-Man: No Way Home ($1.89 billion). The movie officially became the highest-grossing movie of Cruise’s career when it toppled over $800 million. His 2018 film Mission Impossible: Fallout previously held the highest rank with $791.1 million. Analysts don’t think the momentum will last long with Elvis hitting the screens and Top Gun sitting around the $900 million mark. Image: YouTube

Movies

Labor’s proposed $10 billion social housing fund isn’t big as it seems, but it could work

The centrepiece of Labor’s election program so far is its A$10 billion social housing policy, officially called the <a href="https://alp.org.au/policies/housing_future_fund">Housing Australia Future Fund</a>. In the first five years the fund would be used to build <ul> <li> 20,000 social housing properties for people on low incomes - 4,000 of the 20,000 for women and children fleeing violence and for low income older women at risk of homelessness </li> <li> 10,000 “affordable” housing properties </li> <li> $200 million for the repair, maintenance and improvements of housing in remote Indigenous communities </li> <li> $100 million for crisis and transitional housing for women and children fleeing violence and for low income older women at risk of homelessness </li> <li> $30 million to build more housing and fund specialist services for veterans who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness </li> </ul> Although needed, its a far short of the 100,000 extra social housing units we would have had if social housing been growing in line with total housing in recent years, a gap that is climbing by 4,000 homes a year. And, like the frilled-neck lizard, the $10 billion looks much bigger than it is. Labor could probably do what it has promised to do for $450 million per year. Instead, it says it would borrow $10 billion at low interest rates, invest the money for much higher returns, and use the proceeds to pay for the program. If the fund earns 4.5% more than the cost of borrowing it’ll get the $450 million per year. Rather than use the money to build the houses it will use the money to fund service payments to community housing providers who build them. As Labor points out, it’s a mechanism used by the current government, which has set up five such funds in addition to the <a href="https://www.futurefund.gov.au/">Future Fund</a> used to fund public service pensions (of which more later). <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440171/original/file-20220111-13-1erhnaj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440171/original/file-20220111-13-1erhnaj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="" /></a> <a href="https://alp.org.au/policies/housing_future_fund" class="source">Extract from Labor's Housing Australia Future Fund election policy</a> Two of these funds, the Medical Research Future Fund and the Disability Care Australia Fund are actually bigger than the proposed Housing Fund. A problem with this structure designed to make the commitment look bigger than it is is that spending on social housing will depend on the returns of the fund. Allocating money from one source to spending on one particular purpose is called <a href="https://www.cis.org.au/app/uploads/2015/07/pm75.pdf">hypothecation</a>, a word closely related to “<a href="https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/429589/is-hypothecate-anything-to-do-in-origin-or-meaning-with-hypothetical/570700">hypothetical</a>”. <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440181/original/file-20220111-19-6m0mfi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440181/original/file-20220111-19-6m0mfi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" alt="" /></a> Medicare funding is independent of the levy. Dean Lewins/AAP The Medicare Levy of 2% of most taxable incomes is intended to be for funding Medicare, but funds only part of it. In contrast, there doesn’t appear to be any plan to guarantee payments for social housing if in any year the Social Housing Fund fails to make money. The bigger question is whether it makes sense for governments to use funds like the Future Fund to put money into income-generating investments in private companies (the Future Fund invests in <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/1918/20200630_-_Top_100_largest_listed_equity_holdings.pdf">Apple, Microsoft and the Commonwealth Bank</a>) or to use any available funds to pay down government debt. The answer depends in part on whether the profits the funds earn are genuine or mere compensation for the risky business of investing in shares, which can always go wrong. My work on the so-called “equity premium”, the excess return for investing in shares, suggests that is <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/15061616.pdf">genuine</a> and exceeds what’s needed to compensate for risk, making investment in the stock market an appealing option for governments in the absence of better opportunities. But the premium is not limitless, for two reasons. One is that if governments borrow enough and buy enough shares, we can reasonably expected the government’s cost of borrowing to rise and the rate of return on shares to fall, reducing the equity premium. The other is that if buying shares is pursued far enough, governments will become major, or even majority, shareholders in large businesses, effectively becoming owners. <h2>Future funds should invest in what governments do best</h2> Long experience suggests that while governments are quite good at running some types of businesses (especially those involving infrastructure and requiring large amounts of capital) they are not nearly as good at running others. Retailing comes to mind. If we accept that large debt-financed public investment can make sense, it follows that governments should own as much as 100% of some types of businesses (businesses such as Telstra come to mind) and little or none of others, such as shopping centres, which Australia’s government <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7139681/the-sale-of-belconnen-mall/">did indeed once own</a>. And that was generally the way Australia’s economy worked during the brief period of broadly shared-prosperity in the mid-20th century. Governments borrowed at low rates and invested in physical and social infrastructure, such as roads and communications services. The more funds there are like Labor’s proposed Housing Australia Future Fund the more likely it is we will get back there.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174406/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/john-quiggin-2084">John Quiggin</a>, Professor, School of Economics, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland-805">The University of Queensland</a> This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/labors-proposed-10-billion-social-housing-fund-isnt-big-as-it-seems-but-it-could-work-174406">original article</a>.

