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2019-09-12 00:00:00

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SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - El Salvador’s government will deploy at least 800 police to its borders with Honduras and Guatemala in a bid to thwart U.S.-bound migrants, officials said on Wednesday. A government statement said the deployment is set to begin on Thursday at La Hachadura, a border crossing with Guatemala near the Pacific coast and where hundreds of Salvadoran migrants have previously attempted to cross as part of large caravans. The police will be backed up by another 350 immigration officials who will review identification and travel documents of migrants seeking to cross, according to a Salvadoran government official. Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said after a White House meeting earlier this week there had been a significant decrease in U.S.-bound immigration through Mexico, especially from Central America, and he expected the trend to continue. El Salvador’s new president, Nayib Bukele, and acting U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan agreed late last month to collaborate more closely on migration and security. Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Writing by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Paul Tait

2019-12-04 13:25:26

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Adam Sandler says he will create a film "so bad on purpose" if he doesn&apost win an Oscar for his performance in "Uncut Gems."The 53-year-old actor told "The Howard Stern Show" it would be a "funny big thing" if he were to receive his first Oscar nomination."If I don&apost get it, I&aposm going to f---ing come back and do one again that is so bad on purpose just to make you all pay. That&aposs how I get them."The critically-acclaimed "Uncut Gems" directed by the Safdie brothers will be released in US theaters nationwide on December 25.Visit Insider&aposs homepage for more stories.Adam Sandler has threatened to punish people by making a film that is "so bad on purpose" if he does not win an Oscar for his performance in Uncut Gems.The day after he lost out to Adam Driver at the Gotham Awards, Sandler appeared on The Howard Stern Show to promote Uncut Gems, a thriller that has been hailed by critics as like "being locked inside the pinwheeling brain of a lunatic". 💎💎💎💎💎 #SpiritAwards⁣ @adamsandler @booger_nose @bowedtie A post shared by Uncut Gems (@uncutgems) on Nov 21, 2019 at 8:31pm PSTNov 21, 2019 at 8:31pm PST Sandler – whose career has been characterised by extreme highs and lows in terms of critical reception – has garnered rave reviews for his performance as a gambling addict in the movie, prompting him to quip, "That&aposs shocking, right?"The actor added that it would be a "funny big thing" if he were to receive an Oscar nomination, saying that he would be "there to win".He said: "If I don&apost get it, I&aposm going to f***ing come back and do one again that is so bad on purpose just to make you all pay. That&aposs how I get them."Alongside Sandler, major contenders for Best Actor Oscar nominations include Joaquin Phoenix for Joker, Driver for Marriage Story, Antonio Banderas for Pain and Glory, Robert De Niro for The Irishman and Leonardo DiCaprio for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.Read more:Brad Pitt says making movies with streaming services like Netflix means less pressure &aposto put butts in seats&aposWatch Adam Sandler and his daughters perform Taylor Swift&aposs &aposLover&apos for a star-studded audienceCritics trashed Adam Sandler&aposs &aposMurder Mystery,&apos but Netflix said 73 million households watched it in the first month Read the original article on The Independent. Copyright 2019. Follow The Independent on Twitter.

2019-09-12 00:00:00

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday rejected accusations that he misled the queen about his reasons for suspending Parliament just weeks before the U.K. is set to leave the European Union. "Absolutely not," Johnson said about lying after a Scottish court ruled that his advice to the queen, which triggered a five-week suspension of Parliament, was unlawful. "The High Court in England plainly agrees with us but the Supreme Court will have to decide." "We need a Queen's Speech, we need to get on and do all sorts of things at a national level," he added, according to CNN. Johnson on Tuesday suspended Parliament until Oct. 14, sparking backlash from legislators and legal challenges. That will give lawmakers mere weeks to iron out a deal before Johnson's self-imposed Oct. 31 Brexit deadline. A suspension requires the formal approval of the queen. Last week, the High Court in London said the decision to suspend Parliament was inherently political and “not a matter for the courts." The U.K. Supreme Court is set to consider next week whether the shutdown should be reversed, after conflicting rulings in the London and Scottish courts. Johnson has defended the suspension as necessary to launch a fresh domestic agenda next month. View the discussion thread. The Hill 1625 K Street, NW Suite 900 Washington DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 tel | 202-628-8503 fax The contents of this site are ©2019 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

2018-09-10 12:42:57

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Rediscovery Bruce Goff’s midcentury houses across the Midwest are symbols of both a heartland-born eccentricity and a distinct Modernism. So why has he been forgotten? AURORA, ILL., 45 miles west of Chicago, lies deep in suburbia: It’s the fictional setting of “Wayne’s World” and the real-life setting of my adolescent weekends at the mall. Behind a commercial strip lined with big-box stores, among the split-levels and center-hall colonials, in the kind of neighborhood where kids run through sprinklers on summer weekends, crouches a massive mushroom-cap dome, 48 feet in diameter. Formed by bright red Quonset hut ribs and flanked by two smaller partial domes, the structure — whose windowless front is done in inky coal masonry studded with rough-hewn chunks of aquamarine glass — looks like a spaceship that’s pulled up its jet bridge. From the back, where its red exoskeleton is exposed, it resembles a birdcage. This is the Ford House, designed in 1947 by Bruce Goff, a prolific and startlingly original midcentury architect who remains, outside of design circles, largely unknown. When one thinks of the architecture of the Midwest, one thinks, of course, of the elegantly autocratic Frank Lloyd Wright and his Prairie School houses: With their tiers of low-pitched roofs, jutting eaves and bands of leaded-glass windows, these homes came to define organic Modernism and redefine the relationship between environment and habitation. One thinks, too, of Wright’s mentor, Louis Sullivan, who is regarded as the father of Modern architecture for first uttering the phrase “form ever follows function” but who is probably better known for the eight jewel-box banks he built in Midwestern towns. Yet now, in our era of elegantly restrained and frequently dour minimalism, when architecture is almost always the province of the rich, it may be that Goff, with his aesthetic idiosyncrasies and affinity for middle-class Midwestern clients (schoolteachers, farmers, salesmen, small-town newspaper publishers), still has lessons to teach us, 36 years after his death. His daring, elaborately imagined homes — he loved unusual shapes and made ample use of found materials — are often dismissed by cultural mandarins as overly futuristic and corny, but they possess a warmth, an earthiness and a wild ingenuity that serve as an antidote to the soberly luxurious, the pared down and the austere. Among Goff’s unconventional masterworks was the Bavinger House, designed in 1950 for artist friends in Norman, Okla. This 96-foot-long logarithmic sandstone spiral coiled around a steel pole from which the architect suspended the roof, the stairs and what he called “five living areas in the shape of carpeted bowls.” The ground floor featured an “indoor water garden,” as Goff put it, through which the Bavingers waded via steppingstones, like characters in a nursery rhyme, to reach the dining area. Here, they sat on carpet-covered foam pads arranged around a revolving mirrored dining table that reflected the moods of the sky. (I like to imagine that marijuana was sometimes involved.) Then there’s the radically geometric Nicol House, built in Kansas City, Mo., in 1967. An octagonal conversation pit surrounded by octagonal bedrooms — each painted its own deep hue, like blueberry or fuchsia — it also has triangular windows and a hexagonal pool in the yard. Crown-shaped and covered in pale-green hexagonal shingles, the house today resembles a frosted cake. Bill Gryder, who grew up in Ocean Springs, Miss., where he still owns a Goff house — an arresting violet-hued swoop that Dalí could have painted — told me that his flashy, headstrong mother (a housewife married to the owner of a chain of shoe stores) read about Goff’s work in a magazine at the beauty parlor and called to ask him to design her a house. “Her favorite color,” Gryder tells me, “was glitz.” Goff’s homes were not for the minimalist. His audaciousness may seem surprising given that he built his most important projects in Illinois, Oklahoma, Kansas, Minnesota and Mississippi — in the spiritual Midwest, if not the Midwest proper. Goff designed about 500 structures, roughly a third of which were realized and an unknown number of which survive. Many were private homes constructed during his prolific postwar period, from 1947 to 1955, when he was the chair of the University of Oklahoma’s School of Architecture. A beloved teacher with no interest in cultivating acolytes, the gentle, unassuming Goff taught students to find and shepherd their own creative instincts. But he was also a quiet eccentric who often wore disco-print shirts and bolo ties and decorated his office with oversize silver snowflakes, sheets of translucent plastic and his own abstract paintings. At night, he would gather students in a lecture hall, turn off the lights and play classical records, encouraging them to meditate on their ideas in the dark. For anyone who has lived in the Midwest, among the hushed suburban conformity and tidy green lawns, it’s not remotely shocking that an untamable imagination like Goff’s could arise from — and was perhaps even animated by — the area’s vast, monotonous landscapes and often conservative attitudes. This is, after all, the region that produced Mark Twain, Walt Disney, Richard Pryor, F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Surrealist painter Dorothea Tanning. Goff could arguably only have worked far from the cultural-elite coasts, in a place where people are not bound by the constraints of space, fashions, tradition, history or even conventional good taste. IT IS DIFFICULT TO CONSIDER Goff apart from the specter of Wright, with whom he had a complicated friendship. The two men first made contact when the teenage Goff — a prodigy born in small-town Kansas, whose watch-repairman father apprenticed him to the top architecture firm in Tulsa, Okla., at the age of 12 — wrote to the famous older man, who was 37 years his senior, asking whether he should get an architecture degree. Wright cautioned against it, saying that if he went to school, he might “lose Bruce Goff.” Goff listened. By age 15, his first house was under construction. By 21, he’d designed the Boston Avenue Methodist Church in downtown Tulsa, a soaring Art Deco-Gothic masterpiece. Wright came to view Goff as one of the few truly creative American architects (the establishment was not always so kind), but their relationship was, at least for Goff, always uneasy. The men shared a fascination with geometric invention and the belief that a building should respond to the surrounding natural world. And it was Goff who, in 1952, suggested that the industrialist Harold C. Price hire Wright to build his Bartlesville, Okla., headquarters — Wright’s only high-rise (now an arts center and luxury hotel). But for the most part, Goff held the famous architect at a distance, declining to join the Taliesin Fellowship, the apprenticeship program Wright established on his Wisconsin estate. Goff’s early homes in Chicago gesture toward Wright’s, but by 1940, keenly aware that the architect judged his followers harshly and wary of being compared to him, the younger man began to move in his own direction. “The Wright influence has finally been assimilated,” Goff wrote, “and my own voice, small as it was, was speaking.” Goff created environments that were unique to each client. Still, his structures shared certain leitmotifs. Most significantly, he favored dramatic geometries: Life magazine noted that he scorned “boxes with little holes” and, in 1948, profiled his Ledbetter House in Norman — a split-level with irregular stone walls and what look like red flying saucers floating over the carport and terrace. His homes were instead spherical, triangular, octagonal, curvilinear, cylindrical. His open floor plans were also unorthodox, as were the colors he used. The 1965 Dace House in Beaver, Okla., a series of silo-like cylinders, was done in rust red, like a barn on the prairie. The 1971 Harder House in Mountain Lake, Minn. — a low-slung, rustic structure that might have emerged from a German fairy tale — had a roof made of carpet in the unmistakable orange of the era. With his use of vernacular and castoff materials, including salvaged oil-field pipe and jute rope, Goff simultaneously anticipated the age of sustainable architecture and enshrined the flotsam of American industry and mass-product design, elevating everyday items to decorative art. He began incorporating found objects while in a Navy construction battalion during World War II, and he continued this practice even in the absence of wartime shortages. Sequins, old aircraft struts, tin cookie cutters and strips of clear plastic “rain” all appeared in his work. Walls of anthracite coal embedded with bluish-green cullet (waste glass culled from the kiln during glassmaking) became a trademark, as did doors decorated with dime-store ashtrays. The Hopewell Baptist Church in Edmond, Okla., featured a 35-foot chandelier made of metal cake pans and plastic coasters. Aficionados of such ornamental flourishes affectionately call them “Goffitecture.” In another person’s hands, they would have been camp, but Goff did not design with a winking, ironic eye. His use of uncommon materials reached its apotheosis at Shin’enKan, the 1958 bachelor pad he built for his patron Joe Price — the wealthy son of Harold and one of the world’s foremost collectors of Edo-period Japanese art — and continued to expand upon for the next 18 years. The critic Ada Louise Huxtable called the mansion “a Playboy dream, if Playboy were an architect”: It had a hexagonal white shag-upholstered conversation pit in a capacious main room that seated 75, exterior walls covered in gold-anodized aluminum, cabinets of African zebra wood and a ceiling appliquéd with white goose feathers. TODAY, MANY OF GOFF’S HOUSES are crumbling, with no cult of restoration-minded architectural buffs working to save them. Two of his greatest creations have been destroyed entirely: Shin’enKan, which Joe Price donated to the University of Oklahoma in 1985, burned down in a 1996 arson; a few years ago, after more than a decade of neglect, the Bavinger House was razed by the son of its original owners. There are several reasons Goff’s legacy has been more or less forgotten: his unfashionable taste for embellishment with what some would call junk; his indifference to branding and refusal to develop a signature style; and his being a gay man in the mid-20th century in less-than-progressive Oklahoma. (In 1955, he was forced to resign from the university after being arrested for “contributing to the delinquency of a minor.”) It also doesn’t help that one of his few public buildings, the magnificent Pavilion for Japanese Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which houses much of Joe Price’s collection, came at the end of his career (and was finished posthumously by the architect Bart Prince). But his obscurity also stems in part from the fact that he worked far from the corridors of cool. His homes celebrated his clients’ modest roots without condescension (they were his roots, too) or heartland clichés. His work shows us what Midwesterners have always known, and what people have recently begun to say quite vociferously: that there has long been a strain of creative radicalism in places discounted as having none. After his university departure, Goff worked for another 27 years, right up until his death in 1982 — he lived for a time in Wright’s Bartlesville high-rise, then moved to Kansas City and later to Tyler, Tex. — but never quite regained the momentum of his early career. His gravesite on the North Side of Chicago is marked by a triangular plaque cast in bronze that reads “Bruce Goff Architect” in the Art Deco font he used to sign his sketches. It’s adorned with a hunk of turquoise cullet salvaged from the burned remains of Shin’enKan. But a mere hour to the west sits the Ford House, a spectacular emblem of his relevance. Inside, a domed ceiling of pale cypress in a meticulous chevron pattern arcs to meet midnight-black coal walls. In the soft winter light, the aquamarine glass gleams like unmined gemstones. Standing there, you realize that Goff’s designs possess a beauty and rigor that gets obscured by their playfulness; he’s like Twain, another quintessentially American genius, with a seriousness lurking just beneath his puckish surface. Goff’s work, the scholar David G. De Long has written, “broadened levels of acceptance of the original and the untried.” That was no small feat in the Midwest at midcentury, and it’s not a minor one now. His oeuvre stands as a reminder that weirdness in unexpected precincts can be electrifying and edifying. Of course, in its rebuke to conformity, it can also be terrifying. “If you’re frightened of difference,” Sidney Robinson, the architect and historian who bought the Ford House in 1986, tells me, “this is a very unsettling place.” An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the Nicol House; the house’s shingles are pale green and hexagonal, not white and fish-scale.

2018-01-16

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(Updates with details, background, share performance) SAO PAULO, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Embraer SA delivered 23 commercial aircraft in the fourth quarter, the Brazilian planemaker said on Tuesday, down sharply from 32 planes a year earlier, but hit its 2017 output targets due to strong volumes in the first half of the year. Deliveries of executive jets rose to 50 aircraft in the quarter from 43 jets a year earlier, driven by seven more deliveries of Embraer’s entry-level Phenom 100, according to a securities filing. Embraer has warned that revenue and profits may suffer this year during the transition to a new family of E-Jet commercial aircraft, which is likely to slow deliveries and burn cash. In 2017, the 101 jetliners delivered came near the top of Embraer’s target range of 97 to 102 E-Jets. The company’s 109 executive jets delivered in 2017 came near the bottom of a target range of 105 to 125 Phenom, Legacy and Lineage aircraft. Embraer shares edged up 0.3 percent in early trading on the Sao Paulo stock exchange. The planemaker’s backlog of firm orders, a gauge of future revenue, slipped 2.7 pct to $18.3 billion in December from $18.8 billion in September. (Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Brad Haynes and Chizu Nomiyama)

2019-09-19 00:00:00

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PARIS (Reuters) - Air France-KLM (AIRF.PA) and easyJet (EZJ.L) withdrew competing offers for Aigle Azur on Thursday after missing an overnight court deadline to improve their bids to acquire part of the collapsed budget airline’s operations and staff. An Air France spokeswoman confirmed it had decided against submitting an expected joint offer with long-haul niche carrier Air Caraibes because “our conditions for doing so weren’t met”. EasyJet said it had also pulled out but remains committed to France and its operations at Paris Orly airport. Aigle Azur, the biggest shareholders of which are China’s HNA Group and Brazilian entrepreneur David Neeleman, has suffered in the wake of a botched long-haul expansion. Now the withdrawal of three major bidders delivers a blow to government-backed efforts to sell off parts of Aigle Azur’s business and save a large proportion of its 1,150 jobs. The airline’s unfolding bankruptcy is the latest among smaller European airlines struggling to contend with higher fuel costs and stiff low-cost competition. The privately held carrier, founded in 1946 to serve Algeria and other North African routes, was granted protection from creditors this month and grounded its fleet of 11 Airbus jets within days, stranding about 19,000 passengers. FAST-CHANGING Lionel Guerin, a former Air France executive who had tabled and then withdrawn an offer, has submitted a new bid that requires a 15 million euro ($16.6 million) French government loan, according to French news site La Tribune, which first reported Air France’s withdrawal. Air France, easyJet and other bidders are attracted by Aigle Azur’s valuable take-off and landing slots at Orly as well as flying rights to foreign destinations, which become harder or impossible to acquire piecemeal under liquidation. But absorbing Aigle Azur operations would have required Air France to negotiate a complex deal with its own unions within days, waiving internal rules that bar it from granting any senior or flight captain roles to new hires. EasyJet also pulled out because it believed the deadlines were too short for an adequate assessment of the business and acquisition risks, a source briefed on the decision said. During the bankruptcy proceedings it emerged that Aigle Azur’s debts amounted to 148 million euros - more than previously estimated and equating to about half its 2018 revenue. Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari remains in contact with potential buyers and their unions in a “fast-changing situation”, a French official said, adding that bidders can legally cancel any withdrawal within 48 hours. Reuters was unable to contact Guerin, and a spokeswoman for Air Caraibes parent Dubreuil Group did not respond to requests for comment. The Evry commercial court near Paris had ordered Aigle Azur’s liquidation under a “going concern” process that buys more time for a potential rescue. Hearings resume on Sept. 23, with liquidation scheduled four days later. Air France shares were up 0.1% at 9.12 euros by 1553 GMT, while easyJet was little changed. ($1 = 0.9052 euros) Reporting by Laurence Frost; Writing by Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Alexander Smith and David Goodman

2017-05-25 05:51:27

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Plenty of political intelligence firms make money exchanging information between Washington and Wall Street — the data is, after all, valuable stuff for hedge funds. But one hedge fund crossed the line into insider trading, the authorities in the United States have said. David Blaszczak, a Washington consultant, and four other men were accused Wednesday of using confidential information about government financing to trade shares in health care companies that would be affected by the changes. Three current and former partners at Deerfield Management, a health care hedge fund firm, paid Mr. Blaszczak to provide inside information about policy decisions at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, leading to millions of dollars in illegal profits, prosecutors and regulators said. Two of the partners, Rob Olan and Ted Huber, were named in the indictment on Wednesday. Jordan Fogel, who worked at Deerfield from 2006 until last year, was charged separately and pleaded guilty this month. Federal prosecutors have been investigating for more than a year, and it is the most prominent insider-trading case to be filed by the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan since its chief, Preet Bharara, was fired in March. The centers spend more than $1 trillion a year on health care programs and are major buyers of medical devices, drugs and services. When Dow Chemical and DuPont agreed to a deal in 2015, they said they would merge and then split into three companies. But that agreement is now up in the air. After a year of peace, the activist investor Daniel S. Loeb plans to push publicly for more changes, according to The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times, which cite a presentation by Mr. Loeb. Dow and DuPont said they were reviewing their plan after coming under shareholder pressure to alter the makeup of the three new companies. Mr. Loeb wants to split the resulting company into as many as six publicly traded entities, arguing that this structure could create as much as $20 billion in additional value. Before Donald J. Trump assumed the American presidency, he promised that his company would donate to the United States Treasury “all profits” from foreign government patronage of his hotels. But that promise is proving hard to keep. “To fully and completely identify all patronage at our properties by customer type is impractical in the service industry,” the Trump Organization wrote in a document that was shared with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. That disclosure has raised new questions about whether the president could run afoul of a provision in the Constitution known as the Emoluments Clause, which prohibits federal government officials from accepting gifts from foreign governments. • OPEC ministers will meet in Vienna. The organization has agreed to cuts in oil production, which have bolstered oil prices, but energy experts say they do not expect this to make a huge difference to markets. “This meeting is more about forestalling an oil price collapse than driving prices higher,” Bill Farren-Price, chief executive of Petroleum Policy Intelligence, an advisory firm, said. “Members generally judged that it would be prudent to await additional evidence indicating that the recent slowdown in the pace of economic activity had been transitory before taking another step in removing accommodation.” — The United States Federal Reserve’s account of the Federal Open Market Committee’s meeting in May. Analysts say they still expect the Fed to raise rates at its next meeting.

2018-05-17 10:39:00

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Nikki Bella has babies on her mind. In a new clip from the upcoming premiere of Total Bellas on Sunday, Brie Bella brings her daughter Birdie to visit sister Nikki and then-fiance John Cena in San Diego. And all seems to be going well for the group — until Nikki suggests putting a nursery in the house for Birdie. “I wish she was staying here,” Nikki says to Brie. “We need to make it a nursery.” But when Nikki turns to look at Cena, he has a blank expression on his face as he sits there quietly. Nikki admits that she never thought she could have such a strong “connection with a baby.” “I just look at Birdie’s face and never thought I could have this connection with a baby,” Nikki says during an on-camera interview with Brie. “I want to give her everything and make sure she has the greatest life. I’ve never felt that unconditional love.” Brie then suggests that perhaps her bond with Birdie is a sign. “Or Birdie is placed here on this planet to let you know you can have a connection like that with your own,” she says. Nikki called off her engagement to Cena three weeks before they were meant to walk down the aisle. Sources previously told PEOPLE that her decision to break up was due to their differing stances on marriage and having kids. Both Cena and Nikki have suggested a reconciliation is possible in recent interviews. The WWE Diva, 34, opened up about her relationship with Cena, 40, while promoting Total Bellas in New York on Wednesday, telling PEOPLE she’s hopeful that they will still get married one day. “Only time can tell,” she said. “I definitely do [think we will get married]. I think he’s Mr. Right. He’s Prince Charming. He’s an amazing man. I hope that our paths do come back together and I think they will.” Total Bellas premieres May 20 at 9 p.m. ET, on E!

2017-04-05 00:00:00

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April 5 (Reuters) - Portworx * Portworx says has raised $20 million in an oversubscribed series B funding round Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:

2020-02-28 00:00:00

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Twitter earlier this month verified an account for a fake 2020 congressional candidate created by a teenager. The account was for a fictional Republican congressional candidate from Rhode Island named Andrew Walz. His Twitter bio claimed that Walz was a "proven business leader" and a "passionate advocate for students," CNN Business first reported. The owner of the account was a 17-year-old high schooler from upstate New York who, according to the network, made the account over the holidays because he was "bored." View the discussion thread. The Hill 1625 K Street, NW Suite 900 Washington DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 tel | 202-628-8503 fax The contents of this site are ©2020 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

2018-05-18 00:00:00

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next Image 1 of 2 prev Image 2 of 2 SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina – The Latest on migrants in Europe (all times local): 1:20 p.m. Germany&aposs asylum authority says it will re-examine some 18,000 cases handled by one of its regional offices amid a scandal over the improper granting of asylum requests. Jutta Cordt, the head of Germany&aposs Federal Office for Migration, said Friday that the office will review all cases since 2000 in which people were granted asylum by its branch in Bremen, the country&aposs smallest state. In April, prosecutors said at least 1,200 asylum requests, mostly by members of Syria&aposs Yazidi minority, may have been wrongly approved between 2013 and 2016. The former head of the Bremen branch office is being investigated on suspicion of corruption. Cordt says her authority so far has reviewed some 4,400 decisions by various branches and found that cases handled by Bremen were by far the most problematic. ___ 12:20 p.m. A convoy of buses with about 270 migrants, including children, has been stuck in central Bosnia, reflecting the chaotic situation in the war-scarred Balkan country as it struggles to cope with the influx. Authorities were transporting migrants Friday from Sarajevo, the capital, toward a center for asylum-seekers near the southwestern town of Mostar, but the regional authorities there didn&apost allow them in. The buses then have returned into the Sarajevo district and remain blocked. Local media say there are 18 children among the migrants, who are frightened and confused. Bosnia&aposs authorities earlier on Friday dismantled a migrant tent settlement in central Sarajevo to move them to the Mostar area. Interior Minister Dragan Mektic told N1 television that the convoy blockade there amounted to a "coup d&aposetat."

2017-09-01

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(Adds August performance, T-bills; Updates prices) * Manufacturing, consumer sentiment data strong * Confusion over wage revisions whipsaws yields * North Korea concerns keep bid for bonds * Treasury bills reflect debt ceiling concerns By Karen Brettell NEW YORK, Sept 1 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury yields rose on Friday as strong manufacturing data boosted sentiment that economic growth is solid, even after the August jobs report was weaker than economists expected. The Institute for Supply Management said its index for factory activity soared to 58.8 in August, the highest reading since April 2011. U.S. consumer sentiment also climbed in August. “It’s more positive data, rolling on what was although not a great employment report, nothing to worry about either,” said Thomas Simons, a money market economist at Jefferies in New York. The Labor Department said earlier on Friday that nonfarm payrolls increased by 156,000 last month, below expectations. Average hourly earnings rose three cents, or 0.1 percent, after advancing 0.3 percent in July. Treasury yields fell immediately after the report on what analysts said was a data provider erroneously showing a downward revision in July wage growth. After it became clear there was no such revision, yields turned higher. “People initially looked at the hourly earnings, the revision down. That’s been changed,” said Justin Lederer, an interest rate strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald in New York. Benchmark 10-year yields fell to 2.10 percent in the immediate aftermath of the jobs data. They rose to 2.16 percent after the strong manufacturing figures. The Federal Reserve is expected to announce plans to pare its balance sheet at its September meeting, with an interest rate hike in December also viewed as possible. The jobs data “stills sets up for the balance sheet reduction in September, and we’ll still see a 50/50 chance of a December rate hike,” Lederer said. Trading volumes have fallen as investors hesitate to buy Treasuries with yields near their lowest levels since late last year. On Tuesday, 10-year Treasury yields dropped as low as 2.086 percent, the lowest since Nov. 10, on safety buying after North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan’s northern Hokkaido island into the sea. August was the best month for Treasuries since June 2016, with a total return of 1.13 percent, according to Bank of America/Merrill Lynch Fixed Income Index data. Some Treasury bill yields also jumped on Friday on concern over whether the U.S. government will be able to raise the debt ceiling later this month. Yields on bills that mature on Oct. 5 jumped to 1.25 percent, up from 1.11 percent late on Thursday. (Additional reporting by Dan Burns; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) )

2016-04-10 18:20:00

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Idina Menzel, eat your heart out. Beau Dermott, a 12-year-old school girl, blew the judges away when she belted out an incredible rendition of Menzel’s Wicked hit, “Defying Gravity,” on Britain’s Got Talent Saturday. The adorable blonde girl appeared shy when she first walked out onstage, but she soon transformed once she began singing, nailing every note with her surprisingly powerful voice. Beau not only won over the crowd (who gave her a standing ovation) but also won the coveted golden buzzer from judge Amanda Holden – meaning she won a free pass straight to the show’s live semi-finals. Even judge Simon Cowell couldn’t hide his smile after Beau’s performance, saying, “We weren’t expecting that.” (That’s high praise from Cowell, mind you.) Beau’s powerful performance was reminiscent of another Britain’s Got Talent surprise – Susan Boyle, who shot to international stardom with her drop-everything-and-watch-this performance of “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Misérables in 2009.

2018-09-18 14:59:00

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Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith‘s love has lasted decades — and Will is commemorating it on the actress’ 47th birthday. Will posted a sweet shot of the two snoozing on a plane to celebrate her birthday on Tuesday. The snap sees the pair leaning into each other as they serenely nap. The post also included a throwback shot of the two hilariously mugging for the camera. “Wow… 24 Birthdays together! Happy Bday, My Queen. Let’s Go Get 24 more,” Will wrote. Will and Jada got married in 1997 after dating for a few years. They welcomed son Jaden, 20, in 1998 and daughter Willow, 17, in 2000. In early July, Will, 49, opened up about his strong relationship with Jada on TIDAL’s Rap Radar podcast, during which he revealed that he sees their relationship as more than a marriage. “We don’t even say we’re married anymore. We refer to ourselves as life partners,” he said. “Where you get into a space where you realize you are literally with somebody for the rest of your life. There’s no deal breakers.” “There’s nothing she could do — ever. Nothing that would break our relationship. She has my support till death, you know what I mean and it feels so good to get to that space where you’re not complaining, and worry, and demanding that a person be a certain thing,” he added. Continued Smith on the podcast, “This right now is the best time in my life, ever, I’ve never been happier.”

2017-01-17 14:27:00

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This article originally appeared on Noisey UK.  Back in November 2016, Dev Hynes played a set for Pennsylvania's Boiler Room Weekender and official video footage of the full concert is now online to save your dreary January. If you would like to feel the aural equivalent of floating on air, I would highly recommend taking a look. Dev's 40-minute set spans much of the Blood Orange catalog, with his brand of angelic-chamber-music-meets-seedy-LA-dive-bar-soundtrack (complete with a dancer, pink curtain, and indoor palm tree in this particular case) in full effect. Featuring a combination of Freetown Sound cuts ("Better Than Me," "With Him," "Augustine") and older tracks like "Sandra's Smile" and Cupid Deluxe's "You're Not Good Enough," it's an insight into the live show of one of the UK's most talented musical exports—and its quietly ethereal vibe will leave you feeling cleansed, I promise. Watch Dev Hynes' Boiler Room Weekender set below: (Image via YouTube)

2017-01-18 00:00:00

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(CNN)President-elect Donald Trump picked the final member of his Cabinet on Wednesday, landing on former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue to serve as agriculture secretary and in the process locking in an inaugural Cabinet devoid of any Latino representation. Trump will name Perdue to head the Agriculture Department on Thursday, a transition official told CNN on Wednesday. The other top contender for the post was former California Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado, who is Hispanic. The announcement will seal the makeup of Trump's inaugural Cabinet should all of his nominees be confirmed by the Senate. Only two of Trump's Cabinet appointees are ethnic minorities: Ben Carson, Trump's pick to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development is black and his choice for transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, is Asian. Trump also tapped Nikki Haley, the Indian-American governor of South Carolina, to serve as UN ambassador, which is a Cabinet-rank post, but not an official member of the Cabinet. Latinos have served in Cabinet positions in every presidential administration since 1988. But Trump's break with that precedent is even more notable given his divisive and inflammatory rhetoric about Latinos during his presidential campaign. Trump kicked off his campaign by labeling undocumented Mexican immigrants criminals and "rapists" and vowed to deport all undocumented immigrants living in the US during his campaign. Trump interviewed several Latinos for the two final Cabinet posts he sought to fill -- leaders for the Departments of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs -- but landed instead on white men for both posts. Thirteen of Trump's picks to form his official 16-member Cabinet are white men. Following reports of the agriculture pick, Georgia Sen. David Perdue, the former Georgia governor's cousin, went online to send his congratulations. "Couldn't be prouder of my cousin Sonny Perdue for being nominated to be our next secretary of agriculture," Perdue wrote in a post on Twitter and Facebook.

