Waching daily Oct 29 2018

The European Union (EU) and Italy are disputing which side has control over the country's

budget.

Recently, the EU ordered Italy to change its proposed budget for 2019.

The EU wants the Italian government to produce a new budget proposal in three weeks.

The EU said the Italian government's proposal breaks earlier promises the country made to

lower its public debt.

Italy's debt is the second-highest in Europe, after Greece.

EU officials worry that if Italy fails to reduce its debt, Europe could face financial

problems like those that followed Greece's financial crisis.

The Italian government says the large increase in spending is needed to help start growth

in the country's stagnant economy.

However, EU Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said, "We…request the Italian

government to revise its…budgetary plan."

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has answered, "No one will take one euro

from this budget."

The conflict shows an important problem within the EU.

Nineteen member-states share the same money, the euro.

However, each of those country's governments makes its own budget.

And the EU has been unwilling to demand that some countries reduce spending.

The EU learned that its whole economic group is threatened when just one country has serious

financial problems.

That is what happened with Greece about 10 years ago.

The Greek economy still has not fully recovered.

Italy's economy, however, is far bigger.

The EU said it had to demand a new budget after Italy proposed a budget deficit of 2.4

percent.

That means the deficit for the year would be 2.4 of the country's GDP, or gross domestic

product.

A country's GDP is the value of all goods and services produced within its border in

one year.

With its current proposal, Italy would not keep its promise to lower its total debt.

Italian public debt is over 130% of its GDP.

That is more than twice as high as the EU permits its member-nations.

EU Financial Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said Italy's budget would hurt its own people

by forcing young people to pay back its debt in the future.

The cost of paying Italian public debt is already equal to the country's education

spending of 65 billion euros a year.

"Italy must continue its effort to lower its debt because it is the enemy of the economy,"

he said.

Italy argues that spending increases growth.

The extra money was promised in the last election to nearly 400,000 older Italians whose retirements

were pushed back.

It also is meant to help the unemployed.

"We won't let you down…we will not give up," Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio wrote

on Facebook.

Di Maio and Salvini have taken a strong position against the EU demands hoping for strong popular

support.

Other officials, including the country's economy minister, have said they are willing

to have talks with the EU commission.

I'm Susan Shand.

One of the easiest ways to stop the spread of disease is to simply wash your hands.

Twenty seconds of handwashing with soap and water can reduce illnesses and save lives.

But, many people, especially children, do not have good handwashing habits.

One problem is that children do not wash their hands often enough or long enough.

Children may think that it is a tiresome thing to do.

To help solve this problem, two entrepreneurs from India created a product to turn handwashing

into a fun activity.

Amanat Anand and Shubham Issar created a device called the SoaPen.

"It's such a simple habit to do, and the fact that people aren't doing it, and it's resulting

in actual deaths -- which is shocking.

So, we decided on coming up with a fun solution."

Issar said the SoaPen is aimed at teaching kids good handwashing habits.

"SoaPen is a soap that kids can draw with.

It's a fun way to teach kids how to wash their hands."

As the name suggests, the SoaPen is a pen made out of soap.

The children draw on their hands with the soap pen and then wash it off.

If they do not spend enough time washing it off, the colors remain on the child's hands.

Issar said it ensures that children take enough time to wash their hands.

This may be especially helpful in a classroom.

Often a teacher does not have the time to ensure that each child has washed their hands

properly.

"Kids actually wash their hands for the proper amount of time because they're drawing on

their hands, and under water they have to rub really hard to remove the drawing, so

actually washing their hands instead of just going under water and, you know, one-second

wash and off."

Issar and Anand studied design together in New York City.

They created the soap after a visit home to India.

To get their product on the market, the two women applied for a spot at a business development

program in Washington, D.C. called Halcyon Incubator.

Mike Malloy is the program manager at Halycon Incubator.

He said turning a great idea into a product that can help others is not easy.

"Being an entrepreneur is really, really hard.

