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Credit...Patrick T. Fallon for The New York TimesNov. 30, 2016The same digital screens that have helped nurture a generation of insomniacs can also help restore regular sleep, researchers reported on Wednesday. In a new study, more than half of chronic insomniacs who used an automated online therapy program reported improvement within weeks and were sleeping normally a year later.The new report, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, is the most comprehensive to date suggesting that many garden-variety insomniacs could benefit from the gold standard treatment cognitive behavior therapy without ever having to talk to a therapist. At least one in 10 adults has diagnosable insomnia, which is defined as broken, irregular, inadequate slumber at least three nights a week for three months running or longer.Ive been an insomniac all my life, Ive tried about everything, said Dale Love Callon, 70, known as Dacie, a math tutor living in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., who recently used the software. I dont have it 100 percent conquered, but Im sleeping much better now.Previous studies have found that online sleep therapy can be effective, but most have been smaller, or focused on a particular sleep-related problem, like depression. The new trial tested the digital therapy in a broad, diverse group of longtime insomniacs whose main complaint was lack of sleep. Most had used medication or supplements over the years, and some still did.These results suggest that there are a group of patients who can benefit without the need of a high-intensity intervention, like face-to-face therapy, said Jack Edinger, a professor in the department of medicine at National Jewish Health in Denver, who was not a part of the study. We dont know yet exactly who they are the people who volunteer for a study like this in first place are self-motivated but theyre out there.In the study, led by researchers at the University of Virginia, doctors recruited 303 people ages 21 to 65 over the internet. Half were randomly assigned to receive education and advice on insomnia a digital placebo, of sorts, though an active one, in that such advice often helps people sleep better. The other half got a six-week focused online therapy product, called SHUTi.Some of the researchers, as well as the university, have a stake in this product, which costs $135 for 16 weeks of access. None of those connected to the company analyzed the data or had access to it, or participated in the data analysis, said Lee Ritterband, the lead author and a developer of the online therapy.SHUTi is not the only digital insomnia therapy product on the market. Sleepio, which costs $300 for a years access, and is offered by a London-based company, also incorporates cognitive therapy. And it was also found in a randomized study to have good results.Both incorporate the techniques of cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia, an approach therapists have been using successfully for years. Some of those techniques date back decades. One is called sleep restriction, in which people set a regular sleep window and work to stick to it. Another is called stimulus control, an attempt to break the association between lying in bed and activities like streaming video and eating.Finally, the therapy aims to undermine self-defeating assumptions about sleep, like Without a good nights sleep, I cant function the next day or Medication is probably the only solution to sleeplessness. The program prompts people to log in daily and record each nights sleep in some detail; it then tailors weekly sessions based on those entries.Ms. Love Callons problem, for example, still wakes up in the middle of the night, at 4 a.m. or thereabouts. The online program, she said, instructed her to get out of bed when that happened, and sit and read for 40 minutes which is more likely to induce sleepiness than, say, shopping online. And it has worked, she said. I get drowsy while reading and have been able to go back to bed and fall asleep.The research team tracked the participants, assessing their sleep quality every several months, using standardized questionnaires. After a year, 57 percent of the people using the online therapy program were sleeping normally, compared with 27 percent of those who had gotten only advice and education.We continued to see improvement from the six-month assessment through the end of the year, even though people had stopped using the program, Dr. Ritterband said. So, thats a very good sign.According to Dr. John Torous, co-director of the digital psychiatry program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, there are about a dozen online programs on the market using cognitive behavior therapy techniques for a variety of conditions, including depression which also have rigorous evidence behind them.There are maybe ten thousand or so mental apps out there, and the number is increasing way faster than the evidence base, Dr. Torous said, so its good to see someone doing careful studies.Dr. Torous said the one caveat for all of them is adherence. When you stop paying people to be in a study, when they stop getting reminder phone calls, they often stop doing it, he said. Its like a gym membership that way; people may do it twice and then let it go.Nonetheless, the potential of online therapies to reach huge numbers of people makes it likely that they will become first-line therapy in many cases, some experts say.Despite reasons for restraint, it seems inevitable that internet CBT-I will be increasingly used as a first-line insomnia intervention, concluded an editorial accompanying the study in the journal. It also seems likely that the medical community may have little influence on whether, when, and how this occurs. | Health |
On Pro FootballCredit...Barton Silverman/The New York TimesFeb. 2, 2014EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. The Seattle Seahawks ripped out the feel-good ending to Peyton Mannings storybook season. Tore the final pages to shreds. Burned them in a fire. Left Manning and his Denver Broncos looking like outdated print in a digital world.In the football home of his brother Eli, Manning came to play with the house money he had earned as a 37-year-old who two years ago did not know if he would play again. He came in search of a second Super Bowl title and further validation of his greatness. He wound up on the wrong end of an embarrassing beatdown, making no statement for the ages, instead looking rather aged. But even though the Seahawks buried the Broncos, 43-8, on Sunday at MetLife Stadium, Mannings failing to maximize his credentials for others to assess should have been beside the point. The very best athletes cannot afford to make their legacies a game-day obsession. However difficult to do in a communications world of 140-character synopses, athletes like Manning must eventually get to a place where they can make their own cases for career fulfillment.Watching a snap sail past Mannings gloved hands for a safety on the games first play from scrimmage, watching him throw passes that were hurried and tipped and picked off, and watching him jog off the field with his chin sinking to the turf, you wondered if he could leave such a lasting image on the biggest stage. We needed to play really well to win, Manning said after the game. We didnt come close.For two weeks, he had sidestepped variations on the question of what winning or failing to win a second Super Bowl title would mean in the grand scheme of things. Would he retire with a victory? Would he consider his place as one of the unquestioned greats secured?During one interview, he was even asked to name his three greatest quarterbacks in history, a question he handled with the agility he has never quite had when pressured in the pocket.I dont have a list, he said. I think I could describe the perfect quarterback. Take a little piece of everybody. Take John Elways arm, Dan Marinos release, maybe Troy Aikmans drop-back, Brett Favres scrambling ability, Joe Montanas two-minute poise and, naturally, my speed.He drew laughter with the punch line. But he cleverly managed to make himself part of the conversation, for whatever its worth, which is not much.However unavoidable, it is a fools errand, an argument without end, to compare the best players from different eras, teams, styles and situations. Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesSlide 1 of 35 Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesTo be fair to the elusive and creative Russell Wilson, Manning was not even close to being the best quarterback on the field Sunday. Big as the game was, though, it was still one game. One game in what is no doubt the twilight of a 16-year career. One game in which Denvers Trindon Holliday foolishly ran out the opening kickoff from deep in the end zone and was tackled at the 14, setting up the mistimed snap from center Manny Ramirez. One game in which the Broncos were outcoached, outhit and outperformed in every phase.Did Manning do anything to slow the Seattle locomotive? Despite a Super Bowl-record 34 completions, he did not. But should this dismal night negate the Associated Press Most Valuable Player award Mannings fifth, a record that he picked up on Saturday? The comeback from serious neck surgery that has produced two playoff seasons in Denver and the franchises first Super Bowl appearance since Elway bowed out with his repeat victory 15 years ago? Elway, the Broncos executive vice president for football operations, brought Manning to Denver after 14 years in Indianapolis, where Manning won the Super Bowl in 2007. There, he will forever be an icon. In Denver, he will ultimately be remembered as Elways luxury rental. If anyones legacy was in position to reach a new level on Sunday certainly in the Mile High City it was Elways, not Mannings. Elway took the shot with Manning when no one knew what, if anything, he had left after a full year off. Who even knew how much Manning was willing to risk after so many years? During Super Bowl week, he talked about how he and Elis necks were checked for genetic abnormality after their brother Coopers career ended with injuries. How the doctor said they were not picture perfect but were sturdy enough to play on. How during his year off in Indianapolis, he thought: Maybe I had been on borrowed time this entire time. If that was going to be the end of it because of a neck injury, I really, believe it or not, had a peace about it.It was about the time of the Super Bowl two years ago Eli winning his second, at Peytons house, Lucas Oil Stadium when Peyton received clearance to play, to see what he had left. There were times when he could not answer the question, when progress was nonexistent or fretfully slow. He finally chose Denver, in part because it was Elway who believed he could still be a Super Bowl quarterback.Coming to the stadium off Exit 16W in Career Year 16 made it all seem like a storybook in search of an ending. In his brothers home, Peyton had his chance to pull even with Eli in the family Super Bowl standings.That, in truth, was the only quantifiable achievement available to Peyton Manning on Sunday. The weather was good for Manning, who admittedly throws imperfect spirals or ducks, as Richard Sherman derisively called them. But the kickoff happened, as did the bad snap, a poor throw for an interception and a hit on another throw that was intercepted and returned for a demoralizing score. If there was a fitting headline to write for this game, it was this: Seattle Slew. There would be no Sweet 16 for Manning to celebrate off Exit 16W. There would be little trace of the Manning that the legacy shapers were looking for, or demanding.Its a difficult pill to swallow, he said. But you have to get over it, process it.He will have to live with the result and the reactions to his playoff record, which fell to 11-12. But there must be a long view here, too. Given where he was two years ago, bet on Mannings coming to the conclusion that it was better to have been here than to have not come back at all. | Sports |
on techHome entertainment today isnt all that different from the time of VHS tapes.VideoCreditCredit...By Alex MoyJuly 2, 2020This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it weekdays.On Tech is taking a break on Friday. See you on Monday.When I was growing up, my home entertainment options were the three VHS tapes my family owned or whatever bad sitcom was on. (Kids, ask the nearest old person to explain VHS tapes.)Im not nostalgic for the old days. But as home entertainment is being dragged into the digital world, Im struck by how many holdovers have stuck around.Sure, the internet changed everything. But also, has it?Netflix changed how we watch, but not so much what we watch. YouTube is among the companies selling an internet equivalent of cable TV, now approaching cable-like prices. And when there were sports, Amazons game webcasts werent much different from what I watched on my familys TV set.Instagram and Uber feel fundamentally different from photo albums or taxis. And the new TV is way better than the old, but the shift in home entertainment has been a grinding evolution rather than a revolution. I wonder, could there be bolder ideas? What are we missing?On Netflix, you dont need to watch any bad sitcoms, or you can watch 50 hours in a row of one bad sitcom. Its glorious. But there are a lot of old conventions there, too. There are seasons of shows a relic from when TV shut down for a summer break. Many episodes last for about 30 or 60 minutes, another holdover from the era of rabbit ear TVs.And apart from experiments like one episode of Black Mirror that let viewers choose what happened next, not much is internet-y about Netflix except that we watch it over the internet.During the pandemic, people swarmed to a little companys computer add-on to host communal Netflix gatherings; its made me wonder why Netflix didnt have the idea first. (Now other companies, including Hulu and Amazons Prime Video service, have followed with their own communal watching features.)Several years ago, YouTube and other companies started offering cable television, but over the internet, and I have no idea who these products were made for. These virtual cable services havent been very popular, lose money and are getting more expensive which will make them even less popular.There are understandable reasons for most of this. Netflix and most other internet video services grafted existing business approaches or behaviors onto the web. Theyre also buying programming in many cases from the same companies that sell stuff for conventional TV channels and theaters.I also suspect that there is a failure of imagination. One of the refreshing things about TikTok, Snapchat and even the silly mobile video service Quibi is they are testing unconventional entertainment ideas tailored for people who never watched VHS tapes. It might not work, but at least theyre not parochial.I know Im being cranky. Ill be happily slumped on my sofa this holiday weekend watching Netflix and (probably) the Hamilton movie. But Ill also be noticing that the new watching TV still feels a lot like watching TV.If you dont already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here.Facebook and hubris (again)In Wednesdays newsletter, I wrote about Facebooks tendency when confronted with criticism to react angrily, point to its principles and vow not to change. And then, Facebook is usually forced to change.Welp. Here is Mark Zuckerberg, Facebooks chief executive, speaking to employees last week about companies that have suspended buying Facebook ads, according to the technology news outlet the Information:I tend to think that if someone goes out there and threatens you to do something, that actually kind of puts you in a box where in some ways its even harder to do what they want because now it looks like youre capitulating, and that sets up bad long-term incentives for others to do that [to you] as well.Got it? Facebook wont cave, because it doesnt want to look like its capitulating to threats.I understand the sentiment. But Facebook is not a hostage negotiator, and advertisers pressuring the company to do more about online vitriol are not hostage takers. (The companys executives have been communicating with the unhappy advertisers, so Facebooks view may have softened in the last week.)I share some of Zuckerbergs skepticism that what these boycotting advertisers want most is a pat on the back for appearing to take a stand against a company with a tarnished reputation. (Check out, for example, the latest column by Charlie Warzel, an Opinion writer for The New York Times, about Facebook being beyond reform.)Facebook has millions of mostly small advertisers, and this temporary boycott from hundreds of big name advertisers will barely make a dent in Facebooks sales numbers.That doesnt mean their actions wont hurt. A publicized boycott against Facebook further stains its reputation.Facebook does itself no good by again going into defensive mode when its confronted with criticism. Zuckerberg could say instead that he values the input of Facebooks customers and then actually take their criticism to heart.Before we go Tech CEOs are (probably virtually) coming to Washington: The bosses of Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple have agreed to testify in front of a congressional panel investigating the power of big technology companies, my colleague David McCabe reports. Hearings like this can be maddening sessions of executives ducking questions and politicians grandstanding, but I still want to see what happens with this one.The harm of enforced secrecy: Companies in technology (and other industries) regularly require employees and departing workers to keep silent about any problems with their employers. The tech publication Protocol looked at how these nondisclosure agreements are insulating companies from a public discussion about racism and discrimination in the workplace.TikTok behind bars: Wired has an interesting look at people in prison who despite bans on cellphones are posting videos on TikTok showing mundane glimpses of their lives, like the creation of a makeshift water heater, and in some cases trying to publicize their fears about dangerous living conditions.Hugs to thisMy colleague Charlie Warzel started a Twitter thread of dogs (and some cats) wistfully resting their chins on inanimate objects. They are so adorable. (This dog with his chin on a hammock might be my favorite.)We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else youd like us to explore. You can reach us at [email protected]. If you dont already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here. | Tech |
Health|Sutter Health to Pay $575 Million to Settle Antitrust Lawsuithttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/health/sutter-health-settlement-california.htmlThe deal resolves allegations of anti-competitive behavior by the large hospital system in Northern California.Credit...Rich Pedroncelli/Associated PressDec. 20, 2019Sutter Health, the large hospital system in Northern California, said Friday that it had agreed to pay $575 million to settle claims of anti-competitive behavior brought by the California state attorney general as well as unions and employers.In addition to the settlement amount which will go to compensate employers, unions and the state and federal governments Sutter will also be prohibited from engaging in several practices that the state attorney general and others said the hospital system used to ensure its dominance. It will be barred from so-called all or nothing agreements, which the attorney general said required insurers to include all of Sutters medical facilities if they wanted to include some of the systems hospitals. And it will be required to limit what it can charge patients for out-of-network services, which the state said would prevent people from facing surprise medical bills.If were going to treat something thats precious and lifesaving like a business, then the marketplace for health care must be vibrant and competitive so that the best in the business can rise to the top naturally, Xavier Becerra, Californias attorney general, said in a news conference Friday. This first-in-the-nation settlement is one of the largest actions against anti-competitive conduct in the health care marketplace across the country.The UFCW & Employers Benefit, the group of unions and employers who also brought the suit, said in a statement: From the outset, our goal has been to not only achieve justice for the members of the class, but to also put an end to the anticompetitive behavior that has allowed Sutter to charge inflated prices.Representatives for Sutter said the settlement did not acknowledge wrongdoing. We were able to resolve this matter in a way that enables Sutter Health to maintain our integrated network and ability to provide patients with access to affordable, high-quality care, said Flo Di Benedetto, Sutters senior vice president and general counsel, in a statement.The health system also said it never required insurers to agree to all or nothing arrangements.A tentative settlement was announced in October, just as the trial was to begin. The class-action lawsuit had accused Sutter of using its regional dominance to corral insurers so that patients could not go elsewhere for less expensive or higher quality care.The settlement will need to be approved by a court, and a hearing is scheduled for Feb. 25 in the Superior Court of California in San Francisco. An independent monitor will ensure the agreement is followed.The lawsuit represented a fresh legal attack on health systems accused of using their size to thwart competition and had been highly anticipated by both hospitals and health insurers.Sutter had long been viewed as a classic example of a hospital system that grew too big, leading to higher prices in the region. For instance, hospital care for a heart attack costs around $25,000 in San Francisco, where Sutter has facilities, but the price is closer to $15,000 in parts of Los Angeles.Sutter denied that it engaged in any activities that harmed competition in the region.Sutter continues to face a federal antitrust lawsuit. | Health |
Technology|Owners of BitMEX, a Leading Bitcoin Exchange, Face Criminal Chargeshttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/01/technology/bitmex-bitcoin-criminal-charges.htmlBitMEX made itself a haven for hackers and illegal transactions, American prosecutors said.Credit...Xyza Bacani/ReduxOct. 1, 2020American authorities brought criminal charges on Thursday against the owners of one of the worlds biggest cryptocurrency trading exchanges, BitMEX, accusing them of allowing the Hong Kong-based company to launder money and engage in other illegal transactions.BitMEX is far from the first cryptocurrency company to be suspected of facilitating criminal activity. But it is the largest and most established exchange to face criminal charges.Federal prosecutors in Manhattan indicted the chief executive of BitMEX, Arthur Hayes, and three co-owners: Benjamin Delo, Samuel Reed and Gregory Dwyer. Mr. Reed was arrested in Massachusetts on Thursday, while the other three men remained at large, authorities said.Prosecutors said BitMEX had taken few steps to limit customers even after being informed that the exchange was being used by hackers to launder stolen money, and by people in countries under sanctions, like Iran.BitMEX made itself available as a vehicle for money laundering and sanctions violations, the indictment released on Thursday said.BitMEX has handled more than $1.5 billion of trades each day recently, making it one of the five biggest exchanges on most days. BitMEX and Mr. Hayes have been known for pushing the limits in the unregulated cryptocurrency industry.After it was founded in 2014, BitMEX grew popular by allowing traders to buy and sell contracts tied to the value of Bitcoin known as derivatives, or futures with few of the restrictions and rules that were in place in other exchanges. That allowed investors to take out enormous loans and make risky trades.The relaxed attitude also made it possible for people all over the world to easily move money in and out of BitMEX without the basic identity checks that can prevent money laundering. In August, BitMEX put in place some of those verification checks.Mr. Hayes is from Buffalo, and previously worked as a trader at Deutsche Bank and Citi after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania. He incorporated BitMEX in the Seychelles even though its offices were in Hong Kong and New York.Mr. Hayes chose Seychelles because it cost less to bribe Seychellois authorities just a coconut than it would cost to bribe regulators in the United States and elsewhere, according to the indictment.A spokesman for HDR Global Trading Limited, one of the corporate entities controlling BitMEX, said: We strongly disagree with the U.S. governments heavy-handed decision to bring these charges, and intend to defend the allegations vigorously.BitMEX has been reported to be under investigation by American authorities since last year. On Thursday, American cryptocurrency experts said they were not surprised that the exchange would attract scrutiny given its freewheeling attitude.The vast majority of firms that service the U.S. are compliant, so its not surprising that the government would now turn to those that refuse to follow the law, said Jerry Brito, the executive director of Coin Center, a research and lobbying group in Washington. | Tech |
DealBook|R.B.S. Considering Sale of Williams & Glynhttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/17/business/dealbook/rbs-williams-glyn.htmlDec. 16, 2015LONDON The Royal Bank of Scotland said on Wednesday that it was considering selling Williams & Glyn, the branch network it had planned to spin off in 2017.R.B.S., which is based in Edinburgh, said that it had received informal approaches for Williams & Glyn because of the strategic attractiveness of the unit.The lender said that it would continue to prepare for an initial public offering for Williams & Glyn, but that it would also begin a sale process in the first half of next year. If it were to sell the business, the bank said, it would want a binding agreement in place by the end of next year and to fully divest the unit by the end of 2017.Separating out the Williams & Glyn business is a complex process, Ross McEwan, the R.B.S. chief executive, said in a news release. But we remain focused on meeting our state aid obligation, achieving full divestment by the end of 2017, and reaching the best outcome for shareholders, customers, and staff.R.B.S. is required to spin off or sell Williams & Glyn by the end of 2017 as part of the government bailout of 45 billion pounds, or about $68 billion at current exchange rates, that it received during the financial crisis.The British government owned as much as 80 percent of R.B.S. after the bailout, but it began reducing its stake this year and now owns about 73 percent.The lender, which is in the process of shrinking and refocusing its business, said that it had applied for a separate banking license for Williams & Glyn at the end of September and that it would plan for the business to spin off from R.B.S. in the first quarter of 2017.Williams & Glyn had 24 billion in deposits at the end of the third quarter, and it has about 1.8 million customers. | Business |
Credit...Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA, via ShutterstockJune 11, 2018Its official. The Federal Communications Commissions repeal of net neutrality rules, which had required internet service providers to offer equal access to all web content, took effect on Monday.The rules, enacted by the administration of President Barack Obama in 2015, prohibited internet providers from charging more for certain content or from giving preferential treatment to certain websites.After the commission voted to repeal the rules in December, it faced a public outcry, legal challenges from state attorneys general and public interest groups, and a push by Democratic lawmakers to overturn the decision. The opponents argued that the repeal would open the door for service providers to censor content online or charge additional fees for better service something that could hurt small companies and several states have taken steps to impose the rules on a local level.Still, the repeal was a big win for Ajit Pai, the F.C.C.s chairman, who has long opposed the regulations, saying they impeded innovation. He once said they were based on hypothetical harms and hysterical prophecies of doom.In an op-ed column published on CNET Monday, Mr. Pai argued that the repeal was good for consumers because it restored the Federal Trade Commissions authority over internet service providers.In 2015, the F.C.C. stripped the F.T.C. the nations premier consumer protection agency of its authority over internet service providers. This was a loss for consumers and a mistake we have reversed, Mr. Pai wrote.VideoThe F.C.C. voted to dismantle rules that require internet providers to give consumers equal access to all content online. Heres how net neutrality works.CreditCredit...Michael Bocchieri/Getty Images[Im no longer surprised that there was a fight over this, writes our columnist. Net neutrality was too good for us.]These are the rules that were repealedThe original rules laid out a regulatory plan that addressed a rapidly changing internet. Under those regulations, broadband service was considered a utility under Title II of the Communications Act, giving the F.C.C. broad power over internet providers. The rules prohibited these practices:BLOCKING Internet service providers could not discriminate against any lawful content by blocking websites or apps.THROTTLING Service providers could not slow the transmission of data because of the nature of the content, as long as it was legal.PAID PRIORITIZATION Service providers could not create an internet fast lane for companies and consumers who paid premiums, and a slow lane for those who didnt.Whats everyone worried about?Many consumer advocates argued that once the rules were scrapped, broadband providers would begin selling the internet in bundles, not unlike cable television packages. Want access to Facebook and Twitter? Under a bundling system, getting on those sites could require paying for a premium social media package.Another major concern is that consumers could suffer from pay-to-play deals. Without rules prohibiting paid prioritization, a fast lane could be occupied by big internet and media companies, as well as affluent households, while everyone else would be left in the slow lane.Some small-business owners are worried, too, that industry giants could pay to get an edge and leave them on an unfair playing field.ImageCredit...Mark Wilson/Getty ImagesE-commerce start-ups have feared that they could end up on the losing end of paid prioritization, with their websites and services loading more slowly than those run by internet behemoths. Remote workers of all kinds, including freelancers and franchisees in the so-called gig economy, could similarly face higher costs to do their jobs from home.Internet service providers now have the power to block websites, throttle services and censor online content, Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democratic member of the commission who voted against the repeal, said in an emailed statement Monday. They will have the right to discriminate and favor the internet traffic of those companies with whom they have pay-for-play arrangements and the right to consign all others to a slow and bumpy road.Why it may not matter to youSeveral states have taken measures to ensure the rules stay in effect. For example, in March, Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, a Democrat, signed a law that effectively replaced the federal rules. Others, including the governors of Montana and New York, used executive orders to force net neutrality.As of late May, 29 state legislatures had introduced bills meant to ensure net neutrality, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.Still, several of these measures have failed, some are still pending, and not every state has taken such actions.The argument against the rulesThe F.C.C. said it had repealed the rules because they restrained broadband providers like Verizon and Comcast from experimenting with new business models and investing in new technology. Its chairman has long argued against the rules, pointing out that before they were put into effect in 2015, service providers had not engaged in any of the practices the rules prohibited.Americas internet economy became the envy of the world thanks to a market-based approach that began in the mid-1990s, Mr. Pai said in a speech at the Mobile World Congress in February.The United States is simply making a shift from pre-emptive regulation, which foolishly presumes that every last wireless company is an anti-competitive monopolist, to targeted enforcement based on actual market failure or anti-competitive conduct, he said.In Mondays op-ed, he repeated his argument that the internet thrived without net neutrality rules in place for most of its existence. President Clinton and a Republican Congress agreed on a light-touch framework to regulating the internet. Under that approach, the internet was open and free. Network investment topped $1.5 trillion, he wrote.Several internet providers made public pledges that they would not block or throttle sites once the rules were repealed. The companies argued that Title II gave the F.C.C. too much control over their business, and that the regulations made it hard to expand their networks.#NetNeutrality trendingDemocratic lawmakers who are opposed to the repeal took to social media, promising to reinstate the regulations. Barbara Underwood, New Yorks attorney general, noted that lawsuits opposing the repeal were still pending.The people saying we cant pass the resolution to #SaveTheInternet in the House are the same people who were saying we couldnt do it in the Senate, Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts wrote on Twitter. Ignore them. Just keep fighting.Still, others cheered the rollback. Brendan Carr, a Republican member of the FCC, said on Twitter: Americans are passionate about the free and open internet. We dont want to be blocked or throttled or have our online experience subject to the whims of an internet provider.The internet was already changedPerhaps the repeal wont change the direction of the internet. On Monday, Farhad Manjoo argued in his New York Times column that 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, he wrote. | Tech |
TrilobitesHow to Get Dolphin-Smooth SkinFor skin care like a cetacean, youre going to need corals, sponges and the ability to hold your breath for a long time.VideoDolphins lining up at the gorgonian coral reef spa. Video by Angela Ziltener.May 19, 2022In the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt, bottlenose dolphins barrel through a soft, bushy coral. Looks like fun, but maybe its medicine.Dolphins may rub on specific corals and sponges to treat their skin, researchers reported Thursday in the journal iScience. These stationary sea creatures may serve as drive-by pharmacies, dispensing a chemical cocktail that could treat bacterial or fungal infections or support skin health. The scientists said that cetaceans have not been observed self-medicating before.Angela Ziltener, a biologist, spotted this behavior in 2009. Dolphins lined up in front of a coral and each one took their turn, sometimes circling to the back of the line for another go. It was very organized actually, said Dr. Ziltener, who works at the Dolphin Watch Alliance in Switzerland.The dolphins seemed to have clear preferences out of hundreds of coral species in the reef, they used a select few, Dr. Ziltener said. Sometimes after the dolphins hit up a coral, their skin was stained yellow or green. Knowing that sponges and corals contain an assortment of chemical compounds, Dr. Ziltener connected with Gertrud Morlock, an analytical chemist at Justus Liebig University Giessen in Germany, to investigate whether the dolphins behavior could be explained by whats in the goo these creatures exude.During the summer of 2019, the researchers snipped tiny pieces from two soft coral and one sponge species theyd seen dolphins rubbing against in the Red Sea. Combining several powerful techniques, the team sleuthed for a range of substances. Dr. Morlock said they found a potpourri of 17 bioactive compounds, including antimicrobials, antioxidants and hormones.ImageCredit...Angela ZiltenerSome of these molecules may serve as immune boosters or sunscreens, said Julia Kubanek, a marine chemist at the Georgia Institute of Technology who wasnt part of the work. People have known about corals and sponges medicinal properties for around 50 years, she said.But dolphins may have known about how to use marine organisms as medicines much longer than we have, she said.Still, she noted that the scientists didnt report whether dolphins prefer to rub against corals and sponges that contain more bioactive compounds.Self-medication seems totally plausible, said Eric Angel Ramos, a marine mammal scientist at the Rockefeller University in New York who was not part of this study. But equally its plausible that they just love to rub against it. Dolphin skin is very sensitive to touch, and contact plays a large role in how these animals interact with one another and their surroundings, he said.He suggested testing whether the dolphins get a medicinal benefit from these invertebrates by working with captive animals. They often scratch, bite or otherwise beat up one another, which provides an opportunity to track how dolphins skin fares after some coral or sponge skin care.The research team is working to analyze footage of thousands of dolphin rubs on corals and sponges from 2009 through 2021, Dr. Ziltener said. That data could contain clues to whether the dolphins are getting an Rx on the reef. For instance, if some of them repeatedly dose themselves, that could bolster the case for self-medicating. Tracking dolphins rubbing behavior could also reveal whether dolphins learn this behavior from one another, as the authors suggested.Ive seen this exact behavior, and I didnt think about it in those terms, Dr. Ramos said. Though it might take years or decades to unravel whether dolphins self-medicate, he said, this study is opening a door to solve that mystery. | science |
Credit...Lillian Suwanrumpha/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesMarch 13, 2017The United Nations investigator of human rights violations in North Korea inserted himself on Monday into the mystery over the assassination of the North Korean leaders half brother, calling for an independent inquiry and possible protection of other persons from targeted killings.The remarks by the investigator, Tomas Ojea Quintana, at a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, essentially expanded the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, the estranged older sibling of Kim Jong-un, into a human rights issue.Mr. Quintanas remarks also intensified the international pressure on North Korea, which has been accused by South Korea and the United States of orchestrating the assassination a month ago at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia. The Malaysian authorities have made clear that they believe that North Koreas government may have been involved.North Korea has denied responsibility, has described the assassination as a smear plot by Malaysia and North Koreas enemies and has not even acknowledged the identity of the victim.Kim Jong-nam, long alienated from his half brother, who has led their hermetic nation for five years, was killed on Feb. 13 by two women at the airport while awaiting a flight for Macau, his home in exile in China, according to the Malaysian authorities. The women rubbed his face with toxic liquid, which the Malaysian authorities identified in an autopsy as VX, a banned chemical weapon that North Korea is known to have stockpiled.The women, who apparently thought they had been participating in a harmless gag, have been charged with murder, and the Malaysian police have suggested they were recruited by North Korean agents.The police are seeking seven North Koreans, including a diplomat who has refused to leave North Koreas embassy. The Malaysians have also rejected the North Korean governments demands to hand over the body.ImageCredit...Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone, via Associated PressPolitical analysts have suggested that Kim Jong-un may have ordered the assassination of his half brother over fear that China, which was protecting Kim Jong-nam, might try to install him as North Koreas leader should the current government collapse.Mr. Quintana said the intense interest in the assassination had obscured the human rights implications of Kim Jong-nams death, adding his voice to the suspicions that North Korean agents were involved.I urge all parties concerned to cooperate in carrying out a transparent, independent and impartial investigation into this killing, and to observe guidelines regarding witness protection, he told the Human Rights Council during a periodic update on North Korea.Should the investigation confirm the involvement of state actors, Mr. Quintana said, Mr. Kim would be a victim of an extrajudicial killing and measures would need to be taken to assign responsibilities and protect other persons from targeted killings.As of Monday, no next of kin have come forward to claim the body, leading to speculation that the victims wife and children live in fear of assassination, as well.North Korean officials have refused to meet with Mr. Quintana and boycotted his presentation at the Human Rights Council. North Korea has long contended that the United Nations investigation of human rights abuses is groundless and part of a malicious plot instigated by the United States and its allies.At a news conference later at United Nations headquarters in New York, North Koreas ambassador, Kim In-ryong, responded to a question about Mr. Quintanas assertion by reiterating his countrys denial of responsibility for the assassination. He suggested North Koreas enemies had been responsible, calling the assassination the product of reckless moves by the United States and South Korea.The ambassador also dismissed as the height of absurdity Malaysias conclusion that VX had been used, arguing that its toxicity is so potent that the assassins and other bystanders would have died. | World |
Credit...Sait Serkan Gurbuz/Associated PressDec. 30, 2015Puerto Rico will default on nearly $174 million in principal and interest payments on bonds on Friday, the first day of 2016, the governor said on Wednesday, increasing the likelihood that the island will face lawsuits from an array of creditors.In a briefing for journalists, Gov. Alejandro Garca Padilla said only some of the payments would be halted immediately. They include $35.9 million due to holders of bonds issued by its Infrastructure Financing Authority, and $1.4 million due to holders of its Public Finance Corporations bonds.In a stark example of the financial version of musical chairs that has been playing out on the island in recent months, the government will divert a total of $174 million from lower-grade bonds to pay holders of the legally protected general obligation bonds. That diversion, known as a clawback, technically amounts to a default even though some of those creditors will not see a difference in their payments on Jan. 1.General obligation bonds have a top priority under Puerto Ricos Constitution, and defaulting on them outside an official bankruptcy proceeding could set off a constitutional crisis, making the islands problems even worse than they already are.As a result of the shuffle, the general obligation bondholders will receive on Friday the entire $328.7 million they are owed, said the governor, who referred to those top-ranked bondholders as participants in vulture funds.At a news conference later in the day in San Juan, the islands capital, he accused the general obligation bondholders who have resisted efforts to cut back their payments of caring more about their financial interests than the well-being of Puerto Ricos residents.We know that our creditors have spent a fortune lobbying against the people of Puerto Rico, Mr. Garca Padilla said, according to an unofficial English transcript of the event, which was conducted in Spanish. The bondholders, he said, were willing and anxious to initiate costly and disruptive litigation against the commonwealth, and attempt to attach and seize the little cash left in our accounts to obstruct our ability to provide essential services to our people.My administration has the obligation to protect the people of Puerto Rico against the grave consequences of a disruption in essential services and a government shutdown, which would result from a wider default, he added.Melba Acosta Febo, the head of Puerto Ricos Government Development Bank, told journalists that the clawback of certain bond money was legal in Puerto Rico. She said that the possibility of such a step had been disclosed in the marketing materials for the affected bonds.The development bank, which orchestrates most of Puerto Ricos debt, issued a statement on Wednesday, saying that it intended to make separate principal and interest payments of about $10 million due on Friday.In his briefing, the governor said that some of the investors whose bonds are part of the clawback would still receive the full amounts they expected on Friday. That is because Puerto Rico had previously sent enough money to bond trustees to cover the most imminent payments. Once money has been sent to a trustee, it cannot be clawed back.Even though the bondholders in this group will not feel any immediate difference, their bonds will still be considered in default, Mr. Garca Padilla said, because their prepaid reserves are now being depleted and the flow of additional funds to the trustees has ceased. That means the number of bondholders who are left unpaid is likely to grow, as more payments are due in the coming months.Investors in this group include those who hold bonds issued by the Puerto Rico Highways and Transportation Authority, and its Convention Center District Authority.In a hint at the extremely complex structure of Puerto Ricos total debt, the governor pointed out that not all of the Infrastructure Financing Authority bonds would be in default on Jan. 1 because, much like the general obligation bonds, some of them also carry a governmental guarantee.In effect, one group of Infrastructure Authority investors those without the guarantee are having their money clawed back to pay another group of Infrastructure Authority investors whose bonds are guaranteed. This is something few ordinary investors are likely to have understood when they first decided to invest in Puerto Ricos bonds. The bonds are widely held across the United States mainland, because they offer better-than-usual tax preferences and a higher yield than most municipal bonds. In the past, Puerto Rican debt was a popular addition to mutual fund portfolios because it increased the overall yield.When asked how he expected the rising tide of defaults to affect the broad restructuring talks that Puerto Rico has been calling for, Mr. Garca Padilla said he thought it would make them harder. Some investors will now be forced to make unexpected sacrifices that help other investors, a situation that the governor said could not be good for anyone in the long run.Mr. Garca Padilla said that he had been forced to claw back money from the lower-ranked bondholders because the island had practically run out of cash and Congress had so far failed to respond to its pleas for help. He said he needed to save at least some money to keep paying nurses in hospitals, police officers and teachers.At least two types of Puerto Rican bonds remained outside the line of fire, the governor said. One is a type of bond backed by dedicated sales taxes through the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corporation, known by its Spanish acronym, Cofina. The other is a type of bond issued by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or Prepa. For months, Puerto Rican officials have been urging Congress to amend the federal bankruptcy code to eliminate an exclusion that currently bars any branch of the Puerto Rican government from restructuring in Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy.The Republican senators who chair the relevant committees have expressed concern for the islands predicament but have said so far that they could not consider such an amendment until more was known about why Puerto Rico had fallen into such distress and what could be done to address the systemic causes. Legislative efforts were expected to resume when Congress returns in January.The Treasury said in a statement on Wednesday that Puerto Ricos default demonstrates the gravity of the commonwealths fiscal crisis and the need for Congress to act now.The statement continued: Puerto Rico is at a dead end, shifting funds from one creditor to pay another and diverting money from already-depleted pension funds to pay both current bills and debt service. This increasingly urgent situation demands swift congressional action to give Puerto Rico access to an orderly restructuring regime paired with independent oversight. | Business |
Guillain-Barr and Vaccines: What You Need to KnowThe link between the rare neurological disorder and the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine may be real, but the risk appears to be very small.Credit...Carlo Allegri/ReutersPublished July 12, 2021Updated July 14, 2021Johnson & Johnsons beleaguered Covid-19 vaccine may be associated with a small increased risk of GuillainBarr syndrome, a rare but potentially serious neurological condition, federal officials said on Monday. The Food and Drug Administration has added a warning about the potential side effect to its fact sheets about the vaccine.The risk appears to be very small. So far, there have been 100 reports of the syndrome in people who had received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Nearly 13 million doses of the vaccine have been administered in the United States.Here are answers to some common questions about the syndrome and its connection to vaccination.Guillain-Barr is a rare condition in which the bodys immune system attacks nerve cells. It often begins with tingling or numbness in the hands and feet, which can then progress to more widespread muscle weakness or even paralysis. In mild cases, the symptoms may pass within weeks, but more serious cases can result in hospitalization or, in rare instances, death. The condition can also cause permanent nerve damage.In the United States, there are typically 3,000 to 6,000 cases of the syndrome per year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is most common in adults over 50.The precise cause of the syndrome is unknown, but in many cases the condition follows another illness or infection, such as the flu or food poisoning. It has also been reported in people with Covid-19.What does it have to do with vaccination?This is not the first vaccine that has been linked to Guillain-Barr, although the risk appears to be tiny. A large swine flu vaccination campaign in 1976 led to a small uptick in the incidence of syndrome; the vaccine caused roughly one extra case of Guillain-Barr for every 100,000 people vaccinated. The seasonal flu shot is associated with roughly one to two additional cases for every million vaccines administered.I think the data are pretty compelling that the flu vaccine causes Guillain-Barr syndrome, but its a very small risk, said Daniel Salmon, the director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins University.The shingles vaccine Shingrix may also increase the risk of the condition.It is not entirely clear why some vaccines may cause Guillain-Barr. We dont really understand the biological mechanism, Dr. Salmon said. Its an incredible frustration.What do we know about its connection to the Covid-19 vaccines?One hundred reports of the syndrome after vaccination with the Johnson & Johnson shot have been submitted to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), officials said on Monday. Of those, 95 cases resulted in hospitalization, and one was fatal.The syndrome was generally reported about two weeks after vaccination, primarily in men, many of whom were 50 or older, officials said. There is not yet enough evidence to establish that the vaccine causes the condition, but the F.D.A. will continue to monitor the situation, the agency noted in a statement.There is not yet any data to suggest a link between the condition and Covid-19 vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech or by Moderna, both of which rely upon a different technology, the F.D.A. said.What signs and symptoms should I look out for?The syndrome is most likely to appear within 42 days of vaccination, the F.D.A. notes in its revised fact sheet for patients. You should consult with a doctor if you begin to experience weakness or tingling in your arms and legs, double vision or difficulty walking, speaking, chewing, swallowing or controlling your bladder or bowels.How is it treated?The condition is typically treated with either an infusion of antibodies, known as immunoglobulin therapy, or plasma exchange, in which a patients blood plasma is removed and replaced.After the acute phase has passed, many patients receive physical therapy or rehab to rebuild their strength. Most people ultimately make a full recovery, although the process can be slow. Some patients may have long-term fatigue, weakness or pain.Should I still get a Covid-19 vaccine?If the link between the vaccine and Guillain-Barr is real, it appears to be far outweighed by the risks of Covid-19, experts said. In the United States, almost all hospitalizations and deaths from Covid-19 are happening in those who are unvaccinated, the C.D.C. said in a statement. The agency recommends that everyone who is 12 or older be vaccinated.Everything has risks, Dr. Salmon said. And the key to decision-making is to optimize the benefits and reduce the risks. He added, Covid is a pretty nasty disease thats killed 600,000 people. | Health |
MatterCredit...David Scharf/Science SourceMarch 21, 2017As biological research races forward, ethical quandaries are piling up. In a report published Tuesday in the journal eLife, researchers at Harvard Medical School said it was time to ponder a startling new prospect: synthetic embryos.In recent years, scientists have moved beyond in vitro fertilization. They are starting to assemble stem cells that can organize themselves into embryolike structures.Soon, experts predict, they will learn how to engineer these cells into new kinds of tissues and organs. Eventually, they may take on features of a mature human being.In the report, John D. Aach and his colleagues explored the ethics of creating what they call synthetic human entities with embryolike features Sheefs, for short. For now, the most advanced Sheefs are very simple assemblies of cells.But in the future, they may develop into far more complex forms, the researchers said, such as a beating human heart connected to a rudimentary brain, all created from stem cells. Such a Sheef might reveal important clues about how nerves control heartbeats. Scientists might be able to use other Sheefs to test out drugs for diseases such as cancer or diabetes.Whatever else, it is sure to unnerve most of us.Established guidelines for human embryo research are useless for deciding which Sheefs will be acceptable and which not, Dr. Aach argued. Before scientists get too deeply into making Sheefs, some rules must be put in place.Dr. Aach and his colleagues urged that certain features be kept off limits: Scientists, for example, should never create a Sheef that feels pain.Were going to have to get a lot of input from a lot of quarters, Dr. Aach said in an interview. The problems are just too big.Scientists began grappling with the ethics of lab-raised embryos more than four decades ago.In 1970, the physiologist Robert G. Edwards and his colleagues at the University of Cambridge announced they had been able to fertilize human eggs with sperm and keep them alive for two days in a petri dish. During that time, the embryos each divided into 16 cells.Dr. Edwards won the Nobel Prize in 2010 for his research, which opened the door to in vitro fertilization. The discovery also made it possible to study the earliest moments of human development.Governments around the world began deliberating over how long research laboratories and fertility clinics should be allowed to let these embryos grow. In 1979, a federal advisory board recommended that the cutoff should be 14 days.The so-called 14-day rule came to be embraced not just by scientists in the United States but in other countries as well. One attraction of the guideline was that it was easy to follow.At 14 days, a human embryo develops its first clear feature: a ridge of cells, called the primitive streak, which marks the bodys central axis. It is where the spine will later develop.There are even more important changes happening at the same time, although they are harder to see. The embryonic cells develop into three types, called germ layers. Each of those germ layers goes on to produce all the bodys tissues and organs.Adherence to the 14-day rule led to tremendous advances. In 1998, scientists isolated stem cells from early embryos and eventually figured out how to develop them into just about any tissue in the body, from heart muscle to nerves.In 2007, scientists figured out how to reprogram adult cells into embryolike stem cells, a discovery that one day may lead to personalized treatments for degenerative diseases.For decades, scientists did not break the 14-day rule but only because they did not know how. Scientists could keep human embryos alive for just over a week, without freezing them.But last year, two teams of scientists determined how to grow human embryos for 13 days. Those advances hinted that it might be possible to allow scientists to tack on a few days more, by changing the 14-day rule to, say, a 20-day rule.But Dr. Aach and his colleagues argued that rules based on the time since fertilization were useless for embryos that were not formed by fertilization.A hint of the future arrived in a study published this month by researchers at the University of Cambridge. They built microscopic scaffolding into which they injected a mixture of two types of embryonic stem cells from mice.This triggered communication by the cells, and they organized themselves into the arrangement found in an early mouse embryo.While these artificial embryos developed from embryonic stem cells, it may soon become possible to build them from reprogrammed adult human cells. No fertilization or ordinary embryonic development would be required to build a mouse Sheef.We need to address this now, while theres still time, Dr. Aach said.Sophia Roosth, a Harvard historian of science who was not involved in the new paper, said she did not think ethicists would have to start from scratch to find rules for these strange new Sheefs. She was optimistic that experts could draw on the many regulations in place for other kinds of research including cloning, human tissue studies, and even studies on animals.I dont think the baby has to be thrown out with the bathwater, she said.Henry T. Greely of Stanford University was less optimistic. While it is important to have a discussion about Sheefs, he said, it may be hard to reach an agreement on limits as enforceable as the 14-day rule.Whether you could come to some consensus is really doubtful, he said.Even if ethicists do manage to agree on certain limits, Paul S. Knoepfler, a stem cell biologist at the University of California, Davis, wondered how easy it would be for scientists to know if they had crossed them.Spotting a primitive streak is easy. Determining whether a collection of neurons connected to other tissues in a dish can feel pain is not.It gets pretty tricky out there, Dr. Knoepfler said. Theyve opened the door to a lot of tough questions. | science |
Credit...MicrosoftFeb. 4, 2014SEATTLE Bill Gates is back in the building at Microsoft.On Tuesday, Microsoft announced that Mr. Gates, a longtime titan of the tech industry, was shedding his role as chairman to dig in more with products and technology at the company, which he co-founded nearly 40 years ago.At the same time, he is expected to play a distinctly secondary role to Satya Nadella, whom Microsoft named as its new chief executive. Mr. Nadella asked Mr. Gates to become a part-time adviser to him, a change that comes with great potential upsides for the company, but some potential land mines, too.In a short video Microsoft posted online, Mr. Gates, beaming in a red sweater, said he looked forward to helping Mr. Nadella.Im thrilled that Satya has asked me to step up, said Mr. Gates, who will remain a member of the Microsoft board. It will be fun to define this next round of products, working together.Mr. Gates will substantially increase his involvement with the company, spending more than a third of his time there. In recent years, as the companys chairman, he has been a more detached and infrequent actor at Microsoft, devoting less than a fifth of his time to it. Despite his new role, though, he will continue to stay deeply involved in his work as a globe-trotting philanthropist.The prospect of having a luminary of Mr. Gatess stature kicking around the hallways on a regular basis has easy appeal. He can help lift morale he remains a revered figure at the company and is known as a strong judge of products and technology. But the company has not nailed every product that Mr. Gates has been closely involved in, most notably Windows Vista, a version of its operating system that was panned for early technical problems.In addition, Mr. Gates, 58, could also complicate matters for Mr. Nadella, a low-key, 22-year employee of the company who can afford no confusion about where the buck stops.It is a dance because on the one hand, Gates is a huge asset, said Bill Whyman, an analyst at the ISI Group, a stock research firm. On the other hand, he casts a very big shadow, as any founder would. Hes not just a company founder he created the PC revolution.One precedent is the last and only other chief executive transition at the company, in 2000, when Mr. Gates turned over the title of chief executive to Steven A. Ballmer.In his first year as chief executive, Mr. Ballmer and Mr. Gates tussled over important decisions. (Mr. Gates remained chief software architect until 2008.) The tension between the two men, good friends since their college days, eventually subsided when Mr. Gates realized he needed to give Mr. Ballmer room to govern.Since limiting his role to chairman six years ago, Mr. Gates has practically worn out his voice dismissing questions about whether he wants to come back to run the companys day-to-day operations. And while he is tilting back to the company, Mr. Gates in his move does not seem to portend any sort of power grab, as happened at Apple in the late 1990s with Steven P. Jobs, a longtime rival of Mr. Gates.Mr. Nadella, 46, comes with the kind of technical bona fides that Mr. Gates was said to strongly favor in candidates for the chief executive job. With degrees in computer science and engineering, and a solid track record from running Microsofts cloud computing and corporate software groups, Mr. Nadella has managed some of the companys most lucrative businesses. He has yet to prove himself, however, in areas like mobile, which Microsoft must get right in order to stay relevant in technology.Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management who has written about how chief executives interact with their former companies after retirement, said some corporate leaders were monarchs, who refuse to give up power. Mr. Sonnenfeld said he did not include Mr. Gates in that group because of his devotion to philanthropy.What you really worry about is when someone returns as a founder and has the potential of becoming a monarch because he has no outside interests, said Mr. Sonnenfeld, who believes Mr. Gates will be a mentor in chief to Mr. Nadella. You dont have that here.After leaving to work for his foundation six years ago, Mr. Gates continued to meet with Microsoft executives to review product plans. He still maintains an office on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Wash., in Seattles suburbs, though he often held the meetings in his personal office in nearby Kirkland.Those sessions often feature Mr. Gatess brusque cross-examinations, which seem to have mellowed only slightly in recent years.Robbie Bach, a former Microsoft executive who retired from the company in 2010, sat through many of those reviews with Mr. Gates, including several after Mr. Gates left full-time work for the company.They were not always fun but they were always good, he said. His technical range is very wide and remarkably deep.The change in Mr. Gatess role at the company also suggests it would like warmer relations with investors. Wall Street was largely indifferent to Microsofts stock for most of Mr. Ballmers tenure. Although Mr. Ballmer significantly increased revenue and profits during his time, the billions of dollars Microsoft lost competing with Google in search and other missteps overshadowed everything else.Mr. Gates is giving up the chairman role to John W. Thompson, Microsofts lead independent director, who already appears to be positioning himself as an ambassador to Wall Street a role Mr. Gates showed little appetite for in recent years.The company is eager to avoid a public tussle with activist shareholders, who seem to be focusing more of their energies on technology companies. Microsoft last year averted a showdown with one such investor, ValueAct, in an agreement that is expected to result in one of ValueActs partners joining the Microsoft board.As part of my new role, Mr. Thompson said in a video, one of my key contributions, I hope, will be to engage with shareholders and keep focused on how together we can bring great innovation to the market and drive strong long-term shareholder value.The shuffling of Microsofts leadership may not appease the companys skeptical investors, many of whom favor a firmer break with the past. Some investors have called for Mr. Gates and Mr. Ballmer to leave its board, while others have called on it to sell off its Bing search service and other assets to focus more on the lucrative market for corporate software and services.To critics of the company, Mr. Nadellas appointment was viewed as a safe choice, not as bold as bringing in an outsider to shake things up. Microsofts shares closed down slightly on Tuesday.Daniel H. Ives, an analyst with FBR Capital Markets, said he believed that Mr. Nadella would have less time to prove himself than Mr. Ballmer did, in part because Mr. Nadella does not have the same relationship with Mr. Gates and because Mr. Gates is no longer chairman.I think its going to be a much shorter leash with Nadella, Mr. Ives said. | Tech |