2017-05-08 00:00:00

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May 8 (Reuters) - Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc: * Regeneron and Inovio enter immuno-oncology clinical study agreement for glioblastoma combination therapy * Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc - study will be conducted by inovio in patients with newly-diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme * Regeneron-Study to evaluate co’s pd-1 inhibitor, regn2810, with Inovio’s ino-5401 t cell activating immunotherapy encoding multiple antigens and ino-9012 * Regeneron - trial will be solely conducted and funded by inovio, based upon a mutually agreed upon study design, and regeneron will supply regn2810 * Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc - Inovio and regeneron will jointly conduct immunological analyses in support of study * Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc - Regeneron, in collaboration with Sanofi, is developing regn2810 both alone and in combination with other therapies Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:

2018-07-27 00:00:00

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Vic Mensa ain't backing down from defending Chi town against Tekashi69, but he is changing his tune when it comes to how he whoops his ass. We spoke to the Chicago rapper about calling out 6ix9ine for disrespecting his hometown and challenging him to throw hands, and Vic admitted he's cooled down on the violence. Waiting for your permission to load the Instagram Media. Vic admits he gets a little hot when it comes to protecting his city, but insists he doesn't want to promote violence and killing ... especially in the wake of the recent tragedy with XXXTentacion. Still, he wants Tekashi to know his invitation to throw down still stands -- but he wants to meet in a particular video game arena.

2018-10-21 17:40:31

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At Temple Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, a flagship Jewish congregation in the Reform tradition since the 19th century, services have traditionally been a formal and grand affair, with “thee” and “thou” in the prayer book, an ethereal choir and a towering sanctuary glowing with stained glass. But even amid the splendor, which is always so much greater than any one person, there was something unique about Rabbi David M. Posner, the congregation’s senior rabbi, who died of complications of Alzheimer’s disease on Friday at age 70. For one, it was Rabbi Posner himself, and not a cantor, who would blow the shofar on the Jewish High Holy Days, playing the horn with a skill so recognized that a recording of it was used in a Broadway production of Stephen Schwartz’s “Godspell.” And then there was the emotion he would bring to his prayer. On High Holy Days, for example, when he asked the congregation to remember the unrecognized and the nameless, “there would be tears running down his cheeks at the pulpit,” Fred Modell, a congregant, recalled. “I’ve never seen that.” Rabbi Posner, who served for 40 years as a congregational rabbi at Temple Emanu-El, seemed to have a natural affinity for those who toil and suffer in privacy, Mr. Modell and others said. The sick. Children with learning problems. The forgotten or ignored. That was perhaps because he himself was a thoughtful, meticulous man, not a showboat, though he led one of the premier Reform institutions in the Jewish world, which now has about 2,300 members. Rather than forming institutes or posing with politicians, he liked to stay at the temple — his battle station, as he called it — waiting for his congregants to call. He kept blue note cards on each of the congregation’s families, carefully noting each birth, marriage and death. “I am a theological pediatrician — I’ve been saying that for years,” he said in a 2012 interview with The New York Times. “I take care of God’s children.” David Marc Posner was born on Nov. 4, 1947, in Atlantic City to Ralph and Doris (Silver) Posner. His mother was a homemaker who later became a schoolteacher; his father was an executive at a shipping logistics company. The family moved to Brownsville, Brooklyn, when David was a child. It was a tough neighborhood, and he responded by being studious and learning the piano. At 10, he told his family he wanted to be a rabbi. At 12, he met Sylvia Smialy, whom he called the most beautiful girl in the world. They married when he was 21. “I am a gornisht next to my wife, a nothing,” he said in 2012. They had attended Meyer Levin Junior High School and Samuel J. Tilden High School, both in Brooklyn. Rabbi Posner graduated first in his class at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati in the early 1970s and straightaway went to work at Temple Emanu-El, which had given him a scholarship to attend rabbinical school. Though he had invitations to work elsewhere, he never left. He was promoted to senior rabbi in 2002. When he retired in 2012, the 2,500-seat sanctuary was filled for the farewell. Consistency was a hallmark of his life. He moved into a building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in 1973 and remained there until his death. He ate at the same restaurant for breakfast with his wife every weekday morning. He was also a respected scholar of comparative Semitic languages, having learned the ancient languages of Aramaic and Syriac as well as Hebrew and Arabic. He excelled at their grammar in particular. “People would call him with all kinds of questions,” said Rabbi Amy B. Ehrlich, who served with him. “He was like a walking reference encyclopedia.” In 1988, Rabbi Posner received a doctorate in piano pedagogy from Columbia University, and while he loved playing Brahms, Schumann and Chopin, he could also happily spend an hour playing scales. In 2005 he became a member of the board of governors of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the Reform seminary. He served as rabbi to some of New York’s famous Jewish figures, including Michael R. Bloomberg, the former mayor, and officiated at many important funerals, including that of Mayor Ed Koch in 2013. He was also known to reach out on a personal level to other religious leaders. “He was one of the first to welcome me here to New York,” Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, the archbishop of New York, said in a statement, “and his very character displayed the best of interreligious amity that we New Yorkers cherish.” Above all, he was “the consummate pastor,” said his successor at Temple Emanu-El, Rabbi Joshua M. Davidson. Along with his wife, who confirmed his death, Rabbi Posner is survived by his children, Rachel and Raph Posner; a brother, Herbert; a sister, Miriam Posner Rotfus; and four grandchildren. From early on in his career, Rabbi Posner expressed an openness to intermarriage, not wanting to exclude any Jewish person who wanted a rabbi at his or her wedding. He would officiate jointly with a priest or a minister. He was presiding at commitment ceremonies between single-sex couples as far back as the 1990s, his son, Raph, said. He would also help children with disabilities to have bar and bat mitzvahs, even if it meant an extra year for them to prepare, his wife, Sylvia, said. When Mr. Modell and his wife, Vicki Modell, joined Temple Emanu-El in 1975, their 5-year-old son, Jeffrey, was grappling with primary immunodeficiency, a genetic condition in which the body struggles to fight disease. Rabbi Posner spent years tutoring Jeffrey so that he could have a bar mitzvah. When Jeffrey became critically ill at 15, Rabbi Posner spent countless hours with the family. He then presided at the boy’s funeral. Several years later, when the Modells decided that they wanted to create a foundation to help other American children with the same disease, Rabbi Posner urged them to reach even further. Today, the Jeffrey Modell Foundation has 350 centers in 86 countries on six continents, Mr. Modell said. All infants in the United States are now tested for the condition at birth. Mr. Modell said, “This foundation became a global enterprise starting with David Posner, who said: ‘Open your arms. If you are going to help children in the United States, help them everywhere.’ ”

2019-08-14

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Quarterback Baker Mayfield doesn’t care if other clubs think the Cleveland Browns are being overhyped. Mayfield insists that the Browns are worried about their locker room, not the noise coming from others. “You’ve got to believe in it and take it one week at a time. Because I wouldn’t say that everybody wants to beat us,” the 24-year-old Mayfield said in an interview with Complex Sports. “I think in the media and everything that comes with the hype around our team right now, people want to see us lose, just because the hype is so real. But we’ve got to go out there and take it one week at a time. We’re trying to win every week.” Mayfield wasn’t done. “It went from having excitement over Bud Light coolers being opened to now people waiting to see us lose so they can say, ‘Oh, they got too hyped up.’ That’s why you’ve got to have an even-keel mindset when it comes to that stuff.” The Browns made a series of offseason moves following their 7-8-1 mark in 2018, most notably naming Freddie Kitchens as head coach and acquiring Pro Bowl wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., running back Kareem Hunt and defensive end Olivier Vernon. Mayfield was 6-7 as the starter last year, throwing for 3,725 yards and setting an NFL rookie record with 27 touchdown passes. —Field Level Media

2019-09-18 03:42:00

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The Frankfurt Motor Show kicked off this week and runs until September 22, serving as a showcase for the German auto industry.German automakers staged numerous debuts.Land Rover revealed its much-anticipated Defender SUV.Here are the coolest new cars and concepts.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.The Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung (IAA), colloquially known as the Frankfurt Motor Show, is held every other year and serves as a showcase for the German auto industry.Media previews kicked off last week, with debuts from Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz, as well as other non-Teutonic car makers, including Jaguar Land Rover.Electric vehicles both conceptual and practical populated the show floor. But much of the pre-show chatter was about the weakening of Germany's stalwart auto industry, amid a broader discussion about a downturn in Europe.The Frankfurt Motor Show runs until September 22. Here are the coolest concepts and production vehicles: Audi showed its wild AI:TRAIL concept, an all-electric, autonomous off-roader that capitalizes on Audi's rally-racing heritage and the legendary quattro all-wheel-drive system. It has drones instead of headlights! Audi showed its RS 6 Avant in Frankfurt. The high-performance wagon will have a hybrid V8 under the hood. BMW unveiled its 3 Series Touring estate. The BWM SUV party in Frankfurt also included the refreshed X1 ... ... And a the third-generation of the X6 "Sports Activity Coupé," as BMW prefers to label the fastback version of the X5 SUV. The BMW 8 Series Gran Coupé, a sleek and powerful sedan from the Bavarians, was also in Frankfurt. But BMW also revealed updates to the more modest, entry level 1 Series hatches. The BMW Vision M NEXT is being touted by Bimmer as "a prototype version of the BMW driving experience of tomorrow." The concept showcases a hybrid-electric powertrain mustering 600 horsepower and notching a speculative 0-to-60 mph time of under three seconds. The Concept 4 was divisive. "The high-standing grille gives the BMW Concept 4 its expressive face, a distinctive structure and decorative elements providing elaborate details," BMW declared. Not everyone agreed. China's Byton showed its M-Byte Concept, yet another all-electric future contender. Honda showed is Honda e, a compact electric city car. Land Rover pulled off the cover of its much-anticipated new Defender, which replaces the beloved, rugged, boxy expedition vehicle that had been in the lineup since the 1980s. The Lamborghini Sián uses a battery-less hybrid powertrain — it has a supercapacitor instead — to add 34 horsepower to the Aventador SVJ's 785hp V12. The hypercar debuted in the sheet metal at Frankfurt, giving us an idea of what might replace the Aventador as the brand's "big" Lambo. German Chancellor Angela Merkel checked out the Mercedes EQS, the all-electric concept version the brand's flagship S-Class. The Mercedes EQ Silver Arrow concept hit the show as a stylish all-electric homage to a car from the 1930s. The Mercedes GLB 35 delighted the Frankfurt crowds. It's a compact crossover with a 306-horsepower, turbocharged four cylinder motor. Mercedes says it can dash to 60 mph in around 5 seconds. Merc's EQV electric minivan has gone from concept at the Geneva auto show in early 2019 to production vehicle at Frankfurt. Range is estimated to be about 250 miles. Porsche's hotly expected Taycan all-electric sedan was revealed at three different locations prior to Frankfurt, but Frankfurt attendees saw the innovative machine on the show floor. It should be the star of the Porsche booth. But let's take nothing away from the new Porsche Macan Turbo, which looks stunning on paper, starting with a twin-turbo V6 that makes 434 horsepower in a small package. Volkswagen was proud to show its new ID.3, calling it an electric-car for the masses.

2020-03-24

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* Airlines seek lasting relief from green taxes * Climate advocates want tough conditions on aid * Tension looms between bailouts and emissions By Laurence Frost and Kate Abnett PARIS/BRUSSELS, March 24 (Reuters) - European airlines crippled by the coronavirus have demanded lasting relief from environmental taxes - in a move that pits their immediate survival against longer-term emissions goals. The looming tax tussle underscores shifting environmental battle lines and a broader question for governments injecting billions into their afflicted economies: Should bailouts come before climate objectives or rather be used to advance them? The airline sector has been fighting a losing battle against tax in Europe. Governments have imposed new levies to slow growth in traffic and emissions, while the European Union plans to begin taxing jet fuel. “This industry is going to have more taxes, not less taxes, and I think you all know it,” top EU transport official Henrik Hololei told airline CEOs in Brussels this month. “So you can indulge yourselves with a study of what it would be like if there were no taxes - but the reality is unfortunately much harsher.” That reality is being put to the test. Within days of the meeting, the pandemic had dramatically worsened, forcing airlines to suspend most flights, lay off thousands of staff and seek government aid to avert collapse. Besides public cash, airlines are pushing to defer or waive of a swath of European taxes and duties. “After the crisis we hope governments will understand that the fragility of this industry is due to low margins and heavy cost of capital,” the head of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said. “And that it is not economically and financially wise to increase taxation on a sector that is structurally fragile and financially weak,” Alexandre de Juniac told reporters. With airlines at the front of bailout queues, green advocates fear climate action may lose momentum, just as it did after the 2008 financial crisis. Collapsed oil prices also work against pricier aviation biofuels. Some are calling for aid to depend on emissions cuts. “Public money should support the technologies of the future and not reinforce the mistakes of the past,” said Andrew Murphy of Transport & Environment. The campaign group wants airlines to be forced to use more low-carbon fuel and pay tax on kerosene and international ticket sales, in return for bailouts. “Airlines calling for public support in bad times should accept they need to start paying taxes in good times,” he said. U.S. Democratic lawmakers have also proposed requiring airlines to cut emissions by 25% within 15 years and 50% by 2050 in return for $40 billion in grants. In Australia, any Qantas rescue would likely require faster progress on carbon, sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The coronavirus shutdown is likely to result in a full-year decline in emissions from aviation and other industries. Some experts say that could dilute public support for climate action. IATA now expects 2020 air traffic to fall by more than 16%, potentially cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 100 million tonnes, based on earlier forecasts and emissions data. Any “short-term blip” should not prevent governments from using coronavirus stimulus to achieve longer-term reductions, Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, said in a recent commentary. “Rather than compounding the tragedy by allowing it to hinder clean energy transitions, we need to seize the opportunity to help accelerate them,” Birol wrote. Aviation emissions account for 2.5% of the global total but are expected to triple by 2050. Under a U.N.-backed scheme, the industry plans to use carbon offsets to counter their growth beyond 2020. Airlines caught in the crisis remain determined to get a long break from taxes including the proposed European fuel duty. The region’s carriers pay 6 billion euros ($6.4 billion) in annual tax, according to lobby group Airlines for Europe. “We in Europe are worse hit than airlines in some other regions,” said a government relations executive at a major European carrier, who declined to be identified. The airline is pressing its government for a moratorium on new taxation, “in particular the tax being discussed within the European Green Deal”, the executive said. “It could seriously weaken European airlines against the global competition.” The fate of European attempts to rein in airline emissions is among many such trade-offs yet to play out across economies ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic. Policymakers need to “sit back, make the right choices and not lock in the fossil-fuel economy,” said Laurence Tubiana, who helped broker the 2015 Paris Agreement as France’s climate ambassador. “It’s a make-or-break moment.” $1 = 0.9322 euros Reporting by Laurence Frost and Kate Abnett; Additional reporting by Matt Green and Reade Levinson in London, Jane Wardell in Sydney; Editing by Mark Potter

2017-11-16 00:00:00

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* VW launched Virtus compact sedan in Sao Paulo * VW to spend 1.8 bln eur to launch 20 new models by 2020 * New Brazil car shows post-dieselgate decentralisation push * VW to outgrow rivals Fiat, Chevrolet in 2018-23 -IHS (Adds VW investments, model expansion plans, sales chief comment) By Andreas Cremer BERLIN, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Volkswagen launched its new Virtus model on Thursday to tap Brazil’s highest-volume segment as part of a recovery plan that analysts said will help it regain ground on rivals General Motors and Fiat in South America’s largest car market. The German carmaker said the launch of the new model in Sao Paulo was part of a plan to spend about 1.8 billion euros ($2.12 billion) to roll out 20 new models in Brazil by 2020. Returning to profit in markets such as Brazil, the United States and Russia is vital for Volkswagen as it pushes to revive the core VW brand that accounted for more than half the group’s 7.8 million auto sales in the first nine months but only 19 percent of underlying profit. The world’s biggest automaker last week announced 560 million euros of investment in Argentina to build the first sport-utility vehicle (SUV) in Brazil’s neighbour. It hopes the launch of 20 new models in South America by 2020 will restore it to profitability in the region. “We will do everything possible in coming years to win back the leading position of VW” in Brazil, VW brand sales chief Juergen Stackmann said. VW, which slashed about 7,000 jobs in South America in past years and shrunk its dealer network, has said it wants to reduce the average age of the brand’s Brazilian lineup to less than five years by 2020 from eight years in 2015. Brazil was one of the world’s five biggest auto markets until the 2014-16 downturn and remains a major base of operations for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, GM , VW and Ford. Analysts said VW had been slow in the past few years to refresh models in Brazil and set slightly higher prices than mainstream peers which overhauled lineups in the passenger-car heavy Brazilian market more quickly. “It’s not unrealistic to say that VW had not been refreshing things very quickly,” said IHS Markit analyst Stephanie Brinley. Price premiums “are difficult to translate into a (Brazilian) market that doesn’t have capacity for a higher price at all.” To cut costs and be able to lower prices, VW fully developed the Virtus in Brazil, giving proof of its post-dieselgate strategy to cede more power from its Wolfsburg headquarters to regions and brands. VW admitted in September 2015 that it had used illegal software to cheat U.S. diesel emissions tests, sparking the biggest business crisis in its 80-year history and saddling it with a $30 billion bill. The new four-door Virtus, to be built at Anchieta near Sao Paulo, is one of the first cars to be spawned from a new localised version of the MQB modular platform that underpins most of the VW group’s small and medium front-wheel-drive models. The carmaker said it spent 660 million euros modernising the 60-year-old factory, VW’s first plant outside Germany, where the Virtus and Polo will be assembled. Market research firm IHS expects VW’s new models to help narrow the sales gap with market leaders Chevrolet and Fiat. VW brand sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles in Brazil may jump 44 percent to 413,776 units by 2023 from an estimated 286,745 next year, IHS said. By comparison, IHS expects sales of Fiat to grow only 26 percent to 475,686 cars while it sees sales of Chevrolet rising 18 percent to 444,744 models. “Brazil may not be the highest-margin market but it’s a huge market with vast potential for VW,” said NordLB analyst Frank Schwope who has a “Buy” rating on the stock. ($1 = 0.8493 euros) (Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Adrian Croft)

2020-02-01 00:00:00

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(Adds background) WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines said on Saturday it will accelerate the suspension of flights in and out of China from the United States after the White House said it was imposing new restrictions on visitors due to the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak in the country. Delta had planned to end all China flights by Feb. 6. The airline said on Saturday the last China-bound flights will now leave on Saturday, Feb. 1, and the last returning flights from China will depart China on Sunday. China is facing mounting isolation from international travel curbs and flight suspensions as the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak rose to 259. The epidemic has led to evacuations of foreign citizens, particularly from Hubei province and its capital Wuhan - the epicenter of the outbreak - and risks exacerbating a slowdown in growth in the world's second-largest economy. All three major U.S. airlines - including United Airlines Holdings Inc and American Airlines Group Inc - have announced the cancellation of flights to mainland China. The Trump administration on Friday declared a public health emergency over the coronavirus outbreak and said it would take the extraordinary step of barring entry to the United States of foreign nationals who have traveled to China. (Reporting by David Shepardson Writing by Sonya Hepinstall; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

2019-06-05

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WASHINGTON, June 5 (Reuters) - Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, predicted on Wednesday that the United States and Mexico would strike a deal to avert tariffs President Donald Trump has threatened to impose on Mexican imports. Grassley told reporters Mexican officials will offer a "long list of things" to avoid the duties in talks this week with their American counterparts, adding that he thinks a possible deal could be announced on Thursday night. (Reporting by Richard Cowan; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Susan Heavey)

2019-10-30 00:00:00

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Gaziantep, Turkey (CNN)They are good at dismay, the Europeans. Their cheek-clutching horror at US President Donald Trump's abandonment of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was worthy of Munch's "The Scream." But to have reacted with surprise at this much-telegraphed decision reveals a staggering level of naivety. Worse still, their failure to anticipate the behavior of America's mercurial President reveals both cowardice and stupidity -- not among the tiny number of special forces from the United Kingdom, France, Denmark and elsewhere, who were sent to help with the defeat of ISIS, of course. But certainly among the leaders of wealthy western nations that have the greatest strategic interest in what happens in the Middle East. Trump may lack historical insight, or even much respect for the advice that top level American advisers and scholars can offer when it comes to Syria. It's hardly surprising that the President repeatedly singles out France, Germany and the UK for failing to address the issue of returning ISIS fighters, or their families, who languish in northern Syrian camps, fomenting jihadist rage in the pressure cookers of social discontent. Last year, Trump announced he wanted out of Syria. His defense secretary resigned over the decision. The President then reversed course, but not for long. Several officers in charge of the US operations in Afghanistan told me last year that the mission was just a 'tweet away from strategic failure' -- meaning the top brass feared their President would precipitously pull them out of that theater before they were ready. So, we have an unpredictable American commander in chief. But he does have a consistent record of making good on foreign policy pronouncements -- no matter how wrong-headed his critics believe them to be. He also has a record of demanding greater contributions from European countries to the NATO kitty, and has been publicly allergic to US interventions in the Middle East for years. This is a man who has threatened to dump on Britain's doorstep ISIS prisoners currently in US custody, like El Shafee ElSheikh and Alexanda Kotey, members of a British ISIS cell accused of beheading foreign aid workers and journalists. Trump has called European nations a "tremendous disappointment" for their failure to bring their ISIS fighters home. "I actually said to them, if you don't take them, I'm going to drop them right on your border. And you could have fun capturing them again. But the United States taxpayer is not going to pay for the next 50 years," Trump said during a news conference announcing the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi over the weekend. Britain's response to the capture of the alleged killers has been to remove their citizenship, a move as useful as shoving its collective national head in a bucket. Having seen Trump nearly abandon Syria in December, surely it would have made sense if the UK, France, Germany, Italy et al reinforced the international coalition effort inside Syria. The US-backed SDF say they have about 800 European fighters in their prisons, as well as another 700 women and some 1,500 children in camps, who fled ISIS-held territory when the so-called "caliphate" was crushed. There are very few Americans. On top of that, there's the gigantic matter of refugees. Turkey is hosting some 3.5 million Syrians. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly threatened to open the country's borders and allow another flood of humanity to engulf the European continent. There have been repeated warnings from the intelligence community that, with the collapse of the caliphate, there could, or would, be a renewed effort by ISIS members to attack targets in Europe. Those warnings have increased in volume now that Turkey and its allies have moved into northern Syria, where the future of the SDF, custodians of so many battle-hardened terrorists, looks precarious. It may never have been possible to prevent Turkey's incursion, and the subsequent allied abandonment of the SDF, which has lost 11,000 men and women fighting against ISIS, partly on behalf of the West. But if the counter-ISIS operations in Syria had been led by European forces, a sudden whimsical withdrawal by the US would have been avoided. There have only been some 2,000 US ground troops in northern Syria. Dozens of other European commandos have worked with them. It should not have been beyond the wit of Europe leaders to take control of the operation early this year. But, as things turned out, it was. The mess was described to me by one European intelligence official and one senior military figure in barracks-room terms that begin with "goat" and "cluster." It is not, however, too late. But it is time that European nations, who have the most to lose and most to gain from a stable Middle East in general, and Syria especially, focus on the chaos on their doorstep. Their armed forces need to be able to function outside of an American life support system and show some initiative, rather than wailing when the White House does something surprising.

2019-06-07

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(adds details) BRUSSELS, June 7 (Reuters) - An EU disciplinary procedure against Italy over its debt is warranted, according to a draft document for a meeting of EU government officials quoted by an EU source, setting the stage for an escalation of a dispute with Rome. Officials from the 28 European Union states will meet on June 11-12 to adopt the document, which could still be subject to change. It confirms the EU Commission's assessment that Italy's growing debt is in breach of EU fiscal rules. "A debt-based EDP is thus warranted," the EU source said on Friday, citing the document and referring to the bloc's excessive deficit procedure (EDP), which can lead to financial penalties. Officials could also say that the Commission should take into account "any further elements which may emerge," the source said, meaning that if Italy made new fiscal commitments the procedure could be averted. In Rome, two senior members of Italy's governing coalition told Reuters recent data suggested this year's deficit would be below the Commission's forecast of 2.5% of gross domestic product and could beat the 2.04% agreed with Brussels in December. Rome and Brussels have been at loggerheads over debt and deficit levels since shortly after Italy's eurosceptic coalition took office in June 2018 and, if approved, the EDP document would mark a stepping-up of the row. The Commission would then need to recommend the beginning of the procedure which, if backed by the bloc's finance ministers, could be launched in July. A procedure could also expose Italy to higher costs to service a debt that stands above 130% of GDP. (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio zfraguarascio; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)

2017-11-28

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Some backpacks are built to be tough. But not many are truly military tough. The Ballistic Backpack takes ruggedness to the extreme while still providing top-notch storage for your electronic devices and other personal effects.  Whether you're an international cyber-spy, a parkour-loving courier, or just someone who wants a backpack that will last a lifetime, you should make The Ballistic Backpack yours. Inside this ultra-cool, military-inspired carryall, you'll find a roomy main compartment with a 15" laptop sleeve, plus individual pockets for smartphones, business cards, passports, and the like—all sealed by high-quality, snag-proof YKK zippers.  Matador Supply Company, the folks behind the bag, say it'll never tear, scratch, or scuff with everyday use. Normally this indestructible bag would cost $125, but today it's available for just $100 with coupon code CYBER20. Save $25 on the Ballistic Backpack See Details

2018-02-19

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Scientists from Google and its health-tech subsidiary Verily have discovered a new way to assess a person’s risk of heart disease using machine learning. By analyzing scans of the back of a patient’s eye, the company’s software is able to accurately deduce data, including an individual’s age, blood pressure, and whether or not they smoke. This can then be used to predict their risk of suffering a major cardiac event — such as a heart attack — with roughly the same accuracy as current leading methods. The algorithm potentially makes it quicker and easier for doctors to analyze a patient’s cardiovascular risk, as it doesn’t require a blood test. But, the method will need to be tested more thoroughly before it can be used in a clinical setting. A paper describing the work was published today in the Nature journal Biomedical Engineering, although the research was also shared before peer review last September. Luke Oakden-Rayner, a medical researcher at the University of Adelaide who specializes in machine learning analysis, told The Verge that the work was solid, and shows how AI can help improve existing diagnostic tools. “They’re taking data that’s been captured for one clinical reason and getting more out of it than we currently do,” said Oakden-Rayner. “Rather than replacing doctors, it’s trying to extend what we can actually do.” To train the algorithm, Google and Verily’s scientists used machine learning to analyze a medical dataset of nearly 300,000 patients. This information included eye scans as well as general medical data. As with all deep learning analysis, neural networks were then used to mine this information for patterns, learning to associate telltale signs in the eye scans with the metrics needed to predict cardiovascular risk (e.g., age and blood pressure). Although the idea of looking at your eyes to judge the health of your heart sounds unusual, it draws from a body of established research. The rear interior wall of the eye (the fundus) is chock-full of blood vessels that reflect the body’s overall health. By studying their appearance with camera and microscope, doctors can infer things like an individual’s blood pressure, age, and whether or not they smoke, which are all important predictors of cardiovascular health. When presented with retinal images of two patients, one of whom suffered a cardiovascular event in the following five years, and one of whom did not, Google’s algorithm was able to tell which was which 70 percent of the time. This is only slightly worse than the commonly used SCORE method of predicting cardiovascular risk, which requires a blood test and makes correct predictions in the same test 72 percent of the time. Alun Hughes, professor of Cardiovascular Physiology and Pharmacology at London’s UCL, said Google’s approach sounded credible because of the “long history of looking at the retina to predict cardiovascular risk.” He added that artificial intelligence had the potential to speed up existing forms of medical analysis, but cautioned that the algorithm would need to be tested further before it could be trusted. For Google, the work represents more than just a new method of judging cardiovascular risk. It points the way toward a new AI-powered paradigm for scientific discovery. While most medical algorithms are built to replicate existing diagnostic tools (like identifying skin cancer, for example), this algorithm found new ways to analyze existing medical data. With enough data, it’s hoped that artificial intelligence can then create entirely new medical insight without human direction. It’s presumably part of the reason Google has created initiatives like its Project Baseline study, which is collecting exhaustive medical records of 10,000 individuals over the course of four years. For now, the idea of an AI doctor churning out new diagnoses without human oversight is a distant prospect — most likely decades, rather than years, in the future. But Google’s research suggests the idea isn’t completely far-fetched.

2017-03-03

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March 3 (Reuters) - E L Financial Corporation Ltd * Q4 earnings per share C$24.49 * E L financial -net equity value per common share was $1,159.26 at December 31, 2016, an increase from $1,089.23 as at December 31, 2015 Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:

2018-01-29 00:00:00

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Tom Brady says he's considering ENDING his weekly appearance on WEEI radio in Boston after one of the station's hosts called his daughter an "annoying little pissant." WEEI has suspended the radio host ... but Brady's still pissed. Brady has been doing the weekly segment on "Kirk & Callahan" for years -- chopping it up about football and other light topics in his life. But Monday morning, Brady told the guys he's considering never coming back over comments another WEEI host, Alex Reimer, made on a different show on Thursday. Reimer was discussing Tom's new Facebook show, "Tom vs. Time" -- which is essentially a docuseries following Tom and his family -- and he put the crosshairs on Tom's 5-year-old daughter. WEEI suspended Reimer on Friday -- but when Brady appeared on "Kirk & Callahan" on Monday, he made it clear he's not over it. "I've tried to come on this show for many years and showed you guys a lot of respect ... I've always tried to come on and do a good job for you guys. It's very disappointing when you hear that, certainly with my daughter, or any child. They certainly don't deserve that." Brady says he's still deciding whether to end his relationship with the station for good.