Real Estate

Making the tobacco industry pay for cigarette litter could stop 4.5 billion butts polluting the Australian environment

Cigarette butts with filters are the most commonly littered item worldwide, with a staggering <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5347528/">4.5 trillion</a> of them tossed into the environment each year. This is a huge problem; many end up on <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935119300787">beaches and in the ocean</a>, and the tar from burnt tobacco in the filter can be toxic to wildlife. Fixing the problem has focused on changing the behaviour of people who smoke, but a <a href="https://www.wwf.org.au/ArticleDocuments/353/pub-WWF-Australia-Ending-cigarette-butt-pollution-3Dec21.pdf.aspx">new report</a> shows making the tobacco industry responsible for the litter with a mandatory product stewardship scheme is likely to have a much greater impact. In Australia alone, it’s estimated up to 8.9 billion butts are littered each year. Under the proposed scheme, we could potentially reduce this by 4.45 billion a year. So how can it be done in practice? And what would the benefits be from a policy like this? <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433353/original/file-20211123-15-8zbai4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433353/original/file-20211123-15-8zbai4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="Three wrens around a cigarette butt" /></a> Smoked cigarette filters take months or even years to break down. Shutterstock <h2>Social and environmental costs</h2> Cigarette filters are made of a bioplastic called cellulose acetate, and they typically take <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0117393">years to break down</a>. Smoked cigarette filters are infused with the same chemicals and heavy metals in the tar that harm humans when they smoke. <a href="https://theconversation.com/cigarette-butts-are-the-forgotten-plastic-pollution-and-they-could-be-killing-our-plants-119958">Research from 2019 found</a> adding cigarette butts to soil reduces the germination of grass and clover seeds and the length of their shoots. Seaworms exposed to used filters have <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep14119">DNA damage and reduced growth</a>. And exposure to cigarette filters (even unsmoked ones) are toxic to fish – <a href="https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/20/Suppl_1/i25?utm_source=TrendMD&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=TC_TrendMD-0">research with two fish species </a> found adding two to four smoked cigarette filters per litre of water could kill them. Currently, the tobacco industry does not have to pay for the clean-up of cigarette butts polluting the environment. Rather, the community bears the cost. Cigarette litter and its management <a href="https://www.wwf.org.au/ArticleDocuments/353/pub-WWF-Australia-Ending-cigarette-butt-pollution-3Dec21.pdf.aspx">costs</a> the Australian economy an estimated A$73 million per year. Local councils in particular spend large amounts of money cleaning it up. The City of Sydney, for example, has estimated their cleaning crews sweep up <a href="https://campaignbrief.com/the-city-of-sydney-launches-ci/">15,000 cigarette butts daily</a> from city streets. And volunteers spend countless hours picking up cigarette butts from parks, streets and beaches. In its 2020 Rubbish Report, Clean Up Australia Day found cigarette butts accounted for <a href="https://www.cleanup.org.au/cigarette-butts">16% of all recorded items</a>. <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433349/original/file-20211123-19-1qwxthm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433349/original/file-20211123-19-1qwxthm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="Two smiling men hold bags of rubbish" /></a> Volunteers, such as for Clean Up Australia Day, spend countless hours picking up cigarette butts from the enviornment. Glengarry Landcare VIC/Clean Up Australia <h2>Current strategies are ineffective</h2> The tobacco industry response to product waste has been to focus <a href="https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/20/2/100">responsibility on the consumer</a>. Tobacco companies have created public education campaigns aimed at increasing awareness of the butt litter problem, supplied consumers and cities worldwide with public ashtrays, and funded anti-litter groups. But given the amount of cigarettes that continue to be littered, it’s clear these strategies on their own have been ineffective. Many around the world are <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-explores-next-steps-to-clean-up-tobacco-litter-in-england">now calling for stronger industry regulation</a>. There have also been calls to ban cigarette filters completely. For example, lawmakers in <a href="https://calmatters.org/environment/2019/06/california-cigarette-butt-filter-ban-bill-electronic-disposable-vapes/">California</a> and New York have attempted to ban the sale of cigarettes with filters, and New Zealand is finalising their <a href="https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/publications/proposals_for_a_smokefree_aotearoa_2025_action_plan-final.pdf">Smokefree Aotearoa Action Plan</a>, which may include a cigarette filter ban. Many jurisdictions in Australia and worldwide are starting to ban single-use plastics such as straws and takeaway containers, and have <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l5890">been criticised</a> for not including cigarette filters in these laws. If filters were banned, cigarette butt litter would remain, but without the plastic filter. Although, <a href="https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2021/11/18/tobaccocontrol-2021-056815">a recent trial</a> of cigarettes without filters found that people smoked fewer of these than when they were given the same cigarettes with filters. More research is needed on the health impact of smoking filterless cigarettes and the environmental impact of filterless cigarette butts. <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433352/original/file-20211123-27-d6ktd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433352/original/file-20211123-27-d6ktd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="" /></a> A pubic cigarette butt disposal facility in Salem, US. Shutterstock <h2>What would a stewardship scheme look like?</h2> The federal government’s <a href="https://www.awe.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/national-plastics-plan-2021.pdf">National Plastics Plan</a>, released in March this year, committed to initiate a stewardship taskforce that would reduce cigarette butt litter in Australia, and would consider a potential stewardship scheme. However, they proposed the stewardship taskforce be industry led. Product stewardship schemes can be voluntary or written into law. For example, waste from product packaging is managed through a voluntary scheme, the <a href="https://www.awe.gov.au/environment/protection/waste/plastics-and-packaging/packaging-covenant">Australian Packaging Covenant</a>, which sets targets for reducing packaging waste that aren’t written into law. On the other hand, <a href="https://www.awe.gov.au/environment/protection/waste/product-stewardship/products-schemes/television-computer-recycling-scheme">there is a law in Australia</a> requiring companies who manufacture TVs or computers to pay some of the costs for recycling these products. The <a href="https://www.wwf.org.au/ArticleDocuments/353/pub-WWF-Australia-Ending-cigarette-butt-pollution-3Dec21.pdf.aspx">new research</a>, commissioned by World Wildlife Fund for Nature Australia, considered four regulatory approaches: business as usual, a ban on plastic filters, a voluntary industry product stewardship scheme, and a mandatory product stewardship scheme led by the federal government. <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433344/original/file-20211123-13-tpimfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C5442%2C3600&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433344/original/file-20211123-13-tpimfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C5442%2C3600&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="A hand in blue plastic gloves holds a cigarette butt on the beach" /></a> Cigarette litter costs the Australian economy an estimated A$73 million each year. Brian Yurasits/Unsplash, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" class="license">CC BY</a> Each of these options were ranked according to factors such as the regulatory effort required to implement them, their cost, consumer participation and the extent to which they would reduce environmental impacts on land and waterways. A ban on plastic cigarette filters and a mandatory product stewardship scheme were assessed as having the greatest potential environmental benefit. While uncertainties remain about a filter ban, there is no such barrier to implementing a mandatory product stewardship scheme on cigarette waste. This scheme could involve a tax that would pay for the recovery and processing costs associated with cigarette butt litter. The study suggested introducing a levy of A$0.004 – less than half a cent – on each smoked cigarette to manage the waste. Other studies from overseas, however, show this cost would need to be <a href="https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/20/Suppl_1/i36.full">higher</a>. We can look to the UK for an example of where to start. The UK is currently considering implementing an extended producer responsibility scheme to address cigarette litter. In November this year, it released a <a href="https://consult.defra.gov.uk/environmental-quality/call-for-evidence-on-commonly-littered-and-problem/supporting_documents/Call%20for%20evidence%20document.pdf">consultation document</a> on different options. They proposed a mandatory scheme where the tobacco industry would pay for the full costs of cleaning up and processing cigarette waste. Other costs they might be made to pay are for gathering and reporting data on tobacco product waste, provision of bins for cigarette butts, and campaigns to promote responsible disposal by consumers. It is time for the federal and state governments in Australia to make the tobacco industry pay for the mess they create.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171831/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kylie-morphett-1271253">Kylie Morphett</a>, Research Fellow, School of Public Health, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland-805">The University of Queensland</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/coral-gartner-7425">Coral Gartner</a>, Director, NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence on Achieving the Tobacco Endgame, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland-805">The University of Queensland</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/william-clarke-380521">William Clarke</a>, Professor of waste management, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland-805">The University of Queensland</a> This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/making-the-tobacco-industry-pay-for-cigarette-litter-could-stop-4-5-billion-butts-polluting-the-australian-environment-171831">original article</a>. Image: Shuttershock

