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Credit...Michael H. Stephenson/British Geological SurveyNov. 17, 2016In the debate over fracking of oil and gas wells, opponents often cite the risk that the process can set off nearby earthquakes. But scientists say that in the United States, fracking-induced earthquakes are not common.In Canada, however, a spate of earthquakes in Alberta within the last five years has been attributed to fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, in which water, chemicals and sand are injected at high pressure into a well drilled in a shale formation to break up the rock and release oil and gas.Now, scientists at the University of Calgary who studied those earthquakes, near Fox Creek in the central part of the province, say the quakes were induced in two ways: by increases in pressure as the fracking occurred, and, for a time after the process was completed, by pressure changes brought on by the lingering presence of fracking fluid.The key message is that the primary cause of injection-induced seismicity in Western Canada is different from the central United States, said David W. Eaton, a professor of geophysics at the University of Calgary and co-author of a paper in the journal Science describing the research. The findings could help regulators take steps to avoid such induced earthquakes, he said.Scientists say most of the recent earthquakes in Oklahoma and other parts of the United States have been caused by the burial of wastewater from all kinds of oil and gas wells rather than by the fracking process itself. Wastewater is injected under pressure into disposal wells drilled into a sandstone or other permeable formation, and flows into the rock. That can cause pressure changes in the formation that can upset the equilibrium around a fault zone, causing an earthquake as the fault slips.ImageCredit...Michael H. Stephenson/British Geological SurveyIn the Fox Creek area in Alberta, where oil and gas companies have been drilling in recent years into a formation called the Duvernay shale, earlier research had seen links between the earthquakes all of which were minor and caused little damage and fracking, rather than wastewater injection.In their work, Dr. Eaton and Xuewei Bao, a postdoctoral researcher, looked into the links in more detail, analyzing seismic data from a series of quakes at Fox Creek in late 2014 and early 2015, and records from wells where fracking was occurring at the time.They found two patterns to the seismicity. To the east in the fault zone, most of the earthquakes occurred during the fracking process itself, which lasted up to a month. To the west, there were few immediate quakes; they occurred intermittently over several months after the fracking ended.Dr. Eaton said the fracking process could be likened to small underground explosions, shocks that travel into the rock formation and rapidly change the stress patterns within. If there is a critically stressed fault, those stress changes are sufficient to push it over the edge, he said. That appears to be what happened in the eastern direction.Once the fracking stops, those stresses relax fairly quickly, he said. But they found that to the west, much of the fracking fluid remained underground in the fractured shale. That would lead to more persistent pressure within the fault zone, and more earthquakes over time.Dr. Eaton said he and others were conducting more research to understand why Alberta responds differently to fracking than Oklahoma and other parts of the United States. Its a different situation, he said, and understanding the origin of the differences is important. | science |
Technology|Facebook Halts Aquila, Its Internet Drone Projecthttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/technology/facebook-drone-internet.htmlCredit...ReutersJune 27, 2018Facebook has made splashy announcements over the last four years about building a fleet of solar-powered drones, with wingspans bigger than a Boeing 737, beaming internet access to people around the world who cant otherwise get online. (When you have as many users as Facebook, finding new ones requires some ingenuity.)On Wednesday, the ambitious effort was halted.Facebook announced in a blog post that it would no longer build the drones. The company said that it was still committed to the original goal of bringing more people online, but that it would instead rely on other companies to build aircraft. A plant in western England where the planes were being manufactured will be closed.Mark Zuckerberg, Facebooks co-founder and chief executive, had envisioned drones powered by the sun, flying for months without landing, 60,000 feet above far-flung areas. The aircraft filled a warehouse, but weighed as much as a grand piano. After a successful test flight in 2016, Mr. Zuckerberg hailed the project as something thats never been done before.But the drone initiative, Project Aquila, suffered several setbacks. One test flight ended with a crash landing and a broken wing. The initiative fell under the companys Internet.org project to expand internet access in underdeveloped parts of the world, a controversial effort that critics called a ploy by Facebook to get new users.Facebook said on Wednesday that as more aviation companies took an interest in developing drones, it became unnecessary to build its own. Given these developments, weve decided not to design or build our own aircraft any longer, said Yael Maguire, director of engineering at Facebook.Facebook was not alone in its efforts to use aircraft to offer internet access. Google abandoned its own efforts to build an internet drone, and the company is now experimenting with using high-altitude balloons to send internet signals, a project it has called Loon. | Tech |
The agency has withheld critical data on boosters, hospitalizations and, until recently, wastewater analyses.Credit...Pool photo by Amr AlfikyPublished Feb. 20, 2022Updated Feb. 22, 2022For more than a year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has collected data on hospitalizations for Covid-19 in the United States and broken it down by age, race and vaccination status. But it has not made most of the information public.When the C.D.C. published the first significant data on the effectiveness of boosters in adults younger than 65 two weeks ago, it left out the numbers for a huge portion of that population: 18- to 49-year-olds, the group least likely to benefit from extra shots, because the first two doses already left them well-protected.The agency recently debuted a dashboard of wastewater data on its website that will be updated daily and might provide early signals of an oncoming surge of Covid cases. Some states and localities had been sharing wastewater information with the agency since the start of the pandemic, but it had never before released those findings.Two full years into the pandemic, the agency leading the countrys response to the public health emergency has published only a tiny fraction of the data it has collected, several people familiar with the data said.Much of the withheld information could help state and local health officials better target their efforts to bring the virus under control. Detailed, timely data on hospitalizations by age and race would help health officials identify and help the populations at highest risk. Information on hospitalizations and death by age and vaccination status would have helped inform whether healthy adults needed booster shots. And wastewater surveillance across the nation would spot outbreaks and emerging variants early.Without the booster data for 18- to 49-year-olds, the outside experts whom federal health agencies look to for advice had to rely on numbers from Israel to make their recommendations on the shots. (After several inquiries from The New York Times about the booster data for that age group, the agency posted it on its website Thursday night.)Kristen Nordlund, a spokeswoman for the C.D.C., said the agency has been slow to release the different streams of data because basically, at the end of the day, its not yet ready for prime time. She said the agencys priority when gathering any data is to ensure that its accurate and actionable.Another reason is fear that the information might be misinterpreted, Ms. Nordlund said.Dr. Daniel Jernigan, the agencys deputy director for public health science and surveillance said the pandemic exposed the fact that data systems at the C.D.C., and at the state levels, are outmoded and not up to handling large volumes of data. C.D.C. scientists are trying to modernize the systems, he said.We want better, faster data that can lead to decision making and actions at all levels of public health, that can help us eliminate the lag in data that has held us back, he added.The C.D.C. also has multiple bureaucratic divisions that must sign off on important publications, and its officials must alert the Department of Health and Human Services which oversees the agency and the White House of their plans. The agency often shares data with states and partners before making data public. Those steps can add delays.The C.D.C. is a political organization as much as it is a public health organization, said Samuel Scarpino, managing director of pathogen surveillance at the Rockefeller Foundations Pandemic Prevention Institute. The steps that it takes to get something like this released are often well outside of the control of many of the scientists that work at the C.D.C.The performance of vaccines and boosters, particularly in younger adults, is among the most glaring omissions in data the C.D.C. has made public.Last year, the agency repeatedly came under fire for not tracking so-called breakthrough infections in vaccinated Americans, and focusing only on individuals who became ill enough to be hospitalized or die. The agency presented that information as risk comparisons with unvaccinated adults, rather than provide timely snapshots of hospitalized patients stratified by age, sex, race and vaccination status.ImageCredit...Cheriss May for The New York TimesBut the C.D.C. has been routinely collecting information since the Covid vaccines were first rolled out last year, according to a federal official familiar with the effort. The agency has been reluctant to make those figures public, the official said, because they might be misinterpreted as the vaccines being ineffective.Ms. Nordlund confirmed that as one of the reasons. Another reason, she said, is that the data represents only 10 percent of the population of the United States. But the C.D.C. has relied on the same level of sampling to track influenza for years.Some outside public health experts were stunned to hear that information exists.We have been begging for that sort of granularity of data for two years, said Jessica Malaty Rivera, an epidemiologist and part of the team that ran Covid Tracking Project, an independent effort that compiled data on the pandemic till March 2021.A detailed analysis, she said, builds public trust, and it paints a much clearer picture of whats actually going on.Concern about the misinterpretation of hospitalization data broken down by vaccination status is not unique to the C.D.C. On Thursday, public health officials in Scotland said they would stop releasing data on Covid hospitalizations and deaths by vaccination status because of similar fears that the figures would be misrepresented by anti-vaccine groups.But the experts dismissed the potential misuse or misinterpretation of data as an acceptable reason for not releasing it.We are at a much greater risk of misinterpreting the data with data vacuums, than sharing the data with proper science, communication and caveats, Ms. Rivera said.When the Delta variant caused an outbreak in Massachusetts last summer, the fact that three-quarters of those infected were vaccinated led people to mistakenly conclude that the vaccines were powerless against the virus validating the C.D.C.s concerns.But that could have been avoided if the agency had educated the public from the start that as more people are vaccinated, the percentage of vaccinated people who are infected or hospitalized would also rise, public health experts said.Tell the truth, present the data, said Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert and adviser to the Food and Drug Administration. I have to believe that there is a way to explain these things so people can understand it.Knowing which groups of people were being hospitalized in the United States, which other conditions those patients may have had and how vaccines changed the picture over time would have been invaluable, Dr. Offit said.Relying on Israeli data to make booster recommendations for Americans was less than ideal, Dr. Offit noted. Theres no reason that they should be better at collecting and putting forth data than we were, Dr. Offit said of Israeli scientists. The C.D.C. is the principal epidemiological agency in this country, and so you would like to think the data came from them.It has also been difficult to find C.D.C. data on the proportion of children hospitalized for Covid who have other medical conditions, said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, chair of the American Academy of Pediatricss Committee on Infectious Diseases.The academys staff asked their partners at the C.D.C. for that information on a call in December, according to a spokeswoman for the A.A.P., and were told it was unavailable.Ms. Nordlund pointed to data on the agencys website that includes this information, and to multiple published reports on pediatric hospitalizations with information on children who have other health conditions.The pediatrics academy has repeatedly asked the C.D.C. for an estimate on the contagiousness of a person infected with the coronavirus five days after symptoms begin but Dr. Maldonado finally got the answer from an article in The New York Times in December.Theyve known this for over a year and a half, right, and they havent told us, she said. I mean, you cant find out anything from them.Experts in wastewater analysis were more understanding of the C.D.C.s slow pace of making that data public. The C.D.C. has been building the wastewater system since September 2020, and the capacity to present the data over the past few months, Ms. Nordlund said. In the meantime, the C.D.C.s state partners have had access to the data, she said.Despite the cautious preparation, the C.D.C. released the wastewater data a week later than planned. The Covid Data Tracker is updated only on Thursdays, and the day before the original release date, the scientists who manage the tracker realized they needed more time to integrate the data.It wasnt because the data wasnt ready, it was because the systems and how it physically displayed on the page wasnt working the way that they wanted it to, Ms. Nordlund said.The C.D.C. has received more than $1 billion to modernize its systems, which may help pick up the pace, Ms. Nordlund said. Were working on that, she said. The agencys public dashboard now has data from 31 states. Eight of those states, including Utah, began sending their figures to the C.D.C. in the fall of 2020. Some relied on scientists volunteering their expertise; others paid private companies. But many others, such as Mississippi, New Mexico and North Dakota, have yet to begin tracking wastewater.Utahs fledgling program in April 2020 has now grown to cover 88 percent of the states population, with samples being collected twice a week, according to Nathan LaCross, who manages Utahs wastewater surveillance program.Wastewater data reflects the presence of the virus in an entire community, so it is not plagued by the privacy concerns attached to medical information that would normally complicate data release, experts said.There are a bunch of very important and substantive legal and ethical challenges that dont exist for wastewater data, Dr. Scarpino said. That lowered bar should certainly mean that data could flow faster.Tracking wastewater can help identify areas experiencing a high burden of cases early, Dr. LaCross said. That allows officials to better allocate resources like mobile testing teams and testing sites.Wastewater is also a much faster and more reliable barometer of the spread of the virus than the number of cases or positive tests. Well before the nation became aware of the Delta variant, for example, scientists who track wastewater had seen its rise and alerted the C.D.C., Dr. Scarpino said. They did so in early May, just before the agency famously said vaccinated people could take off their masks.Even now, the agency is relying on a technique that captures the amount of virus, but not the different variants in the mix, said Mariana Matus, chief executive officer of BioBot Analytics, which specializes in wastewater analysis. That will make it difficult for the agency to spot and respond to outbreaks of new variants in a timely manner, she said.It gets really exhausting when you see the private sector working faster than the premier public health agency of the world, Ms. Rivera said. | Health |
SinosphereCredit...Eric Thayer for The New York TimesApril 5, 2016BEIJING Last month, as Donald J. Trumps lead in the Republican presidential primaries widened and his feud with the party establishment intensified, Ding Qiushi, a chemist in Nanjing and founder of the online Trump Fan Club, sang his praises: A political outsider is taking the country by storm, with unflinching courage.In China, as in the United States, Mr. Trump is a divisive figure. He has accused China of erecting a Great Wall of protectionism, of stealing jobs from American workers and of currency manipulation. He has also said that Chinese should be issued fewer skilled-worker visas.Portrayals of Mr. Trump in the Chinese state media are overwhelmingly negative. He has been branded a big mouth and lunatic. He has been showcased by Global Times and Xinhua as an example of the failures of American democracy. On social media, many Chinese take the same line and fire back at his criticisms of China.But as Mr. Trump has gained ground, his Chinese fans ranks have swelled, and new fan microblogs have sprouted. In addition to the Trump Fan Club on Sina Weibo, these include Trump the Great Man from Heaven and Trump Goes to the White House. Their followers have cheered the real estate billionaire, mocked Republican leaders and criticized the American news media as unfair.The reasons for Chinese interest in Mr. Trump vary. There are those who endorse his positions, such as those who, mindful of Chinas own tense relations with some of its ethnic and religious minorities, voice support for Mr. Trumps pledge to ban noncitizen Muslims from entering the United States. Some like his strongman politics, believing the world needs a stronger American president. Then there are those who root for him to win in the expectation that a Trump-led United States would antagonize other countries and hasten Chinas rise.Many simply find Mr. Trump an intriguing exception to the usual sedate lineup of politicians.He speaks out of line, and that appeals to me, Lai Quanzhong, 47, a Trump Fan Club follower from Fujian Province, said in a telephone interview. He said that this was the first time he had paid close attention to an American election but that even for those who dont understand American elections, they just cant avoid listening to what he says.His flamboyance is part of his attraction to Chinese who normally are indifferent to American politics, said Jin Canrong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University. Thats why they pay attention to Trump, who is quite entertaining, he said.But Mr. Trump also appeals to a practical streak in many Chinese, he said. He makes lots of money, Mr. Jin said. Chinese people like to be friends with pragmatists.Mr. Ding, the fan club founder, who has been posting news and videos about Mr. Trump since November, said, I admire his outspokenness and personal charisma. The fan club, he said, is a way to inform Chinese about a man who could become the next American president.The number of club followers has risen from about 2,000 in late February to nearly 9,000 at the end of March. They discuss the election, watch the debates and attack Mr. Trumps detractors.Interviews with about a dozen fans suggest that some are well-educated professionals. Their views can seem contradictory: advocating personal liberty and free markets, but also nationalism and a strong state. They are interested in the American electoral process but say China is not ready for popularly elected leaders.Some have been following Mr. Trump since The Apprentice, the reality television show that he hosted. In fact, Sun Jianguo, 31, a building technician, said in an interview that it was Mr. Trump who got him interested in American politics.Mr. Sun also likes Mr. Trumps critical comments about Muslims. He said there are Muslims in his home province of Hebei and the city of Tianjin, where he went to college, and they can be bossy sometimes.Tan Zhenxing, 29, another fan club follower, said in an interview that Mr. Trump could be the strong leader the United States needs to remain at the forefront of innovation. If America fails, Mr. Tan said, Europe will fail, and then China will fail.The Chinese state media has faulted Mr. Trump for his statements on immigrants. But many of Mr. Trumps middle-class Chinese fans do not see his proposals to expel illegal immigrants and bar low-skilled workers from entering the United States as applying to them.A fan named GOPChina wrote: One principle that defines America is that America welcomes immigrants who work hard and are determined to get rich.Mr. Trump has denounced Chinese trade policies and promised to impose a 45 percent tariff on Chinese exports. Some Chinese commenters doubted such a tariff would actually materialize. Others say a President Trump would prod China to rely less on manufacturing and exports. Kang Yuekui, 35, said: It would be good for the Chinese economy in the long run, and short-term pain is better than long-term suffering.Jiang Shuai, 27, a salesman from Shenzhen, argues that Mr. Trump would anger American businesses and make enemies in the Middle East and Europe and that in the process he would make China great again.One informal survey suggests it may be more Mr. Trumps high profile than his specific views that has attracted a following in China. Matthew Hartzell, an urban planner who moved back to the United States after six years in China, invited users of Zhihu, a Quora-like Chinese website, to cast a vote for American president.In the first survey, which simply listed the candidates, Mr. Trump won with 38 percent of the 729 respondents votes. But in the second survey, Mr. Hartzell included each candidates opinions on issues like abortion, immigration and foreign policy. This time, Mr. Trump fell to 18 percent out of 474 respondents, well below Hillary Clintons 46 percent. | World |
Politics|A prominent Southern Baptist calls on Trump to step down.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/us/politics/russell-moore-trump.htmlCredit...Mark Humphrey/Associated PressJan. 8, 2021Russell Moore, the head of the Southern Baptist Conventions influential public-policy arm, is joining the calls for President Trump to resign.There are 12 dangerous days for our country left, Mr. Moore wrote in a Twitter post addressed to the president on Friday morning. Could you please step down and let our country heal?Mr. President, people are dead. The Capitol is ransacked. There are 12 dangerous days for our country left. Could you please step down and let our country heal? https://t.co/wP3niITQv6 Russell Moore (@drmoore) January 8, 2021 Mr. Moore, president of the denominations Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, has been consistently critical of the president since before the 2016 election.But todays new statement was still a remarkable step for a prominent leader of a conservative evangelical denomination. With almost 15 million members, the Southern Baptist Convention is the countrys largest Protestant denomination.Southern Baptists have been deeply divided by the Trump presidency. White evangelicals voted overwhelmingly for Mr. Trump in 2016 and 2020. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., the high-profile president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., did not vote for Mr. Trump in 2016 but spoke publicly about his plans to vote for the president last year.As a critic of the president, Mr. Moore has been subject to dissent from an increasingly influential faction in his denomination claiming that he is out of step with rank-and-file pastors and church members. In 2017, more than 100 Southern Baptist churches unhappy with his leadership threatened to withhold funding from the denomination.Many evangelical leaders have spoken out against the violence in Washington this week, and called for prayers for the nation. But fewer have specifically called the president to task for his role in what happened.You have a moral responsibility to call on these mobs to stop this dangerous and anti-constitutional anarchy, Mr. Moore tweeted to the president on Wednesday afternoon. Character matters, he added. | Politics |
Taryn Manning $200 Dress Was a Rip-Off ... I'm a Superstar, Damn It!!! 1/25/2018 TMZ.com Taryn Manning got a sweet deal on her SAG Awards outfit -- but she's pissed off, and wants a piece of the stylist who dared to deck her out in a ... wait for it ... $200 dress! Taryn was still fuming about the gown Wednesday at LAX. Our photog tried to congratulate the 'OITNB' star on scoring the ensemble that most critics loved ... for the look and the price. Well, talk about different perspectives. You gotta see what happened when we tried to give her props. Taryn's happy everyone else can go buy her dress -- Adrianna Papell at Macy's and Bloomingdales, btw -- but strongly believes she deserves better. Hell hath no fury ... | Entertainment |
NY Congressman Diddy Should Buy the Jets 1/21/2018 TMZSports.com Trying to buy the Panthers is great and all, but New York congressman Gregory Meeks is lobbying for Diddy to focus his efforts on a MUCH needier squad -- the Jets!! "Wish he was looking at a New York team ... maybe he could turn the Jets around," Meeks told TMZ Sports in D.C. Don't get it twisted -- Meeks thinks it's dope Puff is trying to diversify ownership in pro sports ... saying it's a win "for all America." That said, the DNC rep didn't make any bones about where his allegiances lie ... and clearly wants Diddy to make a play for Gang Green. The NY Giants ... not so much. | Entertainment |
DealBook|Possible Suitors for Yahoohttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/10/business/dealbook/possible-suitors-for-yahoo.htmlBreakingviewsCredit...Richard Perry/The New York TimesDec. 9, 2015Yahoos core business might fit with Barry Dillers menagerie.The company said on Wednesday that it was scrapping plans to spin off its stake in the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and that it might instead separate out its division that houses search, advertising and the like. Mr. Dillers IAC/InterActive, with assorted online endeavors, could be a logical home, as might Verizon, the owner of AOL.Yahoo said it had not determined whether to sell anything. Yet if the board does spin out the advertising and search unit, the company could be ripe for a takeover. Yahoo is worth about $33 billion, but most of its value lies with its equity position in Alibaba. The search and ad business is worth only about $3 billion, according to Jefferies.Talk of a deal has been going on ever since Yahoo rebuffed Microsofts $44.6 billion offer in 2008. The firm has been floundering for several years, and a revolving door in the executive suite there have been six chief executives in the last decade has made it tough for the company to change strategy.There are plenty of potential buyers, however. Yahoo would probably fit right in with IACs various aging Internet businesses. They include Ask.com formerly Ask Jeeves, a Yahoo competitor About.com and CityGrid. IAC said on Wednesday that it was creating IAC Publishing, which it called a new digital operating entity that would combine online brands like The Daily Beast and About.com to reach an estimated 100 million monthly customers in the United States. Yahoo has 200 million visitors, according to the Internet tracking company comScore.Dont count out Verizon, either. Its chief financial officer, Francis J. Shammo, said during an investor conference on Monday that the wireless carrier would consider buying Yahoos search and ad business. Verizon paid $4.4 billion in June for AOL, another limping Internet brand.There has been lots of talk in recent years about how Yahoo and AOL might make a good marriage, reaching far more customers together than they do in total separately. At this point, though, almost any deal would probably look like the right move for Yahoo. | Business |
Health|Fauci says Americans should get vaccinated even if Mercks Covid pill cuts deaths.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/03/health/merck-covid-pill-vaccine-fauci.htmlPresident Bidens Covid adviser also says it is too soon to tell if the Delta surge will decline enough to allow safe gatherings around the holidays.Credit...Agence France-Presse, via Merck & Co,Inc./Afp Via Getty ImagesPublished Oct. 3, 2021Updated Oct. 20, 2021As the nations death toll climbed above 700,000 in October, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, an adviser on the pandemic to President Biden, emphasized the need for the 70 million Americans who are eligible for a vaccine to get immunized during interviews on Sunday morning talk shows.Many of those deaths were unavoidable but many, many are avoidable, were avoidable and will in the future be avoidable, Dr. Fauci, who is also director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on CNNs State of the Union.Dr. Fauci was enthusiastic about the development of the new Merck anti-viral pill, describing it as extremely important. In announcing the results of its clinical trial last Friday, Merck said the pill was able to cut the risk of hospitalization and death from the virus by half.But he also warned that Americans should not wait to be vaccinated because they believe they can take the pill. While the new medicine may decrease a persons risk, the best way to be protected is avoiding infection, he said.Merck said it would seek emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for its drug, known as molnupiravir, as soon as possible. The pills could be available by late this year.Dr. Fauci pointed to the stark difference in how many people died during Mercks clinical trial for the treatment, with eight among the placebo group and none among those taking the drug. Thats very impressive, so we really look forward to the implementation of this and to its effect on people who are infected, he said.The federal government has placed advanced orders for 1.7 million doses of the new medication. But Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former F.D.A. commissioner under President Trump and a board member for Pfizer, said that amount was not enough on CBSs Face the Nation, covering only one months worth of infections in Southern states since the Delta variant emerged. He also contrasted that quantity with the national stockpile of medication to treat a flu pandemic, which he said numbers in the tens of millions.Earlier, Dr. Fauci dismissed the notion that federal officials had not procured enough of the medicine, saying they had placed a good bet on the treatment.We have options for millions more, he said on the program, predicting the company would ramp up production to meet demand in the United States and across the world.Dr. Fauci also expressed optimism that the country was now seeing a slow down in cases, signaling a potential respite from the pandemic. We certainly are turning a corner on this particular surge, he said during an interview on This Week on ABC News.But he also refused to predict whether people would be able to freely gather this coming Christmas, saying on CBS News that its just too soon to tell. | Health |
DealBook|Icahn Vows to Outbid Bridgestone for Pep Boyshttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/24/business/dealbook/icahn-vows-to-outbid-bridgestone-for-pep-boys.htmlDec. 23, 2015Carl C. Icahn plans to top any counteroffer from Bridgestone to acquire Pep Boys, up to $1 billion, although time is running out for the tire company.Mr. Icahn said that he would offer 10 cents per share more than any proposal by Bridgestone up to about $18.10 per share, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. Bridgestone has until Thursday night to submit a higher offer, the filing showed.On Friday, Mr. Icahn outdid Bridgestones latest offer for Pep Boys, formally known as Pep Boys - Manny, Moe & Jack. The billionaire investor offered to acquire the car-parts and servicing chain for $16.50 a share, or $919 million, on a fully diluted basis. That surpassed Bridgestones previous proposal to acquire Pep Boys for $15.50 a share in cash.Pep Boys board determined Mr. Icahns offer to be superior and intends to terminate its agreement with Bridgestone if the company cannot come up with a better bid.The market is anticipating an offer higher than $16.50 a share. Pep Boys stock gained 2 percent to $17.25 at 10 a.m. on Wednesday. Mr. Icahn holds an 11 percent stake in Pep Boys, according to data compiled by S&P Capital IQ, a provider of financial data. | Business |
On BaseballCredit...Barton Silverman/The New York TimesFeb. 12, 2014The greatest compliment we can give Derek Jeter, as he prepares to leave the grandest stage in baseball, is that he never let us down. He has made thousands of outs and hundreds of errors and finished most of his seasons without a championship. Yet he never disappointed us.This is no small feat for the modern athlete, in an age of endless traps and temptations. From cheating to preening to taunting even to defensible acts, like fleeing to a new team in free agency the hero, almost invariably, breaks our heart sometime. Not Jeter.He grew up beside a baseball diamond in Kalamazoo, Mich., dreaming of playing shortstop for the Yankees, and that is what he has done. He has never played another position, never been anything but No. 2 for the Yankees. But this season, he announced Wednesday, will be his last.The one thing I always said to myself was that when baseball started to feel more like a job, it would be time to move forward, Jeter said in a statement on Facebook, adding later: I could not be more sure. I know it in my heart. The 2014 season will be my last year playing professional baseball.When Jeter played his first game at the old Yankee Stadium, on June 2, 1995, the announced crowd was 16,959. By 2008, when he closed the ballpark with a speech to the fans, the average attendance topped 53,000. For the Yankees, Jeter was the right player at the right time, a model of stability and the embodiment of their ideals.Jeter has compiled 3,316 hits (10th on baseballs career list), winning five championships while making more than $250 million in salary. But his impact has always been greater than his numbers.When Jeter joined the organization, as a high schooler drafted sixth over all in 1992, the Yankees were enduring their fourth consecutive losing season, driven to disarray by the principal owner, George Steinbrenner, who was suspended at the time. Jeter would become a centerpiece of the Yankees rebuilding, and the team has had only winning records since, building a new stadium and launching a lucrative cable network in the process.Jeter has had plenty of help, from homegrown stars like Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada to pricey imports like Mark Teixeira and C. C. Sabathia. But Jeter, the captain, has always been out front. When injuries limited him to 17 games last season, the Yankees lost attendance and ratings and fell in the standings. Ive gone to Yankees games and Ive asked kids outside the park, Who are you going to go see? said Dick Groch, the scout who signed Jeter. Nine out of 10 kids say, Derek Jeter. What a marquee player.Groch, who now works for the Milwaukee Brewers, continued: Remember that word: marquee. Babe Ruth was marquee. The money Ruth brought to the Yankees was unbelievable, and Derek Jeters done the same thing. You could look at tons of statistics, but theyll never show you that.Jeter is perhaps the most secure, self-confident player in baseball, a sharp contrast to the disgraced Alex Rodriguez, whose season-long suspension means that he will never again be teammates with Jeter. Groch said he noticed these traits while scouting Jeter, who smiled under pressure and showed the leadership skills of a chief executive. His skills stood out, too, of course, and the inside-out swing that would rifle so many hits to right field intrigued Groch. Sometimes, if a hitter punches too many balls the opposite way, it means he cannot catch up to the fastball. Groch asked the young Jeter if he or the pitcher was dictating the action.Jeter replied that it was his choice. He was using his ability to wait a split-second longer so he could react to more pitches. And when he got a letter-high fastball over the middle, Groch said, Jeter could still pull it over the left-field wall, the way he would for a pivotal homer in the 2000 World Series against the Mets, and for his 3,000th hit in 2011.By then, Jeter was so accomplished that it was easy to forget his initial struggles, his 56 errors in Class A in 1993. His defense, especially his lack of range, would remain a flash point deep into his career, with many believing he was vastly overrated in the field. But he made himself reliable enough to stay at shortstop, and in 1994 he was the consensus minor league player of the year. He was on his way.Jeter was the American League rookie of the year in 1996, when the Yankees won the World Series, and the glare never bothered him. He remains a bachelor who dates starlets, but his rules of engagement with the news media have worked because of his unrelenting consistency. He never answers questions about his personal life ever and so is rarely even asked.No superstar in sports is more accessible than Jeter, who is available by his locker before and after almost every game, mainly to take pressure off teammates. Group interviews can play out like jousting matches, which Jeter always wins. He cannot be baited into saying something that will linger as a story. He does not raise his voice, rarely shows irritation and never goes off the record.Jeter is often called boring, but that is not quite right. His reverence for Yankees history, and his place in it, is endearing. He insists on using a recording of the late Bob Sheppard, the public-address announcer whose career began the same day as Mickey Mantles, before his home at-bats.At the old Stadium, Jeter dressed next to the empty locker of another captain, Thurman Munson, who was killed in a plane crash in 1979. When Phil Rizzuto, his long-ago predecessor at shortstop, died in 2007, Jeter revealed that Rizzutos autograph was the only one in his collection.Jeter asked for just one artifact from the original Stadium: the overhead sign from the dugout runway with Joe DiMaggios famous quotation, thanking the Lord for making him a Yankee. In his retirement statement on Wednesday, Jeter began by saying thank you.By announcing his intention, Jeter all but ensures a farewell tour with gifts at each opposing ballpark, as Mariano Rivera experienced last season. Ceremony does not seem to be Jeters style, but he said he wanted to soak in his final moments, and who would deny him the privilege?Last week, Groch sent an email to Jeters agent, Casey Close, a former minor leaguer he also signed years ago. Groch asked Close to give his regards to Jeter and his family, and added a plea about the captains exit.Dont let him go out not playing shortstop, Groch said he told Close. Dont let him go out playing left field or third base. Let him go out like Mo. Let him go out the way he deserves. | Sports |
Joy Villa The Trumps Loved My 'Pro-Life' Dress ... For the 2018 Grammys 1/29/2018 Donald Trump took a beating at the 2018 Grammy Awards -- but his family did find one silver lining on the show ... singer Joy Villa's pro-life dress! Joy -- who turned heads Sunday in her red carpet attire -- tells TMZ she spoke with Eric Trump's wife, Lara, Monday, saying she thought Joy's hand-painted "Choose Life" dress was stunning ... and left her proud of Joy's conservatism. This ain't Joy's first controversial outfit at the Grammys -- she showed up last year in a "Make America Great Again" gown in support of Trump, which also caused quite a stir. As for this year's dress, Joy tells us she doesn't see it as "anti-abortion." She says she simply supports life, and wants to expand the #MeToo and Time's Up conversation to start including other women's rights issues like this. She once gave up a baby for adoption. Aside from Joy, just about everyone else at the Grammys happily skewered the Prez, including Hillary Clinton's epic burn in a skit. CBS | Entertainment |
Credit...Stephen Maturen/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesJune 14, 2018WASHINGTON The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a Minnesota law that prohibits voters from wearing T-shirts, hats and buttons expressing political views at polling places.In a cautious 7-to-2 decision, the court acknowledged the value of decorum and solemn deliberation as voters prepare to cast their ballots. But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote that Minnesotas law was not capable of reasoned application.Minnesotas law, similar to ones in about nine other states, is quite broad. It says that a political badge, political button or other political insignia may not be worn at or about a polling place on primary or Election Day.As enforced by election officials, the law bans even general political messages on apparel, like support for gun rights or labor unions.The goal, state officials have said, is an orderly and controlled environment without confusion, interference or distraction.The case started when members of the Minnesota Voters Alliance, which says it works to ensure election integrity, turned up at Minnesota polling places wearing T-shirts bearing Tea Party logos and buttons saying Please I.D. Me.They were told to cover the messages and were allowed to vote even if they refused. But they risked prosecution for disobeying poll workers orders.The group and two individuals challenged the law on free speech grounds, and they lost in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, in St. Louis.Even if Tea Party apparel is not election-related, it is not unreasonable to prohibit it in a polling place, Judge Duane Benton wrote. In order to ensure a neutral, influence-free polling place, all political material is banned.Chief Justice Roberts said that went too far. States remain free to decide that some forms of advocacy should be excluded from the polling place, he wrote. He cited with seeming approval more focused laws in California and Texas aimed at classic electioneering.Casting a vote is a weighty civic act, akin to a jurys return of a verdict, or a representatives vote on a piece of legislation, the chief justice wrote. It is a time for choosing, not campaigning. The state may reasonably decide that the interior of the polling place should reflect that distinction.But Minnesota, Chief Justice Roberts wrote, had failed to articulate some sensible basis for distinguishing what may come in from what must stay out.There is no problem with banning items supporting or opposing candidates or ballot measures, he indicated. But Minnesota also barred materials designed to influence or impact voting, which officials interpreted to cover messages touching on any subject that had been addressed by candidates and their parties.A rule whose fair enforcement requires an election judge to maintain a mental index of the platforms and positions of every candidate and party on the ballot is not reasonable, Chief Justice Roberts wrote.The state also barred apparel and insignia that promoted groups with political views. Chief Justice Roberts said that could cover the American Civil Liberties Union, AARP, the World Wildlife Fund, Ben & Jerrys and the Boy Scouts.When the case was argued in February, a lawyer for the state was peppered with questions about what was and was not allowed. His answers, Chief Justice Roberts suggested, betrayed no consistent theme.The law would bar T-shirts saying All Lives Matter, promoting the National Rifle Association or displaying the text of the Second Amendment, said the lawyer, Daniel Rogan. A T-shirt bearing a rainbow flag would be permitted, he said, unless there was an issue on the ballot that related somehow to gay rights. And a T-shirt saying Parkland Strong, referring to the Florida school shooting, or displaying the text of the First Amendment would be allowed, Mr. Rogan said.All of this, Chief Justice Roberts wrote, meant that Minnesotas approach poses riddles that even the states top lawyers struggle to solve.States can give the voter the opportunity to exercise his civic duty in a setting removed from the clamor and din of electioneering, Chief Justice Roberts concluded. While that choice is generally worthy of our respect, Minnesota has not supported its good intentions with a law capable of reasoned application.In a dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Stephen G. Breyer, said the court should have asked the Minnesota Supreme Court for a definitive interpretation of the state law.In a 1992 decision, Burson v. Freeman, the Supreme Court upheld a Tennessee law that created a 100-foot buffer zone around polling places barring electioneering. But that law was aimed at traditional campaign signs and posters, not apparel bearing more general messages.Thursdays decision in Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky, No. 16-1435, said nothing that would undermine such buffer zones. | Politics |
Chris Pratt Takes On Randy Couture ... At Famous MMA Gym 1/29/2018 As if us average bros need more reasons to be jealous of Chris Pratt ... here he is lockin' up with UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture at Jay Glazer's MMA gym -- and holding his own! So, why didn't Couture ragdoll the "Guardians" star like an MMA wannabe? 1) Pratt was actually a stud wrestler back in the day, and 2) Pratt says Couture took it "very easy" on him. Fun fact: this was actually a reunion! Chris says Randy coached him at a college wrestling camp 21 years ago, and he still remembers it like it was yesterday. "He invited teenage me to come up and demonstrate the three throws wed learned that day ... it was such an honor." Guessing Randy feels the same way now. | Entertainment |
Science|Back on Earth, Shatner and Bezos have a Kirk-Spock moment.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/13/science/bezos-shatner-star-trek.htmlBack on Earth, Shatner and Bezos have a Kirk-Spock moment.Oct. 13, 2021, 1:44 p.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 1:44 p.m. ETVideotranscripttranscriptWilliam Shatner Is Brought to Tears Describing His Trip to SpaceThe actor who played Captain Kirk in Star Trek told Jeff Bezos his visit to the edge of space in the Blue Origin rocket was the most profound experience he could imagine.Just unbelievable, unbelievable. I mean, you know, the little things but to see the blue color whip by, and now youre staring into blackness, thats the thing. The covering of blue is this sheet, this blanket, this comforter, this comforter of blue that we have around, we think, Oh, its blue sky. And then suddenly, you shoot through it all of the sudden as though youre whipping a sheet off you when youre asleep. And youre looking into blackness, into black ugliness and you look down, theres the blue down there and the black up there. And its just there is Mother Earth, comfort. And there is is there, death? I dont know was that death, is that the way death is? Whoop, and its gone. Jesus. It was so moving to me. What you have given me is the most profound experience I can imagine. Im so filled with emotion about what just happened. I just its extraordinary, extraordinary. I hope I never recover from this. I hope that I can maintain what I feel now. I dont want to lose it. Its so so much larger than me and life. And this is now the commercial, everybody it would be so important for everybody to have that experience.The actor who played Captain Kirk in Star Trek told Jeff Bezos his visit to the edge of space in the Blue Origin rocket was the most profound experience he could imagine.CreditCredit...Blue Origin, via EPA, via ShutterstockA half-century ago, a television show told young people that space travel would be the coolest thing ever. Some of them were even inspired to work toward that goal. Science fiction met reality on Wednesday as one of those fans, now one of the richest people in the world, gave the shows leading actor a brief ride up into the ether.The mission went according to plan. The aftermath appeared unscripted, and all the better for it.William Shatner, eternally famous as Captain James T. Kirk on the original Star Trek, returned to Earth apparently moved by the experience beyond measure. His trip aboard Jeff Bezos rocket might have been conceived as a publicity stunt, but brushing the edge of the sky left the actor full of wonder mixed with unease:It was unbelievable To see the blue cover go whoop by. And now youre staring into blackness. Thats the thing. The covering of blue, this sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue that we have around us. We say, Oh thats blue sky. And then suddenly you shoot through it and all of a sudden, like you whip the sheet off you when youre asleep, youre looking into blackness.Mr. Shatner was talking to Mr. Bezos immediately after exiting the capsule with the three other passengers. The others greeted their family and friends. Champagne corks popped. There was lots of laughter, high-spirited relief. But Mr. Shatner, a hale 90 standing in the West Texas dust, talked about space as the final frontier:You look down, theres the blue down there, and the black up there. There is Mother and Earth and comfort and there is Is there death? I dont know. Was that death? Is that the way death is? Whoop and its gone. Jesus. It was so moving to me.Mr. Bezos listened, still as a statue. Maybe he was just giving Mr. Shatner some space, but it was a sharp contrast to his appearance after his own brief spaceflight in July when he flew the same spacecraft as Mr. Shatner. Then, he held forth from a stage, rousing condemnation from critics of the vast company he founded as he thanked Amazons employees and customers for making it possible for him to finance his private space venture.Or maybe Mr. Bezos was just acting naturally. His role model has always been the cool, passionless Mr. Spock rather than the emotional, impulsive Captain Kirk. Amazon, which prizes efficiency above all, was conceived and runs on this notion.When he played at Star Trek as a boy, Mr. Bezos has said, he would sometimes take the role of the ships computer. Amazons voice-activated speaker Alexa was designed as a household version of the Star Trek computer, which always had the answer to every question.The word death, repeatedly mentioned by Mr. Shatner in his post-flight monologue, is rarely thought of as a selling word for space tourism, which is after all what Blue Origin is promoting. But the actor did supply a positive endorsement.Everybody in the world needs to do this, he said. | science |
Credit...Andrew Quilty for The New York TimesMarch 10, 2017KABUL, Afghanistan Afghans who worked for the American military and government are being told that they cannot apply for special visas to the United States, even though Afghanistan is not among the countries listed in President Trumps new travel ban, according to advocates for Afghan refugees.As of Thursday, Afghans seeking to apply for what are known as Special Immigrant Visas were being told by the American Embassy in Kabul, the capital, that applications would no longer be accepted, according to Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire.Officials at the embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It was unclear if the visa suspension was related to the presidents new ban, which, in addition to denying visas to citizens of six predominantly Muslim countries, also orders that the number of refugees allowed into America be cut by more than half, to 50,000 this year, from 110,000 in 2016.Ms. Shaheen, along with Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, has been a strong advocate of the Special Immigrant Visa program, meant for Afghans who face the threat of reprisal for their work with Americans. Its apparent suspension could affect as many as 10,000 applicants. Allowing this program to lapse sends the message to our allies in Afghanistan that the United States has abandoned them, Ms. Shaheen said in a statement.Officials at the International Refugee Assistance Project at the Urban Justice Center in New York said they had learned that as of Thursday, Afghans were being told that applications were no longer being accepted, though the suspension had taken place on March 1. Our worst fears are proving true, said Betsy Fisher, the groups policy director.Mac McEachin, another official at the organization, said the decision could affect the 2,500 soldiers of the Armys 82nd Airborne Division who might be deployed to Syria. Now that the world has seen how we turn our backs on our Afghan allies, there is almost no chance that local allies in Syria will be inclined to work with us, he said.American military officials are also requesting an increase in troops deployed to Afghanistan.One of those affected by the shut-off of special visas is Mohammad Nasim Hashimyar, who worked for three years as an interpreter for American Special Forces in Oruzgan Province, and later for the American Embassy. He lives in hiding in Kabul as he waits for his visa interview, which now appears unlikely to happen.It will force me to go through an illegal way to Europe because my life is in danger in Kabul, he said. I always have a gun with me even though I dont have a license for it.Ms. Shaheen said she would press Congress to renew the visa program and provide more places for Afghan applicants.Congress recently reauthorized the Special Immigrant Visa program for four more years but allocated only 1,500 additional visas. Advocates estimate that up to 10,000 are needed. Mr. McCain and Ms. Shaheen tried unsuccessfully to get Congress to authorize 4,000 more such visas.It is unclear whether the reported suspension of new applications was related to the number of available visas or to the presidents order reducing refugee intake generally, or to a combination of the two factors.The presidents new travel ban, issued Monday, ordered a 90-day suspension of visas to citizens of six largely Muslim countries: Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Iran, Yemen and Libya. Unlike his earlier order, which was blocked by the courts, it did not include Iraq; there had been complaints that doing so would leave Iraqis who supported American forces vulnerable to reprisals. It also removed an exemption for religious minorities in the affected countries, a provision that had been widely seen as discriminating against Muslims.Afghanistan was not included in either of the presidents travel bans, but his decision to reduce the overall number of refugees accepted by the United States would affect Afghans as well. Afghans are the second-largest group of refugees worldwide, after Syrians. | World |
GOP Congress Members Caught in Train Wreck!!! 1/31/2018 House Speaker Paul Ryan and several other GOP Congressional leaders are caught in a train wreck -- and that's not a metaphor. An Amtrak train carrying Republican members of Congress to a retreat smashed into a garbage truck Wednesday morning in Virginia. The truck was obliterated, and trash is strewn around the scene. The train also suffered some damage, but all the Congressmen and women survived, but there may be some minor injuries. The truck driver was reportedly killed in the collision. Rep. Roger Marshall, from Kansas, is an OB/GYN and reportedly helped treat passengers on the train. Story developing ... | Entertainment |
Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesJune 2, 2018WASHINGTON President Trumps lawyers have for months quietly waged a campaign to keep the special counsel from trying to force him to answer questions in the investigation into whether he obstructed justice, asserting that he cannot be compelled to testify and arguing in a confidential letter that he could not possibly have committed obstruction because he has unfettered authority over all federal investigations.In a brash assertion of presidential power, the 20-page letter sent to the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and obtained by The New York Times contends that the president cannot illegally obstruct any aspect of the investigation into Russias election meddling because the Constitution empowers him to, if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon.[Read the Trump lawyers confidential memo to Mr. Mueller here.] Mr. Trumps lawyers fear that if he answers questions, either voluntarily or in front of a grand jury, he risks exposing himself to accusations of lying to investigators, a potential crime or impeachable offense.Mr. Trumps broad interpretation of executive authority is novel and is likely to be tested if a court battle ensues over whether he could be ordered to answer questions. It is unclear how that fight, should the case reach that point, would play out. A spokesman for Mr. Mueller declined to comment.We dont know what the law is on the intersection between the obstruction statutes and the president exercising his constitutional power to supervise an investigation in the Justice Department, said Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard Law School professor who oversaw the Justice Departments Office of Legal Counsel during the Bush administration. Its an open question.Hand-delivered to the special counsels office in January and written by two of the presidents lawyers at the time, John M. Dowd and Jay A. Sekulow, the letter offers a rare glimpse into one side of the high-stakes negotiations over a presidential interview.Though it is written as a defense of the president, the letter recalls the tangled drama of early 2017 as the new administration dealt with the Russia investigation. It also serves as a reminder that in weighing an obstruction case, Mr. Mueller is reviewing actions and conversations involving senior White House officials, including the president, the vice president and the White House counsel.The letter also lays out a series of claims that foreshadow a potential subpoena fight that could unfold in the months leading into Novembers midterm elections.We are reminded of our duty to protect the president and his office, the lawyers wrote, making their case that Mr. Mueller has the information he needs from tens of thousands of pages of documents they provided and testimony by other witnesses, obviating the necessity for a presidential interview.Mr. Mueller has told the presidents lawyers that he needs to talk to their client to determine whether he had criminal intent to obstruct the investigation into his associates possible links to Russias election interference. If Mr. Trump refuses to be questioned, Mr. Mueller will have to weigh their arguments while deciding whether to press ahead with a historic grand jury subpoena.Mr. Mueller had raised the prospect of subpoenaing Mr. Trump to Mr. Dowd in March. Emmet T. Flood, the White House lawyer for the special counsel investigation, is preparing for that possibility, according to the presidents lead lawyer in the case, Rudolph W. Giuliani.ImageCredit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesThe attempt to dissuade Mr. Mueller from seeking a grand jury subpoena is one of two fronts on which Mr. Trumps lawyers are fighting. In recent weeks, they have also begun a public-relations campaign to discredit the investigation and in part to pre-empt a potentially damaging special counsel report that could prompt impeachment proceedings.Mr. Trump complained on Twitter on Saturday before this article was published that the disclosure of the letter was a damaging leak to the news media and asked whether the expensive Witch Hunt Hoax would ever end.Mr. Trump and his lawyers have also attacked the credibility of a key witness in the inquiry, the fired F.B.I. director James B. Comey; complained about what they see as investigative failures; and contested the interpretation of significant facts.Mr. Giuliani said in an interview that Mr. Trump is telling the truth but that investigators have a false version of it, we believe, so youre trapped. And the stakes are too high to risk being interviewed under those circumstances, he added: That becomes not just a prosecutable offense, but an impeachable offense.Mr. Trumps defense is a wide-ranging interpretation of presidential power. In saying he has the authority to end a law enforcement inquiry or pardon people, his lawyers ambiguously left open the possibility that they were referring only to the investigation into his former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, which he is accused of pressuring the F.B.I. to drop or perhaps the one Mr. Mueller is pursuing into Mr. Trump himself as well.Mr. Dowd and Mr. Sekulow outlined 16 areas they said the special counsel was scrutinizing as part of the obstruction investigation, including the firings of Mr. Comey and of Mr. Flynn, and the presidents reaction to Attorney General Jeff Sessionss recusal from the Russia investigation.Over the past year, the presidents lawyers have mostly cooperated with the inquiry in an effort to end it more quickly. Mr. Trumps lawyers say he deserves credit for that willingness, citing his waiver of executive privilege to allow some of his advisers to speak with Mr. Mueller.We cannot emphasize enough that regardless of the fact that the executive privilege clearly applies to his senior staff, in the interest of complete transparency, the president has allowed in fact, has directed the voluntary production of clearly protected documents, his lawyers wrote.Presidents frequently assert executive privilege, their right to refuse demands for information about internal executive branch dealings, but its limits are murky and mostly untested.Mr. Trumps lawyers are gambling that Mr. Mueller may not want to risk an attempt to forge new legal ground by bringing a grand jury subpoena against a sitting president into a criminal proceeding.Ensuring that the office remains sacred and above the fray of shifting political winds and gamesmanship is of critical importance, they wrote.VideotranscripttranscriptHow Muellers Investigation Could EndThe special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, will likely reach one of two conclusions about the president: Either there is evidence that he broke the law, or there is not. Mike Schmidt, a New York Times reporter, explains the possible outcomes.For the past year, the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has been examining two chief questions: ties between Donald Trumps campaign and Russia, and whether Trump, as president, has tried to obstruct that investigation. I dont know if I can explain it as well as I did before. Like, the special the special counsel is this, you know Robert Mueller will likely reach one of two conclusions about the president. Either there is evidence he broke the law or not. If Mueller has evidence that the president broke the law, he has a series of decisions to make about how to move forward. The least aggressive of them would be to try and write a report that he would hope would end up in Congress. Mueller could take a more aggressive measure, which the special counsel did during Nixon, and make the president an unindicted co-conspirator in court documents. The most aggressive option would be for Mueller to try and indict the president. But there are many obstacles to that, particularly a longstanding Justice Department policy that says the president cannot be indicted. Mueller cannot make any of these decisions on his own. It all has to go through the gatekeeper, in this case, the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein. If Mueller tries to indict someone like the president, and the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, says no, it automatically triggers a report to Congress a way of sort of giving the process additional sunlight and oversight. Rosenstein would have to explain to Congress why he didnt want to go along with what Mueller wanted to do. Some experts believe that Mueller may try and indict Trump just to ensure that it triggers a report to Congress. If Republicans control the House, they are not likely to do anything with information from Mueller unless it is really damning. If Democrats win control of the House in the fall, regardless of what Mueller finds there will be immense political pressure on them to do something. And if they get a report from the Justice Department, they will likely, certainly, take impeachment seriously, if not begin an impeachment process against the president.The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, will likely reach one of two conclusions about the president: Either there is evidence that he broke the law, or there is not. Mike Schmidt, a New York Times reporter, explains the possible outcomes.They argued that the president holds a special position in the government and is busy running the country, making it difficult for him to prepare and sit for an interview. They said that because of those demands on Mr. Trumps time, the special counsels office should have to clear a higher bar to get him to talk. Mr. Mueller, the presidents attorneys argued, needs to prove that the president is the only person who can give him the information he seeks and that he has exhausted all other avenues for getting it.The presidents prime function as the chief executive ought not be hampered by requests for interview, they wrote. Having him testify demeans the office of the president before the world.They also contended that nothing Mr. Trump did violated obstruction-of-justice statutes, making both a technical parsing of what one such law covers and a broad constitutional argument that Congress cannot infringe on how he exercises his power to supervise the executive branch. Because of the authority the Constitution gives him, it is impossible for him to obstruct justice by shutting down a case or firing a subordinate, no matter his motivation, they said.Every action that the president took was taken with full constitutional authority pursuant to Article II of the United States Constitution, they wrote of the part of the Constitution that created the executive branch. As such, these actions cannot constitute obstruction, whether viewed separately or even as a totality.That constitutional claim raises novel issues, according to legal experts. Under the Constitution, the president wields broad authority to control the actions of the executive branch. But the Supreme Court has ruled that Congress can impose some restrictions on his exercise of that power, including by upholding statutes that limit his ability to fire certain officials. As a result, it is not clear whether statutes criminalizing obstruction of justice apply to the president and amount to another legal limit on how he may wield his powers.The letter does not stress legal opinions by the Justice Department in the Nixon and Clinton administrations that held that a sitting president cannot be indicted, in part because it would impede his ability to carry out his constitutional responsibilities. But in recent weeks, Mr. Giuliani has pointed to those memos as part of a broader argument that, by extension, Mr. Trump also cannot be subpoenaed.Subpoenas of the president are all but unheard-of. President Bill Clinton was ordered to testify before a grand jury in 1998 after requests for a voluntary appearance made by the independent counsel, Kenneth W. Starr, went nowhere.To avoid the indignity of being marched into the courthouse, Mr. Clinton had his lawyers negotiate a deal in which the president agreed to provide testimony as long as it was taken at the White House and limited to four hours. Mr. Starr then withdrew the subpoena, avoiding a definitive court fight.In making their arguments, Mr. Trumps lawyers also revealed new details about the investigation. They took on Mr. Comeys account of Mr. Trump asking him privately to end the investigation into Mr. Flynn. Investigators are examining that request as possible obstruction.But Mr. Trump could not have intentionally impeded the F.B.I.s investigation, the lawyers wrote, because he did not know Mr. Flynn was under investigation when he spoke to Mr. Comey. Mr. Flynn, they said, twice told senior White House officials in the days before he was fired in February 2017 that he was not under F.B.I. scrutiny.There could not possibly have been intent to obstruct an investigation that had been neither confirmed nor denied to White House counsel, the presidents lawyers wrote.ImageCredit...J. Scott Applewhite/Associated PressMoreover, F.B.I. investigations do not qualify as the sort of proceeding an obstruction-of-justice statute covers, they argued.Of course, the president of the United States is not above the law, but just as obvious and equally as true is the fact that the president should not be subjected to strained readings and forced applications of clearly irrelevant statutes, Mr. Dowd and Mr. Sekulow wrote.But the lawyers based those arguments on an outdated statute, without mentioning that Congress passed a broader law in 2002 that makes it a crime to obstruct proceedings that have not yet started.Samuel W. Buell, a Duke Law School professor and white-collar criminal law specialist who was a lead prosecutor for the Justice Departments Enron task force, said the real issue was whether Mr. Trump obstructed a potential grand jury investigation or trial which do count as proceedings even if the F.B.I. investigation had not yet developed into one of those. He called it inexplicable why the presidents legal team was making arguments that were focused on the wrong obstruction-of-justice statute.They went beyond asserting Mr. Trumps innocence, casting him as the hero of the Flynn episode and contending that he deserved credit for ordering his aides to investigate Mr. Flynn and ultimately firing him.Far, far, from obstructing justice, the only individual in the entire Flynn story that ensured swift justice was the president, they wrote. His actions speak louder than any words.The lawyers acknowledged that Mr. Trump dictated a statement to The Times about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between some of his top advisers and Russians who were said to have damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Though the statement is misleading in it, the presidents eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said he met with Russians primarily to discuss adoption issues the lawyers call it short but accurate.Mr. Mueller is investigating whether Mr. Trump, by dictating the comment, revealed that he was trying to cover up proof of the campaigns ties to Russia evidence that could go to whether he had the same intention when he took other actions.The presidents lawyers argued that the statement is a matter between the president and The Times and the presidents White House and legal advisers have said for the past year that misleading journalists is not a crime.Mr. Trumps lawyers also try to untangle another potential piece of evidence in the obstruction investigation: his assertion, during an interview with Lester Holt of NBC two days after Mr. Comey was fired, that he was thinking while he weighed the dismissal that this Russia thing had no validity. Mr. Muellers investigators view that statement as damning, according to people familiar with the investigation.But the lawyers say that news accounts seized on only part of his comments and that his full remarks show that the president was aware that firing Mr. Comey would lengthen the investigation and dismissed him anyway.The complete interview, the lawyers argued, makes clear he was willing, even expecting, to let the investigation take more time, though he thinks it is ridiculous, because he believes that the American people deserve to have a competent leader of the F.B.I. | Politics |
