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VideoA ski technician plays a behind-the-scenes role that is part crew chief, part caddie and part counselor. Ales Sopotnik spends countless hours tuning the skis of the American Alpine racer Leanne Smith.Feb. 12, 2014The Alpine skiers at the Sochi Games are reaching speeds in excess of 80 miles an hour and at that velocity, the condition of their equipment can spell the difference between a spot on the podium and a helicopter flight to a hospital. Little wonder that ski technicians are so valued. Part crew chief, part caddie and part counselor, a ski technician is responsible for maintaining and tuning the dozens of pairs of skis a racer might use in a season.Youd better trust what that person is doing, said Leanne Smith, a member of the United States Alpine ski team.The technician maintaining her skis is Ales Sopotnik, one of several on the American team. He can spend several hours on a single pair of skis, carefully honing the edges to razor sharpness and waxing and polishing them to precisely match the snow conditions of the days event. He is also something of a ski whisperer, offering his counsel to the competitors.I trust him more than probably anyone else out here, Smith said. Ales is like having a sidekick that is probably a lot smarter than I am. From the outside looking in he can always give you the best advice.

Sports

El Chapo I Won't Kill My Jurors ... I Promise 1/24/2018 El Chapo says he'll be gentle as a lamb with jurors in his criminal case, so it's totally unnecessary to sequester the panel. Chapo's lawyers filed legal docs, objecting to the federal prosecutors' motion to keep jurors anonymous and sequester them during his trial, which includes charges of conspiracy to murder. Prosecutors clearly fear Chapo may order his crew to take out some of the jurors because of his history of violence and tampering with the judicial process. Chapo's lawyers beg to differ, saying sequestering the jury will "create the extremely unfair impression that he is a dangerous person from whom the jury must be protected." The lawyers say the charges are merely allegations of violence supported only by witnesses who are getting reduced sentences for their testimony. The judge has yet to rule.

Entertainment

A new, large study found that in the year after getting Covid, people were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with psychiatric disorders they hadnt had than people who didnt get infected.Credit...Shannon Stapleton/ReutersFeb. 16, 2022Social isolation, economic stress, loss of loved ones and other struggles during the pandemic have contributed to rising mental health issues like anxiety and depression.But can having Covid itself increase the risk of developing mental health problems? A large new study suggests it can.The study, published Wednesday in the journal The BMJ, analyzed records of nearly 154,000 Covid patients in the Veterans Health Administration system and compared their experience in the year after they recovered from their initial infection with that of a similar group of people who did not contract the virus.The study included only patients who had no mental health diagnoses or treatment for at least two years before becoming infected with the coronavirus, allowing researchers to focus on psychiatric diagnoses and treatment that occurred after coronavirus infection.People who had Covid were 39 percent more likely to be diagnosed with depression and 35 percent more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety over the months following infection than people without Covid during the same period, the study found. Covid patients were 38 percent more likely to be diagnosed with stress and adjustment disorders and 41 percent more likely to be diagnosed with sleep disorders than uninfected people.There appears to be a clear excess of mental health diagnoses in the months after Covid, said Dr. Paul Harrison, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Oxford, who was not involved in the study. He said the results echoed the emerging picture from other research, including a 2021 study on which he was an author, and it strengthens the case that there is something about Covid that is leaving people at greater risk of common mental health conditions.The data does not suggest that most Covid patients will develop mental health symptoms. Only between 4.4 percent and 5.6 percent of those in the study received diagnoses of depression, anxiety or stress and adjustment disorders.Its not an epidemic of anxiety and depression, fortunately, Dr. Harrison said. But its not trivial.Researchers also found that Covid patients were 80 percent more likely to develop cognitive problems like brain fog, confusion and forgetfulness than those who didnt have Covid. They were 34 percent more likely to develop opioid use disorders, possibly from drugs prescribed for pain, and 20 percent more likely to develop non-opioid substance use disorders including alcoholism, the study reported.After having Covid, people were 55 percent more likely to be taking prescribed antidepressants and 65 percent more likely to be taking prescribed anti-anxiety medications than contemporaries without Covid, the study found.Overall, more than 18 percent of the Covid patients received a diagnosis of or prescription for a neuropsychiatric issue in the following year, compared with less than 12 percent of the non-Covid group. Covid patients were 60 percent more likely to fall into those categories than people who didnt have Covid, the study found.The study found that patients hospitalized for Covid were more likely to be diagnosed with mental health issues than those with less serious coronavirus infections. But people with mild initial infections were still at greater risk than people without Covid.Some people always argue that Oh, well, maybe people are depressed because they needed to go to the hospital and they spent like a week in the I.C.U., said the senior author of the study, Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, chief of research and development at the V.A. St. Louis Health Care System and a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis. In people who werent hospitalized for Covid-19, the risk was lower but certainly significant. And most people dont need to be hospitalized, so that is really the group thats representative of most people with Covid-19.The team also compared mental health diagnoses for people hospitalized for Covid with those hospitalized for any other reason. Whether people were hospitalized for heart attacks or chemotherapy or whatever other conditions, the Covid-19 group exhibited a higher risk, Dr. Al-Aly said.The study involved electronic medical records of 153,848 adults who tested positive for the coronavirus between March 1, 2020, and Jan. 15, 2021, and survived for at least 30 days. Because it was early in the pandemic, very few were vaccinated before infection. The patients were followed until Nov. 30, 2021. Dr. Al-Aly said his team was planning to analyze whether subsequent vaccination modified peoples mental health symptoms, as well as other post-Covid medical issues the group has studied.The Covid patients were compared with more than 5.6 million patients in the Veterans system who did not test positive for the coronavirus and more than 5.8 million patients from before the pandemic, in the period spanning March 2018 through January 2019. To try to gauge the mental health impact of Covid-19 against that of another virus, the patients were also compared with about 72,000 patients who had the flu during the two and a half years before the pandemic. (Dr. Al-Aly said there were too few flu cases during the pandemic to provide a contemporaneous comparison.)The researchers tried to minimize differences between groups by adjusting for many demographic characteristics, pre-Covid health conditions, residence in nursing homes and other variables.In the year after their infection, the Covid patients had higher rates of mental health diagnoses than the other groups.Its not really surprising to me because weve been seeing this, said Dr. Maura Boldrini, an associate professor of psychiatry at NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia University Medical Center. Its striking to me how many times weve seen people with these new symptoms with no previous psychiatric history.Most veterans in the study were men, three-quarters were white and their average age was 63, so the findings may not apply to all Americans. Still, the study included over 1.3 million women and 2.1 million Black patients, and Dr. Al-Aly said we found evidence of increased risk regardless of age, race or gender.There are several possible reasons for the increase in mental health diagnoses, Dr. Al-Aly and outside experts said. Dr. Boldrini said she believed the symptoms were most likely influenced by both biological factors and the psychological stresses associated with having an illness.In psychiatry, it almost always is an interplay, she said.Research, including brain autopsies of patients who died of Covid-19, has found evidence that Covid infection can generate inflammation or tiny blood clots in the brain, and can cause small and large strokes, said Dr. Boldrini, who has conducted some of these studies. In some people, the immune response that is activated to fight against a coronavirus infection may not shut down effectively once the infection is gone, which can fuel inflammation, she said.Inflammatory markers can disrupt the ability of the brain to function in many ways, including the ability of the brain to make serotonin, which is fundamental for mood and sleep, Dr. Boldrini said.By themselves, such brain changes may or may not cause psychological problems. But, if someone is experiencing stress from having felt physically ill or because having Covid disrupted their lives and routines, she said, you may be more prone to not being able to cope because your brain is not functioning 100 percent.Dr. Harrison, who has conducted other studies with large electronic medical databases, noted that such analyses can miss more granular information about patients. He also said that some people in the comparison groups might have had Covid and not been tested to confirm it, and that some Covid patients might have been more likely to receive diagnoses because they were more worried about their health after Covid or because doctors were quicker to identify psychological symptoms.Theres no one analysis that tells you the whole story, Dr. Al-Aly said. Maybe all of us or most of us experienced some sort of an emotional distress or mental health stress or some sleep problem, he added. But people with Covid did worse.

Health

TrilobitesScientists have produced data that shows the range of an enigmatic short-eared canid species that has yet to be widely studied.Credit...Galo Zapata-Rios and WCSPublished May 4, 2020Updated May 7, 2020It is one of the Amazon rain forests most elusive and enigmatic mammals. Experts call the species shy or even a ghost.Its a dog.Or at least a type of dog. The short-eared dog is the only member of the canine genus Atelocynus, and the only such species unique to the Amazon rainforest. In a study published last month in Royal Society Open Science, 50 researchers chipped away at the creatures mysteries by putting together a large location data set gleaned mostly from camera trap cameos. By mapping the speciess range and determining its preferred habitat, the scientists, many of whom have never encountered the animal in person, hope to help protect it.Daniel Rocha, a graduate student at the University of California, Davis, and the studys lead author, became interested in the short-eared dog in 2015, when he began working in the southern part of the Amazon. He and his colleagues set up camera traps to study the local mammal community. As they looked through the footage, these dogs would appear, he said. With pricked ears and furrowed brows, they almost look surprised to be caught on camera.It surprised him, too. Even locals who spend a lot of time in the Amazon dont often see short-eared dogs, which were assumed to be quite rare. They also evade career researchers focused on this region: Mr. Rocha, who spent years leading this study, said, Ive never seen the dog in the jungle, ever.Carlos Peres, an ecology professor at the University of East Anglia who contributed to the study, has been working in the Amazon for nearly 40 years. His longest sighting of a short-eared dog lasted about 20 seconds as it chased a spiny rat into a hollow log.Theyre incredibly secretive, he said.VideoA short-eared dog captured on a camera trap in the Amazon rain forest. Video by Hugo C.M. Costa/Instituto JuruaMany canid species, from wolves to African wild dogs, hunt in packs and prefer more open habitats, like tundra or grasslands. Short-eared dogs, which only live in the Amazon, are mostly solitary and almost certainly the most rainforest-adapted of all the canids, said Dr. Peres. They are most comfortable trotting around in the trees, far from anywhere people might tread.As a result, the species is one of the least studied dogs worldwide, Mr. Rocha said. We dont know much about their life histories or reproductive strategies, or how many of them exist. We dont even really know what they eat, although scat studies suggest that they like fish, small mammals and fruit.Individual experts have gone to great lengths to change that. Renata Leite Pitman, a contributor to the study and an affiliated scholar at Duke Universitys Nicholas School of Environment, once obtained a short-eared dog pup that had been raised with domestic dogs. She and her assistant, Emeterio Nuonca Sencia, trained the dog to walk on a leash and took careful notes on what he sniffed at, ate and avoided. She has also managed to track several dogs with radio collars.When Mr. Rocha started contacting his peers about the short-eared dog, he found that nearly every researcher in the Amazon had a little bit of data a camera trap snapshot or two, usually bycatch from an unrelated project, he said.ImageCredit...Daniel RochaBy combining location data from the traps with the few in-person sightings, as well as information from specimens found in natural history collections, Mr. Rocha and his co-authors were able to estimate the short-eared dogs range. They found a wider distribution than previous studies had the dog has been seen in five countries, and seems to inhabit an area bordered on the west by the Andes, the north by the Amazon River and the south and east by the rain forests edge.They also found that a good part of its distribution is threatened by deforestation, said Mr. Rocha. He and his colleagues predict that if logging, development and other pressures are not managed, the dog may lose 30 percent of its habitat by 2027.Mr. Rocha said that studies like this one, where dozens of researchers collaborate on a question, are becoming more popular as experts seek to learn about the many creatures that call the Amazon home. If we are so in the dark about one of the most widely beloved animal types, imagine how much we dont know about less charismatic species, some of which may be similarly threatened, he said. If we dont know what were losing, its really hard to care.

science

Credit...Tom Brenner/The New York TimesJune 7, 2018WASHINGTON Hoping to defuse a Republican rebellion, Speaker Paul D. Ryan promised Thursday that House Republicans would draft compromise legislation on immigration, setting up a showdown on one of the thorniest political issues just as the midterm campaign comes into focus.Conservative Republicans loath to loosen immigration rules remained at odds with moderates pressing to protect young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children, as Mr. Ryan and his fellow leaders in the House labored to reach an accord. And the deadline for an agreement could come within days.Moderate Republican lawmakers need only three more signatures on a petition to force a series of immigration votes over the speakers objections, including at least two that would focus on those young immigrants, known as Dreamers. Because of the arcane rules for such discharge petitions, those lawmakers face a Tuesday cutoff to gather the 218 names needed to force floor action in late June.We have a firm deadline of Tuesday, said Representative Jeff Denham of California, a leader of the petition drive. Tuesday we will hit 218.After a lengthy meeting with his conference to discuss immigration, Mr. Ryan stressed that pursuing a compromise bill would be a better course than forcing the issue through a petition.The next step is to start putting pen to paper so we can get legislation to the floor, Mr. Ryan told reporters after the meeting. He argued that if rank-and-file lawmakers were to go ahead with forcing immigration votes, the resulting measure would not become law.Our members realize its better to have a process that has a chance of going into law than not, Mr. Ryan said.But it remained unclear if the negotiations on a compromise would satisfy Republican lawmakers who are eager to see the House address the fate of the Dreamers. They have been shielded from deportation by an Obama-era program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, that President Trump moved last year to rescind.The showdown would come at a critical time for House Republicans, ahead of what is expected to be a difficult midterm election. A vote on legislation deemed amnesty by the partys right flank could demoralize conservative voters and depress Republican turnout in November. But the failure of moderates to win support for the Dreamers could harm their re-election chances in the districts most targeted by the Democrats.I think this was a very useful exercise, and I would have preferred that this occur six months ago, one of those targeted members, Representative Leonard Lance, Republican of New Jersey, said after the conference meeting. Mr. Lance is among nearly two dozen Republican lawmakers who have signed the discharge petition.Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, told reporters after the meeting that the petition would not move ahead as Republicans tried to negotiate a compromise bill.The discharge petition actually did put pressure to get us to where we are today, Mr. McCaul said. But I dont think theres any will in the Congress to move forward with the discharge petition.But a senior House Republican leadership aide conceded that in all likelihood, the petition would reach the required number of signatures. Another Republican aide said moderate members would continue negotiating with party leaders and the conservative House Freedom Caucus, while keeping the discharge petition as a backstop.I guess were at the family meeting stage, still, said Representative Mark Amodei, Republican of Nevada, who has signed the petition, after the closed-door gathering. If theres three or more people in that room that go, O.K., I love family meetings, but I also want to be able to vote, then well see.Coming up with a compromise immigration bill in a matter of days is a tall order. The Senate has already shown the difficulty of trying to find a solution for DACA, rejecting a series of measures in February.House Republicans are particularly divided over whether to provide young undocumented immigrants with a path to citizenship, who would be eligible for such a path and the mechanics of getting to citizenship if legislation provided the path.Ultimately, what it comes down to is the citizenship question and how you deal with that, said Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina, the chairman of the Freedom Caucus.Mr. Denham said a proposal had been put forth that would create a special visa that would be available to DACA recipients, but he said he was waiting to see that plan in writing. And Republican leaders face a challenge in selling any kind of compromise across their conference, where views on immigration vary considerably.Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa and an immigration hard-liner, warned: Its just surrealistic that Im standing in here listening to member after member talk about everything except what theyre doing, which is destroying rule of law. When you reward lawbreakers, youre destroying the rule of law.On the flip side, lawmakers eager to secure protections for Dreamers are having their patience tested.Folks are fixed in their position, and its just a mystery still whether we will be able to get the signatures or they will bring some proposals to the floor, said Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Republican of Florida, who has signed the discharge petition. Some of us are really frustrated to not be able to have a vote.Ms. Ros-Lehtinen said the prospects of gaining three more signatories was growing frustrating.Were three signatures away, but its like the last two minutes of a football game: It just goes on forever, she said.

Politics

Sports of The TimesVideoThe scene at the Seahawks championship parade.CreditCredit...Elaine Thompson/Associated PressFeb. 5, 2014Russell Wilson was the most valuable player on Sunday when Seattle routed Denver to win the Super Bowl. Wilson did not win the actual award that honor went to one of his teammates, linebacker Malcolm Smith, who returned an interception for a touchdown and also recovered a fumble.Indeed, the award could have gone just as easily to another Seahawk, Percy Harvin, who broke the game open by returning the second-half kickoff for a touchdown. The entire Seattle defensive unit could have shared the honor as well.But make no mistake: Wilson, Seattles 25-year-old quarterback, was the Seahawks dream-maker on Sunday. Without flash or explosion, he made timely plays, avoided trouble and produced a steady and error-free performance.ImageCredit...Barton Silverman/The New York TimesHad Wilson played like Peyton Manning, Wednesdays victory parade would have been held in Denver. Had Manning played like Wilson, he would have been voted the games M.V.P., hands down.Wilson had been overshadowed all week by the deserved attention paid to Manning, one of the leagues best and best-known players, before he snatched the spotlight when and where it counted.Denver gambled that if it stopped the run and put the entire offensive burden on Wilson, it could be successful. But after badly missing on his first pass attempt, Wilson was flawless.Quarterbacks set the tone for the entire team, especially in the way they react to the normal ups and downs of a game. On Sunday, Manning never recovered from his teams opening blunder, when an errant snap sailed over his head for a safety on the games first play from scrimmage.ImageCredit...Barton Silverman/The New York TimesTwo weeks ago, during the N.F.C. championship game against San Francisco, Wilson endured a similarly bad first play. He fumbled after being stripped by a defender as he rolled out only seconds into the game. San Francisco recovered the ball, but the Seahawks defense held the 49ers to a field goal.But where Manning faded after his disastrous start, failing to lead his team to a first down until the second quarter, and failing to score until the second half, Wilson stormed back in Seattle against the 49ers, and on Sunday against the Broncos.While the Seahawks defense tormented Manning, Russell set the tone with a calm and ease of play that seemed to permeate his team. He did not fumble. He did not throw an interception. He was never sacked. Wilson repeatedly got out of trouble by pivoting and running around the edges, either completing passes to keep drives alive or running for first downs. When touchdown daggers were needed, he delivered them.While Manning added to his mountain of statistical accomplishments with a record-setting 34 completions, Wilson had far more modest numbers: he completed 18 of 25 passes for 206 yards and 2 touchdowns. He did everything an M.V.P. should do.VideoEvery so often, the Super Bowl turns into a rout, which is exactly what happened on Sunday night at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.CreditCredit...Carlo Allegri/ReutersYet there was never a hint or suggestion from Wilson that he should have been the Super Bowl M.V.P. Instead, he distributed compliments the way he had distributed the ball. The only statistic he was concerned with was the final score.Wilson is the perfect face for Seattle, a beautiful city nestled in the Pacific Northwest but often overshadowed on the West Coast by San Francisco and Los Angeles.Wilson, too, has been overshadowed throughout his young career. He was told he was too short to be an N.F.L. quarterback, and even though he was drafted in the third round, the overwhelming majority of the attention on draft weekend went to his rookie quarterback peers Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III.When Wilson was in high school, Wilsons father, Harry, encouraged him to pursue his dreams by asking, Why not you? Wilson said the same thing to his teammates throughout the season. We believed that we could get here, a euphoric Wilson said after Sundays victory. At the beginning of the season I told our guys, Hey, why not us? We wanted to win it all.He also acknowledged the historical significance of being the second African-American quarterback to lead a team to a Super Bowl championship. He didnt belabor the point, but he didnt ignore it. He simply acknowledged a continuum and moved on.Its emotional to think about all the guys, the great players that have played before us, Wilson said. That was our thing. We wanted to say, Why not us? We believed that. It was real for us.There could be more parades like Wednesdays in Seattles future. The team is young Seattle has the fourth youngest roster for a Super Bowl champion the head coach is enthusiastic and the quarterback wants more. Russell is on this relentless quest to get better, said Ben Wilson, Russells uncle. He is never satisfied with where he is.Irrespective of how well or how poorly he does in a game or in a practice or on a given play, he continued, its as though he hits the reset button and hes on that quest all over again.If that proves to be the case, Russell Wilson will be Seattles M.V.P. in ways that the city cannot begin to imagine.

Sports

Health|Covid toes may be caused by a powerful immune response, a new study finds.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/06/health/covid-toes-cause.htmlCovid toes may be caused by a powerful immune response, a new study finds.Credit...Northwestern University, via Associated PressPublished Oct. 6, 2021Updated Oct. 13, 2021Shortly after the pandemic erupted last year, doctors were baffled by a surge of patients, mostly teenagers and young adults, who came in complaining of chilblains painful lesions on their toes, and sometimes also on their fingers.The condition came to be called Covid toes. They were seen, like the loss of smell and taste, as yet another strange telltale sign of the disease, even though most of the patients tested negative for coronavirus. Physicians were hard-pressed to explain the association.The lesions are red or purple in white people, and often purplish or brownish in people of color. They cause painful burning or itching sensations, and sometimes make it difficult for people to wear shoes or walk.Now a study from France, published in the British Journal of Dermatology, sheds some light on the causes of Covid toes. The research indicates that the lesions may be a side effect of the immune systems shift into high gear in response to exposure to the virus, which can damage cells and tissues in the process.ImageCredit... Stanford Dermatology/VisualDxThe French researchers analyzed blood samples and skin biopsies from 50 patients who had chilblainlike lesions for the first time in April 2020, and who were referred to St.-Louis Hospital in Paris. Slightly more than half of the patients had other symptoms suggestive of Covid-19, like coughing, shortness of breath and loss of smell, but all of them tested negative for the virus on PCR tests.The samples showed high levels of Type 1 interferon, a protein that activates the bodys immune system to fight viruses, but which may also cause damage. The researchers also found high levels of an antibody that can inadvertently attack the bodys own cells.Abnormal changes in the linings of the blood vessels may also play a role in the lesions, the study suggests.Although the relationship between coronavirus infection and chilblainlike lesions is still controversial, the authors wrote, the peaks of chilblainlike lesions concomitant with peaks of Covid-19 deaths in 2020 strongly suggest that this disorder is closely related to SARS-CoV-2 infection.The explanation for Covid toes is not entirely surprising; one of the hallmark features of the disease is an immune system overreaction called a cytokine storm, which may ultimately cause more illness than the virus itself.German scientists published a paper last year saying they had found a strong localized interferon-driven response in three young men who came in with chilblains. That paper suggested that the men, who tested negative for the coronavirus, may have developed chilblains several weeks after an initial infection caused mild or asymptomatic disease, and that the interferon-driven immune response may have led to early control of the virus and prevented respiratory disease.Dermatologists say that people with Covid toes generally do well and are unlikely to develop severe Covid, and that the symptoms reflect a healthy immune response to the virus.Dr. Esther E. Freeman, director of global health dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital, said the new study provides insight into the links between of Covid toes and mild infection.A lot of the studies around Covid have focused on severe Covid, and mild and moderate disease has often been overlooked, Dr. Freeman said. I tell my patients with Covid toes, Its almost like a side effect of your body doing a good job of controlling the virus.The new study suggested that treating Covid toes with local or systemic anti-inflammatory agents may be effective.

Health

Science|Scientists Found an Animal That Walks on Three Limbs. Its a Parrot.https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/17/science/parrots-three-limbs.htmlTrilobitesLovebirds and perhaps other species seem to confound natures strong preference for bilateral bodies.Credit...Komkrit Tonusin/AlamyMay 17, 2022Lovebirds, small parrots with vibrant rainbow plumage and cheeky personalities, are popular pets. They swing from ropes, cuddle with companions and race for treats in a waddling gait with all the urgency of toddlers who spot a cookie. But, along with other parrots, they also do something strange: They use their faces to climb walls.Give these birds a vertical surface to clamber up, and they cycle between left foot, right foot and beak as if their mouths were another limb. In fact, a new analysis of the forces climbing lovebirds exert reveals that this is precisely what they are doing. Somehow, a team of scientists wrote in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B on Wednesday, the birds and perhaps other parrot species have repurposed the muscles in their necks and heads so they can walk on their beaks, using them the way rock climbers use their arms.VideoUp, up, up up... Video by Young et al.Climbing with a beak as a third limb is peculiar because third limbs generally are not something life on Earth is capable of producing, said Michael Granatosky, an assistant professor of anatomy at the New York Institute of Technology and an author of the new paper.There is this very deep, deep set aspect of our biology that everything is bilateral in much of the animal kingdom, he said. The situation makes it developmentally unlikely to grow an odd numbers of limbs for walking.Some animals have developed workarounds. Kangaroos use their tails as a fifth limb when hopping slowly, pushing off from the ground with their posteriors the same way they push with their feet.To see if parrots were using their beaks in a similar way, Dr. Granatosky and a graduate student, Melody Young, as well as their colleagues brought six rosy-faced lovebirds from a pet store into the lab. They had the birds climb up a surface that was fitted with a sensor to keep track of how much force they were exerting and in what directions. The scientists found that the propulsive force the birds applied through their beaks was similar to what they provided with their legs. What had started as a way to eat had transformed into a way to walk, with beaks as powerful as their limbs.For them to take their faces and integrate it into their stride cycle is pretty incredible, said Ms. Young, who noted that the birds nervous systems would have had to change to fit beak movement into the rhythm of walking.ImageCredit...Steven Gaines/New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic MedicineDr. Granatosky speculates that parrots may have evolved this ability because they, like woodpeckers and nuthatches, cannot hop up and down the trunks of trees. Parrots alternate their legs when they walk, rather than pushing off with both legs at once. So when it came to the challenge of moving vertically, they had to come up with something different, something that created the third limb that developmental biology could not provide to them.How often parrots do this three-limbed walking in their daily lives is another question the researchers have. To get a sense of what role it plays in their behavior, Dr. Granatosky has dispatched students to make close observations of the green monk parakeets that live in the towering Gothic Revival-style gate of Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.While the results have not yet been published, he hopes that the lovebirds and monk parakeets will help illuminate how parrots evolved such an unusual way of climbing and what changes they made to their bodies to do it.

science

Baseball|Aroldis Chapman and the Yankees Agree to a Contract Extensionhttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/03/sports/baseball/aroldis-chapman-yankees-contract.htmlThe reliever will amend his contract to a $48 million, three-year deal.Credit...Tyler Smith/EPA, via ShutterstockNov. 3, 2019Aroldis Chapman is staying with the Yankees, amending his contract to a $48 million, three-year deal.Chapman, 31, an All-Star closer, had been owed $15 million in each of the next two seasons as part of an $86 million, five-year contract, and he had the right to opt out of the deal and become a free agent.The left-handers amended deal includes salaries of $16 million annually and a full no-trade provision. Under the original contract, he had a full no-trade through 2019, then a limited no-trade provision that said he could not be dealt during 2020 or 2021 to any of the five California teams or Seattle without his consent.Chapman had a stellar regular season with the Yankees, converting 37 saves in 42 chances while going 3-2 with a 2.21 E.R.A. and striking out 85 in 57 innings. He earned his sixth All-Star Game selection and was selected the reliever of the year in the American League.His average fastball velocity dropped from 101 miles per hour in 2016 to 98 m.p.h. this year, and the falloff was even more substantial early in the season before the weather got warm. To compensate for his decreased velocity, he has increased his slider usage from 15 percent in 2016 to 31 percent this year.New Yorks season ended when Chapman allowed a walk-off homer to Houstons Jose Altuve in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series.Chapman combined with Zack Britton, Adam Ottavino, Tommy Kahnle and Chad Green to give the Yankees one of the most formidable bullpens in the majors, even with injuries limiting Dellin Betances to one game all season. Betances is a free agent as he recovers from a torn Achilles tendon.Chapman was acquired from Cincinnati in December 2015 during a domestic violence investigation by Major League Baseball that led to a 29-game suspension at the start of the 2016 season. He was traded to the Chicago Cubs that July in the deal that brought the All-Star infielder Gleyber Torres to New York.Chapman helped the Cubs win their first World Series title since 1908, then became a free agent and returned to the Yankees in 2017.

Sports

President Trump called the F.B.I. a den of thieves, said its great to give Kim Jong-un credibility, and again blamed Barack Obama for Russias annexation of Crimea. Credit...Evan Vucci/Associated PressJune 15, 2018President Trump appeared on Friday outside the White House for a wide-ranging interview on Fox and Friends.The interview, which started at 8:30 a.m., morphed into an impromptu question-and-answer session with other reporters.The following are highlights and fact checks of some of his statements.On North KoreaYou would have had 30, 40, 50 million people killedWhen I came in, people thought we were probably going to war with North Korea. If we did quiet, quiet, quiet. If we did, millions of people would have been killed. I dont mean like people are saying 100,000. Seoul has 28 million people 30 miles off the border. You would have had 30, 40, 50 million people killed. Who knows what would have happened. I came in, that was what I inherited. I should have never inherited it. That should have been solved long before I got there.I want my people to do the sameHey, he [Kim Jong-un] is the head of a country, and I mean he is the strong head. Don't let anyone think anything different. He speaks, and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.Its great to give him credibilityI get hit because I went there, I gave him credibility. I think its great to give him credibility. Here is what we got, everything. Point after point after point.I call them war games. I hated them from the day I came in.TRUMP: Theyre doing so much for us. And now were well on our way to get denuclearization. And the agreement says there will be total denuclearization. Nobody wants to report that. So the only thing I did was I met. I got along with him great. We have a great chemistry together. Thats a good thing, not a bad thing. REPORTER: How can Kim love his people if hes killing them? TRUMP: I cant speak to that. I can only speak to the fact that we signed an incredible agreement. Its great. Its going to be great for them too because now North Korea can develop and North Korea can become a great country economically. It can become whatever they want. But there wont be nuclear weapons, and they wont be aimed at you and your family. REPORTER: Why did you offer to halt the military exercises with South Korea? TRUMP: That was my offer. Just so you understand do you want to hear it? O.K. I call them war games. I hated them from the day I came in. I said, why arent we being reimbursed? REPORTER: Thats North Koreas term, war games. TRUMP: Thats my term.REPORTER: They use it too.TRUMP: They might use it. We pay for it. We pay millions and millions of dollars for planes and all of this. Its my term. I said Id like to halt it because its bad to be negotiating and doing it. It costs us a lot of money. Fact Check: This requires context. It is unclear how much the joint military exercises with South Korea cost, but Seoul does shoulder some of the financial burden of the presence of American troops. Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, the top American commander in South Korea, told Congress in February that South Korea paid $830 million in support of American troop activities in 2017, and would increase that contribution by 1 percent this year. The New York Times was also able to find one instance of Mr. Trump using the term war games to describe military drills before he met with Mr. Kim on Tuesday. But Mr. Trump has not been consistent in his criticism of the drills. When he visited South Korea in November 2017, he praised naval drills in the Pacific as a showing of great strength. On James Comey, the F.B.I. and the inspector generals reportThe I.G. report totally exoneratesIt is a very unfair situation, but the I.G. report totally exonerates. I mean, if you look at the results, if you look at the head investigator, is saying we have to stop Trump from becoming president. Well, Trump became president.Fact Check: False. The internal report released by the Justice Departments inspector general on Thursday did not exonerate Mr. Trump. In fact, the 500-page report did not examine or make conclusions about the special counsels investigation into the Trump campaigns ties to Russia. Texts released by the inspector general reveal that a top F.B.I. agent overseeing the investigation into the Trump campaign had said well stop Mr. Trump from becoming president. But the report concluded that there was no evidence that the political views of the agent factored into the inquiry.What he did was criminalREPORTER: From what youve seen so far, should James Comey be locked up? TRUMP: I would never want to get involved in that. Certainly he, they just seemed like criminal acts to me. What he did was criminal. What he did was a terrible thing to the people. What he did was so bad in terms of our Constitution, in terms of the well-being of our country. What he did was horrible. Should he be locked up? Let somebody make a determination. a den of thievesThey all work for Comey. And Comey knew everything that was going on. You think McCabe didn't tell him everything? McCabe told him everything. McCabe is up for criminal right now. He is now suing; it is a total mess. They're all going against each other. No, I think Comey was the ringleader of this whole den of thieves, it was a den of thieves.[Read more of our coverage on Mr. Trumps reaction to the inspector generals report.]On the Russia probeManafort had nothing to do with our campaignManafort has nothing to do with our campaign. I feel a little badly about it. They went back 12 years to get things that he did 12 years ago. Paul Manafort worked for me for a very short period of time. He worked for Ronald Reagan, he worked for Bob Dole, he worked for John McCain or his firm did, he worked for many other Republicans. He worked for me, what, for 49 days or something? Fact Check: False. Paul Manafort was very much a part of the Trump campaign. He joined the campaign on March 28, 2016, was promoted to campaign chairman in May 2016 and resigned on August 19, 2016. Thats a total of 144 days, not 49 days.Also contrary to the presidents claims, the charges brought against Mr. Manafort by the special counsel also span the time he worked for the Trump campaign. The indictment against Mr. Manafort and his protg, Rick Gates, accuses them of serving as unregistered agents of Ukraine from at least 2006 to 2016 and laundered payments through American and foreign entities from approximately 2006 through at least 2016. They also made false and misleading statements to the Justice Department between Nov. 23, 2016, and Feb. 10, 2017.Mr. Manafort on Friday was sent to jail to await trial after prosecutors accused him of witness tampering. Its a very unfair situationLook, you have 13 angry democrats. There are I call them 13 angry Democrats and others worked for Obama for eight years. I mean they have no Republicans, you have no its a very unfair situation. Fact Check: False. Mr. Trump is wrong that there are no Republicans working on the special counsels Russia investigation. Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel himself, is a registered Republican. On families being forced apart at the border and supporting or not an immigration planI hate the children being taken awayREPORTER: Mr. President, do you agree with children being taken away TRUMP: No, I hate it. I hate the children being taken away. The Democrats have to change their law. Thats their law. Quiet, quiet. Thats the Democrats law. We can change it tonight. We can change it right now. I will leave here no, no. You need their votes. You need their votes. The Democrats, all they have to do REPORTER: You control both chambers of Congress, the Republicans do. TRUMP: Excuse me, by one vote? We dont need it. You need 60 votes. REPORTER: You control the House.TRUMP: Excuse me, we have a one-vote edge. We need 60. So we need 10 votes. We cant get them from the Democrats. Wait, wait, we cant do it through an executive order.He added, The children, the children can be taken care of quickly, beautifully and immediately. The Democrats forced that law upon our nation. I hate it.Fact Check: False. No party has enacted any law that forces immigration officials to separate immigrant children from parents who illegally cross the border. The practice is the result of the Trump administrations zero tolerance policy favoring the prosecution of anyone who crosses the border illegally. White House officials and Republican lawmakers have previously cited a 1997 settlement of a class-action lawsuit, in which the government agreed to detain children under humane conditions and release them promptly. But that settlement does not mandate the detainment of parents. I wouldnt sign the moderate billREPORTER: Sounds like theyre going to take a vote on a couple different bills on immigration, probably next week. One of them, the Goodlatte bill, the other is something more moderate. Would you sign either one of those? TRUMP: Im looking at both of them. I certainly wouldnt sign the more moderate one. I need a bill that gives this country tremendous border security. I have to have that. We have to get rid of catch-and-release. We have to have the wall. If we dont have the wall, there is no bill.On Barack ObamaHow come he never gets blamedPresident Obama didn't like him [Vladimir Putin], even though they gave advanced notice about the election to Obama, people forget about that. You know, Obama was told by the C.I.A. or somebody, F.B.I., about Russia. He didn't do anything about it. How come he never gets blamed?Fact Check: False. Mr. Trump is free to argue that Mr. Obama did not do enough in response to Russias meddling in the 2016 election, as some Democrats have. But he is wrong that Mr. Obama did nothing at all. Privately, Obama administration officials warned Russia against meddling and Mr. Obama confronted President Vladimir V. Putin directly at a Group of 20 summit meeting in China before the November 2016 vote. Publicly, intelligence agencies issued a joint statement in October 2016 that blamed Russia for hacked emails released on WikiLeaks and other websites. After the election, Mr. Obama imposed sanctions on Russia and ejected from the United States 35 people who were suspected of being Russian intelligence operatives.President Obama lost CrimeaTRUMP: President Obama lost Crimea.REPORTER: So its his fault?TRUMP: Its his fault, yeah, yeah. Its his fault. Its his fault. The president, just so you because Putin didnt respect President Obama. President Obama lost Crimea because President Putin didnt respect President Obama. Didnt respect our country and didnt respect Ukraine. President Obama, not Trump when its my fault, Ill tell you. But President Obama gave away that President Obama by not going across the red line in the sand that he drew, I went across it with the 59 missile hits. But President Obama when he didnt go across the red line, what he gave away, nobody even knows.

Politics

The pandemic has renewed interest in virtual reality. Facebook is trying to capitalize with a new virtual meeting room service.Credit...FacebookAug. 19, 2021SAN FRANCISCO For years, the idea that virtual reality would go mainstream has remained exactly that: virtual.Though tech giants like Facebook and Sony have spent billions of dollars trying to perfect the experience, virtual reality has stayed a niche plaything of hobbyists willing to pay thousands of dollars, often for a clunky VR headset tethered to a powerful gaming computer.That changed last year in the pandemic. As people lived more of their lives digitally, they started buying more VR headsets. VR hardware sales shot up, led by Facebooks Oculus Quest 2, a headset that was introduced last fall, according to the research firm IDC.To build on the momentum, Facebook on Thursday introduced a virtual-reality service called Horizon Workrooms. The product, which is free for Quest 2 owners to download, offers a virtual meeting room where people using the headsets can gather as if they were at an in-person work meeting. The participants join with a customizable cartoon avatar of themselves. Interactive virtual white boards line the walls so that people can write and draw things as in a physical conference room.The product is another step toward what Facebook sees as the ultimate form of social connection for its 3.5 billion users. One way or another, I think were going to live in a mixed-reality future, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebooks chief executive, said at a media round table that was conducted this week in virtual reality using Workrooms. At the event, the avatars of Mr. Zuckerberg and roughly a dozen Facebook employees, reporters and technical support staff assembled in what looked like an open and well-lit virtual conference room. Mr. Zuckerbergs avatar sported a long-sleeve henley shirt in a dark Facebook blue. (My avatar had a checkered red flannel shirt.) Since Workrooms show participants only as floating torsos seated around a wooden desk, no one worried about picking out a pair of pants.Facebook was early to virtual reality. In 2014, it paid $2 billion to buy the headset start-up Oculus VR. At the time, Mr. Zuckerberg promised that the technology would enable you to experience the impossible.The deal jump-started a wave of acquisitions and funding in virtual reality. Investment in VR start-ups swelled, while companies like HTC and Sony also promised VR headsets for the masses. Microsoft developed the HoloLens, which were hologram-projecting glasses.But the hype fizzled fast. The first generation of most VR hardware including Facebooks Oculus Rift was expensive. Almost all of the headsets required users to be tethered to a personal computer. There were no obvious killer apps to attract people to the devices. Worse still, some people got nauseated after using the products.The next generation of VR headsets focused on lowering costs. Samsungs Gear VR, Google Cardboard and Google Daydream all asked consumers to strap on goggles and drop in their smartphones to use as VR screens. Those efforts also failed, because smartphones were not powerful enough to deliver an immersive virtual reality experience.People would always ask me, What VR headset should I buy? said Nick Fajt, chief executive of Rec Room, a video game popular among virtual reality enthusiasts. And Id always respond, Just wait.To adjust, some companies began pitching virtual reality not for the masses but for narrower fields. Magic Leap, a start-up that promoted itself as the next big thing in augmented reality computing, shifted to selling VR devices to businesses. Microsoft has gone in a similar direction, with a particular focus on military contracts, though it has said it is absolutely still working toward a mainstream consumer product.In 2017, even Mr. Zuckerberg acknowledged on an earnings call that Facebooks bet on Oculus was taking a bit longer than he initially thought.Facebook spent the next few years on research and development to eliminate the need for a tethered cable connecting the VR headset to the PC, freeing up a users range of movement while still keeping the device powerful enough to provide a sense of virtual immersion.It also worked on inside-out tracking, a way to monitor the position of a VR headset relative to its environment, writing new algorithms that were more energy efficient and did not eat through a devices battery power too quickly.Atman Binstock, Oculuss chief architect, said there were also improvements in simultaneous localization and mapping, or SLAM tracking, which allows a VR device to understand the unmapped space around itself while also recognizing its own position within that space. Advances in SLAM tracking have helped developers build more interactive digital worlds.The changes helped lead to the $299 Quest 2 last year, which does not require a PC or other cumbersome hardware to use and has been relatively simple to set up.ImageCredit...Jim Wilson/The New York TimesFacebook does not break out sales numbers for Oculus, but revenue from the headsets more than doubled over the first three months of the Quest 2s availability. Facebook has sold five million to six million of the headsets, analysts estimated.That was roughly the same amount that Sonys PlayStation VR, widely regarded as the most successful VR device on the market, sold from 2016, when it had its debut, through 2020. (Sony has announced an upcoming VR system that will work with the PlayStation 5, its flagship gaming console.)Andrew Bosworth, vice president of Facebook Reality Labs, which oversees the Oculus product division, said Facebook had also paid tens of millions of dollars to developers to help create games and other apps for VR. Even when it was tough for all of VR in 2016, developers needed us to take some of the risk out, he said in an interview.Oculus has also bought several gaming studios and other VR-based companies, like BigBox VR, Beat Games and Sanzaru Games, to build more virtual reality content.With Workrooms, Facebook wants to take Oculus beyond just gaming. The service is intended to provide a sense of presence with other people, even when they might be sitting halfway across the world.Mr. Zuckerberg sees the project as part of the next internet, one that technologists call the metaverse. In Mr. Zuckerbergs telling, the metaverse is a world in which people can communicate via VR or video calling, smartphone or tablet, or through other devices like smart glasses or gadgets that havent been invented yet.There, people will maintain some sense of continuity between all the different digital worlds they inhabit. Someone might buy a digital avatar of a shirt in a virtual reality store, for instance, and then log off but continue wearing that shirt to a Zoom meeting.For now, that vision remains distant. VR adoption can be measured in the tens of millions of users, compared with the billions of owners of smartphones. Facebook has also stumbled, issuing a recall this year on the Quest 2s foam pad covers after some users reported skin irritation. The company has offered new, free silicon padded covers to all Quest 2 owners.At the Workrooms event with reporters this week, Mr. Zuckerberg spoke but had to leave at one point and rejoin the room because his digital avatars mouth was not moving when he spoke.Technology that gives you this sense of presence is like the holy grail of social experiences, and what I think a company like ours was designed to do over time, Mr. Zuckerberg said, after the glitch was fixed and his avatars mouth was moving again. My hope is that over the coming years, people really start to think of us not primarily as a social media company, but as a metaverse company thats providing a real sense of presence.