Politics|Ex-Aide to Roger Stone Is Subpoenaed in Russia Investigationhttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/us/politics/roger-stone-andrew-miller-subpoenaed-trump.htmlCredit...Andrew Harnik/Associated PressJune 28, 2018A former aide to Roger J. Stone Jr., the longtime Trump adviser and self-described dirty trickster, was subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury hearing evidence in the Russia investigation and to hand over documents, and his lawyer moved on Thursday to quash it in court.The aide, Andrew Miller, has not been mentioned before publicly in the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.Mr. Miller, a registered Libertarian, worked briefly for Mr. Stone around the time of the Republican National Convention in 2016, helping to arrange media interviews and conducting other tasks, according to a person close to Mr. Stone. Mr. Miller was also an aide on the campaign for New York governor in 2010 of Kristin M. Davis, a former madam, whose main adviser was Mr. Stone.A lawyer, Paul Kamenar, said he filed a motion on Thursday on behalf of a client who was subpoenaed to be questioned in front of the grand jury, though he did not identify Mr. Miller. Mr. Kamenar said the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative nonprofit organization, was paying for his services.His motion argued that Mr. Muellers appointment was unconstitutional, he said. Peter Flaherty, the chairman of the policy center, said, The founders feared exactly what we see in Mueller: a runaway federal official. We hope to see Muellers operation disbanded, once and for all.Though that argument has gained prominence in conservative circles, two federal judges have rejected it, including this week in the financial fraud case against Paul Manafort, the presidents former campaign chairman. The deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, who appointed Mr. Mueller, has also repeatedly said he has seen nothing untoward in Mr. Muellers conduct.Mr. Millers scheduled grand jury appearance was postponed after the motion was filed.Mr. Stone has become a focal point for Mr. Muellers investigators in the inquiry into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russias election interference. During the 2016 campaign, Mr. Stone publicly foreshadowed the released by WikiLeaks of information damaging to Hillary Clintons campaign.He has since said that he was informed by an intermediary about the plans of the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, and has denied allegations that he helped collude with foreign powers. | Politics |
Baseball|Mets Add Valverde to the Bullpenhttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/13/sports/baseball/mets-add-valverde-to-the-bullpen.htmlSports BriefingFeb. 12, 2014The Mets said that they had signed the former Detroit Tigers closer Jose Valverde to a minor league contract, adding another veteran to their bullpen. He will join Vic Black and Kyle Farnsworth as candidates to set up the incumbent closer, Bobby Parnell, who had surgery in September for a herniated disk. Cole Hamels, the Philadelphia Phillies ace, said he would be unable to make his opening day start because of biceps tendinitis in his left arm. The Phillies have agreed to a one-year contract with A. J. Burnett, according to several news reports. Burnett, 37, was 10-11 with a 3.30 earned run average for Pittsburgh last season. (AP) | Sports |
Credit...Grace Beahm/The Post and Courier, via Associated PressMarch 14, 2016Sea-level rise, a problem exacerbated by greenhouse gas emissions, could disrupt the lives of more than 13 million people in the United States, three times the most current estimates, according to a study published Monday.Rising seas, which already endanger coastal communities through tidal floods and storm surges, could rise three feet or more over the next century if emissions continue at a high level, threatening many shoreline communities. The study, published in Nature Climate Change, argues that most projections vastly underestimate the number of people at risk because they do not account for population growth.For the study, the authors combined future population estimates with predicted sea-level rise, using data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to demonstrate that millions are at risk: 4.2 million if seas rise by three feet, or 13.1 million with a six-foot increase, a high-end estimate.Mathew E. Hauer, one of the studys authors and a doctoral student in geography at the University of Georgia, said, We could see a huge-scale migration if we dont deploy any protection against sea level rise.Recent studies have shown that the sea levels are rapidly increasing, probably at the fastest rate in 28 centuries, and its accompanying tidal flooding, increasingly frequent, is already causing headaches in low-lying places, especially in the South. Though sea levels have risen and fallen significantly in the past, scientists say they have been fairly constant for the last several thousand years.Mr. Hauer and his co-authors also found a highly regional effect of sea-level rise. Of the projected population at risk, nearly 50 percent will be in Florida, and an additional 20 percent in other parts of the Southeastern United States. In 30 counties, more than 100,000 people would be at risk if the sea level rose by about six feet.None of the 22 coastal states in the continental United States, as well as Washington, D.C., will be immune from the effects of sea-level rise, the authors predict. If the seas were to rise by about six feet by 2100, more than one million people in California, and almost as many in New York and New Jersey, would be affected, the study shows.The researchers estimated that the cost of relocating the 13.1 million people displaced by sea-level rise would be $14 trillion, based on relocation estimates for residents of Alaskan coastal villages.Mr. Hauer said the study could be useful on a local policy level as well.Predictions for sea-level rise are often done on a very small scale, while population forecasting is often done at a county or state level, Mr. Hauer said. Using census data, Mr. Hauer and his co-authors grouped units similar to city blocks to develop their forecast, and assumed that housing development patterns would continue at the same rate.Benjamin H. Strauss, an expert on sea-level rise at Climate Central, a climate change research organization, said he believed that the new study overstated the number of people at risk, though he agreed that most estimates were too conservative.The continuation of current development patterns through the rest of the century seems like an unlikely future, Dr. Strauss said, because as sea levels continue to rise and coastal problems become glaringly obvious, coastal development and real estate will have to change.Dr. Strauss also said this flooding model lacked some of the nuance shown in other studies on sea-level rise. Different parts of the country will see different levels of sea-level rise at certain moments in time, he said: Coastal Louisiana and the Chesapeake region will see faster rates of change since the land there is also sinking, for example.Another study published Monday in Nature Climate Change also highlighted the need for modeling that takes into account how different landscapes will react to sea level rise. The study, conducted by several members of the United States Geological Survey and a researcher from the Goddard Institute at NASA, demonstrates that several ecosystems in the Northeast, such as marshes and beaches, may adapt to sea-level rise, possibly undergoing formal changes. Developed or urban areas are more likely to flood or become submerged because of their hardened shorelines.Erika E. Lentz, the reports lead author and a research geologist with the United States Geological Survey, also said most places would not see the degree of inundation predicted in Mr. Hauers study.Mr. Hauer, a demographer, said he was not making any predictions about the likelihood of certain sea-level scenarios, but was instead focused on the effects on people.All three scientists acknowledged the degree of uncertainty in any of these forecasts. We dont have anything to compare this to, Mr. Hauer said. We just dont know how people are going to act. | science |
A preliminary report suggests that mask wearing and social distancing may curb the spread of disease from humans to great apes.Credit...Skyler Bishop for Gorilla DoctorsFeb. 21, 2022The mountain gorillas that live in Rwandas Volcanoes National Park have frequent encounters with humans. On any given day, the animals might come across smartphone-toting tourists, fecal-sample-swiping biologists or antibiotic-administering veterinarians.So when the coronavirus started spreading around the world in early 2020, experts worried that people might unwittingly pass the virus to the endangered apes, which are known to be vulnerable to a variety of human pathogens.In the past, other human viruses have caused respiratory illness in the gorillas, said Dr. Kirsten Gilardi, the executive director of Gorilla Doctors, an international team of veterinarians that provides care for wild gorillas. We were on pins and needles wondering, OK, if this virus gets into the mountain gorillas, whats it going to do?In March 2020, in an effort to safeguard the animals, Rwanda temporarily closed Volcanoes National Park. When the park reopened a few months later, it had strict new precautions in place, including requiring tourists and researchers to wear masks and keep their distance from the gorillas. These rules, plus a general drop-off in tourism, mean that the parks gorillas have had relatively few close encounters with humans during the pandemic, Dr. Gilardi said.And so far, there have been no signs of the coronavirus among the gorillas. But in trying to control an extraordinary health threat, officials may have also alleviated a more everyday one the routine transmission of respiratory diseases from humans to great apes. Since March 2020, the number of outbreaks of respiratory illness among the parks gorillas has fallen to 1.6 a year, on average, from 5.4.The takeaway is these best-practice measures for protecting great ape populations appear to be working, said Dr. Gilardi, who reported the findings in Nature this month. The report was co-written by Prosper Uwingeli, the chief warden of Volcanoes National Park.The analysis is preliminary, and the researchers cannot prove that the gorillas health improved because humans kept their distance. But the findings suggest that even after the pandemic wanes, stricter controls may be needed to help protect endangered apes from catching diseases from people, scientists said.ImageCredit...Skyler Bishop for Gorilla DoctorsThe same types of things that can protect wild animals that are susceptible to Covid can also protect them from other human pathogens, said Thomas Gillespie, a disease ecologist at Emory University who frequently works with wild primates but was not involved in the new research.Just over 1,000 mountain gorillas remain in the wild, divided between national parks in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Many gorillas have been deliberately habituated to humans to help facilitate both research and eco-tourism.The apes face a variety of threats, including poaching and habitat loss, but respiratory disease is also a major concern and a leading cause of death in mountain gorillas.Outbreaks of respiratory illnesses have become common among the animals. They happen with regularity, said Dr. Gilardi, who is also a wildlife veterinarian at the University of California, Davis. And we dont always know what causes them.Bacteria and viruses circulate naturally among gorillas and other apes, some of which can cause respiratory infections. But scientists have also documented numerous instances in which human pathogens, including the rhinoviruses and coronaviruses responsible for common colds, found their way into great apes.In many instances, respiratory viruses cause relatively mild, and familiar, symptoms in infected gorillas.They cough, they sneeze, they have runny noses, they might have goopy eyes, they might be off their feed, lethargic, literally not wanting to get out of bed in the morning, Dr. Gilardi said. (Gorillas make, and slumber in, night nests.) They look and act just like we do when we have an upper respiratory tract infection.But these outbreaks can sometimes cause severe illness, including pneumonia, or even death. In 2009, a human respiratory virus sickened 11 of the 12 gorillas in a single family group in Rwanda. Five of the animals required veterinary care and two others, including an infant, died.To curb this cross-species disease transfer, the International Union for Conservation of Nature issued a set of guidelines in 2015 for scientists, tourists and other people who might encounter great apes. The recommendations include remaining at least 23 feet from the animals and wearing a face mask when near them. (Dr. Gilardi and Dr. Gillespie were both among the authors of the guidelines.)But not all countries adopted, or enforced, the recommendations, Dr. Gillespie said. Until the pandemic hit. The pandemic has really brought everyone up toward full adherence, he said.Volcanoes National Park now requires tourists, park personnel, researchers and other people encountering gorillas to wear face masks, which had not previously been mandated. It also requires people to remain nearly 33 feet away from the animals. Tourism has not fully rebounded either, Dr. Gilardi said.The difference has been noticeable, she said: Were just not seeing as much respiratory disease right now as we have in years past.Other great ape sites are currently collecting their own data on how, and whether, the incidence of infectious disease has changed since the beginning of the pandemic, Dr. Gillespie said. And the same precautions can be used to help safeguard a wide range of wild primates, he added.Many of these best practices can be applied very successfully to other endangered and threatened species, Dr. Gillespie said. People need to be doing these things Covid or not. | Health |
Paris Hilton as Kim K Send in the Klones!!! 1/31/2018 Kim Kardashian got a major makeover ... as in, she's now Paris Hilton. Or Paris is her ... it's confusing. But very hot. P played Kim K dress up -- rocking a classic Kim outfit while sucking on a lollipop (also a Kim classic) -- for Kanye West's Yeezy Season 6 campaign. She wasn't alone ... Kanye also enlisted a ton of hot models -- Abigail Ratchford, Amina Blue, Bad Girls Club twins Shannon and Shannade Clermont and porn's own Lela Star -- to kopy Kim. Some even went fully nude. The saying goes ... accept no imitations, but not in this case. | Entertainment |
The proof was in the, er, concretion.Credit...Roger WilsonFeb. 10, 2022Archaeologists working at ancient Roman sites commonly find ceramics, but it is not always easy to know what these objects were used for. Wine storage? Food transportation? Tableware? Or were they purely decorative? Experts often disagree. But now a team of researchers working at a Roman site that dates from about 450 to 500 A.D. have definitive proof that one of the pots they found was a portable toilet.The terra-cotta pot, described Thursday in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, was found in the ruins of a villa near the Italian town of Gerace in Sicily. The pot is round with sloping sides, standing a foot high and 13 inches wide at the rim. The authors suggest that it could have been used by sitting on it, but more likely it was placed beneath a timber or wicker chair equipped with a cover over a suitable hole.Chamber pots have been found at various ancient archaeological digs. One was found recently at a 2,700-year-old site in Jerusalem; another, dating from 1,300 B.C., was excavated at the Egyptian city of Tell el-Amarna. Chamber pots from as early as the sixth century B.C. have also been found in Greece.Although some documents suggest that Roman chamber pots could have been made of onyx or gold, only terra-cotta and bronze pots have been found. Most have been identified only by their shape or their location in a house, but there are now various techniques for establishing their function more conclusively. These researchers did it by looking for human intestinal parasites.When they initially found the pot, it was in pieces, so they had to first put the fragments back together. The pot is burnt orange, with two wavy lines incised on the outside as decoration. Inside, at the bottom and sides of the pot, they found a crust calcified concretions that they hoped would help identify what the pot contained. They scraped a bit off for analysis.After preparing the sample in an acid bath to separate any organic material from the concretions, they were able to identify the preserved eggs of an intestinal parasite, the whipworm, which is excreted in human feces. How the jar had been used was clear.ImageCredit...Sophie RabinowWhipworms infect an estimated 800 million people worldwide, usually in tropical regions where access to proper sanitation is limited, but infections also occur in the southern United States. The worm lives in the colon and its eggs are excreted in feces. They begin development outside the body and are transmitted by oral contact with contaminated hands, soil or food. Sometimes the disease, trichuriasis, produces no symptoms at all or just mild diarrhea, but severe cases in children can lead to stunted growth and cognitive problems. The disease can be effectively treated with medication.Whipworms can be found in dogs, wolves, pigs and other animals, but the species found in the Roman artifact Trichuris trichiura is found only in humans, and is not transmissible to any other animal.The thing that stood out in the paper is their method could be developed so that we could have a general method for everyone, said Karl J. Reinhard, a professor of environmental archaeology at the University of Nebraska who was not involved in the study. Its simple and something anyone can do anywhere. It could be applied to museum specimens as well. I would encourage the authors to continue this work and develop a method from which we all could benefit.The lead author, Sophie Rabinow, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Cambridge in England, said that there are other techniques for analyzing ancient parasites DNA or protein analysis, for example. But, she said, the acid bath technique is much quicker, easier and cheaper, and, if the process is properly carried out, produces very reliable results.Its a good addition to the ceramists tool kit, Ms. Rabinow said. There is a huge backlog in archaeology, a huge amount of material to which these techniques could be applied. Ceramics are well preserved in many cultures, not just Roman, and parasites of many species preserve very well.Is there any danger of infection from whipworm eggs that are almost 2,000 years old?No, said Ms. Rabinow, noting that archaeologists and museum goers neednt worry about the parasites. After a few months, theyre finished. | science |
Credit...Tim Goessman for The New York TimesJune 5, 2018Eight states are holding primaries on Tuesday: Alabama, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota. It will be the busiest primary day of the year so far, as voters choose the candidates who will face off on Nov. 6.Most of the attention this week has focused on California. Skip to the end if you want to read about that (or go straight to our live updates) but first, heres what you need to know about the other seven states in play.New JerseyDemocrats think their path to retaking the House runs through the suburbs, and New Jersey is full of them. Five of its 12 seats are held by Republicans, and remarkably, Democrats have a shot at all five even a couple districts that havent elected a Democrat since Jimmy Carter was president. You can read more about the campaigns here.One of the most interesting primaries is in South Jersey, in the Second District, where Representative Frank LoBiondo is retiring. The effort to flip his seat has become a microcosm of a national battle: Jeff Van Drew, a conservative Democrat, says only someone like him can win the general election in a right-leaning district, while Tanzie Youngblood, his progressive challenger, is doubling down on the partys liberal base.Another race to watch is the Republican Senate primary. If Bob Hugin, the former chief executive of a biotech company, wins as expected, he could set up a competitive race against Senator Robert Menendez. A Democrat who would ordinarily be a shoo-in for re-election, Mr. Menendez was admonished in April by the Senate Ethics Committee for accepting gifts.Go here for results from New Jersey on Tuesday night.AlabamaImageCredit...Brynn Anderson/Associated PressIn a deep-red state like Alabama, general elections tend to be afterthoughts: Except in extraordinary circumstances, Republican primaries are where the winners are chosen. That appears to be the case this year as well, as Republican Gov. Kay Ivey seeks a full term after replacing Robert Bentley in 2017.[Heres why Tuesdays primaries are a big deal for women.]Polls show Ms. Ivey comfortably ahead, but its not clear whether she can break the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff in July. Her opponents Mayor Tommy Battle of Huntsville, State Senator Bill Hightower and Scott Dawson, an evangelical preacher have seized on her refusal to participate in debates, accusing her of taking voters support for granted.Go here for results from Alabama on Tuesday night.IowaDemocrats would love to retake the governorship from the Republican Kim Reynolds, but they hit a snag in May when State Senator Nate Boulton dropped out of the race in response to sexual misconduct allegations. Fred Hubbell is the front-runner in the primary now, but early votes cast for Mr. Boulton could keep Mr. Hubbell below the 35 percent threshold he needs to avoid a nominating convention a time- and resource-consuming step the party doesnt want.And keep an eye on the First and Third Districts, where Republican incumbents may be vulnerable. Four Democrats, led by State Representative Abby Finkenauer, are running in the First District to challenge Representative Rod Blum, a Trump-supporting Tea Party Republican and member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. And in the Third District, three Democrats including Pete DAlessandro, who led Bernie Sanderss 2016 caucus campaign in Iowa want to face Representative David Young. Here, too, there is a risk that no one will meet the threshold to avoid a nominating convention.Go here for results from Iowa on Tuesday night.MississippiImageCredit...Erin Schaff for The New York TimesThe Republican Senate primary here is a rare race that was expected to be brutally competitive but ended up not being competitive at all.Senator Roger Wicker expected a tough primary challenge from Chris McDaniel, a conservative firebrand who almost unseated Senator Thad Cochran in 2014. But when Mr. Cochran stepped down this spring, Mr. McDaniel decided to run for his seat instead. That election will be held in November, and Mr. Wickers field is clear of any serious competitors. Move along theres nothing to see here. Really.Go here for results from Mississippi on Tuesday night.MontanaWatch the Republican primary here closely. It could determine who controls the Senate.With two terms under his belt, Senator Jon Tester has proved himself capable of winning in a red state. Still, Montana voted for President Trump by 20 points, which makes Mr. Tester one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the country. Matt Rosendale, the state auditor, seems to be the front-runner over Troy Downing, an Air Force veteran and entrepreneur; Russ Fagg, a former state district judge; and State Senator Al Olszewski.Democrats also want Montanas House seat, held by Greg Gianforte, a Republican known for assaulting a reporter last year. He has raised more money than all his Democratic challengers combined.Go here for results from Montana on Tuesday night.New MexicoThe Second District, which covers most of the southern half of the state, is the only one of New Mexicos three thats represented by a Republican, and Democrats want to complete their set with Xochitl Torres Small, a lawyer supported by Emilys List and the state party, or the Coast Guard veteran Madeline Hildebrandt. Representative Steve Pearce, a House Freedom Caucus member, is giving up the seat to run for governor, and four Republicans led by State Representative Yvette Herrell, whom the New Mexico Republican Party endorsed over its former chairman Monty Newman are vying for that nomination.In the Senate, Martin Heinrich, a first-term Democrat, is up for re-election. But hes a safe bet in November, and both he and his Republican challenger, Mick Rich, are running unopposed in their primaries.Go here for results from New Mexico on Tuesday night.South DakotaImageCredit...J. Scott Applewhite/Associated PressGov. Dennis Daugaard cant run for re-election because of term limits, and the Republican primary will almost certainly determine his replacement. The race couldnt be much closer: A Mason-Dixon poll in May showed a single percentage point separating the state attorney general, Marty Jackley, and Representative Kristi Noem, who would be the first woman to govern South Dakota.Voters will also, in all likelihood, choose Ms. Noems replacement on Tuesday. The Republican candidates are Shantel Krebs, the secretary of state; Dusty Johnson, a former public utilities commissioner and former chief of staff to Mr. Daugaard; and State Senator Neal Tapio, who drew attention last week for suggesting that the state dismantle the Native American reservation system.Go here for results from South Dakota on Tuesday night.CaliforniaWe have a whole separate guide for what to expect from California. Here are the main takeaways: Former mayors of San Francisco and Los Angeles are battling for the governorship. Democrats hope to flip seven House seats. Among the many candidates is a volcanologist. National Democrats biggest fear is that Californias primary system, in which the top two finishers advance regardless of party, will shut them out of the general election in key districts. Heres how the system works.Go here for results from California on Tuesday night. | Politics |
Credit...Shawn Thew/EPA, via ShutterstockJune 8, 2018WASHINGTON After months of oblique references to an unnamed Russian associate of Paul Manafort, President Trumps former campaign chairman, the special counsel identified the associate on Friday and charged both men with obstruction of justice.The associate, Konstantin V. Kilimnik, is a Russian Army-trained linguist prosecutors have accused of having ties to Russian intelligence.The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has not publicly sought to connect Mr. Kilimnik or Mr. Manafort to Russian meddling in the 2016 election, but Fridays indictment of Mr. Kilimnik could carry symbolic significance nonetheless.The charges are the first in Mr. Manaforts case against someone accused of having ties to Russian intelligence. And they come as Mr. Manaforts lawyers and Mr. Trump and his allies are arguing that Mr. Mueller has ventured beyond his remit of investigating Russian election interference.Mr. Kilimnik, 48, served as Mr. Manaforts right-hand man in Ukraine for more than a decade, working on behalf of the countrys Russia-aligned former president, Viktor F. Yanukovych, his party and its wealthy supporters.Starting in 2005 as a translator for Mr. Manafort, who spoke neither Russian nor Ukrainian, Mr. Kilimnik assumed progressively more responsibility in Mr. Manaforts business, eventually becoming the director of its Kiev operation. He also played an integral role in the creation and execution of a global lobbying and public relations campaign intended to defend Mr. Yanukovych against mounting international criticism for corruption, abuse of power and pivoting toward Russia.The special counsel claims that the work yielded tens of millions of dollars in payments to Mr. Manafort, on which he avoided paying taxes through a scheme using offshore accounts. He is free on a $10 million bond while awaiting trial on charges of violating financial, tax and federal lobbying disclosure laws. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges.On Friday, the special counsels team added to the list of charges Mr. Manafort faces, accusing him and Mr. Kilimnik of obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice for trying to coach witnesses from whom the special counsel has sought information about the Ukraine lobbying work.Mr. Kilimnik may never stand trial on the charges. He is a Russian citizen who associates say has been living in his home country, which has given little indication it intends to extradite 13 Russians charged by Mr. Mueller in February with meddling in the election to help Mr. Trump.Mr. Muellers team had referenced Mr. Kilimnik in previous court filings, though not by name, as well as his close connection to Mr. Manafort and the claim that he has ties to a Russian intelligence service.Mr. Kilimnik was formally investigated in Ukraine in 2016 on suspicion of ties to Russian spy agencies, but no charges were filed, according to Ukrainian government documents.And in an interview last year with The New York Times, Mr. Kilimnik vehemently denied having ties to Russian intelligence, and characterized himself as a random casualty because of my proximity to Paul, referring to Mr. Manafort.Mr. Manafort remained in contact with Mr. Kilimnik throughout the presidential campaign, when Mr. Kilimnik traveled to the United States to meet with Mr. Manafort. The men also traded emails in which they appeared to discuss ways to use Mr. Manaforts position on the campaign for financial gain.VideotranscripttranscriptPaul Manaforts Trail of ScandalsPresident Trumps former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has now been accused by the special counsel of violating his plea deal by repeatedly lying to federal prosecutors. But this wasnt Mr. Manaforts first scandal.Paul Manafort was once President Trumps campaign manager. By the fall of 2018, he was expected to face at least a decade in prison for 10 felony counts. Those counts included financial fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Mr. Manafort is disappointed of not getting acquittals all the way through. He is evaluating all of his options at this point. In the hopes of getting a more lenient punishment, Manafort agreed to fully cooperate with the special counsel, Robert Mueller. Now, federal prosecutors are saying he violated his plea deal by repeatedly lying during their investigation. Manaforts lawyer also allegedly passed information to President Trumps legal team. But this isnt Manaforts first scandal. Controversy has trailed the veteran Republican adviser since his earliest work as an international lobbyist and consultant. In the 1980s, Manafort testified before Congress and admitted to using his political influence to win millions of dollars in contracts from federal low-income housing programs. The technical term for what we do and what law firms, associations and professional groups do is lobbying. For purposes of today, I will admit that in a narrow sense some people might term it influence peddling. That same decade, Manafort advised the Philippine dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, on improving his image in the U.S. Manafort allegedly received $10 million in cash from a Marcos confidante. It was apparently money intended for Ronald Reagans presidential campaign. But the campaign said it never received that money. Foreign contributions to U.S. presidential elections are illegal. Also in the 1980s, Manafort was linked to the prime minister of the Bahamas at a time when the island nation had alleged ties to drug traffickers. Manaforts company said that the goal of its work was to help the Bahamas obtain more U.S. aid to help curb the drug smuggling. Decades later, Manafort would run Trumps presidential campaign. We want America to understand who Donald Trump the man is. Not just Donald Trump the candidate. The composite of his career. Not just from a business standpoint or a political standpoint, from a human standpoint as well. But he resigned five months into the job in August 2016, in the wake of reports that he received more than $12 million from Viktor Yanukovich, the former Ukrainian president and pro-Russia politician. Yanukovich and his political party relied on advice from Manafort and his firm, which helped them win several elections. The Times uncovered that Manafort and others close to Trump met with the Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer in June 2016. That lawyer claimed to have damaging political information about Hillary Clinton. As for this latest brush with controversy, Manaforts lawyers insist that their client has been truthful. But they acknowledge that Manafort and Muellers team are at an impasse.President Trumps former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has now been accused by the special counsel of violating his plea deal by repeatedly lying to federal prosecutors. But this wasnt Mr. Manaforts first scandal.CreditCredit...Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesEven after Mr. Manafort was first indicted by the special counsel in October 2017, he continued communicating with Mr. Kilimnik, working with him on an op-ed defending Mr. Manaforts work in Ukraine. The special counsel argued that the op-ed flouted a judges admonition against trying to use the news media to influence the case.And court filings by the special counsel this week accused Mr. Manafort and Mr. Kilimnik of teaming up again starting in February to try to persuade two former associates to lie about the scope of a project on which they worked with Mr. Manafort and Mr. Kilimnik.The project, which they referred to as the Hapsburg Group, ran from 2011 through 2014, and was funded with $2.4 million steered by Mr. Manafort from overseas bank accounts, according to prosecutors. It sought to recruit European politicians, such as Romano Prodi, the former prime minister of Italy and the former president of the European Commission, to vouch for Mr. Yanukovych in commentaries and meetings with government officials around the world.The two former associates, for instance, helped arrange for Mr. Prodi to visit Washington in March 2013 to meet with key members of Congress, and they helped him draft and place an Op-Ed in The Times in February 2014, according to prosecutors. Mr. Prodi has repeatedly said he was not aware of the involvement of Mr. Manafort or the existence of the Hapsburg Group.But prosecutors say that Mr. Manafort and Mr. Kilimnik reached out to the two former associates to urge them to tell the special counsels team that the Hapsburg Groups efforts consisted only of outreach in Europe and not in the United States.The question of the geographic target of the Hapsburg Groups activities is significant because any lobbying or public relations in the United States on behalf of foreign politicians, governments or companies would require disclosure with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.Mr. Manafort did not initially register under the act, and he is charged with lying to the Justice Department about his activities.Instead of engaging with Mr. Manafort or Mr. Kilimnik to coordinate their stories about the Hapsburg Groups work, the two former associates turned on their former colleagues. The associates who are not named by the special counsel, but whom three people familiar with the project identified as Alan Friedman and Eckart Sager informed the special counsel of the outreach, leading to allegations of witness tampering and Fridays obstruction charges.In a court filing on Friday night, Mr. Manaforts lawyers called the accusation of witness tampering very specious, and said it was a not-too-subtle attempt to poison the potential jury pool against Mr. Manafort. They argued that Mr. Manafort could not set out to tamper with witnesses because he is not aware of who the special counsel may call as witnesses.Mr. Manaforts allies said they had urged him to stop communicating with Mr. Kilimnik, who is known to associates as K.K., because they fear that his communications are being monitored and that he is neither discreet, nor tactful.K.K. is one of the best interpreter and translators, said Philip M. Griffin, a onetime employee of Mr. Manaforts in Ukraine who hired Mr. Kilimnik in 1995 to work in the Moscow office of the International Republican Institute, a nonprofit based in Washington. On everything else, he is a dumbass.Mr. Kilimnik did not respond to an email seeking comment. He had told associates in recent months that he was working with Sam Patten, a former official in the International Republican Institutes Moscow office, on business in Kazakhstan.Mr. Patten did not respond to a question about the work. He said that he did not believe that Mr. Kilimnik was working with a lawyer in relation to the special counsels investigation.Lobbying records filed last year by Mr. Manaforts firm show that it paid $531,000 to Mr. Kilimnik in 2013 and 2014 for professional services and overhead for running the Kiev operation, but that covers only a fraction of the time that he worked for Mr. Manafort.The men continued to work together for a successor party to Mr. Yanukovychs after he fled Ukraine in February 2014 amid protests of his governments corruption and pivot toward Moscow, eventually arriving in Russia and effectively ending his presidency. | Politics |
Business|Uber Is Said to Be Shaking Up Policy and Communications Teamhttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/12/business/uber-is-said-to-be-shaking-up-policy-and-communications-team.htmlCredit...Eric Risberg/Associated PressDec. 11, 2015Uber is cutting about 20 jobs in its policy and communications department, a move that insiders describe as an overhaul of those teams.The first wave of cuts, according to four people briefed on the matter, was about three weeks ago, the result of a series of changes. Another round of cuts began on Friday, said these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they had signed nondisclosure agreements with Uber.The cuts will largely affect those who work inside Ubers headquarters in San Francisco.Ubers policy and communications team has been in flux over the last six months. Last year, Uber hired David Plouffe, a senior policy adviser to President Obama, as its senior vice president for policy and strategy. Nine months later, Mr. Plouffes role was shifted to senior adviser to the company and Travis Kalanick, Ubers chief executive. Mr. Plouffe was given a board seat.At that point came a change in hiring. Uber brought in Rachel Whetstone, a top Google policy and communications executive, to lead Ubers overall policy and communications. Ms. Whetstone hired Jill Hazelbaker, an executive at Snapchat and a former colleague of Ms. Whetstone at Google, where Ms. Hazelbaker also ran policy and communications teams.It appears, insiders say, that the company is consolidating its communications and policy operation under its new leadership from Google.Uber declined to comment. Business Insider earlier reported on the layoffs.The cuts are in sharp contrast to Ubers yearlong talent raid on Silicon Valley, as it brought in engineers and product managers from companies like Google, Twitter and Yelp. The companys valuation has swelled along the way; investors pegged Ubers value at $62.5 billion in its last round of venture financing, making it the most valuable private technology company.People with knowledge of the matter, however, do not describe the layoffs as widespread. They are a result of a shift in the communications and policy strategy that came with the arrival of new executives.It is unclear how the reorganization will affect Ubers broader strategy in dealing with regulators.The company is fighting battles with local officials in cities across the world, a result of the companys hard-charging playbook. It has teams in dozens of major global cities, including New York, Paris and Berlin. | Business |
The Cheops orbiter will give a closer examination to stars already known to host exoplanets.Credit...M. Pedoussaut/E.S.A.Dec. 18, 2019The European Space Agency is continuing the search for new Earths this week with the launch of Cheops, a new telescope whose name stands for CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite.Cheops will take exoplanet science to a whole new level, said Gnther Hasinger, the agencys director of science.The spacecraft launched early on Wednesday morning aboard a Soyuz-Fregat rocket from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. It was the second try after Tuesdays first launch attempt was delayed and some equipment was replaced. The satellite was lofted toward an unusual pole-to-pole orbit about 500 miles above Earth. The Hubble Space Telescope, by comparison, orbits about 350 miles above the surface, moving from west to east. In a clever bit of celestial engineering, Cheops will circle Earth just along the terminator, the division between day and night down below, with its camera permanently pointed away from the sun, toward the dark.Is Cheops different from other exoplanet hunters?Thousands of exoplanets planets orbiting other stars have been discovered in the last three decades by ground-based astronomers like Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, of the University of Geneva, who were awarded the Nobel Prize this year, and by planet-hunting satellites like NASAs Kepler and TESS, as well as E.S.A.s Corot. Dr. Queloz was in attendance at the launch.Rather than look for more planets, Cheops will study some that have already been discovered in order to understand them better.What will the Cheops mission try to accomplish?Many of the exoplanets already spotted by astronomers were discovered by observing the gravitational tug or wobble that they exert on their home stars as they go around. This method allows astronomers to calculate the masses of the planets, but nothing else about their nature or composition. Cheops will make precise measurements of the sizes of these planets by observing small dips in the brightness of their home stars as the planets pass in front of them the so-called blink method. Along with the wobble, this data will allow astronomers to calculate the densities of these planets and determine whether they are rocky, like Earth, or fluffy, like gas clouds.Cheops will help us reveal the mysteries of these fascinating worlds, and take us one step closer to answering one of the most profound questions we humans ponder: are we alone in the Universe? said Kate Isaak, the missions project scientist.ImageCredit...M. Pedoussaut/ESAWhich stars are Cheopss primary targets?The goal is to find habitable planets. That means Cheops will focus on stars with exoplanets that range between Earths mass and Neptunes.Not all of those systems will be aligned so that the planets actually cross in front of their stars and produce a transit blip. But at least a dozen should meet this criterion, yielding information on the dividing line between so-called super-Earths rocky planets that are much larger than ours and worlds with large envelopes of gas, referred to as mini-Neptunes. A new program looking for exoplanet transits with telescopes on Earth should also provide additional targets that will use Cheops to make precise follow-up observations.ImageCredit...NASA/Ames/JPL-CaltechCan we search for exoplanets from Earth?The first known exoplanets were in fact discovered from Earth by the team of Dr. Mayor and Dr. Queloz, using the wobble method. And while spacecraft like Kepler and TESS make giant contributions to the search for distant worlds, ground-based observations continue to play an important role in following up on old discoveries and making new ones. That work goes on, providing more fodder for Cheops and its successors. In Chile, special spectroscopes named HARPS and ESPRESSO were built to detect stellar wobbles around distant stars. And the Automated Planet Finder at the Lick Observatory in California performs similar work.At the same time, the stellar blink method is used by ground-based telescopes such as the Next Generation Transit Survey, at Paranal Observatory in Chile.What major space telescope missions are planned in the near future?NASAs James Webb Space Telescope, designed to record infrared radiation from the universes earliest days and heat from exoplanets, is on track after many mishaps, the space agency says, for a launch on March 30, 2021. Another mission, the Wide-Field Infrared Space Telescope (WFIRST), designed to investigate dark energy and prospect for distant exoplanets, continues to survive the political vicissitudes of NASAs budget process. It would launch in the mid-2020s. The European Space Agencys Euclid, which has the same mission as NASAs WFIRST, is scheduled to be launched in 2022. | science |
Jen Selter Kicked Off American Airlines Flight ... After Heated Argument 1/28/2018 Fitness model Jen Selter was booted from an American Airlines flight Saturday night after she and her sister got in a heated argument with a flight attendant and pilot. Jen and her sister got on the plane in Miami which was bound for LaGuardia, but it was delayed for an hour and a half due to mechanical issues. Jen was seated when another passenger went to the bathroom and she decided to stand up and pull something from the overhead. The flight attendant told her to sit down, and that's when the argument erupted. At one point the flight attended asked Jen if she wanted to get removed from the plane and she responded, "Yes." She later said she was just being sarcastic. The flight attendant called for the pilot, but the argument got more intense. Although you don't hear it in the video, a passenger called the crew "racist," adding, "We are living in Trump's America." That about did it ... cops came on the plane and removed Jen, her sister and the other passenger. Jen and her sister were the only ones removed by AA. Jen and her sister took an AA flight Sunday AM to NYC. | Entertainment |
Credit...James Hill for The New York TimesFeb. 8, 2014SOCHI, Russia Womens ice hockey is the snow leopard of the Sochi Games, its survival in the Olympics endangered by the success of the United States and Canada, which have dominated the sport since its Olympic debut in 1998.In the past four Winter Games, only Sweden, in 2006, has been able to break the North American stranglehold on the top two podium spots. Finland, ranked third in the world, entered the Sochi Games confident it had closed the gap after pulling off an upset against the Americans in November at the Four Nations Cup in Lake Placid, N.Y.Finland fell back on Saturday. It was only a preliminary game, but its 3-1 defeat to a resurgent United States team at Shayba Arena was worrisome. The Finns were outshot, 15-3, in the first period and 43-15 over all and did not score until the final minutes.The top two teams, the Americans and the defending champion Canada, are so strong that their fans have cause to wonder if they are rooting for them at the sports peril. Hilary Knight, a forward whose unassisted goal off a turnover in the opening minute set the tone for the game, said she took it as a backhanded compliment when she heard people say, Yeah, we dont want you to be one of the top two teams.After Canadas scorched-ice run to victory in 2010, which included an 18-0 rout of Slovakia, Jacques Rogge, then the president of the International Olympic Committee, said ominously, We cannot continue without improvement.Since then, the International Ice Hockey Federation has introduced coaching symposiums and summer camps in which North American players work with women from other countries, including Japan, which is competing here.The federation also modified the Olympic format, grouping the top four teams in the same division, with all guaranteed a spot in the medal round. The idea was for teams in both groups to find their level of competition in the preliminary rounds rather than finding themselves on either end of lopsided scores.The modified format is like giving a flashlight to a hotel guest during a blackout. It is a short-term fix that cannot hide the larger problem. At the Four Nations Cup, the Americans outshot the Finns by 59-16 but lost because Noora Raty delivered a performance in goal that she described this week as one of those games that you probably only get once in your lifetime.Raty, who led the University of Minnesota to back-to-back N.C.A.A. titles, said after practice on Thursday: I kind of wish that game had happened here, but you never know. It could happen again.Cheerleaders waited to enter the stands for a womens hockey game between the United States and Finland. The United States won, 3-1.Credit...James Hill for The New York TimesSlide 1 of 15 Cheerleaders waited to enter the stands for a womens hockey game between the United States and Finland. The United States won, 3-1.Credit...James Hill for The New York TimesShe was quickly disabused of that dream by Knight, who scored on the Americans first shot. In the 10th minute, the Finns Riikka Valila had her teams best scoring chance, but goaltender Jessie Vetter stopped her shot from close range.Kelli Stack and Alex Carpenter collected the other goals for the United States, both in the second period. It has been an eventful week for Stack, who was sitting with a few teammates in a lounge in the athletes village on Wednesday when President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia stopped by.He came over and said hi to us and shook our hands and smiled, Stack said, adding, He asked us what sport we were in, and we said ice hockey and his eyes lit up.Putin, a recreational player, was an enthusiastic backer of Russias Kontinental league, formed in 2008 to compete with the N.H.L. for the worlds top talent. Russia also has an 11-team womens pro league, which works well for expanding the game domestically but which has limited international efficacy.What the women need, said Raty, 24, are sponsors to invest in a North American-based professional league that pays its players a living wage.I might be done playing if I cant play pros, Raty said.She added: I wish thered be a womens pro league, because thats the next thing our sport needs. I feel like our sport cant grow without a pro league. The only one we have is in Russia, and not many players actually want to go there.For post-collegians, there is the Canadian Womens Hockey League, but what the players earn is not enough to make ends meet without a part-time job or financial assistance from their parents, U.S.A. Hockey or sponsors.At the end of the day we absolutely love what we do, said Julie Chu, 31, who plays for the leagues team in Montreal. So we can make some sacrifices. Some days we have to get some financial support from our parents, which is hard when youre in your late 20s or early 30s.The womens conundrum is that for the game to increase its profile it needs an infusion of money, but to get that money the game has to increase its profile.To get on TV and have more TV opportunities would help us sustain our game better, Knight said, adding, We dont necessarily drop the gloves as the men do and we cant open-ice hit somebody, but our game is more dynamic and its more of a finesse game and I think thats special. | Sports |
Tech FixIn a free service, bots call restaurants and make reservations. The technology is impressive, except for when the caller is actually a person.Credit...Glenn HarveyMay 22, 2019ALBANY, Calif. On a recent afternoon at the Lao Thai Kitchen restaurant, the telephone rang and the caller ID read Google Assistant. Jimmy Tran, a waiter, answered the phone. The caller was a man with an Irish accent hoping to book a dinner reservation for two on the weekend.This was no ordinary booking. It came through Google Duplex, a free service that uses artificial intelligence to call restaurants and mimicking a human voice speak on our behalf to book a table. The feature, which had a limited release about a year ago, recently became available to a larger number of Android devices and iPhones.The voice of the Irish man sounded eerily human. When asked whether he was a robot, the caller immediately replied, No, Im not a robot, and laughed.This is how the call went:Google Assistants Call With Lao Thai KitchenIt sounded very real, Mr. Tran said in an interview after hanging up the call with Google. It was perfectly human.Google later confirmed, to our disappointment, that the caller had been telling the truth: He was a person working in a call center. The company said that about 25 percent of calls placed through Duplex started with a human, and that about 15 percent of those that began with an automated system had a human intervene at some point.We tested Duplex for several days, calling more than a dozen restaurants, and our tests showed a heavy reliance on humans. Among our four successful bookings with Duplex, three were done by people. But when calls were actually placed by Googles artificially intelligent assistant, the bot sounded very much like a real person and was even able to respond to nuanced questions.In other words, Duplex, which Google first showed off last year as a technological marvel using A.I., is still largely operated by humans. While A.I. services like Googles are meant to help us, their part-machine, part-human approach could contribute to a mounting problem: the struggle to decipher the real from the fake, from bogus reviews and online disinformation to bots posing as people. Here are the results of our experiment.Googles A.I. is eerily human, when it worksTo test Google Duplex, we used a pair of Googles Pixel smartphones, which include the companys virtual assistant by default. (Apples iPhone users can try Duplex by downloading the free Google Assistant app.) At the bottom of the screen, we pressed a button to summon the Google assistant and then said, Book me a dinner reservation.Googles assistant then loaded a list of nearby restaurants. For the restaurants that took reservations only over the phone, Google offered to step in and place the call with Duplex.We tried using Duplex more than a dozen times. Several restaurants, like Henrys Hunan in San Francisco and China Village in Albany, Calif., rejected our requests for a table of two to four people because they took reservations only for tables of 10 people or more.Eventually, we secured four reservations in Albany: two separate reservations at Nomad Tibetan restaurant, one booking at Lao Thai Kitchen and one reservation at Bowld Korean Rice Bar. We witnessed or reviewed each of the phone calls, and the restaurants were made aware that we were testing Duplex before they picked up the phone.Only the reservation at Bowld, which we witnessed at the restaurant, was made entirely with Googles A.I. service. The bot introduced itself as Googles automated booking service, followed by a request to book a table for Tuesday the 21st.The call demonstrated the ability of Googles A.I. operator to insert pauses and ums to mimic a human in effect making the interaction feel more lifelike and less scripted. Hear for yourself:Google Assistants Call With Bowld Korean Rice BarAt several moments during the call, the restaurants manager, Jin Park, acted confused and asked the caller to state the party size and reservation date. The bot patiently answered the questions again and again. Then, Mr. Park threw a curveball: Are there any kids?The Google bot was quick to improvise: Im actually booking on behalf of a client, so Im not too sure, he said.Everything was perfect, Mr. Park said in an interview after conversing with the Google bot. Its like a real person talking.Mr. Park added that he was especially impressed with how the bot handled his question about whether there were children in the party.But our experience with the other bookings was less impressive as they were all handled by humans. Google said that Duplex was sometimes relying on people in part because it was taking a conservative approach to be respectful toward businesses. Google will have a human involved in the call in a number of situations, like if the company is unsure of whether the business takes reservations, or if the user of the assistant might be a spammer.Valerie Nygaard, a product manager working on Duplex, said that for our reservation at the Tibetan restaurant, the company might have had a person place the call because it lacked signals indicating the restaurant took reservations.The next day, however, we tested Duplex at the same Tibetan restaurant, and it again used a human caller despite our earlier, successful booking. So Duplex doesnt appear to learn quickly. Duplex needs lots of data to improveIn recent years, the development of A.I. has accelerated thanks to what are called neural networks, complex mathematical systems that can learn tasks by analyzing vast amounts of data. By analyzing thousands of dog photos, for instance, a neural network can learn to recognize a dog.This technology has significantly improved a machines ability to recognize spoken words, understand how these words are used and even generate speech on its own. With Duplex, Google is combining these various tasks into a single system. It works because Google has focused on a small domain: restaurant reservations.Building this kind of system requires large amounts of data, and Google may be using human callers to generate data that can help train future versions of the system.Nick Fox, the Google executive overseeing its assistant, said the company was not aggressively trying to eliminate human involvement from Duplex, because that could make the experience for business owners worse. Instead, he said, Google was trying to improve the automated system over time and slowly decrease the need for humans to intervene.Not so smart after allIn an era of tech companies trumpeting the arrival of artificial intelligence, todays technology is not quite as intelligent as it might seem. Mark Zuckerberg promises that A.I. can identify and remove toxic content from Facebook, but his company still employs thousands of humans to do the job. When Amazon boasts of all the robots in its distribution centers, blue-collar workers are sorting through all the stuff moving through those giant warehouses.Duplex is proficient at making a restaurant reservation over the phone, but much like Facebook, Google still leans on human intelligence. At any given moment, it is lifelike. But it struggles to deal with the unexpected.There are three things that are important when it comes to A.I.s interactions with humans: context, context and context, said Jerry Kaplan, author of Humans Need Not Apply: A Guide to Wealth and Work in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and a Stanford University lecturer on artificial intelligence. Machines are very good with detail but terrible at context, he said.The general public doesnt always see that bigger picture, partly because of the way companies market their technology. When Google first unveiled Duplex last year, it demonstrated making phone calls to a hair salon and a restaurant handled with artificial intelligence, without a mention of human intervention. The message was all about the power of the technology.This is like the footnotes in the TV ad, Mr. Kaplan said. The footnotes contradict the marketing message.At the same time, the technologies that underpin services like Google Duplex are improving at a remarkable rate. In time, it will become harder and harder to understand what is automated and what is human.But we need to think long and hard about how this technology should be used and how it shouldnt. Sorting through all the questions is difficult enough. It gets even harder if we dont have a clear understanding of what the technology can do. | Tech |
SinosphereCredit...Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesMarch 2, 2017BEIJING China has at least 10 White Houses, four Arcs de Triomphe, a couple of Great Sphinxes and at least one Eiffel Tower.Now a version of Londons Tower Bridge in the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou has rekindled a debate over Chinas rush to copy foreign landmarks, as the country rethinks decades of urban experimentation that has produced an extraordinary number of knockoffs of world-renowned structures.This week, photographs of the bridge were posted online by various news outlets. One headline proclaimed: Suzhous Amazing London Tower Bridge: Even More Magnificent Than the Real One.Indeed. Suzhous urban planners had clearly stepped up their game. The bridge, completed in 2012, has four towers compared with the two spanning the Thames in London making room for a multilane road.ImageCredit...Johannes Eisele/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesCars and pedestrians crowd the bridge and its observation platforms. At night, the towers are bathed in blue and yellow light. Not surprisingly, it has also attracted couples eager for a European sheen to their wedding photographs.Suzhou, in the eastern province of Jiangsu, is probably most famous for its ancient gardens and tranquil waterside views. Often called the Venice of the East, it features some of Chinas most exquisite traditional architecture, with whitewashed courtyard houses and meandering walkways above lotus-carpeted ponds. (The Astor Chinese Garden Court at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York was modeled after a house in Suzhou.)Nevertheless, Suzhou, too, has joined the scramble of Chinese cities in recent years to erect clones of famous foreign structures, partly as publicity stunts and partly to attract business.Not everyone approves. Online comments about the Suzhou bridge have been scathing.Piracy! wrote one.Embarrassing, wrote another.Li Yingwu, president of the OAD architecture firm in Beijing, called the bridge outright plagiarism and questioned the decision to build it in a city with its own rich architectural heritage.I was really surprised that it got built in Suzhou, because it has preserved its culture really well, Mr. Li said in an interview. It shows that local officials lack confidence in their own culture. They dont understand that architecture essentially is about culture. Its not merely an object.A commentary on Monday on JSChina.com.cn, a news site of the Jiangsu provincial government, read, We dont have any reason to give a thumbs-up to the replicated iconic building, and all Chinese architects need to reflect on this.The copy, it said, would impede the promotion of traditional Chinese culture.According to Cheng Taining, an architect at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, many officials see foreign designs as shortcuts to achieving a look of modernity and worldliness.ImageCredit...Imaginechina, via Associated PressChinese officials like foreign things theyve seen, Mr. Cheng told Beijing News in 2015. They will tell you Please design a building that looks like that building overseas. Thats obvious in the numerous cloned buildings in China. Officials believe building a White House or a European-style street confers status.Its unclear why the Suzhou bridge, which has been in place for years, has suddenly attracted a burst of attention. But the criticism it has been receiving is in line with President Xi Jinpings calls for a greater emphasis on Chinas cultural legacy.In a speech in 2014, Mr. Xi called for a halt to weird buildings, an appeal echoed last year when the State Council, Chinas cabinet, denounced urban architecture that was oversize, eccentric, weird in favor of buildings that are appropriate, economical, green and pleasing to the eye.In December, in a speech before the Association of Literature and Art and the Chinese Writers Association, Mr. Xi called on artists to consolidate confidence in Chinese culture.ImageCredit...Visual China Group, via Getty ImagesThe Suzhou bridge was commissioned by the citys Xiangcheng district government around 2008, according to an employee at the Suzhou Municipal Engineering Design Institute, which built the bridge, who answered the telephone but declined to give her name. Local officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.I think the bridge was built just to be decorative, said Zhou Qian, 36, who works at a construction company a block away from the bridge. It doesnt have a real use.The version of the Tower Bridge is just one of 56 copycat bridges in Suzhou. Others include versions of the Sydney Harbor Bridge in Australia and the Alexandre III Bridge in Paris. The Western-looking structures were reportedly part of an attempt to brand Xiangcheng district as an international trade and finance center.Certainly, the bridge has advanced some commercial endeavors. Studios specializing in wedding photographs in Suzhou have flourished.The effects in the bridge shoot will be quite good, and you dont even need to go abroad! said a woman who answered the phone at a Suzhou studio that offers Tower Bridge wedding shoots. She gave only her surname, Su.The sites popularity is reflected in local news reports about the number of traffic accidents caused by wedding shoots at the bridge.Even 95 miles away in Shanghai, a studio is offering a tour package with wedding photographs at Suzhous Tower Bridge, with a price tag of 19,999 renminbi, about $2,900. | World |
