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ASA’s Jupiter-circling Spacecraft Stuck Making Long Laps

NASA’s Jupiter-circling spacecraft is stuck making long laps around the gas giant because of sticky valves.

It currently takes Juno 53 days to fly around the solar system’s biggest planet. That’s almost four times longer than the intended 14-day orbit.

After repeated delays, NASA decided late last week to scrap an engine firing that would have shortened the orbit. Officials said the maneuver is too risky because of the valve problem.

Only the second spacecraft to orbit Jupiter, Juno has been circling the planet since July.

NASA said the quality of science won’t be affected and stressed that stunning pictures of Jupiter will keep coming this way. But it will take more time to gather the data, given Juno’s longer loops. The mission will have to be extended at tens of millions of extra dollars if scientists are to collect everything under the original plan. It’s already a billion-dollar mission.

 On the plus side, according to scientists, Juno now will spend less time in Jupiter’s abrasive radiation belts.

“The decision to forego the burn is the right thing to do _ preserving a valuable asset so that Juno can continue its exciting journey of discovery,” NASA’s Thomas Zurbuchen, the science mission associate administrator, said in a statement. He added that the pictures from Juno “are nothing short of amazing.”

Juno is able to peer through Jupiter’s clouds to see what’s going on in the atmosphere. Scientists want to better understand how the planet — the fifth from our sun, with at least 67 moons — originated and evolved.

Every orbit, Juno swoops within 2,600 miles (4,200 kilometers) of Jupiter’s cloud tops. The most recently completed orbit was three weeks ago; the next close flyby will come at the end of March.

Whenever Juno’s mission does end, the spacecraft will end up diving into Jupiter’s atmosphere and burning up, meteor-style. It was launched in 2011 from Cape Canaveral.

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Arctic ‘Doomsday’ Seed Vault Receives 50,000 New Deposits

Nearly 10 years after a “doomsday” seed vault opened on an Arctic island, some 50,000 new samples from seed collections around the world have been deposited in the world’s largest repository built to safeguard against wars or natural disasters wiping out global food crops.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the world’s largest agricultural gene bank located on the Svalbard archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole, was built as a master backup to the world’s other seed banks.

 

A research center that focuses on improving agriculture in dry zones — the first to retrieve its seed collection from the vault in 2015 — on Wednesday returned some 15,000 specimens after multiplying and reconstituting them. The collections range from India to the Middle East, northern Africa and the Americas.

 

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Silicon Valley & Technology
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Constant Email, Text, Social Media Checks Lead to Stress

Nearly 90 percent of Americans say they “constantly or often” check their email, texts and social media accounts leading to increased stress, according to a report from the American Psychological Association (APA).

Those who said they checked constantly showed, on average, higher stress levels than those who checked less often.

Using a 10-point scale, where one is “little or no stress” and 10 is “a great deal of stress,” constant checkers reported a 5.3 stress level compared to 4.4 for those who were less glued to their smartphones.

Working Americans who check their work email on days off reported a stress level of 6.

“The emergence of mobile devices and social networks over the last decade has certainly changed the way Americans live and communicate on a daily basis,” said Lynn Bufka, PhD, APA’s associate executive director for practice research and policy.

“Today, almost all American adults own at least one electronic device, with many being constantly connected to them. What these individuals don’t consider is that while technology helps us in many ways, being constantly connected can have a negative impact on both their physical and mental health.”

The study found parents realized the stressful effects of constant checking on their children, with 94 percent of parents saying they try to manage their child’s usage and 58 percent reporting feeling as if their child is “attached” to their device.

Moreover, 45 percent of parents said technology is making them feel disconnected from their families, 58 percent reported being worried about “the influence of social media on their child’s physical and mental health.”

Constant checkers are also more negatively impacted by social media, the study found, citing 42 percent of constant checkers said discussing politics on social media caused them stress. That was compared with 33 percent in the “non constant checking” category.

Perhaps one of the most telling findings was that 65 percent of Americans “somewhat or strongly agree” that unplugging at times or taking a “digital detox’ is important for mental health. Only 28 percent said they actually did take breaks from technology.