Tech

Credit...Charlie Neibergall/Associated PressFeb. 14, 2014TAMPA, Fla. When Derek Jeter announced Wednesday that 2014 would be his final year in baseball, it probably removed a burden from the Yankees, particularly from Manager Joe Girardi. Girardi has already played the bad guy on one occasion, downgrading Jeters close friend Jorge Posada from star catcher to little-used bench player in 2011. It was not a smooth transition. In Jeters case, if he wanted to keep playing beyond the 2014 season but his performance this year markedly declined, it could have meant difficult decisions and ugly conversations about the future, all of it made more painful because of Jeters exalted status.Instead, Jeter has eliminated all those uncomfortable possibilities.The Yankees will never have to tell Jeter at the end of a season that they do not want him back, and there will not be any awkward contract discussions.And unless he shows he absolutely cannot play shortstop in his final season, the Yankees will never have to push him to change positions. Or worse, tell him there is no longer room for him in the lineup.The Yankees, and Girardi, can sit back and probably enjoy Jeters final campaign, accept whatever limitations he encounters as he turns 40 and not have to worry that he will still stubbornly want to be the shortstop two, three or four seasons from now. If he hits .260 or .250 this year, at least the Yankees will not have to brood that he might hit .220 in 2015. It is not something were going to be thinking about all year, Girardi said Friday as pitchers and catchers reported to spring training. From that standpoint, that will be easier. Even if Jeter has a tough 2014 season and goes into the postseason if the Yankees have one with a fairly low batting average and some mobility problems at shortstop, it is still unlikely that Girardi will feel tempted to pull him from the lineup.He is, after all, Derek Jeter. And amid postseason pressure, Girardi would almost certainly want him at shortstop because of everything he has done in other Octobers.Hes going to play as much as hes capable of playing, Girardi said. Thats the bottom line for me. We want him out there.In 2012 and every year before that, there was never a doubt that Jeter helped his team win. In the 2012 season, at age 38, he led the major leagues with 216 hits. In the playoffs that year, he was batting .333 before his ankle gave way. In 2013, Jeter played in only 17 games because of injury. A season later, Jeter says he is experiencing no difficulties.Feeling great, he said Friday after his usual workout.Does he have any concerns about his health? Nope, he said.None? None.Girardi said he planned to give Jeter all the rest he needed in his final season; he will use him as the designated hitter whenever necessary to take pressure off his legs. And Girardi said the Yankees should have a good idea by the end of spring training about how much of a workload Jeter might be able to carry this season.At no point in spring training will I run him out there five or six days in a row, Girardi said. But I think youll be able to tell running him out there two and three days in a row how hes responding and how hes bouncing back, and it will give you a pretty good inkling.A year ago, Girardi presided as Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte played their final seasons without problems: Both were still good enough to be front-line players. Girardi has reasonable hopes that the same thing will occur with Jeter.I think about the guys that I played with that retired while I was a manager, said Girardi, who was a Yankee from 1996 to 1999. These guys are really important to the club, and it saddens you. I remember coming to spring training when Jorge wasnt in that first group hitting, and its shocking not to see him there. And it will be strange next year without Derek. You hate to see players get older.INSIDE PITCHC. C. Sabathia, who came to camp at what he reported was 275 pounds, said that he lost too much weight too fast last season and that it hurt his earned run average. I feel like if I could have been a little better, we might have made the playoffs, he said. I blamed myself for a long time in the off-season. Sabathias E.R.A. was 4.78, the highest of his career.

Sports

Rob Gronkowski's Big Bro XFL Should Sign My Little Bro! (No, Not Rob) 1/26/2018 TMZSports.com If Vince McMahon wants a big name in the XFL -- Chris Gronkowski says his little brother is down to lend his family crest to the league! No, he ain't talking about Rob ... dude's kinda busy. But Chris tells TMZ Sports his OTHER lil bro, Glenn, is totally game after getting waived by the Patriots during the regular season. "He just got a Super Bowl ring last year, so sign him up!" It's true ... Glenn (fullback) was a member of the New England Patriots practice squad last season. Of course, we had to get Chris to update us on Rob's status for the upcoming Super Bowl ... and he had a similar take as Rob's BFF, Mojo Rawley. TMZSports.com

Entertainment

Beijing DispatchCredit...Yan Cong for The New York TimesNov. 8, 2018BEIJING Beijings latest urban preservation campaign swung like a wrecking ball this summer through the colorful shops along Yonghegong Street, a tree-lined road between two of the citys landmarks: the Confucius and Lama Temples.Workers wielding crowbars, jackhammers and written orders from the city knocked out tiled eaves and wooden columns decorated with red lanterns and Tibetan prayer flags. Then they bricked up and painted over spaces that had once been doors or windows.Yuan Hong, who a decade ago opened a hair salon on one of the distinctive alleyways known as hutongs not far from Yonghegong, showed up there early one morning recently to find workers knocking out her glass storefront.Can you wait for me to get my face washed first? she said she implored the workers. Can you slow down a little bit?They couldnt, or wouldnt. Even as she continued to cut, wash, dye and dry customers hair, workers stacked brick after brick where the entrance had been until she had been closed inside. By the end of the day, only a new window was left.ImageCredit...Yan Cong for The New York TimesWhen the first scaffolding came down on Yonghegong last month, the buildings had returned to something closer to their original design, more or less dating to the end of the 19th century.The cost, though, was the closure of at least dozen shops that once sold incense, jewelry, paintings, sculptures and other religious paraphernalia to visitors who regularly throng the street.For decades, the authorities in Beijing seemed bent on demolishing the citys historical neighborhoods, erasing entire swaths of the single-story warrens of alleyways known as hutongs. Now, they say, they are trying to restore what remains.The goal is to carefully polish every historical and cultural block, as Beijings mayor, Chen Jining, put it in an address last spring.Preservationists, though, have greeted the work with ambivalence.Many welcomed improvements to the old neighborhoods, noting that officials have also renovated public bathrooms, which remain primary sanitary facilities for many since most old hutong homes still do not have indoor plumbing.ImageCredit...Bryan Denton for The New York TimesOthers say much of the new work is cosmetic. Instead of using bricks in many places, workers are instead affixing thin gray tiles to exterior walls. That might recreate the historical appearances of hutong homes and temples, but it does nothing to restore them.The restoration work around Yonghegong is part of a citywide bricking up campaign that is now in its second year. It has already shuttered scores of grocers, cafes, bars, barbershops and other businesses that mushroomed during Chinas headlong plunge into capitalism.This being China, the restoration has been carried out by government decree with minimal input from independent planners and preservationists and no public discussion of the merits.To live and work in the affected areas today is to experience a near-constant state of upheaval and uncertainty, as well the clouds of dust and piles of debris.Notices have appeared taped on buildings that, just days later, have been swarmed by workers. One supervisor on Yonghegong, ticking off buildings on what appeared to be a zoning map, said the work would move step by step though the city center.There have also been notices along other hutongs north of the Forbidden City, including two streets, Gulou and Jiaodaokou, which have a similar mixture of shops and restaurants and are also thronged with residents and tourists alike.There is no room for negotiation, said Ms. Yuan, the hairdresser.City officials did not respond to requests for comment. But workers have shown residents and shopkeepers written orders that made it clear the authorities want to clear the old hutong neighborhoods of unauthorized additions or extensions.That includes many of the doorways and entrances in the hutongs gray-brick walls, which traditionally enclosed inward-facing courtyards, as well as second stories in what are historically single-story structures.The basic contours of these neighborhoods date to the 13th century when the Mongol founders of the Yuan dynasty laid the citys grid, and they are as distinctive a feature of the cityscape as the Forbidden City or the major temples.The mayor, in his address last fall, singled out the neighborhoods inside the citys Second Ring Road, which follows the path of the medieval city walls. Those walls stood for more than five centuries before being torn down in 1965 during another much-lamented urban renewal project in Maos time.ImageCredit...Yan Cong for The New York TimesHu Xinyu, a trustee of the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center, said the city was bringing order to neighborhoods where economic forces and the lack of zoning enforcement had resulted in chaotic and even dangerous conditions.It is helping to draw a clear line, he said in an interview at the Courtyard Institute, a cultural center that is inside a traditional courtyard house. Otherwise Beijing will just become a mega city and will have more and more problems.For shopkeepers like Ms. Yuan, her customers and residents nearby, the impact has been to unravel the fabric of city life.This place is the real Beijing, said Li Zonggao, 73, sitting on a chair outside his house not far from Ms. Yuans salon, and watching as workers built a new wall where three storefronts had until October been neighborhood fixtures.He expressed gratitude for the citys attention, but also lamented the loss of the small shops, including the one where he bought his cigarettes.ImageCredit...Yan Cong for The New York TimesIsnt it more convenient, he asked, if I can just get those outside of where I live?Along the hutong where he lives and Ms. Yuan works, several businesses have closed: a hardware shop, a congee and dumpling joint, the place that sold houseplants, the fruit and vegetable shop operated by the cheerful young woman, and the stall with the dour one who nonetheless made decent jianbing, a crepe-like breakfast staple.How do people live a life? Ms. Yuan asked.Rosie Levine, a scholar who has worked with the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center and recently completed a thesis on the bricking up campaign, said culling small businesses was in fact the goal.Commercialization has historically been seen in Chinese society as a polluting force, she said.That too has had the effect of removing from the capital migrant workers from other parts of China, helping the authorities achieve their goal of capping Beijings population, which is nearing 22 million.Many of the citys small shopkeepers are people who poured into the city during the transition to capitalism in hopes of making a living.Others attribute the work to Chinas leader, Xi Jinping, the first of the countrys Communist leaders to have grown up in a Beijing hutong.In 2014, he toured the neighborhood on one of his rare excursions in a public place, evoking nostalgia for the place that seemed deeply personal.We must protect historical and cultural legacies, he said then, as we cherish our own lives.Very few of the hutongs survive in anything close to their original state. In 1949, there were an estimated 3,300 hutongs; today barely 1,000 remain, according to a survey Ms. Levine helped conduct for the Beijing cultural center.Many of those still remaining have been irrevocably altered the courtyards inside divided and redivided over the seven decades of Communist rule.If they were comprehensively restoring the courtyards, that would be great, Ms. Levine said. Whats happening now, though? It would be hard to call it historical preservation.

World

Antibody levels rose in the children who received it, suggesting the vaccine protects against infection. But the data were gathered before the arrival of Omicron.Credit...Alisha Jucevic for The New York TimesMay 11, 2022Modernas coronavirus vaccine elicits a strong immune response in children aged 6 to 11, researchers reported on Wednesday another signpost in what has become a long and tortuous road to protecting young children against the virus, even as cases again inch upward.On Monday, Moderna requested authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for the vaccines use in this age group. But authorization, if granted, is unlikely to bump up the low immunization rates among young children by much.The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been available for children aged 5 to 11 since November, but as of Wednesday, just 28.7 percent had received two doses. There is no coronavirus vaccine available at all for children younger than 5, forcing parents to rely on less reliable protective measures.Last month, Moderna asked the F.D.A. to authorize its vaccine for use in children 6 months to 6 years old. The agency is already reviewing the companys data on adolescents, and is expected to decide on use of the Moderna vaccine in children of all ages in June.In February, Pfizer and BioNTech also sought authorization of their vaccine for use in the youngest children, but withdrew the application after data suggested that two doses did not produce adequate protection against the Omicron variant.The companies are banking on a third dose to shore up immunity in children, and the F.D.A. is expected to review those data in June, as well.We really cant do it this way in the future we cant leave children to the very last, said Dr. Sallie Permar, an expert in pediatric vaccines at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.The process has been particularly confusing and unfair for parents of the youngest children, who still do not have access to a vaccine more than two years into the pandemic, she said.It has been nearly a year since Moderna requested F.D.A. authorization for use of its vaccine in adolescents 12 to 17 years. While the agency gave the go-ahead to Pfizer-BioNTechs vaccine for use in that age group in just three weeks, the agencys review of Modernas vaccine had stalled.The delay in authorization has been longest in the United States. Europes drug regulators approved Modernas vaccine for adolescents aged 12 to 17 last summer, and has recommended approval for children aged 6 to 11.Regulatory agencies in Canada and Australia have also authorized the Moderna vaccine for 6- to 11-year-olds.In the United States, just over one in four of the 28 million children aged 5 to 11 have been immunized against the coronavirus. Parental reluctance seems to stem partly from the fact that the infection is known to be less risky for children.The risk of a kid getting severe Covid is much, much, much lower lets be honest about that, said Dr. Ofer Levy, director of the precision vaccines program at Boston Childrens Hospital and an adviser to the F.D.A.Still, he said he had just treated a child with leukemia who had been hospitalized for Covid. Some children do get severe Covid, some end up in a hospital, he said, adding that more than 1,500 children under 18 have died so far in the pandemic.Im not into mandates, but I do think that families should have the option of protecting their youngest, Dr. Levy said.In its trial, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Moderna first tested different doses of its vaccine and chose a dose of 50 micrograms half the adult dose for children aged 6 to 11. The researchers then randomly assigned more than 4,000 children to receive two shots 28 days apart.Three-fourths of the children got the vaccine, and the remainder received placebo shots of saltwater. Roughly half the children were from communities of color. To gauge the vaccines power, the researchers measured antibodies produced after immunization. (Pfizers vaccine trials relied on this same approach, called immunobridging.)The children who received the vaccine produced antibody levels that were slightly higher than those seen in young adults, a promising sign. The trials were not large enough to assess the vaccines ability to forestall severe disease or death.But based on small numbers of infections with the Delta variant among the participants, the researchers estimated that the vaccine had an efficacy of 88 percent against infection.Immunobridging is basically an educated guess that we take that the same level of immunity is going to be just as protective in a younger age group as it was in an older age group, Dr. Permar said. So its nice when you can also follow that up with efficacy.The shots seemed to produce only minor side effects including pain at the injection site, headache and fatigue and less often than in adults. About half the children also had fevers, for about a day.That side effect may become an issue in children younger than 5, because high fevers in very young children require invasive tests in order to rule out dangerous bacterial infections, Dr. Permar said.The trial was not large enough to detect rarer side effects, such as the heart problems that have been observed in other age groups. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine appears to cause fewer cases of so-called myocarditis among young children than among adolescents or young adults.Modernas trial measured the vaccines power against the Delta variant, and the researchers are still assessing its performance against Omicron. All of the vaccines have proven to be less effective, in all age groups, against the Omicron variant.Independent scientists have reported that the Moderna vaccine provokes a strong immune response in children aged 7 to 11, and in adolescents, against the Omicron variant and other versions of the coronavirus.But these antibodies appear to wane over time, as they do in adults. Probably the performance of the vaccine, in terms of vaccine efficacy, wont be as high in real-world data, Dr. Levy said.Dr. Permar said she hoped the pandemic brings a change in how vaccines are evaluated during an emergency.We need to think of a different way to approach including kids and pregnant women in trials earlier, she said. And we need to be doing that now, because the next pandemic is going to be upon us before we want it to be.

Health

FEB. 18, 2014 In the debut of ski halfpipe as an Olympic sport, David Wise won a gold medal with a clean, elegant run through snowy, low-visibility conditions that tripped up other medal contenders. 1 On his first run, David Wise did two double-cork 1260s. This one was his second trick of the run, and he spun to his left, his dominant turning side. Composite image by The New York Times 2 On his last hit of the run, Wise did a mirror image of the trick: a right-side double-cork 1260 with a dramatic grab. His amplitude above the halfpipe was as high as his earlier tricks, which earned points from the judges. Composite image by The New York Times 3 I had both double-corks, which was huge a lot of guys were going big and grabbing well, but the difference for me was that I was able to put it all together, Wise said, after winning the gold. Composite image by The New York Times More on NYTimes.com

Sports

Credit...Charlie Neibergall/Associated PressFeb. 10, 2014CEDAR FALLS, Iowa There isnt much to the visiting coaches office at the University of Northern Iowas McLeod Center, a big room with concrete-block walls and a couple of block-style couches and chairs. Wichita State Coach Gregg Marshall, his gold print tie undone and dark gray suit coat discarded, claimed one couch Saturday night while the rest of his staff fussed with suitcases, hustling for a charter flight home.The Shockers had just outlasted Northern Iowa, 82-73, to become the first team since Memphis in 2007-8 to start a season 25-0. It was a gritty win in a raucous, sold-out arena to finish a demanding set of back-to-back Missouri Valley Conference road games that began with a 65-58 victory at Indiana State on Wednesday night. Marshall slugged an orange-colored sports drink to sooth his gravelly voice.Six more conference games separate the Shockers from the first unbeaten regular season in N.C.A.A. Division I since St. Josephs went 27-0 in 2003-4. That is all anybody wanted to talk about, and to be that close, after losing four seniors from last years improbable Final Four team, left Marshall bubbling with praise for his players.Think about this now, Marshall said, leaning forward. We were in a one-and-done situation for a while last year. Basically now with this streak, the season is not over if we lose, but the mounting pressure makes it kind of feel like a one-and-done scenario. They handle that pretty well, dont they? Im impressed. Its bizarre. Its a long time, man, to do that.Others nationally are not as impressed. Syracuse is the only other unbeaten team left in Division I, but Wichita State remained No. 4 in Mondays Associated Press poll behind the Orange (23-0), Arizona (23-1) and Florida (21-2), and just ahead of San Diego State (21-1).Wichita States 90th-ranked strength of schedule has factored into its ranking. Last seasons big finish scared off many top-tier, nonconference opponents, leaving the Shockers without a signature matchup. No. 12 St. Louis is the only ranked team Wichita State faced, on Dec. 1, though the Billikens were not ranked then.And the defending M.V.C. champion Creightons departure for the Big East weakened the conference in the eyes of many voters. Unranked Indiana State (18-6) appears to be the only other team with a chance at an N.C.A.A. tournament bid.For now, the ESPN bracket analyst Joe Lunardi slots the Shockers as a No. 1 regional seed in the N.C.A.A. tournament, along with Syracuse, Arizona and Florida. He gives the Shockers a 75 to 80 percent chance of finishing the regular season unbeaten, up from 50 percent before their victories against Indiana State and Northern Iowa, who were a combined 16-1 at home. If that happens, and the Shockers win the M.V.C. tournament, their 34-0 record will be hard to ignore, Lunardi said.ImageCredit...Charlie Neibergall/Associated PressIts not only about them, Lunardi said in a telephone interview Sunday. Its about the other teams around you. In some years, there may only be five or six teams with a legitimate case to be a No. 1 seed. Now its nine or 10. Thats unusual.Those include No. 7 Kansas (18-5 entering Monday), which plays the toughest schedule in the country and tops the Ratings Performance Index, a formula the N.C.A.A. selection committee uses to seed the tournament.One loss probably would drop the Shockers to a No. 2 seed, Lunardi said, which still provides a smoother path to a regional final.Its a distinction without a difference, he said.Other than St. Josephs, only five other teams managed unbeaten regular seasons in the last 38 years: Indiana and Rutgers in 1976, Indiana State and Alcorn State in 1979, and Nevada Las-Vegas in 1991. Only Indiana won the national championship; Indiana State advanced to the final and Rutgers and U.N.L.V. reached the national semifinals.In 2004, Xavier stunned St. Josephs, 87-67, in the Atlantic 10 tournament. But the Hawks drew a No. 1 East Region seed because of a strong schedule, advancing to the regional final before losing to Oklahoma State. Marshall says he believes the Shockers have done enough to merit a top seed.If its my opinion, I dont think we have to go undefeated, but if thats the case, so be it, he said. Maybe we end up with a No. 2 seed. Thats still pretty good. Ill let you know when they call me on Selection Sunday to ask me where they want my team, because Ive got nothing to do with it.Marshall no longer wears his trademark yellow-frame eyeglasses, because his wife, Lynn, tired of them. His team is a little different, too: still physical, but better offensively. The 6-foot-8 senior forward Cleanthony Early of Middletown, N.Y., remains a force inside and outside (16.3 points and 6.3 rebounds a game), and the sophomore guards Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet combine for 24.6 points and 8.3 assists a game.Theyre very confident, Marshall said. I always tell them, you dont have to play the perfect game. You just have to play well. That will take care of a lot of problems. Theyre a confident group that thinks if they play well, they can beat anybody in the country.But everybody? Marshall said he was not looking past Southern Illinois on Tuesday night. Two other remaining opponents, Evansville and Missouri State, led the Shockers by double digits in the first half of their earlier games.The only time we talk about it is with you guys when you ask the question, VanVleet said. It may be a clich or whatever, but we focus on the next game. We dont really worry about that too much. As much success as we had last year, were just focused on our conference. Take care of each game and try to win the conference championship at this point.

Sports

More Hospitals Are Requiring Workers to Get Covid VaccinesWith some health care workers still refusing to be immunized, medical centers around the country are requiring shots as cases climb once again.Credit...Andrea Morales for The New York TimesPublished July 21, 2021Updated Aug. 16, 2021More and more hospitals and major health systems are requiring employees to get the Covid-19 vaccine, citing rising caseloads fueled by the Delta variant and stubbornly low vaccination rates in their communities and even within their work force.Many hospitals say their efforts to immunize their employees have stalled, in much the same way the nations overall vaccination rates are stuck under 60 percent, behind many European countries and Canada. While more than 96 percent of doctors say they are fully vaccinated, according to the American Medical Association, health care workers, particularly in rural areas, have proven more resistant even though thousands of workers have died from the virus and countless more became sick.One recent estimate indicated that one in four hospital workers were not vaccinated by the end of May, with some facilities reporting that fewer than half of their employees had gotten the shots.Some hospitals, ranging from academic medical centers like NewYork-Presbyterian and Yale New Haven to large chains like Trinity Health, are going ahead with a mandate because they recognize that the only way to stop the virus is to vaccinate as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. A large Arizona-based chain, Banner Health, announced Tuesday that it would impose a mandate, and New York City said it would require all health care workers at city-run hospitals or clinics to be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing.Watching cases rise prompted Trinity Health, a Catholic system with hospitals in 22 states, to become one of the first major groups to decide earlier this month that it would mandate inoculations. We were convinced that the vaccine can save lives, said Dr. Daniel Roth, Trinitys chief clinical officer. These are preventable deaths.At UF Health Jacksonville, in Florida, the number of Covid patients being treated has surged to levels not seen since January, and only half of its health care workers are vaccinated, said Chad Neilsen, the director of infection prevention. Seventy-five employees are out sick with the virus, the vast majority of whom are unvaccinated, while more are waiting for test results. We are absolutely struggling for staffing right now, he said.Its like dj vu, said Mr. Neilsen, who described growing frustration with colleagues refusing to get the shots. We have a reason to believe this could be over if people got vaccinated.Despite dozens of virtual town halls, question-and-answer sessions and educational videos, many employees are wary. We still stagnated, Mr. Neilsen said.ImageCredit...Bob Self/The Florida Times-Union, via Associated PressSome employees want more data, while others say the process has been too rushed. Many of the same conspiracy theories and misinformation that the vaccines will make women infertile or contain microchips hold sway among staff members. Our health care workers are a reflection of the general population, he said.Hospital leaders and others plan to meet with state officials in the coming weeks about the possibility of imposing a mandate, he said.Unvaccinated workers also continue to care for even the sickest patients, raising concerns that they will spread the infection, especially now that the highly contagious Delta variant comprises more than 80 percent of the nations cases.Nowhere is this more important than in hospitals, where health care personnel who have been heroic during this pandemic are caring for patients with a wide variety of health challenges under the assumption that the health care professionals treating them are not at risk of acquiring or transmitting Covid-19, Dr. David J. Skorton, the chief executive of the Association of American Medical Colleges, which represents teaching hospitals, said in a statement last Friday calling for a mandate.On Wednesday, two more groups, including the American Hospital Association, joined the growing clamor for vaccine mandates. We have lost too many of our caregivers to Covid-19, said Dr. Bruce Siegel, the chief executive of Americas Essential Hospitals, which represents hospitals in underserved communities. Vaccination can reduce the risk we lose more.With formal approval of the vaccines by the Food and Drug Administration potentially months away, hospitals find themselves at the center of the national debate over whether to impose mandates. While the vaccines are being offered under emergency use authorization, supporters argue there is ample evidence that the ones available in the United States are both safe and effective.In states like Missouri, which has reported a sharp increase in cases, there is newfound urgency. We felt we could not wait, said Dr. Shephali Wulff, the director of infectious diseases for SSM Health, a Catholic hospital system whose headquarters are in St. Louis. SSM, where about two-thirds of employees are now vaccinated, is requiring everyone to get their first dose by Sept. 1.SSMs decision was also motivated by concern that Covid infections could spike this fall when there could also be a surge in other respiratory infections. We need a healthy work force going into the flu season, Dr. Wulff said. We do not have the time to wait for approval.ImageCredit...Kathryn Gamble for The New York TimesBut some systems are already worried about staffing shortages caused by departures during the pandemic, with many employees quitting because of the stress and burnout experienced by caring for Covid patients. Hospitals are hesitant to risk losing more workers if they force the issue.They are afraid it could be a tipping point, said Ann Marie Pettis, the president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, one of the professional organizations that is urging hospitals to require the vaccine.At Mosaic Life Care, a small Missouri hospital group, executives are reluctant to adopt a mandate if other hospitals do not. We have the potential to lose some caregivers to other systems, said Joey Austin, a spokeswoman for Mosaic, which has vaccinated about 62 percent of its staff.Many hospitals already require their employees to get a flu shot, a mandate that has been in place for over a decade. While that was also met by resistance from employees skeptical of the vaccines safety, it is now largely accepted. Individuals can seek a medical or religious exemption, typically representing a small sliver of the work force, which hospitals say would also apply to the Covid vaccines.Mandates establish a social norm and say its an institutional priority, said Saad B. Omer, the director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, who emphasized that hospitals need to strongly encourage workers to voluntarily get the vaccines to be successful.Unions like the National Nurses United and 1199 S.E.I.U. say they want members to be vaccinated but oppose making it a condition of employment. At the first hospital to impose a mandate, Houston Methodist, a group of employees sued to challenge the requirement but the lawsuit was recently dismissed. About 150 employees ultimately resigned or were fired for refusing to meet the deadline for vaccination out of a total work force of some 26,000 people.ImageCredit...Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle, via Associated PressHospitals say they are working hard to dispel much of the pervasive misinformation around the vaccines, even among physicians and nurses.I have to remind them that reputable scientists do not publish their findings on YouTube, Dr. Wulff said. In addition to presenting hard data about the vaccine, she and her colleagues at SSM are also sharing their personal experiences, like getting vaccinated while trying to get pregnant. What Im finding is people are moved by stories and anecdotes, she said.Generally its a lot of listening and homing in on what is driving their fear, Dr. Wulff said.Some high-profile systems like Intermountain Healthcare and the Cleveland Clinic are waiting. The clinic, which has a sprawling network of 18 hospitals in the United States, said existing policies, like masking and closely tracking infections, protect patients and workers.We know if we ensure these safety precautions are in place we know we can continue to keep our patients and caregivers safe, said K. Kelly Hancock, the Cleveland Clinics chief caregiver officer.About three-quarters of employees are now vaccinated, and efforts are continuing full force, she said.At Intermountain Healthcare, based in Utah, a good majority of employees are vaccinated, said Dr. Kristin Dascomb, medical director for infection prevention and control and employee health.If more safety data is compelling and the F.D.A. approves the vaccines, Intermountain may require immunization along with other hospitals in the state. We are starting the conversation now in Utah, she said.The lack of full F.D.A. approval has also influenced other hospitals. Mass General Brigham, which has vaccinated more than 85 percent of its work force, said it would adopt the requirement as soon as the vaccines were approved.ImageCredit...Kathryn Gamble for The New York TimesSome hospitals argue a mandate is not necessary. In my opinion, there isnt one right answer, said Suresh Gunasekaran, the chief executive of the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics. About 90 percent of its workers are now vaccinated, he said, adding that he was confident that virtually everyone would be immunized by the end of the year.The system has been successful in chipping away at vaccine hesitancy, Mr. Gunasekaran said, in part because Iowa was involved in the clinical trials for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.Northwell Health, the large New York hospital group, does not require workers to be immunized against the flu but about 90 percent of its work force is vaccinated against it, said Maxine Carrington, Northwells chief human resources officer. It is taking a similar approach to Covid.We want people to be believers, Ms. Carrington said, so they are better able to persuade the community at large to get vaccinated. She described the system as pounding the pavement on education, education, education. About 76 percent of its work force is currently vaccinated against Covid. Northwell will revisit the idea of a mandate after F.D.A. approves the vaccines, she said.Yale New Haven Health is now requiring employees to get vaccinated, as have the other hospitals in Connecticut.From the very beginning, we messaged that it isnt mandatory yet. We emphasized the yet, said Dr. Thomas Balcezak, the chief clinical officer for Yale.Health care has to lead, he said.

Health

Credit...Hrant Khachatryan/PAN, via ReutersApril 5, 2016JABRAYIL, Azerbaijan Armenians and Azerbaijanis agreed on Tuesday to a cease-fire after four days of fighting along the border of a disputed region, putting to rest, at least for now, fears that the outbreak of ethnic strife might spiral into a wider war.With almost palpable relief, mediators, including the United States, France and Russia, issued statements commending the halt in clashes along the line of contact of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, an ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan.By Tuesday evening, the truce seemed to hold, though the Karabakh military reported isolated instances of mortar and tank fire from the Azerbaijani side.In a statement, Azerbaijans Defense Ministry said that on the basis of mutual agreement, the military actions on the contact line between Armenia and Azerbaijan are halted.Russias president, Vladimir V. Putin, called President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and President Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia to urge both to fully adhere to the truce, a Kremlin statement said.Expressing serious concern in connection with the wide-scale military clashes that led to multiple victims, Putin called on both sides to immediately support a full halt in combat actions, the statement said, the Interfax news agency reported.With the cease-fire in place, this latest bloody flare-up in the quarter-century Nagorno-Karabakh conflict appeared to end as it had begun, with the adversaries at or close to their previous positions but no nearer to a final settlement.After four days of battle, Azerbaijans military said 16 of its soldiers had been killed, while the Karabakh army said it had lost 29 soldiers. In addition, 101 were reported wounded, and 28 were missing in action.A war between the two former Soviet States over Nagorno-Karabakh, a highland region of mountains, alpine meadows and small villages, halted in 1994 with an earlier cease-fire but no political resolution. That war killed more than 20,000 people and displaced thousands of others. The majority ethnic Armenian population declared an independent state that Azerbaijan rejects.The weekend fighting seemed pregnant with the risk of a wider war. Russia has backed mostly Christian Armenia, while Turkey, at odds with Russia as the two countries back opposite sides in the Syrian civil war, has supported Azerbaijan.A mediating organization known as the Minsk Group, led by Russia, the United States and France and operating under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, issued a statement praising the cease-fire. It said it welcomed diplomats plans to undertake direct consultation with the sides as soon as possible.The European Unions foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, issued a statement calling for observance of the cease-fire and saying that a large-scale conflict is in the interest of no one.Characteristic of the fighting of the past days, and its risks in an unsteady region, Iran reported stray shells had landed on its territory near the south of the disputed region, which borders Iran.In this region, the mountains taper into an area of rolling, grassy hills eerily dotted with the ruins of Azerbaijani villages, their inhabitants long ago dead or driven away as refugees from the last war.Some of the clashes seesawed over these same ruins this time, however little there seemed left to fight over; all that remained were heaps of brick and tipped-over stones of Muslim graveyards, overgrown with thistles.The Karabakh military escorted reporters to the area to see an impact from a stray rocket, a large so-called Smerch ground-to-ground rocket that had landed in one such ruined village, about a mile from the border with Iran.The policy of our country is aimed at a peaceful settlement, Col. David Davidsyan, with the Karabakh military, said in an announcement of the cease-fire. But the Karabakh army is ready to solve this question by force if needed.Any truce is temporary, one soldier, Pvt. Never Grigoryan, said in an interview at a Karabakh artillery position outside a ruined village, Marjalu. He stood amid a heap of empty, green wooden boxes that had held artillery shells.We will be ready, he said.

World

Chael Sonnen Slams Rampage, Fedor ... WITH POEM!!! 1/20/2018 TMZSports.com Chael Sonnen strolled in to the TMZ newsroom ... With a poem to make everyone look like buffoons. No, not us, his Bellator competition ... Who he says he'll knock out, what a shocking admission! That's right, Chael says he'll put Rampage to sleep ... Putting Jackson's lights out, leaving him in a heap. Sonnen's not scared of the others either, you see ... The heavyweights in his tourney are kinda crappy, says he. Russia's Fedor couldn't win if Putin came through with a tank ... And Roy Nelson's too fat, you can take that to the bank. So when Chael sweeps the field and out-fights 'em all ... Don't be surprised that a gangster's the belle of the brawl!

Entertainment

Jennifer Williams Court Orders Protection from Ex-BF 1/29/2018 JANUARY 2018 TMZ.com Jennifer Williams is celebrating a victory in court over the ex-bf she claims is violent and threatening. We got the "Basketball Wives" star Monday outside court in downtown L.A., and she was brandishing the temporary restraining order the judge had just granted. It requires her ex, Tim Norman, to stay at least 100 yards away from her at all times. Jennifer's not satisfied though, and told us she'll be back in court. As for seeing Tim -- who's on OWN's reality show "Welcome to Sweetie Pie's" -- in court? Jennifer claims he's a "sick person" who needs help. Looks like this drama will play out on the upcoming season of "Basketball Wives" -- cameras were following Jennifer and her pal, Evelyn Lozada, outside court.

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Surprise Russian Thruster Firing Prompts Space Station EmergencyWhile the astronauts were said to not be in any danger, it was the second such incident since July.Credit...JSC/NASAOct. 15, 2021The International Space Station was briefly tilted out of its normal position in orbit on Friday during a test firing of thrusters on one of Russias docked spacecraft.The Russian space agency said in a statement on its website that the crew and station were never in any danger. But it was the second such emergency on the station since July, when an unexpected firing of thrusters on a new Russian module briefly inverted the outpost.The incident occurred on Friday morning as the Russian astronaut Oleg Novitsky was performing a test of the engines aboard the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft, a crew module that has been docked to the station since April. The spacecraft is scheduled to return three passengers to Earth on Sunday.When the engine test was scheduled to end, the thruster firing unexpectedly continued, Leah Cheshier, a NASA spokeswoman, said in an email, and the station orbital positioning control was lost at 5:13 a.m. Eastern time. Russian officials in Moscow and personnel at NASAs astronaut headquarters in Houston sprang into action during the incident, voicing commands to their astronauts to initiate emergency protocols.Oleg, take it easy, the station was turned by 57 degrees, no big deal, a Russian mission control official in Moscow was quoted as saying to the astronaut by Interfax, a Russian news agency. We had to make sure that engines are in order, this is important.Station, Houston space-to-ground two, we see the loss of attitude control warning, NASA mission control in Houston alerted its astronauts on the station, instructing them to begin emergency procedures in the crews warning book. Flight controllers regained control of the station within 30 minutes, Ms. Cheshier said.Roscosmos, Russias space agency, said in a statement that the space stations orientation was temporarily changed but that its normal position was swiftly recovered after Russian specialists in Moscow intervened. A Roscosmos spokesman declined to provide additional details of the incident.As you can well imagine, when things start going off the rails like that, theres enough noise on the radar that the clarity of what actually happened is a bit of a mystery, Timothy Creamer, a NASA flight director who was on duty at the time, told the American astronauts in communications shortly after the thruster firings stopped. He said the Russian thrusters may have stopped firing after they reached a limit, though it was unclear what kind.We think and we havent got confirmation we think the thrusters stopped firing because they reached their prop limit, Mr. Creamer said, adding that Moscow is checking into it and doing their data analysis.On Sunday, the same spacecraft that experienced the thruster incident is expected to bring back to Earth a Russian film crew that was flown to the station on a different Soyuz spacecraft on Oct. 5. NASA mission control, heard on a livestream of mission control audio, indicated that the thruster firing incident delayed a planned film shoot in the stations cupola, a room with six windows facing Earth. Ms. Cheshier said the MS-18 spacecrafts undocking with the crew inside would occur at 9:14 p.m. Saturday, as planned.In July, Russia docked its Nauka module to the orbital base, adding a new room for science experiments on the Russian segment of the station. Hours later, Naukas thrusters suddenly started firing, spinning the station one and a half revolutions about 540 degrees before it came to a stop upside down.Unexpected jolts to the space station, which is the size of a football field, put stress on the forest of instrumentation on its exterior. After the Nauka incident, Zebulon Scoville, a NASA flight director who managed the agencys emergency response that day, said on Twitter that he had never been so happy to see all solar arrays + radiators still attached.NASA and Russia have maintained a long relationship on the space station over the past two decades. But in recent years, elements of the station have showed signs of their age, including some air leaks on the Russian side.NASA wants to continue the partnership with Russia and keep the station operating through 2030, gradually handing off American elements of the laboratory to private U.S. companies. But Russias space chief, Dmitri Rogozin, has suggested that Moscow could pull out of the orbital partnership in 2025, one of the latest signals that ties between the two space powers are beginning to fray.Russia has ramped up its relationship with Chinas space program. The two countries signed an agreement in March to work on lunar bases, which would rival the plans of NASAs Artemis moon exploration program.China launched the first elements of its own new space station this year and sent its second crew of three astronauts there on Friday for a six-month mission.

science

Manson Family Killer CA Gov Blocks Van Houten's Parole 1/19/2018 Manson family killer Leslie Van Houten's slight whiff of freedom just got snuffed out by Cali Gov. Jerry Brown. Gov. Brown kept his streak going, and once again reversed the parole board's recommendation Van Houten be released. Back in September the board ruled Van Houten was suitable for parole, but just as he did in 2016 ... Brown blocked that decision. 68-year-old Van Houten has claimed she was an immature 19-years-old -- the youngest member of the Manson family -- when Charles Manson brainwashed her into commiting the LaBianca murders in 1969. In his decision, Brown said Van Houten is still downplaying her "central role" in the murders. He said rather than accepting full responsibility, Van Houten continues to push blame off on Manson. She'll continue serving her life sentence.

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Credit...Korean Central News Agency, via Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesMarch 20, 2017SEOUL, South Korea North Koreas latest test of a rocket engine showed that the country was making meaningful progress in trying to build more powerful rockets and missiles, South Korean officials said on Monday.North Korea said on Sunday that it had conducted a ground jet test of a newly developed high-thrust missile engine, which its leader, Kim Jong-un, called a great event of historic significance. Using the characteristic bombast of such announcements, he said that the test heralded a new birth of the countrys rocket industry and that the whole world will soon witness what eventful significance the great victory won today carries.The Norths rival, South Korea, acknowledged on Monday that the test represented a breakthrough. Lee Jin-woo, a spokesman at the Defense Ministry, said it showed that the North was developing a more sophisticated rocket engine. The model that the North tested included a cluster consisting of a main engine and four vernier thrusters smaller engines used to adjust the crafts velocity and stability.Through this test, it is found that engine function has made meaningful progress, Mr. Lee said during a news briefing, without divulging further details.He declined to say whether the engine was for a rocket used to place a satellite into orbit or for an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, which the North has been threatening to test-flight any time. Mr. Lee said more analysis was needed to answer that question.Mr. Kim has called for his country to develop and launch a variety of more working satellites using carrier rockets of bigger capacity.The country has also renovated and expanded the gantry tower and other facilities at the launch site to accommodate more powerful rockets.The United Nations Security Council has banned the country from satellite launchings, considering its satellite program a cover for developing an intercontinental ballistic missile.The test of the rocket engine took place at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground in Tongchang-ri, in northwestern North Korea, where the country fired a carrier rocket in February of last year to place its Kwangmyongsong, or Shining Star, satellite into orbit.After that launch, South Korean defense officials said that the Unha rocket used in the launch, if successfully reconfigured as a missile, could fly more than 7,400 miles with a warhead of 1,100 to 1,300 pounds far enough to reach most of the United States.In September, North Korea conducted the ground test of what it called a new long-range rocket engine in Tongchang-ri, days after it conducted its fifth underground nuclear test.Although the North has never test-flown an ICBM, it has recently demonstrated significant progress in its missile programs. Last month, it launched a new type of intermediate-range ballistic missile that it said could carry a nuclear payload.That missile, the Pukguksong-2, uses a solid-fuel technology that American experts say will make it easier for the country to hide its arsenal in its numerous tunnels and deploy its missiles.Since Mr. Kim took power in 2011, North Korea has launched 46 ballistic missiles, including 24 last year, violating resolutions by the United Nations Security Council that ban the country from developing or testing such weapons, according to South Korean officials. In his New Years Day speech, Mr. Kim said his country was in the final stage of preparing for its first ICBM test.In Seoul, the South Korean capital, on Friday, Rex W. Tillerson, the United States secretary of state, said that two decades of international efforts to end the Norths nuclear weapons and missile programs had failed. He warned that all options should be on the table to stop them, including possible pre-emptive military action.

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DealBook|Huge Beer Mergers Cast-Offs Could Attract a Private Buyerhttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/17/business/dealbook/huge-beer-mergers-cast-offs-could-attract-a-private-buyer.htmlBreakingviewsDec. 16, 2015Anheuser-Busch InBev has barely concluded its $106 billion deal to buy SABMiller and now is planning its next deal: a sale of Peroni and Grolsch, which it will acquire in the SAB deal. SABs dregs might attract a rival, but a private buyer may find those brands more to its taste.Though SABMiller is huge, its brands mostly arent. Peroni is big in Italy and almost nowhere else. Grolsch has some scale in the Netherlands, but no more than 1 percent market share by volume in any other market, according to Susquehanna Financial. Both are under pressure from craft beers. They may worry antitrust regulators, but the two brands dont really worry SABs bottom line.Rivals will no doubt sniff around, but Peroni and Grolsch arent straightforward. Carlsberg could dilute its troublesome exposure to Russia, but also its more helpful presence in Asia. Asahi of Japan could decrease its reliance on the shrinking Japanese market, but emerge with tiny footholds in more than 70 markets. Thats not to be ruled out, but nor is it particularly logical.A buyout house or a family-backed investor might fare better. Peroni and Grolsch produce around eight million hectoliters of beer a year, around 13 percent of SABs total European volumes. Assume, roughly, that their share of European earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, is proportionate, and that leaves a buyer with a little over $100 million a year. Valued on a 12 times multiple, in line with SABs disposal of its stake in MillerCoors in November, it suggests the two could bring $1.2 billion.Thereafter, its a question of generating cash and paying back debt. Were a buyer to fund Peroni and Grolsch half in debt, at an interest rate of 5 percent, and grow Ebitda by 3 percent a year for five years, an acquisition could generate an ample 15 percent internal rate of return, according to a Reuters Breakingviews calculation.A financial buyer might also be able to offer Anheuser-Busch InBev something extra. When it sold South Koreas Oriental Brewery to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company in 2009, Anheuser-Busch InBev won an option to buy it back after a few years on preset terms, which it exercised. By replicating that kind of arrangement, Anheuser-Busch could turn a smart deal today into another one later.

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The Situation' Prosecutors Urge Judge Go Easy on da Guy! 1/19/2018 More good news for Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino -- prosecutors in his tax evasion case are pushing for the judge to give him a lighter sentence. As we reported ... Mike entered a guilty plea as expected Friday, and the judge okay'd him to travel to Florida to shoot a "Jersey Shore" reunion. Still, the Sitch's looking at up to 5 years in prison. According to new docs, prosecutors believe he played a minor role in the tax evasion, and point out he's accepted responsibility for his actions. They're making a case for leniency when the judge issues his sentence in April. On the money front, the docs say Mike has to fork out $123,913 in restitution to the IRS. The judge could also tack on a hefty fine at sentencing.

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Credit...Amir Cohen/ReutersDec. 17, 2015JERUSALEM Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Thursday announced final government approval for a long-delayed deal that will let an American-Israeli energy partnership develop an offshore natural gas field.The deal adds to the industry momentum in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, which could emerge as a big new source of natural gas, which is increasingly in demand around the world as a cleaner-energy alternative to coal.Although the big gas field in question is expected to help make Israel an energy exporter for the first time, Mr. Netanyahu on Thursday emphasized the national security implications, saying development of the field would give the country more energy options. Authorizing the deal, Mr. Netanyahu dismissed objections by political opponents and from the Israeli antitrust commissioner, who had opposed the agreement on the grounds that it would give too much market power to the team led by the American company, Noble Energy.The American company, which has received political support from the Obama administration, and its partners from the Delek Group, an Israeli conglomerate, have made major gas discoveries in Israeli territory in the Mediterranean in recent years. They already produce gas from a field called Tamar and now intend to develop the much bigger field, which is called Leviathan, and to expand Tamars production.Tamar meets about half of Israels electricity needs. But Leviathan is thought to contain twice as much natural gas, an estimated 22 trillion cubic feet, which even at current low global prices could be worth as much as $120 billion.Noble had already reached preliminary agreements to export gas to Jordan and Egypt, and to the wider market through liquefied natural gas terminals in Egypt that now stand idle for lack of supply.A big offshore gas field discovery this year in Egyptian waters is expected to eventually enable Egypt to power more of its economy with natural gas and to start exporting much of the oil it produces, rather than consuming it domestically. Although production from the Egyptian field may still be years away, there had been concern from Noble and from some Israelis that continued delay of the Leviathan deal might cause Israel to miss a big market opportunity.Nobles vice president for the eastern Mediterranean, Keith Elliott, hailed the approval of the deal on Thursday. This enables us to move forward with development planning, he said in a statement.Mr. Elliott said in a telephone interview that demand for natural gas remained strong in the region. Egypt, Jordan and Israel are all dramatically undersupplied, he said. We see that continuing to be the case for the foreseeable future.Noble and Delek are also involved in a consortium with rights to develop an offshore gas field in Cypriot waters in the eastern Mediterranean. In November, Noble sold a stake in that project to the British energy giant BG Group.Currently, all of Israels natural gas production flows through a single offshore platform. And Mr. Netanyahu on Thursday emphasized the geopolitical significance of the Leviathan agreement.This deal is vital, it is vital for our security, Mr. Netanyahu said after announcing the completion of the agreement during a visit to an Israeli industrial park. We do not want to be left with only one power station that gets fired upon, or only one gas field or rig that gets fired upon.Mr. Netanyahu and the Israeli energy minister had long pushed for the companies development of the Leviathan field. But in the end, Mr. Netanyahu had to invoke a never-before-used national security clause to overrule the antitrust office. Lately, the closer the Israeli government has come to completing the deal, the more intense the popular resistance. The Zionist Union, the center-left party that leads the opposition in the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, said on Thursday that it would petition the High Court of Justice over what it described as the prime ministers cynical use of powers linked to state security.For many Israelis, however, the potential benefits of the country becoming not only self-sufficient in natural gas but also an energy exporter have been tainted by worries that Noble and its Israeli partners were becoming too powerful.Thousands of Israelis have demonstrated against the deal in Tel Aviv and in other cities.The agreement allows the Noble-Delek team to develop Leviathan in return for concessions that include the companies reducing their stake in Tamar and selling two smaller offshore gas fields. Noble currently owns about 36 percent of Tamar and 40 percent of Leviathan.