The social network has tried striking a more conciliatory tone with its advertisers, who object to its handling of hate speech.Credit...Win McNamee/Getty ImagesPublished June 30, 2020Updated Oct. 5, 2021Last Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebooks chief executive, attended a virtual meeting with some of the companys top advertising partners. The brands and agencies, which had started criticizing the social network for its willingness to keep hate speech unaltered and accessible on its site, were pressing for change.According to five people with knowledge of the discussion, Mr. Zuckerbergs message to advertisers was clear: We wont back down.But over the past week, Facebooks attitude has changed. Marketing giants like Unilever, Coca-Cola and Pfizer announced that they were pausing their Facebook advertising. That outcry has grown, hitting the companys wallet.To contain the damage, Facebook began holding daily calls and sending emails to advertisers to soothe them, advertising executives said. Nick Clegg, the companys communications chief, made a series of media appearances stressing that Facebook was doing its best to tamp down hate speech. On Monday, Facebook also agreed to an audit by the Media Rating Council over its approach to hate speech.The companys executives continued the campaign on Tuesday morning with another video meeting with advertisers, followed by separate sessions with ad holding companies. At the meeting, Facebooks marketing chief, Carolyn Everson, public policy director, Neil Potts, and vice president for integrity, Guy Rosen, took a more conciliatory tone, acknowledging clients concerns about ads appearing next to hate speech and misinformation, said four people with knowledge of the event.Yet even as Facebook has labored to stanch the ad exodus, it is having little effect. Executives at ad agencies said that more of their clients were weighing whether to join the boycott, which now numbers more than 300 advertisers and is expected to grow. Pressure on top advertisers is coming from politicians, supermodels, actors and even Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, they said. Internally, some Facebook employees said they were also using the boycott to push for change.Other companies are seeing this moment, and are stepping up proactively, said Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, citing recent efforts from Reddit, YouTube and Twitch taking down posts and content that promote hate speech across their sites. If they can do it, and all of Facebooks advertisers are asking them to do it, it doesnt seem that hard to do.The push from advertisers has led Facebooks business to a precarious point. While the social network has struggled with issues such as election interference and privacy in recent years, its juggernaut digital ads business has always powered forward. The Silicon Valley company has never faced a public backlash of this magnitude from its advertisers, whose spending accounts for more than 98 percent of its annual $70.7 billion in revenue.Their intentions are good, but their judgment is poor, David Jones, a top advertising executive, said of Facebook. Mr. Jones, who was a founding member of Facebooks client council, a group of ad executives who advise the company, said if the social network did not make further progress on hate speech, then theyre starting down a long slippery slope to being irrelevant.Facebook said in a statement that it had invested billions of dollars in technology and employees to sort through content, and that it had agreed to a civil rights audit. It also said it had banned 250 white supremacist organizations from its core Facebook site and its photo-sharing site, Instagram.The company said it had made investments in artificial intelligence that resulted in the removal of nearly 90 percent of hate speech before users report it, and recent surveys put Facebook ahead of competitors like Twitter and YouTube in assessing reports of hate speech. We know we have more work to do, a company spokeswoman said. Our principles have not changed, but our leaders are rightly spending time with clients and others to discuss the progress weve made on the key issues of concern.The ad boycott may ultimately deliver more of a hit to Facebooks reputation than to its bottom line. The top 100 advertisers on Facebook spent $4.2 billion on ads last year, or roughly 6 percent of the companys total ad revenue, according to data cited in an investor note from Stifel. More than 70 percent of Facebooks ad revenue comes from small businesses.Yet the big-name brands that have pulled back are recognizable and may create a trickle-down effect, analysts said. Current boycott participants spent well over half a billion dollars advertising on Facebook last year, according to estimates from Pathmatics, an advertising analytics platform. Some of that money might go to other sites like TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest and Amazon, or to publishers with stronger content controls, ad executives said.Theres a greater sensitivity to where brands are investing and what those platforms stand for than ever before, said Harry Kargman, the chief executive of the mobile advertising company Kargo Global. Theyre effectively voting with their pocketbooks.Advertisers began taking action against Facebooks handling of hate speech about two weeks ago while facing pressure from the Anti-Defamation League, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Color of Change and other civil rights groups. On June 19, the North Face and REI were among the first brands to join a boycott.High-profile allies quickly joined in. Roughly 10 days ago, representatives for Prince Harry and Meghan reached out to the head of the Anti-Defamation League to ask how they could support the movement, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. The couple called C.E.O.s at some of Facebooks biggest ad buyers and implored them to stop their ad purchases, they said.Axios previously reported the couples involvement. Representatives for the couple declined to comment.Skeptics of the boycott have suggested that the companies participating are using the effort to deflect attention from how their advertising budgets have been decimated by the coronavirus pandemic.And the companies that have backed away are not doing so uniformly. Companies like Best Buy and REI are planning to pause their paid advertising on Facebook only in July. Others, such as Verizon and HP, have said they will resume advertising on the site once Facebook offers better solutions for managing hate speech. Still others, like Diageo and Starbucks, are holding back their spending from all social media platforms.Yet the prospect of a boycott caused Facebook to bring out Mr. Zuckerberg last Tuesday to the virtual meeting with advertisers. There, Mr. Zuckerberg struck a defiant tone. He discussed the importance of freedom of speech and stressed his company would not bow to pressure on its revenue, said the people with knowledge of the meeting.In some recent calls with marketing executives, Facebook officials have tried to reframe the issue of hate speech as an industrywide problem, pointing to Twitter and YouTube too, said three marketers who have had talks with Facebook. The message, these people said, was simple: Dont boycott us unless youre willing to boycott everyone.Last week after talks with Facebook, Unilever said it would pause ad buying across all social media, including Twitter. The company, which is one of the largest advertisers in the world, said in a statement that continuing to advertise on these platforms at this time would not add value to people and society.A Facebook spokeswoman said calls with advertisers were a routine part of the companys relationship with its marketers.Inside Facebook, employees have used the outcry as evidence that the companys policies around hate speech need to change. They have posted links to stories that are critical of Facebooks policies for evidence, according to two employees who have seen the activity.At the meeting with advertisers on Tuesday morning, so many participants tried to join the video call with Facebook that the event started late, according to two people familiar with the event. The company then discussed technology used to detect hate speech and talked up its work with civil rights groups.It really seemed like they understood the magnitude of the problem, and that they genuinely want to fix it, said Barry Lowenthal, the chief executive of the Media Kitchen agency, who was on the call. They were trying really hard to be helpful.Some advertisers may still be unconvinced. Home Depot is watching this very closely, Sara Gorman, a spokeswoman for the chain, said in an email. And Procter & Gamble which spent over $90 million on Facebook last year, according to a Pathmatics estimate said it was conducting a comprehensive review of every media channel, network, platform and program on which we advertise. | Tech |
The chiefs of Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook faced withering questions from Democrats about anti-competitive practices and from Republicans about anti-conservative bias.Credit...Pool photo by Graeme JenningsPublished July 29, 2020Updated July 31, 2020WASHINGTON The chief executives of Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook, four tech giants worth nearly $5 trillion combined, faced withering questions from Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike on Wednesday for the tactics and market dominance that had made their enterprises successful.For more than five hours, the 15 members of an antitrust panel in the House lobbed questions and repeatedly interrupted and talked over Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Sundar Pichai of Google.It was the first congressional hearing for some time where Democrats and Republicans acted as if they had a common foe, though for different reasons. Democratic lawmakers criticized the tech companies for buying start-ups to stifle them and for unfairly using their data hoards to clone and kill off competitors, while Republicans questioned whether the platforms had muzzled conservative viewpoints and were unpatriotic.As gatekeepers to the digital economy, these platforms enjoy the power to pick winners and losers, shake down small businesses and enrich themselves while choking off competitors, said Representative David Cicilline, Democrat of Rhode Island and chairman of the House Judiciary Committees antitrust subcommittee. Our founders would not bow before a king. Nor should we bow before the emperors of the online economy.In response, Mr. Pichai, Mr. Zuckerberg, Mr. Cook and Mr. Bezos, who testified via videoconference because of the coronavirus pandemic, were forced to strike a more humble chord. They presented themselves as participants in enormously competitive and fast-changing digital marketplaces, and they evaded questions about the decisions that turned their companies into giants.We approach this process with respect and humility, but we make no concession on the facts, said Mr. Cook at the outset of his testimony.Not since Microsoft stood trial in the late 1990s for antitrust charges have tech chief executives been under such a microscope for the power of their businesses. With echoes of the trustbusting of U.S. Steel and Standard Oil more than a century ago and AT&T in 1984, the hearing underlined the governments recognition that this cohort of tech companies which wield immense control over commerce, communications and public discourse had become the new trusts of the internet age.President Trump also used the event to rail against tech power. In a post on Twitter before the hearing began, he said that he would issue executive orders to rein in the companies if Congress did not.From its conception, the House antitrust hearing was set to be a spectacle, lining up four of the worlds most powerful executives with two of them among the planets richest individuals to answer largely hostile questions together. While the joint appearance limited sustained questioning of any one executive, it created a side-by-side image that recalled the 1994 congressional hearing of top American tobacco executives, who said they did not believe that cigarettes were addictive.House lawmakers, who had opened an investigation into the tech companies in June 2019, made the most of it. Representative Jerry Nadler, Democrat of New York, confronted Mr. Zuckerberg with the C.E.O.s own emails, saying they showed a plot to take out a young competitor. Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, said Google was biased and asked Mr. Pichai whether the company would change its products to help elect Joseph R. Biden for president.In one of the sharpest exchanges, Representative Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat, confronted Mr. Bezos on accusations that an Amazon lawyer had lied to the committee about how the company develops its own products. She asked him to answer whether it misused data with a yes or no.I cant answer that question yes or no, said Mr. Bezos, appearing rattled.Yet while the hearing was ripe with theater, any impact will be limited by antitrust laws that were created a century ago and that are imperfect for corralling internet firms. Since the 1980s, enforcement officials have used the notion of consumer welfare as the predominant test for antitrust violations generally meaning that if prices are not going up, the markets are most likely competitive enough. The tech giants have generally not driven up prices of digital services or consumer goods; many do not charge at all for services like Google Maps or Instagram.While Democrats at the hearing indicated they were more inclined to change antitrust law, Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, Republican of Wisconsin, said he did not think the laws needed to change. Ultimately, Congress doesnt have the power to break up the companies.Still, the proceedings provided fuel to other investigations of the tech companies by the Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general. The Justice Department is expected to soon announce charges against Google accusing it of abusing its dominance in online advertising, people with knowledge of the investigation have said. The F.T.C. is preparing to question Mr. Zuckerberg under oath in its investigation of Facebooks grip over social networking and acquisitions of nascent rivals.This is a critical juncture in how the Washington policy clash with the titans of Silicon Valley unfolds, said Gene Kimmelman, a former Justice Department antitrust official and a special adviser to the consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge.Regulators around the world are also moving to limit the power of the tech giants. Europe has led the charge with antitrust investigations and Margrethe Vestager, the regions top trustbuster, recently vowed to take a harder line on the companies. On Wednesday, Turkey passed legislation giving its government sweeping new powers to regulate social media content.The hearing on Wednesday was a turnabout from just a few years ago, when Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple were emblems of national pride for their innovation and growth. But the expanding reach of the four which are involved in everything from smartphones to e-commerce to digital payments and their stumbles in misinformation, privacy, election interference and labor issues have increasingly raised hackles.Even so, the companies have continued growing as more people live their lives online, with all of them expected to post solid financial performances when they report quarterly earnings on Thursday.The hearing was made more bizarre by Mr. Bezos, Mr. Cook, Mr. Pichai and Mr. Zuckerberg dialing in remotely using Ciscos Webex videoconferencing service. Lawmakers who mostly appeared in person wearing masks in a House hearing room faced empty chairs and a jumbo screen with the faces of the executives, who looked soberly into their cameras.Lawmakers nonetheless drilled down on key moments when the companies had gained power or allegedly squeezed consumers, competitors and small businesses. They directed most of their questions to Mr. Zuckerberg and Mr. Pichai, then to Mr. Bezos, according to a tally by The New York Times. Mr. Cook was asked the fewest questions.The tone of the hearing was set with Mr. Cicillines very first question, directed at Mr. Pichai. Why does Google steal content from honest businesses? Mr. Cicilline asked. Mr. Pichai replied: Mr. Chairman, with respect, I disagree with that characterization.Mr. Pichai was repeatedly asked about Googles dominance in search and how the company was potentially trying to keep users within a walled garden. He said Google had many competitors for specific categories of search, such as shopping.Mr. Zuckerberg was asked about Facebook emails where executives discussed the companys 2012 acquisition of Instagram as a possible strategy to take out a nascent competitor. Mr. Zuckerberg said that, in fact, Instagrams success had never been guaranteed and was the result of Facebooks investment in the product.When lawmakers asked Mr. Bezos if Amazon had bullied small merchants, he said that it was not how we operate the business before being confronted by an audio recording of a bookseller begging him directly for relief.In response to questions about whether Apple favored some app developers over others, Mr. Cook said there were open and transparent rules that applied evenly to everyone.David Heinemeier Hansson, the co-founder of Basecamp, a project-management company that has battled with both Google and Apple over their market power, said the hearing would be irrelevant if the government did not act to rein in the tech giants.What we ultimately need is relief. We dont just need a historic moment. We need this to lead to legislation and regulation and enforcement, he said.But, Mr. Heinemeier Hansson added, thankfully Ive never been more optimistic for that than I am right now.Listen to The Daily: The Big Tech HearingA grilling on the power of digital giants in the internet age.transcripttranscriptListen to The Daily: The Big Tech HearingHosted by Michael Barbaro; produced by Eric Krupke and Robert Jimison; with help from Annie Brown; and edited by Lisa Tobin and Dave ShawA grilling on the power of digital giants in the internet age.michael barbaroFrom The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.[music]Today: The C.E.O.s of the nations most influential technology companies Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook are brought before Congress to answer a question. Are they the too powerful and too dominant monopolies of the internet age? My colleague, Cecilia Kang, was in the room.Its Thursday, July 30.Cecilia, we are talking just ahead of the start of what is probably the most anticipated hearing in the history of the tech industry. So, just to begin, why is this hearing happening at all?cecilia kangThis hearing is happening because there is a recognition across government that these four very powerful and very important companies to the economy have become so dominant that they are harming consumers and harming competition.So Congress has summoned the C.E.O.s of the corporations Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Sundar Pichai of Google to ask them and interrogate them on their business practices, and find out if these internet giants that have become, in many ways, the new trusts of our economy, if they are harming consumers and competition.michael barbaroSo how exactly did we get to this point where these four executives are being summoned before Congress and being forced to confront that question?cecilia kangI think you can start with the 2016 presidential election. That really was a wake up call in Washington and across the world, really, about the power of these social media platforms to be used for harm, not just for entertainment and good. The presidential election of 2020 in the United States then really picked up on this feeling of concern.archived recording (elizabeth warren)Im deeply concerned right now that the space around companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google, is now referred to by venture capitalists as the kill zone.cecilia kangAnd we saw for the first time a political candidate, Elizabeth Warren, announced her promise to break up big tech.archived recording (elizabeth warren)Break those things apart and we will have a much more competitive robust market in America. Thats how capitalism should work.cecilia kangThis was the first time that even the real term big tech became sort of part of our lexicon.michael barbaroRight, and almost like a kind of epithet.cecilia kangAbsolutely.archived recordingYou have criticized a lot of big banks. Today, youre talking about breaking up big tech. Why?archived recording (elizabeth warren)So heres the deal. We need real competition in this field. And theres a problem.cecilia kangAnd there was a domino effect after that.archived recording (donald trump)So I think that Google and Twitter and Facebook cecilia kangDonald Trump archived recording (donald trump) theyre really treading on very, very troubled territory. And they have to be careful. Its not fair to large portions of the population.archived recording (hillary clinton)Im also really disappointed in a lot of the tech companies.cecilia kang Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders archived recording (bernie sanders)I think we need vigorous antitrust legislation in this country.cecilia kang all articulated similar concerns about big tech.archived recording (bernie sanders)They have incredible power over the economy, over the political life of this country in a very dangerous sense.cecilia kangSoon after, the ground moved underneath the technology companies in Washington. In the span of one week in June 2019, the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys generals all announced that they had opened investigations into the biggest technology companies. It was unprecedented. These companies have not been investigated, except for Google, on antitrust grounds before in the United States. And beyond that, it was a real recognition to put these four companies into a cohort.michael barbaroI wonder if you can briefly walk us through how each of these companies behavior has gotten them to this point, into this hearing room. Because these four companies are all big and theyre all tech, but theyre actually all pretty different, right? So what exactly has each done that people during this hearing are going to be confronting them about?cecilia kangSo, in the case of Amazon, the accusation is that it is both a retailer and it is a platform for third-party sellers in other words, another small business that might sell, lets say, a face mask or tissue paper that will sell their goods on Amazon. And the accusation is that Amazon abuses its position and its clout to make sure that their own products will always perform better than these third parties. And they also use the data and the intelligence they have to suppress and to charge these third-party sellers more.In the case of Apple, the accusation is that it unfairly uses its clout over the App Store. The App Store is huge. It has more than a million apps on it. And it uses its power over the platform to block rivals and to force the apps that are on the App Store to pay high commissions.In the case of Facebook, the accusation is that it is a monopoly in social networking and that it has acquired rivals like Instagram and WhatsApp to maintain its monopoly. And in the process, really killed off competition on the internet.In the case of Google, the accusation is that it uses its dominant position in search and online advertising, and in the Android smartphone market, to crush rivals and to continue to maintain its dominance in all of those marketplaces.michael barbaroSo the common theme here is size, dominance and basically, monopolistic conduct.cecilia kangYeah, and I would say that they are different companies, and they do have different business models. But the one thing I would say they have in common is that they are gatekeepers. They are actually the chokepoints on the internet, because they control commerce, and they control communications, and they control the discovery of information on the internet. These are sort of unprecedented in their scope. And theyre global. Everyone around the world uses them.michael barbaroSo, listening to you talk about this hearing the stakes of it, the questions around influence and conduct I am inevitably reminded of archived recordingId like to ask our guests to please take your seats.michael barbaro what was probably the most famous congressional hearing of my lifetime, which was the tobacco industry hearings of 1994.archived recordingFor the first time ever, the chief executive officers of our nations tobacco companies are testifying together before the United States Congress.michael barbaroAnd of course, tobacco, smoking, health are different than technology. But it was a moment when the top executives of billion dollar companies, and very powerful companies in the economy archived recordingThe truth is that cigarettes are the single most dangerous consumer product ever sold.michael barbaro were summoned before Congress and really held to account in a highly public way.cecilia kangI similarly see the comparison to the tobacco hearings. I mean, this is the moment when you have the heads, the captains of the biggest companies in technology, just like we saw the heads, the captains of the biggest companies of the tobacco industry, have to come before Congress archived recordingIf you raise your right hand.cecilia kang stand up archived recordingDo you swear cecilia kang raise their right hand, swear in archived recording the whole truth and nothing but the truth?cecilia kang and really defend themselves as companies that are potentially harmful to society.michael barbaroHm.archived recording (congressman)First, Id like to just go down the row. Yes or no, do you believe nicotine is not addictive?archived recording (executive 1)I believe nicotine is not addictive, yes.archived recording (congressman)Mr. Johnston.archived recording (executive 2)Uh, Congressman, cigarettes and nicotine clearly do not meet the classic definitions of addiction. There is no intoxication.archived recording (congressman)Well take that as a no, and again cecilia kangThe moment of reckoning is similar for the tech industry in the way that that was a moment of reckoning for the tobacco industry.michael barbaroAnd of course, in that case, those tobacco hearings, they were the beginning of very serious changes in how the United States regulated tobacco companies. There were big reforms. There were big fines. It was a turning point. And if this hearing ends up feeling like a turning point for the technology industry, I wonder what the basis for whatever regulation flows from this would be.cecilia kangThe hearing is going to be a real test of whether antitrust laws and competition laws that were first created in 1890 can actually apply to internet companies, where the companies of Silicon Valley are just so different than rail, sugar, steel the trusts that, at that time, were the inspiration for trust busters like Theodore Roosevelt and others that were trying to contain the power of the big industrialists at that time. So a lot of the conventional tests that have been used on whether a company has violated antitrust laws may not apply.And one of the biggest tests is this test known as the consumer welfare test. This is a standard thats been used for about 40 years now and very much permeates antitrust thinking in this country. And that question is, are consumers harmed? Its really hard to prove harm with a company like Google or Facebook, when they can say, well, at the end of the day, our products are free. And at the end of the day, if you dont like us, were one click away from an alternative.michael barbaroMm. Well, this is going to be an interesting hearing.cecilia kangIt certainly will.[music]michael barbaroWell be right back.cecilia kangHi, this is Cecilia Kang. It is noon. I am in the House Judiciary Committees hearing room in the Rayburn Building. Right now, we have some lawmakers, and many of their aides are shuffling in, all with their face masks on. And there is, in the middle of the room, which would normally be about five rows of chairs very tightly packed together, theyre all spread apart, about six feet each. Its an odd scene.Theres a lot of cleansing of desks and microphones. We have right now a cleanup crew coming in with their gloves and face masks, cleaning off the microphones with some alcohol, and everybody being handed Purell and hand wipes. So thats the scene a few minutes before we begin.archived recordingThe subcommittee will come to order.michael barbaroSo Cecilia, tell us how this hearing starts on Wednesday.cecilia kangSo the hearing started just a little bit late, about one hour late. And the lawmakers, 15 of them, looked towards the back of the room at a big jumbotron type screen from their dais. And they saw the faces of the C.E.O.s streamed from the homes and offices of Silicon Valley and presumably Seattle with Jeff Bezos. And archived recordingWill you please unmute your microphones and raise your right hands? Do you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury that the testimony you ought to give is true and correct to the best of your knowledge?cecilia kang after Chairman Cicilline gavels in the hearing, he begins to ask the C.E.O.s to introduce themselves.michael barbaroAnd Cecilia, I found these introductions, these five-minute kind of testimonials, surprisingly personal.cecilia kangI think the C.E.O.s really wanted to accomplish a lot in these opening remarks.archived recording (jeff bezos)Thank you, Chairman Cicilline, Ranking Member Sensenbrenner, and members of the subcommittee. I was born into great wealth, not monetary wealth, but it is said the wealth of a loving family.cecilia kangYou heard Jeff Bezos and Sundar Pichai in particular really emphasize their humble roots.archived recording (jeff bezos)My mom, Jackie, had me when she was a 17-year-old high school student in Albuquerque. Being pregnant in high school was not popular.archived recording (sundar pichai)I didnt have much access to a computer growing up in India. So you can imagine my amazement when I arrived in the U.S. for graduate school and saw an entire lab of computers to use whenever I wanted.cecilia kangThey are known as the richest individuals in the world, and thats certainly the case with Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. And I think they wanted to be more relatable. Each of these companies wanted to start off, right off the bat, by explaining how they were scrappy for so long, and they continue to have that scrappy spirit. And then, in some cases, they arent monopolies.archived recording (mark zuckerburg)Many of our competitors have hundreds of millions or billions of users. Some are upstarts, but others are gatekeepers with the power to decide if we can even release our apps in their app stores to compete with them.cecilia kangAnd that, in fact, theres competition all over the world.archived recording (mark zuckerburg)And history shows that if we dont keep innovating, someone will replace every company here today. And that change can often happen faster than you expect.cecilia kangSo they wanted to set a line early on to just dispel the notion that there is a big tech kind of threat right now in our economy, and that they, as individual companies, are part of a very vibrant, competitive marketplace thats changing very quickly.michael barbaroSo then we get to the questions from lawmakers to these four C.E.O.s. And what do you think characterize those questions overall?cecilia kangWell, it was fascinating, Michael. The Democrats and Republicans were very much split in their approaches.archived recording (david cicilline)So my first question, Mr. Pichai, is why does Google steal content from honest businesses?cecilia kangRight off the bat, the Democrats launched into very specific questions about antitrust, and the antitrust cases against each of these companies.archived recording (sundar pichai)Mr. Chairman, with respect, I disagree with that characterization.cecilia kangThey really used this opportunity to show off the most damning evidence that they had collected over 13 months, the hundreds of hours of interviews that theyve held with employees and rivals.archived recording (james sensenbrenner)Conservatives are consumers, too.cecilia kangThe Republicans were very coordinated as well on one particular message.archived recording (james sensenbrenner)Censorship of conservative viewpoints cecilia kangThey believe that tech companies represented are so powerful that theyre censoring public discourse. Theyre censoring speech.archived recording (james sensenbrenner)You know, Im concerned that the people who manage the net and the four of you manage a big part of the net and are ending up using this as a political screen.michael barbaroI was wondering throughout that line of questioning, Cecilia, is there a case that the Republicans focusing on this idea of conservative bias kind of is related to anti-trust that ultimately, these companies have a monopoly on the market of ideas? Or, is this really just Republicans using this opportunity, this face time with these executives, to focus on political grievances, and kind of ignoring the intention of this hearing?cecilia kangI do think that theres a sincere belief that antitrust is related to their concerns about censorship. Because they believe that the companies have become so powerful, the social media companies, and that they have, right now, the biggest marketplace of ideas and the biggest exchanges of information. And so they see the problem of censorship as a symptom of companies that are too big and powerful.michael barbaroMm-hmm, thats interesting. But we didnt really see much Republican focus on the more traditional idea of antitrust, meaning a business has gotten so big that its hurting kind of all consumers, and its anti-competitive to other businesses. Is that an indication that the Republicans are less concerned about big tech as an economic threat than Democrats are?cecilia kangYeah, I was surprised actually by how little the Republican side went into the specific debates on antitrust around these companies. And you did hear, for example, James Sensenbrenner, who is the ranking member of the antitrust subcommittee, say that archived recording (james sensenbrenner)I think the laws good.cecilia kang actually, right now, the market should work itself out.archived recording (james sensenbrenner)And we dont need to throw it all in the wastebasket.cecilia kangAnd that things are OK right now. The laws do not need to change.archived recording (james sensenbrenner)Let me ask Mr. Bezos. You know, say you are required to spin stuff off so you might have no more of a one-stop shop. How are the consumers helped by that?cecilia kangAnd said that this test the consumer welfare standard, this test that whether prices go up and if there are fewer options for consumers that should remain the big test for even big tech and these tech companies.archived recording (jeff bezos)Sir, thank you. They would not be.archived recording (james sensenbrenner)Right.archived recording (jeff bezos)Very clear.michael barbaroRight, he said the laws dont need to change archived recording (james sensenbrenner) of enforcement of those anti-trust laws michael barbaro but that enforcement does.cecilia kangIndeed. He said that enforcement is appropriate. The laws just simply dont need to change. And also, we should be careful, he said. In his words, he said, being big archived recording (james sensenbrenner)Being big is not inherently bad.cecilia kang doesnt inherently mean that youre bad.michael barbaroOK, so lets talk about the most memorable exchanges involving each company when the focus was on the more traditional aspects of antitrust and the evidence that had been dug up in the course of this investigation. Did they focus these lines of questioning on what you had predicted? For example, Facebook, you had said, was going to be asked about its tendency to buy up competitors. Is that what happened?cecilia kangI definitely expected the issue of buying up competitors to come up. What I did not expect is the level of specificity that was included in the line of questioning.archived recording (david cicilline)And thank you, John. I now recognize the distinguished chair of the full Judiciary Committee, Mr. Nadler from New York.cecilia kangI was really surprised, for example, that Jerry Nadler archived recording (jerry nadler)Mr. Zuckerberg, I want to thank you for providing this information during our investigation.cecilia kang brought up and read directly from emails from the top executives at Facebook during the time when they wanted to purchase Instagram.archived recording (jerry nadler)However, the documents you provided tell a very disturbing story.cecilia kangAnd quoted from these emails the intent to, for example, neutralize competitors archived recording (jerry nadler)You have written that Facebook can likely always just buy any competitive startups.cecilia kang and the concern articulated in these emails archived recording (jerry nadler)When Facebook contemplated acquiring Instagram, a competitive startup, you told your C.F.O. that the nascent Instagram could be very disruptive to us. And in the weeks leading up to the deal cecilia kang that Instagram was going to be a big threat.archived recording (jerry nadler) saying that, quote, Instagram can meaningfully hurt us without becoming a huge business.cecilia kangAnd Mark Zuckerberg responded by saying archived recording (mark zuckerberg)Yes, Ive been clear that Instagram was a competitor.cecilia kang well, yes, Instagram is a competitor. And we clearly thought theyre our competitor. And by the way archived recording (mark zuckerberg)I think the F.T.C. had all of these documents and reviewed this and unanimously voted at the time not to challenge the acquisition.cecilia kang the F.T.C. in 2011 approved this merger. So lets be clear that this has been vetted by the federal government. He also said that if not for Facebook and the resources that Facebook had, Instagram perhaps would not be the company it is today, the app that it is today, which is a wildly popular global app. And Jerry Nadler responded to that archived recording (jerry nadler)Mr. Zuckerberg, youre making my point.cecilia kang I think youre proving my point. Hes saying, you do take nascent competitors, and you gobble them up. And then you turn them into important parts of the Facebook ecosystem. But those are really interesting exchanges, in particular because they were so specific, and they were taking the words of the executives in these emails and in these documents straight back to the executives, and asking them directly to respond and defend themselves. And that was something that these executives arent used to having to do, and certainly not in front of the public.michael barbaroOK, lets move on to Google. You had predicted that Google would be asked about the downside of its dominance in search. Is that what happened?cecilia kangYes, David Cicilline asked Sundar Pichai about his search practices. He said archived recording (david cicilline)We heard throughout this investigation that Google has stolen content to build your own business.cecilia kang you steal content. You surface search results that arent necessarily the best search results, but that are the best search results for you and your services.archived recording (david cicilline)These are consistent reports. And so, your testimony that that doesnt happen is really inconsistent with what weve learned during the course of the investigation.cecilia kangAnd you steal content from companies specifically like Yelp, which is a restaurant review site. And you use that content to help lift and benefit other Google services. David Cicillines accusation was that Google has a walled garden of all kinds of services, and they just want users to be on their services as much as possible. And as a consequence of that, any rival is either being used or being blocked entirely from this important gateway, which is this Google search engine.michael barbaroAnd I noticed that when the chairman tried to press the C.E.O. of Google on, for example, this allegation of stealing content from Yelp archived recording (david cicilline)Mr. Pichai, isnt that anti-competitive?michael barbaro the C.E.O. of Google did not respond.cecilia kangSundar Pichai, throughout his whole testimony, was very reserved.archived recording (sundar pichai)Congressman, you know, when I run the company, Im really focused on giving users what they want. We conduct ourselves to the highest standard.cecilia kangAnd often, he did not reply to specific accusations. And that was the case this time as well.archived recording (sundar pichai)Happy to engage and understand the specifics and answer your questions further.cecilia kangHe was deflecting.michael barbaroAnd on Amazon, Cecilia, you had said that Jeff Bezos would be challenged about the way that company treats third party vendors. How did that play out?cecilia kangSeveral lawmakers questioned Jeff Bezos about its treatment of third party vendors.archived recording (pramila jayapal)Does Amazon ever access and use third-party seller data when making business decisions? And just a yes or no will suffice, sir.archived recording (jeff bezos)I cant answer that question yes or no.cecilia kangRepresentative Lucy McBath archived recording (lucy mcbath)And weve interviewed many small businesses, and they use the words like bullying, fear, and panic to describe their relationship with Amazon.cecilia kang aired the recording from one of her constituents in her district who was a bookseller on Amazon.archived recording (bookseller)And as we grew, we were shrinking Amazons market share in the textbooks category.cecilia kangAnd this bookseller was delisted from the marketplace.archived recording (bookseller)So now in retaliation, Amazon started restricting us from selling.cecilia kangAnd in this recording, we heard the bookseller talk about how being delisted essentially crippled her business entirely.archived recording (bookseller)We havent sold a single book from the past 10 months. We were never given a reason. Amazon didnt even provide us with a notice as to why we were being restricted. There was no warning. There was no plan.michael barbaroWhat did that anecdote, that audiotape, illustrate about Amazon and this question of antitrust?cecilia kangI think it demonstrated that Amazon is so big.archived recording (lucy mcbath)Do you think this is an acceptable way to treat someone that you described as both a partner and a customer?cecilia kangAnd it spoke to the fact that Amazon, in a way, has become its own economy.archived recording (jeff bezos)No, congresswoman, and I appreciate you showing me that anecdote.cecilia kangYou could say the same thing with Apple, too, and its App Store. There are so many other companies that depend on these economies and platforms, if you will, for their livelihoods. And in a way, they become their own subeconomies. All four of them, actually.michael barbaroMm-hmm. You just mentioned Apple. And it was your prediction that this hearing would be about the App Store and not much else. Was that true?cecilia kangThat was the case. With Apple, Tim Cook was asked about Apples control over its App Store. And Representative Hank Johnson, a Democrat from Georgia, asked Tim Cook archived recording (hank johnson)Mr. Cook, does Apple not treat all app developers equally?cecilia kang if he treated all apps fairly. He asked, why is it that developers have to get permission, and why is it that you charge developers 30 percent commission on average for simply operating on iPhones?archived recording (tim cook)If you look back at history archived recording (hank johnson)Whats to stop Apple from increasing its commission to 50 percent?archived recording (tim cook)Sir, we have never increased commissions in the store since the first day it operated in 2008.archived recording (hank johnson)Theres nothing to stop you from doing so, is there?cecilia kangWhats to stop you from raising that commission price? The line of questioning really was about how Apple maintains its monopoly over that App Store and makes sure that it stays ahead of rivals by that dominant gateway position that they have as the controller of App Store.archived recording (tim cook)So we had fierce competition at the developer side and the customer side, which is essentially its so competitive, I would describe it as a street fight for market share in the smartphone business.cecilia kangAnd Tim Cook really didnt have a great answer.archived recording (david cicilline)As a great American Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis once said, We must make our choice. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cant have both. This concludes todays hearing. Without objection, this hearing is adjourned.archived recording[GAVEL]michael barbaroSo lets talk about how this all went. This was supposed to be big techs big tobacco moment, as you said. But Democrats and Republicans were up to two very different things in this hearing. And Im mindful that lawmakers have been ridiculed in the past for their kind of shallow understanding of technology in hearings like this. And this is for tech companies that are distinctly difficult to understand because of their vastness, pinning down their inner workings. And so, Im wondering if you think that this did feel like a big tobacco moment. Did this hearing accomplish what lawmakers had intended?cecilia kangThis hearing felt like big techs big tobacco moment in that, for the first time, the four C.E.O.s of the four biggest technology companies had to defend themselves from accusations that were pretty tough, that presented these companies in a pretty dark and negative light as brutal, dominant enterprises that are willing to squash competition and harm consumers along the way to maintain their dominance. In that way, the hearing presented them through a lens that the companies had not before been viewed through by consumers or the public. The hearing really presented the companies as something different than just tech startups. They presented them as big enterprises, very similar to the trusts of the late 1800s and the early 1900s.michael barbaroRight.cecilia kangAt that time, the same sort of debates were swirling around, whether it was good for U.S. steel or for standard oil to be such sprawling enterprises, and to be such big actors and have so much influence.michael barbaroSo where does this leave us now? I mean, this combination of a 13-month investigation, this spectacle of this hearing, what happens next?cecilia kangSo thats the big question, Michael. I think that what you saw was agreement among the Republicans and Democrats that they were angry at these technology companies, and they had a lot of concerns. But where youre going to see disagreement is what comes next in terms of legislative change, what comes next also in terms of recommendations to enforcement agencies that are actually investigating these companies at this time. So theres going to be a lot of disagreement as to what the path forward is going ahead.What does change is that these companies now really cant shake this image that they have an antitrust problem that all of them are, in some way, dominant and have abused their monopoly power to harm competition and potentially to harm consumers as well. And thats not the kind of tag that any of these companies want attached to them.[music]michael barbaroIn other words, once you have been tagged as a trust and a monopoly, its probably just a question of what the regulatory answer to that is.cecilia kangYeah, I think its just a question of time.[music]michael barbaroThank you, Cecilia.cecilia kangThank you.michael barbaroWell be right back.Heres what else you need to know today. The Times reports that more than 150,000 people have died from the coronavirus in the U.S., a new milestone in the pandemic. The death rate, which had briefly fallen over the summer, is now rising in 23 different states, especially in Arizona, South Carolina and Mississippi. On average, the virus has killed 1,000 people a day over the past week alone.And the governor of Oregon, Kate Brown, said that federal officers would begin to withdraw from the city of Portland today. Under an agreement between the governor and the Trump administration, Oregon state police will provide security for the exterior of the citys federal courthouse, replacing the federal officers, who had repeatedly clashed with and tear gassed protesters there.archived recording (donald trump)You hear all sorts of reports about us leaving. Were not leaving until they have secured their city. We told the governor, we told the mayor, secure your city.michael barbaroEven as the negotiations to leave were underway, President Trump threatened that federal agents would remain in Portland or return there.archived recording (donald trump)If they dont secure their city soon, we have no choice. Were going to have to go in and clean it out. Well do it very easily. Were all prepared to do it. So in Portland, they either clean out their city and do the job [music]michael barbaroThats it for The Daily. Im Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.Reporting was contributed by Jack Nicas, Mike Isaac, Daisuke Wakabayashi, Karen Weise and Kellen Browning. | Tech |
Brandon Jennings Watch Out, NBA ... I'm Coming Back!! 1/26/2018 TMZSports.com If any NBA team's looking for a point guard, Brandon Jennings says SIGN ME UP -- 'cause dude's back from China and ready to ball out! We got Brandon out at South Beverly Grill ... and he told us he's ready for another shot with the big boys after taking his talents to the CBA. FYI, Jennings has bounced around the last few seasons with the Wizards, Knicks and Magic ... but he's still just 28 and says he's still got A LOT of years left in him. We also asked BJ if he was surprised by LeBron picking Kyrie Irving for his All-Star squad ... and he gave us a pretty surprising take on their relationship. | Entertainment |
Apple said it had made major concessions, but a closer examination suggests that the tech giant and the app makers lawyers were big winners.Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York TimesPublished Aug. 27, 2021Updated Oct. 8, 2021Apple said Thursday that it had reached a legal settlement with app developers who accused it of abusing its control of the mobile-app market.The settlement of the lawsuit was complex, and various people in the tech industry had widely different reactions to it. Apple and the people who sued it framed the deal as a major concession from Apple and a victory for developers. Some of Apples critics, including companies that pay it millions of dollars in app fees, called it a sham that did little to change Apples control over apps.Here is an explanation of the settlement and what it means.First of all, what is the controversy all about?Courts, regulators, lawmakers and developers have been scrutinizing Apples practice of collecting a commission of up to 30 percent on the sales of other companies in its App Store, a business that generates, according to some estimates, nearly $20 billion a year for Apple.Many companies that reach their customers through apps dont want to pay Apple a hefty cut, and they are increasingly fighting to change the rules. Apple argues that its commission rewards it for creating the economic miracle of the App Store, and it is fighting to keep the status quo.Billions of dollars are at stake in one of the most consequential fights over the power of Big Tech.So what did Apple give up in the settlement?Not much. It agreed to keep its commission rates flat for three years and to continue to base search results in its App Store on objective characteristics like downloads and user ratings, also for three years.At a granular level, it said, it will let developers sell their apps at 500 different price points, up from 100. (For instance, now an app could charge $32.99 instead of $29.99 for a subscription.)And it agreed to create a $100 million fund for small app developers. (More on this later.)But what is receiving the most attention is a clarification in Apples rules: Companies can now send an email to customers telling them about ways to pay other than in their iPhone (or iPad) app.Is that significant?Apple says so. But it appears to be a minor change to a set of rules that are at the center of complaints about how Apple controls its App Store.Apple forces companies to use its payment system inside their iPhone apps, which enables it to collect its commission on their sales. Most companies would prefer to direct customers elsewhere to complete transactions so they can avoid Apples fees. But Apple also generally bars companies from telling customers to pay elsewhere.Apple has long banned such steering. It has also banned companies from even using emails to tell customers about other ways to pay if the companies got the customers email addresses from their iPhone app.Now Apple is saying it is OK for companies to send such emails, if the companies get the customers permission to do so.Some companies appear to have already been partly violating Apples rules. To avoid Apples commission, the music service Spotify, for instance, doesnt allow people to sign up for a subscription in its iPhone app. Still, after someone creates a free account in app, Spotify emails a link to its website, where it advertises its paid accounts, though the email doesnt explicitly tell users to circumvent Apples commission.An Apple spokesman said companies, including Spotify, had complained for years about Apples restrictions on emailing certain customers.What has the reaction been?There was tentative praise from some lawmakers who have proposed legislation to change App Store rules. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, said on Twitter that the settlement marks a significant step forward, but does not rectify the full & vivid range of market abuses & practices still widespread across app markets.The biggest praise came from the App Association, an organization that claims to give a voice to small technology companies but is funded by big technology companies, including Apple. Our members need Apple to continue to lead on privacy, security and safety to preserve the trust consumers have in platforms, the group said.Many companies that pay Apples commission were not as kind. The Coalition for App Fairness, a group of firms fighting Apples rules, said the settlement does nothing to address the structural, foundational problems facing all developers, large and small, undermining innovation and competition in the app ecosystem. The group added that Apples restrictions on what companies could say in private communications with their customers illustrated Apples inappropriate control over the app marketplace.David Heinemeier Hansson, an entrepreneur and app developer who is an outspoken critic of Apples rules, said in a post on Friday that opening a narrow route for companies to steer customers toward other payment options only gives Apple cover to defend its ban on such communication in the places that matter, like the transaction page in an app.If the developer community had any hopes riding on this class-action lawsuit, this outcome would have been a dagger in the heart. Far worse than if no suit has been undertaken at all, he wrote. If anything, this settlement cements the tremendous power that Apple has and wields. Even when a class-action lawsuit gets underway, it can be bought with bromides and bribes.Why has this been so confusing?There was a lot of confusion after the settlement was announced in part because of how Apple announced it. The company told reporters about an evening press briefing two hours before it was set to start and then posted a muddied news release just as the briefing was beginning.That meant that as an Apple executive described the settlement as a win for developers, reporters were already rushing to tweet and file first drafts of articles. The incentives of digital news today reward those who are first, not those who are more nuanced or accurate. (AnApple public-relations official required reporters to not name or quote the executive in order to hear the briefing.)As a result, news headlines initially framed the change as a major avenue for companies to avoid Apples commission. This was good for Apple, as any perception that it was making substantive changes to its App Store rules could help appease developers, the courts, regulators and lawmakers.In reality, it appears that Apple has paid a small price to get rid of a potentially big legal headache.How does this affect Apples court fight with Epic Games?Apple is still awaiting a decision from a federal judge in a separate lawsuit that was filed by Epic Games, the maker of the popular game Fortnite. Epic wants to force Apple to allow app developers to avoid App Store commissions altogether.Thursdays settlement requires approval from Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. She is also the arbiter in the Epic Games case.Apple probably hopes that its rule change could help persuade Judge Rogers that it is meaningfully addressing developers concerns. She said in May that she hoped to issue a ruling this month.Who will receive the $100 million?Apple is paying $100 million in the settlement. The company said it was not a legal payoff but rather a fund to assist small U.S. developers, particularly as the world continues to suffer from the effects of Covid-19.Developers are slated to get $70 million of the money. App makers that made less than $1 million a year in the App Store from June 2015 through April 2021 are eligible for payouts between $250 and $30,000 each.The plaintiffs lawyers are requesting the other $30 million.Steve Berman, one of the lawyers, said in an email that lawyers typically received 25 percent of such settlements, with more money possible if they secured other benefits for their clients. Due to the host of business changes that will aid developers, we think an upward adjustment is merited, he said. | Tech |
