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2018-07-24 20:20:01

2018

7.0

24

Johana Bhuiyan

Months after a self-driving crash, Uber is being slower and more deliberate as it gets back on public roads to test its technology

“Slow,” “steady” and “deliberate” are rarely used when describing Uber. But months after an Uber vehicle operating in autonomous mode fatally crashed into a pedestrian, the company has had no choice but to move carefully. After pulling all of its self-driving cars off public roads, laying off all the vehicle operators in Pittsburgh and San Francisco and shutting down its Arizona self-driving operation, Uber is very gradually beginning to prepare to start testing self-driving cars again. That starts with manually driving its fleet of Volvo XC90s in Pittsburgh to map out the streets. Mapping out city streets is essentially square one for testing self-driving cars — that’s a tough spot to be in as a company with serious ambitions for developing autonomous technology, especially in the face of massive competition. But Uber has to move slowly to regain the trust of not just the public, but also city and local governments. This gradual start in Pittsburgh also gives Uber time to implement some of the safety features and changes recommended by an internal team of experts that conducted a review of the company’s self-driving development and operation. Those changes may seem small individually, but together they point to a significant change in how Uber is thinking about self-driving. While much of the inception and some of the way in which the company later operated its self-driving efforts was fueled by competition — specifically with Google parent company Alphabet — the company is now introducing features and technology that prioritize safety. Specifically, Uber is going back to having two people in each car, and will be monitoring its safety drivers — the people who are designated to take over control of the car as needed — in real time. It’s not common for autonomous test cars to be driven with just one person behind the wheel so early in the technology’s development. But around November 2017, Uber switched two safety drivers to one for many of its cars, in part to increase the number of miles each car was driven in autonomous mode, sources told Recode. Miles driven autonomously is just one of many barometers for how advanced a company’s technology is and is how the software driving the cars learns and gains more experience. An Uber spokesperson said that the company decided to make the transition from two drivers to one because the company felt that the role of the second operator — which was to gather information about how well the car was driving itself — could be done after the fact and didn’t have to be done in real time. A byproduct of that, however, is drivers were left alone to determine when to take over control over the car as needed, and there was no one there to ensure they were not distracted. Add to that, the company’s in-car camera system did not detect when a driver was distracted — it simply recorded the driver. That means in order to see whether a driver was distracted at any point in time, a manager had to manually go through the footage after the fact. While sources say that was inefficient in and of itself, it was also exacerbated by how quickly Uber was hiring safety drivers. In Arizona, some managers were in charge of about 25 people, one source said, making it difficult to spot-check whether anyone had unsafe driving behaviors. That said, if a driver was caught doing something unsafe, the company typically had a one-strike policy, sources said. This new off-the-shelf camera system Uber is integrating will instead detect distracted driving in real time, log it into the system automatically, and then make a noise to alert the driver to pay attention. (Similar to a system that startup Nauto has built.) So managers will simply have to look at the software or platform to see all the instances of a driver being distracted. While an Uber spokesperson said the company was being more deliberate about the ratio of managers to vehicle operators — the company is filling about 55 roles for what it calls “mission specialists” — this new real-time alert system will help alleviate some of the difficulty of auditing driving behavior manually. That’s hugely important. A closer investigation of the fatal crash that took the life of Elaine Herzberg in Arizona revealed that Uber relied heavily on the humans sitting behind the wheel to react immediately in an emergency. And in this case the driver was distracted. In fact, it was later revealed that the driver was streaming a show on her phone while sitting behind the wheel. That’s the risk with depending on a human driver — they become too reliant on the automated technology to drive itself safely and, in turn, get distracted. To that end, Uber is also ensuring that the automatic emergency braking system that is already built into the car will be engaged no matter when it is being driven. Have more information or any tips? Johana Bhuiyan is the senior transportation editor at Recode and can be reached at johana@recode.net or on Signal, Confide, WeChat or Telegram at 516-233-8877. You can also find her on Twitter at @JmBooyah. These changes come to Uber as the competition for being one of the first companies with a network of self-driving cars — an important feat both technologically and financially — becomes steeper. From a pure miles-driven standpoint, Alphabet’s Waymo announced it had autonomously driven more than eight million miles on public roads just last week. At last count, Uber had only reached three million miles before it halted all of its self-driving testing in March. While the company doesn’t have to start entirely from scratch once it does start testing its autonomous technology again, Uber was struggling to meet internal goals in the lead up to the crash. As we first reported, Uber’s fleet of vehicles could only drive less than a mile before a safety driver had to take over in March 2017. As of March 2018, the company was still struggling to meet its goal of driving 13 miles without a driver taking over. While it was a meager increase from the year prior, it was still far lower than its competitors like Waymo, which said it drove an average of 5,600 miles before a driver had to take over control in 2017. At the core of this issue is safety. Companies building self-driving cars pitch it as a potentially life-saving technology, but those companies still have a lot to prove. That’s especially true as the U.S. Congress actively works to regulate autonomous technology. This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

https://www.vox.com/2018/7/24/17608434/uber-self-driving-crash-pittsburgh-arizona-testing-safety

Vox

2016-10-04 12:40:10

2016

10.0

4

Jennifer Williams

The stunning collapse of Colombia’s peace agreement with the FARC, explained

On Sunday, Colombian voters narrowly rejected the government’s peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in a stunning referendum vote that has thrown the peace process into disarray. The deal between the Colombian government and the Marxist rebel group was reached on August 24 after four long years of fraught negotiations. And just last Monday, it was signed by President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC leader Timoleon “Timochenko” Jimenez. All that was left was for voters to approve it in a nationwide referendum on Sunday. Most observers saw the vote as a mere formality that would officially bring an end to the 52-year war that left 220,000 people dead and displaced millions. Although there was significant public opposition to the deal, nearly every poll predicted that it would be approved by the people with a comfortable margin. But in what one UK pollster called “one of the biggest polling fails of all time,” the peace deal was narrowly rejected, with 50.2 percent voting against it. That means the peace agreement can’t be implemented — and is effectively dead. So what happened? And what happens now? Here’s a brief explainer on what Colombia is facing this week. The FARC is the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). It’s a Marxist rebel group that since 1964 has waged a bloody rebellion against the Colombian government — and it’s the longest-running armed insurgency in the Western Hemisphere. As Amanda Taub explained for Vox in 2014: In the early 1960s, the FARC and other leftist guerrilla groups formed as a rural insurgency that claimed to represent the interests of Colombia's poor against the landed elite. The elite responded by organizing private "self-defense" organizations to oppose the rebels, which soon transformed into right-wing paramilitary groups. That became the civil war that has lasted ever since, albeit in sometimes very different forms. Since 1964, the FARC, fueled by revenue from the Colombian drug trade, engaged in a guerrilla war primarily against the Colombian security forces. FARC rebels attacked police stations and military posts, ambushed security patrols, hijacked airplanes, and carried out assassinations. They also targeted critical infrastructure such as oil pipelines and bridges, and even bombed social clubs. Many of their victims have been civilians, including children. Thousands of people have been maimed by FARC land mines, and thousands more were kidnapped and held for ransom. Child soldier recruitment and sexual violence were also common. Starting in 2000, the United States began providing the Colombian government with billions of dollars in mostly military aid to help interrupt the country’s massive drug trade and fight the FARC and other smaller rebel groups. The hope was that social and economic conditions in Colombia’s “historically marginalized” rural areas in which the armed groups thrive would also be improved. Under the agreement, called Plan Colombia, the US pledged nearly $10 billion in assistance. As reported by the Washington Post’s Dana Priest, this was paired with “a CIA covert action program that has helped Colombian forces kill at least two dozen rebel leaders.” As far as the FARC is concerned, at least, the plan seems to have worked. (Its impact on the drug trade, on the other hand, is less clear.) The group suffered massive losses, including the deaths of several high-profile leaders. “In 2008, senior rebel leader Raul Reyes was killed in a bombing raid and FARC founder Manuel Marulanda died of natural causes,” the BBC reports. “In 2011, Alfonso Cano, who took over from Manuel Marulanda, was also killed in a bombing raid.” This concerted effort severely weakened the organization: In 2002, the group was estimated to have some 20,000 active fighters; current estimates put that number at somewhere between 6,000 and 7,000 active fighters, with another 8,500 civilians who make up the FARC's support network. In response, the group entered into secret negotiations with the government starting in 2010, and two years later entered into formal negotiations. Finally, in a ceremony on September 26, attended by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State John Kerry, and a dozen Latin American leaders, Colombian President Santos and FARC leader Timochenko signed the historic peace agreement. Under the 297-page agreement, the FARC’s fighters would have disarmed, handing over weapons to United Nations inspectors, and become a legal political party with 10 guaranteed seats in the country’s Congress in the 2018 and 2022 elections. The deal would also have allowed rebels to avoid jail time if they confessed to their crimes. Per the BBC, the agreement would have created “a special legal framework” intended “to try those who committed crimes during the armed conflict, including Farc fighters, government soldiers and members of right-wing paramilitary groups.” “Those who confessed to crimes” would “not serve prison sentences, but [would instead] take part in acts of ‘reparation,’ including clearing land mines, repairing damaged infrastructure, and helping victims,” the BBC reported. Fighters who demobilized would also receive financial aid from the Colombian government to help them reintegrate into civil society. In the runup to the vote, FARC leaders also offered public apologies to their victims and pledged to publicly disclose all of their financial assets and pay reparations. "We will proceed to declare before the government all the monetary and non-monetary resources that have formed part of our war economy,” the group said. "We will proceed to the material reparations of victims." For its part, the government pledged under the peace agreement to invest substantial resources in improving the country’s rural areas, something the rebels have long been fighting for. According to the Washington Post’s Abbey Steele, measures include providing “development assistance to small-share landholders, who now have trouble getting formal titles to the land they’ve been farming and getting their crops into markets” and offering “rural investments and legal crops so that farmers have fewer incentives to grow illegal crops.” The public’s main objection to the agreement was that it was far too lenient on the FARC fighters, whose war against the Colombian government has ravaged the country for more than half a century. One Colombian woman told BBC Mundo that Colombians still associated the FARC with “kidnappings, killings and drug trafficking.” The leading voice of opposition to the peace deal is former President Alvaro Uribe, who is widely credited with having achieved the military gains that forced the rebels to the negotiating table in the first place. “They will spend zero days in prison; they will be awarded with political representation,” Paloma Valencia, a senator in Uribe’s party, was quoted as saying of the rebels. “This deal breaks the rule of law.” Uribe claims he is not opposed to peace in principle but that he wants to renegotiate the agreement, which he says needs "corrections." These include barring those found guilty of having committed crimes from running for public office, making FARC leaders serve time in prison for crimes they committed, and forcing the FARC to pay compensation to victims. According to the BBC, opponents of the deal also feared that allowing former FARC members to participate in the country’s political process as a legitimate political party could open the door to disastrous radical left-wing policies like those in Cuba and Venezuela: They have dubbed this threat "Castro-Chavismo" after the Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and the late Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez. They point to the fact that the Cuban government hosted the peace talks and Venezuela acted as a facilitator as evidence of the influence these two left-wing governments had on the negotiations. They have accused President Santos of "selling the country out" and warn that with the rebels becoming political players, Colombia could soon resemble Cuba and Venezuela and suffer from the same shortages these countries are experiencing. Finally, some opponents of the peace deal simply didn’t believe that the FARC was sincere in its intentions to lay down arms and make peace with the government. The peace agreement as written cannot be implemented without an approval by referendum, so it will have to be renegotiated. President Santos has promised to “continue the search for peace until the last moment of my mandate, because that's the way to leave a better country to our children ... I won't give up,” he said. Speaking to journalists in Havana after Sunday's referendum results, Timochenko said that his group remains committed to ending the conflict. The rebel leader said he regrets that what he called "the destructive power of those who sow hatred and rancor [has] influenced the opinion of the Colombian population.” He promised that the group will keep working to build a stable peace: “Count on us, peace will triumph.” However, before the vote, Santos told the BBC that there was "no Plan B" for ending the conflict if the referendum on the peace agreement failed. He has reportedly told his negotiators to travel to Cuba to consult with FARC leaders on what the next move will be. Fernando Giraldo, a political analyst, told the Guardian that the fact that both the government and guerrillas reiterated their commitment to peace was a good sign but the future was unclear. “The plebiscite laid everything out in black and white and now we’re stuck in a grey area,” he said.

https://www.vox.com/world/2016/10/4/13147194/colombia-farc-peace-deal-referendum-vote-defeat

Vox

2019-06-06 00:00:00

2019

6.0

6

FCA chairman says talks with Renault could go no further

MILAN, June 6 (Reuters) - Fiat Chrysler withdrew a proposal to merge with French rival Renault after it became clear discussions could go no further, but it remains “open to opportunities of all kinds”, its chairman wrote in a letter to staff. “The decision to engage in these discussions with Groupe Renault‎ was the right one and one we took after much preparation on many fronts,” John Elkann wrote in the letter. Elkann said the decision to end the talks aimed to protect the interests of the company, its employees and stakeholders once it had become clear that the discussions had been taken “as far as they can reasonably go.” “FCA, under Mike Manley’s leadership, is an outstanding business ... with a clear strategy for a strong, independent future. We will continue to be open to opportunities of all kinds that offer the possibility to enhance and accelerate the delivery of that strategy and the creation of value,” he wrote. Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Francesca Landini

https://www.reuters.com/article/renault-ma-fiat-chyrsler-chairman/fca-chairman-says-talks-with-renault-could-go-no-further-idUSS8N236017

Cyclical Consumer Goods

Reuters

2017-06-07 19:00:00

2017

6.0

7

Munchies Staff

Tropical Cookies and Cream Is the Ultimate Last-Minute Dessert

Dessert just seems to taste better when it's homemade, but homemade dessert is kind of a pain in the ass. Sometimes you just don't have the foresight to make dessert before dinner, and when that sweet tooth kicks in, who's got the patience to start rolling out crusts and waiting for eternity for a pie to bake? That's why this tropical cookies and cream is basically the ultimate dessert: It's ready in 15 minutes, it's almost impossible to screw up, and it's tasty as hell. RECIPE: Tropical Cookies and Cream And no, we're not just talking about taking out a pint of Häagen-Dazs, topping it with a bunch of pineapple, and serving it in a coconut. The two main ingredients in this dessert are exactly what they sound like. It's basically just homemade whipped cream (with lime zest, vanilla bean, and coconut extract) and 'Nilla wafters, served with Oreo cookies, vanilla ice cream, rum, and coconut granita. Sometimes it's just best to keep it simple, like they do in the tropics. 

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/aeqy95/tropical-cookies-and-cream-is-the-ultimate-last-minute-dessert

Food by VICE

Vice

2016-06-27 00:00:00

2016

6.0

27

Edie Everette

Small Town 'Art' Galleries

Advertise on Hyperallergic with Nectar Ads

https://hyperallergic.com/307650/small-town-art-galleries/

Hyperallergic

2017-05-23 20:25:17

2017

5.0

23

German Lopez

Trump’s budget makes it official: he’s doing little to nothing about the opioid epidemic

Tens of thousands of people will likely die of drug overdoses under President Donald Trump’s watch, as America’s horrific opioid epidemic continues. Yet with his first big policy document — the 2018 budget proposal — Trump is proving that he’ll do little to nothing about the crisis. If anything, Trump’s proposal could make the opioid epidemic worse. Where the budget does anything of significance regarding the epidemic, it comes through cuts to the office in charge of coordinating drug policy, Medicaid, public health programs, and more. And there is nothing in the budget to balance out the cuts — leaving a crater in the government’s response to a crisis that led to more than 33,000 opioid overdose deaths and more than 52,000 total drug overdose deaths in 2015. Drug policy advocates have said for years that the federal government, including the Obama administration, has reacted slowly to the opioid epidemic — given that it took until 2016 for Congress and President Barack Obama to pass any major legislation responding directly to the epidemic, finally adding $1 billion to drug treatment over two years through the 21st Century Cures Act. But advocates argue that the drug overdose crisis will require much more money than that, since it’s now killing more people than guns, cars, and even HIV/AIDS did at its peak. They hoped Trump, who on the campaign trail promised to “end the opioid epidemic in America” and “spend the money” on drug treatment, would bring a bigger commitment. “It would have been easy for Trump to come in and do better than Obama,” said Andrew Kolodny, co-director of opioid policy research at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. “But he’s off to an awful start.” It’s not just the budget plan. The spending proposal also fits the pattern we’ve seen with Trump on the opioid epidemic so far: Despite all his talk and promises on the campaign trail, this is an issue in which Trump is doing little to nothing as president — and the little his administration is doing will very likely prove counterproductive. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), Trump’s budget does propose what amounts to a nearly 2 percent increase in drug treatment spending — with an increase of around $200 million to the $10.6 billion the federal government already spent on drug treatment. But there’s a huge catch to this increase: It includes the $500 million added by the 21st Century Cures Act, which was approved by Congress and signed into law by Obama. In other words, without the Cures Act spending that Congress put into place, Trump’s budget would actually cut drug treatment spending this year. In fact, this is what’s very likely to happen the year after Trump’s 2018 budget, since the Cures Act money is allocated only for fiscal years 2017 and 2018. What’s more, the money that is added simply falls far short of what advocates want. Kolodny, for one, estimated that the US will need to spend potentially tens of billions of dollars more a year on the epidemic — far more than Trump or anyone else has put forward. (To this end, he is also highly critical of the Obama administration; he argues it took too long to do anything on the epidemic, and what it did was far too small.) Trump, at the very least, doesn’t propose cutting overall drug treatment spending this year, based on ONDCP’s figures. But he suggests other cuts to public health and anti-drug programs that completely outweigh the tiny gains that ONDCP claims. For one, the budget proposal slashes drug prevention programs across all federal agencies by about 11 percent — from about $1.5 billion to more than $1.3 billion. The budget didn’t, as originally rumored, suggest a 95 percent cut to ONDCP, which is the top office in charge of coordinating anti-drug programs spread through multiple federal agencies. But it does propose cutting some of the office’s programs by a few percentage points. Some drug policy advocates see ONDCP as somewhat problematic, given its history of supporting ineffective “tough on drug” policies. But they argue the office should be reformed and propped up to lead the response to the opioid epidemic, not cut back. Kolodny agreed. He said, “There are things that ONDCP can do. Certainly, in the midst of this epidemic … cutting funding to an office that can play a role in coordinating a response is foolish. [Trump] should be looking in different ways to be finding more money for the opioid crisis, not cutting ONDCP.” Trump also proposes a 47 percent cut to Medicaid over the next 10 years. This would rob millions of people of the one affordable source of health insurance that they have — to pay for, in part, drug treatment. According to a 2014 study by Truven Health Analytics researchers, Medicaid paid for a quarter, or $7.9 billion of $31.3 billion, of projected public and private spending for drug treatment in 2014. As a patient using Medicaid to pay for drug addiction care at a New Jersey facility told me earlier this year, “If it wasn’t for insurance, I wouldn’t be here.” The budget further asks for nearly $400 million in cuts to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, hundreds of millions in cuts to mental health block grants, and billions in cuts altogether to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This funding didn’t all go specifically to drug treatment, but these agencies and programs in part help address the opioid epidemic and drug addiction in general. Advocates are already sounding the alarm over these cuts. The Baltimore City Health Department, for example, said in a statement, “At a time of a public health emergency around opioids, with unprecedented numbers of Marylanders dying from overdose, this proposal could deprive millions of the care that they need.” Finally, the budget significantly increases overall spending on federal law enforcement. It’s unclear exactly how much of this will go toward fighting drugs. But generally, drug policy experts and researchers agree that what’s needed is not more policing but more spending on drug treatment. After all, the US has spent hundreds of billions on anti-drug law enforcement for decades — and it didn’t prevent the opioid epidemic. The budget proposal is likely dead on arrival. It needs Congress’s approval to become law, and Congress will likely put forward its own spending measures instead of using Trump’s. But the budget plan is still the most comprehensive policy agenda that we can expect from the Trump administration at this point — and it shows a total lack of interest in seriously addressing the opioid epidemic. The rest of Trump’s opioid policy isn’t much better. Generally, it can be described as the opposite of what Trump said on the campaign trail — instead of allocating more funding to deal with the epidemic as a public health issue, he’s often undercutting such efforts. Beyond his budget proposal, here’s a broad rundown of what the Trump administration has said and done on opioids since Trump took office: The only concrete action on this list is Sessions’s memo, which doubled down on the old war on drugs. But the research suggests that this “tough on crime” approach — focused on increasing criminal penalties for drugs to, hopefully, deter drug use — just won’t work. For example, a 2014 study from Peter Reuter at the University of Maryland and Harold Pollack at the University of Chicago found there’s no good evidence that tougher punishments or harsher supply-elimination efforts do a better job of driving down access to drugs and substance misuse than lighter penalties. So increasing the severity of the punishment doesn’t seem to do much, if anything, to slow the flow of drugs. Similarly, a 2015 review of the research by the Brennan Center for Justice estimated that more incarceration explained only about 0 to 7 percent of the crime drop since the 1990s, while other researchers estimate it drove 10 to 25 percent of the crime drop since the ’90s. That’s why criminal justice experts now emphasize that there are better ways, from new policing tactics to more stringent alcohol policies, to bring down crime without resorting to longer prison sentences. The punitive criminalization of drugs is also sometimes a reason that drug users don’t seek care. Reporter Maia Szalavitz, who’s covered addiction for decades, has long argued that criminalization just leads to stigma, which pushes drug users underground. And a 2009 report by the libertarian Cato Institute found that after Portugal decriminalized all drugs, more drug users sought treatment because the policy change removed the fear of arrest and the stigma attached to it. At the same time, Trump has, if anything, vowed to reduce funding on opioid addiction care through his budget cuts — contradicting his campaign promise to “spend the money” on drug treatment. The fundamental problem in the opioid crisis is that America needs to put a lot more resources toward drug addiction prevention and treatment. In 2016, the surgeon general released the most comprehensive analysis of the state of addiction in America. Its core finding was that the US massively underfunds addiction care. It found, for example, that just 10 percent of Americans with a drug use disorder get specialty treatment, in large part due to a shortage in treatment options. The Obama administration took some steps to alleviate this. It dedicated $2.5 million in 2015 to fight heroin use. Its Department of Health and Human Services also unlocked more than $100 million for drug treatment in 2016. And Congress in 2016, with Obama’s approval, allocated $1 billion over two years to combat the opioid epidemic. But experts widely agree that this all was far, far from enough. They have hoped that Trump would do more, given that some of his biggest areas of support are places that have been hit hardest by the opioid epidemic. “We need a massive increase in funding for addiction treatment,” Kolodny argued. “We’re not going to get anywhere in terms of reducing overdose deaths until you have very low threshold access to buprenorphine treatment or methadone in some cases” — referring to two medications used for treating opioid addiction. Beyond drug treatment, the federal government could do more to stop doctors from prescribing so many opioid painkillers, whose overprescription launched the epidemic. The FDA, for example, could limit how drug companies promote opioids, forcing them to follow CDC recommendations to not use the drugs for chronic non-cancer pain. (There is no good scientific evidence for the use of opioids for chronic pain, while there’s plenty of evidence that prolonged use can result in very bad complications, including a higher risk of addiction, overdose, and death.) Instead of doing any of this, Trump has proposed cutting public health programs and Medicaid, and he’s pushed to repeal Obamacare without a replacement that would cover Americans’ health insurance needs. More broadly, Trump has done nothing to address the structural issues behind drug addiction — the poverty, joblessness, deteriorating communities, and other common contributors to despair that lead to drug addiction. “If you look at overall public health trends, there are a lot of things like alcohol use and suicide that have increased in concert with opioid use,” said Leo Beletsky, a professor of law and health sciences at Northeastern University. “That speaks to underlying, larger problems.” It’s not unusual for Trump to make a promise and do the opposite. But in this case, people’s lives are quite literally at stake — and his administration is at best dawdling and at worst taking steps that will make a very deadly crisis even deadlier.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/23/15680096/trump-budget-opioid-epidemic

Vox

2018-03-25 00:00:00

2018

3.0

25

Russia denies aiding Afghan Taliban in wake of U.S. general's comments

KABUL (Reuters) - Russia has rejected comments by NATO’s top commander in Afghanistan that it has been supporting and even supplying weapons to the Taliban, in a clash of words that underlines growing tension over Moscow’s involvement in the conflict. In an interview with the BBC last week, General John Nicholson said that Russia had been acting to undermine U.S. efforts in Afghanistan despite shared interests in fighting terrorism and narcotics, with indications that Moscow was providing financial support and even arms. “We’ve had weapons brought to this headquarters and given to us by Afghan leaders and said this was given by the Russians to the Taliban,” he said. A statement from the Russian embassy in Kabul dismissed the comments as “idle gossip”, repeating previous denials by Russian officials. “Once again, we insist that such statements are absolutely baseless and appeal to officials not to talk nonsense,” the embassy said. U.S. commanders, including Nicholson, have said on several occasions over the past year that Russia may be supplying arms to the Taliban although no confirmed evidence has so far been made public. However, Nicholson’s comments were unusually blunt and came in a context of growing tensions between NATO members and Moscow over the case of Sergei Skripal, a former intelligence agent found poisoned with a rare nerve agent in Britain. Russian officials have said that their limited contacts with the Taliban were aimed at encouraging peace talks and ensuring the safety of Russian citizens. Moscow has offered to help coordinate peace talks in Afghanistan. Taliban officials have told Reuters that the group has had significant contacts with Moscow since at least 2007, adding that Russian involvement did not extend beyond “moral and political support”. Moscow has been critical of the United States and NATO over their handling of the war in Afghanistan, but Russia initially helped provide helicopters for the Afghan military and agreed to a supply route for coalition materials through Russia. Most of that cooperation has fallen apart as relations between Russia and the West deteriorated in recent years over the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria. Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Richard Borsuk

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-russia/russia-denies-aiding-afghan-taliban-in-wake-of-u-s-generals-comments-idUSKBN1H1064

World News

Reuters

2016-02-24 18:25:00

2016

2.0

24

Tanya Pai

Hollywood's extreme lack of diversity, explained by a brilliant Tumblr

The Academy Awards are just a few days away, and amid the excitement is some vocal frustration at the fact that the films and people being recognized are, once again, overwhelmingly white and male. It's a well-documented problem not just in the Academy but in Hollywood overall — and the brilliant Tumblr Every Single Word found a creative way to illustrate the severity of the issue. Created by 27-year-old Venezuelan American actor and playwright Dylan Marron, Every Single Word shows what Hollywood films would look like if they were condensed to just the lines spoken by minorities over the course of their run times. As it turns out, many would be much more like Vine videos than feature-length films. Marron was fed up with hearing that as a nonwhite actor he was "never going to play the romantic male lead," as he told the Washington Post's Soraya Nadia McDonald in an interview in July 2015, so he set out to show just how few minorities are playing lead parts in Hollywood. Take, for instance, American Hustle, which was nominated for 10 Oscars in 2015 — Marron's minorities-only cut comes in at 53 seconds: Or critical darling Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom, which clocks in at an anemic 10 seconds: Or the 2014 Biblical epic Noah, coming in at ... zero: To the Post's McDonald, Marron explained how he picks the movies he features on his Tumblr: There’s a big variety of movies, but they do have one thing in common: all of these movies are not about whiteness. They are not about white people. They are not about the experience of being white and they are not historical dramas that are just about white people. They’re not about whiteness. They are about really universal and very human themes. He continued: So my question with these videos is why are we using white people to tell these universal stories? And what is that saying? I think it’s saying something really dangerous and the message it gives to people of color — and I can say this as a person of color who grew up watching these stories that I related to thematically and didn’t see reflections of myself in them — what it tells you is you don’t really have a place in this world. The idea of white as the "normal" is longstanding, pervasive, and ties into the concept of implicit bias that manifests itself in American society in areas as widespread as criminal justice and education. One area in which diversity has seen an uptick recently is in television: Shows like ABC’s Black-ish and Fresh Off the Boat and the ratings behemoth that was the first season of Fox’s Empire proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that not only is there an audience for series centered on nonwhite characters, but that they have the potential to be hugely successful. However, there's also the Mindy Kaling–created The Mindy Project, the first network TV series created by and starring an Indian American (and a woman, no less), which has been criticized for not having enough focus on the lead's ethnicity — or as Al Jazeera's E. Alex Chung phrased it, "Almost any exchange [Kaling's character Mindy] Lahiri has about race appears meant to prove that she is not one of the others but a full-blooded American." But while television is making strides toward diversity, the silver screen still notably lags behind. In its 2015 Hollywood Diversity Report, UCLA's Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies found that "[a]lthough minorities posted several modest gains in several Hollywood employment arenas since the last report, they remain underrepresented on every front." The report examined the top 200 theatrical releases from both 2012 and 2013, and found that minorities, who comprise 40 percent of the US population, were sorely underrepresented as male leads: Ralph J. Bunche Center As cast members: Ralph J. Bunche Center And as directors: Ralph J. Bunche Center The Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity, from the Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative at USC's Annenberg School, found that of 414 films and TV series studied, women had only one-third of the speaking roles and minorities just 28.3 percent. And the lack of diversity is not just for lack of effort; as the Washington Post's Alyssa Rosenberg pointed out in a May 2015 piece aptly titled "How Hollywood stays white and male": the same laws that protect against employment discrimination also block certain efforts to hire more women and people of color. Networks can set goals for how many female writers they want to hire, or how many characters of color they want to see on screen, but they can’t legally use quotas to reach those goals. Marron's Tumblr serves to point out that while show biz may be improving in some areas, its diversity problem is far from "fixed." And he summed up that impact on this year's Oscars succinctly:

https://www.vox.com/2015/7/12/8932191/hollywood-lacks-diversity

Vox

2016-02-27 14:00:03

2016

2.0

27

Heather Smith

What determines whether people accept climate science? Politics, politics, politics.

Originally published on Grist. What kind of person doesn’t believe climate change is a problem? What kind of person does? Behold, a new set of answers to this thorny social science question, released earlier this week in the journal Nature Climate Change. Or rather, a whole lot of old answers, derived from data assembled over the past eight years: 12 Pew surveys, three British polls collected by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change, an International Social Survey conducted across 32 countries, eight Australian polls, and the Eurobarometer (the thoughts of 30 European nations, gathered by the European Commission). The paper’s authors describe their work as "the first meta-analytic examination of the demographic and psychological correlates of belief in climate change." So what did they find out? And it matters more than anyone harboring idealistic notions of working across the aisle might think. It breaks down this way: People who vote for liberal political parties are more likely to believe that climate change is a real thing that we should do something about. People who vote for conservative political parties tend to think that climate change is total hooey. Political affiliation correlated with belief in climate change twice as strongly as any other demographic variable the study examined. There are a whole lot of other ways of thinking of climate change beyond the binary "it is/isn’t happening" (like: climate change is real, but actually good for us). But in this meta-analysis, the study’s authors didn’t find much of a middle ground when they looked at all the studies in aggregate. This led them to hypothesize that, on average, belief (or lack of belief) in climate change correlates with political affiliation rather than with some other complex intellectual process that might only have a little bit to do with politics. This meta-analysis looked at data collected from all over the world and found that, planet-wise, people who believed that climate change is happening tended to be younger, more educated, higher-income, female, and less white — but that, again, none of these factors correlated with belief in the reality of climate change as strongly as political affiliation. Early studies showed that people who believed in climate change and people who didn’t had roughly equivalent levels of scientific understanding. Those studies have been called into question, because they basically let people self-report their awesomeness at understanding science. Later studies have tried to control for that with a few actual science questions, and the meta-analysis did find that people who answered science questions correctly were more likely to believe in climate change. Also: Just liking scientists and thinking that they’re trustworthy was correlated with belief in climate change, whether or not scientific understanding was high. A test called the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) is the tool social scientists commonly use to attempt to quantify concern for the environment. (Test takers agree or disagree with statements like, "Plants and animals have as much right as humans to exist.") Unsurprisingly, people who score high for environmental concern on the NEP also tend to believe in climate change. There’s no way of knowing yet if this is a trickle-down effect from the government action or a trickle-up effect from the people in those countries demanding that the government do something. As the study puts it: A set of experimental studies have drawn on the social psychological literature on subliminal priming to examine whether priming people with environmental cues of climate change (for example, turning up the heat in the laboratory; placing dead trees around participants) has an effect on their belief in climate change. The observed link between these inductions and climate change belief are significant, perhaps surprisingly so given their impact is unconscious. So Ayn Rand probably wouldn’t have been a big climate activist. People who are fans of free markets also tended to not believe in climate change. So what is someone interested in talking with people about climate change to do with all this information? I mean, aside from locking the entire world in a hot room with a bunch of dead trees? The study’s authors recommend this: Remember that climate change, whether you like it or not, is a political issue. As they put it, "The data suggest that evidence around climate change is searched, remembered, and assimilated in a way that dovetails with people’s own political loyalties and worldviews." They also found that even people who believed in climate change grew skittish when talk turned to specific policies to mitigate it. In other words, it might be time for the social sciences as they relate to climate change to move beyond the question of who thinks climate change is real and more in the direction of why people feel the way they do. Actually getting things done could focus less on winning hearts and minds and more on working with people’s existing ideologies, rather than against them. As the study puts it, "Pro-environmental action could be sold as patriotism, ending oil dependence, or investing in ‘green’ technologies." Science is what helped people understand that climate change was happening in the first place — but actually persuading people to do something about it will be politics all the way. Grist is a nonprofit news site that uses humor to shine a light on big green issues. Get their email newsletter here, and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

https://www.vox.com/2016/2/27/11115718/global-warming-psychology

Vox

2018-12-14 00:00:00

2018

12.0

14

Tony Hawk Personally Picked Soundtrack for New Skate Video Game

Tony Hawk didn't just slap his name on his "Skate Jam" video game -- he personally picked the soundtrack ... TMZ Sports has learned. The skating legend just dropped the mobile game on Thursday -- continuing his legendary Tony Hawk video game empire ... and it's dope. Not only does the game look sick -- and Tony approved the gameplay -- he made it his mission to load it up with sick music ... the same way the other game always deliver when it comes to the soundtrack. Tony says he selected bands like Interpol, Cold Cave, Frontside Hanni El Khatib, Se Vende and more -- but there was a big challenge. The game was being developed on the sly ... so, he wanted to contact the bands but didn't want to risk letting the secret out. In the end, it all worked out ... and the game is dope as hell.

https://www.tmz.com/2018/12/14/tony-hawk-skate-jam-new-video-game/

TMZ

2018-12-11 00:00:00

2018

12.0

11

Kathie Lee Gifford Announces She's Leaving the 'Today' Show

Kathie Lee Gifford is saying sayonara to the "Today" show ... after she reaches the 11-year mark. Kathie Lee unveiled her play Tuesday on the show, and she and her co-host, Hoda Kotb, immediately dissolved into tears. Kathie didn't say why she's leaving, but it's gotta be a blow to NBC. The 10 AM hour of "Today" was one of the most profitable shows for the network. It was doing consistently well, although it suffered a drop in rating during the Megyn Kelly tenure. It's pretty remarkable ... Kathie was a phenom with Regis Philbin on their morning show, "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee." After leaving that show in 2000, she took a break. It's almost impossible to recreate magic in a bottle, and there were doubters when she went to "Today," but she proved them wrong ... really wrong. Her last day will be her 11-year anniversary on April 7, 2019 -- and she is leaving to pursue music, movie and TV opportunities. Kathie started her career as the "singing girl" on "Name that Tune" in 1977.

https://www.tmz.com/2018/12/11/kathie-lee-gifford-leaves-today-show-announces/

TMZ

2019-03-18 00:00:00

2019

3.0

18

'Seeking Sister Wife' Star Busted for Stalking After Allegedly Harassing Brother

The stars of "Seeking Sister Wife" are accused of harassing the crap out of a relative, who now says he fears for his life. Bernie and Paige McGee were arrested on misdemeanor stalking charges Friday in Mississippi after Paige's brother, Patrick Marble, accused the couple of flooding his home, cell and work phone with harassing calls. According to docs, obtained by TMZ, Patrick's girlfriend was also targeted by the couple. In docs, Bernie's also accused of confronting Patrick and harassing him. It's unclear how he harassed him ... but now Patrick and his GF both say they fear for their lives. Here’s Paige McGee attacking a fan who has a child with Down-syndrome pic.twitter.com/VDMyF7UVeV It's also unclear what sparked the McGees to allegedly harass Patrick. But, just last month ... Patrick put his sister on blast ... claiming she attacked a fan who has a child with Down Syndrome. The McGees were introduced to audiences in season 2 of the TLC show ... which follows the journey of families as they go out in search of polygamous relationships.

https://www.tmz.com/2019/03/18/seeking-sister-wife-arrested-stalking-harassing-brother/

TMZ

2017-06-26 00:00:00

2017

6.0

26

No definite arrangements in place for Putin-Trump meeting: Kremlin

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Monday it was still premature to say anything certain about a possible meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump next month because no definite arrangements had been made for it. The two leaders are widely expected to hold their first personal meeting when they attend a G20 summit in Germany in July. “Anyway, they (Putin and Trump) will be present at the same event, in the same city, at the same time. Anyway, there will be a possibility for such a meeting,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters. “Let’s wait for this G20 summit. But I repeat again: to our regret, there have so far been no definite arrangements regarding this (meeting).” Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Vladimir Soldatkin

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-usa/no-definite-arrangements-in-place-for-putin-trump-meeting-kremlin-idUSKBN19H14G

Politics

Reuters

2018-04-27 00:00:00

2018

4.0

27

Nidal al-Mughrabi

Israeli forces kill three Gaza border protesters, wound 600: medics

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli troops shot dead three protesters along the Gaza border on Friday, Gaza medics said, hours after the United Nations human rights chief criticized Israel for using “excessive force” against demonstrators. Israeli troops have killed 41 Palestinians and wounded more than 5,000 others since Gaza residents began staging protests along the border fence on March 30 to demand the right of return for Palestinian refugees. The troops were holed up behind fortifications on their side of the 40km (25-mile) border fence and fired live ammunition and tear gas at protesters at five locations on the Gazan side. Gaza medical officials said two protesters who were struck by bullets were in critical condition in hospital and 600 others were wounded. The Israeli military said 12,000-14,000 Gazans were participating in what it described as “riots,” and that some had tried to breach the border into Israel. It said troops “had operated in accordance with the rules of engagement” to stop people crossing the border. The Gaza health ministry said 200 were wounded by gun fire, including a Palestinian journalist who was hit in the foot by a bullet. Dozens more, including four medics, were treated for gas inhalation, as Israeli forces showered the area with tear gas canisters from behind their fortifications in Israel. Protesters hurled stones and rolled burning tires toward the fence, and some attached cans of burning petrol to kites and flew them into Israeli territory. Others cleared away barbed wire coils which Israeli troops had placed in Gazan territory overnight in a bid to create a buffer zone between protesters and the fence. After dark, the Israeli military said in a statement that its fighter jets had struck six targets belonging to Hamas’ naval force “in response to the terror activity and mass attempt to infiltrate into Israeli territory earlier today.” Hamas said two boats moored off the Gaza shore were hit, causing damage, but that no casualties were reported. The protests come at a time of growing frustration for Palestinians as prospects for an independent Palestinian state look poor. Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been stalled for several years and Israeli settlements in the occupied territories have expanded. In a statement, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein called the loss of life deplorable and said a “staggering number” of injuries had been caused by live ammunition. Israel’s foreign ministry had no immediate comment but the government has consistently said it is protecting its borders and that its troops are following rules of engagement. Israel’s U.N. envoy, Danny Danon, told the Security Council on Thursday that Hamas in Gaza was responsible for Palestinian casualties and that it was using innocent Palestinian women and children as human shields. “The terrorists are hiding while allowing, even hoping, for their people to die. This is evil in its purest form,” he said. Hamas denies the Israeli accusations. “Danon’s comments are an attempt to escape responsibility and to cover up for the execution of unarmed children and people by occupation soldiers,” said Hamas official Mushir Al-Masri. Named the ‘Great March of Return’, the protest action revives a longstanding demand for the right of return of Palestinian refugees to towns and villages which their families fled from, or were driven out of, when the state of Israel was created in 1948. Israel refuses any right of return, fearing that the country would lose its Jewish majority. More than 2 million Palestinians are packed into the narrow coastal enclave. Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but maintains tight control of its land and sea borders. Egypt also restricts movement in and out of Gaza on its border. Writing by Ori Lewis, Editing by Richard Balmforth and Rosalba O'Brien

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-protests-shooting/israeli-forces-kill-three-gaza-border-protesters-wound-600-medics-idUSKBN1HY205

World News

Reuters

2016-11-30 19:44:48

2016

11.0

30

Zack Beauchamp

The Pakistani government released a readout of its call with Trump. It’s magical.