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Justin Timberlake Stretchin' It Out For Super Bowl Show 1/26/2018 Justin Timberlake is making sure he's lean and limber for next weekend's Super Bowl Halftime Show. JT just posted a vid of himself doing some deep leg stretches during rehearsals for his highly anticipated gig during the big game next Sunday. While he doesn't provide much of anything as far as details for the show go ... you gotta imagine the singer plans on doing plenty of dancing. Stretching video aside ... still no hints that Janet will be joining him onstage. See also Justin Timberlake Janet Jackson TMZ Sports Super Bowl Instagram Music NFL

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Credit...Patrick Semansky/Associated PressDec. 8, 2015Canadian Pacifics pursuit of Norfolk Southern has gotten personal.In a conference call to outline a new bid for Norfolk Southern on Tuesday, Canadian Pacific and its largest shareholder, William A. Ackman, hammered away at the track record of its rivals chief executive, James A. Squires.Mr. Ackman, whose Pershing Square Capital Management holds a 9 percent stake in Canadian Pacific, said in the conference call that Mr. Squiress background in law made him less qualified to fix what the billionaire investor said were operational problems at the railroad operator.Mr. Ackman said that if he were not on the board of Canadian Pacific, he would be buying stock in Norfolk Southern and would consider putting up a slate of directors as a shareholder activist. He called out to the Carl Icahns of the world and the Dan Loebs of the world to see Norfolk Southern as an ideal activist situation.When pressed on the call about whether it would pursue a proxy contest, Canadian Pacifics chief executive, E. Hunter Harrison, did not rule it out.Yet investors appeared to focus not on the personalities but on the complexity of the new offer, which received a chilly reception on Tuesday. Norfolk Southerns stock price declined 5.7 percent to $86.32, while Canadian Pacifics slipped 3.3 percent to $126.13.Under the proposed transaction, the two companies would be run separately and be held in a temporary trust while the Surface Transportation Board, a regulatory agency that is part of the Department of Transportation, reviewed the merger. In addition, to prove the deal does not violate antitrust laws, the Surface Transportation Board must also believe it to be in the best interest of the public.Norfolk Southern, which rejected an earlier offer, quickly snubbed the revised proposal, saying that it creates substantial regulatory risks and uncertainties that are highly unlikely to be overcome. The company also said that the revised proposal was lower in value than the previous one and grossly inadequate.In the revised bid, Norfolk Southern investors would receive $32.86 in cash in 18 months and 0.451 shares of stock in a new holding company that would own both railroads. That compared with the 0.348 shares in the new company and $46.72 in cash in two years that Canadian Pacific offered last month.Based on Canadian Pacifics closing price on Monday, the new offer would value Norfolk Southern at $91.62 a share, or $27.4 billion, Norfolk Southern said. The previous proposal, which included a larger amount of cash and shares in Canadian Pacific, valued Norfolk Southern at about $28 billion.Canadian Pacific, however, estimated that the new offer would value Norfolk Southern at $125 to $140 a share, or as much as $42 billion. That is based on its estimated value of the new holding company in mid-2016, Canadian Pacific said.Mr. Ackman said that most of the value creation would be driven by management change at Norfolk Southern, rather than corporate consolidation, he said.His proposal includes putting Mr. Harrison, the chief executive of Canadian Pacific, in charge of Norfolk Southern. Then, Canadian Pacifics current president, Keith Creel, would become chief executive of Canadian Pacific, according to the presentation.Im sure Mr. Squires would prefer to keep his job, and hes fighting awfully hard, Mr. Ackman said in the conference call. But this is not about Mr. Squiress job and this is not about the prestige of being on the Norfolk Southern board. Its about whats in the best interest of the owners of the Norfolk Southern railroad and its about whats in the public interest in terms of the railroad infrastructure of the country.Mr. Ackman estimated that the fair value of the Norfolk Southern shares in mid-2016 would be about $90 each under Mr. Squiress plan, compared with $140 apiece if the deal with Canadian Pacific is approved, and $125 per share even if regulators do not approve it.Canadian Pacific said the new proposal would dramatically reduce the regulatory risk for Norfolk Southerns shareholders and would give them a larger ownership stake in the combined company, about 47 percent.On Monday, Norfolk Southern released a report by two former chairmen of the Surface Transportation Board who found that it would be highly unlikely that the regulator would approve the trust.Last week, when asked in a conference call whether Norfolk Southern would be willing to entertain a higher bid, Mr. Squires said, at any price, the regulatory risks remain the same.Morgan Stanley and Bank of America provided financial advice to Norfolk Southern, while Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, as well as Hunton & Williams and Morrison & Foerster, provided legal advice.Canadian Pacific expected the transaction would close in May.Pershing Square Capital Management reported a $2 billion stake in the Canadian rail operator at the end of the third quarter.

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Credit...Ina Fassbender/ReutersDec. 6, 2015WOLFSBURG, Germany With Volkswagens emissions-cheating scandal nearing an important milestone the chief executive this week is expected to deliver his first public update on VWs internal investigation some critics doubt Germanys willingness to be tough on the automaker.Earlier this year, Volkswagen admitted to installing defeat devices in more than 11 million diesel vehicles so that their engines temporarily ran cleaner when being tested for pollution. The scheme, exposed by regulators in the United States, has spawned investigations and lawsuits around the world.One of the main European investigations is being conducted by the German Transport Ministry, although there is concern about government reluctance to take on one of the countrys most important companies one that employs nearly 280,000 people in Germany and is a symbol of the nations economic success. Cars and trucks are the nations biggest export.I dont have confidence it will be a tough investigation, said Caren Lay, a leader of the Left Party, an opposition party that has been critical of VWs crisis leadership but generally supportive of the automaker because of the companys strong relationship with labor and unions.At the same time, among the German public there are signs of resentment and skepticism toward the United States, where VWs cheating was exposed. Even if Volkswagen cars were programmed to conceal their emissions of harmful nitrogen oxide, that view goes, America is still the land of gas guzzlers.There is this general notion that the U.S. is overstating the case in order to damage one of the major competitors of the U.S. carmakers, said Nils Stieglitz, a professor at the Frankfurt School of Finance who studies corporate strategy.A satirical video produced recently by ZDF, a publicly funded broadcaster, captured some of this sentiment. The video begins with an announcer intoning, We interrupt this broadcast for an official threat to autoland Germany from the United States of America.What follows is a montage of American pickup trucks splashing through mud bogs and spewing black smoke. There is a shot of women in bikinis firing guns, in line with stereotypes of Americans as lovers of weapons and big cars.The announcer says sarcastically: American cars not manipulated. For the good of the environment.On Thursday, Matthias Mller, the chief executive of Volkswagen, is expected to present an interim report on the companys internal inquiry. It has been nearly three months since the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States first announced VWs violations. Mr. Mller has said previously it will take several months or more before VWs internal auditors present their final conclusions.Both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department in the United States are conducting their own investigations. That puts some pressure on the German authorities to move more quickly or risk being upstaged if investigators in the United States produce results first.Were working intensively to shed light on the manipulation, Alexander Dobrindt, the German transport minister, said in a statement. There has been some action recently. Last week, in a setback for VW, the arm of the German Transport Ministry that regulates motor vehicles definitively stated that it considered VWs emissions-cheating software to be an illegal defeat device under European rules. Previously, Volkswagen had argued that it was not technically a defeat device.Separately, prosecutors in Munich who specialize in economic crimes last week took over responsibility for part of the investigation involving Volkswagens Audi division. The Munich prosecutors have more resources and experience than those in Ingolstadt, Audis home base, who had been handling the investigation.German prosecutors in the past have been known to aggressively investigate homegrown corporate icons. Almost a decade ago, a different team of Munich prosecutors pursued claims that Siemens, one of that citys largest employers, engaged in bribery of foreign officials in order to win contracts. Siemens admitted guilt and paid fines of about $1.6 billion. Volkswagen has hired Jones Day, an American law firm with offices in Germany, to conduct its internal inquiry of how the illegal software was installed in 11 million diesel vehicles. About 500,000 of those vehicles were sold in the United States, with most of the rest sold in Europe.The internal inquiry showed some results last month when Volkswagen revealed it had also understated carbon dioxide emission levels on some cars in Europe. The disclosure was hailed by Mr. Mller and German politicians as proof that they were serious about finding out how the cheating occurred.About 50 Volkswagen employees have volunteered information under an amnesty program that protects whistle-blowers from being fired.The company has also suspended eight managers six at Volkswagen and two at the Audi division including several of the top executives in charge of engine development. On Friday, Ulrich Hackenberg, a member of the Audi management board who played a key role in designing Volkswagen engines in recent years, became the first of the eight managers to resign.Jrg Bode, a leader of the Free Democratic Party in the State Parliament of Lower Saxony where VW has its headquarters and a former member of the Volkswagen supervisory board, said he thought many local politicians, as well as people inside Volkswagen, hoped the scandal would go away by itself.Theyre still hoping it will die down, Mr. Bode said.German prosecutors in Braunschweig, a city near Volkswagens headquarters in Wolfsburg, are investigating possible criminal wrongdoing, working with a 20-member police team based in Hanover and coordinating with the Munich prosecutors. The team has seized computers and documents from the companys headquarters and has interviewed witnesses.Besides pursuing possible fraud charges in connection with manipulation of emissions tests, the prosecutors are investigating possible tax evasion. By understating carbon dioxide emissions for 800,000 vehicles, Volkswagen allowed its customers to potentially collect tax incentives from European governments to which they were not entitled.The investigations are expected to take many months. No arrests have been made.Mr. Bode said he was confident that prosecutors would conduct an impartial investigation. But he noted the absurdity of having government prosecutors investigate a company that is partly owned by the government, particularly when one of the accusations is tax evasion. The state of Lower Saxony owns 20 percent of Volkswagen, and any eventual fines could affect profits at a company that is one of the biggest contributors to state tax revenue.The closeness between the government and Volkswagen is underlined, critics say, by Volkswagens use of a law firm, SZA Schilling, Zutt & Anschtz, to fight claims by shareholders. One of the firms partners is also a member of Parliament for Chancellor Angela Merkels party.In an email, the lawyer, Stephan Harbarth, said the Volkswagen case was being run by another partner who had a long-term relationship with the company. He said his own work in Parliament was unrelated to Volkswagen. Thus, a conflict of interest does not exist, Mr. Harbarth said.The Transport Ministrys investigating commission is being led by a longtime ministry official, Michael Odenwald. Some critics questioned whether he should lead the inquiry, given that he served at the ministry during the years when, they said, the German government helped build a testing process that failed to catch Volkswagens cheating. He is someone who belongs to the system, said Oliver Krischer, a Green politician. The ministry declined to comment on Mr. Odenwald or to make him available for an interview.

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N.B.A.|Heat Top Maverickshttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/19/sports/basketball/heat-top-mavericks.htmlSports Briefing | BasketballFeb. 18, 2014LeBron James scored a season-high 42 points, and the Miami Heat tuned up for a showdown with Oklahoma City by beating the host Dallas Mavericks, 117-106. James, who had his first 40-point game of the season, scored the first 8 points, and 10 over all, in a 14-0 run that put the Heat up, 106-95, after they trailed by 1 entering the fourth quarter. Miami came out of the All-Star break by winning for the sixth time in seven games. Paul George scored 26 points to lead the host Indiana Pacers to a 108-98 victory over the Atlanta Hawks. JaKarr Sampson scored a career-high 23 points, and host St. Johns (18-9, 8-6 Big East) pulled away from Butler (12-14, 2-12) in the second half for its sixth consecutive victory, 77-52. Andrew Wigginss layup with two seconds left lifted visiting No. 8 Kansas (20-6, 11-2 Big 12) to a 64-63 win over Texas Tech (13-13, 5-8). Ryan Arcidiacono had a 3-point play with 3.6 seconds left in the second overtime to lift visiting No. 9 Villanova (23-3, 11-2 Big East) to an 82-79 win over Providence (17-10, 7-7). Melvin Ejim scored 25 points and DeAndre Kane added 22 to help No. 17 Iowa State (20-5, 8-5 Big 12) beat visiting 19th-ranked Texas (20-6, 9-4), 85-76.

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Credit...Yasuyoshi Chiba/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesNov. 23, 2018DAKAR, Senegal The new international airport in Sierra Leone was supposed to be a shiny welcome center for travelers a symbol showing that after a devastating civil war and an Ebola epidemic, the nation was finally open for business.But last month, the government decided that the multimillion-dollar price tag was too high, so it canceled the financing that made construction possible: a more than $300 million loan from China that Sierra Leone might have struggled to repay.President Julius Maada Bio was soon hailed by analysts for putting the brakes on a project that could have deeply indebted his nation, already one of the poorest in the world.It seemed that Sierra Leone was heeding the hard-earned lessons of other developed nations that have found themselves owing enormous amounts to China.Yet only a few days after his announcement about scrapping the deal, Mr. Bio appeared on state-owned Chinese television to make clear that he was not backing away from China after all. In fact, he was seeking its help to build a more than $1 billion bridge, and was also open to renegotiating the airport loan.We are a developing nation, Mr. Bio told the interviewer, and we look forward to nations that want to help us develop.Across sub-Saharan Africa, governments like Sierra Leones are opting to overlook glaring examples of developing countries teetering toward economic distress after borrowing heavily from China.Forty percent of countries in the region are close to falling into debt crisis, the International Monetary Fund has cautioned. And many of those are still seeking loans from Beijing for help to finance airports, highways, railways, dams and power projects.The warning signs of taking on too much debt from China appear across the globe, as in Sri Lanka, where after struggling to make their payments, officials recently turned over to China a port and 15,000 acres of land for 99 years.But Chinese-backed ventures have also hit snags in Africa.Kenya has now borrowed far more from China than from any other country. But it has also come to depend on a flood of Chinese manufacturing imports, a trade imbalance that makes it harder to raise foreign currency to pay off debt. Kenyas trade with China has grown eightfold in the past decade, according to President Uhuru Kenyatta, who complained at a conference this month in Shanghai that the trade was skewed in favor of China.The monetary fund has flagged Djibouti, site of a large Chinese military base with live-fire exercises in the desert, as having potential problems with mounting debt, most of which is owed to the Chinese governments Export-Import Bank, according to a report this year from the Center for Global Development. Yet Djibouti shows no signs of limiting new borrowing for projects, and its unclear whether these will earn enough revenue to pay off their debts.In Nigeria, Chinese projects have been dogged by accusations of corruption, poor decision-making, and in some cases shoddy construction. Yet the nation is still turning to China to build a coastal railway and myriad other projects.Chinese debt has become the methamphetamines of infrastructure finance: highly addictive, readily available, and with long-term negative effects that far outweigh any temporary high, according to a recent article by Grant T. Harris, who was President Barack Obamas White House director for Africa from 2011 to 2015.The added fact that China has flooded African markets with low-cost manufactured goods means that many African factories have been driven out of business, making it harder for African countries to raise the hard currency mostly dollars that they need to repay loans from Beijing.China has extended lines of credit to nations rich in natural resources like oil, bauxite, iron and other metals. So even if a resource-rich developing country has trouble repaying its loans for a while, the thinking goes, it can pay with natural resources sooner or later. China also gains politically by extracting promises of support for the Beijing government over Taiwan as a condition of eligibility for a loan.At the China-Africa Forum for Cooperation summit in Beijing this month, China announced that it had set up a $60 billion fund for African infrastructure projects to strengthen ties with the continent.Numerous analysts and experts, including the former secretary of state Rex W. Tillerson and Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the monetary fund, have warned nations to be cautious about taking on too much Chinese debt.Angola, the Republic of Congo and Zambia were some of the nations that Moodys listed this month among the most indebted to Chinese creditors. A report from the financial research company said interest payments in Ghana, Angola, Zambia and Nigeria already absorbed more than 20 percent of government revenue.This month, while speaking at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Vice President Mike Pence accused China of using debt diplomacy to expand its global influence. But Chinese officials have repeatedly disputed any notion that its loans are creating so-called debt traps for African nations.On the contrary, cooperating with China helps these countries raise independent development capabilities and levels, and improves the lives of the local people, said Hua Chunying, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, in a statement responding to Mr. Pence.China has promised to forgive some of its loans to some of Africas poorest nations. But it was unclear which countries would benefit, and the promise applied to only interest-free loans.China is strengthening ties in new areas on the continent, specifically in West Africa where it is adding more African countries to the list of nations in its Belt and Road initiative, which envisions major infrastructure projects backed by the Chinese government around the world.One of the new Belt and Road countries is Senegal, which was part of President Xi Jinpings four-country visit to the continent this summer. During a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Senegals growing capital city, Mr. Xi handed keys to a new wrestling stadium built by the Chinese to President Macky Sall.Across the country, billboards line the roads touting Mr. Salls Emerging Senegal plan to transform the economy with a new city, a new commuter rail link and other projects. Chinese loans are paying for a highway to the city of Touba and part of an industrial park.The agreements benefit both governments. Mr. Sall is facing re-election next year and eager for his vision to be completed. And Senegal, along Africas westernmost coast, is of particular geographical importance to China as a base for manufacturing and exports.The same is true on the opposite side of the continent, in Mozambique, where Chinese loans are paying for bridges and numerous other projects. Its part of a plan to double down on places that have strategic importance, said Anna Rosenberg, sub-Saharan Africa director at Frontier Strategy Group, an emerging markets advisory firm.For Africa this is not a bad thing, she said. They need the infrastructure. They cant wait for aid to come from the West. They need it fast, and the Chinese government has realized that.For nations like Sierra Leone that are eager to put years of political instability behind them, the lure of Chinese deals can be irresistible. With more than half of the population living under the poverty line and an economy struggling to get back to the levels reached before the Ebola outbreak, it has few other options.During his election campaign, Mr. Bio decried the new airport project, calling it a sham that is clouded with secrecy and unnecessary for a nation that had no more than 40,000 travelers passing through each year. The monetary fund had also warned against the deal. Canceling the loan was one of the first major moves Mr. Bio made after taking office this year.But on Chinese television, Mr. Bio backpedaled, explaining that he was negative about only the terms of the airport deal, and that the cancellation wasnt intended as a sweeping indictment of dealing with China. He went on to praise a Chinese health center and other aid the nation has given to Sierra Leone.Sierra Leone is home to one of the largest iron ore deposits in the world and its economy is dominated by a China-backed mining project that exports ore for use in Chinese steel mills. Government officials declined to comment on plans for more loans from China.Analysts caution that African governments need to get better at negotiating loans with China, taking care to haggle over interest rates and adding clauses requiring full-time employment for local citizens.The Chinese seem to know what they want from Africans, in particular when it comes to commodities, said Ibrahima Cheikh Diong, a former member of the Senegalese government who scrutinized deals between China and Senegal. The question is, is that the same for Africans?

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Daniel Cormier Pumped for Stipe Miocic Fight ... I'm Gettin' 7-Figures! 1/26/2018 TMZSports.com Daniel Cormier says he's excited to get a crack at Stipe Miocic -- "the greatest heavyweight champion of all time" -- and says the huge payday ain't bad either! D.C. joined the guys on the "TMZ Sports" TV show (airs tonight on FS1) and explained why the fight against Stipe at UFC 226 in July is an opportunity he just couldn't pass up. Cormier says Dana White first approached him as he was leaving the octagon after beating Volkan Oezdemir at UFC 220 this past weekend ... and used his powers of persuasion (aka his checkbook) to get the deal done! D.C. -- the reigning light heavyweight champ -- says he conferred with his good friend, Cain Velasquez, before accepting the fight because he didn't want Cain to feel like he was cutting him in line for a shot at the heavyweight belt. And if Cormier beats Stipe ... D.C. says it would put him in the conversation about the best fighters of all time. Check out "TMZ Sports" weeknights on FS1.

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Teletubby Tinky Winky Actor Simon Shelton Dies at 52 1/23/2018 One of the guys who played Tinky Winky -- the allegedly gay Teletubby -- has died. Simon Shelton died last week, according to his son, who told the BBC his dad passed last Wednesday. Shelton's niece, Emily Atack, said her uncle was "taken so suddenly." Waiting for your permission to load the Instagram Media. Simon scored the "Teletubbies" role as the purple Teletubby after the original actor was fired in 1997. He stayed in the purple suit through 2001. Tinky Winky was accused of being gay by deceased televangelist Jerry Falwell, who once wrote ... "He is purple -- the gay pride color, and his antenna is shaped like a triangle -- the gay pride symbol." Yes, that actually happened. Shelton was 52. RIP

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Oakland Raiders To Sean Smith Accuser: Don't Blame Us for Alleged Beatdown 1/22/2018 The Oakland Raiders are firing back at the man who sued the NFL team over an alleged attack at the hands of star cornerback Sean Smith ... claiming the team has NOTHING to do with the incident. The accuser is Christopher Woods -- who claims Smith beat the hell out of him on July 4, 2017 outside of a bar in Pasadena, CA. Wood not only sued Smith -- but also went after the Raiders claiming the team's aggressive strength and conditioning programs turned Smith into a human-wrecking machine. Wood also claimed Smith was in town as part of a team-sponsored promotional and marketing trip. But the Raiders are calling B.S. -- claiming "the alleged assault has no conceivable nexus to the Raiders or Smith's employment with the Raiders." The team essentially says in new docs filed in L.A. County Superior Court ... if the allegations are true, Smith acted on his own -- your beef is with him, not us. As we previously reported, Wood claims Smith stomped on his face during the incident -- causing multiple facial fractures that required surgery. Wood claims he suffered brain damage. The Raiders are asking the judge to toss the suit against the team. There's a hearing on the matter in February.

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Political ads will be banned indefinitely after polls close on Nov. 3 and the company plans new steps to limit misinformation about the results.Credit...Noah Berger/Agence France-Presse, via Getty ImagesPublished Oct. 7, 2020Updated March 3, 2021SAN FRANCISCO Over the past few weeks, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebooks chief executive, and his lieutenants have watched the presidential race with an increasing sense of alarm.Executives have held meetings to discuss President Trumps evasive comments about whether he would accept a peaceful transfer of power if he lost the election. They watched Mr. Trump tell the Proud Boys, a far-right group that has endorsed violence, to stand back and stand by. And they have had conversations with civil rights groups, who have privately told them that the company needs to do more because Election Day could erupt into chaos, Facebook employees said.That has resulted in new actions. On Wednesday, Facebook said it would take more preventive measures to keep political candidates from using it to manipulate the elections outcome and its aftermath. The company now plans to prohibit all political and issue-based advertising after the polls close on Nov. 3 for an undetermined length of time. And it said it would place notifications at the top of the News Feed notifying people that no winner had been decided until a victor was declared by news outlets.This is shaping up to be a very unique election, Guy Rosen, vice president for integrity at Facebook, said in a call with reporters on Wednesday.Facebook is doing more to safeguard its platform after introducing measures to reduce election misinformation and interference on its site just last month. At the time, Facebook said it planned to ban new political ads for a contained period the week before Election Day and would act swiftly against posts that tried to dissuade people from voting. Mr. Zuckerberg also said Facebook would not make any other changes until there was an official election result.But the additional moves underscore the sense of emergency about the election, as the level of contentiousness has risen between Mr. Trump and his opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr. On Tuesday, to help blunt further political turmoil, Facebook also said it would remove any group, page or Instagram account that openly identified with QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy movement.For years, Facebook has been striving to avoid another 2016 election fiasco, when it was used by Russian operatives to spread disinformation and to destabilize the American electorate. Mr. Zuckerberg has since spent billions of dollars to hire new employees for the companys integrity and security divisions, who identify and clamp down on interference. He has said the amount of money spent on securing Facebook exceeded its entire revenue of roughly $5.1 billion during its first year as a public company in 2012.ImageCredit...Gabriella Demczuk for The New York TimesWe believe that we have done more than any other company over the past four years to help secure the integrity of elections, Mr. Rosen said.Yet how successful the efforts have been are questionable. The company continues to find and take down foreign interference campaigns, including three Russian disinformation networks as recently as two weeks ago.Domestic misinformation has also mushroomed, as Facebook has said it will not police speech from politicians and other leading figures for truthfulness. Mr. Zuckerberg, who supports unfettered speech, has not wavered from that position as Mr. Trump has posted falsehoods and misleading comments on the site.For next months election, Facebook has gamed out almost 80 scenarios what technology and security workers call red teaming exercises to figure out what could go wrong and to protect against the situations. It also updated its policies to outlaw certain types of statements and threats from elected officials, capped by last months sweeping set of changes.But after weeks of Mr. Trump declining to say he would accept the elections outcome, while also directing his supporters to watch the polls, Facebook decided to ramp up protective measures.Asked why the company was acting now, Facebook executives said they were continuing to evaluate and plan for different scenarios with the election.Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said Facebooks moves were aimed at silencing President Trump, pure and simple. The Biden campaign did not respond to a request for comment.Vanita Gupta, president and chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said Facebooks moves were important steps to combat disinformation and the premature calling of election results before every vote is counted.The open-ended ban on political advertising is especially significant, after Facebook resisted calls to remove the ads for months. Last month, the company had said it only would stop accepting new political ads in the week before Election Day, so existing political ads would continue circulating. New political ads could have resumed running after Election Day.But Facebook lags other social media companies in banning political ads. Jack Dorsey, Twitters chief executive, banned all political ads from the service a year ago because, he said, they could rapidly spread misinformation and had significant ramifications that todays democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle. Last month, Google said it, too, would ban all political and issue ads after Election Day.Mr. Zuckerberg has said that ads give less well-known politicians the ability to promote themselves, and that eliminating those ads could hurt their chances at broadening their support base online.Facebook also said it would rely on a mix of news outlets, including Reuters and The Associated Press, to determine whether a candidate had secured the presidency. Until those news organizations called the race, Facebook said, it would place notifications in the News Feed to say no candidate had won. That buttresses what the company had said it would do last month, when it announced that it would attach labels to posts redirecting users to Reuters if Mr. Trump or his supporters falsely claimed an early victory.To tamp down on potential intimidation at ballot boxes, Facebook also plans to remove posts that call for people to engage in poll watching when those calls use militarized language or suggest that the goal is to intimidate, exert control, or display power over election officials or voters.Mr. Trump and others have talked about watching polls in recent weeks. In a debate with Mr. Biden last week, Mr. Trump urged his supporters to go into the polls and watch very carefully on Election Day. His son, Donald Trump Jr., said he wanted to see an army for Trump swarming the polls, raising concerns about the threat of violence at the ballot box.Facebook, which has been criticized for unevenly removing posts and inconsistently enforcing its policies against toxic content, said it had already taken down many posts where people were trying to interfere with the vote. Between March and September, it removed more than 120,000 posts from Facebook and Instagram in the United States because the messages violated its voter interference policies.Some researchers said Facebook was still not going far enough.If we are to believe that Facebook will faithfully enforce its own new policies, then they should take down the posts of the powerful users including the presidents son who have already called for violent intimidation around voting and on Election Day, said Shannon McGregor, a senior researcher with the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill,The company said that it wouldnt shy away from eliminating more posts as the election approaches. On Tuesday, it took down a post from Mr. Trump where he falsely claimed the flu was more deadly than the coronavirus.I want to underscore that we remove this content regardless of who posts it, said Monica Bickert, head of global policy management at Facebook. That includes the president.

Tech

Ex Auburn RB Brad Lester Strikes Plea Deal in Child Porn Case ... Avoids Jail 1/26/2018 Former Auburn star Brad Lester just caught a break in his child porn case ... copping a plea deal to avoid spending any time behind bars. Lester -- a stud RB for AU from 2004-2008 -- was arrested on a felony child porn charge in Gwinnett County, GA back in December after allegedly using his phone to record a boy in the bathroom stall of a restaurant in November. Earlier this week, the 32-year-old pled guilty to unlawful eavesdropping, theft by receiving stolen property, and 2 counts of peeping toms, all misdemeanors. In return, the district attorney's office tells TMZ Sports Lester got probation -- but the D.A. wouldn't tell us how long he's on probation for. We're still working on that part. It's a big deal for Lester ... 'cause he was facing up to 20 years in prison. Story developing ...

Entertainment

Credit...Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesJune 29, 2018Abolish ICE!That was the seemingly radical message that Chardo Richardson, a House candidate in Florida, published in an online statement four months ago, endorsing a call to eliminate the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.Immigrants are some of the most courageous and industrious people humanity has to offer, he wrote in an introduction to the immigration platform of Brand New Congress, a grass-roots progressive organization. We can only benefit from their presence.To that point, the idea had largely been passed around on social media; among political candidates, Mr. Richardson was something of a lonely voice. But in the months since as startling images emerged from the border of migrant children separated from their parents the call to abolish or defund the agency has gained momentum in the midterm campaigns. Case in point: the shocking victory on Tuesday by an insurgent primary candidate in New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who had made abolishing ICE a part of her platform.From Massachusetts to Hawaii, progressive candidates undeterred by the immense obstacles to eliminating a federal agency have peppered Twitter with hashtags of support. Deb Haaland, a Native American who stunned the New Mexico political establishment with a House primary victory early this month, supports the idea. A Florida candidate, Matt Haggman, cut a campaign ad promising to close ICE down. Cynthia Nixon, who is running for governor in New York, has called the immigration agency a terrorist organization.We should abolish ICE, Mr. Richardson said in an interview this week, with the conviction of a politician who believes he has a winning idea. ICE is terrorizing our communities.Political strategists point out the inherent risk in the movement: that Republicans will use it to portray Democrats as extremists who are weak on border control. The other side is using the slogan to communicate to the country that this is a debate about open borders, said Cecilia Muoz, former director of the White Houses Domestic Policy Council under President Obama.Still, the idea has been gaining momentum as a rallying cry of the far left, and Ms. Ocasio-Cortezs upset victory over an establishment Democrat gave it a newfound political currency. Then, on Thursday night, just hours after hundreds of immigration protesters had chanted abolish ICE on Capitol Hill, Kirsten Gillibrand became the first sitting senator to directly support the agencys elimination.I believe you should get rid of it, start over, reimagine it and build something that actually works, Ms. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, said on CNN. She later shared the message on Twitter.It was a powerful gesture, coming from a prominent Democrat who is also considered a possible 2020 presidential contender, and one that could inspire more high-profile politicians to back the idea. (Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City added his support Friday morning.) Notably, Senator Gillibrand had backed Ms. Ocasio-Cortezs opponent, the Democratic stalwart Joseph Crowley, in the primary.ImageCredit...Annie Tritt for The New York TimesThe call to abolish ICE remains a largely rhetorical, activist position with questionable feasibility. Top Democratic leaders have not adopted the position, and only a handful of other sitting politicians have embraced it to this point.But fueled by continued anger over the crisis at the border, the movement to abolish ICE is taking hold as an important policy issue for the Democratic Partys progressive wing. Driven more by their ideology than any concrete political calculus, a small but rising number of progressive candidates are unabashedly pushing the proposal.Some Democrats point to other progressive proposals that were once similarly dismissed by party leaders but have since gained traction among mainstream Democrats, like Medicare for all and tuition-free public college. The hope among grass-roots activists is that progressive energy will give these same people the political cover to embrace an abolish-ICE policy that has mostly thrived on the fringe.ICE operates through the tactics of fear, violence and intimidation, with questionable legality, and tears families apart, Stephanie Taylor, a founder of the liberal organization Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said in a statement. We applaud the growing number of progressives who are calling for an end to this terror.Their ICE proposal, these progressives hope, could also help galvanize voters in the summers remaining primaries and Novembers general elections. Some of those who support the position said in interviews that they were especially encouraged by Ms. Ocasio-Cortezs victory.But while the movement is gaining strength, it has also drawn attention from the right, which has seized on it to bludgeon the Democrats.In an interview on Wednesday with Politico, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, referred to the Democratic Party as self-avowed socialists who wanted open borders.Kellyanne Conway, the White House counselor, has also sought to use the progressive rallying against Democrats.Every Democratic candidate could be asked now, maybe, Do you agree or disagree with the new face of the Democratic Party that we should abolish Immigration and Customs and Enforcement? Ms. Conway said Wednesday on Fox News.Still, there are indications the proposal is reverberating in the halls of Washington. This week, Representative Mark Pocan of Wisconsin said he planned to introduce legislation to abolish the immigration agency. In an interview, he said that he had received support for the bill from fellow Democratic House members including Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Jim McGovern of Massachusetts.I think that you will see more support for it just because this really gets at addressing the core abuses by the administration, Mr. Pocan said.ImageCredit...Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesLittle polling exists on whether Americans support the complete shuttering of ICEs operations, but recent data does show that President Trumps nativist push to limit both legal and illegal immigration is at odds with public opinion. A Pew Research Center poll released Wednesday said that about 70 percent of Americans want legal immigration to at least stay at its present level, but more Americans support its increase than its decrease. A Quinnipiac University poll of American voters found that 50 percent of Americans think the Trump administration has been too aggressive in deportations.One potential problem is that the abolish-ICE movement could further divide the Democratic Party as it looks to project a unified message heading into the midterms and, beyond that, the 2020 presidential campaign. Eliminating a federal agency is a position that leaves little room for compromise, and moderate Democrats who do not support the proposal risk drawing the ire of the very vocal far left, which already views the party establishment as slow to embrace their ideals.Strategists and legal experts say the position could also be difficult to pass, especially if it continues to be a partisan issue.It would require us to think about immigration policy from a very different perspective, but I think it is possible, said Sameera Hafiz, a senior political strategist at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.Supporters of abolishing ICE are vocal, their call magnified by social media, but they have offered few concrete plans. Mr. Pocan of Wisconsin said his bill would create a commission that would examine ICE to determine which of its roles should be performed by other agencies.At this point, however, the issue is still largely the province of the far reaches of the far left. Even progressives do not agree on the elimination proposal.I dont know that abolishing ICE solves anything, said Veronica Escobar, a progressive who is running for Congress in Texass 16th district, which lies along the Mexican border. The fact of the matter is that ICE does do some things that are necessary to keep the country safe.Ms. Escobar cited in particular ICEs work investigating child predators and human trafficking, a point she echoed in a lengthy Facebook post.The obstacles to eliminating ICE do not deter groups like Brand New Congress, the grass-roots organization that included abolishing the agency in its November 2017 immigration platform, and has encouraged young social activists like Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Mr. Richardson of Florida to run for federal office.The groups education materials cite the enormous fiscal burden of immigration enforcement, and also assert that other government agencies can do the watchdog work of immigration enforcement with clearer oversight.Ms. Ocasio-Cortezs victory has only energized the effort.As long as progressives keep winning elections and keep pushing the issue and refuse to let the issue of abolishing ICE go, it will become a bigger issue for Democrats, said Sarah Smith, who is running for Congress in Washington. This is just another one of those issues where we have to strong-arm them into listening to us.

Politics

Frequent screening of healthy, vaccinated people will pick up even the mildest infections. How much testing is too much?Credit...Issei Kato/ReutersPublished July 21, 2021Updated July 28, 2021On Sunday, officials announced that two players on South Africas soccer team had become the first athletes to test positive for the coronavirus inside Tokyos Olympic Village. The next day, news broke that an alternate on the American womens gymnastics team, training outside of Tokyo, tested positive.Another cluster of cases has reportedly popped up on the Czech mens beach volleyball team. There will be more.The Olympic Village isnt the type of lockdown bubble that you saw in the N.B.A., said Zachary Binney, a sports epidemiologist at Oxford College of Emory University. So I think you are going to continue to see cases pop up, including among vaccinated people.It is too early to judge what impact, if any, the Olympics will have on the Covid-19 pandemic writ large or if the Games may ultimately fuel larger outbreaks.But the discovery of isolated cases, even in vaccinated athletes, is entirely expected, scientists say, and not necessarily a cause for alarm. This isnt really that much of a surprise, said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan.Still, these cases do raise thorny questions about how to design testing programs and respond to test results at this phase of the pandemic, in which the patchy rollout of vaccines means that some people and communities are well protected from the virus while others remain at risk.As Dr. Rasmussen put it: When does a positive test really indicate that theres a problem?Counting casesCovid-19 tests, which were once profoundly limited, are now widely available in most of the developed world, making it possible for organizations including private employers, schools, professional sports leagues and the Olympics organizers to routinely screen people for the virus.Vaccination is not required for Olympic participants, and officials are relying heavily on testing to keep the virus at bay in Tokyo. Those headed to the Games must submit two negative tests taken on separate days within 96 hours of leaving for Japan regardless of vaccination status, according to the Olympic playbooks, or manuals.At least one of the two tests must be taken within 72 hours of departure. Participants are again tested upon arrival at the airport.Athletes, coaches and officials are also required to take daily antigen tests, which are less sensitive than P.C.R. tests but are generally quicker and cheaper. (Olympic staff and volunteers may be tested less frequently, depending on their level of interaction with athletes and officials.) If a test comes back unclear or positive, a P.C.R. test is administered.Each layer of filtering is a reduction in the risk for everybody else, Brian McCloskey, the chair of the Independent Expert Panel of the International Olympic Committee, told reporters this week, adding that the number of confirmed infections so far are lower than we expected.But when you look that hard for infections especially in a group of people who have recently flown in from all over the globe and have had varying levels of access to vaccines youre all but destined to find some.The bottom line is theres still just a lot of SARS-CoV-2 around the world thats spreading, Dr. Rasmussen said, referring to the virus that causes Covid-19.ImageCredit...Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesSo far, 75 people with Olympic credentials have tested positive for the coronavirus, including six athletes, according to Toyko 2020s public database. That number does not include those who tested positive before their departure to Japan. Little information has been released about the severity of most of these cases, though public reports suggest that the athletes are generally experiencing mild or no symptoms.It is also unclear how many of these athletes have been fully vaccinated. The I.O.C. said that it expected 85 percent of athletes, coaches and team staff staying in the Olympic Village to be vaccinated.The vaccines provide strong protection against severe disease, but they are not an impenetrable shield. There have been concerns, in particular, about the effectiveness of Chinas Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines, which some Olympic participants may have received.Some breakthrough infections are inevitable, even with the best vaccines. And these infections, which tend to be mild and rare, are more likely to be caught and reported when they crop up in Olympians.Youre hearing about cases particularly among famous people and athletes because theyre well known, and theyre being tested frequently, Dr. Binney said. Its not just Olympians. Last week, six Yankees players tested positive for the virus, at least three of whom were fully vaccinated. It was the second breakthrough cluster on the Yankees. Six fully vaccinated state lawmakers from Texas also tested positive for the virus after racing to Washington last week in an effort to stop the passage of a restrictive state voting rights bill.As expected, most of these cases were apparently mild or even entirely asymptomatic. But P.C.R. tests can detect even minute traces of the virus.Youre going to pick up on these low-grade infections, and the players are going to be quarantined and out of competition, said John Moore, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. And theyre probably not going to be ill, because theyre young, healthy athletes.According to the Olympic playbooks, athletes with positive P.C.R. tests are to be isolated at designated facilities, though the location and length of isolation vary depending on the severity of the case. Japans health authorities require a 10-day quarantine at facilities outside the Olympic Village, and multiple negative P.C.R. tests before discharge, an I.O.C. official said in an email.Some athletes who have been flagged as close contacts of positive cases have also been moved into isolation or quarantine, although they may be allowed to continue training or competing on a case-by-case basis.Those who are cleared to compete may have to adhere to enhanced countermeasures, the I.O.C. says, such as eating meals alone, training at a safe distance from others and taking daily P.C.R. tests.Changing courseImageCredit...Loic Venance/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesGiven these kinds of disruptions, some experts say that the benefits of routine testing of asymptomatic vaccinated individuals may not be worth the costs.Many places are still continuing to asymptomatically screen fully vaccinated individuals, which isnt something that the C.D.C. guidance recommends, said Dr. Amesh A. Adalja, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. It lends itself to all of these kind of pseudo outbreaks that you might see with a bunch of asymptomatic infections.Testing remains vital for people who have symptoms of Covid-19, he noted. But it no longer makes sense for those who feel fine and have been fully vaccinated, particularly with one of the big four vaccines Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson or AstraZeneca for which there is the most data, he added.But officials may not always know who has been vaccinated and what vaccine they have received, Dr. Rasmussen noted. In those instances, they really have no choice but to use testing and contact tracing to minimize risks.Moreover, questions about transmission remain unsettled. Vaccinated people with asymptomatic or breakthrough infections may still be able to pass the virus on to others, but it is not yet clear how often that happens.Until that science is more definitive, or until vaccination rates rise, it is best to err on the side of safety and regular testing, many experts said. At the Olympics, for instance, frequent testing could help protect the broader Japanese population, which has relatively low vaccination rates, as well as the support staff, who may be older and at higher risk.Its those folks Im most worried about, really, said Dr. Lisa Brosseau, a research consultant at University of Minnesotas Center for Infection Disease Research and Policy.Not only can they contract the virus, adding strain on the Japanese health care system, but they can also become sources of transmission: Everybodys at risk, and everybody could potentially be infected, she said.According to the Tokyo 2020 press office, all Olympics staff and volunteers have been offered the opportunity to be vaccinated, though officials did not provide data on how many had received the shots.Instead of testing less frequently, officials could rethink how they respond to positive tests, Dr. Binney said. For instance, if someone who is vaccinated and asymptomatic tests positive, he or she should still be isolated but perhaps close contacts could simply be monitored, rather than being placed into quarantine.Youre trying to balance the disruptive nature of what you do when somebody vaccinated tests positive against any gains at slowing or stopping the spread of the virus, Dr. Binney said.Organizations and officials could also adjust their testing protocols, depending on the vaccination rates in a given group and local virus transmission levels. If most people are vaccinated and the virus is circulating at low levels, officials and managers could decide to test less often or use a less sensitive test, said Andrew Pekosz, a virologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.At this stage of the pandemic, there is room to be more strategic about testing, said Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who called for widespread rapid testing when the virus hit last year.I think testing is never going to go away as a way to know whats happening with the virus, he said, noting that it remains particularly important as a strategy for controlling outbreaks.We can do the frequent testing when we need to, but only when we need to, because people are tired, he added. And it can be considered a very dynamic process.