2019-10-20

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Sen. Mitt RomneyWillard (Mitt) Mitt RomneyTrump urges GOP to fight for him Overnight Defense: Trump weighs leaving some troops in Syria to 'secure the oil' | US has pulled 2,000 troops from Afghanistan | Pelosi leads delegation to Afghanistan, Jordan Romney earns rants and raves for secret Twitter name MORE (R-Utah) on Sunday night appeared to confirm his ownership of an anonymous Twitter account that has tweeted in his own defense to journalists and other lawmakers after the account was uncovered by Slate's Ashley Feinberg. In a profile of Romney published earlier on Sunday in The Atlantic, the senator said he maintained a private Twitter account that he used to keep tabs on the political discourse. “I won’t give you the name of it,” he told the publication, adding that he's "following 668 people.” Feinberg later reported that she had likely found the account in question, which bears no profile image and goes by the name "Pierre Delecto." The account follows a number of Romney's family members as well as journalists, fellow lawmakers and former advisers to his 2012 run for president and subsequent Senate campaign. Later on Sunday, The Atlantic reached out to Romney to confirm. Asked about the account, Romney told the publication, "C'est moi" — French for "it's me." His office referred The New York Times back to that same tweet when asked for confirmation. Romney's anonymous account has also tweeted numerous times at some of Romney's detractors, including one response to journalist Soledad O'Brien after O'Brien referred to Romney as lacking a "moral compass." The account had been made private by 10 p.m. Sunday evening, but screenshots of Romney's tweets circulated on social media after being discovered by Slate. Romney's office did not immediately return a request for comment from The Hill. Updated Oct. 21 at 8:36 a.m. View the discussion thread. The Hill 1625 K Street, NW Suite 900 Washington DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 tel | 202-628-8503 fax The contents of this site are ©2019 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

2018-03-06 15:47:00

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Throughout the US, there are at least 12 million other immigrants in similar situations. As I write this, Trump’s agents are rounding up hundreds of people in Southern California and other American cities; earlier this year, Attorney General Jeff Sessions threatened to subpoena any mayor who might try to protect their residents and local public safety systems from the president’s raids. As ICE agents target undocumented people, the Trump administration is working tirelessly to make it more difficult for others to enter the country legally: Trump's immigration advisor Stephen Miller has made ending legal family migration his mission. He’s the mind behind what has been described as the White House’s “ransom note” approach to recent immigration policy negotiations, one that grants nominal protections to young immigrants while persecuting their families. And he’s pushing to reduce the immigrant population altogether in ways that would rewrite both our traditions and who we are as a country. For decades, the US immigration system has allowed immigrants to reunite with immediate family, like a spouse or parent, but only after getting through a gauntlet-like process of becoming a citizen—which often takes upwards of 10 years. This is how more than half of women immigrate to the US. (In fact, it’s most likely what permitted First Lady Melania Trump’s Slovenian parents to emigrate to and become permanent residents.) Miller and other top officials want to change that. They use dehumanizing language to describe immigration, callously referring to families as “chains,” and instead calling for a “merit-based” system that prioritizes high-skilled workers. Such policies would disproportionately target women, who get just 30 percent of that type of visa, and instead give preference to rich, male tech-inclined applicants, building yet another wall of barriers keeping women out. The insidiousness of the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policies can feel overwhelming—but things are far from hopeless, and there’s still so much that individuals can do. If you’re looking for ways to help immigrants in this country, here are three ways to start: More than 800,000 immigrant youth have a temporary status, called deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACA), which gives them a work permit and protection from deportation. Trump announced the cancellation of that program in the middle of last year and created a March 5 deadline for its termination—which passed today with no resolution, amidst ongoing legal challenges. For the past few months, legislators have balked at securing the future of Dreamers, resulting in a knock-out fight that even temporarily shut down the government. Our congresspeople need to hear that we haven't gotten tired. Call your representative and ask them what they're doing to pass a clean Dream Act: one that protects immigrant youth without criminalizing their loved ones. Deportations were already at historic levels before Trump came into office. Under the Obama administration, the government was already spending $18 billion on immigration enforcement (which is more than all other federal law enforcement agencies combined) to patrol our communities, jail thousands in detention, and process them for removal. Now Trump wants more money for deportation agents, and Congress has to decide whether to give it to him. That should be an easy no. People are rallying using the hashtag #DefundHate, showing up to town halls, and meeting with their Representatives in-district to tell them that deporting families is not in their budget priorities. It may sound simple, but when the president of the United States uses racist, hateful rhetoric, and when Congress refuses to take action to protect you, it can be easy to feel like the whole country is against you. We know better—but we need to show it. Women in cities across the country are organizing themselves to accompany immigrants to check-ins when they're called in by immigration agents, showing up outside immigration offices with signs expressing support for immigrants, and holding conversations among ourselves about how we can build a stronger women's movement that protects all of us. We already know that women are powerful. And where we apply our strength makes a difference. These three actions are a starting point, but definitely not the end. If you’ve got those down and are looking for more, finding your local immigrant rights group or a #resist meet-up group near you to get involved is a great fourth step. Jess Morales Rocketto is the Political Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the Chair of We Belong Together, NDWA’s immigration campaign.

2017-01-24 00:00:00

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Washington (CNN)Senate Democrats are offering President Donald Trump a $1 trillion proposal to upgrade the nation's aging infrastructure -- but he'd have to split with Republicans to get it. In their first major bid to force Trump's hand on a policy issue where the President's populism is at odds with congressional GOP leadership, top Democrats unveiled their infrastructure package Tuesday. "We have heard Mr. Trump's talk of disaster and third-world infrastructure, and we agree something must be done. So we hope the President will join us," Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said at a news conference unveiling the proposal Tuesday. "And we call on the President to persuade his Republican colleagues in the House and Senate to drop their opposition to investing in infrastructure and get on board with this plan." The issue could become an early test of whether Trump's willingness during the campaign to break with Republican leaders has carried into the White House -- or if he will show patience for GOP lawmakers through a lengthy legislative process and instead target Democrats. Before his inauguration, Trump made clear he intended to elevate Schumer as his chief opponent on Capitol Hill -- tweeting that his fellow New Yorker is Democrats' "head clown." But on Inauguration Day, the two were seen speaking at length at a congressional luncheon for Trump. The two evidently got along Monday when Trump called both parties' House and Senate leaders to the White House for a meeting, too. "I enjoyed the President and Sen. Schumer talking about all the people they knew in New York," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, deadpanned after Monday's meeting. Schumer said he's spoken with Trump at length about infrastructure, too. "I told him repeatedly, 'If you want to do a bill like this, you're going to have to tell a lot of your Republicans -- particularly on the right wing -- that they're not going to get their way,' " Schumer said. "And he acknowledged that. So we'll see what happens." Tuesday's $1 trillion proposal would potentially create 15 million jobs over 10 years, Democrats said. It includes $210 billion for road and bridge repair, $110 billion for water and sewer programs, $180 billion for rail and bus systems, $200 billion for new projects deemed as vital, $75 billion to rebuild schools, $70 billion for ports and $100 billion for energy grid upgrades. Democrats said they were insisting on using tax dollars to pay for the package, rather than tax credits, as Trump advisers and Republicans have floated. "President Trump campaigned on rebuilding the infrastructure," Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said at Tuesday's news conference. "Let's do it -- but let's do it in a way that doesn't provide huge tax breaks to the wealthiest people in this country and to large corporations." Congressional Republicans for years rejected former President Barack Obama's requests for more money for improvements to the nation's roads, bridges, airports and waterways. But Trump has sided with Obama -- and even as his aides insist public-private partnerships and tax credits can be used to fulfill the President's vision, he has pledged to eliminate graft, simplify the tax code and embark on an ambitious infrastructure project. "We will build new roads, and highways, and bridges, and airports, and tunnels, and railways all across our wonderful nation," Trump vowed in his inaugural address. Already, however, the House's transportation chairman has said no infrastructure deal will come together the first 100 days of Trump's presidency. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, told reporters that Republicans are waiting for the Trump administration -- including McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao, the nominee for transportation secretary -- to present an infrastructure proposal. "My understanding is the administration has a team who are putting together a proposal that we can all take a look at. That includes people both inside the administration and I think the secretary of transportation. And they're going to come up with a proposal. We'll take a look at it," McConnell said. "I hope it will be something credibly paid for," he said. "We have a $21 trillion debt. But I think we would all like to tackle infrastructure in a credible way and hopefully that's what they'll recommend." Dems look to drive wedge Schumer and Senate Democrats are hoping to quickly drive a wedge between Trump and Republican lawmakers -- denying them time to figure out how to structure and pay for a major infrastructure bill. The move is aimed squarely at separating Trump's blue-collar supporters from congressional Republicans. "That is something that congressional Democrats have sought for years, but congressional Republicans have stymied us at every turn," Schumer said Tuesday. It comes with Trump already using his executive power and visibility to take concrete steps to impress his Midwestern base -- pulling the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, setting a start for the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement and taking executive action to advance the Keystone XL pipeline. Labor unions, traditionally a key Democratic ally, had long sought those moves -- but Democratic leaders, including former President Barack Obama and 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton, resisted. Labor union leaders also visited Trump in the White House on Monday. Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO, the powerhouse union that endorsed Clinton, heaped praise on Trump for pulling out of the TPP, calling it "an important first step toward a trade policy that works for working people." Trump's early maneuverings have left Democrats sensing danger -- but also seeing an opening. Trump's moves on trade were criticized by Capitol Hill Republicans. And his calls for a massive infrastructure project have triggered GOP concerns about such a program's price tag. Democrats see the need to exploit that divide quickly: In the 2018 midterm elections, Democratic-held Senate seats are on the ballot in nearly every state in the industrial Midwest, where Trump's popularity with white, working-class voters carried him to the presidency. The party hopes Trump, already unpopular for a new president, will be toxic by the midterms -- with many Democrats pointing to Saturday's women's marches and the higher-than-expected turnout at pro-Obamacare rallies as evidence that the political tide is changing. But as a hedge, Democrats are seeking ways to split GOP lawmakers from Trump -- giving their members ways to accuse Republicans of rejecting popular elements of Trump's platform that Democrats support.

2018-02-01 00:00:00

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Poland’s senate passed a controversial bill that would make it illegal to link the Polish people or state to the crimes of the Holocaust, ignoring Washington’s objections and outraging many Israelis who see it as an attempt to whitewash history. The bill now has 21 days to be signed off by Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, who’s already said he supports it, to become law. The vote on the legislation, which criminalizes speech suggesting Polish complicity in Nazi crimes against the Jews, had already caused uproar in Israel when it passed through Poland’s lower house on Friday. A Polish envoy in Tel Aviv was reprimanded, before Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the issue with his Polish counterpart Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. The pair announced afterwards that both countries had agreed to talks to open a dialogue on the bill with the hope of reaching a common understanding. But the senate’s vote on the bill, pushed forward without any changes, has all but erased any progress the leaders made in Israel days earlier. Poland’s senate passed a controversial bill that would make it illegal to link the Polish people or state to the crimes of the Holocaust, ignoring Washington’s objections and outraging many Israelis who see it as an attempt to whitewash history. The bill now has 21 days to be signed off by Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, who’s already said he supports it, to become law. The vote on the legislation, which criminalizes speech suggesting Polish complicity in Nazi crimes against the Jews, had already caused uproar in Israel when it passed through Poland’s lower house on Friday. A Polish envoy in Tel Aviv was reprimanded, before Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the issue with his Polish counterpart Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. The pair announced afterwards that both countries had agreed to talks to open a dialogue on the bill with the hope of reaching a common understanding. But the senate’s vote on the bill, pushed forward without any changes, has all but erased any progress the leaders made in Israel days earlier. Israeli lawmaker and former minister Tzipi Livni said the vote amounted to “spitting in the face of Israel twice, both as the nation of the Jewish people and also against the prime minister who announced he had reached agreements with the Poles.” Israeli Cabinet Minister Yisrael Katz said the bill constituted “a denial of Poland’s part in the Holocaust of the Jews.” Ahead of the vote, Israeli lawmakers debated changes to their own Holocaust speech laws that would make denying or minimizing the role of collaborators a crime. The U.S. has also called on Warsaw to drop the bill, out of concerns it impinges on free speech and could hamper academic discourse. Poland’s right-wing government says the law is needed to safeguard the country’s reputation from historical inaccuracies — such as the description of Nazi-built concentration camps situated on Polish soil as “Polish death camps.” “We have to send a clear signal to the world that we won't allow for Poland to continue being insulted,” deputy justice minister Patryk Jaki told reporters Thursday. Many Polish politicians have expressed surprise at the vehement Israeli response. “We are very sad and surprised our fight for the truth, for the dignity of Poles, is perceived and interpreted in this way,” Senate speaker Stanislaw Karczweski said. The role of Poles in Nazi atrocities on Polish soil during World War II has long been a sensitive subject. Poland, home to Europe’s largest pre-war Jewish population, was the first country invaded by Nazi Germany, which inflicted huge suffering on Jews and ethnic Poles alike. About 90 percent of Poland’s Jewish population of 3.2 million were killed during the genocide, and millions of non-Jewish Poles were also killed. While most Polish Jews were killed by the Nazis, historians say that Poles were also complicit in many Jewish deaths — whether indirectly, by informing on them, or actively killing them in events such as the pogrom in Jedwabne in 1941. Others, though, worked to save their Jewish neighbors. Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust remembrance center, recognizes more than 6,700 Poles — the most from any nation — as the “Righteous Among the Nations” who risked their lives to save Jewish lives. It estimates that their efforts saved up to 35,000 people, about one percent of Poland’s Jewish population at the time. Cover image: Survivors and guests light candles at the Monument to the Victims at the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz II-Birkenau, during ceremonies marking the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of the camp and International Holocaust Victims Remembrance Day, near Oswiecim, Poland, January 27, 2018. (REUTERS/Kacper Pempel)

2018-06-05

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The State Department defended U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell on Tuesday after he stoked controversy in Germany by saying he wanted to "empower" conservatives overseas. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters in a press briefing that Grenell "was merely highlighting that there are some parties and candidates in Europe who are doing well right now." "We’re not supporting any political party. That’s not what we do," Nauert clarified. "We support democracy, we support countries figuring out for themselves who they want to vote in for office." Grenell's comments, made in an interview with the conservative website Breitbart News, were highly unusual as American diplomats rarely, if ever, weigh in on the domestic politics of the countries where they are posted. The comments drew a furious response from many Europeans and prompted the German Foreign Ministry to request a clarification of his remarks. "What this man is doing, is unheard of in international diplomacy," Martin Schulz, the former head of Germany's Social Democratic Party, told national news agency DPA. "If a German ambassador were to say in Washington that he is there to boost the Democrats, he would have been kicked out immediately." Grenell, a former United Nations spokesman and Fox News contributor who took office last month, also decried, during the Breitbart interview, what he called the "failed policies of the left," and he credited President TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump pushes back on recent polling data, says internal numbers are 'strongest we've had so far' Illinois state lawmaker apologizes for photos depicting mock assassination of Trump Scaramucci assembling team of former Cabinet members to speak out against Trump MORE with empowering people across the world to take on the "political class." The criticism of Grenell's remarks came as the U.S. and Germany find themselves at odds on a number of fronts, including Trump's decision to withdraw from the multination Iran nuclear deal and levy stiff tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Europe and around the world. View the discussion thread. The Hill 1625 K Street, NW Suite 900 Washington DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 tel | 202-628-8503 fax The contents of this site are ©2019 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

2019-01-19 00:00:00

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Solange Knowles looks like she's getting just as comfortable behind a camera as she already is behind a microphone -- 'cause she was all set to film something in her hometown. Beyonce's younger sister popped up in Houston Saturday with a whole film crew behind her ... and a camera in hand. Eyewitnesses tell us she made an appearance at the SHAPE Community Center off of Almeda Rd. and Alabama St., where we're told she was chatting up folks inside and discussing different shots she wanted to get. One eyewitness told us it appeared she was at the helm of either a movie or documentary of some sort ... and was trying to keep it low key. Solange hasn't announced any new film projects as of late, and nothing official seems to be in production under her IMDb page either. That doesn't mean something isn't in the works though. And besides, she's already got a couple visual projects under her belt. She put out a behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of her 2016 album, "A Seat at the Table," and also directed SZA's 2017 music video for "The Weekend." While she hasn't put out much new music since her Grammy-winning record, she has been busy heading up art pieces in L.A. ... and teasing us with a follow-up album that has yet to be released. We'll be on the lookout for a new Solange movie in the meantime ... if this is any indication.

2019-06-20 00:00:00

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CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged on Thursday to speed up 230 billion rand ($16.11 billion) of support for ailing power utility Eskom, which he said was too vital to be allowed to fail. In his first state of the nation address since leading his party to victory in a May 8 election, Ramaphosa said Eskom’s financial position remains a matter of grave concern. “Eskom is too vital to our economy to be allowed to fail,” he said. “We will therefore table a special appropriation bill on an urgent basis to allocate a significant portion of the 230 billion rand fiscal support that Eskom will require over the next 10 years in the early years.” National Treasury Director-General Dondo Mogajane told Reuters the government hopes parliament will approve the bill before the end of August. In February the government pledged a 23 billion rand a year bailout over three years, but the firm says it needs more cash to keep the lights on after nationwide blackouts this year. A trade union leader turned businessman, Ramaphosa replaced scandal-hit predecessor Jacob Zuma as president in February 2018 and then was elected president after his party won a majority in May 8 parliamentary elections. He faces a huge task reviving an economy that just posted its biggest quarterly contraction in a decade. “We need to focus on those actions that will have the greatest impact,” he said in the speech. “Our economy is not growing. Not enough jobs are being created. This is the concern that rises above all others”. The economy slumped by 3.2% in the first three months of 2019. Unemployment — which has remained stubbornly high a quarter century after the end of white minority apartheid rule — is at a 15-year peak of 27%, as more and more young people enter the job market each year. “The brutal reality is that when it comes to youth unemployment, we have to run just to remain in the same place,” Ramaphosa said. The rand gained slightly after the president’s speech, firming 0.5 percent to 14.27 against the dollar at 1800 GMT. Adding to its litany of financial woes, South Africa’s investment-grade credit rating is hanging by a thread. Only Moody’s still maintains it, and the outlook for that rating was hurt by the latest GDP data. A downgrade by Moody’s to junk would risk billions of dollars of outflows. Fixing Eskom and other loss-making state-owned firms such as South African Airways (SAA) is seen as critical to shoring up confidence among the investors South Africa relies on to finance its current account and budget deficits — the latter is projected to rise to 4.5% of GDP this fiscal year. “To meet our growth targets, we will rebuild the foundations of our economy by revitalizing and expanding the productive sectors,” Ramaphosa said, including “clothing and textiles, gas, chemicals and plastics, renewables, and steel and metals fabrication sectors.” Ramaphosa also faces factional fighting within the ANC, highlighted by an opposing faction’s call this month to pressure the central bank to do more to boost employment and growth. “The Reserve Bank must pursue (its mandate) independently, without fear, favor or prejudice,” Ramaphosa said, re-affirming his rejection of that call. “The most important issues, of the bank’s independence, the primacy of price stability, all of that was made clear,” Razia Khan, chief economist at Standard Chartered said of the speech. “But you cannot ignore that the broad thrust was accelerating growth. That message will be understood by everyone.” Among aims that Ramaphosa called ambitious were making the economy “grow at a much faster rate than our population ... putting two million more young people in work, halving violent crime” and “ensuring no South African goes hungry.”     He also re-affirmed a commitment to redistribution of land, a key but controversial issue in nation where decades of colonialism and then apartheid saw millions of black South Africans dispossessed of their land by a white minority. Opposition party leaders complained that the speech was heavy on rhetoric but short on detail. “He instead described the challenges of South Africa but really no tangible plans,” Mmusi Maimane, who leads the main opposition Democratic Alliance, told the state broadcaster. “It was all based on allegory, a dream.” ($1 = 14.2800 rand) Additional reporting by Nqobile Dludla in Johannesburg; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Hugh Lawson

2020-03-19 00:00:00

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Federal Aviation Administration chief Steve Dickson told employees that he will self-quarantine at home for seven days after a brief interaction with one of two members of Congress who have tested positive for COVID-19. Dickson said he is feeling well and said he has not received a test because he is symptom free. “The smart and constructive thing for me to do is stay home,” Dickson said. Some news outlets on Wednesday published photos of Dickson shaking hands with Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, who has now tested positive, during a congressional hearing last week. Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Nick Zieminski

2018-01-08 00:00:00

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DUBLIN, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Ireland will hold two bond auctions during the first quarter, on Feb. 8 and March 8, after kicking off its funding drive for the year with the sale of 4 billion euros of 10-year debt last week, the debt agency said on Monday. The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) plans to issue between 14 billion and 18 billion euros of long-term debt in 2018 and covered around a quarter of that with last week’s sale via a syndication of banks. Ireland will also hold a treasury bill auction on March 15, the NTMA said in a statement. (Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Peter Graff)

2019-03-29 00:00:00

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LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) - Google has removed a controversial app from Texas-based Living Hope Ministries that advocated for gay conversion therapy after coming under pressure from civil rights groups and the public. The app suggested that users could “pray away the gay,” and disparaged homosexuality as a “destructive lifestyle.” “After consulting with outside advocacy groups, reviewing our policies, and making sure we had a thorough understanding of the app and its relation to conversion therapy, we’ve decided to remove it from the Play Store, consistent with other app stores,” Google said in a statement provided to Axios, which first reported the removal. The app had previously been hosted by Apple, Amazon and Microsoft as well, but the three companies responded swiftly to critics and removed it in December. However, it remained on Google’s Play Store. LGBTQ advocacy group Truth Wins Out upped the pressure on the company with a petition on Change.org, which was signed by 142,191 people. This week, the Human Rights Campaign also suspended the company from its annual Corporate Equality Index. On Friday, Truth Wins Out celebrated the removal of the app as a victory for civil rights. “We are delighted that Google finally backed down and deleted a dangerous app that targeted LGBTQ youth with toxic messages of guilt and shame,” said Truth Wins Out executive director Wayne Besen in a statement. “We hope this sends a powerful message that ‘pray away the gay’ products are unacceptable and have no place in a decent and civilized society.”

2017-02-15 12:30:00

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Photographer Mafalda Rakoš' series and upcoming book, I Want To Disappear, presents 20 different women's struggles with eating disorders. Although her subjects may share specific conditions (bulimia or anorexia, for example), Rakoš says there's something specific about each of their experiences — and that very complexity is what drew her to document eating disorders in the first place."I get the feeling that almost everyone knows a person who is affected [with an eating disorder]," she says. "But still, the reasons why someone really falls into this illness lie much deeper." Through her photos, Rakoš hopes to get below surface-level explanations for eating disorders, like body image, and reveal how her subjects (who she refers to as "protagonists") really feel about themselves and their bodies. "A lot of people said that [their eating disorder] somehow gives them orientation and a feeling of security in a society that is full of disorientation, pressure, and extremely high expectations," Rakoš says. In other words, body image is just one part of it. Rakoš' work depicts eating disorders as all-consuming, complex, and addictive. By doing that, she hopes to encourage viewers to think about a widespread problem that's all too easy to ignore. "I think it's important for people to ask themselves what kind of society might encourage the development of a disease like anorexia or bulimia," she says. "Ideally, the book will trigger reflection about the world we live in, since it's surely not without a reason that this is a phenomenon that almost exclusively occurs in young people and women."Click through to view a selection of the photos from I Want To Disappear.If you are struggling with an eating disorder and are in need of support, please call the National Eating Disorders Association Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. For a 24-hour crisis line, text “NEDA” to 741741.

2016-02-11 18:10:02

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This post is part of Polyarchy, an independent blog produced by the political reform program at New America, a Washington think tank devoted to developing new ideas and new voices. Donald Trump's enduring strength in his pursuit of the Republican presidential nomination has had a profound, and underappreciated, effect on the Democratic primary campaign. Trump has shown Democratic voters that their ability to estimate "electability" is bad — no one predicted a year ago that Trump would do this well for this long. If electability is so challenging to assess in topsy-turvy times, then it is hard to take seriously as a decision-making criterion. Among the 34 percent of Democratic voters who told exit pollsters that "honesty and trustworthiness" are the most important qualities a candidate must have, Sanders trounced Clinton, 91 percent to 5. For the 12 percent of Democratic New Hampshire voters who said the thing they value most in a candidate is the ability to "win in November," the ratio was reversed: Clinton defeated Sanders 79 percent to 19. "Electability" is one of the strangest criteria a voter considers when deciding whom to vote for. Other factors require first-order calculations: Do I agree with the candidate's views on abortion, or on how to respond to a North Korean satellite launch? If we disagree, how strongly do I feel about the issues on which we disagree? Questions of character are more abstract: Do I trust that the candidate's stated beliefs line up with his or her actual beliefs? Do I think their nerves will hold up under the pressures of being president?  Do I trust them to make decisions based on their best perception of the public interest, rather than to serve political expedience as I define it? No amount of polling by Hillary Clinton a year ago could have definitively predicted that Trump would do as well as he has for as long as he has None of these questions are, as a rule, easy to answer. But electability adds a whole other layer of complexity: How do I think other voters will decide this set of difficult questions? Each individual voter is forced to become a pundit, speculating on the behavior of millions of other voters, deciding which poll is reliable and which is carrying water for one candidate or another. Not many voters typically tell pollsters that electability is their single most important criterion. This number is consistently much smaller when there isn't an incumbent president running for reelection, for the obvious reason that electability is harder to judge before a definite opponent exists. In 2004, 20 percent of Democratic New Hampshire primary voters said "can beat Bush" was their top quality in a candidate, while in 2012, 35 percent of New Hampshire Republicans similarly ranked the ability to beat Obama highest. In 2008, only 5 percent of New Hampshire Republicans and 6 percent of Democrats put electability first. Polls that ask which quality "matters most" will only take you so far — electability matters a great deal to many voters as a subsidiary concern. Most people don't want to "waste" their vote on a loser. In upturning the Republican campaign, Donald Trump has shown voters — both Republican and Democratic — that assessing who is "electable" is trickier than they thought it would be. This frees Democrats who were partial to Sanders, but thought his prospects of electability poor, to express their support for him. This, in turn, sets off the familiar feedback loop: The more voters express a preference for a candidate, the more electable the candidate becomes. Good polling numbers drive trend stories in the media that drive good polls. "Momentum" is an apt analogy. This dynamic is not new; as Larry Bartels wrote in 1988: At the beginning of 1976, Jimmy Carter was a relatively unknown one-term exgovernor or a medium-sized southern state...fewer than 5 percent of the Democratic party rank and file considered him their first choice for the party's nomination. Five months later, Carter was quite clearly about to become his party's nominee. ...The events that transformed the Carter of January into the Carter of June seemed to have little to do with politics in the traditional sense — ideologies, interests, or public policies. Carter proposed no innovative solutions to the major problems facing the country, nor did he mobilize any new and potent combination of powerful social groups...he parlayed early victories into media attention, resources, and popular support sufficient to produce later victories and eventual nomination. Bartels continues: "Despite its recognized political importance, momentum has a certain ineffable quality about it. Experts claim to know it when they see it, but they are not very good at either defining or describing it." "Momentum" is a word that has a very definite meaning in physics: the product of mass and velocity. You can tell how much momentum something has if you know how much it weighs and how fast it is going. Something with more momentum is more difficult to stop and tougher to turn. But the analogy breaks when it comes to politics. No one can say, definitively, how much momentum any candidate has at any given time. Jimmy Carter did well in the New Hampshire primary in 1976, defeating Mo Udall, the second-place finisher, by almost 6 percentage points. This gave him a certain amount of momentum — enough, it turns out, to win the nomination, and then the presidency. Hillary Clinton narrowly won the 2008 New Hampshire primary; this did not give her much momentum. The best and brightest data scientists might try to pin down momentum by getting more and more granular information about the present state of each candidate's standing with the electorate. Get good enough information, the theory goes, and one can infer the momentum each candidate has, à la Laplace's demon. But as Jill Lepore pointed out in an excellent November 16 New Yorker essay, this is something of a fool's errand. She quotes sociologist Herbert Blumer (though not quite at this length): The formation of public opinion occurs as a function of a society in operation. I state the matter in that way to stress that the formation of public opinion does not occur through an interaction of disparate individuals who share equally in the process. Instead the formation of public opinion reflects the functional composition and organization of society. The formation of public opinion occurs in large measure through the interaction of groups. I mean nothing esoteric by this last remark. I merely refer to the common occurrence of the leaders or officials of a functional group taking a stand on behalf of the group with reference to an issue and voicing explicitly or implicitly this stand on behalf of the group. Much of the interaction through which public opinion is formed is through the clash of these group views and positions. No amount of polling by Hillary Clinton a year ago could have definitively predicted that Trump would do as well as he has for as long as he has. To the extent that Democratic primary voters can be said to have a "group view," it is fair to say that the "group view" — the consensus — a year ago was that a "democratic socialist" in general, and Bernie Sanders in particular, simply could not win a general election. By convincing the public in general, and the Democratic group in particular, that, this year, no one knows what might happen, Trump directly enabled Sanders's rise. Blumer again: "In any realistic sense the diversified interaction which gives rise to public opinion is in large measure between functional groups and not merely between disparate individuals." Just because there aren't many swing voters deciding between Trump and Sanders doesn't mean that the interaction between two functional groups — Republicans and Democrats — is insignificant. The number of voters who think highly of both men is likely vanishingly small. A Quinnipiac University poll taken just before the New Hampshire primary found that 83 percent of Democrats had an unfavorable view of Trump (with only 13 percent favorable), while 66 percent of Republicans view Sanders with disfavor and 13 percent view him favorably. According to exit polls, Trump and Sanders did well in New Hampshire across income and ideological demographics. Trump got more than 30 percent of the vote in all income categories, while Sanders beat Hillary Clinton among all voters except those earning more than $200,000 a year, a category he only narrowly lost, 46 percent to 53. More surprisingly, Sanders beat Hillary Clinton not only with voters who identify as "very liberal" but also among "somewhat liberals" and "moderates." Similarly, Trump's support was roughly the same across "very conservative," "somewhat conservative," and "moderate" Republican primary voters. The prospect of Trump makes Sanders seem electable. In that same Quinnipiac poll, he beats Trump 49 percent to 39. By contrast, a Sanders-Cruz election held on that day would be closer (46 percent to 42) and Sanders-Rubio a tie at 43 percent. Of course, a Rubio matchup is less likely today than before New Hampshire (as is a Cruz matchup). But if we take Rubio as a stand-in for a generic "normal" Republican candidate, the point holds. These poll numbers will surely change. The point I want to make is not one focused on reading the tea leaves of polls too closely. As the past few months make clearer than ever, it makes sense to think of politics as a complex system. Trump's popularity stems not particularly from his ideology, which is not conspicuously more conservative than that of rivals like Ted Cruz, but because of his peculiar personal appeal. Absent Trump's sui generis candidacy, Sanders would not be doing nearly as well as he has been. As this New Yorker cartoon puts it: "Who cares if he's not electable? Nobody's electable anymore." Which is to say, everybody is. More precisely: Donald Trump is seen as  easy to defeat in a general election. Democrats begin to imagine they will not have to fight for the last swing voter in the suburbs of Cleveland and need not ponder how such a swing voter would see a candidate, but can instead vote for the candidate who shares their values and positions on the issues, both categories that Sanders won decisively in New Hampshire.