On Wednesday afternoon, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called Donald Trump to talk about working together in the future. The Pakistani government then released what’s called a “readout,” which is usually a fairly boring summary of a call between world leaders. Only this one … well, it’s not boring. It reads more like a transcript of actual things Trump said to Sharif, and those things are amazing. Here’s the readout in full: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif called President-elect USA Donald Trump and felicitated him on his victory. President Trump said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif you have a very good reputation. You are a terrific guy. You are doing amazing work which is visible in every way. I am looking forward to see you soon. As I am talking to you Prime Minister, I feel I am talking to a person I have known for long. Your country is amazing with tremendous opportunities. Pakistanis are one of the most intelligent people. I am ready and willing to play any role that you want me to play to address and find solutions to the outstanding problems. It will be an honor and I will personally do it. Feel free to call me any time even before 20th January that is before I assume my office. On being invited to visit Pakistan by the Prime Minister, Mr. Trump said that he would love to come to a fantastic country, fantastic place of fantastic people. Please convey to the Pakistani people that they are amazing and all Pakistanis I have known are exceptional people, said Mr. Donald Trump. Obviously, these could just be paraphrases, but the quotes just sound so much like Trump. It’s hard to imagine some Pakistani bureaucrat making up Trumpy lines like “Pakistanis are one of the most intelligent people” — which, come to think of it, begs the question of who the least intelligent people are. Also, it’s worth noting that these “most intelligent people” would be blocked from entering the United States under Trump’s “Muslim ban.” We’ve reached out to the Trump team and the Pakistani government to confirm whether these are actual quotes or just truly inspired paraphrasing.

https://www.vox.com/world/2016/11/30/13797178/donald-trump-call-nawaz-sharif

Vox

2019-06-26 00:00:00

2019

6.0

26

Francesco Guarascio

Facebook crypto plans turn up heat on EU banks over real-time payments

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The euro zone could have an instant payments system shared by all banks in the bloc by the end of 2020, finance industry officials said, as lenders face more competition from the likes of Facebook and other tech firms. Real-time payments have been possible in the 19-country currency bloc since 2017, but only about half of the euro zone’s banks have joined the scheme that underpins these transactions and it is mostly used for domestic payments. The project could now accelerate as banks feel the heat of new competitors like Facebook, which last week unveiled plans for a cryptocurrency that would offer seamless payments to its users worldwide. “The clock is ticking,” said Etienne Goosse, director general of the European Payments Council (EPC), that brings together large European banks, including Spain’s Santander, Deutsche Bank and France’s Societe Generale. Goosse said that regardless of Facebook’s success with its move into payments, big technology firms were here to stay and banks needed to move more quickly. He said the big tech firms had the advantage of being global unlike the fragmented European banking industry. “They come with a global solution, under a global brand offering many things that the consumers seem to find wonderful,” Goosse said when asked about the impact of Facebook’s plans for crypto currency Libra. “So we have no time.” The EPC standard for instant payments has so far been adopted by some 60% of lenders and payment services providers in the euro zone, Goosse said, adding that it could be spread to all banks in the bloc by the end of 2020. Without full coverage, some bank customers could experience transaction failures if transfers involve banks outside the system, which would reduce trust in the new service, another EPC official said. Instant payments allow transactions between individuals and businesses to complete in a matter of seconds. Traditional transfers take at least one day before the payment is credited. Other industry officials confirmed that 2020 was a credible target. But for the system to work across borders existing clearing and settlement mechanisms should cover the whole euro zone. These mechanisms make sure money is correctly transferred between parties. Several private clearing houses use the EPC standard for instant payments like EBA Clearing, which brings together Europe’s largest banks, or national counterparties like Spain’s Iberpay or Italy’s Nexi. The European Central Bank in November launched its own settlement system for real-time transactions, known as TIPS, which stands for Target Instant Payment Settlement. But each of these different systems cover only a few dozen banks, making instant payments often impossible among lenders that are not members of the same clearing houses. “The challenge now is to make these mechanisms interoperable,” said Piet Mallekoote, the CEO of the Dutch Payment Association. The Netherlands has already made instant payments available to all bank customers in the country via a project backed by seven major domestic banks, including ING and ABN AMRO. But even if a payments system is rolled out across the euro zone this may not be enough to attract customers away from fintech providers with easy to use apps. Facebook can already tap into its established social media and chat services, but banks would need to agree on applications like mobile payments or use customers’ existing payment cards to convince them to use banks’ instant payment services. Reporting by Francesco Guarascio. Editing by Jane Merriman

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-crypto-eurozone/facebook-crypto-plans-turn-up-heat-on-eu-banks-over-real-time-payments-idUSKCN1TR28F

Davos

Reuters

2016-04-22 00:00:00

2016

4.0

22

TMZ Live -- Prince Overdosed on Percocet Days Before Death

HERE'S THE RUNDOWNKim Kardashian Plays PeacemakerKelly Ripa's Absence Is Angering Her CrewBirdman Storms Out of InterviewIggy Azalea Explains Nick's Vegas Trip

https://www.tmz.com/2016/04/22/tmz-live/

TMZ

2017-09-05 13:00:02

2017

9.0

5

Sarah Kliff

This is what Obamacare sabotage looks like

The Trump administration has, quite brazenly, moved into Obamacare sabotage mode — hurting the most vulnerable participants as it puts the law itself at risk. Health and Human Services announced Thursday it would cut the Obamacare sign-up budget by 72 percent. Advertising funding will fall from $100 million to $10 million for the 2018 enrollment season. In-person outreach dollars will decline from $62.5 million to $36 million. The Affordable Care Act’s success hinges on a large number of healthy people enrolling in marketplace coverage. These policy changes only make senses as ones that would undermine that goal. Experts expect that less outreach and less advertising will lead to fewer people enrolling in coverage, and those most likely to be left behind are the young, healthy enrollees who hold down premiums for everyone else. Those in-person outreach efforts also ensure that vulnerable populations, like those that don’t speak English or lack internet access, can still enroll. Instead of making Obamacare more robust and inclusive, they’re setting the law up to fail. Fewer people know about the opportunity to enroll when advertising falls by 90 percent. We know that, in part, because sign-ups fell off when the Trump administration pulled Obamacare ads in late January, shortly after taking office. In-person enrollment groups are preparing to lay off staffs; one has already begun to furlough workers after learning of the budget cuts. The likely outcome is that the marketplaces will be made up of people who remember to sign up are on their own. Those people are expected to be sicker — people who really need insurance — meaning premiums will rise for all Obamacare enrollees in 2019. Trump administration officials offered flimsy justifications for the budget cuts. Public awareness is already high, they said, in making the case for a 90 percent reduction in advertising — ignoring data suggesting that 40 percent of the remaining uninsured are unaware of the marketplace and its enrollment period. The Trump administration plans to penalize in-person enrollment groups that have fallen below their sign-up goals. It will not, however, reward those that have exceeded expectations. “That is not part of the methodology,” one HHS official said. Obamacare advocates have, for months, worried about subtle forms of sabotage that would be difficult to spot — not staffing the Healthcare.gov call center appropriately, for example, or not rushing to fix technical glitches on the website. Most did not expect such a brazen and significant cut to the enrollment budget. They don’t expect Obamacare can keep up its enrollment numbers with such a significant budget cut. “I see us either having to reduce staff or leverage funding somewhere else,” says Randal Serr, director of Take Care Utah. “It’s a pretty strange time for us.” The Affordable Care Act requires the federal government to run a “navigator program,” that provides grants to local nonprofits and health care organizations to increase awareness of the law, enroll consumers in coverage, and troubleshoot issues they have with their new coverage. The Obama administration had given the program between $60 and $67 million annually over last four years. The Trump administration will provide $36 million next year, a 41 percent cut. The navigator program cuts will likely hurt the most vulnerable Obamacare enrollees, those who needed extra assistance to become enrolled in coverage. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that 79 percent of Obamacare enrollees who sign up with in-person help do so because they “lack confidence to apply on their own.” Seventy-seven person say they need help understanding plan choices, and 31 percent lack internet service at home. One navigator program I covered recently, in Detroit, focuses on signing up Arab-American refugees who face language barriers while attempting to enroll in coverage — and, in many cases, are unaware the Affordable Care Act even existed. Another, in Kentucky, works with populations that are often enrolling in coverage for the first time. Trump officials explained that they will use “enrollment targets” that each navigator group set for themselves to distribute the funding cuts. A navigator group that only signed up 40 percent of its enrollment target, for example, will only receive 40 percent of last year’s funding. This will cut the program’s funding by an estimated $23 million. These enrollment targets are a suspicious metric to use for budgets. For one thing, they are set by the navigators themselves. This means that a group that lowballed their estimates is rewarded — while a nonprofit that set an ambitious goal gets penalized. These two groups might have done equally good work signing people up for coverage; the only difference is where they set their goals. Navigators say the Obama administration repeatedly encouraged them to set high goals as a motivator. They had no idea these numbers would become part of the funding scheme. “CMS was telling us set high goals and even if you don’t hit those goals, we want to aim to help as many people as possible,” says Serr from Utah. In-person enrollments are only one part of the navigator program’s mission. Much of the group’s time is spent answering questions over the phone, attending community events to raise awareness, and helping new enrollees understand their coverage after they sign up. The Palmetto Project in South Carolina, for example, operates in a largely rural area of the state that had low rates of insurance before the health law started. The group has directly signed 1,900 people up for marketplace coverage this year — but has also answered 24,000 inquiries about health law coverage in the same time frame. It has signed up many Medicaid enrollees too, but Quenga’s understanding is that those enrollments will not be counted in the new funding formula. “If our legal responsibility was simply to enroll, I might cave and be a bit more sympathetic,” says Quenga. “But we have five different responsibilities, and enrolling is only one of them. Outreach and education is a huge piece. You don’t get enrollments from teaching people to use their insurance.” When asked why they selected this metric, a Health and Human Services official said, “for the upcoming enrollment period, we are making funding decisions based on the facts and the principle of accountability.” Navigator groups have, for months now, said their grants would stay roughly the same in 2018, say Health and Human Services officials. They made plans based on those predictions: rented office space and started buying advertisements for the open enrollment season, which begins on November 1. Now, they’re not sure if they can afford that spending. “We’ve already started buying advertising, trying to sign contracts for the offices for our staff, we’re working with school superintendents to make flyers to go home with the kids in our districts,” says Kelly Allen, a navigator in West Virginia. “I don’t know if CMS has a good poker face or what.” “We’ve been moving forward as if nothing was going to change because we didn’t have much of another option,” says Serr. “I see us either having to reduce staff or leverage new funding. It’s a strange time.” The Trump administration also announced on Thursday that it will cut spending on advertising by 90 percent, paring back the Obama administration’s $100 million budget to a paltry $10 million. The type of advertising will change, too. The Obama administration often ran television and radio campaigns meant to reach a wide range of Americans who might consider purchasing coverage. The Trump administration has said it will focus on digital advertising, which is expected to take the form of reminder emails and texts to those who have already signed up for coverage. Obama administration officials like Lori Lodes, who previously ran health law outreach, said that television ads were the most effective way to run Obamacare outreach — and that the Trump administration has zeroed out that budget. They are spending ZERO dollars on TV ads. Despite having PROOF that it is the biggest driver of enrollment. In any case, $10 million is a very small number — especially when the administration is also putting out ads criticizing the Affordable Care Act, too. To put it in context, California is planning to spend $111.5 million on advertising in its state alone. The federal government will spend one-tenth of that in the 34 states where it runs the state health insurance marketplace. Trump had already spent twice as much on his own private travel by April of this year. HHS administration officials claimed they made this change because public awareness of the health care law is high, which means less advertising is needed. “People are aware of Obamacare and the exchanges, they are aware they can sign up,” an HHS official said. “The Obama administration doubled spending on advertising and saw a 5 percent decline in enrollment. Despite a doubled budget, there are diminishing returns.” The decline in health law enrollment, however, occurred in late January, around the moment the Trump administration abruptly canceled $5 million in advertisements after taking office. When pressed by a reporter, officials said they had not done any studies of the efficacy of enrollment advertising or whether public awareness is indeed quite high. “We haven’t done a specific study related to the public awareness of the program,” the third HHS official said. “I think most Americans are aware of the program at this point in time.” The research that has been done, however, suggests that public awareness of the health care law is not especially high among the uninsured — and that advertising does work to increase it. A Commonwealth Fund study from last year found that 38 percent of Americans who remain uninsured are unaware of the health law marketplaces. That number has declined slowly, year over year, but certainly has a way to go before all Americans are “aware they can sign up.” There is not a large body of research on Affordable Care Act advertising, but what has been done correlates more advertising with higher sign-up rates. A 2017 study published in the journal Health Affairs shows that “counties exposed to higher volumes of local insurance advertisements during the first open enrollment period experienced larger reductions in their uninsurance rates than other counties.” Trump administration officials said that this new $10 million budget would bring Obamacare’s advertising spending in line with what the agency puts toward the Medicare program. But that doesn’t make much sense: Medicare is a program that has been around for 60 years, one that is well-established. Obamacare has been around for five. The Trump administration will advertise Obamacare less — and give enrollees a shorter time frame for enrollment. Unlike last year, where open enrollment ran from November 1 through January 31, this year’s open enrollment period will start November 1 and end December 15. Enrollees will get 45 days to sign up for coverage instead of 90. “The shorter open enrollment is one of my bigger concerns,” says Jodi Ray, director of Florida Covering Kids and Families, which runs the state’s largest navigator grant. “That’s going to surprise a lot of our customers. We’re reaching out to people, we’re calling anyone who has contact with our project over the past few years, to let them know.” A shorter open enrollment period coupled with less advertising and less in-person support will near certainly lead to fewer people signing up for Obamacare. The people most likely left behind fall into two categories: Obamacare’s healthy enrollees and its most vulnerable. Experts expect that people who really need health insurance — those with expensive medical conditions — will make sure they enroll in coverage. These are the consumers who are likely to check open enrollment dates and remember to sign up in time. Research from Yale health economist Amanda Kowalski has found that states that had significant technical glitches during the health law’s first open enrollment period ended up with a sicker set of Obamacare enrollees, suggesting that that population was more persistent in seeking coverage. A sicker Obamacare enrollee population will drive up premiums for anyone who wants to sign up for coverage in the future. In 2019, you’d expect insurance companies to set higher premiums to account for those higher medical bills. Cutting ACA outreach will result in fewer people insured, and those who fail to sign up will be the healthiest. That will push premiums up. But there are some Obamacare enrollees with significant health care needs who won’t sign up for coverage. These are the vulnerable populations that rely on in-person Obamacare assistance, the program that will lose 40 percent of its budget next year. This might be the refugee I profiled in Detroit, who doesn’t speak English well enough to navigate the health care system. She relies on her health coverage for multiple medical conditions, some the result of trauma endured before immigrating to the US from Iraq. It might include the 20-year-old dishwasher I met in Kentucky who relies on his health law coverage to get prescriptions for his ADHD — who only found out that he was eligible for a plan because the local outreach group held an enrollment event at the restaurant where he works. The result of less Obamacare outreach and advertising is leaving behind these two populations: a healthy population that makes the marketplace work, and a sicker population that doesn’t necessarily know how to navigate the system without help. Are you an Obamacare enrollee interested in what happens next? Join our Facebook community for conversation and updates.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/9/5/16240282/obamacare-sabotage-trump

Vox

2016-04-19 00:00:00

2016

4.0

19

Samuel Oakford

Portugal’s Example: What Happened After It Decriminalized All Drugs, From Weed to Heroin

What happened after Portugal decriminalized all drugs, from weed to heroin. What happened after Portugal decriminalized all drugs, from weed to heroin. As diplomats gather at the United Nations in New York this week to consider the future of global drug policy, one Portuguese official, João Goulão, will likely command attention that far outstrips his country’s influence in practically any other area. That’s because 16 years ago, Portugal took a leap and decriminalized the possession of all drugs — everything from marijuana to heroin. By most measures, the move has paid off. Today, Portuguese authorities don’t arrest anyone found holding what’s considered less than a 10-day supply of an illicit drug — a gram of heroin, ecstasy, or amphetamine, two grams of cocaine, or 25 grams of cannabis. Instead, drug offenders receive a citation and are ordered to appear before so- called “dissuasion panels” made up of legal, social, and psychological experts. Most cases are simply suspended. Individuals who repeatedly come before the panels may be prescribed treatment, ranging from motivational counseling to opiate substitution therapy. “We had a lot of criticism at first,” recalled Goulão, a physician specializing in addiction treatment whose work led Portugal to reform its drug laws in 2000, and who is today its national drug coordinator. After decriminalizing, the first inquiries Portugal received from the International Narcotics Control Board — the quasi-judicial UN oversight body established by the UN drug convention system — were sharp and scolding. “Now things have changed completely,” he went on. “We are pointed to as an example of best practices inside the spirit of the conventions.” Indeed, Werner Sipp, the new head of the board, said as much at the UN’s Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna earlier this year. ‘It was the combination of the law and these services that made it a success. It’s very difficult to find people in Portugal who disagree with this model.’ As diplomats gather at the United Nations in New York this week to consider the future of global drug policy, one Portuguese official, João Goulão, will likely command attention that far outstrips his country’s influence in practically any other area. That’s because 16 years ago, Portugal took a leap and decriminalized the possession of all drugs — everything from marijuana to heroin. By most measures, the move has paid off. Today, Portuguese authorities don’t arrest anyone found holding what’s considered less than a 10-day supply of an illicit drug — a gram of heroin, ecstasy, or amphetamine, two grams of cocaine, or 25 grams of cannabis. Instead, drug offenders receive a citation and are ordered to appear before so- called “dissuasion panels” made up of legal, social, and psychological experts. Most cases are simply suspended. Individuals who repeatedly come before the panels may be prescribed treatment, ranging from motivational counseling to opiate substitution therapy. “We had a lot of criticism at first,” recalled Goulão, a physician specializing in addiction treatment whose work led Portugal to reform its drug laws in 2000, and who is today its national drug coordinator. After decriminalizing, the first inquiries Portugal received from the International Narcotics Control Board — the quasi-judicial UN oversight body established by the UN drug convention system — were sharp and scolding. “Now things have changed completely,” he went on. “We are pointed to as an example of best practices inside the spirit of the conventions.” Indeed, Werner Sipp, the new head of the board, said as much at the UN’s Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna earlier this year. ‘It was the combination of the law and these services that made it a success. It’s very difficult to find people in Portugal who disagree with this model.’ Though often narrowly assessed in reference to its decriminalization law, Portugal’s experience over the last decade and a half speaks as much to its free public health system, extensive treatment programs, and the hard to quantify trickle down effects of the legislation. In a society where drugs are less stigmatized, problem users are more likely to seek out care. Police, even if they suspect someone of using drugs, are less likely to bother them. Though at least 25 countries have introduced some form of decriminalization, Portugal’s holistic model and its use of dissuasion panels sets it apart. The rate of new HIV infections in Portugal has fallen precipitously since 2001, the year its law took effect, declining from 1,016 cases to only 56 in 2012. Overdose deaths decreased from 80 the year that decriminalization was enacted to only 16 in 2012. In the US, by comparison, more than 14,000 people died in 2014 from prescription opioid overdoses alone. Portugal’s current drug-induced death rate, three per million residents, is more than five times lower than the European Union’s average of 17.3, according to EU figures. When Portugal decided to decriminalize in 2000, many skeptics assumed that the number of users would skyrocket. That did not happen. With some exceptions, including a marginal increase among adolescents, drug use has fallen over the past 15 years and now ebbs and flows within overall trends in Europe. Portuguese officials estimate that by the late 1990s roughly one percent of Portugal’s population, around 100,000 people, were heroin users. Today, “we estimate that we have 50,000, most of them under substitution treatment,” said Goulão before adding that he’s recently seen a small uptick in use of the drug, predominantly among former addicts that got clean. This reflects Portugal’s tenuous economic condition, he contends. “People use drugs for one of two reasons — either to potentiate pleasures or relieve unpleasure — and the types of drugs and the type of people who use drugs carries a lot according to the conditions of life in the country,” he remarked. Parallel harm reduction measures, such as needle exchanges and opioid substitution therapy using drugs like methadone and buprenorphine, he said, serve as a cushion to prevent the spread of communicable diseases and a rise in overdoses even if the number of users injecting heroin happens to increase for a period of time. “I think harm reduction is not giving up on people,” said Goulão. “I think it is respecting their timings and assuming that even if someone is still using drugs, that person deserves the investment of the state in order to have a better and longer life.” Such statements, once considered radical, are becoming more appealing to drug officials in other countries. Decriminalization and harm reduction lends greater attention to the human rights of users while allowing law enforcement resources to be spent elsewhere. And though it’s a major shift, Portuguese decriminalization is not a revolution in terms of international law. Drugs are still illegal in Portugal, drug dealers and traffickers are still sent to jail, and the country has carefully kept itself within the confines of the UN’s drug convention system that inform national drug laws. For decades the three treaties were seen as prescribing jail time for users, but experts have long contended — and governments now increasingly recognize — that they give countries wide latitude in how to treat and police users. When Portugal decriminalized, UN member states were just years removed from a 1998 special session of the General Assembly that convened under the fanciful pretext of eliminating drug use worldwide. On Tuesday, member states adopted a new outcome document that is meant to reposition drug policy. It stops short of what many advocates would have liked, excluding the actual words “harm reduction” while failing to address the death penalty for drug offenders, which member states noted repeatedly on Tuesday. The document reflects both an evolution in drug policy in many parts of the world over the last two decades, but is also a testament to the continued influence of conservative countries that still favor interdiction. Goulão himself is skeptical of some aspects of marijuana reform in places like the United States, which he says can conflate medical use with recreational markets. “Sometimes I feel the promoters of this discussion are mixing things together using a lack of intellectual seriousness,” he said. Though heroin use is often highlighted to show the efficacy of Portugal’s model, today most users that come before panels are in fact caught with either hashish or cannabis, said Nuno Capaz, a sociologist who serves on Lisbon’s dissuasion panel. Between 80 to 85 percent of all people who report to the panels are first-time offenders and deemed to be recreational users, meaning their cases are suspended. For those who have been repeatedly caught or are identified as addicts, the panels can order sanctions or treatment. Recreational users may face fines or be ordered to provide community service. If an addict refuses treatment, they are required to check in regularly with their “family doctor” — the medical professional in the person’s locality that provides checkups and other services to them under Portugal’s free national healthcare program. Such a close, pre-existing relationship between medical professionals and Portuguese residents is another feature of the model, and one that could be hard to replicate in a country like the US. “If the person doesn’t show up at the doctor, we ask the police to personally hand them a notification so they know they are supposed to be in a specific place,” said Capaz. “The important part is to maintain the connection to the treatment system.” The role of police coordinating with health officials to ensure treatment demonstrates the altered relationship between them and drug users over the past decade and a half, and one that contrasts dramatically with how police orient themselves in countries like the US. “This small change actually makes a huge change in terms of police officers’ work,” said Capaz, referring to decriminalization. “Of course every police officer knows where people hang out to smoke joints. If they wanted to they would just go there and pick up the same guy over and over. That doesn’t happen.” Working in parallel to government efforts, non-profit groups play a role in providing clean needles and even distributing crack pipes as a way to entice drug users into the network of state service providers. Ricardo Fuertes, project coordinator at GAT, an outreach organization founded by people living with HIV, works at one of the group’s drop-in centers, nestled in a residential building in Lisbon. The location, he says, is a sign of the decrease in stigma towards drug use. “It’s very obvious that it’s a place for people who use drugs. It’s very open, but we don’t have complaints,” said Fuertes, referring to the drop-in center. “The general population even comes to get tests done. I think it shows this isn’t a ghetto service.” But care and outreach providers and the people they help have felt the pinch of Portugal’s economic troubles. In 2011, the country was bailed out by the European Union and the IMF, and later passed austerity measures that imposed considerable cuts on public services. Goulão said that drug treatment programs have been relatively insulated, but funds for job programs that could help employers pay the wages of drug users were decreased. Fuertes went a bit further, saying that some providers have had to lower costs. He explained that government funding may be allocated only for a year at a time, making long-term planning difficult. “It’s not easy for many people, and of course people who use drugs are not the exception,” he said. “We see many of our clients facing very difficult situations.” Portuguese health workers refer to Greece as a cautionary tale. Wracked by a budgetary crisis and the austerity conditions of repeated bailouts, Greece experienced an explosion of HIV transmission rates after budget cuts left health programs drastically underfunded. According to EU figures, only Greece and Latvia experienced larger cuts than Portugal to its public health services between the period of 2005 to 2007 and 2009 to 2012. And yet Portugal experienced no discernable rise in HIV transmission — the cushion effect in action. “Usually the focus is on the decriminalization itself, but it worked because there were other services, and the coverage increased for needle replacement, detox, therapeutic communities, and employment options for people who use drugs,” said Fuertes. “It was the combination of the law and these services that made it a success. It’s very difficult to find people in Portugal who disagree with this model.” In the run-up to the UN General Assembly’s special session, Goulão cautioned that countries had to consider their own domestic environments first in learning from Portugal’s experience. “We don’t assume that this is the silver bullet, but in my view it has been very important because it introduced coherence into the whole system,” he said. “If our responses are based in the idea that we talking about addiction, that we are talking about chronic disease, talking about a health issue — to have it out of the penal system is a clear improvement. It was really important for our society because it allowed us to drop the stigma.” Follow Samuel Oakford on Twitter: @samueloakford

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/a3nzz4/ungass-portugal-what-happened-after-decriminalization-drugs-weed-to-heroin

Vice News

2018-04-27 00:00:00

2018

4.0

27

David Gilbert

These are the sexual misconduct allegations against Tom Brokaw

NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw was accused Thursday of pinning former colleague Linda Vester against the wall of her hotel room and forcing her to kiss him, according to an explosive report by Variety. Vester, an anchor and veteran war correspondent, claims Brokaw “physically tried to force her to kiss him on two separate occasions, groped her in an NBC conference room, and showed up at her hotel room uninvited.” The alleged assaults took place in the early 1990s when Brokaw was the “most powerful man at the network” and Vester was a junior reporter who had joined NBC four years earlier. She claims she didn’t speak up at the time because of a culture of silence at NBC, where women who spoke up were labeled “troublemakers” and any such attention could “torpedo your career.” Brokaw denies the incidents took place, saying he “made no romantic overtures toward her at that time or any other.” NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw was accused Thursday of pinning former colleague Linda Vester against the wall of her hotel room and forcing her to kiss him, according to an explosive report by Variety. Vester, an anchor and veteran war correspondent, claims Brokaw “physically tried to force her to kiss him on two separate occasions, groped her in an NBC conference room, and showed up at her hotel room uninvited.” The alleged assaults took place in the early 1990s when Brokaw was the “most powerful man at the network” and Vester was a junior reporter who had joined NBC four years earlier. She claims she didn’t speak up at the time because of a culture of silence at NBC, where women who spoke up were labeled “troublemakers” and any such attention could “torpedo your career.” Brokaw denies the incidents took place, saying he “made no romantic overtures toward her at that time or any other.” However, the Washington Post spoke to a second woman who said Brokaw acted inappropriately toward her in the 1990s, when she was a young production assistant and he was an anchor. Brokaw has also denied this allegation. Brokaw, who anchored “NBC Nightly News” for 22 years and hosted “Today” and “Meet the Press” is the latest high-profile media personality to face accusations of sexual impropriety in the workplace. His NBC colleague Matt Lauer was fired last year over allegations of sexual misconduct, but he only responded publicly Thursday, telling the Washington Post: “I fully acknowledge that I acted inappropriately as a husband, father, and principal at NBC.” Cover image: Tom Brokaw on Friday, April 6, 2018 (Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/pax5x8/sexual-misconduct-allegations-tom-brokaw-linda-vester

Vice News

2018-05-16 00:00:00

2018

5.0

16

Waffle House Hero James Shaw Jr. Says Trump's Call Was 'Lackluster' But Appreciated

President Trump's call to Waffle House hero James Shaw Jr. left a lot to be desired ... according to James. We talked to him Wednesday on the heels of his $241k donation to the Waffle House shooting victims and their families ... and his Monday phone call from the White House. While James was quick to thank the Prez for reaching out, he also described the conversation as "lackluster." It's worth noting, the call came 22 days after James heroically wrestled an AR-15 from a gunman ... saving countless lives. He acknowledged, Trump's a busy guy. James also revealed he's having trouble at his job due to one giant misperception about him. Still, he says he's focused on his mission -- he just started a community service group in Nashville. Long-term goals include winning a Nobel Peace Prize, and a sit-down with Oprah or the Obamas. Who's gonna say no to this guy?

https://www.tmz.com/2018/05/16/waffle-house-hero-james-shaw-jr-president-trump-call-lackluster/

TMZ

2018-09-12 12:47:52

2018

9.0

12

Recode Staff

Recode Daily: New iPhones and more: It’s Apple launch day

Today’s Apple iPhone/iPad/MacBook/Apple Watch showcase will be livestreamed on Twitter for the first time. The company has been livestreaming its product announcements for years, but until now it has always tried to keep the show on its Safari browser. Apple will be running the stream through its Twitter account — which never tweets and only runs paid ads, so you can’t actually see anything on its profile page. Once you spot the ad on the Twitter page, you can “Like” it, which will get Apple to tweet updates at you about the event once it starts. Listen to Bloomberg’s Apple reporter Mark Gurman talk about Apple’s strategy with its new iPhones; follow Recode’s live coverage of the event, which begins at 10 am PT. [Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge] [Want to get the Recode Daily in your inbox? Subscribe here.] Facebook is building large-scale AI to help its content moderators, who can’t possibly look through every single image that gets posted on the enormous platform. Its machine-learning system, called Rosetta, is designed to help identify text in more than a billion images and videos daily, and then transcribe the words in a way that’s machine-readable. The social media giant said text extraction is being utilized to “automatically identify content that violates our hate-speech policy.” Facebook has also added 24 languages to its automatic translation services. [Mariella Moon / Engadget] Verizon customers in its four 5G launch markets will be able to sign up for home internet service starting Thursday. Like other major cellphone providers, Verizon plans to launch 5G mobile phone service next year as a way to compete with cable and other providers with what’s known as fixed wireless service. The service will launch Oct. 1 in parts of Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Sacramento. Meanwhile, the FCC told carriers Sprint and T-Mobile that it needs more time to review their proposed merger; in April, the companies said they wanted to cut costs and combine forces to develop a next-generation 5G network. [Ina Fried / Axios] Gawker 2.0 is coming early next year. The reborn website is owned by Bryan Goldberg, founder and CEO of Bustle Digital Group, who in July was the winning bidder for the remaining assets of Gawker Media; he paid $1.35 million for the media gossip blog, which has been dormant since August 2016 after the company was sued into bankruptcy by Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel. Goldberg has hired Amanda Hale as the new publisher of Gawker; she was chief revenue officer of the Outline, the culture website founded by Joshua Topolsky that recently laid off much its staff. [Todd Spangler / Variety] Newsroom jobs declined 23 percent over the past decade, with Google, Facebook and Amazon gobbling up most of the digital ad growth. But some publishers are staffing up, including the Atlantic, helped by funding from Laurene Powell Jobs’s Emerson Collective, which took a majority stake in the magazine last year. Business Insider plans to hire “dozens” more in its newsroom — the digital publication turned an unexpected profit this year after its ad and subscription businesses exceeded their revenue profits. Venture-backed BuzzFeed let go of nearly 120 people last year, but is now looking to fill 55 roles. Condé Nast and the Los Angeles Times are also hiring substantially. [Max Willens / Digiday] Several high-profile cryptocurrency companies are forming the Blockchain Association — the first fully fledged lobbying group in Washington, D.C., to represent entrepreneurs and investors who are building off the technology behind bitcoin. Joining the initial push are Coinbase and Circle, which operate some of the world’s most popular virtual currency exchanges; investors Digital Currency Group and Polychain Capital are also among the founding members. [Brian Fung / The Washington Post] Trump has never tweeted about it, but the major sector creating jobs the fastest under his administration is the food-and-drink service industry. The number of jobs at cafes and specialty snack stores (like ice cream shops) grew by 12 percent, nearly twice the growth in the fast-food sector, which alone has created about 270,000 jobs. This is part of a long-term trend: Food-and-drink service jobs have accounted for an increasingly large share of the U.S. job market since 2000, which shows how most job market trends have little to do with any specific president’s policies. [Dan Kopf / Quartz] Is it time for a “slow food” movement for the internet? On the latest episode of Recode Decode, Nicole Wong, the former deputy CTO of the United States, lays out what that might look like. A very Amazon Christmas. This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

https://www.vox.com/2018/9/12/17848438/apple-livestream-iphone-twitter-facebook-ai-moderators-verizon-5g-gawker-blockchain-amazon-christmas

Vox

2019-06-06 00:00:00

2019

6.0

6

EU calls for release of Vietnamese Facebook user over 'anti-state' posts

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union called for the immediately release of a Vietnamese Facebook user sentenced to six years in prison on Thursday for posts he made on the social media platform, saying the case marked a “worrying development.” “The European Union expects the Vietnamese authorities to immediately release Mr Nguyen Ngoc Anh as well as all bloggers and human right defenders imprisoned for having peacefully expressed their views,” the bloc’s foreign service said in a statement. “Nguyen Ngoc Anh’s right to peaceful freedom of expression is guaranteed by the Vietnamese Constitution.” The Southeast Asian country’s government has labeled Anh’s posts “anti-state”. Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel

https://www.reuters.com/article/vietnam-security-trials-eu/refile-eu-calls-for-release-of-vietnamese-facebook-user-over-anti-state-posts-idUSFWN23D0N8

World News

Reuters

2019-04-19 00:00:00

2019

4.0

19

Doina Chiacu, David Morgan

Democrats make legal bid for all Russia probe evidence, Trump poll numbers drop

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Democrats on Friday took legal action to get hold of all of U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s evidence from his inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, as the probe’s findings hit President Donald Trump’s poll ratings. The number of Americans who approve of Trump dropped by 3 percentage points to the lowest level of the year following the release of a redacted version of Mueller’s report on Thursday, according to a Reuters/Ipsos online opinion poll. Mueller did not establish that the Trump campaign coordinated with Russians but did find “multiple acts by the President that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations.” While Mueller ultimately decided not to charge Trump with a crime such as obstruction of justice, he also said that the investigation did not exonerate the president, either. U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat, issued a subpoena to the Justice Department to hand over the full Mueller report and other relevant evidence by May 1. “My committee needs and is entitled to the full version of the report and the underlying evidence consistent with past practice. The redactions appear to be significant. We have so far seen none of the actual evidence that the Special Counsel developed to make this case,” Nadler said in a statement. The report provided extensive details on Trump’s efforts to thwart Mueller’s investigation, giving Democrats plenty of political ammunition against the Republican president but no consensus on how to use it. The document has blacked out sections to hide details about secret grand jury information, U.S. intelligence gathering and active criminal cases as well as potentially damaging information about peripheral players who were not charged. Six top congressional Democrats led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer rejected Attorney General William Barr’s offer to give them access to a less-redacted version of the report. In a letter to Barr, they repeated their demand the full report be given to Congress, but said they were open to “a reasonable accommodation.” Democratic leaders have played down talk of impeachment of Trump just 18 months before the 2020 presidential election, even as some prominent members of the party’s progressive wing, notably U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, promised to push the idea. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren became the first major contender for the Democratic 2020 presidential nomination to call for the start of impeachment proceedings, saying on Twitter that “the severity of this misconduct” demands it. “To ignore a President’s repeated efforts to obstruct an investigation into his own disloyal behavior would inflict great and lasting damage on this country,” she said. Trump, who has repeatedly called the Mueller probe a political witch hunt, lashed out again on Friday. “Statements are made about me by certain people in the Crazy Mueller Report...which are fabricated & totally untrue,” Trump wrote on Twitter. He seemed to be referring to former White House counsel Don McGahn who was cited in the report as having annoyed Trump by taking notes of his conversations with the president. “Watch out for people that take so-called “notes,” when the notes never existed until needed.” Trump wrote, “it was not necessary for me to respond to statements made in the “Report” about me, some of which are total bullshit & only given to make the other person look good (or me to look bad).” Phone conversations between the president and McGahn in June 2017 were a central part of Mueller’s depiction of Trump as trying to derail the Russia inquiry. The report said Trump told McGahn to instruct the Justice Department to fire Mueller. McGahn did not carry out the order. In analyzing whether Trump obstructed justice, Mueller revealed details about how the president tried to fire him and limit his investigation, kept details of a June 2016 meeting between senior campaign officials and a Russian under wraps, and possibly dangled a pardon to a former adviser. According to the Reuters/Ipsos poll of 1,005 adults conducted Thursday afternoon to Friday morning, 37 percent of people approve of Trump’s performance in office - down from 40 percent in a similar poll conducted on April 15 and matches the lowest level of the year. The poll has a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of 4 percentage points. Representative Doug Collins, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said the Democrats’ subpoena “is wildly overbroad” and would jeopardize a grand jury’s investigations. The Mueller inquiry laid bare what U.S. intelligence agencies have described as a Russian campaign of hacking and propaganda to sow discord in the United States, denigrate 2016 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and boost Trump. Russia said on Friday that Mueller’s report did not contain any evidence that Moscow had meddled. “We, as before, do not accept such allegations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Asked on Friday about Russian interference in 2016, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in Washington that “we will make very clear to them that this is not acceptable behavior.” Trump has tried to cultivate good relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and came under heavy criticism in Washington last year for saying after meeting Putin that he accepted his denial of election meddling, over the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies. Half a dozen former Trump aides, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, were charged by Mueller’s office or convicted of crimes during his 22-month-long investigation. The Mueller inquiry spawned a number of other criminal probes by federal prosecutors in New York and elsewhere. One reason it would be difficult to charge Trump is that the Justice Department has a decades-old policy that a sitting president should not be indicted, although the U.S. Constitution is silent on whether a president can face criminal prosecution in court. A paragraph in the report is at the heart of whether Mueller, a former FBI director, intended Congress to pursue further action against Trump. “The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the President’s corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law,” Mueller wrote. Republican Collins said Democrats had misconstrued that section of the report to suit their anti-Trump agenda. “There seems to be some confusion...This isn’t a matter of legal interpretation; it’s reading comprehension,” Collins wrote on Twitter. “The report doesn’t say Congress should investigate obstruction now. It says Congress can make laws about obstruction under Article I powers,” Collins said. Nadler told reporters on Thursday that Mueller probably wrote the report with the intent of providing Congress a road map for future action against the president, but the Democratic congressman said it was too early to talk about impeachment. But the House Oversight Committee’s Democratic chairman, Elijah Cummings, said impeachment was not ruled out. “A lot of people keep asking about the question of impeachment ... We may very well come to that very soon, but right now let’s make sure we understand what Mueller was doing, understand what Barr was doing, and see the report in an unredacted form and all of the underlying documents,” he told MSNBC. Short of attempting impeachment, Democratic lawmakers can use the details of Mueller’s report to fuel other inquiries already underway by congressional committees. Only two U.S. presidents have been impeached: Bill Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in 1998 and Andrew Johnson in 1868 after firing his secretary of war in the tumultuous aftermath of the American Civil War. Both were acquitted by the Senate and stayed in office. In 1974, a House committee approved articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon over the Watergate scandal but he resigned before the full House voted on impeachment. (For a 'Link to Mueller report' click here) (For a graphic on 'A closer look at Mueller report redactions' click tmsnrt.rs/2VSx7HZ) Reporting by David Morgan and Doina Chiacu; Additional reporting by Karen Freifeld, Nathan Layne, Sarah N. Lynch and Andy Sullivan; Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Grant McCool and Marguerita Choy

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia/democrats-make-legal-bid-for-all-russia-probe-evidence-trump-poll-numbers-drop-idUSKCN1RV094

Politics

Reuters

2016-06-08 00:00:00

2016

6.0

8

VICE News

How Death Threats and the Government Shut Down Pakistan's First LGBTQ Website

In BLACKOUT, a series made possible by Jigsaw, VICE News takes viewers across the globe, from Pakistan to Belarus, to examine technology's role in the ongoing fight for free expression. (The author of this story asked that his name not be used to protect his safety.) Three years ago, shortly before the holy month of Ramadan began, I launched a website for QueerPK. Short for Queer Pakistan, the organization is an LGBTQIA media and advocacy group in a country in which homosexuality is technically illegal. The site took off like wildfire. One of our very first posts was entitled "Have a Queer Ramadan This Year," and it attracted a lot of trolls. We were called "Jewish agents" and an "abomination," and were accused of being the cause of earthquakes. I was aware of and knew people from the educated elite class in Pakistan who were relatively accepting of LGBTQIA people. But being a gay man from a lower-middle class background, I also knew firsthand the serious risks many people faced. So I started QueerPK to raise LGBTQIA visibility, foster a community, teach both physical and sexual safety — one of our first campaigns promoted the use of condoms — and engage the media. In BLACKOUT, a series made possible by Jigsaw, VICE News takes viewers across the globe, from Pakistan to Belarus, to examine technology's role in the ongoing fight for free expression. (The author of this story asked that his name not be used to protect his safety.) Three years ago, shortly before the holy month of Ramadan began, I launched a website for QueerPK. Short for Queer Pakistan, the organization is an LGBTQIA media and advocacy group in a country in which homosexuality is technically illegal. The site took off like wildfire. One of our very first posts was entitled "Have a Queer Ramadan This Year," and it attracted a lot of trolls. We were called "Jewish agents" and an "abomination," and were accused of being the cause of earthquakes. I was aware of and knew people from the educated elite class in Pakistan who were relatively accepting of LGBTQIA people. But being a gay man from a lower-middle class background, I also knew firsthand the serious risks many people faced. So I started QueerPK to raise LGBTQIA visibility, foster a community, teach both physical and sexual safety — one of our first campaigns promoted the use of condoms — and engage the media. Having worked in the media, I knew it could help people come to terms with their sexuality by letting them know they are not alone. Though we couldn't produce our own videos, we were able to take videos produced elsewhere and translate them. I collaborated with producers from around the world, subtitled their videos in Urdu, and released them on our platform. Soon we had producers contacting us and waving copyrights, allowing us to reproduce videos as we saw fit for a local audience. Watch VICE News' Blackout: Pakistan, about the plight of that country's LGBTQ community. But in the meantime, the backlash continued — and it worsened as we started to post more often. Our slogan was "Don't hate us, know us." This clearly was not taken to heart by everyone. In comments and private messages, people started calling for "death for whoever is behind the project." A friend of mine even told me I had gone too far, saying that while he could accept my "lewd" lifestyle, he objected to the way I was "corrupting" people. I got a phone call from someone who said, "We're watching you," and that I should quit my "online activities." His number was blocked, and when I called the cellular company to request the number, I was told that I would need to go to the police first. But for me, that, of course, was impossible. By September of 2013, I was admittedly panicked. Some concerned activist friends were suggesting I shut down the project and run it from outside Pakistan; I ultimately decided to do neither. That month, however, the site became inaccessible, and a message from the federal government's Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) stated that QueerPK was "not safe" to be viewed in the country. I contacted international media outlets to inform them of the ban, and stories ran in several places, including the BBC and CNN. AFP interviewed the spokesperson of the PTA, who said the website was "against Islam." I transferred the site to a new domain, and announced it on social media platforms and mailing lists. However, the government soon banned this site as well. Since the project was self-financed and had only volunteers on whom to rely, I couldn't keep up with the game of online hide-and-seek. By early 2014, the project was dead. I have been attempting a third re-launch, but I am not optimistic about the future. I would still be battling the government if this was a fair fight, but when you're accused of doing something "anti-Islam" and "anti-Pakistan," the government essentially has license to deal with you as it deems fit. I now sometimes ask God why he made me gay in a society like Pakistan. Follow VICE News on Twitter: @ViceNews

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/neymbm/death-threats-and-the-government-shut-down-pakistan-lgbtq-website-queerpk