Health

Canada LetterNov. 23, 2018In Saskatchewan, farming is done on a grand scale. So when I visited the Canadian Western Agribition in Regina this week for an upcoming story, I wasnt surprised to find that the annual gathering of Western farmers is almost overwhelmingly large, luring 127,000 visitors last year to a city of 215,000.ImageCredit...Bryan Denton for The New York TimesLike all agricultural exhibitions, the Agribition has a wide array of activities for city dwellers like me, including a rodeo, horse shows and cattle judging. But what started as a regional exhibition 48 years ago has grown into a global event. Cattle ranchers, many from distant parts of North America, parade their livestock to buyers from around the world looking to improve their herds.When I asked breeders where their customers come from these days, many of them said China.[Want the Canada Letter in your inbox every week? Sign up here.]Canada, like the rest of the world, has not escaped the effects of Chinas move from isolated backwater to a global economic and political force. For the past several months, more than a dozen New York Times reporters, editors, photographers and designers have been examining Chinas dramatic rise in a project called China Rules, which launched this week.Phil Pan, our Hong Kong-based Asia editor, has worked in China for about two decades and returned to writing to produce the must-read opening essay on how Chinas rise has defied expectations.[Read: The Land That Failed to Fail]ImageCredit...Bryan Denton for The New York TimesPolitical shifts in Washington and Beijing helped influence the timing of the series. One factor was certainly a sense at the beginning of the year that America under Trump was in retreat or withdrawing from the world, Phil said.Under President Xi Jinping, China saw an opportunity to step up, he said. And in recent months, he said, We began to see this fundamental shift in the relationship between the U.S. and China from engagement to competition.While President Trump has attacked China and launched a trade war against it, Canada has taken an opposing track. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said repeatedly that his government is moving toward a full-scale free trade agreement with China, though that movements progress has been stately, at best.And Mr. Trudeaus government continues to rebuff American security warnings about allowing equipment made from Huawei Technologies, the Chinese telecommunications company with research operations in Canada, into the coming upgrade of Canadas wireless networks.I asked Phil if Canadians can, or should, trust China.I think the debate in Canada and the United States probably will be much less about trust than about interests, he said. Is the fact that the Chinese political system is authoritarian a problem for our national interest?ImageCredit...Bryan Denton for The New York TimesIf after reading China Rules, youd like to discuss the series, we have a new Facebook group: Examining Chinas Reach With The New York Times.In ConversationMark Thompson, president and chief executive officer of The New York Times Company, will join Chrystia Freeland, Canadas minister of foreign affairs, in conversation at the University of Toronto on Tuesday, December 11. The two will discuss U.S.-Canada relations, foreign policy challenges and more. Details and ticket information are available here.And a final reminder that Sam Tanenhaus, a former editor of The New York Times Book Review, will moderate a panel on book reviewing on Friday, Nov. 30, also in Toronto. Use the code CANADALETTER for $5 off the ticket price.Trans CanadaThe turmoil that followed the arrest of six teenagers accused of sexual assault during hazing rituals at an elite private school in Toronto is prompting some Canadians to question the value of all-boys schools.Canada is pushing the United States to end steel and aluminum tariffs before the ceremonial signing of the replacement deal for Nafta. But Washington is considering another, similarly unappealing measure to replace the duties.An art historian from Queens University in Kingston, Ontario is among the curators of an exhibit that uses imaging technology to peel back the layers of Bruegels complex masterpieces.In Opinion, Amanda Siebert wrote that the legalization of recreational marijuana in Canada will allow medical research to blossom.While the United States dithers, Canada has approved new regulations that will allow for the sale of cars with headlights that automatically adjust their beams, letting drivers see farther down the road without blinding oncoming traffic.

World

White Collar WatchDec. 7, 2015Credit...Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesThe more complex a system is the federal tax code, for example the easier it will be to exploit. The financial markets have become much more fragmented in the last 20 years, which has led the Securities and Exchange Commission to start trying to crack down on those who try to profit from the complexity.But it can be difficult to separate out those who play the loopholes in the system to their advantage from someone engaging in fraud. Just ask any tax lawyer, who will tell you there sometimes is not all that much difference between good planning and improper avoidance.The S.E.C. filed administrative charges last week against twin brothers, Behruz and Shahryar Afshar, and their close friend, Richard F. Kenny IV, over exploiting stock exchange rules to reap more than $2 million. They are accused of using trading strategies to bilk the exchanges out of rebates and avoiding fees for equity options orders that disadvantaged others traders. The question is whether they just pushed against the edge of the rules or crossed over into committing securities fraud.Trading in stocks and options takes place on 11 exchanges and dozens of alternative trading systems that have become so highly automated that most orders are entered and filled in milliseconds. Trading that was once done by telephone and reported on a ticker tape hours later has been transformed into lightening execution by firms looking to exploit price discrepancies of less than a penny.To deal with the fragmentation in the markets, the S.E.C. issued Regulation NMS in 2005, which requires the execution of orders at the best available price across all markets. Attracting trades to a particular venue requires offering something more than just a good price because everyone has to do that.What has developed in the securities markets is the maker-taker model for pricing in which exchanges pay rebates to draw orders that add liquidity to the market, called the maker, and impose an access fee, which can be no more than 30 cents per 100 shares, for orders that remove liquidity, the taker. The typical rebate is 20 cents for a 100 share order, so the exchange makes money by seeking out a roughly equal number of maker and taker orders, giving it about 10 cents for each trade of 100 shares.This pricing structure has drawn criticism because it creates a potential conflict of interest for brokers to route customer orders to the market that pays generous rebates, which can result in higher costs for investors even though they get the best price. It has also led to a proliferation of different types of orders that go far beyond the basics of a market or limit order to attract firms to trade there. For example, there are market to limit orders or auction-only orders intended to draw high-frequency trading firms seeking out rebates to supplement their trading profits.The charges against the Afshar brothers and Mr. Kenny reflect how they played the markets to take advantage of the rebate system. One tactic involved using the rules for filling options orders that give priority to ordinary customers ahead of professional traders and impose lower fees on their trades. The exchanges put this in place because they want to give a small measure of protection to individual investors from the sophisticated firms that look for every slight advantage.Qualifying as a customer means placing no more than 390 options orders per day. If that number is exceeded, then at the end of the quarter the designation of professional is attached to the account and its orders do not receive priority treatment.The defendants created two limited liability companies and told their broker that they were separately owned by each of the twin brothers when, according to the S.E.C., Behruz Afshar had an ownership interest in both. One company would engage in heavy trading until it was designated as a professional, and then they would shift their trading to the other to have its orders designated as receiving customer priority. By switching back and forth, they received about $2 million worth of rebates and fee reductions.The second way they generated rebates involved figuring out how to enter large AON orders, or all-or-nothing orders, at a price just above or below the current market price that was not displayed to other traders. They would then place a small order on the opposite side to try to attract others to put in similar orders so that their AON order would be filled, then canceling the small order once the larger one was filled. Under the exchanges rules, this was a maker order that qualified for a rebate, generating about $225,000.The S.E.C. described this as spoofing, a tactic that has recently drawn more attention from market regulators looking to put a stop to practices aimed at fooling others into trading by entering orders with the intent of quickly canceling them to give the impression of greater market activity than actually exists.In November, Michael Coscia was convicted in the Federal District Court in Chicago in the first prosecution for spoofing and faces a prison term for using an algorithm to enter and cancel numerous orders in less than a second.In spoofing cases, the victims are other traders who were misled by the orders resulting in losses or at least higher costs. But in this case, it is the exchanges that are the immediate victims, even though they are the ones that set up the system of rebates and order types that allowed this to take place.What the Afshars and Mr. Kenny did can be seen in one way as taking front cuts as we used to call it in elementary school to get their trades executed before others and reap the benefits that come from being first. At what point does that constitute securities fraud rather than just a sharp practice exploiting a gap in programs created by the exchanges to strengthen their own business?The actual trades were not fraudulent because the Afshars and Mr. Kenny completed the transactions, so the exchanges got the liquidity they sought in exchange for the rebates and reduced fees. The S.E.C.s cases focuses on the tactics used to take advantage of the rebates being offered and priority afforded to smaller investors, not the message sent out by the orders that might have deceived investors about the market.The Afshars and Mr. Kenny figured out a way to make their trading more valuable by using marketing tools employed by the exchanges to increase their volume of transactions. There is no requirement that exchanges provide rebates or allow for so many different order types.Indeed, some question whether rebates skew the market in favor of certain traders to the detriment of ordinary investors. An Another View column in 2014 advocated limiting or even getting rid of the access fee charged for some orders because it has added to the complexity of the markets as exchanges compete for market share. The New York Times reported recently that Investors Exchange, or IEX, which was celebrated in Michael Lewiss book Flash Boys, will not offer rebates and limit the number of order types in an effort to make its market more investor-friendly.The fact that the defendants were able to take advantage of the rules that cost exchanges more than $2 million certainly gives the appearance of being deceptive. One instant message cited by the S.E.C. quotes Behruz Afshar telling another trader that you should see all the [expletive] we are doing here . . . too funny.More than anything else, the case focuses on whether going too far in taking advantage of the rules is a violation by customers trolling the markets for any edge. If it does, then this is another warning shot to traders that they must tread carefully when using strategies intended to exploit the market.

Business

Asia Pacific|China, After Outcry, Reinstates Ban on Rhino and Tiger Parts in Medicinehttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/world/asia/china-rhino-tiger-ban.htmlCredit...Fred Dufour/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesNov. 12, 2018BEIJING The Chinese government, bowing to pressure from environmental groups, said on Monday that it would temporarily reinstate a ban on the use of rhinoceros horns and tiger bones in medicine.Making a rare concession, the State Council, Chinas cabinet, said that it had decided to postpone an order made last month to undo a 25-year ban on the trade.The Chinese government has not changed its stance on wildlife protection and will not ease the crackdown on illegal trafficking and trade of rhinos, tigers and their byproducts, Ding Xuedong, a top official with the council, said in remarks published in the state-run news media on Monday.Environmentalists celebrated the change, though some warned that it might be temporary.Keeping these products banned is the only way we stand a chance of protecting the future survival of these incredible animals that are already in decline, said Gilbert M. Sape, a campaigner with World Animal Protection, an advocacy group based in London.Chinese officials did not specify on Monday when they might revisit the order. Mr. Sape urged the government to drop the policy altogether.The order last month undermined Chinas efforts to portray itself as an environmental leader, and it drew a fierce backlash from animal rights advocates, who said it was a significant setback for the protection of the fewer than 30,000 rhinos and 3,900 tigers still in the wild.On Monday, wildlife advocates said Chinese officials had helped to ease some of their concerns.This move helps maintain the leadership role China has taken in tackling the illegal wildlife trade and reducing market demand, said Margaret Kinnaird of the World Wildlife Fund in Washington.As it seeks more respect on the global stage, the Chinese government has tried in recent years to cultivate an image as an environmentally responsible nation. China announced it would ban the sale of ivory in 2016, and officials have recently led crackdowns on the sale of a variety of endangered animals like the pangolin.Wildlife advocates speculated that the governments decision to end the ban on rhino and tiger parts in medicine had aimed to help Chinas growing traditional-medicine industry. At the time, the government said it would allow the use of the animal parts in medical research or in healing, but only by certified hospitals and doctors, and only from rhinos and tigers raised in captivity, excluding zoo animals.While rhino and tiger parts are rarely used in Chinese medicine these days most doctors prefer herbal remedies they are the subject of a small but lucrative trade.Environmentalists led a vigorous campaign over the past few weeks to persuade Chinese officials to change course. In late October, shortly after the decision to allow the use of rhino and tiger parts in medicine was announced, nine foreign nongovernmental organizations met with the State Forestry and Grassland Administration to make their case against the measure.

World

Credit...Chris O'Meara/Associated PressFeb. 13, 2014TAMPA, Fla. Derek Jeter pulled up to a line of autograph seekers, rolled down the window of his cobalt blue Mercedes sedan and, after being asked a question, said the two words that thousands of young women would love to hear him say to them.I do, he said.Coming from one of the worlds most notable bachelors especially one who announced the previous day that he wanted to start a family these two words would be enough to mobilize a thousand gossip columnists and cause jostling to position satellite listening devices.But Jeter was not responding to a matrimonial query. He was answering a question about whether he felt good about his decision to retire after the 2014 season. He does.Jeter made the announcement Wednesday afternoon on his Facebook page, but he had little to add after his brief workout at the Yankees minor league complex on Thursday, even as dozens of reporters, camera operators and photographers closed in around his luxurious car.Instead, he said he would answer questions at a news conference sometime next week.Ill address it all when we get over there on the first day of spring training, he said, gesturing to the Yankees major league center across North Dale Mabry Highway. Its easier that way.He had slightly more to say about the Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka, who threw off the mound for the first time in a Yankee uniform. Jeters mood was cordial and light, and he even joked initially that he was kidding about retiring. But this will be his 20th and final season, and as Jeter said in his Facebook message, he planned to soak in every aspect of it. That even means signing autographs for those professional collectors who pay homeless people to spend the night on the sidewalk outside the Yankees minor league complex to ensure they will get his signature the next day, if Jeter signs.A week ago, Jeter walked over to the autograph seekers and signed instead of doing it from his car, which was said to be a first.Jeter arrived before 9 a.m. and hit in the batting cage. He was gone before 11:30. Tanaka left even earlier. He threw 25 pitches to catcher Francisco Cervelli, who strolled across the player parking lot to a row of low hedges, behind which a large group of reporters waited. Members of the news media are not allowed in the Yankees minor league complex and gather on the sidewalk in front before spring training officially opens at George Steinbrenner Field.About 30 Japanese reporters and photographers were on hand. They were far more interested in Cervelli, the Venezuelan catcher, who may not even make the team, than they were in Jeter. After all, Jeter will not catch any of Tanakas pitches.Cervelli said he was impressed at how easily Tanakas fastball moved, but he also noted that Tanaka was throwing at only about 60 percent effort so far. Then the American reporters wanted to know if Cervelli had spoken to Jeter. What was his mood? What did he say about his decision to retire? Did he mention why he announced it on Facebook? Did he seem happy? Relieved? Melancholic? Delirious?Alas, Cervelli said he was too busy catching Tanaka to speak to Jeter. But he said he would be sure to ask him soon.Ive got to call him and ask him whats going on, Cervelli said. But thats his decision. I said last year I feel blessed to play with Mariano and Andy. And with the Captain, its an experience I am going to tell my kids and the people that I know, because I think he is the greatest player I have seen in my life.Cervelli was referring to Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte, two longtime Yankees stars who retired last year.Those two told the Yankees of their decisions well in advance. Jeter chose to call Hal Steinbrenner on Wednesday morning and announce it on Facebook that afternoon. The Yankees were as surprised as anyone by the timing and the method.The Yankees are still not planning to pursue the free-agent shortstop Stephen Drew, one team official said, even though he would be a good fit.Drew could play third base in the absence of Alex Rodriguez, and move to shortstop next year. But the Yankees feel they have already reached their limit by spending so much money on Tanaka and other free agents Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran.For now, Drew is off the table, and Kelly Johnson will play third while Jeter finishes his career. Getting Drew might be a marriage of convenience. So far, though, only Jeter has said I do.INSIDE PITCHThe Yankees and the Marlins will play two exhibition games at Rod Carew Stadium in Panama on March 15 and 16 to honor the legacy of Mariano Rivera, who is from the nearby fishing village of Puerto Caimito. The games will be the first played by major league teams in Panama since the Yankees and the Dodgers played exhibition games there in 1947.

Sports

NBA's Sterling Brown Tasered By Cops ... During Parking Arrest 1/26/2018 Bucks rookie Sterling Brown was tasered by cops in a Walgreens parking lot early Friday morning in Milwaukee ... and arrested on a misdemeanor charge of resisting or obstructing an officer. Brown, 22, was double-parked in two handicap spaces around 2 AM ... and reportedly became combative with police when he saw them writing a ticket, according to News/Talk 1130 in Wisconsin. In a statement, Milwaukee Police Sgt. Timothy Gauerke confirmed the use of a taser -- "During the incident an electronic control device was deployed and the man was arrested." Gauerke added -- "The circumstances of the incident and the use of force are currently being reviewed by the Department." Story developing ...

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Eliot Spitzer Recorded Rant at Ex ... Go to Siberia and Die, Bitch!! 1/24/2018 NY Daily News Ex-NY Governor Eliot Spitzer threatened an ex-girlfriend and her family ... and unfortunately for him, she recorded the violent rant. Svetlana Zakharova Travis says she recorded the phone conversation shortly after a February 2016 incident where the disgraced politician allegedly choked her at The Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. Spitzer barked at her, "Go to Siberia and f**king die, a**hole!" He continued, "F**king bitch. Get out of my life. If I ever hear from you again, your parents will die." The NY Daily News first posted the audio, which Svetlana's attorney says proves prosecutors are protecting Spitzer. Spitzer was cleared in the alleged Plaza attack, and Svetlana ended up getting charged with extorting Spitzer for $400k.

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Credit...Photos by Doug Mills/The New York TimesFeb. 13, 2014KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia It is the Winter Games equivalent of a dropped baton, the sort of Olympic nightmare that haunts lugers as they lie on their sleds and that wakes them as they lie in their beds.Most of the time, sliders have it relatively easy at the bottom of the track: They complete their runs just by crossing a finish line. On Thursday, however, when the luge team relay was contested at the Olympics for the first time, these athletes, who spend most of their professional lives on their backs, had to pop up for a change to smack a circular pad that dangled above them like a droopy balloon.Only after they made contact with the pad could the next riders on the team begin the trip down from the start. And if they missed as has happened on more than one occasion in other international competitions the penalty was severe: disqualification.I definitely get stressed about it, said Erin Hamlin, the American luger who led off for the United States team.I havent missed yet, she added, then looked around nervously. Knock on wood.As it turned out, the Olympic debut of the luge team relay was free of disaster. One rider on the Polish team just barely got her fingertips on the pad, but that was the closest anyone came to doing luges version of the swing-and-a-miss. Tobias Wendl, the top driver on Germanys doubles team, nearly sent the pad flying with his authoritative one-handed punch, and the Germans completed their sweep of all four luge events at the Sochi Games with a dominating performance in the relay.ImageCredit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesRussia, led by Albert Demchenko, won the silver medal, and Latvia claimed the bronze. The United States finished sixth in front of a boisterous crowd at the Sanki Sliding Center, with many of the fans seeming to revel in the novelty of a new event.Most of the athletes, too, enjoyed the camaraderie of a rare chance to compete together, though that teamwork also led to some different emotions, as they are used to working alone.We just all feel like we let each other down, Alex Gough of Canada said after she and her teammates finished in fourth place, only one-tenth of a second away from a medal.Although this was the first time that the team relay was contested at an Olympics, it was not completely new. Team events have been parts of international competitions for decades, though it was not until 2008 that luge officials introduced the time-pad element (in the past, team events just involved combining the times of each teams three sleds).Each team goes in the same order woman, man, doubles and for the mens and doubles lugers, the start is vastly different from what they do in their traditional races. Instead of rhythmically timing the beginning to the run and methodically paddling, or moving the sled by pulling the ice with their hands, the riders must wait until the sled ahead of them finishes, at which point the starting gates will open.If a rider goes too early and touches the gates before they open, the team is disqualified. That is what happened to Justin Snith and Tristan Walker of Canada in a World Cup event in the run-up to the Sochi Games.The gates are the hardest part, said Chris Mazdzer, the mens singles rider for the United States.Many riders share this view; their muscles tense up while waiting, they said, making it difficult to get an ideal paddle. But Christian Niccum, who teamed with Jayson Terdiman on the United States doubles sled, said he enjoyed the dynamic start because the gates opening serves as an automatic trigger that is easy to see.I did track and field when I was younger and it really stressed me out, he said. It was like: on your mark ... get set ...go! There was so much waiting. Here, Im more relaxed Im just ready to explode when the gates open.The timing pad at the bottom is a different sort of obstacle. The easiest way to hit the pad by raising ones foot is not allowed. The rules state that contact with the pad must be with the hand or the arm.This can lead to embarrassing moments. At one pre-Olympics race, Tatiyana Nevzorova of Kazakhstan went for the time pad with both hands but somehow missed it altogether, leaving her partner, Sergey Korzhnev, waiting at the top of the track for gates that never opened.Balancing the perils of a miss with the need to smack the pad as quickly as possible has prompted a disagreement among lugers over what method of pad-tapping is best: Some believe it is better to stay flat on the sled and just extend one hand to hit the pad on the way by. Others, like Niccum, believe it is preferable to sit up and attack the pad, even if that sacrifices some balance and speed.My first time doing the relay, I saw people just reaching up and it didnt make sense to me, he said. I said, Im going to lunge for that sucker.On Thursday, he did just that, though other riders opted for slightly more passive approaches. These are the debates that come with a new race, and it seems that several teams are still getting used to the whole thing.Yuriy Sobota, the coach of the Ukrainian team, said before the race that he tempered his expectations because he had the unenviable combination of an inexperienced team competing in a relatively new event. We should make the top 12, he said, wryly, because there are 12 teams competing.In the end, Sobota underestimated. The Ukrainians had no trouble smacking the pad Andriy Kis, the mens rider, gave it a particularly thorough thump and they ended up giddy as they finished 11th.

Sports

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/19/technology/personaltech/android-phone-backup.htmlTECH TIPGoogle saves your settings and some app content to its cloud, but third-party programs may give you a more complete backup.June 19, 2018Q. How do you automatically back up an Android device without a computer, and where do the files live? A. Google includes a basic online backup service in the standard Android system that stores copies of your settings and other data on its servers. The backup feature may already be enabled, depending on how you set up your phone or tablet. Open the Settings icon and tap the Backup or Backup & Reset icon to see. ImageCredit...The New York TimesMany of Androids default apps and services like Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Contacts are based in the cloud. When the automatic backup is enabled, your settings and other data for those services are copied; third-party apps and music from Google Play and Google Music are also backed up through your Google Account. But it does not back up the entire content of the device. Most of your devices personalized user settings are backed up, but usually not your text messages, Bluetooth pairing info and some app data. On Googles Nexus and Pixel phones running at least Android 6, data is backed to Google Drive. On Pixel phones, however, up to 25 megabytes each of the devices call history, S.M.S. text messages and other device settings are automatically backed up.Google Photos can be set to automatically back up your gadgets pictures and videos. Just open Google Photos, open the Menu button, select the Settings area and look for the automatic Backup & Sync option.The location of the backup settings vary based on the version of Android you are using and any modifications made by your hardware manufacturer, so check the help pages for your specific device if you do not see what you are looking for. The Google Play store has a large selection of apps that perform more compete device backups if youre not satisfied with the built-in option. Personal Tech invites questions about computer-based technology to [email protected]. This column will answer questions of general interest, but letters cannot be answered individually.

Tech

Credit...Sohail Shahzad/EPA, via ShutterstockNov. 2, 2018ISLAMABAD, Pakistan A Pakistani Muslim spiritual leader known as the father of the Taliban was killed Friday evening by a knife-wielding attacker who sneaked into his bedroom, officials said, further roiling the countrys combustible religious tensions.The leader, Maulana Sami ul-Haq, 81, exerted an overarching influence over the Taliban movement in neighboring Afghanistan and within Pakistan and led his own faction of a religious party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam.He has been stabbed to death, said Fawad Chaudhry, the countrys information minister.There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and the circumstances of the killing were unusual. Mr. Haq was resting at home in the city of Rawalpindi adjacent to Islamabad when he was stabbed.Police officials said an unidentified assailant entered the house while Mr. Haqs personal staff members were at a nearby market. They said the attacker went into Mr. Haqs bedroom, stabbed him in the chest and shoulder multiple times and left.The religious leader was rushed to a hospital when his personal staff returned, but doctors said he died from blood loss. Police detained his driver and personal assistant for questioning.We dont blame anyone at this moment, but he was on the hit list of enemies of Islam, Syed Yousaf Shah, a senior leader and spokesman of Mr. Haqs party, said by phone. The motive for killing him and who is behind it is being investigated.The killing jolted Pakistan just as the government was grappling with protests by religious hard-liners after the countrys Supreme Court acquitted a Pakistani Christian woman on charges of blasphemy, a capital crime here.The government reached a truce Friday night with Islamist leaders enraged over the acquittal of the woman, Asia Bibi, in what appeared to be a victory for the religious right.In a return for the end of the protests, officials agreed not to oppose a further appeal of the acquittal and said it would take steps to prevent Ms. Bibi from leaving the country. Several Western countries have offered her asylum.Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan, who has been visiting China seeking financial aid, condemned the killing of Mr. Haq, saying his country was now bereft of a great religious scholar and renowned political leader.Mr. Khan ordered an immediate inquiry into the killing, saying Mr. Haqs religious and political contributions to Pakistan would be remembered forever.Mr. Haq ran a seminary, Darul Uloom Haqqania, in the town of Akora Khattak in the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province. A large number of Taliban leaders attended the seminary.The students had always hailed Mr. Haq as the father of the Taliban. Mr. Haq took pride in the title and was quoted as saying that in local tradition, a teacher is like a father, a spiritual leader.We strongly condemn the martyrdom of senior Islamic and jihadi leader, Maulana Sami ul-Haq, Muhammad Khurasani, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, said by phone Friday evening. His death is a great loss for the entire Muslim nation.Mr. Haq was politically active and served two terms as a senator in his long career. He was known to have good ties with Pakistans security establishment.Last month, an Afghan delegation met with Mr. Haq and asked him to play a mediating role in peace talks with the Taliban. Mr. Haq agreed to play a part but accused the United States and other international powers of obstructing peace efforts in Afghanistan.Mr. Haq was a fervent supporter of the Afghan struggle against the Soviets in the 1980s and later supported the Taliban movement. He was vocal about his anti-American beliefs, and said the presence of United States troops inside Afghanistan had only prolonged the turmoil there.Analysts said the killing of Mr. Haq was more likely to affect Pakistans internal politics than the effort to revive peace talks in Afghanistan.His seminary, spread over several acres, has received financial support from successive Pakistani governments. Mr. Khan, the prime minister, often praised Mr. Haq for his support in the polio eradication campaign in the northwestern province and in tribal regions.Mr. Haq acted as one of the representatives of the Pakistani Taliban in 2014 when the government held peace talks with the militants. The talks eventually collapsed, and a military operation was undertaken against the militants.

World

Mark Salling Suicide Cheats Victims in Child Porn Case 1/31/2018 Mark Salling's suicide isn't just a tragic ending for him and his family, but it also screws over the victims in his child porn case ... TMZ has learned. Under Salling's plea deal, the former "Glee" star agreed to pay victims $50k each in restitution. In order to impose such a penalty, the judge must first sentence the defendant. Salling's sentencing was scheduled for March but since he hanged himself prior to the sentencing ... the plea deal was not complete and the judge lost the power to order payment to the victims. There is a saving grace. The victims could sue Salling's estate for damages they suffered from his transgressions. As we reported ... Salling pled guilty to possession of child pornography involving a prepubescent minor in December, and was facing 4 to 7 years in prison with 20 years of supervised release as part of his plea bargain.

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Many small carriers depend on inexpensive equipment from the Chinese company. Now they must rethink expansion plans, and perhaps replace existing gear.Credit...Lynn Donaldson for The New York TimesMay 25, 2019OPHEIM, Mont. Kevin Nelson was recently in the middle of his 3,800-acre farm in northeast Montana, where the landscape stretches out like an ocean, when his tractor broke. He tried to find a cellular signal strong enough to send a photo of the broken part to a repair shop 65 miles away, but failed.Its really frustrating, Mr. Nelson, 47, said about the poor reception. We keep being told its going to improve, its going to improve.Now its not likely to improve anytime soon.Plans to upgrade the wireless service near Mr. Nelsons farm halted abruptly this month when President Trump issued an executive order that banned the purchase of equipment from companies posing a national security threat. That includes gear from Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant, a major supplier of equipment to rural wireless companies. The chief executive of the wireless provider in Mr. Nelsons area said that without access to inexpensive Huawei products, his company could not afford to build a planned tower that would serve Mr. Nelsons farm.ImageCredit...Lynn Donaldson for The New York TimesThe Trump administrations ban, its latest move against the company, rippled through the telecommunications industry. Wireless carriers in several countries, including Britain and Japan, said they would no longer sell the companys phones. Google said it would stop providing its Android operating software in new Huawei smartphones, which are popular in Europe and Asia.But perhaps nowhere will the changes be felt more acutely than in rural America, where wireless service is spotty despite yearslong government efforts to improve coverage. They also add to the economic uncertainty created by the White Houses trade war with China. Farmers are fearful of an extended hit to their exports.Huawei is essential for many wireless carriers that serve sprawling, sparsely populated regions because its gear for transmitting cell signals often costs far less than other options.The presidents ban is forcing carriers like Nemont, which serves Opheim, to scrap expansion plans. In addition, some of the companies already using Huawei equipment fear that they will no longer receive government subsidies meant to help get service to remote areas.Joseph Franell, the chief executive of Eastern Oregon Telecom, a small carrier that relies on Huawei products, said he was being forced to rethink his business.The reason why we are able to serve our customers is because we are mindful of costs, he said. We dont go out and buy a Lamborghini when you can buy a Ford pickup.While Huawei sells many types of technology, including smartphones, the vast majority of its revenue comes from sales of equipment that moves data through networks and to devices. Only a few other companies, like Nokia and Ericsson, both based in Europe, sell comparable gear.ImageCredit...Lynn Donaldson for The New York TimesAmerican intelligence officials have accused Huawei of being an extension of the Chinese government, and say its equipment could be vulnerable to espionage and hacking. Mr. Trump also appears to be using Huawei as a bargaining chip in his escalating trade battle with China.Huawei is something that is very dangerous, the president said on Thursday. Its possible that Huawei would be included in some kind of trade deal.Huawei denies that it is a security risk, saying it is an independent business that does not act on behalf of the Chinese government. It says 500 carriers in more than 170 nations use its technology.Restricting Huawei from doing business in the U.S. will not make the U.S. more secure or stronger, Huawei said in a statement. Instead, this will only serve to limit the U.S. to inferior yet more expensive alternatives.Much of Mr. Trumps focus has been on the next generation of wireless technology, known as 5G. But Huawei already provides equipment to about a quarter of the countrys smallest wireless carriers. The Rural Wireless Association, a trade group that represents 55 small carriers, estimates that it would cost its members $800 million to $1 billion to replace equipment from Huawei and ZTE, Chinas other maker of networking gear.Nemont, based near Opheim, is one of those companies. Its footprint is 14,000 square miles, bigger than Maryland, and requires huge amounts of wires, towers and other costly infrastructure. But the company has only 11,000 paying customers. ImageCredit...Lynn Donaldson for The New York TimesNemont first reached out to Huawei nine years ago, when its members decided to upgrade their cellular network. With subsidies from the federal government, Nemont was prepared to spend about $4 million on networking equipment like routers and other gear to put on dozens of cell towers across the region.Even at the time, officials in the Obama administration voiced concerns about Chinese equipment makers and their ability to break into American networks to steal intellectual property or hack into corporate or government networks. Defense Department officials and lawmakers said they were concerned that the Chinese government and military could use the equipment to intercept American communications.ImageCredit...Lynn Donaldson for The New York TimesThe officials were vague about their concerns over Huawei, then a little-known firm. But Mike Kilgore, the chief executive of Nemont, said he had outlined Nemonts plans to buy Huawei equipment in a letter to Senator Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, and asked whether Mr. Tester had security concerns.Mr. Kilgore said he was ready to go another route if Huaweis equipment would put customers at risk. I was begging for them to say, No, dont buy it, he said.Mr. Tester's office called him and said it didnt see any major concerns with picking Huawei, Mr. Kilgore said. A spokesman for Mr. Tester said an aide had told Mr. Kilgore to contact the F.B.I. and other intelligence officials for advice.After the call, Mr. Kilgore chose Huawei, which offered to customize its equipment and charge 20 to 30 percent less than competitors. Nemont has since expanded its high-speed wireless network using almost all Huawei equipment. Mr. Kilgore even visited Huaweis headquarters in Shenzhen. He is the president of the Rural Wireless Association, the trade group. Huawei has a representative on the groups board without voting rights, one of two board members who dont represent a wireless carrier.ImageCredit...Lynn Donaldson for The New York TimesImageCredit...Lynn Donaldson for The New York TimesThe other vendors hardly gave us the time of day, and now they have been acquired or are out of business, Mr. Kilgore said. We took a gamble, but we clearly made the right bet.The technological upgrade changed lives. Kevin Rasmussen was recently in the cab of his tractor using an iPad connected to high-speed internet beaming from a nearby cell tower. The connection worked with software on the iPad to help direct where the tractor poked holes in the soil and dropped seeds and fertilizer.I can sit up here in my tractor and do my banking, monitor six weather apps and read up on things like trade and Huawei, all on my phone, Mr. Rasmussen said. Rural America needs this so badly. Nemont had plans to extend that high-speed service. It had leased land in Opheim for a new cell tower that would have delivered a strong signal. That is the tower that would have improved the service on Mr. Nelsons farm.But the company tabled those plans after Mr. Trumps executive order. We have no idea what we are going to be able to do, Mr. Kilgore said. Im not getting sleep at night.ImageCredit...Lynn Donaldson for The New York TimesMany companies that extend wireless broadband to rural areas, like Nemont, depend on subsidies from the Federal Communications Commission. But Ajit Pai, the commissions chairman, has proposed cutting off that money to carriers using equipment from Huawei or ZTE. We believe that it is important that networks are secure not just in urban areas, but in rural areas as well, the agency said in a statement. There are currently many rural broadband providers that use equipment that does not pose a national security risk.Mr. Kilgore estimated that it would cost $50 million to replace his Huawei equipment. If that is the only option, he said, he might have to shut down the company, leaving his customers without wireless service.Mr. Rasmussen said that would be a big blow to his farming operation. Were getting squeezed on all sides, he said. The tariffs and trade affect our prices, and now this could affect our ability to farm.Mr. Kilgore has argued, through his work with the Rural Wireless Association, for an exemption to the F.C.C. rule for small rural carriers, or for subsidies to replace the Huawei equipment. A bipartisan group senators recently introduced a bill that would set aside about $700 million in grants to carriers forced to rip Huawei equipment from their networks.Mr. Kilgore got another glimmer of hope, too. On Monday, he got an email saying Brendan Carr, an F.C.C. commissioner, was heading out to Montana. They will get together in the next week.This is a big day, Mr. Kilgore said after getting the email. Its not every day someone from Washington comes to visit.

Tech

Technology|Facebook and Twitter Expand Peek Into Whos Behind Their Adshttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/technology/facebook-twitter-political-ads.htmlCredit...FacebookJune 28, 2018MENLO PARK, Calif. Social media companies, stepping up efforts to stop disinformation on their online platforms ahead of this years midterm elections, unveiled on Thursday new tools aimed at improving transparency around advertisements.In simultaneous announcements, Facebook and Twitter said they were broadening efforts around public, searchable archives of ads that run on their sites.Twitter, which has begun requiring that anyone running a campaign ad go through a verification process, said Thursday that it was introducing an Ads Transparency Center, which allows the public to view a database of any ad run on the platform.Facebook, which made a database of political ads public last month, announced on Thursday that it intended to make it easier to see background details such as the buyer of all ads running across Facebook and its various platforms, including Instagram and Messenger.Each Facebook page will now have a tab called Info and Ads. Clicking on that tab will reveal every ad a page runs, as well as details about the page itself, including when it was founded and any name changes.Our ultimate goal is very simple: We want to reduce bad ads and make sure people understand what they are saying, said Sheryl Sandberg, Facebooks chief operating officer. We believe advertisers and us should be held accountable for content and ads.Facebook has promised to label news separately, after a backlash from publishers.Both Twitter and Facebook have been roundly criticized for allowing Russian agents to use the social media services in an effort to manipulate the 2016 presidential election. And lawmakers and independent researchers have questioned why the companies have been slow to respond to the problem.Facebook, which has repeatedly stated that the political ad archive is a work in progress, has fought criticism that too many campaign ads slip through, while ads that have no political undertones are incorrectly flagged.Twitters archive of ads was made public on Thursday, but the company has said that finding an ad requires knowing what to look for. The archive allows users to see advertisements distributed for specific buyers, but it doesnt allow a broader search around terms to reveal, for instance, any advertisement run in support of President Trump, or political issue ads that mention immigration or gun control.Twitter has said it hopes to make it possible to search the archive by terms. The current version is just a first step toward improving transparency, the company said.Facebook has promised a wide range of efforts, which include verifying the identity of any person running a campaign ad on the platform. Facebook is also working with independent fact-checking teams, like PolitiFact, and starting a news literacy campaign to help teach the American public how to spot disinformation.Twitter, in addition to the new ad disclosure rules, said recently that it would start labeling tweets from people running for office but only with the candidates permission. A label on the biography page of a candidate would indicate that the person was running for office and the seat being pursued. The label would follow each tweet sent or retweeted from that account.

Tech

Pfizer vaccine provides 90 percent protection against hospitalization for six months, study finds.Credit...Emily Elconin for The New York TimesPublished Oct. 4, 2021Updated Oct. 7, 2021The Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine is 90 percent effective at preventing hospitalization for up to six months, with no signs of waning during that time period, according to a large new U.S. study conducted by researchers at Pfizer and Kaiser Permanente.The vaccine also provides powerful protection against the highly contagious Delta variant, the scientists found. In a subset of people who had samples of their virus sequenced, the vaccine was 93 percent effective against hospitalization from Delta, compared with 95 percent against hospitalization from other variants.Protection against hospitalization remains high over time, even when Delta predominates, said Sara Tartof, an epidemiologist at Kaiser Permanente Southern California and the first author of the study.The vaccines effectiveness against infection did decline over time, however, falling from 88 percent during the first month after vaccination to 47 percent after five months.The findings, published in The Lancet on Monday, come amid a debate over whether, and when, booster shots may be necessary. The Food and Drug Administration has authorized boosters for recipients of the Pfizer vaccine who are 65 or older or at high risk for infection or severe disease. And the Biden administration has pushed for boosters to be made more widely available to the general population.But many scientists and public health experts have pushed back, arguing that the nations priority should be getting the shots to people who have not yet been vaccinated and that the vaccines still appear to provide good protection against the worst outcomes, including severe disease and death.Data from Israel indicates that the Pfizer vaccines effectiveness against infection dropped to 39 percent in late June and early July, down from 95 percent in January through early April. But it remained more than 90 percent effective against severe disease during that time period.On the other hand, a recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the vaccines effectiveness against hospitalization dropped to 77 percent after four months, compared to 91 percent in the first few months.In the new study, the researchers analyzed the electronic health records from more than 3.4 million members of Kaiser Permanente Southern California, between Dec. 14, 2020, and Aug. 8, 2021.Overall, the vaccine was 90 percent effective against hospitalization and 73 percent effective against infection. Among those who were 65 or older, it was 86 percent effective against hospitalization and 61 percent effective against infection.The researchers sequenced more than 5,000 samples of the virus. Overall, the Delta variant made up 28 percent of these samples, though it was the dominant variant in June and July.The vaccine was slightly less effective against Delta than the other variants, providing 75 percent protection against infection with Delta, compared to 91 percent protection against the other variants.But protection against infection declined at a similar rate over time, the researchers found. After four months, the effectiveness against infection had dropped to 53 percent against Delta and 67 percent against the other variants.The findings could give fuel to both sides of the booster debate, Dr. Tartof said.The question is what do you want your booster program to do? she said. Some may say this data supports boosters because it shows an increase in breakthrough infections over time, she said. Others, though, could point to the vaccines steady protection against severe disease and argue that boosters arent necessary.

science

Baseball|Prices Skyrocket for Tickets to See Jeters Last Gameshttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/13/sports/baseball/prices-skyrocket-for-tickets-to-see-jeters-last-games.htmlFeb. 12, 2014When Derek Jeter announced on Facebook on Wednesday that the 2014 season would be his last, fans fled to social media to express their reactions. More enterprising enthusiasts, though, rushed immediately to their computers for a different purpose to scoop up tickets to games in late September at Yankee Stadium.The spike in prices for seats to the Yankees final regular-season home game, on Sept. 25 against the Baltimore Orioles, was startling, building like a tidal wave moments after Jeters declaration went public. The Yankees will conclude the regular season on the road, as they did last year, with a three-game series at (where else?) Fenway Park from Sept. 26 to 28. Ticket prices soared for the final game there as well.Chris Matcovich, the vice president for data and communications at TiqIQ, a ticket aggregator, said in an email that the market for Jeters last game in New York and in Boston was one of the craziest we have seen in terms of initial demand and how quickly tickets were taken off resale websites by brokers.At 2 p.m., just before the announcement, a seat to the Yankees-Orioles game on Sept. 25 could be purchased for as low as $26. By 4:30 p.m., the price had inflated by more than 350 percent to $280 for a cheap seat. The average ticket price, by early evening, exceeded $800.Matcovich said the market was even more bullish than when Mariano Rivera announced his retirement on March 9 last year. At its peak that day, average ticket prices for the final home game (Sept. 27) rose to $467.06 and wound up falling by nearly 50 percent by the day of the game.The ticket prices for the final Sunday matinee at Fenway also skyrocketed, Matcovich said, to more than $200 from a low of $91 before Jeters announcement. The Red Sox had a two-game flex pack that included Game 162 against the Yankees, but it sold out less than two hours later.Connor Gregoire, a communications analyst for SeatGeek, another ticket marketplace, recommended that fans sit tight and allow the hysteria to die down, citing the extent to which prices dropped for Riveras last home game last season. Gregoire noted that the Yankees had not opened their single-game ticket sales for 2014. The home finale is expected to sell out in minutes, but the inventory should flood the market, and prices should drop considerably.Of course, by September there is a good chance that fans will know whether the Yankees will be bound for the playoffs, which would alter the frenzy over watching Jeters last regular-season appearance. But if fans do not want to risk missing out, they had better be prepared to pay a hefty sum.