Domestic Travel

Welcome to Telosa: the $400 billion city built from scratch

The city of Telosa: where everyone is equal, the future is sustainable, the opportunities are innovative and the city is for everyone. While this utopian city sounds like the perfect place to live, it doesn’t actually exist yet. Telosa is the latest project from former Walmart executive and e-commerce billionaire Marc Lore, who wants to create the world’s first “woke” city from scratch. He unveiled his elaborate plans with an <a href="https://cityoftelosa.com/#telosa">interactive website</a>, where he explains that the name Telosa comes from the Ancient Greek word Telos, meaning “highest purpose.” “The mission of Telosa is to create a more equitable, sustainable future. That’s our North Star,” Lore said in a promotional video. “We are going to be the most open, the most fair and the most inclusive city in the world.” The city will run to Lore’s unique economic vision that he dubs “Equitism” in which the land upon which the city is built will be donated to a community endowment. “If you went into the desert where the land was worth nothing, or very little, and you created a foundation that owned the land, and people moved there and tax dollars built infrastructure and we built one of the greatest cities in the world, the foundation could be worth a trillion dollars,” Lore told <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-09-01/how-diapers-com-founder-marc-lore-plans-to-build-utopian-city-telosa">Bloomberg Businessweek</a>. “And if the foundation’s mission was to take the appreciation of the land and give it back to the citizens in the form of medicine, education, affordable housing, social services: Wow, that’s it!” The city aims to tackle America’s rapidly growing wealth gap, which Lore believes is “going to bring down America”. “While the current economic system is a growth engine, it has led to increasing inequality,” the project’s website explains. “Equitism is inclusive growth.” The beginning phase of the project will be built to accommodate 50,000 residents across roughly 1,500 acres at a cost of $25 billion, and is targeted for completion by 2030. The project’s planners have yet to commit to a location for Telosa, but the website identifies Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Texas and the Appalachian region as possible sites. Digital renderings of the utopia show an expanse of space for pedestrians to stroll through the metropolis, as well as including aircrafts known as the electric “air taxi” start-up, in which Lore is a key investor. Another image on the site shows a skyscraper called Equitism tower that houses elevated water storage, aeroponic farms and an energy-producing roof. Despite the buzz about the unique city, Sarah Moser, an associate professor of geography at Montreal’s McGill University, puts Lore’s chances of success at roughly zero. She cites approximately 150 similar projects that have been pitched, and all resulted in failure. Image credits: cityoftelosa.com