Vice News

2019-06-28 00:00:00

2019

6.0

28

U.S. consumer spending rises in May; inflation muted

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumer spending increased moderately in May and prices rose slightly, pointing to slowing economic growth and benign inflation pressures, which could give the Federal Reserve more ammunition to cut interest rates next month. The Commerce Department said on Friday consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, rose 0.4% as households boosted purchases of motor vehicles and spent more at restaurants and on hotel accommodation. Data for April was revised up to show consumer spending advancing 0.6% instead of the previously reported 0.3 percent gain. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast consumer spending would rise 0.4% last month. Consumer prices as measured by the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index rose 0.2% last month as a rebound in food prices was tempered by moderate gains in the cost of other goods. The PCE price index increased 0.3% in April. In the 12 months through May, the PCE price index increased 1.5%, slowing from April’s 1.6% increase. Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the PCE price index climbed 0.2% last month after a similar gain in April. In the 12 months through May, the so-called core PCE price index increased 1.6%, matching April’s rise. The core PCE index is the Fed’s preferred inflation measure and has undershot the U.S. central bank’s 2 percent target this year. The Fed last week signaled rate cuts as early as July, citing low inflation, as well as growing risks to the economy from an escalation in trade tensions between the United States and China. The central bank downgraded its inflation projection for 2019 to 1.5% from 1.8% in March. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell dropped his description of weak inflation as “transient.” When adjusted for inflation, consumer spending rose 0.2% in May. This so-called real consumer spending increased by the same margin in April. The increase in real spending in the last two months suggested consumer spending was struggling to accelerate after slowing in the first quarter. Consumers spending increased at a 0.9% annualized rate in the first quarter, the slowest in a year. The overall economy grew at a 3.1% rate last quarter, boosted by exports, an accumulation of inventory and government spending on highways and defense. Last month, spending on goods increased 0.5%, with outlays on long-lasting manufactured goods such as motor vehicles surging 1.7%. Spending on services gained 0.4%. Consumer spending in May was supported by a 0.5% rise in personal income, which matched April’s increase. Wages gained 0.2%. Savings rose to $985.4 billion from $975.0 billion in April. Reporting by Lucia Mutikani Editing by Paul Simao Lucia.Mutikani@thomsonreuters.com; 1 202 898 8315; Reuters Messaging: lucia.mutikani.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-spending/us-consumer-spending-rises-in-may-inflation-muted-idUSKCN1TT1QX

Business News

Reuters

2018-08-12 16:30:01

2018

8.0

12

Jane Coaston

What Sunday’s Unite the Right 2 tells us about the state of the alt-right

On Sunday, “white civil rights activist” Jason Kessler will lead an undetermined number of alt-right, far-right, and white supremacist individuals and organizations in the “Unite the Right 2” gathering in Washington, DC, on the first anniversary of the group’s disastrous rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that claimed the life of a young woman. As I wrote earlier this week, the ultimate size of the event is anyone’s guess: It’s not clear how many people will attend Unite the Right 2 — many white nationalists have already said they have no interest in going, while others who might otherwise attend are enmeshed in legal troubles stemming from last year’s rally. Meanwhile, organizers of the coalition DC Against Hate have told at least one outlet that they expect at least 1,000 counterprotesters to attend events aimed against Unite the Right 2 under the banner “Shut It Down DC.” But no matter the number of rallygoers present, Unite the Right 2 — taking place on the first anniversary of much of America’s first experience of the alt-right’s racism and anti-Semitism — will have a lot to tell us. When Kessler applied for a permit to rally in Lafayette Square, directly across from the White House, he stated that he expected roughly 400 people to attend — a number he has since admitted in court he just “pulled out of a hat.” In short, it is extremely unlikely that attendance numbers will rival those of last year’s Unite the Right, which included a tiki torch-lit parade of white supremacists marching through the campus of the University of Virginia alongside the disastrous rally the following day that ended in the murder of counter-activist Heather Heyer. In a movement that is largely disintegrating, many of the biggest names in the alt-right and white supremacist far right are staying far away from this year’s rally. That’s both because of the aftermath of last year’s event and because of a debate roiling the alt-right about whether or not “optics” — like chanting, “Jews will not replace us,” before marching under a Nazi flag — matter, and whether they should even be rallying in public in the first place. But at least on one point, many within the alt-right agree: Jason Kessler is not to be trusted. As one neo-Nazi figure posted on the social media platform website Gab — which is popular with alt-right figures banned from Twitter — earlier this summer, “Follow Kessler and you get what you deserve.” Some within the alt-right even think that Kessler is a “subversive” who is leading the movement into risky situations like Unite the Right on purpose. Another Gab user arguing, “Avoiding this rally IS being tactical and strategic because there is only an opportunity for the media to use this to demonize Trump and his supporters as fascists.” For his part, Kessler is attempting to publicly distance himself from the white supremacist alt-right (while still filing court documents listing self-avowed anti-Semitic Holocaust deniers as potential speakers at Unite the Right 2.) And not only are many within the alt-right and white nationalist movement not attending this year — because of last year’s rally, “optics,” or Jason Kessler — but those who are attending are facing the ramifications of Kessler’s poor planning: ... coordinating this event has seemingly been chaotic at best, as revealed by recent internal Facebook chats from Unite the Right planners (obtained from an anonymous source by the media collective Unicorn Riot, a left-leaning investigative journalism nonprofit). The chats appear to show Kessler arguing with other planners about a wide range of issues. Those include basic logistics like transportation and housing; whether or not a nonwhite speaker would give them “political cover” to have major white supremacist figures speak as well; and whether there’s a good way to “normalize” anti-Semitism without appearing to do so (in other words, without using anti-Semitic memes). Attendance numbers, then, won’t tell us everything about how strong (or how fragmented) the alt-right has been since Charlottesville, but they will give us a snapshot of a part of the current movement. In the wake of the violence of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville — which an independent investigation showed the response of Charlottesville Police contributed to — DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, DC Chief of Police Peter Newsham, and regional police announced on Thursday that the city had already deployed its emergency operations center in advance of the rally. Other city officials told the media that regional police — including departments in Maryland and Virginia — were prepared for the rally. After a man fired a shot at a counterprotester in Charlottesville, no guns will be permitted at Unite the Right events or counterdemonstrations in Washington, with or without a permit. And as the groups participating in Unite the Right 2 plan to travel to and from the rally using Washington’s metro system, the Metro Transit Police are coordinating with local police and officials. Sharon Bulova from the Fairfax County Board of Governors tweeted that rallygoers will be meeting at the Vienna Metro Station to ride into Washington, and that law enforcement would have “an increased presence at the station.” The town of Vienna is located within Fairfax County. pic.twitter.com/Vbm9ZBHIes One advantage Washington enjoys in advance of the rally is significant experience with large-scale marches and events, from presidential inaugurations to the 2017 Women’s March on Washington. In addition, the site of the rally, Lafayette Square, is also federal land, under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, which is joining forces with DC Police and the US Secret Service (as the park is so close to the White House) to prevent any violence. National Park Service spokesperson Mike Litterst told ABC7 in Washington, “The park police and the law enforcement partners are looking at any lessons that may be learned from previous demonstrations to ensure there is no violence.” The decision by many who attended the tiki torch-lit rally that launched Unite the Right last summer to dress in polo shirts and khaki pants was a purposeful one. As neo-Nazi organizer Andrew Anglin wrote on his Daily Stormer website in advance of the rally in 2017, rallygoers should avoid shorts, wear button-downs, and above all: It is very important to look good. ... I cannot stress the point hard enough – I’m hitting italics again – we need to be extremely conscious of what we look like, and how we present ourselves. That matters more than our ideas. If that is sad to you, I’m sorry, but that is just human nature. If people see a bunch of mismatched overweight slobs, they are not going to care what they are saying. But since the chaos of Charlottesville, the alt-right has been divided among those who want to attempt to look mainstream while advocating for white nationalism and anti-Semitism, and those who view such concerns over appearance as “optics-cucking.” As I wrote on Friday: Even before this year’s rally was announced, the alt-right had already been embroiled in a debate about whether caring about looking less like hardened fascists and neo-Nazis and more like everyday white American citizens is a goal or, as the Daily Beast first reported, an example of weakness or even “optics-cucking” — “cuck” being a reference to a pornography genre in which a man watches another man have sex with his wife. Kessler has taken the mainstream position, expressly forbidding any flags besides the American flag and the Confederate flag from being flown at the rally. But others who may be in attendance could be from the latter camp, and far more willing to wear alt-right and far-right regalia and display fascist and neo-Nazi symbols. How national media outlets depict the groups and individuals attending Unite the Right, the counterprotesters, and the rally itself will be critical to understanding the wider cultural impact that the alt-right movement is having. Part of the goal of the white supremacist alt-right is to push their opinions into the mainstream via mainstream media outlets. And many of those outlets, in their efforts to explain alt-right and white supremacist views, have been accused by some of “normalizing” them. Already, NPR has been heavily criticized for a seven-minute Morning Edition interview with Kessler where, with little pushback, Kessler defended his racist views and even listed racial groups by IQ. Media outlets should think long & hard before granting white supremacists a platform that can reach millions. This piece was not a general story quoting Kessler for a few seconds, among others--it was a one-on-one interview. No experts, no debunking or exposure of mistruths. https://t.co/14UdrDAvdJ The most important reactions to Unite the Right won’t be from rallygoers, or even from the media — they’ll be from politicians, including President Donald Trump, whose muted reaction to Charlottesville (saying there were “very fine people on both sides” at Unite the Right, for example) was widely criticized. On Saturday in advance of this year’s rally, Trump tweeted, “I condemn all types of racism and acts of violence. Peace to ALL Americans.” The riots in Charlottesville a year ago resulted in senseless death and division. We must come together as a nation. I condemn all types of racism and acts of violence. Peace to ALL Americans! But it’s not just Trump. Several Republican 2018 candidates have explicit ties to Unite the Right and the alt-right more generally, most notably GOP congressional candidate Corey Stewart, who has not only appeared at events with Kessler (and received his endorsement in the Virginia GOP primary) but employs a staffer who was taking part in planning for Unite the Right 2. And that’s not to mention that at least one failed GOP candidate, self-described Holocaust denier and anti-Semite Patrick Little, is already in attendance at Unite the Right 2-associated events, and another alt-right congressional candidate, Wisconsin’s Paul Nehlen, was on Kessler’s wish list of potential speakers. The Unite the Right 2-related activities have already kicked off in DC. Videos posted on Gab show neo-Nazi Patrick Little and former Phillies' "Pistachio Girl" Emily Youcis, who reinvented herself as a white nationalist, getting in arguments with people by the White House. In contrast, former Republican president candidate and current Senate candidate Mitt Romney shared a blog post on his campaign website on Saturday titled, “As I See It: Race and Equality,” in which he denounced Unite the Right 2 rallygoers and the alt-right (alongside Trump’s “both sides” rhetoric), adding: There are some besotted and misguided souls who long for a population that is more homogeneous — more white. They even disparage legal immigration, ignoring the fact that nearly all Americans are immigrants or descendants of immigrants. But can they not at least recognize — whether or not they like it — we are, in fact, a highly diverse population? And given this reality, “united we stand and divided we fall.” The equality of the intrinsic worth of every person is a truth fundamental to our national founding and moral order. Here are my thoughts on the one-year anniversary of Charlottesville: https://t.co/9wC4is38q2

https://www.vox.com/2018/8/12/17678974/alt-right-nazi-white-supremacy-rally-washington-august

Vox

2018-02-26 17:10:02

2018

2.0

26

Brian Resnick

Conspiracy theories flourished after the Parkland shooting. Here’s why.

Last Wednesday, the No. 1 trending video on YouTube was based on a lie. The video alleged that David Hogg, a 17-year-old survivor of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, was an “actor.” After the shooting, Hogg had become a compelling and sympathetic proponent of gun control, making the rounds on cable news. This YouTube video contained a clip of Hogg speaking on camera for a Los Angeles local news segment last summer. The video was captioned “DAVID HOGG THE ACTOR....” — the implication being that Hogg suspiciously shows up whenever news cameras are rolling. YouTube took down the video and others like it — including one Infowars video headlined “David Hogg Can’t Remember His Lines in TV Interview.” But the video-sharing platform was hardly the only place similar conspiracy theories flourished, as Vox’s Matt Yglesias outlined. Right-wing celebrities suggest that George Soros was funding the anti-gun outcry. Elsewhere, outlets were pointing out that Hogg is the son of a retired FBI agent (the implication being that the FBI is out to get President Donald Trump). We’ve seen this before. After a tragedy, conspiracy theories emerge, and they are powerful, mean, and damaging. Consider the unending hurt of the parents of children slain during the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. For years, they have been charged with making up the whole tragedy (including the lives of their children). Or the agony of the family of Seth Rich, the Democratic National Committee staffer who was murdered in an apparent robbery attempt in 2016. Despite zero evidence, conspiracy theorists and conservative pundits fanned suspicions that Rich was murdered by the Clinton campaign. “Seth’s death has been turned into a political football,” Rich’s parents wrote at the Washington Post. Conspiracy theories are an infuriating plague on our media ecosystem. But they’re not inexplicable. We can understand why they spread so far and wide. Here are the two key reasons. When it comes to political debates, we don’t use our smarts to uncover the truth. We use our smarts to protect the groups and worldview to which we adhere. This is called politically motivated reasoning, and it distorts how we see the world. Asheley Landrum, a Texas Tech University psychologist who has studied conspiracy theorizing, suggests this might be what’s happening among those theorizing about the Parkland students. “To counteract the kids’ powerful speech, a conspiracy narrative arises that allows individuals to dismiss or ignore [the kids’ perspectives],” she writes in an email. Why would people want to counteract the kids? Well, because of where their pleas for greater gun control might lead: to greater gun control. And in the minds of right-wing conspiracy theorists, it’s easier to dismiss the kids outright than to actually engage with their arguments. Psychologists have found that people aren’t necessarily afraid of facts — they’re afraid of where those facts lead. This is called “solution aversion,” and it helps explain why many conservatives are wary of the science of climate change — because many solutions to climate change involve increasing government oversight and regulations. Similarly, right-wingers may be discrediting the kids because they don’t want to see changes to gun laws. One crucial thing to know about motivated reasoning is that you often don’t realize you’re doing it. We automatically have an easier time remembering information that fits our worldviews. We’re simply quicker to recognize information that confirms what we already know, which makes us blind to facts that discount it. Psychological research also finds that some people are just more prone to believing in conspiracy theories than others. And it’s not because these people are necessarily unintelligent (though being a more analytic person is correlated with being less swayed by conspiracies.) Instead, believing in conspiracy theories, psychological research informs us, is a coping mechanism to deal with uncertainty in the world. “It’s a self-protective mechanism people have,” Jan-Willem van Prooijen, a psychologist who studies conspiracy theories, told me last year. The theories are a tool by which people can feel more in control and find explanations in a scary and turbulent world. The thought of 17 kids being gunned down at school is horrible. Why wouldn’t we seek refuge in a theory that insists it wasn’t so bad after all? Van Prooijen expanded on what makes people more susceptible than others to believing in the theories: One of them is education level. Conspiracy theories are more likely among people who are [less] educated. But this doesn’t mean that people who are highly educated are immune. There’s also effects of political ideology. In our research, we find the more radical a person’s politics [both left- and right-wing], the more likely they are to be conspiracy theorists. Another is collective narcissism [a personality trait where people demand the group they belong to be admired], and people who believe their own nation and group is superior to others. People who feel powerless and who are more pessimistic are also more likely to believe in conspiracy theories, van Prooijen finds. And this is where education and outreach can help. Achieving higher levels of education correlates to feeling more secure about the world, and this, in turn, seems to protect against a conspiratorial mindset. Conspiracy theories aren’t new. But today they, fueled by computer algorithms that award grabbiness and not truth and deliberate misinformation campaigns, spread like wildfire. And the big tech giants are often hesitant or sluggish in taking them down. (After the shooting in Las Vegas in October, Google featured a link to an anonymous message board notorious for fueling conspiracy theories in its “top stories” module.) Plus, there are whole media outlets — like Infowars — that have built huge followings peddling junk theories. The theories are also dangerous because of a psychological phenomenon called the illusory truth effect. Its impact is subtle, but basically, it means that simply repeating a lie makes it more likely to be misidentified as truth. Each time a reader encounters a conspiracy theory on Facebook, Google, or really anywhere, it makes a subtle impression. Each time, the story grows more familiar, and that familiarity casts the illusion of truth. The more we hear a piece of information repeated, the more we’re likely to believe it. This is true for “even things that people have reason not to believe,” Gord Pennycook, a psychologist who studies misinformation at Yale University, told me last year. So consider this: When YouTube took down the conspiracy video last Wednesday, it had already been viewed 200,000 times.

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/2/26/17045560/parkland-shooting-conspiracy-theories-psychology

Vox

2017-11-27 17:30:10

2017

11.0

27

Dylan Scott

Republicans are racing to pass their huge tax overhaul

Republicans in Congress are keeping their tax plan moving right on schedule, with a quick-strike strategy and an uncanny knack for waving away the trade-offs that come with overhauling the nation’s tax code. House Republicans passed their tax bill exactly two weeks after detailed legislative text was released. Senate Republicans are now preparing to take up their own plan later this week, so long as they keep defections to a minimum. GOP leaders are cutting deals to keep 50 of their 52 members onboard and approve the tax legislation. The Washington Post reported on Monday that Republicans were weighing amendments to the tax treatment of “pass-through” businesses to win over the lone defector so far, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and to the bill’s overhaul of state and local tax deductions to keep other waving senators from opposing the bill. Plenty of pitfalls lie ahead. But the tax plan has yet to encounter any hurdle it can’t clear or any concerns Republicans can’t dismiss. The GOP’s top priority, after the failure of Obamacare repeal, is charging ahead on momentum alone. This is all in spite of the plan itself. Most Americans disapprove of the House and Senate proposals, according to new polling from Quinnipiac. Outside analyses have estimated that more than 25 percent of taxpayers would pay more by 2027 under the House bill. The Senate bill is projected to raise taxes on Americans making less than $30,000 a year starting in 2021. The Senate bill also includes a repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate, which the CBO estimates will lead to 13 million fewer Americans with health insurance. In the House, Republicans from New York, New Jersey, and California could have banded together to block the bill because the elimination of state and local tax deductions acutely hurts their constituents. But they didn’t. The House bill never appeared to be in danger of failing. In the Senate, up next after the House passes their version, only Johnson has defected so far. Senate leaders are talking confidently about their ability to wrangle together a majority, even with their thin margin for error. Overriding any specific concern is the GOP’s desperate desire to secure a major legislative victory and a truncated public debate that has prevented any sustained resistance from taking hold. Sweeping tax changes, at least for now, appear to be happening. Republican leaders and the rank and file have portrayed passing a tax overhaul as an existential issue after the failure to repeal Obamacare, the party’s other longstanding campaign promise. “The way I see it, honestly, is we’ve got to get our job done,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said after this month’s Virginia elections, which many observers saw as an omen of a Democratic wave in 2018. “I think what people want to know and see is that this Donald Trump presidency and this Republican Congress makes a positive difference.” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) put it more plainly late last month as the tax debate debate was picking up. "Well, I think all of us realize that if we fail on taxes, that's the end of the Republican Party's governing majority in 2018," he said. Congressional Republicans have been shockingly candid about their motivations, telling reporters that donors have said directly if the party fails on a tax overhaul, campaign contributions will dry up. "My donors are basically saying, 'Get it done or don’t ever call me again,’” Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) said recently. To prevent a tax overhaul from suffering Obamacare repeal’s fate, Republicans have sought to move quickly and perfected their ability to disregard evidence from outside experts that their tax bill won’t achieve what they promised. The House bill was introduced on November 2, a markup in the House Ways and Means Committee started four days later, and within two weeks, Republicans were putting the plan on the House floor for a vote. The Senate bill moved equally fast. It was introduced on November 9, passed by the Senate Finance committee a week later and could be passed by the entire Senate less than three weeks after its introduction. Amid that mad dash, lawmakers are making big promises about the tax legislation, suggesting it could add tens of millions of jobs to the US economy. “If we can get 20 million people back to work, it’s going to be big,” Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) told Vox. The independent analyses have been less rosy. A Penn analysis projected that the House bill would add up to 0.83 percentage points to the economy’s growth in 2027. A Tax Policy Center estimate found that the individual tax cuts in the House plan would overwhelmingly benefit the top 1 percent a decade from now. And meanwhile, millions of US households would eventually see higher taxes, as the New York Times detailed. But that hasn’t deterred Republicans. They have simply insisted that every American would benefit, despite experts’ findings. “It lets every American keep more of what they earned,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said, a claim that PolitiFact rated false. By the same token, after months of promising revenue-neutral tax reform, both the House and Senate bills are projected to increase the federal deficit by more than $1 trillion. There, again, Republicans are simply dismissing the official findings, claiming that the economic growth spurred by the overhaul would erase any projected deficit growth. “I think this tax bill is going to reduce the size of our deficits going forward,” Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), one of the primary architects of the plan, told reporters last week. There has been nothing, so far, that can’t be explained away. Speed has helped Republicans keep their tax plans moving. The House bill went from introduction to passage in two weeks. The Senate bill is on a similarly accelerated timeline. This is not the months-long debate that helped derail the Obamacare repeal crusade. But ironically, health care could end up being the biggest hurdle lying ahead for Republicans, particularly in the Senate, where 50 of the 52 Republican senators must back the tax plan. They’ve already lost one for the time being, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), who isn’t satisfied with the changes for small firms that are taxed as individuals, known as “pass-throughs.” Two more defectors would sink the current bill. Now the Senate has added the repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate to its tax legislation, a provision that the Congressional Budget Office estimated would lead to 13 million fewer Americans having health insurance by 2027 and a 10 percent increase in premiums. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who both voted down a health care plan this summer that did little more than repeal the mandate, expressed their reservations about mixing health care with taxes after the change was announced. “Tax reform is complicated enough, and when you add health care reform in at the same time, it continues to complicate it,” Murkowski told reporters. But neither of them has committed to voting against the tax plan over the issue either. Murkowski in particular has a big reason to vote for the tax bill: It would also open up the Arctic Wildlife Refuge for more oil and gas drilling, a longstanding goal of Alaska politicians. Collins is also the target of last-minute changes to state and local tax deductions, according to the Post. Other possible defectors — like Sens. Bob Corker (R-TN) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ), who are worried about the federal deficit — are still on the fence too. Corker aides sounded optimistic on Monday that their boss will ultimately be able to support the final bill. Corker staff says he has worked over break with admin and senators to get tax bill changed. "While more work remains, all parties are hopeful that the final bill will be good for our country.” One final wild card will be Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who has at times been fixated on bipartisanship and regular order. He already showed in the health care debate that he is willing to buck the party if he isn’t satisfied with the product or process. But with Obamacare repeal, it was easy to identify as many as a dozen “no” votes at times. The tax bill also has to thread a narrow needle, but Senate Republican leaders have thus far prevented a critical mass of their conference from jumping ship. Even Johnson, who also blanched at the health care bills periodically, could still be won over. If both chambers do pass a tax bill, they will still have to reconcile their differences. Touchy issues like the state and local tax deduction and Obamacare repeal could complicate those conference negotiations. But over the course of two weeks, congressional Republicans have set themselves to get this win. Their dreams of passing a major tax bill by the end of the year suddenly don’t seem so farfetched.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/16/16665348/house-republican-tax-bill-vote-speed

Vox

2018-07-08 14:54:45

2018

7.0

8

Emily Stewart

Maxine Waters could be a problem for Trump if Democrats win the House

If President Donald Trump doesn’t like Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), he really won’t like her if Democrats take back the House in the 2018 midterm elections. The California Democrat is poised to take over the House Financial Services Committee if Democrats are in the majority, and such a position, she could wield a lot of power. There are already some hints about how Waters could use that perch to probe the scandals and conflicts of interest swirling around the Trump administration. Waters is currently the ranking member of the committee, which is charged with overseeing the financial services industry, including banks, insurers, and housing. As ranking member, she’s pushed for probes into the financial ties of Trump and those around him, including his relationship with Deutsche Bank and, perhaps, Russia. Her hands have been tied on taking action because she’s not chair, but if Democrats take the House and she is, that changes. She’ll have the ability to issue subpoenas, call hearings, and request depositions, including regarding the money trails surrounding Trump. “Maxine Waters is one of the leading voices of the Democratic Party, and the tone, tenor, and tenacity of the House Financial Services Committee chairmanship is going to change next year materially [if Democrats win],” Isaac Boltansky, director of policy research at research firm Compass Point, told me. “It’s been a little bit of a sleepy committee for the last few years, but that’s going to change if Rep. Waters gets the gavel.” Waters is 14-term House member who represents California’s 43rd Congressional District, which covers part of Los Angeles. Since Trump was elected, she has positioned herself as a fierce Trump critic: She refused to attend his inauguration and boycotted his State of the Union address, and she’s repeatedly called for his removal from office. At Glamour magazine’s Women of the Year awards in November, she led attendees in a chant of “Impeach 45!” Recently, she’s been in the headlines for urging her supporters to “push back” against Trump administration officials in public, telling them to confront Cabinet members and others to let them know “they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.” Waters said she received death threats after her remarks, and last week, she canceled a pair of appearances in Alabama and Texas out of caution. But she’s remained defiant. At a Families Belong Together rally over the weekend, she criticized the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policies that resulted in family separation. She also called for Trump’s impeachment and challenged those making threats against her. “If you shoot me, you better shoot straight,” she said at a Families Belong Together rally in Los Angeles. “There’s nothing like a wounded animal.” Waters faced backlash over her comments about protesting Trump officials, including criticism from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI). Trump falsely claimed on Twitter she called for harming his supporters. (She did not.) Congresswoman Maxine Waters, an extraordinarily low IQ person, has become, together with Nancy Pelosi, the Face of the Democrat Party. She has just called for harm to supporters, of which there are many, of the Make America Great Again movement. Be careful what you wish for Max! Despite the criticism, Democrats are sticking by Waters as their top candidate to run the Financial Services Committee should they take back the House in November. And there, she would have a lot of power. As ranking member, Waters has pushed for more information on Trump and Deutsche Bank. The German bank is one of the few banks that still lends money to Trump after his multiple bankruptcies and financial woes. It’s also done deals with the president’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner. It made a $285 million loan to him just a month before the 2016 election. Waters has also pressed for details on Trump’s deals with Russia. In May 2017, Waters sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin asking him for information on Trump’s financial ties with Russia. She has written multiple letters to Deutsche Bank asking about its Trump ties and in August 2017 asked House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) to subpoena them. She and other committee Democrats also introduced a resolution of inquiry to “follow the Trump money trail” last year. Because the minority party doesn’t have subpoena power, Maxine hasn’t been able to do much beyond writing letters. But if Democrats are in the majority, that changes. Boltansky, the analyst, said he would expect multiple subpoenas, hearings, and other efforts to get information about and draw attention to Trump’s financial dealings with Waters in charge. “She’s interested in Deutsche Bank’s relationship to Trump, in Citigroup’s relationship to the Kushner family, and how all of the different activities of the Trump administration have a bearing on public policy,” he said. Her number one power is the hearing, he added, because “hearings with big names bring cameras, and that elevates an issue immediately.” It is worth noting that special counsel Robert Mueller also reportedly subpoenaed Deutsche Banks for what it has on Trump or his associates. The White House is also probing Kushner’s loans from Citibank. “Financial services issues are critical for all Americans and for our economy, and I am focused on making sure that our financial system is fair,” Waters said in an emailed statement. “I am committed to ensuring that hardworking Americans and our nation’s small businesses have opportunities to thrive, expanding and supporting affordable housing opportunities for our nation’s families, making sure that the safeguards are in place to prevent another financial crisis, protecting consumers and investors from bad actors, and conducting appropriate oversight of the administration and the regulatory agencies under the committee’s jurisdiction.” Unless Democrats take back the Senate as well, which isn’t expected to happen, most of the legislation Democrats pass in the House, including from Rep. Waters out of the House Financial Services Committee, is unlikely to become law. But she can still propose bills and sponsor legislation. Beyond an aggressive oversight agenda, Waters is likely to focus on key messaging issues with legislative proposals — items such as economic inequality and financial industry regulation. This Congress, she has introduced 15 financial services bills so far, including one that would shut down banks that repeatedly harm consumers, another to improve public housing, and another to overhaul credit reporting. By next year, the whole financial regulatory regime will be led by Trump appointees. Waters won’t be able to put a stop to Trump’s deregulatory push, but she could slow it with hearings, letters, and public attention, Boltansky said. Waters is also expected to focus on embattled megabank Wells Fargo. Last year, she issued a 38-report on the bank and called for it to be shut down entirely. “When a megabank has engaged in a pattern of extensive violations of law that harms millions of consumers, like Wells Fargo has, it should not be allowed to continue to operate within our nation’s banking system, and avail itself of all of the associated privileges afforded to it,” the report read. She also secured a hearing on the Equifax data breach last year, and there could certainly be more of that. Waters is not without baggage of her own, including on the financial front. She previously faced scrutiny over her role in pushing for a bailout for a bank tied to her family, the Daily Beast points out. An ethics investigation cleared her, but it did find wrongdoing by her then-chief of staff and grandson, and there have been other questions raised about whether members of her family have profited from her position. In 2011, watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) named Waters one of the most corrupt politicians. Waters, 79, has for years been an outspoken member of the House, but in the era of Trump, her voice has grown much louder, or at least it’s gotten a lot more attention. A video of her declaring, “Reclaiming my time,” at a 2017 Congressional hearing went viral on the internet, and President Trump has made a habit out of targeting her in his attacks. The face of the Democrats is now Maxine Waters who, together with Nancy Pelosi, have established a fine leadership team. They should always stay together and lead the Democrats, who want Open Borders and Unlimited Crime, well into the future....and pick Crooked Hillary for Pres. Crazy Maxine Waters, said by some to be one of the most corrupt people in politics, is rapidly becoming, together with Nancy Pelosi, the FACE of the Democrat Party. Her ranting and raving, even referring to herself as a wounded animal, will make people flee the Democrats! If Democrats take back the House in November, and Waters takes over the House Financial Services Committee, as expected, you can expect a lot more Maxine Waters headlines, Trump tweets, and memes. Update: Story has been updated to clarify that Waters will likely be able to pass legislation out of the House Financial Services Committee if Democrats take back the House. If Republicans hold the Senate, it will be unlikely to become law.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/7/5/17527738/maxine-waters-trump-deutsche-bank

Vox

2018-08-06 20:30:02

2018

8.0

6

Alexia Fernández Campbell

Americans want paid maternity leave. The Rubio-Ivanka plan will hurt Social Security.

The Senate went on summer break this week, after a lame attempt to give working parents some relief. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced the Economic Security Act for New Parents last week, with support from White House adviser Ivanka Trump. The full text of the bill hasn’t been released, but it’s been sold as providing parents with “paid parental leave” after the birth or adoption of a child. The bill is not, in fact, paid leave. It’s another version of unpaid leave that working parents in the United States would have to pay for themselves. A summary of the bill shows that it would merely let workers access some of their Social Security retirement income in advance to make up for some of the wages they would lose when taking parental leave. Workers would still bear the cost of taking time off — by delaying their own retirement. The United States is the only industrialized country that doesn’t guarantee paid parental leave to working parents, and Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly support the creation of such a program. The problem is that no one seems to agree on how to pay for it, and Rubio’s bill is the weakest proposal yet because Social Security, as it stands, is in trouble. The idea of a government-run program to provide maternity and paternity leave to new parents is not controversial. About 74 percent of registered US voters in 2016 said they wanted the government to do so. When you break down the numbers, the support is overwhelming across genders, political parties, and even income groups. In other words, it’s a safe political issue for Republicans to tackle, if only they weren’t so afraid to make businesses pay part of the cost. Nearly every industrialized country in the world provides working mothers with at least three months of paid maternity leave — the minimum recommended by the United Nations’ International Labour Organization. In most of those countries, employers and employees pay a tax to fund the benefit. Canada has this type of system, which allows parents to take a year of leave while receiving 55 percent of their salary (up to 80 percent of wages are covered for low-income workers). Some US businesses voluntarily offer paid parental leave to their workers, but only about one in 10 workers in the country get such a benefit from their employer. Low-wage workers are the least likely to get it. In response to federal inaction on the issue, several states have started requiring employers to provide some paid leave: California, New York, and the District of Columbia are among those that do. Research shows that paid leave programs improve child health, promote gender equality, and help keep women in the workforce. Studies have shown that California’s paid-leave law, which went into effect in 2004, led to an increase in work hours and income for mothers with young children. Studies have also shown that paid leave is linked to lower poverty rates in 18 countries. The need for paid leave in the United States is more urgent than ever, as nearly half of two-parent US households with children have parents who both work full-time jobs. Economists believe the lack of paid leave is one reason American women are dropping out of the labor force, and that’s bad news for the US economy. About 75 percent of working-age women are part of the US workforce, reflecting a slow decline since 2000, when 77 percent held jobs. Economists have various theories for the decline, including the shrinking job market for low-skilled workers and the growing cost of child care. When women joined the public labor force en masse in the 1970s, their earnings were a huge boost to the US economy, according to the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama. They attributed nearly all of the middle-class income growth since 1970 to the rise of women entering the US workforce. But female participation in the job market began to flatten out in the 1990s and is now declining, even though it continues to increase in other developed countries. Nearly a third of the decline of American women in the labor force, in comparison to other developed countries, can be explained by the lack of family-friendly workplace policies in the United States, including paid leave for new parents, according to research by economists Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn at Cornell University. Coming up with an effective paid parental leave system in the United States isn’t hard. The hard part is getting Republicans to agree that businesses should pay for some of it. Which is how we got to Rubio’s shortsighted plan. There are few details about Rubio’s paid leave plan. But here is what we know about it: New parents would dip into their Social Security retirement benefits to cover part of the cost of taking time off from work. Through the plan, up to 70 percent of their wages would be covered for two months of leave. However, that would mean delaying their retirement payments through Social Security at least three to six months per child. The benefit is not available for other types of paid leave, such as workers who need to take time off to care for a sick relative. So Rubio’s “paid leave” program is essentially unpaid, at least by employers, since workers are the ones paying for their own time off. Employers pay nothing, and neither does the federal government. Even worse, the plan doesn’t take into account the fact that the future of Social Security is in jeopardy. The system is running a deficit for the first time in more than 30 years, and the Social Security Administration expects that it will run out of money to pay workers their full retirement benefits by 2035. Allowing workers to take more money from the system will only make the problem worse. There are better options out there. A group of influential conservative and liberal economists proposed one not-so-ideal option last year: pay for parental leave by increasing payroll taxes on workers, and through other savings in the federal budget. The downside is that the plan still lets businesses off the hook from shouldering any of the cost. Sharing the cost between employees and businesses seem obvious. That’s how most workers’ insurance programs operate, and that’s how most paid parental leave programs across the world work. Businesses should share the burden of paying for the program because they benefit from paid leave too. Female employees are more likely to return to their jobs after giving birth, keeping more workers in the labor force for employers to hire when the economy is growing (like it is now). An even broader option is some version of the FAMILY Act, which Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced in 2017. The bill offers workers up to 12 weeks off with up to 66 percent of their wages covered for family and medical leave. The benefit would be paid for with a tax levied on workers and employers (about 2 cents each for every $10 paid in wages). And the plan is flexible so that it benefits all employees, not just parents. That’s because it would be available to any worker who needs to take time off to care for a relative, or for a medical procedure. The bill has more than 30 Democratic co-sponsors, but no Republican lawmakers will touch it.

https://www.vox.com/2018/8/6/17648462/rubio-ivanka-republican-paid-leave

Vox

2018-01-17 00:00:00

2018

1.0

17

Lil Yachty's #1 Fan Iced Out in Sailing Team Swag for Christmas

Sometimes it pays to be a Lil Yachty mega-fan -- just ask this 17-year-old who got showered with gifts from the rapper ... as a late Christmas gift. Yachty personally delivered a bundle of goodies to Danielle Combs (no Diddy relation) in Atlanta last week after promising some "rare" swag to her and another fan. @daniellecombs_ & @GrimesYachty I have expensive & rare gifts for you two because y’all are my two most favorite fans. I know yall will like We're told he hooked her up with a bunch of gear from the Sailing Team -- Yachty's rap collective -- which included some custom jewelry. Danielle's name was engraved on the back of an 18-carat yellow gold necklace from Icebox Diamonds & Watches ... with 184 diamonds and a $10k price tag. Our Yachty sources say he's purchased nearly 25 Sailing Team necklaces from the ATL-based jeweler. As for why Danielle was a lucky winner, we're guessing it had something to do with her dope artwork of Yachty. Float on, kid.

https://www.tmz.com/2018/01/17/lil-yachty-number-one-fan-sailing-team-swag-chain-christmas/

TMZ

2016-11-17 20:45:53

2016

11.0

17

Matthew Yglesias

Tim Ryan is going to challenge Nancy Pelosi to lead House Democrats

Younger members of the House Democratic caucus wanted to delay leadership elections to see if a strong challenger to Nancy Pelosi would emerge, and lo and behold, one has — Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan. Ryan is a 43-year-old white man from Youngstown who represents a somewhat squiggly-looking congressional district that includes large numbers of African Americans and working-class white voters. His political profile leans toward populism on economic issues — especially trade — but he is more on the moderate side of things in terms of environmental and social issues. He first entered the House in 2003 and has been pro-life for most of his political career. But in January 2015 he announced a conversion to the pro-choice viewpoint in what most people saw as an effort to position himself as a possible vice presidential candidate. Ryan definitely represents most Washington Democrats’ idea of what it would mean to position the party more favorably to succeed in Rust Belt states. It’s an idea that certainly has similarities with what Bernie Sanders’s internet fan base thinks Democrats should do. But Ryan — like Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown — is much less consistently liberal than Sanders, while maintaining a Sanders-ish skepticism of trade and Wall Street. Democrats very much wanted Ryan to be their nominee for the 2016 Senate race. But he declined to get in, so the party instead ran former Gov. Ted Strickland, who got crushed. Given how strong Donald Trump proved to be in the state, Ryan almost certainly would have been crushed too, so his decision to opt out seems savvy. There is a strong sentiment among a number of House backbenchers that the party would do well to replace Pelosi, simply for the sake of presenting a fresh face to voters in 2018. And on paper, a middle-aged white male Midwesterner with a history of moderation on social issues sounds like a better face to put forward in Republican-leaning districts in the midterms than an older woman from San Francisco who’s very much identified with environmentalism and social liberals. On the other hand, the energy in the Democratic Party is all on the left right now. And though there is a populist side to Ryan, it’s far from clear that he would really pass muster with the party’s left wing. But during the 2016 campaign, Ryan did offer the kind of muscular, economics-based critique of Donald Trump that many Democrats in retrospect wish Clinton had offered. Speaking at a rally in Youngstown in October, Ryan dwelled on Trump’s habit of not paying his subcontractors and said, “I don’t mean to be graphic, but this guy to our friends in the trades — to our steelworkers who he’s been treating unfairly, very unfairly — he will, he will gut you and he will walk over your cold dead body and he won’t even flinch.” Even if Ryan loses, however, a leadership run could help his career. Both Pelosi and her deputy in the Democratic leadership hierarchy, Steny Hoyer, are on the older side and won’t be around for long one way or the other. Right now relatively few House members are well-known enough to be strong future leadership candidates. A run at Pelosi could help Ryan build up his profile and position himself for later.

https://www.vox.com/2016/11/17/13670294/tim-ryan-house-democrats

Vox

2019-03-30 00:00:00

2019

3.0

30

Man runs at Moroccan king's car during pope visit: TV

RABAT (Reuters) - A man ran towards a car carrying the Moroccan king shortly after the arrival of Pope Francis in the North African nation on Saturday, but he was swiftly seized by security guards, live TV footage from the state broadcaster showed. King Mohammed VI was standing up in the open-top car waving at crowds lining a street in Rabat, traveling in a motorcade alongside the pope’s vehicle. The king’s car sped up slightly but there was no other sign of disruption. It was not immediately clear what the man was trying to do. Writing by Edmund Blair in London; Editing by Andrew Heavens

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-morocco-convoy-incident/man-runs-at-moroccan-kings-car-during-pope-visit-tv-idUSKCN1RB0EZ

World News

Reuters

2016-09-28 23:00:00

2016

9.0

28

Javier Cabral

This Mezcal Company Thinks Donald Trump Is a 'Pendejo'

This story was originally published in November, 2015. Is there anything better in this crazy, fucked-up world than sipping on a glass of smooth mezcal? How about if you are quietly sticking it to Donald Trump and everything he stands for at the same time? John Rexer, the founder of Ilegal Mezcal, certainly doesn't think so, and he's willing to let the whole world know that neither he nor his mezcal are going to stand for right-wing anti-immigrant rhetoric. In July, his company launched a guerrilla smear campaign against the Republican candidate, wheat-pasting thousands of anti-Trump posters all over New York, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oaxaca. The posters simply read "Donald Eres Un Pendejo"—"Donald, You're an Asshole"—alongside a silhouette of the most infamous hair in politics. When Trump recently hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live, the small-scale mezcal company stepped up its tactics and projected the "pendejo" image all over the Rockefeller Center and Union Square in New York. MUNCHIES caught up with Rexer to find out how his campaign is going, and why he decided to use his mezcal brand as a political tool against Trump. MUNCHIES: Before we dive into politics, tell me a little bit about your mezcal. John Rexer: For starters, you get a mouthful of agave with only a little bit of smoke with our mezcal. This, along with the fact that we are one of only two brands which are aging mezcales into reposados and añejos, distinguishes our mezcal from a lot of other ones. Also, with us, it is all about sustainability. We're not the type of mezcal company who "gives back" after we make a lot of money. If you tend to your own garden and take care of it [from] the start, giving back is not always necessary, especially if you start out the right way. We pay above-market rate to all of our producers for everything, and we personally see to it that it passes on to their workers and their families. Lastly, we pay our producers up front, instead of paying in 60 to 90 days like a lot of other mezcal brands. It's a really nice way to work. What was the exact a-ha! moment that made you realize "Donald, eres un pendejo" would be your next slogan? I was in New York and I had just come from Mexico. I was in Jackson Hole in the Upper West Side, having a really hungover brunch. I was sitting outside and saw a delivery server on a bicycle. I said to the person next to me, I bet you they are from Puebla or Oaxaca. So when the server came over I asked him, "Where are you from?" He said, "Puebla." We then talked about the beauty of Puebla, since I used to live in the outskirts there and it is such a cool state in Mexico. I also told him how I love the food of Puebla. The server turned to me and said, "Man, it's good to know that everybody is not like Donald Trump." You [could] see some real hurt in his face when he said that. I told him, "Listen, everybody is not like Donald and most people don't feel the way he feels." So he responded, "Donald es un pendejo." That moved me and I wrote it down in a napkin. I then thought that there are probably a lot of other people in New York, Oaxaca, and the US who are probably feeling the same way and are hurt by him. The next morning, I opened up my wallet and the crumpled napkin fell out. That was when it hit me: These words exactly were going to be our next campaign. I just wanted to voice the sentiment of many of the hardworking people who work with me from all over Mexico. Three days later, we had at least 1,000 posters plastered all over New York City alone. We've since branched out our campaign to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, and Oaxaca. And we're not quite done yet. I think we just hit our 2,000-poster count today. How was the general reaction to the posters from people? Most people have responded with a "fuck yeah" attitude—like thousands of people. One or two people have questioned our motive. Let's be really clear: It is publicity and I did use company money for this. On the other hand, let's also be really clear: This is something that we believe in. We strongly believe in the power of art and humor as protest. Especially with somebody like Trump, we take issue with him entirely. We take an issue with his entire xenophobic, money-dominated worldview. Is this Ilegal Mezcal's first foray into activism? We've always been political. This brand started out of this bar in Guatemala, where I live. I've published a political magazine out of there, long before this. We've always been about making a crosscultural stand and movement. . A couple of years ago, we did a protest against Chick-fil-A and did stencil art to protest them when [they] came out against marriage equality. We created this stencil, which depicted two roosters kissing each other, with the phrase, "I'd rather kiss a cock than eat your chicken." We spraypainted that all over over New York. Have you heard anything from Trump or his people? We have not heard back. But we did get kicked out by the police when my brand director and niece, Kayla Rexer, projected this image on Rockefeller Center the day he hosted Saturday Night Live. What was that like? We went early and we joined around 200 protesters. We continued to project our billboard-sized image for 30 minutes until the cops found out about us and gave us a warning. After we got kicked out, we went on to project the image at Union Square and the CNN building. Do you have any words for him, just in case he's reading this? Take a shot and chill out. Building walls and blocking out people is not the way to look at the immigration issue. How about your provide an intelligent dialogue instead? This is more appropriate for anyone who wants to be a leader of a country. Also, just just go away. Thanks for speaking with me.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4xbnkd/this-mezcal-company-thinks-donald-trump-is-a-pendejo

Food by VICE

Vice

2018-06-01 00:00:00

2018

6.0

1

Tess Owen

Denver police arrest Uber driver who shot and killed a passenger

An Uber driver has been arrested after shooting a passenger dead in the early hours of Friday morning in Denver. The incident appears to have stemmed from an in-app trip, and Denver Police Department spokesperson Sonny Jackson said it was likely the result of a conflict between the driver, Michael Hancock, and the passenger, according to the Associated Press. Shots were fired shortly before 3 a.m. local time on Interstate 25. "It appears there was an Uber driver and his passenger got into a conflict inside his vehicle," said Jackson, according to local news outlets. "Shots were exchanged, were fired." Hancock told a witness that the passenger tried to attack him so he shot him, according to a statement of probable cause provided to local news outlets by the Denver Police Department. The victim was described as an “Asian male” and found lying on the floorboard of the front passenger seat. Police recovered a semi-automatic handgun from Hancock’s waistband. Uber’s policy does not allow its drivers or riders to carry firearms in the car. Denver police later arrested Hancock, 29, for investigation of first degree murder. An Uber driver has been arrested after shooting a passenger dead in the early hours of Friday morning in Denver. The incident appears to have stemmed from an in-app trip, and Denver Police Department spokesperson Sonny Jackson said it was likely the result of a conflict between the driver, Michael Hancock, and the passenger, according to the Associated Press. Shots were fired shortly before 3 a.m. local time on Interstate 25. "It appears there was an Uber driver and his passenger got into a conflict inside his vehicle," said Jackson, according to local news outlets. "Shots were exchanged, were fired." Hancock told a witness that the passenger tried to attack him so he shot him, according to a statement of probable cause provided to local news outlets by the Denver Police Department. The victim was described as an “Asian male” and found lying on the floorboard of the front passenger seat. Police recovered a semi-automatic handgun from Hancock’s waistband. Uber’s policy does not allow its drivers or riders to carry firearms in the car. Denver police later arrested Hancock, 29, for investigation of first degree murder. “We are deeply troubled by the events in Denver today,” a spokesperson for Uber said in a statement. “The driver’s access to the app has been removed, and we will continue working closely with police.” In April, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced that the company was instituting annual criminal background checks for all U.S. drivers. The move came amid concerns that Uber wasn’t doing enough to ensure the safety of its customers. Hancock had been driving for Uber for three years and was charged with driving under restraint and speeding back in April. He also had several other driving-related convictions, according to ABC-7, a local Denver station. Both Hancock and the victim, an adult male, were taken to hospital after the shooting. The victim was pronounced dead from gunshot wounds, and Hancock was treated and briefly released. Hancock reportedly has no relation to the mayor of Denver, whose name is also Michael Hancock.