Credit...Suzi Eszterhas/Minden PicturesScience Times at 40Mountain gorillas are faring better perhaps because some humans just wont listen to reason.A 10-month-old mountain gorilla in Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda.Credit...Suzi Eszterhas/Minden PicturesNov. 19, 2018Last Thursday there was a bit of good news relating to the impending extinction and destruction of everything. The mountain gorilla, a subspecies of the Eastern gorilla, was upgraded from critically endangered to endangered. There still are only about 1,000 of them, up from a low point of a few hundred, so its not like they were declared vulnerable (better than endangered), or just fine (not a real category). And the Eastern gorilla as a species overall is still critically endangered.But the mountain gorillas are in fact doing better, according to the announcement from the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. It bases its decisions on information gathered from scientists and conservation experts. The gorillas population has been increasing for about 30 years. And it has taken a tremendous amount of struggle and work to get this far. That raises a question: If things have improved so much for an animal in such a dire situation as the mountain gorilla, should we then give in to hope?[Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.]I know this isnt the accepted way of speaking about the planet and its creatures. In public discourse, hope is the one thing you should never give up. But in our minds (well, in my mind, anyway, and I cant be the only one), the reasoning behind that often expressed sentiment is not so clear. What if a rational look at the facts points in the other direction? What if, for instance, the planet were getting warmer every year, and there was a lack of political will to try to stop the trend? What if we were in the middle of a mass extinction caused by humans? Imagine, just for a moment, that the planet had 7.7 billion people, who had already used up a lot of the space for bears and wolves and lions and oh, I dont know gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans. Suppose that all of the great apes were either endangered or critically endangered. And, just as a thought experiment, what if there were going to be 9.8 billion people in 2050 and 11.2 billion people in 2100? Imagine that the population of Africa, where all gorillas live, is one of the fastest growing, with 26 countries expected to double in size by 2050. ImageCredit...Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, via Associated PressOf course, all those things are actually true. Perhaps I am blinded by my own pessimism, but I do often wonder whether hope is a rational response to reality.On the other hand, hope does seem to have played a role in the mountain gorillas rebound. After we reduced them to a point where it seemed they would go extinct by the year 2000, some humans worked incredibly hard to protect them. And the gorillas survived, even through the very dark period of the Rwandan genocide.Their success so far, according to Tara Stoinski, a scientist who has studied gorillas for more than 20 years and is the head of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, is the result of intensive work, of the gorillas charismatic appeal, of the buy-in to conservation on the part of government, and finally the result of an extremely high commitment of resources that she calls extreme conservation. The gorillas are watched over by lots of field staff 20 times the global average per square kilometer in protected areas. What makes that possible is ecotourism, which is made possible by the great charisma of gorillas. If they were legless skinks, it might be hard to work up that kind of support.But that is a quibble. What is clear is that irrational hope combined with dedication and decades of work culminated in pulling back mountain gorillas one step from the brink.So, should we give in to hope? I think that Robert Sapolsky, a Stanford professor, neuroscientist, author of many books and giver of many talks, has the answer. Hes a public science star of sorts. He may not be as well-known as Neil deGrasse Tyson, but hes doing pretty well for a (self-described) strident atheist who points out in his recent book, Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, that free will, the way we usually imagine it, is an illusion. Hes not a Pollyanna, is my point. No sugarcoating from Dr. Sapolsky.But, surprisingly, he is an eloquent admirer of certain forms of irrationality. He gave a funny, rich and convincing talk in 2009 to Stanford seniors on what separates humans from animals. I know its not brand new, but I still turn to it occasionally because its so clear and persuasive. It has more than 400,000 views online. After describing many differences between humans and animals, even our close relatives, like the mountain gorillas, Dr. Sapolsky presents what he sees as one of the most remarkable human qualities: the ability to hold on to two contradictory ideas at once and find a way forward.His main example is Sister Helen Prejean, who wrote the book Dead Man Walking, based on her work ministering to death row inmates. She said that the more unforgivable the sin, the more it must be forgiven, and the more unlovable the person, the more important it is to love him or her.That is not, Dr. Sapolsky argues, a conclusion any animal could come to. But a human can spend her life acting on that conviction. And that ability, he said, is the most irrational, magnificent thing that we are capable of as a species.ImageCredit...Christophe Courteau/NPL, via Minden PicturesIn fact, he tells the Stanford graduates-to-be that this is precisely what they need to do. He acknowledges that they have probably learned enough to realize that its impossible for any one person to make a difference in the world. But, the more clearly, absolutely, utterly, irrevocably, unchangeably clear it is that it is impossible for you to make a difference and make the world better, the more you must.Im sure this is completely obvious to people who actually do things, rather than write about them: that you dont have to give in to hope, but that you shouldnt always give in to reason, either. If you take the long view, the good news for gorillas may be a bit like a Mega Millions lottery ticket. But somebody won more than a billion dollars recently.Dr. Sapolskys concluding challenge to the well educated, well connected, savvy Stanford seniors could be taken to heart by anyone burdened by the weight and apparent rationality of their own pessimism, which may be why Ive listened to it more than once.Theres nobody out there who is in a better position to be able to sustain a contradiction like this for your entire life and use it as a moral imperative. So do it. | science |
Salt Bae Come to My New Steakhouse ... And I'll Feed You with a Knife 1/27/2018 Salt Bae is expanding his restaurant empire ... he's opened a steakhouse in the Big Apple. The social media celeb opened Nusr-Et Steakhouse in Midtown Manhattan where he did what made him famous ... sprinkling salt in dramatic fashion on grilled steaks. He interacted with customers including rapper Bryson Tiller who was tucked away in the VIP section. As a matter of fact he even sliced a piece of meat and fed Bryson from a large knife. It's Salt Bae's 9th restaurant. The reviews are .... mixed. | Entertainment |
Credit...Ahmad al-Rubaye/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesJune 1, 2018WASHINGTON United States military actions killed 499 civilians in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen last year, the Pentagon said on Friday in a report that was a month overdue.The report, which covers counterterrorism airstrikes and ground operations around the world, added that more than 450 reports of civilian casualties from 2017 remained to be assessed, which means that the number of acknowledged deaths could increase. It also said that 169 civilians were injured in American strikes.The report does not list any civilian casualties in Somalia, where nongovernmental organizations and local officials have pinned scores of civilian deaths on American or American-backed military actions.The Defense Department has no credible reports of civilian casualties resulting from U.S. strikes in Somalia in 2017, the report said. One 2017 report of civilian casualties in Somalia remains under investigation.The report also said there were no credible claims of civilian casualties in Libya.Such discrepancies are not exclusive to the Trump administration. During both Barack Obamas and George W. Bushs presidencies, accounts of strikes from American and nongovernmental organization sources were so at odds that they often seemed to be describing different events.A 2016 executive order signed by Mr. Obama, and later enshrined by Congress, mandated that the Defense Department give an annual accounting of the number of civilians killed in American counterterrorism strikes around the world. Human rights groups criticized the Trump administration when the May 1 deadline for the first report came and went.After its release, the report was also condemned by organizations that track civilian casualties.The Defense Department has deemed that the vast majority of claims of civilian casualties are not credible without ever investigating them, Daphne Eviatar, a director with Amnesty International USA, said in an email. Its numbers therefore likely severely undercount the actual civilian death toll.She called on the government to meaningfully investigate all claims of civilian casualties and to be transparent about who is killed and harmed in U.S. military operations.In August, 10 civilians, including three children, were killed in a raid by foreign and Somali forces on a farm in southern Somalia, a deputy governor told reporters. At the time, the United States military confirmed that it had supported a counterterrorism operation in the area, and said it would look into the allegations. The report released on Friday does not mention the episode.But the deaths raised questions about growing American military involvement in Somalia after President Trump approved expanded operations, often in support of Somali forces, against the Shabab, an extremist group linked to Al Qaeda.The American-led coalition that is fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria said this week in its latest monthly report that coalition actions had resulted in 892 civilian deaths since the start of the war in 2014. But data compiled by Airwars, a nonprofit that tracks reports of civilian deaths in Iraq and Syria, showed a far higher number 6,259 since the start of the war.We acknowledge differences exist between U.S. military assessments of the number of civilian casualties and reporting from NGOs, Maj. Audricia Harris, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said in an email. She attributed the discrepancies to different reporting practices, and also said that the groups might have been misled by false claims from American adversaries.NGO reports of strikes attributed to the U.S. military, particularly their identification of civilian deaths, may be further complicated by the deliberate spread of misinformation by some actors, including terrorist organizations, Major Harris said.But several Defense Department officials acknowledged privately that the Pentagons decision not to publicly release a breakdown of numbers by country gives more fuel to critics who say the department is trying to blur the civilian death numbers.Asked why the Pentagon did not release such a breakdown, Major Harris said that the discrete numbers of casualties for each engagement that may have resulted in civilian casualties are in a classified annex to preserve operational security.The Pentagon said that it takes a number of steps to avoid civilian casualties, and to compensate families of civilians killed by American strikes. Among them, officials said, are performing rigorous intelligence assessments before a strike to determine whether the area is free of civilians and taking steps to ensure military objectives and civilians are clearly distinguished.The report asserted that although civilian casualties are a tragic and unavoidable part of war, no force in history has been more committed to limiting harm to civilians than the U.S. military. It was unclear what Defense Department officials based that assertion on. | Politics |
Sports BriefingFeb. 17, 2014The Baltimore Orioles signed the South Korean right-hander Suk-min Yoon to a three-year, $5.57 million contract; he is expected to compete for a spot in the rotation. Yoon, 27, went 73-59 with a 3.19 earned run average in nine years with the KIA Tigers in the Korean Baseball Organization. The Colorado Rockies named LaTroy Hawkins, 41, their new closer. Hawkins saved 13 games last season for the Mets. (AP) | Sports |
The Saturday ProfileCredit...Alana Paterson for The New York TimesNov. 2, 2018KELOWNA, British Columbia Ross Rebagliati, a pioneering Olympic snowboarder, keeps his gold medal hidden inside a beat-up cabinet in his modest home, next to an ashtray holding his car keys and a plastic bag of weed.I keep it there because it has brought me nothing but misfortune, said Mr. Rebagliati, with more than a hint of wistfulness. It was noon and he was enjoying a freshly rolled joint, his fourth of the day, from his comfortable living room.His gold front tooth, adorned with half a cannabis leaf, glinted as he smiled, momentarily giving him the air of a comic book villain. But Mr. Rebagliati, a soft-spoken former Canadian Olympian, appears far too gentle and too stoned to do harm in the world.Twenty years ago, when he was 26, Mr. Rebagliati came to global fame and infamy after winning a gold medal in the giant slalom at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics in Japan. But his Olympic dreams subsequently imploded after he tested positive for cannabis and was stripped of the medal.Soon, he recalled, he found himself in a Japanese jail cell, accused of importing a controlled substance. Many Canadians, still feeling the shame of the sprinter Ben Johnson losing his Olympic gold medal in 1988 in Seoul after testing positive for anabolic steroids, were aghast.Mr. Rebagliati, for his part, protested that he had not smoked pot for 10 months before the games and that the minuscule amount of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, found in his system had come from inhaling secondhand smoke at parties.In the end, he said, his title was unceremoniously returned to him after 36 hours of hell, on the grounds that cannabis was not on the list of banned substances. He took his gold medal, which he had not yet given back, out of his front pocket and held it up for the television cameras. But he did not put it back around his neck.ImageCredit...Mark Sandten/Bongarts, via Getty ImagesFor Mr. Rebagliati, the damage was irreparable. Appearing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno immediately after the Olympics, the host referred to him as nickel bag-liati, joking that unlike Clinton, you inhaled but didnt smoke. A mocking skit on Saturday Night Live ensured that his image as the poster boy for pot was seared into global popular culture.And he was never able to cash in fully on his fame. Cannabis back then was seen as being for losers and lazy stoners, he recalled. The big corporate sponsors didnt want to sponsor me. I became a source of entertainment, a joke. I went from hero to zero overnight.ImageCredit...Blake Sell/ReutersNow 47, Mr. Rebagliati lives a quiet life in Kelowna, a mountainous winemaking city in British Columbia, with his second wife, Ali, a yoga instructor, and their two young children, Rosie, 6, and Rocco, 3. He also has a son, Ryan, who is nine, with his first wife.Mr. Rebagliati is hoping that Canadas action to legalize marijuana last month will bring him closure, business opportunity and, perhaps most importantly, vindication. Emboldened by the end of the marijuana prohibition, he recently launched Legacy, a new cannabis lifestyle brand, teaming up with CRX, a cannabis health care company based in Calgary. He plans to sell items like marijuana-infused face creams, cannabis plant-growing kits and Ross Rebagliati branded skis and snowboards.I am finally reclaiming my marijuana legacy, he says, explaining the companys name.Jodie Emery, a leading Canadian cannabis activist, said that Mr. Rebagliatis attempt to join the so-called green rush that has accompanied cannabis legalization reflected the rapidly shifting attitudes toward marijuana. Those like Ross who were vilified are now finding redemption, she said.Maybe so, but the trajectory of Mr. Rebagliatis life has sometimes been as treacherous as an Olympic halfpipe run.After returning home from the Olympics to Whistler, the picturesque ski town and resort he then called home, he enjoyed his newfound celebrity for a while, even sharing a joint backstage with Keith Richards at a Rolling Stones concert in Denver. But disappointed by his gold medal having failed to deliver on its promises, he quit competitive snowboarding in 1999. Deprived of the discipline, he turned inward. He became a recluse, living in a camper by a lake.ImageCredit...Alana Paterson for The New York TimesHe bought and sold real estate, initially investing some of his snowboarding winnings, and he hoped to build a luxury hotel. But he went into debt when the property market crashed after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and he was forced to eke out a living as a builder. His first marriage ended in divorce.Things became so bad, he recalled, that he turned the number nine upside down on the address sign of his gate to keep the repo man away. There were times when I didnt have money to buy food, he said. I didnt even have two pennies to buy weed.For a one-time Olympic golden boy, it was a precipitous fall.Born in a Vancouver suburb he characterized as having big houses and progressive politics to a geologist father and an accountant mother, Mr. Rebagliati became a skiing prodigy before he was 10 and he was being groomed for the Canadian national ski team. But he discovered snowboarding at 15, around the same time he tried marijuana for the first time, and was immediately drawn to the sports baggy pants and freewheeling, iconoclastic spirit.Snowboarding, which was born in Vermont and California in the late 1970s, was slow to catch on. Mr. Rebagliati recalled that at ski areas in California, snowboarders were often banned and ski patrols would call the police to complain that riders were trespassing.When he was unable to find a snowboard in a ski shop in British Columbia while he was in high school, Mr. Rebagliati built a makeshift snowboard from plywood, cutting off the toes of his ski boots and using the inner tube of a bike as a strap to hold his feet in place. He and his friends would train by sneaking into ski resorts in the Vancouver area before ski season began and hiking up the mountains.I loved snowboarding because you had sole responsibility for your own performance, he said. It requires strength and agility when you pull out of the start gate and then gravity takes over. At the Olympics I was going 77 miles an hour. Its a rush.But when his parents discovered his plans to abandon professional skiing in favor of snowboarding, they kicked him out of the house, furious that, in their view, they had squandered so much money on his ski training.ImageCredit...Alana Paterson for The New York TimesBefore long, Mr. Rebagliati was training as a snowboarder 200 days a year, winning international competitions, and having his face splashed on the covers of snowboarding magazines.Cannabis was part of snowboardings rebel culture in the 1980s and 1990s. On his way to one World Cup competition, he recalled, he and another teammate hid their hashish in the gums of their mouths to avoid arrest near the Swiss border.The long shadow of Nagano finally proved too much in 2012, when he wanted to take his newborn daughter Rosie to visit his mother in Palm Springs, Calif., but was turned away at the Washington state border, because of his association with cannabis.I thought if I am going to be ostracized because of what happened at the Olympics, I might as well embrace it, he said.One year later, he founded Ross Gold, a cannabis company, and began selling items such as $19,000 gold-plated bongs. But the company collapsed, hampered by marijuanas illegal status.Today, Mr. Rebagliati says he is happy that marijuana is losing its stigma, even in the world of sports. Athletes love cannabis because, among other things, it improves concentration and is fat-free and calorie-free, he said.He golfs, races cars, grows prized marijuana plants in his backyard and enjoys smoking his favorite potent strain of Bruce Banner marijuana, named after the Incredible Hulk. For a while, he flirted with the idea of a career in national politics, but abandoned plans to run for Parliament. He no longer rides a snowboard, preferring to ski instead for the challenge, he says.And while his life appears to be turning around, he said the gold medal would remain in the cabinet at least for now.Perhaps if things change, I will finally frame it and put in on the wall, he said, quickly adding, I dont have plans to hang it any time soon. | World |
Credit...Angela Ponce for The New York TimesHigh in the Andes Mountains, conservators are testing traditional methods for strengthening adobe buildings. The bell tower of the church of Santiago Apstol in Kuo Tambo, Peru. Built by the Spanish in 1681, it has been weakened by earthquakes, but traditional techniques are helping with its restoration.Credit...Angela Ponce for The New York TimesNov. 3, 2018In Kuo Tambo, perched at 13,000 feet in Perus Andes Mountains, the mud-brick walls of the Church of Santiago Apstol, built by the Spanish in 1681, have weathered their fair share of earthquakes.But after more than three centuries of shaking, the church began the 21st century with eroding bricks, walls coming apart at the seams, missing buttresses and a tattered, leaking wooden roof. Murals on the interior walls were flaking off, and the free-standing bell tower across the villages central plaza had acquired a crazed, Seussian cant. The church had become too unsafe to hold regular services, a blow to this staunchly Catholic town.Kuo Tambo wasnt alone. Strong earthquakes in 2007 and 2009 killed hundreds in Peru and ravaged scores of historic adobe structures. The danger to these buildings and the people living around them has motivated conservators and architects to explore methods to keep the buildings intact. The Seismic Retrofitting Project, an initiative of the Los Angeles-based Getty Conservation Institute, is studying traditional practices for stabilizing structures in areas prone to earthquakes.We wanted to know, are these techniques effective? Is it possible to work with these techniques from an engineering standpoint? said Daniel Torrealva, one of the projects research engineers at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru in Lima. And how can these techniques be included in construction?ImageCredit...Angela Ponce for The New York TimesImageCredit...Angela Ponce for The New York TimesImageCredit...Angela Ponce for The New York TimesThrough a yearlong series of workshops in Kuo Tambo that wrapped up in August, the Getty team worked with members of the Quechua-speaking village to implement low-cost and low-tech repairs that they hope could be standardized to make adobe structures safer and more resilient. If these techniques prove effective and affordable at the Church of Santiago Apstol and a few other sites, this approach could be used to strengthen buildings all over the world.[Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.]Adobe mud bricks are one of the worlds most commonly used building materials. An estimated 30 percent of the global population from Africa to India, and even in parts of Europe resides in earthen structures.In Peru, where adobe has been used since before Incan times, millions of people live in residential stock made of earth.But many of the zones around the world where earthen architecture is prevalent also happen to be seismically active. Though sturdy, heavy and insulating, unreinforced adobe is prone to crumbling in an earthquake walls twist out of alignment, crack into large chunks, then batter themselves to dust before suddenly collapsing. And damage accumulates over time; that a building survives one earthquake is no guarantee it will make it through the next.These qualities have given adobe a bad rap. The largest number of deaths from Perus 2007 earthquake occurred in an adobe church, where the walls failed after being battered by a concrete-bolstered structure over the front doors. It collapsed onto more than 100 panicked people as they attempted to flee.That doesnt mean adobe will no longer be used, conservators say, or that existing structures shouldnt be adapted to make them safer.Many mayors said they would never build in adobe again, said Norma Barbacci, a Brooklyn-based preservation architect. But this is a material that everybodys familiar with, and its the most sustainable, weather-appropriate and ecologically appropriate material for those locations.ImageCredit...Angela Ponce for The New York TimesImageCredit...Angela Ponce for The New York TimesImageCredit...Angela Ponce for The New York TimesAt Kuo Tambo, conservators saw an opportunity to rigorously test traditional seismic retrofits and provide evidence of their effectiveness.Santiago Apstol was architecturally pristine, essentially the same as when the Spaniards built it, said Claudia Cancino, the Gettys lead on the project. This meant the buildings materials and structure could be studied without the interference of modern adaptations, making it an ideal baseline to lab-test and model the behavior of historic reinforcements. If successful, the techniques could be rapidly applied to hundreds of similar buildings in this region alone.Its very well known here in Peru that earthen construction can withstand earthquakes if they are properly built and maintained, Ms. Cancino said. But there was no science behind it, no data.To come up with a strategy for strengthening Kuo Tambos church with a mix of new reinforcements, Mr. Torrealva and a team of engineers ran over 300 small-scale physical tests of a handful of techniques used for centuries by Peruvian builders.Then, working with Paulo Loureno, an engineer at the University of Minho in Portugal, the team built a detailed virtual model of the church. They ran simulations of the building with different arrangements of reinforcements, under multiple kinds of seismic stress.ImageCredit...Angela Ponce for The New York TimesThat resulted in a plan to outfit the church with 11 new tie beams that span the buildings width, a new collar beam below the roofs circumference and three L-shaped braces called keys inserted into each corner to tie the walls together, all from regionally sourced eucalyptus wood.Along with refreshed stone foundations, new adobe bricks, three new buttresses and a new A-frame roof, some parts of the church and the bell tower were also wrapped in a nylon-like mesh and then covered with mud plaster for extra support. The mural paintings have also been the subject of their own conservation process; many churches across the region host similar artworks.As the conservation was carried out at the church over the last year, the Getty team also ran a series of intensive training workshops at Kuo Tambo to put this knowledge into the hands of the villages residents, as well as other Peruvian conservators and engineers.The entire project cost around $1.5 million, and nearly doubles the churchs seismic resilience well exceeding Perus building code standards, Mr. Torrealva said. Work at another heavily damaged building, the Cathedral of Ica, kicked off in September, and training workshops are scheduled to begin in May 2019.ImageCredit...Angela Ponce for The New York TimesImageCredit...Angela Ponce for The New York TimesImageCredit...Angela Ponce for The New York TimesAdobe construction has always been categorized as an unknown material that cannot be put into the laws of engineering, Dr. Loureno said. Here, weve shown these traditional techniques can be used extensively by architects and engineers throughout the world.Speaking through a translator by telephone, a Kuo Tambo resident, Raul Crdenas, 57, said his entire village is eager to have the church back; villagers also plan to use restoration tricks from the project to better maintain their own adobe homes. For instance, one technique involves using the gel of a local species of cactus to make mud plaster more water-resistant.And five weddings are already planned to coincide with the bishops visit to rededicate the church in early 2019.ImageCredit...Angela Ponce for The New York Times | science |
Credit...Turkish Presidential Press Service, via Associated PressNov. 13, 2018ISTANBUL President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has made his strongest personal challenge yet to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia over the killing of the dissident Jamal Khashoggi, saying he was still waiting for answers and expressing frustration with the Saudi response in comments published on Tuesday in pro-government newspapers.Speaking to Turkish reporters while traveling back from Paris, where he met with leaders from France, Germany and the United States, Mr. Erdogan said the crown price was failing to follow through on his promise to expose the truth about the disappearance and death of Mr. Khashoggi.The crown prince says, I am going to clarify the incident and do what is necessary, Mr. Erdogan said in the published remarks. The crown prince tells this to my special representatives, and we are waiting patiently.Mr. Khashoggi disappeared after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2; Turkish officials have said that he was murdered by a Saudi hit squad and his body destroyed. After several early denials, the Saudi authorities eventually admitted that Mr. Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate but have not revealed what was done with his body.It is obvious that this murder was previously planned and that the order had come from high-level authorities in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Erdogan said, according to Posta, one of the most popular daily newspapers in Turkey. We want the person who gave the order to be revealed.From the start, it has been widely believed that an operation against a high-profile dissident such as Mr. Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, could have been conducted only with the knowledge and approval of the crown prince, Saudi Arabias de facto leader.ImageCredit...Jack Taylor/Getty ImagesMr. Erdogan has vowed to expose the people who ordered the killing of Mr. Khashoggi a personal friend of Mr. Erdogan and many of his advisers as well as those who carried it out, but he has refrained from accusing anyone by name.On Friday, he reiterated his belief that he was sure that King Salman of Saudi Arabia was not in any way involved, so his comments represented a pointed signal that he holds the crown prince responsible for Mr. Khashoggis death.Through a skillful campaign of intelligence leaks to the news media, Mr. Erdogan has engineered prominent coverage of the case around the world, and he has sought to engage Western support to curb the Saudi prince, whom he sees as a personal threat.Prince Mohammed has described Turkey, along with Iran and extremist Islamist groups, as part of a triangle of evil. Mr. Erdogan has taken that comment and Saudi support for Kurdish rebels fighting the Islamic State in Syria as a direct challenge to his power.He said Turkish intelligence had shared audio recordings of the killing with foreign intelligence services that had asked to hear them, including those from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia and the United States.The tape is really terrible, Mr. Erdogan said, according to Posta. Moreover, the Saudi intelligence officer was so shocked he said, Perhaps he took heroin, only someone who took heroin can do that.Yes the man was shocked when he heard it, and this is the truth, Mr. Erdogan said according to another daily, Yeni Safak. Despite that, there are those who are seeking to manipulate the incident. When the crown prince telephoned me, he said: Can I send my chief prosecutor, and I said Of course, he is welcome to come.He arrived, he met with the Istanbul chief prosecutor. When he asked to the president, the Istanbul chief prosecutor naturally told him, I am your interlocutor, you can only meet me. Unfortunately the prosecutor who arrived is in the mood of sprinkling flour on rope, Mr. Erdogan said, using a Turkish expression that means making excuses to avoid doing a task.ImageCredit...Fayez Nureldine/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesAfter Mr. Khashoggi was assassinated, a member of the 15-person team sent to Turkey to kill him told a superior by telephone to tell your boss, believed to be Prince Mohammed, that the mission had been carried out, according to people familiar with a recording of the killing.Without specifically accusing the crown prince of orchestrating the killing and the cover-up efforts, Mr. Erdogan frequently invoked his name in expressing his frustration.All those incidents have happened, all that information, documents, etc. are there, Mr. Erdogan went on. The crown prince says, I am going to clarify the incident and do what is necessary. The crown prince tells this to my special representatives, and we are waiting patiently.Mr. Erdogan said he discussed the Khashoggi affair over the weekend during a dinner with President Trump, President Emmanuel Macron of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany. He said he was confident that the Western leaders were taking the case very seriously.I think they will place this incident in a different position as a result of information provided by their intelligence, he said, according to Hurriyet Daily. You know, the U.S. Congress demanded a briefing from the C.I.A. I think the perspectives will change after this briefing.The Saudis have taken at least 18 people into custody in connection with Mr. Khashoggis death the 15 people who are believed to have flown to Turkey for the purpose of killing him at the consulate, and three more who were detained in Saudi Arabia.Mr. Erdogan said he told Mr. Trump that there is no need to look for the killers here and there, Posta reported. The murderers are among those arrested 18.The pro-government newspaper Sabah published several X-ray scans of the suitcases of the 15-member Saudi team who left Istanbul on two planes at 6.20 p.m. and 10.46 p.m. on the day of the killing. In addition to an array of technical equipment, including walkie-talkies, tasers and jammers, they were carrying syringes, staplers and a sharp object that looked like a scalpel, the newspaper reported. | World |
Deal ProfessorDec. 15, 2015The proposed combination of Dow Chemical and DuPont shows that in todays markets, financial engineering prevails and that only activist shareholders matter. Whether that is good for the rest of us remains to be seen.The merger is certainly an impressive feat of financial engineering. It will bring together two companies: DuPont, with 54,000 employees, and Dow Chemical, with 53,000 employees. The two behemoths will merge, and then in the space of two years spit out three newly formed companies, one in agriculture, another in material sciences and a third in specialty products used in such fields as nutrition and electronics.This plan is one easily understood by a hedge fund activist or investment banker in a cubicle in Manhattan with an Excel spreadsheet. To them, it makes perfect sense to merge a company and then almost immediately split it in three. Doing so will meet the goal to define business lines with precision and, it is hoped, spur growth. Expenses can also be cut, on paper at least.The companies that the combined entity will create can cut $3 billion in expenses, but the last time I checked, three companies each require a chief executive, general counsel and many other executives, so these savings may be eaten up by new overhead.The problem, of course, is that putting together two companies and then splitting them almost immediately is no easy task. These are people and businesses being moved around and the logistics of integration alone may take years to work out.Pushing babies out into the world almost immediately seems to be asking for trouble. There will also be significant costs for the employees, suppliers and customers of all the companies involved. Whether this will create value for shareholders is up in the air, let alone whether this will create value for everyone else.DuPonts last spinoff, Chemours, a performance chemicals unit, has been a disaster, losing three-quarters of its value in less than a year after its separation.Nonetheless, it appears that the Dow Chemical chief executive, Andrew N. Liveris, initially proposed a split back into two companies, but Edward D. Breen, the chief executive of DuPont, countered with three. So it goes.Given the risks involved, one wonders why the companies would commit to this. The reason is those activist shareholders.Today, shareholder activist hedge funds roam our capital markets. They are willing to agitate vocally for change at almost any company. And in many cases the hedge funds are looking for a crystallizing event to capture more immediate value. A sale is the best option. But outside that, a spinoff has become the transaction du jour.In either case, the funds and other shareholders are for the most part not looking to do the hard work of a turnaround, but instead perform some financial engineering. Whatever an analyst with an Excel spreadsheet can do is what companies seem to be plunging headlong to mimic, paying heed to their shareholder masters.And the spinoff is the ultimate financial engineering exercise.The idea behind a spinoff is that one plus one equals three. A spinoff allows the company to be more focused and deliver more immediate value. Rather than having a company sell two product lines, management can be more transparent and focus on the line they are better at. In addition, high-growth and low-growth businesses can be separated.ImageCredit...Harry Campbell for The New York TimesThats the theory at least. In practice, studies have shown that spinoffs produce short-term gains but over the longer term may not be as successful. Moreover, spinoffs are often seen as a chance to take out the trash and jettison liabilities. Time Inc., for example, was spun off from Time Warner with substantial debt and has struggled significantly since its spinoff.Still, these splits are all the rage and there were 60 last year, according to spinoff research. Even Hewlett-Packard, the granddaddy of Silicon Valley, has split into two companies: a low-growth HP Inc. and a high-growth Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company. EBay and PayPal are now also separate. From General Electric to Yum Brands, corporate America is marching to the spinoff piper.For those who study history, it feels a lot like the go-go years back in the 1960s. Only then, companies raced to become conglomerates, under the theory that diversification was the key and that managerial talent could be brought to bear anywhere. Now, it is the opposite, and companies are being atomized. Those go-go years, by the way, ended badly.Despite the iffy empirical support and the bubbly atmosphere behind them, spinoffs persist because companies, frankly, are scared, and shareholders are much more powerful than they have ever been.Today, institutional shareholders like BlackRock, T. Rowe Price, Vanguard and a handful of other companies often hold almost a majority of a public company. And many of these institutional investors pay heed to proxy advisory services like Institutional Shareholder Services, meaning that these shareholders often vote as a group. Increasingly, institutional investors are throwing their support behind the activists.So far this year, hedge funds have won 59 percent of the proxy contests they waged, according to FactSet SharkRepellent. Now the mantra in corporate America is to settle with hedge funds before it gets to a fight over the control of a company.And companies are running scared. Much was made of DuPonts victory over Trian in a proxy contest. But now it is clear that it was a Pyrrhic victory. The chief executive of DuPont at the time, Ellen J. Kullman, is now gone.DuPont did much of what Trian wanted anyway, and now Trian, which holds only 2.9 percent of DuPont, is a cheerleader for this merger.Similarly, Dow Chemical had been a target of Daniel S. Loebs Third Point. While Mr. Loeb is supportive of the merger, he also sent a letter to the Dow Chemical board protesting the continued role of Mr. Liveris at the merged company. Mr. Liveris may have felt the need to do something to placate the activists by doing this deal, but in any event, it is now hard to see him surviving the wrath of Mr. Loeb.When historians look back at this era, they will see this deal as a turning point when corporate leaders threw up their hands and surrendered to activist shareholders.Is this a good thing?The Dow-DuPont merger may create more value, but the risks are high. In the boardrooms and cubicles, these risks appear to be acceptable, because they are just items on a spreadsheet.In real life, however, this series of complex transactions may end up harming not just shareholders but everyone else involved in the corporate enterprise.To be sure there is valuable activism out there, but perhaps it is time to take a deep breath and do some thinking about whether the spinoff craze and indeed the relationship between companies and shareholders makes sense before it ends badly, like those go-go 60s. | Business |
N.F.L.|Redskins Davis Suspendedhttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/20/sports/football/redskins-davis-suspended.htmlSports BriefingFeb. 19, 2014Washington Redskins tight end Fred Davis has been suspended indefinitely without pay for violating the N.F.L.s substance-abuse policy, the league said. Davis said the suspension resulted from taking a supplement that contained a banned substance.It is the second substance-abuse suspension for Davis, who is set to become a free agent next month. He was also suspended for the final four games of the 2011 season. Defensive back Cody Riggs, who started all 12 games for Florida last season, is transferring to Notre Dame for his final year of eligibility. Riggs, who played in 40 games over three seasons, can play immediately because he is scheduled to graduate from Florida this spring. A judge cited Alabamas stand-your-ground law in throwing out a lawsuit against Kristen Saban, the daughter of Alabama Coach Nick Saban, who was being sued by a sorority sister over a fight in 2010. The judge, James H. Roberts Jr. of Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court, ruled that Kristen Saban was justified in using force to defend herself during a scuffle with Sarah Grimes after a night of drinking. Roberts ruled that the evidence showed that Grimes initiated the confrontation. | Sports |
Credit...Alex Wong/Getty ImagesJune 11, 2018WASHINGTON Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday made it all but impossible for asylum seekers to gain entry into the United States by citing fears of domestic abuse or gang violence, in a ruling that could have a broad effect on the flow of migrants from Central America.Mr. Sessionss decision in a closely watched domestic violence case is the latest turn in a long-running debate over what constitutes a need for asylum. He reversed an immigration appeals court ruling that granted it to a Salvadoran woman who said she had been sexually, emotionally and physically abused by her husband.Relatively few asylum seekers are granted permanent entry into the United States. In 2016, for every applicant who succeeded, more than 10 others also sought asylum, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security. But the process can take months or years, and tens of thousands of people live freely in the United States while their cases wend through the courts.Mr. Sessionss decision overturns a precedent set during the Obama administration that allowed more women to claim credible fears of domestic abuse and will make it harder for such arguments to prevail in immigration courts. He said the Obama administration created powerful incentives for people to come here illegally and claim a fear of return.[Asylum applicants are facing holdups in entering the United States. Read about it here.]Asylum claims have expanded too broadly to include victims of private violence, like domestic violence or gangs, Mr. Sessions wrote in his ruling, which narrowed the type of asylum requests allowed. The number of people who told homeland security officials that they had a credible fear of persecution jumped to 94,000 in 2016 from 5,000 in 2009, he said in a speech earlier in the day in which he signaled he would restore sound principles of asylum and longstanding principles of immigration law.The prototypical refugee flees her home country because the government has persecuted her, Mr. Sessions wrote in his ruling. Because immigration courts are housed under the Justice Department, not the judicial branch of government, he has the authority to overturn their decisions.An alien may suffer threats and violence in a foreign country for any number of reasons relating to her social, economic, family or other personal circumstances, he added. Yet the asylum statute does not provide redress for all misfortune.His ruling drew immediate condemnation from immigrants rights groups. Some viewed it as a return to a time when domestic violence was considered a private matter, not the responsibility of the government to intervene, said Karen Musalo, a defense lawyer on the case who directs the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California Hastings College of the Law.What this decision does is yank us all back to the Dark Ages of human rights and womens human rights and the conceptualization of it, she said.President Trump has long insisted that violent gang members are using the immigration system to illegally infiltrate the United States and that illegal immigrants traveled by caravan to the southern border with Mexico recently to flood into the country.Mr. Sessionss ruling addressed those fears, but data does not support them. Since 2014, when Central Americans started surging into the United States, people seeking asylum from gang violence have only rarely succeeded. Those who were granted entry often argued their cases on multiple grounds.The number of illegal immigrants caught at the border last year was the lowest since 1971, Border Patrol statistics showed.Still, the White House began pressing in October for tighter asylum rules as part of any legislative package on immigration. We effectively have a policy where if you make an unproven assertion up front of having quote unquote credible fear, that you can be released into the United States almost immediately, Stephen Miller, the White House senior policy adviser who has been the architect of Mr. Trumps immigration crackdown, said last week in an interview.The ruling effectively closes a major avenue for asylum seekers, one dominated since 2014 by women fleeing Central America.The Board of Immigration Appeals found in 2016 that the woman in the case named A-B-, for her initials was part of what the asylum system refers to as a particular social group because women in El Salvador are often unable to leave violent relationships and their government has not been able to protect them. She therefore qualified for asylum.Asylum seekers can make claims that they suffered persecution related to race, religion, nationality, political opinion or their particular social group, broadly considered to include people who share a common characteristic that endangers them and whose governments will not protect them. Legal scholars have debated its definition, and some groups who have qualified include relatives of dissidents, L.G.B.T.Q. people, victims of domestic violence and people fleeing violent gangs.Mr. Sessions narrowed that definition. Generally, claims by aliens pertaining to domestic violence or gang violence perpetrated by nongovernmental actors will not qualify for asylum, he wrote.Attorneys general as far back as Janet Reno, who served from 1993 to 2001, have weighed in on the use of the particular social group in asylum cases, going back and forth on how to treat issues like domestic violence.Domestic violence victims gained eligibility after the 2014 case of a Guatemalan woman, Aminta Cifuentes. She suffered a decade of abuse by her husband, including acid burns and punches to her belly while she was eight months pregnant, forcing a premature birth. Her baby was born with bruises.Since then, women from around the world have used the same argument to win protection in the United States. Gender-based violence was a particular problem in Central America and parts of Mexico, according to a 2015 United Nations report, which compared it to the refugee crisis emerging at the same time in Europe.Saying a few simple words claiming a fear of return is now transforming a straightforward arrest for illegal entry and immediate return into a prolonged legal process, Mr. Sessions said in his speech, to immigration judges gathered outside Washington.Some of them said he was infringing on their ability to decide cases.Mr. Sessions did not publicly say why he intervened in the case, which some immigration judges found troublesome, said Ashley Tabaddor, the president of the National Association of Immigration Judges.The attorney generals ability to exercise veto power in our decision-making is an indication of why the court needs true independence from the Justice Department, Ms. Tabaddor said. | Politics |
Credit...Vadim Ghirda/Associated PressFeb. 18, 2014SOCHI, Russia The career of Marina Zoueva, the celebrated ice dancing coach whose students won the gold and silver medals on Tuesday night, seems defined by conflicting loyalties.There is the rivalry between her students the Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who won the first-ever gold medal for the United States here, and the Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who took silver.The two couples roles were reversed in Vancouver four years ago, when the Canadians won gold and the Americans silver. Zoueva and the skaters, who are training partners, all say that she pushes each pair to achieve its greatest potential without favoritism. Still, there are practical if not emotional limits, and Zouevas dual role at some points had her quickly stripping off her Team Canada gear and switching into a Team U.SA. jacket or vice versa between programs to show proper allegiance at the proper moment.There is also Zouevas dual loyalty to the United States where she now lives and coaches in Michigan and her native Russia, where she trained as a skater herself, and where the deep traditions in classical music and dance provide the main inspiration for the emotionally charged choreography that has propelled so many of her students to victory.In this sense, though, Zoueva, seem less torn, clearly preferring her new life in North America as she puts it.Told that President Vladimir V. Putin in a visit with United States Olympics officials had praised the American ice dancers, but added the caveat that the coach is ours, Zoueva smiled broadly and raised her arms in a show of champions triumph. Still, she craved approval from another president. I just wish Obama will call me and tell me the same, she said. I think they can fight a little bit. Obama has to say, No, its mine!'Asked if she could ever envision moving back to Russia to coach, Zoueva laughed aloud.She noted that she had coached the Russian pairs skaters Sergey Grinkov and Yekaterina Gordeyeva, who won an Olympic gold medal in 1988 in Calgary, and continued to work with them after she moved in 1991 to Canada, where she received citizenship. Grinkov and Gordeyeva won gold for Russia again at the Olympics in 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway.Zoueva was on the ice in Lake Placid, N.Y. on Nov. 20, 1995, when Grinkov, then 28, died of a heart attack during a practice session. She had worked with him, and his wife, since he was a teenager, adjusting the choreography to match each stage of their lives as their relationship blossomed into romance, than marriage and then family life with a daughter.His death was the hardest moment in her career, and her eyes fill with tears when recalling it.Zoueva now lives and works in Canton, Mich., where she is head coach of the International Skating Academy. She has a boat on Lake Michigan and several pets, including a bird, fish and a bunny. She has a grown son, Fyodor Andreyev, 31, who skated briefly for Canada and Russia, and has worked as a model.If she is clearly comfortable in her North American life, Zoueva at the same time has inculcated her American and Canadian students with a Russian artistic sensibility that they credit with lifting them to victory.It was a huge factor, Davis said at a news conference, which began at 1 a.m. Tuesday shortly after she and White clinched the gold medal, took their mandatory drug tests and changed out of their costumes.Marinas Russian heritage and her education, her very classic education, in dance, theater, music here in Russia plays a large role in her artistic eye, Davis said. That has played a really big part in our career as a whole. When we are learning choreography, when she is teaching us something, giving us advice, teaching us how to do something, it very much stems from her amazing education that she received here in Russia. We, over the years, have learned about the classic Russian ballets, the classic Russian composers, and that education, that knowledge and experience has really brought us to the point where we are now.Zoueva said she designed heavily Russian programs for the Americans and the Canadians that were intended to please the crowd in Sochi.Virtue and Moir danced to a combination of music from the Russian composers Alexander Glazunov and Alexander Scriabin, while the Americans danced to Scheherazade by another Russian, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.I did choreography special for Russia, Zoueva said. I chose Russian composers. I chose a Russian story for each program and I really wanted to show Tessa and Scott, Meryl and Charlie, in a program for Russian audience, and just to touch the heart of the Russian people.Ice dancing, with its emphasis on artistic performance, is at times regarded dubiously as an athletic event. Though changes have been made in the judging requirements in recent years in a bid to add more objective measures, there is often still a sense that it is more show than sport, an activity more suited to critiquing in prose than scoring by points.By any measure, Zoueva, at the moment, is ice dancings most-acclaimed trainer and choreographer, equal parts coach and creative guru. And far from shying from the more poetic aspects of ice dancing, she fully embraces them, insisting that for skaters to be successful they must not only be technically brilliant but also make an emotional connection with judges.At the Sochi Games, she said, her goal was to show romantic drama and love, from Tessa-Scott, and power, dramatic powerful and also sexual like erotic from Meryl and Charlie.For four minutes or three minutes, she added, " I want the audience to be in the creativity and the mood and the spirit with my skaters.Zoueva, 57, was born in Moscow and skated competitively for the Soviet Union in the 1970s, finishing fifth in the European and world championships in 1977. She has university degrees in physical education and choreography. After graduating, she said in an interview, she would often visit a radio station where a friend worked and would spend hours listening to classical music.She is just a genius, Davis said Monday night. Her ability to train people as she sees fit different athletes, different strengths, different challenges she is really able to bring the best out her students. Its an incredible talent.Zoueva said she had lost count of her students medals.The medals or success, its appreciation of what you are doing for people, she said. Its not like you get gold, and that is the success, and your program if you get gold looks good. No way. Its the opposite way. You have to deeply touch the heart and soul of judges. | Sports |
Disney Star Adam Hicks Brother Jailed for Deadly '14 Crash ... Hicks' Mom Died Year Later 1/31/2018 Disney star Adam Hicks' world was crumbling long before his arrest for armed robbery, due to his brother doing time, and his mother passing away ... TMZ has learned. Adam's little brother, Tristan, was the driver in a 2014 car crash in Vegas that killed a 17-year-old girl. Police say she died after she was ejected from the car. Tristan, who was 18 at the time, took off on foot. He was eventually arrested for fleeing the scene. Sources tell us Adam had recently gone to Vegas to testify at his brother's parole hearing. Adam paid for Tristan's bail and most of his legal fees during the case. Things went further south a year later when Adam's mother, Lucy, died unexpectedly from a heart attack. We're told Tristan's accident had weighed heavily on her. My biggest fear as a child became a reality. R.I.P mom. Everything I do now is for you. Love you always and forever. @adamhicks702 | Entertainment |
How Trumps Fraud Claims Could Hurt the Georgia Republican CandidatesAs the president pursues his own agenda, the fallout could have longstanding repercussions in a state where Republicans have dominated for years.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York TimesJan. 5, 2021The election on Tuesday in Georgia wont just determine the fate of the two Republican-held Senate seats there and the balance of control on Capitol Hill. It will also reveal the extent to which President Trump has disrupted and damaged his own party.For the last several weeks, Mr. Trump has instigated and intensified a battle royal within the Georgia Republican universe as he has sought to overturn his loss there and pin blame on the states G.O.P. leaders for not helping him.In response, the states Republicans have turned on one another, taking sides for or against Mr. Trump as he continues in his obstinate some say unlawful effort to overturn the election results in Georgia, where he lost by nearly 12,000 votes.The outcome of these Senate elections will show, on one level, how Republican voters have reacted to Mr. Trumps quest to upend what he has falsely called a rigged election.If Republicans do not ultimately turn out in large numbers, the blame will fall at least partly on Mr. Trump for his efforts to raise doubts about the fairness of the states election process.The extent to which Mr. Trump is willing to go in that effort became fully apparent on Saturday, when he phoned Brad Raffensperger, Georgias secretary of state and a Republican, urging him to find votes and recalculate the results of the states presidential contest in his favor, ignoring the official finding, already certified by the governor, that he was the loser.It was the culmination of efforts to overturn the election that began nearly two months ago. The Trump campaign and its surrogates have filed multiple lawsuits challenging election results in Georgia; demanded recounts and Mr. Raffenspergers resignation; combed obituaries to find supposed dead people who voted; asked that the legislature decertify the states Electoral College vote; and pressed for hearings, where Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trumps personal lawyer, repeated unfounded claims of fraud.At every turn, Mr. Raffensperger and other Georgia election officials have debunked the conspiracy theories about voter fraud pushed by the president and his allies.The short-term impact of Mr. Trumps pressure campaign will become evident as the votes are counted in the runoff elections pitting David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, the two Republicans fighting to keep their Senate seats, against two Democrats, Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock.For Republicans in the state, the concern all along has been that Mr. Trumps effort to undermine the election process will depress turnout in the runoff, partly because he has stoked beliefs that the system itself is rigged and cannot be trusted.Charles S. Bullock III, a professor of political science at the University of Georgia, said Mr. Trumps phone call Saturday could also turn some of the presidents former supporters against the Republican candidates.They may say, This has gone too far. I cant vote against Trump, but I can vote against his surrogates, Mr. Bullock said in an interview Monday.ImageCredit...Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesMr. Trumps efforts to litigate, cajole and threaten his way to a Georgia victory began within days of the Nov. 3 election. He was leading as the early returns came in. But as absentee ballots were counted in the days that followed, his margin narrowed, and it became apparent that former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. would take Georgia and its 16 electoral votes.The Associated Press declared Mr. Biden the winner in Georgia on Nov. 13.On Nov. 9, Ms. Loeffler and Mr. Perdue who have trumpeted their loyalty to the president took the unusual step of demanding Mr. Raffenspergers resignation, calling the election an embarrassment and leveling unfounded claims that his office oversaw a faulty process.A civil engineer and former state lawmaker, Mr. Raffensperger was elected in 2018 after receiving a glowing endorsement from Mr. Trump. Appearing eager to assuage the presidents concerns, Mr. Raffensperger agreed to conduct an unusual statewide hand recount of the election, one that cost counties hundreds of thousands of dollars. It reaffirmed Mr. Bidens victory. So did a subsequent machine recount.As Mr. Trumps campaign and its supporters filed lawsuits in various Georgia jurisdictions, Mr. Trump escalated attacks against another stalwart Republican, Gov. Brian Kemp.By early December, Mr. Kemp, along with Geoff Duncan, the Georgia lieutenant governor who is also a Republican, had issued a joint statement refusing requests by Mr. Trumps supporters to call a special session of the Georgia legislature to overturn Mr. Bidens victory.Doing this in order to select a separate slate of presidential electors is not an option that is allowed under state or federal law, the statement said.The Georgia legislature was not expected to reconvene until Jan. 11, well after the Electoral College certified Mr. Bidens victory in Georgia. The states top officials, including David Ralston, the Republican speaker of the House, held firm to that date, drawing a bright line beyond which they would not go to mollify Mr. Trump.I would remind people if we overturn this one, there could be one overturned on us someday, Mr. Ralston told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. We just have to be very careful about how we act out our frustrations and concerns and understand that these things can happen again someday.A recount, even though it was costly, was one thing. Overturning a valid election was another. Voicing his displeasure, Mr. Trump said he was ashamed to have endorsed Mr. Kemp in 2018.ImageCredit...Brynn Anderson/Associated PressMr. Raffensperger, a lifelong Republican, hinted Monday that the bickering might result in the end of nearly two decades of Republican dominance in statewide politics.The issues that Mr. Trump has been raising about all his contentions that he didnt have a fair vote here that has been a major distraction for the two senators to run their race, Mr. Raffensperger told Fox News. In fact, hes, in effect, suppressing the Republican turnout.Bill Crane, a Georgia political operative and commentator, said the presidents tactics, as well as the work of activists in the state who have claimed the November election was rigged, were tamping down Republican turnout in the runoff elections. Georgia is still conflicted about whether we should vote at all, Mr. Crane said.Fringe efforts by Trump allies may have helped dissuade some Republicans from voting for Mr. Perdue and Ms. Loeffler. A Twitter campaign urging Georgia voters to write in the names of Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, which is not an option on the runoff ballot, appears to be an outgrowth of Mr. Trumps concerns. And L. Lin Wood, a conservative Georgia lawyer and Trump ally, has said he will not vote in another fraudulent election.Data from early voting showed that the turnout in the runoff election was depressed in heavily Republican areas of the state, though analysts say that Republicans tend to favor voting on election day while Democrats are more likely to cast their ballots early.Mr. Crane has called Mr. Trumps crusade a fantasy football league drive one in which Mr. Trump is pursuing his own agenda, not the partys.To what end is not exactly clear. But on Monday, during an appearance at a rally in Dalton, Ga., on behalf of his devoted supporters, Ms. Loeffler and Mr. Perdue, Mr. Trump vowed to make a return trip to campaign against Mr. Raffensperger and Mr. Kemp.They say they are Republicans, Mr. Trump said. I really dont think so. They cant be. | Politics |