2019-01-10

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The New York Jets are hiring former Miami Dolphins head coach Adam Gase for their own vacancy, multiple outlets reported Wednesday evening. Gase, 40, was fired Dec. 31 after three seasons in Miami, where he went 23-25 while battling a wealth of injuries, including to quarterback Ryan Tannehill. The Dolphins went 5-1 against the Jets during Gase’s tenure, including 2-0 this season. ESPN reports Jets quarterback Sam Darnold approved of Gase after the two spoke via FaceTime on Monday, though the quarterback did not force his opinion on management. Gase was one of at least seven candidates to interview for the open position, with former Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Todd Monken and Baylor head coach Matt Rhule considered the other major contenders. According to multiple reports, Rhule will remain at Baylor after talks with the Jets broke down regarding his potential staff. The New York Daily News reports Rhule would not agree to a staff that would be assembled by general manager Mike Maccagnan and vice president of player personnel Brian Heimerdinger. Gase replaces Todd Bowles, who was fired after going 24-40 across four seasons but quickly landed on his feet as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ defensive coordinator. Known for his offensive mind, Gase helped Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos have outstanding seasons as offensive coordinator in 2013 and ‘14, and then helped Jay Cutler have an efficient season with the Chicago Bears. Gase’s offenses in Miami, however, never ranked higher than 24th in yards per game or 17th in points per game. This year’s unit finished 31st in yards and 26th in points. Per multiple reports, Miami Dolphins offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains is expected to join Gase as his top offensive assistant in New York. And according to NFL Network, one candidate to be Gase’s defensive coordinator is Vance Joseph, who held the same position under Gase in 2016 in Miami. After being fired as head coach of the Denver Broncos, Joseph is considered a contender to be the Cincinnati Bengals’ next head coach, but he could join the Jets if that falls through. The Jets are still seeking their first playoff appearance since reaching back-to-back AFC Championships after the 2009 and ‘10 seasons. They won 10 games in 2015 but missed out on the postseason due to a tiebreaker. —Field Level Media

2017-10-12 18:50:01

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Early Thursday, Twitter temporarily suspended the account of actor Rose McGowan, who has become a major figure in the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal. The resulting backlash from Twitter users was immediate and intense, and illustrates just how contentious Twitter, the corporation, has become for its inconsistency in protecting its users from abuse. McGowan made an Instagram post early Thursday morning showing what appears to be notification of a temporary 12-hour suspension of her Twitter account for unspecified violations of Twitter’s rules. “There are powerful forces at work,” she wrote. “Be my army.” TWITTER HAS SUSPENDED ME. THERE ARE POWERFUL FORCES AT WORK. BE MY VOICE. #ROSEARMY A post shared by Rose McGowan (@rosemcgowan) on Oct 11, 2017 at 9:19pm PDT In a widely released press statement issued around noon EST, Twitter clarified that it had suspended McGowan over a personal phone number she had included in a tweet of a screencapped email: We have been in touch with Ms. McGowan's team. We want to explain that her account was temporarily locked because one of her Tweets included a private phone number, which violates of our Terms of Service. The Tweet was removed and her account has been unlocked. We will be clearer about these policies and decisions in the future. Twitter is proud to empower and support the voices on our platform, especially those that speak truth to power. We stand with the brave women and men who use Twitter to share their stories, and will work hard every day to improve our processes to protect those voices. However, by that point many Twitter users had spent half a day being confused and upset on McGowan’s behalf. The suspension followed an intense week for the actress, who has repeatedly used the platform to speak indirectly about her alleged sexual assault at the hands of Weinstein. The recent New York Times report of Weinstein’s alleged decades of sexual assault of women in the entertainment industry identified McGowan as the recipient of a settlement from Weinstein in 1997. Since the report broke last week, McGowan has been very active on Twitter, vehemently declaring that many people in the entertainment industry were aware of Weinstein’s actions yet stayed silent. Hey @mattdamon what’s it like to be a spineless profiteer who stays silent? pic.twitter.com/rp0OrRrpqJ @benaffleck “GODDAMNIT! I TOLD HIM TO STOP DOING THAT” you said that to my face. The press conf I was made to go to after assault. You lie. Bob Weinstein is a POS. They allllll knew. pic.twitter.com/zWJZf52ywq Due to her efforts, McGowan has been praised as a leader in the fight to empower victims of sexual assault. Because the offending tweet that included the phone number had been deleted, it wasn’t initially clear from McGowan’s Instagram post or a perusal of her Twitter feed which of Twitter’s rules she had violated. McGowan didn’t appear to have threatened anyone, and she wasn’t sharing graphic content or engaging in hate speech or violent speech. The industry veterans McGowan had been discussing in her tweets, however, are all powerful public figures in Hollywood. This fact, along with the lack of initial clarity about why she was suspended, led to rampant speculation that she was being silenced for being too aggressive about calling out the many men who allegedly stood by while Weinstein continued his pattern of assaults on women for years. The result was a sense of deep outrage and confusion among Twitter users Thursday morning. Hey @Twitter let us know which of these rules @rosemcgowan broke. Asking for multiple victims of sexual violence. https://t.co/eiZjQeMAVg .@rosemcgowan's Twitter was suspended.Women should not be punished for speaking the truth.#ROSEARMYhttps://t.co/KQfi4Sg7ts ICYMI, the game is rigged, and seeing @rosemcgowan getting suspended from Twitter, you don't have to ask for whom the game is rigged --> https://t.co/cOU84oTdVi Even after Twitter’s official reason became known, the user base wasn’t having it. [goodfellas laughing.jpg] https://t.co/WZloEKVNGs Some alt-right dickbag tweeted my phone number last winter, and when I reported it Twitter denied it was a violation of terms of service https://t.co/Imb5XmJpnC I don't care if McGowan tweeted a phone number or not. Twitter's rules seem uneven. Russian bots and Nazis are okay, but not a brave voice? I've said it before, and I'll repeat it now: if a superior alternative to Twitter appeared tomorrow, I'd be gone from here in a heartbeat. Although Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey chimed in with a note that the site needed to be more transparent, a lack of transparency isn’t the root of the real problem of McGowan’s suspension. Taken together, the backlash over McGowan’s suspension and the skepticism toward Twitter’s subsequent statement illustrate the inconsistency in how Twitter applies its own rules across the growing ideological divide on its platform — and how deep the rift between the company and its user base has grown as a result. The suspension of McGowan’s account neatly illustrates what has become a pattern in terms of how Twitter deals with harassment and abuse on its site. That is, while victims of abuse and marginalized users who deal with harassment are frequently censured over strict readings of Twitter’s abuse and safety rules, like McGowan, users who are widely seen as perpetuating real ideological violations of those rules are rarely censored. Twitter has a long, inconsistent track record of overlooking the actions of people who have an ongoing pattern of controversial behavior on the platform — in particular, white supremacists. Before it permanently banned Milo Yiannopoulos last summer for inciting crowd harassment of actress Leslie Jones, Twitter suspended and then unsuspended him, multiple times in succession. The company also avoided taking action against President Donald Trump for exhibiting similar patterns of personal harassment of other individuals and crowd incitement to harass those individuals. It has also allowed white supremacist leader Richard Spencer, along with a host of other alt-right and white supremacist figures to remain active on the site. These figures include former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, even though Duke regularly tweets anti-Semitic content. Even as prominent feminists have sworn off Twitter due to the perpetual harassment and abuse they faced on the platform, Twitter has seemed unable or unwilling to effectively grapple with the existence of hateful ideologies across its site, or the weaponization of its platform as a form of abuse: How many accounts need to be locked for Twitter to realize they aren't handling a dogpile effectively? And these are just the ones that fit. pic.twitter.com/iMg0moKIoS I've reported a tweet saying I should be sent to the gas chamber so Nazis can hear my screams multiple times since August. It's still there. https://t.co/JNwYmz0DJE Rose McGowan's Twitter account has been suspended for inciting women to speak out against sexual harassment & rape. Anyway, lets hop on over to Richard Spencer's account & get the deets on the next Klan rally... twitter's cool cuz u can tweet photos of concentration camp ovens & pics of ppl being lynched but the f word is what sets off the algorithm https://t.co/W3x7ZyNrYr They were on her like a SEAL team on high alert, but it takes an army of complainants to get people suspended for doxxing game critics. All of this is complicated by the fact that Twitter recently essentially made it an official policy to excuse aggressive and threatening content that would otherwise violate its own content policies in cases where the aggressive or threatening content qualifies as “newsworthy” — at least when it’s coming from President Trump. After Trump tweeted what appeared to be a threat of mass extinction to the country of North Korea on September 23, many Twitter users begged the company to suspend his Twitter account for rule violation. Twitter responded with an announcement that it had essentially given itself — and the president — a loophole around its own abuse policies for months: newsworthiness. With that policy of exceptionalism in mind, it’s hard to see how Rose McGowan’s tweets fail to pass the “newsworthy” test. It’s even harder to accept Twitter’s stated rationale for suspending McGowan, even temporarily, when you consider that it also verified WeSearchr, a notorious alt-right crowdfunding platform that essentially offers public “bounties” for various alt-right enemies, thus encouraging doxxing and harassment. The site routinely invites users to publicize the identities of individuals and confront them in person; last year its use by alt-right communities on Reddit, which has a strict policy against doxxing and harassment, contributed to several of those communities being banned. So @twitter @support why is this account that blatantly wants to doxx and founded by a banned person a verified account? pic.twitter.com/MMPQwxOgAr The difference between Twitter’s handling of McGowan and WeSearchr neatly illustrates what is at this point the fundamental difference between the way Twitter has handled alt-right user accounts and the way it’s handled everyone else: that is, it holds strictly to the letter, rather than the spirit, of its own rules. The result is that Twitter was quick to suspend McGowan for screencapping a phone number, but it gives a stamp of legitimacy to an entire site that is dedicated to doxxing people. Twitter will immediately suspend individual, lower-profile users over what seem like very minor infractions — such as when it suspended popular Twitter user meakoopa for repeating the (already publicly available) names of a homophobic couple he was in a fight with. But it won’t actually suspend the many prominent figures on its website who are primarily known for their racist, homophobic, and/or misogynistic viewpoints. And while all this is happening, the president of the United States can seemingly threaten nuclear war, retweet right-wing extremists, and promote violence with impunity because Twitter considers his tweets — and apparently no one else’s — “newsworthy.” I’m not a tech mogul but posting a phone number seems less bad than threatening nuclear genocide https://t.co/NzGAOCvTfa As soon as she was back on the website, McGowan defiantly weighed in on this theme: when will nuclear war violate your terms of service? https://t.co/72FiiyoZ59 McGowan’s suspension makes clear that Twitter’s abuse policies, or at least its inconsistent and confusing enforcement of those policies, do not protect abuse victims. In particular, women like McGowan who have experienced harassment and attempted to speak out about it on Twitter can be silenced at any time using the same inconsistent policy that Twitter refuses to levy against a Richard Spencer, a David Duke, or a Donald Trump — men who take advantage of the vagueness of Twitter’s abuse policies to perpetuate racism, violence, harassment, and fear. It’s never been more apparent where the balance of power lies on Twitter — a site where you can threaten to erase whole countries, advocate “white ethnostates,” and generally be a steaming garbage pile of a human being without apparent consequence, but you can’t tweet about your own sexual assault without getting a slap on the wrist.

2019-02-05 00:01:19

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Coda, which is coming out of its limited beta today, wants to reinvent how you think about documents and spreadsheets. That’s about as tough a challenge as you can set yourself, given how ingrained tools like Word, Excel and their equivalents from the likes of Google, Zoho and others are. Coda’s secret weapon is that it combines text and spreadsheet functionality into a single document, with the ability to build some basic programming into them and add features from third-party services as a bonus. In addition to opening up the service to anyone, Coda also today launched its new mobile app for iOS (with Android following at some point in the future). “It’s the best of documents, spreadsheets, presentations, applications — all brought into one new surface,” Coda founder and CEO (and former head of product for YouTube Shishir Mehrotra told me. “But the phrase we like to use is that Coda allows anyone to make a doc as powerful as an app.” You’re not going to use Coda, which was founded in 2017 and received funding from VC heavyweights like Greylock, Khosla Ventures and NEA, as a full-blown low code/no code service. It’s still a bit too limited for that. But you can use it to build your own custom inventory system, for example, or to build a basic CRM or to-do app that fits your specific needs. Or you could just use it as an online text editor and then slowly add features like third-party integrations with the likes of Slack or Figma as needed. All of that is easy enough for anybody who has ever used a function in Excel or Google Sheets. So far, tens of thousands of people have used the service during its private beta. Mehrotra tells me that about 15 percent of them are from the Bay Area and that a good amount of them simply use the service as a basic document editor. The new iOS app, unsurprisingly, mostly focuses on consuming content and using the functions that you have built in the web app. It’s unlikely that you’ll want to build a whole new experience on your phone, after all. In the demos I’ve seen, Coda nicely transforms cells and their functions into usable tables and cards on the iPhone.

2019-05-10

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TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea’s latest missile launch violated United Nations resolutions calling for a halt to such ballistic weapons tests, a spokesman for Japan’s government said on Friday. “They were ballistic missiles and that puts it in contravention of U.N. resolutions,” Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kotaro Nogami said at a regular press briefing. North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range missiles on Thursday, its second missile test in less than a week. Japan, which is within striking distance of North Korean mid-range missiles, has been a strong advocate of tough resolutions to force Pyongyang to abandon its ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons programs. Reporting by Tim Kelly; editing by Darren Schuettler

2016-10-25 05:44:31

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LONDON — Syngenta said on Tuesday that its takeover by the state-owned China National Chemical Corporation could be delayed until early 2017, as European authorities take a deeper look at a wave of deals among the biggest producers of seeds and chemicals designed to protect crops. European Union antitrust regulators briefly suspended, in September, their review of a proposed deal between Dow Chemical and DuPont after the companies failed to supply requested information. Margrethe Vestager, the bloc’s commissioner in charge of competition policy, has also vowed to closely review Bayer’s $56 billion proposal to take over Monsanto. Syngenta, a giant in farm chemicals and seeds, said on Tuesday that European officials and others had requested “a large amount of additional information,” and that the final approval of its acquisition by China National Chemical, known as ChemChina, would probably be extended into the first quarter of next year. It did not say which other regulators had requested more details. The companies had originally hoped to complete the $43 billion deal by the end of this year. “ChemChina and Syngenta remain fully committed to the transaction and are confident of its closure,” Erik Fyrwald, the Syngenta chief executive, said in a news release. Syngenta’s shares declined sharply on Monday after news reports that ChemChina had not submitted any potential concessions to European regulators before a deadline last week to potentially win early approval of the transaction. Shares of Syngenta rose 1.8 percent in early trading on Tuesday in Switzerland, where the company is based. In August, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States signed off on the merger, removing one of the biggest potential impediments, as the interagency body had previously been an obstacle to cross-border agreements involving Chinese companies. ChemChina agreed to acquire Syngenta in February, about six months after Syngenta had rejected a $47 billion bid by Monsanto. Syngenta said at the time that the American company’s offer undervalued it and that the deal might be difficult to finalize because of regulatory concerns. Monsanto abandoned its pursuit and agreed to be acquired by Bayer of Germany last month. Syngenta, based in Basel, is one of the world’s largest suppliers of agricultural products, including insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and seeds. It was formed in November 2000 by the merger of the agriculture subsidiaries of the drug makers Novartis and AstraZeneca. The Syngenta deal is one of a series of transactions by the Chinese company recently. In January, it took a minority stake in Mercuria, a Swiss energy and commodities company, to diversify its portfolio and expand into the energy sector. That same month, it sealed a deal for KraussMaffei, a German manufacturer of plastic- and rubber-processing machinery. And last year, ChemChina bought Pirelli, an Italian tire maker.

2016-10-26 21:36:06

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Singapore-based Carousell has complete its second piece of M&A following the Craigslist-like mobile commerce company’s $35 million Series B round in August. Today, it announced it has acquired Caarly, a fellow Singaporean company that operates a classifieds service for used cars. The deal is undisclosed like Carousell’s September acquisition of safety app Watch Over Me, but this time the purchase is less about bringing on talent since there’s a strategic element to it. In addition to taking on its 11 staff, Carousell has acquired Caarly’s “relevant” automotive products which its CEO Quek Siu Rui told TechCrunch “paves the way for a monetisation strategy.” “We’re focused on building revenue streams using high-value verticals starting with cars, while concurrently enhancing the experience of buying and selling on Carousell for our users,” Quek said via email. “Carousell has grown over the last 4.5 years, and so have our users. Over 50 percent of them in Singapore are now over 25 years old, and have significantly more purchasing power. We’ve seen how their evolving needs have resulted in more listings and greater demand in higher value verticals like cars,” he added via a public statement. To give further shape to that monetization push, Carousell has hired former Komli Media exec Rakesh Malani as its CFO. That’s a move that Quek said will help Carousell begin making money in the early part of 2017. To date, the company has not monetized its product, instead relying on the $40 million-plus that it has raised from its investors, which include Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten and Sequoia. Also joining the startup is Winnie Khoo, former MD of PropertyGuru. Earlier this year, Carousell nabbed another prominent executive in the form of ex-Airbnb Southeast Asia lead JJ Chai who is tasked with overseeing its international expansion plans. Initially, Carousell will use Caarly’s business in Singapore — which is the only market where the younger startup had been present and Carousell’s largest base of users — but Quek indicated that there are expansion plans for its fledgling automotive business. “Singapore is our most mature market, and its infrastructure and diversity make it an ideal testbed for our projects and experiments. We intend to use our learnings from Caarly in Singapore, to explore opportunities in other markets,” he said. Carousell is currently present in six countries — Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia — across which it claims to have handled a total of 41 million listings and 19 million transactions to date. Two-year-old Caarly’s only fundraising activity was an undisclosed round in 2015 that included participation from Wavemaker Partners.

2016-03-02 00:00:00

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Hillary Clinton for the Democrats and Donald Trump for the Republicans won several victories each. Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Alaska, and Colorado were the states participating in the Super Tuesday contests.

2017-03-01 14:15:00

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ESPN is kicking off Women's History Month in a huge way, with a new movie that celebrates women athletes. When I Play, which features real athletes instead of actors, was released today on espnW, ESPN's branch focused on women and sports. The short film features several athletes reciting a poem written by Allison Glock, a writer for espnW, with voiceovers laid over footage of them practicing their sport. "To Whom It May Concern," the poem begins. "What I am doing here is not for you/ Not for your judgment or your appraisal/ Not for your assessment or your arousal/ No boy I know has ever been told he shouldn't play." The movie features voices and footage of five athletes, including Lara, a 48-year-old powerlifter, Heather, a 25-year-old dancer, and Emebet, a 17-year-old soccer player. Glock, the creative director of When I Play, said that the movie was made to combat stereotypes about women in sports. "Women across nations are still told in myriad ways, spoken and not, that we should not play,'" she wrote. "When I Play is a film that directly and unapologetically celebrates who we are, what we want to be, why our visibility matters, and gives voice to women and girls who see their athleticism as a way to reclaim themselves, to find themselves and to embrace their power." Not only does the movie star all women athletes from gyms and athletic venues in Atlanta, Glock says that she also hired an all-woman senior production team to make and edit the film. All too often, she wrote, women are silenced everywhere they go. "We are warned not to get dirty in the schoolyard," she wrote. "We are advised to 'act like a lady,' or 'dress like a woman.' We are chided when our bodies become 'too big' or 'too strong.' We continue to have to fight for the right of women's athletic programs to exist and for our female champions to earn equal pay. Too often we are silenced, even on the Senate floor." When I Play, she said, is meant to be a rallying call for women to embrace and harness their power. And given the current political climate, we need a movie like this now more than ever.

2017-05-23

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May 23 (Reuters) - H&R Real Estate Investment Trust : * There will be caps on short term and long term performance awards for executives * With nominations of new trustees, election of Stephen Sender in 2016, REIT’s board will grow to 8 trustees * Performance-based incentive program for executives to have minimum thresholds, below which, no incentives would be awarded * REIT’s clawback policy has been extended to include all incentive compensation * New compensation program includes “market-aligned” annual salaries with emphasis on performance based compensation Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:

2020-01-23 00:00:00

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SEOUL, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Funds tracking South Korea’s KOSPI 200 index will be forced to sell up to $685 million worth of shares of Samsung Electronics when the bourse lowers the maximum weighting of any single stock to 30% later this year, fund managers and analysts estimated. An official of the Korea Exchange on Thursday said the bourse is scheduled to implement the new rule, proposed in 2018, sometime this year to prevent major indices from having too large a weighting for a single stock. Market expectations are for the rule to be implemented in the first half of the year, especially if Samsung shares start rising too fast. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, trading at 60,900 won ($52) on Thursday, comprises 33% of Korea’s bluechip KOSPI 200 benchmark. The exchange is expected to use a 3-month average market weight to determine if a stock has exceeded the 30% limit, which would trigger the rebalancing. At the current pace of gains and based on a three-month average price, Samsung shares are expected to comprise more than 30% of the index, before the exchange’s next scheduled review of the rule in June. Once implemented, institutional investors whose portfolios mirror the index through ETFs and other passive funds will need to sell Samsung Electronics shares to rebalance their books and abide by the 30% cap restriction. The impact on shares of Samsung Electronics will be minimal, analysts said. Some were unhappy with the rule change. “Passive funds will be forced to reduce their weight of Samsung Elec. Yes it will help diversify risks, but it’s like tying up the hands of the champion,” said Park Jong-youn, a Seoul-based fund manager at the IBK Insurance that manages over 8 trillion won. “Once the weighting is capped, the index will no longer reflect any gains even if Samsung does really well. The loss, on the other hand, will be reflected for the investors.” Bourse operators of the German index DAX and eurozone index STOXX50 have market cap limit of 10% for a single stock. For the Nasdaq 100 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, it is 20% and 15%, respectively. Samsung Elec shares have risen nearly 50% in the past year on expectation of a gradual recovery in the global chipmaking sector, almost five times the rise in the KOSPI 200, the index for core stocks listed in the broader KOSPI market . Based on Samsung Electronics’ current price and weighting, passive funds would need to offload about 500 billion won to 800 billion won worth of the shares once the rule is enforced, two local fund managers and three analysts estimated. That amounts to less than 4% of the 25 trillion won of money in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that track the KOSPI 200 index, and about 1% of the holdings of local passive funds, by some analysts’ estimates. The assets are mostly operated by South Korean institutions, market analysts said, ruling out risks of foreign capital outflows. “Institutional investors will need to sell some of Samsung Elec, but for foreign investors who do not track the index, however, this could be a chance for bargain-hunting, which may blunt the impact of the adjustment,” said a Seoul-based fund manager who owns Samsung shares and declined to be named. ($1 = 1,167.2000 won) (Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Simon Cameron-Moore)

2016-06-16 13:52:21

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Noah Syndergaard picked up his seventh win of the season on Wednesday night, striking out 11 Pirates batters over 8.1 innings. We've come to expect this sort of dominant stat line from the Mets' 23-year-old ace this year, in large part because this season he's unveiled a new pitch, a sort of hybrid slider-cutter called the Warthen slider. Syndergaard throws the Warthen slider — named after Mets' pitching coach Dan Warthen — at somewhere between 92 mph and 95 mph, but the movement on the pitch makes it sometimes look more like a power knuckle-curve.

2019-05-02 00:00:00

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(Reuters Health) - Men with cancer or other chronic illnesses are less likely to seek treatment for erectile dysfunction, even though sexual health is an important aspect of quality of life, researchers say. With a better understanding of the reasons why men don’t seek help, doctors could change the way they talk to their patients and help them seek treatment, the authors of a small study conclude in the International Journal of Impotence Research. “Improving our approach could result in a large proportion of men maintaining a satisfactory sexual life, which is an important part of overall wellbeing,” said lead study author Dr. Dejan Bratus of University Medical Center in Maribor, Slovenia. Erectile dysfunction is a common condition, but only 10 percent of men with erectile issues are typically treated, the study team notes. “What surprises us the most is the attitude of health professionals toward the sexual problems of their patients as it seems that a large proportion of doctors are unwilling to discuss these problems with their patients,” Bratus told Reuters Health by email. Over the course of a month, Bratus and a coauthor surveyed 500 men who were visiting their family doctor. The men filled out a questionnaire with just two questions: “Does sexual activity represent an important part of your life at this time of your life?” and “If you ever in your life suffered from erectile dysfunction (impotence), would you want to get it treated?” In analyzing the men’s responses, the researchers split the patients into three groups based on the reason for their doctor visit and their overall health status. In the first group were 176 men with no underlying illnesses, who had visited their doctor for preventive reasons or short-term issues. They typically talked to their doctor about respiratory infections, backaches, urinary tract infections and gastrointestinal problems. Their average age was 50. The second group, with “mild underlying disease,” included 244 men who visited their doctor due to existing chronic illnesses but didn’t have serious complications. They typically talked to their doctor about hypertension, diabetes, depression, anxiety and heart disease. Their average age was 60. The third group, with “severe chronic or malignant illnesses,” included 66 men who typically had some form of cancer or had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Their average age was 62. Overall, the research team found that more than 90 percent of the healthy men said sex was an important part of their wellbeing, while about 80 percent of men with mild underlying illness said this and for men with serious illness, it was closer to 70 percent. Similarly, close to 90 percent of men who were healthy or mildly ill said they would seek treatment for erectile dysfunction, while just 70 percent of the seriously ill men said this. “Sexual function is important to people but patient-provider communication about sex is often lacking,” said Kathryn Flynn of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, who wasn’t involved in the study. Flynn said results similar to the Slovenian study have been found in the U.S., including the fact that many patients with serious illnesses such as cancer don’t discuss sexual problems with their healthcare providers. “Even though there are psychological and medical treatments available to address erectile dysfunction (and other aspects of sexual dysfunction), patients often aren’t receiving them,” she told Reuters Health by email. In Slovenia, the study authors are developing better ways for oncologists to talk to patients about sexuality and sexual dysfunction, Bratus said. He is also part of a new 26-country European Sexual Medicine Network created by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology funding organization. “Our message to men who suffer from erectile dysfunction is that this is just a disease like any other,” he said. “There is no need to be ashamed of it, and we strongly advise them to talk about it with their doctors since there are many ways of getting help and improving sexual life.” SOURCE: bit.ly/2ZQSmw6 International Journal of Impotence Research, online April 11, 2019.

2016-11-01 12:30:00

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Baddie Winkle has won the hearts of the fashion world (and of those with a distinct personal style aesthetic). So it's no surprise brands would want to harness that talent to work with the OTT octogenarian. Today, Missguided announced the 88-year-old as its latest ambassador — because, who better to rep its party wear collection? Set in a London nightclub, the spread sees Baddie hosting a technicolor get-down, like only she could. (Now, where was our invite...) Missguided has had a series of high-profile but unexpected ambassadors, most recently featuring Pamela Anderson and Amber Rose, for example. These women share a common quality, according to Samantha Helligso, the brand's creative manager: an embodiment of confidence and a positive attitude. "For our party campaign, we really wanted to be bold and break the mold — we have fun with everything we do and don't take ourselves too seriously," she told Refinery29. Baddie not only fit that requirement, but also Missguided's pointed efforts to portray women of different backgrounds — and, in the Instagram star's case, to underscore that "you can slay at any age."This isn't Baddie's first turn as campaign star: She fronted a DimePiece spread last year. Still, she thinks the whole concept of getting this type of gig is fabulous. "It's so refreshing that the fashion industry has embraced me," she explained to us. "Older people are never really used, and this is such a blessing that we can show everyone that age is truly just a number." It's a happy coincidence that Missguided happens to stock bright, bold garments that fall right in line with the sense of style that earned Baddie a loyal following. After all: "We all want to grow up to be just like her," said Helligso of Baddie. We can't argue with that. See all of her campaign images, ahead.

2019-12-11 00:00:00

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MILAN (Reuters) - Italy’s Labour minister said on Wednesday that she would meet UniCredit’s (CRDI.MI) management later this week to discuss about the job cuts planned by the country’s largest lender. As part of its new business plan, UniCredit said last week it would cut 8,000 jobs and close 500 branches worldwide, triggering the ire of unions in Italy. Italian unions expect 5,500 layoffs and the closure of up to 450 branches in the country. “Italian government is following this matter very closely and is ready to intervene with any instrument in order to protect the current employment levels”, Nunzia Catalfo told a parliamentary hearing. Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro, editing by Giulio Piovaccari

2019-02-19

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The market has reason to believe that the Fed is going to stop raising interest rates for a while. Less certain is what the central bank will do with the $4 trillion of bonds left on its balance sheet. That latter issue is likely to take focus Wednesday when the Federal Open Market Committee releases notes from its January meeting. At that meeting, Chairman Jerome Powell and his fellow committee members made it clear that they would be "patient" with rate hikes and that for now policy tightening will be on pause. However, while Powell indicated he would be watching how the process unfolds, there were no indications the roll-off would slow. The Fed currently allows up to $50 billion a month in proceeds from Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities, though it does not regularly hit that number. Since the process began the bond portfolio has shrunk by more than $400 billion. The balance sheet had once stood at $4.5 trillion, the product of three rounds of bond buying — quantitative easing — the Fed instituted to lower long-term rates and pull the economy out of the financial crisis. Market participants are now wondering how much further the Fed will go. The minutes from the meeting, which helped spark a stock market rally, will be looked at closely. "The minutes from the two preceding meetings – November and December – included important sections on the balance sheet," Lewis Alexander, chief economist at Nomura, said in a note. "We believe the corresponding section of the January minutes will confirm the Committee's plans to end balance sheet normalization by end-2019." Several Fed officials have pointed to the end of the year as a likely point for the process to end, but even that remains in flux. The key in the discussions thus far is the level of reserves at which the banking industry feels comfortable. The decline in the balance sheet corresponds with a lower level of reserves. Currently, banks are holding about $1.64 trillion in reserves, or nearly $1.5 trillion above the required level. Many Fed watchers think the final level will be somewhere just in excess of $1 trillion, though some see it higher. "Once we reach $1.1 [trillion] of reserves, the normalization is done," wrote Jabaz Mathai, head of U.S. rates strategy at Citigroup. Markets have expressed concern that the balance sheet rundown is working in tandem with rate hikes to tighten financial conditions. While Fed officials have insisted that the roll-off will happen with minimal market disruptions, the feeling on Wall Street is otherwise. "As growth risks pile up externally and internally, the Fed will want to make sure that [quantitative tightening] is not a constraint that weighs down on financial conditions and hence on the economy," Mathai said. "Our view is that the effects of QE (and by extension QT, and the end of QT) work through the signaling channel. The Fed signaling that QT is ending, is a Fed signaling readiness to cut rates at some not too distant point in the future." Indeed, the market sees no additional rate hikes ahead as the Fed's benchmark rate sits in a range between 2.25 percent and 2.5 percent. Traders actually are assigning a small chance — about 10 percent — to a rate cut by December. Another related issue that could come up in the minutes is how Fed officials convey their intentions to the public. Powell suffered a series of missteps that began in October when he said the Fed was "a long way" from a neutral rate, and then again in December when he described the balance sheet operation as being on "autopilot." Markets have recovered mostly from those issues, but Fed officials have been discussing how to improve communications, particularly if another crisis hits. Bill English, a 20-year Fed veteran and current professor at the Yale School of Management, said officials have some other options available to them to give the public a more reliable road map for future intentions. Among them are a "fan chart" for the possible directions of the fed funds rate, and information about the way policy could respond to changing economic conditions. "More communication is better," English said in an interview. "Things can be misunderstood and communication can go badly, but the response to that should be more communication and trying to clarify, and not communicating less. The world of a generation ago when the Fed didn't communicate much about monetary policy at all isn't actually a very desirable world for doing monetary policy." The fan chart would be similar to one the committee uses to know display the level of uncertainty around interest rate projections. The intent is to keep investors aware of how much difference there is in various forecasts and reinforce that the rate estimates are not carved in stone. "One way or another it is just to suggest that while there is this path for the fed funds rate and the summary of economic projections, there's a great deal of uncertainty around that path and the committee will adjust that path accordingly under changing circumstances," English said. "That's the point you're trying to make." English said the current discussions around future policy responses could end up with a friendlier view toward negative nominal interest rates, as a recent Fed paper discussed, and quicker action to institute programs like QE.