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/11/sports/ncaabasketball/north-carolina-beats-duke.htmlSports Briefing | College BasketballFeb. 10, 2014Diamond DeShields scored a season-high 30 points and No. 17 North Carolina defeated No. 3 Duke, 89-78, in Durham, N.C.DeShields, a freshman, hit 12 of 20 shots while becoming the first player to score 30 against Duke since 2009.Allisha Gray, also a freshman, added 24 points including three three-point plays in the final 8 minutes for the Tar Heels (18-6, 6-4 Atlantic Coast Conference).The Tar Heels snapped a three-game overall losing streak, a seven-game slide against their fiercest rivals and claimed their first win at Cameron Indoor Stadium since 2008.Elizabeth Williams had a career-high 28 points on 12-of-23 shooting for Duke (22-3, 9-2). Remi Dibo scored a career-high 20 points to lead host West Virginia to a 102-77 victory over No. 11 Iowa State, the Cyclones most lopsided loss of the season.Juwan Staten added 19 points and Eron Harris and Terry Henderson each had 16 for the Mountaineers (15-10, 7-5 Big 12).Iowa State (18-5, 6-5) had five players in double figures, led by Georges Niangs 17 points.The Cyclones trailed by as many as 32 points late in the game.West Virginia hit a season high for points and improved to 2-1 amid a stretch of four straight games against ranked opponents heading into a matchup Saturday at No. 19 Texas. | Sports |
The deal would broaden AMDs business into chips for markets like 5G communications and automotive electronics.Credit...Aly Song/ReutersOct. 27, 2020SAN FRANCISCO Advanced Micro Devices agreed to pay $35 billion in stock for Xilinx, a deal aimed at reshaping one of the computer chip industrys pioneers.AMD, known mainly as Intels longtime rival in microprocessors that power most computers, plans to use the acquisition to broaden its business into chips for markets like 5G wireless communications and automotive electronics. The transaction could also help AMD grab a bigger share of component sales for data centers and counter a prominent rival, Nvidia, which is also bulking up.The all-stock deal, announced on Tuesday along with AMDs third-quarter financial results, would be close to the most valuable acquisition in the chip industrys history. Those bragging rights are currently held by Nvidia for its proposed $40 billion deal for the British chip designer Arm, which was announced last month.Chip makers have experienced several consolidation waves, driven by factors such as duplicate product lines and cost-cutting strategies. But AMD, which is enjoying some of the most robust sales in its 51-year history, expects Xilinx to expand its business while increasing profits.Lisa Su, AMDs chief executive, said in prepared remarks that Xilinx would help establish her company as the industrys high-performance computing leader and partner of choice for the largest and most important technology companies in the world.That sort of reputation has long eluded AMD, which for decades was seen as an Intel follower that mainly won sales with lower prices. But the company has lately grabbed a lead over Intel in some key measures of computing performance, while its larger rival has suffered technological and financial stumbles.On Thursday, Intel reported a 29 percent decline in quarterly profits, which caused its stock to fall more than 10 percent. AMD, by contrast, reported on Tuesday that its quarterly profit had risen 148 percent.AMDs stock, which was trading five years ago at about $2 a share, has risen nearly 80 percent this year and closed Tuesday at $78.88, down 4 percent on the day. AMDs market value stands now at nearly $100 billion.Xilinx, founded in 1984, is the biggest maker of a class of chips that can be reconfigured for a variety of specialized tasks after they leave the factory. Such field programmable gate arrays, as they are called, have long been particularly popular in telecommunications applications, such as cellular base stations now being upgraded for the latest 5G technology.Xilinx has also been one of the biggest chip companies hurt by trade limits on Chinas Huawei, a major maker of networking equipment and one of Xilinxs biggest customers. The company last week said that revenue had declined 8 percent.But Xilinxs gross margins are much higher than AMDs, and the company continues to generate considerable cash. Xilinxs market value stands at about $28 billion, reflecting a sharp jump after The Wall Street Journal reported deal talks between the companies on Oct. 8.AMDs interest in Xilinx emulates a path taken by Intel. In 2015, Intel entered the same business by paying $16.7 billion for Altera, Xilinxs main competitor. That deal, inspired partly by the prospect of producing Altera chips in Intel factories, has failed to generate big returns as Intels manufacturing processes have fallen behind rivals.AMD relies heavily on external manufacturing partners, as does Xilinx particularly Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which has grabbed a lead in packing smaller transistors on each chip. Both companies have also pushed new technologies for creating new products from packaging multiple chips together.The proposed transaction dwarfs AMDs most significant past acquisition, a $5.4 billion deal for ATI Technologies in 2006 that took the company into competition with Nvidia for chips that render images in video games. That graphics technology would make AMD a major supplier of chips for video game consoles. But it also saddled AMD with a heavy debt load that took more than a decade to erase.AMD reported about $1.7 billion in cash at the end of September.The companies said the deal was expected to be completed by the end of 2021. Victor Peng, Xilinxs chief executive, will continue to lead the operation after the close of the deal, the companies said. | Tech |
Americas|At Least 38 Are Killed by Driver Fleeing an Accident in Haitihttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/12/world/dozens-killed-by-driver-fleeing-an-accident-in-haiti.htmlCredit...Dieulivens Jules/Haiti Press Image, via Associated PressMarch 12, 2017PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti A bus driver fleeing the scene of an accident drove into crowds of people in northern Haiti early on Sunday, killing at least 38 and injuring about a dozen more, the authorities said.The bus, which was traveling from Cap Haitien to Port-au-Prince, the capital, initially hit two people at a bus stop outside Gonaives in the northern part of the country, according to Joseph Faustin, the head of civil protection for the Artibonite department. One of the two pedestrians was killed, he said.The bus driver then tried to drive away, but when he reached Mapou, about three miles away, he crashed the bus into three rara parades, Mr. Faustin said.The parades, which usually take place around Easter, involve groups of musicians playing traditional instruments in the street, often joined by crowds of passers-by.Haitian roads are dangerous and chaotic, and pedestrians, drivers and motorcyclists observe few if any traffic rules.In total, 34 people were killed at the scene and four people died later of their injuries, according to Fred Henry, the areas deputy representative, who added that the episode had occurred around 4 a.m.Usually the drivers involved in such accidents dont stop, because they are afraid they might be killed in reprisal, Mr. Henry said.It was not immediately clear what caused the accident.The driver and passengers on the bus were taken to a police station, said Patrick Cherilus, a civil protection spokesman. They were later released, and the bus driver has fled, said Jean Bazlais Bornelus, the police chief for the area.After the accident, other musicians and people in the rara parade began hurling rocks at the bus and at passing vehicles, injuring other people, said Albert Moulion, the spokesman for the Interior Ministry.President Jovenel Mose expressed condolences on Sunday for the victims and their families, and called for an investigation. | World |
Mischa Barton My Ex-BF Has 'Doctored' Sex Tapes 6/30/2017 TMZ.com Mischa Barton says she found proof one of her exes has copies of what she calls "doctored" sex tapes. She was supposed to have a courtroom showdown Friday with Adam Spaw, but he was absent due to a family illness. Instead, his attorney appeared and heard Mischa plead her case to a judge for a permanent restraining order. She claimed Spaw left behind multiple flash drives -- containing the "doctored" tapes -- when he moved out of their home. The judge pressed Mischa to explain what was doctored ... and she would only say they weren't originals. The judge set a new July court date for Spaw to respond to the allegations -- and re-issued Mischa's temporary restraining order. Outside court, she was pretty thrilled with the judge's decision. | Entertainment |
Vaccinating 5- to 11-year-olds could be a big step toward returning to normal life in the U.S., but even parents who got the shot are worried about how it might affect their kids.Credit...Katherine Taylor for The New York TimesPublished Oct. 30, 2021Updated Nov. 15, 2021The Food and Drug Administrations authorization of a Covid-19 vaccine for ages 5 to 11 on Friday makes 28 million unvaccinated children in the United States suddenly eligible for the shot and offers the country an opportunity to make big inroads in its efforts to achieve broad immunity against the coronavirus.But in a nation that has already struggled mightily with Covid vaccine hesitancy, getting shots into those little arms may present health authorities with the toughest vaccination challenge yet.Even many parents who are themselves vaccinated and approved the shot for their teenagers are churning over whether to give consent for their younger children, questioning if the risk of the unknowns of a brand-new vaccine is worth it when most coronavirus cases in youngsters are mild.In announcing its authorization of a lower-dose shot made by Pfizer and BioNTech for the age group, the F.D.A. said clinical trial data showed the shot was safe and prompted strong immune responses in children. The most common side effects were fatigue, fever and headache.Infectious disease experts say that with approaching holiday travel and family gatherings, widespread vaccination of younger children could be a game-changer: It could help keep classes in person, reduce the likelihood of quarantines and lessen the risk of transmission to older, vulnerable adults as well as protect the children from what has become the eighth biggest killer in their age group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To date, nearly two million children age 5 to 11 have been infected with the virus and 8,300 have been hospitalized. A third of those hospitalized were admitted to intensive care units, and at least 170 have died.But a report this month from researchers at Northeastern, Harvard, Rutgers and Northwestern universities found that parental concerns around the Covid vaccination had increased significantly from June through September. Chief among them, researchers said, were the newness of the vaccine, whether it has been sufficiently tested, efficacy, side effects and long-term health consequences.According to a survey released Thursday by Kaiser Family Foundation, scarcely one in three parents will permit their children in this newly eligible age group to be vaccinated immediately. Two-thirds were either reluctant or adamantly opposed. An Axios-Ipsos poll found that 42 percent of parents of these children said they were unlikely to have their children vaccinated.ImageCredit...Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesErin Gauch, of Middletown, R.I., got herself and her two older children, ages 14 and 12, vaccinated this summer. But shes worried about the potential side effects of the shots for her son. One of those side effects is myocarditis, which can cause a weakening of the heart muscle, that has been reported in a very small number of teenage boys and young men after getting a Covid shot.Im looking at a 9-year-old and if I make a bad decision and he ends up with some debilitating side effects or lifelong adverse reaction, I dont think I could live with that, she said.This vaccine dilemma occurs at a turbulent cultural moment for parents of young children, who are often judged harshly on social media for their decisions. The choice can appear freighted with political affiliation. A decision can signify, intentionally or not, compassion or disregard for others and a willingness to follow or ignore advice from their pediatrician.If we ultimately decide not to get my youngest vaccinated right now, I guess Ill be subjected to mommy shaming but Ill just have to deal with it, Ms. Gauch said.Many parents, like Ms. Gauch, are focusing on some research that suggests the rare possibility that young men and boys will develop myocarditis, but the clinical trial data the F.D.A. reviewed showed no cases in the 5 to 11 age group. Many experts say that the conditions usually improve quickly and that Covid presents far greater risk of severe myocarditis.The Biden administration recently announced that the shots would be given predominantly by pediatricians, community health centers and childrens hospitals, plus pharmacies and schools, which will carry the burden of persuading parents.But a Kaiser policy brief noted that schools and pharmacists in regions where Covid vaccination rates are low may be reluctant to participate. Access in rural areas and for working parents will be considerable challenges, the authors said, and they noted that achieving equity will also be a concern: More than half of those newly eligible are children of color.After what is expected to be an initial rush of eager parents (as happened with adults and teenagers), pediatricians say they are bracing for conversations they anticipate to be among the thorniest they have ever had.ImageCredit...Katherine Taylor for The New York TimesI know parents are probably bombarded with misinformation about vaccines, even within their social circles: My friend said this, my mother-in-law said that, said Dr. Katherine Williamson, a pediatrician in Orange County, Calif. Im hoping I can make a difference.The decision is particularly hard for parents to make on behalf of their first child, said Emily Brunson, a medical anthropologist at Texas State University who researches parent vaccination choices. Because vaccine decision-making is so personal and complicated, she said, many parents are likely to put it off.Vic Sandrin, who works for a bicycle company in Vancouver, Wash., supports vaccines but cautiously. He, his wife and their 18-year-old got the Covid vaccine grudgingly, to travel for work and family visits.For his 11-year-old twins, however, he is content to wait: Im willing to take a chance on myself, and that made sense, Im an adult, Mr. Sandrin said. But for kids who already have strong immune systems, I dont know if theres a reason to get them vaccinated, or at least not just quite yet. At heart, the decision is about which unknown Covid or the vaccine parents fear more. They may stack factors such as social routines, older relatives, school protocols and the likelihood of severe illness to confirm their intuitive bias about whether to allow their child to get the shot.Ms. Gauch, a mechanical engineer, calculated each family members risk individually. She has asthma, so, for her, the vaccine was a no-brainer. Her 14-year-old daughter got her first job this summer; getting vaccinated meant she wouldnt have to wear a face mask at work. And her 12-year-old daughter saw that getting vaccinated could open up possibilities of being maskless in public. Done and done.But not only does Ms. Gauch worry about side effects in her 9-year-old son, she says that getting vaccinated wont release him from following other Covid rules because his school insists on masks and social distancing. He is much less likely to get Covid if theyre taking all these precautions, she said. So I just dont see the risk payoff of the vaccine.Parents who were predisposed not to vaccinate their child tended to dismiss the threat of serious illness from Covid as minuscule, saying that children who became seriously ill most likely had underlying conditions.The argument that vaccinating children contributes to the communitys overall health does not get much traction, either. Parents paramount focus is the well-being of their own child. Although health officials contend an important reason to vaccinate is to protect the child, some parents said they believed that their healthy children would be injected with a novel vaccine largely to safeguard older adults, who had already lived full lives.ImageCredit...Bryan Anselm for The New York TimesIn interviews, some parents said that if the vaccine gained full approval for children (as the adult dose has) and schools required it, they would consider withdrawing their students. Dr. Cynthia Bader, a pediatrician in the Seattle area with an 8-year-old son, said that if her school district issued a vaccine mandate, she would clap her hands with joy but then cringe at the idea of all the parents who will be coming to me seeking counseling for vaccine exemption forms.Parents are siloing themselves with like-minded friends, which reinforces their thinking. It used to be that more people with different opinions would mesh, but now I dont think that is the case, said Abby Cooper of Bergen County, N.J., who is eager to get her five children vaccinated.But she has friends who refuse. Their kids are going to school with my kids and putting them at risk for no reason. Its very upsetting. So, sadly, Ive lost friends over this.Many parents worry that the tension will infect the children themselves. Some foresee having to set boundaries about unvaccinated playmates, especially if exposure to the virus could jeopardize someone else in the home.Many parents will be difficult to persuade. The C.D.C. and the American Academy of Pediatrics have published talking points for pediatricians and other proponents of the Covid vaccine for children.Consensus: First, address the parents questions. But if they dont want to hear The Talk, dont force it.Consensus: Fear tactics generalized descriptions of children suffering in Covid wards dont work.Consensus: Emphasize the benefits of the Covid vaccine to the child in terms of emotional and physical well-being, including some semblance of pre-Covid social life. Invoke quarantines, remote learning.Kim Cobb hopes that her familys Covid ordeals will show others the benefits of vaccinating all eligible family members. She, her husband and their two older daughters, 14 and 12, got vaccinated quickly. But in August, her unvaccinated 10-year-old twins came down with Covid. Soon after, Dr. Cobb, a climate scientist at Georgia Tech, and her husband tested positive for breakthrough infections. Their two vaccinated children remained healthy.The parents became miserably ill but did not require hospitalization, which they believe is because they were vaccinated.All recovered, but Dr. Cobb and one twin have lingering respiratory distress.Were in the third month post-infection and we have to see pulmonologists, we have inhalers, were on medication and were still having breathing difficulties, Dr. Cobb said. And this is not a kid who ever had respiratory symptoms.It was not foreseeable, she continued. If you could avoid it, you would. | Health |
Nov. 6, 2018KABUL, Afghanistan Dozens of soldiers and police officers were killed or captured in nine Taliban attacks that overran security bases and outposts in different parts of Afghanistan during a 24-hour period that ended on Tuesday, officials said.In perhaps the most severe blow, insurgents captured battalion headquarters of the Afghan Border Force in Farah Province, in western Afghanistan, killing or taking prisoner nearly the entire contingent of officers, with as many as 20 dead. In Kandahar Province, in the south, three separate attacks killed a total of 17 police officers. And in Ghazni, a central province, a joint military and police outpost fell only two days after it had been set up, with all 16 security officials there killed or wounded.The attack on the headquarters in Farah, close to the Iranian border, destroyed the first battalions base in the district of Poshti Koh. Sgt. Gholam Mohammad, the senior noncommissioned officer, said from a clinic where he had been taken with a minor head wound that, in addition to the 20 border force officers killed, 25 had been taken captive by the Taliban. Three others escaped.The Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the capture of the headquarters in posts on Twitter that purported to show weapons seized at the base.In all, 59 police officers or soldiers were confirmed killed in the nine attacks on Monday and Tuesday, which took place in seven provinces.By comparison, in the week that ended on Thursday, 18 Afghan security officials were killed, according to a tally by The New York Times.The Afghan Border Force falls under the control of the Ministry of Defense, although it was part of the police until last year. Sergeant Mohammad was in charge of logistics at the Farah base. The Taliban first captured our radio officer and our contact with other units was cut off, he said by telephone. Then they intensified their attack.The assault started at 11 p.m. Monday and continued into the early hours Tuesday, he added, by which time the defenders ran out of ammunition and the insurgents took control of the base.A spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, Ghafoor Ahmad Jawed, said that reinforcements were being sent to try to recapture the base, and that the authorities were unsure of the number of casualties. Other Afghan officials gave divergent tallies. Abdul Hakim, the district governor of Poshti Koh, said 18 officers had been killed and 23 others taken prisoner. There were 48 officers in the battalion.In another attack on Monday, the Taliban targeted a security outpost in the district of Khogyani, in Ghazni Province, killing at least 13 members of the Afghan security forces and wounding three others, according to Mohammad Arif Noori, the governors spokesman. Six police officers and seven soldiers were among those killed, he said. It was a joint outpost of army and police which was built two days ago.Six Taliban fighters were also killed in the assault, and 10 others were wounded, he added.Farah Province has been the scene of heavy fighting this year, with insurgents briefly overrunning its capital in May. Ghazni, too, has seen heavy fighting, with its capital nearly captured by the Taliban in August.In Kandahar Province, 12 police officers were killed in a Taliban attack before dawn Monday on a police outpost in the district of Khakrez, according to Malim Mir Hamza, the district governor. Insurgents captured the outpost and seized all of the weapons and equipment there, he said.In two other attacks in Kandahar on Monday, a total of five police officers were killed and seven others wounded when insurgents attacked security outposts in the districts of Maruf and Arghistan, according to Zia Durrani, the spokesman for the Afghan police in the province.Kandahar, once a stronghold of the Taliban and the organizations base, has been relatively quiet over the past year. But the insurgents killed the provinces powerful police chief, Gen. Abdul Raziq, in an insider attack last month.In four smaller assaults on Monday, a total of at least nine members of the security forces were killed in the provinces of Zabul, in the south; Faryab and Sar-i-Pul in the north; and Badghis, in the northwest, local officials said. | World |
N.B.A. RoundupCredit...Bob Donnan/USA Today Sports, via ReutersFeb. 15, 2014NEW ORLEANS The N.B.A. players union, which has been without an executive director since Billy Hunter was fired a year ago, gathered Saturday afternoon for a two-hour meeting during which candidates for the position gave presentations and answered questions from about 30 players, including the Knicks Carmelo Anthony.Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers, who was elected the president of the union in August, called the meeting productive, although he and other members of the unions executive committee declined to offer specifics about how many candidates appeared at the meeting, whether they were finalists or when a vote would be held. The process has taken time, said James Jones of the Miami Heat, the secretary-treasurer of the executive committee. Were putting in the time to steer this union in the right direction in our search for effective leadership.Jones said one of the unions goals over the past year had been to implement improved policy infrastructure so a new leader would be able to step in immediately and have a solid foundation. Roger Mason Jr., a shooting guard with the Heat and the executive committees first vice president, said the union was not in a rush and wanted to be judicious. He said that more than 200 candidates had been provided by the executive search firm Reilly Partners and that the union had considered them all.The union has been rived by controversy and internal strife for more than two years. Hunter was fired in February 2013 after an independent audit charged him with nepotism and mismanagement of resources. Although the current collective bargaining agreement will not expire until July 2017, it would probably be in the unions interests to have an executive director in place to coincide with Adam Silvers first months as the leagues commissioner. Silver has already spoken about wanting to increase the age limit for draft-eligible players, an issue of no small importance to the union. On Saturday, Silver described the unions lack of an executive director as a hindrance to a certain extent.He added, Id love to have a partner across the table from me that had the backing of the entire players association.The unions next step will be to distribute DVDs of Saturdays meeting to the rest of the players in the league so they can form their own opinions.Were going to make available this process to all our players in the next few weeks, Mason said. Theyll have the opportunity to get to know the candidates so this process remains transparent.The executive committee paid homage at the meeting to the players who threatened to boycott the 1964 All-Star Game over accusations of mistreatment at the hands of team owners. Bob Pettit, who played in that game, attended the meeting.We just wanted to tell them we appreciated them and want to continue to build a relationship with our retired players, said Andre Iguodala, a forward with the Golden State Warriors.SILVER CONSIDERING CHANGES In one of his first public appearances as commissioner, Adam Silver delivered wide-ranging remarks as part of his state of the league address, saying the N.B.A. would consider everything from revamping the replay system to giving the players a midseason break.Silver, who took over for David Stern on Feb. 1, said he had been on a listening campaign in recent months.My priority right now is the game, he said. Focusing on the game all the way from youth league through college to the pros.One area where Silver said he saw potential room for improvement was the way in which officials reviewed plays. Silver said he could foresee the league having a centralized command center, where calls could be reviewed to ensure consistency and prevent in-game delays. Silver also said that the league was not close to featuring sponsors on jerseys but that he believed it would ultimately happen. It makes good business sense, he said.Silver opened his remarks by speaking about his attachment to basketball, about how the game bonded him to his father when he was growing up outside New York City. He acknowledged that he used to be a fan of the Knicks. Im not allowed to be anymore, he said. I promise Im a fan of all teams.WALL LIFTS EAST IN DUNK EVENT The N.B.A. staged a series of competitions at Smoothie King Center as part of its All-Star festivities, including the dunk contest in its new team format. The East team of the Washington Wizards John Wall, the Indiana Pacers Paul George and the Toronto Raptors Terrence Ross topped the Wests Ben McLemore of the Sacramento Kings, the Portland Trail Blazers Damian Lillard and the Golden State Warriors Harrison Barnes, with Wall winning the honors of having the top dunk of the night. The San Antonio Spurs Marco Belinelli captured the 3-point contest over the Wizards Bradley Beal. After both players finished with a score of 19 in the final round, Belinelli racked up a 24 in the tiebreaker, beating Beals 18. The Golden State Warriors Stephen Curry, a favorite to win, failed to advance out of the opening round.The team of Chris Bosh, Dominique Wilkins and Swin Cash repeated as champions of the shooting stars competition. Lillard and Trey Burke won the skills challenge. | Sports |
On PoliticsJan. 11, 2021Trump has said he wont be at the inauguration but Democrats are hoping that by Jan. 20, he wont even be president anymore. Its Monday, and this is your politics tip sheet. Sign up here to get On Politics in your inbox every weekday.ImageSpeaker Nancy Pelosi laid out a specific plan last night to seek President Trumps removal from office. In a letter to colleagues, she said she would officially ask Vice President Mike Pence to use the 25th Amendment to strip Trump of his powers, while also moving ahead with bringing articles of impeachment in the House.If Trump is impeached again, its impact could reach far into the future: It may affect his ability to run for office and dampen his legacy for those who have supported him. Or it may further feed their passion for him.The next 10 days will be momentous for the whole nation, but for the G.O.P. in particular. The party is in chaos; as it gropes its way forward, here are three big factors that are likely to shape its direction.The media equationLast week, Twitter, the social media platform that played a huge role in fueling the presidents rise, permanently barred him. Facebook has barred Trump from its platforms for the remainder of his term. But those moves dont change the fact that social media companies, which are largely unregulated, continue to allow different groups of people to surround themselves with different sets of facts.Trump came to power by exploiting the flawed incentives built into social media platforms: their promotion of outrage over reasoned discussion, their emphasis on personality over substance, and their unwillingness to monitor the information being shared.Parler, the social media app favored by conservatives because of its lax approach to checking for accuracy, has now been removed from Googles and Apples stores as well as Amazons web-hosting service, effectively making it unavailable. But the question remains of how much the larger companies themselves will be called upon to regulate the veracity of whats shared: That could have a fundamental impact on the content that fact-bending news organizations can get away with disseminating.Conservative commentators at networks like Newsmax have generally downplayed the uprising at the Capitol, or baselessly blamed false-flag antifa operatives. A PBS NewsHour/Marist College poll found that Republicans were evenly divided, 47 percent to 47 percent, between thinking that the rioters had broken the law and thinking that their actions were mostly legitimate.The big moneyWhere major Republican donors decide to invest in the coming months will offer a major clue about where the G.O.P.s energy is as it searches for an identity as the minority party in Washington.Trumps rise to the presidency was heavily fueled by the support of a few wealthy donors, but it also cant be explained without the Tea Party revolt of 2009 and 2010. And that revolt cant be explained without the influence of big money.Still, for many Tea Party supporters, their real fervor came from something deeper more related to their own economic position, and far more racialized. Starting in 2015, as President Barack Obamas second term wound to a close, Trump was the figure who picked up on those anxieties, allowing the Tea Party to shake partly free of the corporate libertarianism that had birthed it.As architects of the Tea Party, the Koch brothers ultimately grew worried about the beast theyd helped create, and their political network refused to support Trumps re-election campaign. Charles Koch (whose brother David died in 2019) has indicated that he plans to look for common ground with Joe Biden where possible, but it seems likely that he will still work to uphold a lane for himself in the Republican Party.Over the past four years, Trump has developed a relationship with scores of megadonors, including a number of billionaires who were firmly behind his re-election campaign. Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate who single-handedly delivered hundreds of millions of dollars to Trumps two campaigns, has stuck with the president, even when it meant putting up with personal slights.That said, many business leaders have expressed alarm at the lengths to which Trump was willing to go to contest the elections result, and they have called on him to acknowledge Bidens victory. Only time will tell how willing Adelson and other Trump megadonors will be to support Trumps handpicked candidates and causes in the years ahead.The standard-bearersIn addition to the more clinical questions of how the media responds and where the money goes, theres another important factor with a greater element of political mystery.The Republican Party doesnt yet have another charismatic national leader who has proved capable of capturing voters attention and speaking to them about the country in existentialist terms, as Trump does.All politicians dream of crafting a message that captures the moment, and of developing a public persona that places them at the helm of a movement. If any of the partys scions-in-waiting can do that, all other political calculations may become secondary.If Trump manages to maintain his grip on Republican voters, even without his favorite social media outlet, then its unlikely that he will leave a lot of air in the room for another leader to rise. But if he was unable or unwilling to run again, he could be in a position to push a successor be that a loyal political heir, like Senator Josh Hawley; or a member of his own family, like his firstborn son, Donald Trump Jr.; or his elder daughter, Ivanka Trump.If Trump becomes more thoroughly discredited, and if the early years of the Biden presidency meet enough resistance from conservatives to erode Trumps support among center-right and moderate voters, the party may embrace a leader that bucks the recent trends. Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, who has been more willing than most other prominent Republicans to criticize the president, has openly mulled a 2024 presidential run.Nikki Haley, who was Trumps United Nations ambassador and has had a more checkered relationship with the president, might also have her eyes on a second presidential run in 2024.In the run-up to the November election, pollsters for The Wall Street Journal and NBC News repeatedly asked Republican voters if their allegiance was more to their party or more to Trump himself. By the end of the campaign, a decisive majority of Republicans said they were more loyal to the president than to his party. So far, there is little evidence to suggest that has significantly changed but it still could.Photo of the dayImageCredit...Erin Scott for The New York TimesA heavy-duty security fence at the U.S. Capitol yesterday.Democrats are under pressure in a different way: Their base wants to prosecute Trump.President Trump faces an all but certain impeachment vote this week, but Democrats are aiming to pressure President-elect Joe Biden to see that his accountability doesnt stop once hes out of office.As my colleague Lisa Lerer and I reported this weekend, the Biden administration will face significant pressure to begin criminal investigations into Trump, his family and his aides as soon as the inauguration is complete.The appetite to do something about Trump is immense, with Speaker Nancy Pelosis announcement last night that the House would press forward with impeachment if Mike Pence didnt invoke the 25th Amendment. (Pelosi also said on Twitter that what the president did to incite the violence should be prosecuted.)Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, the House majority whip, said earlier on Sunday that after voting on an article of impeachment as soon as Tuesday, the House might delay sending it to the Senate which will not reconvene until the day before the inauguration, making it certain that Trump wouldnt be removed by Congress before his term ends.But whatever happens with impeachment, it is not going to be enough for a Democratic base that believes Trump and his allies colluded with Russia; engaged in tax fraud; imposed illegal pressure on state officials to change the results of the presidential election; used federal offices for political activity; and violated the Constitutions emoluments clause, which prohibits a president from profiting from foreign governments.Among other transgressions.The word we heard over and over in interviews with more than 50 Democratic officials and activists was accountability. They said that letting Trump leave office without answering for the litany of illegal behavior he engaged in or oversaw would be an invitation for future presidents to act as far outside the law as they wish.You cant heal the country if the kinds of wrongs that have been committed are never addressed, said Howard Dean, who served as Vermont governor and Democratic National Committee chairman.The intensity of the desire to see Trump indicted by Bidens Justice Department was clear hours after our article was published on Saturday. Matt Bennett, a founder of the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way, said on Thursday that he did not believe the Biden administration should prosecute Trump.After he was quoted in our article, Bennett almost immediately faced the wrath of the Democratic base. By yesterday morning, he had released a lengthy statement endorsing a criminal prosecution of the president.He must face justice when he leaves office, Bennett said. If state or federal prosecutors find that he has committed criminal offenses, he should be prosecuted.On Politics is also available as a newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.Is there anything you think were missing? Anything you want to see more of? Wed love to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. | Politics |
Aly Raisman Blasts Larry Nassar ... You're 'Sick, Pathetic' 1/19/2018 WLNS -- Raisman just addressed the court with her impact statement ... and took Nassar to task for his years of abuse. "You are so sick, I can't even comprehend how angry I feel," Aly said ... adding that he's "pathetic" for begging the judge to stop his victims' statements. Raisman also went after Team USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee for their negligence. "It's clear if change is left up to these organizations, history will repeat itself." Aly Raisman and her former Team USA teammate, Jordyn Wieber, are facing Larry Nassar on one of the last days of his sentencing ... with Jordyn bravely addressing the disgraced doctor she says abused her "time after time, appointment after appointment." Jordyn gave her impact statement before taking a seat next to Raisman in the front row of the Michigan courtroom ... revealing she too was abused by Nassar, just like the other Olympic champions -- Raisman, McKayla Maroney, Gabby Douglas and Simone Biles. "I thought that training for the Olympics would be the hardest thing I would ever had to do," Wieber said, while fighting back tears. "But in fact, the hardest thing I ever had to do was process that I was a victim of Larry Nassar." Over 100 women in total are expected to give statements ... before the judge decides Nassar's fate. | Entertainment |
Dec. 17, 2015Credit...Elise Amendola/Associated PressEver since Avon Products rebuffed a $10.7 billion unsolicited offer by Coty more than three years ago, the beauty company has been the subject of takeover speculation.On Thursday, Cerberus Capital Management agreed to take private Avons North American business and invest in the parent, now valued at less than $2 billion.Since that refused offer in 2012, Avon has experienced three consecutive years of declining revenue and gross profit, causing the stock to plummet and slicing $8 billion off its market value. At the heart of Avons problems has been its unprofitable North American business, which has weighed down the rest of the company.Avons portfolio outside of North America represented 86 percent of revenue during the nine months through September, Sheri McCoy, the chief executive of Avon Products, said in a statement on Thursday.We believe that the separation of North America is the best way to ensure that both businesses have an unencumbered path to profitability and growth, said Ms. McCoy. This was a key principle as we considered alternatives.As part of the transaction, announced Tuesday, Cerberus agreed to acquire an 80.1 percent stake in Avon North America, worth $170 million. Avon North America will assume $230 million of long-term liabilities from Avon Products, which is contributing $100 million in cash to offset that cost.Cerberus will also make a $435 million investment in the parent company through convertible perpetual preferred stock. The conversion price of $5 a share represents a 46 percent premium to the average price over the last month. The investment will also include a dividend that accrues, or is payable at Avons discretion, at a rate of 5 percent per year.Shares of Avon rose more than 1 percent in trading in midday Thursday. But at least one shareholder was not supportive of the outcome. Barington Capital Group, which owns a 3 percent stake, said Avon sold at fire sale prices.We are astonished that Sheri McCoy remains as C.E.O., said James A. Mitarotonda, chairman and chief executive of Barington, in a statement. We intend to explore all available options.Once a hallmark in suburban homes, with Avon saleswomen going door to door to offer beauty products, the North American unit has struggled to maintain a loyal base. Cerberus said that it would seek better ways to create incentives for Avons work force and also planned to invest in marketing, talent and product updates.The biggest question is how Avon will alter its business model out of the private eye, perhaps by focusing more on e-commerce or targeting a different consumer.How far do they pivot in the U.S. model? said Andrew Shore, a managing director at Moelis & Company. You can make the argument that there are multiple doors they can go through, but no one knows the outcome.In selling the North America business, Avon said it would incur a loss of $325 million to $425 million from pension and postretirement benefit plans. As part of Avons restructuring, the company said it would suspend its quarterly common stock dividend, effective during the first three months of 2016.Avon is also cutting the size of its board, to 11 from 12,. Six directors will step down, and Cerberus will add three representatives, Michael F. Sanford, Steven F. Mayer and Chan W. Galbato, who will be appointed nonexecutive chairman. Avon and Cerberus would choose two more independent directors to fill the remaining seats.Avon said that Steve Bosson would lead the Avon North America transition; Pablo Muoz, the current president of the unit, will leave in January. Cerberus will name a new chief executive of North America.The transaction is expected to close in the spring. Goldman Sachs and Centerview Partners advised Avon, and Cravath, Swaine & Moore provided legal counsel. Kirkland & Ellis gave legal advice to Cerberus. | Business |
The agencys advice on distancing, masks and vaccination brings the coming school year a bit more into focus.Credit...Jae C. Hong/Associated PressPublished July 9, 2021Updated July 22, 2021With less than a month to go before many schools begin reopening for the fall, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday released new guidelines for preventing Covid-19 transmission in schools.The guidelines outline numerous strategies that schools can take to help keep students, teachers and staff members safe, including masking, weekly screening testing and social distancing. But the agency also stressed that schools should fully reopen even if they were not able to put in effect all of these measures.The agency also left much of the decision-making up to local officials, urging them to consider community transmission rates, vaccination coverage and other factors. This approach won praise from some experts, who said that this more nuanced approach makes sense at this stage of the pandemic but criticism from others, who said that state and local officials were not equipped to make those judgments and needed clearer guidance.Here are answers to some common questions about the new guidance.Can my child go back to school full-time in the fall?Almost certainly. The new recommendations make clear that reopening schools is a priority and that schools should not remain closed just because they cannot take all of the recommended precautions.Many families have struggled with remote instruction, which has forced parents to make do without traditional child care and left many children struggling to learn. Preliminary research suggests that the pandemic has widened inequities in education, with students of color falling further behind, compared with white students, and low-income students showing fewer gains, compared with their peers.I really appreciated the top-line focus on the most important thing that we need to have in person learning, said Dr. Benjamin Linas, an infectious disease specialist at Boston University.Virtually all of the nations major school districts plan to offer regular in-person instruction in the fall, and some are not giving parents a choice. New York City public schools, the nations largest school system, will not offer a remote learning option in the fall.Will they have to wear a mask?ImageCredit...Mary Altaffer/Associated PressIt depends.The guidelines recommend that children ages 2 or older who are not fully vaccinated should wear a mask indoors but imply that fully vaccinated students generally do not need to wear masks in the classroom.But the C.D.C. also notes that some schools may choose to require everyone to wear masks. On Friday, California said it planned to do just that. (At least eight states, on the other hand, have already forbidden mask mandates.)Even when such universal masking rules are in place, exceptions should be made for students and staff members with disabilities that make wearing a mask difficult, the guidelines said. I do appreciate that they mentioned that some kids cant wear them, said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University. I think thats really important.Masks are not generally needed outdoors, the agency said, except in limited circumstances, such as in crowded settings in areas where local transmission rates are high.What about social distancing?The agency recommended that students remain at least three feet apart from one another in the classroom, consistent with earlier guidance. Some studies have suggested that three feet of distance is enough to keep students safe when other precautions are in place.But the agency made it clear than schools that do not have the space to keep students so far apart should reopen anyway. In those cases, the guidelines said, it is particularly important to adopt other precautions, including masking, frequent virus testing and improved ventilation.The guidelines also recommend that students remain at least six feet apart from teachers and staff and that unvaccinated teachers and staff remain six feet apart from one another. A C.D.C. official said this recommendation was based on the fact that the studies that suggested three feet of distance could be safe had assessed the amount of space only between students, and not between them and adults.But some experts said that they found the varied distancing suggestions hard to follow and that schools would need clearer guidelines. Im really confused, Dr. Nuzzo said. And I can imagine that school districts that, frankly, need everything spelled out for them clearly and not in a way thats subject to interpretation are going to be really confused.Will vaccines be mandated?There is currently no major effort to mandate vaccines in K-12 schools, though that could change over time.Right now, only children 12 and up are eligible for the vaccine, leaving a huge segment of the younger student population unprotected.And the shots, including the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is the only one available for 12- to 15-year-olds, were approved under emergency use authorization. Until vaccines are given full approval by the Food and Drug Administration, the timing of which is unclear, experts believe its unlikely that vaccines will be required for school attendance.A vaccine mandate is always a political battle, said Dorit Reiss, a law professor at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, who said that states were unlikely to push forward with mandates until a vaccine had been authorized for students of all ages, and potentially until there was full approval. I just dont see legislators wanting to go through this twice.But the United States has a long history of requiring students to be vaccinated for certain diseases from polio to measles and experts believe Covid-19 is likely to join the list at some point.In the meantime, its possible that schools could ask about the status of older students who are eligible for the vaccine. Chicago Public Schools, for example, has said it plans to ask families to submit Covid-19 vaccine information.I think you can certainly say, We need to know if you are vaccinated, said Eric A. Feldman, a professor of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. If you are, then X, Y and Z rules apply to you, and if you are not, a different set of rules will apply to you.As for teachers, employers generally have the right to inquire about immunization status and even require vaccination for employees, experts say, though the effort in schools may be complicated by teachers unions.The C.D.C. guidelines note that schools may offer modified job responsibilities for teachers or staff members who have not been fully vaccinated and who are at higher risk for serious Covid-19.When can my elementary schooler be vaccinated?ImageCredit...Christopher Capozziello for The New York TimesProbably sometime this fall. Pfizer has said that it plans to apply this fall for emergency authorization of its vaccine for children between 5 and 11.Moderna has said that the results from its clinical trial of young children are expected before the end of the year. The company last month applied for authorization for use of its vaccine in 12- to 17-year-olds.How worried should I be about the Delta variant?Delta, which is now the dominant variant of the virus in the United States, is highly contagious and has rapidly spread through the country in recent weeks.Fortunately, the vaccines still provide good protection against the variant, especially against the worst outcomes, like hospitalization and death. Folks who are vaccinated dont need to have personal fear of Delta, Dr. Linas said.But the variant may fuel outbreaks in unvaccinated communities and populations.We are vaccinating more people every day, but we are not on a trajectory to be able to interrupt transmission by the fall, said Dr. Sean OLeary, a pediatric infectious disease specialist in Colorado. Unless we can do that, just about everyone I know in the field is very concerned about a fall surge.Children are far less likely than adults to become ill from the virus or its variants. Fewer than 2 percent of children with Covid-19 end up in the hospital, and even fewer 0.03 percent of cases or less have died, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. A small percentage may also develop a rare but potentially serious inflammatory condition.The emergence of the Delta variant is an urgent reason to continue a variety of mitigation measures in elementary schools in particular, said Dr. Linas, who has an 11-year-old daughter who is not yet vaccinated.What other precautions does the agency recommend?The agency recommends what it calls a layered approach, suggesting that schools combine multiple mitigation strategies to reduce risk. (This has also been called the Swiss cheese model.) In addition to masking, distancing and vaccination, schools could put in effect regular screening testing for the virus. Fully vaccinated students and staff members do not need to participate in screening programs or quarantine if they have been in close contact with someone with Covid-19 unless they have symptoms, according to the guidelines.The guidelines also note the importance of ventilation, encouraging schools to bring more fresh air inside by opening doors and windows or changing the HVAC settings. Im glad to see ventilation called out specifically as a stand-alone item, said Joseph Allen, an expert on healthy buildings at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Weve been talking about this for 18 months at this point.Why isnt the C.D.C. setting specific standards for schools?At this stage of the pandemic, the agency said, one set of overarching rules does not make sense. Vaccination rates vary enormously across the country, and communities with low vaccine coverage may see significant outbreaks, especially as Delta spreads.The guidance correctly recognizes that a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach is not the best at this stage of the pandemic, Dr. Allen said. The guidance in Vermont and Massachusetts, where vaccination rates are high and case counts are low, should be different than in states where the opposite is happening.The agency recommends that officials make decisions about which precautions to apply based on local conditions, including vaccination rates, levels of community virus transmission and whether a regular testing program is in place.ImageCredit...John Moore/Getty ImagesAlthough many experts say that a local approach makes good scientific sense, flexibility also comes with risks.The lack of clear, specific guidelines is likely to leave some districts unsure how to proceed and may lead to protracted political fights over exactly how to reopen, Dr. Nuzzo said.Ultimately, experts predicted that a patchwork of different guidelines and requirements will emerge across the country.Quite honestly, I expect well see exactly what we saw last year, Dr. Allen said. And in states that are predominantly blue states, well see a very different approach to schools, even though vaccination rates are higher, than we will see in the more traditional red states, where vaccination rates have been lower and for the most part they kept schools open last year with very minimal controls. | Health |
Credit...Al Drago for The New York TimesJune 15, 2018WASHINGTON Conflicting messages from President Trump and his aides over whether he would support a compromise immigration bill sent House Republicans into fits of confusion on Friday, further diminishing the bills fortunes ahead of a showdown vote next week.Speaker Paul D. Ryan is planning to hold votes on two immigration measures: a hard-line conservative bill, which is almost certain to fail, and new legislation worked out by Republican immigration moderates and House conservatives, which Mr. Ryan promoted Thursday as a very good compromise.But a day of White House drama left Republicans unsure of where the president stood, and uncertainty will not help legislation that would bring sweeping change to the United States immigration system. On Friday morning, Mr. Trump seemed to casually dismiss the delicate compromise.Im looking at both of them, Mr. Trump said on Fox and Friends. I certainly wouldnt sign the more moderate one.Senior aides in the White House quietly insisted that the president had misspoken, but it took hours for the White House to say that out loud.Finally, early Friday evening, Raj Shah, a White House spokesman, issued a statement pledging Mr. Trumps support for the compromise bill as well as for the hard-line measure, which is sponsored by Representative Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia. Mr. Shah said the presidents opposition referred to an effort by moderate Republicans to use a so-called discharge petition to force the House to vote on narrower legislation to protect the young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers.The president fully supports both the Goodlatte bill and the House leadership bill, Mr. Shah said. In this mornings interview, he was commenting on the discharge petition in the House, and not the new package. He would sign either the Goodlatte or the leadership bills.It is unclear how much damage Mr. Trumps comments had done and whether Republicans will be satisfied with the assurance that the president does support the compromise.If he wont sign it, weve got a major problem, said Representative Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida before the White Houses clarification. He is one of 23 Republicans who signed the discharge petition in an attempt to force immigration votes in the House.On Wednesday, Mr. Ryan had told House Republicans that Mr. Trump was enthusiastic about their effort on immigration. In fact, the compromise bill was built to please the president: It was shaped around the four pillars for immigration legislation that he had long ago laid out, including funding his promised wall on the southwest border and restricting family-based immigration.Even before Mr. Trumps comments on Friday morning, the bills passage next week seemed highly uncertain. Democrats are expected to vote against it, and the measure was quickly labeled amnesty by critics on the right.Republican leaders also risk losing votes among immigration moderates in their conference who have been eager to address the Dreamers, who have been protected under an Obama-era program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, that Mr. Trump moved last year to end.I am concerned that the concepts proposed for legislation next week have an overreliance on ineffective and expensive fourth-century security solutions and an unclear path to citizenship for DACA-eligible young men and women at the expense of existing visa programs, said Representative Will Hurd of Texas, another Republican who signed the petition. I have and will always believe that the only way to permanently address these challenges is in a bipartisan fashion, and, unfortunately, this is not the path we are on.VideotranscripttranscriptTrump Claims Justice Dept. Report Totally Exonerates MeSpeaking to reporters, President Trump answered questions about investigations, North Korea and immigration.Look, if you see what Ive done with North Korea, and with the State Department Mike Pompeo its running so well, I have this running so well. I have purposely, because of this ridiculous witch hunt, I have said, Im going to stay away from the Justice Department until its completed. So I wanted to stay away, now that doesnt mean I have to because I dont have to I can get involved. But I dont want you people to say that Im interfering, that Im doing anything. I think that the report yesterday maybe, more importantly than anything, it totally exonerates me. There was no collusion. There was no obstruction. And if you read the report, youll see that the But sir, the report What would you do with that? Why sir? Excuse me, wait, wait, wait. What youll really see, is youll see bias against me and millions, and tens of millions of my followers, that is really a disgrace. Mr President! And yet, if you, and yet, if you look at the F.B.I. and you went in and you polled the F.B.I. the real F.B.I. those guys love me and I love them. Mr President! Sir! Are you You have spoken so passionately about the circumstances that led to Otto Warmbiers death. In the same breath, youre defending now Kim Jong-uns human rights record. How can you do that? You know why? Because I dont want to see a nuclear weapon destroy you and your family. And, by the way, you declared the nuclear threat from North Korea is over. I dont want to see a nuclear weapon destroy you and your family. I want to have a good relationship with North Korea. I want to have a good relationship with many other countries. And what Ive done if you remember, if youre fair, which most of you arent, but if youre fair, when I came in, people thought we were probably going to war with North Korea. If we did You said the threat is over, is it over? Quiet. Quiet. If we did, millions of people would have been killed. I dont mean like, a you know, people were saying a hundred thousand Seoul has 28 million people, 30 miles off the border. You would have had 30, 40, 50 million people killed. Who knows what would have happened? I came in, that was what I inherited. I should have never inherited that should have been solved long before I got there. I did a great job this weekend. The fake news said, Oh, you met. The only thing they saw that I gave up. One broadcast said, He gave up so much. You know what I gave up? I met. I met, we had great chemistry. He gave us a lot: You havent had a missile test in seven months. You havent had a firing, you havent had a nuclear test in eight and a half months. You havent had missiles flying over Japan. He gave us the remains of our great heroes. I have had so many people begging me, parents and fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, wherever I went, Could you please get the remains of my boy back? Theyre giving them back. Nobody thought that was possible. Sir! Wait. Wait. Excuse me, wait. They are doing so much for us. And now were well on our way to get denuclearization and the agreement says there will be total denuclearization nobody wants to report that. So the only thing I did, was I met, I got along with him great. He is great. We have a great chemistry together. Thats a good thing, not a bad thing. Mr. President, how can Kim love his people if hes killing them? I cant speak to that. I can only speak to the fact that we signed an incredible agreement. Its great. And its going to be great for them, too, because now, North Korea can develop and North Korea can become a great country, economically, it can become whatever they want. But there wont be nuclear weapons and they wont be aimed at you and your family. We now have a very good relationship with North Korea. When I came into this job it looked like war. Not because of me, but because if you remember the sitdown with Barack Obama I think he will admit this, he said the biggest problem that the United States has, and by far the most dangerous problem, and he said to me, that weve ever had, because of nuclear, is North Korea. Now that was shortly before I entered office. I have solved that problem. Now were getting it memorialized and all and that problem is largely solved and part of the reason is we signed number one a very good document. You know what? More importantly than the document, I have a good relationship with Kim Jong-un. Thats a very important thing. I can now, wait, I can now call him. I can now say, Well, we have a problem. I told him, I gave him a very direct number. He can now call me if he has any difficulty. I can call him. We have communications its a very good thing. People are shocked that this is the kind of, you know they thought Trump was going to get in, and he was going to start throwing bombs all over the place. Its actually the opposite. But were building a military so strong $716 billion next year. 700 this year were building a military so strong, nobodys going to mess with us. But you know what, I never want to have to use it. Mr. President, do you agree with children being taken away from their family? No, I hate it. I hate the children being taken away. The Democrats have to change their law. Thats their law. Sir, thats your They were forced Mr President! Mr President! Quiet. Quiet. Thats the Democrats law. We can change it tonight. We can change it right now. Youre the president, you can change it I will leave here. No, no. You need their votes. You need their votes. The Democrats, all they have to do You control both chambers of Congress, the Republicans do. The Democrats, excuse me, by one vote. We dont need it. You need 60 votes. We have a one vote excuse me we need a one vote, We have a one-vote edge, we need 60. So we need 10 votes. We cant get it from the Democrats.Speaking to reporters, President Trump answered questions about investigations, North Korea and immigration.CreditCredit...Evan Vucci/Associated PressA 293-page draft of the compromise bill, circulated Thursday among lawmakers, would make broad changes to the nations immigration system. It would offer legal status to Dreamers, and would create a special visa program that would allow them to receive green cards based on factors like employment and education. In turn, they could become citizens.The bill would toughen rules for asylum seekers, and it would provide billions of dollars for Mr. Trumps border wall while making changes intended to strengthen immigration enforcement. It would also curb family-based immigration and eliminate the diversity visa lottery, which admits immigrants from countries that do not send many people to the United States.Another significant and politically volatile issue is how the bill would affect the separation of children from parents at the border, a matter that has become front and center as the Trump administration has cracked down on illegal border crossings.The Justice Department now has a zero tolerance policy for people who cross the southwest border illegally, prosecuting all cases. Under that policy, put in place by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, children are split from their parents as their parents go through the criminal justice system. Mr. Ryan told reporters on Thursday that he did not think families should be broken up and called for a legislative fix.A summary of the draft bill said that it would ensure that children apprehended at the border are not separated from their parents while in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security.But several immigration policy experts said Friday that they did not believe that the measure would stop the separation of children from parents who are prosecuted under the policy.Theres absolutely nothing in there that ends family separation, said Kerri Talbot, a former Democratic Senate aide. Theres definitely going to be family separations as long as there is this Sessions zero-tolerance policy.A House Republican aide said bill drafters were aware of the issue regarding the fate of children whose parents are prosecuted, and were working to include language in the compromise bill that would keep families together under those circumstances, as well.The compromise bill is the product of weeks of negotiations among lawmakers as House Republican leaders moved to defuse the rebellion from moderate members eager for action to protect the Dreamers. The moderates fell two signatures short of what they needed on their discharge petition in order to force votes on immigration this month.Mr. Trumps comments on Friday morning seemed to undercut Mr. Ryans argument against the moderates petition drive, which the speaker had said was pushing legislation that the president would never sign. On Thursday, Mr. Ryan said that with the compromise bill, the House was bringing legislation to the floor that, if it passed all the way through the process, would make law.The confusion on Friday on Capitol Hill came at a time when lawmakers already have to move quickly to digest the lengthy compromise bill before the votes planned for next week.Representative Scott Perry, Republican of Pennsylvania, suggested that Mr. Ryans time frame was too short, and that holding a vote next week on the compromise measure would not give lawmakers who had not been part of the negotiations enough of a chance to sift through the bill and debate it.Mr. Perry, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said he has reservations about the measure, complaining that it lacks provisions for the system known as E-Verify, through which employers can confirm they are hiring legal workers, and said it does not go far enough to limit family-based migration or crack down on so-called sanctuary cities.When this train leaves the station, Mr. Perry said, there aint going to be another one. | Politics |
