Text
stringlengths 91
48.9k
| Category
stringclasses 8
values |
|---|---|
Credit...Aref Karimi/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesDec. 13, 2015With the ink barely dry on a landmark climate accord, nations now face an even more daunting challenge: how to get their industries to go along.If nothing else, analysts and experts say, the accord is a signal to businesses and investors that the era of carbon reduction has arrived.It will spur banks and investment funds to shift their loan and stock portfolios from coal and oil to the growing industries of renewable energy like wind and solar. Utilities themselves will have to reduce their reliance on coal and more aggressively adopt renewable sources of energy. Energy and technology companies will be pushed to make breakthroughs to make better and cheaper batteries that can store energy for use when it is needed. And automakers will have to develop electric cars that win broader acceptance in the marketplace.Its very hard to go backward from something like this, said Nancy Pfund, managing partner of DBL Partners, a venture capital firm that focuses on social, environmental and economic development. People are boarding this train, and its time to hop on if you want to have a thriving, 21st-century economy.Wall Street is clearly paying attention.Top executives from Bank of America, Citibank and Goldman Sachs dropped by the Paris talks or related side events, as did philanthropist business leaders like Bill Gates and Richard Branson. Chief executives of blue-chip companies like Coca-Cola, DuPont, General Mills, HP and Unilever all expressed support for an ambitious deal.On Twitter on Saturday night, BP, the British oil giant, called the Paris agreement a landmark climate change deal and pledged to be a part of the solution. In June, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Total called for a tax on carbon emissions, saying it would reduce uncertainty and help oil and gas companies figure out the future. The policy developed from these commitments will bring better market certainty to investors and open up significant opportunities, Jack Ehnes, chief executive of the California State Teachers Retirement System, said last week.But not all business representatives embraced the accord and resistance to new policies appears inevitable. The Paris climate conference delivered more of the same lots of promises and lots of issues still left unresolved, Stephen D. Eule of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in a statement, noting that the agreement is not legally binding.By any measure, the world economy has a long way to go to break away from the use of coal and oil that fueled progress since the Industrial Revolution. Globally, renewable energy sources are growing fast but they still account for about only 10 percent of total energy supply, with most of that coming from hydroelectric power, according to a new report from the research firm Sanford C. Bernstein & Company. Solar and wind account for 1.6 percent of total energy.Some energy experts said that without a multinational carbon tax or other pricing of carbon, which was not specified in the agreement, the hopes of environmentalists for a true sea change that will curb climate change remain challenged.Still, there are examples of industries changing their practices.Automakers, under intense pressure to meet strict American fuel economy standards, have hastened the trend toward smaller engines, and have increased investments in hybrid and electric vehicles.Last week, Ford Motor said it would invest $4.5 billion on 13 new electric vehicle models by 2020 even though sales of alternative-fuel models are still a fraction of the market.Were doing it for two reasons, Mark Fields, Fords chief executive, said on Friday. One is that people love electric vehicles when they try them, and secondly the regulatory requirements are hard to meet.Globally, the focus on auto emissions has never been sharper. The cheating scandal at Volkswagen has galvanized regulators around the world to test more cars and increase scrutiny of harmful emissions both in conventional cars and diesel-burning heavy trucks.Beyond the auto industry, the money is flowing. According to a recent Goldman Sachs study, the combined market size of low-carbon technologies like wind and solar power and electric and hybrid vehicles exceeded $600 billion last year, nearly equivalent to the United States defense budget.On the flip side, coal investors have been heading for the exits. Major producers like Alpha Natural Resources, squeezed by low natural gas prices as well as stiffening regulations, have filed for bankruptcy as the industry endures a painful retrenchment.Capital markets react to logic, said Mindy S. Lubber, president of Ceres, which seeks to focus investor attention on the financial risks of climate change.But the record of government and corporate actions so far remains mixed. Europe has tried to lower its carbon emissions with a cap-and-trade system that gives companies incentives to cut emissions. But special allowances, or credits, are worth far less than was hoped a decade ago, and Europe continues to depend on coal for power. Coal also remains a dominant fuel in India and across much of Southeast Asia, with little sign of change.Looming over the carbon pollution issue, though, is China. Just as it became the worlds biggest carbon emitter as its economy surged, it is moving aggressively to implement climate control measures, including plans for a national carbon trading market in 2017.The policy makers have given a very clear sign to the companies, that have already begun expanding investment in clean energy and energy efficiency, said Yu Qingchan, the climate change program coordinator at the Global Environmental Institute, a nonprofit in Beijing.Two provinces, Hubei and Guangdong, and five metropolitan areas Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Tianjin and Shenzhen already have their own pilot programs for carbon trading by large enterprises. Big companies in these areas have tended to be more positive about national limits on greenhouse gas emissions.One corporate leader in curbing emissions has been the Hubei Yihua Group, a large fertilizer producer in Hubei province, where a provincial carbon trading program has developed rapidly. Cai Zhong, the companys assistant general manager, welcomed the Paris accord.The fact that the Paris agreement on climate change was eventually agreed upon, Mr. Cai said, we believe is good news for the world and for China.Not surprisingly, among the most enthusiastic supporters have been executives of the renewable companies.Tom Werner, chief executive of SunPower, the large solar manufacturer and developer based in California, said the agreement would help open the investment taps for Africa and countries like India, where access to capital for large projects has been limited.There are so many countries participating that it opens up new markets to solar that werent that aggressive, he said. Michael Skelly, president of Clean Line Energy Partners, a Houston-based company that develops long-haul transmission lines for renewable energy, saw the accord as a pivot point for a changing industry.He pointed to the investments that the United States made during the last century in its power grid and hydroelectric power. Both have provided low-cost electricity in the ensuing decades, he said. In 2050, we will look back at the investments prompted by the Paris accords and see exactly the same phenomena. | Business |
Credit...Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The New York TimesJune 7, 2018WASHINGTON The Trump administration told a federal court on Thursday that it would no longer defend crucial provisions of the Affordable Care Act that protect consumers with pre-existing medical conditions.Under those provisions of the law, insurance companies cannot deny coverage or charge higher rates to people with pre-existing conditions.The Justice Department said the provisions were part of an unconstitutional scheme that required most Americans to carry health insurance.In a court case filed by Texas and 19 other states, the Justice Department said in a brief on Thursday that the requirement for people to have insurance the individual mandate was unconstitutional.If that argument is accepted by the federal court, it could eviscerate major parts of the Affordable Care Act that remain in place despite numerous attacks by President Trump and his administration. Insurers could again deny people coverage because of their medical condition or history.A definitive court ruling could be months away and appeals of any decision could take many more months, during which the law is likely to stay in effect.The Supreme Court upheld the individual mandate in 2012 as an exercise of the governments power to tax. But since Congress repealed the tax last year, the mandate and the laws consumer protections can no longer be justified, the Justice Department said.The mandate cannot be interpreted as a tax because it will raise no revenue as Congress has eliminated the monetary penalty, the department said in a brief filed in the Federal District Court in Fort Worth.Brad Woodhouse, the director of the Protect Our Care Campaign, an advocacy group that supports the health law, said the Justice Departments position threatened to steal coverage from millions of Americans. It is, he said, Mr. Trumps most dangerous sabotage effort yet.Even though the Justice Department is not defending crucial provisions of the law, California and 15 other states have intervened in the court proceeding, and they filed a brief on Thursday defending the law, including its consumer protections.The Justice Department said that the protections for people with pre-existing conditions were inseparable from the individual mandate and must also be struck down.But it did not go as far as Texas and the other states, which argued that all of the Affordable Care Act and the regulations issued under it were now invalid.The 2010 health care law includes many other provisions, such as the creation of health insurance marketplaces, premium subsidies for low- and moderate-income people and expansion of the Medicaid program, as well as changes in Medicare and public health services.The Justice Department did not challenge those provisions of the law. Indeed, it said, they can continue to operate without the individual mandate.By contrast, the department said, the Supreme Court held that the individual mandate was closely intertwined with the requirement for insurers to offer coverage to all consumers at the same basic prices, regardless of their health status.Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent a letter to congressional leaders on Thursday notifying them that he would not defend the constitutionality of the individual mandate or the requirement for insurers to sell insurance to all applicants at standard rates the guaranteed issue and community rating provisions.The Justice Department has a long tradition of defending statutes enacted by Congress, regardless of whether it supports the policies reflected in those laws.But, Mr. Sessions said, this is a rare case in which the Justice Department has decided not to defend certain provisions of a law, because he could not find any reasonable arguments to support the constitutionality of the provisions.Earlier on Thursday, three career lawyers at the Justice Department who had been working on the Texas case abruptly withdrew from the litigation.Brett A. Shumate, a Trump administration political appointee in the civil division of the Justice Department who has played a leading role in defending the White House in a range of lawsuits, has joined the team handling the Texas case.Even before the litigation is resolved, it could have more immediate effects on consumers wallets.The Justice Departments brief creates another cloud of uncertainty for insurers, just as theyre filing proposed rates for 2019, said Larry Levitt, a senior vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation. When insurance companies face uncertainty, they increase premiums.Xavier Becerra, the attorney general of California, said the Texas lawsuit was based on a dubious legal claim.Were leading 16 attorneys general in court to stop Texas from destroying the Affordable Care Act because the Trump administration wont defend the law of the land, Mr. Becerra said.Under the $1.5 trillion tax cut that Mr. Trump signed into law in December, the tax penalties for people who go without insurance will be eliminated next year.The individual mandate thus still exists, but it will no longer be fairly possible to describe it as a tax because it will no longer generate any revenue, the Justice Department said in its brief on Thursday. As of 2019, therefore, the individual mandate will be unconstitutional under controlling Supreme Court precedent holding that the federal government does not have the power to order people to buy health insurance.The Supreme Court said in 2012 that the individual mandate could not be upheld as an exercise of Congresss broad power to regulate commerce, but was a valid exercise of the taxing power.The Justice Departments latest position, though framed as an interpretation of federal law, is consistent with the presidents political views.We have essentially repealed Obamacare, Mr. Trump said in December as Congress finished work on the tax bill.Likewise, at a cabinet meeting in October, he said: Obamacare is finished. Its dead. Its gone. Its no longer you shouldnt even mention. Its gone. There is no such thing as Obamacare anymore.In their lawsuit, filed in February, Texas and other Republican-led states argued that the individual mandate was no longer constitutional after passage of the Republican tax bill.Once the heart of the Affordable Care Act the individual mandate is declared unconstitutional, they said, the remainder of the A.C.A. must also fall. | Politics |
Credit...Andrew Sondern/The New York TimesDec. 7, 2015A billionaire European family is on a caffeine-fueled binge to roll up the global coffee industry, with a huge bet announced Monday: a $13.9 billion acquisition of Keurig Green Mountain.The all-cash deal, offering an eye-popping premium of 78 percent, took analysts and investors by surprise. Keurig has lately had its share of challenges, facing a saturated market for its single-serving coffee brewers, sluggish sales of pods and a stalled new product.But the JAB Holding Company the investment arm of the Reimann family, heirs to the German consumer goods company, Joh. A. Benckiser GmbH is in year three of its quest to dominate the global coffee industry. Keurig, which commands a large majority of the single-serve market in the United States, was a natural next step for the Reimanns.JAB will lead an investor group to acquire Keurig for $92 a share in cash, according to a statement on Monday. The deal joins JABs collection of others, including a controlling stake in Jacobs Douwe Egberts, a coffee conglomerate that owns international brands like Bach Espresso and Bravo. It also has a controlling stake in Peets Coffee & Tea, which bought Stumptown Coffee Roasters this year, as well as Espresso House and Baresso Coffee A/S.Keurig Green Mountain represents a major step forward in the creation of our global coffee platform, said Bart Becht, the chairman of JAB in Mondays statement. Keurig Green Mountain will operate as an independent entity to ensure it will further build on its coffee and technology strength and continue to serve all its partners to the best of its abilities.Having so many coffee businesses under one umbrella could be worth the rich price paid for Keurig, said Bill Chappell, an analyst with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. He compared JABs strategy with the one successfully employed by the Brazilian-backed investment firm 3G Capital in its acquisitions of H. J. Heinz and Kraft Foods.Others compared what JAB is doing in coffee with what Anheuser-Busch InBev has done in beer.Only a group that wants to dominate the world would pay so much for such a weak player, Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan, said of the offer for Keurig.JAB is not just coffee. It owns a controlling stake in Coty, which owns brands like OPI nail polish and Adidas body care. The investment firm also holds a controlling stake in the shoe designers Jimmy Choo and Bally.ImageCredit...Evan Sung for The New York TimesStill, it is in coffee that it sees a huge opportunity. In the United States, new coffee businesses are springing up at a fast clip, and new ways of making coffee like cold brew and the Clover method are helping keep it attractive to consumers.Roasters and independent coffee owners credit Starbucks for having first hooked Americans on better coffee and then educating them on it. The average American today knows whether she likes a dark or light roast, and more and more consumers understand the difference between a single-varietal coffee and a blend.Lately, several boutique coffee businesses have been cashing in. La Colombe, for example, recently sold a stake to Hamdi Ulukaya, the founder of Chobani, who sees an opportunity to expand the brand into the consumer packaged goods space.Peets, which when JAB had acquired it in 2012 seemed like a brand in decline, has suddenly taken off the gloves, hiring an executive from PepsiCo and unabashedly taking aim at Starbucks.This year, Peets acquired control of Stumptown from TSG Consumer Partners, a private equity firm. Recently Peets bought a majority stake in Intelligentsia Coffee, another craft coffee business.Those investments can now be leveraged through Keurig, which will give Peets a platform for getting its coffee brands into the market for single-serve coffees.The deal on Monday raises the stakes for Nespresso, which has dominated the high end of the single-serve coffee business. It also changes the game for Starbucks, which originally allied with Keurig until it started its own single-serve coffee machine, Verismo. (Starbucks continues to make pods that are compatible with Keurig).Keurig needed Starbucks coffee pods for its machines too much to drop the brand. But Peets will be able to offer a wide range of coffee for use on its machines, like Caribou, Peets and Intelligentsia.Leveraging those brands as well as JABs others from outside the United States could help Keurig reverse volume declines within its pods. The company operates with a so-called razor-blade model, where it makes higher margins on the pods than the overall machines.ImageCredit...Karsten Moran for The New York TimesIn the face of declining sales and posting a disappointing outlook, Keurig needed to find new avenues for growth. The company invested $100 million on a Kold machine to make soda. The product, though, has been off to a slower start than was expected.Those weaknesses may be fixed by JAB, given its know-how in the coffee world and ability to turn the business around out of the public eye, said Phil Terpolilli, an analyst with Wedbush Securities.The Keurig deal is a boon to the companys largest shareholder, Coca-Cola, which owns about a 17 percent stake.The Coca-Cola Company is fully supportive of this transaction, Muhtar Kent, Coca-Colas chief executive, said in a statement. We look forward to working with JAB, an experienced operator with a successful track record of investing in and growing consumer companies.On the other side of the coin, David Einhorn, who has waged a four-year on-again, off-again bet against Keurig Green Mountain, disclosed in October that he had a new short on the company.Keurig Green Mountains stock price has had a roller-coaster ride. From a low of $17.49 in July 2012, it surged to $157.10 in November 2014. This year, however, the shares were down 61 percent before Mondays announcement.On Monday, the shares closed up nearly 72 percent, at $88.89.Some investors are hoping for more.Eminence Capital, a hedge fund that has a long position in Keurig Green Mountain, said in a statement that it would not be surprised to see other bids at a higher price.We are pleased that Keurig Green Mountain is realizing immediate value for its shareholders and would support a transaction at this price if a vote was brought to us as a shareholder, said Ricky Sandler of Eminence Capital in an emailed statement. That said, we believe there is significantly more value inherent in the Keurig hot and cold franchises than $92 per share.JAB is acquiring Keurig along with several firms that are already investors in Jacobs Douwe Egberts. These co-investors include Mondelez International and BDT Capital Partners.Keurig would continue operating as an independent company, with its headquarters in Waterbury, Vt.The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2016. | Business |
on techWe need control over how our data is used. Thanks to California, theres a promising new path.VideoCreditCredit...By Shuhua XiongJan. 19, 2021This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it weekdays.The U.S. government last week settled with an app that lets women track their periods over claims that it shared its users health information with Google and Facebook. A photo-storage app also settled claims that it used peoples images to build a facial recognition system.These app makers got in trouble not because what they did seemed creepy but because they werent upfront about it.In the United States, as long as companies dont mislead their customers, there arent many legal limits on what they can do with our private information.Thats not great, is it? But California has a relatively new data privacy law that while awkward and flawed is starting to show intriguing ways to empower Americans to limit how our data can be used.Last week, the Federal Trade Commission said that the womens app, Flo Health, broke its promise to its users to keep their information private when it shared sensitive data including womens pregnancy status with other companies.According to the terms of the settlement, Flo is now required to obtain peoples consent before it shares their health information. (Flo didnt admit it did anything wrong. The company said that it doesnt share users health data without permission.)People should be able to choose which companies to trust with our personal information as long as theyre honest about what theyre doing. However, its often an all-or-nothing, confusing choice: Either say yes to a vaguely worded privacy document, or dont use the website or app at all.And it feels bizarre to me that if Flo just releases a new privacy policy, it then can share womens intimate information. But thats mostly how it works in the United States. Companies can do pretty much whatever they want concerning their users data if they first outline their actions in a privacy policy.The California Consumer Privacy Act, which went into effect a year ago, is starting to chart a promising alternative path.Under the law, state residents and in some cases, all Americans can demand that large companies show people what data they have about you and whom theyve shared it with. People can also instruct the companies to delete and not sell the data they have about you. (There isnt agreement on the legal definition of selling.)The law isnt perfect, and its complicated. People must go to each organization that might have their data to delete or restrict what it can do with it.But the California law also envisioned the possibility of authorized agents that would exercise data rights on our behalf. Instead of you filling out 100 forms to ask 100 companies to delete your data, you would pick a privacy assistant to do it for you. Consumer Reports last month started offering to be a privacy assistant as a test project.The most intriguing idea is that the privacy assistant might just be a web browser where you check a box once and each site you visit then gets an automated notice to prohibit the personal information collected there from being shared or sold. Think of it as a version of the telemarketer Do Not Call list.So far, a few websites have started to add this privacy agent feature. (The New York Times is among the organizations involved, both helping to develop the browser specifications and agreeing to implement peoples choices.) If California determines that this kind of privacy agent is legally binding, I expect this project to expand.These privacy ideas are just getting off the ground. But Im intrigued by the possibility of giving Americans real power over our digital lives.Tip of the WeekTroubleshooting your stupid (GAHHHH!) printerMany Americans working from home during the pandemic bought printers and with that often came cursing and screaming. Brian X. Chen, the New York Times personal technology columnist, is here to help:Printers are probably the worst technology product ever made. My first job out of college involved reviewing printers for a small tech magazine. So I know more than I ever wanted to about the machines. Here are some common problems and solutions:My wireless printing stopped working: Last week you printed that Amazon return label over your Wi-Fi network. Today you cant. Why?Occasionally, printers go into sleep mode and disconnect from your internet network. Sometimes, restarting the printer gets it going again.Another possibility is that the printer changed its IP address the identifying number assigned to each internet-connected device and now your computer cant find it. You can fix this by going into the advanced settings of your internet router and setting a static IP address for the printer. (Do a Google search for the make and model of your router and instructions on setting a static IP.)I get an error when I try to print: This is common and maddening. Often the problem is outdated software. Do a web search on your printer model to look for what are called new drivers or firmware updates and follow the instructions to update the software.I run out of ink too quickly: This can happen if you bought an off-brand ink cartridge. If this becomes a recurring problem, try switching to a different brand preferably the ink cartridge made by the printers manufacturer.Another possibility is that the printer software is misfiring and the printer mistakenly states that its out of ink. Again, a firmware or driver update might help.Lastly, remember the golden rule of printers: When in doubt, reboot your printer and the device youre trying to print from. That sometimes makes the issues go away.Before we go More on a possible smoking gun in the Google antitrust lawsuit: One of the intriguing claims in a government antitrust lawsuit against Google is that the company and Facebook teamed up to help their businesses at the expense of everyone elses. New reporting by my colleagues Dai Wakabayashi and Tiffany Hsu found that Google gave Facebook preferential treatment in computerized advertising auctions and that the two companies worried they might be investigated for reducing competition as a result.Saying youre doing something is not the same as doing it: Facebook has said that it stopped automatically recommending people join the kinds of partisan political or social groups that sometimes steer people to extreme ideas. An analysis of some Facebook users news feeds by the Markup found the site did not actually stop those automatic recommendations.Its an opportune time to wallow in nostalgia: On eBay, you can indulge in a childhood love of Sassy magazine.Hugs to thisTwo groups of penguins one going to the water and the other coming back stop for a chat. (OK, I dont know if theyre chatting. Indulge my imagination.)We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else youd like us to explore. You can reach us at [email protected] you dont already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here. | Tech |
News ANALYSISIts not clear whether three doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will adequately protect young children. But the F.D.A. may authorize the first two doses anyway.Credit...Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Chicago Sun-Times, via Associated PressPublished Feb. 9, 2022Updated Feb. 12, 2022The Food and Drug Administrations upcoming review of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for young children is without precedent in recent history.Next week, scientific advisers to the agency will decide whether to endorse two doses of the vaccine for children 6 months through 4 years of age, before clinical trials have shown the full course three doses to be effective. Such an authorization would be a first for the agency, many experts say.In fact, interim results from the trial suggested that two doses of the vaccine did not produce a strong immune response in children aged 2 through 4. Results from trials of the third dose are expected in a few weeks.The companies applied for authorization at the urging of the F.D.A., also highly unusual. The fast-moving pandemic has forced federal health officials to make important decisions with limited data before, and they argue that its important to begin vaccinating young children now, before a new, potentially more dangerous variant arrives.But the agencys review of incomplete data as a basis for authorization has alarmed some experts.Weve never done that before, thats what gives me some pause, said Dr. Gregory Poland, founder and director of the Mayo Vaccine Research Group in Minnesota, and editor in chief of the journal Vaccine. I dont like that there isnt more data.The third dose is likely to build up immunity in young children, Dr. Poland and several other experts said, but it is not guaranteed to do so. With the ebbing of the Omicron surge, many scientists feel the agency could afford to wait for results on the third shots, which are expected in just a few weeks.Authorizing a vaccine before that may undermine the publics trust in the regulatory process, and deter parents who are already anxious about immunizing their children, they warn. What if the third dose simply doesnt work, and millions of parents have already given their children the first two doses?Although children generally do not become seriously ill when infected with the coronavirus, more of them have been hospitalized during the Omicron surge than at any other point in the pandemic. But multiple studies have shown that children who are hospitalized with Covid tend to have conditions that predispose them to severe illness, including diabetes, chronic lung disease or heart problems.Instead of authorizing the vaccine for all 18 million children aged 6 months to 4, the agency might consider recommending it only for children at high risk until more evidence becomes available, some experts said.Still, the spate of infections during the Omicron surge has left some parents eager for a vaccine.On one side, parents are desperate to get their kids protected. On another side, there is extreme distrust, said Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at Emory University in Atlanta. The whole process will need to be approached with care and a lot of transparency.Scientific advisers to the F.D.A. will meet on Feb. 15 to weigh the current data, which will be released on Friday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could recommend the two-dose regimen for the youngest children shortly after that.The Biden administration has promised to respect the recommendations of the advisers. Please know that the F.D.A. will not cut any corners in their review process, Dr. Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general, told reporters last week. They know that they are the gold standard that all of us rely on.As with the booster recommendations for all adults, the push to immunize children is part of the administrations plan for the future, according to two federal officials familiar with the discussions: Omicron may be on its way out, but children should be protected before the next variant arrives.We are also concerned by the notable increase in reports of children experiencing Covid-19 long haul symptoms, including in some cases children developing autoimmune diseases and Type 1 diabetes after having had Covid-19, Stephanie Caccomo, a spokeswoman for the F.D.A., said.ImageCredit...Taylor Glascock for The New York TimesEven if vaccination of young children begins in April, it will be summer before they have had three doses, noted Dr. Diego Hijano, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, and an investigator for the Pfizer-BioNTech trial. For sure, by summer we may have a variant of concern thats spreading around.But other researchers said preparing for the future was not a compelling enough reason to get ahead of the third-dose clinical trial. The risk-benefit calculus for young children now is very different from that of adults at the start of the pandemic, Dr. Poland said.When were making these considerations for kids, were not making it in the smoke and fog and chaos of war, he said.I would, as a vaccinologist, just have to sit and think about it a little bit, Dr. Poland added of the F.D.A.s decision. I can just guess that that puzzling is going to take a lot longer for the majority of Americas parents.Authorization of a two-dose regimen before it is certain the third dose will cinch immunity is likely to encourage some parents to get their children the first two doses in hopes it will put them on the road to protection against the virus; others will want to wait until all the data are available.Evaluation of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has proceeded in stages. First came the large trials of adults that delivered an efficacy of 95 percent, laying the groundwork for the vaccines swift authorization for Americans aged 16 and older.The companies then tested the vaccine in children aged 5 to 11, but opted for a 10-microgram dose, a third of the dose for adults. In the youngest children, the companies tested three doses 3, 10 and 30 micrograms and chose the lowest dose because it seemed to be safe and yet strong enough to fend off the virus.Unlike the adult trials, the pediatric groups were too small to gauge efficacy by comparing the rate of infections in those who got the vaccine versus just saline water. The F.D.A. instead set antibody levels in people aged 16 to 25 as the benchmark the vaccine must meet in these children.This method, called immunobridging, is commonly used; it was the basis for the vaccines authorization in adolescents.As of Jan. 20, the trial had enrolled 1,570 children aged 6 months to 2 years, and 2,328 children aged 2 to 4, according to Pfizer. Roughly twice as many children in each group got the vaccine as received the placebo.In results Pfizer-BioNTech announced in December, children aged 2 to 4 did not produce as many antibodies as adolescents and young adults meaning that the trial did not meet the bar the F.D.A. had set. The investigators decided to test a third dose in all the children.But as the trial continued through December, some children became infected with the Omicron variant, giving the companies insight into the vaccines performance in the real world, according to a federal official familiar with the data who spoke on the condition of anonymity.Those numbers suggest an efficacy of about 57 percent in children aged 2 to 4, the official said. But there were only about 50 infections in the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups combined, so the margins of error are most likely wide. The F.D.A. set 30 percent as the lower bound for efficacy in its criteria.If the numbers are small, the lower bound may not be above the 30 percent threshold that was used for the adult trials, Dr. Dean said.More data in support of a third dose may soon be available. Barring any unusual situations, I think well be finished with the three-dose study by March, said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, an infectious diseases physician who oversees the trial at Stanford University.She and other scientists believe the third dose will work that it will augment the immune response in these children.But what would happen in the unlikely scenario that it doesnt is unclear, said Florian Krammer, an immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. I think the approach is messy.If the third dose fails, the companies may need to add a fourth or even fifth dose to the regimen as is the case for the five-dose diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine to create a strong enough response.The vaccine makers could have tested two doses of 10 micrograms, the amount given to older children. But in the safety testing, that dose produced fevers in about one in five children aged 2 to 4, according to a federal official who is familiar with the data.Although that rate is comparable to the rate observed in adolescents and young adults after the second dose, fevers in children younger than age 5 are much more concerning.Young children with high fevers often end up in emergency rooms, and the visits may entail antibiotics, invasive tests and hospitalizations, Dr. Maldonado said. Conversely, parents may mistakenly attribute a fever to the vaccine when it may be caused by something else that warrants medical attention.You dont want it for any age group, but especially not the little ones, Dr. Maldonado said of a vaccine that produces high fevers. If you extrapolate that to every under-5-year-old, thats a lot of fevers.The vaccine has been safe in other age groups and even the rare risk of heart problems in adolescents is unlikely in prepubescent children. Still, vaccine hesitancy is running strong among parents of younger children.The F.D.A. authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children 5 to 11 in October. But only about one in five of the 28 million children in that age group has received two shots of the vaccine, according to C.D.C. data.The agency is under fire for approving an unproven Alzheimers drug called Aduhelm. A vaccine for the youngest children is likely to be even more fraught, and any regulatory missteps could be used to discredit the vaccines, said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.Evaluating the vaccine now advances the authorization only by a few weeks, she noted.Isnt it worth taking the time to make sure regulatory decisions are strongly supported with data, she said, given the potential long-term stakes for vaccine confidence and uptake? | Health |
TrilobitesCredit...Larry AtkinsMarch 10, 2016When a fireball whizzed over Florida on Jan. 24, more than a hundred witnesses reported spotting the flare on the American Meteor Societys website. Within a week, Mike Hankey, an amateur meteorite hunter based nearly a thousand miles away near Baltimore, was holding a muddy chunk of the space rock he found near a swamp.With A.M.S. we are connecting the sky to the ground, Mr. Hankey, 43, said, referring to the fireball tracker he manages for the American Meteor Society, a nonprofit organization that monitors fireballs and meteor showers, when hes not running a software development business. People are seeing this object in the sky and then a few weeks later they are holding it in their hands.Since last October, citizen scientists like Mr. Hankey have uncovered fragments from at least three different fireball sightings using data collected and analyzed by the society. For his Florida hunt Mr. Hankey reconstructed the trajectory of the fireball from the eyewitness reports and then compared it with Doppler radar readings he received from a colleague at NASA. Doppler radar are normally used to measure rain clouds and weather patterns but on occasion they catch a meteors path through the sky. Using both tools, Mr. Hankey pinpointed where the fireballs fragments could have fallen.ImageCredit...American Meteor Society and Rob MatsonA fireball, if you dont know, is a bright meteor that streaks through Earths atmosphere, usually breaking apart and scattering into small pieces. Most chunks that land on Earth are small, weighing a few pounds at the most. But on occasion they can be large and destructive, like the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013, and was captured on multiple dashcam videos. The fireball that flew over Florida did not cause any damage, but it too was caught on a dashcam.ImageCredit...Erick WilliamsWith the newly drawn treasure map, Mr. Hankey embarked on a 13-hour drive to Jacksonville, Fla., in search of a bounty billions of years old.Once there he met with a few other amateur meteorite hunters and they began searching a large ranch near the maps metaphorical X, but found nothing. On the second day they set their sights on some swamps near Osceola National Forest.ImageCredit...American Meteor SocietyThe team walked through muddy trails, but again found nothing. Then, as Mr. Hankey paused for a stretch, he spotted a glimmering black rock, about the size of a thumbnail, amid the dried out grass. The team scored its first meteorite.Its a neat rush, Mr. Hankey said. He had been on five hunts previously, but had not found one himself. Its been traveling for hundreds of millions of miles for billions of years and came down in this giant explosion, and Im the first person to look at it and find it.Two hours later the hunters made their second find about a half a mile away, and the next day they found a few more.They had hit the jackpot he recalled thinking. There are meteorites everywhere around here.After several days he drove back home. Some of his colleagues stayed behind another week and unearthed their biggest treasure: an 840-gram fragment about the size of a tennis ball. In total the team found six meteorites.ImageCredit...Mike HankeyThe team mailed samples from the hunt to Alan Rubin, a geophysicist at U.C.L.A. who later confirmed their finds. Dr. Rubin said in an email that he suspected the meteorite they recovered experienced several intense collisions before breaking from its parent asteroid and plummeting to Earth. The teams finds were only the sixth time that meteorite chunks were found in Florida, according to Mr. Hankey. It was also the first time that a team of meteorite hunters had recovered fragments in the state from a fireball that people had witnessed. Most of the previous meteorites found in the state had been dug up years after they fell.Reached by phone in Pittsburgh last month, where he was conducting yet another hunt, Mr. Hankey said: For me to find a meteorite from a fireball I tracked, and find it meters away from where I said it would be its supreme validation, to be like, Wow, I connected all these dots. | science |
Credit...Tamir Kalifa for The New York TimesJune 25, 2018WASHINGTON President Trump said on Twitter this weekend that undocumented immigrants were invaders who must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, be sent home. Mr. Trumps comments prompted criticism that he wanted the United States to strip immigrants and asylum seekers of due-process rights. He also appeared to ignore the fact that some people who enter the country illegally are already removed from the United States without court hearings.Here is what you need to know about how due process is applied in cases of illegal immigration:What is due process?Generally speaking, the Supreme Court says that due process allows people to exercise the legal rights and court processes afforded to them by American law, and it allows them to contest an action proposed by the government in front of a neutral decision maker, like a judge.Do undocumented immigrants have a right to due process?Yes. Courts have consistently held that anyone on United States soil is protected by the Constitutions right to due process, even if they illegally entered the country, though people generally have greater legal protections inside the country than at the border.How much process is deemed to be due depends on the situation. Courts have upheld that people who entered the United States illegally and were ordered deported have a right to appeal those decisions. But the courts have also essentially said that Congress can decide that more limited procedures are sufficient for noncitizens detained at the border.What kind of due process do undocumented immigrants get?Immigrants ordered to leave the country can fight deportation through civil proceedings involving immigration courts and judges overseen by the Justice Department. They can present testimony and evidence before an immigration judge, akin to a trial. They can be represented by a lawyer and can appeal unfavorable decisions to the Board of Immigration Appeals, an arm of the Justice Department.Even if immigrants are ordered deported by the immigration appeals board, they can challenge those rulings again in front of a federal court. The process can take months or even years, especially because there is a significant backlog of such cases.Can the government bypass that process?Yes. A 1996 statute permits immigration authorities to deport people without a hearing, a lawyer or a right of appeal under certain conditions, a process known as expedited removal. Under current policy, the Department of Homeland Security criteria for expedited removals apply to undocumented migrants found within 100 miles of the border and within 14 days of entering the country. The statute imposes no geographic limit and allows for expedited removals up to two years after a migrant has entered the country, raising the possibility that the Trump administration may use this power more aggressively.Can a new immigrant avoid expedited removal?Yes, by seeking asylum. When that happens, officers at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services not a judge will review cases to decide whether applicants have a credible fear of persecution back home. If so, they are placed in the immigration court system for a fuller consideration of their request. If officers decided that asylum seekers have no credible fear and should be deported, they still have a right to appeal that denial to an immigration judge, who has seven days to decide.What about zero tolerance and criminal prosecution?Further complicating matters, while asylum and deportation proceedings are a civil process, the government can also separately pursue criminal prosecution in regular federal court. Illegally entering the United States is a misdemeanor on the first offense and a felony for repeat offenders. In April, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a zero tolerance policy for such crimes.How does this relate to family separation?The systematic practice of handing adults to the custody of United States marshals for criminal prosecution separated families because their children cannot be held in custody and thus were considered unaccompanied. Immigration authorities then send the children to the Health and Human Services Department.After Mr. Trump signed an executive order last week aimed at ending the separation of families by detaining parents and children together indefinitely, the Homeland Security Department stopped transferring adults with children to the marshals, creating a temporary reprieve.What about catch and release?Separate from its zero-tolerance policy of prosecuting all adults who enter the country illegally, the Trump administration has also sought to end so-called catch and release. Under that practice, adult migrants are paroled into the country while their lengthy asylum and deportation proceedings play out.Ending catch and release is more complicated for families who are caught trying to illegally enter the United States together. Under a 2015 court ruling, the Department of Homeland Security may hold children for only 20 days before it must turn them over to the Department of Health and Human Services for temporary placement with a foster family or in a licensed child-care facility.The Trump administration has asked a judge to rescind that ruling so that it can hold children in indefinite immigration detention, permitting immigration authorities to both keep adults detained and keep families together.It is not clear whether the judge will grant the administrations request, raising the possibility that family separations may resume in mid-July.Adding to the confusion, it is not clear that the government has sufficient space to keep detaining all of the undocumented migrants apprehended near the border for now, although Mr. Trump has directed other agencies, including the Pentagon, to make space in their facilities. | Politics |
Europe|Janina Panasewicz, Seeker of Opportunity in Belgium, Died in Brussels Attackshttps://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/01/world/europe/janina-panasewicz-seeker-of-opportunity-in-belgium-died-in-brussels-attacks.htmlApril 1, 2016WARSAW When Janina Panasewicz lost her job in Poland 15 years ago, she moved to Belgium in search of work.Despite living hundreds of miles away from her children and husband, Ms. Panasewicz, 61, remained deeply committed to her family, calling Poland every night to speak to her husband, a folk musician, said Wanda Gajewska, a friend of 40 years.He always left the rehearsals right before 9 p.m. and hurried back home to call his Niunia over Skype, Ms. Gajewska said. Thats what he always lovingly called her: Niunia.A Polish nongovernmental organization, S.O.S. Bruksela, confirmed Ms. Panasewiczs death on Tuesday, one week after the March 22 terrorist attacks in Brussels.Ms. Panasewicz was among those killed by a suicide bomber at the Maelbeek subway station.The news of her death shook both the close-knit Polish expatriate community in Brussels and in her hometown Wegrow, a rural hamlet in eastern Poland with less than 13,000 residents.Leszek Redosz, the deputy mayor of Wegrow, opened a meeting of the City Council on Tuesday with a minute of silence to remember Ms. Panasewicz.Some councilors knew Ms. Panasewicz, Mr. Redosz said. When I proposed to hold a minute of silence, quite a few people in the room had tears in their eyes. It was heartbreaking.Ms. Panasewicz was also an avid cook who loved to experiment in the kitchen.I still remember her exquisite chicory dish she prepared for her name-day party two years ago, Ms. Gajewska said. She was always, always on the look out for new recipes.Ms. Gajewska added, Goodbye, my dear friend. I will see you on the other side. | World |
SinosphereApril 4, 2016Half a century has passed since Mao Zedong set in motion the Cultural Revolution, his chaotic attempt to purge the Communist Party and Chinese society of compromise and capitalist tendencies. The movement unleashed widespread violence, some of it led by Red Guards, young students who organized themselves into militant units to enforce Maos revolutionary vision. Some of the most intense fighting was in Chongqing, where in recent days some residents mourned at Chinas only surviving sizable Red Guard cemetery.Xujun Eberlein, a writer who grew up in Chongqing and is now based in Boston, is the author of Apologies Forthcoming, a collection of stories about the Cultural Revolution. In an interview, Ms. Eberlein, who is working on a memoir, reflected on how that time affected her and her family.Q. What is your family background, and how did the coming of the Cultural Revolution affect your family? A. My mother came from a poor peasant family in Zhongxian, a riverside county on the Yangtze, and my father was an orphan from Chongqing. They both became underground Communists in the 1940s while Chongqing was under Nationalist rule.When the Cultural Revolution began in 1966, my mother was an elementary school principal, my father was a midranked party cadre, and I was finishing the fourth grade. I witnessed my mother being perp-walked in a dunce cap by her students, and my father being struggled against by his colleagues. From the beginning they, like most all their close friends, were very confused by what the Cultural Revolution was really for, and they had no choice but to muddle through the chaotic time.My big sister was a middle-school student, and she became a Red Guard in the August 15 faction. In July 1968, she drowned while commemorating Maos 1966 swim in the Yangtze. My family never really recovered from that tragedy. By the end of the Cultural Revolution, my mothers belief in Mao and Communism was fundamentally shaken, while the change dawned much more slowly for my father, likely because he had everything to thank the party underground for in his impoverished youth, and he had become much more invested in the Communist cause.But he, too, was disillusioned in his later years. For my generation, generally speaking, at the end of the Cultural Revolution, the spiritual landscape had become a desert in China.Q. How did your parents deal with the grief then, and how does your family commemorate your sister now? A. I dont think Im capable of describing those agonizing years in a few calm sentences. Im working on a memoir, and the Cultural Revolution is part of it. One thing I want to say is that my memoir will not be victim literature. We were all participants at the time, whether one admits or denies it.Q. Have you visited the Red Guard cemetery in Shapingba in Chongqing? A. Many times. After my sister died in 1968, her schoolmates said they would move her grave to the Red Guard cemetery, but they never did. I read in my sisters diary how she and her schoolmates buried their Red Guard leader Ai Shuquan in the Shapingba Park cemetery, so I went to look for Ais tomb in 2002. I didnt think I would find it, but I did. It was a few days after the Qingming festival [when Chinese tend family graves], and I saw wilted flower bouquets here and there, but none at Ais. My sister had written that Ai was from Tianjin, so perhaps he had no family members in Chongqing. I remember feeling like crying when I found his tomb encroached upon by weeds.Q. It seems there were once many more cemeteries around Chongqing for people killed in the Cultural Revolution. What happened to them?A. One that I still remember was at the Chaotianmen port, in the flower garden in front the port bureaus office building. I remember wreaths with white paper flowers on mounds of dirt. Then one day, maybe a year or two later, the dirt mounds were flattened and the flower garden returned, as if nothing had happened.All the cemeteries then were for members of one faction, August 15, because it was the faction in power then. The dead from the opposite faction, rebel to the end, had no cemetery.Q. Why was Chongqing so violent during the Cultural Revolution? A. The many weapon factories certainly contributed to the large scale of Chongqings armed struggle, and another arguable factor might be local character. In ancient times, Chongqing was part of the Ba kingdom. Ancient books use words like valiant and combative to describe the Ba people.Yet some other significant factors have often been overlooked by outside historians. Chongqing is where the hit novel Red Crag is set, a name I believe no mainland Chinese adult doesnt know. The novel, set in 1940s Chongqing, eulogizes the underground Communists heroic struggles in concentration camps said to be co-run by Americans and the Chinese Nationalists.Revolutionary heroism had always been an important part of official education in the 17 years of the Mao era leading up to the Cultural Revolution, but during the 1960s the novel Red Crag was more influential than any textbook. I wouldnt be surprised if the boys and girls who fought each other to death aspired to be heroes like those in the novel.Another overlooked factor is the lingering damage of the great famine from 1959 to 1962. Sichuan, which included Chongqing then, had the largest number of starvation deaths, estimated at one-seventh of the provinces population. Lots of anger during the Cultural Revolution came from that painful history, and suddenly the causes became clear as the Red Guards dug up undisclosed party documents and put them on big-character posters and fliers.Because there was no school to go to, I spent lots of time on the streets reading those things. Once, I saw a flier glued to a wall, with a bold red title: EXTRA GRAND GOOD NEWS! It said medical experts had scientifically proved that Chairman Mao would live to be 130 to 140 years old. A few moments later, this flier was covered by angry comments: Extra grand nonsense! Venomous attack! Chairman Mao is immortal! Long live Chairman Mao! Long, long live Chairman Mao!But they also uncovered things we wouldnt have known otherwise. I remember how shocked my parents were when they learned that it was the government and in Sichuan, the southwest region party secretary Li Jingquan in particular not a natural disaster, that was responsible for the famine. We learned the truth during the Cultural Revolution, but those who grew up later still dont know it.Q. What are the biggest misunderstandings about the Cultural Revolution? A. I once did a little poll on a U.S. writers website, asking what people thought Chinas Red Guards were. The answers were all in the line of pretty much the same as the Hitler Youth. At the other extreme, Ive seen Chinese youngsters, high school and undergrad students newly arrived in the U.S. to study, who simply refused to believe the crazy things that happened during the Cultural Revolution. Their typical argument was that, my parents wouldve told me about those things if they were true.Q. Why is the Cultural Revolution such a sensitive subject, even 50 years later?A. The silence on the Cultural Revolution has been more voluntary than enforced, and it is because the memory of the time is very painful to the victims and shameful to those who victimized. Adding to the emotional complexity is the fact that many people took turns in both roles victims and victimizers. Parents dont pass their experiences of the time to children. This, coupled with the void in textbooks, results in the ignorance of the younger generations. This is where the danger lies: Because the lesson has not been learned by the later generations, the disaster might be repeated in the future.Two years ago, this collective silence was briefly broken, when quite a number of ex-Red Guards courageously came out to apologize for what theyd done in their fanatic youth. It looked like the prediction I made in 2008 through my books title, Apologies Forthcoming, might finally come true. But that hope was short lived. That voice was quickly gone, like a wisp of smoke, and has not been heard again. | World |
League of Legends teams in the U.S. lag behind their competitors in Asia, so they recruit the worlds best players by offering huge salaries.Credit...Andrew WhitePublished Jan. 30, 2021Updated Sept. 26, 2021Crimson lights flashed and announcers yelled in shock as a star athlete pulled off a miraculous feat: leading his team to an upset victory in the semifinals of a world championship tournament.The setting was Shanghai, and the championship was for League of Legends, a video game. The enraptured crowd of thousands treated the frantic mouse-clicking with the same gravitas given to a traditional sport.At the center of it all was Hu Shuo-Chieh, a decorated Taiwanese superstar who soon followed up his standout moment (his team would fall short in the finals) with an even more surprising move. In November, Mr. Hu, known in gaming as SwordArt, announced that he was leaving his base in China, the hub of global e-sports, for a backwater in the world of competitive League of Legends: the United States.America is accustomed to dominance in global sports, but in League of Legends, the highest-profile video game played by professionals, U.S. teams lag far behind their counterparts in Asia, where e-sports are a way of life. In countries like China and South Korea, gamers start competing as children, and professionals train up to 18 hours a day.To keep up, U.S. teams have dangled increasingly large salaries in front of these superstars, akin to Major League Soccers luring famous European footballers stateside. Aided by an influx of cash and big-name sponsors, these teams have recruited at least 40 players from Asia since 2016, according to a New York Times analysis, and a similar number from Europe.Many professional gamers are simply looking for a big paycheck, fueling the perception that the United States serves as a retirement community for players who are past their prime. Others are drawn to a comfortable lifestyle in places like Los Angeles. And some claim to be the player who will finally put America on the map by winning the first world championship for the continent.They can be the hero for an entire region, said Chris Greeley, the commissioner of League of Legends North American region, called the League Championship Series. They can be onstage and lift that trophy and deliver that to a region thats superhungry for it.Mr. Hu, who signed a record-breaking two-year, $6 million contract with TSM, a U.S. team, said a sense of adventure had drawn him to the United States.Im not a person who wants to feel very comfortable every day I want to challenge myself, Mr. Hu, 24, said in an interview.Just like traditional sports, professional leagues devoted to video games like League of Legends, Overwatch and Call of Duty feature teams vying for coveted championship trophies, rabid fans shelling out money for jerseys and multimillionaire players searching for glory.Competitions are strategic, five-on-five cage matches, in which players match wits and mouse-clicking speeds as they guide their avatars through a colorful jungle, slaying fantastical monsters and rushing to destroy the opponents base. International competitions began in 2011 and are operated by Riot Games, which is owned by the Chinese internet giant Tencent.ImageCredit...Aly Song/ReutersInterest in e-sports leagues surged among U.S. audiences in recent years. In 2015, 38.2 million people in North America watched at least one e-sports event, according to Newzoo, a gaming analytics firm. By 2020, that number had jumped to 57.2 million.League of Legends, a team-based title released by Riot in 2009, dwarfs its competitors in viewership. Nearly 46 million people watched at least part of the world championship event in October.Despite League of Legends growth in the United States, North American teams are still routinely outclassed by their competitors in Asia, where ubiquitous internet cafes in many countries make playing computer games cheap and easy. Nine of the 10 annual world championships have been won by a Chinese, South Korean or Taiwanese team.When I was really young, I would look up to the top pro players I wanted to be the same as these guys, said Jo Yong-in, 26, a South Korean-born League of Legends player known as CoreJJ.When he was growing up on the island of Hwado, there was nothing else to do except play games, said Mr. Jo, who moved to Los Angeles in 2019 and now competes in the United States for Team Liquid.ImageCredit...Team LiquidMr. Hu, considered one of the most charismatic, vocal leaders in a sport where communication is paramount, said maintaining the high standards he set for himself and his teammates would be key in the United States. With Suning, his Chinese team, he often practiced from noon to 5 a.m.Im not a person to want to hide something, he said. Sometimes, a very kind team cant improve. You need to fight, talk a lot, and then your team can improve.But until a U.S. team earns worldwide acclaim, questions will persist about whether importing players can lead to success. Riot has tried to foster homegrown talent by expanding American developmental leagues and tightening rules governing how many players per team can be from other countries. Even so, stars from Asia and from European countries like Denmark and Spain still abound in the League Championship Series, as they have since competition began in 2013.There have been other players of comparable stature who have come to America with similar intentions who have amounted to nothing, said Jacob Wolf, a former ESPN reporter who writes for Dot Esports. Some foreign stars struggle to assimilate, encounter insurmountable language barriers or leave before their contracts are up because of homesickness, he said.ImageCredit...Aly Song/ReutersStill, athletes from other countries enjoy perks in the United States, players said. They can live in sunny, multicultural Los Angeles and practice in state-of-the-art facilities like TSMs. That sleek, $13 million, 25,000-square-foot training center offers access to the same chefs and physical therapists as the citys two National Basketball Association teams.And salaries are growing in North America. The average for a player in a teams starting five has climbed to $460,000 from $300,000 since 2018, Mr. Greeley said. The highest-paid players in the United States, Mr. Wolf said, might make up to $500,000 more than their elite counterparts in a country like South Korea.Many of the League Championship Series 10 teams are backed by billionaires who also own traditional U.S. sports teams. But the sport has not yet become a cash cow. To get in on League of Legends, teams had to pay Riot $10 million to $13 million.Riot declined to say how much it made from League of Legends, and analysts do not think it is profiting directly from e-sports. But SuperData, a research company, estimated that the game itself brought in more than $1.8 billion in revenue last year.Just a few blocks from Riots headquarters in western Los Angeles where matches are normally played is Sawtelle Boulevard, where e-sports stars frequent ramen restaurants and boba shops. Korean transplants often spend their weekends in Koreatown, where they can find food that reminds them of home, said Genie Doi, an e-sports immigration lawyer.The work-life balance in the United States is another draw for players who are weary of putting in 18-hour practice days and even developing wrist injuries, said Kang Jun-hyeok, a South Korean-born League of Legends player who has been Team Liquids coach and general manager. Though South Korea and China have made strides in recent years, he said, the culture is that of working hard, grinding until you collapse, Mr. Kang, 31, said.North American teams pitch these benefits to prospective players as they engage in a delicate courtship to woo the best free agents before other teams do. Once a player decides to sign a contract, Ms. Doi helps the team apply for a visa, which she said was usually granted despite the unusual profession.She said the arrival of so many international stars aligned perfectly with the continents history of immigration.Its just really fitting that North American e-sports is this melting pot of global cultures, Ms. Doi said. I think thats whats eventually going to make North America a strong contender. | Tech |
Economy|Capital Goods Orders Fall, but Consumer Data Points Are Encouraginghttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/24/business/economy/capital-goods-orders-fell-in-november.htmlDec. 23, 2015WASHINGTON New orders for capital goods fell in November and the previous months increase was revised sharply lower as the strong dollar and spending cuts in the energy sector showed few signs of abating.But the outlook for the economy remains encouraging, with other data on Wednesday showing consumer sentiment at a five-month high in December and personal income rising for an eighth straight month in November. That should support consumer spending and generate enough economic growth for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates steadily next year.The economy is not too cold and not too hot; it is just right. The Fed can stay the course, said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at the MUFG Union Bank in New York.The Commerce Department said orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft a closely watched proxy for business spending plans dropped 0.4 percent in November. The figure for October for these so-called core capital goods was revised down to a 0.6 percent increase, from a 1.3 percent rise.Manufacturing, which accounts for 12 percent of the economy, is also being hurt by business efforts to reduce inventory bloat and sluggish global demand. The dollar has gained almost 20 percent against the currencies of the United States main trading partners over the last 18 months.A survey this month showed manufacturing contracted in November for the first time in three years.Unless we see a big rebound in December or upward revisions, it appears that investment in equipment contracted in the fourth quarter, said Paul Ashworth, chief United States economist at Capital Economics in Toronto.A separate report showed the University of Michigans consumer sentiment index increased to 92.6 this month, the highest reading since July. Low inflation, characterized by deep discounts at shopping malls, accounted for the rise in sentiment this month.Prospects for consumer spending next year also got a lift from another report from the Commerce Department, showing income increased 0.3 percent last month, after gaining 0.4 percent in October. Wages and salaries advanced 0.5 percent, adding to a 0.6 percent gain in October.A tightening labor market, marked by a jobless rate that is in a range some Fed officials consider consistent with full employment, is starting to lift wages.The personal consumption expenditures price index rose 0.4 percent in the 12 months through November, the largest increase since December, after increasing 0.2 percent in October. Excluding food and energy, the so-called core index rose 1.3 percent in the 12 months through November, for the 11th straight month. It is the Feds preferred inflation measure.The Commerce Departments Bureau of Economic Analysis inadvertently released part of the consumption portion of its report late Tuesday.Other indicators suggested some loss of momentum in the housing market. Sales of new single-family homes in November rose less than expected and the previous months increase was revised down.The Commerce Department said on Wednesday that sales increased 4.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 490,000 units. Octobers sales pace was revised down to 470,000 units from the previously reported 495,000 units.Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new home sales, which account for about 9.3 percent of the housing market, rising to a rate of 505,000 units last month. Sales were up 9.1 percent compared with November of last year. | Business |
