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TMZ Live: Kim & Kanye: Introducing Chicago West! 1/19/2018 HERE'S THE RUNDOWNTrump Tanking Black Movies At Oscars?Jesse Williams: Slammed W/ More Spousal SupportNaya Rivera: Husband's Alleged Injury PhotosHulk Hogan: Major Support For Senate Run Share on Facebook TWEET This TMZ Live Archive Full Episodes TMZ Live Archive | Entertainment |
The New Old AgeCredit...Melissa Lyttle for The New York TimesMarch 25, 2016Ram and Geeta Chandran had always planned to move into a senior community after they retired. The couple had no children, and we knew we had to move to a retirement community so we wouldnt be lonely in a huge house, said Geeta Chandran, 72, a family physician.Then they came across an online ad for ShantiNiketan, a planned 55-plus community in Tavares, Fla., designed for Indian-Americans. (The name, in Sanskrit, means peaceful home.)The Chandrans, who had emigrated from India in 1970, found the prospect of aging with others from their home country appealing.Indian immigrants who came to the United States in the 1960s and 70s for educational and work opportunities have begun to downsize and contemplate their postcareer years, said Iggy Ignatius, 60, ShantiNiketans chairman. Many people were thinking theyd go back to India, but pragmatically, its not possible, he said. Our children are here. Our grandchildren are here.In Florida, from the architecture that reminds Dr. Chandran of Chennai, India, to the vegetarian meals and Bollywood dance classes, we have created a mini-India, a piece of India, Mr. Ignatius said.The Chandrans moved into their three-bedroom condominium in 2011, paying $250,000, and now they lead yoga classes in ShantiNiketans meditation room.Mr. Chandran, 77, a former corporate vice president, conducts Hindu prayers each weekday morning in a small on-site temple. For festivals, Dr. Chandran puts on the silk saris she found few occasions to wear in Newport News, Va.You feel more at home here, she said.Developers call these kinds of housing options affinity group communities, said Robert G. Kramer, chief executive of the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care, an industry research group.In addition to those established by and for members of religious groups, they include retirement communities for military officers, for gays and lesbians, and for the alumni of particular colleges and universities.Facilities for specific ethnic groups have appeared more recently, but I think well see more of them, Mr. Kramer said. Were such a polyglot culture.Among those already in operation: Aegis Gardens, a 64-unit Chinese-American assisted living complex in Fremont, Calif., opened in 2001. With a staff that speaks Mandarin and Cantonese, daily tai chi sessions and a Chinese chef, it maintains nearly 100 percent occupancy, said Dwayne Clark, the chief executive of Aegis Living.So the company, which operates 30 assisted living facilities on the West Coast, is building a second Chinese-American facility, a $50 million independent living, assisted living and memory care campus in Newcastle, Wash., scheduled to open next year.Monthly rents are likely to start at $5,300, executives said, not including help with the activities of daily living. ShantiNiketan began with 54 apartments when the Chandrans moved in. Now it has 174, with 120 more condos for Indian-Americans under construction, and Mr. Ignatius plans an initial public offering to finance similar developments near Los Angeles, Dallas and Chicago. Dr. Mukund Thakar began creating Indian-American floors in New Jersey nursing homes a decade ago, hiring Indian physicians, nurses, aides and dietitians. His Indian Nursing Home program now operates in eight facilities around the state and one in the Bronx. In Queens, a small nonprofit group called India Home runs culturally appropriate senior center programs for South Asian immigrants. The Desi Senior Center in Jamaica, Queens, for example, attracts older Bangladeshis with hot halal lunches, English instruction and a screen separating men from women in exercise classes.Theres a Catholic Charities senior center two blocks away, but they would not go there, because nobody on the staff speaks Bengali, said Lakshman Kalasapudi, India Homes program manager.As for Latinos, I expect to see the first Hispanic facilities in Southern California and the Southwest, said Mr. Kramer of the National Investment Center.For years, New Old Age readers from other countries have insisted that their cultures revere elders and revile children who dont care for their parents in multigenerational homes. But even in those societies, where elder care frequently depended on the unpaid labor of women, demographic and socioeconomic shifts have made a difference. Nursing homes have sprouted across China, for instance.Though Chinese-American families (like most American families) try to keep older relatives at home as long as possible, a lot of my residents have said its very lonely if your children are at work, your grandchildren are at school, and youre alone with a caregiver, dozing in front of the TV, said Emily Poon, the general manager of Aegis Gardens in Fremont.In standard assisted living, they might feel even more disconnected. The majority cant speak English well, Ms. Poon said. They couldnt communicate effectively with the staff or the other residents. They might find the food unpalatable, the activities unengaging. Isolation breeds its own physical and psychological dangers.Alice and George Louie, 90-year-old Chinese immigrants, moved to Aegis Gardens in 2012 to be near their daughter and son-in-law. The staff helps Mr. Louie, who has dementia, with his medications. Mrs. Louie, who has diabetes and uses a walker, practices tai chi and calligraphy. They eat meals with other Cantonese speakers.For the Chinese New Year, you never saw a place so extravagantly decorated, Mrs. Louie said. The festivities included traditional lion dancers, jugglers and gymnasts; the dining room served dim sum.For administrators, ethnic facilities can pose special challenges. Aegis executives had to petition to change the Fremont communitys street address, Mr. Clark said, because it contained the numeral 4, considered unlucky in Chinese culture. Inside the facility, apartment numbers jump from 103 to 105 and 239 to 251.Days before the opening, a feng shui practitioner decreed that the fountain in the courtyard be torn out because its outer rim contained points; he was mollified when workers hastily sawed off the points.A larger challenge: How long will the market for ethnically specific senior housing and programs last? Immigrants more assimilated offspring may care less about traditional cooking or a Gujarati-speaking staff. For first-generation Indians, this is working out great, Mr. Ignatius said of ShantiNiketan. Im not sure my children will come here.But if the need 40 years hence looks uncertain, the demand right now is pressing, said Dr. Vasundhara Kalasapudi, the executive director of India Home. The group wants to establish day programs for South Asians with dementia, as well as assisted living facilities and nursing homes.This is a common topic for all of us, how difficult it is to take care of families with medical problems, she said.Or nonmedical problems. Dr. Kalasapudi, a geriatric psychiatrist, recalled being pressed into service to talk to a hospitalized Indian immigrant who suffered, the staff believed, from depression. Her mother tongue was Telugu, but they managed to communicate in Hindi.Im not depressed, the patient told her. I just dont like the food. | Health |
Connie Sawyer Oldest Working Actress Dies at 105 1/22/2018 Hollywood's oldest working actress, Connie Sawyer, died at home after an incredibly long and prolific career. Connie reportedly passed away at her Woodland Hills home. Unclear exactly how, but she was 105 ... so presumably it's related to her age. The longtime actress got her start in Tinseltown at the age of 18, and has over 140 acting credits to her name -- most of which were TV roles. Sawyer's been on a number of hit shows over her six-decade career, including "The Jackie Gleason Show," "The Andy Griffith Show," "All in the Family," 'Mary Tyler Moore,' "Starsky & Hutch," "Seinfeld," ... and on and on. She's also starred in movies like "Dumb and Dumber," "Pineapple Express," "When Harry Met Sally..." and "The Way West." RIP | Entertainment |
Credit...Rolex Dela Pena/European Pressphoto AgencyDec. 11, 2015HONG KONG Chinas central bank said Friday night that it would start tracking the value of the countrys currency against a basket of many other currencies and not just the dollar. The move is likely to reignite speculation about the possibility of another devaluation by Beijing and could fan trade tensions.The Peoples Bank of China posted a commentary on its website saying it would calculate and release the value of the renminbi based on a basket of foreign currencies, after many years of relying overwhelmingly on calculations based on the renminbis value in dollars.The Chinese central bank did not say when it might make such a move, which could rock global financial markets.The last change in the central banks method for determining the renminbis exchange rate occurred in August and accompanied an immediate 2 percent devaluation. That was followed by a further slide in the renminbi in the next couple of days of trading, before the Chinese central bank intervened heavily to keep the currency from tumbling further.With the American economy expanding while Europe, Japan and many emerging markets languish, the dollar has rallied strongly for the last couple of years, and many economists expect that to continue. Basing the renminbis value on a group of currencies would cause it to fall against the dollar if the dollars strength persisted in the coming months.Managing the renminbis value relative to a basket of currencies rather than just the U.S. dollar would allow China to make a smoother transition to a more market-determined exchange rate, said Eswar Prasad, a Cornell University economist who used to be the head of the International Monetary Funds China division. One consequence of such a shift, given the prospects of further dollar strength in the coming months, would be a further depreciation of the renminbi relative to the dollar.Mr. Prasad added that this would certainly be helpful for the Chinese economy, although at best marginally, at a time of slowing growth and weak exports.The possibility of further devaluation of the renminbi also complicates the Federal Reserves decision next week on whether to begin raising short-term interest rates. Janet L. Yellen, the Feds chairwoman, and other top Fed officials strongly hinted last week that they would start pushing rates higher, anticipating that the general price level in the United States would start rising if they left rates near zero.But a weaker renminbi relative to the dollar would make Chinese goods even cheaper in the United States, helping to forestall inflation. Prices in the United States for imported goods have fallen nearly 10 percent in the last year, although partly because of falling commodity prices.The Peoples Bank, Chinas central bank, clearly pegged the renminbi to the dollar until July 2005. It then allowed a one-time appreciation in the renminbi and said it was starting to peg the renminbi to a basket of currencies. But many statistical analyses by Western economists have shown that the Peoples Bank essentially adopted a program of very gradual appreciation to the dollar, with the renminbi showing little correlation with other currencies.ImageCredit...Adam Dean for The New York TimesAs the dollar has strengthened, and as wages in China have risen by double-digit annual percentages, China has found its export competitiveness beginning to weaken. The Peoples Bank said in its statement on Friday evening that the renminbi appreciated 2.9 percent against the central banks new index during the first 11 months of this year, even as the renminbi weakened slightly against the dollar.As a result, the central bank said, the renminbi is still a strong currency.The International Monetary Fund last week added the renminbi to the funds special drawing rights, essentially anointing it as one of the worlds leading reserve currencies alongside the dollar, euro, yen and British pound. China had intervened heavily to preserve the value of the renminbi through its many months of campaigning for accession to the special drawing rights, and the I.M.F.s decision may have reduced the need for Beijing to continue intervening.China has the worlds largest overall trade surplus and consistently runs extremely large trade surpluses with the United States, exporting $4 worth of goods to the United States for every $1 of American goods that it imports. The Commerce Department released trade data last week showing that the American trade deficit in goods rose to $306 billion in the first 10 months of this year, compared with $282.9 billion during the same period last year.That was roughly half the overall American trade deficit in goods. American banks and other service providers have been asking Beijing for greater regulatory permission to do business in mainland China, which could someday begin to narrow the deficit.China needs to run very large trade surpluses because it has considerable overcapacity in many industrial sectors, and domestic consumption has been growing but not fast enough. Investment in China has been weak.Many Chinese families and companies have also been moving huge sums of money overseas, often to invest in real estate. This has tended to weaken the renminbi and has made China more dependent on large trade surpluses to bring in foreign currency and balance the outflow of investment. | Business |
Special Report: Energy for TomorrowCredit...Jason Redmond/ReutersDec. 8, 2015Some cities consume energy with admirable efficiency. Others are more profligate. Gauging which is which involves more than just reading a meter. And it depends whos doing the judging.Various lists of winners and sinners tend to contain the same names. The usual winners include wealthy, white-collar American cities, such as San Francisco and Seattle, and Nordic ones like Copenhagen and Oslo.The two European capitals held prominent positions within the region on the Siemens Green City index, a compilation of cities lauded for using innovative methods to minimize their impact on the environment. Singapore and, perhaps surprisingly, the Brazilian city of Curitiba were the leaders for Asia and Latin America.San Francisco and Seattle, along with New York and Los Angeles, ranked among the top 10 in a 2008 Brookings Institution study of the 100 largest American cities with the lowest carbon emissions per resident. Seattle was the only one of these four cities that did not also finish in the top 10 in the latest annual ranking of energy efficiency compiled by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.Some of these cities deserve their praise, such as Copenhagen, with its offshore wind turbines and ubiquitous bicycles, and Curitiba, which has implemented conservation and sustainability programs since the 1970s in a part of the world where environmental concerns often get short shrift in the quest to lift economic growth. Other cities are often beneficiaries of accidents of geography or history.San Francisco, for instance, sits on a small peninsula in a prime location, ensuring that its population would be packed tightly together and be amenable to using public transportation. It also catches a break because it developed as a center of finance and other service industries for people in urban centers that are somewhat messier than San Francisco, but support the city in its cushy, albeit energy-efficient, lifestyle.Experts in urban planning and related fields acknowledge that there are many ways to measure energy efficiency or energy intensity, an idea that encompasses the quantity and quality of energy consumed and that any assessment must include a degree of subjectivity. Some surveys adjust the measurement of a citys energy intensity to include not just how much its residents consume but also how much others consume on their behalf.Its awfully hard to find one metric to declare whos the winner, said Clinton Andrews, a professor of urban planning and policy development at Rutgers University.One way is to count all greenhouse emissions within your city boundaries, from car exhausts, chimneys, power plants, industrial facilities, he said. A lot of people think thats not a good accounting scheme and propose that wherever electricity is generated, youre responsible for those emissions.That includes fuel burned to transport food to the table or to take residents to far-flung locales for vacations or business meetings. They also get the bill for energy spent elsewhere to make goods that are consumed in some cities.It can add up to a much larger carbon footprint, Mr. Andrews said. If youre a rich city, youre going to be responsible for a lot of consumption. San Francisco and New York start to not look so good.New York looks considerably worse in a study released this spring in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that assessed the worlds 27 largest metropolitan areas, or megacities, on energy, water use and solid waste production per capita. New York was the worst in all three categories.Evaluations of energy intensity often adjust for differences in economic development, industrial bases, climates, population density and other factors to make a more equal comparison.ImageCredit...Aly song/ReutersThe drawback then is that every city ends up being the same, said Christopher Kennedy, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Toronto and the lead author on the megacities study.Another way to compare cities is one economic or social segment at a time, such as transportation or industry, said Anu Ramaswami, a professor of science, technology and public policy at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs of the University of Minnesota.Its better to talk about energy intensity by sector how much is used per household or to produce so much economic output or industrial goods or to move people, Ms. Ramaswami said. Taking such an approach, she added, New York consistently comes out as more efficient on all measures.Among the 27 megacities, Mr. Kennedy admires Paris and Rio de Janeiro. Both cities have little heavy industry and use electricity from cleaner sources: nuclear in Paris and hydroelectric and ethanol from sugar cane in Rio.One way to reduce pollution is to reduce use of energy, he said. Another is to reduce the carbon intensity of the electricity you use. I think thats the easier way.Shanghai is at the other end of the spectrum. It burns a lot of a coal for residential and industrial consumption. In Mr. Kennedys view, its a city that needs a lot of work.An inefficient city that is not mega is Denver. It derives electricity from high-carbon sources, is spread over a wide area and has cold winters, Mr. Kennedy said.Mr. Andrews tends to find greater energy efficiency among modest-sized cities that still have crops growing nearby and where you can walk to school or work, such as San Luis Obispo, Calif., Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and the Dutch town of Delft.A larger city that fits the bill for him is Philadelphia, with its pedestrian-friendly downtown, well-functioning mass transit and nearby farms.It also has chemical plants in the vicinity, Mr. Andrews said. Theyre living with their industrial past and present, he said. But theyre finding ways to make the city livable and perform well, even if its not the most economically vibrant city.His candidates for least energy-efficient locales include Guangzhou, the southeast Chinese industrial city where coal generates much of the power and where buildings and road systems are poorly designed. He offered similar criticism of Lagos, the Nigerian capital. They have achieved all the costs of agglomeration without all the benefits of it, he said.Two inefficient American cities that he highlighted are Houston, where downtown high-rises are hard to air-condition and where driving is essential for work or recreation, and San Jose, about which he said: Its all there. Just try to get to any of it.What many efficient, low-energy-intensity cities have in common is that the factors contributing to their benign profiles produce other benefits, making the cities pleasant places to live, Mr. Andrews said.If you stop burning coal in inefficient power plants, youre going to improve air quality, and if you do urban design so you can walk places, youre going to be healthier and you wont burn lots of gas, he said. A lot of what improves energy efficiency improves quality of life. | Business |
As businesses contemplate the return of workers to their desks, many are considering large and small changes to the modern workplace culture and trappings.Credit...Alex Welsh for The New York TimesPublished May 4, 2020Updated May 10, 2020SAN FRANCISCO The modern corporate office is renowned for open, collaborative work spaces, in-house coffee bars and standing desks with room for two giant computer monitors.Soon, there may be a new must-have perk: the sneeze guard.This plexiglass barrier that can be mounted on a desk is one of many ideas being mulled by employers as they contemplate a return to the workplace after coronavirus lockdowns. Their post-pandemic makeovers may include hand sanitizers built into desks that are positioned at 90-degree angles or that are enclosed by translucent plastic partitions; air filters that push air down and not up; outdoor gathering space to allow collaboration without viral transmission; and windows that actually open, for freer air flow.The conversation about how to reconfigure the American workplace is taking place throughout the business world, from small start-ups to giant Wall Street firms. The design and furniture companies that have been hired for the makeovers say the virus may even be tilting workplaces back toward a concept they had been moving away from since the Mad Men era: privacy.The question is whether any of the changes being contemplated will actually result in safer workplaces.We are not infectious disease experts, we are simply furniture people, said Tracy D. Wymer, vice president for workplace at Knoll, a company that makes office furniture and has been engaged by anxious clients, including some of the countrys largest corporations, to come up with ways to make workplaces less of a health risk.The actual disease experts say that a virus-free office environment is a pipe dream. Dr. Rajneesh Behal, an internal medicine physician and the chief quality officer of One Medical, a primary-care chain that recently held a webinar for businesses on how to reopen, said, A core message is, do not expect your risk goes down to zero.Much of what is known on the subject of workplace and disease transmission comes from studies about workplace transmission of the flu, which shares some similarities with the novel coronavirus, said Dr. Lisa Winston, the hospital epidemiologist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General at the University of California, San Francisco. We know that flu spreads in workplaces among healthy working adults, she said. A 2016 analysis of various research papers from around the world found that around 16 percent of flu transmission takes place in the office.Other research shows that one of the best ways to reduce transmission in the workplace is to provide paid sick leave that encourages ill employees to stay home.ImageCredit...Alana Paterson for The New York TimesImageCredit...Alana Paterson for The New York TimesImageCredit...Alana Paterson for The New York TimesAnother basic step to lower risk, Dr. Winston said, is simply having fewer people in a space.That is a concept that runs counter to the workplace zeitgeist of the past two decades. The embrace of open floor plans stretches back to the first dot-com boom in the late 1990s. It was hailed as essential to collaboration and creativity, but is, of course, also about cramming more people into expensive office space, a situation that people now realize creates unnerving petri-dish conditions.Mr. Wymer of Knoll, the furniture design company, said his goal had changed from making offices virus-free, which is impractical, to remaking them so that workers feel safer.We cant ask employees to come back to the same office, he said. Companies feel we have to address the root fear.For now, that may mean no more shared desks (a concept in the business world known as hoteling), elbow-to-elbow seating or cafes where people congregate to chat about a project over a fruit water or hazelnut latte. It could mean more use of materials, like copper, that are less hospitable to germs, and reconfiguring ventilation systems that flow air from the ceiling down rather than the floor up, which is considered safer.Mobify, a Vancouver company that builds online storefronts for major retailers like Under Armour and Lancme, has 40 employees who share space with other start-ups. Its the epitome of the 21st century workplace with side-by-side desks in a row, sans partitions, and open space for a total of 100 people at full capacity to congregate for meetings, or for playing Ping-Pong and pool.Now, Igor Faletksi, the companys chief executive, said, Its less about fun and more about safety.Huge buffets? he said. Forget about that for now.Mr. Faletksi is contemplating allowing more employees to work from home and even moving headquarters to a new building with better air circulation.People want to have safe collaboration, he said.Some companies have begun mentioning a return to one of historys more derided office-design concepts: the cubicle. There is talk also of the cubicles see-through cousin, known as the sneeze guard.Cough and Sneeze Protection Screens is how they are being marketed by the California company Obex P.E. in emails to potential customers. Plenty of options to fit your style and needs, the email says, adding: Decrease person-to-person contact. Practice Social Distancing.These guards already have a home in banks and grocery stores, but they are getting a new push into the corporate office space.Add tall laminate gallery panels to workstations or benching stations is suggested in a 12-page PowerPoint report, Covid 19 and The Future of Furniture, produced by CBRE, one of the worlds largest commercial real estate firms.Taller plastic barriers that extend over desks have long been in use at an office run by one of the countrys top infectious disease experts, Dr. Susan Huang, medical director of epidemiology and infection prevention at the University of California, Irvine. The barriers werent designed for coronavirus, Dr. Huang said, but, rather, to maintain a sense of collaboration while cutting down noise. Now, the barriers may have an added benefit of creating some biological isolation.ImageCredit...Alex Welsh for The New York TimesImageCredit...Alex Welsh for The New York TimesImageCredit...Alex Welsh for The New York TimesBut Dr. Huang said that safety in the workplace would require more than plastic shields. In fact, her lab reopened last week, and the first thing she did was hold a meeting to explain the new hygiene rules. At a meeting in the conference room, Dr. Huang gave each employee a bottle of hand sanitizer and a mask. I had to tell them, Youre going to wear a mask all day long, she said, and tell them how to do it right and that they have to do it.And dont touch your mask without first using your hand sanitizer, she recalled saying at that meeting.For smaller companies, the changes may be more modest but the issue weighs just as heavily. Howard Cao, the chief executive of Form & Fiction, a start-up incubator in San Francisco, said he had been thinking about changing out the touch-pad at the front door to the office that his seven employees shared with workers from other start-ups. Well probably have to reconfigure that into something with Bluetooth or a key fob, Mr. Cao said.Inside the office, he is looking to create physical space or barriers between employees who sit together at long tables. It may be as simple as a mini-divider between people, he said.Like a cubicle?Yes, he conceded, though its not a nice word for him. Ive always been very anti-cubicle, he said.The proposed changes to the offices have struck some as more cosmetic than substantive, especially the sneeze guard.I call it social distancing theater, like T.S.A. security theater after 9/11, said Ron Wiener, chief executive of iMovR, a Seattle company that designs standing desks that are used at many large employers, from Google and Facebook to the Department of Defense.In the end, the solution for many employers may not be to spend a lot of money on outfitting their new office spaces, but rather simply having many employees continue to work at home, as a way to accomplish two goals: keeping people safe and saving money.This is the punchline of a story about the post-pandemic office makeover. In the name of safety, there is likely to be a long, hard look at money, too. In this case, the goals may go together like hand-in-protective-glove.Moving to home offices has worked really great, said Susan Stick, general counsel at Evernote, a maker of digital note-taking programs with 282 employees. You cant put that genie back into the bottle. | Health |
Tech FixThe new iPhone has an improved design, but its undermined by the wireless industrys messy rollout of ultrafast 5G networks.Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York TimesPublished Oct. 20, 2020Updated Sept. 14, 2021I started this iPhone review in the most peculiar way: by opening a map to find out where I could test it.Thats because Apples newest iPhones, for the first time, work with 5G, the ultrafast fifth-generation wireless networks that will theoretically let people download a movie to their devices in seconds. The problem? The superspeedy 5G networks have not been rolled out everywhere.I learned this the hard way. When Apple provided The New York Times with iPhone 12s to test on Verizons 5G network, I quickly discovered that my neighborhood in the San Francisco Bay Area didnt have any 5G connection. So I went on a journey through San Francisco to find the superfast data speeds that Apple and Verizon executives promised when they unveiled the new iPhones last week.When I found places where I could connect to the fastest 5G networks, the iPhone experience was hugely gratifying. The network delivered download speeds to the phone that were up to seven times as fast as the best broadband services I have ever used.But the locations where I tracked down ultrafast 5G were far less satisfying. At one point, I found the speedy connection in the back of a Safeway parking lot. Another time I was in front of a Pet Food Express. What would I do with an incredibly fast internet connection there?In most parts of San Francisco, the iPhone instead drew data from a more vanilla flavor of 5G that Verizon calls 5G Nationwide, which is the connection that most of the country will get for the foreseeable future. Those download speeds ranged from much slower than to twice as fast as my older iPhone, which was on Verizons 4G network.Thats all to say that despite the hype around 5G, the network underwhelmed. At this point, it should not be the primary reason to splurge on an expensive handset in a pandemic-induced recession.The iPhone 12, with bright screens and a more robust design, is still a solid upgrade from past iPhones. But you will pay a premium: The device, which becomes available on Friday, starts at $829, up from $699 for last years iPhone 11. (Another model, the iPhone 12 Mini, costs $729 but has a smaller screen and ships later this year.)I tested the iPhone 12 and the high-end iPhone 12 Pro, which starts at $999, for about a week. Heres how that went.ImageCredit...Jim Wilson/The New York TimesThe Hunt for 5GPhone carriers like Verizon and AT&T started rolling out 5G networks last year and have marketed them as superfast. But what they arent telling you is that there are two flavors of 5G and that the one you will most likely get is not going to be the speedier one.Here are the two versions of 5G in a nutshell:Theres ultrafast 5G, which is called millimeter wave. (Verizon labels it 5G Ultra Wideband.) It travels very short distances and has trouble penetrating obstacles and walls. That makes it usable in outdoor spaces like street corners or parks, but probably not in our offices or homes anytime soon. Because of that, only tiny slivers of the country now have superfast 5G.Then theres 5G Nationwide, which is more widely available. It travels much farther, but carriers have said it will be only about 20 percent faster than 4G wireless networks.I saw the differences in 5G firsthand when I opened the Verizon coverage map for San Francisco. Verizon used red to highlight locations with 5G Nationwide, while areas with the ultrafast 5G were marked in dark red. The overwhelming majority of the city was shaded in red, with only small areas in dark red.To test ultrafast 5G, I drove to six locations that Verizon advertised as having the fast connection and used the Speedtest app from Ookla, a network diagnostics company.At three of the locations in the citys Marina district and Mission district, I was immediately disappointed. I walked up and down the streets, constantly refreshing websites and running the Speedtest app, but there was no superfast signal to be found. Instead, I got 4G or vanilla 5G connections.Verizon said its engineers walked those same streets in the Marina over the weekend and were able to find the superfast 5G connection in one location but confirmed the signal had weakened in the other. (Verizon didnt immediately comment on the location in the Mission district.)That led me to conclude that Verizons coverage map was unreliable.Still, I drove to three other locations in the citys Marina, Presidio Heights and South of Market districts. There, I finally found the fabled superfast 5G and I was blown away.Standing in front of a camera store in South of Market, I got 5G speeds reaching 2,160 megabits a second, which was 2,900 percent faster than 4G. Even where it was a tad slower behind the Safeway parking lot in the Marina district the 5G iPhone drew speeds of 668 megabits a second, which was 1,052 percent faster than 4G.These were odd places to have blazing fast speeds, though. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, these areas did not have much foot traffic. The carriers have said ultrafast 5G speeds would be great for data-heavy tasks like streaming video, but I had no desire to do much streaming while standing on those street corners.Why the nondescript locations? Karen Schulz, a Verizon spokeswoman, said the company ran into complex engineering tasks in San Francisco. While ultrafast 5G relies on access to light poles, most of the citys utilities infrastructure is underground. Verizons progress to deploy 5G has run into red tape, she said.When I tested the new iPhones on the vanilla 5G network, any speed improvement was hardly noticeable. In the best cases, vanilla 5G was twice as fast as 4G, or 209 megabits a second compared with 103 megabits on 4G. But in some locations, 5G was slower than 4G. In one part of the Mission district, for instance, 5G speeds reached 28 megabits a second compared with 39 megabits on 4G.Ms. Schulz said that customers should initially expect the 5G Nationwide network to perform like 4G, and that performance and coverage would grow over time.Im not sure thats good enough. Ive reviewed phones over the past 12 years and covered the transition from 2G to 3G, and from 3G to 4G. I have never seen a network rollout this confusing and spotty 5G, simply, is a mess.ImageCredit...Jim Wilson/The New York TimesEverything ElseSetting aside the network issues, theres still a handset to review and that brings much better news.The design changes to the new iPhones are substantive. The iPhone 12 has a fancy OLED screen, a more modern display technology. So it looks brighter and has more accurate colors than the iPhone 11, which used LCD screen technology. (OLED was previously exclusive to Apples high-end iPhones.) The edges of the phone are also now flat instead of round.The changes have helped the handset shed some weight and thickness while maintaining a roomy 6.1-inch screen. It felt much more comfortable inside my pants pockets than the iPhone 11, which always seemed too thick.Apple also said it had strengthened the display glass, making it four times less likely to break. Its difficult to test that scientifically, but I dropped the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro several times by accident on hard surfaces. They survived without any scuffs.Also new is a charging mechanism that Apple calls MagSafe. Its basically a new standard to support faster charging via magnetic induction. The new standard will open doors to other companies to make accessories that magnetically attach to iPhones, such as miniature wallets.I tested both the MagSafe charger and Apples MagSafe wallet. But I preferred charging with a normal wire because it was faster, as well as carrying my own wallet, because it can hold more cards.Theres a major downside to all of the new features: We have to pay a lot for these phones. Apple is also no longer including charging bricks or earphones with the new iPhones since so many people already own power bricks and fancy wireless earbuds. While that will lead to less waste, this shift and the price jump may annoy plenty of people.So Should I Buy?Its tough to recommend splurging on a fancy phone in a pandemic. But here are three quick questions to ask yourself about whether its time to upgrade:Can I still get software updates on my current phone?Is my device repairable for a reasonable cost?Am I happy with my phone?If you answered no to any of the above questions, you will probably be happy investing in this upgrade.But if you answered yes, wait it out. In a few years, the carriers will probably have a better handle on 5G. At that point, it may even be safe enough to leave the house again and reap the benefits of the mobile companions we carry everywhere. | Tech |
Credit...Aurore Simonnet/Sonoma State/Caltech/MIT/LIGOJune 1, 2017The void is rocking and rolling with invisible cataclysms.Astronomers said Thursday that they had felt space-time vibrations known as gravitational waves from the merger of a pair of mammoth black holes resulting in a pit of infinitely deep darkness weighing as much as 49 suns, some 3 billion light-years from here.This is the third black-hole smashup that astronomers have detected since they started keeping watch on the cosmos back in September 2015, with LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. All of them are more massive than the black holes that astronomers had previously identified as the remnants of dead stars.In less than two short years, the observatory has wrought twin revolutions. It validated Einsteins longstanding prediction that space-time can shake like a bowlful of jelly when massive objects swing their weight around, and it has put astronomers on intimate terms with the most extreme objects in his cosmic zoo and the ones so far doing the shaking: massive black holes.We are moving in a substantial way away from novelty towards where we can seriously say we are developing black-hole astronomy, said David Shoemaker, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and spokesman for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, an international network of about 1,000 astronomers and physicists who use the LIGO data. They and a similar European group named Virgo are collectively the 1,300 authors of a report on the most recent event that will be published in the journal Physical Review Letters on Thursday.Were starting to fill in the mass spectrum of black holes in the universe, said David Reitze, director of the LIGO Laboratory, a smaller group of scientists headquartered at Caltech and M.I.T. who built and run the observatory.The National Science Foundation, which poured $1 billion into LIGO over 40 years, responded with pride. This is exactly what we hoped for from N.S.F.s investment in LIGO: taking us deeper into time and space in ways we couldnt do before the detection of gravitational waves, France Cordova, the foundations director, said in a statement. In this case, were exploring approximately 3 billion light-years away!In the latest LIGO event, a black hole 19 times the mass of the sun and another black hole 31 times the suns mass, married to make a single hole of 49 solar masses. During the last frantic moments of the merger, they were shedding more energy in the form of gravitational waves than all the stars in the observable universe.After a journey lasting 3 billion years, that is to say, a quarter of the age of the universe, those waves started jiggling LIGOs mirrors back and forth by a fraction of an atomic diameter 20 times a second. The pitch rose to 180 cycles per second in about a tenth of a second before cutting off.Zsuzsanna Marka, an astronomer at Columbia University, was sitting in an office on the morning of Jan. 4 when she got an email alert. She started to smile but then remembered she was not alone and the other person was not a member of LIGO, so she couldnt say why she was smiling.I just kept smiling, she said.Upon further analysis it proved to be a perfect chirp, as predicted by Einsteins equations. Because of the mergers great distance, the LIGO scientists were able to verify that different frequencies of gravity waves all travel at the same speed, presumably the speed of light. As Dr. Reitze said, Once again Einstein triumphs.Thats not surprising, Dr. Reitze went on, adding, at some point hes going to be wrong, and well be looking.Poor Einstein.Black holes were an entirely unwelcome consequence of his theory of general relativity that ascribes gravity to the warping of space-time geometry by matter and energy. Too much mass in one place, the equations said, could cause space to wrap itself around in a ball too tight and dense for even light to escape. In effect, Einsteins theory suggested, matter, say a dead star, could disappear from the universe, leaving behind nothing but its gravitational ghost.Einstein thought that nature would have more sense than that. But astronomers now agree that the sky is dotted with the dense dark remnants of stars that have burned up all their fuel and collapsed, often in gigantic supernova explosions. Until now, they were detectable only indirectly by the glow of X-rays or other radiation from doomed matter heated to stupendous degrees as it swirls around a cosmic drain.But what telescopes cannot see, gadgets like LIGO now can feel, or hear.Gravitational waves alternately stretch and squeeze space as they travel along at the speed of light. LIGO was designed to look for these changes by using lasers to monitor the distances between mirrors in a pair of L-shaped antennas in Hanford, Wash., and in Livingston, La. There is another antenna in Italy known as Virgo now undergoing its final testing. When it is online, possibly later this summer, having three detectors will greatly improve astronomers ability to tell where the gravitational waves are coming from.The detectors were designed and built and rebuilt over 40 years to be able to detect collisions of neutron stars the superdense remnants of some kinds of supernova explosions. Astronomers know such pairs exist in abundance, doomed someday for a fiery ending.VideotranscripttranscriptLIGO Hears Gravitational Waves Einstein PredictedAbout a hundred years ago, Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves, but until now, they were undetectable.TKAbout a hundred years ago, Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves, but until now, they were undetectable.CreditCredit...Artist's rendering/Simulating eXtreme SpacetimesColliding black holes, being more massive, would be even easier to detect, but LIGOs founders and funders at the National Science Foundation mostly did not know if there were any around to detect.Now they know.The current version of the observatory, known as Advanced LIGO, was still preparing for its first official observing run, in September 2015, when it recorded the collision of a pair of black holes 36 and 29 times as massive as the sun. A second collision, on Dec. 26, 2015, was also confirmed to be massive black holes. A third event in October of that year was probably a black hole merger, the collaboration said.The burning question now is: Where did such massive black holes come from?How were such large black-hole binaries created? How did they form? Szabolcs Marka, a physics professor at Columbia and LIGO member, said recently. This is indeed one of the big questions of our field today.One possibility is that they were born that way, from a pair of massive stars orbiting each other that evolved, died, blew up and then collapsed again into black holes all without either star getting kicked out of the system during one of those episodes of stellar violence.Another idea is that two pre-existing black holes came together by chance and captured each other gravitationally in some crowded part of the galaxy, such as near the center, where black holes might naturally collect.Astronomers wont say which explanation is preferred, pending more data, but what Dr. Reitze calls a tantalizing hint has emerged from analysis of the Jan. 4 chirp, namely how the black holes were spinning.If the stars that gave rise to these black holes had been lifting and evolving together in a binary system, their spins should be aligned, spinning on parallel axes like a pair of gold medal skating dancers at the Olympics, Dr. Reitze explained.Examination of the January chirp, Dr. Reitze said, gives hints that the spins of the black holes were not aligned, complicating the last motions of their mating dance.It was not a simple waltz, it was more like a couple of break dancers, he said.As for the original stellar identities of these dark dancers, the consensus, said Daniel Holz of the University of Chicago, is that they were probably very massive and primitive stars at least 40 times heavier than the sun.According to theoretical calculations, stars composed of primordial hydrogen and helium and lacking heavier elements like oxygen and carbon, which astronomers with their knack for nomenclature call metals, can grow monstrously large. They could collapse directly into black holes when their brief violent lives were over without the benefit of a supernova explosion or other cosmic fireworks.Dr. Holz said in an email: It is indeed odd to think that some of the most dramatic stellar collapse do not result in massive stellar explosions outshining galaxies, but instead just involve a star winking out of existence. But thats what the theory says should happen.As if on cue, just last week astronomers from Ohio State reported that a massive star called N6946-BH1 had suddenly disappeared. The star was in a spiral galaxy 22 million light-years away that is nicknamed the Fireworks Galaxy because so many supernova explosions happen in it.The star, estimated to weigh as much as 25 suns had been brightening since 2009 and was presumably on its way to being a supernova. Instead it winked out in 2015. After a search for remains with the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, the astronomers concluded that the supernova had probably fizzled and the star had instead collapsed into a black hole.In a news release from Ohio State, Kris Stanek, a co-leader of this discovery, said it could help explain the LIGO results and why astronomers didnt see supernovas from really massive stars. I suspect its much easier to make a very massive black hole if there is no supernova, he said.In an email Dr. Stanek wrote, I am obviously biased, but I think this is a very important discovery, and one that the community is not yet fully groking in how it will impact a number of things, including LIGO results.Dr. Holz agreed. He said, We think this might be a channel for heavy black hole formation, and its amazing to see it actually happening in real time. Noting that the LIGO observations were in some sense the deaths of the black holes that collided, he added, so now in some sense we get to watch both the birth and the death of the black holes. | science |
Dec. 16, 2015Credit...Natalie Behring/ReutersBATS Global Markets is making a second attempt at a public stock offering three years after a technology problem forced it to stay private.Since then, BATS has faced new competitive threats and the increasing regulatory scrutiny of the role of high-speed trading in the securities markets.In a regulatory filing on Wednesday, BATS said it would list on its own exchange under the ticker BATS, using the proceeds of the offering to pay off a 2014 loan and make acquisitions. The filing says the offering is for $100 million, though that number is likely to change.Founded in 2005 by a wheat and stock futures trader who set out to develop an alternative to Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, BATS grew to prominence as part of a new generation of electronic trading sites that courted traders who used sophisticated computer algorithms.BATS, which is owned by 13 Wall Street banks and electronic trading firms, is now the second-largest exchange in the United States by market share and the largest exchange for exchange-traded funds. Through the first nine months of this year it had a 21 percent share of the United States equity market, according to the filing.BATS attempted a stock offering in 2012, only to withdraw its debut on the same day because of technology system errors. The incident was not just an embarrassing turn of events for BATS. It drew a fresh round of introspection on the complexity and vulnerability of the American stock markets, where high-speed trading has taken on an increasingly dominant role.There have been attempts to push back against the high-speed traders. Investors Exchange, or IEX, applied to the Securities and Exchange Commission to become a full-blown exchange in September. The firm, which is owned by hedge funds like Greenlight Capital and Pershing Square and mutual funds like Franklin Resources, casts itself as a place that protects retail investors from predatory high-speed traders.IEXs system imposes a 350-microsecond delay, essentially a speed bump, on traders who place and cancel orders in large quantities, a common tactic of high-speed traders.The IEX filing drew debate about the way the markets operate, including significant resistance by BATS and others to the concept of a speed bump for some traders. In a comment letter on IEXs application, BATS said it supported the new exchange but opposed restricting some traders, saying it only created advantages for others rather than creating a level playing field. Nasdaq and NYSE Group have also complained.IEX has plenty of supporters, however. Michael Lewis, the author of a book, Flash Boys, that told the story of IEX, filed his own comment on the application this month. IEX represents a market solution to a messy problem, he wrote. It was created to protect investors against the predatory trading of high frequency traders.BATS once championed itself as the underdog against the market establishment. But that was in 2005, when regulatory changes helped propel its growth. In January 2014 it acquired Direct Edge Holdings, a rival electronic exchange.BATS continues to be owned by Wall Street banks and high-speed trading operations, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citadel, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Instinet, JPMorgan Chase, Knight Capital Group, Lime, Morgan Stanley, Tradebot Ventures and Wedbush.One of the risk factors noted in BATSs filing on Wednesday is the interconnectedness of its operations with the competing strategies of its Wall Street owners.We generate a significant percentage of our total revenues from, and are provided with significant liquidity in our markets by, customers who are affiliates of our principal investors, who are not contractually obligated to continue to use our services, the filing said. | Business |
The new numbers still show overwhelmingly strong protection against severe disease but diminished effectiveness against infection.Credit...Amir Levy/Getty ImagesPublished July 23, 2021Updated Aug. 18, 2021As Israel struggles with a new surge of coronavirus cases, its health ministry reported on Thursday that although effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine remains high against severe illness, its protection against infection by the coronavirus may have diminished significantly compared with this winter and early spring.Analyzing the governments national health statistics, researchers estimated that the Pfizer shot was just 39 percent effective against preventing infection in the country in late June and early July, compared with 95 percent from January to early April. In both time periods, however, the shot was more than 90 percent effective in preventing severe disease.Israeli scientists cautioned that the new study is much smaller than the first and that it measured cases in a narrower window of time. As a result, a much larger range of uncertainties flank their estimates, which could also be skewed by a variety of other factors. Dr. Ran Balicer, the chairman of Israels Covid-19 National Expert Advisory Panel, said that the challenges of making accurate estimates of vaccine effectiveness were immense. He said that more careful analysis of the raw data was needed to understand what is going on.I think that data should be taken very cautiously because of small numbers, said Eran Segal, a biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science who is a consultant to the Israeli government on vaccines.Nevertheless, the new estimates are raising concern both in Israel and elsewhere, including the United States, that the vaccine might be losing some of its effectiveness. Possible reasons include the rise of the highly contagious Delta variant or a waning of protection from the shots over time.Israel launched an aggressive campaign with the Pfizer vaccine in January, and the country has achieved one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, with 58 percent of the population fully vaccinated. At the start of the campaign, government researchers began estimating how much the shot reduced peoples risk of getting Covid-19.They published their results in May, based on records from Jan. 24 to April 3: They estimated that the vaccine was 95 percent effective in preventing infection from the coronavirus in the country. In other words, the risk of getting Covid-19 was nearly 100 percent reduced in vaccinated people compared to unvaccinated ones. The researchers also estimated that the vaccine was 97.5 percent effective against severe disease.From a peak of over 8,600 cases a day in January, cases plummeted in the following months until only a few dozen people were testing positive on a daily basis across Israel. The vaccine most likely played a part in that drop, along with the tight restrictions that the government imposed on travel and meetings.ImageCredit...Ronen Zvulun/ReutersIsrael began relaxing its restrictions in the spring. In late June, the cases surged again. Now, over a thousand people are testing positive each day, leading Israel to restore some restrictions this week.Some of the people that tested positive for the coronavirus in the new surge were fully vaccinated. Epidemiologists had expected such breakthrough infections, as they do with all vaccines.Researchers at the Ministry of Health took another look at the effectiveness of the vaccine, limiting their analysis to the surge from June 6 to July 3. In that period, they estimated, the effectiveness of the vaccine at preventing infections was down to 64 percent. More recently, they ran another analysis. This time, they looked at cases between June 20 and July 17. In that period, they estimated, the vaccines effectiveness was even lower: just 39 percent against infection.Still, they estimated that the vaccines effectiveness against serious disease remained high, at 91.4 percent.If a vaccine has an effectiveness of 39 percent that does not mean that 61 percent of people who got vaccinated were infected by the coronavirus. Instead, it means the risk of getting infected is 39 percent less among vaccinated people compared to unvaccinated. So even at that lower percentage, the data shows that vaccinated people have significantly less risk of getting infected than unvaccinated people.The small number of people in the latest study means that the true effectiveness might be lower or higher. Making the numbers even more uncertain is the fact that the new surge has not yet spread evenly across the whole country. Travelers who have picked up the highly contagious Delta variant have brought it back to neighborhoods where vaccination rates are relatively high.The new outbreaks have yet to swamp communities of Orthodox Jews or Arab Israelis, where vaccination rates are lower. That imbalance may make the vaccine seem less effective than it really is.Also, the ages of people vaccinated vary significantly during the different time periods studied. For example, the people who got their vaccines in January were different than those who got them in April in one major respect: They were over 60. If more people who got vaccinated in January are now getting infected, it may not have to do with the vaccine itself, but with their advanced age or some other factor that researchers have yet to take into consideration.Still, the new estimates have prompted some researchers to ponder what might be happening to the vaccines. The Delta variant grew more common in Israel in June, raising the possibility that it might be good at evading the vaccine.In Britain, where Delta began surging earlier in the year, researchers estimated the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against the variant, based on a review of everyone in the United Kingdom who got vaccinated up till May 16. On Wednesday, they reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that it is 88 percent effective against symptomatic Covid-19.Another possibility is that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is gradually becoming less potent. The Ministry of Health researchers found that people who were inoculated in January were having breakthrough infections at a greater rate than people vaccinated in April.If the vaccine is indeed waning after six months, the implications can be enormous. It can influence the Israeli governments current deliberations about whether to give people a third shot. Dr. Segal says that if the vaccines are indeed losing some of their potency, then it might be wise to roll out boosters to fight the Delta-driven outbreak.If a third booster is safe and if it seems that it really would give a benefit, I think this is something we should definitely do as quickly as possible, he said.Dr. Balicer, who is also the chief innovation officer at Clalit Health Services, said that he and his colleagues are working on their own study on the effectiveness of the vaccine in Israel, using Clalits health care records to take into account such confounding factors.I think there is definitely some waning, but not as much as hypothesized based on the crude data, and its not just waning to blame, Dr. Balicer said. We are now trying to figure it out in a clean way. | science |
DealBook|National Bank of Greece to Sell Turkish Lender to Qatar Bankhttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/23/business/dealbook/national-bank-greece-qatar-finansbank.htmlDec. 22, 2015LONDON National Bank of Greece said on Tuesday that it had agreed to sell a majority stake in Finansbank of Turkey to Qatar National Bank for 2.75 billion euros, or about $3 billion.The Greek bank began exploring strategic options for its Turkish business last year after the European Central Bank identified a capital shortfall at National Bank of Greece and at other Greek lenders. More recently, the European Central Bank said that National Bank of Greece and the countrys three other biggest lenders still needed to raise a total of nearly $16 billion to have sufficient reserves against potential losses.Qatar National Bank would acquire a 99.81 percent stake in Finansbank under the terms of the deal announced on Tuesday. As part of the transaction, it would also repay $910 million of debt extended to Finansbank by National Bank of Greece.After almost 10 years of successful presence in Turkey, N.B.G. divests from Finansbank to deliver on its commitment to the shareholders and the European authorities, Leonidas Fragkiadakis, the chief executive of National Bank of Greece, said in a news release.As a result of this transaction, N.B.G. will be the best capitalized and the most liquid bank in Greece, he added. We aim to redeploy our resources to support the Greek economic recovery.The Greek bank plans to use the proceeds to repay bonds issued by the Greek government and emergency lending from the European Central Bank after the capital shortfall identified last year.The deal is subject to approval by regulators.Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley and the law firms Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Verdi Avukatlik Ortakligi are advising National Bank of Greece. | Business |
Asia Pacific|Pakistan Reopens Border With Afghanistan for 2 Dayshttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/world/asia/pakistan-afghanistan-border.htmlCredit...Muhammad Sajjad/Associated PressMarch 7, 2017ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Pakistan temporarily reopened its border with Afghanistan on Tuesday, 18 days after sealing it over security concerns.More than 2,000 Afghans have so far moved across the border, Shamsul Islam, an official at the border crossing at Torkham, said by telephone.Thousands of others are waiting to be allowed exit into Afghanistan, he said. There are long queues. Clearance and immigration take time.Pakistan announced late Monday that it would open the border for two days on humanitarian grounds to allow Afghans stranded in Pakistan to leave for home.The move came after protests about the closing from Afghanistan, which warned of a looming humanitarian crisis. Afghanistans ambassador to Pakistan, Omar Zakhilwal, said on Sunday that his government might be forced to airlift its stranded citizens out of Pakistan.Pakistan shut the border crossings last month after a series of bombings rocked the country. Pakistani officials say that militant groups operating from Afghanistan carried out the attacks, and they urged Kabul to capture the militants inside Afghan territory.Afghan officials have complained about the presence of Afghan Taliban militants on the Pakistan side of the border and say that senior officials of the militant group have managed to find havens inside Pakistan. Both sides claim that they have no control over the militants hiding inside their borders.Pakistani border officials say that Afghan citizens with valid travel documents would be allowed to cross back into Afghanistan during the temporary reopening period. Undocumented Afghans were not being allowed, Mr. Islam said. Undocumented Afghans are routinely rounded up in the country and deported. However, in the current standoff with Afghanistan, they are not being allowed to leave.He said that nearly 400 Pakistanis with travel documents, who had been stranded in Afghanistan, were also allowed to enter the country.Trade between the two countries remains suspended and containers laden with good destined for Afghanistan remained stranded in Pakistan.It remains unclear how long Pakistan plans to keep the border closed after the brief reopening this week. | World |
Health|F.D.A. Clears Another Coronavirus Testing Kit for Use at Homehttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/16/health/fda-clears-another-coronavirus-testing-kit-for-use-at-home.htmlThe agency granted emergency clearance for a testing kit that allows a consumer to take a nasal sample at home and send it to a laboratory for the diagnosis.May 16, 2020The Food and Drug Administration on Saturday granted emergency clearance for a coronavirus testing kit that will enable individuals to take a nasal sample at home and send it to a laboratory for diagnostic testing, the second such approval it has made.Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, director of the agencys Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in a statement that the new test not only provides increased patient access to tests, but also protects others from potential exposure. Health care workers can risk infection when they administer diagnostic tests.The kit, made by Everlywell, will contain a swab for individuals to use to take a sample from inside the nostrils, and a tube filled with a saline solution to put it in for sending to one of two private lab companies: Fulgent Therapeutics or Assurance Scientific Laboratories. The company plans to partner with additional laboratories.Some public health researchers have warned that at-home nasal swab tests can be less accurate than the specimen collection performed by health care providers, which involves inserting a long nasal swab through the nose into the back of the throat.Christina Song, an Everlywell spokeswoman, said consumers will first take an online screening survey to determine whether they meet federal guidelines for the test. The survey will be reviewed quickly by health care providers affiliated with PWNHealth, the companys telemedicine partner. If a consumer qualifies for the test, one will be shipped out immediately.From the moment that you hit the order button, to the moment that you get the test results on your phone or device, that process is designed to take three to five days, Ms. Song said.The test kits will be available later this month, according to Ms. Song, and will cost $135.In announcing its authorization for the Everlywell testing kit, the F.D.A. said the company had leveraged data from studies supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and UnitedHealth Group to show that the specimens would stay stable during shipping.Everlywell makes a variety of products that individuals can buy online or in stores, among them at-home test kits for diabetes, sexually transmitted diseases and high cholesterol.Some of the companys products, such as those purporting to test for food sensitivities, have come under criticism. Everlywell was also one of several businesses that drew attention from members of Congress in March for entering the market for coronavirus test kits in March without F.D.A. approval.Everlywell, which had promoted its at-home kit as a consumer product, said in a statement at the time that it had not sold any of the kits to consumers, but was providing the test materials at cost to hospitals and health care organizations who can commit to providing the test for free to their workers and patients.The F.D.A.s announcement on Saturday follows other recent emergency use authorizations for coronavirus testing kits that also permit individuals to take samples at home. One, sold by LabCorp, also uses a nasal swab to collect a sample, which is then sent to the lab. The other, developed by a Rutgers University laboratory, called RUCDR Infinite Biologics, in partnership with Spectrum Solutions and Accurate Diagnostic Labs, is for collecting a saliva sample. | Health |
Dr. Robert Califf, the agency commissioner, is the first administration official to face congressional scrutiny over the infant formula supply crisis.Credit...Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesMay 19, 2022House lawmakers hammered Dr. Robert Califf, the head of the Food and Drug Administration, during a budget hearing on Thursday over the agencys handling of the infant formula shortage exasperating families across the nation.His appearance before a House subcommittee occurred just a day after President Biden invoked the Defense Production Act and authorized the use of planes to ferry baby formula from overseas to boost supply. The agency and the White House have raced in recent days to respond to the public outcry over bare grocery store shelves and concerns that desperate parents were rationing their stock or resorting to possibly risky DIY mixtures to feed their infants.The latest shortage stems from the shutdown in February of Abbott Laboratories plant in Sturgis, Mich., where the F.D.A. had discovered evidence of a potentially deadly bacteria called cronobacter sakazakii. The company launched a major recall that has resulted in gaping holes in the supply chain. Federal agencies have been investigating several cases of illness in babies beginning last fall, including two deaths, although no definitive link to the formula has been established.Dr. Califf acknowledged to lawmakers that the agency was conducting an internal review to see if any errors were made. Pressed by lawmakers for a timetable to provide relief for families, Dr. Califf listed some efforts underway including relaxed guidelines for imports and ramped up domestic manufacturing and said increased supplies to stores would be noticeable in days. He reiterated that the Abbott plant should reopen within two weeks, but said store shelves would not return to normal for weeks.Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat of Connecticut and chairwoman of the House Committee on Appropriations, was among those panel members pressing Dr. Califf to account for what they characterized as the agencys sluggish response to clear problems and an alarming whistle-blower report. She outlined events leading up to the recall, including a September inspection that turned up evidence of the bacteria in finished formula and a whistle-blower report raising a battery of concerns.It all begs the question of why did the F.D.A. not spring into action?, Ms. DeLauro asked. Why did it take four months to pull this formula off the shelf? How many more illnesses and deaths were caused due to the F.D.A.s slow response?Beyond the presidents actions, Dr. Califf pointed out that the Justice Department reached a settlement with Abbott requiring heightened safety measures and an independent overseer at the plant.With these three recent actions, we anticipate that additional products can quickly hit U.S. stores, Dr. Califf said. But he cautioned that distribution would still be a concern for certain areas, especially rural communities.The baby formula shortage began during the pandemic and worsened after the recall at the Abbott plant, which makes an estimated 25 percent of the U.S. supply. As baby formula stock began to fall in recent months, sales began to surge, most likely reflecting a wave of panic buying.Ms. DeLauro also grilled Dr. Califf over whether the F.D.A.s plan to ease barriers to foreign formula imports would let unsafe products into the country, given voluntary safety guidelines that allow for third-party certification of standards.Dr. Califf said the agency had the discretion to reject any applicant. We will not let infant formula into the U.S. that is not safe, he said.He also was questioned about findings by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the agency, based on samples of the cronobacter bacteria associated with two of the four infants who fell ill in recent months. Those were compared with five strains of the bacteria found at the Sturgis plant, Dr. Califf said. The agencies and Abbott have said there was no match between any of them.Dr. Califf said the F.D.A. investigation would continue.Saying the cases came directly from that plant is something that we cant say until the investigation is entirely completed, he said.Representative Lauren Underwood, Democrat of Illinois, also zeroed in on delays at the Abbott plant, asking why the agency had not deemed an on-site inspection critical, even though domestic on-site reviews had been suspended because of the Omicron surge. Dr. Califf acknowledged that failing to prioritize the baby formula inspection might be a lapse the agency notes in its review.In the House and the Senate, various proposals are being considered that would require more oversight of food safety and improve the supply chain for formula.On Wednesday, the House approved an emergency infusion of $28 million for the F.D.A. and a bill to relax limits on the types of formula that can be purchased with benefits from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC. About half the formula sold in the United States is purchased with WIC benefits. The Senate is expected to approve the changes to the federal food aid program.Dr. Califf asked lawmakers to approve an $8.4 billion budget, which would be $2.1 billion above last years level. That includes a $76 million increase in food safety funding, which would go toward improving technology to quickly trace food borne illnesses to their source and other efforts to reduce toxins in food.But additional funding for the F.D.A. was expected to meet stiff resistance from Senate Republicans. In a notice sent to rank-and-file lawmakers, Republican leaders criticized Democrats for abandoning bipartisan efforts and instead offering legislation with no plan to actually fix the problem, all while failing to hold the F.D.A. accountable.The House Energy and Commerce Committee has booked top F.D.A. and formula company executives for a hearing next Wednesday on formula safety and supply.Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, also announced a Senate Finance Committee investigation into Abbotts investments in safety improvements amid record revenues. | Health |