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/a3ajvk/an-uber-driver-shot-and-killed-a-passenger-in-denver-police-say

Vice News

2018-11-02 22:50:07

2018

11.0

2

Nadra Nittle

China’s social credit system penalizes those who spend “frivolously”

In 2020, China will fully roll out its controversial social credit score. Under the system, both financial behaviors like “frivolous spending” and bad behaviors like lighting up in smoke-free zones can result in stiff consequences. Penalties include loss of employment and educational opportunities, as well as transportation restrictions. Those with high scores get perks, like discounts on utility bills and faster application processes to travel abroad. China is currently piloting the program and some citizens have already found themselves banned from traveling or attending certain schools due to low scores. These ramifications have led to a flurry of recent criticism from both human rights groups and the press. This week alone, news outlets like Business Insider and National Public Radio weighed in on China’s social credit score and the stratified society it may foster in the communist country. The outcry about China’s social credit score is understandable, given that the country’s authoritarian regime leaves citizens with little recourse to challenge the new system. But concerns about China’s credit system have overlooked how the US system also divides consumers along class lines — and has done so for decades. Social behaviors may not factor into US credit scores, but the idea that a person’s financial history reflects trustworthiness has long influenced employment decisions and other factors that affect Americans’ quality-of-life. China first announced that it would be devising a “social credit score” in 2014. The government said then that the system would help ensure a model society in which “sincerity and trustworthiness become conscious norms of action among all the people.” According to NPR, the fact that most Chinese people don’t have bank accounts or credit histories likely spurred the government to create a credit system of some sort. Every citizen starts off with a score of 1,000. NPR reported the ranking as follows: 960 to 1,000 is an A; 850 to 955 points is a B; 840 to 600 is a C; and any score below that is a D, which designates the score-holder as “untrustworthy.” While the government hasn’t made the specific methodology used to calculate scores public, one’s ranking can fall for both major and minor infractions. Serious violations include drunk-driving, embezzlement, and fraud. Much smaller violations that result in a lowered score include playing too many video games; spreading “fake news,” especially related to terrorist attacks, or refusing military service, will also lower one’s score. Sometimes people are declared “dishonest” for committing infractions the government doesn’t believe they’re truly sorry for. Chinese lawyer Li Xiaolin found himself in this predicament last year, according to Human Rights Watch: “He tried to use his national identity card to purchase a plane ticket. To his surprise, the online system rejected it, saying he had been blacklisted by China’s top court. Mr. Li checked the court’s website: His name was on a list of ‘untrustworthy’ people.” The courts are supposed to warn citizens before they’re added to the blacklist, allowing them 10 days to appeal the designation, but Li said he was caught by surprise. He was blacklisted for losing a defamation suit that was brought against him; he wrote an apology letter to the court as a means of making amends, and said he didn’t know that the court rejected his apology until the travel mishap. Ultimately, he had to apologize to the government again to be removed from the travel blacklist. “Chinese government authorities clearly hope to create a reality in which bureaucratic pettiness could significantly limit people’s rights,” explains Human Rights Watch. “As President Xi Jinping’s power grows, and as the system approaches full implementation, more abuses will come.” The social credit score has been compared to the “Nosedive” episode of Netflix’s Black Mirror in which everyone receives a social ranking determined by peers. It has also drawn comparisons to the dystopian novel 1984. For those declared “untrustworthy,” the ability to buy business-class train tickets or to lodge at certain hotels can be rescinded. In some cases, the opportunity for their children to attend their preferred high school or college may be taken away, as may employment opportunities. (The government encourages employers to consult the blacklist before making hiring decisions.) Citizens who behave inconsiderately in public, like walking their dogs off-leash, can have their dogs confiscated and be required to take an exam to get the pets back. Although “untrustworthy” people are punished for bad scores, citizens who rank the highest in the new system can take advantage of perks like business discounts or booking hotel rooms without deposits. “Under the system, the elite will gain access to better social privileges and those who rank closer to the bottom will effectively be second-class citizens,” Newsweek reported about the social credit score. In the United States, the credit bureaus don’t downgrade consumers for spending on things they deem silly or for being neglectful pet owners. But credit rankings in the US are set up in such a way that people with more resources get more financial breaks while people with fewer resources are routinely punished — often in ways that make little sense. A person may end up with bad credit because he lost his job, but the fact that his credit suffered while unemployed could effectively prevent him from landing another job. According to the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, it is not illegal for employers to deny an applicant a job offer based on information in his credit report. This makes it that much harder for people with bad credit to get the gainful employment needed to repair their scores. People with poor credit may also be turned down for housing, even if the reason for the would-be tenant’s troublesome credit history has nothing to do with her rental history. Someone who consistently paid rent on time but racked up credit card debt due to medical expenses could find her housing application denied or be asked to pay a higher deposit as punishment. By some estimates, one in five Americans has unpaid medical debt, and more than half of blacks and Latinos have medical debt on their credit cards. This not only limits rental opportunities but opportunities to buy a home, as good credit is generally a requirement for a housing loan. And lenders, of course, have historically created barriers for people of color pursuing homeownership. Transportation and credit aren’t just linked in China but in the US too. Americans with bad credit pay more for car insurance than their counterparts with good credit. Some banks have systematically given people of color subprime auto loans, even if their credit history didn’t justify that they pay more interest. “Credit reports and scores are mirrors of our manifestly two-tiered financial system, and more broadly our system of racial wealth inequality and unequal opportunity,” Sarah Ludwig, founder and co-director of the New Economy Project wrote in a 2015 Guardian essay. “In our culture, indebtedness — and certainly failure to pay one’s debts — is deeply entwined with concepts of morality. The insidious notion that our credit history speaks to our reliability as human beings is largely taken for granted.” The 2019 debut of the UltraFICO score, an alternative to the traditional FICO credit score, is being touted as a potential remedy for the inequities in the US credit system. Rather than focus on length of credit history, for example, it takes into consideration whether one saves regularly, maintains a $400 bank balance, avoids overdrafts, and pays bills on time. But this alternative isn’t likely to benefit the low-income people who have to juggle bills to survive, perhaps paying the heating bill late one month and the car insurance late the next. For truly cash-poor families, regularly saving money or avoiding overdraft fees is a Herculean task. In fact, many poor people forgo bank accounts altogether because banking fees take such a toll on their finances. UltraFico might help people of average means with short credit histories, but it’s questionable if the score will change circumstances for the underprivileged. Given how interlinked morality, debt, and credit are in the United States, some of the concerns about China’s new social credit score comes across as disingenuous. Although the system certainly raises alarms — Human Rights Watch is concerned about it, after all — the idea that the US credit system operates much more equitably is shortsighted. Want more stories from The Goods by Vox? Sign up for our newsletter here.

https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/11/2/18057450/china-social-credit-score-spend-frivolously-video-games

Vox

2017-10-30 00:00:00

2017

10.0

30

Mary Pelletier

The Istanbul Biennial Examines the Tricky Question of What Makes a “Good Neighbor”

Dealing with themes of surveillance, personal and shared space, and what defines home in film, installation, and more. Advertise on Hyperallergic with Nectar Ads In the months leading up to the 15th edition of the Istanbul Biennial, posters —hung in windows alongside “For Rent” signs and pasted next to broadsides advertising concerts — began asking the city’s residents some very personal questions: Is a good neighbor someone you rarely see? Is a good neighbor richer or poorer than you? Is a good neighbor willing to babysit your 5-year-old? Part introspective canvassing, part marketing campaign, 40 individual questions galvanized Elmgreen & Dragset’s theme for the 2017 edition: What makes a good neighbor? The Scandinavian artist duo (the Biennial’s first artist-curators) decided to approach this edition with broad notions of community and its many trappings: neighbors, borders, politics — even how we formulate our own homes. 55 artists were selected to exhibit across six venues (which, unlike the Biennial’s last edition, are each within neighborly walking distance), responding however they saw fit.   Of course, there are no right answers to these questions; still, many successful artworks in the Biennial bear out personal, global, and political identities, tackling what it means to be part (or, not part) of a community in myriad ways and media. Here are three of the questions posed by Elmgreen & Dragset, and a selection of Biennial artworks that probe them with possible “answers.”  Is a good neighbor a stranger you don’t fear? Security and surveillance play an introductory role in the biennial — as is now common practice at art institutions across the world, it is unsurprising that the first thing to greet you at any given venue is a security guard, sometimes followed by a metal detector or x-ray. Turkish ceramicist Burçak Bingöl has brilliantly intervened in daily acts of surveillance by installing ceramic CCTV cameras amidst the venues’ actual cameras in “Follower 2017.” Bedecked with local flora beneath a sheen of glaze, they are a subtle wink to those who look up and spot them — and a reminder that, as you ponder her ornamental additions, someone is most likely inspecting your image on a screen nearby. At the Galata Greek Primary School, Lungiswa Gqunta’s “Lawn I” (2016/2017) is a tightly packed grid of jagged, overturned Coke bottles, filled with a neon green petrol. Taking up most of an old classroom, “Lawn I” comments on the outdoor leisure areas of her native South Africa — reserved for the wealthy, suburban elites, the garden becomes a realm of disparity between residential populations. Shards of glass often top the fencing that keeps “strangers” out of these gardens— here the glass and its threatening edges form the basis of a charge piece of oft-disputed property, and visitors tread lightly, navigating ideas of neighborhood. In a room at Istanbul Modern, Candeğer Furtun’s “Untitled” (1994-96), confronts visitors with a line of naked, male legs, sat body-less, on a span of tiles. Immediately, you’re in a hammam, nine identity-less men sat side by side,  and one ceramic hand placed firmly (aggressively?) on a thigh. It’s at once impersonal and intimate, and we are left wondering how these figures may relate to one another, and how masculinity operates in their world — it’s no accident that there are nine figures here, representing Turkey and its eight regional neighbors. Is a good neighbor just some shadows cast on the rolled down blinds next door? Over at Ark Kultur, Mahmoud Khaled’s “Proposal for a House Museum of an Unknown Crying Man” (2017) introduces a neighborhood stranger — the “unknown crying man.” The entire cultural space has been transformed into his home, and an audio guide illuminates the life of its sole inhabitant: one of the 52 Egyptian men arrested on a gay party boat floating down the Nile in 2001. Here, Khaled re-imagines the future of one of these men, in Istanbul, through an incredibly detailed assemblage of furniture, books, magazines, and photographs, many of which speak to his queer identity, and hint at the personal reasoning behind his somewhat reclusive life. In the glass shower room, the only place neighbors could catch a glimpse of the crying man, scenes from the Egyptian film All My Life (dir. Maher Sabry, 2008), loops continuously on a television screen, showing the story of a gay man’s arrest; in his study, a selection of queer literature is stacked alongside the daybed. Though homosexuality is not illegal in Turkey, the house tour is a powerful and painfully personal study of continued persecution in the region — even in the crying man’s new home. Is a good neighbor tuned in to the same channel as you, watching from a sofa almost like yours, bought from a similar chain store? Tucked away in an apartment building, Yoğunluk’s Artist Atelier is the smallest of the Biennial’s six venues, showcasing “The House” (2017). Only three or four visitors can enter the darkened space at a time, and soon, the darkness give ways to soft illuminations of typical homewares. The building, some 100 years old, provides its own creaky soundtrack, and gives off a haunted house vibe, enhanced by the sticky counters, tables, and chairs, all covered in a film of sweaty latex. Surreal and familiar at the same time, the quiet, four-minute experience forces us to ponder the atelier’s question: “How do you figure out that somewhere is a house?” At Istanbul Modern, Volkan Aslan’s three-channel film, “Home Sweet Home” (2017), is a quietly beautiful meditation on personal and shared space, which takes place on the Bosphorus. To the left, woman moves about a cosy, compact living area: repotting a plant, filling a water glass, rolling a cigarette. To the right, a woman sits on the deck of a boat, taking her coffee at a desk firmly planted onboard. In the middle, rolling shots of the river link the two, but it’s not until the film nears its end that we see these two women share a single houseboat. It’s a play with forced perspective that confounds distance, and, after viewers are done chuckling at their own assumptions, leaves space to muse on the way distance functions within relationships, inside and outside the home. The 15th Istanbul Biennial continues through November 12.  

https://hyperallergic.com/408411/the-istanbul-biennial-examines-the-tricky-question-of-what-makes-a-good-neighbor/

Hyperallergic

2019-01-22 23:30:00

2019

1.0

22

Alexia Fernández Campbell

LA teachers strike: teachers and city leaders reach tentative deal

Los Angeles public school teachers have reached a tentative deal with city leaders to end a strike that has shut down the nation’s second-largest school district for more than a week. As part of the deal, teachers would get a 6 percent raise and slightly fewer students in each classroom, according to Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, a labor union that represents about 34,000 public school teachers, nurses, librarians, and support staff in the city. “We have seen over the last week something pretty amazing happen,” Caputo-Pearl said at a press conference Tuesday morning at City Hall. “The creativity, innovation, passion, and love and emotion of our members was out on the street for everyone to see.” He was joined at the press conference by LA Mayor Eric Garcetti and District Superintendent Austin Beutner. The group said they reached a deal after an all-night negotiating session that ended at 6:15 am. The deal includes hiring more nurses, guidance counselors, librarians, and support staff. The district will also try to limit the expansion of charters schools and will reevaluate testing requirements. Union members still need to vote on the contract before ending their strike, which has now lasted six days. If union and school board members ratify the contract, classes will resume on Wednesday and more than 600,000 students can return to school. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, called the agreement a “paradigm shift.” “For the first time in recent memory, the conversation has focused on how to fund our schools so students have the support they need,” Weingarten told me. The deal follows a week of tense negotiating between teachers and school officials, who felt added pressure as the strike gained national — and even international — attention. Teachers pointed out that California is one of the wealthiest states in the country but ranks toward the bottom in how much money it invests per student. It’s unclear how much more money the state plans to funnel to its largest school district, but the strike certainly pushed local and state officials to hustle. “The strike was painful and it had a cost, but it helped,” Garcetti said during Tuesday’s press conference. The strike’s success adds new momentum to a national movement to boost investment in public education. Frustration over stagnant teacher wages, crumbling infrastructure, and deep budget cuts to education fueled a wave of teacher protests in conservative states in 2018. Educators went on strike in Arizona, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Oklahoma, forcing state lawmakers to raise their pay and spend more on schools. The strike in Los Angeles suggests that the movement is expanding beyond the red states where it began, and could lead more progressive states to reexamine their investment in public education too. With 640,000 students, Los Angeles has the second-largest school district in the US (behind only New York City). Much of the student population is poor and underserved — about 80 percent of kids qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Yet California is among the states that spend the least on each student (adjusted for the cost of living), largely because of the state’s strict limits on property tax rates. Union leaders and school district officials had spent more than a year negotiating a new contract but made little progress. Beutner, the school district’s superintendent, repeatedly blasted union leaders for trying “bankrupt” the city with its expensive proposals. The teachers union has demanded a number of changes, including smaller class sizes; limited standardized testing; more support staff, such as nurses, librarians, and academic counselors; and a 6.5 percent salary increase. The union also wants the state to limit the expansion of public charter schools — privately run schools that receive state funding but are subject to fewer regulations. Negotiations stalled even after teachers, nurses, and librarians voted in August to authorize a strike. It wasn’t until teachers walked out of class last week, shutting down every public school in the city, that talks began to move forward. On Thursday, Gavin Newsom, California’s new Democratic governor, proposed a $209 billion budget that would increase school spending; school district officials also agreed to make some changes to classroom sizes and teacher salaries. Union leaders rejected the offer on Friday, calling it “woefully inadequate.” After spending the weekend back at the negotiating table, there was a breakthrough. On the surface, the deal appears to address most of the teachers’ concerns, though class sizes will only shrink by about four students — one each year for the next four years. The city’s middle and high school teachers currently have an average of 32 students in each classroom, double the national average. During the press conference, Garcetti described the deal as “historic,” while the schools superintendent struck a more cautious tone. “We can’t solve 40 years of underinvestment in education in one week or one contract,” Beutner said. Teachers and other union members are expected to vote Tuesday to approve the contract. If it fails, they go back to the table to strike another deal. If it passes, and the school board approves it, teachers will go back to work Wednesday.

https://www.vox.com/2019/1/22/18193145/la-teachers-strike-deal

Vox

2016-02-12 00:00:00

2016

2.0

12

Benjamin Sutton

Art Movements

Advertise on Hyperallergic with Nectar Ads Art Movements is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world. Facebook censored Evelyne Axell’s 1964 painting “Ice Cream” for “containing excessive amounts of skin or suggestive content” after the Philadelphia Museum of Art used it to promote the forthcoming exhibition International Pop on the social network. A badger dug up several artifacts dating from between 2000 and 2200 BCE on Ministry of Defense property near Stonehenge. Ann Freedman and the Knoedler Gallery settled a lawsuit with collectors Domenico and Eleanore De Sole over the sale of a fake Mark Rothko painting. The agreements — the terms of which have not been disclosed — put an end to the sixth lawsuit related to the Knoedler forgery scandal to have been settled. Four more lawsuits are still pending. Pierre Le Guennec, a retired French electrician who worked for Pablo Picasso, revealed some of the works in a trove of 271 previously undocumented Picassos. The works, all dating from between 1900 and 1932, are said to be worth €40 million (~$45 million). With the end of the standoff at Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, the property will be combed over by a bomb squad, the FBI’s evidence and forensics teams, and, finally, the FBI’s art-crime unit will investigate the site to see if any of the Paiute Indian burial sites or artifacts in the refuge were disturbed or damaged. An appeals court in Paris upheld a previous ruling that the French teacher Frederic Durand-Baissas can sue Facebook in France for censoring his post of Gustave Courbet’s painting  “L’Origine du Monde” (1866) in 2011. The social network had argued that it could only be sued in California, where it is headquartered. A group of Croatian artists calling themselves Kulturnjaci 2016 protest the country’s newly appointed Culture Minister, the historian Zlatko Hasanbegović, who they claim lacks expertise and who, in his decisions since his appointment, “flirts with fascism.” The Chinese performance artist Ou Zhihang did nude pushups at the sites of the Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan massacres in Paris. An exhibition sponsored by the National Riffle Association at the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has sparked protests from gun control activists. Argentina and Spain repatriated 567 heritage objects to Ecuador. A painting by the Western Australian artist Marcia Purdie that turned up in a thrift store donation pile in December has sold for 1,800 Australian dollars (~$1,280). The Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam will rent out space in its new Public Art Depot storage facility to collectors. Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced the Arts Require Timely Service Act — which would require the US Citizenship and Immigration Services to process international artists’ visa requests in a timely fashion — in the US Senate. Jane Duncan, the president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, called for an investigation into the selection process of a contest that chose Thomas Heatherwick as the architect to design a garden bridge over the Thames. The UK’s House of Lords voted to end a centuries-old tradition, decreeing that from April onward British laws will no longer be printed on calfskin vellum, but on archival paper. The change is expected to save the nation £80,000 (~$116,000) annually. Transgender performance artist Niv Acosta claimed that employees at Spa Castle refused to grant him a key to the women’s locker room. A chateau in Uzès in the south of France that once belonged to the British art critic Douglas Cooper — and which Picasso tried to buy from him, to no avail — is on the market for $9.9 million. It includes a series of five sculpture murals on its veranda. The City of Paris launched a new initiative to create one city-run mural space for street art in each of Paris’s 20 arrondissements. The names of the artists who will create the first 10 murals were picked out of glass bowls at random during a ceremony at Paris’s Hôtel de Ville. New Brunswick’s Department of Tourism, Heritage, and Culture will cut the budget of the New Brunswick Arts Board by $400,000 over the next two years, firing all its employees and taking over its operations. One of two versions of Dante Gabriel Rossetti‘s “The Salutation of Beatrice” (1881–82) went on public display for the first time at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. The Dayton Art Institute is about to embark on a $2.2 million renovation project. Artist Geng Jianyi attributed the discovery of a duplicate of one of his earlier paintings to a “failure of memory.” The artist originally claimed that “Hairdressing: Hairwashing,” which was due to be auctioned last October, was not an authentic work. Art dealer Lv Peng recently released a series of letters from the early ’90s in which Geng apparently agreed to repaint a number of his missing works. Short videos by artists, including Dora García, Naeem Mohaiemen, and Margaret Salmon, will screen unannounced before feature films at cinemas throughout the UK. Seattle design firm Invisible Creature released three space travel posters commissioned by NASA for a 2016 calendar that was distributed to the space agency’s staff. Ai Weiwei wrapped gold thermal blankets around his “Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads” sculptures as “a gesture … in defending the dignity of the refugees.” Barnett Newman‘s “Broken Obelisk” (1963–67) at Houston’s Menil Collection will undergo a 10-month restoration. Following research by Southern Methodist University’s Meadows Museum, a 1930 painting by Salvador Dalí formerly titled “La Femme Poisson” (“The Fish Woman”) was retitled “L’Homme Poisson” (“The Fish Man”). The Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) will design this summer’s Serpentine Gallery pavilion. In addition to the usual commission, the outgoing gallery director Julia Peyton-Jones has selected four other architects — Kunlé Adeyemi, Barkow Leibinger, Yona Friedman, and Asif Khan — to design temporary summer homes that will sit alongside BIG’s pavilion in Kensington Gardens. Three rare Mamluk mosque lamps that were stolen from Egypt and replaced with fakes will be repatriated — one from the UK and the others from the United Arab Emirates. The Pinacothèque de Paris will close its spaces on the Place de la Madeleine after its parent company, Art Héritage France, went into receivership last year. An engineering study concluded that a refurbishment of the Mitchell Park Domes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, would cost between $65 and $75 million. Katie Hollander was named the new executive director of New York City public art nonprofit Creative Time. Marta Kuzma will succeed Robert Storr as dean of Yale University’s School of Art. French President François Hollande selected his top cultural advisor, Audrey Azoulay, to replace Fleur Pellerin as Culture Minister. Uber‘s head of design, Andrew Crow, announced that he will step down. The news follows the unveiling of Uber’s widely criticized redesign. Fernando Cocchiarale was appointed curator of Rio de Janeiro’s Museo de Arte Moderno. Katerina Gregos will step down as the artistic director of Art Brussels this summer. Nicole R. Myers was appointed curator of painting and sculpture at the Dallas Museum of Art. Kim Cullen was appointed executive director of New York Live Arts. Richard Kurin will serve as the Smithsonian Institution’s acting undersecretary of museums and research/provost until a permanent candidate is appointed. The post was created by combining the job of undersecretary of history, art, and culture with the undersecretary of science. The Elizabeth Dee gallery will relocate from Chelsea to the site of the original Studio Museum in Harlem. The Lisson Gallery will open its New York space on May 3, 2016. Elena Ochoa Foster, founder of the art book publishing house Ivorypress, was awarded this year’s Ibero-American Prize for the Patronage of Art. New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Administration for Children’s Services are accepting applications for an artist-in-residence to work with LGBTQ youth in the city’s foster care program. ArtPrize launched a new Featured Public Projects program that will award $55,000 in grants to artists to create large-scale projects in four locations in downtown Grand Rapids. Paul Aiken (1959–2016), former executive director of the Authors Guild. Frank Finlay (1926–2016), Oscar-nominated actor. Margaret Forster (1938–2016), writer. William Gaskill (1930–2016), theater director. Former artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre. Dan Hicks (1941–2016), singer and songwriter. John Hirst (1942–2016), art historian. Diana Mitchell (1932–2016), political activist and writer. Jane Stuart Smith (1925–2016), opera singer. Violette Verdy (1933–2016), choreographer and ballerina. Maurice White (1941–2016), musician. Founder of Earth, Wind & Fire.

https://hyperallergic.com/274352/art-movements-138/

Hyperallergic

2019-06-28 00:00:00

2019

6.0

28

Google announces new subsea cable 'Equiano', connecting Africa and Europe

(Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s Google on Friday announced a new subsea cable dubbed “Equiano” that will connect Africa with Europe, as it boosts its cloud computing infrastructure. Equiano, fully funded by Google, is the company’s third private international cable. The search engine giant, which has invested $47 billion in improving its global technology infrastructure over the last three years, said Equiano is the company’s 14th subsea cable investment globally. “Equiano will be the first subsea cable to incorporate optical switching at the fiber-pair level, rather than the traditional approach of wavelength-level switching,” Google said in a blog post. Google said a contract to build the cable with Alcatel Submarine Networks was signed in the fourth quarter of 2018, and the first phase of the project, connecting South Africa with Portugal, is expected to be completed in 2021. The company in April completed the “Curie” project, its first private intercontinental cable, connecting Chile to Los Angeles. It also announced last year the Dunant transatlantic submarine cable project connecting France and the United States. The 6,600 km cable is scheduled to come into service in 2020. Subsea cables form the backbone of the internet by carrying 99 percent of the world’s data traffic. Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-cable/google-announces-new-subsea-cable-equiano-connecting-africa-and-europe-idUSKCN1TT1O0

Technology News

Reuters

2019-06-30 00:00:00

2019

6.0

30

Marc Jones

Preserve your ammunition, BIS urges top central banks

LONDON (Reuters) - Bank for International Settlements (BIS) chief Agustin Carstens has urged top central banks to preserve their ammunition for more serious economic downturns rather than deplete it chasing higher growth. Presenting the annual report of the Swiss-based BIS, dubbed the central bank for the world’s central banks, Carstens told reporters any easing needed to be considered carefully and done sparingly. “We would stress that it is important to preserve some room for maneuver for more serious downturns,” he said. That message comes just weeks before the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to confirm a U-turn in global monetary policy and cut interest rates for first time since the financial crisis a decade ago. Japan and China have both signaled their readiness to ease further and the European Central Bank, which only halted bond buying in December, indicated this month that it could cut its rates even deeper into negative territory. While U.S.-China trade tensions have weighed on economic sentiment this year many developed countries had recovered to potential or above potential growth rates, Carstens said. Inflation was mostly not that far from target ranges either. That raised the question of how forthcoming central banks should be with any additional accommodation. “Monetary policy should be considered more as a backstop rather than as a spearhead of a strategy to induce higher sustainable growth,” Carstens said. He also warned that sustained use rendered policies like negative rates or quantitative easing less effective. “How much more stimulus will you get if rates are reduced by another 25 basis points? That will produce a lower profile of bang for that buck,” Carstens said. The message to conserve firepower from the BIS is not surprising. Until this year it had been urging top central banks to press on with raising rates or at least move away from crisis-era stimulus programs. The annual report’s primary call was for a better balance to be struck between monetary policy, structural reforms, government fiscal policy and macroprudential measures that encompass regulation of banks and other financial institutions. Carstens also said the possible short-term gain of lowering borrowing costs had to be balanced against the “potential risks in terms of asset misallocation and asset mispricing and financial stability risks as we move forward”. The sharp change in direction from the Fed and others this year has seen global markets rocket since January. Last year’s big drops in European, Asian and eventually U.S. stocks have been replaced by a near 20 percent leap in the S&P 500 and China’s biggest markets, reviving hopes the decade-long global bull-run may not have ended after all. Global stocks have reflated by roughly $8 trillion, emerging markets have done well even as China’s economy has revealed cracks, yet yields on ultra-safe government bonds like U.S. Treasuries and German Bunds have plunged dramatically. Claudio Borio, the head of the BIS Monetary and Economic Department, acknowledged that markets had become dependent on accommodative monetary policy and weaning them off that dependence could cause “withdrawal symptoms”. Following fierce criticism of the Federal Reserve by U.S. President Donald Trump, he also stressed the importance of central bank independence. “The autonomy of central banks is an important asset and it is an asset that tends to come under threat when it is most needed,” he told Reuters. “Of course these are challenging times politically for central banks but it is clearly not helpful to try to interfere with their decisions.” Another of the annual report’s warnings was of a rapid build up of corporate debt via collateralized loan obligations (CLO) and other forms of credit that do not go through the normal regulated banking channels. It had turned on “some warning lights” Carstens said, having similarities to the steep rise in collateralized debt obligations (CDO) that amplified the U.S. subprime crisis more than a decade ago. The banking sector is now better capitalized, however, he said. For full report click here : here Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Catherine Evans

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-markets-bis-report/preserve-your-ammunition-bis-urges-top-central-banks-idUSKCN1TV0DQ

Business News

Reuters

2018-10-05 00:00:00

2018

10.0

5

Brad Brooks

A disciple of Brazil's dictatorship moves closer to the presidency

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - In 1993, Congressman Jair Bolsonaro strode to a podium in Brazil’s lower house and delivered a speech that shook its young democracy: He declared his love for the country’s not-so-distant military regime and demanded the legislature be disbanded. “Yes, I’m in favor of a dictatorship!” Bolsonaro, a former Army captain, thundered at fellow lawmakers, some of whom had joined guerrilla groups to battle the junta that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985. “We will never resolve grave national problems with this irresponsible democracy!” On Sunday, Brazilians will cast ballots in a presidential election that could elevate Bolsonaro to the head of the world’s fifth most populous country. A political gadfly who has flitted through nine minor parties in a 27-year career, his views have changed little since that day in the capital of Brasilia. But his jeremiad message – that Brazil is a dysfunctional basket case that needs an iron-fisted ruler to restore order – is resonating with Brazilians dispirited by the nation’s soaring crime, moribund economy and entrenched political corruption. Violent criminals? Bolsonaro says shoot them all. Political enemies? Them too. Corruption? A military coup will drain the swamp if the judicial system won’t, he says. The economy? Bolsonaro wants to privatize state-run companies to keep politicians away from the till. The 63-year-old is surging. He leads a crowded field of 13 candidates heading into the first round of elections on Oct. 7 with 35 percent of likely votes, according to the latest survey by polling firm Datafolha. If no candidate wins a majority, the top two vote-getters will go head-to-head on Oct. 28. Pollsters give Bolsonaro a roughly 30-percent chance of winning the race outright this weekend; some say privately his chances might be even better than that. If there is a second round, Bolsonaro’s opponent is likely to be Fernando Haddad of the leftist Workers Party. Datafolha shows them tied in a potential runoff. Many Brazilians are sounding alarms about Bolsonaro’s autocratic views and those of his vice-presidential running mate, recently retired Army general Hamilton Mourao, who says Brazil’s Constitution can be torn up and rewritten without input from citizens. Then there are the federal hate speech charges leveled against Bolsonaro for his racist, homophobic and misogynist rants. His highlight reel includes a spat with a congresswoman whom Bolsonaro said was not attractive enough for him to rape. Bolsonaro’s campaign did not respond to Reuters’ requests for an interview. But supporters insist that tens of millions of Brazilians are silently rooting for Bolsonaro, even if some will not admit it to friends or pollsters. Brazilians from all walks of life applaud his vow to make life miserable for armed gangs that have made them prisoners in their own homes. Many welcome his promise to loosen gun laws so average citizens can protect themselves. Business people like his recent embrace of free-market economics. Young people are enthralled by his caustic put-downs of rivals on social media. Polls show Bolsonaro is performing well with female voters, despite being labeled a misogynist by many. Evangelical Christians, who comprise a quarter of the electorate, are particularly enamored of Bolsonaro, a Catholic who has promised to rid schools of sex education, derail gay rights and thwart any attempts to loosen strict abortion laws. Some see his recent survival of a near-fatal knife attack on the campaign trail as a sign that Bolsonaro, whose middle name Messias means “Messiah,” was sent by God to lead them. Others view him as the only option to prevent the return to power of the Workers Party, or PT, whose founder, former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva, is serving a 12-year prison sentence for graft and money laundering. Teenager Gilson Barbosa Silva, who hails from a tough district of Sao Paulo, says his disgust with the PT is such that he will begrudgingly vote for Bolsonaro, a member of the Social Liberal Party. “The options are depressing … (but) he is the only fresh option,” the heavily tattooed 18-year-old said. Carlos Melo, a political scientist with Insper, a leading Sao Paulo business school, said Bolsonaro has deftly capitalized on polarization that has deepened with Lula’s downfall. “The roots of his support are in the political radicalization that has flourished in Brazil,” Melo said. “Jair Bolsonaro is a symbol of this transition.” Some pundits call Bolsonaro a “Tropical Trump” because of his large social media following, pugnacious demeanor and multiple wives. Steve Bannon, the U.S. president’s campaign guru, has likewise advised Bolsonaro. But longtime political observers of Brazil – where full democracy has been the exception to a succession of authoritarian regimes in the last century – say Bolsonaro is a unique creation raised in the long shadow of the country’s most recent dictatorship. Bolsonaro celebrated his ninth birthday just days before the 1964 coup. The son of an untrained dentist, he opted for the military and in 1977 graduated from the Black Needles Military Academy, Brazil’s equivalent of West Point. His Army career was undistinguished. Bolsonaro landed in the brig for a couple of weeks in 1986 after a Brazilian news magazine published his complaints about paltry military pay. But his words tapped into widespread discontent among rank-and-file soldiers. He parlayed that support into a seat on Rio de Janeiro’s city council in 1988, then a spot in Congress two years later. Bolsonaro’s legislative achievements are thin: He has authored just two bills that became law. Still, he has never been tarnished by corruption. Now, after nearly three decades in politics, Bolsonaro is riding a tsunami of voter frustration that may carry him to the presidency. Brazil is still hobbling from its worst recession in decades; 13 million are unemployed. Crime has exploded and drug violence has touched every corner of the country. Last year saw nearly 64,000 murders, the most on record. The epic bribery investigation that jailed Lula exposed a pay-to-play political culture of staggering proportions. Disgust with Brazil’s leaders is palpable. Only 13 percent of Brazilians are “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with democracy overall, according to the most recent annual poll by Latinobarometro, a Chilean think tank. That toxic environment has Bolsonaro’s backers, much like U.S. voters who sent Donald Trump to the White House, hoping he will be a walking grenade that explodes the system from within. “If he can lessen graft and get rid of the old, corrupt foxes who rule our political system, then four years from now we will have more candidates who put Brazil’s interests above their own,” said Raphael Enohata, a 26-year-old graduate engineering student at the University of Sao Paulo. “He is just the beginning of the transition we want.” Drug gangs are also high on Bolsonaro’s hit list. “We cannot treat criminals like normal human beings who need to be respected,” Bolsonaro said in August. He said law enforcement should pump suspects with “10, 15 or 30” bullets each, then “be given awards” for their efforts. A few days later at a rally, Bolsonaro grabbed a cameraman’s tripod and mimicked shooting a rifle. “We are going to gun down all these Workers Party supporters!” he shouted as the crowd cheered wildly. His campaign said it was a joke. But Bolsonaro is serious about what he sees as his destiny. “God called me to this race,” he said upon accepting his party’s nomination. “My mother gave me the middle name Messiah. But I alone will not be the savior of the Brazil. Who will save it is all of us, together.” Reporting by Brad Brooks; Editing by Marla Dickerson

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-election-bolsonaro-newsmaker/a-disciple-of-brazils-dictatorship-moves-closer-to-the-presidency-idUSKCN1MF1DP

World News

Reuters

2017-01-20 00:00:00

2017

1.0

20

Andrew Osborn

In Trump We Trust: Inauguration prompts celebration in Russia

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin may have spent years reviling America, but Russians hoping Donald Trump will usher in a new era of detente marked his inauguration on Friday with parties and trinkets from commemorative coins to “matryoshka” nesting dolls in his image. Washington was turned into a virtual fortress with an estimated 900,000 people — backers and protesters — descending on the capital. In London, anti-Trump activists draped a banner reading “Build Bridges Not Walls” from Tower Bridge. Protests were planned across western Europe on Friday and Saturday. But according to Gennady Gudkov, a Putin critic and former lawmaker, Russia is in the grip of “Trumpomania”, with state media giving the President-elect blanket air time at the expense of more mundane and sometimes depressing domestic news stories. That, he said, was in part because the U.S. election, unlike elections in Russia, had been unpredictable. The Kremlin is hoping Trump will ease sanctions imposed over the annexation of Crimea, team up with Russia against Islamic State, and cut back NATO military activity near Russian borders. Craftsmen in the city of Zlatoust, east of Moscow, have released a limited series of silver and gold commemorative coins, engraved with “In Trump We Trust” - an allusion to the phrase on U.S. banknotes “In God We Trust”. Sellers of traditional matryoshka nesting dolls have added Trump dolls to their popular line-up of items carved in the likeness of President Vladimir Putin, Bolshevik revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, ex-President Mikhail Gorbachev and Josef Stalin. And a shop selling Russian military kit located opposite the U.S. embassy in Moscow has unveiled a cheeky promotional campaign offering embassy employees and U.S. citizens a 10 percent discount on its wares to celebrate Trump’s inauguration. Some of Trump’s opponents believe the Kremlin helped him win the White House by staging a hacking campaign to hoover up embarrassing information about Hillary Clinton, his rival. The Kremlin denies that, but few here make any secret of the fact that they are pleased that Trump and not Clinton triumphed. Relations between Putin and Barack Obama had soured badly. “Trump’s election has generated enormous enthusiasm in Russia because his warm words about Russia and Putin have given us hope that the USA and the West will stop their attack on Russia,” Sergei Markov, a former pro-Putin lawmaker, said on social media. “We don’t know for sure if there will be an improvement (in relations) or not. But we Russians are optimists ... so we are hoping for the best, while preparing for the worst.” For Russian nationalists, Trump’s inauguration is an excuse to mix fun with self-promotion. They are holding an all-night party at what used to be the main Soviet-era post office in Moscow where they will showcase their favorite prop, a triptych of Putin, Trump and French Front National leader Marine Le Pen. Konstantin Rykov, a former pro-Putin lawmaker and one of the event’s promoters, said on social media it was right to celebrate the first phase of the “New World Order.” “Washington will be ours,” he quipped. Additional reporting by Dustin Volz; Editing by Ralph Boulton

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-inauguration-russia/in-trump-we-trust-inauguration-prompts-celebration-in-russia-idUSKBN1541S6