Credit...Joshua Roberts/ReutersJune 7, 2018WASHINGTON A former Senate Intelligence Committee aide was arrested on Thursday in an investigation of classified information leaks where prosecutors also secretly seized years worth of a New York Times reporters phone and email records.The former aide, James A. Wolfe, 57, was charged with lying repeatedly to investigators about his contacts with three reporters. According to the authorities, Mr. Wolfe made false statements to the F.B.I. about providing two of them with sensitive information related to the committees work. He denied to investigators that he ever gave classified material to journalists, the indictment said.Mr. Wolfe, the Intelligence Committees director of security, was slated to appear before a federal judge on Friday in Washington. Reached on Thursday evening before his arrest, Mr. Wolfe declined to comment.Mr. Wolfes case led to the first known instance of the Justice Department going after a reporters data under President Trump. The seizure was disclosed in a letter to the Times reporter, Ali Watkins, who had been in a three-year relationship with Mr. Wolfe. The seizure suggested that prosecutors under the Trump administration will continue the aggressive tactics employed under President Barack Obama.In his role with the committee, Mr. Wolfe was responsible for safeguarding classified and other sensitive information shared with lawmakers. He stopped performing committee work in December and retired in May.Court documents describe Mr. Wolfes communications with four reporters including Ms. Watkins using encrypted messaging applications. It appeared that the F.B.I. was investigating how Ms. Watkins learned that Russian spies in 2013 had tried to recruit Carter Page, a former Trump foreign policy adviser. She published an article for BuzzFeed News on April 3, 2017, about the attempted recruitment of Mr. Page in which he confirmed the contacts.F.B.I. agents initially approached Ms. Watkins about the relationship she had with Mr. Wolfe, saying they were investigating unauthorized leaks. The Justice Department told her in a letter sent in February that her records had been seized. The Times learned on Thursday of the letter, which came from the national security division of the United States attorneys office in Washington.In another case, the indictment said, Mr. Wolfe used an encrypted messaging app to alert another reporter in October 2017 that he had served Mr. Page with a subpoena to testify before the committee. The reporter, who was not named, published an article disclosing that Mr. Page had been compelled to appear. After it was published, Mr. Wolfe wrote to the journalist to say, Good job! and, Im glad you got the scoop, according to court papers.The same month, Mr. Wolfe reached out to a third reporter on the same unidentified app to offer to serve as an unnamed source, the documents said.Mr. Wolfe also communicated with a fourth reporter, using his Senate email account, from 2015 to 2017, prosecutors said. They said he denied those contacts. 11 pages, 2.43 MB News media advocates consider the idea of mining a journalists records for sources to be an intrusion on First Amendment freedoms, and prosecutors acknowledge it is one of the most delicate steps the Justice Department can take. Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of democracy, and communications between journalists and their sources demand protection, said Eileen Murphy, a Times spokeswoman.Ms. Watkinss personal lawyer, Mark J. MacDougall, said: Its always disconcerting when a journalists telephone records are obtained by the Justice Department through a grand jury subpoena or other legal process. Whether it was really necessary here will depend on the nature of the investigation and the scope of any charges.A prosecutor notified Ms. Watkins on Feb. 13 that the Justice Department had years of customer records and subscriber information from telecommunications companies, including Google and Verizon, for two email accounts and a phone number of hers. Investigators did not obtain the content of the messages themselves.The records covered years worth of Ms. Watkinss communications before she joined The Times in December 2017 to cover federal law enforcement. During a seven-month period last year for which prosecutors sought additional phone records, she worked for BuzzFeed News and then Politico reporting on national security.Shortly before she began working at The Times, Ms. Watkins was approached by the F.B.I. agents, who asserted that Mr. Wolfe had helped her with articles while they were dating. She did not answer their questions. Mr. Wolfe was not a source of classified information for Ms. Watkins during their relationship, she said. That same month, F.B.I. agents asked Mr. Wolfe about an article written by Ms. Watkins. He denied knowing the reporters sources.During the same interview with the F.B.I., Mr. Wolfe denied knowing Ms. Watkins. But confronted with pictures of the two together, he admitted being in a personal relationship with her since 2014.Ms. Watkins said she told editors at BuzzFeed News and Politico about it and continued to cover national security, including the committees work. Ben Smith, the editor in chief of BuzzFeed News, said in a statement, Were deeply troubled by what looks like a case of law enforcement interfering with a reporters constitutional right to gather information about her own government.A Politico spokesman, Brad Dayspring, said that the situation was managed accordingly after Ms. Watkins disclosed the matter, and that her beat was national security and law enforcement, not solely the committee, which other reporters primarily covered.Ms. Watkins also told editors at The Times about the previous relationship when she was hired to cover federal law enforcement.Attorney General Jeff Sessions said last year that the Justice Department was pursuing about three times as many leak investigations as were open at the end of the Obama administration. Under Mr. Obama, the Justice Department prosecuted more leak cases than all previous administrations combined.The attorney general has stated that investigations and prosecutions of unauthorized disclosure of controlled information are a priority of the Department of Justice, John Demers, a top Justice Department official, said in a statement announcing Mr. Wolfes arrest.The investigation came to light after the Senate Intelligence Committee made a cryptic announcement on Wednesday that it was cooperating with the Department of Justice in a pending investigation. Earlier, the Senate quietly and unanimously adopted a resolution to share committee information with the Justice Department in connection with a pending investigation arising out of the unauthorized disclosure of information.Mr. Wolfe, a former Army intelligence analyst, worked for the committee in a nonpartisan capacity for nearly 30 years. He worked closely with both Democrats and Republicans on the committee.Mr. Trump has complained bitterly about leaks and demanded that law enforcement officials seek criminal charges against government officials involved in illegal and sometimes embarrassing disclosures of national security secrets.When law enforcement officials obtained journalists records during the Obama administration, members of Congress in both parties sounded alarms, and the moves touched off a firestorm among advocates for press freedom that helped prompt the Justice Department to rewrite its relevant guidelines.Under Justice Department regulations, investigators must clear additional hurdles before they can seek business records that could reveal a reporters confidential sources, such as phone and email records. In particular, the rules require the government to have made all reasonable attempts to obtain the information from alternative, non-media sources before investigators may target a reporters information.In addition, the rules generally require the Justice Department to notify reporters first to allow them to negotiate over the scope of their demand for information and potentially challenge it in court. The rules permit the attorney general to make an exception to that practice if he determines that, for compelling reasons, such negotiations would pose a clear and substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation, risk grave harm to national security, or present an imminent risk of death or serious bodily harm.Top Justice Department officials must sign off on any attempt to gain access to a journalists communications records.It is not clear whether investigators exhausted all of their avenues of information before confiscating Ms. Watkinss information. She was not notified before they gained access to her information from the telecommunications companies. Among the records seized were those associated with her university email address from her undergraduate years.We intend to get to the bottom of these leaks. I think it has reached epidemic proportions, Mr. Sessions said in November during testimony on Capitol Hill. It cannot be allowed to continue, and we will do our best effort to ensure it does not continue.The Intelligence Committee is responsible for carrying out oversight of American intelligence agencies, including the F.B.I., the C.I.A. and the National Security Agency, and their secretive operations. It is one of the most tightly secured groups in Congress, with strict rules for lawmakers and the professional staff governing the circulation and release of sensitive, and often classified, information that passes before the committee.As security director, Mr. Wolfe would have been responsible for ensuring that those rules were upheld. When the committee became a matter of intense interest as it undertook a bipartisan investigation of Russias election meddling, Mr. Wolfe played a more visible role ushering witnesses in and out of the committees secured office space. | Politics |
on techTheres been an explosion in online credit card fraud. Heres how you can protect yourself.VideoCreditCredit...By RapapawnJune 8, 2020This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it weekdays.A few weeks ago, some creep tried to use my credit card number to buy stuff on Amazon the second time this happened to me in a year.You probably know this hassle and anxiety. Theres been an explosion in fraudulent purchases made online in the last few years. In most of these cases, thieves only need credit card digits to make a bogus transaction.I learned two things from discussing my experience with fraud experts: Even if youre careful, your credit card information will probably be stolen at some point. And were mostly on our own to protect ourselves.Here are some practical protection tips, and thoughts about broader steps to slow runaway fraud.Sign up for alerts: Fraud experts say the best measure you can take is to sign up for email or phone notifications each time your card is used for a purchase online or over the phone. A barrage of pings is annoying and doesnt prevent card theft, but it provides a real-time fraud warning. Its how I caught those two bogus Amazon charges.Limit the websites where you save card information: Its not foolproof, but the fewer places where you buy online or save your card numbers, the fewer spots for criminals to hack your personal data. Ragib Hasan, a computer science professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, also suggested using PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay or similar options that generate a temporary account number for each transaction.Be paranoid: Every link in an email or a too-good-to-be-true deal on an unfamiliar website could be trying to trick you to harvest credit card details or other personal information. Instead of clicking on a link in that email that might (or might not) be from Target, just dont. If we all work in unison, it would be a lot tougher for crooks, said Paul Fabara, Visas chief risk officer.Report the fraudulent charge: Tell both your credit card company and the merchant where the bogus charge was made to prevent the thief from running more stolen credit cards. What about the police? Colin Sims, the chief operating officer of the fraud-prevention company Forter, said that credit card fraud is so prevalent that law enforcement doesnt usually pursue it.Why cant companies stop this? Software does flag some transactions that seem out of place, but technology is often behind crooks who are getting more sophisticated at making their charges look legitimate.Is buying online too easy? Some fraud experts said that it would help if the United States adopted rules like those in Europe, which is tightening requirements for a second step such as fingerprint verification or a one-time passcode to make some credit card purchases online. Others have said that these extra protections may give people a false sense of security and arent worth the frustration for shoppers and higher costs for merchants.We should not accept credit card fraud as inevitable. Even if it never happens to you, the fortune that companies spend on fraud prevention ultimately is reflected in higher costs for everything you buy.Your takeWorries about risks from TikTokA few readers wrote in last week asking why I didnt give more weight to concerns expressed by some U.S. lawmakers that TikTok, the video app from the Chinese internet conglomerate ByteDance, is a way for that country to collect information about Americans or spread a sanitized view of whats happening in China.Mark from El Cerrito, Calif., asked if I should have waited to praise TikTok in this newsletter until U.S. officials can investigate these potential risks.Those are fair concerns. Unfortunately, the climate of mistrust now between the U.S. and Chinese governments makes it tough to know when fears of Chinese companies acting as a conduit for government spying are real, and when theyre baseless.ByteDance is certainly worried about the perception from the United States and other countries that its acting on the Chinese governments behalf.It has tried as much as possible to wall off TikTok from its operations in China, and recently appointed an American executive from the Walt Disney Company as TikToks chief executive.The company also told my colleagues that because ByteDance is legally incorporated in the Cayman Islands, TikTok is not owned by a Chinese company. This is laughable.No matter how much ByteDance puts TikTok on its own independent island, it cant escape the reality that it will be considered suspect by some Americans because of its Chinese ownership.But look, TikTok probably wont be the last popular app that originates from a country with which the United States has rocky relations.Should Americans be cautious? Absolutely, just as its good to be careful about any companys use of your information. But as of right now, we havent seen evidence that the company is smuggling Americans data into China.Before we go Dont forget about voting security: Voting by mail doesnt increase fraud, but last-minute changes to accommodate remote voting prompted by the pandemic are a hackers dream, my New York Times colleagues write. Mail-in voting depends on the security of online state and local voter registration databases, which experts warned could be locked by hackers for financial gain or tampered with by outside actors.Remote school is leaving kids behind: New research suggests that by September, most students will have fallen behind where they would have been if they had attended in-person classes, my colleague Dana Goldstein reports. The switch to online learning most likely has widened racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps, which could get worse if schools continue to do remote learning this fall or are forced to absorb significant budget cuts, Dana writes.Google Docs isnt just for writing this newsletter: MIT Technology Review writes that the pandemic and anti-police brutality protests are again showing ways that Google Docs has become an unexpected place for activism and widely shared resources. Because the documents are open to everyone and relatively anonymous, people have used Google Docs to compile grocery lists for neighbors who cant shop on their own, and share steps people can take to support victims of police brutality.Hugs to thisYour heart will melt at this dog eagerly listening to a Stevie Wonder tune on the guitar.We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else youd like us to explore. You can reach us at [email protected] this newsletter in your inbox every weekday; please sign up here. | Tech |
Science|High Above Mars, a NASA Orbiter Spies the Curiosity Roverhttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/22/science/mars-curiosity-reconnaissance-orbiter.htmlTrilobitesJune 22, 2017ImageCredit...NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/University of ArizonaThe small blue dot is Curiosity.From orbit, NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been cataloging the landscape of Mars in exquisite detail for more than a decade. Occasionally it photographs something not at all Martian.On June 5, the orbiter passed over Mount Sharp, the mountain inside a crater where NASAs Curiosity rover has been exploring since 2012. The color image, taken from a distance of 169 miles, is the combined view of three wavelength bands red, blue-green and infrared. Those wavelengths bring out differences in the materials on Marss surface, but produce a scene quite different in hue from what the human eye would see.This false-color combination makes Curiosity, which is about 10 feet long and nine feet wide, pop out as a bright blue in the terrain of tan rocks and patches of dark sand. (The rover usually has a hue like an unwashed metallic car.)The Reconnaissance Orbiter has been taking pictures of Curiosity about every three months to monitor movements in dunes, erosion of slopes and other changes in the landscape.Curiosity is not the only Earth visitor that has been spotted. In 2006, the orbiter took this image of the Opportunity rover, which showed not only the rover but also the tracks in the soil and even the shadow of its camera mast.ImageCredit...NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/University of ArizonaThe camera has also taken pictures of NASAs Viking and Phoenix landers. A Russian amateur may have also spotted Mars 3, the Soviet spacecraft that set down on Mars in 1971, although that identification was not conclusive.The orbiter has also provided hints into Mars spacecraft that failed.When the European Space Agencys Schiaparelli craft, part of its ExoMars mission, disappeared last year as it was descending, the Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted a dark scar on the surface where the lander crashed.ImageCredit...NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/University of ArizonaThe orbiter also found Beagle 2, an earlier European Space Agency lander that disappeared in 2003. In that instance, it turned out that Beagle 2 made it to the surface in one piece but not all of its solar panels deployed. With the radio antenna blocked, it was never able to send a message back to Earth.ImageCredit...NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/University of Arizona/University of LeicesterOne spacecraft, however, still eludes discovery NASAs Polar Lander that disappeared without a trace in December 1999 as it was heading toward a spot on Mars near the South Pole.Mars Reconnaissance Orbiters camera has taken images covering the area where Polar Lander is likely to be, but it remains hidden in the rough terrain. In the years since its disappearance, the debris may have also been partly hidden by dust and frost.ImageCredit...NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/University of Arizona | science |
Officials are under pressure to restart the economy, but many states are moving too quickly, researchers say. The costs may be measured in lost lives.Credit...Misha Friedman for The New York TimesPublished May 11, 2020Updated May 21, 2020Millions of working people and small-business owners who cannot earn money while sheltering at home are facing economic ruin. So dozens of states, seeking to ease the pain, are coming out of lockdown.Most have not met even minimal criteria for doing so safely, and some are reopening even as coronavirus cases rise, inviting disaster. The much-feared second wave of infection may not wait until fall, many scientists say, and instead may become a storm of wavelets breaking unpredictably across the country.The reopenings will proceed nonetheless. The question now, scientists say, is whether the nation can minimize the damage by intelligently adopting new tactics.Evidence is mounting that masks if worn in public places, by everyone are far more effective at stopping transmission than was previously realized. Across the nation, testing remains wholly inadequate, but home-use nasal swabs and saliva tests are on the way that may provide a clearer picture of where the virus is.Americans are lining up for antibody tests that may reveal who has some immunity, perhaps opening paths back to normal life for them. Early (but still controversial) surveys suggest that more Americans may carry antibodies than initially thought.Employers are moving to design safer workplaces. A modestly effective antiviral treatment has been found. And laboratories around the world are racing toward the grail a vaccine at an unprecedented pace.But while it may still be possible to blunt the impact of the reopenings, the nation is finding even this goal difficult.As the weather warms, Americans are already struggling to stay at home or remain six feet apart on crowded beaches, hiking trails and park playgrounds. Every crowd may have some silent carriers of the virus.Outside New York, California and a few other states, many Americans refuse to wear masks, and governors and mayors have waffled over whether to order them to. The dispute has even led to threats and a killing.Fifty brands of antibody tests are available, but many are inaccurate. Many states are moving too quickly for employers and retailers to make environments safe. And the lockdowns have become entwined in partisan politics, with some libertarian extremists, gun-rights advocates and anti-vaccine activists painting them as an infringement of personal freedoms.Deaths are already far higher than the 60,000 once predicted by August. Even President Trump has begun to talk of a toll that may reach 100,000, perhaps more.Some epidemiological models predict three times that many within months closer to the 240,000 that the White Houses coronavirus task force predicted in March before switching to a new, more optimistic model.Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the task forces chief medical adviser, has said he expects cases to spike in closed environments like nursing homes, prisons and factories.Were not reopening based on science, said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, a former director of the C.D.C. in the Obama administration. Were reopening based on politics, ideology and public pressure. And I think its going to end badly.All Quiet, at FirstThe effects of the reopenings will not be immediately apparent, and in the absence of widespread testing, it will be hard to know where the country stands in the fight against the virus.It takes two or three weeks for the newly infected who become severely ill to need hospitalization. An initial calm may encourage more Americans to drop their guard or more governors to ease restrictions.I do worry that people will stay home enough in the states that open earliest so that we dont immediately see the second wave, and then other states will draw the wrong lessons, said Dr. Leana Wen, a former health commissioner of Baltimore.Social distancing has proved effective at interrupting viral transmission in places where it was embraced. But now even formerly terrified New Yorkers, living at the center of the nations outbreak, are clearly wearying of it.Central Park, which was so quiet in late March that the birdsong was startlingly loud, is often crowded with joggers, strollers and cyclists. Avenues that were ghostly canyons now have far more cars, Mayor Bill de Blasio has complained, and steady traffic has returned to some local highways.Viruses persist only because they can exploit human interactions: a stray cough, a plume of virions behind a jogger, a bicycle handle no one has disinfected.Nationwide, there are still about 25,000 new confirmed cases a day of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Most are probably within families, experts said, or among health workers and emergency personnel exposed on the job.But there have also been hot spots of hundreds of cases in meat and poultry plants, veterans hospitals and nursing homes in rural states.To keep the toll from rising, some factories making essential goods, like ventilators, have placed workstations six feet apart and made temperature checks and masks mandatory.Food plants are installing plastic barriers between workers and on cafeteria tables, requiring masks, checking symptoms at entrances and doing more cleaning. Most nursing homes no longer accept visitors.As well intentioned as these stopgap measures may be, they are part of a headlong rush back to normal life that few experts condone.Many models for safely reopening the economy have been issued, including one from the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia, and others from Harvard, CovidActNow and Resolve to Save Lives.Most reopening criteria, including the White Houses relatively vague guidelines, say that at a minimum a state should have 14 days of declining cases before it even considers reopening. Almost no state reopening now has met that low standard.Virtually all guidelines emphasize comprehensive testing and systematic contact tracing.Testing is a sore point. Virtually everyone but Mr. Trump says there are too few tests, but everyone disagrees about how many are needed.At a minimum, a state must do enough random testing including among people with no symptoms to detect a surge of cases anywhere within its borders. Otherwise, the first unmistakable sign that something is wrong will be the wail of sirens as oxygen-starved patients are taken to a local emergency room.By then, it may be too late to stop a flood of patients over the next week that will overwhelm that hospital.In rural America even in relatively wealthy states like Texas financially struggling hospitals often have few ventilators, and ambulances must drive long distances.ImageCredit...Terray Sylvester/Getty ImagesWhen hospitals run short on supplies or ambulances fail to promptly reach victims of pneumonia, heart attacks, strokes or car accidents, many lives may be lost, as happened in New York.New York has tested more citizens than any other state has more than twice as many per capita as California, and more than three times as many as Texas. To spot outbreaks early, the Harvard model advocates scaling up, to 20 million tests a day nationwide.Adm. Brett P. Giroir, the coronavirus task forces chief of testing strategy, recently said there was absolutely no way on earth that goal could be reached, and that eight million tests a month, or about 270,000 a day, might be possible by June.Paul M. Romer, a Nobel Prize-winning economist at New York University, has called for daily rapid tests for every worker in contact with others meaning 20 to 30 million tests a day.At $10 a test, he has conceded, such an undertaking would cost at least $ 1.5 billion a week, but even that is far cheaper, he argued, than the damage now being done by keeping the country locked down.For now, the lofty goal of tracing and testing the contacts of every infected person remains unthinkable. Epidemiological models in the United States and data from China suggest that each case generates about 50 contacts, so the 25,000 new daily cases in the United States generate another 1.3 million contacts to find each day.Even under ideal circumstances, a team of five tracers takes about three days to find 50 contacts. So, if the number of trained contact tracers were increased to 100,000 from 3,000, the most recent tally the daily case count would still have to drop below 5,000 just to stay even, assuming the tracers worked five-day weeks.But the daily load is barely dropping below 25,000.Digitally automating the job has been proposed. But for Bluetooth and GPS apps like those used in South Korea to work in the United States and find a useful percentage of a victims contacts about 80 percent, calculated Tomas Pueyo, author of an article titled Coronavirus: How to Do Testing and Contact Tracing Apple and Google would have to update their smartphone operating systems with built-in tracking apps that all cellphone owners would by law have to use. Also, neither location data nor Bluetooth could be turned off.Americans are unlikely to accept that, Mr. Pueyo conceded.We fear 1984, he wrote. We want to avoid an A.I.-driven world where the government knows our every movement, rates us according to our behavior, and soon tells us what to think.Making masks obligatory has strong potential to cut down transmission, according to new evidence not just from Asia, where masks have long been common, but also from the Czech Republic, Germany, Israel and other countries, according to Masks4All, an advocacy group.The single biggest mistake made in the United States and some European countries that have failed to control their epidemics is that people arent wearing masks, argued Dr. George F. Gao, the Harvard- and Oxford-trained director of Chinas Center for Disease Control.Outside New York, California and a few other states, many Americans resist wearing them.Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio rescinded an order to wear masks after state residents felt affronted, he said. Officials in Stillwater, Okla., dropped a municipal order after store clerks who asked barefaced customers to stay outside were threatened.The issue has become mired in politics: the president wont wear one, some protesters have compared them to Muslim face veils, and a shopper at a supermarket requiring masks wore a Ku Klux Klan hood.Neglected CriteriaIn the absence of detailed national reopening standards, governors are setting their own, and some allow far closer human contact than others do.It is or will soon be possible in 19 states to get your hair cut or roots dyed, for example. Many states are letting restaurants reopen with restrictions that require six feet between diners, outdoor seating only or disposable menus.By contrast, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York has refused to even set a date for easing restrictions everywhere in the state, although three regions will be allowed to partially reopen on May 15. Although hospitalizations and deaths are steadily declining, he said, they are still dropping too slowly.All of this inconvenience, all of this turmoil, for what? he asked this month. To keep 100,000 people out of our hospitals, thats for what.When restrictions are lifted, he said, the states least-affected central counties will go first and each economic sector will be phased in slowly: construction and factory jobs first, and retail establishments that can deliver goods curbside. Next: banks, insurance, law firms and other professions. Then restaurants and hotels, and finally entertainment, sports and schools.One of the most difficult decisions is when to open primary schools. Doing so is crucial to getting young parents back to work, but scientists are still unsure about how much children spread the disease to their families. France is reopening its schools this week, as are some regions of Australia and much of Europe, so there may be some data soon on the question.Unlike New York State, Florida, Tennessee and Texas are reopening as their cases and deaths are spiking to new highs, which means, experts said, that it is impossible to know when or how high they will peak.If that happened, a wave of unexpected deaths could deliver some sharp political shocks, researchers predicted.Excess fatalities may mean some serious consequences for the governors, said Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the disaster preparedness center at Columbia.Frustrated Americans, eager to break out of lockdowns, often do not realize how lax this countrys strictures are compared with those imposed elsewhere.In Chinese cities, only a tiny corps of essential workers was allowed to leave home for months. There was virtually no travel between cities.People lucky enough to live in apartment complexes with internal gardens could walk there; others had to stay indoors, unable to shop even for food or medicine. Building committees pooled grocery orders and distributed them internally.No city in China was allowed to reopen until it had reached 14 days of zero new cases a standard that no American city is expected to meet.In Italy, many residents were not allowed to go more than 200 yards from their homes without written government authorization. Police roadblocks enforcing that rule were everywhere.If deaths in the United States surged, harsh measures like those could, in theory, be imposed.The 1918 Spanish flu provides some lessons.A new analysis of that epidemic from the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Mass., concluded that various lockdown measures had clear success in lowering death rates. But they ultimately failed to curb overall mortality in most cities because they were lifted prematurely.School closings and bans on public gatherings typically lasted only 36 days, the report said, and Americans usually tolerated quarantine for only 18 days.Denver, for example, closed its schools and banned public gatherings for only one month after deaths peaked. Then reopening caused a second, much higher peak of deaths.The lesson for the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in 2020 is that, to curtail overall deaths, wrote the chief author, Robert J. Barro, such interventions have to be maintained for substantially longer than a few weeks.Most likely, he added, 12 weeks work much better than four to six weeks.ImageCredit...Eduardo Munoz/ReutersUncontrolled ExperimentsDr. Frieden, the former C.D.C. director, now runs Resolve to Save Lives, the public health advocacy group that has issued detailed reopening guidelines.Every day, I look at the two models for approaching this, he said. The China model, which is to use the worlds most authoritarian regime and best digital tracking system to hunt down and stop every case and then wait for a vaccine. So far, its working.By contrast, he said, Sweden is trying to achieve herd immunity by letting young, healthy people become infected at what they hope will be slow, steady rates. Primary schools are open, higher ones are closed, everyone is asked to be careful in public and older adults are asked to stay home.Israel is roughly following Swedens model, Dr. Frieden said, just as Asian countries are roughly following Chinas.And then, he added, theres the American approach, which is: What the hell I heard something on Fox News. Lets try it!Swedens model does look appealing. Television news programs have shown smiling Swedes drinking in outdoor cafes, shopping for clothes, getting their hair restyled and enjoying other little pleasures that Americans have been denied for many weeks now.But Sweden is paying a high price, and Dr. Frieden rated its success as still to be determined.As of Sunday, its per capita death rate is 319 per million Swedes, which is higher than the figure in the United States, which is 242 deaths per million.Other Scandinavian countries, with varying degrees of lockdown, have far lower death figures: 91 per million in Denmark, 40 in Norway, 48 in Finland and 29 in Iceland.Having 50 states and more territories do competing and uncoordinated experiments in reopening is daring Mother Nature to kill you or someone you love, Dr. Frieden said. Mother Nature bats last, and she bats a thousand.ImageCredit...Jonathan Nackstrand/Agence France-Presse Getty Images | Health |
Credit...Delil Souleiman/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesMarch 6, 2017The Islamic State appeared to suffer an important setback on Monday when American-backed militia fighters in Syria seized the main route that connects Raqqa, the Islamic States de facto capital, to its territory in southeastern Deir al-Zour Province.The development essentially severed the last remaining access for supply deliveries to Raqqa and may have eliminated an escape route for Islamic State fighters.Syrian government forces lost control of Raqqa in 2013 to the opposition, and the Islamic State captured the city later that year. Raqqa was the Islamic States most important territorial triumph at the time, and the extremist movement regards the city as the center of its self-proclaimed caliphate.The seizure of the Raqqa exit route on Monday by the American-backed militia, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, was confirmed by a Pentagon spokesman, Capt. Jeff Davis, and by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group. The Syrian Observatory said the militia fighters were just five miles outside the Raqqa city limits.An assault on Raqqa to expel the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, is widely expected in coming weeks, and if successful, it would deliver the organizations biggest defeat in its short and violent history.The impending assault also represents a test of the complex array of competing forces in Syria fighting the Islamic State forces that also could turn on one another.They include rebel Kurdish and Arab militia members trained and equipped by the United States, Turkish soldiers, the Syrian forces of President Bashar al-Assad and his militia allies supported by Russia and Iran.Mr. Assads forces, which recaptured the city of Aleppo from insurgents in December after a prolonged siege, have been rapidly advancing east toward Raqqa in the past few weeks, Reuters reported Monday.In a sign that the Islamic State is preparing for a possible retreat, male civilians in Raqqa were recently ordered to start dressing similarly to the groups fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory and a second monitoring group known as Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently.By blending into the population, Islamic State fighters not only improve their escape prospects, but make distinguishing civilians from combatants difficult for the American-backed coalition of aerial forces hitting targets around Raqqa.Activists from Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently reported last month that coalition warplanes had destroyed Euphrates River bridge connections into Raqqa. So the Syrian Democratic Forces seizure of the land route from Raqqa to Deir al-Zour was seen as a major step in isolating the city.President Trump has said his objective in Syria is to eradicate the Islamic State, but precisely how he intends to accomplish that goal has not been made clear.The risk of clashes between the Syrian Democratic Forces and Turkish soldiers in Syria has increasingly worried American military officials. Turkey, a NATO ally of the United States, regards the Kurdish component of the militias as an enemy aligned with Turkeys Kurdish separatists.Over the weekend, American military officials said the United States had strengthened its contingent of Syria-based forces to help deter clashes around Manbij, a town in northern Syria near the Turkish border, which Kurdish militia members helped capture from the Islamic State in August.Turkey has complained that the Kurds have not vacated Manbij as promised.Fighting in the Syrian civil war, which is about to enter its seventh year, has declined in recent weeks, partly because of a tenuous cease-fire negotiated by Russia and Turkey when Aleppo was retaken by Mr. Assads forces.But the prospects for a political settlement remain remote, and the humanitarian crisis has only worsened. Hundreds of thousands have been killed since the conflict began in March 2011 as an uprising against Mr. Assad. Roughly five million people have fled the country, and millions more have been displaced.In a new sign of the toll, Save the Children said in a report issued Monday that the war traumas suffered by Syrian children had increased their long-term risks of suicide, heart disease, diabetes, substance abuse and depression. The report, based on interviews with more than 450 children, adolescents and adults across the country, described a growing child-health crisis that could leave many suffering a condition known as toxic stress.The children we spoke with in Syria are terrified to play outside, afraid to go to school, and soiling themselves when they hear a loud noise, Carolyn Miles, the president and chief executive of Save the Children, said in releasing the report. | World |
Credit...Hanna Lassen/Getty ImagesClarissa Sebag-MontefioreNov. 6, 2018[Sign up for the Australia Letter to get news with context, conversation starters and local recommendations in your inbox each week.]SYDNEY, Australia When Hollywoods elite donned black at this years Golden Globes to raise awareness for the #MeToo movement, the Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush skipped the event altogether. Accused of sexually harassing a young actress during a production in Sydney of King Lear, Mr. Rush was suffering physical trauma, a friend said. Mr. Rush, 67, is now suing the Australian tabloid that had splashed the allegations across two front-page articles last year, claiming he was defamed. The case has become a moment of reckoning for both the Australian entertainment industry and a #MeToo movement that has been muted here compared with its counterparts in the United States and elsewhere.Closing arguments began Wednesday in the trial, which pits Mr. Rush against Rupert Murdochs Nationwide News, publisher of the tabloid, The Daily Telegraph. We are in the middle of this social movement, the middle of this social conversation and here is a case that is going to test how far weve come, said Zahra Newman, 31, an actress who starred in a recent production of The Book of Mormon.The trial, she said, is exposing a generational shift that is challenging for older generations of artists who just think, Get over it, toughen up.Given the nations strict defamation laws, some experts believe the Rush trial is also having a dampening effect on #MeToo.This case has done more than anything to slow down the #MeToo movement, said Michael Bradley, a Sydney-based media lawyer. There were a lot of stories being prepared in various media organizations ready to run that got killed.In the United States, public figures suing for defamation must prove that the allegations made against them are false and were published with malice. In Australia, by contrast, the onus is on the publisher to prove that the allegations are true.Australian media is incredibly reluctant to make serious accusations against public figures because defamation laws can be used to stymie public debate, said Matt Collins, a Victoria-based defamation lawyer.The Daily Telegraph articles accused Mr. Rush of acting inappropriately toward an unidentified actress, later revealed to be Eryn Jean Norvill, during a 2015-16 Sydney Theatre Company production of King Lear. One story was accompanied by a photograph of Mr. Rush in character and King Leer as the headline. ImageCredit...Brendan Esposito/EPA, via ShutterstockMr. Rush claimed that the articles falsely depicted him as a pervert and a sexual predator.The case has attracted a large cast of supporting characters. Backing Mr. Rush is the crme de la crme of the Australian theater aristocracy: The theater director Neil Armfield, the film director Fred Schepisi and the actors Robyn Nevin and Helen Buday have all testified in his defense. Supporting Ms. Norvill, who is in her mid-30s, are #MeToo campaigners and younger members of the theater industry. Many are using the online hashtag #IstandwithEJ.Mr. Rush conceded to the court that he may have called Ms. Norvill, who played King Lears daughter Cordelia, yummy but said it was simply theater banter.One text message Mr. Rush sent to Ms. Norvill read, I was thinking of you (as I do more than is socially appropriate), and included an emoji of a winking face with a panting tongue. Mr. Rush told the court it was a throwaway line.Ms. Norvill, testifying before a packed gallery last week, said that Mr. Rush made groping and cupping gestures toward her breasts during rehearsals, raising his eyebrows, bulging his eyes, smiling, licking his lips.In a critical scene, when King Lear grieves over Cordelias dead body, Ms. Norvill stated that Mr. Rush deliberately stroked her breast, a claim corroborated by another actor, Mark Winter, who was on stage.At the time I was on stage with my eyes closed playing a dead body, so I probably felt very trapped because I couldnt do or say anything, or move, Ms. Norvill said.Asked why she did not raise a formal complaint, Ms. Norvill said that the consequences of speaking out as a junior member of the cast would have been catastrophic.I was at the bottom of the rung in terms of hierarchy, and Geoffrey was definitely at the top, she told the court. She added that his power was intimidating and that the other members of the production were complicit in turning a blind eye.Deb Verhoeven of the University of Technology Sydney, who studies gender inequity, said that the Australian theater industry was a small world, literally. If you speak up, Professor Verhoeven said, you will suffer the reputational consequences more severely than you might in other places or other similar industries. The legal implications in Australia add to an atmosphere of fear.Why would I make an informal complaint or any kind of complaint if I feel I am going to end up having my reputation questioned in front of the court? Professor Verhoeven said. Thats why its silencing. The ultimate effect will be to shut down opportunities for women to voice their experience.Ms. Norvill is, in many ways, a reluctant #MeToo figure. Off-the-record comments she made to a colleague about Mr. Rush were later repeated by a source to The Daily Telegraph. She was not interviewed for the articles.Ms. Norvill has been forced to recount her trauma in a fight between a rich old man & a rich old newspaper. Whoever wins, she loses, wrote Nic Holas, campaigns director for Change.org Australia, on Twitter.In a dramatic cross-examination, Mr. Rushs lawyer, Bruce McClintock, accused Ms. Norvill of telling a whole pack of disgusting lies to blacken and smear his clients reputation. Key to the plaintiffs case is that she is only now speaking up. But Ms. Norvill told the court: I had the least power. What was I supposed to do?Want more Australia coverage and discussion? Sign up for the weekly Australia Letter, start your day with your local Morning Briefing and join us in our Facebook group. | World |
Charles Manson 3 Finalists Vying for Body!!! Judge to Sort It Out 1/24/2018 Charles Manson's still on ice, but the battle's heating up for his body -- and the 3 lucky finalists in line for the corpse all have some issues, which have now fallen in a judge's lap. According to docs, obtained by TMZ and filed by the Kern County Coroner, 3 men are claiming Manson's bod. The first is Michael Channels, who submitted the first will from Manson -- but it's only partially legible. Plus, Channels is listed as a witness, which casts doubt on the will's validity. Contestant #2 is Matthew Robert Lentz, who claims to be Manson's son and also filed a will, but his only has 1 witness -- at least 2 are required -- so it's incomplete. Last up ... Jason Freeman -- who says he's Manson's grandson -- filed legal docs to prove he's Charles Manson Jr.'s son ... seemingly making him the murderer's next of kin. The problem here is, before his death, Manson told prison officials he had no family. In other words ... it's legal helter skelter. Good luck sorting it out, your honor! | Entertainment |
Credit...Tobias Schwarz/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesMarch 19, 2017BERLIN Even in Germany, where consensus is highly valued, it had never happened before.On Sunday, Martin Schulz was anointed leader of the Social Democrats, Europes oldest democratic party, with 100 percent of the valid votes cast at a special convention.The result places Mr. Schulz, 61, a former president of the European Parliament, in pole position to unseat the worlds most powerful woman, Chancellor Angela Merkel, when the two face off on Sept. 24 in the national election, in which Ms. Merkel is seeking a fourth term.Even before that, it could increase the tensions coursing through Germanys relationship with President Trumps administration. Already, Mr. Trumps actions and Britains decision to leave the European Union have had an effect here, slowing the rise of right-wing populism as voters re-examine the value of the Continents unity.But the rallying cries in Mr. Schulzs 75-minute address to the convention seemed destined to irk an American administration that is already demanding more from its NATO allies. His best applause lines railed against buying more weapons, or argued that even Mr. Trump should hold fast to democratic values.Anyone who tries to curb the freedom of the news media, Mr. Schulz emphasized, is laying an ax on the roots of democracy, whether he is the president of the United States or a protester at a rally of Pegida, the anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant movement in Germany. Both are unacceptable.After the unanimous endorsement of his election bid, Mr. Schulz jubilantly declared, This vote is the start of capturing the chancellery.He was nominated as the new party leader only in late January and has since been embraced by the center-left with an lan not seen in years. More than 13,000 people have joined the Social Democrats in recent weeks a fact celebrated by party leaders even though 2016 membership, at around 438,000, was 130,000 less than a decade earlier.Significantly, the 153-year-old Social Democrats have drawn level with Ms. Merkels center-right bloc, with both hovering around 31 or 32 percent in polls. Currently, the two govern in a coalition led by Ms. Merkels conservatives.Though German politicians and voters are used to the compromises of coalition politics, the partnership seems likely to grow testier. If so, some commentators said, that would be another sign of the effect Mr. Trump is having across a continent he often scorns.Last week in the Netherlands, and in December in Austria, centrist parties beat back the rising tides of nationalist populism, not quashing the far right but denying it further claim on national leadership. Commentators say that Mr. Trump has galvanized even Europeans skeptical of the European Union, a bloc often derided as remote and unknowable to the almost 500 million people who live in its 28 member states.Unease about Mr. Trump means that he has had a much bigger effect in Europe than in the United States, Rolf Kleine, a senior political editor of the best-selling Bild newspaper, said on the sidelines of the Social Democrats convention.Suddenly, Mr. Kleine said, people got frightened. They have seen what the results are when you elect people you perhaps had better not have elected, he added.Just how awkward relations already are was on full display last week when Mr. Trump received Ms. Merkel at the White House. In a subsequent post on Twitter, he claimed that Germany owed vast sums for past American defense.Then, on Saturday, American resistance deprived the German hosts of a Group of 20 finance ministers summit meeting of a usually routine declaration against protectionism.Ms. Merkel, known for her patience and for waiting out crises, has not reacted to either the NATO demands or the Group of 20 statement. But her close ally, Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen of Germany, issued a sharp statement on Sunday in which she denied Mr. Trumps contention.There is no debt account in NATO, Ms. von der Leyen said, adding that it was false to view the 2 percent pledged for military spending by each member as exclusively for NATO. Included in the sum, which Germany is set to reach over the next decade, is support for United Nations peacekeeping missions and the fight against the Islamic State. What we all want is fair burden-sharing, which requires a modern understanding of security, Ms. von der Leyen said.While Mr. Trump continues to unsettle, opponents might argue that Mr. Schulz, who failed to finish high school and is entirely untested in national politics, also represents a risk. But Mr. Schulz, a former bookseller, has a compelling personal story, more than 20 years of experience in European structures and, above all, a message that Germans appear newly eager to hear. Since he was chosen as the Social Democrats leader and embraced a simple slogan, More Justice, his party has advanced. Supporters chant Martin! Martin! when he appears and wave placards proclaiming that it is time for Schulz.His rise has apparently blunted the advances of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which now runs around 9 to 10 percent in polls. The Green and Left parties are also stuck around 8 percent each, with the liberal Free Democrats hovering around the 5 percent hurdle that must be cleared to win parliamentary seats.So far, Mr. Schulz has provided almost no details of what his policies might be and says he will outline his program only in late June. Even supporters worry that this leaves him vulnerable.At the moment, he is everybodys darling, said Steffen Burmeister, 54, who is active in local politics near Hamburg. He can bring people along, and he has the right themes. In addition, he said, it is a very important signal that he is someone who has worked so hard for Europe, and at the top of the structure. Still, Mr. Burmeister argued, more fresh faces are needed.Mr. Schulz sought to appeal to voters of all ages: invoking the iconic Willy Brandt, the Social Democrat who pioneered dtente with the Soviets, for older generations and seeking to woo younger ones with concern for their future.Anne Wachter, 27, works for the Social Democrats. Embracing a life-size image of Mr. Schulz, which she said she had carried nationwide to appearances in recent weeks, she rejected the idea that his advance was a result of Mr. Trumps rise.I think we just let Donald Trump be, she said, and make our own policy. | World |
Credit...Joshua Lott for The New York TimesDec. 25, 2015A quicker, cheaper law degree which got a major vote of confidence when President Obama, a lawyer and former law professor, unexpectedly endorsed it in August 2013 has been widely promoted as an ideal way to slash growing student debt and give beginning lawyers a leg up in a difficult job market.But one of the most visible experiments, the two-year law degree, has foundered so far. The only elite school to adopt it, the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, this fall ended its accelerated two-year juris doctor program after it failed to attract enough applicants.We thought this program was the holy grail alternative to bring in students who might otherwise not have considered law school, Daniel B. Rodriguez, the Northwestern law school dean. It was like Field of Dreams, he said, referring to the Kevin Costner baseball movie. If you build it, they will come.The Northwestern program was a bellwether for innovation in legal education at a time when law school has lost some of its luster and applications have declined except to top-tier schools as prospective students see higher tuition costs, but fewer legal job opportunities.Only two years ago Mr. Rodriguez and Samuel Estreicher, a professor at the New York University School of Law, publicly praised the streamlined degree as a big step in the right direction to rapidly train lawyers, ease student financial burdens and encourage innovation in third-year law curriculum.Despite the closure, a handful of other law schools are still successfully offering a two-year degree option. They include Brooklyn Law School, University of Kansas, University of Dayton School of Law and Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. But such degrees largely do not reflect retooling of the law school curriculum because accreditation rules require the same number of course credits to graduate. The degree in a truncated time frame typically costs the same as the three-year version.Even so, a number of law schools confronting the reality of plunging applicants and perhaps spurred by the presidents seal of approval are trying to push the boundaries of conventional legal education in other ways.This month, for example, the Loyola University Chicago School of Law said that, starting in fall 2016, it planned to offer a weekend juris doctorate program that would allow part-time students to earn a degree using both physical classes and distance learning. Other law schools also are experimenting with mixing online learning and in-class sessions to attract law degree seekers who want more flexibility.A speedy degree, however, is not the only issue facing law schools. Employers are demanding that law graduates have the skills to work as lawyers from their first day of employment. In response, some schools are overhauling their third-year offerings. The University of California Hastings College of the Law began a program called Lawyers for America in 2011 that lops off the last year of academic classes. Instead, students gain hands-on experience by spending their final year in places like a district attorneys office, where they learn tasks like taking depositions and filing legal motions.Law schools have been cautious about too much tinkering, unwilling to disrupt a proven earnings model and to avoid the wrath of alumni reacting to any diminution of the schools brand.We are trying to change a system thats been the same for more than 80 years, said Blake D. Morant, dean of George Washington University Law School and current head of the Association of American Law Schools. At the same time, employers law firms, corporate counsel and federal agencies are telling us that they no longer want to train these lawyers.They want lawyers with the critical-thinking skills they learn in law school, but who also are ready to hit the ground running.As the popularity of law school has slumped, the schools are trying to figure out how to assure a steady stream of applicants, and tuition dollars, while juggling entrenched institutional costs like six-figure professor salaries and upscale facilities. Changing the longstanding law school model can be expensive and chancy.Northwestern, for example, did the market research and tailored its program to appeal to slightly older students with workplace experience, but its pipeline of students was unexpectedly narrowed by economic and regulatory forces, said Mr. Rodriguez, Northwesterns dean. The program, which started in 2010, began before the world changed and there was a free-fall in applications.The law school has labored to reach its goal of 30 students per class each year, a typical number for many such two-year programs. Students with solid job experience like John A. Prinzivalli, 29, of Chicago, found the program ideal.It was a good step for me after spending five years in an economic consulting firm, said Mr. Prinzivalli, who is set to graduate in May 2016 from the two-year program. I wanted to be with like-minded peers yet be able to quickly rejoin the work force.He has a job offer from a major law firm, where he interned last summer, so he is saving a years living expenses and also gaining a years salary with an earlier job start date. The accelerated program is a chance to show ambition and hard work, he said, but its also a lot of work in a compressed time frame.Another stumbling block for law school experimentation can be American Bar Association accreditation rules. As a university-affiliated law school, Northwestern was allowed to recruit a percentage of high-achieving undergraduates, who might have otherwise gone to another law school, to go directly to its law school, using results from tests like Graduate Record Exam (GRE) rather than the more traditional Law School Admissions Test (LSAT).Increasingly, higher education institutions are opting out of relying on standardized testing in evaluating applicants, but most of the A.B.A.s 200-plus accredited law schools use the test as a significant marker for admission decisions.The rule change was criticized by some stand-alone law schools as a shortcut that helped university-affiliated law schools corral good students. About two dozen independent schools pressed the accrediting body, the A.B.A. Section on Legal Education, to rescind the new rule. Last summer, citing too many law school requests for variances to its rule, the A.B.A. reversed itself effective in 2017, so that currently enrolled students can complete their degrees.Even with the overturned rule, Barry Currier, the A.B.A. sections managing director for accreditation and legal education, said law schools could continue to recruit high-performing undergraduates who have completed three-fourths of their education to participate in 3 + 3 accelerated programs. The six-year program allows qualified rising seniors to enter law school and complete both a bachelors and law degree in less time than the typical seven years.Such streamlined programs have been more popular with the legal academy. So far about 30 schools, including Northwestern, Fordham University School of Law and Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law, have adopted such programs.Schools committed to the two-year law degree, like Brooklyn Law School, say there is an extra layer of scrutiny for those applying to the program, which allows students to complete their studies in 24 months. Students must undergo a formal interview, either in person or via Skype, to make sure that students understand it is a vigorous program, said Nicholas W. Allard, the schools dean.For some, the briefer, cheaper degree is invaluable. For example, Frank P. Michielli, 24, of Westchester, N.Y., who worked at a legal recruiting firm before entering Brooklyn Law Schools two-year program, works part-time and lives in law school housing to avoid too much education debt.I saved a year of living expenses, which can really add to your debt, he noted. So while others will be paying a third year of tuition, Ill be getting a paycheck.Among schools committed to a third year, the University of California Hastings School of the Law has a Lawyers for America program that provides students with the option of spending their final year getting hands-on skills. Students also commit for a year following their graduation to work in the same place, for an annual stipend of $35,000, according to Marsha N. Cohen, a law professor and founding executive director of the program.I really wanted a tactile learning experience, said Ali Nicolette, 28, of Huntington Beach, Calif., a third-year student who works for Disability Rights California, a statewide agency, where she interviews new clients, conducts negotiations and drafts pleadings. Having the practical skills will be a huge advantage if I have to go up against graduates with perfect law school records, she said.However, she said, there is a downside. The salary is subsistence pay, especially in this area, she noted, but the experience is an investment, too. | Business |
Credit...Christopher Gregory for The New York TimesDec. 4, 2015WASHINGTON The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether Puerto Rico, which is in the midst of a financial crisis, may allow public utilities there to restructure $20 billion in debt.Puerto Ricos lawyers had urged the court to take immediate action in light of the overall magnitude of the commonwealths debts, around $72 billion, which it says it cannot pay.Anyone who has even glanced at the headlines in recent months knows that the commonwealth is in the midst of a financial meltdown that threatens the islands future, the lawyers wrote in their petition seeking review of an appeals court decision that struck down a 2014 Puerto Rico law allowing the restructurings.Because that decision leaves Puerto Ricos public utilities, and the 3.5 million American citizens who depend on them, at the mercy of their creditors, the commonwealths lawyers wrote, this courts review is warranted and soon.The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, in Boston, said the 2014 law, the Recovery Act, was at odds with the federal Bankruptcy Code, which bars states and lower units of government from enacting their own versions of bankruptcy law.Puerto Rican officials countered that the Recovery Act addressed a gap in the way its debts are treated. Under the Bankruptcy Code, states may authorize their cities, counties, public utilities and other branches of government to restructure their debts under Chapter 9 of the code. But that law excludes all branches of Puerto Ricos government, including its public utilities. The Recovery Act, Puerto Rican officials said, merely filled the gap in the overall legal structure.Creditors of the utilities sued, arguing that the Bankruptcy Code displaced, or pre-empted, the local law. So far, the courts have agreed.Puerto Rico is also seeking help in Congress, calling for an amendment that would give it access to bankruptcy court. Its problems are worsening, and some now argue that restructuring just $20 billion of public utility debt will not be enough. The Obama administration has proposed a much broader form of bankruptcy, to allow the island to restructure all $72 billion of its bond debt. The Republicans who control both houses have so far shown little support. They have said that such a super bankruptcy regime could blaze a trail for distressed states, like Illinois, to follow, profoundly disrupting the credit markets where states and cities now raise their money.But that is not a reason for the Supreme Court to deny review, the islands lawyers told the justices.Precisely because the crisis facing Puerto Ricos public utilities is so acute, they said, it would be irresponsible for the commonwealth to respond to the vacuum left by the lower courts invalidation of the Recovery Act by simply kicking back and crossing its fingers pending this courts consideration of this petition. Instead, the commonwealth and its public utilities have explored every potential avenue to fill that gap, including federal legislation and consensual deals with creditors.Justice Samuel Alito recused himself from the decision, although court documents did not disclose the reason. So the vote will include eight justices, rather than nine.The cases, Puerto Rico v. Franklin California Tax-Free Trust, No. 15-233, and Acosta-Febo v. Franklin California Tax-Free Trust, No. 15-255, will probably be argued in the spring and decided by the end of June. | Business |
