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Jamie Foxx Anything You Can Play ... 1/27/2018 TMZ.com Jamie Foxx is a man of a very wide-ranging set of skills ... just take a look at what happens when he shows up while there's a band playing. Foxx dropped by his Prive Revaux sunglasses pop-up shop in NYC Friday afternoon around 4:30 PM, where there was a musical celebration going on. Jamie didn't miss a beat -- literally -- as he hopped on the drums, bongos and keyboard ... and did some dancing too. The actor/singer/producer/comedian started the designer shades company less than 6 months ago, and as he tells the crowd ... it's going very well. Of course it is. | Entertainment |
TrilobitesResearchers worked out which receptors in your nose detect particular scent molecules, and found evidence of evolutionary change in some of these genes.Credit...Andia/AlamyPublished Feb. 3, 2022Updated Feb. 7, 2022When you take a whiff of something, odor molecules sail inside your nose where they bind to proteins called olfactory receptors on cells that line your nasal cavity. These receptors trigger signals that your brain interprets as one or many smells.A team of scientists has identified the olfactory receptors for two common odor molecules: a musk found in soaps and perfumes and a compound prominent in smelly underarm sweat. The research team also discovered that more recent evolutionary changes to these olfactory receptors alter peoples sensitivities to those odors. The work was published in PLoS Genetics on Thursday.Olfactory receptors can be traced back hundreds of millions of years and are believed to be present in all vertebrates. Humans have around 800 olfactory receptor genes, but only about half of them are functional, meaning theyll be translated into proteins that hang out in the nose and detect odor molecules. But within a functional gene, minor variations can cause changes in its corresponding receptor protein, and those changes can massively affect how an odor is perceived.Theres a molecule called androstenone, said Joel Mainland, a neuroscientist at Monell Chemical Senses Center and an author of the new study. And we know that some people smell that molecule as urine, some people smell that molecule as sandalwood, and some people dont smell it at all.With that said, genetic changes arent the only thing underlying smell interpretation. One is genetic and the other is experience, which includes things like the culture you grew up in, said Hiroaki Matsunami, a molecular biologist at Duke University who was not involved in the research but whose work is focused on olfaction.The study by Dr. Mainland and colleagues was a collaborative effort between scientists in the United States and China. They sequenced the genomes of 1,000 people in Tangshan, China, who are members of the Han ethnic group. They did the same with an ethnically diverse cohort of 364 people in New York City. Participants were asked to rate, on a 100-point scale, the intensity and pleasantness of a range of common odors. The researchers then looked for associations between olfactory receptor genes and odors as well as variations within those genes and their potential impact on perception of the odor.By sampling a large, diverse population of people the researchers were able to home in on odors whose perception was based in genetic differences between people, rather than cultural or experiential factors. That led them to molecules including trans-3-methyl-2-hexenoic acid and galaxolide.Trans-3-methyl-2-hexenoic acid is considered one of the most pungent compounds in underarm sweat. Galaxolide is a synthetic musk often described as having a floral, woody odor thats used in perfumes and cosmetics, but also things like kitty litter. The research team was able to identify olfactory receptor variants for those odors. In the case of the underarm odor, most people with the more evolutionarily recent gene variant found it more intense. The opposite was true for galaxolide.The galaxolide findings were particularly striking, with some participants unable to smell the musk at all. Its really rare to find an effect thats as large as what we saw for this one receptor on the perception of the musk odor, said Marissa Kamarck, a neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania who was an author of the study.Dr. Matsunami views this work as another example of human olfaction being more complex than people initially thought. He said that, although the major findings in the study involved just two scents, theyre adding to evidence that odorant receptors as a group have extraordinary variety.The authors think their findings support a hypothesis that has been criticized that the primate olfactory system has degenerated over evolutionary time. Kara Hoover, an anthropologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks who was not involved in this research but who studies the evolution of human smell, is not convinced by that hypothesis in the first place.Why is reduced intensity assumed to be degradation? she asked. Maybe other things are becoming more intense or odor discrimination is improving. We know too little to make these conclusions.For Dr. Hoover, these findings stirred up other evolutionary questions. Our species is really young, she said. Why this much variation in such a short period of time? Is there an adaptive significance? | science |
Health|Zika Study Could Help Overcome an Obstacle to Vaccine Researchhttps://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/29/health/zika-virus-mouse-model-vaccine.htmlGlobal HealthMarch 28, 2016Credit...Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, via ReutersThe first new mouse model in which the Zika virus can be tested was described in a medical journal on Monday.Research into drugs or vaccines that might work against Zika has been hampered because there have been no approved animal models in which to test them. Testing is normally done first in cell lines, then in mice and finally in monkeys before human testing can ethically begin.In The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, virologists at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston announced that they had found a type of immune-deficient mice that lost weight, became lethargic and died when infected. Normal laboratory mice do not.The work was done in January, and other researchers may have found other mice in which to do testing, said Shannan Rossi, the studys lead author. But this was the first mouse model to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.Because virus samples from Latin America were not available in January, researchers went to the library of virus samples maintained by the UTMB World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses, and used a sample collected in 2010 from a Cambodian girl who had had the Asian strain of Zika.They found that it sickened AG129 mice, which lack the genes to mount an interferon-based immune reaction. The virus became concentrated in the brains and testes, reflecting the damage it is thought to cause in humans, Dr. Rossi said.In the years after the Zika virus was discovered in 1947, researchers tested it in rhesus monkeys, guinea pigs, rabbits and mice. But they never got animals to consistently sicken or die which is needed to know whether a new drug or vaccine works.UTMB and other institutions are now working on monkey models.That will also be a race, Dr. Rossi said. Well see who wins. | Health |
Health|The F.D.A. suspends use of a Glaxo antibody drug in the U.S. as an Omicron subvariant spreads.https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/05/health/fda-glaxo-antibody-us.htmlThe F.D.A. suspends use of a Glaxo antibody drug in the U.S. as an Omicron subvariant spreads.Credit...Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesApril 5, 2022Federal regulators said they were suspending use of a monoclonal antibody drug known as sotrovimab to treat high-risk Covid-19 patients in the United States because it was unlikely to be effective against the Omicron subvariant known as BA.2.BA.2 is highly transmissible and is now dominant in the United States, four months after it was first detected in the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated on Tuesday that BA.2 accounted for about 72 percent of new U.S. coronavirus cases in the week that ended April 2.In late March, federal health officials stopped shipments of sotrovimab to eight states in the Northeast and two territories Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands where BA.2 had become dominant earlier than in the rest of the country.Doctors treating high-risk patients can still use another monoclonal antibody drug, bebtelovimab, which is manufactured by Eli Lilly. There are also three antiviral treatments that have been found in laboratory tests to be potent against BA.2.Sotrovimab was widely used during the surge in cases over the winter because it was the only authorized antibody treatment that worked against BA.1, the Omicron subvariant that was dominant at that time.In January, federal officials restricted use of two other antibody treatments, from Eli Lilly and Regeneron, that were widely used during the Delta surge last year because they were not potent against BA.1. They are not expected to work against BA.2 either.Sotrovimabs manufacturers, GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology, said in March that they had found in laboratory testing that the authorized dosage of the drug was not sufficiently potent against BA.2, matching earlier findings from independent researchers. The companies said they were preparing to submit data to regulators to seek authorization for a higher dose that they hope will work against BA.2.Rebecca Robbins contributed reporting. | Health |
The company added a powerful voice to a raging debate, much of it focused on Apple, about how tech companies should manage their app stores.Credit...Jeenah Moon for The New York TimesOct. 8, 2020SEATTLE Microsoft said on Thursday that it would give developers more control in its app store, providing a sharp contrast to Apple, which is facing growing pressure for its firm grip on its App Store.Microsoft said it was adopting 10 principles for its app store, the Microsoft Store, that customers can use to install programs on Windows 10, the computer operating system. The guidelines include giving developers the ability to sell different services on their apps and their websites, and allowing users and developers to have access to third-party app stores.The announcement was not a major change in policy for Microsoft, whose app store is more open than Apples. But it added a powerful voice to a raging debate about how the large tech companies should manage their app stores, where they act as powerful gatekeepers between developers and consumers.The principles aim to promote choice, ensure fairness and promote innovation, Rima Alaily, deputy general counsel at Microsoft, said in a blog post announcing the approach.Apple is at the center of the debate over app marketplaces because it forces developers to distribute their apps on iPhones and iPads through its hugely lucrative App Store and then takes a 30 percent cut of many of those apps sales. Epic Games, maker of the popular game Fortnite, has accused Apple in an antitrust lawsuit of abusing its size to overcharge app developers. On Tuesday, House lawmakers claimed that Apple had a monopoly on the apps marketplace for iPhones and iPads, leading to higher prices for consumers.Apple has defended its App Store, and questioned the findings of the House report, saying that the cut it takes from developers is standard in the industry and that developers have flourished under the trust customers have in safely downloading apps on iPhones and iPads.The App Store has enabled new markets, new services and new products that were unimaginable a dozen years ago, and developers have been primary beneficiaries of this ecosystem, the company said on Tuesday. It did not respond to a request for comment about Microsofts announcement.Microsofts principles largely echo the proposals made by the Coalition for App Fairness, a new nonprofit representing app developers. The groups members include Epic Games, Spotify and Match Group, the developer of Tinder. The coalition has said it aims to coordinate the response of smaller companies in the hope of changing the standards for large app stores.Ms. Alaily said she hoped Microsofts commitment to the standards could be a productive example for regulators and lawmakers as they consider whether to change the app store model.Microsofts application store is not the only way, nor even the primary way, customers get new programs on a computer. Most users download them from a developers website. The company already allows other app stores on Windows 10, such as the game streaming platform Steam.But Microsoft is a developer itself and has clashed with Apple recently over its all-you-can-play cloud gaming app, which gives users access to many games through one interface. Apple said each game would need to be approved by Apple as a stand-alone game and give Apple a cut. In July, Brad Smith, Microsofts president, told the House antitrust committee that he believed Apples behavior resembled the controlling practices that got Microsoft into antitrust problems decades ago.As an app developer, Ms. Alaily wrote, we have been frustrated at times by other app stores that require us to sell services in our apps even when our users dont expect or want them, and we cannot do so profitably.Microsoft said its principles would not apply to its Xbox gaming console, which it argued followed a different business model. It said that gaming consoles were sold with little or no profit, or at times below cost, and that it instead recouped the development costs through the games. | Tech |
Sridhar Ramaswamy once ran Googles $115 billion advertising arm. But he grew disillusioned and worried that growth was too much of a priority.Credit...Jessica Chou for The New York TimesPublished June 19, 2020Updated June 21, 2020OAKLAND, Calif. By the end of his 15 years at Google, Sridhar Ramaswamy, then the executive in charge of the companys $115 billion advertising arm, had grown disillusioned with the business he had helped build.The relentless pressure to maintain Googles growth, he said, had come at a heavy cost to the companys users. Useful search results were pushed down the page to squeeze in more advertisements, and privacy was sacrificed for online tracking tools to keep tabs on what ads people were seeing.The final straw came in November 2017 when news reports found videos of scantily clad children on YouTube featuring ads from Deutsche Bank, Amazon, eBay and Adidas. The advertisements were served automatically by the technology systems overseen by Mr. Ramaswamys team.I decided the following month that I needed to do something different with my life, Mr. Ramaswamy said in a recent interview. I came to realize that an ad-supported model had limitations.Nearly two years after he left Google, he is testing his newfound conviction by mounting a challenge against his former employer. His new company, Neeva, is a search engine that looks for information on the web as well as personal files like emails and other documents. It will not show any advertisements and it will not collect or profit from user data, he said. It plans to make money on subscriptions from users paying for the service.As evidenced by the antitrust investigations into Googles businesses, challenging the company is no easy task. Google accounts for roughly 90 percent of all searches globally and competitors have tried unsuccessfully for years to make inroads.Neeva faces the additional hurdle of getting people to pay for something that many have come to expect as free. While there is a growing awareness that free services from Google and Facebook come at the expense of personal data, many consumers even those who express a concern about their privacy are often unwilling to pay for an alternative.Neeva recalls a notion raised, ironically, by the Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in a 1998 research paper when they were doctoral students at Stanford University. They wrote, at the time, that advertising income often provides an incentive to provide poor quality search results. Search advertising has become much more sophisticated since the 1990s, but much of the same conflicts of interest remains, according to Mr. Ramaswamy. Companies are often torn between serving the interests of advertisers or the interests of users.He pointed to how Google has devoted more space to ads at the top of search results with the results users are seeking pushed down the page an issue more pronounced on smaller smartphone screens.Its a slow drift away from what is the best answer for the user and how do we surface it, he said. As a consumer product, the more pressure there is to show ads, the less useful in the long term the product becomes.Google said it did extensive user testing and concluded that people find relevant ads and offers extremely useful.ImageCredit...Jessica Chou for The New York TimesThere are many different vertical and general-purpose search options for people, and we regularly see new approaches. Ads make Google Search free for everyone, and we only show them on a very small fraction of overall queries, said Chi Hea Cho, a Google spokeswoman.One search competitor said ads did not have to come with privacy concerns, either. Gabriel Weinberg, chief executive of DuckDuckGo, a privacy-minded alternative to Google, said subscriptions turned privacy into a luxury. DuckDuckGo presents ads but it says it does not track user behavior.If you want the most impact to help the most people with privacy, you have to be free because Google will be free forever, he said.Neeva has not set a price for its subscription. It will be free for initial users until the end of the year. After that, Mr. Ramaswamy said he aimed to charge a monthly subscription of less than $10 and he hopes to bring the price down over time as more users sign up.In conversations, Mr. Ramaswamy, 53, is measured and cerebral, very much like the academic teaching computer science that he was before he joined Google in 2003.But its still jarring to hear about the pitfalls of ads from someone who was once hailed the most important figure in online advertising.He said that he was not anti-ad and that ad-supported businesses made sense in some instances. But once a company turns to advertising for its primary source of revenue, he said, it starts making small compromises like adding more ads to the top of search results that ultimately lead to an outcome that youre not particularly happy about.When asked why he, as one of Googles most senior executives, did not intervene, he said there was an implicit understanding that his teams job was to keep money flowing.The core idea that you have to help revenue grow and that was important to the companys success were not things you questioned. Im not defending this. I was very much a part of this, he said.As software engineer, Mr. Ramaswamy never imagined a career in advertising. In 1989, he came to the United States from his native India and earned a doctorate in computer science from Brown University. Before he joined Google, he did stints in academia; at Bell Labs, a research facility owned at the time by Lucent; and at another start-up.He started with the unglamorous search advertising team where his job was to make sure the systems remained up. Even in those days, an outage could cost Google $1,000 a second. His rise at Google mirrored a shift in how people bought ads. It was no longer the realm of art directors but something more akin to traders making automated bids on where ads would go and how much to pay.In 2013, he became Googles senior vice president for advertising and commerce, overseeing all of the companys ad systems. His responsibilities included overseeing advertising at YouTube to take a video service replete with problematic content and turn it into something that could challenge television networks for advertising revenue.He felt it was a no-win situation. If YouTubes automated systems held a high bar for what was suitable for advertising, the company risked angering some vocal creators upset at being ineligible for ad revenue. With a less restrictive approach, the chances of a troubling video running with ads was higher. This would anger advertisers and effectively create a financial incentive to keep making problematic content.In 2017, when The Times of London published examples of videos that exploit young children and appeal to pedophiles carrying ads, Mr. Ramaswamy reached a breaking point.This is an impossible conflict and we kind of muddled our way through it, he said. All of us have boundaries for what we will tolerate in our jobs. There comes a point where you say the environment I am working in has a situation that is not acceptable to me.After he left Google, Mr. Ramaswamy appeared ready to follow the well-worn path of accomplished Silicon Valley executive to venture capitalist, joining Greylock Partners. But after a few months, he quietly started working on Neeva, recruiting former Google colleagues including his co-founder, Vivek Raghunathan, a former vice president at the company who worked with Mr. Ramaswamy on search ads and YouTube ads during his 11 years there.Neeva, which is based in Googles hometown, Mountain View, Calif., has raised $37.5 million with equal investments from Greylock, Sequoia Capital an early investor in Google and Mr. Ramaswamy himself. It has 25 employees.Neeva is not an all-new search engine from the ground up. The search rankings are powered by Microsoft Bing, the weather information comes from weather.com, stock data from Intrinio, and the maps are from Apple. When users link their Google, Microsoft Office or Dropbox account, Neeva sifts through personal files as well as the public internet for the right answers.And because it knows the people in your contacts, the retailers you ordered from, and news publications you received newsletters from, Neevas search results will become more personalized over time.We felt very strongly that there needed to be alternatives, alternative viewpoints, and alternative business models, Mr. Ramaswamy said. | Tech |
Harvey Weinstein I'm a Lot of Things But Sex Trafficker Ain't One of 'em! 1/30/2018 Harvey Weinstein says actress Kadian Noble is way off base with her allegation he engaged in sex trafficking when she met him in his Cannes hotel room. Weinstein is responding to Noble's lawsuit, and insists there was no exchange of money or movie roles for sex during the alleged 2014 incident. As we reported, Noble claims Weinstein lured her to Cannes to discuss her future in the biz. In her lawsuit, she said Weinstein forced her to masturbate him and he groped her. In her suit against Harvey, his brother Bob and TWC, she said that was sex trafficking because Harvey enticed to make an international trip by promising movie roles. In docs, Weinstein says that's absurd because he made no such promises, and Noble is merely speculating he regularly did this to other women. He adds ... the alleged incident Noble described is only a sexual assault, not sex trafficking. He wants a judge to toss the whole suit. | Entertainment |
Europe|Azure Window of Malta Collapses Into the Sea After Stormhttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/world/europe/azure-window-malta-game-thrones.htmlCredit...Darrin Zammit Lupi/ReutersMarch 8, 2017If youre headed to Malta, dont expect to capture the Azure Window in shiny filters for Instagram. The popular limestone arch collapsed into the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday.Located on Gozo island and formally known as Tieqa tad-Dwejra, the arch served as a backdrop in the first episode of the HBO series Game of Thrones, the movie Clash of The Titans and in the Instagram posts of many a traveler.Reports commissioned over the years indicated that this landmark would be hard hit by unavoidable natural corrosion, said Joseph Muscat, the countrys prime minister, via Twitter on Wednesday. That sad day arrived.Simon Busuttil, the countrys opposition leader, also posted on Twitter, saying, This is a sad day for #Malta. We have just lost an icon of our countrys natural beauty.Malta, in the central Mediterranean, has a population of roughly 400,000 and counts tourism as a main economic driver. In recent years, rising interest in the arch and nearby sites has been driven in part by their appearance in the series Game of Thrones, which will air its seventh season on HBO this year. The Azure Window was a backdrop for the wedding of Daenerys Targaryen, a recurring character played by Emilia Clarke, to Khal Drogo, portrayed by Jason Momoa, in the first episode in mid-2011.In 2013 a geological study of the site found that erosion was inevitable. Last year in response to that and to concerns for public safety, the authorities banned walking across the site, with a fine of just over $1,500 for lawbreakers.In the end, nature in the form of a heavy storm not humans doomed the arch.Roger Chessell, a local resident, told The Times of Malta he was at the site when it collapsed on Wednesday morning.There was a big raging sea beneath the window, he said, adding, Suddenly, the arch collapsed into the sea with a loud whoomph, throwing up a huge spray. By the time the spray had faded, the stack had gone too.In a statement in the newspaper, the Gozo Tourism Association said: The flagship of the Gozitan touristic sites has sunk in its same birthplace from where for thousands of years, it stood high and proud heralding one of the natural beauties our little island is endowed with.From Instagram to Twitter, people from all over the world mourned the loss. | World |
Science|What Jeff Bezos and crew wore to space.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/science/jeff-bezos-space.htmlCredit...Blue Origin, via Associated PressPublished July 20, 2021Updated Oct. 13, 2021When Jeff Bezos blasted into space on Tuesday, he wasnt channeling the Apollo astronauts in at least one respect: his sartorial choice.Mr. Bezos, the founder of Amazon, told NBCs Today show on Monday that he wouldnt need a traditional spacesuit for the more than 62-mile jaunt above the Earth.Mr. Bezos and the three other crew members aboard the New Shepard capsule wore light flight suits with a shiny sheen that resemble the jumpsuits worn by military pilots, or perhaps even a NASCAR drivers racing suit.The blue suits, revealed in pictures and videos published by Mr. Bezos and his fellow passengers before the flight, have a mission patch on the upper left chest that features Blue Origins rocket blasting into space.It feels good to be in the flight suit, Mr. Bezos said in a promotional video that he posted on Monday on Instagram.The crew members first initials and surnames are printed in white letters on the chest area of the suits, which have black trim and the Blue Origin name emblazoned on the left sleeve. On the right arm is a flag patch, similar to those worn by astronauts and fighter jet pilots the American flag for the Bezos brothers and Wally Funk, and the Dutch flag for Oliver Daemen.Blue Origin wasnt the only company to make distinctive fashion choices in the competition between billionaires in their attempted private conquest of space.When Richard Branson realized his dream of traveling to space last week in a Virgin Galactic rocket plane, he wore a darker blue jumpsuit made by the sports apparel giant Under Armour, complete with the companys ubiquitous logo.Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, enlisted a costume designer who worked on Batman v Superman, The Fantastic Four, The Avengers and X-Men II to create the prototype for the more functional spacesuit worn by astronauts flying in SpaceXs Crew Dragon capsule. | science |
Credit...Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA, via ShutterstockNov. 22, 2018LONDON With the sputtering of the hard-line Conservative coup against Prime Minister Theresa May over her Brexit plan this week, the British Parliament seemed to be turning, slowly and with a great grinding of gears, in the direction of something quintessentially English: a compromise that satisfies no one.There are historical precedents for this type of solution. Take the English Civil War, which pitted the monarchy against Parliament. What did England get? A little of both, followed by several centuries of grumbling on either side.The national split over fox hunting, another deep social division, ended in a masterly British compromise, as former Prime Minister Tony Blair phrased it, that left hunting banned and not quite banned at the same time. And consider the creation of the National Health Service, which the Conservative Party opposed tooth and nail and then accepted, sometimes grudgingly, for 70 years and counting.Its part of the English DNA, it is in our culture, to find a compromise, usually one we are not happy with, said the social anthropologist Kate Fox, the author of Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behavior.It doesnt mean we compromise graciously, she said. We compromise in an Eeyorish, grumpy, vaguely stoical way. And we complain, constantly. But only to each other. We rarely address our complaints to anyone who might be in a position to resolve them. Thats kind of what I was expecting with Brexit.On Thursday, Mrs. May reached an agreement with European negotiators on a document outlining future ties.Her greater task, though, is persuading her own Parliament to approve her draft agreement on withdrawing from the European Union, a deal that, when initially presented to the country a week ago, had all the popular appeal of an opossum carcass.ImageCredit...Olivier Matthys/Associated PressStill, in the days since Mrs. Mays disastrous rollout, hard-line positions seemed to be softening.Something curious happened: Last Thursday, when Mrs. May revealed the details of her plan, 47 percent of respondents said she should step down and only 33 percent said she should stay, according to a poll by YouGov for The Times of London.Five days later, after she had weathered rounds of punishing criticism, the responses were reversed, with 46 percent saying she should stay and 34 percent that she should go. A bungled coup by hard-line Brexiteers in her own party who want a more complete break from the European Union than she has proposed had left her most aggressive detractors looking isolated and foolish.And many in Westminster began speaking confidently of a new wrinkle. Mrs. May might not muster enough Parliamentary support to pass the bill in mid-December, according to Rob Ford, a professor of politics at the University of Manchester. But if her government survives long enough to put it to a second vote, he said, she has a good chance of getting it through.The groups that dislike it will realize that there is no way of getting their preferred outcome, he said. The deal could be as popular as leprosy with the public and that strategic calculus would not have changed one iota.Leprosy indeed. Remainers dont like it because they did not want to leave the European Union in the first place. Hard-line Brexiteers dont like it because it leaves Britain in too many European structures. Soft Brexiteers who want, well, a softer break dont like it because it removes the country from too many structures. The only people who are satisfied are those primarily concerned with immigration, and polls, Mr. Ford said, suggest that group is rapidly shrinking.Even the Daily Mail newspaper, which, under its former editor, Paul Dacre, pushed Brexit with unbridled ferocity and policed the political class for the slightest hint of apostasy, has softened under Mr. Dacres successor, Geordie Greig, offering lukewarm support for the prime minister.It was difficult to recall, in the gloom and resignation of this week, that Brexit had at one point made some people happy.Tim Stanley, a historian and journalist who supported leaving the European Union, recalled the day of the referendum, June 23, 2016, as a day of absolute euphoria, and a sense of being part of something bigger than myself. Last week, he said he supported Mrs. Mays deal he called it a compromise to get us somewhere but there was no note of triumph.ImageCredit...Virginia Mayo/Associated PressWhat she is offering people is the least worst of their nightmares, said Mr. Stanley, who writes for the Daily Telegraph newspaper. The tragedy is that when we leave next March, there wont be fireworks or a parade. This should have been a revival of British democracy; it should have been a feeling like V-E Day, that we had triumphed over the Eurocrats. Its sad that it wont come, I think.He blamed some of this on Mrs. May, who, he said, doesnt do inspiration.A Brexit run by a Remainer, its going to be downbeat, its going to be gloomy, he said.But gloom also seems to be part of a considered strategy on Mrs. Mays part. As they make the rounds of Parliament this week, her proxies have made a forceful case for letting go of unrealistic hopes and the risks that go with them.It is time to shoot the unicorns, one May ally told Matt Chorley, a politics writer for The Times of London.On this, there is some evidence of success. The Conservative lawmaker Kenneth Clarke, a longtime and staunch opponent of leaving the European Union, told the BBC on Tuesday that Mrs. Mays deal was a bit of a dogs breakfast, but that he would support it anyway to avoid the danger of exiting without a deal. Mrs. May also secured the backing of Nick Boles, a Brexiteer member of her party who has for weeks excoriated her proposed implementation period in favor of a three-year membership in the European Economic Area, a solution known as Norway for now.In much of the country, the primary response to the events of last week was exhaustion. The standup comedian Bridget Christie said people she knew felt embarrassed, confused, frustrated, cheated, betrayed, sad, upset, worried, anxious, disgusted, ashamed, impotent, powerless, depressed, baffled and desperate.Asked if she knew anyone who felt happy about the possible outcomes that emerged this week, she answered, Are you joking?And on this point, Britain may at last have reached common ground.I would think there might just be a majority for the sentiment of Oh, God, lets get it over with. You might win a vote on that, said Ian Hislop, the editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye.Were headed toward acceptance. Weve done anger, weve done disbelief, he said. Dont ask me. I may stay in a state of denial. | World |
Business|G.M. Will Import Buicks Made in China to the U.S. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/05/business/gm-will-import-buicks-made-in-china-to-the-us.htmlDec. 4, 2015DETROIT General Motors said on Friday that it would sell its first Chinese-made vehicle in the United States next year in an effort to expand the product lineup of its struggling Buick brand. G.M. said it would introduce the Buick Envision, a compact sport-utility vehicle built in China, to the American market. It would be the first time that any of the three Detroit automakers have brought a Chinese-made vehicle to the American market. G.M. is the largest automaker in the United States.The volume of Envisions to be imported is not expected to be large. But the move highlights G.M.s strategy to maximize its global production capacity by funneling some models to markets that can absorb excess capacity.The Envision is made in G.M.s Chinese joint-venture plant in Yantai in northeastern Shandong Province. The vehicle is currently sold only in China, and G.M. has sold more than 120,000 since it was introduced last year. The company said the vehicle would add a needed model to the brand at a time when sales of carlike S.U.V.s called crossovers are soaring industrywide. The Buick brand has struggled this year with falling sales of passenger cars because American consumers are increasingly choosing S.U.V.s and trucks. When it goes on sale in 2016, it will play an important role in a crossover lineup that represents 60 percent of Buick sales in North America, said Duncan Aldred, a G.M. marketing executive.Through November, Buick sales are down 3 percent for the year, compared with an increase of more than 5 percent for the total American industry. Sales of its LaCrosse, Regal and Verano sedans are down substantially. But its two current S.U.V. models have posted gains.G.M. has additional capacity for the Envision in its Chinese plant and is testing the vehicle for possible changes to tailor it to American consumers.Volvo, which is owned by a Chinese company, already exports a sedan made in China into the United States. | Business |
Credit...Eric Francis/Associated PressFeb. 15, 2014CORVALLIS, Ore. In what has become something of a mantra for Oregon State Coach Pat Casey, he opened the baseball season by saying the polls do not matter. One has the perennially ranked Beavers at No. 2, the teams highest spot ever.Ill say the same thing I said last year, Casey said. Im not impressed at all.About 40 miles down the road, Oregon is ranked as high as No. 6 in the national polls, and Coach George Horton is saying essentially the same thing: The Ducks have not proved anything yet.Well just have to let our baseball speak for itself, Horton said.Once again, the state of Oregon has two college baseball teams receiving national attention.The Beavers and the Ducks were picked to finish first and second in the Pacific-12 Conference, which has always been strong in the sport. League teams have won 28 N.C.A.A. baseball titles, more than any other conference.U.C.L.A., last seasons College World Series champion, was picked by the leagues coaches to finish third this year.I like our team, Casey said of the Beavers. We have to stay healthy, and we obviously have to play at a very high level in order to compete in our conference and with the people we play out of conference. So I do like our team, but I think they would tell you weve got a long way to go.For the past decade, college baseball has grown much more popular in Oregon since the Beavers, then underdogs, became the fifth college program to win back-to-back C.W.S. titles in 2006 and in 2007.Casey, who is entering his 20th season in Corvallis, has taken the team to the postseason for the past five years, a team record.The Beavers went 52-13 last season, advancing to the C.W.S. for the fifth time the fourth under Casey. Oregon State went 24-6 in the Pac-12 for the teams third conference title since Casey took over.ImageCredit...Kevin Clark/The Register-Guard, via Associated PressAlthough the Beavers have lost key contributors in pitcher Matt Boyd, shortstop Tyler Smith and catcher Jake Rodriguez, they will have pitchers Ben Wetzler and Andrew Moore and outfielder Michael Conforto returning.In 2009, Oregon reinstated its baseball program after a 28-year hiatus. The Ducks made a splash by hiring Horton, a two-time national coach of the year who led Cal State Fullerton to the C.W.S. six times and the N.C.A.A. title in 2004.After holding open tryouts for the team in Hortons first season, the Ducks surprisingly went to the postseason the next year. But so far, the C.W.S. has eluded them.Last season, Oregon won a team-record 48 games and finished second in the Pac-12. But the nationally seeded Ducks fell to Rice in their regional series.We havent finished yet, Horton said at the teams preseason news media gathering. Weve had expectation years where we fumbled. The last two years, we thought we had a competitive ball club, won our share of one- and two-run games and put ourselves in position to host regionals and super regionals and had national seeds. But weve squandered opportunities.The Ducks have lost a few of the stars from last seasons team. First baseman Ryon Healy and pitcher Jimmie Sherfy graduated, and pitcher Cole Irvin had season-ending Tommy John elbow surgery. But they return infielder Scott Heineman and outfielder Tyler Baumgartner.Oregon and Oregon State opened their seasons this weekend. The Beavers were playing in the Husker Classic in Tempe, Ariz., and the Ducks were visiting Hawaii for a four-game series. The Ducks and the Beavers will play each other five times after splitting last seasons series, 2-2.Ultimately, a combination of factors will determine how their seasons turn out. That is why Casey says he does not have a lot of faith in preseason polls.Team chemistrys always one of the most important things, he said. We have enough people there. We have the people, if they choose to be strong leaders and they choose to have chemistry and hang with each other, that well have the same type of bond as last season.Casey added: Winning fixes a lot of problems. When you come out and you have a lot of success early, you feel good. Its when youre struggling that real leadership and chemistry comes to the top. | Sports |
Credit...FBIMarch 12, 2017To the F.B.I., Evgeniy M. Bogachev is the most wanted cybercriminal in the world. The bureau has announced a $3 million bounty for his capture, the most ever for computer crimes, and has been trying to track his movements in hopes of grabbing him if he strays outside his home turf in Russia.He has been indicted in the United States, accused of creating a sprawling network of virus-infected computers to siphon hundreds of millions of dollars from bank accounts around the world, targeting anyone with enough money worth stealing from a pest control company in North Carolina to a police department in Massachusetts to a Native American tribe in Washington.In December, the Obama administration announced sanctions against Mr. Bogachev and five others in response to intelligence agencies conclusions that Russia had meddled in the presidential election. Publicly, law enforcement officials said it was his criminal exploits that landed Mr. Bogachev on the sanctions list, not any specific role in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee.But it is clear that for Russia, he is more than just a criminal. At one point, Mr. Bogachev had control over as many as a million computers in multiple countries, with possible access to everything from family vacation photographs and term papers to business proposals and highly confidential personal information. It is almost certain that computers belonging to government officials and contractors in a number of countries were among the infected devices. For Russias surveillance-obsessed intelligence community, Mr. Bogachevs exploits may have created an irresistible opportunity for espionage.While Mr. Bogachev was draining bank accounts, it appears that the Russian authorities were looking over his shoulder, searching the same computers for files and emails. In effect, they were grafting an intelligence operation onto a far-reaching cybercriminal scheme, sparing themselves the hard work of hacking into the computers themselves, officials said.The Russians were particularly interested, it seems, in information from military and intelligence services regarding fighting in eastern Ukraine and the war in Syria, according to law enforcement officials and the cybersecurity firm Fox-IT. But there also appear to have been attempts to gain access to sensitive military and intelligence information on infected computers in the United States, often consisting of searches for documents containing the words top secret or Department of Defense.The Russian government has plenty of its own cyberspace tools for gathering intelligence. But the piggybacking on Mr. Bogachevs activities offers some clues to the breadth and creativity of Russias espionage efforts at a time when the United States and Europe are scrambling to counter increasingly sophisticated attacks capable of destroying critical infrastructure, disrupting bank operations, stealing government secrets and undermining democratic elections.This relationship is illustrated by the improbable mix of characters targeted with the sanctions announced by the Obama administration. Four were senior officers with Russias powerful military intelligence agency, the G.R.U. Two were suspected cyberthieves on the F.B.I.s most wanted list: an ethnic Russian from Latvia named Alexsey Belan with a red-tinted Justin Bieber haircut, and Mr. Bogachev, whose F.B.I. file includes a photograph of him holding his spotted Bengal cat while wearing a matching set of leopard-print pajamas.From Thief to Russian Asset?His involvement with Russian intelligence may help explain why Mr. Bogachev, 33, is hardly a man on the run. F.B.I. officials say he lives openly in Anapa, a run-down resort town on the Black Sea in southern Russia. He has a large apartment near the shore and possibly another in Moscow, officials say, as well as a collection of luxury cars, though he seems to favor driving his Jeep Grand Cherokee. American investigators say he enjoys sailing and owns a yacht.ImageCredit...Dmitry Feoktistov/TASS, via Getty ImagesRunning the criminal scheme was hard work. Mr. Bogachev often complained of being exhausted and of having too little time for his family, said Aleksandr Panin, a Russian hacker, now in a federal prison in Kentucky for bank fraud, who used to communicate with Mr. Bogachev online. He mentioned a wife and two kids as far as I remember, Mr. Panin wrote in an email.Beyond that, little is known about Mr. Bogachev, who preferred to operate anonymously behind various screen names: slavik, lucky12345, pollingsoon. Even close business associates never met him in person or knew his real name.He was very, very paranoid, said J. Keith Mularski, an F.B.I. supervisor in Pittsburgh whose investigation of Mr. Bogachev led to an indictment in 2014. He didnt trust anybody.Russia does not have an extradition treaty with the United States, and Russian officials say that so long as Mr. Bogachev has not committed a crime on Russian territory, there are no grounds to arrest him.Attempts to reach Mr. Bogachev for this article were unsuccessful. In response to questions, his lawyer in Anapa, Aleksei Stotskii, said, The fact that he is wanted by the F.B.I. prevents me morally from saying anything.A line in Mr. Bogachevs file with the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, which has helped the F.B.I. track his movements, describes him as working under the supervision of a special unit of the F.S.B., referring to the Federal Security Service, Russias main intelligence agency. The F.S.B. did not respond to a request for comment.That Mr. Bogachev remains at large is the most powerful argument that he is an asset of the Russian government, said Austin Berglas, who was an assistant special agent in charge of cyberinvestigations out of the F.B.I.s New York field office until 2015. Hackers like Mr. Bogachev are moonlighters, Mr. Berglas said, doing the bidding of Russian intelligence services, whether economic espionage or straight-up espionage.Such an arrangement offers the Kremlin a convenient cover story and an easy opportunity to take a peek into the extensive networks of computers infected by Russian hackers, security experts say. Russian intelligence agencies also appear to occasionally employ malware tools developed for criminal purposes, including the popular BlackEnergy, to attack the computers of enemy governments. The recent revelations by WikiLeaks about C.I.A. spying tools suggest that the agency also kept a large reference library of hacking kits, some of which appear to have been produced by Russia.It also hints at a struggle to recruit top talent. A job with the Russian intelligence agencies does not command the prestige it did in the Soviet era. The Russian state has to compete against the dream of six-figure salaries and stock options in Silicon Valley. A recruiting pitch from a few years ago for the Defense Ministrys cyberwarfare brigade offered college graduates the rank of lieutenant and a bed in a room with four other people.ImageCredit...Gary Cameron/ReutersAnd so the Kremlin at times turns to the dark web or Russian-language forums devoted to cyberfraud and spam. Mr. Bogachev, according to court papers from his criminal case, used to sell malicious software on a site called Carding World, where thieves buy and sell stolen credit card numbers and hacking kits, according to the F.B.I. One recent posting offered to sell American credit card information with CVV security numbers for $5. A user named MrRaiX was selling a malware supposedly designed to pilfer passwords from programs like Google Chrome and Outlook Express.Rather than shut down such sites, as the F.B.I. typically tries to do, Russian intelligence agents appear to have infiltrated them, security experts say.Some of the forums state specifically that almost any type of criminality is allowed bank fraud, counterfeiting documents, weapons sales. One of the few rules: no work in Russia or the former Soviet Union. In Carding World, and in many other forums, a violation results in a lifetime ban.The F.B.I. has long been stymied in its efforts to get Russian cybercriminals. For a time, the bureau had high hopes that its agents and Russian investigators with the F.S.B. would work together to target Russian thieves who had made a specialty of stealing Americans credit card information and breaking into their bank accounts. Heres to great investigations, F.B.I. and F.S.B. agents would toast each other at Manhattan steakhouses during periodic trust-building visits, Mr. Berglas said.But help rarely seemed to materialize. After a while, agents began to worry that the Russian authorities were recruiting the very suspects that the F.B.I. was pursuing. The joke among Justice Department officials was the Russians were more likely to pin a medal on a suspected criminal hacker than help the F.B.I. nab him.Almost all the hackers who have been announced by the U.S. government through indictments are immediately tracked by the Russian government, said Arkady Bukh, a New York-based lawyer who often represents Russian hackers arrested in the United States. All the time theyre asked to provide logistical and technical support.While it was a widely held suspicion, it is tough to prove the connection between cyberthieves and Russian intelligence. But in one case, Mr. Berglas said, F.B.I. agents monitoring an infected computer were surprised to see a hacker who was the target of their investigation share a copy of his passport with a person the F.B.I. believed to be a Russian intelligence agent a likely signal that the suspect was being recruited or protected. That was the closest we ever came, he said.Fishing for Top SecretsMr. Bogachevs hacking career began well over a decade ago, leading to the creation of a malicious software program called GameOver ZeuS, which he managed with the help of about a half-dozen close associates who called themselves the Business Club, according to the F.B.I. and security researchers. Working around the clock, his criminal gang infected an ever-growing network of computers. It was able to bypass the most advanced banking security measures to quickly empty accounts and transfer the money abroad through a web of intermediaries called money mules. F.B.I. officials said it was the most sophisticated online larceny scheme they had encountered and for years, it was impenetrable.Mr. Bogachev became extremely wealthy. At one point, he owned two villas in France and kept a fleet of cars parked around Europe so he would never have to rent a vehicle while on vacation, according to a Ukrainian law enforcement official with knowledge of the Bogachev case, who requested anonymity to discuss the continuing investigation. Officials say he had three Russian passports with different aliases allowing him to travel undercover.At the height of his operations, Mr. Bogachev had between 500,000 and a million computers under his control, American officials said. And there is evidence that the Russian government took an interest in knowing what was on them.Beginning around 2011, according to an analysis by Fox-IT, computers under Mr. Bogachevs control started receiving requests for information not about banking transactions, but for files relating to various geopolitical developments pulled from the headlines.Around the time that former President Barack Obama publicly agreed to start sending small arms and ammunition to Syrian rebels, in 2013, Turkish computers infected by Mr. Bogachevs network were hit with keyword searches that included the terms weapon delivery and arms delivery. There were also searches for Russian mercenary and Caucasian mercenary, suggesting concerns about Russian citizens fighting in the war.Ahead of Russias military intervention in Ukraine in 2014, infected computers were searched for information about top-secret files from the countrys main intelligence directorate, the S.B.U. Some of the queries involved searches for personal information about government security officials, including emails from Georgias foreign intelligence service, the Turkish Foreign Ministry and others, said Michael Sandee, one of the researchers from Fox-IT.And at some point between March 2013 and February 2014, there were searches for English-language documents, which seemed to be fishing for American military and intelligence documents. The queries were for terms including top secret and Department of Defense, said Brett Stone-Gross, a cybersecurity analyst involved in analyzing GameOver ZeuS. These were in English, he said. That was different.Cybersecurity experts who studied the case say there is no way to know who ordered the queries. But they were so disconnected from the larceny and fraud that drove Mr. Bogachevs operation that analysts say there can be no other motive but espionage.Whether the searches turned up any classified document or sensitive government material is unknown, although the odds are good that there were a number of federal government employees or military contractors with infected personal computers.They had such a large number of infections, I would say its highly likely they had computers belonging to U.S. government and foreign government employees, Mr. Stone-Gross said.In the summer of 2014, the F.B.I., together with law enforcement agencies in over half a dozen countries, carried out Operation Tovar, a coordinated attack on Mr. Bogachevs criminal infrastructure that shut down his network and liberated computers infected with GameOver ZeuS.Prosecutors said they were in talks with the Russian government, trying to secure cooperation for the capture of Mr. Bogachev. But the only apparent legal trouble Mr. Bogachev has faced in Russia was a lawsuit filed against him by a real estate company in 2011 over payment of about $75,000 on his apartment in Anapa, according to court papers there. And even that he managed to beat.These days, officials believe Mr. Bogachev is living under his own name in Anapa and occasionally takes boat trips to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that Russia occupied in 2014. Mr. Mularski, the F.B.I. supervisor, said his agents were still pursuing leads. | World |
DealBook|Chinese Consortium Makes Rival Bid for Fairchild Semiconductorhttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/business/dealbook/chinese-consortium-makes-rival-bid-for-fairchild-semiconductor.htmlDec. 8, 2015SAN FRANCISCO A trans-Pacific bidding war for Fairchild Semiconductor may be in the offing, as a consortium of Chinese buyers emerged to make a rival offer for the chip maker.A group led by China Resources Holdings, a state-owned conglomerate, has bid roughly $2.5 billion for Fairchild, according to a person briefed on the matter. That proposal, amounting to $21.70 a share in cash, tops a $20-a-share offer from ON Semiconductor that Fairchild accepted last month.Also participating in the Chinese takeover effort is Hua Capital Management, an investment firm that led the takeover of the imaging chip maker OmniVision Technologies last spring.Fairchild acknowledged in a statement on Tuesday that it had received an unsolicited takeover bid that was higher than ON Semiconductors offer, though it did not disclose the identity of the suitor. Bloomberg News later reported that the Chinese entities were behind the bid.The move by the China Resources and Hua highlights the continued interest by Chinese buyers in the chip-manufacturing industry. This year, Tsinghua Unigroup, Chinas biggest semiconductor maker, weighed a takeover of Micron Technology, a maker of memory chips.Adding Fairchild, whose chips help regulate power use in computers and other devices, could bolster the semiconductor arm of China Resources, an enormous conglomerate whose other arms include supermarkets and power plants.The China Resources consortium emerged as a suitor late in an auction of Fairchild earlier this year and was willing to pay at least $20.20 a share, according to the person briefed on the matter. But by that point, Fairchild essentially had committed to striking a deal with ON Semiconductor.Fairchilds agreement with ON Semiconductor does not include a so-called go-shop period that allows the company to solicit higher takeover offers. But the chip maker can evaluate unsolicited bids that it receives.In its statement on Tuesday, the company said that it would review the new proposal, though its board was still recommending that shareholders accept ON Semiconductors deal.One potential hurdle for the Chinese consortium is the prospect of a tough review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an American government panel that reviews takeovers by foreign buyers. That regulator has sometimes looked unfavorably on Chinese companies bidding for American tech companies, though the China Resources group is likely to argue that Fairchilds chips are not vital to the national security of the United States. | Business |
Feb. 20, 2014SYOSSET, N.Y. John Tavares is featured this month on the cover of the Islanders program, wearing a red and white Team Canada sweater. But when fans return to Nassau Coliseum on Feb. 27 for a game against Toronto, the Islanders first matchup after the Olympic break, they will not see Tavares, the teams captain, on the ice. Tavares, 23, will miss the rest of the season after tearing the medial collateral ligament and meniscus in his left knee on Wednesday when he was checked awkwardly into the boards by defenseman Arturs Kulda during Canadas 2-1 quarterfinal win over Latvia.With 22 games remaining in a campaign that began with promise, the Islanders, 12 points out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, already had a titanic task in making the postseason for a second straight season.Hopefully we can take advantage of this bad situation and grow as a team, said Tavaress linemate Kyle Okposo, who is having a career year with 24 goals and 35 assists. Life does go on. We will just all have to work harder.Tavares, a center, is third in the N.H.L. with 66 points (24 goals and 42 assists) and has been a model of durability over his five seasons. He missed only one of the first 60 games this season, and only 4 of the 354 since the Islanders made him the top overall pick of the 2009 draft.Wednesday was not the first time Kulda had delivered a hard hit in international play. While playing for Latvia at the 2011 world championships, he checked Radek Martinek, a Czech defenseman and an Islanders teammate of Tavaress, into the boards and knocked him unconscious. Kulda was suspended for three games for leaving his feet to deliver the hit.Thats just a hockey play, Islanders Coach Jack Capuano said Thursday of the hit on Tavares, adding that he had exchanged text messages with Tavares. There are a lot of hits like that in the course of a game. John was just in the wrong spot at the wrong time.Islanders right wing Colin McDonald said he expected Tavaress pain to be twofold: physical and emotional.He has to be upset, really disappointed, because he worked so hard to make Team Canada and he works so much for all of us, McDonald said. Its going to hurt because he put in so much effort. Now its up to us to work harder and be better even without John.Tavares is not the only N.H.L. player to be injured in Sochi. Mats Zuccarello, who leads the Rangers with 43 points, broke his hand while playing for Norway, and the Detroit Red Wings captain, Henrik Zetterberg, worsened a back injury while playing for Sweden.Capuano chose to focus only on what was ahead for his young squad.For me, its about a chance to continue teaching, he said. I want to make sure we stay positive and continue to learn.Septembers training camp will most likely be the next time Tavares is on the ice with the Islanders, but Capuano said there were no worries.John is the player he is because hes constantly motivated, Capuano said. Hes constantly thinking the game and thinking of ways he can improve his game. Thats what elite players do. Johnny has worked to be where he is today. Ive seen a different player emerge and grow since Ive been here. Its about his discipline, the intangibles. Its about his work ethic and how he handles himself on and off the ice. He needs no extra motivation. He will come back stronger. | Sports |