Technology

"Oh my God": Woman discovers $1 billion in her bank account

American woman Julia Yonkowski got the surprise of her life when she went to withdraw $20 from her bank account and saw $1 billion instead. According to the bank receipt she received from Chase Bank, she had $999,985,855.94 in her account. “Oh my God, I was horrified. I know most people would think they won the lottery but I was horrified,” she explained. “When I put in for the $20, the machine came back and said we’ll give you the $20 but that’ll cause an overdraft and you will be charged and I said, ‘Oh just forget it,’”. She hasn't touched her account since Saturday night. “I know I’ve read stories about people that took the money or took out money, and then they had to repay it and I wouldn’t do that anyway because it’s not my money,” she said. “It kind of scares me because you know with cyber threats. You know I don’t know what to think.” She's tried reaching out to Chase Bank several times but gets "tied up" with their automated system. “I just can’t get through. I get tied up with their automated system and I can’t get a person,” she said. However, a representative for Chase Bank confirmed that the high amount of money was a fraud prevention method. It also explains why Yonkowski wasn't able to get the original $20 she tried to withdraw from her account. According to the bank, Yonkowski's late husband was also named on the joint account and the bank requires proper documentation to release the account to a sole individual.

Money & Banking

What has happened to the $1.6 billion donated to restore Notre Dame

<div class="post_body_wrapper"> <div class="post_body"> <div class="body_text "> It seems like a whole world away, but long before COVID-19, the world was brought to a standstill by the fire that gutted Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral. The fire occurred on April 15th and was all that anyone could talk about as the 850-year-old landmark and priceless artefacts were destroyed by a blaze that ripped through the cathedral. It motivated some of the world’s richest people into action, and within days, 1.6 billion had been pledged by France’s wealthiest individuals and corporations to restore the Roman Catholic cathedral. However, many are curious as to whether or not they will pay up. Six months after the fire, only some of the money from wealthy donors materialised. Early work to repair the building replied on $59 billion in smaller donations from individuals and businesses. As the first anniversary of the fire approaches, where are the billions for the Notre Dame? <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/B97A_xlhZ7w/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B97A_xlhZ7w/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris (@notredamedeparis)</a> on Mar 19, 2020 at 9:35am PDT </div> </blockquote> This week, the Foundation Notre Dame, which is the largest of the four official charities overseeing the repairs, said that all of the donor pledges have come through. "I can confirm that all the companies that committed to pay money for the restoration of the cathedral to the Notre Dame Foundation have either already paid it in full or have contracted to pay it as and when needs," the foundation's funding director Jean-Michel Mangeot said to <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.businessinsider.sg/notre-dame-fire-one-year-reparations-billionaire-donations-progress-2020-3" target="_blank">Business Insider</a>. The other three charities raising money have not revealed the status of the pledges they have received. The future of the cathedral remains unclear due to the coronavirus pandemic delaying vital work, with 500 tonnes of melted metal lattice on the roof of the weakened building threatening to come down at any minute. It is not currently known when workers are able to start repairing the cathedral. </div> </div> </div>

International Travel

Billions are pouring into mobility technology – will the transport revolution live up to the hype?