Carnet d'AlbiMarch 7, 2017ImageCredit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesALBI, France La peinture est dfrachie, mais le mot est encore lisible : ALIMENTATION. On dirait un dcor de thtre pendu au-dessus de la vitrine de ce vieil tablissement vacant. En face, un salon de tatouage. Personne ny entre ni en sort. La rue est dserte.Continuez votre chemin et vous dcouvrirez dautres devantures closes, et l dans le centre historique de cette ville domine par limposante cathdrale en briques du XIIIe sicle, lun des joyaux de France. Les boutiques pour touristes et les grandes chanes de lhabillement sont ouvertes, mais les piceries, les cafs et les boucheries, tous ces tablissements qui au cours des sicles animaient le cur des villes comme celle-ci, ont disparu.Dans un pays comme la France, qui foisonne de beaut et dont les traditions semblent immuables, il nest pas ais de prendre la mesure des changements, voire de la dcomposition en cours. Elle saute pourtant aux yeux, Albi comme dans des centaines dautres communes. La France perd, une une, ses villes de province de taille moyenne ces ples de vie denses et raffins, profondment ancrs dans le milieu rural, o les juges rendaient justice, o Balzac situait ses romans, o les prfets mettaient des ordres et o les citoyens pouvaient acheter une cinquantaine de fromages diffrents.ImageCredit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesJe me suis rendu Albi en janvier loccasion dun reportage sur la campagne prsidentielle franaise. Je connais la ville depuis presque 35 ans, pour y tre pass plusieurs reprises aprs linstallation de mes parents Paris lorsque javais 4 ans. Ma premire visite remonte 1982, jy tais en compagnie de ma petite amie luniversit. Jy ai trouv une ville extraordinairement anime, un bijou ocre-rouge, de la couleur des briques dont sont construites ses maisons depuis le Moyen-ge et que rehausse le brlant soleil mridional. Javais t envot.En janvier, ce ntait pas dun candidat la prsidence que je suivais la trace mais dun paradoxe sous-tendant la campagne lectorale, savoir que les Franais sont la fois profondment fiers de leur mode de vie, quils considrent incomparable, et rongs par langoisse de le voir disparatre.Cette campagne est presque sans quivalent en France car elle est domine par la question centrale de linconcevable, mais possible victoire de la candidate dextrme-droite Marine Le Pen. Dj le discours sest droitis, et la candidate a fait une promesse quasi-viscrale aux lecteurs, celle de prserver la France et lidentit franaise. Que la menace soit dfinie comme lislam, limmigration ou la mondialisation, son engagement est le mme : elle se prsente comme celle qui prservera la vie la franaise.Lanxit latente se nourrit en partie du dclin visible dinnombrables centres-villes historiques. Voir se dliter ainsi les anciennes villes de province est un coup de plus port lidentit franaise la preuve tangible quun mode de vie disparat. Le mme processus a touch les centres-villes amricains, peu peu vids de leur substance au cours des dcennies passes. Daprs un sondage rcent, 10,4 % des commerces des villes moyennes de France sont dsormais ferms, plus du double du chiffre dil y a 15 ans. Le dclin de ces communes sest accompagn dune droitisation politique du vote local. Bien quAlbi soit traditionnellement centriste, la ville souffre dun dclin similaire et partage les mmes angoisses politiques.Au dtour dune rue, voici la dernire cole de la vieille ville ferme depuis quelques annes. Dans une artre voisine, le dernier magasin de jouets, ferm lui aussi, puis la dernire petite picerie indpendante, ses volets galement clos. Le soir, seul le son de vos pas sur le pav vient troubler lpais silence des rues dsertes.ImageCredit...Adam Nossiter/The New York TimesDans une tribune rcente du Figaro, lhomme daffaire Charles Beigbeder crivit : terme, si rien nest entrepris, cest une part minente de lme franaise qui prira, emportant dans son flot plus de la moiti de la population franaise. Il plaidait pour un plan Marshall pour la France priphrique.Lextinction dun mode de vieAlbi, 49,000 mes. Jy suis arriv un jeudi soir, en voiture depuis Toulouse, une heure de route. De la fentre je voyais un gigantesque centre commercial, Les Portes dAlbi, dont le parking tait bond. Dans lAlbi que javais connu auparavant, les commerants logeaient en ville, au-dessus de leurs boutiques. Des sicles dhistoire et de vie peuplaient les boulevards ombrags. Faire ses courses tait un geste social autant quconomique.En prparant mon voyage, jtais tomb sur un rapport du gouvernement qui sest rvl tre une sorte dautopsie des villes de province Agen, Limoges, Bourges, Arras, Bziers, Auxerre, Vichy, Calais, et autres. Dans ces villes ancestrales, certaines plus durement touches quAlbi, linteraction entre une architecture taille humaine faite de pierre et de brique et la vie publique avait t le creuset sculaire de lhistoire et de la culture franaises. Dsormais, elles steignaient, pouvait-on lire dans ce rapport au vocabulaire sec et concis, car une partie constitutive du mode de vie franais se dlitait progressivement.Le rapport qualifiait de proccupant le phnomne de dvitalisation des centralits urbaines car le commerce participe la vie de la cit et la faonne en grande partie.Mon premier rendez-vous tait avec le lanceur dalerte de la ville qui avait accept de me servir de guide. Ce ntait pas une quelconque affaire de corruption que Florian Jourdain dnonait, mais un phnomne expos aux yeux de tous, savoir le dclin de la ville. Son blog, tenu mticuleusement, avait attir lattention de la presse franaise et dclench une telle rancur parmi ltablissement commercial dAlbi quune manifestation stait tenue sur la place principale linitiative dune association de commerants.ImageCredit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesDiplm dhistoire, ayant suivi des cours de gographie, M. Jourdain avait mis sur son blog une carte dAlbi o chaque commerce ferm tait indiqu par une tte de mort. Il avait dcouvert que prs de 40 % des tablissements restants vendaient des vtements, et il souponnait que la plupart de ceux-l travaillaient essentiellement avec des touristes. Au cur du vieil Albi, il restait une boulangerie-ptisserie traditionnelle, mais plus de boucherie artisanale.Pour tablir ce constat, M. Jourdain avait travaill dans le quasi-anonymat, et trs peu dAlbigeois, mme parmi ses allis, connaissaient son nom de famille. Je lai retrouv par un vendredi matin venteux, sur la place de limposante cathdrale Sainte-Ccile, une forteresse en briques rige il y a huit sicles pour inspirer la crainte aux hrtiques insoumis de cette contre. En nous engageant dans la rue Maris, lartre commerciale principale, M. Jourdain ramena sa capuche sur sa tte pour viter quon le reconnaisse. Je mefforais de mon ct de me remmorer lanimation qui gayait, il y a 35 ans, ces rues dsormais vides.De mon point de vue, tant que je reste prcis, on ne peut pas mattaquer, me dit-il propos de son travail. Pour moi, cest un norme problme quil ny ait plus dpicerie dans le centre-ville. Il ny a plus de caf associatif, non plus.De rue en rue, nous avons pris mesure des failles de la ville. Il manquait des noms sur les interphones des vieux immeubles. Aux tages, les volets restaient clos de jour comme de nuit. Environ 15 % de ces vieilles btisses sont vacantes.Il na pas fallu longtemps M. Jourdain, arriv de Paris en 2013, pour comprendre que quelque chose nallait pas. Je men suis rendu compte trs vite, ma-t-il dit. En face et ct de chez nous, il y avait deux immeubles magnifiques qui taient vides. Jai trouv a bizarre. Et puis jai commenc remarquer de plus en plus de commerces ferms.Nous nous sommes rendus sur la place Laprouse, du nom du grand explorateur n Albi au XVIIIe sicle. Je me suis alors souvenu que par un aprs-midi lumineux, je mtais assis l, sur un banc, regarder les vieilles btisses qui mentouraient. Lendroit tait assez silencieux pour entendre les oiseaux dans les arbres centenaires qui projetaient leur ombre sur la place.Dsormais, ce nest plus quune intersection sans charme, couple dune place pitonne sans me autour de laquelle les voitures filent.Nous avons continu et sommes passs devant deux vitrines qui affichaient les mots LIQUIDATION TOTALE. Limage dun centre-ville dense et vivant dantan, celui dun organisme vivant, sen tait alle.Regardez, avant il y avait un caf ici, me dit M. Jourdain en montrant un magasin de vtements pour femmes o les restes dun auvent traditionnel de caf franais taient encore visibles.M. Jourdain parle de sa ville avec la ferveur dun amoureux du. Il y a dmnag pour sa beaut et pour chapper lagitation de Paris, mais y a surtout trouv une ville apathique. Il considre dsormais que son rle est dveiller la conscience de ses concitoyens. Le risque est grand pour notre belle cit piscopale, crivait-il sur son blog en 2016.Nous avons ensuite continu vers la rue de la Croix-Blanche, tout aussi vide. De nouveau, nous tions les seuls passants, longeant une enfilade de commerces ferms. Dans la rue Puech-Brenguier, nous sommes passs devant la dernire picerie. Rue Peyrolire, nous avons vu lcole abandonne, ferme en 2013, dans un btiment classique du temps de la Troisime Rpublique o des gnrations dAlbigeois ont t duqus. Sur un mur lintrieur, le dessin dun enfant tait encore visible. Les cris denfants ne rsonneront plus, dclara La Dpche du Midi.ImageCredit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesAuparavant, le march couvert avait t un lieu central de la vie de quartier et de commerce, mais plus maintenant. On sent le temps comme suspendu, dit M. Jourdain.A mesure que la journe avanait, nous navons crois presque personne dans certaines rues du centre-ville. Vous voyez clairement que nous sommes dans une rue qui se meurt, ma expliqu M. Jourdain propos de la rue Emile-Grand, alors que nous tions sur le point de terminer notre promenade. Il y a des btiments entiers sans une me qui vive.Jai demand un rendez-vous avec la maire divers droite, Stphanie Guiraud-Chaumeil, mais la responsable de communication ma accueilli avec un manque denthousiasme distingu. On ma promis un entretien tlphonique la semaine suivante, et lorsque jai pu enfin changer avec Mme Guiraud-Chaumeil, celle-ci ma expliqu que la dvitalisation urbaine avait eu un impact relativement modr. Elle sest aussi empresse de critiquer M. Jourdain.Cest un extraterrestre, a-t-elle lch, qui arrive pour faire parler de lui.Le responsable de lassociation des commerants, qui avait organis la manifestation contre M. Jourdain, fut tout aussi vasif. Il ne se trouvait pas dans le supermarch quil gre au sous-sol du march couvert. Personne na pu dire quand il viendrait, ni comment le joindre, et la permanence de lassociation en centre-ville est ferme depuis longtemps.Des villes historiques labandonLe samedi matin, jour le plus anim de la semaine pour les courses, les commerces et les magasins de vtements attiraient les clients lintrieur de leurs boutiques en promettant des soldes. Jy retrouvais la vie que javais dcouverte des annes auparavant, mais parmi les clients du week-end, beaucoup ntaient pas de la rgion.Je suis all retrouver Fabien Lacoste, un membre PS du conseil municipal, dans lombre de la cathdrale. Comme la plupart des samedis, il travaillait, vendant des crpes lextrieur.Pour lui, le destin dAlbi est un malheur culturel. Les dirigeants de la ville ont inject des fonds dans un nouveau centre culturel ultra-moderne au bout de la ville ; le centre commercial a t construit, ainsi que de grands supermarchs, lextrieur dAlbi, chacun avec son parking gratuit. Non pas quAlbi nait plus de commerce ou dactivit, mais lessence de la vieille ville semble perdue.Lmergence de ces centres commerciaux a suivi la nette amlioration du niveau de vie apporte par ce que les Franais appellent les Trente Glorieuses, de 1945 1975. Le taux de croissance tait de 4 %; le pouvoir dachat dun travailleur moyen augmenta de 170 %. Les centres commerciaux sont apparus et la vieille ville dAlbi, faite de petits commerces pour les achats du quotidien, ne put satisfaire la demande florissante des consommateurs.ImageCredit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesAujourdhui, la France est le pays europen avec la densit la plus importante de centres commerciaux, et ce en dpit du taux de vacance moyen qui, sur prs de 190 centre-villes, slevait 10,4 % en 2015, contre 6,1% en 2001, selon le rapport du gouvernement sur la dvitalisation des centre-villes. Cest le paradoxe franais: une nouvelle socit de consommation a corn lme franaise, ce qui a empir, aujourdhui, avec leffondrement de la croissance conomique.Il ny a plus de bar, plus de caf. Et nous sommes dans le sud-ouest, bordel! Cest un scandale, dit M. Lacoste, tout en servant des crpes ses clients. On a perdu cette convivialit qui tait notre marque de fabrique. Avant, chaque quartier avait son propre centre, avec son petit caf. Et tout a a disparu aujourdhui.Cest cette dvitalisation-l que je regrette, a ajout M. Lacoste. Plus personne ne vient faire ses courses ici.Dimanche, Albi avait retrouv la torpeur habituelle de la semaine. Le soir, en courant le long du Tarn, jai crois une demi-douzaine de personnes, tout au plus. Au crpuscule, la ville semblait abandonne.Jai enfin pu rencontrer le responsable de lassociation des commerants, juste au moment o il tait en train de quitter son supermarch. Il navait pas lair trs satisfait de me voir, encore moins dvoquer M. Jourdain. Il y a des centres-villes o la situation est encore plus complique, me dit-il.ImageCredit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesMon dernier entretien avant de quitter Albi fut avec Eric Lamarre, qui a ferm le dernier magasin de jouets de la ville lanne dernire. Le centre-ville tait trs anim il y a vingt ans, a-t-il affirm. Les gens y venaient vraiment pour faire leurs courses, il y avait des choses charmantes. Et a grouillait de gens.Aprs louverture du centre commercial en 2009, lactivit de M. Lamarre ne cessa de dprir, jusqu ce quil perde 50 000 euros par an.Cest un problme politique, ma-t-il dit. Ces villes ont vcu. Les politiques disent oui sans rserve aux promoteurs des centres commerciaux.Albi, il conclut, cest toujours une ville magnifique mais pour les touristes. | World |
Eagles Legend Brian Westbrook No QB Controversy In Philly ... Wentz Is the Future 1/23/2018 TMZSports.com Nick Foles is killing it right now ... but when Carson Wentz gets healthy, the starting QB job in Philly is HIS ... so says Eagles legend Brian Westbrook. Westbrook -- who's in the Eagles Hall of Fame -- tells TMZ Sports he's incredibly proud of the job Foles has done filling in for Wentz, but even if he wins the Super Bowl ... he won't get the starting nod next season. "When Carson Wentz is healthy, Carson Wentz will be the starting QB of the Eagles." The good news for Foles ... Westbrook says the guy has a real chance to score a massive contract somewhere else, but the future in Philly is definitely Wentz. | Entertainment |
White House MemoWhen President Trump comes to visit, world leaders face the challenge of finding ways to entertain and impress a leader who relishes spectacle.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesFeb. 23, 2020NEW DELHI One of the most nerve-racking moments for any world leader these days comes with these six words: President Trump is coming to town.Hosting any American leader is demanding enough with the usual requirements of diplomacy, protocol and geopolitics, but with Mr. Trump comes an additional challenge: how to entertain and impress a president who relishes spectacle and cherishes anything that is the first, the most or the biggest.The British have a queen, so they made a grand show of a state dinner at Buckingham Palace. The French have Bastille Day, so they invited the president to view their elaborate military parade down the Champs-lyses. The Japanese have an emperor, so they invited Mr. Trump to be the first foreign leader to visit their newly installed monarch and threw in a sumo match with a special presidential trophy for good measure.Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India opted to appeal to Mr. Trumps first love crowd size as he stages a rally of more than 100,000 people in Ahmedabad on Monday after a drive in from the airport along roads where perhaps 100,000 more will line the motorcade route. The president will almost certainly not be greeted by the 10 million people he expects, but it will look like an enormous crowd nonetheless and, the Indians hope, satisfy his need for affirmation.[Read: America loves India, Trump declares at rally with Modi.]World leaders are vying with each other to appeal to President Trumps vanity, said R. Nicholas Burns, a former under secretary of state under President George W. Bush who helped pave the way for agreements with India during that administration. They understand his foreign trips are more about the image he wants to strike rather than substantive breakthroughs between governments.White House aides deny that the presidents trips are all about show. The United States and India have important issues involving trade and security for Mr. Trump and Mr. Modi to discuss, although administration officials briefing reporters before the presidents departure from Washington on Sunday made clear that the comprehensive trade agreement he seeks with India remains far-off.What has seemed to animate Mr. Trump the most, though, are Mr. Modis promises of cheering crowds. He told me well have seven million people between the airport and the event, Mr. Trump told reporters last Tuesday.Two days later, Mr. Trump ratcheted up the estimate to eight digits. I hear theyre going to have 10 million people, he said at a campaign rally. They say anywhere from six to 10 million people are going to be showing up along the route to one of the largest stadiums in the world.By Sunday as he was leaving the White House to begin his long trip, it had become millions and millions of people. Some people say the biggest event theyve ever had in India, Mr. Trump told reporters. Thats what the prime minister told me.A crowd of 10 million would exceed the entire population of Ahmedabad, estimated at eight million. Local officials estimate that it will be more like 100,000, making Mr. Trump off by only 99 percent. But Motera Stadium, which is not really fully built yet, is supposed to become the largest cricket arena in the world.Other countries could not muster that show of force and so have taken advantage of whatever local assets they might have when Mr. Trump has come to visit. For Britain, of course, that would be Queen Elizabeth II, the worlds longest-reigning monarch, who welcomed him to Buckingham Palace last year with an 82-gun salute and a lavish white-tie state banquet.Crowd size is important to this president, so he was clearly thrilled to be told there would be seven million people on the streets in India, said Peter Westmacott, a former British ambassador to the United States. We couldnt manage that in the U.K., but twice in the space of a year he seemed bowled over by the warmth of the welcome he received from the royal family.Mr. Trump was so blown away by the Bastille Day military parade in Paris when President Emmanuel Macron of France invited him in 2017 that the president insisted on organizing his own American equivalent along the streets of Washington as part of last years Independence Day celebration.Perhaps with that in mind, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is trying to entice Mr. Trump to come to Moscow in May by inviting him to the Red Square parade marking the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany. Mr. Trump, however, appears wary of the awkward politics of such a visit given the election year and Russias continued interference in American campaigns.Japan eschews militarism and therefore military parades, but it sought to make Mr. Trump feel special by making him the first foreign head of state invited to meet Emperor Naruhito after his ascension to the throne. The Japanese also asked Mr. Trump to present his own trophy at a sumo champion match a four-foot-tall object duly labeled the Presidents Cup for the event.World leaders have learned to shorten or scrap the historical tours, remove local delicacies from the menu and focus on one thing only: feeding his ego, said Julianne Smith, the director of the Asia program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Thats taken different forms in recent years, but the goal is always the same make Trump feel like hes getting something unique: a parade in Paris, a grand state dinner at Buckingham Palace or a sumo match with a Presidents Cup in Japan.Not every country can compete. When Mr. Trump was due to travel to South Korea last year, the government in Seoul fretted over what it could come up with that would seem special. The South Koreans have no queen or emperor. But what they do have is a Demilitarized Zone, where Mr. Trump could visit and even, in a surprise first of its kind, step across into North Korean territory and stage a theatrical last-minute meeting with Kim Jong-un.Critics said that meeting, like a parade or a banquet, was just for the pictures, with no lasting result, and that the president should focus more on policy initiatives when he arrives in India. Trump would be far wiser to frame the visit on substance our strong military collaboration with India, Japan and Australia in limiting China, for example, rather than on seeking applause from crowds in a stadium, Mr. Burns said.But symbolism has its value as well, and if a major trade agreement is not in the offing, then the Indians are determined that Mr. Trump go home with warm feelings about their country, throwing in a sunset tour of the Taj Mahal and a state dinner as well.I think the optics, he will get more of them than other presidents do, because I think the Indians recognize that that is something that he will want and will appreciate and will perhaps keep them in good stead over the next few months, said Tanvi Madan, the director of the India Project at the Brookings Institution.And in addition to the crowds, India may have something to offer that other countries do not. I would not be surprised if the Indians named something after President Trump, Ms. Madan said. Like a village, something they did for President Jimmy Carter when he visited. I think you will see them take extra efforts on the optics front for this president. | Politics |
Business|F.D.A. Allows Maker of Just Mayo to Keep Products Namehttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/18/business/fda-allows-maker-of-just-mayo-to-keep-products-name.htmlCredit...Hampton Creek, via Associated PressDec. 17, 2015Sometimes, semantics can make a difference.Hampton Creek, a food company that makes plant-based egg substitutes, said on Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration had reversed course and would allow it to continue using the name Just Mayo for an eggless spread that has come under attack from large food companies and the trade association for egg producers.Federal standards require that any product called mayonnaise contain eggs, which neither Just Mayo nor Just Mayo Sriracha, a derivative product, do. Initially, the F.D.A., which oversees food labeling, had warned Hampton Creek in August that the name Just Mayo and the products logo, an egg cracked by a young pea plant, might mislead consumers into thinking that the product contained actual eggs.Now, the agency has decided that Hampton Creek can keep the Just Mayo name and its logo as long as it makes changes in its label. The company will use bigger type on the front of the label for the list of product attributes like egg-free. And, the label will define the word just in the brand name to mean guided by reason, justice and fairness instead of suggesting that it was an exact replica of mayonnaise.The agencys original decision had come after Unilever, the giant food company that produces and markets Hellmanns mayonnaise (known as Best Foods mayonnaise west of the Rockies) sued Hampton Creek. Unilever dropped the suit just weeks after filing it but months later, the F.D.A. raised similar issues.That raised the possibility that Hampton Creeks branding might have to change, which would have been a crippling blow to what is still a small though rapidly growing start-up.This gives us the chance to tell the bigger story about what were trying to accomplish with Hampton Creek in terms of changing the food system, said Josh Tetrick, Hampton Creeks founder and chief executive. Im really positive about this outcome.In a statement, the F.D.A. said that the company had promised to make changes to its labeling that would ensure it was truthful and not misleading. Therefore, the F.D.A. considers the issues cited in the warning letter to be resolved and will issue a closeout letter soon, the agency said.Mr. Tetrick said he had been pleasantly surprised by his meetings with regulators. About two months ago, I went there and sat down with them, he said. Before that, the F.D.A. seemed to me a sort of abstraction, but then you go there and its a building with people inside, human beings who are thoughtful and engaging and really seemed to be trying to hear us out.Mr. Tetrick said Hampton Creek, which is backed by venture capitalists, had placed an order for the new labels Thursday morning and consumers would start seeing them on the shelves in stores like Target, Walmart and Whole Foods in about 60 days. | Business |
His work as a psychologist on the benefits of intense focus led to a global best seller, a term that became a cultural touchstone and new ideas about the path to happiness.Credit...Steve Strandberg/The Chicago MaroonPublished Oct. 27, 2021Updated Oct. 29, 2021Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a Hungarian American psychologist who showed how everyone from artists to assembly-line workers can be transported to a state of focused contentment by getting caught in the flow, a term he coined and later popularized, died on Oct. 20 at his home in Claremont, Calif. He was 87.His son, Chris Csikszentmihalyi, said the cause was cardiac arrest.Dr. Csikszentmihalyi, who went by Mike and whose full name is pronounced mee-HIGH CHEEK-sent-me-HIGH-ee, was a polymath whose passions for painting, chess playing and rock climbing informed his work on subjects as diverse as the teenage brain and the psychology of interior design.But it was his research into creativity and focus, which began while he was a graduate student at the University of Chicago, that constituted his lifes work, and that made him a public figure after the breakout success of his 1990 book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.The book made flow a part of popular and political culture. Jimmy Johnson, the coach of the Dallas Cowboys, cited Dr. Csikszentmihalyis work as a critical piece in his preparation for the teams victory in the 1993 Super Bowl. He even held up a copy of the book during a postgame interview.Newt Gingrich sang its praises; so did Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, who once boasted that half his cabinet was reading it. A 2004 TED Talk by Dr. Csikszentmihalyi has been viewed nearly seven million times.Flow brought to a general readership ideas that he and other psychologists had been developing for decades. Though Dr. Csikszentmihalyi was not the only person to recognize that people can fall into states of intense focus, he was the first to explain how they did so, in empirical terms.Flow, he argued, was a state of mind, a level of concentration in which outside stimuli, even time itself, seem to fall away. But flow, he added, cannot be forced.People seem to concentrate best when the demands on them are a bit greater than usual, and they are able to give more than usual, Dr. Csikszentmihalyi said in an interview with The New York Times in 1986. If there is too little demand on them, people are bored. If there is too much for them to handle, they get anxious. Flow occurs in that delicate zone between boredom and anxiety.And while his early research was on painters and other artists, he said that flow could be achieved by anyone, from professional athletes to students to factory workers.Flow became an important element of positive psychology, a movement started in the early 2000s by Dr. Csikszentmihalyi and Martin Seligman, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. It focused not on the pathologies of the human mind but its everyday experiences.Csikszentmihalyi was such a leader in our field its hard to do his contributions justice, Laurie Santos, a professor of psychology at Yale, wrote in an email. I think in a world where its become harder and harder to focus, his work on flow has become even more important.Dr. Csikszentmihalyi did not just explain flow; he offered a pointed critique of why so many people fail to achieve it. He cited countless studies showing that most people prefer meaningful work over mindless downtime, but argued that Americans in particular had been conditioned to hate their jobs and love passive relaxation.He blamed television, above all, for the decline in hobbies, avocations and lifelong education activities that blend aspects of work and play and, he said, offer the best opportunity for flow and, through it, happiness.Some critics said his finger pointing smacked of snobbery, to which he had a response: If holding that everyone should have a chance to get the highest quality of experience is an elitist notion, so be it, he wrote in a guest essay for The New York Times in 1993. It is better than resigning oneself to a life of mindless entertainment.Dr. Csikszentmihalyi often cited his own adolescence during and after World War II as a formative experience that prepared him for a life studying the power of concentration.ImageCredit...Bea Kallos/EPA, via ShutterstockMihaly Robert Csikszentmihalyi was born on Sept. 29, 1934, in Fiume, Italy, a port city that is now part of Croatia and known as Rijeka. His father, Alfred Csikszentmihalyi, was a Hungarian diplomat stationed in Fiume, and his mother, Edith Jankovich de Jeszenicze, was a homemaker who later worked for the United Nations.Along with his son, he is survived by his wife, Isabella (Selega) Csikszentmihalyi; another son, Mark; and six grandchildren.During the first few years of World War II, Mihalys father helped Hungarian Jews escape the country by providing them with exit visas. After the war, Mihaly and his parents were interned by the Allies, along with hundreds of other political prisoners. To stave off boredom he played chess, happily finding that while engaged in it the rest of the world seemed to fall away and time seemed to fly by.His father eventually returned to diplomatic service, but in 1947, as Communists were taking over the Hungarian government, the family fled to Italy, where they opened a restaurant in Rome, near the Trevi Fountain.Mihaly was on a vacation in Switzerland when he attended a lecture by the psychologist Carl Jung. Entranced, he decided to study psychology, but it was rarely taught as its own subject in European universities.With the equivalent of $50 in his pocket, he moved to Chicago, where he worked in a hotel while getting his G.E.D. He briefly attended the University of Illinois Chicago, then transferred to the University of Chicago, receiving his bachelors degree in 1960 and his doctorate in psychology in 1965.Dr. Csikszentmihalyi taught at Lake Forest College, outside Chicago, until 1971, when he returned to the University of Chicago. He retired in 1999, after which he moved to California and joined the faculty at Claremont Graduate University.He first became interested in what he later called flow while working on his dissertation, a study of creativity among painters. When he asked, in a questionnaire, what they were thinking about while painting, he noticed that they rarely spoke about their goal, creating art. Instead they talked about the process the challenges of the canvas, the consistency of the paint.Intrigued, he later surveyed other groups and found similar responses.I was astonished to find that all those different people rock climbers, basketball and hockey players, dancers, composers, chess masters used very similar terms to describe their activities and the reasons they got so much out of them, he told The Chicago Tribune in 1986.He came up with the term flow in the early 1970s to describe that state of mind, around the same time he developed a new technique to study it. Rather than having people fill out questionnaires about something they did hours before, he had them wear beepers. Eight or more times a day, he would message them, asking them to describe their state of mind.It was an important move away from paper and pencil questionnaires and toward the real world, Dr. Seligman said in an interview.Dr. Csikszentmihalyi wrote a series of follow-up books to Flow, including one focused on the business world. And while he never claimed to know the secret to happiness, he never passed up a chance to offer advice for those looking for it.We cant afford to become trapped within ourselves, our jobs, and religions, and lose sight of the entire tapestry of life, he said in a 1995 interview with Omni magazine. When the self loses itself in a transcendent purpose whether to write great poetry, craft beautiful furniture, understand the motions of galaxies, or help children be happier the self becomes largely invulnerable to the fears and setbacks of ordinary existence. | science |
The pathogen is proving a familiar adage: The dose makes the poison.Credit...Misha Friedman for The New York TimesMay 29, 2020When experts recommend wearing masks, staying at least six feet away from others, washing your hands frequently and avoiding crowded spaces, what theyre really saying is: Try to minimize the amount of virus you encounter.A few viral particles cannot make you sick the immune system would vanquish the intruders before they could. But how much virus is needed for an infection to take root? What is the minimum effective dose?A precise answer is impossible, because its difficult to capture the moment of infection. Scientists are studying ferrets, hamsters and mice for clues but, of course, it wouldnt be ethical for scientists to expose people to different doses of the coronavirus, as they do with milder cold viruses.The truth is, we really just dont know, said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University in New York. I dont think we can make anything better than an educated guess.Common respiratory viruses, like influenza and other coronaviruses, should offer some insight. But researchers have found little consistency.For SARS, also a coronavirus, the estimated infective dose is just a few hundred particles. For MERS, the infective dose is much higher, on the order of thousands of particles.The new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, is more similar to the SARS virus and, therefore, the infectious dose may be hundreds of particles, Dr. Rasmussen said.But the virus has a habit of defying predictions.Generally, people who harbor high levels of pathogens whether from influenza, H.I.V. or SARS tend to have more severe symptoms and are more likely to pass on the pathogens to others.But in the case of the new coronavirus, people who have no symptoms seem to have viral loads that is, the amount of virus in their bodies just as high as those who are seriously ill, according to some studies.And coronavirus patients are most infectious two to three days before symptoms begin, less so after the illness really hits.Some people are generous transmitters of the coronavirus; others are stingy. So-called super-spreaders seem to be particularly gifted in transmitting it, although its unclear whether thats because of their biology or their behavior.On the receiving end, the shape of a persons nostrils and the amount of nose hair and mucus present as well as the distribution of certain cellular receptors in the airway that the virus needs to latch on to can all influence how much virus it takes to become infected.A higher dose is clearly worse, though, and that may explain why some young health care workers have fallen victim even though the virus usually targets older people.The crucial dose may also vary depending on whether its ingested or inhaled.People may take in virus by touching a contaminated surface and then putting their hands on their nose or mouth. But this isnt thought to be the main way the virus spreads, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.That form of transmission may require millions more copies of the virus to cause an infection, compared to inhalation.Coughing, sneezing, singing, talking and even heavy breathing can result in the expulsion of thousands of large and small respiratory droplets carrying the virus.Its clear that one doesnt have to be sick and coughing and sneezing for transmission to occur, said Dr. Dan Barouch, a viral immunologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.Larger droplets are heavy and float down quickly unless theres a breeze or an air-conditioning blast and cant penetrate surgical masks. But droplets less than 5 microns in diameter, called aerosols, can linger in the air for hours.They travel further, last longer and have the potential of more spread than the large droplets, Dr. Barouch said.Three factors seem to be particularly important for aerosol transmission: proximity to the infected person, air flow and timing.A windowless public bathroom with high foot traffic is riskier than a bathroom with a window, or a bathroom thats rarely used. A short outdoor conversation with a masked neighbor is much safer than either of those scenarios.Recently, Dutch researchers used a special spray nozzle to simulate the expulsion of saliva droplets and then tracked their movement. The scientists found that just cracking open a door or a window can banish aerosols.Even the smallest breeze will do something, said Daniel Bonn, a physicist at the University of Amsterdam who led the study.Observations from two hospitals in Wuhan, China, published in April in the journal Nature, determined much the same thing: more aerosolized particles were found in unventilated toilet areas than in airier patient rooms or crowded public areas.This makes intuitive sense, experts said. But they noted that aerosols, because they are smaller than 5 microns, would also contain much less, perhaps millions-fold less, virus than droplets of 500 microns.It really takes a lot of these single-digit size droplets to change the risk for you, said Dr. Joshua Rabinowitz, a quantitative biologist at Princeton University.Apart from avoiding crowded indoor spaces, the most effective thing people can do is wear masks, all of the experts said. Even if masks dont fully shield you from droplets loaded with virus, they can cut down the amount you receive, and perhaps bring it below the infectious dose.This is not a virus for which hand washing seems like it will be enough, Dr. Rabinowitz said. We have to limit crowds, we have to wear masks. | Health |
UFC's Stipe Miocic I Crushed Francis Ngannou But, My Eye Lost 1/22/2018 UFC heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic SMASHED Francis Ngannou at UFC 220 -- but you wouldn't know it by looking at his mug the day after the fight. Stipe posted a thank-you video to his fans ... and the shiner he was rockin' after the scrap had grown into the size of a damn golf ball. His left ear looks like it got mangled, too. Francis, meanwhile, barely had a scratch on him ... even though he got worked from bell to bell. Doubt Stipe cares, though -- dude's the UFC heavyweight G.O.A.T. now. Congrats!! | Entertainment |
Credit...Carlos Jasso/ReutersMarch 22, 2016WASHINGTON Panama has reported its first case of birth defects associated with the Zika virus, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday new evidence of the epidemics potentially dangerous effects spreading throughout the region.Dr. Margaret Chan, the director general of W.H.O., said a baby with an unusually small head and brain damage a condition called microcephaly was born at 30 weeks gestation in Panama and died a few hours later. Local investigators found evidence of the Zika virus in the umbilical cord.Dr. Chan was providing an update on the Zika virus and its spread in the Americas. Scientists around the world are waiting to see whether more pregnant women who become infected eventually give birth to babies with microcephaly.ImageCredit...Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesThe knowledge base is building very rapidly, Dr. Chan said. The more we know, the worse things look.So far, a surge of cases has been documented only in Brazil. In most other countries where Zika infections have spread, pregnant women who might have been exposed have yet to give birth.The virus is circulating in 38 countries and territories, Dr. Chan said.No one can predict whether the virus will spread to other parts of the world, she added.Brazil and Panama are the only countries that have documented microcephaly cases linked to Zika infection from mosquito bites, Dr. Chan said, but Colombia is investigating several cases with a possible connection.Officials have said that if there is a link, as most scientists believe, they expect to start seeing birth defects in Colombia in June.Dr. Chan said Colombia had set up a very robust mechanism to determine whether microcephaly in newborns there was linked to Zika infection.Cape Verde, a small nation of islands off the coast of Senegal, reported a case of suspected microcephaly last week, and Dr. Chan said W.H.O. has sent investigators to help analyze it. The team includes epidemiologists, laboratory experts, maternal health specialists and communication staff members.W.H.O. said last week that there had been 7,490 suspected cases of infection with the Zika virus reported in Cape Verde from Oct. 21 to March 6, and that 165 were in pregnant women. Officials said 44 women had given birth without any abnormalities. In Brazil, the numbers still lack clarity.Dr. Anthony Costello, the director of the maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health department at W.H.O., estimated that 39 percent of the approximately 2,200 suspected microcephaly cases that were carefully investigated, including with brain scans, were eventually confirmed.Using that ratio and the current count of about 6,500 suspected cases, Dr. Costello said he would expect a total of about 2,500 confirmed cases.Given the rapid spread of this, he added, we must expect that burden to increase substantially.Dr. Chan said funding to address the Zika outbreak had been slow in coming. The organization has received about $3 million out of a requested $25 million, and officials are in active discussion over $4 million more.The situation is still pretty serious in terms of lack of funding, she said. | Health |
Janet Jackson Here's to My Friend, Missy Elliott! 1/26/2018 Getty Janet Jackson and Missy Elliott united onstage Thursday night, but this time it wasn't for a performance. Janet presented the "Work It" singer with the Visionary Award at the Essence 9th Annual Black Women in Music award show in NYC, and it was a really sweet moment. Waiting for your permission to load the Instagram Media. The icons have been tight for years. Missy even came out onstage in December during the final stop of Janet's 2017 tour. JJ came close to shedding tears when she, apparently, made direct eye contact with Missy during the speech. Genuine friendship on display here. | Entertainment |
Judge Judy and CBS Sued by 2 Women Who Launched Court Show 1/22/2018 Judge Judy is in the middle of a lawsuit, but this time she's not presiding ... she's the defendant. The Estate of Sandi Spreckman along with Kaye Switzer are suing Judy and CBS, claiming they helped develop her insanely popular court show back in 1995 and they were cut out of all the profits ... especially when Judy sold the show's library to CBS for a reported $95 million. Switzer and Spreckman were actually staffers on "The People's Court" during Wapner's run and got in touch with Judy and brought her to Larry Little, the producer who got the show up and running. The 2 women were dismissed early on. They are gunning for $4.75 million, minimum. We reached out to Judy's rep. So far, no comment. | Entertainment |
Another ViewDec. 14, 2015David Zaring is assistant professor of legal studies at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.The Federal Reserve Board has not had to worry much in the past about invasive legislation from Congress. The current highway bill, however, represents the culmination of a change in the political risk the agency faces.The bill exemplifies a new trend of legislative hostility toward the agency, which has expressed itself in Republican-sponsored bills calling for audits of the central bank, efforts to limit the Feds discretion in setting monetary policy and even calls for its dissolution.Those bills had never gone far. But now, the tax-averse legislature has chosen to pay for new highway funding through two raids on the Feds budget. If this bill becomes law, it will represent a new and troubling interference by Congress in the affairs of the central bank.The first raid drains the central banks rainy day fund, money set aside from revenue earned from its trading operations it trades government debt to set monetary policy to deal with the possibility of market losses.The second raid reduces the dividend that the Fed has paid to its member banks. Since 1913, that dividend has been set at 6 percent. Under the highway bill, the new, lower dividend would track the rate of return on the 10-year Treasury note, currently around 2.2 percent, with the difference being used for highway funding.It is the dividend reduction that represents a particularly novel degree of interference with the Feds internal workings.Taking $19 billion from the rainy day funds $29 billion stockpile certainly affects the Feds internal budgeting. But Congress has done this before. The Fed turns most of its trading profits over to the Treasury Department anyway. Moreover, it has never lost money on its open market operations, meaning that the $10 billion that would be left over should suffice as an emergency reserve.Reducing the dividends of member banks, however, is different, even if it concerns a pretty anachronistic Fed practice. The dividend comes from shares that the banks are obligated to purchase when they become members of the Federal Reserve System.But it also harks back to the days when the Fed was set up as a semiprivate institution, owned by its member banks, but created by Congress.Nobody thinks that the Fed is a private bank anymore, or they shouldnt it hasnt looked like one since the New Deal.The Fed has been explicitly charged with the public function of managing the monetary supply. It is run by political appointees based in Washington, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The era of a decentralized Federal Reserve System run by regional boards nominated by member banks is long gone.There is no reason to pay Fed member banks a 6 percent dividend solely because they have always received a 6 percent dividend. It is strange for a government agency to pay a dividend to the industry it regulates, and perhaps that persuaded some in Congress to cut the dividend. But cutting the dividend to pay for a highway bill puts Americas banks on the hook for a roads project that has nothing to do with them.Fed officials have warned that the dividend cut could lead to unintended consequences, and I can imagine some banks rechartering as state banks, rather than leaving their money at the Fed to earn 2.2 percent. I can also see the banks preparing a plausible court case citing the Constitutions takings clause.After all, the member banks had investment-backed expectations about that dividend that had a century of pedigree. It is not clear why they have been singled out so that Congress could do something about transportation without raising the gas tax.Banks do not usually do well with takings claims it is a heavily regulated industry after all, meaning that you are expected to put up with administrative surprises but this time might be different.Even worse, it all amounts to a real threat to the Feds cherished independence. Congress has talked tough about reining in the Fed in the past. But using the central bank as a fund-raiser for unrelated fiscal priorities is the sort of thing that happens in banana republics. And plundering the dividend for pet projects is the kind of thing no chief executive would be able to get away with.I even worry about the politics of all these take back the Fed initiatives. Legislators have criticized the Fed for being too cozy with the big banks, but they have been very receptive to the political donations that come from those banks. I doubt a Fed that was used by Congress as a regular piggy bank would end up being used for far-reaching legislative ends.Those in Congress who have been campaigning against the Fed have certainly won a round with the highway bill. It will doubtless increase their agitation to mess even more with the workings of the central bank. | Business |
Dec. 14, 2015Credit...Matt Sayles/Associated PressA former companion of the 92-year-old media mogul Sumner M. Redstone, who is challenging Mr. Redstones mental competence, claimed in a legal filing that a declaration provided to the court by the chief executive of Viacom was riddled with falsehoods. The declaration stated that Mr. Redstone was engaged and attentive.Mr. Redstones former companion, Manuela Herzer, also claimed that Mr. Redstones signature had been forged on a November document, providing testimony from a handwriting expert in the more than 200 pages filed on Monday with the Los Angeles County Superior Court.Ms. Herzers claims were part of an ex parte petition for discovery that specifically asked the court to order a medical examination and deposition of Mr. Redstone. The petition requests permission to take the testimonies of Philippe P. Dauman, Viacoms chief executive, and Mr. Redstones two doctors, as well as to examine documents referenced by Mr. Redstones lawyers, including brain scans or medical tests performed on Mr. Redstone since September. Also requested was a court order to submit as sealed evidence a voice mail message that Mr. Redstone left in September, which Ms. Herzer overheard him leave. Ms. Herzers lawyers described the message as virtually unintelligible.One side or the other is not telling the truth, and the only way to learn the truth is to secure the witnesses and Mr. Redstones testimony under oath and have the court or its representative visit Mr. Redstone, the petition stated.In an immediate 97-page response filed on Monday, lawyers for Mr. Redstone urged that the petition be rejected, calling the development an abuse of the courts valuable time and resources by a self-interested litigant intent on disturbing the peace of a 92-year-old man. In the filing, Mr. Redstones lawyers said that the November document was not forged and that his counsel watched him sign the contract. They also said that the presentation of the audio recording was a shameless attempt to conflate Mr. Redstones physical disability with a mental disability.A hearing on the petition is scheduled for Monday.The development comes two weeks after a judge in the courts probate division rejected Ms. Herzers petition to treat the case as urgent. The judge set a new hearing date for late January to consider the motion from Mr. Redstones lawyers to dismiss the suit, which asks the court to determine whether Mr. Redstone lacked the mental capacity to remove Ms. Herzer from an advanced health care directive, which he did in October, that would have put her in charge of his health decisions. In the interim from the petitions rejection until the planned January hearing each side is to postpone obtaining evidence and documents from the other party.Gabrielle A. Vidal, a chair of trust and estate litigation at the Loeb & Loeb law firm, which represents Mr. Redstone, said in a statement: Ms. Herzers lies continue, and her litigation tactics lack merit and basic human decency.It is surreal that while doing everything she can to disrupt Mr. Redstones life, Ms. Herzer is asking the court to be put in charge of his future health care decisions, Ms. Vidal added.Mr. Redstone is the executive chairman of Viacom and CBS and controls about 80 percent of the voting stock in the two companies. While the legal dispute concerns Mr. Redstones personal life, it has raised questions about his health and whether he should continue in his role leading companies with a combined market value of about $39 billion. Shares in Viacom are down about 46 percent year to date, while shares in CBS are down about 16 percent.Ms. Herzer contested the veracity of a declaration that Mr. Dauman submitted to the court last month in which he said that he was in regular contact with Mr. Redstone. In the declaration, Mr. Dauman says that although Mr. Redstone has a substantial speech impediment, he speaks with him several times a week by telephone and visits him monthly. He described Mr. Redstone as being engaged and attentive during meetings in October and November that included extensive business discussions.In the filing on Monday, Ms. Herzer said that she was present for the October meeting and that Mr. Daumans description conveyed a false image.To the extent that he claims that Sumner spoke other than a difficult-to-understand word or phrase here and there, he is not telling the truth, she said in the filing.Mr. Dauman, who now is designated as Mr. Redstones advanced health care directive, said during a conference last week that Mr. Redstone is making his own health care decisions.Spokesmen for Viacom and CBS declined to comment. | Business |
Dana White Nate Diaz Wants to Fight? I'll Make You An Offer Tonight! 1/24/2018 TMZSports.com Dana White isn't wasting time ... telling TMZ Sports he's calling up Nate Diaz TONIGHT to make him an offer to return to the octagon. White joined the guys on the "TMZ Sports" TV show (airs tonight on FS1) -- and we asked about Nate's Instagram post where he called himself "The Real Champ" and vowed to return to fighting in "May or June." "I'll tell ya what," White said ... "Ill call him today and make him an offer." "I will make Nate Diaz an offer to fight today." White says he's not sure who he'd match Diaz up against -- "I gotta look at the rankings and see where everybody is." What about a 3rd fight with Conor McGregor? Dana isn't ruling it out ... but says that fight ain't the priority for Conor. "I think people would rather see Conor come back and either fight Tony [Ferguson] or Khabib [Nurmagomedov] -- whoever wins -- and the Nate Diaz fight isnt going anywhere. We can do that thing any time." What about Nate vs. Tyron Woodley? Dana says he has other plans for the welterweight champ. There's A LOT more in the full interview tonight on FS1 -- including what's next for Stipe Miocic and if Conor will ever step foot in a boxing ring again. | Entertainment |
Credit...Paulo Nunes dos Santos for The New York TimesMarch 3, 2017DUBLIN The local historian had been telling the authorities for years that dead infants might have been buried in an old sewage system on the grounds of a former home for unmarried mothers and their children in the west of Ireland.Little attention was paid to her claims at first, but the questions eventually led to the establishment of a state-financed investigation. And on Friday, the investigators said that the remains of babies, small children and fetuses had been found where she said they would.The discovery, in the County Galway town of Tuam, was announced on the website of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes. The commission is shocked by this discovery and is continuing its investigation into who was responsible for the disposal of human remains in this way, the agency said in a statement.From 1925 to 1961, the St. Marys home was run by the Sisters of Bon Secours, a Roman Catholic order, but was financed by the Irish government. Tests showed that most of the remains were likely to date from the 1950s, according to the statement, which added that further examinations were being conducted.This is very sad and disturbing news, Katherine Zappone, the minister for Children and Youth Affairs, said in a statement. It was not unexpected as there were claims about human remains on the site over the last number of years. Up to now we had rumors.The historian, Catherine Corless, said in an interview that she welcomed the commissions report but thought the deaths should have been investigated decades earlier.Nobody was listening locally or in authority, from the church or the state. They said, Whats the point? And that I shouldnt view the past from todays lenses.The remains are of some of the 796 children who died at the home over more than three decades. According to death certificates that Ms. Corless hunted down, the causes included malnutrition, measles, tuberculosis, gastroenteritis and pneumonia.The commission that was established in 2015 to investigate allegations of abuse in the institutions, which are known in Ireland as mother and baby homes, said its inquiry in Tuam focused on two structures on the grounds of St. Marys.The first of these structures appeared to be a large sewage containment system or septic tank that had been decommissioned and filled with rubble and debris and then covered with topsoil, while the second was a long structure which is divided into 20 chambers and appears to be related to the treatment/containment of sewage and/or waste water.It was within this second structure that the commission reported that significant quantities of human remains had been found in at least 17 of the 20 underground chambers.According to the statement, the remains included those of 35-week-old fetuses to children up to 3 years old.Further tests are now being conducted and the commission has asked that the relevant state authorities take responsibility for the appropriate treatment of the remains. A coroner had also been informed, the statement added.Although there is no official state religion in Ireland, the Catholic Church has long had a profound influence over the countrys culture and government. Bearing a child outside of marriage was considered both sinful and shameful, and unmarried mothers and their children often suffered discrimination and abuse.Ms. Corless, who lives outside Tuam, went to school with children from the St. Marys home and remembered how they were kept to one side of the classroom and had to arrive and leave at different times so there would be no interaction with children of parents who were married.She said the home babies, as they were known, looked vulnerable and malnourished to her. When her own children were more grown up, she began to look into conditions at the home, and learned of the 796 deaths. None of the bodies were buried in any of the local cemeteries.She also concluded that the children lived in substandard conditions. After the home finally closed, the buildings were demolished, and now a housing development sits adjacent to the site.In 2012, Ms. Corless published an article in a local history journal. The article concluded that some of the children had been buried in an unofficial graveyard in the back of the home. But after studying a map of the grounds, she thought that other bodies might have been interred in the sewage treatment facilities.A sewage tank had been replaced by a public water system in 1937, but she said there was sufficient evidence to show that some babies and small children had been buried there while it was still in operation.Ms. Corless wanted to erect a plaque with the names of all of the children who had died, and she helped up set a committee in 2013 to finance it. The committee was unable to raise enough money.She also approached journalists with her work. In 2014, Alison OReilly, a reporter for the Irish edition of The Mail on Sunday, a London newspaper, wrote an article.But as it spread and was picked up by other news organizations, headlines shouted that 800 bodies had been thrown into the septic tank. That led to criticism, and some said they found discrepancies in Ms. Corlesss work.She said on Friday that that had been difficult but that she had known she was right. I never made a statement unless I could back it with facts. I only presented the truth.On Friday, the Bon Secours order issued a statement that promised its continued cooperation with and support for the work of the commission in seeking the truth about the home.The order declined further comment.For years, there had been accounts of abuse at many mother and baby homes and the government agreed to begin an inquiry. The homes attracted international attention after the release of the film Philomena, which told the story of a womans search for the boy who was taken from her and was adopted by a couple in the United States.The commission has been examining allegations of abuse at 14 mother and baby homes, and four similar institutions between 1922 and 1998. But it has no power to award compensation or bring criminal charges.Ms. Corless added that it was important now that the investigation continued its work, and that it needs to go further inside.The commissions announcement marked another development in a series of scandals involving church and state in Irish life.The director of Amnesty International Ireland, Colm OGorman, who himself experienced clerical abuse, said it was time for the government to join the dots.There is a direct line between the industrial schools, the mother and baby homes and the abuse committed and covered up by priests, he said. The state never really accepted that it had accountability or responsibility when it came to their own citizens, so it outsourced all of that to the church.In the interview on Friday, Ms. Corless said that Ms. Zappone, the minister for children, had telephoned her earlier in the day and thanked her for her work and perseverance. | World |
The Food and Drug Administration is permitting a Rutgers lab to start selling spit-collection kits to detect the coronavirus.Credit...Anna Moneymaker/The New York TimesMay 8, 2020The Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that it had granted emergency authorization for the first at-home saliva collection kit to test for the coronavirus.The test kit was developed by a Rutgers University laboratory, called RUCDR Infinite Biologics, in partnership with Spectrum Solutions and Accurate Diagnostic Labs. Rutgers received F.D.A. permission last month to collect saliva samples from patients at test sites but can now sell the collection kits for individuals to use at home. They must be ordered by a physician.The agency has come under fire in recent weeks for allowing myriad companies to offer diagnostic and antibody tests without submitting timely data for review, under its emergency use authorization policy because of the pandemic. Tests have varied widely in terms of their accuracy, and access to diagnostic testing has been scattered, with shortages of tests and the materials required to process them straining capacity from one state to another.To date, 8.1 million people in the United States have been tested for the coronavirus. But public health experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations leading infectious disease expert, said testing needed to double by the end of May.Just last week, the F.D.A. ordered dozens of companies it had allowed to market antibody tests, which some states and public health experts hope will help indicate the depth of infection in communities and quantify who has recovered and perhaps developed some immunity, to submit data proving accuracy within 10 days, or it warned the products could be removed from the market.The F.D.A. said that Rutgers had submitted data showing that testing saliva samples collected by patients themselves, under the observation of a health care provider, was as accurate as testing deep nasal swabs that the health professional had collected from them. The agency also said the spit collection kits should be limited to people who are exhibiting Covid-19 symptoms.A patient can open the kit, spit into the tube, put the cap back on and ship it back to our lab, said Dr. Andrew Brooks, chief operating officer and director of technology development at RUCDR. We bring the test to the patient, instead of the patient to the test.The F.D.A. said it still preferred tests based on deep nasal samples, which involve a health professional inserting a long swab up through the nose and into the back of the throat. But even those have had problems. In mid-April, for example, an unnamed team of health providers reported to the F.D.A. that the new Abbott ID Now test failed to detect coronavirus on six patients who were known to have Covid-19.Rutgers has 75,000 of the saliva test kits ready to ship and can process 20,000 tests each day, with a 48-hour turnaround. Dr. Brooks said he expected other labs around the country to adopt it for their own use.He said that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid had approved a $100 fee per test, but prices will vary. One company, Vault Health, is now offering telehealth appointments in which a health practitioner supervises the spit test via video. Vault charges $150 per test.The spit tests are part of an emergency pandemic response effort by the F.D.A. to help developers of novel tests for the coronavirus quickly get to market. Last month, the agency authorized the first type of at-home kit for the virus in the United States, a kit sold by LabCorp that enables people to swab their own noses and send the samples to be tested at the companys labs around the country.Now, at a time when some states say they are still facing a shortage of tests, the at-home spit-collection kits have the potential to widen the audience for virus screening. By keeping people with symptoms at home, instead of asking them to go to medical centers to be tested, the spit kits could reduce the risk of spreading the infection to health care workers.They may also appeal to people who would feel more comfortable spitting into a container than inserting swabs into their noses to collect virus specimens.This combines the ease of saliva collection with at-home collection, Dr. Stephen Hahn, the F.D.A. commissioner, said in an interview on Friday.Some public health experts, however, have cautioned that at-home sampling kits can also come with downsides. One is that it can take longer for people to get test results when they use at-home kits that need to be sent to labs. Because the infection can take several days to develop, they said, the time lag could result in some people receiving false negative test results for coronavirus. Physicians, they said, should make patients aware of the limitations.In its emergency authorization for the Rutgers test, the F.D.A. noted that negative test results would not preclude a coronavirus infection and should not be used as the sole basis for patient management decisions.The agency also noted that the Rutgers lab was the only entity it had authorized to market at-home coronavirus self-sampling kits for saliva. In March, the F.D.A. cracked down on several health start-ups that had rushed to market unauthorized at-home kits that involved consumers collecting their own spit or throat swabs for testing.This is not a general authorization, the F.D.A. said of the Rutgers spit kits, for at-home collection of patient samples using other collection methods, saliva collection devices, or tests, or for tests fully conducted at home.The F.D.A.s decisions to issue more than 100 emergency use authorizations has drawn intense criticism from Democratic lawmakers. Earlier this week, Senator Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, and Senator Patty Murray, of Washington, both Democrats, sent a letter to Dr. Hahn requesting information on how the agency was tracking the use, safety and effectiveness of Covid-19 treatments. and diagnostic tests given emergency use authorization because of the pandemic.The lawmakers said they were particularly concerned about the F.D.A.s tracking of adverse events caused by hydroxychloroquine, a treatment repeatedly promoted by President Trump.The senators noted evidence of the drugs lethal cardiac side effects and its lack of evidence as a treatment for Covid-19. There are also reports that the F.D.A. lowered its quality-control standards so that the administration could accept Bayer Pharmaceuticals donation of millions of hydroxychloroquine tablets for distribution, they said.The senators also told the F.D.A. to make sure that it tracked all reports of adverse events from remdesivir, which received emergency use authorization to treat patients hospitalized with Covid-19. | Health |
