The European Union said Thursday that it’s preparing new regulations that could force a key financial market — and potentially thousands of jobs — to move away from London once Britain leaves the bloc. The EU Commission said it will present next month new rules on the oversight of this market, the so-called clearing of euro-denominated trades. In financial markets, clearing is the business of acting as an intermediary in a trade to reduce the risks from defaults by ensuring funds are delivered to the seller. Some 75 percent of …

The call of the wild is getting harder to hear. Peaceful, natural sounds — bird songs, rushing rivers and rustling grass — are sometimes being drowned out by noise from people in many of America’s protected parks and wilderness areas, a new study finds. Scientists measured sound levels at 492 places — from city parks to remote federal wilderness. They calculated that in nearly two-thirds of the Lower 48’s parks, the noise can at times be twice the natural background level because of airplanes, cars, logging, mining and oil and …

Laura Poitras announces early in her Julian Assange documentary Risk: “This is not the film I thought I was making.” “I thought I could ignore the contradictions,” the Oscar-winning Citizenfour filmmaker says in a voiceover. “I thought they were not part of the story. I was so wrong. They are becoming the story.” Decoding “the story” when it comes to the WikiLeaks founder has never been easy. It’s evolving even now, just as Poitras’ six-years-in-the-making documentary — one made with rare access to an explosively controversial figure under ever-increasing international …

Modern agriculture is feeding more people more cheaply than ever, with large-scale farms that grow just one or a few crops. But there are risks in this way of feeding the world. A new book explores how large-scale agriculture invites large-scale attacks of pests and diseases. VOA’s Steve Baragona met the author, who is enlisting the public to try to stay ahead of the next crop plague. … From: MeNeedIt

An unusual machine working in Baltimore, with more than 20,000 followers on Facebook and Twitter, has just celebrated its third birthday. Imaginatively named “Mr. Trash Wheel,” this hybrid-powered contraption is responsible for preventing the city’s trash from reaching its inner harbor. VOA’s George Putic reports. … From: MeNeedIt

Major League Baseball is reviewing its security protocols in all 30 stadiums after Orioles outfielder Adam Jones complained of fans shouting racial slurs in Boston this week and other black players reacted by saying it’s a common reality. League officials are starting by figuring out how individual clubs handle fan issues and complaints. “We have reached out to all 30 clubs to assess what their in-ballpark announcement practices are regarding fan behavior,” MLB spokesman Pat Courtney said. “We are also reviewing text message and other fan security notification policies that …

President Michel Temer’s proposal to reform Brazil’s costly social security system cleared a committee vote Wednesday, but the measure, deeply unpopular with voters, faces an uphill battle in the full Congress. The committee voted 23-14 to approve the constitutional amendment, which would make Brazilians work longer and reduce pension benefits to plug a widening budget deficit at the root of the country’s worst recession. Temer spokesman Alexandre Parola told reporters the vote numbers showed that “Brazilian society recognizes the urgent need for reforming the social security system.” Presidential aides said, …

In a dimly lit university auditorium in the Colombian capital, not far from where the country’s largest rebel group once launched bomb attacks, Julian Conrado sings to eager-eyed students about the pain of war. “Instead of a rifle in my hands I’d like to carry a flower,” he croons, wearing wire-rimmed glasses and an olive green fedora that make him look more like a geeky dad than someone who spent over three decades as a guerrilla fighter in Latin America’s longest-running armed conflict. “Call me the singer of unity,” Conrado …