Over the past decade almost <a href="https://files.pitchbook.com/website/files/pdf/PitchBook_Q4_2019_Emerging_Tech_Research_Mobility_Tech_Executive_Summary.pdf">US$200 billion</a> has been invested globally in mobility technology that promises to improve our ability to get around. More than US$33 billion was invested last year alone. Another measure of interest in this area is the <a href="https://travelandmobility.tech/lists/unicorns/">number of unicorns</a>, which has doubled in the past two years. A unicorn is a privately held startup company valued at US$1 billion or more. In early 2018 there were 22 travel and mobility unicorns. By last month the number had grown to 44. The top categories in the mobility area are: ride hailing, with 11 unicorns (25.0%); autonomous vehicles, with ten (22.7%); and micromobility, with three (6.8%). The remaining 20 unicorns are in the travel category (hotels, bookings and so on). Mobility technology is more than just autonomous vehicles, ride hailing and e-scooters and e-bikes. It also includes: electrification (electric vehicles, charging/batteries); fleet management and connectivity (connectivity, data management, cybersecurity, parking, fleet management); auto commerce (car sharing); transportation logistics (freight, last-mile delivery); and urban air mobility. Promised solutions, emerging problems Much of the interest in mobility technology is coming from individuals outside the transport arena. Startups are attracting investors by claiming their technology will solve many of our transport problems. Micromobility companies believe their e-scooters and e-bikes will solve the “<a href="https://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/9780784413210.007">first-mile last-mile</a>” problem by enabling people to move quickly and easily between their homes or workplaces and a bus or rail station. While this might work in theory, it depends on having <a href="https://theconversation.com/fork-in-the-road-as-danish-and-dutch-style-cycle-routes-spread-19744">safe and segregated bicycle networks</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/people-love-the-idea-of-20-minute-neighbourhoods-so-why-isnt-it-top-of-the-agenda-131193">frequent and widely accessible public transport</a> services. Ride-hailing services might relieve people of the need to own a car. But <a href="https://www.som.com/ideas/publications/som_thinkers_the_future_of_transportation">there is evidence</a> to suggest these services are <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ride-hail-utopia-that-got-stuck-in-traffic-11581742802">adding to traffic congestion</a>. That’s because, unlike taxis, more of their time on the road involves travelling without any passengers. Navigation tools (Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze) have <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Maps">been around longer</a> than most other mobility technologies and are meant make it easier to find the least-congested route for any given trip. However, <a href="https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~theophile/docs/publications/Cabannes_19_ACM.pdf">research</a> suggests these tools might not be working as intended. The <a href="https://www.som.com/ideas/publications/som_thinkers_the_future_of_transportation">backlash</a> against them is growing in some cities because traffic is being directed onto neighbourhood streets rather than arterial roads. Autonomous vehicles have the goal of reducing injuries and deaths from car crashes. Only a few years ago many bold predictions were being made that these self-driving vehicles would be having positive impacts by now, but this hasn’t happened. The enthusiasm for autonomous vehicles has cooled. <a href="https://www.vtpi.org/avip.pdf">Some now believe</a> we won’t see many of the social benefits for decades. The final mobility tech area is known as mobility as a service (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobility_as_a_service">MAAS</a>). It’s basically a platform designed to make better use of existing infrastructure and transport modes. MAAS begins with a journey planner that is linked to one-stop payment for a range of mobility services – ride-hailing, e-scooters, e-bikes, taxis, public transport, and so on. MAAS is the newest entrant in the mobility tech field. It has attracted US$6.8 billion to date, but is expected to grow to <a href="https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/mobility-as-a-service-market-78519888.html">over US$100 billion by 2030</a>. This idea is creating great enthusiasm, not only among private entrepreneurs, but also in the public sector. It’s too early to know whether it will improve transportation. 3 trends are driving investment So, why do venture capitalists <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnfrazer1/2019/03/11/new-mobility-worth-billions-venture-capital-thinks-so/#198cda2247d8">continue to show so much interest</a> in mobility technology startups despite poor company performance to date? It appears they believe personal mobility will become increasingly important. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnfrazer1/2019/03/11/new-mobility-worth-billions-venture-capital-thinks-so/#198cda2247d8">Three trends</a>support this belief. First, urban dwellers increasingly value the ability to move around easily. It’s thought to be a key ingredient for a liveable city. The problem is public transport is often not very good, particularly in the US and in outer suburbs in Australia. This is due to historically low funding relative to roads. The prospect of more funding and better public transport services in the future is not good. In part that’s because many <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/8/10/9118199/public-transportation-subway-buses">view public transport as welfare</a> and not an essential public service. Thus, if cities want to become more liveable and competitive, they must look beyond government-funded public transport for other mobility alternatives. The second trend is declining vehicle ownership. Since 1986 US sales of car and light trucks per capita have dropped by <a href="https://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/2020/02/04/vehicle-sales-per-capita-our-latest-look-at-the-long-term-trendh">almost 30%</a>. In Australia, new car sales <a href="https://www.budgetdirect.com.au/car-insurance/research/australian-car-sales-statistics.html">remained relatively constant</a> over the past decade, but a <a href="http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/7982-new-vehicle-purchase-intention-march-2019-201905240039">decline since 2017 is expected to continue</a>. These trends are due in part to the cost of owning a vehicle, but also because of a growing view that owning a car may not be necessary. This brings us to the third trend, which involves demographics and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/delay-in-getting-driving-licences-opens-door-to-more-sustainable-travel-57430">post-millennial desire for access to mobility</a> services <a href="https://theconversation.com/car-ownership-is-likely-to-become-a-thing-of-the-past-and-so-could-public-transport-110550">rather than vehicle ownership</a>. These trends, combined with expectations of an upward trend in prices of these services, suggests there may be good times ahead for ride-hailing and micromobility companies. It also means venture capital funding for these startups will not be diminishing in the near future. The future of transport isn’t simple Transport systems are multifaceted. No one single app or technology will solve the challenges. And, as we are discovering, some of the purported solutions to problems might actually be making the situation worse. If the goal is to get people out of their cars (for <a href="https://theconversation.com/designing-suburbs-to-cut-car-use-closes-gaps-in-health-and-wealth-83961">better health and quality of life and a better environment</a>), this will require more than a technology. Better infrastructure and public policies (including better integration of land uses and transport to reduce the need for transport) will be required – <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-charts-on-why-congestion-charging-is-fairer-than-you-might-think-124894">congestion pricing</a>being one of those. That is not to say technological innovations are not welcome as part of the solution, but they are just that … “part” of the solution. Written by Neil G Sipe. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/billions-are-pouring-into-mobility-technology-will-the-transport-revolution-live-up-to-the-hype-131154">The Conversation.</a>

Travel Tips

He's back! Billion-dollar actor returns to the big screen after two decades

After a decades-long hiatus, Rick Moranis will be returning to acting for the live-action version of the Disney classic "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids". Moranis became one of the most in-demand comic actors of the 1980s and 1990s after blowing up on the Canadian sketch series SCTV. He went on to star in 1984’s “Ghostbusters” and its 1989 sequel, Mel Brooks’ 1987 “Star Wars” spoof “Spaceballs,” the 1978 cinematic version of the stage musical "Little Shop of Horrors", Ron Howard’s 1989 ensemble dramedy “Parenthood,” and the 1994 live-action “The Flintstones” remake. <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/B8fb5xdHrrJ/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B8fb5xdHrrJ/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by E! News (@enews)</a> on Feb 12, 2020 at 7:00pm PST </div> </blockquote> Altogether, his films have earned an incredible $1 billion at the domestic box office, not adjusting for inflation. Since 1997, however, Moranis has worked sporadically, doing voice-over work (2003’s “Brother Bear,” a 2018 episode of “The Goldbergs”) as well as a couple comedy albums, after stepping away from acting to raise his children in the wake of his wife’s death from cancer. In this, his triumphant return, the sequel to the 1989 blockbuster "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" will see Moranis return to his role as Wayne Szalinski - the bizarre and quirky scientist who accidentally shrunk his children, along with his neighbour's kids, then went on to accidentally make his toddler enormous in 1992’s "Honey, I Blew Up the Kid". He eventually came back in 1997 for the sequel "Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves!" – one of Moranis’ last major works on camera. In the new movie, "Shrunk", Josh Gad will play Szalinski’s son, who will go on to unsurprisingly shrink his family. The original director, Joe Johnston, is returning to make the sequel, with Todd Rosenberg writing the script.