Credit...Richard Perry/The New York TimesDec. 5, 2015Martin Shkreli was trying to explain himself, so he turned to YouTube.In the conference room at Turing Pharmaceuticals, the company he heads, his fingers flew across a laptop keyboard, and up popped a YouTube video on a large wall screen. It was a heartfelt appeal from three young brothers in North Dakota who suffer from a degenerative and often fatal brain condition. Only 300 people in the country have this disease, Mr. Shkreli said.Why show the video? I invented a new drug, to treat the disease, he said, shrugging nonchalantly. But its hard to sell a drug for 300 people, to go through the process. You have to charge a lot per person to make it a viable product.His point was that new drugs especially for rare conditions dont come cheap and someone has to pay for them. This is more truism than earth-shattering revelation. But Mr. Shkreli has become a public villain for twisting that notion to apply to a decades-old drug that Turing merely acquired. By raising the price of that drug overnight to $750 a pill from $13.50, Mr. Shkreli became a caricature of pharmaceutical industry greed.A former hedge fund manager, Mr. Shkreli drew the wrath of consumers, became a talking point in the presidential campaign, and spurred federal and state inquiries as well as a dialogue about how and whether to control rising drug prices. As proof of Mr. Shkrelis toxicity, Bernie Sanders rejected his $2,700 campaign donation, turning it over to a health clinic instead. And in a sharp slap, just Tuesday, Express Scripts, the largest pharmacy benefit manager, endorsed the use of a compounded alternative to Daraprim, the $750 pill. That treatment will sell for about $1 a pill.Mr. Shkrelis price increase is likely to take another pummeling at a Senate committee hearing investigating skyrocketing drug prices next Wednesday.Rather than cower as he takes a beating, Mr. Shkreli seems to relish his time in the ring. He taunts his critics on Twitter or wherever he can. (Mr. Shkreli on Bernie Sanders to Fox Business Network: I dont think he understands pharmaceuticals at all.) Most recently, he live-streamed hours of himself at his desk, talking to co-workers and viewers about medical research and investments and tapping at his computer (action high point: hair-twirling). Last month, he and a group of investors took a large stake in another drug company. He sparred contemptuously with an executive of Express Scripts at a recent Forbes conference. And he still has time to occasionally post pictures of cats rolling in cash on Twitter.In Turings Manhattan offices last Tuesday, Mr. Shkreli, 32, wore a simple black T-shirt and dark jeans and seemed less brash than his public persona, but no less boastful. That Mr. Shkrelis elfin features are now the face of pharmaceutical greed is fine with him. While he contended that he receives little compensation from his companies, he proudly noted that he has become quite wealthy thanks to his investments.Even before the Daraprim price increase, his business practices had come under scrutiny. He acknowledged the regulatory and criminal investigations into claims of wrongdoing at hedge funds he once controlled as well as at Retrophin, the public pharmaceutical company he ran and from which he was expelled. But he was dismissive of their importance.He also dismissed critics of the Daraprim price increase, saying his biggest duty is to his investors. He recounted how, at dinner the previous night, a hedge fund investor in the privately held Turing had beat the crap out of me for not raising a drug price more.Besides, he said, returning to his theme: The high price on the drug Turing sells is a way to raise enough revenue to develop new medicines for debilitating illnesses.Critics say that if Turing wants to develop new drugs, it should use money from investors, like most biotech start-ups do, not burden existing patients and hospitals.This is a stupid investment, said Dr. Carlos del Rio, a professor at Emory University and chairman of the HIV Medicine Association, referring to Turings $55 million purchase of the Daraprim rights. They paid a fortune for it, and now they have to recover their money.For Mr. Shkreli, money isnt the sole motivation. His name is on two patents held by his former company, Retrophin, for drugs to treat the degenerative brain disease afflicting those North Dakota brothers. He says hes working on an even better version of the drug at Turing.Hes doing this, he added, partly to spite my old company.Then he gave a cheeky grin.Mr. Shkreli was an indifferent student in high school and studied business in college. Yet almost anyone who knows him will remark on his ability to practically memorize medical journals and textbooks, accumulating an encyclopedic knowledge of drugs and diseases that interest him.ImageCredit...Craig Ruttle/Associated PressMartin is the smartest guy in the room at all times, said someone who worked closely with him on Wall Street. This person was reluctant to discuss Mr. Shkreli at all during a phone call, but did say, The guys intellect is unparalleled.His brilliance does not preclude him from sometimes behaving like an immature teenager. Hes driven by ambition to let people know that Martin Shkrelis made it, said an early investor in his first public company, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve relations in the industry. The affirmation is as important to him as the financial success.Mr. Shkreli grew up in a small apartment on Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn with his three siblings and parents, immigrants from Albania who, he said, worked janitorial and other odd jobs. Neighbors say the family kept to itself.Mr. Shkreli was clearly bright. He was admitted into Hunter College High School, an elite Manhattan public school for the intellectually gifted. But former classmates said he was more interested in chess and playing electric guitar in a band, Coney Island Whitefish, named, he said, after a Joan Jett song. He stopped attending classes and was asked to leave before his senior year. At the school, the difference between an A and an A-minus was significant, Mr. Shkreli said. So I said, How about I get a bunch of Fs?I didnt like the conformity of the school, Mr. Shkreli said, the expectations.Mr. Shkreli received the credits needed for his high school degree though a program that also placed him in an internship at the Wall Street hedge fund Cramer, Berkowitz & Company.He took classes at Baruch College, worked briefly for a Wall Street investment bank and then, in his early 20s, started his own hedge fund, Elea Capital, using a couple of million dollars he obtained from an investor.Elea met its demise in 2007, when Mr. Shkreli made a $2.6 million bet that the stock market would decline. It didnt. At least not at the right time for him.I learned a lot about using leverage, the perils of leverage, Mr. Shkreli said. Back then, this was almost 10 years ago, I was rushing to succeed. I made a monster bet that the market would crash, and I was wrong.The lesson didnt sink in right away, as Mr. Shkreli kept taking big risks. Despite Eleas failure, Mr. Shkreli was able to attract enough money to start a second, bigger hedge fund, MSMB Capital.In 2011, while still running MSMB, Mr. Shkreli started Retrophin, which adopted a business strategy that had been used by other companies like Questcor Pharmaceuticals and Valeant Pharmaceuticals. It acquired old, neglected drugs, usually for rare diseases, and raised their prices to be closer to those of modern drugs. Retrophin, for instance, raised the price of Thiola, used to treat a disease that causes kidney stones, to $30 a pill from $1.50.Mr. Shkreli said that higher prices made the supply more secure and were better for patients because they gave the company the financial wherewithal to educate doctors about the diseases and possible treatments. Many cases of cystinuria, the disease Thiola treats, are undiagnosed, he has said.But there was discord within the company. On Sept. 30, 2014, Retrophin announced that its board had replaced Mr. Shkreli, effective immediately.A lawsuit filed by Retrophin this summer illuminates some of the strife. According to the suit, which seeks $65 million in damages, when the MSMB hedge fund ran into trouble on a bad bet in the market, Mr. Shkreli began an elaborate shell game, using Retrophin cash and assets to pay off discontented MSMB investors. Retrophin also disclosed in regulatory filings that it had received a subpoena relating to an investigation by the Justice Department into Mr. Shkrelis transactions.In an emailed statement, a spokesman for Retrophin said that the board replaced Mr. Shkreli because of serious concerns about his conduct and that a subsequent investigation identified substantial self-dealing and breaches of fiduciary duty.When asked about the lawsuit, Mr. Shkreli waved his hand dismissively. Its rife with inaccuracies, he said, adding it contained vile accusations.As with other setbacks, Mr. Shkrelis ouster from Retrophin did not seem to impair his ability to start something new, in this case Turing. The company announced in August that it had raised $90 million, an unusually high amount for a first round of financing for a biotech company. Mr. Shkreli says he owns about half of the company. He would not reveal the other investors, but people on Wall Street say they include some hedge funds that made a lot of money on Retrophin.VideoMartin Shkreli, the chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, explains the increase in drug prices in a CNBC interview.CreditCredit...CNBCTurings first big move was the one that made Mr. Shkreli notorious. He paid $55 million for the American marketing rights for Daraprim, a 62-year-old drug for toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that can be devastating for babies and people with AIDS. The immediate price increase brought the cost of a course of treatment for some patients to hundreds of thousands of dollars.Mr. Shkreli could do this because in the United States, unlike many other countries, there are no drug price controls.Daraprim is so old that it no longer has patent protection. A generic company could sell a lower-priced copy, but revenues from the drug were so small, until now, that no generic company was interested, and it would take a few years for one to get regulatory approval. Moreover, at both Retrophin and Turing, Mr. Shkreli has tightly controlled distribution of the drugs, making it difficult for generic companies to obtain the samples they need for testing. The New York State Attorney Generals office has asked Turing about this, saying it may violate antitrust laws.Many proposals have been made for reining in drug prices, but they face opposition, particularly from the pharmaceutical industry. One that the Obama administration favors, but which is now prohibited by law, is to let Medicare negotiate with drug companies, using its huge buying power to wring discounts.Another idea is to allow imports of drugs from Canada and other places where prices are far lower. Last month, the Republican senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and John McCain of Arizona urged the administration to allow imports, particularly in cases like Daraprim, though they did not name that drug, in which a company has acquired the American marketing rights and jacked up the price but the drug remains available at a lower price abroad.At first, in response to the outrage over the increase, Mr. Shkreli said he would lower the price. But he never lowered the list price of Daraprim, instead saying that Turing would offer discounts of up to 50 percent to hospitals. He now says the extra money will be used to develop better drugs for toxoplasmosis and other diseases. The company has begun a clinical trial of a drug for severe forms of epilepsy.Haters, please tell me about the latest in apicomplexa genetic drift, Mr. Shkreli posted on Twitter to counter skeptics who say that a new drug for toxoplasmosis is not needed. You are all Protozoa experts equipped to judge and advise me, right?Mr. Shkreli said that he made virtually no money from his hedge funds, but that his Turing stake and the $100 million he said he made selling Retrophin stock after he left made him very rich. Plus, he said he pocketed $30 million to $40 million this year selling short the stock of two companies, Celladon and Vital Therapies, whose products failed in clinical trials. This year, he flew some Turing employees to Las Vegas to watch a boxing match.In late November, Mr. Shkreli led a group of investors that acquired 70 percent of KaloBios, a biotechnology company that days earlier had announced it would shut down because its drugs had failed in clinical trials and it was running out of cash.Mr. Shkreli, who said he saw promise in one of KaloBioss experimental drugs, was named chief executive, and several other Turing executives were also appointed to top posts at KaloBios. While the two companies are being run separately, Mr. Shkreli said on Thursday that KaloBios was exploring opportunities with Turing. Shares of KaloBios, which were selling for a dollar or two when Mr. Shkreli bought them, are now above $30.Still, it is likely to be a few years before Retrophin, Turing or KaloBios gets a new drug to market. Until then, it will be hard to say if Mr. Shkreli really is good at developing new drugs or just exploiting old ones.Seemingly secure in his wealth, Mr. Shkreli has started putting money toward philanthropy. (He also collects arcana, including a credit card formerly owned by the Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain and Enigma encoding machines.) Earlier this year, he started the Shkreli Foundation, run by his sister Leonora, which he said has given more than $3 million to various causes.Dr. David Feifel, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, is also a recipient. He said Mr. Shkreli contacted him out of the blue two years ago and later donated $100,000 to help with his research on new treatments for depression. Hes more complex than the cartoon character, Dr. Feifel said.The foundation also gave a $1 million gift to Hunter College High School. Was this a way of showing he had made it, despite not graduating? Maybe. Maybe thats right, Mr. Shkreli said, nodding thoughtfully. That you could do it, doing it your own way. He added that he was considering an even bigger donation of $5 million or more.Some alumni have started a campaign to raise $1 million so the school can return Mr. Shkrelis donation. He smiled at that.Fine. Let them do it. Whatever, he said. But can they raise $5 million? | Business |
Godfather' Cast & Crew The Family Reunites ... Don Corleone Insisted 4/30/2017 Robert De Niro made his team at Tribeca an offer they couldn't refuse ... him, Al Pacino and the rest of "The Godfather" cast and crew on one stage together again. Bob, Al, Robert Duvall, James Caan, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire and even Francis Ford Coppola himself reunited Saturday for the closing night of the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC. De Niro got the panel together after a back-to-back screening of Part 1 & 2 of the classic mobster movies. He runs the festival after all ... so it's not like anyone was gonna tell him no. It's also the 45th anniversary of Part 1. The old cast dished on stuff that went down behind the scenes of the movies -- like the cat that wandered onto Marlon Brando's lap ... or Al and Diane getting loaded after the wedding scene ... or everyone mooning each other at one point on set. Oh, and Paramount's reluctance to cast Al, of course. As lovely as it might have been to see these stars come together for 2 cinematic gems, the night proved long. Their whole event wrapped 9 hours later. Leave the double feature ... take the Q&A. | Entertainment |
Credit...Sergey Ponomarev for The New York TimesNov. 6, 2018BAGHDAD Over 200 mass graves holding as many as 12,000 bodies have been found in areas of Iraq once controlled by the Islamic State, the United Nations said on Tuesday. The findings were highlighted in a joint report released by the United Nations mission to Iraq and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which called the sites a legacy of terror.Where are the graves, and what are they like?Most are in the four provinces of northern and western Iraq where the Islamic States so-called caliphate acted as the government: Anbar, Kirkuk, Salahuddin and Nineveh, which includes Mosul, the largest city once controlled by the extremists. They range from small burial sites with eight bodies, to massive pits believed to hold thousands. The biggest is believed to be the Khasfa Sinkhole near Mosul.I can only say that the number of the victims of the mass graves is much bigger than the numbers in the report, said Dhia Kareem, head of the Mass Graves Directorate in Iraq. He said eyewitnesses estimated there were 6,000 bodies in the Khasfa Sinkhole.ISILs horrific crimes in Iraq have left the headlines, but the trauma of the victims families endures, with thousands of women, men and children still unaccounted for, Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations human rights commissioner, said, referring to the Islamic State. These graves contain the remains of those mercilessly killed for not conforming to ISILs twisted ideology and rule.Why is this discovery important?While the extremists made no secret of their systematic violence, there has been little accountability for what they did. During its three-year rule, the Islamic State terrorized local residents, often releasing videos of executions of people targeted for government ties, sexual orientation and more. The militants also went after members of ethnic and religious minorities, including Christians and Yazidis.In the Yazidi homeland of Sinjar, 69 mass graves have been identified, Iraqi officials said.But so far, few criminal investigations have been conducted. The grave sites could provide valuable forensic evidence, but the scale of the job has made collections daunting. The deaths occurred in what the United Nations has labeled systematic and widespread violence, a campaign that may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possible genocide.What about the families of the victims?The United Nations said it was likely that more mass graves would be discovered, which will only worsen the situation, especially for families of victims. The Iraqi authorities have so far exhumed only 1,258 bodies from 28 sites, the United Nations said, because of a lack of government resources at the Mass Graves Directorate. The United Nations urged officials to identify the victims quickly and to return the bodies to relatives. But it also recognized that the Iraqi authorities need more resources to make that happen, while preserving evidence of crimes, and it urged the international community to help.Fatin Al-Hilfi, a member of Iraqs human rights commission, praised the United Nations report for recognizing the negligence of the government toward the mass graves team and the lack of logistical support.The report also noted that Iraqi bureaucracy made it difficult for people to find missing relatives because information was not held in a centralized way. Their families have the right to know what happened to their loved ones, Ms. Bachelet said.Investigators recommended setting up a nationwide databank, similar to those set up in Bosnia and Rwanda.Do the graves add to what is known about the scope of ISIS killings in Iraq?Its too early to say. The United Nations has estimated that 30,000 civilians were killed by the Islamic State from 2014 to 2017 a number that should be considered an absolute minimum. But many of those victims were found and buried by their families. That so many thousands are in the 202 mass graves identified so far is shocking and only 28 of those graves have been thoroughly exhumed. | World |
Business BriefingDec. 4, 2015Pepperidge Farm has sued Trader Joes, accusing the grocery chain of trademark infringement for selling a cookie that looks too much like Pepperidge Farms popular Milano cookie. In a complaint filed on Wednesday in the New Haven, Conn., federal court, Pepperidge Farm said Trader Joes was damaging its good will and confusing shoppers through its sale of Trader Joes Crispy Cookies. Alison Mochizuki, a Trader Joes spokeswoman, said on Friday that the privately held company did not discuss pending litigation. Introduced in 1956, the Milano consists of chocolate filling, and sometimes other flavors, sandwiched between two oval-shaped cookies. A trademark was registered in 2010. | Business |
This NASA Mission Listened to Mars Shake, but Soon It Will Go SilentThe InSight spacecraft, which carries a seismometer and studies the red planets insides, is expected to cease functioning by the end of the year.Credit...NASA/JPL-CaltechMay 17, 2022NASAs InSight spacecraft is not quite dead yet.But InSight, a stationary robotic probe on Mars, has been steadily growing weaker as dust accumulates on its solar panels. Mission managers predict that by late summer it will not have enough energy to continue operating its instruments and that by the end of the year it will fall silent.Thats just due to the lack of energy, Kathya Zamora Garcia, the missions deputy project scientist, said during a news conference on Tuesday.The spacecraft could prove lucky if a dust devil a miniature whirlwind swirling along the Martian landscape passes over and blows the dust off the solar panels. Although several thousand dust devils have been detected in the area, none has helpfully cleaned InSight.Were not too hopeful given that its been three and a half years and we havent seen one yet, said Bruce Banerdt, InSights principal investigator, but it could still happen.When InSight landed in November 2018, its pristine solar panels generated 5,000 watt-hours of energy each Martian day. Now, enshrouded in dust, they are producing one-tenth as much.The spacecraft fulfilled its main objectives during its two-year primary mission; NASA then approved a two-year extension through the end of 2022.As the energy dwindles, the managers will begin to shut down the spacecrafts instruments and stow its mechanical arm. They will try to keep the crafts main scientific tool, a sensitive seismometer, running as long as possible, although in a couple of weeks they will start to run it for only part of the day, or maybe even every other day, instead of continuously.Ms. Garcia said the seismometer would probably have to be shut off entirely sometime in July. After that, there will be just enough energy to check in with radio communications and perhaps snap an occasional photograph.Once InSight loses power, it will join an assortment of NASA missions marooned on the red planet after long, successful runs, including the two Viking landers that set down in 1976 and the Spirit and Opportunity rovers that arrived in 2004 for 90-day missions but lasted for years. NASA still has two other rovers and an experimental helicopter studying the Martian surface, and China has one rover in operation there.Most of NASAs missions to Mars over the past two decades have focused on the possibility that the suns fourth planet may have once been hospitable for life.InSight the name is a compression of the missions full name, Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport was a diversion, focusing instead on the mysteries of Marss deep interior. The $830 million mission aimed to answer questions about the planets structure, composition and geological history.ImageCredit...NASA/JPL-CaltechMars lacks plate tectonics, the sliding of pieces of the crust that shapes the surface of our planet. But marsquakes occur nonetheless, driven by other tectonic stresses like the shrinking and cracking of the crust as it cools.During its mission, InSight recorded more than 1,300 marsquakes. Just two weeks ago, it observed the largest marsquake so far: a magnitude of 5.0, modest by Earth standards but at the high end of what scientists expected for Mars.The epicenter of the magnitude-5.0 quake was located near a series of fissures known as Cerberus Fossae, where many marsquakes detected earlier had occurred, Dr. Banerdt said. But, he added, Its not actually in Cerberus Fossae, which is interesting. And we dont really understand that yet.He said the scientists have had only two weeks to analyze the data, but they could clearly see the seismic signals, and the quake might have been large enough that it could have made Mars start vibrating like a bell, although at frequencies too low to be heard.This quake is really going to be a treasure trove of scientific information when we get our teeth into it, Dr. Banerdt said.By listening to the echoes of the seismic waves bouncing around inside Mars, InSight produced data that could be turned into a three-dimensional map of the planet.The crust turned out to be thinner than expected and appears to consist of three sublayers. The seismic signals also measured the size of the core: about 2,300 miles in diameter.The seismometer revealed not just what was below but also the dynamics in the air above. Winds blowing between 10 and 15 miles per hour over InSights solar panels caused the spacecraft to vibrate, and spacecraft recorded the vibrations, which were transformed into sounds.The other main instrument on InSight, a heat probe that was to hammer itself about 16 feet into the Martian soil, failed to fully deploy.Despite two years of efforts, the instrument, nicknamed the mole, never got much more than an inch below the surface. The soil where it landed tended to clump, a property that was different from material encountered at other places on Mars. The clumping reduced the surface area of dirt pressed against the sides of the mole, and, with insufficient friction, it was unable to hammer itself downward.It turned out the particular soil that was underneath InSight, when we landed, had a consolidated layer of crusty soil at the very top, Dr. Banerdt said. And that crust, the soil sort of disintegrated as the mole tried to penetrate.Without the mole making it underground, the scientists did not obtain hoped-for measurements of heat flowing out of the planet, which would have revealed more precise data about the interior temperatures of Mars today and the energy driving geological processes.Thats what we lost, Dr. Banerdt said.Even after InSight falls silent, there will remain a possibility that a passing dust devil could sweep the solar panels and the spacecraft could revive.Well be listening, Ms. Garcia said. And once we get a few beeps, if that happens again, if theres a natural cleaning, then we will evaluate whether theres enough energy to have the lander operate again. | science |
Credit...Victor J. Blue for The New York TimesJune 8, 2017Five percent of pregnant women with a confirmed Zika infection in the United States territories, including Puerto Rico, went on to have a baby with a related birth defect, according to the most comprehensive report to date from federal officials.The report, published on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also provided for the first time preliminary estimates of this risk by trimester. Previously, there were not enough births following exposure to the Zika virus to make such estimates.This new report reviewed nearly 2,550 cases of women with possible Zika virus infection who completed pregnancies meaning they gave birth, miscarried or experienced stillbirth from Jan. 1, 2016 to April 25, 2017.Roughly 1,500 of those women had Zika infection actually confirmed by laboratory testing.Eight percent of offspring of pregnant women in U.S. territories with a positive nucleic acid test for Zika infection in the first trimester had birth defects linked to the virus. By contrast, 5 percent of these infants did when infection occurred in the second trimester, and 4 percent in the third trimester.Its incredibly useful, said Dr. Laura Riley, a specialist in high-risk pregnancies and infectious disease at Massachusetts General Hospital.Patients want to know what is the likelihood their baby could be damaged. At least now, I feel like I had some numbers I can utilize in counseling.C.D.C. researchers classified cases by the trimester in which the laboratory test was conducted or symptoms were reported, said Peggy Honein, the chief of the birth defects branch at the C.D.C. That may not represent the precise timing of infection.The data reported to C.D.C. came from the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Marshall Islands, American Samoa, and the United States Virgin Islands.In total, the agency counted 122 babies with possible Zika-related birth defects, such as neural tube defects, eye abnormalities or microcephaly, an unusually small head.Previously, Puerto Ricos department of health had only reported about 35 cases in which a fetus was lost or baby was born with Zika-related birth defects, raising concerns that the extent of damage to infants has been underplayed on the island.On a call with reporters, Dr. Anne Schuchat, the acting director of the C.D.C., replied, We do believe that Puerto Rico authorities are doing a very good job right now in evaluating babies whose mothers had Zika infection, and characterizing them and reporting in.On Monday, Puerto Rico declared that its Zika epidemic had ended, based on data showing the number of new cases had fallen. Regardless, C.D.C. officials said today that they still advised pregnant women to avoid traveling to Puerto Rico and to protect themselves against mosquito bites, if they do.We do agree that the disease went up and its come down, but that the risk is ongoing and thats why they are continuing intensive surveillance and outreach, Dr. Schuchat said.Dr. Tom Frieden, the former director of the C.D.C., said of Zika, It may not be epidemic anymore, but its endemic in Puerto Rico.What we often see with this type of infection, its really bad in the first year and less bad in future years, he added. Thats why C.D.C. has retained its travel guidance.Dr. Frieden also cautioned that this report is a minimum estimate of the number of infants who may be Zika-affected, in Puerto Rico, because not all women whose infections were confirmed in the first trimester have given birth yet.The report mentions that only 18 percent of pregnancies they identified were in the first trimester, while youd expect it to be a third, he said.Testing pregnant women for Zika will be routine in Puerto Rico, Dr. Schuchat said.Women who do not have any symptoms of Zika virus still may give birth to a baby with Zika-related birth defects, research has shown. The only way to catch those infections is to screen women because they may have been exposed to Zika-infected mosquitoes or may have had sexual contact with an infected partner.In this new report, The presence or absence of symptoms was not predictive of whether a baby would be damaged, Dr. Riley said. There were women who had asymptomatic Zika whose babies were damaged.Currently, only about 60 percent of babies born alive in United States territories had results of Zika laboratory testing reported to pregnancy and infant registries. Its important that all babies who may have been affected are monitored, as early intervention can help.For instance, some babies who appear normal at birth later develop an unusually shrunken head. Only with long-term tracking can health officials get an accurate estimate of the scope of the problem.Even now, Puerto Ricans often do not take every precaution to avoid Zika infection. In another C.D.C. report released on Thursday, roughly 88 percent of residents with a recent birth said they had used screens on doors to keep mosquitoes at bay.But 56 percent of roughly 1,800 sexually active pregnant women reported never using condoms to protect themselves from getting Zika from a sexual partner. | Health |
Credit...China Stringer Network/ReutersDec. 10, 2015HONG KONG As Chinese authorities intensify their scrutiny of the financial industry, the billionaire chairman at one of the countrys biggest private conglomerates is missing, a local financial news magazine reported on Thursday.The billionaire, Guo Guangchang, described by the domestic press as Chinas Warren Buffett, may have been taken away by police, either under arrest or in custody for questioning, the news magazine Caixin reported, citing people familiar with the matter. He is the chairman of the Fosun Group, which owns the Club Med chain of resorts and a stake in the Canadian entertainment company Cirque du Soleil, as well as positions in insurance companies and property holdings.Mr. Guos disappearance is the latest in a series of mysterious circumstances surrounding an anticorruption investigation into the financial industry. Since August, many executives have been arrested or detained by the police, while others have disappeared.The investigation follows the sharp decline in the Chinese stock market this summer, with stocks in Shanghai plunging by more than 40 percent. Instead of letting markets take their course, the central government in Beijing undertook a major effort to bolster prices.The government limited short-selling, restricted share sales by major shareholders, and corralled brokerage firms into a national team that shored up share prices at the behest of the state. It was an attempt by the government in Beijing accustomed to controlling the levers of the economy to impose discipline on the stock market.While the intervention helped stabilize the markets temporarily, stocks soon continued their slide and authorities started cracking down.In August, a reporter for the financial magazine Caijing, run by the brother of the chairman of Citic Securities, confessed on national television to spreading market rumors in an article about the stock market. Investigators have also detained top executives at brokerage firms and several officials at the countrys securities regulator.Last month Yim Fung, the chairman of Guotai Junan International, the Hong Kong unit of one of Chinas biggest brokerage firms, disappeared. He had not been reachable since Nov. 18, the company said in a statement to the stock exchange.On Sunday, Citic Securities, the countrys biggest brokerage firm, which is often likened to Goldman Sachs, said it was not able to get in touch with two top executives overseeing investment banking, Chen Jun and Yan Jianlin. In its statement, the company cited news media reports saying the two were suspected of being requested to assist in an investigation.Several top executives at Citic Securities have been detained since August. Chinese authorities are investigating company officers, including its president, Cheng Boming, for an insider trading case. Investors are advised to exercise caution in their investments and be aware of risks, Citic Securities said in the announcement about Mr. Chen and Mr. Yans disappearance after reports about their situation appeared in Chinese news media last Friday.In the case of Mr. Guo, the companys listed arm, Fosun International, whose shares trade in Hong Kong, has not made any announcement about its missing chairman. Calls to the companys offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai were not answered. Liang Xinjun, the companys vice chairman, told Bloomberg News that the company was handling the situation.On Friday trading in Fosun International shares in Hong Kong was halted, with no further explanation or announcements made by the company. In some cases, executives are released after working with investigators, as was the situation with several Citic Securities executives. Li Yifei, who is China head for the Man Group, one of the worlds biggest hedge funds, returned to work after meeting with authorities, her husband told The South China Morning Post.Others are arrested and detained. Xu Xiang, a hedge fund manager, was apprehended by police after a car chase. The government said he was suspected of insider trading.Last Friday in Wuhan, a Chinese billionaire detained over a political corruption scandal, Xu Ming, 44, was found dead in his prison cell. Chinese news media reported that he died of a heart attack. His body was cremated the next day. It is not known whether an autopsy was performed. | Business |
The ShiftThe internet is changing, and the freewheeling, anything-goes culture of social media is being replaced by something more accountable.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesJuly 2, 2020It felt like a dam breaking, or the changing of a guard.Within a 48-hour period this week, many of the worlds internet giants took steps that would have been unthinkable for them even months earlier. Reddit, which spent most of its life as a lawless free-for-all, banned thousands of forums for hate speech, including the largest pro-Trump forum on the internet. Twitch an Amazon-owned video-gaming platform not known for its political courage suspended President Trumps official account for hateful conduct, while YouTube purged a handful of notorious racists and punished a popular creator with a history of problematic videos. Facebook, under pressure from a growing advertiser boycott, took down a network of violent anti-government insurrectionists who had set up shop on its platform.Taken independently, these changes might have felt incremental and isolated the kind of refereeing and line-drawing that happens every day on social media.But arriving all at once, they felt like something much bigger: a sign that the Wild Wild Web the tech industrys decade-long experiment in unregulated growth and laissez-faire platform governance is coming to an end. In its place, a new culture is taking shape that is more accountable, more self-aware and less willfully nave than the one that came before it.You can glimpse this shift in the words of technologists like Steve Huffman, the chief executive of Reddit. He said he had recently rejected one of the Wild Wild Webs core values the idea that private internet platforms exist to provide a forum for all ideas, no matter how toxic.When we started Reddit 15 years ago, we didnt ban things, Mr. Huffman told me in an interview this week. And it was easy, as it is for many young people, to make statements like that because, one, I had more rigid political beliefs and, two, I lacked perspective and real-world experience.Now, Mr. Huffman says he understands that some speech hate, harassment, bullying prevents others from speaking, and that a no-limits platform culture often empowers those least committed to civil conversation. Its a position that reflects a more mature understanding of the dynamics of online communities, and the many ways a powerful platforms inaction can be weaponized.ImageCredit...Jeenah Moon for The New York TimesI dont mean to suggest that Reddit, or any other tech company, has fully matured, or fixed its problems overnight. (Some companies may be beyond reform, in fact.) But the world is changing, and the tech industry is being forced to change along with it. A tech monoculture that once celebrated its recklessness and irreverence move fast and break things! is being pushed aside by a younger and more politically conscious generation of tech workers who actually want their companies products to reflect their values. Lawmakers and activists have realized the tech industrys influence, and they are finding points of leverage to force much-needed reforms. Users are savvier, too, and a generation of young people who grew up on the Wild Wild Web are demanding new rules and more attentive referees.Its hard to define the Wild Wild Web exactly, or say precisely when it began. I usually mark it as starting in September 2006, when Facebook opened its doors beyond college students and introduced a new feature called the News Feed a home screen that showed users a personalized, dynamic list of their friends activities. That kind of feed curated by an algorithm and designed for virality and addiction coupled with Facebooks increasingly unmanageable scale created the perfect environment for misbehavior, and became the template for nearly every successful internet company of the 2010s.More recently, the hallmark of the Wild Wild Web became a kind of shoot-first, aim-later approach to corporate strategy. Terms like permissionless innovation and blitzscaling entered the tech lexicon, and companies used lofty mission statements to paper over their more craven aspirations for dominance and profit. When things went wrong privacy scandals, legal missteps, the occasional genocide an apology and a five-point plan to do better next time usually sufficed.The Wild Wild Web hasnt been all bad. Expanded access to information and convenience, the dismantling of problematic and exclusionary gatekeepers and a decade-plus of economic growth have all been all positive results. But every benefit has come with costs. The same tools that produced personalized recommendations, engagement-optimized feeds and the Internet of Things also produced political polarization, viral misinformation and pervasive surveillance. The internet giants unwillingness to make rules (and then, later, their inability to enforce them) empowered a generation of bigots and media manipulators who are now among our most influential public figures.Just like the California gold rush, the Wild Wild Web started an enormous accumulation of personal and corporate power, transforming our social order overnight. Power shifted from the czars of government and the creaky moguls of the Fortune 500 to the engineers who built the machines and the executives who gave them their marching orders. These people were not prepared to run empires, and most of them deflected their newfound responsibility, or pretended to be less powerful than they were. Few were willing to question the 2010s Silicon Valley orthodoxy that connection was a de facto good, even as counter-evidence piled up.There are still some stubborn holdouts. (Facebook, in particular, still appears attached to the narrative that social media simply reflects offline society, rather than driving it.) But among the public, there is no more mistaking Goliaths for Davids. The secret of the tech industrys influence is out, and the critics who have been begging tech leaders to take more responsibility for their creations are finally being heard.Its hard to say what caused this change. Joan Donovan, a research director at the Harvard Kennedy Schools Shorenstein Center, wrote in Wired that the coronavirus pandemic had helped platform leaders locate their spines by raising the stakes of inaction.Not so long ago, before the pandemic hit, each platform would only tend to its specific user base, keeping up with a triple bottom line by balancing profits with social and environmental impact, Ms. Donovan wrote. Now, having witnessed the terrifying results of unchecked medical misinformation, the same companies understand the importance of ensuring access to timely, local, and relevant facts.ImageCredit...Amr Alfiky/The New York TimesThe nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, and the calls for racial justice they have inspired, also helped empower rank-and-file tech employees to demand more from their bosses. Two weeks ago, after I wrote that Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were undermining the fight for racial justice, even as their leaders publicly proclaimed support for it, I got dozens of messages from tech employees who were frustrated with their own companies hypocrisy.Other motivations may be more practical. Regulators and lawmakers, especially Democrats, are eager to cut Silicon Valley down to size, and some U.S. tech companies may be hedging their bets in case Mr. Trump loses his re-election bid in November.The end of the Wild Wild Web may not be all positive, either. The next phase of the internet is likely to be more balkanized, as countries like China and India tighten their digital borders. Increased scrutiny of social media platforms in the United States may cause them to splinter along ideological lines, in ways that will increase polarization and civic unrest. There is no guarantee that the new rules will be fairly applied, or that the new algorithms wont end up supporting some other form of antisocial behavior.But there is no turning back. The people who build transformative technologies can no longer credibly claim that their creations are just tools, any more than Supreme Court justices can claim that their opinions are just words. Governments that once embraced innovation as an unalloyed good like India, which this week banned TikTok and dozens of other Chinese-owned apps to protect its sovereignty and integrity now recognize, correctly, that letting someone else build your apps is tantamount to letting them shape your society. Users, too, are ready to live in a more responsible internet. They understand that there are drawbacks to lawlessness, and that scale is no excuse for negligence.To the people who loved the Wild Wild Web and, for a time, I was one of them the coming wave of change may feel like the bittersweet end of an era. There was something romantic and thrilling about the idea of a digital realm that carried none of the baggage of the physical world, that played by different rules and obeyed different authorities.But the internet is no longer a world distinct and apart from the physical world. We all live online, and its long past time for the world on our screens to be managed as thoughtfully, and with as much accountability, as our roads and schools and hospitals. The Wild Wild Web may be over, but the real building has just begun. | Tech |
Elon Musk Makes $3.5 Million Off Flamethrower Joke!!! 1/29/2018 Elon Musk is so hot as a businessman, he can joke about getting into the flamethrower biz ... and instantly make millions. Elon's Boring Company reportedly sold $3.5 million worth of $500 flamethrowers right out of the gate. He just announced the new product on Sunday, and showed off the technology in a video. W.C. Fields couldn't have done it better, because they got flooded with pre-orders. The Tesla and SpaceX founder joked back in December that he'd get in on the flame game if his tunnel-building Boring Company sold 50,000 hats. Man of his word. That's hot. | Entertainment |
Out ThereAstronomers have given us a look into the engine compartment of a quasar.VideoNew images show material being ejected from the quasar 3C 279, five billion light years away, observed over several nights in April 2017.CreditCredit...Video by J.Y. Kim et al., Astronomy & Astrophysics (2020)/Event Horizon TelescopeApril 7, 2020Astronomers said Tuesday that they had for the first time seen a black hole spitting fire from the heart of a distant quasar. The work, by the same team that produced the first image of a black hole last year, illuminates the workings of one of the mysterious fountains of energy that dot deepest space and have tantalized astronomers with their ferocious energies ever since they were discovered more than 50 years ago.Resolved in stunning detail from a distance of five billion light-years, this blowtorch of the gods appears as a bent flame 60 light-years long, shooting downward in the movie above from a bright central blob of unholy energy that might be the black hole itself.The image was obtained using data from the Event Horizon Telescope, a globe-girdling network of radio telescopes. A year ago the Event Horizon collaboration thrilled the world by producing the first image of a black hole a chute into eternity fringed by a fiery doughnut of doom at the center of the giant galaxy Messier 87 in Virgo, one of the great belching cosmic monsters. Using a technique called very long baseline interferometry, the telescope achieves the resolving power of a telescope as big as the Earth.The new work, led by Jae-Young Kim of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, was published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. He and his colleagues said their new images, based on observations completed in April 2017, would shed additional light on how such beasts marshal their energies and light up the universe.Quasars have tantalized and tortured astronomers since they were discovered in the early 1960s as dots of light far, far away pouring out baffling amounts of energy into space. Gradually, a model of quasars and energetic galactic nuclei has evolved: Supermassive black holes, feeding on interstellar gas, dust and anything else that comes near, become surrounded by disks of doomed gas. These accretion disks then squeeze energy and particles out their poles like toothpaste from a tube, at nearly the speed of light.This scenario was brilliantly affirmed a year ago when the Event Horizon Telescope was able to see the accretion disk around the M87 black hole, framing a cosmic pothole in space. That galaxy also has a long jet shooting from its black hole. But Earth is about 50 million light-years from the galaxy, too close to be able to take in the jet, said Sheperd Doeleman of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who is director of the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration.The galaxy in the new study, 3C 279, is five billion light-years away. Also in the direction of Virgo, it is thought to be powered by a black hole about 800 million times more massive than the sun.Dr. Doelemans team observed the quasar for four nights in April 2017 as they were calibrating their telescope to get ready for M87. The fact that they saw the jet gave them confidence that their imaging software worked. So, as he said in an email, they had seen that jet before, just not in this detail, and the results indicate a violent environment.Dr. Kims group has now reprocessed the observations from those four nights. In addition the group used two other sets of radio telescopes at different frequencies and different resolutions on other days. They did this to study the structure of the quasars jet and zoom in on its source, like opening a set of Matryoshka dolls, in Dr. Kims words.The results can be seen in the movie above. As viewed from afar at the lowest magnification, the jet bends down from a bright spot at the top of the frame, which corresponds to the center of the quasar, where the black hole is presumably working its grinding magic. Seen closer up, the jet decomposes into a series of blobs or hot spots shooting out. They form a line that bends slightly.Under the highest magnification, the viewer is left with two blobs one at the top of the image, which is source of the jet, and the lower feature, which is one of the jets outbursts of energy. The source of the jet looks like a bar turned sideways, nearly perpendicular to the direction of the blowtorch.That, Dr. Kim said in a statement, was a surprise, because they found this unexpected, perpendicular form where they expected to find only the source of the jet.This is like finding a very different shape by opening the smallest Matryoshka doll, he said.The perpendicular structure, the astronomers said in their paper, could be the accretion disk itself, the doughnut of fiery doomed material that circles the black hole. Enormous pressures and magnetic fields in that realm squeeze energy out the top and bottom of the doughnut at nearly the speed of light.Dr. Doleman ventured, however, that it could just be the beam twisting again to make life difficult for the observers.In the second half of the movie, the astronomers compared images from the Event Horizon Telescope at a single wavelength over the course of a week to see how the knots in the jet were moving.They in fact appeared to be moving almost 20 times the speed of light, an optical illusion that results from the foreshortened angle from which we see the jet, Dr. Doeleman explained.Another aspect of the magic of quasars.This shows the E.H.T. can be used to study a wide range of phenomena, he said. This time more of an incremental advance, sharpening our view of a powerful quasar. | science |
Credit...Yves Herman/ReutersDec. 3, 2015BRUSSELS European Union authorities said on Thursday they were formally investigating whether Luxembourg had granted McDonalds overly generous tax breaks, another front in their efforts to crack down on corporate tax avoidance.Three multinational companies with operations in Luxembourg, a tiny European Union member state that has grown rich on financial services in recent decades, have already been ensnared by recent inquiries, including Amazon and Fiat.The cases examine whether some European governments let major companies shift profits and pay lower tax rates than those available to other companies. Countries like France and Germany say the practices potentially deprive them of corporate tax revenue.In the McDonalds case, competition regulators from the European Commission will investigate deals that Luxembourg granted McDonalds that may have led to the restaurants paying less in taxes than it owes. The commission did not indicate how much unpaid tax McDonalds might have to repay if it rules against Luxembourg.The European investigators said Luxembourg in 2009 granted a so-called tax ruling to one of the companys units, McDonalds Europe Franchising, allowing it to avoid taxes in Luxembourg on the basis that its profits were to be taxed in the United States. The unit made its earnings from franchisees operating restaurants in Europe and Russia that pay for the right to use the McDonalds brand and other services. Luxembourg then granted a second tax ruling in 2009, exempting the unit from the need to prove that the income had actually been taxed in the United States.VideotranscripttranscriptE.U. on McDonald's Tax InvestigationRegulators from the European Competition Commission will investigate deals Luxembourg granted McDonalds that may have led to the restaurant paying less in European Union taxes than it owes.(SOUNDBITE) (English) EUROPEAN COMPETITION COMMISSIONER, MARGRETHE VESTAGER, SAYING: Today, we decided to open an investigation into two Luxembourg tax rulings to McDonalds, because we have the concern that those two rulings have resulted in what we say: double non-taxation, and that may be state aid. (SOUNDBITE) (English) EUROPEAN COMPETITION COMMISSIONER, MARGRETHE VESTAGER, SAYING: Double non-taxation would mean that if one authority, tax authority, say: fair enough, you shouldnt pay tax here since you paid tax somewhere else, and then the tax authorities in somewhere else say: well you shouldnt pay tax here, either and if that is accepted in both tax authorities well, then profits are not being taxed.Regulators from the European Competition Commission will investigate deals Luxembourg granted McDonalds that may have led to the restaurant paying less in European Union taxes than it owes.CreditCredit...Yves Herman/ReutersWhile the commission did not specify how much unpaid tax might be at stake, it could be tens of millions of euros, because Luxembourg has a nominal corporate tax rate of 29 percent and the unit earned substantial profits including, according to the commission, more than 250 million euros in 2013.A tax ruling that agrees to McDonalds paying no tax on their European royalties either in Luxembourg or in the U.S. has to be looked at very carefully under E.U. state aid rules, said the blocs competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager. The purpose of double taxation treaties between countries is to avoid double taxation not to justify double nontaxation.Luxembourgs Ministry of Finance described the inquiry as preliminary and said it would fully cooperate in the investigation. Luxembourg considers that no special tax treatment nor selective advantage have been granted to McDonalds, the ministry said in a statement.In a statement, McDonalds said that it complies with all tax laws and rules in Europe, and pays a significant amount of corporate income tax.From 2010-14, the McDonalds companies paid more than $2.1 billion just in corporate taxes in the European Union, the statement said, adding that its independent franchisees also paid corporate and other taxes. We are subject to the same tax laws as other companies, and are confident that the inquiry will be resolved favorably, the statement said.A group of American and European trade unions and an antipoverty charity have heavily lobbied the European Commission to open the McDonalds case. In February, they issued a report accusing Luxembourg of allowing McDonalds to avoid paying more than 1 billion in taxes from 2009 to 2013 in Britain, France, Italy, Spain and other countries.Scott Courtney, organizing director at the Service Employees International Union, which is based in Washington and provided evidence to the commission in the case, said the investigation would not have a direct impact on raising the wages of McDonalds employees around the world. But he suggested that the case could give them, and others, added leverage.ImageCredit...Charles Platiau/ReutersThis is one step in sending a message and holding them accountable, said Mr. Courtney, referring to McDonalds and its tax arrangements in Luxembourg. If things like this are in the public eye, it helps hold them accountable on wages and their treatment of workers and what they do with suppliers, said Mr. Courtney, who added that McDonalds had shortchanged governments just as they were adopting austerity policies that made life even tougher for ordinary citizens and workers.Luxembourg has previously denied granting unfair state aid to multinational companies. But the formal opening of the case involving McDonalds is a sign that Ms. Vestager believes she has enough evidence that the company may have benefited from such treatment.In October, Ms. Vestager ordered Luxembourg to recover up to 30 million euros, or about $31.8 million, from Fiat Finance and Trade, and she is still investigating the country for its tax treatment of Amazon. Fiat has said that its financing unit had not received any state aid from Luxembourg. Also in October, Ms. Vestager ordered the Netherlands to retrieve a similar amount from Starbucks. The Dutch government said late last month that it would appeal the Starbucks ruling.In Ireland, Ms. Vestager is investigating tax rulings granted to Apple. And in Belgium, her inquiry is focused on a special tax break granted to dozens of subsidiaries of Belgian-based multinational companies that include a unit of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the worlds largest brewer.The cases against Luxembourg are awkward for Jean-Claude Juncker, the countrys former prime minister. He is now president of the European Commission and Ms. Vestagers boss. Mr. Juncker has been accused by his opponents of helping to turn Luxembourg into a tax haven during his nearly two decades leading the nation.The tax cases are different from those Ms. Vestager has against Google and Gazprom, among other companies, because they are not based on antitrust regulations and are directed at countries that use tax rulings to gain an advantage in attracting investors.Unlike in antitrust cases, companies found to have received such aid do not face fines or a finding of wrongdoing. Instead, the European Commission would impose penalties on the country that granted the aid. | Business |