Credit...Gilles Sabrie for The New York TimesMarch 20, 2017BEIJING The toilet paper thieves of the Temple of Heaven Park were an elusive bunch.They looked like most park visitors, practicing tai chi, dancing in the courtyards and stopping to take in the scent of ancient cypress and juniper trees. But hidden in their oversize shopping bags and backpacks was a secret: sheet upon sheet of crumpled toilet paper, plucked surreptitiously from public restrooms.Now the authorities in Beijing are fighting back, going so far as to install high-tech toilet paper dispensers equipped with facial recognition software in several restrooms.Before entering restrooms in the park, visitors must now stare into a computer mounted on the wall for three seconds before a machine dispenses a sheet of toilet paper, precisely two feet in length. If visitors require more, they are out of luck. The machine will not dispense a second roll to the same person for nine minutes.At the Temple of Heaven Park, one of Beijings busiest tourist sites, many people said on Monday they were pleased by the new machines.The people who steal toilet paper are greedy, said He Zhiqiang, 19, a customer service worker from the northwestern region of Ningxia. Toilet paper is a public resource. We need to prevent waste.Qin Gang, 63, taking a stroll through the park with his wife, said Chinas history of crippling poverty had left some people eager to exploit public goods.ImageCredit...Javier C. Hernndez/The New York TimesIts a very bad habit, Mr. Qin said. Maybe we can use technology to change how people think.Not everyone was enthusiastic. Some people, frustrated by the new technology, banged their fists against the machines, which park employees said cost about $720 each.Other visitors had more exacting critiques.The sheets are too short, said Wang Jianquan, 63, a retired shopping mall manager.Chinese officials have worked for years to curb the excessive use of toilet paper in public facilities, in places like Qingdao, a coastal city, and Shanghai. Most public restrooms in China do not provide any toilet paper, while others provide a common roll for visitors to use.According to a China Radio International report, the Temple of Heaven Park has supplied toilet paper in its public toilets for the last 10 years, but found that supplies were quickly exhausted. A manager of the park said that most of the thieves were local residents, rather than tourists, taking advantage of the free supply for their daily use.Lei Zhenshan, marketing director for Shoulian Zhineng, the company in Tianjin that designed the device, said in an interview: We brainstormed many options: fingerprints, infrared and facial recognition. We went with facial recognition, because its the most hygienic way.Mr. Lei said an earlier version of the device was installed last year at the Birds Nest stadium in Beijing. An official at the Temple of Heaven, who would not give her name, said the facial recognition dispensers there were on trial, and if judged a success, would be placed in all the parks toilets.On social media, some users denounced the experiment as a waste of money. Others said a high-tech toilet paper-dispensing device did not befit the majesty of the Temple of Heaven, a Unesco World Heritage Site and an altar where generations of emperors came to perform sacrificial rites.Is there not a solution somewhere between put up a sign and install the sort of thing Bond villains use to secure their secret vaults? Jeremiah Jenne, an American historian and writer in Beijing who organizes tours of historic sites, asked by email. | World |
Credit...Gus Ruelas/University of Southern California, via Associated PressMarch 12, 2017George A. Olah, a Hungarian-born scientist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1994 for his study of the chemical reactions of carbon compounds, died on Wednesday at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 89.His death was announced by the University of Southern California, where he had been a professor of chemistry, chemical engineering and materials science.Dr. Olahs advances in the understanding of hydrocarbons molecules made of carbon and hydrogen have been used in an array of applications, including the development of gasoline that burns more cleanly and the discovery of new drugs.His work began at a Dow Chemical Company research laboratory in southwest Ontario, in Sarnia, where he, his wife and a young son settled in 1957. They had fled their native Hungary a year earlier amid the turmoil of a failed uprising against Soviet rule there.Dow uses acid-catalyzed reactions to produce materials like styrene, a precursor of polystyrene plastic. Dr. Olah discovered superacids, which were trillions of times stronger than sulfuric acid. The superacids were crucial in his subsequent study of hydrocarbon chemistry.Scientists hypothesized that hydrocarbon molecules were transformed by short-lived molecules called carbocations (pronounced CAR-bow-CAT-eye-ons). But a carbocation appeared and disappeared so quickly in a billionth of a second or less that it was almost impossible to study. (Many chemists long believed that carbocations did not exist at all.)Dissolved in certain superacids, however Dr. Olah called them magic acids carbocations do not immediately fall apart.You can isolate them and keep them stable in this media, said G. K. Surya Prakash, a U.S.C. chemistry professor who leads the universitys Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute.Dr. Olah was then able to study the structure and behavior of the carbocations. That was a major achievement in the 60s and the 70s," said Dr. Prakash, who was a graduate student and then a longtime collaborator of Dr. Olahs.In presenting the Nobel to Dr. Olah in 1994, Salo Gronowitz, of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, said, Olahs discovery resulted in a complete revolution for scientific studies of carbocations, and his contributions occupy a prominent place in all modern textbooks of organic chemistry.Along the way, Dr. Olah overturned scientific dogma that held that, in organic compounds, a carbon atom could bind to no more than four other atoms. He showed that in carbocations, a carbon atom could bond with five, six or seven neighbors, Dr. Prakash said.These are weak bonds, but theyre still held together, he said. All of his ideas prevailed.George Andrew Olah was born on May 22, 1927, in Budapest, the son of Julius Olah, a lawyer, and the former Magda Krasznai. He attended what he described as one of the best schools in Budapest run by the Piarist Fathers, a Roman Catholic order.He never described himself as Jewish, but in his autobiography, A Life of Magic Chemistry, he referred to that heritage in recalling World War II. I do not want to relive here in any detail some of my very difficult, even horrifying, experiences of this period, hiding out the last months of the war in Budapest, he wrote. Suffice it to say that my parents and I survived.After the war, he attended the Technical University of Budapest, obtaining masters and doctoral degrees. He was an assistant professor of organic chemistry at the university and then appointed deputy director at the Central Research Institute of Chemistry of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.In 1949 he married Judith Lengyel, a technical secretary at the university, whom he had known from his early youth. She went on to study chemistry, as well.In fleeing Hungary after the 1956 uprising, Dr. Olah and his family made brief stops in Vienna and London, where his wife had relatives, before moving to Montreal, where his mother-in-law lived.In 1965, he left Dow to return to academia as a chemistry professor at Western Reserve University in Cleveland (which became Case Western Reserve in 1967). He moved to the University of Southern California in 1977 and founded the Hydrocarbon Research Institute there.Dr. Olah was an author of nearly 1,500 scientific papers and held 160 patents in seven countries.He is survived by his wife; their sons, George and Ronald; and three grandchildren.After receiving his Nobel Prize, Dr. Olah, along with Dr. Prakash, worked on addressing the worlds energy needs and climate change. But instead of embracing more typical approaches, like promoting nuclear or solar energy, Dr. Olah believed that the most promising alternative energy source was methanol.Methanol, which can be burned as a fuel, is also known as wood alcohol because it was once commonly produced from the distillation of wood. But it can also be produced by carbon dioxide captured from the air.You have a fuel which is a renewable fuel, Dr. Prakash said.In recent years, Dr. Olahs interest in methanol grew. Methanol has been detected in the dust around young stars, before the dust has coalesced into planets. In a paper last year, he and his colleagues speculated that methanol was originally a basic ingredient that was converted into amino acids, nucleic acids and other building blocks of biology.Maybe methanol also led to the origin of life, Dr. Prakash said. That was his passion for the past two years. | science |
Sports Briefing | Pro FootballFeb. 4, 2014Larry Fitzgerald said on Twitter that he has restructured his contract with the Arizona Cardinals, reducing the salary-cap hit from his deal and creating room to sign other players. Under his previous deal, Fitzgerald, a receiver, would have earned $12.75 million next year and counted $18 million toward the cap. President Obama spoke with Seattle Coach Pete Carroll and congratulated the Seahawks for beating Denver in the Super Bowl. | Sports |
Credit...Amy Lombard for The New York TimesDec. 15, 2015High above the pedestrians milling about Herald Square in light coats and jackets, Stuart Greenberg, a seller of luxury furs, fondly recalled chilly Decembers past.For the first 10 years of our business, we never even paid attention to the weather. It always just got cold, said Mr. Greenberg. But sales at his Corniche Furs wholesale business have slumped 30 percent this month.What was selling were capes, vests, raincoats with fur trimming and lighter-weight furs items tailored more to fashion than warmth.These days, we wake up and we look at the 10-day forecast to see whether were going to do business or not, Mr. Greenberg said. Ive been in the business 20 years, and I havent seen a December like this. I have to hire a meteorologist here.The changing of the seasons has gone from a reliable constant to yet another factor that can upend retailers best-laid plans. The winter quarter, which includes the holiday season, generally makes up a slightly larger percentage of retailers sales and therefore is especially critical.But despite the rise of weather planning and the use of analytics, retailers large and small say they have been stumped by this years warm start to the season, which has pushed temperatures into the high 60s along some parts of the East Coast. In some places, fading rose blooms and drooping flowers still cling to plants along some city streets.Understandably, shoppers are not in the mood for winter coats or boots.Macys has already warned that it will need to offer big discounts to sell the winter inventory that is piling up in its stores after a slow third quarter. Analysts have blamed the weather for similarly underwhelming performance at Nordstrom. And the unseasonable weather has been no help to ailing retailers like J.Crew, which lost $760 million last quarter and had banked on the holiday season to rebound.Not to make excuses, but October was the warmest October ever, Art Peck, chief executive at Gap, told investors after reporting a 3 percent decline in net sales in the third quarter. And were still seeing the temperatures in the Northeast stay pretty warm, which obviously means people arent ready to buy into sweaters and outerwear.Sales of womens boots in New York plunged by 24 percent in the first half of December, according to data from Planalytics, a weather intelligence firm that works with some 250 retailers to plan for weather changes.Nationally, sales of boots were down 3 percent because of the weather, as were sales of fleece items, according to Planalytics, which assesses previous sales numbers and weather patterns to analyze how much temperature swings and other weather changes are bolstering or hurting sales. Sales of hats, gloves and scarves were down 2 percent, the company said.Planalytics president, Scott A. Bernhardt, said that last years long, cold winter had led some retailers to prepare for more of the same. But as weather patterns become more volatile, previous years do not necessarily provide a good guide to the future.ImageCredit...Amy Lombard for The New York TimesLast November, they came close to or ran out of outerwear early. It was such a panic. So this year, no matter what the data tells them, they plan up from last year, he said. They get stuck in the past a little bit.Still, retailers have stepped up their tracking of weather patterns. Since 2004, Target has had a climate team that studies historical weather patterns and scrutinizes weather forecasts to head off a shortage, or glut, of merchandise.And some New York retailers bought coverage against the weather from a start-up, Storm Exchange, that guaranteed payouts if temperatures in New York City exceeded the historical average for December. But that start-up, which began in 2006, lasted only three years when funds dried up during the financial crisis. Its founder, David Riker, reached in New York on Tuesday, declined to comment.Fast-fashion retailers like H&M or Zara are for now riding out the lengthy warm spell more effectively than other traditional retailers.Zara, which says it can take a product from design to its stores in a matter of weeks, starts each season with a very low commitment to any style or item, said Jess Echevarra, chief communications and corporate affairs officer at Inditex, Zaras parent company.Instead, Zara makes small runs of many designs, and relies on daily feedback from its 2,143 stores worldwide to make decisions on what to manufacture throughout the season. Zaras New York stores are filled with lighter jackets and coats this year, for example, as well as more casual ponchos.Designers try to react as closely as possible to customers demands and tastes throughout the season, Mr. Echevarra said in an email.Inditex is able to do this by producing items close to its distribution centers in Spain, with which the company has long-term relationships, and by delivering new shipments to all of its stores twice a week, he said.Still, some relief may be on the horizon for the wider retail industry. With cooler weather forecast toward Christmas, shopper interest in cold-weather items could increase, said Paul Walsh, a weather and climate strategist at the Weather Company.This weekend, its going to get cold, though it may be too late for retailers from a sales and margin perspective, Mr. Walsh said. Winter is coming, but its definitely been delayed.For Corniche Furs, the chilly weather cannot come fast enough. Until then, many clients of the wholesalers fur storage business will not even come to reclaim their furs, Mr. Greenberg said. He no longer sells the heavy pelts of foxes, raccoons and coyotes, which increasingly do not make sense for New York winters. But he still expected to sell lighter mink and broadtail coats.Unfortunately, I majored in accounting in college. I should have majored in weather, he said. So every morning, I do the temperature dance outside in my underwear and pray that it gets cold. | Business |
June 23, 2017One of the biggest flash points in the debate over Republican legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act is the future of Medicaid. Here are some basic facts about the 52-year-old program.What is Medicaid? Its a public health insurance program largely for low-income people, though some middle-class disabled and elderly people also qualify. States and the federal government share the cost.Whom does Medicaid cover? Nearly one in five Americans, 74 million people, are on Medicaid. Federal law guarantees Medicaid coverage to pregnant women, children, elderly and disabled people under certain income levels. It covers more than a third of the nations children and pays for half of all births. It also covers almost two-thirds of nursing home residents, including many who are middle class and spent of all their savings on care before becoming eligible. States also have the option of covering other groups, like children and pregnant women whose household incomes are higher than the federal thresholds, or young adults up to age 26 who were once in foster care. The Affordable Care Act allowed a new optional group: any adults with income up to 138 percent of the poverty level, which would be $16,643 for an individual this year. Thirty-one states now offer Medicaid to this group.When was it created? In 1965, as part of President Lyndon B. Johnsons Great Society. There was little political debate; the bigger fight was over creating Medicare, the program to cover the elderly, which Medicaid is often confused with.Is Medicaid an entitlement program?Yes. Anyone who meets the eligibility rules has a right to Medicaid coverage, and for now, states are guaranteed open-ended financial support from the federal government.How much does it cost? Medicaid cost $553 billion in fiscal year 2016. Of that amount, $348.9 billion came from the federal government; the states paid $204.5 billion. Medicaid accounts for 9 percent of federal domestic spending. For states, it is the biggest source of federal funding and the second-largest budget item, behind education. The biggest costs in Medicaid are for the elderly and the disabled, often because of long-term care in nursing homes. Washington pays 50 to 75 percent of Medicaid costs for most eligible groups, with poor states receiving more money. Under the Affordable Care Act, the federal government initially covered all of the costs for the roughly 11 million people insured under the laws expansion of Medicaid, who are largely adults without disabilities. Under the law, Washington picks up 95 percent of state costs for the expansion of Medicaid this year, whittling down to 90 percent in 2020.What changes are in store? Both the House and Senate health bills would fundamentally change the way the federal government pays its share of Medicaid costs, setting a per-person limit on spending that would adjust annually for inflation. The bills would also effectively end the Medicaid expansion, by sharply reducing how much the federal government pays for that population starting in 2020. The result of these changes, according to independent analyses, would be major reductions in federal Medicaid spending over time. Enrollment would drop, too, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, with states making it harder to qualify for the program and getting rid of certain benefits to make up for tightened federal spending. | Health |
Credit...Joedson Alves/EPA, via ShutterstockNov. 20, 2018RIO DE JANEIRO The United States and Brazil have been uneasy allies during the best of times.But Brazilian voters may have put an end to that dynamic by electing as their next president Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right lawmaker who is unabashedly pro-American and strikingly similar to President Trump in temperament, tactics and style.We might be on the verge of a golden era of relations, said Fernando Cutz, a former senior White House official who worked on Latin America policy in the Obama and Trump administrations. Trump and Bolsonaro will really hit it off. Their personalities are almost identical and their policy views are very similar.Mr. Bolsonaros enthusiasm for closer ties with the United States is among the starkest signs that Brazils foreign policy is about to undergo profound changes.As a candidate, the incoming president denounced the alliances and foreign policy of the leftist Workers Party, which governed Brazil from 2003 to 2016. During that period, Brazil fostered close commercial ties with China, championed Cubas authoritarian government and was a pillar of multilateral alliances that excluded the United States.Mr. Bolsonaro has yet to outline a detailed foreign policy vision, but he recently unveiled his pick for foreign minister: Ernesto Arajo, a midlevel diplomat who heads the United States and Canada department at the Foreign Ministry and shares his admiration for Mr. Trump. In his blog, Mr. Arajo has called climate change a Marxist plot and praised Mr. Trump for combating the globalism movement led by China.In recent interviews, Mr. Bolsonaro has suggested that Brazil could relocate its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, following a similar move by Mr. Trump, and raised the possibility of severing diplomatic relations with Cuba.His teams priority, though, is clearly to build a strong partnership with the Trump administration. Key surrogates have begun a charm offensive that appears designed to burnish the international image of Mr. Bolsonaro, who became notorious as a lawmaker by insulting minorities and praising Brazils military dictatorship.Our future president has been accused of a lot of things, but I can assure all of you that he is a democrat, Mr. Bolsonaros running mate, the retired Gen. Hamilton Mouro, told Fox News in a recent interview. He expressed confidence that relations between the United States and Brazil the largest nations in the Americas will be tighter during this period.One of the presidents sons, Eduardo Bolsonaro, a federal lawmaker, plans to travel to the United States soon for what he called a preliminary effort to reach out and generate good will between Brazil and the United States, two friendly nations that drifted apart in recent years for ideological reasons.Brazils new president and his son are certain to get a warm reception in Washington. Mr. Bolsonaro and Mr. Trump both rose to victory by running social-media-powered insurgent campaigns that took aim at the political establishment. Both were initially regarded by political analysts as too inexperienced and boorish to pull ahead. And both appear to relish escalating, rather than defusing, political fights.ImageCredit...Sergio Moraes/ReutersMr. Trumps national security adviser, John R. Bolton, recently applauded the election of Mr. Bolsonaro, whom he called a like-minded leader. The Trump administration has expressed hopes that a crop of new conservative heads of state in Latin America will help the United States undermine the leftist governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, which Mr. Bolton called the troika of tyranny in this hemisphere.Mr. Bolsonaros rise comes as the patchwork of alliances of leftist governments created at the turn of the century in a bid to end Washingtons hegemony in the region have largely disintegrated. Venezuela, which was a key axis of that network, has become a regional pariah under President Nicols Maduro, whose mismanagement of the economy has led to an acute shortage of food and medicine.The humanitarian crisis there, which has caused an exodus of more than three million people, is likely to be at the top of the agenda with the United States when Mr. Bolsonaro takes office.If prodded by the United States, Brazil could take a stronger public stance against the Maduro regime, using the influx of refugees as its excuse to act, said Jana Nelson, a former State Department official who worked on Brazil policy. The main challenge would be convincing other countries in Latin America to work with the Bolsonaro administration, whose reputation as a harsh non-politically correct leader precedes him.Mr. Bolsonaro has already picked a fight with Cuba. Havana announced that it was recalling the more than 8,000 doctors deployed to remote and poor regions of Brazil after Mr. Bolsonaro accused the communist government of treating health professionals like slaves.And as a candidate, Mr. Bolsonaro visited Taiwan, angering Beijing, which considers the island part of its territory. He also raised alarm at Chinas growing influence in Latin America, expressing unease at the prospect of letting Chinese companies buy significant stakes in Brazilian state companies.That wariness puts him in sync with the Trump administration, which is pushing back on the approach China has taken to investing in and lending money to developing economies.However, analysts said Mr. Bolsonaro would have limited leverage in blunting Chinas interests in Brazil without angering key constituencies that have come to depend heavily on the Chinese market. China overtook the United States as Brazils top trading partner roughly a decade ago; Brazils economic growth hinges largely on expanding and diversifying its commercial relationship with Beijing.Oliver Stuenkel, a professor of international relations at Fundao Getulio Vargas university in So Paulo, predicted that Mr. Bolsonaro will come to recognize that maintaining close relations with China is crucial for Brazil.Close ties to the U.S. dont promise the same financial rewards, Mr. Stuenkel said. China wont make Brazil choose Washington or Beijing as long as certain lines arent crossed. The Chinese dont want love or open admiration, but someone they can count on not to be hostile.A new era of closer cooperation between the United States and Brazil could create a big opportunity to do things with a government that walks and talks and sounds like the one here, said Thomas Shannon, a former top State Department official who served as ambassador to Brazil.ImageCredit...Nelson Almeida/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesThat could include a significant expansion of trade, broader security partnerships and increased cooperation on medical and scientific research, Mr. Shannon said. But he said there was good reason to be skeptical that the Trump administration would seize the opportunity.What worries me, quite frankly, is that we wont do things in a big strategic way, he said. Instead, the United States could just try to get them to help us on Venezuela or Nicaragua and then walk away.The White House and the State Department did not respond to a request for an interview about the Trump administrations outlook on the Bolsonaro era.Matias Spektor, another international relations professor at Fundao Getulio Vargas, said Brazil and the United States had last forged a strong and durable partnership in the 1940s, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt persuaded the Brazilian government to turn on Nazi Germany and join the alliance that won World War II.After democracy was restored in Brazil in the mid-1980s, following a 21-year military dictatorship that began with a coup backed by Washington, much of the political left in Brazil regarded the United States with suspicion and resentment.Another low point came in 2013 when the government of President Dilma Rousseff, a leftist, reacted angrily to the revelation that the National Security Agency had been spying on her and other senior Brazilian officials.Over the years, attempts to improve relations have faltered because the matter was either not a priority for the American government or politically expedient in Brazil.Historically it has been very hard, Mr. Spektor said. You have to have conditions for alignment that are very specific.Since Ms. Rousseffs impeachment, Washington and Braslia have expanded cooperation in security matters, particularly counternarcotics, said Mr. Cutz, the former White House official.We have better relations than we used to have, more capabilities, he said. That can only improve.A full-throated endorsement by Mr. Bolsonaro might have given past American administrations pause because of concerns about his commitment to democratic principles and human rights. But Mr. Cutz said there was little reason to believe the Trump administration would have reservations.There is an argument to be made that if the United States quickly embraces Bolsonaro, we can help shape him, said Mr. Cutz, who was born in Brazil. If we keep our distance, he is on his own. | World |
Technology|Membership of Anti-Mask Facebook Groups Jumps Sharplyhttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/01/technology/membership-of-anti-mask-facebook-groups-jumps-sharply.htmlOct. 1, 2020, 1:42 p.m. ETOct. 1, 2020, 1:42 p.m. ETCredit...Jeff Dean/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesIts no surprise that people pushing anti-mask arguments popped up online around the time the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States in March and April.But here is what might surprise you: The audience for misleading anti-mask posts on Facebook has grown sharply in the last eight weeks, despite the growing evidence that masks can help prevent the spread of the virus.The number of people who have joined anti-mask Facebook groups has grown 1,800 percent, to more than 43,000 users, since the beginning of August, according to an analysis of data provided by Crowdtangle, a media tool that Facebook owns. Almost half of the 29 antimask groups discovered by The New York Times were created in the last three months, with names like Mask off Michigan and Mask Free America Coalition. | Tech |
Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesFeb. 17, 2014SOCHI, Russia Hockey players gnash their teeth. Ski jumpers can hide their fear behind goggles. Speedskaters huff and puff as they round the bend. Such is not the fate of Olympic ice dancers, who must maintain a stoic smile before an audience and a panel of judges, even if a boot fills with blood, a partner sinks a score or a spectator sneers. It is one of the more peculiarly theatrical pursuits of the Winter Games. Part of ice dancers success lies in their ability to plaster on calm, relaxed expressions, even as their bodies and brains are undergoing Olympic-level stress.Actually, its funny, the Canadian ice dancer Mitchell Islam said. Talking to some of the Olympians weve met here, I brag thats the hard thing about our sport. Were just as tired as any other endurance athlete gets doing their sport, but we have to look pretty when were doing it. Its a little tougher.Added his skating partner, Alexandra Paul, The speedskaters, not a lot. For Islam and Paul, who performed their free skate Monday, that meant hours analyzing their performance faces in studio mirrors and in video, in addition to on the ice during grueling workouts. You dont want to think about how your face looks during the program, Paul said. You want it to just be how you feel. It has made for a curious, perhaps even mildly creepy sight at the practice rink here: Ice dancers in the daylight, some in track jackets and leotards, void of their costumes and stage makeup, smiling at each other in ecstasy as they circle the rink, no audience other than their coaches, no sound other than the crunch of their blades. Thats what you got to do in practice, said Nicholas Buckland, a British ice dancer who partners with Penny Coomes. Then it comes on the ice. You have to even be better in practice so under the nerves and stress it can be a real good performance. An acting coach helped the Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates perfect their expressions in their free skate. Isabella Tobias and Deividas Stagniunas of Lithuania enlisted the help of a mime for their performance. For two years, Danielle OBrien and Gregory Merriman of Australia have taken on clown faces as they perform a free skate to a medley of circus-inspired music. Its almost our pain reflex now, is to turn that frown upside down. Really, Merriman said, sweaty but still clad in his electric green shirt, suspenders and an oversize blue and pink polka-dot tie, undone. But perhaps maintaining a smile on the ice was most difficult for the American siblings Alex and Maia Shibutani. During the Man in the Mirror segment of their Michael Jackson program Monday night, Maia Shibutanis skirt got caught on her brothers shoulder during a lift, tearing it and calling for some hasty improvisation. They finished their program, smiling, and received a score of 155.17, which put them in ninth place. Were just grateful to be here, Alex Shibutani said, his sister holding back tears and nodding in agreement. Were excited to have experienced this together. Were going to look back in five, 10 years, maybe a week from now, and just really smile. | Sports |
A Georgia election official debunked Trumps claims of voter fraud, point by point.Jan. 4, 2021, 10:33 p.m. ETJan. 4, 2021, 10:33 p.m. ETCredit...Mike Segar/ReutersIn a searing news conference on Monday, Gabriel Sterling, a top election official in Georgia, systematically debunked President Trumps false claims of voter fraud. Again.The reason Im having to stand here today is because there are people in positions of authority and respect who have said their votes didnt count, and its not true, said Mr. Sterling, a Republican who last month condemned the presidents failure to denounce threats against election officials, and who was tasked on Monday with responding to the news of a phone call in which Mr. Trump pressured Georgias secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to find enough votes to change the outcome of the presidential race.Its anti-disinformation Monday, Mr. Sterling said. Its whack-a-mole again, its Groundhog Day again, and Im going to talk about things that Ive talked about repeatedly for two months. Im going to do it again one last time. I hope.Here is a rundown of the false claims about Georgias vote-counting that Mr. Trump and his lawyers made on the call and in other venues, and Mr. Sterlings explanations of what actually happened.TRUMPS CLAIM: That, amid the disruption caused by a broken water main at a vote-counting center in Fulton County, election workers brought in suitcases or trunks of ballots.STERLINGS EXPLANATION: Late in the evening, after the water main break had been fixed, election workers prepared to go home for the night and followed standard procedures to store ballots securely: placing them in containers and affixing numbered seals. But when Mr. Raffensperger found out that they were closing up shop, he ordered them to continue counting through the night so the workers retrieved the containers and resumed counting ballots.All of this is on video footage that the secretary of states office posted publicly.This is whats really frustrating: The presidents legal team had the entire tape, Mr. Sterling said. They watched the entire tape. They intentionally misled the State Senate, the voters and the people of the United States about this.TRUMPS CLAIM: That workers scanned some batches of ballots multiple times.STERLINGS EXPLANATION: When a scanning machine encounters a problem, it stops, but a few ballots get through while its stopping. When that happens, workers take the ballots and scan them again so theyre counted properly. This is standard procedure, and the ballots arent counted twice and if they were, the hand recount Georgia conducted would have shown it.That audit showed that there was no problem with the machine scanning, Mr. Sterling said. If somebody took a stack of ballots and scanned them multiple times, you would have a lot of votes with no corresponding ballots.TRUMPS CLAIM: That tens of thousands of ineligible voters cast ballots.STERLINGS EXPLANATION: The actual number of ballots cast by ineligible voters is minuscule, and nowhere near enough to change the outcome of the election.Mr. Sterling also addressed more specific claims about ineligible voters:Mr. Trump said that thousands of people voted despite not being registered to vote. This is impossible, Mr. Sterling said: You cant do it. There cannot be a ballot issued to you, theres no way to tie it back to you, theres nowhere for them to have a name to correspond back to unless theyre registered voters. So that number is zero.Mr. Trump said that thousands of voters died before the election. Mr. Sterling said the secretary of states office had found only two who might fit that description.Mr. Trump said that hundreds of people voted using P.O. boxes rather than a residential address. Mr. Sterling said that the secretary of states office was still investigating, but that everyone it had examined so far had, in fact, used a proper residential address just one for a multifamily residence or apartment building.Mr. Trumps campaign said that many felons voted. In reality, using records from the states corrections and probation departments, the secretary of states office identified only 74 people who might fit that category and Mr. Sterling said the final number would be even lower once the office completed its investigation, because in many cases, the person might have had their voting rights reinstated after completing a sentence or might simply have the same name as a felon.Mr. Trumps campaign said that tens of thousands of people younger than 18 voted. The actual number is zero, Mr. Sterling said, and the reason we know that is because the dates are on the voter registration. There are four cases four where people requested their absentee ballot before they turned 18, but they turned 18 by Election Day. That means that is a legally cast ballot.Mr. Trumps campaign said that hundreds of voters cast ballots in two states. Mr. Sterling said that officials were still investigating, but that if any such cases were confirmed, it would be handfuls, and nowhere near enough to change the outcome.TRUMPS CLAIM: That machines flipped votes, counting Trump ballots as Biden ones.STERLINGS EXPLANATION: If this had happened, Mr. Sterling said, the hand recount would have shown it, and it did not show anything of the sort.Discussing allegations of hacking, he added that ballot machines and scanners arent connected to the internet. Neither one has modems, Mr. Sterling said. Its very hard to hack things without modems.TRUMPS CLAIM: That election officials did not properly verify signatures for mail-in ballots.STERLINGS EXPLANATION: The secretary of states office brought in signature experts, who examined more than 15,000 mail-in ballot envelopes. They found potential problems with only two, and upon investigation, both ballots turned out to be legitimate.TRUMPS CLAIM: That, compared with previous election cycles, Georgia rejected a suspiciously low number of mail-in ballots.STERLINGS EXPLANATION: The decrease in rejections is attributable to a recently passed law that gives Georgians a chance to correct problems, such as a rejected signature, with their ballots. Both parties had teams roaming the state and contacting voters whose ballots were at risk of rejection, but Mr. Sterling said the Democrats were simply more prepared for the task.TRUMPS CLAIM: That election officials shredded ballots.STERLINGS EXPLANATION: There is no shredding of ballots going on, Mr. Sterling said with clear annoyance. Thats not real. Its not happening.Workers did shred secrecy envelopes: the blank envelopes that protect the privacy of a voters absentee ballot and go inside an outer envelope. Its the outer envelope that voters have to sign, and election officials have kept those outer envelopes as required by law. The secrecy envelopes, however, have no evidentiary value, Mr. Sterling said, because by definition they have no identifying information on them.TRUMPS CLAIM: That employees of Dominion Voting Systems moved the inner parts of voting machines and replaced them with other parts.STERLINGS EXPLANATION: No one is changing parts or pieces out of Dominion voting machines. Thats not real. I dont even know what that means.TRUMPS CLAIM: That officials improperly counted pristine ballots meaning ballots that werent folded, indicating that they hadnt arrived in an envelope.STERLINGS EXPLANATION: Pristine ballots arent unusual, Mr. Sterling said. For instance, many military and overseas voters receive electronic ballots that they print out, complete and mail back. But these printed ballots arent the right size for scanners, so election workers have a standard process for transferring the votes to scannable ballots. A ballot that gets damaged and cant be scanned may be transferred in the same way.TRUMPS CLAIM: That Mr. Raffensperger is compromised because he has a brother who works for a Chinese technology company. (Mr. Trump was echoing a conspiracy theory about an unrelated man who happens to be named Ron Raffensperger.)STERLINGS EXPLANATION: Mr. Raffensperger doesnt have a brother named Ron. | Politics |
Health|Want to Help Those Coping With Zika?https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/11/health/want-to-help-those-coping-with-zika.htmlMarch 11, 2017The following organizations direct donations to help cope with Zika in Latin America. Depending on the organization, the funding may be used to help provide services to affected families, educate people about preventing Zika infection, contribute to efforts to improve diagnosis, or other functions.CuraZika Center at the University of Pittsburgh: Collaborates with several clinics in Brazil, including the Altino Ventura Foundation and the Association for the Assistance of Disabled Children, supporting efforts like treatment, therapy and legal assistance.Unicef Zika Global Response: Helps efforts throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, focusing on prevention, diagnosis, vaccine development and other goals.Save the Children: Contributes to prevention education. | Health |
Credit...Kyodo, via ReutersMarch 16, 2017TOKYO The leader of a scandal-tainted Japanese education group known for extreme right-wing views said Thursday that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had donated money to it in 2015, a claim that directly contradicted accounts by Mr. Abe.The assertion, if true, has the potential to inflict significant political damage on Mr. Abe. The groups leader, Yasunori Kagoike, did not immediately offer evidence to back up his claim.Accusations that Mr. Kagoike received improper financial favors from the government have escalated into a scandal that has dominated headlines in Japan and hurt Mr. Abes approval ratings.Network news crews followed a group of parliamentarians to Mr. Kagoikes home in Osaka in Thursday, broadcasting live as the lawmakers waited to question him.Mr. Kagoikes extreme views have become a contentious issue in Japan, partly because of his links to prominent political figures. A kindergarten operated by his group seeks to promote patriotism and pride by reviving elements of Japans militaristic prewar education system. He has been accused of making derogatory statements about Chinese and Koreans.His political connections took on a newly troubling dimension after it emerged last month that officials had allowed Mr. Kagoike group, Moritomo Gakuen, to buy government-owned land at a discount. The land was to be used for an elementary school, for which Moritomo Gakuen has been soliciting funds and drawing encouragement from the right.Mr. Abes wife, Akie, has been a prominent supporter, serving until recently as honorary principal of the planned school. She resigned the position last month amid the escalating furor.But Mr. Abe has denied that he had direct personal links to the group.He did not donate money, or donate through Akie or his office or any third party, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, the government spokesman, said on Thursday after Mr. Kagoike made his assertion.ImageCredit...Toru Hanai/ReutersPreviously Mr. Abe had said he would quit politics if he or his wife were found to have influenced official dealings with Moritomo Gakuen.Atsuo Ito, a political analyst, said that while a donation by Mr. Abe of his own money would have been legal, it would be an ethical problem for him, because it could mean his statements until now have been lies, which would be a big incident that would shake the government.Mr. Kagoike said he recalled having receiving donations in September 2015 including money donated by Abe.He did not elaborate but said he would provide more information to Parliament. Mr. Abes party, the Liberal Democrats, had resisted opposition demands to call Mr. Kagoike to testify, but relented on Thursday after Mr. Kagoikes remarks, according to NHK, the national broadcaster. Mr. Kagoike will testify on March 23, NHK said.In Mr. Kagoikes meeting with the lawmakers in Osaka on Thursday, he elaborated somewhat, members of the parliamentary group said afterward. Mr. Kagoike told them he had received 1 million yen from Mrs. Abe when she gave a speech at the kindergarten in September 2015, they said. The lawmakers also quoted him as saying he believed some of the money had come from the prime minister.Mr. Abes defense minister, Tomomi Inada, has also been embroiled in the scandal. A former lawyer, she helped defend Moritomo Gakuen in a lawsuit in 2004, but under questioning in Parliament she initially denied working for the group. She retracted that statement this week and apologized, saying she had forgotten, but opposition parties have demanded that she resign.Officials in Osaka prefecture said this week they were considering filing a criminal complaint against Moritomo Gakuen over irregularities in the schools licensing application.In early publicity materials for the new school, Mr. Kagoike proposed naming it after Mr. Abe, a champion of conservative causes who has driven changes to Japans school system, including revisions in history textbooks to soften depictions of Japans wartime atrocities in its former Asian empire.The Finance Ministry allowed Moritomo Gakuen to acquire the land a two-acre vacant lot near an airport in an Osaka suburb for 134 million yen, or about $1.17 million, one-seventh its assessed value. Additional subsides for clearing landfill reduced Moritomos outlay to next to nothing. | World |
MatterCredit...Pascal Pavani/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesJune 16, 2017A common genetic mutation is linked to an increase in life span of about 10 years among men, researchers reported on Friday.The mutation, described in the journal Science Advances, did not seem to have any effect on women. Still, it joins a short list of gene variants shown to influence human longevity.By studying these genes, scientists may be able to design drugs to mimic their effects and slow aging. But the search for them has been slow and hard.When it comes to how long we live, nurture holds powerful sway over nature. In 1875, for example, life expectancy in Germany was less than 39 years; today it is over 80.Germans didnt gain those extra decades because of evolving, life-extending changes in their genes. Instead, they gained access to clean water, modern medicine and other life-protecting measures.Nevertheless, heredity clearly plays a modest role in how long people live. For example, a number of studies have shown that identical twins, who share the same genes, tend to have more similar life spans than fraternal twins.In a 2001 study of Amish farmers in Pennsylvania, researchers found that close relatives were more likely to live to similar ages than distant ones.The impact of heredity on life span has turned out to be about as big as its influence on developing high blood pressure. But large-scale surveys of peoples DNA have revealed few genes with a clear influence on longevity.Its been a real disappointment, said Nir Barzilai, a geneticist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.Researchers are having better luck following clues from basic biology. In many species, for example, there is a relationship between an animals size and its life span.If you look at dogs, flies, mice, whatever it is, smaller lives longer, said Gil Atzmon, a geneticist at the University of Haifa in Israel who collaborates with Dr. Barzilai.Results like these have led researchers to look closely at the molecules that cause our bodies to grow. One of the most important is growth hormone, which is produced in the brain and courses through the body.The hormone latches on to cells, binding to a surface molecule called a growth hormone receptor. This signal can trigger cells to grow faster. The cells may also release signaling molecules of their own, known as growth factors.About a quarter of people have a mutation in the gene for growth hormone receptors a chunk of DNA is missing.People with this mutation can make working receptors, but their shape is slightly different. Studies in the mid-2000s suggested that this mutation might make children short.The link between height and longevity led Dr. Atzmon and his colleagues to wonder if it might also influence how long people lived.The researchers sequenced the gene for growth hormone receptors in 567 Ashkenazi Jews over 60 and their children, whom Dr. Barzilai had been studying for years.The mutation, they found, was present in 12 percent of the men over age 100. That rate was about three times higher than in 70-year-old men.In women, however, the mutation was present in roughly the same fraction in both age groups.Dr. Atzmon and his colleagues followed up by examining the gene in a group of long-lived people in the United States, another in France and a third in the Amish community, raising the total number of subjects to 814.In all three groups, the researchers observed the same effect. Among men, the mutation in the gene for growth hormone receptors was linked to substantially longer lives.The results look convincing to me, said Ali Torkamani, the director of genome informatics at the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla, Calif.Dr. Torkamani, who was not involved in the new study, said it was the first to establish a link between growth hormone receptors and longevity.I definitely think theres some fire there, said P. Eline Slagboom, a geneticist at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands.But she had some reservations about the results, given that only men showed an effect and that the study was relatively small.Its calling out for larger studies, she said.In 2008, Dr. Barzilai and his colleagues discovered that a mutation in another growth-related gene could extend life this time, only in women. Combined with the new study, this research suggests that men and women take different genetic paths toward living long lives.But the researchers dont know what those paths might be. This whole issue has shocked us, Dr. Barzilai said.The new study also shows that the link between life span and height is more complex than the scientists had anticipated.They had expected that long-lived men with the mutation would be short. However, just the opposite turned out to be true: The mutation seemed to raise mens height by about an inch.Dr. Barzilai and his colleagues suspect that the mutation triggers a cascade of changes in the growth-spurring signals in mens bodies, leaving cells less sensitive to low levels of growth hormone.When growth hormone levels surge, however, these cells divide faster than those in men without the mutation. Somehow, the receptor amplifies the signals growth.That sensitivity may spur the growth of boys during adolescence, when their bodies are flooded with growth hormone. But as the amount of hormone drops in manhood, their cells may divide more slowly, and they may stop producing growth-spurring molecules of their own.Numerous studies suggest that extra growth signals can speed up aging. One theory is that there may be a trade-off in the body between growth and repairing molecular damage in cells.Men with a mutation in their growth hormone receptor may put more resources into repairing their bodies, thus slowing the aging process.In recent years, some doctors have prescribed growth hormone to patients to restore youth and give them strength. Dr. Barzilai said the new study suggests that keeping growth hormone levels low may actually be a better strategy for living longer.Were worried about giving treatments that probably are going to do the opposite, he said.Dr. Barzilai and his colleagues now hope to mimic the effect of the newly discovered mutation by reducing growth hormone levels in older people.Already they have produced some promising results in animal studies using a diabetes drug called metformin.Its not far from reality, Dr. Barzilai said. | science |
Credit...Sandy Huffaker for The New York TimesJune 22, 2018WASHINGTON Tense arguments broke out at the White House over the past two days as top government officials clashed over how to carry out President Trumps executive order on keeping together immigrant families at the Mexican border, according to four people familiar with the meetings.The disputes started Thursday night. They continued Friday as Kevin K. McAleenan, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, returned to the White House to question how his agency was supposed to detain parents and children together when the law requires that children not be held indefinitely in jail.The bureaucratic battles threatened to undermine Mr. Trump as his administration tries to counter a political crisis driven by heartbreaking images and recordings of crying migrant children separated from their parents and sent off to shelters.On Friday, the president was defiant. We cannot allow our Country to be overrun by illegal immigrants as the Democrats tell their phony stories of sadness and grief, Mr. Trump said on Twitter.But inside the White House, the arguments echoed the chaos at American airports after Mr. Trumps ban on travel from predominantly Muslim countries. The ban, issued days after he took office, surprised Border Patrol agents and State Department consular officials.Officials at the southwestern border are struggling to obey Mr. Trumps demand to prosecute people who illegally enter the United States ending what the president has reviled as a catch and release policy while also following an executive order he issued Wednesday to keep migrant families together as they are processed in courts.But as with the case of the travel ban, the reality of a vastly complicated bureaucratic system is colliding head-on with Mr. Trumps shoot-from-the-hip use of executive power.The presidents whiplash-inducing order caught several people by surprise. Just a day before Mr. Trump signed it, one person close to the president said that he told advisers that separating families at the border was the best deterrent to illegal immigration and that he said that my people love it.Even on Wednesday, Mr. Trump repeatedly changed his mind about precisely what he wanted to do, and how, until shortly before he signed the order.VideotranscripttranscriptWhat Options Does the U.S. Have on Immigration?The Timess White House correspondent Michael D. Shear examines the polarizing political debate over immigration policies in the United States.Weve been in the middle of this really intense debate over what to do with the borders of our country and how to deal with the questions of: Who gets to come into our country? How do they come in? Where do they go? What happens to them when they get here? And youve had these two really interesting extremes that have been battling for the last several decades, frankly. Youve had a kind of, one extreme, which is in the White House right now: President Trump; Stephen Miller, his top adviser; Attorney General Jeff Sessions. We dont want people coming in. Dont you have kids, Mr. President? And you have the other extreme, where you have people who, you know, argue for much more liberal open borders, be much more opening to refugees, to asylum seekers. What sort of climaxed this week with this family separation crisis is, How do you find a solution thats in the middle? The executive order essentially says the administration is now going to detain families that come across the border illegally, and theyre seeking legal permission to detain them permanently. If they cant get that legal permission, which, right now, rests in the hands of a single federal judge in California, how does the administration handle these families? Well, theres a couple of different solutions that have been out there in the past. The Obama administration used ankle bracelets extensively. They set up these pilot programs where the families would be put in touch, would have to register with a nonprofit organization, with a community-based organization that kept tabs on the families. The rate at which the people who are in those programs actually came back for their court hearings was very, very high, in the 90 percents, which suggested that if you could create some of these programs on a national scale, and really broaden them out, that you could potentially satisfy President Trumps concerns about these people just melting away into the country and never coming back. So there are two big parts to the presidents executive order: Whats going to happen with people going forward? And then the question that has arisen: Whats going to happen to the people, the children, who have already been separated from their parents over these last several weeks? On that second question, the executive order is actually silent. It says nothing about the existing population of about 2,300 children who have been already separated from their parents. There are huge practical hurdles to bringing all of these people back, the main one of which is that the parents are being held in custody for criminal proceedings. They can either let the families go, using ankle bracelets, using community-based programs thats the way that Obama did it, thats the way that Bush did it, thats one option. Or, the other option would be to go back to family separation.The Timess White House correspondent Michael D. Shear examines the polarizing political debate over immigration policies in the United States.CreditCredit...John Moore/Getty ImagesThursday nights meeting was held in the White House Situation Room and lasted at least 90 minutes, according to four officials briefed on the discussion who described it on the condition of anonymity.They said Customs and Border Protection officials forcefully argued that agents who are apprehending migrant families at the border cannot refer all of the adults for prosecution because the Justice Department and other law enforcement agencies do not have the resources to process each case.In particular, the border officials expressed concern about the number of prosecutors and judges needed to handle the proceedings, and the lack of space available to detain families while the cases go forward.As a result, the officials from Customs and Border Protection told White House and Justice Department officials that they have had to issue fewer prosecution referrals of adults with children despite the presidents zero tolerance policy on illegal immigration.Justice Department officials shot back, maintaining that the department has made no changes to its hard-line stance on illegal border crossings as it continues to receive referrals for prosecutions from Customs and Border Protection agents.Government lawyers will prosecute adults who cross our border illegally instead of claiming asylum at any port of entry, Sarah Isgur Flores, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said Thursday in a statement.The Justice Department has been combating reports about its ability or willingness to enact the zero-tolerance policy, denying that prosecutors have dismissed immigration violation cases in South Texas. Last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent 35 prosecutors to the southwestern border to help handle the surge in cases created by the zero-tolerance policy; the Defense Department deployed an additional 21 lawyers to handle immigration prosecutions.Federal immigration courts faced a backlog of more than 700,000 cases in May, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC, at Syracuse University. In some courts, the average wait for an immigration hearing was over 1,400 days; some hearings are being scheduled beyond 2021 before an available slot on the docket is found.Lt. Col. Jamie Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the military is preparing to shelter as many as 20,000 migrant children on four bases: Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas; Fort Bliss in El Paso; Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Tex.; and Dyess Air Force Base near Abilene, Tex. It was not immediately clear on Friday if the parents could also be housed there.Customs and Border Protection officials said Friday that nearly 500 children who were separated since May have been reunited or will be reunited with their families by Sunday. These children were in the agencys custody, never having been sent to facilities run by the Health and Human Services Department.It is unclear when the other 2,300 children will be reunited with their families. They have been separated from their parents since the zero-tolerance policy was announced. The children have been placed in facilities run by the Health and Human Services Department, some of them thousands of miles from where their parents are being detained.Administration officials said they have finalized a process to let parents know where their children are and to have regular communication with them after separation. Parents who are deported will be reunited with their children before being removed from the country, officials said.For the past week, Mr. Trump has demanded changes in the United States immigration laws and encouraged Congress to act with urgency. But on Friday morning, he appeared to give up hope that the Republican-controlled Congress could succeed in passing an immigration bill this year, urging lawmakers in a tweet to stop wasting their time.The president said a vote on immigration legislation should be postponed until after the midterm elections in November, when he expects Republicans to pick up more seats and create a stronger majority a prediction that is far from guaranteed.But House Republicans are moving forward as planned with efforts to pass immigration legislation, said Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the majority whip.I think the presidents expressing his frustration that Democrats dont want to solve the problem while we do, Mr. Scalise said. Were going to keep working to try to get it done.He acknowledged that passing the bill would be an uphill fight.On Thursday, the House voted against a hard-line immigration measure, and Republican leaders delayed a vote on a more moderate proposal, punting a decision on the bill to next week to give themselves more time to pick up support.The proposal, the product of weeks of negotiations between House Republican moderates and conservatives, would provide a citizenship path for the young unauthorized immigrants known as Dreamers and would keep migrant families together when they are stopped at the border.But Mr. Trumps message swiftly undercut party leaders as they try to build enough support to pass the bill.Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin had no immediate comment on Friday about the presidents change of course.It doesnt help, Ill be honest, said Representative Joe L. Barton, Republican of Texas. What we wanted was the president to say, Vote yes next week on the compromise bill.Some rank-and-file Republicans especially those who face tough re-election campaigns are under intense pressure from constituents to pass legislation that would protect Dreamers, who have been shielded from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, that Mr. Trump moved to end last year.I think its time for Congress to stand up and actually write a permanent legislative fix for DACA; its time for us to prevent this notion of taking babies from their mothers; its time that we should make sure we actually secure our borders, said Representative Will Hurd, Republican of Texas, who has been pushing a bipartisan immigration bill that Mr. Ryan refuses to take up.Debate over the family separation policy turned into a tense standoff in the House on Friday, when Representative Ted Lieu, Democrat of California, played a recording of the detained children wailing and crying, as the presiding officer, Representative Karen Handel, Republican of Georgia, tried to shut him down.The gentleman will suspend, Ms. Handel demanded repeatedly, citing the chambers decorum rules. Mr. Lieu refused.Why are you trying to prevent the American people from listening to what it sounds like in a detention facility? Mr. Lieu asked. The recording ran for several minutes before he stopped it and yielded.Later Friday, Mr. Trump invited family members of those killed by undocumented immigrants to deliver personal stories about the deaths of their loved ones. Some died in car accidents. Others were raped, beaten or tortured before they were killed.Im one of your legal immigrants, said Sabine Durden, whose son Dominic was killed in a crash. Mr. Trump introduced her by saying her story was an incredible one.Flanked by the so-called angel families, the president said the families had been permanently separated, a reference to the family separation issue.He also used the opportunity to insist that crime among illegal immigrants is higher than the news media acknowledges. In fact, a 2015 study concludes that legal and illegal immigrants are much less likely than natives to commit crimes. | Politics |