Movies

App used by 1.5 billion has "crucial" flaw

A surprising flaw in the popular app WhatsApp allows hackers to crash the app by sending a simple text message. The flaw is so serious that the text can force users to reinstall WhatsApp to fix the issue and group chats impacted by the issue disappear forever. Cyber experts at security firm Check Point discovered the flaw, saying that one text can crash multiple phones in one go. “The impact of this vulnerability is potentially tremendous, since WhatsApp is the main communication service for many people,” Check Point researchers <a href="https://research.checkpoint.com/2019/breakingapp-whatsapp-crash-data-loss-bug/">explained</a>. “Thus, the bug compromises the availability of the app which is a crucial for our daily activities.” With as many as 65 billion messages being sent via WhatsApp every day, bugs in the system can impact massive numbers of people. Once you’ve received the message in a group chat, the app crashes for everyone in the chat and will require you to uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp. After the app has been reinstalled, you will be unable to return to your group chat or access the chat history. When a user sends a message inside a group chat, the app examines the data to discover who sent the message. Check Point have since created a tool that accesses this data and edits it, replacing it with a message that causes the app to crash. “The bug will crash the app and it will continue to crash even after we reopen WhatsApp, resulting in a crash loop,” Check Point explained. “Moreover, the user will not be able to return to the group, and all the data that was written and shared in the group is now gone for good. “The group cannot be restored after the crash has happened and will have to be deleted in order to stop the crash.” Naturally, WhatsApp have already fixed the bug, but you’ll need to update the app to make sure you’re safe. If the app is updated to the latest version already, it’s impossible for your phone to be attacked by this bug. <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/B4i4kG1FH5o/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B4i4kG1FH5o/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">Avoid being added to a group chat with people outside of your inner circle. 👯‍♀ Now you can have more control over who can add you to a group. To enable this setting, update to the latest version of #WhatsApp! https://blog.whatsapp.com/10000661/New-Privacy-Settings-for-Groups</a> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/whatsapp/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank"> WhatsApp</a> (@whatsapp) on Nov 6, 2019 at 5:02pm PST </div> </blockquote> “WhatsApp greatly values the work of the technology community to help us maintain strong security for our users globally,” said WhatsApp software engineer Ehren Kret in a statement sent to <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/10569563/whatsapp-bug-crash-app-reinstall-text/">The Sun</a>. “Thanks to the responsible submission from Check Point to our bug bounty program, we quickly resolved this issue for all WhatsApp apps in mid-September. “We have also recently added new controls to prevent people from being added to unwanted groups to avoid communication with untrusted parties altogether.”

Technology

Global emissions to hit 36.8 billion tonnes – beating last year’s record high

Global emissions for 2019 are predicted to hit 36.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂), setting yet another all-time record. This disturbing result means emissions have grown by 62% since international climate negotiations began in 1990 to address the problem. The figures are contained in the Global Carbon Project, which today released its <a href="https://www.globalcarbonproject.org/carbonbudget/">14th Global Carbon Budget</a>. Digging into the numbers, however, reveals a silver lining. While overall carbon emissions continue to rise, the rate of growth is about two-thirds lower than in the previous two years. Driving this slower growth is an extraordinary decline in coal emissions, particularly in the United States and Europe, and growth in renewable energy globally. A less positive component of this emissions slowdown, however, is that a lower global economic growth has contributed to it. Most concerning yet is the very robust and stable upward trends in emissions from oil and natural gas. Coal is king, but losing steam The burning of coal continues to dominate CO₂ emissions and was responsible for 40% of all fossil fuel emissions in 2018, followed by oil (34%) and natural gas (20%). However, coal emissions reached their highest levels in 2012 and have remained slightly lower since then. Emissions have been declining at an annual average of 0.5% over the past five years to 2018. In 2019, we project a further decline in global coal CO₂ emissions of around 0.9%. This decline is due to large falls of 10% in both the US and the European Union, and weak growth in China (0.8%) and India (2%). The US has announced the closure of more than 500 coal-fired power plants over the past decade, while the UK’s electricity sector has gone from 40% coal-based power in 2012 to 5% in 2018. Whether coal emissions reached a true peak in 2012 or will creep back up will depend largely on the trajectory of coal use in China and India. Despite this uncertainty, the strong upward trend from the past has been broken and is unlikely to return. Oil and natural gas grow unabated CO₂ emissions from oil and natural gas in particular have grown robustly for decades and show no signs of slowing down. In fact, while emissions growth from oil has been fairly steady over the past decade at 1.4% a year, emissions from natural gas have grown almost twice as fast at 2.4% a year, and are estimated to further accelerate to 2.6% in 2019. Natural gas is the single largest contributor to this year’s increase in global CO₂ emissions. This uptick in natural gas consumption is driven by a range of factors. New, “unconventional” methods of extracting natural gas in the US have increased production. This boom is in part replacing coal for electricity generation. In Japan, natural gas is filling the void left by nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster. In most of the rest of the world, new natural gas capacity is primarily filling new energy demand. Oil emissions, on the other hand, are largely being driven by the rapidly growing transport sector. This is increasing across land, sea and air, but is dominated by road transport. Australia’s emissions have also seen significant reductions from coal sources over the past decade, while emissions from oil and natural gas have grown rapidly and are driving the country’s overall growth in fossil CO₂ emissions. Emissions from deforestation Preliminary estimates for 2019 show that global emissions from deforestation, fires and other land-use changes reached 6 billion tonnes of CO₂ – about 0.8 billion tonnes above 2018 levels. The additional emissions largely come from elevated fire and deforestation activity in the Amazon and Southeast Asia. The accelerated loss of forests in 2019 not only leads to higher emissions, but reduces the capacity of vegetation to act as a “sink” removing CO₂ from the atmosphere. This is deeply concerning, as the world’s oceans and plants absorb about half of all CO₂ emissions from human activities. They are one of our most effective buffers against even higher CO₂ concentrations in the atmosphere, and must be safeguarded. Not all sinks can be managed by people – the open ocean sink being an example – but land-based sinks can be actively protected by preventing deforestation and degradation, and further enhanced by ecosystem restoration and reforestation. Written by Pep Canadell, Corinne Le Quéré, Glen Peters, Pierre Friedlingstein, Robbie Andrew, Rob Jackson and Vanessa Haverd. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/global-emissions-to-hit-36-8-billion-tonnes-beating-last-years-record-high-128113">The Conversation.</a>