TrilobitesUnderwater audio recordings rescued from Hurricane Harvey showed that the urge to spawn was more powerful than a category 4 storm.Credit...Evan DAlessandro/University of MiamiNov. 15, 2018On Aug. 25, 2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall about 5 miles east of Rockport, Tex. The category 4 storm had an eye wider than the length of Manhattan, wind gusts up to 145 miles per hour and a 10 foot storm surge. The catastrophic storm resulted in at least 103 deaths in the United States.But amid this destruction, one thing seemed to weather the storm quite well spotted seatrout, which were busy making babies as the eye of the hurricane passed over their spawning grounds.Their urge to reproduce, or that inclination, is so strong that not even a hurricane can stop them, Christopher Biggs, a graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin and first author of the study, said.Mr. Biggs and his colleagues reported their discovery, which was based on underwater audio recordings, last week in Biology Letters. The resilience of these fish suggests that they and their relatives, popular for recreational fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, may cope surprisingly well with increases in human activity and other temporary disturbances.To see if the species could reproduce well enough to keep up with recreational fishers, Mr. Biggs and Brad Erisman, a marine biologist and lead author of the study, have been monitoring spotted seatrout reproduction.[Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.]Their team has been looking at spawning: when fish cast eggs and sperm into the water that meet, fertilize and develop into a new population, if all goes well. The team wants to know when the fish start, how long they go and how temperature and saltiness, which fluctuate in the estuary near Port Aransas, Tex., might affect their behavior in different locations.But because the water is murky, they cant just dive in and look. Instead, they rely on these fishs unusual audible mating calls. In this species, as well as other drum fish named for their sounds, the males cry out in grunts and pulses during spawning. An individual sounds like a panther standing behind a trickling stream of water. And when many call together, they can evoke a chorus of chain saws.The Sounds of a Spawning Spotted SeatroutMr. Biggs and his colleagues had deployed underwater microphones in April 2017 at 15 popular spawning grounds. These programmable recording devices are protected inside waterproof casing and strapped to a PVC pipe. To install and remove them, Mr. Biggs had to dive down six or 12 feet and hammer them into the sandy sea bottom.When news of Harveys strength and direction was announced, Mr. Biggs was at a conference in Florida. He raced home to Texas and took a boat out to retrieve his recorders. He recovered about half before he had to evacuate, and the storm took most of the rest.Audio analysis of the six months of rescued recordings revealed some surprises. First, despite previous work suggesting spawning coincided with changes in the moon, their survey showed the fish population spawned daily.ImageCredit...Thomas SwaffordAnd then the two recorders that survived the hurricane yielded another unexpected finding.At first, the researchers thought the storms noise was too loud to hear anything. But when it calmed, they heard the fish spawning the day before the storm, in its eye and the day after.That was completely surprising when you consider the total destruction on land, he said.Following the hurricane, the fish began spawning earlier in the day, possibly cued in part by temperature changes in the water.You would think if they felt their environment getting that disrupted, they would just go somewhere else, but yet they were still hunkered down right in the same spots that they had been before, Mr. Biggs said.Whether they stopped during the worst of it and restarted in the calm, however, we may never know.This year the team has deployed another set of hydrophones to find out why the fish make sounds when they spawn. Is the call more of a social cue to sync spawning after theyve already gathered? Or is it more like a dinner bell calling out Hey, its spawning time in the estuary, come and get it? | science |
Researchers ended a clinical trial of the drug early because the results were so convincing. The more effective drug would be given in six injections a year instead of as 365 daily pills.Credit...Stephane de Sakutin/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesNov. 9, 2020A single shot given every two months has proved to be more effective than a daily pill at preventing H.I.V. in women, researchers reported on Monday, an advance that medical experts hailed as groundbreaking in the fight against the deadly virus that causes AIDS.The finding that the long-acting drug would prevent H.I.V. in six doses taken over a year instead of the 365 required for the prevention pill currently on the market was so convincing the researchers decided to end their clinical trial of the drug early.Its a game changer for women, said Dr. Sigal Yawetz, an expert on women with H.I.V. at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston who was not involved in the trial.Women and girls accounted for about half of all new H.I.V. infections in 2019, according to Unaids, a United Nations organization that leads the global fight against H.I.V. and AIDS. In sub-Saharan Africa, five in six new infections among adolescents ages 15 to 19 are among girls.If were going to get to the end of the epidemic, we have to do something to stem the tide of infection in those women, said Dr. Kimberly Smith, head of research and development at ViiV Healthcare, which manufactures the injection. That is why this study is so important. It gives a new, incredibly effective option for women.Women have had only one approved option for pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, a course of drugs taken to prevent contracting H.I.V.: the daily pill Truvada, made by Gilead Sciences. (A second pill also made by Gilead, called Descovy, was approved in October 2019, but only for men and transgender women.)Many women struggled to take the pill regularly, undercutting its usefulness. Not having to take a daily pill would afford them freedom from having to hide or negotiate their medication use with their sexual partners, experts said.Weve been waiting for a PrEP strategy that would work in women, and I think we have one now so its very exciting, Dr. Yawetz said. Id like women to have as many options as they can that are affordable and safe, depending on their needs.But the injected drug will need to be affordable in resource-poor nations. Even in the United States, Truvadas price kept it out of reach of many who would have benefited from the drug. (Generic versions of Truvada are now available.)And women will need easy access to the shots every eight weeks,which must be given by a medical professional. During the clinical trial, because of restrictions introduced during the pandemic, there was a scramble to make sure that these women could continue to get their injections on time, Dr. Smith of ViiV Healthcare said. The trial researchers sent transportation for the women and managed to retain 98 percent of the participants, she said.The randomized, double-blind clinical trial was conducted by the H.I.V. Prevention Trials Network, an international collaborative funded by the National Institutes of Health. The trial compared the injected drug, called cabotegravir, with Truvada in 3,223 participants in 20 sites across seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa.Of the women who received Truvada, 34 became infected with H.I.V. during the trial, compared with just four of the women receiving the injections; two of those four women had stopped taking the injections, Dr. Smith said.After an interim analysis showed that the long-acting injection was 89 percent more effective than Truvada, an independent data safety monitoring board recommended that the trial be stopped early.I am extremely excited about the findings of this study, and I have to admit that I was on razors edge waiting for these results, said Dr. Monica Gandhi, an H.I.V. expert at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the trial.The drug does not need to be refrigerated, so mobile clinics and community centers can offer it to women or bundle it with injectable birth control, Dr. Gandhi said.A previous trial tested the drug in nearly 4,600 cisgender men and transgender women who have sex with men and found it to be 66 percent more effective than Truvada in that population. That trial was expected to continue into 2022, but was stopped in May for similar reasons.Dr. Gandhi praised these trials for testing the drug in multiple populations. Gileads Descovy was tested and approved only in men and transgender women who have sex with men a decision that she said set a very disturbing precedent.I was extremely disturbed and remain extremely disturbed that it was not studied in cisgender women, she said of Descovy. I commend the investigators working on this trial for ensuring that cabotegravir was equitably studied in cisgender women.The women in the trial were all taking contraceptives, but given that women of childbearing age are at high risk of H.I.V., it will also be important to show that the drug is safe for use in pregnant women, Dr. Yawetz said.Low amounts of the drug can persist in the body for a long time, so there is a higher risk of resistance in people who skip the injection than there is with a daily pill that quickly dissipates.If you go too long, and you get exposed to H.I.V., you could get a drug-resistant virus, so every eight weeks is going to be mandatory, Dr. Gandhi said. And because of that, to keep adherence to that type of schedule, we have to be creative. | Health |
First, Impressive Vaccines for Covid. Next Up: The Flu.Vaccine makers are betting that the mRNA technology powering two successful Covid vaccines will help curb the tragic global death toll from the flu.Credit...SanofiOct. 9, 2021As the world grapples with Covid-19, influenza isnt getting much attention these days. But the flus global impact is staggering: three million to five million cases of severe illness every year, and up to 650,000 deaths. Every few decades, a new flu strain spills over from animals and leads to a pandemic.The deadly toll of influenza is all the more striking when you consider that we have had vaccines to fight it for eight decades. But they remain mediocre. A flu shot is good for only one flu season, and its effectiveness typically reaches somewhere between 40 and 60 percent. In some years its as low as 10 percent.But a new generation of highly effective flu vaccines may emerge in the next few years, based on the same mRNA technology that has protected hundreds of millions of people against Covid-19.While traditional influenza vaccines are grown for months in chicken eggs, mRNA vaccines are manufactured relatively quickly from scratch. In theory, their faster production may make them better matched to each seasons flu strains. And when theyre injected into people, they may provoke a stronger immune response than traditional flu vaccines do.Two companies Moderna, the Massachusetts biotech company that produced one of the authorized mRNA vaccines for Covid-19, and Sanofi, a French vaccine maker began trials for mRNA flu vaccines this summer. Pfizer and BioNTech, the companies that produced the other mRNA Covid-19 vaccine, started their own flu trial last month. And Seqirus, a vaccine producer based in England, is planning to test another mRNA vaccine for the flu early next year.No one can say for sure how well any of these four seasonal flu vaccines will turn out, but many experts are optimistic. And further down the line, mRNA technology may be tailored to make vaccines that work for years against a wide range of influenza strains.I am beyond excited for the future of flu vaccination, said Jenna Bartley, an immunologist at the University of Connecticut.Not good enoughImageCredit...Vintage Space/Alamy The 1918 influenza pandemic was the worst in modern history, killing somewhere between 50 million and 100 million people. As the death toll climbed, doctors responded by inoculating people by the thousands with an assortment of experimental vaccines. None of them worked.Scientists at the time wrongly believed that disease was caused by bacteria, not viruses. That error led them to make vaccines from the microbes they gathered in the sputum of flu patients. The vaccines were useless at mounting an immune defense against the viral disease.It was not until 1933 that British virologists isolated the influenza virus, finally making it possible to design an effective vaccine. Researchers injected influenza viruses into chicken eggs, where they multiplied. Once they had extracted and purified the new viruses, they killed them with chemicals, and injected the inactivated viruses into people.The United States licensed the first commercial influenza vaccine in 1945. The Nobel-prize-winning virologist Wendell Stanley hailed the milestone, declaring that the vaccine would prevent influenza from ever again becoming one of the great destroyers of human life.But the vaccine didnt quite live up to Dr. Stanleys hopes. Influenza outfoxed it with an awesome power to mutate.During an influenza infection, cells in our airway begin copying the viruss genome, allowing it to proliferate. The copying process results in lots of genetic errors. Sometimes these mutations will enable the virus to escape the bodys immune response spurred by a vaccine.Flu viruses also have another route to rapid evolution. If two types of flu viruses infect the same cell, it can produce a genetic hybrid, which may evade vaccine-triggered immunity even more successfully.This extraordinary capacity for change also explains why several strains of flu may circulate in a single flu season, and new strains may rise to dominance the following year.The flu virus, for lack of a better word, is just kind of a jerk, Dr. Bartley said.Vaccine makers have responded by including up to four different strains in their annual formulations. But because producing vaccines in chicken eggs is such a slow process, scientists must choose which strains to include several months before a flu season, often leading to a mismatch when the shape-shifting virus actually arrives.Its an educated guessing game, said Dr. Alicia Widge, an immunologist at the National Institutes of Healths Vaccine Research Center. Were always catching up with the virus.ImageCredit...China Daily/ReutersBetween 2004 and 2019, the effectiveness of the flu vaccine ranged from as high as 60 percent to as low as 10 percent. Even that modest protection translates into a lot of benefit, however, because so many people get the flu every year. In addition to lowering the odds of getting infected, the vaccine also lowers the chances that people sick with the flu have to go to the hospital.In the 2018-19 flu season, the flu vaccine with an effectiveness of just 29 percent prevented an estimated 4.4 million illnesses in the United States alone, plus 58,000 hospitalizations and 3,500 deaths, according to one study.If scientists could make more robust flu vaccines, they could potentially save thousands of additional lives.The bottom line is that the flu vaccines we have arent good enough, said Nicholas Heaton, a virologist at Duke University School of Medicine.Immune factoriesIn the 1990s, a few researchers set out on an entirely new course, making flu vaccines from mRNA.The idea behind the technology was radically different than the chicken-egg approach. In effect, the new shots would turn peoples own cells into vaccine factories.Scientists would create an mRNA molecule with the instructions for making an influenza protein, then deliver it into cells. Those cells would then make copies of the viral protein, some of which would end up on their surface. Immune cells passing by would detect the alien proteins and respond with a defense against the virus.In 1993, a team of French scientists conducted the first experiments on an mRNA vaccine for the flu. The vaccines produced promising responses in mice, but were still primitive. For one thing, the animals cells sometimes responded to the vaccines mRNA by destroying it, as if it belonged to a foreign enemy. It took more than two decades of additional lab work before mRNA vaccines were ready for human trials.ImageCredit...Tony Luong for The New York TimesWhen Moderna formed in 2010 to bring mRNA vaccines to the clinic, influenza was one of the first diseases it tackled. The company started with vaccines for two flu strains that normally infected birds but sometimes sickened people exactly the kind of viruses that might give rise to new pandemics.Their first clinical trial results, in 2016, were encouraging. The volunteers produced antibodies against the viruses, though they also had side effects like fever and fatigue. The results spurred Moderna to build a new factory in Norwood, Mass., where the company could make large quantities of mRNA for more clinical trials.The company began developing a new flu vaccine, this one for seasonal influenza rather than for pandemics. And the researchers worked on making the side effects of the vaccine less severe.You want folks to feel comfortable strolling into CVS and getting their shot, and not be worried about adverse events, said Rose Loughlin, vice president for research and development strategy at Moderna.But then in early 2020, just as they were hoping to begin a new flu trial, the scientists had to shelve the plan. A new coronavirus was exploding in China.Combo shotsOver the next year, Moderna made and tested a Covid mRNA vaccine in record speed. And its shot, like that of its primary competitor, Pfizer-BioNTech, was remarkably protective, with an efficacy rate around 95 percent.The success of mRNA vaccines delivered huge revenues to both companies. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is on track to become the best-selling medicine of all time. And Modernas market cap since the beginning of the pandemic increased 19-fold to around $123 billion.Riding the mRNA wave, these companies, along with Sanofi and Seqirus, are moving on to seasonal flu projects.Jean-Franois Toussaint, Sanofi Pasteurs head of global research and development, cautioned that the success of mRNA vaccines against Covid did not guarantee similar results for influenza.We need to be humble, he said. The data will tell us if it works.But some studies suggest that mRNA vaccines might prove more potent than traditional ones. In animal studies, mRNA vaccines seem to provide a broader defense against influenza viruses. They prompt the animals immune systems to make antibodies against the virus, and also train immune cells to attack infected cells.But perhaps most important for the flu, mRNA vaccines can be made rapidly. The speed of mRNA manufacturing may allow vaccine makers to wait a few extra months before picking which influenza strains to use, potentially leading to a better match.If you could guarantee 80 percent every year, I think that would be a major public health benefit, said Dr. Philip Dormitzer, Pfizers chief scientific officer.The technology also makes it easier for mRNA vaccine makers to create combination shots. Along with mRNA molecules for different strains of influenza, they can also add mRNA molecules for entirely different respiratory diseases.At a Sept. 9 presentation for investors, Moderna shared results from a new experiment in which researchers gave mice vaccines combining mRNAs for three respiratory viruses: seasonal flu, Covid-19 and a common pathogen called respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. The mice produced high levels of antibodies against all three viruses.Other researchers have been searching for a universal flu vaccine that could protect people for many years by fending off a broad range of influenza strains. Rather than an annual shot, people might need only a booster every few years. In the best-case scenario, one vaccination might even work for a lifetime.At the University of Pennsylvania, a team of researchers led by Norbert Pardi is developing mRNA vaccines that encode proteins from influenza viruses that mutate only rarely. Experiments in animals hint that these vaccines could remain effective from year to year.Although Moderna isnt working on a universal flu vaccine at the moment, its absolutely something wed be interested in for the future, said Dr. Jacqueline Miller, the companys head of infectious disease research.Even if mRNA flu vaccines live up to expectations, they will probably need a few years to gain approval. Trials for mRNA flu vaccines wont get the tremendous government support that Covid-19 vaccines did. Nor will regulators be allowing them to get emergency authorization. Seasonal flu is hardly a new threat, and it can already be countered with licensed vaccines.So the manufacturers will have to take the longer path to full approval. If the early clinical trials turn out well, vaccine makers will then have to move on to large-scale trials that may need to stretch through several flu seasons.It should work, said Dr. Bartley of the University of Connecticut. But obviously thats why we do research to make sure should and does are the same thing. | science |
Recipients of the Moderna and the J.&J. vaccines may receive extra doses. The agency also embraced a mix-and-match strategy.Credit...Brittainy Newman for The New York TimesPublished Oct. 21, 2021Updated Oct. 25, 2021In a sweeping victory for the Biden administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday endorsed booster shots of the Moderna and the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines for tens of millions of Americans.The decision follows an agency endorsement last month of booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and opens the door for many Americans to seek out a booster shot as early as Friday.The coronavirus vaccines are all highly effective in reducing the risk of severe disease, hospitalization, and death, even in the midst of the widely circulating Delta variant, Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, director of the C.D.C., said in a statement.Her approval of recommendations made by a scientific advisory committee brings the country closer to fulfilling President Bidens promise in August to offer boosters to all adults. The pandemic is now retreating in most parts of the country, but there are still about 75,000 new cases every day, and about 1,500 Covid deaths.That pledge angered many experts, including some advising the Food and Drug Administration and the C.D.C., who said that scientists had not yet had a chance to determine whether boosters were actually necessary.Studies showed that the vaccines remained very effective against severe disease and death, although their effectiveness might have waned against milder infections, particularly as the Delta variant spread across the nation this summer.The purpose of the vaccines is to prevent illness severe enough to require medical attention, not to prevent infection, Dr. Wilbur Chen, an infectious disease physician at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and a member of the C.D.C. panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, said during its deliberations on Thursday.It might be too much to ask for a vaccine, either a primary series or the booster, to prevent all forms of infections, Dr. Chen said.The C.D.C.s advisers last month tried to narrow the number of Americans who should receive a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, saying that research did not support boosters for people whose jobs exposed them to the coronavirus, as the F.D.A. had indicated.But in a highly unusual move, Dr. Walensky overturned their decision, aligning the agencys advice with the criteria laid out by the F.D.A.ImageCredit...Stefani Reynolds for The New York TimesOn Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized booster shots for millions of people who received the Moderna and the Johnson & Johnson vaccines, just as it did for recipients of Pfizer-BioNTech shots last month. The F.D.A. also gave the green light for people eligible for booster shots to get a dose of a different brand.But in practice, who will get the shots and when depends greatly on the C.D.C.s final guidance. Though the agencys recommendations do not bind state and local officials, they hold great sway in the medical community.On Thursday, members of the C.D.C.s panel endorsed the so-called mix-and-match strategy, saying people fully immunized with one companys vaccine should be allowed to receive a different vaccine for their booster shot.Limited evidence strongly suggests that booster doses of one of the two mRNA vaccines Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech more effectively raise antibody levels than a booster dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.The committee advised that recipients of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine should receive a booster shot at least two months after their first dose.Among Americans initially immunized with an mRNA vaccine, adults over 65, adults who are 50 to 65 with certain medical conditions, and those who reside in long-term care settings should receive a single booster dose six months or longer after their second dose, the committee decided.For adults ages 18 to 49 with certain medical conditions and adults whose jobs regularly expose them to the virus, the panel opted for softer language, saying they may choose to get a booster after considering their individual risk.The experts emphasized that people who have received two mRNA vaccine doses or a single Johnson & Johnson dose should still consider themselves fully vaccinated. Federal health officials said they would continue to study whether those who had weak immune systems and had already received a third dose of a vaccine should go on to get a fourth dose.Some advisers were concerned that young and healthy Americans who dont need a booster might choose to get one anyway. Side effects are uncommon, but in younger Americans they may outweigh the potential benefits of booster doses, the scientists said.Those that are not at high risk should really be thoughtful about getting that dose, said Dr. Helen Talbot, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University.The committees final votes contrasted sharply with discussions earlier in the day. The panel heard that in adults under 65, even those with chronic conditions, the Moderna vaccine remained highly protective against severe illness and showed only a small decline in effectiveness over time, if any at all.The Johnson & Johnson vaccine showed less efficacy than the Moderna vaccine overall, but the data were too limited to determine whether there might be a decline over time.Having already authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech booster, however, some advisers said in interviews that they felt compelled to do the same for the other two vaccines, adding that it was only fair to people who had received those vaccines.Just over 11 million people have opted for an additional shot so far, and up to three million make up those with weak immune systems who were approved to receive a third dose to prop up their immune response. Only 6 percent of people who are fully vaccinated, and about 15 percent of adults over 65, have received a booster dose so far.ImageCredit...Alisha Jucevic for The New York TimesModernas booster shot will not be the same as its initial shot. The dose will be 50 micrograms, which is half the dose given in the initial rounds of immunization. Scientists from Moderna presented data indicating that the smaller dose is enough to rouse the immune system.But the smaller dose may need to be delivered from the same vials now used for initial immunization. Some committee members noted that this may increase the risk of contamination and incorrect dosing. (Moderna has been testing vials that deliver smaller volumes of vaccine to alleviate this problem, according to a former government official.)C.D.C. scientists said at the meeting that the Pfizer-BioNTech and the Moderna vaccines are generally safe, with the exception of uncommon and mostly mild heart problems in young men. The risk of the condition called myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle is higher after the second shot of an mRNA vaccine, and highest in males 18 to 24 years old.In those under 20, the condition may affect more than 100 males in every million immunized with an mRNA vaccine. Studies have shown that the risk of heart problems after a bout of Covid-19 is much higher.The Johnson & Johnson vaccine carries a small risk of blood clots in young women. The companys representatives said they had estimated the rate of blood clots at 15.1 cases per million after the first dose and 1.9 cases per million after the second.Some panelists said they worried about the risk of blood clots in young women who get a second booster dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and the risk of myocarditis in young men after a third dose of an mRNA vaccine.Perhaps young women should be directed to mRNA vaccines and young men to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, Dr. Talbot said.Were in a different place in the pandemic than we were earlier, she said. The opportunities to mix and match vaccines are priceless. | Health |
Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesJune 19, 2018WASHINGTON Joseph W. Hagin, a deputy chief of staff to President Trump and one of the most seasoned government veterans on a team populated mainly by newcomers with little if any prior experience in the White House, plans to step down next month.Mr. Hagin has run White House operations for Mr. Trump for 17 months, overseeing the daily administration of a building often whipsawed by chaos generated by the president. Just this month, Mr. Hagin led a delegation of officials in Singapore who arranged the logistics of Mr. Trumps landmark summit meeting with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader.Joe Hagin has been a huge asset to my administration, Mr. Trump said in a statement. He planned and executed the longest and one of the most historic foreign trips ever made by a president, and he did it all perfectly. We will miss him in the office and even more on the road. I am thankful for his remarkable service to our great country.Mr. Hagin, who previously served for 14 years under Presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush and George W. Bush, has more experience on the White House staff than nearly any other person in modern times. But that establishment record made him suspect to some in Mr. Trumps circle, who encouraged the current presidents message of disrupting Washington.A senior White House official, who asked not to be identified discussing internal dynamics, said Mr. Hagin had been repeatedly targeted by others in Mr. Trumps orbit, both inside and outside the building, who questioned his loyalty given his ties to the Bush family. Mr. Trump beat Jeb Bush, the son of George Bush and brother of George W. Bush, with scathing attacks on him and his family to win the Republican nomination in 2016, and neither of the former presidents voted for him in the November election.Mr. Trump has grown isolated within the West Wing, according to advisers, and is eager for human contact, even if that means jousting with the reporters whom he calls fake news. He often asks staff members about whether others are leaking, and he recently told one person that the Bushies in the White House are out to get me, according to someone with direct knowledge of the discussion.Mr. Hagin said by email on Tuesday that the Bush thing is overblown and that his departure was unrelated and long planned. He said he had committed to stay just for a year and planned to leave at the start of 2018. But Kelly pushed me to stay and I have great respect for him, Mr. Hagin said, referring to John F. Kelly, the chief of staff. Then the summit came up in the spring and I felt obligated to see that through.Mr. Hagin may be on the leading edge of a fresh wave of departures from a White House that has had record turnover. Among others who have been said to be considering leaving this year are Mr. Kelly; Donald F. McGahn II, the White House counsel; Marc Short, the legislative affairs director; Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the press secretary; Raj Shah, the top deputy press secretary; and Dan Scavino Jr., the social media director.If Mr. Scavino departed, it would mark the end of an era for Mr. Trump, who has lost nearly all of the aides with whom he is most comfortable during the past year. Mr. Scavino was one of the campaigns original small group of staff members, and he is the keeper of Mr. Trumps Twitter feed when the president is not using it himself.The White House is already struggling to fill vacancies. The communications director position has been vacant since March with no apparent move to fill it. Mr. Trump in effect seems to enjoy acting as his own communications director.Mr. Hagin oversaw the White House Personnel Security Office, which handles security clearances and came under scrutiny after Rob Porter, the White House staff secretary, resigned in February after allegations that he abused two former wives. Officials said at the time that Mr. Hagin, along with Mr. Kelly and Mr. McGahn, had learned in November that there were problems with Mr. Porters background investigation.White House officials said Mr. Hagin would retire from the federal government on July 6 and return to the private sector. After leaving the second Bush White House, where he also served as deputy chief of staff, Mr. Hagin and three partners founded Command Consulting Group, a cluster of firms that provide security and intelligence assistance to governments, corporations and wealthy people.A person familiar with Mr. Hagins plans said he did not plan to return to his old firm but was exploring opportunities with several corporations.Joe Hagins selfless devotion to this nation and the institution of the presidency is unsurpassed, Mr. Kelly said in a statement. | Politics |
Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York TimesMarch 1, 2016Dr. Holbrook Kohrt, a hemophiliac who transformed his own chronic condition into a personal and public crusade for medical cures, died last Wednesday in Miami. He was 38.The cause was complications of hemophilia, his brother Brandon said.A lot of physicians say that being sick opened their eyes to what it means to be a patient, Dr. Kohrt told San Francisco magazine in 2014. For me, that doesnt really resonate Ive had hemophilia my whole life.Inspired by his own bodys ability to suppress disease, even as fellow hemophiliacs died from tainted blood transfusions, he pursued a medical career that coupled basic science with a clinical practice.Its difficult to see cancer patients for whom effective therapies dont yet exist, he said in an interview with Stanford Medicine magazine in 2009. So to be able to come back to the lab and work on what I was wishing for a few hours earlier, there cant be anything more rewarding than that.Dr. Kohrt, who was known as Brook, had no family history of hemophilia a disorder in which blood does not clot normally but his parents became alarmed shortly after he was born when he developed mysterious bruises and bled profusely after his circumcision.Child protection workers investigated, wondering whether he was being abused. Doctors discovered that his gene for a clotting protein known as Factor 8 was not functional.Dr. Kohrt wore a helmet to guard his head against injury until he was 7. He began giving himself infusions about the same time, injecting himself with a lifesaving blood-clotting factor. (His second-grade teacher fainted when he demonstrated the process at show-and-tell one day, he said.)Classmates ridiculed him. People with religious objections to transfusions spat at him. To this day, Ive never encountered so much bias and irrationally steadfast antagonism about a person doing what he needs to do to stay alive, Dr. Kohrt said.When he was 8, he began attending a summer camp specially equipped for hemophiliacs.About 80 percent of these kids got H.I.V., he told Stanford Medicine in 2013, referring to the human immunodeficiency virus, the virus that causes AIDS. As a result, there are about 50 percent fewer hemophiliacs alive today than there would have been without H.I.V.The camp disbanded after eight years because only he and one other camper were left. (Since then, doctors have found ways to purify donated blood and to engineer the clotting factor genetically without depending on human donors.)Holbrook Edwin Kidd Kohrt was born in Scranton, Pa., on Dec. 14, 1977, the son of Dr. Alan Kohrt, a pediatrician, and the former Mary Louise Kidd, a nurse. Both parents survive him. Besides his brother Brandon, he is also survived by his sister, Brieanne Kohrt; another brother, Barret; his stepmother, Lois Kohrt; his stepsisters, Jennifer Baldwin and Katherine Czapla; his stepbrother, Ryan Baldwin; and his girlfriend, Kendra Cannoy.Dr. Kohrt earned a degree in molecular biology from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa., and graduated from Stanford University School of Medicine. At Stanford, he was an assistant professor, conducted research at the Levy Laboratory on Lymphocytes and Lymphoma and started his own laboratory in 2012 to study immune oncology.He lived in San Francisco. He was undergoing treatment in the Caribbean last month when he developed an infection and was flown to a Miami hospital, where he died.He recalled in an interview with The New York Times in 2013 that his immune system had naturally cured him of hepatitis C. I wondered if there might not be ways to get the immune system to respond to cancer in that same way, he said. Today, thats the focus of my research.He was asked whether anything about his condition drove him.Oh, yes, but its more philosophical than physical, he replied. I realized early on that I have to do everything I want to do as soon as possible, because I didnt know what the future could be. | Health |
on techSmartphones are now normal and for everyone, which means we can ignore the hoopla around new models.VideoCreditCredit...Ruru KuoPublished Aug. 12, 2021Updated Aug. 25, 2021Its that time of year when companies including Apple and Samsung try to get us VERY EXCITED about their new smartphone models. I give you permission to tune them out entirely. Some people get a thrill from the latest phone camera improvements and remodeled designs. Its fun! Or maybe you have been waiting eagerly to ditch your busted old phone. In either case, go forth and fawn.But a lot of hoopla around new smartphones is an anachronism of the years when the devices were precious pieces of magic pitched hardest at tech enthusiasts. Theyre not anymore. Smartphones are normal and for everyone. And that makes it natural for them to become less noteworthy.Its a sign of how miraculous smartphones are that we dont have to think about them very much. Like other consumer products including cars, TVs and refrigerators, most people in relatively affluent countries buy a new smartphone when an old one wears out or they want a change.Largely because of this healthy evolution from novel to normal, new smartphone sales had been declining for several years, although theyre climbing this year.Somehow it feels like theres more pressure on us to have opinions and feelings about our phones than about our refrigerators. (Although I will not argue if you want to hug your fridge. Do it now. Ill wait.) I know that cars in particular can be emotionally resonant. But for many of us, getting a new phone, car, TV or fridge is neat for a little while and then we get used to it and it feels fine. That is fine.That said, we should be glad that smartphone makers keep improving their devices in small and large ways. It has been good that personal computers which like smartphones shifted to less noteworthy essentials from novelties took the opportunity to reimagine what else people might want from computers.We got clever new products like Chromebooks, the bare-bones laptops that took off in many U.S. schools because they were relatively inexpensive and easy for educators to customize for students. We also got more variety in computers that combine elements of tablets, souped-up PCs for people who love video games and computers with the zippy brains of smartphones. When computers became too normal for people to care very much, it sparked invention.Its possible that the same thing may happen in the not-magical phase of smartphones. I am cautiously curious about smartphones that fold or unfurl to offer more screen real estate in a relatively small package. So far, folding smartphones Samsung showed off its latest models on Wednesday have been mostly expensive and awful. I still think theres a promising idea in there. (Or, maybe not.)Smartphones also remain a test bed for useful inventions, particularly for photography and for software features such as voice recognition.So hooray for the smartphone companies that keep perfecting their products. That doesnt mean that we need to care a jot about Googles odd looking new Pixel phones they really do look weird, though or Apples coming iPhone 13? 12S? Whatever. The latest phones will be lighter, faster, better and maybe more expensive than the old ones. The cool new features will be there when youre ready. You dont have to care until then.Tip of the WeekDont give up if a tech company wont fix your phoneNot ready yet for a new smartphone? Brian X. Chen, a consumer tech columnist for The New York Times, has a tale of dogged determination to keep an old device alive and kicking:A few weeks ago, a reader named Marianne sent me this email:Last year I tried to get a new battery for my Samsung Galaxy S7 phone. I took it to Verizon, where I had purchased it. They told me they couldnt open the phone to replace the battery and suggested I take it to a repair shop. I called Samsung, and it took so many tries to actually speak to a human. The person I finally spoke to said I would have to send $75 for Samsung to even agree to look at the phone, and if they could install a battery, theyd contact me. I authorized my credit card for $75 and waited for the required mail authorization only to receive an email the following day saying Samsung wanted to cancel the entire transaction. At that point, I gave up. I would be perfectly happy with my S7 if it could hold a charge.I responded to Marianne, encouraging her to try again but this time, contact a few local independent repair shops to ask if they could do the job. Days later, she replied that she had found someone and her phone was restored to its former glory!The moral of the story: Dont give up if a brand like Apple or Samsung says it cant help you fix a phone. There is an industry of independent fixers whose business is to keep your phone running, not sell you a new one. More often than not, the indie technicians are capable of doing repairs that the manufacturers are not willing to do, like replacing a defective charging port on an iPhone. Do a web search on Yelp or Google and call around to find a good, honest fixer.Stories like Mariannes highlight the importance of the right to repair movement, which I wrote about in a recent column. In general, manufacturers have been making it increasingly difficult for independent fixers to gain access to the tools, parts and instructions to fix your electronics. The Federal Trade Commission last month voted to ramp up law enforcement against illegal restrictions on repairs, so hopefully people will continue to have positive experiences with indie fixers like Marianne did.Before we go Changing a toxic culture is difficult: A rape allegation against a manager at the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba shows again the ingrained problems of sexual harassment and violence in the countrys technology industry, my colleague Li Yuan writes. Alibaba has said it fired the employee accused of rape.If youre not highly visible in Google searches, do you even exist? Small local companies that deliver food for restaurants told Fast Company that theyre getting squeezed out by big delivery apps such as DoorDash and Uber Eats. They say that part of the problem is Google search results that point people hunting for food delivery to the big apps, and Google doesnt have the manpower to add links to many of the smaller companies.Chinese Bitcoin companies in the Lone Star state: Rest of World talked to local authorities and power companies in Texas that were scrambling to generate enough affordable electricity for cryptocurrency mining companies fleeing a crackdown on the practice in China. (Creating virtual money needs a lot of real electricity.)Hugs to thisHere are 23 seconds of a rabbit lapping water.We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else youd like us to explore. You can reach us at [email protected]. If you dont already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here. You can also read past On Tech columns. | Tech |
Super Bowl LII: Tom Brady's Jersey On Lockdown 'Don't Want Another Jerseygate' 1/23/2018 There will be no Jerseygate 2 at Super Bowl LII -- with law enforcement putting together special plans to watch Tom Brady's jersey LIKE A HAWK in the wake of last year's theft, TMZ Sports has learned. First off, the guy who jacked Tom's jersey out of the locker room in 2017, Mauricio Ortega, has been banned from all Super Bowls (and all NFL games) for life ... an NFL spokesperson tell us. Law enforcement directly involved with the SBLII protection in Minneapolis says the protection of player property -- especially game-used memorabilia -- will be a major priority this time around. As one source put it ... "One of the main goals is to keep people and property safe. We do not want a repeat of last year and we have learned lessons from other major sporting events." We're told the overall security plan involves federal agencies, multiple state agencies and private security plus "surveillance everywhere." Still, Tom might wanna have a designated "jersey guy" just in case ... | Entertainment |
Technology|Mediation Fails for Samsung and Applehttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/technology/mediation-fails-for-samsung-and-apple.htmlFeb. 22, 2014SAN JOSE, Calif. Apple and Samsung Electronics have failed to settle their latest patent dispute despite a daylong meeting between top Samsung executives and Apples chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, hosted by a mediator earlier this month.The companies detailed the lack of progress in a court filing on Friday. Judge Lucy H. Koh of the United States District Court in San Jose has been pushing the sides to settle the two-year-old case.While the two sides said they remained willing to work through a mediator, the lack of a settlement points them toward a trial in March.Apple and Samsung, the worlds top two smartphone makers, have waged legal battles over mobile devices since Apple accused Samsung of copying the iPhone and the iPad in 2011. Later, Samsung claimed that Apple had used its technologies without permission, expanding battles to courts in Asia, Europe and North America.In November, a Silicon Valley jury added $290 million to the damages that a previous jury said Samsung owed Apple for copying vital iPhone and iPad features, bringing the total award to $930 million.The previous verdict covered 13 older Samsung devices. Samsung has said it would appeal.The latest trial will consider Apples claims that Samsungs newest devices, like its Galaxy S3, also copied Apples technology. | Tech |
DealBook|Contortions Make Rail Deal a Tough Sell for William Ackmanhttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/business/dealbook/contortions-make-rail-deal-a-tough-sell-for-william-ackman.htmlBreakingviewsRobert Cyran and Kevin AllisonDec. 8, 2015Credit...David A. Grogan/CNBC, via Getty ImagesWilliam A. Ackmans convoluted North American rail merger is a tough sell.Canadian Pacific revised its offer for the American railway operator Norfolk Southern on Tuesday to include an interim trust structure and some finger-in-the-air calculations about possible future valuations. Mr. Ackman, the billionaire hedge fund manager who is Canadian Pacifics biggest shareholder and a director, contributed 23 pages of slides and joined a conference call with analysts.Canadian Pacific, which operates railways along the United States-Canada border, offered shareholders in East Coast-focused Norfolk Southern worth $27 billion at Mondays closing share price less cash but sooner in its new proposal, as well as a heftier 47 percent share in the combined company. Closing earlier would involve a voting trust intended to allow combined ownership but separate operation of the two railroads while the United States regulator, the Surface Transportation Board, considers the full merger.Norfolk Southern rebuffed Canadian Pacific once again even before Mr. Ackman had finished his presentation. Its curious that the target wont even negotiate, because the record of Canadian Pacifics chief executive, E. Hunter Harrison, in creating operating efficiencies at three different railroad companies is strong and under the proposal thats on the table, he would move over to run Norfolk Southern as soon as the interim trust merger was set, potentially by mid-2016.One of the objections of Norfolk Southerns chief executive, James A. Squires, objections is that even the voting-trust structure, never mind the merger itself, is unlikely to be approved by the regulator. There are precedents, but part of Mr. Squiress reasoning is that the regulators criteria have become tighter, including the need to meet an untested public-interest standard.Making the argument that combined ownership and Mr. Harrisons planned job switch would still leave the two railroads notionally independent certainly requires mental acrobatics. But Canadian Pacific does have a case that Norfolk Southern has room to improve efficiency. Mr. Harrison reckons he could save $1.3 billion annually a decent value uplift in itself. Mr. Ackmans broader argument posits a greatly enhanced market valuation a couple of years hence.Yet Canadian Pacifics contortions to craft a deal suggest that approval by rail regulators wont come easy. Shareholders may also discount the prognostications made by Mr. Harrison and Mr. Ackman. Both companies shares were down on news of the revised offer and rejection. Maybe investors are just confused, too. | Business |
March 2, 2017ImageCredit...Eirini Vourloumis for The New York TimesA year after the European Union closed its borders to stem a crush of asylum seekers, tens of thousands still languish in camps inside Greece. For them, a life in limbo has taken on an air of permanence. They outfit unfamiliar surroundings with the trappings of home, seeking a semblance of normalcy.I toured several of these camps recently. At one, Elliniko, which is at a crumbling abandoned airport outside Athens, a corner had been turned into a makeshift mosque, where an Afghan refugee prepared to pray, oblivious to the chatter of hundreds around him.At another, Skaramagas, near the port of Piraeus, home-cooked meals brought a flash of joy to dreary days. The Ibrahim and Ali families, who arrived on a dinghy last summer, invited me and some of their friends for barbecue chicken and roasted vegetables. A neighbor who joined, Abdulrahman Alo, the man in the rear of the photograph below, lost both legs in a bomb attack in Syria.ImageCredit...Eirini Vourloumis for The New York TimesBut a normal life is hard to come by. The camps have their own class structure. Those with the least hope of staying in Europe are housed in rougher camps, like one in Oinofyta, an industrial area in central Greece that is home to about 550 Afghans.There, I met Horta, an Afghan girl, who was painting her nails outside the tiny room in an abandoned warehouse where she and her family have lived since last year.ImageCredit...Eirini Vourloumis for The New York TimesOver a third of refugees in Greece are children, and despite covering the crisis since it started, I was struck by how many babies were still being born in the camps. One Afghan mother shyly held up her newborn, and gestured that another was on the way. Like many residents, she had decorated the walls of her room to settle in for the long haul.ImageCredit...Eirini Vourloumis for The New York TimesIn Skaramagas, one Syrian woman boasted that she was about to give birth to her seventh child this one in Greece. She joined her friend, Naram Sebah, who was smoking a hookah on the Piraeus dock with friends as sea gulls soared overhead. Everyone laughed and took selfies, showing off their headdresses and rhinestone-stitched sweatshirts.ImageCredit...Eirini Vourloumis for The New York TimesYet laughter and community can only do so much to alleviate an abiding sense of boredom and uncertainty, and to make more bearable what remain, at best, rudimentary living conditions. Elliniko was a gritty tent favela beset by fighting and drug dealing. On the Greek islands, where refugees continue to arrive from Turkey, the camps are sordid and dangerously overcrowded. In Oinofyta, heat had only been installed in December. After an outbreak of scabies, residents there piled up wool blankets to be burned.ImageCredit...Eirini Vourloumis for The New York TimesPeople try to amuse themselves and pass the time. Humanitarian organizations had set up activities, including a barbershop and a sewing room where refugees made stylish purses. Yet everyone here feels depressed, Maryam Akbary, 26, an Afghan engineering student who was trying to join her family in Germany, confided to me.Nearby in Ritsona, another Syrian refugee camp was set among pine trees filled with singing birds. When I arrived, scores of children laughed and ate with their families at a birthday party, while a refugee dressed as a clown danced with a megaphone.ImageCredit...Eirini Vourloumis for The New York TimesLater, the children flew kites joyfully across a field, where everyone here had once lived in sun-beaten, dusty tents until container shelters arrived.Half the 62,000 asylum seekers in Greece are Syrians, and the camps holding them, like Skaramagas, are in many ways better than those where Afghan refugees live. Mini-marketplaces have sprung up. Enterprising refugees installed stands that sold falafel, fruits and vegetables, or snacks, phone cards and soft drinks. One man had even acquired three washing machines and was running a brisk laundromat business.Teenagers played video games late into the night in containers equipped by the government and aid organizations with computers and Wi-Fi.ImageCredit...Eirini Vourloumis for The New York TimesAt Skaramagas, around 3,200 refugees who used to live outdoors in flimsy tents now reside in container shelters with toilets, water and televisions. Many are moving on to new countries in Europe, leaving their containers behind.ImageCredit...Eirini Vourloumis for The New York TimesFor others, hope is far slimmer. At Elliniko, Samim Haidari, a brainy 20-year-old Afghan refugee, had taught himself to speak English almost fluently using about 20 apps on his smartphone, hoping it would help him win asylum.Ive been here for a year and two days, and I still have no idea whats going to happen, he said. I have to make the best of it. Theres no other choice. | World |
Politics|Kirstjen Nielsen Justifies Family Separation by Pointing to Increase in Fraud. But the Data Is Very Limited. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/18/us/politics/nielsen-family-separation-factcheck.htmlFact Check of the DayPresident Trumps homeland security secretary said the number of immigrants fraudulently posing as families has tripled. Thats true per government data. But those cases make up less than 1 percent of families apprehended at the border.June 18, 2018what was said Im sad to say that from October 2017 to this February, we have seen a staggering 315 percent increase in illegal aliens fraudulently using children to pose as family units to gain entry into this country. Kirstjen Nielsen, speaking Monday to the National Sheriffs Association the factsThis needs context.Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of homeland security, suggested in two appearances on Monday that the Trump administration policy to separate children from their parents at the border was justified, in part, to prevent smugglers from posing as families to take advantage of a get-out-of-jail-free card. But characterizing the increase of this type of fraud as staggering is misleading. The data reflects a period of less than two years, making it difficult to draw a meaningful historical comparison. And the instances of fraud make up less than 1 percent of families apprehended at the border. The numbers Ms. Nielsen cites are correct. Katie Waldman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, told The New York Times that there were 46 cases of fraudulent family claims in the 2017 fiscal year, which began in October 2016 and ended in September 2017. In just the first five months of the 2018 fiscal year, there were 191 cases a 315 percent increase. But those instances of family fraud are a tiny fraction of the total number of families apprehended at the southwestern border: 0.06 percent of nearly 76,000 families in the 2017 fiscal year and 0.6 percent of 31,000 families apprehended in the first five months of the 2018 fiscal year. Further, Ms. Waldman said the department had only recently begun compiling family-fraud data, so a comparison with earlier administrations data would not yet be possible. Source: Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection | Politics |
State of the ArtCredit...Erin Schaff for The New York TimesJune 11, 2018I remember the first time I ever heard about net neutrality. It was around 2004 or 2005, and when the full idea was explained to me hey, lets prevent phone and cable companies from influencing the content we see online I was surprised there was even a fight about the idea.It seemed obvious that the internets great promise was that it operated outside the purview of existing communications monopolies. Because phone and cable companies couldnt easily dictate what happened online, the internet was exploding in dozens of genuinely new ideas. Among those back then were blogs, Skype, file-sharing, YouTube, Friendster, Netflix ideas that scrambled our sense of what was possible in media and communication, and, in the process, posed existential threats to the established giants.Other than the phone and cable companies themselves, I couldnt see why anyone might oppose the simple premise of protecting the environment that had made all these things possible. Did they hate clean water, too?ImageCredit...Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesYet a decade and a half later as Ajit Pai, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, buries net neutrality alive with his repeal of its rules, an act that took effect Monday Im no longer surprised that there was a fight over this. Instead, Im surprised that net neutrality lasted this long. Activists are still fighting to resurrect it, and while they are winning some battles after all, net neutrality remains extremely popular Im increasingly resigned to their long-run defeat.Net neutrality was too good for us. And even if rules are restored, the notion that the internet should afford at least a minimally competitive landscape for new entrants now seems as antiquated as Friendster.Whats driving this view is what has happened over the last decade, which hasnt been too kind to disruptive competition online. By the time Tom Wheeler, an F.C.C. chief under President Barack Obama, handed down rules to protect neutrality in 2015, we had already strayed quite far from the internet of the early 2000s, where upstarts ruled our lives.Today, the internet is run by giants. A handful of American tech behemoths Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft control the most important digital infrastructure, while a handful of broadband companies AT&T, Charter, Comcast and Verizon control most of the internet connections in the United States.The very idea that large companies cant dictate what happens online is laughable now. Large companies, today, pretty much are the internet. In this world, net neutrality didnt have a chance.So, what now?Theres a misunderstanding that the repeal of net neutrality will result in immediate and drastic change online. That wont happen. With lawsuits and legislation pending, with the media still paying attention and with activists poised to pounce on obvious infractions, broadband companies are going to be extremely careful, in the short run, to be on their best behavior. The internet wont be slower tomorrow. You wont be blocked from certain sites. You arent going to be charged more.ImageCredit...Mark Wilson/Getty ImagesBut as I argued last fall, a vibrant network doesnt die all at once. Instead it grows weaker over time, with innovative start-ups finding it ever more difficult to fight entrenched incumbents.As Ive noted often in the last few years, big companies have been crushing small ones over and over again for much of the last decade. One lesson from everything that has happened online recently Facebook, the Russians and Cambridge Analytica; bots and misinformation everywhere is that, in the absence stringent rules and enforcement, everything on the internet turns sour. Removing the last barriers to unfair competition will only hasten that process.Its not going to be pretty.History shows us that companies that have the technical capacity to do things, the business incentive to do them and the legal right they will take advantage of what is made available to them, said Jessica Rosenworcel, an F.C.C. commissioner and a Democrat, who voted against the repeal of net neutrality last year.By repealing neutrality rules, the government has just given our online overlords that legal right, she cautioned.Now they can block websites and censor online content, Ms. Rosenworcel said. That doesnt make me feel good and if you rely on the internet to consume or create, it shouldnt make you feel good, either. | Tech |
Hockey|Study Finds Changes in Brains of Hockey Players Who Had Concussionshttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/04/sports/hockey/study-finds-changes-in-brains-of-hockey-players-who-had-concussions.htmlFeb. 4, 2014Hockey players who sustained concussions during a recent season experienced acute microstructural changes in their brains, according to a series of studies published in the Journal of Neurosurgery on Tuesday.Weve seen evidence of chronic injuries later in life from head trauma, and now weve seen this in current players, said Dr. Paul Echlin, an Ontario sports concussion specialist who conducted the study in collaboration with Dr. Martha Shenton of Brigham and Womens Hospital and researchers from Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital and Western University of Canada.The researchers said these were the first studies in which an independent medical team used magnetic resonance imaging analysis before, during and after a season to measure the effects of concussions on athletes. Forty-five male and female Canadian university hockey players were observed by independent physicians during the 2011-12 season.All 45 players were given M.R.I. scans before and after the season. The 11 who received a concussion diagnosis during the season were given additional scans within 72 hours, two weeks and two months of the incident.The scans found microscopic white matter and inflammatory changes in the brains of individuals who had sustained a clinically diagnosed concussion during the period of the study.Additional analysis found that players who sustained a concussion during the study period or reported a history of concussions showed significant differences in their brains white matter microstructure compared with players who did not sustain a concussion, or who reported no history of concussions.The changes in microstructure may reflect microhemorrhaging, neural injury or other inflammatory responses to brain trauma, researchers said.They also said the imaging techniques used in the study might provide a model for monitoring acute and cumulative brain injury sustained by athletes.The researchers found the incidence of concussion observed among the players in the study was three to five times higher than that previously reported in medical literature. That finding is consistent with other recent studies showing that concussions in hockey occur more frequently than previously believed.How many more studies do we need before we realize significant changes are needed in the way we play the game? Echlin said.He added: We want our children to keep playing hockey and other sports for the fun, health benefits and heightened self-esteem they derive from it. But we have to look seriously at the structure of the games our children play. We have to protect our childrens brains.Echlin said further research was needed on larger populations of athletes in other contact and noncontact sports and on nonathletes to validate the results. | Sports |