VideoThe American skier talks about the struggles of being an independent athlete.Feb. 17, 2014KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia As she walked beside the Mzymta River on Sunday, Megan McJames was wearing the same Olympic gear as the other American Alpine skiers who have reached these Games. She had the same codes imprinted on the laminated accreditation badge that dangled from her neck.But her journey to the mountains above Sochi has been distinct from her teammates: more solitary, more complex and, of late, much more expensive. With the prep period included, Im going to spend this season about $80,000, McJames said. And we did it on a tight, tight budget.After being cut from the United States ski team after failing to meet the qualification criteria in 2012, McJames has been an independent, and independently funded, ski racer the past two seasons.That means that she must rely on sponsors, private donors and her own powers of pluck and persuasion to cover her own expenses; pay her traveling ski technician, Pat Andrews; and remain competitive in a sport whose costs are prohibitive.Youre talking about international travel for two people, and youre talking about theres not a day that goes by that we dont spend money or think about money, Andrews said. And thats the hardest part. When you create a situation like Megan has, you have to be able to level the playing field, because if you dont, then you are fighting an uphill battle.He added: As far as travel goes, its two tickets to Europe, and you think thats $1,500 a ticket, but then you look at the excess-baggage costs, and we have basically another ticket to buy. Were traveling with eight to 10 pairs of skis, and sometimes 12, and two toolboxes of mine and a big tuning table and three or four clothing bags that seem to grow as the trips go on.McJames, a 26-year-old from Park City, Utah, whose parents were instructors at the powder mecca Alta Ski Area, finished 30th in the giant slalom on Wednesday. She is expected to compete in the slalom on Friday. There are people in my journey who have made the road extra challenging, McJames said. But for me, it never worked to be like, Im going to show them. Because Ive always skied for myself, and for me, when Im having fun on the hill, thats when my best results come. So for me, when I got cut from the ski team, it was a journey of redefining why I wanted to ski race and why I loved it and redefining why I was good outside of the national team environment.Financial struggles are hardly unusual for would-be Olympians. Consider the obstacles faced by this years Jamaican bobsled team, which made a public plea for help in late January that generated more than $100,000 in donations.But leading Alpine skiers from wealthy countries like the United States are generally well-funded by their national federations and able to focus their energies on making it through the gates in a hurry. Independence has sometimes been an option for the stars. Tina Maze of Slovenia, who has two golds here and won the World Cup overall title last season, has her own independent team. Bode Miller, the American star, once operated independently from the U.S. Ski Team. Luke Bodensteiner, the executive vice president of the United States Ski and Snowboard Association, said the U.S.S.A. funded, or partly funded, about 50 Alpine athletes, with a strong emphasis on the elite with medal-winning potential and on the most promising youngsters on the developmental teams. McJames did not fit into either of those categories in 2012. A 2010 Olympian, she lost her ski sponsor, and then broke her left heel the next year. She has had limited success on the World Cup circuit.You keep narrowing down until you get to the squad you feel has the highest potential to win World Cup races or Olympic medals, Bodensteiner said. So the process is pretty demanding on athletes, and theres no question it can be, at times, a harsh process because what can happen is you have very, very good athletes who just dont qualify for the team or the support we provide.McJames formed an independent team for the 2012-13 season with two other racers. They focused on the North American circuit, and McJames ended up winning the overall womens title, which guaranteed her a place in the World Cup this season and a potential pathway to the Olympics.ImageCredit...Doug Pensinger/Getty ImagesShe then formed her own team with her boyfriend, Cody Marshall, a former World Cup racer, serving as coach. Andrews, a bearded extrovert, is responsible for preparing her skis and equipment and also for managing many of the logistics, including travel reservations.Like many leading racers, McJames trained in New Zealand during the summer. She got the results critical to her Olympic qualification by scoring World Cup points in December, finishing 23rd in the giant slalom in St. Moritz, Switzerland, and 26th in the giant slalom in Val dIsere, France.But she still was not certain of reaching her second Olympics until the United States team was officially announced in late January. McJames was at home in Park City taking a break from the circuit and the pressures. Andrews was in Sweden traveling with his wife.We were on the phone together, waiting for the list to come out, Andrews said. And when it finally came out, it will be a moment that I will never forget. It was emotional of course, definitely some tears, Andrews said. And when I hung up the phone, it was so much a sense of relief, like Wow, we did it. It was a moment of validation, kind of put the punctuation mark on the whole sentence to tell you the truth.He added: When you see an athlete working like this, you realize what sacrifice is and you realize what determination is, and you realize quickly that a person like Megan wants this so very badly that she is willing to put up with a mountain of crap to succeed.There are other independent racers representing Alpine powers in Sochi. Larisa Yurkiw, a Canadian who specializes in the speed events, operates outside the Canadian national team. There are also independent cross-country ski racers from the United States.McJames said that she believed the trend was accelerating, adding that Marshall had been part of starting a new company called Groundswell Athletics, which will help independent athletes. I think one of the biggest things is that people just dont realize that its possible, Andrews said.Resources like RallyMe, an Internet-based crowdfunding platform for athletes, helped McJames cover a small chunk of her budget, she said.I found a lot of donors who just believed in going after your dreams and stepped up and helped me, and after that, the story kind of spiraled, she said. And I think its an idea that people support. I mean, its a very American idea.U.S.S.A. still makes resources available to her, including its elite training center in Park City. Her hotel costs are covered during World Cup events by the International Ski Federation, and she is usually assigned to the same hotels as the American team.But she remains an outsider. Although relationships with the other American racers were good, she said, relationships with some American coaches could be challenging.We have to walk between the raindrops, Andrews said.Bodensteiner said that without offering funding, the U.S.S.A. had offered to have its coaching staff integrate her into the team during the World Cup but that she had chosen to stick with her own structure.It shows a lot of commitment on her part, he said of her making the Olympic team.McJames spent $10,000 to train in Reiteralm, Austria, before the Games, and to get Andrews to Sochi on short notice. He deserves to be here, she said of Andrews. And even though its expensive, we decided it was worth it.McJames said she might continue to compete as an independent next season, but for this week at least, she is a member of the same team as her fellow American racers, rooming with her friend Resi Stiegler.I feel very liberated, McJames said. It was really hard work to get here. There were a lot of challenges, so to be able to overcome those, I feel really proud of myself. | Sports |
Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesJune 20, 2018WASHINGTON To anyone with even a cursory relationship to television or social media, a charged and emotional battle over the Trump administrations approach to immigration seems to have seeped into every dimension of American life.Just not quite the dimension containing the Trump International Hotel.President Trump zipped around the capital all day Tuesday, motorcade sirens blaring, as he forcefully defended a policy that includes separating families at the border. These are laws that have been broken for many years, he said as he departed Capitol Hill.At the hotel, he spoke for an hour to 150 supporters about half of whom were donors who paid $100,000 to $250,000 to attend a two-day summit meeting organized by America First Action, the super PAC formed to support Mr. Trump and allied candidates.VideotranscripttranscriptKirstjen Nielsen Heckled at Mexican RestaurantThe secretary of homeland security was confronted by protesters while she was trying to have dinner in Washington on Tuesday.Secretary Nielsen, how dare you spend your evening here eating dinner when youre complicit in the separation and deportation of over 10,000 children separated from their parents? How can you enjoy a Mexican dinner as youre deporting and imprisoning tens of thousands of people who come here seeking asylum in the United States? We call on you to end family separation and abolish ICE. Abolish ICE! Abolish ICE! Abolish ICE! Shame!The secretary of homeland security was confronted by protesters while she was trying to have dinner in Washington on Tuesday.CreditCredit...via ReutersBut inside, all was well.Does anybody here look stressed out? the conservative commentator Candace Owens asked as she surveyed the lobby.She had a point. The event drew grinning Trump loyalists, including Sean Spicer, the former White House press secretary, who recently agreed to serve as a spokesman and senior adviser to America First Action. It drew Donald Trump Jr., the presidents oldest son, who had two Secret Service agents in tow. And it drew the occasional pop culture figure, like the retired boxer Evander Holyfield.Attendees shook hands and greeted each other as fellow great American patriots. Others posted photographs to social media, with hashtags like #BlackLivesMAGA.Upstairs, in a restaurant, a boy blew out the candles on his birthday cake, pausing to bite the head off a miniature President Trump made of frosting. TVs at the bar tuned to Fox News analysts who rehashed the Justice Departments inspector general report.The event was part of a heightened fund-raising push by America First Action.That group and an affiliated nonprofit, America First Policies, want to raise $100 million to advance Mr. Trumps agenda and help congressional candidates allied with him before a midterm election season expected to be difficult for Republicans.But through mid-May, America First Action had raised $11.3 million, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. (The total for America First Policies remains shielded by tax laws, but the group said it had raised about $25 million through the end of last year.) Mr. Trump has attended a handful of events this spring, including gatherings at two Washington residences and at a home in Virginia.Sensitive to campaign finance rules barring federal officials from soliciting donations greater than $5,400, the White House has been careful to call these events gatherings with supporters, not fund-raisers, although they have a similar effect. The event this week felt like a conference, with several panels geared toward foreign policy, America First messaging and a healthy disdain for the news media.You guys are genuinely out of touch, said Ms. Owens, who also serves as a communications director for the conservative group Turning Point USA, after speaking on the media panel.I feel like Im talking to someone who actually thinks everyone else is an idiot, she said to this reporter.Panelists, including Ms. Owens, did not pay to attend.Beyond media criticism, what lessons could donors expect to glean?It was a question put to Mr. Spicer, who was passing out business cards in the lobby and inviting people to his book release party July 24! in between panels. His answer: proximity to the president.You want it to be intimate, Mr. Spicer said. Not a cattle call.And besides, Mr. Spicer reasoned: They paid a ton of money, he said, using a phrase that contained an expletive.Donors in attendance included the Oklahoma oilman Harold Hamm; the investor and former ambassador Ronald N. Weiser of Michigan; and the investors Roy W. Bailey and Tom Hicks Jr. of Texas.Mr. Hamm has donated $1 million to America First Action through personal and corporate accounts. Mr. Weiser, who has donated $200,000, said he suspected the event raised a lot of money.Yechezkel Moskowitz, 31, who attended on behalf of his grandmother, a donor, said that he felt as if he had gained a better understanding of the policies he should be supporting, including the administrations approach to rolling back environmental regulations and its hard-line stance on immigration.We have to give the impression that our laws matter, he said. I think conservatism is the new counterculture.Hoping to spread the message, the America First groups have been hosting events for donors and prospective donors featuring appearances by Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. And some of America Firsts donors said they had heard that the president will headline one such event next week in Wisconsin, although an America First spokeswoman said no America First events are planned for next week with either Mr. Trump or Mr. Pence. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday evening.In recent weeks, fund-raisers for the groups began aggressively courting donors ahead of the summit meeting. Donors were told that, in addition to Mr. Trump, speakers would include the former governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee, and a host of Republican lawmakers, including Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Steve Daines of Montana, as well as Representatives Kevin Brady of Texas, Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Greg Walden of Oregon.Mr. Brady spoke Tuesday on a panel about the great things already happening in the economy as a direct result of the tax overhaul passed last year, said his spokeswoman, Allyson Manley.Part of it is, Mr. Spicer said, you buy into the philosophy.Bill White, a donor based in New York City also at the event, said that during his speech to the group, Mr. Trump had focused on drumming up support for his immigration policy and approach to foreign relations at one point, he again complained about being slighted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada among other issues.Im confident that Donald Trump is going to solve that problem of immigration, Mr. White said, with the help of the American people. He hates the fact that children are being taken away from their loved ones.Mr. White said that he and his husband have been so persuaded by the presidents policies that they have pledged $100,000 to America First and are organizing a fund-raiser this year.But the finances of America First and America First Policies have been a source of disappointment to some of Mr. Trumps close allies. They have complained that they are not raising as much as they should, given the presidents support, and have also grumbled about what they say are excessive payments to consultants, according to two people involved in the discussions.America First Action has made hefty payments to consultants with close ties to Mr. Trump, including $184,000 to the firm owned by Brad Parscale, who will have to distance himself from the group because he was tapped to run Mr. Trumps re-election campaign. America First Action also paid $75,000 to the firm of Mr. Trumps first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, and $60,000 to the company of Katrina Pierson, a former campaign spokeswoman, according to Federal Election Commission filings.America First Action also paid more than $69,000 to a firm owned by David A. Clarke Jr., the former sheriff of Milwaukee County. On Tuesday, he roamed the hotel lobby, dressed in a white cowboy hat.The filings also show that the group has spent more than $160,000 at Trump Organization properties, the vast majority of which $154,000 went to the Trump International Hotel for facility rentals and catering. Nearly $2,000 was spent at the hotels steakhouse, BLT Prime by David Burke, with another $864 going to the hotels bar, Benjamin Bar and Lounge.Mr. White said he was comfortable with a large amount of money going toward the presidents hotel. He called it one of the greatest hotel properties in the world. | Politics |
Science|Trees Deal With Climate Change Better Than Expectedhttps://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/science/global-warming-climate-change-trees-carbon-dioxide.htmlTrilobitesCredit...Getty ImagesMarch 16, 2016The bend-dont-break adaptability of trees extends to handling climate change, according to a new study that says forests may be able to deal with hotter temperatures and contribute less carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than scientists previously thought.In addition to taking in carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, plants also release it through a process called respiration. Globally, plant respiration contributes six times as much carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as fossil fuel emissions, much of which is reabsorbed by plants, the oceans and other elements of nature. Until now, most scientists have thought that a warming planet would cause plants to release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which in turn would cause more warming.But in a study published Wednesday in Nature, scientists showed that plants were able to adapt their respiration to increases in temperature over long periods of time, releasing only 5 percent more carbon dioxide than they did under normal conditions.Based on measurements of short-term temperature responses in this study and others, the scientists expected that the plants would increase their respiration by nearly five times that much.At two forest-research sites in Minnesota, scientists tested how the respiration rates of 10 different species of trees from boreal and temperate forests were affected by increases in temperature over a period of three to five years, using heating cables to warm some of the trees.The trees were monitored in two conditions: ambient, and about 6 degrees warmer than that.To demonstrate how the plants adapted to long-term temperature increases, the scientists compared three things: how much carbon dioxide the trees released in ambient conditions; how much the trees released in the warmer conditions; and how much carbon dioxide the trees released when they were exposed to the warmer temperature for a short period of time (minutes or hours).When the scientists compared the results, they found that the trees that were acclimated to the warmer temperatures increased their carbon dioxide release by a much smaller amount than the trees that were only exposed to a short-term temperature increase of the same magnitude.Boreal and temperate forests account for a third of the worlds forest areas, and if they adapt their respiration rates in the way this study suggests, the forests, the planets lungs, can breathe easy. | science |
Baseball|Braves Reach Agreements With Freeman and Heywardhttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/05/sports/baseball/braves-reach-agreements-with-freeman-and-heyward.htmlSports Briefing | BaseballFeb. 4, 2014The Atlanta Braves agreed to an eight-year contract with first baseman Freddie Freeman that is worth about $125 million, the team confirmed Tuesday. Earlier in the day, outfielder Jason Heyward and the Braves agreed to a $13.3 million, two-year contract. Heyward and Freeman, both 24 and part of the Braves core of young stars, had filed for salary arbitration last month. Freeman was an All-Star last year when he hit .319, with 23 homers and 109 runs batted in. Heyward hit .254 last year, with 14 home runs and 38 R.B.I., in 104 games during an injury-filled season. | Sports |
Global SoccerCredit...Ian Kington/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesFeb. 20, 2014LONDON Bayern Munich and Barcelona are among the most accomplished and most attractive teams in the world. Both are capable of winning the Champions League outright, and neither needs outside assistance to beat opponents along the way.They seem to be getting the breaks anyway.On Tuesday, Bara won, 2-0, at Manchester City after the home side was reduced to 10 men for most of the second half. On Wednesday, Bayern won by the same score at Arsenal after the home side was reduced to 10 men before halftime.There was nothing sinister or wrong in either case. City defender Martn Demichelis made a desperate tackle on Lionel Messi, and the law says it is an automatic red card to deny a goal- scoring opportunity with a foul.Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny took a rash kick, missed the ball and swiped the shin of Arjen Robben, and once again the referee correctly applied the letter of the law. He sent Szczesny off and awarded Munich the clear penalty.As it happened, Bayerns David Alaba missed the kick, hitting the base of a post. But Bayern Munich is too good a side not to hurt a depleted opponent and fine goals from Toni Kroos and Thomas Mller converted the numerical advantage into a comfortable away win.I think it was a penalty, Arsenals veteran coach, Arsne Wenger, said in the media room afterward. But is it a red card? He answered the question himself: A rule is a rule and you have to accept it. Indeed, we all must do so.The rule amounts to double jeopardy. The law states that a foul that denies an obvious scoring opportunity will automatically be punished by the red card. And if it occurs inside the 18-yard penalty box, then the award of a penalty kick (which is also an obvious scoring opportunity) is automatic as well.Most men of fair mind regard this double punishment as excessive. FIFA sees it as the answer to foul play. The red card is mandatory, and the referee has no discretion to decide whether a penalty kick is sufficient. And often certainly in the two Champions League encounters this week the game is marred as a spectacle thereafter.In the words of the Bayern coach, Pep Guardiola, on television after the game, Arsenal was much, much better than us for the first 10 to 15 minutes. After the red card, it was another game.Certainly it was. Arsenal, even Wengers Arsenal noted for its adventurous, even romantic play withdrew all nine remaining outfield players behind the ball.One felt, above all, for Yaya Sanogo, the 21-year-old in whom Wenger had put trust to lead his attack against Munich. The slender, 6-foot-3 Frenchman of Ivorian descent was giving Bayerns defense plenty to think about in his first half-hour as a starter in Champions League soccer. But as time went on, Sanogo became just another man trying to get his body between the oncoming tide of Munich attacks and his own goal. The intention was to mount the blockade for as long as Arsenal could hold out.Against the reigning European champion, that time could not last forever.When players as good as Bayerns have almost all of the ball, and pass it so expertly, the opposition is made to run until their legs grow heavy, their lungs ache and their minds tire of blocking and closing, blocking and closing for almost a solid hour.Arsenal had its chances early. After eight minutes, Mesut Ozil, a German and a national team colleague of many on the Bayern team, missed a penalty kick of his own. Ozil had won the penalty award when he tricked Jrme Boateng into a clumsy foul that the Italian referee Nicola Rizzoli decided was worth a yellow card.But it is a puzzle why Ozil was Arsenals designated penalty taker. He had fluffed his two previous penalties, and confidence has drained from him over the past two months. But attempt it he did. His run-up was tentative, his shot tame, and Manuel Neuer, the goalkeeper who has known all there is to know about Ozil since they grew up together, stopped the shot with a mighty right hand.So two penalties awarded, none converted. However, with the relentless Munich attacks bearing down, the defiant but tiring Arsenal defense was bound to fall. It did so twice. At 54 minutes, Kroos, Robben, and Philipp Lahm, the most inventive performers on the field, combined.The shot from Kroos, arched toward the top corner, had just enough swerve and surprise to brush the glove of Arsenals reserve goalie, Lukasz Fabianski, before it nestled in the net.Then, minutes before the end of the game, a Bayern substitute, Claudio Pizarro, made a decoy run to pull Arsenals big defender, Per Mertesacker, away from the goalmouth. It was all planned.Mller, another sub, was fit, fresh and alert enough to strike with a well-timed stooping header.Arsenals resolve was demolished. Every Wenger player, and the coach himself, will tell himself that they won in Munich a year ago, so why would they not believe they can do the same in the second leg next month? The answer is that Bayerns players know they were complacent then. They did not need the points, so they relaxed and were beaten. No one dared, as Arsenal dared that night in Bavaria, to take the game to Munich. Bayern has not lost a game it needed to win in the past 16 months in becoming the Bundesliga, German Cup, Champions League and World Club Cup holder.There is a pattern developing, and not only in Munich. All four matches in Champions League this week were won by the away team. None of the four home teams scored even one goal.That was the case in Italy, where A.C. Milan, trying to rebuild under new coach Clarence Seedorf, succumbed, 1-0, to Atltico Madrid on Wednesday. Diego Costa, Atlticos Spaniard-Brazilian, broke the deadlock with a towering, looping header as time was running out at the San Siro.That may have been the closest encounter of the round of 16 games this week, but Atltico is not sharing the top spot in the Spanish league with Barcelona and Real Madrid for no reason. It often finds a way to eke out a goal in tight contests and often that way is Diego Costa. | Sports |
Credit...Florilegius, via Getty ImagesMarch 20, 2017With enough determination, money and smarts, scientists just might revive the woolly mammoth, or some version of it, by splicing genes from ancient mammoths into Asian elephant DNA. The ultimate dream is to generate a sustainable population of mammoths that can once again roam the tundra.But heres a sad irony to ponder: What if that dream came at the expense of todays Asian and African elephants, whose numbers are quickly dwindling because of habitat loss and poaching?In 50 years, we might not have those elephants, said Joseph Bennett, an assistant professor and conservation researcher at Carleton University in Ontario. Dr. Bennett has spent his career asking hard questions about conservation priorities. With only so much funding to go around, deciding which species to save can be a game of triage.Recently, he and a team of colleagues confronted a new question: If molecular biologists can potentially reconstruct extinct species, such as the woolly mammoth, should society devote its limited resources to reversing past wrongs, or on preventing future extinctions?ImageCredit...Rob Stothard/Getty ImagesIn a paper published in Nature Ecology & Evolution this month, the researchers concluded that the biodiversity costs and benefits almost never come out in favor of de-extinction.If you have the millions of dollars it would take to resurrect a species and choose to do that, you are making an ethical decision to bring one species back and let several others go extinct, Dr. Bennett said. It would be one step forward, and three to eight steps back.But his teams findings do not fully resonate with all scientists. Some who are engaged in de-extinction efforts say that Dr. Bennetts analysis, and others like it, are too far removed from actual developments in the field.One leading group in the field is Revive & Restore, a nonprofit initiative to rescue extinct and endangered species through genetic engineering and biotechnology. The San Francisco-based group is working to bring back the passenger pigeon, woolly mammoth and heath hen.ImageCredit...Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesConservation is central to Revive & Restores mission, said Ben Novak, the organizations lead researcher and science consultant, and there could be ecological benefits to restoring lost species. In some cases, he said, living species are endangered partly because of the lack of an ecological partner or some link in the food web.Any de-extinction effort must have long-term benefits that outweigh the costs, Mr. Novak said.He added that it is not accurate to assume, as Dr. Bennett does, that funding for de-extinction and conservation is a zero-sum game, noting that all of the funding for Revive & Rescues biotechnologies comes from private donors or institutional grants outside the realm of conservation efforts.De-extinction may certainly have long-term gains, Dr. Bennett acknowledged, but he fears they are a luxury the world cannot currently afford. By some estimates, 20 percent of species on Earth now face extinction, and that may rise to 50 percent by the end of the century.In their study, Dr. Bennett and his collaborators tried to approximate the costs of re-establishing and maintaining 16 species that went extinct in the last millennium, including the Lord Howe pigeon and Eastern rat-kangaroo from Australia, and the laughing owl and Waitomo frog from New Zealand. The researchers selected these animals because they could estimate what it would cost to conserve them based on proposed government expenditures to save similar living species that are endangered.Based on the price of conserving the endangered Chatham Island warbler from New Zealand, for instance, they determined that managing a new population of the extinct Chatham bellbird would cost $360,000 in the first year.Because the price of genetically reconstructing extinct species is still unknown (although it could cost tens of millions of dollars), the scientists focused on how much it would cost just to reintroduce and maintain these particular species in the wild once they had already been engineered.In New Zealand, the researchers calculated, the funds required to conserve 11 extinct species would protect three times as many living species. In New South Wales, reviving five extinct species was similar to saving more than eight times as many living species.The problem with this analysis, said Stewart Brand, co-founder of Revive & Restore, is that these are all species that would never be considered seriously for de-extinction in the first place, either because their ecological roles can be approximated by another living species or because the benefits of restoring them are not great enough to warrant the costs.ImageCredit...Encyclopaedia Britannica, via Getty ImagesHe argued that Revive & Restore strictly assesses its de-extinction projects, through its own criteria and international guidelines, to ensure that they are worth doing and consistent with preserving existing biodiversity.The passenger pigeon, for instance, was a keystone species that helped regenerate Eastern deciduous forests by landing on trees in giant flocks, breaking down their branches and excreting layers of rich fertilizer that allowed new trees to grow a role that other birds likely cannot fill. On top of that, Mr. Brand said, the passenger pigeon has unique symbolic value as one of the great stories of extinction.But other scientists agree with Dr. Bennett that spending money on de-extinction is wasteful, even for a case like the passenger pigeon. Paul Ehrlich, president of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University, and author of the controversial book The Population Bomb, said that conservation is vastly underfunded and there is no guarantee that restoring extinct species will work.To restore the passenger pigeon, Dr. Ehrlich said, you would need a large breeding population with possibly more genetic diversity than can be gleaned from the 1,500 or so pigeons preserved in museum collections and even then there may not be enough habitat left for them anyway.Dr. Bennett said he wouldnt want to close the door on de-extinction forever. There may be some instances where it is worthwhile, he acknowledged, and pursuing it will advance research on genetic technologies.If someone wants to work on de-extinction because its technically fascinating, thats fine, he said. But if the person is couching de-extinction in terms of conservation, then she or he needs to have a very sober look at what one could do with those millions of dollars with living species theres already plenty to do. | science |
Jan. 31, 2014MINNEAPOLIS An expansive mural dominates a high corner wall at the University of Minnesotas Ridder Arena. It depicts the seven Golden Gophers female hockey players who have participated in the Winter Olympics six for the United States and goalie Noora Raty for Finland. Now, it may have to spill over to another wall. Four more Americans and another Finn have been named to teams for Sochi.Two of the Americans, Amanda Kessel and Lee Stecklein, have eligibility remaining. Because the United States selection process begins the summer before the Olympics, undergraduate Olympic hopefuls generally take the academic year off. Navigating an Olympic cycle without those players can be tricky, especially if losses from graduation are severe.Four years ago, Wisconsin, the defending national champion, fell to 18-15-3 and missed the N.C.A.A. tournament while Coach Mark Johnson and two key players were at the Olympics. But this season, the two teams whose rosters are most affected by the Olympics Minnesota and Harvard are thriving.Minnesota, the two-time defending N.C.A.A. champion, is 25-1-1 and remains a unanimous No. 1 in both major polls. Harvard, with an even more depleted roster and Coach Katey Stone running the United States Olympic team, ranks third in one poll and fifth in the other with a 16-2-2 record and leads the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference with 25 points.Its the culture at each of our programs, Minnesota Coach Brad Frost said. For us, just because its an Olympic year and just because were missing a player or two doesnt mean our expectations are any lower. We recruit knowing when those Olympic years are to try and fill those spots.ImageCredit...Tim Gruber for The New York TimesIt does not always work, as Wisconsin learned in 2009-10.Johnson, a 1980 Miracle on Ice gold medalist, took four Badgers with him to Vancouver: the high-scoring undergraduate forwards Meghan Duggan and Hilary Knight, plus goalie Jessie Vetter and forward Erika Lawler, who had graduated. Vetter had just won the Patty Kazmaier Award as the nations top player after backstopping Wisconsin to its third N.C.A.A. title in four years.Without them, nine freshmen assumed significant roles. One, Brianna Decker, missed six weeks with a broken right elbow.It was really different, Decker said recently at an Olympic team camp in Blaine, Minn. Mark recruited me, and then I walk in and hes not going to be behind the bench. But it was an adjustment that I had to make. Us freshman had to mature quickly and realize we were stuck with what we had. It wasnt a bad thing.The Badgers saw the benefit the next season. With Duggan, Knight and Decker leading the team in scoring, Wisconsin won Johnsons fourth N.C.A.A. title. Decker, the 2012 Kazmaier winner, is set to play in her first Olympics this month.Decker, when she came back, was able to get some experience and prepare herself for the following fall, Johnson said in a telephone interview from Madison, Wis. When Meghan Duggan came back and Hilary Knight came back, what they learned as first-time Olympians helped bring that group of players together.This time, the Gophers and the Crimson have not had to wait.For Frost, replacing Kessel, last seasons N.C.A.A. scoring leader and Kazmaier Award winner, and Stecklein, a dependable defenseman, would be difficult enough. Three other eventual Olympians graduated: Raty, who will play in her third Olympics for Finland; Megan Bozek of the United States, the highest scoring defenseman in Gophers history; and defenseman Mira Jalosuo, another Finn.Minnesotas 62-game winning streak, an N.C.A.A. record, ended in mid-November. Since then, even with six freshmen playing regularly and the sophomore Amanda Leveille in goal, the Gophers fashioned a 13-game unbeaten streak, the nations longest. With the forwards Hannah Brandt and Rachael Bona among the nations leading scorers with 42 points each, Minnesota entered this weekend leading Division I in goals per game (4.65) and power-play efficiency (26.7 percent). Equally strong defensively, the Gophers allow 1.12 goals per game, third fewest in the country after Wisconsin and Harvard. Leveille earned her ninth shutout Friday, against St. Cloud State, tying Erica Howe of Clarkson for the national lead.Kessels absence meant more ice time for the freshman Dani Cameranesi, a speedy left wing whose 12 goals put her second nationally among first-year players. Cameranesi credited the seniors Davis, Kelly Terry and Bethany Brausen, the team captain, with easing her transition.I dont think I really had expectations of how much I was going to play, Cameranesi said. I was working out, doing all the little extra things off ice and on ice. I was just hoping if I did that, hopefully it would all come together. Playing as much as I am right now as a freshman is really exciting and a great gift.At Harvard, the interim head coach, Maura Crowell, faced an equally daunting task. Stone plucked the forwards Josephine Pucci and Lyndsey Fry and defenseman Michelle Picard for the Olympic team, while forward Kalley Armstrong and goalie Molly Tissenbaum withdrew from college with postconcussion symptoms. Harvards admissions standards kept Crowell from replacing them, leaving the Crimson with 18 players, three fewer than the maximum allowed to dress for a game.Right from the start, it was no surprise our coach was going to be gone this year, and we were hoping some of our players would get picked, too, Crowell said in a telephone interview. It wasnt like we showed up in September and were shocked by all that. We knew it was coming and prepared for it as best as we can.Production from the sophomores Miye DOench (a team-leading 11 goals) and Mary Parker (seven) augmented contributions from the reliable juniors Samantha Reber, Hillary Crowe and Sarah Edney. The sophomore goalie Emerance Maschmeyers .956 save percentage, tying her with Ann-Rene Desbiens of Wisconsin for second best in Division I, has helped the Crimson limit opponents to 22 goals in 20 games. Harvards 97.8 percent success rate in killing penalties, by far the best nationally, reveals another measure of teamwork that overcomes major personnel losses.Its an opportunity for all those that stay, Stone said. They may be getting a chance on the power play or the penalty kill, whatever it is. That fuels their fire. | Sports |
Kodak Black Sued Your Arrests are Bad for Business!!! 1/29/2018 Kodak Black's inability to stay out of jail is hurting a concert promoter ... who's now suing to get his money back after paying him to perform. Corey Minniefield filed a lawsuit against the rapper claiming Kodak cashed a check for $45k even though he never bothered to show up to earn his dough ... this according to legal docs obtained by TMZ. In the docs, Corey says Kodak signed the agreement on February 28, 2017. Problem is ... that same day he was arrested for violating probation. We're told the promoter rescheduled him for a later date but he never showed again. Corey's suing to get back the money he paid Kodak. Nicholas Fitts had the same problem ... alleging in a legal letter his lawyer fired off to Kodak's team that the rapper never performed in NY on March 3 (Kodak was in jail). The concert was rescheduled for April 15 and 29 but Kodak was still in jail for violating probation again when he hit up a strip club. Fitts says he's out at least $123k on various booking fees and wants his money back ... or else. | Entertainment |
Credit...T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York TimesApril 1, 2016WASHINGTON In Douglas Lauxs final days as a C.I.A. officer, the futility of his mission prompted him to quote George Orwell to his boss.Mr. Laux had spent months in 2012 working with various Middle Eastern nations that were trying to ship arms to Syria to help disparate rebel groups there. But it had become clear to him that the C.I.A had little ability to control the squabbling and backstabbing among the Saudis, Qataris and other Arabs.He told a senior C.I.A. officer he felt like Winston Smith, the character in 1984 known for his fatalism, because he was carrying out his work without comprehending the politics and competing agendas thwarting progress in aiding the rebellion. I understand the how, Mr. Laux said, paraphrasing one of Smiths famous lines. I do not understand the why.It is a sentiment that might sum up much of Mr. Lauxs career at the C.I.A., an organization he served for eight years as an undercover case officer and soldier in the agencys shadowy conflicts overseas. His career at the agency began with a tour at a remote firebase in southern Afghanistan and ended with a spot on the agencys Syria Task Force a life in war zones that is emblematic of the lives of a large cadre of American spies who joined the C.I.A. after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He left the agency three years ago, but is speaking publicly about his experiences there for the first time in conjunction with the release of a memoir.The collective weight of all C.I.A. memoirs written since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks could collapse a bookshelf, but Mr. Laux brings a raw perspective to the canon. His memoir is not filled with recollections of White House meetings or lengthy defenses of waterboarding. Mr. Laux was thousands of miles from Washington, a grunt in a secret war.We have officers who have only done war-zone stuff since they walked in the door, said Mr. Laux, an intense, sometimes edgy 33-year-old with an athletic build and a trimmed beard. The big question for the C.I.A. is whether it can be sustained, and whether it finds enough people to invest that time psychologically and emotionally. Mr. Laux spoke in a recent interview in a quiet Washington bar owned by one of his friends.He arrived in southern Afghanistan as part of a surge of C.I.A. officers to the country in early 2010, at the same time that President Obama had ordered the deployment of tens of thousands of additional military service members in the hope of beating back a resurgent Taliban. He lived in a concrete fortress that was once a prison built by the Soviets during their war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, part of a ramshackle base surrounded by razor wire. He spoke Pashto, which he learned during his C.I.A. training.Raised in rural Indiana, Mr. Laux had never ventured far from home when he watched the World Trade Center crash to the ground via a television on the campus of Indiana University, where he was a freshman. He submitted an online application to the C.I.A. in his senior year he had noticed an advertisement for the spy agency on a campus job board waited months and, after a series of mysterious phone calls, was told to report for an interview in Washington. He was accepted into a C.I.A. program that eventually led to the standard course for operations officers at the Farm, the agencys training facility at Camp Peary in Virginia.Mr. Laux was in Afghanistan when American troops were dying in large numbers, many of them from roadside bombs built in makeshift factories across the border in Pakistan. In his book, Mr. Laux recounts how he ran a web of informants to try to hunt down people who had turned the bomb making into a lucrative business. (The books title, Left of Boom, is Pentagon-ese for efforts by soldiers and spies to dismantle the militant networks before they were able to plant the bombs.)The role that Pakistans intelligence service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, played in the bomb making is most likely central to Mr. Lauxs story, but C.I.A. censors have blacked out those sections, along with other large chunks of the narrative, as part of an agency review process required for all books by former C.I.A. employees.Mr. Laux said he was struck by how little the military seemed to know about Afghanistan after so many years in the country, and that many C.I.A. officers had developed little more insight. Soldiers and spies served short tours of duty with much of that time spent just becoming familiar with their surroundings and then turned their jobs over to new arrivals forced to make the same mistakes as their predecessors.By 2011, Mr. Laux said it became a common refrain among Americans in Afghanistan that the United States had not been in the country for 10 years. It had been in Afghanistan one year, 10 times, he said.Thousands of American troops were patrolling eastern Afghanistan hunting for Taliban fighters, while C.I.A. operatives focused almost exclusively on Al Qaeda. Mr. Laux recalls the confusion this sowed, and the occasionally tragicomic results.One example was the militarys regular practice of broadcasting on Pashto-language radio stations the names of Taliban fighters they were hunting, offering money for information about their possible whereabouts. Mr. Laux and other C.I.A. officers, not knowing of the military broadcasts, would pay people who approached them with what they claimed was specific information about the same names that had been on the military broadcasts. The information was often bogus.Mr. Laux and his colleagues, who at first thought it was valuable intelligence about high-level Taliban fighters, eventually realized it was a game that had been going on for years. The Americans were desperate for intelligence, and some Afghans were exploiting that desperation to line their pockets.Mr. Laux, concerned about reprisals from his former employer, refused to give details about what is in the redacted sections of his book including a section about collecting information about a Qaeda operative who appears to have been killed by a C.I.A. drone. A source had been tracking the operative, and one day sent Mr. Laux a text message *73 the signal that the operative was in a specific location.Mr. Laux said that 20 minutes later, his source confirmed that the Qaeda militant, given the code-name Scimitar, had been killed. But how he was killed is redacted from the book.He ended up dying, is all Mr. Laux would say about the operations outcome.He returned from Afghanistan feeling a stranger in his own country, and his life began a downward spiral of alcohol and OxyContin. Mr. Laux said he tried hard to keep his substance abuse from his bosses at the C.I.A., who had little oversight over case officers in between their overseas postings.The C.I.A. initially declined to comment when it was asked earlier this week about Mr. Lauxs book. On Friday afternoon, a spokesman said in a statement that maybe with age and greater maturity Mr. Laux might at one point have a different perspective on his time at the agency.The American people should know that his former colleagues continue to do extraordinary work despite his departure, and do so without the need for public recognition, said the spokesman, Ryan Trapani.In the spring of 2012, as the civil war in Syria escalated, the C.I.A. sent Mr. Laux to the Middle East as part of the agencys nascent task force charged with making contact with the Syrian rebels.He developed relationships with the rebels, but frustration followed. The Obama administration was deeply divided over how much to support the rebels, and Saudi Arabia and Qatar and other nations decided to arm them on their own, usually keeping their efforts from the C.I.A. Many of the details of Mr. Lauxs time working on the Syria operation are redacted. A version of a plan he drafted to arm the Syrian rebels was eventually adopted by David H. Petraeus, the C.I.A. director, who then proposed it to the Obama White House.He left the agency in 2013, burned out from the deployments and frustrated by bureaucracies both foreign and domestic. He said he began writing the book almost immediately after leaving the C.I.A., when the memories and emotions were fresh.He insists that the book should not be read for cosmic conclusions about the state of American intelligence, but as the account of one persons C.I.A. career. But he hopes it can be a useful snapshot for understanding how the post-9/11 wars changed the C.I.A., and the lives of the people who fought them.Or, he jokes, maybe it is a self-help book.Want to kick your drug habit? he said. Go to Syria. | World |
Business|The Week in Business: Dont Say You Werent Warnedhttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/28/business/the-week-in-business-coronavirus-states-economy.htmlwith interestJune 28, 2020Have a safe and socially distanced July Fourth. You know the rules, annoying as they are. And fresh outbreaks in many states prove the dangers of wishful thinking. Heres what else you need to know for the week ahead in business and tech. ImageCredit...Giacomo BagnaraWhats Up? (June 21-27)Too Much, Too SoonThat terrifying resurgence of coronavirus infections that health officials warned us about? Its here. The United States reported its largest one-day total of new cases last week, more than two months after the previous high. This time, its ravaging states in the South and West that lifted their business restrictions aggressively. Several states, including North Carolina, Louisiana and Kansas, hit pause on reopening plans, and Texas and Florida shut down bars again. Markets fell as investors realized that the virus is far from contained, and the International Monetary Fund warned that the global economy is looking even worse than it previously thought it would, as businesses around the world continue to reel from the pandemic.Access DeniedBack in April, President Trump ordered a 60-day ban on new green card holders coming to the United States. Last week, he extended the restriction through the end of the year, and expanded it to include many temporary work visas. (Green card holders who are already in the United States can stay.) The point of the freeze is for American workers to be first in line for jobs as the economy recovers from the pandemic. But some business groups say this will hurt them more than help. The order will keep out foreign researchers and academics, and will also affect highly skilled workers in tech and medicine and at multinational corporations.Facebook on the DefensiveThe social media giant lost a big antitrust case on Tuesday, when Germanys highest court ruled that the platform had abused its dominance by harvesting users personal data. Its a big victory for proponents of tougher tech-company regulation and may embolden other European countries to follow suit. Back in the United States, Facebook faced a boycott by advertisers over its refusal to moderate inflammatory content and misinformation. Until now, the company has taken a hands-off stance, but on Friday, it introduced new measures to label political content and posts about voting, as well as crack down on hateful language.ImageCredit...Giacomo BagnaraWhats Next? (June 28-July 4)Hold the MeatPlant-based meat is starting to sound less weird as companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods expand their partnerships with restaurants and fast-food chains. And the pandemic hasnt hurt sales: Impossible Foods chief executive said that business has been bolstered by the recent virus-related meat shortages. Burger King added the Impossible Croissanwich to its menu this month (it already sells an Impossible Whopper), and Starbucks began serving a breakfast sandwich made with Impossible sausage at its American locations last week. Starbucks also serves products made by Beyond Meat at its stores in China and Canada so the vegan meat race is on.Out of the WeedsThe pharmaceutical giant Bayer will pay one of the largest settlements in the history of American civil litigation $10 billion to plaintiffs who claim that one of its products, the weedkiller Roundup, causes cancer. Bayer consistently maintains that Roundup is safe to use and will continue to sell it without warning labels. The settlement also includes funds for potential future claims. It may seem a risky bet, but Roundup is such a big seller that Bayer is willing to take on the liability.Your Apps Are Watching for NowApple is introducing new privacy features that will make it harder for apps to track your behavior. As you may already know (or suspect), many apps on your phone stalk your location and digital activities, and theres not much you can do about it besides delete them. But Apple is promising to make your phone a little less creepy with its new operating system, iOS 14, which comes out this fall and will require third-party apps to ask your permission to monitor you.What Else?The Treasury Department failed to check death records before sending out stimulus funds. As a result, $1.4 billion in aid went to dead people. Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay $2.1 billion in damages to women who claim they got ovarian cancer from the companys talcum products, including its widely used baby powder. And the struggling airline industry may take another hit if the European Union bars American travelers this summer, a decision that Europe is considering in light of the United States failure to contain the coronavirus.Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here. | Business |
The New New WorldSexually suggestive office games, boozy dinners and a culture of ignoring problems have long plagued the industry. Changing it will still be hard.Credit...Aly Song/ReutersPublished Aug. 12, 2021Updated Sept. 7, 2021For years, as Alibaba turned from a scrappy Chinese start-up into an e-commerce behemoth, some of its business units welcomed new employees with an ice-breaking ceremony that alarmed many of those who endured it.Fresh hires were required to answer deeply personal questions in front of their colleagues, according to former employees: about their first loves, their first kiss and their first sexual encounters. The questions were phrased in ways that arent printable in this newspaper, they said.The Chinese technology giant has denied such claims. But last weekend, a female employee alleged on the companys internal website that she had been sexually assaulted by a company client then raped by her manager and the disclosure unleashed a slew of stories about ice-breaking activities. Former employees said online that they, too, had gone through them.And in a letter to management signed over the weekend by more than 6,000 Alibaba workers, employees urged the company to forbid sexual remarks and games in ice-breaking and other business events. (Alibaba has said it fired the employee accused of rape and will take other steps to stop sexual misconduct. It did not respond to requests for comment.)The allegations against Alibaba may have shocked the Chinese technology industry and the public, but it shouldnt have surprised them.The male-dominated sector has long objectified women, blamed the victims and normalized sexual violence. Women who dare to speak out about sexual harassment and violence are called troublemakers or worse.Three years ago, a student at the University of Minnesota alleged that Richard Liu, the billionaire founder of one of Chinas largest companies, JD.com, had raped her after an alcohol-soaked business meal. After Mr. Liu denied the allegations and the police declined to press charges, the Chinese internet and the tech industry took his side and called her a gold digger, among other misogynistic slurs.ImageCredit...Xin Yue/Huanqiu.com/VCG, via Getty ImagesOften, public allegations simply go unaddressed. An employee for Didi, the ride-hailing company, was fired for poor performance last year after she complained to the companys operations in Jiangsu Province that she was physically and sexually assaulted after she was forced to binge drink at a business meal. She later posted on social media photos of her badly bruised face and a doctors diagnosis. Didi didnt respond to questions about whether it had investigated her allegations, back then or when asked again for comment this week.Incidents like the one at Alibaba happen throughout the industry, one female tech investor said. She asked for anonymity because she worried that entrepreneurs, some of whom make dirty jokes in big chat groups, will think she is too judgmental and will stop trusting her.The industry has toned down some of its most blatant and explicit behavior. For example, more recently hired Alibaba employees told me that they didnt have to answer personal questions at their ice-breaking ceremonies.And if society doesnt force them to change, the Communist Party will. Amid a government crackdown on the powers of Big Tech, Peoples Daily, the partys official newspaper, warned on social media that nothing can be too big to fail.But the Chinese technology industrys toxic culture is so ingrained that it wont be easy to stamp out.Not so long ago, Chinese tech companies invited popular Japanese porn stars to their events to drum up publicity. Qihoo 360, a cybersecurity company, invited a Japanese porn star to dance with its programmers in 2014, while some of its female employees wore revealing outfits.A business unit at Chinas other internet giant, Tencent, made its female employees at a 2017 event kneel and use their mouths to open water bottles that male colleagues clutched in their crotches. Tencent later apologized.ImageCredit...Noel Celis/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesOver the years, the search giant Baidu, the smartphone maker Xiaomi and JD.com have had Victorias Secret-style lingerie fashion shows at their annual celebrations. Sometimes the models were their female employees.At the time, few people, if anybody, condemned their behavior. Some programmers reacted by asking whether those companies were hiring.Women everywhere face some of the same challenges. But in Chinas technology industry, these attitudes have been passed down from internet giants like Alibaba to alumni who now lead start-ups big and small.Cheng Wei, founder of Didi and a former Alibaba executive, borrowed much of his management style from the e-commerce giant, which he called his true alma mater. One of Didis earliest hires told a magazine that a few new employees were shocked by how far its ice-breaking ceremony could go, according to a flattering profile in 2016. The employee said she felt closer to her colleagues after learning about their personal details.A former employee who asked for anonymity said she was too scared not to answer those questions for fear of antagonizing her co-workers and her manager.Even punishments at tech companies can be sexual in nature. Mr. Cheng has said he punished one male executive by ordering the executive to run naked. A former Didi executive explained that others, too, were similarly told to run around the company campus in its early years, though men were allowed to wear their underwear and women could wear paper clothes over their undergarments.The executive and other employees said the practice went away in recent years.The Alibaba crisis also triggered discussions about two misogynistic rituals at Chinese business meals: forced drinking and womens company.Young women can be considered accessories at business meals. A meal without girls is not a meal, read the headline of a 2017 column in the Chinese edition of GQ, accompanied by an illustration of naked women in soup bowls.In the allegations she posted on the internal Alibaba website, the female employee said her manager had told their clients at dinner: Look how good I am to you, I brought you a beauty.The Alibaba client who she alleged had sexually assaulted her denied that he had done anything inappropriate. It was a regular meal, the client told a Beijing newspaper. I only hugged and cuddled her. Nothing else. (His company said he had been fired for misconduct and that he was cooperating with a police investigation.)The Alibaba employee wrote that her nightmare began after she was forced to drink too much.Forced drinking plays an important and a problematic role in Chinas business culture. It can serve as a power play that puts women and the junior employees at a disadvantage. Refusing to drink with a superior is considered offensive.At a business dinner last year, a bank manager slapped a new employee after he rejected the managers repeated orders to replace his soft drinks with alcohol. The bank later disciplined the manager.ImageCredit...Philippe Lopez/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesIn their appeal for action over the weekend, Alibaba employees urged the company to forbid forced drinking and to stop linking alcohol with business. The company stopped short of forbidding it, saying it supports the right of its employees to reject drinking requests.Alibaba said it had fired the manager accused of rape and pushed out two senior managers who ignored the womans pleas. Still, its response has left many people unhappy.Wang Shuai, Alibabas public relations chief, reposted a post he said a colleague had written. The post complained that some people simply believed in rumors and assumed the worst of Alibaba. People who are too critical of the company, the post said bluntly, could go away.In response, members of the public pointed to episodes that they said indicated problems at the top.A widely circulated video showed that Jack Ma, Alibabas billionaire founder, made a sex joke when he was hosting a group wedding ceremony an annual event for the company that typically draws headlines for his employees in 2019. In work, we want the 996 spirit, he said, referring to the punishing work schedule of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. In life, we want 669, he said. Six days, six times. The key is long-lasting.He played with the pronunciation of the word nine, which sounds like the word for long-lasting. His audience cheered and applauded. | Tech |
Dodgers Send in Big Poo Wrecking Crew For Sewage Spill Cleanup 3/28/2018 The Dodgers are going for a clean sweep -- not of their Opening Day opponents, the Giants -- but of the waste water that seeped onto the Dodgers Stadium field. Sources inside the L.A. County Dept. of Health tell TMZ Sports ... inspectors were roaming the third baseline area next to the dugout Wednesday ... checking out the disgusting mud patch left behind after Tuesday night's sewage spill. If ya missed it, Big Blue's exhibition game against the Angels was cut short when a waste water pipeline burst, sending up a stench worse than Yu Darvish's World Series outings. We're told that section of the field had to be vacuumed, and the material shipped off to a waste disposal facility. Then the area was doused with chlorine, lye and other antibacterial chemicals. The Dept. of Health will make another inspection on Thursday morning ... ahead of the Opening Day festivities. If you're going to the game, that's bleach you're smelling. And maybe a little left over from Yu. #LetsNotPlay2 | Entertainment |
Olympics|Ahn Wins Two Short-Track Speedskating Goldshttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/22/sports/olympics/roundup.htmlRoundupFeb. 21, 2014Viktor Ahn won two golds to tie the retired Apolo Ohno for the most career Olympic medals in short-track speedskating, with eight.Ahn led Russia to victory in the 5,000-meter relay, taking the lead for good by passing J. R. Celski of the United States with eight laps to go. Earlier in the evening, Ahn won the 500.Ahn, who was born in South Korea and won his first four medals as Ahn Hyun-soo in 2006, switched nations in 2011 and finished the Sochi Games with a medal in all four of his events.Eddy Alvarez, Celski, Christopher Creveling and Jordan Malone took silver for the first American medal in speedskating in Sochi. The American speedskaters were shut out in 12 long-track events, and had failed to get on the podium in the first seven short-track races.MILESTONE WIN FOR UKRAINIAN BIATHLETES Four Ukrainian women gave their restive country some good news. As government and opposition leaders worked to end the political crisis that erupted in deadly violence this week, the Ukrainian womens 4x6-kilometer biathlon relay team of the twins Vita and Valj Semerenko, Juliya Dzhyma and Olena Pidhrushna won the nations first gold medal in two decades.Great proof of how sport can unite the nation, Sergei Bubka, the leader of the Ukrainian Olympic Committee, wrote on Twitter.CANADIANS WIN SKI CROSS MEDALS Marielle Thompson and Kelsey Serwa of Canada won gold and silver in womens ski cross, completing their countrys dominant performance in the freestyle skiing events.Canada has sent two people to the freestyle podium four times during the Games. | Sports |
World BriefingApril 4, 2016The parliament speaker Guillaume Soro used a 2011 civil war and its aftermath to acquire hundreds of tons of weapons, many of which remain under the control of his loyalists in the army, according to United Nations investigators. The accusation, in a report issued on Monday by experts charged with monitoring a United Nations-imposed arms embargo, highlights lingering risk in the West African nation, which has emerged from the crisis as one of the continents rising economic stars. Mr. Soro, often mentioned as a potential successor to President Alassane Ouattara, headed the New Forces rebels, who occupied the northern half of the worlds top cocoa grower for nearly a decade and backed Mr. Ouattara during the 2011 postelection conflict. The investigators said they had documented the acquisition of relevant quantities of weapons and ammunition, estimated at 300 tons. Mr. Soro, who under the Ivorian Constitution would assume the presidency were Mr. Ouattara to die or become incapacitated, denied the accusations. | World |
Science|Before Eagles Fly, They Must Hatchhttps://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/05/science/eaglets-eggs-air-breathing.htmlQ&ACredit...Victoria RobertsApril 4, 2016Q. When do hatching eaglets start to breathe? Is there air in the egg before they energetically work their way out?A. The first breath comes three or four days before hatching, thanks to the small air bubble above the chick in the porous egg shell, said Amy Ries, who writes for the Raptor Resource Project, a preservation and educational project for all raptors. The project includes a webcam that records eagles nesting and breeding in Decorah, Iowa. Just before its first breath, the eaglet chick develops an egg tooth, a small, hard calcium spike on top of the bill. It is used to pierce the membrane that separates the chick from the bubble of air. This hole is called the internal pip. The chick gets a burst of energy with its first breath, Ms. Ries wrote on the projects blog, and scratches a hole through the shell to the outside, called the external pip.As more air comes into the shell, the chick starts the final process of hatching by vigorously scratching the inside of the shell in a circular path around the entire large end.With the shell weakened, the chick is able to give a few expansive bursts and the shell parts, Ms. Ries said.It may take 12 to 48 hours for the chick to extricate itself from the shell. During that time, it undergoes several physiological adaptations, including absorbing the yolk sac within its body and fully inflating its lungs.Exhausted from its work, the eaglet has drawn enough nourishment from its yolk sac so it does not need to eat for several hours, giving it time to rest and dry off, Ms. Ries said. [email protected] | science |