2017-07-11 00:26:08

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Sports Briefing Romelu Lukaku joined Manchester United from Everton for a transfer fee of 75 million pounds ($97 million) on Monday after he rejected a late bid by his former club Chelsea. Lukaku, a 24-year-old Belgium international, signed a five-year deal and became the second-most expensive player in United’s history after his close friend Paul Pogba, who joined last off-season for $116 million. Lukaku, a powerfully built, 6-foot-3 striker, reunites with Manager José Mourinho, who sold Lukaku to Everton in 2014, when both were at Chelsea. Lukaku failed to establish a first-team place at Chelsea and had to spend most of his time on loan first at West Bromwich Albion and then Everton. “Romelu is a natural fit for Manchester United,” Mourinho said. “He is a big personality and a big player.” Bolstering his strike force has been a priority for Mourinho ahead of his second season in charge at United after Zlatan Ibrahimovic — currently out with a knee injury — wasn’t offered a contract extension. Lukaku was the second-highest scorer in the Premier League last season, netting 25 goals as Everton finished seventh in the standings. United was a place higher but qualified for the Champions League by winning the Europa League. “When Manchester United and José Mourinho come knocking at the door, it is an opportunity of a lifetime and one that I could not turn down,” Lukaku said. “You could see the fight, determination and the spirit in this team during the Europa League final, and I want to become a part of that.” The Rangers have hired the longtime N.H.L. head coach Lindy Ruff as an assistant to Alain Vigneault. Ruff, 57, was a head coach for almost 19 seasons, compiling a record of 736-554-78-125. He ranks fourth in regular-season games coached, trailing Scotty Bowman, Al Arbour and Joel Quenneville. Ruff coached the Buffalo Sabres for parts of 15 seasons. He led the Sabres to the Stanley Cup finals in 1998-99 and won the Jack Adams Award in 2005-6. Ruff also coached the Dallas Stars for four seasons. LIGHTNING KEEP JOHNSON Tyler Johnson is staying with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Johnson, a free-agent forward, signed a new seven-year, $35 million deal to remain with the Lightning, General Manager Steve Yzerman announced. Johnson, 26, had 19 goals and 26 assists in 66 games last season. The Lightning missed the playoffs last season after reaching the Stanley Cup finals in 2015 and the Eastern Conference finals in 2016. Earlier this month, Tampa Bay signed the former Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi and the four-time Stanley Cup-winning forward Chris Kunitz. The Cavaliers have signed the free-agent guard Jose Calderon to a one-year contract. The 35-year-old Calderon, who is entering his 13th season in the N.B.A., will back up the All-Star Kyrie Irving. Cleveland never found a good solution at that position last season after Matthew Dellavedova left as a free agent. The rookie Kay Felder wasn’t ready to make a contribution, and the veteran Deron Williams never found his groove. Calderon split last season between the Los Angeles Lakers and Atlanta, averaging 3.4 points and 2.1 assists in 41 games. CLIPPERS ADD A GUARD The Clippers have signed guard Milos Teodosic. Teodosic, 30, joins the Clippers after a 13-year career in Serbia, Greece and Russia. He led Serbia to a silver medal at last year’s Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Teodosic is likely to back up Patrick Beverley, who was acquired as part of last month’s trade of Chris Paul. CARTER JOINS HIS SEVENTH TEAM The Sacramento Kings signed guard Vince Carter. Carter, 40, who entered the league with the Toronto Raptors in 1998, is joining his seventh team. He played the last three seasons in Memphis, where he averaged 8 points and 1.8 assists per game last season. EVANS SIGNS WITH GRIZZLIES The Memphis Grizzlies signed guard Tyreke Evans. Evans, who played collegiately at Memphis, split last season between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Sacramento Kings, averaging 10.3 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 40 games. EX-KNICK GOES TO THE BULLS The Chicago Bulls say they have signed guard Justin Holiday. He played in all 82 games for the Knicks last season, averaging 7.7 points. A former Michigan State University and U.S.A. Gymnastics sports doctor accused of sexually assaulting dozens of women and girls plans to plead guilty to unrelated charges of possession of child pornography. A court document shows that Dr. Larry Nassar is due in federal court Tuesday to change his plea from not guilty to guilty. Nassar was a sports medicine specialist at Michigan State, especially in treating gymnasts in the region. He also worked for U.S.A. Gymnastics, which trains Olympians. Besides the child pornography case, Nassar is charged with sexually assaulting nine women or girls in three criminal cases in the Lansing area. Separately, Nassar is being sued by more than 100 women or girls. The Kansas City Chiefs have promoted the co-director of player personnel Brett Veach to general manager. The appointment was announced about two and a half weeks after the Chiefs’ chairman, Clark Hunt, fired John Dorsey, the team’s general manager of the past four years. Coach Andy Reid’s contract was extended the same day. Veach has begun his fifth season with the Chiefs, having spent his first two years as a pro and college personnel analyst. He started his career in the N.F.L. in Philadelphia, with three seasons as the assistant to Reid and three more as a scout for the Eagles.

2019-04-27 00:00:00

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Jihadists in Sri Lanka suicide-bombed three churches and three hotels on Easter Sunday, killing more than 350 people. Islamic State claimed responsibility. The Sri Lankan authorities blamed a little-known local group, which they say may have had external help. The government received several detailed warnings, but does not seem to have acted on them. The president asked his chief of staff and the head of the police to resign. It emerged that the president had been excluding the prime minister and his allies from national security meetings. See article. Joko Widodo won re-election as president of Indonesia, beating Prabowo Subianto, a former general who also ran against him in 2014. Now as then, Mr Prabowo has refused to concede defeat, saying the election was rigged. See article. Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. Kazakhstan’s ruling party named the acting president, Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev, as its candidate for a snap presidential election in June. That all but guarantees Mr Tokayev’s election to a full term. He has been acting president since Nursultan Nazarbayev, the incumbent of 30 years, resigned abruptly in March. A court in Hong Kong sentenced eight activists for their role in the pro-democracy “Umbrella Movement” of 2014. The harshest punishments, of 16 months in jail, were imposed on two academics. A Baptist minister also received a 16-month prison term, but it was suspended. See article. China’s president, Xi Jinping, attended a naval display in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Chinese fleet. Ships from 13 other countries joined the ceremonies. America did not send a vessel. Senior Americans were also absent from a gathering in Beijing of about 40 leaders and representatives from dozens of countries to discuss China’s Belt and Road Initiative. See article. Myanmar’s highest court upheld the conviction of two journalists from Reuters for breaking the law on state secrets. The journalists say they were framed by the security services for revealing a massacre of civilians by the army. Egyptians voted to approve constitutional amendments that increase the powers of President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and allow him to stay in office until 2030. Turnout was low, despite bribes of food parcels for many who cast a ballot. Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, said a long-delayed peace plan for Israelis and Palestinians will be unveiled in June. Saudi Arabia executed 37 people on charges of terrorism, including one who was crucified. Most of those killed were from the Shia minority. Human-rights groups accused the government of holding sham trials and using the death penalty to stamp out dissent. Two weeks after large demonstrations drove Omar al-Bashir from power in Sudan, talks between protesters and the military continued. The army said it would share power with a technocratic government as a presidential election is prepared. But it seems reluctant to give up control. Big protests were held in the capital, Khartoum. See article. The world’s largest drone-delivery network was launched in Ghana. Zipline, an American startup, will distribute vaccines and other medical supplies by operating 600 drone flights a day. The Trump administration announced new sanctions on Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, which it calls the “troika of tyranny”. Americans can now sue people or companies that do business involving property expropriated after Cuba’s revolution in 1959. John Bolton, the American national security adviser, announced that America would further restrict travel to Cuba by people who do not have relatives there. See article. Alan García, a former president of Peru, killed himself after police arrived at his home to arrest him. Prosecutors were investigating allegations that he received bribes from Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction company. See article. Argentina’s pro-business president, Mauricio Macri, froze prices of 64 consumer items, from milk to jam, for six months. Mr Macri hopes that inflation, which was 54.1% in the year to March, will fall before the presidential election, due to be held in October. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, his populist predecessor, is leading in the polls. Volodymyr Zelensky was elected president of Ukraine, trouncing the incumbent, Petro Poroshenko, with an astonishing 73% of the vote. A comedian whose political experience consisted of playing a president on TV, Mr Zelensky now has to deal with a war in the east of the country, corrupt oligarchs and a disenchanted electorate. It was a rare democratic transfer of power in the former Soviet Union. See article. Vladimir Putin played host to Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, in his first visit to Russia. After the apparent failure of his negotiations with Donald Trump, the North Korean dictator may be looking for a new friend. Lyra McKee, a 29-year-old journalist, was killed in Northern Ireland by gunfire aimed at the police during rioting in Londonderry. Local residents, known for their distrust of the authorities, were quick to contact police with information about the killing. The “Free Derry” mural, a symbol of the Troubles, had “Not In Our Name” added to it and red handprints were daubed on the office of a political party supported by the New IRA, which apologised for the murder. See article. Democrats in America’s House of Representatives debated the Mueller report. Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker, cautioned against trying to impeach President Donald Trump, since he is sure to be acquitted in the Senate. Democratic presidential candidates seemed much keener. See article. The queen invited Donald Trump to Britain ahead of the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings in June. Mr Trump will hope for a better reception than last year, when he slipped in to sip tea with the queen at Windsor Castle. Protesters then floated a baby-Trump blimp over London.

2017-03-06

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It’s not just a few countries. It’s not just about Muslims. And in some cases, it’s probably won’t be temporary, either. President Donald Trump’s newly revised travel ban may at first seem to be more limited in its reach than his sweeping earlier order suspending refugee admissions and barring entry for citizens of several predominantly Muslim countries. But the new order, signed Monday, still contains provisions that could ultimately slow travel and immigration to the United States from every corner of the globe. The order could ultimately backfire on Americans wishing to travel abroad, and, for some countries, what appear to be temporary bans could effectively prove permanent. The revised order appears to reflect Trump's “America first” philosophy, one that views immigrants as a threat to the U.S. economy and national security. The order’s specific targeting of six predominantly Muslim countries also underscores the strong influence of Trump advisers Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, both of whom are bent on limiting immigration in general but who hold hard-line views on Muslims in particular. The administration says the executive order is critical to stopping potential terrorists from infiltrating the United States. But, analysts say, there are already signs the White House’s actions are having a chilling effect on the number of people from around the world who wish to visit the United States. “What this document promises is the beginning, and not the end, of a new and potentially very broad set of immigration restrictions,” said Omar Jadwat of the American Civil Liberties Union, one of several groups that turned to the courts to block Trump’s original executive order. The revised order takes effect on March 16. It imposes a 120-day halt to the admission of all refugees to the United States. It also imposes a 90-day ban on the entry of people from six Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Both the refugee program and immigration relationships with the six countries are to undergo a review by the administration. The president is also ordering the Department of Homeland Security, in the next 20 days, to “perform a global, country-by-country review of the identity and security information that each country provides to the U.S. government to support U.S. visa and other immigration benefit determinations,” according to a fact sheet provided by the administration. “Countries will then have 50 days to comply with requests from the U.S. government to update or improve the quality of the information they provide.” That raises the possibility that countries beyond the six being singled out could find their citizens barred from reaching U.S. shores either as visitors or immigrants. U.S. officials were coy about what information they would require other countries to provide about their citizens, or what other steps they would expect other capitals to take, and odds are that each country would be treated on a case-by-case basis. Still, it’s hard to imagine U.S. rivals such as China or Russia acceding to every U.S. demand to help them vet their citizens. In some cases, the administrative burden may be too much for some governments to handle, especially in developing countries that have limited capacity. That being said, political considerations also may play a role. The countries with stronger lobbying networks in Washington, or which are deemed strategically important allies or economic partners, could have an advantage. Critics of the executive order point to the list of the countries whose citizens are banned for 90 days as an example of the questionable standards being applied. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, whose citizens have been implicated in several terrorist attacks on the United States, were left off the list. But both are considered important partners in the fight against terrorist networks, and the Saudis in particular have a strong lobbying presence in Washington. Separately, the original executive order also included Iraq. But Iraqi officials, pointing to the fact that they are an ally of the United States in the battle against the Islamic State terrorist network, pushed hard for an exemption. Trump aides said the Iraqis pledged to step up their information sharing for the immigration vetting process. Several of the other six countries may not be willing or able to meet new vetting standards demanded by Trump. That means that although the ban on the six is said to be temporary, in some or all the cases it could prove indefinite. Iran could be the hardest hit. Iranian citizens make up the largest number of immigrants or non-immigrant visitors among the six countries, with some 42,500 visas issued in 2015 out of roughly 74,000 for the six countries combined. But Iran doesn't have diplomatic relations with the United States, and it may balk at new U.S. vetting demands. Even if Iran decides to cooperate, it's not clear that the Trump administration would trust its government to provide accurate information. The governments of Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen all have other challenges; some are mired in civil wars while others are barely functioning states. And generally speaking, people from the six countries already have a very difficult time obtaining a U.S. visa, as American officials use a range of intelligence and other tools to examine their applications and vet them before granting them entry. A great deal will depend on what standards U.S. officials choose to apply and how stringently and broadly they apply them. The revised order contains a number of provisions granting U.S. officials the ability to give waivers to individuals in unusual situations trying to reach the United States, and how often those waivers are used could also soften the blow. But there are other elements in the executive order that could slow down the visa process, enough so that many people may consider it not worth trying to come to the United States. For one thing, the order requires the State Department to do more in-person interviews of foreigners seeking visas, meaning an extra hurdle for many visitors who in the past were not deemed security risks. The order will have profound implications for a range of U.S. industries, including universities that rely on dollars from international students, hotels that count on foreign tourists and technology companies seeking talent abroad. “The more onerous it becomes to come into the United States, the more Canada starts looking attractive, the more England starts looking attractive,” said Leon Fresco, a prominent immigration attorney. One major question is how the new vetting standards — whatever they are — will apply to the 38 countries that fall under the U.S. Visa Waiver Program. That program allows people from those countries, many of which are in Europe, to visit the United States without having to obtain a visa. Another question is how other countries will decide to treat Americans wishing to travel to their soil. Visa programs are, in theory, supposed to be reciprocal. So if the United States imposes new conditions for vetting, those other countries might do the same, making it harder for Americans to travel there. Travel industry experts say there already is mounting evidence of a drop in international interest in visiting the United States following the issuing of the original executive order on Jan. 27. The U.S. Travel Association on Monday released a statement that said “it doesn't appear that the administration fully seized the opportunity to differentiate between the potential security risks targeted by the order and the legitimate business and leisure visitors from abroad who support 15.1 million American jobs.” “Reputational fallout is a real thing,” Jonathan Grella, executive vice president of public affairs for the association, recently told POLITICO. “It really boils down to people having choices to make. Price and convenience and efficiency and how welcome you feel all factor into that.”

2019-08-12

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LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists are a step closer to being able to cure the deadly Ebola hemorrhagic fever after two experimental drugs showed survival rates of as much as 90% in a clinical trial in Congo. Two experimental drugs - an antibody cocktail called REGN-EB3 developed by Regeneron (REGN.O) and a monoclonal antibody called mAb114 - will now be offered to all patients infected with the viral disease in an ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The drugs showed “clearly better” results, according to U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), in a trial of four potential treatments being conducted during the second-largest Ebola outbreak in history, now entering its second year in DRC. The drugs improved survival rates from the disease more than two other treatments being tested - ZMapp, made by Mapp Biopharmaceutical, and Remdesivir, made by Gilead Sciences (GILD.O) - and those products will be now dropped, said Anthony Fauci, one of the researchers co-leading the trial. The agency said 49% of the patients on ZMapp and 53% on Remdesivir died in the study. In comparison, 29% of the patients on REGN-EB3 and 34% on mAb114 died. Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director general of Congo’s Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale in DRC, who co-led the trial, said the results meant that “from now on, we will no longer say that Ebola is incurable.” “These advances will help save thousands of lives,” he told reporters. Anthony Fauci, NIAID’s director, also said the results were “very good news” for the fight against Ebola. The agency said that of the patients who were brought into treatment centers with low levels of virus detected in their blood, 94% who got REGN-EB3 and 89% on mAb114 survived. In comparison, two-thirds of the patients who got Remdesivir and nearly three-quarters on ZMapp survived. Ebola has been spreading in eastern Congo since August 2018 in an outbreak that has now killed at least 1,800 people. Efforts to control it have been hampered by militia violence and some local resistance to outside help. A vast Ebola outbreak in West Africa from 2013 to 2016 became the world’s largest ever when it spread through Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and killed more than 11,300 people. The Congo treatment trial, which began in November last year, is being carried out by an international research group coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO). Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s emergencies program, said the trial’s positive findings were encouraging but would not be enough on their own to bring the epidemic to an end. “The news today is fantastic. It gives us a new tool in our toolbox against Ebola, but it will not in itself stop Ebola,” he told reporters. Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust global health charity, also hailed the success of the trial’s findings, saying they would “undoubtedly save lives”. “The more we learn about these two treatments ... the closer we can get to turning Ebola from a terrifying disease to one that is preventable and treatable,” he said in a statement. “We won’t ever get rid of Ebola but we should be able to stop these outbreaks from turning into major national and regional epidemics.” Some 681 patients at four separate treatment centers in Congo have already been enrolled in the Congo treatment clinical trial, Fauci said. The study aims to enroll a total of 725. The decision to drop two of the trial drugs was based on data from almost 500 patients, he said, which showed that those who got REGN-EB3 or mAb114 “had a greater chance of survival compared to those participants in the other two arms”. The two promising drugs are made from Ebola antibodies - a protein produced by the immune system to defend against infection. Regeneron’s product is a cocktail of three Ebola antibodies, while mAb114 is a single antibody developed by scientists at NIAID. Reporting by Kate Kelland, additional reporting by Ankur Banerjee and Manojna Maddipatla; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Arun Koyyur and Hugh Lawson

2018-11-17 00:00:00

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JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday he wanted his government to fulfil its term, putting the onus of triggering an expected early election onto a coalition partner. Netanyahu has faced calls from his coalition members to hold a snap election after the resignation of Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday. Lieberman quit over what he described as the government’s too-soft policy on an upsurge of cross-border violence with Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, leaving the government with a razor-thin majority. Israel’s Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, who heads the centrist Kulanu party, was the first coalition partner to call for an early election after meeting Netanyahu on Thursday. Kahlon’s calls were echoed by Aryeh Deri, head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party and by members of the nationalist Jewish Home whose head, Naftali Bennett, asked to succeed Lieberman as defense chief but was turned down by Netanyahu on Friday. The loss of Lieberman’s Israel Beitenu faction leaves Netanyahu with control of just 61 of the 120 seats in parliament. Each of the remaining government factions now has the power to effectively dissolve the coalition. Netanyahu, who heads the right-wing Likud party said that he will meet Kahlon on Sunday “in a last attempt to convince him not to bring down the government.” “If the Kulanu faction doesn’t bring the government down - there is a government,” Netanyahu said on Twitter. “All Likud members want to keep serving the country for another whole year until the end of the term in November 2019.” “That kind of spin doesn’t work on me,” Kahlon said in response on Hadashot television news. “It’s impossible to run a coalition with sixty-one Knesset members. Analysts see an early election as a done deal, with Netanyahu and ministers trying to pin responsibility for bringing the government down on each other so as not to lose favor with their right-wing voter base. “We’re heading for an election - there is no government,” Bennett told Israel’s Meet the Press on Saturday. “There’s a blame-game being fought on who will be the one to pronounce it dead.” Netanyahu is under investigation in a series of corruption cases, and there has been speculation that he may bring the ballot forward to win a renewed mandate while Israel’s attorney-general decides whether to indict him. Both Lieberman and Bennett compete with Netanyahu’s Likud for right-wing voters and have spoken in favor of harsh Israeli military action against Gaza’s dominant Hamas Islamists. A poll published on Wednesday by Hadashot showed Likud falling by one seat from 30 to 29 after months of polls that have shown it gaining power. Only 17 percent of respondents were happy with Netanyahu’s Gaza policy. Reporting by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Ros Russell

2017-04-06

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WHEN: TODAY, THURSDAY, APRIL 6 WHERE: CNBC'S "SQUAWK BOX" Following are excerpts from the unofficial transcript of a CNBC EXCLUSIVE interview with BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink on CNBC's "Squawk Box" (M-F, 6AM-9AM ET) today, Thursday, April 6. Following are links to the video on CNBC.com: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000607981, http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000607979 and http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000607978. All references must be sourced to CNBC. WHAT WE DID MOST IMPORTANTLY WAS IN U.S. EQUITIES, IT WAS MORE OF THE LARGE CAP AREA WHERE I'VE STATED IN THE PAST – I THINK ON THIS SHOW – THAT WE'RE SEEING A DEMOCRATIZATION OF INFORMATION. AT YOUR FINGERTIPS WE HAVE SO MUCH INFORMATION. AND SO YOU HAVE TO LOOK FOR DIFFERENT SOURCES OF INFORMATION. LET ME BE CLEAR, WE ARE NOT SUBSTITUTING HUMANS FOR MACHINES. WE'RE REORIENTING SOME OF THE HUMAN JOBS IN TERMS OF DOING MORE DATA SCIENCE AND DATA ANALYSIS. WE HOPE WE COULD CREATE SOME TYPE OF AI/WATSON THAT CAN RIGHT NOW AID US IN INVESTING AND ULTIMATELY CAN ACTUALLY INVEST BETTER THAN HUMANS. RIGHT NOW THAT IS MORE OF A MYTH THAN A REALITY. WE HAVE BEEN VERY AGGRESSIVE IN LOWERING OUR FEES. AS I SAID, A YEAR AGO WE DID THAT WITH OUR ETF PLATFORM AND WE'VE HAD HUGE INFLOWS IN THAT. WE DID THAT IN OUR FIXED INCOME PLATFORM AND NOW WE'RE DOING THAT IN OUR EQUITY PLATFORM. SO THERE IS A MOVEMENT TOWARDS LOWER FEES BUT MUCH OF IT HAS TO DO WITH THE PERSISTENCE OF LOW ABSOLUTE RETURNS. I PERSONALLY BELIEVE THAT THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT IS GOING TO BE GOOD LISTENERS AND SEE WHAT OUR NEW ADMINISTRATION IS -- WHAT THEIR INTENTIONS ARE RELATED TO THE RELATIONSHIP. I ACTUALLY AM OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THIS, THAT THIS IS GOING ON TO BE A GOOD MEETING. BOTH SIDES, ACTUALLY, NEED SOME FORM OF SUCCESS. I THINK THEY'RE GOING TO FIND WAYS TO IMPROVE THE RELATIONSHIPS. I THINK OBVIOUSLY NORTH KOREA WILL BE A MAJOR COMPONENT OF THE CONVERSATIONS. THEY ARE A CURRENCY MANIPULATOR, BUT THE OPPOSITE. THEY HAVE SPENT ALMOST $1 TRILLION KEEPING THE CURRENCY WHERE IT IS. AND BY ALL MEASURES, WHEN YOU LOOK RELATIVE TO OTHER CURRENCIES, CHINA CURRENCY IS ACTUALLY PRETTY HIGH. AND THEY'VE BEEN KEEPING IT HIGH. IF YOU LOOK AT EXACTLY THEIR BEHAVIORS, THEY ARE LISTENING TO PRESIDENT TRUMP, THEY'RE TRYING TO KEEP THEIR CURRENCY STRONG. WE DON'T HAVE THE TAX REFORM THAT WE'RE EXPECTING IF WE DON'T SEE A TRUE DEREGULATION, I THINK THE MARKETS WOULD HAVE SOME SETBACKS THERE. AND YOU'RE SEEING THAT -- YOU'RE SEEING A SLOWING DOWN OF OUR ECONOMY INTO THE FIRST QUARTER. WE'RE GOING TO GROW PROBABLY LESS THAN 1.5%. AND MUCH OF IT IS PEOPLE ARE JUST WAITING TO SEE WITH A LITTLE MORE CERTAINTY WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN WITH TAX REFORM AND DEREGULATION AND HOW ARE WE GOING TO POSITION OURSELVES. IN FACT, I THINK THE FIRST QUARTER, THE U.S. MAY BE THE SLOWEST ECONOMY IN THE G7. IF YOU BELIEVE THAT IT WOULD BE LONGER FOR THESE TO TRANSPIRE AND WE HAVE AN ECONOMY THAT IS SLOWER BECAUSE OF THE UNCERTAINTY, THEN I WOULD SAY THE MARKET IS -- THE U.S. EQUITY MARKETS ARE PROBABLY HIGHER THAN THEY SHOULD BE. With CNBC in the U.S., CNBC in Asia Pacific, CNBC in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and CNBC World, CNBC is the recognized world leader in business news and provides real-time financial market coverage and business information to more than 385 million homes worldwide, including more than 94 million households in the United States and Canada. CNBC also provides daily business updates to 400 million households across China. The network's 15 live hours a day of business programming in North America (weekdays from 4:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. ET) is produced at CNBC's global headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and includes reports from CNBC News bureaus worldwide. CNBC at night features a mix of new reality programming, CNBC's highly successful series produced exclusively for CNBC and a number of distinctive in-house documentaries. CNBC also has a vast portfolio of digital products which deliver real-time financial market news and information across a variety of platforms including: CNBC.com; CNBC PRO, the premium, integrated desktop/mobile service that provides live access to CNBC programming, exclusive video content and global market data and analysis; a suite of CNBC mobile products including the CNBC Apps for iOS, Android and Windows devices; and additional products such as the CNBC App for the Apple Watch and Apple TV. Members of the media can receive more information about CNBC and its programming on the NBCUniversal Media Village Web site at http://www.nbcumv.com/programming/cnbc. For more information about NBCUniversal, please visit http://www.NBCUniversal.com.

2016-01-22

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From today, Google has started offering free, high-speed Wi-Fi service in India's Mumbai Central Station in Mumbai. This kicks off the Internet giant's ambitious plan of setting up Wi-Fi at 400 train stations across the country, in order to expand its presence in India's market. India has the world's second-largest number of Internet users after China, but only a third of the country's population has Internet access. It is these Indians that Google, and Facebook's controversial Free Basics platform, are planning to connect. Google CEO Sundar Pichai had first announced that the company would set up Wi-Fi in Indian railway stations after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to its California campus last September. It plans to get 100 of the country's busiest train stations online in 2016, and 300 in its second phase. After Mumbai, Google will start Wi-Fi in the cities of Allahabad, Jaipur, Patna and Ranchi next. Google has described the initiative as the "largest public Wi-Fi project in the world", and estimates that it will be able to reach 10 million people just by getting 100 train stations online in the first phase. Indeed, while there are free public Wi-Fi projects in the train stations of cities such as Delhi, Kochi, Pune and Bengaluru, their scale remains small and Internet speeds slow. Passengers at Mumbai Central station will be able to access Wi-Fi on their phone, provided it has an Indian mobile number, and two more devices. The Wi-Fi will be full-speed initially, enabling users to even stream HD videos, but will slow down after the first hour to enable more people to access the Internet. The service is being offered in partnership with Indian Railways and its telecom wing Railtel. While it will be free to begin with, it isn't clear whether it will remain so in the long run. Google has said that "the long-term goal will be making this self-sustainable to allow for expansion to more stations and places". It remains to be seen whether Google will set a time limit on free Internet usage or explore other revenue models.