MatterCredit...European Pressphoto AgencyMarch 17, 2016The ancestors of modern humans interbred with Neanderthals and another extinct line of humans known as the Denisovans at least four times in the course of prehistory, according to an analysis of global genomes published Thursday in the journal Science.The interbreeding may have given modern humans genes that bolstered immunity to pathogens, the authors concluded.This is yet another genetic nail in the coffin of our oversimplistic models of human evolution, said Carles Lalueza-Fox, a research scientist at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona, Spain, who was not involved in the study.The new study expands on a series of findings in recent years showing that the ancestors of modern humans once shared the planet with a surprising number of near relatives lineages like the Neanderthals and Denisovans that became extinct tens of thousands of years ago.Before disappearing, however, they interbred with our forebears on at least several occasions. Today, we carry DNA from these encounters.The first clues to ancient interbreeding surfaced in 2010, when scientists discovered that some modern humans mostly Europeans carried DNA that matched material recovered from Neanderthal fossils.Later studies showed that the forebears of modern humans first encountered Neanderthals after expanding out of Africa more than 50,000 years ago.But the Neanderthals were not the only extinct humans that our own ancestors found. A finger bone discovered in a Siberian cave, called Denisova, yielded DNA from yet another group of humans.Research later indicated that all three groups modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans shared a common ancestor who lived roughly 600,000 years ago. And, perhaps no surprise, some ancestors of modern humans also interbred with Denisovans.Some of their DNA has survived in people in Melanesia, a region of the Pacific that includes New Guinea and the islands around it.Those initial discoveries left major questions unanswered, such as how often our ancestors interbred with Neanderthals and Denisovans. Scientists have developed new ways to study the DNA of living people to tackle these mysteries.Joshua M. Akey, a geneticist at the University of Washington, and his colleagues analyzed a database of 1,488 genomes from people around the world. The scientists added 35 genomes from people in New Britain and other Melanesian islands in an effort to learn more about Denisovans in particular.The researchers found that all of the non-Africans in their study had Neanderthal DNA, while the Africans had very little or none. That finding supported previous studies.But when Dr. Akey and his colleagues compared DNA from modern Europeans, East Asians and Melanesians, they found that each population carried its own distinctive mix of Neanderthal genes.The best explanation for these patterns, the scientists concluded, was that the ancestors of modern humans acquired Neanderthal DNA on three occasions.The first encounter happened when the common ancestor of all non-Africans interbred with Neanderthals.The second occurred among the ancestors of East Asians and Europeans, after the ancestors of Melanesians split off. Later, the ancestors of East Asians but not Europeans interbred a third time with Neanderthals.Earlier studies had hinted at the possibility that the forebears of modern humans had multiple encounters with Neanderthals, but hard data had been lacking.A lot of people have been arguing for that, but now theyre really providing the evidence for it, said Rasmus Nielsen, a geneticist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the new study.The Melanesians took a different course. After a single interbreeding with Neanderthals, Dr. Akey found, their ancestors went on to interbreed just once with Denisovans as well.Where that encounter could have taken place remains an enigma. The only place Denisovan remains have been found is Siberia, a long way from New Guinea.It is possible that Denisovans ranged down to Southeast Asia, Dr. Akey said, crossing paths with modern humans who later settled in Melanesia.Dr. Akey and his colleagues also identified some regions of Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA that became more common in modern humans as generations passed, suggesting that they provided some kind of a survival advantage.Many of the regions contain immune system genes, Dr. Akey noted.As modern humans are spreading out across the world, theyre encountering pathogens they havent experienced before, he said. Neanderthals and Denisovans may have had genes that were adapted to fight those enemies.Maybe they really helped us survive and thrive in these new environments, he said.Dr. Akey and his colleagues found that Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA was glaringly absent from four regions of the modern human genome.That absence may signal that these stretches of the genome are instrumental in making modern humans unique. Intriguingly, one of those regions includes a gene called FOXP2, which is involved in speech.Scientists suspect that Neanderthals and Denisovans were not the only extinct races our ancestors interbred with.PingHsun Hsieh, a biologist at the University of Arizona, and his colleagues reported last month that the genomes of African pygmies contained pieces of DNA that came from an unknown source within the last 30,000 years.Dr. Akey and his colleagues are now following up with an analysis of African populations. This potentially allows us to find new twigs on the human family tree, he said. | science |
Credit...Noorullah Shirzada/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesDec. 9, 2015KABUL, Afghanistan Its chief export is opium and its main import is international aid. But Afghanistan is about to join the World Trade Organization, in what officials hope is a sign of better things to come for this impoverished, war-ravaged country.Afghanistan, along with the West African nation of Liberia, is expected to get the approval of member nations at a ministerial conference of the trade organization next week in Nairobi, Kenya.It may be hard to see how membership would make much of a dent in Afghanistans economic woes. But optimists hope that the trade bodys seal of approval would provide a lift for Afghanistan, which gets three-quarters of its gross domestic product from foreign aid and derives more than half of the remainder from the production and export of opium and related products like heroin. Most of the rest comes from agriculture and services.This is really positive news for Afghanistan and the W.T.O., the director general of the trade body, Roberto Azevdo, said in a statement. W.T.O. membership will help to create new trading opportunities and boost economic development.President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan said membership would create a catalyst for domestic reforms and transformation to an effective and functioning market economy that attracts investment, creates jobs and improves the welfare of the people of Afghanistan.Still, the crucial roadblock to economic rebirth is the perilous security situation: The Taliban, the group waging war with the government, have control of more territory than at any time since before the United States-led coalition ousted them in 2001, and road travel is unsafe in much of the country. Other challenges include endemic corruption and a lack of basic infrastructure.As the International Monetary Fund put it succinctly in a recent report, Afghanistan remains a poor, fragile state far from self-reliance. The country ranks 194th of 213 countries by income per capita, the report said, while a large illicit narcotics sector, difficult security conditions, corruption and weak institutions undermine development, constrain growth, and weigh on poverty reduction.While economists generally agree that more trade is a good thing, there are concerns that in desperately poor countries, the benefits of World Trade Organization membership can come at a substantial cost. A United Nations study found that membership would not be an unalloyed positive. While consumers would benefit from lower prices as tariffs on imports fall, the study found, the countrys emerging producers would suffer from new competition, even as government revenues might decline on lower tariff receipts.If approved, Afghanistan and Liberia would become the 163rd and 164th members of the World Trade Organization, and two of the poorest countries to join.The trade group itself might have little else to celebrate at the Nairobi meeting. The so-called Doha Round of talks, begun with great fanfare in 2001 and meant to achieve lower trade barriers for all members, have been stalled for years. Mr. Azevdo was quoted by Reuters as warning on Nov. 26 that moving forward in those talks was impossible at this point in time.Even as those discussions have gone nowhere, the United States and some of its biggest trading partners have been negotiating agreements outside the trade organization. Such pacts include the Trans-Pacific Partnership, involving 12 Pacific Rim nations, and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the United States and the European Union. | Business |
Business|General Electric to Sell Units to Crdit Mutuel of Francehttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/business/ge-finance-credit-mutuel.htmlDec. 3, 2015LONDON General Electric said on Thursday that it had signed a memorandum of understanding to sell its equipment finance and receivable finance businesses in France and Germany to Banque Fdrative du Crdit Mutuel, a unit of Crdit Mutuel of France.The deal represents the latest move in G.E.s effort to retreat from banking and refocus on its industrial roots. The conglomerate said in April that it planned to sell the bulk of GE Capital within two years.GE Capitals commercial lending and leasing platforms in France and Germany provide so-called factoring services, or financing related to the sale of accounts receivable, and leasing products to a broad range of commercial customers.As we continue to execute on our strategy to significantly reduce the size of GE Capital, we are excited that our longtime partner for French factoring would take forward our C.L.L. business in France and Germany, Keith S. Sherin, the GE Capital chairman and chief executive, said in a news release, referring to commercial lending and leasing.The transaction is subject to regulatory approval.General Electric has agreed to a variety of asset sales this year as it pulls back from banking and financing that is not directly related to its industrial businesses.In June, G.E. agreed to sell the bulk of a division that finances leveraged buyouts to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in a $12 billion deal. That same month, it sold its fleet-financing businesses in the United States, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand to Element Financial Corporation of Canada for $6.9 billion.In September, BMO Financial Group agreed to acquire G.E.s transport finance business in the United States and Canada.After its various asset sales, G.E. said that it had targeted a return of about $35 billion in capital to shareholders through dividends.The sale of the equipment finance and receivable finance businesses in France and Germany is expected to contribute about $1.3 billion to that amount, G.E. said. | Business |
BitsCredit...Jim Wilson/The New York TimesMay 10, 2019Each week, we review the weeks news, offering analysis about the most important developments in the tech industry. Want this newsletter in your inbox? Sign up here.Hi, Im Jamie Condliffe. Greetings from London. Heres a look at the weeks tech news:Stop me if youve heard this before: The chief executive of a huge tech company with vast stores of user data, and a business built on using it to target ads, now says his priority is privacy.This time it was Googles Sundar Pichai, at the companys annual conference for developers. We think privacy is for everyone, he explained on Tuesday. We want to do more to stay ahead of constantly evolving user expectations. He reiterated the point in a New York Times Op-Ed, and highlighted the need for federal privacy rules.The previous week, Mark Zuckerberg delivered similar messages at Facebooks developer conference. The future is private, he said, and Facebook will focus on more intimate communications. He shared the idea in a Washington Post op-ed just weeks before, also highlighting the need for federal privacy rules.Google went further than Facebooks rough sketch of what this future looks, and unveiled tangible features: It will let users browse YouTube and Google Maps in incognito mode, will allow auto-deletion of Google history after a specified time and will make it easier to find out what the company knows about you, among other new privacy features.Fatemeh Khatibloo, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, told The Times: These are meaningful changes when it comes to the users expectations of privacy, but I dont think this affects their business at all. Google has to show that privacy is important, but it will still collect data.What Google and Facebook are trying to do, though, is reshape the privacy narrative. You may think privacy means keeping hold of your data; they want privacy to mean they dont hand data to others. (Google will never sell any personal information to third parties, Mr. Pichai wrote in his Op-Ed.)Werner Goertz, a research director at Gartner, said Google had to respond with its own narrative. It is trying to turn the conversation around and drive public discourse in a way that not only pacifies but also tries to get buy-in from consumers, to align them with its privacy strategy, he said.Politics of privacy lawFacebook and Google may share a voice on privacy. Lawmakers dont.Members of the Federal Trade Commission renewed calls at a congressional hearing on Wednesday to regulate big tech companies stewardship of user data, my colleague Cecilia Kang reported. That was before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, on which lawmakers of both parties agreed that such a law was required, The Wall Street Journal reported.Sounds promising.But while the F.T.C. was united in asking for more power to police violations and greater authority to impose penalties, there were large internal tensions about how far it should be able to go in punishing companies. And the lawmakers in Congress appeared divided over key points that legislation might address, according to The Journal. Democrats favor harsh penalties and want to give the F.T.C. greater power; Republicans worry that strict regulation could stifle innovation and hurt smaller companies.Finding compromise will be difficult, and conflicting views risk becoming noise through which a clear voice from Facebook and Google can cut. The longer disagreement rages, the more likely it is that Silicon Valley defines a mainstream view that could shape rules.Ubers I.P.O. dayThe most hotly anticipated initial public offering of 2019 saw Uber trade on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.The company hit the markets valued at $82.4 billion, after pricing its shares at $45 a share. That was below the $100 billion that Uber had forecast to some investors, and far below the $120 billion that some bankers suggested. (It was, however, above the $76 billion that an August fund-raising round pegged it at.)Ubers was one of the largest I.P.O.s ever, but its sliding valuation suggests that this darling disrupter has lost some of its charm. That could spell trouble for other unicorns, like Slack and WeWork, that are expected to make I.P.O.s this year.Ubers concern now: avoiding the fate of its rival, Lyft. Lyfts shares quickly fell after its I.P.O. in March, and on Friday were 29 percent below the offering price.[Bonus: How todays tech I.P.O.s differ from the dot-com booms.]Antitrust in the App StoreHeres a story: Company makes smartphone. Company encourages third parties to build services for smartphone, to encourage adoption. Smartphone sells. Third parties prosper. Smartphone sales plateau. Company decides to build services.Were living the next chapter, and its messy.In March, Spotify filed a complaint with European regulators, accusing Apple of using its App Store to squash rivals of its own services, like Apple Music. A focus: the 30 percent fee that Spotify and others pay for using the Apples payment system for subscriptions sold via the App Store. (Other app makers have made antitrust complaints about the App Store, too.)Unidentified sources told The Financial Times that the European Unions competition commission would open an investigation into Spotifys complaint. That would result in a lengthy process that could result in Apples being fined as much as 10 percent of its global turnover, or forced to change its behavior.If Apple is found at fault, the correct response is unclear. Pablo Ibez Colomo, a professor at the London School of Economics who specializes in competition law, said regulators would struggle to know how far to go. Acting strictly may require the App Store to be micromanaged but who polices that? If a response doesnt go that far, what happens about the inevitable flood of complainants wanting their own justice?A can of worms is set to explode, though it comes with a long fuse.And some stories you shouldnt miss A Facebook founder wants it broken up. Chris Hughes, who left the company a decade ago, says it is now a leviathan that crowds out entrepreneurship and restricts consumer choice. Investors dont dig climate start-ups. Venture capitalists want returns within years, and many clean-tech start-ups work to longer timelines, which means they struggle to secure funding. Chinese spies captured the National Security Agencys weapons. They intercepted the tools from an N.S.A. attack on their own computers, like a gunslinger who grabs an enemys rifle and starts blasting away, and then used them against ally nations. How will Elizabeth Holmes defend herself? The lawyers for Ms. Holmes, the former Theranos chief executive, look set to take the high-risk strategy of going after the government. | Tech |
Politics|Just in Time for Hurricane Season, a New Leader at the Coast Guards Helmhttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/01/us/politics/coast-guard-commandant-schultz-.htmlCredit...Tom Brenner/The New York TimesJune 1, 2018WASHINGTON Adm. Karl L. Schultz was named the 26th commandant of the Coast Guard on Friday, taking over a military service that is in the midst of a fleet modernization as it juggles homeland security priorities like intercepting drugs and migrants and responding to disasters.President Trump attended Admiral Schultzs change of command ceremony, held on the first day of the annual hurricane season.I envision our heading remaining generally steady, Admiral Schultz said.It was a compliment to his predecessor Adm. Paul F. Zukunft, who had directed the fleet modernizing effort and steered the first budget increase in years to the Coast Guard, the 227-year-old military branch that is overseen by the Department of Homeland Security.Admiral Schultz had commanded the Coast Guards Atlantic area and last year oversaw the fleets response to Hurricanes Irma, Maria and Harvey. The service rescued nearly 12,000 people along the East Coast and in Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands during the deadly 2017 hurricane season.Admiral Schultz had also previously served as director of operations for United States Southern Command, where he directed joint military operations in the Caribbean and Central and South America. The Coast Guard plays a crucial role in protecting the southwest border by intercepting drugs and migrants before they can reach the United States.In 2017, the Coast Guard seized a record 455,000 pounds of cocaine, some by patrolling waters off the coasts of Colombia and Peru, worth over $7.2 billion wholesale. It also arrested more than 600 drug traffickers and captured nearly 3,500 people trying to enter the United States illegally.Mr. Trump praised Admiral Schultz and the Coast Guard for keeping drugs and criminals out of our country.I have complete confidence that Karl will carry out his new mission with the talents and devotion that has characterized his entire career, Mr. Trump said. The president also briefly boasted about a new Labor Department jobs report that showed record low unemployment.A number of cabinet members, including Vice President Mike Pence and Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary, also attended the change of command ceremony.Admiral Zukunft, the Coast Guards top official since 2014, called Admiral Schultz a franchise player and said he would be able to build on the recent successes of the service.Admiral Zukunft had led the Coast Guard through a gradual modernization of its aging fleet of ships and its greater role in combating international drug trafficking. After years of cuts, the service received a budget increase.The Trump administration has requested nearly $11 billion in funding for the 2019 fiscal year for the Coast Guard, a 2 percent increase over last years request.Mr. Trump nominated Admiral Schultz, a 1983 graduate of the Coast Guard Academy, in March. He was confirmed by the Senate last month. | Politics |
Credit...Niklas Halle'N/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesNov. 16, 2018In the course of selling her much-derided plan for Britain to quit the European Union, Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday played what she sees as her trump card, telling lawmakers there are just two alternatives.We can choose to leave with no deal, she said, pausing for effect, or We can risk no Brexit at all.For those who see stopping Brexit as a prize, not a risk, that admission was some rare good news a sign that Britain could be on course to reverse its biggest and, to them, most disastrous, decision in four decades. And that would almost certainly rest on holding a second referendum to overturn the 2016 decision to leave the union.The path toward a second plebiscite has always seemed impossibly treacherous. On Friday, Mrs. May, who insists there will be no new vote, was sticking to her Brexit plan with the apparent support of two pro-Brexit cabinet ministers, Michael Gove, the environment secretary, and Liam Fox, the international trade secretary.She also welcomed Amber Rudd, the former home secretary, back into the cabinet as work and pensions secretary, and appointed a little-known figure, Stephen Barclay, as Brexit secretary.And Mrs. Mays opponents have so far failed to muster the support of the 48 Conservative Party lawmakers needed to force a confidence vote in her leadership.But the political chaos of recent days a swirl of cabinet resignations and calls for Mrs. May to stand aside has put another vote squarely on the table.That is because Mrs. Mays plan, which would keep some close economic ties to the European Union, now looks unlikely to gain approval in Parliament. That would seem to leave a second referendum as the most promising among a limited number of escape routes to avoid a chaotic, disorderly, no-deal departure.I think its a lot more likely, said Patrick Dunleavy, a professor of political science and public policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The whole effort to try and implement Brexit in a one-party way, without any negotiations with the opposition, without a coalition agreement, looks doomed to destruction.ImageCredit...Peter Nicholls/ReutersLast summer, the chances of this outcome seemed minimal, wrote Charles Grant, director of the Center for European Reform, a London-based research institute, in a briefing paper. But the odds have improved, he said, because the opposition Labour Party is now more positive about that notion if it cannot achieve its favored outcome, which is a general election.There are plenty of obstacles, of course. Right now there is no majority in Parliament for a second vote. The Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is not sympathetic. Holding one would almost certainly depend on the European Union granting Britain an extension on the current March 29 date for the countrys exit. And precisely what question, or questions, would be asked would provoke endless wrangling.There are also good political arguments against it. The last vote was close 52 percent to 48 percent and another one would in all likelihood be so, too. That risks a polarizing and angry referendum campaign with an outcome that would be no more definitive than the first vote.But according to several surveys, public opinion is finally shifting away from Brexit, and proponents of a rethink sense an opportunity. They want a plebiscite on the terms of an exit deal, with the option to remain, calling it a Peoples Vote a smart piece of branding designed to dispel claims that they are sore losers seeking to rerun the last referendum because they didnt like the result.This was a long-shot campaign when it started, said James McGrory, director of the Peoples Vote campaign. But the odds are getting shorter every day. All the momentum is with our campaign.It has been a long time coming. When Britons voted in the 2016 referendum to quit the European Union, few remainers believed that the decision could be changed. At first, the remain camp seemed shellshocked and, when some began to suggest a redo, it was accused of trying to undermine the will of the people and taunted in parts of the tabloid press as remoaners.But in biding their time, the pro-Europeans might have played a smart long game because, while Brexit still seemed on track, few wanted to revisit the divisive referendum of 2016. Many voters tuned out of the debate, and a lot simply wanted the issue resolved.Now, after more than two years of negotiations leading to an unpopular draft agreement, the one thing that is sure is that there will be no swift and easy exit. The trade-offs that Brexit supporters batted away during the referendum campaign such as sovereignty versus economic prosperity have been brutally exposed by Mrs. Mays draft deal.Growing public disquiet was clear even before Mrs. Mays deal was announced, when 700,000 people marched last month in London for a Peoples Vote.The tide probably began to turn during the summer as Brexit talks stalled and the government began to announce some fearsome-sounding contingency plans for leaving in the event of no deal.ImageCredit...Daniel Leal-Olivas/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesPharmaceutical companies were instructed to stockpile six weeks supply of drugs, and there were plans to keep airlines flying and supply routes open for food and essential imports; even those expecting to take pets to continental Europe were warned that they needed to start the paperwork four months in advance.Little wonder, then, that enthusiasm for Brexit once sold as an easy, cost-free choice started to wane. While some hard-liners favor a no-deal departure, there is certainly no majority in Parliament for it.It would take a huge about-face for Mrs. May to offer a second referendum, something she has consistently rejected (though she has changed course before, by calling a general election last year after ruling out that option). But Mr. Dunleavy, the political science professor, believes that if she is replaced her successor could turn to a second referendum as a way out of an impossible situation.Another pathway could lead through the election of a Labour government, according to Mr. Grant, of the Center for European Reform. While noting that a referendum is not current party policy, there is movement within the party toward that option, he said.The other option, Mr. Grant said, is that a deadlocked Parliament asks the government to hold a plebiscite since, with a no-deal cliff edge looming, it could seem like a welcome alternative to political and economic chaos.Whatever the scenario, a second referendum would need the support of a majority of lawmakers, as it is Parliament who would have to authorize it. The Peoples Vote campaign is vague about its parliamentary support, but it is thought to be well into three figures though far short of a majority of the 650 seats.But if Mrs. May cannot get her deal through, and the European Union offers no alternative plan (something it says it cannot), the numbers in Parliament could change as the implications of a no-deal Brexit loom.One significant moment was the resignation last week of the rail minister, Jo Johnson, brother of the pro-Brexit campaigner and former foreign secretary, Boris Johnson. Unlike his brother, Jo Johnson campaigned for Britain to remain in the 2016 referendum, but accepted the result and joined a government committed to delivering an exit.Now Jo Johnson is in favor of a Peoples Vote, a reminder that support for a referendum is deeper than it appears, wrote Mujtaba Rahman, managing director and practice head, Europe, for the Eurasia Group.Only nine Tories are among the more than 100 M.P.s who have publicly backed the idea, Mr. Rahman wrote, referring to members of Parliament. If the Commons rejects Mays deal, many more Conservatives would come out for a Peoples Vote.How many is unknowable. Yet, ultimately, if Parliament is deadlocked on Brexit and lawmakers do not want a general election, there is only one option left for Britain to avoid a brutal no-deal departure. | World |
NotebookCredit...Alberto Pizzoli/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesFeb. 7, 2014The freestyle skier Heidi Kloser of the United States had to pull out of the Olympics after injuring her right leg during a training run before moguls qualifying in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia.Kloser tore knee ligaments and broke her femur in a crash Thursday night, only moments before she was supposed to head to the starting gate.Klosers father, Mike, posting on his Facebook page, said Heidi asked him if he still considered her an Olympian even though she did not make it to the starting line in her first Games.We said, Of course she is, Mike Kloser wrote.Kloser, 21, was fourth in the World Cup standings entering the Olympics.TRACK ADJUSTMENTS Course workers have added 130 feet to the biathlon track for the Sochi Olympics because it was too short.The loop should measure 1.6 miles. Even though a 5 percent deviation is allowed by the rules, the track at the Laura Cross-Country Ski and Biathlon Center came up short.Biathlons technical delegate at the Olympics, Max Cobb, said there was an issue with the length, but we made a change, which takes care of it.The new part of the track will be used in the womens 7.5-kilometer sprint on Sunday and in five more events afterward, including the three relays.Per Nilsson, coach of the United States team, said the move was a surprise because its still the Olympics, so they should have measured that before.The first doubts about the track length came from the Norwegian team, and they proved right after International Biathlon Union officials measured the course Thursday.On the World Cup circuit, most courses are inspected four days before the competition, though International Olympic Committee rules are different, leaving organizers less time for adaptations, if needed.KOIVU OUT FOR FINLAND Minnesota Wild center Mikko Koivu decided his surgically repaired right ankle had not healed enough to allow him to play hockey for Finland in the Olympics.Koivu, who had surgery after fracturing the ankle while blocking a shot Jan. 4, has been out the past 15 games for the Wild heading into the Olympic break.Koivu, a two-time Olympian, was one of the most experienced players and a possible captain for Finland, which won the bronze medal at the 2010 Games in Vancouver.A captain for the Wild, Koivu has 8 goals and 27 assists in 44 games this season.Finland also lost center Valtteri Filppula on Friday after he broke his ankle in the Tampa Bay Lightnings game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night.Filppula, 29, who will be out for three weeks, has 20 goals and 21 assists this season. He was also a member of the 2010 Olympic team.SWEDEN REPLACES SEDIN Sweden added Washington Capitals center Marcus Johansson to its mens hockey team to replace Henrik Sedin, who was taken off the squad because of bruised ribs.Johansson, 23, has 7 goals and 29 assists this season and will join Washington teammate Nicklas Backstrom on Team Sweden. Johansson has represented the Swedes previously in international competition, but this will be his first Olympics. | Sports |
Credit...University of Virginia, via ReutersMarch 3, 2016A landmark 2015 report that cast doubt on the results of dozens of published psychology studies has exposed deep divisions in the field, serving as a reality check for many working researchers but as an affront to others who continue to insist the original research was sound.On Thursday, a group of four researchers publicly challenged the report, arguing that it was statistically flawed and, as a result, wrong.The 2015 report, called the Reproducibility Project, found that less than 40 studies in a sample of 100 psychology papers in leading journals held up when retested by an independent team. The new critique by the four researchers countered that when that teams statistical methodology was adjusted, the rate was closer to 100 percent.Neither the original analysis nor the critique found evidence of fraud or manipulation of data.The critique was published in Science, the journal that published the original report. On Thursday, Science also published a strong rebuttal from the authors of the original replication project.That study got so much press, and the wrong conclusions were drawn from it, said Timothy D. Wilson, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and an author of the new critique. Its a mistake to make generalizations from something that was done poorly, and this we think was done poorly.Brian A. Nosek, a colleague of Dr. Wilsons at Virginia who coordinated the original replication project, which took several years, countered that the critique was highly biased: They are making assumptions based on selectively interpreting data and ignoring data thats antagonistic to their point of view.The challenge comes as the field of psychology is facing a generational change, with young researchers beginning to share their data and study designs before publication, to improve transparency. Still, the new critique is likely to feed an already lively debate about how best to conduct and evaluate so-called replication projects of studies. Such projects are underway in several fields, scientists on both sides of the debate said.ImageCredit...Andrew Shurtleff for The New York TimesThese are issues that experts have been debating since well before the original replication study appeared last August. On some level, I suppose it is appealing to think everything is fine and there is no reason to change the status quo, said Sanjay Srivastava, a psychologist at the University of Oregon, who was not a member of either team. But we know too much, from many other sources, to put too much credence in an analysis that supports that remarkable conclusion.One issue the critique raised was how faithfully the replication team had adhered to the original design of the 100 studies it retested. Small alterations in design can make the difference between whether a study replicates or not, scientists say. To address this, Dr. Nosek and his many collaborators consulted closely with the authors of the studies they were trying to reproduce. Afterward, independent researchers that is, neither from the original study team nor the replication one evaluated how closely the study designs matched.But Dr. Wilson and other authors of the critique Daniel T. Gilbert, Gary King, and Stephen Pettigrew, all of Harvard pointed out that authors of 31 of the original studies had not explicitly endorsed the design of the retest. They noted that, for example, one study on race initially run at Stanford was replicated in Amsterdam, a different cultural context.The critique found that the explicitly endorsed studies were nearly four times more likely to replicate than the nonendorsed ones.Dr. Nosek said he planned to rerun the replications of 11 studies whose authors raised concern to try to answer whether design differences accounted for the differing results.Another issue that the critique raised had to do with statistical methods. When Dr. Nosek began his study, there was no agreed-upon protocol for crunching the numbers. He and his team settled on five measures, including the strength of the effect and the effect of combining both studies, to look at the results together.The authors of the critique argued that it would have been better to focus on one measure: How many of the retests would be expected to fail by chance, given the variations, like design differences, introduced by mounting the retests?Uri Simonsohn, a researcher at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, has blogged about these issues, including this dispute. He said that the original replication paper and the critique use statistical approaches that are predictably imperfect for this kind of analysis.One way to think about the dispute, Dr. Simohnson said, is that the original paper found that the glass was about 40 percent full, and the critique argues that it could be 100 percent full. In fact, he said in an email, State-of-the-art techniques designed to evaluate replications say it is 40 percent full, 30 percent empty, and the remaining 30 percent could be full or empty, we cant tell till we get more data. | science |
Will You Attend the March for Science on Earth Day? Scientists at a demonstration in Boston in February. Credit Steven Senne/Associated Press Sorry, but this form is no longer accepting submissions. Read more about the readers' reactions to the March for Science here. | science |
Out ThereAstronomers dissect the energy flow in a distant galaxy.Credit...NRAO/AUI/NSF; SARAO; DESPublished May 14, 2020Updated May 17, 2020Astronomers have deciphered the dynamics of yet another great trick that monster black holes can play.In many galaxies, jets of energy are squeezed outward by the black hole that lurks at the center, and go shooting off in opposite directions into space.But in a few bizarre-looking galaxies, the jets take the form of four beams in the shape of an X. Now, radio astronomy observations have shown how that happens.Astronomers have no trouble understanding how black holes objects so dense that not even light can escape the tombstone grip of their gravity can become the most luminous objects in the universe, powering quasars. The pressure in the fat, fiery swirl of doom that surrounds a black hole expels high-energy particles from the top and bottom of the doughnut.But a galaxy known as PKS 2014-55 is different. This old, elliptical galaxy is about 800 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Telescopium, and its jets are shaped like two boomerangs placed back to back to form an X.Why? Perhaps, some astronomers thought, the central black hole was wobbling, like a lawn sprinkler throwing jets in different directions. Or maybe a pair of supermassive black holes were colliding.But observations by an international group of astronomers with a powerful new South African radio telescope, MeerKAT, have provided an alternate explanation.The dynamics of the jets, it seems, more closely resemble those in an elaborate Las Vegas fountain, with water going up and down and flowing in designer configurations. In this case, superhot gas is being pumped up 2.5 million light years into intergalactic space. It then cascades back and splashes sideways off the center of the galaxy, sculpting an X in the cosmos, as if marking a treasure.Material falls back and gets reflected around the center, said Fernando Camilo, chief scientist of the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, which built MeerKAT.The team, led by William Cotton, an astronomer with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in the United States, reported its results last week in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.Key to the results was the new MeerKAT radio telescope, an array of 64 antennas located in the Karoo desert in South Africa. Computers can combine the data from the individual dishes to create radio images with exquisite detail. MeerKAT was designed and built as a precursor to one of the great dream projects of astronomy, the Square Kilometer Array, a giant assembly of hundreds of radio dishes with a total collecting area of a square kilometer. Half of it is being built in South Africa and half in Australia.MeerKAT is one of a new generation of instruments whose power solves old puzzles even as it finds new ones, Dr. Cotton said in a statement issued by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory.In their paper, the scientists described in detail how the fireworks in PKS 2014-55 work.First, energetic material is launched outward in two opposite directions by the central black hole. But intergalactic space is not empty; it is filled with a thin hot gas. As the jet encounters this gas, it slows and eventually stops. Material from the stalled jet then begins to fall back down into the galaxy from which it came, accumulating around the edges of the main jets like mist tumbling down the outside of a fire hose.Eventually, the return flow hits the galaxy itself, and the cloud of hot gas that typically inhabits the centers of old galaxies. The pressure of this gas deflects the flow of the returning streams, the way a pebble in a stream redirects the current.Which way the flow goes from there, Dr. Camilo said, depends on how the ellipse of hot gas is oriented relative to the two returning hydrodynamic flows. In this case, the streams are again steered in opposite directions, creating the two boomerang-shape features.Its all quite neat, Dr. Camilo said. | science |
Credit...Dina Litovsky for The New York TimesDec. 22, 2015The government revised its estimate of economic growth in the third quarter down slightly on Tuesday, as consumer spending helped sustain a modest growth rate despite a dip in net exports caused in part by the stronger dollar.The Achilles heels of the second half of 2015 are inventories and trade, which remain a drag on growth, said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial in Chicago. The good news is that consumers are showing a willingness to carry the economy into the new year.At an annualized rate of 2 percent, the pace of expansion in the third quarter was not far out of line with the slow but steady gains registered since the recovery began in mid-2009. Last year, the United States economy as measured by changes in gross domestic product adjusted to eliminate the effects of inflation grew by 2.4 percent. In 2013, it expanded at a 1.5 percent rate.After a big buildup of goods in warehouses and on shelves in the first half of 2015, inventories proved to be a headwind in the third quarter.Businesses have been cautious about spending, while plunging oil prices have prompted energy companies to cut back on new investments. A weaker trade balance also exerted pressure, reducing growth by 0.3 percentage point.In a separate report on Tuesday, the National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes fell by 10.5 percent in November, an unexpected plunge that the group and private economists attributed to the start of new government rules that may have slowed down mortgage closings.We expect delayed sales activity to be recouped in coming months as the real estate industry adjusts to these new regulations, Barclays said in a note to clients on Tuesday.For all the blows the economy has absorbed in recent years, it has maintained a remarkably even keel.Consumer demand, which accounts for nearly 70 percent of economic activity, has been rising at a rate of roughly 3 percent. Similarly, employers continue to hire at a steady pace and average hourly earnings are showing signs of life after years of stagnation.Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS, said he was struck by a seemingly obscure but telling data point in the third quarter report: a 2.9 percent increase in final sales to domestic purchasers, which strips out the negative impact of inventory changes and net exports.Thats a very respectable top line figure, he said. The economys underlying growth rate is more in the neighborhood of 3 percent than 2 percent.Economists expect the growth rate in the current fourth quarter to be similar to that of the third quarter, with the economys rate of expansion for 2015 expected to be just over 2 percent.One major source of weakness recently has been the strong dollar, said Torsten Slok, chief international economist for Deutsche Bank Securities in New York. The dollars rise hurts American companies by making American exports more expensive for overseas buyers. At the same time, the picture for growth in both Asia and Europe remains cloudy.Employment has been holding up but the big economic story has been downward pressure from a strong dollar, Mr. Slok said. And the rest of the world, unfortunately, is still weak.Indeed, last weeks interest rate increase by the Federal Reserve, which came as some other central banks overseas were maintaining more accommodative monetary policies, could push the dollar even higher.The negative effect from inventories is temporary, Mr. Behravesh said, but weak exports will be part of the U.S. picture for at least another year or two.Tuesdays revision is the last of three estimates by the Commerce Department of economic growth in July, August and September. The downward adjustment had been expected, with economists predicting before the report that growth would be revised down to 1.9 percent.The first estimate, in October, showed growth of 1.5 percent. That was revised upward to 2.1 percent last month.A fresher take on the economys prospects will come on Wednesday, when the Commerce Department reports data for consumer spending and income in November. Economists are forecasting a pickup in spending, with incomes growing more modestly. | Business |
Credit...Tom Brenner/The New York TimesJune 26, 2018A brain-performance business backed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has agreed to stop advertising success rates for children and adults suffering from maladies such as attention deficit disorder, depression and autism after a review found the company could not support the outcomes it was promoting.The company, Neurocore, which has received more than $5 million from Ms. DeVos and her husband, Richard DeVos Jr., to run brain performance centers in Michigan and Florida, lost an appeal before an advertising-industry review board, which found that the companys claims of curbing and curing a range of afflictions without medication were based on mixed research and unscientific internal studies.The National Advertising Review Board, an oversight arm of the advertising industrys self-regulatory body, announced its decision last week.Neurocore came under scrutiny during Ms. DeVoss confirmation process, when she valued her stake in it at $5 million to $25 million. Ms. DeVos and her husband were chief investors, and she served on the companys board of directors for seven years, until her nomination. The New York Times found that the companys claims of treating disorders for more than 10,000 adults through proven neurofeedback therapy had been challenged by medical experts and insurance companies.After being nominated for education secretary, Ms. DeVos resigned from the board, but in an agreement with the Office of Government Ethics, retained her financial interest in Neurocore. The investment raised ethical concerns for Ms. DeVos after the company expressed hope that it could expand and help improve performance for students in schools.Ms. DeVos said she would not participate personally and substantially in any particular matter concerning the company. But her family has continued to invest. Among the representatives of the company before the National Advertising Review Board was Jason Mahar, the in-house counsel for Windquest Group, the investment management firm of Ms. DeVoss husband. Windquest also continues to promote the company on its website as part of its corporate family.Greg McNeilly, a spokesman for the DeVos family, said the company was another example of them being engaged in helping people.They have a very innovative mind-set, so they are always looking for ways to do things better, no matter what the sector or market is, he said.But the companys claims of success continue to draw scrutiny. The advertising watchdog panel found that Neurocore did not have sufficient evidence to support a claim that 90 percent of its patients reported fewer symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder following treatments, and that 85 percent experienced clinically important reduction of symptoms. Testimonials that the Neurocore program helped patients control anxiety and depression without medication conveyed strong messages that were not reasonably supported by the record, the panel wrote.The June 4 decision affirmed a finding announced in August by the advertising industrys investigative arm, the National Advertising Division, that a slew of Neurocore statistics and testimonials on improving migraines, sleeplessness and A.D.H.D. were based on evidence that was insufficiently reliable to substantiate the strong health-related advertising claims.The company based many of its claims on assessments of patients before and after they completed 30 45-minute sessions watching a movie while connected to brain-wave mapping technology, which detects when a subject gets distracted and then stops the movie. The therapy claims to help retrain the brain to stop spiking out of range. The company advertised that through its treatments, patients learn to breathe deeper and slower, resulting in better brain and heart function.While the panel recognizes that Neurocores internal studies are relevant to the outcome claims discussed below, the panel does not believe that these studies constitute competent and reliable scientific evidence establishing the efficacy of neurofeedback in treating a wide variety of disorders, the appeals panel wrote in its decision.Neurocore said it would comply with the recommendations to halt its advertisements, though it would still share its outcomes.In an interview, the companys chief executive officer, Mark Murrison, said that the company had great respect for the panel, and that recommendations to improve its advertisements were a win for everybody.Mr. Murrison said the company believed in its results but was evolving. He noted that although the panel did not challenge the accuracy of its results, the company had already discontinued some claims, such as a 25 percent reduction in reported symptoms on the autism evaluation checklists.We believe in our outcomes and will present them in a way that is accurate and in a way thats compliant with the decision, he said. We are proud were able to provide a nondrug option, and anytime you are bringing innovation into a new industry, youll be challenged by those who only know the status quo.Neurocore has boasted in promotional materials that 81 percent of children who come to us on A.D.H.D. meds and complete our program are able to reduce or eliminate their use of medications upon program completion, and that more that 70 percent of its patients achieved nonclinical status for anxiety and depressive symptoms.The appeals panel took particular issue with the company basing its claims of success on internal studies gleaned from surveys of its patients. From these assessments, the company claimed clinically important reductions in symptoms, and that patients no longer met symptomatic thresholds.The panel believed that such claims were misleading, because they gave the impression that the reduction in symptoms was clinically determined. It said the internal studies were observational, not controlled and potentially influenced by experimental bias.The panel wrote that its decision did not preclude Neurocore from discussing or promoting its assessment data, as long as officials did not imply that patients experienced a significant reduction in symptoms or were cured. It also recommended that the program make clear that patients who take medication for conditions consult with their doctor before discontinuing.Mr. Murrison said that Neurocore still believed in the accuracy of its results, and that the company had had no consumer or competitor complaints.Whats really important to us is that everybody who comes to us for help leave better than when they came, he said. | Politics |
Credit...Tony Farlow/Four Seam Images for The Asheville TouristsJan. 31, 2014JERSEY CITY Russell Wilson needed help, and he needed it right then. The next morning, he was to fly to Denver to sign his contract with the Colorado Rockies and work out at his new full-time position of second baseman before shipping off to the minors, and he did not know how to turn a double play.He spoke with Jay Matthews, the Rockies scout who had tracked him for the past six years and was a former second baseman. Matthews, driving through North Carolina, said he could spare 20 minutes for a tutorial. They drove to a ball field. They practiced the pivot. Then they left.Matthews heard the next afternoon from a colleague who attended Wilsons workout. He asked how Wilson fared.Like he had played second base all his life, Matthews was told.The qualities on display that afternoon with Matthews in June 2010 a captivating blend of athleticism, aptitude and instinct are more familiar to fans who know Wilson as the precocious second-year quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks and are just as apparent. Had Wilson chosen to pursue baseball instead of football, a decision that he said he had not regretted once, there are many smart baseball men men with decades of playing, coaching and scouting experience who believe that he would have reached the major leagues.In an alternate universe, Wilson this week would be preparing for spring training instead of the Super Bowl, sparkling on defense instead of studying the defense of the Broncos. For a while, he thought he could do would do both.You dream big, Wilson said. Thats one of the things I tell kids all the time.And that is what his own father, Harrison Wilson III, would tell him: aim high. The day after Colorado drafted Wilson in the fourth round, his father died of complications from diabetes. That night, Matthews, driving through Wilsons native Richmond, Va., happened to call Wilson, who told him about his father. Matthews asked what he could do. Wilson asked him to throw batting practice. They went to an indoor facility and hit, threw and fielded for two hours.It was like therapy for him, Matthews said.Moments like that endeared Wilson to Matthews, who had known him since he was a junior in high school. Matthews was not deterred by Wilson amassing only 241 at-bats in three seasons at North Carolina State, his time split between the sports. Rather, he saw potential, a deft fielder whose lagging offensive skills would improve with repetition.If we could give him 1,500 minor league at-bats, Matthews said, theres no telling what could happen to him on the baseball side.What Matthews and the Rockies hoped was that Wilson would develop into another Jerry Hairston Jr., who has parlayed his versatility into a 16-year career. Some of the Texas Rangers evaluations pegged Wilson as a utility type, lauding his line-drive swing, arm strength and quick hands.Its not like what I would imagine was a Bo Jackson scouting report at the time, said Josh Boyd, the Rangers director for professional scouting. But the profile itself was a good complementary player. It wouldnt surprise me if he would have been able to overachieve the projections that I think a lot of scouts in the baseball industry had, as they did in football.Boyd was referencing Wilsons height, listed at 5 foot 11 inches, which discouraged teams who felt he was too short to play quarterback in the N.F.L. Still, he brought his North Carolina State playbook and a football to Pasco, Wash., where he struggled at the plate for the low-Class A Tri-City Dust Devils, offsetting his .230 average by committing one error and turning 14 double plays in 142 total chances.VideoSeattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson spoke to the media about his teammate Derrick Coleman.CreditCredit...Photos by Associated PressAfter the 2010 football season, his coach, Tom OBrien, asked Wilson to focus more on football, which he was not yet prepared to do. Having already graduated, Wilson was free to seek a release from his football scholarship and play immediately at another school. As he considered his options, Wilson advanced in Colorados system to Class A Asheville, where, for 7 p.m. games, he would arrive at the ballpark as early as 10 a.m. He asked coaches to hit him ground balls. He practiced bunting. He hit in the batting cage, alone, for about an hour before one-on-one sessions with the hitting coach, Lenn Sakata.What inspires a coach is that a player goes beyond what is expected of him, Sakata said. He wasnt going to fail because of a lack of effort.Brett Tanos, who shared second-base duties in Asheville with Wilson, said there was concern that Wilson would grow fatigued from working that hard, every day, during the course of a long season.But now, I really dont think he would have, Tanos said. Its just how Russell goes about it. There was just an extra thing about him that you knew was special.The harder Wilson worked, the less he improved at a rate satisfactory to him, at least. He was still swinging late at fastballs, for instance. Tanos said he sensed that Wilson had decided to play football as early as April 2011, when, after a game in Lexington, Ky., the team dressed and ate while watching the ESPN ticker scroll the quarterbacks who had been selected in the first round of the N.F.L. draft. While another teammate, Kyle Parker, a former quarterback at Clemson, joked that he would play in the N.F.L., Wilson just sat there quietly, Tanos said.It was like his mind-set was, Im going to go back because I can do this, Tanos said.One day that June, Wilson asked Sakata about a potential time frame for making the majors. Three years, Sakata told him.ImageCredit...Ted S. Warren/Associated PressIt just wasnt fast enough for him, Sakata said. The window of opportunity that he had set for himself was a year or two. By then, football would have disappeared.As Wilson remembers it, he woke up on the morning of June 27, 2011, and heard in his ear, Go against the odds. He said, For me, thats kind of how Ive always been. If someone tells me no, Im going to try to do the best I can to prove them wrong.He quit baseball, 93 games into his career (and 1,185 at-bats short of 1,500), to play football at Wisconsin. On the off chance this football thing does not work out, Wilson was, in December, selected in the minor-league phase of the Rule 5 draft by the Rangers, who hope to see him in spring training as a guest speaker.We definitely understand his priorities and all that, Boyd said, but you dont get too many chances to add a player, or a person, to the organization like that.That is how the Seahawks felt two years ago when they drafted Wilson in the third round, a critical development in their ascent to the N.F.L. elite. With his teammates in victory formation in the N.F.C. title game two weeks ago, Wilson took the snap, dropped to a knee and savored the moment. His thoughts, as he explained later, drifted to one thing.Man, Wilson said, I could have been playing baseball right now.Yes, he could have. | Sports |