Credit...James Hill for The New York TimesFeb. 4, 2014KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia On the day that the Winter Olympics opened in Vancouver, British Columbia, four years ago, a luger named Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed on a training run. Traveling almost 90 miles per hour at Whistler Sliding Centre, Kumaritashvili, a 21-year-old from the Republic of Georgia, lost control of his sled near the bottom of the course and was thrown from the track. He died after striking a pole.The death rattled the Games. A debate instantly raged about whether the track used for luge, bobsled and skeleton was too fast and too dangerous. Among those who felt the reverberations were the people designing and building the track for the next Olympics, in Sochi, Russia, in 2014. Final drawings were being done, but construction had not begun on the narrow mountainside. We knew that the speeds had to come down, the president of the International Luge Federation, Josef Fendt, said last year as he stood at the bottom of the track for the Sochi Games. Thats the main thing.Designers of the Sochi track created three uphill sections, an unprecedented number. The first two were added to reduce speeds. The third, near the end of the course, is a drastic rise where the track curls over itself, like a highway overpass, required because designers ran out of room on the slope. The result in Sochi is a roller-coaster-like track that runs about 10 m.p.h. slower than the one used at the 2010 Games. Those changes were already underway at the time of Kumaritashvilis death. Officials knew before the Olympics that speeds at the Whistler track were higher than expected, because the track had opened in 2008 and had held world-class test events in 2009, just as designs for Sochi were taking shape. By the 2010 Winter Games, they already knew that they wanted to slow things down for the next Olympics.ImageCredit...IOC Media Broadcast, via Associated PressWe had a good idea what was going on while we were doing the design for Sochi, said Terry Gudzowsky, the president of ISC/IBG Group, a consortium of track designers and builders who have been involved in the construction of the past six Olympic tracks. The first two uphills, they were put in because we realized we had to maintain a speed. The last one we had to do that way, but it served the same purpose.Each rise shaved a few miles per hour off the projected speeds. Without the negative slopes, as they are called, simulations showed that speeds would approach 100 m.p.h., the track designer Udo Gurgel said. Speeds at Vancouver in four-man bobsled, the fastest of the sliding disciplines, reached the mid-90s, making it the fastest track in the world. In Sochi at last years World Cup event, bobsledders reached about 84 m.p.h., in line with most tracks around the world. It is a fast track, Fendt said. It is a challenge, and it is a very interesting track. But it is safe.Coaches and athletes agreed. Gone is the trepidation that accompanied the buildup to the Vancouver Games, when athletes knew they were breaking barriers. Its difficult to have a fast time, Georg Hackl, a three-time gold medalist for Germany and now a coach, said as he watched training at the Sochi track last year. But its not dangerous. Thats the important thing.Besides the three uphill portions, the track has several unusual variations within its 17 curves. While most of the worlds tracks are similarly serpentine, individual curves usually are consistent from start to finish. Athletes might enter a corner going downhill at a 12 percent grade, and usually exit the corner at the same 12 percent drop. In Sochi, some of the curves begin with a sharp descent, only to rise near the end. Others are the opposite, the end of a curve dipping away at a sharp angle, sometimes disconcertingly out of sight.Its more of a roller coaster than just like a complete downward luge race, said Chris Mazdzer, an American luger. One severe right-hand U-turn, Curve 10, has the worlds only triple wave, meaning the path of the sleds will arc visibly up and down through the turn, a crowd-pleasing function of pressure and gravity. The guy who oscillates the least, who makes the straightest line through there, will be the fastest rider, said John Daly, an American skeleton athlete. Because of Kumaritashvilis death four years ago, these Olympics will bring a global watch over the safety of this track. No one has been implicated in the death, including the Vancouver Organizing Committee, the sports governing body or the track designers and builders. The luge federation said in the wake of the crash that Kumaritashvili was at fault. A coroners report did not assess blame, suggesting that a combination of speed, track difficulty and the drivers inexperience had probably caused the crash. A subsequent safety audit, recommended by the British Columbia Coroners Service and released in late 2012, concluded that the safety and design measures met standards in the sport and offered statistics to show how rare such accidents are. It skirted the issues of cause and responsibility.Mont Hubbard, a mechanical and aerospace professor at the University of California, Davis, took on the issue. He concluded last year that the accident had probably been caused by a fillet, the joint where the lower edge of the steeply banked curve met a low vertical wall. The surface is rounded slightly in that gutterlike gully, and Hubbard said he believed it was enough to launch Kumaritashvili when the right runner of his sled rose up the fillet as he exited the corner. ImageCredit...James Hill for The New York TimesIf it hadnt been there, on the inside of the curve, he couldnt have been ejected, Hubbard said. Gudzowsky called the report a flawed theory. No track has a consistent ice surface throughout, he said, because of ever-changing variables including the method of ice application and weather conditions.If there is anything to investigate which, in my opinion, there isnt, because its been clearly determined that it was just an unfortunate accident it would be the state of the ice at the time of the accident at that location, Gudzowsky said. And thats not even possible because that data isnt there to replicate a three-dimensional replica of the ice surface that was there.After the accident, before the Olympic races began in Vancouver, the height of the walls in that section of the track was raised. Padding was added to the bare poles in the area of the one Kumaritashvili struck. After the Vancouver Games, the International Olympic Committee asked that the speed calculations for Sochi be double-checked. (The high rates of speed at the Whistler track were unexpected, Gudzowsky said, because designers did not have access to the latest, ever-changing and often proprietary information about technical advances in the sliding sports.) The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology affirmed the projections, and the speeds in Sochi have been just as expected during the design phase. The poles in Sochi are farther from the track, too, but not because of Kumaritashvilis death. The track rests on a large U-beam, buried under the ground, which houses the complex utilities and refrigeration system. The poles are anchored into that beam, and curve away from the track, supporting the tracks primary architectural flourish: enormous honey-colored wood beams that provide a graceful protective shell down the course. It is physically impossible, I think, to eliminate injuries, said Fendt, the luge federation president. We have to do all we can to limit them.Experienced athletes, like the American bobsled driver Steven Holcomb, generally liked the high-speed Vancouver track, which is still part of the international circuit. Holcomb won a gold medal there in 2010, but he acknowledged that he had approached the competition with a bit of unease.It was dangerous; it was fast, he said. And it was terrible what happened. It was difficult standing at the top of the hill when youre about to hurl yourself down this hill at 95 miles per hour, as hard as you can, knowing that a guy was killed there a couple of days ago. The track at Sochi, Holcomb said, is much different.Its not slow, but its slower, he said. Everybodys going to make it to the bottom. | Sports |
MatterCredit...Juli Leonard/Raleigh News & Observer, via GettyMarch 9, 2016Scientists recently turned Harvards Skeletal Biology Laboratory into a pop-up restaurant. It would have fared very badly on Yelp.Katherine D. Zink, then a graduate student, acted as chef and waitress. First, she attached electrodes to the jaws of diners to record the activity in the muscles they use to chew food. Then she brought out the victuals.Some volunteers received a three-course vegetarian meal of carrots, yams or beets. In one course, the vegetables were cooked; in the second, they were raw and sliced; in the last course, Dr. Zink simply served raw chunks of plant matter.Other patrons got three courses of meat (goat, in this case). Dr. Zink grilled the meat in the first course, but offered it raw and sliced in the second. In the third course, her volunteers received an uncooked lump of goat flesh.In some of the trials, the volunteers chewed the food until it was ready to swallow and then spat it out. Dr. Zink painstakingly picked apart those food bits and measured their size.If that was all my dissertation was, I would have quit graduate school, Dr. Zink said. It was as lovely as it sounds.Dr. Zink persevered, however, because she was exploring a profound question about our origins: How did our ancestors evolve from small-brained, big-jawed apes into large-brained, small-jawed humans?Scientists studying the fossil record have long puzzled over this transition, which happened around two million years ago. Before then, early human relatives known as hominins were typically about the size of chimpanzees, with massive teeth and a brain only a third the size of humans current brains.But with the emergence of species like Homo erectus, hominins grew to about our current height, with brains twice as large as those of their forebears.In the late 1990s, Richard W. Wrangham, an anthropologist at Harvard, proposed that cooking was the key. Once hominins learned to use fire, he suggested, they roasted meat and starchy tubers they dug out of the ground.Cooked food was easier to chew and digest, and hominins no longer needed big teeth to grind tough plants. Better yet, the extra calories they received helped fuel hungry neurons and, eventually, bigger brains.While the oldest known hearths date to only 400,000 years ago, Dr. Wrangham argued that hominins cooked long before then. At first, they might simply have used natural fires to cook food before mastering the art of making one themselves.Yet cooking was not the only way hominins prepared food. As long as 3.5 million years ago, scientists have found, hominins were making stone tools. Cut marks on mammal bones suggest that the tools were used to carve meat from carcasses.Early hominins also made so-called hammerstones, which some researchers have speculated were used to smash nuts and other food.Dr. Zink and her adviser at Harvard, Daniel E. Lieberman, wondered if stone tools helped hominins digest meat and starchy tubers long before cooking was invented. To explore that possibility, they opened their unappetizing cafe.The findings? First, raw meat was impossible for the subjects to chew into smaller pieces. Its like chewing gum, Dr. Zink said.But slicing raw meat into smaller pieces allowed the volunteers to grind it further into bits small enough to swallow. (The test subjects spat out the raw meat to avoid food poisoning.)Cooked meat actually demanded more chewing, but it could be ground into even smaller particles that were digested with less effort.Slicing raw vegetables did not make it easier for the volunteers to eat them, the scientists found but pounding on the vegetables did. Cooking made the vegetables even easier to consume.Based on their experiments, Dr. Zink and Dr. Lieberman concluded that, long before the invention of cooking, stone tools could have made it easier for hominins to eat raw meat and tubers, conserving precious energy.It was surprising to us how effective it was, Dr. Lieberman said. He and Dr. Zink reported the results of their experiment Wednesday in the journal Nature.Stone tools used to process meat and vegetables could have influenced the evolution of hominins.Big, strong teeth, for instance, may have become less important to their survival. That can help explain the reduction of the face long before the evidence of cooking, Dr. Lieberman said. The extra energy could have helped to drive the evolution of larger hominin brains.Dr. Lieberman and Dr. Zink do not dismiss the importance of cooking. It killed food pathogens, made it possible to store food longer and destroyed toxins. But they argue that the advantages of the cooking fire were preceded by those of stone tools.It is a very clever piece of research, said William R. Leonard, an anthropologist at Northwestern University. I think they make a strong case that cooking was not critical to the transformation of early hominins, he added.Dr. Wrangham disagrees. There is no evidence, he said, that hominins actually smashed tubers to eat them, nor do any living hunter-gatherers engage in the practice.And even if early hominins did smash uncooked tubers, Dr. Wrangham said, he doubts that they got enough nutrition from them to keep a modern human healthy. He points to studies of people who eat only raw foods that link the diet to difficulty with pregnancy.The average woman on a diet like that with incredibly high-class agricultural foods cannot have a baby, Dr. Wrangham said.Kenneth Sayers, an anthropologist at the Language Research Center at Georgia State University, agreed that stone kitchen tools may have played a part in human evolution.But he cautioned that the energy hominins put into eating went well beyond chewing. Food was not presented on a plate, he said. Hominins went to great trouble just to acquire something to eat.Dr. Zink did not disagree. This is just one little step in what hopefully be some broader body of knowledge, she said. | science |
Asia Pacific|Suicide Bomber in Afghanistan Slams Into Packed Minibushttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/world/asia/afghanistan-suicide-bomber-minibus.htmlCredit...Wakil Kohsar/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesMarch 13, 2017KABUL, Afghanistan A suicide bomber rammed a sedan full of explosives into a packed commuter minibus in Kabul on Monday, according to Afghan officials and eyewitnesses.It was the second serious attack in the capital in less than a week. Gunmen stormed the main military hospital on Wednesday, killing at least 31 people, many of them patients shot in their rooms.Two eyewitnesses to the attack on Monday, one of them an off-duty policeman, said that a Toyota Corolla smashed into the minibus and exploded, engulfing the minibus in flames and burning everyone inside.Other accounts said that a roadside bomb may have been involved.It was not immediately known how many people were in the minibus. The vehicles are commonly used to take government employees and other workers home, and sometimes carry as many as 20 people.A spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Sediq Sediqqi, gave a preliminary toll of at least one person killed and at least 19 more wounded in the attack; both figures could rise.The attack took place on a heavily congested road in the Taimani neighborhood, where many foreign aid workers live, during the evening rush.It was the fourth serious attack so far in March in the capital, which typically has only about one a month. Two bombings at widely separated locations in Kabul on March 1 killed 23 people and wounded more than 100; the Taliban claimed responsibility for those bombings. A website affiliated with the Islamic State claimed that the group was responsible for the hospital attack, according to the SITE intelligence monitoring agency. Islamic State attacks have previously been rare in Afghanistan, outside of a small area in eastern Nangarhar Province where affiliated fighters have been most active.There was no immediate claim of responsibility on Monday for the attack on the minivan, the 11th suicide attack of the year in Afghanistan. | World |
VideotranscripttranscriptThe Republican Power Couple Helping to Shape the 2018 MidtermThe billionaire Republican donors have poured money into groups backing right-wing candidates, helping to shape the 2018 midterm elections.Meet Dick and Liz Uihlein. They spell it like this, but they spell their company name like this. Uline it sounds familiar, right? Youve probably used their boxes. The Wisconsin-based company has grown to be much more than boxes. Its a packaging supply giant with over 6,000 employees. The family comes across as unassuming in these corporate videos. But when it comes to politics, theyre anything but. The Mercers, the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson already have the name recognition, but the Uihleins may be the biggest Republican donors youve never heard of. Theyre pouring their massive wealth into super PACs backing insurgent right-wing candidates, already spending roughly $26 million on federal elections this cycle. Candidates backed by Uihlein generally support the Trump agenda, sometimes veering even further to the right. A proven conservative fighting for Mississippi values. Earlier this year Mr. Uihlein gave $2.5 million to Jeanne Ives for governor in their home state of Illinois. She ran this ad against incumbent Bruce Rauner in the primary. Thank you for signing legislation that lets me use the girls bathroom. The ad was criticized as transphobic. Thats exactly what, typically, a transgender man looks like No, its not. Ives lost. Roy Moore, leadership we can trust. Mr. Uihlein also gave over half a million dollars to super PACs supporting Roy Moore in Alabama. Moores campaign was compromised when several women accused him of sexually assaulting them as teens. I trusted Mr. Moore, because he was the district attorney. A Democrat ended up winning that Senate race. Mr. Uihlein contributed half a million dollars to a super PAC behind Patrick Morrisey. He turned the drain the swamp rallying cry into something resembling a terrorist threat in this campaign ad. Lets not just change Washington, lets blow it up and reinvent it. Thats better. Morrisey won the Republican primary in West Virginia, after President Trump disparaged his controversial opponent. Mr. President, if you are watching right now, let me tell you: Your tweet was huge. Sometimes the Uihleins support outsider candidates who wouldnt stand a chance without the money. Wisconsin voters hadnt heard of Kevin Nicholson, a political newcomer trying to unseat Democrat Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay senator. Then Mr. Uihlein donated over $7 million to super PACs supporting Nicholson. The Republican Party has endorsed a different candidate in that race. But polls suggest that Nicholson is now a strong contender. The Uihleins spend the most in their home states of Illinois and Wisconsin, but they fund candidates across the country. These megadonations are helping to shape the 2018 elections, while pushing the Republican Party further to the right.The billionaire Republican donors have poured money into groups backing right-wing candidates, helping to shape the 2018 midterm elections.CreditCredit...Illustration by Drew JordanJune 7, 2018Few political donors are as influential, yet little known, as Liz and Dick Uihlein.The Midwestern couple has joined the upper pantheon of Republican donors alongside names like Koch, Mercer and Adelson. They have spent roughly $26 million on the current election cycle, supporting more than 60 congressional candidates, working outside the party establishment to advance a combative, hard-right conservatism, from Washington to the smallest town.Mr. Uihlein (pronounced YOU-line), a scion of one of the founders of Schlitz beer, underwrites firebrand anti-establishment candidates who typically defend broad access to assault weapons and assail transgender rights. He has also bankrolled partisan newspapers and backed Roy Moore in Alabama even after he was accused of sexual misconduct with underage girls.Mrs. Uihlein is the hands-on president of Uline, the packing supply giant the couple founded together nearly four decades ago. Her own views emerge in dispatches she sends out in the company catalog: about her devotion to Fox News, her love for Hall & Oates they once performed at Uline and her disdain for marijuana. Have the politicians gone mad? she once wrote about the legalization of the drug. Its bad news.Perhaps nothing illustrates the couples determination to set the agenda more than their efforts in the Wisconsin town of Manitowish Waters. They have spent millions remaking the small community and buying up much of its downtown. In 2016, shortly before Mrs. Uihlein joined the Trump campaign as a major fund-raiser, she threatened to divert $300,000 in planned donations if the town didnt move a boat ramp that was near a pavilion she had built.I find this delay unnecessary and unacceptable, she wrote to a local official, in an email with the subject line, The Derailment of What is Best for Manitowish Waters.I need an answer now, she added. I am done waiting.Married for 51 years, both in their 70s, the Uihleins rarely grant interviews. But in a statement responding to questions provided by The Times, the couple said,We care about our community and our country and choose to personally support candidates that share our policy beliefs.They have their own brand of political engineering, with candidates and tactics sometimes audaciously distorting the truth. They backed an Illinois candidate for governor who ran a television commercial playing on a deep-voiced transgender caricature, and a congressman from Georgia, Jody Hice, who divines significance in blood moons that fall on Jewish holidays. They supported Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas, who has suggested that reducing Alaskan oil flows could diminish caribou mating.ImageCredit...Katherine SkibaThey have reinforced their message by supporting a network of broadsheets and websites that resemble news outlets but that make one-sided attacks against their opponents.Those who get in their way are CAVERS (Citizens Against Virtually Everything), as Mrs. Uihlein said in a 2014 email to an official at the Manitowish Waters Chamber of Commerce.Those who join them are well rewarded. A political action committee supporting Chris McDaniel, the polarizing Mississippi Senate candidate, received $750,000 from Mr. Uihlein. Mr. McDaniel called Dick Uihlein instrumental in the conservative movement, adding, theres no way to overstate his importance.The couples spending this election cycle puts them atop all Republican donors listed in federal filings so far. Dan K. Eberhart, a Colorado drilling-services executive and major Republican donor, called them the new Mercers.There were all these articles: Who is going to fund the Bannon insurgency? Mr. Eberhart added, referring to Stephen K. Bannon, the estranged Trump adviser who championed attacks on the Republican establishment.Bannon has blown up and is no longer a factor, but post facto, Uihlein is the answer.ImageCredit...Kevin Poirier/Kenosha NewsA Growing InfluenceCandidates and strategists courting the Uihleins come to Ulines 200-acre campus in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., just over the border from their hometown, Lake Forest, Ill. Called the Lodge, the headquarters looks like a rustic retreat made over as a corporate office. Men wear ties and tattoos are frowned upon.It is usually Mr. Uihlein they want to see.The times Ive been to Wisconsin to meet with him, hes the kind of individual who will leave his office and walk down to meet somebody, Mr. McDaniel said. He treated me like family.Dan Proft, a Chicago talk show host who runs the Uihlein-backed Liberty Principles PAC, has visited frequently. He called Mr. Uihlein an across-the-board conservative interested in shrinking the size and spending and scope of government.Mr. Uihleins donations this cycle include $11 million to three political action committees, mainly to support Kevin Nicholson, a Wisconsin candidate for Senate who fits the outsider mold the Uihleins prefer. A former Marine, he has never run for public office before, and recently questioned the cognitive thought process of veterans who vote Democratic.Mr. Uihlein also gave more than $7 million to PACs affiliated with Club for Growth, an anti-tax group that supported conservatives in 13 recent races nationwide.He has backed Scott Walker, Wisconsins governor, supporting his 2016 presidential bid before rallying behind Senator Ted Cruzs. The Uihleins were among the top donors recruited by Reince Priebus, then the Republican National Committee chairman, to close ranks behind Mr. Trump. Mrs. Uihlein took on a prominent fund-raising role; Mr. Uihlein was at the White House the day the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey delivered his Senate testimony last year.Like a lot of conservatives, they bounced between a few candidates, said Eric OKeefe, director of Club for Growths Wisconsin arm.Inside the company, Mrs. Uihlein is more visible. In a corporate video, she is shown meeting employees and reviewing Uline catalog pages.The couple work both in tandem and apart. After they each wrote $5,000 checks to redo a Manitowish Waters playground, we called to see if it was a duplicate, said John Hanson, chairman of the town board. They said no.The Uihleins responded to questions for this article both jointly and individually.Dick is much more interested in policy and politics, Mrs. Uihlein wrote. My passions are in investments and charitable work in our community.They started their packing supply business in 1980. Dick quit his job, wed just built this house, we had three little kids, Mrs. Uihlein once said. Their son Brian, a Uline executive who was inducted into the American Platform Tennis Association Hall of Fame the sport is a family favorite has said the business operation went down to the basement, then it moved up to the playroom upstairs.Uline lacks a visible corporate communications department and has a moribund Twitter account, unusual for a company with more than 6,000 employees. But it aggressively advertises digitally, and by widely distributing its catalog, which features more than 34,000 items, from gift wrap to shelving.The companys business growth is evident. Uline, which is privately held, built a 279,000-square-foot headquarters in Pleasant Prairie in 2010, and a second, 300,000-square-foot office on the same campus in 2017. (State and local tax incentives sweetened a move across the Illinois border.)Mrs. Uihleins politics emerge in her essays.When we watch TV news, the channel is mostly set on Fox News, she once wrote. She has also railed against the Chicago murder rate and the number of people on food stamps.You could tell which way she leaned, said Brian Hillard, 39, who worked at a Uline warehouse near Allentown, Pa., one of 11 locations the company operates. It wasnt excessive, it was more just her two cents on things. I didnt agree with them for the most part.ImageCredit...Alyssa Schukar for The New York TimesThe MicromanagerThe couple own a summer home in Manitowish Waters, a remote Wisconsin village northwest of Green Bay that Mrs. Uihlein has transformed into her vision of a vacationers utopia. Her hands-on approach has upset some residents.The town is pretty much divided in half, said Karen Dixon, a longtime homeowner. There are those who think shes doing wonderful things. I think she is. I guess its the way she goes about it that sometimes turns people off.Mrs. Uihlein is known for buying up businesses, spending millions on public improvements and dispensing unsolicited advice.On the main strip, barely a mile long, she has offered beautification tips and free renovation services to fellow merchants from paving parking lots to installing fences around dumpsters.Bill Dietz, who runs a gas station and convenience store, said Mrs. Uihlein came by one day and offered to regrout his floor.Another day, Mrs. Uihlein visited the Timberline Inn with two legal-pad-size pages of suggestions, according to the former manager, Eric Behnke.She didnt like some of the shrubs out front and some of the trees out back, Mr. Behnke remembered. She thought that part of the building should be restained a variety of stuff like that. She sent some of her guys over to help.ImageCredit...Alyssa Schukar for The New York TimesThe sale of the Timberline in 2014 highlighted the Uihleins penchant for managing the towns affairs.Richard Gilman, a former Manitowish Waters resident who built the Timberline in 1996, said in an interview that Mrs. Uihlein purchased the property amid widespread rumors in the town that a Pakistani buyer was interested.Not in her little town, Heaven forbid, said Mr. Gilman, who served as an adviser on the sale.Mrs. Uihlein appears to refer to a mystery buyer in an email to a Chamber of Commerce officer in 2014, shortly after her purchase.Do you think I wanted to own a motel like this? Huh? she wrote, in an email that circulated around town. I bought the motel as a defensive move for Manitowish Waters because the owner was going to sell to what several of us, including the Mayor, thought was not in the best interests of the town.In her email, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, Mrs. Uihlein added, You all should be happy there are folks like my husband and myself who can afford to buy old, dilapidated buildings, rehab them and put businesses in them without worrying about a profit.Asked about the rumored Pakistani buyer, Mrs. Uihlein said in a statement: I didnt want to see one absentee owner replaced with another, with another investment doomed to fail because they didnt know the economics of the North Woods.So rapid was the towns transformation that the community held a forum in 2014 where Mrs. Uihleins influence was a major topic of discussion.In addition to the hotel, now called the Lodge at Manitowish Waters, Mrs. Uihleins holdings include a coffee house, two shops, a spa, vacation rental homes and a restaurant. Her favorite $90 chardonnay is on the menu.Mr. Hanson, the town chairman, believes her largess toward Manitowish Waters exceeds $6 million, not including millions to a nonprofit developing controversial bike trails winding 17 miles along the towns scenic lakes.Im not sure she sleeps, he said.ImageCredit...Armando L. Sanchez/The Chicago TribuneHard-Edge TacticsAs Mrs. Uihlein ruffled feathers in rural Wisconsin, her husband immersed himself in hyperlocal politics touching on race and social issues. In affluent Lake Forest, Ill., where 90 percent of students are white, he backed a school board slate led by the chief critic of Lake Forest High Schools first black principal, who had criticized honors classes for tracking black students into lower classes.I cannot sit by and watch the current administration sacrifice open, honest communication, sacrifice academic excellence and sacrifice my tax dollars, Mr. Uihlein wrote to the local newspaper.Opposing gay and transgender rights was frequently a focus of his efforts. In one Illinois school district, Mr. Uihlein bankrolled a school board candidate who fought a move allowing transgender students in girls locker rooms.We saw slick, expensive-looking signs all over, said Daye Pope, organizing director for Trans United Fund, which supported the policy.The Uihlein forces drew sharp criticism for a recent television ad from the campaign of Jeanne Ives, the conservative challenger they backed in a primary against Gov. Bruce Rauner of Illinois. The ad featured a cartoonish depiction of a transgender woman, highlighting Mr. Rauners support for a bill permitting people to change the gender on their birth certificates.It was probably the most offensive thing Ive seen in a state race, said Pat Brady, the former Illinois Republican chairman.Mr. Uihlein said he had no involvement with the ad, and the couple said, We value diversity in our community and at Uline.Sometimes, Mr. Uihleins efforts unsettled his own candidates. Mickey Straub, a mayor in small Burr Ridge, Ill., who ran unsuccessfully for the State House of Representatives, was assailed for accepting support from Mr. Uihlein, whose backing of Mr. Moore in Alabama became an issue amid a flurry of negative advertising.Mr. Straub initially welcomed support from a Uihlein-funded PAC, but not anymore. It sounded good because I didnt have a big war chest, but I became no better than my opponent, he said. In the end, I would not do it again.Delivering ContentControlling the message has become a priority for the Uihleins, a goal made easier by the decline of local news operations.Mr. Uihlein is the largest donor to Mr. Profts Liberty Principles PAC, which supports hard-right candidates and funded more than a dozen publications resembling newspapers, with names like North Cook News and East Central Reporter.One North Cook News story assailed a Democratic state lawmaker with a headline saying she dismisses constituents concerns. Another target has been the Illinois state Republican leader, an ally of the governor, who is seen as insufficiently conservative by the Uihleins.A nonprofit run by a longtime Uihlein adviser, John Tillman, also contributed money to the newspaper network, drawing scrutiny because of restrictions on the political activity of such groups.They are riding the fine line between legal and illegal, and coordinated and not coordinated, in terms of political messaging allowed under state and federal campaign finance laws, said Colin Williams, policy director of Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.Mr. Tillman said his group had complied with relevant tax law. Mr. Proft said the publications are now funded by a private company. Disclaimers on their websites, however, say funding is provided, in part, by advocacy groups. Mr. Proft called that out of date.Mr. Uihlein also funded a political mailer resembling a newspaper in Texas, though it later emerged in a criminal trial that a candidate and his aides had misappropriated much of Mr. Uihleins $800,000 donation.Mr. Brady, the former Illinois Republican Party leader, suggested that Mr. Uihlein was an easy mark for political operatives; he also criticized Mr. Proft and his associates for spending Mr. Uihleins money wildly on long shots.Theyve just given him such bad advice that it makes him look kind of goofy, and hes not: Hes a serious guy, Mr. Brady said. These guys are making hundreds of thousands of dollars off him.Mr. Proft dismissed Mr. Brady as a flack for Rauner.In his responses, Mr. Uihlein said he had long worked with Mr. Proft and Mr. Tillman advancing conservative principles and believed they have both done so admirably.ImageCredit...Lauren Justice for The New York TimesHow the World Should BeThe Uihleins want to bend the world their way.Nowhere is that clearer than in Wisconsin, where the Republican establishment has one candidate to take on Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat and the first openly gay United States senator, and the Uihleins have another.Their pick, Mr. Nicholson, was a virtual unknown until Uihlein millions made him viable overnight, starting with a $2 million donation in March of 2017 to a new super PAC seeking to elect him. At the time he had not even announced his candidacy.Mr. Nicholsons long shot status seems to be almost beside the point. The Uihleins have made big donations to various super PACS and other groups that support him and attack his opponents, perhaps testing the concept of whether big money theirs can spawn, nurture and deliver a winning candidate.Their civic engineering can be just as calculating, as the people of Manitowish Waters can attest. After Mrs. Uihlein replaced a primitive bandstand there with a $1 million pavilion, she bolted down new furniture to prevent theft. That made it impossible to clear space for bands.I went over and unfastened it, said Barry Hopkins, a local motel owner who organizes free concerts. Liz removed the furniture. It was kind of her way or the highway.Mr. Gilman, the former owner of the Uihleins lodge, likens the towns transformation under the Uihleins to the couples grander ambitions.Shes done in that community what theyre trying to do on a national scale, he said, affect elections and do their drawing of how the world should be. | Politics |
VideoGunmen dressed in medical uniforms stormed the Afghan capitals main military hospital, leaving dozens dead and scores more wounded.CreditCredit...Mohammad Ismail/ReutersMarch 8, 2017KABUL, Afghanistan Gunmen disguised as medical staff members stormed the main military hospital in Kabul on Wednesday, killing at least 30 people and wounding dozens in an attack that was claimed by the Islamic State and that highlighted the countrys deteriorating security situation.Afghan forces struggled for seven hours to evacuate the crowded hospital and end the siege, killing all of the perpetrators of the audacious attack, which was carried out in broad daylight in the center of the Afghan capital.As the war in Afghanistan has escalated and security forces have suffered high casualty rates, the 400-bed Sardar Daud Khan hospital remains the main care center for wounded army soldiers. The hospital is busy on any given day, as the bodies of those who are killed around the country are also brought there for their families to pick up.The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack on Wednesday through its Amaq News Agency, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, hours after the Taliban denied involvement.Last year, there was a record number of civilian and military casualties from fighting that continues to rage across the country. Much of the fighting has been waged by the Taliban, an insurgency emboldened by territorial gains in recent years, but a group affiliated with the Islamic State has also been trying to gain a foothold in the east of the country.After repeated operations by Afghan forces and airstrikes by the United States military, the group has been reduced to about 700 fighters, according to United States military officials. Despite those losses, the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an increasing number of suicide missions in Kabul, the one on the hospital being the most sophisticated. The groups deadliest attack left at least 80 people dead at a peaceful protest last summer.The Islamic State, whose regional chapter covers Afghanistan and Pakistan and is largely made up of fighters from Pakistani tribal areas, also claimed responsibility for an attack on a shrine in southern Pakistan on Feb. 16 that killed more than 80 people.The regional picture is complicated, analysts say, by the difficulty in determining whether attacks attributed to the Islamic State were actually carried out by the group, or if other established groups like the Haqqani network were responsible.The attack in Kabul on Wednesday began around 9 a.m., a busy time for the hospitals staff as well as for family members visiting loved ones. A suicide bomber on foot detonated his explosives at one of the hospitals rear entrances, after which other attackers, believed to number four, entered the building.Maj. Gen. Dawlat Waziri, the spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, said the attackers had worn medical uniforms.Thirty people have been killed, including hospital personnel and patients, and more than 50 have been wounded, General Waziri said after the attack ended around 4 p.m.Sediq Sediqqi, the spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, said all the attackers had been killed.Survivors recounted harrowing stories of hiding under beds and holding their breath, or of trying to escape through windows. Caretakers tried to evacuate patients on gurneys. Hundreds of family members waited anxiously for hours outside the police cordon.Fazel Mohammed, 46, who works in the neurology department on the fifth floor, said he had been on duty the night before and was waiting for the morning handover when the initial explosion occurred.I heard firing in the corridor of the fifth floor, and I saw gunmen shooting everyone they saw, Mr. Mohammed said. They hit one of our colleagues with a bullet in the chest, and they fired at a girl who was a relative of a patient. Then they shot a cleaner and then another guy.Mr. Mohammed said he and others tried to barricade themselves in one of the rooms. They stayed there for three hours before security forces rescued them.Dr. Akramuddin Kakar, who was stuck in the hospital for most of the seven hours, said, We understand that on the second, third, fourth and fifth floors, casualties were very high, because everywhere was full of blood.He added, The attackers killed whoever they saw in the main building of the hospital.As the elite forces who cleared the building were leaving, civilians and men in military uniforms arrived in more than a dozen vans to donate blood a sign that the number of casualties could be higher than reported by the government.The United Nations condemned the attack, asking all parties to respect medical sites.On behalf of the U.N. humanitarian agencies, I strongly emphasize that medical facilities, personnel and those receiving treatment must never be placed at risk and under no circumstances be subject to attack, Adele Khodr, the United Nations interim humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan, said in a statement.This attack marks an abhorrent new low dressing in disguise to shoot at the sick and wounded is a cowardly, wicked act, Dr. Hamdullah Mohib, Afghanistans ambassador to the United States, said in a statement. These are forces of evil the world must work together to defeat.The hospital attack comes at a difficult time for medical workers in Afghanistan. From January 2015 to last December, about 240 attacks against health facilities or medical personnel have been recorded, according to a new report by the nongovernmental organization Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict.According to the United Nations, 3,498 civilians were killed and 7,920 were wounded in Afghanistan last year. Afghan officials say more than 6,200 Afghan soldiers and police officers were killed and more than 12,000 were wounded. | World |
DealBookDec. 14, 2015Credit...Karen Bleier/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesLets do some basic math about Yahoo since Marissa Mayer took the helm over three years ago.She paid about $3 billion for acquisitions of companies youve mostly never heard of, like Aviate, Polyvore and Distill (and one company you may have heard of, Tumblr). She spent $9.4 billion on stock buybacks; over the last two years, when the stock was trading higher, the buybacks have been a $2.5 billion money-losing trade. About $365 million of compensation went to Ms. Mayer herself, assuming she stays for an additional year and a half. And $109 million to an executive she hired to be her chief operating officer, who was then summarily fired 15 months later. An estimated $450 million on free food for the staff. And, depending on whom you believe, double-digit millions of dollars on parties and events, including a Great Gatsby-themed holiday party several weeks ago that was held with no apparent irony.Many of those figures come from a devastating new presentation sent to Yahoos board over the weekend by Eric Jackson, who runs a small hedge fund called SpringOwl Asset Management and who has long railed about the companys missteps.Inside Yahoo, Mr. Jackson is dismissed as a small-time shareholder who doesnt have his numbers right, according to one person involved in the companys recent travails.But whatever the size of his stock position in Yahoo or even if his numbers are slightly off, there is an underlying truth to Mr. Jacksons critique: Despite Ms. Mayers insistence that Yahoo is a very different and better company than the one she took over three years ago and it may well be it is being valued as if she has done not much of anything.Indeed, investors think Yahoos core business, stripped of its investment in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan, is worthless. Actually, Yahoo is less than worthless, as it is now being ascribed a negative number.Is it Ms. Mayers fault?That might seem like a fairly straightforward question, but the answer is complicated.In recent weeks, as a pile-on has taken place over Ms. Mayers stewardship of Yahoo with its stock plummeting and the company reversing a nearly yearlong plan to spin off its stake in Alibaba a series of Silicon Valley luminaries have come to her defense.Mark Pincus, Zyngas chief executive, wrote on Twitter:Marc Andreessen, the venture capitalist and co-founder of Netscape, added:James Titcomb, a columnist for The Telegraph, defended Ms. Mayer, writing, Its not clear that anybody could have saved Yahoo: The succession of failed turnarounds that preceded Mayers arrival show that.And yet, here we are still talking about a failed turnaround. Its hard to call it anything else.Why is Silicon Valley so invested in this story? The obsession with Yahoo overstates its importance within the battlefield that is the big digital advertising and media business. Yahoo remains a touchstone in the Silicon Valley firmament a fallen angel from the dot-com era that inspired an entire generation of entrepreneurs who still seem to yearn for a bygone era and remain frustrated that this onetime icon cant find its way back to success that always seems just out of its grasp.(Two decades ago, Yahoo was arguably the hottest company in Silicon Valley, a true Internet pioneer. Today, there is an acronym, GAFA, that stands for the four dominant players of the digital age Google-Apple-Facebook-Amazon. Its hard to imagine now, but that acronym, had Yahoo made different strategic decisions, could easily have been Gafay.)And Ms. Mayer was one of the valleys so-called rock stars, a successful, whip-smart female executive from Google who was celebrated in financial and fashion publications alike. The problem, perhaps, is that Ms. Mayer never realized that she wasnt running Google. She spent money as if she were still operating one of the valleys most coveted companies. Like Google, she provided free food about $108 million worth a year, according to Mr. Jacksons report. Perhaps one could argue she felt the need to compete with the likes of Google on perks if she were to recruit top talent, but she also managed to overpay to bring people on board through her aquihire strategy basically buying entire companies, often failed or zombie companies, so she could use the talent for other purposes.And while she might have spent too much money on bad acquisitions, she has also been criticized for spending too little. (Yes, she gets criticized coming and going.)What could she do with the $9.4 billion of cash she used for buybacks?Start making your dream shopping list. There was a time when Netflix was in her price range before its stock rocketed to a market capitalization of more than $50 billion. If she had arrived at Yahoo three months earlier, she could have picked off Instagram. Spotify, the music service, has been available the entire time. Snapchat, at one time, would have been a perfect acquisition.But she never made any of those deals, instead opting for tiny bolt-ons that thus far dont appear to have moved the dial.She often points to the growth in Yahoos mobile business as a bright spot and a business that didnt exist three years ago. That is true and the market hasnt given her credit for it, but mobile remains a fraction of the companys business. There are most likely other positives she hasnt gotten credit for either.But to most investors, her strategy which she says she will be revising again in January seems no different than the zigzag strategies of her various predecessor chief executives and dysfunctional boards.Of course, it is possible that Ms. Mayer could prove everyone wrong. But investors are running out of patience. | Business |
Jan. 5, 2021, 10:36 p.m. ETJan. 5, 2021, 10:36 p.m. ETCredit...Ben Gray/Associated PressThe Democrats now appear favored to prevail in both of their Senate races in Georgia, and therefore are the favorites to take control of the U.S. Senate. The two Republican candidates hold small leads in the vote count, and still have a chance to hold onto those advantages, but most of the remaining vote is in Democratic-leaning areas.The largest block of remaining ballots is the in-person vote in DeKalb County, a heavily Democratic area that includes part of Atlanta. Over all, the two Democratic candidates are favored to win the remaining vote by around nine percentage points, according to Upshot estimates.Democrats benefited from strong turnout among Black voters, who are on track to represent a much larger share of the electorate than they did in the general election, based on the turnout by precinct and early voting data.With 5 percent of the vote left to count, the Rev. Raphael Warnocks projected lead over Senator Kelly Loeffler is larger than Jon Ossoffs projected lead over David Perdue. Its hard to say when either race will be called. The Ossoff-Perdue call might have to wait until late absentee and provisional ballots are counted. | Politics |
Health|Birth Defects Rise Twentyfold in Mothers With Zika, C.D.C. Sayshttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/health/birth-defects-rise-twentyfold-in-mothers-with-zika-cdc-says.htmlCredit...ngel Franco/The New York TimesMarch 2, 2017American mothers infected with the Zika virus last year were 20 times as likely to give birth to babies with birth defects as mothers who gave birth two years before the epidemic, federal health officials said on Thursday.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded last April that Zika infection caused severe birth defects, including the abnormally small heads of microcephaly, but it had not previously estimated how common such defects were.A new study, published in the agencys Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, looked at several hundred pregnant women entered into the C.D.C.s Zika Pregnancy Registry after lab tests indicated they had probably had the virus. The study compared their birth outcomes to those found in historic registries of birth defects kept in Massachusetts, North Carolina and Georgia.It found that in 2013 and 2014, those states typical rate of severe birth defects including microcephaly, brain abnormalities, eye defects or central nervous system problems was about 3 out of every 1,000 live births.By contrast, the 442 women in the pregnancy registry had 26 infants and fetuses with similar defects, which would be a rate of about 60 out of every 1,000 pregnancy outcomes, including live births, miscarriages and abortions.Comparing a rate based on live births which is what the states tally to a rate based on a C.D.C. tally of all pregnancy outcomes is not a perfect comparison, conceded Margaret A. Honein, chief of the C.D.C.s birth defects branch and one of the studys authors. But the difference between three times per thousand and 60 times per thousand does give you the magnitude of the increase.The study showed the importance of keeping birth defects registries, the C.D.C. said, and reiterated that Zika is extremely dangerous to fetuses. The agency continues to recommend that pregnant women not travel to areas with Zika.Not every American woman who had Zika is being followed in the pregnancy registry. Some who picked up the virus during travel never showed symptoms, and some were given tests that were inaccurate.In the District of Columbia, for example, tests on about 300 women are now being redone. The Washington Post reported that lab workers there misread labels and watered down test solution that was already diluted, producing false negative results. Federal officials do not think any other state or city laboratory had the same problem.Women in Puerto Rico, which had a major outbreak of the virus, are in a separate C.D.C. registry. | Health |
Credit...Frederick Florin/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesNov. 15, 2018MOSCOW Russias multiple arrests of the opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny during street protests amount to a politically motivated campaign to silence him, Europes top human rights court ruled on Thursday, in a rare finding that a government had abused its prosecutorial powers with political intent.Observers of the work of the European Court of Human Rights called the decision an embarrassment for the Russian government, as it was only the 11th ruling on abuse of such powers in the courts nearly 60-year history.Russia has for years faced a barrage of criticism over hard-line domestic politics under President Vladimir V. Putin, who has squelched independent news outlets and routinely jailed opponents.But the ruling came at a delicate time in relations between the European Court of Human Rights and the Russian government, raising fears that in response to a decision vindicating an opponent of Mr. Putins, Russia could drop out of the treaty that formed the court.Over the years, Mr. Navalny, a former real estate lawyer and Russias most prominent opposition politician, has been arrested dozens of times, usually under Russian laws against taking part in protests without a permit or in organizing them. Once, he was arrested while merely walking on a sidewalk.The flurry of short detentions have ranged from a few days to weeks, and have kept Mr. Navalny out of public view before elections, avoiding the possible backlash at home and abroad that would most likely come from imprisoning him for a single, lengthy spell. The European court considered seven of Mr. Navalnys dozens of arrests.The ruling at an appeals level of the court, known as the Grand Chamber, found that Mr. Navalnys arrests formed part of Russias general move to bring the opposition under control.The court ordered the Russian government to pay Mr. Navalny 63,678 euros, or about $72,000, in compensation and legal fees and to alter its laws on public assembly to bring them into compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights. The court, based in Strasbourg, France, was founded in 1959 to enforce this postwar convention on European freedoms.I congratulate all normal people who welcome the victory of justice, Mr. Navalny wrote in a post on his website after the ruling. The decision means a lot not just for me, but for a huge number of people in Russia who are regularly grabbed and put in jail with obviously political motives.Mr. Navalny had won rulings against the Russian government over the same seven arrests in February 2017, when the court decided they were arbitrary, that he had not received fair trials and that his right to assembly had been violated.The appeal handed him an additional victory for two of the seven arrests under an article that prohibits ulterior motives in prosecutions, including political motives, and that has an extraordinarily high bar of proof, lawyers who have litigated at the court said.My sense is the European Court of Human Rights has really done its job, said Grigory V. Vaypan, a lawyer at the Institute of Law and Public Policy in Moscow. For many people in Russia, the prosecutions of Navalny have looked political from the outset.The ruling comes at a tense moment, as Moscow, angry over previous rulings, has already threatened to withdraw from the courts jurisdiction, ending a post-Cold War effort to integrate Russia into the Continents human rights architecture.A judgment under the rule, Article 18, essentially accuses the member state of lying about the reasons for prosecutorial action, Jeffrey D. Kahn, a law professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and an authority on the European Court of Human Rights, said by telephone.Thats a pretty monumental decision, he said, particularly as it was accompanied by an order to loosen laws on public assembly.Russia has more cases before the court than any other country. In October, 10,950 allegations of rights abuse were pending against the Russian government, about 19 percent of the total docket. Russia has stopped paying dues for the courts operations, and senior Russian officials say the country may soon sever ties.Europe is not only facing Brexit, one country leaving the European Union, but at the same time may also see a Ruxit, that Russia is leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, Thorbjorn Jagland, the secretary general of the Council of Europe, said this month. It will be a different Europe, and I dont see any good things coming out of it. | World |
Roy Jones Jr. Close to Fighting Anderson Silva ... Just Needs Dana's OK 1/22/2018 TMZSports.com Roy Jones Jr. says a super-fight between him and Anderson Silva is ON ... as soon as they get Dana White's blessing. RJJ tells TMZ Sports he's already met with Anderson, and has a group of investors prepared to hammer out the details ... and the only thing holding up the scrap is Dana giving Silva the green light to fight outside the UFC. "Anderson wants it, I want it, so the only obstacle is Dana giving him the OK," Roy said. Roy says that since Conor McGregor was allowed to have a one-off boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, Silva -- one of the sport's all-time greats -- should get to also. FYI, we asked Silva if he'd take a non-UFC fight earlier this week ... and he didn't say no. 1/18/17 TMZSports.com | Entertainment |
Credit...From left: David Zalubowski/Associated Press; Mark Lennihan/Associated PressPublished Oct. 21, 2021Updated Oct. 27, 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 Walensky, director of the C.D.C. said in a statement on Thursday night. Her approval 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 and a member of the C.D.C. panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, said during the 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.On 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. | Health |
Credit...Al Drago/The New York TimesJune 20, 2018CASTROVILLE, Tex. In the three years since Donald J. Trump began his presidential bid by maligning Mexican immigrants, Representative Will Hurd, a Texas Republican in a Democratic-leaning district, has faced voters of all stripes who were angry about Mr. Trumps divisive style.But Mr. Hurd, who represents a heavily Hispanic region that stretches across 800 miles of the Mexican border, could not recall a moment when people were as appalled as they were over the images of anguished children separated from their migrant parents.All the calls and emails Ive gotten in my office are from constituents saying: Why are we doing this, this is against our values, Mr. Hurd said. The presidents policy had damaged the Republican brand, he said, because nobody understands why you would take children out of their parents hands.Yet many rank-and-file Republican voters in border states see it differently, creating another kind of pressure for lawmakers like Mr. Hurd. Whatever sympathy these voters feel for the children is complicated, they say, by their intense frustration over the flow of migrants from Mexico.In interviews across the Southwest and Florida on Wednesday, many Republicans said that they appreciated President Trumps emphasis on zero tolerance for illegal border crossings, and wished there were as much furor over those immigrants as there was over the separation of parents and children an administration policy that Mr. Trump reversed under pressure from Republicans like Mr. Hurd.You dont ever want to be separating families, but at least the president focused attention on all the people crossing the border illegally, said Helen Delavan, 79, a retired school secretary in Castroville, Tex., and a supporter of both Mr. Trump and Mr. Hurd.Marcella Lagleder, 65, a retired software developer who runs an arts and crafts shop in Castroville, said the political turmoil over migrant families left her wondering why were still being so open to the illegals.VideotranscripttranscriptHow a Remote Patch of Land Turned Into a Child Migrant ShelterThe tent camp in Texas was built this month to house unaccompanied migrant children between the ages of 13 and 17. Satellite imagery reveals how it sprouted up and whats inside.These tents represent the first camp of its kind: a temporary facility used to house unaccompanied migrant children between the ages of 13 and 17. The tent camp wasnt always here. It was set up in June at this facility, right on the U.S. side of the border with Mexico. No reporters have been inside. A bipartisan group of mayors who gathered at the facility were also denied access. But by looking at aerial imagery, this is what we found out: The small tent camp is located within a port of entry facility in Tornillo, Tex., which opened in 2014. The facility is surrounded by a barbed-wire fence. Beyond that are vast fields. The small town of Tornillo is four miles away. El Paso is 40 miles to the northwest. Its not the first time migrants have been housed here. A temporary holding facility for families was set up here in November 2016 as seen on these satellite images. It was removed in April 2017. New tents first appeared on June 10 this year. There are now 32 tents total. One small tent holds 10 bunk beds 18 of these tents are set up here to house up to 360 teenagers. Temperatures can reach over 100 degrees, so the tents are air-conditioned. There are mobile bathrooms, a food hall, a medical tent and other support structures. By June 20, a soccer field was set up. Otherwise, theres not much for the detainees to do. It costs more than twice as much to care for children at temporary shelters like the one in Tornillo than at permanent shelters. But these makeshift facilities could become more common if a zero tolerance policy continues to be enforced at the border.The tent camp in Texas was built this month to house unaccompanied migrant children between the ages of 13 and 17. Satellite imagery reveals how it sprouted up and whats inside.CreditCredit...Mike Blake, via Reuters; Planet, via Human Rights WatchI dont think were mistreating them, Ms. Lagleder said. Itd be different if they were put in a doghouse or something like that.From Arizona and New Mexico to Texas and Florida, conservative-leaning voters were divided over how to handle the families and on immigration policy more broadly, a reflection of the Republican fissures that have stymied immigration legislation for over a decade. Interviews with these voters in some of the most hotly contested, heavily Hispanic states and congressional districts illustrate the bind Republicans find themselves in: They need to retain support from voters who have little sympathy for undocumented immigrants and also win over more moderate voters horrified by Mr. Trumps remarks about Hispanics.Republican lawmakers and strategists said the presidents zero tolerance policy had created a political crisis for the party at a time when Republicans badly want to be taking credit for the improving economy. Instead of talking about the second-quarter economic growth that could near 5 percent, Republicans worry they are handing Democrats a potent line of attack for the midterms.Yet while the searing photographs of children locked in cages left many Democrats and independents deeply dismayed, many Republicans were less sympathetic about the plight of migrants who knowingly broke the law.Julio Martinez, 74, who headed Mr. Trumps Miami-area campaign, defended the presidents hard-line approach.It hurts my heart to see it, but the culpable ones are the parents who subject their children to crossing the border, or who send them by themselves, Mr. Martinez said. If we start breaking laws ourselves, what is this country going to become? All of those multimillionaires who live in Hollywood, why dont they let all those illegals live in their houses?But Michelle Garcia, 42, a cafe owner in Los Lunas, N.M., where there is an open House seat in a district that is majority-Hispanic and likely to be highly competitive, said the family separations had been merciless and counterproductive.ImageCredit...John Moore/Getty ImagesBut whats especially worrisome for Republicans in states like Florida, where there are hard-fought races for governor, Senate and a handful of House seats this year, is that the president is not just alienating voters with his policies. Equally troubling is his use of harsh and demagogic language when describing Latinos, a tone he seemed to amplify in a series of tweets and speeches as pressure on him grew this week.Mr. Trumps claim that unauthorized migrants infest our country, for example, has left some Hispanic Republicans angry and concerned that hes driving away up-for-grabs voters.Its unbelievable, said Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a veteran Florida Republican who is of Cuban descent. That kind of divisive language hurts us.Representative Carlos Curbelo, a Florida Republican locked in a highly competitive re-election fight, said Mr. Trumps warnings about the threat of migrants had been dehumanizing.There are few House Republicans who are as frustrated with the Trump administration over immigration as Mr. Curbelo, who represents one of the most Democratic-leaning districts of any Republican in the country and has been working for months on a compromise for Dreamers, those brought to the country illegally as children.In an interview, he complained that the family separation policy was a unilateral decision by Jeff Sessions, adding that the hard-line attorney general has freelanced on a number of issues.What is clear from the interviews with voters, however, is that Mr. Trumps warnings about the peril presented by immigrants are being heard and echoed by some of his supporters.The last thing I want is this place to end up like Germany or Europe, where theyre blowing up stuff and knife attacks and things like that, said Ryan Farnsworth, 44, who works in the construction industry in Phoenix and voted for the president.[As word of the policy spread among migrants in Mexico, some reconsidered their trips. Others did not.]Mr. Farnsworth was sounding the same note Mr. Trump did this week, when he falsely claimed that crime in Germany had spiked and said Chancellor Angela Merkels coalition was at risk because of permissive refugee policies.Standing next to a bank of Spanish-language newspapers outside the Maricopa County Courthouse, Mr. Farnsworth said that he saw the presidents family separation policy as an unfortunate but practical deterrent that could have helped secure the borders.Do I like seeing families pulled apart? Absolutely not, he said, just as a Hispanic woman and her young son scooted by, hand in hand. But it is no different than if I were to go commit a crime, I went to jail, Id lose my children, too; theyd be stripped from me.It is voters like Mr. Farnsworth who have created pressure on Republican politicians like Representative Martha McSally, who is running for Senate in Arizona and trying to accommodate the hard-liners who dominate the Republican Partys overwhelmingly white base there without offending the broader, more racially diverse electorate.And the challenge is even more acute on the border, where Lea Mrquez-Peterson is running for Ms. McSallys seat in a district that includes both staunch border hawks and recent immigrants.Its a very split district, said Ms. Mrquez-Peterson, a Republican who previously ran the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. We should have passed a comprehensive immigration bill years ago.In New Mexico which has the highest percentage of citizens with Hispanic ancestry in the country voters more frequently expressed discomfort with the separation policy.ImageCredit...Robyn Beck/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesIts sad, said Andrew Baca, 28, a Belen, N.M., barber and former soldier who is Latino. Were all immigrants, bro. America is made of immigrants.But the challenge for Democrats in this sprawling and heavily rural New Mexico district currently held by Representative Steve Pearce, a Republican, is that voters who may not like Mr. Trumps immigration policies are uneasy with the liberal line on guns and abortion rights.My vote wouldnt necessarily change because of the separation only, Mr. Baca said.Back in Mr. Hurds district which includes the Tornillo holding facility where some of the children have been detained his Democratic opponent, Gina Ortiz Jones, suggested the incumbents outrage was inspired by his re-election bid.It took kids in cages for him to speak up, said Ms. Ortiz Jones, a former Air Force officer, arguing that the Republicans voting record suggested fidelity to Mr. Trump.But the good news for Mr. Hurd, a former C.I.A. officer who survived 2016 even as Hillary Clinton carried the district, is that many voters here say they intend to support him, no matter their view on the separation of children from their parents.Robert Belitz, a Democrat selling melons from the back of his truck on the main road cutting through Castroville, expressed disgust at the policy.This isnt some authoritarian state, he said, before adding he would still back Mr. Hurd, whom he deemed a good man who delivers on what he says.For Mr. Hurd to win again along the Rio Grande, he would need such voters to remain in his corner and for Mr. Trump to not make that task more difficult.Whenever were not able to talk about how the economy is doing well, how unemployment is low, and instead were talking about taking babies from their mothers thats not an environment thats going to be helpful, Mr. Hurd said. | Politics |