World News

Reuters

2019-06-07 00:00:00

2019

6.0

7

Giselda Vagnoni

Moderate leaders try to protect Italy - from their own government

ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s prime minister and economy minister have formed an unofficial alliance with the president to prevent the euro zone’s third-largest economy being dragged into financial crisis by its ruling parties, sources say. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Economy Minister Giovanni Tria, both technocrat appointees, have held private conversations with President Sergio Mattarella in recent days on ways of shielding Italy from a gathering political and financial storm, according to two Italian officials with knowledge of the matter. Conte and Tria are acting with Mattarella, who has a role in ensuring political stability, to effectively curb the behavior of their own government — a populist coalition whose party leaders are railing against EU budget rules. The coalition’s confrontation with the European Commission, which has flagged possible disciplinary action over Rome’s big-spending fiscal policies, has sent a shiver through Italian bonds and rekindled fears of a full-blown financial crisis. “Mattarella is trying to keep the boat afloat,” said one senior government official. Though the coalition’s dominant political force is League leader Matteo Salvini, the prime minister is in charge of negotiating with Brussels over budget policy, and both he and Tria could do serious damage to the government if they were to wield the ultimate political weapon. Both Salvini and his coalition partner Luigi Di Maio, leader of the 5-Star party, know that the resignations of two men seen by markets as Italy’s main guarantee of fiscal prudence would be likely to send the value of its debt tumbling, and neither wants to risk this. Conte has already threatened this week to resign, saying EU rules should be respected. Tria, a former academic, told Reuters that daily quarrels between Salvini and Di Maio were damaging Italy. “What’s going on is weakening my negotiating power with the EU,” Tria said on the sidelines of a ceremony at the Quirinale presidential palace. “It means that Italy is not a country that can be taken seriously.” As for Mattarella - the presidency is mostly a figurehead role, but it has the power during political crises to make or break governments. Neither the League nor 5-Star would want to make an enemy of the president. The League, rooted in rich northern regions, and 5-Star, whose voters mainly live in the poorer south, forged their alliance a year ago, but last month’s European Parliament elections have given Salvini the upper hand. The League doubled its vote from the 2018 general election and Salvini has been acting as de facto prime minister, vowing not to bow to budget pressure from Brussels. On Thursday, Di Maio agreed to back the League’s tax-cutting plan as a priority. With a debt of 2.3 trillion euros ($2.6 trillion), Italy is viewed by most economists as too big to fail, and financial instability there could endanger the stability of the entire euro zone. “The main concern of the president is who will draw up the 2020 budget and what’s in Salvini’s mind,” said another official. The fact that Italian debt continues to rise as a proportion of GDP prompted the European Commission on Wednesday to start a process that could lead to financial sanctions and stricter oversight of fiscal policy. Investors are already asking for interest rates some 0.7 percentage points higher than a year ago to buying Italian 10-year sovereign bonds. In October, the gap between Italian 10-year bond yields and those from Germany, the euro zone’s benchmark, spiked to over 3.4 percentage points after the EU rejected the government’s 2019 budget. A compromise defused the crisis - but another showdown between Rome and Brussels would send these premiums soaring again. The worst-case scenario for Mattarella would be a government collapse later this year that prevented the approval of the 2020 budget by the end of December, as required by law. One of the top officials who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity said that Brussels had asked Rome to cut its 2019 deficit by around 0.2 percentage points of GDP, or some 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion). “We need to stop talking against Europe and show convincing numbers over the deficit and debt trends,” this official said. Late last year, Tria, Conte and Mattarella, backed by Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco, succeeded in persuading Salvini and Di Maio to trim the 2019 deficit target to avoid EU fines. Visco also has a direct line to his predecessor and current head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi. Conte’s office said on Wednesday that Italy’s deficit-to-GDP ratio for 2019 was already set to come in at 2.1%, well below the official 2.4% target. Salvini’s growing self-confidence has fueled speculation that he will abandon 5-Star and seek a new election, though he has denied this. But he may not be in a mood to make another compromise on his anti-austerity budget plans. The League’s economics chief, Claudio Borghi, told Reuters this week that it had only agreed to back down in December because it was the junior partner. The EU vote showed it was now the top dog, he said. Editing by Kevin Liffey

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-eu/moderate-leaders-try-to-protect-italy-from-their-own-government-idUSKCN1T80YS

World News

Reuters

2018-08-30 00:00:00

2018

8.0

30

Trump on Twitter (Aug 30) - CNN, NBC, Comey

The following statements were posted to the verified personal Twitter account of U.S. President Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump) The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy. @realDonaldTrump : - The hatred and extreme bias of me by @CNN has clouded their thinking and made them unable to function. But actually, as I have always said, this has been going on for a long time. Little Jeff Z has done a terrible job, his ratings suck, & AT&T should fire him to save credibility! [0650 EDT] - What’s going on at @CNN is happening, to different degrees, at other networks - with @NBCNews being the worst. The good news is that Andy Lack(y) is about to be fired(?) for incompetence, and much worse. When Lester Holt got caught fudging my tape on Russia, they were hurt badly! [0702 EDT] - I just cannot state strongly enough how totally dishonest much of the Media is. Truth doesn’t matter to them, they only have their hatred & agenda. This includes fake books, which come out about me all the time, always anonymous sources, and are pure fiction. Enemy of the People! [0711 EDT] - The news from the Financial Markets is even better than anticipated. For all of you that have made a fortune in the markets, or seen your 401k’s rise beyond your wildest expectations, more good news is coming! [0720 EDT] - Ivanka Trump & Jared Kushner had NOTHING to do with the so called “pushing out” of Don McGahn.The Fake News Media has it, purposely,so wrong! They love to portray chaos in the White House when they know that chaos doesn’t exist-just a “smooth running machine” with changing parts! [0744 EDT] - The only thing James Comey ever got right was when he said that President Trump was not under investigation! [0756 EDT] - Wow, Nellie Ohr, Bruce Ohr’s wife, is a Russia expert who is fluent in Russian. She worked for Fusion GPS where she was paid a lot. Collusion! Bruce was a boss at the Department of Justice and is, unbelievably, still there! [0854 EDT] - The Rigged Russia Witch Hunt did not come into play, even a little bit, with respect to my decision on Don McGahn! [0917 EDT] - I am very excited about the person who will be taking the place of Don McGahn as White House Counsel! I liked Don, but he was NOT responsible for me not firing Bob Mueller or Jeff Sessions. So much Fake Reporting and Fake News! [0939 EDT] - Will be going to Evansville, Indiana, tonight for a big crowd rally with Mike Braun, a very successful businessman who is campaigning to be Indiana’s next U.S. Senator. He is strong on Crime & Borders, the 2nd Amendment, and loves our Military & Vets. Will be a big night! [0949 EDT] - CNN is working frantically to find their “source.” Look hard because it doesn’t exist. Whatever was left of CNN’s credibility is now gone! [1254 EDT] - Kevin Stitt ran a great winning campaign against a very tough opponent in Oklahoma. Kevin is a very successful businessman who will be a fantastic Governor. He is strong on Crime & Borders, the 2nd Amendment, & loves our Military & Vets. He has my complete and total Endorsement! [1430 EDT] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) Compiled by Bengaluru bureau

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-tweet-factbox/trump-on-twitter-cnn-nbc-comey-idUSKCN1LF1E7

Politics

Reuters

2018-09-04 00:00:00

2018

9.0

4

Kourtney Kardashian Parking Lot Rendezvous with Younes Bendjima

Kourtney Kardashian and Younes Bendjima's split is not a done, DONE deal just yet ... based on the fact they're getting closer again in public. Kourt chopped it up with Younes Monday night outside a Malibu sushi joint. Unclear if they actually dined together, or just hooked up post-meal, but they were sitting in her Range Rover while they chatted. They had plenty of time to talk reunion, especially because Younes was behind the wheel of Kourt's whip when they drove off together. As we reported, there were rumors Younes was caught cheating after pics surfaced of him last month in Mexico with Jordan Ozuna. Our sources connected to Kourt said the breakup was more about distance between them, since they'd always had a long-distance relationship. Kourtney has NOT looked the least bit heartbroken since then -- but after this weekend rendezvous in the 'Bu ... they're clearly less distant.

https://www.tmz.com/2018/09/04/kourtney-kardashian-younes-bendjima-malibu-reunion-reunited/

TMZ

2018-08-14 00:00:00

2018

8.0

14

U.S. Charge d'Affaires calls on Turkey to resolve pastor Brunson's case

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The U.S. Charge d’Affaires in Turkey visited Andrew Brunson, the evangelical pastor whose detention and trial on terrorism charges has sparked a crisis between the two countries, and repeated a call on Tuesday for his case to be resolved. Jeffrey Hovenier, speaking outside Brunson’s home in the coastal province of Izmir where he is under house arrest, said Washington wanted the pastor’s case “as well as the case of the other unjustly detained Americans, and the Turkish national employees of the U.S. diplomatic mission” resolved fairly, swiftly and transparently. Writing by Ali Kucukgocmen; Editing by Dominic Evans

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-security-usa-pastor/u-s-charge-daffaires-calls-on-turkey-to-resolve-pastor-brunsons-case-idUSKBN1KZ1GC

World News

Reuters

2016-03-14 16:19:00

2016

3.0

14

Kristy Totten

Mariena Mercer Is a Las Vegas Cocktail Goddess

Though plenty of 21-year-olds consider themselves booze experts, at that age, Mariena Mercer actually was. After spending time studying the drink in Mexico, Mercer returned as a leading consultant, having fully earned the job title Tequila Goddess. Today she's head mixologist at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, a premiere hotel and casino. There she presides over a beverage production test kitchen, tinkering with ingredients and dreaming up menus for one of the largest fresh beverage programs in the world. We caught up with her to find out what and where she likes to drink in Las Vegas. VICE: You're a Las Vegas native?Mariena Mercer: Correct. I'm second generation, so both of my parents were raised here, which is a bit of a rarity. My whole family is still here, and I've lived here my whole life. I'm actually named after a casino, which is really bizarre. There used to be the Marina hotel and casino. The original building is still there. My dad was driving to the hospital and saw the Marina and fell in love with it. What was your career before coming to The Cosmopolitan?I was studying chemistry in school and started working in a steakhouse. I came from humble upbringings, so it opened up a whole other world of hospitality. We had a master sommelier. I was just fascinated and really fell in love with wine and the beverage world.How did you get the name Tequila Goddess?[At the steakhouse] we had beverage instructors from across the street at a neighboring property. They would come over and I'd just ask them a million questions about the beverage world and what they were drinking. They found it very endearing and created this job for me called the Tequila Goddess because they knew I was turning 21. I was like, "Absolutely not. What does that mean?" They just said, "Go home and think about it." I went home and studied tequila for four hours before I went to sleep and was so fascinated. That was almost 12 years ago. For my 21st birthday I went out to the town of Tequila and got to live intermittently at different distilleries and travel and really immerse myself into every part of the process. I fell in love with the culture. I fell in love with everything about it. I came home and I was going to be one of the leading experts in tequila in the states at that time because no one was doing a deep dive into it like I was. I started getting hired to do a lot of consulting across the country. From there I went into bartending and bartended at several properties on the Strip. I dropped out of college and decided that's what I really wanted to do.Do you apply your chemistry background to your job now?Absolutely. I think my brain always thinks in that kind of method. I love alchemy and the way things mix, whether it's chemical or culinary or cocktails. I'm just fascinated with how things mix, or acidity, or how things become better or change speeds. I was fortunate to carve out my own style. Growing up my idols were Willy Wonka and Bill Nye the Science Guy. I'd like to think I've grown into a combination of the two. What are you working on now?I just launched The Chandelier menu, and it's my favorite I've done so far. It's whimsical and playful. It's something that I call multisensory—there's a lot of experiential cocktails as far as oils and aromas, nitrogen and edible components. Every single cocktail is a story or something very personal to me, or something I can kind of weave the cocktail around. Each one has tons of different arms and legs, but hopefully communicates the story to each guest.Where are some of your favorite places to eat and drink both on and off strip?I love Velveteen Rabbit, off the Strip. The sisters who run it are just incredible. They have a unique sense of style in every sense of that word, as far as the fashion, the design, the cocktails. Everything is such an engaging, incredible experience. It's a local bar to me, a place you can go and chat up other people. It's creative mindsets that tend to have cocktails there, so you can meet really great people in a different field who maybe have commonalities with.Where else?My next pick would be Herbs & Rye. They've got a really talented staff. Their foundation in classic cocktails is so strong, and the food is great. They call it the clubhouse, and it really does feel like one. You go in there and you know three-quarters of the room. It's always a really fun time and it can get a little debaucherous. It's a passion project for Nectaly, the owner, and I have a ton of respect for where he's come from and all of his work to make it come to fruition.What are some drink trends right now?I love sherry. I love modifying it. I love sipping sherry. I love sipping sherry with food. It really is one of my favorite spirits of all time. I think a lot of people correlate it with maybe your grandma drinking dry sherry, but once you deep dive into sherry it's such a beautiful spirit. I love sherry and I don't know if anyone does it better than José Andrés at Jaleo. It's romantic to be able to sip sherry with small bites. Sherry cocktails and sherry as a sipping component is definitely a trend.What makes Vegas unique compared to other drinking cities?Volume, but quality volume. It's been an amazing, refreshing change in the past couple of years. Six years ago when I first had my meeting with Cosmopolitan, there was such a cognitive dissonance between great restaurants where you go and you have every celebrity chef in the world making these really expensive meals with these great and quality ingredients and then you get a margarita that has a sweet and sour mix. I really wanted to elevate the quality of cocktails in Las Vegas, and I think that's really happened. It's really exciting. Read the entire VICE Guide to Las Vegas here.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vdxkq3/mariena-mercer-las-vegas-cocktails-travel-cityguides

Travel

Vice

2016-12-25 17:00:00

2016

12.0

25

Roisin Kiberd

Why 2016 Was the Year of the Algorithmic Timeline

2016 was the year of "post fact" news, but it was also the year of post-new news. 2016 was the year of the algorithmic timeline, in which tech companies dismantled the concept of time entirely. This year saw Facebook, Twitter and Instagram occupy the role of mainstream media publishers, whether or not they chose to admit it. Each platform instituted similar changes: their "timeline" would no longer display the most recent story at the top, but would use algorithms to decide on what individual users most wanted to see. Depending on our friendships and actions, the system might deliver old news, biased news, or news which had already been disproven. In many cases what we saw was speculation and rumor; stories which weren't really news at all. A (chronological) timeline of these changes would include: Not long ago social media was lauded for granting access to information, building connections and "making the world more open and connected." But now machines pre-empt our impulses, herding us into habits and repetition. 2016 was the year of politicians telling us what we should believe, but it was also the year of machines telling us what we should want. In the world of Instagram, some things will always be current: organic breakfasts, taut "bikini bodies" and tiny adorable dogs among them. But even with a prolific following and a popular niche, creators are at the mercy of Instagram's rules. I spoke to several well-known Instagram creators, drawing on Motherboard's ties to the Instagram corgi underworld. "Followers have drastically declined," Jeri Yoshizu told me in an email, the anonymous custodian of the wildly popular Three Corgis account, which has 146,000 Instagram followers. "We used to get 1,000 a week, now it's half that." Keeping up with changes is a full-time job: "They've done a good job of getting rid of crazy spammers, but it does come with a price of lower engagement." Khoa Phan is "corgdad" to Lilo (31,500 followers). He said he has experienced similar issues: "I think my posts are a bit buried among all of the other photos. People either have to get notified that I've posted a new photo, or they have to go to the profile directly. I used to have a regular time when I would post my photos. Now that Instagram doesn't display photos chronologically, that approach seems pointless." The only way to insure your posts gain notice is to bombard the feed and hope that some stick, which risks comprising on quality and annoying people. Varsha Sreekumar looks after Elvis Pawsley, a dog with "short legs" and "big dreams." She saw the changes as contradictory to Instagram's "insta" nature, driving users to like content only if they know they'll want more of the same in future. "I enjoyed the freedom of engaging with a piece of content without any sort of ripple effect. It really limits the discovery and exploration potential of the app." Sreekumar added: "Interestingly enough, the change was made after Instagram opened the doors to brands to run ads." But even once they pay for visibility, a brand under pressure to remain engaging: "Playing devil's advocate for a second here: All the money in the world cannot transform shitty content into good content." What happens when users realize they're trapped in a loop? By then, will automated "good taste" be more sophisticated? There is a bizarre hubris to altering time, as if a person—or company—believes they are greater than physics. The mark of the despot is to rewrite the clock and calendar: in 2002 Turkmenistan renamed the months according to the will of Saparmurat Niyazov, its "President for Life" (January was named for the leader himself, April was named after his mother). Last year North Korea reverted to "Pyongyang Time," pushing clocks forward by thirty minutes in defiance of Japan. Finally, there are those who reinvent time as a commercial venture: Swatch decision in 1999 to launch a decimalized, centralized unit of time they called the ".beat." intended to serve as a universal "internet time," or chronological Esperanto. Today these examples are regarded as laughable. But social media's "New Time" is more tenacious, because it is less obviously a break with normality. It disorients the reader, and distracts them with endless, timeless content. Today sites do not even hide their filter bubble effect: Instagram's announcement of it's newly atemporal feed, titled "See the Moments You Care About First," was a masterpiece of presumptive thinking. Apparently we "care," on an emotional level, about the app. Apparently we trust it to select what we see. It makes sense that social media sites would want you to forget linear time, because the more time you spend on these sites, the more you are worth to them (in this way social media is like a casino, where they change your money "chips" to keep you from noticing when you lose it). Time is flattened into a slideshow, a sentimental carousel. This moves us into a different sense of time, an achronological "lame infinity." A place where the present is filtered to look old while the old renews itself constantly. Where rumors are powerful than news because they keep coming back until they're disproven. Speaking to me by email, Carl Miller, Research Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media (part of cross-party British think tank Demos), highlighted the power of these algorithms as gatekeepers of—and even replacements for—traditional media: "The Facebook news algorithm is more powerful than any newspaper editor in the world. It may become more powerful than every newspaper editor in the world." Capable of spreading lies just as quickly as they spread knowledge, can algorithms really be trusted with forming the worldview of social media users? Miller warned, "The concern is that they can't resign, and don't play by professional standards; we don't even really know—as outsiders —how they work." Where does this leave us, creators and consumers alike, gazing headlong into 2017? Perhaps soon we will get used to the algorithmic timeline, and stop expecting our news to be current. Perhaps soon we'll stop looking to consume news at all and happily continue, trapped in Throwback Thursday for the rest of (nonlinear) time.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bmvbaw/why-2016-was-the-year-of-the-algorithmic-timeline

Tech by VICE

Vice

2016-07-22 03:34:25

2016

7.0

22

German Lopez

Watch Donald Trump reach out to “L, G, B, T… Q” Americans

CLEVELAND — Donald Trump’s Republican convention speech had a genuinely surprising, sincere moment. It came when Trump brought up the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida. He said, "Only weeks ago, in Orlando, Florida, 49 wonderful Americans were savagely murdered by an Islamic terrorist. This time, the terrorist targeted [the] LGBTQ community. No good. And we're going to stop it. As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. Believe me." The crowd cheered and clapped — not exactly a sure thing with a Republican audience when it comes to protecting LGBTQ people’s rights. And Trump, in an unscripted moment, acknowledged the crowd’s surprising reaction: "And I have to say, as a Republican, it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said. Thank you." It’s long been said that Trump doesn’t care much about LGBTQ or other cultural issues. (Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel said as much in his Republican convention speech.) To the extent that Trump opposes same-sex marriage, it’s out of political convenience. This brief moment in the speech provides a sign that may be true. But the rhetoric Trump is using has some ugly roots: It’s essentially a European right-wing strategy to pit LGBTQ people against Muslims. As my colleague Dylan Matthews explained, European right-wingers often use Middle Eastern countries’ horrific records on gay rights to try to foster Islamophobic sentiments among LGBTQ communities — a sentiment they can tap into to garner restrictions on immigration from predominantly Muslim countries. It’s effectively pro-gay Islamophobia. The crowd’s reaction also does not mean that Republicans have progressed on gay rights or LGBTQ issues more broadly. Despite some LGBTQ advocates’ hopes that the party would drop these types of battles after losing on same-sex marriage, the 2016 platform includes continued opposition to marriage equality, support for North Carolina’s anti-transgender bathroom law, support for anti-LGBTQ conversion therapy, and a tacit condemnation of same-sex parents. But at the very least, the Republican convention will clap and cheer for ending anti-LGBTQ murder.

https://www.vox.com/2016/7/21/12254616/trump-acceptance-speech-lgbtq-rnc

Vox

2017-03-23 17:45:00

2017

3.0

23

Laura Kiesel

Medicaid Affects Way More People Than You Realize

One bitter cold day in early February, I stumbled out of bed and braved the Boston MBTA subway system to make it downtown for a meeting hosted by the Boston Center for Independent Living on how the potential repeal of the Affordable Care Act might impact disabled people in Massachusetts who rely on Medicaid. I sat myself in the front of a crowded room that included women in wheelchairs and men with canes. When the room went quiet, I could hear only the gentle panting of a dozen service dogs. Over the course of the next hour, the speakers got up one by one and went through the possible scenarios, while I fidgeted and frowned, taking notes when I could. During the question-and-answer segment at the end of the seminar, a woman stood up to speak into the microphone. While leaning heavily on her crutch, she shouted into it: "Don't they understand if we don't have healthcare, we die?" Continue reading on Tonic.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ypkj5b/medicaid-affects-way-more-people-than-you-realize-tonic

Tonic

Vice

2019-06-16 00:00:00

2019

6.0

16

Adam Jourdan, Nicolás Misculin, Eliana Raszewski

Power mostly restored after massive blackout in Argentina, but questions remain

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Power returned to much of Argentina and two neighboring countries following a massive blackout that left tens of millions in the dark on Sunday, but Argentine President Mauricio Macri said the cause of the “unprecedented” outage was still unclear. Argentina’s grid “collapsed” around 7 a.m. (1100 GMT), leaving the entire country without power, Argentina’s Energy Secretariat said. The outage also cut electricity to much of neighboring Uruguay and swaths of Paraguay, and shut down YPF SA’s La Plata refinery, Argentina’s largest. Power had returned to nearly 90 percent of Argentina by early on Sunday evening and to virtually all of Uruguay and Paraguay, officials in each country said. Macri´s energy secretary, Gustavo Lopetegui, told reporters earlier in the day that the blackout started with a failure in the country´s “interconnection system,” known as SADI, but said the root cause of the outage remained unknown and that results of a full investigation would not be available for 10 to 15 days. “There was a failure in the system, the kind that happens regularly in Argentina and other countries,” said Lopetegui, adding that “a chain of events that took place later ... caused a total disruption.” “This case is unprecedented and will be deeply investigated,” Macri said on social media. The blackout comes amid a deepening economic crisis in Argentina that has plunged nearly a third of the country into poverty, pushed interest rates skyward and sent the peso tumbling against the dollar, prompting mass protests throughout the country. Residents of Buenos Aires, a city of nearly 16 million, awoke on Father´s Day to a nearly entirely dark city. The blackout hobbled public transportation, cut off water supplies and crippled phone and internet communications for much of the day. Images from social media showed long lines of cars at the few service stations still in operation in Argentina’s largest city and traffic lights dim, creating chaos in places even on a normally quiet Sunday. “The city is a disaster. There are no traffic lights. Stores aren’t open. It spoiled Father’s Day,” said 75-year-old retiree Liliana Comis. Speculation abounded on social media about the causes of the blackout, as well as sharp rebukes by critics of Macri, who is running for re-election later this year in a hotly contested race. “Millions of Argentines, who have had to pay astronomical rates for electricity to benefit those in power, are still waiting for power to return to their homes,” Alberto Fernandez, a Peronist presidential candidate, said in a tweet on Sunday afternoon. The blackout also renewed questions about the vulnerability of parts of the South American grid, which transcends borders and connects many of the region´s largest economies. A similarly massive outage in Brazil in 2009, caused by a failure at the country´s sprawling Itaipu hydroelectric plant, cut power to tens of millions and led to calls for Brazil to beef up its energy infrastructure. A spokesman for Argentine state oil company YPF told Reuters that its La Plata refinery, a critical link in the country’s oil infrastructure, had been temporarily shut down following the outage. Argentina is also home to the Vaca Muerta shale formation, one of the world’s biggest reserves of shale gas and oil. It was not immediately clear to what extent drilling operations there had been affected. Brazil, despite its connection to the Argentine grid, appeared to escape any serious impact from the blackout. A spokesman for Brazil’s power system operator, Operador Nacional do Sistema Eletrico (ONS), told Reuters early on Sunday the outage had not affected that country. Reporting by Eliana Raszewski, Nicolas Misculin and Adam Jourdan in Buenos Aires; Additional reporting by Luciano Costa de Paula in Brazil and Rishika Chatterjee in Bengaluru, Daniela Desantis in Asuncion and Dave Sherwood in Santiago; Writing by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Peter Cooney

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-latam-power/power-mostly-restored-after-massive-blackout-in-argentina-but-questions-remain-idUSKCN1TH0FO

World News

Reuters

2016-03-13 00:00:00

2016

3.0

13

'How To Get Away With Murder' Heartthrob Learns How to Get Out of Marriage ... Quick

Charlie Weber, who plays Frank on "How to Get Away with Murder," is cutting bait on his marriage before his one year anniversary. Charlie's getting a divorce from his wife Giselle after only 9 months. He filed the docs last month in L.A. citing irreconcilable differences. They don't have kids, but there was a prenup and the docs say that will make for a nice clean split of the couple's assets. No muss, no fuss. At least Charlie didn't spend Valentine's Day alone ... Waiting for your permission to load the Instagram Media.

https://www.tmz.com/2016/03/13/how-to-get-away-with-murder-charlie-weber-divorce/

TMZ

2017-01-28 00:00:00

2017

1.0

28

Mica Rosenberg

Factbox: What's in Trump's order halting refugee program

(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday his administration wants more rigorous screening of refugees and visitors from certain countries to prevent terrorist attacks. Here is what Trump’s order on “extreme vetting” - denounced by civil rights groups as discriminatory - includes. The order bars the entry of foreign nationals from certain countries for 90 days. While no countries are specifically named in the order, it refers to a statute that would apply to seven Muslim-majority nations: Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Iraq. There is an exception for certain types of visas, including for diplomats and the United Nations. The temporary halt is aimed at giving the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and the Director of National Intelligence time to determine what information is needed from each country to ensure that visas are not issued to individuals posing a national security threat. The order calls for a review to create a single process for screening people entering the country, which could include holding more in-person interviews, searches of an expanded database of identity documents or longer application forms. Under the current system, some visa applications require interviews but others do not. The government already has extensive databases but some believe they need to be expanded.       The order suspends the Visa Interview Waiver Program, which allows consular officers to exempt some applicants from face-to-face interviews if they are seeking to renew their temporary visas within a year of expiration. Immigration attorneys say the changes will make even routine applications much more complicated and time consuming and could mean that more people will need assistance to get through the visa process. In an attempt to ensure wait times for interviews are “not unduly affected,” the order calls for the hiring of more consular fellows to work in U.S. embassies abroad. The order calls for the temporary halt of all refugee admissions for four months so the government can study the process and determine if additional checks are necessary, although there will be case-by-case exceptions. The order also implemented a blanket ban of all Syrian refugees until “sufficient changes” have been made to the refugee program, without giving more details. After the suspension is lifted, the government will give priority to applicants that are suffering religious-based prosecution, but only if they are minorities in their country. Trump said in a television interview that the move would protect Christians. It could also protect ethnic minorities like the Yazidis in the Middle East. This could potentially open the door to legal challenges claiming religious discrimination, some legal experts say. Once refugee admissions resume, fewer will be allowed. The 2017 cap was set at 50,000 people, compared to 85,000 designated by President Barack Obama for 2016. In a nod to certain states and cities that have objected to refugee resettlement, the order also seeks to give state and local jurisdictions a role in deciding whether or not to allow people to live there. COMPLETING THE “BIOMETRIC ENTRY-EXIT TRACKING SYSTEM” The system is aimed at tracking foreign visitors’ arrival and departure using information like finger prints. Former President Barack Obama’s administration had aimed to start implementing biometric exit checks at the country’s largest airports by 2018. Some experts have said that for the system to work properly, it would need to cover all land, air, and sea ports of entry, which is a major undertaking. According to a 2014 report from the Bipartisan Policy Center the system would be expensive to implement and would “offer mixed value for enforcement objectives.” (This version of the story has been refiled to fix spelling of “Iraq” in paragraph 3) Reporting by Mica Rosenberg; Editing by Tom Hogue

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-refugees-factbox/factbox-whats-in-trumps-order-halting-refugee-program-idUSKBN15C052

Politics

Reuters

2016-08-12 00:00:00

2016

8.0

12

Nayland Blake

Domestic Update

Advertise on Hyperallergic with Nectar Ads

https://hyperallergic.com/317109/domestic-update/

Hyperallergic

2019-06-28 03:30:00

2019

6.0

28

Tara Golshan

Democratic debate: Pete Buttigieg challenged on handling of South Bend shooting

Mayor Pete Buttigieg was put in the hot seat during the second Democratic presidential debate Thursday when, in the aftermath of an officer-involved shooting in South Bend, Indiana, he was asked: Why is the city’s police force so white? “The police force is 6 percent black in a city that is 26 percent black,” moderator Chuck Todd asked. “Why has that not improved over your two terms as mayor?” “Because I couldn’t get it done,” Buttigieg said. He continued to say that he was “determined to bring about a day when a white person driving a vehicle and a black person driving a vehicle, when they see a police officer approaching, feels the same thing. Not of fear, but of safety. I am going to bring about that very thing.” A South Bend police officer shot and killed 54-year-old black resident Eric Logan on June 16, responding to reports that a man was breaking into cars with a knife. The police officer’s body camera was turned off at the time. Since then, Buttigieg has faced protesters at home as black residents openly questioned whether he cares more about winning the votes of black voters nationwide than he does about fixing the injustices in his city’s public offices. The city is investigating the shooting. On Thursday night, it wasn’t just the debate moderators who had questions for Buttigieg’s handling of racial tensions in his hometown. Several of his competitors on the stage took shots at him as well. At one point, California Rep. Eric Swalwell asked Buttigieg repeatedly why he didn’t fire the current police chief after Logan’s death — a comment that visibly angered Buttigieg. Here’s the exchange: HICKENLOOPER: If I can ask one more question: The question they are asking in South Bend and across the country is why has it taken so long? We had a shooting when I became mayor 10 years before Ferguson. We diversified the police force and ... we did deescalation training. I think the real question that America should be asking is why, five years after Ferguson, every city doesn’t have this level of accountability. BUTTIGIEG: I have to respond to that. We have taken so many steps toward police accountability that the FOP denounced me for too much accountability, and I accept responsibility for that because I’m in charge. SWALWELL: If the camera wasn’t on and that was the policy, you should fire the chief. BUTTIGIEG: So under Indiana law, this will be investigated, and there will be accountability for the officer involved. SWALWELL: But you are the mayor. You should fire the chief — if that’s the policy and someone died. Buttigieg’s handling of outreach to his black constituents has been questioned in South Bend before. In 2012, two months after taking office, Buttigieg fired black Police Chief Darryl Boykins for allegedly taping his white senior officers’ phone calls in an attempt to catch them using racist language, the New York Times reported. Critics argued that Buttigieg, who is white, took the side of white officers who accused Boykins of wrongdoing. He’s replaced Boykins with two white police chiefs. At the time, some in the community called for Buttigieg to be impeached over his handling of the matter, South Bend’s WNDU reported. That said, Buttigieg ran for reelection in 2015 and won with an overwhelming majority — beating the Republican candidate with 80 percent of the vote. Buttigieg’s campaign has been vocal about its attempted outreach with minorities, and its need to better connect with communities of color, with the mayor calling it “one of the most important pieces of homework for our campaign.” The need to do that homework seems to remain; recent polling shows him garnering only 2 percent of black voters’ support. And the recent shooting has only amplified what has been a constant shadow over the mayor’s presidential campaign: his at times strained relationships with communities of color.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/27/18935564/pete-buttigieg-south-bend-shooting-racism-democratic-debate

Vox

2016-07-29 00:00:00

2016

7.0

29

VICE News

Pro-Trump Breitbart News: 'Bernie people are our people'

The conservative media outlet known for boosting Donald Trump has found some unlikely common ground with unrepentant Bernie Sanders supporters. VICE News followed Breitbart's politics team as they covered a Bernie or Bust protest in Philadelphia. Read "Bernie supporters are shocked — shocked! — at how politics works" Watch "How China's state media covers the problems with American democracy"

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/qv575m/pro-trump-breitbart-news-bernie-people-are-our-people

Vice News

2017-10-26 00:00:00

2017

10.0

26

Tommy Lasorda Says Dodgers Shouldn't Have Lost Game 2

Tommy Lasorda bleeds Dodger blue -- and that blood was boiling after Game 2 ... telling TMZ Sports, "That's one loss we shouldn't have had!" After the Dodgers blew a 3-1 lead late in the game, critics were wondering if Dodgers manager Dave Roberts screwed up by pulling starting pitcher Rich Hill too early. We asked Lasorda what he thought -- and he deflected -- but it's clear he was unhappy his team took the L. By the way, Tommy's 90 years old and still fiery -- we love it -- so, we asked for some life advice. Check out what he says.

https://www.tmz.com/2017/10/26/tommy-lasorda-dodgers-game-2/

TMZ

2018-05-15 00:00:00

2018

5.0

15

Mica Rosenberg, Lucy Nicholson

U.S. judges weigh fate of program protecting young immigrants

NEW YORK/PASADENA, California (Reuters) - A panel of three appeals court judges in California on Tuesday asked the federal government to defend its decision to end a program protecting from deportation some immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children, who are often referred to as “Dreamers.” The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals must rule on whether to uphold a lower court’s nationwide injunction ordering the government to keep the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in place while litigation challenging its termination proceeds. The administration of President Donald Trump announced in September it would scrap the 2012 program launched by former President Barack Obama, and said it was up to Congress to find a legislative solution. Several plaintiffs, including the University of California, which enrolls many DACA recipients, sued over the administration’s decision, and in January, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco issued the injunction. A judge in Brooklyn, New York, made a similar finding, and a judge in Washington, D.C., gave the government extra time to explain its reasoning. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the program was unlawful when he announced the end of DACA, a position the appeals court judges asked attorneys for the government to explain on Tuesday. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Hashim Mooppan responded that it was within the government’s discretion to decide the fate of the program. “It is perfectly lawful to have a zero tolerance enforcement policy, but it is potentially unlawful to not enforce the law on a large swath of people,” Mooppan said. Lawyers for plaintiffs challenging DACA’s termination argued that while Obama was clearly within his rights to establish the program, its end robbed hundreds of thousands of young immigrants of protections they had come to rely on. Outside the Pasadena courthouse on Tuesday, some 30 DACA supporters gathered in a rose garden, shouting slogans in Spanish and English. Ali Torabi, 27, a DACA recipient who came from Iran with his mother and younger brother 23 years ago, said he is hoping for a favorable decision from the courts since Congress seems unable to act. “Both parties are playing a lot of politics with our lives,” Torabi said. “They’ve let us down so many times.” The panel of judges, all appointed by Democratic presidents, could issue its decision at any time. The Supreme Court, which in February declined a request to weigh in before the appellate court, said at the time it assumed the appeals court would rule swiftly. Reporting by Mica Rosenberg in New York and Lucy Nicholson in Pasadena; Editing by Sue Horton

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-daca/u-s-judges-weigh-fate-of-program-protecting-young-immigrants-idUSKCN1IG3H8

U.S.

Reuters

2017-10-12 15:26:36

2017

10.0

12

Dennis Green

Black Friday 2017: Malls closed on Thanksgiving

CBL Properties is taking a stand against Black Friday creep. For the second year in a row, the mall operator that manages 62 malls across the country will close all of its locations for the entirety of Thanksgiving Day, according to a letter from its CEO, Stephen Lebovitz. Lebovitz told CNBC that his company had "such overwhelming support from last year's decision," they felt "validated." The move is in response to "Black Friday creep," which sees retailers opening earlier and earlier every year on Thanksgiving to capture crowds for "doorbuster" sales. CBL is marketing its move with the #makeThanksgivingyours hashtag. Retailers that have an exterior entrance in malls will be allowed to open early, however, even if the mall itself is closed until 6 a.m. on Black Friday. Some retailers, like TJ Maxx, Neiman Marcus, and Costco, have already started announcing whether they will be open or closed on Thanksgiving Day. Here's the full list of CBL malls that will be closed: Acadiana Mall in Lafayette, Louisiana Alamance Crossing in Burlington, North Carolina Arbor Place in Douglasville, Georgia Asheville Mall in Asheville, North Carolina Brookfield Square in Brookfield, Wisconsin Burnsville Center in Burnsville, Minnesota Cary Towne Center in Cary, North Carolina Chapel Hills Mall in Colorado Springs, Colorado CherryVale Mall in Rockford, Illinois Coastal Grand in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina CoolSprings Galleria in Franklin, Tennessee Cross Creek Mall in Fayetteville, North Carolina Dakota Square Mall in Minot, North Dakota East Towne Mall in Madison, Wisconsin EastGate Mall in Cincinnati, Ohio Eastland Mall in Bloomington, Illinois Fayette Mall in Lexington, Kentucky Friendly Center in Greensboro, North Carolina Frontier Mall in Cheyenne, Wyoming Greenbrier Mall in Chesapeake, Virginia Hamilton Place in Chattanooga, Tennessee Hanes Mall in Winston-Salem, North Carolina Harford Mall in Bel Air, Maryland Hickory Point Mall in Forsyth, Illinois Honey Creek Mall in Terre Haute, Indiana Imperial Valley Mall in El Centro, California Janesville Mall in Janesville, Wisconsin Jefferson Mall in Louisville, Kentucky Kirkwood Mall in Bismark, North Dakota Laurel Park Place in Livonia, Michigan Layton Hills Mall in Layton, Utah Mall del Norte in Laredo, Texas Mayfaire in Wilmington, North Carolina Meridian Mall in Okemos, Michigan Mid Rivers Mall in St. Peters, Missouri Monroeville Mall in Monroeville, Pennsylvania Northgate Mall in Chattanooga, Tennessee Northpark Mall in Joplin, Missouri Northwoods Mall in Charleston, South Carolina Oak Park Mall in Overland Park, Kansas Old Hickory Mall in Jackson, Tennessee Park Plaza in Little Rock, Arkansas Parkdale Mall in Beaumont, Texas Parkway Place in Huntsville, Alabama Pearland Town Center in Pearland, Texas Post Oak Mall in College Station, Texas Richland Mall in Waco, Texas South County in St. Louis, Missouri Southpark Mall in Colonial Heights, Virginia St. Clair Square in Fairview Heights, Illinois Stroud Mall, Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania Sunrise Mall, Brownsville in Texas Triangle Town Center in Raleigh, North Carolina Turtle Creek Mall in Hattiesburg, Mississippi Valley View Mall in Roanoke, Virginia Volusia Mall in Daytona Beach, Florida West County Center in St. Louis, Missouri West Park Mall in Giraradeau, Missori West Towne Mall in Madison, Wisconsin WestGate Mall in Spartanburg, South Carolina Westmoreland Mall in Greensburg, Pennsylvania York Galleria in York, Pennsylvania

https://www.businessinsider.com/black-friday-2017-malls-closed-thanksgiving-2017-10

Business Insider

2017-05-05 00:00:00

2017

5.0

5

Alex Thompson

Democrats have raised millions in the hours since the House passed Trumpcare

Democrats have raised millions in the hours since the House passed Trumpcare Democrats have raised millions in the hours since the House passed Trumpcare Phones down, wallets out. That was the credo of Democratic “resistance” activists Thursday following the narrow passage of Trumpcare in the House of Representatives despite hundreds of thousands of phone calls and angry town halls denouncing the health care bill. In less than 24 hours, Democrats raised at least $4 million for campaigns and groups challenging Republicans in the 2018 midterms, according to a VICE News analysis of various progressive groups. ActBlue, the fundraising platform used by most progressive groups and the Democratic Party, recorded $4,223,401 in donations Thursday from 123,145 contributors spread across 1,200 different campaigns, organizations, and funds. The DNC said it had its strongest fundraising day since March, and MoveOn.org’s Washington director, Ben Wikler, told VICE News that the fundraising text message sent immediately after the vote was its most successful ever, pulling in over $40,000 (and counting). At least $2 million went directly to Democratic campaigns challenging Republicans in the House through ActBlue’s “nominee funds,” which save the money for whoever the Democratic nominee ends up being next year. DailyKos, Swing Left, and ActBlue all set up nominee fund accounts yesterday that quickly raised hundreds of thousands of dollars each. Hillary Clinton, who is expected to launch a political PAC next week, also promoted Swing Left’s efforts on Twitter: While many Democrats are now privately nervous that the Republicans could succeed in repealing President Barack Obama’s signature legislative accomplishment, many believe that the vote yesterday could be the key to reclaiming a majority in the House in 2018. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi seemed to almost relish the vote yesterday, warning Republicans, “You have every provision of this bill tattooed on your forehead. You will glow in the dark.” Phones down, wallets out. That was the credo of Democratic “resistance” activists Thursday following the narrow passage of Trumpcare in the House of Representatives despite hundreds of thousands of phone calls and angry town halls denouncing the health care bill. In less than 24 hours, Democrats raised at least $4 million for campaigns and groups challenging Republicans in the 2018 midterms, according to a VICE News analysis of various progressive groups. ActBlue, the fundraising platform used by most progressive groups and the Democratic Party, recorded $4,223,401 in donations Thursday from 123,145 contributors spread across 1,200 different campaigns, organizations, and funds. The DNC said it had its strongest fundraising day since March, and MoveOn.org’s Washington director, Ben Wikler, told VICE News that the fundraising text message sent immediately after the vote was its most successful ever, pulling in over $40,000 (and counting). At least $2 million went directly to Democratic campaigns challenging Republicans in the House through ActBlue’s “nominee funds,” which save the money for whoever the Democratic nominee ends up being next year. DailyKos, Swing Left, and ActBlue all set up nominee fund accounts yesterday that quickly raised hundreds of thousands of dollars each. Hillary Clinton, who is expected to launch a political PAC next week, also promoted Swing Left’s efforts on Twitter: While many Democrats are now privately nervous that the Republicans could succeed in repealing President Barack Obama’s signature legislative accomplishment, many believe that the vote yesterday could be the key to reclaiming a majority in the House in 2018. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi seemed to almost relish the vote yesterday, warning Republicans, “You have every provision of this bill tattooed on your forehead. You will glow in the dark.” Before the fundraising became public, Cook Political Report shifted its ratings Friday morning to give Democrats better chances in 20 more seats in 2018 because of the vote on the unpopular Trumpcare legislation. Of the 217 Republicans who voted for the bill, 14 are from districts that Clinton won last November and are top targets for Democrats next year. No issue has galvanized Democrats in the Trump era quite like health care. Tens of thousands have attended Republican town halls, hundreds of thousands have called their representatives. Daily Action, a group born after Election Day that has made calling a congressman’s office easier than ever, tracked over 100,000 calls to congressional offices about health care since February, 43,000 of which were just in the last week. Before the vote yesterday, Daily Action users made 14,506 calls to congressional offices. But the bill passed anyway, and many progressives are realizing the last lobbying option left to them is opening their wallets to help replace the Republicans next year. Follow Alex on Twitter @AlxThomp