on techThe pandemic and the holidays will make shipping a zoo. Shoppers, listen up.VideoCreditCredit...By Loc SchwallerOct. 16, 2020This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it weekdays.Online shopping has exploded during the pandemic. The holidays are approaching. What happens when these two forces collide?The combination of our reliance on online shopping during a pandemic and our eagerness for online shopping during the holidays has made some e-commerce experts predict a shipageddon in the United States delays and chaos as parcel companies already stretched thin also tackle a surge in holiday packages.Retailers are sweating over how theyre going to move merchandise among their stores and handle extra expenses to deliver orders. And people who rely on home delivery might need to plan ahead for possible bottlenecks.The potential for hiccups shows the complications when our zeal for shopping from home meets the physical limits of humans, warehouses stuffed to the rafters, roadways and ocean freight shipping. Theres always been a war to get stuff to our door. Its just been one we usually ignore.The problem is simple: Many of our buying habits completely changed in the pandemic, and our delivery networks cannot keep up. You might already have encountered this with weekslong delays on some Amazon orders or waking up at 4 a.m. to get an open slot from a grocery delivery company.Parcel companies like FedEx and UPS already struggle to handle extra orders each holiday season, and theyre expecting Christmas 2020 to stretch them to the limits. To try to discourage deliveries they cant handle, the delivery companies have announced larger-than-usual additional fees for larger retailers during the holiday.The practical tips for people planning their holiday shopping: If youre that person who waits until the last minute dont. Really.If youre buying online or sending holiday gifts to loved ones by mail, it might take far longer than it has in previous years. The Postal Service is almost pleading with people to mail Christmas gifts early. (And if you rely on e-commerce sites for diapers or other household essentials, its probably not a bad idea to build a buffer ahead of potential end-of-year shipping delays.)Jason Goldberg, the chief commerce strategy officer at the advertising giant Publicis who goes by the nickname Retail Geek, also said that retailers have less merchandise stocked up than usual for the holidays because the pandemic disrupted their typical inventory planning.That means youre not likely to get cut-rate prices on Black Friday or the week before Christmas, because stores wont discount merchandise thats already in short supply. If there is a particular gift that you have your heart set on, it might not be there if you wait.People may also want to consider alternatives to home delivery around the holidays. Ordering online for curbside pickup at stores, for example, skips strained delivery systems. Retailers are also trying alternative delivery options, including sending orders from local stores via couriers working for companies like Instacart and Shipt.Scot Wingo, co-founder of ChannelAdvisor, which helps businesses sell online, said companies like Target that both have physical stores and ship a lot of home deliveries from their stores dont rely as much on overwhelmed parcel companies. That gives them an escape valve for shipageddon, he said.One silver lining in the potential holiday shopping drama is that it makes the invisible more visible. Just as the pandemic has made me appreciate the work of grocery clerks, health care workers, bus drivers, restaurant staffers and other sometimes overlooked people, it has also made plain the complexities of our shopping lives.Those mouse clicks on Amazon or Target have always set in motion a chaotic ballet of warehouse workers, truck drivers, parcel delivery couriers and more, but we mostly didnt think about it. The shipping delays this year might reveal the strains at the seams, but theyve always been there.If you dont already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here.Your leadRansomware is not your faultAfter last weeks newsletter about ransomware attacks, in which criminals freeze organizations computer systems and demand a payment to unlock them, a number of readers asked about ways to prevent these hacks.Ken Gruberman in Altadena, Calif., told us an orthopedics practice he used was locked out of its computer system for months because of a ransomware attack:The attack was enabled because a new employee clicked on a pop-up window which then allowed the thieves in I learned that the IT staff at the practice never created simple guidelines for all employees on what to do when confronted with a bogus pop-up, message, web page or other anomaly.Gruberman said companies needed to do better to both train their employees and put security measures in place.While I dont know what happened at this practice, its true that ransomware attacks tend to start when someone in an organization clicks on an email attachment or web link that gives the criminals a route into the computer network.The security expert I spoke with, Charles Carmakal of FireEye Mandiant, said attacks should not be blamed on people who make a mistake. (Still, here are tips to avoid falling for hackers on your work account or your home computer.)Just because criminals were able to trick their way into one persons computer doesnt mean they can take over the entire organizations network. Hackers usually take days or weeks to get access to the right parts of an organizations computer network for a ransomware attack, Carmakal said. That gives the organization many opportunities to spot and stop the criminals.The key, Carmakal said, is for organizations to think and plan ahead for potential attacks and invest in technology that can help spot unusual computer activity. My colleague Brian X. Chen had useful advice for businesses in a 2017 column.So, yes, Carmakal said, its important for workers to learn how to spot potential malicious emails or documents, but ransomware is never one persons fault.Before we go Facebook makes lots of rules. Its harder to enforce them. Facebook acknowledged it erred when it didnt delete a majority of the content flagged by The Wall Street Journal that violated the companys guidelines against things like depicting violence and posting dangerous misinformation. Lots of people take issue with Facebook trying to limit online conversations see this article from my colleagues but the company also often fails to act quickly or make fine distinctions in deciding what material breaks its own rules.Related: The New York Times technology columnist Kevin Roose says that the blowback Facebook and Twitter are facing for limiting distribution of an unsubstantiated article about Joe Biden shows that tech platforms have been controlling our information diets for years, whether we realized it or not.Here is something to make you feel guilty about your inbox: The best way to prevent overstuffed online email and document accounts that nag you to pay for more storage is to delete unwanted emails, photos, songs and digital files regularly, says a writer for Mediums consumer technology publication. Here is how to do it. (Personally, I will wallow in my chaotic online file cabinets FOREVER.)Have you seen the How it started How its going meme? My colleague Sandra E. Garcia explains this internet phenomenon, which shows the passage of time through oppositional bookends. Also it is just dumb fun. This is my favorite version of the meme.Hugs to thisWilbur the pig can play soccer with his snout. Well, sort of.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...University of California Santa CruzJune 21, 2017Jerry Nelson, who conceived of the design for the segmented telescope, which allowed scientists to peer farther into the universe than ever before, died on June 10 at his home in Santa Cruz, Calif. He was 73.His death was confirmed by his daughter, Alexandra Nelson, who said she did not know the cause.Mr. Nelsons designs were the basis for the twin telescopes at the W. M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano on the island of Hawaii. Astronomers have used those telescopes to help measure the giant black hole at the center of the Milky Way, and to find and confirm planetary bodies outside our solar system, including potentially habitable planets.When the first Keck telescope was installed, in 1993, it was nearly twice as large as any other telescope, at 10 meters in diameter.For decades, the size of telescopes seemed to have stalled with the roughly five-meter Hale Telescope at Palomar Mountain, Calif., built in 1949. (The Soviet Union constructed a roughly six-meter telescope in the Caucasus Mountains, but its performance never lived up to its size.)The sticking point was the central mirror. The diameter of the mirror, a giant round disk of glass whose surface is exquisitely polished to ensure maximum accuracy, determines how much light the telescope can capture and how sharp an image it can create.Building a mirror larger than five meters is a Catch-22: It needs to be thick enough to support its weight and not collapse, but the mass required to do that can cause gravity to change the shape of the mirror when it moves.Rather than use a single concave mirror, Mr. Nelson, along with the physicist Terry Mast and the engineer George Gabor, proposed using 36 smaller hexagonal mirrors, arranged in a honeycomb-like pattern, to make one large one.Each interlocking piece, about 6 feet wide and 3 inches thick, would be supported and rearranged by a computer to maintain its correct position.It was a radical idea, and it required a level of precision that many thought impossible. They told us we couldnt electronically glue together broken pieces of glass, Mr. Gabor told The Los Angeles Times in 1993.Today, the design is the basis for many advanced telescopes, both on the ground and in space.Jerry Earl Nelson was born on Jan. 15, 1944, in Glendale, Calif., to Julian Bonne Nelson, a machinist for Lockheed, and the former Leona Jeanette Hill, who managed the local childrens park.After attending Verdugo Hills High School in Los Angeles, Mr. Nelson received a B.S. in physics at the California Institute of Technology in 1965 and a Ph.D. in physics at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1972. He worked as a staff researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from 1970 to 1981 and taught astronomy at Berkeley from 1981 to 1994.He spent the early 1990s in Hawaii as a project scientist during the construction of the Keck telescopes, before returning to the mainland and taking a position as a professor of astronomy at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1994.In addition to his daughter, Mr. Nelson is survived by his wife, Jocelyn Torricelli Nelson; a son, Leif Nelson; a sister, Jeanne Moat; and three grandchildren. His marriage to Victoria Alexandra Wearne, the mother of his children, ended with her death in 1992.In the 1990s, Mr. Nelson was one of the few people who understood the potential and the practical technology challenges of building adaptive optics systems, which improve the performance of telescopes by correcting for Earths atmosphere. In 1999, he became the founding director of the Center for Adaptive Optics at the University of California, Santa Cruz.Even after he had a stroke in 2011 that left him partly disabled, Mr. Nelson continued to travel to the Santa Cruz campus and worked as a project scientist for the Thirty Meter Telescope, a project to build the largest telescope in the Northern Hemisphere.His colleagues recalled Mr. Nelson as a deeply curious man with almost impossibly high standards. When you were working with Jerry, Michael Bolte, a fellow professor at Santa Cruz, said in an interview, nothing seemed impossible. | science |
After weeks of escalation and threatening language, the Defense Department is sending mixed messages as the anniversary of the death of an Iranian general nears.Credit...U.S. Navy, via Getty ImagesPublished Jan. 1, 2021Updated Jan. 5, 2021WASHINGTON The Pentagon has abruptly sent the aircraft carrier Nimitz home from the Middle East and Africa over the objections of top military advisers, marking a reversal of a weekslong muscle-flexing strategy aimed at deterring Iran from attacking American troops and diplomats in the Persian Gulf.Officials said on Friday that the acting defense secretary, Christopher C. Miller, had ordered the redeployment of the ship in part as a de-escalatory signal to Tehran to avoid stumbling into a crisis in President Trumps waning days in office. American intelligence reports indicate that Iran and its proxies may be preparing a strike as early as this weekend to avenge the death of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the commander of Irans elite Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.Senior Pentagon officials said that Mr. Miller assessed that dispatching the Nimitz now, before the first anniversary this Sunday of General Suleimanis death in an American drone strike in Iraq, could remove what Iranian hard-liners see as a provocation that justifies their threats against American military targets. Some analysts said the return of the Nimitz to its home port of Bremerton, Wash., was a welcome reduction in tensions between the two countries.If the Nimitz is departing, that could be because the Pentagon believes that the threat could subside somewhat, said Michael P. Mulroy, the Pentagons former top Middle East policy official.But critics said the mixed messaging was another example of the inexperience and confusing decision-making at the Pentagon since Mr. Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and several of his top aides in November, and replaced them with Mr. Miller, a former White House counterterrorism aide, and several Trump loyalists.This decision sends at best a mixed signal to Iran, and reduces our range of options at precisely the wrong time, said Matthew Spence, a former top Pentagon Middle East policy official. It calls into serious question what the administrations strategy is here.Mr. Millers order overruled a request from Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the commander of American forces in the Middle East, to extend the deployment of the Nimitz and keep its formidable wing of attack aircraft at the ready.In recent weeks, Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened Iran on Twitter, and in November top national security aides talked the president out of a pre-emptive strike against an Iranian nuclear site. It is unclear whether Mr. Trump was aware of Mr. Millers order to send the Nimitz home.The Pentagon and General McKenzies Central Command had for weeks publicized several shows of force to warn Tehran of the consequences of any assault. The Nimitz and other warships arrived to provide air cover for American troops withdrawing from Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. The Air Force three times dispatched B-52 bombers to fly within 60 miles of the Iranian coast. And the Navy announced for the first time in nearly a decade that it had ordered a Tomahawk-missile-firing submarine into the Persian Gulf.As recently as Wednesday, General McKenzie warned the Iranians and their Shia militia proxies in Iraq against any attacks around the anniversary of General Suleimanis death on Jan. 3.But on Thursday senior military advisers, including General McKenzie and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were surprised by Mr. Millers decision on the Nimitz.ImageCredit...Andrew Harnik/Associated PressThe Navy had sought to limit more extensions to the carriers already lengthy deployment, but commanders believed the warship would stay at least another several days to help counter what military intelligence analysts considered a growing and imminent threat.American intelligence analysts in recent days say they have detected Iranian air defenses, maritime forces and other security units on higher alert. They have also determined that Iran has moved more short-range missiles and drones into Iraq. But senior Defense Department officials acknowledge they cannot tell if Iran or its Shia proxies in Iraq are readying to strike American troops or are preparing defensive measures in case Mr. Trump orders a pre-emptive attack against them.What you have here is a classic security dilemma, where maneuvers on both sides can be misread and increase risks of miscalculation, said Brett H. McGurk, Mr. Trumps former special envoy to the coalition to defeat the Islamic State.Some top aides to Mr. Miller, including Ezra Cohen-Watnick, one of the White House loyalists newly installed as the Pentagons top intelligence policy official, raised doubts about the deterrence value of the Nimitz, especially when balanced against the morale costs of extending its tour. Some aides also questioned the imminence of any attack by Iran or its proxies, an assessment reported earlier by CNN.Pentagon officials said they had sent additional land-based fighter and attack jets, as well as refueling planes, to Saudi Arabia and other gulf countries to offset the loss of the Nimitzs firepower.On Friday the top commander of Irans paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said his country was fully prepared to respond to any American military pressure amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington in the waning days of Mr. Trumps presidency.Today, we have no problem, concern or apprehension toward encountering any powers, Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami said at a ceremony at Tehran University commemorating the anniversary of General Suleimanis death.We will give our final words to our enemies on the battlefield, General Salami said, without mentioning the United States directly.Irans foreign minister, Javad Zarif, said on Thursday that the Trump administration was creating a pretext for war.Instead of fighting Covid in US, @realDonaldTrump & cohorts waste billions to fly B52s & send armadas to OUR region, Mr. Zarif said in a tweet. Intelligence from Iraq indicate plot to FABRICATE pretext for war. Iran doesnt seek war but will OPENLY & DIRECTLY defend its people, security & vital interests.In another provocation from Iran on Friday, Tehran notified international inspectors that it was about to begin producing uranium at a significantly higher level of enrichment at Fordow, a plant that is deep under a mountain and thus harder to attack. The move seemed primarily aimed at putting pressure on President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. to rejoin the nuclear agreement with Iran. There was little activity permitted at the Fordow plant under the 2015 deal.The notification to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, the United Nations group that oversees the production of nuclear material, said that Iran would resume production of uranium enriched to 20 percent purity. That is the highest level it produced before the nuclear deal, which the country justified at the time as necessary to make medical isotopes for its Tehran Research Reactor.Fuel enriched to that level is not sufficient to produce a bomb, but it is close. It requires relatively little further enrichment to get to the 90 percent purity that is traditionally used for bomb-grade fuel.The move was not unexpected. Irans Parliament passed legislation recently requiring the government to increase both the quantity of fuel it is making and the enrichment level. But the choice of doing that production at Fordow, its newest facility, was telling. The plant is built deep underneath a mountain at a well-protected Islamic Revolutionary Guards base, and successfully striking it would require repeated attacks with the largest bunker-busting bomb in the American arsenal.It would take months for Iran to produce any significant amount of fuel at the 20 percent enrichment level, but the mere announcement could be another red flag for Mr. Trump to rekindle bombing options.David E. Sanger contributed reporting. | Politics |
Credit...Glenn Campbell/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesNov. 16, 2018TOKYO When Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan traveled to Darwin, Australia, on Friday and joined his Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, to lay wreaths at a memorial commemorating the 250 people killed by Japanese bombs there during World War II, it was more than a moment of reconciliation between a wartime aggressor and its victims.The gesture, which took place at the beginning of Mr. Abes daylong visit to Australia, represented Japans effort to cement a relationship between two allies as it faces perilous headwinds closer to home.Arriving in Australia after two days in Singapore for a summit meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Mr. Abe demonstrated that Japan was determined to strengthen ties with its prosperous neighbor to the south.Taking sides is a delicate balancing act in Asia right now, as the influence of the United States under President Trump is waning, and Chinas power continues to rise. At the summit in Singapore, Mr. Abe sought to shore up relations with Southeast Asian countries that are increasingly turning to China for economic aid and investment.Of course China is the rising power, and Japan as a sole power may not match the military or economic might of China, said Hiroshi Nakanishi, professor of international relations at Kyoto University. By seeking to get closer to allies in Southeast Asia and Australia, he said, Japan is trying to create a new international order.Fridays visit to the memorial represented the second time in two years that Mr. Abe, who has been associated with right-wing historical revisionists who seek to play down Japans wartime atrocities elsewhere in Asia, paid a condolence visit to a World War II memorial.Two years ago, Mr. Abe visited Pearl Harbor with President Barack Obama and offered repentance but no apology for the Japanese attack that destroyed the Pacific fleet in Hawaii and drew the United States into the war.In Darwin on Friday, Mr. Abe bowed his head in silence for about a minute but made no remarks about the February 1942 attack by 188 Japanese aircraft that killed Australian civilians and American servicemen and sank eight ships.The visit to the memorial closes the book on the past, said Tom Lewis, a military historian who served for nearly 20 years as a Royal Australian Navy officer.Some of the Japanese who come here are shocked. Some have said: We wish to apologize to you for the war, Mr. Lewis said of Japanese tourists who visit Australia. And we say: Thank you very much, but you didnt do it, but thanks for saying that and we hope you have a good time here. Youre welcome, and pat a crocodile before you leave.ImageCredit...Carolyn Kaster/Associated PressIn remarks to reporters before meeting with Mr. Abe, Mr. Morrison described the Darwin visit as an important time of healing that says a lot about the relationship between Japan and Australia.We have a very similar outlook on how issues need to be managed in this part of the world, Mr. Morrison added.Both countries are clearly wary of China. Australia is concerned about China trying to exert undue influence in its politics. Japan, while tentatively warming to China with Mr. Abes recent visit to Beijing to meet President Xi Jinping, has made clear it will not concede on territorial disputes between the two countries.Speaking to reporters, Mr. Abe said that he and Mr. Morrison agreed that its important to encourage China to fulfill a responsible and constructive role in the international community. Japan and Australia are special and strategic partners to jointly lead peace and prosperity in this region.The two leaders discussed plans for Japanese forces to train in Darwin, where nearly 2,000 United States Marines rotate through each year. Mr. Abes visit signals to China that Australia may return to military exercises that Australia had previously pulled out of because China considered them a provocation.The two leaders also discussed a liquefied natural gas pipeline built by the Japanese oil and gas giant INPEX near Darwin. The pipeline started production in July and is one of many infrastructure investments that Japanese companies have made around the region to compete with Chinese investments.In Australia, the government has grown cautious about Chinese investment: Earlier this year it rejected bids by Huawei, the Chinese technology giant, and another Chinese company, ZTE, to provide equipment to support the countrys new fifth-generation telecommunications networks.For its part, Japan, through military and economic cooperation with Australia, as well as billions of dollars in development aid to Southeast Asian countries, is hoping to keep the region from being pulled entirely into Chinas orbit.Southeast Asian countries are heavily dependent on Chinese economic aid and are somehow afraid of the Chinese military, said Tsuneo Watanabe, senior research fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation in Tokyo.With China disregarding international laws in its military buildup in the South China Sea, Mr. Abe is trying to counter that for the common public good for international security, said Mr. Watanabe.But Japan cannot bear the burden by itself, he said. So its banding together with like-minded nations like Australia.ImageCredit...Kim Hong-Ji/ReutersMr. Abes outreach to Australia may have touched off nerves in other parts of the region, particularly South Korea, whose people were once subjected to Japanese colonial rule.His visit to the Darwin memorial comes just weeks after the South Korean Supreme Court ordered a Japanese steel maker to pay compensation to Korean men who were forced to work as laborers during World War II.Mr. Abe called the judgment impossible and Japans foreign minister, Taro Kono, warned that if the South Korean government does not adequately respond to the decision, the relationship between the two countries will be very difficult.South Korean media has contrasted Japans response with Mr. Abes visit to Darwin.Abe has adopted a different attitude to the Asian countries that were trampled under Japans imperialism, wrote Cho Ki-weon, Tokyo correspondent for the Hankyoreh, a liberal daily newspaper in South Korea. He may visit Pearl Harbor or Darwin, but he has never expressed remorse or condolences during visits to the sites that Asians recall with grief.South Koreas relationship to Japan is complicated by the fact that Japan not only committed wartime atrocities but also occupied Korea for 35 years. Although several former Japanese prime ministers have visited memorials to independence activists or cemeteries for war victims in South Korea and apologized, the wounds of history remain open and unresolved. Many South Koreans believe that Japan has not sufficiently apologized for its wartime misdeeds, including its treatment of so-called comfort women forced to provide sex for soldiers.South Koreans believe Japan has been more contrite in its relationship to western victims of its wartime aggression.From a Korean perspective it looks like a kind of double standard, said Lee Jong-won, professor of East Asian international relations at Waseda University in Tokyo.In Japan, some of the public has grown weary of South Korean demands for further historical redress.I use the word Korea fatigue, said Mr. Watanabe. The Japanese are very tired of this repeated reaction. The Japanese are somehow ready to let it recede to the past.Historians of the region say such tensions closer to home have made the Japanese government realize how important the past remains as it negotiates its alliances in the present.It strikes me that the Darwin trip is an alliance management were going to contain China and maintain a large presence in the region where history is less important than the security issue, said Alexis Dudden, a professor at the University of Connecticut who specializes in the modern history of Japan and Korea.But Japanese officials may be failing to calculate history as a weapon in the mix at moments like this, Ms. Dudden added. The alliance mangers most of all need Japan and South Korea to be working together and not slinging historical issues around. | World |
Technology|A Talking Teddy Bear Practicing in the Pediatric Hospitalhttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/technology/huggable-robot-therapeutic-value-hospitals.htmlRobotica Episode 4VideotranscripttranscriptThe BearBeatrice Lipp, a patient at Boston Childrens Hospital, meets Huggable, a robotic teddy bear. The robots creators are studying whether it can have therapeutic value for hospitalized children.Can a robotic teddy bear help alleviate hospitalized childrens anxiety, pain and isolation? That is the hope of Dr. Peter Weinstock, the director of Boston Childrens Hospitals Simulator Program, and Cynthia Breazeal, the director of the personal robots group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technologys Media Lab. Today, their social robot prototype, Huggable, is a high tech puppet that talks and plays with pediatric patients with the aid of a remote operator. Boston Childrens is funding a 90 person study to see if Huggable can have therapeutic value for kids who must endure long hospital stays.The hospital declined to disclose the amount it has spent on the Huggable study. (NOTE: EMMA IS CHECKING IF THEY WILL CHANGE THEIR MINDS AND TELL US) A third of the children in the study will play with Huggable, another third will interact with an image of it on a tablet, the rest will be given a regular plush teddy bear. All the children will be recorded on video and wear a bracelet called a Q Sensor that measures physiological changes. The hospital is just beginning to collect and analyze the data in an effort to better understand childrens emotional states, something Dr. Weinstock refers to as the fourth vital sign. We think a lot about heart rate, blood pressure and how much oxygen is in the blood, but we dont have a great monitor for how the child is feeling right now, he says. What we do know is that children who are happier, who feel better, it can have a big effect on healing. Dr. Breazeal says she wants to work towards making Huggable capable of operating autonomously, without the aid of a puppeteer. The robot could act as a soothing distraction and simultaneously capture data and information from patients, which would be fed to hospital staff, improving continuity of care. We could some day see this as a standard of care, where every child who comes into the pediatric hospital might get something like this, says Dr. Breazeal. Its not only the health and emotional and recovery benefits, but also logistical and financial, improving efficiency to the overall health system.Beatrice Lipp, a patient at Boston Childrens Hospital, meets Huggable, a robotic teddy bear. The robots creators are studying whether it can have therapeutic value for hospitalized children.CreditCredit...Zackary Canepari for The New York TimesJune 3, 2015This is the fourth episode in a Bits video series, called Robotica, examining how robots are poised to change the way we do business and conduct our daily lives. Can a robotic teddy bear help alleviate anxiety, pain and isolation for children in a hospital?That is the hope of Dr. Peter Weinstock, the director of a training program at Boston Childrens Hospital called the Simulator Program, and Cynthia Breazeal, the director of the personal robots group at M.I.T.s Media Lab. The two have collaborated to bring Huggable, a social robot prototype developed at the lab, into the hospital, which is financing a 90-person study to determine whether the robot can have therapeutic value for children who have to endure long hospital stays.The device, essentially a high-tech puppet, can talk and play with patients with the aid of a remote operator. For the continuing study, one-third of the children play with Huggable, another third interact with an image of it on a tablet and the rest are given a regular plush teddy bear. All the children are recorded on video and wear a bracelet, called a Q Sensor, that measures physiological changes.The hospital is beginning to collect and analyze the data with the help of researchers from Northeastern University. Dr. Weinstock hopes the study will help doctors better understand childrens emotional states, something he has referred to as the fourth vital sign. We think a lot about heart rate, blood pressure and how much oxygen is in the blood, but we dont have a great monitor for how the child is feeling right now, he said. What we do know is that children who are happier, who feel better, it can have a big effect on healing.Boston Childrens has invested $500,000 in social robotics research, including the Huggable study, according to the hospital.For her part, Dr. Breazeal said she wanted to work toward making Huggable capable of operating autonomously, without the aid of a puppeteer. The robot could be a soothing distraction and simultaneously capture data and information from patients, which would be fed to hospital staff, improving the continuity of care.We could someday see this as a standard of care, where every child who comes into the pediatric hospital might get something like this, Dr. Breazeal said. Its not only the health and emotional and recovery benefits, but also logistical and financial, improving efficiency to the overall health system. Emma Cott | Tech |
Posts about voting will direct viewers to accurate information, and violations from important political figures will be marked newsworthy.Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York TimesJune 26, 2020SAN FRANCISCO Facebook rolled out measures on Friday to add more context to problematic political posts on its site, as the social network grappled with a growing outcry from some of its largest advertisers over the issue of hateful speech.Facebook said it would attach labels to all posts across its network that discuss the subject of voting, in a move intended to hamper any disenfranchisement of voters in the November election. The labels will direct users to accurate voting information, the company said.In addition, Facebook said it would expand its policies around hate speech and prohibit a wider category of hateful language in ads on the site. A post that violates Facebooks rules but is from an important political figure, such as President Trump, will get a label saying it was deemed newsworthy enough to remain, the company said.Facebook has been trying to deal with its role in spreading disinformation and divisive content. The Silicon Valley company has been under fire for allowing inaccurate or inflammatory posts from Mr. Trump to remain unaltered on its site, even as Twitter has attached fact checks and warnings to the same content on its service.Mark Zuckerberg, Facebooks chief executive, has said that he believes in supporting free speech and that posts from political leaders should not be policed because they are in the publics interests to view and read. But critics have said Mr. Zuckerberg is simply allowing hateful speech to flourish on the social network with few limits.In recent weeks, Facebook has faced increasing opposition to its position on hateful speech from one of its most important constituents: advertisers, which generate the bulk of its $70.7 billion in annual revenue. Brands like Eddie Bauer, Ben & Jerrys and Magnolia Pictures have announced that they will cease buying advertising on Facebook until it reconsiders its stance.On Friday, more companies said they would pull back from advertising on Facebook because of hateful speech remaining on the site. They included Unilever, the British-Dutch maker of consumer goods and one of Facebooks largest advertisers; Coca-Cola, which is another big advertiser on social media; and Levi Strauss, the maker of Levis and Dockers clothing. On Thursday, Verizon also said it was pausing its advertising on Facebook.The stakes are too high, said Steve Lesnard, vice president of marketing at the North Face, a clothing brand that is participating in the ad boycott. The platform needs to evolve.Facebook has also been grappling with an internal uproar over Mr. Trumps inflammatory posts. Employees staged a virtual walkout this month in protest of Mr. Zuckerbergs position of allowing the posts to remain. Some of the companys earliest workers have also implored the chief executive to change his mind in an open letter.Mr. Zuckerberg has refused to budge, though he said he and others on his policy team will review the companys rules.Since then, Facebook has made modifications that do not require it to pull down hateful speech but that give people more options with such posts. The company said this month that it would allow people in the United States to opt out of seeing social-issue, electoral or political ads from candidates or political action committees in their Facebook or Instagram feeds, for example.On Friday, Mr. Zuckerberg said in a livestreamed address to his employees, Im committed to making sure Facebook remains a place where people can use their voice to discuss important issues, because I believe we can make more progress when we hear each other.He added, But I also stand against hate, or anything that incites violence or suppresses voting, and were committed to removing that no matter where it comes from.He said the definition of hate speech would grow to prohibit ads that claim people from a specific race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, gender identity or immigration status are a threat to the physical safety, health or survival of others. He said the policy would expand to protect immigrants, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers from ads suggesting these groups are inferior or expressing contempt, dismissal or disgust directed at them.For posts on voting, the company said it would attach links to what Facebook calls its voter information center, an initiative it has pushed in recent weeks to provide users with more data on elections.Yael Eisenstat, a visiting fellow at Cornell Tech, who in 2018 headed the elections integrity team for political ads at Facebook, said the changes are important and good steps.They should have come a long time ago, but clearly there has been an incredible amount of pressure, she said.She added that it was still an open question as to whether Facebook would enforce these policies against the less clear-cut posts by the president that are intentionally sowing distrust in the electoral process. | Tech |
Credit...Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesDec. 16, 2015The billionaire casino magnate and Republican donor Sheldon Adelson is behind the mysterious purchase of The Las Vegas Review-Journal for $140 million, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity. The revelation, first reported by Fortune and later reported by the newspaper itself, solves a riddle that had fascinated those in political and news media circles since the sale, for a lavish price, was announced last week and attached only to a newly incorporated company called the News and Media Capital Group. Even the newsroom was kept in the dark, and the only person formally attached to the company, a Connecticut newspaperman named Michael E. Schroeder, declined to comment. Earlier Wednesday, Mr. Adelson had been quoted by CNN as saying he had no personal interest in the newspaper. Some noted the careful phrasing. The Review-Journal, in its comprehensive story on the deal, said Mr. Adelsons son-in-law, Patrick Dumont, a senior vice president at his Las Vegas Sands Corporation, had orchestrated the deal. It reported that Mr. Adelson, who also owns the Tel Aviv newspaper Israel Hayom, had previously tried to buy The Review-Journal in a similar arrangement. It remains unclear, however, why Mr. Adelson might have bought the newspaper in a generous deal that gave nearly $57 million in estimated gains for the seller, and why he might have sought to keep the purchase secret. The deal, which provoked his journalists to voice their displeasure on Twitter, prompted a broader outcry too. ImageCredit...Jae C. Hong/Associated PressRepresentative Dina Titus, Democrat of Nevada, had spoken Wednesday on the House floor, calling for the new owners to reveal themselves. I applaud the many hardworking reporters, editors, photographers and columnists at The R-J who have protested this lack of transparency and journalistic ethics, she said. Its time for the new owners to take off their mask and prove they have nothing to hide. The Society of Professional Journalists and American Society of News Editors had also urged the buyers to go public. Journalism is all about transparency, one of the pillars of trust between a community and its news organization, the news editors group wrote in a statement on Wednesday. The Review-Journal owners want to remain secret, a choice that is faithless to the public trust and the talented journalists that work every day to provide an accurate, impartial news report for the community they serve. Mr. Adelson, 82, was 15th on the Forbes 400 list on Wednesday, with an estimated net worth of $24.5 billion. He spent at least $100 million to back Republican presidential candidates in 2012, and was courted once again, on Tuesday, as the candidates for 2016 gathered at his Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas for a debate. He met with Donald Trump, the latest candidate to pay fealty in the so-called Adelson primary. Mr. Adelson founded Israel Hayom, a free newspaper, in 2007 as a way to support Benjamin Netanyahu and promote a right-wing political agenda. He also bought Makor Rishon, an Israeli religious paper, in 2014. And he has made no secret of seeking political influence through media ownership. In 2014, speaking at a conference of the Israel American Council, while discussing the dialogue over Israel in America, he mentioned buying The New York Times. Theres only one way to buy it, he said, according to a report from The Daily Beast. Money. He added that it would be most effective to pay significantly more than its worth. Mr. Adelson will most likely find a frosty atmosphere awaiting him in a newsroom that has been desperate to figure out who will be signing its checks and has denounced the lack of transparency in recent days. A lawsuit filed by Mr. Adelson, The Review-Journal reported on Wednesday, once bankrupted one of its columnists. | Business |
A professor and prolific author, he cautioned that doctors too often focus on the disease instead of the overall well-being of the sufferer.Credit...HIROPublished Oct. 14, 2021Updated Oct. 16, 2021Dr. Eric Cassell, a distinguished medical ethicist who urged his fellow doctors to shift priorities beyond curing their patients diseases to caring for their overall well-being, died on Sept. 24 at his home in East Stroudsburg, Pa. He was 93.His death was confirmed by his son, Stephen.The author of hundreds of articles and multiple books, Dr. Cassell devoted his career to helping physicians understand how people experience illness and pain, and to guiding them in providing compassionate care to patients who are dying.Eric was, in my mind, the intellectual father of palliative care, said Dr. Susan Block, a professor of psychiatry and medicine at Harvard Medical School.Dr. Cassell, who lectured widely, was a founding fellow of the Hastings Center on bioethics in Garrison, N.Y., where he and his colleagues concluded in the early 1970s that most people do not dread death as much as they do suffering.Mildred Z. Solomon, president of the Hastings Center, said of Dr. Cassell in an email that his insights have been foundational for many developments in medicine, including the origins of the palliative care movement, patient-centered care, and even disability rights.As a professor of public health at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and as a private practitioner, he gave voice to the patient experience of illness and changed the paradigm from disease care to person-focused care, Betty Ferrel, director of nursing research at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., said in a tribute to him.In The Nature of Healing: The Modern Practice of Medicine (2013), Dr. Cassell defined a sick person as one who cannot achieve his or her purposes and goals because of impairments of functions that are believed to be in the domain of medicine. Such a person, he maintained, must be clearly distinguished from those who are well.We think a sick person is just a well person with a sickness the same person youve always been, except you just happen to have a sickness, he said in an interview with The New York Times Magazine in 1988. That isnt true.Rather, he said: Sickness changes peoples ability to make decisions. They become dependent on the doctor and others to take care of them, and focus on themselves rather than the outside world. So in many ways they become childlike. They may seem intact in all intellectual respects, but, in fact, they no longer reason like well people.Dr. J. Donald Boudreau, interim director of the Institute of Health Sciences Education at McGill University in Montreal, said, also in a tribute, that the concept of physicianship Dr. Cassell had helped develop argued that a key role of medicine should be to return patients to a sense of well-being, where well-being is based on achieving goals and purposes in life.Dr. Cassell was born Eric Jonathan Goldstein on Aug. 29, 1928, in New York to Hyman and Anne (Lake) Goldstein and raised in Queens. His father was a civil engineer for the post office. Dr. Cassell said that he and his brother had changed their surname to approximate the original pronunciation of that of their immigrant grandfather, before it was changed when he arrived from Russia.Dr. Cassell earned a bachelors degree from Queens College in 1950, a masters from Columbia University and a medical degree from the New York University School of Medicine. He was a captain in the Army Medical Corps from 1956 to 1958 in France and served his internship and residency at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan.In 1971, as a result of an article he had written, he was recruited to the Task Force on Dying at the Hastings Center.That literally changed my life, broadened my horizons, pushed me to become literate, and gave substance to a genetic predisposition to philosophy, Dr. Cassell wrote on his website. I began to wonder whether a doctor could actually treat patients in a successfully useful and special way because they were dying.Now we know, he added, that you not only can, but you should.He directed the Program for the Study of Ethics and Values in Medicine at the medical college of Cornell University from 1981 to 1986. He retired from his internal medicine practice in 1998.In addition to his son, from his marriage to Joan Cassell, which ended in divorce, he is survived by a daughter, Justine, from that marriage; his wife, Patricia Owens; his stepchildren, Margaret, Theresa, Shirley, James and Rebecca Owens; a granddaughter; two step-grandchildren; and a step-great-grandchild.Among Dr. Cassells 11 books were The Healers Art: A New Perspective on the Doctor-Patient Relationship (1976; revised in 1985) and The Nature of Suffering (1991).Dr. Cassell said his conversion to the new religion of truth in doctor-patient relationships did not come easily.It took me time to get the bloody words out of my mouth, You are dying, or Yes, you have cancer, he said. When doctors use euphemisms, they tell the patient and themselves that theyre powerless. In cases where a terminally ill patient may prefer death to continued treatment, Dr. Cassell said, an unspoken agreement may exist between the patient and a hospital staff that sees its medical mission as something more than just keeping the body alive. Then, he said, the staffs duty would be to help the patient die in as pleasant and congenial a way as possible. (Dr. Cassell received hospice care near the end of his life.)That is why listening to patients and determining how they define their own well-being is so vital, he said, and why the spoken language is the most important tool in medicine. | science |
Credit...Andrew White for The New York TimesFeb. 8, 2014Stella, an 8-year-old Brussels Griffon, might have been a little more excited than usual as she whistled her way through the course at Saturdays inaugural Masters Agility Championship staged by the Westminster Kennel Club. She had ridden the subway that morning with her owner, Katrina Krings. Krings took along Stellas toy lamb and made sure that her secret weapon salami from Katzs Delicatessen on the Lower East Side was waiting when they finished their first turn in the ring. When they arrived at Pier 94 in Manhattan, Stella weaved her way through an obstacle course filled with tunnels and jumps in front of hundreds of hometown fans. Stella had competed in Staten Island and New Jersey, but her owner said there was something special about being a part of Westminster.This is so exciting for me, Krings, a 31-year-old dog trainer, said as Stella relaxed after her first trial by snacking on salami and chewing on her toy lamb.This year, Westminster added the agility championship to its traditional two-day best-in-show contest, which begins Monday and includes 2,845 dogs. Agility events, which are common at other shows, display other aspects of dogs, such as skill and speed.The new competition has opened Westminsters festivities to mixed-breed dogs, which have not been allowed to participate in the main event. (Westminster noted that dogs other than purebreds could compete in the shows early years, from 1877 to 1884, when its rules were inexact.)About 225 dogs, including 15 mixed breeds, were entered in Saturdays agility drills. Each animal took the ring twice for qualifying rounds, with the best performers moving to the championship round. The dogs, representing 63 breeds from 23 states, were randomly selected from a pool of 653 entrants.The dogs and their owners had a range of stories about the ways they had wound up together and in New York for the competition.A 4-year-old papillon from North Carolina, Reese, was surrendered to a rescue organization as a puppy because his original owner thought he had too much energy. His new owner, Toni Moody, an X-ray technician, doubles as Reeses handler. Moody found a way to channel his energy. Working with a trainer, Reese now competes in trials about twice a month. He became a bit of a celebrity last week when The Charlotte Observer published an article about his appearance at Westminster.Arriving in New York on Thursday, Reese had a few days to get used to the weather, even wearing a jacket. He is a Southern dog now, Moody said.In the ring, Reese, whose trainer calls him a Jet Ski because of the way his tail looks when he runs, did not qualify for the championship round. But Moody was not upset.She told Reese, We are very proud of you, arent we?BORDER COLLIE WINS Kelso, a Border collie owned by Delaney Ratner of Cape Elizabeth, Me., navigated a maze of obstacles to win the Westminster agility competition. A husky mix named Roo, owned by the trainer Stacey Campbell of San Francisco, received the award for the best mixed-breed dog. (AP) | Sports |
Credit...Neeta Satam for The New York TimesFrontline Health Care Workers Arent Feeling the Summer of JoyDoctors and nurses are reeling from new Covid cases, staff burnout and the prolonged stress of dealing with the pandemic.Dr. Terrence Coulter, a critical care specialist at CoxHealth in Springfield, Mo. The country has started the end zone dance before we cross the goal line, he said.Credit...Neeta Satam for The New York TimesPublished July 1, 2021Updated Aug. 26, 2021A largely unmasked nation will celebrate the nations return to near-normalcy this weekend with a ticker-tape parade in New York City, a dazzling fireworks display over the Washington Monument and countless Independence Day gatherings in cities and towns across the country.A summer of freedom. A summer of joy, is how the White House tried to promote a new national mood in a letter encouraging local officials to hold public events during the July 4th holiday.And in most parts of the country, Americans have reason to cheer, with more than half of those over 12 fully vaccinated, state after state lifting all emergency restrictions and caseloads decreasing by double-digits week over week. Families are traveling again, diners are flocking to restaurants and baseball is back as Americas seasonal pastime.But the summer is turning out to be fairly joyless in places like CoxHealth Medical Center in Springfield, Mo., where nurses, doctors and respiratory therapists have been grappling with a resurgence in coronavirus cases that forced the hospital to reopen the 80-bed Covid unit it had shuttered in May.Dr. Terrence Coulter, a critical care specialist at CoxHealth, said he and his colleagues were stunned to find themselves back in the trenches after the briefest of respites. With everyone masked, you learn to read the emotions in your co-workers eyes, he said. Theyre weary and theyre also disappointed that the country has started the end zone dance before we cross the goal line. The truth is were fumbling the ball before we even get there.Americas health care workers are in crisis, even in places that have had sharp declines in coronavirus infections and deaths. Battered and burned out, they feel unappreciated by a nation that lionized them as Covid heroes but often scoffed at mask mandates and refused to follow social distancing guidelines. Many of those same Americans are now ignoring their pleas to get vaccinated.Doctors and nurses are also overworked, thanks to chronic staffing shortages made worse by a pandemic that drove thousands from the field. Many are struggling with depression and post-traumatic stress; others are mourning at least 3,600 colleagues who wont be around for the celebrations.People dont realize what it was like to be on the front lines and risking your own safety without adequate protective gear while dealing with so much death, said Mary Turner, a registered nurse in Minneapolis who was unable to comfort her own father as he lay dying alone of Covid in a nursing home in the early days of the pandemic. A few months later, she found herself sobbing uncontrollably in a hospital room as she held up a phone so a man could say goodbye to his father. A lot of us are still dealing with PTSD, she said.In recent weeks, a familiar sense of dread has returned to emergency rooms across the South and Mountain West as the more transmissible Delta variant gained traction among the unvaccinated, fueling a jump in hospitalizations. In Missouri alone, caseloads increased more than 40 percent from two weeks earlier; at CoxHealth where Dr. Coulter works, the Delta variant comprised 93 percent of all cases last week, he said.ImageCredit...Caroline Yang for The New York TimesDr. Clay Smith, an emergency room doctor who travels between two distant hospitals in South Dakota and Wyoming, said he worried about his children, who are both too young to get inoculated. Its really disconcerting to work in a community where people are doing so little to protect themselves and others from the virus, Dr. Smith said.With fewer than a third of adults in the counties served by the hospitals fully vaccinated, he has been treating a small but steady stream of Covid patients, some of whom insist the coronavirus is a hoax even as they struggle to breathe. People think they are exercising their rights by refusing to get vaccinated, but in reality theyre exposing themselves and others to risk, Dr. Smith said.Some health care workers are also refusing to get jabbed. Last month, 153 employees at the Houston Methodist hospital system resigned or were terminated after they refused to abide by a policy requiring all staff to be vaccinated against Covid. Similar standoffs over vaccine mandates will most likely multiply as hospitals across the country embrace similar policies.In interviews, nearly two dozen health care providers expressed a range of conflicting emotions: Elation over how quickly the vaccines were created and relief that the pandemics darkest days are in the past, but fear that the large number of unvaccinated Americans could lead to localized outbreaks that persist for the foreseeable future.Few are in a celebratory mood.Deborah Burger, co-president of National Nurses United, a union that represents 170,000 registered nurses, said the revelries planned for the Fourth of July weekend felt ill-conceived and tone deaf, and not just because the pandemic continues to claim hundreds of lives a day.Nurses, she said, face a welter of indignities at work. Dire staff shortages are preventing many from taking much-needed vacations, and some hospitals are still requiring employees to reuse disposable N95 masks even though supply chain bottlenecks have eased. Then there is the open hostility from patients who have spent months steeped in right-wing commentary and conspiracy theories that have turned health workers into adversaries.Ive been in the field for 45 years and Ive never seen things this bad, said Ms. Burger, who is a registered nurse. Its really frustrating and dispiriting that the pandemic has been turned into a political event, rather than a public health crisis, and its health care workers who are left to deal with the aftermath.The pandemic continues to vex hospitals and their employees, often in unexpected ways. Dr. Mara Windsor, an emergency room doctor in Phoenix, rarely sees Covid patients these days, but she said an alarming shortage of nurses had gummed up the admissions process, forcing patients to wait upward of eight hours before they can be seen by a doctor. The problem is shared by hospitals across the city.Infuriated patients, she said, often scream at her; others will storm out before they can be treated. Its very anxiety provoking to have 30 patients in the lobby and not being able to take them because we have no nurses, said Dr. Windsor, who has been forced to scale back her hours and take a pay cut because of the drop off in admissions. What if someone has a heart attack? The whole environment has become really challenging.The conflict over vaccines has complicated, and sometimes curdled, the relationship between patients and health care providers. As a woman of color well aware of the systemic racism in American health care, Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis, an infectious disease doctor in St. Louis, said she was sympathetic to the vaccine-hesitant but that she sometimes struggled to contain her frustration, especially given that her sisters in South Africa had little hope of getting the shots any time soon.ImageCredit...Neeta Satam for The New York TimesThere are moments of overwhelming joy when seeing patients I know who survived Covid, but then Ill treat multiple members of a family with Covid or we will have to intubate someone and you cant help but think this was preventable, she said. Its heartbreaking, but were also really, really tired.Dr. Teena Chopra, the medical director of infection prevention and hospital epidemiology at the Detroit Medical Center, takes a no-nonsense approach with the Covid patients she treats, most of them increasingly young. Although caseloads across the state have dropped significantly since a calamitous third surge ended in April, only 51 percent of adults in Michigan have received one vaccine dose. In Detroit, that figure is 40 percent.The interactions she has with Covid patients, many of them African American, often leave her shaken. She recalled a recent exchange with a woman in her 40s who was struggling to breathe. When Dr. Chopra asked whether she had been vaccinated, the woman shook her head defiantly between gasps, insisting that the vaccines were more harmful than the virus. The patient later died.It leaves me angry, frustrated and sad, Dr. Chopra said. These nonbelievers will never accept our viewpoint, and the result is that they are putting others at risk and overwhelming the health care system.The emotional fallout of the last 16 months takes many forms, including a spate of early retirements and suicides among health care providers. Dr. Mark Rosenberg, an emergency room doctor at St. Josephs University Medical Center in Paterson, N.J., a predominantly working class, immigrant community that was hit hard by the pandemic, sees the toll all around him.He recently found himself comforting a fellow doctor who blamed himself for infecting his in-laws. They died four days apart. He just cant get past the guilt, Dr. Rosenberg said.At a graduation party for the hospitals residents two weeks ago the emergency departments first social gathering in nearly two years the DJ read the room and decided not to play any music, Dr. Rosenberg said. People in my department usually love to dance but everyone just wanted to talk, catch up and get a hug.Dr. Rosenberg, who is also president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, is processing his own losses. They include his friend, Dr. Lorna Breen, who took her own life in the first months of the pandemic and whose death has inspired federal legislation that seeks to address suicide and burnout among health care professionals.Most of the suffering goes unseen or unacknowledged. Dr. Rosenberg compared the hidden trauma to what his father, a World War II veteran, experienced after the hostilities ended.My dad didnt like to talk about the war but once in a while he did and what he said was that so many of his fellow soldiers died after they came home, he said. We would now describe this as PTSD, and I see the same thing happening among health care workers.Dr. Rosenberg said he had mixed feelings about the festivities planned for July 4. He is proud of the camaraderie and self-sacrifice he witnessed among colleagues who bravely faced down a deadly virus, but he is uncomfortable with the expression health care heroes, especially given the widespread resistance to vaccinations.Were ready to stand shoulder to shoulder again and face whatever comes our way, he said. But to be honest, were wiped out and we just want society to show us that we really are appreciated by getting vaccinated. | Health |
Credit...Eduardo Munoz/ReutersJune 18, 2018WASHINGTON As Republicans try to keep their midterm election strategy focused on the economy, tax cuts and falling unemployment, President Trump sent his clearest signal yet on Monday that he intends to make divisive, racially charged issues like immigration central going into the campaign season.Facing bipartisan criticism over his administrations family separation practice on the border, Mr. Trump renewed the sort of bald and demagogic attacks on undocumented immigrants that worked well for him politically in his 2016 presidential campaign. He inveighed against the death and destruction thats been caused by people coming into this country and vowed that the United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility.Republicans typically handle immigration gingerly in an election year, as they try to appeal to Hispanic voters, independents and moderates across divergent districts. But with more Americans still opposing the tax measure than supporting it, Mr. Trumps allies believe that trying to link Democrats to crimes committed by undocumented immigrants and gangs like MS-13 will do more to galvanize Republican voters and get them to the polls in November than emphasizing economic issues.People dont turn out to say thank you, said Corey Lewandowski, one of the presidents top political advisers. If you want to get people motivated, youve got to give them a reason to vote. Saying build the wall and stop illegals from coming in and killing American citizens gives them an important issue.This fear-oriented approach reflects the degree that Mr. Trump has put his anti-immigration imprint on the Republican Party. The same raw appeals Mr. Trump made in 2016 about immigrants illegally crossing the border have not abated among most of his Republican supporters. And his supporters say the party has little choice in an election where Democrats are eager to register their opposition to a president they despise and that the only way to succeed in a campaign driven by turning out the party base is to focus on what grass-roots conservatives care most about.Its an issue folks are emotionally attached to, said Andy Surabian, a Republican strategist and former Trump aide. I know that upsets some people in the donor class, but its the reality of where the party is.Mr. Trumps anti-immigrant remarks are aimed at the conservative base of the party that elevated his candidacy and is dominant in red states and House districts, especially those with largely white populations. The Republican grass-roots were already hawkish on immigration, while the presidents takeover of the party has further diminished its pragmatist wing. And while hard-line Republicans are a minority of the countrys voters, the G.O.P. cannot retain its grip on Congress without this bedrock of its base going to the polls.VideotranscripttranscriptHow Trumps Team Defends Zero ToleranceThe White House is responding to criticism of its policy against illegal border crossings in four very distinct ways.No more free passes, no more get out of jail free cards, no more lawlessness. The United States will not be a migrant camp. What this administration is doing is inhumane. It is inconsistent with our American values. Its barbaric. This I do think ought to be addressed. And I say its very strongly the Democrats fault. We would like to fix these loopholes. And if Democrats want to get serious about it, instead of playing political games, theyre welcome to come here and sit down with the president and actually do something about it. We cannot and will not encourage people to bring their children or other children to the country unlawfully by giving them immunity in the process. I have not been directed to do that for purposes of deterrence, no. My decision has been that anyone who breaks the law will be prosecuted. Our administration has had the same position since we started on Day 1, that we were going to enforce the law. ... you to the apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13 to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes.The White House is responding to criticism of its policy against illegal border crossings in four very distinct ways.CreditCredit...Tom Brenner/The New York TimesThe presidents pugnacity on immigration took flight in 2015 when his vows to build a border wall drew an enthusiastic response at his rallies and soon became his signature proposal. But stoking fears about the other has always been appealing to Mr. Trump, going back decades to his early days in New York real estate.The issue of Germany and migrants has resonated for Mr. Trump for more than a year, people close to him say. When he thinks of Chancellor Angela Merkel, he is reminded of her difficulties with immigration far more than his clash with her at the G-7 or any bilateral issues.[Heres a fact-check about President Trumps false claims about Germany and immigration.]The danger for Republicans is that the political map this year is sharply bifurcated: the most competitive House and Senate contests are taking place in strikingly different parts of the country.Mr. Trumps broadsides against Hispanic migrants, like his criticism of black athletes who will not stand for the national anthem, may resonate in the deeply red states where the battle for control of the Senate is playing out. But such culture war attacks will likely alienate voters in the affluent, heavily suburban districts Republicans must win to keep control of the House.Further, some in the party believe that by pursuing a hard-line approach to families at the border a policy that is deeply unpopular among independent voters, according to polls Mr. Trump is handing Democrats the high ground on immigration instead of making them defend their support for less popular immigrant protections like sanctuary cities.Somehow I dont think that putting kids in cages is likely to go over very well with suburban moms, said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster uneasy about running on the culture wars. Mr. Ayres said his party should campaign on the concrete accomplishments of a Republican-held government.A fabulously strong economy, a record stock market, ISIS defeated and a world without any major wars that are killing lots of Americans on a weekly basis, he said, laying out the case.Republicans got a lesson last year about the risk of elevating immigration in campaigns where they depend on suburbanites. In the Virginia governors race, the Republican nominee, Ed Gillespie, thought women in vote-rich Northern Virginia could be won over with a get-tough message on MS-13, the gang with ties to Central America that has gained a foothold in the Washington, D.C., region. But voters in suburban Fairfax and Loudoun counties overwhelmingly rejected these appeals, supporting Gov. Ralph S. Northam with landslide margins in large part to send a message about their disdain for Mr. Trump.ImageCredit...Eugene Garcia/Epa-Efe, via Rex, via ShutterstockThe unease with a hard-line approach on immigration is strongest among House Republicans who hail from diverse districts.Many of these lawmakers signed a discharge petition that would have forced a vote offering legal status for Dreamers, children brought to the country by undocumented immigrants.And as Liesl Hickey, a veteran Republican strategist who previously ran the House congressional campaign arm, pointed out, it is Republican lawmakers like Representatives Carlos Curbelo of Florida, Will Hurd of Texas and Steve Knight of California who face some of the most daunting re-election challenges.I think its pretty clear that this is not a winning issue in the form that some want to take it, said Ms. Hickey, alluding to the hard-line approach.In a sign of the Republican alarm about the family separations at the border, Representative Steve Stivers of Ohio, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said Monday that he would ask the Trump administration to stop needlessly separating children from their parents.Yet some of Mr. Trumps advisers have told the president he needs to live up to what he promised voters on immigration. These aides have told him that what he is doing is similar to what President Obama did, and suggested that the news media is cherry-picking images of children that can be used to portray Mr. Trumps policy in the harshest of lights.Mr. Trump, absorbing these arguments, has related to allies that he thinks he is being mistreated by the media and sought to shift the conversation to the broader immigration debate. But Democrats believe he is making a costly mistake by taking his rhetoric too far.He has taken an issue that is a decent wedge in swing places for Republicans and turned it into this preposterous notion that Democrats are responsible for family separation, Democrats are responsible for all immigrant crime, and Democrats are responsible for MS-13, said Anna Greenberg, a Democratic pollster. Nobody believes that. | Politics |