Science|Do They Make Reading Glasses for Older Bonobos?https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/08/science/aging-bonobos-eyesight.htmlScienceTakeVideotranscripttranscriptThe Aging Eyes of BonobosHumans arent the only ones that suffer from farsightedness. As bonobos get older, their eyesight goes as well.This is Figaro, a goffin cockatoo. Hes making a tool out of larch wood to get a little bit of cashew. These birds are so smart Theyre sometimes compared to human 3 year olds. Figaro discovered how to make tools completely on his own. A few years ago. Then the scientists set it up so that three other cockatoos could learn from him. Then the researchers wondered if the birds could transfer those skills to different kinds of materials. So they offered the birds larch wood, a twig cardboard and beeswax. All four birds could trim a twig. No problem. Three could do larch wood. One seemed to have some kind of larch wood phobia. Two of the birds Figaro and Doolittle, could handle the cardboard.That required some serious Cut-out work. Impressive. But if these birds look like good pets, Think about this. like a three year old. They need tremendous attention and stimulation. But. These are birds. And they stay with that three year old level. For 40 years. Or more.Humans arent the only ones that suffer from farsightedness. As bonobos get older, their eyesight goes as well.Nov. 7, 2016The scientific study of animal behavior has meant, among other things, that humans have had to accept that they are not the only animals that use tools, show emotions and recognize themselves in a mirror.Still, its a bit strange to see aging bonobos looking as if they need some reading glasses. They arent trying to decipher the small-print ingredients for over-the-counter pain relievers (another human-over-40 habit). Theyre trying to find the itty-bitty lice in each others fur, above right, so they can do their neighborly and familial grooming duty, and have a snack.Heungjin Ryu and colleagues from Kyoto University in Japan and the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, recorded 14 bonobos grooming each other at the Luo Scientific Reserve in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the apes have been part of a decades-long study.As the scientists report in Current Biology, the videos show that grooming distance increases with age much the way it does in humans. People, of course, are usually reading or sewing or trying to tie tiny artificial flies on the end of a fishing line. For apes, nit-picking, a time-honored skill that parents of school-age children with lice know all too well, puts similar demands on the eyes.Mr. Ryu, a Ph.D. student, said that what seemed to be farsightedness in older bonobos had been noticed before, but not rigorously studied. He and his colleagues decided to take a closer look.The scientists knew the ages of the bonobos they were recording, so they just had to get accurate distance measures. They did this by first photographing the ears of each animal and then photographing a ruler at the same distance. That let them come up with an ear length, which they used to calculate the distance from eye to louse.While 24-year-old L.B. (his identification for the long-term study) groomed J.D. with his eyes about four inches away, 45-year-old T.N. had to keep J.D. about 16 inches away.The scientists found that the grooming distance didnt change based on the gender of the bonobos or how closely they were related. But it changed with age very much the way human sight changes. From the late 30s to early 40s, the grooming distance increased. Age-related farsightedness is thought to be caused by changes in the eyes lens and muscles.Bonobos are as close to us as chimpanzees, so the similarity, while striking to see, could be expected.However the evolutionary split that led on one side to the great apes, including bonobos and chimpanzees, and on the other to human beings, happened millions of years ago so there was plenty of time for change.For example, in an odd side note in the published paper, the authors pointed out that another sign of aging in humans does not appear in bonobos. Human ears get longer as we age. The ears of bonobos do not. | science |
A normally ceremonial ritual in Congress exploded into chaos as protesters, egged on by President Trump, forced their way into the Capitol to stop the counting of electoral votes to confirm President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.s victory.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York TimesJan. 6, 2021WASHINGTON Congress confirmed President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.s victory early Thursday morning, overwhelmingly repudiating a drive by President Trump to overturn his defeat after it culminated in a mob of loyalists storming and occupying the Capitol in a shocking display of violence that shook the core of American democracy.There was no parallel in modern American history, as insurgents acting with the presidents encouragement vandalized Speaker Nancy Pelosis office, smashing windows, looting art and briefly taking control of the Senate chamber, where they took turns posing for photographs with fists up on the dais where Vice President Mike Pence had just been presiding. Outside the building, they erected a gallows, punctured the tires of a police SUV, and left a note on its windshield saying, PELOSI IS SATAN.The attack by rebels carrying pro-Trump paraphernalia stopped the electoral counting for several hours and sent lawmakers and Mr. Pence fleeing. But by the time the Senate reconvened in a reclaimed Capitol, one of the nations most polarizing moments had yielded an unexpected moment of solidarity that briefly eclipsed partisan division. Republicans and Democrats locked arms to denounce the violence and express their determination to carry out what they called a constitutionally sacrosanct function. They refused, by resounding bipartisan majorities, to deliver Mr. Trump the election reversal he demanded.Mr. Pence, breaking with the president he has loyally served, made Mr. Bidens victory official just after 3:40 a.m. in Washington, declaring that Mr. Biden had received 306 electoral votes to Mr. Trumps 232 and would be inaugurated the 46th president on Jan. 20.To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today, you did not win, Mr. Pence had said earlier. Violence never wins. Freedom wins. And this is still the peoples house.Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said the failed insurrection had only clarified Congresss purpose.They tried to disrupt our democracy, he said. They failed.In a statement just before 4 a.m. Thursday, the president finally conceded, saying, Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th.Still, the process opened bitter wounds within the Republican Party that are unlikely to quickly heal. While some Republicans who had planned to join the effort to overturn Mr. Bidens victory agreed to drop their challenges after the Capitol siege, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri pressed forward, keeping both chambers in session well past midnight.An objection to Arizonas results lodged by Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama just before the violence broke out in the Capitol failed overwhelmingly in the Senate, 6 to 93. The House turned it back on a vote of 121 to 303, but more than half of that chambers Republicans supported the effort to overturn the election results.A challenge to Pennsylvanias results backed by Mr. Hawley ended in lopsided defeats, as well. Skipping debate altogether, senators voted to reject it 7 to 92. The House moved more slowly, but eventually voted 138 to 282 to do the same.The upheaval unfolded on a day when Democrats secured a stunning pair of victories in runoff elections in Georgia, winning effective control of the Senate and the complete levers of power in Washington. And it arrived as Congress met for what would normally have been a perfunctory and ceremonial session to declare Mr. Bidens election.From the start, Mr. Trumps allies, acting at his behest, had been determined to use the session to formally contest the outcome. Driving a painful wedge among Republicans, they trumpeted his false claims of voting fraud and initially gave voice inside the Capitol to those who ultimately forced their way in, stopping the process in its tracks.Lawmakers and Mr. Pence mostly took shelter together near the Capitol, amid violent clashes between protesters and law enforcement, but small groups reported being stranded for a time in offices and hideaways throughout the building.Capitol Police, reinforced by the F.B.I. and National Guard in tactical gear, successfully retook the Capitol complex just before 6 p.m., after more than three hours of mayhem. Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington had declared a citywide curfew from 6 p.m. Wednesday to 6 a.m. Thursday, and a public emergency lasting until after Mr. Bidens inauguration.The siege was the climax of a weekslong campaign by Mr. Trump, filled with baseless claims of fraud and outright lies, to try to overturn a democratically decided election that he lost. He fought the result in court with dozens of spurious lawsuits that he lost. He outright pressured Republican leaders in key battleground states to reverse the will of the voters. And he fought, at last, to turn the congressional counting into the site of his final stand.We gather due to a selfish mans injured pride, and the outrage of supporters who he has deliberately misinformed for the past two months and stirred to action this very morning, Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah and the 2012 presidential nominee, said after the chamber reconvened. What happened here today was an insurrection incited by the president of the United States.Far from discouraging confrontation, Mr. Trump had encouraged his supporters earlier Wednesday to confront Republican lawmakers going against him to side with the Constitution.We will never concede, he told a group of thousands gathered near the White House, inveighing against members of his own party preparing to finalize his loss as weak Republicans, pathetic Republicans whose leadership had gone down the tubes. He then repeatedly told them to march to the Capitol where the vote tallying was about to get underway. The violence began a little more than two hours later.ImageCredit...Erin Schaff/The New York TimesIn a speech just before the violence broke out, Mr. McConnell, the most powerful Republican on Capitol Hill, forcefully rebuked Mr. Trump and members of his own party, warning that the drive to overturn a legitimate election risked sending democracy into a death spiral.The voters, the courts and the states have all spoken, said Mr. McConnell, the majority leader. If we overrule them all, it would damage our republic forever.Yet even as he spoke, it was becoming clear that the vicious cycle had already been unleashed. Within an hour, Mr. McConnell was in the grip of his Capitol Police detail and being rushed out of his chamber with other senators as members of his own party chanted curses to his name.Mr. Biden, in his own remarks, demanded that Mr. Trump intervene to tamp down an unprecedented assault on democracy. He called for a televised address by Mr. Trump to fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege.This is not dissent. Its disorder. Its chaos. It borders on sedition, and it must end now, Mr. Biden said. I call on this mob to pull back and allow the work of democracy to go forward.Mr. Trump initially stayed quiet as the mob rampaged through the Capitol. When he did make himself heard, it was to call for support for law enforcement in a tweet that concluded, Stay peaceful! But not long after, he released a brief video repeating his disproved claim that the election was stolen and speaking in sympathetic and affectionate terms to members of the mob. Later, he absolved the mobsters of their gross assault, effectively arguing that their actions had been warranted.These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long, Mr. Trump wrote Wednesday evening in a tweet, which Twitter later removed. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!ImageCredit...Kenny Holston for The New York TimesThe mob of Trump supporters was already massing by the thousands on Capitol Hill when Congress convened in joint session at 1 p.m. Under normal circumstances, the counting of electoral votes is little more than a glorified paperwork exercise.But with Mr. Trumps refusal to concede, his allies had planned a series of as many as six objections to the electoral votes of battleground states Mr. Biden won, turning the session into a messy final parliamentary stand.The president had also intensely pressured Mr. Pence, who as vice president oversees the counting, to go rogue and unilaterally throw out the votes of key battleground states Mr. Trump lost. Shortly before the session began, Mr. Pence denied him in a bold statement after four years of loyal alliance.I do not believe that the founders of our country intended to invest the vice president with unilateral authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted during the joint session of Congress, and no vice president in American history has ever asserted such authority, he wrote.Once the counting got underway, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona quickly lodged the first such objection to Mr. Gosars home state, sending senators and House members to their respective chambers for up to two hours of debate on Mr. Trumps baseless fraud claims.About 2:15 p.m., as the House and Senate separately debated the objection, security rushed Mr. Pence out of the Senate chamber and the Capitol building was placed on lockdown after the demonstrators surged past barricades and law enforcement toward the legislative chambers.We now have individuals that have breached the Capitol building, an officer told the House.In a scene of unrest common in other countries but seldom witnessed in the history of the United States capital, hundreds of people in the mob barreled past fence barricades outside the Capitol and clashed with officers. Shouting demonstrators mobbed the second floor lobby just outside the Senate chamber, as law enforcement officials placed themselves in front of the chamber doors.For a time, senators and members of the House were locked inside their respective chambers. Just outside the locked doors, Mr. Trumps supporters violently tussled with the police. A woman inside the building was shot and later died, the District of Columbia police said. Three others died of medical emergencies, authorities said. Multiple officers were injured.ImageCredit...J. Scott Applewhite/Associated PressAs the mob closed in, senators were rushed into the well of the Senate and down into the basement where they left the building via an underground tunnel.This is what youve gotten, guys, Mr. Romney yelled as the Senate was first thrust into a lockdown, apparently addressing his Republican colleagues who were leading the charge to press Mr. Trumps false claims of a stolen election.On the other side of the Capitol, Representative Steve Cohen, Democrat of Tennessee, yelled out to Republicans on the House floor: Call Trump, tell him to call off his revolutionary guards.Multiple lawmakers reported that the Capitol Police had instructed them to take cover on the House floor and prepare to use protective hoods after tear gas was dispersed in the Capitol Rotunda of the Capitol. Shortly after, the police escorted senators and members of House from the building to others nearby, as the mob swarmed the hallways just steps from where lawmakers were meeting, carrying pro-Trump paraphernalia.Representative Nancy Mace, a freshman Republican from South Carolina, described seeing people assaulting Capitol Police. In a Twitter post, Ms. Mace shared a video of the chaos and wrote: This is wrong. This is not who we are. Im heartbroken for our nation today.In the early afternoon, the police fired what appeared to be flash-bang grenades. Rather than disperse, the demonstrators cheered and shouted, Push forward, push forward. One person shouted, Thats our house, meaning the Capitol. Other people repeatedly shouted, You swore an oath.When the violence broke out it was Mr. Pence, sheltering in the Capitol, not Mr. Trump who approved the deployment of the D.C. National Guard, according to Defense Department officials. Mr. Trump initially rebuffed and resisted requests to mobilize forces, according to a person with knowledge of the events. It required intervention from Pat A. Cipollone, the White House counsel, among other officials, the person said.At the White House, officials including two from the East Wing and a top press aide began submitting their resignations, with more expected to follow in the coming days.I dont recognize our country today, and the members of Congress who have supported this anarchy do not deserve to represent their fellow Americans, said Representative Elaine Luria, Democrat of Virginia.Other Republicans laid responsibility squarely at the feet of the president.What he has done and what he has caused here is something weve never seen before in our history, Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3 House Republican, said on NBC. Ms. Cheney said that the chaos unleashed on Capitol Hill would be part of his legacy.What we are seeing today is a result of that a result of convincing people that Congress was going to overturn the results of the election, a result of suggestions that he wouldnt leave office, she said.Reporting was contributed by Luke Broadwater, Catie Edmondson, Jonathan Martin, Helene Cooper and Michael D. Shear from Washington, and Maggie Haberman from New York. | Politics |
Credit...Orestis Panagiotou/European Pressphoto AgencyApril 1, 2016PARIS Violent clashes erupted in Greek refugee camps among panicked migrants as Greece and the European Union pressed ahead on Friday with their intention to expel them from Europe and deport thousands back to Turkey, despite strong objections from rights groups and United Nations relief officials who say the plan is illegal and inhumane.Hundreds of migrants broke out of an overcrowded detention center on the Greek island of Chios and began walking to the port to protest a European Union deal that went into effect in March, authorizing Greece to return them to Turkey if their applications for asylum in Europe were not accepted. The deportations officially begin on Monday.Video clips in the Greek media showed migrants streaming away from the camp unhindered by the police, hours after a brawl broke out at the camps registration center. Several refugees were taken to a hospital after the riot police used stun grenades, and a help center run by Doctors Without Borders was destroyed, forcing the aid group to abandon its work. More than 1,500 migrants were being held at the center, designed for 1,200. Three people were also reported stabbed during a migrant riot on the island of Samos, where another detention facility operates.Major humanitarian groups, including Doctors Without Borders, the United Nations refugee agency and the International Rescue Committee, recently suspended some work at detention centers to protest the European Union deal, which they say violates international law.The groups cited deteriorating conditions at migrant camps, including a makeshift camp in the northern Greek border town of Idomeni, where more than 12,000 migrants have settled in squalor since Europes borders closed last month, and in Piraeus, the port near Athens, where nearly 6,000 people are now living in tents and warehouses.In Geneva, the refugee agency warned Friday that neither Greece nor Turkey was ready to handle mass returns of migrants and said both countries needed to provide further protections for asylum seekers before undertaking deportations. Citing what it called continued serious gaps in preparations, the agency released a nine-page document detailing the conditions that it said must be satisfied.One the strongest criticisms of the agreement came from Amnesty International, the London-based rights group, which claimed to have proof that Turkey was not safe for refugees. In a new report released 72 hours before the deportations were to begin, Amnesty accused the Turkish government of forcing hundreds of Syrian asylum seekers back to their war-torn country in recent months, contravening human rights procedures. Amnesty said it had collected witness testimony in Turkeys southern Hatay Province and found that the Turkish authorities had been rounding up and expelling groups of around 100 Syrian men, women and children to Syria on a near-daily basis since mid-January.Among the cases the group claimed to have documented was that of three young children forced back to Syria without their parents.A Turkish government spokesman did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. Turkey has previously denied forcibly returning refugees to Syria.Criticism of the impending deportations came against a backdrop of consternation over the lengths European leaders have been willing to go to keep migrants away including offering billions in aid to Turkey to conclude the agreement, while ignoring an increasingly harsh crackdown on President Recep Tayyip Erdogans opponents by the Turkish authorities.E.U. leaders have willfully ignored the simplest of facts: Turkey is not a safe country for Syrian refugees and is getting less safe by the day, Amnestys director for Europe and Central Asia, John Dalhuisen, said in the report.Greeces Parliament nonetheless scrambled Friday to get a legal framework in place before Monday to carry out its end of the European Union deal. In a hurried session, lawmakers were expected to support draft legislation to allow returns to begin Monday, most likely from the Greek island of Lesbos, where large numbers of Afghan and Pakistani migrants have been held since the bloc signed the accord with Turkey.More than 50,000 other migrants, stuck on the Greek mainland, remain in limbo about their future, but are growing restless ahead of the scheduled deportation. On Wednesday, around 300 migrants, mostly Afghans and Syrians, engaged in the several violent clashes in the Piraeus port, where many have been holed up since Macedonia and other northern countries closed their borders, cutting off Europes main gateway to Germany, the migrants preferred destination.In Idomeni, two people set themselves on fire earlier this week to protest the border closings after being stuck in the camp for nearly a month. Hundreds of migrants there have joined the protests, chanting Open the border! and refusing to take buses to official military-run camps, fearing deportation to Turkey. | World |
The conflict among chiropractors has become more consequential as the Delta variant of the coronavirus spreads and the rate of new vaccinations slows.Credit...Bryan Anselm for The New York TimesJuly 14, 2021Anyone who listened to the Idaho chiropractor Steven Bakers podcast in May would have heard a cornucopia of misinformation about the coronavirus and the vaccines protecting hundreds of millions of people against it.In an episode titled Are the Vaccinated People Dangerous? (they arent), he claimed that scientists had never identified the whole virus (they have), that the vaccines turned people into modern-day zombies who spewed spike proteins in every breath and body fluid (they dont), and that vaccinated people could disrupt the menstrual cycles of women around them (they cant).So, Dr. Baker said, he had a new policy: If any patients made what I would consider a horribly poor decision to go get this shot, he would not allow them inside his office for 30 days.Dr. Baker, who didnt respond to a request for comment, doesnt represent all chiropractors, many of whom support vaccinations. But he is among a vocal cadre who have promoted doubts about the coronavirus vaccines online and in their clinics and, in the process, exposed a longstanding split within the profession.On one side are people like him, who dismiss the overwhelming medical consensus that the vaccines are effective and safe. These chiropractors closely follow the ideas espoused more than a century ago by the professions founder, Daniel David Palmer, who rejected germ theory and believed that diseases were caused by spinal misalignments called subluxations that disrupted an innate life force.The chiropractic profession, which involves adjustment of the spine through manual manipulation and is sometimes just called chiropractic, emerged from this vitalistic, almost supernatural idea of healing, said Timothy Caulfield, the Canada research chair in health law and policy at the University of Alberta. Its difficult for them to escape their roots, and I think thats one of the reasons that so many people continue to be attracted to chiropractic who are more likely to be vaccination hesitant, and why so many chiropractic practitioners are in fact vaccination hesitant.ImageCredit...Kim Kyung-Hoon/ReutersOn the other side are chiropractors who have called on their peers to encourage vaccination as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other medical authorities. In a 2013 paper in the Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association, for example, four chiropractors wrote that by recommending vaccines as clinically indicated, the chiropractic profession would promote the public good and, by doing so, would be in a better position to be embraced by the broader health care community.That paper, said one of its authors, Brian Gleberzon, a professor at Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, is still relevant.As the Delta variant of the coronavirus spreads and the rate of new vaccinations slows, the conflict within the profession has become more consequential. The United States is administering about 530,000 doses per day on average compared with a peak of more than three million in April and while case numbers are low nationally, they are spiking in states like Missouri and Arkansas, where vaccination rates are lagging.Many fields of alternative medicine are home to anti-vaccination sentiment, but chiropractic is one of the most popular of those fields, and its tensions are more in the open. More than 35 million Americans visit a chiropractor each year, according to the American Chiropractic Association. And even though chiropractors arent required to receive specialized training in infectious diseases they must attend chiropractic school, not medical school many patients look to them for medical advice.Professor Caulfields research has found that people who are attracted to alternative therapies like chiropractic are also the people who are likely to be susceptible to misinformation, he said. If youre open to alternative medicine, youre also more likely to be attracted to anti-vaccination rhetoric, so the ideas cluster.Annette Bernat, a spokeswoman for the American Chiropractic Association, said the group encouraged members to follow C.D.C. guidance on Covid-19 prevention and supported evidence-informed care and generally accepted best practices based on current, high-quality research, but had no stance on vaccines.But several state organizations said it could be appropriate for chiropractors to weigh in on vaccinations or other medical issues outside their scope of practice.The Arizona Association of Chiropractic one of 11 reached for this article said individual chiropractors were free to make their own decision with regard to the efficacy of vaccinations.Speaking for himself and not on behalf of the organization, James Bogash, a board member, argued that vaccination should be an individual choice based on risk tolerance and said scientists could not yet know the vaccines long-term effects.Mr. Bogash also expressed frustration that prior Covid infection is completely not part of the discussion, despite every evidence to support the fact that natural immunity is stronger and longer lasting than acquired immunity. (Research indicates that the vaccines are likely to create stronger and more reliable immunity, particularly against variants.)Without mentioning vaccines, Dawn Benton, executive vice president of the California Chiropractic Association, said chiropractors were well trained in the recognition of conditions that are outside of our scope so that we can determine when a patient is best treated in our office or by another health care professional.Given our training, she said, there are times when a doctor of chiropractic can appropriately comment on many medical topics, and we leave the decision on that up to each individual doctor of chiropractic and the regulations they practice under.Only two of the 11 organizations reached the Delaware Chiropractic Society and the Washington State Chiropractic Association said directly that chiropractors should refer patients to medical doctors for questions on medical subjects.Providing clinical advice on out-of-scope topics would violate numerous statutes and regulations governing health care licensees, said Jeff Curwen, the executive director of the Washington association. Chiropractors can and should discuss with their patients how nonchiropractic treatments may affect their chiropractic care, but they should always refer those patients to the appropriate provider type for specific answers to out-of-scope questions.Some practitioners, though, have shared inaccurate or unsourced information without prompting.On his website, Greg Werner, a chiropractor in New York City and Westchester County, N.Y., claims that there is no proof vaccines work and that germ theory doesnt exist because if it did EVERYONE would be sick ALL the time. (He declined an interview request.)A New Jersey chiropractor, J. Zimmerman, has routinely cited figures on his blog from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System a federal database to which anyone can report health problems after vaccination and suggested that vaccines caused the problems reported. He did not mention the C.D.C.s disclaimer A report to VAERS does not mean that the vaccine caused the adverse event, only that the adverse event occurred some time after vaccination in his posts until after The New York Times emailed him questions about his use of VAERS.Dr. Zimmerman did not answer those questions.Sean B. Carroll, vice president for science education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a professor of biology at the University of Maryland, wrote in Scientific American in November that the chiropractic arguments against vaccines reminded him of arguments against evolution.He identified six tactics, the first five being doubt the science, question scientists motives and integrity, magnify disagreements among scientists and cite gadflies as authorities, exaggerate potential harm and appeal to personal freedom.People challenged on one front, he said, typically shift to another. And if all else fails, he said, they turn to the sixth: Reject whatever would repudiate a key philosophy. It is because of this pattern that pro-vaccine chiropractors voices are essential, Dr. Carroll said: Just as he cannot persuade creationists to accept evolution but clergy members sometimes can, chiropractors may be able to persuade their colleagues to accept vaccines where scientists cant.Outsiders are suspect, and theyre pretty much disregarded on the face of things, he said. Always the best way is that somebody from the in-group, or some group from the in-group, says, We think differently. | Health |
Paris Hilton's Fiance I Know the Deal ... She's Calling the Wedding Shots 1/25/2018 TMZ.com Paris Hilton's fiance is falling in line, and he's damn happy to do so ... at least when it comes to planning their wedding. P and Chris Zylka were at LAX Wednesday -- jetting off to some fabulous location, we're sure -- and, for once, we got HIS take on how their big day is gonna go down. It was immediately obvious though ... his viewpoint is pretty much hers. Chris insists they're taking a 50-50 approach, but then deferred to Paris on just about every detail. In other words ... he's a very smart guy. Meanwhile, she dropped a hint about her bridal party. Bad news for Chris -- he might not be top dog at his own wedding. | Entertainment |
on techAs Americas economy suffers, Big Tech does shockingly well.VideoCreditCredit...By Kenny BrandenbergerPublished July 31, 2020Updated Dec. 17, 2020This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it weekdays.Three months ago, the Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos effectively declared that his company would try to lose money. Instead, Amazon declared on Thursday the largest profit in its history.It was a bit awkward.Companies are supposed to make money, for sure. But this comes at a moment when politicians and the public are wondering if Americas digital superstars are so powerful and perhaps, tilt the game to their advantage that they simply cant be beaten.A company like Amazon planning to lose money and instead making billions of dollars in profit is a pretty compelling sign of dominance.This week in technology made me think of that old line about a once dominant car company: Whats good for the United States was good for General Motors, and what was good for GM was good for the country. (Theres a debate about what the GM executive meant by this, but its still a good line. Stay with me.)The bosses of four of Americas tech giants, dragged (virtually) in front of Congress this week, said some version of that old saw. They said that their successes are uniquely American, and that their companies enrich the country and the lives of people who live in it.Thats true. It is, however, hard to ignore that the fortunes of the country and its leading corporate citizens are currently going in opposite directions.We learned on Thursday that the United States wiped out five years of economic growth in a matter of months, as my colleague Ben Casselman put it. During that period, Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook mostly raked in money hand over fist.Mostly, this makes sense. During a pandemic, we have needed the products and services these companies provide. That does not, however, guarantee them financial success.(Read more: Last year, my colleague Kashmir Hill wrote about trying and mostly failing to cut the five big U.S. technology companies out of her life. Now, Kash is reflecting on what she learned from that experiment.)Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg said a few months ago that the way his company makes money selling ads to a local bakery or an online luggage maker tends to naturally rise and fall in tune with the economy. Thats generally true, but not right now. The economy is tanking at its worst rate in many decades. Facebooks advertising sales are fine.What has been bad for the United States hasnt yet been bad for Big Tech. Is, then, whats good for Big Tech good for the country? Im not sure.Theres an axiom in technology that change happens gradually, then suddenly. Tech companies can seem unbeatable until they arent often because of some rapid evolutionary change. It happened to Nokia and Sun Microsystems whose old headquarters was taken over by Facebook in a symbol of one empire replacing a crumbled one.So could there be a Fall of Rome moment for todays tech superpowers? Yes, in theory, and we might never see it coming. Right now, though, despite broader economic pains and a growing backlash to their power, these four American tech superpowers appear to be as close to invulnerable as you can get.Your TakeWeve spent a lot of time this week talking about the congressional antitrust hearing and potential abuses of power by Big Tech. We want to change things up a bit and hear from our readers. Tell us about one tech invention of the past decade that makes your life fabulous, or at least easier, and why.A reader in Allentown, Pa., Arthur Weinrach, inspired us, writing in to mention the many technological changes that hes grateful for, including the E-Z Pass.Tell us yours at ontech@nytimes. Please include your name and location. We will publish a selection of them.What didnt get attention at the Big Tech hearingThe antitrust code was written to tackle railroads and steel companies that grew strong enough to raise their prices at will.A hot conversation in legal scholarship is whether those laws apply to Google, Facebook and other companies that offer many products for no (monetary) cost to us. (My colleague Cecilia Kang talked about this on The Daily.)There are, however, at least a couple of examples in which tech companies are being accused of behavior that has led to higher sticker prices for us. In other words, there are conventional, railroad-baron-type antitrust claims against the tech giants, too.These instances didnt get much of an airing during the congressional hearing this week into tech company power, but theyre worth paying attention to.One issue involves Apples App Store. A lawsuit that is winding its way through U.S. courts claims that Apples commission of as much as 30 percent on digital app transactions makes all iPhone apps more expensive than they would be without Apples monopoly over iPhone app distribution.Another involves Amazons marketplace. Some merchants have said that Amazon punishes them if they list what they sell on Amazon for lower prices on Walmart.com or other spots. Those sellers claim that Amazon is in essence pushing up the prices on products on competitors shopping sites.Members of Congress didnt ask Apple and Amazon about these allegations, and the companies have previously denied them.Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School and a contributing Opinion writer for The New York Times, told me that he believed those price claims were the strongest potential antitrust case against Amazon on legal grounds.He said, though, that theres a distinction between technical antitrust and public opinion antitrust. Intricate discussions about price setting are boring in congressional hearings.If you dont already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here.Before we go Europe vs. Big Tech: The European Union and some of its member countries have been relatively aggressive in suing Americas tech giants and restricting them through new laws. But, as my colleague Adam Satariano writes, theres a belief that those tactics havent been effective, and now officials in Europe are drafting several new laws and regulations that aim at the heart of how the U.S. digital stars operate.Bond with your co-workers by robbing a (virtual) bank: Bored by Zoom calls for work? My colleague David Segal has a fun look at people holding business meetings and work bonding sessions in Minecraft, Grand Theft Auto and other video games. Just dont get killed by zombies on your lunch break.Seven. Billion. Video. Views: If you have kids, they have probably watched the slightly unnerving YouTube videos released by CoComelon and Blippi, two giants of childrens entertainment. Both are now part of a single empire whose YouTube videos generate more than seven billion views each month, Bloomberg News writes. Childrens programming is among the most popular destinations on YouTube, which has made some parents and childrens advocates uncomfortable.Hugs to thisHere is a cat eating corn on the cob rather elegantly, I think.We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else youd like us to explore. You can reach us at [email protected]. If you dont already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here. | Tech |
Credit...Kirsten Luce for The New York TimesDec. 23, 2015Nearly a year ago, Mayor Bill de Blasio proclaimed that a new municipal identification card would help thousands of New Yorkers lead fuller lives, better lives, lives full of respect and recognition.More than 670,000 people have obtained the identification cards since the program began in January. One of the programs goals is to help many of those people obtain bank accounts.But some of the biggest banks in the city including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup will not accept the cards as a primary source of identification, even though their federal regulators and some smaller banks have approved their use.The banks reluctance threatens to leave thousands of undocumented immigrants and others on the margins of the financial system. For now, many are stuck with costly alternatives like check cashing services that take out a big chunk of a workers pay. Or they carry wads of cash around, potentially jeopardizing their safety.For years, the nations banking giants have said they support efforts to extend basic banking services to the estimated nine million American households that are unbanked, with no savings or checking account.In the case of the New York ID cards, those efforts are bumping up against another issue facing the big banks: protecting accounts from fraud and money laundering. In recent years, banks have had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fines to settle investigations that found they had failed to adequately prevent money tainted by terrorism or illegal drugs from flowing through their branches.Caught in the middle are people like Donaldo C. Espinoza, a construction worker in the Bronx, who was unable to get a bank account with the ID card; and Blanca Perez, a housekeeper in Queens, who could not cash a check at Citibank using the ID she got after seeing a commercial for it on Univision, the Spanish-language TV network.Last spring, officials from the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said that banks could use the New York identification cards known as IDNYC to satisfy certain requirements of federal anti-money laundering laws.Still, their letter did not compel the banks to accept the IDs, ultimately leaving the decision up to the individual financial institutions, which must assess the risk presented by each customer.For the big banks, the regulatory guidance was not enough to ease their concerns about being held liable if fraudulent or suspicious accounts were opened with the cards, according to people briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity.These are business judgments, said Michael P. Smith, president of the New York Bankers Association. It is ultimately the institution that has to pass muster if there were ever a problem.Bank of America will accept the card only as a secondary form of photo identification. Citigroup is planning to accept the IDs as a secondary proof of identification starting next year. JPMorgan does not accept the card at all.A JPMorgan spokesman, noting that 35 percent of the banks branches are in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, said, We are committed to meeting the needs of communities where we do business.Some who advocate the use of the ID cards question whether the refusal to accept them has less to do with security concerns and more to do with protecting the bottom line. Regulations reining in fees have reduced the profits banks can make from low-income customers, putting the citys immigrants among the least attractive sources of potential customers.If New Yorkers who rely on IDNYC were perceived to be highly profitable customers, the big banks would no doubt change their tune, said Deyanira Del Ro, a co-director of New Economy Project, which works with community groups in New York.The lack of acceptance of the New York ID cards was among several concerns the nonprofit group highlighted in a letter last month to banking regulators. In the letter, 16 advocacy groups take particular umbrage with JPMorgan, the countrys largest bank, for what they say are its failures to serve the credit needs of low-income and minority communities.The advocacy groups focused on JPMorgan in part because it is the citys biggest bank.A spokesman for the bank said that Chase Liquid, a prepaid card, has helped more than a million people gain access to mainstream banking.The municipal ID cards are available to all New Yorkers over the age of 14. While the mayors office says it cannot track the exact number of immigrants with the cards, it has seen some encouraging signs. In the Corona Park neighborhood of Queens, for example, about 20 percent of the areas approximately 150,000 residents have the cards, according to the mayors office.Late Wednesday afternoon, at an unrelated event in Brooklyn, the mayor defended the ID card program, saying the cards were being accepted by many banks, credit unions and other organizations and have had a big impact on everything else in peoples lives, whether it is going for a lease, going for a library card, getting into their childs school when they have to show an ID.As for the banks that have declined to accept the card, the mayor said: Were certainly going to talk to them, and were certainly going to help them to understand. He expressed confidence that the banks concerns could be overcome.I think we can educate these banks about the fact that it is both an extraordinarily accurate ID, but its the right thing to do for New York City.The mayor emphasized that the cards were developed with input from the New York City Police Department and said the department had been one of the biggest backers of the program. They want every New Yorker on the street to have an ID card; it greatly improves the work of the NYPD, Mr. de Blasio said.To obtain an IDNYC, city residents must produce a form of photo identification and proof of their address, which the United States Postal Service has to confirm. The cards also feature holographic images, laser engraving and other security features to prevent forgery.The cards are intended to give New Yorkers broad access around the city, where it is nearly impossible to get into a government or commercial office building without showing some form of government-issued ID.Since taking office in 2014, Mr. de Blasio has pledged to find ways to narrow the gulf between the citys richest and poorest residents.A part of that effort, the mayor has said, is making it easier for all New York City residents to gain access to services provided by the city and its many institutions.For Mr. Espinoza, the 54-year-old construction worker, the need for a bank account was even more straightforward. He needed a place to put his money that was safer than under a mattress in his Bronx apartment.He signed up for a card in order to open a bank account. But the employee at the Bank of America branch in Lower Manhattan told him that the bank would not accept the card as a primary form of identification, he said.I was confused, Mr. Espinoza, who is originally from Honduras, recalled in an interview. They told me at the NY ID office that this would work to open up a bank account.In the end, Mr. Espinoza said he had to miss a day of work and spend $70 to renew his Honduran passport, which he used to open an account at the bank.Not every immigrant, advocates said in interviews, has the documents needed or feels comfortable going to the embassy of their home country to obtain a passport. The IDNYC, which assigns a number to each card, is intended to validate a New Yorkers identity regardless of their immigration status.Banks are not required by regulators to ensure that their customers are United States citizens or whether they are living in the country legally. Regulators are primarily concerned that the banks can verify that customers are who they say they are.With that requirement in mind, the de Blasio administration and the New York Bankers Association contacted the federal banking regulators this year asking for guidance on whether the IDNYC cards could be used as a proof of identity.In April, the regulators responded with what consumer advocates interpreted as an affirmation of the cards. The cards, the regulators outlined in the letter, could be used as a means of documentary verification. But ultimately, the regulators left the decisions up to the banks, writing that a bank may determine that more information than the ID Card is necessary.The city stands firmly behind the security features of the cards, emphasizing, as they mayor did, that a dozen credit unions and smaller banks are willing to accept the cards as primary IDs.Nisha Agarwal, commissioner of the mayors office of immigrant affairs, and Scott M. Stringer, the New York City comptroller, said the city plans to keep talking to the banks about the cards.We have done the work with the regulators, Ms. Agarwal said. If there is something else we can do to be helpful with the banks, we will.In a statement released Wednesday, Mr. Stringer said his office would contact every bank to discuss what steps they are taking to change their policy.While acknowledging that the guidance from regulators was far from an ironclad endorsement of the cards, Keith Mestrich, the chief executive of Amalgamated Bank, said he considered the city cards as sufficient proof of identity and residency.Amalgamated still requires potential customers to produce a taxpayer ID number from the I.R.S. or the Social Security Administration, along with the city-issued cards. It has opened about 250 accounts with the IDNYC.We think protections that are put in place are just as strong as most state drivers licenses, Mr. Mestrich said. I dont know why the big banks wont take them. | Business |
Credit...Justin Tang/Canadian Press, via Associated PressJune 14, 2018WASHINGTON The Justice Departments inspector general on Thursday painted a harsh portrait of the F.B.I. during the 2016 presidential election, describing a destructive culture in which James B. Comey, the former director, was insubordinate, senior officials privately bashed Donald J. Trump and agents came to distrust prosecutors.The 500-page report criticized Mr. Comey for breaking with longstanding policy and publicly discussing in a news conference and a pair of letters in the middle of the campaign an investigation into Hillary Clintons use of a private email server in handling classified information. The report was a firm rebuke of those actions, which Mr. Comey has tried for months to defend.Nevertheless, the inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, did not challenge the conclusion that Mrs. Clinton should not be prosecuted. That investigation loomed over most of the presidential campaign, and Mr. Horowitz and his investigators uncovered no proof that political opinions at the F.B.I. influenced its outcome.We found no evidence that the conclusions by department prosecutors were affected by bias or other improper considerations, he wrote. Rather, we concluded that they were based on the prosecutors assessment of facts, the law and past department practice.But the report initiated in response to a chorus of requests from Congress and the public was far from an exoneration. Mr. Horowitz was unsparing in his criticism of Mr. Comey and referred five F.B.I. employees for possible discipline over pro-Clinton or anti-Trump commentary in electronic messages. He said agents were far too cozy with journalists. And he described a breakdown in the chain of command, calling it extraordinary that the attorney general acceded to Mr. Comey during the most controversial moments of the Clinton investigation.The result, Mr. Horowitz said, undermined public confidence in the F.B.I. and sowed doubt about the bureaus handling of the Clinton investigation, which even two years later remains politically divisive. Mrs. Clintons supporters blame Mr. Comey for her election loss. Mr. Trump believes that Mr. Comey and his agents conspired to clear Mrs. Clinton of wrongdoing because they were openly hostile to his candidacy.Mr. Horowitz repeatedly said he found no evidence that the F.B.I. rigged the outcome. Our review did not find documentary or testimonial evidence directly connecting the political views these employees expressed in their text messages and instant messages to the specific investigative decisions we reviewed, the report said.The report is especially critical of two F.B.I. officials, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who exchanged texts disparaging Mr. Trump. Many of those text messages had already been released, but the report cites a previously undisclosed exchange:Mr. Trump is not ever going to become president, right? Right?! Ms. Page wrote.No, Mr. Strzok wrote. No he wont. Well stop it.Ms. Page has left the F.B.I. and Mr. Strzok has been reassigned to human resources. Like other top F.B.I. officials, they were involved in both the Clinton case and the investigation into the Trump campaigns ties to Russia. So while the inspector generals report focuses entirely on the Clinton case, it has ramifications for the investigation being carried out by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Any evidence of bias or rule-breaking in one case could be used to undermine confidence in the other.Mr. Trump has repeatedly declared the Russia investigation a witch hunt and was eagerly anticipating the release of Thursdays report. He was briefed on it but was notably silent about the conclusions.The Republican National Committee, though, distributed talking points to supporters criticizing a fervent anti-Trump bias and calling for Mr. Strzoks termination. The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, offered few remarks.It reaffirmed the presidents suspicions about Comeys conduct and the political bias among some of the members of the F.B.I., she said. But she referred questions to the current F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray.Mr. Wray, in a rare news conference, said he took the report seriously but said that nothing in the report impugns the integrity of the F.B.I. Our brand is doing just fine, he said. 568 pages, 26.98 MB Mr. Wray was confirmed last year after the abrupt firing of Mr. Comey, and the report serves as an unflattering book end to Mr. Comeys three-and-a-half-year tenure. The findings sharply criticize his judgment as he injected the F.B.I. into presidential politics in ways not seen since at least the Watergate era.Mr. Comey held a news conference in July 2016 to announce that he was recommending no charges against Mrs. Clinton and to publicly chastise her email practices. It was highly unorthodox; the Justice Department, not the F.B.I., makes charging decisions. And officials have been reprimanded for injecting their opinions into legal conclusions. Mr. Comey withheld his plans for a public statement from his bosses at the Justice Department.It was extraordinary and insubordinate for Comey to do so, the inspector general wrote, and we found none of his reasons to be a persuasive basis for deviating from well-established department policies in a way intentionally designed to avoid supervision by department leadership.ImageCredit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesThen in late October, over the objection of top Justice Department officials, Mr. Comey sent a letter to Congress disclosing that agents were scrutinizing new evidence in the Clinton case.That evidence did not change the outcome of the inquiry, but Mrs. Clinton and many of her supporters blame Mr. Comeys late disclosure for her defeat. Former campaign aides expressed disbelief Thursday at another revelation in the report that Mr. Comey had used a private email account to conduct official F.B.I. business while he supervised the investigation into Mrs. Clintons email practices. I dont know whether to laugh or cry, said Brian Fallon, the former campaign spokesman.And Mrs. Clinton herself responded on Twitter, noting only, But my emails.Mr. Comey has defended his actions, saying he would have faced criticism for any decision, so he opted to be transparent. F.B.I. officials have acknowledged that they made those decisions in part because they assumed Mrs. Clinton would win, and they worried about appearing to conceal information to help her.Mr. Comey and his agents also grew suspicious of Justice Department prosecutors. Working-level agents wanted prosectors to be more aggressive a tension that the inspector general found caused significant strife and mistrust between the two groups.Mr. Comey, too, said his decisions were influenced in part by concerns that political appointees at the Justice Department did not have the credibility to close the investigation. In an Op-Ed published in The New York Times responding to the report, Mr. Comey said he believed he was making the right decisions at the time.As painful as the whole experience has been, I still believe that, he wrote. And nothing in the inspector generals report makes me think we did the wrong thing.Mr. Comey has cultivated a reputation for fierce independence and supreme self-confidence. Those traits were both assets and vulnerabilities. Agents widely saw him as a strong leader.But Mr. Comey believed that he was the only one who could steer the F.B.I. through the political winds of the Clinton case, and that left him alone to answer for the bureaus actions.Officially at least, Mr. Comeys handling of the Clinton case cost him his job. After the firing, the White House held up as justification a Justice Department memo that criticized many of the actions now highlighted by the inspector general. In that regard, the inspector general would seem to underscore the stated reason for Mr. Comeys dismissal.But Mr. Trump has muddied this issue. Hours after the firing, he undercut his own staff and said that he had planned to fire Mr. Comey even before receiving the recommendation. He said he had been thinking about the Russia investigation when he fired Mr. Comey. His lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, added more recently that Mr. Comey was fired for refusing to publicly exonerate Mr. Trump in the Russia case.Those comments, along with Mr. Comeys account of private conversations with the president, prompted the appointment of a special counsel to begin investigating Mr. Trump for possible obstruction of justice. That inquiry continues. The inspector generals report does not directly affect that case, though anything that undermines Mr. Comeys credibility is politically and legally beneficial to Mr. Trump.The inspector general is separately reviewing some aspects of the Russia investigation, including Mr. Trumps theory backed up by no evidence that the F.B.I. spied on his campaign for political purposes. Those matters were not covered in Thursdays report.Mr. Horowitzs investigation has already led to the firing of one top F.B.I. official, the former deputy director Andrew G. McCabe. Mr. Horowitz issued a report in March that said Mr. McCabe had been dishonest about his contacts with the news media about Mrs. Clinton.Mr. McCabe has been a frequent target of Mr. Trumps ire and is central to his theory that the F.B.I. secretly worked to exonerate Mrs. Clinton. Mr. McCabes wife ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for the Virginia State Senate and received significant campaign donations from an ally of Mrs. Clinton. Despite the presidents criticism, the inspector general said on Thursday that Mr. McCabe had not been required to recuse himself from the Clinton case.Among Mr. Horowitzs original tasks was to identify whether F.B.I. agents improperly disclosed information about the Clinton case to reporters. But his inquiry was stymied, he said, because improper contacts with journalists were so common. The large number of F.B.I. employees who were in contact with journalists during this time period impacted our ability to identify the sources of leaks, he wrote.The report omitted any discussion of a potential leak of information in fall 2016 to Mr. Giuliani, who was then one of Mr. Trumps key campaign surrogates but not yet his lawyer. Shortly before Mr. Comey announced the discovery of new emails in the Clinton case, Mr. Giuliani appeared on Fox News and hinted that major news was about to break: I mean, Im talking about some pretty big surprises, he said.Mr. Horowitz has indicated that another report addressing leaks is forthcoming. It is not clear whether Mr. Giulianis remarks will be addressed. | Politics |
Credit...Carolyn Kaster/Associated PressJune 6, 2018WASHINGTON Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, denied on Wednesday that Trump administration policies were driving up health insurance costs, which many experts expect to surge again in 2019.Mr. Azar, testifying before a House committee, vigorously disputed suggestions by Democrats that President Trump had sabotaged Affordable Care Act marketplaces, where millions of people obtain insurance subsidized by the federal government.In the market as it now exists, he said, theres no incentive for insurance companies to in any way contain their cost increases because federal subsidies generally rise along with premiums.Those prices are going to go up, and, absent statutory change, theres little we can do to stop that premium increase because the subsidies chase those premiums, Mr. Azar said.The Congressional Budget Office said the full unsubsidized premium for a benchmark midlevel plan in the marketplaces rose 34 percent this year, on average, and was likely to increase about 15 percent next year. But some insurers have already requested rate increases of more than 30 percent for 2019.Given this dynamic, Mr. Azar said, the Trump administration is trying to make other options available to people less expensive insurance that will be exempt from many coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act.Mr. Trump intends to expand access to short-term, limited-duration insurance, allowing such policies to run for 364 days, instead of the current limit of three months. In addition, he is making it easier for businesses to band together and provide insurance through association health plans.Critics say the new plans would attract healthier people and employers with younger, healthier workers driving up costs for those who remain in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. The new plans would not have to provide certain essential health benefits like mental health care, emergency services, maternity and newborn care and prescription drugs.Association health plans will actually bring down the cost of insurance, Mr. Azar said.Insurers and consumer advocates say Mr. Trumps efforts to undercut the Affordable Care Act have created uncertainty for insurers, causing some to withdraw from the public marketplaces.I have not heard that, nor do I believe its accurate, Mr. Azar said. There are many major providers that are providing insurance packages and frankly making a ton of money off of providing in the Obamacare markets.Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, cited news reports indicating that insurers around the country were using Trump administration policies to justify 2019 rate increases, in Maine, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and Washington, among other states.In seeking higher rates for 2019, insurers point to several developments. Mr. Trump cut off subsidies that insurers use to reduce out-of-pocket medical costs for low-income people. And Congress, with encouragement from Mr. Trump, eliminated tax penalties for people who go without insurance, starting next year, giving healthier people less incentive to obtain coverage.These steps destabilize the health care system and will increase costs and undermine patient protections for millions of Americans, said Representative Robert C. Scott of Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Education and Workforce Committee, where Mr. Azar testified.Mr. Azar did announce one policy that is likely to help consumers and insurers. He said the administration would, in effect, allow insurers to continue shifting certain costs to the federal government because officials did not have time to issue rules banning the practice in 2019.To offset the loss of federal cost-sharing payments, many insurers increased premiums this year. State officials in many states told them to load all the increase onto midlevel silver plans, because the federal government uses the cost of such plans as a benchmark in calculating premium subsidies. Those subsidies made insurance much more affordable, because they covered most or all of the premiums for many people this year.Administration officials had expressed concern about the practice and considered banning it.But Mr. Azar said, We certainly are not able to regulate in time for the plan year that starts in January.He also defended the administrations decision to allow states to impose work requirements on low-income people covered by Medicaid. The requirements do not have to be onerous, he said, as work can be just volunteering, studying, education or work force training.Mr. Azar also came under attack from Democrats over the administrations recent policy of separating immigrant parents from children when they cross the border illegally. His department often takes custody of children whose parents have been arrested while trying to do so. The department then arranges education and health care for the children and may try to place them with relatives or other adults.I join the millions of people across this country who are appalled at the policy of ripping children away from their parents, said Representative Suzanne Bonamici, Democrat of Oregon.In response, Mr. Azar said: Individual children are separated from their parents only when those parents cross the border illegally and are arrested. We cant have children with parents who are in incarceration.The best advice I have is: Actually present yourself at a legal border crossing and make your case, Mr. Azar added. Cross illegally and get arrested, and your children will be given to us. Thats the simple fact, Im afraid. | Politics |
March 22, 2016WASHINGTON The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that it was requiring new warning labels for certain types of opioid painkillers, a step that it said would help ease an epidemic of abuse in the United States.The agency said the changes would mostly apply to immediate-release opioids usually intended for use every four to six hours and would include new boxed warnings, the agencys strongest type, about the risks of abuse and death.Immediate-release opioids account for about 90 percent of opioid prescriptions, while extended-release drugs, intended to be taken once or twice a day, make up the rest, the F.D.A. said.It was not the first time the agency had tightened opioid labels. In 2013, the agency toughened labeling requirements for extended-release opioids, which are often seen as a bigger addiction risk because of their potency. Now, many of those changes are being applied to the immediate-release version.Its a pretty massive effort, said Dr. Robert M. Califf, the F.D.A. commissioner, after his colleague noted that all the changes announced Tuesday, including the boxed warnings, would apply to 87 brand-name drugs and 141 generics. In 2013, just 34 products were affected, a spokeswoman said. The agency first signaled it would toughen labeling requirements last month as part of a series of measures announced by Dr. Califf.The agency has been under pressure by some members of Congress who say it has helped stoke the crisis by approving many new opioids in a market awash in the drugs.Drug overdoses now kill more people in the United States than car crashes.Senator Ed Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, who has been outspoken on the agencys policies, said in emailed remarks that the changes will finally reflect what we have known about these drugs for decades: They are dangerous and addictive and can lead to dependency.He said that the labeling changes have done little to prevent prescription drug opioid addiction, and that it has taken the F.D.A. far too long to address the grave risks of these drugs that have claimed the lives of thousands this year alone.The changes come a week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced new , one of the most sweeping measures taken by the federal government. The standards are nonbinding, but experts say they will be used broadly in medical practice in part because doctors, fearing litigation, will be inclined to stick to them.The new labeling says that the drugs should be reserved for pain severe enough to require opioid treatment and for which alternative treatment options are inadequate or not tolerated, the F.D.A. said.This is a substantial change, said Dr. Doug Throckmorton of the agencys Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. The new labels also include clearer instructions for directions like initial drug dose and dose changes during therapy. But officials said there were no dose thresholds given, or maximum amounts, which some addiction specialists had been calling for.Without an upper dose or maximum duration of use on the label, I dont think the change will have much of an impact, said Dr. Andrew Kolodny, the executive director of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, who has criticized the agency.Dr. Califf emphasized that the agency did not regulate the practice of medicine, and that the new C.D.C. guidelines attempted to provide that benchmark.He said he was certain the labeling changes would make a difference. The label provides a source of information that produces a lot of discussion, he said, as well other things that help shape medical practice, like formularies and educating doctors.Dr. Bruce Psaty, a researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle who studies drug safety, agreed: The F.D.A. has taken an important step here. This should help improve prescribing practices in the near term.He added that it was another step in the national effort that is reshaping the culture of prescribing in the United States. | Health |