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/j5d9b8/democrats-have-raised-millions-in-the-hours-since-the-house-passed-trumpcare

Vice News

2018-08-17 18:24:00

2018

8.0

17

VICE Staff

Saying Goodbye to Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin sold 75 million records, won 15 Grammy awards, and boasted a range that few other singers had before she died this week at 76 years old. Franklin's legacy—her openness about female sexuality, her embodiment of soul and R&B, and her steadfast dedication to her art—has influenced thousands of artists who have come after her, from Alicia Keys to Ariana Grande. Franklin was originally from Memphis, Tennessee. Born into a preacher's family, her earlier years were spent singing gospel music in church. As her career progressed, she became an icon for women of color during the Civil Rights movement, and her hit songs, from "Respect" to "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Loved You)," became household staples and American classics, spawning other songs and lyrics inspired by her powerful style. On today's episode, Franklin fan and Tonic editor Rajul Punjabi sat down with Noisey editor-in-chief Eric Sundermann to honor the legendary singer. You can catch The VICE Guide to Right Now Podcast on Acast, Google Play, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. And sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/d3ej7v/saying-goodbye-to-aretha-franklin

Noisey

Vice

2016-07-22 16:30:00

2016

7.0

22

Brad Plumer

Full transcript of Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the RNC

Below is a complete transcript of Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016. Also see our fact check of Trump's speech. Friends, delegates and fellow Americans: I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States. Who would have believed that when we started this journey on June 16, last year, we — I say we because we are a team — would have received almost 14 million votes, the most in the history of the Republican party? And that the Republican Party would get 60 percent more votes than it received eight years ago. Who would have believed it? The Democrats on the other hand, received 20 percent fewer votes than they got four years ago, not so good. Together, we will lead our party back to the White House, and we will lead our country back to safety, prosperity, and peace. We will be a country of generosity and warmth. But we will also be a country of law and order. Our convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation. The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life. Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country. Americans watching this address tonight have seen the recent images of violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities. Many have witnessed this violence personally. Some have even been its victims. I have a message for all of you: The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon — and I mean very soon come to an end. Beginning on January 20th 2017, safety will be restored. The most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its citizens. Any government that fails to do so is a government unworthy to lead. It is finally time for a straightforward assessment of the state of our nation. I will present the facts plainly and honestly. We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore. So if you want to hear the corporate spin, the carefully-crafted lies, and the media myths — the Democrats are holding their convention next week. Go there. But here, at our convention, there will be no lies. We will honor the American people with the truth, and nothing else. These are the facts: Decades of progress made in bringing down crime are now being reversed by this administration's rollback of criminal enforcement. Homicides last year increased by 17% in America's fifty largest cities. That's the largest increase in 25 years. In our nation's capital, killings have risen by 50 percent. They are up nearly 60 percent in nearby Baltimore. In the president's hometown of Chicago, more than 2,000 have been the victims of shootings this year alone. And almost 4,000 have been killed in the Chicago area since he took office. The number of police officers killed in the line of duty has risen by almost 50 percent compared to this point last year. Nearly 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records, ordered deported from our country, are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens. The number of new illegal immigrant families who have crossed the border so far this year already exceeds the entire total of 2015. They are being released by the tens of thousands into our communities with no regard for the impact on public safety or resources. One such border-crosser was released and made his way to Nebraska. There, he ended the life of an innocent young girl named Sarah Root. She was 21 years old and was killed the day after graduating from college with a 4.0 grade point average. Her killer was then released a second time, and he is now a fugitive from the law. I've met Sarah's beautiful family. But to this administration, their amazing daughter was just one more American life that wasn't worth protecting. One more child to sacrifice on the altar of open borders. What about our economy? Again, I will tell you the plain facts that have been edited out of your nightly news and your morning newspaper: Nearly four in 10 African-American children are living in poverty, while 58% of African-American youth are now not employed. 2 million more Latinos are in poverty today than when the president took his oath of office eight years ago. Another 14 million people have left the workforce entirely. Household incomes are down more than $4,000 since the year 2000. That is 16 years ago. Our trade deficit in goods reached — think of this — our trade deficit is $800 hundred billion dollars. Think of that. $800 billion last year alone. We will fix that. The budget is no better. President Obama has almost doubled our national debt to more than $19 trillion, and growing. Yet, what do we have to show for it? Our roads and bridges are falling apart, our airports are in third world condition, and 43 million Americans are on food stamps. Now let us consider the state of affairs abroad. Not only have our citizens endured domestic disaster, but they have lived through one international humiliation after another. One after another. We all remember the images of our sailors being forced to their knees by their Iranian captors at gunpoint. This was just prior to the signing of the Iran deal, which gave back to Iran $150 billion and gave us absolutely nothing. It will go down in history as one of the worst deals ever negotiated. Another humiliation came when President Obama drew a red line in Syria and the whole world knew it meant absolutely nothing. In Libya, our consulate, the symbol of American prestige around the globe was brought down in flames. America is far less safe and the world is far less stable than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of America's foreign policy. I am certain it is a decision he truly regrets. Her bad instincts and her bad judgment, something pointed out by Bernie Sanders are what caused the disasters unfolding today. Let's review the record. In 2009, pre-Hillary, ISIS was not even on the map. Libya was stable. Egypt was peaceful. Iraq had seen a big reduction in violence. Iran was being choked by sanctions. Syria was somewhat under control. After four years of Hillary Clinton, what do we have? ISIS has spread across the region and the entire world. Libya is in ruins, and our ambassador and his staff were left helpless to die at the hands of savage killers. Egypt was turned over to the radical Muslim Brotherhood, forcing the military to retake control. Iraq is in chaos. Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons. Syria is engulfed in a civil war and a refugee crisis that now threatens the West. After 15 years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before. This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: Death, destruction and terrorism and weakness. But Hillary Clinton's legacy does not have to be America's legacy. The problems we face now — poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad — will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them. A change in leadership is required to produce a change in outcomes. Tonight, I will share with you for action for America. The most important difference between our plan and that of our opponents, is that our plan will put America first. Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo. As long as we are led by politicians who will not put America first, then we can be assured that other nations will not treat America with respect. The respect that we deserve. The American people will come first once again. First, my plan will begin with safety at home which means safe neighborhoods, secure borders, and protection from terrorism. There can be no prosperity without law and order. On the economy, I will outline reforms to add millions of new jobs and trillions in new wealth that can be used to rebuild America. A number of these reforms that I will outline tonight will be opposed by some of our nation's most powerful special interests. That is because these interests have rigged our political and economic system for their exclusive benefit. Believe me. It is for their benefit. For their benefit. Big business, elite media and major donors are lining up behind the campaign of my opponent because they know she will keep our rigged system in place. They are throwing money at her because they have total control over every single thing she does. She is their puppet, and they pull the strings. That is why Hillary Clinton's message is that things will never change. Never ever. My message is that things have to change and they have to change right now. Every day I wake up determined to deliver a better life for the people all across this nation that had been ignored, neglected and abandoned. I have visited the laid-off factory workers, and the communities crushed by our horrible and unfair trade deals. These are the forgotten men and women of our country, and they are forgotten, but they will not be forgotten long. These are people who work hard but no longer have a voice. I am your voice. I have embraced crying mothers who have lost their children because our politicians put their personal agendas before the national good. I have no patience for injustice. No tolerance for government incompetence. When innocent people suffer, because our political system lacks the will, or the courage, or the basic decency to enforce our laws, or worse still, has sold out to some corporate lobbyist for cash I am not able to look the other way. And I won't look the other way. And when a Secretary of State illegally stores her emails on a private server, deletes 33,000 of them so the authorities can't see her crime, puts our country at risk, lies about it in every different form and faces no no consequence — I know that corruption has reached a level like never ever before in our country. When the FBI director says that the Secretary of State was "extremely careless" and "negligent" in handling our classified secrets, I also know that these terms are minor compared to what she actually did. They were just used to save her from facing justice for her terrible, terrible crimes. In fact, her single greatest accomplishment may be committing such an egregious crime and getting away with it, especially when others who have been far less have paid so dearly. When that same Secretary of State rakes in millions of dollars trading access and favors to special interests and foreign powers, I know the time for action has come. I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it. I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens, just like it was rigged against Bernie Sanders. He never had a chance. But his supporters will join our movement, because we will fix his biggest issue: Trade deals that strip our country of jobs and the distribution of wealth in the country. Millions of Democrats will join our movement, because we are going to fix the system so it works fairly and justly for each and every American. In this cause, I am proud to have at my side the next Vice President of the United States: Governor Mike Pence of Indiana. And a great guy. We will bring the same economic success to America that Mike brought Indiana, which is amazing. He is a man of character and accomplishment. He is the right man for the job. The first task for our new administration will be to liberate our citizens from the crime and terrorism and lawlessness that threatens their — our communities. America was shocked to its core when our police officers in Dallas were so brutally executed. Immediately after Dallas, we have seen continued threats and violence against our law enforcement officials. Law officers have been shot or killed in recent days in Georgia, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas, Michigan and Tennessee. On Sunday, more police were gunned down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Three were killed, and three were very badly injured. An attack on law enforcement is an attack on all Americans. I have a message to every last person threatening the peace on our streets and the safety of our police: When I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order to our country. I will work with, and appoint, the best prosecutors and law enforcement officials in the country to get the job properly done. In this race for the White House, I am the law and order candidate. The irresponsible rhetoric of our president, who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color, has made America a more dangerous environment than frankly, I have ever seen and anybody in this room has ever watched or seeing. This administration has failed America's inner cities. Remember, it has failed America's inner cities. It's failed them on education. It's failed them on jobs. It's failed them on crime. It's failed them in every way and on every single level. When I am president, I will work to ensure that all of our kids are treated equally, and protected equally. Every action I take, I will ask myself: Does this make life better for young Americans in Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, and Ferguson who have really come in every way, have the same right to live out their dreams as any other child in America? To make life safe in America, we must also address the growing threats from outside the country. We are going to defeat the barbarians of ISIS. And we are going to defeat them bad. Once again, France is the victim of brutal Islamic terrorism. Men, women and children viciously mowed down. Lives ruined. Families ripped apart. A nation in mourning. The damage and devastation that can be inflicted by Islamic radicals has been proven over and over. At the World Trade Center, at an office party in San Bernardino, at the Boston Marathon, and a military recruiting center in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And many other locations. Only weeks ago, in Orlando, Florida, 49 wonderful Americans were savagely murdered by an Islamic terrorist. This time, the terrorist targeted LGBTQ community. No good. And we're going to stop it. As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. Believe me. And I have to say as a Republican, it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said. Thank you. To protect us from terrorism, we need to focus on three things. We must have the best, absolutely the best, gathering of intelligence anywhere in the world. The best. We must abandon the failed policy of nation- building and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed in Iraq, Libya, in Egypt, and Syria. Instead, we must work with all of our allies who share our goal of destroying ISIS and stamping out Islamic terrorism and doing it now, doing it quickly. We're going to win. We're going to win fast. This includes working with our greatest ally in the region, the state of Israel. Recently I have said that NATO was obsolete. Because it did not properly cover terror. And also that many of the member countries were not paying their fair share. As usual, the United States has been picking up the cost. Shortly thereafter, it was announced that NATO will be setting up a new program in order to combat terrorism. A true step in the right direction. Lastly, and very importantly, we must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place. We don't want them in our country. My opponent has called for a radical 550 percent increase — think of this, this is not believable, but this is what is happening — a 550 percent increase in Syrian refugees on top of existing massive refugee flows coming into our country already under the leadership of president Obama. She proposes this despite the fact that there's no way to screen these refugees in order to find out who they are or where they come from. I only want to admit individuals into our country who will support our values and love our people. Anyone who endorses violence, hatred or oppression is not welcome in our country and never ever will be. Decades of record immigration have produced lower wages and higher unemployment for our citizens, especially for African-American and Latino workers. We are going to have an immigration system that works, but one that works for the American people. On Monday, we heard from three parents whose children were killed by illegal immigrants Mary Ann Mendoza, Sabine Durden, and my friend Jamiel Shaw. They are just three brave representatives of many thousands who have suffered so greatly. Of all my travels in this country, nothing has affected me more, nothing even close than the time I have spent with the mothers and fathers who have lost their children to violence spilling across our borders, which we can solve. We have to solve it. These families have no special interests to represent them. There are no demonstrators to protect them and none too protest on their behalf. My opponent will never meet with them, or share in their pain. Believe me. Instead, my opponent wants sanctuary cities. But where was sanctuary for Kate Steinle? Where was sanctuary for the children of Mary Ann, Sabine and Jamiel? Is so sad to even be talking about this. We can solve it so quickly. Where was sanctuary for all the other Americans who have been so brutally murdered, and who have suffered so horribly? These wounded American families have been alone. But they are not alone any longer. Tonight, this candidate and this whole nation stand in their corner to support them, to send them our love, and to pledge in their honor that we will save countless more families from suffering the same awful fate. We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities. I have been honored to receive the endorsement of America's Border Patrol agents, and will work directly with them to protect the integrity of our lawful, lawful, immigration system. By ending catch-and-release on the border, we will stop the cycle of human smuggling and violence. Illegal border crossings will go down. We will stop it. It will not be happening very much anymore. Believe me. Peace will be restored by enforcing the rules for the millions who overstay their visas, our laws will finally receive the respect they deserve. Tonight, I want every American whose demands for immigration security have been denied and every politician who has denied them to listen very closely to the words I am about to say: On on January 20 of 2017, the day I take the oath of office, Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced. We are going to be considerate and compassionate to everyone. But my greatest compassion will be for our own struggling citizens. My plan is the exact opposite of the radical and dangerous immigration policy of Hillary Clinton. Americans want relief from uncontrolled immigration. Which is what we have now. Communities want relief. Yet Hillary Clinton is proposing mass amnesty, mass immigration, and mass lawlessness. Her plan will overwhelm your schools and hospitals, further reduce your jobs and wages, and make it harder for recent immigrants to escape from the tremendous cycle of poverty they are going through right now and make it almost impossible for them to join the middle class. I have a different vision for our workers. It begins with a new, fair trade policy that protects our jobs and stands up to countries that cheat — of which there are many. It's been a signature message of my campaign from day one, and it will be a signature feature of my presidency from the moment I take the oath of office. I have made billions of dollars in business making deals. Now I'm going to make our country rich again. Using the greatest businesspeople of the world, I'm going to turn our bad trade agreements into great trade agreements. America has lost nearly-one third of its manufacturing jobs since 1997, following the enactment of disastrous trade deals supported by bill and Hillary Clinton. Remember, it was Bill Clinton who signed NAFTA, one of the worst economic deals ever made by our country. Or frankly, any other country. Never ever again. I am going to bring our jobs back our jobs to Ohio and Pennsylvania and New York and Michigan and all of America and I am not going to let companies move to other countries, firing their employees along the way, without consequences. Not going to happen anymore. My opponent, on the other hand, has supported virtually every trade agreement that has been destroying our middle class. She supported NAFTA, and she supported China's entrance into the world trade organization. Another one of her husband's colossal mistakes and disasters. She supported the job killing trade deal with South Korea. She she supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership which will not only destroy our manufacturing but it will make America subject to the rulings of foreign governments. And it is not going to happen. I pledge to never sign any trade agreement that hurts our workers, or that diminishes our freedom and Independence. We will never ever sign bad trade deals. America first again. American first. Instead, I will make individual deals with individual countries. No longer will we enter into these massive transactions with many countries that are thousands of pages long and which no one from our country even reads or understands. We are going to enforce all trade violations against any country that cheats. This includes stopping China's outrageous theft of intellectual property, along with their illegal product dumping, and their devastating currency manipulation. They are the greatest that ever came about, they are the greatest currently manipulators ever. Our horrible trade agreements with China, and many others, will be totally renegotiated. That includes renegotiating NAFTA to get a much better deal for America and will walk away if we don't get that kind of a deal. Our country is going to start building and making things again. Next comes the reform of our tax laws, regulations and energy rules. While Hillary Clinton plans a massive, and I mean massive, tax increase, I have proposed the largest tax reduction of any candidate who has run for president this year, Democrat or Republican. Middle-income Americans will experience profound relief, and taxes will be greatly simplified for everyone. I mean everyone. America is one of the highest-taxed nations in the world. Reducing taxes will cause new companies and new jobs to come roaring back into our country. Believe me. It will happen and it will happen fast. Then we are going to deal with the issue of regulation, one of the greatest job killers of them all. Excessive regulation is costing our country as much as $2 trillion a year, and we will end and it very quickly. We are going to lift the restrictions on the production of American energy. This will produce more than $20 trillion in job-creating economic activity over the next four decades. My opponent, on the other hand, wants to put the great miners and steelworkers of our country out of work and out of business. That will never happen with Donald J trump as president. Our steelworkers and are miners are going back to work again. With these new economic policies, trillions of dollars will start flowing into our country. This new wealth will improve the quality of life for all Americans. We will build the roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, and the railways of our tomorrow. This, in turn, will create millions of more jobs. We will rescue kids from failing schools by helping their parents send them to a safe school of their choice. My opponent would rather protect education bureaucrats than serve American children. That is what she is doing and that is what she has done. We will repeal and replace disastrous Obamacare. You will be able to choose your own doctor again. And we will fix TSA at the airports, which is a total disaster. Thank you. We are going to work with all of our students who are drowning in debt to take the pressure off these young people just starting out in their adult lives. Tremendous problems. We will completely rebuild our depleted military. And the countries that we protecting at a massive cost to us will be asked to pay their fair share. We will take care of our great veterans like they have never been taken care of before. My just-released 10 point plan has received tremendous better support. We will guarantee those who serve this country will be able to visit the doctor or hospital of their choice without waiting five days in a line and dying. My opponent dismissed the VA scandal, one more sign of how out of touch she really is. We are going to ask every department head and government to provide a list of wasteful spending projects that we can eliminate in my first 100 days. The politicians have talked about this for years, but I'm going to do it. We are also going to appoint justices to the United States Supreme Court who will uphold our laws and our constitution. The replacement of our beloved Justice Scalia will be a person of similar views, principles and judicial philosophies. Very important. This will be one of the most important issues decided by this election. My opponent wants to essentially abolish the 2nd Amendment. I, on the other hand, received the early and strong endorsement of the National Rifle Association. And will protect the right of all Americans to keep their families safe. At this moment, I would like to thank the evangelical community because, I will tell you what, the support they have given me — and I'm not sure I totally deserve it — has been so amazing. And has been such a big reason I'm here tonight. They have much to contribute to our policies. Yet our laws prevent you from speaking your mind from your own pulpits. An amendment, pushed by Lyndon Johnson, many years ago, threatens religious institutions with a loss of their tax-exempt status if they openly advocate their political views. Their voice has been taken away. I will work hard to repeal that language and to protect free speech for all Americans. We can accomplish these great things and so much more. All we need to do is start believing in ourselves a in our country again. Start believing. It is time to show the whole world that America is back, bigger and better and stronger than ever before. In this journey, I'm so lucky to have at my side my wife Melania and my wonderful children Don, Ivanka, Eric, Tiffany, and Barron: You will always be my greatest source of pride and joy. And by the way, Melania and Ivanka, did they do a job? My dad, Fred Trump, was the smartest and hardest working man I ever knew. I wonder sometimes what he'd say if he were here to see this tonight. It's because of him that I learned, from my youngest age, to respect the dignity of work and the dignity of working people. He was a guy most comfortable in the company of bricklayers, carpenters, and electricians and I have a lot of that in me also. I love those people. Then there's my mother, Mary. She was strong, but also warm and fair-minded. She was a truly great mother. She was also one of the most honest and charitable people I have ever known, and a great, great judge of character. She could pick them out from anywhere. To my sisters, Mary Anne and Elizabeth, my brother Robert and my late brother Fred, I will always give you my love. You are most special to me. I have loved my life in business. But now, my sole and exclusive mission is to go to work for our country, to go to work for you. It is time to deliver a victory for the American people. We don't win anymore, but we are going to start winning again. But to do that, we must break free from the petty politics of the past. America is a nation of believers, dreamers, and strivers that is being led by a group of censors, critics, and cynics. Remember: All of the people telling you you can't have the country you want, are the same people, that would not stand, I mean they said Trump does not have a chance of being here tonight, not a chance, the same people. We love defeating those people, don't we? Love it. No longer can we rely on those same people. In the media and politics who, will say anything to keep a rigged system in place. Instead, we must choose to believe in America. History is watching us now. It's we don't have much time. We don't have much time. It's waiting to see if we will rise to the occasion, and if we will show the whole world that America is still free and independent and strong. I am asking for your support tonight so that I can be year champion in the White House. And I will be a champion.Your champion. My opponent asks her supporters to recite a three-word loyalty pledge. It reads: "I'm with her." I choose to recite a different pledge. My pledge reads: "I'm with you the American people." I am your voice. So to every parent who dreams for their child, and every child who dreams for their future, I say these words to you tonight: I'm with you, and I will fight for you, and I will win for you. To all Americans tonight, in all our cities and towns, I make this promise: We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again! God bless you and goodnight! I love you!

https://www.vox.com/2016/7/21/12253426/donald-trump-acceptance-speech-transcript-republican-nomination-transcript

Vox

2017-07-23 00:00:00

2017

7.0

23

R. Kelly's Method of Luring Young Women Almost Worked on Me, Claims Young Woman

R. Kelly failed to successfully lure a young woman into his life, despite giving her cash and promising to jump-start her career ... and the woman says she has her mom to thank. The woman tells us she met the singer backstage at one of his shows in December after getting a wristband from someone in his crew. She was 20 at the time. She says R. Kelly gave her his number and the 2 exchanged calls and texts, and he promised to help her become an actress/model. He invited her to his Georgia home and told her to "wear something sexy." She claims she brought a friend, but it got real creepy -- no phones were allowed and suddenly she was escorted to R's bedroom. The woman says Kelly asked her to strut around and pose like a model ... and convinced her to take sexy photos. She says he paid her $200 when she left and told her to use it to buy black lingerie, heels and red lipstick for her next visit ... which she did. We're told she went back to R. Kelly's place 2 more times -- alone -- but each time he got more aggressive and controlling ... even guilting her into posing nude. She says they never had sex. She says the last straw was him sending her a one-way ticket to be with him back in L.A. in February, warning her not to bring a friend. She says she felt uneasy and told her mother, who promptly put the kibosh on the trip. We reached out to R. Kelly ... no comment.

https://www.tmz.com/2017/07/23/r-kelly-lure-women-sex/

TMZ

2016-08-03 00:00:00

2016

8.0

3

Tyson Beckford Says Matt Damon's a Sellout On Guns

Tyson Beckford unloaded on Matt Damon ... essentially calling him 2-faced on the gun issue. Tyson was leaving Katana in West Hollywood when he scoffed at Damon -- who has spoken out against rampant gun ownership -- but is banking millions by toting guns in the "Jason Bourne" flicks.

https://www.tmz.com/2016/08/03/tyson-beckford-jason-bourne-movie-guns/

TMZ

2017-10-29 00:00:00

2017

10.0

29

Frank Pingue

LA breaks Houston's home spell, evens World Series

HOUSTON (Reuters) - The Los Angeles Dodgers, playing with their backs against the wall for the first time all year, sprang back to life with a five-run ninth inning on Saturday to beat the Houston Astros 6-2 and level the World Series at two games apiece. With Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw set to take the mound for Sunday’s pivotal Game Five in Houston, the best team in baseball all season are suddenly back on track in their quest for a first World Series title since 1988. “It’s now a three-game series, and we’ve got our ace going tomorrow. So I know that in our clubhouse we feel good,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. The Dodgers, who breezed through regular season and into World Series, were staring at a potential 3-1 series deficit until Cody Bellinger’s bat came alive when he doubled and scored the tying run in the seventh inning. Bellinger, who had been hitless in his previous 13 plate appearances, then put the Dodgers ahead in the ninth with a run-scoring double as part of a five-run inning that was capped by Joc Pederson’s three-run blast. “We’ve been doing it all year. We’re a super resilient team,” said Bellinger, whose Dodgers are now guaranteed to host a Game Six on Tuesday. “Taking one here to make sure we go back to LA is huge.” The game had been a tight affair as both teams got stellar outings from their starting pitchers. Dodgers left-hander Alex Wood was working on a no-hitter when George Springer opened the scoring with a two-out homer in the sixth that ended the pitcher’s night. The Dodgers responded an inning later when a Logan Forsythe scored single Bellinger. “I was glad to keep us in it long enough to where our bats came alive. That felt like us there those last few innings,” said Wood. “It’s a big win for us. We’ve got our guy going tomorrow, so we’re excited to be able to take it back to LA, too.” Houston’s Charlie Morgan was nearly as impressive as he allowed just three hits in 6-1/3 innings. The Astros sent closer Ken Giles out for the ninth and he promptly allowed a single to Corey Seager, a walk to Justin Turner before Bellinger put the Dodgers ahead. “He hadn’t faced those guys a ton, but they didn’t have good swings against him in LA,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said of Giles. “One ground-ball base hit to start the inning and things sort of sped up on him a little bit, the walk after that.” With the Astros down to their final strike, Alex Bregman homered to left but it proved too little too late as Houston’s unbeaten home stretch in the postseason ended at seven games. Game Five of the best-of-seven World Series is scheduled for Sunday in Houston where the Astros will send Dallas Keuchel to the mound against Kershaw in a battle of left-handed former Cy Young Award winners. Reporting by Frank Pingue; Editing by Peter Rutherford/Amlan Chakraborty

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-baseball-mlb-hou-lad/la-breaks-houstons-home-spell-evens-world-series-idUSKBN1CY02Y

Sports News

Reuters

2018-11-08 17:30:26

2018

11.0

8

Dylan Matthews

Midterm 2018 Senate results: Democrats are unlikely to retake until 2022 or 2024

Despite a great night in House elections, Democrats have lost ground in the Senate. Depending on what happens in Florida and Arizona, the party will hold anywhere between 46 and 48 seats in the US Senate. Any of those options represents a net loss for the party, which currently holds 49 seats. That’s bad enough for the party in the near term. But it’s worse in the medium run. This year’s losses mean that Democrats will have a very hard time retaking the Senate in 2020. Before the election, FiveThirtyEight’s Nathaniel Rakich noted that with a 52-48 Senate in Republicans’ favor, Democrats in 2020 would need to hold on to Doug Jones’s seat in Alabama, defeat both Susan Collins in Maine and Cory Gardner in Colorado, and pick up a seat in a red state by ousting at least one of Thom Tillis in North Carolina, Joni Ernst in Iowa, Jon Kyl in Arizona (who’s not seeking reelection), or David Perdue in Georgia. (They’d need one less if they also take the presidency.) In the worst-case scenario for Democrats, a 54-46 Senate, they’d need to flip five seats and hold on to Alabama. A likely path might involve flipping Maine, Colorado, North Carolina, Iowa, and Arizona, in a year that’s not likely to be as Democratic-leaning as 2018. And that’s assuming that Jones holds on in Alabama, as do New Hampshire’s Jeanne Shaheen, Virginia’s Mark Warner, and Michigan’s Gary Peters. Some of them are likely to hold on, but Jones at least is likely to fall, and Shaheen and Warner came close in 2014. Putting it all together, a Democratic flip sounds unlikely. The upshot is clear: Democrats will probably remain in the minority in the Senate until at least 2022. That failure will have grave consequences not just for the prospects of future progressive legislation, like Medicare-for-all or action on climate change, but also for the next few decades of the federal judiciary. The primary consequence of Democrats’ failure in the Senate, in the near term, is that they’ll be unable to stop President Trump’s judicial appointments. They’ll have fewer votes to resist with than they did for Brett Kavanaugh. That could help Republicans solidify or expand their dominance on the Supreme Court. Clarence Thomas is relatively young (only 70), and he could time his retirement for next year or 2020 to ensure a Republican president and Senate determine his successor. And while Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 85 and a two-time cancer survivor, and Stephen Breyer, 80, are unlikely to retire under Trump, Democrats should pray for their continued good health, especially given news that Ginsburg fell, broke three ribs, and was admitted to George Washington University Hospital on Thursday morning. Then there are the lower courts. There are currently 122 vacancies on district courts and circuit courts of appeals for Trump to fill, out of 856 total. As analysis from the team at Ballotpedia shows, the aging of the federal judiciary means that by the end of 2020, slightly more than half of district and appeals court judgeships will be a) vacant, b) filled by Trump, or c) held by a judge old enough to take senior status and semi-retire, opening up the seat for another judge. Not all of those judges will take senior status, of course. But some will. And regardless of how many do, the core point remains that Trump will have considerable power to use his Republican Senate majority, and the 50-vote threshold that Democrats established for lower-court judgeships in 2013, to move the lower courts solidly to the right over the next two years. That’s the situation for 2019 and 2020. With the Senate mostly out of contention in 2020, the picture only gets worse for Democrats. If a Democrat defeats Trump for reelection in 2020 but Democrats also fail to retake the Senate — an outcome that’s especially likely if Democrats fall down to 46 seats this year after Arizona and Florida are counted — that Democratic president would not be able to enact much of any legislation of consequence in her first two years in office. Given her likely losses in the 2022 midterms, it’s unlikely she’d be able to pass major bills for her whole first term. Trump broke the trend due to a highly favorable map, but generally, it’s rare for the president’s party to gain seats in the Senate during a midterm. The last time it happened was 2002, in the wake of 9/11, and the last time before that was 1970. So don’t expect President Kamala Harris or Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders to pass a Medicare-for-all bill, or a job guarantee, or even DC statehood, automatic voter registration, or repairs to the Voting Rights Act. Without control of the Senate in 2021, all those initiatives would be dead in the water. Trump’s hypothetical Democratic successor in 2021 could also be prevented from appointing and confirming any new members of the US Supreme Court. Before the 2016 election, Sens. Ted Cruz, Richard Burr, and John McCain promised that should Hillary Clinton win, they’d favor blocking any and all nominees she put forward for Antonin Scalia’s vacant Supreme Court seat. Unless political polarization and constitutional hardball somehow abates, rather than worsens, by 2021, the Republican caucus is quite likely to adopt a similar strategy then. And if Trump is reelected in 2020, Democratic failure in the Senate would carry graver costs for Democrats. Ginsburg will turn 88 the first year of Trump’s second term, and 92 in 2025, if she decided to wait out Trump. Breyer, who has been in better health but as a man has a lower life expectancy, will be 86 and 90, respectively. It’s also entirely possible that a Trump reelection in 2020 would coincide with a Republican retaking of the House of Representatives. That, combined with a Republican hold on the Senate and Trump’s reelection, would enable new rounds of tax cuts, Medicaid cuts, attempts at Obamacare repeal, and more. Democrats used to rely heavily on seats in red states — not just swing states like Ohio or Iowa, but deep-red states like the Dakotas and Arkansas — for their Senate majority. They don’t anymore, and the Senate map looks increasingly identical to the presidential map. 2016 was the first year in the history of direct Senate elections that every state’s Senate election outcome matched its presidential outcome. That can mean only bad things for Democrats’ viability in the Senate in the medium to long run. Democrats’ losses in 2018 were concentrated overwhelmingly in deep-red states. Republicans flipped Missouri, Indiana, and North Dakota, none of which are normally competitive for Democrats in national elections (flukes like Obama’s 2008 win in Indiana aside), but where Democrats could compete because of popular incumbents from a less polarized age. Similar things happened in 2010 and 2014 in states like Arkansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Louisiana, and Alaska, and the 2010 losses weren’t reversed in 2016; indeed, in most cases, like Arkansas and North Dakota, Democrats didn’t even really try to reverse the losses in 2016. Here’s one way to think about what happened on Tuesday: In January 2005, Democrats had even fewer seats than they’re likely to have in 2019, with only 45. But they had 11 members from states that Mitt Romney would later win. Assuming Democratic losses in Florida and Arizona, Democrats will have only three members from Romney states: Jon Tester in Montana, Joe Manchin in West Virginia, and Doug Jones in Alabama. And Jones is likely to lose in 2020. I’m using Romney states here because he and Obama split up the states pretty evenly (26 for Obama, 24 for Romney), but you can do a similar analysis using Bush/Kerry states, Obama/McCain states, or even Clinton/Trump states, though Senate Democrats’ continued strength in the Midwest changes the latter analysis a bit. The point is, Democrats look increasingly uncompetitive for the Senate in states that aren’t at least purple-ish. That doesn’t necessarily have to doom them for Senate control in the long term. There are enough Republican senators from states that Obama won in 2012 — Marco Rubio, Pat Toomey, Chuck Grassley, Cory Gardner, Susan Collins, Ron Johnson, Rob Portman — such that replacing all of them would enable Democrats to retake the body. But the fact that the Senate map is increasingly resembling the presidential map is bad news for Democrats long-term. The Senate has a profound small-state bias, and small states (and rural states) are likelier to be Republican-leaning than large states; that was even more true before Trump flipped some large Midwestern states like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Democrats can win a minority of states and win the presidential popular vote, or even the Electoral College, but they can’t win a minority of states and keep the Senate. Moreover, Democrats would be forced to spend on more expensive races in large states rather than relatively cheap races in places like the Dakotas, where they used to be able to win. It’s not obvious, to me, how Democrats get out of that bind.

https://www.vox.com/2018/11/8/18072464/senate-midterm-election-results-democrats-disadvantage