“Taking a digital detox is one of the most helpful ways to manage stress related to technology use,” Bufka said. “Constant checkers could benefit from limiting their use of technology and presence on social media. Adults, and particularly parents, should strive to set a good example for children when it comes to a healthy relationship with technology.”

The survey was conducted online between Aug. 5 and 31, 2016, among 3,511 adults 18 or older living in the United States by Harris Poll on behalf of the American Psychological Association.

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Economy & business
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Influence Game: GM Bill Self-driving and Self-interested

With states seizing the initiative on shaping the future of self-driving cars, General Motors is trying to persuade lawmakers across the country to approve rules that would benefit the automaker while potentially keeping its competitors off the road.

The carmaker denies trying to freeze out other brands, but legislators in four states say GM lobbyists asked them to sponsor bills that the company’s competitors contend would do just that. The bills set a blueprint for the introduction of fully self-driving cars that are part of on-demand, ride-sharing fleets, but they must be owned by an automaker.

Competitors working on self-driving technology like Uber and Alphabet’s Waymo fear the measures could shut out their companies because they don’t manufacture cars. And some automakers that are developing autonomous cars say they could be shut out, too, because their vehicles still rely on having a driver ready to step in.

GM began by getting a bill passed last year on its home turf, in Michigan. In response to complaints from Waymo, a compromise bill was also passed to allow participation by technology companies. But Bryant Walker Smith, a leading legal expert on self-driving cars, said the compromise was poorly worded and that it’s unclear what it would do.

This year, bills similar to the Michigan law, but without the compromise language, have been introduced in at least five states: Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and Tennessee. GM lobbyists have also urged lawmakers in other states to introduce versions of the bill.

Prospects for passage of the bills are uncertain. But the state-by-state lobbying by the powerful automaker and its competitors shine light on the behind-the-scenes fight to determine how self-driving cars will operate on American roads and which companies will have the competitive edge.

With no federal regulations for self-driving cars in place, states are assuming responsibility for ensuring the benefits of the technology can be reaped without sacrificing safety. Federal regulators provided safety guidance to states and automakers last year, but stopped short of issuing binding rules. Key members of Congress say they also are exploring legislation. Eight states have self-driving car laws, and bills have been introduced in 20 states this year, according to tracking by Volvo.

General Motors’ dealerships throughout the United States, many of which have close ties to local politicians, give the giant carmaker a lobbying advantage. GM has also made campaign contributions to state lawmakers who introduced the legislation it favors.

GM supports restricting who can deploy self-driving cars because “public acceptance of the technology is going to be very critical,” said Harry Lightsey, a top GM lobbyist. “If somebody is allowed to put technology on the roads and highways that proves to be unsafe, that could have very harmful repercussions.”

The Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, which includes Ford, Lyft, Uber, Volvo and Waymo, opposes the bills, saying they “would favor one company, create an uneven playing field and deter life-saving innovations from reaching citizens in these states by precluding or severely limiting technology companies from testing or deploying fully autonomous vehicles.”

Audi and its parent company, Volkswagen, worry that the bills could exclude partially self-driving cars like the one Audi plans to introduce next year, said Brad Stertz, Audi’s government affairs director. GM hasn’t been willing to see the bills modified or to answer other companies’ concerns so far, he said.

Lightsey said lawmakers who have introduced bills are acting on their own, not at GM’s behest.

“These bills aren’t being introduced at GM’s urging,” he said.

But several lawmakers told The Associated Press that GM lobbyists asked them to introduce bills based on the Michigan law.

Illinois state Rep. Mike Zalewski, a Democrat, said he sponsored a bill after GM sought him out. State records show Zalewski has received $2,000 in GM campaign contributions. The bill’s Republican co-sponsor, state Rep. Tom Demmer, has received $2,500 from GM and the bill’s state Senate sponsor, Democrat Martin Sandoval, has received $3,500.

“I don’t make a connection between campaign contributions and policy,” Zalewski said.

Maryland state Sen. William Ferguson said he introduced a bill at GM’s urging in part because he hoped the automaker would expand its transmission facility near Baltimore, creating jobs.

The Democrat said GM lobbyists told him the company would “certainly look more favorably toward expanding in Maryland if there were a legal framework to test and develop (self-driving cars) more freely.” After the AP asked GM about the transmission facility, Ferguson sought to clarify his remarks, saying the automaker didn’t explicitly promise to expand its operations.