DealBook|Pep Boys Accepts Higher Takeover Bid From Bridgestonehttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/25/business/dealbook/pep-boys-accepts-higher-takeover-bid-from-bridgestone.htmlDec. 24, 2015Pep Boys, the car-parts and servicing chain based in Philadelphia, agreed on Thursday to be acquired by Bridgestone for $947 million, rejecting a competing, and possibly larger, bid by the billionaire Carl C. Icahn.In a statement, Pep Boys, formally known as Pep Boys Manny, Moe & Jack, said that its board of directors unanimously recommended that shareholders accept a revised offer from Bridgestone of $17 a share in cash, up from an earlier offer by the tire company of $15.50 a share. Mr. Icahns last offer was $16.50 a share.But in a filing on Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr. Icahn said that he was prepared to offer 10 cents a share more than any proposal by Bridgestone up to about $18.10 per share.If Pep Boys were to accept a better offer from another suitor, it would have to pay Bridgestone a termination fee of $39.5 million, more than the previous termination fee of $35 million, according to the statement.Pep Boys shares closed at $17.51, up 11 cents, or 0.63 percent, before the new Bridgestone offer was made public. | Business |
Covids Lambda Variant: Worth Watching, but No Cause for AlarmSpreading fast in South America, the variant is still a mystery. No one knows whether it is more contagious than other variants or if it affects vaccines.Credit...Ernesto Benavides/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesJuly 8, 2021Viruses evolve. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, is no exception. So the emergence of variants is no surprise, and not every new genetic mutation poses a serious threat.But in recent weeks, a growing drumbeat of news coverage has started to raise alarm about Lambda, a variant first detected in Peru late last year. The variant, initially known as C.37, has spread rapidly through parts of South America. On June 14, the World Health Organization designated it as a variant of interest, meaning, essentially, that experts suspect it could be more dangerous than the original strain.Lambdas prevalence and its mutations, which resemble those found in several other highly contagious or worrisome variants, mean that it is worth watching, scientists said. But much remains unknown, and it is not yet clear how much of a risk it poses.I think some of the interest is just based on the fact that theres a new variant, and it has a new name, said Nathaniel Landau, a microbiologist at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine who is studying the new coronavirus variants.But I dont think theres any more reason to be concerned than before we knew about this variant, Dr. Landau added. No evidence so far suggests that Lambda will outcompete Delta, the highly transmissible variant thats now dominating most of the world. Theres no reason to think that this is now something worse than Delta.Pablo Tsukayama, a microbiologist at Cayetano Heredia University in Peru who documented Lambdas emergence, concurred. Latin America has limited capacity to do genomic surveillance and follow-up laboratory investigations of new variants, he said. That has led to an information gap fueling concerns about Lambda. I dont think its going to be worse than any of the ones that we have already, he said. Its just that we know so little that it lends itself to a lot of speculation.As of mid-June, Lambda had been reported in 29 countries, territories or areas, according to a June 15 update from the W.H.O. The variant had been detected in 81 percent of coronavirus samples sequenced in Peru since April, and 31 percent of those in Chile to date, the agency said.The variant accounts for less than 1 percent of samples sequenced in the United States, according to GISAID, a repository for viral genome data. Isolated cases have been reported in a number of other countries.The variant contains eight notable mutations, including seven in the gene for the spike protein, found on the surface of the virus. Some of these mutations are present in other variants and might make the virus more infectious or help it evade the bodys immune response.But big questions remain unanswered. It is not yet clear whether Lambda is more transmissible than other variants, whether it causes more severe disease or whether it renders vaccines less effective.We dont have a lot of information, compared to the other variants, said Ricardo Soto-Rifo, a virologist at the University of Chile who has studied Lambda.Preliminary laboratory studies, which have not yet been published in peer-reviewed journals, provide reason for both concern and reassurance. In these studies, research teams led by Dr. Soto-Rifo and Dr. Landau found that antibodies induced by the Pfizer, Moderna and CoronaVac vaccines are less powerful against Lambda than against the original strain, but that they are still able to neutralize the virus.The findings suggest that these vaccines should still work against Lambda, the scientists said. Moreover, antibodies are not the bodys only defense against the virus; even if theyre less potent against Lambda, other components of the immune system, like T cells, may also provide protection.This decrease in the neutralizing antibodies does not mean that the vaccine has decreased effectiveness, Dr. Soto-Rifo said. Real-world studies of how well the vaccines hold up against the variant are still needed, he said.The researchers also reported that like several other variants, Lambda binds more tightly to cells than the original strain of the virus does, which may make it more transmissible.Although many questions remain, Trevor Bedford, an evolutionary biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, said that he does not find Lambda as worrisome as Delta and does not expect it to become as dominant globally.Lambda has been around for a little while, and its hardly invaded the U.S. at all, for example, compared to, say, even Gamma the variant first identified in Brazil which has done pretty well here. He added, I think all the focus should be on Delta. | Health |
A firm started by a group of Trump lawyers highlights the campaigns connections to the false conspiracy theory and reinforces how deeply it has taken hold in the Republican Party. Credit...C.B. Schmelter/Chattanooga Times Free Press, via Associated PressOct. 16, 2020Senior lawyers for the Trump campaign set up a small law firm last year that is working for Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican House candidate in Georgia with a history of promoting QAnon, a pro-Trump conspiracy theory.While federal filings show that the firm, Elections L.L.C., principally collects fees from the presidents campaign and the Republican National Committee, it also does work for a number of congressional candidates, and none more so than Ms. Greene, underscoring the connections between QAnon and Mr. Trump and his inner circle. The latest example came Thursday night, when President Trump repeatedly declined to disavow QAnon at a televised town hall.Ms. Greene is one of several Republican candidates who openly espouse the collection of bogus and bizarre theories embraced by followers of QAnon, who have been labeled a potential domestic terror threat by the F.B.I. and who former President Barack Obama warned Wednesday were infiltrating the mainstream of the Republican Party. QAnon imagines, falsely, that a Satanic cabal of pedophile Democrats are plotting against Mr. Trump, plays on anti-Semitic tropes and stokes real world violence and has been expounded on at length by Ms. Greene in videos.Elections L.L.C. was founded last year by Justin Clark, Mr. Trumps deputy campaign manager, and Stefan Passantino, a former top ethics lawyer in the Trump White House. Matthew Morgan, the Trump campaigns counsel, is also a partner at the firm. Ms. Greenes campaign has made 14 payments to the firm since last year, worth nearly $70,000 in total, the most of any congressional campaign.Mr. Passantino appears in records filed with the Georgia secretary of state as the lawyer who incorporated Ms. Greenes campaign committee, though the full scope of his work for the candidate is unclear. He also does legal work for a Georgia political operative, Jason D. Boles, who is a personal friend of Ms. Greenes and who helped set up her campaign. (Mr. Boles has been a recent subject of controversy, after it emerged that he had helped bankroll an effort to infiltrate and discredit voting rights groups in North Carolina.)Mr. Passantino worked in the White House as a deputy counsel in charge of ethics policy until 2018, and among other things, he dealt with personal financial disclosures related to the presidents eldest daughter and adviser, Ivanka Trump. Last year, he was hired by the Trump Organization to handle investigations by Democrats in the House of Representatives. Some of the money that the Trump campaign has paid to Elections L.L.C. has also been directed to him, federal filings show, though it is not clear for what work.Neither Mr. Clark, Mr. Morgan nor Mr. Passantino commented for this story. In a statement, the Trump campaign said, Elections L.L.C. is a law firm like many others that do campaign work. Just like any other law firm, its lawyers have clients that have no relationship to other lawyers of the firm or their clients.The campaign did not elaborate further, nor did it say whether Mr. Passantino was the only lawyer who had performed work on Ms. Greenes behalf. Ms. Greenes campaign did not reply to requests for comment, but earlier this year she told Open Secrets, a site run by the Center for Responsive Politics, that Mr. Passantino worked as her lawyer and Elections L.L.C. did compliance work related to elections filings.The fact that a law firm with close ties to the White House is doing work for one of the most prominent proponents of QAnon shows how quickly the conspiracy theory has moved from the far-right fringe to the center of Republican politics, presenting a significant challenge to the party at a time when it is already being rejected by many moderate voters.Ms. Greene has said, without evidence, that after the 2018 elections there was an Islamic invasion into our government offices, once questioned whether a plane had actually crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, and has said we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out. She has also suggested that Saudi Arabia, the Rothschilds, and Soros referring to George Soros, the financier and supporter of progressive causes are the puppet masters that fund this global evil.While some of her comments have been condemned by House Republicans, Mr. Trump has embraced her candidacy and called her a future Republican star and a real WINNER! He has also frequently retweeted postings by QAnon followers. During a contentious exchange at the televised town hall Thursday over his promotion of false conspiracy theories, he said of QAnon: I know nothing about it. I do know they are very much against pedophilia. They fight it very hard. His campaign has presented an uneven response to QAnon. It canceled the appearance of a QAnon-connected speaker at the Republican National Convention this summer, and last month, Vice President Mike Pence canceled an appearance hosted by QAnon supporters. But campaign officials have struggled to explain their support for Ms. Greene.QAnon is not something that we focus on, Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, told MSNBC in August when asked about Ms. Greene. We have a lot of things that we work on here in the campaign, he added. And chasing down various conspiracy theories is not one of them.Ms. Greene, for her part, said in a Fox News interview published in August that QAnon was not a focus of her campaign, adding, My campaign message the entire time was save America, stop Socialism.ImageCredit...Jessica Hill/Associated PressThe creation of Elections L.L.C. reflects an ongoing pattern by Trump campaign officials of collecting payments through new businesses they set up around the campaign, a practice honed by the former campaign manager, Brad Parscale, before his ouster this summer. Mr. Clark also set up a firm called National Public Affairs last year with Bill Stepien, who replaced Mr. Parscale as campaign manager in July. The founders of Elections L.L.C., Mr. Clark and Mr. Passantino, are also both prominent partners at Michael Best, a Wisconsin-based law firm that has an affiliated lobbying and government relations firm chaired by Reince Priebus, the former R.N.C. chairman, who worked with both men while he served as Mr. Trumps first White House chief of staff. Mr. Clark is on leave from Michael Best, while Mr. Passantino chairs its government regulations and public policy practice. The firms managing partner, David Krutz, said that Elections L.L.C. had no affiliation with his firm and said Mr. Passantino maintained a clear division of work between the two firms. (An associate at Michael Best, Nathan Groth, has also done work for Elections L.L.C.) With Election Day approaching, Ms. Greene appears to be assured of victory. Her primary opponent, a conservative neurosurgeon named John Cowan, used the slogan All of the conservative, none of the embarrassment, and once told Politico, She deserves a YouTube channel, not a seat in Congress. Shes a circus act. But Ms. Greene handily prevailed in her heavily Republican district, and her Democratic opponent has dropped out of the race. The Republican establishment was against me, Ms. Greene said in her victory speech after a runoff in August. The D.C. swamp is against me. And the lying fake news media hates my guts. Its a badge of honor.Stephanie Saul contributed reporting and Rachel Shorey contributed research. | Politics |
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/18/business/international/encouraging-fracking-britain-offers-more-than-100-sites-for-exploration.htmlDec. 17, 2015LONDON The British government, in an effort to stoke interest from energy companies in extracting fuels from shale rock, said on Thursday that it was offering licenses for oil and gas exploration on 159 tracts of land.The government said that 75 percent of the licenses being offered related to areas thought to contain shale gas or oil. Most of the blocks are in Northwest and Northeast England, and are believed to have substantial shale potential.We need to get shale gas moving, Britains energy minister, Andrea Leadsom, said in a statement on Thursday.The major British oil companies, BP and Shell, have so far stayed clear of the hunt for shale gas in Britain, stating that they had little interest in wading into the environmental controversy over extracting the fuel, at least until it is demonstrated that there is enough shale gas to make it commercially attractive.The government said that companies that accepted the licenses would still need to seek further permission before they could begin drilling.The licenses were offered a day after members of Parliament approved legislation that may open the way to hydraulic fracturing the shale-gas-extraction technique known as fracking deep beneath the surface of protected areas like national parks using long, horizontal wells outside the park borders.A few of the licenses awarded on Thursday are in such parks.The Conservative government of Prime Minister David Cameron also recently announced plans to close Britains remaining coal-fired power plants by 2025, identifying gas as a cleaner-burning substitute that can help meet goals for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.The country also needs to find new resources to replace declining gas production from North Sea wells.Ineos, the Switzerland-based petrochemical company, was offered 21 licenses, apparently the largest number for any company. Ineos said that with the new tracts, it would have one million acres of British land under exploration.We believe shale gas could revolutionize U.K. manufacturing, Jim Ratcliffe, chairman of Ineos, said on Thursday in a statement.Among the facilities Ineos operates in Britain are a refinery and petrochemical complex in Grangemouth, Scotland, and a chlorine plant in Runcorn, England. Ineos said it hoped to use shale gas in these plants.Gary Haywood, who heads the shale business for Ineos, said on Thursday that the company had committed to spending 400 million pounds, or $600 million, on exploring the new tracts. Mr. Haywood estimated that two to three years of test drilling and hydraulic fracturing would be needed to determine whether shale gas can be produced from the area.There is no question there is gas there, he said. The question is whether it can be produced economically and commercially.Other companies that were offered licenses on Thursday included Cuadrilla Resources and IGas Energy, both leaders in Britains slow-moving shale industry, as well as GDF Suez, the French utility.So far, environmental groups and local activists have had success in using the permit process to delay shale gas exploration in Britain to a point where it remains unclear whether the industry can be financially viable. | Business |
A lawsuit by the states attorney general adds to pressure on the companies to consider their drivers full employees.Credit...Blake Nissen/The Boston Globe, via Getty ImagesJuly 14, 2020Uber and Lyft should treat their drivers in Massachusetts as employees with the right to receive benefits, instead of misclassifying them as independent contractors, the states attorney general said in a lawsuit filed against the ride-hailing companies.The suit, made public on Tuesday, makes Massachusetts the second state after California to challenge how Uber and Lyft classify drivers and could deal another blow to their business model. Maura Healey, the states attorney general, mailed in the complaint to Massachusetts Superior Court in Suffolk County.Uber, Lyft and other so-called gig economy companies have maintained that their drivers are independent contractors who are ineligible for benefits like sick leave, paid time off and unemployment insurance. But the companies are facing increasing pressure to reclassify drivers as employees, who would have greater recourse to push back for better working conditions and pay.Uber and Lyft have built their billion-dollar businesses while denying their drivers basic employee protections and benefits for years, Ms. Healey said in a statement. This business model is unfair and exploitative. We are seeking this determination from the court because these drivers have a right to be treated fairly.Massachusetts is asking the court to rule that the drivers for Uber and Lyft are, in fact, employees under state law. It is also seeking an injunction to prevent the companies from denying drivers protections afforded to employees.An Uber spokesman, Matt Kallman, said in a statement: We will contest this action in court, as it flies in the face of what the vast majority of drivers want: to work independently. We stand ready to work with the state to modernize our laws, so that independent workers receive new protections while maintaining the flexibility they prefer.This lawsuit threatens to eliminate work for more than 50,000 people in Massachusetts at the worst possible time, said Julie Wood, a spokeswoman for Lyft. Drivers dont want this most drive only a few hours a week, and they have chosen to drive using Lyft precisely because of the independence it gives them to make money in their spare time.Although the Massachusetts law was enacted in 2004, the state had not tried to enforce it against Uber and the other gig economy start-ups that have disrupted transportation, hospitality and food delivery over the last decade. Instead, Uber drivers in Massachusetts have sought employment status through individual lawsuits and class actions, but many of those cases have been pushed into arbitration or are still making their way through the court system.The state is suing now because of the coronavirus pandemic, officials in the attorney generals office said. Employment protections like paid sick leave, health insurance and guaranteed income are especially valuable during a global health crisis. Uber and Lyft have said they will provide drivers with financial assistance for up to 14 days if they test positive for the virus or are forced to stay home. Demand for rides has plunged during the crisis, however, curbing the ability of many drivers to earn an income.Some drivers welcomed the lawsuit and said it could improve working conditions. I believed the lie. I thought I was an independent contractor with my own business, but Uber and Lyft controlled how much I got paid, where I drove, said Felipe Martinez, the chairman of the Boston Independent Drivers Guild, a group that advocates on the behalf of Uber and Lyft drivers. I realized I was an employee in disguise.Uber and Lyft are also fighting a legal battle in California, where the state attorney general and the city attorneys of San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego sued the companies to enforce a state law, known as Assembly Bill 5, that defines gig economy workers as employees.Massachusetts and California use similar legal tests to determine whether workers are independent contractors or employees. Laws in both states say a worker should be classified as an employee if the employer controls the workers wages and schedule, the worker performs a service that is a core part of the employers business and the worker does not have an independently established business doing similar work.Uber has argued that its core business is technology, not rides, and therefore drivers are not a key part of its business. It has also tweaked its service in California since A.B. 5 went into effect on Jan. 1, allowing drivers to see fares upfront and reject low-paying rides without paying a penalty.Uber, Lyft and DoorDash have also poured tens of millions of dollars into Proposition 22, a measure on the November ballot in California that, if passed, would exempt them from the states labor law.We couldnt be more pleased to have Massachusetts join us in this fight to protect vulnerable workers, said Dennis Herrera, the city attorney of San Francisco. Under the law, their drivers are employees, plain and simple. | Tech |
Credit...Bulent Kilic/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesNov. 16, 2018ISTANBUL Friends and supporters of the Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi held funeral prayers over an empty marble slab at one of Istanbuls holiest mosques on Friday, declaring him a martyr and vowing to unmask those behind his murder in the Saudi Consulate 45 days ago.Arab dissidents, journalists and activists filled the outer courtyard of the Fatih Mosque in a farewell to Mr. Khashoggi that was as political as it was religious.This is a responsibility, a debt, a duty in our religion that lies with the ones who remain alive, and we gathered to fulfill this religious duty, said Yasin Aktay, a close friend of Mr. Khashoggis, and a senior member of the governing Justice and Development Party in Turkey.Mr. Khashoggi was killed Oct. 2 in the Saudi Consulate, where he had gone to obtain papers that would allow him to marry. Since then, Saudi Arabia has offered a series of changing explanations about what happened to him all seeming to distance the countrys crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, from responsibility.This week, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on 17 Saudis accused of involvement in the killing, and Saudi Arabias public prosecutor announced that he would seek the death penalty for five people he said were involved.Mr. Khashoggis remains have not been found.Praying for the funeral while there is no body is unusual, Mr. Aktay added. This is a situation that should be a slap to the face of those who committed this shame.ImageCredit...Bulent Kilic/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesGroups were also gathering in Mr. Khashoggis memory around Turkey, in the Saudi Arabian cities of Mecca and Medina, and in Washington and London, he said.Yet even as the Turkish government showed support for Arab dissidents gathered in Istanbul to honor Mr. Khashoggi, the police made a new round of arrests in a crackdown that has led to the detention of over 100,000 people and the suppression of dissent in Turkey.Two prominent university professors were among at least 12 people detained early Friday and charged with trying to overthrow the government for their participation in the Taksim Square democracy protests in 2013.At Mr. Khashoggis funeral prayers, Mr. Aktay and other speakers rejected the latest official announcement from the Saudi chief prosecutor. On Thursday, the prosecutor said that the killing of Mr. Khashoggi was an improvised decision by a team of agents who had traveled to Istanbul, and that Prince Mohammed was not responsible.Turkish officials have said that such a team, which included security officials close to the crown prince and a forensic specialist equipped with a bone saw, arrived with a premeditated plan to execute Mr. Khashoggi and dismember and dispose of his body. They say such an operation could have been ordered only from the highest level.President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has said he is confident that King Salman of Saudi Arabia had no part in the murder, but he has asked questions about the crown princes role.Turkish officials have described the Saudi investigation so far as insufficient.At the funeral, several speakers repeated this point.VideotranscripttranscriptKilling Khashoggi: How a Brutal Saudi Hit Job UnfoldedAn autopsy expert. A lookalike. A black van. Our video investigation follows the movements of the 15-man Saudi hit team that killed and dismembered the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.There were 15 of them. Most arrived in the dead of night, laid their trap and waited for the target to arrive. That target was Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi critic of his countrys government and its young crown prince. Since his killing in Istanbul, Turkish media has released a steady drip feed of evidence implicating Saudi officials. Weeks of investigation by The Times builds on that evidence and reconstructs what unfolded, hour-by-hour. Our timeline shows the ruthless efficiency of a hit team of experts that seemed specially chosen from Saudi government ministries. Some had links to the crown prince himself. After a series of shifting explanations, Saudi Arabia now denies that this brazen hit job was premeditated. But this reconstruction of the killing, and the botched cover-up, calls their story into serious question. Its Friday morning, Sept. 28. Khashoggi and his fiance, Hatice Cengiz, are at the local marriage office in Istanbul. In order to marry, hes told that he needs Saudi paperwork and goes straight to the consulate to arrange it. They tell him to return in a week. It all seems routine, but its not. Inside theres a Saudi spy, Ahmed al-Muzaini, whos working under diplomatic cover. That very day, he flies off to Riyadh and helps concoct a plan to intercept Khashoggi when he returns to the consulate. Fast-forward to Monday night into Tuesday morning. Saudi agents converge in Istanbul aboard separate flights. Muzaini, the spy, flies back from Riyadh. A commercial flight carries a three-man team that we believe flew from Cairo. Two of the men are security officers and theyve previously traveled with the crown prince. A private jet flying from Riyadh lands around 3:30 a.m. That plane is often used by the Saudi government, and its carrying nine Saudi officials, some who played key roles in Khashoggis death. Well get to Team 3 later on, and for now focus on these men from Team 2. This is Salah al-Tubaigy, a high-ranking forensics and autopsy expert in the Saudi interior ministry. Turkish officials will later say his role was to dismember Khashoggis body. Another is Mustafa al-Madani, a 57-year-old engineer. As well see, its no accident that he looks like Khashoggi. And this is Maher Mutreb, the leader of the operation. Our investigation into his past reveals a direct link between Mutreb and the Saudi crown prince. When bin Salman toured a Houston neighborhood earlier this year, we discovered that Mutreb was with him, a glowering figure in the background. We found him again in Boston, at a U.N. meeting in New York, in Madrid and Paris, too. This global tour was all part of a charm offensive by the prince to paint himself as a moderate reformer. Back then, Mutreb was in the royal guard. Now, he would orchestrate Khashoggis killing. And his close ties to the crown prince beg the question, just how high up the Saudi chain of command did the plot to kill go? Early Tuesday morning, Khashoggi flies back from a weekend trip to London. He and the Saudis nearly cross paths at the airport. The Saudi teams check into two hotels, which give quick access to the consulate. Khashoggi heads home with his fiance. Hed just bought an apartment for their new life together. By mid-morning, the Saudis are on the move. Mutreb leaves his hotel three hours before Khashoggi is due at the consulate. The rest of the team isnt far behind. The building is only a few minutes away on foot, and soon, theyre spotted at this entrance. Mutreb arrives first. Next, we see al-Tubaigy, the autopsy expert. And now al-Madani, the lookalike. The stage is almost set. A diplomatic car pulls out of the consulate driveway and switches places with a van, which backs in. Turkish officials say this van would eventually carry away Khashoggis remains. From above, we can see the driveway is covered, hiding any activity around the van from public view. Meanwhile, Khashoggi and his fiance set out for the consulate, walking hand-in-hand. In their final hour together, they chat about dinner plans and new furniture for their home. At 1:13 p.m., they arrive at the consulate. Khashoggi gives her his cellphones before he enters. He walks into the consulate. Its the last time we see him. Inside, Khashoggi is brought to the consul generals office on the second floor. The hit team is waiting in a nearby room. Sources briefed on the evidence, told us Khashoggi quickly comes under attack. Hes dragged to another room and is killed within minutes. Then al-Tubaigy, the autopsy expert, dismembers his body while listening to music. Maher Mutreb makes a phone call to a superior. He says, Tell your boss, and The deed was done. Outside, the van reportedly carrying Khashoggis body pulls out of the side entrance and drives away. At the same time, the Saudis begin trying to cover their tracks. While Khashoggis fiance waits here where she left him, two figures leave from the opposite side. One of them is wearing his clothes. Later, the Saudis would claim that this was Khashoggi. But its al-Madani, the engineer, now a body double pretending that the missing journalist left the consulate alive. Yet theres one glaring flaw: The clothes are the same, but hes wearing his own sneakers, the ones he walked in with. Meanwhile, the van thats allegedly carrying Khashoggis body makes the two-minute drive from the consulate to the Saudi consuls residence. Theres several minutes of deliberations but the van eventually pulls into the buildings driveway. Again, its hidden from public view. Its now three hours since Khashoggi was last seen. The body double hails this taxi and continues weaving a false trail through the city. He heads to a popular tourist area and then changes back into his own clothes. Later, we see him joking around in surveillance footage. Over at the airport, more Saudi officials arrive on another flight from Riyadh. They spend just five hours in Istanbul, but were not sure where they go. Now we pick up Maher Mutreb again, exiting from the consuls house. Its time for them to go. Mutreb and others check out of their hotel and move through airport security. Al-Muzaini, the spy, heads to the airport too. But as theyre leaving Istanbul, Khashoggis fiance is still outside the consulate, pacing in circles. Shell soon raise the alarm that Khashoggi is missing and shell wait for him until midnight. The alarm spreads around the world. Nine days later, the Saudis send another team to Istanbul. They say its to investigate what happened. But among them are a toxicologist and a chemist, who also has ties to the hit team. He and Tubaigy attended a forensics graduation days before Khashoggi was killed. Turkish officials later say that this teams mission was not to investigate, but to cover up the killing. Now the Saudi story has changed, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for several suspects in Khashoggis killing. But that doesnt include Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who many Western government officials are convinced authorized the killing. Khashoggis remains still havent been found.An autopsy expert. A lookalike. A black van. Our video investigation follows the movements of the 15-man Saudi hit team that killed and dismembered the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.We do not believe that story that we are asked to believe, said Mr. Aktay, who is an adviser to Mr. Erdogan. We are asking what were his killers after. We will continue to ask. We ask who are the real killers, the instigators, and we will continue to ask.The Egyptian politician and former presidential candidate Ayman Nour, a longtime friend of Mr. Khashoggis, said the Saudi prosecutors findings did not provide us with the justice we have been waiting for.He added, This is not a legal or a political statement, but an attempt to get away from criminal and political accountability.Under Mr. Erdogan, Turkey has become a home for many Arab dissidents and refugees from the Arab Spring uprisings and counterrevolutions, prominent among them members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, and Syrian and Yemeni politicians and activists.Arab dissidents have led the calls for justice for Mr. Khashoggi, declaring him the latest victim of Arab states intent on suppressing the popular uprisings.Jamal expected and was very hopeful that change would come from all these revolutions, Mr. Nour said last week at an international conference on Yemen in Istanbul. I believe the second wave will come after the death of Jamal Khashoggi. Starting in this room and with the people who are here.Also speaking at the funeral was Turan Kislakci, a friend of Mr. Khashoggis and the director of the Turk Arab Media Association.ImageCredit...Emrah Gurel/Associated PressJamals last words were I am suffocating, he said, referring to audio recordings reported in the Turkish media of the moment of Mr. Khashoggis death.It is not only Jamal who was suffocated, all of humanity is, he continued. All the Islamic world is suffocating. They are being suffocated in Palestine, in Syria, in Libya, Yemen. Let this be the last suffocation. Let the world not suffocate again, let it breathe.In Istanbul, among those detained in early-morning raids were Turgut Tarhanli, the dean of the law faculty at Bilgi University, and Betul Tanbay, a well-known mathematician at Istanbuls foremost institution, Bogazici University.Also detained were the producer and author Cigdem Mater, the academic Hakan Altinay and other staff members of the Anadolu Kultur Association, a cultural foundation set up by the philanthropist Osman Kavala, who has been imprisoned without trial for over a year.A police report said the detained were accused of organizing protests, bringing in trainers and professional activists, and forming new media outlets to spread protests around Turkey.The arrests drew sharp criticism from the European Court of Human Rights and business and human rights groups.It is sad to start the day with reports of detention of many academics, Erol Bilecik, the head of a Turkish business association, posted on his Twitter page.Turkeys Human Rights Association said Mr. Tarhanli, the law dean, was a prominent human rights defender who has long been engaged in the struggle for rule of law and educated many a legal expert, and other individuals. | World |
Credit...Silvia Izquierdo/Associated PressNov. 1, 2018RIO DE JANEIRO The federal judge who doomed former President Luiz Incio Lula da Silvas bid to return to power by convicting him on corruption charges last year, agreed on Thursday to take a cabinet post in the government of the countrys new president, Jair Bolsonaro.The decision by the judge, Srgio Moro, to take the helm of the Justice Ministry was met with both outrage and jubilation, a reflection of how polarizing he has become.The position is newly reconfigured to oversee efforts to fight organized crime and corruption. Mr. Moro, the most visible law enforcement figure in a sweeping corruption inquiry that began in 2014, has been hailed at home and abroad as a crusading disrupter of a political class many saw as descending into kleptocracy.Yet some Brazilians also came to regard him as a political operator doing the bidding of conservative politicians, particularly as he oversaw the swift prosecution of Mr. da Silva on corruption and money laundering charges.The conviction, upheld by an appeals court early this year, rendered Mr. da Silva ineligible to run for office. Mr. da Silva, who served two terms as president and left office in 2010 with a record approval rating, was at one point the front-runner in this years presidential contest. Now, he is serving a 12-year sentence and considers himself a political prisoner.Fraud of the century! Senator Gleisi Hoffmann, the head of Mr. da Silvas Workers Party wrote on Twitter in response to Mr. Moros appointment. She charged that Mr. Bolsonaro, a far-right politician, only got elected because Lula was unfairly convicted and prevented from participating in the elections.Mr. Bolsonaro on Sunday handily defeated Fernando Haddad, the candidate the Workers Party put forward in the final weeks of the campaign after it became clear Mr. da Silva could not run.Mr. Moro and Mr. Bolsonaro discussed the terms of the job during a meeting at Mr. Bolsonaros home in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday morning.Mr. Moro said the job presented him with a unique opportunity to consolidate and broaden Brazils movement to stamp out corruption. He said his decision should not call into question the impartiality of the judiciary.As a judge, my rulings speak for themselves, and they are substantiated, he wrote in a text message. Almost all of them have been upheld on appeal. So its not just the work of one person. I think people will understand that.Joining Mr. Bolsonaros administration may enable Mr. Moro, 46, to sell reluctant lawmakers on a series of anti-corruption measures that members of the judiciary have sought over several years.ImageCredit...Leo Correa/Associated PressBut tying his lot to Mr. Bolsonaro, a deeply polarizing figure, could hurt Mr. Moros reputation and weaken confidence in the judiciary, analysts said.Mr. Bolsonaro has exalted the countrys military dictatorship and has endorsed a draconian approach to restoring security, which critics say amounts to an endorsement of extrajudicial killings.Mr. Moro took several actions during the final months of the campaign that stood to help Mr. Bolsonaro. They included making public last month the testimony of a former minister who had implicated Mr. da Silva in corruption.In the short term, the optics are not very positive, said Matthew Taylor, a professor at American University who has interviewed Mr. Moro as part of his research into corruption in Brazil. Referring to the Workers Party by its Portuguese initials, he added: It plays into the P.T.s narrative of a rigged playing field and a judiciary that is partisan.Still, Mr. Taylor and other analysts said the strategic smarts that made Mr. Moro a successful judge may bring about positive changes.Moro is more than qualified to be the minister of justice, said Roberta Braga, a Brazil expert at the Atlantic Council. It bodes well for passing structural anti-corruption reforms.Mr. Moros name had been floated as a presidential contender in recent years, but he said repeatedly and emphatically that he intended to steer clear of politics.Joice Hasselmann, a journalist who wrote a biography of Mr. Moro and was elected to Congress last month, said Mr. Moro overcame his reservations about entering politics because he felt the responsibility when he was called upon.Ms. Hasselmann, a staunch ally of Mr. Bolsonaro, said Mr. Moro was assured that he will have the freedom to pursue corruption without political interference. His arrival in the capital, Brasila, will be greeted with fear by much of the old guard, she predicted.Im sure several of the political chieftains are despairing, Ms. Hasselmann said in an interview. They will have someone very close who can cross the street and haul them to jail.Mr. Moro has written extensively about anti-corruption campaigns in other countries, including in Italy. In the text message, he drew a parallel between his career and that of the Italian judge Giovanni Falcone, who took on the Sicilian Mafia during the 1980s. Mr. Falcone was assassinated by mob leaders in 1992.The celebrated Italian jurist, who was far better than I, also left the bench and went to work at the justice ministry, having grasped the need for broader measures against the Mafia, Mr. Moro wrote. | World |
AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySports Briefing | Pro FootballBy ReutersFeb. 15, 2014The former Dolphins lineman Andrew McDonald is the unidentified player named in an N.F.L.-commissioned report as being a victim of bullying in the Miami locker room, his agent said. But the players agent, Brett Tessler, said that McDonald, who now plays for the Carolina Panthers, had no problems with the Dolphins. AdvertisementContinue reading the main story | Sports |
Olympics|Polls Find Security Is Americans Top Olympic Concernhttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/05/sports/olympics/polls-find-security-is-americans-top-olympic-concern.htmlFeb. 4, 2014Just ahead of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics on Friday, a plurality of Americans say it was a bad decision to hold the Games in Russia, with security concerns the top reason, a new Pew Research Center poll found.Forty-four percent of respondents called the decision to conduct the Games in Sochi a bad one, compared with 32 percent who said it was a good decision. Twenty-four percent said they did not know.Among those who said holding the Olympics in Russia was a bad decision, 62 percent cited concerns about safety or terrorism as a reason. Only 5 percent mentioned President Vladimir V. Putin, while 4 percent cited Russias treatment of gays and lesbians.Moreover, in a Quinnipiac University poll conducted in mid-January, half of registered voters said they thought it was at least somewhat likely that a terrorist attack would occur at the Sochi Olympics.The Pew poll found that negative views of the decision to have the Winter Olympics in Russia increased with age. Only 25 percent of adults under age 30 called it a bad decision, while 55 percent of adults 50 and older said so.Nevertheless, a majority of Americans said they planned to watch the Winter Games, including 37 percent who said they would watch some of the Olympics and 18 percent who said they would watch a lot of them.In 2008, when the Summer Olympics were in Beijing, Pew found Americans more positive about the decision to hold the Games in China once the competition began. In April 2008, four months before the start of the Games, Americans were closely divided over the decision to hold them in China. But in a Pew poll conducted during the opening weekend of those Olympics, more called the decision a good one.The Pew Research Center poll was conducted Jan. 30 to Feb. 2 among 1,003 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points. The Quinnipiac University poll was conducted Jan. 15 to 19 among 1,933 registered voters and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus two percentage points. | Sports |
Health|Multiple myeloma is a rare cancer that seems to strike at random.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/18/health/multiple-myeloma-cancer-colin-powell.htmlMultiple myeloma is a rare cancer that seems to strike at random.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesOct. 18, 2021Colin L. Powell, the first Black secretary of state, had multiple myeloma: a form of blood cancer that hobbles the immune system and makes vaccines, including those for Covid-19, less effective.The cancer attacks plasma cells, which build the antibodies essential to the bodys immune defenses. It also lives in the bone marrow, crowding out the spongy material in the middle of bones and preventing healthy plasma cells from being made. In addition to weakening the immune system, it can also lead to kidney damage.Multiple myeloma seems to be random bad luck for those who develop the disease, and scientists cannot yet predict it based on genetic or environmental factors. But there are risk factors, and Mr. Powell had them. Being Black doubles the risk, as does being male. Nearly all multiple myeloma patients are over age 45. Mr. Powell was 84.But it is rare, accounting for just 1.8 percent of cancers in the United States with 34,920 new cases a year, according to the National Cancer Institute, a rate that has remained stable for the past decade.The cancers five-year survival rate is 55.6 percent, which has barely changed over the past decade despite the introduction of more sophisticated drugs. About 12,410 deaths per year, or 2 percent of national cancer deaths, are a result of multiple myeloma.There is no known way to prevent the disease.Patients in the early stages of multiple myeloma may not notice any symptoms; their disease might be detected in a routine blood or urine test. Later, when the disease is more advanced, patients may experience bone pain, fevers or frequent infections, exhaustion, trouble breathing and weakness in their arms or legs. Their skin might easily bruise, and their bones might easily break.Treatments include chemotherapy, radiation and stem cell transplants, in which the cells in a persons bone marrow are deliberately destroyed and new cells are infused to repopulate the marrow. Those replacement cells could be the patients own blood-forming marrow cells, removed and stored before the marrow is destroyed, or they could be cells from a closely related donor. Stem cell transplants with the patients own cells can put the disease into remission, but it eventually returns.The Food and Drug Administration recently approved a treatment designed to directly attack the cancer by harnessing the T cells of the patients own immune system, or by using drugs designed to block particular molecules on the surface of cancer cells. | Health |
Credit...Giannis Androutsopoulos/Associated PressNov. 22, 2018ATHENS, Greece Nine men arrested in the beating death of an American student outside a bar in Greece in 2017 were cleared of murder but convicted of assault charges on Thursday.A court in Patra, in western Greece, reduced the charges to grievous assault, handing six men sentences ranging from five to 15 years in prison and freeing three others after convicting them of simple assault for the brutal attack on the student, Bakari Henderson, 22, in the summer of 2017 on the holiday island of Zakynthos.The verdict disappointed the parents of Mr. Henderson, who have said that they were hoping all the men would be sentenced to life in prison. The prosecution attorney, Andreas Patsis, said that the outcome had shattered the relatives and that they did not think justice had been done.The decision spurred Mr. Hendersons parents to warn other Americans against allowing their children to visit Greece.If someone can be murdered and there is no justice, what makes you think that you can send your child to another country and be safe? Mr. Hendersons mother, Jill Henderson, told reporters outside the courtroom after the verdict.The attack on Mr. Henderson in July 2017 at the resort of Laganas was apparently prompted by an argument over a female bartender. Security footage captured a swarm of men kicking and punching Mr. Henderson, who was chased down the street.ImageCredit...Giannis Androutsopoulos/Associated PressHe died within 30 seconds, police officials said.At the time, a female bartender told investigators that when she had posed for a selfie with Mr. Henderson, who was African-American, a man standing nearby commented: There are a lot of Serbs in the bar. Why are you talking to a black guy?She said the man then punched Mr. Henderson, who responded by hitting him over the head with a beer bottle.The nine men charged with the beating were a British citizen of Serbian origin who worked as a bouncer at the bar where the brawl broke out, a Greek bartender, and seven Serbian men. Their names were not immediately available.The Briton received the heaviest penalty from the Greek court: 15 years in prison for intentional bodily harm resulting in death. Five of the Serbian suspects received terms of five to 10 years for causing grievous bodily harm. The court refused a request by their lawyers for the terms to be suspended.The Greek bartender and two other men were released after receiving convictions for simple assault.Mr. Henderson, a college graduate from Austin, Tex., had been traveling in Greece and was working on a photography shoot for the opening of a clothing line when the attack occurred, his family said last year.Bakari loved spending time with family and friends, traveling and meeting new people, according to a family statement released after his death. Bakari was an inspiration to all he met. He loved life and lived it to the fullest.Renowned as a party town, Laganas traditionally attracts young tourists, chiefly Britons, and serves cheap alcohol in bars that tolerate, and often organize, raucous gatherings. Violent fights are not unusual. A British man was stabbed to death in Laganas in 2011.Over the past few years, the authorities have sought to curb alcohol-fueled offenses while sustaining tourism, a source of revenue on which the island depends. | World |
Credit...Cheriss May/Sipa, via Associated PressJune 21, 2018The Democratic National Committee is undertaking an expansive, multimillion dollar strategic plan to motivate voters who typically sit out midterm elections, with a particular focus on engaging nonwhite communities through new investments in local organizing and a six-figure advertising campaign.The plan, which is set to be announced on Thursday, is likely the largest and most comprehensive effort ever by the Democratic Party to motivate minority voters in a midterm election year, according to aides and party insiders briefed on the new efforts. It includes $1.2 million split across 16 state parties to hire community organizers targeting groups who have been historically unlikely to vote including black, Latino, Asian, millennial and rural voters. The plan also introduces a new database that seeks to identify 25 million likely Democratic voters who are currently unregistered and seemingly removed from the political process.The nearly $2.5 million total investment telegraphs the Democratic Partys strategy in Novembers midterm elections. Party leaders say they believe that President Trumps history of igniting racial divisions has motivated Americas minorities to engage in the political sphere, so the Democrats are expanding their target demographic to include voters who have traditionally not been cultivated.We are investing in our base communities, which are the heart of the Democratic Party, and putting organizers on the ground across the country because we know thats the only way well win, said Tom Perez, the D.N.C. chairman.The greatest impact of the announcement, however, may be a symbolic one. More than just dollars, the new initiative comes with a tacit concession by party leaders who, after years of criticism from activists, are beginning to acknowledge that previous efforts to engage minority voters during nonpresidential election years may have been inadequate.In certain times, the party has retreated from communities of color, but I think that page is now turned, said Cristbal Alex, the president of the Latino Victory Fund, a Democrat-aligned firm that trains and supports Latino political candidates nationwide.The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the partys elections arm focused on House races in 2018, is planning a summit of more than 25 grass-roots groups to be held this summer, party officials confirmed. The summits explicit focus will be on outlining strategies to increase black voter participation in upcoming congressional races and smoothing the sometimes tense relationship between activist groups and party officials.The D.N.C.s move to hire dedicated organizers in states such as Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin will give Democrats a steady presence in places where liberal turnout was significantly depressed during the 2016 election and a ready-made response to the longstanding criticism that Democrats only engage minority communities when an election is upcoming.The party has struggled in recent years to motivate minority voters during elections when former President Obama was not on the ballot. During the 2016 presidential election, black voter turnout fell a sharp 7.1 percent compared to 2012, and the Hispanic vote percentage also showed modest decline, according to Census Bureau data. Midterm elections have proven even harder times in which to motivate these voters, as off-year elections have historically attracted a voter base that trends older and more white than presidential election years.The D.N.Cs new spending, which seek to harness the current anti-Trump political energy among progressives, will focus on mobilizing minority communities in Midwestern urban centers such as Milwaukee, Detroit and St. Louis, which have sizable black populations. Latino and Asian minority communities will be the primary targets of organizing in the West and Southwest, and in the New England states of Maine and New Hampshire, Democrats will prioritize millennial voters.ImageCredit...Kevin D. Liles for The New York TimesThe organizers, who will report to the local state party they are assigned to, will be tasked with developing strategies to increase turnout and voter engagement. This could happen through traditional get-out-the-vote methods or social media, but party leaders said they want each organizer to be responsive to the needs of the local community so strategies may vary across states.The party is also planning a nationwide advertising buy aimed at raising awareness of the midterm elections among sporadic voters nationwide, party aides said. The campaign is set to run over the summer.This is what a lot of folks have been looking for from the party for a long time, said Quentin T. James, a founder of a political committee called the Collective PAC which supports African-American candidates.A lot of lip service has been paid to communities of color over the years, but I come from the school of thought that says your budget is your priorities, Mr. James said.Still, some remained skeptical. Alan Jenkins, president of a social justice advocacy firm called The Opportunity Agenda, chuckled when asked if the new investment meant Democrats had sufficiently responded to their critics.Investments connote money and time, and while thats needed, it has to be brought simultaneously with a mind-set change about who the party is and where its future lies, Mr. Jenkins said.His statement was echoed by Charlene Carruthers, the national director of the Black Youth Project 100, the national organization which has been at the forefront of progressive activism in recent years. Ms. Carruthers said her organization was particularly interested in who the Democratic Party chooses for any community organizing position.They need to follow the leadership and experience of people who have already been working on the ground, Ms. Carruthers said. Ill be on standby to see what they do and who they hire.Republicans have also recently announced new efforts to engage minority voters ahead of Novembers elections, said Cassie Smedile, a press secretary for the Republican National Committee. The party, which has often lagged behind the Democrats in securing votes from nonwhite Americans, hosted hundreds of events nationwide in an effort to pitch conservative policies such as the tax cut legislation and school choice to minority audiences.The R.N.C. is not leaving a single vote unturned, Ms. Smedile said.But Democrats believe their initiatives data set will make their targeting efforts more effective. Beyond the tool that attempts to zero in on disaffected liberals, Democrats have built several data projects they will soon share with state party leaders across the country, including one that tracks some state voter rolls in an attempt to monitor voter suppression efforts. Another arms state parties with every available cellphone number for every registered voter.The thought, party aides say, is that sporadic voters are more likely to receive information from cellphones, so state parties now have a direct line to the most marginalized. The cellphone strategy was first used by the party in last years Alabama special election, in which Democrats effectively mobilized black voters on the way to electing the first Democratic senator from Alabama since 1992.This chapter of the Democratic Party, that will culminate in elections in November, will show the country that Democrats are not taking communities of color or minority communities for granted, said Mr. Alex of Latino Victory Fund. These investments will pay off. | Politics |
Politics|The violent end of the Trump era: a mob and the breach of democracy.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/us/politics/the-violent-end-of-the-trump-era-a-mob-and-the-breach-of-democracy.htmlCredit...Erin Schaff/The New York TimesJan. 7, 2021Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent for The New York Times, has covered four administrations. This is his analysis of the historic moment in Washington.So this is how it ends. The presidency of Donald John Trump, rooted from the beginning in anger, division and conspiracy-mongering, comes to a close with a violent mob storming the Capitol at the instigation of a defeated leader trying to hang onto power as if America were just another authoritarian nation.The scenes in Washington would have once been unimaginable: A rampage through the citadel of American democracy. Police officers brandishing guns in an armed standoff to defend the House chamber. Tear gas deployed in the Rotunda. Lawmakers in hiding. Extremists standing in the vice presidents spot on the Senate dais and sitting at the desk of the speaker of the House.The words used to describe it were equally alarming: Coup. Insurrection. Sedition. Suddenly the United States was being compared to a banana republic and receiving messages of concern from other capitals. American carnage, it turned out, was not what President Trump would stop, as he promised upon taking office, but what he wound up delivering four years later to the very building where he took the oath.The convulsion in Washington capped 1,448 days of Twitter storms, provocations, race-baiting, busted norms, shock-jock governance and truth-bending prevarication from the Oval Office that have left the country more polarized than in generations. Those who warned of worst-case scenarios only to be dismissed as alarmists found some of their darkest fears realized. By days end, some Republicans discussed removing Mr. Trump under the 25th Amendment rather than wait two weeks for the inauguration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.The extraordinary invasion of the Capitol was a last-ditch act of desperation from a camp facing political eviction. Even before the mob set foot in the building on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Trumps presidency was slipping away. Democrats were taking control of the Senate with a pair of Georgia runoff election victories that Republicans angrily blamed on the presidents erratic behavior.Two of his most loyal allies, Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, broke with Mr. Trump as never before, refusing to go along with his bid to overturn a democratic election after standing behind him or remaining quiet through four years of toxic conflict, scandal and capriciousness.And following the attack on the Capitol, even more Republicans abandoned him. While most Republicans in the House stuck with him, he lost more than half of the Republican senators who started the day on his side of the battle, leaving him just six on the first Senate vote when deliberations resumed after the rioters were removed. | Politics |
Credit...Saul Martinez for The New York TimesStarting in the 1960s, three physicians in Rochester, N.Y., began secretly using their own sperm to help women become pregnant.Interested in his ancestry, David Berry was shocked to learn that he had at least 10 half brothers and sisters through the same donor, who turned out to be his mothers fertility doctor.Credit...Saul Martinez for The New York TimesFeb. 28, 2022Like millions of Americans, David Berry was curious about his genealogy. He wanted to learn more about his paternal grandfather, whose ancestry was British. But as he explored his fathers side of the family, he discovered something wholly unexpected: The man he thought was his father was not related to him at all.His DNA test results from Ancestry.com offered two additional surprises: Mr. Berry, 37, was more than 50 percent Jewish, and he had a cousin or a half-sibling who was unknown to him.So Mr. Berry, who grew up in Rochester, N.Y., and now lives in Miami, began searching for his biological father. His parents revealed that their doctor had found them an anonymous sperm donor. Could he find him?Over the next three years, Mr. Berry learned that he had at least 10 half brothers and sisters through the same donor. He reached out and met some of them, including Morgan Hellquist, 36, who lives in the Rochester area.Last May, he finally discovered his biological fathers identity. The man was not an anonymous sperm donor after all, but was Dr. Morris Wortman, the fertility doctor in Rochester that his mother had seen. Dr. Wortman, who still practices there, had impregnated her with his own sperm without telling her.(Dr. Wortman declined numerous requests for comment. Mr. Berrys mother also declined to comment.)Mr. Berry shared the news with Ms. Hellquist. It came as a particular shock to her: For the preceding decade, Dr. Wortman had been her gynecologist. In September, she filed a lawsuit against him for battery and emotional distress for having knowingly treated her as his patient.Everything I thought I knew about myself has been ripped apart and smashed to the ground, she said. To know that you come from someone that would do this. She added: The idea that that mans DNA is in my children made me want to die.The news of Dr. Wortmans alleged actions as a fertility doctor also came as a shock to his immediate family. Arielle Wortman, 37, a daughter from a first marriage, said she was shaken by the revelation. Im heartbroken that my father betrayed the trust of the patients and families under his care, she said.Revelations after DNA testsOver the past several years, more than 50 fertility doctors in the United States have been accused of fraud in connection with donating sperm, according to legal experts and observers.Traci Portugal, who is in her 40s, lives in Washington State and runs the website DonorDeceived.org, which catalogs and tracks the legal cases dealing with fraud and donor conception. She has documented more than two dozen American doctors, and at least a half-dozen internationally, who have been sued by their former patients for fertility fraud. Ms. Portugal founded the organization in 2019 after learning that her mothers physician was also her biological father.In Canada, a notorious case involving Norman Barwin, a fertility doctor, led to a class-action lawsuit involving 226 former patients and their children. In July, in what is believed to be the first legal settlement of its kind, the families accepted the Canadian equivalent of about $10 million in compensation.Nearly all of the physicians who have been accused were discovered as a result of DNA tests taken by their offspring.Ms. Hellquists mother, like Mr. Berrys, had seen Dr. Wortman for help becoming pregnant. He told Ms. Hellquists parents that he had used a medical student as a sperm donor.Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at New York Universitys Langone Medical Center, said that this sort of deception by a physician can lead to traumatic distress for the women involved.It soon emerged that Dr. Wortman was one of three physicians in Rochester all friends and colleagues who, starting in the 1960s, had secretly used their own sperm to impregnate women.ImageCredit...David Ryder for The New York TimesDr. Frederick Dischinger, who died last year, and Dr. Robert Tichell, who is retired, were found in June to have secretly used their own sperm with patients, according to genetic evidence gathered by DNAngels.org, an organization whose volunteers assist people seeking knowledge of their biological roots. The evidence came from two people whose mothers had sought help with pregnancy and who suspected they were biological offspring of the doctors.Dr. Tichell lost his license in 1997 for unrelated reasons.Reached by phone at his home in Buffalo, Dr. Tichell, 89, said it was possible that he was the biological father of at least one of his patients children.I was a donor at one time, he said. Sometimes back in those days, before the days of fertility clinics, if you couldnt get hold of a donor and you were working with a patient who was looking to get pregnant it wasnt exactly ethical, but it wasnt unknown to happen. He added: I assume other doctors did it, but no one ever talked about it.He elaborated in a subsequent text message: I admit I did it when a donor did not respond. Women were anxious to be inseminated, and the timing was crucial. It may have been less than perfect, but with luck, the women were able to conceive.Advancing legislationWhen children were conceived via artificial insemination in the 1970s and 1980s, sperm banks were not prevalent and the practice of freezing sperm was not widespread, so many physicians used so-called fresh sperm from donors. The first large-scale sperm bank in the country, California Cryobank, was created in 1977.After the AIDS epidemic, physicians started using frozen sperm because it allowed donors to be retested for AIDS after six months. By 1988, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control recommended that only frozen sperm be used for donor insemination, and the sperm-banking industry was subsequently born.Many physicians donated sperm as medical students in the 1960s and 1970s, and some observers believe that a number of doctors may have gone on to use their own sperm to treat infertility when they were trying to build a reputation for themselves as successful fertility doctors.These physicians actions may have been unethical, but they were not considered illegal at the time. Recently, there has been a movement to change that.Ms. Portugal and other activists have been pushing for legislation, both statewide and nationally, that would make fertility fraud a crime. So far, there are laws in Indiana, Florida, Texas, Arizona, California, Colorado and Utah. Arkansas enacted legislation in April and bills have been introduced in seven other states, including New York.Assemblyman Jonathan G. Jacobson, a Democrat, has proposed one of seven fertility fraud bills, including companion bills, that are now before the New York State Assembly and Senate. His bill would offer victims the ability to pursue cases in criminal and civil court, by making fertility fraud a felony offense (aggravated sexual assault). It would also give the patient, spouse and child born of fertility fraud the right to sue the donor, doctor, clinic or health practitioner in civil court.The proposed legislation would also allow physicians to be prosecuted for these offenses within three years of a patient or offsprings discovery.The face in the mirrorWhen Mr. Berry learned that he had half-siblings with whom he had little in common except that their mothers had used the same fertility doctor he began to suspect that Dr. Wortman might be his biological father. After years of searching, he decided to contact Arielle Wortman, one of the doctors daughters by his wife, and asked if she would take a genetic test to help him find the truth. To his surprise, she agreed.The tests were analyzed by Laura Olmsted, executive director of DNAngels.org. About a week later, she had the results: It was true they were half-siblings after all.Mr. Berry was both stunned and relieved. The discovery did clear up one mystery, Mr. Berry said: Although his mother had asked for a donor who looked like the actor Tom Selleck, she had always thought her son looked more like Mr. Wortman.Now I understand this other side of myself, and when I look at the mirror, for better or worse, I see the doctors face, he said. Thats liberating on one hand. On the other hand, its a tough pill to swallow, because look at what he did.The doctors ex-wife, Laura Wortman, who lives in the Pacific Northwest, said she was stunned when she learned what her former husband had done. She previously worked as a registered nurse and was acquainted with the other Rochester physicians, Dr. Tichell and Dr. Dischinger, whom she described as friends with Dr. Wortman.I didnt know it was going on at the time, she said. I feel that it was ethically wrong and that, if its true, it needs to be brought to light. These physicians need to be held accountable for their actions.Sandra Doorley, the district attorney for Monroe County, which includes Rochester, said her office was interested in looking into these disturbing allegations against the doctors. I urge any victim of this deception to reach out to my office so we can investigate the matter, she said.Adam Wolf, a lawyer, said his firm had so far represented about two dozen women who found out through DNA testing that their childs biological father was, in fact, their fertility doctor. In every case, the doctor said that he would find sperm from an anonymous donor but then used his own, Mr. Wolf said.Dr. Dischinger, who died recently at 91, was a longtime OB-GYN in Rochester.When reached by phone, his son, Todd Dischinger, said the family had no comment on the allegations that his father had secretly used his own sperm on patients.Ms. Portugal believes that the number of doctors found to have committed this type of fertility fraud will continue to grow.For some doctors, I think there was a disconnect between this being a medical procedure and the fact that they were creating and giving away their own children, she said. For others, they knew what they were doing was wrong, and they were able to hide their predatory sexual actions behind the use of anonymity. | Health |