2019-11-04 00:00:00

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(Reuters) - Team by team analysis of Sunday’s U.S. Formula One Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. (round 19 of 21 races): - - - - MERCEDES (Valtteri Bottas 1, Lewis Hamilton 2) Hamilton became the second Formula One driver after Michael Schumacher to win six championships, while Bottas started on pole and took his fourth win of the season. The podium was the 150th of Hamilton’s F1 career and the title his fifth in the last six years with Mercedes. The win was Mercedes 14th of the season and ninth one-two finish. The podium was Hamilton’s eighth at the U.S. race, a record. - FERRARI (Charles Leclerc 4, Sebastian Vettel retired) Ferrari’s race pace disappeared early on, with Vettel dropping immediately from second on the grid and then sidelined with a broken rear right suspension after eight laps. Leclerc, using an older engine after a failure in qualifying, finished 52 seconds behind Bottas. He took a bonus point for the fastest lap. - RED BULL (Max Verstappen 3, Alexander Albon 5) Verstappen started third and ran in second place for much of the race on a two-stop strategy. He might have finished second but for yellow flags towards the end and floor damage to his car. Albon lined up sixth, was squeezed out at the start and damaged his car’s floor and front wing. After pitting, he fought from last to fifth, made three stops and beat Hamilton in the public vote for Driver of the Day. - MCLAREN (Lando Norris 7, Carlos Sainz 8) British rookie Norris, 20 next week, started eighth and celebrated his last race as a teenager with a strong points haul. He was fifth after the first few corners. Sainz started seventh but his race was compromised when he tangled with Albon at turn one. McLaren held the gap between themselves and Renault at 38 points. - RENAULT (Daniel Ricciardo 6, Nico Hulkenberg 9) Renault scored the same points tally as McLaren and look set to end the season in fifth, a backwards step from last year’s fourth. Ricciardo, starting ninth and on a one-stop strategy, had his best race since Italy in September. He was fifth on worn tyres until Albon passed him eight laps from the end. Hulkenberg fell from 11th to 13th at the start but did two stops and passed Gasly and Perez in the closing laps. - RACING POINT (Sergio Perez 10, Lance Stroll 13) Perez’s precious points lifted Racing Point clear of Toro Rosso. He and Kvyat collided on the last lap but the Russian was penalised, restoring the Mexican’s 10th place. Stroll hit a bump at turn two and fell down the field. He switched to a two-stop strategy but still suffered from tyre wear. - TORO ROSSO (Daniil Kvyat 12, Pierre Gasly 16) Kvyat finished 10th on the track but collected a five-second penalty for what he thought was a ‘harsh but fair’ move on Perez. Gasly also banged wheels with Perez and retired with a broken front suspension. Toro Rosso fell behind Racing Point. - ALFA ROMEO (Kimi Raikkonen 11, Antonio Giovinazzi 14) No points for last year’s race winner Raikkonen, then with Ferrari. Both drivers did two stops. - HAAS (Romain Grosjean 15, Kevin Magnussen 18) Magnussen ended up in the gravel with brake problems two laps from the end but was classified. Grosjean finished in the same place he had started. - WILLIAMS (George Russell 17, Robert Kubica retired) Kubica retired with an hydraulic leak shortly after the half-distance. Russell struggled with overheating tyres. Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Peter Rutherford

2018-05-29

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The threat of new tariffs on auto imports hit share prices of some foreign carmakers last Thursday, but broader equity markets shrugged off the possibility of a renewed trade war. Indeed, there were only modest changes in stock prices of U.S. carmakers that presumably would benefit most from auto tariffs. Market participants appear to have quickly realized that the notion of auto imports as a threat to U.S. national security is a stretch. The Commerce Department will take several months to work through an investigation, but this threat appears to be more of a bargaining tactic than a policy tool. Yet, even if auto tariffs do not materialize, there is evidence that the trade actions already taken over the past year are affecting the U.S. economy — and not for the better. In its most recent meeting, The Federal Reserve's interest-rate-setting committee, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), amid a host of positive observations of an improving U.S. economy, noted that businesses in many parts of the country were reporting rising costs of “steel, aluminum, lumber, and petroleum-based commodities.”   It is possible in principle for rising costs of important inputs used across manufacturing and construction to represent good news. After all, a booming U.S. economy would be expected to drive up prices of steel and lumber. In this case, car makers and homebuilders might be paying more for raw materials, but doing so to fill orders that were the embodiment of rising demand and higher incomes. The U.S. economy indeed looks to have shifted into a higher gear, with credible estimates of second-quarter GDP growth ranging upward of 3 percent. The Atlanta Fed’s “GDP Now” tracker even suggests 4.1-percent Q2 growth, potentially defying early-2018 skepticism of a presidential vow to reach the 4-percent mark. But rather than being the artifact of good news, the Fed’s observation more likely represents the undesirable consequences of tariffs on lumber and steel. These actions mean increased costs for firms, translating into some combination of lower profits and higher prices for cars and homes — and thus fewer of these items purchased and constructed than would have been the case without the tariffs. This is unfortunate. The U.S. economy is doing well even with the drag from these trade actions, but the tariffs reduce the purchasing power of American families’ incomes and mean less spending, ultimately reducing overall business investment and job creation. To be sure, firms sheltered by trade barriers might benefit, but the overall economy is worse as a result. There are many more workers whose jobs involve the use of steel and lumber than its production. The Fed’s observation on rising steel prices suggests that the tariffs are biting despite the exemptions that had been expected to mute their impact. The lumber tariffs are especially pernicious in their negative effect on lower-income families, since higher costs for homes put upward pressure on apartment rents. The irony is that the administration is in the midst of some important positive steps in its trade agenda, with the prospect of arriving at outcomes that will strengthen the U.S. economy and that should receive bipartisan support. Pursuing Chinese practices regarding technology transfer through a World Trade Organization complaint and Chinese violations of U.S. intellectual property rights under Section 301 are foremost among the administration’s potentially beneficial trade actions. Success on these dimensions would mean higher U.S. incomes as China pays for the fruits of American innovation. An important argument for our negotiators to make is that improved protection for intellectual property is fundamentally in China’s own interest, as that nation has steadily become a center for research and innovation rather than merely assembly. It will not be long before Chinese entrepreneurs seek their government’s assistance as their own intellectual property is misused by firms in other emerging-market countries. If Chinese officials remain too slow to realize this shared interest, American trade actions are appropriate to drive forward to a mutually beneficial outcome. Improvement of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico makes sense as well, including updates of the rules of origin for items such as autos that remain a key stumbling block in the negotiations. After all, the Mexican economy is far more advanced, and the auto sectors of the three countries are far more integrated than when the agreement went into effect in 1994. The idea of a five-year sunset to NAFTA would mean unnecessary uncertainty that detracts from the benefits of the agreement, but the idea of an ongoing review is fine so long as businesses can be assured of the stability of the fundamental aspects of the agreement. The legal timetable on the U.S. side means that congressional action on a revised agreement more likely would take place in 2019 rather than in the lame-duck congressional session this year. This is fine. Reaching an improved NAFTA that means more trade within North America should not be rushed. Even if the House flips in January, newly-empowered Democrats should support a trade agreement that fosters mutual economic growth rather than giving in to the potential desire to deny President TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump pushes back on recent polling data, says internal numbers are 'strongest we've had so far' Illinois state lawmaker apologizes for photos depicting mock assassination of Trump Scaramucci assembling team of former Cabinet members to speak out against Trump MORE an accomplishment. Indeed, an outcome in which a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives votes in favor of a Republican-negotiated NAFTA revision would make the trade agreement more politically stable. The key to the U.S. trade agenda thus is to stay focused on policies that support GDP growth. Ultimately what matters more than the magnitude of any bilateral trade balance is the strength of the overall economy. If the United States enjoys sustained growth at a 3-percent pace or better, then U.S. manufacturing firms will prosper and workers will benefit from job creation and rising wages, even while imports go up. That would be the best sort of shared prosperity, and one in which trade policy can make a positive contribution. Phillip Swagel is a professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy and a senior fellow at the Milken Institute. He was assistant secretary for economic policy at the Treasury Department from December 2006 to January 2009. View the discussion thread. The Hill 1625 K Street, NW Suite 900 Washington DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 tel | 202-628-8503 fax The contents of this site are ©2019 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

2017-09-19 12:45:00

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You know the feeling: You recognize a band, their music sounds so familiar, but you’re not quite sure where you’ve heard them before. Was it a commercial, a TV show, a late night talk show appearance? Or did you catch them during a summer music festival? Maybe you just came across one of their songs on a Spotify Discover playlist. Whatever the original circumstance, the tune is undeniably catchy and you’re curious for more. Electric Guest checks off all the above boxes. The Los Angeles-based duo, Asa Taccone and Matthew Compton, released their first album Mondo in 2012. The debut song, “This Head I Hold,” was a retro-sounding, dance-inducing electronic R&B ditty produced by Danger Mouse. It was a best-selling single in France that year and hit No. 30 on the U.S. Billboard Alternative Songs chart. Five years later, Electric Guest continues to inspire Hollywood and media creative execs looking for stand-out soundtrack fodder. More importantly, the band has established a doting audience, as evidenced by a recent string of sold-out shows in New York and beyond. The guys’ latest album, Plural, is out now and gaining accolades for songs like “Dear to Me” and “Oh Devil.” Both tunes boast noteworthy videos featuring amusing cameos from musical guests and comedy friends. A quick study of Asa Taccone, 33, takes us behind-the-scenes with the band’s mostly silly — and sometimes semi-serious — lead singer. 1. He’s the Younger Brother of Comedy Writer/Actor/Director Jorma Taccone Probably best known for writing Saturday Night Live sketches with The Lonely Island comedy troupe (including Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer), Jorma Taccone is also the co-writer and co-director of comedies like MacGruber and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. He’s popped up on TV shows, too, including Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Parks and Recreation and Girls (as Marnie’s crush Booth Jonathan). Asa has composed music for a number of his brother’s projects. 2. He Wrote the Infamous SNL Digital Shorts Songs “Dick in a Box” and “Motherlover” performed by Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg Not only did Asa Taccone write the music for the SNL classic sketch “Dick in a Box,” he won an Emmy for it. Seriously. “I did songs for those dudes pretty much all seven years they were on SNL,” Taccone tells PEOPLE. “But ‘Dick in a Box,’ ‘Motherlover’ and ‘3-Way (The Golden Rule)’ were definitely stand outs because of Justin [Timberlake] being involved. For all the songs we did, I’d be in L.A. and they were in New York. I’d send them a bunch of instrumentals, and then I’d call them and they’d put me on speaker phone and go through each beat. It was semi-terrifying having Justin listen to my stuff. I was a kid back then. I’m sure the stuff I was playing was mostly terrible.” Legend has it, Jorma paid his little bro $60 for the Emmy-winning track. 3. He’s Neighbors with HAIM Taccone is buddies with the popular sister act HAIM. “Yeah, those are our girls,” he says. “Alana lives down the street from me so we can walk to one another, which is rare in L.A. We’ve talked about doing some real songs together, and Este always says we need to do a tour together called the ‘Pregnancy’ tour because people will go home and get pregnant immediately after watching us.” The ladies (and Taylor Swift squad members) guest star in the video for “Dear to Me,” along with Andy Samberg. 4. He’s Inspired by the Bestselling 1970s Pop Psychology Book The Road Less Traveled Check out this book: "The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love,Traditional https://t.co/rjjEaCnxJn pic.twitter.com/1YhYwptYVD — 16thCENTURYLONDON (@teflonqueen) August 30, 2017 “That’s my bible right there. I swear it should be mandatory reading for all humans,” Taccone tells PEOPLE. “Damn near all the album’s lyrics were influenced by reading that book. The book is all about how real freedom lies in a constant pursuit of trying to view oneself as objectively as one can. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve felt that the main discrepancy between people is those that have a narrative about reality that they commit to more and more, and those that are open to new information and who keep asking the question: ‘Who am I?’ I’m less and less interested in inherited, conventional belief systems.” 5. His Love for ’80s, ’90s  and Early Aughts Pop Culture Inspired the ‘Oh Devil’ Video  Fans might recognize the storyline of Electric Guest’s latest video, as well as the pool boy cameo (Will Forte) at the end. “We wanted to make a video like the ones we watched in the early 2000s: Something fun and a bit lighthearted,” says Taccone. “Videos have gotten so exclusive these days. Like, when did everyone become a model? Culturally, I think we’d all benefit from having more moderately attractive people on screen. Everyone in the video was either a friend or a fan. Moi Langlois who styled all our videos from this album had the idea for the Sandlot moment, but gender-flipped. We both love older movies and music. I have a lot of ’90s anime, and both Matthew and I love ’80s music.” Electric Guest is on tour now. Click here for dates and tickets.

2016-05-02

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Paul Mariani’s excellent new book, “The Whole Harmonium: The Life of Wallace Stevens” (Simon & Schuster), is a thrilling story of a mind, which emerges from a dispiriting story of a man. It’s hard to think of a more vivid illustration of T. S. Eliot’s principle of the separation between “the man who suffers and the mind which creates.” For most of his life, Stevens was an elaborately defended introvert in a three-piece suit, working as a Hartford insurance executive. He came slowly to a mastery of language, form, and style that revealed a mind like a solar system, with abstract ideas orbiting a radiant lyricism. Mariani persuasively numbers Stevens among the twentieth-century poets who are both most powerful and most refined in their eloquence, along with Rilke, Yeats, and Neruda. He is certainly the quintessential American poet of the twentieth century, a doubting idealist who invested slight subjects (the weather, often) with oracular gravitas, and grand ones (death, frequently) with capering humor. Stevens’s first book, the ravishing “Harmonium,” which contains “Sunday Morning,” “The Snow Man,” “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” “Anecdote of the Jar,” “The Emperor of Ice-Cream,” and most of the rest of his poems that people still read—if they read any of them—came out in 1923, when he was forty-four. His next book, “Ideas of Order,” published thirteen years later, features what may be the finest American modern poem: “The Idea of Order at Key West.” (It gets my vote, with perfectly paced beauty that routinely squeezes tears from me.) His subsequent work, which abounded until his death, in 1955, is less familiar, because most of it is gruellingly difficult; the great mind finally spiralled in on itself, like a ruminative Narcissus. It takes heroic stamina to get through “Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction” and other of the late long poems, which American literary culture coped with at the time by loading Stevens with every possible prize, honor, and encomium. Since then, his reputation has stood as a windswept monument, tended by professors. Mariani, an accomplished New England poet himself, with an unstressed Catholic bent, has written well-received biographies of William Carlos Williams, Hart Crane, Robert Lowell, John Berryman, and Gerard Manley Hopkins. He has a prehensile feel for the roots and branches of literary modernism, exemplary taste in what he chooses to quote, and a real gift for exegesis, unpacking poems in language that is nearly as eloquent as the poet’s, and as clear as faithfulness allows. Something like a flame comes off the page (page 71, to be exact) of “The Whole Harmonium” when Mariani quotes lines from Stevens’s first published mature poetry, a waltz-timed passage that begins, “An odor from a star.” It appeared in 1914, when Stevens was thirty-four. Up to that point in the story, we have attended the growth of a restless child into a skittish adult. Thereafter, the book switches back and forth between Stevens’s seraphic art and his plodding life. But they merge as sides of a coin: philosophical, in his continual grappling with implications of the death of God—a loss that he tried to remedy by making poetry stand in for religion—and psychological, in his constant compulsion to cheer himself up. The key sentence in the biography, for me, tells that Stevens, who was prone to being depressed, “hated depression—hated it.” So do a lot of people, but few fight it as tenaciously as Stevens did. He relied, for stability, on the routine demands of his office job. (Whenever free of them, he commonly drank to excess.) He projected his struggles as abstract patterns of human—and, beyond human, of natural and metaphysical—existence. One late poem hints at a nagging anguish that poetry relieved for him: “It is a child that sings itself to sleep, / The mind.” Stevens was born in 1879 in Reading, Pennsylvania, the second of five children. His father, from humble beginnings, was a successful lawyer, his mother a former schoolteacher. Each night, she read a chapter of the Bible to the children, who attended schools attached to both Presbyterian and Lutheran churches, where the music left an indelible impression on Stevens. Both sides of the family were Pennsylvania Dutch, an identity that meant little to him when he was young but a great deal later on, perhaps to shore up a precarious sense of identity. (He became obsessed with tracing his family genealogies, poring over thousands of documents, and was “deeply disappointed,” Mariani writes, at being denied membership in the Holland Society of New York when, in the poet’s words, “some bastard from Danzig” popped up to spoil the requisite ancestral purity.) His father, a stern man, urged upon him a regimen of “work and study, study and work,” toward a professional career. Stevens was often ill, to the extent that he had to repeat a year of high school, and a bout of malaria—as improbable as that sounds, in Pennsylvania—permanently impaired his hearing. But he played football, consorted with the town’s bad boys, and cultivated a blustery front. He also had a hunger for erudition, expressed in precocious poems, essays, and orations. In 1897, he enrolled at Harvard, where he studied closely with the humanist philosopher George Santayana, debating matters of belief (Stevens was afire with skepticism, against Santayana’s more nuanced views) and even exchanging sonnets on the subject. He became the editor of the Harvard Advocate, read widely and deeply, and mastered French on the way to commanding a fabulous vocabulary, choreographing such tangos of words regular and rare as “The squirming facts exceed the squamous mind,” in “The Connoisseur of Chaos.” On graduation, in 1900, he moved to New York and wrote for newspapers. For one, he covered the second Presidential campaign of William Jennings Bryan, whom he hopped home to Reading to vote for. In his third book, “Owl’s Clover,” issued by a leftist publisher, in 1936, Stevens made haplessly clumsy allusions to social and political tensions of the time, though he was “a Hoover Republican,” Mariani writes, and also an admirer of Mussolini for rather longer than is comfortably excused as a common myopia of the time. He was no better than most white men of his class in point of casual racism and anti-Semitism, though fewer such toxins leak into his poetry than into that of Eliot or Pound. In verse, Stevens transcended anything mean or petty in himself, but for art’s sake; he wasn’t much given to moral scruple. For the New York Tribune, in 1900, Stevens covered the funeral of Stephen Crane, whom he admired but whose mourners he found “wretched, rag, tag, and bobtail.” He thrilled to a performance, in French, by Sarah Bernhardt, as Hamlet, for what he later recalled as her “intricate metamorphosis of thoughts”—quite the keynote of his own developing sensibility. He was bemused by the “quick, unaccountable” life of the city, and took to sitting for spells of restorative peace in St. Patrick’s Cathedral—unbelieving, but savoring the aura of sanctity. Tiring of journalism and seeing no path to a life in literature, he succumbed to pressure from his father and enrolled in the New York Law School. He passed the bar in 1904 and worked at various law and insurance firms. Also in that year, Stevens fell wildly in love with Elsie Kachel, a Reading girl from a family who lived on “the wrong side of the tracks,” Mariani writes—a cliché now that was at the time a grinding social fate in railway-divided American towns. When his father vehemently opposed the match, Stevens stormed out of the house and never spoke to him again. (He generally avoided all his relatives except, by way of genealogical research, those who were dead.) Elsie was beautiful. In 1916, her profile, sculpted by an artist who was a chance acquaintance, is said to have become the face of the dime, reigning there until she was replaced by F.D.R., in 1946. (Mariani believes the oft-told story, though the artist’s son denied it.) She was also prim, humorless, and, having left school in the ninth grade, intellectually defensive and incurious—traits overlooked by the smitten Stevens through the years of their courtship, while he accrued enough income, by his conventional lights, to justify marriage. The couple wed in 1909 and moved into an apartment on West Twenty-first Street. The next few years, spent on a small but seething scene of budding modernists, were golden for Stevens’s formation as a poet. At the salon of Walter Arensberg, a wealthy doyen of the new, Stevens met Marcel Duchamp—one of their conversations, in French, suggested to Stevens “sparrows around a pool of water”—and the New Jersey pediatrician and brilliantly innovative poet William Carlos Williams, his peer and cordial rival, who once called him “a troubled man who sings well, somewhat covertly, somewhat overfussily at times, a little stiffly but well.” Williams’s vernacular free verse and Stevens’s sumptuous blank verse long remained magnetic poles of American poetic form. They more or less merged in the work of Marianne Moore, whom both men esteemed. Mariani’s chapters on these years sparkle with personalities, anecdotes, and ideas. There’s Carl Van Vechten, calling Stevens “a dainty rogue in porcelain” who was “big, blond, and burly”—he stood six feet two—but possessed of “a tiny reserved spirituality.” Arensberg promptly revised the description to “that rogue elephant in porcelain,” in view of Stevens’s social ineptitude. (The patron’s stated formula for a successful poets’ salon was to convene “five or six men who live in the same town and hate each other.”) One gathering was so much fun that Stevens sent a telegram to Elsie, not daring to phone, to say that he would be home late. He admitted to his companions that he dreaded what awaited him at home. Mariani gives a fascinating account of a poet, previously unknown to me, who strongly influenced Stevens in those days: Donald Evans, a free spirit with a bejewelled, determinedly decadent poetic style, who most probably committed suicide, in 1921. “With their silk-swathed ankles softly kissing,” a typical line reads. Something of Evans—French elegance crossed with American vigor—informs Stevens’s early “Peter Quince at the Clavier,” which weaves theories of music and beauty into a comic version of the story, in the Apocrypha, of Susanna’s harassment by lusting elders: “She turned— / A cymbal crashed, / And roaring horns.” And: “Beauty is momentary in the mind— / The fitful tracing of a portal; / But in the flesh it is immortal.” “It was the cheapest way for us to cover the potholes.” Some of Stevens’s breakthrough works amount to literary equivalents of the formally audacious still-lifes and interiors of advanced French painting. The masterpiece “Sunday Morning,” from 1915, is an argument for spirituality without God, interlaced with a woman’s parlor daydream. It begins with “Complacencies of the peignoir, and late / Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair”; ranges “Over the seas, to silent Palestine”; decides that “Death is the mother of beauty; hence from her, / Alone, shall come fulfillment to our dreams / And our desires”; and concludes with a breathtaking image of “casual flocks of pigeons” that, at evening, “make / Ambiguous undulations as they sink, / Downward to darkness, on extended wings.” It was the first poem to appear under Stevens’s name in Poetry: A Magazine of Verse , which had recently started publication in Chicago. (He had shyly used a pseudonym, Peter Parasol, when submitting earlier poems, two of which were accepted.) The editor, Harriet Monroe, cut some stanzas and rearranged others, and Stevens agreed to it, though he restored the original in “Harmonium.” A certain reciprocal high-handedness among poets and editors—as if the modern in aesthetics required a team effort—marked the time. (Think of Pound’s retooling of “The Waste Land.”) Williams advised Stevens to delete, from a poem, two lines that struck him as sentimental. “For Christ’s sake yield to me and become great and famous,” he hectored. Stevens obeyed. Then, in 1916, perhaps, in part, to secure a suitable life with Elsie, who disliked New York, Stevens took a position with the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, where he worked for the rest of his life. After the move to Connecticut, he retreated from collegial enterprise—“a frightened man drawing back,” in Williams’s view—and conducted his art as a sideline to his humdrum life. It took him seven years to complete and perfect “Harmonium,” leaving out as many poems as he included. Except for Marianne Moore, who called the poems “sharp, solemn, rhapsodic,” reviewers of the book were bewildered. One condemned Stevens for having created a “fictitious reality,” which might seem a positive achievement. Another praised him as America’s first true dandy, thereby missing the sincerity of his ambition. For several years after the birth of his only child, Holly, in 1924, Stevens wrote little. (In a letter to Monroe, he called parenthood a “terrible blow to poor literature.”) When he resumed, it was in less sprightly veins, as his idealist’s temperament groped, through thickets of qualification, toward a never quite attained ideal. But flares of comedy recurred. The painting-like “So and So Reclining on Her Couch” begins, “On her side, reclining on her elbow, / This mechanism, this apparition, / Suppose we call it Projection A.” It ends, “Good-bye, / Mrs. Pappadopoulos, and thanks.” Stevens took to composing poems on slips of paper in the morning while walking to his office, where his secretary typed them up. The results made him a regular and imposing presence in literary journals, starting in the nineteen-thirties, and his poems from “Harmonium,” especially, which were frequently anthologized, fascinated a growing popular audience. After work, at home, he closed himself off, with a sense, he told a friend in a letter, of “shutting out something crude and lacking in all feeling and delicacy.” His marriage had foundered—Elsie had banished him from her bed after Holly’s birth—although he seems never to have considered ending it. When they moved to a new house, in 1932, Stevens occupied the master bedroom and Elsie a former servant’s quarters. A full-time housekeeper tended to Holly. There’s no hint in the book of any other romantic attachment, except for a chaste crush on a young teacher whom he met in the summer after his first year in law school—memories of which haunted him with visions of a flawless woman, forever lost. His public manner became aloof and stony, but the bravado of his boyhood resurfaced when he drank too much, as he did with zestful abandon on annual, usually solo vacations to the Florida Keys. Mariani tells us that at a party in Key West, in 1935—the year after Stevens became his firm’s vice-president in charge of surety and fidelity claims—he drunkenly insulted Robert Frost, disparaging his poetry. He wrote Frost a not quite penitent but mollifying letter, to which Frost replied gracefully, “If I’m somewhat academic (I’m more agricultural) and you are somewhat executive, so much the better: it is so we are saved from being literary and deployers of words derived from words.” But a few years later Stevens had at Frost again, telling him, “The trouble with you, Robert, is that you write about subjects.” Frost answered, “The trouble with you, Wallace, is that you write about bric-a-brac.” At another party in Key West, in 1936, a swaggering Stevens loudly impugned the manhood of Ernest Hemingway. When Hemingway showed up, Stevens took a swing at him, and Hemingway knocked him down. Stevens got up and landed a solid punch to Hemingway’s jaw, which broke his hand in two places. Hemingway then battered him, but later cheerfully accepted his meek apology. They agreed to a cover story: Stevens had been injured falling down stairs. But the Florida sojourns provided Stevens with more than occasions for feckless behavior. The natural elements and the weather set him to wide-awake dreaming on his biggest theme: the capacity of fiction to encompass, and to master, experiences of reality. The enchantment of the voluptuous setting peaks in the fifty-six lines of “The Idea of Order at Key West,” which begins, “She sang beyond the genius of the sea.” The speaker and a shadowy companion observe a girl or a woman singing by an ocean that is “Like a body wholly body, fluttering /  Its empty sleeves.” The singer’s song, “uttered word by word,” overlays and opposes “the dark voice of the sea,” in a duet that becomes a contest crowned with triumph: And when she sang, the sea, Whatever self it had, became the self That was her song, for she was the maker. At last, the poet names his companion, Ramon Fernandez, by addressing him. (Though Stevens denied it, he surely had in mind a French critic of that name, the son of a Mexican diplomat, whose rationalist bias made him a perfect foil for the poem’s endorsement of intuition.) He says: Ramon Fernandez, tell me, if you know, Why, when the singing ended and we turned Toward the town, tell why the glassy lights, The lights in the fishing boats at anchor there, As night descended, tilting in the air, Mastered the night and portioned out the sea. And, finally: Oh! Blessed rage for order, pale Ramon, The maker’s rage to order words of the sea, Words of the fragrant portals, dimly-starred, And of ourselves and of our origins, In ghostlier demarcations, keener sounds. Those “sounds”—sea depths answered by human ones—resonate like organ chords in a cathedral of the imagination. Appreciation of Stevens’s poetry grew—the critic F. O. Matthiessen wrote that it expressed “truths with the mellowness and tang of a late-summer wine”—but his home life languished. Holly disappointed him by proving unremarkable and by becoming engaged to an office-equipment repairman whom Stevens (echoing his father’s rejection of Elsie) called a “Polack” and a Communist. He boycotted the wedding and was relieved when, a year later, she divorced the man, on grounds of cruelty. Between trips to accept book awards and honorary doctorates, Stevens continued to go to work each day into his seventies, even after surgery for a stomach obstruction revealed a metastasizing cancer. He was too august at the firm to be let go, but he was never popular there. His boss remarked, “Unless they told me he had a heart attack, I never would have known he had a heart.” Before he died, in 1955, he accepted Catholic baptism from a hospital chaplain, who said that Stevens hadn’t needed “an awful lot of urging on my part except to be nice to him.” The conversion was more poetic than devotional in spirit, Mariani speculates, but, perhaps, “being a surety lawyer—he opted to sign on the dotted line at the end.” Like other critics I’ve read, Mariani ignores the details of Stevens’s day job, probably as being too mundane to merit attention, but they speak to me. Stevens’s specialties, surety and fidelity, turn profits from cautiously optimistic bets on human nature. (Surety covers defaulted loans and fidelity employee malfeasance.) Something very like such calculated risk operates in his poetry: little crises in consciousness, just perilous enough to seem meaningful. The endings are painstakingly managed victories for the poet’s equanimity. The aim, he once explained, was a “vital self-assertion in a world in which nothing but the self remains, if that remains.” That self devolved, over time, from grandeur into grandiosity, as Stevens labored over a myth of the poet as a secular spiritual hero. His ingenious arguments for the superiority of poetry over philosophy in his one book of essays, “The Necessary Angel” (1951), would be more persuasive if they seemed to designate any poet other than himself. But dip into nearly any of Stevens’s poems, to the last, and be braced by a voice like none other, in its knitted playfulness and in its majesty. And if a primary function of poetry is to expand and enrich the scope of a native language, Stevens has no equal in American English except Walt Whitman. The critic R. P. Blackmur listed nineteen words that Stevens had fished from obscurity, including “fubbed,” “gobbet,” “diaphanes,” “pannicles,” “carked,” “rapey,” “cantilena,” “fiscs,” “phylactery,” “princox,” and “funest.” Blackmur noted that such usage had given Stevens “a bad reputation among those who dislike the finicky, and a high one, unfortunately, among those who value the ornamental sounds of words.” But, he continued, “not a word listed above is used preciously.” Each served a feeling of the poet’s that, Blackmur guessed, “did not exist, even in his own mind, until he had put it down in words.” Certainly, Stevens’s poems precipitate rainstorms of sudden feelings, some of them hitting and others eluding a given reader’s comprehension. To savor the drenching effect, read him aloud, with attention to what Williams called his “thrumming in four-beat time.” The mind that can distinguish, in “The Snow Man,” between the “nothing that is not there, and the nothing that is” becomes your own. Stop when exhausted. Then you may want to consult Mariani’s superb biography, to plumb the aesthetic mysteries and register the human complications of so prodigious a gift. ♦

2017-12-12 12:00:01

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Paul Krugman Jonathan Chait raises a good point, which many of us were already thinking about: for all the debate about whether the tax bill will partially pay for itself, it’s actually more likely that it will end up worsening the deficit by far more than most estimates suggest. The reason is simple: the bill is junk, hastily drafted and full of exploitable loopholes. Once the tax lawyers and accountants get to work, they will probably find ways for their clients to avoid hundreds of billions in taxes that even the JCT estimates still assume will be paid. Suppose this is indeed what happens. I’ve been trying to think through the next step: What effect will a ballooning deficit have on markets and the political climate? When it comes to markets, my conclusion is, not much. The tax bill might lead to somewhat higher interest rates, but probably not to an interest rate spike. Why not? You might think that I’m making the same argument I was making during the aftermath of the financial crisis, when I argued repeatedly – and correctly – against predictions that budget deficits would lead to soaring rates. But my reasoning now is different, because both the underlying economic situation and the source of the deficits is different. Back in 2009-10, we had a deeply depressed economy with monetary policy at the zero lower bound, which meant basically that desired saving exceeded desired investment. So government borrowing wasn’t competing with the private sector for a limited supply of funds, it was giving idle potential saving a place to go. These days we’re much closer to full employment, and the Fed is gradually raising rates, so it’s an entirely different situation. But if you want to claim that deficits will drastically raise rates, you need to spell out the channel; and I think that channel would be largely blocked. First of all, the U.S. isn’t going to go bankrupt; it can’t run out of money to pay its bills (except for political holdups), because it can print money. And we’re a long way from the kind of situation in which America would become so dependent on the printing press that we’re looking at potential hyperinflation. What this means is that monetary policy – basically, short-term interest rates — will be set by the Fed based on economic conditions. And long-term interest rates will, to a first approximation, be the average of expected future short rates, so they too will reflect expected economic conditions. So the only way big deficits could drive up rates would be if they gave a big boost to demand, threatening to overheat the economy, and causing the Fed to raise rates to avert that overheating. Which means that the market impact of deficits depends on how much we think these deficits will raise demand. And the answer is, probably not all that much – if you think of the tax bill as a form of demand stimulus, it’s a very ineffective one, and the piece of the deficit that comes from gaming incompetent legislation will be especially ineffective. For one thing, the bulk of the gains will go to the rich, who probably spend less of a marginal dollar. And this will be especially true for rich people receiving what they suspect will be transient income gains. So, imagine yourself as a wealthy, liquid taxpayer experiencing a surge in after-tax income because your accountant has found clever ways to exploit the idiocy of new legislation. It will be fun and lucrative, but you’d have to suspect that the fun will end eventually – that even this GOP, with this leadership, will eventually close the most outrageous loopholes. So we might see big deficits that have relatively little real effect, because the winners from system-gaming save most of their gains. Notice, by the way, that this isn’t the conclusion I’d like to reach on political grounds. Given how terrible this bill is, I’d like to claim that it will lead to immediate market disaster. But I try not to engage in motivated reasoning (although sometimes I give in to temptation, then apologize); and I just don’t see a market disaster even if we see the expected epidemic of tax avoidance. What about the politics? OK, here I don’t have a clear model, so this is much more speculative. Still, what happens if the deficit balloons, and it’s clear that gaming of the tax bill is a major factor? We know what Ryan and McConnell will try to do: they’ll try to use deficits as an excuse to cut safety-net programs. But will they be able to get away with this with the memory of the tax scam still fresh in everyone’s memory? I’m pretty cynical about centrists and the propensity of the media to be taken in by charlatans, but I think this would probably be a bait and switch too far. Put it this way: Republicans would surely use big deficits as an excuse to propose big cuts in social programs, but they’d face a barrage of hostile media coverage, plus lots of public demonstrations as in the case of health care, all reminding everyone that these deficits were created by their own dishonest promises just a few months earlier. And imagine, as we should, that all of this would go along with many front-page stories about dubious business types abusing the new loopholes. Doesn’t this sound like a political disaster for the GOP? They could, of course, simply ignore the deficit and leave Medicare alone. But my guess is that they won’t be able to help themselves, that they’ll be prisoners of their own rhetoric even as the most unpopular legislation in history becomes pure political poison. So that’s my prediction: minor market impact, but quite probably a political disaster for the GOP as it becomes even clearer that their tax policies reward scammers. Of course, all this may be overshadowed by constitutional crisis. But that’s for another essay. OpinionNora Gordon

2017-04-25 12:00:00

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This article was originally published on March 24, 2016. We're bringing it to your attention again in honor of National Infertility Awareness Week. Baby-making is supposed to be a beautiful time in a woman’s life, full of emotional closeness, gleeful anticipation, and a lot of hot, unprotected boning. But if, like me, your ovaries haven’t gotten the message, it quickly becomes about as magical as a trip to the DMV — and at least at the DMV, they let you keep your pants on. Chances are, you know a woman like me: someone who’s always wanted children and knows she’d make a great mom, but whose baby-making regimen now consists of sterile fertility clinic visits and self-administered injections instead of knockin’ boots to Barry White. Not sure how to handle your friend who’s so pumped full of hormones that the mere sight of a stroller can send her into a five-hour crying jag? Who can blame you? That’s why I created this guide. Ahead, eight things you really shouldn’t ever say to a woman who’s trying to get pregnant — and yes, I’ll explain why. But don’t cancel brunch plans just yet: I’ve also provided safe, comforting alternatives that won’t send us careening face-first into our French toast. Ready to navigate one of life’s most delicate social situations? Let’s go.