Several bill sponsors said they’re willing to consider changes to the measures.

Tennessee state Sen. Mark Green, a Republican, said he wants to reach a compromise. Language that has drawn objections “is there now to get people to join the discussion,” he said. Green’s political action committee has received $3,000 from GM. The bill’s Tennessee House sponsor, Republican William Lamberth II, received a $2,000 contribution from GM a month before introducing his bill.

Lamberth said the contribution had nothing to do with his decision to introduce a bill. Green, Demmer and Sandoval didn’t respond to questions from the AP about the contributions.

Some lawmakers said they didn’t introduce bills despite GM’s requests because they view the measures as anti-competitive.

“We didn’t want to pick winners and losers in the autonomous vehicle arena,” said Colorado state Rep. Faith Winter, a Democrat.

Arizona lawmakers met last month with Gov. Doug Ducey’s staff, GM, Waymo, Uber, Lyft and other companies in response to GM’s effort to get a bill introduced there, said state Sen. Bob Worsley, the Senate transportation committee chairman. While GM argued in favor of the measure, everyone else opposed it, he said.

Worsley, a Republican, called GM’s proposal “a protectionist measure for everybody in manufacturing.”

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Google to Help Publishers Find Malicious Comments on Articles

Alphabet Inc’s Google and subsidiary Jigsaw launched on Thursday a new technology to help news organizations and online platforms identify abusive comments on their websites.

The technology, called Perspective, will review comments and score them based on how similar they are to comments people said were “toxic” or likely to make them leave a conversation.

It has been tested on the New York Times and the companies hope to extend it to other news organizations such as The Guardian and The Economist as well as websites.

“News organizations want to encourage engagement and discussion around their content, but find that sorting through millions of comments to find those that are trolling or abusive takes a lot of money, labor, and time. As a result, many sites have shut down comments altogether,” Jared Cohen, President of Jigsaw, which is part of Alphabet, wrote in a blog post.

“But they tell us that isn’t the solution they want. We think technology can help.”

Perspective examined hundreds of thousands of comments that had been labelled as offensive by human reviewers to learn how to spot potentially abusive language.

CJ Adams, Jigsaw Product Manager, said the company was open to rolling out the technology to all platforms, including larger ones such as Facebook and Twitter where trolling can be a major headache.

The technology could in the future be expanded to trying to identify personal attacks or off-topic comments too, Cohen said.

Perspective will not decide what to do with comments it finds are potentially abusive; rather publishers will be able to flag them to their moderators or develop tools to help commenters understand the impact of what they are writing.

Cohen said a significant portion of abusive comments came from people who were “just having a bad day”.

The initiative against trolls follows efforts by Google and Facebook to combat fake news stories in France, Germany and the United States after they came under fire during the U.S. presidential vote when it became clear they had inadvertently fanned false news reports.

The debate surrounding fake news has led to calls from politicians for social networks to be held more liable for the content posted on their platforms.

The Perspective technology is still in its early stages and “far from perfect”, Cohen said, adding he hoped it could be rolled out for languages other than English too.

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Tech Breakthroughs Take Backseat in Upcoming Apple iPhone Launch

When Apple Inc launches its much-anticipated 10th anniversary iPhone this fall, it will offer an unwitting lesson in how much the smartphone industry it pioneered has matured.

The new iPhone is expected to include new features such as high-resolution displays, wireless charging and 3-D sensors.

Rather than representing major breakthroughs, however, most of the innovations have been available in competing phones for several years.

Apple’s relatively slow adoption of new features both reflects and reinforces the fact smartphone customers are holding onto their phones longer. Timothy Arcuri, an analyst at Cowen & Co, believes upwards of 40 percent of iPhones on the market are more than two years old, a historical high.

That is a big reason why investors have driven Apple shares to an all-time high. There is pent-up demand for a new iPhone, even if it does not offer breakthrough technologies.

It is not clear whether Apple deliberately held off on packing some of the new features into the current iPhone 7, which has been criticized for a lack of differentiation from its predecessor. Apple declined to comment on the upcoming product.

Still, the development and roll-out of the anniversary iPhone suggest Apple’s product strategy is driven less by technological innovation than by consumer upgrade cycles and Apple’s own business and marketing needs.