Sports

Eddie Alvarez to Dana White: I Got 2 Words For Your Pats ... 1/31/2018 TMZSports.com UFC star Eddie Alvarez is a diehard Philadelphia Eagles fan. His boss, Dana White, lives and breathes New England Patriots. So, when we asked Eddie how he's getting along with Dana during Super Bowl week ... he had a 2-fingered response. It's hilarious. Of course, they're just kidding around -- but Eddie says they both agreed to suspend the friendship "until Philly wins." In serious news ... since Eddie famously fought Conor McGregor -- we asked for his take on a possible Conor vs. Floyd MMA match. Eddie makes it clear he thinks Floyd would get the beating of his life -- and even his 12-year-old son could get Mayweather to tap inside of an octagon. TMZSports.com

Entertainment

March 10, 2017Thousands of people fled from their homes, offices and schools six years ago after a devastating earthquake and tsunami caused a meltdown at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan. To this day, few have returned, leaving behind ghost towns where eerie signs of the departed linger under a caking of dust.Tomioka, a little more than six miles south of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, was home to 15,830 people before the accident. They left in a hurry. At a ramen restaurant in Okuma, on the main road to town, dishes were left in the sink.Some towns, like most of Futaba, just four miles north of the nuclear plant, may never be reoccupied. Wandering its deserted streets, catching a glimpse of a piece of a childs artwork here, a workers old Rolodex file there, I am hit by an unstinting sense of loss and devastation.ImageCredit...Ko Sasaki for The New York TimesEvidence of sudden flight is everywhere. The earthquake shook an elementary school so vigorously that students could not even stay standing. When the children left, they assumed they would return a few days later. Instead, they left and never came back.ImageCredit...Ko Sasaki for The New York TimesThe portraits of past principals lay scattered on the floor, the forgotten history of an abandoned school.ImageCredit...Ko Sasaki for The New York TimesMost of the 21,434 people who lived in the town of Namie have put down roots elsewhere. They are now asking that the town simply demolish their homes. A little over 800 houses and shops have been knocked down already; another 1,280 are on a waiting list.In Tomioka, I met Chiharu Matsumoto, 68, a former resident who volunteers at a rest center in town for people returning just to clean out or get things from their homes. She lives in a city to the west now and said she did not plan to move back. Her grown children have not visited Tomioka since evacuating after the disaster. They do not know how much radiation they might receive, she said.The government says it will be safe for residents to return in April. So far, 304 people have moved back on temporary permits. With so few people returning, it makes little sense for many commercial operations to restart. Many of the convenience stores, restaurants and pachinko gambling parlors, like this one, have yet to be cleaned up or repaired.ImageCredit...Ko Sasaki for The New York TimesSome scientists say radiation in many towns has fallen to levels that should not cause long-term health problems; others ask whether even low doses are safe. But the situation is much beyond science, said Dr. Otsura Niwa, chairman of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima, who has conducted extensive sampling in Fukushima since the disaster. Its the human element which is playing the biggest role, he said.The people most likely to return are the elderly. Ichiro Tagawa, 77, moved back to Namie on a special permit in September and reopened the bicycle repair shop that has been in his family for 80 years. I am so old I dont really care about the radiation levels, he said, and in fact it is very low.Another reason he wanted to return was to be near his familys grave sites. One large cemetery near the coastline was heavily damaged by the tsunami.We want to visit our ancestors graves, Mr. Tagawa said. But we are living in a very lonely town.ImageCredit...Ko Sasaki for The New York Times

World

Credit...Gabriella Demczuk/The New York TimesDec. 13, 2015WASHINGTON When Howard University Television crackled onto the airwaves here in November 1980, hundreds of people representing the city, university and broadcasting industry turned out to celebrate the first of its kind: a public television station owned and operated by a historically black institution.Thirty-five years later, the station, WHUT, which now reaches roughly two million households in the Washington area, remains the only black-owned public station in the country and one of only a few black stations anywhere on television.That may soon change.Howard, which has struggled financially in recent years, is expected to announce as soon as this week whether it will enter a Federal Communications Commission auction to try to sell off its rights to the spectrum on which it broadcasts.The sale has the potential to earn Howard hundreds of millions of dollars that proponents say could help bolster other parts of the university. But it could also spell the end of WHUT. That prospect has ignited a debate here on the schools campus and among alumni over where the universitys responsibilities lie and how to best measure the networks symbolic and strategic value.We are sympathetic to the plight of Howard these are still difficult economic times for many institutions, said Todd OBoyle, program director for the Media and Democracy Reform Initiative at Common Cause, a public interest advocacy organization. That said, it would be a tremendous loss for the public interest if Howards station went dark.Since its first broadcast, WHUT has given priority to local issues and minority voices not often heard elsewhere on the spectrum differentiating it from Washingtons other PBS affiliate, WETA, and most public television stations across the country. It also provides a training ground for Howard students, who participate in internships with the stations staff.Over the years, WHUT has experimented with a range of original programming from black and other minority artists, as well as coverage of local politics and events at the university, targeted at Washingtons majority-black population. It is perhaps best known for Evening Exchange, a magazine-style talk show that was hosted for more than two decades by the public-radio journalist Kojo Nnamdi.ImageCredit...Zach Gibson/The New York TimesThe decision about the station rests with the universitys president, Dr. Wayne A.I. Frederick, and the board.The last decade has been a hard one for Howard. Enrollment has fluctuated, the universitys credit has been downgraded at least three times, and it has started multiple rounds of layoffs because of steep operating losses at its teaching hospital.As outlined in a mid-October letter, Howard has several options regarding WHUT. It could sell the spectrum outright and shut down the station, trade the spectrum for a less-valuable frequency type and smaller payout or not participate in the auction, which is scheduled to begin March 29. The university could also try to take a middle course with a channel-sharing agreement that would allow WHUT to stay on the air as something like a renter on another broadcasters spectrum space rather than an owner.Its decision will probably depend on how much Howard is ultimately offered for the spectrum, according to several people who have studied the auction. The F.C.C. has assigned WHUT a starting price of $461 million to relinquish its spectrum, but experts said that because the auction is done in reverse, Howard and other participating broadcasters should expect final prices much lower than that. (For the first time, the F.C.C. is buying back spectrum from broadcasters so that it can resell that spectrum to wireless companies.)Gracia Hillman, a Howard spokeswoman, declined to comment on the matter. Jefferi K. Lee, WHUTs general manager, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.While the station operates on a relatively small budget and is not a major financial drain to the university, proponents of a sale argue that it could stave off more painful cuts to the universitys core operations and could bolster financial aid.As Mark Spradley, a private equity executive and Howard alumnus, sees it, opposition to a sale is merely emotional, a premature cognitive commitment made by people who have not taken a sober look at the details of the situation.You are talking about substantially increasing your endowment in a year, Mr. Spradley said, adding that he had shared his views with Dr. Frederick. That doesnt come from picking stocks.But those against the sale and even a channel-sharing agreement insist that the issue cuts at the heart of what it means to be a historically black university, where ownership and control in the hands of black students and faculty is sacrosanct. More than 300 people have signed a petition called #KeepWHUTBlack and nearly as many had followed a Twitter account with the same name.ImageCredit...Zach Gibson/The New York TimesMaintaining the spectrum is of primary importance. That is what makes you a distributor, and thats something that is missing in black media, said Sowande Tichawonna, an independent filmmaker and actor who got his start as an intern at the station in the mid-1980s. Its like selling your house and still paying the utilities. It doesnt make any sense.Leah A. Henry, a senior majoring in journalism who has worked at WHUT, said she saw both sides of the argument but leaned toward keeping the spectrum.When I think of all the opportunities that Howard would have with millions of dollars in their pocket to help students, of course I would want Howard to be able to do that, she said. But on the other hand, Im a journalism student and so I know as a fact as a journalist, I would not be trained in the manner I am trained in if the station were to go dark.The Howard Media Group, a coalition of faculty members and graduate students from the school of communications, issued a position paper last month arguing that Howard has a responsibility not only to its students but also to Washington to keep the station on the air.For the larger community, I think, very often there is this sense that everyone has access to cable television and Internet, and so you dont need traditional television over the air, said Chukwuka Onwumechili, a faculty member and one of the papers authors. But thats wrong. We know that there are people who rely on over-the-air signals, and we serve those people.According to Eric Easter, a member of the stations advisory board, which unanimously opposes a potential sale, the channels ambition has been scaled back over the years amid budget and staff cuts at the station.When WHUT first started, there was an almost global strategy for what the station and school could be together, said Mr. Easter, who also serves as chairman of the National Black Programming Consortium. Could they broadcast to Africa? Could it be used for distance learning? As it grew and as it became less of a focus of the school in general, I think it just started being considered the AV department unfortunately in a lot of ways, a reference to the audiovisual department.He and others argue that rather than selling, Howard ought to find ways to reclaim the ambition of the stations early days. By investing in new programming and modernizing its studios, they argue, the university could reposition WHUT as a leading provider of black-produced content for other media outlets and a training ground for students who will shape the future of media.We are living in a media-centric age, Mr. Easter said. Part of the call of the board and alumni is to remind the university that this is a major opportunity.

Business

June 27, 2018WASHINGTON A former militia leader was sentenced on Wednesday to 22 years in prison for his role in the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four, including the United States ambassador, and set off a political firestorm.The sentence was a disappointment for federal prosecutors and family members who had urged a federal judge to send the militant, Ahmed Abu Khattala, 47, to prison for the rest of his life, believing he was remorseless and still a danger.But the judge, Christopher R. Cooper, said Mr. Khattala was essentially convicted of property crimes and that his actions did not warrant a life sentence. Judge Cooper praised the government for its professionalism.I really hope you appreciate what a fair trial means, the judge told Mr. Khattala, who sat nearly motionless in a green jumper suit during the hearing in the federal courthouse not far from the Justice Department.Mr. Khattala was convicted last year of four charges but acquitted of 14 other serious counts after a seven-week trial. A jury found him guilty on a pair of terrorism charges and taking part in the attack on the diplomatic facility but not on a nearby secret C.I.A. base. The mixed verdict was a setback for prosecutors, who had sought to hold him responsible for the killings of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens; another State Department employee, Sean Smith; and two C.I.A. security contractors.Prosecutors and F.B.I. agents had assembled an array of evidence against Mr. Khattala in the Sept. 11, 2012, attack. They relied on an informant who earned Mr. Khattalas trust and testified against him during the trial. Investigators also had video footage of Mr. Khattala with a gun at the diplomatic facility stormed by members of his militia.Mr. Stevens and Mr. Smith died at the diplomatic facility. Hours later, militants attacked the nearby C.I.A. base with mortars and small arms. The contractors, Tyrone S. Woods and Glen A. Doherty, were killed there, and three others were seriously wounded.Prosecutors had hoped the gun charge carrying a semiautomatic weapon during a crime of violence would send him to prison for the rest of his life. But the judge imposed only the mandatory decade in prison.Judge Cooper said Mr. Khattala was a participant and leader in the initial attack on the diplomatic facility. Members of militia were there, and he talked to them before, during and after the attack.Mr. Khattala had spent a decade in a Libyan prison, where he endured brutal conditions and recruited members of his militia, prosecutors said. He later fought during the revolution, helping to overthrow Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the dictator who ruled Libya for 42 years.Judge Cooper said Mr. Khattala struck him as a creature of a violent and repressive environment and capable of ordering acts of violence. But he said he had doubts about whether Mr. Khattala was a stone-cold terrorist, as the government made you out to be.Before sentencing Mr. Khattala, Judge Cooper reminded the courtroom that before the attacks were viewed mostly as a political firestorm, they were a crime scene with real victims.Mr. Woods, a former member of the Navy SEALs, was one of them. His father, Charles Woods, called Mr. Khattala an unrepentant terrorist. Charles Woods said his son had become a father himself days before the attack and had pledged to make Benghazi his last assignment.Im not here to seek vengeance or retribution, Mr. Woods said. How can this be done? By giving him the maximum. It would be wrong to give him anything less.After the sentencing, the United States attorneys office in Washington issued a terse statement detailing the sentence. Mr. Khattalas lawyer declined to comment but appeared relieved that the judge had not agreed with prosecutors on a life sentence.During the hearing, Mr. Khattalas lawyer, Jeffrey D. Robinson, said his client was not a monster and implored the judge not to pass a sentence as if he had been convicted on all counts and of murder.One of the prosecutors, Michael C. DiLorenzo, compared Mr. Khattalas case to that of the bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. A suspect, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, was acquitted on all but one of the more than 280 charges of conspiracy and murder he faced. Nonetheless, the judge in the case sentenced Mr. Ghailani to life in prison.Judge Cooper seemed skeptical of the comparison to Mr. Khattalas case.It is not clear whether Mr. Khattalas sentence will affect the governments continuing operations to catch and prosecute those responsible for the Benghazi attacks. More than a dozen people have been charged.Republicans, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and conservative news media commentators have attacked the use of the civilian courts system for terrorism cases. Mr. Sessions has said for years that terrorism suspects should be held and prosecuted at the wartime prison at the naval base in Guantnamo Bay, Cuba.He has said that terrorists do not deserve the same legal rights as common criminals and that such trials were too dangerous to hold in the United States.Critics have also argued that civilian trials present a greater risk of disclosures of classified information and could turn courthouses into targets for terrorist attacks.Judge Cooper took a swipe at that argument, saying that federal courts could handle terrorism trials with voluminous classified information. And anybody who disagreed obviously did not come and watch this one.He described American justice as swift and thorough, in stark contrast to the military tribunals being held at Guantnamo Bay detention camp, where five of the men accused of carrying out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks await a trial not expected to begin until 2020.

Politics

Credit...Tim PeacockMany companies are retreating. But Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft are placing bets to get even bigger.Credit...Tim PeacockPublished June 13, 2020Updated June 26, 2020SAN FRANCISCO Even as Facebook grappled this month with an internal revolt and a cascade of criticism over its refusal to take action on President Trumps inflammatory posts, the social network was actively making other bets behind the scenes.Late one Tuesday, as attention was focused on how Facebook might handle Mr. Trump, the Silicon Valley company said in a brief blog post that it had invested in Gojek, a super app in Southeast Asia. The deal, which gave Facebook a bigger foothold in the rapidly growing region, followed a $5.7 billion investment it recently pumped into Reliance Jio, a telecom giant in India.The moves were part of a spending spree by the social network, which also shelled out $400 million last month to buy an animated GIF company and which is spending millions of dollars to build a nearly 23,000-mile undersea fiber-optic cable encircling Africa. On Thursday, Facebook confirmed that it was also developing a venture capital fund to invest in promising start-ups.Other technology giants are engaging in similar behavior. Apple has bought at least four companies this year and released a new iPhone. Microsoft has purchased three cloud computing businesses. Amazon is in talks to acquire an autonomous vehicle start-up, has leased more airplanes for delivery and has hired an additional 175,000 people since March. Google has unveiled new messaging and video features.Even with the global economy reeling from a pandemic-induced recession and dozens of businesses filing for bankruptcy, techs largest companies still wildly profitable and flush with billions of dollars from years of corporate dominance are deliberately laying the groundwork for a future where they will be bigger and more powerful than ever.Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft are aggressively placing new bets as the coronavirus pandemic has made them near-essential services, with people turning to them to shop online, entertain themselves and stay in touch with loved ones. The skyrocketing use has given the companies new fuel to invest as other industries retrench.The expansion is unfolding as lawmakers and regulators in Washington and Europe are sounding the alarm over the tech giants concentration of power and how that may have hurt competitors and led to other issues, such as spreading disinformation. This week, European Union officials were preparing antitrust charges against Amazon for using its e-commerce dominance to box out smaller rivals, while Britain began an inquiry into Facebooks purchase of the GIF company.ImageCredit...Jessica Chou for The New York TimesIve always believed that in times of economic downturn, the right thing to do is keep investing in building the future, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebooks chief executive, said in an investor call last month. When the world changes quickly, people have new needs, and that means there are more new things to build.In doubling down on growth in a time of economic pain, the largest tech companies are continuing a pattern. In previous recessions, those that invested while the economy was at its most vulnerable often emerged stronger. In the 1990s, IBM used a recession to reorient itself from a hardware company into a software and services company. Google and Facebook both rose out of the dot-com bust about 20 years ago.Apple, whose iPhones now dominate computing, doubled its research and development budget for two years during the downturn in the early 2000s. That led the company, which nearly went bankrupt in the late 1990s, to create its iPod music player and iTunes music store and eventually the iPhone, the App Store and an unbridled growth streak, said Jenny Chatman, a professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.Ranjan Roy, a tech commentator for The Margins, an internet industry blog, said it was clear the tech behemoths were unafraid to get more aggressive now and that the power they were accruing should give people pause.Without any pushback from regulators, big tech companies would almost unquestionably come out of the pandemic more powerful, he said. So many additional parts of our daily lives are becoming dependent on their products, or they could just buy or copy the services they dont yet deliver.Still, the companies are taking risks by spending in an uncertain period, said John Paul Rollert, a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.To double and even triple down when the casino is on fire is a remarkable move, because they may not even be able to cash in their chips later on, he said. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft, which declined to or did not respond to requests for comment, have plenty of cash. Combined, they are sitting atop about $557 billion, enabling them to maintain a pace of acquisitions and investments similar to last years, when the economy was humming, according to a tally of financial disclosures. They have been among the top corporate spenders on research and development for most of the last decade, according to PwC, the big accounting firm.The companies have ramped up their activity since March, when shelter-in-place orders began. As Amazon, Facebook and others adapted to their employees working from home, they experienced a spike in use. Messaging and other teleconferencing software soared in popularity.That created opportunities. Microsoft, for one, started promoting its Teams videoconferencing service, which allows people to talk and collaborate online. Microsoft also snapped up three cloud computing companies in the last few months Affirmed Networks, Metaswitch Networks and Softomotive to offer more technology to businesses.Google, too, updated products that people can use to work from home. In April, it said that its video chat service, Google Meet, would be easily available inside peoples Gmail windows and free to anyone with a Google account. It also said it would start making listings in its shopping search results mostly free, instead of having merchants pay for all their products to appear in the results, to bolster e-commerce searches.ImageCredit...Scott P. Yates/Rockford Register Star, via Associated PressAmazon has since invested further. While aviation all but ground to a halt in the pandemic, the company said this month that it was adding 12 Boeing 767s to its fleet of more than 70 delivery planes. It also discussed buying Zoox, an autonomous vehicle start-up valued at $2.7 billion, according to a person with knowledge of the talks. The discussions were earlier reported by The Wall Street Journal.Apple, with $193 billion in cash and debt, went on its own buying spree. This year, it bought DarkSky, a popular weather smartphone app; NextVR, a virtual reality company; Voysis, a digital assistant and speech recognition software company; and Xnor.ai, an artificial intelligence start-up.The company will soon hold a developer conference virtually and is managing a surge in activity on FaceTime and iMessage as people use those services to communicate in quarantine.Facebooks activity has been the most pronounced. When the coronavirus swept through the United States in March, the social network was inundated with people flocking to its apps to use voice and video chat services. Mr. Zuckerberg said Facebook was just trying to keep the lights on.But the company soon capitalized on the momentum. Mr. Zuckerberg accelerated the building of some products, introducing Messenger Rooms, a group video chat service, in April.That same month, Facebook said it was taking a $5.7 billion stake in Indias Reliance Jio. It was the companys largest investment in an outside company, giving it more access to one of the worlds fastest-growing digital markets.We are committed to connecting more people in India together with Jio, Facebook said of the deal, noting that Jio had brought more than 388 million people online in less than four years.Last month, Facebook bought the GIF company Giphy for an estimated $400 million. Giphy is to be integrated with Instagram, the photo-sharing app owned by Facebook. And last week, the social network invested millions in Gojek. Based in Jakarta, Indonesia, Gojek makes an app for digital payments, transportation and other services that is used by more than 170 million people in Southeast Asia.Facebook is now working on the new venture fund, which will help it spot new popular apps. The fund was reported earlier by Axios.In driving the activity, Mr. Zuckerberg may be taking a cue from a Facebook board member, the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. In April, Mr. Andreessen wrote a blog post titled Its Time To Build and said, We need to demand more of our political leaders, of our CEOs, our entrepreneurs, our investors.Less than two weeks later, Mr. Zuckerberg said on the investor call that he was doing exactly that: building.He said he felt a responsibility and duty to invest and added, Were in a fortunate position to be able to do this.Daisuke Wakabayashi contributed reporting from Oakland, Calif.; Karen Weise from Seattle; and Erin Griffith from San Francisco.

Tech

Politics|A Capitol Police officer dies from injuries sustained during the pro-Trump rampage.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/us/politics/a-capitol-police-officer-dies-from-injuries-sustained-during-the-pro-trump-rampage.htmlCredit...Samuel Corum/Getty ImagesJan. 8, 2021A United States Capitol Police officer died Thursday night from injuries sustained when he engaged with a pro-Trump mob that descended on the U.S. Capitol the day before.Officer Brian D. Sicknick died at about 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, the Capitol Police said in a statement. He had been with the agency since 2008.Mr. Sicknick was responding to the riots on Wednesday and was injured while physically engaging with protesters, the agencys statement said, although officials didnt immediately elaborate on the nature of his injuries or how he interacted with the crowd. After sustaining the injuries, Mr. Sicknick returned to his division office, collapsed, and was taken to the hospital.The entire U.S.C.P. department expresses its deepest sympathies to Officer Sicknicks family and friends on their loss, and mourns the loss of a friend and colleague, the statement said. News outlets had prematurely reported on his death earlier in the day while he was apparently still on life support.Homicide investigators from the Metropolitan Police Department are involved in the case.Early Friday morning, Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio, a Democrat who runs the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the budget for the Capitol Police, said in a Twitter post that his heart was breaking over Mr. Sicknicks death. This tragic loss is a reminder of the bravery of the law enforcement who protect us every day, Mr. Ryan wrote.Mr. Sicknicks death brings the death toll from Wednesdays mayhem to five. One of the people participating in the pro-Trump rampage, Ashli Babbitt, was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer inside the building as she climbed through a broken window leading to the Speakers Lobby. Three other people died after experiencing apparent medical emergencies in the area around the Capitol, the police said.Officials have said that some 50 police officers were injured as the mob swarmed barricades, threw objects, battered doors, smashed windows and overwhelmed some of the officers who tried to resist the advancing crowd. Capitol Police reported 14 arrests during the incursion, including two people who were detained for assaulting a police officer. Local police arrested dozens of others, mostly for unlawful entry and violations of the citys Wednesday night curfew.Steven Sund, the Capitol Police chief, handed in his resignation on Thursday after facing pressure from congressional leaders. The sergeants-at-arms of the House and Senate also resigned.

Politics

Politics|Trump Falsely Claims to Be First Republican to Win Wisconsin Since Eisenhowerhttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/us/politics/fast-check-trump-wisconsin-republican-election-.htmlFact Check of the DayFollowing Eisenhowers two Badger State victories in 1952 and 1956, Wisconsin voted for Republican presidential candidates in 1960, 1968, 1972, 1980 and 1984 before Mr. Trumps win in 2016. June 28, 2018what was saidWhen we won the state of Wisconsin, it hadnt been won by a Republican since Dwight D. Eisenhower. President Trump, at an event in Mount Pleasant, Wis., on Thursdaythe factsFalse. Two other Republican presidents won Wisconsin after Dwight D. Eisenhower twice swept the state in 1952 and 1956, and Mr. Trump took it in 2016.Richard M. Nixon first won Wisconsin in the 1960 presidential election, but lost the nationwide vote to John F. Kennedy. Nixon won Wisconsin again in 1968 and in 1972. A decade later, Ronald Reagan also won Wisconsin in 1980 and 1984. Mr. Trump often recalls his Electoral College wins in speeches, and previously has claimed to be the first Republican to win the Badger State in many, many years or in decades. Occasionally, he has specified the amount of time elapsed since a Republican last won Wisconsin. But the time frame has increased with each telling. In December 2016, he said it had been 38 years since a Republican candidate took the state; at a speech in South Carolina on Monday it was 44 years. On Thursday, Mr. Trump said he was the first Republican to win there in a half century. Source: UCSBs American Presidency Project

Politics

Oct. 30, 2020, 6:00 a.m. ETOct. 30, 2020, 6:00 a.m. ETFalsehoods about Tuesdays election have overwhelmed local election officials, who said they were dealing with tsunamis of misinformation, have lost sleep and were working extra long hours.The officials told us they were dealing with several common flavors of election-related misinformation. So we decided to track three categories of the rumors they had encountered using CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned analytics tool, and then focused on the spread of one the lies in each of the categories. We also recorded the volume of tweets about the rumors we followed using BuzzSumo, another analytics tool.The data showed how a single rumor pushing a false narrative could rapidly gain traction on Facebook and Twitter, generating tens of thousands of shares and comments. That has made the misinformation particularly hard for elections officials to fight.The true costs of misinformation are not paid by platform companies, said Joan Donovan, the research director at Harvard Universitys Shorenstein Center. They are paid by everyone else who has to deal with the aftermath.A spokesman for Facebook, Andy Stone, said that it prohibits voter interference, is working with fact-checking organizations and has introduced a voter information hub of accurate information.Twitter said it did not create any specific Twitter Moments explaining these particular rumors, but does aim to proactively debunk false claims and provide information about voting by mail.Heres what we found.1. False claims of ballot harvestingThis misinformation features the unproven assertion that ballots are being harvested, or collected and dropped off in bulk by unauthorized people.In the example we focused on, Representative Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, was falsely accused last month of being engaged in or connected to systematic illegal ballot harvesting.There were 3,959 public Facebook posts sharing this rumor, according to our analysis. Those posts generated 953,032 likes, comments and shares. Among those who shared the lie were two pro-Trump Facebook groups targeting Minnesota residents, as well as President Trump himself. At least 26,300 tweets also discussed the falsehood.Jeremy Slevin, a spokesman for Ms. Omar, said in an emailed statement that there was no truth to the claim.2. False claims of mail-in ballots being dumped or shreddedMail-in ballots and related materials being tossed was another popular falsehood that election officials said they were hearing. We looked at one of these rumors, which was pushed by a far-right website called The Right Scoop. This month, the site published an article with the headline, Tons of Trump mail-in ballot applications SHREDDED in back of tractor trailer headed for Pennsylvania.The article generated 163 individual public posts on Facebook. It was liked, commented and shared 91,000 times on the social network, according to our analysis. It was also shared 1,032 times on Twitter.Politifact debunked the video on which the article was based. Facebook added a label to posts that shared the rumor saying it contained false information.The Right Scoop later corrected its post but its correction did not travel as far as the lie, receiving just a single like on Facebook. The Right Scoop did not respond to a request for comment.Image3. False claims of planned violence at polling sites by Antifa and Black Lives Matter protestersElection officials also said people were confronting them with false assertions that antifa, the loose collection of left-wing activists, and Black Lives Matter protesters were coordinating riots at polling places across the country.One of those rumors began this month when The Federalist, a conservative outlet, noticed that a liberal activist website called Shut Down DC said people should protest on the streets if Mr. Trump was re-elected. Right-wing commentators then attached inflammatory captions to their posts sharing The Federalists article. Many said it was evidence of planned far-left violence on Election Day and after, and stated, without proof, that Black Lives Matter was involved.The false rumor was then shared in 472 public Facebook posts, according to our analysis. It generated 99,336 likes, shares and comments. On Twitter, the rumor was shared at least 400 times.Craig Sawyer, a right-wing commentator and Marine veteran, shared the rumor on Facebook on Oct. 16. He said in an email that his post was not a call for violence and that The New York Times should focus on the key planners and financiers of all the rioting, arson, looting and murder instead.

Tech

on techWhy we should all care who controls the invisible infrastructure of the global internet.Credit...Ginko YangJuly 8, 2020This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it weekdays.My friends, I vow to make you care about internet cables and metal poles in the ground. Please dont immediately unsubscribe from this newsletter.The magic of the internet requires a lot of very boring stuff behind the scenes. We wouldnt be able to watch kitten videos on YouTube without an elaborate system of hulking warehouses lined with computer equipment, thick coils of wire that spans oceans and tree-size poles laced with internet cables.We mostly never see or think about this stuff. But one of the underappreciated ways that todays technology superpowers like Google and Amazon stay superpowers is their mastery of all the boring stuff that makes the internet possible. This is the kind of advantage the tech superpowers have that is hard for governments to break apart or for rivals to compete with.The tech giants fingerprints, brain power and dollars are all over the invisible backbone of the global internet.Facebook on Monday talked about undersea internet pipelines it is helping fund in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and other global spots to help improve online access and speeds. My colleague Abdi Latif Dahir wrote this week about Googles first use of high-altitude balloons to transmit the internet in areas of Kenya.Googles internet balloons like Facebooks failed attempt at internet-beaming drones might be pointlessly showy pieces of equipment where conventional cellphone towers are better suited. But no matter. This is the relatively glamorous tip of an otherwise boring iceberg.Google, Facebook, Amazon and other big American tech companies collectively spend tens of billions of dollars each year on things like massive warehouses of computer and internet equipment that let them speed along your Instagram posts and home shopping purchases.You might have driven by some of these computing centers and never noticed them. But the tech giants efforts to make these boring workhorses more efficient and effective is one of the most important advancements in technology in the last decade.It doesnt stop there. Increasingly lining the worlds oceans are undersea cables that are partly or entirely funded by internet companies and are essential cogs in the internet. And there are even way more boring projects like software that Facebook helped design for Wi-Fi hot spots tailored to the demands of places like rural Kenya where internet connections are spotty.The internet powers arent doing this for selfless reasons. They know that if they help improve the worlds internet-carrying backbone, we are likely to spend more time Googling, watching YouTube kittens and pinging friends on WhatsApp.Few other companies can afford to build undersea internet cables, have the same level of skill in running data centers, or care so much about the internets boring backbone. Little companies and all us kitten lovers benefit from the tech superpowers mastery over the online plumbing, but the giants benefit more. In some cases, the pipes theyre building carry their digital traffic alone.We tend to focus on tech companies dominance over parts of the internet we can see, like search engines and social media sites. But the superpowers command of the invisible infrastructure of the digital world gives them an untouchable advantage. The boring stuff turns out to be incredibly important.Has technology failed public health?No, but also a little.Some U.S. states and countries have released smartphone apps to help notify people if theyve come into contact with someone who later tests positive for the coronavirus. These digital helpers cant stop a pandemic, but theyre supposed to be one tool to help public health officials limit the spread of infection.Ive written before about a two-question test for any technology like this: Does it work, and is it creepy? No technology can be perfectly effective, so we and our elected representatives have to decide what balance of creepy and effective were willing to accept.In Norway, the government decided the creepy outweighed the effective.My colleague Natasha Singer wrote about a temporary ban on Norways coronavirus-tracking app after officials found it didnt justify the risk of the apps collection of large amounts of peoples personal information.The experience in Norway doesnt mean virus-tracking apps shouldnt exist anywhere. Norway is unusual because there are relatively few coronavirus infections in the country. That makes it harder to prove whether the app is effective, and it tilts the creepy-effective balance to the creepy side of the scale.One way countries could tilt the balance the other way is by putting more attention on limiting the amount of information those apps collect about people.The reality is that the coronavirus is going to be part of our lives for some time, and we need virus-tracking apps as one tool in our pandemic-fighting toolbox. An official from Norways public health agency told Natasha that banning the app was the wrong step, because the country will need a virus tracking app if there is a big outbreak later.We do need to remember, though, not to overly fixate on either the potential privacy harms or the potential benefits of technology, which can never be a cure-all for disease or any other human problem. And we need to find the right balance between the creepy and the effective elements of these apps.Before we go Uh, Facebooks week has not gone well: A two-year, independent audit of Facebooks civil rights policies and practices repeatedly faulted the company for its lax responses to hate speech and misinformation, my colleague Mike Isaac wrote.The report commissioned by the company suggests that Facebook isnt just a mirror reflecting our sometimes nasty and divided world, but a site thats making things worse by pulling people into self-reinforcing extremist beliefs.Greg Bensinger, a member of The New York Timess editorial board, wrote that a major takeaway from the audit is that even when Facebook commits to reforms, it almost never does enough. (Not unrelated: Organizers of an advertiser boycott of Facebook are not happy with the companys commitment to reforms.)Amazon Prime, but from Walmart: The big box store is ready to start its own membership program that will offer perks such as discounts at Walmart gas pumps, unlimited same-day delivery of groceries and some other merchandise, as well as the option to check out at stores without waiting in line, according to Recode, a tech news publication. The question is whether the middle of a pandemic and a related economic crisis is the right moment for Walmart to start a shopper membership program.Consider this before you splurge on a new gadget: Can you replace the battery? Will it be easy to fix? Do you need this, really? The Times personal technology columnist Brian X. Chen walks you through things you should consider so you can buy stuff that will last longer.Hugs to thisThis magpie just seems to be showing off.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...Lam Yik Fei for The New York TimesNov. 2, 2018HONG KONG When the Foreign Correspondents Club of Hong Kong decided in late July to invite an obscure political activist to speak at the elegant 19th-century building that is its home, there was a vague sense among its board that the move might upset some people.Their guest, Andy Chan, was the leader of a fledgling political party with at most a few dozen members but a provocative goal the secession of Hong Kong from China and the local authorities were preparing to outlaw the party as a threat to public order and national security.Still, few expected the reverberations that followed: Beijing demanded that the club cancel the speech. Hong Kong expelled a prominent journalist after the club refused. And the backlash raised questions about the citys future as a haven where rule of law and civil rights are better protected than elsewhere in Asia.I would say it is the biggest mistake the Hong Kong government has ever made, said Fu Hualing, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong, of the decision to expel Victor Mallet, the Asia news editor of The Financial Times. It has a huge impact. I dont know whether it was intended or not, but it has been felt everywhere.Diplomats from the United States, Britain and the European Union have asked for an explanation. Multinational businesses are worried about Hong Kongs future as a regional base. And some journalists say the death of Hong Kong a phrase commonly heard before the former British colonys return to Chinese rule in 1997 has finally arrived.The controversy has also focused global attention on the cause of Hong Kong independence, which the authorities badly want to suppress, and on the divided allegiances of Hong Kongs leaders, who are supposed to serve the city and defend its special status but owe their jobs to the Communist government in Beijing.Carrie Lam, Hong Kongs chief executive, has dismissed as pure speculation what almost everyone in Hong Kong has concluded that Mr. Mallets forced departure was an act of retaliation signaling a new limit on political speech. Yet, she has offered no other explanation.Her predecessor, Leung Chun-ying, was the public face of the attacks on the club in a return to the spotlight that advertised his loyalty to Beijing, set up a political litmus test and might have limited Ms. Lams options.Asked last month whether Mr. Leung had anything to do with the expulsion, Ms. Lam replied, Certainly not. But she offered a less categorical denial when pressed on Beijings role in visa decisions.I am responsible to the Hong Kong S.A.R. and the people, she said, referring to the citys status as a special administrative region. I am also accountable to the central peoples government.Clear Red LineImageCredit...Pool photo by Paul YeungMost people in Hong Kong had never heard of Mr. Chan or his Hong Kong National Party when the government proposed outlawing the group. The only reason we initially thought of inviting this 28-year-old interior designer was actually that he was in the news, Florence de Changy, the French journalist who is the president of the Foreign Correspondents Club, wrote in its magazine.With its restaurants, bar and meeting rooms, the club has been a fixture amid Hong Kongs skyscrapers since the colonial era. Though most members are now lawyers, bankers and other professionals, journalists run the organization and host events featuring speakers from a variety of backgrounds.Days after Mr. Chans talk was announced, two officials from the Chinese Foreign Ministry visited the club and met with Mr. Mallet, who was acting as president because Ms. de Changy was out of town. They objected to the event and told him they wanted it canceled.The demand leaked the next day. A day later, Mr. Leung took to Facebook to denounce the club, saying that hosting an advocate of independence would be tantamount to inviting a Nazi or terrorist to speak and cross an absolute and clear red line.In more than a dozen posts in the following days, he criticized the clubs leaders and urged scrutiny of what he called a special deal that allowed the club to rent its building from the government at discounted rates.It was an unusual outburst from Mr. Leung, who stepped down last year after only one term, a decision sometimes attributed to concern in Beijing about his poor approval ratings. While former leaders here often remain influential voices, Mr. Leungs crusade against the club prompted speculation that he wanted Beijing to restore him to office.Regina Ip, a pro-Beijing lawmaker and former cabinet minister, said that was unlikely. But she acknowledged Mr. Leung might feel he should have served on, and his career was truncated. Under such circumstances, she said, its hard for him to refrain from commenting.Ms. Ip added that most establishment politicians in Hong Kong shared Mr. Leungs view of the clubs invitation. Taken together, that could have an impact on our governments decision, she said.But Ms. Lam publicly contradicted her predecessor by saying the club paid market rent. And while she criticized the decision to host Mr. Chan as completely unsuitable, she declined to endorse Mr. Leungs demand that the speech be canceled.On Aug. 14, with protesters outside the club, the event went ahead. The nature of China is oppression, Mr. Chan declared.A month later, the government outlawed his party, setting a precedent that critics warned could be used against the pro-democracy opposition.Beijings PlaybookImageCredit...Vincent Yu/Associated PressThen, in the first week of October, the government rejected a routine request to renew Mr. Mallets work visa. The decision stirred fears because Hong Kong had never expelled a journalist before and because the move came straight from Beijings playbook.The Chinese government has expelled several foreign reporters from the mainland in recent years after objecting to their coverage. Hong Kong had always been different, a critical listening post where journalists could write freely about events in China.In recent years, local media outlets have come under some pressure to censor themselves, but foreign news organizations using Hong Kong as a regional hub including The Financial Times, The New York Times and CNN have largely been immune. Mr. Mallets expulsion, however, could change that.They have moved the goal posts, said Zoher Abdoolcarim, the former Asia editor for Time International.The decision has also cast a shadow over Hong Kongs future as a capital of international finance and commerce, with some in the business community saying privately that it could tip the balance for companies already being wooed to relocate to Singapore.None of the big banks and law firms in Hong Kong have spoken out about the expulsion. The silence can be attributed in part to hope that new pressure on foreign journalists will not affect foreign companies. But there is also reluctance to say anything that may put business in China at risk.In a survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong this year, more than half of respondents said they believed rule of law in the city had eroded.Tara Joseph, the president of the chamber, initially appeared to play down Mr. Mallets expulsion. But she issued a statement the next day saying it sent a worrying signal.Without a free press, capital markets cannot properly function, and business and trade cannot be reliably conducted, she said.The Financial Times is appealing the visa decision. That could compel the government to provide an explanation, said Robert Tibbo, an immigration and human rights lawyer.He noted that President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines recently visited Hong Kong despite accusations that he has led a campaign of extrajudicial killings. Are they using the same considerations for Mr. Mallet? Mr. Tibbo asked.Just Another Mainland CityImageCredit...European Pressphoto AgencyXi Jinping, Chinas top leader, made his concerns about Hong Kong independence clear during a visit to the city last year, when he warned that challenging the authority of the central government was absolutely impermissible.Management of Hong Kong affairs is usually handled by another member of the Politburo, but Mr. Xi seems to have taken the lead in setting policy, as he has on most major issues in China.Tian Feilong, executive director of a research institute on Hong Kong policy in Beijing, said the territory must be more humble and accept that it is like other local governments in China.In the new era of China, he said, referring to one of Mr. Xis slogans, Hong Kong must follow the main strategy of China. He added, This requires Hong Kong to change its original proud attitude.Support for Hong Kong independence was largely unheard of a few years ago. Newspapers that backed or were controlled by Beijing were the first to use the phrase frequently, deploying it as an epithet to attack the pro-democracy opposition, said Ying-ho Kwong, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Hong Kong studying local politics.That changed in 2014 with the Umbrella Movement, the student-led street demonstrations demanding free elections. When Beijing refused to make concessions, some young activists including Mr. Chan concluded that independence was the only way Hong Kong could become a democracy.A survey last year by the Chinese University of Hong Kong found that only 11.4 percent of the public supported independence. But efforts to stamp out such sentiment may be turning a fringe political issue into a concern at the core of Hong Kongs identity: freedom of expression.Students have been posting signs backing independence on university campuses, where polls show support is much higher.Last month, after Hong Kong Polytechnic University covered up a few pro-independence posters and stickers, three students staged a hunger strike and more than 2,000 others signed a statement of protest. Two days later, the university allowed students to regain control of the space where the posters were hung, known as the Democracy Wall.Freedom of expression is one of the things that has always separated Hong Kong from China, said Lam Wing-hang, 21, president of the student union and one of the hunger strikers. I dont want to see Hong Kong become just another mainland city.ImageCredit...Dale De La Rey/Agence France-Presse Getty Images

World

Credit...Kim Joon-beom/Yonhap, via ReutersMarch 2, 2017BEIJING The Chinese government is ratcheting up pressure on South Korea over its plans to deploy an American missile defense system, with the state-controlled news media urging the public to boycott South Korean retail products and threatening diplomatic and even military repercussions.Chinas latest pronouncements follow months of not-so-subtle punitive measures that have already taken a toll on the South Korean economy, including an unofficial ban on Korean television shows and pop stars. The campaign risks a backlash in South Korea even as Beijings relations with North Korea have also grown strained a sign of how recent advances in the Norths nuclear program have put China in a bind and are upsetting the regional security balance.On Thursday, South Korea and the United States began talks in Seoul to finalize details of the deployment of the so-called Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense System, or Thaad, according to the Souths Foreign Ministry. Both countries say the systems purpose is to defend the South against North Koreas growing missile and nuclear threat, but China has objected strongly to the system, which it sees as an American attempt to encircle it.No date has been set for the systems deployment, but the Pentagon said on Wednesday that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis wanted it in place as soon as feasible. Military experts said the United States could use C-17 transport aircraft to quickly move the systems truck-mounted launchers, interceptors, radar, fire control units and support equipment to South Korea.China responded with anger when South Korea agreed in July to accept the Thaad system, and it has made its displeasure known as plans have moved toward the final stages in recent days.An outspoken Chinese general, Luo Yuan, now retired, recommended a tough series of responses in an article on Thursday, going so far as to suggest a military strike against the missile system. We could conduct a surgical hard-kill operation that would destroy the target, paralyzing it and making it unable to hit back, General Luo wrote in the Global Times, a state-run newspaper that often features strident, nationalist views.ImageCredit...Kim Hong-Ji/ReutersSince the United States, Japan and South Korea choose not to respect Chinas major security concerns, China does not need to be a gentleman on everything, the general wrote. We must not undermine our own security interests while respecting the security interests of others.Peoples Daily, the Communist Party newspaper that is often considered the official voice of the leadership, said in its international edition this week that China should consider a de facto severance of diplomatic ties with South Korea.It said in a commentary that China should take political and military measures against South Korea and that it should consider coordinating with Russia in dealing with what it called the U.S.-Japan-South Korea antimissile network. The paper was referring in part to statements by Japan that it might consider using Thaad as a defense against North Korea.China has said that the Thaad system would threaten its nuclear deterrent capacity. It said the systems powerful radar would make it much easier for the United States to detect Chinese missiles and would give the American military much more time to intercept them.Chinese state news outlets have also suggested a consumer boycott of South Korean products. Much of Chinas anger has been borne by Lotte, a South Korean conglomerate that provided the government with land for the Thaad deployment in a deal that was finalized this week. Lotte has stores and shopping malls across China, and modest groups of mostly older Chinese held protests at the companys outlets in several cities on Thursday.On Wednesday, the Lotte website serving Chinese shoppers was hacked, the company said. On Thursday, another hacking attack shut down its duty-free shops website for several hours. Lotte also said that some construction had been stopped by the Chinese authorities on the grounds that it had failed a fire inspection.ImageCredit...U.S. Department of Defense, via ReutersIn recent months, popular South Korean stars have been denied visas to perform in China, and South Korean TV shows have been blocked from Chinese video streaming websites. Many in South Korea say they believe those actions are in retaliation for the Thaad issue, though China has denied any link.One of the musicians denied a visa was Sumi Jo, a coloratura soprano who has toured China almost every year for the past decade. Her brother, Jay Jo, said that she had been unable this year to get the government-approved invitation letter required for an entry visa.As soon as the opportunities reopen, she will resume her concerts in China, Mr. Jo said. But right now, we have no idea when that will happen.Trade experts said Beijing might be reluctant to take more extreme economic measures. China is South Koreas largest trading partner by far, but South Korea is also Chinas fourth-largest, and Beijing would probably be reluctant to damage those ties during the current economic slowdown.South Korean politicians have said that Washington wants the Thaad system deployed by mid-May, when many expect presidential elections to be held in the South. President Park Geun-hye was impeached by South Koreas legislature in December over a corruption scandal, and she awaits a ruling by the countrys Constitutional Court on whether she will be permanently removed from office. The courts decision is expected in the coming weeks, and if it rules against her, a new president will be elected 60 days later.South Koreas progressive opposition is seen as having a strong chance of winning the presidency should that election be held. Opposition politicians have expressed skepticism about the Thaad system, and some have charged that the United States wants to rush the deployment to ensure that it is completed before a new president takes office.ImageCredit...Pool photo by Kim Hong-JiMembers of the largest opposition party, the Democratic Party, have visited China twice since August. In January, in an unusual development, a delegation from the party met with the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi.China had hoped it could persuade the Souths next president to refuse to agree to Thaad, said Cheng Xiaohe, an associate professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. Now China is afraid Thaad will be deployed before the new president of South Korea is in office, he said.Even as Chinas fury toward the South is on full display, it is also at odds with the North. A North Korean diplomat, Ri Kil-song, arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for five days of talks, an apparent effort by Pyongyang to reach out to China, its economic and political benefactor.Mr. Ri and Mr. Wang, the Chinese foreign minister, made soothing public statements on Wednesday about the traditional friendship between their two countries. Behind the scenes, though, things are unlikely to have been so smooth.Last month, China suspended its imports of North Korean coal for the rest of the year, a surprise move that appeared to be a response to the brazen killing in Malaysia of Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half brother of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. South Korea has accused the North of carrying out the attack.The killing may have been taken as an affront by Beijing because the victim had lived in Macau, a Chinese special administrative region. Kim Jong-nam had expressed admiration for Chinas market economy, and some analysts have speculated that China saw him as a potential replacement for his erratic half brother.One thing after another is happening, Mr. Cheng, the Renmin University professor, said of Chinas simultaneous troubles with the Koreas. Not good things all bad things.