The once-clubby world of start-up deal making known as angel investing has had an influx of new participants. Its part of a wider boom in ever-riskier investments.Credit...Ysa Prez for The New York TimesPublished Aug. 9, 2021Updated Sept. 25, 2021SAN FRANCISCO On a recent Wednesday evening, 60 people gathered in a virtual conference room to discuss start-up investments. Among them were a professional poker player from Arizona, an allergist in California and a kombucha maker from Tennessee. All were members of Angel Squad, a six-month $2,500 program that aims to help people break into the clubby world of venture capital as individual investors, known as angels.The group listened as Eric Bahn, the instructor, rattled off anecdotes and advice from the front lines of start-up investing. The most important question when you are an early stage investor is: What happens if things go right? he said, stepping back from his desk and raising his hands for emphasis.Caroline Howard, 29, one of the founders of Walker Brothers Beverage, a kombucha company in Nashville, said the class taught her how to better evaluate deals. I think its so fun to see companies when theyre so young and have a germ of an idea and back them, she said.Founded in January, Angel Squad is one of several ways that people from outside Silicon Valleys investing elite are now joining the ranks of angel investors. The influx which includes art curators, dentists, influencers and retirees is transforming the way that start-ups raise money, upending the pecking order in venture capital and pushing a niche corner of the investing world toward mass adoption.It is absolutely going mainstream, said Kingsley Advani, founder of Allocations, a tech platform for angel investors. Its accelerating and its getting faster and faster. He said even his mother, a retired schoolteacher in Australia, has invested in 41 start-ups over the last few years.More than 3,000 new angel investors are projected to make their first deal this year, up from 2,725 last year, according to the research firm PitchBook. And the amount of money that angels are pouring into start-ups has swelled, reaching $2.1 billion in the first six months of this year, compared with $2.6 billion for all of 2020, according to the National Venture Capital Association and PitchBook.Until recently, such investing was off-limits to most people. Securities rules restricted it to the wealthy because of the level of risk involved, since most start-ups fail. Even those who qualified often lacked the connections to find deals. And start-ups preferred to raise big slugs of cash from a handful of investors, rather than deal with the costs and headaches of processing dozens of tiny checks.But over the last year, many of those roadblocks have dissipated. Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission loosened restrictions and began allowing people to become accredited investors those allowed to back private start-ups after passing a test. New tech tools are making the process of raising funds from many small investors cheaper and faster. And start-ups have become eager to add potentially helpful angels to their rosters of backers.The boom is part of a rush into ever-riskier forms of investment, driven by low interest rates, stimulus money and a little bit of why not? chutzpah. Nowhere is that sentiment stronger than in the tech industry, where start-ups are flush with cash, initial public stock offerings have been plentiful and Big Tech is delivering blockbuster profits.Overnight, the entire world just woke up and went, Oh, wow, we want to go invest in technology, said Avlok Kohli, chief executive of AngelList Venture, a company that provides tools for start-up fund-raising.Many new angel investors have some connection to the tech industry but are not the V.I.P.s who are normally invited into deals. Some are complete outsiders. Many are broadcasting their activity on social media and turning the investing into a branding opportunity, a hobby, a networking play, a social status or a way to give back.Karin Dillie, 33, an executive at an e-commerce company in New York, said she hadnt realized that she could be an angel investor. But in June, when a business school classmate emailed asking her to help fund a calendar app called Arrange, Ms. Dillie decided to go for it. She invested $5,000.I probably needed someone to give me permission to play the game because investing always seemed so elusive, she said.ImageCredit...Elianel Clinton for The New York TimesMs. Dillie has since joined several informal investing groups, listened to podcasts and set up news alerts for terms like preseed funding (the earliest money a start-up usually raises from outside investors). She said she was motivated to support female founders, who raise less than 2 percent of all venture funding.In London, Ivy Mukherjee, 28, a product designer, and Shashwat Shukla, 30, a private equity investor, also started putting money into start-ups together this year to learn new skills and network with others in the industry. They said they were proceeding cautiously, with checks of $2,000 to $5,000, knowing they could lose it all.If we happen to make our money back, thats good enough for us, Mr. Shukla said.The new angels have the potential to transform a venture capital industry that has been stubbornly clubby. They could also put pressure on bad actors in the industry who get away with things ranging from rudeness to sexual harassment, said Elizabeth Yin, a general partner at Hustle Fund, a venture capital firm. The firm also created Angel Squad and shares deals with its members.More competition brings about better behavior, Ms. Yin said. (In addition to investing in start-ups, Hustle Fund sells mugs that say Be Nice, Make Billions.)The angel boom has, in turn, created a miniboom of companies that aim to streamline the investing process. Allocations, the start-up run by Mr. Advani, offers group deal making. Assure, another start-up, helps with the administrative work. Others, including Party Round and Sign and Wire, help angels with money transfers or work with start-ups to raise money from large groups of investors.AngelList, which has enabled such deals for over a decade, has steadily expanded its menu of options, including rolling funds (for people to subscribe to an angel investors deals) and roll-up vehicles (for start-ups to consolidate lots of small checks). Mr. Kohli said his company runs a fund factory that compresses a month of legal paperwork and wire transfers into the push of a button.Still, getting access to the next hot tech start-up as a total outsider takes time.Ashley Flucas, 35, a real estate lawyer in Palm Beach County, Fla., began investing in start-ups three years ago. She said it was a chance to create generational wealth, something underrepresented people did not typically get access to.Its the same people doing deals with each other and sharing in the wealth, and Im thinking, how do I break into that? said Ms. Flucas, who is Black.But it took cold emails, research, building her reputation on AngelList and participating in three angel investing fellowships to get access to deals and construct a portfolio of more than 200 companies, she said. Things especially took off this spring after she invested in several companies that had just graduated from Y Combinator, the start-up accelerator. Some of her investments have appreciated enough on paper to return more than she has put in.Now, Ms. Flucas said, she is getting asked to join venture firms or raise her own fund. The seeds I planted at the beginning of the journey are bearing fruit, she said.ImageCredit...Ysa Prez for The New York TimesSome longtime angels have cautionary words for those just beginning their start-up investments. Aaron Houghton, 40, an entrepreneur, said he lost $50,000 that he had invested in a friends start-up in 2014, along with a $10,000 deal that went belly-up. He sarcastically called the losses a really nice, somewhat inexpensive wake-up call that showed he needed to spend more than a few hours researching companies before investing.But that isnt always an option in todays frenzied market. Mr. Houghton said he had recently been given little more than a pitch presentation, a high price tag and a few hours to decide whether he was in or out of an investment.Its all so hot right now, he said.In the recent Angel Squad class, one participant asked if investors should be concerned about valuations. Mr. Bahn said it was up to each investor, but he added that there was an upside to the skyrocketing prices. Some tech companies were becoming huge, worth $10 billion or more on paper, creating bigger returns for investors who got in early. That was the exciting thing about investing in young start-ups, he said.The alpha, he said, referring to an investors ability to beat the broader market, just continues to grow. | Tech |
Nov. 22, 2018HONG KONG Her face was darkened by bruises, her limbs battered. The photos that Haruka Nakaura, a Japanese model, shared on Instagram left little doubt about what had happened to her.I, Zhongpu Youhua, am still alive and well, she said, using the transliterated name by which she is better known in China.Yet on Chinese social media this week, there was considerable support for Jiang Jinfu, a 27-year-old Chinese model and actor who subsequently admitted to having beaten Ms. Nakaura. The two had been dating.No matter what the reason is, I should not have raised my hand, Mr. Jiang wrote on Monday, hours after Ms. Nakaura posted the photos of herself and suggested that he was responsible.Many Chinese internet users roundly condemned Mr. Jiang. But others said he had been brave to admit what he had done. And still others said Ms. Nakaura might have had it coming.Some people say theres no excuse for beating someone like that, but if what this woman did was true, doesnt she deserve it? said one commenter on Weibo, the Chinese microblogging platform, referring to one of many rumors about the incident that social media users have been spreading.Another Weibo user said: Jiang Jinfu has bravely admitted domestic violence, facing the problem directly. Hes a good man. Support, encourage, applaud. This is not easy.Lu Pin, a prominent Chinese activist for feminist causes, said some social media users were treating the incident like a tabloid scandal, not a crime.People are always trying to find many reasons to justify the violence and one reason theyve found is This woman is not one of us, Ms. Lu said, referring to comments about Ms. Nakauras Japanese heritage.Little is known about the circumstances of the beating, including where it happened or whether any law enforcement authorities are investigating it. Ms. Nakaura suggested in a later Instagram post that it had taken place a month earlier. She has since deleted her Instagram account.An entertainment industry agent who said she represented Mr. Jiang, declined to comment.The episode has again put a spotlight on domestic violence in China, where recent legislation has made it easier for victims to come forward, but experts say much remains to be done.More women have found the courage to ask for help, including making charges and issuing protection orders, said Feng Yuan, a co-founder of Beijing Equality, a womens rights nonprofit. The problem now is that the training of police, prosecutors, lawyers and judges has not kept up.A number of state-controlled news media outlets published editorials this week about Ms. Nakauras case, condemning domestic violence and encouraging victims to report it to the police.In China, family and public pressures often compel victims to stay silent, or they are dismissed by the local authorities when they do come forward. Still, the situation has improved in the years since Kim Lee, an American woman, accused her Chinese celebrity husband of abusing her.In her highly publicized 2014 divorce trial, Ms. Lee received the first personal protection order ever issued in Beijing. That was followed by a landmark domestic violence law in 2016, which made it easier for women across China to obtain such orders.CGTN, the Chinese state news agency, recently reported that 1,830 protection orders had been issued since 2017. But restraining orders are difficult to carry out and few are actually enforced, according to Leta Hong Fincher, author of Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China.To me, what this suggests is that two and a half years after the implementation of this law in China, the government doesnt have the political will to actually implement it, she said, calling the gender violence law largely cosmetic at this point.Others say there are still too few resources being devoted to the problem like shelters for battered women for the domestic violence law to be effectively implemented.According to government numbers, there are several hundred shelters, but it is not clear to women how to enter these shelters or what services they provide, Ms. Feng said. Furthermore, many shelters dont offer services that gender violence victims need beyond a bed and food.Mr. Jiang was mostly known for modeling before he began acting in Xuan Yuan Sword: Scar of Sky, a Chinese television series adapted from a fantasy video game. According to local news reports, he had suspended his acting career to study abroad in Japan this year. Ms. Nakaura is less well known in China, but the two often appeared in photographs together in Mr. Jiangs Weibo account, which has 1.7 million followers.Before deleting her Instagram account this week, Ms. Nakaura addressed Mr. Jiang and dismissed his apology. If you really wanted to apologize, you would apologize to me directly and not through Weibo, she said. She also said he had caused her to miscarry.In a photo of the two that Chinese state media published this week, said to be from September, Ms. Nakaura wears a T-shirt that reads, We should all be feminists. | World |
Credit...David Walter Banks for The New York TimesDec. 19, 2015Harvey Weinstein was in motion.It was 9:50 on a Friday morning, and he was agitated, frazzled, moving in two or three directions at once. He arrived at the tearoom of the Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel straight from a breakfast meeting on the hotel rooftop. Wearing a black T-shirt with black suspenders, he had not yet settled in behind a bright pink floral setting when, dispensing with pleasantries, he started talking.We renewed our contracts, Mr. Weinstein told me, hurling the news like Zeus tossing lightning bolts. His eyes darted. His close-cut, graying hair rose a bit. Was it static electricity? A force field?Mr. Weinstein, 63, and his brother, Bob, 61, stand in a long line of film executives Samuel Goldwyn, Jack Warner, Peter Guber, Michael D. Eisner come to mind who appear as dramatic in real life as their characters do on screen, the plot of their lives in perpetual rising action. Just in the last weeks, The Hunting Ground, a new Weinstein-produced documentary about campus sexual assault, has been slammed by critics who question its accuracy even as it becomes an awards prospect. At the same time, police unions are threatening to boycott another Weinstein production, Quentin Tarantinos The Hateful Eight, which will be released on Christmas, because they are upset by remarks Mr. Tarantino made about police violence.Those external forces are not the half of it. At the Weinstein Company, plot twists abound, including one involving the contracts Mr. Weinstein referred to as he sat down. Friction has been reported with the board of directors over the renewal of employment agreements for the brothers, co-chairmen of the Weinstein Company. But Mr. Weinstein insisted that the only hitch was that the brothers wanted to link their contracts with that of David Glasser, Weinsteins president and chief operating officer. The contracts were signed safely before the Dec. 31 expiration date of the Weinsteins pacts.Resolving that matter, however, did not address the main issue between the brothers and a newly assertive board. The fact is, investors who put their money behind the brothers in their venture 10 years ago are itching for more than Oscar-worthy entertainment; they want a payout.Mere survival is a challenge for most independent film and television companies. Dogged by a need for immediate cash to produce and market movies that will not return their investment for years, if ever, smaller studios are perennially capital-hungry.ImageCredit...Andrew Cooper/The Weinstein CompanyWhen the borrow-and-build cycle gets ahead of itself, collapse or forced sale often follows. Relativity Media, a midsize Hollywood conglomerate, filed for bankruptcy in July when it could not make payments on roughly $675 million in secured debt. New Line Cinema, Picturehouse, ThinkFilm and FilmDistrict are among the independent distributors that were closed or merged into a better-heeled parent.Weinstein is not in the precarious financial position of a Relativity and is not likely to be forced into a sale by the board. But a crucial moment of reckoning seems to have come for the Weinstein Company as longstanding investors, including the WPP Group, the French broadcaster TF1 Group and Technicolor are looking for their payday.Quite frankly, Mr. Weinstein said, we have to monetize.For the Weinsteins, monetizing through a sale appears out of the question: They have little interest in repeating a mistake they made in 1993, when they sold their Miramax Films to Walt Disney for $60 million, only to see it resold to others in 2010 for more than 10 times that amount.So that means the brothers are trying to beat the odds. They are looking both for a large corporate transaction and for big-dollar film and television hits. The renewed quest for commercial success means bending, if not quite breaking, their aesthetic, by scaling down the number of arty awards bets, like this years lesbian-themed romance Carol (which led the Golden Globe nominations this month, with five) from Harvey, while leaning into bigger, broader fare like the pending Paddington 2 from Bobs Dimension Films unit.While success in such a strategy is rare, some in the industry are loath to bet against the brothers.The extraordinary nine lives of Harvey makes Houdini and Barnum look like sideshow acts, said Barry Avrich, who studied the Weinsteins for his 2011 documentary, Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project.He will use his pipeline of talent and projects to secure the next tranche of cash, Mr. Avrich predicted. He always does.ImageCredit...Miramax FilmsThe Weinstein Company, begun in 2005, after the brothers left Miramax, is perhaps best known for films that have won dozens of Academy Awards, including back-to-back best picture Oscars for The Kings Speech and The Artist, in 2011 and 2012.The founders business skills, however, have not always matched their creative talents. The failure of an expansion into couture and video distribution led to a financial crisis in 2009. The company avoided bankruptcy with a painful debt and asset restructuring. Under that deal, Weinstein was able to retire its debt in exchange for giving a stake in 200 films to Goldman Sachs and Assured Guaranty Ltd., which were debt holders. Goldmans interests in those films were later acquired by AMC Networks, which is controlled by the Dolan family and its Cablevision company. (James Dolan, a friend and adviser to Harvey Weinstein, recently joined the Weinstein board.)While Weinstein appears to have recovered people associated with the company, which is private, say it has more than $500 million in annual revenue and is modestly profitable it has not quite put 2009 behind it. A video distributor that Weinstein picked up a controlling interest in during its expansionary days and then jettisoned is suing the company. The trustee for the distributor, Genius Products, claims Weinstein imposed onerous contracts that ultimately led Genius to file for bankruptcy. The suit seeks part of $130 million in what it claims were improper transfers.Weinstein has strongly disputed the claim, but while other complaints against the company have been dismissed, this one is still pending.Weinstein has enough money from cash flow and $500 million in credit from a consortium of 12 banks, led by Union Bank, to finance films. That credit line remains in place for about three more years, said Anthony Beaudoin, a managing director for entertainment finance at Union Bank. In the meantime Weinstein, a boutique studio, is getting even smaller. About 50 of roughly 250 jobs, many on the feature film side, are being cut. The company is also trimming its release schedule, to about 10 films a year from nearly double that level recently.But trimming will not solve the big issue of finding a transaction or corporate transformation to reward investors whose cash has been tied up for a decade.The shareholders want a monetary event right now, said Harvey, who, with his brother, is working with the Allen & Company investment banking firm to come up with a solution. Queries to the board members Tarak Ben Ammar, who is associated with TF1; Lance Maerov, who represents WPP; and Tim Sarnoff, of Technicolor, drew no response. (Mr. Weinstein later said the board had decided its members should not speak publicly.)ImageCredit...Peter Iovino/The Weinstein CompanyOne former executive, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of confidentiality strictures, says this would be an optimum time to sell the company, because it is in fairly good financial shape. But Harvey dismissed that idea out of hand. Were not going to do that, he said.Neither he nor his brother have ever quite reconciled with the loss of Miramax, founded in 1979 and named for their parents, Max and Miriam, to Disney. Miramax grew under Disney, expanding its range beyond small, sophisticated films like Sex Lies and Videotape and Cinema Paradiso to more lucrative crowd-pleasers, like Mr. Tarantinos Pulp Fiction and Rob Marshalls Chicago.But the Weinsteins fought repeatedly with Mr. Eisner, then Disneys chief executive. Looking back, Harvey says he now believes that corporate structures are inherently hostile to his sort of verve whether battling with Mr. Eisner over Disneys refusal to distribute Michael Moores Fahrenheit 9/11 or picking public fights with the Motion Picture Association of America over the rating of Blue Valentine.Corporations believe every executive is replaceable, said Mr. Weinstein, who clearly disagrees.Close governance clearly galls him. Unbidden, he said that his Bradley Cooper movie, Burnt, would have worked better in January, but board-enforced rules that require a certain number of film releases each quarter boxed him into releasing it in October, a month crammed with awards hopefuls like Steve Jobs and Bridge of Spies. Burnt was a painful flop.In more freewheeling days, Mr. Weinstein lamented, I didnt know we had a board.He knows he has one now. He and his brother own 46 percent of Weinstein stock and hold two seats on the nine-member board. Harveys artistic impulses can sometimes run into the more commercial concerns of the board, and relations are sufficiently complex that Bob and Mr. Glasser once threatened to mobilize the directors against him. That was in 2011, when Harvey said that he intended to buy rights to The Artist, a black-and-white silent film.We thought he was drinking, Mr. Glasser said.They did not seek board review of the decision, which turned out for the best. The film won five Oscars.But Mr. Weinstein has had other company-related troubles of late. In April, police officials in New York investigated claims that he had groped a model in his New York office. Authorities ultimately did not charge him but did have the model record a call in which Mr. Weinstein acknowledged an encounter with her at Weinsteins Tribeca Film Center headquarters.ImageCredit...Laurie Sparham/The Weinstein CompanyBy his own assessment, Mr. Weinstein lacks the sensibility to run a publicly traded institution, and he has ruled out the possibility of an initial public offering of all or part of Weinstein. Its never good to I.P.O. movies, he said, citing the volatility of film performance, particularly as home viewing markets remain soft.If the brothers strong objections rule out a sale of Weinstein either to a larger company or the public what options remain to satisfy investors?One source of value is in backlists of movies. People briefed on Weinsteins plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of confidentiality strictures say the company has explored buying back Miramax in part to get control of its library. A deal of that sort would expand Weinsteins holdings to more than a thousand titles from 525, which were valued from $300 million to $600 million in a recent assessment done for the company, and pave the way for a potentially lucrative sale of a stake in the combined libraries. Representatives of Miramax and Colony Capital, which is among the owners of Miramax, declined to comment.The likeliest option, however, seems to be the formation of a partnership for Weinsteins television unit, which is growing quickly, and generally provides more reliable returns than the hit-and-miss film business.Weinstein had worked out a sale of the television unit to the British network ITV, but the deal fell apart after it was disclosed in April. (ITV representatives did not respond to queries, and earlier declined to comment on the deal.) Under the proposed sale, Harvey Weinstein and Mr. Glasser would have become managers of an ITV-owned unit, a complication that might be avoided in a yet-to-be-structured television alliance with yet-to-be-found partners.Nancy Dubuc is the chief executive of A&E Networks, which has carried more than six shows in Weinsteins Project Runway series, and has a Weinstein mini-series, War and Peace, scheduled for January. She says that Weinstein is strong enough in television to attract a buyer or investor who might pay for a stake in the unit.The network has four Weinstein pilots in development, Ms. Dubuc said. Television, like film, comes down to taste, and Harvey has it, she said.ImageCredit...Wilson Webb/The Weinstein CompanyTed Sarandos, Netflixs chief content officer, agreed with Ms. Dubucs vote of confidence. Weinstein, like other independent companies, he said, may be able to build financially robust operations around deals with video streaming companies, like Netflix, that were not a significant presence 10 years ago.But Mr. Sarandos also sounded a note of caution.Im not going to say yes or no, either way, he said when asked about a possible venture with Netflix. But we dont need to own other people to acquire their films and shows.Success in pursuing any of those options will depend heavily on Bob Weinstein.He has been the less visible other brother.But internally, Bob is acknowledged as an equal (and equally loud) voice in large decisions, and as perhaps the larger contributor to the bottom line.We both took movies to the next level, he said. We turned art into commerce.Before selling Miramax to Disney, Bob created the genre-oriented Dimension Films operation as a unit of Miramax. The Dimension brand, which the Weinsteins reacquired from Disney, has been a major cash generator with pop hits like Wes Cravens Scream series.Over time, much of Weinsteins cash flow has been generated by Mr. Tarantino, with whom both brothers work.Quentin is where our sensibilities converge, we both handle him, Bob says of the filmmaker, with whom the Weinsteins have worked since the release of Reservoir Dogs in 1992.This time around, The Hateful Eight, which Mr. Tarantino wrote and directed, brings opportunity and headaches. The film, about a bounty hunter and violent encounters in the Old West, may be a strong box-office prospect. But when police organizations called for a nationwide boycott after Mr. Tarantino said he regarded some shootings by the police as murder during a New York City protest against police violence in October, the Weinstein brothers, usually quick to embrace controversy in selling their films, were publicly silent.I think thats his issue. Hes his own person, Bob said. Harvey later said the brothers had worked to defuse the controversy with the help of off-the-record conversations and friends of the family.Wearing a crisp blue shirt and blazer in Weinsteins Beverly Hills offices, Bob preferred to discuss the business at hand, his own role in a strategic shift to increase shareholder return.He proposes spending more money, but cutting his output to two or three films each year from perhaps six. With fewer, more expensive films, the Weinsteins will face increased pressure to avoid marginal performers like Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which took in only $39 million worldwide when it was released in 2014.But he sees in bigger horror, fantasy or comedy films, and their television and merchandising spinoffs, the potential for enhanced cash flow.The company really needs me to step up and say whats next, he said. By Bobs own assessment, the company needs to deliver at least one, and possibly two, hits a year on the order of Paddington, a live-action and computer-animated comedy released in January that took in more than $76 million in North America.One prospect is The Six Billion Dollar Man, to be directed by Damin Szifrn, with Mark Wahlberg in a lead role, based on the 1970s television series The Six Million Dollar Man.Thats billion, with a b, noted Mr. Weinstein, who said his movies would be getting bigger, to keep pace with aggressive competition from the likes of Lionsgate and its Hunger Games series.I want to up my game, he said. | Business |
Feb. 20, 2014After nearly 800,000 people watched an Internet live stream of the United States 5-2 victory over the Czech Republic on Wednesday in mens ice hockey at the Winter Olympics, NBC officials began to wonder how many more would stream the United States-Canada semifinal Friday. Were talking about a premier event going on at 12 noon, Eastern, with the West Coast awake, too, said Rick Cordella, senior vice president and general manager for digital at the NBC Sports Group. Itll be big, but I dont know how big.NBC officials said they believed the network had the infrastructure to deal with a huge number of streams. On Wednesday from noon to 2 p.m., Eastern, there were about a million live streams from Sochi, Russia, to the United States mostly the 798,337 unique users for the United States-Czech Republic game and the remainder for figure skating and other events.Then, on Thursday, Canadas gold-medal victory over the United States in womens ice hockey produced 1.16 million streams well above Cordella and his staffs expectations of about 400,000.The mens game, Cordella said, with clear understatement, will do a bit more.All that streaming of Canadas overtime win generated 34.9 million minutes of viewing.Now, the concern at NBC is whether too many people streaming the United States-Canada mens semifinal at work will overload their office networks, which could slow the stream and hurt its video quality, or even impede an offices overall ability to work online. A network I.T. guy says, how much can our network handle at any particular moment? Cordella said. If everyone in your building streamed at the same time, youd have problems.Still, he said, with a massive stream, the problems are likely to be localized, affecting smaller companies rather than larger ones.Theres a low percentage of there being a problem, he said.In Finland, there have been warnings to ask people to reduce their streaming of the Sochi Games because it was using up too much bandwidth. And two years ago, the chief technology officer for the city of Los Angeles sent an email to City Hall employees telling them to stop streaming events of the Summer Games in London because it was affecting the citys digital operations.Cordella said that he was not issuing NBCs equivalent of a Y2K warning. But he said that Friday will present an unusual situation for a major sports event. The game will begin at midday, with all time zones in the continental United States fully engaged. And people at work usually do not have access to a television the game will be broadcast live on NBCSN but NBCs live streams are easily available to authenticated users.A game like United States-Canada will not only attract hockey fans, but casual fans interested in the spectacle. NBC said Wednesdays United States-Czech Republic game was the second most streamed sporting event in NBC Sports history, after the 2.1 million for Super Bowl XLVI in February 2012. But that was an evening event and users were not clustered in office buildings.We believe were ready to handle this, Cordella said. But were up against something a lot of people havent seen before. Its hard to prepare for a record-breaking stream. | Sports |
Credit...Daniel SavageCompanies inspired by the cryptocurrency are creating social networks, storing online content and hosting websites without any central authority.Credit...Daniel SavageJan. 26, 2021Listen to This ArticleTo hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.SAN FRANCISCO Jack Dorsey, Twitters chief executive, publicly wrestled this month with the question of whether his social media service had exercised too much power by cutting off Donald J. Trumps account. Mr. Dorsey wondered aloud if the solution to that power imbalance was new technology inspired by the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.When YouTube and Facebook barred tens of thousands of Mr. Trumps supporters and white supremacists this month, many flocked to alternative apps such as LBRY, Minds and Sessions. What those sites had in common was that they were also inspired by the design of Bitcoin.The twin developments were part of a growing movement by technologists, investors and everyday users to replace some of the internets fundamental building blocks in ways that would be harder for tech giants like Facebook and Google to control.To do so, they are increasingly focused on new technological ideas introduced by Bitcoin, which was built atop an online network designed, at the most basic level, to decentralize power.Unlike other types of digital money, Bitcoin are created and moved around not by a central bank or financial institution but by a broad and disparate network of computers. Its similar to the way Wikipedia is edited by anyone who wants to help, rather than a single publishing house. That underlying technology is called the blockchain, a reference to the shared ledger on which all of Bitcoins records are kept.Companies are now finding ways to use blockchains, and similar technology inspired by it, to create social media networks, store online content and host websites without any central authority in charge. Doing so makes it much harder for any government or company to ban accounts or delete content.These experiments are newly relevant after the biggest tech companies recently exercised their clout in ways that have raised questions about their power.Facebook and Twitter prevented Mr. Trump from posting online after the Capitol rampage on Jan. 6, saying he had broken their rules against inciting violence. Amazon, Apple and Google stopped working with Parler, a social networking site that had become popular with the far right, saying the app had not done enough to limit violent content.While liberals and opponents of toxic content praised the companies actions, they were criticized by conservatives, First Amendment scholars and the American Civil Liberties Union for showing that private entities could decide who gets to stay online and who doesnt.Even if you agree with the specific decisions, I do not for a second trust the people who are making the decisions to make universally good decisions, said Jeremy Kauffman, the founder of LBRY, which provides a decentralized service for streaming videos.That has prompted a scramble for other options. Dozens of start-ups now offer alternatives to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Amazons web hosting services, all on top of decentralized networks and shared ledgers. Many have gained millions of new users over the past few weeks, according to the data company SimilarWeb.This is the biggest wave Ive ever seen, said Emmi Bevensee, a data scientist and the author of The Decentralized Web of Hate, a publication about the move of right-wing groups to decentralized technology. This has been discussed in niche communities, but now we are having a conversation with the broader world about how these emerging technologies may impact the world at quite large scales.Bitcoin first emerged in 2009. Its creator, a shadowy figure known as Satoshi Nakamoto, has said its central idea was to allow anyone to open a digital bank account and hold the money in a way that no government could prevent or regulate.For several years, Bitcoin gained little traction beyond a small coterie of online admirers and people who wanted to pay for illegal drugs online. But as its price rose over time, more people in Silicon Valley took notice of the unusual technical qualities underlying the cryptocurrency. Some promised that the technology could be used to redesign everything from produce tracking to online games.The hype fell flat over the years as the underlying technology proved to be slow, prone to error and not easily accessible. But more investments and time have begun to result in software that people can actually use.Last year, Arweave, a blockchain-based project for permanently storing and displaying websites, created an archive of sites and documents from the protests in Hong Kong that angered the Chinese government.Minds, a blockchain-based replacement for Facebook founded in 2015, also became an online home to some of the right-wing personalities and neo-Nazis who were booted from mainstream social networks, along with fringe groups, in other countries, that have been targeted by their governments. Minds and other similar start-ups are funded by prominent venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures.One of the biggest proponents of the trend has been Mr. Dorsey, 44, who has talked about the promise of decentralized social networks through Twitter and has promoted Bitcoin through the other company he runs, Square, a financial technology provider.His public support for Bitcoin and Bitcoin-related designs dates to around 2017. In late 2019, Mr. Dorsey announced Blue Sky, a project to develop technology aimed at giving Twitter less influence over who could and could not use the service.After shutting down Mr. Trumps account this month, Mr. Dorsey said he would hire a team for Blue Sky to address his discomfort with Twitters power by pursuing the vision set out by Bitcoin. On Thursday, Blue Sky published the findings of a task force that has been considering potential designs.Twitter declined to make Mr. Dorsey available for an interview but said it intended to share more soon.Blockchains are not the only solution for those in search of alternatives to Big Techs power. Many people have recently migrated to the encrypted messaging apps Signal and Telegram, which have no need for a blockchain. Moxie Marlinspike, the creator of Signal, has said decentralization made it hard to build good software.The experimentation with decentralized systems has nonetheless ramped up over the last month. Brave, a new browser, announced last week that it would begin integrating a blockchain-based system, known as IPFS, into its software to make web content more reliable in case big service providers went down or tried to ban sites.The IPFS network gives access to content even if it has been censored by corporations and nation-states, Brian Bondy, a co-founder of Brave, said.At LBRY, the blockchain-based alternative to YouTube, the number of people signing up daily has surged 250 percent from December, the company said. The newcomers appear to have largely been a motley crew of Trump fans, white supremacists and gun rights advocates who violated YouTubes rules.When YouTube removed the latest videos from the white supremacist video blogger Way of the World last week, he tweeted: Why do we waste our time on this globalist scum? Come to LBRY for all my videos in HD quality, censorship free!Megan Squires, a professor at Elon University who studies new computer networks, said blockchain-based networks faced hurdles because the underlying technology made it hard to exercise any control over content.As a technology it is very cool, but you cant just sit there and be a Pollyanna and think that all information will be free, she said. There will be racists, and people will shoot each other. Its going to be the total package.Mr. Kauffman said LBRY had prepared for these situations. While anyone will be able to create an account and register content on the LBRY blockchain that the company cannot delete similar to the way anyone can create an email address and send emails most people will get access to videos through a site on top of it. That allows LBRY to enforce moderation policies, much as Google can filter out spam and illegal content in email, he said.Even so, Mr. Kauffman said, no one would lose basic access to online conversation.Id be proud of almost any kind of marginalized voice using it, no matter how much I disagreed with it, he said. | Tech |
Republicans joined Democrats to deliver President Trump the first veto override of his presidency in the last days of his term in an overwhelming, bipartisan vote.VideotranscripttranscriptSenate Votes to Override Trumps Veto of Defense BillRepublicans joined Democrats on Friday to override President Trumps veto of the annual defense bill, delivering him the first such legislative rebuke of his presidency.Is there any further debate? If not, the question is. Shall the bill pass the objections of the President of the United States to the contrary notwithstanding? Yeas and nays are required and the clerk will call the roll. Are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their votes? Seeing none on this vote? The yeas are 81, the nays are 13. 2/3 of the senators voting quorum being present. Having voted in the affirmative, the bill on reconsideration has passed the objections of the President of the United States to the contrary notwithstanding.Republicans joined Democrats on Friday to override President Trumps veto of the annual defense bill, delivering him the first such legislative rebuke of his presidency.CreditCredit...Stefani Reynolds for The New York TimesJan. 1, 2021WASHINGTON The Senate on Friday voted overwhelmingly to override President Trumps veto of the annual military policy bill as most Republicans joined Democrats to rebuke Mr. Trump in the final days of his presidency.The 81-to-13 vote was the first time lawmakers have overridden one of Mr. Trumps vetoes. It reflected the sweeping popularity of a measure that authorized a pay raise for the nations military.The margin surpassed the two-thirds majority needed to force enactment of the bill over Mr. Trumps objections, and only seven Republicans voted to sustain the veto. The House passed the legislation on Monday in a similarly lopsided 322-to-87 vote that also mustered the two-thirds majority required.The vote ended a devastating legislative week for Mr. Trump, effectively denying him two of the last demands of his presidency. Senate Republican leaders on Wednesday had declared that there was no realistic path for a vote on increasing stimulus checks to $2,000 from the current $600, a measure Mr. Trump had pressed lawmakers to take up.Republicans have also divided over supporting the presidents determination to make one last and futile attempt to overturn the 2020 election results in Congress next week.Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma and the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, typically a strong ally of the president, took to the Senate floor on Friday to encourage his colleagues to override Mr. Trumps veto, calling the passage of the bill the most significant vote lawmakers take.This year especially so, in light of all of the disruptions and problems that weve had, Mr. Inhofe said.The main disruption Mr. Inhofe was referring to was the president. Making good on a monthslong series of threats, the president vetoed the bipartisan legislation last week, citing a shifting list of reasons, including his objection to a provision directing the military to strip the names of Confederate leaders from bases. He also demanded that the bill include the repeal of what is known as Section 230, a legal shield for social media companies that he has tangled with. Republicans and Democrats alike have said that the repeal, a significant legislative change, is irrelevant to a bill that dictates military policy.Mr. Trump took to Twitter on Friday shortly after the vote to register his anger at Republican lawmakers unwillingness to meet his demands.Our Republican Senate just missed the opportunity to get rid of Section 230, which gives unlimited power to Big Tech companies. Pathetic!!! Mr. Trump wrote. Now they want to give people ravaged by the China Virus $600, rather than the $2000 which they so desperately need. Not fair, or smart!Those objections, registered late in the legislative process, infuriated lawmakers, who had labored for months to put together a bipartisan bill. They had prided themselves on passing the military bill each year for 60 years, and lawmakers in Mr. Trumps own party ultimately moved to mow over his concerns and advance the legislation. It was a sharp departure from the deference Mr. Trump has normally been shown on Capitol Hill by members of his party.The vote on Friday ensures that the legislation will be enacted into law over Mr. Trumps objections, including the provision requiring the Pentagon to strip the names of Confederates from military bases that so riled the president. The bill also takes steps to slow or block Mr. Trumps planned drawdown of American troops from Germany and Afghanistan, and would make it more difficult for the president to deploy military personnel to the southern border.All of the Republican conference leaders voted to override the veto on Friday, including Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader. He called the legislation a tremendous opportunity to direct our national security priorities to reflect the resolve of the American people.ImageCredit...Stefani Reynolds for The New York TimesJust seven Republicans voted to sustain the veto, including Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a longtime defense hawk who criticized the legislation as the product of a rushed and faulty process that failed to satisfy Mr. Trumps demand to repeal the legal protections for social media companies.Some seem to have forgotten to consult with the commander in chief or recall that he has a veto power, Mr. Cotton said last month in a speech on the Senate floor. The bill stiff-arms the president: not a word in more than 4,500 pages about Section 230.Lawmakers over the past four years tried but failed to override Mr. Trumps vetoes of legislation cutting off arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf nations, and to overturn his emergency declaration at the southwestern border.But his attempt to derail the widely popular defense bill, seen by lawmakers in both parties as an opportunity to secure wins for their communities and support the military, proved to be a bridge too far. That was especially the case for those in his party who proudly championed their commitment to national security and have grown weary of the presidents mercurial demands.Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, tried on Friday to take up Mr. Trumps demand to increase the size of pandemic relief checks to $2,000. He called for votes on both a House-passed bill authorizing larger checks and a separate measure by Mr. McConnell that lumped together three of Mr. Trumps demands: the larger payments, a repeal of legal protections for social media platforms and the creation of a bipartisan panel to investigate the integrity of the 2020 election.Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Republican, blocked the request, underscoring the scant appetite in the party for increasing the size of the checks. The chamber then moved on to override Mr. Trumps veto on the defense bill.The bill contains a 3 percent increase in pay for service members and a boost in hazardous duty incentive pay, new benefits for tens of thousands of Vietnam-era veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange and a landmark provision aimed at preventing the use of shell companies to evade anti-money-laundering rules.The last time Congress overrode a presidential veto was in 2016, the final year of Barack Obamas presidency, after he vetoed legislation allowing families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to sue the government of Saudi Arabia. | Politics |
Credit...Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York TimesJune 10, 2018Disneys offer to buy 21st Century Fox. CVSs bid for Aetna. T-Mobiles proposed merger with Sprint.The path for these blockbuster deals and others could be transformed in an instant on Tuesday, when a federal judge is expected to issue his opinion on the governments effort to block AT&Ts merger with Time Warner. It is one of the most influential antitrust cases in decades, enthralling Hollywood, Silicon Valley and Madison Avenue.If the merger is blocked, some executives are likely to slim down their deal aspirations. If the deal ends up going through, expect a cascade of mergers and acquisitions.It could have a collateral effect on every other transaction, said Blair Levin, an adviser to New Street Research and a former chief of staff at the Federal Communications Commission.The Justice Department suit to stop AT&T from buying Time Warner, an $85.4 billion deal, surprised investors and antitrust experts when it was filed late last year. The two companies are in related industries but do not produce competing products one makes media content, and the other distributes it. Deals between such companies, called vertical mergers, typically pass regulatory scrutiny with minimal roadblocks.During a six-week trial at the United States District Court in Washington, the Justice Department argued that the merger would hurt consumers because the combined company could have the power to raise prices and squash upstart rivals. AT&T and Time Warner said the deal was necessary to compete with fast-growing streaming video giants like Netflix and Amazon.The case will be decided by Richard J. Leon, a plain-spoken judge appointed by President George W. Bush. He is expected to give a shortened version of his opinion in remarks around 4 p.m. on Tuesday. The full opinion, released around the same time, could be more than 200 pages and will be closely read.Although Judge Leon has given few clues about his thinking, many analysts expect the companies to prevail because of the history of similar cases that were approved. Some have also said the government struggled in the trial to show that the deal would cause substantial harm.But the decision may not be clear cut. The judge may allow the merger with several conditions, such as restrictions on how AT&T negotiates with rival cable companies that want to run Time Warner content.Anything is possible, and the reality is that any side that loses will be appealing, said Rich Greenfield, an analyst at BTIG Research.The appeal process could change the final outcome. But since the companies are faced with a tight deadline later this month to close their merger, shareholders may push Time Warner to bring AT&T back to the negotiating table for more money if they have to wait out a prolonged legal battle, some analysts say.ImageCredit...An Rong Xu for The New York TimesAbout $816 billion worth of transactions in the United States were announced this year through May, according to Thomson Reuters, up 71 percent from a year earlier.The reason: Companies need growth, and buying other companies remains one of the fastest and most effective ways to achieve it. Despite recent interest rate increases by the Federal Reserve, borrowing the vast sums of money needed for deal making remains cheap by historical standards.But there is little doubt that Judge Leons decision will reverberate widely. The vertical deals already reached could be at greater risk, for example.Here are potential implications of the three general outcomes.If the Deal Is Allowed, No ConditionsIf Judge Leon clears the way for the merger without any restrictions, expect other companies to see it as a green light for more consolidation.Companies pursuing vertical deals, like CVS and its $69 billion acquisition of Aetna, will point to the court decision to support their case with regulators. The same goes for another health care deal, Cignas $52 billion offer for the drug benefits manager Express Scripts.More upheaval in the media industry is also likely. Comcast has signaled that if the deal goes through, it will make a bid for the 21st Century Fox parts that the Walt Disney Company is in the process of acquiring for $52.4 billion in stock. Comcast, which was rebuffed by the Fox board in the fall, largely because of regulatory concerns, said on May 23 that it was preparing a superior all-cash offer for the Fox assets.Comcast needs to move quickly because Fox shareholders are scheduled to vote on the Disney deal on July 10. Fox could be forced to delay the vote Comcast bids for it.We expect a Comcast bid for Fox under almost any circumstance, unless there is problematic language in the AT&T-Time Warner court decision that makes the prospect of vertical media mergers untenable going forward, Mr. Greenfield of BTIG Research wrote on Wednesday.The outcome of the AT&T case could also prompt a range of smaller entertainment companies to join forces as a competitive maneuver. Speculation surrounds Lionsgate, which owns Starz; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which controls the rights to the James Bond franchise; Sony Pictures Entertainment, which has rebounded at the box office; and Discovery Communications, the TV powerhouse.Media and telecom companies will also look for any signs that the judge agrees with AT&T and Time Warners assertion that Silicon Valley is a competitive threat and should also be defined as part of the media ecosystem adding new competitors for regulators to consider.If so, companies like Verizon and Dish could view the court decision as a sign that they could buy media companies. T-Mobile and Sprint could also point to the court decision to support their pending wireless merger, which they say would bring better mobile service as companies like Comcast enter the wireless market.You will see a rush to consolidate major media and transmission assets, said Gene Kimmelman, an antitrust official during the Barack Obama administration.If the Deal Is BlockedA victory for the Justice Department could encourage the department to act more aggressively on similar deals.Makan Delrahim, the antitrust chief at the Justice Department, has been adamant that competitive concerns in mergers cannot be resolved through promises to hold back on certain anticompetitive practices. Those requirements, called behavioral remedies, are common in vertical mergers. Comcasts merger with NBCUniversal in 2011, for example, was granted with more than 100 conditions, such as a requirement that the combined company give competitors access to its programming.Instead, Mr. Delrahim has said the best way to resolve antitrust problems is to sell off assets. The department offered AT&T and Time Warner a settlement that would allow them to merge as long as they sold Turner Broadcasting or DirecTV. The companies rejected the proposal, leading to the suit to block the deal.Establishing his standard as the new norm would send a chill through markets, which had become accustomed to government approval of mergers with restrictions. The investment bankers, public relations operatives and media executives working on deals could go back to their corners.It would mean the Justice Department could be tougher on mergers and demand companies sell off assets to resolve antitrust concerns.Makan Delrahim strongly believes that behavioral remedies are regulations of sorts, and he doesnt want to turn the D.O.J. into a regulatory agency, said Paul Glenchur, a senior policy analyst at Hedgeye Potomac Research.If Conditions Are Placed on a DealJudge Leon could also allow the deal but insist that the parties agree to certain conditions, a middle ground that could go in multiple directions.For example, during the trial, Judge Leon asked about promises by AT&T and Time Warner to appoint a third party to oversee disagreements between AT&T and rival cable companies over the fees to license Time Warner content. The companies have argued that arbitration would resolve concerns that AT&T could use Time Warner content like CNN, TNT and TBS as a weapon to increase costs for rivals.The Justice Department has argued that the promises of arbitration arent strong enough. Analysts viewed the judges questions on arbitration as an area where he could find compromise and may use them to resolve competitive problems with the deal.He may also demand divestitures like those proposed by the Justice Department. But AT&T and Time Warner would almost certainly fight such a decision in an appeal. They have been adamant that they would not sell parts in order to get the deal approved.Such a decision on divestitures would be a rare move by a judge in a vertical merger and, like a decision to block the deal entirely, could have a chilling effect on other vertical mergers.Judge Leon, experts say, is keenly aware of the ramifications of his opinion. And he will most likely make his findings narrow, which would limit the scope of an appeal.Conventional wisdom is that AT&T and Time Warner will win, Mr. Glenchur said. But even we who are in the business of trying to predict what will happen can only really say that we really cant know at this point. | Tech |
Asia Pacific|Minister in Charge of Japans Cybersecurity Says He Has Never Used a Computerhttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/15/world/asia/japan-cybersecurity-yoshitaka-sakurada.htmlCredit...Jiji Press/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesNov. 15, 2018HONG KONG A lot of people dont use computers. Most of them arent in charge of a nations cybersecurity.But one is. Japanese lawmakers were aghast on Wednesday when Yoshitaka Sakurada, 68, the minister who heads the governments cybersecurity office, said during questioning in Parliament that he had no need for the devices, and appeared confused when asked basic technology questions.I have been independently running my own business since I was 25 years old, he said. When computer use is necessary, he said, I order my employees or secretaries to do it.I dont type on a computer, he added.Asked by a lawmaker if nuclear power plants allowed the use of USB drives, a common technology widely considered to be a security risk, Mr. Sakurada did not seem to understand what they were.I dont know details well, he said. So how about having an expert answer your question if necessary, hows that?The comments were immediately criticized.I cant believe that a person who never used a computer is in charge of cybersecurity measures, said Masato Imai, an opposition lawmaker.Even before his admission on Wednesday, Mr. Sakurada, who is also overseeing the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, had occasionally attracted media coverage for head-scratching public comments. A week before his comments on cybersecurity, The Asahi Shimbun wrote that he showed a knack for giving baffling replies.His responses to questions about Olympic preparations showed a stunning lack of understanding of basic issues concerning the event, the newspaper wrote.He fumbled questions about how much the event would cost and whether North Korean officials would be attending, frequently turning to his aides for help, according to the newspaper. He said he had stumbled because he did not know the questions ahead of time.In 2016, he apologized after saying that so-called comfort women Koreans who were abducted and forced to become sex slaves for the Imperial Japanese Army before and during World War II were prostitutes by occupation and that people had been heavily misled by propaganda work treating them as if they were victims.His comments came a month after Japan and South Korea had officially settled a long-simmering dispute about reparations for the women, which remains a sore spot in relations between the two countries.The Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, gave Mr. Sakurada oversight of cybersecurity and the Olympics and Paralympics last month in a cabinet shake-up. | World |