“When a market gets saturated, the growth is all about refresh,” said Bob O’Donnell of Technalysis Research. “This is exactly what happened to PCs. It’s exactly what happened to tablets. It’s starting to happen to smartphones.”

Apple is close-mouthed about upcoming product features, but analysts and reports from Asian component suppliers and others indicate that high-resolution displays based on OLED technology – possibly with curved edges – are likely to be part of the anniversary phone. A radical new design is not expected, according to analysts.

Some of the anticipated new technologies, notably wireless charging, remain messy. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd phones, for example, feature wireless charging but support two different sets of standards, one called Qi and the other AirFuel.

Apple recently joined the group backing Qi. But there are still at least five different groups working on wireless charging technology within Apple, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

As to 3-D sensors, there is already one hiding in the iPhone 7. The front camera features what is known as a time-of-flight sensor, which helps it autofocus and is used in numerous phones including the Blackberry, according to TechInsights, a firm that examines the chips inside tech devices.

That sensor could be upgraded to a higher-resolution version that could handle 3-D mapping for facial recognition, said Jim Morrison, vice president at TechInsights.

Some analysts also speculate the company could remove the phone’s home button, placing it and a fingerprint sensor beneath the front display glass, based on patents the company has filed.

Slow growth

Global smartphone sales were up only 2.3 percent to 1.47 billion units in 2016, according to IDC. Many carriers in the United States have stopped subsidizing phones, causing phone buyers to think harder about their next purchase.

Apple will likely make a heavy marketing push around the phone’s 10th anniversary.  “IPhone set the standard for mobile computing in its first decade and we are just getting started. The best is yet to come,” Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said in a statement Jan. 8, the date the iPhone was announced by then-CEO Steve Jobs in 2007.

In 2015, the last year it disclosed the figure, Apple spent $1.8 billion on advertising, up 50 percent from the year before and nearly four times the $467 million it spent in 2007 when it first released the iPhone.

And the company continues to excel at selling higher-priced phones. Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri attributed the most recent quarter’s record-setting 78.3 million iPhones sold to the iPhone 7 Plus, which for the first time included a new dual camera feature not found in other models.

The iPhone 7 Plus tops out at $969 with memory upgrades and a jet black finish. O’Donnell of Technalysis Research believes that with the next iPhone, Apple might even introduce a $1,000-plus ultra-premium device for the real Apple-crazed folks out there who want to stand out.”

 

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Moody’s Sticks to Initial Assessment of Trump, US Economy

Before Donald Trump won the November election, many analysts were sharply critical of his economic proposals. Some predicted big declines in financial markets, hiring slowdowns and a heightened risk of recession.

But just a little more than a month since Trump became the 45th U.S. president, U.S. stocks have enjoyed the longest winning streak in decades, hiring continues to beat expectations and consumer confidence is soaring.

Were naysayers wrong?

VOA spoke with an early critic of Trump’s economic plans, Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi, to ask him if the experts got it wrong.

Zandi’s answer was a crisp “No.”

 “If Mr. Trump got precisely what he wanted, the policy proposals that he had put forward, what would happen to economy? And the answer is, the economy would go into a deep recession.”

Zandi told VOA he stands by his initial assessment before Trump became president, saying that from a policy perspective, he has yet to deliver on his campaign promises.

“What he wanted was 11 million undocumented workers to leave the country. What he wanted was a 45 percent tariff on China, 35 percent on Mexico. What he wanted was tax cuts and government spending increases that would increase the budget deficit by $10 trillion over 10 years. So if that is what he got, that would lead to a recession. That hasn’t changed.”

Others see good signs

But others say the record run-up in stock prices reflects renewed investor optimism under Trump, much of it driven by expectations of corporate tax cuts and fewer regulations. PNC senior analyst Gus Faucher says it’s about higher profits in the short term.

“So they (investors) are expecting stronger U.S. economic growth under President Trump, both real growth — that is after inflation — but also perhaps higher inflation, and that’s going to boost profits as well,” he said. “And then also it looks like we’ll get corporate income tax cuts, so that means more profits to distribute to the shareholders so that’s good news for stock prices.”