Credit...Rozette Rago for The New York TimesJune 20, 2018WASHINGTON Long one of President Trumps most ardent defenders, the evangelist Franklin Graham voiced strenuous dissent this week about the practice of separating families at the border, even calling it disgraceful. His comments, along with other criticism from the evangelical community, raised the possibility that the presidents support from conservative Christians might erode as outrage mounted over the Trump administrations zero-tolerance immigration policy.But if evangelical leaders were pained by the sight of children being taken from their parents, they did not directly fault Mr. Trump.Instead, many blamed Congress and past administrations, Republican and Democrat, and emphasized that Mr. Trump called family separation horrible in a tweet and that he wanted a legislative fix for immigration. And though it is too early to know the electoral consequences of the policy, few conservative Christian political leaders have been concerned that Mr. Trump will lose support among their ranks, which represent one of his most important voting blocs.This is not the administrations fault, Mr. Graham said in an interview on Monday, while reiterating his stance against family separation. I dont point the finger at Trump..But even Mr. Trump, after weeks of pushing his administrations policy and asserting, wrongly, that current law required family separation, retreated on Wednesday afternoon. He signed an executive order to end his administrations policy of separating families and instead said they could be detained together indefinitely. The order said that officials would continue to criminally prosecute all who cross the border illegally, and it may face a legal challenge.Mr. Graham had also accused lawmakers of visiting detention centers for political gain, after recent high-profile trips by Democrats. This administration is extremely concerned, Mr. Graham said before votes in Congress on two immigration proposals expected this week. Theyve got to have some Democrats cross the aisle.ImageCredit...Sandy Huffaker for The New York TimesRobert Jeffress, the pastor of First Baptist Dallas, who gave a controversial prayer at the opening of the United States Embassy in Jerusalem last month, said he fully supported the presidents policy. He called the separation of families gut-wrenching and the optics of the situation horrible. But he said it was more gut-wrenching to see immigrants enter the country illegally and harm or kill Americans, echoing one of the presidents prime arguments for zero tolerance.Their stances underscored the delicate path evangelical leaders had to tread as they expressed deep unease about border separations, while still maintaining staunch opposition to illegal immigration and showing loyalty to a president who has consistently delivered on their policy goals.There were some schisms beneath the unified front, however, as frustration mountedamong Hispanic evangelicals, one of the fastest-growing religious groups in the United States. Wilfredo De Jess, who leads the largest Assemblies of God church in the country, New Life Covenant in Chicago, said that the close ties between the conservative evangelical leadership and Mr. Trump are part of the problem.The white evangelicals need to stand up to him and say, Hey we voted for you, but you need to do something about this, Mr. De Jess said in an interview on Monday. I feel disappointed in them.Randall Balmer, professor of religion at Dartmouth College, echoed that sentiment. The persistence of evangelical support for Trump, both his personal behavior and now his immigrations policies, finally lays to rest the illusion that the religious right was ever concerned about family values, he wrote in a text.The highest-level religious criticism of the border separations to date came Wednesday morning from Pope Francis, who called the Trump administrations policy immoral in an interview with Reuters. Populism is not the solution, he said.In another sign of dissent, more than 600 members of the United Methodist Church signed a statement this week accusing Attorney General Jeff Sessions whose department was charged with enforcing the separation policy with child abuse, immorality and racial discrimination. They recommended that Mr. Sessions reclaim his values and repair the damage he is currently causing to immigrants, particularly children and families.But some evangelical leaders, like Mr. Graham, have straddled the line. Jentezen Franklin, the pastor of the Free Chapel in Gainesville, Ga., another informal evangelical adviser to Mr. Trump, said he disagreed with Attorney General Jeff Sessionss decision to cite a passage from the Bible to defend the administrations policy. And he called separating families deplorable and bordering on abuse for the children.But he did not blame Mr. Trump for separating families, either. He inherited the problem, but he is trying to fix it, he said in an interview. Its on the Congress.The Faith and Freedom Coalition, the conservative religious group led by Ralph Reed, sent a letter to House lawmakers on Tuesday urging them to vote in favor of both immigration bills. Mr. Reed, the groups chairman, said that ending the family-separation component was a part of larger immigration priorities, including the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and border security.In language that reframed the logic of family separation for evangelical voters, who have long supported anti-trafficking measures, he said that human traffickers often posed as parents to bring children across the border illegally.The Democrats are so busy playing politics with the separation issue that they are ignoring the bigger problem, which is the exploitation of minor children by traffickers, Mr. Reed said in an interview between meetings on Capitol Hill on Monday.As the political fight plays out in Washington, it has revealed competing priorities in conservative evangelical America, the pull between political and pastoral. Immigration is not one of the core issues for Concerned Women of America, a conservative Christian political organization that campaigns against abortion and in support of Israel and religious liberty. But Penny Nance, the groups president, called the family-separation problem heartbreaking and issued a statement on Tuesday calling on Congress to act.The whole base is suddenly involved, she said in an interview. People who dont normally pay attention, you have our attention.ImageCredit...Joshua Lott for The New York TimesThe debate is also a further sign of demographic tensions in evangelical communities as the movement changes. White evangelicals have long been among the presidents most loyal supporters, while nonwhite evangelicals have often expressed frustration with his stance on matters of race and immigration.In May, eight evangelical women from Chicago piled into a passenger van and took turns driving through the night to visit hundreds of immigrant women detained at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Tex. They brought the women tamales and Puerto Rican rice, gave them Bibles and prayed.Many of the detained women had left their children with relatives, while others had children who were already in the United States. They were struggling with guilt and confusion, said Brenda Bravatty, the pastor of an evangelical church in Chicago, Casa de Misericordia, who was on the trip.We encouraged them that they were going to see their children again, she said, adding that some women had been there for more than a year. What happens at the border, everything is destroyed for them. We have to rebuild their self confidence and trust.Last week, Mr. De Jess, the Chicago pastor who has also visited the center in Texas, prayed at the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, where Vice President Mike Pence; Speaker Paul D. Ryan; the House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi; and the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, all spoke on immigration.Mr. De Jess said he viewed it all as political posturing, especially before the midterms, and expressed frustration that Democrats did not overhaul immigration laws when they controlled Congress under President Barack Obama, as the Republicans do now under Mr. Trump. Hispanic evangelical pastors, he said, are fed up.Im dissatisfied at how the Republicans and Democrats are using family, an institution God created, as pawns for their benefit, Mr. De Jess said. This is going to continue to deteriorate, get worse before it gets better. | Politics |
The buzz that Tyler Blevins, also known as Ninja, generated by streaming on a new platform showed the power famous content creators have in the video game industry.Credit...Vincent Tullo for The New York TimesJuly 8, 2020When Tyler Blevins, who is better known in the video gaming world as Ninja, posted a cryptic tweet on Wednesday that seemed to hint at some sort of announcement, his ardent fans thought he might reveal the kind of big-dollar contract one would expect from baseball or basketball stars.Instead, Mr. Blevins, who was left without an online home when the streaming platform Mixer announced in June that it would shut down, played video games live on YouTube and promised fans that more streams were coming sooner rather than later.That Mr. Blevins could generate a flurry of speculation with one tweet speaks to the influence of one of the worlds most famous online personalities and to the increasing popularity of high-profile gamers. Mr. Blevins has said in interviews he would like to be as well known as the basketball star LeBron James.On Wednesday, the 10th anniversary of the day Mr. James decided to sign with the Miami Heat, Mr. Blevins did the first livestream on his own YouTube channel. He appeared with electric blue hair alongside friends and played the popular game Fortnite. At its peak, more than 160,000 people tuned into Mr. Blevinss 97-minute stream.Fans and gaming news sites were initially quick to declare that Mr. Blevins had permanently landed on YouTube, but many pumped the brakes when it became unclear whether Mr. Blevins had signed a deal with the company.Loyalists to Twitch, the Amazon-owned streaming platform, had begged Mr. Blevins to come home to the service, which he used as he rocketed to stardom several years ago before he signed a deal with Mixer, which is owned by Microsoft.Mr. Blevins, who has said he makes more than $500,000 a month from streaming, has more than 14 million followers on Twitch the most on the platform despite not being active there since he left for Mixer last summer, reportedly making $20 million to $30 million in the process.He has nearly 24 million YouTube subscribers, though he said on his stream that he had never gone live on YouTube before Wednesday.If Mr. Blevins does choose to stream exclusively on YouTube, it could provide a boost for YouTubes gaming push. The platform recently signed the contentious star Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, to an exclusive contract, but trails Twitch over all in the fight to dominate the live gaming industry.The power in the livestreaming gaming industry has gradually shifted from the platforms to the creators, said Doron Nir, the chief executive of the livestreaming services provider StreamElements, since they now have more options for where to build their brand.Representatives for Mr. Blevins did not respond to a request for comment.We welcome any content from him, said Talia Yates, a spokeswoman for YouTube, adding that the company would continue to work with Mr. Blevins to increase his presence on YouTube. She would not say whether Mr. Blevins had struck a deal with YouTube, which is owned by Google.Mr. Nir said he would not be surprised if Mr. Blevins avoided limiting himself to a single platform.While lucrative exclusivity deals are commonplace, he said, we expect to see the rise of transcendent creators. These are individuals who are able to be bigger than any one platform with the freedom to reach a much broader audience by leveraging all of them. Oprah, Ellen and Bill Simmons have all exemplified the benefit of not tethering themselves to a single platform, and Ninja can easily follow suit. | Tech |
DealBook|Related Companies Raises $1 Billion for Real Estate Fundhttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/16/business/dealbook/related-companies-raises-1-billion-for-real-estate-fund.htmlDec. 15, 2015A few years after the recession, Related Companies the real estate firm behind New York landmarks like Time Warner Center and Hudson Yards started a fund to invest in distressed properties and refurbish them to sell at a higher price.Over the last three years, the real estate market has largely bounced back to record highs. Now, Related has raised the capital for a second so-called opportunistic fund, testing its renovate-and-flip model in the healthier environment.Related is expected to report on Tuesday that it had received equity commitments of more than $1 billion, surpassing a target of $850 million, for Related Real Estate Fund II. Included in the investment roster are sovereign wealth funds, public pension plans, endowments and family offices.Unlike some traditional real estate funds, which acquire assets and then pay other firms to develop them, Related does everything from start to finish. It mostly operates in bigger cities like Chicago, Miami and New York.Stephen M. Ross founded Related Companies more than four decades ago as a company that finances and develops affordable housing. Today, its assets are valued at more than $20 billion.The impetus for Relateds funds began in 2009 when the company hired Justin M. Metz, who was global head of real estate alternatives at Goldman Sachs. The first opportunistic fund, which raised $825 million in 2012, created assets like Chicagos 111 West Wacker and One Madison Park, a residential building in New York.Mr. Metz plans to follow a similar strategy with the second fund. He said there were always pockets of distressed assets for Related to turn around.We wanted to be able to do real estate in all times in the market, said Mr. Metz in an interview at Relateds office in New York.Greenhill served as the global placement agent for Related. | Business |
USA Gymnastics Execs Resign In Wake of Nassar Scandal 1/22/2018 At least 3 powerful members of the Team USA gymnastics board of directors have resigned ... just days after Aly Raisman BLASTED the organization for its role in the Dr. Nassar sexual assault scandal. WLNS Board of Directors executive leadership chairman Paul Parilla -- along with vice chairman Jay Binder and treasurer Bitsy Kelley have resigned, USA Gymnastics has confirmed. By the way, all traces of the three board members have already been scrubbed from the Team USA gymnastics website. All three members have been on the board for years -- Parilla has been on the board since at least 2009. In addition to Binder's duties as V.P., he also served as the national team physician for acrobatic gymnastics since 1989. He served on the Team USA gymnastics board on-and-off since 2002. Team USA Gymnastics president and CEO Kerry Perry says, "We support their decisions to resign at this time. We believe this step will allow us to more effectively move forward in implementing change within our organization." | Entertainment |
Transgender Sgt. Patricia King I'll Give Trump a Chance to Make Good At State of Union Address 1/30/2018 TMZ.com Transgender Army Staff Sergeant Patricia King has a seat for the State of the Union Address, and says she's going with an open mind, despite President Trump's attempted transgender ban in the military. Sgt. King's been serving for 20 years, and will be Rep. Joe Kennedy's guest. Although Joe's delivering the Democratic response to Trump ... she tells us she's not taking sides. The sarge insists she'll give the Prez the benefit of the doubt heading into his first State of the Union. Why so forgiving? King explained it's the same reason she puts on her uniform every day. | Entertainment |
Technology|Prices of New iPhones Stay Largely Pathttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/technology/iphone-12-prices-mini-pro.htmlPrices of New iPhones Stay Largely PatOct. 13, 2020, 2:40 p.m. ETOct. 13, 2020, 2:40 p.m. ETCredit...AppleSo what will these latest iPhones cost you?Many of us can breathe a sigh of relief. Apple stuck with a proven pricing model for the new devices, releasing the entry-level phones for $700 and up and higher-end phones starting at $1,000 both prices in line with previous years.What is different this year is that Apple will sell four iPhone models, up from its typical three in recent years.At the entry level, the iPhone 12 Mini will start at $700 and iPhone 12 at $800. Last year, the iPhone 11 started at $700, meaning the flagship iPhone 12 device will start at $100 more. People will still have a $700 option, but it will be smaller.On the higher end, the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max will start at $1,000 and $1,100, identical to last year.Apple might have been able to hold prices mostly steady this year by no longer including headphones and a power adapter. The company said it was an environmental decision but it also likely saved it money and will cause many customers to buy extra accessories from Apple.Analysts and investors have long anticipated the new iPhones as a boost to flagging sales of the companys main product. A larger than normal share of existing iPhone owners are due for an upgrade, and many have held out for a 5G iPhone, not wanting to invest in a device that didnt work with the faster wireless speeds.Whether Apple was able to capitalize on the swelling demand for a 5G iPhone was something of a question this year when the coronavirus disrupted its supply chain in China. But its Chinese manufacturing partners quickly rebounded and the iPhone event was delayed by only about a month past its usual September date.Most important for Apple, it will start shipping the new devices before the crucial holiday sales season. | Tech |
N.B.A.|Nets, as Rested as Can Be, Steel Themselves for Second Halfhttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/19/sports/basketball/nets-as-rested-as-can-be-steel-themselves-for-second-half.htmlFeb. 18, 2014SALT LAKE CITY After the four-day All-Star break, the Nets reconvened for a nighttime practice at Jon M. Huntsman Center at the University of Utah. They joked that their time off was too brief. They were serious about the task at hand. It was great, physically as well as mentally, to take that break, step away from the game, take a breath of fresh air, said Shaun Livingston, who went home to Peoria, Ill. Hopefully were all rejuvenated.The Nets, who have battled injuries big and small all season, appreciated the break, even as they complained about its brevity. They will certainly need their energy for their six-game, 11-day trip. They will face the Utah Jazz on Wednesday and then the Golden State Warriors, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Portland Trail Blazers, the Denver Nuggets and the Milwaukee Bucks. They will not play at Barclays Center until March 3, when the face the Chicago Bulls.Coach Jason Kidd singled out the teams rebounding as in need of improvement. This week, though, Thursdays trade deadline may hang a temporary cloud over the gelling process, as it does around the league each season. Over the break, Jason Terry and Reggie Evans found their names swirling amid the trade speculation.Were two days away from the deadline, Terry said. Youve got to figure somebodys name is going to be in it.Terry said such talk was natural around this time, though he conceded that he would rather not sit in limbo all week and that he might have a conversation with General Manager Billy King. Evans dismissed the rumors as a noise that he, a father of four, did not have time to fret over.Deron Williams offered a different perspective.People like to say it doesnt wear on them, he said, but if your names being thrown out there, its hard not to think about it, especially if you have a family and youve got to uproot your family. Its a lot to think about. Its definitely tough, and I guess once the deadline passes, itll be good for us. | Sports |
Women Triples Jumps Program from: 2014 South Korean Figure Skating championships Jumps Program from: 2014 European championships Jumps Program from: 2014 European championships Jumps Program from: 2014 U.S. Figure Skating championships Jumps Program from: 2014 European championships Jumps Program from: 2014 U.S. Figure Skating championships Men Quads + Triples Jumps Program from: ISU Grand Prix Final 2013-14 Jumps Program from: ISU Grand Prix Final 2013-14 Jumps Program from: 2014 European Figure Skating Championship Jumps Program from: ISU Grand Prix NHK Trophy 2013 Jumps Program from: ISU European Championships 2014 Jumps Program from: 2014 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships More on NYTimes.com | Sports |
Photo Credit Zohar Lazar Were taking the first week of April as an opportunity to debunk popular misconceptions about health and science that circulate all year round. Some of these items were inspired by areas of confusion that reporters on The New York Times science desk encounter again and again. Others came directly from our readers, who submitted the misconceptions that frustrate them the most to our science Facebook page. Photo Credit European Space Agency/NASA Misconception: The universe started someplace. Where did the Big Bang happen? Its a question that Dennis Overbye, The New York Timess cosmic affairs correspondent, gets a lot. Actually: The Big Bang didnt happen at a place; it happened at a time. Read on from your spot at the center of the universe. (Thats not an April Fools joke, either, as youll find out.) Photo Credit Zohar Lazar for The New York Times Misconception: Computers will outstrip human capabilities within many of our lifetimes. Actually: Most researchers say that you wont be obsolete for a long time, if ever, reporter John Markoff writes. Photo Moderate exercise has many benefits, but building strong bones isn't one. Credit Tara Moore/Getty Images Misconception: Moderate exercise builds strong bones. Many public health groups and health sites promote this exercise prescription, promising it will stave off weak bones. It sounds too good to be true. And it is, writes Gina Kolata, a Times medical reporter. It turns out, moderate exercise has little or no effect on bone strength. Read on. And take a second look. Photo Credit Zohar Lazar Misconception: Its just a theory. When everyone has a theory, actual scientific theories like evolution take a hit. Theories are neither hunches nor guesses. They are the crown jewels of science, writes reporter Carl Zimmer. Photo Credit Drew Angerer for The New York Times Misconception: Climate change is not real because there is snow in my yard. Actually: Anyone who utters an argument like this is mixing up climate and weather, writes reporter Justin Gillis. Read on.Related Misconception: A global warming pause means climate change is bunk. Whether or not there was a pause in global warming for a dozen years or so has no bearing on the underlying scientific validity of climate change, reporter John Schwartz writes.Thats like saying a temporary dip in the stock market means that the best long-term investment strategy is keeping your cash under the mattress. Photo Credit Zohar Lazar for The New York Times Misconception: In an asteroid belt, spaceships have to dodge a fusillade of oncoming rocks. One of the great early arcade video games was Ataris Asteroids. You would maneuver and spin a small triangular spaceship, blasting space rocks to bits until inevitably an asteroid smashed you into line fragments. Similarly, many movies have relied on the the act of evading asteroids to create high-drama scenes. Reporter Kenneth Chang explores just how many space rocks you would actually encounter in an asteroid belt. As it turns out - so few that Han Solo would be safe snoozing. Read on. Photo Baby teeth matter. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times Misconception: Baby teeth dont matter. Whats the big deal if toddlers get cavities? Those teeth are going to fall out anyway. Catherine Saint Louis, a health reporter for The New York Times, has heard this numerous times. Actually: Neglecting baby teeth can set a child up for lifelong dental trouble. Read on. Photo Credit Zohar Lazar Misconception: Spree killers must be mentally ill. Actually: Mass killers dont usually fit into an existing category of mental illness, and there is usually little evidence that early treatment would have helped prevent their attacks. Terrorists are even less likely to be mentally unstable, writes Benedict Carey in this gloomy but thought-provoking read. Photo Credit Zohar Lazar Misconception: You Cant Get an S.T.D. From Oral Sex And most people around 71 percent consider oral sex to be sex. But many, particularly young adults, seem to be unaware that it is indeed possible to get an S.T.D. this way. Reporter Jan Hoffman breaks down the statistics around oral sex and S.T.D.s. | science |
Credit...Bruce Weaver/Associated PressMarch 25, 2016Thirty years ago, Bob Ebeling drove to the headquarters of the aerospace contractor Morton Thiokol in Brigham City, Utah, to watch the launch of the space shuttle Challenger. On the way, he leaned over to his daughter Leslie and said: The Challenger is going to blow up. Everyones going to die.Mr. Ebeling (pronounced EBB-ling), an engineer at Thiokol, knew what the rest of the world did not: that the rubber O-rings designed to seal the joints between the booster rockets segments performed poorly in cold weather. A severe cold snap in Florida was about to subject the O-rings to temperatures more than 30 degrees lower than at any previous launch.During the afternoon and evening before the launch, Thiokol engineers, relying on data provided by Mr. Ebeling and his colleagues, argued passionately for a postponement of the launch in conference calls with NASA managers at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. They were overruled not only by NASA, but also by their own managers.On the morning of Jan. 28, 1986, sitting in a conference room with his daughter and Roger Boisjoly, Thiokols chief seal expert, Mr. Ebeling watched on a large projection screen as the Challenger cleared the launching pad. I turned to Bob and said, Weve just dodged a bullet, Mr. Boisjoly told The Guardian in 2001.A minute later, the O-rings failed and the Challenger exploded in a ball of fire, killing all seven crew members aboard. Among them was Christa McAuliffe, a schoolteacher from New Hampshire who had been chosen to be the first citizen passenger in space.ImageCredit...United States Fish and Wildlife ServiceMr. Ebeling never recovered from the disaster. Ive been under terrible stress since the accident, he told The Houston Chronicle in 1987. I have headaches. I cry. I have bad dreams. I go into a hypnotic trance almost daily.He soon left Thiokol and the engineering profession. For the rest of his life he faulted himself for not doing enough to prevent the launch.At times, he seemed to carry the entire burden of the disaster on his shoulders, although it was he, on the afternoon before the launch, who made a critical phone call to Allan J. McDonald, the Thiokol engineer in charge of the solid rocket motor project at the Kennedy Space Center, alerting him to concerns about the O-rings.I think this was one of the mistakes that God made, Mr. Ebeling told Howard Berkes of NPR in January, on the 30th anniversary of the event. He shouldnt have picked me for that job. I dont know, but next time I talk to him, Im going to ask him, Why? You picked a loser.Mr. Ebeling died on Monday in Brigham City at 89. His daughter Leslie Serna recalled the morning of the launch in an interview on NPR that day. Robert Vernon Ebeling was born on Sept. 4, 1926, in Chicago. His father, Ado, an auto mechanic, took the family to San Diego when Robert was a boy. After graduating from high school he was called up by the Army his mother, the former Irene Kramer, sat on the local draft board and served as an infantryman in the Philippines during World War II.He returned to San Diego after his discharge and in 1949 married Darlene Popejoy, who survives him. In addition to his daughter Leslie, he is also survived by three other daughters, Kathleen Ebeling, who confirmed his death, Judy Kirwan and Terrie Johnston; 12 grandchildren; 16 great-grandchildren; and two great-great-grandchildren.Mr. Ebeling enrolled in California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, earning a degree in mechanical engineering in 1952, and went to work for Convair, a San Diego manufacturer of airplanes, rockets and spacecraft. The company made the first Atlas rockets used by Project Mercury, NASAs manned orbital flight program.Mr. Ebeling joined Thiokol, as it was then known, in 1962. A supplier of rockets and missile propulsion systems, the company in 1974 won the contract to build solid rocket boosters for the space shuttle program. Mr. Ebeling was manager of the ignition system and final assembly for the shuttle boosters.After leaving Morton Thiokol, Mr. Ebeling became a volunteer at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge near his home in Brigham City. In 1989, in response to damage caused by flooding of the Great Salt Lake, he created Friends of the Bear River Refuge, which raised money to restore the sanctuary. Drawing upon his engineering background, he also helped repair dikes and water-control structures.In 1990, President George Bush presented him with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Award for his work. In 2013, he was named the National Wildlife Refuge Systems volunteer of the year by the National Wildlife Refuge Association and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.Mr. Ebelings anguished interview with NPR in January moved hundreds of listeners to send expressions of support and sympathy.Mr. McDonald, his former boss at Thiokol, called him. I told him that he was not a loser, that a loser was someone who has a chance to act but doesnt, and worse, doesnt care, Mr. McDonald said in an interview on Thursday.He really did do something, he added. I told him that if he had not called me, we never would have had the opportunity to try to avert the disaster. They would have just gone ahead with the launch. At least we had the opportunity to try to stop it.The public response to Mr. Ebelings interview eventually had an effect, especially after a former Thiokol executive and a NASA official contacted by Mr. Berkes of NPR wrote words of encouragement. In a follow-up piece, Mr. Berkes asked Mr. Ebeling if he would like to respond.Mr. Ebeling said: You helped bring my worrisome mind to ease. You have to have an end to everything. | science |
Credit...Yuri Gripas/ReutersJune 28, 2018WASHINGTON The State Department warned in a report on Thursday that separating children from their parents can cause lasting psychological damage that leaves them vulnerable to trafficking, a cautionary tale that comes amid an uproar over a Trump administration immigration policy that has temporarily broken up migrant families as they enter the United States.Children in institutional care, including government-run facilities, can be easy targets for traffickers, the departments annual Trafficking in Persons report concluded.It added: Even at their best, residential institutions are unable to meet a childs need for emotional support that is typically received from family members or consistent caretakers with whom the child can develop an attachment.Since May, the Trump administration has separated more than 2,300 migrant children from families crossing the southwestern border. The children are placed in shelters and other temporary housing for up to 20 days while their adult parents or other relatives are held in federal custody during their immigration proceedings.President Trump has demanded that Congress reverse the policy, but did so himself last week with an executive order. He initially defended the shelters for young migrants as a safeguard against what he called a massive child smuggling trade.Can you believe this? In this day and age, were talking about child smuggling, Mr. Trump said last week in a speech to the National Federation of Independent Businesses. Were talking about women smuggling in this day and age. The worst its been in history because the internet has led to this.The conclusions in the State Departments trafficking report, one of the worlds most comprehensive, did not specifically address the Trump administrations zero tolerance policy on the southwestern border. It also gave no indication that trafficking is peaking, or that an enormous child smuggling ring is responsible for thousands of children attempting to enter the United States from Mexico.In a briefing for reporters, a top department official referred questions about childrens treatment on the southwestern border to the health officials who have responsibility for their care. The official also sought to draw a distinction between child smuggling and trafficking. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity under the terms of the briefing.John Sifton, an advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, called the report an indictment of the Trump administrations own policies, with respect to asylum seekers and others seeking entry into the United States.At a ceremony on Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Ivanka Trump, the presidents eldest daughter and senior adviser, handed out awards to advocates who fight human trafficking. Mr. Pompeo did not mention the controversy over the administrations border policies, focusing instead on how countries have improved, worsened or stayed the same in their efforts to fight trafficking over the past year.Among the countries he praised were Estonia, Argentina, Bahrain and Cyprus. Those he criticized included Libya, Myanmar, North Korea and Iran.The world should know that we will not stop until human trafficking is a thing of the past, Mr. Pompeo said.At a similar event last year, former Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson criticized North Korea for forcing 50,000 to 80,000 of its citizens to work overseas and then using their wages to fund weapons programs.This year, Mr. Pompeo mentioned North Korea only briefly. The administration has in recent weeks played down Pyongyangs poor human rights record as it seeks an agreement for North Korea to surrender its nuclear and missile programs.Generally, human rights have not been viewed as a high priority for the Trump administration. Mr. Tillerson had cautioned while in office over distractions to national security or economic interests.But human trafficking issues have been a notable exception, which is why the reports release is part of an elaborate ceremony. Ms. Trump did not offer remarks; her shoe brand came under criticism for its use of Chinese labor and the disappearance last year of three labor activists investigating conditions at the plants manufacturing her products. China ranks among the worst offenders on human rights and trafficking.Thursdays report is the latest in a series of State Department efforts that have starkly contrasted with White House messaging. Last week, the departments consular affairs unit held a question-and-answer session via Facebook on tips for traveling with children, which led to a cascade of derisive questions about the advisability of caging children.The next day, Mr. Pompeo issued a statement on World Refugee Day commemorating the strength, courage and resilience of millions of refugees worldwide who have been forced to flee their homes due to persecution and conflict. Many of the families caught on the southwestern border are escaping violence and persecution, only to be imprisoned and charged as criminals for illegally entering the United States. | Politics |
DealBook|CVC Partners to Take Stake in Payments Security Providerhttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/17/business/dealbook/cvc-partners-to-take-stake-in-payments-security-provider.htmlDec. 16, 2015As CVC Partners looks to expand its push into so-called growth investments, the private equity firm is planning to take a stake in a payments security start-up.CVC plans to announce Wednesday that it has invested $80 million into Kount, whose products are meant to help merchants clamp down on fraudulent online transactions, according to people briefed on the matter.Other terms of the transaction, including the valuation assigned to Kount, were not available.The deal will be the second from CVCs growth equity fund, for which the firm has been raising $750 million to focus on smaller, technology-focused investments. It is the latest effort by a major private equity firm to focus on growth investments, which require less money upfront but could have a sizable return down the road.Executives at the investment firm had been interested in mobile payments for some time and began looking into the industry about a year ago, one of these people said. The firm eventually concluded that Kount, which is based in Boise, Idaho, was a top leader in the field and worth becoming close with.Kounts products are meant to help retailers determine whether card not present transactions largely those conducted online set off particular warning signs. The companys clients include Chase Paymentech, PayPals Braintree subsidiary and the music streaming service Spotify. | Business |
Business BriefingDec. 8, 2015Hundreds of civil lawsuits against Volkswagen over its use of deceptive software to evade emissions tests will be heard by a federal judge in California, despite a push from the automaker and the federal government to send the cases to Detroit. The United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation decided on Tuesday to send the cases to District Judge Charles R. Breyer in San Francisco, where the first VW case in the nation was filed.Over 500 civil suits have been filed against the company, nearly a fifth in California, the panel said. It noted that relevant documents and witnesses might be found in California, given the role played by the states Air Resources Board in uncovering Volkswagens actions. The automaker has already admitted using the deceptive software. Many plaintiffs lawyers are accusing the company of defrauding customers, who say the value of their cars has dropped. | Business |
Global SoccerFeb. 11, 2014LONDON It feels as if much of England is drowning. And half the clubs in its Premier League are afraid of going under.Neither is an exaggeration. Historic rainfalls keep coming, flooding farmlands and towns in the south. And just seven points separate 11 teams in the bottom half of the league.The nation is fighting nature. The clubs are gripped by fear of dropping out of the worlds richest soccer league.Soccer in the Premier League is awash with money. Even the lowest of its 20 teams will be paid 63 million pounds, or $103 million, this season as its share from television revenues.But three clubs will be relegated when the season ends in May. Once they drop, they will leak resources. The chief executive of one of those clubs broadcast on local radio last month that he would prefer death rather than relegation. A bit over the top? Of course, but there is history to such talk.Nearly 33 years have passed since the death of Bill Shankly, the marvelous, mischievous team manager of Liverpool, who once said: Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that. Shanks could bandy words similar to the way that the great Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi did. And, from my own early days as a young television reporter, I can confirm that Liverpools sage said many a word with a poker face while chuckling inside.One doubts that Norwich Citys chief executive, David McNally, is quite so expert in front of the microphone. McNally is a numbers man. He has to make the books balance, and he fears, as do half the chief executives in the Premier League, what would happen if his club sank.We will not contemplate relegation, McNally said in an interview broadcast on BBC Radio Norfolk. In a sporting sense, it is worse than death. There was no chuckle to be heard. The executive was asked if the team manager, Chris Hughton, had the backing of the Norwich board. We are in the entertainment business, and results are the only thing that matters, he responded. Whether Chris has a long term at Norwich City, or whether I do, it is about how well we do in our jobs and the only real measure is results.Beyond the rhetoric is the math. To stay in the Premier League, Norwich does what every other team does. It buys the best players it can from the world market. It pays wages that would not be sustainable outside the Premier League, but there is a black hole of inequality below that.Clubs that go down are often saddled with players who either abandon ship and play for somebody else or, if they are not wanted by another Premier League side, hold the relegated club to their seven-figure annual contracts.ImageCredit...Olly Greenwood/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesThats entertainment? Actually, its business with a callous reality. The repercussion usually comes before the fall, at least as far as the coaches and managers are concerned.Norwich is open and honest about its relationship with Hughton. His job depends on his keeping the team out of the bottom three, preferably by deploying attractive tactics.But if Hughton, once a classy Tottenham Hotspur fullback, is dangled by a thread, he at least still has a job.Seven other coaches within the 20-team Premier League have already departed. Five of them, Paolo di Canio (Sunderland), Ian Holloway (Crystal Palace), Martin Jol (Fulham), Steve Clarke (West Bromwich Albion) and Malky Mackay (Cardiff), were rooted in or right near the relegation zone when relieved of their duties.Two others have also fallen. Spurs dismissed Andr Villas-Boas because, after spending a fortune to get into the Champions League places, he ran out of time to prove he could knit all the talents into a convincing unit.And a week ago, Swansea City terminated the contract of Michael Laudrup.Swansea is a small club of big ambition on the Welsh coast, where the storms battering England first hit. The Swans know how turbulence really feels, because the club has twice risen through four divisions of the English leagues and has survived flirting with bankruptcy.Huw Jenkins, the chairman who fired Laudrup, is a lifelong fan who, as a local businessman, helped form the rescue plan that spared Swansea from liquidation.Jenkins has had a Midas touch in choosing managers to build attractive teams on tight budgets.Roberto Martinez (now at Everton) and Brendan Rodgers (now at Liverpool) fulfilled that role before moving on. Jenkins and his board then signed up Laudrup, the great Dane who graced the fields and then managed clubs in Denmark, Spain and Russia.Laudrups sportsmanship and serenity survived the transition from player to coach. He recruited decent, cut-rate players from Spain to help Swansea win the League Cup last year, the clubs first major trophy in 102 years of existence. There was talk of Real Madrid or Chelsea luring him. But last year, Swansea banished Laudrups agent. Then came injuries to last seasons top striker, Michu, and others as the team struggled with Europa League games on top of the Premier League.To some, Laudrups laissez-faire attitude became a reason to dismiss him. The team lies in the middle of the standings, yet only a couple of defeats from danger. Laudrup was replaced by the club captain Garry Monk. Without going into detail, Jenkins wrote in last weekends match program, it was clear to all our directors that the strong principles we have had at Swansea City over the last 10 years were slowly being eroded. The Swans are gambling on staying afloat. The sacking season is just over halfway done. | Sports |
Suzanne Somers I'll Say It, I'm Happy with Trump ... 'Now My Career is Over!!!' 1/22/2018 TMZ.com Suzanne Somers is saying it loud and proud ... she's a huge fan of President Trump, and she also believes she's committing career suicide by saying that. We got Suzanne leaving WeHo hot spot Madeo over the weekend and asked about the government shutdown. She says politicians need to get their crap together, but she praises the Prez ... particularly for the economy. For the record, Trump's GDP stats in his first year mirror almost exactly Obama's in his second term. Suzanne -- whose last big TV gig was on the '90s sitcom "Step by Step" -- can't help but laugh after acknowledging her Hollywood fate. | Entertainment |
VideotranscripttranscriptSyrian Refugee Discusses E.U. MeasuresA Syrian refugee, who said he did not know of the European Unions deal to turn back migrants landing in Greece, said that he and fellow refugees have suffered in Turkey, and did not want to return.I have not heard that they are sending Syrians back to Turkey. I heard that maybe Iranians, Persians, Afghanis but I didnt heard they are taking Syrians back to Turkey. // We just want to get here and we get rid of Turkey because we dont want to go to Turkey anymore. We have suffered there a lot. We dont want to go there anymore. Anywhere is better than Turkey. We are done of it.A Syrian refugee, who said he did not know of the European Unions deal to turn back migrants landing in Greece, said that he and fellow refugees have suffered in Turkey, and did not want to return.CreditCredit...Tyler Hicks/The New York TimesApril 4, 2016MYTILENE, Greece They had braved risks and hardships to get to Greece, having crossed the narrow strait from Turkey in flimsy rafts like nearly a million others last year with hundreds dying along the way.But on Monday, Greek and European Union officials sent them back 202 migrants beginning a central part of a deal worked out with Turkey last month to stem the flow of people making the perilous journey to European shores.In this port on the island of Lesbos, as the sun rose over the Aegean Sea, more than 100 officers from the European border agency, Frontex, marched 136 migrants onto two ferries bound for the Turkish town of Dikili. Once there, the migrants were taken into tents for processing and then loaded onto buses to where, Turkish officials would not say.An additional 66 migrants were deported from the island of Chios, where riots broke out last week among asylum seekers fearing deportation. In all, Greek officials said those deported were mostly Pakistanis and Afghans, though they also included two Syrians, who had not asked for asylum, the officials said.The deportations were a significant step for the European Union in its effort to curb the migrant crisis. The deal with Turkey means that those landing here illegally will now be returned to Turkey.Since the deal with Turkey was struck, the number of people attempting the crossing has slowed to a relative trickle though it has not ended.Even as the 202 migrants were landing in Turkey on Monday, others were taking off, despite the fact that the Turks had pledged to cut off the route in exchange for 6 billion euros, or about $6.8 billion, and other inducements.ImageCredit...Tyler Hicks/The New York TimesIn Greece, the deportations have perils of their own, enough to make it unclear whether they can be scaled up quickly and sharply.Though the deportations on Monday did not meet any resistance, they sent new waves of anxiety through the overcrowded military-style camp where migrants are detained in Moria, on Lesbos.Migrants in the camp shouted to journalists, complaining about their detention and the camps conditions from behind a chain-link fence topped with three rows of razor wire. Some yelled that they were being treated inhumanely and as criminals. Others defiantly said that they would not go home. Police officers then moved in and forced journalists to leave and broke up the crowd gathered at the fence.In the past week, riots have broken out in several places, especially between Afghans and Syrians, many of whom have little idea of how the asylum process works and have grown increasingly fearful that, having made it this far, they will be sent home.More than 800 migrants broke out of a camp in Chios on Friday to protest what humanitarian groups said were prisonlike conditions.Greece is still waiting for thousands of police officers and specialists on asylum from other European Union countries to arrive to help with the process of sifting who will stay and who will go from among those who had already arrived in Greece before March 20, when the deal with Turkey went into effect.Those who have arrived since March 20 have been put in holding centers, and will be deported. Turkey and the European Union agreed that the Syrians and Iraqis among them who are judged to be refugees fleeing war can then apply from Turkey for asylum in Europe.For each new person Turkey takes in, one Syrian refugee already in Turkey will be sent to Europe. Those returned to Turkey and judged by the authorities there to be non-refugees will sent back to their home countries, Turkish officials have said.The main objective is to stick a blow to the business model of human trafficking from the Turkish coasts to the Greek islands, said Giorgos Kyritsis, the Greek governments spokesman on migration.The deal aims to convince people that until now were victims of the smugglers, that it is against their interests to risk their lives and pay all this money in order to make it to the Greek islands, he said, and that the shortest and the only legal way to get to Europe is to be included in the resettlement program underway in Turkey.Yet even as the Turkish officials carried out a series of raids to crack down on smugglers in recent days, some migrants have been undeterred by or unaware of the new regulations.On Monday, dozens of migrants set off for Greece in rubber dinghies and were intercepted by the Greek and Turkish coast guards.Less than two hours after the ferries took the 202 migrants back from the Greek islands to Turkey, an additional 59 migrants from Syria were picked up by the Greek coast guard in a Zodiac rubber raft.The Greeks brought them to port in Lesbos, and later the police ushered the group to the migrant camp in Moria, where nearly 3,600 migrants who arrived after March 20 are detained.Inshallah, I will get to Germany, said one migrant, Mohamed Zaki, 22, after he was brought ashore. Were lucky we are in Europe, he said, adding that the smugglers did not inform them that deportations were now taking place.The processing of asylum applications on the Greek islands is expected to start on Thursday and could take weeks if not months, if migrants appeal a rejection.Mr. Kyritsis, the Greek migration official, said no one who applies for asylum would be sent back to Turkey before receiving a definite answer from the authorities.As the expulsions got underway on Monday, several European countries said they were working to fulfill their end of the bargain with Turkey.Germany announced that it was accepting 32 Syrians from Turkey in the state of Lower Saxony, and Finland said it would take in 11 Syrians. The numbers were still far shy of commitments to distribute about 160,000 asylum seekers among European Union countries.In Lesbos, two German tourists shouted messages of support to the migrants from outside the fence at the holding camp in Moria.We dont agree with these deportations, said Adrian Ils, a retiree from Cologne. I can assure you there are many people in Germany who dont agree with the policy of closed borders.Its a shame the E.U. cannot find a common policy to share the problem, he added. We need to show our solidarity with desperate people isnt that what Europe is about? | World |
Flavor Flav Attacked in Vegas Casino 1/24/2018 Flavor Flav was on the receiving end of a brutal beatdown in Vegas ... TMZ has learned. Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... the attack happened Tuesday at the South Point Casino. Flav told cops the suspect, Ugandi Howard, accused him of somehow disrespecting his mother, and then started swinging. Flav says Howard punched him in the face, and kicked him while he was on the ground. Flav told cops he only went down because he pulled a groin muscle. Cops say casino security took Howard into custody. When officers arrived, he was cited for battery and released. Flav went to a hospital to get checked out, but only suffered minor injuries. Of course, the whole thing was captured on casino surveillance video, and law enforcement tells us it shows Howard throwing the first punch. | Entertainment |
TrilobitesA white-headed raptor has been preying on smaller birds in Central Park. Its come a long way since conservationists affixed aluminum bands to its legs four years ago.Credit...Ryan MandelbaumFeb. 4, 2022Visitors to Central Parks reservoir in New York are taking in a drama filled with feathers. Its star performer, thrilling parkgoers and terrorizing gulls, is Rover, a bald eagle.The citys birders have been tracking Rover for two years, and some point to his ongoing story as demonstrating the conservation benefits of attaching aluminum bands to the legs of threatened bird species when they are young. Rovers arrival in the five boroughs also adds to mounting evidence of a return to urban areas by birds of prey. If Rover can make a home in and around Central Park, perhaps even more eagles will fill the citys skies in the years ahead.Rovers story begins in New Haven, Conn. In 2016, the towns birders were surprised to see a pair of bald eagles set up a nest near a busy intersection. The male wore a band around his leg reading P2, while the female was unbanded. Birders christened the pair Walter and Rachel W and R after the West River, which flows through the city, said Martin Torresquintero, the outdoor adventure coordinator for the citys government.Walter and Rachel failed to raise any young that year and then relocated to a nearby cemetery. They succeeded the next year, and again in 2018 when they laid three eggs.Biologists with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection monitored the nest until the eggs hatched. On May 11, 2018, Brian Hess, a state wildlife biologist, rode a New Haven city cherry picker up to the nest and removed the chicks. He weighed and measured them, placed a metal ring around each of their legs, and returned them. One ring contained a long number assigned by the United States Geological Surveys Bird Banding Laboratory, while the other contained two large characters visible through spotting telescopes or zoom lenses. The female siblings band read P7, while one males read R7 and the other, S7.Two years later, a young bald eagle began keeping vigil in the tall pine trees of Brooklyns Green-Wood Cemetery. I couldnt believe that a bald eagle was hanging out at Green-Wood Cemetery in the middle of Brooklyn, said Angela Panetta, a birder in the borough who said the eagle got her interested in birding.Birders in Green-Wood caught sight of a ring around his left leg, R over 7 earning him the nickname Rover, and theyve been tracking him ever since.Then, just a few weeks ago, a banded bald eagle dramatically appeared in Central Park, perching low over the reservoir and snatching a gull out of the air in front of onlookers.Mr. Hess had seen a video of the Central Park bald eagle on the hunt. I thought, wow, thats the coolest thing, he said. Shortly after, he was contacted with a report that a bald eagle with the black band reading R7 had been hanging around New York City. He recognized the combination instantly it was one of the siblings hed banded in 2018.Rover represents part of an ongoing trend of birds of prey moving into urban areas. Raptor populations plummeted in the first half of the 20th century because of widespread hunting and use of the insecticide DDT. These chemicals traveled up the food web and accumulated in predators such as bald eagles, making their eggs shells too thin to support the parents weight, said Jen Cruz, a population ecologist at Boise State University.Bans on DDT, as well as laws forbidding harming or disturbing bald eagles, have led to the species recovery. The U.S. bald eagle population has quadrupled since 2009, and these large, white-headed raptors are now a regular sight even in New York City; bald eagles breed on Staten Island, for example. The birds are adaptable, and can feed on fish, roadkill, other birds and more even in Central Park.Ive been birding Central Park now for at least five years, said Ursula Mitra of Manhattan. And frankly I have never seen an eagle hunting on the reservoir except for the past four or five weeks.Birds of prey still face threats in New York City. Just last year, Central Parks celebrity barred owl Barry died after colliding with a maintenance vehicle. An autopsy found that she had eaten poisoned prey.Rovers family has endured drama, too. There have been no reported resightings of P7, and S7 was killed in September 2018 by a truck in West Virginia. Rovers mother, Rachel, was hit by a truck on I-95 in 2020 and survived. But during her rehabilitation, Walter found a new mate who fought off Rachel when she tried to return to him, Mr. Torresquintero said.Mr. Hess is optimistic about Rovers future. Bald eagles begin breeding around 5 years old, and Rover is 4. Perhaps he will find a mate and choose to breed in New York City, too.Clearly this bird has figured out how to catch gulls, and probably ducks as well, Mr. Hess said. They really are smart and adaptable birds who have figured out how to survive in lots of different places. | science |
Sports of The TimesCredit...Richard Heathcote/Getty ImagesFeb. 6, 2014KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia When Don Catlin, the former head of the U.C.L.A. Olympic Analytical Laboratory, heard that three biathletes had tested positive for a nonspecific substance about a week before the Olympics, I could hear him sigh over the phone.Im not surprised, he said. Youve got to wonder if its the tip of the iceberg.Catlin had a good reason to be grim about the possibility that more biathletes were doping, which in this most recent case involved a designer version of the endurance-boosting drug EPO, according to two scientists with knowledge of the matter. He told me that biathletes were always at the center of looking for new drugs.He would know. Twelve years ago, Catlin led the team of scientists at the Salt Lake City Games that discovered three positives for a new EPO-like drug, darbepoetin, on the final day of those Games. The athletes two Russians and a Spaniard who failed that test were from cross-country skiing, a sport that makes up half of the biathlon. The other half of biathlon is shooting.Catlin last week admitted publicly for the first time that those three positive tests at the Salt Lake Games were only the tip of the iceberg of the positive tests for darbepoetin in Salt Lake City. He told me that two biathletes from those Games had also tested positive for the drug on the final day, but that he and the International Olympic Committee president at the time, Jacques Rogge, had decided against pursuing their cases because it would raise a huge stink around the world. It also could have created major legal problems. Catlin and Rogge suspected that the first three athletes who tested positive for darbepoetin would challenge those cases at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. They would question the science, the paperwork and the procedures. For Catlin and the I.O.C., it would require putting together three complex, but airtight, legal cases. Preparing two extra cases, Catlin said, seemed untenable.If you lose in C.A.S., you got a lot of egg on your face, so Jacques asked me one question, Can you win the C.A.S. case? Catlin said of the initial three positives. I said, Yes, but it will take a lot of work just for these three. So we decided to stop there. We couldnt risk taking on all five. Lose just one of those and your credibility on the issue is shot.So the two biathletes, who were never identified publicly, got lucky. Thats such an outrageous notion that I had Catlin repeat it to me several times.The I.O.C. should have pushed forward with those cases. To bury them was wrong. But the flood of positive tests during the sports biggest event was a testament to how far biathlon had fallen. Last week, biathlon stumbled yet again, when three biathletes two Russians and a Lithuanian were suspended. I still believe that most of the top people are not doping, said Sara Studebaker, an American biathlete who will compete in Sochi. But I guess it really doesnt matter what you believe. Theres a dark cloud over our sport, and now the Russians they have a big stain on them. Its bad for everybody.Tim Burke, the top American biathlete in Sochi, suggested to me on Thursday several ways to persuade biathletes to stop doping. He suggested a lifetime ban for athletes who test positive even once, and said the national federations also should be penalized.Burke is on to something. If countries not just Russia fail to control their athletes year after year, its time to make the national federations and Olympic committees accountable. Limit their participation on the World Cup circuit. Bar them from the Olympics. Whatever the penalty, it should be something painful enough to make national governing bodies invested in cleaning up their sports mess.In biathlon and cross-country skiing, that mess has existed for decades. The sports remain the Winter Games version of cycling, which for generations has been mired in the doping problems that are rife in endurance sports.Anders Besseberg, president of the International Biathlon Union, said the organization had been doing all it could. It uses a biological passport program to monitor certain biological markers in athletes urine and blood. Any variation of those markers could suggest that the athlete is doping, and that athlete is then targeted for extra testing.But no matter what the I.B.U. does, there will always be athletes who cheat.Im so sorry to say that in certain countries there is still a culture of cheating, and I think thats the main problem now, he said. Those people think they are smarter than us, that well never catch them.Some athletes will never be scared clean. But after all the money that the Brooklyn Nets billionaire owner Mikhail D. Prokhorov has poured into the Russian biathlon federation, of which he is the president, it looks as if he could have spent more on antidoping measures.At the very least, he should have been aware that his athletes might have been tempted to use drugs to cheat, since at least one has served a suspension before. And while biathlon is one of the top winter sports in Russia with great rewards for those who succeed in it it also appears easy to obtain performance-enhancing drugs in this country.In a report this week by the German broadcaster WDR, two journalists traveled to Moscow to buy a powerful drug called full-size MGF, which increases muscle size and strength but has been tested only on animals. They said the person who sold them the drug, which is not detectable using current antidoping drug screenings, was a scientist at the Russian Academy of Sciences.To be sure, Russia is not the only country with a doping problem, but it is clear that the nations government and sporting officials must do something monumental to address the issue.They need to find a way the Olympic movement needs to find a way to ensure that nothing lurks below the tip of the iceberg. | Sports |