41 Cities, Many Sources: How False Antifa Rumors Spread LocallyClaims about the involvement of anti-fascist activists in protests of racism show the many ways false information spreads inside communities online.Credit...Erin Bormett/The Argus Leader, via Associated PressPublished June 22, 2020Updated March 1, 2021In recent weeks, as demonstrations against racism spread across the country, residents in at least 41 U.S. cities and towns became alarmed by rumors that the loose collective of anti-fascist activists known as antifa was headed to their area, according to an analysis by The New York Times. In many cases, they contacted their local law enforcement for help.In each case, it was for a threat that never appeared.President Trump has spread some unfounded rumors about antifa to a national audience including his accusation, without evidence, that a 75-year-old Buffalo protester who was hospitalized after being knocked down by a police officer could be an antifa provocateur.But on the local level, the source of the false information has usually been more subtle, and shows the complexity of stunting misinformation online. The bad information often first appears in a Twitter or Facebook post, or a YouTube video there. It is then shared on online spaces like local Facebook groups, the neighborhood social networking app Nextdoor and community texting networks. These posts can fall under the radar of the tech companies and online fact checkers.The dynamic is tricky because many times these local groups dont have much prior awareness of the body of conspiratorial content surrounding some of these topics, said Rene DiResta, a disinformation researcher at the Stanford Internet Observatory. The first thing they see is a trusted fellow community member giving them a warning.Here are four ways that antifa falsehoods spread in local communities.After One Tweet, Dozens of Calls to the PoliceOn the last weekend in May, the police in Sioux Falls, S.D., decided to investigate whether busloads of antifa protesters were headed to town. It shows what can happen from a single tweet.They were responding to a rumor spreading quickly among residents online, and first posted to Twitter by the local Chamber of Commerce.Were being told that buses are en route from Fargo for todays march downtown, the group posted on Twitter. Please bring in any furniture, signs, etc. that could be possibly thrown through windows.The tweet was later deleted, but not before the rumor spread verbatim on Facebook, where it was even translated into Spanish. On Facebook, screenshots of the tweet and other posts about the groups message collected more than 4,600 likes and shares according to CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned tool that analyzes interactions across social media.These included shares by the Facebook pages of three local news outlets with a combined reach of 36,238 followers, and two posts in Spanish-speaking local Facebook groups, which reached 2,611 followers.Twitter said it had taken down hundreds of groups under its violent extremist group policy and continues to enforce our policies against hateful conduct every day across the world. Facebook said its fact-checking partners rate many false claims about the protests, including about antifa.The rumor led dozens of people to reach out to the local police that Sunday, according to Sam Clemens, the public information officer at the Sioux Falls Police Department.But on the day of the protests, we didnt have any evidence of any buses coming from out of town carrying people, Mr. Clemens said. The vast majority of protesters were local residents, he said.The Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce said it had gotten the information from sources it knew and believed to be credible.We received information that led us to believe there was a cause for concern. As such, we wanted to encourage local business owners to take responsible, precautionary steps for their businesses, said Jeff Griffin, the groups president. We removed the post when we realized it was contributing to a different message that we did not intend.From YouTube to InfowarsA false rumor about antifa protesters in Yucaipa, Calif., a city about 70 miles from Los Angeles, started with one viral YouTube video about the city. Before long, it had even reached a national audience.A YouTube video posted on June 2, featuring scenes of men in masks and holding guns, purportedly residents of the city preparing for potential antifa looting ahead of a planned BLM protest, has collected 17,200 views in the days since. Facebook posts of photos claiming to show the Yucaipa residents defending their town were posted at least 587 times in Facebook groups, and amassed over 24,000 likes and shares, according to the Times analysis. They were shared in pro-Trump and far-right Facebook groups, as well as other local community groups.Farshad Shadloo, a YouTube spokesman, said that, like Facebook, the video service uses fact-checking panels to flag false information, and that the company aims to promote videos from authoritative sources about the protests.On the same day, the conservative commentator and former Fox News host Todd Starnes published a blog post titled, TOWN FIGHTS antifa: They Just Beat the Ever-Loving Snot Out of Them. It collected over 48,000 likes and shares, and reached three million followers on Facebook.A day later, the conspiracy website Infowars posted an article about the false narrative, which spread it further among followers of conspiracy groups and several Facebook groups dedicated to praising Mr. Trump.A representative for Mr. Starnes said he was unavailable to respond.The Yucaipa Police Department confirmed on Twitter that it had responded to reports of fights in public on June 1, but did not mention the involvement of antifa. A public information officer for the department pointed to a YouTube video posted last week, in which a Yucaipa police lieutenant, Julie Brumm-Landen, said the city had not experienced looting or destruction from protests of racism.The information about antifa or planned criminal activity in Yucaipa is nothing more than internet speculation and false rumors, Lt. Brumm-Landen added. Any peaceful protests that takes place will have the full support and protection of the Yucaipa Police Department. That video was viewed just 100 times.Warnings From a Congressional CandidateA congressional candidate over 2,000 miles away from Yucaipa started to spread a similar message. The episode highlights how even when a tech company removes bad local information, it can happen too late.Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican in northwest Georgia and a professed member of the fringe conspiracy theory group QAnon, tweeted an ad for her House campaign showing her holding an AR-15-style rifle and threatening antifa activists. You wont burn our churches, loot our businesses or destroy our homes, she said in the ad. It was retweeted 20,000 times.That same campaign ad was removed from Facebook two days later but not before it racked up over 1.2 million views. According to the social network, the video violated the companys policies against promoting the use of firearms.We removed it because it advocates the use of deadly weapons against a clearly defined group of people, which violates our policies against inciting violence, said Andrea Vallone, a Facebook spokeswoman.No group of antifa activists arrived in Georgia. But that didnt seem to hurt Ms. Greenes political campaign. One week after her ad posted, she finished first in her primary, winning 41 percent of the vote in the strongly Republican 14th Congressional District, and has a strong chance of winning a runoff vote in August.Ms. Greene, who has a history of making offensive remarks about blacks, Jews and Muslims, appears to have no remorse about spreading unfounded rumors of antifa coming to town.Im sick and tired of watching establishment Republicans play defense while the Fake News Media cheers on antifa terrorists, B.L.M. rioters and the woke cancel culture as they burn our cities, loot our businesses, vandalize our memorials and divide our nation, Ms. Greene said in an emailed statement.Facebook Group Posts, Then Text MessagesIn late May to early June, there was a rumor that two bus loads of antifa were heading to Locust, N.C., about 25 miles east of Charlotte. The rumor was shared in text messages among people in the area far out of sight of any fact-checking organization.On June 1, the rumor surfaced in Facebook groups with names like DeplorablePride.org and Albemarle News and Weather.That same evening, the police in Locust posted a screenshot of a text that had been circulating in the community over the weekend. The text falsely claimed that police officers had been knocking on doors to warn that a black organization is bringing 2 bus loads of people to walmart in locust with intentions on looting and burning down the suburbs. The post, on Facebook, assured residents that the Police Department had not been spreading the rumor.Jeffrey Shew, the assistant chief of police, said all the residents who reached out to the department to report the buses had no direct knowledge of violent protesters coming to town. He said they were only sharing what they had seen on social media. By midnight on June 1, Mr. Shew said, it was clear that the rumors were untrue.No protests, groups looking to protest or groups looking to riot occurred, he said.On June 2, the police posted another message on Facebook emphasizing that the rumors had no substance. It exemplified that often, community members themselves are the ones on the front lines of debunking false rumors.We had absolutely zero confirmed credible information related to these activities however out of an abundance of caution we did arrange or stage extra resources and officers in Locust in the event there was any legitimacy to the posts, the post by the Locust Police Department read. Now in the morning after, we can 100% confirm there was zero truth to any of the posts that we observed.Posts containing the original rumor reached 27,855 followers on Facebook, according to the Times analysis. The polices posts reached 2,966 followers on Facebook. | Tech |
Feb. 5, 2014KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia Shaun White does not finish in second place often. Anything less than victory has little meaning for someone who has dominated snowboarding for so many years.At a December halfpipe competition in Breckenridge, Colo., White was dealt one of the few losses of his career. He dutifully stood on the second-place step of the medals podium, his ankle sore and a mask pulled over his face. When excused, he walked away and handed the trophy to a boy in the crowd. White had no use for it.On Wednesday, White provided little explanation for pulling out of the Olympic slopestyle competition, which is making its debut at the Sochi Games. Slopestyle used to be Whites preferred event, before the Olympics added halfpipe and enticed him to give it his full attention. He used to dominate slopestyle at major events like the Winter X Games the way he now dominates the pipe wherever he goes.White had been training tirelessly for both competitions for a year, all of his work built for the coming days. White said, again and again, that his goal at the Olympics was to win two gold medals.And then, the day before Thursdays qualifying rounds of slopestyle, he abruptly ended that ambition. It was not because of injuries. It was not because of conflicting schedules.Between the carefully chosen words in a statement White released, the message was clear: He did not want less than first place in slopestyle or the halfpipe.After much deliberation with my team, I have made the decision to focus solely on trying to bring home the third straight gold medal in halfpipe for Team USA, White said in the statement, given to NBCs Today. The difficult decision to forgo slopestyle is not one I take lightly as I know how much effort everyone has put into holding the slopestyle event for the first time in Olympic history, a history I had planned on being a part of.White remains the prohibitive favorite in the halfpipe, scheduled for Tuesday. He was considered a strong medal contender in slopestyle, too, but not the favorite. His decision to quit slopestyle came after a few days on the Sochi course, which has been criticized by many top riders for its difficulty and the size of its jumps.White fell in a practice run earlier in the week and injured his wrist, though he played down that injury at a news conference shortly before his statement was released. Another medal contender, Torstein Horgmo of Norway, broke his collarbone on one of the courses rails and is out of the competition.With the practice runs I have taken, even after course modifications and watching fellow athletes get hurt, the potential risk of injury is a bit too much for me to gamble my other Olympics goals on, White said in his statement.For White, it was a sporting version of having a bird nearly in hand versus two in the bush. The possibility of hurting himself in an event he dominated for years, and in which he has regained enough of his form to make himself a gold medal contender, was too great to risk the near certainty of winning a third consecutive gold in the Olympic halfpipe.Certainly, the worst-case scenario for him would have been to be injured in slopestyle and left unable to compete in the halfpipe. But would he have dropped out of slopestyle if he were not worried about injuries? What if he competed in the event and won, say, a bronze medal, or no medal at all? Anything less than winning is failure to White. And it did not take long for his competitors to take aim.ImageCredit...Mike Ehrmann/Getty ImagesMax Parrot of Canada, a gold medal favorite in slopestyle, wrote on Twitter: Shaun knows he wont be able to win the slopes, thats why he pulled out. Hes scared! (The post was later deleted.)Other top athletes echoed Whites concern about the slopestyle course, a series of obstacles and rails followed by three jumps off which athletes fly and spin. The Canadian freeskier Kaya Turski, a four-time X Games gold medalist and the favorite to win the inaugural Olympic womens slopestyle event here, called it unnecessarily risky.She worried that images of injured athletes would overshadow the artistry and athleticism of the competition. It is not the type of first impression, or lasting impression, the sport wants for its Olympic debut.To put on a good show, we dont need a course as risky as this, Turski said. She added, The vibe on the course is definitely more intense, and people are more on edge.The course, Turski said, is similar to the ones built for the annual X Games, previously slopestyles biggest competition. But the X Games feature a small field of the worlds best. The Olympics have larger fields, including athletes who may be the best in their countries but are far from the top in world rankings.I feel for girls from a bunch of countries, Turski said. These girls probably havent seen a course half this size.The jumps each have two ramps one bigger than the other and some competitors have been training solely on the smaller ramps, Turski said.As is typical with slopestyle, organizers built the course with the expectation of making adjustments after snowboarders and skiers had begun training and providing feedback. In this case, the tinkering has largely involved the size of the jumps, which have all been scaled back.You can always make a course smaller, but you cannot make a course bigger, said Mike Jankowski, the United States snowboarding and freeskiing coach.This course was bigger than most athletes had expected, though few knew what to expect from a venue where they had never competed. An event scheduled here last February was canceled because of warm temperatures and a lack of snow.We were actually pleasantly surprised to see that it was big, Jankowski said. It gives everybody enough time in the air to do the tricks they want to do.Turski said the main problem was not the size of jump, but the type of jump: step-down jumps, with the takeoff ramps higher than the landing zone. That means athletes are dropping through the air farther and landing harder than on some other courses.White usually has some of the most daring, innovative tricks at competitions. After a year of practicing to regain his once-dominant slopestyle form, including a difficult winter trying to be the only American athlete to earn a spot on both the halfpipe and slopestyle teams, he suddenly excused himself from the biggest slopestyle competition of all.He has no chance at that alluring double gold. But the way he sees it, the decision reduces the chance that he will lose. | Sports |
More and more White House advisers are jumping off the ship, but Hope Hicks and others remain by President Trumps side.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesJan. 8, 2021WASHINGTON Hope Hicks was so close to President Trump that he heeded her advice last June to defy protesters and march across Lafayette Square for a photo op she staged to project an image of toughness. The plan backfired when the peaceful protesters had to be flushed from the square with flash grenades and chemical spray, but Ms. Hicks remained a valued adviser.Now Ms. Hicks is nowhere to be found. She has been to the White House only sporadically since Mr. Trump lost the election, while continuing to collect her taxpayer-funded salary of $183,000.And yet she does not plan to add her name to the growing list of White House officials and cabinet secretaries submitting their resignations or issuing public statements condemning the Trump-incited mob assault on the Capitol, in which two people were killed and three others died of medical emergencies. Ms. Hicks does not want to create issues for Mr. Trump, a person familiar with her thinking said, so she plans to simply stay quiet. Her planned last day is next week, which she has told people was already set before the storming of the Capitol.Some people in Trumpworld have begun to refer to the group that is loyally sticking with Mr. Trump as the dead enders, those advisers who are so closely associated with him that they have few options available to them other than remaining by his side.Still working in the building, even as the West Wing has been clearing out, are Nick Luna, the presidents body man; Johnny McEntee, the director of the presidential personnel office; and Dan Scavino, the presidents former golf caddy turned deputy chief of staff for communications. Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, is still working in the West Wing and plans to stay until the lights are turned off. But he has been described by colleagues as shellshocked in recent days.Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, is still there, too, but she did not come into the West Wing on Friday, telling her staff she needed to spend the day at home. Judd Deere, a deputy White House press secretary, plans to stay through Jan. 20.Stephen Miller, the presidents top policy adviser who has been at his side since the 2016 campaign, is still working for Mr. Trump. But even Mr. Miller has been around much less frequently because of his newborn, who has been sick in the hospital. His first day back full time at his West Wing office was Jan. 6.His wife, Katie Miller, works as the communications director for Vice President Mike Pence, whose own close relationship with the president has fractured in recent weeks. Ms. Miller has been on maternity leave.A group of more senior officials have struggled with how to deal with their roles: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin; Larry Kudlow, the national economic adviser; Robert C. OBrien, the national security adviser; and Christopher Liddell, the head of the White Houses transition team. But all have decided to remain in their jobs until the inauguration to try to keep Mr. Trump under control and to ensure that unfinished business gets completed, despite their disappointment in Mr. Trumps destructive behavior, a person familiar with their plans said.Im intending to stay and try and do the right thing for the country, Mr. Liddell said in an interview with a New Zealand publication. It is actually critical I keep my job for the next 12 days. This is an unbelievable, volatile situation.Pat A. Cipollone, the White House counsel, has considered resigning, but on Friday evening was still in his job.Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law and senior adviser, was seen in the West Wing on Friday after flying back from the Middle East. His presence was seen as an attempt at damage control. Both he and his wife, Ivanka Trump, had been absent from the White House in recent weeks. A junk-hauling truck was spotted in front of their house in the exclusive Kalorama neighborhood of Washington on Thursday.Those still on the job were angry at many who had left. After Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary, resigned on Wednesday, many Trump advisers said they viewed it as an opportunistic move by someone who had already checked out long ago.Former colleagues on Friday were particularly furious at Alyssa Farah, the former White House communications director, who appeared eager to reinvent her role in the Trump administration by claiming in an interview with Politico that she had resigned in December because I saw where this was heading.Theyre bottom-feeders who are showing their true colors, said Jason Miller, the Trump campaign strategist. The Democrats are still going to hate them, the Trump base is going to hate them for being a rat thats jumping ship.Alan Rappeport contributed reporting. | Politics |
Dec. 4, 2015Canadian Pacific has been rebuffed in an another ambitious attempt to buy a large railroad operator, showing again the regulatory hurdles to rail-carrier consolidation.Norfolk Southern said on Friday that its board had rejected Canadian Pacifics $28 billion offer, which was made last month, saying that it undervalued Norfolk Southern and that the chance for achieving regulatory approval was too low.Rail carriers must demonstrate to the Surface Transportation Board, an agency that is part of the Department of Transportation, that a deal is in the public interest and will not raise antitrust issues.Using advisers who used to work at the agency, Norfolk Southern determined during its review that Canadian Pacifics proposal would not pass muster. The company insinuated that it was not worth even trying, given the two-year process for approval, which would divert managements attention and potentially disrupt service.The company also said that Canadian Pacifics cost-cutting targets would require reducing employee levels and investments, which the Norfolk Southern board said would concern regulators.There is a high probability that after years of disruption and expense, the proposed combination would be rejected by the Surface Transportation Board, James A. Squires, Norfolk Southerns chief executive, said in a statement on Friday. Even if the proposed combination were ultimately to be cleared, it would be subject to a wide range of onerous conditions that would reduce the value of the stock consideration that has been proposed.To dispel Norfolk Southerns concern about the timeline for regulatory approval, Canadian Pacific suggested putting its own shares in a voting trust, led by an independent trustee. This way of achieving an earlier close for deals has not been approved for a rail merger since the modern rules were established in 2001, according to a presentation published on Friday by Norfolk Southern.We are reviewing the response from N.S. and have no further comment at this time, a spokesman from Canadian Pacific wrote in an email, referring to Norfolk Southern.The process started in early November, when Mr. Squires received a call from E. Hunter Harrison, the chief executive of Canadian Pacific, who said his board had authorized a written proposal to combine, Mr. Squires said in a phone interview.The two sides met in person shortly thereafter, and within hours of the meeting ending, The Wall Street Journal reported that Canadian Pacific met with Norfolk Southern about a potential merger, citing an unidentified person with knowledge of the matter.Canadian Pacific then sent its proposal to Norfolk Southern. The bid valued Norfolk Southern at $46.72 in cash and 0.348 of a Canadian Pacific share for each of its own shares. The offer represented a 9 percent premium to the closing prices on Nov. 17, when the offer letter was sent.Norfolk Southern said that Canadian Pacifics bid was timed to capitalize on its depressed stock price, which has suffered under the weight of the commodity price slump.When asked on a Friday conference call about whether Norfolk Southern would be willing to entertain a higher bid, Mr. Squires said at any price, the regulatory risks remain the same.The rejected bid is the latest hurdle for Canadian Pacific, which has argued that the industry needs more consolidation. In October 2014, Canadian Pacific and CSX Corporation called off merger discussions, hinting that the risk of opposition from regulators was too high.Morgan Stanley and Bank of America provided financial advice to Norfolk Southern, while Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Hunton & Williams and Morrison & Forrester provided legal advice. | Business |
Sports|Letters to the Editorhttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/sports/letters-to-the-editor.htmlInboxFeb. 15, 2014To the Sports Editor:Re Yankee Who Lived a Dream Says Its Near End, Feb. 13: My dad had Joe DiMaggio. I had Mickey Mantle. And my sons have Derek Jeter for one more season. Jeter has been a great Yankee and an admirable man. He is worthy of being another link in the Yankees chain that connects the generations.PAUL MENDELOWITZ Park Ridge, N.J.To the Sports Editor:I have been a die-hard Mets fan all my life, but as a baseball fan, I have to admit that Derek Jeter is perhaps the best middle infielder I have ever seen. At the many Yankees games I have attended, Jeters greatness was obvious in terms of baseball instincts, clutch hitting, acrobatic fielding and team leadership. TONY VENEZIAMamaroneck, N.Y.To the Sports Editor:The retirement of Derek Jeter after this 2014 season draws yet again a sharp contrast between him a Yankees superstar respected and admired on and off the field, a likely first-ballot Hall of Fame choice and Alex Rodriguez, once another Yankees superstar, now relegated to a disgraceful exit from the game, perhaps permanently. BARBARA RINGELNew YorkTo the Sports Editor:From a lifelong Bostonian and Red Sox fan: Yankees players come and go, but they are not usually revered here. Derek Jeter is the exception. He is a throwback to the Yankees of old. He will be missed, and I hope the folks at Fenway will pay him special honor.DAVID CURTISBostonTo the Sports Editor:Heres hoping Derek Jeter enjoys a full 162-game final season so the nation can give this living legend a proper farewell. R. P. SMITH Marshfield, Mass.Sams Impactful StepTo the Sports Editor:Re N.F.L. Prospect Proudly Says What Teammates Knew: Hes Gay, Feb. 9: Next year, I will proudly buy a Michael Sam jersey for my son. I am a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, and I am raising my son as a Steelers fan. If we are lucky, Sam will end up with the Steelers.He exudes the kind of courage and self-confidence that I hope my son will aspire to. BEN FUSSINERCulver City, Calif.To the Sports Editor:At the risk of sounding homophobic, I wondered why Missouris Michael Sam or anyone else announces that he or she is gay? Who asked? Who cares? Its nobody elses business. These public proclamations are really getting tiresome.JACK BRAYCullman, Ala.To the Sports Editor:Womens teams acknowledge gay players without creating so such turmoil, but openly gay male professional players are still a rarity. With every person who has the courage to come out, our society is one step closer to embracing them as normal. FELICITAS HEINENFairfield, Conn. | Sports |
Dec. 21, 2015LONDON Small banks and some other financial institutions in Europe should be exempt from some of the limits on bankers bonuses, the European Unions banking regulator said on Monday.The opinion, by the European Banking Authority, would still require a change in European Union law to carry out. But the guidance is meant to clarify disparity in the interpretation and enforcement of the bonus rules.The European Unions executive arm this year determined that the bonus and related compensation rules should apply without exception to all financial firms. But some national regulators including Britains have been exempting smaller banks from the bonus cap, which limits bonuses to an amount equal to one or two times an employees salary and other compensation that is not based on performance.Mondays opinion by the European Banking Authority said that some exemptions should be allowed for smaller financial firms and for staff members at banks who receive only a small amount of their annual compensation as bonuses based on performance.All employees who take risks that could affect the financial institutions overall stability should be subject to the bonus cap, the authority said. But some financial firms should not have to comply with new requirements, set to begin in 2017, that a portion of bonus pay be deferred for several years or paid in shares or other noncash financial instruments.To allow such waivers, European law would have to be changed, which would fall to the blocs executive arm, the European Commission, and the European Parliament.The application of the pay provisions should be harmonized in the European Union to achieve a level playing field and avoid distortion of the competition to attract the best and most talented staff, the banking authority said in its opinion on Monday. At the same time, the administrative burden for, in particular, smaller institutions should be reduced.The European Banking Authority has jurisdiction over banks throughout the 28-nation European Union.As part of formal guidelines issued by the regulator this year, banks and other financial institutions will be required to defer at least 40 percent of annual bonuses for a period of three to five years and to pay half of those bonuses in stock or other noncash financial instruments.The authority said those requirements could be burdensome for smaller institutions and require them to hire additional administrative staff members, which would put those firms at a competitive disadvantage.The opinion was released on Monday alongside the European Banking Authoritys final guidelines on how banks can pay bonuses and which employees are affected by the bonus cap.Those formal guidelines were first issued in March and finished this month after a consultation period. The bonus cap is already in place, but the new guidelines on pay go into effect on Jan. 1, 2017, to give financial institutions time to adjust their pay policies.The bonus cap, which came into effect in 2014, limits annual performance payouts to an amount equal to 100 percent of what an employee receives in so-called fixed remuneration, or salary and other compensation that is not based on performance.The cap was intended to reduce the financial incentive for bankers to make risky bets that authorities say contributed to the financial crisis.Under the cap, annual bonuses can be raised to 200 percent of an employees fixed pay if an institutions shareholders vote to approve the increase.It is up to local regulators to comply with European Union rules and banking authority guidelines or explain why they are not complying. They will have a two-month period after the new guidelines are translated and officially published to do so.As part of the rules, banks must apply the bonus cap to all bank-owned subsidiaries, including asset managers and insurance groups, if their employees take risks that could affect the financial institutions overall stability.The guidelines were intended to quash efforts by banks to get around the bonus limits, including using a new category of compensation, known as role-based allowances.The authority determined in October 2014 that role-based pay was discretionary and should be classified as variable compensation and subject to the bonus cap. Britains banking regulator, the Prudential Regulation Authority, previously criticized the bonus cap.When the European Banking Authority issued its opinion last year, several regulators, including the British authority, had already approved role-based pay for the 2014 year, so it was too late to enforce that for bonuses paid in January 2015 for work in 2014.Andrew Bailey, the chief executive of the Prudential Regulation Authority, said this year that the regulator would comply with the opinion. | Business |
Science|Animals in Extra Largehttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/17/science/prehistoric-megafauna-large-animals.htmlQ&ACredit...Victoria RobertsMarch 17, 2017Q. Why were prehistoric animals so big? Or is the real question why are their descendants so much smaller?A. Many possible explanations have been suggested for different species, from higher oxygen levels in the very ancient atmosphere to more modern human predation, but a general answer lies in the workings of natural selection.Body size is one of the obvious things that natural selection works on, said Ross MacPhee, a curator in the department of mammalogy at the American Museum of Natural History.Depending on the group, he said, large sizes come and go as evolutionary opportunities arise. For example, because of their physiological adaptations, large animals can extract nutrients from foods like grasses that the guts of small animals simply cannot adequately digest, Dr. MacPhee said. Thus, the existence of extensive grasslands would favor some larger species.In mammals, like elephants, large size correlates with certain life-history traits like long life spans, long gestation periods and relatively few offspring per female, Dr. MacPhee said. Small size, as in shrews or mice, correlates with shorter life spans but fast gestation and large numbers of offspring.Each size extreme would thrive better in certain environmental conditions. Because of recent extinctions, there are certainly fewer large, or megafaunal, species alive today, Dr. MacPhee said.In North America, we are down to about a dozen megafaunal mammal species, defined as those having body sizes of 100 pounds or more, he said. Twelve thousand years ago, we had roughly three times as many, including the iconic mammoths, giant sloths, saber-tooth cats, horses, camels, giant rodents, short-faced bears and many others. [email protected] | science |
Dec. 5, 2015Once upon a time in America, souffls fell flat and pasta lacked oomph. Drab kitchens had pots, pans and knives from a department store. Who knew Calphalon from Le Creuset? Or Wsthof from Sabatier? Garlic presses, slicers, timers, thermometers? It was just meat and potatoes, plunked on a table.But in 1956, Chuck Williams, a carpenter-gourmet, opened a French cookware shop in Sonoma, Calif. The timing was fortunate. Americans were beginning to think about food as more than sustenance. With James Beards books for inspiration and Julia Childs pixilated coaching on television, French cuisine was infiltrating the creative kitchen. But high-quality tools, condiments and stylish touches were missing.Eventually, what became Williams-Sonoma a retail home furnishings and mail-order giant, with more than 600 stores under its corporate umbrella and $4.7 billion in net revenue transformed many kitchens into gleaming, efficient refectories hung with copper pots and stashed with pleated souffl molds, garlic presses and carbon steel knives, and made it possible for ordinary cooks to get serious, and serious cooks to put epicurean repasts on the table.Mr. Williams, who sold the company in 1978 but remained its public face, producing cookbooks and catalogs, operating a test kitchen and traveling to promote Williams-Sonoma and select merchandise, died in his sleep on Saturday at his home in San Francisco, the company announced. He was 100. No cause was given.He built a powerful brand that inspired a cultural revolution around food and had immeasurable impact on home and family life around the world, the company said in a statement.A soft-spoken, unassuming and jovial millionaire, Mr. Williams was the author of more than 200 cookbooks, which sold tens of millions of copies, and oversaw catalogs delivered to millions of homes. In recent years he cut back his travels, and he no longer selected the products. But he drove most days from his Russian Hill apartment to the company headquarters near Fishermans Wharf, took tea in the afternoons and loved to reminisce, especially about his discoveries.One day it was about 1984, he thought he was having a whiskey with a friend at the Hotel Hassler in Rome. Water was served in a colorful jug shaped like a chicken, he told The Gourmet Retailer in 2004. He was amused, intrigued, and sought out the maker. Chicken jugs have been sold in America ever since. Ive always been attracted to items that have an interesting story to them, he said.Charles Edward Williams, who always used his nickname, was born on Oct. 2, 1915, in Jacksonville, Fla., one of two children of Charles Williams and the former Marie Shaw. His parents were often absent, and his earliest memories were of his maternal grandmother, Leona Shaw, who had once owned a restaurant in Lima, Ohio. She taught him a lot about cooking working without recipes or measures, making pies and mayonnaise, learning to trust his taste and his judgment which provided a few happy memories from a hard childhood.Chucks fathers auto-repair shop went bankrupt in the Depression. He moved the family to California, then abandoned them. Chucks older sister, Marie, was hit by a baseball and killed at 19. And after his mother returned to Florida, the boy, abruptly on his own, got work on a date ranch in Palm Springs and went to high school. He later became a window dresser at a Los Angeles department store.A thyroid condition kept him out of military service in World War II, but he got a job at Lockheed and worked for four years as an airplane mechanic in East Africa and India. Returning to Los Angeles, he took a golf trip with two friends to the old mission town of Sonoma, 35 miles north of San Francisco, and he fell in love with it. He settled there in 1947, built a home and began renovating houses for other people.In 1953 Mr. Williams went to Europe, spending two weeks in Paris restaurants and kitchen supply shops. He was fascinated by the food and equipment, which was available to any French cook.There were heavy saut pans, huge stockpots, fish poachers, bakeware, bains-marie, superior knives in many sizes and an array of cutting, dicing and grating tools. And there were pantry items: balsamic vinegar, olive oils, sea salt, exotic peppercorns, Madagascar vanilla and Italian pastas, all but unknown in American kitchens.Back in Sonoma, he bought an old hardware store, remodeled it and stocked it with items he had seen in Paris, most of them unavailable outside restaurant supply stores in this country. He paid close attention to displays and effusively answered customers questions. Many San Franciscans had vacation homes in sleepy Sonoma, and business was good. He grossed $35,000 the first year.He moved to San Francisco in 1958 and opened Williams-Sonoma on Sutter Street. The store was a sensation, and he handled it himself: building shelves, doing the books, fixing plumbing, traveling to Europe, ordering merchandise, wrapping packages, even sweeping the sidewalk. What customers found inside were racks of gleaming copperware, crystal stemware, imported pastas, hundreds of items and a proprietor who seemed to know everything about French cooking.He had tremendous style in everything he did, Jeremiah Tower, the chef who owned San Franciscos elegant Stars restaurant, recalled. It was almost like going to shop in some friends kitchen.ImageCredit...Leo Sorel/Associated PressIn the early 1960s, Julia Childs cookbooks and television shows helped business; she became a friend. So did James Beard, the dean of cooking in America, who helped spread the word. A regular customer who wrote copy for an advertising agency suggested a mail-order catalog, and in 1971 the first went out to a mailing list of 5,000.Anyone could open a charge account. The salespeople were patient, attentive and knowledgeable about the merchandise. Mr. Williams began annual trips to Europe to buy items many Americans now take for granted choppers and mixers, lemon zesters, stainless steel whisks, silicone spatulas, saut pans, bakeware, olive oil spritzers, pepper mills with steel grinders.In 1972, after 16 years in business, Mr. Williams realized that one store was not enough. He took on a group of partners. It was a mistake.By 1977, the company had five stores in affluent communities and a mail-order distribution center, but was losing money. To grow further, Mr. Williams realized, would require real business expertise, not the good taste and techniques he relied upon. He decided to sell out.W. Howard Lester, who had made a fortune in computers, bought Williams-Sonoma in 1978 for a reported $250,000. Mr. Williams was retained to buy merchandise and oversee catalogs, and served as chairman until 1986, then as vice chairman and finally as director emeritus.The company went public in 1983 and evolved into a home furnishings business that includes Pottery Barn, PBteen, Pottery Barn Kids, West Elm and Williams-Sonoma Home, in addition to seven direct-mail catalogs and six websites.Mr. Williams, who had no immediate survivors, served on the boards of the Culinary Institute of America and the American Institute of Wine and Food. He won many honors, including the James Beard Foundations lifetime achievement award, and created many scholarships through the culinary institute and other organizations.He also found time to scout out Valrhona chocolate from France, glazed apricots from Australia, paella pans from Spain and those chicken water jugs from Italy.Right from the beginning, I always bought what I liked, he told The New York Times in 2004. I looked for quality and design, and I had reasonably good taste. Basically, I think I was right. | Business |
Another ViewRobert P. Barlett III and Justin MccraryDec. 18, 2015Robert P. Bartlett III is a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law and faculty co-director of the Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the Economy. Justin McCrary is a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law and the director of the Berkeley Social Science Data Laboratory.Brad Katsuyama, the hero of Flash Boys, has thrown down the gauntlet.Flash Boys, of course, is Michael Lewiss best-selling book that documents how todays capital markets are rigged in favor of high-frequency trading firms. In the book, Mr. Katsuyama fights back by forming the Investors Exchange, or IEX a were not gonna take it anymore dark pool where investors can trade without high-frequency trading firms preying on their orders.Like all dark pools, IEX operates as an alternative trading system. In September, Mr. Katsuyama filed an application with the Securities and Exchange Commission to make IEX an official stock exchange. The comment period recently closed, so an action by the agency is expected soon. Although the S.E.C. originally set a deadline of Dec. 21 to act on the application, it recently asked for another 90 days to make a decision.Why the delay? One reason may be that for the S.E.C. to make a determination, it may first have to take a stand on a form of high-frequency trading known as latency arbitrage, which is a strategy whereby traders use high-speed data feeds from exchanges to profit off investors who use slower feeds. To date, the agency has avoided taking a position on this form of trading, but IEXs application may finally force it to do so. To understand why, lets review how IEX allows investors to shield themselves from it.Imagine youre a trader looking to sell 100,000 shares of XYZ, and the national best bid and offer across all exchanges stands at $10.00 and $10.01. To get the best price, you might try posting a limit order on an exchange at the national best offer of $10.01 and wait for a market buy order to fill it. But success is uncertain: A market order may never arrive, and even if one does, exchanges observe price-time priority. So you may be so far back in line that your order sits unfilled.As a second-best option, you may consider using a dark pool. These non-exchange platforms allow traders to submit orders that are pegged to the midpoint of the national best bid and offer, or here $10.005. So rather than wait in line to sell at $10.01, you can submit a midpoint sell order to a dark pool hoping to find a buy order. This, too, is uncertain, but the fact that youre selling at $10.005 (rather than $10.01 offered on exchanges) should entice buyers to check dark pools for midpoint liquidity.And in fact, we find that investors using dark midpoint orders are a major reason that non-exchange trading constitutes one-third of all trading volume.The problem, however, is that midpoint orders expose you to latency arbitrage. When a dark pool calculates the price for your order, it obviously needs to obtain the national best bid and offer. Many dark pools turn to a central processor called the Securities Information Processor, to which all exchanges are required to send changes to their best bids and offers.Exchanges, however, are also allowed to sell their data directly to subscribers. Although the S.E.C. requires that exchanges release data to subscribers and the Securities Information Processor at the same time, theres no requirement on when that data is received.Exchanges, recognizing the market for faster access to data, accordingly offer a variety of services that reduce the transit time or latency of their market data. Nasdaq, for instance, conveniently offers the ability to co-locate a server next to its matching engine while receiving data feeds from other exchanges via its Metro Millimeter Wave connections. Its one-stop shopping for the aspiring high-speed trader.As a result, when your dark pool pegs your order to the national best bid and offer, it will almost certainly be slower to see a change than a speedy trader using exchanges direct data feeds. So if the national best bid and offer moves to $10.01 and $10.02 after you submit your order, a speedy trader will (1) see this before your dark pool, (2) buy your shares at the stale midpoint of $10.005, and (3) sell them at the national best bid of $10.01. Voil! Your midpoint order gives our speedy trader a free option to buy at $10.005.IEXs secret sauce is a speed bump that prevents this arbitrage from occurring. By separating its access point and its matching engine by 36 miles of coiled fiber optic cable, IEX forces every order to experience a 350-microsecond delay from the time it is submitted to the time it is executed. IEX does this because 350 microseconds is just enough time for it to see an update to the national best bid and offer and re-price a pegged order. For investors trading on IEX, this means submitting a midpoint peg order will not be subject to latency arbitrage; the delay makes it too hard to hit a stale midpoint order before IEX updates its price.Now that IEX is seeking to become an exchange, the main dust up is whether the speed bump is consistent with rules governing stock exchanges. Like all exchanges, IEX wants trading centers to route marketable orders to it when its quotations are at the national best bid and offer.But quotations on exchanges must be immediately accessible to receive this benefit, and the speed bump is obviously intended to introduce a delay in accessing IEX quotations.In opposing the application, incumbent exchanges have focused on this seemingly clear conflict between the rule and IEXs structure, but it is not clear the strategy has worked. Instead, IEX has used it to highlight how lots of exchanges coil their fiber to create access delays.The difference is that, although IEX does it to provide equal access to its platform, other exchanges do it to assure co-location subscribers that they all receive the same level of latency a response that makes their focus on the speed bump awkward, to say the least.All of which brings us back to the S.E.C. A recurring theme in the IEX application is that the quiet revolt by investors outlined in Flash Boys has now become a full-fledged movement for a referendum on our speed-based market structure.This framing undoubtedly puts the market regulator in an uncomfortable position, particularly because the agency only recently commenced a study of latency arbitrage. Can the S.E.C. risk approving the application and its explicit position that latency arbitrage is pernicious without a formal cost benefit analysis of the issue? Given IEXs success in drawing investors to its dark pool, can the market regulator risk rejecting it without endorsing an exchange structure that facilitates latency arbitrage? And if the S.E.C. approves the application, does this mean its time to consider moving to frequent batch auctions?Whatever one makes of the merits of IEXs application, it is difficult not to see the episode as a clear example of the growing divide between the speed with which our market microstructure evolves and the ossified process by which it is regulated. Media attention to latency arbitrage might be novel, but the issue is hardly a new one; investors have voiced concerns about exchanges preferential distribution of market data since at least 1975. In light of the S.E.C.s unwillingness to take any action, IEX and its backers simply took matters into their own hands.Of course, one could view this as exactly how private ordering is supposed to work. But given the complexity of our market structure regulations, the distinction between efficient private ordering and externalizing the cost of inefficient regulations on others is hardly clear. After all, couldnt co-location also be said to be a product of private ordering? Concerns about how the speed bump will affect trading at other exchanges make the distinction similarly blurred for IEXs application.In light of this uncertainty, regulation by application is an ill-advised technique for regulating a market. Whatever comes of the IEX application, we hope that the experience encourages the S.E.C. to be more responsive to issues that are known to concern market participants. | Business |
Credit...David Paul Morris/BloombergJune 4, 2018Microsoft, fully embracing a model it once saw as a threat, said on Monday that it was buying GitHub, an open software platform used by 28 million programmers, for $7.5 billion.The deal is a bid by Microsoft to gain ground in the internet era of software development, where applications increasingly run on remote data centers on so-called cloud computing.Amazon is the leader in the cloud market so far, but Microsoft has transformed itself in recent years to become a strong No. 2 as a supplier of cloud computing services. Its vital Office productivity applications and database software are available in cloud versions.Microsoft also competes with Google, IBM, Salesforce and others in the cloud marketplace. All of them are trying to lure software engineers to use their cloud tools and services. The more programmers on a companys platform, the more software applications are created, attracting customers and still more developers a flywheel of growth and profit.The strategic battle in the tech world is for developers, said Frank Gens, chief analyst for IDC, a research firm. For Microsoft, the GitHub deal is about strengthening and widening its relationships with developers.Satya Nadella, Microsofts chief executive, said the deal would advance Microsofts ambitions in cloud computing and bring smarter software to every industry, on any digital device.Developers are the builders of this new era, writing the worlds code, Mr. Nadella wrote in a blog post. And GitHub is their home.GitHub, founded in 2008 and based in San Francisco, was created largely as a community for software developers to share programming tools and code. It has been a champion of the open-source software movement, with its ethos of freely sharing code in public.Today, GitHub is used by a wide range in the tech community, from lone programmers to the nations largest companies. Developers can share code, make comments and buy software tools. They work in digital storage spaces, called repositories. Some are open to all users; others are closed to members of a team. GitHub now has more than 85 million code repositories.Individuals can use GitHub for free. But there are monthly subscription charges for extra storage, development tools and private repositories. The company does not disclose its revenue, but analysts estimate it is running at $200 million a year.The open-source model was once anathema to Microsoft, the largest commercial software company, which had favored keeping its code proprietary. Steven A. Ballmer, Microsofts former chief executive, once called Linux, the popular open-source operating system, a cancer in the body of the technology business.But Microsoft has come to embrace open-source tools. Today, Microsoft is the most active corporation on GitHub, with more than two million contributions of code to GitHub projects.GitHub, seeking to establish a profitable business, has increasingly hosted corporate projects on its platform for a fee. Those ventures have typically used open-source software development techniques while keeping some code proprietary.Executives from both companies insisted that GitHub would remain technologically neutral, welcoming developers using any code or any cloud service, rather than a Microsoft walled garden. The proof, analysts say, will be in how GitHub operates under Microsoft ownership.Developers by their nature are often suspicious of corporate ambitions, said Ed Anderson, an analyst at Gartner. Microsoft will have to demonstrate its willingness to put the interests of developers ahead of any Microsoft-specific agenda.The $7.5 billion purchase, an all-stock deal, is the second-largest acquisition Microsoft has made since Mr. Nadella became chief executive in early 2014. The bigger deal came in 2016, when Microsoft bought LinkedIn, the social network for professional workers, for $26.2 billion. (GitHub ranks third in Microsofts history, also behind the $8.5 billion purchase of Skype in 2011.)If GitHub will remain a neutral home for developers, as Microsoft insists, why did the company pay so handsomely to own it?In an interview, Nat Friedman, corporate vice president for developer services at Microsoft, explained that ownership would give the company the confidence to make a greater commitment to GitHub to confidently go all-in on GitHub.Microsoft, Mr. Friedman said, will make nearly all its software-building tools available on GitHub. Over time, as Microsoft shows itself to be a reliable corporate steward of GitHub and is willing to invest in its growth, he said, Microsoft should benefit as more developers adopt its software.Its a matter of building trust with developers, said Mr. Friedman, who will become chief executive of GitHub when the deal closes, which is expected to be this year. You earn the right to be considered for other things.With GitHub, Microsoft is making a move similar to its LinkedIn acquisition buying the leading marketplace in its field. Microsoft is rolling up another platform, said Michael A. Cusumano, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technologys Sloan School of Management.GitHub has become far more than a platform for software development. It is where developers demonstrate their skills. Software engineers routinely include links to their GitHub projects on their rsums, and companies scout for job candidates on GitHub.Its the de facto tool for recruiting technical talent, Julio Avalos, GitHubs chief strategy officer, said in an interview this year.The $7.5 billion transaction promises a lucrative payday for GitHubs venture backers. The start-up had raised a total of $350 million a $100 million round in 2012, led by Andreessen Horowitz, and a $250 million round in 2015, led by Sequoia Capital.The multibillion-dollar deal is a long way from GitHubs hobbyist, hacker origins. In a blog post, Chris Wanstrath, the companys chief executive and a co-founder, who will become a technical fellow at Microsoft, wrote that when GitHub started up a decade ago, he could have never imagined the outcome announced on Monday.Git was a powerful but niche tool, clouds were just things in the sky, he wrote, and Microsoft was a very different company. | Tech |
The Making of a SAG Award Get 'Em While They're Hot!!! 1/21/2018 Next time you see a celebrity in a fancy suit or dress holding a SAG Award, think of this ... it took at least 3 guys in hazmat suits to make it! We got pics of the entire casting process that goes into making the award and let's just say, it AIN'T as easy as 1-2-3 because it involves a lot of dangerously hot molten bronze ... hence the suits. It's incredible and the process is art itself. The trophy -- a naked man holding both a comedy and tragedy mask -- gets fired up several times and dusted with layers of chemicals to get its green color. If you thought the engraving of Leo's Oscar was cool, this takes things to a whole new level ... | Entertainment |
Middle East|Rebels in Syria Shoot Down Government Fighter Jethttps://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/06/world/middleeast/rebels-in-syria-shoot-down-government-fighter-jet.htmlVideotranscripttranscriptRebels Claim to Have Downed Syrian PlaneA video circulating on social media shows the burning wreckage of an aircraft, which rebels claim to be a Syrian government warplane they shot down.SAID TO BE ALEPPO PROVINCE, SYRIA (SAID TO BE SHOT APRIL 5, 2016) (SOCIAL MEDIA WEBSITE - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS PEOPLE SAID TO BE REBELS GATHERED AROUND BURNING WRECKAGE OF DOWNED PLANE 2. VARIOUS DEBRIS SCATTERED AROUND 3. MORE OF BURNING WRECKAGE 4. THREE MEN POSING IN FRONT OF CAMERA, SHOUTING (Arabic): God is great, God is great. 5. MORE OF PEOPLE GATHERED AROUND BURNING WRECKAGEA video circulating on social media shows the burning wreckage of an aircraft, which rebels claim to be a Syrian government warplane they shot down.CreditCredit...Ammar Abdullah/ReutersApril 5, 2016RIYADH, Saudi Arabia Islamist rebels in Syria shot down a government fighter jet and captured its pilot in the countrys north on Tuesday, anti-government activists said.Videos posted online showed what appeared to be a jet catching fire and smashing into the ground, as well as rebels surrounding and insulting the pilot, who had parachuted safely to the ground.An activist in one video from the site said the pilot was now a prisoner of the Nusra Front, Al Qaedas affiliate in Syria.Syrian state news media said that the jet had been brought down by a surface-to-air missile, but said nothing of the fate of the pilot.The downing of the jet comes after five years of conflict in Syria that have left hundreds of thousands of people dead and about half of the population displaced. An internationally brokered cessation of hostilities between the government and the rebels has slightly lowered the level of violence over the last month, but diplomats have failed to make much progress on a wider agreement to end the war.The United Nations envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, traveled on Tuesday to Russia, a main backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in preparation for a new round of peace talks scheduled later this month, Mr. de Misturas office said.Jihadist groups like the Nusra Front and the Islamic State, which controls territory in eastern Syria, are not party to the talks or to the cease-fire.It was unclear how rebel fighters had brought down the jet, despite the Syrian state news medias claim. While many rebel groups have antiaircraft machine guns, their backers, which include the United States, Turkey and the Persian Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, have refrained from giving them antiaircraft missiles for fear they could be used by jihadist groups against civilian targets.While rebels and jihadists in Syria have brought down government aircraft on a number of occasions the past, both rebels and civilians remain highly vulnerable to government airstrikes. | World |
The aerospace giants astronaut capsule reached orbit, but has yet to complete a flight to the space station, while SpaceX has carried seven crews into orbit.VideoThe Starliner capsule has to complete the uncrewed test flight before it can take astronauts to and from the International Space Station.CreditCredit...John Raoux/Associated PressMay 19, 2022Boeings second chance at a do-over is off to a successful start as Starliner, its space taxi, launched to orbit on Thursday.The spacecraft was built for NASA to take astronauts to and from the International Space Station. But before it can do that, it has to complete a test flight without astronauts to show that its systems all work properly.Today feels really good and we have a lot of confidence in the vehicle, Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager for the commercial crew program at Boeing, said during a news conference a couple of hours after the launch.Two thrusters failed during a maneuver to put Starliner in a stable orbit, but the spacecraft was able to automatically adjust with its remaining thrusters, and it proceeded on course. Engineers are investigating what went wrong.Two previous attempts to undertake that preparatory journey the first in December 2019 and the second in August 2021 were both marred by serious technical problems. The setbacks have also cost Boeing hundreds of millions of dollars.Boeing is catching up to SpaceX, the newer space company founded by Elon Musk that has already carried five NASA crews to orbit in the past two years.A second transportation option for NASA also offers resilience in case either spacecraft suffers an accident.Otherwise, NASA would have to rely again on Russias Soyuz capsules, which were the only ride to orbit for American astronauts for nearly a decade. Collaboration between the United States and Russia on the space station has become politically complicated after Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year.At 6:54 p.m. Eastern time, the engines of an Atlas 5 rocket roared from a launching pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, lifting Starliner toward the sky. Thirty-two minutes later, it was safely in orbit.Thursdays launch was a relief for Boeing and NASA officials. The countdown and liftoff unfolded without unpleasant surprises. The only glitch occurred during the first of Starliners thruster firings, needed to give the spacecraft its final push to orbit.At the back of the spacecraft are four pods, each containing a cluster of three thrusters. For the orbital insertion maneuver, which lasted about 40 seconds, one thruster in each pod started firing.In one of the pods, the thruster started firing, then stopped after a second, Mr. Nappi said. The Starliners flight control system switched to a second thruster in the same pod.It fired for about 25 seconds, and then it shut down, Mr. Nappi said. Again, the flight control system took over and did what it was supposed to. It went to a third thruster, and we had a successful orbital insertion.Steve Stich, the manager of NASAs commercial crew program, said even if the third thruster in that pod failed, I suspect we could complete the mission just fine with the remaining clusters.Engineers will see if they can get the malfunctioning thrusters working again, and Mr. Nappi said the other systems on Starliner appear to be working well.So the spacecraft is in excellent condition, he said.Just over 24 hours after launch, Starliner is scheduled to dock at the International Space Station.Although this mission is not carrying any astronauts, one of Starliners seats is filled by a mannequin named Rosie the Rocketeer.There is also more than 800 pounds of cargo aboard, mostly food and supplies for the space station crew, but also some memorabilia. The spacecraft is to bring back almost 600 pounds of cargo from the space station.After four or five days attached to the space station, Starliner is to return to Earth, at one of five locations in the western United States. While most American astronaut capsules have splashed down in the ocean including SpaceXs Crew Dragon Starliner parachutes onto land and sets down atop airbags.If all goes well, the flight will provide NASA with sufficient data to certify that the spacecraft can safely carry people into space. A demonstration flight with two or three astronauts aboard could launch as soon as the end of the year.ImageCredit...Aubrey Gemignani/NASA, via Associated PressDuring the first uncrewed test flight in December 2019, problems started almost immediately upon reaching orbit.A software error caused the Starliners clock to be set to the wrong time. That caused the onboard computer to try to move the spacecraft to where it thought the vessel should be. The firing of the thrusters used up much of the propellant, and plans for Starliner to dock at the space station were called off.While troubleshooting that problem, Boeing engineers discovered a second flaw that would have caused the wrong thrusters to fire as the capsule prepared for re-entry, potentially leading to the destruction of the spacecraft. They fixed that software flaw while Starliner orbited the Earth, and the capsule landed safely at White Sands, N.M.Those problems put a hold on what would have been the next step: a demonstration flight with astronauts aboard. NASA told Boeing that it needed to repeat the uncrewed test flight, at Boeings cost.Boeing spent more than a year revamping and retesting the software, and in August last year, Starliner was back at the launching pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, on top of a second Atlas 5 rocket.The countdown started, but had to be halted. Flight managers discovered that 13 valves in Starliners propulsion system had failed to open.Boeing then spent about eight months investigating the corrosion that had caused the valves to stick shut. Boeing swapped out the service module the piece of Starliner below the capsule that houses the propulsion system with one that had been planned for the next mission.NASA hired two companies to take astronauts to and from the station: SpaceX and Boeing. At the time of Boeings test flight in 2019, it seemed that Starliner would beat out SpaceXs Crew Dragon capsule for the first mission with astronauts.But with Starliner remaining on the ground, SpaceX has since launched seven Crew Dragon missions with astronauts. In addition to the five missions for NASA, two others carried private citizens to orbit.SpaceXs missions also appear to be significantly less expensive than Boeings. Still, NASA officials say that they are committed to Starliner and that having two systems provides competition, innovation and flexibility. | science |
The Alibaba online finance spinoff, which offers people in China a one-stop shop for loans, investments and more, will list shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai.Credit...Alex Plavevski/EPA, via ShutterstockPublished Oct. 26, 2020Updated Nov. 6, 2020Ant Group, the Chinese financial technology titan, is set to raise around $34 billion when its shares begin trading in Hong Kong and Shanghai in the coming weeks, which would make its initial public offering the largest on record.The company, the parent of the Alipay mobile payment service, priced its shares around $10.30 apiece, according to documents released on Monday by stock exchanges in the two cities. At that price, the company would be worth around $310 billion, a market value comparable to that of JPMorgan Chase and more than that of many other global banks.The money Ant raises would surpass the $29.4 billion that Saudi Arabias state-run oil company, Saudi Aramco, raised when it went public last year. Ants listing would also be larger than that of its sister company, the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, which raised $25 billion when its shares started trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014.For hundreds of millions of people in China, Alipay may as well be a bank. It is their credit card, debit card, mutual fund and even insurance broker all on a single mobile platform. It is a lender to small businesses, both online and off, that might otherwise be ignored by Chinas big state-run banks. Alipay has more than 730 million monthly users, more than twice the population of the United States. By comparison, PayPal has 346 million active accounts.Like other giant internet companies, Ant says its strength lies in performing a large number of different tasks at once. The more people use Alipay to purchase lattes, for example, the more data it gathers about their spending power. Ant says this information helps it offer loans, investments and insurance policies that suit users needs. The data also helps Ant and its partner banks determine who is likely to pay them back.Yet the melding of finance and tech is attracting regulators interest everywhere, and Ant has not been spared the scrutiny. In recent years, China has clamped down hard on fishy online lending and investing schemes. Regulatory pressures have led Ant to temper its ambitions in certain areas since it was spun off from Alibaba in 2011.In the United States, Trump administration officials have discussed whether to place Ant Group on the so-called entity list, which prohibits foreign companies from purchasing American products, said three people with knowledge of the matter. In 2018, Ant called off a bid to buy MoneyGram, the money transfer company, after it failed to win the approval of American officials.Today, the company emphasizes that Alipay is merely the front door through which its users gain access to financial services. The lending and investing are still mostly done by established institutions a message that was crystallized when the company, which used to be called Ant Financial, dropped the second word from its English name this year.Last year, Ant earned $2.7 billion in profit on $18 billion in revenue. It says it handled $17 trillion in digital payments in mainland China during the 12 months that ended in June.Ana Swanson contributed reporting. | Tech |
Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesFeb. 10, 2014KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia Maria Hfl-Riesch of Germany won the womens super combined Monday, as expected, and Julia Mancuso, the American with a surprise up her sleeve at every Olympics since 2006, barged into another awards ceremony with a bronze medal.Forget for the moment that these two may be going head-to-head for the next several days as the favorites in the womens downhill Wednesday and as top contenders in the super-G two days later. That duel could evolve into the Alpine rivalry of the Sochi Olympics.But first, in the wake of Hfl-Rieschs steely comeback victory Monday, and after Mancusos stunning resurrection, there is time to celebrate two of the finest womens Olympic Alpine skiers of this generation. Hfl-Riesch has now won three Olympic gold medals in womens Alpine skiing, one fewer than Janica Kostelics record amount. And it is worth noting that Hfl-Riesch will compete in four more Olympic events in the next 10 days with history in reach.It is now apparent that by the time Hfl-Riesch, 29, has skied in her final Olympics, she could hold many of the primary medal records, if not all of them.Mancuso, 29, extended her American record for most Olympic medals by a woman skier to four and became the first American to win Alpine medals in three consecutive Olympics. She joins the speedskater Bonnie Blair and the short track speedskater Apolo Ohno as the only American Winter Olympians to win individual medals at three Olympic Games.If the two were linked Monday, it was not because of their approach to the sport of ski racing. Indeed, one of the entertaining pieces to Mondays competition was watching Hfl-Riesch and Mancuso chase an Olympic medal in opposite ways.Everything about Hfl-Riesch and Mancuso is seemingly different, with the German nearly 6 feet tall and Mancuso listed at 5-6 (and she may be smaller).Hfl-Riesch is the consistent all-around skier of the World Cup circuit always steady and dependably in contention. Mancuso tends to disappear with erratic results in the World Cup, going many months without climbing on a podium, only to surface with a top performance at the Olympics or the world championships, where she has won five medals.Coming into the Sochi Games, Mancuso was again overlooked, having had an unremarkable season. She predicted a comeback, especially if the sun in southern Russia came out and took the edge off the hard snow customary to elite ski racing.Monday brought temperatures at Rosa Khutor Alpine Center that reached nearly 50 degrees, and Mancuso, the speed queen of soft snow, charged into the early lead.ImageCredit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesThe super combined is an event unlike any other in Alpine racing: First, the skiers fling themselves at a demanding downhill course, and then they try to finesse their way around 41 tightly spaced slalom gates.Victory goes to the racer with the lowest combined time.Mancusos lead after the morning downhill was 47-hundredths of a second over Lara Gut of Switzerland, with Tina Maze of Slovenia third.Mancuso was ebullient and revived. She dedicated the race to her grandfather Denny Tuffanelli, who died a year ago and had been an inspiration during her career. She conceded that it would take a phenomenal slalom for her to win a medal.Mancuso had not entered a slalom this season and had not finished a full slalom course in practice in a year.My slalom is a roll of the dice, she said, ever at ease and smiling.Hfl-Riesch was fifth after the downhill and appeared tense and mildly disappointed afterward. She vowed to fight her way back in the slalom.As the afternoon unfolded, the sun was obscured by clouds, and then disappeared behind a mountain. The slalom course was hard, and the snow surface was deteriorating and choppy. Several racers skied out on the steep, rolling pitch of the slalom hill.The Austrian Nicole Hosp, who won the silver medal, took the lead in the final group of skiers, who competed in inverse order of their finish in the downhill. Hfl-Riesch broke from the gate and, with powerful attacking turns, overtook Hosp, then waited for the final racers.Gut missed a gate less than 30 seconds into her run. Maze struggled, too, but was in third place until Mancuso skied.I was thinking that it was not going to be easy, but I had to stay calm, Mancuso said.She had been there before. She had a lead to protect when she won the gold medal in the giant slalom at the 2006 Turin Games. She battled back to win the silver medal at the super combined in the 2010 Vancouver Games.You know Julia will be the big-race girl, Hfl-Riesch said. Mancuso edged Maze by 10-hundredths of a second and was 13-hundredths of a second behind Hosp, who was 0.40 behind Hfl-Rieschs combined time of 2 minutes 34.62 seconds. In the end, when Mancuso was asked about her growing place in U.S. Olympic history, without prompting, she cited Lindsey Vonn, whom Mancuso has been linked with since the two were friends and top-level skiers as preteenagers. Vonn is not skiing in Sochi because of an injury.Growing up with Lindsey, who sets all kinds of records on the World Cup, Mancuso said, its cool to have something I can break records in. Its fun and exciting. We have our own ways and our own strengths.And their own places, along with Hfl-Riesch, in any assembly of the outstanding racers of a generation. | Sports |
March 4, 2017AMMAN, Jordan Jordan on Saturday executed 10 prisoners with ties to Islamist extremism who had carried out five shootings and a bombing since 2003, a government spokesman said.Among those killed in the attacks were a British tourist, an outspoken Jordanian critic of Islamist extremism and members of the Jordanian security forces.The executions on Saturday were the first since Jordan began a crackdown on Islamist extremists two years ago, in response to the killing of a captured Jordanian fighter pilot by the Islamic State. Jordan is part of an American-led military coalition fighting the Islamic State, which holds territory in Syria and Iraq.The prisoners were hanged at dawn on Saturday at Swaqa Prison, about 47 miles south of the capital, Amman, said the government spokesman, Mohammad al-Momani. All had links to Islamist militant groups, Mr. Momani said.Five other prisoners were executed for crimes unrelated to terrorism, including incest, Mr. Momani said in a statement carried by the state news agency, Petra.The prisoners executed Saturday for terrorism convictions had been involved in six different episodes, including a 2003 bombing attack that killed 19 people at Jordans Embassy in Iraq and the September 2016 shooting of Nahed Hattar, a writer, on the steps of an Amman courthouse.Also listed were a 2006 shooting attack on a group of tourists at a theater in Amman in which a 30-year-old British man was killed; a December 2015 shooting that killed two police officers; a March 2016 shootout between the police and Islamic State militants in which an officer was killed; and a June 2016 attack by a lone gunman on an office of Jordans intelligence agency that killed five people.Mr. Hattar, the writer, had been on trial for posting a cartoon deemed offensive to Islam on social media when an assailant killed him outside the courthouse. The gunman was a former mosque prayer leader motivated by anger over the cartoon, officials said at the time.Saad Hattar, a cousin of the victims, said Saturday that while the killer was punished, those who instigated such attacks with hateful statements were not.The murderer was just a tool, and our society needs the uprooting of the ideology and the culture behind him, said Mr. Hattar, a journalist.A local analyst, Labib Kamhawi, said he believed that the executions were meant to send a triple message. They signaled to potential attackers that they could expect harsh punishment and reminded Jordanians buckling under price increases that their country faces a serious security threat, Mr. Kamhawi said.The message to the outside world, particularly the Trump administration, is that Jordan is on top of things and that Jordan can be considered one of the allies in fighting terrorism, Mr. Kamhawi said.The human rights group Amnesty International said the horrific scale and secrecy surrounding Saturdays executions was shocking.This is a major step backward for both Jordan and efforts to end the death penalty, a senseless and ineffective means of administering justice, said Samah Hadid, deputy director of Amnesty Internationals regional office in Beirut, Lebanon. | World |
The report, by the Justice Departments inspector general, is highly anticipated, not least by President Trump. Credit...Tom Brenner/The New York TimesJune 14, 2018WASHINGTON A much-anticipated report about the F.B.I.s handling of its investigation into Hillary Clinton was scheduled to be released on Thursday, and few were looking forward to it more than President Trump. Here are the big outstanding questions, and what to look for.Did the F.B.I. really put the fix in to save Mrs. Clinton?This has become the most important question of the report, and it is one that the inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, did not even set out to answer. He began his investigation last year to scrutinize the actions of the F.B.I. director at the time, James B. Comey, and his deputy, Andrew G. McCabe.But Mr. Trump has pushed a theory that a secret cabal of Mrs. Clintons supporters inside the F.B.I. conspired to clear her of wrongdoing over her handling of classified information. This same group of agents, Mr. Trump argues, then cooked up a phony investigation into his campaigns ties to Russia as a way to undermine his presidency.No public evidence has surfaced to prove this theory, and the inspector general is unlikely to claim a wide-ranging political conspiracy at the heart of the F.B.I. There is evidence that at least some agents on the Clinton investigation disliked Mr. Trump. But look for Mr. Trump to seize on aspects of the report that support him, and probably discard those that do not.ImageCredit...Gabriella Demczuk for The New York TimesWhat is the Comey legacy?Mr. Comey was the most high-profile F.B.I. director since J. Edgar Hoover until Mr. Trump fired him in May 2017. The inspector generals report is expected to be an unflattering book end to his career. He is likely to face sharp criticism for that news conference, in July 2016, and his announcement, in late October of that year.Yes, this is about Mueller. But also, not really.Neither the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, nor his investigation is the focus of the report. But it looms over everything that will happen Thursday around the release of the report.When the Russia investigation began, Mr. Comey made a decision that ultimately proved fateful. Rather than assign the case to agents in the field, he gave it to the same team at headquarters that had investigated Mrs. Clinton. So, any criticism of decisions in the Clinton case no matter how unrelated to the Russia investigation will ultimately be used by Mr. Trump to challenge the integrity of the team that began investigating his campaign.The tarmac meeting was not a good idea.In the final days of the Clinton investigation, the attorney general at the time, Loretta E. Lynch, held an impromptu private meeting with former President Bill Clinton when the two found themselves unexpectedly on the same tarmac at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The meeting led to calls for Ms. Lynch to recuse herself from the investigation. She did not, but said she would defer to the F.B.I. and career prosecutors on whether to prosecute Mrs. Clinton. The tarmac meeting, as well as Ms. Lynchs half-in-half-out response, are expected to be criticized in Thursdays report. Ms. Lynch has already said she regrets the meeting.What about those text messages?Two F.B.I. officials, who were assigned to both cases, exchanged text messages that revealed strong anti-Trump sentiment. They said Mrs. Clinton just has to win and described a potential victory by Mr. Trump as terrifying.Mr. Trumps supporters have seized on these messages as evidence that the F.B.I. was biased against him. The inspector general is expected to criticize the officials, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, but his conclusions on the matter will be closely watched. F.B.I. regulations allow agents to express opinions both privately and publicly on political subjects and candidates.Will Giuliani make an appearance?Mr. Horowitz has said he is investigating whether officials improperly disclosed information about the Clinton case to journalists. But one of the most intriguing questions involves the potential leak of information to one of Mr. Trumps key campaign surrogates, Rudolph W. Giuliani. Mr. Giuliani appeared on Fox News in October 2016 and hinted that big news was about to break:I mean, Im talking about some pretty big surprises, he said in one interview. In another, he referenced Mrs. Clinton and said he expected the surprises to surface in the coming days.Two days later, Mr. Comey broke the news that the F.B.I. was once again investigating Mrs. Clinton and her emails. Mr. Comey has said he ordered an investigation into that disclosure but it is not clear what came of it.Mr. Giuliani is now a lawyer for Mr. Trump, who has railed against inappropriate disclosures to reporters.Was the F.B.I. slow to respond?The inspector general is expected to criticize officials at F.B.I. headquarters for the speed at which they responded to the discovery of new emails on a laptop belonging to the estranged husband of one of Mrs. Clintons top aides. Critics, including some inside the F.B.I., have suggested that officials at headquarters were uninterested in revisiting the investigation before the election.And did any of it matter?The report is expected to run more than 500 pages, and it is likely to criticize many of these decisions and more. It is unclear where Mr. Horowitz will come down on the larger question of whether any of these decisions affected the outcome of the case. Inspectors general do not often second-guess investigative conclusions, and it is not clear that Mr. Horowitz will weigh in on whether the decision not to charge Mrs. Clinton was the right one.As for whether Mr. Comey cost Mrs. Clinton the election? She says he did. Some political scientists have pointed to data to argue that point. But that is one area the report is unlikely to touch. | Politics |
In a landmark antitrust complaint, the Justice Department is targeting a secretive partnership that is worth billions of dollars to both companies.Credit...Tony Avelar/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesOct. 25, 2020OAKLAND, Calif. When Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai, the chief executives of Apple and Google, were photographed eating dinner together in 2017 at an upscale Vietnamese restaurant called Tamarine, the picture set off a tabloid-worthy frenzy about the relationship between the two most powerful companies in Silicon Valley.As the two men sipped red wine at a window table inside the restaurant in Palo Alto, their companies were in tense negotiations to renew one of the most lucrative business deals in history: an agreement to feature Googles search engine as the preselected choice on Apples iPhone and other devices. The updated deal was worth billions of dollars to both companies and cemented their status at the top of the tech industrys pecking order.Now, the partnership is in jeopardy. Last Tuesday, the Justice Department filed a landmark lawsuit against Google the U.S. governments biggest antitrust case in two decades and homed in on the alliance as a prime example of what prosecutors say are the companys illegal tactics to protect its monopoly and choke off competition in web search.The scrutiny of the pact, which was first inked 15 years ago and has rarely been discussed by either company, has highlighted the special relationship between Silicon Valleys two most valuable companies an unlikely union of rivals that regulators say is unfairly preventing smaller companies from flourishing.We have this sort of strange term in Silicon Valley: co-opetition, said Bruce Sewell, Apples general counsel from 2009 to 2017. You have brutal competition, but at the same time, you have necessary cooperation.Apple and Google are joined at the hip even though Mr. Cook has said internet advertising, Googles bread and butter, engages in surveillance of consumers and even though Steve Jobs, Apples co-founder, once promised thermonuclear war on his Silicon Valley neighbor when he learned it was working on a rival to the iPhone.Apple and Googles parent company, Alphabet, worth more than $3 trillion combined, do compete on plenty of fronts, like smartphones, digital maps and laptops. But they also know how to make nice when it suits their interests. And few deals have been nicer to both sides of the table than the iPhone search deal.Nearly half of Googles search traffic now comes from Apple devices, according to the Justice Department, and the prospect of losing the Apple deal has been described as a code red scenario inside the company. When iPhone users search on Google, they see the search ads that drive Googles business. They can also find their way to other Google products, like YouTube.A former Google executive, who asked not to be identified because he was not permitted to talk about the deal, said the prospect of losing Apples traffic was terrifying to the company.The Justice Department, which is asking for a court injunction preventing Google from entering into deals like the one it made with Apple, argues that the arrangement has unfairly helped make Google, which handles 92 percent of the worlds internet searches, the center of consumers online lives.Online businesses like Yelp and Expedia, as well as companies ranging from noodle shops to news organizations, often complain that Googles search domination enables it to charge advertising fees when people simply look up their names, as well as to steer consumers toward its own products, like Google Maps. Microsoft, which had its own antitrust battle two decades ago, has told British regulators that if it were the default option on iPhones and iPads, it would make more advertising money for every search on its rival search engine, Bing.Whats more, competitors like DuckDuckGo, a small search engine that sells itself as a privacy-focused alternative to Google, could never match Googles tab with Apple.Apple now receives an estimated $8 billion to $12 billion in annual payments up from $1 billion a year in 2014 in exchange for building Googles search engine into its products. It is probably the single biggest payment that Google makes to anyone and accounts for 14 to 21 percent of Apples annual profits. Thats not money Apple would be eager to walk away from.In fact, Mr. Cook and Mr. Pichai met again in 2018 to discuss how they could increase revenue from search. After the meeting, a senior Apple employee wrote to a Google counterpart that our vision is that we work as if we are one company, according to the Justice Departments complaint.A forced breakup could mean the loss of easy money to Apple. But it would be a more significant threat to Google, which would have no obvious way to replace the lost traffic. It could also push Apple to acquire or build its own search engine. Within Google, people believe that Apple is one of the few companies in the world that could offer a formidable alternative, according to one former executive. Google has also worried that without the agreement, Apple could make it more difficult for iPhone users to get to the Google search engine.A spokesman for Apple declined to comment on the partnership, while a Google spokesman pointed to a blog post in which the company defended the relationship.Even though its bill with Apple keeps going up, Google has said again and again that it dominates internet search because consumers prefer it, not because it is buying customers. The company argues that the Justice Department is painting an incomplete picture; its partnership with Apple, it says, is no different than Coca-Cola paying a supermarket for prominent shelf space.Other search engines like Microsofts Bing also have revenue-sharing agreements with Apple to appear as secondary search options on iPhones, Google says in its defense. It adds that Apple allows people to change their default search engine from Google though few probably do because people typically dont tinker with such settings and many prefer Google anyway.Apple has rarely, if ever, publicly acknowledged its deal with Google, and according to Bernstein Research, has mentioned its so-called licensing revenue in an earnings call for the first time this year.According to a former senior executive who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of confidentiality contracts, Apples leaders have made the same calculation about Google as much of the general public: The utility of its search engine is worth the cost of its invasive practices.Their search engine is the best, Mr. Cook said when asked by Axios in late 2018 why he partnered with a company he also implicitly criticized. He added that Apple had also created ways to blunt Googles collection of data, such as a private-browsing mode on Apples internet browser.The deal is not limited to searches in Apples Safari browser; it extends to virtually all searches done on Apple devices, including with Apples virtual assistant, Siri, and on Googles iPhone app and Chrome browser.The relationship between the companies has swung from friendly to contentious to todays co-opetition. In the early years of Google, the companys co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, saw Mr. Jobs as a mentor, and they would take long walks with him to discuss the future of technology.In 2005, Apple and Google inked what at the time seemed like a modest deal: Google would be the default search engine on Apples Safari browser on Mac computers.Quickly, Mr. Cook, then still a deputy to Mr. Jobs, saw the arrangements lucrative potential, according to another former senior Apple executive who asked not to be named. Googles payments were pure profit, and all Apple had to do was feature a search engine its users already wanted.Apple expanded the deal for its big upcoming product: the iPhone. When Mr. Jobs unveiled the iPhone in 2007, he invited Eric Schmidt, Googles then chief executive, to join him onstage for the first of Apples many famous iPhone events.If we just sort of merged the two companies, we could just call them AppleGoo, joked Mr. Schmidt, who was also on Apples board of directors. With Google search on the iPhone, he added, you can actually merge without merging.Then the relationship soured. Google had quietly been developing a competitor to the iPhone: smartphone software called Android that any phone maker could use. Mr. Jobs was furious. In 2010, Apple sued a phone maker that used Android. Im going to destroy Android, Mr. Jobs told his biographer, Walter Isaacson. I will spend my last dying breath if I need to.A year later, Apple introduced Siri. Instead of Google underpinning the virtual assistant, it was Microsofts Bing.Yet the companies partnership on iPhones continued too lucrative for either side to blow it up. Apple had arranged the deal to require periodic renegotiations, according to a former senior executive, and each time, it extracted more money from Google.You have to be able to maintain those relationships and not burn a bridge, said Mr. Sewell, Apples former general counsel, who declined to discuss specifics of the deal. At the same time, when youre negotiating on behalf of your company and youre trying to get the best deal, then, you know, the gloves come off.Around 2017, the deal was up for renewal. Google was facing a squeeze, with clicks on its mobile ads not growing fast enough. Apple was not satisfied with Bings performance for Siri. And Mr. Cook had just announced that Apple aimed to double its services revenue to $50 billion by 2020, an ambitious goal that would be possible only with Googles payments.By the fall of 2017, Apple announced that Google was now helping Siri answer questions, and Google disclosed that its payments for search traffic had jumped. The company offered an anodyne explanation to part of the reason it was suddenly paying some unnamed company hundreds of millions of dollars more: changes in partner agreements. | Tech |
Credit...Al Messerschmidt/Getty ImagesFeb. 3, 2014One of the Red Bulls new players has a familiarity with the teams second-year coach, Mike Petke, that comes more from dynamic interchanges on the soccer field than from pedestrian chalk-talks after training.Bobby Convey has spent nearly half his life playing in Major League Soccer. At 30, he is one of the leagues young veterans, a midfielder/defender who has been in the league since 2000.Along with some of his career milestones the youngest player, at 17, in M.L.S. when he joined D.C. United; a solid career in England playing for Reading; and appearances in all three first-round games for the United States in the 2006 World Cup Convey owns an odd distinction. He has been a teammate of two of his coaches in M.L.S.: Ryan Nelsen in Toronto and now Petke with the Red Bulls. All three played, at various times, for D.C. United.Yeah, its pretty weird, Convey said recently in Harrison, N.J., before the club departed for its preseason training camp in Florida. Its pretty strange.In a relatively quiet off-season, the Red Bulls acquired Convey from Toronto for future draft picks. Convey, who is left-footed, is normally a midfielder, though in recent seasons he has seen time in defense, both on the right and on the left sides. It will be up to Petke to find a spot for Convey in a mix that includes Jonny Steele in the midfield and Roy Miller on the back line. Miller, however, is likely to miss extended time when he joins Costa Rica for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.When I played with Ryan and Mike with D.C., I was really young and it was tough, Convey said. Its come full circle and now its good that Mike is my coach. He knows me and knows how Ive changed. Im married, were going to have a baby so I think Im a completely different person from the one who was making mistakes as teenager.He added: I think when I was young I was more selfish, mostly because you want your career to take off. But at this point, after playing so long, I know more what to expect.Though he said he was comfortable in Canada, Convey said he welcomed the trade to the Red Bulls, mostly because it took him closer to his family and to Philadelphia, his hometown. It was a bit bittersweet, especially after Toronto spent millions of dollars to acquire the United States international midfielder Michael Bradley and the English star Jermain Defoe as the club struggles to make the M.L.S. postseason for the first time.We really liked it there, but I couldnt turn down the opportunity to come here, Convey said at Red Bull Arena. Im thankful to Toronto, Nelly and Tim for trading me here, getting me to where I want to be. Of course, its a little bit frustrating because we did struggle last year, now this year I just wish them the best, just not against us. He was referring to Nelsen and to Tim Leiweke, the president and chief executive of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which operated the soccer club, the Maple Leafs of the N.H.L. and the Raptors of the N.B.A.Convey, who made $215,000 in guaranteed compensation last season, said Toronto had offered him a new contract. But an opportunity to play for a winning team closer to home was enough for him to accept a cut in pay.Asked where he would prefer to play in Petkes lineup, Convey said: Wherever Im needed. Im excited to be here, to win games and to be on a good team.And there are no illusions that a long professional relationship with his new coach will count for much.Is it weird? Convey said. Well find out over the next six months. Whoever the manager is, you respect him. As much as I have a friendship with him, his job is to choose the best players to play and I think thats what hell do.NOTES The midfielders Eric Alexander and Dax McCarty joined the Red Bulls training camp in Florida after spending most of January with the United States national team, training in Florida and in Brazil before returning to California. Alexander played eight minutes in Saturdays 1-0 victory over South Korea in Carson, Calif., while McCarty did not get into the match. ... The club has three guest players in camp: Ambroise Oyongo Bitolo, 23, a left-side defender from Cameroon; Miguel Ibarra, 23, a midfielder who last year played for Minnesota United in the N.A.S.L.; and Tyler Polak, 21, a defender who spent most of last season with Rochester of U.S.L. Pro. | Sports |
Credit...Afolabi Sotunde/ReutersNov. 2, 2018DAKAR, Senegal The Nigerian Army, part of a military criticized for rampant human rights abuses, on Friday used the words of President Trump to justify its fatal shootings of rock-throwing protesters.Soldiers fired this Monday on a march of about 1,000 Islamic Shiite activists who had blocked traffic on the outskirts of the capital, Abuja. Videos that circulated on social media showed several protesters hurling rocks at heavily armed soldiers who then shot fleeing demonstrators in the back.The Nigerian military said three protesters were killed, but the toll appears to have been much higher.Amnesty International and leaders of the protest said more than 40 people were killed at the march and two smaller marches, with more than 100 wounded by bullets. A Reuters reporter counted 20 bodies at the main march.Human rights activists and many Nigerians were outraged at the militarys response, which echoed a similar confrontation in 2015, when soldiers killed nearly 350 protesters from the same group, the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, the largest and most recognizable face of Shiite Islam in the country. The group organizes frequent protest marches.Early Friday morning, the military responded to the criticism.The armys official Twitter account posted a video, Please Watch and Make Your Deductions, showing Mr. Trumps speech on Thursday in which he said rocks would be considered firearms if thrown toward the American military at the nations borders.Were not going to put up with that, Mr. Trump said in the clip. They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back.[Read how Trumps vulgar remarks about Africa didnt keep him and Nigerias president from meeting.]The army deleted the post hours later without explanation after it had caused an uproar on social media.Mr. Trump is popular among groups in Nigerias mostly Christian south that admire his tough talk against Islamic extremism. Though a polarizing figure, some people praise what they regard as his straightforwardness and frank talk, despite his reported insult last year when he said Nigerians in the United States would never go back to their huts in Africa.Earlier this year after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, during which Mr. Trump praised the Nigerian leaders fight against the Islamic State in West Africa, Mr. Trump said he never again wanted to meet someone so lifeless as Mr. Buhari, The Financial Times reported.On Friday, John Agim, a spokesman for the Nigerian Army, said the initial posting of the video was a response to Amnesty International, which had criticized what it called the militarys use of excessive force.We released that video to say if President Trump can say that rocks are as good as a rifle, who is Amnesty International? he said. What are they then saying? What did David use to kill Goliath? So a stone is a weapon.Our soldiers sustained injuries, he continued. The Shiites even burnt one of our vehicles, so what are Amnesty International saying?The army has said as many as six soldiers were wounded during the protest after thousands of members of the sect overran a police checkpoint and blocked traffic along a highway.Soldiers had arrived to assist the police, a news release said, and were met with protesters who threw canisters of fuel, large stones, catapults with dangerous objects and other dangerous items.The military posted photos of six slingshots and one pocketknife on its Facebook page as evidence.They wanted to take over the checkpoint with their weapons, Mr. Agim said. They knew it was there. We responded to them.ImageCredit...Paul Carsten/ReutersIbrahim Musa, a spokesman for the Shiite group, said that on Monday security forces refused to let protesters, who numbered about 1,000, pass the checkpoint as they marched toward their destination. He said 13 protesters were killed during two other marches this week, one before and one after Mondays deadly march.Rocks are not equal to bullets, he said. The use of force is disproportionate. I dont think President Trump is a good example even in America many are critical of him. I am surprised that the army will use Trump as a role model.There was no immediate comment from the White House on the Nigerian Armys posting. But asked on Friday about whether he condoned American soldiers firing on migrants in a Mexico caravan if they attempted to cross the United States border, Mr. Trump said: They wont have to fire. What I dont want is, I dont want these people throwing rocks.A State Department official in Washington, responding to the Nigerian shootings, said in a statement that the United States supports regional efforts to fight terrorism and protect civilians, employing our full tool kit including diplomacy, foreign assistance, senior military engagement, and security assistance.The statement was a reiteration of a Twitter posting on Thursday by Tibor Nagy, assistant secretary for the State Departments Bureau of African Affairs, in which he called for restraint on both sides and an investigation to hold all lawbreakers accountable.There was a conspicuous lack of comment on both the killings and the Nigerian Armys response from President Buhari and Atitku Abubakar, his main challenger in elections scheduled for next February.Their silence may partly reflect the antipathy toward the Islamic Movement of Nigeria in their own bases of support.There were also social-media expressions of support for the militarys response.If the military in my country doesnt shoot back at a group of people who chose to block the highway and throw rocks at them, how would I trust them if they had to go toe-to-toe with a foreign enemy?! wrote a senior aide to the governor of Kogi State in central Nigeria. Please, use bullets to cure those fanatics of their madness!!Despite its history of massacring innocent civilians in the war with the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, detaining innocent citizens and raping women and girls fleeing war-torn communities, the Nigerian military has been the recipient of warplane sales and other gear from the United States. American officials are particularly worried about a branch of Boko Haram operating in Nigeria that says it has ties to the Islamic State.A recent report mandated by Congress on the American strategy to improve security in Nigeria played down Nigerian military abuses, said Matthew Page, a former State Department expert on the region who is now an associate fellow in the Africa program of Chatham House, a British research group.Mr. Page said that even under the Obama administration, Washington sent mixed signals to Nigeria on human rights, adding that diplomats and policymakers have been house-trained by the Nigerian government to avoid public condemnation.Such concerns are now voiced in private, if at all. Detainee deaths and child imprisonment continues, and extrajudicial killings by Nigerian soldiers are not even covered up anymore, he said. Under the Trump administration, any senior-level squeamishness about Nigerian military abuses has evaporated.Almost 20 years after the end of military rule in Nigeria, protests are still viewed by many as a public disturbance and threat to the authorities.Additionally, the Islamic Movement of Nigeria is seen as a threat by some Nigerians to the Sunni form of Islam that is dominant in Nigerias north. The group does not recognize the Nigerian Constitution, claiming it excludes protections for minorities. Many Nigerian authorities say the group has the larger aim of creating an Islamic republic inspired by Iran.In his meeting with President Buhari at the White House this year, Mr. Trump commented on the killings of Christians in Nigerias Middle Belt, where clashes over land use have broken out between mostly Christian farmers and mostly Muslim herdsmen.We have had very serious problems with Christians who are being murdered in Nigeria, Mr. Trump told the Nigerian president, who is Muslim.While many farmers have died, the clashes also have killed scores of Muslim herders. | World |
Science|NASA Names Dark Energy Telescope for Nancy Grace Romanhttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/science/nancy-grace-roman-telescope.htmlOut ThereDr. Roman was a pioneer at NASA, joining the agency in its early days and becoming its first chief astronomer.Credit...NASAMay 20, 2020NASA announced Wednesday that one of its most ambitious upcoming space telescopes would be named for Nancy Grace Roman, who pioneered the role of women in the space agency.Dr. Roman joined the agency in 1959 when NASA was only six months old, and rose to be its first chief astronomer. She is credited, among other things, with championing and spearheading the development of the Hubble Space Telescope. Around the agency and in astronomical circles she is known as the mother of Hubble. She died in 2018.The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, as it is now named, is being designed to investigate the mysterious dark energy speeding up the expansion of the universe and to scan space for exoplanets belonging to distant stars. The project to build the telescope has survived several attempts by the Trump administration to kill it, and is now slated to be launched later this decade.Until now it has been known by the decidedly uncatchy name of the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, or Wfirst. The acronym had a double meaning: W is the name for a crucial parameter that measures the virulence of dark energy, thus giving a clue to the fate of the universe.It is because of Nancy Grace Romans leadership and vision that NASA became a pioneer in astrophysics and launched Hubble, the worlds most powerful and productive space telescope, Jim Bridenstine, NASAs administrator, said in a statement issued by the space agency.Dr. Roman was born in Nashville on May 16, 1925, and grew up enamored of the stars in an era in which women were not encouraged to pursue science. At Swarthmore College she majored in physics against the advice of her professors. In a video clip shown as part of the announcement Wednesday, she recalled that at the University of Chicago, where she obtained a Ph.D., her thesis adviser once went six months without speaking to her.But she persisted, as the saying goes, to become a champion of astronomy in space.This is the second time in the last year that a major American observatory has been named for a woman astronomer. Earlier this year the National Science Foundation named its new telescope in Chile after Vera Rubin, another persistent woman who pioneered the study of dark matter. The study of dark energy will also be one of the primary targets of that telescope when it starts up.Dr. Rubin and Dr. Roman are thus in good company.In making the announcement Wednesday, Thomas Zurbuchen, NASAs associate administrator for science, said of Dr. Roman, Her name deserves a place in the heavens she studied and opened for so many. | science |
Credit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesDec. 10, 2015PARIS Lets eat ugly!Of the various calls to action at the United Nations climate conference this week, that one by Nicolas Chabanne might be among the catchiest catchphrases.Mr. Chabanne, an entrepreneur with ties to French fruit and vegetable farmers, has been working the sidelines of the conference to promote an effort that he says can help the climate by reducing food waste.Tapping into a growing international movement to sell and consume food deemed too visually unappealing to make its way to market whether undersize apples, pug-nose peppers or misshapen Camembert Mr. Chabanne runs a campaign called Gueules Casses, which translates into Ugly Mugs.Its logo is a smiling apple with a black eye and a single tooth, which Mr. Chabanne prints on labels that farmers and retailers can affix to their homeliest produce and sell at reduced rates. He sells the labels for a few euro cents each, keeping part of the proceeds while donating the rest to consumer groups or activists fighting food waste.To use the label, the produce seller must agree to charge at least 30 percent less for the item than for umblemished inventory.The efficiencies in farming, packaging and transportation that could come from consuming such fruits and vegetables, instead of throwing them away, could eliminate one billion tons of carbon emissions a year, Mr. Chabanne contends, and save 210 million tons of food a year.The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has estimated that a third of the worlds food fit for human consumption each year does not reach consumers.An estimated 800 farmers and food producers are participating in Ugly Mugs so far.I am really cheerful when I can make the most of everything my orchards produce, said Nicolas Benz, a cherry producer who has been involved with Ugly Mugs since Mr. Cabanne began it in April 2014. Mr. Benz said the program had enabled him to sell the 10 percent of his cherries he did not even pick before, as they were considered too small for the food industry.Late last year Ugly Mugs reached an agreement with the French multinational supermarket chain Carrefour, which since April has sold about 85,000 Camembert cheeses with Ugly Mug labels. Carrefour plans to promote the efforts among all its suppliers next year.Recently, the New York-based investment fund Global Emerging Markets committed up to 6 million euros, or about $6.6 million, to expand the Ugly Mug program into developing countries.There are similar marketing efforts elsewhere. In San Francisco, a start-up called Imperfect Produce operates a home-delivery service for what it describes as cosmetically challenged fruits and vegetables. In Portugal, the cooperative Fruta Feia, or Ugly Fruit, sells unphotogenic produce obtained directly from the growers.Worldwide, these actions complement each other, said Camelia Bucatariu, a technical officer on food waste at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.Mr. Chabanne grew up surrounded by the orchards, vineyards and rolling fields of Provence, in the south of France. Though not a farmer, he worked for a time for the Confrrie de la Fraise the Strawberry Guild which promotes high-quality produce at a national level in France.But in early 2014 he set out on his own, starting Ugly Mugs with Renan Even, the president of a small fruit and vegetable distributor, selling fruits and vegetables.One day, it clicked, Mr. Chabanne recalled. I had a friend selling the finest apricots you could imagine. And I watched him throw out fruit simply because of a small spot on their skin made by branches. The apricots were perfectly edible. He told me: If I leave one of these in, the whole box will be discarded. | Business |
Health|Childhood vaccinations have lagged across the world because of the pandemic.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/28/health/polio-measles-vaccinations-covid.htmlChildhood vaccinations have lagged across the world because of the pandemic.Credit...Adi Weda/EPA, via ShutterstockOct. 28, 2021The pandemic dealt a serious setback to global efforts to immunize children against diseases like measles and polio, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday, reducing worldwide coverage for some vaccines to levels not seen since more than a decade ago.The proportion of eligible children who received a polio vaccine fell to 83 percent in 2020 from 86 percent the year before, as did coverage with the third dose of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine, known as DTP3. Coverage with the measles vaccine also dipped slightly, to 84 percent last year from 86 percent in 2019.Those setbacks, while seemingly small, meant that millions more children missed out on routine immunizations during the pandemic, putting them and their communities at risk.Globally, nearly 23 million children targeted for the DTP3 shot were not vaccinated in 2020, compared with 19 million in 2019, the C.D.C. said. The vast majority of those had not received a single dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine. Not since 2009 had coverage with that vaccine been so low.The C.D.C. scientists involved in the report called for action to be taken to address the immunity gaps of preventable diseases in countries already saddled with Covid outbreaks. Scientists from the World Health Organization and UNICEF also were co-authors on the study.The decline in vaccinations follows a decade of stagnant immunization levels. In 2019, measles deaths swelled to their highest levels in 23 years, a consequence of what public health experts described as insufficient vaccination coverage. Scientists said that the pandemic had hampered the tracking of measles outbreaks.The pandemic also disrupted immunization programs, the C.D.C. report said, interrupting the supply of basic vaccines and making it more difficult to administer them.Immunization levels for diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis and measles were lowest in much of Africa, the report said. The W.H.O. also said on Thursday that only five of Africas 54 nations were expected to reach a year-end goal of vaccinating 40 percent of their people against Covid. UNICEF, a United Nations agency working to distribute coronavirus vaccines, warned of a shortfall next year in syringes for both Covid and routine vaccinations. | Health |
Nov. 14, 2016Zuby Malik is an unlikely candidate to violate international law. A 78-year-old mother of four with a crown of silver hair, she is a retired obstetrician-gynecologist with a penchant for order.But Ms. Malik is fighting for her life. After receiving a Stage 4 non-small-cell lung cancer diagnosis a year ago, she exhausted many of the treatments available to her and grappled with torturous side effects that left her itching and gasping for breath. During the summer, she decided to go to Cuba and bring back a cancer vaccine that is not approved in the United States. That she comes from a family steeped in medical training made the decision all the more difficult.At first, I was a little nervous, said Ms. Malik, sitting in her Northern California living room flanked by an oxygen tank and a table of medicines. But American treatments were not helping me, and I decided I should go to Cuba. What other choice did I have?Soon after she began the medication, she said, her breathing became easier and her energy returned. In her refrigerator was a box of blue- and orange-capped vials of the vaccine.Other cancer patients are following the same unlikely trail. Since beginning to normalize relations with the United States in 2014, Cuba has become a hot tourist draw with its unspoiled beaches and vibrant night life. But the country also has a robust biotechnology industry that has generated an innovative vaccine called Cimavax. It is part of a new chapter of cancer treatment known as immunotherapy, which prompts the bodys immune system to attack the disease.Cimavax is a therapeutic vaccine developed not to prevent cancer, but to halt its growth and keep it from recurring in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer. Developed in Cuba and available to patients there since 2011, it works by targeting a protein called epidermal growth factor, or E.G.F., that enables lung cancer cells to grow. The vaccine stimulates the bodys immune system to make antibodies that bind to E.G.F., preventing it from fueling the cancers growth. It is also available in Peru, Paraguay, Colombia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.Last month, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced that the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, a nonprofit cancer center designated by the National Cancer Institute in Buffalo, had received authorization from the Food and Drug Administration to conduct a clinical trial of Cimavax. It marks the first time since the Cuban revolution that Cuban and American institutions have been permitted to engage in such a joint venture, said Roswell Parks chief executive, Candace S. Johnson.The trial could take years, but American cancer patients are not waiting. Over the past couple of years, dozens have slipped into Havana and smuggled vials of the vaccine in refrigerated lunchboxes back to the United States, sometimes not even telling their doctors. Talk about Cimavax on cancer patient networks online has been escalating steadily as relations between the two countries have warmed and more patients are making preparations to go.Theres no doubt that without this medicine, I would be dead, said Mick Phillips, 69, of Appleton, Wis., who first went to Cuba in 2012 and has been returning annually ever since. When we were children, we were taught that Cubans didnt know what they were doing. Turns out they do.Despite experiences like Mr. Phillipss, trials in Cuba have shown only a modest benefit over all. In the most recent trial, patients receiving the vaccine after chemotherapy lived about three to five months longer than patients who did not receive it. The study, published earlier this year in the peer-reviewed journal Clinical Cancer Research, also found that vaccinated patients with high concentrations of E.G.F. in their blood lived even longer.The United States embargo against Cuba prohibits the importation of most goods from Cuba, including medication, without a license. American citizens are now permitted to travel to Cuba if their purpose falls into one of a dozen categories approved by the Treasury Department, but seeking medical care is not one of them.ImageCredit...Mike Roemer for The New York TimesMost patients going to Cuba fly through a third country such as Canada or travel under a general education category called people to people. None have declared with customs officials the dozens of vials of Cimavax they bring back tucked in their backpacks or suitcases. Stephen Sapp, a public affairs officer for United States Customs and Border Protection, says there is no record of Cimavax being intercepted at the United States border. If it were, it is unclear what might happen.Under the F.D.A.s personal importation policy, some unapproved medications may be brought into the country if there is not an adequate alternative available in the United States, or if treatment began in a foreign country and the amount is limited to a three-month supply. In addition, the Treasury Department recently established a new general license enabling American citizens to import Cuban pharmaceuticals under certain circumstances. But in the case of Cimavax, the regulation has apparently never been put to the test.Ms. Maliks son, Nauman, carried 80 vials of the vaccine and a set of syringes in his backpack when he and his mother flew into Los Angeles from Cuba in June. Patients generally receive an initial round of four injections at La Pradera, an international health center that caters mostly to foreign medical tourists in Havana two to the arms and two to the buttocks and then continue to give themselves periodic injections at home for up to several months. At the airport, Mr. Malik wrote on his declaration form that he was carrying medication, but he said that authorities did not ask what it was.I was ready for the discussion, but it just never happened, he said.Cuban researchers began working on Cimavax in the 1990s, prompted in part by the high rate of lung cancer in the country. A noncontrolled study in 1995 produced the earliest published evidence of the feasibility of inducing an immune response against epidermal growth factor in patients with advanced tumors, according to a 2010 article published in Medicc Review, an international journal of Cuban medicine.Dr. Kelvin Lee, the chairman of immunology at Roswell Park, has been collaborating with scientists at Cubas Center of Molecular Immunology since 2011. He said he hoped the vaccine could be used on other head and neck cancers and ultimately to prevent cancer.Patients in Cuba began receiving the vaccine free in 2011, and it has been administered to more than 4,000 patients worldwide, according to Roswell Park. Lung cancer and immunotherapy researchers are intrigued by Roswell Parks proposed trial, which would combine the vaccine with a form of immunotherapy called a checkpoint inhibitor that keeps the cancer from turning off a patients immune system. The Roswell trial intends to use the drug Opdivo, one of four checkpoint inhibitors approved by the F.D.A.ImageCredit...Brendan Bannon for The New York TimesBut the scientists are also reserved in their appraisal of Cimavax, in part because the Cuban trials were done on a relatively small number of patients. There is concern that the vaccine has received disproportionate attention in the flush of warming relations between the two countries.The data is intriguing, but we need to do more definitive studies to evaluate the benefits, said Justin F. Gainor, a thoracic oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital who works on the design of clinical trials for novel therapeutics. Right now, the body of evidence does not support using it outside the clinical trial process.The Cuban health care system has long been recognized for providing high-quality health care. A 2015 report on the Cuban health system by the World Health Organization noted, In Cuba, products were developed to solve pressing health problems, unlike in other countries, where commercial interests prevailed.With Cimavax migrating into the United States, those commercial interests are already coming into play. In Cuba, a four-shot dose of Cimavax costs up to $100 to manufacture, Dr. Lee said. Mr. Phillips, of Appleton, Wis., estimates that he pays about $9,000 for his annual supply of Cimavax, or about $1,500 a dose, which a visiting nurse administers every two months. Although some patients say the price recently dropped to about $850 a dose, the total cost of the trip can easily run more than $15,000, including airfare, lodging at La Pradera for several nights, and several months worth of the vaccine.Mr. Phillips, a lifelong smoker who was given a lung cancer diagnosis in 2009, said it was worth every penny. After chemotherapy and radiation, his cancer returned in 2010.Since I have been taking Cimavax, it hasnt come back, said Mr. Phillips, who travels to Cuba via Toronto.How other patients are doing on Cimavax is difficult to gauge. Ms. Maliks oncologist declined to be interviewed, saying he did not know enough about the medication. Several patients said they had not told their doctors for fear that they would refuse to treat them further.Im afraid he wont treat me if I am being treated by a Cuban doctor, said a 57-year-old woman named Lily who started Cimavax in Cuba in June and asked not to be identified because she is afraid of consequences for not declaring it. I think hell be afraid of liability or malpractice issues if he treated me while I was taking something thats not F.D,A.-approved.In the five months since Ms. Malik began taking Cimavax, her experience has been mixed. Initially, the fluid in her lungs diminished significantly, giving her renewed energy and allowing her to get around without her walker. But recently, fluid has begun to build up in her right lung, and she has grown weak and short of breath. Her son says she is likely to switch to a new medication soon and stop taking Cimavax. aIts not panning out as wed hoped, he said. Its really like the Wild West trying to know what is best to do.Stories of patients returning from Cuba are met with keen interest on the online health care social network Inspire, which supports a lung cancer group of about 53,000 members. They share information about how to travel under the radar and which size of refrigerated lunchbox is best.We got a lot of inquiries, said Judy Gallant, an owner of P&G Travel, which has offices in Ontario and Havana, and is planning trips to Cuba for half a dozen American patients. We make it clear we are not medical people. We just help them connect with people who are.Some American patients have a new worry: that when Donald J. Trump, the president-elect, takes office, he might crack down on Cuba and make it more difficult for patients to travel there. But Mick Phillips does not seem worried.I think were going to be O.K., he said. Trump may do a lot of things, but I dont think hes into preventing people from being able to live. | Health |
Credit...Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesJune 27, 2018WASHINGTON President Trump has decided not to impose new investment restrictions on China, and will instead support a congressional effort to expand the powers of an existing federal body that reviews foreign investments in the United States for national security threats.The president is supporting a bipartisan bill, known as the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act, which would broaden the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or Cfius. The legislation would give Cfius more power to investigate and potentially block foreign transactions.The House passed a version of the bill on Tuesday night, and the Senate passed its version this month. The bills now must be reconciled between the two congressional bodies before a final version lands on Mr. Trumps desk.On Wednesday, Mr. Trump said an expansion of Cfius would be a powerful national security and economic tool that better protects the crown jewels of American technology and intellectual property from transfers and acquisitions that threaten our national security and future economic prosperity.Here is what an expanded Cfius (pronounced SIFF-ee-yus) would look like:ImageCredit...China Stringer Network/ReutersThe current Cfius is powerful but limitedThe current committee led by the Treasury secretary and made up of members of the State, Defense, Justice, Commerce, Energy and Homeland Security Departments investigates only when a foreign companys attempt to acquire or merge with an American company poses a national security risk.The committee sends its findings and a recommendation to the president, who has the power to suspend or prohibit the deal. But a judgment from the committee is typically enough to kill even the largest multimillion-dollar deals.In March, the committee rejected a proposed takeover of Qualcomm, the San Diego-based chip maker, by Singapore rival Broadcom over concerns that it would pose a national security risk by depriving the United States of a telecom leader.Earlier this year, a $1.2 billion deal between MoneyGram, a money transfer company based in Dallas, and Ant Financial, a Chinese electronic payments company, collapsed after Cfius refused to approve it. And when the Dutch electronics giant Philips had agreed to sell a controlling stake in its California-based automotive lighting and LED business to Asian buyers, Cfius blocked it on security grounds.Cfius would be able to review more transactionsThe Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act would expand the universe of financial and business transactions that Cfius can review, giving it a say in a wider array of deals beyond just mergers and acquisitions.That means proposed joint ventures, minority stakes and real estate transactions near military bases or other sensitive national security facilities all could be reviewed and potentially squashed by Cfius.The current version of the legislation does not expand review powers on overseas joint ventures that involve American technology being transferred to foreign companies of interest. Instead, the law would strengthen the existing export control process run by the Commerce Department to manage such cases.Technology, as well as national security, will be a focusThe legislation would expand the types of risks that Cfius can consider when determining whether to block a deal, expanding it beyond just national security to Americas competitive edge in emerging industries.Under the plan, Cfius would update its definition of critical technologies to include cutting-edge and other technologies that could give the United States an advantage over countries that pose threats, such as China. What that means in practical terms is that Cfius could block a deal if it determined such a relationship would hinder Americas edge in technological and industrial industries, or if it posed a national security risk.The House version would allow Cfius to investigate any transaction, contribution or investment by a United States critical technology company of both intellectual property and associated support to a foreign person through any type of arrangement.China is still the focus, but an expanded Cfius could apply more broadlyMany on Capitol Hill and at the White House are focused on how an expanded Cfius could curb Chinese investments and prevent the countrys growing economic and technological dominance.China exploits loopholes in our existing safeguards to acquire sensitive, cutting-edge technology and then turns this technology against us to undermine our military advantage, Senator John Cornyn, the Texas Republican sponsoring the bill, said in a statement.About 20 percent of deals Cfius reviewed between 2013 and 2015 the latest years for which the committee has made data public involved Chinese investors.But Cfius investigates transactions involving dozens of other countries, and the legislation would give the United States the power to review deals involving a country of special concern. While those countries have yet to be designated, the legislation describes those countries as ones that have a demonstrated or declared strategic goal of acquiring a type of critical technology an American company possesses.Both versions specifically call on Cfius to look into cases that would give foreign governments a technological edge for a possible cybersecurity attack against the United States, such as activities designed to affect the outcome of any election for federal office.Investment in the United States could slowThe legislation has received bipartisan approval, with supporters saying it is a necessary step to prevent foreign investors who are intentionally sidestepping Cfiuss authority. But critics say that some aspects of the bill are troubling, given how easily Cfius could reject a potential transaction.The proposed law would charge Cfius with investigating plans that are likely to reduce the technological and industrial advantage of the United States, which some say would do more economic harm than good, and could chill legitimate investments that boost American jobs and growth.Foreign investment in the United States including foreign investment by way of acquisitions of U.S. firms generates important benefits for U.S. workers and welfare gains for the U.S. economy, wrote Theodore H. Moran, an international economics professor at Georgetown University.This change in approach would open the door to comparably broad protections with a zero-sum rationale of maintaining national economic superiority in vulnerable sectors in Europe and Asia, thereby undermining decades of effort to open domestic markets to competition from external sources, Mr. Moran wrote.Other opponents worry that additional investigations will unfairly constrict American companies and actually help foreign countries, and say that existing export control laws are sufficient to quell national security concerns.Congress still has to pass a final billThe House and the Senate have passed different versions of the Cfius legislation, which means both chambers will need to reconcile their bills and send a version back to their members for a final vote. Lawmakers are expected to fold the final Cfius legislation into a defense authorization bill that both chambers are planning to hammer out in the next few weeks.Mr. Trump said on Wednesday that he would sign the legislation if Congress is able to get it to his desk.If not, Mr. Trump said he remained prepared to act alone and said he would direct my administration to deploy new tools, developed under existing authorities, that will do so globally. | Politics |