There is kind of an up and down rollercoaster ride.

One day things are going great; the next day things are terrible.

And if you're doing that alone, it can be really, really challenging."

Halcyon connects what it calls "social entrepreneurs" with business professionals.

These experts help the entrepreneurs sell their products.

Anand said that with this business help, they were able to do more than they would have

by themselves.

"Without an incubator like Halcyon, I don't think we would be able to make or envision

social impact as greatly as we are able to right now."

Halcyon is also helping to launch SoaPen.

Anand and Issar said their goal is to donate one SoaPen to children in poverty for every

three they sell at full price.

The product could have a real effect on public health.

The United Nations children's agency, UNICEF, reports that 1.5 million children die each

year as a result of diarrhea.

UNICEF says good handwashing could reduce that number by 40 percent.

Children may not be the only ones who need to improve their handwashing.

If you are not soaping up your hands for at least 20 seconds, you are probably not removing

all of the germs.

In celebration of World Handwashing Day, which was October 15, experts at the WHO remind

us how to wash our hands properly.

· Wet your hands with clean, running water.

Turn off the water and apply soap.

· Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap.

Be sure to lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.

· Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds.

If you do not have a timer, simply sing the song "Happy Birthday" (to yourself or

out-loud) twice.

· Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.

· Dry with a clean cloth or allow to air dry.

The CDC also reminds us that if soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand

sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.

However, these alcohol-based hand sanitizers do not kill some germs.

And often they do not remove harmful chemicals from the skin.

Also, overusing these products may increase germs' resistance to them.

So, if available, washing with soap and water is best.

I'm Anna Matteo.

European and Japanese space agencies have successfully launched a spacecraft as part

of a joint effort to study Mercury, the closest planet to the sun.

The unmanned "BepiColombo" spacecraft launched from French Guiana on October 20.

It is named after the Italian scientist Giuseppe "Bepi" Colombo.

The Ariane 5 rocket lifted it into orbit.

The spacecraft carried two probes, one developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the

other by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

The trip to Mercury will take seven years.

Scientists hope the mission will give them more information about the planet's inside

core, as well as possibly answer questions about how our solar system was formed.

ESA said the $1.5-billion mission is one of the most complex in its history.

Mercury's nearness to the sun makes it an especially difficult planet to study.

There is intense gravitational pull from the sun, as well as extreme solar radiation.

And the planet has extreme temperatures.

The BepiColombo spacecraft will have to follow an elliptical path to Mercury.

Its trip includes one "fly-by" of Earth and two of Venus.

It also will make six fly-bys of Mercury itself.

This will let it slow down before arriving at its target in December 2025.

Once it arrives there, BepiColombo will release the two probes, called Bepi and Mio.

The probes will independently investigate the surface and the magnetic field of Mercury.

The probes are made to work in extreme temperatures -- from very hot to very cold.

On the side facing the sun, the temperature is 430 degrees Celsius, but away from the

sun, it is minus 180 degrees Celsius.

ESA's Bepi probe will operate in Mercury's inner orbit.

JAXA's Mio will be in the outer orbit.

Scientists hope the data gathered will give them information on the internal structure

of the planet, its surface and physical development.

The scientists are building on the knowledge gained by the American space agency NASA's

Messenger probe.

It ended its mission in 2015 after a four-year orbit of Mercury.

The only other spacecraft to visit Mercury was NASA's Mariner 10, which flew past the

planet in the mid-1970s.

Mercury is not much bigger than Earth's moon.

It has a huge iron core, about which little is known.

Guiseppe "Bepi" Colombo was an Italian professor, mathematician and engineer.

Some call him the "Grandfather of the Fly-By" because his research helped in the exploration

of Mercury, Saturn and Halley's Comet.

It is the second recent cooperation between the Europeans and the Japan Aerospace Exploration

Agency.

JAXA's Hayabusa2 probe dropped a German-French space vehicle on the asteroid Ryugu earlier

this month.