Health|U.S. nursing home deaths appear to be at pandemic lows.https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/04/health/us-nursing-home-deaths-appear-to-be-at-pandemic-lows.htmlCredit...Seth Wenig/Associated PressApril 3, 2022Deaths at American nursing home residents from Covid appear to be at their lowest levels since the coronavirus first swept the United States more than two years ago, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Some 67 residents died during the week ending March 27. While that number could be adjusted in the coming weeks, it mirrors the lows last reached during June 2021 before facilities were hit with the Delta and Omicron variants. Although cases among residents climbed much more sharply in the fall and winter, deaths still reached roughly 1,500 in January before steadily dropping.But experts say there is little reason for complacency. Nursing home residents remain highly vulnerable to the virus because of their age and underlying medical conditions. While booster shots proved to be protective against severe illness during the latest surge, federal regulators already authorized second booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines last week. There is also growing concern over a highly contagious subvariant of Omicron, known as BA.2.Getting the second booster shot to nursing home residents is a real policy priority, said David Grabowski, a health policy researcher at Harvard Medical School who studies nursing homes. We know this is protective.While there was a significant push by the federal government and the large pharmacy chains to vaccinate nursing home residents when the initial shots first became available, many facilities were slow to roll out booster shots last fall even as there began to be outbreaks. About 88 percent of residents are fully vaccinated, and about 76 percent have received a booster shot, according to the latest federal data.Immunizing staff members has been harder, with the federal mandate to require health care workers to be vaccinated facing legal challenges. While 86 percent of staff are fully vaccinated, only 43 percent have received a booster shot. In 13 states, fewer than a third of employees have received the added immunizations.We have a lot of nursing homes around the country that lag behind, said Dr. Grabowski, adding that he was concerned about residents in facilities that serve predominantly people on Medicaid and people of color. I think there are going to be real issues of equity here, he said.The gap between those who received the initial vaccinations and those who receive additional doses could continue to widen, said Brendan Williams, the chief executive of the New Hampshire Health Care Association, a state nursing home trade group. People appear more skeptical over the need for additional shots. I worry there has been a lot of mixed messages from the federal government, he said.While many nursing homes say they will provide the additional doses to their staff and residents, there does not seem to be significant urgency, Dr. Grabowski said. In Connecticut, which this year had issued an executive order mandating booster shots for workers in nursing homes, state health officials were reported to have indicated a similar directive for second boosters was not imminent.Mr. Williams remains cautious. Right now, there doesnt appear to be a crisis, he said. Theres not that attention being paid, but things can always change. Its concerning. | Health |
Credit...Yana Paskova for The New York TimesMay 29, 2019The kids are all right. But the parents?Since 2016, adults have grown much more concerned about the time they spend on mobile devices even as their teenage children have grown far less worried about their own use, according to a new report from Common Sense Media, a nonprofit childrens advocacy and media ratings organization.If youre concerned about your own device use, which an increasing number of parents are, then you ought to be able to impart that wisdom to your kids, said James P. Steyer, the organizations chief executive. Thats your job.The report, released on Wednesday and based on surveys of 500 pairs of parents and teenagers, found that both groups have a complicated relationship with the devices and, of course, with each other.Most parents worry that their kids are addicted to the devices, but about four in 10 teenagers have the same concern about their parents.Here are a few of the reports key findings:Bleary-eyed moms, dads and teenagers are everywhere.The findings that Mr. Steyer and the reports author, Michael Robb, said were most worrying related to how parents and teenagers allow mobile devices to interfere with sleep.Thats important because we know that healthy sleep is associated with a range of positive outcomes and poor sleep is related to a range of negative outcomes, said Mr. Robb, the senior director of research for Common Sense Media.According to the survey, conducted online and by phone in February and March, 26 percent of parents said they used a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet, within five minutes of going to sleep. The same share acknowledged waking up to check the device at least once during the night, while a slightly smaller share, 23 percent, said they used a device within five minutes of waking up.The rates were higher among teenagers: 40 percent said they used a device within five minutes of going to sleep; 36 percent admitted to waking up to check a device; and 32 percent said they used a device within five minutes of waking up.Its a huge wake-up call, said Mr. Steyer, who, along with his wife and four children, sleeps with his phone in a separate room.Teenagers were more than twice as likely as adults to sleep with a phone in bed, the study found, with 29 percent of teenagers and 12 percent of adults admitting to the practice.The survey findings were adjusted to mirror the demographics of the actual population of parents with teenagers. The margin of error was about 4.4 percent.But their worries are different.Curiously, Common Sense Media found that while parents feel increasingly glued to their phones, attitudes among teenagers moved in the opposite direction.Its interesting and its unexpected, Mr. Robb said.This year, for example, 52 percent of parents said they spent too much time on mobile devices, nearly twice as many as in 2016. Among teenagers, only 39 percent said they spent too much time on the devices, a steep decline from 61 percent.The share of parents who felt addicted to their devices rose to 45 percent from 27 percent, while the share of teenagers who said the same fell to 39 percent from 50 percent.It wasnt clear why attitudes among parents and teenagers diverged, but Mr. Robb offered some theories.Parents, he said, may be internalizing widespread news coverage of the repercussions of smartphone use. Children, on the other hand, may be suffering from normalization as fewer and fewer teenagers remember a time before such devices were ubiquitous.When it comes to actual use, though, both groups seem to have converged: Among parents, 42 percent said they checked their devices a few times an hour, while 43 percent of teens said the same.Everyone is arguing less. (After all, there are more Facebook and TikTok posts to scroll through.)One of the strangest findings of the survey, according to Mr. Robb, was that parents and teenagers were more worried about each others use, yet arguing about it less.Today, about four in 10 teenagers believe their parents are addicted to or spend too much time on their mobile devices, the survey found. Among parents, six in 10 worry about their children being addicted to their phones and seven in 10 say their children spend too much time on the devices.For both groups, though, the share who reported arguing daily over how the other uses mobile devices fell from about a third to about a fifth.Both kids and parents are arguing less, but at the same time they are feeling that the other is more distracted, Mr. Robb said. Its a really weird finding.It isnt clear why families are arguing less about device use, but Mr. Robb and Mr. Steyer said it might be caused by apathy or resignation over the hold mobile devices have.There is some hope, though: About two-thirds of parents said they had family rules governing the use of mobile devices, according to the survey findings.Weve been saying for years at Common Sense that you need to have sacred spaces, Mr. Steyer said. There are times and places where phones, in particular, but all digital platforms should not be there. The bedroom is the obvious one. | Tech |
Politics|Steve Schmidt, Longtime G.O.P. Strategist, Quits Corrupt and Immoral Partyhttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/us/politics/party-of-trump-steve-schmidt.htmlCredit...Max Whittaker for The New York TimesJune 20, 2018For months, Steve Schmidt, a longtime Republican strategist, has warned about the degradation of his party, saying the Trump administration is responsible for a coarsening of this country and calling the president a useful idiot for Russia.Now, Mr. Schmidt says hes done: On Wednesday morning, he renounced his membership in the Republican Party, nearly three decades after joining it, and called for a Democratic wave in the midterm elections this fall.29 years and nine months ago I registered to vote and became a member of The Republican Party which was founded in 1854 to oppose slavery and stand for the dignity of human life. Today I renounce my membership in the Republican Party. It is fully the party of Trump. Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) June 20, 2018 In a series of tweets, Mr. Schmidt, who served as a top campaign adviser to George W. Bush in 2004 and John McCain in 2008, said that the party he long served had become corrupt, indecent and immoral. He pointed to the Trump administrations practice of separating children from their parents when apprehended at the border, saying it had resulted in internment camps for babies.This child separation policy is connected to the worst abuses of humanity in our history, Mr. Schmidt said, reflecting the larger outpouring of anger over the administrations zero-tolerance policy, which has included immigrants seeking asylum.It is connected by the same evil that separated families during slavery and dislocated tribes and broke up Native American families, Mr. Schmidt said. It is immoral and must be repudiated.He also accused several officials of being complicit in enabling the presidents policies, including Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of homeland security; Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader; and Speaker Paul D. Ryan.Save for a few governors, Mr. Schmidt said, the Republican Party is now filled with feckless cowards. He said that the few who deserved to be spared that label included Govs. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, Larry Hogan of Maryland and John Kasich of Ohio.As a result, Mr. Schmidt called for a Democratic wave in the midterms, describing that party as the only one remaining that stands for what is right and decent.The first step to a season of renewal in our land is the absolute and utter repudiation of Trump and his vile enablers in the 2018 election by electing Democratic majorities, Mr. Schmidt wrote. I do not say this as an advocate of a progressive agenda. I say it as someone who retains belief in DEMOCRACY and decency.Mr. Schmidts announcement was met with mixed emotions by liberals on social media, with some welcoming it and others suggesting the announcement was too little, too late. Some conservatives also scoffed at the defection.While his decision to renounce his membership in the Republican Party stands out, Mr. Schmidt is far from alone in rebuking his partys leadership. Other prominent Republicans, such as Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, have been fiercely critical of President Trump and his policies but have mostly continued to vote in line with Mr. Trumps positions. | Politics |
Credit...Brad Penner/USA Today Sports, via ReutersFeb. 6, 2014The Rangers drive for a fifth straight victory stalled at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night as they fell to the Edmonton Oilers, 2-1, on Nail Yakupovs goal with 1 minute 38 seconds to play.For Rangers fans, the game the clubs 6,000th was a disappointing home finale before the two-week Olympic break.On Friday, the Rangers will play the Eastern Conference-leading Penguins in Pittsburgh in what had looked like a showdown between two surging teams. However, the script changed when Yakupovs shot, a one-timer, beat goaltender Cam Talbot, who was making his first start in six games.The winning goal was five guys on the ice getting beat to loose pucks and them protecting the puck and finding the open man all alone in the slot, Rangers Coach Alain Vigneault said of the decisive play, which came after the Oilers had controlled the puck in the Rangers end for a long stretch. There were five puck battles, we lost them all, and it was in the back of the net.Vigneault had warned his players that they should not take Edmonton lightly. Despite sitting in last place in the Western Conference, the Oilers had won four of their previous five games, largely because of the excellent goalkeeping of Ben Scrivens and Ilya Bryzgalov.Against the Rangers, it was Scrivenss turn in goal. His only previous game against the Rangers was a 37-save, 1-0 shutout at the Garden earlier this season, when he was with Los Angeles.One of his 35 saves Thursday was a sprawling effort in the second period that denied Ryan Callahan on a breakaway with the score tied, 1-1. On at least three other occasions, Callahan, who scored twice in the Rangers 5-1 victory over Colorado on Tuesday, fired high or wide on clear chances against Scrivens.When it was 1-1, we probably had three or four chances to score, Rangers center Brad Richards said. Unfortunately, thats hockey. Weve got to wake up tomorrow and get back to work.The Oilers went ahead after Brian Boyle misplayed a puck in the Rangers end, with Ryan Smyth scoring the only goal of the first period. The goal was the 384th of Smyths career, lifting him to No. 100 on the N.H.L.s career list.The Rangers tied the game 22 seconds into the second period when Derick Brassard scored on a one-timer off a Mats Zuccarello pass. That assist moved Zuccarello into sole possession of first place on the team in points (42, in 57 games). The Rangers also got a break midway through the second period when the referees blew the whistle just as an Oilers shot trickled in past Talbot, who finished with 29 saves.The teams traded chances throughout the game, with the referees seeming intent on not calling penalties. There was only one power play, awarded to Edmonton in the second period.You always feel like there should be penalties out there, but they didnt see anything, so they didnt call anything, Callahan said.It was the first time since Dec. 15, 2011, that the Rangers did not have a power play.Despite the loss, the Rangers game at Pittsburgh (40-15-2) still stands as a measuring stick. The Rangers record over the last 22 games is a solid 15-6-1, and they hold second place in the Metropolitan Division by a point over the Flyers.Its a big game, Marc Staal said of the Friday showdown. They are a good team, and we have to move by this and learn from it.On Sunday, seven Rangers will board the N.H.L.s Newark-to-Sochi charter flights: Callahan, Ryan McDonagh and Derek Stepan, who will represent the United States; Rick Nash (Canada); Henrik Lundqvist and Carl Hagelin (Sweden); and Zuccarello (Norway). Jim Ramsay, the Rangers head trainer, will also head to Sochi to work for Team Canada.McDonagh said Thursday morning that the Olympics had been in the back of his mind, especially on Wednesday, when practice was canceled because of snow, allowing him to begin preparing for the long trip to Russia.I started packing a little bit, figuring out what to bring, making sure all the paperwork, passport, visa stuff is together beforehand so theres no last-minute trouble, McDonagh said. From that aspect Ive been preparing, but not hockey-wise yet my mind is here.Sochi will have to wait just a bit longer. After Thursdays disappointing loss, the Rangers focus is on Pittsburgh. | Sports |
Australia|Justin Bieber Impersonator Is Charged With Child-Sex Crimeshttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/09/world/australia/justin-bieber-impersonator-child-sex.htmlCredit...Chad Batka for The New York TimesMarch 9, 2017A 42-year-old Australian man has been charged with committing more than 900 child-sex offenses after he was accused of pretending to be the pop star Justin Bieber to solicit explicit online photographs from children, the Queensland Police Service said on Thursday.The police said that the victims included dozens of Mr. Biebers fans in Australia, Britain and the United States. The 23-year-old Canadian pop singer, whose rise to stardom was driven in large part by support from adoring young fans, is on tour in Australia.The suspect, who has not been identified by name, was already facing charges in Queensland State of possessing material exploiting children, and of using the internet and social media to entrap children under age 16, the police said.He now faces a further 931 criminal charges for offenses including rape, the indecent treatment of children and making child-exploitation material that the police said stretched back at least a decade.The police raided the home of the suspect after he initially refused to allow access to his social media accounts. Investigators examined his computer, the police said, and found that he was using applications including Facebook and Skype to communicate with his victims and lure them into sending him explicit images.Detective Inspector Jon Rouse, who works on a Queensland Police Service task force devoted to combating the sexual exploitation of children online, described the offenses as frankly horrendous. He said it was imperative that the parents of Bieber fans be vigilant.This investigation demonstrates both the vulnerability of children that are utilizing social media and communication applications, and the global reach and skill that child-sex offenders have to groom and seduce victims, Inspector Rouse said in a statement. The fact that so many children could believe that they were communicating with this particular celebrity highlights the need for a serious rethink about the way that we as a society educate our children about online safety.The case comes amid intensifying concern across the globe that children are being sexually exploited online. In Denmark, a 70-year-old man recently went on trial accused of ordering the rape or sexual abuse of 346 Filipino children. At least one of the victims was as young as 3.Prosecutors said the man, a retiree living on the outskirts of Copenhagen, had paid for live, online sex shows from the Philippines.According to the international police organization Interpol, a majority of crimes against children usually take place within the home or the family circle.But Interpol has attributed a surge in child-related offenses to the internet, because it gives predators easy access to abusive material as well as a means to contact children via chat rooms or social networking sites.A recent study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime noted that social networking sites included an abundance of biographical information on potential victims that could be exploited by abusers, while children often lacked discretion and relied on a sometimes false sense of privacy and safety.Offenders are able to gain easier access to larger and new populations of children through the use of online forums, email, social networks and other internet-based communication tools, the study said.The report also found that child abusers can have relatively high education levels, making them more adept at using technology. | World |
BasicsCredit...Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket, via Getty ImagesMarch 6, 2017NORTH SEYMOUR ISLAND, Galpagos The birds move with comic grace, like Fred Astaire and Judy Garland as hobo swells in oversize shoes. The male faces the female and slowly, slowly lifts up one foot, sets it down and lifts the other. Check out my feet! Theyre blue. Really, really blue.The female mirrors his ponderous moves. Mine are blue, too. Is this ground sticky, or what? He leans over, spreads his wings wide, points his bill at the sky and whistles breathily, as if blowing on a toy flute. She grunts and totters up to him, and they clack bills. He grabs a pebble, and they clack bills again; he drops the pebble and spears a twig. Clack, whistle, grunt, whistle. And suddenly, she backs away.Desperate, the male solemnly starts high-stepping again, displaying his beautiful teal-blue feet. But the courtship has fizzled, and when the female again lifts up a foot in response, it looks as if shes waving goodbye.Its dating time here for the blue-footed booby. Everywhere, dozens of times a day, the large, handsome seabirds are making their highly ritualized courtship display one reason the boobies are among the most celebrated and beloved residents of this archipelago.ImageCredit...The Asahi Shimbun Premium, via Getty ImagesThey are also feeding voraciously and spectacularly, circling high over the water, alert for the slightest flicker of fish, and then freezing in midair for a fraction of a second before dropping headfirst onto their targets, like missiles falling from a plane.They squabble with one another over territory and nesting sites. They dodge parasitic frigate birds with red-balloon crops that pluck at the boobies tails and try to force them to regurgitate freshly caught fish but mostly fail.On the Galpagos and on Isla Isabel, a Mexican national park south of the coast of Baja, blue-footed boobies have no real predators to fear or human hunters to shun, and as a result they live proud, public lives. That openness and accessibility, beyond captivating tourists, have proved a bonanza for scientists, too.Research teams from Mexico and the United States have followed populations of the long-lived birds for years, even decades, and they have gathered a wealth of insights into the deep nature of being Sula nebouxii: how boobies choose and lose mates, the shifting allure of fidelity versus adultery, the measured brutality of older siblings, the contingency of parental love and the reason behind the boobies fetish for feet.Theyre superfascinating animals and such a good research model, said David J. Anderson of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., who studies both the blue-footed booby and the related Nazca booby. They let you move among them without minding too much. You try to do that with a continental bird or mammal forget about it. But with these guys you see it all.In one discovery that subverted expectations, Oscar Snchez Macouzet and Hugh Drummond of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and their colleagues determined that boobies subjected to severe bullying and abuse as nestlings suffered few consequences as adults.No matter how relentlessly the birds had been pecked at and bitten by older siblings, no matter how often food had been snatched from their beaks or how slowly they had grown, on reaching maturity the once-persecuted birds proved surprisingly confident, capable unflappable. They were able to attract partners, repel rivals and raise families as successfully as their domineering peers.Bullying in infancy does not make wimpy adults, Dr. Snchez Macouzet said.While many boobies change partners from season to season, there are great benefits of long-term fidelity, researchers have found. Comparing the breeding success of pairs that had been together for years with that of similarly mature boobies that had recently repartnered, scientists determined that the established pairs reared 35 percent more offspring to fledglinghood compared with the new mates.And in new findings that will be published soon and are enough to turn this working mothers feet cerulean scientists have discovered that the key to a successful long-term booby partnership is the equitable sharing of nest duties year after year.Biparental care is the rule among boobies, but longtime mates have perfected the art of symmetry and turn-taking. They spend the same time brooding and feeding the young, and expend the same physical effort as seen in measures of blood cells and body mass.ImageCredit...Tui De Roy/Minden PicturesSuch egalitarian couples, said Dr. Snchez Macouzet, have reached the sweet spot of cooperation, compatibility and a willingness to avoid the exploitation of your partner.Dr. Drummond and his colleagues have also identified another booby mating pattern that seems to work nearly as well as a stable long-term partnership and in some ways contradicts it: the May-December effect.For reasons that remain mysterious, Dr. Drummond said, booby couples in which one bird is young and the other old often have greater breeding success compared with pairs of the same age.Analyzing the outcomes of 3,361 booby offspring, the researchers found that the chicks of age-mismatched parents were significantly more likely to later become parents themselves compared with the progeny of similarly aged pairs. It didnt matter whether the mother was younger than the father or vice versa.The advantage to the chicks was the same either way, Dr. Drummond said.Life is complicated, he added, and every year boobies are conjuring with several different variables when making their choice among partners.ImageCredit...Tui De Roy/Minden PicturesSomeone familiar? Someone new? Nonnegotiable: The feet must be blue.Blue-footed boobies are members of the family Sulidae, a group that includes about 10 species of gannets and boobies and is, by some analyses, part of the larger pelican order. The name booby is thought to come from bobo, the Spanish word for stupid or clown, a reference to the birds awkward waddle.Blue-footed boobies can be found throughout the tropics and subtropics of the eastern Pacific. Though their overall population is not considered endangered, their numbers on the Galpagos have fallen since the 1990s, the result, scientists believe, of a local decline in the sardine stocks that the boobies need to breed.The birds are about the size of large sea gulls, with wingspans up to five feet. Adult females are about 20 percent to 30 percent heavier and stronger than males. Boobies stay close to home, and if given the chance, most will live and breed within a few dozen feet of where they were born.They often hunt small, schooling fish in flocks, each hitting the water at 60 miles per hour, its brain protected by specialized air sacs in the skull.In many birds, males are the fancy ones, their exaggerated, colorful features the result of generations of females expressing their whimsical tastes in mates. Among blue-footed boobies, by contrast, males and females are both choosy about their partners, and one of the traits they fixate on is the relative blue-ness of a partners feet.ImageCredit...Tui De Roy/Minden PicturesThe optimal color, it turns out, is more of a turquoise.Analyzing the boobys blue feet, researchers have determined that the color is a result of both structural and pigmental components. The basic tone, a flat, purplish-blue, is set by an alignment of proteins stacked in the skin like spaghetti in a box that preferentially encage and emphasize blue light.But the birds bodies modify that basic blue through diet, extracting bright yellow pigment from carotenoids in the fish they consume and concentrating it in their feet to create a dazzling aquamarine. Researchers have found that booby eyes are keenly sensitive to blue-green light, and for good reason: Foot tone turns out to be a revealing sign of health and hardiness.In a series of experiments, Roxana Torres of National Autonomous University and Alberto Velando of the University of Vigo in Spain and their colleagues showed that male boobies feet turned drab after just 48 hours of food deprivation and brightened again when feeding resumed. The injection of diphtheria and other vaccines would also affect a boobys blue coloration, by setting up a competition between the skin of the feet and the newly taxed immune system for precious dietary carotenoids.Males avoid mating with females whose feet has been dulled with paint, the researchers also discovered. And when a males feet are artificially dulled after his mate has laid one egg, the female responds to the apparent decline in his condition through a downsizing of her own, making her second egg smaller than the first.The calculus of daily life never stops. Boobies generally lay two eggs several days apart, and the older chick ends up with an enormous advantage over the second-born. In some booby species, like the Nazca, the difference is fatal.ImageCredit...Tui De Roy/Minden PicturesThe big one up and kills the little one, pushing it right out of the nest, Dr. Anderson said. The only hope for the second-born is if its sibling dies.Among blue-footed boobies, though, sibling violence is provisional. As long as the parents can regurgitate enough food for both, the older, bigger sibling tolerates the second hatchling.It will peck at the younger bird and demand chronic displays of submissive behavior, like facing away with its bill tucked down, but in good times it will let its sibling live.Should the body mass of the elder nestling decline to 80 percent of normal, however, it will increase the daily pecking of its sibling by 500 percent, Dr. Drummond said. The heightened abuse can be fatal.Just make it through your miserable childhood, beta booby, and youll soon be high-stepping in style. | science |
United States 5, Czech Republic 2Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesFeb. 19, 2014SOCHI, Russia The bounces seemed to go the Americans way on Wednesday.First, Finland upset Russia in a quarterfinal, eliminating any chance that the United States would have to face the host nation of these Games in a rematch of their preliminary-round game. In the evening, Canada struggled to vanquish Latvia, 2-1. And with time winding down in a tightly contested first period against the Czech Republic, after the American defenseman Ryan Suter sent a shot to the right of the net, the puck bounced off the boards straight back to forward David Backes, who fired it past the helpless Czech goaltender, Ondrej Pavelec.The goal, with 1.8 seconds left in the period, put the United States ahead by 3-1, and the two-goal cushion seemed to deflate the Czechs, who were never a serious threat again. By beating the Czechs, 5-2, the Americans vaulted into the semifinals, where they will face Canada on Friday.That Russia game was an emotional game for us, forward Ryan Callahan said, referring to the Americans first-round shootout victory. It gave us a lift and confidence, and weve been rolling ever since, but were going to have a tough one the next one.The convincing win over the Czechs featured a stifling defense, a balanced attack (11 players had points) and a physical style more reminiscent of an N.H.L. game than an Olympic contest. Goaltender Jonathan Quick was solid, stopping 21 shots.The Americans played their brand of hockey throughout, throwing their weight around and bottling up Jaromir Jagr from the opening face-off. He was shadowed by Backes for most of the game and ended up with only one shot on goal.Callahan played the instigator for the United States, getting into shoving matches with several players.No matter who youre playing, you want to kind of win that physical matchup, especially knowing that they played last night, he said.In the first period, the Czechs pushed back. James van Riemsdyk opened the scoring with an odd-angle goal for the United States less than two minutes into the game. Less than three minutes later, with the Czechs swirling around the American net, defenseman Ryan McDonagh hit the puck off the skate of Suter, and it skidded past Quick.Ales Hemsky was credited with the goal, which brought cheers from crowd, the majority of which seemed to be rooting for the Czechs. It appeared the contest would remain close.But Dustin Brown scored with about five minutes left in the first period, and then Backess quick strike as time ran down turned the tide for good.At the end of the day, we cant be too much fun right now to play against, Brown said. We have a lot of guys who are hard on the puck.The Americans started the second period with confidence. The Czechs were unable to create any of the odd-man rushes that made them dangerous early in the game, and the United States controlled the puck for long stretches. After Zach Parise scored on a power play midway through the second period to put the Americans ahead, 4-1, the Czechs changed goaltenders, putting in Alexander Salak.The Americans can spend Thursday knowing they will not have to worry about facing Russias star-studded team if they reach the final.Were not upset that theyre out, I guess, with how good they are, Parise said. When you have that home crowd, that home atmosphere, it always makes for an exciting game. But when players like Ilya Kovalchuk, Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin are not in the tournament anymore, Parise added, its pretty nice.Still, the Americans will have to deal with Canada, in a rematch of the gold medal game four years ago. Even though the Americans have put together a string of solid wins, they are taking nothing for granted.You dont come to the Olympics and not expect to go through a team like Canada, Brown said. As a player, you want to play in those games.CANADA ADVANCES Shea Weber used his slap shot, widely considered the best in hockey, to break a tie with 6 minutes 54 seconds to play, and Canada, although stretched to the limit by Latvia goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis, earned a 2-1 victory. A 21-year-old Tampa Bay Lightning prospect, Gudlevskis made 55 saves, nearly pulling off one of the biggest upsets in Olympic hockey history.That was one of the best goaltending performances Ive ever seen, said Carey Price, who made 15 saves for the Canadians.The 11th-seeded Latvians, who lost three preliminary-round games, recorded their first Olympic victory in 12 years on Tuesday to reach the quarterfinals for the first time. Canada is the first defending champion to return to the semifinals since the current Olympic format was introduced in 1992. But the team lost John Tavares, a star Islanders forward, for the rest of the Games with a leg injury. (AP)SWEDEN DOMINATES SLOVENIA Henrik Lundqvist made 19 saves for his second shutout of the Sochi Games, and his Rangers teammate Carl Hagelin scored twice, helping Sweden beat Slovenia, 5-0, to advance to a semifinal against Finland. Hagelin scored his goals in the third period after shaking off a hit to the head, a break for a squad already missing three top-line forwards. Sweden is the only team to win all four of its games in regulation. (AP) | Sports |
Economic SceneCredit...Mark Ralston/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesDec. 1, 2015Could the world order survive without growing?Its hard to imagine now, but humanity made do with little or no economic growth for thousands of years. In Byzantium and Egypt, income per capita at the end of the first millennium was lower than at the dawn of the Christian Era. Much of Europe experienced no growth at all in the 500 years that preceded the Industrial Revolution. In India, real incomes per person shrank continuously from the early 17th through the late 19th century.As world leaders gather in Paris to hash out an agreement to hold down and ultimately stop the emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases that threaten to make Earth increasingly inhospitable for humanity, there is a question that is unlikely to be openly discussed at the two-week conclave convened by the United Nations. But it is nonetheless hanging in the air: Could civilization, as we know it, survive such an experience again?The answer, simply, is no.Economic growth took off consistently around the world only some 200 years ago. Two things powered it: innovation and lots and lots of carbon-based energy, most of it derived from fossil fuels like coal and petroleum. Staring at climactic upheaval approaching down the decades, environmental advocates, scientists and even some political leaders have put the proposal on the table: World consumption must stop growing.This is a subtle and largely unacknowledged part of some folks environmental/climate plan, said Michael Greenstone, who directs the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago.Sometimes it is not so subtle. The Stanford ecologist Paul Ehrlich has been arguing for decades that we must slow both population and consumption growth. When I talked to him on the phone a few months ago, he quoted the economist Kenneth Boulding: Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.The proposal that growth must stop appears frequently along the leftward edge of the environmental movement, in publications like Dissent and the writing of the environmental advocate Bill McKibben. It also shows up in academic literature.For instance, Peter Victor of York University in Canada published a study titled Growth, degrowth and climate change: A scenario analysis, in which he compared Canadian carbon emissions under three economic paths to the year 2035.Limiting growth to zero, he found, had a modest impact on carbon spewed into the air. Only the de-growth situation in which Canadians income per person shrank to its level in 1976 and the average working hours of employed Canadians declined by 75 percent managed to slash emissions in a big way.And it is creeping into international diplomacy, showing up forcefully in Indias demand for carbon space from the rich world, which at its logical limit would demand that advanced nations deliver negative emissions suck more carbon out of the atmosphere than they put in so the worlds poor countries could burn their way to development as the rich countries have done for the last two centuries.Working for the Sustainable Development Commission, set up in 2001 to advise the Labour government in Britain, Tim Jackson of the University of Surrey produced a nifty calculation. Accept that citizens of developing nations are entitled to catch up with the living standards of Europeans by midcentury, and assume that Europe will grow, on average, by 2 percent a year between now and then.To stay within the 2 degree Centigrade (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) average temperature increase that scientists generally consider the upper bound to avoid catastrophic climate change would require the world economy in 2050 to emit no more than six grams of carbon dioxide for every dollar of economic output. To put that in perspective, today the United States economy emits 60 times that much. The French economy, one of the most carbon-efficient because it is powered extensively by nuclear energy, emits 150 grams per dollar of output.Drawing what he saw as the inevitable conclusion, Professor Jackson published a book in 2009 called Prosperity Without Growth (Earthscan/Routledge).ImageCredit...Roberto Schmidt/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesWhatever the ethical merits of the case, the proposition of no growth has absolutely no chance to succeed. For all the many hundreds of years humanity survived without growth, modern civilization could not. The trade-offs that are the daily stuff of market-based economies simply could not work in a zero-sum world.It would be a nonstarter to have zero growth within a given country in terms of creating conflict between groups, Professor Greenstone told me. If one were to take this further and make it international, it feels like an even bigger stretch.Lets examine what our fossil-fueled growth has provided us. It has delivered gains in living standards in even the poorest regions of the world.But thats only the beginning. Economic development was indispensable to end slavery. It was a critical precondition for the empowerment of women.Indeed, democracy would not have survived without it. As Martin Wolf, the Financial Times commentator has noted, the option for everybody to become better off where one persons gain neednt require anothers loss was critical for the development and spread of the consensual politics that underpin democratic rule.Zero growth gave us Genghis Khan and the Middle Ages, conquest and subjugation. It fostered an order in which the only mechanism to get ahead was to plunder ones neighbor. Economic growth opened up a much better alternative: trade.The Oxford economist Max Roser has some revealing charts that show the deadliness of war across the ages. It was a real killer in the era of no growth. Up to half of all deaths among hunter-gatherers, horticulturalists and other ancient cultures were caused by conflict.The bloody 20th century stage for two world wars, the Holocaust and other war-based genocides still doesnt even come close.Naomi Klein, a champion of the leftward fringe newly converted to the environmental cause, gleefully proposes climate change as an opportunity to put an end to capitalism. Were she right, I doubt it would bring about the workers utopia she appears to yearn for. In a world economy that does not grow, the powerless and vulnerable are the most likely to lose. Imagine Blade Runner, Mad Max and The Hunger Games brought to real life.The good news is that taking action against climate change need do no such thing. It will not be easy, but we can glimpse technological paths that will allow civilization to keep growing and afford the world economy a positive-sum future.More than how to stop growth, the main question brought out by climate change is how to fully develop and deploy sustainable energy technologies in a nutshell, to help the worlds poor, and everybody else, onto a path to progress that doesnt rely on burning buried carbon. | Business |
Credit...Liza Udilova/GreenpeaceSept. 8, 2016MOSCOW A river in the far north of Siberia turned bright red this week, residents said, leading Russians to nickname the tributary the blood river.A government ministry said it was investigating a possible leak of industrial waste, but had not determined what caused the discoloration. One hint at the possible cause is the path the river, the Daldykan, takes past the Norilsk Nickel mine and metallurgical plant, by many measures one of the worlds most polluting enterprises. The plant belches so much acid rain-producing sulfur dioxide two million tons a year, more than is produced in all of France that it is surrounded by a dead zone of tree trunks and mud about twice the size of Rhode Island.The metal smelters in this ore-rich region produce copious amounts of copper, one-fifth of the worlds nickel a key alloy in stainless steel and half of the global supply of palladium, a precious metal nearly as valuable as platinum.The ore also contains iron, but that red-hued element is far less valuable than the precious metals extracted along with it, and is generally discarded in slurry ponds.That iron slurry is the most likely source of the discoloration in the blood river, environmental groups and Russian environmental regulators said, attributing the red hue to iron oxide, better known as rust.That possibility gained credence on Wednesday when the Ministry of Natural Resources issued a statement saying that preliminary information of a possible cause of the pollution of the river is a rupture of a slurry pipe at Norilsk Nickel.If so, while certainly shocking, the red water would be mostly harmless to humans, said Vladimir Chuprov, a researcher with Greenpeace in Russia. High concentrations could be fatal to fish.The slurry, however, could be potentially more dangerous than it appears if it also contains traces of heavy metals created by the Norilsk smelters, which could damage the fragile Arctic environment, Mr. Chuprov said.A photo of the river circulated on social media and in the Russian news media, but its authenticity could not be determined.President Vladimir V. Putin had promised that industrial development in the Arctic would progress with the utmost care, Mr. Chuprov said in a telephone interview. Unfortunately, these words are only a formality.Absent any tests, he said, Greenpeace could not say with certainty what turned the river red, or when.The groups director for Arctic issues in Russia, Oganes Targulyan, said in a telephone interview that he had visited the river on Thursday to find its banks coated with a red substance, suggesting the river had crested while flowing red. The river water itself had by then reverted to its usual green color. It was obvious something happened, he said. He described the residue as some type of red mud.Managers at the factory told Russian state news agencies they had reduced output at one smelter as a precaution but had found no leaks. On Wednesday the company said, as far as we know, the color of the river today is no different from usual. | World |
VideotranscripttranscriptKilling Khashoggi: How a Brutal Saudi Hit Job UnfoldedAn autopsy expert. A lookalike. A black van. Our video investigation follows the movements of the 15-man Saudi hit team that killed and dismembered the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.There were 15 of them. Most arrived in the dead of night, laid their trap and waited for the target to arrive. That target was Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi critic of his countrys government and its young crown prince. Since his killing in Istanbul, Turkish media has released a steady drip feed of evidence implicating Saudi officials. Weeks of investigation by The Times builds on that evidence and reconstructs what unfolded, hour-by-hour. Our timeline shows the ruthless efficiency of a hit team of experts that seemed specially chosen from Saudi government ministries. Some had links to the crown prince himself. After a series of shifting explanations, Saudi Arabia now denies that this brazen hit job was premeditated. But this reconstruction of the killing, and the botched cover-up, calls their story into serious question. Its Friday morning, Sept. 28. Khashoggi and his fiance, Hatice Cengiz, are at the local marriage office in Istanbul. In order to marry, hes told that he needs Saudi paperwork and goes straight to the consulate to arrange it. They tell him to return in a week. It all seems routine, but its not. Inside theres a Saudi spy, Ahmed al-Muzaini, whos working under diplomatic cover. That very day, he flies off to Riyadh and helps concoct a plan to intercept Khashoggi when he returns to the consulate. Fast-forward to Monday night into Tuesday morning. Saudi agents converge in Istanbul aboard separate flights. Muzaini, the spy, flies back from Riyadh. A commercial flight carries a three-man team that we believe flew from Cairo. Two of the men are security officers and theyve previously traveled with the crown prince. A private jet flying from Riyadh lands around 3:30 a.m. That plane is often used by the Saudi government, and its carrying nine Saudi officials, some who played key roles in Khashoggis death. Well get to Team 3 later on, and for now focus on these men from Team 2. This is Salah al-Tubaigy, a high-ranking forensics and autopsy expert in the Saudi interior ministry. Turkish officials will later say his role was to dismember Khashoggis body. Another is Mustafa al-Madani, a 57-year-old engineer. As well see, its no accident that he looks like Khashoggi. And this is Maher Mutreb, the leader of the operation. Our investigation into his past reveals a direct link between Mutreb and the Saudi crown prince. When bin Salman toured a Houston neighborhood earlier this year, we discovered that Mutreb was with him, a glowering figure in the background. We found him again in Boston, at a U.N. meeting in New York, in Madrid and Paris, too. This global tour was all part of a charm offensive by the prince to paint himself as a moderate reformer. Back then, Mutreb was in the royal guard. Now, he would orchestrate Khashoggis killing. And his close ties to the crown prince beg the question, just how high up the Saudi chain of command did the plot to kill go? Early Tuesday morning, Khashoggi flies back from a weekend trip to London. He and the Saudis nearly cross paths at the airport. The Saudi teams check into two hotels, which give quick access to the consulate. Khashoggi heads home with his fiance. Hed just bought an apartment for their new life together. By mid-morning, the Saudis are on the move. Mutreb leaves his hotel three hours before Khashoggi is due at the consulate. The rest of the team isnt far behind. The building is only a few minutes away on foot, and soon, theyre spotted at this entrance. Mutreb arrives first. Next, we see al-Tubaigy, the autopsy expert. And now al-Madani, the lookalike. The stage is almost set. A diplomatic car pulls out of the consulate driveway and switches places with a van, which backs in. Turkish officials say this van would eventually carry away Khashoggis remains. From above, we can see the driveway is covered, hiding any activity around the van from public view. Meanwhile, Khashoggi and his fiance set out for the consulate, walking hand-in-hand. In their final hour together, they chat about dinner plans and new furniture for their home. At 1:13 p.m., they arrive at the consulate. Khashoggi gives her his cellphones before he enters. He walks into the consulate. Its the last time we see him. Inside, Khashoggi is brought to the consul generals office on the second floor. The hit team is waiting in a nearby room. Sources briefed on the evidence, told us Khashoggi quickly comes under attack. Hes dragged to another room and is killed within minutes. Then al-Tubaigy, the autopsy expert, dismembers his body while listening to music. Maher Mutreb makes a phone call to a superior. He says, Tell your boss, and The deed was done. Outside, the van reportedly carrying Khashoggis body pulls out of the side entrance and drives away. At the same time, the Saudis begin trying to cover their tracks. While Khashoggis fiance waits here where she left him, two figures leave from the opposite side. One of them is wearing his clothes. Later, the Saudis would claim that this was Khashoggi. But its al-Madani, the engineer, now a body double pretending that the missing journalist left the consulate alive. Yet theres one glaring flaw: The clothes are the same, but hes wearing his own sneakers, the ones he walked in with. Meanwhile, the van thats allegedly carrying Khashoggis body makes the two-minute drive from the consulate to the Saudi consuls residence. Theres several minutes of deliberations but the van eventually pulls into the buildings driveway. Again, its hidden from public view. Its now three hours since Khashoggi was last seen. The body double hails this taxi and continues weaving a false trail through the city. He heads to a popular tourist area and then changes back into his own clothes. Later, we see him joking around in surveillance footage. Over at the airport, more Saudi officials arrive on another flight from Riyadh. They spend just five hours in Istanbul, but were not sure where they go. Now we pick up Maher Mutreb again, exiting from the consuls house. Its time for them to go. Mutreb and others check out of their hotel and move through airport security. Al-Muzaini, the spy, heads to the airport too. But as theyre leaving Istanbul, Khashoggis fiance is still outside the consulate, pacing in circles. Shell soon raise the alarm that Khashoggi is missing and shell wait for him until midnight. The alarm spreads around the world. Nine days later, the Saudis send another team to Istanbul. They say its to investigate what happened. But among them are a toxicologist and a chemist, who also has ties to the hit team. He and Tubaigy attended a forensics graduation days before Khashoggi was killed. Turkish officials later say that this teams mission was not to investigate, but to cover up the killing. Now the Saudi story has changed, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for several suspects in Khashoggis killing. But that doesnt include Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who many Western government officials are convinced authorized the killing. Khashoggis remains still havent been found.An autopsy expert. A lookalike. A black van. Our video investigation follows the movements of the 15-man Saudi hit team that killed and dismembered the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.Nov. 12, 2018WASHINGTON Shortly after the journalist Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated last month, a member of the kill team instructed a superior over the phone to tell your boss, believed to be Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, that the operatives had carried out their mission, according to three people familiar with a recording of Mr. Khashoggis killing collected by Turkish intelligence.The recording, shared last month with the C.I.A. director, Gina Haspel, is seen by intelligence officials as some of the strongest evidence linking Prince Mohammed to the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, a Virginia resident and Washington Post columnist whose death prompted an international outcry.While the prince was not mentioned by name, American intelligence officials believe your boss was a reference to Prince Mohammed. Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, one of 15 Saudis dispatched to Istanbul to confront Mr. Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate there, made the phone call and spoke in Arabic, the people said.Turkish intelligence officers have told American officials they believe that Mr. Mutreb, a security officer who frequently traveled with Prince Mohammed, was speaking to one of the princes aides. While translations of the Arabic may differ, the people briefed on the call said Mr. Mutreb also said to the aide words to the effect of the deed was done.A phone call like that is about as close to a smoking gun as you are going to get, said Bruce O. Riedel, a former C.I.A. officer now at the Brookings Institution. It is pretty incriminating evidence.Turkish officials have said that the audio does not conclusively implicate Prince Mohammed, and American intelligence and other government officials have cautioned that however compelling the recording may be, it is still not irrefutable evidence of his involvement in the death of Mr. Khashoggi.John R. Bolton, the White House national security adviser, said that while he had not listened to the tape, he had been told it did not directly implicate Prince Mohammed. Thats not the conclusion that I think the people who heard it have come to, Mr. Bolton told reporters on Wednesday at a briefing in Singapore.Even if Mr. Mutreb believed the killing was ordered by the crown prince, for example, he may have had an inaccurate understanding of the origins of the order. Prince Mohammed is not specifically named on the recording, and intelligence officials do not have ironclad certainty that Mr. Mutreb was referring to him.In a statement on Monday, Saudi officials denied that the crown prince had any knowledge whatsoever of Mr. Khashoggis killing. Referring to Mr. Mutrebs instructions to tell your boss, the Saudi statement said that Turkey had allowed our intelligence services to hear recordings, and at no moment was there any reference to the mentioned phrase in the recordings.The Turks may possess multiple recordings, including surveillance of telephone calls, and the Turkish authorities may have shared the audio only selectively.A C.I.A. spokesman declined to comment.The call was part of a recording that Turkish officials played for Ms. Haspel during her visit in October to Ankara, Turkeys capital, but they did not allow her to bring it back to the United States. On Saturday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey announced that his government had shared the audio with Saudi Arabia, the United States and other Western allies.But while Turkish officials have played the recording for American and other intelligence agencies and provided transcripts, the Turks have not handed over the recording for independent analysis, according to Turkish officials.Turkey shared evidence from the case with a large number of friendly nations, a spokesman for Mr. Erdogan, Fahrettin Altun, said on Monday. Reacting to French criticism of Turkeys handling of the case, Mr. Altun said that the Turkish government had played an audio recording for French intelligence officials and given them transcripts.Let us not forget that this case would have been already covered up had it not been for Turkeys determined efforts, Mr. Altun said.The growing evidence that Prince Mohammed was involved in the killing of Mr. Khashoggi is certain to intensify pressure on the White House, which appeared intent on relying on a lack of concrete proof of his involvement to preserve its relationship with the crown prince. Prince Mohammed has fostered a close relationship with the presidents son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, and the Trump administration has turned Saudi Arabia into Washingtons most crucial Arab partner.ImageCredit...Tom Brenner/The New York TimesSome Trump advisers have argued that they would need indisputable evidence of Prince Mohammeds involvement in Mr. Khashoggis killing before they would punish him or the kingdom more harshly. Turkish officials have said the recording contains evidence of a premeditated killing, in which Saudi agents quickly strangled Mr. Khashoggi and methodically dismembered his body with a bone saw.The administration, according to current and former officials, is hoping that making some modest moves on sanctions and curtailing support for the Saudi war effort in Yemen will satisfy critics, including those on Capitol Hill.But the shift in power in Congress, where Democrats take control of the House in January, is also increasing pressure on the administration to take more punitive action. The C.I.A. and other intelligence officials were set to brief Congress this week, and congressional leaders will press Ms. Haspel for her assessment of Prince Mohammeds culpability.Mr. Trump himself has suggested more information would be coming out. Ill have a much stronger opinion on that subject over the next week, he told reporters on Wednesday at the White House. I am forming a very strong opinion.Signs of a hardening stance within the administration are emerging. The State Department issued a tough statement on Sunday saying that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had told Prince Mohammed in a phone call that the United States will hold all of those involved in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi accountable.Saudi officials planned to release their own inquiry in the coming days, but Turkeys revelation that they and Western officials also have the transcripts of the recordings could force the Saudis to scramble before any presentation they planned to make.Even without definitive proof, intelligence agencies had already concluded that only Prince Mohammed could have ordered the operation to kill Mr. Khashoggi, given the personal character of his governance and the depth of his control over the kingdom. Evidence from the tape also showed that Mr. Khashoggi was killed soon after he entered the room of the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul where the security team was waiting for him, further proof that the killing was planned, according to people briefed on the intelligence.Current and former intelligence officials insisted that it is rare that all of the pieces of a complex puzzle like Mr. Khashoggis killing would ever be available. Intelligence, according to a former official, simply does not work like a spy thriller or television cop show where a case turns on a crystal-clear recording.Investigators were unlikely to collect a piece of evidence that incontrovertibly links the crown prince to the killing, said Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California, who is set to lead the House Intelligence Committee next year.You are not going to have any of the people who carried out the murder speak openly about who they got their orders from or who is in the loop on it, Mr. Schiff said in an interview. That is not realistic to expect.The absence of direct evidence does not prevent the intelligence community from laying responsibility at Prince Mohammeds feet. An intelligence assessment includes an agencys best judgment on what happened based on the available facts and experience of officials.Mr. Schiff promised that when he takes charge of the Intelligence Committee, he will investigate Mr. Khashoggis killing and examine Saudi Arabias actions more broadly in the Middle East, including its military campaign in Yemen, which has prompted a humanitarian crisis.We need to do our own due diligence, we need to make sure we are getting good intelligence, and we need to make sure the administration doesnt misrepresent to the country what foreign actors are doing, Mr. Schiff said.Nonetheless, current and former officials said they do not expect Mr. Trump to drop his support for Prince Mohammed.The Trump family and the president have built up such an overwhelming reliance on the crown prince that the relationship is now, in their view, too big to fail, Mr. Schiff said.Policymakers not Ms. Haspel or Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence will decide what sort of relationship to have with Prince Mohammed and what punishment Saudi Arabia should face for Mr. Khashoggis killing, current and former officials said. | World |
Credit...Liu Dawei/Xinhua, via AFPPatrick Boehler and Gerry DoyleDec. 17, 2015HONG KONG After more than a decade of fighting in Iraq, the names of the American-made drones striking targets there have become familiar: Predator, Reaper, Sentinel.But this month, a new model entered the fray: the Chinese-made Caihong-4.According to footage released by the Iraqi armed forces, soldiers used the Chinese drone on Dec. 6 to destroy an ISIS position amid efforts to retake the city of Ramadi. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense confirmed the video was real.The lethal strike represents a major step forward in Chinas drive to become a leading exporter of military equipment, experts say. Iraq is the only known export user of the drone, also known as the CH-4, which closely resembles the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper.Its first use in combat may be a selling point for potential buyers.This is the first time Ive heard of a Chinese drone, such as the CH-4 (which is basically a clone of the Reaper), reporting an actual kill, and I suppose it would be clich to say that it wont be the last, Richard A. Bitzinger, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, wrote in an email on Wednesday.Mr. Bitzinger estimated that Iraqs armed forces had to buy six to 12 Chinese drones to conduct operations efficiently.When the Iraqi MoD officially unveiled them in October, two ground control stations could be seen, Jeremy Binnie, Middle East/Africa editor at IHS Janes Defence Weekly, wrote in an email, referring to the Ministry of Defense. Given a typical setup of two aircraft per control station, Iraq probably has at least four.China also uses the CH-4. Its predecessor, the CH-3, has been sold to both Nigeria and Pakistan, he said.Last year, China became the worlds third-largest arms exporter, behind the United States and Russia, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a think tank in Sweden. Chinas defense companies have been working hard to export higher-end systems like drones, air defense systems and even stealth fighters but with few successes so far.The CH-4, whose name translates as Rainbow, is manufactured by the Beijing-based China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, a state-owned enterprise group. The drone represents Chinas research and production of drones march toward the world, according to a news article from 2014 on the conglomerates website.Calls and a fax sent to C.A.S.C. went unanswered.The drone was first seen at an airshow in Beijing in 2013, according to China News Service. In March 2015, a state-run news agency said such drones had been handed to the Iraqi Air Force, citing Russian news reports. In October, Iraqs defense minister inspected a Caihong drone at an air base in the city of Kut, according to a video shared by his ministry.The CH-4 can strike from an altitude of about 16,000 feet and fly at up to 112 miles per hour, according to an article in China Space News, a publication run by C.A.S.C.What is clear is that the price of one Caihong-4 drone is much lower than the price of an advanced battle tank on the international arms market, said the article, published in March.The loss of a drone is affordable even when military budgets are tight or in small countries, it noted.Chinese-built drones and aircraft are generally built to compete on price, experts say. Technological limitations mean the finished products do not often perform at the same level as their Western counterparts, but they are cheaper and have far fewer restrictions on who can buy them.China is known to have difficulties in developing aero engine technology, and this is also true for UAV engines. As a result, Chinese UAVs are generally less capable in terms of performance, Kelvin Wong, an Asia Pacific defense technology reporter with IHS, wrote in an email, referring to unmanned aerial vehicles.As resources are scarce for Iraqs armed forces, Chinese drones offer a fast alternative to allied air strikes, according to Jeffrey Lin and Peter W. Singer, who have traced reports of Chinese drone deployments in Iraq, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.The long loiter time and precision weaponry of armed drones give small Iraqi units flexible and rapid response fire support to exploit sudden battlefield conditions, they wrote in a blog post on on Tuesday.Apart from the lower price of Chinese drones, restrictions imposed by the United States on the export of armed unmanned systems open a potentially lucrative market for Chinese manufacturers, Timothy R. Heath, a senior international defense research analyst with the RAND Corporation, wrote in an email.Considering the number of countries that have acquired or expressed interest in Chinese drones, the recent incident in Iraq in which a government uses Chinese armed drones to strike domestic insurgents may become more commonplace around the world, he wrote.Indeed, dozens of countries now manufacture reconnaissance drones, Mr. Bitzinger noted. And their use is all but expected on the modern battlefield.Now it appears that armed drones (Chinese, European, Iranian, Russian) are the next phase in this proliferation, he wrote. | Business |
Politics|Charles Kushner tells friend that Trumps behavior is beyond our control.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/us/politics/charles-kushner-donald-trump.htmlCharles Kushner tells friend that Trumps behavior is beyond our control.Credit...Patrick McMullan, via Getty ImagesJan. 6, 2021Charles Kushner, the father of President Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner, admitted in an email to a close confidante on Wednesday that the presidents behavior was beyond our control.Bob Sommer, a longtime Kushner family friend who once represented the family real estate company, Kushner Companies, erupted in anger at Mr. Kushner, who last month received a presidential pardon from Mr. Trump.Ive texted jared as well, said Mr. Sommer, who served as president of the Observer, wrote. He urged his former client to please get trump to be an American instead of an expletive.Mr. Kushner did not dispute his characterization of the president. Got it and beyond our control, he replied, according to a copy of the email exchange obtained by The New York Times.Mr. Kushner, 66, pleaded guilty in 2004 to 16 counts of tax evasion, a single count of retaliating against a federal witness and one of lying to the Federal Election Commission in a case that was also a lurid family drama. He served two years in prison before being released in 2006. His pardon last month was one of the most anticipated of the Trump presidency.Mr. Sommer also texted the presidents daughter and Jared Kushners wife, Ivanka Trump, after she referred to the violent protesters who invaded the Capitol as American patriots in a Twitter post Wednesday. Mr. Sommer wrote that he was horrified I attended your wedding. She did not respond. | Politics |