Dec. 10, 2015A large mutual fund specializing in risky, high-yielding bonds has blocked investors from getting their money back, citing difficult trading conditions for its securities.The move, announced Thursday by Third Avenue Management funds, was a troubling sign of the recent deterioration in junk bonds, a category that has been hurt in particular by the debt of energy companies struggling with the slump in oil and gas prices. Energy debt accounts for roughly a sixth of the market. More important, the action by Third Avenue highlights a longstanding fear among regulators and economists that too many investors have piled into risky areas of the bond market, like leveraged loans and emerging-market debt, as well as junk bonds.As funds in these areas have grown in size, the ability of portfolio managers to buy and sell these securities in a reasonable amount of time has been curtailed as investment banks have stopped making a market in these areas because of regulatory constraints.This is what apparently happened to Third Avenues Focused Credit Fund, which not long ago was about $2.5 billion in size and had recently shrunk to $788 million as investors rushed to redeem their shares because of weakness in the junk bond market.High-yield bonds have had some of the worst returns among bonds this year. A benchmark Merrill Lynch index is down 3.7 percent for the year and a basket of higher-risk junk bonds has lost 13 percent.Trouble in the junk bond market can be a harbinger of tougher times to come in terms of the broader economy.With no sign that selling pressures were abating, Third Avenue, which manages a total of $8 billion in customer assets, has decided to stop fulfilling investor sell orders and liquidate the fund.The remaining assets in the fund will be put into a liquidating trust and sold off gradually, the company said, the idea being to not drive down prices too sharply. This process could last more than a year, which means current investors in the fund may have to wait at least that long to get their money back.In a statement explaining the decision, Third Avenues chief executive, David M. Barse, said that investor requests for redemptions, along with a general reduction of liquidity in the fixed-income markets made it impracticable for the fund to create sufficient cash to pay anticipated redemptions without resorting to sales at prices that would unfairly disadvantage the remaining shareholders.The interest rates on junk bonds, riskier bonds that companies with higher debt loads are able to sell to yield-hungry investors, have spiked over the past month in the face of concerns that a slowing economy would push many of these companies into default.ImageCredit...Scott Olson/Getty ImagesMoodys Investors Service, the credit rating agency, expects corporate defaults to increase to 3.8 percent next year from 2.8 percent this year. While that may not seem like a large figure, it is the upward trend that worries investors, and the fact that such a large amount of investor money has poured into these funds since central banks began aggressively purchasing fixed-income assets in 2009.This confirms many of the fears we have had about high levels of corporate debt and the lack of liquidity in the marketplace, said Hung Tran, a senior executive at the Institute of International Finance, which has been warning about this issue. It should also be seen as a powerful motivation for mutual funds to review their liquidity management strategies.What is surprising about the funds failure, analysts say, is that it had not taken more precautions to have cash on hand in case this type of situation arose. Of late, many funds investing in these less-than-liquid niches of the market have increased cash levels and even taken out credit lines from banks in order to be prepared for a selling wave.Third Avenue, founded in 1986 by Martin J. Whitman, a vocal proponent of investing in value stocks, seems to have been caught short in this regard.In addition to mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, or E.T.F.s, which trade like securities on an exchange and track a wide array of bond, equity and commodity baskets, have drawn many billions of dollars into their junk bond funds.To date though, these funds which promise instant liquidity to investors have not experienced major problems despite a tremendous pickup in buying and selling activity.By definition, a high-yield fund will invest in companies that are more at risk of going bust than a fund that buys the bonds of blue-chip companies like General Electric or JPMorgan Chase. But the Third Avenue fund seemed to have a particularly large share of companies that were either bankrupt or on the verge.Among its top holdings were Clear Channel Communications, the highly indebted radio broadcaster; Energy Future Holdings, a Texas electricity provider now in bankruptcy; and Liberty Tire Recycling, which is in talks to restructure its debts.But while the yields on these securities may have been appealing, their liquidity was not.Even in good times, these types of securities are hard to buy and sell, meaning a seller has to search out a buyer before he can dispose of his position.Before the financial crisis, large investment banks were the primary market-makers of these kinds of securities. Since 2009, however, they have slashed their inventories of corporate debt to $1.5 trillion from $9 trillion.At the same time, there has been an explosion of bonds issued by companies, with the result being more bonds than ever in issuance and an increasingly limited number of firms to trade them.In a May interview with Barrons, one of the funds managers, Thomas Lapointe, said that the fund had been focusing on the beaten-down bonds of oil companies. Explaining why the investor panic in this area was appealing, he said, Theres nothing better than people running out of a building with their hair on fire. | Business |
Credit...Andy Wong/Associated PressDec. 23, 2015SHENZHEN, China With little more than an architects drawing and a sales pitch to go by, Tim Chen paid around $500,000 last month for a small apartment being built above a shopping mall on the outskirts of this southern Chinese metropolis.I wanted to grab a larger unit in the first batch that went on sale, but I didnt grab fast enough, he said in the lobby of the developments salesroom, echoing an urgency that has gripped many buyers in recent months.Even as the broader Chinese economy has slowed and as housing values have slumped across much of China, the Shenzhen juggernaut has barreled ahead. High-tech start-ups replaced the factories that had made the city a pioneering showcase of Chinese-style capitalism. Millions of young people moved here from across the country. Construction is everywhere, with prices of new homes surging.ImageCredit...Brent Lewin/BloombergBut the deadly landslide on Sunday in Shenzhen, in which a man-made mountain of dirt and construction debris collapsed, is exposing the weaknesses in Chinas rapid growth. Disregard for safety standards and environmental regulations remains common despite growing risks, as demonstrated in the Shenzhen disaster, which buried or toppled dozens of buildings and left scores of people missing.In Jiazitang village, on the outskirts of Shenzhen, Li Xiuhua, a 21-year-old migrant worker, complained on Wednesday about a deserted construction project next door.No one seems to care about this construction site anymore, Ms. Li said, pointing to the heaps of rubble and construction waste alongside the road. Since I moved here two years ago, the construction has been stopped and no one has come to clear away this waste.The landslide in Shenzhen casts a dark shadow over what had come to epitomize the China story, a gleaming metropolis of 11 million people, where only 3.3 million are registered as locals. The migrant city, which did not exist a few decades ago, even seemed to defy the countrys current economic problems.In November, prices of new homes contracted in 49 of the 70 cities included in the main official survey of the market, data released on Friday showed. Prices in metropolises like Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai fared better than in most places, rising 8 percent to 13 percent from a year earlier.But Shenzhen is in a category of its own. Home prices soared 44 percent last month, the fastest rise in any Chinese city since the official survey began in its current form, in 2011.ImageCredit...ChinaFotoPress, via Getty ImagesThe property market has become a vexing political issue at the highest levels. This month, the Politburo of the governing Communist Party announced plans to address an enormous housing overstock nationally, including relaxing restrictions on internal migration to help create demand for homes in outlying cities.But the frenzy in Shenzhen highlights the difficulties that China faces as it tries to manage a crucial engine of the economy.The runaway expansion in real estate and construction in recent years and their slowdown more recently has led to serious problems with industrial overcapacity and rising debt. In the Shenzhen disaster, the deadly mound of debris was created to fix another problem, the haphazard and sometimes dangerous dumping of dirt and construction waste.Compared with the rest of China, Shenzhen has a much higher reputation for dotting its is and crossing its ts, and being much more business-friendly, said Christopher Balding, an associate professor at Peking University HSBC Business School who has been based in Shenzhen for nearly seven years. At the same time, Im not surprised something like this happened, because even in Shenzhen buildings are just flying up.Shenzhen is the ultimate symbol of modern Chinas economic transformation.The city, which was only a coastal fishing village when the country started reopening to the world in the late 1970s, leapfrogged ahead of Chinas other metropolises on the path of capitalism thanks to its status as a special economic zone, separated from the rest of the country by an internal border. Tax breaks, cheap land and proximity to Hong Kong lured foreign investment. Many millions of migrants from other parts of China provided an able supply of low-cost labor.In recent years, the area has also transitioned more smoothly than others to the latest phase in Chinas development, a growth model that revolves around services and consumer spending. The factories churning out lower-value products like garments and shoes are closing down, relocating inland or heading to cheaper destinations like Southeast Asia and Bangladesh.ImageCredit...Kim Kyung-Hoon/ReutersIn their place, dynamic companies have arisen to cater to Chinas rising consumer classes. Tencent, the social messaging and online gaming behemoth, counts Shenzhen as its home base. So do DJI, the worlds biggest consumer drone maker; Citic Securities, heralded as Chinas answer to Goldman Sachs despite falling under scrutiny recently; the Ping An Group, an insurance and financial conglomerate; and China Vanke, one of the countrys biggest homebuilders.The transformation is evident in places like Longhua, where the housing development Unitown is under construction. For decades, the district was part of greater Shenzhen. But it sat on the less-developed side of the internal border that separated the core economic zone downtown from the rest of the city, a barrier that migrant workers from outside Shenzhen were restricted from crossing.But in the five years since Shenzhens internal border controls were abandoned, Longhua evolved into a thriving residential suburb.An office worker who would provide only her given name, Xia, recently bought a large three-bedroom apartment at Unitown. She and her husband are upgrading from a smaller unit in the same district, where she has lived for about a decade. Their son will be able to walk to school in a few minutes.We only looked for apartments in Longhua, because its so convenient, she said. Because of rapidly rising prices, she had to take out a larger mortgage. That puts a lot of pressure on me, Xia said.Shenzhens housing market has always been considerably more volatile than that of most of the rest of the country.Shenzhen has the least amount of state-owned land of any major Chinese city, and that makes it hard for the government to direct market prices by controlling the supply of land available for development, said Michael Cole, an expert on the Chinese property market who operates the industry website Mingtiandi. The government in Shenzhen also appears less strict in the way that they interpret and enforce home purchase restrictions.Chinas central bank moved in March to ease restrictions in most cities that require buyers of second homes to make a down payment of up to 70 percent of the value of the home, lowering the threshold to 40 percent. But in first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai or Shenzhen, where housing demand remains high, those restrictions are supposed to remain largely in place.However, in interviews, many real estate agents and home buyers in Shenzhen said those restrictions had generally been relaxed for people who are buying a second home because they intended to upgrade.Shenzhens is the freest market in China, said Zhang Jianwei, a sales agent at Colorful Garden, a new development of more than 500 apartments in the city center.Prices rise the fastest, but also fall the fastest, he added. Its capitalism first. | Business |
Shemar Moore My Hot Grammy Date Proves I'm Not Gay! 1/30/2018 TMZ.com Shemar Moore's heard the rumors he's gay because he's frequently dateless for big events -- but says "Quantico" star Anabelle Acosta should take care of that. We got Shemar with Anabelle Monday at LAX, on their way back from the Grammys. While they happily posed at the award show, Anabelle was a little camera shy with us. Shemar was dying to tell us about how he hooked up with her. The "S.W.A.T." star handed out some major props to the people who helped him get in touch with Anabelle. So, did they make a love connection? Check out the video -- for what Shemar says and what they did together. | Entertainment |
Credit...Logan R. Cyrus for The New York TimesMarch 7, 2017WASHINGTON Millions of people who get private health coverage through the Affordable Care Act would be at risk of losing it under the replacement legislation proposed by House Republicans, analysts said Tuesday, with Americans in their 50s and 60s especially likely to find coverage unaffordable.Starting in 2020, the plan would do away with the current system of providing premium subsidies based on peoples income and the cost of insurance where they live. Instead, it would provide tax credits of $2,000 to $4,000 per year based on their age.But the credits would not cover nearly as much of the cost of premiums as the current subsidies do, at least for the type of comprehensive coverage that the Affordable Care Act requires, analysts said. For many people, that could mean the difference between keeping coverage under the new system and having to give it up.The central issue is the tax credits are not going to be sufficient, said Dr. J. Mario Molina, the chief executive of Molina Healthcare, an insurer that offers coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces in California, Florida and several other states.Martha Brawley of Monroe, N.C., said she voted for President Trump in the hope he could make insurance more affordable. But on Tuesday, Ms. Brawley, 55, was feeling increasingly nervous based on what she had heard about the new plan from television news reports. She pays about $260 per month for a Blue Cross plan and receives a subsidy of $724 per month to cover the rest of her premium. Under the House plan, she would receive $3,500 a year in tax credits $5,188 less than she gets under the Affordable Care Act.Im scared, Ill tell you that right now, to think about not having insurance at my age, said Ms. Brawley, who underwent a liver biopsy on Monday after her doctor found that she has an autoimmune liver disease. If I didnt have insurance, these doctors wouldnt see me.The Congressional Budget Office has yet to release its official estimates of how many people would lose coverage under the proposal, but a report from Standard & Poors estimated that two million to four million people would drop out of the individual insurance market, largely because people in their 50s and early 60s those too young to qualify for Medicare would face higher costs. Other analysts, including those at the left-leaning Brookings Institution, have estimated larger coverage losses.While the tax credits in the Republican proposal are the most generous for older people $4,000 for a 60-year-old compared with $2,000 for a 25-year-old they end up covering less of an older persons costs. As soon as next year, the Republican plan would allow insurers to begin charging older individuals much more than younger individuals. Insurers are prohibited today from charging the older person more than three times as much as the youngest, but the Republican plan would allow them to charge five times as much. A 64-year-old could see annual premiums increase by almost 30 percent to $13,100 on average, according to the S.&P. analysis.For people like Alan Lipsky, a self-employed consultant in Arden, N.C., the Republican plan could have a huge financial impact. Mr. Lipsky, who is 60 and whose wife is in her 50s, receives a tax credit of $2,097 a month for his family of four and pays $66 a month out of his own pocket. His familys total annual tax credit of $25,164 would be reduced to $11,500 under the new plan, covering less than half of the total cost of his current coverage.I dont think the Affordable Care Act is perfect, said Mr. Lipsky, whose family deductible is $12,000 per year, but at least for people like me it gives a baseline, and Im worried I wont have that baseline anymore. What theyre talking about is unaffordable for me.Not everyone would lose out. Some younger adults would probably benefit the most from age-based tax credits and proposed changes that would allow insurers to offer them less expensive policies, such as those with less generous coverage.ImageCredit...Mike Belleme for The New York TimesJoshua Yospyn, 40, a freelance photographer in Washington, earns slightly too much to receive a tax credit under the Affordable Care Act and pays about $374 a month for his BlueChoice H.M.O. plan. The Republican proposal would provide him with an age-based tax credit of $3,000 a year, which would cut his current premium costs by two-thirds, to $1,488 from $4,488.Mr. Yospyn said he would love cheaper premiums but did not want to give up comprehensive coverage, his low deductible of $500 a year or the doctors he now sees. A physical this month, his first in several years, revealed that his cholesterol had risen sharply, leaving him freaked out, he said.I just want protection across the board, he said, referring to the kind of policy he preferred. Its what Im used to.Other people likely to be hurt under the new plan are those in areas where the cost of coverage is high. Subsidies are now pegged to the cost of a plan within a specific market, but the tax credits in the Republican plan are the same whether you live in Alaska or Minnesota. Coverage tends to be most expensive in parts of the country where there are few hospitals or few insurers. When it comes to health insurance, high-cost areas tend to be rural areas, said Cynthia Cox, a researcher at the Kaiser Family Foundation, which recently did an analysis of how the tax credits compared with the subsidies now available.The proposal would also eliminate another important element of the subsidies, the financial assistance available for low-income people with their out-of-pocket costs, such as deductibles and co-payments. While many of the plans now sold through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces have large deductibles, the cost-sharing reductions available protect lower-income people from medical bills that could otherwise run into the thousands of dollars. Analysts say the lack of out-of-pocket assistance is likely to make any plan much less attractive to low-income people.Legislation could also fundamentally weaken the insurance market by doing away with the so-called individual mandate, which requires people to have coverage or pay a tax penalty. While it would be replaced by a 30 percent surcharge when someone buys a policy after dropping coverage, the surcharge could be weaker than the current mandate, and younger people might continue to gamble on not having coverage until they get sick.ImageCredit...T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York TimesThe result, said Donald H. Taylor Jr., a health policy professor at Duke University, is that people who buy coverage are sicker, causing the cost of premiums to soar. This looks like to me adverse selection on steroids, he said. I dont see how it doesnt crater the individual market.Dr. Molina, the Molina Healthcare chief executive, said insurers are likely to increase their premiums significantly because they will worry about enrolling more high-cost patients as healthier people opt to go without coverage.Insurance companies are going to jack up the rates, predicted Dr. Molina, who said premiums might increase even more than they did last year when some companies raised the rates by 25 percent or more.Ms. Brawley in Monroe, N.C., said she and her husband could barely afford their current premiums, and her deductible of $3,500 a year is far too high. Still, she added, its better than owing $20,000 or $30,000.This is my second year with the Obama insurance, she continued, but before then, I didnt have any and didnt go to the doctor.She and her husband voted for Mr. Trump the first time she had voted in her life she said, because I thought he would make it better. | Health |
TrilobitesCredit...Chris Pizzello/Associated PressNov. 3, 2016You should stop reading this now. No really, just dont. Youre still reading. O.K., you asked for it:Rah rah ah-ah-ah!/ Ro mah ro-mah-mah!/ Gaga ooh-la-la! Theres your Bad Romance. Like the ugly disease Lady Gaga sings about wanting in this song, an earworm has likely just lodged itself deep inside the auditory cortex of your brain. There it will sit, sucking up your precious brain energy, for the next hour, day, month or even a whole year. ( I had Hall and Oates Maneater in my head for most of 2005.)You are not alone.Thats all I can really think about right now, said Kelly Jakubowski, a music psychologist at Durham University in Britain, about Bad Romance. In a study published Thursday in Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts, she and her colleagues compiled lists of earworms from around 3,000 participants to see why some pop songs wiggle their way into peoples heads and stay there. The Lady Gaga hit, which is always at the top of peoples lists, has been developing its own toxic relationship inside the mind of Dr. Jakubowski, who hasnt heard it in months: Its been persisting for two days straight, she said.Lady Gaga - Bad RomanceCredit...CreditVideo by LadyGagaVEVODr. Jakubowski and her colleagues at Durham University, Goldsmiths, University of London and the University of Tbingen in Germany looked for structural patterns in the melodies of earworm songs. They also compared them with other popular songs by similar artists and chart rankings that had not been listed as earworms in their research, like Lady Gagas Just Dance. They found that earworm songs tended to be fast, with a common, simple melodic structure that generally went up and down and repeated, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. But the earworm songs also had surprising, unusual intervals, like the chorus in Bad Romance or the opening riff of Deep Purples Smoke on the Water.This study is the largest yet to dissect what makes an earworm and adds to a body of research that began in 2001 when James Kellaris, a marketing researcher and composer at the University of Cincinnati translated the German word for earwig, Ohrwrmer, into that cognitive itch he called an earworm. He found that about 98 percent of people experience this phenomenon at some point in time.While it may feel like earworms exist only to annoy you, researchers say they may actually serve a purpose. Dr. Jakubowski said earworms could be remnants of how we learned before written language, when information was more often passed through song.When we learn a song, we use our eyes, ears and even the muscles used for playing or singing it, to stamp it into our brains. This means there are many pathways for the song to take into the brain and later be retrieved. This can be good and bad. Its good, because earworms are examples of spontaneous cognition thoughts we entertain despite their relevance to the task at hand, like daydreaming or mind wandering, which have been associated with better planning and creativity. But musical imagery like earworms can also develop into obsessions or hallucinations that disrupt daily life for some people.Understanding earworms isnt just about identifying catchy songs, its harnessing a small window into the mind. If we better understand why and how some songs stick in particular brains, not only do we better understand memory and help patients live better lives, but we possibly can improve memory, mood and marketing (if thats what youre into) said Dr. Jakubowski.So, whats your earworm? It doesnt have to be a pop song. Last week I woke up to the nagging theme song from the 1985 sitcom Growing Pains. Now that youre infected, tell me if youre too annoyed to show me that smile again. | science |
Science|An Ice Sheet the Size of New Mexico Hidden in Martian Craterhttps://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/25/science/mars-ice-sheet.htmlTrilobitesCredit...NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of ArizonaNov. 25, 2016An ice sheet with more water than Lake Superior may slake the thirst of future astronauts living on Mars.Using radar soundings from NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, scientists probed what lies in Utopia Planitia, a 2,000-mile-wide basin within an ancient impact crater.For decades, the region looked intriguing because of polygonal cracking and scalloped depressions in the landscape. In places on Earth like the Canadian Arctic, patterns like these arise from ice beneath the surface. The ground cracks as ice underneath expands and contracts with the changing temperatures; the scallops, as if carved by an ice cream scoop, are places where the surface sinks as the ice melts.Wed say, It looks like theres ground ice there, Cassie Stuurman, a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, said about Utopia Planitia. What we havent known is how much is there.An older NASA orbiter, Mars Odyssey, found the region dry, but its instruments could only investigate about a yard beneath the surface. Ground-penetrating radar on Reconnaissance could peer much deeper into the ground, collecting data as the orbiter made more than 600 passes.Ms. Stuurman, the lead author of an article in the journal Geophysical Research Letters that described the findings, said the radar reflections revealed that the ice sheet, ranging in thickness from 260 to 560 feet, covered an area larger than New Mexico.The ice is fairly pure at least 50 percent frozen water with dirt, rocks and porous empty spaces mixed in, researchers believe.Thats kind of what Im imagining, Ms. Stuurman said.Water ice is plentiful at the Martian poles, but Utopia Planitia might be a more attractive landing site for future astronauts, because it is in the more temperate mid-northern latitudes. Water ice cannot persist on this part of the Martian surface. The solid ice would transform to water vapor and float away. But hidden by a layer of soil, the ice remains.In addition to providing something to drink, water could be split into oxygen and hydrogen for rocket fuel.Ms. Stuurman said the vast deposit of ice suggests that it accumulated as snowfall during one of the planets ice ages and was later buried. She said there were no signs that this snow ever melted into a lake. | science |
Technology|Bird, the Electric Scooter Start-Up, Is Said to Draw an Investment Frenzyhttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/12/technology/bird-electric-scooter-investment.htmlCredit...Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesJune 12, 2018SAN FRANCISCO More scooters may soon land on Americas sidewalks as the West Coast scooter war propels a rush of fund-raising.Bird, an electric scooter start-up, is raising $300 million in new funding that would value the company at $2 billion, according to three people with knowledge of the financing, who asked not to be identified because the proceedings were confidential. The round is set to be led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and will include other investors such as Accel Partners, the people said.ImageCredit...Coley Brown for The New York TimesThe financing would cap one of the fastest and largest start-up fund-raising frenzies in recent memory. Last month, Bird began raising $150 million at a $1 billion valuation, which quickly rocketed higher because of investor interest, according to one person. Bird, which was founded by Travis VanderZanden, a former executive at Uber and Lyft, in September, had previously raised $15 million in February and $100 million in March.A Bird spokesman declined to comment. The new fund-raising round was reported earlier by the Financial Times and the $2 billion valuation by Axios. Bloomberg earlier reported the $150 million financing talks.Many investors in Silicon Valley are eager to put their money into another transportation opportunity after the success of ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft. Electric scooters have burst onto the streets of several American cities, including San Francisco and Los Angeles. Bird is at the head of the pack, with rivals, including Spin and LimeBike, also piquing investors interest. Before this latest investment rush, the companies had already raised more than $250 million in venture capital in total.Consumers can use the Bird app to find and, for a per-minute fee, ride the electric scooters, dropping them wherever their trip ends. A small ecosystem of scooter chargers rove the streets at night to pick up the scooters and recharge them, collecting a bounty per scooter.The company, which is based in Venice, Calif., has bucked officials in several cities as it rolls out thousands of scooters across the country, scattering them on public sidewalks and wreaking urban havoc, causing both delight and frustration among residents.Birds strategy and fund-raising bonanza are reminiscent of the days when Uber and Airbnb clashed ferociously with American cities as they fought to flood the market. The playbook is to become ubiquitous and popular with consumers overnight so that city regulators have a harder time banning the product and instead have to negotiate rules.In an interview in April, Mr. VanderZanden said he saw his electric scooters becoming the dominant in-city transportation solution.Were not going to be happy till there are more Birds than cars, he said. | Tech |
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/sports/ncaabasketball/texas-cruises-to-win.htmlSports Briefing | College BasketballFeb. 11, 2014Javan Felix scored 27 points, including six 3-pointers, and No. 19 Texas rolled to an 87-68 win at home over Oklahoma State, which played its first game without the suspended star Marcus Smart. He sat out the first of a three-game suspension by the Big 12 for shoving a Texas Tech fan. Ron Baker scored 19 points, Cleanthony Early added 18 and No. 4 Wichita State defeated visiting Southern Illinois, 78-67, to remain undefeated and earn its 26th win. The Shockers trailed by a point at halftime. Scottie Wilbekin had 21 points and 6 assists, and No. 3 Florida relied on its defense in the second half to outlast host Tennessee, 67-58, and win its 16th straight. | Sports |
Natalie Mendoza I Forgive Harvey Weinstein 1/25/2018 TMZ.com Natalie Mendoza says she forgives Harvey Weinstein for his alleged sexual assault on her. We got the Australian actress Wednesday at LAX and asked if she'd forgiven him for what she claims he did to her during a 2002 script meeting -- allegedly lunging at her and groping her, before she threatened to punch him if he didn't lay off. Surprisingly, she does -- and her explanation is interesting. Sounds like she thinks society is partially to blame for Harvey's misdeeds, and the only way forward is through forgiveness. TMZ.com She also tells us why she thinks Weinstein deserves another chance in show biz -- once again putting the burden on everyone else to bring him back into the fold. | Entertainment |
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/04/sports/baseball/mets-sign-farnsworth.htmlSports Briefing | BaseballFeb. 4, 2014The Mets continued to fill out their bullpen, announcing that they had signed Kyle Farnsworth to a minor league deal, with an invitation to spring training. Farnsworth, 37, had a 4.70 earned run average in 48 games last season, which he split between Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay. At 6 feet 4 inches and 230 pounds, Farnsworth is an intimidating figure on the mound, with a fastball to match and a fiery attitude. Bobby Parnell is expected to be the Mets closer, but Farnsworth and the young right-hander Vic Black could vie for the setup role. The Arizona Diamondbacks avoided arbitration with the two-time Gold Glove outfielder Gerardo Parra by agreeing to a one-year, $4.85 million contract. The team also extended the contracts of Manager Kirk Gibson and General Manager Kevin Towers. Their deals had been set to expire after the coming season. (AP) The Tampa Bay Rays right-hander Jeremy Hellickson had surgery on his pitching elbow. He is expected to miss the first six to eight weeks of the season. (AP) | Sports |
Credit...Bart Maat/European Pressphoto AgencyMarch 8, 2017THE HAGUE As concern grows that Dutch politics is being influenced by American money, a new campaign disclosure report released in the Netherlands on Wednesday provided a twist: The spigot of American cash seems to have been mostly shut off.The report, coming a week ahead of contentious national elections and amid a Dutch experiment with campaign finance disclosure, showed that the burst of money donated in 2015 to the far-right leader Geert Wilders has dropped sharply. Yet in Europe, where disclosure laws are porous, loopholes in the Dutch laws still prevent a full picture of the scope and influence of foreign money.The report showed that Mr. Wilders and his Party for Freedom, which has been running first or second in Dutch polls, received about $25,000 last year from the David Horowitz Freedom Center, run by David Horowitz, an American activist with strident views on Islam. In addition, a Buffalo-based company, listed in the new Dutch records as FOL Inc., appeared in the records as giving roughly $7,400 in November. The company could not be immediately identified in New York State records. That is still a sharp drop from 2015, when Mr. Horowitzs center donated nearly $120,000 to the Party for Freedom, making it the largest individual donation that year in the Dutch political system, which is small and parochial compared with American politics.Over all, the largest individual donor listed in Wednesdays filing appeared to be Metterwoon Vastgoed, a real estate agency led by Chris Thunnessen, a businessman from The Hague. The firm gave about $158,000 this year to 50PLUS, a small party representing the interests of older voters. The firm gave nearly $106,000 last year to the same party.With political populism surging across Europe, the Party for Freedom has been a polarizing presence in Dutch politics, with inflammatory views of Islam, and the partys financing has been largely mysterious. Political campaigns in the Netherlands are usually funded with public money or from party membership fees. But unlike other parties, the Party for Freedom has only one official member, Mr. Wilders, allowing it to avoid internal budget disclosures to a broader membership.The Dutch have tightened their disclosure system in recent years, but gaps still leave it open to outside manipulation. Donations totaling less than 4,500 euros annually, about $4,750, do not have to be made public or reported to regulators. And foreign donations are also permitted, though legislation to ban such gifts has broad support in Parliament.The Party for Freedom listed only three donors in the latest filing, two of which were American. Few other foreign donations have surfaced in Dutch records in recent years. One exception was Chris Rufer, an American who founded a California-based company that produces tomato paste and other tomato products in bulk. He gave nearly $5,000 to the tiny Libertarian Party in 2015. According to federal records, he has been an active donor to libertarian candidates and groups in the United States.Elections this year in the Netherlands, France and Germany are considered pivotal for the future of the eurozone and the European Union. Anxiety about outside influence has grown, usually centered on Russian hacking or disinformation efforts. Neither France nor Germany will disclose recent campaign contributions before elections.Mr. Wilders has continued to focus on arousing voter anger over issues involving Muslims. At a demonstration in front of the Turkish Embassy in The Hague on Wednesday, he criticized Turkey for trying to influence locals of Turkish descent to vote on a referendum granting more powers to the countrys president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.The government has to make Turkish ministers persona non grata until after the referendum, he said. | World |
https://nyti.ms/1jJtsYK Moving back and forth between private practice and public service, several people had central roles inside the Obama administration in developing a new housing finance policy that would phase out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the huge government-backed mortgage firms. After leaving office, three of these former officials, now with connections to various large financial institutions, met several times with government officials to discuss issues related to Fannie and Freddie. Related Article Key Housing Finance Policy Makers Government job Private sector job Meetings with government representatives Long & Foster, nations largest privately held real estate company CWCapital, a leading commercial real estate lender from 1985 until ending his association with the company in Sept. 2012 Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan L.L.P. 07 08 Mortgage Bankers Association 09 HUD HUD 10 National Economic Council, The White House 11 Mortgage Bankers Association, the leading lobbying organization for the mortgage industry CWCapital 12 HUD 13 Michael Berman Consulting 14 15 Key Housing Finance Policy Makers Government job Switch from government to private sector, or vice versa Private sector job Meetings with government representatives POSITION HELD 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 PRESIDENT OF AFFILIATED BUSINESSES ASST SECRETARY OF HOUSING and FEDERAL HOUSING COMMISSIONER PRESIDENT and CHIEF EXECUTIVE Long & Foster, the nations largest privately held real estate company Mortgage Bankers Association, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) the leading lobbying organization for the mortgage industry PRESIDENT SENIOR ADVISER FOR HOUSING FINANCE CHAIRMAN FOUNDER and CHIEF EXECUTIVE, from 1985 until ending his association with the company in September 2012 Mortgage Bankers Association HUD Bermans priority here was to lead the battle to restructure Fannie and Freddie OWNER Michael Berman Consulting, a private consulting firm to real estate lenders Here, he focused on the future of Fannie and Freddie CWCapital, a leading commercial real estate lender VICE CHAIRMAN Mortgage Bankers Association SENIOR FELLOW SENIOR ADVISER National Economic Council, The White House Urban Institute OWNER LAWYER Falling Creek Advisors, a consulting firm to financial services companies HUD Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan LLP Advised on housing finance Advised on housing finance The Humbling of the Housing Giants Congress passes the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. The law creates the Federal Housing Finance Agency, a new and tougher regulator for Fannie and Freddie, and increases capital requirements at the companies. Bipartisan legislation to wind down Fannie and Freddie is introduced by Senators Bob Corker (Republican of Tennessee) and Mark Warner (Democrat of Virginia). The bill would distribute their assets and create a new housing finance system. It does not pass. The Obama administration issues its white paper on housing finance reform. Officials recommend winding down Fannie and Freddie. The Treasury Department and F.H.F.A. announce a change to the government bailout terms, which sweeps all future profits from Fannie and Freddie into the Treasurys general fund. The F.H.F.A. places Fannie and Freddie into conservatorship. Key Housing Finance Policy Makers Government job Switch from government to private sector, or vice versa Private sector job Meetings with government representatives POSITION HELD 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 ASST SECRETARY OF HOUSING and FEDERAL HOUSING COMMISSIONER PRESIDENT OF AFFILIATED BUSINESSES PRESIDENT and CHIEF EXECUTIVE Mortgage Bankers Association, Long & Foster, the nations largest privately held real estate company Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) the leading lobbying organization for the mortgage industry PRESIDENT CHAIRMAN Mortgage Bankers Association SENIOR ADVISER FOR HOUSING FINANCE FOUNDER and CHIEF EXECUTIVE, from 1985 until ending his association with the company in September 2012 OWNER HUD Michael Berman Consulting, a private consulting firm to real estate lenders Bermans priority here was to lead the battle to restructure Fannie and Freddie CWCapital, a leading commercial real estate lender Here, he focused on the future of Fannie and Freddie VICE CHAIRMAN Mortgage Bankers Association SENIOR FELLOW Urban Institute SENIOR ADVISER National Economic Council, The White House OWNER LAWYER Falling Creek Advisors, a consulting firm to financial services companies HUD Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan L.L.P. Advised on housing finance Advised on housing finance The Humbling of the Housing Giants Bipartisan legislation to wind down Fannie and Freddie is introduced by Senators Bob Corker (Republican of Tennessee) and Mark Warner (Democrat of Virginia). The bill would distribute their assets and create a new housing finance system. It does not pass. Congress passes the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. The law creates the Federal Housing Finance Agency, a new and tougher regulator for Fannie and Freddie, and increases capital requirements at the companies. The F.H.F.A. places Fannie and Freddie into conservatorship. The Obama administration issues its white paper on housing finance reform. Officials recommend winding down Fannie and Freddie. The Treasury Department and F.H.F.A. announce a change to the government bailout terms, sweeping all future profits from Fannie and Freddie into the Treasurys general fund. Key Housing Finance Policy Makers Government job Switch from government to private sector, or vice versa Private sector job Meetings with government representatives POSITION HELD 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 PRESIDENT OF AFFILIATED BUSINESSES ASST SECRETARY OF HOUSING and FEDERAL HOUSING COMMISSIONER Long & Foster, the nations largest privately held real estate company PRESIDENT and CHIEF EXECUTIVE Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Mortgage Bankers Association, the leading lobbying organization for the mortgage industry PRESIDENT SENIOR ADVISER FOR HOUSING FINANCE FOUNDER and CHIEF EXECUTIVE, from 1985 until ending his association with the company in September 2012 CHAIRMAN Mortgage Bankers Association HUD OWNER Michael Berman Consulting, a private consulting firm to real estate lenders Here, he focused on the future of Fannie and Freddie Bermans priority here was to lead the battle to restructure Fannie and Freddie CWCapital, a leading commercial real estate lender VICE CHAIRMAN Mortgage Bankers Association SENIOR FELLOW SENIOR ADVISER Urban Institute National Economic Council, The White House OWNER ATTORNEY HUD Falling Creek Advisors, a consulting firm to financial services companies Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan LLP Advised on housing finance Advised on housing finance The Humbling of the Housing Giants Bipartisan legislation to wind down Fannie and Freddie is introduced by Senators Bob Corker (Republican of Tennessee) and Mark Warner (Democrat of Virginia). The bill would distribute their assets and create a new housing finance system. It does not pass. Congress passes the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. The law creates the Federal Housing Finance Agency, a new and tougher regulator for Fannie and Freddie, and increases capital requirements at the companies. The F.H.F.A. places Fannie and Freddie into conservatorship. The Obama administration issues its white paper on housing finance reform. Officials recommend winding down Fannie and Freddie. The Treasury Department and FHFA announce a change to the government bailout terms, which sweeps all future profits from Fannie and Freddie into the Treasurys general fund. | Business |
Bill Cosby Works Older Crowd In 1st Comedy Show Since Trial 1/22/2018 scoopbroker.com Bill Cosby is back to doing stand-up (or sit-down) for the first time since his sexual assault trial last summer ... and his crowd and venue has certainly changed. Cosby's performed a live comedy set Monday at the LaRose Jazz Club in Philly alongside the Tony Williams Jazz Quartet. Most of Cosby's material focused on the comedian's struggle with blindness ... he didn't touch his pending trial. The disgraced comedian's retrial on sexual assault charges is set to begin in April, and a new jury selection begins at the end of March. He averted a decision this past June when a jury couldn't agree on a verdict ... ending in a mistrial. Looks like Cosby's back to doing his thing -- just on a smaller scale. He also played the drums. | Entertainment |
Asia Pacific|North Korea Flexes Its Military Muscle on YouTube, With Added Effectshttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/world/asia/north-korea-propaganda-video-attack-us.htmlMarch 21, 2017North Korea released a propaganda video this week depicting a United States aircraft carrier and a warplane being destroyed in computer-generated balls of fire, the latest salvo in an escalating war of words between the two nuclear powers.North Koreas missiles will be stabbed into the throat of the carrier, and the jet will fall from the sky, it warns. The video, which also includes images of North Koreas military and is narrated by a woman, was released by Uriminzokkiri, a state-run media outlet, and posted to YouTube.Its release coincides with the annual joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea known as Foal Eagle, and comes just days after Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson suggested that the United States was open to the possibility of a pre-emptive strike against North Korea.ImageCredit...UriminzokkiriMr. Tillerson recently visited Japan, South Korea and China primarily to discuss North Koreas nuclear ambitions.Let me be very clear: The policy of strategic patience has ended, Mr. Tillerson said on Friday while at the border between the two Koreas. We are exploring a new range of diplomatic, security and economic measures. All options are on the table.By Sunday, the North Koreans had conducted a test of a high-thrust rocket engine and posted the propaganda video to YouTube.ImageCredit...UriminzokkiriOn Monday, North Korea issued a statement from an unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman saying the country would not be deterred from developing nuclear weapons.The nuclear force is the treasured sword of justice and the most reliable war deterrence to defend the socialist motherland and the life of its people, said the state-run Korean Central News Agency, quoting the spokesman.As North Korea has accelerated its weapons programs, it has also ratcheted the virulence of its propaganda. In 2013, Uriminzokkiri released a video depicting attacks on New York and Washington.Somewhere in the United States, black clouds of smoke are billowing, that video intoned. It seems that the nest of wickedness is ablaze with the fire started by itself.North Korea has continued to develop nuclear weapons despite several United Nations Security Council resolutions intended to curb its weapons program by imposing sanctions. Last year, the country conducted two nuclear explosions and more than 20 missile tests. This month, it test-fired a volley of missiles off the coast of Japan. | World |
From Ford to Microsoft, white-collar companies are increasingly extending working from home through next summer.Credit...George Etheredge for The New York TimesPublished Oct. 13, 2020Updated March 23, 2021When the coronavirus pandemic shuttered offices around the United States in March, many companies told their employees that it would be only a short hiatus away from headquarters.Workers, they said, would be back in their cubicles within a matter of weeks. Weeks turned into September. Then September turned into January. And now, with the virus still surging in some parts of the country, a growing number of employers are delaying return-to-office dates once again, to the summer of 2021 at the earliest.Google was one of the first to announce that July 2021 was its return-to-office date. Uber, Slack and Airbnb soon jumped on the bandwagon. In the past week, Microsoft, Target, Ford Motor and The New York Times said they, too, had postponed the return of in-person work to next summer and acknowledged the inevitable: The pandemic isnt going away anytime soon.Lets just bite the bullet, said Joan Burke, the chief people officer of DocuSign in San Francisco. In August, her company, which manages electronic document signatures, decided it would allow its 5,200 employees to work from home until June 2021.Were still in a place where this is evolving, she said. None of us have all the answers.Many more companies are expected to delay their return-to-office dates to keep workers safe. And workers said they were in no rush to go back, with 73 percent of U.S. employees fearing that being in their workplace could pose a risk to their personal health and safety, according to a study by Wakefield Research commissioned by Envoy, a workplace technology company.More companies are also saying that they will institute permanent work-from-home policies so employees do not ever have to come into the office again.In May, Facebook was one of the first to announce that it would allow many employees to work remotely even after the pandemic. Twitter, Coinbase and Shopify have also said they would do so. On Friday, Microsoft announced it would also be part of that shift.ImageCredit...Stuart Isett for The New York TimesThe elongating timelines and changing policies add up to a continued balancing act for companies as the coronavirus shatters work norms and upends assumptions about where workers need to be to achieve maximum productivity. Employers are also under pressure to be as open as possible about their intentions so that workers can plan ahead with their lives.The postponement of return dates is a psychological blow for those who expected this to be a transition phase, said Tsedal Neeley, a Harvard Business School professor who studies remote work. The reality is hitting that, There wont be a vaccine as I expected very quickly. This is going to be my life, and Id better learn how to do this.Dr. Neeley likened the situation to waiting at an airport terminal for a flight that is continually delayed. With the new dates announced, she said, people can finally start adjusting from a temporary grinning and bear it approach to a permanent shift.Successful companies have begun to think about long-term strategy rather than Lets just survive our crisis, she said.Much of corporate America is now following the lead of Silicon Valley tech companies like Google and Facebook. They were among those that allowed employees to work from home even before the pandemic hit in full force in March. Since then, Facebook has set the tone in planning for permanent remote work, while Google established the July 2021 target date for returning to the office.I hope this will offer the flexibility you need to balance work with taking care of yourselves and your loved ones over the next 12 months, Googles chief executive, Sundar Pichai, wrote in an email to employees about the July 2021 date.Other employers soon emulated the tech giants, also citing worker flexibility as a key factor in pushing their return-to-office dates to next summer.Ms. Burke, the DocuSign executive, said announcing the June 2021 return date to employees prompted a collective sigh of relief inside the company because it put an end to the incremental postponements and uncertainty of when they would be expected to return.Remote work has been productive, she said, and people like not having to commute. But a mix of in-person and remote is probably the most popular option for employees when life returns to normal, she said, because they also miss the social interaction of an office space.Zoom is not the same thing, and its exhausting, Ms. Burke said. By 7 oclock last night, I was Zoomed out.Other companies that have delayed their returns to the office until next summer often face a more complicated decision because their work forces are not just made up of white-collar engineers, unlike those of internet companies.Ford said last week that its decision to hold off on back in-person office work through June 2021 would apply to its roughly 32,000 employees in North America who are already working remotely. The company, which has about 188,000 employees, said the policy does not apply to factory staff.ImageCredit...Aaron P/Bauer-Griffin, via Getty ImagesWhen Target announced its decision to let some employees continue to work at home through June 2021 in a letter to staff last week, it said it would apply just to employees at its headquarters in Minneapolis. The company said a small number of employees who rely on the headquarters facilities would continue to work on-site. In-store employees will work in retail stores as usual.Some companies that have already tried bringing employees back to the office have grappled with safety concerns. Last month, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase sent some workers back home after employees who had returned to the office tested positive for the virus.Tech companies have also been at the forefront of permanent work-from-home policies because digital work is often simpler for people to conduct via laptops and teleconferences than by being on site.Slack told employees many of them engineers in early August that its offices would remain closed until June 2021 and that it was considering permanent work-from-home, a decision partly driven by how productive its employees have been remotely, said Robby Kwok, the chief of staff to Slacks chief executive.I do think this flexibility that employers are giving to employees about not needing to come into the office five days a week is going to be extremely beneficial for productivity, for engagement, Mr. Kwok said.Even when the pandemic subsides, Mr. Kwok said, he thinks most Slack employees would prefer that the company allow a mix of at-home and office work. Still, some tech companies have reservations about embracing permanent remote work and what might be lost in the process. Rapid7, a cybersecurity company in Boston, has told its more than 1,600 employees that they would continue to work from home through the beginning of 2021. But the company said it does its best work through in-person collaboration, and the pandemic has not changed that.ImageCredit...Carlos Chavarra for The New York TimesWe know we are not meant to be 100 percent remote, said Christina Luconi, the companys chief people officer. We will all go back to the office when it is safe to do so, she said.A push to all-company remote work can be particularly difficult for companies with predominantly young work forces, said Andy Eichfeld, the chief human resources and administrative officer at the credit card company Discover, which told employees on Sept. 29 that they would not need to return to the office before June 2021.A younger person needs apprenticeship in the first 10 or 15 years of their career, Mr. Eichfeld said. And we know how to deliver that in person. Im not sure apprenticeship happens remotely.For some workers, the return date of next summer and the idea of permanent work from home is a mixed blessing.When Colin Fahrion, a digital communications specialist for the University of California, San Francisco, found out in June that he would not need to return to the office until at least July 2021, he moved 15 miles farther away from San Francisco, from Richmond to Vallejo, about 30 miles outside the city, and bought a house.Mr. Fahrion, 47, now has a dedicated office space and a backyard where his dog can play, and he has talked to his supervisor about working remotely on a permanent basis. Still, he finds Zoom meetings to be devoid of collaborative energy.I miss my co-workers, he said. | Tech |
A Conversation WithCredit...Christopher Capozziello for The New York TimesNov. 28, 2016C. Megan Urry is a former president of the American Astronomical Society and the first woman to head the physics department at Yale University. Recently inducted to the National Academy of Sciences, she has published pioneering studies on the role of black holes in the formation of galaxies.More than 20 years ago, Dr. Urry helped organize 200 scientists who issued the Baltimore Charter for Women in Astronomy, which declared that women should not have to be clones of male astronomers in order to participate in mainstream astronomical research.More recently, she announced that scientists with a record of sexual harassment would no longer be welcome at the astronomical societys meetings. We spoke at her New Haven, Conn., office. A condensed and edited version of the conversation follows.Q. Why was the meeting ban necessary?A. We had a situation where we had young female astronomers reporting conference experiences that were very different from those of their male counterparts. The men came and used the event to network. The women came and sometimes found themselves worried about people propositioning them.I wanted to make clear what our values are. I said straight out, Look, our meetings are not The Dating Game. This is a professional environment. Act professionally.Was there much sexual harassment at astronomy conferences?Probably no more than at other corners of academe. Its a problem all over. I suspect were hearing more about astronomy because our young people are complaining more.Listen, two years ago, there was a survey published about scientific disciplines where people do field work. A high level of harassment was reported. For the men, the approaches came mainly from peers. The women reported being hit on by their superiors.Thats extremely troubling because in academia your career is in the hands of your adviser. If hes approaching you for sex, youre in trouble. Theres generally no path forward in academe for the woman who has a powerful antagonist angry at her.Whats your own story? Did you always want to be an astronomer?No. In high school, I was the girl who was good at everything English, history, math, science. For a while, I thought I might like to become the first woman president. A female chemistry teacher counseled me to think about a scientific career. She said I thought like a scientist because I was always comparing things to one another. I think it was my father, a science professor at Tufts, who suggested astrophysics.In those days, the 1970s, I thought Id be able to do anything with my life. I chose physics because it was clean and elegant. I didnt go through that thing that often happens to teenage girls where they fall off of the cliff of self-confidence and get discouraged about science. The discouraging things happened later on.When? In graduate school and later, when I was a postdoc at M.I.T. Before then, there was a lot of discrimination around me, but I had rationalizations. If I didnt see other females in advanced classes, I thought, Maybe no other woman wants to do this. I now think my attitude was laughable.When I got to M.I.T., in 1984, there were very few women full professors, maybe two. I was the only female postdoc at the Center for Space Research. It was there that I first started examining the environment I had chosen. I could see that there were plenty of young women starting out in STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] fields, though the higher one went, the fewer the women.Was the atmosphere at M.I.T. discouraging to your own ambitions? The guy who hired me was wonderful, but there were very few women. I remember a male assistant professor once telling me Id have an easy time obtaining employment once I finished, because affirmative action gave women a big advantage over more qualified men.In 1990, when I got my first faculty position, I saw more sexism. This was at the Space Telescope Science Institute, on the Johns Hopkins campus. At the time, around 15 percent of the Ph.D.s in astronomy went to women. Yet, there were only three other woman among 52 faculty members.When women applied for jobs, the guys would come hear their talks. Then, theyd go, Well, I dont know how much of that was hers. And then some guy gave a talk that was vague and undocumented, and theyd go, Lets try to hire him.Why remain at such a workplace? The two-body problem. My husband worked near Baltimore, and I wanted to be where he was. And the work itself was exciting. We did the science for the Hubble Space Telescope.I wasnt paid equally. How do I know? At a certain point, I received something called an equity raise, which signaled my pay was at the bottom of my cohort. Just about all the other women got similar equity raises. We were, as a group, at the bottom of the heap.I struggled between intellectual self-confidence and constant put-downs. Once, when I requested a raise because Id been offered tenure and a 30 percent increase at another institution, I was turned down with maybe youre not as smart as you think you are. I cried for hours.VideotranscripttranscriptPeering Into a Black HoleThis is the story of the Event Horizon Telescope, a synchronized network of radio antennas as large as the Earth, that astronomers used to take the first ever picture of a black hole, an abyss so deep no light can escape.On a towering volcano in Mexico, a crew of astronomers are using the Large Millimeter Telescope to try to take the first picture of a black hole. This telescope is the nerve center of a synchronized network of radio antennas as large as the Earth the Event Horizon Telescope. If it works, the network will see details 2,000 times finer than the Hubble Space Telescope, and good enough to peer through the dust and haze that obscures the heart of our Milky Way galaxy. There, in the thick clouds of Sagittarius, astronomers have been tracking dozens of stars circling a faint radio source known as Sagittarius A*. From analyzing the orbits of these stars, they know that the mysterious source weighs as much as four million suns. And yet, it emits no visible light. If this is not a black hole, scientists dont know what it could be. We know what a black hole should look like from Einsteins calculations and from detailed computer simulations, like the one produced for the movie Interstellar. If Einsteins predictions are right, the Event Horizon Telescope should see a tiny, circular shadow in the ring of radio emissions at the center of the galaxy. A black hole lurking like a hungry shark. In the galaxy M87, another black hole, six billion times more massive than the sun, is in a feeding frenzy. Its shooting jets of X-rays and radio energy hundreds of thousands of light-years across intergalactic space. Astronomers think that this dragons breath of black holes could control the growth of the galaxies around them, shutting off the flow of gas that would otherwise be available to bake new stars. If they are right, it means the entire visible cosmos is pulsing to the invisible heartbeat of the dark side, a beat we are just beginning to see.This is the story of the Event Horizon Telescope, a synchronized network of radio antennas as large as the Earth, that astronomers used to take the first ever picture of a black hole, an abyss so deep no light can escape.Another time, I applied for a job I was qualified for. A male administrator sneered, You know what makes a leader? Someone others will follow youre not that.I was so beaten down I didnt even argue.People say this is the best time in history to be doing astronomy. Is it?Absolutely. The big news is in my own area black holes, the center of galaxies. Last year, LIGO [Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory] detected gravitational waves from a pair of merging black holes in a galaxy probably a billion light-years away.The waves were, of course, interesting by themselves. What fascinated me was that the merged black holes were roughly 30 times the mass of our sun. They were, at once, too small and too big for a black hole.Its much smaller than the supermassive black holes weve seen in the centers of galaxies, and much bigger than the black holes that come from exploding stars. It could be something entirely new.Thanks to LIGO, weve learned that the masses of the two black holes appear to have merged. The two are measured at about 30 solar masses, which is different, smaller, from what we usually see. Theres some thought that they may be remnants from the first generation of stars.For the past 15 years, Ive been discovering where and when black holes grew. My tools have been ground and space telescopes such as Keck and Hubble. Weve learned a lot from them. The LIGO discovery suggests a new way to study the universe. Will we not need those space-based satellites anymore? On the contrary, the Chandra X-ray telescope and the XMM-Newton X-ray telescope have taught us the most about black holes. It appears that every black hole emits X-rays. The newest space telescopes spot them instantly.The James Webb Space Telescope, which is slated to be launched in 2018, is utterly amazing. Its much bigger than Hubble, and it will enable us to see some of the first galaxies ever. | science |