I'm Anne Ball.

Some Catholic women are calling to remove the barriers that prevent them from reaching

the highest positions in their church's leadership.

They say women should be able to vote in major policy meetings.

They want Pope Francis to act on his promise to put more women in leadership positions

within his administration, known as the Holy See.

And some women want to become priests.

"Knock, knock!

Who's there?

More than half the Church!" a group of Catholic women shouted outside the Vatican on October

3.

That was the first day of this year's meeting, or synod, of bishops from around the world.

The meeting brings together some 300 bishops, priests, nuns and other members of the church.

Only about 35 are women.

Not surprisingly, the position of women in the Catholic Church has been a major issue

at the month-long meeting.

The subject has come up in speeches on the floor, in small group discussions and at news

conferences.

Only "synod fathers" are permitted to vote on the meeting's final policy suggestions.

The suggestions are then sent to the pope, who will take them into consideration when

he writes his own document.

Others involved are non-voting observers or experts.

Some of the attendees have pointed to what they say is a problem with these rules.

For example, this year two men who are not officially priests are being permitted to

vote as leaders of their religious orders.

But Sister Sally Marie Hodgdon is the leader of her religious order, and she cannot vote.

"I am a superior general," Hodgdon told reporters.

"I am a sister.

So in theory … you would think I would have the right to vote."

The membership of female religious orders is about three times larger than that of male

orders.

An internet-based petition demanding that women have the right to vote at synods has

collected 9,000 signatures since the start of this meeting.

It is supported by 10 Catholic organizations seeking change in the Church.

These changes include greater rights for women and homosexuals and greater responsibilities

for non-priests.

"If male religious superiors who are not ordained can vote, then women religious superiors

who are also not ordained should vote.

With no … doctrinal barrier, the only barrier is the biological sex of the religious superior,"

the petition reads.

The effort has won some powerful supporters.

At a news conference on October 15, leaders of three major male religious orders expressed

support for changes in synod rules.

Leaders of the Jesuits, the Dominicans and one branch of the Franciscans asked that women

be permitted to vote in the future.

Support also came from Cardinal Reinhard Marx.

He is the archbishop of Munich, president of the German Bishops Conference and one of

the most influential Catholic leaders in Europe.

In a speech to the synod, Marx said the church's leaders must answer the questions young people

have about equal rights for women.

"The impression that the Church, when it comes to power, is ultimately a male Church

must be overcome in the universal Church and also here in the Vatican," he said.

"It is high time."

Five years ago, Pope Francis promised to put more women in leadership in his administration

and Vatican City.

Women are eligible for top positions in 50 departments, but only six hold such roles.

None leads a department.

In June, Francis told the Reuters news service he had to "fight" resistance within the

church to appoint 42-year-old Spanish reporter Paloma Garcia-Ovejero.

He made her deputy head of the Vatican's press office.

But the pope's critics say he is moving too slowly.

Sister Maria Luisa Berzosa Gonzalez is taking part in the current synod.

She thinks it is time for change -- in the synod, and in the wider Church.

The 75-year old Spanish nun has spent her life educating the poor in Spain, Argentina

and Italy.

"With this structure in the synod, with few women, few young people, nothing will

change.

It should no longer be this way," she told Reuters.

The Catholic Church teaches that women cannot become priests because Jesus chose only men

to help form the religion.

But supporters of a female priesthood say Jesus was just following the rules of society

at the time.

Kate McElwee is the Rome-based executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference, a

U.S. group.

She organized the protest on the synod's opening day.

"Some women feel called by God to be priests … just as men do," said McElwee.

I'm Anna Matteo.

And I'm Pete Musto

Generations of people in the United States have seen higher education as the best path

towards a well-paying and satisfying job.

But the cost of attending colleges and universities in the country has increased greatly over

the last 30 years.

And there is no guarantee that earning a degree will lead to a job that pays a person enough

to support a family.

So some people turn to other forms of education and training.