Asia Pacific|Pomp and Pride at Peoples Congress in Beijinghttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/world/asia/pomp-and-pride-at-peoples-congress-in-beijing.htmlCredit...Roman Pilipey/European Pressphoto AgencyMarch 6, 2017BEIJING Big political gatherings are intended to inspire a combination of awe and national pride, and the annual full sessions of the National Peoples Congress in Beijing are no exception. Guards wear their best uniforms; every button is polished to a shine. Long rows of red banners flap in the breeze on the roof of the Great Hall of the People, an imposing building on Tiananmen Square.What happens inside the congress, which lasts for less than two weeks, has mostly been decided in advance by the Communist Party. The roughly 3,000 delegates are here to rubber-stamp major decisions and offer usually harmless suggestions about their pet causes.The National Peoples Congress draws representatives from all over China, including some nominally representing Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing has long claimed. Most of these legislators are Communist Party members and functionaries. But there is another contingent that is larger than even the biggest provincial delegation: the Peoples Liberation Army.Mao famously observed that power grows from the barrel of a gun, and that adage is reflected in the presence and visibility of the military at the heart of Beijing. While most delegates arrived in clumps on Sunday morning for the start of the congress, the generals arrived in a 200-strong phalanx, wearing crisply pressed uniforms and many of them carrying briefcases.ImageCredit...Damir Sagolj/ReutersThe Great Hall of the People was built in 1959, the most grandiose of a burst of buildings erected during the feverish Great Leap Forward. With thousands of Chinese and foreign journalists now showing up to cover the congress, the buildings managers have resorted to stretchy tape and smartly dressed security officers to keep unwanted guests out of important meetings.ImageCredit...Greg Baker/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesThe Great Hall meetings preserve rituals from a mostly bygone era of extreme regimentation in China. One leftover custom: the highly synchronized young women who still use almost identical motions to pour hot tea into cups at the Great Hall.ImageCredit...Wu Hong/European Pressphoto AgencyThe Great Auditorium of the Great Hall can seat about 10,000 people, but the most sought-after seats are those allocated to the Communist Party leadership on the stage at the front of the room. While Chinas ideology has been shifting toward a marriage of Chinese nationalism and socialism, the favored color scheme remains a vivid Communist red.ImageCredit...Damir Sagolj/ReutersWhat really counts in China is what happens behind the curtains, not in the sessions of the National Peoples Congress. Delegates vote on legislation that the central government has drafted during the preceding years under instructions from the Communist Party.ImageCredit...Roman Pilipey/European Pressphoto AgencyThese days the Standing Committee of the Congress, which meets much more often than the full legislature, has some skill in drafting laws, but the full annual session is virtually free of serious dissent from official policy. | World |
Storm Chasers' Star Joel Taylor Death Investigation Dropped by FBI ... Back with Local Cops 1/25/2018 Joel Taylor's death is officially off the FBI's plate -- for now at least ... TMZ has learned. Carlos Osorio -- a spokesman for the FBI's San Juan Division -- tells TMZ the feds have been pulled off the "Storm Chasers" star's case, and it's been passed back to local authorities. Osorio says FBI members conducted a preliminary investigation on the cruise ship Taylor died on this week, and concluded his death was not the result of a violent crime. That, coupled with other factors he wouldn't elaborate on, made U.S. officials determine the case was no longer in the FBI's jurisdiction. Here's the catch -- if it's determined Taylor's death is linked to murder ... we're told the feds could reopen the investigation. That doesn't seem likely -- Taylor's death appears to be tied to a drug OD. TMZ.com As we reported ... Taylor was so out of it after consuming what we're told was GHB that he was rendered unconscious on the dance floor and had to be carried to his room. Passengers told us drug us was rampant on the cruise ship as passengers partied. No arrests have been made, and local police in San Juan are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding Taylor's demise. | Entertainment |
Technology|Google Disruptions Affect Gmail, YouTube and Other Siteshttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/technology/google-gmail-snapchat-outage.htmlCredit...Christie Hemm Klok for The New York TimesJune 2, 2019Gmail, YouTube and other services that rely on Googles technology were disrupted for several hours on Sunday by what the company said were high levels of network congestion.It was not clear what specifically was behind the network problems, which Google said it first began investigating around 4 p.m. Eastern time.Google did not say how it believes the problems originated. The issues appeared to affect more than a dozen Google services, including its cloud computing technology, which is used by many companies to power their own services and apps.Google said the problems were not caused by a cyberattack, as hypothesized by some on social media. As of 7 p.m., Google said the issue was resolved for all users.The company said in a statement that it would conduct an internal investigation of this issue and make appropriate improvements to our systems to help prevent or minimize future recurrence.Contained largely to the Eastern United States, and to a few hours on a Sunday evening, the disruptions appeared to cause less of a headache than they would have if they had hit on a busier workday.But the widespread nature of the slowdowns and errors underscored just how ubiquitous Googles services are, and how, given the rise in cloud computing, such problems can have an outsize impact.Users reported problems with Snapchat and Discord, a voice and text chat app for gamers. Shopify, an e-commerce platform that powers thousands of stores, also reported being affected.A Google spokesman could not immediately provide more specifics and said the company was still investigating.Cloud computing, in which companies pay to run their online applications in data centers operated by providers like Google, has been hit by problems before.In 2017, an Amazon employee entered an incorrect set of commands on a computer and knocked out a set of servers in an Amazon data center. Many were affected by that hiccup, including Slack, Quora and the technology news site The Verge. | Tech |
Soccer|Bayern Munich in Commandhttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/20/sports/soccer/bayern-munich-in-command.htmlChampions League FinalHighlightsA Delayed KickoffFake TicketsReal Madrids Powerful PresidentAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySports BriefingBy The Associated PressFeb. 19, 2014Second-half goals from Toni Kroos and Thomas Mller gave Bayern Munich a 2-0 victory at Arsenal in the first leg of their Champions League series. AdvertisementContinue reading the main story | Sports |
Special Report: Energy for TomorrowCredit...Sean Gallup/Getty Images Agence France-PresseDec. 8, 2015Diesel automobiles, which are more fuel-efficient than their gasoline-powered counterparts, were always supposed to shield their owners from some of the impact of oil-price spikes.All told, roughly 20 percent of new cars sold around the world are diesel-powered. Diesel accounts for about half of new passenger vehicles sold in Europe and India, according to the International Council on Clean Transportation. It reaches double-digit penetration rates in a small number of other major markets, such as Australia and South Korea, but barely more than 1 or 2 percent in the United States, China and Japan.But in fact emissions were always the real issue with diesel. Progress has been made in reducing the sulfur content of diesel fuel, the chief culprit in soot emissions. But the higher compression of diesel engines and the less refined nature of the fuel, compared to gasoline, ensure that diesel cars produce more of several pollutants, including nitrogen compounds, hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide and dioxide.The emissions issue was brought to the fore when Volkswagen, Europes largest carmaker and No.2 in the world (after Toyota), acknowledged in September that it had fiddled with 11 million of its diesel-powered cars to make them appear to meet emissions standards.Subsequent press reports indicated that diesel cars produced by other companies violated European emissions targets, but this was generally attributed to the way tests are conducted the cars generate fewer emissions in the lab than on the road and not to wrongdoing.To compensate for the pollution levels, diesel emission-control systems are more complex and costly. It is thought that Volkswagen manipulated the software in its cars to show false readings because a pollution-control system able to meet American emissions requirements, which are stricter than Europes, would have been prohibitively expensive.Apart from the dishonesty, the scandal suggests that diesel technology is less clean and less cost-effective than advocates assert. Even before the story broke, diesel had several factors going against it, including declining crude-oil prices, improvements in gasoline engines and technologies that produce cleaner cars.Diesel probably doesnt make sense for light-duty vehicles, said Daniel Sperling, a professor of civil engineering and environmental science and policy at the University of Californias Davis campus and director of the Institute of Transportation Studies there. Other types of cars are more efficient, he said. Emission standards are getting tighter and tighter, and as the shift takes place to electric, diesel does not have a promising long-term future in passenger cars.David Keith, assistant professor of system dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, offered a similar prognosis. Theres a strong headwind for diesel in the passenger-vehicle market, he said. Emission regulations support alternatives.All things considered, the costs of diesel and gasoline cars are comparable. Because they have to run hotter, diesel engines must be built sturdier. Between the engines and emission-control systems, the cars are pricier, but they tend to stay on the road longer.Diesel cars have been popular in Europe because diesel fuel is subsidized there and because emission standards are lower than for gas-powered cars. Regulators in the United States require both types to meet the same standards, which raises costs for diesel cars made for the American market, said Mr. Sperling, who also serves on the California Air Resources Board.But Europe is introducing tougher emissions standards, which could require more expensive control systems in diesel cars. And after the Volkswagen affair, testing is likely to get tougher, too, said Colin Langan, who follows the auto industry for the Swiss bank UBS. At the same time, improvements to gas engines could make them more appealing. In Europe, a lot of people have assumed that diesel was going to lose momentum, Mr. Langan said. Gas engines are getting a lot better; theyre getting turbochargers, which diesel engines already have. People are going to start migrating more to gas from diesel.He added, however, that Europe has also set tougher fuel-economy targets for carmakers. Diesel still has an edge there, which may slow the shift to gas.Gasoline-powered cars are not the only ones that makers of diesel cars have to worry about. Coming up in the fast lane, even if theres little traffic there now, are hybrid and electric vehicles.Mr. Langan sees little threat from the cleaner alternatives just yet, however, because they are more expensive than gas or diesel models. Electric works at the upscale, high-performance end of the market, where manufacturers like Tesla live, but not in the mainstream. Alan Baum, principal of Baum and Associates, an automotive consulting firm in Michigan, is more hopeful.Costs are coming down and the technology is improving amid an all-hands-on-deck strategy among regulators and automakers, Mr. Baum said. Internal-combustion vehicles are less expensive than electric and hybrid equivalents today, but he wonders what the cost might be when you have to have a car that gets 30 miles per gallon or, in 10 years, 40?As a result of the various threats to its position in the marketplace both external and self-inflicted diesels proportion of the worlds fleet of passenger cars is likely to shrink into the teens in the next decade, Mr. Baum forecast.Mr. Keith at M.I.T. similarly highlighted the great scope for innovation to introduce electric-drive technology that promises to be cleaner.I dont think diesels going to go away completely, he added. I think theres a role for all these technologies, but definitely in the U.S. and increasingly in Europe, we can see challenges in getting diesel to perform at a level we like. | Business |
With a grand stage, video monitors and a planned presidential appearance, pro-Trump demonstrators will condemn Joseph R. Biden Jr.s victory with a planned show of force.Credit...Kenny Holston for The New York TimesPublished Jan. 5, 2021Updated Jan. 7, 2021WASHINGTON Thousands of Trump supporters are expected to gather Wednesday in the nations capital to hear a defeated president and his allies amplify false claims of election fraud during a rally steps from the White House.Local authorities have enhanced security and warned residents in and around the city to steer clear of potentially violent agitators.The scene taking shape on the grassy elliptical park just behind the White House is extraordinary. A grand bandstand was erected, huge speakers were attached to tall scaffolding, and thousands of chairs were unfolded on muddy grass ahead of rallies to proclaim victory for a president who lost soundly in November.President Trump will be leaving office in two weeks, all protests aside.But he plans to make an appearance on Wednesday at one of the events near the White House that he has promoted relentlessly for weeks as a show of force as he struggles to overturn the legitimate election results.The events and vitriol had already begun on a rainy Tuesday in Washington, a day before Congresss formal counting of the Electoral College votes. Some of Mr. Trumps allies, including the conspiracy theorist and conservative radio host Alex Jones and some associates who recently received a pardon from the president, spoke to hundreds of people who crowded into the citys Freedom Plaza on Tuesday evening.Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser whom Mr. Trump pardoned last month, thanked all of the digital soldiers a clear-cut reference to the convoluted pro-Trump conspiracy theory QAnon who were fighting to keep the president in office. Patrick Byrne, the founder of Overstock.com and a vocal Trump backer, spoke of a White House meeting that he and Mr. Flynn attended last month, suggesting that the idea of claiming foreign interference as a way to invalidate the election was discussed with the president.Though the Trump supporters at Freedom Plaza and elsewhere in Washington were peaceful throughout the day, as the rally wound down after dark, groups of men wearing body armor and helmets began showing up. Some were with the Proud Boys, while others wore insignia identifying them as members of the Three Percenters, a far-right militia group. A few carried baseball bats and clubs.Asked why they were at the rally in helmets and body armor, a man who appeared to be leading the Three Percenters said, You know why were wearing helmets. He refused to give his name, angrily dismissing the news media as traitors who gave up on this country.By Tuesday night, the Metropolitan Police Department recorded arrests of five people on charges of assault and weapons possession, including one person who was charged with assaulting a police officer.Organizers were preparing for an expected crowd of 5,000 on Tuesday and more than 30,000 throughout the week, according to permits issued by the National Park Service. Local government officials warned that the events could turn tumultuous. Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington requested assistance from the Army National Guard on Monday, and the local police warned that anyone who intended to arrive in Washington with a firearm, as some on social media sites promised to do, would be arrested.Many of the hundreds of demonstrators who showed up on Tuesday for the March to Save America and Stop the Steal rallies chose not to wear masks to prevent transmission of the coronavirus. Some of the speakers during the rally at the Freedom Plaza delivered aggressive speeches claiming the groups were at war, targeting Republicans in Congress who have refused to protest the results of the election.Dan Couture, 51, who drove to Tuesdays rally from Colorado with two of his brothers, Pat and Dave, said they arrived to make sure that all the votes that were legal are the votes that were counted.Just feet away, Richard Morris, 63, of Eaton Rapids, Mich., began to accept the outcome of the election that has already been affirmed by each of the states and the nations top election officials.If he doesnt win it tomorrow, then this is over, said Mr. Morris, an architect, although he said he believed Mr. Trump would still find a path to victory.The president also confirmed Tuesday on Twitter that he would speak at the event at 11 a.m. Wednesday, while continuing to point the finger at Democrats, Republicans who refused to support his baseless claims and Antifa, a loose-knit antifascist movement with some followers who have been prone to commit acts of violence.I hope the Democrats, and even more importantly, the weak and ineffective RINO section of the Republican Party, are looking at the thousands of people pouring into D.C. They wont stand for a landslide election victory to be stolen, Mr. Trump said, using the acronym for Republican in Name Only.Wednesday is expected to be an arduous and confusing day on Capitol Hill as Mr. Trumps Republican allies move to challenge Joseph R. Biden Jr.s victory, but those efforts will ultimately fail.Yet despite Mr. Bidens clear win, many of Mr. Trumps allies were slated to speak at the protests this week and continue to promote the presidents false claims, including Roger J. Stone Jr. and George Papadopoulos, former Trump campaign advisers who recently received pardons.Some local officials directed residents to avoid downtown Washington altogether.Marc Elrich, the executive of neighboring Montgomery County, Md., said that the demonstrations could turn violent with some of Mr. Trumps supporters looking to disrupt the vote count.Protest organizations and the groups they represent have shown an alarming affinity for violence. Sadly, they have not been shy about suggesting the need for violence, Mr. Elrich said in a statement. There is talk of disrupting the counting of votes in Congress, which would require extreme actions.The leader of the Proud Boys, a far-right group that has supported Mr. Trumps efforts to overturn the election results, was ordered by a judge to stay out of Washington after he was arrested on Monday on charges of destruction of property stemming from an episode in the city last month. Upon his arrest, the chairman of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, was found to have two high-capacity firearm magazines and was charged with possession.In December, violent clashes in Washington between supporters of Mr. Trump and counterprotesters left four people with stab wounds. Preparing for similar brawls, the National Guard said on Monday it would dispatch about 340 troops to the rallies, responding to Ms. Bowsers request for additional security.Were asking D.C. residents and people who live in the region to avoid confrontations with anybody whos looking for a fight, Ms. Bowser said Monday during a news conference.Capitol Police also increased the number of officers present on the Capitol grounds and encouraged lawmakers to arrive early and use underground tunnels to travel to the Capitol from their offices. That way, they can avoid walking or driving in the open.Protesters have trickled to the Capitol since Monday, many without masks and crowded close together as they carried Trump flags and Stop the Steal banners. Senator Kevin Cramer, Republican of North Dakota, was seen speaking with Trump supporters who had come from his home state, repeatedly explaining why he had chosen not to object to the certification of electors. At one point, Mr. Cramer read them the entirety of the 12th Amendment, which outlines the elector process.Such long-distance travel was not unusual. At least 10 busloads of Trump supporters from Michigan were planning to be in Washington on Wednesday to protest the election results, though Mr. Biden won the state decisively by more than 155,000 votes. Rocky Raczkowski, the chairman of the Oakland County Republican Party in Michigan, said the supporters were simply heeding Mr. Trumps call to protest the election.Cajun Guilbeau, 65, drove to downtown Washington from Louisiana in a truck covered with signs stating, Stop the Steal and 4 More Years! He said that while some individuals may turn aggressive, those he knew to be gathering for the demonstrations only wanted to show their support for Mr. Trump.Weve got jobs, weve got careers, weve got houses, were not going to do any of that nonsense, Mr. Guilbeau said, who rents his old fire truck to production crews. If Donald Trump secures a second term in the White House, I wanted to be here to support that.He said if he saw Mr. Biden move to the White House, he would feel less compelled to engage with the government on any level. Theres no way Im taking any vaccines, he said.Reporting was contributed by John Ismay and Emily Cochrane from Washington, Sheera Frenkel from Oakland, Calif., and Kathleen Gray from West Bloomfield, Mich. | Politics |
Warren Miller Legendary Ski Filmmaker Dead at 93 1/25/2018 Warren Miller -- the iconic director behind dozens of legendary skiing and surfing films -- died Wednesday night in Washington state. Miller's family announced he died of natural causes on Orcas Island. For more than 60 years, Miller's legion of fans were treated to his films in cities across the U.S. and around the world to kick off ski season. Miller took his cameras to exotic locations to film extreme skiing and snowboarding ... and set the standard for adrenaline-fueled sports footage. Miller produced more than 500 films and wrote 11 books. His films featured an elite roster of skiing legends ... including Otto Lang, Billy Kidd, Jimmie Heuga, Hannes Schneider and Stein Eriksen. Warren Miller just passed away peacefully at 93. His influence on my life cannot be understated. Im forever grateful that my family and I got to know him. May his mantra for seizing the day become yours:If you dont do it this year, youll be one year older when you do. pic.twitter.com/JLm2sbcsLi @sacca Miller was born in Hollywood, played basketball at USC and served in the Navy during World War II ... before devoting his life to adventure sports. He was 93. #RIP | Entertainment |
Credit...Doris Tsao/CalTechJune 1, 2017The brain has an amazing capacity for recognizing faces. It can identify a face in a few thousandths of a second, form a first impression of its owner and retain the memory for decades.Central to these abilities is a longstanding puzzle: how the image of a face is encoded by the brain. Two Caltech biologists, Le Chang and Doris Y. Tsao, reported in Thursdays issue of Cell that they have deciphered the code of how faces are recognized.Their experiments were based on electrical recordings from face cells, the name given to neurons that respond with a burst of electric signals when an image of a face is presented to the retina.By noting how face cells in macaque monkeys responded to manipulated photos of some 2,000 human faces, the Caltech team figured out exactly what aspects of the faces triggered the cells and how the features of the face were being encoded. The monkey face recognition system seems to be very similar to that of humans.Just 200 face cells are required to identify a face, the biologists say. After discovering how its features are encoded, the biologists were able to reconstruct the faces a monkey was looking at just by monitoring the pattern in which its face cells were firing.The finding needs to be confirmed in other laboratories. But, if correct, it could help understand how the brain encodes all seen objects, as well as suggesting new approaches to artificial vision.Cracking the code for faces would definitely be a big deal, said Brad Duchaine, an expert on face recognition at Dartmouth.It is a remarkable advance to have identified the dimensions used by the primate brain to decode faces, he added and impressive that the researchers were able to reconstruct from neural signals the face a monkey is looking at.Human and monkey brains have evolved dedicated systems for recognizing faces, presumably because, as social animals, survival depends on identifying members of ones own social group and distinguishing them from strangers.In both species, the face recognition system consists of face cells that are grouped into patches of at least 10,000 each. There are six of these patches on each side of the brain, situated on the cortex, or surface, just behind the ear.When the image of a face hits the retina of the eye, it is converted into electric signals. These pass through five or six sets of neurons and are processed at each stage before they reach the face cells. As a result, these cells receive high-level information about the shape and features of a face.One way in which the brain might identify faces is simply to dedicate a cell to each face. Indeed, there are cells in another part of the brain that do respond to images of specific people.They are known to neuroscientists as Jennifer Aniston cells, after one such cell in an epilepsy patient undergoing surgery in 2005 responded when the patient was shown images of the actress. The cell ignored all other images, including one of her with Brad Pitt.But this cant be the way the brain identifies faces, because we can perceive a face we have never seen before. Instead, the Caltech team has found, the brains face cells respond to the dimensions and features of a face in an elegantly simple, though abstract, way.In their experiments, the biologists first identified groups of face cells in a macaque monkeys brain by magnetic resonance imaging, and then probed individual face cells with a fine electrode that records their signals.The monkeys were shown photos of human faces that were systematically manipulated to show differences in the size and appearance of facial features.Cells at a high level in the brain often respond to a medley of things, making it hard to figure out what the cell is meant to do. The Caltech team was able to create faces that showed exactly what each face cell was tuned to.The tuning of each face cell is to a combination of facial dimensions, a holistic system that explains why when someone shaves off his mustache, his friends may not notice for a while. Some 50 such dimensions are required to identify a face, the Caltech team reports.These dimensions create a mental face space in which an infinite number of faces can be recognized. There is probably an average face, or something like it, at the origin, and the brain measures the deviation from this base.A newly encountered face might lie five units away from the average face in one dimension, seven units in another, and so forth. Each face cell reads the combined vector of about six of these dimensions. The signals from 200 face cells altogether serve to uniquely identify a face.Dr. Tsao said she was particularly impressed to find she could design a whole series of faces that a given face cell would not respond to, because they lacked its preferred combination of dimensions. This ruled out a possible alternative method of face identification: that the face cells were comparing incoming images with a set of standard reference faces and looking for differences.Nancy Kanwisher, a neuroscientist at M.I.T., said it was a major advance to describe what a face cell does and predict how it will respond to a new stimulus. But she suggested that more than 50 dimensions might be needed to capture the full richness of human perception and the idiosyncrasies of particular faces.Do we need a dimension for Jack Nicholsons eyebrows? she asked.Dr. Tsao has been working on face cells for 15 years and views her new report, with Dr. Chang, as the capstone of all these efforts. She said she hoped her new finding will restore a sense of optimism to neuroscience.Advances in machine learning have been made by training a computerized mimic of a neural network on a given task. Though the networks are successful, they are also a black box because it is hard to reconstruct how they achieve their result.This has given neuroscience a sense of pessimism that the brain is similarly a black box, she said. Our paper provides a counterexample. Were recording from neurons at the highest stage of the visual system and can see that theres no black box. My bet is that that will be true throughout the brain. | science |
A charismatic leader, Dr. Marks brought the fruits of a scientific revolution to an institution that, when he took over, was behind the times.Credit...Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer CenterPublished May 5, 2020Updated May 6, 2020Paul A. Marks, who transformed Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center into one of the worlds leading institutions for research and treatment of cancer, died on April 28 at his home in Manhattan. He was 93.His son Andrew said the cause was a combination of pulmonary fibrosis and a more recent emergence of lung cancer that was untreatable because of the fibrosis.Memorial Sloan Kettering today is very different from the institution Dr. Marks joined in 1980 as president and chief executive. It was still reeling from a scientific scandal in the 1970s involving crudely falsified data. It was also behind the times, focused more on surgical interventions than on the developing frontiers of biological science.Frankly, it was an institution that really needed surgery from top to bottom, and Marks was the right guy, James Rothman, chairman of the Yale School of Medicines department of cell biology, said in a phone interview. Dr. Marks had been recruited from Columbia Universitys College of Physicians and Surgeons by the philanthropist Laurance Rockefeller.Unusually, Dr. Marks combined the attributes of an accomplished scientist, a talented doctor, an effective administrator and a charismatic leader. Coming to the job when the field of molecular biology was exploding, he wanted to apply the benefits of that emerging field, which traces the interactions of cells and biological processes at the molecular level, to cancer.The timing was ideal, said Richard Axel, a neuroscientist and molecular biologist in the department of neuroscience at Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Marks, he said, energized the institution to pursue the alterations in DNA that cause tumors, doing so at the very moment that it was becoming possible to truly study DNA, to pet it, to clone it, to determine its sequence.What followed was a purge of much of the institutions old guard, with attendant turmoil and alienation for many of those involved. Dr. Marks instituted a tenure system with a tough review process, and dozens of scientists left between 1982 and 1986. A 1987 article about Dr. Marks in The New York Times Magazine noted that there are researchers who call Marks Caligula, Attila the Hun or simply the monster.The article described a scene in his laboratory during his Columbia days when Dr. Marks grabbed a man by the throat and dragged him across a table. His wife, Joan Marks, then head of graduate programs at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., said in the article, He can be brutal, adding, He really doesnt understand why people dont work 97 hours a day, and why they dont care as much as he cares.In his memoir, On the Cancer Frontier: One Man, One Disease, and a Medical Revolution (2014, with the former Times reporter James Sterngold), Dr. Marks said he had been embarrassed to see the incident recounted in the article. While he didnt deny that it had happened, he said that he had actually grabbed the man by both arms, not the throat, and shaken him.ImageCredit...Jeenah Moon for The New York TimesFor all of the sharpness of his elbows, Dr. Rothman of Yale said, there was also charm. Dr. Marks, he said, projected at once a kind of a deep warmth and, at the same time, a formidable aspect.Dr. Marks was known for a sharp eye in recruiting talent. He had an uncanny ability to attract these great scientists from all over the nation, said Joan Massagu, the director of the Sloan Kettering Institute, the institutions experimental research arm. But the institution was still in the process of becoming great when he arrived in 1989, and, Dr. Massagu recalled, it was a gamble to join. For those who had faith in the vision that guided Dr. Marks, he said, You really wanted to join it.Once hired, Dr. Massagu said, researchers were free to explore, having essentially been told, You will not be told to work on cancer we know that what you work on will be relevant to cancer ultimately. But there was a caveat, he said: We will expect to see spectacular research.Memorial Sloan Ketterings research and hospital arms had historically been separate; Dr. Marks merged them. Within the hospital, he encouraged the creation of integrated medical teams to coordinate patient care; created a research and treatment center devoted to breast cancer; and established the first center devoted to pain management for cancer patients.He also continued his own research while running the institution, finding genetic connections to the blood diseases known as thalassemias and developing a targeted therapy for some cancers.Joseph Goldstein, chairman of the department of molecular genetics at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, explained Dr. Markss success by referring to La Clairvoyance, a self-portrait by Ren Magritte in which the artist is looking at an egg but painting a bird in flight. Paul looked at young scientists and envisioned the great success they would achieve, Dr. Goldstein said.In Dr. Markss own research, he looked at cancer cells and envisioned they could be tamed by a novel approach, Dr. Goldstein said. And in 1980, he continued, Paul looked at what was at the time a stodgy Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and envisioned the great clinical and research enterprise that it could become and indeed did become.ImageCredit...Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer CenterPaul Alan Marks was born on Aug. 16, 1926, in Mahanoy City, Pa., in coal country, to Robert and Sarah (Bohorad) Marks. His mothers parents had a clothing store in the area, and his father soon opened one as well.When Paul was 4 years old, his mother, who was pregnant, died in a fall down the stairs at her parents store. His father disappeared from his life for the next five years. In his memoir, Dr. Marks recalled that he bounced between beds and couches, with aunts, uncles and my grandparents until his father showed up again, with a new wife and son, and took Paul back.He attended Samuel J. Tilden High School in Brooklyn, where a teacher who had lost his son in World War II took an interest in this promising young man and persuaded him to apply to Columbia University. He received a full scholarship, received his bachelors degree in 1945 and graduated from Columbias College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1949.He was dean of the Columbia medical school from 1970 to 1973 its vice president for medical sciences from 1973 to 1980.Over his long career, Dr. Marks published more than 350 articles in scientific journals. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush awarded him the National Medal of Science.He retired from Memorial Sloan Kettering in 1999.Dr. Marks married Joan Rosen in 1953. In addition to his son Andrew, he is survived by her; another son, Matthew; a daughter, Elizabeth; six grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and a half brother, Laurence.Andrew Marks is chairman of the physiology and cellular biophysics department at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Matthew Marks is an art dealer. And Elizabeth Marks worked with Matthew until her retirement. When asked what he might have done had he not pursued science or medicine, Dr. Marks once replied, I would be a curator in a good museum. | science |
Credit...Yasin Akgul/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesNov. 5, 2018ISTANBUL More than a month after Saudi agents assassinated the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, officials in Turkey continue to drip out sensational new details in a killing that has caused an international uproar.The latest twist in the case that has drawn heavy global criticism of Saudi Arabia: The kingdom sent an expert team to clean up evidence of the crime under the guise of helping with the investigation, a senior Turkish official said on Monday.A pro-government newspaper, Sabah, published news of the Saudi cleanup team and photographs of two of its members, whom it identified as a chemist and a toxicologist, who visited the Saudi Consulate where Mr. Khashoggi was killed.The senior Turkish official confirmed the main details of the report and said the Saudi team was sent with the knowledge of top Saudi officials. The two men traveled to Turkey for the sole purpose of covering up evidence of the killing before the Turkish police were allowed to search the premises, the official said in comments relayed by electronic message.The two men were identified as Ahmad Abdulaziz al-Junabi, a chemist, and Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani, a toxicologist, part of a team of Saudi investigators who spent several days in Turkey visiting the consulate and the consuls residence, ostensibly to help with the investigation into Mr. Khashoggis disappearance, the newspaper reported.The Turkish official confirmed the names of the two individuals and said they were part of a cleanup team. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, according to the rules of his office.The killing has severely strained relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia, and officials in Istanbul have regularly leaked new information about the case to ratchet up pressure on the kingdom.Saudi Arabia has detained 18 people implicated in the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, but has not said who ordered what Turkish officials have characterized as the political assassination of a prominent critic of the Saudi government. Turkish and Western officials have said that it is unlikely that such a plan would have been carried out without the blessing of the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who is seen as the countrys de facto ruler.While the killing has compromised Prince Mohammeds global standing, there is growing international consensus that the case has not appeared to weaken his grip on power.In the wake of the killing, international companies have come under pressure to cut ties to Saudi Arabia, but on Monday, the chief executive of SoftBank of Japan said it would continue to do business with the kingdom.Speaking on Monday in Geneva, the president of Saudi Arabias human rights commission, Bandar al-Aiban, vowed a full investigation and punishment of those responsible, but shed no new light on the case. His remarks, before the United Nations Human Rights Council, came in a review of the kingdoms human rights record.Turkey has demanded, to no avail, that Saudi Arabia disclose what became of Mr. Khashoggis body, that it name the local collaborator who a Saudi official has said helped dispose of the remains, and that it turn over the 18 suspects to face the Turkish justice system.In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Mr. Khashoggis two sons, Salah and Abdullah, called for their fathers body to be returned for a burial in Saudi Arabia. Salah Khashoggi said that he had faith in the Saudi investigation of the killing and that everybody involved will be brought to justice.The Saudi cleanup team arrived in Istanbul on Oct. 11, nine days after Mr. Khashoggis death, and visited the consulate every day from Oct. 12 to Oct. 17, according to Sabah. Turkish investigators were not allowed into the consulate, which is considered Saudi sovereign territory, until Oct. 15. Sabah published photographs of Mr. Junabi and Mr. Zahrani emerging from the entrance of the consulate and also published photographs that the newspapers investigative editor, Abdurrahman Simsek, said were head shots from cameras at airport passport control.The men arrived on the same day as a Saudi delegation that met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Oct. 11, as Turkish officials demanded to know what had happened to Mr. Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government who lived in the United States and wrote opinion articles for The Washington Post. He had entered the consulate on Oct. 2 for a prearranged meeting to collect papers that would allow him to marry his Turkish fiance, and was never seen again.When the group identified as a cleanup team was in Turkey, Saudi officials were still insisting that Mr. Khashoggi, 59, had left the consulate safely, and that they did not know where he was. They later acknowledged that he had been killed in the consulate, at first describing his death as the accidental result of a fight, and later calling it premeditated.Turkey has identified a team of 15 Saudi officials that it has accused of being the perpetrators of the murder, who arrived in Turkey in the hours before Mr. Khashoggis disappearance and left the same day. Some of the 15 turned out to be security officers close to Prince Mohammed, and included a top forensic specialist.The Khashoggi case has worsened Saudi relations with not only Turkey, but also with the United States and some of its closest allies, particularly in Europe. It has also increased attention on Saudi Arabias role in the civil war in Yemen, where civilian casualties continue to climb, leading to calls in the West to stop arms sales to the Saudis.The United Nations review of Saudi Arabias human rights record included demands for a transparent investigation into the killing, but representatives of several countries took a broader approach to criticizing the kingdom. They pointed to Saudi Arabias frequent and increasing use of capital punishment, including for nonviolent offenses, and accused the Saudis of executing people for political or religious dissent. | World |
Credit...Tara Walton for The New York TimesNov. 11, 2018THORNBURY, Ontario Parents and grandparents jammed the small hall of Thornbury, a sleepy ski town north of Toronto, to glean tips on how to talk to their teenagers about the potential harms of marijuana.Held less than a week before Canada was set to legalize cannabis, the public health session had a message for parents: Marijuana would be legal for adults, but it was not safe for young people. And parents needed to instill in their children the idea that pot could be dangerous.Its been proven the brain doesnt stop growing until you are 25, and yet were legally selling it to people at 19, Jenny Hanley, an addictions counselor, said as she left the meeting. What the hell is our government thinking?Canada last month became the second country to make it legal for adults to buy, grow and consume small amounts of marijuana. But it also made it a crime to give it to anyone younger than 19 or 18, depending on the province, and set a penalty of up to 14 years in prison for doing so.At the same time, the government began an $83 million public education campaign, much of it targeting Canadian youths, that warns of pots dangers.But persuading teenagers not to see legalization as a green light to use marijuana will be difficult, experts say, not to mention that past antidrug efforts have offered little evidence of success.And when it comes to marijuana and the teenage brain, the science is far from clear.[Want more Canadian coverage in your inbox? Subscribe to our weekly Canada Letter newsletter.]Officials had argued that regulating the cannabis market, and cracking down on illegal sellers, would reduce its soaring use among Canadian teenagers, who, according to a 2013 Unicef report, already use it more than young people anywhere else in the world.The most disingenuous element of legalization is that it will keep it out of the hands of children, said Dr. Benedikt Fischer, a senior scientist at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. It is a big experiment, in many ways.Still, officials are optimistic.A lot of young people have the notion this is a very benign substance of no risk its organic, its natural and its medicine, said Bill Blair, the countrys minister in charge of marijuana legalization, and formerly the Toronto police chief.ImageCredit...Tara Walton for The New York TimesWhen you start giving people the facts to replace the mythology and misinformation, people make smarter and better decisions, he added.But, as parents are discovering, sifting through the science and guiding their teenagers is tricky.Lounging on a bench at the back of the Thornbury session was Jared Kaye. He smoked marijuana for the first time at age 9 while also bingeing on alcohol, and then added harder drugs. He started rehab at 15 and became homeless.He and another teenage addict were taken in by Ms. Hanley to live in her home near Flesherton, Ontario.I hurt my family a lot, said Mr. Kaye, now 19. I did nothing but hurt myself.Paul Thompson, a businessman from Stratford who attended the session while in town on vacation, sees marijuana as less dangerous.When his 21-year-old son was arrested a couple of years ago on marijuana charges, Mr. Thompson decided to provide him with marijuana himself, to ensure it was not laced with other drugs.I think alcohol causes far greater harms, said Mr. Thompson, a divorced father of three. I dont believe cannabis is addictive. People who are addicted have deeper problems.The confounding thing is that both men were correct.Studies have shown that marijuana use in adolescents can impair brain function for some time after the cannabis has left their bodies, and a concern raised by some experts is that many adolescents use cannabis to self-medicate for anxiety or depression.Most scientists agree the risk to young brains is greatest for those who start smoking at age 12 or younger, smoke regularly and choose high-potency marijuana.Smoking is also dangerous for young people with family histories of serious mental illness, like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.But for young people who start lightly experimenting with the drug at a later age, the risks of long-term damage to their growing brains are reduced.Its a reasonable statement to say it could have impact on the developing brain, said Matthew Hill, a neuroscientist with the University of Calgary who has studied cannabinoids for 18 years. Thats not the same thing as saying it definitively will.ImageCredit...Tara Walton for The New York TimesA recent analysis of 69 studies on young, frequent cannabis users, published in JAMA Psychiatry, found that the negative effects on cognitive functioning dissipated after 72 drug-free hours.Cannabis is correlated with lots of things, said James MacKillop, the co-director of McMaster Universitys medicinal cannabis research center in Hamilton. Teasing out whether its causally related is a much more complicated thing.If you are using cannabis when you are 12 or 13, then there are probably lots of other things going on, he continued. There might be poor parental oversight, more early life stress or family disorganization.To make matters more confusing, there are no certain strategies to stop young people from trying cannabis.Some public health units have adopted a harm-reduction strategy, urging teenagers to take more cannabis-free days and not drive stoned. Others are preaching abstinence.Because its legal, its not safe, said Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, the medical officer of health for Eastern Ontario. Thats our real message.Drug prevention researchers say they know what doesnt work.For example, the popular DARE program, which sent police officers into school to teach children how to just say no to drugs, had no effect or worse, studies in the United States found. In some cases, it increased their use of alcohol, cigarettes and other drugs.Rebecca Haines-Saah, an associate professor of public health at the University of Calgary, who studies teenage cannabis use and harm prevention, urges parents to talk to their children early and regularly about the consequences of all substances, including caffeine.If we arent honest with kids, they will find the information elsewhere, she said.With all the discussion about cannabis in Canada as legalization day approached, many parents were alarmed to discover how acceptable it had become among the countrys youths. According to a recent census bureau report, 32.7 percent of teenagers had smoked marijuana in the previous three months, for example.At the Thornbury meeting, Mr. Kaye said he thought parents should take an individual approach.His parents, he said, were strict, which stoked his rebellious nature. For me, I need love, Mr. Kaye said. I need to feel cared for.His advice seemed more like a guide to parenting, than a drug-prevention plan:Be open with your kids, he said. Try to have a close relationship so they are comfortable telling you what they tried and what their friends are doing. | World |
VideotranscripttranscriptTrump Assails Critics of Immigration PolicyPresident Trump defended his actions against illegal border crossings during a speech to the National Federation of Independent Business.Those are the only two options: totally open borders or criminal prosecution for lawbreaking. And you want to be able to do that. We dont want people pouring into our country. They said, Sir, wed like to hire about five or six thousand more judges. Five or six thousand? Now, can you imagine the graft that must take place? Youre all small business owners so I know you cant imagine a thing like that would happen. When countries abuse us by sending their people up not their best were not going to give any more aid to those countries. Why the hell should we? Why should we? So we have a House thats getting ready to finalize an immigration package that theyre going to brief me on later. And then Im going to make changes to (it). Democrats love open borders, let the whole world come in. Let the whole world MS-13 gang members from all over the place, come on in, we have open borders. And they view that, possibly intelligently, except that its destroying our country. They view that as potential voters. Some day theyre going to vote for Democrats.President Trump defended his actions against illegal border crossings during a speech to the National Federation of Independent Business.CreditCredit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesJune 19, 2018WASHINGTON Congressional Republicans moved on Tuesday to defuse an escalating political crisis over immigration, but failed to agree on how to end President Trumps policy of separating immigrant children from parents who cross illegally into the United States.The Senate had one plan, and the House another. Mr. Trump remained defiant, refusing to act on his own.In a fiery address to a group of small-business executives, Mr. Trump falsely blamed Democrats for the separation crisis and demanded a broad overhaul of the United States immigration laws, a process that would take months. At the same time, he belittled one of the central ideas behind the effort by Senate Republicans to immediately stop separating families on the Mexican border.Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said that all of the members of the Republican conference support a plan that keeps families together, endorsing quick passage of a narrow bill to provide legal authority to detain parents and children together while the courts consider their status.VideotranscripttranscriptWhere Trumps Zero Tolerance Immigration Policy BeganPresidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama both increased enforcement on the U.S.-Mexico border. Here is how their approaches differed from the Trump administration.This image has become a powerful representation of the Trump administrations crackdown on immigration: a 2-year old girl sobbing, as U.S. border patrol agents searched her mother. If you cross the border unlawfully, then we will prosecute you. If you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you. And that child may be separated from you as required by law. The Trump White Houses tactic of systematically separating migrant families is a dramatic shift. There have been cases of families being separated under the previous two administrations. But its always been the exception, not the rule. That said, Trumps crackdowns are happening against the backdrop of more than a decade of stepped-up enforcement at the Southern border. In 2005, President George W. Bush launched Operation Streamline along the Texas border. He was responding to a spike in apprehensions there. The program called for criminally prosecuting all migrants. Were going to get control of our borders. Were making this country safer for all our citizens. The idea of zero tolerance took root under Bush, and its what Trump has used to model his policy after. The Bush-era program meant that migrants who were caught in certain border states were put through the criminal system, not civil immigration courts. It made exceptions for adults traveling with children, but others were ushered through mass trials aimed at deporting them quickly. Its a practice thats still around today. One of the things we committed to do was end catch and release by the end of fiscal year 2006. Under this policy, migrants were held until their deportation hearing. And that meant an increase in beds at private detention centers. In 2014, President Barack Obama declared a crisis at the Southwest border after a surge of unaccompanied minors, mostly from Central America. We now have an actual humanitarian crisis on the border that only underscores the need to drop the politics and fix our immigration system once and for all. During that child migrant crisis, the Obama administration also focused on deporting people quickly and put some through criminal proceedings. But it chose to hold families together in administrative, not criminal detention. The Obama administration also set up makeshift overflow facilities. And we saw similar images back then, of adults and children behind chain-link fences draped in thermal blankets. Now, Trump is reportedly taking it a step further and considering makeshift tent cities to detain minors caught at the border. The Trump administration says its now merely enforcing the letter of the law. But images of children in detention have made it hard to sell it in political terms, and humanitarian ones, too.Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama both increased enforcement on the U.S.-Mexico border. Here is how their approaches differed from the Trump administration.CreditCredit...Mike Blake/ReutersIn the House, Republicans vowed to press ahead with votes this week on a pair of more sweeping immigration bills one drafted by conservatives and the other a compromise measure between conservatives and moderates that address the family separation issue to different degrees, while also strengthening border security and making other changes to the countrys immigration system.In an hourlong meeting on Capitol Hill with House Republicans, Mr. Trump declined to explicitly back either one, saying he would sign both bills. Republican leaders are trying to rally support for the compromise bill.The president was very firm in explaining why its so important that he gets this bill to his desk so that we can solve some problems and secure our border, said Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the Republican whip. He added, We want to secure our border; we want to reunite kids. Our bill does just that.Mr. McConnell said he planned to reach out to Democrats to support his conferences effort, hoping to stanch the political damage from the administrations zero tolerance policy that has led to heartbreaking stories of children separated from their mothers.But Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, immediately shot down the Republican approach, saying that Mr. Trump could and should use his executive authority, not legislation, to quickly end the family separations.ImageCredit...Tom Brenner/The New York TimesAnyone who believes this Republican Congress is capable of addressing this issue is kidding themselves, Mr. Schumer said in a statement. The president can end this crisis with the flick of his pen, and he needs to do so now.Mr. Trump has the power on his own to change that zero-tolerance policy at the border, which would once again allow border agents and prosecutors the discretion to allow families to remain together after crossing illegally into the United States. But it would also allow those families to be released while their court proceedings go forward, something Mr. Trump opposes.In his afternoon speech, Mr. Trump dismissed as crazy a proposal by Senate Republicans to expedite processing of immigrant families by hiring hundreds of new immigration judges.Rejecting a proposal by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas to increase personnel in immigration courts with the hiring of 375 new judges, Mr. Trump suggested that many of the immigration judges could be corrupt, and he said that some lawyers who appear in their courtrooms are bad people.They said, Sir, wed like to hire about five or six thousand more judges, Mr. Trump said in a long and rambling speech to the National Federation of Independent Business. Five or six thousand? Now, can you imagine the graft that must take place? Youre all small-business owners, so I know you cant imagine a thing like that would happen.ImageCredit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesMr. Trump has for weeks been urging lawmakers to pass broad legislation to overhaul the nations immigration system, including hard-line changes that would crack down on asylum seekers, reduce visas and spend $25 billion to build a wall on the southwestern border. Doing so, he said, would have ended the need for a zero-tolerance policy by allowing families to be quickly deported.Broad immigration legislation was supposed to be the subject of the meeting with Republican House members on Tuesday evening. But in his speech, the president also vowed to rewrite Republican immigration legislation to his liking.We have a House thats getting ready to finalize an immigration package that they are going to brief me on later, and Im going to make changes, Mr. Trump said. Lawmakers later said that the president gave no indication that he wanted to change anything about their legislation.Aides to Mr. Trump said he later told the House Republicans: Im with you 100 percent.During the meeting with the lawmakers, Mr. Trump took no questions and veered from immigration to trade to North Korea and he took a swipe at Representative Mark Sanford of South Carolina, who lost his primary race after Mr. Trump opposed him. The president called him nasty.Mr. Sanford was not present to defend himself his flight was delayed in Charleston but in a telephone interview on Tuesday night, he said that the attack was a sign of the times in terms of the way this president operates.ImageCredit...Jim Wilson/The New York TimesNoting the gravity of the issues that were the ostensible reason for the gathering, Mr. Sanford said with a note of incredulity: Youre going to use that meeting to shoot at somebody you already killed?In his speech to the National Federation of Independent Business, Mr. Trump was greeted by enthusiastic applause.Two other leading business groups the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable condemned the practice of separating children from their parents. The Business Roundtable called it cruel and contrary to American values. The chambers top official said that this is not who we are, and it must end now.Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican, announced Tuesday on Twitter that he would withdraw four members of the Maryland National Guard, and their helicopter, from the southwestern border until this policy of separating children from their families has been rescinded. By Wednesday morning, governors from at least eight states had announced they would withhold or recall National Guard troops from efforts to secure the United States border with Mexico.But the broadest Republican opposition to the Trump administrations policy was in the Senate. Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, and 12 other senators sent a letter to the Justice Department asking the administration to stop the separation of families until Congress can pass legislation. Mr. Hatch told reporters on Monday that the separation policy was not American.ImageCredit...Mike Blake/ReutersAs I have said for the last several weeks, Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, said in a statement, I oppose the Trump administrations policy of separating children from their parents. This is counter to our values.Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin and the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said he was working on legislation that would keep families together while increasing the number of federal immigration judges so court hearings could be expedited.Were overwhelming the system, Mr. Johnson said. We dont have enough detention units for family units. He added, We would probably need to build more, identify more detention facilities, certify them so we can keep the families together.In the House, Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina, the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, introduced a measure that his office said more easily allows for family units to stay together, while also limiting the number of asylum claims.In a series of tweets on Tuesday morning, Mr. Trump continued to falsely blame Democrats for forcing the separations and calling for Congress to enact hard-line changes to immigration laws that he says would make the zero-tolerance policy at the border unnecessary.Democrats are the problem. They dont care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13, Mr. Trump tweeted. They cant win on their terrible policies, so they view them as potential voters!Later in the morning, Trump administration officials defended their treatment of children who had been separated from their parents at the border, describing a network of shelters in 17 states that provided education, counseling, health care services and playtime until children were reunited with their parents.Officials from the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services insisted to reporters that the children in their custody were treated humanely. The officials said 2,342 were children who crossed the border illegally from May 5 to June 9 and were taken from a parent to allow the adult to be charged and detained.Once the parents were taken to detention, those children were reclassified by the government as unaccompanied children, and quickly sent to the Health and Human Services shelters.But the officials disputed charges of mistreatment of those children, saying that the agencies were subject to strict rules about how children were cared for.The facilities are staffed by people who know how to deal with the needs, particularly of younger children, said Steven Wagner, the acting assistant secretary for the Administration for Children and Families. Mr. Wagner said that the children in our care are receiving a full range of services. | Politics |