After a financial hit from the pandemic, the San Francisco company said business was starting to return from its nose-dive.July 15, 2020SAN FRANCISCO Airbnb has resumed its efforts to go public, despite significant damage to the home rental business caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Airbnbs chief executive, Brian Chesky, told employees Wednesday.The San Francisco company, once valued by investors at $31 billion, had planned to file in March to go public, but set aside those plans when the pandemic halted travel around the world. Since then, Airbnb has slashed costs, raised emergency funding and laid off a quarter of its staff, around 1,900 people.On a videoconference with employees, Mr. Chesky indicated that the companys gross bookings a sum that includes money paid to hosts had rebounded in recent weeks from their nose-dive.This is something I never would have imagined telling you, he said in the meeting, which The New York Times attended. It kind of defies logic in a way. He added that the trend could change as lockdowns returned in some parts of the United States.Airbnb also announced that Catherine Powell, the companys head of experiences, would take a new role as global head of hosting as Greg Greeley, president of the homes division, left the company. Hiroki Asai, an 18-year veteran of Apple, will join Airbnb to lead its marketing.The company is trying to repair its relationship with its hosts, who supply the rentals for its platform and whose income has dried up with travel halted. Many were outraged when Airbnb allowed guests to cancel nonrefundable bookings as the pandemic spread. Mr. Chesky earlier apologized to hosts for how the decision was communicated.In response to the virus, Airbnb has adapted its offerings, including creating new cleaning initiatives, selling access to virtual activities done over video streaming and promoting rentals in rural areas within driving distance.The company is under pressure from its workers to go public; shares held by early employees will begin to expire this year.Even with the revenue it lost, Airbnbs listing may be welcomed by investors. Despite record unemployment, surging virus cases and declarations of a recession, the stock market has been booming, particularly for initial public offerings by tech companies. In recent weeks, shares of Lemonade, an online insurance start-up, and NCino, a financial tech start-up, have more than doubled after listing.Mr. Chesky closed the meeting by declaring that Airbnb is back. Were not committing to going public this year, but were not ruling it out, either, he said. When the market is ready, we will be ready, because Airbnb was down but we were not out. | Tech |
The New Old AgeA Daily Aspirin Regimen May Hurt More Than Help, Experts WarnMillions of Americans take aspirin to prevent a first heart attack or stroke. Now, doctors are advising against it especially for people over 70.Credit...John Crowe/AlamyMay 21, 2022Regina Griffith was 64 when she met her new primary care doctor for a routine checkup. He recommended a daily low-dose aspirin for heart health, she recalled.Its hard to be more fit than Ms. Griffith, the owner and chief instructor at a fitness studio in Montclair, N.J. She had a slightly elevated blood pressure at the doctors office (but not at home, using her own cuff); other than that, she had no significant health problems.Still, a daily aspirin didnt seem like a big deal, and the doctor did not mention any downsides, so she took his advice. I thought, OK, Im at a certain age, Ms. Griffith said. It didnt sound scary to take aspirin.Millions of older Americans do likewise, and not always because of a doctors recommendation. Alan Turner, 64, an industrial designer in New Castle, Del., began taking aspirin on his own about five years ago, after his mother had several strokes. I saw what that did to her, he said. He had heard of other people his age taking prophylactic aspirin, so he just went with it, he said. How much damage can you do with a baby aspirin a day?Good question. For three decades, the United States Preventive Services Task Force, an independent and influential panel of experts, has been reviewing the growing evidence of aspirin use for preventing first heart attacks and strokes.Last month, it issued its latest recommendations on aspirin use, the first in six years. The panel warned adults over 60 against starting an aspirin regimen for primary prevention.It carries possible serious harms notably, an increased risk of internal bleeding, said Dr. John Wong, a task force member. And those harms are higher than we thought in 2016. Dr. Wong is a primary care doctor and interim chief scientific officer at Tufts Medical Center in Boston.Primary prevention refers to patients who have never had a heart attack or stroke and do not have heart disease. (High blood pressure, or hypertension, is not considered heart disease.) That group is the task forces focus.People taking aspirin for secondary prevention because they have already had a heart attack, stroke or intervention like stenting or bypass surgery face higher risk of subsequent cardiovascular events, and aspirin might remain part of their treatment.For adults aged 40 to 59, the net benefit of taking aspirin daily would be small, the task force concluded. They may choose to start a daily aspirin regimen if, based on widely used health calculators, they face a 10 percent or higher risk for cardiovascular disease over the next decade, but that should be an individual decision.It will take time for these new cautions to trickle down to the public. About one-third of Americans over 40 already take aspirin, a 2019 study found. Among those over 70, more than 45 percent take aspirin for primary prevention, probably representing significant overuse.Many people dont even think of aspirin as medication, they think of it as more like a vitamin, said Dr. Amit Khera, the director of preventive cardiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. But just because its over-the-counter, doesnt mean its not a drug with benefits and risks.In 2019, Dr. Khera helped develop similar guidelines for the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association, which recommended against routine aspirin use for primary prevention in people over 70. The American Geriatrics Societys Beers Criteria, a list of medications considered inappropriate for older patients, is also considering recommending that most older adults avoid starting aspirin for primary prevention.The U.S. Preventive Services Task Forces position on aspirin use for prevention has seesawed over the decades, noted Dr. Allan Brett, an internist at the University of Colorado, in a JAMA editorial accompanying the new guidelines. The task force initially recommended in 1989 that patients consider aspirin, then backed off, calling the evidence insufficient. It encouraged preventive aspirin for many adults in 2009 but had grown more skeptical by 2016.What has changed this time around? Three large, rigorous clinical trials published in 2018, following more than 47,000 older patients, really highlighted the risks, Dr. Khera said.Dr. Wong added: Two didnt find any significant reductions in heart attack or stroke, but there was an increased risk of bleeding. The third clinical trial, which was limited to people with diabetes, a higher-risk group, found a small reduction in cardiovascular events but with a higher bleeding risk. The harm canceled out the benefit, Dr. Wong said.The bleeding in question usually occurs in the gastrointestinal tract but can also include brain bleeds and hemorrhagic strokes. Although the risks are low major bleeding occurred in 1 percent or fewer of older people taking aspirin in the 2018 studies they increase with age. These are serious bleeds, Dr. Brett said. They can require transfusions. They can put people in the hospital.With the advent of other effective advances in preventing heart attacks and strokes better blood pressure drugs, statins for lowering cholesterol, a reduction in smoking the role for aspirin has narrowed, experts said.For people over 60, per the task force guidelines, or 70, per the cardiologists recommendations, the risks of starting aspirin now outweigh the benefits. This is particularly true for people with a history of bleeding, say from ulcers or aneurysms, or those taking medications like blood thinners, steroids or anti-inflammatories such as ibuprofen or naproxen.The 2016 task force recommendation raised the possibility that aspirin might play a role in preventing colon cancer. But, Dr. Wong said, were no longer confident aspirin provides benefit for colorectal cancer. We dont have enough evidence. Were calling for more research.The task force had frustratingly little to say, however, about people over 60 stopping aspirin if they have already begun taking it for primary prevention. It mentioned that people should consider stopping at about age 75 because any benefit would diminish with age, but it also said patients should not discontinue aspirin without talking to a health care professional.Theres no urgency, Dr. Khera said. Put this on the agenda of things to discuss at an upcoming appointment. But, he added, for people generally healthy, with few risk factors, its reasonable to just stop. Dr. Brett said he had been cautioning patients against routine aspirin use since 2018.Ms. Griffith, now 65, recently saw a different doctor in her new primary care practice. The doctor looked at her chart, which showed no heart disease and more than a year of aspirin use.He said, I dont think you need to do that, she said.Ms. Griffith had already begun to question the practice and had cut back to an aspirin every other day. Now, shes going to stop. | Health |
The Saturday ProfileVideoBilal Abdul Kareem is a Muslim convert and former comedian from New York. In the last few years, hes made hundreds of news reports from Syria.CreditCredit...On The Ground NewsMarch 10, 2017BEIRUT, Lebanon On a stretch of road in northern Syria, a missile screamed from the sky and obliterated a car, killing an Islamist militant and leaving a wreck of twisted metal in an olive grove.Soon after, a skinny, bald and bearded African-American convert to Islam and former stand-up comedian from New York arrived to document the scene.Addressing a video camera with thinly veiled outrage, Bilal Abdul Kareem showed missile fragments that he said indicated an American drone strike, adding that it had put children who were playing nearby into the hospital.Some people here dont think that that was a good idea, he said of the strike, asking whether there was open warfare on Syrians as long as countries like the United States could get their man.The report from January was one of hundreds that Mr. Abdul Kareem has made inside Syria in recent years, building his reputation as a unique voice covering the war from rebel-held areas that other Western journalists have fled for fear of kidnapping and beheading by jihadists.Along the way, Mr. Abdul Kareem has interviewed foreign fighters from Britain, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere and survived the siege of eastern Aleppo by government forces last year.While he harshly criticizes the jihadists of the Islamic State, he has done extensive interviews with members of the Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda. In one, a prominent jihadist cleric from Saudi Arabia explains why joining the jihad in Syria is a religious obligation and says that fighters in Syria are the first line of defense against the Shiites.Such interviews have led critics to brand Mr. Abdul Kareem a jihadist propagandist.The Syrian government and its Russian allies say he cavorts with terrorists. Although the United States has taken no public stance on his work, terrorism analysts say he provides an uncritical, English-language platform for jihadists.It is the soft approach, the sugarcoated approach, said Alberto M. Fernandez, a former top counterterrorism official at the State Department and now vice president of the Middle East Media Research Institute.That played into the strategy of Syrias Qaeda affiliate, the Nusra Front, to blend in with the wider rebel movement by changing its name, announcing a break with Al Qaeda and merging with other factions moves that have not convinced the United States that the group has changed, Mr. Fernandez said.But to the broader world, inside of Syria and on social media, there is an effort to reinvent them as kinder, gentler jihadists, he said, adding that Mr. Abdul Kareem was part of that effort.Mr. Abdul Kareem begged to differ.When I contacted him about his work, he jokingly suggested that I drop by for dinner at his place in northern Syria.In a series of Skype interviews, he discussed his work and explained how he had grown from a churchgoing kid in Mount Vernon, N.Y., with a knack for yo mama so fat jokes into an unlikely correspondent in a Middle Eastern war.He insisted that he was an independent journalist who belonged to no militant group, opposed violence against civilians and did not bear arms.Do you think this war needs one more black guy with no hair on his head blasting with a Kalashnikov? he asked, laughing.But he acknowledged that he speaks with members of Syrias Islamist factions, including Al Qaeda, to provide Western audiences with a window into their views.Too often, he said, the West dismisses Islamist fighters as terrorists without understanding what motivates them, just as Islamists fail to understand the United States. That has locked the two sides in an endless, lose-lose battle, he said, which he believes can be solved only through dialogue.ImageCredit...On the Ground News He acknowledged that such an initiative was a long shot especially with President Trump in the White House. Mr. Trump has called for stepping up the war with what he calls radical Islamic terrorism, so dialogue with Islamists seems unlikely.I can have these conversations with Al Qaeda members, and sometimes you convince them and sometimes they are not convinced, he said. I wonder how welcome I would be if I walked into Washington and said, Hey guys, I want to talk to you about Al Qaeda. I wonder if I would get the same tea with one spoonful of sugar in it.Mr. Abdul Kareem was born Darrell Lamont Phelps and raised by his mother in Mount Vernon. A 1988 yearbook photo from his high school shows a grinning young man in a tuxedo and bow tie.As Mr. Abdul Kareem tells it, he moved to New York City, where he dabbled in music, theater and stand-up comedy before converting to Islam, attracted to its conception of God and its emphasis on clean living.He decided to study Arabic so he could read Islamic scriptures for himself and traveled to Sudan before settling in Egypt. There he got a job presenting an English-language religion program on a Saudi-funded television station, but he fell out with the channels management over his interest in current affairs and quit. He later made documentaries in Libya, Rwanda and elsewhere for an Islamic channel in Britain.In 2012, he went to Syria to document how Islamist fighters who held territory were operating, and Syria has been his focus since. Early on, he collaborated with Western news outlets to produce reports about foreign fighters. But he felt that they only wanted bad guy stories that sensationalized the fighters, he said.So he and some friends founded On The Ground News to produce original videos and articles from Syria that he distributes through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. He said he received some funding from sympathetic individuals he declined to name.Now 46, Mr. Abdul Kareem is married with five children, who live with their mother outside Syria. He declined to say where for fear that their association with him could cause them problems with the authorities.Besides his family and being able to communicate with people in English, he misses Italian pizza from New York, he said.He has covered different aspects of the war, including civilians wounded in airstrikes, the destruction caused by rocket attacks and the views of fighters, often near the front lines.Running through his work is the view that the battle against the government of President Bashar al-Assad is a just Islamic cause against a brutal oppressor, and outrage that the world is not doing more to help out.Its a sectarian war and dont let anyone tell you that its not, he said. If they tell you that its not, they dont know or they are lying.Mr. Abdul Kareems profile rose significantly last year when he became trapped in the siege of eastern Aleppo by government forces and filed dispatches almost daily about the deteriorating humanitarian situation.In one report, he stood in a destroyed neighborhood and pointed out bombs falling from the sky beneath white parachutes. In another, he filmed himself brushing his teeth to show how the sounds of war dominated everyday life.You get up to brush your teeth and a fight kicks off, he said. Thats normal.As the siege tightened and government forces advanced, he released a video that he said could be his last, attacking Muslim leaders who had failed to help the rebels.You all blew it, and you had a golden opportunity, he said.But he survived, filming a video showing a masked fighter wearing an explosive belt before hiding in the back of a truck belonging to a Syrian family to flee the city.We have arrived, we are out, we are out! he said in a video celebrating with his colleagues as they ate fresh produce for the first time in months.Wooooo, apples! Mr. Abdul Kareem said.Since then, he has remained in rebel-held parts of Idlib Province in northwest Syria, where he hopes his work will prompt a conversation between Islamic militants and the United States.If the two sides decide that the only way forward is to just launch strikes on each other, then that is just what they decided to do, he said. But a good cup of tea and some dialogue never hurt nobody. | World |
On WashingtonCredit...Erin Schaff for The New York TimesJune 28, 2018WASHINGTON This truly will be a Supreme Court confirmation like none before.It will be the first for a court vacancy that opened during the Trump administration. It will be the first in an election year since President Barack Obamas nominee was blocked by Republicans in 2016. Most importantly, it will be the first time the process has begun with the threat of a filibuster off the table.The latter fact means that President Trumps nominee will begin the often challenging, tricky and exhausting process knowing that a seat on the Supreme Court can be won solely with Republican votes. But just because Democrats have very few options to derail an objectionable nominee does not mean they intend to wave the white flag before the battle has even begun.The key is to not give up here, said Senator Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota Democrat who serves on the Judiciary Committee. We need to make the case to the American people about how the decisions that this court makes every day affect peoples lives. Look at the last decades: where you can go to school, who you can marry, how you can vote, if you can vote. Those are the kinds of decisions they make.Democrats and their allies on Thursday were still absorbing the full implications of Justice Anthony M. Kennedys retirement announcement a day earlier and only beginning to map a strategy for contesting a confirmation in a reshaped Senate world.When Democrats attempted to filibuster the confirmation of Justice Neil M. Gorsuch in 2017, Republicans forced through a change in Senate procedure that eliminated the requirement that a nominee must win a supermajority of 60 votes before final approval.Republicans saw it as justified payback for a similar Democratic move in 2013 on lower court nominees. The Republican action was anticipated, but was no certainty at the start of the Gorsuch hearings. But simple majority approval for considering and confirming Supreme Court nominations is the standing policy of the Senate now.Democrats say the inability to use their votes to halt a nominee means they will have to use their voices. They intend to zero in on the nominees background and record as well as lobbying the handful of Republicans who could conceivably break with their party if a nominee was seen as extreme, particularly on womens rights and health care.Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, began to frame the debate on those terms Thursday.Let this be a call to action, for Americans from all corners of the country, to rise up and speak out, Mr. Schumer said. Dont let this new court, this new nominee, whomever he or she may be, turn back the clock on issue, after issue, after issue.Democrats have not forgotten Merrick B. Garland, Mr. Obamas never-considered 2016 nominee. Far from it. Though it was a presidential election year when Mr. Garland was frozen out, Democrats say they see little difference given that control of the Senate is at stake this November. They say it is only fair to await the verdict of the voters four months from now.Elections are elections, said Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, who expressed deep anger over the treatment of Mr. Garland.The shock that the Republican majority would remove from the fourth year of the president of the United States his ability to appoint a Supreme Court justice was very high, she said. For us on this side it was a humiliation. And it is carved deep into our memory.Senator Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican, majority leader and mastermind of the Garland blockade, pushed back on the Democratic demand to await the elections, saying that there was no comparison between his decision in 2016 and the situation now.These arent the final months of a second-term, constitutionally lame-duck presidency with a presidential election fast approaching, Mr. McConnell said. We are right in the middle of this presidents first term. To my knowledge, nobody on either side has ever suggested before yesterday that the Senate should only process Supreme Court nominations in odd-numbered years.While Democrats are unlikely to let the Garland issue go, they realize a more winning approach will be raising doubts about the nominee and cutting into Republican and public support. Process disputes dont usually win these kind of fights, but substantive objections can.The potential Democratic focus on the nominee has already caught the attention of Mr. McConnell, who on Thursday warned that Mr. Trumps choice should not be subjected to personal attacks.Conservative judicial advocates are also bracing for a full assault on the person picked by Mr. Trump for the post.Weve seen the Democrats turn the dial up to 11 on appellate court nominees, sometimes even on district court nominees, said Carrie Severino, Judicial Crisis Networks chief counsel and policy director, referring to Democrats largely unsuccessful efforts to block Mr. Trump from filling lower courts with judges. Democrats, Ms. Severino added, have gone pedal to the metal. Just imagine what theyre going to do here.What impact the absence of the filibuster will have on the confirmation dynamic remains to be seen. While Supreme Court filibusters were rare in the past, the mere threat meant that the White House and the nominee would try to build some bipartisan support.While the change in Senate procedures on Supreme Court picks came after the Gorsuch hearings when the nomination was on the floor, Republicans were certain that he was headed to the bench no matter what Democrats did. That confidence led to a fairly relaxed atmosphere at the hearings to the point where Republicans veered from substantive questioning into what passes for comic relief in the Senate.Democrats, recognizing Justice Gorsuchs confirmation was assured, essentially threw in the towel. This time around, it is highly doubtful they will give the nominee any kind of pass. | Politics |
on techTech giants suspend handing over information to Hong Kong, setting up a collision with China.VideoCreditCredit...By Zipeng ZhuPublished July 7, 2020Updated July 20, 2020This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it weekdays.Here we are again, facing a collision between Americas online superpowers and China.My colleague Paul Mozur wrote about Facebook, Google, Facebook-owned WhatsApp, Twitter and some other digital companies saying they would temporarily stop handing over peoples information when the Hong Kong authorities ask for it.The companies were responding to a vaguely worded new law that civil liberties advocates worry would extend Chinas internet censorship and digital surveillance to Hong Kong, which has long been a bastion of online freedom. If companies go along with the new law, the fear is that someone in Hong Kong could be jailed for a tweet. If they dont comply, their employees could go to jail.Saying no to the law could force those internet companies to shut down service in Hong Kong. It would also be a public defiance of Chinas government that we rarely see from global companies. No one knows what happens next.Let me take a step back and talk about the constant tugs of war that U.S. online companies face between their made-in-America principles and U.S. laws, and the rules and standards of all the countries in which they do business.What does Netflix do when the Turkish government doesnt want scenes of smoking or vulgar gestures shown in its country? What does Twitter do when an American tweets something that might be legal in the United States but isnt under Germanys strict laws against hate speech?Yeah, its complicated. U.S. internet companies face hard calls as they decide how and whether to comply with or sometimes push back against the divergent laws and norms of each country they operate in without violating their own missions.When it comes to China, those complications are multiplied by a thousand. The government and some of its supportive citizens are willing to punish global companies and organizations like the National Basketball Association that dont go along with the governments positions.Companies with business in China have twisted themselves in knots, for example, trying not to offend the government by appearing to side with Hong Kongs demonstrators pressing for autonomy.U.S. internet companies have been on the fringes of these dilemmas because many of their websites and apps are effectively banned in China.This Hong Kong law, however, presents the U.S. internet powers with one of those hard choices multiplied by a thousand. If they go along with Chinas new law, they risk sacrificing their principles of free expression, and will likely face backlash from American politicians and their employees.If they dont comply, China might make it impossible for the American internet companies to continue to operate in Hong Kong. (TikTok, owned by a Chinese internet company, said it would withdraw from Hong Kong entirely.) The Chinese government might seize the tech companies offices in the city or even arrest its employees. You can imagine how the U.S. government would respond to that.In his article, Paul suggested there might be a middle ground, allowing the U.S. companies to stay in Hong Kong and work around the law without openly flouting it. No matter the outcome, this wont be the last collision between the internets two great powers.If you dont already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here.Another China headache: TikTokSecretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested in a Fox News interview that Americans should be cautious about using social media apps from Chinese companies such as TikTok.Some American politicians and government agencies have worried that TikTok, owned by the Chinese internet giant ByteDance, is a way for the Chinese government to collect data about Americans or spread a sanitized view of China in the rest of the world. Pompeo suggested that the White House would have more to say about this soon.I want to take Pompeos concerns about TikTok seriously, but its hard to know whether we should. Ive written before that U.S. government officials havent provided evidence to back their warnings that TikTok is essentially an information harvesting conduit for Chinas government. (TikTok says those fears are unfounded.)And because of the continuing political and economic tussles between the United States and China see the section above its hard to know when the U.S. government has valid security concerns about apps or mobile phone equipment from Chinese companies, and when these are bogus fears motivated by nationalism.So heres a suggestion for Pompeo and other U.S. officials and politicians: Instead of scary rhetoric, show us why we should be worried.Before we go Can internet signals predict coronavirus outbreaks? My colleague Benedict Carey writes about scientists who are using social media activity, location data from our smartphones and Google searches to come up with forecasts of Covid-19 outbreaks a couple weeks before infections start to register.Ive written before about problems with trying to spot seasonal flu outbreaks from patterns in Google searches, but these researchers say theyve figured out how to work around some inherent flaws in using our digital data to predict disease.We might get a better look at a mysterious tech company: Palantir is one of those companies that tech watchers like me cant stop talking about. Its software helps spies and police do their jobs, and there are constant questions that the software either isnt as useful as the company says, or is so invasive that its creating a virtual Big Brother. (Its possible that both are true.)Palantir has now started on the road to a possible initial public offering, my colleague Erin Griffith writes, and if it goes through with it well all get a closer look at the companys inner workings.A word of caution: Some readers raised a concern about Mondays tech tip, which walked through the steps for using a fan with a smart plug. As with any use of an electrical device, readers should check the current and power rating on their AC or heating unit and confirm the smart plug is sufficient to meet the demands of the unit.Hugs to thisI have previously confessed my love of red pandas. Well, please meet the Oregon Zoos new arrival, a tiny and wriggly red panda baby.We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else youd like us to explore. You can reach us at [email protected]. If you dont already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here. | Tech |
Credit...Amir Cohen/ReutersNov. 14, 2018JERUSALEM Avigdor Lieberman, Israels hard-line defense minister, stepped down from his post on Wednesday after the government agreed to a cease-fire with Hamas to end two days of cross-border clashes, in a surprise move that could prompt early elections.The decision by Mr. Lieberman to step down, and to withdraw his hawkish Yisrael Beiteinu party from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus coalition, will decrease the number of seats held by the government from 66 to a precarious 61 in the 120-seat Parliament.The battle to replace him could precipitate the beginning of the end of the Netanyahu government as the prime minister, whose calling card has been national security, faces increasing criticism from his right-wing rivals who say he was too quick to agree to the cease-fire.The political crisis began with a covert Israeli intelligence operation in Gaza on Sunday that went awry and spiraled into the fiercest round of fighting since the last Gaza war in the summer of 2014.It was not immediately clear who would replace Mr. Lieberman as defense minister after the resignation takes effect on Friday.Naftali Bennett, the education minister who is a member of the pro-settlement Jewish Home party and who frequently espouses bellicose positions, is demanding the defense job. Mr. Netanyahu will not be eager to give it to him, Israeli political analysts said.But a legislator from Mr. Bennetts party, Shuli Moalem-Refaeli, said that if Mr. Bennett was not appointed defense minister, then his party, Jewish Home, would also pull out of the coalition, a move that would bring down the government.Mr. Netanyahu who is plagued by corruption investigations and facing possible bribery charges also could take on the role, at least temporarily. But critics said he ought to quickly find an alternative since he already has a second job as the countrys foreign minister. He also nominally serves as minister of health.Mr. Netanyahu held consultations on Wednesday with the remaining coalition party heads in an effort to stabilize his government.Various coalition partners including Mr. Netanyahus conservative Likud, Mr. Liebermans ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu, and Mr. Bennetts Jewish Home are vying for support from the same right-wing electorate.Mr. Liebermans announcement, made at a news conference in Parliament, came a day after the right-wing government agreed to the cease-fire with Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, ending the short but intense outburst of cross-border violence.In Gaza, there were celebrations about what the Palestinians viewed as a rare victory over Israel.Many Israelis, including commentators considered close to Mr. Netanyahu and residents of the south who had been under heavy barrages of rocket fire, assailed the government for what they called a humiliating surrender after militant groups fired some 460 rockets and mortar shells from Gaza into southern Israel. Israel responded with airstrikes against 160 targets in Gaza.Explaining the timing of his resignation and appealing to his right-wing constituency, Mr. Lieberman said he considered the cease-fire to be a capitulation to terror. He also listed a number of other recent policy decisions with which he disagreed.What we are doing now as a state is buying short-term quiet at the price of serious damage to national long-term security, Mr. Lieberman said.Mr. Netanyahu apparently preferred a speedy cease-fire over the alternative a stronger and more sustained Israeli bombing campaign, the likelihood of longer-range rockets from Gaza reaching further into Israels densely populated coastal plain and the risk of sliding into an unwanted, full-scale conflict.Just before the latest spasm of violence broke out, he said he was doing everything he could to avoid what he called an unnecessary war that would achieve little in the long run.In his announcement, Mr. Lieberman also called for early elections, saying the lack of clarity over the countrys security policy must be brought to an end.I very much hope that by Sunday, negotiations between the parties will reach an agreed date for elections, he said.It takes at least three months to prepare for elections in Israel. The current governments four-year term is scheduled to run out a year from now.Despite the historical fragility of Israeli coalitions, until now Mr. Netanyahus right-wing and religious coalition partners have not been eager to bring down the most right-wing and religious government Israel has known.Mr. Lieberman has outflanked Mr. Netanyahu from the right on the issue of national security.Mr. Netanyahu defended his acceptance of the cease-fire by saying Hamas had begged for it. He also hinted at other justifications and plans but said he could not elaborate for security reasons.I hear the voices of the residents of the south, he said, speaking at a state memorial ceremony for David Ben-Gurion, Israels first prime minister. Believe me, they are precious to me, their words penetrate my heart.But together with the heads of the security forces, he said, I see the overall picture of Israels security, which I cannot share with the public.Avi Dichter, a former security agency chief and now the Likud head of the Knessets Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said he regretted Mr. Liebermans resignation, adding, In my opinion, it stems from political interests, not security ones.Abraham Diskin, professor emeritus of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said that there were no good solutions for the Gaza conundrum but that maybe the cease-fire was reached too early, before Hamas was punished more severely.Mr. Lieberman entered the coalition with a history of far-reaching goals and demands, including the introduction of the death penalty for people convicted of terrorist attacks, the toppling of Hamas and the ousting of the more moderate President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.As defense minister, he soon proved more pragmatic. In reality, Israels defense policy has largely been set by Mr. Netanyahu, in consultation with other senior security officials.Mr. Liebermans other disagreements with Mr. Netanyahu included the entry of Qatari-financed fuel into Gaza, which he opposed but which Mr. Netanyahu forced him to permit in order to ease a chronic electricity shortage in the Palestinian territory.He also objected when Mr. Netanyahu allowed $15 million in cash from Qatar to go to Gaza as part of a broader plan to ease tensions; Mr. Lieberman said the money went first of all to the families of the terrorists.And he opposed the delays in demolishing Khan al-Ahmar, a tiny Bedouin village in the West Bank, whose structures lack the required permits. The planned demolition has been internationally condemned, and Mr. Lieberman said Mr. Netanyahu had issued a written order stopping it.Mr. Lieberman earned a reputation as a blunt talking, polarizing figure, but his partys strength has dwindled in recent opinion polls, barely scraping past the electoral threshold.He was named defense minister in May 2016, as part of a political deal augmenting Mr. Netanyahus coalition, which had survived for a year with a razor-thin majority of one. | World |
Credit...Ralph Morse/Time Life Pictures, via Getty ImagesNov. 18, 2016Dr. Denton A. Cooley, the renowned surgeon who was the first to implant a totally artificial heart in a patient and in the process set off one of medicines greatest feuds, died on Friday at his home in Houston. He was 96.The Texas Heart Institute, which Dr. Cooley founded, confirmed his death. He stopped performing surgery on his 87th birthday but had never retired, remaining active at the institute as its president emeritus. The institute said he last showed up there on Monday.A former college basketball star who was a towering presence in the operating room, Dr. Cooley had by age 50 performed more than 5,000 cardiac operations, including 17 heart transplants.For more than six decades his name was inextricably linked to that of his mentor and former partner, Dr. Michael E. DeBakey, the developer of the artificial heart. Their pioneering techniques for surgery on the heart and blood vessels have helped tens of thousands of patients.But those advances were overshadowed on April 4, 1969, when Dr. Cooley, working independently of Dr. DeBakey, performed his groundbreaking implantation without Dr. DeBakeys authorization. At the time, Dr. DeBakey and a medical team were developing the artificial heart it was still an experimental device at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.Dr. DeBakey felt betrayed. Suddenly his protg was his archrival. So began a feud that would last 40 years, reveal much about the personalities and ambitions of the two renowned surgeons and end only a year before Dr. DeBakeys death in 2008.ImageCredit...Ralph Morse/Life Magazine, via Getty ImagesDr. Cooley long defended his action as a doctors obligation to do whatever is necessary to save a patients life. If you are a ship out in the ocean and someone throws you a life preserver, you dont look at it to see if it has been approved by the federal government, he said in an interview for this obituary.The implantation was performed at the Texas Heart Institute; the patient was Haskell Karp, 47, from Skokie, Ill. About 16 months earlier, Dr. Christiaan N. Barnard had performed the worlds first human heart transplant in South Africa, a milestone that led many other surgeons to try the operation. One was Dr. Cooley, a professor of surgery at Baylor and the chief of cardiovascular surgery at St. Lukes Episcopal Hospital in Houston, who in 1968 performed what he claimed was the first successful heart transplant in the United States.The rush to transplantation led researchers like Dr. DeBakey to renew their attempts to develop an artificial heart to keep patients alive until a donor heart could be found. He was believed to be the first to perform surgery using a partial artificial heart, known as a ventricular assist device.Dr. DeBakey, who had led a campaign to persuade the federal government to support such research, had been developing his artificial heart with a colleague, Dr. Domingo S. Liotta of Argentina, under a grant from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. DeBakey believed the device, which had been tested only on calves, was not ready to be tried on a human patient.But Mr. Karps failing heart could not pump enough blood. When efforts to repair it failed, Dr. Cooley enlisted Dr. Liotta to deliver the artificial heart from Dr. DeBakeys laboratory and, with a 16-person medical team in a three-hour operation, removed Mr. Karps heart and implanted the artificial one, a half-pound device made of plastic and Dacron connected by tubes to a bedside control console.The device worked for 64 hours, longer than it had in animal tests, while a frantic search began for a donor heart. When one was found, Dr. Cooley performed the operation. The new heart sustained Mr. Karp for another 32 hours, until he died of pneumonia.ImageCredit...Associated Press(The first totally artificial heart intended for permanent use, the Jarvik 7, was implanted in Dr. Barney B. Clark at the University of Utah in 1982. He survived for 112 days. Since then, the federal government has approved the use of partial artificial hearts.)Dr. DeBakey, who was Baylors chancellor, accused Dr. Cooley of committing an unethical and childish act to claim a medical first. He contended further that in using a device that was still under development, he had broken federal rules and jeopardized Baylors federal research support.Dr. Cooley said that use of the device to save a patients life, even experimentally, did not violate the grant contract. He later maintained the operation was also an act of patriotism: He did not want the Russians to be the first to implant a total artificial heart and beat the United States as they had with their early space program.Dr. Cooley resigned from Baylor, and the American College of Surgeons censured him for his unauthorized use of the device, which is now in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.For decades after that, Dr. Cooley and Dr. DeBakey rarely spoke to each other or were even in the same room. (The feud became so intense and so widely talked about that it became the subject of a cover story in Life magazine.)Once Mike and I became rivals, Dr. Cooley said, he seemed to go out of the way to establish the fact that it was he who was responsible for all of the developments in heart surgery techniques, many of which he and other members of Dr. DeBakeys staff had performed.ImageCredit...Bettmann/CorbisThe two reconciled in October 2007, two years after Dr. DeBakey had recovered from an operation at age 97. In a ceremony at St. Lukes, Dr. DeBakey accepted a lifetime achievement award from the Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society. After presenting the award, Dr. Cooley stepped down from the stage and knelt next to Dr. DeBakey, who sat in a motorized scooter. The two shook hands warmly.Dr. Cooley had sought the reconciliation for years. Because I owe a real debt to the people who have helped me in my career, he said, I would have been somewhat derelict if I had not had the chance to tell Mike DeBakey that.Denton Arthur Cooley was born in Houston on Aug. 22, 1920, to a wealthy family. His paternal grandfather, Daniel Denton Cooley, was a founder of the planned community Houston Heights. His father, Ralph, was a prominent dentist.Dr. Cooley attributed his surgical skills to his athletic prowess. As a freshman at the University of Texas, he was told by his basketball coach to add at least 25 pounds to his 6-foot-4 frame to avoid getting murdered on the court. He gained even more weight and went on to play forward and center for the team. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, he graduated in 1941 with a degree in zoology.He was attracted to surgery at age 17 when he visited an emergency room in San Antonio and observed a friend sewing up knife wounds inflicted in Saturday night brawls. After starting medical school in Galveston, he transferred to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, earning a medical degree in 1944.After serving in World War II and then continuing his training on a fellowship in England, where he studied with the heart surgeon Russell C. Brock, Dr. Cooley returned to Houston to work under Dr. DeBakey. Over the next few years, the two surgeons had important roles in virtually every major development in heart and blood-vessel surgery.ImageCredit...Stephen Jaffe/Agence-France PresseDr. DeBakey and Dr. Cooley devised operations to repair potentially fatal bulges in aortas and to bypass arteriosclerotic damage in neck and leg arteries that could lead to strokes.Dr. Cooley also came up with a way to reduce the amount of transfused blood used in the heart-lung machine that breathes for the patient during open-heart operations. The technique reduced the incidence of infections like hepatitis B at a time when no vaccine existed to prevent that debilitating and potentially fatal liver infection. It also made it easier to perform surgery on patients whose religious beliefs prevented them from receiving another persons blood.Dr. Cooley said that if there is any contribution I should be recognized for, it is reducing the need for blood transfusions in open-heart operations.Dr. Cooley, who believed that the outcome of an operation was related to its length, became an exceptionally fast surgeon despite athletic injuries that damaged a few fingers and a wrist.I was always surprised how seemingly slow all his movements were in operating, Dr. Roland Hetzer, a onetime colleague and former director of the German Heart Institute in Berlin, said in an interview there in 2010. But every stitch was just perfect the first time, and he never had to do something a second time. So in the end he was very fast, a very good technical surgeon.In 1962, Dr. Cooley founded the Texas Heart Institute at St. Lukes and became its president. He also taught at the University of Texas and Baylor medical schools in Houston.He worked in an era when federal regulation of the development of new medical and surgical devices was limited. Doctors could make their own devices and instruments and use them on patients with little outside oversight. Human experimentation committees, whose approval is needed before doctors can conduct an experiment on a patient, did not yet exist.All the progress we made in that period would take us a century now, Dr. Cooley said. We would just try something in the lab, have some personal conviction that it was a meaningful thing to do and try, and then we would go ahead and apply it.At his peak, Dr. Cooley was said to be the busiest heart surgeon in the United States, performing many operations a day using an assembly-line approach. Patients were assigned to separate operating rooms where younger doctors opened their chests and exposed the hearts. Dr. Cooley then scurried between operating rooms to do the crucial part of each operation. Some of his critics have questioned the quality of the surgery.My athletic experiences taught me endurance and competitiveness, with perhaps an emphasis on endurance, he said.In 1984, President Ronald Reagan presented Dr. Cooley with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian award, for charting new territory in his search for ways to prolong and enrich human life.Dr. Cooley had homes in Houston and in Galveston, Tex. His wife of 67 years, the Louise Thomas Cooley, died before him, as did a daughter, Florence Talbot Cooley.His survivors include four other daughters, Mary Cooley Craddock, Dr. Susan Cooley, Dr. Louise Cooley Davis and Helen Cooley Fraser; 16 grandchildren; and 17 great-grandchildren.Dr. Cooley had his failures, both professional (a sheep-to-human experimental heart transplant was unsuccessful) and personal (he declared bankruptcy from failed real estate investments in the early 1980s).And though he and Dr. DeBakey reconciled, their rivalry never completely abated. Dr. DeBakey has been called the greatest surgeon ever. Before his death in 2008, he said in an interview that Dr. Cooley was one of the best cardiovascular surgeons he had ever known.Asked in a separate interview whom he considered the greatest surgeon, Dr. Cooley replied, Besides myself? | science |
Credit...Sandor Ujvari/European Pressphoto AgencyMarch 7, 2017LONDON Europes simmering backlash against immigration came into sharp relief on Tuesday when the Hungarian Parliament approved the detention of asylum seekers in guarded and enclosed camps on the countrys southern border, in what human rights advocates called a reckless breach of international law.Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary justified the measure on the grounds that it would secure the European Unions borders from migrants and act as a powerful deterrent against migration, which he called the Trojan horse of terrorism.Mr. Orban is a vocal supporter of President Trump, who on Monday signed an executive order that bars people from six predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States.We are under siege, Mr. Orban said on Tuesday at an induction ceremony for border guard officers. The flood of migration has slowed down but has not stopped. Laws apply to everyone. This includes those migrants who want to cross Hungarys border illegally. This is the reality, which cannot be overruled by charming human rights nonsense.In the summer of 2015, at the height of the migrant influx into Europe, Hungary built a razor-wire fence along the border with Serbia, to the south, to try to stanch the flow of people moving through the Balkans. That move caused a huge outcry, but Mr. Orban said the fence was an effective deterrent.The new law, which Parliament approved by a vote of 138 to 6, with 22 abstentions, would allow the government to detain asylum seekers, including children, for potentially long periods of time in mobile housing units, which look like shipping containers, in camps surrounded by razor-wire fence, while their applications were processed.Human rights advocates, including the United Nations refugee agency, condemned the move.The agency said that the new law would have a terrible physical and psychological impact on refugees, and it emphasized that Hungary had a legal obligation to consider less coercive measures.There is a global tendency to tighten the rules and conditions for asylum seekers all over the world, and this is happening in Europe and the United States, said Erno Simon, a spokesman for the United Nations agency in Hungary. He added, Detainment in containers is particularly detrimental for children.Some of Mr. Orbans antimigrant talk seems to be for political show. Relatively few migrants have tried to settle permanently in Hungary; a vast majority who entered or tried to enter in recent years were hoping to use the country as a gateway to more welcoming countries, like Germany and the Netherlands.ImageCredit...Szilard Koszticsak/European Pressphoto AgencyTodor Gardos, a researcher at Amnesty International in London, said that the new law in Hungary violated European Union regulations that prohibit detaining an individual just because he has claimed asylum. The blanket detention of all asylum seekers breaches the law, which requires that detainment be justified on an individual, case-by-case basis, he said.Hungarys latest move comes as countries across Europe, buffeted by the rise of populist parties, have been seeking ways to discourage migration. More than a million refugees and migrants streamed into Europe last year, fleeing war, conflict and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.Denmark passed a law requiring newly arrived asylum seekers to hand over valuables, including jewelry and gold, to help pay for their stay in the country.Even in relatively liberal Germany, where more than a million migrants have arrived since early 2015, calls to expel migrants who are in the country illegally have been intensifying. The cabinet recently approved attaching electronic bracelets to migrants who are in the country illegally and tapping their cellphones if they are deemed to be a potential threat.In France, the far-right presidential contender Marine Le Pen, who has hailed Mr. Trumps victory as a harbinger of her own success, has promised to crack down on foreigners, saying that the interests of French citizens must come first.Against this backdrop, human rights advocates say that the political and legal climate in Europe is becoming more hostile to immigration, mirroring the animosity and populism on the other side of the Atlantic.Also on Tuesday, the European Court of Justice defied the advice of one of its own advocates general by ruling that European Union member states were not obliged to issue visas to people who planned to seek asylum in their countries, even if they were vulnerable to inhuman treatment or were threatened with torture.The advocate general, Paolo Mengozzi, said last month that European Union countries should issue humanitarian visas if there were substantial grounds to conclude that a refusal would place persons seeking international protection at risk of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment. Such advice is nonbinding but is usually followed.Nevertheless, the court ruled that European Union law did not require member states to grant humanitarian visas but were free to do so on the basis of their national law.The ruling came after a Syrian family of five from Aleppo had applied for visas at the Belgian Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, in October 2016, with the aim of traveling to Belgium and applying for asylum there. After the visa application was refused, the family complained to the Belgian Asylum and Immigration Board, which, in turn, referred the case to the European Court of Justice.Human rights advocates said the courts ruling threatened to put the most vulnerable in harms way. But others countered that a blanket requirement to issue humanitarian visas would have enabled people to apply for asylum at embassies around the world, stretching the immigration services of countries that are already struggling to cope. | World |
Soccer|Real Madrid Advanceshttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/sports/soccer/real-madrid-advances.htmlAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySports Briefing | SoccerBy The Associated PressFeb. 11, 2014Cristiano Ronaldo converted two penalty kicks as Real Madrid reached its third Copa del Rey final in four seasons with a 2-0 win over Atltico Madrid and a 5-0 victory on aggregate. Real Madrid will face Barcelona or Real Sociedad in the April 19 final. AdvertisementContinue reading the main story | Sports |
Americas|More Than 250 Human Skulls Are Found in Mass Grave in Mexicohttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/14/world/americas/mexico-veracruz-mass-grave.htmlCredit...Oscar Martinez/ReutersMarch 14, 2017MEXICO CITY A mass grave discovered in the Mexican state of Veracruz contained more than 250 human skulls, most likely the victims of criminal drug cartels, the states attorney general said on Tuesday.For many years, the drug cartels disappeared people and the authorities were complacent, Jorge Winckler, the state attorney general, said in a television interview with the Televisa network.Veracruz, on Mexicos Gulf coast, has been the epicenter of battles among the countrys drug gangs. The remains found at the site indicated that the victims might have been killed years ago, Mr. Winckler said.Describing the crime-ridden state as a giant grave, Mr. Winckler said the state authorities would match D.N.A. samples at the scene to a database from the relatives of the missing.Mr. Winckler did not say when or by whom the pits were discovered, but the first graves in the area were found in August with the help of members of Colectivo Solecito, a group of women whose children are missing.The federal police and state prosecutors later discovered 125 clandestine graves over eight months across a large area known as Colinas de Santa Fe, said Luca Diaz, a spokeswoman for the collective.On Mothers Day last year, some of the collectives members were approached at a street protest by cartel members who handed them a map indicating the locations of the graves, Mrs. Diaz said.With the new information, the collective raised money by holding bake sales and raffles to finance the searches, including paying for excavators.Among the remains recovered in the last six months and already identified were the bodies of a former state prosecutor and his secretary, who were kidnapped by police officers working for a drug gang in 2013.What we have found is abominable and it reveals the state of corruption, violence and impunity that reigns not only in Veracruz, but in all of Mexico, Ms. Diaz said.A reality that speaks of the collusion of authorities with organized crime in Veracruz, for it is impossible to see what we found without the participation of authorities, she said. | World |
Sports of The TimesFeb. 4, 2014Credit...Francesca D'OttaviSOCHI, Russia One of my neighbors who doesnt follow the news stopped me a few days before I flew to the Winter Olympics. She was excited to hear that I was going to Russia, and told me how lucky I was.Could I pick up some souvenirs for her, she asked, perhaps some nesting dolls you know, the colorful, babushka-wearing wooden toys of decreasing size that fit inside one another?Nesting dolls? Her request threw me. In the lead-up to the Olympics, it was hard to think about anything quaint about Russia, not when the focus has been on terrorism and security. Theres nothing like a report about a black widow suicide bomber having infiltrated secure Olympic areas to douse ones enthusiasm for the Winter Games.ImageCredit...David Goldman/Associated PressTo sober things up even more, 40 gay organizations have demanded that the top Olympics sponsors speak out against the legislation Russia passed last summer that is considered antigay, saying that those companies are risking their reputation because they havent taken a stand. Has that issue reached its boiling point?Well find out soon. At the same time, athletes will be winning medals. But will anyone notice?Never before has the pre-Olympic chatter been less about the athletes or the sports. And never before has the conversation leading to the Games been so grim: suicide bombers have struck Volgograd, about 400 miles north of Sochi, three times since the fall including strikes in December that killed at least 34 people.Global security experts have called this the most dangerous Games ever, based on the location of the competitions, the seriousness of the threats (including one from the head of a terrorist organization who last summer lifted a moratorium on civilian targets), and the capability of terrorist groups to carry out their plans (several in that region already have).ImageCredit...Streeter Lecka/Getty ImagesIt was a very, very risky decision for the Olympic committee to hold the Olympics in Sochi, said Andrew C. Kuchins, the director and senior fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, a security think tank in Washington. He basically said what is on the minds of many people headed to the Games, and the many people including athletes families and friends who were too scared to attend.What was the International Olympic Committee thinking?Seven years ago, the I.O.C. awarded the 2014 Winter Games to Sochi, making it the first subtropical host of the Winter Olympics. Its voters were wooed by President Vladimir V. Putins pitch for the Games, as well as his charm, both of which he delivered to voters in person.His performance was superb, Patrick Hickey, an I.O.C. member from Ireland, said after the vote. He was humble. He spoke in English and French. The second-most powerful man in the world said everything will be delivered. Blinded by Putins celebrity and his vision of creating a brand new winter sports haven, the I.O.C. seemed to overlook the fact that Sochi is in one most restive areas of the world, where Russians have been fighting the Chechens, with violent ends, for hundreds of years. To ignore that, or at least put it aside, was quite a gamble. It was a move that has risked the safety of athletes and visitors to Sochi, and put a dark cloud over the entire Olympic experience.The I.O.C. chose Sochi over cities like Salzburg, Austria the location of The Sound of Music, for gosh sakes which was on the short list for these Games. Those Olympic officials are now safely tucked into their resort-and-spa by the sea in Sochi, with extra security not afforded to most other Olympic visitors.Of course, threats to the Olympics are nothing new. The possibility of terrorism has hovered over every Olympics since Israeli athletes were taken hostage and killed at the Munich Games of 1972, and it has been an increasingly oppressive concern since the 9/11 attacks. ImageCredit...Richard Heathcote/Getty ImagesBut the Sochi Games are different. The State Department has issued a warning to American travelers to Sochi, urging them to remain vigilant. Athletes on the United States team have been urged not to wear identifying clothing that could make them targets as Americans if they venture out of the Olympic Park.Major sporting events, particularly international ones, are now considered perfect targets for terrorists. Thats not changing anytime soon.In Manhattan last fall, months after two deadly bombs went off at the Boston Marathon, helicopters hovered over the last few miles of the New York City Marathon. Police dogs roamed the course, and scuba divers even checked the rivers to ensure the runners safety. Spectators had to pass through security just to get near the finish line in Central Park.ImageCredit...Alexander Demianchuk/ReutersAt Sundays Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium, tailgating was banned and access was severely restricted as part of the elaborate security plans that have become the norm.None of that happened at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, an event many Olympic veterans say was one of the best ever. Those Games were the first of my eight Olympics, and most of my memories are of smiling and happy people. Athletes proudly wore their countrys uniforms outside the venues, receiving only high-fives and cheers.They werent walking targets. No worries, mate, should have been the official motto of Sydneys Summer Games.But such worry-free days are gone. These Games will go on, the only consolation being that were all in this together now, like nesting dolls. | Sports |