These include programs that lead to certifications and other documentation that prove a person's

abilities in a given field, from construction to healthcare.

These kinds of programs often cost less than traditional degree programs.

And they usually take less time to complete.

Employers may still choose traditional degree-holders for top positions.

But there are still many well-paying jobs that require a specialized kind of knowledge

that certification programs provide.

New research, however, suggests that these programs are not helping women as much as

they are helping men.

In 2016, the U.S. Department of Education began collecting data on work-experience and

non-degree credential programs.

The department released the final results of its research earlier this year.

It found that about 27 percent of adults in the country hold at least one of these credentials.

Adults who had one of these non-degree credentials made more money and were more likely to be

employed than those who did not.

Yet the public policy research group New America found some troubling information within that

data.

Experts there found that men and women earn these credentials at about the same rate.

But men who have the same credentials as women are more likely to be employed.

They also make more money.

For example, 74 percent of men with a certificate but no four-year college degree were employed.

By comparison, 67 percent of women with a certificate but no four-year degree were employed.

In terms of pay, 46 percent of women with a credential but no four-year degree made

less than $30,000 a year.

The same was true for 25 percent of men, New America found.

Seventeen percent of men with only a non-degree credential earned more than $75,000.

Just five percent of women with similar credentials earned that much.

New America released its report in September.

Lul Tesfai is a leading policy expert at New America's Center on Education and Skills,

and she helped write the group's report.

She argues that these differences in employment levels and pay are due, in part, to existing

gender divisions in some industries.

The report found that some industries are either male- or female- dominated, meaning

70 percent or more of the workers are of one gender.

For example, engineering and computer security are male-dominated fields.

Office support jobs are female-dominated.

The report also found that non-degree credential holders in male-dominated fields earn more

money.

Tesfai suggests that women are more likely to enter fields that are lower paying because

of cultural influences.

She says young men are often pushed into careers that value independence, leadership skills

or even physical strength.

She says society tells young women they are responsible for supporting others instead

of working towards their own goals.

Tesfai told VOA, "It's no coincidence that some of the female-dominated occupationsare

care occupations like healthcare and education."

Karen Dove is the executive director of Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Employment for Women.

Her nonprofit organization trains and supports women entering construction, repair and other

building trades.

Dove says that in some of the better-paying, male-dominated industries, women face a workplace

culture that is not very welcoming.

She says that on many construction sites, for example, male workers share a tradition

of offensive humor and sometimes disrespectful behavior.

Sexual harassment is common.

And in several cases, male workers have sexually assaulted the female workers.

"These are things that are still happening on these construction sites," said Dove.

"Even if women enter the construction industry, they're more likely to drop outbecause of

this type of culture that exists."

Ben Williams is chief executive officer of the National Alliance for Partnerships in

Equity.

The organization supports equality in education and employment.

He says New America's findings present serious problems.

Experts and educators often push these non-degree programs as alternatives to college, he explains.

He says that experts may tell women that credential programs offer them a chance to pay less and

possibly earn more in the future.

But, if women in general are not getting the same results as men, they need to be told

that, too, Williams says.

Otherwise they may not be making the best or most informed decisions for their financial

future by choosing these programs.

"A lot of these jobs that we're talking about lead to family-sustaining wages,"

Williams said "And so if women are not accessing those occupations that lead to family-sustaining

wages, it not only affects them…It affects their family."

Williams and Tesfai agree that the first step to making sure the outcomes of these credential

programs are more equal is messaging.

Educators need to send messages to women and girls that any occupation is open to them,

not just ones where they serve the needs of others.

Dove says the efforts cannot stop there.

Both she and Williams note that employers must also do their part.

Williams argues that businesses must take note of how they may unfairly consider the

abilities of men and women when filling positions.

Dove adds that if offensive behavior is taking place on a job site, employers need to break

with tradition and remove those involved.

I'm Pete Musto.

And I'm Dorothy Gundy.