Economic SceneCredit...Michael Dalder/ReutersDec. 8, 2015The United States has some of the most hostile policies toward an immigrant population found in the developed world.Start with the special police forces dedicated to persecuting and deporting over a quarter of the nations immigrants, the estimated 11 million who entered the country without authorization. Then there is the lack of labor laws to shield them from wage theft and perilous jobs.And dont get me started on Americas stingy social insurance: even legal permanent residents are barred from a host of government programs, including Medicaid, food stamps and other welfare programs.So why is it that immigrants in the United States including those here illegally have managed to integrate far more successfully into the American economy and social fabric than foreigners arriving to the relatively coddled states of the European Union, where they often enjoy access right away to a panoply of rights and benefits?The difference is worth pondering.There is no question that citizens across the West are gripped by anxiety about immigration. It entwines a fear of imported terrorism with the older xenophobia of natives threatened by ethnic diversity.But closing the door to Muslims or building a wall across the southern border, Donald Trump notwithstanding, is not going to stop the many immigrants from impoverished fringes of the globe from continuing to make their way toward the wealthy and relatively secure societies of Europe and the United States.Contrasting the experiences in Europe and the United States could help us better enable immigrants and their descendants to find their identities and flourish in the new world in which they live. And it will improve the prospects for greater economic growth and less strife for the rest of us.The very notion of integration is nebulous of course. By some standards one could say immigrants to the United States integrate poorly. Rates of naturalization are low. Less-educated immigrants often work for very low wages. Immigrant poverty rates are substantially higher in the United States than in the European Union.Yet progress is evident. Reporting among some of the poorest illegal immigrants toiling on Americas farms and construction sites, I have encountered a sense of achievement and possibility that belies their harsh living conditions. It contrasts markedly with the sense of exclusion and alienation reported from immigrant enclaves across Europe.A report released in September by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine noted that more immigrants buy into the American dream than do native-born Americans: 70 percent believe their children will be better off than themselves, up from 60 percent 20 years ago. Among American-born parents, only 50 percent believe that.In fact, the children of the least-educated immigrants are much better educated than their parents. They find much better jobs.Current immigrants and their descendants are integrating into U.S. society, the report concluded. Integration increases over time, with immigrants becoming more like the native-born with more time in the country, and with the second and third generations becoming more like other native-born Americans than their parents were.Richard Alba and Nancy Foner, sociologists at the City University of New York, just published the book Strangers No More, (Princeton University Press). They compare the challenges facing low-status immigrants in North America and Western Europe. In the end, they do not make a definitive call on which experience is better.There are complex arrays of similarities and differences, Professor Alba told me.Still, they identify unique hurdles in the way of immigrants that make it difficult for those coming from outside the European Union to get ahead in Europe.Among the most notable is clearly Europes segmented labor market, difficult for newcomers to crack. In the United States, less-educated immigrants may work for little pay. But the vast majority of them work. The employment rate of immigrants is higher than that of natives. In Europe it is lower.A report about the integration of immigrants issued over the summer by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development noted that more than a fifth of Europes immigrants from outside the European Union were unemployed, about double the rate of European Union citizens.One in four of the economically active is out of work in France and one in three in Belgium and Sweden. And these poor employment prospects persist down the generations. Youth joblessness among the European-born children of immigrants is almost 50 percent higher than for those with native-born parents.Employment is not the only barrier. Children from less-educated immigrant families are much less likely to succeed at school in Europe than the sons and daughters of natives, and much more likely to end up marginalized: out of school and out of work. Immigrants feel discriminated against more often in Europe. Perceived discrimination is particularly acute among the European-born children of immigrants, who in several countries still do not qualify for automatic citizenship.As Professor Foner put it: The United States does a better job at accepting immigrants as Americans in the making.ImageCredit...Monica Almeida/The New York TimesTo be sure, immigrants make up a smaller share of the population of the United States than they do of the populations of immigrant havens like Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Still, that share is considerably larger than that of ethnically distinct immigrants from outside the bloc who live in the European Union nations.And yet, across most of Europe, voters want to limit immigration. Majorities in many European countries see immigrants as an economic burden and as people who refuse to assimilate. For all the hatred of immigrants stirred up by Mr. Trump and other Republican hopefuls, most Americans 63 percent in 2014, according to the National Academies report still believe immigration is a good thing. Majorities across the political spectrum favor granting illegal immigrants a path toward legal status.The United States is a nation of hyphenated identities. Europes nation-states, deeply rooted in history, are not.The most common criticism of this sort of analysis is that it misses the role of religion. Most immigrants in the United States are Christian. In Europe they are mostly Muslim. Europeans hostility is often justified by arguing that Islam is incompatible with values inherent to Europes liberal democracies.Professors Foner and Alba suggest this incompatibility has perhaps less to do with Muslim intransigence than with the European insistence that immigrants adopt a narrow set of behaviors, including Christian traditions and, importantly, secular values.In the United States, they write, to be religious is to be in sync with mainstream norms. Many Americans have more trouble accepting atheists than Muslims. In Europe, by contrast, claims based on religion have much less acceptance and legitimacy.In June, President Obama hosted a Ramadan Iftar meal at the White House. In France, public schools still serve fish on Fridays. In some schools, the choice for Muslim children is pork or nothing.Muslims feel they have a secondary status in these societies, Ms. Foner told me.The American approach to immigration, of course, could improve enormously. Ending the active persecution and deportation of 11 million living illegally in the United States would vastly improve not only their own odds of success, but those of their 4.5 million American-born children citizens all as well.But in this moment in which bigotry and hatred flow so freely from the campaign stump, the most critical insight might be to understand the value of Americas traditionally more open and welcoming approach.The anti-immigrant reaction to the terrorist attacks in Paris is already delivering electoral success to the xenophobic National Front in France. Mr. Trump has a substantial following, but he lacks a political party behind him and is a long way from gaining a similar victory.And lets hope it stays that way. Erecting walls would blunt one of the United States most powerful tools of social cohesion and economic progress. It would produce a society less able to accept, mold and succeed from the many immigrants in our midst. | Business |
Technology|No, There Isnt Evidence That Trump Owes Money to Russiahttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/technology/no-there-isnt-evidence-that-trump-owes-money-to-russia.htmlOct. 13, 2020, 11:10 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2020, 11:10 a.m. ETCredit...Felix Schmitt for The New York TimesPresident Trump owes a lot of money: hundreds of millions of dollars of it.Whom he owes it to has been the subject of countless conspiracy theories. Lately, liberals and other social media accounts have been spreading rumors, presented as fact, that he owes it to the Kremlin or Russian oligarchs.After The New York Times reported that Mr. Trumps federal tax returns showed that he had personally guaranteed $421 million of debt, questions about who lent him all this money have reached the upper echelons of the Democratic Party. Itd be really good to know who the president of the United States, the commander-in-chief, owes money to, because the American people have a right to know what is influencing the presidents decisions, Senator Kamala Harris said at last weeks vice-presidential debate.The answers are not hard to come by.According to Mr. Trumps latest financial disclosure report, filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, he owes at least $135 million to a smattering of small financial institutions such as Ladder Capital. His biggest creditor to whom Mr. Trump owes well over $300 million is Deutsche Bank. From 2012 through 2015, the scandal-plagued German bank lent Mr. Trump money for his Doral golf resort in Florida ($125 million), his hotel in Washington ($170 million) and his skyscraper in Chicago (at least $45 million).Why on earth would Deutsche Bank have lent hundreds of millions to Mr. Trump given his track record of stiffing his lenders, including Deutsche Bank itself?One conspiracy theory is that Deutsche Bank agreed to make the loans because they were backstopped by Russians the Kremlin or a state-owned bank or an oligarch. If Mr. Trump were to default, it would be the Russians, not Deutsche Bank, on the hook for the losses.Another, related claim is that after Deutsche Bank made the loans, it sold chunks of them to Russians. It is common for large loans to be syndicated or securitized in other words, chopped up and sold to investors. In the late 1990s through the mid-2000s, Deutsche Bank did this with some of its large loans to Mr. Trump.Under this theory, the president would owe the money to Russians, not the German bank.There is a certain logic to this. Russians interfered on Mr. Trumps behalf in the 2016 election. Deutsche Bank is the only mainstream financial institution thats been consistently willing to do business with Mr. Trump. And Deutsche Bank for decades has had close ties to Russia and has facilitated money laundering for wealthy Russians.But the theories dont hold up.Deutsche Bank didnt chop up and sell the latest batch of debt the only portion that is still outstanding, according to bank officials with direct knowledge of the transactions. The loans remain on Deutsche Banks books.It is true that Deutsche Bank was willing to lend to Mr. Trump when few others would. But there is an explanation. To overcome the banks wariness, Mr. Trump agreed to personally guarantee most of the debt on all of the loans. That meant that if he defaulted, Deutsche Bank could seize his personal assets, as The Times has previously reported.The result was that the loans would generate fees and interest payments for Deutsche Bank but would entail little financial risk.Deutsche Bank remains a vast repository for Mr. Trumps financial secrets, and the presidents lawyers have spent more than a year fighting against congressional subpoenas for the banks records related to Mr. Trump. It is not impossible that evidence will emerge that muddies this picture.For now, though, it isnt very complicated. | Tech |
Credit...Carlos Osorio/Associated PressDec. 4, 2015FRANKFURT An executive linked to Volkswagens emissions scandal has resigned his post as a top manager of the Audi luxury car division, the company said late Thursday.The executive, Ulrich Hackenberg, 65, a member of the Audi management board responsible for technical development, was one of eight executives suspended after Volkswagen admitted in September to programming cars to evade clean air rules. But he is the first of those eight to resign.Besides his post at Audi, Mr. Hackenberg also had responsibilities for the Volkswagen group as a whole, and he was one of the companys most prominent executives in developing the technology that went into Volkswagen vehicles.Mr. Hackenbergs resignation came after a demand by Audis top labor representative to eliminate any ambiguity about who was in charge. Labor units have an unusual degree of power at Volkswagen.Although Mr. Hackenberg was on leave during the suspension, he had retained his title, and his photo continued to appear along with other members of the Audi board on the company website. There was no sign that his departure had been prompted by new information about what role, if any, he had in the emissions deception.Mr. Hackenberg agreed to step down, Audi said in a statement, which did not mention the emissions scandal but praised his contributions to the company during a 30-year career there.A lawyer who represents Mr. Hackenberg did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Mr. Hackenberg is only the second executive to resign in connection with the scandal, as far as is known publicly. As regulators and prosecutors in Germany and the United States conduct investigations, Volkswagen has pursued an internal inquiry, but so far it has not disclosed any findings.Martin Winterkorn, the chief executive of Volkswagen, resigned days after the company admitted to cheating on emissions tests, which he said he had not been aware of until the deception was disclosed in the United States by the Environmental Protection Agency.It was not immediately clear whether other top managers who have been suspended would follow Mr. Hackenberg in leaving the company. Two other executives who have been placed on leave still appear on company websites as occupying their positions. They are Wolfgang Hatz, head of research and development at Porsche, and Heinz-Jakob Neusser, head of development for the Volkswagen brand.Mr. Hackenberg, Mr. Hatz and Mr. Neusser all played central roles in Volkswagen engine development in recent years.Several other top Volkswagen managers have left the company since September, including Christian Klingler, the head of sales and marketing, and Walter Maria de Silva, the head of design. But their departures did not appear to be directly related to the emissions scandal.This week, Volkswagen said that 50 employees had stepped forward to accept an amnesty offer to tell, without risk of punishment by the company, what they know about who might have been involved the deception. Volkswagen said it had begun interviewing those employees.Mr. Hackenberg will be replaced at Audi by Stefan Knirsch, 49, who has been Audis head of powertrain operations. Powertrain refers to the engines, transmissions and other components that propel vehicles.From 2007 to 2013, Mr. Hackenberg was responsible for technical development of cars under the Volkswagen brand. That is also the period during which Volkswagen was developing and marketing the diesel engines that contained illegal software.The software detected when cars were undergoing emissions tests and turned up pollution controls. At other times, the vehicles produced many times the allowed amount of nitrogen oxide, a harmful gas. Audi vehicles with 2- and 3-liter diesel engines are among those with software considered illegal in the United States.Peter Mosch, chairman of the Audi workers council and a member of the Audi supervisory board, said late Thursday that it was correct for Mr. Hackenberg to leave the company, and that it was important to eliminate any uncertainty about who was in charge.In light of the current situation, we see his decision to resign as an important step forward, Mr. Mosch said in a statement.Mr. Mosch also called for Volkswagen to get to the bottom of who was responsible for the misconduct, which has put the company under financial pressure and could lead to job cuts.There are signs that Volkswagens business is beginning to suffer. Sales of Volkswagen-brand cars in Britain fell 20 percent in November from a year earlier, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said on Friday. General Motors Vauxhall brand and Ford Motor appeared to benefit most. Vauxhall sales rose 26 percent in the month, and Fords were up 13 percent.Further consequences must now be undertaken, so that something like this doesnt happen again, Mr. Mosch said.Mr. Hackenberg was credited with developing Volkswagens so-called modular tool kit, a collection of crucial components including motors that can be shared among different brands in the Volkswagen empire. Besides Volkswagen and Audi brand cars, the company also owns Porsche, Seat and Skoda.Mr. Hackenbergs resignation suggests that Audi may be moving more aggressively than the parent company to clarify its role in the emissions cheating scandal.Audi retains a degree of independence even though it is part of the Volkswagen group, and its cars share many parts with other vehicles the company makes. Audi has its headquarters and a factory in Ingolstadt, a city on the Danube between Nuremberg and Munich.Audi also has its own supervisory board, and there is a degree of rivalry between executives in Ingolstadt and those in Wolfsburg, where Volkswagen is based. | Business |
The federal agency told a G.O.P. House member that it had notified EcoHealth Alliance, a group criticized for its U.S.-funded work with Wuhan scientists, to file data within five days.Credit...Pool photo by Stefani ReynoldsPublished Oct. 21, 2021Updated Oct. 28, 2021The National Institutes of Health said on Wednesday that a nonprofit group under fire from some congressional Republicans for its research collaborations in China had failed to promptly report findings from studies on how well bat coronaviruses grow in mice.In a letter to Representative James Comer, Republican of Kentucky, the N.I.H. said that the group, EcoHealth Alliance, had five days to submit all unpublished data from work conducted under a multiyear grant it was given in 2014 for the research. The organizations grant was canceled in 2020 under President Donald J. Trumps administration during his feud with China over the origins of the coronavirus.In recent months, N.I.H. officials have rejected claims sometimes in heated exchanges with congressional Republicans that coronaviruses studied with federal funding might have produced the pandemic. Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the N.I.H., released a statement Wednesday night reiterating that rebuttal.Naturally occurring bat coronaviruses studied under the N.I.H. grant are genetically far distant from SARS-CoV-2 and could not possibly have caused the Covid-19 pandemic, he said in the statement. Any claims to the contrary are demonstrably false.EcoHealth Alliance has come under scrutiny because of its collaboration on coronavirus research with researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is situated in the city where the pandemic began.Robert Kessler, a spokesman for the group, said on Thursday that EcoHealth Alliance was trying to resolve what it described as a misconception about its findings with the N.I.H. He said that the group had reported data from its studies as soon as we were made aware in April 2018, and that the agency had reviewed the data and never indicated that further reviews were needed.Some scientists have argued that its possible SARS-CoV-2 was the result of genetic engineering experiments or simply escaped from a lab in an accident. But direct evidence for those theories has yet to emerge. Others have deemed those scenarios unlikely, pointing instead to many lines of evidence suggesting that people acquired the coronavirus in a natural spillover from bats or an intermediate mammal host.The controversy has drawn scrutiny to the experiments that EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology carried out with funding from the N.I.H.ImageCredit...Ng Han Guan/Associated PressLast month, The Intercept, an online publication, posted 900 pages of materials related to the N.I.H. grants to EcoHealth Alliance for the research. The materials provided details about experiments designed to provide new insights into the risk that bat coronaviruses have for sparking new pandemics.In some of their experiments, the researchers isolated genes from bat coronaviruses that encode a surface protein, called spike. Coronaviruses use the spike protein to bind to host cells, the first step to an infection. The spike protein latches onto a cell-surface protein called ACE2.According to the materials published, the researchers then engineered another bat virus, called WIV1, to carry spike proteins from other bat coronaviruses. They then conducted experiments to see if the engineered WIV1 viruses became better at attaching to ACE2 on cells.Such experiments reignited a debate that has been going on for years about what sort of research is simply too dangerous to carry out, regardless of the insights it may provide. Experiments that can endow viruses with new abilities sometimes called gain of function have caused particular concern.In 2017, the Department of Health and Human Services rolled out the P3CO framework for research on enhanced potential pandemic pathogens.Dr. Lawrence Tabak, the principal deputy director of the N.I.H., wrote in the letter to Representative Comer that the agency determined that the research proposed by EcoHealth Alliance did not meet the criteria for additional review under that framework because these bat coronaviruses had not been shown to infect humans.But out of an abundance of caution, Dr. Tabak wrote, the agency had added requirements for EcoHealth Alliance to notify it of certain results of the experiments.ImageCredit...Stefani Reynolds for The New York TimesDr. Tabak noted that in one line of research, the researchers had produced mice genetically engineered to produce the human version of the ACE2 protein on their cells. Infecting these animals with coronaviruses could potentially provide a more realistic sense of the risk that the viruses have of infecting humans than just using dishes of cells.The N.I.H. required that EcoHealth Alliance notify the agency if the engineered viruses turned out to grow 10 times faster or more than WIV1 would without their new spike proteins.In some experiments, it turns out, that viruses did grow quickly.EcoHealth failed to report this finding right away, as required by the terms of the grant, Dr. Tabak wrote.The N.I.H. also sent Representative Comer a final progress report that EcoHealth Alliance submitted to the agency in August.In the report, the researchers describe finding that WIV1 coronaviruses engineered to carry spike proteins were more virulent. They killed infected mice at higher rates than did the WIV1 virus without spikes from the other coronaviruses. The filing had been submitted late, the N.I.H. said, nearly two years beyond the grant-specified deadline of 120 days from completion of the work. Delayed reporting is a violation of the terms and condition of N.I.H. grant award, Renate Myles, a spokeswoman for the agency, said.Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center who has called for more research into the origins of the pandemic, said the revelations raised serious questions about the risks of investigating viruses originating from animals, known as zoonotic viruses.In my view, some of this research on potential pandemic pathogens poses unacceptable risks, he said. In addition to asking if EcoHealth adhered to current regulations, we need to honestly ask what research should be done in the future to best minimize both zoonotic and lab-associated pandemic risks.And Michael Imperiale, a virologist at the University of Michigan, said that the N.I.H. letter raised questions about how the agency evaluated potentially dangerous research and shared it with the public a need that critics have been pointing out for years. First and foremost, I think this re-emphasizes the need for transparency in how the N.I.H. reviews these experiments, he said.Some congressional Republicans have pushed for more information for months, suggesting the research was the source of the pandemic. In a statement, Representative Comer claimed that thanks to the hard work of the Oversight Committee Republicans, we now know that American taxpayer dollars funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab.Dr. Tabaks letter did not include any mention of gain-of-function research.ImageCredit...EcoHealth AllianceRepresentative Comer also accused Dr. Collins and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institutes for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, of potentially misleading the committee, vowing that the G.O.P. panel will leave no stone unturned as we seek the truth for the American people about how their taxpayer dollars may have been associated with the start of this pandemic.Ms. Myles dismissed the claim that EcoHealths experiments constituted gain-of-function research. She acknowledged that the findings in mice were somewhat unexpected. But Ms. Myles said the agency had reviewed the research described in EcoHealths progress report, and said it would not have triggered a review under the stricter protocols for P3CO studies.The bat coronaviruses used in this research have not been shown to infect humans, and the experiments were not reasonably expected to increase transmissibility or virulence in humans, she said.Mr. Kessler, the EcoHealth spokesman, said that no coronaviruses studied by the group were genetically similar enough to the virus behind Covid-19 to have played a role in the beginning of the pandemic.On a web page posted Wednesday night, the National Institutes of Health provided additional details about the viruses in the EcoHealth experiments, demonstrating that they were not closely related to SARS-CoV-2.Bats harbor thousands of species of coronaviruses, and since the start of the pandemic, researchers have searched for the closest relatives of SARS-CoV-2 that infect the animals. They have found several coronaviruses that are much more closely related to SARS-CoV-2 than WIV1.The analysis, Dr. Tabak wrote in his letter, confirms that the bat coronaviruses studied under the EcoHealth Alliance grant could not have been the source of SARS-CoV-2 and the Covid-19 pandemic. | science |
Science|NASA Reschedules Mars InSight Mission for May 2018https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/10/science/nasa-reschedules-mars-insight-mission-for-may-2018.htmlCredit...NASAMarch 9, 2016If all goes to plan, a postponed mission to probe beneath the surface of Mars will launch in two years, NASA announced Wednesday.The InSight spacecraft was to head to space this month, but in December, NASA delayed the mission when it realized that there was not enough time to fix stubborn leaks in a vacuum enclosure housing a key instrument.NASA is now aiming to launch InSight in May 2018, the next time that Earth and Mars are close enough to allow a quick six-month trip. (Because Mars is farther from the Sun than Earth and orbits more slowly, the two planets line up just once every 26 months.)Im thrilled, said W. Bruce Banerdt, a planetary geophysicist at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., who is the missions principal investigator. We were hoping we would get the opportunity to give this another try.InSight a shortening of Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport would land on Mars on Nov. 26, 2018.However, the space agency does not yet know exactly how much the delay will add to the missions $675 million cost. Dr. Banerdt said his team had given officials at NASA headquarters a rough estimate on the order of $150 million, more or less.CNES, the French space agency, is in charge of the seismic instrument that turned troublesome.InSight is designed to listen to what is going on in the deep interior of the planet including the shaking of tiny quakes. Measuring the change of velocity of seismic waves as they pass through the planet could also offer clues about Marss crust, mantle and core.The three seismometers in the instrument, sensitive enough to detect movements as small as half the radius of a hydrogen atom, require a near-perfect vacuum to operate with precision. Tests in August revealed a small leak in the enclosure, a flattened sphere about nine inches wide. Engineers attempted to patch it, but the leak persisted.NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managing the mission, is to redesign and build a new enclosure.Dr. Banerdt will travel to NASA headquarters in Washington in about six months to present a more detailed cost estimate and report on the fixes. Theyll be watching that very closely and making sure were making good progress, he said.NASA officials could still cancel the mission, but Dr. Banerdt said he was extremely optimistic that InSight would get off the ground.Last month, Lockheed Martin, which built InSight, shipped the spacecraft back from the launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to Denver, where it is now being prepared for storage. | science |
Health|Which Big Drug Companies Are Helping the Poor? Heres the Listhttps://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/14/health/pharmaceuticals-access-to-medicine-index.htmlGlobal HealthCredit...Eric Thayer/BloombergNov. 13, 2016The pharmaceutical giant GSK, which has held first place in the Access to Medicine Index ever since its introduction in 2008, was ranked first again this week.The index measures how well the worlds top 20 pharma companies do at getting their drugs and vaccines and often their scientific expertise to the worlds poorest countries.The list was created by Wim Leerveld, a Dutch former pharmaceutical executive, and grew with early support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Dutch and British governments. At first, many drug companies ignored its requests for information.Now, virtually all cooperate. Some have created global health divisions and even compete to do well on the list.Positions in the rankings, issued every two years, have remained relatively constant, except for Japanese companies. They began as bottom dwellers and have slowly risen; the Eisai Company is now in 11th place.GSK has always led the list, but Andrew Witty, its chief executive, who took office in 2008 promising to do as much as he could for the poor in Africa and Asia, will retire in March.The C.E.O. often determines how generous a company is. Richard Sykes, one of Mr. Wittys predecessors at the former GlaxoSmithKline, was until his retirement in 2002 the industrys most vocal opponent of easing patent monopolies in poor countries so they could import cheaper drugs.He dismissed the Indian drug industry, which now makes the bulk of the medicines for the worlds poor, as pirates on the high seas.Indian companies were on the initial 2008 list, but were moved to a separate one later because they generally have much smaller budgets and different missions.Johnson & Johnson has risen steadily up the list and is now No. 2, followed by Novartis and the two Mercks what were once the American and European divisions of the drug giant, but are now separate companies.Novo Nordisk, which has ranked as high as No. 2, fell to No. 10. The company focuses entirely on diabetes, and not all its products are available for licensing or equitable pricing strategies, the index said in explanatory notes.The lists companies collectively have 850 products that treat 51 diseases that burden poor and middle-income countries, said Jayasree K. Iyer, the executive director of the Access to Medicine Foundation, which produces the list.The drug companies are developing another 420 products, often in partnerships with smaller companies in India or elsewhere. | Health |
Hockey|Avs Defenseman Suspended for a Slashhttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/sports/hockey/avs-defenseman-suspended-for-a-slash.htmlAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySports Briefing | HockeyBy The Associated PressFeb. 11, 2014Colorado Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson was suspended by the N.H.L. for two games without pay for slashing Islanders forward Frans Nielsen on Saturday. AdvertisementContinue reading the main story | Sports |
Credit...Francis R Malasig/EPA, via ShutterstockNov. 9, 2018MANILA A Philippine court on Friday sentenced Imelda R. Marcos, the countrys flamboyant former first lady, to a minimum of 42 years in prison for creating private foundations to hide her unexplained wealth.But it is unlikely that Ms. Marcos, a 89-year-old widow, will see any jail time. The court, which handles graft and public corruption cases, said the ruling could be appealed, and legal experts have said Ms. Marcos could fight a prison sentence because of her advanced age.The sentence comes as Mrs. Marcos and her family have seen a political resurgence in the Philippines, having gained favor under the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte.The court found her guilty of seven counts of graft, with each count punishable by a minimum of six years in prison. The ruling also automatically disqualifies Mrs. Marcos, who is a congresswoman, from holding any public office.Mrs. Marcos did not appear in court for the sentencing, and a warrant was issued for her arrest. In a statement later Friday, Mrs. Marcos said her lawyer was studying the ruling and intended to file a motion asking the court to reconsider it.The lengthy sentence drew praise from some leading opponents of Mr. Duterte, who has in the past praised the brutal dictatorship of Mrs. Marcoss deceased husband, Ferdinand Marcos.Loretta Ann Rosales, the countrys former human rights commissioner, who was tortured as an activist in the 1970s for opposing Mr. Marcos, called the sentence a symbolic victory for the thousands who died resisting the dictatorship.I am literally jumping with joy, Ms. Rosales said in an interview. She said the ruling showed that there were still public corruption judges who have helped keep the candles lit through these dark nights and pursued the truth.She said the ruling also proved that the Marcoses and their cronies were guilty of raiding government coffers in order to enjoy a lavish lifestyle while millions of Filipinos lived in poverty.Neither Mrs. Marcos nor her lawyers could immediately be reached for comment.The charges against Mrs. Marcos took more than a quarter-century to prosecute, largely because many people who could have been witnesses had died or were too old to testify.The charges were filed in 1991, when state prosecutors accused Mrs. Marcos of creating private foundations in Switzerland and having financial interests in several companies when she was governor of Manila between 1978 and 1984. Prosecutors said the fake firms hid money that her family stole from the government.The prosecutors wrapped up their presentation in 2015, but Mrs. Marcoss lawyers successfully delayed the hearings by not appearing in court.Among those who testified against Mrs. Marcos was Frank Chaves, the countrys late solicitor general, who filed a sworn statement that said Mrs. Marcos had used the foundations in Switzerland to hide millions of dollars of stolen wealth.The government successfully recovered some $658 million that the Marcoses held in Swiss financial institutions. But officials believe that is just a fraction of the roughly $10 billion they say the Marcoses stole from the Philippines.Ferdinand Marcoss two-decade rule was ended by the 1986 people power revolution. The Marcoses were sent into exile in Hawaii, where Mr. Marcos died three years later.The family was subsequently allowed to return home, where they re-established a base in their hometown, Ilocos Norte, in the northern Philippines.The Marcoses political fortunes surged after Mr. Duterte was elected president two years ago. Mr. Duterte, who often describes himself as a fan of the late dictator, has credited the Marcos family with consolidating support for him in the north.In 2016, he allowed Mr. Marcoss remains to be reburied in a heroes cemetery in Manila, leading toprotests. Mr. Duterte has also backed Ferdinand Marcos Jr.s appeal of his narrow loss in the vice-presidential election that year.A spokesman for Mr. Duterte, Salvador Panelo, said Friday that the president respected the courts decision. While we note that there are still legal remedies available to Congresswoman Marcos, this latest development underscores that our country currently has a working and impartial justice system that favors no one, Mr. Panelo said.One of the Marcoses daughters, Imee Marcos, is running next year for the Philippine Senate. She recently refused demands by rights groups that she apologize for her fathers atrocities, calling on the public to move on. | World |
Technology|With Cryptocurrencies in Free Fall, One Big Firm Doubles Downhttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/25/technology/andreessen-horowitz-cryptocurrencies-fund.htmlCredit...Michael Nagle/BloombergJune 25, 2018SAN FRANCISCO Even with the cryptocurrency markets in an extended slump, the most prominent venture capital firm in the sector is doubling down.Andreessen Horowitz, the well-known firm that made early bets on Instagram and Reddit, said on Monday that it was creating a $300 million fund focused exclusively on projects inspired by the original virtual currency, Bitcoin. One of the leaders of the new fund will be the firms first female general partner, Kathryn Haun, a former federal prosecutor.Last year, when Bitcoin and most other virtual currencies were gaining in value, most of the large venture capital firms began beefing up on cryptocurrency expertise and making investments.Andreessen Horowitz was ahead of many of its peers. It was one of the first venture capital firms to begin dabbling in cryptocurrencies in 2013, when digital tokens were a fringe business.Now, Andreessen Horowitz appears to be the first mainstream venture capital firm to offer an investment fund focused exclusively on cryptocurrencies.The new fund A16z Crypto is being created at a difficult moment for the digital token markets. The price of Bitcoin has fallen by more than two-thirds since hitting a peak in December. Many smaller tokens have fallen much more than that as regulators have said many cryptocurrency projects that raised money last year had most likely done so illegally.Chris Dixon, who has been at the front of Andreessen Horowitzs work on digital currencies, and who will be one of the leaders of the new fund, has been critical of many of the projects that raised money through so-called initial coin offerings last year.But Mr. Dixon has argued that digital tokens provide a new way to fund and create decentralized software and protocols, like those that are the foundation of the internet. Andreessen has already made investments in many tokens aiming to do this, including Filecoin and Basis.There are two axes of progress; there is genuine innovation and the prices, Mr. Dixon said in an interview on Monday. The prices got ahead of the genuine innovation. The metric I look at is: Are there great entrepreneurs coming in and building great projects? On that metric I think the space is in a really strong place.Since leaving the federal prosecutors office in San Francisco in 2017, Ms. Haun has taught classes on cryptocurrencies at Stanford University and joined the board of Coinbase, the largest virtual currency brokerage. Ms. Haun led the prosecution of the federal agents who stole money from the online black market Silk Road when they were supposed to be tracking down the leader of the site.Andreessen Horowitz was one of the earliest investors in Coinbase. Mr. Dixon is on the board of the company, along with Ms. Haun. | Tech |
Under the leadership of the founders grandsons, the company has become a big financial backer of efforts to loosen government restrictions on illegal drugs.Credit...John Francis Peters for The New York TimesFeb. 28, 2022VISTA, Calif. Dr. Bronners, the liquid soap company best known for its teeny-font labels preaching brotherly love and world peace, would like you to consider the benefits of mind-altering drugs.The sentiment is promoted on limited-edition soap bottles that sing the praises of psychedelic-assisted therapies, and through the trippy pronouncements of David Bronner, grandson of the companys founder and one of its top executives, who is not shy about sharing details of his many hallucinogenic journeys.Lets face it, the world would be a far better place if more people experienced psychedelic medicines, said David, whose company in January became among the first in the United States to offer ketamine therapy as part of its employee health care coverage.Perhaps less well known is Dr. Bronners role as one of the countrys biggest financial supporters of efforts to win mainstream acceptance of psychedelics and to loosen government restrictions on all illegal drugs.Since 2015, Dr. Bronners Magic Soaps yes, thats its official name has donated more than $23 million to drug advocacy and research organizations, according to corporate documents. They include scientists researching the healing properties of the club drug Ecstasy, activist groups that helped decriminalize psilocybin magic mushrooms in Oregon and Washington, D.C., and a small nonprofit working to preserve habitat for peyote, the hallucinogenic cactus central to some Native American spiritual traditions.Over the years, the company has also spent millions on efforts toward cannabis legalization, including litigation that in 2018 helped reverse a federal prohibition on the cultivation of industrial hemp.ImageCredit...John Francis Peters for The New York TimesAlthough Open Society Foundations, the left-leaning philanthropy founded by George Soros, has quietly spent millions on drug policy changes, it is rare for a company to embrace an issue as contentious as loudly as Dr. Bronners has.When it comes to corporate philanthropy, youd be hard-pressed to find another company with the courage to publicly back an end to the war on drugs, said Rick Doblin, who runs the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a research and advocacy group. It has received nearly $6 million from Dr. Bronners, with an additional $1 million pledged for each of the next five years.The Bronner familys increasingly high-profile largess comes at a pivotal moment in the decades-long campaign to ease the nations just-say-no attitude toward illicit drugs. The changes have been seismic, from bipartisan congressional support for drug-sentencing reforms to the cascading state-by-state embrace of recreational marijuana.Ketamine therapy for depression has become a billion-dollar industry, and scores of states and municipalities are seeking to join Denver, Seattle and the dozen other cities that have decriminalized psychedelics. Researchers say another watershed moment is on the horizon: the Food and Drug Administration is considering approving MDMA, or Ecstasy, for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.The University of Texas, Johns Hopkins and Yale are among the stolid institutions that have created divisions to explore whether psychedelic compounds can advance the treatment of anxiety, depression, addiction and a range of other mental health disorders. We really are at an inflection point where the whole paradigm about these drugs is shifting, said Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, who is helping to set up the schools new Center for the Science of Psychedelics.ImageCredit...Dr. Bronner'sFounded in 1948 by Emanuel Bronner, a German-Jewish immigrant and a third-generation soap maker, Dr. Bronners tingly peppermint soap became a favorite in the 1960s among counterculture peaceniks who were enamored with its all-natural provenance and Bronners All-One-God-Faith dedication to ending the tribalism behind so much human suffering. One apocryphal origin story credits Woodstock for expanding its distribution. The joke is that it left the festival in three times as many VW microbuses as it arrived in, his grandson, Michael Bronner, said.Emil, as he was known, was a bracing, free-spirited renegade whose loquacious genius often danced on the edge of madness. (He was not, in any way, an actual doctor.) In 1945, not long after learning his parents had been murdered in Nazi death camps, Emil landed in a Chicago mental asylum, forcibly committed by his sister, where he was administered electric shock therapy, according to his family. After making an audacious escape, he hitchhiked to California, where he began his lifelong, peripatetic crusade to heal mankind.Bronner would hand out bottles of his product after delivering his idiosyncratic public lectures about humanitys need to save Spaceship Earth, but he soon realized most people were more interested in his free soap than his spiritual ideology. His remedy? He began printing those philosophic ramblings on the labels, which also explained the 18-in-1 uses for his concentrated liquid Castile soap. (Teeth cleaning! Dishwashing! Dog shampoo!)Though a suggested birth-control use has since been discarded, the Bronners have left much of the labels 3,000-word verbiage untouched, a decision that reflects the familys deep reverence for a man whose zany presence is inescapable more than two decades after his death at age 89.The patriarchs writings and his image are scattered throughout the companys headquarters in Vista, Calif., about 40 miles north of San Diego. A frighteningly large blowup of his grinning face greets visitors in the lobby. Nearby, a papier-mch figure wearing a leopard-print Speedo is a goofy homage to his predilection for conducting business in skimpy swimming trunks. (Fun fact: For decades, the phone number printed on soap bottles rang through to a collection of red rotary phones that Emil Bronner answered at all hours from his living room recliner.)ImageCredit...John Francis Peters for The New York TimesThe company remains a family affair. Michael, the self-described buttoned-up brother, is president; his sister, Lisa, helps promote the brands work on environmental sustainability and fair-trade issues; and their mother, Trudy, is the chief financial officer. David, the eldest child, is C.E.O. Cosmic Engagement Officer.Last year Dr. Bronners earned nearly $170 million in revenues, according to company documents, up from $4 million in 1998, several years after the company emerged from bankruptcy with an assist from Emils two sons, Jim and Ralph.That near brush with corporate death was tied to Emils decision to register his company, All One God Faith, Inc. as a religious nonprofit. The Internal Revenue Service was not pleased, and levied a crushing fine.But the founders unconventional approach to business lives on. Top salaries at the company cannot exceed five times that of the lowest-paid worker with five years on the job, which means Michael and David each earn roughly $300,000 a year. Their 300 employees receive an array of benefits, including up to $7,500 in child-care assistance and annual bonuses of up to 10 percent of their annual pay. The cafeterias vegan meals are free, as are the Zumba classes, back massages and solar-powered electric-vehicle charging stations.The company regularly spurns the kind of buyout offers that have claimed other independent brands like Burts Bees (now part of Clorox), Toms of Maine (Colgate-Palmolive) and Kiehls (LOral). The offers, the brothers say, go right into the trash. In a good year, the company gives away 45 percent of its profits, or about $8 million, according to the companys annual report. If we cashed out, wed be less effective as a charitable engine, David said.His own love affair with psychedelics began shortly after college, at a dance club in Amsterdam, where he was introduced to candy flipping the combination of LSD and Ecstasy. The journey included visions of Jesus, his grandfather and a dialogue with deep self, all of which helped him work through what he described as a crippling toxic masculinity and a troubled relationship. I died five times but it got me out of my dark hole and set me on my path, said David, 49, a vegan who favors hemp clothing and is especially fond of the adjective rad.He also has a showmans eye for attention-grabbing gestures, which got him arrested twice; once for sowing hemp seeds on the front lawn of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the other for milling hemp oil while locked in a cage in front of the White House.ImageCredit...John Francis Peters for The New York TimesThe companys move to tether a large chunk of its corporate identity to psychedelics and the politics of drug reform have not always gone down well, especially with Trudy, 79, a former junior high school math teacher and regular Methodist churchgoer who winces when recalling the excesses of the 1960s. I had friends who did the trippy stuff and it wasnt always good, she said. On the other hand this country has a lot of mental health issues that need to be addressed.Her lingering skepticism was dispelled by Michaels recent turn to psychedelics. The shift came last year, when the medications he had long relied on to treat his anxiety and depression stopped working. It was then that he decided to try talk therapy paired with ketamine, a legal anesthetic and party drug that has been gaining increasing acceptance among mental health professionals.He compared the experience to a massage for the brain that helped clear away much of his angst and despair. I dont want to oversell ketamine therapy as a miracle cure but it just stripped the rust away, gave me a reset and got me to a really good space, he said.So far 21 employees or their dependents have signed up for the treatments, which can cost several thousand dollars.A battlefield anesthetic that is also used in veterinary medicine, ketamine has only recently gained popularity as a therapy for hard-to-treat depression and suicidal ideation. Though the drug does not have F.D.A. clearance for mental health conditions, doctors are allowed to prescribe it for so-called off-label use when they think it will provide benefits to a patient.Enthea, the health plan benefit administrator for the treatments, said 10 other companies were already following in Dr. Bronners footsteps. Many are driven by the prospect of reduced spending on mental health coverage and also with increasing employee productivity, Lia Mix, Entheas founder and chief executive, said.Emil Bronner didnt do drugs, and he was distrustful of Western medicine, refusing to see a doctor even as he began losing his eyesight in his 60s. But his grandsons are sure he would have approved of their decision to make psychedelics a central component of the family business.Our grandpa was all about shifting consciousness and opening hearts and minds, David said, pausing for comic effect and flashing a mischievous grin: He probably would have put LSD in his soaps.ImageCredit...John Francis Peters for The New York Times | Health |
The Week AheadDec. 6, 2015Here is what to look out for this week:Financial Concerns in Europe Ministers from the eurozone meet on Monday afternoon to discuss further funding for Greece and to review a loan program for Ireland. The focus is most likely to be on Greece, and on how soon the government in Athens can unlock a payment of 1 billion euros. But no decisions on the payment were expected. The Eurogroup should be joined on Tuesday by finance ministers from European Union member states outside the eurozone. The agenda items for that meeting include a discussion on how to close corporate tax loopholes and a proposal for a European system to share the cost of protecting savers during banking crises. James Kanter Office Suppliers Review by F.T.C. The fate of Stapless more than $6 billion proposed acquisition of its rival office supplier Office Depot may be decided by Tuesday. Thats the deadline set by the Federal Trade Commission in October for deciding whether the deal would produce an anticompetitive combination. The last time the two companies tried to combine, in 1996, they were blocked. The F.T.C. may also decide to extend its review of the deal. Leslie PickerHome Depots Next Projects Home Depot will hold an analyst and investor conference on Tuesday morning, when it is expected to lay out its three-year strategic vision. The presentation follows strong third-quarter results last month from the retailer, which reported that same-store sales rose 7.3 percent compared with the same period last year. The company also posted net earnings of $1.36 a share, beating analysts expectations. Those numbers have helped ease concerns about the rebounding financial health of the American consumer. Rachel Abrams VW Investigation Updates The supervisory board of Volkswagen will meet at company headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, on Wednesday and is expected to receive an update on an in-house investigation into the emissions cheating scandal. Matthias Mller, the Volkswagen chief executive, has said it will take several more months to reach final conclusions about who was responsible for the software designed to provide misleading pollution readings. But he has said he would provide an interim report. Jack EwingRisks and Rates in Britain The week will be a big one for central bank watchers in Britain as the Bank of England releases the minutes of the November meeting of its Financial Policy Committee on Wednesday and announces on Thursday its monthly decision on whether to raise a crucial interest rate. In its semiannual financial stability report last week, the committee identified several potential risks to the stability of the financial system in Britain, including a global economic environment that remains challenging and strong growth in so-called buy-to-let lending, where investors take out loans to buy rental properties. On Thursday, the banks Monetary Policy Committee is expected to leave the benchmark rate steady at 0.5 percent, where it has been since March 2009. Chad Bray Hearing on Drug PricingThe Senate Special Committee on Aging will hold a hearing on Wednesday to examine sudden spikes in the prices of older pharmaceuticals. These include Turing Pharmaceuticals overnight increase to $750 per pill from $13.50 for a 62-year-old drug that treats a parasitic infection. The committee, headed by Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, with Claire McCaskill of Missouri, the top Democrat, requested information last month from four companies that acquire the rights to neglected drugs and then substantially increase prices. These include Turing and Retrophin, both of which were founded by the former hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli. Also asked was Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, whose stock has plummeted on concerns about its pricing practices and its now-severed relationship with a mail-order pharmacy. The executives of the drug companies are not expected to testify. Rather, the hearing, which is described as the first of a series on the matter, is scheduled to get testimony from academic experts and the chief executive of a trade group representing pharmacy benefit managers. Andrew PollackDigital Content Rules in Europe The European Commission will unveil proposals on Wednesday to allow people across the region to gain access to digital content like movies on Netflix when they travel beyond their national borders. Currently, access to digital content cannot be gained outside a persons home country. The rules, which will come into force in early 2017, are part of a long-awaited copyright overhaul that could also force the likes of Google to pay publishers when they include articles in Google News, its online news aggregation service. Mark Scott Retail Sales Report Retail sales numbers for November, due from the Commerce Department on Friday, are expected to show a stronger rebound in consumer spending and to give the Fed further impetus to raise interest rates this month. Economists expect overall retail sales to have climbed 0.3 percent, compared with 0.1 percent the previous month, spurred by higher spending on cars and homes. Some apparel retailers are suffering this holiday season, however, as unseasonably warm weather across much of the country has hurt sales of winter coats and boots. Hiroko Tabuchi Consumer Attitudes On Friday morning, the University of Michigan will report the preliminary results of its survey of consumer sentiment for December. Consumer attitudes improved in November, and economists are expecting another rise in the index. Besides a rebounding stock market, falling gas prices and a healthier job market have also reassured Americans about the economys course after a rocky summer and early fall. Nelson D. Schwartz | Business |
Polio left her in a wheelchair. It also started her on a lifelong fight to change perceptions and break down real-world obstacles. Credit...James Estrin/The New York TimesDec. 1, 2019Marilyn E. Saviola, who after childhood polio left her a quadriplegic spent much of her adult life advocating for people with disabilities, pushing for the removal of both the physical barriers and the attitudes that hinder people like her from fully participating in society, died on Nov. 23 at her home in Brooklyn. She was 74.Independence Care System, which supports people with disabilities and chronic conditions, and where Ms. Saviola was a senior vice president, posted news of her death on its website. The cause was not given.Ms. Saviola joined the battle for the rights of people with disabilities back when it was still relatively new, while in college in the late 1960s. She was executive director of the advocacy group Center for the Independence of the Disabled in New York from 1983 to 1999 and then spent the next 20 years with Independence Care System, running its advocacy and womens health program.Those roles put her in the midst of the push for obvious accommodations like curb cuts in sidewalks and less obvious ones like financing for personal aides for people who need help dressing, bathing and getting in and out of wheelchairs. Over the years her wide range of activities included blocking buses in her wheelchair in transportation-related protests and organizing a singing group for people with disabilities. This past summer she was honored at the opening of a newly renovated radiology unit at NYC Health & Hospitals/Gotham Health in the Morrisania section of the Bronx that typifies her impact. The new unit, equipped with lifts, movable examination tables and a modified mammography machine, is designed to make it easier for women who use wheelchairs or have other disabilities to receive mammograms and obstetric and gynecological care.Marilyn Saviolas steadfast advocacy has ensured that the needs of the disability community are at the forefront of health care policy discussions, Victor Calise, commissioner of the New York City Mayors Office for People With Disabilities, said at the time.For Ms. Saviola, such services and facilities were a civil right on a par with those fought for by black people and women.Our goal is not to get to the front of the bus, she told The New York Times in 1997, it is to make government pay for technology to get us on the bus.ImageCredit...James Estrin/The New York TimesMarilyn Elizabeth Saviola was born on July 13, 1945, in Manhattan and grew up in the Bronx. Her father, Peter, and mother, Camilla, immigrants from Italy, owned a candy store and luncheonette. But her life changed drastically in August 1955, when she became sick while visiting relatives in Connecticut.Polio was diagnosed. The first vaccine for it had recently been developed, but she hadnt yet received it.I was supposed to do it when I went back to school in September, she recalled in an oral history recorded for the Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement Oral History Project in 2001.She was taken to Willard Parker Hospital in Manhattan.I was in this huge room where I guess there were maybe four or five other people, she recalled, and they would always die. Apparently I was one of the few people who ever survived in that room.She spent time in an iron lung and, when she came out of it, had to use a respirator to breathe. She was transferred to Goldwater Memorial Hospital on Roosevelt Island, which provided long-term care for people with disabilities and chronic conditions, but eventually was sent home.There, in her familys two-story home, with stairs to negotiate, her life became more limited as she grew larger and her parents couldnt easily lift her. In her teens, she decided to return to Goldwater to live.I had a lot of friends, but when youre getting to like 16 and 17, they all would go out and I would be stuck alone, she said. So I had nothing. At least in Goldwater I had a peer group, you know, and I got out.ImageCredit...James Estrin/The New York TimesShe began to think about her disability and why it was easier for her to live in an institution than at home. She finished high school at Goldwater there were tutors there and was accepted at Long Island University. At first she didnt go to classes in person; she took them via a speaker phone.It was horrible, she said. All I had was the work and none of the fun of going to college.She began attending classes at the universitys buildings in Brooklyn, using a motorized wheelchair. That had its challenges.Going to the library was a joke because it really wasnt at all accessible, she said, nor could you get any help unless you brought an able-bodied person with you or a person whose disability was less than yours.Yet she earned a bachelors degree in psychology there in 1970. Two years later she received a masters degree in rehabilitation counseling at New York University. While in college she became involved with others who were turning the activism of the period toward issues faced by people with disabilities. We were beginning to get much more militant about our movement, she said in the oral history. Wanting for change to occur through the goodness of well-meaning this wasnt enough.She participated in demonstrations with groups like Disabled in Action (later becoming its president), and she began to realize she wanted to leave Goldwater Memorial and live on her own. In 1973 she moved into her own apartment. She was surprised when friends and family members kept telling her how brave she was.The thing was that I wasnt scared, she said. It was much scarier for me thinking about remaining the rest of my life in Goldwater than leaving the institution and living on my own.In the ensuing decades she was a strong voice on issues including transportation, housing and education for people with disabilities. In the 2001 oral history, she noted a simple sign of progress.Ten, 15 years ago, if I wanted to go to a movie, the way I would go is find out what movie is playing at the theater I could get into, as opposed to what movie is it that I want to see, she said. Now its so much easier, because so many of the theaters are accessible.Ms. Saviola is survived by her partner of many years, Robert Geraghty.Although Ms. Saviola knew that in many ways the push for disability rights is still in its early stages and that the gains made by advocates like her can be undone, in a video interview with The Times in 2010 she noted one clear sign of progress, at least in New York: visibility.One of the greatest changes is, Im not the only one, she said. Ill go to an event, a concert, Ill go into a store, there are other people who are wheelchair users. That didnt happen 30 years ago. | Health |