VideoCreditCredit...Olivier Douliery/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesJan. 7, 2021The Trump supporters pressed through police barricades, broke windows and battered their way with metal poles through entrances to the Capitol. Then, stunningly, they breached the Peoples House itself, forcing masked police officers to draw their guns to keep the insurgents off the chamber floor.I thought wed have to fight our way out, said Representative Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado and a former Army Ranger in Iraq, who found himself captive in the House chamber.Listen to The Daily: An Assault on the CapitolA mob incited by President Trump stormed into Congress, disrupting the certification of Joe Bidens election victory. We hear from our colleagues who were inside the building.transcripttranscriptListen to The Daily: An Assault on the CapitolHosted by Michael Barbaro; produced by Rachel Quester, Michael Simon Johnson, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Sydney Harper, Clare Toeniskoetter, Stella Tan and Alexandra Leigh Young; and edited by Dave Shaw, Lisa Tobin and Paige Cowett.A mob incited by President Trump stormed into Congress, disrupting the certification of Joe Bidens election victory. We hear from our colleagues who were inside the building.michael barbaroFrom The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.Today: A mob incited by President Trump stormed the Capitol building, disrupting the certification of Joe Bidens victory in the presidential race. My colleagues, Nick Fandos, Jonathan Martin and Emily Cochrane were inside the building. Its Thursday, January 7.Nick, I wonder if you can tell us how this day started.nicholas fandosSo Wednesday was always going to be a tense day in Washington, because President Trump and his allies had decided that Congresss quadrennial meeting to certify the Electoral College votes would be a venue for him to make one final stand for his baseless and, frankly, unprecedented campaign to try and overturn the results of the election.[music]archived recording(CHANTING) America first! America first! America first!nicholas fandosThe president had invited and encouraged many of his supporters to come to Washington.archived recording(CHANTING) Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump!nicholas fandosThey gathered by the thousands Wednesday morning on the Mall.speaker 1The Republican Party has the ability right now to save themselves, to save it. And if they turn their backs on these people, they need to open their eyes and go, oh, if I ever want to even attempt to get elected again, I either switch parties or I help these guys out here, because these people are very angry. They might not look it, but they are very angry.speaker 2Were 30 seconds away, at any time, in this country, from a revolution. Were waiting and were ready.zolan kanno-youngsAnd could you elaborate on that? You know speaker 2No, sir, just that were ready. Were tired. Thats the only way if this doesnt work, its just a matter of time. Its going to happen.zolan kanno-youngsDoes that take the form of speaker 2We dont know why its going to start. We dont know where its going to start. We dont know whos going to start it. But thats next. Second American Revolution.archived recordingLadies and gentlemen, please welcome the 45th president of the United States of America, President Donald J. Trump!nicholas fandosThe president gave a pretty remarkable address.archived recording (donald trump)All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by bold and radical left Democrats, which is what theyre doing, and stolen by the fake news media. Thats what theyve done and what theyre doing. We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesnt happen. You dont concede when theres theft involved. [CHEERING]nicholas fandosAnd he worked himself up to basically encourage the thousands of people that were gathered there to head on down to the Capitol, where, early in the afternoon, Congress was set to meet in this joint session overseen by Vice President Mike Pence to formally count and then finalize Joe Bidens victories as president-elect of the United States.archived recording (donald trump)We are going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I love Pennsylvania Avenue. And were going to the Capitol. And were going to try and give the Democrats are hopeless. Theyre never voting for anything. Not even one vote. But were going to try and give our Republicans the weak ones, because the strong ones dont need any of our help were going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So lets walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.archived recording (interposing voices)Lets go! To the steps, forward! Lets go to Congress! Lets go!michael barbaroAnd so over at the Capitol, how was this certification process supposed to unfold?nicholas fandosWe knew that this was going to be a long day full of a lot of objections. There were 14 different senators and dozens and dozens of House Republicans who said they were ready to lodge objections to key swing states that Joe Biden won fair and square. These were going to force long debates. But at the end of the day, or maybe early Thursday morning, there was very little doubt that Joe Biden was going to be formally declared the president-elect by the Congress of the United States, whether or not President Trump wanted that to happen.archived recording[GAVEL POUNDING]nicholas fandosSo it all gets started at 1 oclock.archived recordingMadame Speaker, the vice president and the United States Senate.nicholas fandosWhen Vice President Mike Pence and members of the Senate parade into the House of Representatives behind two large mahogany boxes that contain the certificates certifying the votes from all 50 states archived recording (mike pence)Are there any objections to counting the certificate of vote of the state of Alabama?nicholas fandosTheres a couple of states, starting with Alabama.archived recording (mike pence)Hearing none.nicholas fandosThen Alaska.archived recording (mike pence) vote of the state of Alaska.nicholas fandosThey come and go and are accepted by the Congress. And then archived recording (mike pence) this certificate from Arizona.nicholas fandos as we expected, we get to the state of Arizona, one of a half dozen that President Trump lost that hes contesting.archived recording (mike pence)Are there any objections to counting the certificate of vote of the state of Arizona that the teller has verified, appears to be regular in form and authentic?archived recording (paul gosar)I Paul Gosar from Arizonas 4th archived recording (mike pence)For what purpose does the gentleman from Arizona write?archived recording (paul gosar)I write both for myself and 60 of my colleagues to object to the counting of the electoral ballots from Arizona.nicholas fandosAnd Representative Paul Gosar, whos from that state archived recording (mike pence)Is the objection in writing and signed by a senator?nicholas fandos and Ted Cruz rose together to object.archived recording (paul gosar)Yes, it is.archived recording (ted cruz)It is. [GROANS] [APPLAUSE]nicholas fandos triggering, essentially, this two-hour debate at the House and the Senate that would culminate in an up-or-down vote on whether or not to throw out Arizonas electoral college votes.archived recording (mike pence)The Senate will now retire to its chamber. [GAVEL POUNDS]nicholas fandosThe senators then marched out and went back to their chamber. The House started to debate. President Trumps allies are laying out their arguments. In the Senate, though archived recording (mitch mcconnell)Mr. President.nicholas fandos Mitch McConnell, the majority leader archived recording (mike pence)Majority leader.nicholas fandos is the first to rise and speak.archived recording (mitch mcconnell)Were debating a step that has never been taken in American history whether Congress should overrule the voters and overturn a presidential election.nicholas fandosNow, McConnell had tried to head off this effort in the first place. He saw it as a dangerous exercise that would divide his party and could hurt them electorally down the line. But the speech he gave was even more striking, I think, than we expected.archived recording (mitch mcconnell)Ive served 36 years in the Senate. This will be the most important vote Ive ever cast.President Trump claims the election was stolen. The assertions range from specific, local allegations to constitutional arguments, to sweeping conspiracy theories. The voters, the courts and the states have all spoken.nicholas fandosAnd then he did something that he really hasnt done for four years, frankly, which is directly rebuke the president archived recording (mitch mcconnell)If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side nicholas fandos and say that this drive by Donald Trump of the White House, and some of his allies on Capitol Hill, to overturn the results of the election archived recording (mitch mcconnell)Our democracy would enter a death spiral.nicholas fandos would send American democracy into a death spiral.archived recording (mitch mcconnell)The United States Senate has a higher calling than an endless spiral of partisan vengeance.nicholas fandosSo McConnell gives his speech to a rapt Senate chamber. But still, several of his colleagues promptly get up and start to defy him.archived recording (ted cruz)Mr. President.archived recording (mike pence)Senator.nicholas fandos starting with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas archived recording (ted cruz)We gather together at a moment of great division.nicholas fandos obviously a conservative firebrand who has run for president once. People think he wants to run for president again, and hes maybe trying to make a name for himself here.archived recording (ted cruz)Recent polling shows that 39 percent of Americans believe the election that just occurred, quote, was rigged.nicholas fandosAnd his message for his colleagues is a little bit different than the presidents. He basically argues that, like it or not, huge swaths of Americans, including a lot of people that vote for Republicans, dont trust the results of this election archived recording (ted cruz)You may not agree with that assessment. But it is, nonetheless, a reality for nearly half the country.nicholas fandos and thats not going away, and senators need to confront it.archived recording (ted cruz)It is the responsibility, I believe, of this office to acknowledge that is a profound threat to this country and to the legitimacy of any administrations that will come in the future.nicholas fandosHes followed by another colleague, eventually, James Lankford archived recording (james lankford)A small group of senators, including myself, have demanded that we not ignore the questions that millions of people are asking in our nation.nicholas fandos whos backing up Senator Cruz.archived recording (james lankford)Pause the count. Get more facts to the states before January the 20th.nicholas fandosAnd then, all of the sudden archived recording (james lankford)My challenge today is not about the good people of Arizona.nicholas fandos things start going very strangely in the chamber.archived recording (chuck grassley)Senate will stand in recess until the call of the chair.archived recording 1[CHANTING, CLAMORING]archived recording 2[EXPLETIVE] traitor to your country! Youre a [EXPLETIVE] traitor!archived recording 3Yeah! Traitor.archived recording 4Youre a [EXPLETIVE] traitor!archived recording 5[ECHOING VOICES] [GLASS BREAKING]archived recording 1Youve never seen this before! Youve never seen this before!archived recording 2Do not deface the statues.archived recording 3We the people!archived recording 4[CHANTING] [CLAMORING]nicholas fandosAnd all of the sudden, cameras are cut off. Security rushes in and pulls Vice President Mike Pence out of the chair where hes presiding and pulls him out of the room.michael barbaroWow.nicholas fandosThe police step forward and announce that there has been a breach of the Capitol. Theres an emergency. And senators are immediately being locked into their chamber. Press is sealed in with them. Every door is closed. And this frantic dash with police officers and staff of the Capitol run around slamming each door shut. And senators are all almost all 100 of them or, 99 right now, since Senate is short a member are in this room together in an incredibly tense moment wondering what is about to happen.Things are initially kind of playful. Senator Patrick Leahy, the longest-serving senator who loves to take photographs, pulled out a digital camera and started snapping pics until the police told him to cut that out.Pretty quickly, Senator Amy Klobuchar quickly yells out to everyone to quiet their voices, that shes heard that theres been a shooting in the Capitol Complex. Now, this really sent a chill through the chamber, as you can imagine.And within only a few minutes after that, police start pushing all 100 senators or 99 that are in the chamber into the well of the Senate and out through the back doors. Theres chaos and commotion in the room. The senators dont know whats happening. And the police then point up at us, who were locked into the chamber in a press gallery over where the vice president had been seated, and said, get down to the basement and follow us. So we scramble michael barbaroWow.nicholas fandos as senators do, down a series of elevators into the subterranean tunnels that connect the full Capitol Complex.[music] And all the sudden, I found myself in the fast-moving sea of the United States Senate Republicans and Democrats not certain where we were going, not certain where the mob had entered the building. They breached at several points, it had turned out. At one point, we seem to be redirected based on the fact that spaces that were supposed to be secure were not. Up ahead of me was Senator Chuck Schumer, whos the Democratic leader, who, earlier in the morning, had been declaring himself the majority leader triumphantly after Democrats had unexpectedly and surprisingly won the two Senate runoffs in Georgia the night before.michael barbaroRight.nicholas fandosNow his security detail was holding the back of his neck, hustling him down this underground tunnel towards a safe space. I also passed by Senator Mitch McConnell, who was the Republican leader and now the outgoing majority leader. 78 years old. He had polio when he was a young man. And his security detail had their arms up under his armpits, helping usher him as quickly as they could down through this long tunnel towards, ultimately, a secure space elsewhere near the Capitol where all of us ended up for several hours.jonathan martinThis is Jonathan Martin with The New York Times. We were brought to what I can only say is a secure location [INAUDIBLE] secure location. And they have asked the reporters that are here not to reveal where we are. When I got to the room and again, keep in mind, people were notably panicked I crossed paths with Mitt Romney. And Ive known Senator Romney for 15 years. And we greeted each other. And then as we parted ways, I heard Senator Romney say, Jonathan.And I turned around, and I saw him beckoning me over with his hand. And with rage written all over his face and fury in his voice, he said to me, this is what the president has caused today this insurrection. Id never seen him in that kind of frame of mind. But clearly, what he was trying to do was convey to the world that he blames President Trump for this for this desecration of the American Capitol. And he obviously wanted that told.[music]archived recording[POUNDING, CLATTERING]archived recording (police officer)Second floor!archived recording (trump loyalist 1)Get her down!archived recording (trump loyalist 2) flashlight! Flashlight!archived recording (reporter)Whats the purpose of storming Congress itself?archived recording (trump loyalist)Because they work for us. They dont get to steal it from us. They dont get to tell us we didnt see what we saw.michael barbaroWell be right back.[CHATTER]emily cochraneHi. Im Emily Cochrane. Im currently sheltering in a congressmans office on Capitol Hill with a few lawmakers and a few reporters after what was essentially a mob stormed the Capitol during the certification of the Electoral College. Right now, everyone is just going through what happened, what we saw.I went to the House chamber just before it was about to start.archived recording (pbs anchor)There it is. Shes gaveling the House into session to hear the debate over the electoral vote from Arizona. Lets listen in.archived recording (nancy pelosi)Let the record show that there is a gross violation of this guidance from the attendance on the emily cochraneSo I was sitting in the front row. And around 1:30 or so, you started getting these notices from sources, from aides in other parts of the Hill. Capitol police are closing my building. Theyre going from door to door, telling us to leave.But the debate was still going in the chamber. It was like you were in a bubble. People were looking at the phones. But there wasnt any real indication that anyone other than the reporters in the press gallery were fully aware of the extent of the protest and how things were escalating.archived recording (lauren boebert)I rise to support the objection.archived recording (nancy pelosi)The gentlewoman is recognized for five minutes.archived recording (lauren boebert)Thank you, Madame Speaker. And to ease everyones nerve, I want you to all know that I am not here to challenge anyone to a duel, like Alexander Hamilton or Aaron Burr.emily cochraneAt around just after 2:00, I got up, because I wanted to look out the window. I wanted to look out the window. I wanted to see it for myself and gauge what the situation was like. But the minute I stepped outside the gallery with a member of the gallery staff, a police officer came over and said that they were ordering everyone to shelter in place and go back inside.archived recordingWe gather today, Madame Speaker, to ensure the survival of our grand American experiment, the greatest democracy this world has ever known. And there are millions of people watching todays proceedings. The eyes of the world are on us now, my colleagues, wondering if our constitutional republic will hold.emily cochraneYou could start to feel this nervous energy as more and more lawmakers grew aware. And they began to close the gallery doors. The chamber doors had always been closed, but the gallery doors had been open for the purpose of ventilation. And those were starting to be closed.[music] Press gallery staff, really shortly after, came and told us there was a possibility that we would be locked in the chamber, so to get your chargers, get whatever you have from outside and bring it in, and be ready to spend time in the chamber.archived recording[GAVEL POUNDS] The House will be in order.The house will be in order. OK.emily cochraneCongressional leadership, pretty soon after that, was rushed out. You saw staff come and escort them out really quickly. The rest of lawmakers and staff were told to stay stay, be calm.archived recording[GAVEL POUNDING] The House will be in order. House will be in order.Members will take their seats.emily cochraneUp in the gallery, overlooking the floor, we were quietly being told where the exits were, where to look. And then a Capitol police officer stood at the dais, where Speaker Pelosi had been overseeing the proceedings right before that, and said that there had been a breach, that protesters were then around and to be prepared to duck under your chairs, for lawmakers to go hide in the cloakroom.archived recordingWithout objection, the chair declares the House in recess, pursuant to Clause 12(b) of Rule 1. [GAVEL POUNDS]emily cochraneAnd the House recessed, and everyone just sat there.[music]At one point, Dean Phillips just shouted out, This is because of you, at his Republican colleagues. Then it was you just you were waiting. And a Capitol police officer told us that we now have individuals in the rotunda. And they instructed lawmakers to take out gas masks that were stored under the chairs in front of them. Press we are in the gallery overlooking this whole thing. Capitol police came over and were passing out our own masks silver box wrapped in aluminum. I crouched down behind a chair just trying to rip this open, trying to figure out how to just open the package, let alone put the mask on. They told us we didnt need to put the mask on just yet, but there had been tear gas in the rotunda, so to be prepared for it.[whirring] These masks have a red light thats just flashing. So all these all of a sudden, theres just these little red lights all over the place. And they whir. Theres this whirring noise that hasnt stopped since. So you were just surrounded by this anxious murmuring, whirring.[clamoring]And then we could hear banging on the doors of the chamber. A couple of security and one lawmaker pulled a giant wooden chest and just pushed it up against the chamber doors the chamber doors that Mike Pence had just walked through behind the chests of voter certifications. That was now barricaded. They put this wood chest in front of the door. And they started yelling for us to evacuate, to just form these orderly lines as best we could, clambering over banisters, over chairs to try to get to the doors. And then archived recordingGet down! Get down!emily cochraneYou heard bangs again, and people stopped moving. And everyone just dropped to the ground.These chairs are your auditorium chairs. Theyre not really meant they dont really have high backs. So I was just basically lying on the floor, hoping that my head was behind this small chair, where, typically a tourist is sitting, watching their member give a speech. And archived recording 1They broke the glass?archived recording 2Everybody stay down! Get down!emily cochraneAnd we were froze frozen like that with some officers pointing guns at the door at the barricaded door. You could see Markwayne Mullin there with them, ostensibly. And I think he was trying to reason with whoever was on the other side. And we were just frozen, paralyzed just this whirring of the gas masks.[whirring]And then, after a few minutes, we started moving again. I dont know what prompted it, but we just started moving. We just started jumping over these banisters, stepping on the cushions, just doing whatever you could to get through that door as fast as possible, and clambering down a marble staircase. We went down a side exit, so I have no idea what the rest of the Capitol looks like.[music] Your phone is just going off. Family is watching this. Your colleagues are watching this. Where are you? Are you OK? Eventually, were in we made it to an office building, which is where we are now. Well, the lawmakers are mostly sequestered in one room, and they took some of the press in another room, where were just waiting. So for now, I am recording this in a congressmans bathroom, waiting for the clear to go.So thats where we are. Theres some talk that it will take some time for them to clear out the Capitol. But a couple of lawmakers that Ive spoken to remain adamant that theyre going to see this through, that this isnt going to stop the process. And even if its delayed, theyre going to keep going with the Electoral College.michael barbaroNick, how did this standoff come to an end?nicholas fandosSo as lawmakers and Vice President Pence remain locked down in these secretive locations, which were ultimately not breached, Capitol police get reinforcements from the National Guard, the F.B.I., other law enforcement. And they start to slowly, basically, hunt down and remove these individuals that had come into the building. And so in the 6-oclock hour, finally, another alert went out over the emergency system in the Capitol that had been going off all day to say that, finally, at that point, law enforcement had successfully taken back the building and reestablished a large perimeter around the Capitol that held for the rest of the night.michael barbaroSo this mob they were inside the United States Capitol for four hours. Thats pretty extraordinary.nicholas fandosIt is. Shots were discharged. One woman ended up dead, the police here in D.C. said. And there was tear gas deployed in the Capitol. Its just unthinkable that this would happen.michael barbaroAnd Nick, what was the president saying and doing during this period, during these hours when supporters were storming the Capitol in his name?nicholas fandosSo at first, he said nothing. He was just silent. After he gave his rally earlier in the day outside the White House, he had gone back inside and had very little to say. Eventually, he started, though, as he does, to tweet, including sending out a short video of himself filmed outside the White House. And this, Ive got to say, was just as remarkable as the rest of all of this.archived recording (donald trump)You have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We dont want anybody hurt.nicholas fandosThe president did call for those doing violence to stop. He said it was time to go home. But in the next breath archived recording (donald trump)Its a very tough period of time. Theres never been a time like this where such a thing happened, where they could take it away from all of us.nicholas fandosHe praised them. He said he identified, essentially, with what they were doing.archived recording (donald trump)So go home. We love you. Youre very special. Youve seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel.nicholas fandosThese are terms of affection for a violent insurrection in the Capitol of the country that he has sworn an oath to protect and defend.michael barbaroRight. And during this time, Nick, the reality and this is a pretty unsettling thing to say, but its true is that this mob, they did something that the president, so far, had not been able to do through the courts or through the political process. At his encouragement, at his incitement, they disrupted the certification of Joe Bidens win.nicholas fandosThey did. They did. For several hours on Wednesday, they gave the president, vividly, what he has wanted. But archived recording[FOOTSTEPS, CHATTER]nicholas fandos in the aftermath of it, what emerged was striking in its own way, particularly in the Senate, where those of us that had been locked down for hours walked under armed guard back into the Capitol, where Republicans and Democrats, when it was finally safe for them to come out, came out with arms locked and nicholas fandosOh my gosh. Thats him. Thats the certificates.speaker 1The electoral college, baby.speaker 2Everybody let Elizabeth through.speaker 3Thanks, Paul.speaker 4Those were the Electoral College boxes.nicholas fandosThose are the electoral college boxes that they just carried theyre carrying beside the tracks of the Senate subway back to the Capitol.nicholas fandos came back to the floor of the Senate speakerWow.nicholas fandos intent on finishing the process that they had started hours before, and not leaving until theyd done the work to make Joe Biden officially the president-elect.archived recording (mike pence)The Senate will come to order.nicholas fandosAnd archived recording (mike pence)The vice president, as president of the Senate, would like to give a brief statement with the indulgence of the senators.nicholas fandos actually, Vice President Pence asked to speak first.michael barbaroHm.archived recording (mike pence)Today was a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol. We condemn the violence that took place here in the strongest possible terms. To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today, you did not win. Violence never wins. Freedom wins. And this is still the Peoples House.nicholas fandosSenator McConnell rose right after him and said archived recording (mitch mcconnell)The United States Senate will not be intimidated. We will not be kept out of this chamber by thugs, mobs or threats. We will not bow to lawlessness or intimidation. We are back at our posts. We will discharge our duty under the Constitution and for our nation. And were going to do it tonight.nicholas fandos were going to finish this here tonight. We saw several of the senators not all, but several who had planned to lodge objections archived recording (mitch mcconnell)I yield up to five minutes to the senator from Georgia, Senator Loeffler.nicholas fandos came to speak quickly on the Senate floor to say archived recording (kelly loeffler)When I arrived in Washington this morning, I fully intended to object to the certification of the electoral votes. However, the events that have transpired today have forced me to reconsider.nicholas fandos that, in light of what had happened, they would drop them.archived recording (kelly loeffler)And I cannot, now, in good conscience, object to the certification of these electors.nicholas fandosYou had President Trumps critics, and even some of his most loyal allies from the last four years Lindsey Graham archived recording (lindsey graham)Uh, dropping out. Weve had a hell of a journey. I hate it to end this way. Oh my god, I hate it. From my point of view, hes been a consequential president.nicholas fandos standing up and saying archived recording (lindsey graham)All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough. Ive tried to be helpful.nicholas fandos this is over. Ive seen enough. President Trump lost. Joe Biden won.archived recording (lindsey graham)Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are lawfully elected and will become the president and the vice president of the United States on January the 20th.nicholas fandosAnd by the time the Senate voted on that first objection to the state of Arizona a little after 10 oclock archived recording (mike pence)On this vote, the yeas are 6. The nays are 93. The objection is not sustained.nicholas fandos all but six senators so thats 93 Republicans and Democrats voted to uphold President-elect Bidens victory.michael barbaroNick, how do you explain that? Because fidelity to this president has been so unwavering over so many episodes and so many years. What changed in those few hours?nicholas fandosI think its a question that everybody that was involved in this here today is going to continue to ask themselves for weeks ahead. I think, on the one hand, Republicans who have sided with the president have always been able to tell themselves theres another exit down the road that if things get bad enough, they can get off. And this was basically the end of the road for Trump. This was his last option. And it turned out that he made it as ugly and dangerous and vile as it possibly could have been. And I think so many members of his party just said, enough. We have gone along with so much. Were not going past the end of the road with you. Were not going to crash into whatever that is.Now, I dont want to overstate this. This is one fleeting moment. There are still going to be, in the end, dozens of members of the House of Representatives that vote to toss out legitimate election results because President Trump has asked them to, essentially. There are, as this episode has demonstrated, probably many more million Americans at home that dont believe this election was legitimately decided that dont view President-elect Biden as a rightful occupant of that office.And though elected officials perhaps made a responsible decision today, theres going to be a lot of days after this. The country remains, I think, in a deeply troubling and dangerous place. A culture that could create what I was in the middle of today is not something thats just going to dissipate overnight.[music]michael barbaroWell, Nick, thank you very much. We appreciate it.nicholas fandosOn a strange day, it was a strange pleasure. Thanks, Michael.michael barbaroIm glad youre safe.nicholas fandosI appreciate that.michael barbaroOn Wednesday night, after we spoke with Nick, 121 House Republicans voted to object to Joe Bidens victory in Arizona, more than half of the chambers Republicans. But that was not enough votes to sustain the objection. Soon after, a similar objection to Bidens win in Pennsylvania also failed. And both the House and Senate voted to certify Biden as president-elect.Well be right back.[music] Heres what else you need to know today.archived recording (jon ossoff)It is with humility that I thank the people of Georgia for electing me to serve you in the United States Senate. Thank you for the confidence and trust that you have placed in me.michael barbaroDemocrats have taken control of the U.S. Senate after Jon Ossoff, the Georgia Senate candidate, was declared the winner in his race against Republican David Perdue, completing a Democratic sweep of the states two runoffs. Earlier in the day, Ossoffs fellow Democrat, Raphael Warnock, narrowly defeated his Republican rival, Senator Kelly Loeffler. Democrats now control 50 seats in the Senate, where Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will break the tie, giving Democrats control over committees, legislation and nominations brought to the floor.Todays episode was produced by Rachel Quester, Michael Simon Johnson, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Sydney Harper, Clare Toeniskoetter, Stella Tan and Alexandra Leigh Young. It was edited by Dave Shaw, Lisa Tobin and Paige Cowett, and engineered by Chris Wood. Special thanks to Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Matt Rosenberg and John Ismay.Thats it for The Daily. Im Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.What unfolded at that point, at times on national television, was a tableau of violence and mayhem that shocked the nation, one of the most severe intrusions of the Capitol since the British invaded during the War of 1812 and burned it down.An armed standoff ensued in the House chamber, with police officers drawing their weapons. A pro-Trump extremist casually monkeyed around at the dais of the Senate. Intruders in Speaker Nancy Pelosis suite overturned desks and smashed photos. Others ripped artwork in Senate hideaway offices.This is what the president has caused today, this insurrection, Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, said as he and other senators were hustled off to a secure location.Some protesters gawked at the grand and storied building they had flooded while others looked at it with contempt.I dont trust any of these people, said Eric Martin, 49, a woodworker from Charleston, S.C., as he marveled at the opulence of the Capitol and helped a friend wash pepper spray from his eyes. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.But if some only stared at the Capitol, others resorted to violence. A woman inside the building was shot and later died, the District of Columbia police said, and multiple officers were injured. Two explosive devices were found around noon near the headquarters of the Republican National Committee, then destroyed by a bomb squad. And the federal authorities arrested a 70-year-old man from Alabama near the Capitol in possession of a firearm and materials to make several Molotov cocktails.By Wednesday evening, the scene outside the Capitol had calmed, after Capitol Police, supplemented by F.B.I. agents and Department of Homeland Security officers with members of the National Guard on their way, squeezed pro-Trump extremists from every corner of the building to the majestic Rotunda, then persuaded them to leave. | Politics |
Women's March 2018 Back At It ... With Even More Vigor 1/20/2018 Womens March demonstrations are taking place all across America this weekend, and the second annual event is packed with more passion and power ... as the movement has only grown and evolved over the past year. Marches are being held in New York, D.C., Chicago, L.A., Atlanta, Philly and even in Rome Saturday on the anniversary of Donald Trump's inauguration. Much like 2017, women are speaking out against the Prez, but are also advocating for fair treatment, equal pay, and to end sexual misconduct and harassment amid the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. In L.A., several leading ladies delivered emotional speeches to the crowd ... like Viola Davis, Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson. "When I raise my hand, I am aware of all the women who are still in silence." - Actress Viola Davis references the #MeToo movement during the Women's March in Los Angeles https://t.co/5VT3NOgntA pic.twitter.com/vLyBTPyMy9 @CNN Other celebs marching Saturday include Alyssa Milano, Asia Argento, Eva Longoria, Whoopi Goldberg, Halsey, Yoko Ono, and many others. Beautiful weather all over our great country, a perfect day for all Women to March. Get out there now to celebrate the historic milestones and unprecedented economic success and wealth creation that has taken place over the last 12 months. Lowest female unemployment in 18 years! @realDonaldTrump Despite being one of its main focuses of criticism, Trump called attention to the Women's March ... saying it's a perfect day to "celebrate the historic milestones and unprecedented economic success and wealth creation" of his presidency. Pretty sure he missed the point. | Entertainment |
Credit...Rodrigo Abd/Associated PressNov. 10, 2018MEXICO CITY The caravan of Central Americans that has been making its way from Honduras toward the United States border moved on from Mexico City in the pre-dawn chill of Saturday, as migrants strapped on backpacks, rolled up blankets and hoisted sleeping children into their arms to begin the next leg of their journey.For much of the past week, the giant capital, which prides itself on being a sanctuary for refugees, turned an athletic stadium into a camp for some 5,000 migrants and offered them every type of city service.Ever since the caravan crossed into Mexico three weeks ago, the country has faced a reckoning over the way it treats Central American migrants. Contradictory impulses are in play.In Mexico City this week, doctors and dentists were on hand for free checkups, and children spent the mornings drawing and coloring. A mariachi band played after breakfast, young men sparred with retired boxers and, this being Mexico, masked wrestlers turned up for a lunchtime bout.It wasnt always this way. For decades, successive administrations used strong enforcement measures to control Mexicos borders. The migrants tried to travel out of the sight of authorities, putting them out of mind of most Mexicans.Now, Mexico Citys embrace of the caravan has thrown an opposing idea into sharp relief, an acknowledgment that the countrys asylum laws require the government to protect migrants, who are vulnerable to criminal gangs.There is a constant back and forth, said Stephanie Leutert, who studies Central American migration at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. We want to stop people and we want to make sure they are safe, she said, summarizing the tension in the Mexican governments approach.That ambivalence was on full display on Friday.Local officials cleared the way for an advance group of the caravan to board empty metro trains at 6 a.m. that ran express to the edge of Mexico City. A few miles further on, police flagged down commuter buses to carry five or 10 migrants at a time to the next stop.Traveling in stages, the migrants reached the city of Queretaro, 135 miles to the northwest, by evening. The state governor announced that 760 people had arrived and would spend the night in the citys stadium to await the arrival of the rest of the group on Saturday.ImageCredit...Carlos Garcia Rawlins/ReutersThe migrants goal is Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, a route that avoids the crime-scarred states of northeastern Mexico.We will try to create a chain of protection across the states, said Nasheli Ramrez, the president of Mexico Citys human rights commission. She described the route and where responsibility would pass, one by one, to her counterparts in other states.Such good will was missing, though, for another migrant caravan.A few miles north of the Guatemalan border, federal police and immigration agents stopped a group of about 250 people mostly men from El Salvador and took them on buses to a migration detention center, Sergio Seis, a local migration official, said.This group, it appeared, would not be given the same welcome that the first caravan and two subsequent others now moving through southern Mexico had received.The conflicting approaches have played out as President Trump continued to hammer away at the idea that a caravan of people fleeing poverty, violence and political repression presented a threat to the security of the United States. On Friday he announced changes to policies that will limit migrants ability to seek asylum, a move targeted at the caravans.But caravan members have paid little heed to Mr. Trumps declarations. Many of the migrants are unlikely to qualify for asylum because they are seeking work, not refuge, in the United States.We have to fight, we have to give it a try, said Agustn Ramrez, a sawmill worker from the Honduran town of Talanga. God moves mountains.The migrants left Honduras a month ago in a caravan that swelled into the thousands as word spread and people especially families sought safety in numbers.They arrived in a Mexico hanging in political limbo. The outgoing government of Enrique Pea Nieto is set to hand over power on Dec. 1 to a new leftist government. For years, first during the Obama administration and then after Mr. Trump took office, Mr. Pea Nietos government had been acting as a junior partner of the United States in blocking the migrants passage north.President-elect Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador has promised a different approach.He has pledged to grant temporary work visas to Central American migrants, declaring that nobody should be forced to migrate, and seems unlikely to stand in the way of those who choose to test their luck by traveling to the American border.ImageCredit...Alfredo Estrella/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesMr. Trump has prioritized the detention of migrants over the new free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, said Carlos Heredia, an economist who studies migration at CIDE, a Mexico City university. Mr. Lpez Obradors response, he said, has been: I will not do the United States dirty work.It is certain that there will be a clash between Washington and the Lpez Obrador government, Mr. Heredia said. Whatever Mexico does, it will never be enough. Trump will keep raising the bar.As the migrants prepared to leave the camp in Mexico City, politics seemed far from their thoughts. They gathered around American lawyers who arrived at the stadium to explain the complexities of the asylum process in the United States.They dont give a damn if you are poor, Joseph Hutz, an immigration lawyer, told a small group. They dont give a damn if you are a good person.But Mr. Hutz knew that his warnings would get little traction. We hear you and were going to keep going, he said in an interview, summarizing the migrants response.He argued that migrants would be better off seeking asylum in Mexico, but the option held little appeal for many.Fewer than 50 people initiated asylum applications in Mexico City, according to Casa Refugiados, an organization that helped people at the stadium fill out forms.Instead they prepared to push on, some just trying their luck, others certain they could never go back to the countries they left behind.They are killing everyone in El Salvador, said Claudia Garca Sordo, 18, who is from the town of San Miguel. She has been in Mexico since the spring, fleeing a gang that wanted her to sell drugs. After she arrived, the gang killed her stepfather, her 2-year-old brother and her 16-year-old sister, she said.Were not scared, she said, betraying no emotion. Fear is dead to us. | World |
Credit...Alex Wong/Getty ImagesDec. 16, 2015General Electric, the nations largest industrial company, expects next year to be one of economic uncertainty, geopolitical turmoil and slow growth.But despite the tentative business environment, Jeffrey R. Immelt, the chief executive, said Wednesday that G.E. should deliver double-digit gains in earnings per share in 2016.He said the companys stronger industrial businesses, like jet engines and gas turbines, should be enough to offset the weakness in its big oil field equipment unit, which has had orders drop sharply as oil prices have plummeted. The companys revenue will also be trimmed by a stronger dollar, he added, since most of G.E.s sales are overseas.The Federal Reserves decision to raise interest rates on Wednesday, bolstering the dollars value, was built into G.E.s planning. Were counting on a stronger dollar year in 2016, Mr. Immelt said.At a briefing for analysts and investors in New York on Wednesday afternoon, G.E. gave its first financial forecast for 2016. The company said it expected operating profits of $1.45 to $1.55 a share. Wall Streets consensus estimate is $1.51 a share on revenue of $129 billion.The top of the profit range, G.E. said, could be achieved if global economic growth improves and if the companys integration of the electric grid and power-generation assets of Alstom of France goes smoothly. The $10.6 billion acquisition of the Alstom business is the largest industrial deal in G.E.s history. The midpoint model assumes that the costs associated with absorbing Alstom will lower earnings by 5 cents a share in 2016.G.E. said it planned to be a large and opportunistic buyer of its own shares next year, a financial tactic championed by Nelson Peltz, the activist investor, who in October disclosed that his Trian Fund Management had purchased a $2.5 billion stake in G.E. The company said it planned to spend $18 billion next year on buying back its shares, which increases earnings per share.General Electric shares rose slightly in after-hours trading, after closing up 2 percent for the day, at $30.98 . The shares have risen 23 percent so far this year.Investors have applauded G.E.s rapid shift this year as it returned to its industrial roots and sharply pared its once-huge finance arm, a campaign that began when the 2008 financial crisis hit.G.E. has been moving even faster than the aggressive timetable it announced in April for shedding most of GE Capital, its finance unit. At the time, Mr. Immelt called the plan a historic pivot that would involve selling more than $300 billion in financial assets.The goal, he said, was to reshape G.E. so that 90 percent of the companys profits would come from the industrial business by 2018, compared with 58 percent last year.That schedule has been shortened by a year, to 2017. The company will have sold off $104 billion in assets by the end of this year. Last month, G.E. also completed the spinoff of its consumer finance business, Synchrony Financial, which sells private-label credit cards and finance plans for retail purchases.G.E.s industrial business is undergoing a transformation of its own, relying increasingly on software. It has built up a large software unit in San Ramon, Calif., as the spearhead of the G.E. effort to become a digital industrial company. In September, Mr. Immelt predicted that the company would be a top 10 software company by 2020.Today, G.E.s new jet engines, power turbines, locomotives and medical equipment are loaded with sensors. These digital sensors generate data that smart software parses to spot machines in need of preventive maintenance, before they fail, and to identify opportunities to save energy or improve patient care, for example.The companys growing portfolio of industrial software offerings adds to G.E.s large services business, which produces 70 percent or more of the companys industrial earnings.G.E.s digital business will produce revenue of $5 billion this year, Mr. Immelt said, with the goal of reaching $15 billion by 2020. | Business |
Credit...Daniel Leal-Olivas/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesNov. 1, 2018Ever since Britons voted to quit the European Union in 2016, questions have been asked about Arron Banks, a pugnacious entrepreneur with wide-ranging international contacts, who bankrolled a pro-withdrawal campaign and is thought to be the biggest political donor in British political history.On Thursday, the police were investigating if Mr. Banks broke the law while promoting Britains departure, known as Brexit.The election law watchdog, the Electoral Commission, said it had referred the matter to the National Crime Agency, the police who tackle organized crime, because it had reasonable grounds to think that a number of criminal offenses may have been committed.Mr. Banks, sometimes described as the godfather of Brexit, denied any wrongdoing and predicted that the investigation would finally put an end to the ludicrous allegations leveled against me.Some of the questions swirling around Mr. Banks are about his ties to Russia, including what was discussed at several meetings one of which was a boozy six-hour lunch with the countrys ambassador to Britain, Alexander V. Yakovenko. There was no specific mention of any Russian link in the statement released by the Electoral Commission.Instead, it focused on suspicions that some loans to the pro-Brexit campaign came from outside Britain making them illegal from a company of which Mr. Banks is the majority shareholder.The commission said it suspects that Mr. Banks was not the true source of a total of eight million pounds in loans made to Better for the Country, an organization that ran the Leave.EU campaign.That raised the question of who was behind the loans. One opponent of Britains exit from the European Union, David Lammy, a lawmaker for the opposition Labour Party, said the allegations were so serious that Brexit must be put on hold until we know the extent of these crimes against our democracy.That is highly unlikely to happen, but the investigation comes at a sensitive moment in the Brexit negotiations, and against the backdrop of growing calls for a referendum on the terms of any deal that the government of Prime Minister Theresa May can negotiate.Mrs. May is hoping to conclude a deal on Brexit within the next few weeks. But if she succeeds, she may struggle to get support for it in Parliament, and her Conservative Party has been inflamed by the debate.Mr. Banks was a co-founder of Leave.EU., one of the high-profile groups advocating Britain to exit the bloc during the campaign before the referendum.The Electoral Commission believes that one of the loans to Leave.EU may have come from Rock Holdings, a company incorporated in the Isle of Mann, which is not part of the United Kingdom but a self-governing possession of the British Crown. It is known as a center for international financial services and a low-tax jurisdiction.As it is not a U.K. entity and does not carry on business here, Rock Holdings could not lawfully make any donation or be a party to any loan to Leave.EU, said the commission in a statement.It said it suspects that Mr. Banks and Elizabeth Bilney, one of his associates, had concealed the true details of these financial transactions.Ms. Bilney denied any wrongdoing in an interview with the BBC.In a statement, the National Crime Agency said its investigation relates to suspected electoral law offenses covered by that referral, as well as any associated offenses.While electoral law offenses would not routinely fall within the N.C.A.s remit, the nature of the necessary inquiries and the potential for offenses to have been committed other than under electoral law lead us to consider an N.C.A. investigation appropriate in this instance, the statement added.Apparently unperturbed, Mr. Banks posted a picture on Twitter of himself fishing, saying that he was in Bermuda.He also argued in a statement that there was no evidence of wrongdoing from the companies I own.He characterized the allegations as politically motivated, arguing that the Electoral Commission is under intense political pressure from anti-Brexit supporters.Duncan Hames, director of policy at Transparency International UK, a group that campaigns against corruption, said, The fact that the National Crime Agency are taking on this investigation makes clear just how serious these allegations are.We have previously called for a full and thorough investigation into the source of these funds, and for action to be taken where a breach of law is found, Mr. Hames added. Any criminal activity must be prosecuted and individuals held to account. | World |
VideotranscripttranscriptWe Should Return Them Back Home, Trump Says of Detained ChildrenPresident Trump defended his zero tolerance policy on illegal border crossings, claiming that the country would be overrun without it.Im directing H.H.S., D.H.S. and D.O.J. to work together to keep illegal immigrant families together during the immigration process and to reunite these previously separated groups. We have to house these minors and we have to house them safely and frankly, we have to house them, and we should be taking good care of them and then we should return them back home. We have come up with a lot of solutions, but we have Democrats that dont want to approve anything, because thats probably, they think, bad for the election thats coming up. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people suffering, and thats unfortunate. If we took zero tolerance away, you would be overrun as a Youd have millions of people pouring through our border. If you took zero tolerance away, everybody would come right now. Theyd be getting their little belongings, unfortunately, and they would be heading up. You would be You would have a run on this country the likes of which nobodys ever seen.President Trump defended his zero tolerance policy on illegal border crossings, claiming that the country would be overrun without it.CreditCredit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesJune 21, 2018WASHINGTON The United States is preparing to shelter as many as 20,000 migrant children on four American military bases, a Pentagon spokesman said on Thursday, as federal officials struggled to carry out President Trumps order to keep immigrant families together after they are apprehended at the border.The 20,000 beds at bases in Texas and Arkansas would house unaccompanied alien children, said a Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Michael Andrews, although other federal agencies provided conflicting explanations about how the shelters would be used and who would be housed there. There were reports of widespread confusion on the border.It was unclear whether the military housing would also house the parents of children in migrant families that have been detained, and officials at the White House, the Defense Department and the Department of Health and Human Services said on Thursday that they could not provide details.The Pentagon announcement followed Mr. Trumps executive order on Wednesday to keep families together after they illegally cross the Mexican border into the United States. The order called for detaining families at the same location.Democrats questioned the 20,000-bed plan. Is it even feasible? Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, asked from the Senate floor.Advocates for the migrants expressed concern about the prospect of vast settlements of families housed on military bases.Theres conflicting instructions being given, said Michelle Bran, the director of Migrant Rights and Justice at the Womens Refugee Commission. Its another example of this administration making these big, bold policy announcements with no plan for how they are going to implement them.Its adding to the chaos on the ground, she said. The tumult echoed the level of confusion among law enforcement agencies at airports after Mr. Trump barred travel for visitors from predominantly Muslim countries a week after he took office last year.The presidents order this week directed Pentagon officials to provide any existing facilities available for the housing and care of alien families and to construct such facilities if necessary and consistent with law.Defense Secretary Jim Mattis sidestepped questions on Wednesday about whether bases might be used as migrant camps, except to say: We have housed refugees. We have housed people thrown out of their homes by earthquakes and hurricanes.On Thursday, the Pentagon did not say which bases would be used for the shelters.According to estimates, more than 2,300 children under 12 many of whom are toddlers and infants are being held in special tender age shelters.A Trump administration spokesman said on Wednesday afternoon that the government would not immediately reunite those children with their parents. But that was contradicted Wednesday night by a more senior official.On Thursday, Justice Department officials denied a report, apparently issued by officials from another agency, that prosecutions of immigrants traveling with families had been suspended.VideotranscripttranscriptMelania Trump Visits Facility Housing Children Near BorderThe first lady traveled to McAllen, Tex., as her husbands administration scrambled to execute his latest executive order aimed at ending the separation of families at the border.Let me begin to recognize each of you. And thanking you for all what you do. For your heroic work that you do every day and what you do for those children. We all know theyre having theyre here without their families. And I want to thank you for your hard work, your compassion, and your kindness youre giving them in these difficult times. Im here to learn about your facility, and which I know you house children on a long-term basis. And Id also like to ask you how I can help to these children to reunite with their families as quickly as possible. So thank you again for all what you do. And thank you as well. Thank you all for what you do thank you very much. And those children, how many times they speak with their relatives or families per week for example? Well, the children are allowed to communicate with their family twice a week. How long is the time, the max time, that somebody spends here that they are not reunited with their family? Right now, we are averaging currently 42 to 45 days.The first lady traveled to McAllen, Tex., as her husbands administration scrambled to execute his latest executive order aimed at ending the separation of families at the border.CreditCredit...Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesScrambling to adjust and comply with the presidents order, the Border Patrol temporarily stopped referring immigration cases to the Justice Department for prosecution, setting off rumors that it would be halted altogether.That forced the Justice Department to insist in a statement that there has been no change to the departments zero tolerance policy to prosecute adults who cross our border illegally instead of claiming asylum at any port of entry at the border.Two internal Customs and Border Protection emails supplied to The New York Times showed similar confusion.In one, sent at 9:54 p.m. Wednesday, Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings of the Border Patrol told supervisors that they could continue prosecution referrals for one parent who entered the country illegally if there was another adult migrant present.But at 4:09 a.m. Thursday, he followed up, saying that agents should maintain family unity for multi-parent/adult families.Last week, federal officials opened a tent city outside El Paso to house up to 360 immigrant teenagers in custody. The temporary shelter site, at a border station in Tornillo, Tex., was still in use on Thursday, and its capacity remains 360, officials said.In the border city of Del Rio, Tex., American officials continued deporting undocumented immigrants. Luis Alexis Morales, 20, of Veracruz State in eastern Mexico, said he was left in the middle of a bridge that links Del Rio with Ciudad Acua, Mexico.The Border Patrol caught me a week ago crossing the river near Piedras Negras, Mr. Morales said, referring to a city in northern Mexico across from Eagle Pass, Tex. He said American authorities had held him in jail for the past seven days before deporting him.On the legal front, Mr. Trumps lawyers asked Judge Dolly M. Gee of Federal District Court in Los Angeles to modify a 1997 court ruling to allow the indefinite detention of families.The ruling, known as the Flores settlement, requires that children must be released within 20 days. After that, they are to be sent to a family member or placed in the custody of a licensed, government-sponsored shelter.The Justice Department said the only way to prevent migrant children from being separated from their parents would be to detain entire families. It seemed to suggest that the practice of separating families could resume if the judge refused to alter the 1997 ruling.It also echoed a 2016 argument by the Obama administration during a similar migrant surge. The judge and an appeals court denied the requests by the administrations lawyers.In 2014, the Obama administration briefly sheltered migrant children at military bases in Texas, California and Oklahoma, establishing emergency housing for a steep increase in unaccompanied minors crossing the border. Around 7,000 children were housed on the bases for about three months until the number of migrants ebbed.At the time, officials said the government was responding to a rise in the number of unaccompanied children fleeing violence in Central America. The militarys role then was limited to housing the migrants and giving officials from the Department of Health and Human Services access to bases.It was unclear on Thursday whether the military would play a more central role in Mr. Trumps plan.At the White House, the president again lashed out at extremist, open-border Democrats, and he again falsely blamed Democrats for the political crisis that continues to roil his administration and was amplified in recent days by images and recordings of young children crying for their parents.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 WatchChoosing hard-edge remarks at a cabinet meeting before the House was scheduled to vote on overhauling immigration laws, Mr. Trump asked for Democratic lawmakers support on the legislation, even as he said they were causing tremendous damage and destruction and lives.He repeated his false claim that Democrats forced family separations. They dont care about the children. They dont care about the injury. They dont care about the problems, Mr. Trump said. They dont care about anything.In a stream-of-consciousness commentary, the president also attacked Mexico for what he claimed was a failure to help stop illegal immigration into the United States. He said the trek through Mexico from Central America was like a walk through Central Park.Mexico is doing nothing for us except taking our money and giving us drugs, he said.Mr. Trump said he has directed his administration to keep illegal immigrant families together and to reunite these previously separated groups. But he offered no details about how the government intends to reunite the families.Melania Trump, the first lady, visited a facility in McAllen, Tex., that is holding 55 children who have been separated from their parents.She took a tour of the Upbring New Hope Childrens Shelter, and in one classroom, she met with a group of children, some of whom spoke to her in English and others in Spanish, which was translated by a teacher.Officials at the shelter said that the children held there were allowed to communicate with their families by phone twice a week.How long are you here? Where are you from? asked Mrs. Trump, who traveled with Alex M. Azar II, the health and human services secretary. As she left, she said, Be kind and nice to others, O.K.? Nice to meet you.Back in Washington, House lawmakers had been scheduled to vote on Thursday on two broad immigration proposals, even as Mr. Trumps executive order relieved some of the pressure to act quickly.The House rejected a hard-line immigration bill in a vote on Thursday afternoon, as had been expected. And Republican leaders delayed the vote on the second bill, which would provide a path to citizenship for young unauthorized immigrants while keeping migrant families together at the border.That bill, a compromise between moderate and conservative Republicans, had been set for a vote early Thursday evening, but the vote will now take place next week, as it appeared destined to fail as Republicans remained at odds over immigration.As Mr. Trump reiterated on Thursday his position that congressional action would be the best way to resolve the border crisis, critics of the president announced that they would not wait for such a measure.A coalition of 10 states filed a lawsuit aimed at making sure that the Trump administration stops separating children from their parents at the border.President Trump yesterday signed an empty and meaningless order that claims to take back policies that he put in place himself as a political stunt, said Xavier Becerra, the California attorney general, who is a plaintiff in the suit. Meanwhile, these children, their parents and people around the world need answers regarding what comes next.The American Civil Liberties Union has already filed a separate lawsuit that demands the government stop separating families and reunite the children who have already been separated with the parents who brought them into the United States. | Politics |
Adrian Peterson Warns Baker Mayfield About Common Pre-Draft Mistake! 1/27/2018 TMZSports.com Adrian Peterson says he's seen a bunch of NFL prospects make one big pre-draft screw up before the big day ... so, he's dishing out advice to Baker Mayfield to make sure the QB doesn't fall in the same trap. Of course, Peterson was a stud at Oklahoma back in the day -- and says his fellow Sooner has all the right tools to be a star in the NFL. AP's just looking to give the kid some advice -- and it's advice that ALL the players in the draft should heed. | Entertainment |
Donald Glover Bows Down to Jamie Foxx ... For Now, At Least 1/30/2018 TMZ.com Donald Glover admits Jamie Foxx has a leg up on him in the talent department, but adds it's just a matter of time ... Father Time. We got the "Atlanta" star wearing a mask (the flu's no joke, folks) at LAX Monday and straight-up asked ... who's better? Fair question. Donald's hauled in multiple Emmys, a Golden Globe and a Grammy. Jamie, of course, has an Oscar, Golden Globe and a Grammy. Donald breaks down the comparison and basically says it all comes down to 2 numbers -- 34 and 50, their respective ages. Still, Donald admits there IS one thing at which he sucks. | Entertainment |
Credit...Alpana Aras-King for The New York TimesJune 1, 2018Sign up for California Today for the latest news on the June 5 primary and more here.TURLOCK, Calif. In all of his campaigns for the House, Representative Jeff Denham has never seen anything quite like the rolling circus that trails him through his sprawling district in Californias Central Valley the Dump Denham signs, the papier-mch effigies, the shouting.He says it does not faze him, but there is nothing like the political gallows to focus the mind of an endangered politician, and Mr. Denham, a Republican, is responding in a way that touches almost everybody here in California farm country: He is leading the charge on Capitol Hill to pressure Speaker Paul D. Ryan to hold a vote on legislation to protect the young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers.Nearly two dozen other House Republicans about half of them politically vulnerable and many in districts with large Hispanic populations have followed suit, affixing their signatures to a petition that is just a few votes short of forcing Mr. Ryan to act. If it works, it will push the party into a divisive, and politically risky, election year debate on immigration.A vote this summer to help undocumented immigrants could demoralize President Trumps most ardent supporters and depress Republican turnout in November. A vote to toughen immigration rules and harm the young Dreamers would further energize Democratic voters. To avoid such a showdown, the speaker has scheduled a two-hour meeting on immigration with his rank and file when lawmakers return to Washington next week.There have been some critics who say that this could cost us our majority, said Mr. Denham, who is facing a crowded field of five Democrats and one other Republican in Tuesdays unusual two party primary election here. My concern is if we do nothing, it could cost us our majority. So yes, its risky. But its the right thing to do.From Miami to the Rocky Mountain West to Texas and to California, the petitions signatories form a renegade band that is not only making life difficult for Mr. Ryan but also standing up to the conservative Freedom Caucus, which so often dictates policy in the House. Of the 23 Republicans on the petition, 11 are in districts that are clearly in play. Another five have announced their retirements or have already left the House.The Freedom Caucus has been bullying Ryan from Day 1, particularly on immigration, said Frank Sharry, the founder and executive director of Americas Voice, an immigrants rights group. And yet the Republican majority depends on districts like Denhams.ImageCredit...Alpana Aras-King for The New York TimesHere in Californias 10th Congressional District, a rich agricultural region where the roads are lined with dairy farms and orderly rows of almond trees, it is difficult to overestimate the effect that immigration policy has on daily life. The voices of Mr. Denhams constituents make that much clear.Christine Hackler, 70, an almond farmer and registered Democrat who voted for Donald J. Trump in 2016, complained that laborers were not showing up for work, for fear that immigration authorities will conduct a sweep and deport them. Like many agricultural employers here, she is up in arms over Congresss failure to create a new guest worker program for laborers and has told Mr. Denham so. She has already cast an early ballot for Mr. Denham in Tuesdays primary: Hes not perfect, but hes trying.Uriel Vallejo, 17, a high school senior here in Turlock, said he decided to go to college close to home, opting against a school in San Diego because it would be too risky for his undocumented parents to visit him so close to the border. He spends his afternoons canvassing for one of Mr. Denhams Democratic opponents, Virginia Madueo, and sees Mr. Denhams immigration push as an act for him to get re-elected.Ann Strahm, 50, a sociology professor at California State University, Stanislaus, said she has students who have asked, Would you hide me? if immigration authorities turned up at their homes.As a member of Be the Change Turlock, a new grass-roots group of self-described pissed-off middle-aged ladies who are into arts and crafts, Ms. Strahm is among those who have been dogging Mr. Denham with papier-mch effigies and on social media, with pictures of milk cartons featuring the congressman and the word missing in bold capital letters.Yet though she is working hard to unseat Mr. Denham in large part because of his vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act she sounds almost sympathetic when she talks about his immigration stance, especially toward young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.His outward expressions toward people who are undocumented is caring, she said. I dont give him much, but I can give him that.Mr. Denham, 50, an Air Force veteran who owns a plastics company and a small almond farm, said the status of Dreamers is personal for me. His father-in-law, a onetime farmworker from Mexico, came to the United States on a now-defunct guest worker program and ultimately became a citizen as a result of a 1986 immigration law that conservatives still deride as amnesty. Mr. Denham says he helped with the paperwork.Latinos account for nearly 45 percent of the population here in the 10th District, though just 26 percent of the electorate. The district runs from the San Francisco exurb of Tracy to the heart of the San Joaquin Valley. Mr. Denham won the district in 2016 by three percentage points as did Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee.Here are the pieces you need to read to understand California, and what may happen there on Tuesday. What is a jungle primary and how does it work? Republicans are struggling to field candidates on the ballot in November. Meanwhile, Democrats, too, are wary of a possible disaster. Everything you need to know about the top races in the state.Around the country, the electoral math for those Republicans who have signed the petition is much the same and in some cases worse.In South Florida, Representative Carlos Curbelo, who is leading the petition drive along with Mr. Denham, is seeking a third term in a district that Mrs. Clinton won by 16 points, four points more than he did. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates his race a tossup, even though his likely Democratic challenger, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, is a virtual unknown. (Mr. Denhams race is rated as a tossup too.)In Colorado, Representative Mike Coffman, a five-term incumbent in yet another tossup race, started studying Spanish in 2013 after his districts lines were redrawn to put him in a district where one in five residents is Latino. Mrs. Clinton won there in 2016 by nine points; Mr. Coffman won by eight.In Texas, Representative Will Hurd, who touts his rsum as a former C.I.A. agent and whose sprawling district includes roughly 800 miles of the United States southern border is facing a tough challenge from Gina Ortiz Jones, a Democrat and a former Air Force Intelligence officer and Iraq war veteran. He won his district by one point in 2016; Mrs. Clinton carried it by three.ImageCredit...Eric Gay/Associated PressPeople every election say I have a difficult election, Mr. Hurd said in an interview, dismissing the notion that politics is at work. This is the right thing to do.Along with a Democrat, Representative Pete Aguilar of California, Mr. Hurd has sponsored legislation that would offer the Dreamers a path to citizenship while also beefing up border security. The bill, which has Mr. Denhams backing, is one of four measures including a hard-line measure offered by the Freedom Caucus that would be taken up by the House if the petition is successful.While many Republicans are railing against so-called sanctuary cities, Mr. Denham and the others are walking a fine line, trying to appease conservatives while putting just enough distance between themselves and the president to attract support from independents and crossover Democrats.Mr. Denham considers himself fairly conservative he also supports building the wall that Mr. Trump has proposed at the southern border with Mexico and votes with the president 97 percent of the time, according to the FiveThirtyEight website. In Washington, he is active in the Republican Main Street Partnership, a coalition of business-minded Republicans whose president, Sarah Chamberlain, says a Denham loss would be an awful harbinger for the party.If Denham loses, Nancy Pelosi is speaker, she said, referring to the House Democratic leader.As they are around the country, Democrats here are energized. Local chapters of anti-Trump groups like Indivisible and Swing Left have sprung up, and the women of Be the Change Turlock meet every Monday night to plot strategy. They and other critics see Mr. Denhams immigration push as too little, too late, arguing that if he really wanted to help Dreamers, he would have pushed his petition a long time ago.Hes grandstanding, said Cathy Doo, 63, a retired electric and gas company employee who complains that Mr. Denham votes Republican, straight down the line.Meantime, the demonstrations are continuing; last week, Democrats staged a Dump Denham rally at a busy street corner, and when Mr. Denham spoke at a Memorial Day ceremony, a group of protesters trying to behave modestly so as not to offend veterans turned their backs.Mr. Denham, who says the protests are very manufactured and go away as soon as the press leaves, insists he is not worried. To those who accuse him of being a clone of Mr. Trump, he has a ready reply: It seems to me that Im standing up to my own party. | Politics |
Credit...Denis Balibouse/ReutersDec. 21, 2015For many in the fashion industry, it appeared to be a smooth and logical merger.The two biggest names in the business of selling luxury fashion online, Yoox and Net-a-Porter, announced plans this spring to combine in a 936 million pound, or $1.4 billion, deal, creating an e-commerce powerhouse in an industry that has been slow to embrace the Internet.I dont think any merger in history has been so perfect on paper, Federico Marchetti, the chief executive of Yoox, told The Financial Times in May.Behind the scenes, however, simmered a corporate battle between the majority owner of Net-a-Porter and one of its original backers.The management of Net-a-Porter and some of its minority shareholders fought against the deal, arguing that the companys majority owner, the Swiss luxury conglomerate Richemont, was selling out at far too low a price, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.One of Net-a-Porters first investors, Carmen Busquets, even cobbled together a group of financiers who she said were prepared to buy back control of the retailer for far more than what Yoox had offered.In numerous letters sent this year copies of which were reviewed by The New York Times Ms. Busquets and Natalie Massenet, the founder and then executive chairwoman of Net-a-Porter, complained bitterly that the company, a pioneer of high-end online fashion sales, was being sold at far too low a price.In a period of two weeks I had secured more than enough equity to buy the entire NAP at a minimum valuation of 1.4bn with an indisputably better partner set up than the Yoox transaction, Ms. Busquets wrote in a letter to Richemonts board on June 12. I am certain that your shareholders will want to understand why your management chose to donate over 400 million and possibly even 500 million of their money to the shareholders of Yoox.The dispute will not derail the merger, which closed in October. But it highlights a peculiar battle between Ms. Busquets, who has sold her shares in Net-a-Porter, and Richemont, which is best known for its luxury watch brands like Montblanc and Piaget.At the heart of the dispute is the future of how high-end fashion with sales of roughly $243 billion last year is sold. While the luxury fashion industry had been slow to move online, believing that customers preferred richer in-person experiences, top labels have come around to courting customers in the digital realm.Analysts at Exane BNP Paribas and ContactLab noted in a report this spring that online sales had jumped to 6 percent of total retail revenue from 3 percent in 2010. And by 2020, the analysts estimate, sales driven by e-commerce and other digital means will make up more than half of all luxury sales, up from a quarter this year.Yet at the same time, specialists in online luxury, including both Net-a-Porter and Yoox, are facing more pressure from traditional retailers as well as individual fashion brands eager to keep their customers rather than sell to them through middlemen.I think their advantage is eroding, said Luca Solca, an analyst with Exane BNP Paribas. My expectation is that more and more luxury goods brands will try to insource their digital resources.Putting together the archrivals Net-a-Porter, a specialist in current-season clothes from the likes of Balenciaga and Saint Laurent, and Yoox, which sells off-season goods, was meant to create a new giant that could compete against those strengthening rivals.Today, we open the doors to the worlds biggest luxury fashion store, Ms. Massenet of Net-a-Porter said in late March when the merger was announced. It is a store that never closes, a store without geographical borders, a store that connects with, inspires, serves and offers millions of style-conscious global consumers access to the finest designer labels in fashion.Investors appear to agree about the potential of the combined company. Shares of Yoox jumped roughly 22 percent on the announcement of the deal, and rose about 44 percent by the time the merger closed. Since early October, shares in the Yoox Net-a-Porter Group have climbed a further 22 percent.Richemont appears to believe in the future of Yoox Net-a-Porter, holding roughly half of the combined e-retailers stock.Ms. Massenet, however, struck a different tone in a Feb. 26 letter to Johann Rupert, the chairman of Richemont. In the letter, Ms. Massenet, who started Net-a-Porter in her London apartment in 2000, complained that she had been notified of the sale talks with Yoox only two weeks earlier.ImageCredit...Denis Balibouse/ReutersMs. Massenet disclosed that she had the backing of a consortium interested in buying control of Net-a-Porter at a valuation of about 1.4 billion, more than 50 percent more than what Yoox was offering. The group included the investment firms Certares, Tiger Global Management and New Enterprise Associates. All the potential investors cautioned that their preliminary valuations were subject to due diligence.Other businesses, including Cond Nast, had also expressed interest in participating, according to that letter.The proposed offer would have allowed Richemont to maintain up to a 40 percent stake in the business, cashing in its remaining stake for 620 million. The promise was that Net-a-Porter would be taken public in perhaps three years, potentially reaping an even higher valuation.We have many concerns around strategic rationale and cultural fit of the businesses, but are particularly surprised at the price ascribed to NAPG in comparison to Yoox, Ms. Massenet wrote.A representative for Richemont declined to comment on Ms. Busquetss contentions.A representative for Yoox Net-a-Porter declined to comment. A spokesman for Ms. Massenet declined to comment.Representatives for Certares, Tiger Global, NEA and Cond Nast declined to comment or did not respond to several inquiries for comments.Analysts over the years have questioned whether Richemont should continue to own Net-a-Porter, asking whether the company primarily known for its high-end watch brands should instead focus on its core business. And Net-a-Porter has posted annual losses while under Richemonts ownership, though its sales have continued to rise.Richemont has said that merging Net-a-Porter with Yoox made sense because it would fuse two of the biggest online fashion retailers to create a new merchant with significant scale.Ms. Busquets, a Venezuelan-born investor who was Net-a-Porters original backer and retained a 2.3 percent stake in the business after selling control to Richemont, proved even more combative in her correspondence. Yoox is simply an inferior business to NAP, she wrote in a March 28 letter to Richard Lepeu, Richemonts co-chief executive.In that letter, Ms. Busquets not only pressed the idea of a management buyout, but floated alternatives, including pursuing a merger with other businesses she believed would have been a better fit, like Barneys.Or, she wrote at the time, she would have been satisfied if Net-a-Porter were valued at about 1.5 billion.By June 12, Ms. Busquets was arguing that Net-a-Porter deserved to be valued even higher, given the companys financial performance. In a letter to Richemonts board, she wrote that bankers at Morgan Stanley, whom she had hired to evaluate the business, had valued Net-a-Porter at more than 2 billion, given its improved financial performance.Ms. Busquets has retained two high-profile law practices, Boies Schiller in the United States and David Gold & Associates in Britain, to explore her legal options, according to people briefed on the matter.Bad blood has lingered between Ms. Busquets and Richemont, stretching back to when the Swiss luxury company bought a majority stake in Net-a-Porter from Ms. Busquetss father and the other minority shareholders, which she has said was done under duress.Ms. Busquets said in a statement: We are reviewing all legal possibilities. I want to make sure future entrepreneurs protect themselves and dont make the same mistakes we have made.Ms. Massenet resigned from Yoox Net-a-Porter in October, just as the merger closed and after she sold her shares.Mr. Solca of Exane BNP Paribas said that he believed the valuation offered by Yoox was fair, but he allowed that Ms. Busquets might hold a different view.This is more art than science, he said. | Business |