Faucher says investors will be disappointed if Trump fails to introduce concrete proposals to boost growth, such as corporate income tax cuts or a major infrastructure jobs program, but he says, in general, the economic outlook is much better than it was just a few months ago.

Enthusiasm wanes

But enthusiasm surrounding Trump’s economic agenda may be waning.

Goldman Sachs says investor confidence may have reached its peak. And Kevin Kelly at Recon Capital Partners says markets may be close to reaching a tipping point.

“Now, it’s focusing on, OK, are we going to get deregulation or are we going to get taxes? Are things going to be weighing for a while? Is it going to be a second half of the year story? I think that’s what’s kind of seeping into the market right now.”

Some economists say Trump’s protectionist, anti-trade positions pose another risk to the larger global economy. 

Trump has turned his back on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, and he wants to renegotiate the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico. Critics of NAFTA say the North American trade deal destroyed millions of high-paying manufacturing jobs in the United States.

But Zandi of Moody’s says, “The United States is at the center of the global economy. It’s taken hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and brought them into the middle class. Think about Brazil, think about Eastern Europe, think about China and Asia. Consumers have also benefited enormously from cheaper goods. If we pull back on globalization, the world suffers and we will also suffer.”

Congress likely to back policies

Despite reports of disarray in the early days of the Trump administration, Zandi believes a Republican majority in both houses of Congress is likely to approve most of Trump’s policy proposals. 

But some economists wonder, given the Republican party’s brand of fiscal conservatism, if lawmakers approve Trumps proposed tax cuts, how is the administration going to pay for a major infrastructure jobs program, or new border agents, and of course, that giant border wall between the U.S. and Mexico?

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Moody’s Economist Sticks to His Prediction: Trump Bad for Economy

Before Donald Trump won the election, many analysts were sharply critical of his economic proposals. However, in Trump’s first month in office, U.S. stocks have hit a series of record highs and consumer confidence improved. Did analysts get it wrong? Economist Mark Zandi, an early critic of Trump’s economic plans, said it’s still too soon to tell. Mil Arcega reports.

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Silicon Valley & Technology
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At Indian Observatory, Family Records Daily Life of the Sun

In the early morning darkness, Devendran P. walks up a hill to a solar observatory in India’s southern hill town of Kodaikanal, trudging the same path his father and grandfather walked in a century-old family tradition of studying the sun.

Once inside, he pulls a rope to open shutters in the dome and positions a six-inch telescope used since 1899 to photograph the sun and preserve a daily record of its activity.

“The sun, like stars, has a lifetime of 10 billion years,” Devendran told Reuters during a recent visit to the observatory in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu. “If you want to know about any small changes, you need to have a large amount of data.”

Daily activity of the sun

The observatory run by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics has a key role in providing a continuous stream of data on the sun and its influence on Earth and surrounding space, said R. Ramesh, a professor at the institute.

“Some of the discoveries made, based on data obtained in the Kodaikanal observatory, are so fundamental to solar physics that they vastly improved techniques used at observatories even today,” Ramesh said.

The Evershed effect of gas motion in sunspots, discovered in 1909 by the then director of the observatory, John Evershed, is one such example, he added.

In the observatory library, shelves stretch to the ceiling, packed with volumes of handwritten records and thousands of film plates of the sun. Authorities have launched a project to digitize and preserve the data collected over the past century.

Devendran’s grandfather, Parthasarathy, joined the observatory in 1900, a year after it relocated from Madras, the state capital, to Kodaikanal, situated more than 2,000 meters (6,562 feet) above sea level, offering ideal weather to study the sun.

Like his father and grandfather, Devendran has no formal education in astronomy. His interest was piqued during a visit to the observatory when he was a child.

He became a fulltime sunwatcher in 1986 and says the six-inch (15-cm) telescope has never failed his family.

“It has never required any major overhaul, or change of parts, because we all take care of it,” he said.

More than three decades of observation has made him feel close to the sun, despite its distance of more than 149 million kms (93 million miles) from Earth. It’s a feeling enhanced by the devout family’s worship of the Hindu sun god Surya, he said.

“I feel more religious than other people, as I can see that there is a universal power which is controlling everything,” he said.

His 23-year-old son, Rajesh, expects to carry on the family tradition, but with one difference. He has a master’s degree in physics.