Credit...Tim Ireland/Associated PressNov. 14, 2018Prime Minister Theresa Mays cabinet approved a draft agreement on Britains withdrawal from the European Union during an emergency meeting on Wednesday, a crucial and perilous step, as the time left to strike a final deal runs short.Cabinet support relieves some of the pressure on Mrs. May, who has struggled for months to meet competing demands over the withdrawal, commonly known as Brexit, which is scheduled to occur on March 29.The choices before us were difficult, particularly in relation to northern Ireland backstop, but the collective decision of Cabinet was that government should agree the draft withdrawal agreement and the outline political declaration, she said in a short statement. This is a decisive step.Before the meeting Wednesday, hard-line advocates of Brexit had tried to persuade the full cabinet to reject the draft agreement, or to resign in protest. Either outcome would have been devastating for Mrs. May. There are still several steps before the agreement could take effect. The deal needs the approval of the British Parliament, which is far from a certainty. The European Parliament and the blocs 27 other member states would also have to approve it. A key sticking point is the Irish border. Negotiators are trying to find a way to allow people and goods to pass through without the imposition of border controls.ImageCredit...Andy Rain/EPA, via ShutterstockEarly backlash, from the left and the rightEven before the cabinet met, the backlash was well underway, with hard-line Conservatives and members of opposition parties alike condemning the plan in statements, television interviews and debate in Parliament.Critics on both left and right argue that the deal would leave Britain subject to European Union rules, but without any say in making those rules. They are also alarmed that Britain would not have a unilateral right to quit the temporary customs union.On the floor of Parliament, Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party leader, traded barbs with Prime Minister Theresa May, but she refused to be drawn into offering any details of the agreement.From what we know the governments deal is a failure in its own terms, Mr. Corbyn said. It doesnt deliver a Brexit for the whole country. It breaches the prime ministers own red lines.Mrs. May retorted that the Labour Party had only one intention, and that is to frustrate Brexit and betray the vote of the British people.Mrs. Mays former Brexit secretary, David Davis, described the deal on Twitter as EU domination, imprisonment in the customs union and 2nd class status, adding that Cabinet and all Conservative MPs should stand up, be counted and say no to this capitulation.Jacob Rees-Mogg, a hard-core Brexit supporter, told the BBC that the proposed deal was a failure of the governments negotiating position and a failure to deliver.Mr. Corbyn, along with the leaders of the Scottish National Party, the Liberal Democrats and the Welsh party Plaid Cymru, released a letter demanding that Parliament not only vote on the deal, but that it also be allowed to consider amendments. An up-or-down vote on the negotiated agreement, Mr. Corbyn said, would be a false choice before Parliament between her botched deal and no deal. STEPHEN CASTLE and RICHARD PREZ-PEAThe question of the Irish borderThe prime ministers Conservative Party does not have a majority in Parliament, so her government relies on Northern Irelands Democratic Unionist Party, which voiced opposition to the deal even before it was made public.The D.U.P.s leader, Arlene Foster, made clear in her statement late Tuesday that she was not happy with the emerging deal.Jeffrey Donaldson, a senior D.U.P lawmaker, went further, telling the BBC on Wednesday that what he had heard of the draft Brexit deal undermines the constitutional and economic integrity of the United Kingdom, and warning that he was not afraid of precipitating a general election by opposing the plan.The most delicate aspect of the plan is the so-called backstop to prevent physical checks on the border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and Ireland, which will remain in the European Union.From what is known of the draft, Britain would stay temporarily in a customs union with the European Union until a long-term trade deal is negotiated. But the obligations on Northern Ireland would be deeper, particularly in obeying standards laid down by the European Unions single market, leading to increased regulatory checks on goods flowing from Britain to Northern Ireland.That is seen as an almost existential threat by the D.U.P., which wants to remain part of the United Kingdom.For the D.U.P., voting against Mrs. Mays deal risks precipitating a general election that could bring Jeremy Corbyn, the opposition Labour Party leader, to power. Mr. Corbyn has a history of strong ties to Sinn Fein, which promotes a united Ireland. STEPHEN CASTLEImageCredit...Tim Ireland/Associated PressA rhetorical about-face from Theresa MayRest in peace, no deal is better than a bad deal. Long live compromise.Mrs. May is not generally seen as a stealthy political operator, but Wednesday signaled a sharp reversal of the pledge that has been her Brexit mantra. For nearly two years, she has repeatedly assured the country that no deal for Britain is better than a bad deal for Britain.This promise that she would walk away rather than compromise Britains interests helped her keep the allegiance of hard-line Brexiteers in her own party, while conveying to Brussels that it should give a little, to prevent a chaotic exit. It projected such confidence that the pound rose sharply in the hours after she first articulated it.But on Wednesday, it appeared that Mrs. Mays message had been a bluff. It has been replaced by the opposite logic, conveyed in the most urgent terms: A compromise with the European Union a package of wins and losses is better than no deal.Economists and business leaders have warned that an abrupt, cliff edge Brexit, without an agreement to take the place of membership, could have disastrous consequences for Britain, including shortages of food and other goods and sudden price increases. Moderate voices have long urged compromise as the only sensible solution.But by adopting the language of her partys euroskeptic right wing for so long, Mrs. May ran the risk of a last-minute explosion.For Brexiteers, this deal has less to do with practical consequences than with passion and principle. Mrs. Mays adamant words made them bolder. If they feel they have been tricked, she could pay the price. ELLEN BARRYLooking for certainty, business leaders arent sure theyve found itCorporate Britain has so far shown a mixed response to the Brexit plan. Business leaders want a stable, predictable environment, and are divided on whether the proposed deal can provide it.Businesses that crave certainty and detail will have heard very little in recent days to make them feel they can now relax, James Stewart, the head of Brexit at the consulting firm KPMG, told Bloomberg News.Helen Dickinson, the chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said in an emailed statement: This is a welcome step towards a deal, as retailers urgently need certainty as we approach the date of the U.K.s departure from the E.U.The Financial Times reported that some business leaders were invited to Downing Street on Tuesday, as Mrs. May briefed her cabinet on the proposed deal.It looks to me this is the only deal in town, Jrgen Maier, the chief executive of Siemens U.K., told Reuters. I think it is better to get behind it, maybe fine tune it a little bit and make it work. JAMIE CONDLIFFEThe family alliances and splits behind the Brexit dramaThe morning news shows were full of lawmakers promising that the draft deal was dead on arrival, but one indicator to the contrary came from an unlikely quarter. Sarah Vine, who writes a column in The Daily Mail, responded to the bluster with a sardonic eye-roll, remarking on Twitter: On the whole quite a lot of willy waving going on this morning #Brexitdeal.To understand why Ms. Vines throwaway line matters, one must understand the incestuous nature of British politics in general, and the Brexit drama in particular.[Read about the clubby, old-school world of Britains Conservative upper echelons.]Aside from being a columnist for a powerful pro-Brexit tabloid, Ms. Vine is married to Michael Gove, a leading Brexiteer and member of Prime Minister Theresa Mays cabinet, and her remark seemed like confirmation that he would support the deal, propelling it toward a Parliament vote.It was another reminder that family ties and conflicts are a central organizing principle of Britains elite.Last week, Jo Johnson, who opposed Brexit, resigned from the cabinet rather than back the compromise deal, which he warned would lead to vassalage.His older brother, Boris Johnson, left the cabinet over the compromise deal, but for the opposite reason: He is a standard-bearer of the Conservatives hard Brexit faction.Their sister Rachel Johnson, a Daily Mail columnist, left the Conservative Party in 2017 because she opposed Brexit. Their brother Leo Johnson opposes Brexit and supports a second referendum.After a complicated flurry of intra-family retweeting, Ms. Johnson remarked, Maybe way to settle this matter once and for all is to spare the country another one and simply have a referendum in the Johnson family. ELLEN BARRYBrussels watches, waits and wondersBrussels was tracking events in London nervously, concerned about whether Mrs. May can get the deal through her cabinet and the Parliament and what would follow if she could not.In European Union offices, there is a general but unfocused hope that somehow Britain will reverse itself and remain in the European fold, presumably through a second referendum. But there is also deep fatigue, even annoyance, with the whole issue, which other member nations believe has diverted attention from pressing problems like migration, conflict with Russia, potential trade war with the United States, populist dissension within the bloc, and European elections next spring.As the British cabinet met Wednesday afternoon, ambassadors of the other 27 nations of the European Union were also be briefed on the draft deal. The agreement would have to be ratified by the leaders of the member nations, and by the European Parliament.The hope is that the European Union can hold a special Brexit summit meeting before the end of November to win approval for the agreement and the accompanying nonbinding political declaration. Britain is scheduled to leave the union on March 29.Leaks about the draft agreement have concentrated on the issue of the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. The resolution reportedly means Britain must adhere to European Union rules while no longer having a vote on them, an arrangement that critics have called vassalage.But from the point of view of the bloc a creature of rules, laws and regulations anything that undercuts the single market is unacceptable, including competition on tariffs and regulations from a nonmember, as Britain soon may be.If the agreement wins final approval in Britain, the two sides must still negotiate a long-term deal on their future trading relationship. STEVEN ERLANGERA sleeper issue: Scotlands statusBeyond breaking Britain away from the rest of the European Union, Brexit also poses a growing risk of breaking up the country.Voters in Scotland rejected independence in a bitterly contested 2014 referendum, but separatism remains a potent force in Scottish politics. In 2016, Scotland voted by a wide margin, 62 percent to 38 percent, to remain in the European Union, while Britain as a whole voted to leave, 52 percent to 48 percent.So when word leaked that Mrs. Mays Brexit deal would allow Northern Ireland to maintain a close relationship to the European market, at least temporarily, Scottish nationalists saw an opening. If Northern Ireland gets a separate deal, they asked, why shouldnt Scotland?Ian Blackford, the leader of the Scottish National Party, tore into the deal in Parliament on Wednesday.To protect jobs in Scotland, we must stay in the single market and the customs union, he said. The prime minister will not drag Scotland out against its will. If there is a deal to protect the economy in Northern Ireland, why not Scotland? BENJAMIN MUELLER | World |
N.F.L.|Amid the Wreckage of the Broncos, Sports Books Strike Goldhttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/04/sports/football/broncos-disappoint-the-bettors-but-not-the-sports-books.htmlFeb. 3, 2014Credit...Steve Marcus/ReutersIt was a good day at the office for Nevada sports books as the Seattle Seahawks 43-8 destruction of the Denver Broncos defied the expectations of the square money, representing the general betting public, which wanted to see a storybook ending to the record-breaking season of Denver quarterback Peyton Manning.Two in three bettors put money on Denver, which closed as a 2 -point favorite, according to data provided by four online sports books and a survey of bookies. It meant the Nevada sports books were not only likely to surpass last years record of $98.9 million worth of action, but they could surpass the $15.4 million in profit the books won in 2005, or a healthy 17 percent hold margin, when New England beat Philadelphia, 24-21.Last year, the sports books made $7,206,460 and held 7.3 percent of the total handle on the Baltimore Ravens 34-31 victory over the San Francisco 49ers. The Nevada Gaming Commission will release final figures later this week. Books have lost just twice in the game since the Nevada Gaming Commission started keeping records in 1991.Recreational bettors backed the quarterback they knew from TV commercials while the wiseguys took an elite defense plus the points, said R. J. Bell, the founder of Pregame.com, a handicapping website that tracks the industry.VideoEvery so often, the Super Bowl turns into a rout, which is exactly what happened on Sunday night at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.CreditCredit...Carlo Allegri/ReutersThe books were hurt on a couple of proposition bets, most notably on the first play from scrimmage when Broncos center Manny Ramirez snapped the ball past Manning for a safety. Several books offered 50-to-1 odds on the first scoring play being a Seahawks safety. It was the third straight Super Bowl in which there was a safety and the second time in three years that it was the first score of the game.William Hill wrote at least one $25 ticket at 50 to 1, and the L.V.H. Las Vegas Hotel & Casino took some hits at 60 to 1.They bet there will be a safety every year, and any time there is one, the books get hurt, said Nick Bogdanovich, the director of trading at William Hill U.S. I think thats three of four years now where theres been one, so maybe we need to adjust the odds. But theres also 50 years of data behind it. When crazy things happen, you pay for it. Its not fun starting the day getting six figures in the hole.Some other plays that hurt the books and paid off at the 5-to-1 range included Malcolm Smiths 69-yard interception return for a touchdown and Percy Harvins 87-yard kick return for a touchdown. The Seahawks winning by 34 to 38 points paid 100 to 1, and Denver scoring exactly 8 points paid 225 to 1, according to Pregame.com.But one thing that both the winning and losing sides could agree on was that Super Bowl XLVIII was hardly super.It was a horrifically boring game to watch, Bogdanovich said. Unfortunately, for the people who came to watch a good game, it was a loser. | Sports |
Credit...Justin Lane/European Pressphoto AgencyMarch 10, 2017The Republican proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act would bar people from using federal tax credits to buy health insurance plans that cover abortion.If the measure is passed, abortion rights advocates fear it could compel insurers to stop offering abortion coverage at all.Theres no reason insurers would sell any plans that cover abortion because everyone would be wanting to use these tax credits, said Adam Sonfield, a senior policy manager for the Guttmacher Institute, a research center that works to promote access to abortion.For now, the proposal would create a big problem for two of the largest and most liberal states: California, where state law requires insurers to cover abortion, and New York, which has long encouraged coverage by including it in its model plan of what insurers have to cover. Massachusetts, too, has long indicated that insurers should cover abortion as medically necessary.The law, if passed, would all but make it impossible for Californians to use the new tax credits to buy health insurance.States would be faced with this choice: Do we get rid of our abortion coverage requirement, or deny state residents all the tax credits? said Gretchen Borchelt, the vice president for reproductive rights and health at the National Womens Law Center. Its putting states in a really terrible position.She and other advocates for abortion rights said they expected legal challenges from California and other states if the law passed. They argued it goes against Republican promises of increased options in health insurance, and their embrace of states rights.The proposal continues a move away from abortion coverage in recent years. Until the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, insurers in most states offered plans covering abortion. The A.C.A. allowed states to bar insurers from offering plans through the A.C.A. marketplaces that cover abortion and 25 states did so (except for coverage of abortions in cases of rape or incest, or where the womans life is in danger). Ten of those extended that ban to prevent insurers from providing abortion coverage in any private insurance plan in the state.Since 1977, the federal Hyde Amendment has prohibited federal money from going to abortions. Under the Affordable Care Act, state officials had to separate out the federal subsidies used to buy health insurance into separate funds so that no federal money would go toward abortions.Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the leader of the Republican majority in the House, has asked Tom Price, the new secretary of Health and Human Services, to examine whether Californias law violates laws protecting the religious freedom of health care providers who object to abortion.Ms. Borchelt said other language in the proposal also moved to stop insurance companies from covering abortion. Under that language, health insurance plans could not be considered qualified, and therefore eligible to be sold on the individual market, if they covered abortion. Because insurance companies tend to set a lot of the same benefits in plans across their various markets, she said, the language is disincentive and meant to discourage plans from covering abortions.Republicans have argued that women can buy an additional rider on their insurance to cover abortion.But, Ms. Borchelt said: No such plans exist. All those provisions work as a de facto ban on insurance coverage in every state with no real option to get it elsewhere.Most abortions are performed in the first trimester of pregnancy. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that an abortion at 10 weeks costs between $400 and $550.The proposed replacement for the Affordable Care Act would mostly affect insurers offering plans in the individual market. But it would also affect employer-sponsored insurance plans in two ways. It would prevent tax credits used by small businesses to buy health insurance, as well as those used by people who have left their jobs to extend employer-sponsored insurance coverage, from being used to buy plans that cover abortion.Employers might decide not to offer abortion coverage, knowing that their employees, if they left, could not use their tax credits to continue that policy.Given the various restrictions across the country, Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst at Guttmacher, asked whether insurers might simply reach a point where it is standard not to cover abortion. Have we reached the tipping point where its so complicated and cumbersome to provide it that insurers will simply stop? she asked. You can imagine insurers saying it isnt worth the hassle. | Health |
Credit...Andy Wong/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesJune 5, 2018WASHINGTON China offered to purchase nearly $70 billion of energy, agricultural and manufactured products from the United States in the first year of a deal that would require the Trump administration to suspend tariffs on Chinese products, a person familiar with the talks said.The offer, which came during a meeting this weekend in Beijing between Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and the Chinese economic adviser Liu He, would go only partway toward President Trumps initial demand that China reduce its $375.2 billion trade surplus with the United States by $200 billion annually. And it leaves untouched other American requests, including that China allow American companies more access to its markets and end practices that the Trump administration and business executives say force companies to transfer valuable intellectual property.The proposal could fizzle quickly. Chinese officials have said publicly that any agreements would be void if the United States continued with plans to impose tariffs and other restrictions, and American officials have given no indication so far that they intend to halt the tariffs.Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, would not comment on whether the Chinese proposal would pass muster with Mr. Trump, saying on Tuesday that were in the negotiation process and that our focus is to make sure we get good deals.ImageCredit...China Stringer Network/ReutersThe White House has said the levies will go into effect shortly after a list of affected products is published by June 15, and that restrictions on Chinese investment in the United States will follow, shortly after they are announced by June 30.Those plans have led to a bitter turf war within the administration as officials try to reach a deal with China that would allow Mr. Trump to claim victory in a brewing trade dispute.Negotiators like Mr. Ross and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have pushed China to agree to a package of purchases that would benefit American businesses and forestall the possibility of a trade war between the economies. But that approach has drawn ire from hard-liners like Peter Navarro, a trade adviser, and Robert E. Lighthizer, the top trade negotiator, who argue that the White House needs to hold out for bigger concessions from China in terms of reforming its economy and reducing its trade surplus with the United States.The recent round of discussions in Beijing was more narrowly focused on potential Chinese purchases of American products, a goal that has angered some China critics who fear that Mr. Ross and Mr. Mnuchin are sacrificing the bigger concessions by China that many feel are needed. That includes Democrats, who have also pressed Mr. Trump to push China to open its markets and have criticized the president for focusing on the trade deficit at the expense of other goals.Economists have also expressed skepticism about Chinas potential to purchase tens of billions of dollars of additional products from the United States, arguing that the American economy is already operating near its full potential. If China does ramp up purchases of energy and agricultural goods, they say, it would simply displace those purchases from other nations, making little lasting impact on the overall trade deficit or the American economy.The figure offered last weekend follows earlier statements by senior Trump administration officials, who said after a meeting with the Chinese in mid-May that Beijing had proposed a package of purchases and economic reforms that would essentially allow $200 billion worth of American goods to enter China over the next few years.As that round of talks concluded in mid-May, the White House said that China had committed to buying more agriculture and energy exports, but noted that American officials would travel to China to work out the details of their agreement.The push to strike a deal with China has also provoked criticism from some lawmakers. The Trump administration briefed lawmakers two weeks ago on a deal that would keep the Chinese telecom firm ZTE in business in exchange for other trade concessions, a proposal that the president later confirmed on Twitter.The United States had banned the Chinese firm from buying American technology components for seven years as a punishment for violating United States sanctions against Iran and North Korea. The prospect of lifting those sanctions had provoked a backlash from lawmakers across the political spectrum, who saw the issue as a law enforcement matter and ZTEs expansion in the United States as a potential national security threat.The trade conflict with the Chinese could escalate in coming months, putting at risk multinational businesses that depend on China to source and sell products. China has threatened to retaliate by placing its own tariffs on roughly $50 billion of American products, and Mr. Trump responded by threatening tariffs on an additional $100 billion of Chinese goods.The administrations efforts to coax China into purchasing more American products may be a peace offering to farmers, who are heavily dependent on exports and have found themselves in the cross hairs of several of Mr. Trumps trade conflicts, including his push to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement and global steel and aluminum tariffs that have prompted retaliation on American goods.Farmers have not been doing well for 15 years, the president wrote on Twitter on Monday. Mexico, Canada, China and others have treated them unfairly. By the time I finish trade talks, that will change. Big trade barriers against U.S. farmers, and other businesses, will finally be broken. Massive trade deficits no longer! | Politics |
March 11, 2017ImageCredit...Ashley Gilbertson for The New York TimesMAIDUGURI, Nigeria Dozens of drivers lined up in beat-up vehicles stuffed with mattresses, cooking pots and other belongings, clogging a road outside one of the most desperate and dangerous camps that serve as refuge from the war with Boko Haram.All were waiting for the Nigerian military to escort them back to the farms and the villages they had fled during the yearslong rampage by the insurgents here in this northeast corner of the nation.The military and the government have proclaimed that the countryside outside Maiduguri, the busy Borno State capital where Boko Haram was born, is mostly safe now. Theyve said its time for most of the nearly two million displaced people many of them farmers and fishermen fighting to stave off hunger to go home.But the soldiers were guiding the throngs of people into a future that was no more certain, and potentially just as dangerous, as the past they had fled.Maimta Modu, 62, had come to a displaced-persons camp with other residents of his tiny village, and now they have to pay soldiers a fee to be escorted back periodically to check on their crops. If he returns on his own, he said in a reference to Boko Haram, those boys will slaughter me.President Muhammadu Buhari has repeatedly declared the war with Boko Haram over. The military has chased the insurgents from hiding places in the forest. But the radical Islamist terrorist group is still waging deadly attacks across the countryside. And in some camps for displaced people, new arrivals fleeing the militants are moving in even as others are moving back home.Caught in the middle are people like Idi Hassan and his wife, who were in the convoy with six of their young children in his truck bed. The Hassans had been living for two years in the squalid camp in Maiduguri, relying on food handouts and eager to get back to their farm north of here, where they hoped to make a living.The area has been liberated, and were going home, Mr. Hassan said, sitting behind the wheel as his wife breast-fed their infant in the passengers seat.Yet insurgents still roam the northeast and frequently crisscross roads like the one that was taking Mr. Hassan and his family home. Just weeks ago, Boko Haram ambushed soldiers along this very highway, killing seven of them.The narrow road is also the same one that Boko Haram used in January to ferry nine suicide bombers who set upon the same camp in Maiduguri that the Hassan family was leaving. Besides the bombers, two other people were killed in the attack, described by the authorities as the most coordinated of recent bombings.ImageCredit...Ashley Gilbertson for The New York TimesMuch of the world associates the militants with the kidnapping in April 2014 of more than 200 schoolgirls from Chibok, a small village in northeastern Nigeria. Many of them are still missing.Most people simplify this crisis into one hashtag: Bring Back Our Girls, said Sean Hoy, Irelands ambassador to Nigeria, who was in Maiduguri recently with other diplomats to assess the humanitarian crisis. But the aftermath of the ravaging by Boko Haram is far more complicated.Since the violence started here in 2009, nearly two million people in northeastern Nigeria have fled their homes in fear of Boko Haram, which has carried out a murderous spree against civilians and members of the military.Many people fled rural areas to Maiduguri, which has doubled in size as displaced Nigerians have crowded into relatives homes or settled into crumbling buildings, bus stations, schoolyards and the thousands of ramshackle thatched huts that dot the edges of the city.The Borno State government announced plans to close the camps in Maiduguri by the end of May, but said it would keep evaluating the situation. Now, one million uprooted people are making their way back home, according to the United Nations.Outside the city, military commanders say, all but small pockets of the countryside are now safe.Ferocious attacks are a thing of the past, said Maj. Gen. Leo Irabor, the Nigerian Army commander leading the operation against the militants. We are only picking up the pieces.In late December, the military began reopening main highways that had been closed for years because of security worries. The state government has started rebuilding burned villages.ImageCredit...Ashley Gilbertson for The New York TimesThe military push has allowed aid workers to fan out into new parts of the countryside to help people ravaged by famine or faminelike conditions. The United Nations has increased its efforts as well, working alongside the military and asking for $1 billion to help those affected by Boko Haram.Yet the security situation is far from stable. Maiduguri, where soldiers chased out the militants years ago, has been a frequent suicide-bombing target, set upon even by girl bombers, one as young as 7. One bomber in a recent attack had a baby strapped to her back.With the military on their trail, many Boko Haram fighters appear to have scattered throughout Borno State and its beige landscape dotted by tiny farming communities. The Nigerian Army orders residents to clear out as it hunts the militants, and unarmed civilians are sometimes killed in the battles.ImageCredit...Ashley Gilbertson for The New York TimesMr. Modu said soldiers had arrived in his village and given a two-week deadline for residents to move to a nearby town. The next day, insurgents ordered them to evacuate immediately. Residents then moved into a displaced-persons camp.In mid-January, a relief convoy driving on one of the reopened roads ran over an improvised bomb, setting fire to a food truck, burning all its contents and injuring a driver and his assistants.In another area deemed safe by the military, insurgents gunned down 16 people gathering wood not far from their homes. When aid groups make some supply runs in helicopters across the safe areas, the pilots fly high enough to be out of missile range.ImageCredit...Ashley Gilbertson for The New York TimesHumanitarian groups say the military refuses to allow food supplies to build up in camps teeming with hungry people for fear that the militants will steal it. Soldiers have shut down phone networks and banned fuel sales in some areas where residents are trying to restore their lives.Diverging streams of displaced people moving in and out of the camps are making it hard for humanitarian groups to provide assistance. Those in the camps need food, and people going home need help reviving their farms. Both relief and development aid are needed.Some residents take risks. Muhammadu Sani was sewing a fishing net at a 26,000-person camp in the countryside on a recent day. Eager to feed his seven children, he would head regularly to a fishing spot an hour away. But transporting fish is banned, in an attempt to starve the insurgents. So Mr. Sani stuffs his catch down his pants to smuggle it home.ImageCredit...Ashley Gilbertson for The New York TimesIn some areas, waves of displaced Nigerians have begun crashing into one another. In a rural community called Monguno, hundreds of people from newly liberated areas have crammed into mud-brick homes abandoned when Boko Haram first invaded. Now, the original homeowners are finding that people as desperate as they had been are living inside.Bulama Abatcha and Modu Bintumi had to ask for help from a community official to work out an arrangement in which Mr. Abatcha could remain in the other mans home rent free. Mr. Abatcha would take care of it until Mr. Bintumi was ready to leave a camp in Maiduguri, where he had fled two years ago.If the owner comes any time soon, Mr. Abatcha said, Ill definitely find another place and move.ImageCredit...Ashley Gilbertson for The New York TimesIn other areas, the state government has forged ahead with full-fledged reconstruction, building concrete housing in villages that Boko Haram had reduced to ashes.But in places such as Benisheik, a community about an hours drive from Maiduguri that was leveled by the militants, spacious new concrete homes are vacant. They are adjacent to pieced-together huts made of wood frames and ragged sheets, where returning residents are camped out until they are allowed to move into the concrete structures.Gov. Kashim Shettima of Borno State said that to cut down on ownership fights, officials wanted to make sure that all the units were completed before allowing anyone in. Women will have first pick of the homes, he said, because they have been affected the most by a war in which their sons and husbands were routinely killed.Each will receive an irrigation kit, 25 chickens and two goats to help stimulate the local economy.ImageCredit...Ashley Gilbertson for The New York TimesWe recognize that human population is the number one defense against insurgents, and we know that communities can remain isolated for years and give strength to insurgents, Mr. Shettima said. But we will never compromise safety.In one of the new concrete structures, complete with drop ceilings, Halima Hajiya Ibrahim, an older woman, danced and raised her hands, ecstatically showing visitors what she said was her new home. No one had told her that it had yet to be officially assigned; she was a squatter and was bound to be removed.Other residents who had returned to Benisheik said they were eager to move out of shelters that flood during the rainy season and offer no protection from the night chill.But many said they were still uneasy. Days earlier, a group of insurgents on motorbikes had crossed the road just outside town. | World |
Reusable duodenoscopes infected patients in a series of notorious outbreaks. Now theres a disposable model to be used just once.Credit...Boston ScientificDec. 13, 2019Following a series of deadly outbreaks in hospitals around the country, the Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the first fully disposable version of the medical device implicated in the infections.Reusable versions of the device a long, snakelike tube with a fiber-optic camera at one end, called a duodenoscope are inserted in one patient after another to diagnose and treat diseases of the pancreas and bile duct, like tumors and gallstones.Duodenoscopes are used in 700,000 medical procedures each year. Yet tests showed that the devices could not be properly decontaminated between procedures because they cannot be sterilized by the usual methods.After the outbreaks caused by duodenoscopes came to light, the F.D.A. had urged hospitals to use models with disposable parts and had called on manufacturers to produce fully disposable models.The new device, called Exalt and made by Boston Scientific, is designed to be used only once before being discarded or recycled. The device should eliminate the risk of potential infection due to ineffective reprocessing, the arduous cleaning process, said Dr. Jeff Shuren, head of the F.D.A.s Center for Devices and Radiological Health.The disposable duodenoscope was designated a breakthrough device, indicating it provides for more effective treatment or diagnosis of life-threatening conditions. Its review at the F.D.A. was expedited in order to get it to market as soon as possible.Since 2012, contaminated duodenoscopes have been implicated in dozens of infectious outbreaks affecting hundreds of hospital patients in the United States and Europe. Many were infected with bacteria resistant to powerful antibiotics.More than 30 patients in Seattle with infected with resistant bacteria following duodenoscope procedures between 2012 and 2014. Eleven of them died. In 2015, two patients in Los Angeles died and five were sickened by contaminated duodenoscopes.[Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.]The devices are used to perform a procedure, called endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, needed to diagnose and treat diseases of the pancreas, bile duct and gallbladder, such as life threatening jaundice, tumors, blocked bile ducts and stones. The long tube, with a camera at the tip, is inserted through the patients mouth and stomach, and then into the first part of the small intestine, called the duodenum.Many different reusable scopes are used in medicine, but duodenoscopes which have a movable mechanism at the tip are particularly difficult to clean. Though they are disinfected with chemicals, they have tiny nooks where bodily fluids and bacteria can lodge.Cleaning, also called reprocessing, between patients involves nearly 100 steps, including both hand-scrubbing the device and inspecting it visually to check for biological debris clinging to the scopes.Recent tests performed by manufacturers at the F.D.A.s request found that even after the proper cleaning procedures were followed, one in 20 duodenoscopes retained disease-causing microbes like E. coli.Whether the new disposable duodenoscope will be widely adopted remains to be seen. The Exalt is expected to carry a price tag of approximately $3,000, and insurance coverage is still uncertain.Health care systems already have a full inventory of durable, reusable duodenoscopes, which cost between $35,000 and $45,000. Some of the durable devices already have disposable parts.The disposable models will also have an environmental impact, creating a new stream of medical waste if they cannot be recycled. A spokesman for Boston Scientific said the company planned to offer a recycling program and was currently finalizing plans with a medical waste recycle company to facilitate this process.Art Butcher, senior vice president of Boston Scientific Corp., said the new device would represent a unique solution to a complex problem. Six experts who used the disposable scope in a clinical trial of 60 patients gave it satisfactory scores. Ninety percent said the disposable scope was as good as the reusable scope, and 2 percent said it was preferable. Eight percent said it was inferior to the reusable scope. | Health |
Credit...Ben C. Solomon/The New York TimesNov. 12, 2018PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea The Maseratis and Bentleys have been delivered. Laborers from China have repaired roads and installed bus stop shelters with signs saying China Aid. Three cruise ships will serve as temporary hotels.The Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea is in the global spotlight as some of the worlds most powerful leaders gather here this week for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting.Some say hosting the annual Asia-Pacific leaders forum will be Papua New Guineas biggest event since it gained independence in 1975. For the countrys scandal-ridden government, it is an opportunity to spend aid money on favored projects in the capital and import luxury vehicles that can be sold later to wealthy cronies.Government leaders, most of them heads of state, will be arriving this weekend from 20 fellow member economies that ring the Pacific Ocean.Vice President Mike Pence and Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia will attend in place of President Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who are skipping the meeting.But President Xi Jinping of China, who is seeking to expand his countrys influence in the South Pacific, is expected to arrive two days early and attend a state dinner, meet with leaders of island nations and attend the opening of a school built with Chinese aid.Papua New Guinea, a country of more than eight million located north of Australia and east of Indonesia, is by far the poorest of the 21 economies that make up the Asia-Pacific conference, known as APEC.The country is rich in minerals, timber, oil and gas but lacks the roads and ports to extract and export them. It also faces a national health crisis that includes the return of polio.Papua New Guinea is the worlds most ethnically diverse nation, with more than 800 languages and 600 islands. Tribal rivalry is common, and some clans have existed in a state of low-level conflict for generations.The political situation is quite complex, said Alan Bollard, the executive director of APEC. It has a fluid party system, and it is very tribal.The capital, Port Moresby, is free from any actual war, but still somehow feels like a war zone.Reports of visitors being robbed in broad daylight are common. Wealthy Papua New Guineans live behind high, spiked fences. Many foreigners live in guarded compounds where units rent for $6,000 a month or more.The security firm Black Swan International is one of the countrys largest companies, with 2,500 employees.ImageCredit...Vanessa 'Ness' Kerton/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesAbout 7,000 people are expected for the leaders meeting. With a shortage of hotels, most will stay on the three docked cruise ships provided by Carnival Australia.The countrys wealth disparity is evident. About 85 percent of the country survives through subsistence farming, and less than a fifth of the population has electricity. In Port Moresby, many settlers live in shacks made of scrap wood and plastic tarps.But in the downtown area, new high-rise residential buildings have sprung up on hillsides overlooking the harbor and a stunning new waterfront conference center, APEC Haus, where the world leaders will meet.The countrys largest oil and gas exploration company, Oil Search, built APEC Haus in exchange for future tax credits.Allegations of corruption have long shadowed the prime minister, Peter ONeill, who took power in 2011. He appointed an anticorruption task force but disbanded it after it accused him of fraud.In June 2016, the police fired on student protesters who were calling on him to step down over corruption charges. More than 20 were wounded.Elections held last year were riddled with fraud, intimidation and vote-buying, international observers found.The country ranks 135th out of 180 on Transparency Internationals corruption perception index.In July and August, the government spent $7 million to purchase 40 Maserati sedans and three Bentley Flying Spurs for the APEC meeting, invoices for the transactions show. That includes more than $1.3 million to deliver the Maseratis by air.Officials said the cars would be used to transport world leaders to meeting events and that the government would recoup its money by selling the cars afterward.The invoices identify the Maserati dealer as a spare parts shop in Sri Lanka and the Bentley vendor as a medical supply firm in Malaysia. Neither company could be reached for comment.Even by APEC standards, the car deal was unusual. Mr. Bollard said that no other member economy had ever bought Maseratis to chauffeur world leaders.Its certainly not something we were proposing, he said.Top officials did not respond to interview requests from The Times, including Mr. ONeill; the deputy prime minister, Charles Abel; the minister for APEC, Justin Tkatchenko; and the governments APEC coordinator, Christopher Hawkins, whose name is on the invoices.ImageCredit...Ben C. Solomon/The New York TimesBryan Kramer, an opposition member of Parliament, said that importing luxury vehicles was ludicrous since the country has few paved roads and no national road network.He asserted that officials planned to sell the cars to wealthy friends without charging the requisite taxes for luxury vehicles, saving them more than half the normal cost.Its a scheme to bring the cars into the country using government funds, Mr. Kramer said.On the eve of the APEC meeting, an outbreak of polio highlighted the countrys mismanagement.The first case, a 6-year-old boy, was announced in June. Since then, health officials have confirmed 20 more cases, including one in the capital. Young children are most susceptible to the disease, which can cause paralysis or death.The country eradicated polio in 2000, but the low vaccination rate in recent years, combined with poor sanitation, has allowed the disease to spread once more.The health secretary, Pascoe Kase, said polio vaccinations had declined because local officials diverted health funds for other purposes. With assistance from the World Health Organization and the United Nations Childrens Fund, health workers have vaccinated more than three million people since the outbreak began.ImageCredit...Ben C. Solomon/The New York TimesDuring World War II, when it was an Australian colony, Papua New Guinea was a key battleground for control of the South Pacific. Japan invaded in 1942, but its forces were overextended and the Allies halted their advance, turning the tide of the war in the Pacific.Today, sunken warships and the Kokoda Trail, the site of heavy jungle fighting, are attractions for divers and intrepid hikers.But Papua New Guinea remains a geopolitical battleground as Australia, China, Japan and the United States vie for influence.This month, Australia said it had reached agreement with Papua New Guinea to redevelop a naval base on Manus Island. From 2013 until last year, it spent millions operating a detention center on the island for unwanted asylum seekers.Australia, the largest donor in the South Pacific, is also helping to bankroll the APEC meeting, including providing security.But in June, Mr. ONeill met with Mr. Xi in Beijing and signed an agreement to accept loans and aid under Chinas Belt and Road Initiative, an ambitious plan to develop economic and diplomatic ties through infrastructure projects around the world.ImageCredit...Ben C. Solomon/The New York TimesThe Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, said in Port Moresby last month that his governments assistance came without restrictions.China is committed to friendship and common interests, and we put the greater good before our own interests, he told reporters.During Mr. Xis visit, he will see many signs of Chinas growing influence.Much of Chinas aid has gone to high-visibility projects, including a $50 million renovation of the International Conference Center and the construction of a six-lane boulevard connecting it to nearby Parliament House.China also brought in workers to repave the main highway, which links downtown and the government district.Mr. Kramer said that road was better than most and that the only reason to improve it was for the Maseratis.Why are you digging up a perfectly good road and repaving it when there are so many bad roads in the country? he asked. The only thing it wasnt suited for was high-performance vehicles.ImageCredit...Ben C. Solomon/The New York TimesThe flags of both China and Papua New Guinea fly over the Butuka Academy, the PNG and China Friendship School in Port Moresby that Mr. Xi is expected to visit.Rachel Russell, 20, who lives across the street from the school, said she was angry that more than half a dozen huge rain trees had been cut down by Chinese workers when they repaved the road.They chopped down the big trees and made it look like a desert, she said as she sat in a new bus shelter with China Aid signs.She said that she and her neighbors had blocked the workers from cutting down two large mango trees outside her house and making a parking lot.I was fighting with the Chinese people, she said. I was telling them not to chop the trees down. All the people came out. I was really, really mad.Ms. Russell, who works at a hotel where APEC visitors are among the guests, said she disliked seeing foreigners provide aid that she considers harmful.Why do we have to help these people when they are coming here to spoil our country? she said. A lot of people dont like it. But what can they do? | World |
Johnny Manziel It's 'Comeback Season' ... For My Swag!!! 1/22/2018 TMZSports.com Johnny Manziel and his hot fiancee have a message for all the Johnny Football lovers (and haters) out there -- IT'S COMEBACK SEASON!!! No, Manziel hasn't finalized his deal with the CFL ... but him and Bre Tiesi are out flaunting his "ComebackSZN" gear as he waits on word from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Johnny and Bre weren't too chatty when we got 'em leaving Delilah in L.A. over the weekend ... but they were happy to show off a sample of Manziel's new signature swag. Waiting for your permission to load the Instagram Media. And if hoodies aren't your thing ... they also got t-shirts with Johnny's face on a $2 bill and "lost in the sauce" dad hats!! Never change, Johnny. | Entertainment |
Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesFeb. 9, 2014SOCHI, Russia In 2011, the South Korean short-track speedskating star Ahn Hyun-soo became a Russian citizen, changed his name to Viktor Ahn and pledged to compete for his adopted homeland at the Sochi Games. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was said to be especially pleased.But what if Ahn Hyun-soo had not become Viktor Ahn? What if he had become Joe (or Mike, or Bill) Ahn instead?That seemingly unlikely situation is not so far-fetched. When Ahn, 28, went searching for a new Olympic allegiance after a falling-out with the South Korean skating federation, he and his father examined naturalization for top athletes in several countries with the United States and Russia being the final two possibilities, said Jang Kwon-ok, a former Russian speedskating coach who helped recruit Ahn.Jang, who has also coached the national teams of South Korea, Australia and the United States, said last week that Ahn, who will compete in the mens 1,500-meter race on Monday, considered trying to switch to the American skating program but ultimately chose to go with Russia because it was an easier and more lucrative process.He was looking at the U.S.A., too, very much, said Jang, who is coaching Kazakhstans short-track team here. But it was difficult to move to the U.S.A., and also the budget was a problem. He needed some salary, and they could not pay. There is no money there for short-track. The best condition was Russia because they are open and make it good for him.Jang, who said he still spoke to Ahn often, would not specify how much financial assistance Ahn received from the Russian federation. But he did say that the process for receiving Russian citizenship was very, very easy, compared with the layers of paperwork and the residency requirements that would be expected of someone trying to gain American citizenship. Jang also said that the talent pool in both countries was a factor for Ahn.The United States already had several strong skaters, including J. R. Celski, who is a medal contender here. Russia, on the other hand, has won just a single short-track medal (as the Unified Team in 1992). As the host country at this Olympics, the Russians were surely interested in having legitimate competitors in as many sports as possible.At that time, Russias short-track program was very low, Jang said. So they were very welcoming to him. The U.S.A.? They did not need him as much.Ahns nationality change has generated a mix of opinions in the skating world, though the practice is hardly unprecedented. Ahn is not the only short-track skater competing in Sochi to switch countries: Anthony Lobello skated on the 2006 United States Olympic team but will skate here for Italy after what he described in a blog post as a wild ride with the United States skating federation.Ahns move has been more of a lightning rod. Ahn has won five world championship titles, and he claimed three gold medals at the 2006 Olympics, vaulting to the top of the sport. But he sustained a serious knee injury in 2008, and the South Korean skating federation, with which he had a tumultuous relationship for years, did not seem particularly interested in helping with his comeback once he did not recover in time to make the 2010 Olympic team.After joining the Russians, Ahn steadily worked his way back to the top and won three titles for Russia at the European championships last month. Much of the public attention after that event was focused on the Dutch skater Sjinkie Knegt, who responded to an Ahn victory with an obscene gesture but most skaters simply focused on the good form Ahn was showing. Jang was impressed by the speed Ahn showed at the start of races, something that had not been one of his strengths.Viktor Knoch, a Hungarian skater, said that Ahn was easy to like.He got basically sent away from Korea, Knoch said. They said they didnt need him anymore. But he didnt just say: O.K., Ive won my five world championships and my three Olympic titles. Im going to stop. He decided to come back. And I think thats a pretty big deal.In Sochi, Ahn will compete in three individual events and skate for the Russian team in the 5,000-meter relay. If he wins, it will certainly be a big moment for Russians, but South Korean fans also figure to be excited.Yoo Jee-ho, a journalist with Yonhap News Agency, said a poll conducted last year in South Korea found that 61 percent of more than 1,200 respondents said that they understood Ahns decision to renounce his South Korean citizenship and skate for Russia. He is seen as a sympathetic figure, Yoo said. Here is a guy whod done so much for the country at the Olympics and the world championships, but injuries and some politics outside his control kept him from returning to his glory days.Now it appears that Ahn has made it back, even if he had to change his name to do so. So why did he choose Viktor? Ahn had not given interviews leading to the Games, but in a statement on the Russian federation website, he said that part of his inspiration was to pay tribute to Viktor Tsoi, a Soviet-Korean musician who died in a car crash at 28.Ahn also said that he was attracted to a name so closely connected to winning. The name Viktor, he believes, will bring him luck. | Sports |
Credit...Geoff Robins/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesMarch 2, 2017TORONTO Canadas merit-based immigration system received a loving mention by President Trump this week in his speech to Congress. Mr. Trump, who has railed against illegal immigration and talked tough about tightening borders, said adopting that kind of system would cost American taxpayers less and help increase wages for poor workers.But in Canada, immigration is not just about selecting newcomers based on their skills. It is part of a system that promotes both the economy and the countrys multicultural society, which has arguably become as much a part of Canadian identity as hockey. And it is largely seen as a way to increase immigration, not reduce it.Canadians are more likely than citizens of any other industrial country to think immigration is essential to the economy and the future of the country, said Jeffrey Reitz, a professor of ethnic and immigration studies at the University of Toronto.Canada, a country of 35 million, aims to take in 300,000 immigrants this year 0.85 percent of its population, compared with the United States 0.3 percent and polls show Canadians are happy with this. In fact, the finance ministers advisory council on economic growth wants 150,000 more.Part of that enthusiasm is the countrys recognition that, with an aging population, immigration is essential to economic growth. Add to that Canadas geography a long border with the prosperous United States to the south and the Arctic to the north and illegal immigration is less of an issue.And finally, Canadians have a wholehearted belief in the merit-based immigration system, which creates a positive feedback loop.The advantage of our system is the people who come in everyone agrees theyve passed some sort of merit system, said Ravi Pendakur, a professor of public and international affairs at the University of Ottawa. The Canadian population in particular is more willing to buy into immigration. They can see its managed, and thats an advantage.The program does have its drawbacks. It has become enormously complex, ever-morphing and a source of huge backlogs.Created in 1967, the merit-based system was seen as a way to select immigrants based on their human capital and not simply their country of origin, as had been the tradition. The idea was to bring in immigrants, regardless of where they were born, with vetted qualities that would make them the most successful at integrating into the Canadian economy.Candidates received points for their level of education, ability to speak one or both of the countrys official languages, work experience, age, a job offer and what immigration officials called adaptability, which meant they came with family or had family here.Initially, this system was the smallest of three streams of immigrants. People reuniting with their families and refugees were the other two. But increasingly, Canadian leaders have favored these economic immigrants to the point that this year, the government projects they will make up 57.5 percent of newcomers.The formula has changed over the years, with points for training and job categories rising or falling as officials ideas on job readiness changed. Until recently, admission was based on acquiring at least 67 points, with up to 70 given for advanced education, fluency in English and French, and four or more years of work experience. A job offer was worth only 10 points. There was no cap, so the waiting list grew to be huge: 800,000, which meant a four-year wait.Two years ago, the country revamped the entire system, increasing the possible points to 1,200 and valuing a job offer at 600.Other applications were put in a job bank for employers to select. Successful applicants were promised a six-month approval, but unsuccessful ones had to reapply.After Prime Minister Justin Trudeau entered office later in 2015, his Liberal government rejiggered the formula again, greatly reducing the number of points awarded for a job offer and adding 30 points for candidates who had graduated, as foreign students, from a Canadian university.Add separate point systems drafted by the countrys provinces and territories based on their job markets, and the system grows even more head-scratching. Saskatchewan, for instance, is recruiting long-haul truck drivers and hospitality workers, while Alberta wants food and beverage processors.I teach this stuff and I find it confusing, said Prof. Audrey Macklin, director of the University of Torontos Center for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies. Its inherently confusing, plus it keeps changing.Still, the principle remains: The immigrants coming in under this system are well educated, literate in the local language and have great credentials.Not surprisingly, studies have shown that economic immigrants, arriving with more education and language skills, land higher-paying jobs with greater potential for raises. Their children also have higher college graduation rates.If America changes toward our system, the Apples and Microsofts and Googles will be very happy, said Robert Vineberg, a retired regional director general of immigration. But the vegetable growers in California will not be so happy.Mr. Vineberg offered government immigration statistics from 2015 as an example. That year, Canada identified 66,360 newcomers as economic immigrants for their occupational skills.Around 36,300 were categorized in the top two classes, meaning they were fluent in one national language and had a college degree. Most would have been recruited for a specific job, Mr. Vineberg said: for instance, vice president of a company or administrator of a hospital. Another 22,700 were picked for a job in skilled trades, like an industrial electrician. They needed the language skills to read a blueprint and follow complicated directions, and at least some postsecondary training and certification in their trade.Only 2,177 were brought in as laborers, and even they would have been chosen for specific positions, most likely in a hard-to-fill job or a remote location for instance, a Japanese-speaking hotel receptionist in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Mr. Vineberg said.His example, however, illuminates the contradiction at the center of the immigration system.In 2015, almost 272,000 people were granted entry, and only a quarter were picked for their merit. Most of those counted in the economic class were family members, chosen not for their human capital although many might also be educated and intend to work but their blood ties.The statistics convey the impression that Canada chooses most people based on economic criteria, and perhaps policy makers think this reassures Canadians that immigration serves Canadas economic interests, Professor Macklin said. In reality, most people still enter on the basis of kinship. The idea that this can be easily or significantly altered is a bit of a fantasy.The other distinctive aspect of Canadas immigration policy is what the country does not face: a tidal wave of migrants. Surrounded on three sides by enormous and frigid oceans, Canada has few people sneaking in. Even the increasing number of asylum seekers illegally crossing the border from the United States in recent years is comparatively small.Its easier to be relaxed about immigration when your only land border is a huge wall with the United States, Professor Reitz said. | World |
Credit...Tom Brenner/The New York TimesJune 28, 2018WASHINGTON The retirement of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy is likely to thrust Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. into the courts ideological center, making him the deciding vote on abortion, gay rights and affirmative action cases alongside a newly solidified conservative majority.For the past dozen years, Justice Kennedy has sat in the ideological middle of the polarized court, with four liberal justices to his left and four conservative ones to his right, according to scores based on their voting patterns. His retirement will almost certainly mean that position goes to Justice Roberts, potentially encouraging him to be more moderate.The chief justice, a conservative nominated by Republican president George W. Bush, has drifted slightly to the left in recent years, drawing howls of protest from activists on the right who have complained that he has proved to be a disappointment. But other than two votes upholding the Affordable Care Act, Chief Justice Roberts, 63, has reliably sided with the courts other conservatives.With Justice Kennedys departure and the likelihood that President Trump will succeed in winning confirmation of a conservative successor, the question is whether Chief Justice Roberts an incrementalist who is passionate about preserving the institutional integrity of the court will inch further toward the center.If Roberts stays right where he is now and he becomes the median, it could pull the court quite a bit to the right, said Lee Epstein, a law professor and political scientist at Washington University in St. Louis. He will prefer to try to form a coalition with the other conservatives, although he will occasionally side with the liberals.Justice Sandra Day OConnor became more moderate when Justice William J. Brennan Jr. and Justice Thurgood Marshall left the court, said Michael C. Dorf, a Cornell Law School professor who clerked for Justice Kennedy, and Justice Kennedy likewise moved to the center when Justice OConnor departed.It could manifest in compromise positions in his taking substantively more moderate stances on issues, Mr. Dorf said. He might want to go slowly before taking an abortion case or an affirmative action case, or a same-sex marriage case to potentially overturn Justice Kennedys handiwork.A 2015 study in The Journal of Legal Studies, and related data ranking the justices in ideological order, found that Chief Justice Roberts voted in a conservative direction 58 percent of the time over the last decade, but leaned right when it mattered most. He is a reliable conservative in the most closely contested cases but moderate when his vote cannot change the outcome, the study said.Mr. Dorf said that Chief Justice Roberts might act differently now that Justice Kennedy often the deciding vote in those cases was gone, much like congressional leaders spare their most vulnerable members of Congress from casting deciding votes on politically difficult issues.But William Baude, a law professor at the University of Chicago who clerked for Justice Roberts, said there is no reason to believe that he will evolve with a newly constituted court.I dont think hes really changed hes been the same chief justice all along and people who want someone whos ideologically reliable are sometimes going to be disappointed by that, Mr. Baude said. People made fun of him for describing the role as an umpire calling balls and strikes, but I think thats really the way he sees it.During the Supreme Court term that just ended, Justice Roberts voted with the majority in divided cases more often than any other justice.The result was a set of deeply conservative rulings, including one upholding Mr. Trumps travel ban and another dealing a sharp blow to public unions. But he is also regarded as an incrementalist who prefers a slow, step-by-step process for staking out a position, shying away from big, bold precedent-shaking decisions.On a lot of major decisions, he already has been the swing vote, so its not an entirely new scenario, said Carrie Severino, the chief counsel and policy director at the Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative legal group. He is someone who would rather answer smaller questions.Ms. Severino said that makes Justice Roberts something of a wild card on the question of whether to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established the constitutional right to an abortion. I dont think anyone knows what Chief Justice Roberts would do in those circumstances, she said.Yet he is also seen as someone who cares deeply for the courts institutional reputation, and someone who would like to avoid rulings that make the Supreme Court appear to be just another partisan actor, with Republican-appointed justices voting in one direction and liberal justices unanimously on the other side on a politically charged issue.David S. Cohen, a law professor at Drexel University, said some progressives hope that instinct might steer Chief Justice Roberts away from overturning Roe, or from invalidating same-sex marriage just a few years after it was decided because a Republican president was able to appoint two new justices.The best hope is to appeal to the chiefs sense of the court as a special, above-politics institution, Mr. Cohen said in an email. Overruling either of these cases in these circumstances would make the court and its justices appear like petty politicians.On the other hand, he added, Chief Justice Roberts may see the allure of presiding over the court that succeeds in undoing precedents reviled by conservatives.After all, these justices dont get to the point they are at in life without being political actors, Mr. Cohen said, and this may be his political goal. | Politics |