The campaign will urge its supporters to push the social media giant to strengthen its rules against misinformation and harmful comments.Credit...Mark Makela for The New York TimesJune 11, 2020WASHINGTON The Biden presidential campaign, emboldened by a recent surge in support, is going after a new target: Facebook.After months of privately battling the tech giant over President Trumps free rein on its social network, the campaign will begin urging its millions of supporters to demand that Facebook strengthen its rules against misinformation and to hold politicians accountable for harmful comments.On Thursday, the campaign will circulate a petition and an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebooks chief executive, to change the companys hands-off approach to political speech. The petition will be sent to millions of supporters on its email and text message lists and through social media, including Facebook, imploring them to sign the letter. The campaign will also release a video this week to be shared across social media to explain the issue.Real changes to Facebooks policies for their platform and how they enforce them are necessary to protect against a repeat of the role that disinformation played in the 2016 election and that continues to threaten our democracy today, said Bill Russo, a spokesman for the Biden campaign.The move puts the Biden camp in the center of a raging debate about the role and responsibility of tech platforms. Civil rights leaders, Democratic lawmakers and many of Facebooks own employees say that big tech companies have a responsibility to prevent false and hateful information from being shared widely.But conservatives, including Mr. Trump, accuse social media companies that have tightened their speech policies, like Twitter and Snap, of political bias. Two weeks ago, after Twitter attached fact-checking notices to two of the presidents tweets that made false claims about voter fraud, Mr. Trump signed an executive order that would make it easier for federal regulators to argue that the companies are suppressing free speech.The Biden teams offensive also intensifies pressure on Facebook, which faced a public backlash last week after it did nothing about inflammatory posts by Mr. Trump. Employees resigned, hundreds participated in a virtual walkout, advertisers canceled their accounts, and nonprofits in Washington ceased sponsorships from the company.The criticism poses one of most serious challenges to the leadership of Mr. Zuckerberg since he helped start the company 15 years ago. But faced with opposition in the past, the 36-year-olds instinct has been to dig in his heels. Mr. Zuckerberg feels strongly that his platform should be neutral and believes the debate on speech is about preserving a diversity of ideas, even if those ideas are false or harmful.ImageCredit...Pete Marovich for The New York TimesWe live in a democracy, where the elected officials decide the rules around campaigns, Andy Stone, a spokesman for Facebook, said on Thursday. Two weeks ago the president of the United States issued an executive order directing federal agencies to prevent social media sites from engaging in activities like fact-checking political statements.This week, the Democratic candidate for president started a petition calling on us to do the exact opposite. Just as they have done with broadcast networks where the U.S. government prohibits rejecting politicians campaign ads the peoples elected representatives should set the rules, and we will follow them. There is an election coming in November and we will protect political speech, even when we strongly disagree with it.Tim Murtaugh, the director of communications for Mr. Trumps campaign, said, The American people can think for themselves. They dont want big tech companies telling them how to think.Joe Biden has been buoyed in recent weeks by new financial and online support. His campaign has had a surge in fund-raising, and it has collected 1.2 million more email signatures in the past seven days. Numerous political polls have shown him gaining ground on Mr. Trump.Even though he plans to attack Facebook, Mr. Biden is increasingly turning to the site to reach voters with ads. In recent days, he spent $5 million in advertising on Facebook, surging past political ad spending by Mr. Trump, who has dominated Facebook throughout the campaign season.Biden is doing the right thing by pushing the platform to be more ethical and by not walking away from it, which is not realistic, said Erik Smith, a former Democratic strategist and co-founder of Seven Letter, a crisis communications firm. But hes running a race against an opponent who has a 10-mile head start on Facebook.The open letter being sent on Thursday will say that Trump and his allies have used Facebook to spread fear and misleading information about voting, attempting to compromise the means of holding power to account: our voices and our ballot boxes.It calls on the company to take several steps to limit misinformation and hateful language on the site, including making clear rules that prohibit threatening behavior and lies about how to participate in the election.The video criticizing Facebook will be narrated by Mr. Bidens deputy campaign director, Kate Bedingfield. It will warn that Facebooks inaction toward Mr. Trump threatens the election and puts Americans in harms way. The goal is to publicly pressure Facebooks leadership to restrict misinformation by politicians and to fact-check political ads ahead of the November election.The tensions between the Biden campaign and Facebook began last October, in the heat of Mr. Trumps impeachment battle. The Trump campaign released ads on Facebook that falsely claimed that Mr. Biden offered to bribe Ukrainian officials to drop an investigation into his son. The claims in the video ads were not substantiated, and television networks, including CNN, declined to run the ads.The campaign complained to Facebook and demanded that the videos, which were viewed and shared millions of times, be removed. But the company said the videos didnt clearly violate its policies against misinformation and that comments by politicians and their campaigns, even if false, were newsworthy and important for public discourse.Mr. Zuckerberg later that month defended that decision in a speech at Georgetown University, arguing that he believed political speech did not need to be fact-checked or moderated by the company because comments by political figures were deeply scrutinized by the public.In January, in an interview with The New York Timess editorial board, Mr. Biden criticized Mr. Zuckerberg personally.Ive never been a big Zuckerberg fan, Mr. Biden said. I think hes a real problem.Mr. Biden also called for the end of the legal shield Mr. Trump targeted recently in his executive order. The vice president said Facebooks inaction demonstrated the need to revoke the law, known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields them from most liability for the content they host.Behind the scenes, the campaign had continued to negotiate with top Facebook executives and lobbyists, according to letters obtained by The Times. In April, senior campaign officials wrote Brian Rice, the top Democratic lobbyist for Facebook, with proposals to improve fact-checking ahead of the election. The campaign called for Facebook to fact check new political ads two weeks ahead of the Nov. 3 election, and to restrict campaigns and candidates from sharing content already deemed false by third-party fact checkers.On May 26, the campaign manager, Jen OMalley Dillon, wrote a letter to Mr. Zuckerberg to again push for changes to political speech policies and noted that often content by super PACs is checked only days after it has been posted and gone viral, even though it contains misinformation. Mr. Zuckerberg didnt respond, though Facebook did.The campaign decided to take its fight public after Mr. Trumps posts in recent days. He falsely claimed that mail-in ballots would lead to voter fraud. And his warning that when the looting starts, the shooting starts, startled people on the campaign.You seem to carve out an exception for Donald Trump that permits him to abuse your platform because he is the president, Ms. Dillon wrote in a separate letter on June 5 to Nick Clegg, Facebooks vice president of global policy and communications. But it is surely clear that precisely because Donald Trump is the president, these abuses take on major significance. | Tech |
Credit...EPA, via ShutterstockNov. 2, 2018CAIRO Islamist gunmen killed at least seven Coptic Christian pilgrims in Egypt on Friday and wounded at least 16 in an attack later claimed by the Islamic State.The attack an ambush on two buses ended a nearly yearlong lull in major attacks on Copts in Egypt, and may signal a resumption of the Islamic States campaign to sow sectarian divisions in Egyptian society.It was also a setback for President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who has put security concerns at the heart of his autocratic style of rule and has repeatedly vowed to protect Christians, a minority in the country, from attack.The shooting occurred as two buses carrying pilgrims left the Monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor, 85 miles south of Cairo, in Egypts Western Desert.The Islamic State, also known as ISIS, claimed responsibility on its Amaq news service.A video circulating on Facebook from the site of the attack showed a man slumped over the steering wheel of a bus. Two other bloodied, inert figures lay on the back seats. A door of the vehicle, apparently ripped from its hinges and covered in blood, lay on the ground.The Interior Ministry said the attackers appeared to have used a secondary road to approach the bus in the vicinity of the remote desert monastery south of Cairo.Ambulances carrying three people seriously injured in the attack pulled into Cairos Sheikh Zayed Specialized Hospital on Friday evening. Nader Adel, a volunteer who accompanied a wounded teenage boy to the hospital, said the boy described the ambush to him.By that account, masked gunmen riding a pair of small, off-road vehicles stopped the buses as they left the monastery. The gunmen stepped up and opened fire. One of the buses managed to speed away, but the other, in which the seven people were killed, did not. People were injured on both buses.The same desert road was the site of an almost identical attack in May 2017. In that incident, gunmen wearing military fatigues opened fire on three buses that were traveling in a convoy toward the monastery of Saint Samuel. At least 28 people were killed.Visits to desert monasteries, which have surged in number in the past 50 years, play a central part in the religious practice of many Egyptian Copts, who make up an estimated 10 percent of the countrys population.The Copts have also been staunch supporters of Mr. Sisi, although their backing has been shaken by violent attacks in the past two years. Fridays attack coincided with the start of one of Mr. Sisis prestige events the World Youth Forum, in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh, where he is expected to address thousands of young Egyptians this weekend.In a statement, Mr. Sisi condemned the attack as an act of black terrorism carried out by forces that were seeking to undermine the cohesive fabric of the homeland. He vowed to find and prosecute the perpetrators.The attacks on Christians are viewed as an attempt by the Islamic State to widen its campaign of violence beyond Sinai, where the group has been fighting the Egyptian military for years, and to exacerbate religious divisions in Egyptian society, much as it did in Iraq and Syria.In the past two years, Islamist suicide bombers have hit prominent churches in Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta, a city in the Nile Delta, killing at least 100 people.But the worst act of sectarian bloodshed, in November 2017, targeted Muslims. Dozens of militants opened fire on a mosque in Sinai affiliated with the Sufi strain of Islam, which extremists view as heretical. The militants killed at least 311 people, in the deadliest act of terrorism in Egypts modern history.In the past year, tighter security around Christian places of worship and the capture of high-level militant commanders, including one apprehended last month in Libya, led to a sharp reduction in Islamist attacks. But the attack on Friday signaled that a deadly threat remains. | World |
News AnalysisCredit...Dolly Faibyshev for The New York TimesDec. 10, 2015WASHINGTON For roughly the first two years of its existence, Munchery, an on-demand food preparation and delivery service, classified its drivers as independent contractors. They were not covered by minimum wage and overtime laws, and were not eligible for unemployment insurance or workers compensation.Then, in 2013, it reversed course and made its drivers full-blown employees. In addition to those various protections, they received health benefits if they worked at least 30 hours per week.The about-face suggests an ambiguity in the status of workers at Munchery and other on-demand companies like the car-hailing services Uber and Lyft. These workers have some characteristics typically associated with contractors (like working as few or as many hours as they want), and some associated with regular employees (the companies often give some form of instructions about how to perform tasks).This ambiguity has, in turn, led to pleas by technology executives and policy advocates for the creation of a new kind of worker status that would effectively split the difference between the two categories.Alan B. Krueger, a former chief economist to President Obama, and Seth D. Harris, a former deputy labor secretary, argued in a paper released this week that many workers in the so-called online gig economy should have more rights and protections than most do now. At the same time, they wrote, forcing these new forms of work into a traditional employment relationship could be an existential threat to the emergence of online-intermediated work.Muncherys experience, however, suggests that the traditional employee-contractor dichotomy in the laws governing work may still hold up reasonably well when it comes to this new world. The true source of ambiguity may be confusion on the part of the companies themselves over which model best suits their business needs.While the upfront costs were lower for Munchery with a work force of contractors who receive a 1099 form for their taxes rather than the W-2 reserved for employees this approach was ultimately bad for business.There was too much turnover, while high-volume periods, like the Super Bowl or days with miserable weather, were a challenge.When lots of people want food delivered, said Kris Fredrickson, the companys vice president for operations, on a 1099 model its tougher to compel them to show up.Under an employment model, by contrast, the company has a much more reliable and knowledgeable work force, one that can be held to a specific standard of quality and a more consistent schedule. Company executives said the additional 20 to 30 percent in costs have more than paid for themselves.And Munchery, it turns out, is only one of many on-demand companies to have made the transition in recent years.After Instacart, the on-demand grocery delivery service, was started in 2012, it became known as the Uber for groceries. A worker would fire up the Instacart app on a smartphone, accept an order, drive to the desired supermarket to buy the goods, then drop them off at the customers home.But turnover was higher than the company preferred, and service quality was lower: There were too many missed items and too much bruised produce. It was also highly inefficient to pay drivers to make the trip from their homes to the store to the customer.This year, Instacart reimagined its model. Thanks to partnerships with leading supermarkets, teams of designated shoppers now embed in each store and respond quickly to orders. Instacart has made them bona fide employees who receive training and will be judged on how well they do their jobs.The shoppers then pass the order along to drivers, who remain independent contractors. The only requirement for drivers, who receive no training or instructions, is that they have a license and a clean record, and can navigate their way around town.While the company is still refining the business model, said Nikhil Shanbhag, an Instacart vice president, weve seen a cadre of workers who are better, have fewer issues than we used to see before in terms of missed items, bad produce. They are getting more and more efficient.There are certainly legitimate gray areas in the laws governing the online gig economy. In a comment that has since been widely circulated, a federal judge in California hearing a case brought by Lyft drivers brooded earlier this year that the jury in this case will be handed a square peg and asked to choose between two round holes.In their analysis, Mr. Krueger and Mr. Harris posit a situation in which a single driver has both the Uber and Lyft apps open simultaneously before accepting a passenger. If the drivers were employees and potentially eligible to be compensated for time spent waiting for passengers, not just driving passengers they ask, Who should pay the driver for this waiting time? (The new report was carried out for the Hamilton Project, a research group, but Mr. Krueger previously co-wrote a study of Uber drivers that was commissioned by the company.)But even these hard cases often are not necessarily as hard as they initially appear. Benjamin I. Sachs, a Harvard law professor who is a former union official, notes that the drivers may only need to be paid from the point at which they have agreed to pick up a particular rider.And such cases appear to be relatively rare even in the gig economy, which itself is a tiny fraction of the economy over all, less than 1 percent of employment in the United States, according to an estimate by Mr. Krueger and Mr. Harris.More fundamentally, Uber and Lyft face the same basic questions that Munchery and Instacart do: Do they want control over their workers or not?Companies that do and there are some indications that these ride-hailing platforms are among them, with practices like deactivating drivers who do not maintain certain quality ratings are frequently considered employers in the eyes of the law.What I know about the nature of the control exercised by Uber and Lyft over the way the work is performed, and the fact that the drivers perform a service integral to the business model itself, provide a strong indication of an employment relationship, said Wilma B. Liebman, a former chairwoman of the National Labor Relations Board.Both Uber and Lyft maintain the contrary. Another fear among venture capitalists and tech executives is that these innovative companies are being coerced by the threat of litigation and a crackdown by regulators to upgrade their workers status even if they only engage in one or two practices like training that are common among employers.You have regulatory bodies suing people, lawyers out there suing people, said Simon Rothman, a venture capitalist at Greylock Partners, who is on the board of an on-demand firm. Many start-ups cant withstand a lawsuit even if a company is in the right.To fix this, regulators could simply clarify the criteria that suggest employment or independent contractor status categories that, in theory at least, already give businesses a fair amount of flexibility because no one factor carries the day. Courts and regulating agencies look at the totality, said David Rolf, president of a large service employees union in the Northwest. Training in and of itself is not determinative.Mr. Krueger and Mr. Harris are concerned that what they see as the overly crude nature of labor law means that independent contractors are not provided enough protections.But creating an entirely new category of worker would not only be politically and logistically tortuous, it would also risk depriving workers who would otherwise be classified as employees of the benefits they might enjoy.That has been the experience with intermediate categories both in Britain and Italy, according to an analysis by Valerio De Stefano and Janine Berg of the International Labor Office, which is based in Geneva.We could do something that is unduly hasty and ends up doing more harm than good, said Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez, whose department is actively exploring the implications of the gig economy for the laws it enforces, but who declined to comment on the Krueger-Harris paper specifically. I am undeniably fearful that the on-demand conversation is used as an excuse to further roll back the safety net. | Business |
Milton Bradley Suspect In Dom. Violence Investigation ... Again 1/30/2018 Ex-MLB star Milton Bradley is the suspect in a domestic violence investigation -- less than 2 years after he spent 15 months in jail for a previous incident. TMZ Sports has learned ... cops were called to Bradley's L.A. home on Sunday where a woman told police the former MLB All-Star roughed her up during a heated argument. 39-year-old Bradley was not in the home when cops arrived. We're told the woman did not require medical attention. Cops are investigating and are trying to get in touch with Bradley, ASAP. Of course, Bradley has a well-documented history of domestic violence. In 2013, he was convicted of beating up his previous wife, Monique, and was sentenced to 32 months in jail. According to the L.A. Country Sheriff's Dept. records, Bradley was released on August 24, 2016 after only 15 months. Bradley played for 8 teams during his 11-year MLB career that started in 2000 and ended in 2011 -- including the Dodgers, Cubs, Rangers and Mariners. He reportedly made more than $46 MILLION. Multiple attempts to reach Bradley were unsuccessful. | Entertainment |
Dec. 23, 2015Tucked inside the mammoth tax and spending bill passed by Congress this month is a much-anticipated provision that will lock in a large tax break for small-business capital investments that has been temporary until now.The break is intended to make it more affordable for small companies to buy up to $500,000 a year worth of equipment like computers, machinery and vehicles.Known as the Section 179 deduction, the tax provision allows qualifying capital items to be written off immediately on a businesss taxes, instead of being depreciated over a number of years. That has the effect of lowering a businesss taxable profits, sometimes significantly.The deduction is essentially limited to small and midsize companies. It begins phasing out when a company spends more than $2 million a year on qualifying purchases, and is eliminated entirely for those that spend more than $2.5 million.Jerry Kortesmaki, the owner of London Road Rental Center in Duluth, Minn., relies on the deduction to stock up on equipment for his machinery and party supplies rental business. This year, he is using it to help pay for some $200,000 in new goods, including chairs, a mini-excavator, four trailers, an insulation blower and a sewer camera.Ive been able to grow my company very quickly because Ive been able to reinvest whatever I made in buying more equipment to rent, said Mr. Kortesmaki, who has 11 full-time workers at his 13-year-old company.The deduction works like this: If a company has a $90,000 profit and decides to spend $50,000 of it on new computers, the company would normally write off the cost of the equipment gradually, deducting a portion of it each year over the span of the computers useful life. But Section 179 allows the business to deduct the entire $50,000 cost at once in the year the equipment is purchased, reducing the companys taxable profit to $40,000. (The deduction cannot exceed a businesss total net income.)Nearly all small businesses, even the very tiniest, should consider taking advantage of the deduction, said Tanya Ouellette, an accountant with Raiche & Company in Dover, N.H.It doesnt have to be a huge piece of equipment, she said. I tell my clients, If you bought a new Apple laptop, were going to take a 179 on that.For equipment dealers like Sherry Wuebben, who sells farm machinery, the permanence is as big a deal as the tax break itself. For the last few years, she and her customers have watched nervously as the years final days slipped away, wondering when and whether Congress would renew the deal that many business owners rely on to finance their big-ticket purchases.We would get phone calls every day from customers about it, wondering if they should go ahead and buy, said Ms. Wuebben, who is an owner of St. Joseph Equipment in La Crosse, Wis. The uncertainty weighed very heavily on them.ImageCredit...Mark Kegans for The New York TimesSection 179 was once a fairly limited tax break, with an annual cap of $25,000 or less. But in 2003, Congress temporarily raised the limit to $100,000, and in 2008, as the recession set in, it raised the cap again to $250,000. In 2010, hoping to stimulate more spending, Congress increased the limit to $500,000, allowing businesses to use the deduction toward expensive items like factory machinery and trucks.But each increase was a temporary measure requiring annual reauthorization to prevent the cap from returning to $25,000 and Congress developed a habit of waiting until the very last days of the year to make a decision. In 2012, it missed the calendar deadline completely and passed legislation on Jan 1, 2013, retroactively raising the deduction limit for equipment business owners had purchased the previous year.The uncertainty drives my clients up a tree, said Paul Neiffer, an accountant with CliftonLarsonAllen in Yakima, Wash., who specializes in the agricultural industry. Not knowing each year if it will be extended prevents a lot of our farmers from pulling the trigger on buying equipment.From now on, they will know. Signed on Friday by President Obama, the 233-page tax deal includes in its myriad tax breaks one that permanently sets the Section 179 cap at $500,000, subject to inflation adjustments.Mr. Kortesmaki said he was confident enough that Congress would once again lift Section 179s cap to go ahead this year with his planned capital purchases, even before the legislation was passed. But other business owners held off and this year, the deal came too late for some, Ms. Wuebben thinks.You cant plan to spend that kind of money with just two weeks left in the year, she said. We might see some activity this year, but the real benefit for us will come next year, when customers can plan ahead for it.Some companies do try to jam in qualifying purchases before the calendar year ends. Last year, Congress raised the Section 179 limit for the year on Dec. 16. The next day, the prices farm machinery sold for at auctions increased compared with just a few days earlier, according to Greg Peterson, the owner of Machinery Pete, a site that tracks equipment auction prices.The response is nearly Pavlovian at this point, he said. The farm audience had grown so used to this annual silly dance of wait-and-see on our friends in Washington.Making Section 179s higher limit permanent will cost taxpayers $77 billion in foregone revenue over the next 10 years, according to a government estimate. The tax breaks aim is to stimulate spending but does it work?An analysis by the Congressional Research Service found that expensing allowances like Section 179 appear to have a minor effect at best on how much businesses spend on capital goods. Expectations for future sales growth, not tax considerations, motivates most of the investment in the kinds of assets eligible for expensing.The main advantage of expensing allowances, the report suggests, comes from simplifying the tax accounting business owners face on their capital purchases.Still, owners like Mr. Kortesmaki see the tax break as a crucial one for helping their small business grow a bit bigger.Id rather invest that money in my business than pay taxes on it, he said. Having this become permanent makes my business planning for the next few years a whole lot easier. | Business |
A cardiologist and best-selling author, he was initially a skeptic before finding that a person can influence bodily health through meditation.Credit...via Benson FamilyPublished Feb. 17, 2022Updated Feb. 18, 2022Herbert Benson, a Harvard-trained cardiologist whose research showing the power of mind over body helped move meditation into the mainstream, died on Feb. 3 at a hospital in Boston. He was 86.His wife, Marilyn Benson, said the cause was heart disease and kidney failure.Dr. Benson did not set out to champion meditation; in fact, even after his first pioneering studies, he remained a skeptic, picking up the practice himself only decades later.He was, however, open to the possibility that state of mind could affect a persons health common sense today, but a radical, even heretical idea when he began researching it in the mid-1960s.During a stint working for the U.S. Public Health Service in Puerto Rico, he noticed that island residents often had significantly lower blood pressure than their mainland counterparts, all else being equal. He began to wonder if part of the cause lay outside the usual explanations of diet and exercise a question he took up when he returned to Harvard as a researcher in 1965.Working in a lab at Boston City Hospital (now Boston Medical Center), he and his colleagues devised a way to train monkeys to raise and lower their blood pressure, based on a reward system. The work was low-key; many medical researchers took it as fact that while a stressful situation could raise heart rates thanks to the fight-or-flight response discovered, coincidentally, in the same lab where Dr. Benson worked the mind itself had no control over it.Word got out, though, and one day Dr. Benson was approached by several followers of the founder of Transcendental Meditation, a technique that claims to allow practitioners to enter a higher state of consciousness through the repetition of a mantra. Why teach monkeys, they asked him, when we have already perfected the practice?At first I didnt want to get involved with them, Dr. Benson told The New York Times in 1975, referring to the meditation practitioners. The whole thing seemed a bit far out and somewhat peripheral to the traditional study of medicine. But they were persistent, and so finally I did agree to study them.To avoid attention, he insisted they come after hours and enter through a side door. He attached sensors to their chests and masks to their faces, to measure their breathing, and then had them switch between periods of normal thinking and focused meditation.The meditators were right: Across a variety of metrics heart rate, oxygen intake they showed an immediate and significant drop during their contemplative moments, akin, Dr. Benson said, to entering a sleep state while still awake.I wasnt so shocked as I was wary, because I knew what was ahead of me because the negative mind-body bias was so strong, he told Brainworld magazine in 2019. I remained a cardiologist and also being head of cardiovascular teaching at Harvard Medical School, but I sustained two professional lives. I kept respectability within cardiology while I also did work in the mind-body field.Working with Robert Keith Wallace, a young physiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, he published his first findings in the early 1970s. Press reports called him a renegade and a maverick, and many in his profession shunned him.But others were impressed by the strength of his research, and by his objectivity. Unlike some researchers at the time, including Dr. Wallace, Dr. Benson was not an advocate of Transcendental Meditation; in fact, he split with Dr. Wallace when he insisted that there was nothing special about the practice or the use of mantras any word or phrase, repeated over and over, will do, he said.Dr. Benson called his approach the relaxation response the opposite of the fight-or-flight response. But whereas a stressful situation will cause the body to automatically raise its heart rate and release adrenaline, the relaxation response has to be asserted consciously.He demonstrated just how to do that in his book The Relaxation Response, published in 1975. It hit at the right time: That same year the Transcendental Meditation movement claimed more than 400,000 adherents, studying at more than 300 centers in the United States alone.Millions more Americans, if skeptical about alternative medicine and Eastern spirituality, were still meditation-curious, and Dr. Benson, with his Ivy League pedigree and clinical approach to research, gave them license to indulge. The book sold more than four million copies and was a New York Times best seller.Over time, Dr. Bensons insistence on the connection between the mind and the body became accepted, even standard fare among establishment researchers. In 1992 he founded the Mind-Body Institute, which in 2006 moved to Massachusetts General Hospital and, with an infusion of money from the investor John W. Henry, changed its name to the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine, with Dr. Benson as its director emeritus.ImageCredit...via Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body MedicineHerbert Benson was born on April 24, 1935 in Yonkers, N.Y. His father, Charles, ran a series of wholesale produce businesses, and his mother, Hannah (Schiller) Benson, was a homemaker.He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1957 with a degree in biology and received his medical degree from Harvard in 1961.Along with his wife, he is survived by a son, Gregory; a daughter, Jennifer Benson; and four grandchildren.Dr. Benson wrote 11 books after The Relaxation Response, several of which delved further into the physiological effects of spirituality and faith. He was the first Western doctor allowed to interview Tibetan monks about their practices, and he became friends with the Dalai Lama during that Buddhist spiritual leaders visit to Boston in 1979.Dr. Benson found, among other things, that Buddhist monks could, during meditation, raise their body temperature enough to completely dry damp sheets that had been draped over their bodies.Such findings were later disputed, and Dr. Benson was rarely without his critics. But he was undeterred, comparing himself to William James, a Harvard predecessor and another pioneer at the intersection of the mind and the body.Dr. Benson was not a praying man himself, but by the 1990s he was convinced that prayer, and faith in general, had a physiological impact. For him, the explanation lay in a version of the placebo effect: If we believe something is helping us, our bodies will work harder to heal.In 1996, with a $2.4 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation, he undertook a decade-long study on the healing power of prayer specifically, whether one persons prayers could help another.The conclusions, released in 2006, were definitive, and disappointing (at least to believers): Intercessional prayer not only had no impact, but in some cases where people believed they were being prayed for, they got worse a result, Dr. Benson said, of their conviction that if someone was praying for them, they must be very ill, with their body trying to match that impression by getting sicker.Still, Dr. Benson believed that prayer could help at least a sick person doing the praying. And he always took care to say that even if his research was 100 percent accurate, meditation and prayer could never replace drugs and surgery completely.Both medical treatment and spiritual care, he said, were necessary a fact that Western medicine had long tried to ignore, and one that he spent his career trying to correct. | Health |
Common SenseVideoJames B. Stewart discusses how Starbucks has kept up with high-end competitors.Dec. 3, 2015Angus Maxwell, 27, works in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He describes himself as an installation and performance artist and is a member of the Boom! Theater Company. He grew up in Seattle and wears a beard and wire-rim glasses.Hes also a barista for what must be among the most discerning coffee clientele in the country, where boutique roasters like Blue Bottle and Tobys Estate dominate the neighborhood. This week he brewed me a cup of small lot coffee Nicaragua El Suyatal (notes of hazelnut and caramel with a malty sweetness) while describing the distinctive flavor profiles of beans from Tanzania to Hawaii.Mr. Maxwell doesnt work for another artisanal upstart, but Starbucks. Hes the assistant store manager at the chains spacious year-old location on Williamsburgs Seventh Street, and has worked for the company for nearly five years.Howard D. Schultz, Starbuckss chief executive, told me this week that its people like Mr. Maxwell who explain the companys success, which has dazzled investors. In a year in which the S.&P. 500-stock index has been flat, Starbucks shares have surged more than 50 percent, making it one of the markets best performers. Last month, Starbucks reported record revenue of $4.9 billion and earnings of just under $1 billion for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015, both double-digit percentage gains over the previous year.Our brand equity is built on our customers experience, and that depends on the quality of our people, Mr. Schultz said. Starbucks prides itself on its care for partners, the noun it prefers to employees. It pays higher wages, offers health insurance even to part-time workers and pays college tuition for thousands of eligible employees. Starbucks employee turnover is relatively low, yielding benefits in efficiency and morale.Still, the companys labor practices have come under scrutiny for its inconsistent and inconvenient work hours. The Starbucks Workers Union mounts periodic protests, and in September some workers demonstrated over scheduling practices.Mr. Schultz has also been criticized for his broader utopian ambitions. Earlier this year, Starbucks was derided for encouraging baristas to write the phrase Race Together on customers coffee cups to stir a discussion of racial issues. Mr. Schultz makes no apologies for speaking out on political and social issues. From the beginning, we set out to build a company designed to balance profit with conscience, benevolence and social impact, he told me.Starbuckss strong financial performance seems all the more remarkable considering that the retail sector is struggling, and that the company had seemed to have lost its way when Mr. Schultz rejoined it in 2008. But last year, same-store comparable sales grew 8 percent, not just in growth markets like China and Japan, but in the United States. Theyve defied everyones expectations, especially for a business this mature, said Sara Senatore, who covers Starbucks as an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein.ImageCredit...Sam Hodgson for The New York TimesAnd rather than cede the high end to competitors like Stumptown, Blue Bottle or Intelligentsia, Starbucks took them on. It unveiled last year the Roastery & Tasting Room, a 15,000-square-foot showplace in Seattle, which Mr. Schultz described as a magic carpet ride of coffee, theater and romance. Starbucks is developing the Roastery as a separate premium brand, and it is no less than the future of the company, Mr. Schultz said.Its too soon to know if the rest of the world is ready for what several reviewers described as the Disneyland of coffee, where single cups brewed from rare beans can top $10 and baristas lead groups through flights of small-lot coffees, much like a wine tasting. But he said results had exceeded expectations and the company plans to roll out Roasteries in a few major markets, with New York high on its list.Starbucks locations like Williamsburg feature the Roasterys reserve coffees, and the company is looking to open as many as 1,000 of these reserve cafes over the next few years. My cup of Nicaraguan was $4 for a 12-ounce cup, and Mr. Maxwell hand-brewed it using Starbuckss trademarked Clover brewing system, featuring innovative vacuum-press technology. I dont claim to be a connoisseur, but it was remarkably good. And for $4, it should be.They have to invest and stay ahead of these trends and remind people they were there first, said Ms. Senatore, who pointed out that Starbuckss size gives it an edge in securing the best beans. They can do what the smaller competitors cant.The luxury coffee market has become crowded, as a stroll through the Brooklyn neighborhood makes clear. But Mr. Schultz said Starbucks could happily coexist with other high-end roasters. Williamsburg is emblematic of some of our most successful locations, Mr. Schultz said. Typically theres some mild protest that people dont want us to come in until after we get there and exceed expectations. The higher the quality coffee in any area, the better for us, because people get educated. New York City is competitive. London is competitive. Those are some of our best markets.Starbucks has also been a pioneer in mobile payments, something that many retailers are just beginning to adopt. With 16 million users and a generous rewards-loyalty program, the companys phone app which was unveiled just two years ago in some test markets accounts for about 21 percent of all transactions at company-owned stores in the United States. Starbucks has begun enabling its app users to order and pay in advance, and will also start offering delivery service. For a company where people are put off by long lines or dont have time to wait, this is a game changer, said Ms. Senatore.(McDonalds, by comparison, introduced its mobile app just this summer. And notably, Starbuckss stock market value is fast approaching that of McDonalds the burger giants market capitalization is $105 billion; Starbuckss is $91 billion.)Wall Street analysts say that the fruits of both the Roastery concept and the enhanced mobile payments strategy could soon start to show up in the companys financial results.You can come up with a pretty compelling argument for continued growth through 2020, said Karen Holthouse, an analyst who covers fast food and casual restaurants for Goldman Sachs. I dont think theres another company this size where you can say theyre going to grow earnings by 15 percent a year and be this confident about it. | Business |
Kris Jenner Kissing My T-Bird Goodbye But for $57k!!! 1/20/2018 Kris Jenner's gonna have fun, fun, fun with the money her T-Bird just hauled in at auction. TMZ has learned Kris' 1956 Ford Thunderbird just sold for $57,000 at the famed Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale. The sweet ride -- with white exterior and red leather interior -- was actually a 2016 Christmas gift from her kids. Velocity Although she's unloading hers, there's still another vintage ride in the fam. Kris' mom, MJ, also got a '56 T-Bird as a gift ... but in bright cherry red. 'Barrett-Jackson LIVE' airs all weekend on Velocity. | Entertainment |
VideoAt the epicenter of the Zika crisis, a mother in Recife, Brazil, struggles to care for her afflicted baby.CreditCredit...Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times. Technology by Samsung. March 11, 2017RECIFE, Brazil At night, rats often scurry on top of the thin gray mattress where Maria de Ftima dos Santos and Paulo Rogrio Cavalcanti de Arajo sleep with their two small children in a one-room house with a floor of dirt and concrete, and a green plastic basin for a toilet.In this achingly poor section of the Brazilian city of Recife, where a water channel has become an acrid open sewer, and clusters of men stand around smoking marijuana while young girls sniff glue from soda bottles, the couple is struggling to raise a baby with disabilities caused by the Zika virus.Their daughter, Eduarda Vitria, now 17 months old, has a range of problems stemming from brain damage caused by Zika, which her mother contracted when she was bitten by an infected mosquito while pregnant.When Eduarda was born, her parents had never heard of Zika, and they said doctors at the hospital did not understand it. But they knew something was wrong. In the hospital nursery, Mr. de Arajo said, I kept looking at her big body and very small head.The small head, a condition called microcephaly, was the most obvious sign of Zika damage. But Eduarda also suffers from seizures, muscle problems, impaired vision, and problems eating. She cries unless she is held, usually calmed only when her father kisses her belly or her mother plays religious songs on her cellphone and sings along.Poverty makes it hard for the family to manage Eduardas needs. Both parents are unemployed and receive a monthly government check of 880 reais (less than $300).Ms. dos Santos, 21, was abused by a stepmother, ran away to live on the streets at age 8, and became a crack user and prostitute until Mr. de Arajo, 48, met her. She has a stab wound on her left arm from a fight with a client over drugs and has struggled to stay clean since her first child, two-year-old Vitria Maria, was born.Eduarda, whose eyes cross, waited months for a clinic to have an available pair of glasses. She is supposed to wear braces on her legs and arms, but the leg braces she was given are too loose and the arm braces too tight, her mother says.Her parents protect Eduardas seizure medicine from rodents by keeping it in a plastic bag tied to a pipe. Sometimes, their own food is ravaged by giant rats that climb onto the stove the instant Ms. dos Santos turns to help the baby, and grab sausage right out of the pan.Eduarda has balked at eating much besides formula, and the government quit providing free formula when she turned 1 year old.Donations are over, we are not getting anything, Ms. dos Santos said.The parents, who stow Eduardas birth certificate and medical records under the mattress of the familys worn bed, dont take her to as many physical therapy sessions as some other Zika families. Getting to a session is a two-and-a-half-hour walk, or a 30-minute walk if they pay to take a bus the rest of the way.In their one-room house, inside a cabinet door, Ms. dos Santos has taped a strip of paper from a piece of candy. A question printed on the paper reads, Do que voc precisa para ser feliz? (What do you need to be happy?)A better life for my daughters, is Ms. dos Santos answer. A better future, a future I never had. | Health |
Feb. 6, 2014Credit...Gero Breloer/Associated PressKRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia Wolfgang Pichler, a prominent coach of the Russian biathlon team, said he knew that at least one Russian athlete was doping as far back as November, more than two months before she and another Russian biathlete were suspended for doping violations.Last weeks positive tests, right before the Sochi Olympics, have cast a shadow over the biathlon, a signature Russian sport that combines cross-country skiing with sharpshooting. The suspensions have raised widespread suspicions fair, or not about other Russian biathletes and have also proved an embarrassment for Mikhail D. Prokhorov, the billionaire who heads the Russian biathlon federation.Pichler, a widely respected German coach who was hired to help the Russians prepare for Sochi, said he had long been wary of Ekaterina Iourieva, one of the suspended biathletes who had been suspended once before for a doping violation.In an interview, Pichler described a deep rift within the program and repeatedly pointed out that a fellow coach, Vladimir Korolkevich, was responsible for the training of the biathletes who tested positive, signaling that he did not fully trust Korolkevichs regimen.If you have two cases in one team, then theres something wrong, Pichler said.He said he became convinced that Iourieva was doping in November when she performed surprisingly well, or suspiciously well, in a World Cup competition in Ostersund, Sweden.I was sure something was wrong, Pichler said. I dont trust Ekaterina Iourieva.He said he brought his suspicions to Sergey Kushchenko, the executive director of the Russian biathlon federation and a longtime Prokhorov deputy. Nothing was done, he said.Then, last week, Iourieva was suspended after testing positive for an unknown substance, as was Irina Starykh, a world champion biathlete and one of Russias brightest hopes for a biathlon medal. Iourieva had not qualified for Russias Olympic squad, but Starykh stepped down from the team. A Lithuanian was also suspended.The violations shook the Russian sporting world, which had high hopes for the biathlon team, just as it was about to enter the international spotlight.Pichler said the violations had infuriated and saddened him. This is a disaster, he said. For Russia, for the Olympics, this is a disaster.The biathlon has long had issues with doping because of its unusual requirements of endurance for the skiing portion and of a low heart rate for the shooting. Pichler said that he believed biathlon competitions were now 90, 95 percent clean, but he acknowledged the sports problems.It was really bad in 1999, he said. It was really bad in 1998; 2006 it had problems. But actually the last three, four years we have since 2009, there was only some.Pichler, 59, won dozens of World Cup titles as a coach in Sweden and was the first non-Russian head coach hired to work with Russias team.He adamantly maintained that he had nothing to do with the recent Russian violations, which he pointed out had come under the supervision of Korolkevich.Korolkevich was recently promoted over Pichler to become the head coach of the Russian women, a move that raised eyebrows in the biathlon world.Pichler described a frosty relationship. We dont talk much, Pichler said. We have totally different philosophy in training.Pichler stopped short of blaming Korolkevich for the doping violations, but he said that he believed something was rotten with Korolkevichs group.I dont know if it was his fault, Pichler said. I only know two athletes from his group were doping.For his part, Korolkevich called it an unpleasant coincidence that two of his biathletes had tested positive.The Russian biathlon federation has done a lot and is still doing a lot to make sure that Russian biathlon is clean, he said in a statement. It is still hard to believe that it really happened to us.Pichler said he would leave the Russian team if one of his athletes tested positive for doping. In fact, he said, a positive test would void his contract.The Russian team is still waiting for a second doping test of the two athletes that would serve as confirmation of the presence of a banned substance. Pichler said that Russias credibility depended on a thorough, transparent and swift investigation of what happened.Somebody has to be responsible, he said. It cannot be that nobody is responsible.He emphasized that he trusted Prokhorov, who has made it a priority to crack down on doping since he took the helm of the biathlon federation in 2008.This is really a hit in his face, he said. This is a problem for him.But he was in disbelief that Russian athletes would risk doping so close to the Sochi Games.I thought nobody could be so stupid, he said. These Olympics are so important for Russia, for Putin. It cannot be that somebody is so stupid. | Sports |
Credit...Tobias Nicolai/Scanpix, via ReutersNov. 21, 2018COPENHAGEN In the eyes of his former associates, Nedim Yasar, once the leader of a notorious Danish gang, did something much worse than just leave the criminal life: He talked about it, becoming a nationally recognized expert on gang violence.Mr. Yasir was fatally shot on Monday night at what should have been a high point in his reformed life he had just left a party in Copenhagen celebrating the release of a book about him, written with his cooperation. His death was big news in Denmark, lamented on the front pages of many newspapers.He was killed for what he said, not just because he left a brotherhood, said Aydin Soei, an author and sociologist who interviews and writes about gang members. The code is to leave the gang and shut up about it, but he went the other way. He stood up with his story, burning to break the chain feeding the gangs new members and to encourage others by saying there is an alternative to the gangs.The police in Copenhagen said they did not have any suspects and appealed for witnesses. In a statement, investigators said they were aware of an attempt on Mr. Yasars life at his home last year, but they had not been aware of any recent threats.Mr. Yasar had founded a gang, Los Guerreros, that became involved in drug trafficking, and he spent time in jail for violence, robbery, blackmail and unlawful imprisonment. Five years ago, he entered a state-run exit program for gang members, then became a radio host and a respected voice in Denmarks debate about gang violence.ImageCredit...Bax Lindhardt/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesOn Tuesday came the release of Rodder: A Gangsters Way Out, written by a journalist, Marie Louise Toksvig. The Danish word rodder is used to mean both roots and troublemakers.In an interview on Sunday, Mr. Yasar, who was born in Turkey and had lived in Denmark since age 4, said his decision to leave the gang took shape when he learned he was having a son.I was afraid he would look at me like I saw my father, so I had to choose: Do you want a son growing up looking at you thinking youre cool and then join the gangs and do crime to get your recognition? he told TV2. Or do you want to leave the environment so your son can see you in a different way and respect you for the human being you are?Mr. Yasar was shot while getting into his car after a book reception at the offices of the Danish Red Cross youth branch, where he had been a mentor to troubled youths.He was inspiring, but never lecturing. Its a big difference, said Anders Folmer Buhelt, the organizations director. Nedim was very strong on values and very clear on what society he wanted to create. But he was also clear on who he used to be.Mr. Soei, the sociologist, said he could not think of a more important voice warning young men against entering the dangerous and paranoid lifestyle of a low-level gang member, which is far removed from the tales of fame and wealth told by gang recruiters.ImageCredit...Bax Lindhardt/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesPoliticians including the prime minister and the minister of justice deplored the killing of Mr. Yasar and celebrated his contributions after he left the gang.This terrible tragedy raises the question if we as society offer the right protection to those people wishing to step out of the shadows and back in to society, the justice minister, Soren Pape Poulsen, wrote on Twitter.Jakob Kvist, the publisher of Rodder, said: My concern is that violence works, and this will deter others from coming forward and from seeking an exit from this environment. My concern is that the people he was fighting for who are living outside the states protection under alternative regimes in the ghettos will find it harder to get out.Gang violence in Denmark has never reached the levels seen in some other countries and rarely results in death, but it is one of the hottest topics on the political agenda, linked to arguments over how open the country should be to immigrants.For decades biker and immigrant-heavy gangs have fought on and off over control of illegal markets, internal conflicts and revenge. Attacks usually target members of rival gangs, but shots are sometimes fired in crowded areas, near innocent bystanders a rare threat and source of concern in a generally peaceful country.The most recent gang war, in 2017, lasted six months, leaving three people dead and 25 wounded. Little gang-related violence has been reported this year. | World |
Credit...Kim Kyung-Hoon/ReutersMarch 6, 2017TOKYO The apparent success of four simultaneous missile launchings by North Korea on Monday raised new alarms about the threat to its neighbors and its progress toward developing an ability to overcome their ballistic missile defense systems, including those that have yet to be deployed.According to the South Korean military, North Korea launched four ballistic missiles from its long-range rocket launch site on Monday morning.In Japan, analysts said the launches suggested that North Korea could pose a more serious threat than indicated by previous tests.Indeed, North Korea said on Tuesday that the tests were conducted by units tasked to strike the bases of the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces in Japan in contingency.That would mean a lot in terms of the defense of Tokyo, because North Korea might have been conducting a simulation of a saturation attack in which they launch a number of missiles simultaneously in order to saturate the missile defense that Japan has, said Narushige Michishita, director of the Security and International Studies Program at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo. It would be difficult for Japan to shoot down four missiles all at the same time because of our limited missile defense.The Norths Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday that the launches were timed to counter a joint United States-South Korean military exercise. The missile tests came three weeks after North Korea tested a missile during a visit to the United States by Japans prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to meet with President Trump.Japans Coast Guard sent out navigation warnings and stepped up air and sea patrols on Monday after three of the missiles landed within the countrys so-called exclusive economic zone, where fishing and cargo ships are active. The fourth landed outside it, though nearby.This was not the first time that North Korean test missiles have fallen within that zone. In both August and September of last year, missiles came within 125 and 155 miles of the Japanese coastline. Mondays missiles landed about 185 to 220 miles west of Akita Prefecture, on the northern coast of the main island, Honshu. The September launches involved three missiles fired simultaneously, but this time North Korea set off four missiles at once, all of which seemed to land successfully.During a parliamentary committee session Monday morning, Mr. Abe said that the launches clearly represent a new threat from North Korea.Japan and the United States requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the launches, most likely for Wednesday.The missiles took off from Tongchang-ri, in northwestern North Korea, and flew an average of 620 miles before falling into the sea between North Korea and Japan, said Noh Jae-chon, a South Korean military spokesman. The type of missile fired was not immediately clear, but Mr. Noh said it was unlikely that they were intercontinental ballistic missiles, which the North had recently threatened to test launch.In South Korea, the launch prompted South Korean security officials to call for the early deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense System, or Thaad, an advanced American antimissile system. China has protested Thaad as a threat to its own nuclear deterrence because its powerful radar would be able to track Chinese missile launches.Mr. Michishita, of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, said the missile launches could accelerate a discussion within the Japanese government about whether Japan should acquire more missile defense systems, including Thaad. In January, Japans defense minister, Tomomi Inada, visited a United States Air Force base on Guam for a briefing on Thaad.After North Koreas missile test last month, Japans governing Liberal Democratic Party formed a committee to discuss the countrys ballistic missile defenses, and it plans to debate various options, including Thaad, early warning satellites and other defense systems that could intercept incoming missiles.North Koreas provocations could also embolden Mr. Abe in his campaign to raise military spending. This can be used by the government as a pretty credible reason why we have to spend more on defense at the expense of other budget items, including social welfare programs, Mr. Michishita said.The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported in its evening edition that residents in Akita Prefecture, which sits closest to where the missiles landed in the Sea of Japan on Monday, were concerned by the increasing frequency of the tests.Kazuhiro Asai, director of the Kitaura branch of the Fishermens Cooperative of Akita Prefecture, told The Mainichi Shimbun that members of the group were frightened by the launches.According to the Korean Central News Agency, North Koreas leader, Kim Jong-un, inspected the weekend missile tests. Mr. Kim was quoted as saying, the four ballistic rockets launched simultaneously are so accurate that they look like acrobatic flying corps in formation. | World |