World

VideotranscripttranscriptIs the Future of the Supreme Court in the Hands of These 2 Senators?Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, both moderate Republicans who favor abortion rights, are facing pressure from liberal activists to defend Roe v. Wade in the impending confirmation battle over President Trumps Supreme Court nominee.Justice Anthony Kennedys decision to retire from the Supreme Court is putting abortion rights back into the spotlight. President Trump has long vowed to nominate pro-life jurists. Under my administration, we will always defend the right to life. Democrats, as a minority party in the Senate, have almost no chance of blocking Trumps nominee on their own. So liberal activists have been quick to put pressure on two moderate female Republicans who openly favor abortion rights. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, you cannot vote for these nominees and claim you are pro-choice. Collins of Maine and Murkowski of Alaska could be pivotal swing votes in the coming Senate confirmation battle. Republicans need a simple majority. So if even one of these two breaks ranks, and every Democrat votes against it, the nominee wouldnt get through. Roe v. Wade has said that a woman has the right, that reproductive right, to choose. And I have supported that. Both senators have veered from the party line before: They were the only two Republicans to vote against all three Obamacare repeal propositions in 2017. My choice and vote really matter in Washington right now. Both women did vote for President Trumps conservative nominee, Neil Gorsuch, but now the stakes are higher with abortion rights on the line. Even if Collins and Murkowski both vote against the nominee, Democrats from red states, like Joe Manchin of West Virginia, could still help push through Trumps pick.Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, both moderate Republicans who favor abortion rights, are facing pressure from liberal activists to defend Roe v. Wade in the impending confirmation battle over President Trumps Supreme Court nominee.CreditCredit...Tom Brenner/The New York TimesJune 28, 2018WASHINGTON Justice Anthony M. Kennedys retirement announcement was less than a day old when liberal activists rallied on the steps of the Supreme Court on Thursday, invoking the names of two Republican senators who, they believe, hold the future of Roe v. Wade in their hands.Remember Susan Collins! Remember Lisa Murkowski! Neera Tanden, president of the liberal Center for American Progress, exhorted the crowd. If they claim to be pro-choice, choice is on the line with this decision.Ms. Collins, of Maine, and Ms. Murkowski, of Alaska, are powerful and rare creatures in Washington: moderate Republican women who favor abortion rights and are unafraid to break with their party. Their no votes helped sink the Republican repeal of the Affordable Care Act last year; both objected vociferously to a provision that would have stripped funding from Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the womens health and reproductive rights organization.Now, with President Trumps pledge to nominate a pro-life jurist to replace the retiring Justice Kennedy, the senators are under pressure as never before. Much like Justice Kennedy, they are swing votes not in a court case, but in a coming confirmation battle that will shape the Supreme Court, and American jurisprudence, for generations to come.The math in the Senate tells the tale. With Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, undergoing cancer treatment, Republicans have the slimmest of majorities: 50-49. If every Democrat votes against a Trump nominee, it would take just one Republican defector to block confirmation. And with a filibuster no longer an option, Democrats are powerless to block a nominee on their own.So within minutes of Justice Kennedys announcement on Wednesday, Democrats and their allies began looking toward Ms. Collins and Ms. Murkowski.So did the White House. Ms. Collins and Ms. Murkowski were among a bipartisan group of six senators who met separately with Mr. Trump on Thursday night to talk about the court vacancy. Earlier Thursday, Ms. Collins said in an interview that she had taken a call from the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, and that she urged him to look beyond the list of deeply conservative jurists that Mr. Trump has promised to pick from a significant request, given that Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, has declared that Democrats will not back any nominee on that roster.Mr. Schumer has also made clear that he will make the fate of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision that established a constitutional right to abortion, the centerpiece of Democrats strategy to block any nominee they consider extreme. Ms. Collins, choosing her words carefully, suggested Roe would figure into her decision-making.I believe in precedent, she said. In my judgment, Roe v. Wade is settled law, and while I recognize that it is inappropriate to ask a nominee how he or she would rule in any future case, I would certainly ask what their view is on the role of precedent and whether they considered Roe v. Wade to be settled law.Both senators are well aware that, no matter how they vote, one side is going to be unhappy. Ms. Murkowski acknowledged feeling the weight of the moment.Theres pressure because of the gravity of such a nomination, Ms. Murkowski told Politico. I am not going to suggest that my opportunity as a senator in the advise-and-consent process is somehow or other short-cutted just because this is a Republican president and Im a Republican.Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, framed the situation for Ms. Murkowski and Ms. Collins this way: This is a legacy vote. Very few people in the Senate, even those whove been here for a long time, will cast a more important vote than this.ImageCredit...Tom Brenner/The New York TimesLiberal activists and Mr. Schumer have demanded that a nominee not be confirmed until after the November election, but Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, has promised a speedy process, with a confirmation vote by fall.For Democrats, unified opposition will be difficult especially in an election year when 10 Senate Democrats are up for re-election in states won by Mr. Trump. Three of those Democrats Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia voted last year to confirm Justice Neil M. Gorsuch. So did Ms. Collins and Ms. Murkowski.Since then, Justice Gorsuch has emerged as a consistent vote in the high courts conservative bloc.To say that tensions are high in the Senate around Supreme Court nominees would be an understatement. The wounds of 2016 remain raw and open. Democrats are still angry that Republicans, led by Mr. McConnell, blockaded President Barack Obamas nominee, Judge Merrick B. Garland of the Federal Appeals Court here, by denying him a hearing and giving Mr. Trump opportunity to put Justice Gorsuch on the court.Ms. Murkowski sided with leadership then. But Ms. Collins broke ranks and called for Judge Garland to have a hearing a moment she recalled on Thursday. This is not a pleasant situation, she said, referring to the Kennedy vacancy. But its not strange to me.Neither Ms. Murkowski nor Ms. Collins face re-election this year, which gives them a measure of freedom in how they vote. Still, they are likely to face pressure back home. Eliza Townsend, executive director of the Maine Womens Lobby, a womens rights group, said her organization intended to step up its contacts with Ms. Collins.Maine people understand that this is for all the marbles, she said. This is a critical, critical moment.Both Ms. Murkowski and Ms. Collins have long been independent figures in the Senate. In 2010, when Ms. Murkowski ran for re-election, she lost in a primary to a Tea Party Republican. Instead of bowing out, she ran a write-in campaign posing a challenge to voters who needed to know how to spell Murkowski and won. The victory effectively freed her from party constraints.Ms. Collins has a reputation for working across the aisle. In 2013, she led an effort among Senate women, including Ms. Murkowski, to put an end to that years government shutdown. As co-chairwoman of a bipartisan group called the Common Sense Coalition, she helped end this years shutdown as well.Last week, she helped put together two ideological opposites, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, and Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, to work on immigration legislation.Conservative advocates said Thursday that they were confident the two would confirm the presidents pick.Weve seen from their statements that they both are very concerned about a judge thats going to be fair, impartial and abide by the rule of law, and I think thats exactly what were going to get: someone they both are just not comfortable with but very happy to vote for, said Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy director of Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative advocacy group.With the Senate gone for its July 4 recess, Ms. Collins and Ms. Murkowski may get a little break. But once Mr. Trump names a nominee, the pressure will rise.These are two women who have been very clear, over many decades, that our constitutional right that protects womens most important right of privacy their right to reproductive rights is important to them, said Judith L. Lichtman, former president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, and a longtime Washington advocate for womens rights. And now they have a chance to prove it.

Politics

March 2, 2017BERLIN Two Syrian men, one of whom faces war crime charges in the killing of 36 Syrian civilian government employees, have been arrested in Germany and accused of membership in a terrorist organization, federal prosecutors said on Thursday.The men are suspected of belonging to a combat unit of the Nusra Front, formerly Al Qaedas branch in Syria. They were arrested in raids on their homes on Wednesday and Thursday in the western cities of Dsseldorf and Giessen, and appeared before a judge on Thursday, prosecutors said in a statement.The arrests are the latest in what appears to be an effort by the German authorities to move against the growing number of radical Islamists in the country. Germanys domestic intelligence service estimates that number at 1,600, up from 100 three years ago.We receive between two and four credible tips on planned terrorist activity in Germany each day, Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of the intelligence service, said at a security conference last month. We have to recognize that we are living in a different situation now.One of the Syrian men, identified only as Abdalfatah H.A., 35 German privacy laws forbid revealing suspects identities is suspected of carrying out what prosecutors called so-called Shariah death sentences against 36 Syrian government employees in March 2013. He is also accused of being a member of the combat unit of the Nusra Front that prosecutors say was founded by the second suspect arrested this week, Abdulrahman A.A., 26, together with a third Syrian, Abd Arahman A.K., that same year. Abd Arahman A.K. was detained last June on suspicion of plotting to carry out an attack in Dsseldorf with two other Syrians.Prosecutors said Abdulrahman A.A. and Abd Arahman A.K. had participated in an armed battle against Syrian government troops, including taking over a big arms depot near Mahin in November 2013.Frauke Khler, a spokeswoman for federal prosecutors, declined to give information about when the suspects had entered the country.Abd Arahman A.K. is suspected of taking part in a plot to carry out a multipronged attack similar to the November 2015 massacre in Paris, which left 129 dead. Prosecutors said that the suspect, who was 31 at the time, had been part of a plan to have two suicide bombers attack a downtown Dsseldorf district, the Altstadt, that is packed with bars, cafes and nightclubs.The attack was to take place on a Friday or a Saturday, because the Altstadt is regularly full on these two days, according to a December ruling by the countrys Federal Court of Justice that extended his pretrial detention. Prosecutors believe that he had trained in Syria on how to construct explosive vests and had been sent to Germany as part of a sleeper cell.Human rights groups have pressured governments to bring people suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria to trial.Last year, the German authorities detained nearly 50 people on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organization or plotting to carry out a terrorist attack in the country.Also Thursday, a Lebanese man identified only as Tarik A., 19, was arrested in Dsseldorf on suspicion of belonging to the Islamic State, a case that Ms. Khler said had no connection to the arrest of the two Syrians.

World

American Indians Org. 'Ecstatic' Chief Wahoo Is Finished Redskins Should Go Next! 1/30/2018 TMZSports.com The largest American Indians organization in the country says the Cleveland Indians finally retiring Chief Wahoo is huge ... and they're crediting MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred with getting the logo scrubbed. National Congress of American Indians Executive Director Jacqueline Pata told TMZ Sports her organization met with Manfred back in April 2017 and, at the time, the new commish assured them action would be taken. It took nearly a year, but Cleveland finally budged ... officially retiring its cartoonish depiction of Native Americans many denounced as racist. Now, the NCAI hopes the Washington Redskins will follow suit ... because their team name is "the worst of the worst." "Our message is consistent with them -- be on the right side of history," Pata said. "That term was published in newspapers when there was efforts by the government and the settlers to slaughter Indians. It's our own version of genocide."

Entertainment

TV SportsFeb. 3, 2014The Super Bowl can be a great game or a bad game, a dramatic struggle or a laugher. And viewership hardly wavers.Seattles 43-8 dissection of Denver on Sunday night tied for the third-biggest blowout in Super Bowl history, yet an average of 111.5 million people watched, more than any single television show in United States history. The previous record of 111.4 million was set two years ago when the Giants beat New England, 21-17. That made sports sense: The Giants won that game on a touchdown with about a minute left.But Sundays game was a rout and a dud. The competitive aspect appeared to have ended with the errant snap on the Broncos first possession. This is where sports sense ends.The Super Bowl long ago stopped being regarded as a season-ending football game. It defies predictions that smaller-market teams (Seattle is the 13th-ranked television market, Denver the 17th) cannot sustain big national audiences. It overwhelms, for a few hours, concerns about the potential neurological effects of concussions. The power of the Super Bowl as one-of-a-kind, must-watch entertainment leads rival networks not to compete seriously. Its such a uber-iconic event that even if you have a lopsided game, people will stick around, said Bill Wanger, the executive vice president for programming and research at Fox Sports. He suggested that if the game had been tight and exciting to the end, it might have attracted as many as 118 million viewers. Wanger said that more viewers than ever watched the first half-hour of the game intrigued, he believed, by the matchup of the No. 1 offense against the top-ranked defense; the leading personalities (Peyton Manning and Richard Sherman); and the possibility of a snow-globe experience at MetLife Stadium. The snow that the league and the organizers feared came Monday.Fox was, in fact, able to set its record despite having lost viewers in the second half as Seattles domination escalated.The first-half viewership peaked from 7:30 to 8 p.m. Eastern, at 115.9 million. From 8 to 8:30, 115.3 million were tuned to the Bruno Mars halftime show, exceeding Madonnas previous record of 114 million two years ago, and then spiked to 116.8 million during the next half-hour when play resumed. But 12 million viewers eventually found something else to do by the time the game ended before 10 p.m. Eastern.VideoEvery so often, the Super Bowl turns into a rout, which is exactly what happened on Sunday night at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.CreditCredit...Carlo Allegri/ReutersAlmost 1.1 million people watched the game in Spanish on Fox Deportes and on a live stream on Fox Sports GO app and on Foxsports.com.The story of Super Bowl viewership is of decade-by-decade growth. The universe of television homes has grown, but so have entertainment choices and technologies. In the 1970s, the Super Bowl drew an average viewership of 58.1 million. That rose to 81.6 million in the 1980s, to 85.3 million in the 1990s, and to 90.4 million in the first 10 years of the new century.Now, the audience has reached a new normal. Since 2010, it has never been smaller than the 106.5 million who watched New Orleanss 14-point win over Indianapolis.This just means the Super Bowl is something people want to watch, no matter what is really happening, Wanger said.Telling the story of a one-sided Super Bowl was left, in many ways, to faces. Fox had plenty of shots of Manning and Denver Coach John Fox in stages of anger, frustration and distress. The network showed Manning in a vigorous sideline chat with his center, Manny Ramirez, after the snap miscue, and another of Manning seeking solutions on the sideline with his overmatched offensive line.On the Seattle side, Fox told the personal story of the rout in its frequent cuts to Coach Pete Carrolls exuberant clapping; the most telling showed him, from behind, cheering in slow motion as Denver was called for a false start.The analyst Troy Aikman was unavoidably critical of the Broncos tackling when Seattles Percy Harvin ran the second-half kickoff back for a touchdown. Later, after Seattle receiver Jermaine Kearse evaded five Broncos for a touchdown, Aikman simply said, This is terrible defense. Seattles final touchdown prompted him to say: I dont know what Denver is doing. Theyre playing so soft. Aikmans analysis was generally decent, especially when it addressed passing routes and Seattles pass coverage. But there were several times when he should have given the audience more. In addition to praising Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson as more than a mere game manager, Aikman, a former quarterback, should have explained why Wilson, at 5 feet 11 inches, was so effective. Aikman also should have quickly questioned Denvers early decision to throw a challenge flag on a pass by Wilson, rather than be asked about it by his partner, Joe Buck. He also should have asked why Seattle, ahead by 35 points, ran on fourth down with 2 minutes 5 seconds left in the game, and why Manning was in the game on the final series, with no chance at a comeback. And I waited for a sequence of replays about Mannings wobbly and erratic passes for Aikman to analyze. But it never came.

Sports

DealBook|Uber Valuation Put at $62.5 Billion After a New Investment Roundhttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/business/dealbook/uber-nears-investment-at-a-62-5-billion-valuation.htmlDec. 3, 2015Ubers fund-raising efforts are showing no signs of slowing down.The company, based in San Francisco, is close to completing the raising of a $2.1 billion round of venture capital, according to people briefed on the companys plans, the companys single largest round to date.Once completed, the investment will value the company at $62.5 billion, according to three people briefed on the plans, securing Ubers place as the worlds most valuable private start-up.Tiger Global Management participated in the newest round, led by its partner Lee Fixel, as did T. Rowe Price, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the terms are still private.ImageCredit...Jeff Chiu/Associated PressUber declined to comment on any fund-raising talks, as did T. Rowe Price. A Tiger Global spokeswoman declined to comment.Competition is intensifying in the global ride-hailing market, as rivals like Lyft, Didi Kuaidi and other companies raise billions of dollars in to expand as quickly as possible. Lyft, another ride-hailing start-up, is in talks to raise a further $500 million in funding, according to four people briefed on the round, which could value the company at roughly $4 billion. Didi Kuaidi, to date, has raised more than $4 billion in private investment.The participation of Tiger Global, however, is particularly interesting. Tiger Global is an investor in Ola and GrabTaxi, two of Ubers largest competitors in India and Southeast Asia. It is perhaps the first time a major institutional investor participated in the rounds of both Uber and its major competitors. And on Thursday, Ola and GrabTaxi announced a strategic partnership with Lyft, which is also based in San Francisco and is Ubers major competitor in the United States.Uber, meanwhile, has earmarked at least $1 billion toward its growth efforts in China, and continues to spend heavily to establish itself against its Asian competitors.

Business

Mr. Buttigieg had a surprisingly robust lead in the latest Des Moines Register and CNN poll. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Joseph R. Biden Jr. were in a statistical tie for second.Credit...Kathryn Gamble for The New York TimesNov. 16, 2019DES MOINES Pete Buttigieg continues to surge in Iowa, leapfrogging Senator Elizabeth Warren and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to hold a commanding lead among likely Democratic caucusgoers, according to a new poll from The Des Moines Register and CNN.The poll showed that Mr. Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Ind., was the first choice for 25 percent of would-be Democratic caucusgoers, a significant increase from the 9 percent he held in September, when The Register last polled the state. The support placed him far ahead of the rest of the field with the other three top candidates in a virtual tie for second: Ms. Warren at 16 percent and Mr. Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders at 15 percent.The results are the latest evidence of Mr. Buttigiegs strength in Iowa, where his moderate political views, plain-spoken style and military history have resonated in the early voting state. Since September, when he placed fourth in the Register poll, he has more than doubled his on-the-ground staff to over 100 and has opened more than 20 field offices. He recently completed another bus tour in the state.Speaking to reporters in Long Beach, Calif., on Saturday night during the states Democratic convention, Mr. Buttigieg said the just-released poll numbers were extremely encouraging.We have felt a lot of momentum on the ground, he said.His rise also suggests that voters, in Iowa at least, are increasingly favoring a centrist agenda a view that has drawn two new entrants, Deval Patrick, the former governor of Massachusetts, and Michael R. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, into the race this month.The poll results reflect the deep split within the Democratic Party over whether it is veering too far to the left to defeat President Trump. Speaking on Friday to a room of wealthy liberal donors, former President Barack Obama expressed concern about some of the policy ideas being promoted by some of the candidates, citing health care and immigration as issues where the proposals may not align with public opinion. Though he did not single out any candidates directly, his remarks were seen as an implicit criticism of Mr. Sanders and Ms. Warren, two of the leading candidates who are pushing policy plans once considered too liberal, like Medicare for all, with the broader goal of political revolution and big, structural change.Even as we push the envelope and we are bold in our vision we also have to be rooted in reality, Mr. Obama said. The average American doesnt think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it.Ms. Warren, who led the Registers September poll, with 22 percent, fell 6 percentage points. Her poll numbers are now roughly what they were in June, when she was at 15 percent. Mr. Sanders, who suffered a heart attack shortly after the last poll results were released, climbed 4 percentage points.Mr. Biden, who has seen his standing in Iowa slowly slip, dropped 5 percentage points.In addition to identifying a new Iowa front-runner, the poll has once again delineated a clear divide between the top tier of Democratic candidates Mr. Buttigieg, Ms. Warren, Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders and the rest of the field. The next-closest candidate in the poll was Senator Amy Klobuchar, with 6 percent, followed by a cluster of White House hopefuls with 3 percent, including Senator Cory Booker, Senator Kamala Harris and Andrew Yang.Mr. Bloomberg, who has suggested he would skip the first four early nominating states, including Iowa, if he were to officially enter the race, was at 2 percent.Jennifer Medina contributed reporting from Long Beach, Calif.

Politics

Africa|Gunfire Ends Post-Election Calm in the Republic of Congohttps://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/05/world/africa/gunfire-in-republic-of-congo-as-police-stations-attacked.htmlCredit...Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesApril 4, 2016DAKAR, Senegal Gunfire rang out for hours in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo, early Monday as armed men attacked police stations and a mayors office.The police battled the group, which rampaged through the southern part of the city, before the situation calmed by late morning, government officials said.The violence upset the relative order that had been in place after the re-election last month of Denis Sassou-Nguesso, 72, the nations longtime president. The balloting followed a change to the Constitution that allowed him to run for yet another term. One of several so-called presidents for life in Africa, Mr. Sassou-Nguesso has been in office for 32 of the past 37 years, starting in 1979.Last fall, violent protests accompanied the constitutional referendum that removed term limits and extended presidential candidates eligibility beyond age 70. Opposition leaders condemned the referendum results, and the presidential election a few months later, as fraudulent.In the days around the March 20 presidential election, telephone and Internet communications were cut off, but the election was carried out peacefully.But violence broke out about 3 a.m. Monday as the armed men set fire to a handful of police installations and other buildings, including the office of a mayor, said Firmin Ayessa, the director of the presidents cabinet. Later on Monday, the nations Constitutional Court verified the results of the presidential election and confirmed Mr. Sassou-Nguessos victory.It was unclear how many people, if any, had been wounded, but no deaths were reported.Photographs of charred buildings circulated on social media, and residents reported hearing a fierce gun battle that awakened them and raged for hours.Mr. Ayessa said the group of attackers included members of a onetime militia, known as the Ninjas, which took part in a civil war against Mr. Sassou-Nguesso about a decade ago.One of the former leaders of the Ninjas was the father of Guy-Brice Parfait Kollas, the runner-up in last months presidential election. An aide to the younger Mr. Kollas told Reuters that the politician was not involved in the attacks. The Ninjas signed a peace agreement with the government several years ago, according to Reuters.It has been nearly four decades since the military installed Mr. Sassou-Nguesso as president. He initially stayed in office for 13 years until he lost the nations first multiparty election. After a short and brutal civil war, he took office again in 1997.Most people in this oil-producing nation live in extreme poverty. The country is rich in forests and wildlife that have often been the target of plunderers and poachers.The United States Embassy in Brazzaville limited its activities on Monday and warned citizens to stay indoors.

World

On WashingtonCredit...Erin Schaff for The New York TimesJune 20, 2018WASHINGTON Washington moves slowly except in times of crisis political crisis that is.Beleaguered Republican members of Congress breathed a momentary sigh of relief on Wednesday after President Trump suddenly relented and took steps to stop the separation of immigrant children from their parents after they illegally entered the country along the southern border.With the midterm elections less than six months away, Republicans trying to hold their majorities in the House and Senate were desperate for quick action that would bring an end to heartbreaking images of crying toddlers who had been taken from stunned parents. They were well aware that the situation was inciting public outrage at a level that threatened to oust some Republican lawmakers from their congressional seats come November.America is better than this inhumane, anti-family zero-tolerance policy, the office of Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the senior Republican in the Senate, declared again in a tweet on Wednesday morning, hours before the president announced his retreat.But Republicans are not out of the woods yet. The presidents grudging executive order, which took a shot at Congress for its failure to act, is likely to be only a temporary respite in the standoff over immigration. Congress is still struggling to resolve myriad issues, including the fate of undocumented immigrants brought into the country as children, as well as Mr. Trumps demand for $25 billion to build a wall along the southwestern border, with the House facing a series of difficult votes Thursday on the immigration question.At the same time, Democrats are unlikely to let the subject go. They always intended to press immigration as a major topic in many 2018 contests, and the publics furor at the separation of families only validated that approach.It was unclear what effect the presidents decision would have on those legislative efforts. Some lawmakers said measures were still needed to make permanent the presidents executive order and to clarify how families should be treated. But others suggested that the order would relieve the pressure on the House and Senate to move ahead.Itll take the heat off Congress doing it, and youll still have the uncertainty, said Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who leads the Judiciary Committee. It takes care of political problems, but it doesnt take care of the policy problem, he said, adding, and thats too bad.Republican congressional offices had been deluged with calls and emails from incensed constituents and lawmakers facing protests back home. The intense scrutiny energized Democrats and put them on the offensive, drowning out attempts by Republicans to focus on issues more to their liking, such as their tax cuts.Politics aside, many Republicans said that they were simply appalled by the policy on humanitarian grounds and that it needed to end immediately.Im very glad that the president is going to bring a halt to this atrocious practice, said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, who, along with Mr. Hatch and other Republicans, wrote a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions urging him to end the policy in the interest of ordinary human decency.The politics were clearly bad for Republicans, particularly those most at risk in November. Mr. Trumps tough talk on immigration might rally his most devoted followers and be a good platform for 2020, but this is 2018.The Republicans most in danger of losing in November are in swing and suburban districts many carried by Hillary Clinton in 2016 and those photographs from the border were not playing well. Republicans were already struggling with female voters, and the separation policy was definitely not going to build support with that core voting group.Representative Carlos Curbelo, Republican of Florida, acknowledged that if the issue remained unresolved, it could damage his party heading into the midterm elections. Certainly if this doesnt get fixed soon, there could be a cost, he said, though he noted that he was not worried about his own district.ImageCredit...Erin Schaff for The New York TimesOne vivid illustration of the perceived potency of the matter was that every Senate Democrat including those seeking re-election in states carried by Mr. Trump signed on to a measure ending the practice introduced by Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California. Those so-called red-state Democrats are often leery of breaking too publicly with the president because of his popularity in their states, but in this case, they did not hold back.One of them, Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat in a difficult re-election battle against Gov. Rick Scott, took to the floor on Wednesday to assail Mr. Trump and his policy.It has always been an American value to keep families together even when you are adjudicating the lawful or unlawful status of the parents, Mr. Nelson said.Several Republicans noted that experience has shown that immigration politics can be tricky and that Democrats could overplay their hand. Democrats prompted a government shutdown in January over an immigration stalemate but quickly relented after deciding it was a miscalculation to press the issue too far. Republicans also said that in the current chaotic political environment, gauging which issues have staying power and which do not is difficult.While Republicans in Washington were nervous about the fallout of holding the children from their parents, challengers to some of the Democrats running in red states were going on the attack, portraying incumbents such as Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania as proponents of an open border policy.On Twitter, Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, tried to broaden that message, accusing Democrats of being the party of illegal immigration while Rs are party of legal immigration.But the presidents quick reversal after multiple definitive declarations that his hands were tied combined with the palpable Republican relief at the policy change made it very clear that the party knew it was on the wrong side of the debate. Now the question is whether the presidents action will be enough to quiet the public clamor over the decision to tear children from their families.

Politics

Credit...John Locher/Associated PressDec. 23, 2015Shortly after 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Michael Hengel, the editor of The Las Vegas Review-Journal, instructed staff members to gather in the newsroom and bring their cellphones. As reporters tweeted and recorded the meeting, Mr. Hengel shocked his employees by telling them he was resigning.On Wednesday, as Mr. Hengel cleaned out his desk, reporters and editors tried to push ahead and publish a newspaper under circumstances they said were bizarre and unsettling with anxiety about job security, a void in newsroom leadership and concern about editorial interference from the owners. Less than two weeks ago, The Review-Journal, the biggest newspaper in Nevada, had been sold for $140 million to a buyer whose identity was kept secret for days behind layers of corporate management. Reporters said that articles related to the sale were reviewed and edited without their input in what they felt were attempts to paint the new owners in a more favorable light.When the paper reported last week that Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino magnate and Republican donor, was behind the mysterious purchase, the revelation brought little relief, and many questioned whether Mr. Adelson, or the group he has chosen to oversee operations, would meddle with the papers journalistic independence. People do feel like their livelihoods are at risk, said James DeHaven, a reporter who has worked on articles about the sale of The Review-Journal. They feel like its going to be an adversarial relationship, and they worry that theyre going to be the ones who suffer.In a telephone interview on Wednesday, Mr. Hengel said concerns about Mr. Adelsons business and political interests, and the potential conflicts they created for the paper, were a factor in his decision to accept what the owners described in a statement as a voluntary buyout offer.Im not sure what their plans were and how I fit into them, he said. So when I got presented an offer based on what I knew the situation was, I had to determine whether it was acceptable or not. And for me and my family, it was.During the meeting with his staff on Tuesday, Mr. Hengel said he thought his resignation probably came as a relief to the new owners.In the meantime, the papers journalists have been left without a clear leader at a time when they perhaps need it most. New Media Investment Group which sold The Review-Journal to Mr. Adelson and his family, but still manages the paper is in the process of selecting an interim editor, according to a person involved in the transition. New Media expects to name a permanent editor in two to three months after a nationwide search, the person added.James Wright, a deputy editor at the paper, who has been editing articles about the sale and the new ownership, said it was unclear who was pulling the strings in the newsroom. Its a mess its a convoluted mess, he said. We dont really know in some cases whos in charge of what.He said articles about the paper and the new owners were being reviewed, and sometimes altered, but added, were not sure who is doing the vetting. Trying to allay potential concerns among readers, the Adelson family has put out two statements saying it was committed to investing in the newspaper. In a statement that ran on the front page on Wednesday, the family pledged to publish a newspaper that is fair, unbiased and accurate.We regard ourselves as stewards of this essential community institution, the statement said, and we promise that The Review-Journal will serve the people of Las Vegas for many years to come.Whether Mr. Adelson will ultimately try to shape the papers coverage remains to be seen. But in the weeks since he has owned the paper, reporters said, several articles about the paper have been heavily reviewed and edited to remove quotes that could be viewed as unfavorable to the new owners.An article about Mr. Hengels resignation was trimmed before it was published from about 20 paragraphs to three and stripped of nearly all of Mr. Hengels comments, according to people familiar with the article. The article ran on Wednesday inside the paper. Similarly, an initial article on the papers website about the sale was edited after it was published to remove references to the buyers unknown identity.Mr. Hengel said he was approached about taking a buyout offer on Dec. 11 the day after the paper was sold after he had argued with Jason Taylor, The Review-Journals publisher, about the changes to the initial article on the sale. The buyout offer came on Tuesday around 4 p.m., shortly before he addressed the newsroom. The statement from the new owners that said Mr. Hengel had accepted a voluntary buyout offer appears to have been written before he, in fact, accepted it.Mr. Taylor, who was on vacation, did not respond to messages seeking comment on Wednesday.In an email, Michael E. Reed, the chief executive of New Media Investment Group, wrote: We have no further comment on anything related to the sale, Hengels resignation, etc. The owners statement last night addresses concerns of readers and staff. Adding to the anxiety at the paper, some reporters said, was the prospect that more employees would leave.So far, 15 employees, including Mr. Hengel, have accepted voluntary buyout offers, according to the person with knowledge of the transition. (Several reporters said they were aware of only one other person who had accepted a buyout.) The buyout offers were made companywide before the sale was announced. But journalists at the paper are soldiering on. Jennifer Robison, a reporter who has been writing about the sale, said that the year over all had been one of transition, and the ownership change was just the latest test. But without Mr. Hengel guiding the way, she said, there was more uncertainty than ever.Hes been there, hes been steady, hes been calming, she said, and losing him yesterday so unexpectedly has created a lot of turmoil in an already tumultuous time.Its really hard to have a stable perspective right now because were still in the middle of it, and its been so up and down.

Business

Skip to contentSkip to site indexTechnologyLog inTodays PaperTechnology|The House Antitrust Report on Big Techhttps://nyti.ms/2GzAlNTAdvertisementContinue reading the main storyOct. 6, 2020In a report led by Democrats, lawmakers said Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook needed to be checked and recommended reforming antitrust laws. A PDF version of this document with embedded text is available at the link below: Download the original document (pdf) AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySite IndexGo to Home Page newsHome PageWorldCoronavirusU.S.PoliticsNew YorkBusinessTechScienceClimateSportsWildfire TrackerObituariesThe UpshotInternationalCanadaEspaolToday's PaperCorrectionsTrendingOpinionToday's OpinionColumnistsEditorialsGuest EssaysLettersSunday ReviewOpinion VideoArtsToday's ArtsArt & DesignBooksBest Sellers Book ListDanceMoviesMusicPop CultureTelevisionTheaterWhat to WatchVideo: ArtsLivingAutomotiveGamesEducationFoodHealthJobsLoveMagazineParentingReal EstateStyleT MagazineTravelListings & MoreReader CenterThe AthleticWirecutterCookingHeadwayLive EventsThe Learning NetworkTools & ServicesPodcastsVideoTimesMachineNYT StoreManage My AccountNYTLicensingnewsHome PageWorldCoronavirusU.S.PoliticsNew YorkBusinessTechScienceClimateSportsWildfire TrackerObituariesThe UpshotInternationalCanadaEspaolToday's PaperCorrectionsTrendingOpinionToday's OpinionColumnistsEditorialsGuest EssaysLettersSunday ReviewOpinion VideoArtsToday's ArtsArt & DesignBooksBest Sellers Book ListDanceMoviesMusicPop CultureTelevisionTheaterWhat to WatchVideo: ArtsLivingAutomotiveGamesEducationFoodHealthJobsLoveMagazineParentingReal EstateStyleT MagazineTravelMoreReader CenterThe AthleticWirecutterCookingHeadwayLive EventsThe Learning NetworkTools & ServicesPodcastsVideoTimesMachineNYT StoreManage My AccountNYTLicensingSubscribeHome DeliveryDigital SubscriptionsGamesCookingEmail NewslettersCorporate SubscriptionsEducation RateMobile ApplicationsReplica EditionInternationalCanadaEspaol

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Sports Briefing | Pro BasketballFeb. 12, 2014Joakim Noah scored 19 points as part of a triple-double, and the Chicago Bulls beat the Atlanta Hawks, 100-85, at home. Taj Gibson had 24 points and 12 rebounds for the Bulls, who had six players in double figures. Al Jefferson scored 30 points, Anthony Tolliver added 22 points, and the host Charlotte Bobcats earned a rare win over the Dallas Mavericks, 114-89. The Bobcats had lost 17 of 18 to the Mavericks. LeBron James had 37 points and the visiting Miami Heat rallied in the fourth quarter to beat the Phoenix Suns, 103-97.

Sports

The TV WatchFeb. 7, 2014Olympic opening ceremonies are a little like a Match.com first date: The host country, dolled up with costly hair extensions, Christian Louboutin heels and a brand-new black cocktail dress, recounts amusing childhood anecdotes and college triumphs but leaves out her D.W.I. arrest. (Or, in the case of Russia, the gulag.) Russia isnt alone in airbrushing the past and puffing up its chest. At the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, the United States had to show resilience after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and also get past the bidding scandal for those Games. Russia has a uniquely troubled history, but every host nation has something to prove and hide.Thats also true of a host network. NBC, like Russia, has a lot riding on these Olympic Games. The Today show, for so long No. 1, is now steadily beaten by Good Morning America on ABC. NBC just shoved aside Jay Leno, who was No. 1 in late night, for a younger talent, Jimmy Fallon, whose ability to maintain the primacy of The Tonight Show has yet to be proved. It didnt help network karma that Bob Costas was forced by an eye infection to don eyeglasses and work from an odd isolated studio it looked like an ice cave in Oz at an Olympic broadcasting center far from the action. ImageCredit...James Hill for The New York TimesAccordingly, NBC erected its own Potemkin village for the Olympic coverage. It passed over current Today hosts and reached out to a more popular alumna, Meredith Vieira, to add some charisma to Matt Lauers coverage of the opening ceremony. NBC also recruited the New Yorker editor David Remnick, author of Lenins Tomb, to lend some intellectual heft. Remnick told his co-hosts that Russias president, Vladimir V. Putin, didnt care if the world saw him as an autocrat. Putin, he said, wants Russians to see themselves as a modernizing great power. Like Putins presidency, the ceremony was majestic, grandiose and quite humorless with much of the artful theatricality but none of the self-deprecating touches that distinguished the London Olympics in 2012. Yet even the most Russia-centered pageantry and over-the-top Slavic spectacle reindeer herders, ballet dancers, Tchaikovsky, Sputnik were presented in a slick, Disneyesque package, including an introductory video with a little girl in a white dress, Lyubov, who floated on a cloud of dreams through an alphabet of Russian history (T was for Tolstoy and television). It was a little bit Alice in Putinland, but also Fantasia on the Black Sea and an indication of how much Russia has adapted to Western values since it shook off Soviet rule. Putin may be hoping to use the Games to project Slavic power and Russian exceptionalism, but Fridays immersion course in Mother Russia had an unmistakable glint of Hollywood make-believe and show-business pizazz. Chinas opening ceremony in 2008 in Beijing was far more indigenous, a staggering paean to communist-style mass regimentation, discipline and collective self-effacement. The most elaborate special effects Friday celebrated a more palatable past Peter the Great, the Russian Imperial Navy, War and Peace but there were glancing allusions to some elements of Soviet history, like the October Revolution.Perhaps the most telling throwback to Soviet times was Russian televisions handling of a glitch in the pyrotechnics. Five giant snowflakes were supposed to morph into Olympic rings and explode into fireworks, but one failed to open properly and the fireworks fizzled. One of the snowflakes is not quite cooperating, Lauer said. This is what happens when you are this ambitious in a show like this. Russias Channel One switched to rehearsal footage so Russian viewers wouldnt see the misstep. When the camera showed Putin in the stands, applauding the Ukrainian team with measured enthusiasm and a small, smug smile, Lauer reminded viewers of Putins love of martial arts and other sports. Remnick put it differently: He loves to perform his own machoness. President Obama didnt attend the event, but he gave Costas an interview that wasnt exactly flattering to Putins self-image. Obama said that privately, the Russian president always treated him with respect, but that he made a point of looking bored in joint interviews for domestic consumption. My sense is thats part of his shtick back home politically as wanting to look like the tough guy, Obama said. U.S. politicians have a different style. We tend to smile once in a while.

Sports

The Entomological Society of America will no longer refer to common species of insects as gypsy moths and gypsy ants, because their names are derogatory to the Romani people.Credit...Les Gibbon/AlamyJuly 9, 2021On Wednesday, the Entomological Society of America announced it was removing gypsy moth and gypsy ant as recognized common names for two insects. For Ethel Brooks, a Romani scholar, the move is long overdue.As a child in New Hampshire, Dr. Brooks loved watching worms and caterpillars crawl across her hand. But one particular caterpillar, the hairy larvae of the species Lymantria dispar, terrified her. The larvae would swarm and strip the leaves from a tree, leaving behind so much destruction that people sometimes called them a plague. But no one blamed L. dispar. Instead they blamed gypsy moth caterpillars, the species common name.Thats how they see us, Dr. Brooks remembered thinking as a child. We eat things and destroy things around us.Dr. Brooks, now chair of the department of womens, gender and sexuality studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey, has spoken out against the use of the pejorative in fashion and college parades, she said. But Dr. Brooks never imagined the pejorative could be stricken from its use in the more staid realm of science.Its hideous and super racist and its hurtful, she said. But what can you do about it?The move by the Entomological Society is the first time the group has removed a common name from an insect on the grounds that it is offensive to a community of people, according to representatives from the society.If people are feeling excluded because of what we call something, thats not acceptable, Michelle Smith, the societys president, said. Were going to make changes to be a welcoming and inclusive society for all entomologists.The news of the renaming came as a welcome surprise to many in the scientific community, with some praising the decision on Twitter. WOO! tweeted the entomologist Kevin Liam Keegan from his handle @MothPotato.Though each species has a unique binomial scientific name, such as Lymantria dispar, many are better known by their common names. No one calls a house fly Musca domestica, said Chris Stelzig, the executive director of the Entomological Society.ImageCredit...Washington State Department of AgricultureIn the 20th century, the Entomological Society of America formally recognized a list of approved common names in an effort to standardize what many insect species were called. The society maintains a committee that reviews proposals and makes recommendations for new or revised common names.The group was aware that the moth Lymantria dispars common name was derogatory, and it received its first formal request to remove the moths name from its list in 2020, Mr. Stelzig said. The proposal went to the common names committee, which proposed revising its policies for acceptable common names. The committee also reached out to Romani scholars including Dr. Brooks, Magda Matache and Victoria Rios to hear their thoughts.In March, the organizations governing board approved those policies. In June, they elected to remove the pejorative names from the moth and the ant species. They turned the recommendation around really quickly, Ms. Smith said.In the intervening months, staff at the Entomological Society put together the Better Common Names Project, a task force to review and replace offensive or inappropriate insect common names. The project plans to recruit community-driven working groups to propose new names, involving people who study the insects or are from or live in the region where the insects originated, Mr. Stelzig said. The project invites anyone to submit insect common names that should be changed.In the past few years, many scientific fields have opened up conversations about renaming species with offensive common or scientific names, or even whole publications. In 2020, a scientific journal changed its name from Copeia a name derived from the racist scientist Edward Cope to Ichthyology and Herpetology. In 2020, a naming committee of the American Ornithological Society removed the name of a Confederate general from a bird, a proposal the committee initially rejected the year before.Bird Names for Birds, a campaign to remove all eponymous names such as Bachmans sparrow, which is named after a white man who enslaved people submitted a letter to the American Ornithological Society with more than 2,500 signatures in June 2020. In 2021, the society announced the formation of an ad hoc committee to look into nomenclatures.Some birders, like Navin Sasikumar in Philadelphia, praised the Entomological Societys relatively swift decision on the moth and ant, and said the groups five-step process was a commendable way of changing common names.Though the pejorative Gypsy has now been stricken from one entomology groups records, it still appears in another scientific field: genetics. In February, Dr. Brooks received a message from Kevin Wei, a postdoctoral fellow working with fruit flies at the University of California, Berkeley.Dr. Wei studies transposable elements, often called selfish or jumping genes for their abilities to make copies of themselves and insert them back into the genome. A large family of these jumping genes are commonly called Gypsy jumping genes, he said. As he stared at the names of these genes, he kept thinking, This is actually not OK.When Kevin reached out, I just found that an incredible act of solidarity, Dr. Brooks said.Dr. Brooks, Dr. Wei and other researchers are now working on a paper calling for the slur to be removed from the field of genetics. They happened to have scheduled a meeting to plan their project the day the Entomological Society of America announced the name changes, and were excited by the news, Dr. Wei said.Lymantria dispar and Aphaenogastedriven araneoides will most likely remain without a common name for some time (though if you have suggestions, the society would like to hear them). In the meantime, if you see a hairy, defoliating caterpillar in New Hampshire, you can call it by its scientific name.

science

Prince Estate We Win War Over Unreleased Tunes ... Boxill's Gone Ghost 1/29/2018 Prince's estate says it's won a legal battle with the producer who's fighting to put out unreleased music ... and they're asking the court to sign off on the victory. According to docs filed by the estate ... George Boxill never responded to the estate's lawsuit. Boxill says he has unreleased tracks he worked on with Prince between 2006 and 2008. The estate sued to block him from putting out the tunes. Boxill had until Jan. 23 to respond, but the estate says he's been radio silent. If the court signs off ... Boxill will have to come up with a good excuse, or the estate will get an injunction blocking him from cashing in on Prince's music.