Credit...Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated PressFeb. 3, 2014The duel at 178 feet between Antti Niemi and Tuukka Rask took place last month in California, with the fateful shot heard halfway around the world in Finland, long known for skiing, saunas, sunless winters and cellphones, and increasingly gaining notice for its puck stoppers.Beginning with Markus Mattsson in 1980, Finland, a country of 5.41 million people, has produced more N.H.L. goalies than any other European country, according to the league. The 30-team N.H.L. contains eight goaltenders from Finland, including four regular starters. The only countries with more are Canada (29), the United States (14) and Sweden (12). With more puck stoppers in their pipeline than vowels in their names, the Finns have the luxury of rolling goaltenders in the Olympics the way coaches do forward lines during a game.At the Sochi Games, Finland will be represented byNiemi of the San Jose Sharks, Rask of the Boston Bruins and Kari Lehtonen of the Dallas Stars, succeeding Miikka Kiprusoff, Niklas Backstrom and Antero Niittymaki, members of the bronze medal team four years ago.Since the 2010 Vancouver Games, Niemi and Rask have played for a Stanley Cup, with Niemi becoming the first goaltender from his country to lift it. Rask, 26, entered Monday leading the league this season in shutouts; Niemi, 30, was tied for second in wins. They are performing well enough to make people forget about the 31-year-old Pekka Rinne, a two-time Vezina Trophy finalist for the Nashville Predators who has been sidelined with a hip injury since October.When the Bruins eked out a 1-0 victory in San Jose on Jan. 11, Rask and Niemi were the best players on the ice in what felt like an Olympic save-off. Finland, Canada and United States are the only Olympic teams taking three starting N.H.L. goalies to Sochi.Obviously, every coachs dream is to have so many strong goalies that you almost have a problem of who to pick, said Teemu Selanne, a Finnish forward heading to his sixth Olympics and the leading scorer in mens hockey in the Winter Games. It has been a good problem for us for a long time.There is no end in sight. The womens Olympic team is led by Noora Raty, a former University of Minnesota star who is in her third Olympics at age 24. At the recent world junior championships, Juuse Saros, 18, backstopped Finland to the gold medal, posting a tournament-leading 1.57 goals-against average and a .943 save percentage in six games.Asked if there is something in the Finnish character to explain the countrys goaltending success, Saros, a fourth-round draft pick of Nashville last year, said, Maybe its the tendency we have to try and do everything we do very attentively and accurately.Finnish success in N.H.L. nets is often traced toKiprusoff, a 1995 fifth-round draft pick by the Sharks who is the most well-known of the Flopping Finns. Kiprusoff, who retired last year at 37, led the Calgary Flames to the Stanley Cup finals in 2004 and won the Vezina Trophy the next season. He is the winningest Finnish goalie in the N.H.L., with 319 victories in 623 games.ImageCredit...Jerome Miron/USA Today Sports, via ReutersBut Finlands goal rush started well before the discovery of Kiprusoff. In 1970, six years before Kiprusoff was born, Urpo Ylonen was named the best goaltender at the world championships. Eight years later, at the European junior championships, Jari Paavola won the tournaments goaltending award but was upstaged by his teammate Jari Kurri, who delivered the decisive goal in an upset of the Soviet Union in the final.Jorma Valtonens international career included a start in the 1980 Olympic gold medal game against the United States squad that was coming off its Miracle on Ice victory against the Soviet Union.Until the end of the 1970s, the N.H.L.s eyes were for North American players only. European players popped up on the leagues radar during international events, only to disappear until the next one. In the 1980s, forwards Kurri and Esa Tikkanen, part of a trend that started with the renegade World Hockey Association, opened the Finnish channel to North America by becoming key contributors on the Edmonton Oilers championship teams.When the current Finnish goaltenders talk about the trailblazers who made it possible for them to dream of an N.H.L. career, they speak of Mattsson, Jarmo Myllys and Kari Takko, who logged a combined 273 games in the league from 1980 to 1992.Im sure it wasnt easy for those guys, Lehtonen said, because the norm then was you have Canadian goalies and thats it.Lots of GroundworkAfter an hourlong practice at Chelsea Piers during a trip to New York last month, Lehtonen, 30, was stopped by two men, the only Dallas player to be approached by the gaggle of fans that had gathered there. Tourists from Finland, they asked him if he would pose for a photograph, which he did wearing an embarrassed expression. At 19, Lehtonen was taken second over all by the Atlanta Thrashers in the 2002 draft. It was the highest a European goaltender had been selected, 19 places better than the previous high, established in 1994 by Evgeni Ryabchikov of Russia and equaled in 1997 by Lehtonens countryman Mika Noronen.When the 6-foot-4 Lehtonen takes the ice, it is like a total eclipse of the net. Despite his place in draft history and his subsequent success with the Thrashers and the Stars, Lehtonen said he was seldom recognized back home.You have the mask on always, so people dont see you, he said. Hockeys a big thing in Finland, but I can still live my normal life there.Like other Finns his age or younger, Lehtonen had a goalie coach from the time he was 7, a luxury not common in North America, where developing goaltenders usually receive expert instruction at camps, provided their parents have the money to send them. In Finland, we have goalie coaches on every team from the beginning, and I think that helps a lot, said Lehtonen, a nine-year N.H.L. veteran. Its just we do so much of the groundwork, just simple things. Thats what makes us technically sound.It also helps that many of the Finns greatest talents,such as Valtonen and Ylonen, for whom the Finnish Elite League goaltending award is named, stayed in the sport as coaches after their playing careers ended.I think the biggest reason we have so many good goalies is the old goalies stayed in the game, and they give what they have to the younger guys, Selanne said.Niemi said he owed his success to Pasi Nurminen, who played parts of three seasons in the N.H.L. in the early 2000s. Niemi worked with Nurminen during the three seasons he spent with a Finnish team co-owned by Nurminen in Lahti, a city about an hour northeast of Helsinki.He worked hard with me on the ice and at the gym, Niemi said. He is very strong mentally, so he was able to help with that side, too.On a more elemental level, goaltending is Finlands mirror, reflecting the strong, quiet and fiercely proud character of its people.Bernd Brckler, an Austrian-born goaltender who played collegiately at Wisconsin, parlayed four seasons in the Finnish Elite League into a lucrative stint in Russias Kontinental Hockey League, which he has detailed in the book This is Russia: My Life in the KHL. Brcklers years in Finland, with the Espoo Blues, were akin to a doctorate-level education in goaltending and cultural studies.With the help of goaltending coaches there, Brckler improved his glove work and lateral quickness. But technique is only one part of it, he said. Finlands positioning in the far north of Europe, he said, fosters a quietude that is helpful in molding men and women capable of succeeding in goal.The Finns are ice-cold as far as their emotions go, Brckler said. My first year in Espoo, I thought it was crazy because everyone kept to themselves. No one talked to anyone. The men, especially, are crazy quiet, focused, determined, strong-minded people. I think one part of the reason for why they are the way they are is for a good five, six months, there is no sun. In the summer, you can see how they thaw.A Magnetic PositionSelanne dabbled in goal as a child, drawn to the position for the same reasons American children gravitate to quarterback: All the action unfolds in front of you, and your play is crucial to the outcome.I think every little hockey player wants to be a goalie at a certain time, said Selanne, who took turns in net with his twin brother, Paavo, but realized early on that his personality made him better suited for a less serious position.It was fun, but my desire was more beating the goalies, Selanne said. Goalies a lonely thing, more of an individual thing. I can do some stupid things on the ice, and most of the nights, it doesnt cost anything. If they do mistakes, its on the scoreboard right away.ImageCredit...Jared Wickerham/Getty ImagesNiemi stands apart in the Sharks dressing room like an accountant in the middle of a sales convention. He is the quiet one in the corner, looking up with surprise when a question pierces his bubble.He loses himself in his preparation. Niemis film study and his focus at practices were lauded by Sharks Coach Todd McLellan, who said, His work ethic is what sets him apart. In 2010, as a rookie for the Chicago Blackhawks, Niemi became the first Finnish goaltender to win the Stanley Cup after compiling a 16-6 record and .912 save percentage in the playoffs.I dont know if it was that big of a deal because it kind of surprised everyone in Finland, Niemi said. The next season, Rask won the Stanley Cup as the backup goalie for the Bruins. Last season, Rasks first as the full-time starter, he compiled a .940 save percentage and 1.88 goals-against average as Boston reached the finals again.While Lehtonen said, Im more calm when the situation becomes harder, Rasks emotional side sets him apart from his goaltending countrymen. Lehtonen described Rask as the wild man. To understand why, Bruins Coach Claude Julien said with a twinkle in his eye, Go to YouTube.There one can find video clips of Rask slamming his stick against the goal post, the ice or the Plexiglas after being beaten for a winning goal, usually in a shootout. There are times when weve lost some shootout games, he takes it personally, Julien said.He added: Maybe 10 or 15 minutes after hes vented, hes calm and collected. He just has to get it out of his system.To understand Rasks outbursts, it helps to know his motivation for playing goal.Finns are pretty good at protecting their own, Rask said, so maybe that comes with the territory for me, too. Who will be tasked with protecting the Finnish Olympic team in Sochi is unclear. Finland has won a medal during the past two Olympics, which neither Canada nor the United States, the finalists in 2010, can claim. Any of the three goalies could emerge as the hockey star of the Games.We have three No. 1s, Rask said. Its just a matter of who plays. | Sports |
AppraisalCredit...Barton Silverman/The New York TimesFeb. 6, 2014Ralph Kiner had not called many Mets games in the past few years. He did not want to travel much. He was usually at afternoon games for a few innings, maybe 12 or 15 times a season. Still, his grasp of baseball strategy was strong. His opinions had zing. And his memory churned out reminiscences about long-retired if not deceased players. Where else would you hear a baseball announcer talk authoritatively about Zack Wheat or Paul Waner, except if you were tuned to Vin Scully?He once dropped a name on us, Frenchy Bordagaray, which I couldnt pronounce or make any reference to, said Howie Rose, his former partner on cable TV. But I did a little homework and learned about his career. When I hear younger fans criticize older broadcasters for their references to players from past generations, I wonder, Do you have an ounce of curiosity?Kiner died Thursday at 91. He was the enduring Met, as Scully is the eternal Dodger. Kiner, Lindsey Nelson and Bob Murphy formed the Mets first broadcast team in 1962 and stayed together until Nelson left after the 1978 season. Murphy retired in 2003. Kiner outlasted them, never actually retiring and appearing in the broadcast booth last season.His lack of pretension and his wit and amiability made Kiners Korner, his postgame show, required viewing, even if it looked like public access programming. In its debut from the Polo Grounds, Mets Manager Casey Stengel forgot to remove his microphone as he left the interview and brought the set down.Hold up the cue cards because we have to get to commercial so I can get off the air, Kiner recalled telling his production assistant during an interview in 2012.And, inadvertently, he was a brilliant malapropist. During one game, Kiner was supposed to introduce a pitching change with the name of the sponsor, American Cyanamid. But Tim McCarver, his TV partner for 16 seasons, recalled that Kiner said that the relief pitchers entrance was brought to you by American Cyanide.Another story from McCarver. He and Kiner were calling a Mets game in Philadelphia. Walking through the press box were Jamie Lee Curtis and her husband, Christopher Guest.Theyre huge Phillies fans, and they came in and were introduced to us, McCarver said. But Ralph wants a moment with her because he had once dated her mother, Janet Leigh. So he sheepishly approaches her and says, Jamie Lee, my names Ralph Kiner, and you were just introduced to us and I wanted to tell you that I used to date your mother. And she throws her arms around his neck and says, Daddy!Kiner was a character, a bon vivant, and not an overly polished announcer, which was part of his charm. Gary Cohen, a Mets fan before he became one of the teams announcers, said in an interview: People forget what a good nuts-and-bolts play-by-play guy he was. Lindsey had a kind of frenetic pace. And Bob had that folksy drawl. But Ralph had that easy, natural manner. He added, No one who has ever been in a room with him was ever uncomfortable.Mets ownership was smart enough to keep Kiner, well after Bells palsy impaired his voice, and as his workload decreased. Ralph was and its hard to think of him in the past tense royalty, Rose said. And you dont throw the king overboard. Hes there until he was done.Curt Gowdy Jr., executive producer of SNY, the teams regional network, said, As the years wore on, we found ways to limit his innings, keep him fresh and do everything possible to make it easier for him to succeed.Kiners cameo appearances invariably elevated the usually fascinating and occasionally wacky three-way conversation on SNY between Ron Darling, Keith Hernandez and Cohen. All I can tell you, Cohen said, is that there was no time that he worked a game when we didnt think it was the best day of the week.Perhaps Kiners death will give the Mets a push to commission a statue at Citi Field to honor their core three: Kiner, Murphy and Nelson. That would be a happy recap. | Sports |
Credit...Korean Central News Agency, via Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesMarch 22, 2017SEOUL, South Korea North Korea fired a missile off its east coast on Wednesday, but the test apparently failed, South Korean and American military officials said.North Korea launched the missile from near an air base in Wonsan, a port city, the South Korean Defense Ministry said in a brief statement. We believe the test was a failure, the ministry added, providing no further details, such as the type of missile launched.Commander Dave Benham, a spokesman for the United States Pacific Command, said in a statement that the missile appears to have exploded within seconds of launch.The United States has been conducting a covert cyberwarfare program aimed at sabotaging North Korean missile tests in their opening seconds. But it was impossible to determine whether that program was a factor in the apparent launch failure Wednesday.North Korea has become one of the Trump administrations most pressing national security issues, as it was for the last years of the Obama administration. The secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson, traveled to Asia last week, urging the Chinese, South Korean and Japanese authorities to step up pressure on North Korea to give up its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.Also on Wednesday, a nuclear-capable B-1B strategic bomber from the United States air base in Guam conducted a mock bombing exercise over the Korean Peninsula with South Korean warplanes, the South Korean military said. Before flying over to the peninsula, it also conducted a similar drill in Japan.The United States has often sent its strategic bombers to South Korea to demonstrate its commitment to defend its ally from the North Korean nuclear threat.In his New Years Day speech, the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, said his country was in the final stage of preparing for its first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.North Korea has had a spotty record in test-launching its intermediate-range ballistic missile known as the Musudan in recent months. Its last Musudan test, in October, also ended in failure.But Pyongyang rattled the region last month by successfully launching a new intermediate-range ballistic missile that it said could carry a nuclear payload. That missile, the Pukguksong-2, uses a solid-fuel technology that American experts say will make it easier for the country to hide its arsenal in its numerous tunnels and launch its missiles on very short notice.Then, on March 6, the North launched four ballistic missiles toward Japan, which fell within 220 miles of the countrys shoreline.South Korean defense officials later said the projectiles were Scud-ER ballistic missiles with a 620-mile range. By firing the four missiles simultaneously, North Korea tried to flaunt an ability to launch multiple missiles at American bases in Japan and at American aircraft carriers around the Korean Peninsula, they said. The ability to launch a barrage of missiles increases the chances of breaching antimissile defenses.On Sunday, North Korea claimed that it had conducted a successful ground jet test of a newly developed high-thrust missile engine, which Mr. Kim called a great event of historic significance.Using the characteristic bombast of such announcements, he said that the whole world will soon witness what eventful significance the great victory won today carries.South Korea later acknowledged that North Korea was making meaningful progress in trying to build more powerful rockets and missiles.In Seoul, the South Korean capital, last Friday, Mr. Tillerson said that two decades of international efforts to end the Norths nuclear weapons and missile programs had failed. He warned that all options should be on the table to stop them, including possible pre-emptive military action. | World |
DealBook|Law Professors Ask Congress to Delay Changes in Debt Lawhttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/business/dealbook/law-professors-ask-congress-to-delay-changes-in-debt-law.htmlDec. 8, 2015Credit...Julie Jacobson/Associated PressEighteen law professors sent a letter to leaders on Capitol Hill on Tuesday urging them to postpone proposed changes to a Depression-era law that they say could have broad negative unintended consequences in the securities markets.The changes, added to omnibus spending legislation, would make it harder for some bondholders to challenge out-of-court debt restructuring deals such as the one for the casino operator Caesars Entertainment.Critics of the amendment to the Trust Indenture Act of 1939 say it would hand a victory to big private equity firms at the expense of some bondholders.Caesars is owned by Apollo Global Management and other firms. Six other restructuring deals could also be affected by a change in the law, including the one at Education Management Corporation, a for-profit college operator backed by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company.Recent federal court decisions favored minority bondholders. But opponents say those court rulings, which they are appealing, create incentives for companies to seek bankruptcy court protection rather than negotiate a restructuring out of court. The proposed changes would undo the court decisions, prompting an outcry from minority bondholders of Caesars Entertainment and Education Management Corporation.Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat and minority leader who has been leading the effort, defended the amendment at a news conference on Tuesday.It doesnt apply to Caesars; it applies to everyone, Mr. Reid said. Its the bankruptcy law thats been a part of this country for 90 years.Kenneth N. Klee, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles, law school and a consultant to lobbyists on the Trust Indenture Act, said: The primary objection being made by those opposed to this amendment is that Congress needs to hold extensive hearings. But this is just a correction to a recent misinterpretation of the statute not a wholesale revision of the Trust Indenture Act.The professors letter was sent to Mr. Reid, Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader; Representative Paul D. Ryan, the speaker of the House; and Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader.The professors, led by Adam J. Levitin of Georgetown, ask Congress to hold off changing the Trust Indenture Act until the issue can be considered in hearings and through public comment.As corporate finance law experts who teach and write about the Trust Indenture Act, we have differing opinions about whether the Trust Indenture Act should be amended, and if so, how, the letter says. We agree, however, that any amendment of the Trust Indenture Act should take place only after legislative hearings and the opportunity for public comment.Mr. Klee disagreed, saying, Congress routinely adopts clarifying amendments to important statutes without undertaking the extensive work that would be involved in a rewrite of those statutes, and thats all thats happening here. | Business |
The agencys handling of the case stands in stark contrast to the antitrust investigation into Google by the Justice Department.Credit...Anna Moneymaker for The New York TimesJuly 17, 2020WASHINGTON Nearly a year ago, Joseph J. Simons, the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, predicted his agency would wrap up an antitrust investigation of Facebook by the presidential election.That goal now seems virtually impossible, according to numerous people with knowledge of the inquiry. Instead, it will probably roll into next year, when there may be a new president choosing its leader. The change could alter the commissions priorities.The investigation into whether the tech giant has broken antitrust laws continues to move along, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was private. A round of document production from the company and its rivals was done in the spring, and staff members appear to be preparing depositions of Facebooks top leadership, including its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, according to the people. The agency also began looking into concerns by rivals about Facebooks recent acquisition of Giphy, a search database for short video clips.But investigations often require multiple rounds of document requests, and the interviews will take time to complete, indicating that the agency is far from finishing its review and deciding whether to pursue a lawsuit, the people said.The Federal Trade Commission declined to comment.The handling of the case by the agency and Mr. Simons stands in stark contrast to the antitrust investigation into Google by the Justice Department. Attorney General William P. Barr, who like Mr. Simons was appointed by President Trump, has been vocal about his desire to wrap up the Justice Departments antitrust inquiry into Google. He is widely expected to bring a suit this year, though no decision has been made. Mr. Simons has said very little publicly about the case.Their investigations are two of the many inquiries by federal and state regulators into Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. Mr. Trump has regularly complained about the power of the tech companies, and the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department opened antitrust investigations into the four companies last June. Nearly all state attorneys general have begun investigations into Facebook and Google as well.Later this month, the chief executives of those companies will testify before Congress, which has been investigating the four companies for abusing their dominant market positions to impede competition and ultimately harm consumers.We look forward to sharing our views about the competitive landscape, along with other technology leaders, during this months congressional hearing, Facebook said in a statement, while also demonstrating for enforcement agencies that our innovation provides more choices for consumers.The F.T.C.s investigation of Facebook is seen as a test of the agencys ability to enforce antitrust laws in the internet economy, where market definitions and theories of violations have been hard to prove. In 2013, the agency closed an investigation into Google without charges, a decision often criticized by consumer groups.Last July, the F.T.C. announced a record $5 billion settlement with Facebook over violations of a 2011 consent decree over data abuses. Mr. Simons has said the fine is one of his proudest achievements as the lead member of the F.T.C., but many consumer advocates say the settlement did not significantly restrain Facebooks business practices.The F.T.C. has not disclosed details of its investigation, but it appears the agency is partly focused on whether Facebook illegally maintained its dominance in social networking through acquisitions. The company has bought more than 80 companies over the last 15 or so years.The agency, which has not paused the investigation during the pandemic, has conducted hundreds of interviews and collected thousands of internal documents. Many questions are related to past mergers like the $21 billion acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014 and the $1 billion purchase of Instagram in 2012, according to the people. Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are among the most popular apps in the world, with more than three billion users altogether.The House antitrust subcommittee has also inquired about Giphy, which is used by competitors like Twitter, Snap and ByteDances TikTok. The $400 million merger, the rivals have argued, follows a long pattern of acquisitions by Facebook that could put competitors at a disadvantage. Giphy is not only iused by Facebooks rivals, the company has valuable market data about them.Facebook has said it faces stiff competition in the United States and elsewhere, pointing to companies like TikTok. It also says that the barriers to starting a possible challenger to its business are lower than ever. Start-ups like Snap and TikTok have sprung up quickly over the past 10 years, building huge businesses.At this point in time, its hard to understand why it would take substantially longer to determine whether there is a case to file unless there are new complexities that have arisen, said Gene Kimmelman, a former antitrust official at the Justice Department and a senior adviser at the consumer group Public Knowledge.But many investigations take a long time and the agency appears to be exploring multiple issues related to the company.In addition, the stakes are high. Mr. Simons, a veteran antitrust lawyer, may be trying to ensure any case the agency makes can last no matter who is president or chairman, Mr. Kimmelman said.David McCabe contributed reporting. | Tech |
Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesFeb. 8, 2014KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia What are they feeding the Dufour-Lapointe sisters of Canada? Is it some combination of fiber and protein? Can it be packaged and sold at Whole Foods? Is it about to become the most sought-after meal wherever snow and hypercompetitive children and parents are found?These are legitimate questions, now that Justine Dufour-Lapointe, who is 19, and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe, who is 22, finished with a gold and a silver medal at the womens mogul competition.Their older sister, Maxime, 24, was not one of the six skiers who made it to the super final. But she finished in the top 12, and she was on hand to gush and revel along with her younger siblings when the three celebrated at a news conference.ImageCredit...Dylan Martinez/ReutersToday, it was my day, Justine said, still wearing her goggles and helmet. The last run was my run.It was certainly not Hannah Kearneys run. Kearney, a 27-year-old American, had her quest for a repeat of the gold medal she won at the Vancouver Games in 2010 foiled by a brief but gasp-inducing mistake near the start of the super final. It happened right after the first of two jumps on the course, when she landed ever so slightly off balance and ended up with her skis briefly splayed. She regained her typically immaculate, knees-glued form, but in this unforgiving sport, one momentary loss of control amounts to a fiasco. When youre competing, you have so much adrenaline, you dont realize a mistake is that bad, Kearney said. Im strong and pulled back together with all of my might. It could have been worse.In 90 minutes of competition at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, a crowd cheered, chanted and rang cowbells for one skier after another, with the Russian contingent chanting the loudest. (Rah-see-ya, Rah-see-ya is apparently how to shout Russia, Russia in Russian.) Much of the crowd vanished soon after it was clear that a Russian would not win a medal. Music played for the audience throughout the night the competition started at 10 p.m. local time and most of it was club beats layered on top of well-known pop and rock songs. Smells Like Teen Spirit was turned into the sort of number one would hear at a rave.The slope was 270 perilous-looking yards of snow, dimpled with moguls and interrupted twice by two launchpads for the required pair of jumps. The gradient is officially 28 degrees, but it looks much steeper. If this was not a sport, it could pass for the Nordic version of walking the plank. ImageCredit...Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesMoguls involves an unusual combination of flat-out racing skill and appraised technique. Twenty-five percent of a skiers score is determined by two judges who size up those jumps; 50 percent is determined by judges who weigh in on a competitors turns; and 25 percent is based on her time. The higher off the ground a skier gets on those jumps, and the more daredevilish the maneuvers in midair, the higher the score. But the longer a skier spends in the air, the slower she goes. So it may be best to floor it through most of the course, and catch air twice. Hurry, hurry, trick. Hurry, hurry, trick. Hurry, hurry, finish.It is not a sport for the faint of knee. Skiers must absorb the shock of all those moguls while hiding the work of the absorption keeping their heads even rather than bobbing. That was a larger-than-usual challenge on what was considered a particularly savage course here. Heidi Kloser, the No. 2 American and the fourth-ranked moguls skier in the world, crashed on a training run Thursday night, tearing her anterior cruciate ligament and fracturing her femur. There were no injuries Saturday night, unless one counts the psychic toll that the bronze took on Kearney. She was a far more daring skier than the sisters Dufour-Lapointe, and she flawlessly attacked the course in her second-to-last run, landing in first for the super final. Her jump of choice, a 360 while she grabs one of her skis, was among the most dramatic of the night, and she nailed it every time down the mountain.I think the girls are consistent skiers, she said at her news conference, but I could hear their scores; they were solid but not unbeatable.One serious bobble, though, is all it takes to undo even the best run in an Olympic final, and Kearney said she tried as best she could to put the error out of her mind and focus on the rest of the course as soon as she had recovered. That was not easy.Ill have to treat this bronze medal as a reward for fighting, she said, choking up and letting the tears flow, and not perfection.The sisters paid tribute to Kearney, who has said that Sochi would be her last Olympics. But understandably, Justine Dufour-Lapointe was more interested in getting her mind around her victory.Winning a gold medal, with Chloe, she said, Im living the dream right now. Im not realizing whats going on. Sooner or later, Ill probably realize Im an Olympic champion. | Sports |
Credit...Nathan Hunsinger/The Dallas Morning News, via Associated PressJune 20, 2017Exxon Mobil, other oil companies and a number of other corporate giants announced on Tuesday that they are supporting a plan to tax carbon emissions that was put forth this year by a group of Republican elder statesmen.The group, the Climate Leadership Council, unveiled a conservative climate solution in February that would fight global warming by taxing greenhouse gas emissions and returning the money to taxpayers as a climate dividend. The underlying idea is that, by making energy derived from fossil fuels more expensive, the free market will move more quickly and effectively toward renewable energy and other low-carbon solutions.Exxon Mobil, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Total S.A. publicly backed the plan on Tuesday, and they have a number of reasons to lend their support. The plan calls for scrapping Obama-era regulations intended to fight climate change, arguing that a market-driven approach will have the same effect in reducing emissions as the regulations would.The oil giants could simply pass the cost of new taxes on to customers. And to protect American companies, the plan would introduce so-called border adjustments, intended to increase the cost of goods coming from nations that do not have a similar carbon tax.The proposal also says companies that emit greenhouse gases should be protected from lawsuits over their contribution to climate change.ImageCredit...David Silverman/Getty ImagesMichael B. Gerrard, the director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School and an expert on climate litigation, said there had been four suits brought against energy companies over climate change, including one brought by the eroding Arctic coastal town of Kivalina, Alaska. None of those has gotten very far, Mr. Gerrard said, but there continues to be talk of more.Mr. Gerrard added, If a sufficiently high carbon tax were imposed, it could accomplish a lot more for fighting climate change than liability suits.The Climate Leadership Councils plan sets an initial tax of $40 per ton of carbon dioxide produced, which would add 36 cents to the cost of each gallon of gasoline sold. The group estimates the tax would raise more than $200 billion a year, and the rate would rise over time, dampening demand for fossil fuels. The average family of four would receive approximately $2,000 in the first year as a carbon dividend, the group says.A tax-and-dividend plan would cut American carbon pollution even as the Trump administration withdraws from the Paris climate accord, the group says.Exxon has said for years that it supports a carbon tax, at least in the abstract, but the company had never formally endorsed a proposal. In 2009, the companys chief executive, Rex W. Tillerson, who is now secretary of state, called carbon taxes a more direct, a more transparent and a more effective approach than a cap-and-trade proposal Congress was considering at the time.In a statement, the current chief executive of Exxon Mobil, Darren W. Woods, said the company was encouraged by the climate groups proposal, which aligns closely with our longstanding principles. A company spokesman said the liability component of the plan was not part of the companys decision to endorse it.ImageCredit...Gus Ruelas/ReutersSome environmental groups did not accept that explanation on Tuesday. Exxon is signing on to this carbon tax proposal because they know its dead on arrival in Congress, said Jamie Henn, a co-founder of 350.org. He added that protection from liability would be important to Exxon, which is under investigation for its past statements and actions on climate change.Along with the oil companies, the plans corporate backers include Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble. Ted Halstead, the chief executive of the Climate Leadership Council, said the group did not accept corporate contributions.Some environmental organizations, including the Nature Conservancy and the World Resources Institute, are endorsing the plan. Individual supporters include the theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking; Steven Chu, a secretary of energy under President Barack Obama; Michael R. Bloomberg, the former New York mayor; and the Indian industrialist Ratan Tata.The plans Republican authors include James A. Baker III and George P. Shultz, both former secretaries of state, and Henry M. Paulson Jr., a former secretary of the Treasury.But Mr. Halstead said the council had moved a little more to the center, adding new leaders like Lawrence H. Summers, a secretary of the Treasury under President Bill Clinton, and Laurene Powell Jobs, a philanthropist and the widow of the Apple founder Steve Jobs.For this to pass, it will have to pass on a bipartisan basis, Mr. Halstead said.Mr. Summers said the chances that Congress would pass a carbon tax in the near future were low. But, he said, there is a reasonable shot that there will be an opening that will be taken in the next several years, especially because the dividends could benefit low-income Americans.Its hard to argue against a fuel tax that Exxons in favor of, he said. | science |
Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesFeb. 15, 2014KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia I was not enjoying my cable car ride high above the mountains the other day, so I turned for reassurance to my gondola-mates, some Russian luge fans passing the time by cracking what seemed to be jokes about Kazakhstan. They did not understand me I think they thought I was making the international signal for choking rather than for vertigo so I tried to focus on the matter at hand: getting from the snowboarding park to the luge track sometime within the next 24 hours. Negotiating the coastal area in Sochi at the Winter Games is merely a question of going for a stroll and possibly being able to read a map. How hard is it to find an ice rink? But the Alpine sports venues, a crazy quilt of different spots at different altitudes ski jumping over here, downhill over there, cross-country God knows where are another matter entirely. I tried to visit them all in one day, and I almost made it. Through some extraordinary combination of swagger and competence, of totalitarian discipline and Bulgakovian imagination, the Sochi organizers have created out of thin mountain air not just entire villages, restaurants, hotels and athletic arenas, but also a system that connects them all. The outdoor sports portion of the Olympics is full of surprises who knew the luge could be so much fun? but the biggest surprise is that it works. Not that I could tell you how, exactly. Lost on the mountain a few days earlier, I had come perilously close to being hustled onto an open chair lift by people who announced that this was the best route to the biathlon center. But this time, my day started well: I located the correct bus and headed for the Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort, site of the womens downhill. As we wound along the road, I wondered whether it would be possible to penetrate the Olympic ring of steel via the mountains, which are worryingly close to the ethnic and religious unrest in the North Caucasus and would seem to offer multiple points of entry for the alert would-be terrorist. Suffice to say that this is one of the organizers biggest concerns. The place is dripping with security. If one thing was clear, it was that the world was safe from the passengers on our bus. The bus was checked midway along the 34-minute route to ensure that no one had managed to emerge from the woods, plant some bombs and then rappel out of sight; our credentials were checked before we got on and before we got off, in case our identities had been stolen by hijackers en route. Arriving at the mountain venues always requires a walk up a hill, and we did it to a full sensory assault: bouncy Russian pop music blaring from speakers; snow turning to mush beneath our feet; dozens of workers wishing us a great day, barring us from places we were not allowed to go to and answering panicked logistical questions in slow, loud Russian. I began to understand how tourists visiting the United States feel when Americans act as if they are stupid, rather than just unable to speak English. No one could say where my press pass entitled me to sit, so I picked a seat myself and watched the race. It was boiling hot, and my four-layer winter clothing extravaganza, culminating in a pearl-white parka with a fake fur hood that you might wear if you went to a Halloween party dressed as a dogsled racer, began to seem like a serious misjudgment. I took the hand warmers out of my gloves. You could argue that it is better to watch downhill skiing on television, because you can see the whole run, not just the last six or seven seconds. But there was a big screen and a punchy atmosphere, and only the crankiest person would have failed to find it totally fun. The English-speaking announcer, a Frenchman with a heavy accent, had an amusing tendency to wander off-piste in unexpected verbal directions. ImageCredit...Josh Haner/The New York TimesSmile, Klara we like that Olympic emotion! he exhorted as the screen showed the Czech skier Klara Krizova. Come on, Russian guy! he said, of a Russian woman. Even the failure of one of the skiers to complete the course she veered out of bounds and was not heard from again did not dampen his mood. I felt pretty cheery, too, as I made my way to my next stop, the RusSki Gorki Jumping Center, where the men were competing in the first part of the Nordic combined. This is one of those sports that make no sense to untrained observers, combining in this case ski jumping and cross-country skiing, but it is very popular in Nordic countries. Getting there involved the sometimes conflicting advice of a half-dozen volunteers, a van trip and then a bus trip and then another bus trip and possibly another van trip they began to blur into one another, all the advice and the trips and the credential-checking and finally we were decanted at the venues media center, where the worlds sports reporters gather indoors to watch on screens what is going on outside. Awkwardly for my own sports reporting career, I arrived just as the last skier was finishing his last jump. But Tim Fletcher, the father of the American competitors Bryan and Taylor Fletcher, filled me in. His sons were not doing so well (especially Taylor, who at that point was ranked 46th out of 46), but Fletcher said the trip had been surprisingly positive. He and his girlfriend, Michelle Schiau, had had some early logistical problems, he said, like when the bus mistakenly deposited them at a restaurant that might have been called Silly Billy, but they were now getting around fine. He was annoyed, he said, by news media alarmism about terrorist threats and third-world conditions. I havent felt threatened at all, he said. Ive been drinking water out of the tap. Reports about bad food had also proved inaccurate, Schiau said. We were told there is no seasoning, and theres plenty of seasoning, she said. I got on some more buses and went down the mountain and back up again, which was apparently the only way to get to the next site, the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, scene of the womens halfpipe. The extreme park is meant to be the cool spot, where the vibe is more authentic (and extreme), where the athletes pretend that they have wandered merely by chance into an international competition and that nothing, not even their pants falling down, can harsh their mellow. To tell you the truth, the whole thing the aggressive nonaggression, the surfer-dude vocabulary, the baggy and unattractively beige-centric Team USA uniform began to harsh my own mellow, such as it was. Listening to the announcer, a fan of the present participle but not of the g that generally goes at the end, was like sitting through an ultimate Frisbee game in college with the stoned hacky-sack player down the hall. Keepin it real! the announcer said, apropos of the Australian competitor Torah Bright. Steppin up the degree of difficulty, he said, in connection with Mirabelle Thovex of France. And then, regarding Thovexs teammate Clemence Grimal: Grabbin a stalefish there. ImageCredit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesExcuse me? Thats what it sounded like to me, said Sally Mackenzie, who was visiting from Australia. I really only understand it when they say how many times they went around. (In fact, the move is known as grabbing a stalefish and involves clutching the back of the board with your back hand). The day was wearing on, and I decided to skip cross-country and biathlon, taking place at the two sites I had failed to reach earlier in the week. There seemed to be some problem about how to get to Sanki Sliding Center, where the luge was going on, so I crowd-sourced the question. The crowd voted for the cable car. It went somewhere that unfortunately turned out not to be the sliding center, but rather a crucial transportation hub that was nowhere special on its own the Port Authority Bus Terminal of Sochi. I got on a bus that took me to a parking lot that was also not the sliding center, but was next to something just as nice. This was the village of Rosa Khutor (pronounced HOOT-er, as in the restaurant), and it has a near-mythical status among my colleagues as a kind of Shangri-La nestled up the hill, with better hotels and better restaurants than we have down in our complex in Gornaya Karusel, which tries its best but was built last week and is set along the highway. Our village was coming to life even as we lived in it yesterdays pile of rubble had become todays Gloria Jeans shop but in Rosa Khutor, the pedestrians seemed to be actively enjoying themselves, not grumbling because the bars looked like dentists offices. A man was selling chestnuts roasted on an open fire. Olympic events were being shown on an outdoor screen. The village also had another cable car access point, and it was thus that I finally reached the sliding center, where visitors were greeted by a Russian folk band and some men wearing elaborate headdresses whose designs cunningly incorporated real cans of beer, and who could not move for people taking their photographs. Luge may seem like a boring sport. Nothing you see on television, though, can prepare you for the singular thrill of that tiny instant when a rider flies past you in a pneumatic tube at 90 miles per hour, as if the Road Runner had thrown on a spandex suit and suddenly flickered into of view. They materialize; then they disappear. It felt like watching penguins in the zoo pop into the water and waiting for them to pop up again somewhere else. This announcer, too, was a master of stating the obvious. Oh, God, its Ryan Seacrest! said a man behind me (for the record, it was not). Every time a luger went by, the crowd would gasp in surprise, and then laugh at the notion that they were surprised at all. The mood was helped by the fact that many people were drinking. It was oddly relaxing, wandering up and down the luge track, but the sun had gone down and an early evening chill had set in, and I was looking forward to returning to Rosa Khutor for a nice meal. I zipped up my parka and got back in the cable car, which, sadly, deposited me at an unfamiliar spot on the highway. Never mind! There is another week to go. | Sports |
Business|Automakers Report June Sales and China Tariffs Will Take Effecthttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/01/business/china-tariffs-jobs-report-week-ahead.htmlThe Week AheadA new jobs report is expected to show another month of payroll growth, and Wall Street will be closed in the United States for the Fourth of July holiday.Credit...Scott Olson/Getty ImagesJuly 1, 2018Heres what to expect in the week ahead:auto industryAuto sales for June may post a modest increase from last year.Automakers report their June sales totals on Tuesday, and a modest rise is expected. The researcher Cox Automotive estimated that sales will be about 2 percent higher than in June 2017. The increase, however, doesnt alter the broader trend in the American market. Forecasters still see full-year sales falling short of 17 million cars and trucks, after three years above that mark, and expect another decline in 2019. Sales of cars and light trucks peaked in 2016, when they hit 17.5 million sold. Neal E. BoudetteFINANCEUnited States markets will close for Independence Day.The New York Stock Exchange will close at 1 p.m. on Tuesday ahead of the Fourth of July, when markets and government offices will be closed. In lieu of a long holiday weekend, Americans can look forward to a rare midweek break to enjoy summer and watch fireworks before the markets reopen on Thursday. Will DuddingEconomyFed minutes may offer insight into trade policy concerns.The minutes of the Federal Reserves June meeting, set to be released on Thursday, are expected to give more insight into officials concerns over whether trade policy will disrupt the economic recovery. The minutes are also expected to give clues as to whether the Fed will raise interest rates one or two more times this year. Jim TankersleyTradeFirst round of tariffs against Chinese goods will take effect.The Trump administration's first round of China tariffs goes into effect on Friday, when the United States will begin imposing a 25 percent tax on $34 billion in Chinese products. The initial round will target products like robotics, engines and aircraft parts. President Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on a total of $450 billion in Chinese goods, and the Chinese, in response, have threatened to retaliate by taxing American pork, soybeans and other products. It seems increasingly unlikely that the two countries will reach an agreement to avert a trade war, as Beijing and Washington remain deeply at odds and have not scheduled talks to resolve their differences. Deborah SolomonEconomyJobs report expected to show another strong month of growth.The Labor Department is scheduled to release its monthly report on hiring and unemployment for June at 8:30 a.m. on Friday. Wall Street analysts are looking for another strong month of growth, with payrolls expected to have expanded by 200,000 jobs after the addition of 223,000 jobs in May. The jobless rate is expected to sit at 3.8 percent for the second month as more Americans come off the sidelines to join the work force. The consensus forecast is that the tight labor market will cause the average hourly wage to climb by 0.3 percent for the second month in a row, which would nudge the annual year-over-year increase to 2.8 percent.While the domestic steel sector has applauded the administrations moves toward tariffs, carmakers and other manufacturers are warning that escalating trade tensions could end up forcing them to scale back on hiring in the months to come. It is still too soon for the jobs report, however, to pick up any cutbacks directly related to a string of trade-related announcements in Washington and in other capitals. Patricia Cohen | Business |
Europe|Turkeys President Invokes NATO Solidarity in Killing of Jamal Khashoggihttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/02/world/europe/khashoggi-erdogan-washington-post.htmlCredit...Turkish Presidential Press ServiceNov. 2, 2018ISTANBUL Turkeys president lashed out again at Saudi Arabia over the killing of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, and turned up pressure on the kingdom by invoking the NATO alliance as a means to ensure the perpetrators will be punished.Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in an opinion piece published by The Washington Post on Friday, reiterated his assertion that the order to kill Mr. Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul came from the highest levels of the Saudi government.At the same time, however, he said he did not believe Saudi King Salman ordered it. That seemed to suggest that he blames Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdoms de facto ruler.No one should dare to commit such acts on the soil of a NATO ally again, Mr. Erdogan wrote in The Post, which had published columns by Mr. Khashoggi. The Khashoggi murder was a clear violation and a blatant abuse of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Failure to punish the perpetrators could set a very dangerous precedent.Turkish officials have leaked a stream of details about the killing of Mr. Khashoggi at the consulate on Oct. 2. He had gone there to obtain documents that would have allowed him to marry his Turkish fiance.The Saudi government, after initially denying Mr. Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate, later changed its story several times before acknowledging that a team of agents had traveled from Saudi Arabia and killed him. It said it had arrested 18 people in connection with the killing.But officials have not said where Mr. Khashoggis body is or who ordered the killing.Prince Mohammed appears to have retained his tight grip on power in Saudi Arabia, despite a growing international consensus that he was behind the killing. The Trump administration has decided to stand by him, according to people familiar with the White House deliberations.Mr. Erdogan, however, has shown that he has no intention of letting the issue disappear. Mr. Khashoggi was a friend of the president and many of his close advisers, and Mr. Erdogan has taken his killing as a personal affront.Some seem to hope this problem will go away in time, he wrote. But we will keep asking those questions, which are crucial to the criminal investigation in Turkey, but also to Khashoggis family and loved ones, he added.At the very least, he deserves a proper burial in line with Islamic customs.Mr. Erdogan also harshly criticized the actions of the Saudi consul general and what he described as a lack of cooperation by Saudi investigators.Though Riyadh has detained 18 suspects, it is deeply concerning that no action has been taken against the Saudi consul general, who lied through his teeth to the media and fled Turkey shortly afterward, Mr. Erdogan wrote.Likewise, the refusal of the Saudi public prosecutor who recently visited his counterpart in Istanbul to cooperate with the investigation and answer even simple questions is very frustrating, he added. His invitation for Turkish investigators to Saudi Arabia for more talks about the case felt like a desperate and deliberate stalling tactic.Mr. Erdogan signaled he intended to keep up the pressure.Had this atrocity taken place in the United States or elsewhere, authorities in those countries would have gotten to the bottom of what happened. It would be out of the question for us to act any other way. | World |
Economy|Core Inflation Ticks Up, Though Energy Prices Remain Lowhttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/16/business/economy/core-inflation-rose-in-november.htmlDec. 15, 2015WASHINGTON Underlying inflation pressures in the United States rose in November, even as renewed weakness in gasoline prices kept overall consumer prices in check.The Labor Department said on Tuesday that its so-called core Consumer Price Index, which excludes food and energy, gained 0.2 percent last month. It was the third straight month that the core consumer index increased by that much, and reflected rising rents and airline fares and higher costs for new motor vehicles and health care.In the 12 months through November, the core C.P.I. rose 2 percent, the largest gain since May 2014, after rising 1.9 percent in October.Inflation is also seen as heading higher in 2016 as the effects of last years sharp drop in oil prices fade. The dollars pace of appreciation is also expected to slow, which could ease some of the pressure on commodity prices.Other data on Tuesday showed that factory activity in New York State contracted for a fifth straight month in December as the sector continues to reel from dollar strength and continuing efforts by businesses to reduce an inventory bloat.Homebuilder confidence dipped in December, but remained at levels consistent with a gradual housing market recovery.Housing market activity continues to improve at a moderate pace, said Jesse Hurwitz, an economist at Barclays in New York.Last months increase in the core C.P.I. was offset by falling gasoline prices, leaving the overall index unchanged after a 0.2 percent increase in October. But in the 12 months through November, the index increased 0.5 percent, the largest gain since last December.Energy prices fell 1.3 percent last month. Gasoline prices dropped 2.4 percent, after rising 0.4 percent in October. The cost of electricity, however, increased 0.3 percent. Food prices dipped 0.1 percent, reversing the previous months gain.Within the core C.P.I., rents increased 0.2 percent, after rising 0.3 percent in October. They were up 3.6 percent in the 12 months through November, reflecting rising demand for rental accommodation as more Americans shun homeownership.Health care costs increased broadly; payments for doctor visits rose 1.1 percent. Apparel prices fell for a third straight month, while airline fares increased 1.2 percent. There were also increases in the cost of tobacco, education, communication and motor vehicle insurance.We think that the underlying strength of the domestic economy will continue to allow inflation rates to grind higher, said Harm Bandholz, chief economist at UniCredit Research in New York. | Business |
The United States had more deaths above normal levels during the pandemic than most other wealthy countries, according to data released by the World Health Organization this month. U.S. deaths were 15 percent above normal a number surpassed by only four other large countries in the same income group: Chile, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania. Deaths above normal in 2020 and 2021, by income level of country Notes: Only countries with populations greater than 10 million are included. Country income data is from the World Bank Atlas. Globally, many poorer and developing countries fared worse than the wealthiest ones, but deaths in the United States rose even higher than in several countries with far fewer resources, including Argentina and the Philippines. Throughout the pandemic, the United States and other wealthy countries have had access to the lions share of lifesaving supplies such as vaccines, antiviral treatments, masks and testing kits. While most rich countries also have a relatively older and more vulnerable segment of their population, they also had access to economic support and policies. Some of the countries with the largest increase in death rates during the first two years of the pandemic were those in the upper-middle-income group: Ecuador, Mexico and Peru. But many countries with the lowest income including most African countries are not included in the charts because their data is less reliable. Some countries struggled more than others to accurately count pandemic-related deaths. W.H.O. figures show by just how much. The global toll is more than twice the number of Covid-19 deaths reported in official government calculations worldwide. Reported Covid-19 deaths compared with total deaths above normal Total deaths above normal Deaths above normal greater than reported Note: Data is for years 2020 and 2021. Only countries with populations greater than 10 million are included. In the wealthiest countries, the gap between reported Covid-19 deaths and estimated total deaths above normal was small, perhaps because of the relatively lower number of deaths as well as existing infrastructure around death reporting. But among upper-middle- and low- or lower-middle-income countries, the number of deaths above normal estimated by the W.H.O. was often many times larger than the number of reported deaths. Across the world, about 13 percent or 15 million more people died than expected in the first two years of the pandemic. Global deaths above normal These latest estimates by the W.H.O. are what many scientists say are the most reliable gauge of the total impact of the pandemic so far. The figures often called excess deaths measure the difference between the number of people who died in 2020 and 2021 and the number of people who would have been expected to die during that time if the pandemic had not happened. They include those who died from Covid-19 without having been tested as well as from other preventable illnesses when hospitals were overwhelmed with virus patients. In countries like Australia, China and Japan, the number of deaths in 2020 and 2021 estimated by the W.H.O. was actually lower than normal. The W.H.O. said that some countries may have seen decreased mortality from other causes as a result of Covid-19 control measures. And because the W.H.O. relied on the death and population statistics reported in part by government agencies, some numbers could be underestimated in countries with poor reporting. Heres a look at how much death rates exceeded normal levels in countries with populations over 10 million: Deaths above normal in high-income countries United States 932,000 deaths above normal Peru, which saw the highest deaths above normal among all large countries, has been a hot spot for the coronavirus since the summer of 2020. Deaths above normal in upper-middle-income countries Russia 1,072,000 deaths above normal In India, deaths above normal peaked in the summer of 2021, when a wave of cases strained the countrys health resources. Deaths above normal in lower-middle- or low-income countries India 4,741,000 deaths above normal | Health |
Dog Days Of Winter Bikini Babes With Pups! 1/20/2018 Defrost this winter with these hot shots of sexy stars and their precious pooches ... scroll through the gallery of bikini babes with their pups to bring a little heat to your season. Woof! Share on Facebook TWEET This See also Photo Galleries | Entertainment |