Martha Stewart partners with marijuana producer Canopy Growth to create hemp-derived goods(Source usatoday.com)

Following years of success in merchandising, Martha Stewart is tapping into a new industry: hemp-derived products. The businesswoman and television personality will be partnering with Canopy Growth, a major marijuana and hemp producer, to develop a line of CBD products.

The company is focusing on improving the lives of both humans and animals, it said Thursday. Currently, several clinical trials are underway. Stewart will be advising the company as it develops this new line, first starting with animal health products. “I am delighted to establish this partnership with Canopy Growth and share with them the knowledge I have gained after years of experience in the subject of living,” Stewart said in a statement. “I’m especially looking forward to our first collaboration together, which will offer sensible products for people’s beloved pets.”

Canopy Growth has seen steady improvement throughout 2019 in its stock performance. Starting the year trading at $28.92 per share, the company’s stock opened at $47.02 per share Thursday morning.

The company hopes to leverage Stewart’s name and expertise, Bruce Linton, Canopy Growth Chairman and co-CEO, said in statement.

“As soon as you hear the name Martha , you know exactly who we’re talking about,”  Linton said. “Martha is one of a kind and I am so excited to be able to work alongside this icon to sharpen our CBD product offerings across categories from human to animal.”

Stewart isn’t the first celebrity partner the company has tapped into. Tweed, a Canopy Growth subsidiary, partnered with Snoop Dogg in 2016. Currently, the acclaimed artist and Stewart star in a show together entitled “Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party.”

A new study shows America’s drug overdose crisis is by far the worst among wealthy countries(Source vox.com) America’s opioid epidemic has driven total drug overdose deaths to record numbers — with overdose deaths hitting 70,000 in 2017, killing more people annually than guns, car crashes, or HIV/AIDS ever have in a single year in US history. But a new study confirms the level of overdose deaths isn’t just outside historical norms for the US; it’s also far beyond the norm among wealthy nations around the world. The study, by University of Southern California researcher Jessica Ho, compared the US to 17 other wealthy nations and found that America’s level of overdose deaths has outpaced other nations for more than a decade. Illicit fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, started to supplant heroin in the black market — causing another spike in overdoses, since fentanyls are generally more potent than heroin or other traditionally consumed opioids.

By 2015, the US had the highest overdose death rate among any of the countries Ho studied — by far. The rate was 60 percent higher than in Finland and Sweden, which were once at the top among wealthy nations.

Russian choir draws criticism over performance describing nuclear attack on U.S.(Source msn.com)

The Russian Orthodox Church expressed regret over a choir performance that featured a satirical Soviet-era song describing a nuclear attack on the United States in the midst of heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow.

The Feb. 23 performance by the St. Petersburg Concert Choir at the historic St. Isaac’s Cathedral attracted widespread attention after it was posted on social media. “Choir performances are held regularly in St. Isaac’s Cathedral, and the fact that appropriate music is performed is not a problem,” the press office of the Petersburg metropolitan said on February 26, according to Radio Free Europe. “But this song performed by a fairly well-known choir, of course, is surprising. We regret that this happened in St. Petersburg, and particularly in St. Isaac’s.”

During its performance to mark Defending the Fatherland Day, the choir sang an untitled song from 1980 that described Soviet submariners and bomber pilots preparing to launch a nuclear strike at the U.S. “for three rubles.” The lyrics include the lines: “On a submarine with an atomic motor/ And with a dozen bombs of a hundred megatons / Crossed the Atlantic and I call on the gunner: / “Aim, I say, at the city of Washington!”

In a statement, the choir said it routinely performs songs as originally written and refuses to “rewrite lyrics for the sake of political correctness.” The song was performed as an encore, St. Isaac’s Cathedral said. It does not approve of the song.

After Putin’s warning, Russian TV lists nuclear targets in U.S. (Source Reuters)

Russian state television has listed U.S. military facilities that Moscow would target in the event of a nuclear strike, and said that a hypersonic missile Russia is developing would be able to hit them in less than five minutes. The targets included the Pentagon and the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland. The report was broadcast days after President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was militarily ready for a “Cuban Missile”-style crisis if the United States wanted one. With tensions rising over Russian fears that the United States might deploy intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe as a Cold War-era arms-control treaty unravels, Putin has said Russia would be forced to respond by placing hypersonic nuclear missiles on submarines near U.S. waters. The targets, which Kiselyov described as U.S. presidential or military command centers, also included Fort Ritchie, a military training center in Maryland closed in 1998, McClellan, a U.S. Air Force base in California closed in 2001, and Jim Creek, a naval communications base in Washington state.

Vatican, Microsoft team up on artificial intelligence ethics (Source Associated Press)

The Vatican says it is teaming up with Microsoft on an academic prize to promote ethics in artificial intelligence.

Pope Francis met privately on Wednesday with Microsoft President Brad Smith and the head of a Vatican scientific office that promotes Catholic Church positions on human life.

The Vatican said Smith and Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia of the Pontifical Academy for Life told Francis about the international prize for an individual who has successfully defended a dissertation on ethical issues involving artificial intelligence.

The winner will receive 6,000 euros ($6,900) and an invitation to Microsoft’s Seattle headquarters.

The Vatican says Smith discussed artificial intelligence “at the service of the common good” during the papal meeting.

The theme of the Pontifical Academy’ of Life’s s 2020 plenary assembly is AI(Artificial Intelligence).