Vox

2018-11-08 18:47:27

2018

11.0

8

Meghan Cook

Popular movies that were originally flops

Sometimes it can be hard to explain why good movies fail. Whatever the reason, several financial and critical failures have endured the test of time to emerge as cult classics years later. From "Rocky Horror Picture Show" to "Labyrinth," here are 50 films that initially bombed but later developed a cult following. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" has a long legacy of theater revivals and shadow casts. "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" had a limited release to just eight cities when it premiered in 1975. Although critic reviews were favorable, the film was pulled early from theaters due to low ticket sales. "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" became a cult classic through years of midnight screenings, with fans and audience members encouraged to interact with the film through call-outs, props, and sing-alongs. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "It's a Wonderful Life" only became a holiday favorite when it entered public domain. Although it's now a staple in many holiday movie collections, "It's a Wonderful Life" did poorly at the box office in 1946. The movie's success took a turn for the better when the Jimmy Stewart classic was picked up by TV networks in 1974 when the movie's copyright expired. Repeat viewings helped it get recognized as a warm, moving touchstone in American households each Christmas. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" did poorly when it premiered in 1971. The whimsical movie based on Roald Dahl's classic novel has become a must-watch over time, but when it first premiered it didn't fare well at the box office, making $4 million, which was not much more than its $3 million budget. After Paramount Pictures failed to renew the copyright for "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory," Warner Brothers bought the film rights and brought it to TV where it found new appreciation. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "The Room" later inspired "The Disaster Artist." Dubbed by many as the worst film of all time, the melodrama "The Room" initially only made $1,800 off of a $6 million budget. Over time, word of mouth helped to make the film more popular and more and more people began attending midnight screenings through the years. It later inspired "The Disaster Artist," a biopic, starring Dave Franco and James Franco, that detailed the bizarre behind-the-scenes of making "The Room." Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Blade Runner" is now one of the most revered science-fiction films. Although "Blade Runner" is a visually stunning film that inspired many films in the sci-fi genre, it barely made back its budget when it was released in 1982. However, critics and fans had a lot of positive things to say about the film. Unfortunately, the sequel "Blade Runner 2049" shared a similar fate as its predecessor at the box office when it was released earlier this year. Fortunately, it was adored by fans and critics alike. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "The Big Lebowski" couldn't compete with "The Titanic" when it first premiered. Even though it's now one of Jeff Bridges' most notable films, "The Big Lebowski" finished sixth in its opening weekend because it was overshadowed by the massive success of "The Titanic" and even smaller films such as "The Wedding Singer" and "Good Will Hunting." Love for the film has grown over time, with fans quoting iconic lines and even forming their own film-inspired religion of "Dudeism." The film has rave reviews from fans and critics alike on Rotten Tomatoes. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Troll 2" gained fans with it's "so bad it's good" reputation. Like Tommy Wiseau's "The Room," "Troll 2" also found a cult following for its reputation as one of the worst films of all time. The horror movie followed a family who is terrorized by goblins that turn their victims into plants before they eat them. Fans found the accidental humor in the absurd goblin fest and still flock to screenings in the thousands to this day. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Dazed and Confused" had a star-filled cast before they were famous. Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, and Adam Goldberg may be huge film stars today but they were not as well-known when they acted in Richard Linklater's irreverent stoner comedy in 1993. Without marketability to mainstream audiences, it only made $8 million from a $6.8 million budget. As time as passed and the cast's star power has grown "Dazed and Confused has become a classic in the coming-of-age genre, adored by fans and critics alike. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Heathers" initially only made back less than half of its budget. " Heathers," a dark comedy about a high school student (Winona Ryder) who murders her classmates, has gained huge attention over the years for its biting humor. Unfortunately, with a budget of $3 million, "Heathers" only made $1 million domestically and was in theaters for just five weeks before it was pulled. It gradually gained acclaim due to Winona Ryder's rise to fame. In the years since "Heathers" has inspired a stage musical of the same name as well as a new television reboot that recently premiered on the Paramount Network. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Donnie Darko" was a complete flop. "Donnie Darko" might not have been the easiest film to market— it centered around a teenager (Jake Gyllenhaal) who is stuck in a time paradox and suffering from psychotic episodes that feature a man in a rabbit suit. It earned only $100,494 on its opening weekend and wasn't released internationally until a year later. Years later, it gained success as a DVD rental and cemented itself as an iconic film in the indie horror genre. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Fight Club" was panned by critics at first glance. "Fight Club" may be constantly referenced in media today, but it didn't initially impress many critics when it came out in 1999. The Chuck Palahniuk novel-turned-film proved too dark for mainstream audiences, but it would go on to sell six million DVD copies when people gave it a second chance. Since its release, critics and fans have given it rave reviews. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Office Space" later found a niche audience. The slice of life film "Office Space" perfectly captured the mundane nature of cubicle life but failed to capture the attention of filmgoers in 1999. Just as raunchy comedies like "American Pie" were winning big at the box office, wry satires like "Office Space" fell through the cracks in the late '90s. Over time, the comedy has gone on to become one of the top films listed on many critics' lists, allowing new fans to discover it for the first time. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Citizen Kane" only found acclaim in the years after its release. "Citizen Kane" has established itself firmly in film history as one of the most revered films ever made, but it only made $1.5 million when it was first released in 1941. Historians have pointed to William Randolph Hearst as the man who impeded "Citizen Kane's" initial success, as the film's villain was blatantly inspired by Hearst himself. The influential newspaper tycoon forbade the press from mentioning it by name. Now, the film has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, which is no easy feat. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "The Wizard of Oz" had a weak premiere in 1939. Although "The Wizard of Oz's" $2.7 million budget seems low today, it was incredibly expensive back in 1939. When the movie premiered and generated just $3 million in return at the box office, it was deemed a failure for the studio. However, like many movies on this list, TV syndication would help "The Wizard of Oz" gain the adoration it deserved from film lovers and critics alike. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "The Shawshank Redemption" was overlooked during a year filled with movie classics. It goes without saying that 1994 was a big year for movies: "Pulp Fiction" and "Forrest Gump" both premiered to immense acclaim. Unfortunately, "The Shawshank Redemption" received less attention when it was released the same year, even though critics saw it and heaped it with praise. The moving prison drama later found an audience on television and is now listed as the top rated film on IMDb by its users, listed above films like "The Godfather," "12 Angry Men," and "Schindler's List." It also has rave reviews on Rotten Tomatoes from audiences and critics. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Vertigo" was a flop compared to "Psycho." "Vertigo" is now regarded as one of Alfred Hitchcock's greatest films, but critics initially gave it mixed reviews, resulting in a box office failure. Instead of blaming critical reviews, Hitchcock blamed lead actor Jimmy Stewart for being too old to play an appealing love interest in the film. As the years passed, critics began to give "Vertigo" a second look. In the 2012 issue of film publication "Sight and Sound," the movie was deemed the best film of all time. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Clue" was released in 1985 to lukewarm praise. Although it is loved by fans today, "Clue" had a rough start when it opened in 1985. Made from a $15 million budget, Clue only made $14.6 million while it was in theaters. It wasn't helped by indifferent and middling reviews from critics, including Roger Ebert. Over time, however, the wonderful cast and simple fun of the film has won over newcomers and is another film on this list that has become a television staple. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Brazil" flopped and couldn't recoup its budget. "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" director Terry Gilliam has a slew of movies that gained recognition long after they were released and " Brazil" is one of them. "Brazil" had a $15 million budget and only generated $9.9 million domestically. The political satire, based partially on "Nineteen Eighty-Four," could not appeal to mass audiences. Press reports also stated that Gilliam had to fight the studio on a final cut of the movie, which may have dissuaded the average moviegoer from attending the film. Now, "Brazil" is praised as a master in the science fiction genre. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Harold and Maude" was a dark comedy that failed to impress critics. "Harold and Maude" focused on a 20-year-old who falls in love with an 80-year-old woman. The non-traditional romance, filled with drama and dark humor, failed to attract crowds at the theaters. Many critics found it inappropriate and depressing and it ultimately was unable to break even at the box office. Years later critics and film lovers would begin to reevaluate their harsh stances on the film and they eventually celebrated it for its artistic merit. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" had controversial reception. The absurd, dark adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's novel "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," directed by Terry Gilliam, did not fare well in movie theaters. Of an $18.5 million production budget, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" grossed only $10.6 million. It was very polarizing for critics and was generally viewed as a visual spectacle that was aimless and lacked drive. Today, the movie, which starred Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro, is celebrated by fans for its bizarre and innovative style. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Highlander" found success as a video rental. The Sean Connery and Christopher Lambert fantasy film "Highlander" followed a Scottish Highlands warrior who is cursed with immortality. The action-packed melodrama was plagued with conflicts on set and a weak box office debut that only managed to recoup a third of its $16 million budget. However, it still managed to become a cult hit through the '80s as a video rental and garnered four sequels as well as two television shows. Today, "Highlander" fans still find charm in the cheesy special effects and bombastic plotting. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "The Boondock Saints" found fans as a Blockbuster exclusive. Action crime thriller "The Boondock Saints" followed two devout Catholic brothers as they slaughter Boston criminals in God's name. The $6 million budget only made back $30,471 at the box office, but it found a second life as a video rental when the studio struck a deal with then-popular rental chain Blockbuster to promote the thriller as a Blockbuster Exclusive. Although many audiences have since fallen in love with the film, most critics still rate the film fairly poorly on Rotten Tomatoes. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Event Horizon" lost over $30 million when it flopped. The late '90s sci-fi thriller "Event Horizon" focused on a rescue crew in space that investigates a missing ship. The film, starring Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, and Kathleen Quinlan, was compared to other space horror movies like "Alien" upon its release. Despite its generating a gross $27 million worldwide, the movie was considered a major loss for a movie that cost an estimated $60 million to make. Even though critics ran it through the mud, "Event Horizon" found fans as a niche sci-fi space thriller with surprisingly strong visual effects for its time. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "The Thing" was deemed a failure in 1982. "The Thing" is now celebrated as one of the strongest entries in the horror genre, but the John Carpenter masterpiece was first viewed as a financial and critical dud. Filmed with a $15 million budget, the sci-fi horror scraped by with $20 million at the box office. It was despised by many critics, including David Denby of New York magazine who said it was "more disgusting than frightening, and most of it was just boring." Later, many critics would regret their first impressions as it gained acclaim in the years since. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Idiocracy" wasn't marketed and fell through the cracks. In "Idiocracy," a soldier (Luke Wilson) is placed under hibernation for hundreds of years and he wakes up to discover he's now the smartest man alive. The Mike Judge satire cost $4 million to produce and only generated half a million in worldwide ticket sales. A huge element of its failure was the complete absence of a marketing campaign: no movie trailers, ads, or press kits. Eventually, "Idiocracy" recouped its budget in home video sales due to word-of-mouth and was finally recognized as the creative, biting satire it aimed to be, just like Judge's "Office Space." It's now one of Rotten Tomatoes' "100 Essential Comedy Movies." Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" made its money in home video sales. The slick, visually stunning "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" featured director Edgar Wright's signature cinematic style and a talented cast but lost big at the box office. With a massive production budget of $85 million, it only made $47.7 million in theaters. Like most flops on this list, the film was later helped by home media and streaming sales. As of 2018, the film has grossed nearly $30 million since bombing at the box office in 2010. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Plan 9 from Outer Space" had a very limited release. In "Plan 9 from Outer Space," aliens conspire to raise the dead on Earth to save humans from themselves. The sci-fi B movie was sold as a double-feature until it moved to television. "Plan 9" was relatively unknown until it gained notoriety as one of the worst movies ever made in the 1980s. As newcomers watched the film to see it for themselves, a cult following grew and fans saw the humor in the previously obscure sci-fi flick. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Jupiter Ascending" was expensive to make. "Jupiter Ascending," starring Mila Kunis, Eddie Redmayne, and Channing Tatum, was an intergalactic sci-fi adventure directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski. The film was unbelievably expensive to make with a production budget of $176 million. It made $47.4 million domestically and $136.5 million worldwide, barely justifying its elaborate expenses. Additionally, it didn't fare well with critics who generally found it to be visually pleasing but narratively incomprehensible. However, it generated a small but strong following among sci-fi fans. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Wet Hot American Summer" was a hilarious film that went un-watched by many. With big names like Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Bradley Cooper, Amy Poehler, and Molly Shannon, it's a wonder the film did so poorly at the box office. However, at the time most of the cast had never been seen before on screen. The movie, which followed campers over a summer in 1981, was made with a $1.8 million budget and it produced $295,206 at the box office. As the stars skyrocketed to success, the movie gained a cult following. Netflix has since produced both a prequel and sequel television series starring the original cast. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "The Iron Giant" was a commercial failure. The sentimental and moving "The Iron Giant" has many admirers today, but under-performed in theaters due to a poor marketing campaign. Although critics loved it, not many saw it upon release, leading to $31 million in box office sales out of an estimated $70-$80 million budget. "The Iron Giant" follows a young boy as he tries to protect a space robot from government interference. It would later be praised by fans and critics alike, garnering a cult following in television syndication and home video sales. It was even re-released theatrically in 2015. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "A Christmas Story" didn't gain fans until TV syndication. The 1983 Christmas classic was initially a sleeper hit when it first premiered. Critics were not sure what to think of it upon release, and a particularly scathing New York Times piece called it less funny than a TV sitcom and "exceedingly busy." It has since found fans on TV over the years and is a must-watch for many families during the holiday season. It even has its own 24-hour marathon on both TNT and TBS. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Dredd" couldn't make back its initial budget. The 2012 science-fiction action movie "Dredd" was based on the post-apocalyptic comic book series "Judge Dredd." The film starred Lena Headey and Karl Urban and cost an estimated $50 million to make, only garnering $30.9 million in theaters. Critical reviews were mostly positive, but "Dredd" only grew a following when it hit home video. Fans have pushed for a sequel, but it seems unlikely given the theatrical gross of the first. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Slither" later found a following with fans of body horror. The 2006 James Gunn flick "Slither" was a comedic body horror film starring Nathan Fillion and Elizabeth Banks. It follows an alien parasite as it terrorizes a small town. In total, "Slither" grossed $12 million worldwide and couldn't recoup its $15 million budget. However, critics liked it for the low-budget horror homage it was. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Dark Star" was marketed poorly as a generic action film. The sci-fi comedy "Dark Star" was another John Carpenter vehicle that struggled to find its legs at the box office. It started as a student film and became Carpenter's first theatrical debut in 1974. It was made on a slim $60,000 budget and was released to just fifty theaters. It developed its cult following when it was released on video cassette in the early 1980s. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Speed Racer" opened the week after "Iron Man." The Wachowskis' "Speed Racer" was an action-packed spectacle based on the 1960s animated show of the same name. It was created on a $120 million budget and made $93.9 million at the box office, struggling to compete with Marvel's "Iron Man" that was released the same week. Critics generally panned it at first and it was even nominated for several Razzies for being deemed a bad movie. Since 2008, "Speed Racer" has popped up on many critical lists as an underrated and overlooked film. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Death to Smoochy" was a miss for critics and audiences alike. "Death to Smoochy" was a Danny DeVito-directed dark comedy starring Robin Williams, Edward Norton, Catherine Keener, and John Stewart. It focused on a children's TV show host and the world of kids entertainment, in a dark light. Its $50 million budget made it lose big at the box office when it generated only $8.3 million. As time passed a small following of fans accumulated for "Death to Smoochy," especially after Williams' passing in 2014. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Newsies" is one of the lowest-grossing live-action Disney films of all time. The 1992 film was deemed one of Disney's lowest grossing live-action films of all time. Starring Christian Bale, the movie musical cost $15 million to make, but only grossed $3 million. Years later, the flop was turned into a hit, top-grossing Broadway musical and it has developed a loyal following of fans. Read More: WHERE ARE THEY NOW: The cast of '"Newsies" 26 years later Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Hocus Pocus" later found fans through Halloween marathons on TV. The cultural legacy of "Hocus Pocus" is huge now, especially during the month of October. But when the witchy film debuted in 1993 it was not seen as a financial success. It was released the same day as "Free Willy" and dropped from the top 10 after two weeks. It received mixed to negative reception at first, but fans came to enjoy it over time as a silly supernatural adventure. The movie got a second wind through DVD sales and TV syndication and is now a staple for Halloween movie marathons every year. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Near Dark" was a hidden Kathryn Bigelow hit. Kathryn Bigelow has earned immense acclaim for her films including "The Hurt Locker" and "Zero Dark Thirty," but her horror film "Near Dark" performed poorly in theaters when it premiered in 1987. The low-budget vampire film only made $3.4 million at the box office, even though film critics gave it fairly positive reviews. Today, it still stands as one of the highest-reviewed horror films of all time. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. When "Labyrinth" flopped, Jim Henson was devastated. In 1986, Jim Henson's musical fantasy "Labyrinth" debuted to poor box office number. The creative film, which starred rock icon David Bowie, cost $25 million to make and only made half of its budget back in theaters. Despite low numbers, critics generally enjoyed the film, praising Bowie's performance and Henson's puppetry. Following Henson's death, more critics and film-goers watched the film and fell in love with it. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Empire Records" was panned by film critics. Taking place over the course of a single day, the comedy-drama "Empire Records" detailed the lives of record store employees in 1995. It starred Renée Zellweger, Ethan Embry, and Liv Tyler. Although it has found its fans over time, "Empire Records" was derided by critics and only made $300,000 at the box office. Today, fans see it as a gem in the '90s coming-of-age genre. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Can't Hardly Wait" was described as "slapstick" and "cliche" by some critics. Like "Empire Records," "Can't Hardly Wait" was another coming-of-age film that was lambasted upon release and adored in later years. The teen party flick starred Ethan Embry, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Seth Green. It performed well at the box office but was both ignored and panned by many critics. In the decades since, many critics have returned to the film and reversed their negative rulings, recognizing it as a fun high school film and a product of its time. Read More: 15 of the best high school movies of all time Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Starship Troopers" was slammed by critics. The 1997 sci-fi action film "Starship Troopers" followed a group of futuristic military soldiers and their space mission against aliens called the Arachnids. It had an expensive budget, but it made back its money at the box office. The film was lampooned by critics who thought it was gory and poorly plotted. General audiences found the fun in it and praised the film, inspiring the filmmakers to create four more films, board games, and a video game. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Dune" faced low ticket sales and negative reviews. David Lynch's 1984 adaptation of the novel "Dune" was a sprawling sci-fi epic that failed to recoup its $40 million budget with only a $30 million gross. Critics largely gave it negative reviews, with film critic Roger Ebert calling it an "incomprehensible, ugly, unstructured, pointless excursion into the murkier realms of one of the most confusing screenplays of all time." Plans for sequels were dropped upon its failure at the box office. However, many fans of the novel appreciate Lynch's interpretation and still screen it today. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Big Trouble in Little China" was rushed to its release date. John Carpenter makes a third appearance on this list with the martial arts comedy "Big Trouble in Little China." It starred Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, and James Hong and involved bandits, sorcerers, and centuries-old curses. It had an estimated $19-25 million budget and only reaped $11.1 million at the box office. Carpenter has referenced the success of James Cameron's "Aliens" as a factor in "Big Trouble in Little China"'s box office failure. Following its financial losses and a slew of middling reviews, Carpenter vowed to become an independent filmmaker. Like many of his other works, "Big Trouble in Little China" later found success with fans and critics alike when it was released for home video. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Showgirls" was mocked by critics and filmgoers. The erotic drama "Showgirls" was the first NC-17 film to be given wide-release. It followed a woman's journey from stripper to showgirl. It grossed $37 million from a $40 million budget. Its mature content proved too much for many critics, but it lived a profitable second life as a video rental. The graphic film has since been reevaluated as a satirical work of art and deemed a "gay cult classic" by some and a "trash cult classic" by others, even though many viewers and critics are still skeptical of the film. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Mac and Me" was a called a knock-off of "E.T." Released six years after Steven Spielberg's "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial," "Mac and Me" suffered comparisons to the many concepts and themes the two sci-fi family films shared. It was also plagued with excessive product placement, which didn't help the film's case. With a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, "Mac and Me" is regarded as one of the worst films ever made. Even still, it has gained cult status and become part of a running gag Paul Rudd does almost every time he's on a talk show. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Man on the Moon" won Jim Carrey a Golden Globe but was a miss for most critics. In "Man on the Moon," Jim Carrey famously went method for his portrayal of comedian and entertainer Andy Kaufman. The biopic also starred Danny DeVito, Courtney Love, and Paul Giamatti. From a budget that's estimated to have cost $82 million it only generated $47.4 million in theaters. It wasn't commercially or critically successful, but his rich performance granted Carrey a Golden Globe award for best actor the year after he won for "The Truman Show." The film received renewed attention following its relevance to the documentary "Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond." Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" was considered a flop by Disney standards. Like most Disney films, animated features like "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" will always find its fans despite how well they fare critically. The fantasy adventure movie featured the talents of Michael J. Fox, Leonard Nimoy, and Claudia Christian and followed an underwater voyage and its crew's pursuit of the lost city of Atlantis. Although it earned back its budget, and more, at the box office it was still considered a box office disappointment by Disney standards. It even had a pre-planned theme park attraction and television series canceled due to its under-performance. But, some fans say the classic Disney film deserved better. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Although it was successful at the box office, "Saw" was deemed too gory for most critics. Unlike most movies on this list, "Saw" over-performed at the box office to a massive degree, making $103 million off of a $1.2 million budget film that was shot in 18 days. Despite its commercial success, critics couldn't get on board with the film's gore and torture, citing it as gratuitous. However, filmgoers enjoyed the thriller and a cult following spurred an eight-film franchise. As of 2018, a ninth "Saw" film may currently be in development. Visit INSIDER's homepagefor more. Read the original article on INSIDER. Follow INSIDER on Facebook. Copyright 2019. Follow INSIDER on Twitter.

https://www.businessinsider.com/popular-movies-that-were-originally-flops-2018-11

Business Insider

2016-07-28 02:06:12

2016

7.0

28

Katie Hicks

Read Tim Kaine's DNC speech transcript

The following is the official transcript for Tim Kaine's 2016 DNC speech: Thank you. Welcome everyone. I want to thank my beautiful wife Anne and my three wonderful children, Nat, Woody, and Annella. Nat deployed with his Marine battalion two days ago to protect and defend the very NATO allies that Donald Trump now says he would abandon. My parents and in-laws are here, our siblings and their spouses, our nieces and nephews, hundreds of friends from Virginia and beyond, including my great friend, Representative Bobby Scott. We love you all. Today, for my wife Anne and every strong woman in this country: for Nat, Woody, and Annella, and every young person starting out in life to make their own dreams real; for every man and woman serving in our military, at home and abroad; for every family working hard to get ahead and stay ahead; for my parents and in-laws and every senior citizen who hopes for a dignified retirement with health care and research to end diseases like Alzheimer's; for every person who wants America to be a beloved community, where people aren't demeaned because of who they are, but rather respected for their contributions to this nation; for all of us who know the brightest future for our country is the one we build together; and for my friend Hillary Clinton, I humbly accept my party's nomination to be Vice President of the United States. I never expected to be here. But let me tell you how it happened. I was born in Minnesota and grew up in Kansas City. My folks weren't much into politics. My dad ran a union ironworking shop. My mom was his best salesman. My brothers and I pitched in to help during summers and on weekends. That's how small family businesses work. My parents, Al and Kathy, taught me about hard work, and about kindness, and most importantly, about faith. I went to a Jesuit boys school — Rockhurst High School. The motto of our school was "men for others." That's where my faith became vital, a North Star for orienting my life. And I knew that I wanted to fight for social justice. That's why I took a year off of law school to volunteer with Jesuit missionaries in Honduras. I taught kids welding and carpentry. Aprendi los valores del pueblo — fe, familia, y trabajo. Faith, family, and work. Los mismos valores de la comunidad Latino estan aqui en nuestro país. Somos Americanos todos. And here's what really struck me. I got a first-hand look at a system — a dictatorship — where a few people at the top had power and everyone else got left out. It convinced me that we've got to advance opportunity for everyone. Not matter where they come from, how much money they have, what they look like, how they worship, or who they love. Back in 1970, in Virginia, the Republican Governor Linwood Holton believed exactly the same thing. He integrated public schools so black and white kids would finally learn together, and the family enrolled their own kids, including his own daughter, Anne, in those integrated inner-city schools. When Anne went off to college, she brought with her the lessons borne of that experience. And one day, in a study group, she met this goofy guy who had been off teaching kids in Honduras. Anne and I have now been married for almost 32 years and I am the luckiest husband in the world. Anne's parents, Lin and Jinks, are here today, 90-plus and going strong. Lin's still a Republican. But he's voting for Democrats these days. Because any party that would nominate Donald Trump for president has moved too far away from the party of Lincoln. And if you are looking for that party of Lincoln, we've got a home for you right here in the Democratic party. Lin's example helped inspire me to work as a civil rights lawyer. Over 17 years, I took on banks and landlords, real estate firms, and local governments, anyone who treated people unfairly — like the insurance company that was discriminating against minority neighborhoods all across America in issuing homeowners' insurance. These are the battles I've been fighting my whole life. And that's the story of how I decided to run for office. My city of Richmond was divided and discouraged. An epidemic of gun violence overwhelmed our low income neighborhoods. People were pointing fingers and casting blame instead of finding answers. I couldn't stand it. So I ran for city council. I won that first race, more than 20 years ago, by 94 votes. And I've said ever since — if I'm good at anything, it's because I started at the local level, listening to people, learning about their lives and trying to get results. Later, I became Mayor of Richmond, Lieutenant Governor, and then the 70th Governor of Virginia. I was a hard times governor — steering my state thorugh the deepest recession since the 1930s. But tough times don't last — tough people do. And Virginians are tough. Smart too. We achieved national recognition for our work — best managed state, best state for business, best state for a child to be raised, low unemployment, high family income. We shed tears in the days after a horrible mass shooting at Virginia Tech, but we rolled up our sleeves and fixed a loophole in our background check system to make us safter. And we invested in our people expanding pre-K and higher education, because education was the key to all we wanted to be. Now I have the honor of serving in the Senate. I work on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees to keep us safe at home and strong in the world. I work on the Budget Committee with Bernie Sanders, a great leader, fighting for investments in education, health care, research, and transportation. And I serve on the Aging Committee, making sure that seniors have secure retirement and don't get targeted by rip-off artists who will scam them out of their savings or overcharge them for prescription drugs. And here's a funny thing: I spend time with a lot of Republican senators who, once they've made sure nobody's listening, will tell you how fantastic a senator Hillary Clinton was. My journey has convinced me that God has created a rich tapestry in this country — an incredible cultural diversity that succeeds when we embrace everyone in love and battle back against the dark forces of division. We're all neighbors and we must love our neighbors as ourselves. Hillary Clinton and I are compañeros del alma. We share this belief: Do all the good you can. Serve one another. That's what I'm about. That's what you're about. That's what Bernie Sanders is about. That's what Joe Biden is about. That's what Barack and Michelle Obama are about. And that's what Hillary Clinton is about. Now, last week in Cleveland, we heard a lot about trust. So let's talk about trust. I want to tell you why I trust Hillary Clinton. First, she's consistent. She has battled to put kids and families first since she was a teenager — in good times and bad, in victory and defeat, in and out of office, through hell or high water. Fighting for underprivileged kids at the Children's Defense Fund. Fighting to get health insurance for 8 million kids when she was First Lady. Fighting for the well-being of women and girls around the world. Here's a little tip for you: When you want to know about the character of someone in public life, look to see if they have a passion, one that began before they were in office, and that they have consistently held on to throughout their career. Hillary's passion is kids and families. Donald Trump has a passion too. It's himself. And it's not just words with Hillary, it's accomplishments. She delivers. As Senator, after 9/11, she battled Congressional Republicans to care for the first responders who saved victims of that terrorist attack. As Secretary of State, she implemented tough sanctions against Iran to pave the way for a diplomatic breatkthrough that curtailed a dangerous nuclear weapons program. She stood up against thugs and dictators and was a key part of the Obama national security team that decided to go to the end of the earth to wipe out Osama bin Laden. Hey, remember Karla, the little girl we heard from on Monday who feared her parents would be deported? She trusts Hillary to keep them together. And remember the Mothers of the Movement we heard from last night? They trust Hillary to keep other mothers' sons and daughters safe. And as he's serving our nation abroad, I trust Hillary Clinton with our son's life. You know who I don't trust? Donald Trump. The guy promises a lot. But you might have noticed, he has a habit of saying the same two words right after he makes the biggest promises. You guys know the words I mean? "Believe me." "It's gonna be great — believe me! We're gonna build a wall and make Mexico pay for it — believe me! We're gonna destroy ISIS so fast — believe me! There's nothing suspicious in my tax returns — believe me!" By the way, does anyone here believe that Donald Trump's been paying his fair share of taxes? Do you believe he ought to release those tax returns like every other presidential candidate in modern history? Of course he should. Donald, what are you hiding? And yet he still says, "Believe me." "Believe me?" Here's the thing. Most people, when they run for president, they don't just say "believe me." They respect you enough to tell you how they will get things done. For example, you can go to HillaryClinton.com right now and find out exactly how she'll make the biggest investment in new jobs in generations, and how she'll defend and build on Wall Street reform. you can see how she'll reform our immigration system and create a path to citizenship, and how she'll make it possible to graduate from college debt-free. You can see how she'll guarantee equal pay for women and make paid family leave a reality. With just one click, we can see how she'll do it, how she'll pay for it, and how we'll benefit. Not Donald Trump. He never tells you how he's going to do any of the things he says he's going to do. He just says, "believe me." So here's the question. Do you really believe me? Donald Trump's whole career says you better not. Small contractors — companies just like my dad's — believed him when he said that he'd pay them to build a casino in Atlantic City. They did the work, hung the drywall, poured the concrete. But a year after opening, Trump filed for bankruptcy. He walked away with millions. They got pennies on the dollar. Some of them went out of business. All because they believed Donald Trump. Retirees and families in Florida believed Donald Trump when he said he'd build them condos. They paid their deposits, but the condos were never built. He just pocketed their money and walked away. They lost tens of thousands of dollars, all because they believed Donald Trump. Charity after charity believed Donald Trump when he said he would contribute to them. And thousands of Trump University students believed Donald Trump when he said he would help them succeed. They got stiffed. He says, "believe me." Well, his creditors, his contractors, his laid-off employees, his ripped-off students did just that. Folks, you cannot believe one word that comes out of Donald Trump's mouth. Our nation is too great to put it in the hands of a slick-talking, empty-promising, self-promoting, one man wrecking crew. Don't take it from me. Take it from former First Lady Barbara Bush. She said she didn't know how any woman could vote for him after his offensive comments. Or John McCain's former economic advisor, who estimates Trump's promises would cost America 3.5 million jobs. Or the independent analysts that found Trump's tax plan, a gift to the wealthy and big corporations, would rack up $30 trillion in debt. Or John Kasich, the Republican governor who had the honor of hosting the Republican Convention in Cleveland but wouldn't even attend it because he thinks Trump is such a moral disaster. Or take it from the guy who co-wrote Trump's autobiography. For Trump, he said, "lying is second nature to him." So, do you believe him? Does anybody here believe him? The next president will face many challenges. We better elect the candidate who's proven she can be trusted with the job. The candidate who's proven she's ready for the job. And by the way, I used the word "ready" for a specific reason. When I lived in Honduras, I learned that the best compliment you could give someone was to say they were "listo" (ready), not "inteligente" (smart), not "amable" (friendly), not "rico" (rich). But "listo." Because what "listo" means in Spanish is prepared, battle-tested, rock-solid, up for anything, never backing down. And Hillary Clinton is "lista." She's ready because of her faith. She's ready because of her heart. She's ready because of her experience. She's ready because she knows in America we are stronger together. My fellow Democrats, this week we begin the next chapter in our proud story. Thomas declared all men equal and Abigail remembered the women. Woodrow brokered peace and Eleanor broke down barriers. Jack told us what to ask, and Lyndon answered the call. Martin had a dream, Cesar y Dolores said "si se puede," and Harvey gave his life. Bill bridged a century and Barack gave us hope. And now Hillary is ready. Ready to fight, ready to win, ready to lead. Thank you, Philadelphia. God bless you all.

https://www.vox.com/2016/7/27/12302896/tim-kaine-dnc-speech-transcript-2016-democratic-convention

Vox

2018-10-17 00:00:00

2018

10.0

17

Sinéad Carew

Wall St. falls as investors eye a united hawkish Fed

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street’s major indexes edged lower after a choppy session on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve showed broad agreement on the need to raise borrowing costs further, cementing investor concerns that had helped cause a major sell-off the week before. The S&P 500 .SPX zigzagged furiously between positive and negative territory after the 2 p.m. ET (1800 GMT) release of the Fed's September meeting minutes. In defiance of sharp criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump, policymakers showed agreement on the September hike and general anticipation that further gradual increases would be consistent with the economic expansion, labor market strength, and firm inflation that most forecast. “In the past several years there’s been a strong dovish component. Now even the doves are starting to roll over,” said Brad McMillan, Chief Investment Officer for Commonwealth Financial Network, in Waltham, Mass. “The sense of the meeting was more hawkish than investors might have thought.” (Graphic: Doves and Hawks - tmsnrt.rs/2dcNoCo) The S&P has only partially recovered ground lost last week, when it marked its biggest decline since March as investors worried about rate hikes. The prospect of a more hawkish Fed was exacerbating equity investor fears of uncertainties, ranging from the U.S.-China trade war and weakness in the housing market to the outlook for earnings, said McMillan. “The market doesn’t really know what to think at this point. That’s why we’re seeing these swings,” he said. “With interest rates higher there’s a lot less cushion to smooth away those uncertainties.” The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 91.74 points, or 0.36 percent, to 25,706.68, the S&P 500 lost 0.71 points, or 0.03 percent, to 2,809.21 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 2.79 points, or 0.04 percent, to 7,642.70. Even before the minutes, trading was already choppy, and the S&P 500 struggled to build on the previous day’s rally after disappointing housing data dragged down stocks such as Home Depot Inc (HD.N) and homebuilders. Of the S&P’s 11 major sectors, only four ended the day with gains. Financials .SPSY was the biggest gainer, closing 0.9 percent higher. Materials was the biggest loser .SPLRCM, with an 0.8 percent drop. Home Depot shares fell 4.3 percent while the PHLX Housing index .HGX lost 1.87 percent. Among the brighter spots was Netflix (NFLX.O), which rose 5.3 percent, after reporting blowout subscriber addition numbers. United Airlines Inc (UAL.O) shares climbed 5.95 percent after a solid third-quarter profit and again raising its 2018 outlook. That also lifted other airline stocks. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.70-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.39-to-1 ratio favored decliners. The S&P 500 posted three new 52-week highs and 11 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 12 new highs and 76 new lows. Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.08 billion shares, compared to the 7.9 billion average for the last 20 trading days. Additional reporting by Jonathan Spicer and Richard Leong in New York, and Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Rosalba O'Brien

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/wall-st-falls-as-investors-eye-a-united-hawkish-fed-idUSKCN1MR1QK

Business News

Reuters

2018-05-08 00:00:00

2018

5.0

8

David Gilbert

Kim says denuclearization “achievable” in second secret meeting with Xi

Kim Jong Un is racking up stamps in his passport. After years of isolation, the once hermitic despot has now travelled abroad three times in three months. Following last month’s high-profile summit in South Korea, Kim traveled to China Monday for his second meeting with President Xi Jinping, having first met the Chinese leader at a top secret sit-down in Beijing in March. This time Kim traveled to the north-eastern port city of Dalian for two days of talks with Xi, including a discussion about North Korean denuclearization. “As long as relevant parties eliminate the hostile policy and security threats against North Korea, North Korea does not need to have nuclear weapons, and denuclearization is achievable,” Kim told Xi, the Chinese Xinhua news agency reported. Kim added that he wanted to “build mutual trust” with the U.S., adding it would take “phased and synchronous measures in a responsible manner” to achieve denuclearization. Kim Jong Un is racking up stamps in his passport. After years of isolation, the once hermitic despot has now travelled abroad three times in three months. Following last month’s high-profile summit in South Korea, Kim traveled to China Monday for his second meeting with President Xi Jinping, having first met the Chinese leader at a top secret sit-down in Beijing in March. This time Kim traveled to the north-eastern port city of Dalian for two days of talks with Xi, including a discussion about North Korean denuclearization. “As long as relevant parties eliminate the hostile policy and security threats against North Korea, North Korea does not need to have nuclear weapons, and denuclearization is achievable,” Kim told Xi, the Chinese Xinhua news agency reported. Kim added that he wanted to “build mutual trust” with the U.S., adding it would take “phased and synchronous measures in a responsible manner” to achieve denuclearization. The agency said Xi hosted a welcome banquet for Kim, and the two leaders strolled along the coastline at a government guest house before lunching together Tuesday. China is seen as North Korea’s closest political and economic ally, though the relationship has strained in recent months with Beijing succumbing to U.N. pressure to impose sanctions on Pyongyang over continued nuclear testing. Kim is likely to have informed Xi about any developments arising from his historic meeting with South Korea President Moon Jae In. In a tweet Tuesday morning, Donald Trump said he would be speaking to Xi about North Korea “where relationships and trust are building.” Kim’s next international summit will be with the U.S. president. Reports emerged from South Korea in recent days that Trump will meet with Kim in Singapore in the middle of June, soon after the G7 meeting in Canada. An exact date for the summit could be announced on May 22 when Moon visits Trump at the White House. Cover image: North Koraen Leader Kim Jong Un speaks during the Inter-Korean Summit at the Peace House on April 27, 2018 in Panmunjom, South Korea. (Korea Summit Press Pool/Getty Images)

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/a3awdk/kim-denuclearization-secret-meeting-xi-china

Vice News

2019-06-18 00:00:00

2019

6.0

18

Dutch Intertrust buys U.S.-based Viteos for $330 million

(Reuters) - Intertrust has acquired U.S.-based Viteos for $330 million, the Dutch business administration company said on Tuesday, in a deal that will help strengthen its foothold in the United States and increase exposure to funds. “This is a significant leap forward for Intertrust which will accelerate our strategy in every way,” Stephanie Miller, Intertrust’s chief executive said in a statement. The purchase from PPC Enterprises LLC, FiveW Capital LLC and Viteos management was funded through debt and cash on balance sheet with $11 million re-invested by Viteos’ management and key employees in Intertrust shares. Interserve shares rose around 5% in early trading. The deal completed on June 17 is expected to deliver mid-single-digit EPS accretion in the first full year of ownership and double-digit EPS accretion by 2021, including phased synergies. The company said that the synergies will mainly come from offshoring selected support functions for client-facing teams, back office and IT support. Intertrust focuses on compliance, business ethics and transparency, helping clients to deal with legal, administrative and regulatory duties in international business. It expects to deliver approximately 90% of the deal synergies by 2021 with about 20% coming through by next year. The one-off costs over the period to deliver the synergies are estimated at about $30 million. Following the acquisition, Intertrust raised its medium-term guidance to reflect enhanced revenue growth and cost synergies, and now targets underlying revenue growth of 4-6% year-on-year and adjusted profit margin (EBITA) of at least 40% for 2021. Viteos delivered revenues of $52 million for the year ended in March 2019, 94% in the U.S. Reporting by Pawel Goraj, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips/Keith Weir

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-viteos-m-a-intertrust/dutch-intertrust-buys-us-based-viteos-for-330-million-idUSKCN1TJ0GA

Deals

Reuters

2016-03-21 16:00:07

2016

3.0

21

Tara Golshan

Why rabbis are planning to boycott Donald Trump’s AIPAC speech

According to Donald Trump, there is "no one more pro-Israel" than himself — a phrase he will likely repeat in his speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Monday evening. But Trump's past statements on Israel have prompted rabbis and other AIPAC conference attendees to organize a walkout of the Republican frontrunner's AIPAC speech. "We must let him speak but we are not obliged to listen," an AIPAC attendee said on the protest's organizing Facebook page, which has nearly 1,800 members. "Our goal is not to disrupt the proceedings or to offend any of our fellow conference attendees. Our hope is to shine a moral light on the darkness that has enveloped Mr. Trump’s campaign," reads the description of the Facebook event, "Come Together Against Hate." In an interview with Breitbart, Rabbi David Paskin, an organizer of the protest, said the walkout is a reaction to Trump calling Mexican immigrants rapists, most Muslims terrorists, and American Jews money-hungry negotiators. "This is about denouncing hatred in all forms," Paskin told Breitbart. "Everyone here at AIPAC denounces hatred. ... We are going to continue to come together against hate. We are going to argue that what Mr. Trump calls PC, is not a bad thing, it is what we Jews call … being a good person." Trump has been walking on shaky ground with pro-Israel Americans this presidential election cycle. While pledging general support toward Israel – a mainstay of Republican foreign policy – he has waffled on some of the specifics. He said he would not move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and would remain "neutral" on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – two no-nos for the crowd at America's most prolific pro-Israel group (not to mention initially failing to disavow the support of former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke). Trump's attempts to relate to the Jewish community have not always succeeded: He told the crowd at the Jewish Republican Coalition that they should relate to him on the basis of being good negotiators and because his daughter Ivanka Trump is married to a Jew. While former AIPAC spokesperson and president of the Israel Project Josh Block told NPR that this will be an opportunity for Trump to refine his views on Israel and "pivot to a more serious approach on foreign policy," protest organizers are less keen to hear what Trump has to say. According to the Facebook page, the protesters will be gathering outside the Washington, DC, Verizon Center at 5 pm during Trump's speech. Code Pink and a Palestinian activist group are also expected to hold demonstrations, according to the New York Times.

https://www.vox.com/2016/3/21/11276938/donald-trump-aipac-protest-walk-out-rabbis

Vox

2017-03-21 21:42:00

2017

3.0

21

Joseph Flynn

Dwight Howard Used to Eat So Much Goddamned Candy

Atlanta Hawks center Dwight Howard is a physical marvel. He has been that way ever since entering the league straight out of high school—a superhero-scale monster of speed, size, and power. It's a combination rarely seen, particularly in an 18-year-old. So how did Dwight get that marvelous physique? Was it merely genetics, or did he work to hone his body into the instrument it became? Eh, not so much. Stories of Howard's early-career candy habit are well known, or so we thought. Thanks to a recent ESPN piece, we can finally understand just how much sugar he was consuming on a daily basis. Not to give anything away, but: a lot. Let's go back to 2013, when Howard was struggling with the Lakers. The 27-year-old big man was laboring on the court. At first all of his problems seemed to stem from his bad back. But the deeper the Lakers' medical staff, including nutritionist Dr. Cate Shanahan, delved into his health problems, the more shocking the results. Howard's legs tingled, he complained, but she noticed he was having trouble catching passes too, as if his hands were wrapped in oven mitts. Well, he quietly admitted, his fingers also tingled. Shanahan, with two decades of experience in the field, knew Howard possessed a legendary sweet tooth, and she suspected his consumption of sugar was causing a nerve dysfunction called dysesthesia, which she'd seen in patients with prediabetes. It's difficult to reconcile a professional athlete coming down with a sugar-induced nerve dysfunction...at least until you read just how much sugar was coursing through Howard's veins. To alter Howard's diet, though, Shanahan first had to understand it. After calls with his bodyguard, chef and a personal assistant, she uncovered a startling fact: Howard had been scarfing down about two dozen chocolate bars' worth of sugar every single day for years, possibly as long as a decade. 'You name it, he ate it,' she says. Skittles, Starbursts, Rolos, Snickers, Mars bars, Twizzlers, Almond Joys, Kit Kats and oh, how he loved Reese's Pieces. He'd eat them before lunch, after lunch, before dinner, after dinner, and like any junkie, he had stashes all over—in his kitchen, his bedroom, his car, a fix always within reach. That's right: 24 chocolate bars' worth of sugar. Every. Freakin'. Day. Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. The medical staff convinced Howard to switch to mostly peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and eventually the tingling sensation in his fingers and legs stopped. Ah, PB&J: Is there anything you can't do? [ESPN]

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pgn7db/dwight-howard-used-to-eat-so-much-goddamned-candy

Sports

Vice

2018-03-25 00:00:00

2018

3.0

25

Columbine Shooting Survivor Richard Castaldo Hopeful for Gun Reform Thanks to New Generation

Richard Castaldo -- who was shot 8 times in the 1999 Columbine massacre -- is finally optimistic about serious gun control in America ... because he believes in the new generation. We got Richard at the March for Our Lives rally in L.A. Saturday, and he tells us he's more hopeful than ever before about reform. He says not a whole lot's changed with gun laws in the past 19 years, but he gives credit to the young students pushing hard for it ... and he's certain it's coming soon. So why so hopeful now? Richard tells us the kids these days don't take bulls**t for an answer ... even more than people his age. He says there's still a lot to be done, but he knows the students won't stop fighting ... and he's not going to either. Castaldo was the second victim to be hit by bullets at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, and was left paralyzed. As we reported ... millions of students and adults marched Saturday in cities from D.C. to L.A. to support stricter gun control in the U.S. and help end gun violence and mass shootings.

https://www.tmz.com/2018/03/25/columbine-shooting-survivor-richard-castaldo-hopeful-gun-reform/

TMZ

2016-02-19 20:40:02

2016

2.0

19

Emily Todd VanDerWerff

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a perfectly built novel, despite its flaws

To Kill a Mockingbird is a perfectly built novel. That doesn't mean the book is perfect. It has flaws — even glaring ones. But Harper Lee made a genius choice in telling the story from the point of view of a child, whose voice she then perfectly embodied. In nearly every review of the book — positive or negative — you'll find mention of how accurately she captures the way a kid sees the world. Except that's not really true, either. Mockingbird is actually told from the point of view of the woman Scout Finch grows up to become, remembering when she was a child. It perfectly feeds into something teenagers are feeling for the very first time: nostalgia This gives Lee an even greater level of remove from the events depicted in the novel, meaning that essentially any flaw you find can be waved away as Scout's imperfect memory of things that happened to her when she was young. From that point of view, then, is it any wonder the book is often assigned to teenagers to read in high school? Certainly, it's a good way to get America's more privileged youth to grapple with the nation's long history of racial injustice. But it also perfectly feeds into something teenagers are feeling for the very first time: nostalgia. Until you are a teenager, you don't really have an opportunity to think back on "the good old days." Yes, when you first went to school, you might have been upset that you had to go, and longed for the days when you didn't. But that's not really nostalgia; it's protest of a major shift in your status quo. Nostalgia is marked by a kind of self-aware wisdom, an ability to say, "This is who I am; this is who I was," that kids don't really possess but teenagers are just starting to grasp. Plus, when you're a teenager, you're usually getting the first tastes of real responsibility, which is both exhilarating and melancholy. People trust you to be more independent, but if you screw up, it's on you much more than it would have been when you were 6 or 7, and that can make you feel overwhelmed, longing for a return to a less complicated time. Lee doesn't tell us everything about any character, instead offering up a few telltale mementos of who they might be To Kill a Mockingbird perfectly captures this wistful feeling. The early portions of the book — before Atticus Finch takes on the case of the wrongly accused Tom Robinson — have a misty, elegiac quality. They feel like memories the older Scout is documenting so she doesn't lose them. The novel's greatest asset is Lee's selective use of telling details. She doesn't tell us everything about any character, simply offering up a few telltale little mementos of who they might be. Take, for instance, the focus she places on Atticus's glasses at moments of extreme emotional impact. The care he takes with them extends to the care he takes with his children and his clients, and it's a tiny, subtle way Lee uses to link all those ideas together. It also clarifies the hugely negative reaction many had to Go Set a Watchman, Lee's follow-up novel (which she actually wrote before Mockingbird), which was published in 2015 amid much mystery as to whether she had actually signed off on it. In that story, the simple fact of complicating Mockingbird's rather idyllic nostalgia — by pointing out the racist attitudes Atticus held as an old man and had likely always held — tarnished the idealized childhood presented in Mockingbird, which had always invited readers (who often first encountered it in high school) to conflate it with their own childhood memories at an age when it's remarkably easy to idealize childhood memories. Nostalgia is a powerful drug, and nobody likes having the trip interrupted. And there's another level here, too. Mockingbird isn't just a novel about a young woman looking back on her childhood. It's a novel about a young country looking back on some of its worst moments. The America of To Kill a Mockingbird is a sort of primal America. It's a small town, where kids can play outside until all hours of the night. It has weird local myths and legends. It even has its own supposedly scary boogeyman, who turns out to be nothing compared with the boogeymen hiding in plain sight. It's the America of national myth and presidential campaign ads, the place we are always trying to get back to. But Mockingbird gently complicates that picture. By far the most common complaints about the novel — complaints I largely share — stem from its treatment of Tom Robinson, who is simultaneously a bit of a stereotype and the kind of unbelievable saint who usually pops up in more hackneyed stories. (The latter, at least, is slightly more excusable because of the "adult remembering childhood" gambit. It's natural that the older Scout would simplify the supporting characters in her life in her memories.) Nostalgia always coats something we're consciously ignoring, if we're being honest with ourselves But Tom Robinson's unjust conviction also keeps Lee's portrayal of this nostalgic America from slipping entirely into hazy reverie. You can pretend this earlier America was a better, more honest place, but to do so would be like remembering your own childhood without all of the pain it inevitably included. Scout's beloved hometown could be the safe haven she loved to play in. It could also be a town that railroaded an innocent black man and sent him to his death. This is where Mockingbird ultimately transcends its flaws and becomes part of American myth itself. Written at the dawn of the 1960s — a decade that many have described as the end of America's innocence (or, if you will, its childhood) — the book is one of the few out there to gently confront America's long history of injustices but not feel like it's somehow chickening out in its gentility. Lee couches the story as a memory of childhood, but it's a dual childhood she's remembering — that of Scout and that of the country she lives in. This double layer of meaning keeps the book from ever tripping over itself and falling into vague allegory, though it constantly threatens to. We're all nostalgic for something, but that nostalgia always coats something we're consciously ignoring, if we're being honest with ourselves. Mockingbird came to define Lee in a way that she obviously did not anticipate. Over time, she became more and more of a recluse, and her only other contribution to literature while alive was the divisively received Watchman. But Mockingbird is touchstone enough to secure her place in the American literary legacy. It's at once a better and worse book than you might remember — worse because it has those flaws you may not have noticed as a teenager, and better because those flaws illuminate a complexity that was there all along, hiding in plain sight.

https://www.vox.com/2016/2/19/11071140/harper-lee-to-kill-a-mockingbird-dead

Vox

2019-05-21 00:00:00

2019

5.0

21

21 Savage Says Rappers Like Kodak Black Need to Be Smarter, 'Law is the Law'

21 Savage is shooting down any theory the so-called "hip-hop cops" are behind a rash of rapper arrests -- himself included -- and instead says ... some rappers just ain't too bright when it comes to the law. Savage was leaving TAO Monday night in Hollywood and we asked if he had any advice for Kodak Black, who's been in federal custody since his arrest at Rolling Loud more than a week ago. Savage immediately made it clear his situation is NOT the same as Kodak's and, his bigger point -- "The law is the law. You break the law, you gotta deal with the consequences." You gotta see the clip, because the ATL rapper seemed to dismiss any talk of law enforcement setting up rappers, and instead said ... some people are just stupid, and they gotta own up to it when they are. It is true, however ... his and Kodak's cases aren't the same deal. TMZ broke the story ... the feds say fingerprints, car rental records and ballistics all point to Kodak's involvement in a Florida shooting. Meanwhile, Savage is dealing with a pending immigration issue that could potentially end with his deportation to the UK. Kodak's looking at hard time in a federal prison. At worst, Savage will be rich and chilling in London. Just sayin' ...