DealBook|CVC Capital Plans So Paulo Officehttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/10/business/dealbook/cvc-capital-plans-sao-paulo-office.htmlDec. 9, 2015RIO DE JANEIRO The private equity firm CVC Capital Partners plans to open an office in So Paulo and take on a prominent Brazilian investment banker to run it.Jean-Marc Etlin will join as head of the Latin America operation, beginning in January, CVC said in a statement on Wednesday. Mr. Etlin is the longtime chief executive of Ita BBA Investment Bank, part of Banco Ita, which he joined in 2005.In the decade that followed, he played a key role in its rise, both when Brazils economy boomed and experienced a record number of initial public offerings but also in recent years, when mergers and acquisitions have become the only viable exits for companies here and when private equitys role in those deals grew.CVC, based in Luxembourg, said it expected to look for opportunities throughout Latin America from its So Paulo office and make investments from the CVC Capital Partners VI fund. The fund was raised in 2013, pulling in about 10.9 billion euros, or $15 billion based on exchange rates at the time, according to the firm.Brazil is mired in recession, with the economy contracting for three consecutive quarters, and Goldman Sachs recently warned of a possible depression. Nevertheless, Bertrand Meunier, a managing partner at CVC, said in the statement that we believe now is the right time to build a strong, local and experienced team in Brazil and Latin America.CVC, which has 23 other offices worldwide, has yet to make an investment in Brazil, a person close to the firm said. Its website names more than 250 companies that make up its historical portfolio, but not one is from Latin America.Compared with other international private equity firms, CVC appears to be making a late entry into Latin America. Advent International, where Mr. Etlins brother Patrice Etlin is a managing director, has been making investments here since the late 1990s. The Carlyle Group formed a South America team in 2008.Last year, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Bain Capital each made their first direct investments in Brazil.Still, there remains space for private equity here, especially as capital and financing become more and more scarce amid few signs of improvement in the economy.Deals continue to take place even if the dollar volume is down. According to Dealogic, the number of deals in Brazil so far this year is 643, only one less than the 644 made during the same period last year.Mr. Etlin, a former rugby player and advisory board member at Sothebys, has been an adviser on numerous deals for Ita BBA that involved private equity firms.Jean-Marcs reputation and experience will be of great value to CVC Capital Partners and allow us to build out our presence in this exciting market, Mr. Meunier said. | Business |
11 things wed Really like to knowFew drugs have been approved for treatment of this dementia, and none works very well. It has become one of the most intractable problems in medicine. Credit...Jens Mortensen for The New York TimesNov. 19, 2018Its a rare person in America who doesnt know of someone with Alzheimers disease. The most common type of dementia, it afflicts about 44 million people worldwide, including 5.5 million in the United States. Experts predict those numbers could triple by 2050 as the older population increases. So why is there still no effective treatment for it, and no proven way to prevent or delay its effects? Why is there still no comprehensive understanding of what causes the disease or who is destined to develop it?The answer, you could say, is: Its complicated. And that is certainly part of it.For nearly two decades, researchers, funding agencies and clinical trials have largely focused on one strategy: trying to clear the brain of the clumps of beta amyloid protein that form the plaques integrally linked to the disease. But while some drugs have reduced the accumulation of amyloid, none have yet succeeded in stopping or reversing dementia. And amyloid doesnt explain everything about Alzheimers not everyone with amyloid plaques has the disease.Its not that amyloid is not an important factor, said Dr. John Morris, director of the Knight Alzheimers Disease Research Center at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. On the other hand, weve had some 200-plus trials since 2001 that have been negative.Not all trials have targeted amyloid. Some have focused on tau, a protein that, in Alzheimers, forms threads that stick together in tangles inside neurons, sandbagging their communications with one another. [Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.]Tau tangles seem to spread after amyloid accumulates into plaques between neurons. But so far, anti-tau drugs havent successfully attacked Alzheimers itself.Only five drugs have been approved to treat this dementia, but they address early symptoms and none have been shown to work very well for very long. Its been 15 years since the last one was approved. The field is desperate, and we all want something to work, said Dr. Reisa Sperling, director of the Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston.There was a glimpse of promise this summer, when researchers reported the results of the first large clinical trial of a drug that, in the highest of five doses tested, not only slashed amyloid levels but also seemed to slow the progression of memory and thinking problems in people in the early phases of cognitive decline.But while several experts said they were cautiously optimistic, much more testing of the drug, known as BAN2401, is needed. These results came from a Phase 2 trial, which is considered an intermediate step to the larger and more extensive Phase 3 trials usually required for Food and Drug Administration approval. Some issues with the study will need to be rectified in subsequent trials, including that people with a gene known to increase Alzheimers risk were, at the insistence of European regulators, taken out of the group that received the highest dose.Dr. Samuel Gandy, associate director of the Mount Sinai Alzheimers Disease Research Center in New York, noted that so far no drugs have managed even to modestly improve Alzheimers patients ability to function, which would allow them to remain independent longer. We need something to affect activities of daily living, like whether they need fewer caregiving hours and that sort of thing, he said. Nothing has been so dramatic.The reason Alzheimers research is littered with failed clinical trials lies beyond questions of amyloid and tau. For one thing, researchers have found it difficult to engineer animals with symptoms mimicking human dementia so they can effectively try drugs on them before testing on people. Another issue: increasingly sophisticated scanning technology has revealed that damage to the brain in people with Alzheimers can begin decades before dementia symptoms appear. Its possible that trials testing drugs on people with full-fledged dementia have failed because its too late, not necessarily because the theory is flawed.Because of this, in recent years many researchers began testing anti-amyloid drugs on people with very early dementia, or those who dont have dementia or other symptoms but because of genetic risk or amyloid levels in their spinal fluid are at high risk of developing Alzheimers. Such prevention trials will report results in the coming years, and some may provide the clearest answers yet about amyloids role.At the same time, the scientific establishment has become increasingly open to new theories about the underpinnings of Alzheimers. Some researchers are trying to restore lost synapses; others are focusing on microglia, scavenger cells involved in the brains immune system. Two teams of researchers, working separately, recently published studies suggesting that viruses, particularly two common types of herpes, could kick-start an immune response that might drive the accumulation of amyloid in the brain. Co-authors of one of the studies included longtime skeptics of a viral role in Alzheimers, such as Dr. Gandy and Dr. Eric Reiman, executive director of the Banner Alzheimers Institute in Phoenix.Whether or not the amyloid hypothesis is correct, we need to better understand Alzheimers disease mechanisms and risk factors and use this information to find the most effective ways to treat and prevent this disease, Dr. Reiman said.Two authors of the second virus study Rudolph Tanzi, a neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard, and a colleague, Robert Moir have pursued this line of research for years.We spent too long thinking about amyloid as plumbing how much do you produce, how much do you clear, Dr. Tanzi said. Then we came along and were saying infection is actually driving the amyloid hypothesis. Amyloids a match, the tangles are a brush fire being spread as they kill neurons, and the virus is lighting the match.He and others suggest that the therapeutic answer might ultimately be a cocktail of medications. Drugs to hit amyloid early on, drugs to hit tangles early on, drugs to hit inflammation, Dr. Tanzi said. And you might want to add antivirals.A Texas businessman with a family history of dementia recently announced he would award $4 million in prize money to researchers who search through published scientific studies and knit the findings together into a unified explanation of how Alzheimers works.An effective Alzheimers therapy cant come soon enough. Now, with no drugs for advanced Alzheimers and clinical trials mostly focusing on earlier stages, the troops on the front line of treatment are caregivers. Research on caregiving has found that helping stimulate positive emotions with activities, music, comfort food, and exercise can make patients feel better and experience less anxiety and frustration.But, of course, that is not the same as turning back the tide of the disease. | Health |
Europe|Marine Le Pen Loses Parliamentary Immunity Over Twitter Casehttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/world/europe/france-marine-le-pen-national-front.htmlCredit...Jeff Pachoud/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesMarch 2, 2017PARIS In a clear show of its disapproval, the European Parliament voted Thursday to lift the parliamentary immunity of Marine Le Pen, the leader of the French far-right National Front, in a criminal case involving graphic photographs she posted on Twitter of acts of violence by the Islamic State.In December 2015, Ms. Le Pen, a deputy in the European Parliament, posted three images, including one of the decapitated body of an American journalist, James Foley, who was killed by Islamic State militants in 2014.French prosecutors accused Ms. Le Pen, who is now a candidate in Frances presidential election, of the crime of dissemination of violent images, for which she could face up to three years in prison if tried and convicted.Ms. Le Pen said at the time that she had posted the photographs as a protest against a French television and radio journalist who had likened her far-right party to the Islamic State.French prosecutors had asked the European Parliament to lift her immunity. As a strident critic of the European Union and the Parliament, she is not regarded warmly by many of its members.Ms. Le Pen is facing a number of judicial entanglements as she pursues her presidential campaign. But none of them have dented her standing in polls or with her supporters, and she is widely expected to win a first round of voting on April 23.Of the three major candidates in Frances presidential race, two are now deeply embroiled in criminal investigations: Ms. Le Pen, and the center-right candidate, Franois Fillon, who on Wednesday angrily announced that he was certain to be formally charged by March 15 in an embezzlement investigation.Ms. Le Pen is also being investigated in connection with accusations that she paid National Front aides with money from funds provided by the European Union. According to the accusations, she was involved in a phony-jobs scheme in which aides working for her and other National Front deputies at the Parliament were actually carrying out party work.The lifting of her parliamentary immunity concerns only the case involving the Islamic State photographs and not the more serious accusations of misusing European Union funds.Her chief of staff was formally charged in the payroll case last week, and her bodyguard is also being investigated.After Ms. Le Pen posted the gruesome images on Twitter in 2015, the family of Mr. Foley demanded that she delete the one of his body, saying that she had used it for political purposes. Ms. Le Pen claimed that she had not known it was a photograph of Mr. Foley. Obviously, I withdrew it immediately, she said at the time.On Thursday morning, she told the French television network LCP: I am a deputy. Its my job to denounce Daesh, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State that some consider pejorative. She added that she was the victim of a politicized investigation. | World |
Meryl Streep I Want a Monopoly On My Name 1/29/2018 Meryl Streep is getting territorial at 68, because she's just applied for legal protection so no one can use her name to hawk anything entertainment related. Streep filed an application with the U.S. Trademark Office, asking for a monopoly on the use of her name when it comes to entertainment services, including "live, televised, and movie appearances by a professional actress and entertainer." The application goes on to cover public speaking engagements, autograph signings and websites related to motion pictures. She says in her application her name was first associated with entertainment back in 1975, when she did voice-over work for a movie, "Everybody Rides the Carousel." Meryl plunked down $275 for the application. She can swing it. | Entertainment |
Comedian Steve Brown Viciously Attacked During Set 1/22/2018 Tumika LaSha -- Cops say the suspect's first name is Marvin, and ... shocker ... he was boozing at the club. We're told 4 people in the club, aside from Steve, were injured and they want to press charges. He also did $400 in damages ... smashing the mic, dishes and glasses. One of the victims is a security guard who says he got punched in the face before Marvin bolted in a car. Comic Steve Brown probably wishes he just got heckled Sunday night at a comedy club, because a disgruntled "fan" seemed gunning to kill him. Steve was doing a set at the Comedy House in Columbia, South Carolina when a guy in the audience jumped onstage and just went insane, first trying to viciously strike Steve with the mic stand and then a stool. Steve ducked out of the way and, a good 30 seconds into the attack, a few people at the club had the presence of mind to subdue the guy, who was taken outside but then came back. The Richland County Sheriff's Dept. responded to the club, and has opened an investigation. So far, no arrests. Steve escaped unharmed, but he's blasting the club for lack of security. Waiting for your permission to load the Instagram Media. | Entertainment |
Genetic material recovered from a 1st-century Pompeii man reveals a spinal disorder and ancestral links to Anatolia.Credit...Cesare Abbate/EPA, via ShutterstockMay 26, 2022In the early 1930s, archaeologists in Pompeii made a remarkable discovery: the skeleton of a man who died during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Unearthed in the Casa del Fabbro, or House of the Blacksmith, the skeleton was found encased in pumice and reclining on what had been a wooden couch, arms folded under his head and legs stretched out on the floor.The figure in its repose recalls the Casanova character played by Marcello Mastroianni in the 1961 film Divorce Italian Style. As embodied by Mastroianni, the ideal 20th-century Italian man, the sciupafemmine had a resigned air, touched by melancholy that suggested indolence and a lifetime of romantic disaster. The Italian actress and writer Marta Mondelli has described him as a solitary, charming, not necessarily beautiful, but seducing man who loves being alone almost as much as he loves women and their company.In the movie, Mastroianni wants to rid the world of his dull wife, who keeps demanding for him to say he loves her, said Fabio Macciardi, a professor of molecular psychiatry at the University of California, Irvine. Fed up, he bolts out of their bedroom, prepares a couch and dreams of courting his teenage cousin. That is how I picture the Pompeii man.Dr. Macciardi is part of a team of geneticists and archaeologists who reported Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports that they had successfully sequenced the genome of this hypothetically lazy Latin lover. It was the first time that a complete stretch of mitochondrial DNA from Pompeian human or animal remains had been genetically decoded.The study is exciting because it shows that DNA is preserved from the towns buried by the Vesuvian eruption despite high temperatures, said David Reich, a Harvard geneticist, who was not involved in the research.The authors of the paper, Gabriele Scorrano, a University of Copenhagen geneticist, and Serena Viva, a University of Salento funerary archaeologist, speculate that the ash and pumice released during the blast may have provided cover from DNA-degrading environmental factors, such as atmospheric oxygen.The idea for the project came in 2017 when the anthropologist Pier Francesco Fabbri facetiously asked Dr. Macciardi and Dr. Scorrano to help him sequence one of his ancient forebears, the recumbent male from the Casa del Fabbro.The joke is that Fabbri is the plural of Fabbro, Dr. Macciardi said. Although excavated in the early 1930s, the skeleton remained in the dining room through the devastating earthquake of 1980. Only in 2016, during a restoration of the house, was the corpse removed for study.Dr. Scorrano and Dr. Serena extracted DNA from the remains of the recumbent man and a woman discovered on the floor of the room, her arms clutching the edge of a couch. Between her feet was a cloth bag containing a small hoard of 26 silver coins. What were they doing there? Dr. Macciardi said. Were they finishing a meal and caught by surprise? Were they about to go to sleep? Perhaps they were seeking refuge.At the time of the cataclysm, Pompeii is thought to have had a population of about 12,000. Most people escaped; only about 1,200 bodies have been recovered. A forensic analysis of the two Casa del Fabbro bodies revealed that the male was about 35 years old and the female over 50. She may have been his mother, his aunt or his wife, Dr. Macciardi said. Researchers targeted DNA stored in the petrous, a very dense bone that envelopes the inner ear. But they could sequence genetic material from only the male cadaver.Comparisons of his DNA with genetic material recovered from 1,030 other ancient and 471 modern western Eurasian people suggested that his genetic makeup was most similar to ancient people living around Rome in Imperial times, in the first few centuries of the Common Era.Modern and Central Italians look genetically different due to medieval events, Dr. Reich said. The findings are consistent with the possibility that the people of Pompeii might have been part of the same population as the people of the city of Rome, roughly 150 miles away.The investigators concluded that some of the Pompeii mans ancestors were from the island of Sardinia and some from Anatolia, the Asian part of modern Turkey. This bolsters data from a previous paper that inferred that two millenniums ago the Italian peninsula was a hotbed of genetic diversity.Why was the Pompeian male lying down? Tuberculous spondylitis, a disease of the spine also known as Potts disease, was detected in his DNA sequence. Common symptoms are back pain, lower limb weakness and paraplegia. The condition would have forced him to have little mobility, Dr. Fabbri said. The elderly woman near him suffered from arthrosis, so she stood there waiting, protecting a small treasure of coins.Dr. Macciardi was unfazed by Dr. Fabbris diagnosis of his proto-Mastroianni. I imagine him leisurely eating lunch while lounging on his couch, battling the ache in the back and ruminating in the old Italian style on how to eliminate his wife and marry his young cousin, he said. Then the volcano erupts and hes buried in pumice.Theres an old Italian proverb: La morte mi trovera vivo. Death will find me alive. | science |
Credit...Jae C. Hong/Associated PressFeb. 6, 2014KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia When Dominica, a tiny Caribbean nation, makes its Winter Olympic debut on Friday, the cross-country skier carrying its flag at the opening ceremony will be a wealthy former investment fund manager from Staten Island who never tried cross-country skiing until after his 30th birthday.Now, after an intricate chain of events and a great deal of paperwork and world travel, Gary di Silvestri is a first-time Olympian at 47.Our story is different, definitely different, di Silvestri said in an interview from Montana last week before arriving in Sochi.The story includes his Italian-born wife, Angelica Morrone di Silvestri. At 48, she is the other member of the first Winter Olympic team from Dominica and is about to become the oldest woman to compete in Olympic cross-country skiing, far surpassing Norways Hilde Gjermundshaug, who was 41 in Turin in 2006.Dominica (pronounced Doe-ma-NEE-ka) is a former British colony with about 73,000 inhabitants. Often confused with the Dominican Republic, it has black-sand beaches and no surprise a tropical climate.Our new motto will be sun, sea and sand, and snow if you want it, Thomas Dorsett, the secretary general of the Dominica Olympic Committee, said in a telephone interview.The golden age of the Winter Olympic tourist athlete best symbolized by the happily hapless Eddie Edwards, a British ski jumper known as the Eagle is long gone. Qualifying standards were established in winter sports in the 1990s. But the di Silvestris, accomplished skiers who both managed to beat the Olympic and biological clocks by qualifying last month, are proof that acquiring nationality in a balmy place can still provide a path to the Winter Games for unlikely athletes who would be unable to make the cut in their countries of origin.Some sports officials in the Caribbean reject this approach. Among them is Steve Stoute, the president of the Olympic association in Barbados, which has never had a team at the Winter Games.I wish them well, but it wouldnt happen with my Olympic committee, Stoute said of the di Silvestris.Stoute, who said he did not think winter sports were a natural fit for a tropical nation, said prospective Olympians with no genuine connection to Barbados had regularly contacted his committee by letter or email in recent years offering their services in sports like cross-country skiing, curling and speedskating.ImageCredit...Janie Osborne/Associated PressFor 2014, we got requests from Germany, Slovenia and Latvia, if my memory is correct, he said. For 2010, there were quite a few, but Canada and the U.S.A. come to mind, as they were very sincere and passionate.Stoute declined to provide the athletes names, saying that it would be a breach of confidence.The other athletes representing Caribbean nations in Sochi were either born in or have family ties to the countries they will represent. Dow Travers, an Alpine skier for the Cayman Islands, was born and raised there before attending boarding school in Britain and Brown University in the United States. Jasmine Campbell, an Alpine skier for the United States Virgin Islands, was born there before moving to Idaho.The di Silvestris have taken a less direct path. Without giving a precise date, di Silvestri said that he and Angelica had first visited Dominica years ago and that they had financed developmental and humanitarian projects on the island. He did not provide specifics on the projects but said he and his wife had done philanthropic work internationally in education, health and athletics.Its a beautiful country; we fell in love with it, and the people are great, and we wanted to help them in some way, he said. These countries, they need assistance, so we did. We acted the best we could at the time, made a financial contribution to the country that went to different projects, and in return they granted us citizenship.Di Silvestri said that he and Angelica also hold Italian citizenship and that he holds United States citizenship.Bill Mallon, an Olympic historian from the United States, called the di Silvestris classic Olympic tourists. But di Silvestri said he and Angelica were serious athletes.Were not taking this lightly, he said. The qualifying process was not easy.He said participating in the Olympics had not been on his mind when he became a citizen of Dominica. Not really, he said. After the fact, yes.Felix Wilson, president of Dominicas Olympic Committee, said any suggestion that the di Silvestris had used their purchasing power to get a spot on the Olympic team was unfounded.Gary never came to us and said, Look, Im spending this; Im doing this and doing that, so I want be on board to go to the Olympic Games, Wilson said. That was not the approach. No way.Dorsett said the endeavor had two primary objectives. The first was to promote the little-known country.The tourism department, I think we will benefit from this, Dorsett said. I think we are so privileged to have somebody like Gary represent our country, and without looking for fine points and cutting teeth, I think to us its just a godsend. Because you have to realize sometimes we are mistaken for the Dominican Republic. If we can make our own mark, its better, so we highly appreciate what Gary has done for us.The second goal is to open a path to winter sports for young people from Dominica and the Caribbean who are studying or living in cold-climate countries.They dont even think about going into winter sports, di Silvestri said. So this was an ideal way to create, or at least plant the idea in some of these kids minds that its possible.Dorsett said countries like Dominica had every right to join the Winter Olympics.The winter countries, they take part in the Summer Olympics, he said. Why cannot the tropical countries get the chance at both worlds themselves? Di Silvestri was a star wrestler at Monsignor Farrell High School on Staten Island and said he had rowed at Georgetown University before receiving a masters degree in business administration at Columbia. He later founded Deutsche Suisse Asset Management, and he said his business success had allowed him to pursue philanthropy and his skiing career full time. Its been interesting both athletically and professionally, he said of his life. Ive been very lucky.Di Silvestri said he and his wife first tried cross-country skiing in Chamonix, France, about 15 years ago and had gradually became more committed, working with a private coach and competing in amateur races. He said the Olympic idea had become concrete only in November 2012 when they met with the Dominica Olympic Committee, which he said had been approached by the International Olympic Committee about possibly participating in Sochi.It all came together in that fashion, he said.Dominica needed an official ski association to compete in officially sanctioned events. Di Silvestri created it and is now its president. But the International Ski Federation did not grant Dominica provisional membership until February 2013.That meant the di Silvestris had only one season to meet Olympic qualifying standards instead of the customary two or three. As each needed to take part in a minimum of five federation races and perform well, they traveled to New Zealand to train and compete and then returned to Canada and the United States, braving potential frostbite in British Columbia in an event that was nearly canceled and eventually qualifying with little time to spare only weeks before the Games.There was no margin for error, said di Silvestri, who will be the oldest mens cross-country skier competing in Sochi.First, though, he will carry Dominicas flag on Friday, quite a moment for a globe-trotting, middle-aged man who does not yet have a residence in his adopted country.We are looking, he said. Were hoping that well have time to actually spend there. | Sports |
Health|Study of Zika Outbreak Estimates 1 in 100 Risk of Microcephalyhttps://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/health/zika-virus-microcephaly-rate.htmlCredit...Mauricio Lima for The New York TimesMarch 15, 2016During a recent outbreak of the Zika virus in French Polynesia, roughly one in 100 women infected in the first trimester of pregnancy developed a fetus with an abnormally small head and brain damage, researchers reported on Tuesday.The study is among the first to reliably estimate the rate of this birth defect, called microcephaly, in a population widely infected with Zika.The research, published in The Lancet, provides some reassurance that the complication is rare, experts said.It means you have a 99 percent chance of having a normal baby, said Dr. Laura C. Rodrigues, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, who wrote an editorial accompanying the report.By comparison, the risk of congenital rubella syndrome which may include heart disease, hearing loss and developmental delays in infants ranges from 38 percent to 100 percent when mothers are infected in the first trimester.But because the Zika virus is carried largely by mosquitoes, it can infect broad sections of a population. If you apply a 1 percent risk to a large number of women, its still a large public health problem, said Simon Cauchemez, the studys lead author and the director of mathematical modeling for the infectious diseases unit at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. In French Polynesia, 66 percent were infected.French Polynesia has a population of roughly 270,000 and just one prenatal diagnosis center. I really believe they picked up every event that occurred, said Dr. David O. Freedman, professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. You cant do studies like this in Brazil.Dr. Cauchemez and his colleagues scoured medical records to find cases of microcephaly in French Polynesia and estimated the proportion of people infected with the Zika virus by using data from previous studies that looked for antibodies in blood.The researchers established that the baseline prevalence of microcephaly in the territory was two cases per 10,000 newborns. Between September 2013 and July 2015, before and after the outbreak of Zika virus, there were eight cases of microcephaly.Seven cases occurred around the end of the epidemic. Such temporal clustering strongly supports the proposed association between infection with the virus and microcephaly, Dr. Cauchemez and his colleagues wrote.However, the researchers do not know if the mothers of the microcephalic fetuses were infected with the virus, because they were not tested for this study. Three of the microcephalic fetuses were carried to term. Five pregnancies were terminated between 26 and 31 weeks of gestation. Dr. Freedman cautioned that the 1 percent absolute risk may not apply in other countries where Zika is spreading. Recent research suggests that the virus may be associated with other serious complications. This month, a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found 29 percent of Brazilian women who had ultrasound exams after testing positive for Zika infections had fetuses with abnormally small heads or placentas and nerve damage. | Health |
Credit...Tom Brenner/The New York TimesJune 21, 2018WASHINGTON The House rejected a hard-line immigration bill on Thursday and Republican leaders delayed a vote on a compromise measure that seemed destined to fail, then delayed it again, in the latest show of their partys disarray over immigration.The compromise, a broad immigration overhaul negotiated by moderate and conservative Republicans, was supposed to be voted on early Thursday evening. It would provide a path to citizenship for young unauthorized immigrants while keeping migrant families together at the border, in addition to funding President Trumps border wall.But with its prospects seeming dim, Republican leaders pushed the vote to Friday and huddled with their members in a last-ditch effort to stave off what would have been an embarrassing defeat. Then they delayed the vote again, to next week, as lawmakers discussed making additions to the legislation.The turbulent day in the House offered yet another reminder of the deep divisions over immigration vexing Republicans, with no easy solutions in sight. Looming in the background throughout was Mr. Trump, who attacked Democrats and complained on Twitter that they dont care about security and wont vote for anything!To some extent, Mr. Trumps retreat on Wednesday on separating families at the border appeared to lessen the pressure on Congress to quickly pass a legislative fix. But the immigration votes were part of a long-running drama that can be traced back to a different action by Mr. Trump: his move last year to end an Obama-era program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which had shielded the young immigrants known as Dreamers, who were brought illegally to the country as children.The House went through with a planned vote Thursday afternoon on the hard-line immigration bill, named after its chief sponsor, Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. The measure had not been expected to pass, but conservatives had sought a vote on it anyway.The bill failed, 193 to 231, with 41 Republicans in opposition, along with all 190 Democrats who voted.The Goodlatte bill would have sharply reduced legal immigration while beefing up border security, cracking down on so-called sanctuary cities and requiring employers to use an internet-based system called E-Verify to confirm that they are hiring legal workers. It would have offered a three-year renewable legal status to DACA recipients.The compromise bill, meanwhile, is facing trouble with conservatives, who would be taking a political risk by supporting a bill that has been derided as offering amnesty to young undocumented immigrants. Republican leaders appear to be hoping that with a bit more time, the legislation can be modified to win over reluctant members, with the addition of an E-Verify provision as one possible change.Republicans in the Senate are backing narrow legislation to ensure that children are not taken from their parents at the border. But they were in disagreement with Democrats over how to do it, and senators from both parties tried Thursday to tamp down expectations that the chamber would pass a solution that would make it into law quickly.In the House, Republican leaders were trying to keep the compromise bill alive after it had appeared headed toward defeat.I am a big fat no capital letters, Representative Lou Barletta, Republican of Pennsylvania, said before the vote was delayed until next week. Im going to encourage other people to vote no because it doesnt stop amnesty.Early in the day, Mr. Trump did not appear to help matters, venting his frustration on Twitter that even if the House passed immigration legislation, it would require Democratic support to clear the Senate. In effect, the president suggested that voting for the bill might be a pointless exercise not exactly a persuasive message for conservatives on the fence about whether to support a measure that could rile up their partys right flank.The compromise bill came together as House Republican leaders tried to defuse a rebellion from moderates seeking action to protect the Dreamers. The moderates had used a parliamentary tactic known as a discharge petition in an attempt to force a series of votes on immigration, including on a bipartisan bill that would have paired a path to citizenship for Dreamers with strengthened border security. The rebellious moderates ultimately fell two signatures short of what they needed to force votes this month.Like the Goodlatte legislation, the compromise measure is a wide-ranging bill that would make significant changes to the immigration system. Among other things, it would provide billions of dollars for Mr. Trumps promised wall along the southwest border with Mexico.It would offer a six-year renewable legal status to Dreamers, and it would create a new visa program through which they could eventually receive green cards based on factors like education, employment and English proficiency. In turn, they could become citizens.To respond to children being separated from their parents at the border, House Republicans added language to the bill intended to keep families together when parents are prosecuted for crossing illegally. Before Mr. Trump signed his executive order on Wednesday, Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin had promoted the compromise bill as providing a fix to the crisis, saying it would keep families together in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security as legal proceedings played out.Democrats have condemned the bill, which generally aligns with Mr. Trumps stated requirements for any immigration overhaul.It is not a compromise, said Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader. It may be a compromise with the devil, but its not a compromise with the Democrats, in terms of what they have in their bill.House Republican leaders did find one bright spot on Thursday: The House narrowly passed its version of the farm bill, which failed last month after it became caught up in the Republican discord over immigration.The Houses farm bill, which would impose new work requirements on food stamp recipients, passed with only Republican votes. The Senate did not include those contentious changes in its version of the bill, which has bipartisan support but still needs to clear that chamber. The Senate is set to act on its legislation next week. | Politics |
Credit...Genya Savilov/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesNov. 5, 2018KIEV, Ukraine Three months ago, an attacker splashed a liter of sulfuric acid over Kateryna Handziuks head, burning 30 percent of her body. But Ms. Handziuk, an anticorruption activist, continued to speak out from her hospital bed about unsolved attacks on dozens of civic activists in Ukraine this year.On Sunday, after 11 surgeries and numerous skin grafts, she died from complications from her wounds.Her scarred face had already become a rebuke of the foot-dragging of the government of President Petro O. Poroshenko on anti-corruption measures a key demand of the protesters who ushered him to power in 2014.Yes, I know that I look bad, but at least I am being treated, Ms. Handziuk told Hromadske Television from her hospital bed in September, two months after the attack. And Im sure that I look better than fairness and justice in Ukraine, because they are not being treated by anybody today.The attack on Ms. Handziuk has drawn attention to a recent rise in the number of assaults on anticorruption activists in Ukraine, something that she was working to publicize. Rights groups say that at least 50 activists have been attacked this year in Ukraine, most while tangling with corrupt officials.The Western-backed government has pushed through overhauls of the police and military, but critics say that corruption in state-owned companies, the courts and local government remains rampant. The International Monetary Fund has delayed some aid disbursement, in part because Ukraine has failed to establish a specialized anticorruption court.Supporters of Mr. Poroshenko say that progress has been made, but that not all of Ukraines problems can be solved quickly. Criticism of his administrations shortcomings, they say, distracts from Russias military intervention in Ukraine.Ms. Handziuk was known as a vocal critic of corruption in law enforcement agencies, particularly the police in her city, Kherson, near the border with Russian-occupied Crimea. She had campaigned against pro-Russia separatism but had recently shifted her focus to corruption and attacks on civic activists, accusing the police of passiveness in investigations of the attacks.Mr. Poroshenko expressed condolences on Sunday to Ms. Handziuks family and called for a thorough investigation. I appeal to law enforcement to do everything to find the murderers, to punish the murderers, and to put them on trial, he said.After the attack, the police detained five suspects and claimed to have detained the person who organized the assault. But local courts reportedly released two suspects to house arrest pending trial, despite the gravity of the assault.Despite routine promises of robust investigations, high-profile killings have languished in Ukraines courts. No suspects have been detained in the 2016 bombing that killed Pavel G. Sheremet, a journalist who had been critical of far-right paramilitary groups.Sunday evening, after news emerged of Ms. Handziuks death, protesters gathered in five cities to demand a transparent investigation and justice. About 200 held a candlelight vigil at the main police department in Kiev, the capital.Those who ordered the murder of Handziuk now watch how society reacts, Mustafa Nayyem, a member of Parliament, said in a telephone interview. Will we accept this murder, or will we fight?In her interview with the Ukrainian television station, Ms. Handziuk had also demanded answers about the attacks on activists. Why do we encourage people to be socially active but we cannot protect them? she said.But Ukraine could change, she said, adding, Each of us will be free, and there will be no fear in our hearts. | World |
Politics|Pelosi asked the Pentagon about preventing Trump from using the nuclear codes.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/us/politics/pelosi-asked-the-pentagon-about-preventing-trump-from-using-the-nuclear-codes.htmlCredit...Anna Moneymaker for The New York TimesJan. 9, 2021Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday took the unprecedented step of asking the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about available precautions to prevent President Trump from initiating military action abroad or using his sole authority to launch nuclear weapons in the last days of his term.In a phone call to the chairman, Gen. Mark A. Milley, Ms. Pelosi appeared to be seeking to have the Pentagon leadership essentially remove Mr. Trump from his authorities as the commander in chief. That could be accomplished by ignoring the presidents orders or slowing them by questioning whether they were issued legally.But General Milley appears to have made no commitments. Short of the cabinet invoking the 25th Amendment or removing Mr. Trump through impeachment in the House and conviction in the Senate, it is unconstitutional to defy legal orders from the commander in chief.Ms. Pelosis request, which she announced to the Democratic caucus as an effort to prevent an unhinged president from using the nuclear codes, was wrapped in the politics of seeking a second impeachment of Mr. Trump.Col. Dave Butler, a spokesman for General Milley, confirmed that the phone call with the speaker had taken place but described it as informational. He answered her questions regarding the process of nuclear command authority, he said.But some Defense Department officials clearly resented being asked to act outside of the legal authority of the 25th Amendment and saw it as more evidence of a broken political system. They said that some political leaders were trying to get the Pentagon to do the work of Congress and cabinet secretaries, who have legal options to remove a president.The one issue that has worried officials the most is Irans announcement that it has begun enriching uranium to 20 percent purity near the quality to make a bomb. In December, Mr. Trump asked for military options that might be taken in response to Irans escalating production of nuclear fuel, but he was talked out of it by a number of top officials, including General Milley and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.Helene Cooper contributed reporting. | Politics |
reporters notebookCut off from most restaurants because of coronavirus restrictions, thousands of international visitors at the Olympics make do and delight in convenience store offerings.Credit...James Hill for The New York TimesAug. 1, 2021TOKYO On languid bus rides from one Olympic venue to another, a panorama of gustatory pleasures rolls by: noodle joints, skewer shops, sushi counters.We stare at it all through tinted glass: It is like a mirage of the people we are not meeting, and the food we are not eating.This is all for good reason. Japan is in a state of emergency. Coronavirus cases are on the rise. Unleashing thousands of foreigners like me, an American journalist covering the Games, into a city to its restaurants and bars and stores would be imprudent. But we do need to eat.Enter the saving grace of these Olympics, the glue holding the whole thing together: Tokyos 24-hour convenience stores, or conbini, as they are known in Japan. They have quickly become a primary source of sustenance and, more surprisingly, culinary enjoyment for many visitors navigating one of the strangest Games in history.All of us athletes, team staff members, officials and journalists are largely prohibited from venturing anywhere but our hotels and the Olympic venues. Trips outside this so-called bubble cannot exceed 15 minutes.We cant traverse the galaxy of food outside the Olympic limits, but a conbini contains a culinary world unto itself, a bounty of bento boxes, fried meats, sushi, noodles galore and all manner of elaborate plastic-wrapped meals and rare snacks.ImageCredit...Andrew Keh/The New York TimesImageCredit...Andrew Keh/The New York TimesWhile requisite health protocols, including a ban on spectators, have sapped the Games of both color and human connection, the stores have become a substitute arena of polychromatic cultural discovery for some.They are not Jiro Sushi, said Gavin H. Whitelaw, a sociocultural anthropologist at Harvard who has researched conbini for two decades. But they are equally Japanese in that they have a 50-year history in the country now, and they have been indigenized, you might say, so much so that they dont look anything like their brethren in any other places.In the lobby of the main press building, a Lawson store heaves each day with multinational crowds scavenging for their next meal.The 7-Eleven outside my hotel hums with activity long after midnight, as people returning from late events gaze, frozen by choice, upon unending rows of ready-to-eat foodstuffs, looking to match component parts into a perfectly bespoke meal.And even athletes have been spotted carrying overstuffed shopping bags of snacks.I asked Matt Savas, one half of the pair behind the Conbini Boys podcast, to help me understand the spell we had found ourselves under.Its the quality, the variety and the ubiquity, he said. Its hard to convey how much better they are than American convenience stores.ImageCredit...James Hill for The New York TimesIts true. Here, quickly, is a partial list of items I have plucked from conbini shelves that sparked at least a basic level of pleasure, and often much more: a runny boiled egg; mapo tofu (the spicy Chinese staple); French fries; a cup of cold corn soup (which I sipped through a straw); an unnaturally shaped, suspiciously juicy disc of fried chicken; lu rou fan (Taiwanese braised pork); Okinawa-style pig ears; hiyayakko (a cold tofu dish); soboro don (ground beef and egg over rice); spicy grilled chicken cartilage; a tuna salad sandwich; an egg salad sandwich; tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlet, which in this case came with a side of spaghetti); a hunk of salmon.Just as important, as Savas noted, conbini are everywhere. My 10-minute walk to the press center takes me past three convenience stores, and barely a day has gone by that they havent lured me in.I grabbed sunscreen at a Family Mart after an early brush with Tokyos punishing sun. I picked up a handkerchief at Lawson upon realizing that bathrooms here often dont have paper towels. And I knew that if I somehow scored an interview with the prime minister, I could run to the 7-Eleven across the street to pick up a dress shirt and necktie.Ive bought underwear there before, said Mike Markey, the other Conbini Boy, who works as a web developer in Kurobe.Good to know. But food has remained my chief concern.Despite their relentless schedules, the Olympics normally present little openings for epicurean adventure. In Brazil in 2016, Id set up nighttime office hours at any number of botecos (relaxed bars with cheap food) around Rio de Janeiro, working my way through a checklist of small plates. In South Korea, I might have gone a bit overboard trying to squeeze in elaborate meals between all my reporting assignments.As a longtime advocate of something I like to call meal-food fluidity an elevated state of mind in which the time of day has no bearing on the dish you eat Ive found some emotional grounding this month in my hotels breakfast buffet, which offers slabs of mackerel, fried chicken, noodle soups and a selection of pickles each morning.ImageCredit...Andrew Keh/The New York TimesImageCredit...Andrew Keh/The New York TimesBut dining at these Games has otherwise been an alienating experience. The press building has two restaurants: a cafeteria that serves Japanese lunch staples udon, beef curry and the like and a pizza and burger restaurant called Pizza & Burger Restaurant. At both places, as well as our hotels, the menus are small and unchanging, and every seat is separated by a thick sheet of plexiglass.Its no surprise, then, that people have been gravitating toward convenience stores for access to a wider selection.Variety and innovation of this sort have been at the heart of the conbini experience in Japan for a half-century. Whitelaw, the Harvard professor, told me that onigiri (rice balls) were the first traditional foods here to receive the conbini treatment. Theyre sold in clever packaging that keeps the seaweed dry, allows for easy assembly and comes in seemingly endless permutations.They have taken a very handmade, homemade convenience meal a ball of rice that has sustained Japan for eons and wrapped it up and innovated it into something that is high cuisine, conbini cuisine, that is constantly changing, Whitelaw said.Onigiri have sustained me through these Games, too. Popping one or two (or three or four) of them into my bag before running to an event has been a surefire way to stay fed.My favorite conbini innovations were the simplest ones: a corn dog I bought at 7-Eleven came with a sauce packet designed so that a single pinch sent ketchup and whole-grain mustard shooting simultaneously from a spout, like two synchronized divers.Some items, on the other hand, required more assembly than an Ikea desk. Cold soba noodles came stuck together in an unappealing, floppy brick. But after applying the many plastic-wrapped accouterments tsuyu sauce, scallions, wasabi, frothy grated yam, a gooey egg my hesitation melted into contentment.Its important to pause and note that the conbini experience does animate some mental dissonance. First, extreme convenience of this sort requires an incredible amount of plastic packaging. Second, its hard to ignore how these store clerks are perched on the front lines of Japans unending coronavirus fight in our case, serving customers deemed too risky to enter any other stores and yet they are among the lowest-paid workers in the country.A small consolation of this pandemic, Whitelaw said, might be greater appreciation for these businesses, which are heavily relied upon but sometimes taken for granted.My own dependence on convenience stores began early. After a 14-hour flight to Tokyo, I spent another seven hours in the airport for coronavirus testing. By the time I arrived at my hotel, it was close to midnight 30 hours since my last sleep, 12 or so since my last meal.It was a cold pack of grilled chicken gizzards from Lawson that saved my life. They were peppery, like gas station beef jerky, with a wisp of garlicky sweetness and a more satisfying chomp. Working through the pack, mixing in sips of beer, felt like meditation. I slipped on my hotel-provided pajamas and drifted into a peaceful slumber.The biggest revelation for me has been the vinegar-flavored squid legs from the snack aisle at Lawson. They taste like salt-and-vinegar potato chips (my favorite), but squishy. I have amassed a stockpile of them already. Im wondering if I should check an extra bag for the flight home. | Sports |
Stocks & BondsDec. 11, 2015The fall in oil prices showed little sign of slowing as crude futures in New York continued their slide on Friday, falling for the sixth straight day and settling near a seven-year low.Oil futures of American benchmark crude settled at $35.62 a barrel, down 3.1 percent, their lowest level since December 2008. At the time, during the depth of the recession, they dropped as low as $32.40 a barrel.The drop on Friday pushed down the stocks of energy companies like Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Baker Hughes, the rig and oil services company. But the sell-off was broad, with all 10 sectors of the Standard & Poors 500-stock index ending down.By the end of the day, the S.&P. 500 had lost 39.86 points, or 1.9 percent, to 2,012.37. That put it down 3.8 percent for the week, its worst showing since August.The Dow industrial average was down 310 points, or 1.8 percent, to 17,265.21. The Nasdaq declined 111.71 points, or 2.2 percent, to 4,933.47.Investors shifted money into government bonds, especially Treasuries. The yield on the 10-year note skidded to 2.13 percent from 2.23 percent late Thursday, a big move. The reasons for the sustained decline in oil this week and through much of the year differ from seven years ago, when economies around the world screeched to a halt. Now, demand is growing but energy markets are reacting to a glut of oil, driven in part by the strategy of Saudi Arabia and other major producers to pump flat out.There is incredible bearishness about the short-run prospects for oil as well as for the long-run prospects for oil, said Jan Stuart, chief energy economist at Credit Suisse. Whats the old saying there are more sellers than buyers.Oil prices have dropped by nearly two-thirds in the past 16 months, but there were fresh developments behind this weeks decline. Talk that a ban on oil exports from the United States might be lifted and the victory of the opposition party in Venezuela were both interpreted as events that would encourage more production in the next few years.But the biggest fundamental change in the oil market remains the decision by Saudi Arabia to force high-cost energy producers, particularly shale producers in the United States, out of the market by driving down prices.Instead of acting as a swing producer and curtailing its output to keep prices from dropping, Saudi Arabia has focused instead on preserving its market share. The predictable result is a glut of oil that has filled up inventories.Meeting in Vienna with other producers of the OPEC cartel last week, Saudi Arabia signaled once again that its full-tilt strategy would remain unchanged for the foreseeable future.What happened last week gave a green light to sell, Mr. Stuart said.The sustained drop in prices is starting to be felt among United States producers. For instance, the number of active rigs fell by the most in two months this week, according to Baker Hughes. The International Energy Agency also said on Friday that low prices were starting to take a toll on high-cost producers.But the agency also said oil supplies were still expected to grow next year, which provided more incentive for sellers Friday.There is evidence the Saudi-led strategy is starting to work, the agency said in its monthly energy report. Still, it concluded there will still be a lot of oil weighing on the market in 2016.For consumers, the drop in oil has been a boon. Still, the energy agency warned of the long-term consequences of low energy prices. Sustained low prices will not necessarily create benefits for importing countries in the longer run as it could complicate the transition to a low-carbon economy, it said. | Business |
F.D.A. Issues Guidelines to Reduce Salt in FoodsThe new recommendations are aimed at food manufacturers and restaurants. Some experts say they dont go far enough.Credit...Nicole Craine for The New York TimesPublished Oct. 13, 2021Updated Oct. 14, 2021The Food and Drug Administration, citing an epidemic of diet-related illnesses, released new guidelines on Wednesday aimed at reducing the amount of salt that Americans consume at restaurants, school cafeterias and food trucks, or when they are eating packaged and prepared foods at home.The recommendations, issued after years of delay, seek to reduce the average daily sodium intake by 12 percent over the next two and a half years by encouraging food manufacturers, restaurants and food service companies to scale back their use of salt.That goal translates into 3,000 milligrams of salt slightly more than a teaspoon compared to the 3,400 milligrams that Americans typically consume in a day. Health experts offered modest praise for the new guidance, saying it would help draw attention to the problem of excess sodium, but many expressed concern that voluntary measures might not be enough to compel change in an industry that often bridles at regulatory oversight.Americas love affair with salty foods has been linked to alarmingly high rates of high blood pressure, a leading risk factor for heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure. More than 4 in 10 American adults have high blood pressure; among Black adults, that number is 6 in 10, the F.D.A. said.Much of the excess sodium that Americans consume, about 70 percent, comes from processed and packaged food and meals served at restaurants, according to researchers.In a news conference announcing the recommendations, Dr. Janet Woodcock, the acting F.D.A. commissioner, said they were the first step in a multiyear campaign to gradually lower the nations sodium intake so it more closely aligns with the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which suggest a healthy diet should contain no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day.Lowering sodium intake by about 40 percent over a decade, the F.D.A. said, could save 500,000 lives. Dr. Woodcock declined to say whether the agency would consider imposing mandatory limits on food producers should the industry fall short of the goals. Instead she emphasized the benefits of a cooperative and incremental effort, which she said would give consumers and manufacturers time to adapt.We recognize this isnt a change that will happen overnight. It requires an iterative approach that supports gradual reductions in sodium levels broadly across the food supply over time, she said. This approach will also allow consumers tastes to adjust and result in better health outcomes.The guidance will apply to 163 categories of processed and packaged food and provide different targets for, say, rye bread, salad dressing and baby food. The recommendations also include scores of the most common dishes served by large restaurant chains, like cheesy pasta, french fries and tacos.Nutritionists and public health experts commended the F.D.A. for taking on the problem of excess sodium, saying the effort would help sharpen the publics focus on the dangers of overindulgence and create pressure on food companies to reduce their reliance on salt as a cheap flavor booster. But many said that voluntary measures were unlikely to move the needle very much. Some experts have suggested mandatory reductions, though they acknowledge that the food industrys formidable lobbying power makes such measures unlikely at the federal level.This is a good start because there hasnt been much guidance on sodium reduction from the F.D.A. in many years, but I would have preferred stronger guidance that is closer to mandatory, said Dr. Larry Appel, director of the Johns Hopkins Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research. Voluntary measures just kick the can down the road.The food industrys reaction to the new recommendations was somewhat muted. The National Restaurant Association and the Consumer Brands Association, which represents packaged food companies, declined to comment on the new guidelines; multinational food companies like PepsiCo, Nestl and McDonalds declined to comment or did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.The Sustainable Food Policy Alliance, a lobbying group created by the U.S. divisions of Nestl, Danone, Mars and Unilever, applauded the new guidelines. These targets present another opportunity for the food industry to support healthy eating by continuing to improve the nutrition profile of products, it said in a statement.The perils of excess sodium consumption are well documented, and public health experts have long urged federal regulators to take a more aggressive approach to reduce sodium levels in processed and prepared foods. The call to action first gained prominence at a White House conference on nutrition in 1969, followed a year later by an F.D.A. advisory committee report, which warned that salt was unhealthy at the levels then being consumed by most Americans.In the decades since, salt consumption has remained well above recommended levels and the results have been catastrophic for public health, even more so for communities of color. On Wednesday, Xavier Becerra, the health and human services secretary and the first Latino to head the agency, sought to frame the new guidance as a way to tackle the health disparities that have become even more apparent during the coronavirus pandemic and its disproportionate toll on Black and Hispanic people.Referring to an aunt and an uncle whose premature deaths, he said, were linked to high blood pressure, he pointed out that low-income Americans whose diets are heavy in sodium-laden processed food are especially vulnerable.The human and economic costs of diet-related diseases are staggering, and hundreds of thousands of Americans are learning that the hard way as they contract these chronic diseases and face the consequences of poor nutrition, he said.Health officials also expressed alarm about elevated sodium levels among the young and the consequences that can have later in life. Susan Mayne, director of the F.D.A.s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said more than 95 percent of children 2 to 13 consume more sodium than is recommended. Eating habits, she noted, are set early in life and often persist into adulthood. This can have profound impacts on later health outcomes, she said.Michael Jacobson, a longtime advocate for healthier diets and author of the book Salt Wars: The Battle Over the Biggest Killer in the American Diet, said he was pleased the F.D.A. had finally acted five years after the agency issued its draft guidance. But he lamented that four decades had passed since an F.D.A. advisory committee first warned about the dangers of excess salt consumption. During that same time, he said, millions of Americans have perished from chronic illnesses that are often preventable through dietary changes.Its just been very sad to see the government be so lackadaisical about such a serious health problem, he said. | Health |
Middle East|Families Sue Jordan Over 2016 Deaths of 3 U.S. Green Beretshttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/16/world/middleeast/green-beret-families-sue-jordan.htmlCredit...Susan Walsh/Associated PressNov. 16, 2018WASHINGTON The families of three Army Special Forces soldiers who were fatally shot by a Jordanian base guard in 2016 said on Friday that they had sued the kingdom over false accusations that the Green Berets provoked the killings accounts disputed by a video of the attack.The three soldiers Staff Sgts. Matthew C. Lewellen, Kevin J. McEnroe and James F. Moriarty were stationed in Jordan as part of a C.I.A.-run program to train Syrian rebels. They were shot at close range by First Sgt. Maarik al-Tawayha, a guard in the Jordanian Air Force, when their convoy was stopped at the gate of the King Faisal air base after a training mission on Nov. 4, 2016.The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Washington, seeks unspecified monetary damages from the Jordanian government.For life to work, we have to be willing to hold the powerful accountable, James Moriarty, the father of Sergeant Moriarty, said at an emotional news conference on Friday. He also urged the United States to re-examine its longstanding alliance with Jordan.Sergeant Tawayha was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in July 2017. During the trial, he offered no explanation for the attack, and he said after a hearing that I was doing my job.On Friday, Mr. Moriarty and the fathers of Sergeants Lewellen and McEnroe said that the Jordanian government had made false leaks to the news media asserting that the Green Berets had been drinking before they returned to the base, and had accidentally fired one of their pistols at the gate.A six-minute video of the shootings, taken from a security camera and released after Sergeant Tawayhas sentencing, appears to show a different sequence of events at the gate. In it, Sergeant Moriarty is seen trying to defuse the situation by raising his hands after Sergeants McEnroe and Lewellen were shot.The lawsuit said the Kingdom of Jordan had aided and abetted this terrorist act, and it accused Sergeant Tawayha of having hunted down and brutally murdered their loved ones. It said the kingdom had initially defended Sergeant Tawayha by asserting that he had acted within internationally accepted rules of engagement.Neither the F.B.I. nor Jordanian officials have linked Sergeant Tawayha to any extremist groups.In a statement, the Jordanian Embassy in Washington did not directly comment on the lawsuit but said that Jordan successfully prosecuted the perpetrator, and he is now serving a life sentence.Jordan deeply regrets the tragedy, and has done its best to achieve justice, the statement said. | World |