Entertainment

The company aims to join Elon Musks SpaceX in reusing rocket boosters, which can lower costs and increase the frequency of launching to orbit.VideoAfter sending a payload of 34 small satellites into orbit, the space company Rocket Lab used a helicopter to catch the 39-foot-long used-up booster stage of the rocket before it splashed into the Pacific Ocean.CreditCredit...Rocket LabPublished May 2, 2022Updated May 3, 2022Catch a falling rocket and bring it back to shore On Tuesday, Rocket Lab, a small company with a small rocket, pulled off the first half of that feat during its latest launch from the east coast of New Zealand.After sending a payload of 34 small satellites to orbit, the company used a helicopter to catch the 39-foot-long used-up booster stage of the rocket before it splashed into the Pacific Ocean.Pretty, pretty epic day, Peter Beck, the chief executive of Rocket Lab said during a news conference a few hours later. The difficulty in capturing a stage is, is pretty extreme.In the future, Rocket Lab hopes to refurbish a recovered booster and then use it for another orbital mission, an achievement that only one company has so far pulled off: Elon Musks SpaceX.A video stream showed a long cable dangling from the helicopter with cloudy skies below. Then the booster came into view dangling under the parachute.There we go, weve got our first glimpse of it, said Murielle Baker, the commentator during the Rocket Lab broadcast. The grappling hook at the end of the helicopters cable snagged the parachute line before the captured booster swung and exited the camera view.Cheers from Rocket Labs mission control confirmed a successful catch.However, the company later provided an update that qualified the success. Mr. Beck, said that the helicopter pilots reported that the booster was not hanging below the helicopter quite in the same way as during test runs and that they let go.If the pilots were unhappy at any point, thats what they were instructed to do, Mr. Beck said. Then the stage continued under parachute at a low descent rate and splashed down in the ocean.A Rocket Lab ship pulled the booster out of the water. Eventually, the company would like the helicopter to carry a caught booster all the way back to land and prevent damage from salt water.Mr. Beck did not rule out the possibility that it could be reused. Its still my hope that youll see this vehicle back on the pad again, he said.Rocket Lab gives most of its missions whimsical names. This one was called There and Back Again, a nod to the recovery of the booster as well as the subtitle of J.R.R. Tolkiens The Hobbit novel. The trilogy of Hobbit movies by director Peter Jackson was shot in New Zealand.Rocket Labs booster catch is the latest advance in an industry where rockets used to be expensive single-use throwaways. Reusing all or part of one helps lower the cost of delivering payloads to space and could speed the pace of launching by reducing the number of rockets that need to be manufactured.Eighty percent of the costs or thereabouts of the rocket is actually in the first stage, Mr. Beck said in an earlier interview. So the economics for us are really good. Its certainly worthwhile doing.SpaceX pioneered a new age in reusable rockets and now regularly lands the first stages of its Falcon 9 rockets and flies them over and over. The second stages of the Falcon 9 (as well as Rocket Labs Electron rocket) are still discarded, typically burning up while re-entering Earths atmosphere. SpaceX is designing its next-generation super rocket, Starship, to be entirely reusable. Competitors like Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance, and companies in China, are similarly developing rockets that would be at least partially reusable.NASAs space shuttles were also partially reusable, but required extensive and expensive work after each flight, and they never lived up to their promise of airliner-like operations.For the Falcon 9, the booster fires several times after it separates from the second stages, slowing it en route to a setting down softly on either a floating platform in the ocean or a site on land.As a much smaller rocket, the Electron needs to use all of the propellant to lift the payload to orbit. That ruled out the possibility of propulsive landings like the Falcon 9 boosters.ImageCredit...Rocket LabInstead, Rocket Lab engineers figured out a more fuel-efficient approach, adding a system of thrusters that expels cold gas to orient the booster as it falls, and thermal protection to shield it from temperatures exceeding 4,300 degrees Fahrenheit.The booster separated from the second stage at an altitude of about 50 miles. It then continued to coast upward another 10 miles before beginning to fall, accelerating to 5,200 miles per hour.If you dont have the stage orientated perfectly with the heat shield down, then basically as the re-entry process begins, its like a big ball of plasma, Mr. Beck said. Itll basically shred the stage.The friction of the atmosphere acted as a brake. Around 7 minutes, 40 seconds after liftoff, the speed of the boosters fall slowed to under twice the speed of sound. At that point, a small parachute called the drogue deployed, adding additional drag. A larger main parachute further slowed the booster to a more leisurely rate.Rocket Lab had demonstrated on three earlier launches that Electron boosters can survive re-entry. But on those missions, the boosters splashed in the ocean and were then pulled out for examination.This time, a Sikorsky S-92 helicopter hovering in the area met the booster midair at an altitude of 6,500 feet, dragging a cable with a grappling hook across the line between the drogue and main parachutes.With almost all of its propellant expended, the booster was much lighter than at launch. But it was still a weighty piece of metal a cylinder four feet in diameter and about as tall as a four-story building and weighing nearly 2,200 pounds or a metric ton.Mr. Beck said he expected that the unexpected load issue would be resolved with more drop tests. The Sikorsky is capable of lifting up to five metric tons, far more than the weight of the booster. Its tiny detail, he said.Eventually Rocket Lab would like to catch boosters for about half of its missions, Mr. Beck said. Some missions cannot use a reusable booster because the payloads are too heavy. The added weight of the thrusters, parachutes and thermal protection reduces the payload of 550 pounds by 10 to 15 percent.Other missions have constraints like an instantaneous launch window or a night launch that make catching the booster impractical.The next couple of Electrons headed to the launchpad do not include the apparatus needed for recovery of the booster. That includes the rocket that is to launch CAPSTONE, a NASA-financed but privately operated mission that will study a highly elliptical path around the moon to be used by a future American lunar space station.But there is another Electron with a reusable booster on the factory production floor that could be used soon, Mr. Beck said.Certainly today has given us just extreme confidence to get on with it, he said.

science

Credit...Ted S. Warren/Associated PressJan. 31, 2014As the Seattle Seahawks prepared to play the San Francisco 49ers in the N.F.C. championship game two weeks ago, the anticipation at CenturyLink Field was palpable. The fans roared as the home team was introduced. They chanted fight songs. They booed the visitors.But the cheering reached a high point when an unassuming man in a ski jacket and cap emerged on a platform at the south end of the stadium and raised a 12th Man flag to honor the teams loyal fans.Most N.F.L. owners roam the sidelines before games and then retire to their suites to sit with family, friends and business partners. But Paul Allen, 61, the immensely private owner of the Seahawks, was more than an owner that day. He was a patron, a cheerleader and a good-luck charm rolled into one.For the second time since Allen bought the team in 1997, the Seahawks were on the verge of making it to the Super Bowl, and the fans showed him their gratitude for helping turn the often middling franchise into a perennial powerhouse.Long periods can pass between the times you play for a championship, so you have to savor those moments, Allen said in a rare interview. Sports is such a cyclical thing; its often feast or famine. But what you try and do as an owner is build a winning organization.That organization will have to beat Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos on Sunday if it is going to claim its first N.F.L. title. But regardless of the outcome, the teams success in recent years it tied a franchise record with 13 wins during the regular season has helped cement Allens legacy in Seattle sports and made this years Super Bowl a coming-out party of sorts for Allen, who is rarely seen, even at N.F.L. owners meetings.Allen, a Seattle native, has reasons to smile. The Portland Trail Blazers, which he bought a quarter-century ago, are off to their best start in years, and the Seattle Sounders of Major League Soccer, of which he owns a part, continue to draw record crowds.Sports mogul is an unlikely role for Allen, who helped found Microsoft and has become one of the richest men in the world. He also founded the Allen Institute for Brain Science, which, at first blush, might be at odds with his ownership of a professional football team. Add that to a portfolio of companies, philanthropic pursuits and an eclectic set of hobbies that includes a love of Jimi Hendrix, and it would seem he does not need the attention that comes with owning professional sports teams.Yet while he sidesteps the spotlight and leaves most of the details of running his teams to specialists, Allen flies to Portland to sit courtside at Blazers games, and he approves all major club decisions. He also built the team a new arena, and after several rough years, he has found the right formula of front-office acumen and talent on the court.In Portland, I am more involved in the details of trade discussions because Ive been around that sport longer and can watch tape and can give some input to the drafting process, Allen said. In football, not at all. Its so specialized.While Allen is less involved in the Seahawks personnel decisions, he is increasingly visible in the locker room and on the sideline. Seahawks offensive tackle Russell Okung said Allen was available to answer questions from players about investing and starting a business. He talks to Coach Pete Carroll before games but does not dispense advice.Hes a great owner in the sense that he lets the people he hires really, for the most part, run the team and do their jobs, center Max Unger said.Unger and his teammates were aware of Allens role in keeping the team in Seattle. When the previous owner threatened to move the Seahawks to California in the mid-1990s, Allen bought the club, lobbied for and helped build a modern stadium and hired top personnel, including Mike Holmgren, the coach who led the Seahawks to their other Super Bowl appearance, in 2006. ImageCredit...Batrice de Ga for The New York TimesThat playoff run felt more serendipitous, while this Seahawks team has the feel of a dynasty in the making.The first time it happened, you are really gobsmacked, stunned, youre really pinching yourself, Allen said. This time, with the organization today, theres more of a thinking of building a franchise that has staying power, a younger team.With success come financial rewards. The team has sold out 95 consecutive games, and season-ticket renewals are at 98 percent. Retail sales have doubled in the past year, and spending on food and drinks at the stadium rose 28 percent.He doesnt micromanage, but he holds us accountable, and hes very, very pleased, said Peter McLoughlin, the president of the Seahawks and the Sounders, who speaks to Allen daily about the operations of his teams.Demand is so strong that Allen is considering whether to add as many as 2,000 seats at CenturyLink Field, which would give Seattle a better chance of hosting the Super Bowl.Some civic leaders in Seattle have expressed interest in hosting the game, but Allen was more equivocal. We left a provision to put in extra seating for a Super Bowl, he said, but who knows if a Super Bowl is in the cards in the future?Hosting a Super Bowl would thrust Allen further into the limelight that he seems to shy away from. Allen sends McLoughlin to N.F.L. owners meetings in his place, and although he is not deeply involved in N.B.A. matters, he played an active role behind the scenes during the N.B.A. lockout in 2011, said David Stern, who was set to retire Saturday as the leagues commissioner.VideoThere is a lot you can learn about the Super Bowl in just over two minutes. Here are the most important figures to know about the big game.CreditCredit...Rick Osentoski/Associated PressStern recalled a meeting in his office in 1988, when Allen came to New York to be interviewed by several N.B.A. owners. One of them asked Allen to explain how he took just three weeks to write a software program. Stern said of Allens response, Without skipping a beat, he said, No, it was 19 days.Although Allen has not been a mover and a shaker in the often clubby world of team owners, he has been an asset to both the N.B.A. and the N.F.L. because he has deep pockets and is willing to delegate to professionals.From the leagues perspective, Allen represents the perfect modern owner because he has a high valuation, enjoys it and is happy to remain in the shadows, said Robert A. Boland, who teaches sports management at New York University.While never in doubt, Allens intellect is evident in his many nonsports-related efforts, which include wildlife conservation, artificial intelligence and oceanography. He has also poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the Allen Institute for Brain Science and donated several million to researchers in Seattle who are investigating the lasting effects of traumatic brain injuries. Seattle has become a hub for such research, and Washington was the first state to pass strict return-to-play rules for young athletes a law, named in honor of Zackery Lystedt, a Washington high school football player who sustained a catastrophic brain injury in 2006, that has been adopted by states across the country.Some critics might claim that owning a team and funding brain-trauma research amount to a conflict of interest. Allen said his donations were a way to help not just the league but also soldiers and many others who have been injured.I have hundreds of scientists here doing fundamental research, he said. As a sports team owner, I just felt that if there was something that could bring forward the knowledge or create different protocols, it would be helpful. He emphasized that any solutions would take years of work.The brain is the most complex, challenging scientific puzzle we have ever tried to decode, he said.Allen no doubt hopes the Seahawks can decode the Broncos on Sunday and deliver Seattle its first N.F.L. championship trophy.

Sports

Credit...Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesMarch 22, 2019RIO DE JANEIRO The news coverage was breathless, political speculation was rampant and satirical Twitter memes flew after former President Michel Temer of Brazil was taken into custody on Thursday in connection .with a sweeping corruption probe known as Carwash.Mr. Temers arrest did not come as a surprise. The 78-year-old politician, who for decades wielded enormous influence in Brazils notoriously transactional political system, has long been dogged by accusations of corruption. But it was the second jailing of a former Brazilian president in as many years. And, in an unusual step some saw as overly harsh, a federal judge in Rio de Janeiro ordered Mr. Temers detention as a precautionary measure as the authorities investigate what they say is a pattern of kickbacks and money laundering he oversaw. The continuing Carwash scandal has tarnished much of Brazils political elite and could threaten the current governments agenda.What is Carwash?In 2014, federal police officers and prosecutors with expertise in money laundering exposed a wide-ranging scheme that came to be known as Lava Jato, or Carwash, after they stumbled onto suspicious currency transactions at gas stations in Braslia, the capital.The investigation exposed a pattern of institutionalized kickbacks at some of Brazils largest companies and put scores of politicians across the political spectrum in the cross hairs of Brazils judiciary, which operates with considerable autonomy.Carwashs tentacles reached across borders, landing former presidents and ministers from across Latin America in jail. It also led to the largest foreign corruption settlement negotiated by the United States Justice Department.The investigation roiled Brazils politics last year when former President Luis Incio Lula da Silva was detained to start serving a 12-year sentence, following his conviction in 2017 on charges of corruption and money laundering. That knocked him out of the presidential contest, in which he had been the front-runner.How does Mr. Temer fit into the corruption investigation?At the time, Brazil was led by Mr. Temer, who rose to the presidency in 2016 after the impeachment of his onetime political ally, former President Dilma Rousseff. Ms. Rousseff, who was not implicated in Carwash, became deeply unpopular as the scandal widened and Brazilians endured a brutal economic recession.Mr. Temers time in the presidential palace was turbulent. Just months after he took the helm of a deeply polarized Brazil, law enforcement officials leaked a transcript of a wiretap in which Mr. Temer was heard condoning a bribe. Things soon got worse: the attorney general filed two sets of corruption charges against Mr. Temer in 2017, accusing him of corruption, money laundering and obstruction of justice.Mr. Temer, a center-right politician, spent much of his political capital in office persuading members of Congress to use their authority to keep those cases from moving forward. Once he left office on Jan. 1, though, Mr. Temer lost the legal protections elected officials enjoy. Brazilian legal experts assumed it was a matter of time before the former president would be arrested in connection with one of the 10 corruption inquiries in which is a suspect.Does Mr. Temers arrest help or hurt his successor?In the short term, the detention is likely to be welcome news for President Jair Bolsonaro. Widespread news coverage of Mr. Temers arrest diverts attention from a series of scandals involving Mr. Bolsonaros family and leaders of his party, which have hurt his popularity.Mr. Temers arrest also lends credence to the narrative that Brazils corruption crackdown is still going strong in the Bolsonaro era.While Mr. Temers arrest rattled the markets in Brazil, it could bode well for the future of the country, Waldir Soares de Olivera, the leader of Mr. Bolsonaros Social Liberal Party in the lower House of Congress, said in an interview.It enhances our credibility before the international community, he said.But Mr. Temers legal troubles may hinder Mr. Bolsonaros ability to make headway on an ambitious legislative agenda, which includes an overhaul of the pension system and a crime bill that would give law enforcement officials broader authority to go after corruption.Several key lawmakers, including the Speaker of the House, Rodrigo Maia, are targets of Carwash prosecutors. Mr. Maias father-in-law, Wellington Moreira Franco, was among the suspects detained on Thursday along with Mr. Temer.These reforms take away entitlements and its hard for people to accept that their entitlements are being taken away by lawmakers embroiled in scandals, said Octavio Amorim Neto, a political scientist at Fundao Getulio Vargas University in Rio de Janeiro.How are Brazilians reacting to Mr. Temers detention?A small group of protesters greeted Mr. Temer with chants of thief, thief! as he arrived Thursday night at the police compound in Rio de Janeiro where he is being held.Few people have rallied to his defense. Even after the conviction of Mr. da Silva, a leftist lion who was president from 2003 to 2010, he remained beloved among a significant share of the population; Free Lula remains a rallying cry among supporters, who regard him as a political prisoner.Mr. Temer, on the other hand, left office as a widely loathed leader, the personification of the back-room dealing at the heart of Brazils endemic culture of graft.But even some politicians and analysts who have little sympathy for Mr. Temer think prosecutors and the judge handling the case overreached by ordering his detention before he stood trial.I think its an abuse of their authority, which we see from time to time, Sen. Tasso Jereissati said, referring to the team of crusading judges and prosecutors who handle Carwash cases. He wasnt a fugitive. As far as I know, his address was known.

World

On Pro FootballCredit...Barton Silverman/The New York TimesFeb. 1, 2014Ben Malcolmson had a cool, if not totally original, idea. As an enterprising football beat reporter for the student newspaper at Southern California, he decided to try out for Coach Pete Carrolls powerhouse team even though he had not played the game since the fifth grade back home in Dallas.Carroll had a better and perhaps more calculated idea. He called Malcolmsons bluff and took him as a walk-on.Thought he was pulling one of the pranks he is known for, but he said I was fast and could catch the ball, Malcolmson said. Im 6 foot 1, and back then, I was about 165 pounds, a rail, and had to put on another 20 pounds.For the effort in the weight room, Malcolmson got his Paper Lion story, taking it to a level that George Plimpton never did. As a fifth-year senior working toward a masters in communications management, he dressed for Trojans home games, including the 2007 Rose Bowl against Michigan. He even had a Reverse Rudy moment when Carroll yielded to the crowd and put him in for one end-of-game kneel-down by the quarterback in a victory against Notre Dame.Better yet, he got a right-out-of-college career as Carrolls nonfootball-related assistant, a communications alter ego, staying with Carroll for three years at U.S.C. and making the move with him to Seattle and the N.F.L.I enjoyed being a journalist, said Malcolmson, 28, after experiencing his first Super Bowl media day with the Seahawks on Tuesday. But I love being part of the team.When confronted by a clever reporter, is it smarter to co-opt than conceal? For those looking for an ulterior motive, could that have been Carrolls strategy all along?ImageCredit...Kevork Djansezian/Associated PressOr could Malcolmson have just become the accidental embodiment and example of how Carrolls kinetic coaching elevated as a college champion in starry Los Angeles but still thriving in rainy Seattle has achieved a full-blown celebrity, despite a few unflattering developments that have swirled around his college and pro programs?At U.S.C., there was enough smoke to start a fire, leaving the Trojans in a chokehold of N.C.A.A. sanctions, just as Carroll was leaving for the N.F.L. In Seattle, there has been a string of drug suspensions that has left his team with a comically embarrassing handle, the Sea-Adderall Seahawks.But America loves winners under Carroll, the Seahawks have ascended from two sub-.500 seasons to 11-5 to Sundays Super Bowl against Denver and charismatic winners even more.Carroll may well have been an innocent bystander in the Reggie Bush recruiting scandal at U.S.C. and in no better position than any other coach or official in professional sports to prevent the use of performance-enhancing drugs. But Carroll the hands-down winner of a recent ESPN.com poll that asked players to name a preferred head coach may also have created the ideal persona to deal with the challenges of coaching the 21st-century N.F.L. athlete. Once derided as a too touchy-feely bundle of nervous energy during failed head-coaching stays with the Jets and the New EnglandPatriots, Carroll has developed the reputational heft that allows him to also be an authoritative figure while simultaneously striking the pose of everyones buoyant friend.Consider, for example, the statement Carroll made in October 2010, his first season with the Seahawks, with the dedicated assistance of Malcolmson.Carroll read that Bill Clinton was in Seattle to campaign for Patty Murrays Senate re-election campaign. Having already once met the former president, Carroll asked Malcolmson to reach out to Clintons people to set up a meeting.Me, Coach, the president and his assistant in a room for an hour, he said. They talked sports, education reform, general government policy, youth violence going from one topic to another, Malcolmson said. It was amazing.Soon after the Clinton meeting, a photograph of the two gray-haired extroverts appeared on Carrolls Twitter feed. Unwitting or not, the message to the Seahawks and their fans was delivered, loud and clear: Pete Carroll, power coach, had arrived.Malcolmson operates Carrolls websites and his Twitter feed, aware of the pitfalls, treading (and trending) carefully. If I wasnt shadowing him constantly, maybe it would be harder, he said. But I feel sometimes like Im with him 24/7, and theres a real like-mindedness. Sometimes, hell say, Oh, you shouldnt have used an exclamation point there. Not too often, apparently. On Carrolls feed, many tweets are, true to character, punctuated with an exclamation point or three. This is not how Bill Belichick goes about his business, sending out platitudes and other rousing missives to 887,015 and counting as of late Friday afternoon. Then again, Carroll does coach in Seattle, the home of Microsoft and Amazon.He follows 328 people on Twitter, ranging from his players including Richard Sherman and Russell Wilson to LeBron James and Robinson Cano and Phil Jackson, and from Pat Summitt to the Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam and the Seattle-born rapper Macklemore.Spanning the generations, he had Malcolmson arrange to have Bill Russell, who lives in Seattle, speak to the team before a late-season game.He mixes with those kinds of people really well; he knows a lot about them and what they do, Malcolmson said. I think they enjoy being around him because he gives off this positive energy that lifts people around him.Malcolmson cited a most recent example, the N.F.C. championship game against San Francisco.Were down, 10-0 all the momentum is with them, he said. He turns around, gives me this look that says, Its about to turn. Then it did, and here we are, at the Super Bowl. A Seattle victory would be the story the once-aspiring journalist would love to write. He will settle for 140-character tweets, exclamation points included.

Sports

Dolph Lundgren Drago Jr. Will Be Great ... After a Hair Wax! 1/20/2018 TMZSports.com Dolph Lundgren -- aka Ivan Drago -- says he's down with the dude they cast as his son in "Creed 2" ... but tells TMZ Sports he's gotta make a big cosmetic change to sell the Drago look ... BURN OFF HIS BODY HAIR. FYI, Romanian bodybuilder/boxer Florian "Big Nasty" Munteanu was recently introduced as Drago's spawn ... and some 'Rocky' fans were complaining since he didn't really look like his pops. But when we spotted Dolph in the Bev Hills, he told us Big Nasty's got the bod ... and is just a painful wax-sesh away from becoming a chip off the ol' block. "Nice wax, a little bit of hair color ... I'm sure there's a way to adjust our looks."

Entertainment

A man of manifold interests, his achievements ranged from developing ideas behind the so-called Internet of Things to publishing the worlds biggest book.Credit...Choki LhamoPublished June 24, 2020Updated July 1, 2020Michael Hawley, a computer programmer, professor, musician, speechwriter and impresario who helped lay the intellectual groundwork for what is now called the Internet of Things, died on Wednesday at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 58.The cause was colon cancer, said his father, George Hawley.Mr. Hawley began his career as a video game programmer at Lucasfilm, the company created by the Star Wars director George Lucas. He spent his last 15 years curating the Entertainment Gathering, or EG, a conference dedicated to new ideas.In between, he worked at NeXT, the influential computer company founded by Steve Jobs after he left Apple in the mid-1980s, and spent nine years as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, a seminal effort to push science and technology into art and other disciplines. He was known as a scholar whose ideas, skills and friendships spanned an unusually wide range of fields, from mountain climbing to watchmaking.Mr. Hawley lived with both Mr. Jobs and the artificial intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky, published the worlds largest book, won first prize in an international competition of amateur pianists, played alongside the cellist Yo-Yo Ma at the wedding of the celebrity scientist Bill Nye, joined one of the first scientific expeditions to Mount Everest, and wrote commencement speeches for both Mr. Jobs and the Google co-founder Larry Page.Two of Mr. Hawleys Media Lab projects Things That Think and Toys of Tomorrow anticipated the Internet of Things movement, which aims to weave digital technology into everything from cars to televisions to home lighting systems. Led by companies like Amazon, Google, Intel and Microsoft, the movement is now a $248 billion market, according to the market research firm Statista.Mr. Hawley developed a pattern of ideas that emerged long before the Internet of Things, Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the Media Lab, said in an email.I would call that pattern not artificial intelligence, but intelligence in the artificial, he wrote.Mark Seiden, an independent computer security consultant who met Mr. Hawley in the early 1980s when they were both working at IRCAM, a music lab in Paris, and eventually hired him at Lucasfilm, compared Mr. Hawleys exploits to those of George Plimpton, the writer whose participatory kind of journalism had him masquerading as a boxer, a professional football player, a circus performer and a stand-up comedian.Plimpton was a famous dilettante, Mr. Seiden said. Mike was just as a diverse as Plimpton except he wasnt a dilettante.Michael Jerome Hawley was born on Nov. 18, 1961, at the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base near Oceanside, Calif., to Mary Kay (Dixon) and George Hawley, and grew up in New Providence, N.J., about 17 miles west of Newark. While still in high school, he interned at Bell Labs, where his father was an electrical engineer. He also underwent years of formal training as a pianist and went on to study both music and computer science as an undergraduate at Yale, earning degrees in each.After meeting Mr. Jobs in the lobby of Lucasfilm in the early 1980s, Mr. Hawley shared a house with him and spent six years at NeXT, which aimed to build a new kind of personal computer. For this machine Mr. Hawley built one of the first digital libraries. A friend of his had worked on a new edition of The Complete Works of Shakespeare at Oxford University Press, so Mr. Hawley and Mr. Jobs flew to England to negotiate a deal for the digital files, offering $2,000 upfront and 74 cents for each personal computer sold.When the NeXT machine was launched, Mr. Hawley added a dictionary, a thesaurus and a book of quotations all now standard online fare.In 2005, he helped write Mr. Jobss Stanford University commencement speech (Stay hungry, stay foolish was one of its much-quoted lines), which did much to define the Apple founder as an international celebrity in his last decade. Four years later, after meeting Mr. Page on a boat ride across San Francisco Bay, Mr. Hawley repeated the trick, writing the commencement speech that Mr. Page delivered at the University of Michigan.After he joined the brand-new MIT Media Lab as a graduate student in 1985, Mr. Hawley lived in Mr. Minskys attic, and after finishing his Ph.D. he stayed on at M.I.T. as a professor.In 1998, he served as the scientific director on an expedition to Mount Everest. Four years later, he tied for first place in the prestigious Van Cliburn amateur piano competition in Fort Worth, playing his own arrangement of a suite of pieces from West Side Story. (His selection of Broadway show tunes proved a controversial choice.)ImageCredit...Michael HawleyAs the director of special projects at M.I.T., Mr. Hawley published Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Himalayan Kingdom in 2003, drawing on his experiences and photographs spanning four visits to Bhutan over a decade and a half. Measuring five by seven feet and weighing more than 130 pounds, it was certified by Guinness World Records at the time as the worlds largest book.Michael was always finding some cool new idea, Mr. Seiden said. And then he would actually do it.Mr. Hawley and his wife, Nina You, were married at Kyichu Lhakhang, a seventh-century Bhutanese temple, and lived in a 193-year-old church in East Cambridge, where he kept three pianos, including a Steinway. She and his father survive him, as do a son, Tycho, and two brothers, Stephen and Patrick.In mid-April, as Mr. Hawleys cancer worsened amid the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Negroponte organized an online Festschrift, a celebration of ones scholarly work. Those that spoke about Mr. Hawley and his accomplishments included Leonard Kleinrock, one of the creators of the internet; Stewart Brand, editor of The Whole Earth Catalog; and the legal scholar Laurence Tribe. It was hosted by Peter Sagal, the host of the NPR game show Wait, Wait Dont Tell Me!I didnt know what a Festschrift was, Mr. Sagal said in an interview, wondering if this was one more big idea Mr. Hawley had helped push across the world.

Tech

Credit...Darron Cummings/Associated PressJune 6, 2017Anthem, one of the nations largest insurers and a major player in the individual insurance market created by the federal health care law, announced Tuesday that it would stop offering policies in the Ohio marketplace next year.Although its departure would leave a small number of people roughly 10,500 who live in about a fifth of the states counties without an insurance carrier, the move was seized on by Republicans as more evidence that the markets are collapsing under the Affordable Care Act. President Trump, meeting with congressional leaders on Tuesday, said it was more proof that insurers are fleeing and leaving the marketplaces and added that it was essential for Congress to pass a bill repealing the health law this summer.Republican senators said on Tuesday that they were trying to reach agreement on some major issues, especially Medicaid.Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, said that Republican senators spent much of a meeting on Tuesday with Vice President Mike Pence discussing health care. Mr. Barrasso outlined some differences with the bill that passed the House.The senators want a smoother glide path, rather than an abrupt cutoff, of Medicaid expansion funds that the federal government provides in 31 states, he said.Some senators have also expressed concerns about provisions in the House bill that would allow states to seek waivers from certain federal insurance standards, including one that prohibits companies from charging higher premiums to people with pre-existing conditions. Senate Republicans, however, have not agreed on which provisions could be waived.Congressional Republicans have said they plan to provide tens of billions of dollars to hold down premiums, stabilize insurance markets and help cover high-cost patients in the next decade. But it is unclear whether an injection of federal money will come soon enough to influence other insurers decisions about participating in the marketplaces in 2018.Besides Ohio, Anthem operates for-profit Blue Cross plans in more than a dozen states. The company said on Tuesday that it had not yet made a decision about its participation in those exchanges, but it and other companies have grown increasingly anxious as efforts by Congress drag on.Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, said the exit of insurers was a problem not just in Ohio but across the country, and he blamed the existing law for a declining number of viable health care choices for families and small businesses.Democrats countered that the market is shaky because of efforts by the Trump administration and congressional Republicans to undermine the law, including their continued threat to stop providing critical funding to low-income individuals to better afford plans.They own this health care system now, said Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Because they fiddled for the last five months and injected more uncertainty into the insurance market, premiums have gone up and insurance companies have pulled out.Federal and state deadlines are quickly approaching this month for insurers to decide if they will remain in the marketplaces and how to price their plans for 2018.While Anthem had warned that it might leave some or all of the states where it offers individual plans, its exit from Ohio signals that even some of the markets stalwarts are unnerved. Aetna and Humana have said they do not plan to participate next year after losing money, but Anthem appeared be turning the corner.If Anthem were to exit the federal health insurance exchanges entirely, there could be hundreds of thousands of people without any option on the exchange, said Cynthia Cox, an executive at the Kaiser Family Foundation.In the last few weeks, two other Blue Cross companies announced that they were dropping out of exchanges, in Nebraska and in parts of Kansas and Missouri. Iowas Blue Cross plan has also said it does not plan to offer plans on the exchange next year.The exit leaves insurance regulators with the prospect that some of their residents may not be offered a plan in 2018.For the past few years we have seen a weakening in the federal insurance marketplace as a number of companies have withdrawn from the exchange, the Ohio insurance agency said in an email. We have always argued the private insurance market is the most severely impacted by the federal law and that is where congressional action is needed to restore stability.Even when insurers are staying, the uncertainty and concern over the health of people in the market is leading many to file eye-popping rate increases for next year. In Maine, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care is asking for an average price increase of about 40 percent, while Anthem, which warned state regulators that it might have to revisit its plans, depending on what happens, wants a 21-percent increase.Some state regulators are asking the insurers to file various rates based on what happens, but the different scenarios can lead to much higher rates. In Pennsylvania, Teresa Miller, the states insurance commissioner, said in a statement this month that the five carriers had requested an average increase of 9 percent, demonstrating that the market is stabilizing and insurers are better understanding the markets and the population they serve.But the increases could be much higher. Prices would go up by 20 percent if there was no longer funding for subsidies, the regulator said. Rates could also be higher if the Trump administration does not enforce the tax penalty on people without insurance.

Health

Guess Who This Top Hat Tot Turned Into! 1/30/2018 Before this dressed-up Disney star was singing about the summertime, he was just another fancy fella growing up in Hollywood, Florida. Can you guess who he is? Share on Facebook TWEET This See also celebrity kids Photo Galleries

Entertainment

Africa|Car Bombs Kill at Least 20 in Somalias Capitalhttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/09/world/africa/car-bombs-kill-at-least-20-in-somalias-capital.htmlCredit...Feisal Omar/ReutersNov. 9, 2018MOGADISHU, Somalia Four car bombs exploded outside a hotel in the capital, Mogadishu, on Friday afternoon, killing at least 20 people and injuring 17, the police said. The Islamic extremist group the Shabab claimed responsibility.After three devices exploded in front of the hotel, a fourth blast hit as medics tried to rescue the injured.The bombs detonated near the perimeter wall of the Sahafi Hotel, which is across the street from the Somali Police Forces Criminal Investigations Department, said Capt. Mohamed Hussein.Some of the victims were burned beyond recognition when one car bomb exploded next to a minibus, he said.Somali security forces fatally shot four gunmen who tried to storm through a hole blown into the hotels wall but did not succeed in entering, he said.Although they failed to access the hotel, the blasts outside the hotel killed many people, Capt. Hussein said.The street was crowded with people and cars; bodies were everywhere, said Hussein Nur, a shopkeeper who shrapnel injuries. Gunfire killed several people, too.Among the dead was the manager of the Sahafi Hotel, whose father was the owner before he was killed in a Shabab attack there in 2015, Capt. Hussein said.

World

Health|Heres whats next for the Moderna and J. & J. boosters.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/21/health/cdc-booster-shot-eligibility.htmlHeres whats next for the Moderna and J. & J. boosters.The C.D.C. director will issue guidance that will influence the actions of states, hospitals, pharmacies and other entities that distribute the vaccines.Credit...Ruth Fremson/The New York TimesOct. 21, 2021An independent committee of experts that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention meeting on Thursday unanimously recommended extra doses of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccines for tens of millions of Americans.The panel also endorsed the so-called mix-and-match strategy whether people fully immunized with one companys vaccine should be allowed to switch to a different one for their booster. Limited evidence strongly suggests that booster doses of one of the two mRNA vaccines Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech more effectively raise antibody levels than a booster dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the committee noted. On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized all three approaches, signing off on boosters for many Americans who got the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines, just as it did last month for Pfizer-BioNTech recipients. The F.D.A. also gave its blessing to allowing people eligible for boosters to get the extra dose of a different brand from the one they originally received.But that decision was not the end of the regulatory road. The C.D.C. and individual states still have roles to play. In practice, who will get the shots and when depends to a great degree on the C.D.C.s final guidance. The agencys recommendations do not bind state and local officials, but they hold great sway in the medical community and serve as a blueprint for policymakers across the country.Here are the next steps:The C.D.C.The panel that met on Thursday was the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. It is made up of independent experts that advise the agency on scientific questions, and even though its recommendations are not final, the agency often follows them.Now that the panel has made its recommendations, the C.D.C.s director, Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, will issue guidance that will influence the actions of states, hospitals, pharmacies and other entities that distribute the vaccines.Last month, Dr. Walensky broke from the panels advice when she decided that frontline workers should receive booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Such instances are rare, however.The statesOnce the C.D.C. issues its guidance, the baton is passed to state health authorities. Health agencies in the states usually follow the C.D.C.s advice, and real-world action can be swift. After the agency ruled on the Pfizer boosters, the shots began to be administered that day.

Health

Wide segments of the party are eager to see investigations and prosecutions of President Trump and his allies, while President-elect Joseph Biden is taking a more measured approach.Credit...Kriston Jae Bethel for The New York TimesJan. 9, 2021WASHINGTON Twelve years ago, when the last Democratic president took office, he did not seek broad inquiries into officials from the previous administration for their use of torture practices, or for domestic eavesdropping. Nor did he pursue prosecutions of Wall Street executives for crimes that led to the 2008 financial crisis.Aside from some grumbling, Barack Obamas party went along in the name of national unity.This time, Democrats who have chafed at President Trumps behavior for four years are not willing to be so accommodating: They want to hold him, his family and his enablers accountable for acts they believe didnt just break norms, but broke the law.Whether or not the House pursues impeachment charges against Mr. Trump for his role in inciting his supporters to storm the Capitol on Wednesday, many Democrats say that impeachment is not enough.Once President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. takes office on Jan. 20, wide segments of his party are eager to see investigations and prosecutions of an array of Trump aides and allies an effort, they say, that would bolster the rule of law after a presidency that weakened it and serve as a warning to future presidents that there will be consequences for illegal actions taken while in office.The rioting at the Capitol has only intensified that desire. More than a dozen Democrats interviewed in recent days said the presidents role in inspiring the mob violence had prompted them to change their positions: They now want the Biden Justice Department to investigate the president and his aides.I was not on the investigate-and-prosecute train before yesterday, Kathleen Sullivan, a former chairwoman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, said on Thursday. However, undermining the very foundations of democracy and the Constitution is a crime that cant be ignored.So far, Mr. Biden has not taken a position on impeachment, let alone the broader agenda of launching criminal investigations. He has said he would leave any decisions about it to his Justice Department, which he has promised will return to the pre-Trump norm of maintaining independence from the White House. His choice of Merrick B. Garland, a centrist judge, as his nominee for Attorney General is another indication of his more measured approach to pursuing investigations and indictments. His stance reflects not only his politics but a natural inclination not to settle scores much like Mr. Obama, whom Mr. Biden served for eight years as vice-president. Mr. Obama said shortly before his own inauguration that he believed the nation needed to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.But interviews with more than 50 current and former Democratic elected officials, Democratic National Committee members and party activists found an overwhelming consensus across the partys ideological spectrum toward holding Mr. Trump personally accountable and launching congressional and Justice Department investigations into him, his family and his top aides not only for inciting last weeks violent mob at the Capitol but for a host of other actions during his presidency.ImageCredit...Erin Schaff/The New York TimesThe transgressions they cite include collusion with Russia, tax fraud, illegal pressure on state elections officials, using federal offices for political activity and violation of the constitutional provision that prohibits a president from profiting from foreign governments.A Georgia elections official on Saturday confirmed a third call Mr. Trump made to officials in the state trying to reverse Mr. Bidens victory. The calls began with one to Gov. Brian Kemp in early December to berate him for certifying the states election results. The efforts to change election results could be construed as illegal attempts at election interference or other criminal violations, but legal experts said proving a case could be difficult. Harry Reid, the former Senate majority leader, said Mr. Trump, former Attorney General Bill Barr and others need to be investigated by Mr. Bidens Justice Department, though he warned that Mr. Biden himself should keep his distance from any prosecutions to avoid the appearance of politicizing them.Theres a desire from me to never hear from Trump again, but I dont think the issue should be ignored, Mr. Reid said during an interview on Friday.The push for accountability for Mr. Trump and his allies is starkest in the partys liberal wing, especially among progressive people of color who have watched the Trump administration direct the use of tear gas against demonstrators for racial justice, and threaten them with long prison terms.Absolutely Trump should do jail time, said Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York. A Justice Department investigation, Mr. Bowman said, needs to happen on Jan. 20, as soon as possible.The desire to investigate and potentially prosecute Mr. Trump and his aides is not universal among Democrats.Martyring Donald Trump is a very bad idea and it could tear the country apart, said Matt Bennett, a co-founder of Third Way, a moderate Democratic think tank. Its just not worth it.For those seeking accountability, Mr. Trump is far from the only target. Representative Cori Bush of Missouri said she would introduce a resolution to expel every House Republican who voted on Wednesday to challenge the results of the election. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee has begun an effort to track down all of the state legislators who participated in Wednesdays Trump rally and subsequent rampage at the Capitol, and call for their resignations.Other Democratic organizations plan to pressure companies not to hire former administration officials, closing off the lucrative pathway into the private sector enjoyed by so many former White House staffers.Some Democrats argue that an effort to seek accountability for the past four years may carry some political dividends, by energizing the base in advance of what is likely to be a tough midterm election battle.You dont want to spend your political capital dealing with the mess of the past administration, but you have to in the name of good governance and political order, said Adam Jentleson, a progressive strategist. And there is political upside for it too. It will keep Democrats energized.The push for accountability from Mr. Trump reflects more than just outrage over his actions. Many on the left remain frustrated by their partys failure in the past to investigate people who may have violated the law.I think back to the financial crisis of 2008, said Jay Jacobs, the New York State Democratic chairman. We chose not to prosecute the banks, lenders, insurance and mortgage company executives who created the crisis and personally profited greatly. How did that work out for us politically? We cant make everyone happy. So, instead, lets just do the right thing.A variety of proposals are circulating through Democratic circles, some of them far-fetched, like forcing the expulsion of the 147 Republicans who objected to certifying Mr. Biden as the winner, and pushing for the immediate firing of all political appointees across the federal government.ImageCredit...Erin Schaff/The New York TimesSome progressives have even borrowed ideas from national efforts undertaken by countries like South Africa, Ireland and Peru, including targeted truth and reconciliation committees and public contrition.Many seem unlikely to be taken up by the new administration, which has focused on combating the pandemic and rebuilding the economy. If acted upon, such an effort could lead to months or years of legal complications for the Biden administration.In remarks on Friday in Wilmington, Del., Mr. Biden accused Republicans who sought to overturn his victory of perpetrating the big lie, but he said judgments of their fates in office should be left to voters.Former Representative Tom Perriello, who was a special adviser for the war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone, said countries that have suffered national trauma and tried to move forward without experiencing consequences or contrition are unable to heal.Countries that skip the accountability phase end up repeating 100 percent of the time but the next time the crisis is worse, Mr. Perriello said. People who think that the way forward is to brush this under the rug seem to have missed the fact that there is a ticking time bomb under the rug.Legal experts have said it would be very difficult for prosectors to charge Mr. Trump after hes out of the White House. There is a longstanding practice of avoiding criminalizing policy decisions like enacting harsh penalties on undocumented immigrants but Mr. Trumps actions since the election may change that thinking.Mr. Bidens reluctance to wade into the issue could become more problematic if Mr. Trump pardons himself or his family members, some Democrats said. They argued that such a move would warrant an investigation into what, exactly, Mr. Trump is pardoning himself for. Its also not clear that a self-pardon would insulate Mr. Trump from federal charges. And it would not cover charges he might face from an investigation by state prosecutors in New York into his business dealings.ImageCredit...Todd Heisler/The New York TimesStill, for some Democrats the idea of maintaining a public focus on the president after he leaves the White House would distract from enacting the Biden agenda. Mr. Biden himself on Friday said his most important priorities are the virus, the vaccine and economic growth.Biden should first concentrate on uniting the country again in the beginning of his term, said Sheikh Rahman, a Georgia state senator. If Trump is given more attention than the American people who are suffering because of the policies hes enacted, it will cause even more division.Even those who want to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his actions dont have a clear idea of all that might entail. They argue that the scope of their efforts may need to go far beyond the president and his political allies into social media companies and attempts to fight domestic terrorism.There absolutely has to be accountability and whats difficult for even me to really say right now with any finality is how that should work, said Representative Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania, who is a former federal prosecutor. The president himself is often a layer or two removed from the violence committed by the people who follow him. Thats a difficult thing to act on within the bounds of our current criminal law.No matter what Mr. Trump does with his final days in office, the pressure on Mr. Biden from inside the party threatens to complicate the message of national unity he campaigned on and distract from his focus on policy. And with many Republican elected officials trying to distance themselves from the president after years of acquiescing to him, some Democrats see new opportunities to win bipartisan support for their legislative agenda backing that may be harder to gain if the Biden Justice Department is trying to prosecute Republicans at the same time.If there are some Republican elected officials who changed their position, do we work with them? asked Aditi Juneja of Protect Democracy, a legal group thats focused on suing the Trump administration for what it views as efforts to undermine democracy. What do they need to do for us to feel comfortable working with them?But, she added, the answer cant just be we pretend this never happened.