2018-08-05 19:37:43

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If they’re worried about what’s driving the growing appeal of socialism, they need to look in the mirror. Contributing Opinion Writer I’ve been fretting lately about the state of mind of America’s capitalists. All these socialists coming out of the woodwork must have them in quite a lather. So I write today with some friendly advice for the capitalist class about said socialists. You want fewer socialists? Easy. Stop creating them. Every once in a while in history, cause and effect smack us in the face. The conditions under which the czars forced Russians to live gave rise to Bolshevism. The terms imposed at Versailles fueled Hitler’s ascent. The failures of Keynesianism in the 1970s smoothed the path for supply-side economics. And so it is here. As I noted recently in The Daily Beast, the kind of capitalism that has been practiced in this country over the last few decades has made socialism look far more appealing, especially to young people. Ask yourself: If you’re 28 like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York congressional candidate who describes herself as a democratic socialist, what have you seen during your sentient life? You’ve seen the United States go from being a country that your parents — or if you’re 28, more likely your grandparents — described as a place where life got better for every succeeding generation to a place where for millions of people, quite possibly including you, that’s no longer true. As that happened, you’ve seen the rich get richer, and you’ve perhaps noticed that the government’s main response to this has been to keep cutting their taxes (in fairness, President Barack Obama did raise the highest rate in 2013 to 39.6 percent from 35 percent, although for single filers, that rate didn’t kick in until earned income went above $400,000). You witnessed the financial meltdown of 2008, caused by big banks betting against themselves. Capitalists might want to consider how all that looked to a young person who came from a working-class family and who probably knows someone who lost a job or even his house, while some of the bankers who helped create the mess walked away with golden parachutes, like that of Countrywide Financial’s Angelo Mozilo, which The Times valued at $88 million. You’ve watched corporations hoard profits, buy back their stock and not reinvest in their workers the way they once did as they move jobs to Central America and Bangladesh. If you read a lot, you know that stock buybacks were permitted under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Rule 10b-18, which dates to the Reagan era, and that since it’s just an S.E.C. rule, it can be changed without having to pass legislation, but no one in either of the Democratic administrations since then bothered. I could go on like this for 20 paragraphs. Many more, in fact. But you get the idea. Back in the days when our economy just grew and grew, we had a government and a capitalist class that invested in our people and their future — in the Interstate highways, the community colleges, the scientific research, the generous federal grants for transportation and regional development. And, funny thing, during all this time, socialism didn’t have much appeal. Back in the 1910s and ’20s, during an era of intense labor strife and before the existence of the welfare state, there were a couple of Socialist Party members in the House of Representatives — Victor Berger of Wisconsin and Meyer London of New York — as well as hundreds of Socialist mayors and state legislators and local officials. But during the “Trente Glorieuses,” to use the French term — the glorious 30 years from 1945 to 1975 when everything largely worked in Western economies — socialism’s appeal in America waned. In the 1910s and ’20s, the Socialist Party’s presidential candidates received hundreds of thousands of votes, or more. In 1956, the party’s presidential hopeful, Darlington Hoopes, won a mere 2,044 votes (other small leftist parties did somewhat better). During this time and into the Reagan era, the broader American left — defined not by party but by belief — played a constructive role in supporting civil rights, opposing the Vietnam War and doing what it could to fight the new concentration of wealth. But, with the Cold War raging, its numbers were small and its influence negligible. So, back now to our 28-year-old. She was born in 1990. She will probably remember, in the late ’90s, her parents feeling pretty good about things — median household income did go up under Bill Clinton more than they had under any president in a long time, even more than under Ronald Reagan. But ever since, the median income picture has been much spottier, hardly increasing at all in inflation-adjusted dollars over 18 long years. And those incomes at the top have shot to the heavens. So if you were a person of modest or even middle-class means, how would you feel about capitalism? The kind of capitalism this country has been practicing for all these years has failed most people. Yes, it’s given us lots of shiny objects to gush about. A smartphone that can display slow-motion video is a wonder. But an affordable college education, though perhaps not a wonder, is a necessity for a well-ordered society. So is a solution to a national drug crisis in which 115 people die every day, as well as a lot of other problems that the capitalism of our era has simply ignored. I have mixed feelings about this socialism boomlet. It has yet to prove itself politically viable in general elections outside a handful of areas, and by 2021 we could wake up and see that it’s been a disaster for Democrats. But I understand completely why it’s happening. Given what’s been going on in this country, it couldn’t not have happened. And if you’re a capitalist, you’d better try to understand it, too — and do something to address the very legitimate grievances that propelled it. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter.

2017-07-14

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If you like classic science fiction, one of the genre’s best magazines can now be found online for free. Archive.org is now home to a collection of Galaxy Science Fiction, which published some of the genre’s best works, such as an early version of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man. The collection contains 355 separate issues, ranging from 1950 through 1976. Open Culture notes that it’s not quite the entire run of the magazine, but it’s got plenty of material to keep fans occupied for years. It includes stories from science fiction legends such as Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Clifford Simak, and Theodore Sturgeon. There are also some underappreciated authors who deserve re-discovery, such as Kris Neville, Alan E. Nourse, or John Christopher. (Sadly, like most publications of this era, female SF authors were underrepresented.) Galaxy Science Fiction was a digest magazine founded by editor Horace Leonard Gold, after the Second World War. During this time, the science fiction field was in flux. The scene’s biggest publication, Astounding Science Fiction, was starting to lose its edge, while American readers had more entertainment options, like radio, novels, or television. Gold opted to focus on mature stories in a genre that was quickly becoming more sophisticated in themes and tropes, focusing on plausible science and social issues. The genre had come of age, he explained in his introduction for the first issue, saying that his magazine “proposes to carry the maturity of this type of literature into the science fiction magazine field, where it is now, unfortunately, somewhat hard to find.” Galaxy would cast off some of the genre’s pulpier elements, and would emphasize an elegant design, stories with plausible science, and stories “selected for [their] maturity, intelligence, and professional quality.” To emphasize this, Gold titled his introduction “For Adults Only.” Under Gold’s direction (and later, under the direction of author and editor Frederic Pohl), the magazine became a landmark in the science fiction genre, resulting in some of its best-known works. These included early versions of books like the aforementioned Fahrenheit 451 and The Demolished Man, but also Alfred Bester’s space opera The Stars My Destination and Isaac Asimov’s robot mystery novel The Caves of Steel. A sister publication, If Magazine, came later, which can also be found on Archive.org. At its height, the magazine changed the direction of science fiction. James Gunn explained in his book Galaxy Magazine: The Dark and the Light Years that Gold wasn’t necessarily interested in stories about engineers and scientists, “but about the ordinary people who were most affected by scientific and technological change.” Now that the magazine has been uploaded, this collection is an excellent opportunity for readers take in a piece of science fiction’s history. Fans of all generations can dig in to discover a forgotten author or story, or re-read a beloved classic.

2020-01-23 00:00:00

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BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s transport ministry on Thursday suspended all shuttle buses and ferries going to the central city of Wuhan due to a coronavirus outbreak that has killed 17 and infected nearly 600. Buses and ferries already on their way to Wuhan should return to their starting points immediately, the Ministry of Transport said in a statement on its website. The ministry also asked buses passing through Wuhan to adjust their routes immediately to bypass the city, adding that passengers must not be allowed to get off there. Reporting by Judy Hua and Wu Huizhong; editing by John Stonestreet

2016-02-19 15:44:33

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A Texas judge on Friday ordered the case of Ethan Couch to be transferred to an adult court, meaning the teenager faces jail time for a 2013 drunken-driving crash that killed four people. The decision by the juvenile court in Fort Worth means that Mr. Couch will spend up to 120 days in jail, then finish his 10-year probation. Samantha K. Jordan, a spokeswoman for the Tarrant County district attorney’s office, said a hearing, which is scheduled for April, would set the conditions of Mr. Couch’s probation. If he violated his probation, she said, he could get up to 10 years in prison. “It means he will actually be under supervision until 2024,” Ms. Jordan said. “The penalties are tougher, but the way they maintain the supervision is stricter as well.” If the case had not been transferred to adult court, Mr. Couch’s probation would have ended on his 19th birthday on April 11, when he would have been released. Scott Brown, Mr. Couch’s lawyer, could not be reached for comment on Friday. Mr. Couch’s case dates from June 15, 2013, when he and some friends stole beer from a store and went for a drive. Mr. Couch, at the wheel, plowed into four people on the side of the road outside Burleson, a suburb of Fort Worth, killing them. A passenger in Mr. Couch’s vehicle was paralyzed and suffered brain damage. Mr. Couch’s case caught widespread attention when Judge Jean Boyd, a juvenile court judge, declined to give him the punishment sought by Tarrant County prosecutors — 20 years in prison — and instead ordered him to be placed in a long-term treatment facility while on 10-year probation. That was after a defense witness argued that Mr. Couch suffered from “affluenza” — a term used to describe the psychological problems that can afflict children of privilege. The decision outraged the families of those Mr. Couch killed and injured, while victim rights advocates questioned whether a teenager from a low-income family would have been treated the same way. In November 2015, the district attorney’s office asked that his case be transferred from juvenile court to adult court, which could impose stricter probation terms. And in December, prosecutors began looking into whether Mr. Couch had violated his probation after a six-second video posted on Twitter appeared to show Mr. Couch at a drinking party with other youths. Then Mr. Couch went missing. But he and his mother, Tonya Couch, resurfaced in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and were arrested and returned to the United States separately. Once he returned to the United States, prosecutors had to weigh new scenarios. Because he had fled, Mr. Couch was placed in juvenile detention after being brought back to Texas. But prosecutors did not pursue a specific penalty in juvenile court for a probation violation because he would have aged out of the system anyway when turning 19. So they continued to pursue the transfer to adult supervision. “Even if we had prosecuted the violation nothing more serious would have happened,” Ms. Jordan said. But she said that the fact that Mr. Couch fled can be used in the hearing in April to argue for stringent probation conditions. Last month, Ms. Couch was charged in Fort Worth with hindering apprehension related to helping her son escape to Mexico. Her lawyer, Stephanie Patten, has previously said her client did not break any state laws, The Associated Press reported on Friday.

2018-06-29 00:00:00

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New Jersey judge has upheld a $117 million jury award against Johnson & Johnson and the U.S. unit of talc supplier Imerys in a case involving a man who claimed he developed cancer due to exposure to asbestos in J&J talc products. Judge Ana Viscomi of the Middlesex County Superior Court in New Brunswick, New Jersey, on Friday refused the companies’ motions to set the verdict aside, her chambers confirmed. To read the full story on WestlawNext Practitioner Insights, click here: bit.ly/2IDAivu

2019-07-02 00:00:00

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SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A new pledge by China to show “the highest possible ambition” in the fight against climate change could see the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter introduce new and more stringent carbon targets next year, according to experts and policy advisors. As U.S. President Donald Trump continues to cast doubt on the reality of climate change, China is becoming a crucial driving force behind worldwide initiatives to combat global warming, especially ahead of a United Nations summit in New York in September. In a statement issued on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka on Saturday, China’s top diplomat State Councillor Wang Yi, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres vowed to “scale up efforts to tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis”. China and France also pledged to “update” their contributions beyond their current ones to reflect “their highest possible ambition.” The 2015 Paris climate agreement encourages countries to make stronger pledges if they are able to do so. “I believe this is the first time the Chinese government has officially talked about updating their nationally determined contributions,” said Zou Ji, President of the Energy Foundation in Beijing and a former member of China’s climate negotiating team. Li Shuo, senior climate advisor with environmental group Greenpeace, said the commitment to “update” rather than reaffirm current contributions also suggests that stronger pledges will be made. “‘Highest possible ambition’ can’t be there if there is no desire at all from Beijing,” he said. “I think (Chinese leaders) get the idea that they need to enhance their ambition, not only for their image as international climate leaders but also for larger geopolitical reasons, such as supporting multilateralism.” The statement by China, France and the UN also acknowledged the importance of achieving net zero carbon dioxide emissions by balancing CO2 sources with “sinks” that lock up greenhouse gas, but it stopped short of setting a target date. Europe is pushing for China to issue a 2050 pledge. China aims to bring emissions to a peak by “around 2030” and raise the share of non-fossil fuels in its total energy mix to 20% by the end of the next decade, up from 15% in 2020. China’s Ministry of the Environment and Ecology did not respond to a request for comment. However, the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), a government think tank, is advising Beijing to introduce more stringent climate targets in its next five-year plan. The CCICED called last month for China to bring emissions to a peak by 2025, raise the share of non-fossil fuels in the energy mix to 25% by 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060-2070. “It is very challenging but China still has a lot of room to improve and it should regard it as part of its own process of modernization,” said Zou, who was involved in drawing up the CCICED recommendations. Additional reporting by Muyu Xu in BEIJING; editing by Christian Schmollinger

2019-07-09 00:00:00

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HAMBURG (Reuters) - U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill [CARG.UL] confirmed on Tuesday it will develop its starches and sweeteners factory in Krefeld in Germany, changing the plant to wheat raw material from corn in a $200 million investment project. The project had been announced in January 2018. No figures on plant production capacity or tonnage of wheat involved were given. Construction will begin in early 2020 with completion expected by summer 2021, Cargill said in a statement. The first deliveries of wheat-based products will start in autumn 2021. The Krefeld plant currently produces starches and sweeteners from the raw material corn for the food and technical industries including marmalades, jams, sweets, chewing gum and custard powder. “The increasing demand for protein rich foods driven by the growing world population and the rising need for industrial starches in the packaging industry are driving the need for vegetable proteins and specialized starches,” Cargill said. By transforming the site from corn to wheat Cargill said it can add wheat proteins and specialized starches to its portfolio. The new unit, which will be built on the current factory site, will meet high standards of reliability and sustainability, it said. Reporting by Michael Hogan, editing by Ed Osmond

2017-05-05 12:53:00

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On Thursday night's episode of Desus & Mero, the hosts celebrated their 100th episode in style. Top Chef judge and esteemed chef Tom Colicchio dropped by to pop champagne with the VICELAND hosts—and their very dapper bear, Juicebox—for the illustrious occasion. After discussing how he became a chef and later a TV star, Colicchio, Desus, and Mero held their own food competition, rating three different chopped cheeses (a Bronx delicacy). How else did you expect them to commemorate the centennial episode of what Mero lovingly calls "the number one show on late night"? You can watch last night's Desus & Mero for free online now, and be sure to catch new episodes weeknights at 11 PM on VICELAND.

2017-12-19

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(Reuters) - Micron Technology Inc’s (MU.O) better-than-expected current-quarter profit forecast on Tuesday allayed investor concerns that a boom in chip demand has peaked, sending the company’s shares up 6 percent in after-hours trading. The company’s shares have nearly doubled this year as chipmakers ride a so-called memory chip “super-cycle”. Users looking to store more and more data and apps in smartphones and businesses shifting to cloud have lifted demand and prices of both DRAM and NAND memory chips amid tight supply. Dynamic random access memory (DRAM) content in smartphones is expected to increase 8.2 percent this year to an average of 2.6 GB per device, according to a latest research by DRAMeXchange. However, there have been some worries that the boom, mainly in NAND chips, may have peaked, especially after a Morgan Stanley note in November. Micron on Tuesday eased such concerns. The chipmaker said for next year NAND industry supply bit growth was approaching 50 percent and the company’s bit growth was “somewhat above industry” for its fiscal 2018. “Investors’ fear of ASP/bit declining is overblown considering costs continue to decline and demand increases,” said Stifel analyst Kevin Cassidy. Micron, which got 67 percent of total revenue from DRAM chips in the latest quarter, said bit growth in the business would be “slightly below industry” for fiscal 2018. Average selling price (ASP) of DRAM chips rose in upper 50 percent range in the first quarter from a year earlier, Micron said. “End markets in memory are more diversified and given opportunity for differentiation, it’s not a commodity market anymore,” Cassidy said. Boise, Idaho-based Micron said it expected an adjusted profit of $2.51 per share to $2.65 per share for the seasonally slow current quarter. Analysts on average were expecting an adjusted profit of $2.03 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Net sales surged 71.4 percent to $6.80 billion in the first quarter ended Nov. 30, beating the average analyst estimate of $6.43 billion. Net income attributable to the chipmaker rose to $2.68 billion, or $2.19 per share, from $180 million, or 16 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding items, the company earned $2.45 per share, easily topping analysts’ average estimate of $2.21. The company’s shares were trading at $46 in extended trading, after closing up marginally at $43.98 in regular trading on Tuesday. Reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila

2017-03-01

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Officials gradually cut off the flow of water over a six-hour period, the Sacramento Bee reported. The goal was to give crews a chance to clear debris and restart the dam's hydroelectric power plant. The damage to the spillway comes amid an extraordinarily wet winter for California, which had struggled through more than five years of drought. Many of the state's other reservoirs are near capacity, and snowpack in the mountains is well above normal. Though the desperately needed rain and snow has been a boon to the state, it also highlighted neglected infrastructure that could cost $65 billion per year to fix and maintain, the Mercury News reported.

2017-08-25 12:15:00

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Property Brothers stars Drew and Jonathan Scott open up about fame, overcoming failure, and why they’re ready for marriage and babies! Subscribe now for an exclusive look into their next chapter — only in PEOPLE! Drew Scott and Linda Phan are still planning their upcoming wedding, but the couple is finally close to narrowing down the location. “We’re definitely doing a destination wedding in Europe,” Drew, 39, says in the latest issue of PEOPLE. “Maybe Mykonos, France or Spain.” The Property Brothers star proposed to his 29-year-old longtime girlfriend at the Toronto restaurant Piano Piano last December. While he’s still got some time, the wedding will take place next spring — and Drew says he’s got some work to do when it comes to his groomsmen. “Linda has 14 bridesmaids, but I don’t have that many friends, so I guess I need to make some new ones,” he jokes. “The guys will wear kilts and she’ll have something inspired from her Chinese roots. We want to have some tradition but also mix it up.” Drew’s bachelor party is already in the works, thanks to Jonathan and their older brother J.D. “It’s going to have to be something that involves adrenaline,” Jonathan says. “Drew is an adrenaline junkie so he wants to get out there and do some extreme sports or something. We won’t tell you what it’s going to be but maybe bungee jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge or something. … It will be something wild.” Jonathan and Drew’s new book, It Takes Two: Our Story, comes out Sept. 5.

2016-06-01 10:25:00

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With so many responsibilities on the plates of new moms, it’s easy to see how fitness can sometimes take a back seat. But Fit Moms of Instagram is here to help inspire change. The popular account – which has 210K followers – features moms around the world incorporating fitness into their busy schedules in creative and unique ways. The women featured on the account range from expecting mothers to toddler moms – all with varying degrees of fitness backgrounds. Athlete Corey Hartung is one of the moms whose posts were featured on the account. The NCAA All American gymnast hasn’t competed professionally in seven years, but works to maintain her balance and strength with routines alongside her son. “I’ve become a juggler I suppose,” Hartung says in one post. “Life is a big circus. And for all of us mothers who manage, keep putting on that beautiful show.” Hartung also uses her son to add weight to her everyday fitness exercises, like crunches and “baby burpees.” In addition to posts like Hartung’s, the account also often shows moms how they can do simple exercises like squats and lunges while accomplishing daily chores. One video, by personal trainer and mother of four Jennifer Gelman, turns making lunch into an calorie-burning workout. Anna Strode – who has 34.7k followers on her own popular fitness Instagram account – is a mom to 1-year-old identical twins Lachie and Samuel. She says working out with her young children has given her “#FitFam” important bonding time. “Babies and children shouldn’t be your excuse for why you can’t workout, it should be your reason as to why you CAN!” she writes in one post. “Look how much fun Lachie and Samuel are having. It gets them outside. They get to crawl and explore the garden, climb all over me, get dirty and breathe in lots of beautiful fresh air! This is easily our favorite part of the day.” “Don’t get trapped into the thought that you don’t have time or your kids won’t enjoy it – just give it a try!” Strode adds. “I promise you will laugh, sweat and love your way to a healthier, more positive and energetic mind and of course you will see some amazing changes in your body too. It’s a win win.” The Fit Moms of Instagram account occasionally posts transformation photos too, like this inspiring post from mom Morgan Gillespie, who says the loose skin she has after her weight loss “isn’t a curse, but a trophy of triumph for overcoming my fears.” Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve been inspired by fit moms. Earlier this month, mom Kristy Ardo told PEOPLE about how incorporating her 20-month-old son Tucker into her old workout routine changed her. “One day I picked him up and did lunges and squats and he laughed and giggled the whole time,” the 25-year-old told PEOPLE. “It made my workout fun and enjoyable. Now it is a great bonding time for us.” Ardo says she struggled previously to find time to workout. “I suddenly had to figure out how to juggle my own health while taking care of a baby. With the lack of sleep it was hard to find time or energy. I couldn’t justify going to the gym by myself after getting off work. Spending time with him is my priority,” she explained. Ardo also shares her workouts on her Instagram account, and says she’s learned a lot from following fit moms on social media. “It gives moms hope that they can still get back into shape after having kids,” Ardo says. “Just because you have a baby doesn’t mean you have to put your health on the back burner! You can turn it into a positive bonding time.”

2019-12-03 00:00:00

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New York (CNN Business)This Cyber Monday set all kinds of sales records, including one that has become something of an annual tradition: Monday was Amazon's biggest shopping day in the company's history. Amazon rarely releases exact numbers, but it said Tuesday that shoppers ordered "hundreds of millions" of products between Thanksgiving and Monday. It said customers bought more items around the world on Monday than on any other day in Amazon's two-plus decades of existence. Cyber Monday has been Amazon's top sales day for several years, outpacing the previous Prime Day and Black Friday. Shoppers ordered a record number of Amazon devices over the past four days. The Echo Dot and Fire TV Stick 4K, were among the most popular items, the company said. The five-day shopping extravaganza was popular for toys. Amazon (AMZN) said customers worldwide purchased more toys this Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined than ever before. Hasbro (HAS), LEGO Star Wars Darth Vader's Castle and a "Frozen 2" edition of Monopoly were the bestsellers. In the United States, the top items sold were the Instant Pot Duo80, a DNA kit from 23andMe, L.O.L. Surprise! toys and the iRobot Roomba. Amazon also said its fashion items had its biggest sales day ever globally with a Carhartt beanie hat and a Champion hoodie being most popular. Whole Foods, which is owned by Amazon, also broke its all-time record for turkeys sold during the Thanksgiving season for the third year in a row. The holiday wasn't completely rosy for the company. A small number of people protested outside of CEO Jeff Bezos' apartment in New York City about working conditions in its factories, according to multiple reports. Amazon's success over the holidays echos larger industry trends. Cyber Monday notched a total of $9.2 billion in sales, according to Adobe Analytics, a spike of nearly 17% over last year. Shopping on smartphones accounted for 33% of those sales, an increase of 46% compared on the same day in 2018. "Consumers capitalized on deals and ramped up spending, especially on smartphones, where activity increased on days when shoppers were snowed or rained in," said John Copeland, head of marketing and consumer insights for Adobe, in a press release. He added that retailers started sales earlier this year to combat the shorter holiday shopping season. Black Friday grew nearly 20% year over year and notched $7.4 billion in sales and Thanksgiving raked in $4.2 billion in sales, an increase of 14.5% over 2018. Shoppers have increasingly shifted their shopping online. Brick-and-mortar store sales on Black Friday dropped 6.2% compared to 2018, according to data from ShopperTrak. But foot traffic in stores increased 2.3% on Thanksgiving Day compared with last year, according to the firm. "There is no longer one way to shop on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday," said Brian Field, senior director of global retail consulting for ShopperTrak.

2018-05-09 13:32:56

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Wanderlust How the Azorean island, some 800 miles from the mainland, is putting the paradisiacal archipelago on the map. The scenic shoreline of Lagoa das Sete Cidades, on São Miguel’s west end.CreditCreditFrancisco Nogueira In a mirroring of Norse legends, a mid-1300s Medici atlas showed an archipelago floating in the middle of the Atlantic. More than half a century later, the Azores — nine volcanic isles about 800 miles west of Portugal — were more formally discovered, presumably by the Portuguese explorer Diogo de Silves. Some say that the islands’ name refers to the cerulean hues of the surrounding waters; others believe it has to do with the birds flying overhead (‘‘açor’’ can mean goshawk in Portuguese). The Azores’ crater lakes and mineral-rich soil made them well suited for fishing and agriculture; during the 18th and much of the 19th centuries, the exportation of oranges generated great wealth for the islanders, who built colonial-style manors out of lava stone, many of which remain. When a blight killed the industry in the mid-1800s, oranges were replaced with pineapples and, later, cows. Today, the Azores are transforming yet again to become a model of sustainable tourism — one that, given the islands’ hot springs, surf culture and thriving ecosystems (dolphins and sperm whales are often spotted swimming just off the rocky coasts), can feel like a less-developed version of Hawaii. The main island of São Miguel, nearly 40 miles from end to end and home to just under 138,000 people (more than half of the total Azorean population), is the best place to start (though visitors also love São Jorge and Pico, whose barren beauty seems almost prehistoric). Getting in and out of Ponta Delgada, São Miguel’s main city, has over the past couple of years been made easier with direct flights — a boon not just for tourists but also for locals, a handful of whom have recently returned after stints elsewhere to open hotels and restaurants. São Miguel is also home to a burgeoning art and music scene — the annual Tremor festival brings experimental bands and performance troupes every spring. But in a place where the ginger lilies grow taller than humans, and frequent light rains lead to almost-daily rainbows, visitors are just as likely to seek silence. Surfer pals João Reis and Rodrigo Herédia opened Santa Bárbara, on the island’s north coast, in 2015 — it overlooks a half-mile stretch of beach with particularly good waves. Guests often watch the action from the resort restaurant, which features floor-to-ceiling windows and carved driftwood sculptures, plus a rotating menu of sustainable sushi. This summer, another 16 two-bedroom or studio villas will be added to 14 existing units, in which hammocks hang from the natural wood ceilings, and brightly woven textiles offset the dark polished concrete floors. Surfing (and cooking) lessons are available, as is a long outdoor lap pool. Perched atop a grassy hill outside the northern port city of Ribeira Grande, Pico do Refúgio consists of three whitewashed plain-style buildings that the late Portuguese sculptor Luísa Constantina de Ataíde da Costa Gomes used as her rambling studio. About a decade ago, her son took over, carving the space into eight rentable apartments filled with midcentury furniture (Hans Wegner armchairs, lacquered coffee tables) and contemporary art. The property hosts a series of art and music residencies (Thurston Moore came here to write a few songs in 2016), and it’s not uncommon for visitors to leave tokens of gratitude, such as the large-scale photograph of spiky vegetation by António Júlio Duarte and a multimedia piece that Miguel Palma intended as an abstraction of the island itself. A restaurant will open later this year. During the late 18th century, a New Englander by the name of Thomas Hickling was a pioneer in the island’s citrus trade. Yankee Hall, his stately country home in Furnas Valley, sits on a 30-acre plot that is now a public botanical garden thick with tree ferns, bamboo and several hundred varieties of camellias. Within these fertile grounds sits the Terra Nostra hotel, set in an elegant Art Deco building with 84 recently refurbished rooms, and a natural thermal pool of iron-dense, mustard-colored waters. After a soak, guests head to the restaurant, which is helmed by a talented local chef, who makes fresh takes on traditional recipes such as cozido das furnas, a meat stew cooked with volcanic steam. Located just northeast of Ponta Delgada on what was once a sprawling citrus estate, this striking two-story rental property offers a window into how São Miguel has changed with the generations. Its principal architect, Joana Oliveira, now based outside Milan, spent her teen years in the main house up the driveway. Last year, she remade the family’s deteriorated stable, surrounded by aloe vera and camellias, into an airy building that sleeps eight. Oliveira opted for a modern aesthetic — you’ll find modular sofas, as well as metal tubular pendants that were designed by her firm, Mezzo Atelier — but still managed to nod to the place’s history: The facade, naturally, is painted a flamingo pink, and the kitchen walls are the color of ripe oranges. Azores native Rui Ramos has run several much-loved São Miguel restaurants over the years, including O Gato Mia, where the house special was açorda de camarão, or bread stew with shrimp. But his greatest hit may be A Tasca, an always-packed Portuguese bistro that he opened in an old pub in the heart of Ponta Delgada’s old town in 2014. Guests sit beneath the original beautifully coffered ceiling, enjoying local table wines and petiscos (snacks) — try the seared sesame-coated tuna and the baked octopus with sweet-and-sour onion chutney. 011-351-296-288-880. Last year, Hugo Ferreira, an Azorean chef who trained under Alain Ducasse in Paris, took over an old-fashioned bistro on the outskirts of Ponta Delgada. From Thursday through Saturday, he hosts nightly pop-up dinners with a small menu of shared, seasonal dishes that riff on traditional Azorean fare: There’s green bean tempura, creamy soufflés and pork loin with charred cabbage and pineapple. Much of Ferreira’s produce, including the tiny sweet bananas and limão galego, an especially juicy species of lemon, come from his father’s nearby farm. 011-351-911-032-444. At this intimate restaurant located on a working permaculture farm in northern São Miguel, owners Paulo Decq and his wife, Inês Sá da Bandeira, grow, cook and serve the food (often with the help of their son and daughter-in-law). Beyond the giant blue door of the stone farmhouse, which is more than a hundred years old, lies a simple dining room appointed with nine tables. The homespun meal usually begins with a soup, whether cold cucumber or fish caldo, as well as fresh-baked flatbread and fried polenta sticks, while the mains are designed around perfectly cooked pieces of fish and meat that Decq sources from friends. For dessert, there’s pineapple carpaccio soaked in port wine and served with a limao galego ice cream. 011 351 917 003 020. In 2016, Violeta Rodriguez and Pedro Garcia left their marketing and tech jobs in Madrid to open this curiosity shop on one of Ponta Delgada’s cobbled side streets. The front space, with an arched ceiling and stone-tiled floor, is overflowing with quirky design objects (handbound notebooks, children’s masks). Upstairs, there are record players and a back room with a vast vinyl collection. The couple is active in the cultural life of the island, so it’s also a place to find out about local happenings — such as a concert at the bar-cum-alternative exhibition space Arco 8, set in a graffiti-covered warehouse building outside town. 011-351-924-490-227. This 20th-century haberdashery turned gift shop and cafe in Ponta Delgada is something out of a British children’s book: The wooden shelves lining its sea-foam green walls showcase everything from floral-painted teacups and decorative ceramic swallows to handmade soaps and artisanal chocolates. After browsing, visitors can sit at one of 10 tiny tables for a house-made tart (egg, almond or pistachio). Owner Catarina Ferreira serves more savory dishes, including a hearty black-bean soup and an eggplant cannelloni, at her vegetarian sister restaurant, Rotas da Ilha Verde. 011-351-938-346-886. Several years ago, the Porto-based firm Menos é Mais, along with architect João Mendes Ribeiro, transformed a former tobacco factory in Ribeira Grande into a sprawling cultural hub, renovating the original lava stone structures and adding two new ones — boxy, Brutalist concrete boxes. (For their efforts, they were shortlisted for the prestigious Mies van der Rohe Award.) Inside, there are light-filled galleries, a theater and a research library, as well as a number of studios reserved for visiting artists.