Nominated by a Republican Nominated by a Democrat +4 Thomas Alito +2 Gorsuch Roberts Kennedy Median justice Breyer Kagan -2 Ginsburg Sotomayor -4 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2017 Nominated by a Republican Nominated by a Democrat +4 Thomas Alito +2 Gorsuch Roberts Kennedy Median justice Breyer Kagan -2 Ginsburg Sotomayor -4 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2017 Nominated by a Republican Nominated by a Democrat +4 Thomas Alito +2 Gorsuch Roberts Kennedy Median justice Breyer Kagan -2 Ginsburg Sotomayor -4 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2017 Nominated by a Republican Nominated by a Democrat +4 Thomas Alito +2 Gorsuch Roberts Kennedy Median justice Breyer Kagan -2 Ginsburg Sotomayor -4 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2017 Source: Lee Epstein, Washington University in St. Louis; and Andrew D. Martin and Kevin Quinn, University of Michigan Justice Anthony M. Kennedy announced Wednesday that he would retire from the Supreme Court, leaving a second seat for President Trump to fill during his short time in office. Justice Kennedy, the courts crucial swing vote, has served on the court for 30 years. For much of his tenure, Justice Kennedy has been the median justice, falling in the courts ideological center, according to a measure based on voting patterns. He was nominated by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, in 1988. And while Justice Kennedy has been considered a member of the courts more conservative bloc, he became slightly more liberal in recent terms. This year has been an exception, and his current vote ranking is nearly indistinguishable from that of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. From 1937 to today, 19 justices have been the median justice, but only three maintained that position for 10 or more years during their tenure. Justice Sandra Day OConnor held the role for 10 years, Justice Byron White for 15, and Justice Kennedy for 18. In close decisions, Kennedy voted in the majority 76 percent of the time. 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% Percentage of votes in the majority, over each justices career Gorsuch Sotomayor, Breyer Scalia Thomas Alito Blackmun Kagan OConnor White Marshall, Ginsburg Souter Brennan, Stevens Roberts, Rehnquist Kennedy 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% Percentage of votes in the majority, over each justices career Blackmun Gorsuch White OConnor Thomas Kagan Brennan, Stevens Marshall, Ginsburg Sotomayor, Breyer Souter Alito Scalia Roberts, Rehnquist Kennedy 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% Percentage of votes in the majority, over each justices career Thomas Souter Kagan Blackmun Marshall, Ginsburg White OConnor Alito Sotomayor, Breyer Gorsuch Scalia Brennan, Stevens Roberts, Rehnquist Kennedy Percentage of votes in the majority, over each justices career Gorsuch 82% Kennedy 76 White 68 OConnor 66 Roberts 64 Rehnquist 64 Thomas 62 Scalia 61 61 Alito Blackmun 57 Souter 47 Stevens 46 Brennan 46 Kagan 45 Sotomayor 44 Breyer 44 Ginsburg 43 Marshall 42 Source: New York Times analysis of cases from the Supreme Court Database and The United States Supreme Court |Data includes only orally argued cases resulting in a signed opinion or judgment with 5, 4 or 3 justices in the majority. Justice Kennedy has been an essential figure in forming a majority on the court. He voted on the winning side of close decisions 76 percent of the time over his career, far more often than any other justice he served with except for Justice Neil Gorsuch, who joined the court last year. Justice Kennedy joined both the conservative and liberal blocs of justices to provide a decisive vote in several landmark cases, including: LIBERAL BLOC CONSERVATIVE BLOC 2018 In Trump v. Hawaii, the court ruled that President Trump had the legal authority to restrict travel from several mostly Muslim countries. LIBERAL BLOC CONSERVATIVE BLOC Ginsburg Sotomayor Kagan Breyer Kennedy Roberts Alito Gorsuch Thomas Ginsburg Sotomayor Kagan Breyer Kennedy Roberts Alito Thomas 2015 In Obergefell v. Hodges, the court recognized a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. Ginsburg Sotomayor Kagan Breyer Kennedy Roberts Alito Scalia Thomas 2013 The court effectively struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in Shelby County v. Holder. Ginsburg Sotomayor Kagan Breyer Kennedy Roberts Alito Scalia Thomas Stevens Ginsburg Sotomayor Breyer Kennedy Roberts Alito Scalia Thomas Stevens Ginsburg Souter Breyer Kennedy Roberts Alito Scalia Thomas 2007 The court ruled that the E.P.A. has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act in Massachusetts v. E.P.A. Stevens Ginsburg Souter Breyer Kennedy Roberts Alito Scalia Thomas 2005 In Roper v. Simmons, the court ruled that the Constitution bars capital punishment for crimes committed before the age of 18. Stevens Ginsburg Souter Breyer Kennedy OConnor Rehnquist Scalia Thomas 2000 The court handed the contested 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush in Bush v. Gore. Stevens Ginsburg Souter Breyer Kennedy OConnor Rehnquist Scalia Thomas Kennedy was a particularly influential median justice. Kennedy is at or near the top on almost all measures of power or influence, said Lee Epstein, a political scientist at Washington University in St. Louis. I would say that he is among the most powerful justices since at least 1937. Mr. Kennedy was one of the most crucial median justices in building a majority because the distance between him and the justices on either side of him ideologically was so large in most of the years in which he had that role. When the justice in the middle is ideologically distinct, its harder for either side to form a majority coalition, which makes the median justice central in not just choosing a side but shaping the contours of the courts opinion. In the chart below, the gaps between Justice Kennedy and the justices to his left and right are highlighted in red. Ideological gap between justices to the left and the right of the median These years, the court had the largest contrast in ideology between the justices closest to the median. Years that Kennedy was median justice Justices Clark and Minton replace Justices Rutledge and Murphy Justice White replaces Justice Whittaker Justice Souter replaces Justice Brennan 1985 1995 2010 2017 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1990 2000 2005 These years, the court had the largest contrast in ideology between the justices closest to the median. Years that Kennedy was median justice Justice White replaces Justice Whittaker 1985 1995 2010 2017 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1990 2000 2005 These years, the court had the largest contrast in ideology between the justices closest to the median. Years that Kennedy was median justice 2010 2017 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 Years that Kennedy was median justice 2010 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 Source: Lee Epstein, Washington University in St. Louis; and Andrew D. Martin and Kevin Quinn, University of Michigan From 1993 to 2005, Justice Kennedy shared the center of the Court with Justice Sandra Day OConnor. When a liberal and conservative camp formed during this time, neither side was restricted to Justice Kennedy as the swing vote, because Justice OConnor could also be called upon to form a majority a dynamic that diluted the power of both. Kennedy is among the oldest justices to have served on the court, with a longer tenure than most. Age at end of tenure 12th oldest out of 112 justices Length of tenure 14th longest out of 112 justices Ginsburg 85 years old Kennedy 81 years old Kennedy 30 years Breyer 79 years old Thomas 27 years Ginsburg 25 years Breyer 24 years Thomas 70 years old Alito 68 years old Roberts 13 years Alito 12 years Sotomayor 64 years old Sotomayor 9 years Roberts 63 years old Kagan 8 years Kagan 58 years old Gorsuch 50 years old Gorsuch 1 year Age at end of tenure 12th oldest out of 112 justices Ginsburg 85 years old Kennedy 81 years old Breyer 79 years old Thomas 70 years old Alito 68 years old Sotomayor 64 years old Roberts 63 years old Kagan 58 years old Gorsuch 50 years old Length of tenure 14th longest out of 112 justices Kennedy 30 years Thomas 27 years Ginsburg 25 years Breyer 24 years Roberts 13 years Alito 12 years Sotomayor 9 years Kagan 8 years Gorsuch 1 year Age at end of tenure 12th oldest out of 112 justices Length of tenure 14th longest out of 112 justices Ginsburg 85 years old Kennedy 81 years old Kennedy 30 years Breyer 79 years old Thomas 27 years Ginsburg 25 years Breyer 24 years Thomas 70 years old Alito 68 years old Roberts 13 years Alito 12 years Sotomayor 64 years old Sotomayor 9 years Roberts 63 years old Kagan 8 years Kagan 58 years old Gorsuch 50 years old Gorsuch 1 year Source: Lee Epstein, Washington University in St. Louis and Thomas G. Walker, Emory University, et al., The U.S. Supreme Court Justices Database | Note: All Supreme Court justices are shown except for Benjamin Robbins Curtis, because of conflicting sources of tenure dates. Few justices have continued their tenures on the court after the age of 80, and only 11 justices have served while they were older than Justice Kennedy. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes tops the list, retiring in 1932 at 91 years old. Ruther Bader Ginsburg, 85, is the oldest member of the current Supreme Court but has given no public hint of a retirement. As long as I can do the job full steam, I will be here, she said in January. With a new median justice, Kennedys influence in liberal decisions could be undone. Chief Justice Roberts will become the new median justice if Mr. Trump nominates someone more conservative than the chief justice. Since 1937, no chief justice has also been the median justice. Divisive Supreme Court decisions are more likely to be re-examined and possibly overturned when a court changes. Because Kennedy drifted right this term, he and Roberts shared the median spot, Dr. Epstein said. For this reason, the 2017 term provides a good indication of what a post-Kennedy Court might look like. Many 5-4 decisions with the four Democratic appointees losing in the vast majority. | Politics |
The companies pulled support for the free speech social network, all but killing the service just as many conservatives are seeking alternatives to Facebook and Twitter.Credit...Kenny Holston for The New York TimesPublished Jan. 9, 2021Updated Jan. 13, 2021Parler, a social network that pitches itself as a free speech alternative to Twitter and Facebook, is suffering from whiplash.Over the past several months, Parler has become one of the fastest-growing apps in the United States. Millions of President Trumps supporters have flocked to it as Facebook and Twitter increasingly cracked down on posts that spread misinformation and incited violence, including muzzling Mr. Trump by removing his accounts this past week. By Saturday morning, Apple listed Parler as the No. 1 free app for its iPhones.But, by Saturday night, Parler was suddenly fighting for its life.First, Apple and Google removed the app from their app stores because they said it had not sufficiently policed its users posts, allowing too many that encouraged violence and crime. Then, late Saturday, Amazon told Parler it would boot the company from its web-hosting service on Sunday night because of repeated violations of Amazons rules.Amazons move meant that Parlers entire platform would soon go offline unless it was able to find a new hosting service on Sunday.Big tech really wants to kill competition, John Matze, Parlers chief executive, said in a text message. And I have a lot of work to do in the next 24 hours to make sure everyones data is not permanently deleted off the internet.In a statement online, Mr. Matze added that the tech giants had acted in a coordinated effort to completely remove free speech off the internet. Parler, he said, would probably be unavailable on the internet for up to a week, starting at midnight on Sunday. But, he went on, the company had prepared by not relying on Amazons proprietary infrastructure and was looking for a new hosting provider.A day earlier, Parler appeared poised to capitalize on growing anger at Silicon Valley in conservative circles and was even a logical choice to become Mr. Trumps next megaphone after he was kicked off Twitter. Now its future is looking bleak.In a letter to Parler on Saturday, Amazon said that it had sent the company 98 examples of posts on its site that encouraged violence and that many remained active. Its clear that Parler does not have an effective process to comply with Amazons rules, the company said in the letter. Amazon provides technology and services to customers across the political spectrum, and we continue to respect Parlers right to determine for itself what content it will allow on its site. However, we cannot provide services to a customer that is unable to effectively identify and remove content that encourages or incites violence against others.On Friday, Apple gave Parler 24 hours to clean up its app or face removal from its App Store. Parler appeared to take down some posts over that period, but on Saturday, Apple told the company its measures were inadequate. We have always supported diverse points of view being represented on the App Store, but there is no place on our platform for threats of violence and illegal activity, Apple said in a statement.This is very huge, Amy Peikoff, Parlers policy chief, told Fox News after Apple gave its warning on Friday. Without access to the App Store, she said, were toast.Several Parler executives accused the tech companies moves as being politically motivated and anticompetitive.Mr. Matze pointed to the fact that Twitter had recently promoted the phrase Hang Mike Pence as a trending topic. (The majority of the discussion on Twitter was about rioters chanting the phrase about the vice president on Wednesday.) I have seen no evidence Apple is going after them, Mr. Matze said. This would appear to be an unfair double standard as every other social media site has the same issues, arguably on a worse scale.The actions against Parler were part of a wider crackdown by tech companies on President Trump and some of his most extreme supporters after Wednesdays deadly riot in Washington. But unlike Twitter and Facebook, which make decisions about the content that appears on their own sites, Amazon, Apple and Google weighed in on how another company was operating.Amazon Web Services supports a large share of the websites and apps across the internet, while Apple and Google make the operating systems that back nearly all of the worlds smartphones. Now that the companies have made it clear that they will take action against sites and apps that dont sufficiently police what their users post, it could have significant side effects.Several upstarts have courted Mr. Trumps supporters with promises of unbiased and free speech social networks, which have proven to be, in effect, free-for-all digital town squares where users hardly have to worry about getting banned for spreading conspiracy theories, making threats or posting hate speech. The tougher enforcement from the tech companies could preclude such apps from becoming realistic alternatives to the mainstream social networks. They now face the choice of either stepping up their policing of posts undercutting their main feature in the process or losing their ability to reach a wide audience.That may reinforce the primacy of the social-media incumbents, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. It also gives those companies decisions more teeth. If they ban a pundit for violating their rules, that person will lack a strong alternative.Amazon, Apple and Googles moves could also spur other apps to strengthen their enforcement.DLive, a livestreaming site that rioters storming the Capitol used to broadcast the moment, said on Friday that it had indefinitely suspended seven channels and permanently removed over 100 previous broadcasts of the mob. It added that the lemons, a DLive currency that can be converted into real money, sent to the suspended channels would be refunded to donors in the next few days.Other platforms that host posts by right-wing influencers, including CloutHub and MyMilitia a forum for militia groups adjusted their terms of service recently to ban threats of violence.DLive was pressured by Tipalti, a payment company that helps it operate. Tipalti said in a statement that it had suspended its service until DLive removed the accounts that had broadcast the riots on Wednesday.Such third-party companies that help apps and websites function, from payment processors to cybersecurity firms to web-hosting providers like Amazon, have used their positions to influence how their customers handle extremist or criminal activity. In 2019, Cloudflare, a company that protects sites from cyberattacks, effectively delivered the death knell to 8chan, an anonymous online message board that hosted the manifesto of a mass shooter, by halting its protections for the site. After Cloudflare backed away from 8chan, the site struggled to find other service providers that could keep it active.Parler could have the same problem now that it lacked a way to host its website, particularly as the company suddenly became a pariah after Wednesdays riot, which was partially planned on Parler. Amazon had faced pressure from its own employees and at least one member of Congress before it pulled its support for Parler, and other companies could fear unwanted attention if they took its business.BuzzFeed News first reported Amazons decision to pull its support for Parler.If Parler is able to find a provider and resume its service, it will still have an uphill journey to find new users without a place in the major app stores. Apples decision blocks iPhone owners from downloading the Parler app. People who already have the app will still be able to use it if it comes back online but their versions of the app will soon become obsolete as Apple updates the iPhone software.Google cut Parler out of its flagship Android app store, but it also allows apps to be downloaded from elsewhere, meaning Android users would still be able to find the Parler app, just with a bit more work. If Parler finds a new web-hosting provider, its website would also be available via web browsers on phones and computers.After Apple had given the company 24 hours to improve its moderation to avoid removal from the App Store, it appeared that Parler had tried to remove some posts that seemed to call for violence.For instance, L. Lin Wood, a lawyer who had sued to overturn Mr. Trumps election loss, posted on Parler on Thursday morning: Get the firing squad ready. Pence goes FIRST. The post was viewed at least 788,000 times, according to a screenshot on the Internet Archive. By Saturday morning, the post had been removed.In a text message, Mr. Matze said the post had been removed in compliance with Parlers terms of service and rules against incitement of violence.In a notice to Parler on Saturday, Apple said that it had continued to find direct threats of violence and calls to incite lawless action on the app. Apple told the company its app would not be allowed on the App Store until you have demonstrated your ability to effectively moderate and filter the dangerous and harmful content on your service.In an interview, Jeffrey Wernick, Parlers chief operating officer, blamed a cancel culture at the tech companies for his companys dimming prospects. He said he would advise other platforms not to try to compete on Apples App Store. Because if you raise money and get investors and end up like Parler, whats the point? he said. | Tech |
Credit...Thibault Camus/Associated Press..March 18, 2017PARIS An attack on a soldier at Orly Airport near here on Saturday is being treated as a possible act of terrorism, according to the Paris prosecutors office. The assailant, the prosecutor said, had carried out a burst of violence over a period of two hours before being fatally shot.The Paris prosecutor, Franois Molins, said the motives of the assailant identified as 39-year-old Ziyed Ben Belgacem were unknown. But the prosecutor added that Mr. Belgacem had a lengthy police record, including arrests for robbery and drug-related offenses, and had served time in prison. He was known to the authorities, Mr. Molins said, but primarily as a criminal.The shooting at Orly prompted a partial evacuation of the airport, the diversion of all flights and a security sweep to determine whether the assailant had left any explosives at the airports two terminals, officials said. Incoming flights were diverted to nearby Charles de Gaulle Airport.The chain of events began when Mr. Belgacem was stopped by the police at 6:55 a.m. in the Paris suburb of Garges-ls-Gonesse, after he was spotted driving at a high speed with his headlights off, Mr. Molins said at a news conference on Saturday evening.After he pulled over, Mr. Belgacem fired a pistol loaded with birdshot and fled. One police officer was slightly injured.Mr. Belgacem then drove to a bar in Vitry-sur-Seine, where he fired his gun again but did not injure anyone. When he exited the bar, he left his cellphone there.He fled in his car, but abandoned it a few miles away. He then carjacked another vehicle and drove about eight miles to the airport.There he spotted a three-soldier unit patrolling the airport, Mr. Molins said. At 8:22 a.m., Mr. Belgacem, carrying his pistol, tossed a container of gasoline on the floor. He grabbed one of the soldiers and held his gun to her head.Mr. Molins said the soldiers reported that he yelled: Im here to die in the name of Allah. Whatever happens, people are going to die.As Mr. Belgacem grappled with the soldier, he wrested her rifle from her. At that instant, the two other soldiers fired three bursts from their weapons, killing him.Mr. Molins said the antiterrorism unit of the prosecutors office and the French Intelligence Service had opened an investigation.Mr. Belgacem was carrying cigarettes, 750 euros in cash, or about $800, a lighter and a Quran at the time of the attack, Mr. Molins said. Cocaine, a machete and some foreign currency were later found at his home.Mr. Belgacems brother, father and cousin were questioned by the police, Mr. Molins said.While in prison during 2011 and 2012, Mr. Belgacem was identified by intelligence officials as someone who had become radicalized. After his release, he remained on the authorities radar, and his house was searched in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015, Mr. Molins said, although no action was taken against him.The episode at Orly was reminiscent of an attack in February near the Louvre in which a man with two long knives attacked soldiers patrolling in the Carrousel du Louvre, an underground shopping mall. The man injured a soldier before being shot several times.The attack on Saturday came amid a heated presidential election campaign in France, with the first round of voting to take place on April 23.Any terrorist attack so close to the election, political analysts suggest, could be an opportunity by the candidates of the far right, Marine Le Pen, and the center right, Franois Fillon, to berate the current Socialist government and by association Emmanuel Macron, the center-left candidate, who was previously the economy minister, for failing to protect the French people.While both Ms. Le Pen and Mr. Fillon posted Twitter messages about Saturdays attack, they used the episode primarily as an opportunity to praise French soldiers and, in Ms. Le Pens case, to underscore some of her campaign themes. She said in her post: Violence has overwhelmed France, a consequence of the laxity of successive governments. But there is the courage of our soldiers.Mr. Fillon limited his Twitter message to praise the women and men of what is known as Operation Sentinel, the soldiers who work for our security and have once again proved their courage and efficiency.The unit attacked at the airport was part of Operation Sentinel, whose 7,000 soldiers patrol public areas, including airports, tourist attractions and train stations.The west terminal at Orly reopened by 1 p.m., the Paris airport authority said. Flights gradually resumed at the south terminal, where the attack took place. | World |
A kidney grown in a genetically altered pig functions normally, scientists reported. The procedure may open the door to a renewable source of desperately needed organs.Credit...Amir Hamja for The New York TimesPublished Oct. 19, 2021Updated Oct. 21, 2021Surgeons in New York have successfully attached a kidney grown in a genetically altered pig to a human patient and found that the organ worked normally, a scientific breakthrough that one day may yield a vast new supply of organs for severely ill patients.Researchers have long sought to grow organs in pigs that are suitable for transplantation into humans. Technologies like cloning and genetic engineering have brought that vision closer to reality in recent years, but testing these experimental organs in humans has presented daunting ethical questions.So surgeons at N.Y.U. Langone Health took an astonishing step: With the familys consent, they attached the pigs kidney to a brain-dead patient who was sustained on a ventilator, and then followed the bodys response while taking measures of the kidneys function. It is the first operation of its kind.The researchers tracked the results for just 54 hours, and many questions remained to be answered about the long-term consequences of such an operation. The procedure will not be available to patients any time soon, as there are significant medical and regulatory hurdles to overcome.Still, experts in the field hailed the surgery as a milestone.This is a huge breakthrough, said Dr. Dorry Segev, a professor of transplant surgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine who was not involved in the research. Its a big, big deal.A steady supply of organs from pigs which could eventually include hearts, lungs and livers would offer a lifeline to the more than 100,000 Americans currently on transplant waiting lists, including the 90,240 who need a kidney. Twelve people on the waiting lists die each day.An even larger number of Americans with kidney failure more than a half million depend on grueling dialysis treatments to survive. In large part because of the scarcity of human organs, the vast majority of dialysis patients do not qualify for transplants, which are reserved for those most likely to thrive after the procedure.The surgery was first reported by USA Today on Tuesday. The research has not yet been peer-reviewed nor published in a medical journal.ImageCredit...Joe Carrotta/N.Y.U. Langone Health, via Associated PressThe transplanted kidney was obtained from a pig genetically engineered to grow an organ unlikely to be rejected by the human body. In a close approximation of an actual transplant procedure, the kidney was attached to blood vessels in the patients upper leg, outside the abdomen.The organ started functioning normally, making urine and the waste product creatinine almost immediately, according to Dr. Robert Montgomery, the director of the N.Y.U. Langone Transplant Institute, who performed the procedure in September.Although the kidney was not implanted in the body, problems with so-called xenotransplants from animals like primates and pigs usually occur at the interface of the blood supply and the organ, where human blood flows through pig vessels, experts said.The fact that the organ functioned outside the body is a strong indication that it will work in the body, Dr. Montgomery said.It was better than I think we even expected, he said. It just looked like any transplant Ive ever done from a living donor. A lot of kidneys from deceased people dont work right away, and take days or weeks to start. This worked immediately.Last year, 39,717 residents of the United States received an organ transplant, the majority of them 23,401 receiving kidneys, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, a nonprofit that coordinates the nations organ procurement efforts.Genetically engineered pigs could potentially be a sustainable, renewable source of organs the solar and wind of organ availability, Dr. Montgomery said. The prospect of raising pigs to harvest their organs for humans is bound to raise questions about animal welfare and exploitation, though an estimated 100 million pigs already are killed in the United States each year for food.Pigs arent spare parts and should never be used as such just because humans are too self-centered to donate their bodies to patients desperate for organ transplants, said a statement from the organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA.Among transplantation experts, reactions ranged from cautiously optimistic to ebullient, though all acknowledged the procedure represented a sea change.While some surgeons speculated that it could be just months before genetically engineered pigs kidneys are transplanted into living human beings, others said there was still much work to be done.This is really cutting-edge translational surgery and transplantation that is on the brink of being able to do it in living human beings, said Dr. Amy Friedman, a former transplant surgeon and chief medical officer of LiveOnNY, the organ procurement organization in the greater New York area.The group was involved in the selection and identification of the brain-dead patient receiving the experimental procedure. The patient was a registered organ donor, and because the organs were not suitable for transplantation, the patients family agreed to permit research to test the experimental transplant procedure.Dr. Friedman said she envisioned using hearts, livers and other organs grown in pigs, as well. Its truly mind-boggling to think of how many transplants we might be able to offer, she said, adding, Youd have to breed the pigs, of course.Other experts were more reserved, saying they wanted to see whether the results were reproducible and to review data collected by N.Y.U. Langone.Theres no question this is a tour de force, in that its hard to do and you have to jump through a lot of hoops, said Dr. Jay A. Fishman, associate director of the transplantation center at Massachusetts General Hospital.Whether this particular study advances the field will depend on what data they collected and whether they share it, or whether it is a step just to show they can do it, Dr. Fishman said. He urged humility about what we know.Many hurdles remain before genetically engineered pigs organs can be used in living human beings, said Dr. David Klassen, chief medical officer of the United Network for Organ Sharing.While he called the surgery a watershed moment, he warned that long-term rejection of organs occurs even when the donor kidney is well-matched, and even when youre not trying to cross species barriers.The kidney has functions in addition to clearing blood of toxins. And there are concerns about pig viruses infecting recipients, Dr. Klassen said: Its a complicated field, and to imagine that we know all of the things that are going to happen and all the problems that will arise is nave.Xenotransplantation, the process of grafting or transplanting organs or tissues between different species, has a long history. Efforts to use the blood and skin of animals in humans go back hundreds of years.In the 1960s, chimpanzee kidneys were transplanted into a small number of human patients. Most died shortly afterward; the longest a patient lived was nine months. In 1983, a baboon heart was transplanted into an infant girl known as Baby Faye. She died 20 days later.Pigs offered advantages over primates for organ procurement they are easier to raise, reach maturation faster, and achieve adult human size in six months. Pig heart valves are routinely transplanted into humans, and some patients with diabetes have received pig pancreas cells. Pig skin has also been used as temporary grafts for burn patients.The combination of two new technologies gene editing and cloning has yielded genetically altered pig organs. Pig hearts and kidneys have been transplanted successfully into monkeys and baboons, but safety concerns precluded their use in humans.The field up to now has been stuck in the preclinical primate stage, because going from primate to living human is perceived as a big jump, Dr. Montgomery said.The kidney used in the new procedure was obtained by knocking out a pig gene that encodes a sugar molecule that elicits an aggressive human rejection response. The pig was genetically engineered by Revivicor and approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use as a source for human therapeutics.Dr. Montgomery and his team also transplanted the pigs thymus, a gland that is involved in the immune system, in an effort to ward off immune reactions to the kidney.After attaching the kidney to blood vessels in the upper leg, the surgeons covered it with a protective shield so they could observe it and take tissue samples over the 54-hour study period.Urine and creatinine levels were normal, Dr. Montgomery and his colleagues found, and no signs of rejection were detected during more than two days of observation.There didnt seem to be any kind of incompatibility between the pig kidney and the human that would make it not work, Dr. Montgomery said. There wasnt immediate rejection of the kidney.The long-term prospects are still unknown, he acknowledged. But this allowed us to answer a really important question: Is there something thats going to happen when we move this from a primate to a human that is going to be disastrous? | Health |
Credit...Nick Schnelle for The New York TimesJune 2, 2018WASHINGTON After a turbulent first year confronting friendly fire from President Trump, Senate Republicans are entering the summer before the midterm elections feeling more hopeful about retaining their narrow majority than at any time since the presidents election. And for good reason.Mr. Trump is enjoying a modest increase in his approval ratings this year and, as important, is attacking Democrats rather than inciting the internecine feuds that could depress Republican turnout. The economy continues to grow, as demonstrated by Fridays unexpectedly strong jobs report, while unemployment has fallen to levels unseen since 2000.Republicans, already on the offensive thanks to a Senate map that includes 10 Democratic-held seats in states Mr. Trump won, have seen nearly every electoral variable turn in their direction in recent months: They have averted disaster in the West Virginia primary, successfully recruited their preferred candidates in North Dakota and Florida, and watched a renegade Republican challenger wane in one of Mississippis two Senate races.This past week brought two developments that drew little attention for their Senate implications but could prove pivotal in November.Gov. Eric Greitens of Missouri resigned rather than face a felony computer tampering charge, depriving Democrats of a political weapon they had hoped to wield in the Senate race there. (A felony invasion of privacy charge against Mr. Greitens, who was accused of sexual misconduct, was dropped weeks earlier.) And the ailing Senator John McCain remains in office, passing a crucial deadline that all but ensures there will be only one Senate seat up for grabs in Arizona.The Republican caucus in the Senate is feeling substantially more optimistic now than at this time last year, said Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, predicting his party will gain a handful of seats.Not everyone in the G.O.P. is as bullish, with worries that the presidents capacity for political self-sabotage, the Democrats fund-raising advantage and the anti-Trump intensity propelling the left will make it difficult to do much more than break even and protect its one-seat Senate majority.But that Republicans are even discussing the prospect of gaining Senate seats, in the first midterm campaign of a president whose approval rating has never reached 50 percent, illustrates the wildly divergent electoral landscapes for the House and the Senate.While the fight for control of the House is playing out mainly in the affluent and highly educated suburban districts that have been hotbeds of anti-Trump fervor, many of them on the coasts, the Senate campaign is taking place on much more Trump-friendly terrain. Six of the most competitive Senate races are in states he carried by double digits: Indiana, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Tennessee and West Virginia. (Democrats hold all of those seats except Tennessees.)A major question looming over the 2018 Senate contest is whether so-called wave election years in which one party makes significant gains in both chambers of Congress, as happened in 1994 and 2006 can still exist as the country grows more polarized and politics more shaped by hardening party preferences. With ticket-splitting fading, especially in federal races, voters are increasingly turning to lawmakers who reflect the presidential leanings of their state.That could spell trouble for Democrats representing largely conservative electorates and states where surveys show that, unlike in much of the country, the president is viewed more favorably than unfavorably.In the middle of the country people are by and large center-right, and they see the national Democratic brand as really far left, which is a ball and chain those senators have to carry around, Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, said.But Democrats argue that the well-cultivated reputations and financial advantages of party incumbents like Senators Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Jon Tester of Montana and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia matter as much as the red-leaning nature of their states.And they say that what passes for good news on the right simply being competitive in states the G.O.P. otherwise dominates underscores the Republicans weakness in a year when the map is so favorable.Were feeling very good about our chances, said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, adding, At a minimum, theres a 50-50 chance were going to take back the Senate.There are only nine Republican seats in play, but Democrats believe they have the chance to win in three: Arizona, Nevada and Tennessee.Yet even some Democrats concede that Republicans have seen their prospects brighten recently thanks to their actions in some cases and their good fortune in others. They are limiting their vulnerabilities, said Adam Jentleson, a Democratic strategist, conceding that its entirely possible we lose two or three seats.The sudden resignation of Mr. Greitens delivered immense relief to Republicans, and none more than Josh Hawley, the attorney general of Missouri. Mr. Hawley has been under fire for running a lackluster campaign against Senator Claire McCaskill, a wily political veteran trying to hang on in a state that has moved sharply away from Democrats.ImageCredit...Bill Boyce/Associated PressMr. Greitens, accused of making threats and sexually coercing a woman with whom he was having an affair, had for months refused to resign, raising Democratic hopes that they could use him to tar the Republican ticket this fall. But by quitting, the governor cleared the way for Mr. Hawley to run a more policy-oriented, head-to-head race against Ms. McCaskill, who won in 2012 thanks in large part to self-inflicted Republican errors.People will move very quickly to other issues that more normally would be part of a Senate campaign, Mr. Blunt said. He added wryly that if we have learned anything from President Trump, its that people are willing to move on from a topic pretty quickly.The developing political landscape in Arizona could prove even more consequential. Because Mr. McCain, who is battling brain cancer, remains in office, Republicans believe that they will have to defend only one seat there this fall that of Senator Jeff Flake, who is retiring.Even if Mr. McCain were to vacate his office before November, Republicans believe that the governor would not be obliged to schedule a special election this year. They say that May 30 was the final day for candidates to submit petitions to run and that there is no mechanism in state law to add candidates to the ballot.Mr. McCains presence does not just deny Democrats an opening to compete in two Arizona Senate races this fall it may also strengthen Republican chances to retain Mr. Flakes seat.The Republican leadership is backing Representative Martha McSally and is optimistic she will emerge as the nominee in part because hard-right voters are divided between Joe Arpaio, the former Maricopa County sheriff who was pardoned by Mr. Trump, and former State Senator Kelli Ward. With no prospect of a second Senate contest, the two hard-liners will most likely continue splitting voters because neither will be able to switch races.ImageCredit...Al Drago for The New York TimesThe unburdening in Missouri and the clarity in Arizona capped a stretch in which the White House convinced Representative Kevin Cramer to reverse course and take on Ms. Heitkamp and sidelined a primary challenger against Senator Dean Heller of Nevada.At the same time, Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, a multimillionaire who can finance his own campaigns, entered the race against Senator Bill Nelson, and Republicans torpedoed the coal magnate and ex-convict Don Blankenship in West Virginia. Chris McDaniels bid in Mississippi to resurrect his Tea Party-backed campaign for the seat he nearly won in 2014 has proved feeble.It is a very low bar when youre celebrating the fact that a governor resigned because of a sex scandal and the candidate who had been criminally convicted in West Virginia is not your nominee, said Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who oversees the Senate Democratic campaign arm.But after watching Mr. Trumps approval rating hover in the 30s for much of last year, and absorbing his frequent gibes, Republicans will take it.Thats a very big deal, Mr. Thune said with a chuckle about how Mr. Trump is turning his fire toward the Democrats. He said Mr. Trump had come to realize that attacking Republicans isnt helpful. But Mr. Thune also acknowledged that Mr. Trump could undercut the economic gains if he goes through with his tariff threats and retaliation is leveled against farm states.Indeed, even as they grow more optimistic, veteran Republicans know they are placing their fate in the hands of an unpredictable leader.Were on the right track, things look pretty good today, Charles R. Black Jr., a veteran strategist, said. But Trump is like a suicide bomber: He could still blow himself up the day before the election and ruin everything. | Politics |
Credit...Katie OBrienMarch 21, 2016With mothers and medical providers clamoring for answers about postpartum depression, scientists are beginning a major effort to understand the genetic underpinnings of mood disorders that afflict millions of women during and after pregnancy.Researchers led by a University of North Carolina team will use a new iPhone app to recruit women who have had postpartum depression. The goal is to collect about 100,000 DNA samples and compare them with DNA from women who have never experienced depression in hopes of discovering genetic factors that could lead to better prediction, diagnosis and treatment for maternal mental illness.Attempts to find clear genetic clues to depression in the general population have yielded few results so far, and some experts questioned whether the new effort, announced Monday, would be any more promising. But the teams theory is that postpartum depression may be distinct, involving genes with more identifiable effects because they act during or soon after pregnancy.From a genetic standpoint, this is the right time biologically to do this, said Dr. Patrick F. Sullivan, director of the University of North Carolinas Center for Psychiatric Genomics, who will lead the projects genetic analysis.The free app, PPD ACT, will be offered in the United States, Australia and Britain, and is likely to be extended to other countries, said Dr. Samantha Meltzer-Brody, director of the University of North Carolinas perinatal psychiatry program and the projects leader. To make sure this is not just a study of iPhone-using people, Dr. Meltzer-Brody said, iPad versions of the app will be available in some urban and rural clinics, and patients who want to provide their DNA will right then and there be offered a spit kit.The app, to be promoted by Apple as an expansion of its ResearchKit software for medical data collection, poses questions about sadness, anxiety or panic after childbirth in an effort to assess whether women have experienced serious postpartum depression. Women with high scores are asked if they want to submit DNA; if so, they will be mailed a kit to donate their saliva. Names and email addresses will be required, Dr. Meltzer-Brody said, but the project will encrypt personal data.Once enough samples are collected, each will be individually genotyped for something like 600,000 genetic markers scattered throughout the genome, Dr. Sullivan said. The comparison group will be demographically similar women who have been pregnant at least twice but never experienced depression. Are there regions of the genome where women with postpartum depression differ systematically from women without? Dr. Sullivan asked.Anjene Addington, chief of the genomics research branch at the National Institute of Mental Health, which is providing the kits to collect saliva, said the project aimed to collect thousands of DNA samples from a diverse group of women.As we learn more about genetic research on psychiatric disorders, we know that we need huge, huge numbers of participants, she said.Compared with many physical illnesses, the genetics of psychiatric disorders have so far proved complex and elusive to understand. Even one of the most heritable disorders, schizophrenia, appears linked to small variations in more than a hundred genetic regions. Recently, though, a genetic variant has been identified that seems to ignite excessive pruning of synapses in a key brain area in people with schizophrenia.Depression has been one of the toughest to figure out, partly because it affects different people in different ways.You might have an 18-year-old woman who is doing self-cutting and shes got depression, Dr. Sullivan said, and a 64-year-old woman with hypertension and Type 2 diabetes and shes got depression.Because postpartum depression afflicts a narrower group of women who have recently given birth, it may be easier to study, Dr. Sullivan said. He said he and some colleagues had recently conducted a study that suggested postpartum depression was more heritable than general depression. Dr. Addington said there might be genes that specifically influence a womans sensitivity to hormonal fluctuations in pregnancy.But David Goldstein, director of Columbia Universitys Institute for Genomic Medicine, who is not involved in the project, said another possibility was that postpartum depressions links to hormonal fluctuations, in addition to emotional and other stresses that can accompany having children, might indicate it was less likely to be genetic.He said he had no objection to the projects goal, but its possible that you can collect information from tens of thousands of individuals and not find anything.Dr. Kenneth S. Kendler, director of psychiatric genetics research at Virginia Commonwealth University, who is not involved in the project, said some evidence suggested that genes involved in postpartum depression differed somewhat from those in general depression. Ideally, the project will find fewer gene variants involved and they are bigger in effect size, he said.Its a reasonable bet, Dr. Kendler added, but its not a slam dunk. | Health |
The F.D.A. may authorize booster shots of vaccines different from the ones that Americans originally received. The science behind the move is promising.Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York TimesPublished Oct. 19, 2021Updated Oct. 20, 2021The Food and Drug Administration seems likely to allow Americans to switch vaccines when choosing a Covid-19 booster shot. That authorization, which could come this week, is the latest development in a long-running debate over whether a mix-and-match strategy helps protect people from the coronavirus.Here are answers to some common questions about mixing and matching booster shots.How is mix-and-match different?Immunizations typically consist of two or more doses of the same vaccine. The Moderna vaccine, for example, is administered in two identical shots of mRNA, separated by four weeks.A double dose can create much more protection against a disease than a single shot. The first dose causes the immune systems B cells to make antibodies against a pathogen. Other immune cells, called T cells, develop the ability to recognize and kill infected cells.The second shot amplifies that response. The B cells and T cells dedicated to fighting the virus multiply into much bigger numbers. They also develop more potent attackers against the enemy.In recent years, some vaccine researchers have experimented with a switch from one vaccine to another for the second dose. This strategy is technically known as a heterologous prime-boost.The pandemic spurred more research into this possibility. One of the first authorized heterologous prime-boost vaccines for any disease is the Sputnik V vaccine, developed last year by Russian researchers to prevent Covid-19. It uses two different adenoviruses to deliver coronavirus proteins, which the immune system then attacks. The first dose contains an adenovirus called Ad5, and the second contains another, called Ad26.Why might mix-and-match be better?Scientists have long suspected that heterologous prime-boosts sometimes work better than two identical doses. The designers of the Sputnik V vaccine were concerned that the first shot of Ad5 would create antibodies not just against the coronavirus proteins it delivered, but also against Ad5 itself. A second shot of Ad5 might be wiped out by peoples immune systems before it could boost protection against Covid-19.Studies of experimental H.I.V. vaccines also suggested that mixing vaccines could create a broader, more potent response than multiple doses of a single vaccine. Different types stimulate the immune system in different ways, and switching between two vaccines might give people the best of both worlds.The pandemic gave scientists new opportunities to test that idea. As the AstraZeneca vaccine was quickly rolled out in Europe, it became clear that younger recipients run a small but real risk of developing blood clots. Young people who had already received one dose of AstraZeneca were offered a second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech.ImageCredit...Alisha Jucevic for The New York TimesThe two vaccines are profoundly different. AstraZenecas formulation is based on a chimpanzee adenovirus. Pfizer and BioNTech make their vaccine with mRNA. When researchers looked at the immune response from this heterologous prime-boost, they found that it produced more antibodies than two shots of AstraZeneca alone.A larger trial with 830 volunteers took place in Britain. Researchers gave two doses of AstraZeneca vaccines to some of the volunteers, two shots of Pfizer-BioNTech to others, and a mix to the rest. They found no concerning evidence that a heterologous prime-boost caused dangerous side effects. (Still, in their report, published last month, the British scientists cautioned that their study was too small to detect rare problems.)The mix-and-match option could offer lifesaving flexibility in a world where Covid-19 vaccines remain in desperately short supply. If supplies were to run out before people got a second dose, they could switch to another vaccine and still get a strong immunity to the coronavirus.So what about Covid vaccine boosters?Vaccines against some diseases require more than two shots in a so-called primary series to reach the highest possible protection. In other cases, an additional booster shot, after the primary series, is needed to restore flagging immunity.Over the summer, both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines began showing some loss of effectiveness against infection, although they both remained strong against hospitalization. Nevertheless, the Biden administration began a push for boosters to restore peoples immune responses.Pfizer and BioNTech ran trials of boosters of their vaccine, while Moderna ran its own studies. Last month, the F.D.A. authorized a Pfizer-BioNTech booster for certain groups of people who received two doses earlier this year. It is expected to do the same for Moderna this week.Johnson & Johnson decided to use a single dose for its vaccine, which proved to be less effective in clinical trials than Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech. A study published last month found that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was 71 percent effective against hospitalization, compared with 88 percent for Pfizer-BioNTech and 93 percent for Moderna.On Friday, the F.D.A. advisers voted in favor of authorizing a second dose of Johnson & Johnsons vaccine as a booster, to strengthen immunity in Americans who had received the first dose. But Dr. Peter Marks, the F.D.A.s top vaccine regulator, said at the meeting that it was possible the agency would not require people to take the same vaccine as a booster.The agency is considering adjusting the language on the labels for all three authorized vaccines to indicate that providers can administer a different authorized vaccine at their discretion.How well do mix-and-match boosters work?The studies of heterologous prime-boosts in Europe earlier this year suggested that mixed vaccines can still deliver good protection against Covid-19. In June, the National Institutes of Health started its own variation on these trials, looking at what happens when fully vaccinated people switch to a new vaccine for a booster.Dr. Kirsten Lyke of the University of Maryland School of Medicine presented the first results of the trial at Fridays F.D.A. meeting. The researchers recruited people who had gotten one of the three vaccines authorized in the United States, and then gave them one of the three vaccines as a booster. All told, they compared nine groups of 50 volunteers each.ImageCredit...Alisha Jucevic for The New York TimesDr. Lyke and her colleagues found that switching boosters raised the level of coronavirus antibodies, no matter which combination people got. Maybe these things are going to play well together, she said in an interview. And switching to a new booster did not produce any notable side effects.The results for people who initially received a Johnson & Johnson vaccine were particularly striking. Those receiving a Johnson & Johnson booster saw antibodies go up just fourfold. Switching to a Pfizer-BioNTech booster raised antibody levels by a factor of 35. A Moderna booster raised them 76-fold.Dr. Lyke cautioned against drawing hasty conclusions from the results so far. The researchers hope that by next month theyll know how well the different boosters increase T cells, not just antibodies. Its possible that Johnson & Johnsons vaccine will shine in those results.Well get a more rounded picture, she said.Will there be other booster options?Its entirely possible. Over 100 Covid-19 vaccines are now in clinical trials, with even more being tested in animals. Adam Wheatley, an immunologist at the University of Melbourne in Australia, predicted that some of those new vaccines could prove to be superior boosters.Unlike vaccines made from mRNA or adenoviruses, those from companies like Sanofi-Pasteur and Novavax contain large amounts of viral proteins.I suspect the protein boosters will be really good, Dr. Wheatley said. When you come in with a relatively large dump of proteins to the body, it results in a quite robust recall of antibody responses.Nicolas Kressmann, a spokesman for Sanofi, said the company was far along in trials of its protein-based vaccine as a booster for people who have already received other vaccines. Our intention is also to develop our vaccine as a universal booster, able to boost immunity regardless of the vaccination first received, he said.Its not yet clear how many Covid-19 boosters we will need to gain long-lasting protection. Its conceivable that a single shot may be enough. But its also possible that Covid-19 vaccines will have to be given every year, much like a seasonal flu shot.If Covid-19 boosters become an annual event, then a mix-and-match strategy should help enable more people to get vaccinated. It will be far easier for people to get regularly immunized if they dont have to worry about receiving another shot of their original vaccine.The flu offers a precedent for this plan. Each year, vaccine makers produce new batches of seasonal flu shots. Some are inactivated influenza viruses. Some contain live viruses that are too weak to make people sick. Others are made just of proteins from influenza proteins. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has no preference for which age-appropriate flu vaccine people get.That sort of flexibility may also drive down the price of boosters.Cost considerations are definitely going to play a role, Dr. Wheatley said. When you rock up to your local CVS, they might not carry the Pfizer shot, and you might have to get the Sanofi product because thats whats more cost-effective. | Health |
Washington MemoCredit...Siphiwe Sibeko/ReutersApril 5, 2016WASHINGTON Osama bin Laden, gold bug?It appears so. At the end of 2010, Al Qaeda found itself suddenly flush after securing a $5 million ransom, and the group had to decide what to do with its windfall. At a time when the financial uncertainty of the Great Recession made gold a hot investment, Bin Laden turns out to have been as bullish about the precious metal as any Ron Paul devotee, Tea Party patriot or Wall Street financier.In a letter that he wrote in December 2010, Bin Laden instructed Al Qaedas general manager to set aside a third of the ransom nearly $1.7 million to buy gold bars and coins. The letter, written in Arabic, was part of the trove of intelligence seized by Navy SEALs in the raid on Bin Ladens compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011 that was declassified last month by the Central Intelligence Agency. It offers a glimpse into how Al Qaeda sought to manage its finances and what militant groups have tried to do with the money they raised.The overall price trend is upward, Bin Laden wrote to Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, the Qaeda general manager. Even with occasional drops, in the next few years the price of gold will reach $3,000 an ounce.Bin Laden may have lacked investing acumen gold peaked at $1,900 an ounce five months after his death in 2011 but he seems to have had a keen sense of the financial zeitgeist. His belief in golds bright future was shared at the time by many Americans and a number of financial luminaries, including George Soros and John Paulson, both of whom were investing heavily in the precious metal. Demand was so high that in 2010, JPMorgan Chase reopened a long-closed vault used to store gold under the streets of downtown Manhattan.It is probably safe to assume that if Al Qaeda bought gold American officials could not say whether Bin Ladens instructions were followed in this case the militants did not hand it over to JPMorgan for safekeeping. But American officials believe that the group had previously relied on gold as a safe haven and an alternative currency to the dollar. Al Qaeda would also have had access to gold brokers in Pakistans tribal areas and the loosely regulated gold market in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, at the time Bin Laden wrote his letter.There was always speculation about how Al Qaeda kept excess capital, said Juan C. Zarate, a deputy national security adviser during the George W. Bush administration who led American efforts to track the militants assets after 2001. They grew worried that we were able to do things with the dollar that influenced their ability to access it, to demand things of financial institutions.Like Al Qaeda, other Islamist militant groups have wrestled with how to avoid the reach of the Treasury and international blacklists. Their wealth management strategies have varied, and some have proved more adept at making money than investing it.The Islamic State, for instance, has become perhaps the wealthiest militant group in history by wringing cash from the people it rules, looting bank vaults and smuggling oil. Yet its success appears to have left it vulnerable: It has taken in so much money that it has had to resort to physically stockpiling cash in warehouses, 10 of which have been struck by American warplanes since the summer.The Haqqani network, a Taliban faction that is especially close to Al Qaeda, is believed to have poured money into real estate in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates. A European official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence, said the Haqqanis are believed to have been hit hard by the real estate crash in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, a few years ago.Still, despite the occasional bursting bubble, real estate appears to have been a relatively safe investment, particularly in South Asia, where there is little regulation.You can show up with a suitcase full of cash and buy a house, said Gretchen Peters, who runs the Satao Project, a consulting firm that focuses on organized crime and terrorism. Its not like there is an I.R.S. money-laundering unit thats going to come for you.At the time Bin Laden wrote the letter to his general manager, the two had been discussing the $5 million ransom, which was paid by the office of President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan to free an Afghan diplomat that Al Qaeda had been holding. Unknown to the Qaeda bosses, about a fifth of the ransom was inadvertently provided by the C.I.A., which bankrolled a secret fund for the Afghan leader with monthly cash deliveries to the presidential palace in Kabul.Al Qaeda had the money in hand by the time Bin Laden sat down to write his general manager in December 2010. Bin Laden clearly wanted nothing to do with United States dollars, which many Islamist militants fear could expose them to the long reach of American justice.As for the ransom money for the Afghan prisoner, I think you should use one-third of the money to buy gold and another third to buy euros, he wrote.The remainder, Bin Laden said, should be used to buy Kuwaiti dinars and Chinese renminbi, also known as yuan, with about a third kept in local currencies to cover day-to-day expenses. When you do spend this money, use the euros first, then the dinars, the yuan, and then the gold, he wrote.Bin Laden had specific instructions for how to acquire the gold. It should be bought in coins or bars, which he referred to as 10 tolas, a common denomination for gold bars in South Asia. Coins are minted in several countries, he wrote, naming Switzerland, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.But Bin Laden was nothing if not paranoid by then at one point, he feared that an Iranian dentist had implanted a tracking device in one of his wifes teeth and he stressed in the letter that the broker you deal with should be trustworthy.He also suggested buying a small amount of gold and reselling it to make sure the broker was honest.Bin Laden appears to have believed that done right, investing in gold was nearly a sure thing.Right now it is $1,390 an ounce, but before the events in New York and Washington it was $280 an ounce, he wrote.He added, If the price of gold reaches $1,500 or a little over before you get this message, its still all right to buy it.If Al Qaeda bought gold when Bin Laden advised, it was a bad bet. The day his letter was dated, Dec. 3, 2010, gold closed at $1,414.08 an ounce. Today, the price is hovering around $1,230 an ounce. | World |
The countrys need highlights a little-known type of organ donation. Credit...Joel Carrett/EPA, via ShutterstockPublished Dec. 12, 2019Updated Dec. 17, 2019To treat more than two dozen tourists severely burned in a volcanic explosion earlier this week, doctors in New Zealand are rushing to obtain a unique medical export from the United States.The doctors are buying nearly 1,300 square feet of human skin. At a briefing on Thursday in Auckland, health officials outlined the desperate task before them. The volcanic explosion on White Island left 27 visitors with severe burns, some covering up to 95 percent of their bodies. Twenty-two are in critical condition. Surgeons already have been operating nonstop on these patients, because many of the injuries were worsened by chemicals and gases in the eruption. But there is not enough human skin in New Zealand for surgeons to treat all of the injuries they are seeing.The health system is equipped to respond to this, but in terms of the size, these are very unusual events, said Dr. John Kenealy, clinical director of surgery at Counties Manukau in New Zealand. The number of burns is unprecedented.While organs like hearts and livers are routinely donated after death, the procurement of skin is less well known and more loosely regulated. The United States is a leading producer, and the enterprise is a vast one built largely on the altruism of deceased organ donors.There are 158 tissue banks in the United States accredited by the American Association of Tissue Banks, but there are hundreds not affiliated with the association. The accredited facilities recover skin from 39,000 donors a year, which is used to make 3.2 million grafts. [Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.]Human skin is removed from deceased donors by procurers that also harvest other organs. A single body can provide up to 5,000 square inches of transplantable skin, according to the tissue banks association.Skin is much easier to obtain than a heart or cornea. Organs like these can be retrieved only under limited conditions, while skin can be recovered up to 24 hours after the donor has died. Donors are screened for infectious diseases, and there is no age limit for donation; although the elderly tend to have thinner skin, theirs can be donated as well, because surgeons use the grafts only temporarily.ImageCredit...Philippe Garo/Science SourceThe procedure is performed in a sterile room, with an instrument described as a cross between a cheese slicer and an electric razor. It is the same device that surgeons use to take skin from one part of a patients body to graft elsewhere. Skin procurement for tissue banks is not done by surgeons, however, but by trained technicians with no formal medical education who learn on the job.In some cases, only a thin layer of skin consisting of the thin top layer of skin cells, called the epidermis, and part of the dermis, the second layer, containing hair follicles and glands is harvested, in strips four to six inches wide and 12 one-thousandths of an inch thick.No muscle or internal structures are exposed when the procedure is done this way, and an open-casket funeral can still be possible, because the skin is often removed from large, flat areas that will be covered by clothing, like the back and buttocks.You do not see the underlying structures or muscles, youre just looking at deeper layer of the dermis of the skin, said Dr. Shahriar Shahrokhi, a surgeon at the University of Toronto. Some procurers, however, may take deeper cuts of skin that are more disfiguring, and may expose muscles, fascia and other structures. They may later separate the skin into a thin layer for grafts for burn victims, and a layer of dermis to be used in procedures like breast reconstruction after mastectomy.Since there are usually no recipients waiting for skin, as there may be for organs like kidneys, the sheets are usually wrapped in gauze, folded, packaged individually, labeled and frozen. Donated skin can be kept this way up to five years.The frozen sheets are thawed in a warm bath of saline before use on a patient, when they are stapled, sutured or glued on, Dr. Shahrokhi said.To treat a burn patient, the surgeon removes dead skin as soon as the patient is stabilized, in order to prevent life-threatening infections like sepsis. But the donor skin graft that is applied is only a temporary patch; it will be rejected by the patients immune system within a matter of weeks. Still, it provides the protective function of healthy skin: closing the wound, protecting against infections and fluid loss, decreasing pain and promoting healing. Ultimately, the donor skin, called an allograft, must be replaced with an autograft, skin taken from another part of the patients own body. Human skin is expensive. A single square centimeter can cost a hospital about $2.82, depending on the source, according to Mag Tait, director of the Trauma Burn Laboratory at Michigan Medicine. The skin ordered by New Zealand could cost millions of dollars, unless organizations elect to donate it. The patients will need repeated surgeries over months, according to health officials. For many of us, it feels surreal, said David van Dijk, a coordinator at Whakatane Hospital, where many of the burn patients were taken. Many of us are still coming to terms with what happened. Jamie Tarabay contributed reporting from Whakatane, New Zealand. | Health |
Business BriefingDec. 22, 2015Boeing has agreed to pay $12 million for failing to meet a deadline to submit service instructions that would enable airlines to reduce the risk of fuel tank explosions, among other violations, the Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday. Boeing must also take a series of actions to improve the safety certification of its planes and its aircraft production quality control, the agency said. The settlement is the second largest for regulatory violations in the history of the F.A.A. Boeing said in a statement that the fine fairly addressed the matter. The fuel tank instructions are part of an effort to address problems that caused a Boeing 747 fuel tank to explode over the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island in 1996. All 230 people aboard the plane, TWA Flight 800, were killed. | Business |
Science|Orionids Meteor Shower 2021: Watch It Peak in Night Skieshttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/20/science/orionid-meteor-shower.htmlOrionids Meteor Shower 2021: Watch It Peak in Night SkiesThe celestial event caused by debris from Halleys comet will be most active overnight, but a nearly full moon could interfere with your view.Credit...George Frey/ReutersOct. 20, 2021This latest episode of cosmic action in the night sky is the Orionids meteor shower. The monthlong event will peak overnight, on Thursday.But if you are thinking about staying up late for the show, keep in mind that a nearly full moon is likely to outshine some of the tantalizing streaks that observers can easily spot on darker nights.What are meteor showers?Earth passes through trails of debris spewed from comets and asteroids as it circles the sun. Stray remnants of these trails get swept into the planets atmosphere, and they become meteors when they burn up there. The result: meteor showers, also nicknamed shooting stars, which can last from dusk to dawn and dazzle the night sky with quick streaks of light.The Orionid meteor shower is the latest event, and its meteors are made from material left behind by Halleys comet. That celestial celebrity visits Earths solar neighborhood once every 76 years, leaving a messy trail of rocky material that hangs out in our planets orbital path around the sun for the decades between each visit. From Oct. 2 through Nov. 7, the cosmic material splashes into Earths atmosphere at speeds of up to 148,000 miles per hour, with peak activity in late October.The Orionid shower has a twin, the Eta Aquariid meteor shower, which is also formed from leftover crumbs of Halleys comet. It appears in May as Earth crosses that stream in another part of its orbital path.Meteor showers are named after the constellations in the night sky from which the meteors appear to shoot. During the Orionids shower, the meteors show up around the Orion constellation, hence the name Orionids. The Leonids meteor shower, an event that will peak in the middle of next month, is named after the Leo constellation.On normal nights, you could spot about 10 to 20 meteors per hour, according to the International Meteor Organization. The Orionids in 2006 through 2009 were some of the most active, offering 50 to 75 streaks per hour. But this years Orionids wont seem nearly as spectacular. Thats because the moon will be 99.87 percent full, washing out many of the streaks you could otherwise spot in a much darker sky.Late Wednesday night and in the wee hours of Thursday during the Orionids peak, find an outdoor location with a wide, unobstructed view of the night sky. The wider your view is, the greater the chances youll spot a meteor streaking across the sky. And the farther your viewing location is from cities and traffic that give off light pollution, the better.The Orionids are visible in both Northern and Southern Hemispheres. NASA recommends setting up a sleeping bag and lying flat on your back, taking in as much of the night sky as possible. The action lasts from midnight to dawn, but mainly takes place in the hours after midnight.Look for the meteors near the Orion constellation, which sits in the southwestern night sky for those in the Northern Hemisphere, or the northwestern sky for those in the Southern Hemisphere. But be sure to keep an eye wide open using binoculars would narrow your field of view. Longer meteor streaks will show up about 45 to 90 degrees away from the Orion constellation, NASA says.Although theres no escaping the light pollution beamed from the moon, hope isnt entirely lost. The meteor shower lasts until Nov. 7, so you have a few more nights to catch the last meteors if you dont spot any during its peak. | science |