Retirement Life

Married couple at the centre of bizarre billion-dollar drug bust

A recently married couple from Melbourne alongside an IT worker have been arrested and charged with running a customs importing business which dealt with over $1 billion worth of 1.6 tonnes of ice and heroin. It is the nation’s largest uncovered methamphetamine haul. Rachel Annette Cachia and Donovan Mark Rodrigues, both 37, have been described as “trusted insiders” in the customs industry and advised clients on the logistics of importing and exporting goods through their independently owned business. However, the couple have suffered a violent fall from grace as they may be met with life imprisonment if convicted over the seizure of 1.6 tonnes of ice and heroin found hidden inside speakers being shipped to Melbourne in April 2019. On social media, the couple showed off their lavish lifestyle, including holidays with their two young children and luxury sports cars. Alongside Ms Cachia and Mr Rodrigues is Bayside IT worker Stephen Mizzi, 38, who has also been charged after the Australian Federal Police raided properties in the Melbourne suburbs of Darley, Sunshine West, Brooklyn, Elwood and Murrumbeena. All three individuals are to face numerous charges of importing illicit drugs. Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Neil Gaughan alleged the couple were "middle to high up" in the drug operation. "We feel to a certain extent that they’ve been used," he said. "They [allegedly] used their positions of trust to circumvent the border control. It will be alleged that two of the three suspects charged are trusted industry insiders." Australian Border Forces uncovered the drugs after they asked for sea cargo sipped from Bangkok, Thailand to be inspected at a container examination facility, in April. Officers spotted “anomalies” inside the speakers after an X-ray and took them apart in result. They found numerous packages containing methamphetamine and heroin that had been vacuum-packed and stuffed inside the speakers. Court documents allege that Mr Rodrigues and Ms Cachia had begun dealing with proceeds of crime in December 2016. Then, between June 2017 and July this year, the couple allegedly began arranging the movement of goods without authorisation through ports on numerous occasions between West Melbourne and Brooklyn. By December 2018, it’s alleged that Mr Mizzi joined in on the drug operation with the plan to help ship heroin and ice to Australia. Mr Mizzi has also been additionally charged with dishonestly obtaining identification information from a mobile phone in April this year. The trio faced Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday, where lawyers said it was the first time in custody for both men and that Mr Mizzi had a "blood pressure issue". Liliana Dubroja, the lawyer representing Ms Cachia, requested a nurse assess her client due to kidney and mental health concerns. Commonwealth prosecutor Jamey Ellis said police required extra time to compile their brief of evidence due to the extensive number of phone taps. "There is a significant amount of listening device and telephone material," he said. The trio was remanded in custody to face court again on May 7. They have not applied for bail.

Money & Banking

Man awarded $12.5 billion for bizarre side effects to Johnson & Johnson medication

US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay a hefty NZ$12.5 billion in damages after they failed to warn that its drug, Risperdal, could cause bizarre breast growth in men. Nicholas Murray told a court in Philadelphia the psychiatric medication, normally prescribed to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, had made him grow breasts. His attorneys, Tom Kline and Jason Itkine, argued the drug had links to gynecomastia, an incurable condition - and accused Johnson & Johnson of making billions of dollars while illegally marketing and promoting the drug. “(Johnson & Johnson is) a corporation that valued profits over safety and profits over patients,” they said in a <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.jnj.com/our-company/johnson-johnson-statement-on-todays-risperdal-verdict" target="_blank">statement.</a> However Johnson & Johnson immediately challenged the ruling, explaining the damages as “grossly disproportionate” in a statement. “The company is confident (the ruling) will be overturned,” it said. “We will be immediately moving to set aside this excessive and unfounded verdict.” The company said the courts exclusions of key evidence left it unable to present a meaningful defence, including what they described was on the drug label that “clearly and appropriately outlined the risks associated with the medicine” or Risperdal’s benefits for patients with serious mental illness. “Further, the plaintiff’s attorneys failed to present any evidence that the plaintiff was actually harmed by the alleged conduct,” the company added. Thousands of lawsuits have been filed over the drug, including in Pennsylvania, California and Missouri. Mr Kline and Mr Itkin said this was the first time a jury had made the decision to award punitive damages and had come up with an amount. Risperdal was approved for the treatment of adults by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1993 and brought in about A$1 billion in sales in 2018.