Credit...Tamir Kalifa for The New York TimesJune 18, 2018AUSTIN, Tex. Even in the close-knit circles of Texas liberals, Lupe Valdez, the Democratic nominee for governor, conjures up a disparate set of opinions far from the united front the candidate wants to evoke.Democratic Party officials often hail Ms. Valdez as a progressive godsend bound to inspire Latino voters: a former Dallas County sheriff who became the first Latina and open lesbian to top the partys ticket in Texas, at a time of controversy over the Trump administrations family separation practice for undocumented immigrants.She doesnt need a GPS to know where the grass roots are, said Jim Hightower, an Austin progressive who introduced Ms. Valdez, a spirited populist, at a recent party fund-raiser. She has lived the issues.But among some activists on the left, particularly those opposed to the immigration policies of President Trump and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, there is anger over several high-profile incidents in which they deemed Ms. Valdez hostile to some progressive reforms to immigration and criminal justice policy.During her tenure as Dallas sheriff, Ms. Valdez drew significant criticism for allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to detain certain Dallas County prisoners for its deportation operation. The jail overseen by Ms. Valdez was accused of several civil rights violations in a Department of Justice lawsuit, and was the site of a 2015 homicide where a man died in the jails lobby after an interaction with officers.Ms. Valdez has also failed to secure endorsements from a statewide organization of young Latinos called JOLT and from the youth branch of Houstons Stonewall Democrats, an L.G.B.T. organization. Leaders of both groups say they shunned Ms. Valdez partly because she too often leans on her personal identity to sidestep policy questions.The Rev. Jeffrey Hood, a progressive pastor and political organizer in Dallas who criticized Ms. Valdez following the 2015 homicide at the jail, said that voting for either Mr. Abbott or Ms. Valdez in November was a non-starter.Just because shes lesbian doesnt mean shes progressive, and just because shes Latina doesnt mean shes progressive, Mr. Hood said.ImageCredit...Tamir Kalifa for The New York TimesThe tension around Ms. Valdezs candidacy reflects ongoing clashes over identity politics in the Democratic Party, as liberals try to harness the energy of minority groups that are demanding for their voices to be heard. It also points to the sometimes competing interests of party officials singularly focused on winning elections, and a morally rigid grass-roots base that is newly empowered in the current wave of anti-Trump activism.And while there is broad interest on the left in recruiting candidates from diverse backgrounds, activists are also increasingly pushing politicians to adopt the language and policy goals of their movements not just be more liberal than their Republican opponents. The Trump administrations practice of separating children from their parents when apprehended at the border, and the pain and turmoil it has caused, have only intensified the passions of immigration reform advocates.The situation in Texas has left some Lone Star progressives looking jealously to their Southern compatriots in Georgia and Arizona. In Georgia, Stacey Abrams has made history as the first black woman to be nominated by a major party for governor while also energizing grass-roots groups with progressive red meat, prioritizing causes like criminal justice reform and gun safety in her policy platform, which could help Democrats further their grass-roots network in the typically Republican state. Arizonas Democratic hopefuls have also shifted left ideologically, which has only intensified the backlash against Ms. Valdez.Ginny Goldman, a political strategist and the former head of another large progressive group called Texas Organizing Project, said that Ms. Valdez has a lot more she needs to do to in order to reflect the new energy and new politics that this state is moving toward.If this ambivalence and even opposition continue in November, it would surely doom Ms. Valdez, a daughter of migrant workers who rose through the heavily male ranks of law enforcement and spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. Ms. Valdez already faces long odds in the historically deep red state, which last voted a Democrat into statewide office in 1994 and supported Mr. Trump in the 2016 election by almost 10 percentage points.The uphill climb would become an impossible one without the wholesale support of the Texas progressive community and immigration activists key forces in the Democrats decades-long efforts to increase turnout among the states Latinos.The Texas Senate candidate Beto ORourke, a Democrat who is challenging Republican incumbent Ted Cruz, has excited state party insiders with better-than-expected poll numbers and fund-raising, but several party officials privately acknowledged a muted energy surrounding the governors race partly because of the progressive criticism Ms. Valdez has faced during the primary.People want real change in their lives, they want someone whos going to fight and deliver for them and just having a D next to your name isnt enough, Ms. Goldman said.In an hourlong interview in Austin near the Texas Governors Mansion she seeks to soon inhabit, Ms. Valdez defended her progressive credentials and record as Dallas County sheriff. She cast herself as a compassionate cop and at one point listed what she considered accomplishments: lowering the inmate population at the jail, allegedly curbing abuse and harassment among her employees, rebuffing ICEs detention requests for individuals with nonviolent allegations, and reducing the number of inmate deaths at Dallas County jail to below the national average.ImageCredit...Nicholas Kamm/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesShe also cited her vocal opposition to S.B. 4 a divisive Texas law signed under Mr. Abbott that empowered police officers to question the immigration status of anyone they arrest or detain.Im the only one in this race whos fought against anti-immigrant bills, said Ms. Valdez, positioning the choice between herself and Mr. Abbott as a binary one for progressives.At other times she conceded that she was forced into imperfect choices during her time as sheriff. Ms. Valdez repeatedly mentioned how Mr. Abbott had threatened to pull funding from Dallas County if Ms. Valdez refused all cooperation with ICE at her Dallas County jail.I actually did a lot of good even on the immigration front, Ms. Valdez said. But I guess when you have it coming from both sides, youre doing the right thing.JOLT, the statewide political group working to organize young Latinos across Texas, spurned Ms. Valdez in the Democratic primary race for governor and backed her opponent a white man because members were troubled by Ms. Valdezs lack of depth in policy, said to the groups executive director, Cristina Tzintzn.During an April candidate forum hosted by JOLT, Ms. Valdez angered some progressives when she avoided a question about her immigration record that had been posed to her by a first-generation American high school student. Instead of explaining her decision to honor some ICE detainers while sheriff, Ms. Valdez began her answer by saying of course she would be an advocate for the immigrant community in Texas as governor.Look at me, she said.Ms. Valdez later issued an apology for not providing a more specific answer, but some of JOLTs young members remain righteously enraged.You were a Latina when you were helping deport people, so why should I trust you now? said Marco Mejia, a 19-year-old student at University of Texas at Austin who was in the audience that day.For our community, negotiating with ICE is not an option, said Esther Sarai Ramos, a 20-year-old JOLT member who also attends Southwestern University near Austin. Ms. Valdez said that she didnt take action out of fear of being defunded. But for us, its not a matter of you getting defunded or not, its a matter of will I ever see my uncles again.ImageCredit...Tamir Kalifa for The New York TimesPointing to her recent primary victory, some supporters of Ms. Valdez dismissed the progressive criticism of the candidate as nitpicky and overblown, a petulant critique from fringe groups more interested in political points than winning elections. Mr. Abbott gleefully signed the controversial S.B. 4 legislation, they point out, and is a staunch critic of liberal priorities like gay marriage and abortion rights.But other supporters, even ardent ones, acknowledged that more work needs to be done to win over those skeptical of her law enforcement past.The young activists expect a lot more but thats coming and its going to be addressed, said Frumencio Reyes, a lawyer and Democratic activist in Houston. He also offered the young activists some pragmatic advice.Its in their best interest to give in a little bit and let Lupe do what she needs to do, Mr. Reyes said. Work with her rather than step out of it and dont do anything because its not like Gov. Abbott is going to be anyway more accepting to them.More than 200 miles away from Houston, however, in the Dallas metro region where Ms. Valdez was once a high-ranking law enforcement official, some young progressives have already heard this advice and seemingly discarded it. This is the community where Mr. Mejia, Ms. Sarai Ramos, and two 18-year-olds named Karla Quiones and Melissa Mejia lead voter registration efforts targeting Latinos, but they have refused to extend their efforts toward helping Ms. Valdez.I refuse to be a political hostage to the Democratic Party, Mr. Mejia said, citing the former sheriffs history in Dallas CountyAfter attending the JOLT event in April where Ms. Valdez faced criticism, the young organizers said they are considering not voting for governor at all. Though they continue to politically organize in the area including one instance when they invited high school students to a fake house party, only to register the attendees to vote each has also urged family members and classmates to consider abstaining rather than back Ms. Valdez.Ms. Quiones, an incoming freshman at Texas Tech University, recalled that she once looked up to Ms. Valdez one of the first Latinas she ever saw hold public office.It feels like shes turned her back on her own community, she now says of her former role model. | Politics |
Credit...Paul Sancya/Associated PressJune 18, 2018Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went to the cradle of Americas car industry on Monday and issued a tough warning to allies and adversaries alike, saying that trading relationships with even close partners were out of whack and accusing China of engaging in an unprecedented level of larceny.Its the most predatory economic government that operates against the rest of the world today, Mr. Pompeo said of China during a speech in Detroit. This is a problem that is long overdue in being tackled.The blistering remarks suggested that the Trump administration now that the Singapore summit meeting with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, is over is further ramping up its efforts to push back against Chinese trade practices. On Friday, a day after Mr. Pompeo said he had good and constructive discussions on trade with top officials in Beijing, the administration moved ahead with tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese goods, which China immediately matched.China was not Mr. Pompeos only target on Monday, and his decision to issue his global warning before the Detroit Economic Club suggested that a sweeping investigation into car imports could result in even more tariffs. The Trump administration has already imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum from its closest trading partners, and Mr. Pompeo said that asymmetric trade relationships with Canada, Europe, Japan and Mexico needed to change.Its a simple moral principle, this idea of fairness, Mr. Pompeo said.But the idea of fairness in international trading relationships is exceedingly complex, which is why trade deals often take years to negotiate. The United States has its own list of protected industries from sugar to peanuts, catfish farming to pharmaceuticals whose high prices are safeguarded by lobbyists and sympathetic legislators. On average, the United States has trade barriers that are higher than Canadas and Japans and about equal to those of its closest European allies.But Mr. Pompeo said the United States would welcome an international trading system with no tariffs or other barriers.We are happy to eliminate all subsidies, he said, a remark that comes as Congress is locked in a bitter fight over providing about $20 billion in annual subsidies to farmers. In 2013, as a Republican congressman from Kansas, Mr. Pompeo voted to support such subsidies.Mr. Pompeo spoke to an audience filled with automotive executives uneasy about President Trumps threats to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement, which has been the organizing principle of the industry since the pact came into force in 1994.In the past, Mr. Pompeo had been reassuring about the United States relationships with its closest allies, saying at a news conference in Singapore last week that, despite a combative Group of 7 conference in Canada that ended in disarray and recriminations, he was very confident the relationships between our countries the United States and those G-7 countries will continue to move forward on a strong basis.But on Monday, he said that 70 years after the United States used the Marshall Plan to help Europe recover from the economic devastation wrought by World War II, we need to make sure that we re-evaluate each of those relationships.He later said ties with Canada, Europe and Mexico are not solely defined by trade, noting that the countries cooperate on issues such as Afghanistan, Ukraine and North Korea.Mr. Pompeos predecessor, Rex W. Tillerson, often sought to moderate Mr. Trumps more unconventional instincts, something that led to his abrupt firing. In his two months on the job, Mr. Pompeo has avoided such efforts.When Mr. Trump quickly shifted United States policy on North Korea from perhaps the most threatening and hawkish stance in decades to the most accommodating and dovish one since the Korean War, Mr. Pompeo supported the change. He even became combative with reporters who asked the kind of questions about the North Korea deal that he as a congressman once asked about the Iran nuclear deal.Similarly, Mr. Pompeo has done little to smooth over the extraordinary rifts Mr. Trump has opened up with Americas closest allies.In a question-and-answer session after his speech, Mr. Pompeo reaffirmed that Mr. Kim had agreed to fully denuclearize his country. Since the summit meeting last week, the two sides interpretations of the vague joint statement signed in Singapore have diverged sharply.Thats everything, right? Its not just the weapon systems, its everything, Mr. Pompeo said in his only line that won enthusiastic applause.Mr. Pompeo also said that South and Central American leaders were best able to lead the response against the anti-democratic actions of Nicols Maduro, the president of Venezuela. And he said he had seen little change in Cuba since Miguel Daz-Canel took over as president from Ral Castro.Its true his last name is not Castro, but you wouldnt know it from looking at his policies and plans, Mr. Pompeo said, adding, We still have a lot of work to do. | Politics |
The men might have been among the earliest to be stolen from their homeland and brought to the Americas.Credit...R. Barquera & N. BernalMay 1, 2020The three skulls were unlike hundreds of others in the 16th-century mass grave uncovered at the San Jos de los Naturales Royal Hospital in Mexico City. Their front teeth were filed decoratively, perhaps as a ritual custom, unlike those of los naturales, the Indigenous people who made up the majority of bodies at the colonial burial site. Archaeologists concluded the three individuals were most likely enslaved Africans, but they needed more evidence to be certain.Now, researchers have extracted genetic information from the individuals teeth, confirming they were Africans, perhaps among the earliest to be stolen from their homeland and brought to the Americas.We studied their whole skeletons, and we wanted to know what they were suffering from, not only the diseases but the physical abuse too so we could tell their stories, said Rodrigo Barquera, a graduate student at the Max-Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany. It has implications in the whole story of the colonial period of Mexico.The findings, published Thursday in Current Biology, offer a glimpse into these peoples lives before their forced voyages and add insight into the infectious diseases that the trans-Atlantic slave trade may have brought into the New World.In 1518, King Charles I of Spain, authorized the direct transportation of enslaved people from Africa to the Americas. In 1542, he enacted Las Leyes Nuevas, The New Laws, which prohibited the colonists in the Viceroyalty of New Spain from using Indigenous people as slaves. The law liberated thousands of Indigenous laborers, but increased the demand for enslaved Africans, Creoles, mulattoes and other African-descended people to work as servants, cooks, miners and field workers. Between 1518 and 1650, some 120,000 enslaved Africans arrived in what is now Mexico.Spanish colonists already demanded these groups because they believed they fared well against diseases brought over from Europe such as smallpox, measles and typhoid fever, which along with the brutal European conquest had nearly eliminated the Indigenous population.The San Jos de los Naturales Royal Hospital was created around 1530 to serve exclusively Indigenous patients, many of whom were dying in smallpox outbreaks. The three Africans were also treated there. When they died, they were buried alongside the Indigenous people. Perhaps all were victims of an epidemic, Mr. Barquera said.ImageCredit...R. Barquera & N. BernalThe three individuals remains were recovered in 1992 during construction of a new subway in the city. Archaeologists noticed their teeth had decorative filings, which were observed in enslaved Africans in Portugal, and the practice continues today in some sub-Saharan ethnic groups. That led the researchers to suggest the individuals were Africans.We dont know exactly if they were negros esclavos or negros libre, said Lourdes Mrquez Morfn, an archaeologist at the National School of Anthropology and History in Mexico City, referring to the distinction then made between slaves or freemen. But the trauma etched in their skeletons suggests they were slaves.One had these gunshots, said Mr. Barquera, referring to five pieces of buckshot in the mans chest cavity. You could see that the bone was stained with a copper greenish pigment because the bullets stayed in the body of this individual until he was dead.Some of the men showed signs of nutritional deficiencies, skull and leg fractures and shoulder deformities, suggesting they performed backbreaking work and suffered harsh physical abuse. The men all died between the ages of 25 and 35.Mr. Barquera and his team removed a molar from each of the three skulls to extract and analyze their DNA. The genetic signatures obtained from the molars showed the three men had their origins in Western or Southern Africa. They also found isotopes on the teeth that further indicated they were all born and grew up outside of Mexico.It was hypothesized that maybe they were descendants of Africans and Native Americans or Africans and Europeans, but thats not the case, said Mr. Barquera.The team also sequenced the genome of pathogens recovered from the skeletal remains. One of the men was afflicted with the virus that causes hepatitis B, and another had a bacterium that causes the skin infection yaws, a disease similar to syphilis.The findings provide some of the earliest known examples of those pathogens in human remains in the Americas, as well as the first direct evidence from the early colonial period that pathogens from Africa may have been brought to the Americas, said Johannes Krause of Max-Planck and Mr. Barqueras co-author. Mr. Krause added it is possible the men caught the diseases while on the overcrowded transoceanic voyages.We are always so focused on the introduction of diseases from the Europeans and the Spaniards, Dr. Krause said, that I think we underestimated also how much the slave trade and the forceful migration from Africa to the Americas contributed also to the spread of infectious diseases to the New World.The paper does a really nice job of putting together archaeological, osteological, molecular and isotope data to provide insight into the lives of early colonial likely enslaved Africans, said Anne Stone, an anthropological geneticist at Arizona State University who was not involved in the research.Hannes Schroeder, an archaeologist from the University of Copenhagen said the studys multiple lines of evidence paint a very detailed picture of the lives of these individuals, their origins and experiences in the Americas, that reminds us once again of the cruelty of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the biological impact it had on individuals and populations in the New World. | science |
Trans Swimmer Revives an Old Debate in Elite Sports: What Defines a Woman?For nearly a century, certain elite athletes have been subject to anatomical, chromosomal or hormonal testing to compete in womens events.Credit...M. Scott Brauer for The New York TimesPublished Feb. 16, 2022Updated Feb. 18, 2022At the Ivy League womens swimming championships this week, many eyes in the crowd will be fixed on Lia Thomas, a star of the University of Pennsylvania team. In recent months, Thomas has made headlines not only for her speed handily winning one Ohio race that went viral but also for her gender identity.In 2019, while competing on the mens team, Thomas began to medically transition, taking testosterone blockers and estrogen. Although her swim times slowed considerably, shes still a top competitor in several womens events, raising questions about the role of testosterone in athletic performance.Some have called for her to be barred or separated from regular competition, arguing that her body underwent changes during puberty that gave her a lasting, unfair advantage. But others have contended that theres no justification for excluding transgender athletes like her.The organizations that oversee college swimming have put out conflicting rules on transgender athletes in recent weeks. U.S.A. Swimming earlier this month announced a new requirement that transgender women must suppress their testosterone levels for three years before competing, a rule under which Thomas would have been excluded. But last week, the N.C.A.A., the national body overseeing college sports, said that instituting a new policy in the middle of the season would be unfair allowing Thomas to compete at the N.C.A.A. championships in March.These thorny questions over the nature of athleticism are not new in womens sports. They have come up many times over the past century, typically when an athlete deemed too masculine started to win. Sports authorities have leaned on medical tests whether anatomical, chromosomal or hormonal to determine eligibility in womens categories, while requiring no analogous tests for men.But in the realm of elite physical performance, where extraordinary biology is the rule, science has never provided neat answers.In the end, its about how we think about who is a woman, right? said Katrina Karkazis, an anthropologist at Amherst College and co-author of Testosterone: An Unauthorized Biography.And, of course, sport has for a very long period not been at the forefront of gender equality, inclusion, she said. So its no wonder that were having this kind of debate.Sex testsImageCredit...S&G/PA Images via Getty ImagesIn 1928, the Olympic Games introduced its first womens category for track and field events. In the early days, there was public speculation that some of the athletes were too masculine, and even that men were posing as women in order to win.Womens sports was controversial and involved women encroaching on a male domain, Susan Cahn, a historian at the University at Buffalo, said. So the womanhood of women athletes was always questioned when they were really good.By the 1960s, driven by Cold War suspicions over foul play, the International Olympic Committee established a new medical commission to oversee testing for doping, as well as nude parades, in which naked female athletes would be inspected by a panel of physicians, Jaime Schultz, a sports historian at Pennsylvania State University, said.The I.O.C. replaced the physical exams with a genetic test for sex chromosomes in the late 1960s, claiming that the cheek swab would provide a simpler, objective, and more dignified way to verify gender.In 1967, a Polish track and field gold medalist named Ewa Klobukowska became the first athlete to be disqualified from womens races because of the chromosome test, after it reportedly found that she had a type of genetic mosaicism in which some cells carry a Y chromosome.ImageCredit...Manny Millan/Sports Illustrated, via Getty ImagesGenetic testing faced a major legal challenge in 1977, after Dr. Rene Richards, an ophthalmologist and transgender woman, sued the U.S. Tennis Association for requiring the chromosome test to compete in the womens category of the U.S. Open. Richards, who had transitioned after playing tennis in the mens division for years, won the suit.It seems clear that defendants knowingly instituted this test for the sole purpose of preventing plaintiff from participating in the tournament, a judge on the New York Supreme Court wrote. Richards played in the U.S. Open that year, at age 43. She was quickly eliminated in the singles tournament but made it to the doubles finals.At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, eight women failed the chromosome test because they carried Y chromosomes. All were allowed to compete after it was shown they had hormonal conditions that had prevented them from going through a typically male development. By the 2000 Olympics, international sports bodies had abandoned the chromosome test and reverted to ad hoc medical examinations.Sex tests based on testosterone began about a decade ago, after the South African track star Caster Semenya won the 800-meter race at the 2009 world track and field championships by more than two seconds. Scrutinized for her strong physique, Semenya was forced to undergo examinations by an endocrinologist and a gynecologist, as well as mental health assessments by a psychologist.The results of those tests were never publicly released, but Semenya later disclosed that she was forced to take medication to reduce her testosterone in order to compete. In 2011, World Athletics, the body overseeing track and field events introduced its first policy for women with high testosterone, limiting concentrations of the hormone to 10 nanomoles per liter. (The average testosterone level in women is below 3 nanomoles per liter, whereas in men it typically ranges from 10 to 35 nanomoles per liter.)Many experts speculate that the rules were changed because of Semenya. It was really a reaction to one phenomenal athlete, said Schultz, the historian at Pennsylvania State.Four years later, the I.O.C. loosened its policy on transgender athletes, which had previously required that they undergo genital surgeries and legally change their gender, to focus solely on testosterone. Transgender women would need to demonstrate reduced blood concentrations of the hormone for at least a year.In 2020, after several challenges in international courts, the World Athletics testosterone rule was upheld. Semenya, who declined to take testosterone-suppressing drugs, was unable to compete in the 2020 Olympics.As a woman, I should be in control of my own body, Semenya wrote last year. Why should I have to take hormone-altering substances just so I can compete in my chosen profession?The I.O.C. adjusted its stance once again in November of 2021, abandoning its sex testing rules. But the organization also allowed individual athletic federations, like World Athletics, to set their own policies.ImageCredit...Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesTestosterones roleTestosterones role in physical strength and stamina is robust. Boys and girls are roughly equal in terms of athletic ability until they reach puberty, at which point testosterone surges in boys and their athletic performance typically catapults above girls.And when athletes take anabolic steroids synthetic testosterone they can recover more quickly after strenuous exercise and greatly increase their muscle mass.But among elite athletes, men and women sometimes carry similar levels of the hormone.In a 2014 study, funded by the I.O.C. and the World Anti-Doping Agency, researchers analyzed testosterone levels in nearly 700 elite athletes who played 15 different sports. The researchers found that 16.5 percent of men had low testosterone levels and 13.7 percent of women had high testosterone levels, with considerable overlap between the two groups.The I.O.C. definition of a woman as one who has a normal testosterone level is untenable, the studys authors wrote.Given the complex interplay of testosterone, sex and athleticism, some experts oppose all testosterone testing in womens sports.Ts effect on athleticism isnt straightforward, said Karkazis of Amherst, who consulted for Semenyas legal defense, using the shorthand for testosterone. No study has ever concluded that you can predict the outcome of speed or strength events by knowing competitors T levels.And scant data exists on the performance of transgender women who went through male puberty but later suppressed their testosterone.Joanna Harper, a competitive long distance runner in Britain, noticed that her pace began to slow just a few months after taking testosterone-suppressing drugs during her transition nearly 20 years ago.Toward the end of her first year on hormone therapy, she recalled, she saw a marked decrease in her muscle mass, even though she was still running 100 miles per week. And when she ran in womens races, she was about 12 percent slower than when she had been competing against men.There were plenty of women over the years who said that it was unfair for me to compete, said Harper, a medical physicist who studies transgender athletic performance at Loughborough University in Britain.In a review of the scientific literature on athletic ability and transgender women, Harper found some studies suggesting that after four months of testosterone suppression, transgender women have comparable levels of hemoglobin, a blood molecule that carries oxygen through the body, to cisgender women. And after one year on hormone therapy, transgender women see significant decreases in muscle mass.Even after three years, though, transgender women still tended to have more strength than cisgender women. Its not clear, however, that these results would hold for elite athletes.ImageCredit...Joseph Prezioso/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesTransgender women may have a disadvantage in some sports, given their heavier musculature, said Dr. James Barrett, the director of the Adult Gender Identity Clinic in London, who is helping lead a study for the I.O.C. that looks at how much athletic ability decreases in transgender women after they start hormone therapy.Trans women by and large arent winning across the board, he said. Its not obvious that theres necessarily an advantage at all.Still, because of development during puberty, transgender athletes may have some lasting physical advantages in a sport like swimming, such as a taller height and larger hands and feet. Coming up with a policy for sex-segregated sports therefore requires making a choice: Either exclude these athletes, or allow them to compete with potential advantages, said Jakob Vingren, an exercise physiologist at the University of North Texas.Theres no good answer, Vingren said. Someone is disadvantaged one way or the other.Others argue that these physical changes mean transgender women like Lia Thomas shouldnt be allowed to compete in womens divisions.If a cis woman gets caught taking testosterone twice, shes banned for life, whereas Lia has had 10 years of testosterone, said Nancy Hogshead-Makar, a three-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming and the president of the advocacy group Champion Women.The creation and funding of separate competitive arenas for men and women has given women a fair shot, allowing them to be seen as powerful athletes, Hogshead-Makar argued. She suggested that Thomas could be allowed to race in a ninth swimming lane but not have her scores recorded in official counts.Its about the principle of having sport continue to be sex-segregated: having a space where women are really honored and where they can triumph, she said.Harper works with Hogshead-Makar as a member of Champion Women but disagrees with the groups stance on barring Thomas from competition.Her own transition experience convinced her that testosterone requirements are a necessary, if imperfect, way to preserve fair competition in elite womens sports. But she said that U.S.A. Swimmings rule requiring three years of testosterone suppression was excessive and seemed to have targeted Thomas because of her success.If we allow trans women to compete, we have to allow them to win, too, Harper said. | science |
Chongqing JournalCredit...Gilles Sabrie for The New York TimesApril 4, 2016CHONGQING, China During Chinas traditional festival for honoring the dead, Zheng Zhisheng usually visits a vine-draped cemetery where pillars declare the deads eternal loyalty to Mao Zedong. He walks among the mass graves, sharing memories, and sometimes tears, with mourners who greet him as their corpse commander.They are veterans of the Cultural Revolution and their kin, who at the Qingming festival each year gather at the graves of family and friends killed in the convulsive movement that Mao unleashed upon China. Cities and regions became battle zones between rival Red Guards militant student groups that attacked intellectuals, officials and others and up to 1.5 million people died nationwide, according to one recent estimate.Yet this cemetery in Chongqing, an industrial city on the Yangtze River, is the only sizable one left solely for those killed then. Mr. Zheng, 73, is one of the aging custodians of their harrowing stories. He buried many of the 400 to 500 bodies here, on the edge of a park in the Shapingba district.I think about their memories and the lessons we should absorb, and I try to comfort the relatives, he said in an interview. It would be impossible to erase that time from our hearts.Fifty years after the start of the Cultural Revolution, the cemetery embodies Chinas evasive reckoning with its legacy. Here the tension between official silence and grass-roots remembrance is palpable.The cemetery is usually locked. But at the Qingming, or tomb sweeping, holiday, a door opens for families and friends of the dead to hold vigils, light incense and leave wreaths and other offerings at the graves.This year, officials took special precautions, attaching coils of barbed wire along the top of the wall around the cemetery. They mounted surveillance cameras at the entrance, as well as a sign in Chinese and English that read: Historical preservation, no photographing.On Qingming day, which this year came on Monday, clusters of older people registered at a booth to enter the cemetery, some joined by couples with children. Dozens of guards hustled onlookers and journalists away, telling them they could not even take pictures of the exterior.Theres nothing to see, one said. Go away.Some 1,700 people were put to death across Chongqing during the worst clashes, which receded in 1968, according to an official estimate by He Shu, the citys unofficial chronicler of that time. The total killed was probably higher.Most of the dead here were killed in fighting between youths who used rifles, machine guns, mortars, tanks, even three armored ships that bombarded the shore.Many were factory workers. Some were condemned by Red Guards, and others were bystanders caught in battles. The cemetery holds victims as young as 14; by some accounts, one was 6.As the bodies piled up, rotting in the heat, faction leaders conscripted Mr. Zheng, an engineering student, to dispose of them.In a cool air-raid shelter, he learned to inject them with formaldehyde, and he chose the park site to bury them, using prisoners from the rival faction as helpers. Some of the dead were photographed in Red Guard uniforms military-style clothes, belts and caps, and badges while their comrades and family stood proudly beside them.I personally laid to rest more than 280 people, Mr. Zheng said. I bathed and injected them with formaldehyde, I dressed them, I put them in graves, so my nickname was the corpse commander. We were all sacrificial objects in a political struggle.Across Chongqing, 20 or so Cultural Revolution cemeteries were razed as the movement waned and Mao died. This one survived in part because of its out-of-the-way location and a tolerant city party secretary in the 1980s, said Everett Yuehong Zhang, an anthropologist from Chongqing at Princeton University.But the past it contains has become a delicate topic with the coming of the 50th anniversary of the Cultural Revolution. Focusing on that time offends President Xi Jinpings drive against dwelling on mistakes by Mao and the party. Although his own family suffered grievously during the Cultural Revolution, he would rather focus on past glories.No official memorial events have been announced to acknowledge the milestone; none of the reports about Qingming by the state news media mentioned the Cultural Revolution dead.The Communist Party does not want to open this scar, said Xi Qingsheng, 64, whose mother, Huang Peiying, was buried in the cemetery after she was shot dead while fleeing the fighting with Mr. Xi and one of his brothers. A Red Guard had idly used them as target practice, Mr. Xi said.For us, families who were direct victims, weve endured terrible struggles, he said. We burn incense, kneel before the grave. I still come to the cemetery every year to eat a meal with my mother and leave her some offerings.To reach the graves, hidden among trees and bamboo, mourners walked through a park where children squealed on rides, and men and women clustered around mah-jongg tables in a beer garden. A group of teenage boys and girls took photographs of themselves, apparently oblivious to the graves nearby.Outside the wall, its society, with couples courting and the pursuit of material things, said Zhou Ziren, 72, a former Red Guard from Chongqing. Inside, its back to an era when people would die for their ideals.Some 120 stone and concrete pillars and tombstones mark graves built mainly by schools and factories for their dead. Their inscriptions recall a time when Mao was akin to a demigod for many, and dying in his name meant glorious martyrdom.Heads can roll, blood can flow, but Mao Zedong Thought must never go, an inscription on one of the pillars reads.History has frozen here into a pile of stones, Mr. Zhou said, recalling a poem he wrote about his first visit here. Just like you cant avoid the Auschwitz concentration camp or the Hiroshima nuclear bomb when discussing the Second World War, we need to remember this period of history so that it cannot happen again.Mao started the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in 1966 to purge China of revisionist compromises that he said imperiled his revolution. He gave his blessing to militant students to enforce his will. But the movement took a chaotic turn, and vicious rivalries broke out between Red Guard factions competing to represent Maos vision.In Chongqing, the schisms erupted into war in the summer of 1967, when militants seized weapons from armament plants. Most people buried in the Shapingba cemetery supported the August 15 faction that battled the rebel to the end faction.We had eight big weapons factories, making tanks and guns and other arms, and many of the workers were ex-soldiers who knew how to fight, said Wu Qi, a businessman from Chongqing who watched the fighting as a teenager. It was like a real military battle.The victims who have most haunted Mr. Zheng did not end up in his cemetery.In August 1967, after his August 15 faction had been under ferocious attack, in a fit of fury he handed two prisoners to a crowd that stomped them senseless. A day or two later, he let two Red Guards beat them to death. Their bodies were thrown into a ditch on a university campus.This was the greatest regret of my life, Mr. Zheng said.He still remembers their names: Li Pingzheng and He Minggui.Mr. Zheng was arrested in 1970 and later convicted in connection with six deaths some of which he said he had no hand in and imprisoned until 1983. He said he dreamed of tracking down the families of Mr. Li and Mr. He and begging their forgiveness on national television.There is no sign to show where they are buried, he said. But I would like to tell their families where to find them. | World |
Politics|Biden plans to nominate Merrick Garland for attorney general.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/us/politics/biden-plans-to-nominate-merrick-garland-for-attorney-general.htmlCredit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesJan. 6, 2021President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. plans to nominate Judge Merrick Garland, whose Supreme Court nomination Republicans blocked in 2016, to be attorney general, placing the task of repairing a beleaguered Justice Department in the hands of a centrist judge, according to a person familiar with the matter.If confirmed, Judge Garland, who has sometimes disappointed liberals with his rulings, would inherit a department that grew more politicized under President Trump than at any point since Watergate. Judge Garland will face vexing decisions about civil rights issues that roiled the country this year, whether to investigate Mr. Trump and his administration and how to proceed with a tax investigation into Mr. Bidens son.The nomination ended weeks of deliberation by Mr. Biden, who had struggled to make a decision as he considered who to fill for a position that he became convinced would play an outsized role in his presidency. Mr. Bidens nominations are expected to broadly win confirmation as Democrats appear poised to take control of the Senate.Mr. Biden, who served as the longtime top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee and chaired it from 1987 to 1995, was said by aides to have long weighed what makes a successful attorney general and put pressure on himself to make the right pick. Outside groups also pressed him during the transition to appoint someone who is a minority and would take a far more confrontational position with law enforcement.Mr. Biden also intends to nominate Lisa Monaco, a former homeland security adviser to President Barack Obama, as deputy attorney general; Vanita Gupta, the head of the departments civil rights division under Mr. Obama, as the No. 3; and Kristen Clarke, a civil rights lawyer, as assistant attorney general for civil rights, which is expected to be a major focus of the department under Mr. Biden.Judge Garland was initially considered a long shot for attorney general, in part because he is seen as politically moderate. In close cases involving criminal law, he has been significantly more likely to side with the police and prosecutors over people accused of crimes than other Democratic appointees. He also leaned toward deferring to the government in Guantnamo detainee cases that pit state security powers against individual rights.Moreover, judges are only occasionally elevated directly to the position. The last was Judge Michael Mukasey of Federal District Court, whom George W. Bush appointed to run the Justice Department in 2007.Mr. Biden was also said to have considered Sally Yates, the former deputy attorney general in the final years of the Obama administration; Doug Jones, the former Alabama senator; and Deval Patrick, the former governor of Massachusetts who briefly ran for the Democratic Partys presidential nomination. | Politics |
Credit...J. Scott Applewhite/Associated PressJune 15, 2018WASHINGTON When Arthur Jones, a Holocaust denier, ran as a Republican in an Illinois congressional primary, the state Republican Party denounced him as a Nazi. When he won, party leaders quickly vowed to back an independent candidate.When Paul Nehlen, a white supremacist and anti-Semite, decided to seek the House seat that is being vacated by Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, Republican leaders there said he had no place in the Republican Party.But when Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, retweeted a Nazi sympathizer this week, the House Republican leadership and his fellow Iowa Republicans on Capitol Hill were silent.Fringe candidates have always run in both parties. Marginalized or ignored, they almost always fade from view. But in the era of President Trump, at a time when white supremacists feel emboldened and an anti-immigrant fervor has gripped the Republican Party, Republican leaders are increasingly forced to make choices about how to react to hateful remarks.In Mr. Kings case, his eight-term incumbency and his own history of racist comments he once compared immigrants to dogs, not to mention the time he said they had calves the size of cantaloupes from hauling marijuana across the desert seem to protect him. People are so used to him being offensive that they just shrug their shoulders and move on.Weve gotten to the point with Congressman King that many people almost expect this sort of behavior out of him, said Nick Ryan, a Republican strategist in Iowa who has been a vocal critic of Mr. King. So when he does something thats inappropriate or outlandish, many people in leadership have chosen to turn their heads the other way, because they dont know how else to deal with him.In a brief hallway interview outside the House chamber, an unapologetic Mr. King said he was unaware that the man he retweeted, Mark Collett, is a well-known British white supremacist who has spoken admiringly of Adolf Hitler and was once featured in a documentary called Young, Nazi and Proud.Mr. King said he simply wanted to publicize an article that Mr. Collett had highlighted from the right-wing website Breitbart News Network, which warned about the dangers of immigration in Europe. The congressman paired his retweet of Mr. Collett with his own comment: Europe is waking up Will America In time? He later shared the Breitbart article on his Twitter account, with a similar message.Its the message, not the messenger, Mr. King said in the interview.Mr. King was not the only Republican making party leaders uncomfortable this week. In Virginia, Corey Stewart, a hard-right fringe candidate who has a history of cozying up to white nationalists, won the Republican primary for Senate on Tuesday. (Mr. Stewart once called Mr. Nehlen one of my personal heroes, though he later disavowed him.) Though Mr. Trump congratulated Mr. Stewart, others in the party sounded aghast.This is clearly not the Republican Party I once knew, loved and proudly served, Bill Bolling, Virginias former lieutenant governor, said on Twitter. Every time I think things cant get worse they do, and there is no end in sight.And in Arizona, the Republican Party asked a state representative, David Stringer, to resign after he delivered a speech saying that immigrants pose an existential threat that will change the face of Arizona and the country, hampering school integration because there arent enough white kids to go around.That sentiment was not much different from Mr. Kings statement in 2017 that he would like to see an America thats just so homogeneous that we look a lot the same.Yet in Washington, spokeswomen for the three top Republicans in the House Mr. Ryan; Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader; and Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the Republican whip did not reply to emails seeking comment about Mr. King. Nor did spokesmen for the senior senator from Iowa, Charles E. Grassley, a Republican, and for other Republicans in the Iowa congressional delegation.The junior senator from Iowa, Joni Ernst, ducked into an elevator as she was being asked about Mr. Kings tweet. I didnt see it, so I cant comment, she said, shrugging her shoulders as the elevator doors closed.Mr. Ryan, it should be noted, has rebuked Mr. King in the past, most recently last year, after the congressman issued a tweet that praised a far-right Dutch leader and declared, We cant restore our civilization with somebody elses babies. And when Mr. King made the cantaloupe calves remark, in 2013, Mr. Ryans predecessor, John A. Boehner, upbraided the Iowa congressman, calling the comments deeply offensive and wrong.Defenders of Mr. Ryan argued that he cannot be the word police, monitoring every tweet, and they suggested that remaining silent is perhaps the better course, because it deprives racist comments of the oxygen that keeps them circulating.Generally politicians arent going to issue a rebuke until they have to, said Tom Davis, a former Republican congressman from Virginia. So when it gets a lot of media coverage and the like, theyll respond. But generally they head for the exits, because youve got to work with this guy, and he represents a constituency group, for better or for worse, within the party that can be unforgiving.Others say party leaders have an ethical obligation to speak out.This shouldnt be a hard call, said Peter Wehner, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington who advised former President George W. Bush and is close to Mr. Ryan.If youre retweeting things from Nazi sympathizers, that should be pretty easy for Republican leaders to condemn, Mr. Wehner added, and they should condemn it because its a moral responsibility, and there are loyalties that go deeper than party thats loyalty to country and loyalty to truth and loyalty to decency.One lawmaker who was eager to weigh in was the lone Democrat in the Iowa delegation, Representative David Loebsack.Steve King is an embarrassment to the state I proudly call my home, Mr. Loebsack said in an email. Iowa has a long history of being a welcoming place and Mr. Kings history of racist remarks turns people away from wanting to live, work and raise a family in our great state.Mr. King, 69, represents an extremely conservative pocket of northwest Iowa. In one sense, his party leaders in Washington are punishing him for his incendiary remarks; after 15 years in Congress he has neither a committee chairmanship nor a position in party leadership. But voters in Iowa keep sending him back.In 2012, Mr. Kings Democratic challenger, Christie Vilsack, a former first lady of Iowa and longtime educator, made an issue of Mr. Kings rhetoric. She lost her race by eight percentage points.You have to stand up to bullies, she said, and the trouble right now is that people have been elected to office who arent standing up to bullies.In 2016, he easily beat back a Republican primary challenge from a state senator, Rick Bertrand, who campaigned by trying to cast Mr. King as a do-nothing congressman. Mr. King went on to beat his Democratic challenger by 23 points. He is widely expected to win a ninth term this year, although Democrats are hopeful about their candidate, a former professional baseball player named J. D. Scholten.Mr. Bertrand said Mr. Kings outlandish remarks do hurt his district, by weakening the congressmans hand in Washington, even if the voters do not push back. Truthfully, I dont think anybody really pays attention to what King does, Mr. Bertrand said. Its just kind of white noise. | Politics |
Europe|Berit Viktorsson, Visiting Daughter in Brussels, Was Killed in Attackshttps://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/01/world/europe/berit-viktorsson-visiting-daughter-in-brussels-was-killed-in-attacks.htmlMarch 31, 2016Berit Viktorsson frequently traveled between her home in central Sweden and Brussels to visit her daughter.Though she did not speak French, and barely spoke English, Ms. Viktorsson had become so adept at navigating the city that on the morning of March 22 she boarded a bus on her own from her daughters home, the daughter, Katarina Viktorsson, told a Swedish newspaper.Soon after arriving at the airport, suicide bombers detonated two devices and killed Ms. Viktorsson, who Swedish officials said was in her 60s.Before Ms. Viktorssons death was confirmed, Katarina Viktorsson, an administrative assistant at a law firm in Brussels, turned to social media, asking for help locating her mother in three different languages.Please HELP: Help me find my mother who is missing since this morning when she was at the airport in Brussels, she wrote on Facebook hours after the attack at the airport.A week later Katarina Viktorsson posted again on Facebook. Thank you everybody for all your help, support, visits, calls, sms, messages and prayers and thoughts for my mother, my family and our close ones, she wrote. It has been much appreciated, even if I havent always have had the strength/mind/thought of replying you all individually, it has deeply touched me, as well as my close ones, and, again, thank you all for your support.Along with the message, Katarina Viktorsson posted a photo of herself and her mother posing together in front of a blooming tulip tree. In the photo, Ms. Viktorsson wore the same black coat that she wore to the airport on March 22. With her arm wrapped around her daughters waist, she smiled. | World |
Deal ProfessorDec. 22, 2015Its time once again to hand out grades to the years deals and deal makers.It was an astounding year on all fronts, as deal makers grew more aggressive and shareholder activism reached new heights. The merger market is on track for a record $4 trillion-plus year. Deal makers are no doubt celebrating, but they may also want to reflect that in these heady days, there were more than a few missteps and Fs.THREES A CROWD In the pharmaceutical feeding frenzy this year more than $600 billion worth of deals the battle among Mylan, Perrigo and Teva stood out. Teva bid for Mylan, which bid for Perrigo. None of the deals panned out as Mylan adopted a just say never strategy that drove Teva to buy Allergans generic drug business for $40.5 billion. Some shareholders said Mylan did not fully explain the consequences of its move to the Netherlands, an accusation that may have hurt Mylans bid for Perrigo, which was rejected by shareholders in any case.Perrigo gets an A for a rare hostile contest won on the merits; Mylan gets an F for fighting unfairly and poor shareholder relations, while Teva gets an incomplete for failing to follow through.DUMB ACTIVISM This year, shareholder activists again dominated and companies ran to do their bidding, but there were troubling signs that the reign of activists was pushing companies into risky strategies. DuPont and Dow, each a target of activist hedge funds, agreed to combine in a deal where they also immediately agreed to split up into three companies. This risky bit of financial engineering promises $3 billion in savings, but the markets were lukewarm as the stock of both companies rose then quickly fell below the announcement prices.Office Depot and Staples, meanwhile, pushed by the activist hedge fund Starboard Value, agreed to a $6.3 billion combination only to be later sued by the Federal Trade Commission, which sought to block the transaction. Starboard, which orchestrated the move, has fled to the lifeboats, and has sold about half its holdings in Office Depot.For overly risky strategies, these and other activist deals receive an F. Justin M. King, who quit the Staples board in protest over a settlement deal with Starboard, wins this years first profile in courage award.ITS YOU, NOT ME The precipitous decline of Valeant Pharmaceuticals Internationals stock price created hedge fund carnage and one of the more bizarre scenes of the year as William A. Ackman and his fund, Pershing Square Capital Management, held a four-hour conference call to defend Valeant. Mr. Ackman should have listened to his public relations people as he created more confusion over whether or not he supported management, driving the stock down further. Valeant stock has recovered somewhat, but Mr. Ackman, a brilliant investor by any measure, this year earns a C for a lack of consistency.NONDISCLOSURE DISCLOSURE Its not a takeover situation just yet, but the questions over Sumner Redstones health have left the two companies he controls, Viacom and CBS, in flux. The two have said little on the matter, leaving shareholders to ponder what it will mean when Mr. Redstone dies and his stakes are controlled by a seven-member trust. The excitement around this, as well as the claims made by a former companion of Mr. Redstones in a lawsuit, were worthy of a Bravo reality-TV show, but it was also an example of the perils of controlling stock and a founder strategy to live forever. Mr. Redstone deserves an F for not handing over the reins long ago.ImageCredit...Harry CampbellBREADSTICKS Starboard also showed the real value of activism. After unseating the Darden board in 2014, the restaurant company turned a corner and began to see growth in its Olive Garden chain and its delicious breadsticks. Darden and Starboard earn an A on the midterm for this success.I.P.O. SUCCESS Squares lawyers and bankers deserve an A for steering the company to a successful initial public offering that valued it above $4 billion. People may complain that this valuation was below its last private investment round, but they miss the fact that in just a few short years, Jack Dorsey has built a multibillion-dollar company.TAX ARBITRAGE Whether you like it or not, tax-driven deal-making paid off big this year. A last-minute change by Congress exempted a number of pending real estate investment trust spinoffs from changes to the tax laws. It was a $1 billion tax gift to those who were prescient enough to announce their spinoffs before year-end. Pfizers desperate attempt to complete a tax-inversion deal with Allergan, meanwhile, shows how valuable the lower tax rates and ability to get access to foreign cash are to pharmaceutical and other companies. It has created a have class of prior inversions and the have-nots lusting to get out of the United States. Congress gets an F for not fixing this problem and highlighting the absurdities of the tax laws with its last-minute change for real estate investment trusts.REGULATORY ARBITRAGE Dish Network astounded many when it used the very small business exception in the regulations to team with an Alaskan Native regional corporation and a former regulatory official to save $3.25 billion in the auction for wireless spectrum. The Federal Communications Commission gets an A for rejecting this blatant manipulation of the rules. The others are assigned to take a summer school basic civics class.ANTITRUST ARBITRAGE We are in an age of oligopoly as industries become ever more concentrated in the hands of a few players. Nonetheless, this year saw a number of deals push the antitrust envelope and fail, including Thai Union and Bumble Bee Foods, Time Warner Cable and Comcast and US Foods and Sysco. Others, like Office Depot and Staples, look to be on the ropes, while Aetna and Humana and Anthem and Cigna may run into resistance. An F goes to the chief executives and their advisers for taking on these overly risky antitrust deals in the run-up to an election year. A special message to Office Depot: Just because the authorities let you buy Office Max, it doesnt mean you get to buy them all.FOR THE DEFENSE Airgas was finally taken over, and some trumpeted the deal as the triumph of the poison pill. In 2011, Airgas fended off an offer of $70 a share from Air Products and Chemicals; last month, it agreed to be sold to Air Liquide of France for $143 a share in cash. But Airgas triumphed only because of the rich takeover bid its stock had underperformed until that point. In another takeover defense, Macerich used the Maryland staggered board statute to fight off a $16.8 billion bid from Simon Property. Both cases will have to be considered incompletes.DELAWARE AND BANKERS Bankers remained in the spotlight in the Delaware courts. There was the unsuccessful appeal of a $76 million verdict finding Royal Bank of Canada liable for its advice in the sale of Rural/Metro. And Goldman Sachs fought a lawsuit over the discovery that, owing to a spreadsheet error, the buyer of Tibco paid $100 million less than the announced price of the sale. The case is pending. In the new year, bankers will continue to get strict scrutiny from the Delaware courts and continue to complain that it is all so unfair. A C all around.ITS NOT ABOUT YOU Its hard to understand the conduct of Michael Gooch, the founder and C.E.O. of the interdealer brokerage firm GFI Group. Mr. Gooch tried to steer a deal to the CME Group in a transaction that would have sold part of the business to himself. His attempt was frustrated when Howard Lutnicks BGC Partners jumped in. Yet Mr. Gooch resisted negotiating until the bitter end. He gets an F.THE CARL C. ICAHN PERSISTENCE AWARD M&T Bank Corporation agreed to acquire Hudson City Bancorp more than three years ago. The deal was held up by Federal Reserve concerns over M&Ts anti-money-laundering compliance. In the meantime, Hudson Citys deposits declined by more than 30 percent. The deal finally closed this fall. The two companies get an A for persistence yet perhaps an F in economics, something Mr. Icahn never received.Best wishes in the New Year, and for a more sober 2016. | Business |
Politics|Scottish leader discourages supposed plan for Trump to travel to his golf resort before Bidens inauguration.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/05/us/politics/scottish-leader-discourages-supposed-plan-for-trump-to-travel-to-his-golf-resort-before-bidens-inauguration.htmlCredit...Leon Neal/Getty ImagesJan. 5, 2021LONDON President Trump has not said where he plans to go after leaving the White House on Jan. 20. But Scotlands first minister made clear on Tuesday that he is not welcome there.The official, Nicola Sturgeon, said that under newly imposed coronavirus restrictions, which prohibit all but essential travel, a visit by the president to one of his Scottish golf resorts, Trump Turnberry, would not be acceptable.Rumors that Mr. Trump would head for Scotland flared after a Scottish paper reported that an American military version of a Boeing 757 sometimes used by Mr. Trump was scheduled to land at a nearby airport on Jan. 19, the day before Joseph R. Biden Jr. is to be sworn in as president.We are not allowing people to come into Scotland, Ms. Sturgeon told reporters in Edinburgh, and that would apply to him just as it applies to anybody else and coming in to play golf is not what I would consider to be an essential purpose.A plain-spoken politician, Ms. Sturgeon said that she did not know what Mr. Trumps travel plans were, but that she hoped his immediate plan was to exit the White House. On Monday, she imposed a lockdown on Scotland, which, like England, is battling a surge in coronavirus cases because of a rapidly spreading new variant.Under the new rules, people are required to stay at home and to work from there when possible. Places of worship have been closed, and schools will operate by remote learning. Scotland has frequently moved faster and further than England to impose restrictions during the pandemic.The White House initially declined to comment on the report, first published in The Sunday Post, but later denied it.This is not accurate, the press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, said on Tuesday. President Trump has no plans to travel to Scotland.Two White House officials said that while there has been almost no concrete discussion of what Mr. Trump will do on Jan. 20 because he is so focused on trying to overturn the election results, they do not believe he is considering travel to Scotland. | Politics |