Credit...Richard Perry/The New York TimesDec. 18, 2015Martin Shkreli has resigned as chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals after his arrest on securities fraud charges, the company announced on Friday.Turing, a privately held company in New York, said that Ron Tilles, its chairman, would step in as interim chief executive.Mr. Tilles, who will remain chairman, has spent most of his career at securities firms and other financial service companies, according to the description of him on Turings website. But he was a founder and worked in business development at Retrophin, Mr. Shkrelis first pharmaceutical company, though Fridays announcement did not mention his connection to Retrophin.Mr. Shkrelis arrest on Thursday was for activities in the past, when he ran a hedge fund and worked at Retrophin, not for anything at Turing. Turing became notorious for acquiring a 62-year-old drug and increasing the price fiftyfold, causing a public furor.Still, his arrest and indictment made it untenable for him to stay as chief executive of Turing, according to one Turing investor.I dont see how he can run this company anymore, said the investor, who asked not to be named because of his companys policy against speaking to the media. Theres no way it doesnt hurt the company.Federal officials described Mr. Shkrelis crimes as a quasi-Ponzi scheme in which he used money from Retrophin to pay off money-losing investors in his hedge funds. An F.B.I. official called his business schemes a securities fraud trifecta of lies, deceit and greed.In court on Thursday, Mr. Shkreli pleaded not guilty to the charges of securities fraud and was released on $5 million bail. After months of frequent Twitter activity and live streaming video, Mr. Shkreli was initially relatively quiet after his release except for one post on Twitter in which he said, Glad to be home. Thanks for the support.But by Friday afternoon, Mr. Shkreli, unshaven, started to live stream again, including playing online chess and guitar. He said many people had reached out to support him, but added that his lawyers had forbidden him from talking about the criminal case.Im good, Im good. Thank you guys. I missed you, too, he said. Sorry I couldnt live stream yesterday. I had a lot going on. He said he was changing his Twitter profile to reflect that he was no longer chief executive of Turing.A spokesman for Turing said neither Mr. Tilles nor Mr. Shkreli would be granting interviews.Mr. Shkrelis arrest immediately raised questions about his future not only at Turing but at KaloBios, a publicly traded California company that he gained control of in November, by leading an investor group that acquired the companys shares on the open market.He had already ignited controversy there by announcing that KaloBios had acquired the rights to an inexpensive drug used for decades to treat Chagas disease in Latin America. He said KaloBios would try to get the drug approved in the United States and charge tens of thousands of dollars for a course of treatment.The agreement to acquire the rights to that drug has not officially closed, however. A spokeswoman for Savant Neglected Diseases, the small company that was selling the rights to KaloBios, said Savant was now meeting with its lawyers about the matter. That suggests Savant might be reviewing options for withdrawing from the deal.KaloBios had announced it was going out of business before Mr. Shkreli bought his stake in the company.After Mr. Shkrelis investment in KaloBios became known, the share price shot up from under $2, the price he paid for most of his shares, to more than $40 at one point. The shares closed at $23.59 on Wednesday and did not trade on Thursday and Friday because of the arrest.The investigation into Mr. Shkreli remains active, according to a law enforcement officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly about a current inquiry. That means that investigators and prosecutors may be looking at all of his post-Retrophin transactions, including the acquisition of KaloBios.KaloBios has not said anything publicly since the arrest of its chief executive. The board of KaloBios is now controlled by members of Mr. Shkrelis investor group, so he might not be ousted. However, if he is convicted of the charges against him, he will probably not be able to serve as an executive or director of a publicly traded company.Stephen Brozak, president of WBB Securities, a boutique health care investment bank, said it would be difficult for a public company to continue with Mr. Shkreli at the helm. But given that the company was out of money and options before he came along, it would also be difficult for it to survive without him.The irony is they cant live with him and they cant live without him, Mr. Brozak, whose company has no relationship with KaloBios, said. They were starting to sell the furniture before this happened.Mr. Shkrelis resignation from Turing led to some speculation, or hope, that the company would lower the price of the 62-year-old drug that it acquired in August. The drug, Daraprim, now costs $750 a pill, up from $13.50. It is used to treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that can cause brain damage in babies and people with AIDS.We hope that Martin Shkrelis departure will mark the end of Turing Pharmaceuticals reckless price hikes on lifesaving medications, the Human Rights Campaign, a group fighting for equal rights for gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender individuals, said in a statement.Turing sent a letter to health care providers on Friday, assuring them that Daraprim would remain available and that the companys financial assistance programs were still functioning. The letter did not mention anything about lowering the price.The Turing investor said he was surprised when Mr. Shkreli took over KaloBios, because it diverted his attention from Turing. If Mr. Shkreli found a promising drug, for instance, which company, Turing or KaloBios, would get the opportunity to acquire it? This company deserves some competent, full-time, mature, not crazy, management, the investor said. He said Turing already had a good roster of drug candidates it could develop. But he was concerned that employees would now leave and that Mr. Shkreli, who owns a substantial stake, would continue to exercise influence at the company. | Business |
Eagles' Chris Long I'll Boycott Trump's White House ... If We Win Super Bowl 1/29/2018 Pardon My Take Chris Long says he's ready to stick it to Donald Trump AGAIN -- stating he will NOT attend the White House visit if the Eagles win the Super Bowl. Backstory -- Long boycotted the trip in 2017 when he was invited to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. as a part of the New England Patriots championship team. Now, he's on the other side ... telling the Barstool Sports podcast, "Pardon My Take," straight-up -- "No, I'm not going to the White House. Are you kidding me?!" For the record, Long has previously explained his decision to boycott the WH last year ... saying he believes history will frown on the Trump presidency and does not want to be connected to it in any way. | Entertainment |
Dec. 3, 2015BRACKENRIDGE, Pa. For two years, Chris Cummings, a maintenance mechanic, worked 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. six days a week to help prepare for the opening of a gigantic $1.2 billion steel rolling mill that was supposed to bring hundreds of secure, well-paying jobs to the Allegheny River Valley.But then Mr. Cummingss employer, Allegheny Technologies, locked him and his co-workers out after their union, the United Steelworkers, balked at accepting the far-reaching concessions that the company said were essential to help compete against domestic rivals and Chinese imports.Since Aug. 15, Allegheny has locked out 2,200 workers at 12 plants in six states in what has become one of the nations largest and longest work stoppages in years.As unions have weakened in recent decades, more corporations have turned to lockouts to wring givebacks from their workers. In this latest showdown, Allegheny has taken on the nations biggest, most combative industrial union. If the steelworkers lose, it could prompt another wave of me-too concessions and represent a further humbling of organized labor just as it was starting to gain ground on other fronts.The employer is playing hardball, theres no doubt about it, said Richard Hurd, a professor of industrial and labor relations at Cornell University. It puts a lot of pressure on the workers and the union.Already, Alleghenys three-and-a-half-month lockout has dealt a painful blow to this aging, blue-collar town, 22 miles upstream from Pittsburgh, raising doubts about whether the new rolling mill, with its bright blue walls soaring 40 feet above the river, will ever provide the big economic lift it had promised.Company executives say that they need lower labor costs and that no one will gain if the new plant cant thrive in the global economy.But many steelworkers say Allegheny is seeking to enhance its own prosperity at their expense. They contend the company is undermining the middle class in the nations industrial heartland by demanding a two-tier contract with lesser benefits for future hires, insisting upon a four-year wage freeze and requiring many employees to pay at least $2,000 more a year for health coverage.This is our reward for putting in all this overtime to help open the new mill? asked Mr. Cummings. I do think its absolutely necessary for the company to stay competitive. But theyre asking too much.During his 70-hour workweeks, Mr. Cummings said he often returned home after his son, now 6, and his daughter, now 20 months, were in bed. My wife was telling me she felt like a single mom, he said.After locking out its workers, the company brought in hundreds of temporary replacements. The unionized workers have been picketing outside the plant around the clock, with signs mocking the replacement workers, saying things like Danger: Scabs Trying to Run Mill and Scabs Equal Dishonor.Instead of picketing, Fran Arabia, president of the steelworkers local here, said, we should be cutting a ribbon right now.Week by week, the locked-out workers are growing more anxious. The company terminated their health coverage on Nov. 30. Christmas and freezing weather are approaching, and their six months of unemployment insurance will run out in February.Robert S. Wetherbee, the president of Alleghenys Flat-Rolled Products division, said the company needed to drive a hard bargain because the market had shifted significantly. Stainless steel prices are down 30 percent since April and Chinese producers are gaining a greater share of the business. The companys flat-rolled division, he said, lost money in 10 of the last 11 quarters.Mr. Wetherbee said Alleghenys workers were very well paid, averaging $70 an hour in compensation, including pensions, health coverage, overtime and paid time off, some $20 higher per hour than its competitors. The union called those numbers vastly exaggerated.It became a competitiveness issue and to some degree a survival issue for the stainless steel portion of our business, Mr. Wetherbee said. With this mill, we invested close to $400,000 per job in the Allegheny Valley. Now we have the obligation to keep the business competitive.The new rolling mill four football fields long is a marvel of automation. Workers hunch over control panels that monitor six powerful milling machines that press, squeeze and flatten two-foot-thick red-hot slabs into nearly mile-long coils of thin steel sheet in a matter of seconds.With one-third of Alleghenys blue-collar employees eligible to retire before 2020, Mr. Wetherbee said it made sense to seek a two-tier contract.Were faced with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bend the cost curve on a major part of our costs, he said. If were going to be competitive, we have to be in a position where we have a different benefit structure for the next generation we hire.Like many unions, the United Steelworkers abhor two-tier contracts, convinced that they sell out future generations and sow tensions between older and younger workers.The steelworkers complain that Allegheny wants to replace traditional pensions with less generous 401(k)s for new workers and to give them a health plan that is not as good as the one current workers have. Under the two-tier proposal, future workers, upon retiring, would have a more meager health plan and no life insurance.The China crisis of today doesnt mean that people who go to work for this company and retire 35 years from now shouldnt have anything in retirement, said Tom Conway, the steelworkers vice president overseeing the negotiations. Weve made major moves in this bargaining, to share more of the health costs, and its just not enough for them.Not long ago, when the company was called Allegheny-Ludlum, workers endearingly called it Uncle Al because of its generosity. But the steelworkers say Mr. Wetherbee, who joined Allegheny in 2010 after 30 years at Alcoa, has brought a more confrontational approach.He told us that they couldnt be this paternalistic, Mr. Conway said. If this is paternalistic, Id hate to see what an abusive parent is like.Analysts are divided over the concessions the company is seeking.Paul Clark, director of Penn States School of Labor and Employment Relations, said Allegheny was seeking to exploit the temporary fall in prices and profits to extract deep permanent cuts. Theyre using the excuse of the industry downturn, he said, not just to adjust to the new situation; they want to go well beyond whats justified by the downturn.But John Tumazos, a steel industry analyst in Holmdel, N.J., criticized the unions approach. Leo Gerard, the unions president, is thinking of the century-old model, holding rallies in downtown Pittsburgh and mill towns, when this company is between a rock and a hard place, Mr. Tumazos said. The union isnt making things better. They should be holding their protest rallies in Beijing.According to Allegheny Technologies, the steelworkers averaged $94,000 in pay last year, including incentive pay and overtime. Thats not middle class, thats upper middle class, said Dan Greenfield, the companys vice president for investor relations.Todd Barbiaux, an overhead crane operator, derided that figure, saying it failed to take account of last years unusual situation.In reality were $60,000-a-year guys, he said, even when incentive pay and Sunday differential are added to the steelworkers base wage of $24.99 an hour. With the push to build the new mill, he made over $100,000 last year only because of a lot of 80-hour weeks, with more than 600 hours overtime. But thats not normal, he said. Youre working one and a half years in a year.The steelworkers are further angered because theyre being pressed for major concessions after Alleghenys chief executive, Richard Harshman, received $8 million in compensation last year, up 70 percent from the previous year. His 2014 pay jumped because of a larger base salary, a $1.4 million bonus, more stock awards and a pension that was valued higher.Mr. Harshman told analysts in October that the companys production was meeting expectations notwithstanding the lockout. But the steelworkers dispute that. As they spend their days picketing, they say they see far fewer trucks carrying steel coil out of the plant.The union, asserting that the company has violated labor laws, has asked the National Labor Relations Board to declare the lockout illegal and order the company to pay more than $30 million in back wages. Company officials insist the lockout is lawful.Scott Laliberte, who fixes brick linings in Alleghenys steel furnaces, said he sometimes worked 30 days in a row last year, allowing him to save extra money. But the physical strain was too much. You feel you dont have a life, he said.The lockout is taking a further toll on his family, he said. If this goes on, he said, Ill probably find another job and not go back. Theyre going to lose a lot of good people.The union wants to return to regular workdays, after having agreed to extra-long workweeks to get the new rolling mill running. Mr. Laliberte and other steelworkers are fuming that the companys proposal would allow it to require such schedules as it sees fit, including 16-hour days and 70-hour weeks.Mr. Wetherbee said Allegheny would never have another opportunity like this to bring down costs and assure profitability. We decided we couldnt kick the can down the road any further, he said. | Business |
Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York TimesMay 7, 2019MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. Google, the company that may know the most about our digital lives, is now preaching the gospel of privacy.Speaking at an annual conference for developers on Tuesday, Sundar Pichai, Googles chief executive, delivered a message that seemed cognizant of todays consumer privacy concerns but out of step with the companys history of intensive online data collection.We think privacy is for everyone not just for the few, Mr. Pichai said. We want to do more to stay ahead of constantly evolving user expectations.Google introduced a set of tools spanning a range of its products to provide users with more control over their data and make it more difficult to track their online activities.[Get the Bits newsletter for the latest from Silicon Valley and the technology industry.]Google plans to permit users to navigate its maps, watch videos on YouTube and search for information in incognito mode, limiting the amount of information shared with the company. It will also allow users to delete web and app activity history automatically after three months or 18 months.Google added incognito mode to its Chrome browser a decade ago.The company also said it would make it easier for users to find and delete information they have shared with the company, including location data in maps. For its Android operating system, Google said a new update would simplify how to limit the sharing of location data with app providers.Last week, Facebook pushed a similar privacy theme at a company conference. Mark Zuckerberg, the companys chief executive, declared that the future is private and announced a shift in its products to more intimate communications.Google and Facebook have become the dominant forces in online advertising, gobbling up information as their users move around their platforms and the internet at large. But their aggressive collection of user data laid bare by several embarrassing scandals in recent years has put the companies in the cross hairs of politicians and global regulators.While thousands of developers and journalists filed into an outdoor amphitheater where Mr. Pichai delivered his keynote, a plane flew overhead pulling a banner that read: Google Control Is Not Privacy #savelocalnews.I suspect they saw the writing on the wall, said Fatemeh Khatibloo, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester. These are meaningful changes when it comes to the users expectations of privacy, but I dont think this affects their business at all. So why shouldnt they do these things to give the impression of more privacy?After the keynote speech, Google separately announced it would take steps to limit the use of tracking cookies on Chrome, the worlds most popular browser with about a 60 percent market share.Cookies allow companies to monitor which websites people visit and what ads they have viewed or clicked on. They also are a way for a website to remember who you are so you dont have to log in every time you visit. Cookies level the playing field for smaller companies in the digital advertising world allowing them to collect information that helps refine ad targeting.The announcement is another example of a privacy measure that will most likely have a bigger impact on Googles competitors. The internet giant uses cookies but is not dependent on them. It already knows more valuable information such as what users search for, what videos they watch and what apps theyve loaded on their phones.Even as it was addressing some of the perils of data collection, Google demonstrated how it was using information that people provide to the company to make its products more useful.Its next-generation Assistant, powered by the companys artificial intelligence, can learn more about you to personalize reminders and tasks. It can remember your partners birthday, for example, and remind you to buy a present a week beforehand. It can also help book car reservations on the web using emails and calendar information.It can also understand better what you are doing. Googles digital assistant will have a driving mode to help drivers play music, set map destinations or answer phone calls more easily without taking their hands off the wheel.To make its Assistant faster and more responsive, Google unveiled a change in how the technology works on smartphones. Google said it would start processing what users say to the Assistant on the device instead of sending it to data centers allowing the smartphone to respond more quickly.The company also introduced cheaper versions of its Pixel smartphone, bringing the companys lauded camera technologies to a new audience of budget-conscious consumers. The devices, called Pixel 3A and Pixel 3A XL, start at about $400 and $480, compared to $800 and $900 for their high-end counterparts.IDC, a research firm, said a sales decline last quarter in the United States was linked to a slowdown for high-end devices, which include iPhones, Samsung Galaxy devices and Googles Pixels.Though slower and lacking features like wireless-charging and a wide-angle lens, the cheaper Pixel shares many of the same characteristics as Googles premium devices. For one, they include the same rear camera, which includes a mode called Night Sight, which makes photos in low light look like they were taken in normal lighting. | Tech |
Ricardo Cruciani, a former pain management physician, already faces state charges. Each of the federal charges carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.Credit...Matt Rourke/Associated PressOct. 20, 2021Oct. 21: This story was updated after publication to add comment from Mr. Crucianis lawyer.Federal prosecutors in New York filed criminal charges on Wednesday against Ricardo Cruciani, a former pain management physician, accusing him of enticing women to cross state lines to engage in illegal sexual activity over the course of 15 years.Mr. Cruciani, 63, who has been accused of overmedicating and sexually assaulting numerous female patients, also faces state criminal charges in New York and New Jersey and is the target of a number of civil lawsuits seeking damages.He surrendered his medical license in 2017 and had to register as a sex offender after pleading guilty to sexual assaults in Pennsylvania, but he has never served time in prison.Each of the five new federal counts against him carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The indictment also says that assets derived from committing the offenses could be seized by the government.Mr. Cruciani, who lives in Wynnewood, Pa., was arrested in Pocono Pines, Pa., on Wednesday morning. is case will be heard by Judge John P. Cronan of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.His lawyer, Elizabeth Macedonio, declined to comment on the case but said she anticipated that Mr. Cruciani will be released from detention in the very near future.Doctors like the defendant take an oath to do no harm, Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District, said in announcing the charges. It is difficult to imagine conduct more anathema to that oath than exploiting patients vulnerability in order to sexually abuse them.Several of Mr. Crucianis former patients said that they felt gratified to see that the federal government had filed charges against him and that they hoped he would be held accountable.As a survivor of Mr. Crucianis repeated sexual assaults during his tenure as a pain management physician at Beth Israel, Capital Health and Drexel, I have longed for the day he would be held accountable for these heinous crimes, said Hillary Tullin, a former patient.It has been nearly four years since state charges were brought against him, yet there is no trial date in sight, she said. It has been a living hell. The federal investigation in the case is still in progress, and officials urged anyone who might have been a victim of Mr. Crucianis to contact the U.S. attorneys office for the Southern District of New York.The 16-page federal indictment describes in detail how the former physician, who provided treatments for intractable pain conditions, developed personal relationships with patients. It says he sought to engender their trust and prescribed addictive pain medication that caused patients to become dependent on him, even as he became increasingly abusive.Over the course of a 15-year period, from 2002 to 2017, Mr. Cruciani worked at several hospitals, including Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, Capital Health Hospitals in New Jersey and Drexel University in Philadelphia.He met with patients alone in hotel rooms or apartments as well as in hospital offices, where he often locked the door, the indictment said. He asked the patients about their personal lives and shared details about his own life in an effort to get them to trust him, and he prescribed significant quantities of opioids, the indictment said.In order to refill prescriptions of the highly addictive drugs, the patients had to return to see Mr. Cruciani in person, the indictment says.Cruciani and the victims knew that the victims suffered from severe and excruciating if not debilitating pain and that most pain doctors would not prescribe the same amounts of medication, the indictment says. Mr. Cruciani, at his discretion, could refuse to refill prescriptions, it added.Once he had established a relationship with a patient, the indictment says, Mr. Cruciani started engaging in sexual abuse doing medically unnecessary vaginal and breast exams, forcing the women to stimulate him manually or perform oral sex, masturbating in front of them and forcing them to have vaginal intercourse.The indictment describes Mr. Crucianis assaults on five unnamed women, identified only as Victims 1 through 5, all of whom crossed state lines to see him at his various places of employment. Four women lived outside New York State and traveled to get care from him at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan, while the fifth traveled from New York to his offices in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, according to the indictment.In one episode described in the indictment, Victim 1, a chronic pain patient who traveled from outside New York State to see Mr. Cruciani in 2002 or 2003, sought to switch doctors because of the sexual assaults. She requested that her medical records be sent to her new doctor, but Mr. Cruciani refused, insisting that she come to see him in person to pick them up.Upon arriving at Crucianis medical offices, Cruciani sexually abused and/or attempted to sexually abuse Victim 1, the indictment says. | Health |
While protection against hospitalization is still strong, the vaccine offered almost no protection against infection, even just a month after full vaccination.Credit...Joseph Prezioso/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesFeb. 28, 2022The coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech is much less effective in preventing infection in children ages 5 to 11 years than in older adolescents or adults, according to a large new set of data collected by health officials in New York State a finding that has deep ramifications for these children and their parents.The Pfizer vaccine is the only Covid shot authorized for that age group in the United States. It still prevents severe illness in the children, but offers virtually no protection against infection, even within a month after full immunization, the data, which were collected during the Omicron surge, suggest.The sharp drop in the vaccines performance in young children may stem from the fact that they receive one-third the dose given to older children and adults, researchers and federal officials who have reviewed the data said.The findings, which were posted online on Monday, come on the heels of clinical trial results indicating that the vaccine fared poorly in children aged 2 to 4 years, who received an even smaller dose.Experts worried that the news would further dissuade hesitant parents from immunizing their children. Other studies have shown the vaccine was not powerfully protective against infection with the Omicron variant in adults, either.Its disappointing, but not entirely surprising, given this is a vaccine developed in response to an earlier variant, said Eli Rosenberg, deputy director for science at the New York State Department of Health, who led the study. It looks very distressing to see this rapid decline, but its again all against Omicron.Still, he and other public health experts said they recommend the shot for children given the protection against severe disease shown even in the new data set.We need to make sure we emphasize the doughnut and not the hole, said Dr. Kathryn M. Edwards, a pediatric vaccine expert at Vanderbilt University.In their study, Dr. Rosenberg and his colleagues analyzed data from 852,384 newly fully vaccinated children aged 12 to 17 years and 365,502 children aged 5 to 11 years between Dec. 13, 2021, and Jan. 31, 2022, the height of the Omicron surge.The vaccines effectiveness against hospitalization declined to 73 percent from 85 percent in the older children. In the younger children, effectiveness dropped to 48 percent from 100 percent. But because few children were hospitalized, these estimates have wide margins of error.The numbers for protection from infection are more reliable. Vaccine effectiveness against infection in the older children decreased to 51 percent from 66 percent. But in the younger children, it dropped sharply to just 12 percent from 68 percent.The numbers change drastically between ages 11 and 12. During the week ending Jan. 30, the vaccines effectiveness against infection was 67 percent in 12-year-olds but just 11 percent in 11-year-old children.The difference between the two age groups is striking, said Florian Krammer, an immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.The biological difference between the two ages is likely to be minimal, but while 12-year-old children got 30 micrograms of the vaccine the same dose given to adults children who were 11 received only 10 micrograms, he noted.This is super interesting because it would almost suggest that its the dose that makes the difference, he added. The question is how to fix that.There have been at least 851 deaths involving Covid-19 in children under 17, and nearly 7,000 cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, a rare but serious condition associated with Covid. More children were hospitalized during the Omicron surge than at any other point in the pandemic.The findings underscore the need to gather more information on the best dose, number and timing for the shots given to children, Dr. Rosenberg said. They also underscore vaccines as just one measure of protection from the virus, along with masks and social distancing, he said.Dr. Rosenbergs research was posted just days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new recommendations that would allow the majority of Americans to stop wearing masks, including in schools.The new data also raises important questions about the Biden administrations strategy for vaccinating children. Only about one in four children aged 5 to 11 years has received two doses of the vaccine. (The C.D.C. has not yet recommended booster doses for this age group.)The vaccine has not yet been authorized for children younger than 5. Scientific advisers to the Food and Drug Administration were scheduled to meet on Feb. 15 to evaluate two doses of the vaccine for the youngest children, while three doses were still being tested. But the meeting was postponed after Pfizer submitted additional data suggesting two doses were not strongly protective against the Omicron variant of the virus.Dr. Rosenberg briefed top C.D.C. officials, including Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the agencys director, with findings in early February. F.D.A. leaders learned of the data around the same time. Some federal scientists pushed for the data to be made public ahead of the F.D.A. expert meeting scheduled for Feb. 15, viewing it as highly relevant to the discussion about dosing in children under 5, federal officials and others familiar with their responses to it said.ImageCredit...Joseph Prezioso/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesThe data is generally consistent with a report from Britain showing that vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection in adolescents aged 12 to 17 years drops to 23 percent after two months. The C.D.C. has been compiling its own data on the vaccines effectiveness in younger children and is expected to release at least some of it as early as this week, according to people familiar with the agencys plans.Israeli researchers have also been assessing the vaccines performance in young children since the country made it available to them in November.We continue to study and assess real-world data from the vaccine, Amy Rose, a spokeswoman for Pfizer, said in response to queries about the new data.Dr. Philip Krause, who recently retired from the F.D.A. as a senior vaccine regulator, said assumptions about certain antibody levels being predictive of vaccine effectiveness should be re-evaluated in light of the new results.It certainly weakens the argument for mandating that people get that lower dose, he said.It is not unusual for experts to revisit the dosing and interval for pediatric vaccines as more evidence becomes available. But in this case, giving the children a higher dose to kick up the immune response may not be an option because some data suggest that it may cause too many fevers, an unwelcome and potentially dangerous side effect in young children.There are other alternatives that may improve immunity in young children, said Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona.Pfizer and BioNTech are testing a third dose in children under 5, as well as in those aged 5 to 11, with the idea that, as in adults, an extra shot may significantly augment immunity. Results from these trials are expected in several weeks. Studies in adults suggest that three doses of the vaccine were more protective against the Omicron variant than two doses.Dr. Bhattacharya said he and his wife spaced the two doses for their children, who are 8 and 10, by eight weeks rather than the currently recommended three, based on studies suggesting that a longer gap between doses may improve protection. The C.D.C. last week encouraged some people older than 12, especially boys and men between 12 to 39 years, to wait eight weeks between the first and second shot.Another option may be a version of the vaccine designed to thwart the Omicron variant, or one that has a mix of several variants. Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson are all testing Omicron-specific versions of their vaccines.The next variant may differ widely from Omicron, much as Omicron did from the Delta variant. But training the body to recognize multiple versions would still offer a better chance at preventing infection with newer forms of the virus. Deciding when and how best to update these vaccines, I think thats really still the key conversation going forward here, Dr. Bhattacharya said.Newer vaccines that use different approaches than the ones currently authorized in the United States may also work better for children. A protein-based vaccine made by Novavax is under review at the F.D.A., and the pharmaceutical companies Sanofi and GSK said this month that they plan to submit their vaccine for evaluation soon.Many parents want to vaccinate their children to prevent them from spreading the virus to vulnerable relatives, to keep them in school or to avoid the possibility of long Covid, the poorly understood set of lingering symptoms that can occur even after a mild infection. Experts acknowledged that the vaccines low effectiveness against infection does not ease those concerns.Still, the vaccines provide more protection than we think, said Jessica Andriesen, a vaccine data expert at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.They may also make it so that your kid who brings home Covid isnt shedding virus as much as they would be if they werent vaccinated, and they also may have it for a shorter amount of time, she said.The virus is here to stay, and childrens risk of severe outcomes increases with age. So inoculating children early is a good idea, said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia and an adviser to the F.D.A.The argument I make to parents when I talk to them about this vaccine is, your children are going to grow up, he said. Theyre going to need to be protected against this virus for years.Sharon LaFraniere and Isabel Kershner contributed reporting. | Health |
Tyron Woodley to Nate Diaz: You're a Bum, Not 'The Real Champ' ... I'll Fight You Right Now!! 1/24/2018 Tyron Woodley says Nate Diaz calling himself "The Real Champ" is an absolute joke ... and if he's really serious about coming back, they can throw hands RIGHT NOW. Tyron just had shoulder surgery 5 weeks ago, but he ain't kidding ... explaining why he can whoop Nate's ass at way less than 100% on "The Hollywood Beatdown" (full episode drops this Friday). FYI, Diaz claimed he's making a return to the UFC in a social media post, saying -- "I'll see you around May, June. Sincerely, The Real Champ." Tyron says he truly believes Nate's gonna come back ... but does he think Diaz will accept a fight with him after ducking out back in November? He answers that question on the Beatdown, too. | Entertainment |
Credit...Kyle MakrauerDec. 4, 2015In 1992, two debut novelists gave a joint reading at a Manhattan bookstore. One of them was Ken Siman, whose novel, Pizza Face, sold decently, but was hardly a blockbuster. He eventually went on to pursue a career in publishing.The other novelist was Wally Lamb. His first novel, Shes Come Undone, was selected for Oprah Winfreys book club, and went on to sell more than three million copies.Nearly 25 years later, the two have reunited to collaborate on Mr. Lambs sixth novel, Ill Take You There, which is being released next year exclusively as a digital app by Metabook, a new e-book publishing company for which Mr. Siman is the co-founder and publisher.Landing a new work from Mr. Lamb is a major coup for Metabook, which was founded last year and specializes in multimedia, interactive storytelling. With an original novel by Mr. Lamb, author of best sellers like I Know This Much Is True and We Are Water, Metabook is establishing itself as a serious player in the growing marketplace for book apps.ImageCredit...Kyle MakrauerWe said, Our first original title has to be by someone huge, Mr. Siman said.Ill Take You There centers on a film professor who runs a Monday night film club in an old theater that turns out to be haunted by the ghost of Lois Weber, a trailblazing actress, producer and director from the silent film era. Loiss ghost becomes a guiding spirit of sorts for the narrator, Felix. In addition to the written narrative, which makes up the core of the story, the app weaves in other features, including an original soundtrack, a full cast audio drama narrating the story, and a documentary about Mr. Lamb, shot in the movie theater that inspired the novel.There are obvious downsides to releasing a book exclusively as an app. Ill Take You There wont be available in bookstores or even from e-book retailers like Amazon or Barnes & Noble when it comes out next spring. Instead, Mr. Lambs fans will have to buy it from the iTunes app store, and it will work only on Apple devices.Mr. Lamb said that as a music and film lover, he was excited by the prospect of enhancing a narrative with music, film clips and video.Im thinking to myself, wow, this is really cool, its something a little bit different, he said.Mr. Lamb is the latest fiction writer to venture into the realm of interactive, multimedia book apps, an area that is still relatively new terrain for novelists. When the first wave of enhanced e-books arrived a few years ago, most stuck to areas like nonfiction, science, history and current affairs, where add-ons like interactive graphics, audio and video clips and enlargeable maps and photographs could help deepen readers understanding of the topic. Interactive childrens books have become another booming genre, with everything from Dr. Seuss to an app based on Rick Riordans Percy Jackson & The Olympians series. But when it came to adult fiction, interactive bells and whistles often seemed like noisy distractions that pulled users out of the immersive experience of reading a story.That attitude is slowly starting to change. Some writers have created apps that allow readers to play a role in the plot or become a character. Others have developed apps that deliver tailored content depending on the readers geographic location.A few months ago, the British novelist Iain Pears released his genre-bending novel Arcadia as an experimental app that allows readers to toggle through 10 different characters story lines. It has been downloaded more than 20,000 times, outselling the hardcover edition of the novel.Eli Horowitz, a former editor and publisher at McSweeneys, has also found an avid audience for his interactive digital novels. His serialized app The Silent History, which he co-created, has been bought and downloaded more than 30,000 times. This fall, Mr. Horowitz published an app version of The Pickle Index, his farcical, dystopian novel about a circus troupe. The Pickle Index app, which Mr. Horowitz designed with the programmer Russell Quinn, is a serialized story that releases chunks of the narrative over 10 days, and includes pickle recipes, mini-games and dynamic maps. The novel was simultaneously released as a lavishly designed paperback and a two-volume hardcover that told two separate story lines, but the app generated the most enthusiastic responses from readers and reviewers.At its core, its all about finding fresh ways to engage the reader, Mr. Horowitz said in an email. The challenge here is to make sure any flexibility or interaction is strategically designed substantial enough to feel relevant, but limited enough to preserve the larger narrative.Mr. Lamb said he was sold on the Metabook concept as soon as Mr. Siman showed him a prototype for the companys first title. It was an interactive app based on John Berendts 1994 true crime book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The app, which came out this March, pairs the text of the book with an audio dramatization, crime scene photos with commentary by Mr. Berendt, original music and audio recordings of Jim Williams, a central figure in the drama.After the release of Ill Take You There, Metabook will publish another original work of fiction, Kathleen R. Sands short-story collection The Face Phantom, with tales that were inspired by exhibits in the Mutter Museum, a medical museum in Philadelphia. The company, which has about 15 employees, is offering authors advances of six figures or higher. Eventually, Metabook aims to publish six to 12 Metabooks a year, in a range of genres, said Benjamin Alfonsi, the companys creative director and co-founder. The whole concept is very new, in terms of how its reimagining the way to experience a book, Mr. Alfonsi said.For all the tantalizing creative promises that technology holds, many novelists and publishers are still wary of the expense and risk involved in creating a fictional app. The retail opportunities are narrow, and the concept of a multimedia book is still foreign, or unappealing, to readers who would rather be immersed in a single narrative.But Mr. Horowitz and other novelists say there is an appetite for new forms of fictional narrative.I think plenty of writers are interested and capable of exploring these areas, but there isnt yet much of a network to support the projects, Mr. Horowitz said. But I do feel theres already a real audience of eager readers, curious to see more experimentation. | Business |
Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesFeb. 8, 2014SOCHI, Russia In 1984, an 18-year-old forward was one of the final cuts from the Yugoslavian mens ice hockey team that competed in its homeland Olympics in Sarajevo. The national team coach, to assuage the players disappointment, assured him there would be other Olympics. The wait took 30 years, during which Yugoslavia splintered into bloody pieces, but the player, now a coach, Matjaz Kopitar, will finally make his Olympic debut this month. He and his son Anze, a forward for the Los Angeles Kings, are part of the first hockey team from Slovenia to qualify for the Winter Games.Slovenia, one of the younger teams in the tournament with six players under 25, opens against Russia and is a heavy underdog. No matter. For Matjaz Kopitar, who played for the national teams of Yugoslavia and Slovenia, it is the opportunity of a lifetime.Its going to be something special, Matjaz Kopitar said. Slovenia, known for Alpine skiers and ski jumpers, has a pool of hockey talent that is shallower than a puddle. A country of roughly two million, it has seven rinks and 148 registered senior mens players.Out of those 148 players, you can maybe pick out 40 players good enough to compete at a high level, Anze Kopitar said in a recent interview at the Kings practice complex. And 40 is actually stretching it, so it is a miracle, I think, what weve done to be in the Olympics.Kopitar, 26, is the first Slovene to play in the N.H.L. Another Olympian, Jan Mursak, appeared in 46 games with the Detroit Red Wings from 2010 to 2013 and was playing this season in the Kontinental Hockey League.Slovenia has no bigger sportsman than Kopitar, whose popularity, goaltender Robert Kristan said, eclipses that of the champion Alpine skier Tina Maze. Kopitar is revered although Slovenes seldom see his goals.Because of the time difference, Kristan said, sometimes, our sport news doesnt cover so much N.H.L. hockey. The eyes of the world will be on Kopitar in Sochi. Im sure its going to be super exciting, he said. Its going to be cool playing hockey against the best teams in the world with buddies you grew up playing with.ImageCredit...Monica Almeida/The New York TimesKopitars singular journey began in Jesenice, a town bordering Austria. His grandfather would flood his backyard in the winters to form the ice that Kopitar skated on as a child, pretending to score clutch goals for the national team as he had seen his father do.He was always scoring big goals in big games, so I always wanted to be that guy, too, Kopitar said. He was in the national championship, and I thought that was the best thing.As a teenager, Kopitar realized there was a wider world to conquer. Slovenia hosted an international youth tournament, attracting scouts who came to see the top developing talent from Russia, Finland, Sweden and the Czech Republic. They discovered, as Kopitar recalled, this kid from Slovenia who was playing pretty good.Kopitar received an offer to play on a junior team in Sweden. After consulting with his family, he left home reluctantly in 2004, without finishing high school, to pursue a career in hockey. He was 16.We just knew the competition at home was not going to be good enough, Kopitar said. It seems easy now. It didnt seem easy then. I literally thought I was going to the other side of the world.Kopitar represented the Slovene national team for the first time in 2005, his debut delayed because his father, then an assistant, was sensitive to any hint of favoritism. That year, he was drafted 11th over all by the Kings. In 2006, Kopitar made his N.H.L. debut and has produced 523 points in 581 games.Matjaz Kopitar became the national team coach in 2010 and set a goal of qualifying for the Olympics. Some people were on the bandwagon believing in that, Anze Kopitar said. Some people thought he was flat-out crazy.At the 2013 Olympic qualifying tournament, the Slovenes without Kopitar, who was busy with the Kings defense of their Stanley Cup title made a prophet of his father with victories over Belarus, Denmark and Ukraine.Kopitars brother, Gasper, 21, played in all three games for Slovenia, helping the team succeed where it had failed six times. Gasper quit the sport shortly thereafter, his passion extinguished by the unending comparisons to his brother. After a few months, he returned to play for the Ontario, Calif., team in the ECHL.But Matjaz Kopitar, in a move that evoked his history, cut him from the Olympic squad. It was not easy for Gasper, he said. It was not easy for Anze.The road has been tough, but it does not end here. Matjaz Kopitar has set a goal of qualifying for the 2018 Olympics.I think the people need to have high expectations for themselves, he said.The team captain, Tomaz Razingar, was Slovenias flag bearer for Fridays opening ceremony, which Kopitar missed because the N.H.L. had not begun its Olympic break.Razingar, 34, is the teams oldest player. On Thursday, after Slovenias first practice at Bolshoi Ice Dome, the site of the mens hockey competition, he said he was totally surprised to be selected for the honor. Hockey is not big in Slovenia, said Razingar, a forward who plays for a second-tier team in Sweden, so its an honor for all 25 guys, and not just me, to be in the front of the group.The Olympics have raised hockeys profile in Slovenia, placing it squarely on the radar of the tourism board, which pushed for adding green to the traditional tricolor red-white-and-blue jerseys. That is a symbol, Razingar said, of the unspoiled landscape that is the countrys biggest draw.A single Olympic appearance may not snowball into something bigger for Slovene hockey. The country has one professional team, and Matjaz Kopitar does not see more on the horizon because government and private funding remains scarce.We have a lot of kids playing hockey, but they dont see the light at the end of the tunnel, he said. When theyre 18, 17, they dont see the pro teams where theyre going to play in two years.He added: They have to leave the country, and when youre the stranger all the time, its tough. In many cases, our talent just fades. In 1984, Matjaz Kopitar said, he did not stop to consider how quickly ones Olympic window can close.When you become older, you start to think about it more, he said.At the first meeting with his full squad here, Matjaz Kopitar said he would encourage his players to compete as if they expected to win a medal and to enjoy other events in their off hours.I want them to experience as much as they can, he said.Asked what the Olympic experience means to his father, Kopitar said: I think it means the world to him. For him, I think this is the biggest trophy he could possibly have. | Sports |
Credit...Pool photo by Alexei DruzhininNov. 21, 2018MOSCOW The head of Russias military intelligence agency, who oversaw the hacking of the Democratic Partys computers during the United States 2016 presidential election, died on Wednesday after a long illness, Russian state news agencies reported.Col. Gen. Igor V. Korobov, 63, had not been seen in public for months and was notably absent from a ceremony on Nov. 2 marking the 100th anniversary of the military intelligence agency, known as the G.R.U.Historically a secretive, little-understood agency, the G.R.U. under General Korobov emerged as Russias primary tool of global disruption. Mr. Korobov was sanctioned by the Treasury Department for the release of emails stolen from the Democratic Party in support of Donald Trumps campaign in 2016.Under his watch, the G.R.U. was implicated in the theft and publication of documents belonging to the presidential campaign of Emmanuel Macron in France, the hacking of computers of the global antidoping watchdog and the poisoning of a former G.R.U. officer, Sergei V. Skripal, with a highly potent nerve agent in Britain this year.G.R.U. operatives also play a key role in the wars in Ukraine and Syria.Such operations have demonstrated Russias ability to project its limited power well beyond its borders and to remain a relevant international player that the West is still struggling to reckon with.The officer expected to succeed General Korobov is Vice Adm. Igor O. Kostyukov, who had been serving as acting director because of Mr. Korobovs illness, according to Russian news reports.The admiral sat next to President Vladimir V. Putin during the public ceremony commemorating the organizations 100th anniversary.Admiral Kostyukov, 59, who was sanctioned by the United States, twice, was also linked by the American government to cyberattacks. Educated as a naval officer, he served abroad as a military attach before joining the G.R.U., the news reports said.ImageCredit...Ministry of Defence of the Russian FederationLike his late boss, he helped plan and direct Russian operations in Syria, although no details about his role are public. He received a Hero of Russia award in 2017 for his military service.Although the Twitter feeds of numerous Russia watchers in the West filled with black humor about the short life expectancy of any G.R.U. leader, especially after a string of bungled overseas operations, General Korobovs death was not considered all that untimely in Russia.He had cancer, according to various independent publications, plus the average life expectancy for Russian men, although it has risen by about a decade to 66 in recent years, is still far lower than that of men in most Western countries.The speculation was fed partly by the fact that the death of the generals predecessor, Col. Gen. Igor D. Sergun, occurred nearly three years ago under cloudy circumstances at a similar age. Despite some reports that he had dropped dead in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, during a stopover on a trip to Syria, the government insisted that General Sergun, 58, had died in Russia.General Korobov was appointed head of the G.R.U. by Mr. Putin in January 2016. The generals absence in recent months had fueled rumors about an impending leadership shake-up at the agency.Russian news agencies cited a Defense Ministry statement that described the general as a true son of Russia, a patriot of the Fatherland. And at the G.R.U.s anniversary ceremony this month, Mr. Putin praised the agency for its unique capabilities.Though General Korobov is one of Russias top military officials, very little is publicly known about him. According to his sparse biography on the Defense Ministrys website, he joined the armed forces in 1973 and joined the G.R.U. in 1985.Despite Mr. Putins recent laudatory remarks, the G.R.U. has had its share of missteps lately. Just weeks after the British authorities released photographs and aliases of two G.R.U. officers suspected of poisoning Mr. Skripal in Salisbury, England, in March, researchers with the investigative group Bellingcat uncovered the officers true identities and travel itineraries primarily using publicly available information.In October, officials in the Netherlands revealed details about a botched attempt by four agency operatives to hack into the computers of the worlds chemical weapons watchdog in The Hague. The operatives were carrying computers with details from previous missions, along with an airport taxi receipt showing that they had been picked up outside a G.R.U. headquarters building in Moscow.Still, the agencys activities have put Russias adversaries on edge and have provoked fierce reaction from the West. Russia has been hit with wave after wave of sanctions as a result of its election interference. After Mr. Skripal was poisoned, Britain and many allies expelled more than 150 Russia diplomats, many believed to be undercover intelligence operatives. | World |
EntrepreneurshipCredit...Emily Berl for The New York TimesDec. 9, 2015For the California restaurateur Andrew Gruel, poor online reviews demand rapid responses.One of his new Slapfish restaurants, serving sustainable seafood, was hit this year with dozens of bad reviews that complained about its prices (too high) and portions (too small).So Mr. Gruel pulled out all the stops. He sent emails to customers begging them to come back. And he rejiggered menu prices, increased portion size and even introduced combo meal deals. Quickly, those one-star reviews shifted into five stars.You can get buried by bad reviews, said Mr. Gruel, whose fast-casual restaurants serve food like fish tacos and lobster burgers. So its a race to stop the bleeding.The payoff, he added, can be tremendous. Turning around one-star reviews creates lifetime customers and better reviews draw more customers.Mr. Gruels extreme approach to bad reviews may sound like overkill. But studies show that consumers overwhelmingly choose businesses based mainly on star ratings. Even a decline of one star, on a scale from one to five, can hurt revenue and send a business into a slide.So tracking a businesss online reputation is a critical part of building a thriving company, experts said.Star ratings persist forever, said Daniel Lemin, author of ManipuRated: How Business Owners Can Fight Fraudulent Online Ratings and Reviews. Meanwhile, actual reviews can fall off the first pages of review sites. And consumers rarely read reviews older than three months. After problems are addressed and solved, he added, theres a high chance that disgruntled customers can become avid advocates.So small businesses have nothing to lose by engaging their critics, Mr. Lemin said. The recipe is simply apologizing and asking for another chance. The criticism may hurt, he adds, but the way a business responds matters.Yelp is, of course, the powerhouse review site that is most watched. According to a Nielsen survey, 44 percent of consumers use Yelp to search for local businesses. TripAdvisor and Angies List have far smaller followings.This has prompted the growth of reputation management firms such as ReviewTrackers, Reputation.com, and Status Labs. They typically use data-analysis tools or software to find online reviews and rapidly respond to them.For example, ReviewTrackers, based in Chicago, tracks over 70 review sites, said Chris Campbell, the chief executive and founder. That number grows every quarter, he said. Free tools like Google Alerts do not always pick up every review site, he added. Your customers are already talking about you, Mr. Campbell said. So you cant just ignore them. Anyway, businesses that engage with their customers are growing. Studies show, he said, that the quality of a restaurants online reviews can even predict how fast it will close.Mr. Gruel, a trained chef who started his business in a food truck, prefers to respond to reviews himself. He fears using canned responses that arent personal. If he cannot respond quickly, he asks an employee to do so. Using two smartphones and an iPad, Mr. Gruel already responds to about 50 online reviews a day, regardless of whether they are positive or negative.Dining experiences live on in the computer, he said. And they reach thousands of people. But you can only manage a fraction of that experience inside the restaurant. He also checks Yelp statistics, which analyze things like how many people visit a review page, that are emailed to him.Checking online reviews every few days is now a business necessity, many experts said. Barbara Findlay Schenck, author of Small Business Marketing Kit for Dummies, recommends finding out which three sites customers use most and then setting up online alerts to monitor them. Be strong where your customers are looking, she advised.The minute you see a bad review, look for a shard of truth, she said. Is this something you can improve? Look for what you can fix. But dont fight fire with fire by getting into an argument with a reviewer, she added.Meg Piercy, who heads the furniture company MegMade, based in Chicago, checks reviews on multiple sites each day. Her business has more than 3,000 pieces of refurbished furniture that can be customized and they are sold in several states. Besides Yelp, she also checks Instagram, Etsy and the MegMade Facebook page. This only takes a few minutes, she said. If a review is negative, she calls the customer within 48 hours.I want people to know my true heart, said Ms. Piercy, who doesnt want to outsource her review scans either. And Im thankful for their feedback. When one customer gave MegMade a two-star review a few weeks ago, Ms. Piercy responded by giving her $100 off the next changing table.Reviews need to be four stars or above to satisfy Ms. Piercy, a self-proclaimed perfectionist. She also said online reputation issues can keep her up at night. Its so important, she said. But she also sees ratings as a potent marketing tool, given consumers growing clout.Ms. Piercy even uses an Excel spreadsheet to track all posted reviews. I look at the quality of the review, she said.Positive reviews are indeed good marketing fodder. You can blast them out by putting Yelp badges with the number of five-star reviews on your website, said Darnell Holloway, director of local business outreach at Yelp. Now its all about relational capital, he said, and you dont need a big marketing budget.Mr. Gruel also enlists Yelps Elite Squad, which reveals emerging hot spots. About 70 percent of our business has grown through Yelp and Instagram, he said. One study even found that a 3.5-star rating that is bumped up to four stars can result in a 19 percent increase in peak-hour bookings.The rating system is hard to manipulate, experts cautioned.Bad reviews cant be scrubbed on Yelp, Mr. Holloway said. The only exceptions to this rule is when someone violates content guidelines through hate speech or by not having had the experience theyre actually reviewing.For example, the Minnesota dentist who killed a lion in Zimbabwe got hundreds of negative Yelp reviews. We removed them, Mr. Holloway said. Yelp isnt a place to post political reviews. Disgruntled employee posts are also cut. Software evaluates every review, he added.Yelp and other sites also discourage offering incentives to reviewers. We make sure that we catch business owners who are offering these incentives, Mr. Holloway said. Were focused on quality control.Yelps sting operations also track down people who write fake reviews for money. But they can be hard to pinpoint, some experts said. Everyone is looking for answers to fake reviews, Mr. Holloway added. But dont get hung up on negatives. Its still important to join the conversation diplomatically.The phenomenon of fake reviews has only grown worse, Mr. Lemin said. Review writers even solicit work on the website Fiverr.com, he said. But dont panic when you get a bad review. One cant harm you. And a bad review can even validate the good ones, he said.Mr. Gruel said he aimed for four- or five-star reviews. They will make my business sustainable, he said. | Business |
Credit...Blue OriginMarch 8, 2016KENT, Wash. The headquarters of Blue Origin, the secretive rocket company in an industrial park here, is anonymous, with not even a sign at the road to announce the occupants.On Tuesday, for the first time, Blue Origin, started by Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon, opened its doors to reporters.Welcome to Blue, Mr. Bezos said. Thank you for coming.Blue Origin is part of a shift of the space business from NASA and aerospace behemoths like Lockheed Martin toward private industry, especially smaller entrepreneurial companies. Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, founded by another Internet entrepreneur, Elon Musk, has been the most visible and most successful of the new generation of rocket companies. Last Friday, it launched another satellite to orbit, but an attempt to land the booster on a floating platform again ended in an explosion.Much more quietly, Blue Origin has also had big space dreams, but until now did not give outsiders a look at what it was doing.For almost four hours, Mr. Bezos, who only occasionally talks to the press, led 11 reporters on a tour of the factory and answered a litany of questions over lunch. He talked garrulously, his speech punctured by loud laughs. Its my total pleasure. I hope you can sense that I like this, he said.He described an image on a wall in the companys central area, which showed two tortoises holding an hourglass and gazing upward at a stylized image of the planets and cosmos. Below is Blue Origins motto: Gradatim ferociter, Latin for step by step, ferociously no cutting of corners, but no dillydallying, either. You can do the steps quickly, but you cant skip any steps, Mr. Bezos said.He also offered updates on progress for his space tourism plans. The reusable New Shepard spacecraft that launched to the outskirts of space in November and then made a return trip in January will launch again soon. Depending on how well the testing goes, paying tourists, six at a time, might start making the short trips, experiencing a few minutes of weightlessness in space as soon as 2018, he said.At times, he told himself to stop talking, and let his engineers make their presentations about a new engine, the BE-4, which is under development with tests of a full version beginning by the end of the year.Mr. Bezos started Blue Origin in 2000, although few people knew about it then. For the next few years, about half a dozen people explored whether there might be a better way to get to space than rockets powered by loud, inefficient chemical combustion. The conclusion: there is not.Mr. Bezos said he had studied and thought about rockets since he was 5 years old. I never expected to have the resources to start a space company, he said. I won a lottery ticket called Amazon.com.Mr. Bezos declined to say how much money he had poured into his dream. Lets just say its a lot, he said.Around 2005, Mr. Bezos said he began rocket development in earnest. Still, almost no one knew what he was doing. For years, what went on here was mysterious and unknown, like Willy Wonkas chocolate factory in Roald Dahls childrens book.Occasionally news would be tossed out to the outside world an award by NASA, a blog post by Mr. Bezos, a video of a successful launch. Last year, the company made a splashy public announcement at Cape Canaveral, Fla., when Blue Origin announced it would launch rockets into orbit from there.Like Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos talks about Blue Origin less as a business than as part of a glorious future for humanity, with millions of people living and working off the planet. It is also a path, he asserted, that humanity must pursue if it is to continue to prosper.ImageCredit...Blue OriginHis argument was simple: Energy consumption has been rising at 2 or 3 percent a year. Even at that modest rate, within a few centuries, the energy usage would be equal to the energy produced by high-efficiency solar cells covering the entire surface of the planet. Well be using all of the solar energy that impacts the Earth, he said. Thats an actual limit.But there is much energy and raw materials to use elsewhere in the solar system, and eventually, he prophesies, there will be the great inversion. Instead of factories on Earth manufacturing sophisticated components that go into tiny machines that go into space, the heavy manufacturing will all be done elsewhere, and Earth, he joked, would be zoned for residential and light industrial use, allowing much of Earth to return to a more natural state. Itll be universities and houses and so on, he said.That is still far in the future. For now, Blue Origins business plans fall in three categories. The first is space tourism, with short hops launching from West Texas on the New Shepard, a competitor to Virgin Galactic, Richard Bransons space start-up. Space tourism is not just a frivolity for the rich, but a necessary steppingstone to develop the expertise in a new technology, Mr. Bezos said, much like the early days of airplanes or how video games spurred the development of more powerful computer chips.Currently, most rocket companies launch, at most, about a dozen times a year. You never get really great at something you do 10, 12 times a year, Mr. Bezos said. With a small fleet of reusable New Shepard rockets, Blue Origin could be launching dozens of times a year.The other business plans are for selling its rocket engines to other companies like United Launch Alliance, which is planning to use them for the Vulcan, a next-generation rocket to replace the Atlas 5 and Delta 4, and for its own larger rocket to lift payloads to orbit.Mr. Bezos said Blue Origin was quiet not necessarily to be secretive, but to avoid overpromising itself. Space is really easy to overhype, he said.The tour would not be the last time the doors are open.Later this year, Blue Origin will give more details about its designs for the larger rocket that will launch from Cape Canaveral, and Mr. Bezos said there would be an opportunity to watch a test flight of New Shepard in Texas.We will not be strangers, Mr. Bezos said at the end. | science |