Body

Tea drinkers at risk of ingesting billions of plastic particles

A single tea bag may leave billions of microplastic particles in your cup, a new study has found. Research published by the American Chemical Society’s journal Environmental Science & Technology discovered that one plastic tea bag released about 11.6 billion microplastic and 3.1 billion nanoplastic particles into brewing water – thousands of times higher than those previously recorded in other foods. “We were very, very surprised,” Dr Nathalie Tufenkji, a professor of chemical engineering at McGill University and co-author of the study, told <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/5948570/plastic-teabags-microplastics-in-tea/">Global News</a>. “We thought [plastic teabags] maybe release a couple of hundred [plastic] particles, maybe a few thousand. So we were really shocked when we saw they’re releasing billions of particles into a cup of tea.” The study, which analysed four different commercial teas in plastic packaging, found that the teabags shed two different types of plastic particles that are invisible to the naked eye: polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and nylon. The McGill University researchers said it is not known whether the ingestion of micro- and nanoplastics could have adverse effects on human’s health. In its first report on the health risks of plastic in tap and bottled water released last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) said microplastics “don’t appear to pose a health risk at current levels”. However, the WHO said the findings were based on “limited information” and called for more research on the matter. Researcher Laura Hernandez told <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49845940">BBC</a> shoppers should avoid plastic packaging instead of specific brands. Some tea manufacturers are moving away from paper in favour of plastic mesh to create a pyramid shape, which was claimed as helping the tea leaves infuse better. Many teabags on the market also use polypropylene as a sealant, preventing the bag from breaking in the cup. “We encourage consumers to choose loose teas that is sold without packaging or other teas that come in paper teabags,” said Hernandez. “There is really no need to package tea in plastic, which at the end of the day becomes single-use plastic, which is contributing to you not just ingesting plastic but to the environmental burden of plastic.” Last year, a study of 250 water bottles from nine different countries revealed that microplastics were found in nearly all major brands. Sherri Mason, a professor of chemistry at the State University of New York at Fredonia and the research’s leader said the study is not about “pointing fingers” at certain brands. “It’s really showing that this is everywhere, that plastic has become such a pervasive material in our society, and it’s pervading water — all of these products that we consume at a very basic level,” she told <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43388870">BBC</a>. <a href="https://wwf.panda.org/our_work/markets/?348375/Plastic-ingestion-by-humans-could-equate-to-eating-a-credit-card-a-week">A study released by the University of Newcastle</a> in June suggested that the average person consumes 5 grams of plastic every week, or about a credit card’s weight.

Food & Wine

Over 60

News

Shop

Catalogues

Travel

Health

Lifestyle

Finance

Entertainment

Property

Information

Keep up to date

Search

"There's no way": Man receives $52 billion tax bill

Property tycoon sentenced to death over $27 billion fraud

Backlash to new kids clothing line sees Target lose billions

Caught in the act: supermassive black hole 8.5 billion light years away enjoys violent stellar snack

Pumping loud music is putting more than 1 billion young people at risk of hearing loss

740,000km of fishing line and 14 billion hooks: we reveal just how much fishing gear is lost at sea each year

The world is about to hit eight billion people

Top Gun: Maverick surpasses $1 billion worldwide

Labor’s proposed $10 billion social housing fund isn’t big as it seems, but it could work

Making the tobacco industry pay for cigarette litter could stop 4.5 billion butts polluting the Australian environment

Welcome to Telosa: the $400 billion city built from scratch

"Oh my God": Woman discovers $1 billion in her bank account

What has happened to the $1.6 billion donated to restore Notre Dame

Billions are pouring into mobility technology – will the transport revolution live up to the hype?

He's back! Billion-dollar actor returns to the big screen after two decades

App used by 1.5 billion has "crucial" flaw

Global emissions to hit 36.8 billion tonnes – beating last year’s record high

Married couple at the centre of bizarre billion-dollar drug bust

Man awarded $12.5 billion for bizarre side effects to Johnson & Johnson medication

Tea drinkers at risk of ingesting billions of plastic particles

News

Shop

Catalogues

Travel

Health

Lifestyle

Finance

Entertainment

Property

Information

Keep up to date

Search

"There's no way": Man receives $52 billion tax bill

Property tycoon sentenced to death over $27 billion fraud

Backlash to new kids clothing line sees Target lose billions

Caught in the act: supermassive black hole 8.5 billion light years away enjoys violent stellar snack

Pumping loud music is putting more than 1 billion young people at risk of hearing loss

740,000km of fishing line and 14 billion hooks: we reveal just how much fishing gear is lost at sea each year

The world is about to hit eight billion people

Top Gun: Maverick surpasses $1 billion worldwide

Labor’s proposed $10 billion social housing fund isn’t big as it seems, but it could work

Making the tobacco industry pay for cigarette litter could stop 4.5 billion butts polluting the Australian environment

Welcome to Telosa: the $400 billion city built from scratch

"Oh my God": Woman discovers $1 billion in her bank account

What has happened to the $1.6 billion donated to restore Notre Dame

Billions are pouring into mobility technology – will the transport revolution live up to the hype?

He's back! Billion-dollar actor returns to the big screen after two decades

App used by 1.5 billion has "crucial" flaw

Global emissions to hit 36.8 billion tonnes – beating last year’s record high

Married couple at the centre of bizarre billion-dollar drug bust

Man awarded $12.5 billion for bizarre side effects to Johnson & Johnson medication

Tea drinkers at risk of ingesting billions of plastic particles

Join Over60