VideotranscripttranscriptIceland Official on Leaders DepartureSigurdur Ingi Johannsson, a government minister, announced Tuesday that Icelands embattled prime minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, offered his resignation amid a controversy over his offshore holdings.AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY Reykjavik - 5 April 2016 1. Iceland Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson walking out of the meeting UPSOUND (Icelandic): There have been some fun and interesting things that have gone on in the meeting. And you have reasons to be excited (Reporters asking when to expect an announcement); Gunnlaugsson continues walking down steps // SOUNDBITE (Icelandic) Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson, Iceland Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture: Johannsson: It was the Prime Ministers idea to do this (to resign). (Reporter asks question) Johannsson: He has mentioned it to the head of the Independence Party, and I will meet with him later today to discuss it. 5. SOUNDBITE (Icelandic) Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson, Iceland Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture: Reporter: Will the coalition continue? Johannsson: Thats what the party wants. Reporter: So its in the hands of the Independence Party now? Johannsson: It always takes two to tango. Reporter: Will there be early elections or will the government continue? Johannsson: We havent discussed it with the Independence Party. Reporter: What do you want? Johannsson: The most natural would be for it to continue 6. Johannsson walking awaySigurdur Ingi Johannsson, a government minister, announced Tuesday that Icelands embattled prime minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, offered his resignation amid a controversy over his offshore holdings.CreditCredit...Birgir Por Hardarson/European Pressphoto AgencyApril 5, 2016LONDON The revelation of vast wealth hidden by politicians and powerful figures across the globe set off criminal investigations on at least two continents on Tuesday, forced leaders from Europe to Asia to beat back calls for their removal and claimed its first political casualty pressuring the prime minister of Iceland to step down.Public outrage over millions of documents leaked from a boutique Panamanian law firm now known as the Panama Papers wrenched attention away from wars and humanitarian crises, as harsh new light was shed on the elaborate ways wealthy people hide money in secretive shell companies and offshore tax shelters.The repercussions have come quickly. In Iceland, Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, confronted by demands for his resignation after documents revealing that he and his wealthy wife had set up a company in the British Virgin Islands led to accusations of a conflict of interest, asked his deputy to take over on Tuesday.In Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron faced calls for a government inquiry and accusations of bald hypocrisy by championing financial transparency when the leaks showed that his family held undisclosed wealth in tax havens offshore.In Pakistan, where roughly 20 percent of the population live on less than $1.25 a day, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif angrily rebuffed opposition calls to resign, defended his riches as legally acquired, and demanded that his opponents back up their allegations of wrongdoing. His daughter said on Twitter to critics: prove or apologize.Officials in France, Germany, Austria and South Korea said they were beginning investigations into possible malfeasance, from money laundering to tax evasion. Frances finance minister, Michel Sapin, told Parliament the government was putting Panama back on a blacklist of havens for tax evaders.The leaked papers cover nearly 215,000 companies and 14,153 clients of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. Shared with reporters at 100 news media outlets working in 25 languages, the documents include politicians, celebrities, sports figures and close associates of some of the worlds most powerful people, like President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and members of Chinas ruling Politburo.In China, where the figures identified in the leaked papers include a brother-in-law of President Xi Jinping, the government denounced reports about them as a groundless attack. Its media censors purged mentions of Panama and blocked Internet search inquiries with that word.And in Russia, where officials also dismissed the leaked documents as a baseless political attack on Mr. Putin, the prosecutor generals office said Tuesday it would look into the reports that high-profile Russian individuals were beneficiaries of offshore companies.The ripple effects from the documents extended across continents, from a West African diamond mogul to relatives of a former South Korean president and soccer celebrities in Latin America. Even the Chilean head of Transparency International, a prominent anticorruption advocacy group, was forced to step down after his name appeared in the leaked papers as an agent for offshore companies in the Bahamas.VideotranscripttranscriptIceland Leader Walks Out of InterviewBefore stepping down as Icelands prime minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson walked out of an interview when the topic turned to his name in the leaked Panama Papers.Gunnlaugsson gets up and walks away as Kristjansson continues to ask questions UPSOUND (Icelandic and English) Kristjansson: What assets does the company have? Gunnlaugsson: You dont ask for.. Kristjansson: We know that Wintris held and holds claims in the collapsed banks. Gunnlaugsson: Youre asking me about things I havent acquainted myself with. Kristjansson: You sold your share in the company for one (US) dollar in 2009. Gunnlaugsson: No, no, no. Youre asking me nonsense. You trick me into an interview under false pretenses. Kristjansson: I have your signature here, do you want to see it? Gunnlaugsson: Yes I mean, this is just.. Bergman: With all due respect, Mr Prime Minister, it must be okay to ask those questions.Before stepping down as Icelands prime minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson walked out of an interview when the topic turned to his name in the leaked Panama Papers.CreditCredit...Swedish Public Service Broadcaster, via Associated PressNone of the published leaks have identified American officials so far. Nor do they necessarily show evidence of crimes. But anger and reproach about the revelations have started to swell nonetheless.Corruption, whether private or public, is enabled by secrecy, said John Marti, a former federal prosecutor who is a partner at the international law firm Dorsey and Whitney, based in New York. The revelations, he said, are kind of pulling back the curtain on the secrecy that exists.President Obama, while not commenting directly on the leaked documents, said money shielded by tax avoidance is a huge problem and could be in the trillions of dollars.A lot of this stuff is legal, not illegal, Mr. Obama said. And unless the United States and other countries lead by example in closing some of these loopholes and provisions, then in many cases you can trace whats taking place but you cant stop it.Gabriel Zucman, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of The Hidden Wealth of Nations, said in an interview with National Public Radio that the Panamanian law firm represents a fraction of the total in riches obscured from public scrutiny.You know, its just one firm in one tax haven, and there is much more going on, Mr. Zucman said, calculating that about 8 percent of the worlds financial wealth is held in tax havens. So thats about $7.6 trillion today, a huge amount of wealth.It was not immediately clear how Mr. Gunnlaugssons decision to step aside would affect Iceland, a tiny island nation of 323,000 that is still recovering from the global financial crisis eight years ago.In a reflection of the political turmoil and maneuvering that the Panama Papers have created, the prime ministers office issued a statement on Tuesday night saying that he had proposed stepping down in favor of his deputy for an unspecified amount of time as a sort of indefinite leave of absence and not a formal resignation. It was unclear whether Mr. Gunnlaugsson, who would remain leader of his party, would succeed in his effort to avoid a formal resignation in the face of significant public anger.Mr. Gunnlaugsson had insisted on staying in office after the leaked documents revealed that he and his wealthy partner, who is now his wife, had set up the company in the British Virgin Islands in 2007 through Mossack Fonseca. The documents suggested that he sold his half of the company to her for $1 on the last day of 2009, just before a new law took effect that would have required him as a member of Parliament to declare his ownership as a conflict of interest.Mr. Gunnlaugsson had said that the leak contained no news, adding that he and his wife, Anna Sigurlaug Palsdottir, had not hidden their assets or avoided paying taxes.But the company, Wintris Inc., lost millions of dollars as a result of the 2008 financial crash, which crippled Iceland, and the company is claiming about $4.2 million from three failed Icelandic banks. As prime minister since 2013, Mr. Gunnlaugsson was involved in reaching a deal for the banks claimants, so he was accused of a conflict of interest.The controversy of the leaks was also loud in Britain, in part because it illustrated the outsize role of British-governed territories as tax havens.The leader of Britains opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, called for an independent investigation into the tax affairs of all Britons linked to the Panama revelations including Mr. Camerons family and for Britain to impose direct rule on its overseas territories and dependencies, if necessary, to get them to comply with British tax law.The government needs to stop pussyfooting around on tax dodging, Mr. Corbyn said.The focus of anger in Britain centered on Mr. Camerons late father, Ian, a stockbroker and investment manager, who was among those named as having used the Panamanian law firm to set up a company based in the British Virgin Islands, a British territory.While there was no suggestion of illegal activity, the overseas investment fund paid no British tax. The Labour Party wants to know if the prime minister retained any interest in the offshore fund, which Mr. Cameron denies, and wants him to publicize his tax returns.With economic inequality a growing political issue in Britain, Mr. Camerons privileged upbringing and personal wealth make him vulnerable to such attacks, particularly at a time when his government is reducing spending on welfare payments to the poor.In a further embarrassment to Mr. Cameron, who has claimed leadership in the global fight to crack down on tax havens, the documents also reveal that Britains self-governing overseas territories, especially the British Virgin Islands, proved a favored location for companies handled by Mossack Fonseca.The political temperature over the leaked documents has been rising in Britain since Monday, when, asked whether Mr. Camerons family still had money offshore, his official spokeswoman, Helen Bower, described this as a private matter. Mr. Camerons denial came only on Tuesday.Holding money offshore would not be illegal, providing interest earned was declared to the authorities. Despite saying that he is very relaxed about calls to publish his tax returns, Mr. Cameron has not done so.Reports about the Cameron familys Panamanian connections first surfaced in 2012 when it emerged that Ian Cameron was a director of a fund established in Panama in 1982 called Blairmore Holdings, named after a family mansion in Scotland.The leaks have shown how the company used bearer shares, which do not identify owners by name, to conceal who was investing in Blairmore Holdings.Mr. Cameron said: I own no shares, no offshore trusts, no offshore funds, nothing like that. His office said later that neither he, his wife nor his children benefit from any offshore funds. | World |
Credit...Sean Gallup/Getty ImagesDec. 1, 2015LONDON Volkswagen successfully lobbied to remove two key parts of Europes forthcoming auto emissions tests, an internal email shows, including a provision to measure the significant pollution released when an engine is started but hasnt yet warmed up.The automaker also argued against requiring special, high-speed tests for cars designed to be driven fast. Volkswagen, which owns the Porsche, Lamborghini and Audi brands, is a leading producer of fast cars. Such topics must be deleted, a Volkswagen executive wrote in an email last year to the European Commission, the European Unions executive branch, referring to the two provisions.The new tests, which still face a battle in the European Parliament, will be the first in Europe to require screening car pollution outside of a laboratory and in road tests meant to more closely reflect real driving. The email was included among documents made public by the commission after a request by Corporate Europe Observatory, a Brussels-based advocacy group.The name of the Volkswagen executive who lobbied on the issue of real-world tests was redacted by the European Commission. The email was written by the VW official on behalf of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, a trade group. Cara McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the group, could not say whether other automakers had weighed in on the same topics.Regulations set in Europe have far-flung resonance because European emissions standards are followed by many countries beyond Europe, including India and Argentina. The email reflects the strong hand that carmakers have long had in negotiating over Europes auto regulations.The methods used to test cars for emissions of nitrogen oxides and other airborne pollutants have taken on a new urgency. In September, Volkswagen admitted that it had cheated on traditional lab tests by installing in some 11 million diesel vehicles special software that senses when a car is being subjected to testing. Since then, the loopholes in Europes regulations have met scrutiny and criticism.As world leaders and activists gathered in Paris this week for the United Nations climate-change conference, the VW scandal and the European Unions difficulty in agreeing to effective auto emissions tests serve as sobering reminders that goals or agreements can be hard to enforce in practice.In the email, the VW executive wrote that automakers cannot agree to a regulation including undefined topics like cold start or high speed, adding that both must be deleted. Testing cold starts refers to measuring the prodigious emissions that occur during the everyday act of starting and warming up a car when the engine is cool.Lucia Caudet, a spokeswoman for the European Commission, said the commission still intended to develop a plan to measure cold starts in future addendums to the regulation, which is scheduled to take effect in 2017. The commission is developing a specific cold start test, she wrote in an email, which better reflects emissions in real driving scenarios like short city trips.Fred Baerbock, a spokesman for Volkswagen, said in a statement that the email sent by the VW executive to the commission last year was part of the normal exchange of expertise that is part of every lawmaking in the E.U. He said it was sent by the Volkswagen executive on behalf of the automakers trade group during technical discussions and should not qualify as lobbying by Volkswagen.The trade group spokeswoman said that it was fully supporting the development of this test in order to ensure that emissions more closely reflect real-world conditions.The new European road tests will require automakers to meet new emissions targets on the road, in addition to complying with lab tests. Regulators in the United States and Canada recently began their own road tests of diesel car emissions, though the American tests are focused solely on catching automakers cheating on lab tests.Volkswagen has played a major role in shaping automotive testing in Europe. In addition to its lobbying on the real-world tests, executives from its Audi division took the lead in helping shape a second test that is to debut in 2017 a revamping of laboratory procedures that have long been used to measure tailpipe pollution.As far back as 2010, an executive at Audi laid out a template for the new tests. In subsequent years, Audi executives, some of them specialists in emission certification, also played leading roles in two committees that helped draft the fine print for the test. In these meetings, engineers representing manufacturers largely outnumbered regulatory bodies. The group working on emission tests was led by a member of the German transport ministry throughout the development process of the test.VW also this year lobbied to give large passenger vehicles like vans and buses more leeway in meeting existing emission regulations. That proposal was dropped after VWs emissions scandal became public.John German, a former official at the Environmental Protection Agency and a senior fellow at the International Council on Clean Transportation, an environmental group that played a pivotal role in uncovering Volkswagens cheating, has been critical of the exclusion of cold starts from the road tests, calling it a significant shortcoming.Cold starts are a critical aspect of the testing, he wrote in an email. For gasoline vehicles, the majority of emissions occur during the cold start. It is less for diesels, but still significant.Mr. Baerbock of VW said that at the time the objection was raised, cold starts needed to be defined better in order to be included into the regulation, so automakers boiled it down to asking for the deletion of this issue.The Volkswagen executive also wrote that a proposal to conduct special road testing at about 100 miles per hour and higher for particularly speedy vehicles was not acceptable and crossed out the proposed language from an excerpt included in the email.The new road tests, as currently conceived, limit the highest speed at which testing can occur. The industry and regulators negotiated that speed because pollutant emissions worsen at higher speeds. The Volkswagen executive told the commission that automakers were willing to allow testing at speeds as high as around 91 miles per hour, instead of about 81 miles per hour, which the industry had previously insisted upon but only if at the same time the plans for a special test for high-speed vehicles will be deleted.The industry appears to have largely prevailed because the high-speed test is no longer part of the European plan. The road test is capped at about 91 miles per hour, with a cushion that allows for speeds of up to 100 miles per hour no more than 3 percent of the time. Mr. Baerbock said that an extra high-speed test is not representative for E.U. driving because driving at such speeds was rare.Perhaps the most significant difference between the European and American approaches is that regulators in the United States conduct their own tests to check whether manufacturers claims are accurate. By contrast, in Europe, testing is left to automakers and their contractors, which will continue to be the case in the new road and lab tests.It is still the manufacturers themselves testing or testing facilities that are commissioned by the manufacturers, with very little or no oversight by the authorities, Peter Mock, I.C.C.T.s Europe managing director, said.The future of the road tests is in some doubt, however, because they face a difficult fight in the European Parliament. Many members oppose a recent move by the European Commission to change the road tests in a concession to the industry, making them far easier to meet.Bas Eickhout, a Dutch lawmaker who sits on the European Parliaments environment committee, said he expected the committee to vote to reject the road tests as currently drafted. There is a broad majority in favor of objecting, he said. The issue would then go before the Parliament at large, where the outcome is less clear. If rejected, the commission will have to redraft the rules.Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy, another environment committee member who is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, a centrist bloc, agreed, saying he expected a large majority in the committee to object. He also criticized the commissions handling of the new tests, saying, Its clear this has become an absolutely political decision. | Business |
April 4, 2016Credit...Associated PressLONDON Kim Philby, the double agent whose betrayal of his country to the Soviet Union still marks British life, boasted in a 1981 lecture that was recently discovered by the BBC and broadcast on Monday of the ease with which he fooled a complacent establishment.Mr. Philby, who defected to Moscow in 1963 and died there in 1988 at 76, delivered his hourlong lecture in English in East Berlin to members of the Stasi, the feared East German intelligence service, whose recording of the talk was discovered in the Stasi archives.Aging and puffy, wearing large dark glasses, Mr. Philby addressed his audience as dear comrades. After describing his successes with a cut-glass accent and a deep note of satisfaction, he gave them his best advice: Deny everything.Even when confronted with an incriminating document you wrote, said Mr. Philby, who survived numerous vettings even after his loyalties were in grave doubt, insist its a forgery.With a thin smile, he said: All I had to do really was keep my nerve. My advice to you is to tell all your agents that they are never to confess.The son of a famous desert explorer and official in the Indian Empire who later became a Muslim and took the name Hajj Abdullah, Harold Adrian Russell Philby was known as Kim, after the young boy in the Kipling novel who serves his country as a spy.VideotranscripttranscriptKim Philby Seen in Stasi FootageNewly uncovered video taken by the East German intelligence service in 1981 shows the British double agent Kim Philby sharing his experiences with agents.TKNewly uncovered video taken by the East German intelligence service in 1981 shows the British double agent Kim Philby sharing his experiences with agents.CreditCredit...BStU, via Associated PressBorn in India, he was educated privately and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where historians now say he was recruited, and not, as he claimed, in Austria in 1934.In what he called his 30 years in the enemy camp, Mr. Philby was aided by class assumptions, he said.Because I had been born into the British governing class, because I knew a lot of people of an influential standing, I knew that they would never get too tough with me, he told the Stasi. Theyd never try to beat me up or knock me around, because if they had been proved wrong afterwards, I could have made a tremendous scandal.Mr. Philby, with a note of amusement, described how easy it was for him to steal secret documents. He befriended the archivist at MI6 and bought him drinks, and then he had access to files that were not within his area.Every evening I left the office with a big briefcase full of reports which I had written myself, full of files taken out of the actual documents, out of the actual archives, he said. I was to hand them to my Soviet contact in the evening. The next morning I would get the file back, the contents having been photographed, and take them back early in the morning and put the files back in their place. That I did regularly, year in, year out.The best-known video recording of Mr. Philby is from a news conference in 1955, in his mothers London apartment, in which he denied being a Communist spy after being dismissed by MI6 but cleared in Parliament by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.He was later rehired, and it was not until late 1962 that the British became convinced he was a double agent and sent a new interrogator to meet him in Beirut.ImageCredit...Sergei Karpukhin/ReutersMr. Philby was part of a ring of Cambridge spies that included Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, who preceded him to Moscow after Mr. Philby warned them in 1951 that they were under suspicion and about to be interrogated by British counterintelligence officials. Their defection raised more suspicion about Mr. Philby, but he survived the episode.It was not until 1979 that the long-suspected fourth man, Anthony Blunt, an art historian close to the queen, was publicly revealed to have helped recruit the other three men while they were at Cambridge in the 1930s.But it was the career of Mr. Philby, who set up MI6s section to spy on the Soviet Union to which he was loyal, that was most astonishing, as he rose to head the very counterintelligence department that should have discovered his treachery.In 1965, the Russians awarded him the Red Banner of Honor for his services to the K.G.B., and he later received the privileges of a K.G.B. general.Not without humor, Mr. Philby told the Stasi audience how his Soviet controllers had told him to become chief of the anti-Soviet section of MI6 by removing his boss, Felix Cowgill.I said, Are you proposing to shoot him or something? Mr. Philby recalled.Told to use bureaucratic methods, I set about the business of removing my own chief, he said, then added dryly, You oughtnt to listen to this, prompting laughter.It was a very dirty story, said Mr. Philby, whose treachery was responsible for the deaths of hundreds. But after all, our work does imply getting dirty hands from time to time, but we do it for a cause that is not dirty in any way. | World |
DealBook|Netflix Increasingly Threatens TV Powerhouseshttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/23/business/dealbook/netflix-increasingly-threatens-tv-powerhouses.htmlBreakingviewsCredit...Patrick Wymore/The CwDec. 22, 2015Netflix will be recast in the role of the bad guy next year. The video-streaming service was once derided as the Albanian army by the Time Warner boss Jeff Bewkes, but now is worth roughly the same $50 billion as his company. It may be too late for media bosses to do much about this beast, with some 69 million subscribers worldwide, that they helped create.It wasnt long ago when TV and movie producers considered Netflix something of a hero. The company became a new buyer of programming. Now, however, the increasing popularity of Netflix is contributing to the erosion of pay TV, the more lucrative and predictable source of revenue. Consumers are starting to ditch expensive cable bills in favor of services like Netflix. By 2020, SNL Kagan forecasts that 82 percent of United States households will be pay-TV subscribers, down from a peak of 88 percent in 2011.Thats one reason Mr. Bewkes, along with Twenty-First Century Foxs chief executive, James Murdoch, and Walt Disneys boss, Bob Iger, are signaling a change of heart. Mr. Murdoch, for instance, said that Fox is going to do more business with Hulu, the Netflix rival jointly owned by Fox, Comcast and Disney. Those decisions may cause other problems. The producers of the hit series Homeland, on the CBS-owned Showtime, for example, are concerned theyre getting a smaller cut of profit because of deals struck with Hulu, according to The Wall Street Journal.The industrys wariness may be futile at this point anyway. For one, Netflixs coffers have grown too big. Its increasing scale should enable it to outspend rival networks in 2016. In programming, however, Netflix is still catching up to the likes of HBO, which recently signed up Sesame Street and Jon Stewart. Morgan Stanley estimates that Netflix, led by Reed Hastings, could spend as much as $2.5 billion next year in the United States, compared with HBOs $1.8 billion and Showtimes $700 million.Netflix is also scaling up production of original shows like Master of None and House of Cards. That gave it the confidence this year to opt out of renewing a programming deal with Epix, the venture owned by Viacoms Paramount Pictures, MGM and Lions Gate, because it couldnt secure exclusivity. Thats a pretty strong show of force by what was once likened to an insignificant military operation. | Business |
Many people with Omicron infections may still be contagious beyond five days of isolation, a new report suggests.Credit...Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesFeb. 25, 2022More than half of people who took a rapid antigen test five to nine days after first testing positive for the coronavirus or after developing Covid-19 symptoms tested positive on the antigen test, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The finding raises more concerns about the agencys revised isolation guidelines, which say that many people with Covid can end their isolation periods after five days, without a negative coronavirus test.A C.D.C. scientist who was an author of the study said that he did not believe the agencys isolation guidelines needed to change. But the results suggest that many people with the virus may still be infectious during this period, scientists said.The study demonstrates what a lot of people have suspected: that five days is insufficient for a substantial number of people, Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan, said in an email. The bottom line, she added, is that this absolutely should lead to a change in isolation guidance.The research was conducted after Omicron became the dominant variant in the United States and as cases were surging nationwide. Cases have since fallen precipitously, reducing the risk of infection and the number of Americans who are in isolation.The C.D.C. shortened the isolation period to five days from 10 in December as the Omicron variant spread. Many public health experts criticized the move, noting that people might still be infectious after five days and that allowing them to end isolation without testing might help the new variant spread faster.Dr. Ian Plumb, a medical epidemiologist at the C.D.C. and an author of the new study, said that he believed the study basically supported the agencys current isolation guidance, which asks people to continue taking precautions including wearing masks and refraining from travel until 10 full days have passed.I honestly dont think that it means that the current guidance needs to change, he said.Instead, he said, the study supports the idea that antigen tests can be successfully integrated into isolation guidelines.I think the biggest takeaway is that its possible to incorporate antigen tests into the guidance for isolation because they provide additional information about someones risk of being potentially infectious, he said.The new study was based on people whose coronavirus infections were reported to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation, which provides health care for rural communities in southwestern Alaska, from Jan. 1 to Feb. 9.In early January, Yukon-Kuskokwim issued new isolation guidelines. It recommends that people isolate for 10 full days after testing positive for or developing symptoms of the virus. However, people who had no symptoms or resolving symptoms, and had not had fevers for at least 24 hours, on Days 5 through 9 of their isolation periods were eligible for free Abbott BinaxNOW rapid antigen tests, administered by Yukon-Kuskokwim staff members. If they tested negative, they could end their isolation periods early.Among the 729 people who took antigen tests on Days 5 through 9 of their isolation periods, 54.3 percent of them tested positive. The proportion of people who tested positive declined over time: 67.5 percent tested positive on Day 5 of their isolation periods, compared with 38.6 percent on Day 9.People who had symptomatic infections were more likely to test positive on Days 5 through 9 than those who had been asymptomatic, the researchers found. People who had received a primary vaccine series two doses of an mRNA vaccine or a single dose of Johnson & Johnsons shot or had been previously infected by the virus were less likely to receive positive antigen results during this time frame than those who had not been vaccinated or previously infected.Ultimately, I dont think this is surprising based off the data were seeing and the general concern from the infectious disease community on shortening isolation in the face of a novel variant, said Saskia Popescu, an infectious disease epidemiologist at George Mason University. But I do think its important we continue to assess this, as antigen tests arent a perfect proxy for infectiousness and ability to transmit the virus.The findings are consistent with several other recent studies, which have not yet been published in scientific journals or reviewed by outside experts. In one, researchers found that more than 40 percent of vaccinated health care workers tested positive on rapid antigen tests on Days 5 through 10 of their illnesses.In two other studies, researchers found that a substantial proportion of people with suspected and confirmed Omicron infections still had high viral loads more than five days after first testing positive for the virus. | science |
Dec. 1, 2015Credit...United States Mint, via Associated PressWASHINGTON Republicans unhappy with the Federal Reserve are circulating an idea that long ago lost currency with most economists: a gold standard.In an election season shaken by terrorism fears, immigration politics and economic anxiety, a shiny precious metal might seem like an odd fixation, but Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a Republican presidential hopeful, said recently that the dollar should have a fixed value in gold, and some rivals for the Republican nomination said a return to the old standard was worth studying.The rhetoric is rooted in concern that the Feds efforts to revive economic growth have loosened its hold on inflation. A gold standard, proponents argue, would limit the Feds ability to create money, thus ensuring prices remain stable.But economic historians describe this as nostalgia for a time that never was. Proponents of the gold standard generally overstate the benefits of putting golden handcuffs on a central bank, historians say, and the costs of that reduced flexibility are considerable.ImageCredit...Associated PressIn 2012, the University of Chicago asked 40 leading economists whether a gold standard would improve the lives of average Americans. All 40 said no.You can do a lot better than a gold standard, said Michael Bordo, an economist and director of the Center for Monetary and Financial History at Rutgers University. He described the political interest in the precious metal as pretty crazy.The gold standard was invented to constrain government spending. Nations that agreed to exchange money for gold thought twice before printing more money. And lately, Republicans have found themselves yearning for such restraint.After the 2008 recession, the Fed began a campaign to stimulate economic growth. It has held short-term interest rates near zero since December 2008, and it put further pressure on long-term rates by creating trillions of dollars to buy Treasuries and mortgage bonds. Both measures aimed to spur risk-taking by investors and borrowing by businesses and consumers.Republicans have warned since the outset that the Fed was losing control of inflation. During the 2012 campaign, Rick Perry, then the governor of Texas and a Republican presidential candidate, called the Feds policies treasonous and warned that if Ben S. Bernanke, then the Fed chairman, came to Texas, we would treat him pretty ugly. The party added a plank to its platform calling for a commission to investigate possible ways to set a fixed value for the dollar, reviving language last seen in 1984.Instead, four years later, inflation remains unusually sluggish. Some economists and Fed officials argue the economy would benefit from a little more. But the language of the Feds critics remains heated.Instead of adjusting monetary policy according to whims and getting it wrong over and over again and causing booms and busts, what the Fed should be doing is, No. 1, keeping our money tied to a stable level of gold, Mr. Cruz said last month during a Republican presidential debate.Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, agreed that the Fed destroys the value of the currency by allowing too much inflation. Ben Carson and Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor, both agreed that the value of the dollar should be tied to something.ImageCredit...The Daily News, via Getty ImagesIf its not going to be gold, make it the commodity basket, Mr. Huckabee said.Economists generally regard a gold standard as a crude and outdated method of inflation control. There is nothing inherently stable about the value of gold. It fluctuates, like the value of everything else, as more is extracted from the ground and as demand waxes and wanes.The bigger problem, however, is that economic conditions are unstable. And during recessions, printing money can help revive economic activity. Nations began to rebound from the Great Depression when they began to abandon gold. Most developed nations now ask central banks to strike a balance between stabilizing broad measures of price inflation and encouraging economic growth, and then leave it to the technocrats to decide how much money to print.The real world is a complex place, Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, wrote in a recent defense of the need for human judgment in making monetary policy. Driverless cars would veer from side to side and cause crashes if their guidance algorithm was limited to just maintaining the distance from the car in front of them, instead of assimilating more information as they went. The U.S. economy cannot be safely run on autopilot either.Barry Eichengreen, an economic historian at the University of California, Berkeley, said life under the gold standard, during its heyday around the turn of the last century, more closely resembled modern central banking than is commonly recognized. The Bank of England held extra gold so it could print extra money if necessary, for example, and nations frequently suspended their standards during periods of extreme duress.ImageCredit...Abe Fox/Associated PressBut Mr. Eichengreen emphasized that these leniencies proved insufficient, and that policy makers had made steady and significant progress in the intervening decades toward improving the management of monetary policy.There is a long history in the United States, going back to Andrew Jackson, of deep skepticism of the power of anonymous financial technocrats, Mr. Eichengreen said. This wish to substitute simple rules partly reflects a strain of political ideology that thinks government intervention only causes problems and never solves them. And partly it reflects a lack of careful understanding of how these earlier regimes work.In fact, the gold standard did not even work during periods of calm. What is often described as an era of stable prices was more like a roller-coaster ride that ended back where it began, after bursts of inflation and deflation.Mr. Bordo has calculated that economic volatility in the United States was significantly greater during the gold standard years, and the nations unemployment rate, on average, was almost a full percentage point higher.ImageCredit...Harvey Georges/Associated PressWhen people look back and say the gold standard was wonderful, they forget about the short-run swings, he said.Even economists who want to remove human judgment from monetary policy tend to look down on the gold standard. Milton Friedman, a conservative economic icon, suggested that monetary policy should not be determined by people or by gold, but instead by a computer program.The last few years have served as a reminder that steering straight ahead is not necessarily the best policy during a storm. After the financial crisis, the Fed has embraced responsibility not just for inflation but also for economic and financial stability, and other central banks have followed its path.And congressional Republicans, while levying many of the same criticisms against the Fed as the partys presidential candidates, have proved unwilling to impose a rigid rule.The House of Representatives last month passed legislation requiring the Fed to choose its own rule for setting interest-rate levels a Fed standard and explain any deviations. The legislation includes a suggested rule, known as the Taylor Rule, which tries to formalize a balance between economic growth and inflation, effectively allowing some amount of extra money printing during recessions.A similar Senate bill would not require the Fed to pick a rule, but instead to compare its conduct of monetary policy with several reference rules in regular reports to Congress.We will not fully realize robust economic growth until the Fed changes the conduct of its monetary policy, Representative Bill Huizenga, the Michigan Republican who wrote the House bill, said during the final debate on the House floor. He then emphasized that the legislation would leave the Fed free to develop what it believes is the best course of action on monetary policy. | Business |
Golf|16-Year-Old Becomes Youngest L.P.G.A. Memberhttps://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/sports/golf/lexi-thompson-16-becomes-youngest-lpga-member.htmlSept. 30, 2011Lexi Thompson became the youngest member in L.P.G.A. history Friday when the tour commissioner, Mike Whan, approved her petition for full membership beginning in 2012.Thompson, 16, was in the process of gaining membership through the L.P.G.A. Tours annual qualifying school when she won the Navistar L.P.G.A. Classic in September in Alabama.The tour requires prospective members to be at least 18. Whan, in a nod to Thompsons talents, had waived the age restriction to allow her to attend qualifying school. With her L.P.G.A. Classic victory, Thompson validated Whans decision. It was difficult for me to think there was anything more she could prove at Q-school that she didnt prove at the Navistar Classic, Whan said in a teleconference.Thompson, a high school senior who is home schooled, will play roughly 20 tournaments in the United States and abroad. Her precocity was driven home when her agent, Bobby Kreusler, said her schedule would be planned around events like homecoming and the prom.Kreusler filed a petition on Thompsons behalf earlier in the week asking for L.P.G.A. membership beginning in 2012. She could have sought membership for the rest of this season, but it would not have been to Thompsons advantage because there are only a few events remaining and the fields have been set.Now we have the luxury of planning her schedule a year ahead, Kreusler said.Thompsons success has spiked interest in womens golf among fans and potential sponsors, which Whan acknowledged, but he added: She doesnt have to carry any more weight than the weight of her bag. If she doesnt win again for the next three years, the L.P.G.A. is going to be fine. If she wins six times, the L.P.G.A. is going to be fine. | Sports |
Grizzlies 98, Knicks 93Credit...Justin Ford/USA Today Sports, via ReutersFeb. 18, 2014MEMPHIS As the ball left Mike Millers fingertips, Carmelo Anthony could only hope for something unscripted. Perhaps Miller would forget to follow through, Anthony said. Of course, he knew it was unlikely. After everything that had happened against the Grizzlies on Tuesday night the early deficit, the late comeback Anthony and the Knicks could only watch.Hope turned to despair. Left open because of a defensive miscommunication, Miller sank the go-ahead 3-pointer that helped lift the Grizzlies to a 98-93 victory at FedEx Forum.Anthony, who labored with his shooting, especially early, said it was a game the Knicks (20-33) desperately needed to win, but then again, arent they all? The loss was the start of a four-game trip following the All-Star break, and with James L. Dolan, the teams owner, watching from a private suite, the Knicks continued to lose ground.To just kind of give it away, very disappointing, said Anthony, who finished with 22 points. Got to put this one behind us, too.That word too implied that the Knicks have been through this before. Many times, in fact, though at least the Knicks showed some mettle after trailing by as many as 18 points in the first half. They relied on defense to surge to a 7-point lead in the fourth quarter. During one scintillating stretch, they sank eight straight shots. It was an anomaly given their tortured season, as well as the fact that they had opened the game by misfiring on 15 of 16 3-point attempts, each brick more egregious than the last.The Grizzlies (30-23) refused to budge. After the Knicks Tim Hardaway Jr. sank a 3-pointer for a 93-91 lead, Miller spotted up for his 3-pointer: swish. On the subsequent possession, the Knicks had a chance to regain the lead, but J. R. Smith air-balled a long jumper from the left corner. Ill take that shot from J. R. all day, Coach Mike Woodson said.The Knicks were forced to foul, and the Grizzlies Mike Conley, who finished with a team-high 22 points, sank both free throws. The Knicks missed their final four shots, all 3-pointers.Im proud of the way we fought, Woodson said, but youve got to win games.It seems improbable that Thursdays trade deadline will bring the team much relief. If the Knicks are hoping to upgrade at certain positions say, at point guard they could be hindered by their lack of draft picks and expiring contracts, both of which tend to be coveted by trade partners. It would be foolish to expect the team to broker a deal that changes the tenor of its season.The trade deadline creates a strange dynamic, with players seeing their names surface in reports. Woodson dismissed it as part of the business. Players who hear themselves mentioned should take it as a compliment, he said, because it means other teams want them. That may or may not actually be the case.ImageCredit...Mike Brown/European Pressphoto AgencyAs Dave Joerger, the coach of the Grizzlies, put it: What it will be is what it will be until its not.It was a good bit of verbal gymnastics that took some unpacking, but his message was clear enough. This is a fluid time for N.B.A. teams. Players who are here today could be gone tomorrow.As for Anthony, he said he expected to be consulted by management before the team made any major moves. He is the teams focal point, of course, for now and for the foreseeable future. He plans to opt out of his contract and become a free agent in July, and the Knicks have done little to play down the notion that they want to do everything they can to keep him.Anthony said last week that the Knicks needed to show him that they had a firm plan in place to become a legitimate contender. That has not been the case this season, and the Knicks could be bereft of cap space until the summer of 2015, when the contracts belonging to Tyson Chandler, Amare Stoudemire and Andrea Bargnani are due to expire.Anthony was coming off a highly enjoyable experience at Sundays All-Star Game, during which he set a record by sinking eight 3-pointers. It was a festival of spot-up jumpers, as superstar pals like Kyrie Irving and Chris Paul created space off the dribble and found Anthony alone on the perimeter. He had little need (or apparent desire) to mix it up in the post.Tuesday was different. Tuesday meant a return to what Anthony described as the grind, a phrase that he articulated as more of an exasperated sigh. Sure enough, early in the first quarter, he was back in a familiar role of bodying up against a more-than-adequate defender in Tayshaun Prince. Anthony dribbled and dribbled, eventually plowing through Prince for an offensive foul. Anthony missed his first seven shots. A fan told him to keep firing away. I am, dont worry, Anthony said as he inbounded a pass.Other problems were apparent, namely the two early fouls that Chandler picked up. The Knicks offense wheezed its way to a 22-17 deficit by the end of the first quarter, and all that rest that the team accumulated over the long weekend looked more like rust. Miller, who finished with 19 points, drained a jumper and a 3-pointer to push the Grizzlies ahead by 32-21 early in the second quarter.Smith, who fractured his cheekbone against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Feb. 9, played with a face mask, and he said it was uncomfortable terrible, in fact. After he threw up an air ball from 19 feet, the Grizzlies Zach Randolph capitalized with a layup for a 16-point lead. Memphis was up by 13 at the half.It proved to be a manageable deficit for the Knicks, who outscored the Grizzlies by 27-16 in the third quarter and appeared to be in control when Chandler got inside for a dunk and an 84-77 lead midway through the fourth. Then the same old issues emerged: the missed shots and the defensive lapses, the disappointment and the losing.Not too much to say at this point, Stoudemire said. We know we were supposed to win this game. | Sports |
Middle East|Israeli Lawmakers Advance Bill to Curb Loudspeakers in Muslim Call to Prayerhttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/world/middleeast/israel-muslims-call-to-prayer-loudspeakers-law.htmlCredit...Ammar Awad/ReutersMarch 8, 2017A bill that would regulate the traditional use of loudspeakers for the Muslim call to prayer passed its first legislative hurdle in Israels Parliament on Wednesday, provoking frustration and anger among some Arab lawmakers.One version of the bill would prohibit places of worship from using loudspeakers between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., while another would ban any broadcast over such speakers regardless of the time of day if it is deemed unreasonably loud, the BBC reported. The first daily prayer is traditionally performed before sunrise.Both versions passed with slim majorities, but a final draft requires further approval from Parliament before becoming law.Opponents describe the legislation as an attack on religious freedom that targets the five daily calls to prayer. Supporters describe it as something closer to a noise ordinance.Israel is committed to freedom for all religions, but is also responsible for protecting citizens from noise, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in November, when his ministers approved an earlier version of the proposal and sent it to the Parliament.Zouheir Bahloul, a member of Parliament belonging to the center-left Zionist Union, disagreed, calling the bill dangerous in a translated interview with i24, an Israeli television station.Were talking about small politicians who are trying to persecute the Arab minority in the country, he said. Its a stain on the forehead of Israeli society and the state of Israel. In the book of laws, this law is the blackest.Some Arab lawmakers ripped up copies of the legislation during a debate. One, Ayman Odeh, the leader of an alliance of Arab parties known as the Joint List, was thrown out of the chamber after doing so, according to the BBC.When the ban was proposed in November, it was denounced by Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.The call to prayer is a symbol of Islam, Adel Elfar, the imam of a mosque in Lod, a city of Arabs and Jews in Israel, said at the time. This is something thats existed for 1,426 years. | World |
Science|Defense Department Redefines Climate Changehttps://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/18/science/global-warming-dictionary-definition-military-defense-department.htmlTrilobitesMarch 18, 2016So what does climate change mean, exactly?The question is not an existential one for the Department of Defense; it is a matter of careful and literal consideration.The department recently decided that the standard Websters definition of climate change didnt quite meet its needs. So it added its own version to its homegrown dictionary, the Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms.Heres how it now defines climate change:Variations in average weather conditions that persist over multiple decades or longer that encompass increases and decreases in temperature, shifts in precipitation, and changing risk of certain types of severe weather events.The dictionary, which is used in part to standardize military communication, is updated monthly, and the new entry on climate change was made public in late February.The military adds definitions when the Websters dictionary entry is considered insufficient, Richard R. Osial, a spokesman for the Joint Staff, explained in an email. And definitions can have policy implications.This new explanation for climate change was added because there are many definitions for climate change floating around right now, and the department needs to ensure that whenever the term is used in Department of Defense issuances, it has a specific definition, Mr. Osial wrote.Through this definition and other policy plans, the department has acknowledged that the countrys landscapes, climates and resources will likely undergo serious changes because of rising temperatures and other risks associated with climate change.Specifically, the department anticipates increased need for air, sea and land capabilities and capacity in the Arctic region, and damage from thawing permafrost and sea ice in Alaska and the Arctic region, Mr. Osial wrote.Some additional risks they associate with climate change portend a grim future. Those risks include disruption to and competition for reliable energy and fresh water supplies and changed disease vector distribution, increasing the complexity and cost of ongoing disease-management efforts, among others, he added.The definition was added as a result of two executive orders issued by President Barack Obama, which required several government agencies to prepare for climate change or achieve certain environmental benchmarks, including reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent over the next decade.In 2014, an unofficial plan for adapting to climate change was developed by Chuck Hagel, the defense secretary at the time, and was later established as official policy for adaptation and resilience agencywide in 2015.In the beginning of this year, the department also identified nearly 80 policy areas where it can make changes to consider the effects of climate change, updates which it expects to complete by 2025, Mr. Osial wrote. | science |
Credit...ReutersApril 3, 2016MOSCOW Azerbaijan announced on Sunday that it had halted combat operations in the sudden, bloody clashes with Armenia over the long-disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, but it laid the seeds for continued fighting by saying it would keep the slice of territory seized by its forces.The Azeri Defense Ministry said in a statement posted on its website that Azerbaijan, taking into account appeals for a cease-fire from various international organizations, has decided to unilaterally cease retaliatory military actions, but that it would continue fighting if Armenia did not stop.The statement also said Azerbaijan would strengthen the defense of the liberated territories.If Azerbaijan consolidates its control over strategic heights seized in fighting on Saturday around several villages in northeastern Nagorno-Karabakh, it will be the first change in the static armistice line in 22 years.The heavy fighting that erupted over the weekend was the worst since that armistice, leaving about 30 dead. Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has controlled its own affairs with significant military and financial support from Armenia since a separatist war sputtered to a stop in 1994.Neither Armenia nor the separatist enclave would be likely to find any change in the armistice line acceptable, and both accused Azerbaijan of continuing the fighting in the South Caucasus despite the declared cease-fire.The situation along the line of contact remains tense, Artsrun Hovhannisyan, the spokesman for Armenias Defense Ministry, said in a statement on the ministrys website. The statement by the Azerbaijan side is an information trap and does not amount to a unilateral cease-fire, he wrote.Reports from Yerevan, the Armenian capital, said volunteers by the hundreds were streaming toward the front.David K. Babayan, the spokesman for the president of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, posted statements on Twitter claiming that Azerbaijan was saying one thing while doing another. Azerbaijani forces continue shelling, trying to intrude into Nagorno-Karabakhs territory, he was quoted as saying by the local news media. The territory is home to about 150,000 people.Ethnic divisions have long pitted predominantly Christian Armenia against mostly Muslim Azerbaijan, and war between them erupted after the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991. The dispute has continued to simmer since the cease-fire in 1994, with occasional flare-ups. As is usual, each side accused the other of starting the latest fighting, this time by unleashing heavy weapons.The Kremlin, as the former colonial ruler, has presented itself as a mediator between the two, while also selling arms to both. Russia also maintains a small base in Armenia. On Saturday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia called for a cease-fire.Analysts were struggling to understand what had caused this eruption and whether it indicated the start of a new, violent phase of the war. The ethnic war that began in the late Soviet period claimed more than 20,000 lives and ended in the cease-fire, but there was no final settlement.The former Soviet Union is dotted with at least five frozen conflicts that Moscow occasionally heats up to exert pressure on independent states it once controlled, including Georgia, Moldova and most recently Ukraine. Russia does not have a proxy force in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as it does in the others, but both the Armenian government in Yerevan and the Azeri government in Baku depend on Moscow to referee the standoff.Some analysts described the recent fighting as a natural outburst of the tensions that build up along the cease-fire line but that in this case escalated markedly, not least because both sides were deploying far more sophisticated weaponry.Instead of just exchanging mortar fire, for example, there were reports that the countries were deploying heavy weapons for the first time since 1994, with the two sides lobbing Grad rockets at each other, which cause far more extensive and unpredictable damage.A provocation that begins with the use of large-caliber multiple rocket launch systems and gunships has significantly higher chances of leading to an accidental war because of the casualties it can cause, wrote Simon Saradzhyan, a Russia specialist at Harvard Kennedy Schools Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, in a preliminary online analysis.Azerbaijan alone in recent years has used its oil wealth to purchase about $4 billion worth of new, mostly Russian weapons. President Ilham Aliyev faced public pressure to show something for the investment, especially amid growing public unrest after the collapse in global oil prices. The countrys currency, the manat, dropped about one-third in value against the dollar in December.The government wants to avoid leaving the public with the impression that the president has accepted defeat in terms of ceding control over the separatist region, wrote Maxim Yusin, a Russian analyst, in the daily Kommersant newspaper.Mr. Aliyev crowed about the blow struck by his forces against Armenia, while accusing the other country of starting the renewed conflict. I believe April 2 will be a good lesson to them, he was quoted as saying at a meeting of his Security Council on Sunday, according to the Interfax news agency.Interfax also reported that Mr. Aliyev had suggested that additional Armenian soldiers would die. But at the same time we will observe the cease-fire, and after that we will try to solve the conflict peacefully, he said.President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey backed the Azerbaijani position to the end, according to a statement from his office. We pray our Azerbaijani brothers will prevail in these clashes, he was quoted as saying.Turkey and Russia have been at loggerheads over Syria, with previously strong trade relations between the two collapsing after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane it claimed had violated its airspace in November. The idea that Turkey is encouraging a war in the South Caucasus, long a tinderbox for Russia, is unlikely to sit well with the Kremlin.Two very unpredictable leaders have direct interests in Nagorno-Karabakh, said Cliff Kupchan, the chairman of the Eurasia Group, a Washington-based geopolitical risk analysis company. That raises risks right there.The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has been trying to negotiate a settlement for years, condemned the violence and said it will meet Tuesday about the renewed fighting.Few analysts, however, expected a full-blown war.Being a pragmatist, Ilham Aliyev does not want to risk the stability of the present for the sake of the war with an unpredictable outcome, Mr. Yusin, the Russian analyst, wrote in Kommersant. | World |
