China looks at plans to ban petrol and diesel cars (Source bbcnews.com) China, the world’s biggest car market, plans to ban the production and sale of diesel and petrol cars and vans. The country’s vice minister of industry said it had started “relevant research” but that it had not yet decided when the ban would come into force. “Those measures will certainly bring profound changes for our car industry’s development,” Xin Guobin told Xinhua, China’s official news agency. China made 28 million cars last year, almost a third of the global total. Both the UK and France have already announced plans to ban new diesel and petrol vehicles by 2040, as part of efforts to reduce pollution and carbon emissions. Chinese-owned carmaker Volvo said in July that all its new car models would have an electric motor from 2019. Geely, Volvo’s Chinese owner, aims to sell one million electric cars by 2025. Other global car firms including Renault-Nissan, Ford and General Motors are all working to develop electric cars in China. Automakers are jostling for a slice of the growing Chinese market ahead of the introduction of new rules designed to fight pollution. China wants electric battery cars and plug-in hybrids to account for at least one-fifth of its vehicle sales by 2025. The proposals would require 8% of automakers’ sales to be battery electric or plug-in hybrids by next year, rising to 12% in 2020. Xin predicted the change would create “turbulent times” in the industry. The shift will also have a knock-on effect on oil demand in China. The country is currently the world’s second-largest oil consumer after the US.

Olivia Newton-John Treating Stage 4 Cancer With Husband’s Homegrown Marijuana (Source Yahoo) Olivia Newton-John Treating Stage 4 Cancer With Husband’s Homegrown Marijuana after undergoing a partial mastectomy, chemotherapy, breast reconstruction, and radiation since her 1992 breast cancer diagnosis, the 68-year-old recently stated that it was her husband John Easterling’s homegrown medical marijuana that helped her through the pain. “My husband’s a plant medicine man so he grew cannabis for me and made tinctures for me to take for pain and inflammation. Olivia previously revealed the healing ‘abilities’ of cannabis has helped her cope with the pain. She said: “I use medicinal cannabis, which is really important for pain and healing … It’s a plant that has been maligned for so long, and has so many abilities to heal. It’s an important part of treatment, and it should be available. I use it for the pain and it’s also a medicinal thing to do – the research shows it’s really helpful.”