“I get amazed by what my father does here,” Rajesh said. “I think observing the sun is in my blood.” 

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Brit Awards Pay Tribute to David Bowie, George Michael

The Brit Awards recognized big international stars, including Drake and Beyonce, and a cross section of homegrown talent Wednesday, but the ceremony was overshadowed by the much-missed David Bowie and George Michael.

 

Bowie, who died in January 2016 at age 69, was crowned British male artist of the year and won British album of the year for “Blackstar,” released days before his death.

 

Bowie’s son, filmmaker Duncan Jones, accepted the best album award on behalf of his father. 

“This award is for all the kooks, and all the people who make the kooks,” Jones said. “Kooks” is the song Bowie wrote for his son when he was born.

 

As well as rewarding Bowie, the show paid tribute to one of the music industry’s many losses of 2016: George Michael, who died Christmas Day at age 53.

 

His Wham! bandmate Andrew Ridgeley said that with Michael’s death, “a supernova in a firmament of shining stars has been extinguished.”

 

Coldplay singer Chris Martin performed a moving rendition of Michael’s “A Different Corner” — dueting with a recording of Michael himself and backed by a group of violins.

Beyond the tributes

The flashy show at London’s O2 Arena opened with girl group Little Mix giving a thunderous performance of “Shout Out to My Ex,” backed by silver-painted dancers. The song went on to be named British single of the year.

 There were also performances by Bruno Mars, The 1975, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Robbie Williams and grime musician Skepta on a night where Britain’s music industry celebrated U.K. talent and a smattering of international stars.

 

Soulful chanteuse Emeli Sande was named female British artist of the year, while Manchester indie pop group The 1975 won the trophy for best British band.

 

Singer Matt Healy noted that the band, whose album “I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It” has been a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, has had the same lineup since the members were 13.

 

Politics (mostly) stay home

Few of the winners and performers took up the invitation. The closest thing to edginess at the show was provided by a pinstripe-clad Katy Perry. 

 

She performed “Chained to the Rhythm,” with its references to zombified people “living in a bubble,” accompanied by Skip Marley and a pair of giant skeletons dressed as U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May.

 

The international awards went to global stars, none of whom came to accept them. Drake was named international male solo artist, while Beyonce took the international female prize. A Tribe Called Quest took the trophy for international group.

 

Adele, who took four Grammys last week, was not up for many Brits because her album “25” was eligible last year, and won four Brits. She won this year’s Global Success award, which recognizes international sales.

 

Robbie Williams, former member of boy band Take That turned adult pop hitmaker, was given the Brits Icon award.

 

The award for British breakthrough artist went to big-voiced soul singer Rag ‘n’ Bone Man, whose song “Human” has had heavy play around the world,

 

“Oh my days,” said the singer, whose real name is Rory Graham. “I’m nearly speechless.”

 

Rag ‘n’ Bone Man beat nominees including the favored grime musician Skepta. Grime artists Stormzy and Kano were also award contenders, reflecting the growing artistic and commercial clout of the distinctly British rap genre.

More diverse lineup

The awards have been accused of failing to represent the industry’s ethnic diversity. All last year’s British nominees were white, and protesters rallied under the hashtag britssowhite.

 

Organizers responded by expanding the diversity of the voter base of 1,000 music-industry figures.

 

This year’s list was more diverse, with Sande, soul singer Michael Kiwanuka and singer-songwriter Lianne La Havas among non-white British contenders, along with the three grime performers. 

La Havas, who lost to Sande for best British female artist, said on the red carpet she was glad the London-centric sound of grime was being recognized.

 

“For me personally, when I hear grime, because I’m from London it sounds like London to me,” she said. “It does in hindsight feel a bit unusual that it was something that wasn’t promoted as much.

 

“But I also think now we’ve got some real stars happening in that genre, it makes a lot of sense now.”

 

Keith Harris, who was appointed to head a diversity task force for the British music industry, said “people feel there might actually be a breakthrough.”

 

“The question is whether this is going to be long-term or short-term,” he said. “That’s my concern.”

 

Most Brits winners are chosen by music-industry members, with several selected by public vote, including a best video category decided by social-media ballot during the broadcast. It was won, for the fourth year in a row, by One Direction.

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