These Photographers Chase New Zealands Glowing WavesCapturing bioluminescence, a phenomenon in which glowing algae give crashing waves an electric blue glow, requires technical skill and a bit of luck.Credit...Alistair BainApril 11, 2022On hot, moonless nights in New Zealand, they fan out across beaches in search of an elusive, shimmering quarry.They arent hunters, but photographers chasing bioluminescence, a natural phenomenon in which glowing algae give crashing waves an ethereal, electric blue aura.New Zealand is an especially good place to chase bio, as enthusiasts there say. Even so, its notoriously hard to predict where and when bioluminescence will appear. And photographing it in near-total darkness at 3 a.m., as you stand knee-deep in the surf gripping a tripod presents extra obstacles.It is very, very difficult to catch sight of, and sometimes it does come down to blind luck, said one of those enthusiasts, Matthew Davison, 37, who lives in Auckland and sometimes stays out until sunrise shooting bioluminescence.But part of the appeal and part of the adventure is that, because it is so hard, thats what makes it exciting, he added. When you find it, when you strike blue gold, it is just such a good feeling.ImageCredit...Matthew DavisonSounding a Burglar AlarmBioluminescence is relatively rare on land but very common in the ocean. About four in five of the animals that live 200 to 1,000 meters (650 to 3,300 feet) below the surface are bioluminescent, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The glow comes in different colors on land, but in oceans it usually appears as blue-green because that is what cuts through seawater the best.Bioluminescent organisms from fireflies to anglerfish create light from energy released by chemical reactions inside their bodies.Even though many scientists, including Aristotle and Darwin, have been fascinated by bioluminescence over the centuries, the behavioral motivations for it are still something of a mystery, said Kenneth H. Nealson, a professor emeritus at the University of Southern California who studied the phenomenon for decades.Scientists generally think that organisms light up in order to communicate with one another, lure or detect prey or warn or evade predators.The most popular explanation for why algae glow in the oceans is the burglar alarm hypothesis, Professor Nealson said. It holds that the organisms glow when big fish swim by in order to scare off smaller fish that eat algae.ImageCredit...Grant BirleyCoastal waters turn blue during periods when algae, which live near the surface of oceans, multiply in especially nutrient-rich waters. The specific flashes of blue-green light come in response to pressure changes that waves create as they crash.The waves pose no threat to algae, Professor Nealson said, but algal blooms light up anyway because algae are programmed to respond to pressure changes that fish create when they swim by in the open ocean.That luminescence is probably of no help at all to those algae that are in the cusp of the wave and giving off the light, Professor Nealson said. But if they were back a little further offshore, it could be a very good behavioral mechanism because it could help them scare off predators.Seeing BluePhotographers who hunt bioluminescence in New Zealand, many of whom have day jobs, say that summer is generally the best time to spot it. (Summer runs from December to March in the Southern Hemisphere.) Nights after rainstorms are best, they say, because water that runs off land into the ocean often includes nutrient-rich material that attracts algae.VideoMatthew DavisonCreditCredit...Matthew DavisonMr. Davison, a product developer for a technology company, has a method for finding bioluminescence. First he studies satellite imagery to identify algal blooms off the coast. Then he combs through other indicators, such as wind direction and tidal patterns, to predict where waters may glow.Hes an exception, though. Other photographers mainly rely on a mix of luck, intuition and the occasional tip from neighbors who spot sparks of blue during walks on the beach.If Im perfectly honest, probably eight out of 10 times I capture it is either by chance or just a gut feeling that it might be around, said Grant Birley, 48, who works in the orthopedics industry and often stops to photograph bioluminescence during his two-hour commute along the coastline of New Zealands North Island. Its not an educated guess at all.One source of intelligence is a private Facebook group that was created two years ago for people in the Auckland area to discuss sightings of bioluminescence. It now has more than 7,000 members and welcomes about 2,000 new ones each summer, said Stacey Ferreira, one of the groups administrators.Ms. Ferreira said she created the group so that others could tick the beautiful phenomenon off their bucket lists, as she did in 2020. Its been great! she wrote in an email. People from every background have joined talented photography enthusiasts, bioluminescence researchers, scientists, families and everyone in between.Shots After DarkFor bio chasers, finding the glow is just the start of the process of capturing a memorable image. After arriving at a beach, they typically set up tripods in the surf and spend hours shooting, sometimes in near-total darkness, as blue patches flicker intermittently across the shore. Sometimes the flicker dies off after a few minutes, and they head home empty-handed.ImageCredit...Grant BirleyWhen bio is present, a key challenge is deciding how long to expose an image. Mr. Birley said the timing could range from one second to nearly two minutes and that it could be hard to check on the fly by looking at a tiny camera screen to see whether the exposure times are correct.Another challenge is that images of bioluminescence sometimes include details that werent visible when the shutter clicked. That is because a camera sees far more than the naked eye, especially in long nighttime exposures.In the daytime you look and say, Theres a tree and a sunset and a cliff and Ill move over to the left, said Alistair Bain, 38, a high school teacher who lives near Mr. Birley on the suburban Whangaparaoa Peninsula, north of central Auckland. Youve got none of that at night.ImageCredit... Alistair BainChance EncountersFor all the challenges, photographers say that hunting bioluminescence is rewarding in part because the phenomenon is endlessly surprising.One clear night, Mr. Bain drove about 40 miles to a beach where he hoped to photograph the Milky Way galaxy. When he arrived, he saw not only a sky full of stars but a glowing shoreline. That was a special one to come across by accident, he said.Another time, Mr. Davison stepped out his car at a beach with low expectations. It was raining, and he assumed that would be a problem because heavy rain typically spoils a bioluminescence show.But in this case, the rainfall was gentle enough that it had activated glowing algae across the oceans surface for as far as he could see. So he grabbed his camera and started to shoot.Unless youre there, unless you capture it, no one would believe could not even possibly imagine what youre witnessing, Mr. Davison said. Thats why I love taking photos and videos of this. The best way to share what youve seen is through the power of an image. | science |
Business|Kaiser Permanente Plans to Open a Medical Schoolhttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/18/business/kaiser-permanente-plans-to-open-a-medical-school.htmlDec. 17, 2015WASHINGTON Kaiser Permanente, the health system based in California that combines a nonprofit insurance plan with its own hospitals and clinics, announced Thursday that it would open its own medical school in the state in 2019. The systems leaders said their central goal was to teach Kaisers model of integrated care to a new generation of doctors who will be under pressure to improve health outcomes and control costs by working in teams and using technology. Health care is evolving at a very, very rapid pace in our country and we have a model of care thats increasingly being looked to as an answer, said Dr. Edward M. Ellison, executive medical director for the Southern California Permanente Medical Group, who is helping to oversee the medical schools creation. Kaiser already trains about 600 medical residents in its own program, and several thousand more complete a portion of their training in it each year. But its medical school, planned for Southern California, would be one of the first run by an integrated health system without an academic partner, said Dr. George E. Thibault, president of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, which encourages innovation in medical schools. If health care is increasingly going to take place in integrated systems, Dr. Thibault said, a large part of the medical education experience should be what its like to work in a system like that: the efficiencies and the processes and the ways in which patient care is benefited.Dr. Thibault added that while Kaiser would not be the only integrated health system involved in medical education, it is larger than any of them, has greater reach than any of them, greater resources. Kaiser runs 38 hospitals in eight states and the District of Columbia, with 18,000 doctors working for its affiliated medical groups and more than 10 million patients, mostly in California. It receives a fixed amount for medical care per member, so there is a strong financial incentive to keep people healthy and out of the hospital, a model that Kaiser pioneered and that is now being followed around the country. Dr. Ellison said Kaisers use of technology, through electronic medical records and new types of telemedicine that allow patients to receive care anywhere in a way thats safe and effective, will also be crucial to its medical school curriculum. Kaiser officials would not provide a cost estimate for the medical school. Dr. Ellison said the goal was to have 46 students in the first class and said the school would be in California because it was where we have our largest footprint as an organization.Twenty accredited medical schools have opened in the nation since 2002, for a total of 145, said Dr. John E. Prescott, chief academic officer at the Association of American Medical Colleges. | Business |
Credit...Lefteris Pitarakis/Associated PressMarch 9, 2017ANKARA, Turkey An unusually bitter dispute between Germany and Turkey escalated on Thursday as leaders in both countries accused the other of acting in bad faith.The controversy has worsened ahead of an April referendum in Turkey on a new Constitution that would vastly expand the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. His allies want him to campaign in Germany, where 1.5 million Turks live and are eligible to vote.Mr. Erdogan has accused Germany of using Nazi practices to block him from campaigning. Germany is agitated about Turkeys crackdown on civil liberties and the detention of a Turkish-German journalist, Deniz Yucel.Norbert Lammert, the president of Germanys Parliament, has warned that the referendum could pave the way for an increasingly autocratic state that is growing more removed from European values and standards.In remarks to Parliament this week, Chancellor Angela Merkel called the Nazi comparison completely unacceptable. She said that the remarks were sad and incredibly misplaced, and that they trivialized the suffering of victims of the Nazis.Ms. Merkel said that it was in Germanys interest not to distance itself from Turkey, but that the dispute involved fundamental principles like the freedom of the press, speech and assembly.Addressing the Turks living in Germany, Ms. Merkel said: We want to do everything in order to prevent conflicts emanating from the domestic situation in Turkey from being carried into our coexistence here. Let us continue, wherever possible, to promote and further improve our way of living together. This is a matter close to our hearts.At a news conference in Ankara, the Turkish capital, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim was less conciliatory, accusing Germany of meddling in Turkeys internal politics, which he called a grave mistake. Mr. Yildirim said Germany was quietly pushing for the defeat of the constitutional referendum, adding that Germanys efforts would backfire and lead most Turks living in Germany to support the referendum.We have a hard time understanding the reason they will be disturbed by a yes vote on the referendum, Mr. Yildirim said.He also suggested on Thursday that the government would extend a state of emergency during which tens of thousands of teachers, police officers, judges and opposition politicians have been jailed without charges or trials by three months. But Mr. Yildirim later appeared to backtrack, telling journalists that the governments National Security Council, of which he is a member, will have to take up the matter. At a second news conference, Ibrahim Kalin, a powerful assistant to Mr. Erdogan, said a decision had yet to be reached on whether to extend the emergency period.Mr. Kalin said Turkeys European and American allies had unfairly criticized Turkeys crackdown that came after last years coup attempt. The Turkish public in general is disappointed that Turkey has not received the kind of support it expected after this coup, Mr. Kalin said.In a third briefing on Thursday for foreign journalists, Bekir Bozdag, Turkeys justice minister, blamed a smear campaign by terrorist organizations for tricking American and European journalists into holding critical views of Turkeys crackdown. For instance, when you have a look at the emails of nearly all journalists in the U.S. and Europe, you can see that they have received propaganda messages from terrorist organizations, Mr. Bozdag said.In further comments, Mr. Yildirim condemned President Trumps decision to use the phrase radical Islamic terrorism in his speeches and other public remarks, calling the phrase divisive language that alienates the vast majority of peaceful Muslims. If you mention a religion in the same sentence as terrorism, then the followers of that religion in this case two billion people will be offended, Mr. Yildirim said. When you use the phrase Islamic terrorism, all Muslims are offended.Mr. Yildirim, Mr. Kalin and Mr. Bozdag all warned the Trump administration that relations between Turkey and the United States could worsen significantly if the United States failed to extradite Fethullah Gulen, the leader of a religious organization who lives in Pennsylvania and whom the Turkish authorities accused of masterminding the failed coup attempt in July.Turkey has provided documentation to the Justice Department that it claims proves Mr. Gulens guilt, the three said. So far, the American authorities have yet to agree. I can clearly say that whatever Osama bin Laden means for American citizens, Fethullah Gulen means for the Turkish people, Mr. Bozdag said. He said he expected to have a phone conversation soon with the United States attorney general, Jeff Sessions, to discuss his countrys extradition request.Scores of journalists have been arrested in recent months in Turkey, but Mr. Bozdag said none had been detained because of their journalism.Mr. Yildirim and Mr. Kalin also said relations could suffer if the United States chose to attack the Syrian city of Raqqa, the headquarters of the Islamic State, with Kurdish forces whom Turkey views as allied with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party. The Trump administration needs to win the hearts and minds of Turkish public opinion, Mr. Yildirim said. And at the moment, the Turkish public has a very negative opinion of the United States. | World |
Credit...Joshua Bright for The New York TimesNov. 15, 2018The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday announced a series of restrictions aimed at combating a growing public health menace flavored e-cigarettes and tobacco products that have lured young people into vaping and smoking.And in a bold regulatory move, the agency said it would move to outlaw two traditional tobacco products that disproportionately harm African-Americans: menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.The proposed menthol ban would be the most aggressive action the F.D.A. has taken against the tobacco industry in nearly a decade, and it was notable given the Trump administrations business-friendly approach to regulatory issues. But the proposal is likely to face a protracted legal battle, so it could be years in the making.The effort to cut off access to flavored e-cigarettes stopped short of a ban that the F.D.A. had threatened in recent months as it sought to persuade e-cigarette makers like Juul Labs to drop marketing strategies that might appeal to minors. The agency said it would allow stores to continue selling such flavored products, but only from closed off-areas that would be inaccessible to teenagers.Some 3.6 million people under 18 reported using e-cigarettes, the agency said.Almost all adult smokers started smoking when they were kids, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the agencys commissioner, said in a statement. Today, we significantly advance our efforts to combat youth access and appeal with proposals that firmly and directly address the core of the epidemic: flavors.Still, the plan to sequester flavored e-cigarettes in stores, rather than ban selling them, was surprising to many people since details of a stronger proposal leaked out widely from the agency over the past week. Members of Congress sent out news releases, praising the agency for a ban that did not materialize. Federal law already prohibits the sale of cigarettes and e-cigarettes to anyone under 18.But lawyers said the agency did not have the legal authority to impose such a ban without going through a long, complicated process that would have inevitably ended up in court.In trying to navigate between public health concerns about nicotine addiction among teenagers and a reluctance to heavily restrict e-cigarettes that can help adult smokers quit, Dr. Gottlieb urged manufacturers to police themselves. We hope that in the next 90 days, manufacturers choose to remove flavored ENDS products referring to the devices where kids can access them and from online sites that do not have sufficiently robust age-verification procedures, he said in the statement.The mere threat of a ban, which he suggested two months ago, led e-cigarette makers in recent days to announced plans of their own that go beyond what the F.D.A. laid out on Thursday.Juul Labs, which is by far the largest e-cigarette seller, said the agencys plans would not change its decision, announced this week, to suspend store sales of its flavored pods, except for mint, menthol and tobacco, and to shut down its social media promotions. In addition, the company said it would toughen its online age-verification requirements. But it left the door open to resume sales at thousands of convenience stores, gas stations and other outlets across the country, if the retailers use age verification technology, including scanning customer IDs.Public health advocates said they were disappointed with the F.D.A.s new vaping measures.Does this mean a simple curtain with a sign like we used to see at the entrance to the pornography section of video stores? asked Matt Myers, president of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.Azim Chowdhury, a lawyer who represents vape manufacturers and vape shops, said that one way for the shops to continue to sell all flavors without walling off displays was to restrict entire stores to consumers 18 and older, a policy that many of his clients were already following.The F.D.A. seems to be recognizing the value that these products have for adults, he said. My clients dont want kids to use them either. But adults enjoy flavors, too.Dr. Gottlieb insisted that the restrictions were akin to a ban. This policy will make sure the fruity flavors are no longer accessible to kids in retail sites, plain and simple, he said. Thats where theyre getting access to the e-cigs and we intend to end those sales.When asked whether a fair interpretation of the new rules might be that convenience stores could sell flavored e-cigarettes as long as the products are under the counter, out of sight and inaccessible to minors, Lyle Beckwith, a spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores, a trade group, said that he had no comment on that possibility.The F.D.A. said it would provide more detail on how to restrict access at a later date. But Dr. Gottlieb said putting the vaping products under counters would not be sufficient. What we are envisioning is a separate room or a walled-off area, he said. It needs to be a complete separate structure. A curtain wont cut it.Industry lawyers challenged the commissioners authority to impose such requirements. The Tobacco Control Act is clear that the F.D.A. cant discriminate against one type of retail outlet and thats what theyre trying to do here, said Doug Kantor, counsel to the National Association of Convenience Stores. There is a very good chance this will end up in litigation and lawyers are looking at that right now.Critics said that exempting menthol and mint e-cigarettes from the restriction was misguided, because of the large number of youth vapers who buy them.But Mr. Chowdhury considered Juuls pre-emptive move to limit visible flavors to mint, menthol and tobacco shrewd. If indeed a ban on menthol cigarettes is enacted, he said, Juul is in a good position to offer an alternative product for smokers who are used to their menthol flavor. Because Juul has market dominance, they stand to benefit from an ultimate ban.But a prohibition against menthol cigarettes would have to clear the usual federal regulatory hurdles, a process that could take at least two years. If successful, the menthol ban could make a significant dent in cigarette sales. Menthol cigarettes account for about 35 percent of cigarette sales in the United States.[Answers to common questions about the health effects of e-cigarettes and teenage vaping]Murray Garnick, the general counsel for Altria Group, which sells vaping products like MarkTen Elite and Apex through its Nu Mark subsidiary, said in an email that the tobacco giant welcomed the F.D.A.s new e-cigarette policies.But, he predicted a lengthy debate over the proposed prohibition on menthol cigarettes: We continue to believe that a total ban on menthol cigarettes or flavored cigars would be an extreme measure not supported by the science and evidence.The other major tobacco companies have all made clear to the F.D.A. that they will fight any ban on menthol cigarettes as they have for many years. The scientific evidence does not support treating menthol cigarettes differently from others, said RJ Reynolds, the nations largest producer of menthol cigarettes, including Newport. Imperial Brands, the maker of Kools and blu vaping devices, also said it would oppose a menthol ban.ImageCredit...Joshua Bright for The New York TimesKenneth Warner, a public health professor emeritus at the University of Michigan, and longtime tobacco expert, disagreed emphatically with the argument that there isnt enough evidence to rid the market of menthol.The science is very strong, Dr. Warner said. This is what the tobacco industry was saying a couple of decades ago about lung cancer the science wasnt strong enough.Menthol, he said, does not cause disease but it does lure more people to smoking and make it more difficult to quit. If you would remove it, he said, you would avoid many smoking-caused deaths.While smoking rates among adults have reached record lows in the United States, about 34 million people still smoke and about 480,000 die each year from cigarette-related deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Several of the major tobacco companies have developed alternatives to traditional cigarettes as the smoking rates declined and e-cigarettes became popular. Bonnie Herzog, a Wells Fargo analyst, said tobacco sales for the past year amounted to about $60 billion, with the burgeoning market for e-cigarettes, vaping devices and related products reaching about $6.6 billion.Ms. Herzog, a tobacco analyst for Wells Fargo, said it was unlikely that the F.D.A. would succeed in getting menthol cigarettes banned, saying the agency would encounter political opposition as well as industry resistance.The industry contends that restricting sales of flavored e-cigarettes will make it harder for adults to reduce their health risks by substituting them for traditional, combustible cigarettes.Flavors are important for switching, said Dr. Moira Gilchrist, a scientist with Philip Morris International, which wants to sell its IQOS heat-not-burn device in the United States in tobacco and menthol flavors, during a visit to Washington last month for an F.D.A. public meeting.She added: The focus should be on what is the right thing to do for the 40 million men and women in the United States would otherwise continue to smoke cigarettes.The tobacco industry has fought to protect menthol for many years, to the frustration of public health activists, especially in the African-American community. Menthol is particularly popular among black smokers, and black leaders have accused the tobacco industry of targeting African-American communities in marketing campaigns.In a statement circulated upon news of the ban, the NAACP, National Urban League, the National Medical Association, and the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council said a menthol ban is long overdue.While were saddened by the number of lives lost and new smokers addicted over the past decade, were pleased that the F.D.A. is moving in this direction, said Delmonte Jefferson, executive director of the National African American Tobacco Prevention Network. The group also praised the agency for taking on flavored cigars.Little cigars like Black & Milds and Swisher Sweets are heavily marketed to African Americans and are often cheaper in our neighborhoods, said LaTroya Hester, a spokesman for the network. A lot of young, black kids dont know that cigarillos are just as dangerous, so hopefully this will send that message. This is a huge step in protecting their health its about time our young people are prioritized. | Health |
Terrell Davis Super Bowl Advice: Keep Banging B4 the Big Game! 1/31/2018 TMZSports.com Should Patriots and Eagles players have sex before the Super Bowl?? "GO FOR IT," says Pro Football Hall of Famer Terrell Davis ... who's debunking the myth that bangin' before the big game can mess with your mojo. It's pretty simple -- if you're a studly NFL star, chances are you're getting PLENTY of action during the season. So, TD advises not to break routine -- "Keep doing that, don't change." He would know -- Terrell's a former Super Bowl MVP and 2-time SB champ with the Broncos. Davis says the one exception is if they're NOT bangin' during the season ... but let's be real -- none of these millionaires get benched in the bedroom. | Entertainment |
Feb. 21, 2014With each succeeding United States Olympic hockey game from Sochi, Russia, this week, NBC Sports watched as the number of people streaming the game live grew.On Wednesday, when the United States mens team beat the Czech Republic, 798,337 people, or unique users, streamed the game on computers, tablets and smartphones.On Thursday, when the Canadian womens team defeated the United States in overtime in the gold medal game, the number swelled to 1.16 million.Then, in the mens semifinal on Friday, which started at noon Eastern, 2.1 million people streamed Canadas 1-0 shutout of the United States, watching a total of 65 million minutes.Its the biggest stream ever for NBC Sports and beats the Super Bowl two years ago, just barely, said Rick Cordella, senior vice president and general manager for digital media at NBC Sports Group.NBC had been concerned that office computer networks could be overloaded with people trying to stream the game from their desks at work. Too many people watching in the same office could cause the stream to slow and buffer, or even shut down. Some used Twitter to complain. Currently watching USA/Canada vs. buffering, @SeanOB19 wrote. Either that or there is a lot more pausing in hockey than I remember. Some seemed to revel in it.Being a true American and watching live stream of the USA vs. Canada hockey on my iPad in class, @anna2056 wrote.Cordella said, I looked at the Internet and only saw a few complaints. In digital parlance, the term unique users refers to the people who come and go during an event that is streamed. They might start it, leave during the intermissions and return. Cordella estimated that if the United States had scored and sent the game into overtime, the number of unique users could have risen by as much as 40 percent.Another measure, that of people watching the stream at any particular moment, indicated it was rising throughout the game and peaking at 850,000 at 2:09 p.m., just before the end.Streaming is a significant part of NBCs Olympic strategy. For the second Olympics in a row from Europe, it is streaming all the events live, believing, as other news media companies do, that it is critical to reach a population increasingly comfortable with watching programming apart from television. This bodes well for the N.H.L. playoffs, Cordella said. Hopefully, were breaking people into the new form of consumption and will stick around for more of our sports events. Over all, 9.1 million users have streamed live video from Sochi, up 24 percent from the 2012 London Games.Live streaming is also viewed, more than ever, as a way to lift viewership in prime time, where most of the broadcast advertising is for the Olympics, even if it means the results are known in advance. Through Thursday, the 14th day of coverage in Sochi, NBC averaged 22.5 million viewers, down 9 percent from the 2010 Vancouver Games, which were carried mostly live in the evening. But NBC prefers to point out that the Sochi figures are up 7 percent from the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, which were also carried on a lengthy delay.The Sochi viewership has been greater than Turins for all but three nights. On Thursday, 20.3 million viewers watched an evening of events that culminated with the womens free skate won by Adelina Sotnikova in an upset over the Vancouver gold medalist, Kim Yu-na. On the comparable night in Turin, when an American, Sasha Cohen, won a silver medal, viewership averaged 25.7 million.The networks strategy has also been to use the Olympics to bring viewers to NBCSN. With live coverage of figure skating and hockey, NBCSN has seen its average viewership from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern rise to 1.6 million, up 126 percent from the comparable days of the London Games two years ago. | Sports |
Credit...Associated PressMarch 15, 2017A black and white photograph shows Adolf Hitler reading on a deck chair on the veranda of his Bavarian Alps headquarters. In another image, he pauses during a stroll, an easy grin on his face. He looks into the camera, and smiling onlookers look at him.The photographs, chilling in their casual depiction of the murderous dictator, were among dozens of images of Nazi officials in an album that was discovered among the belongings of his companion, Eva Braun, in Hitlers bunker in Berlin in 1945, according to C&T Auctioneers of Britain. The album was found in a drawer in her bedroom.The album was sold at an auction on Wednesday in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Britain, to an unidentified bidder for 34,000 pounds, or about $41,000, the auctioneers said. The images could not be republished without permission, but they remained visible on the auction site and in a Reuters video.Eva Braun's Hitler photo album to go up for auctionCredit...CreditVideo by ReutersVery few significant artifacts liberated from the Fuhrer Bunker in 1945 exist today in the open market, especially with such concrete provenance dating all the way back to the time of liberation, the auction house said in a statement.Matthew Tredwen, an owner of the auction house, said in a telephone interview that it was not clear who took the photographs, but that the proximity to Hitler, and to other high-ranking officials in the Nazi Party including Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Gring and Heinrich Himmler, suggested the person or people behind the camera had trusted access. Braun, a photographer, is credited with other surviving pictures and films of Hitler.The photographs had to be taken by someone who was very close, Mr. Tredwen said. All photographs of Adolf Hitler were very much controlled because obviously they did not want photographs coming out that made him look bad. They would not have been made for the general public.There were no signatures in the book to suggest ownership, or the identity of the photographer, he said.He described the bidding as very competitive, with telephone bidders from Britain and the United States, as well as interest online from Germany, China, South Africa and other countries.Mr. Tredwen, a specialist of more than a dozen years in military history items, said buyers of Nazi memorabilia were generally historians. I have never in my life met anyone who shared the political views of the Third Reich, he said. They are literally only there to collect. World War II was one of the biggest events to affect the world.People are fascinated by how evil the Third Reich were, he added.The description of the item online traced its journey from April 1945, when a British Fleet Street photographer, Edward Dean, obtained it from a Russian soldier whom he had watched find the album in a drawer in Brauns bunker bedroom, shortly after the couple committed suicide. The item changed hands several times after Mr. Dean auctioned it.In one photograph, Hitler salutes as he walks toward the camera down a path at his Berghof headquarters in the Bavarian Alps. His guards are also depicted on duty and in relaxed poses in the images, which date mostly from the early to mid-1930s.Ownership of items related to Nazi history poses ethical questions. Some art collectors have stepped forward to try to find out whether their art was looted from Jews. A replica of a gate that was believed to have been stolen from the Dachau concentration camp in Germany was recovered last year.And an attraction in Berlin that recreates the interior of Hitlers bunker and opened last year suggests an uncomfortable phenomenon that Hitler sells.Memorials dedicated to preserving the historical context of the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were killed, have often called on collectors or people with personal items from survivors to donate the artifacts.In January, in commemorating the 72nd anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration and death camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, the memorial director, Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywinski, issued a statement calling for donations.We kindly ask the public to hand over any documents, photos, personal letters, diaries, or other materials that are in private hands, he said.I am absolutely convinced that only mutual effort can lead to a fuller understanding of the mechanisms of hatred, and analyses from the perspective of the victims, given the course of events, cannot fully serve the purpose, he added. Today, we need new sources for a comprehensive picture of the history of Auschwitz and the Holocaust. | World |
Credit...Daniel Leal-Olivas/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesMarch 13, 2017LONDON New battle lines were drawn over Britains future on Monday, when the government secured unrestricted authority to negotiate withdrawal from the European Union while confronting the possibility that in doing so, it may bring about an independent Scotland.In a day of Ping-Pong, as the back and forth between the House of Commons and the House of Lords is known, Prime Minister Theresa May finally won her parliamentary battle to start talks on Britains exit from the European Union, unhindered by any legislative constraints.But the votes in Parliament came hours after the first minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, raised the stakes by demanding a new referendum on Scottish independence. While acknowledging that the Scots had rejected independence in a referendum just three years ago, she said the country found itself at a hugely important crossroads because of the withdrawal, known as Brexit.After Monday nights votes, David Davis, the cabinet minister responsible for negotiating Brexit, said Parliament had supported the government in its determination to get on with the job of leaving the E.U. and negotiating a positive new partnership with its remaining member states.We are now on the threshold of the most important negotiation for our country in a generation, Mr. Davis added in a statement.The House of Commons last month gave the prime minister and her government the approval the High Court said they needed to proceed with negotiations on Brexit. But the unelected House of Lords then approved two amendments calling for guarantees that European Union residents of Britain have the right to remain and giving Parliament more say in the final deal on leaving the union.The government argued that it should guarantee the rights of European Union nationals only when Britain received reciprocal assurances about its citizens in continental Europe. It also said that giving Parliament more say over a Brexit deal would impede Mrs. Mays negotiating freedom.On Monday night, elected lawmakers in the House of Commons overturned both amendments, and the House of Lords yielded by a significant majority, in line with parliamentary protocol, handing Mrs. May her wish of unimpeded authority. She is now in a position to fulfill her promise to send formal notification, by the end of the month, of the start of withdrawal talks under Article 50 of the European Unions treaty.Ms. Sturgeons call for a new referendum underscores the mood of uncertainty within one of Europes most durable political systems, after the divisive referendum in June in which 52 percent of Britons voted to leave the European Union.Scotland voted 62 to 38 percent to remain in the bloc, however, illustrating the divergence between Scottish and English politics. Since then, Mrs. May has rejected calls from Ms. Sturgeon for a so-called soft Brexit that would keep Scotland, at least, inside the European Unions single market and its tariff-free customs union.With opinion polls showing Scots almost equally divided over the merits of independence, the threat of another referendum that could break the United Kingdom apart complicates what was already a highly complex Brexit negotiation for Mrs. May.Speaking in Edinburgh on Monday morning, Ms. Sturgeon said she would seek permission from the Scottish Parliament to hold a second referendum, which she said should be staged between fall 2018 and spring 2019 before Britain quits the European Union.While that should be straightforward, given the dominance of her pro-independence Scottish National Party in the Edinburgh Parliament, the approval of Mrs. May could prove more complicated. Politically, it may be hard for Mrs. May to refuse, though she may try to delay any new vote in Scotland until after the withdrawal, calculating that this would make it harder for the independence campaign to prevail.Ms. Sturgeon said that unless Mrs. May made further concessions, Scots should be able to choose whether to follow other Britons into a hard Brexit, or to become an independent country able to secure a real partnership of equals with the rest of the U.K. and our own relationship with Europe.She also argued that, in its current, weakened state, and trailing in opinion polls, Britains opposition Labour Party stands little chance of winning a general election, and that independence was the only way for Scots to prevent themselves from being governed possibly for a decade by Mrs. Mays Conservative Party, which has limited support in Scotland.In response, Mrs. May said a referendum would set Scotland on course for uncertainty and division, arguing that most Scottish voters did not want another vote on independence.During the previous referendum, the economic case against Scottish independence seemed to prove decisive and that argument may have gotten stronger since, because of the global decline in the price of oil, a bulwark of the Scottish economy. In 2014, however, opponents of independence argued that an independent Scotland would lose its membership of the European Union. | World |
Deaths during pregnancy and the first six weeks after childbirth increased, especially for Black and Hispanic women, according to a new report.Credit...Leah Millis/ReutersPublished Feb. 23, 2022Updated Feb. 24, 2022The number of women in the United States who died during pregnancy or shortly after giving birth increased sharply during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new study, an increase that health officials attribute partly to Covid and pandemic-related disruptions.The new report, from the National Center for Health Statistics, found that the number of maternal deaths rose 14 percent, to 861 in 2020 from 754 in 2019.The United States already has a much higher maternal mortality rate than other developed countries, and the increase in deaths pushes the nations maternal mortality rate to 23.8 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2020 from 20.1 deaths in 2019. Maternal mortality rates in developed countries have in recent years ranged from fewer than two deaths per 100,000 live births in Norway and New Zealand to just below nine deaths per 100,000 live births in France and Canada.Black women in America experienced the most deaths: One-third of the pregnant women and new mothers who died in 2020 were Black, though Black Americans make up just over 13 percent of the population. Their mortality rate was nearly three times that of white women.The mortality rate for Hispanic women, which has historically been lower than for white women, also increased significantly in 2020 and is now almost on par with the rate for white women. Death rates increased among all pregnant women older than 24, but particularly in those 40 and over, whose mortality rate was nearly eight times that of women younger than 25.Our maternal morbidity and mortality is the highest in the developed world, and the trend is continuing despite our awareness of it, despite our maternal-mortality review committees, despite attention in the press, said Kara Zivin, a professor of psychiatry, obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Michigan who studies access to care during and after pregnancy. Whatever were doing is clearly not enough to address either the overall rate or the disparities.Although the new report is sparse on details no maternal mortality figures were provided for American Indian/Alaska Native women, who have higher pregnancy-related deaths than white, Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islander women experts said some of the deaths were most likely related to the coronavirus pandemic. Pregnancy puts women at risk for more severe disease if they are infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid, and vaccines were not available for them in 2020.ImageCredit...Chaniece Wallace Memorial Facebook PageWe actually said when the lockdown started that we anticipated an increase in maternal deaths, both due to Covid and the responses to Covid, said Dr. Denise Jamieson, an obstetrician at Emory University in Atlanta and a member of the Covid expert group at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, adding that she was not surprised by the increases.In addition to the greater risks faced by pregnant women who have Covid, she said, we hadnt figured out how to deliver obstetric care safely in 2020.Our health systems werent set up yet to manage telehealth, she said, and there were other barriers: Kids were home from school, and parents couldnt get away for medical appointments.Many doctors had stopped seeing patients in person, hospitals were often crowded and patients avoided emergency rooms filled with Covid patients.Pregnant women who develop Covid face a higher risk of requiring intensive care or mechanical ventilation. And despite the relative youth of pregnant women, they face a higher risk of dying, studies found. Health experts have been urging them to be vaccinated, but their vaccination rates have remained low.Black Americans overall suffered disproportionately from the pandemic, with higher hospitalization and death rates than their white counterparts, but the racial disparities in maternal mortality predate and extend beyond Covid, and stem from structural health inequities that have complex root causes.Stress, mental health problems and substance abuse increased during the pandemic and might also have contributed to worse outcomes, said Dr. Mary DAlton, chair of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.New programs that provide enhanced services for patients, such as doulas, who can support and advocate for patients, are positive advances, she said.We also have to educate our providers on listening to patients, Dr. DAlton said. My dad was a primary care doctor and he used to say, Mary, if you want to know whats wrong with the patient, ask them and theyll tell you. But first of all, youve got to listen to them.Pregnant womens complaints are often dismissed, and that is probably much more significant for Black and brown women, she added.Generally speaking, the leading causes of pregnancy-related deaths are cardiovascular conditions, other medical conditions and infections. Research has found that cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle; blood clots to the lung; and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy contribute to a higher proportion of pregnancy-related deaths among Black women than among white women.One of the new mothers who died in 2020, whose story was widely reported, was Dr. Chaniece Wallace, a Black physician who was the chief pediatric resident at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis.Dr. Wallace developed a pregnancy complication called pre-eclampsia and her baby girl was delivered early by cesarean section in October 2020. But Dr. Wallace went on to develop additional complications, and she died just days after giving birth. Join us for a virtual event where The New York Times newsletter anchored by David Leonhardt is brought to life. | Health |
Credit...Rafael FuchsJune 25, 2018Frank Heart, the engineer who oversaw development of the first routing computer for the Arpanet, the precursor to the internet, died on Sunday at a retirement community in Lexington, Mass. He was 89.The cause was complications of melanoma, his son Bennet said.In 1969, Mr. Heart led a small team of talented young engineers to build the Interface Message Processor, or I.M.P., a computer whose special function was to switch data among the computers on the Arpanet. To this day, many of the principles Mr. Heart emphasized reliability, error resistance and the capacity for self-correction remain central to the internets robustness.Data networking was so new that Mr. Heart and his team had no choice but to invent technology as they went. For example, the Arpanet sent data over ordinary phone lines. Human ears tolerate low levels of extraneous noise on a phone line, but computers can get tripped up by the smallest hiss or pop, producing transmission errors. Mr. Heart and his team devised a way for the I.M.P.s (pronounced imps) to detect and correct errors as they occurred.Mr. Heart demanded that I.M.P.s be made impenetrable, believing that curious graduate students would be tempted to poke around the machines to see how they worked and bring down the network with their tinkering.I took an extraordinarily rigid position, Mr. Heart said in an interview in 1994. They were not to touch it, they werent to go near it, they were to barely look at it. It was a closed box with no switches available.As a result, the I.M.P. was encased in intimidating battleship-gray steel.It was part of Franks personality to try to control uncontrollable events, said David Walden, a computer programmer who helped build software for the I.M.P.s.Thanks to Mr. Hearts s relentless worry about errors, his team of 10 engineers, who called themselves the I.M.P. Guys, ended up inventing the field of remote diagnostics for computers. They also designed the I.M.P.s to run unattended as much as possible, bestowing on them the ability to restart by themselves after a power failure or crash.This infant network did a lot of looking at its navel all the time, Mr. Heart said in 1994, sending back little messages telling us how it was feeling and telling us what kind of things were happening, where.Bolt, Beranek and Newman, the Cambridge, Mass.-based technology company where Mr. Heart spent most of his career, beat I.B.M. and other larger firms in the bidding to build the I.M.P. for the federal governments Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Arpa.The machine was built during nine frenetic months. Just before Labor Day in 1969, two members of the team flew to California to install the first machine roughly the size of a refrigerator and weighing more than 900 pounds at the University of California, Los Angeles. A few weeks later, the second I.M.P. went in, at Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International in Menlo Park, Calif.), and a computer network was born.His fanatical attention to detail paid off, said Alex McKenzie, one of the team members. The first I.M.P. was delivered on time and on budget, and when it was plugged in, not only did it start working, but it hardly needed debugging.ImageCredit...Raytheon BBN TechnologiesThe public at large was so unfamiliar with computer networking at the time that when Bolt, Beranek was awarded the $1 million Arpa contract in late 1968 and the news reached the office of Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the senator sent a telegram thanking the company for its ecumenical efforts and congratulating the company on its contract to build the Interfaith Message Processor.Frank Evans Heart was born on May 15, 1929, in the Bronx and grew up in Yonkers. He inherited a penchant for engineering from his father, Herbert, an engineer at the Otis Elevator Company. His mother, Ada (Abramson) Heart, was an insurance agent.Mr. Heart enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1947 and paid his way through college by entering a five-year masters degree program in which work and school were combined in alternate semesters.In 1951, M.I.T. offered its first course in computer programming, and Mr. Heart signed up. He became fascinated by computers and finished his masters degree while working at Lincoln Laboratory, a military contractor at M.I.T. Mr. Heart was a research assistant on Whirlwind, a computer that controlled a radar defense system for tracking aircraft.The Korean War was being fought at the time, and Lincoln Laboratory officials intervened with the draft board, winning a deferment for Mr. Heart for the essential work he was doing for the military. Mr. Heart received both bachelors and masters degrees in electrical engineering in 1952.While at Lincoln Lab, Mr. Heart met Jane Sundgaard, a programmer there. They married in 1959. Ms. Heart died in 2014 at 81. In addition to his son Bennet, Mr. Heart is survived by another son, Simon; a daughter, Rachel Heart Bellini; and six grandchildren.Mr. Heart remained at Lincoln Laboratory until 1966, when he was recruited by Bolt, Beranek (now a part of Raytheon) to work on a hospital computing system. Shortly after he arrived, the hospital system was deemed a failure and set aside.As luck would have it, the company had just been asked to submit a proposal to build the first I.M.P., and Mr. Heart was put in charge.That first node spawned many more. I.M.P.s lay at the heart of the Arpanet until 1989, when the federal government decommissioned the network. Most of the I.M.P.s were disassembled and thrown away. A few remain, scattered in museums and computer labs around the United States.The technology research company Gartner Inc. forecasts that 20.4 billion Internet-connected devices will be in use worldwide in 2020. Many of them are a tiny fraction of the size of the original I.M.P., and far more powerful.Like other data networking pioneers, Mr. Heart could not predict the huge and lasting impact his invention would have; he ascribed much of his involvement to happenstance.I was extraordinarily lucky to latch onto a rising rocket, Mr. Heart wrote in an unpublished memoir, and ride it to a huge change in our society. | Tech |
Stormy Daniels Kills It at Strip Club 1/21/2018 Backgrid.com Stormy Daniels made good on her promise to make America horny again ... at least she made some dudes in a South Carolina strip club pretty horny. Stormy, who said she hooked up with Donald Trump back in 2006 and later denied it, played to a standing room only crowd at the Trophy Club in Greenville. Stormy, who not coincidentally performed on Trump's 1-year anniversary as President, reportedly got $130k to stay mum on her alleged tryst with Trump, during which she said he told her she reminded him of Ivanka. | Entertainment |
Credit...Cornell Tukiri for The New York TimesNov. 18, 2018RUATORIA, New Zealand As New Zealand prepares to legalize the production of medicinal cannabis, companies are racing to secure the first and biggest slices of a market that has proved lucrative in the United States and Canada.One of those companies is also racing to save the town of Ruatoria, population 750 and falling.Youve got whole entire families leaving because theres no work and its a struggle to live, said Donette Kupenga, owner of Ruatorias only cafe, Hati Nati. Employment would make a huge difference.And so Ms. Kupenga, like hundreds of other residents of Ruatoria and nearby towns, became a shareholder in Hikurangi Cannabis, a start-up founded by two local men, Manu Caddie and Panapa Ehau. They say they want to bring more than 100 jobs to the area in the next two years.Besides benefiting the town (and themselves), the founders have another goal: ensuring that Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand who make up 95 percent of Ruatorias population share in the economic gains from the medicinal cannabis industry.ImageCredit...Cornell Tukiri for The New York TimesOur indigenous people here are the masters of growing marijuana, said Robin Thomson, 54, a grower for Hikurangi, referring to flourishing illegal operations in the area.Ruatoria, on the East Coast of New Zealands North Island, is two hours drive from the nearest city, Gisborne, on a highway battered by the logging trucks that provide much of the areas employment.Phone reception is patchy, the last retail bank closed in 2015, and the gas station is shuttered. Jobs outside of farming and forestry are increasingly hard to find; unemployment is about 15 percent and the median annual wage is 17,000 New Zealand dollars, or $11,500, which is below the national poverty line.I dont think the number of locals can sustain our township, said Ms. Kupenga, the owner of Hati Nati. (The really tough months for the cafe, she says, are April to November).So when Mr. Caddie and Mr. Ehau began holding public meetings this year to solicit investment, their message offering jobs and a chance to reverse the towns fortunes found an eager audience. They sold more than a million dollars in shares to area residents (often in 50-dollar bundles, the minimum purchase).ImageCredit...Cornell Tukiri for The New York TimesThey all say they want to move home if theres a decent job, said Mr. Caddie, 45, referring to people who have left Ruatoria. So were creating some decent jobs, and well see how relevant peoples talk is.Many people in Ruatoria say they have stayed because of deep connections to the land and their community. Most speak the Maori language, and many serve at their local marae (a communal meeting place). The unspoiled scenery is ancestral Maori land, much of it now owned by family collectives.Mr. Caddie, a former district councilor and youth worker, has led community development projects before, but this is his most ambitious. Hikurangi Cannabis, which currently employs 10 people, wants to create 120 jobs in Ruatoria in the next two years and eventually double the towns income, said Mr. Ehau.Besides the shares sold to local residents, Hikurangi raised a further two million dollars through crowdfunding, and institutional investors with deeper pockets have also bought in.The company was the first in New Zealand to obtain a license to breed cannabis strains for eventual use in medicines; currently, it can only sell its product overseas for research and clinical trials while it waits for medicinal cannabis production in New Zealand to become legal. Parliament is expected to pass that legislation by March, though the law would not take effect until 2020. (New Zealands government has also promised a referendum on legalizing recreational cannabis use before the 2020 election.)Hikurangi has partnered with a local technical school to create New Zealands first government-recognized certification program for growing hemp, which has attracted students to Ruatoria from around the region.On a recent day in October, a small team of growers and students were getting ready to plant hemp seeds at one of the Hikurangi plots. It was done in keeping with the old ways of local Maori; the potting mix, fertilizer and pest control were created from organic materials, and planting was guided by the phases of the moon.Ive been growing marijuana since I was 14, said Mr. Thomson, the grower for Hikurangi, who is one of the courses tutors.Mr. Thomson said he had spent six years in prison on marijuana charges, but that he had not been in trouble with the law for 14 years. Now he was welcoming other Maori growers into the hemp course as students giving them a chance, after years of hiding in the bush, to certify the expertise they acquired from their parents or grandparents.But Mr. Thompson feared Maori growers with criminal records, like himself, would be locked out of the new industry.ImageCredit...Cornell Tukiri for The New York TimesThat would echo what critics see as racial injustice in the United States cannabis industry, where the vast majority of dispensary owners are white, and black Americans who, like Maori in New Zealand, have long been prosecuted and jailed for marijuana offenses at a disproportionately high rate often cannot get jobs because of past convictions.Hikurangi is lobbying the government to let people with marijuana records work in the new industry. I really want, if the law passes, to get a clean slate, Mr. Thomson said.Mr. Caddie and Mr. Ehau hope to open a processing facility in Ruatoria next year, but they say that if they cannot find a suitable site they will look in the nearest city. That, they admitted, would be a blow to their dream of economic development at home.Weve got funds in the bank and we want to get on with things, but we have to get on with it now, Mr. Caddie said, referring to the rush of companies hoping to cash in on the medicinal cannabis law.Hikurangi holds meetings with its investors at each major step, including a recent decision to list the company on the stock exchange next year. The founders had not initially planned to take the company public, but Hikurangis institutional investors warned they would be left in the dust if they did not. The locals, Mr. Caddie said, were supportive of the move.ImageCredit...Cornell Tukiri for The New York TimesMr. Caddies 71-year-old next-door neighbor, Nanny Lucky, was the first to sign up when Hikurangi began offering shares to locals. Pulling together the 50-dollar minimum investment was a challenge, but she said she wanted to support the bloody brilliant idea.Its not me you want to worry about, its the younger generation, she said, adding that unemployment in the area had fueled burglaries and methamphetamine use.Ms. Kupenga, the cafe owner, initially opposed the plan, saying that marijuana use had badly affected her family. But she and others changed their minds after learning about the drugs medicinal benefits.I started pushing for my family to get involved; its affordable, so its a step up for everyone, she said. Now I can see my cousins talking about shares. That would never be a conversation they had previously.Residents of Ruatoria said companies had arrived promising jobs and economic growth before, and had left without delivering. But they trusted Hikurangis directors because they were locals.Were grounded here, Mr. Caddie said. Someday Ill be buried up on the hill there. I cant imagine going anywhere else. | World |
Fact Check of the DayThe president, vice president and homeland security secretary have said the surge of migrants illegally entering the United States has reached emergency levels. Heres some historical context. Credit...Tamir Kalifa for The New York TimesJune 20, 2018what was said What the president reiterated again yesterday, and he has said every day from when he sought this office, is we have a crisis of illegal immigration. Vice President Mike Pence, meeting with members of Congress on Wednesday.These smugglers know these rules and regulations better than the people that drew them. As a result, theres been a 325 percent increase in minors, and a 435 percent increase in the smuggling or attempted smuggling of families and minors into our country. President Trump, speaking to the National Federation of Independent Businesses on Tuesday.In the last three months we've seen illegal immigration on our southern border exceed 50,000 people each month. Multiples over each month last year. Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary, at a news conference on Monday.This requires context.The Trump administration, defending its zero tolerance immigration policy that has resulted in separating families, has repeatedly pointed to a crisis of illegal immigration at the border. But government data shows that monthly crossings along the border with Mexico are dramatically lower than they were years ago. The most commonly used metric to measure how many people are illegally crossing into the United States is the number of people who are arrested, taken into custody or otherwise apprehended at or near the countrys borders.From the 1980s to the mid-2000s, the government reported annually apprehending around 1 million to 1.6 million foreigners who illegally entered the United States at the southwestern border. In 2000 alone, federal agents apprehended between 71,000 and 220,000 migrants each month. By comparison, monthly border crossings so far this year have ranged from 20,000 to 40,000 people. The number of people who have been either apprehended or turned away at the southwestern border also has decreased over the past decade.Mr. Trump, Mr. Pence and Ms. Nielsen are right that there has been a significant increase in border crossings in the past few months when compared with the same period in 2017. Last month, for example, Customs and Border Protection reported arresting or denying entry to 51,912 migrants at the southwestern border, compared with 19,940 in May 2017. But federal agents arrested or stopped 55,442 people in May 2016, 40,681 in May 2015 and 68,804 in May 2014, according to Customs and Border Protection. Similarly, apprehensions of unaccompanied children and families have surged this year from last springs border traffic. But the numbers are less dramatic when compared with before Mr. Trump took office. Customs and Border Protection apprehended 6,400 unaccompanied children and 9,500 individuals traveling as families this May up from 1,500 unaccompanied children and 1,600 family members in May 2017. At the peak of the Central American migrant surge in 2014, Customs and Border Protection reported apprehending 10,600 children and 12,800 families who entered the United States at the southwestern border.Source: Customs and Border Protection, White House | Politics |