2016-02-13 00:00:00

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The day before the New Hampshire primary, CBS anchor John Dickerson walked into an American Foreign Legion post in Manchester to observe a Ted Cruz event. The host of one of the big Sunday talk shows and the moderator of Saturday’s Republican debate went nearly unnoticed, slipping in among reporters with little fanfare. It seems that few people noticed him, or if they did, they didn’t care. The CBS team is keen to keep the focus tonight off its “Face the Nation” host too. "My goal is to be a window; you see the candidate, I’m just making it easier for people to see what the candidates believe and think,” Dickerson said in an interview in his barely-unpacked offices in the week before the first primaries. "We want to illuminate things so people feel like they have some control over this thing that’s happening on their behalf. They’re out there talking and trying to work out answers and we’re trying to facilitate that for people in the audience." In the corner of Dickerson’s barely moved-into office at CBS’ Washington bureau, brown butcher paper hangs on the wall. It's where Dickerson has mapped out the questions he'll ask at the debate in a big spiderweb-like flow chart of topics, questions and comments. Over days and weeks, the chart expanded until Dickerson ripped the paper off, folded it up and took it with him to planning meetings with the rest of the CBS debate team. “It’s like outlining but less linear,” Dickerson said of the butcher paper method, something he said he “always wanted” in an office. “We’ve got about 150 questions planned. I have had questions I’ve wanted to ask for 10 years,” he added. Part of Dickerson’s preparation for the debate has included dozens of interviews with policy experts, his weekly interviews with the candidates as host of “Face the Nation”, the Slate podcast "Whistlestop", and reporting from the trail. Dickerson is also a political junkie, peppering his conversations with references to previous election cycles and stats from contests in decades past. The 1980 presidential debates serve as an examples of a debate that illuminated real differences between the candidates and famed NBC News anchor John Chancellor, a moderator he admires. "When he unfurled the brown paper and tacked it up on the wall in Des Moines (before a Democratic debate) I thought it was a joke. Then I went and took a closer look and I realized this man is slightly obsessed but it became actually a road map for what we were going to do," said CBS News Executive Editor Steve Capus. "He’s a great collaborative player." Dickerson, as he prepped for the debate, said he would have never guessed the anger and restiveness in the country would translate into Donald Trump rising to front-runner status in the Republican primary. "That he would be able to survive all the things he’s survived, that he would totally change the posture of a party that ended the last presidential campaign by talking about the need for immigration reform and his number one issue would be the opposite message that came out of the Republican Party autopsy is one of the wonderful thing about politics -- that it’s a total surprise," Dickerson said. "That’s what makes races so much fun to cover -- they're a surrpise and people get to make the choice and not us." Dickerson said that in his dozen interviews with Trump, the New York billionaire answers some questions more bluntly and candidly than other politicians. The questions facing the candidates on Saturday will likely focus on foreign policy and Wall Street than spats between the candidates, the network said. "While we're doing the debate prep, we kept an eye on Wall Street, an eye on Syria and what the Russians were saying that was going on in Aleppo, and we kept our eye on what the candidates were saying on the campaign trail. There are four timely areas of discussion and I know that we’ll be doing that into Saturday," Capus said. "I think in our last debate we were still sitting in a conference room about 25 minutes before the debate, putting the final touches on the questions." Other questions, such as whether Sen. Ted Cruz is eligible to run for president, an issue Trump resurfaced this week, are less likely to be raised by the moderators. "If it’s something one candidate is shooting at another about, you have to worry, are you doing the candidate’s work for them? Is this going to tell us something?" Dickerson said. Capus emphasized that CBS is not looking for flashy cage matches to capture big TV moments. "We want to keep focusing forward," he said. "We know that the candidates are going to go after each other. I think that other news organizations get in trouble when they feel like they’ve got to generate food fights between the candidates."

2016-10-20

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Donald Trump's presidential campaign spent more last month than in the previous four combined as the Republican nominee unleashed a late ad blitz. The campaign dropped $70.2 million in September, more than twice as much as spent in any other month this cycle, and entered October with $34.8 million in the bank, according to the campaign's latest filing with the Federal Election Commission. Media buys took the biggest chunk for the first time, totaling $23.2 million, the report showed. It also bore other signs of a more typical modern campaign, devoting $5 million to data and $1.7 million to polling. But the similarities largely ended there. The report still featured the signatures of Trump's unconventional campaign: a whopping $20.6 million on digital ads to Giles-Parscale, the website company with no prior political experience; $5.9 million on jetting around to rallies; and $3.8 million on hats and other merchandise. The campaign's payroll barely grew to 169, and spending on field consultants actually decreased slightly to $858,000. Trump's continued refusal to invest in a field organization leaves him unusually dependent on the Republican Party even as he lashes out at its leaders. The surge in spending was fueled by $54.7 million raised, including $10.8 million from small donors and an additional $2 million from Trump himself. The haul is significantly less than the $100 million the campaign previously publicized because the rest went to the Republican National Committee and state parties in keeping with joint fundraising arrangements. That's normal practice, but for a candidate who persistently bucks his party leaders, it could leave him vulnerable financially. For the first time, the campaign chartered airplanes other than Trump's own, with his company, Tag Air, accounting for just 13 percent of the total outlay in September. Trump has drawn suspicions for patronizing his own businesses, especially when reimbursements for reporters and Secret Service agents traveling with him were effectively going to his own pocket. The Secret Service paid back the campaign $405,800 in September. Most of Trump's ads were bought through American Media Advocacy Group, which has worked for conservative super PACs including one affiliated with Todd Rickets, the megadonor who's lately organizing big-money supporters around Trump. The campaign also used Jamestown Associates, the insurgent Republican firm of campaign spokesman Jason Miller. Almost all the spending on data went to Cambridge Analytica, which is owned by influential donors Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, who are close to Trump's current campaign leadership, Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon. Conway's polling firm received $381,600 from the campaign. It also bought polling from Fabrizio Lee Associates, National Research Inc., John McLaughlin & Associates, and Baselice & Associates. Corey Lewandowski, Trump's fired campaign manager who landed at CNN, received a $100,000 "residual" payout through his consulting company. Under scrutiny last month, the campaign said the continued payments were severance. Legal expenses rose to $322,500 for outside counsel Jones Day, from $224,000 in August.

2016-11-18 00:00:00

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Nov 17 (Reuters) - Yamana Gold Inc : * Yamana announces filing of final prospectus relating to Brio Gold purchase rights * Yamana Gold - Unit filed final prospectus in Canada in connection with secondary offering of common shares in capital of Brio Gold held by company * Yamana Gold Inc - Final prospectus qualifies distribution of an aggregate of up to 59.2 million Brio shares at a price of C$3.25 per Brio share * Yamana Gold Inc - Net proceeds from offering and additional distribution increase Yamana’s cash balances and thereby reduce Yamana’s net debt Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:

2018-01-05 00:00:00

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How many years in a row have we written "cook more" on our New Year's resolution list only to ditch the commitment a couple weeks into January? Honestly, it's hard to keep track, but at least, we know we're not alone. Recently, Trader Joe's shared several of it's favorite recipes, so shoppers have a little backup when it comes to planning all those meals we've long been swearing we're going to make. Instead of its usual list of weekly deals and popular products, this month, the Fearless Flyer (a weekly publication that is also featured on company website), featured what it referred to as "a cookbook of sorts." Included are 15 Trader Joe's-approved recipes: dishes like Savory Butternut Squash Soup, Warm Cruciferous Cranberry Slaw, and Citrusy Baked Oatmeal. The key ingredients in each recipe are unsurprisingly easy-to-use TJ's products like Cowboy Caviar, frozen turkey meatballs, and sunflower seen spread. While the recipes are clearly clever advertising, we have to admit it's a smart idea for customers who want to cook more, but aren't looking to make everything from scratch just yet. The best part is that you can still stock up to a few of the dishes while also picking up a few of those go-to frozen meals for the days you are actually too busy to cook — TJ's knows there's no shame in that. The 15 dishes span plenty of different meal categories including breakfast, lunch, dinner, appetizers, sides, and desserts. In 2017, we often found it hard to find time to make ourselves a nice dinner. But, who knows, in 2018 we might just feel inspired to impress our tastebuds more than once in a single day. In 2017, Trader Joe's kicked off the year by publishing a Frequent Flyer issue that featured the greatest products of the 2016. This year, the grocery chain isn't looking back and neither are we.

2019-10-27 14:18:00

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Many credit cards offer purchase protection for free as a cardholder perk. This coverage can reimburse you for all or part of the purchase price if an item is damaged or stolen within a specific length of time, usually up to 120 days.
As you compare rewards credit cards and their benefits, make sure you understand which cards offer a higher level of this type of coverage.For example, while the no-annual-fee Chase Freedom offers purchase protection good for up to $500 per incident, the premium Platinum Card® from American Express offers $10,000 of the purchase price of an item.
Other cardholder perks to look out for include extended warranties and price protection. 
Read more personal finance coverage.Rewards credit cards offer plenty of exciting perks, from airport lounge access to bonus points on your top spending categories to annual statement credits for travel. Some of these cards also offer benefits that, while not as glamorous, can help you save money or get a refund for certain products.Purchase protection is one such credit card feature that protects consumers when they buy eligible products with their card. This coverage allows you to receive reimbursement if a product is stolen or damaged in most cases, although the amount of coverage can vary. Coverage can easily be worth up to $1,000 per item, although annual caps of up to $50,000 can also apply.Keep in mind that we're focusing on the rewards and perks that make these credit cards great options, not things like interest rates and late fees, which will far outweigh the value of any points or miles. It's important to practice financial discipline when using credit cards by paying your balances in full each month, making payments on time, and only spending what you can afford to pay back. How credit card purchase protection worksLet's say that, for example, you buy a laptop computer for $900 and pay with a credit card that offers purchase protection. If your laptop is stolen from your car or damaged during your credit cards' purchase protection coverage window, you could be reimbursed — with the amount depending on the specific of your card's coverage.Most credit cards that offer purchase protection offer coverage for 90 to 120 days after you make a purchase, and the coverage amount may vary depending on the state you live in. The best credit cards for purchase protection in 2019Platinum Card from American Express ($550 annual fee)Chase Freedom (no annual fee)Chase Sapphire Reserve ($450 annual fee)Ink Business Cash Credit Card (no annual fee)Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express (no annual fee)United Explorer Card ($95 annual fee; waived the first year)As you explore credit cards that offer purchase protection, keep in mind that many offer other perks like cash back or travel rewards, travel credits, airport lounge access, and more.Here are some of the absolute best credit cards for purchase protection available in 2019, 2020, and beyond:  How purchase protection works among payment networksThe credit cards above offer some of the most valuable purchase protection coverage available today, but keep in mind that different credit card networks set standards for their coverage that most of the credit cards adhere to. In other words, Visa sets rules for Visa credit cards that offer purchase protection, while Mastercard and American Express also set their own. The following chart outlines the rules most cards from each credit card network tend to follow: Other cardholder protections to look out forAs you search for credit cards that offer purchase protection, don't forget about the similar benefits some credit cards offer. You may want to look for credit cards that also offer extended warranties or price protection, for example.Extended warrantiesWith credit card extended warranties, you can qualify for an additional year or longer of warranty protection after the manufacturer warranty on eligible items runs out.Let's say you purchase a refrigerator that comes with a two-year warranty, for example. If your refrigerator stopped working a month after the manufacturer's warranty ends, a credit card that offered an additional year of extended warranty coverage might pay for the required costs involved in repairing or replacing your refrigerator.Some of the best credit cards that offer extended warranties include:American Express® Gold Card
Chase Sapphire Reserve
Chase Freedom Unlimited
Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite™ Mastercard
®Price protectionCredit card price protection works differently, but it can be just as useful. With price protection, you can typically be reimbursed for the difference if you pay for an item and the price goes down within a specific length of time, usually up to 120 days. This type of coverage can be beneficial if you want to purchase a big ticket item but worry the price may go down in the future for any reason, including a pending sale. Some of the best credit cards that offer price protection coverage include:United MileagePlus Club Card
Wells Fargo Visa Signature Credit Card
Capital One Walmart Rewards Mastercard
The bottom lineSince credit cards offer lucrative rewards schemes that let you score cash back, free travel, and more, it can be easy to overlook all the other benefits they offer.However, purchase protection and similar benefits can pay off in a big way over time if you wind up having to use them. And since they're offered free as a cardholder benefit, it can make sense to pick up a card that offers as many perks as you can get. More credit card coverageWhat's the best airline credit card?The best cash-back credit cardsSouthwest credit card reviewBest rewards credit cards Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Personal Finance Insider team. We occasionally highlight financial products and services that can help you make smarter decisions with your money. We do not give investment advice or encourage you to adopt a certain investment strategy. If you take action based on one of our recommendations, we get a small share of the revenue from our commerce partners. This does not influence whether we feature a financial product or service. We operate independently from our advertising sales team. Business Insider may receive a commission from The Points Guy Affiliate Network, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective. Please note: While the offers mentioned above are accurate at the time of publication, they're subject to change at any time and may have changed, or may no longer be available.

2017-11-20

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Nov 20 (Reuters) - Transcanada Corp * Canada energy minister says with Nebraska decision, Keystone XL pipeline “has now secured all the required approvals in both Canada and the U.S” * Canada energy minister says Keystone XL project “bolsters North American energy security and economic competitiveness” * Canada energy minister says Nebraska Keystone approval will result in jobs on both sides of Canada–U.S. border Further company coverage: (Reporting By Leah Schnurr)

2018-08-01 00:00:00

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HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean police fired tear gas in central Harare on Wednesday to disperse stone-throwing supporters of the opposition MDC party, according to Reuters witnesses and live television images. Earlier, MDC leader Nelson Chamisa wrote on Twitter that he had won the “popular vote” in this week’s presidential election, in which he faced off against President Emmerson Mnangagwa from the ruling Zanu-PF party. Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Writing by Alexander Winning; Editing by Ed Cropley

2016-04-14

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia needed to improve its work with international sporting organizations and react promptly to their requests. Putin, in his annual televised phone-in, was referring to a scandal involving a large number of Russian sports people who had tested positive for the banned meldonium substance. He also said he did not think there was a political subtext to the scandal. Reporting by Alexander Winning and Andrew Osborn; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Maria Kiselyova

2017-07-26 00:00:00

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Newly-appointed Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump's decision to bar transgender people from serving in the U.S. military was "based on a military decision. It's not meant to be anything more than that." She also claimed that the Obama-era policy enabling the Pentagon to fund gender transition surgery is "a very expensive and disruptive policy." When asked what will happen to transgender members of the military currently serving overseas, Sanders couldn't answer, but stated that the DoD and WH will have to work together "as implementation takes place and is done so lawfully." Live updates: On Sessions criticism: "You can be disappointed in someone and still want them to continue to do their job." Why doesn't Trump fire acting FBI Director McCabe himself rather than asking Sessions to do it? The president is looking forward to having Christopher Wray come in and replace him. Education donation: President Trump is donating his second quarter salary, $100k, to the Department of Education. On being a mom: "To the best of my knowledge, I am the first press secretary who is also a mom... that says less about me than it does this president." Letters to the President: Sanders said she plans to start some briefings by reading a letter or email that is sent to the WH. Today she read one from a 9-year-old.

2018-01-03 23:32:00

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Most people consider Sunday to be a day off—an escape from the 7 am alarm chimes, the morning chaos, the daily commute, and the repetitive tasks of the work week. No structure. No rules. No need to engage in any kind of routine whatsoever. For the most part, Sunday is our collective day to do nothing. Except that it isn’t. You most likely have a very specific routine, even if it’s one that bucks the uptight nature of weekdays. While only 34 percent of Americans report that they actually work a paid job on the weekends, there’s a different kind of “work” going on for most of us—the weekend rituals. For some, it’s church. For others it’s a boozy brunch with friends, a Sunday evening meal prepared with time and care, or a major cleaning frenzy. A 2017 survey by the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics shows that Americans spend an increased amount of time on the weekends engaging in housework, food preparation, socialization, and, of course, eating and drinking. Why aren’t more Americans spending their Sundays doing nothing? It might be because laying around like a hot sloth isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Experts say that engaging in repeated rituals during our weekend time can be incredibly important to improving how we function during our actual work week. Anthony DeMaria, a psychologist and clinical professor of psychiatry at Mt. Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine, says that Sunday rituals—even those that seem like a lot of work—can be instrumental in creating a sense of comfort, calm, and satisfaction that can carry us through the rest of the week. “The function of most rituals is to give us a structure that we can find meaning in,” DeMaria says. “And usually it leads people to feel a sense of calm or provide some sort of self-soothing.” That same survey also showed that women spend significantly more time during the weekends engaging in household activities like housework and food prep, but unlike everything else that happened this year, this insight isn’t necessarily a sign of the oppressive patriarchy. More from Tonic: “I think with cleaning in particular, there’s a common symbolic value that people get from feeling like their home is in good shape,” DeMaria says. “It’s pleasant in the sense that it can then boost us up and tell us ‘I am kind of on track. Things in my life are in order.’ That physical process of taking something that is in a state that’s sub-optimal and moving it towards where we want it to be through physical action and exertion can be uniquely satisfying.” But shouldn’t weekends be less about cooking, and more about ordering Thai delivery that we eat out of boxes on our laps on the couch while binge watching old episodes of ‘The Wire’? Apparently not. “With cooking,” DeMaria says. “I go to thinking about the symbolic nature of food. This is the primary mechanism of nurturance. There’s a way that engaging in ritualistic behaviors that are centered around food and nutrition can communicate a really deeply human symbol of self-care. It is a sign that we are doing something to feed and nurture ourselves.” There has even been a movement by some therapists in recent years to use cooking as a form of treatment for both depression and anxiety. There’s an actual treatment modality known as “Culinary Art Therapy” that theorizes that cooking gives people a sense of mastery, improves their communication skills, and staying “in the moment” via the ever-popular practice of mindfulness. “Most people, when doing rituals that provide them comfort—rather than begrudgingly doing it—feel just lost in the moment,” DeMaria says. "There’s something about being in the present when going through ritualistic behavior that I think in itself can be rejuvenating and refreshing and causes people to want to repeat it. It can get us more centered and away from replaying the past or worries about the upcoming or distant future.” The repetitive motions of chopping and slicing, the kneading of dough, the sprinkling, the mixing, the whisking, even watching and waiting for water to boil—they’re all actions that keep us in the present moment and distract our minds from the worries of the past and future work weeks. Still, there are those of us who would prefer to be brought large plates of eggs and bottomless mimosas on a Sunday morning. Are we shit out of luck when it comes to participating in the all-important weekend ritual practices? DeMaria says drinky brunches with friends on Sunday mornings absolutely count when it comes to positive ritualistic behavior. “You mention day drinking or spending time with friends,” DeMaria says to me. “There can be such a comforting thing to having ritualistic social time—a feeling like ‘this is what we carve out for each other.’ It communicates something to ourselves. It communicates that we value socialization. We value the joy that comes from those experiences.” The term “ritualistic” can carry negative connotations especially for those with a history of mental health problems. So, how do we determine which ritualistic behaviors are beneficial to our mental health? DeMaria says that healthy rituals and those performed by someone who has a condition like obsessive compulsive disorder serve similar functions, but the emotions that accompany them can be quite different. “The function is fairly similar. It’s imposing a particular structure on oneself through action to say that ‘this is going to lead to better outcomes.’ It serves the function of moving away from the anxious distress. But people who are obsessively ritualistic and engage in compulsive behaviors hate it. They really experience a ton of pain, anxiety, anguish and distress. And it also eats up huge chunks of time and can limit one’s life.” The message is pretty clear. We all need to be dedicating our down time to cake baking, toilet scrubbing, and mimosa ingestion. (Note: Engaging in all three simultaneously is not an officially sanctioned medical practice. Yet.) Read This Next: We Asked People How They Fight Their Sunday Night Anxiety

2016-07-12

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Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas took a stab at the big question Tesla investors have been asking these days: What is Elon Musk thinking? Jonas said he expects Tesla is going to transition from a car company to public transport company. "We believe that Tesla's unique advantages in machine learning and lack of exposure to legacy systems (internal combustion tech, unconnected cars) provide it with an opportunity to tap into larger and faster growing markets ahead of its competitors," he wrote Tuesday in a research note. Tesla CEO Musk tweeted on Sunday that he was working on a sequel to his "Top Secret Tesla Masterplan," a blog entry he posted in 2006 that detailed the automaker's vision for the company. A decade later, faced with scrutiny over its disappointing delivery numbers, potential troubles with the company's autopilot feature and skepticism around a bid to buy SolarCity, which sent the stock spiraling downward as much as 10 percent, Musk is hoping to reposition the company. According to Jonas, the model of selling cars to private owners is potentially unsustainable, and the auto industry may be in the process of transitioning to serve as a public transportation company. And that's where Tesla has an edge, according to Jonas. Building off of that possibility, the analyst modeled what a public transportation service could look like from Tesla — with 5,000 cars by 2018. This move could position Tesla to take on companies like Uber and Lyft, which have cornered the ride-hailing service industry. Of course, Jonas and his team noted that their analysis was entirely hypothetical and represented a "plausible path for Telsa to take." This isn't the first time that Jonas has suggested that Tesla might supply ride-sharing services with autonomous cars or create its own on-demand service. In a 2015 earnings call, the analyst inquired if Musk was planning to do just that, but the Tesla founder declined to comment.

2019-08-07 00:00:00

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(CNN)Mourning the loss of a mass-shooting victim and the gunman himself -- their daughter and their son -- the Betts family is "shocked and devastated by the events of Sunday morning" in Dayton, Ohio, they said in a statement. The family also offered "their most heartfelt prayers and condolences to all of the victims, their families and friends," according to a statement read Tuesday by Police Chief Doug Doherty of nearby Bellbrook, Ohio. Connor Betts, 24, who armed himself with a .223-caliber high-capacity rifle, fired 41 shots early Sunday, killing his sister, Megan Betts, 22, and eight others in a popular nightlife district, police said. Twenty-seven people were injured in the attack before patrol officers killed Connor Betts just 30 seconds after he opened fire. The Betts family will cooperate with law enforcement in the "investigation into this tragedy," according to the statement. They also asked for privacy to mourn their loss and "to process the horror of Sunday's events." He once kept a 'hit list,' classmates say What motivated Betts to kill remains unknown. He had an obsession with violence and had expressed a desire to commit a mass shooting, Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said Tuesday. A Twitter account that appears to belong to Betts expressed support for Antifa, or anti-fascist, protesters, and also retweeted extreme left-wing and anti-police posts. Meanwhile, former high school classmates recalled how Betts kept a "hit list" of people he wanted to kill or rape. He also fronted a "pornogrind" band and sang songs with graphic, violent lyrics, a music booker said. Authorities searching his family home found writings that expressed an interest in killing people, two law enforcement sources told CNN. "(He was) very specifically seeking out information that promotes violence," FBI Special Agent in Charge Todd Wickerham said Tuesday at a news conference. Megan Betts 'was good to her roots' Friends of Megan Betts have described her as kind and generous. "From the start, I knew Megan had a good heart," her friend, Sarah Coffee, told CNN. "She was good to her roots, and I don't think she could have watched someone suffer and not done anything." Artistic in nature, Megan was known for drawing, playing the trumpet and acting in her high school's drama program. Friends told CNN that Megan was always laughing and they wish that she be remembered as a beloved friend: "She was someone who made the world better, happier," Coffee said. The Betts family, in its statement, thanked first responders, who all "provided aid and comfort to the victims," as well as the Bellbrook Police Department for "providing a peaceful environment surrounding their home." CNN's Paul Murphy, Konstantin Toropin, Drew Griffin, Scott Bronstein and Eric Levenson contributed to this report.

2016-08-19

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Aug 19 (Reuters) - Livzon Pharmaceutical Group Inc * Says H1 net profit up 20.0 percent y/y at 409.1 million yuan ($61.50 million) Source text in Chinese: bit.ly/2b4l6Xm Further company coverage: ($1 = 6.6523 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Hong Kong newsroom)

2018-06-11 14:09:00

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Kelly Osbourne is getting back into reality TV. The 33-year-old makes an appearance in the upcoming season of A&E’s Ozzy & Jack’s World Detour, in which she joins Jack Osbourne and their dad Ozzy Osbourne on a cross-country road trip. She says the experience helped bring her family closer together. “I was having such a fun time getting to spend quality time with my brother in our adult years,” she says. “We’ve never gotten to do just one-on-one. I feel like I learned so much about him and he learned so much about me.” As for her dad, she is excited for fans to see a lighter side of the rock star. “He is so pure and kind and loving,” she says. She’s also supporting her brother in the wake of his split from wife Lisa. Kelly, 33, opened up to PEOPLE about her brother’s divorce while promoting his A&E show Ozzy & Jack’s World Detour, saying she commends Jack and Lisa for making a tough decision for the sake of their family. “It’s sad, but you know, they have a great relationship with one another. The main priority is just the kids and making sure that they get what they need,” she says. “It’s foolish to try and fix something together that isn’t going to work. They’re doing the adult thing, and that’s great for them.” In May, Lisa filed for divorce after six years of marriage. The former couple share three daughters Andy Rose, 3, Pearl Clementine, 6, and Minnie Theodora, 3 months. As the two move forward, Kelly says her focus is on supporting both Jack and Lisa. “It’s my job to be there to support him and love them,” she says. “I’m very close to the both of them. Families are supposed to support one another, and that’s all I’m there to do.” Ozzy & Jack’s World Detour premieres on June 13 on A&E.

2020-03-19 00:00:00

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CVS Health has opened its first drive-up testing location for the coronavirus, in Massachusetts. Starting around 3 p.m. on Thursday, the health-care company began offering tests in a pharmacy parking lot in Shrewsbury, about 50 miles west of Boston in Worcester County. It is not open to the general public. Tests at the site are limited to first responders, such as firefighters, nurses and police, who are referred by state and public health officials, spokesman Joe Goode said. He said the company is not charging for the tests. CVS is one of four retailers that pledged on March 13 at a White House press conference that it would open drive-up testing locations to help detect COVID-19 and fight its spread. Walmart, Target and Walgreens also committed to hosting drive-up testing in their parking lots. The other retailers have not yet announced the timing or locations of tests. Access to testing in the U.S. hasn't kept up with rising demand. Earlier in March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said tests were available in all 50 states and more test kits were coming soon. A few days later, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told a committee of Congress members that the nation wasn't processing as many coronavirus tests as other countries and called it "a failing." That criticism and growing frustration prompted the Trump administration to enlist the help of the private sector, including many of the nation's top retailers and health-care companies, on March 13. At a press conference in the Rose Garden, CEOs of Walmart, Target and other companies took turns at the microphone and promised to help boost testing. "Normally, you would view us as competitors, but today we're focused on a common competitor and that's defeating the spread of the coronavirus," Target CEO Brian Cornell said. "We look forward to working with the administration to do our fair share to alleviate this growing threat." Politicians, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, have also criticized the uneven way tests have been distributed, saying they've been available to celebrities and athletes even as sick members of the public struggle to find them. For example, after a Brooklyn Nets player tested positive for COVID-19, the entire team was tested — even players that did not have any symptoms. CVS spokesman Joe Goode said the company tried to open its first testing site as quickly as possible. "This is our first experience endeavoring this type of testing outside of one of our store locations," he said. "There were a lot of operational challenges. We wanted to make sure that we staged this testing site properly. We worked with local officials. There are a lot of things to consider operationally to make sure that the site was truly ready for patients." CVS' own nurse practitioners and pharmacists are doing the testing in Massachusetts, Goode said. The company closed the store to increase safety and make operations easier, he said. At the test site, people will drive to different stations in their car. They will first get a temperature check. If they have a fever, they will go to a registration station and get a number that's attached to their test kit to later look up results.  After registration, they will go to a station where a health-care professional puts a swab up their nose. The nasal swab will be wrapped in three plastic bags and refrigerated to keep it safe when it's transported to the lab, Goode said. A private lab, which is not owned by CVS, will do the testing and deliver a result in about 48 hours, he said. All employees will be in protective gear, he said. He said CVS is still getting the new site up and running, but it expects to do 12 tests per hour. It will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., he said. CVS has not announced when or where it may add more sites and open testing to the public. "We are going to learn from this site before we take this to other locations," Goode said. In an interview on "Mad Money" with Jim Cramer on Monday, CVS Chief Executive Larry Merlo explained why the company wanted to pitch in to fight the pandemic.  "We ask ourselves every day, 'Is there more that we can do?'" he said. "I think we're in the early stages. I think we've seen from Dr. Fauci and other clinicians that we have the risk of this getting worse before it gets better."