Gloria Allred SAGs, Oscars Shouldn't Go To Alleged Sexual Predators 1/21/2018 TMZ.com Voting members for award shows should factor in sexual harassment accusations in determining whether an actor wins an Oscar, SAG Award, Golden Globe, etc. ... according to attorney Gloria Allred. There's a fierce argument about bestowing actors accused of sexual misdeeds with an award, even if they're the best in their category. Allred thinks it's not just about acting. James Franco is up for a SAG this weekend for his role in "The Disaster Artist" after several women came forward and accused him of sexual misconduct. He skipped out on the Critics' Choice Awards after winning a Golden Globe, but he's planning on being at Sunday's SAGs. Allred doesn't name names, but it's not hard to guess the elephants in the room. | Entertainment |
Credit...Barton Silverman/The New York TimesFeb. 3, 2014EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. The Seattle Seahawks were so certain that Percy Harvin was the game-breaking offensive player they needed to advance to the Super Bowl that they traded first- and third-round draft choices in 2013 and their third-round selection this year to the Minnesota Vikings to obtain him.Then they waited for a return. And waited. And waited.No one could have imagined that Seattles patience would be tested until Super Bowl XLVIII, but it was ultimately rewarded. Harvin returned the second-half kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown and finished with 137 total yards in sparking the Seahawks 43-8 demolition of the Denver Broncos on Sunday night.When it was over, he struggled to make sense of a wild ride that included hip surgery, a concussion and nagging doubt about whether he would ever be healthy enough to contribute this season. Its unreal right now, he said. To even be here right now, I cant even explain it right now. Its incredible.It was a dazzling finish for Harvin and a team that must still feel somewhat new to him. He never made it to the regular-season opener, requiring delicate hip surgery in August. A rigorous rehabilitation program sidelined him for 15 of 16 regular-season games, keeping him from developing a rapport with quarterback Russell Wilson.Harvin returned for Week 11 and had one reception against his former team on Nov. 17. When his hip again began ailing during the bye week that followed, he realized he had come back too soon.He rejoined the lineup for the divisional round of the playoffs and pulled in two passes against the New Orleans Saints only to sustain a concussion when his head struck the turf. He was in an all-too-familiar place on the sideline when Seattle made do with a relatively no-name receiving corps in slipping past the San Francisco 49ers, 23-17, in the N.F.C. championship game.After Harvin finally escaped the sideline to make the impact that was always expected, his prevailing sentiment was one of gratitude. This team, the way they stood behind me, the way they backed me all year, it means a lot to me, he said.Harvin had finally pronounced himself healthy in the days leading to the Super Bowl, saying, Im looking forward to being effective in this game. He smiled as he spoke, quietly confident that his body would finally allow him to compete. He showed against Denver how high the bar is for him, leaving tacklers grasping for air.Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesSlide 1 of 35 Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesDarrell Bevell, Seattles offensive coordinator, was so eager to establish Harvin as a threat that Denver would be forced to respect that he turned to him almost immediately. After Marshawn Lynch, the Seahawks bruising running back, slammed up the middle for 3 yards on the teams first offensive series, the call came in for Harvin.After hip surgery, after a concussion, after so much missed time, he was still as fast and elusive as ever. On an end-around from the Seattle 39, he went left and did not stop until strong safety Duke Ihenacho dragged him down at Denvers 31. Seattle went on to a field goal from Steven Hauschka.Its just fun to be able to have him in the game, Bevell said of Harvin. You could see on the second play of the game what happens when the ball is in his hands. It just kind of showed that you better pay attention to where Percy is.On Seattles second possession, Harvin made a first-down grab of 5 yards as part of a 13-play, 58-yard advance that led to another Hauschka field goal and an 8-0 lead. After Kam Chancellor intercepted Peyton Manning and the Seahawks took over at the Broncos 37, Harvin immediately went to work again. Another end-around went for 15 yards before free safety Mike Adams brought him down.With Seattle owning a stunning 22-0 halftime advantage, Harvin put the exclamation point on the Seahawks first Super Bowl championship. Matt Prater opened the second half with a kickoff that was high but short and in the direction of the wrong man. Harvin fielded it at his 13, cut left to avoid a cluster of three tacklers and then turned on the blistering speed that helped Florida to national championships in 2006 and 2008 and made him the Vikings first-round choice in 2009.We were calling for it all week; we knew it was a good chance, Harvin said. We had to put that on film all year, and the guys did a heck of a job blocking. As soon as I caught the ball, it was open field.Harvin has always towered above the crowd. He emerged as the Associated Presss offensive rookie of the year and totaled 1,800 or more all-purpose yards every year from 2009 to 11.Rick Spielman, Minnesotas general manager, at first insisted that he would not consider trading Harvin, calling him a dynamic playmaker. But he relented as Seattles offer grew. Adrian Peterson, the Vikings star running back, posted on Twitter when Harvin was traded: The best all-around player I ever seen or youll ever see! Goes to Seattle! I feel like I just got kicked in the stomach. Several times!!!Now Denver knows the feeling. | Sports |
Karachi JournalCredit...Sara Farid for The New York TimesMarch 12, 2017KARACHI, Pakistan It was a weekday afternoon in an upscale neighborhood of Karachi, but the hall was packed for the lecture on Islam and marriage.Laughter burst forth as the speaker asked how husbands change over the years.Theyre terrible listeners, one woman said. Inattentive, offered another. Other women, apparently without husbands, offered more charitable attributes: Theyre rational, and able to take risks.I was expecting the unmarried lot would have more unrealistic expectations for men, the speaker said to more laughter.Most religious events in Karachi are dominated by men and addressed by older, often-virulent clerics, but the participants at this recent lecture were all women. Drawn largely from the citys affluent neighborhoods, they sat in rapt attention, dressed in bright patterned tunics, listening to the lecturer, Sara Asif, instruct them on Islamic strictures.Ms. Asif talked about the strengths of women, and how a mans life and home would be joyless without a wife. Allah has given us beauty, she said. All of us are beautiful.ImageCredit...Sara Farid for The New York TimesSuch lectures by instructors like Ms. Asif are part of a growing religious ecosystem for women in Pakistan that eschews politics and traditional clerics in favor of female preachers and an Islamic-themed consumer lifestyle. This new culture has attracted a diverse mix of homemakers and socialites, bankers and doctors, who incorporate religion into their lives, but also into their lifestyles, buying everything from sequined abayas to custom prayer mats.The well-heeled in Karachi have been turning to Islam since the 1990s, when a female preacher called Farhat Hashmi began preaching the faith at the palatial homes that are a feature of Karachis wealthy neighborhoods.Soon after, women in those communities could be seen wearing burqas and attending Quran classes with the zeal of the newly converted. Ms. Hashmi also set up a controversial Islamic education network known as Al-Huda, which gained notoriety when it was revealed that former students included Tashfeen Malik, one half of the couple that killed 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif., in 2015.Ms. Hashmis success helped spawn a string of religious businesses by people inspired by her, encompassing everything from educational institutions to burqa boutiques.But in recent years, a new generation of women like her former student Huma Najmul Hassan, whose Al-Ilm Institute is a popular fixture on Karachis religious circuit has helped take things to a new level. The number of women attending their classes is inspiring the growth of even more Islam-themed businesses for women.The commercial boom can be seen on the street across from the Baitussalam Mosque in the upmarket Defence area, which has turned into a veritable religious shopping strip. Islamic bookstores selling titles like 300 Questions for Husbands and Wives are sandwiched between boutiques stocking $35 abayas with embossed palm tree borders, and banks offering Shariah-based services.ImageCredit...Sara Farid for The New York TimesAt Habitt, a home dcor store in the Dolmen Mall on Karachis seafront, $4 sandalwood prayer beads are displayed against an invocation to prayer in stylized English script. Online, there are artisanal Islamic brands like Little Ummati, which sells customized $20 prayer mats.Mahjabeen Umar, a Pakistani graphic designer who lives in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, said Little Ummati had been born out of her desire to make religious practices appealing for her children. Since other products and books for children are colorful and well made, she asked, why should an Islamic product not be well designed?There has also been a boom in services.One woman runs a Shariah-compliant aerobics class out of a residence in the Defence neighborhood. On a recent Friday afternoon, a dozen teenage girls in skinny jeans took notes as a woman demonstrated how to make skin cream at a Muslim youth club meeting. In January, a group associated with the Baitussalam Mosque organized a workshop on halal food. Over a hundred abaya-clad women gathered to hear about Muhammads favorite foods and the risks of diets.In Karachis affluent neighborhoods, women meet at Quran classes and at private talks by female preachers, in residences and institutes watched over by guards. They gather for religious conferences in five-star hotels. Institutes offer a range of Islamic courses in English and Urdu: on understanding the Quran, Arabic pronunciations and Islamic practices through presentations like My WhatsApp to Allah.Islamic events from prayer meetings to conferences have long been a mainstay of life in Pakistan. Islam is constitutionally and culturally enshrined here and taught at school; Muslims make up 96 percent of the population.But Islam has historically been perceived as the domain of the poor, and mainstream religious-political groups that constitute clerics and conservatives support consider themselves authorities on faith, and promise to make Pakistan a Shariah-law-abiding state.ImageCredit...Sara Farid for The New York TimesIn recent years, however, the countrys elite have tried to seize that mantle, convinced that they are better placed as the guardians of Islam because of their education, experiences and resources.That view is echoed by Humaira Iqbal, a doctor who is a former student of the female lecturer Safiya Khan.Our elite didnt have any religion, and so religion was literally preserved by the clerics, she said. They led funerals and prayers, and taught kids to read the Quran. But unfortunately, because they were illiterate, they could not understand Islam like an educated person.Dr. Iqbal, 34, runs a workshop called Lustre that teaches women to embrace their sexuality within marriage using Islamic dictates and anecdotes from religious teachings.The concept of this workshop is that people realize that as far as religion is concerned, it is really, really encouraged, she said, referring to sex, albeit in heterosexual and marital relationships.She laughingly described herself as a hijabi pervert, referring to the Islamic headdress worn by women outside the home. She said she had become a guru of sorts to people with questions about sex, Islam and marriage like whether anal sex is acceptable. (It isnt, she said.)ImageCredit...Sara Farid for The New York TimesMuch of the discussion at womens lectures revolves around relationships, families and the demands of urban life.Women from affluent communities who discover Islam anew and opt to wear the hijab or adopt religious practices risk social ostracism and criticism particularly from their families, friends and husbands who are often aghast at a loved ones transformation into a black-robed, devout person who will not attend parties that feature singing and dancing.Many of these women say Islam has given them a sense of purpose and direction that had been missing from their lives.Kulsoom Umar, who studied at the London School of Economics and consulted on development projects in Pakistan, lectures at Al-Ilm. She walked into her first Quran class in a sheer shirt, and now wears a cloak and covers her face and hair.I was always a fiercely independent person, but the thing that Islam and God gave me was emancipation, she said.This conservative and independent strain of elite women does not necessarily fit a stereotype of submissive religious women.The empowerment that so many Al-Huda women speak about doesnt make much sense from a liberal feminist perspective, especially to those who cant come to terms with these womens full face-and-body covering, said Faiza Mushtaq, a sociologist at Karachis Institute of Business Administration who wrote her doctoral dissertation on Al-Huda.Yet in many ways, Al-Huda has given these women access to new forms of community and new positions of authority, she said, like studying the Quran collectively without the need for men and becoming leaders and organizers. | World |
Global healthParasites transmitted by tsetse flies travel to the brain, causing paranoia, fury and death. Until now, killing them required hospitalization and harsh drugs.Credit...Neil Brandvold/DNDiNov. 16, 2018The first treatment for sleeping sickness that relies on pills alone was approved on Friday by Europes drug regulatory agency, paving the way for use in Africa, the last bastion of the horrific disease.With treatment radically simplified, sleeping sickness could become a candidate for elimination, experts said, because there are usually fewer than 2,000 cases in the world each year.The disease, also called human African trypanosomiasis, is transmitted by tsetse flies. The protozoan parasites, injected as the flies suck blood, burrow into the brain. Before they kill, drive their victims mad in ways that resemble the last stages of rabies.The personalities of the infected change. They have terrifying hallucinations and fly into rages; they have been known to beat their children and even attack family members with machetes. They may become ravenous and scream with pain if water touches their skin. Only in the end, do they lapse into a long coma and die.The new drug, fexinidazole, cures all stages of the disease within 10 days.Previously, everyone with the parasites found in a blood test also had to undergo a spinal tap to see if the parasites had reached their brains. If so, patients had to suffer through a complex and sometimes dangerous intravenous regimen requiring hospitalization.An oral treatment that can safely be taken at home is a completely new paradigm it could let us bring treatment down to the village level, said Dr. Bernard Pecoul, founder and executive director of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, which was started in 2005 by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders to find new cures for tropical diseases.ImageCredit...Xavier Vahed/DNDiPrevious treatments for sleeping sickness ranged from inconvenient to nightmarish. The current intravenous drug, eflornithine, must be given over many days with intravenous fluids that weigh about 125 pounds, a big burden in the supply chain for rural hospitals, Dr. Pecoul said.[Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.]Melarsoprol, the intravenous treatment used until a decade ago, contains an arsenic derivative. It corroded veins, triggered convulsions and killed 5 percent of the patients who got it.An all-oral treatment has been a dream of mine for decades, said Dr. Victor Kande, an adviser to the health ministry of the Democratic Republic of Congo who oversaw clinical trials of the drug. This is a huge leap in how we can tackle this disease.Getting fexinidazole tested and approved is one of the neglected disease initiatives biggest triumphs.The drug was created in the 1980s by Hoechst, a German drug company, but later abandoned.In 2009, seeking new anti-parasitic medicines, the initiative asked Sanofi, which held the patent, to reformulate it for sleeping sickness.Ultimately, the drive for approval cost $63 million and involved clinical trials including 750 patients in Congo and the Central African Republic. Two million villagers were screened.The costs were paid by seven European countries, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Doctors Without Borders and other donors.About 65 million people live in regions in west and central Africa where the most common strain of sleeping sickness, Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, circulates. A less common form circulates in southern Africa, and the harsh, older treatments are still needed to cure it. | Health |
The New Old AgeHealth experts are concerned that the pandemic, in upending daily routines, has reduced mobility and physical conditioning in older adults.Credit...Bryan Meltz for The New York TimesPublished Feb. 5, 2022Updated Feb. 7, 2022In normal times, Cindy Myers, an executive at a nonprofit organization, is not a real physical person, she said. I work at desk jobs. Im not a big exerciser.Still, before the pandemic, Dr. Myers, who is 64 and has a doctorate in organization development, commuted from her home in Petaluma, Calif., to an office in San Francisco. She met friends for lunch or coffee, and she went to restaurants, theaters and lectures with her wife. There was so much more variety in my life, more locations, more people, she said. Youre not cognizant of all the moves youre making.Like many employees, Dr. Myers has now been working remotely for two years, curtailing social and cultural events and forgoing travel. That shift, perhaps exacerbated by a bout of depression in 2020, has taken a physical toll, she said. Her limbs feel weak, her balance rocky; she has fallen several times.Basic kinds of movement you take for granted, like walking from one end of the house to the other, are exhausting, she said. Im worried about it.Many health experts are worried about worsening physical conditioning and mobility among older adults since Covid-19 upended the daily routine. Recent research indicates that many of those who had mild to moderate infections, even some who have managed to avoid the virus altogether, may be suffering functional declines.To date, much of the attention paid to the pandemics effects on the older population has focused on its frightful mortality rate: Nearly three-quarters of Americans who have died have been 65 or older.Researchers have also reported that, unsurprisingly, older adults whose Covid symptoms became serious enough to require hospitalization often contended with persistent physical and mental health problems.When youre hospitalized and youre older, it takes a long time to get back on your feet, said Marla Beauchamp, who researches mobility, aging and chronic disease at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Covid is still impacting them in a significant way months and months later.But less severe disease can also affect their physical ability. Dr. Beauchamp led a recent study of Canadians over 50 who had confirmed, probable or suspected Covid in 2020, when testing was not widely available. The study revealed worsened mobility among those with mild to moderate illness 93 percent of whom were never hospitalized compared with those without Covid.Nearly half of those 65 and older who had contracted Covid reported less ability to engage in physical activity like walking and exercising than before the pandemic but so did about one-quarter of those who did not become infected. Smaller proportions of those uninfected said their ability to move around the house, and to do housework like dishwashing and dusting, had also declined.Although some of that decline might reflect normal aging, the study measured changes over only a nine-month period. In people who did not develop Covid, the most plausible reason for the decline is public health restrictions during the pandemic, Dr. Beauchamp said.Declines in physical function are showing up in older Americans, too. A University of Michigan team surveyed about 2,000 American adults aged 50 to 80 in early 2021, asking about their activity levels (but not about their Covid status).It found that almost 40 percent of those over 65 reported both reduced physical activity and less daily time spent on their feet since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. In this representative national sample, those factors were associated with worsened physical conditioning and mobility.Its a cascade of effects, said Geoffrey Hoffman, a health-services researcher at the universitys School of Nursing and the lead author of the study. You start with changes in activity levels. That results in worsened function. That in turn is associated with both falls and fear of falling.Dr. Beauchamp added: Its really concerning to see this decrease in mobility. This is telling us that the pandemic alone has had a significant impact on older adults.Neither of these observational studies, in Canada or in the United States, explored reasons for the self-reported increase in physical decline. But their authors suggested that pandemic-related restrictions could have caused deconditioning, even in people who were not ill.Not only did gyms, yoga studios, pools, adult day programs, community and senior centers all close for extended periods; many older people also undertook fewer ordinary chores and errands and may have skipped recreational pastimes.If youre limiting visits to the grocery store or having groceries delivered, or not going to visit or help with your grandchildren, if youre not meeting friends at a coffee shop those all take a certain level of physical activity, Dr. Beauchamp said.Many older people did less traveling or in-person shopping; religious services, family gatherings and medical appointments moved online. Picture how much activity we do without even thinking about it, Dr. Hoffman said. When that changes substantially, it adds up over six or nine months, then you have loss of balance or muscle strength, which leads to more trips and falls.Disparities in health and income also appear to play a role, with reduced physical conditioning and mobility more commonly reported, in both countries, by respondents in low-income categories, in fair or poor health or with multiple chronic conditions.Relatively healthy older adults have sufficient reserve if they reduce activity, said Neil Alexander, a geriatrician at the University of Michigan and Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs who was not involved in the study. High-risk people may be driving these numbers.Dr. Alexander also pointed out that early in the pandemic, older patients had less access to rehabilitation and other services. It was difficult to get people into the home for occupational therapy and physical therapy, he said. The support services to keep people mobile and functioning were disrupted. Now, work force shortages may be having a similar effect, he noted.Physical function is key to living independently the future that a great majority of older people envision for themselves. A loss of mobility and function across a considerable proportion of the senior population could mean increasing disability, a greater need for eventual long-term care, and higher Medicare and Medicaid costs.But that is not inevitable, Dr. Hoffman said: You can reverse deconditioning. You can recover mobility.Dr. Hoffman would like to see Medicare, which covers hip fracture surgery and rehabilitation after serious falls, underwrite extensive pre-habilitation, to rebuild the strength and balance of beneficiaries and prevent falls and fractures. He hoped that doctors conducting annual Medicare wellness visits would ask about fall risks and refer deconditioned patients to occupational and physical therapy.In the interim, individuals can resume walking, enroll in yoga or tai chi classes (outdoors, online, or seated in chairs, as needed), join fall-prevention programs, even practice getting in and out of chairs and lifting small weights on their own. (People should consult a doctor or physical therapist first if they have become severely deconditioned, however.)You want to do everything you can to be as active and mobile as possible, Dr. Beauchamp said.Dr. Myers, having found that simply going about my daily routine isnt enough to bring back my stamina and strength, has a portable exercise bike set up in front of her television. She uses it, she said, but not often enough, a pattern she wants to change.I need an intervention, she said. This isnt the way I want to live. | Health |
A broadclub cuttlefish moving in waters off Lankayan, Sabah, Malaysia, Borneo.The Great ReadOctopuses and squid are full of cephalopod character. But more scientists are making the case that cuttlefish hold the key to unlocking evolutionary secrets about intelligence.A broadclub cuttlefish moving in waters off Lankayan, Sabah, Malaysia, Borneo.Credit...Published July 9, 2021Updated July 12, 2021Captive cuttlefish require entertainment when they eat. Dinner and a show if they cant get live prey, then they need some dancing from a dead shrimp on a stick in their tank.When the food looks alive, the little cephalopods, which look like iridescent footballs with eight short arms and two tentacles, are more likely to eat it. Because a person standing before them has to jiggle it, the animals start to recognize that mealtime and a looming human-shaped outline go together.As soon as a person walks into the room, they all swim to the front of the tank saying, give me food! said Trevor Wardill, a biologist at the University of Minnesota who studies cuttlefish vision.You may get a squirt of water from a cuttlefishs siphon if you dont feed them, though. Alexandra Schnell, a comparative psychologist at the University of Cambridge, recalled some who sprayed her if she was even a little slow with the treats. Its the kind of behavior that researchers whove worked with cuttlefish sometimes remark on: The critters have character.But they do not have the name recognition of their cousins the octopus and the squid. Even Tessa Montague, a neuroscientist who today studies cuttlefish at Columbia University, hadnt really heard of them until an aquarium visit during graduate school.Octopus are obviously part of lots of childrens story books, she notes. Cuttlefish were not present.During the last week of a course at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., though, she heard a talk by Bret Grasse, whom she called a cephalopod guru.He said they have three hearts, green blood and one of the largest brains among invertebrates, she said. And they can regenerate their limbs, they can camouflage. Within about 30 seconds, I had basically planned out my entire life. That lunchtime I went to the facility where he was culturing all these animals. My entire scientific career flashed in front of me. I was like, this is it, this is what Ive been looking for.Dr. Montague joined the many scientists who have long studied the remarkable abilities of cuttlefish, from their camouflage to their speed when hunting. In recent years, a string of high-profile papers has reported that they are capable of surprising cognitive feats, including rejecting easy meals while holding out for better food in the future, a version of the famous marshmallow test.Given the vast evolutionary gulf between cuttlefish and creatures like apes and crows that perform similar calculations, some scientists believe the shimmering little decapods may help us understand why these mental abilities evolve.Invisible huntersImageCredit...Scubazoo/RGB Ventures, via AlamyCuttlefish are more closely related to insects than to humans.They have no true bones in their bodies, just an internal shell filled with air that helps them float. Their blood gets that blue-green tint from hemocyanin, which they use instead of hemoglobin to carry oxygen. The smallest species are scarcely more than an inch long and the largest may reach more than two feet. Most species tend to live alone, and they can be found in the waters of every continent, although there are relatively few species in the Americas.Sepia officinalis is the cuttlefish species most commonly kept in labs. Roger Hanlon, a senior scientist at the Marine Biological Lab, and his colleagues have hatched wild S. officinalis eggs each year for nearly four decades, raising thousands of cuttlefish that have starred in dozens of papers. Cuttlefish hatch as miniature versions of adults rather than having a larval phase like many octopus and squid, which in his experience makes feeding and caring for cuttlefish easier.And the creatures, which have some of the largest brains of any invertebrate, start learning while still in the egg, Ludovic Dickel and other researchers in France have found. Cuttlefish can see through the walls of their translucent homes into neighboring tanks of prey animals, and after they hatch, they much prefer the prey that they saw while unborn. Soon after they emerge, they begin to hunt, and to hide in plain sight.A cuttlefishs most marvelous treasure may be its skin Dr. Hanlon has called it electric.It is full of muscles and nerves wrapped around millions of tiny sacs of red, yellow and brown pigment. When the muscles contract, the sacs are pulled out into flat discs of color like pixels, with each pattern of contraction yielding a different effect. Below the pigments in the skin glisten blue and green reflectors and structures that scatter white light. As a cuttlefish glides over a landscape of rocks and seaweed, neurons fire and muscles twitch and it fades into the colors of its background. It can even mimic the texture of its surroundings, thanks to raised structures called papillae that open like a thousand cocktail umbrellas under its skin, creating the effect of nubbins or spires.VideoA flamboyant cuttlefish in waters off Kapalai, Borneo, Malaysia.CreditCredit...Scubazoo/Science Picture Library, via Science SourceThe number of muscles and nerves in each papilla is roughly the equivalent to what is in each human finger, Dr. Wardill estimates.If you can imagine a thousand fingers sticking out of something its crazy. Im not joking, its that complicated, Dr. Wardill said. And its all soft. There are no bones.A cuttlefish can drift unseen past a fish, then engulf it in an explosive flash of limbs. If a predator, like a dolphin or a shark, is nearby, it can become one with the weeds.This visual subterfuge is all the more remarkable when you realize that cuttlefish are colorblind. In 1996, Justin Marshall and John Messenger showed that cuttlefish on a blue-and-yellow speckled background dont notice a difference between the two colors, adopting a fine-grained tan pattern. This is because they are not actually picking up on color when they change: What they detect instead appears to be the intensity of the light bouncing off their surroundings. That is sufficient for them to create impressions of their backgrounds that are convincing enough to survive. Evolution, of course, has honed their mimicry skills ruthlessly.If they got it wrong, they died, said Dr. Marshall, a marine biologist at the University of Queensland in Australia.Their intimate control of their bodys appearance is also involved in mating. Most cuttlefish live solitary lives, gathering in threes and fours to court and mate. But inhabitants of the small Australian steel town of Whyalla tipped scientists off in the late 1990s that cuttlefish were swarming on the coast. Swarms of giant Australian cuttlefish gather to mate, with the number once nearing 200,000. In this aggregation, in which there are more males than females, big males defend their chosen mates and fight would-be challengers. Smaller males disguise themselves, however, retracting one arm and holding three others in a posture that usually only females take. They nip past the gatekeepers to deposit their own sperm, with a fair rate of success.And then, just like that, they die. Cuttlefish live only a single year, maybe two. For all their sophistication, they have a very short existence.But most of what cephalopods do is so different it confuses people, Dr. Hanlon said. And their unusual characteristics command the attention of anyone curious about the most extreme forms life can take.Marshmallow tests, but make it shrimpImageCredit...Adam Glanzman for The Washington Post, via Getty ImagesEnter, then, the comparative psychologists.Nicola Clayton didnt start out studying cuttlefish. A professor at Cambridge, she has built her career around the remarkable behavior of the scrub jay, a small blue-black bird that stores food for later. In 1998, she and colleagues showed that the birds can remember how long its been since they hid food items. They can plan for the future, hiding food in places where they have reason to believe theyll be hungry later.Their behavior is more sophisticated than simply learning that food will appear if you push a button or recognize a pattern, something that many animals can do. Apart from apes and other corvids, like crows, few animals studied so far possess the full portfolio of mental abilities demonstrated by these birds.But cuttlefish and other cephalopods may be an intriguing test case. When octopus and cuttlefish hunt, they do not take the same route two days in a row, marine biologists have observed. Christelle Jozet-Alves, a comparative psychologist, wondered if that meant they had a memory like that of corvids, capable of re-experiencing what had happened to them in the past. In 2013, with Dr. Clayton and a collaborator, she published a tantalizing cuttlefish study suggesting they did. Dr. Clayton, Dr. Schnell and their colleagues have started to ask: Do cuttlefish have a sense of the future and the recent past? Can they make decisions about what they think is likely to happen in the future?Octopuses have long amazed observers with their apparent canniness in one YouTube clip with more than 2 million views, an octopus scoops up coconut shells and carts them off, perhaps to use them later as tools. Squids also have large brains and sophisticated behavior. But cuttlefish are easier to grow in the lab than squid and easier to work with than octopuses, which are often standoffish and may refuse to engage with an experimenter, Dr. Schnell said.There is, of course, the Houdini factor, too.You get little escape artists with octopuses. You come in in the morning and it doesnt matter how tight you have closed an aquarium tank, youll find them crawling out, she said.She added, Ive never had that happen with cuttlefish, perhaps because their internal shells, which keep them buoyant, make them less able to squeeze through small spaces.VideoA flamboyant cuttlefish eating a filefish near Sulawesi, Indonesia.CreditCredit...Scubazoo/Science Picture Library, via Science SourceTo see if cuttlefish can make decisions about the future based on their experience, in a pair of experiments published in 2020, the team gave cuttlefish crabs each morning. At night, they gave shrimp, a much preferred goody, to some, but not all. Cuttlefish that reliably got shrimp stopped eating crab, waiting for the better food, while those that got them only occasionally stuck with crabs. Even if shrimp was only provided once every 48 hours, as the time drew near the creatures would still refrain from eating crabs, saving room.Then, Dr. Schnell and colleagues reported in 2021 that cuttlefish would forgo an easy meal in favor of waiting for food they preferred, a version of the assessment of self-control known as the marshmallow test that is administered to human children the world over. C.C. Chiao and a colleague at National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan had found something similar in 2020, that cuttlefish chose a smaller meal if they had been rewarded for this in the past.These studies suggest that cuttlefish are capable of self-control and of remembering their own past experiences. The next step will be tests of whether, like the jays, they are aware of how they will feel in the future, and can plan for it.Were adapting these experiments that have been done in chimpanzees and corvids, Dr. Schnell said, to see if these animals that diverged from this lineage 550 million years ago have the same capacity.If they do, cuttlefish will have an important role in illuminating how and when intelligence evolves. Corvids and certain primates including humans each developed the ability to plan for the future, but they seem to have arrived at it independently, rather than inheriting the capacity from a common ancestor. Both kinds of creatures have complex social lives and lengthy life spans to learn from, commonalities that make it hard for biologists to say what traits or environment make intelligence a good investment for an organism.The cuttlefish promises to add another dimension to the study of intelligence because they must have developed it in a completely different context.They dont live a long time, unlike the corvids. Theyre not highly social, unlike the corvids, Dr. Clayton said. It was very unlikely that it was social intelligence that was driving the evolution.There are still more tests to come. Its not clear whether cuttlefish will turn out to have all the same skills as apes and corvids, or just a handful. If what they have is similar, then its possible that profound vulnerability, rather than long life or social complexity, is what has forced them to become so canny.ImageCredit...Wildestanimal/AlamyThe ancestors of cuttlefish and other cephalopods had hard external shells to protect them. Over the eons, these shells were lost or adapted into internal structures, like the cuttlefishs. And unlike octopuses, which are reclusive den dwellers, cuttlefish are exposed in open water.Theyre essentially a big lump of protein, which is very tasty to anything that lives in the ocean, Dr. Schnell said.It might be that the best protection for these little roving meatballs with arms, alongside their formidable camouflage, was their brain.Light-up cephalopodsAt the same time that comparative psychologists are bringing the cuttlefish to a wider audience, the sea creatures may become even easier for more scientists to work with.At the Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts, a project started in 2017 and led by Mr. Grasse is now growing five different cephalopod species with the aim to make cuttlefish and other cephalopods more mainstream in labs.And at Columbia, Dr. Montague is developing genetic tools that will allow researchers to manipulate cuttlefish genes, a practice that until recently was only possible with run-of-the-mill lab animals, like mice and fruit flies. With the advent of CRISPR gene editing technology, it is becoming possible to edit the genes of stranger, more offbeat creatures. If she can develop CRISPR tools for cuttlefish, it could be the beginning of a new chapter for these cephalopods in science.For Dr. Montague, it could mean a way into understanding how cuttlefish look at their environment and, in less than a second, make their skin blend in. She hopes to engineer cuttlefish whose neurons light up as they carry that visual message to the brain and out to the skin. Then she can map the precise path that information takes and start to explore how each change of scenery affects the cuttlefishs neural world.Along the way, she has accumulated a number of unusual collaborators, from artists to designers to scientists, all unified in their fascination with the cuttlefish and its charms.All kinds of people want to work on this project, she said, and thats been one of the real joys of it. | science |
Sports Briefing | SoccerFeb. 4, 2014Fulhams season reached a new low as the Premier League club was beaten, 1-0, at home by the League One struggler Sheffield United after extra time in an F.A. Cup fourth-round replay. United is second from the bottom in League One. Michael Laudrup was fired as Swanseas manager, less than a year after winning Englands League Cup for the clubs first major trophy. Swansea (6-12-6) is 12th in the Premier League, 2 points above the relegation zone. | Sports |
Credit...Jim Urquhart for The New York TimesFeb. 1, 2014Halfway between Denver and Seattle, as the crow flies, sits Arco, Idaho, a farming community that is home to about 950 residents, the Pickles Place cafe, an airstrip, the Sawtooth Club, some gas stations and not much else. We Googled it the other day, said Debbie Jones, a bartender at the Sawtooth. Were in the middle here. Arco is just over 500 miles from each city.ImageCredit...Jim Urquhart for The New York TimesJones will wear a new Peyton Manning jersey for a Super Bowl party Sunday at the bar. She expected about 40 people to show up, bringing meatloaf, spicy meatballs, potato salad and more, according to the sign-up sheet. What is less clear is whether the guests will lean more heavily toward the Broncos or the Seahawks. You have to pick a side so you can get into it, Jones said in a telephone interview. There will be yelling and screaming, Im sure.She is a longtime Broncos fan who has never attended a game. Her boyfriend, Dave Welchert, who bought the Manning jersey for her in Boise, about three hours west of Arco, will back the Seahawks.ImageCredit...Jim Urquhart for The New York TimesJones is hardly the only Idahoan who has been consulting maps and fiddling with a smartphone to chart the Broncos-Seahawks divide. That is mostly because of the scale of the game, but also because this state is in a bit of a football lull.Idaho State and the University of Idaho have gone a combined 26-92 in the last five seasons. That has left the spotlight to Boise State, which posted Bowl Championship Series victories in the 2006 and 2009 seasons. But last year, those Broncos seemingly lost every close game in finishing 8-4, lost Coach Chris Petersen to the University of Washington, and lost the Hawaii Bowl under an interim coach after their starting quarterback was sent home early for disciplinary reasons.Its a good thing theres next year, said Jones, who is also a Boise State fan.A couple of blocks away is Butte County High School, where Sam Thorngren polled his math students about which team they would cheer for in the Super Bowl.It was a free-for-all, but basically, they were split down the middle, said Thorngren, who also coaches the schools eight-man football team, which made it to the state title game last season. I had some mad kids when they found out I was rooting for the Broncos. It pretty much ruined our day of math, or at least the first 15 minutes.In Burley, about two hours south of Arco, Ginny Behr is the general manager of a Perkins restaurant. She estimated that her customers and 50 to 60 employees the restaurant is attached to a hotel were split almost evenly in allegiance to the Broncos and to the Seahawks. Was she aware that the drive to either teams home stadium is just short of 11 hours, giving Burley the bragging rights by land that Arco enjoys by air? No, I didnt know that, Behr, who grew up in Illinois and identifies as a Green Bay Packers fan, said over the phone. But were going to market that. Thank you for bringing that to my attention.ImageCredit...Jim Urquhart for The New York TimesNot surprisingly, Idaho, an overwhelmingly red state politically, begins to skew Seahawks lime green, blue and silver the farther west one drives. Capz, a store that sells N.F.L. apparel at Boise Towne Square Mall, ordered 100 hats 25 Broncos, 75 Seahawks that arrived Jan. 21. The Broncos hats sold out in two days. All but one of the Seahawks hats had sold in six. Travis Hawkes, who owns Capz as well as three local Pro Image Sports stores, said Seahawks gear had been the top seller all season.Even the Seattle equipment truck had a certain appeal in the Idaho capital. The big rig was en route to MetLife Stadium in New Jersey when it made its first stop in Boise, commemorating the occasion with an unremarkable photograph on the official Seahawks Twitter feed. That got the attention of the Boise-based Idaho Statesman newspaper, which ran the post as part of a package that asked, Seahawks or Broncos? Among other findings, the newspaper cited 2012 United States Census data that showed Idahos influx of former Washington residents had outpaced the influx of former Colorado residents by nearly 6 to 1.Still, the paper sells well beyond the boundaries of Boise, which is one reason its sports editor, Mike Prater, is not taking any chances. Weve started charting the stories just to make sure the coverage is close to even, he said.We really do think its split down the middle, said Prater, whose usual top priority, by far, is the Broncos of Boise State.Jones, at the Sawtooth, figured there was no telling whether her Super Bowl crowd would get behind one team more than the other. It may depend on who is passing through town and who decides to drop in en route to or from the Big Lost River, Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve, the Idaho National Laboratory or points beyond. Jones will have at least one staunch ally in Tisha Kozloff, who was born and raised in Denver and now owns the Shell station down the street. ImageCredit...Jim Urquhart for The New York TimesIm crazy into it, said Kozloff, who will bring her sausage-beef-and-bacon meatloaf to the party, by request. But it wont be a quiet, lets-watch-the-game crowd.Jones says she still expects everyone to be civil. Its nothing too serious, she said. Just a friendly rivalry.In other words, if the drivers of the Seahawks equipment truck feel like making a slight detour through Arco on the way home, Jones will gladly pour them drinks. But if Denver comes through, she said, they get doubles. | Sports |
Tennis|Sharapova Loses in Parishttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/02/sports/tennis/sharapova-loses-in-paris.htmlSports BriefingFeb. 2, 2014Top-seeded Maria Sharapova lost, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the semifinals of the Open GDF Suez in an all-Russian match on Saturday in Paris. Sharapova lost the match by finishing with two consecutive double faults. Pavlyuchenkova will play third-seeded Sara Errani on Sunday for the title. Errani outlasted Alize Cornet of France, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 7-6 (5). Fourth-seeded Ekaterina Makarova of Russia beat Andrea Hlavackova, 6-3, 0-6, 6-4, to reach the final of the Pattaya Open in Thailand. She will play Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic. Pliskova beat Julia Grges of Germany, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. | Sports |
Africa|Landslide at Ethiopia Garbage Dump Kills at Least 35https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/12/world/africa/addis-ababa-ethiopia-garbage-landslide-dump.htmlCredit...Elias Meseret/Associated PressMarch 12, 2017ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia A landslide swept through an enormous garbage dump here on the outskirts of Ethiopias capital late on Saturday, killing at least 35 people and leaving several dozen missing, residents said, as officials vowed to relocate those who called the landfill home.Most of the dead were women and children, and more bodies were expected to be found in the coming hours on Sunday, said Dagmawit Moges, a spokeswoman for the Addis Ababa city government.It was not immediately clear what caused the landslide at the Koshe Garbage Landfill, which buried several makeshift homes and concrete buildings. The landfill has been a dumping ground for the capitals garbage for more than 50 years.About 150 people were there when the landslide occurred, said Assefa Teklemahimanot, a resident. Mayor Diriba Kuma said 37 people had been rescued and were receiving medical treatment. Two had serious injuries.Many people at the landfill had been scavenging items to make a living, but others live at the site because renting homes there, which are largely built of mud and sticks, is relatively inexpensive.At the site, older women cried, and others stood anxiously waiting for news of loved ones. Six excavators dug through the ruins.My house was right inside there, said a shaken Tebeju Asres, pointing to where one of the excavators was digging in deep, black mud. My mother and three of my sisters were there when the landslide happened. Now I dont know the fate of all of them.The landslide may have been caused by the resumption of garbage dumping at the site in recent months. The dumping had stopped in recent years, but resumed after farmers in a nearby region where a new garbage landfill complex was being built objected to dumping in their area.In the long run, Mr. Kuma said, we will conduct a resettling program to relocate people who live in and around the landfill.Around 500 waste-pickers are believed to work at the landfill every day, sorting through the debris from the capitals estimated four million residents. City officials say that close to 300,000 tons of waste are collected each year from the capital, most of it dumped at the landfill.Since 2010, city officials have warned that the landfill is running out of room and is being hemmed in by nearby housing and schools.City officials have been trying in recent years to turn the garbage into a source of clean energy with a $120 million investment. The Koshe waste-to-energy center, which has been under construction since 2013, is expected to generate 50 megawatts of electricity when completed.Ethiopia, which has one of Africas fastest-growing economies, is under a state of emergency imposed in October after several months of sometimes deadly protests by demonstrators demanding wider political freedoms. | World |
Credit...Jessica Chou for The New York TimesMay 15, 2019SAN FRANCISCO As San Franciscos Board of Supervisors prepared to vote Tuesday on an ordinance forbidding city agencies to use facial recognition technology, some proponents of the measure were uncertain if they had the necessary support. Two of the legislators who were for it had called in sick.But Brian Hofer, a paralegal who had drafted the ordinance, seemed unfazed. Sitting in the back of a chamber in City Hall, he wrote and rewrote a draft of a post for Twitter in which he would proclaim victory after the ban passed.Mr. Hofer, 41, had reason to feel confident. Over the past five years, he has drafted 26 privacy laws for cities and counties in California. All were approved, 23 unanimously. And he had seen enough of the machinations of decision-making to be certain that this one would go through.[Facial recognition technology has stoked controversy over the years. Heres a look back.]Hes just omnipresent and very effective, said Lee Hepner, a legislative aide to Aaron Peskin, the city supervisor who sponsored the facial recognition ban. Hes great at bringing down the volume and making it a level-headed conversation.Mr. Hofer is little known outside California, but his anti-surveillance measures have been making waves in the state.He successfully pressed the Northern California cities of Richmond and Berkeley, which have sanctuary policies, to end their contracts with tech companies like Amazon and Vigilant Solutions that do business with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In Santa Clara County, in Oakland and elsewhere, he has secured transparency laws around surveillance technology.His campaigns are just beginning. In Berkeley and Oakland, Mr. Hofer is pushing for more facial recognition bans. He has two additional privacy proposals winding their way through the states legislative process, focused on reining in surveillance technology. And he is establishing a nonprofit, Secure Justice, that will grapple with technology issues.My primary concern is when the state abuses its power, and because of the age we live in, its probably going to occur through technology and data mining, Mr. Hofer said. Thats where I see the most potential harm occurring. So I just wanted to jump right in.[Get the Bits newsletter for the latest from Silicon Valley and the technology industry.]From his earliest days, Mr. Hofer displayed his gadfly tendencies. He was raised in Weed, a small Northern California town where the politics lean libertarian and where the Jefferson movement, which proposes breaking off the northernmost bit of California and a slice of southern Oregon to form a new state, has long held sway.Mr. Hofer moved to the Bay Area in the late 1990s and studied economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and law at the University of San Francisco, though he delayed taking the bar exam when he began focusing on anti-surveillance activism. He supported himself by working as a paralegal and now lives in Oakland with his younger brother, who is completing a degree at Berkeley.Mr. Hofer started to hold technology accountable in 2014 when he heard about a new surveillance system in Oakland. The system, the Domain Awareness Center, was designed to aggregate data from security cameras, license plate readers, gunshot detectors and other technology.ImageCredit...Robyn Beck/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesI had never walked into City Hall for any reason, he recalled. But Mr. Hofer soon joined a group of privacy advocates and started attending City Council meetings to voice his objections to the intrusiveness of the system.The Oakland project was scaled back after protests and Mr. Hofer was hooked. He began seeking out other ways to oppose surveillance initiatives.Its forcing transparency into the conversation, he said.Mr. Hofer took on a range of anti-surveillance initiatives. He began drafting legislation that would force cities to be transparent about the surveillance systems they deployed, or to cut technological ties with ICE. He said he did not consider himself anti-tech and was just trying to prevent the authorities from abusing the power of technology.The facial recognition bans are Mr. Hofers latest cause, partly because he sees an opportunity to cut off the technology before it becomes widespread and entrenched, he said.On balance, its such a dramatic shift in power that for the first time, aggressively, I want to say this is where we draw the line, said Mr. Hofer, who worked with the American Civil Liberties Union and others to push the San Francisco ordinance through.Last Thanksgiving, Mr. Hofer experienced the surveillance technology he has been examining firsthand. Police officers in Contra Costa County, using an automated license plate reader tool, pulled him over and accused him of stealing the rental car he was driving. Mr. Hofer said he had recognized the tool it was made by Vigilant Solutions, a target of his sanctuary city ordinances.It showed me the real-world consequences of these sometimes speculative, hypothetical arguments that Ive been making, he said.Eventually, the officers realized that the car had been stolen months earlier and that, when it was recovered, its plates were not removed from a list of stolen vehicles, Mr. Hofer said. He was released and is suing the Contra Costa County sheriffs department, claiming civil rights violations.On Tuesday, Catherine Stefani was the lone supervisor to vote against the ban, which passed 8 to 1. The legislation was well intentioned but required more work before it could be put into effect, she said. She worried that city departments would need to hire new staff to manage the transparency requirements and that the ordinance would create budget problems.After the vote, Mr. Hofer and other supporters huddled in the hallway to debrief. He sent his victory tweet, crediting Mr. Peskin for championing the ban and noting that it was the first of its kind.Matt Cagle, an attorney with the A.C.L.U. who worked with Mr. Hofer on the ordinance, said he had already received phone calls from regulators across the country who were curious about it.The desire not to be tracked when you walk down the street or watch-listed by a secret algorithm, these are shared values across the United States, Mr. Cagle said. We fully expect this vote and this ordinance to inspire other communities to take control of these important decisions.A few hours after the vote, Mr. Hofer was in Oakland. There, the City Councils public safety committee was expected to debate one of his sanctuary ordinances, which would prohibit the city from contracting with tech companies that do business or share data with ICE. | Tech |
Credit...David Montero/Los Angeles Times, via Associated PressJune 15, 2018A Republican primary race in Nevada this week ended in victory for a businessman and reality television star who describes himself as a pimp.Dennis Hof, 71, is a brothel owner running to represent Nevadas 36th District in the State Assembly. On Tuesday, Mr. Hof defeated the three-term Republican incumbent, James Oscarson, in the deep-red district.Im fighting the establishment, and I know how Donald Trump feels, said Mr. Hof, who campaigned mainly on lowering taxes and will face off against the Democrat Lesia Romanov in November.Ms. Romanov, 51, is a relative outsider, too; she has been an educator for two decades and is campaigning for education reform and fiscal accountability.This is my first experience in politics, she said. Just jumping right into the fire.She added that if Mr. Hofs primary victory inflates voter turnout in November, it could work in her favor. I dont think party lines are going to be as big of an issue as they would normally be, she said.Like the president, Mr. Hof has been accused of sexual assault. At least two women have come forward publicly, but no charges were brought against him because the statute of limitations ran out. Mr. Hof has denied the allegations. Im around 540 girls in a very sexually charged environment at all times, he said. Sex is not a problem for me, and I would never be involved in anything like that.Mr. Hof published a book called The Art of the Pimp in 2016 and was the star of the HBO television series Cathouse, which focused on the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, his brothel east of Carson City. In 2015 Lamar Odom, the former N.B.A. forward who married the reality television star Khlo Kardashian, was hospitalized after he was found unconscious at another brothel owned by Mr. Hof.Mr. Hofs victory came amid debates over whether prostitution should be outlawed in Nevada the only state in the country where it is legal. The religious right needs to know its not going away, Mr. Hof said of prostitution, adding that attempts to ban things like alcohol, marijuana and prostitution only drive the industries underground and allow criminals to thrive.In addition to championing lower taxes, he said he would defend the Second Amendment and the rights of private well owners in his district.He drew parallels between his voter appeal and that of President Trump. Both cant be bought, and both cant be bossed, he said. And that resonated big.Kimberly Mull, a survivor of child sex trafficking and a founder of No Little Girl, a campaign to outlaw prostitution in Nevada, said the states brothels were places of rampant abuse and exploitation. Mr. Hofs primary victory was mind-boggling, and its hurtful to survivors, she said. Its hurtful to victims. Its hurtful to women.Still, she said, Ms. Romanovs chances in November are slim. In the presidential election, 68 percent of voters in Nye County, which covers much of the states 36th Assembly District, chose Mr. Trump.I hope that this little district within Nevada can be an example of how we as a country, we as a community, can go above the party name and the party identity and just vote for human decency and kindness and womens equality, she said. But, you know, I would also like a unicorn.Brothels in Nevada are mostly in rural areas; they are not legal in Las Vegas, Carson City or Reno. Mr. Hof said his brothels had brought tax revenues to the state and its counties.A report released by Nye County last month found that in 2016 and 2017, brothels there generated more than $392,000 for the county, offset by costs of just over $31,000. But the report did not cover 2018 and so did not include county expenses related to three lawsuits filed by Mr. Hof against county officials this year. (One complaint accuses an official of defamation, and two others are related to the removal of brothel signs.)Ms. Romanov said she would defer to voters wishes on the issue of legal prostitution. Im here to represent the people, she said of her campaign. Its not an extension of my ego.Mr. Hof said he was confident about his chances.Im going to prevail, he said. When youre in the reddest district in Nevada that is very libertarian-leaning, a Democrat is going to have a tough row to hoe. | Politics |
Meghan Markle Wanted to Be Willy Wonka Before a Royal Princess 1/27/2018 Meghan Markle's on her way to joining the Royal Family, but before that, she had her sights set on becoming queen ... of the lollipop biz. According to docs obtained by TMZ ... Meghan and a friend filed trademark paperwork back in 2012 for the term "Lali" -- with the apparent intention of selling their own line of lollipops and drops. It evidently never panned out, because a little more than 2 years later they abandoned their trademark application ... and haven't filed anything since. Good news for Markle, though -- if she ever wants to revive the "Lali" pops ... Royal protocol won't get in her way. | Entertainment |
TrilobitesCredit...Mark BoyceJune 15, 2017If you come across an old elk in southwestern Canada, chances are it is female.Though male elk, or bulls, rarely make it past 5 years old because they are targeted by hunters, female elk, or cows, can live as long as 20 years. Remarkably, cows over age 10 seem nearly invulnerable to hunters.A team of scientists wanted to know: What makes senior cows so survival-savvy? Is it because these elk are more cautious by nature, which made them better at evading hunters all along? Or is it nurture, and cows can learn to dodge hunters over their lifetime, even if they start out more daring?It seems both factors are at play, the researchers at the University of Alberta reported in PLOS One on Wednesday. Tracking dozens of female elk over several years, the authors found that, over all, careful cows were better at surviving. But they also found that individual cows were able to adjust their behavior and adopt more stealth strategies as they aged. In particular, as females got older, they moved shorter distances and sought safer ground if they faced a higher risk of encountering hunters.During a postdoctoral stint in Alberta, Henrik Thurfjell, now a research specialist at the Swedish Species Information Center, led an effort to track 49 cows, monitoring each for two to five years with GPS collars that logged the animals locations every two hours.The scientists then tried fitting all their data to various statistical models, which allowed for differing degrees of fixed behavior versus behavior that could change with age. The model that best explained the variation in their data incorporated the two, suggesting that both learning and innate personality traits had a role in influencing how cows act over time.On top of that, the changes in behavior that the researchers observed suggested that the elk were actually avoiding hunters. Generally, cows moved shorter distances as they aged, which probably decreased their chances of being detected by hunters. They also became better at avoiding roads, or traveling in forest or rugged terrain when close to roads, especially during dawn and dusk, when hunters were out.Most striking to Dr. Thurfjell, older cows clearly used rugged terrain more often during bow-hunting season than rifle-hunting season.Its really hard to stalk an elk in rugged terrain as a bow hunter because you need to get really close, he said. A rifle hunter, however, can shoot into rugged terrain from hundreds of yards away.Astonishingly, the elk seemed to pick up on these different stories for how hunters behave and possibly responded accordingly, Dr. Thurfjell said.He suspects that, given the chance, male elk would probably learn, too. But where his group surveyed in Alberta and British Columbia, male elk are more heavily hunted, for a few reasons: They are prized more as trophies, some jurisdictions place limits on hunting females, and its easier to trick a bull, by mimicking the bugle call of a competitor.In addition to being less targeted, female elk live in groups, where often only a few cows are killed at a time, providing possible opportunities for those that escape to learn what works and what doesnt in avoiding hunters.Farmers who want to keep elk away from their crops without decimating local populations could potentially use this dynamic, Dr. Thurfjell said, by killing just a single animal from trespassing herds, so the others learn to avoid that location in the future.Daniel Sol Rueda, a researcher at the Center for Research on Ecology and Forestry Applications in Spain who was not involved in the study, said that the study did not fully rule out other, non-learning explanations, such as hormonal changes or social dominance leading older elk to use safer areas, .However, the results were elegantly suggestive of learning, he added, and underscored the importance of better understanding how, and to what extent, animals adapt behaviorally to changes in their environment.The general perception is that learning is only important for humans, he said, but the truth is that it is crucial for many nonhuman animals. | science |
DealBook|Kurt Geiger, British Footwear Maker, in Another Private Equity Dealhttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/business/dealbook/cinven-agrees-to-buy-kurt-geiger-from-sycamore-partners.htmlDec. 14, 2015LONDON The European private equity firm Cinven said on Monday that it had agreed to acquire Kurt Geiger, the British footwear and accessories company, from the New York private equity firm Sycamore Partners.The deal was for an undisclosed amount.Kurt Geiger represents an exciting opportunity to acquire the U.K.s leading womens footwear and accessories company with significant international growth and consolidation opportunities, Maxim Crewe, a partner at Cinven, said in a news release.It is led by a strong, experienced and committed management team and we are looking forward to working with them to achieve the next phase of growth under Cinvens ownership.Founded in 1963, Kurt Geiger, based in London, operates more than 80 stores worldwide and has 240 concessions at some of the worlds best-known department stores, including Harrods and Selfridges. It generated sales of 260 million pounds, or about $396 million, in 2014 and employs about 1,700 people.Neil Clifford, the Kurt Geiger chief executive; Dale Christilaw, the companys chief financial officer; and Rebecca Farrar-Hockley, its creative director, are expected to continue in their roles at the brand following the transaction.Kurt Geiger was previously part of the Jones Group, which Sycamore agreed to acquire in 2013 in a deal valued at $2.2 billion including debt.Sycamore has been selling off parts of the Jones Group business. In January, Coach agreed to buy Stuart Weitzman, the luxury womens footwear designer and one of the Jones Group brands, in a deal worth up to $574 million.Nomura and the law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer acted as advisers on the transaction. | Business |