Politics

Credit...Stephen Crowley/The New York TimesJune 7, 2018WASHINGTON President Trump will skip most of the second day of a summit meeting with allies this weekend, the White House said late Thursday, as he engaged in a contentious war of words over trade on the eve of a gathering that will underscore his isolation from the leaders of the worlds largest economies.Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, announced that Mr. Trump will leave Canada at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, well before scheduled sessions on climate change, clean energy and oceans. He will attend an early-morning session on womens empowerment, but he will be gone before any joint statement is issued by the other leaders.Earlier Thursday, President Emmanuel Macron of France and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada lashed out at Mr. Trump for imposing tariffs on their steel and aluminum industries. They called it an illegal economic assault on their countries that is unanimously opposed by the other leaders of the Group of 7 who will gather Friday in a sleepy village in Quebec for their annual summit meeting.The American President may not mind being isolated, but neither do we mind signing a 6 country agreement if need be, Mr. Macron said Thursday in an especially acerbic tweet. Because these 6 countries represent values, they represent an economic market which has the weight of history behind it and which is now a true international force.Mr. Trudeau said at a news conference with Mr. Macron that we are going to defend our industries and our workers and show the U.S. president that his unacceptable actions are hurting his own citizens.Mr. Trump responded with his trademark Twitter bluntness a few hours later, signaling that he has no intention of relenting on his aggressive trade demands and cares little about the diplomatic niceties that usually constrain public disagreements between the leaders of friendly nations.Please tell Prime Minister Trudeau and President Macron that they are charging the U.S. massive tariffs and create non-monetary barriers, the American president wrote. The EU trade surplus with the U.S. is $151 Billion, and Canada keeps our farmers and others out.He added, with a hint of sarcasm: Look forward to seeing them tomorrow.Mr. Trump was scheduled to arrive Friday morning at the meeting for a gathering that traditionally includes a moment of global camaraderie the family photo that captures presidents and prime ministers smiling for the camera.This year, there will not be many grins.Mr. Trump is the black sheep of this family, the estranged sibling who decided to pick fights with his relatives just before arriving to dinner. The dispute, Larry Kudlow, the presidents top economic adviser, acknowledges, is much like a family quarrel, but with the potential for vast diplomatic and economic consequences for the world.The anger of American allies, over Mr. Trumps decision to impose tariffs, is palpable.Patently absurd is what Liam Fox, the British trade minister, called them. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said they were illegal, while Mr. Trudeau said they were insulting and totally unacceptable and that was in the carefully worded public statement. In a phone call with Mr. Trump, he was said to be even more blunt.Before the summit meeting, finance ministers from the other six countries that form the Group of 7, or G-7, condemned Mr. Trumps trade decisions in an extraordinary rebuke of a member nations president. And some of the leaders themselves have threatened to boycott the usual end-of-meeting communiqu. A senior Canadian official said a statement by only Mr. Trudeau, the gatherings host, is possible.Asked about the upcoming discussions in Canada, Ms. Merkel, the famously taciturn leader of Germany, said they would be difficult.There have been disagreements within the G-7 in the past, including a long chill between the Europeans and President George W. Bush over the Iraq war. When President Ronald Reagan put missiles in Europe, his counterparts branded him a cowboy who would start World War III.But rarely if ever has there been the kind of visceral and unanimous outrage at an American president among the United States most important allies, who for decades have seen the closest of relationships with the leader of the free world as a paramount foreign policy priority.Mr. Trump has repeatedly poked his counterparts in the eye ignoring their pleas to remain a part of the Paris climate treaty, the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact and the Iran nuclear deal, and more recently by branding their steel and aluminum industries threats to national security, and therefore subject to tariffs.So when Mr. Trump disembarks Friday morning from Air Force One for a day and a half of closed-door meetings in the resort town of La Malbaie, the president can expect a subzero reception for what some observers have begun calling the G6+1, a reference to the political and diplomatic isolation that Mr. Trump has created for himself with his unilateral trade and security actions against his friends.Cliff Kupchan, a veteran foreign policy analyst, said he expected a very frosty dynamic and predicted that Mr. Trump is going to get an earful from all of them. Dan Price, who guided Mr. Bush through many economic summit meetings, said the other six leaders should express their concerns to Mr. Trump, even at the risk of offending a notoriously thin-skinned president.And Mark Dubowitz, the chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that because of real indignation and real frustration on the part of European leaders who are extremely angry at Mr. Trump, the venting process is likely to continue throughout the meeting.The ill will among the United States allies is a striking contrast to the praise Mr. Trump has heaped on North Korea, one of the countrys most enduring adversaries, before his historic meeting next week with Kim Jong-un, the countrys normally reclusive leader.The president, who is scheduled to fly Saturday to Singapore from Quebec for the meeting, has called Mr. Kim the leader of a country once described as part of an axis of evil a very honorable man, even as he clashes repeatedly with his counterparts in the worlds longest-lasting democracies.Mr. Trumps feud with the allies is also risking a go-it-alone approach to Chinas trade practices, even as many trade experts have called for a unified front by Western economies to confront China. The disputes with the United States have frustrated European leaders, who are eager for a joint effort that might pressure Beijing for change. Leaders had hoped to use the meeting to help formulate a strategy to combat Chinas surplus steel, but they now appear more likely to focus on their own trade divisions instead.The isolation from our G-7 allies undermines the United States ability to work with them to confront real challenges in Russia or China or the Middle East, Mr. Price said. I certainly hope the president and his team will take the opportunity presented by the G-7 summit to find a path forward.Others are less sanguine about that possibility.Mr. Trumps decision to abandon the Iran deal was particularly infuriating to leaders in Europe, where businesses and banks had been eager to begin commercial activities in Iran with the lifting of sanctions. But because the president decided to withdraw the United States from the agreement, European businesses are likely to avoid doing business in Iran for fear of risking sanctions that could keep them out of the much more lucrative American markets.Theres no underestimating the level of anger and frustration, Mr. Dubowitz said. For the Europeans, this is really a question of sovereignty. Its a direct challenge, in the case of Iran, to their national security.Still, the more immediate source of friction with Mr. Trump is on trade. Efforts to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement have stalled in bitter disagreement. And the decision by the United States to claim national security concerns has infuriated even the most stalwart allies, who view it as a transparent and ridiculous attempt to get around the rules set by the World Trade Organization.Mr. Trump has sent no signals that he is willing to back off. In remarks to reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Kudlow insisted that the president does not intend to be constrained by the global trading rules set up by his predecessors.That system has been broken in the last 20 years-plus. The World Trade Organization, for example, has become completely ineffectual, he said, adding later: International multilateral organizations are not going to determine American policy. I think the president has made that very clear.The allies at the G-7 are unlikely to give in, either. The Canadians and the European Union have filed cases against the United States at the World Trade Organization, and they have announced retaliatory tariffs in a tit-for-tat series of economic moves that could set off an all-out trade war.French officials say Mr. Macron is likely to urge Mr. Trump to relent, arguing that Mr. Trump will damage the United States economy if he persists. Other allies are hoping that American businesses will pressure Mr. Trump to back off once the tariffs begin affecting their supply chains and profits.Clues to how the meetings in Canada have gone may be found in the body language of Mr. Trump and his counterparts as they pose for pictures before and after their sessions.Mr. Kupchan said he will be looking for the expressions on the faces of the allies: Merkel sitting next to Trump, having just talked about Iran, with a massive frown, looking the other way, he said. Thats my best bet.

Politics

the on tech newsletterAmazon might not be the best shopping site, but using it can feel like magic.VideoCreditCredit...By Irene SuosaloAug. 17, 2021This is a preview of the On Tech With Shira Ovide newsletter, which is now reserved for Times subscribers. Sign up to get it in your inbox three times a week.I dont want to let a milestone pass without blaring that THIS IS A BIG MOMENT.Amazon most likely passed Walmart recently as the biggest retail seller outside China, as my colleagues Karen Weise and Michael Corkery wrote on Tuesday. Shoppers around the world but mostly in the United States, which remains Amazons biggest market by far now buy more than $600 billion worth of stuff on Amazon each year. Yeah, thats a lot. Thats about what Americans spent at restaurants and bars last year.Some of you reading this might be surprised that Amazon wasnt already selling more than Walmart. Nope. Remember that people in most countries, including the United States, still do the vast majority of their shopping in stores. That makes it all the more remarkable that Amazon has gotten so big. (Side note: The total value of yearly purchases made on Alibaba, Chinas e-commerce giant, is roughly double those on Amazon. Thats really a lot.)Whats most notable is how Amazon got to this point. Not unlike Americas retail rulers of prior eras, Sears and Walmart, Amazon rose to power because it nailed convenience, the force of habit and a system to move merchandise from place to place. Amazon isnt always the best place to shop, but it is winning by mastering everything but the shopping.Before the coronavirus pandemic, Amazon was on track to surpass Walmart as Americas retail leader. But changes in our shopping habits turbocharged Amazons sales even more than Walmarts. (Read more from my colleagues on Amazons milestone.)As regular On Tech readers know, I am a teeny bit obsessed with Amazon. And among my fixations is this question: How can Amazon make a gazillion dollars and still feel like a clunky shopping website from the 1990s?I realize thats a subjective assessment. But if youve ever browsed through endless options for curtain rods on the site, squinted at blurry product photos, felt bewildered by search parameters or questioned the reliability of reviews, youve had a glimpse at Amazons shortcomings as a store.Juozas Kaziuknas, the founder of the e-commerce research firm Marketplace Pulse, mentioned something to me a few months ago that stuck in my brain: If Amazon started today, it might not work, because it doesnt necessarily have the best products at the cheapest prices nor is it a particularly pleasant place to shop.But most shoppers on Amazon dont fixate on the flaws. Amazon has trained people to believe that they can rely on it to find what they need fast, usually. Buying is a breeze, usually, and Prime members and people who have Amazon credit cards have incentives to shop only there. If you have a problem, its easy to get help not always but often. Amazons prices arent always the lowest, but sometimes they are, and many people dont bother to look elsewhere.Amazon works for most consumers most of the time for most of the things, Kaziuknas told me. Maybe thats not an inspiring corporate motto worthy of etching on a Jeff Bezos spaceship, but it does explain Amazons appeal.Amazon is proof yet again that the best product doesnt necessarily win. We gravitate to products and services like Amazon, Netflix and Zoom that win our trust and make using them so easy that it feels like magic.Oddly, that isnt far off the blueprint for Sears and Walmart. Sears made it convenient to buy everything from socks to stocks and was an expert in sorting and moving merchandise. Ditto for Walmart, which mastered logistics and reached shoppers where they lived, increasingly in the suburbs. There are significant differences among Sears, Walmart and Amazon, too, but these companies wins were not necessarily because they offered the best experience in the store or the catalog or on the website.Ultimately, the proof of Amazons power isnt only in its eye-popping sales numbers but in the reality that its now more important than the products it sells. It might not have the exact pair of Nike shoes that you want. It might botch an occasional order or make you feel uncomfortable about its treatment of its workers or its crowding out of local shops. But people now buy on Amazon because it is Amazon.Before we go The driver called it stupid cruise control: U.S. auto safety regulators said on Monday that they opened a broad investigation into Teslas driver assistance technology called Autopilot. My colleague Neal E. Boudette writes about a Tesla that had Autopilot engaged and slammed into a parked car in 2019, and what that fatal crash suggests about the systems failure at the basic function of emergency braking.Cool companies cant quit a particular style of design: Its often called Corporate Memphis, an aesthetic characterized by colorful but lifeless cartoon figures that you see on many websites and apps. Protocol spoke to illustrators about the role of gig work and cut-and-paste design technologies in helping establish this visual style.You need this feel-good story about human connection: Marissa Meizz got attention on TikTok for being shunned by friends who excluded her from a birthday party. Taylor Lorenz writes about how Meizz got her revenge: She used her power online to organize real-world gatherings for people who felt alone.Hugs to thisTwo rockhopper penguin chicks got their first taste of swimming, in a kiddie pool. Extra hugs to the one who needed a little persuading to take a dip.

Tech

Credit...Iraq National Intelligence ServiceNov. 30, 2018BAGHDAD The Iraqi authorities released a video on Friday with the confession of a recently captured Islamic State operative who was involved in a notorious incident in which captured Kurdish soldiers were put in cages and paraded around a northern Iraqi city by hooded Islamic State fighters.At the time, early 2015, the Islamic State was threatening to burn them to death much as they had done two months earlier to a Jordanian pilot who had been captured, caged and then set on fire in Syria. It is not clear how the Kurdish captives were killed.The captured operative, Jamal al-Mashadani, who was known by the nom de guerre Abu Hamza al-Kurdi, was an officer in President Saddam Husseins security apparatus before joining Al Qaeda in Iraq after Mr. Husseins fall. Mr. Mashadani later shifted his loyalty to the Islamic State.He is one of a relatively small number of midlevel and higher level officials to have been captured by the Iraqis, the Americans or through the combined efforts of American and Iraqi intelligence services. Five other Islamic State officials were captured in May. The Iraqis have also captured several thousand lower-level fighters. Many other Islamic State officials and fighters were killed in battle.In a 17-minute confession video released by Iraqi intelligence on Friday, Mr. Mashadani, who appears to be solidly built and balding with a salt-and-pepper beard, says that he was born in 1973 and is from Tarmiya, a town north of Baghdad, and that he graduated from Iraqs College of National Security in 1992 before joining the countrys military intelligence.There was no way to tell if the confession had been coerced or obtained through torture. Iraq has a record of disregarding due process protections and using confessions as evidence of guilt.Mr. Mashadani, unlike many of the foreign fighters who came to Iraq and Syria from elsewhere to support the Islamic State, had technical and organizational skills that the group needed to expand its reach.Hes one of the real professionals and brains who built ISIS, the faces not usually recognized in discussions about the group, said Hassan Hassan, the author of a book tracing the rise of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.He added that Mr. Mashadani was one of the little-known but critical leaders within ISIS who served under Saddam Husseins regime.While not a senior leader, Mr. Mashadani held important midlevel managerial positions within the Islamic State. More important, he is among the trained cadre of military and intelligence professionals that the group, much like Al Qaeda before it, was able to recruit from the ranks of Mr. Husseins dissolved police state.Mr. Hassan says that Mr. Mashadani was involved in the terrorist groups chemical weapons program. He also served as the Islamic States governor in Kirkuk and in northern Baghdad, two administrative areas that had belonged to the Islamic States Britain-sized caliphate.American officials familiar with Mr. Mashadani confirmed his role in the organization and that he was captured.He had previously been captured by the Americans in 2006 and imprisoned at Camp Cropper, one of the two major detention centers run by the United States. He was released in mid-2011, he said in the video, and joined the Islamic State two years later.His detention in an American facility was considerably longer than that of the Islamic States leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who spent a little less than a year in an American prison in Bucca, Iraq.In the video, Mr. Mashadani detailed his involvement in the Islamic State, including his meetings in 2014 with Mr. Baghdadi, whom he said gathered the governors of different Iraqi provinces in Mosul to give them instructions on running their areas and to have joint discussions on issues such as what to do with the spoils that the Islamic State commanders took from people in areas they captured.Later, Mr. Mashadani moved to Kirkuk as the Islamic State governor, he said, and there he supervised or was involved in several higher profile operations. They included the bombing of the small northern town of Taza with rockets, some of which were loaded with chemical agents sulfur mustard and chlorine that seeped out although few if any exploded, according to news reports at the time.He then was involved in the operation that captured the Kurdish pesh merga soldiers, although he says that 18 were captured, not 21, the number given in news reports and by Iraqi intelligence. The pesh merga were dressed in orange jumpsuits and paraded around the city of Hawija in cages to lift morale of Islamic State supporters, Mr. Mashadani said.Later that year, Mr. Mashadani participated in Islamic State operations near the ancient Roman ruins of Palmyra, Syria, which was taken by the Islamic State in 2015 and held for about a year. By then, the Islamic States power and geographic reach had shrunk drastically, but he still appears to have been entrenched: He held several administrative positions, some involving considerable responsibility.In 2017, he decided to leave Syria and the Islamic State, he said.He cited as reasons for his departure the bombing by coalition forces, the targeting of commanders like himself and the poor management by some of Mr. Baghdadis lieutenants.He was captured at his sons house in Baghdad, he said. Iraqi intelligence confirmed that he was captured in Baghdad.That he was captured relatively close to his family home in Tarmiya suggests that some Islamic State fighters who have not been killed may be trying to return to their homes and meld into the local population.

World

Credit...Mason Trinca for The New York TimesWere now approaching the technological threshold where the little guys can do it to the big guys, one researcher said.Accountability is important, said Christopher Howell, who tapped his knowledge of neural net technology after police tear-gassed him at a protest in Portland, Ore. We need to know who is doing what, so we can deal with it.Credit...Mason Trinca for The New York TimesPublished Oct. 21, 2020Updated Aug. 1, 2021In early September, the City Council in Portland, Ore., met virtually to consider sweeping legislation outlawing the use of facial recognition technology. The bills would not only bar the police from using it to unmask protesters and individuals captured in surveillance imagery; they would also prevent companies and a variety of other organizations from using the software to identify an unknown person.During the time for public comments, a local man, Christopher Howell, said he had concerns about a blanket ban. He gave a surprising reason.I am involved with developing facial recognition to in fact use on Portland police officers, since they are not identifying themselves to the public, Mr. Howell said. Over the summer, with the city seized by demonstrations against police violence, leaders of the department had told uniformed officers that they could tape over their name. Mr. Howell wanted to know: Would his use of facial recognition technology become illegal?Portlands mayor, Ted Wheeler, told Mr. Howell that his project was a little creepy, but a lawyer for the city clarified that the bills would not apply to individuals. The Council then passed the legislation in a unanimous vote.Mr. Howell was offended by Mr. Wheelers characterization of his project but relieved he could keep working on it. Theres a lot of excessive force here in Portland, he said in a phone interview. Knowing who the officers are seems like a baseline.Mr. Howell, 42, is a lifelong protester and self-taught coder; in graduate school, he started working with neural net technology, an artificial intelligence that learns to make decisions from data it is fed, such as images. He said that the police had tear-gassed him during a midday protest in June, and that he had begun researching how to build a facial recognition product that could defeat officers attempts to shield their identity.This was, you know, kind of a shower thought moment for me, and just kind of an intersection of what I know how to do and what my current interests are, he said. Accountability is important. We need to know who is doing what, so we can deal with it.Mr. Howell is not alone in his pursuit. Law enforcement has used facial recognition to identify criminals, using photos from government databases or, through a company called Clearview AI, from the public internet. But now activists around the world are turning the process around and developing tools that can unmask law enforcement in cases of misconduct.It doesnt surprise me in the least, said Clare Garvie, a lawyer at Georgetown Universitys Center on Privacy and Technology. I think some folks will say, Alls fair in love and war, but it highlights the risk of developing this technology without thinking about its use in the hands of all possible actors.The authorities targeted so far have not been pleased. The New York Times reported in July 2019 that Colin Cheung, a protester in Hong Kong, had developed a tool to identify police officers using online photos of them. After he posted a video about the project on Facebook, he was arrested. Mr. Cheung ultimately abandoned the work.ImageCredit...Ana Brigida for The New York TimesThis month, the artist Paolo Cirio published photos of 4,000 faces of French police officers online for an exhibit called Capture, which he described as the first step in developing a facial recognition app. He collected the faces from 1,000 photos he had gathered from the internet and from photographers who attended protests in France. Mr. Cirio, 41, took the photos down after Frances interior minister threatened legal action but said he hoped to republish them.Its about the privacy of everyone, said Mr. Cirio, who believes facial recognition should be banned. Its childish to try to stop me, as an artist who is trying to raise the problem, instead of addressing the problem itself.Many police officers around the world cover their faces, in whole or in part, as captured in recent videos of police violence in Belarus. Last month, Andrew Maximov, a technologist from the country who is now based in Los Angeles, uploaded a video to YouTube that demonstrated how facial recognition technology could be used to digitally strip away the masks.In the simulated footage, software matches masked officers to full images of officers taken from social media channels. The two images are then merged so the officers are shown in uniform, with their faces on display. Its unclear if the matches are accurate. The video, which was reported earlier by a news site about Russia called Meduza, has been viewed more than one million times.For a while now, everyone was aware the big guys could use this to identify and oppress the little guys, but were now approaching the technological threshold where the little guys can do it to the big guys, Mr. Maximov, 30, said. Its not just the loss of anonymity. Its the threat of infamy.These activists say it has become relatively easy to build facial recognition tools thanks to off-the-shelf image recognition software that has been made available in recent years. In Portland, Mr. Howell used a Google-provided platform, TensorFlow, which helps people build machine-learning models.The technical process Im not inventing anything new, he said. The big problem here is getting quality images.Mr. Howell gathered thousands of images of Portland police officers from news articles and social media after finding their names on city websites. He also made a public records request for a roster of police officers, with their names and personnel numbers, but it was denied.Facebook has been a particularly helpful source of images. Here they all are at a barbecue or whatever, in uniform sometimes, Mr. Howell said. Its few enough people that I can reasonably do it as an individual.Mr. Howell said his tool remained a work in progress and could recognize only about 20 percent of Portlands police force. He hasnt made it publicly available, but he said it had already helped a friend confirm an officers identity. He declined to provide more details.ImageCredit...Paolo CirioDerek Carmon, a public information officer at the Portland Police Bureau, said that name tags were changed to personnel numbers during protests to help eliminate the doxxing of officers, but that officers are required to wear name tags for non-protest-related duties. Mr. Carmon said people could file complaints using an officers personnel number. He declined to comment on Mr. Howells software.Older attempts to identify police officers have relied on crowdsourcing. The news service ProPublica asks readers to identify officers in a series of videos of police violence. In 2016, an anti-surveillance group in Chicago, the Lucy Parsons Lab, started OpenOversight, a public searchable database of law enforcement officers. It asks people to upload photos of uniformed officers and match them to the officers names or badge numbers.We were careful about what information we were soliciting. We dont want to encourage people to follow officers to playgrounds with their kids, said Jennifer Helsby, OpenOversights lead developer. It has resulted in officers being identified.For example, the database helped journalists at the Invisible Institute, a local news organization, identify Chicago officers who struck protesters with batons this summer, according to the institutes director of public strategy, Maira Khwaja.Photos of more than 1,000 officers have been uploaded to the site, Ms. Helsby said, adding that versions of the open-source database have been started in other cities, including Portland. That version is called Cops.Photo, and is one of the places from which Mr. Howell obtained identified photos of police officers.Mr. Howell originally wanted to make his work publicly available, but is now concerned that distributing his tool to others would be illegal under the citys new facial recognition laws, he said.I have sought some legal advice and will seek more, Mr. Howell said. He described it as unwise to release an illegal facial recognition app because the police are not going to appreciate it to begin with.Id be nave not to be a little concerned about it, he added. But I think its worth doing.

Tech

Donald Trump Weirdly Jokes About Government Shutdown 1/20/2018 You'd think President Trump would be solemn the day the federal government shut down over a budget impasse, but instead he used his favorite platform to use jokes laced with sarcasm to describe his feelings. Trump tweeted, "This is the One Year Anniversary of my Presidency and the Democrats want to give me a nice present." He also screamed, "#AMERICA FIRST!" He's using the shutdown to push Republicans in this year's elections, saying "#WeNeedMoreRepublicans18 in order to power through mess." What he didn't address is how he's going turn the lights back on.

Entertainment

Credit...Joy Elizabeth/Getty ImagesNov. 5, 2018Parents should not spank their children, the American Academy of Pediatrics said on Monday in its most strongly worded policy statement warning against the harmful effects of corporal punishment in the home.The group, which represents about 67,000 doctors, also recommended that pediatricians advise parents against the use of spanking, which it defined as noninjurious, openhanded hitting with the intention of modifying child behavior, and said to avoid using nonphysical punishment that is humiliating, scary or threatening.One of the most important relationships we all have is the relationship between ourselves and our parents, and it makes sense to eliminate or limit fear and violence in that loving relationship, said Dr. Robert D. Sege, a pediatrician at Tufts Medical Center and the Floating Hospital for Children in Boston, and one of the authors of the statement.The academys new policy, which will be published in the December issue of the journal Pediatrics, updates 20-year-old guidance on discipline that recommended parents be encouraged not to spank. The organizations latest statement stems from a body of research that was unavailable two decades ago.A 2016 analysis of multiple studies, for example, found that children do not benefit from spanking.Certainly you can get a childs attention, but its not an effective strategy to teach right from wrong, Dr. Sege said.Recent studies have also shown that corporal punishment is associated with increased aggression and makes it more likely that children will be defiant in the future. Spanking alone is associated with outcomes similar to those of children who experience physical abuse, the new academy statement says.There are potential ramifications to the brain as well: A 2009 study of 23 young adults who had repeated exposure to harsh corporal punishment found reduced gray matter volume in an area of the prefrontal cortex that is believed to play a crucial role in social cognition. Those exposed to harsh punishment also had a lower performance I.Q. than that of a control group.Although the study was small in scope, it can help provide a biological basis for other observations about corporal punishment, Dr. Sege said.So what is the best way to discipline children? That largely depends on the age and temperament of the child, experts say.Effective discipline involves practicing empathy and understanding how to treat your child in different stages in development to teach them how to cool down when things do get explosive, said Dr. Vincent J. Palusci, a child abuse pediatrician at Hassenfeld Childrens Hospital at N.Y.U. Langone.The academys parenting website, HealthyChildren.org, offers tips for disciplining younger and older children. Rewarding positive behavior, using timeouts and establishing a clear relationship between behavior and consequences can all be effective strategies.We cant just take away spanking, Dr. Palusci said. We have to give parents something to replace it with.The number of parents who spank their children has been on the decline. A 2013 Harris Poll of 2,286 adults surveyed online found 67 percent of parents said they had spanked their children and 33 percent had not. In 1995, however, 80 percent of parents said they had spanked their children while 19 percent said they had not.Attitudes about spanking are also changing. Although seven in 10 adults in the United States agreed a good, hard spanking is sometimes necessary to discipline a child, according to the 2014 General Social Survey, spanking has become less popular over time.In 1970, Fitzhugh Dodson, a clinical psychologist and best-selling author of books on parenting, was quoted in The New York Times as saying that many discipline problems could be solved by using his pow wow approach.Its my pow, followed by his wow, he explained, demonstrating how he would swat a childs bottom.I know some books say parents shouldnt spank, but I think its a mistake, he said. A poor mother is left with nowhere to go. Shes mad at the kid, has had it up to the eyebrows with him, and longs to give him a big smack on the behind, but shes been told she shouldnt. She should, and its good for her, because it releases her tension. And the child definitely prefers it to long parental harangues.And in the 1945 edition of Baby and Child Care, Dr. Benjamin Spock said spanking is less poisonous than lengthy disapproval, because it clears the air, for parents and child. (In the 80s, however, he changed his mind.)Today, most doctors dont support it.A recent survey of 1,500 pediatricians in the United States found that 74 percent did not approve of spanking and 78 percent thought spanking never or seldom improved childrens behavior.Its a different situation among legislators and school administrators. Although corporal punishment in public schools is not permitted in 31 states and the District of Columbia, there are 19 states, mainly in the South, that either allow the practice or do not have specific rules prohibiting it.In 2000, the academy recommended that corporal punishment in schools be abolished in all states. And in 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a tool kit for preventing child abuse and neglect that highlighted a need for legislation to end corporal punishment.But attempts to do so at the federal level have failed.I think people see school discipline and parental discipline very differently, said Elizabeth T. Gershoff, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin who has studied corporal punishment in public schools.Even so, she added, its possible the new academy statement could lead to change down the road.It shows we are seeing the beginning of a shift away from believing it is O.K. to hit children in the name of discipline, she said.Children need to know that you have their best interests at heart, Dr. Gershoff said. If the kid doesnt trust the parent, then theyre never going to want to do what they say.

Health

Credit...Tom Brenner/The New York TimesJune 18, 2018WASHINGTON The Trump administration is poised to issue a sweeping rule that makes it easier for small businesses to band together to create health insurance plans that skirt many requirements of the Affordable Care Act, offering lower costs but also fewer benefits.The final rule is to be unveiled Tuesday, administration officials and congressional aides said.President Trump has said millions of people could get cheaper coverage from the new association health plans. But consumer groups and many state officials are opposed, saying the new plans will siphon healthy people out of the Affordable Care Act marketplace, driving up costs for those who need comprehensive insurance.The new entities would be exempt from many of the consumer protections mandated by the Affordable Care Act. They may, for example, not have to provide certain essential health benefits like mental health care, emergency services, maternity and newborn care and prescription drugs.As many as 11 million Americans could find coverage under the new health plans, the Labor Department said in drafting the rule, which carries out an executive order signed by Mr. Trump on Oct. 12.The rule will allow small-business owners, their employees, sole proprietors and other self-employed people to join together to buy or provide insurance in the large-group market through association health plans.Because they will be exempt from many onerous requirements of the 2010 health law, Mr. Trump has said, the association health plans can provide more affordable health insurance options to many Americans, including hourly wage earners, farmers, and the employees of small businesses and entrepreneurs that fuel economic growth.The new health plans might, for example, appeal to restaurant workers, real estate agents, dry cleaners, florists, plumbers and painters, officials said.The new rule takes a step toward fulfilling Mr. Trumps campaign promise to make it easier for companies to sell insurance across state lines.The new rule will allow national trade associations to offer insurance to their employer members in multiple states, said Christopher E. Condeluci, an employee benefits lawyer who used to work for Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee. Small employers and independent contractors will be able to get coverage through group health plans, just like the insurance offered by large employers.Republicans in Congress have been trying for two decades to promote association health plans through legislation. The House passed a bill that included such plans in 1998, but it died in the Senate. President George W. Bush tried again in 2003 and 2004. The House passed a bill last year to authorize such health plans. And Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, has championed a similar bill in the Senate.Now the Trump administration is using its regulatory authority to accomplish what Congress could not.Trade groups like the National Restaurant Association, the National Retail Federation and the National Federation of Independent Business have supported association health plans and could potentially sponsor them.But consumer groups, state officials and Blue Cross Blue Shield plans have long opposed such ideas. They say association health plans will tend to attract employers with younger, healthier workers, leaving behind sicker people in more comprehensive, more expensive plans that fully comply with the Affordable Care Act.That could drive up premiums, which have increased as Mr. Trump and Republicans in Congress have undercut many elements of the law, President Barack Obamas signature domestic achievement.People with serious illnesses like cancer could face ever-increasing premiums for comprehensive coverage, said Chris Hansen, the president of the lobbying arm of the American Cancer Society.Similar health plans have a history of fraud and abuse that have left employers and employees with hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid medical bills. The problems are described in dozens of court cases and enforcement actions taken over more than a decade by federal and state officials.The Labor Department says it has identified many unscrupulous promoters who sell the promise of inexpensive health benefit insurance, but default on their obligations.The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, representing insurers, consumers and law enforcement officials, met last month with Trump administration officials and emphasized the need for states to have a strong role in combating possible fraud by association health plans.In another move this summer, Mr. Trump is expected to issue a final rule expanding access to short term, limited duration insurance, allowing such policies to run for 364 days, instead of the current limit of three months.These short-term plans originally intended for people between jobs are cheaper than comprehensive insurance, provide fewer benefits and would also be exempt from many requirements of the Affordable Care Act.

Politics

Credit...Manchester UnitedFeb. 12, 2014In and around the red half of Manchester, England, the Premier League of the present may look bleak but the past has a resonance heard from Old Trafford to New Delhi, and now to New York.After a trek that has lasted 152 days, traversed more than 67,000 miles, and landed visited 30 cities and 24 countries, what Manchester United calls the United Trophy Tour (organized and sponsored by its official logistics company, DHL) is set to spend a day in Manhattan. On Friday, the former United captain and star Bryan Robson will be on hand at the exhibit at the Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle. The exhibit, which is free, is open to the public from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.I think I selected the best part of the tour, Robson, one of the clubs ambassadors, said in a telephone interview from San Francisco, where he was preparing for a flight to Chicago and then on to New York for Fridays visit. The other guys on the tour Denis Irwin, Dwight Yorke, Andy Cole took it around the world. But when I heard the cities in America, I got to select the best part of the tour.The star of the tour is the trophy given to the winner of Englands Premier League, a title that United won for 13th time last May (United has 20 first-division titles over all). In addition to the trophy, the goodies include select items from the clubs museum, which is housed at Old Trafford. That list includes the cleats worn by the supersub Ole Gunnar Solskjaer when he scored the winning goal in the Champions League final in 1999 against Bayern Munich; a Jimmy Bannister champions medal from 1908; a match ball signed by Manchester Uniteds 1956-57 club, the Busby Babes; David Beckhams cleats from the 2000-1 season; and a jersey worn by David May during the 99 Champions League final. (May did not play in the game, but is remembered for leading the celebration after the club won the title.)Oles boots are the things that do it for me, said Robson, the teams longest-serving captain who was nicknamed Captain Marvel. Its about the history, the team, the Theater [Old Trafford is called the Theater of Dreams], the tragedy [the Munich air crash in 1958 that killed players and team officials]. Artifacts of yesteryear: clothes, scarves, a traditional football rattle.Robson remains one of the most cherished midfielders to play for the club. He is among a long line of star players to wear the No. 7 jersey for the Red Devils, a time line that stretches from George Best (who wore the number some of the time) to Robson to Eric Cantona, David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo and, briefly, Antonio Valencia (no current player wears the number now, though it was offered to the recently acquired Juan Mata, who chose No. 8 instead).I think its just materialized out of nothing, rather than being sort of structured, Robson said of the famed jersey number. When I came from West Brom and asked if could wear No. 7, it just seemed to be a lucky number for me. Steve Coppell was in the shirt at that time, and he said, No problem. I wore it, then Cantona after me said he would love to wear it. Then David wanted it. Then Ronaldo said he wanted to wear No. 7. Im not really sure where the mystique came from. A lot of players around world want to wear the No. 10, but at Man United its No. 7.Robson, like nearly every United fan around the world, is keenly aware of the clubs current struggles under the new manager David Moyes, who replaced Alex Ferguson.I think its a transitional period, Robson said. David Moyes is trying to implement his thoughts on the team. Its going to take a little bit of time. I think the fans have been fantastic, theyve been patient. Im sure the owners will be patient and give Moyes a chance. You dont want a knee-jerk reaction because the team is not in the top four. Moyes is studious and hard working, we need to give him time. Everyone just has to keep their feet on the ground.As he prepares to hit New York, Robson said he has been gobsmacked by the reception to the tour.Its been unbelievable, he said. In L.A. there were like 600 people in United jerseys, even some in Arsenal jerseys who wanted pictures with the trophy. I think now more Americans appreciate the sport than ever before.

Sports

Media|Ray Gandolf, Sportscaster and Our World Co-Anchor, Dies at 85https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/08/business/media/ray-gandolf-85-dies-television-sportscaster.htmlCredit...CBS Photo ArchiveDec. 7, 2015Ray Gandolf, a genial sportscaster for CBS who went on to become co-anchor of the acclaimed but short-lived historical series Our World for ABC, died on Wednesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 85.His family confirmed the death, but did not specify a cause.An experienced actor, Mr. Gandolf broke into television news to support his family in the early 1960s. He worked for years as a news writer at CBS before he started reporting sports scores and anchoring segments in 1974.In 1979 he became the first sportscaster for Sunday Morning, the CBS News program anchored by Charles Kuralt.Compared to the blow-dried, macho chest-thumpers who populate sportscasting, Gandolf is the Charles Kuralt of the locker room, all folksy charm and offbeat insight, an article in TV Guide said.He left CBS to become the weekend sports anchor for ABC in the early 1980s, and was co-host of Our World with Linda Ellerbee for a year starting in 1986. That program used archival footage and interviews with people who had witnessed historical events to recreate the feel of a particular time.If you have any recollection of the American pastiche during World War II, watch Our World at 8 oclock tonight, John Corry wrote in The New York Times in 1986. If you have no recollection, watch it anyway. It is living, breathing history.Mr. Gandolf, Ms. Ellerbee and Richard Gerdau won a writing Emmy Award in 1987 for an Our World episode, but many in broadcasting thought the program was doomed from the start. ABC broadcast the program on Thursday nights, at the same time as The Cosby Show, the hugely popular NBC sitcom.Our World went off the air in 1987. The Los Angeles Times reported that year that ABC had received at least 7,300 letters asking that it bring the program back, more than the network had ever received for a news program. Mr. Gandolf retired in the early 1990s.Raymond L. Gandolf (the L does not stand for anything, his daughter said) was born on April 2, 1930, in Norwalk, Ohio. He received a bachelors degree in speech from Northwestern University in the early 1950s, then traveled to New York City to work on the stage.He married Blanche Cholet in the mid-1950s. They had five daughters, Alexandra, Jessica, Victoria, Amanda and Susanna, and five grandchildren. They all survive him.

Business

Credit...St. Martins PressApril 1, 2016Harold J. Morowitz, a boundlessly curious biophysicist who tackled mind-boggling enigmas ranging from the origin of life to the thermodynamics of pizza, died on March 22 in Falls Church, Va. He was 88.The cause was sepsis, his son Noah said.Trained as a physicist and a philosopher, Professor Morowitz was inspired in his scholarly speculation by the writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the mid-20th-century Jesuit paleontologist who developed the idea of the Omega Point, his term for a level of spiritual consciousness and material complexity toward which he believed the universe was evolving.Professor Morowitzs intellectual scope extended beyond the laboratory. He was a consultant to NASA on experiments conducted remotely on the surface of Mars and inside Biosphere 2, the worlds largest enclosed ecosystem.He was best known for applying thermodynamic theory to biology, exploring how the energy that flows through a system acts to organize that system.In his book Energy Flow in Biology (1968), Professor Morowitz examined how natural energy, in forms like lightning and heat, flowed through the antediluvian oceans primordial soup to create ecological systems that constituted life.All of biological process begins with the capture of solar photons and terminates with the flow of heat to the environment, he wrote in 1970 in Entropy for Biologists: An Introduction to Thermodynamics. Biology is at its roots a profoundly thermodynamic subject.Professor Morowitz argued that his theory on energy flow suggested that life, in some form, probably exists elsewhere in the universe.Harold Morowitz is one of the worlds seminal thinkers about the origin of life within the context of the physics of our universe, said James L. Olds, assistant director for the Directorate for Biological Sciences of the National Science Foundation.Insomuch as we have stars with elements that go through life and death cycles of their own, Dr. Olds said, Harold would say those physics and chemistry inevitably produce life.Still, Professor Morowitz was more confident dismissing dogma, like creationism or intelligent design, than specifying how life originated on Earth.In 1983, he testified in McLean v. Arkansas, a case that successfully challenged a state law mandating the teaching of creation science in Arkansas public schools. Professor Morowitz described creation science as somewhat deceptive and said its proponents play rather fast and loose with the use of the second law of thermodynamics to indicate that the natural origin of life would not be possible.Generally, that law states that any natural process involving heat and temperature in an isolated system progresses in the direction of increasing disorder, or entropy, of the system. But Professor Morowitz stressed that the Earth is not an isolated system.Energy can create order, Dr. Olds said, and life, if anything, is order.Professor Morowitz compared the antediluvian primordial soup to a common condiment.In his book Mayonnaise and the Origin of Life: Thoughts of Minds and Molecules (1985), he said the marriage of oil and vinegar wrought by egg yolk was a model for compounds that favor opposites, like fat at one end and water at the other. Those compounds form the boundaries of cells and tie molecules together, mirroring the self-replicating units of life.Harold Joseph Morowitz was born on Dec. 4, 1927, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., to Philip Morowitz, a newspaper and magazine distributor, and the former Anna Levine.He received a bachelor of science degree in physics and philosophy, a masters in physics and a doctorate in biophysics (when he was 23), all from Yale University.In addition to his son Noah, he is survived by his wife, the former Lucille Stein; three other sons, Eli, Joshua and Zachary; nine grandchildren; and two sisters, Iris Wiley and Bernice Regunberg.After working as a physicist for the National Bureau of Standards and the National Heart Institute, Professor Morowitz taught molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale from 1955 to 1987 (he also served as the master of Pierson College), then biology and natural philosophy at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.He was the founding director of the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason, the chairman emeritus of the science board of the Santa Fe Institute, founding editor of the journal Complexity, and the author or co-author of 19 books.He could explore vast topics. A book he published in 2002 is titled The Emergence of Everything: How the World Became Complex. And he could deprecate a United States Supreme Court opinion in a patent case that denied any distinction between animate and inanimate matter as the ultimate in reducing life to physics.Virtually no topic was too trivial for him to tease a more profound meaning from. He studied the effect of a gravity-free environment in space on how fast a fresh pizza gets cold.Once, when he received a birthday card that assessed a human bodys raw materials at only 97 cents, he recalculated the cost based on synthesized ingredients from a biochemical company catalog and re-evaluated his worth at more than $6 million.Information is much more expensive than matter, he wrote in 1976. We are led cent by dollar from a lowly pile of common materials to a grand philosophical conclusion, the infinite preciousness of every person.

science

Credit...Bulent Kilic/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesNov. 6, 2018ISTANBUL President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has kept the case of Jamal Khashoggi alive through a steady drip of leaks, forcing the Saudis to admit that the columnist and dissident was killed more than a month ago in their consulate in Istanbul.But for Mr. Erdogan, the case has always been broader than journalistic freedom or human rights abuses. And, in fact, Mr. Erdogans use of the case in the name of justice has left many deeply conflicted in Turkey, a country where tens of thousands of citizens have been caught up in a government crackdown since a coup attempt in 2016.The tactics Mr. Erdogan has used against the Saudis are much the same ones he has perfected against political enemies at home leaks planted by government sources and reported by friendly news outlets, which he then cites to destroy his opponents.That approach has become a staple of the presidents arsenal to spread intimidation and to crack down on dissent. He has been able to employ it so effectively, including against the Saudis, partly because of a compliant news media that he has fashioned over 16 years in power.But the same pro-government media outlets that have been a useful tool in the Khashoggi case have also published virulent content against many of those detained under the state of emergency. They include a well-known philanthropist and civil society activist, Osman Kavala, whom Mr. Erdogan described as the Soros of Turkey, referring to the billionaire George Soros.ImageCredit...Ozan Kose/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesRecently, finally despairing of Turkeys judicial process, Mr. Kavala issued a public statement through his lawyers for the first time since his detention in October last year. He has spent a year in solitary confinement at a maximum-security prison without trial.I just hope that my situation will contribute to understanding of the harm caused to the citizens and to the judiciary of the Republic of Turkey by this ill-fated custodial regime, he wrote.Like Mr. Kavala, more than 100,000 people have been imprisoned during the two-year state of emergency, including academics, lawyers, journalists and opposition politicians who had no obvious link to the coup attempt.About 50,000 people remain imprisoned two and a half years after the coup, according to figures published by Amnesty International. An additional 100,000 have been purged from their public-sector jobs.The human rights landscape in Turkey is desolate, Amnesty said recently, one characterized by mass detentions, prosecutions, intimidation and the silencing of independent civil society.ImageCredit...Erdem Sahin/EPA, via ShutterstockThat is especially so for journalists. Amnesty reported that 180 news outlets had been closed down since 2016, and 120 journalists detained.Turkey remains the worlds worst jailer for the second consecutive year, with 73 journalists behind bars, compared with 81 last year, the Committee to Protect Journalists wrote in its annual report in December. Dozens more still face trial, and fresh arrests take place regularly.International press freedom organizations used the Khashoggi case to highlight their concerns. Gruesome nature of #Khashoggi murder should not distract from #Turkeys own persecution of journalists, the Vienna-based International Press Institute posted on Twitter.But within Turkey, many remain fearful of voicing any criticism of Mr. Erdogan publicly, especially journalists, for whom his trumpeting of the Khashoggi case has presented a special quandary.None of the Turkish journalists unions issued statements of support when Mr. Khashoggi disappeared, and they are notably absent from the vigils held outside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.ImageCredit...Nicole Tung for The New York TimesThere was no political agenda in not making a statement, said Mustafa Kuleli, general secretary of the Journalists Union of Turkey. Journalist organizations in Turkey are trying to cope with colossal problems with very few professionals: thousands of trials against members, news organizations shut down, unemployment, poor working conditions.We are every day in the courts supporting journalists, he added. I understand why time could not be devoted to the Khashoggi case.Many of the journalists are ethnic Kurds and leftists accused of supporting outlawed organizations or the movement of an Islamist preacher, Fethullah Gulen, who is suspected of having instigated the coup attempt.Mr. Erdogan has branded them as terrorists, including a German-Turkish correspondent of Die Welt and board members of, Cumhurriyet, one of Turkeys oldest and most prestigious newspapers.Yasin Aktay, an adviser to Mr. Erdogan and a close friend of Mr. Khashoggis, made a separation between the imprisonment of Turkish journalists and the killing of the Saudi dissident commentator, who wrote for The Washington Post. Many of the journalists in Turkish jails were tied ideologically or were used by terrorist groups, in particular the pro-Kurdish journalists, he said.ImageCredit...Ozan Kose/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesThese radical ideas are being sponsored, he said. It is not because they believe, but because they are tools.Mr. Kavalas case is one of the most emblematic illustrations of the increasing authoritarianism of Mr. Erdogans government. He has been held on preliminary charges of having links to the instigators of the coup attempt and of using force to overthrow the government by supporting the Taksim Square protests of 2013 charges he denies. A year after his detention, he still has not been indicted.A wealthy businessman who ran arts and cultural initiatives for minorities in Turkey, often in partnership with European organizations, Mr. Kavala set out to fight his case through the judicial process.With each passing day, people who accuse me of attempting to abolish the constitutional order and the government come to realize more and more that I have nothing to do with these accusations, Mr. Kavala wrote.His lawyers said that after a year of trying to fight his case within the parameters of the law, they were compelled to publicize what they called the injustice of the process and the flagrant violations of Mr. Kavalas constitutional rights.ImageCredit...Emin Ozmen for The New York TimesHis arrest on charges of overthrowing the state and the constitutional order through force were completely without evidence, one of his lawyers, Ilkan Koyuncu, said.Before anything else, he is a man of dialogue, a man of reconciliation, a man of consensus, the lawyer said. In any period of his life, he was not a man to be associated with coercion and violence.Three lawyers described a litany of legal violations, including duress used in interrogation and the failure to bring Mr. Kavala before the appropriate criminal judge. They said they had filed 20 petitions in complaint.Mr. Kavalas detention without trial amounts to arbitrary detention, Mr. Koyuncu said.For many, the detention appeared to be a warning to others across civil society. In his drive for almost sultan-like powers in a new presidential system formed this summer, Mr. Erdogan has frequently lashed out at liberals, leftists and anyone with a connection to the West.Mr. Erdogan has treated those detained as personal enemies. When Mr. Kavala was detained, the president denounced him in an address to his parliamentary group the same before which he recently spoke on the Khashoggi case.There, he gave credence to newspapers smears that Mr. Kavala had funded the Taksim Square protests and had other nefarious ties hostile to Turkey.Some say he is civil society; he is a nice person, a good citizen, Mr. Erdogan said of Mr. Kavala. When you look, the same person is behind the Taksim events. You see them in the allocation of considerable funds to certain places. All the connections are revealed one by one.He ended with his signature nationalist jibe: As a nation, we will not bow down and we will ask them to pay for it.

World