https://www.tmz.com/2019/05/21/21-savage-kodak-black-arrest-rappers-feds-hip-hop-cops/

TMZ

2016-01-27 00:00:00

2016

1.0

27

5 Seconds of Summer's Michael Clifford ... Welcome to Condom Nation!!! (VIDEO)

5 Seconds of Summer guitarist Michael Clifford was greeted at LAX Tuesday by a fan who clearly had his back ... with an offering that could save him millions of dollars in child support. It definitely got his attention, and he seemed appreciative ... or Louis Tomlinson scared the crap out of him.

https://www.tmz.com/2016/01/27/michael-clifford-5-seconds-of-summer-condom/

TMZ

2018-04-15 00:00:00

2018

4.0

15

Scott Disick Co-Parents with Sofia Richie While Kourtney Parties at Coachella

Scott Disick picked up the parent baton this weekend to let his baby mama, Kourtney Kardashian, have some fun at Coachella ... but he wasn't pulling daddy duty alone. Scott was spotted chaperoning his and Kourtney's three kids Saturday in Malibu, with girlfriend Sofia Richie following close behind. They were all hitting up a toy store there while Kourtney, her beau and her sis, Kylie, got their party on for Day 1 & 2 of the festival. Obviously, Scott and Sofia are still going strong after they started hanging out last spring. They're coming up on a year now as a couple, and they seem to be as close as ever. Ditto for Kourtney and BF Younes Bendjima, actually. Who says exes and their new boo thangs can't work it out?

https://www.tmz.com/2018/04/15/scott-disick-sofia-richie-parents-kids-kourtney-kardashian-coachella/

TMZ

2016-12-25 20:08:00

2016

12.0

25

Aidan Shevlin

PBOC's policy dilemma amidst a depreciating yuan

The Chinese Renminbi (CNY) is the worst performing Asian currency this year, down 5.67% versus the USD (Fig. 1a & 1b). This marks the third year of declines with the red-back hitting an 8 year low. The pace of depreciation has actually increased in recent months with the currency lower by 1.94% in November this year as investors accelerate capital outflows to take advantage of better offshore opportunities whilst avoiding low onshore rates and further depreciation. In response, the government has introduced new capital controls and strengthened enforcement of existing ones. The combination of a weaker currency and new controls is creating significant challenges for Renminbi cash investors. Background One of the key steps towards capital account liberalization and Special Drawing Right (SDR) inclusion was loosening control of the currency. This was also a key trigger for other important on-shore reforms including interest rate liberalization and bond market reforms - which are now almost completed. However, ever since the CNY peaked at 6.04 against the USD in early 2014, the currency has been weakening. A combination of slower domestic growth and falling interest rates were the key reason for the depreciation following eight uninterrupted years of appreciation between 2005 and 2013. The pace of currency decline increased rapidly in August 2015 following the People's Bank of China's (PBoC) badly communicated "one-off" devaluation. Meanwhile, the YTD performance of the CNY is the worst in 22 years and investors expect further depreciation in 2017. Impact of current devaluation Faster capital outflows (FX reserves are down 873 billion since their June 2016 peak) have worried the government and reluctantly forced the PBoC to strengthen capital controls. However these tools are much less effective due to previous market liberalization steps and investors finding new ways to circumvent the rules. The capital outflows are also having a significant impact on domestic market liquidity. While a reserve requirement ratio cut would typically be used to support liquidity, the PBoC has refrained from cutting rates as this would be regarded as a further devaluation signal. Instead, the PBoC has focused on using open market operations (OMO) to ensure adequate liquidity. Total OMO outstanding recently hit a record high of over CNY 6 trillion. However, the PBoC is reluctant to increase this further as investors (bond funds and banks) have used the cheap and stable liquidity to leverage up wealth management, bond fund and trust products to boost returns (we hear anecdotally of leverage ratios of 4x to 6x), which has generated huge inflows into these asset classes, but also triggered concerns about the stability of the financial system. Recently, to discourage further leverage, the PBoC has increased repo funding costs - which has tightened onshore liquidity conditions (Fig 2), negatively impacted the equity and property markets and caused even more bond market volatility. But on a positive note… However, it is worth noting the following factors: Firstly, there is little sign of panic in on-shore or off-shore bond and currency markets - helped by better communication by the central bank, compared to the surprise devaluation in August 2015. Secondly, USD strength has been a key trigger for CNY weakness, with the dollar stronger against most currencies amid expectations of rate hikes and fiscal stimulus. Finally, the new basket of currencies that the PBoC is targeting (CFETS index) has remained broadly steady over the past few months (Fig. 3). Conclusion Currency weakness, capital outflows and rate volatility are likely to persist in the near term. This will create challenges for the PBoC in managing the pace of depreciation while encouraging a reduction in system-wide leverage. So expect further negative headlines and even tighter capital controls. However, we believe the PBoC is much more experienced, better at communicating and has a broader range of tools available than in August 2014 or July 2013, which should hopefully help the central bank manage these conflicting goals. Read the original article on J.P. Morgan Asset Management. We partner with Financial Advisors to work to make every investor better off. Visit www.jpmorganfunds.com to learn more about our insights and investments. Copyright 2019. Follow J.P. Morgan Asset Management on Twitter.

https://www.businessinsider.com/pbocs-policy-dilemma-amidst-a-depreciating-yuan-2016-12

Business Insider

2018-08-22 00:00:00

2018

8.0

22

Cleveland Institute of Art

ThinkCraft Symposium Explores the State of Contemporary Craft

Organized by Cleveland Institute of Art, this three-day symposium will focus on contemporary practice, theory and education, and curating and collecting. September 20-22, 2018. The nature of craft has transformed in the last decade. Technological innovation, increased access to resources via the Internet, and the “maker movement” have introduced new ways of making and increased access to those who want to create—all exciting opportunities for makers and collectors. In this new creative environment, how do traditional craft disciplines evolve to integrate with these new opportunities? Through demonstrations and conversations with leaders in the field, this symposium will explore how “traditional” craft disciplines will evolve to integrate these new opportunities while maintaining the integrity and quality of the ideas behind their practices. ThinkCraft will feature these keynote speakers: Elisabeth Agro – Associate Curator of American Modern and Contemporary Craft and Decorative Arts, Philadelphia Museum of Art Glenn Adamson – Senior Scholar at the Yale Center for British Art and author of the landmark publication The Craft Reader. Tom Joyce – A 2003 MacArthur Fellow, Joyce is one of the foremost practitioners in the field for his early contributions to the art and science of forging iron. Stuart Kestenbaum – Poet Laureate of Maine, and former director of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. Janet Koplos – Contributing editor, Art in America, and co-author of the milestone publication Makers: A History of American Studio Craft. Judith Schaechter – Philadelphia-based artist whose groundbreaking work in stained glass serves as a narrative for social and political commentary. Register today at cia.edu/thinkcraft

https://hyperallergic.com/456358/cleveland-institute-of-art-thinkcraft-symposium-2018/

Hyperallergic

2018-11-24 00:00:00

2018

11.0

24

U.S. service member killed in Afghanistan: NATO

KABUL (Reuters) - A U.S. service member was killed in Afghanistan on Saturday, the NATO-led Resolute Support mission said in a statement, bringing the U.S. combat death toll this year to eight. The identity of the service member and details about the incident will be shared at a later stage, said Debra Richardson spokesperson for the Resolute Support in Afghanistan. The Pentagon says there are about 14,000 U.S. service members in Afghanistan. The U.S. military’s mission is focused mainly on guiding and aiding Afghan forces battling the Taliban, which was ousted from power in 2001. More than 2,400 U.S. forces have died in the 17-year-old war, America’s longest conflict. Reporting by Rupam Jain; Editing by Michael Perry

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-nato/u-s-service-member-killed-in-afghanistan-nato-idUSKCN1NT06P

World News

Reuters

2016-09-16 14:00:00

2016

9.0

16

Nick Rose

Rub Your Tomatoes the Right Way to Release Their Secret Flavors

Here's an open secret that we'd like to let you in on: Macerating your tomatoes will help release to their delicious juices. Get your mind out of the gutter! We said macerating, meaning the process by which a fruit is soaked and squeezed in order to break down its insides into liquid. Not only does this have a tenderizing effect, but it allows the juices to infuse the salad dressing in this dish for maximum tomato flavor. There are magic, hidden flavors inside of your tomatoes—and much like a genie in a bottle, you gotta rub it the right way. This recipe has five main ingredients and only one step; mixing everything together. That's the best kind of recipe.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4x5n49/rub-your-tomatoes-the-right-way-for-secret-flavors

Food by VICE

Vice

2018-05-30 17:12:00

2018

5.0

30

Corbin Smith

NBA Dunk of the Week: Jayson Tatum, Look What You Did

Jayson Tatum, you poor, stupid, first-name-misspelled-ass Dukie bastard. Why would you do this? Why would you be granted a front row seat to the most dominant series of basketball one man has ever played on planet Earth, why would you see and feel and EXPERIENCE the pure fury of God and nature coursing through a human body, scoring on you over and over, and then lose your goddamn sense and challenge that power? You moron! You complete moron! You didn’t need to dunk on LeBron. You could have laid it in, you could have passed out, you could have done anything, and yet, here you are, courting disaster, spitting in the face of Christ during The Transfiguration? Really, man? A screaming chest dive? The most boring guy I’ve ever seen play basketball, deciding this was the moment to let the Shitty Kawhi routine drop, and jam himself into that dude? You think he’ll forget this? You think THE UNIVERSE will forget this? Look at these lines, you fucking dumbass. Where do you think these come from? Did computer-boy Brad Stevens and Shitty Daddy Coach K so completely wipe your mind of the ways of the spirit, of Mankind’s connection to the Earth, that you can’t fucking see that this shit isn’t the product of working out, of skill, of singular basketball genius, or any of that horseshit? Can’t you see with your eyes, feel with the hairs on your arms, sense, somewhere in your heart, hardened and shut off to the world by the barrier that “Basketball Science” built inside, that LeBron has exceeded the confines of the world your tiny eyes can see, and bonded with the deeper power of The Universe? He has left the world of mere “Titles” and “Wins” behind and has instead taken up the sigil of Nature’s Player, The Universe’s Representative on Hardwood. Look at what happened after you committed this terrible, heinous sin! Did this dunk or the asinine chest bump “Get the crowd in it,” or “Drive your squad to new heights,” or “Prove anything is possible!?” NO! IT DID NOT! It did NOTHING but bring the whole wrath of LeBron James and The Universe down on your head. Your squad was in it, you went too far, and BOOM, YOU WERE CRUSHED, YOUR TEAM REDUCED TO NOTHING, YOUR FATE SEALED, LIKE YOU DESERVED. You’ve taken too much from the pot of life, Jayson Tatum, you fucking idiot. You’ve gorged yourself at the buffet, drank straight from the jug, and sure, you’re fat and happy now, but the morning brings a hangover, and the hangover you can expect is terrible and evil. Since rising to his current throne, all those years ago, LeBron has devoured everyone who has defied him, left them in the street to be dined on by rats. Gilbert Arenas, demolished. Paul Pierce, humiliated in public over and over, now living courtside to LeBron’s myriad accomplishments in his role as a terrible broadcaster. Dwight Howard, ground into dust. The Mavericks, declined immediately. The Spurs, found themselves tormented by Kawhi Leonard of all people. The Warriors, stained forever by blowing a 3-1 lead. Derrick Rose, rendered hopelessly broken and shitty almost immediately after stealing one of LeBron’s MVPs. Fate conspires to destroy everyone who stands up to LeBron, sooner or later, and justice is coming for you, Jayson Tatum. I don’t know how it will manifest. Maybe your shot will leave you. Maybe Kyrie returning will throw your team into a state of perpetual malfeasance (Terry Rozier is already doomed to Death By Kyrie, and he didn’t even finish). Maybe Gordon Hayward will play you out of the rotation, and you'll be traded to the Pistons, where you will see your career slide down into the swamp of mediocrity until, one day, you find yourself plying a trade on a contender, but far away from the glory you dreamt of when you foolishly dunked on LeBron for no particularly good reason. Is there a proper amount of horror on your face, here? Did LeBron strike the proper amount of fear in your young heart? You had to at least tremble when he sidled up to you, surrounded by cameras, leaned in, and whispered "...You will pay for what you did to me, 20 times what you expect… I am God in this world, and you are merely an ant...” It matters not, because you are now doomed to revisit this moment, this mistake from which there is no return, for the rest of your life.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bj3vkw/nba-dunk-of-the-week-jayson-tatum-look-what-you-did

Sports

Vice

2016-12-25 00:00:00

2016

12.0

25

Celebrity Scramble -- Guess Who!

'Tis the holiday season and hiding behind this six-sided face is a Hannukah hottie ... take a spin and see if you can guess the star in the festive photo.

https://www.tmz.com/2016/12/25/celebrity-scramble-guess-who/

TMZ

2018-08-09 15:20:13

2018

8.0

9

Aja Romano

Why we love shark movies

News and reviews of 2019's biggest summer blockbuster films. Since Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film Jaws first ushered in the era of the summer blockbuster 41 years ago, sharks have been among summer cinema’s favorite perennial villains. They rank right up there with the alien from Alien and Sadako from The Ring in terms of habitually recurring evil forces with a single-minded purpose: to destroy everything in their path. There’s something so elemental and irresistible about the shark movie that over the course of the past few decades, it has become one of Hollywood’s most well-trodden paths to terror. The genre now spans a wide range of films, from classics like Jaws and Deep Blue Sea (yes, Deep Blue Sea is a classic) to serious indie projects like The Reef to sillier D-movie affairs like the Sharknado, Mega Shark, and Shark Attack franchises. And if you’re among its many fans, you know that the only thing that can cure shark movie fever is more shark movies. Lucky for you, there’s always another shark movie on the way. The genre’s newest man-eating — or in this case, Jason Statham-eating — entry swims into movie theaters this weekend, with the opening of the tongue-in-cheek mega-shark movie The Meg — just days before the sixth and final installment in the Sharknado franchise arrives with Sharknado 6: It’s About Time. But why sharks? Ordinarily, the prospect of watching Statham try to survive an oceanic disaster scenario would be only a so-so draw for moviegoers. But if you throw in a battle to the death against a giant megalodon — the huge prehistoric shark which has, in recent years, outsized the great white shark in terms of appeal — then obviously, we’re hooked. In real life, sharks are mainly non-aggressive creatures who barely resemble the evil killing machines they morph into onscreen. They’re anything but an unstoppable force — humans kill a staggering 100 million sharks each year, or 11,000 sharks every single hour, a jaw-dropping statistic that mainly results from the high demand for shark fin soup in some parts of the world. You’re statistically more likely to die from a lightning strike or a toppling vending machine than from a shark attack. So why are we so fascinated by shark movies, even though they barely represent reality and their plots tend to be incredibly repetitive? Oh, there are so many reasons. You may believe sharks are limited to the sea, but you are wrong. Thanks to the magic of cinema and the relative ease with which a shark fin can be CGI’d to pop out of something and move ominously toward the viewer, we don’t just have sea sharks. We also have sand sharks. Avalanche sharks. Sharks in a sharknado! Sharks in a sharkcano. (That one really happened.) Sharks in a blizzardnado! Sharks on land! Sharks in shark lake. Sharks in swamps. Sharks in the bayou. Sharks in apartments! Sharks at Sea World! Sharks on the Jersey Shore. Sharks at the Golden Gate Bridge! Sharks at the supermarket! Sharks in Japan. Sharks in bathtubs and puddles. Even sharks in the sky. Much like the 2006 Samuel L. Jackson film Snakes on a Plane relied on the surprise factor of slithering reptiles wreaking havoc at 30,000 feet, a crucial component of shark movies is sharks’ seemingly inherent knack for appearing where and when you least expect them: Just where are the sharks going to be lurking today? Spoiler alert: They are everywhere. If you don’t think your average shark is a super genius hell-bent on avenging the atrocities perpetuated against its species by the human race, you’ve never watched Jaws 3-D (mama shark seeks revenge against SeaWorld for killing her baby), Jaws 4: The Revenge (shark seeks revenge against Lorraine Gary’s character Ellen Brody, ostensibly for killing its shark family but more broadly for the sad and rapid demise of the entire Jaws franchise), Mega Shark Versus Crocosaurus (shark seeks revenge on Jaleel White for Jaleel White’s entire acting career), or Deep Blue Sea (shark seeks revenge against scientists for experimenting on it). To wit: Please enjoy the following GIF from Deep Blue Sea, in which a shark holds a stretcher-bound Stellan Skarsgård captive underwater so that it can throw him against an underwater window in order to spite his grieving girlfriend: I mean, come on, who among us hasn’t wanted to throw Stellan Skarsgård against a window? Bring on the shark uprising! The shark can do what no other villainous horror movie creature really can: In addition to engaging in epic bite-offs against other creatures, it can combine with those other creatures to create animalia supervillains. Sure, Hollywood will invent a demonic vampire here and there, but you can’t really give a demonic vampire tentacles. That’s simply not the case with a shark. In the world of shark movies, if you create an undead demon sharktopus, that’s just the first act. Would you like your shark with one head or two? How about three? Would you like an actual prehistoric mega shark? How about a giant robot shark? Few, if any, animals have enjoyed such creative big-screen depictions as the noble shark. There are demonic sharks! Sharks with tentacles! Zombie sharks! This shark-horse! Ghost sharks! A shark that walks on land! And coming later in 2017, there will be flying sharks controlled by Nazi zombies! In other words, if part of the fun of any shark movie is rooted in the nervous anticipation of where and when a dangerous shark might appear, a significant number of shark movies up the ante by combining their shark threats with other things. Not only does this approach allow the sharks to travel farther and kill harder, it ensures an endless supply of shark movies, because Hollywood will never run out of shark-based combination hazards. Killer koala shark from Down Under? Done. Shark movies can be as minimalist or as full-scale as you want or need them to be. As Blake Lively illustrated in 2016’s The Shallows, shark movies can be a one-woman-versus-one-shark show where the shark is a threatening but largely implied presence. They can involve just two people facing off against a small but deadly herd of sharks (47 Meters Down, Open Water), a tiny ensemble of stranded swimmers trying to avoid getting picked off one by one (The Reef), or a full-scale cast with big-budget shark action like Shark Night 3-D or Dark Tide. And one of the best things about shark films, regardless of their scope, is that shark size has no correlation to shark excellence — as anyone who actually saw Shark Night 3-D or Dark Tide can attest. The bigger shark doesn’t always have the better bite. In fact, films like Open Water and The Reef can succeed without showing any sharks at all. Believing they’re there is all that matters. On the other end of the spectrum, the first appearance of a shark — it’s always bigger than you were expecting, no matter the film — never gets old: This is a pretty obvious reason, but it remains the most compelling of all. Stories pitting man against the terrors of the deep have always been a mainstay of human folklore, from the biblical fable of Jonah and the whale to nautical tales of the great kraken, from Moby Dick to The Old Man and the Sea to Lovecraft’s tentacle monster Cthulhu to Disney’s Pinocchio. Each of these narratives involves great sea creatures that provide opportunities for heroes to face their fears, come to terms with their humanity, and, you know, be manly men who fish and hunt and conquer the wilderness. But as formidable opponents, many of these sea creatures lack a significant, shall we say, bite. Giant squid generally stay too far below the surface to really pose a viable threat to humans. Even a big swordfish is no match for a skilled modern fisherman — and the swordfish wouldn’t want to eat you anyway. As for whales, the bigger they are, the more peaceful and harmless they seem to be. Even the ones with teeth are passive and don’t really want to hurt you (unless they’ve been subjected to lifelong animal cruelty). Sharks, by contrast, are big. They have teeth — sometimes really big, really sharp teeth! They come into the shallow parts of the ocean where humans like to swim and play. Because they are drawn to loud noises and activity in the water, it’s possible, if not probable, that they could be lurking in the water where your loved ones are splashing around. They’re durable and intimidating, and even though in real life sharks are almost never aggressive toward humans, the biggest ones have the power and the potential to chomp you in two. In sum: Like all man-versus-nature tropes, man-versus-shark movies — and man-versus-sharks-versus-other-creatures movies — can reveal important truths about human nature and serve as fascinating, in-depth character studies. Unlike most other man-versus-nature tropes, they do it with a side of terrifying, razor-sharp teeth. Sharks combine mankind’s desire to conquer nature with its fear of and fascination with the mysteries of the ocean. Even in this modern age, when we’ve been able to plumb the depths of the seas, we still know surprisingly little about sharks. Jaws’ famous description of a shark’s "cold, dead eyes, like a doll’s eyes" in the film’s USS Indianapolis monologue (which was based on the real sinking of a US World War II Navy ship and subsequent shark attacks on its sailors) is still a testament to how unknowable they are. In essence, in fiction if not in real life, sharks are the perfect scary force of nature: an ever-present threat waiting to happen, in a deep blue setting that humans are still learning to navigate. But when all is said and done? As with all great horror movie villains, ultimately we’re always rooting for the shark.

https://www.vox.com/2016/6/24/11966440/why-we-love-shark-movies

Vox

2018-07-15 00:00:00

2018

7.0

15

Turkey issues presidential decrees reshaping institutions

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey issued presidential decrees on Sunday reshaping key political, military and bureaucratic institutions as part of the transformation to a powerful executive presidency triggered by last month’s election. President Tayyip Erdogan was sworn in on Monday under the new system and now holds sweeping powers, allowing him to issue decrees on executive matters and appoint and remove senior civil servants. Erdogan has said the powerful executive presidency is vital to make government more efficient, drive economic growth and ensure security. Critics decry what they say is increasing authoritarianism and a push toward one-man rule. Among the latest changes, the General Staff was brought under the authority of the defense minister, according to state-run Anadolu news agency, a move following Erdogan’s appointment of military commander Hulusi Akar as defense minister. In total, the country’s Official Gazette published seven decrees affecting many state institutions, including the secretariat of the National Security Council, the Defence Industry Directorate and the State Supervisory Council. The changes coincide with the second anniversary of an attempted coup during which at least 250 people were killed, many of them unarmed civilians, when rogue soldiers attempted to topple Erdogan’s government. A state of emergency was imposed after the failed putsch on July 15, 2016 and is set to expire this week. Erdogan’s AK Party and its nationalist ally plan to introduce security regulations to ensure the “fight against terrorism” will continue after emergency rule ends, two sources told Reuters. Reporting by Daren Butler; Editing by Keith Weir

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-politics-president/turkey-issues-presidential-decrees-reshaping-institutions-idUSKBN1K507C

World News

Reuters

2017-07-05 12:30:47

2017

7.0

5

Alexia Fernández Campbell

Hundreds of thousands of workers could lose their jobs if Senate health bill passes

CHICAGO — From their offices in a crumbling former nursing school, Aimee Dinschel and Michelle Pihlaja-Olson were preparing to interview 25 applicants for public health jobs. It should have been a moment of optimism for their hospital system, which only recently began to turn a profit after more than a century of bleeding money, and which was expanding its services to the poorest residents of Cook County. Instead, the women were worried. The health care bill moving through the Senate, and particularly its rollback of Medicaid, would threaten millions of dollars of funding for the county hospital system here. It could end mental health and behavioral services for low-income patients. And it has cast a pall of uncertainty over hospital staff: Dinschel and Pihlaja-Olson could not be sure that the jobs they were hiring for would still exist in a few years. They weren’t sure their own positions would exist, either. “What if we don’t have jobs in a year?” said Dinschel, a mother of two who is the main income earner in her family. It’s a question she’s considered several times since the election. “It’s hard to find a job, and this is a good position.” Dinschel and Pihlaja-Olson, who manage health care for Medicaid enrollees, are among 300 workers and contractors for the Cook County health system whose jobs rely on the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. The morning we spoke, Republican senators had unveiled the Better Care Reconciliation Act, which would cut federal funding to cover Medicaid expansion for low-income Americans who qualified for the program for the first time under Obamacare. The Congressional Budget Office estimates 22 million fewer Americans would have insurance under that plan. But health coverage isn’t the only thing at stake. The Senate bill could slash hundreds of thousands of jobs and stunt growth in an industry that has boosted post-recession job creation. It’s unclear exactly how many jobs are on the line. But public health experts at George Washington University estimate that 912,000 health care workers in the United States could lose their jobs if Congress rolls back the Medicaid expansion and removes tax credits to help people buy private insurance. (The BCRA phases out Medicaid expansion and caps, but does not eliminate, tax credits). Illinois is one of 31 states that chose to expand Medicaid coverage with federal dollars from Obamacare. It received $3.2 billion in federal funding to do so in fiscal year 2015. If the Senate bill passes, it could be one of the states with the highest number of job losses, according to the analysis. The law would also strain public budgets. Fewer people with insurance means more people show up at the emergency room who can’t afford their care. As patients worry about the possibility of losing their insurance in a post-Obamacare world, public hospitals have another worry too: that they’ll return to the bad old days of financial instability, costs that are eventually passed along to taxpayers. Mary Sajdak, who oversees about 60 care coordinators who work with Medicaid enrollees in Cook County, choked up when she described the calls she gets from patients who are frightened about losing their health care. “When you see what years and years of untreated chronic disease does to a person, then you give them a chance, and give them a prescription card, it makes their poverty less isolating,” she said, wiping away tears. “To give that to people and then take it away, it makes me profoundly sad.” Cook County’s public hospitals have treated Chicago’s poorest residents for more than 100 years. The vast system includes John Stroger Jr. Hospital in West Chicago, the inspiration for the TV show ER, which has one of the busiest emergency rooms in the country. For most of the hospital’s history, the majority of the patients it served had no health insurance at all. When they needed to see a doctor, they went to the emergency room. Under federal law, hospitals cannot turn away someone in a medical emergency, even if they don’t have health insurance and cannot pay. Cook County hospitals charge uninsured patients based on their income — anywhere from zero to 50 percent of their total medical bill. Local taxpayers end up subsidizing the rest. In 2009, right before passage of the Affordable Care Act, about 53 percent of the system’s patients were uninsured, costing county taxpayers more than $500 million. After the ACA expanded Medicaid coverage in 2014, providing health insurance to hundreds of thousands more people, the county hospital system broke even for the first time. About two-thirds of the hospital system’s patients now have health insurance, mostly because of the Medicaid expansion, says Dr. Jay Shannon, CEO of the Cook County Health and Hospitals System. Shannon said the influx of nearly $200 million in Medicaid revenue has helped the hospital hire extra staff, such as psychologists and behavioral health specialists who work with patients to identify — and change — behaviors that are hurting their health, such as smoking, drug use, or unhealthy eating. That includes dozens of social workers, such as Dinschel and Pihlaja-Olson, who have helped Medicaid enrollees navigate the health care system and use preventive care services. “The changes have been very, very striking for us,” said Shannon, whose office is not far from the construction site of a nine-story medical facility, which will replace the county’s dilapidated community clinic and administrative offices. But Shannon may soon have to make some difficult choices. He is closely watching what Republicans in Congress are doing to replace Obamacare, and has serious concerns that both the House and Senate want to eliminate the Medicaid expansion. If that happens, he will have to cut back somewhere. “I have to keep the lights in the hospital on; I have to keep the surgeon on call,” he said. “I may have to pull back on care coordination and mental health support. We would have to put off overdue investments in capital. These are the kinds of tough decisions we have to make.” Cook County commissioners are panicking as well. They don’t have the money to subsidize uninsured patients if they are kicked off Medicaid. Larry Suffredin, a county commissioner for 15 years, said rolling back the Medicaid expansion could cost the county up to $400 million a year. Right now, he said, the savings from Medicaid have been funneled into the county courts, jails, and sheriff’s office. Suffredin said the commission will not raise taxes, but doesn’t know how else to keep people on Medicaid if Congress takes away the federal money. If the time comes, Suffredin hopes the state will step in and help. But the chance of that happening doesn’t look good. The state of Illinois is in the midst of one of the worst financial crises in its history, and is struggling to balance its budget. Suffredin said it’s frustrating to see lawmakers in Washington, DC, be so irresponsible with their politics. “You can’t just put the genie back in the bottle,” he said. “This is not a simple accounting exercise. Every decision they are making has an impact on people’s health and public safety.” Dinschel and Pihlaja-Olson both chose careers as social workers because they wanted to do something meaningful with their lives. Dinschel, a native of Chicago, was passionate about social justice issues in college and realized that she could make a career working with people whom others often overlooked. She got a master’s degree in social work, got married, had two daughters, and worked for years helping homeless residents find food and housing. Soon, many of her colleagues began getting jobs in the field of health care coordination — a field that began growing after Illinois expanded Medicaid with money from the Affordable Care Act. In 2016, Dinschel got a job in the industry too. She started working as a care coordinator for high-risk Medicaid patients in Cook County. The job paid better, she said, and had great benefits. And it wasn’t so different from what she did before. Instead of helping homeless people find food and housing, she was helping low-income Americans get medical care and live healthier lives. “When I am doing something to help others, it’s more than just a job,” said Dinschel, sipping a tangerine LaCroix after several back-to-back meetings with her staff. She now manages a staff of 10 care coordinators. Pihlaja-Olson has a similar story. She used to work with victims of domestic violence before she was recruited by Cook County around the same time that Dinschel switched jobs. She said it’s important that her three sons learn to have empathy for people, and she hopes she is setting an example for them. As a care coordinator, Pihlaja-Olson screened Medicaid enrollees for potential chronic diseases, such as diabetes, asthma, or even cancer. Many of them had never had health insurance before, so they needed to unlearn the habit of using the emergency room for medical care. “We basically had to teach some people how to use health care. How to make an appointment, how to use their insurance cards,” said Pihlaja-Olson, who had just come back from the county jail, where she was starting a pilot program to get inmates drug addiction treatment. She also supervises a staff of 10 social workers, nurses, and community health workers. After Trump won the election, some employees started asking Pihlaja-Olson if they would lose their jobs. She didn’t know what to say. “I just said, ‘You’re okay for now,’ and tried to calm people’s fears.” She doesn’t even know what will happen to her job. “I think I could find another job,” said Pihlaja-Olson, who, like Dinschel, is her family’s main income earner. “But I worry a lot about the staff that I supervise and whether they will have jobs.” Dinschel, who was seated next to her in a conference room, nodded. It used to worry her a lot more, she said, but now she just feels weary about the news surrounding the Affordable Care Act. Down the hall, their boss seemed weary too. “The inconsistency we’ve been living with is hard,” said Sajdak, who oversees care management for the health and hospital system. “How do you plan for something like this?” She said she would do everything possible to prove to hospital executives that health care coordinators are invaluable. After all, she said, they develop plans with each Medicaid enrollee to make sure they get regular care and see their doctors, which ends up saving hospitals more money in the long run. “If we can show that we can reduce hospitalization rates, then we might be able to survive. Hope is not really a plan,” she said at her office next to Stroger Hospital. In the past few months, Sajdak has had to reassure her employees that she is committed to keeping them on staff. But she acknowledges that even her job isn’t safe. “I was hoping to finish my career seeing [the Affordable Care Act] bloom and grow,” she said. “I don’t know if I will.”

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/5/15873438/senate-health-bill-job-losses

Vox

2017-11-23 00:00:00

2017

11.0

23

China air force again flies round Taiwan, over South China Sea

BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s air force has again flown bombers and other warplanes through two strategic channels near Taiwan and also over the disputed South China Sea during training drills, state media said on Thursday. Numerous H-6K bombers and other jets recently flew through the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines and the Miyako Strait in Japan’s south, and also over the South China Sea on a “combat patrol”, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing Air Force spokesman Shen Jinke. Shen did not say when the drills began but said all planes had finished their patrols on Thursday, which were intended to “improve maritime real combat capabilities and forge the forces’ battle methods”. China has been increasingly asserting itself in territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas. It is also worried about Taiwan, run by a government China fears is intent on independence. Beijing has never ruled out the use of force to bring proudly democratic Taiwan under its control, and has warned that any moves towards formal independence could prompt an armed response. China is in the midst of an ambitious military modernization program that includes building aircraft carriers and developing stealth fighters to give it the ability to project power far from its shores. Taiwan is well armed, mostly with U.S. weaponry, but has been pressing Washington to sell it more high-tech equipment to better deter China. Reporting by Michael Martina and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-defence-taiwan/china-air-force-again-flies-round-taiwan-over-south-china-sea-idUSKBN1DN12K

World News

Reuters

2016-06-16 14:15:00

2016

6.0

16

"I Can No Longer Be Scared of What People Think": Coeur de Pirate Takes Personal Stand on Orlando Shootings

Photo by Béatrice Martin On June 12, one of the worst shootings in history of the United States occurred at gay nightclub Pulse, in Orlando, Florida. It is heartbreaking to note that this tragedy, unfortunately, coincides with Pride Month. Béatrice Martin, otherwise known as Coeur de Pirate is an indie pop artist from Montréal. The 26-year-old singer, songwriter, and mother felt this traumatic experience particularly deeply. Below is an open letter she wrote: It’s Sunday morning in Paris. I hop on Twitter, still reeling from the events that took place the day before when a former finalist on The Voice was gunned down while signing autographs. As I see my feed unravel, I realize another mass shooting has taken place in a nightclub. The horror, the disgust, comes swinging like a punch to the stomach. Omar Mateen has killed 49 people in a gay bar. I feel sick, I feel powerless. It is one of the worst mass shootings in American history, fuelled by a plethora of complicated issues: homophobia, possible terrorist group affiliation, domestic terrorism. But the fundamental issue is that an LGBTQ community has been explicitly targeted and murdered. This was a place where these victims were supposed to feel safe; where they were celebrating their identity and someone had decided to violate that yet again. All of a sudden, I remembered the Paris attacks in November of last year and the paranoia that settled in, that still permeates the country. I was on tour at the time, in France, and had to cancel concerts for the safety of my fans and myself. It’s one thing to say that you have to keep going, but the fear and anxiety still lingers when the places you perform in or feel comfortable going to are attacked. Come to think of it, the Orlando shootings had another impact, because some families must have learned about a loved one’s true sexuality along with their deaths. The victims were robbed of the choice to come out on their own terms. In response to the news, social media became full of hashtags like #gaysbreaktheinternet and #queersbreaktheinternet to publicly come out in support of. I thought it was wonderful: why hide who you are? In a world where, in certain countries, being gay is still punishable by death, it’s important to take a stand. The internet is a beautiful place sometimes. That’s when I started feeling like a hypocrite. The whole situation made me wonder if I was considering myself honest. I had been going through many changes as well. As a public figure, I’ve always wondered what my position should be about my private life: what should I say or not say? Sure, it’s my “private” life, I can say whatever I want, but truthfully there is some good in being honest. This is not just for me but for the people that consider me someone who is cool and awesome. At least, I try to be. My first romantic thoughts were about a girl I knew. I didn’t quite understand it at the time because I was 6 or 7 years old, but I remember the girl’s parents calling my parents to tell them that I was going overboard with the phone calls and the attention. I liked her, I really liked her. I was always reading a lot of manga at that age, specifically Sailor Moon, where lesbian love was celebrated in a subtle way. Additionally, some of the Sailor Scouts dressed up in men’s clothes, and it was awesome. It was enlightening. Sometimes you didn’t know if someone was a girl or a boy. It was beyond what most seven-year-olds were thinking about. That being said, as I grew up and saw how people interacted, it became clear to me that it was considered weird to like someone from the same sex. One of my first crushes was a girl and the second she heard about it, she started ignoring me. For anyone, that’s traumatizing. I resented the fact that liking someone of the same sex was not widely accepted. I settled for a heterosexual lifestyle because I was scared of rejection. After years of being awkward both in bed and in relationships, I settled down, buried all of my feelings deep inside, had a kid, and thought things were going to be alright. I was completely wrong. Whatever I had repressed all those years came rushing back the second after I gave birth. I started disassociating. Whenever I had any form of contact with anyone, I would feel used and helpless. So I tried to detach myself from whatever was going on, physically and mentally. As someone that was realizing all of this later in life, I felt like a complete fraud. It is clear that with the Orlando attack homophobia is still very much present and a concern. Even with the internet, the open debates on horrible bills like North Carolina’s HB2 that are being passed in this day and age it is still fact that loving the person that you want to love comes with a price. That is why I’m coming out as queer today; because I can no longer be scared of what people might think about me. I can’t be scared that someone will stop listening to my music, or that parents might not want their kids listening to me because of the fact that I want to love whoever I want to love. I’m coming out for my daughter who needs to learn that love knows no race, religion, gender or orientation. Even though the family that she knew in the very beginning won’t be the same, she deserves all of the love that she needs or wants. I’m coming out for the victims that lost their lives because they wanted to celebrate who they truly were. It isn’t easy for me to write any of this, but I know that some good can come out of it. I’m sure that if you’re not in a big city, and that you feel scared to come to terms with who you really are, what happened in Orlando can scare you to become the person you were meant to be. This is my message to you, as someone that was terrified as well, that I found solace in my difference. Béatrice Martin is a singer and songwriter from Montreal. Follow her on Twitter * For more information on how you can help the Orlando victims visit here. And for those who need a confidential resource, someone to talk to, you can contact the LGBT Youth Line.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/6vgwym/coeur-de-pirate-orlando-pulse-shooting-essay

Noisey

Vice

2019-05-04 13:38:43

2019

5.0

4

Kelly Cohen

Boeing 737 crash: all safe after St. Johns River crash in Jacksonville

A Boeing 737 with 143 people aboard slid off a runway into a shallow river in Jacksonville, Florida on Friday night as pilots attempted a landing in the middle of a thunderstorm. All 136 passengers and seven flight crew members on board are alive and accounted for, although 21 adults were transported to local hospitals with minor injuries, officials said. Officials did not immediately say what caused the plane to leave the runway and go into the St. Johns River. The plane, a chartered Boeing 737-800, was arriving from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to Naval Air Station Jacksonville at about 9:40 p.m. Eastern Standard Time when the incident occurred, a spokesman for the Florida air base said. Capt. Michael P. Connor, the commanding officer at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, said at a news conference that “the cause of the mishap has yet to be determined” and praised the skill of the first responders on the scene. “We could be talking about a different story this evening. So there’s a lot to say about the professionalism of the folks that helped the passengers off the airplane,” Conor said early Saturday. “Some of them were coming back to see their families, some of them were continuing on travel to their homes outside of Florida.” #JSO Marine Unit was called to assist @NASJax_ in reference to a commercial airplane in shallow water. The plane was not submerged. Every person is alive and accounted for. pic.twitter.com/4n1Fyu5nTS The mayor of Jacksonville, Lenny Curry, said on Twitter that President Donald Trump called him to offer help as the situation was “developing.” “No fatalities reported. We are all in this together,” Curry said in a separate tweet. 7. No fatalities reported. We are all in this together. Absorb that. Passenger Cheryl Bormann told CNN’s Don Lemon the plane flew through lightning and thunderstorms on the way to Jacksonville. “As we went down, we had a really hard landing,” Bormann said. “And then the plane bounced and screeched and bounced some more ... then it came to a complete like crash stop.” Bormann said passengers had no idea where they were at first. “We were in water. We couldn’t tell where we were, whether it was a river or an ocean. There was rain coming down. There was lightning and thunder. And we stood on that wing for a significant period of time. Rescue folks came and eventually someone inflated a life raft that had been on the plane and we began climbing into it. Everybody was helping everybody,” she said. The flight was operated by Miami Air International, a charter airline with a fleet of Boeing 737-800s, that is contracted by the military for its twice-weekly “rotator” roundtrip service between the US mainland and Guantanamo Bay, said Bill Dougherty, a spokesperson for the base in Jacksonville. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the cause of the crash. The NTSB is sending a Go Team to investigate Miami Air International flight 293, a Boeing 737-800, which departed runway and came to rest in St. Johns River, Jacksonville, Florida (no reported fatalities). While the plane involved in the Jacksonville incident is a Boeing 737, it is not a 737 Max, the plane involved in two deadly crashes less than six months apart. Those crashes are currently under investigation by the Department of Justice as the airplane manufacture retools the plane. In a statement released on Twitter, Boeing said it is cooperating with the NTSB’s investigation into the Jacksonville crash. pic.twitter.com/w5Xs9H1kwt

https://www.vox.com/2019/5/4/18529202/boeing-737-plane-crash-jacksonville-florida

Vox

2016-05-06 00:00:00

2016

5.0

6

Allison Meier

The Forgotten Artistic Playgrounds of the 20th Century

Advertise on Hyperallergic with Nectar Ads No matter if your childhood playground had a rusted metal slide that was scorching hot in summer or a sleek and safe structure of soft plastic climbing walls and swings, it’s likely that you created your own narrative of play. Maybe the jungle gym was a pirate ship, or the slide a mountain, but grownups watching only saw chaos. Following World War II, and up to stricter playground regulations in the 1980s, artists, architects, and designers imagined new playgrounds that fostered this fluid creativity. Rather than equipment with implied actions (like a slide), they built abstract, climbable sculptures, landscapes of peaks and tunnels, and sometimes just concoctions of debris in a vacant lot where children could build whatever environment they desired. These “adventure playgrounds” contrasted to the sort of holding-pen playgrounds of the 19th century that arose with the social reform movement. And in Europe, where many cities were pocked with postwar rubble, adventure playgrounds could be temporarily installed in these vacant lots, utilizing their raw materials. Landscape architect Marjory Allen in London, for instance, was an advocate for adventure playgrounds, including one at a bomb site at Clydesdale Road in 1952. Meanwhile in the United States, the sprawl of the suburbs, and decline of urban downtowns, required a new perspective on designing vibrant public space. The Playground Project, out now with essays in German and English from JRP-Ringier, explores this era of artistic play. Edited by city planner Gabriela Burkhalter, the publication developed from her years of research on this overlooked history (which you can also explore online). Burkhalter curated a 2013 show on playgrounds at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Art, which evolved into the larger Playground Project exhibition now at Kunsthalle Zürich. Burkhalter writes that as “hardly anyone sees playgrounds as part of their cultural heritage, much of their history has been forgotten.” She adds that there have been “four paradigm shifts” in the playground over the past 150 years: First, at the beginning of the 20th century, social reformers took children off the street and onto the playground. Then, at the beginning of the 1930s, the idea arose that children should play with natural materials rather than playground equipment. In the 1960s, the decade of autonomy and do-it-yourself, parents, children, and neighborhood groups began to take charge of playgrounds themselves. Finally, in the 1980s, with the end of social and political utopias, a crisis in playground design began. Photographer Brenda Biondo, in discussing her 2014 book Once Upon a Playground: A Celebration of Classic American Playgrounds, 1920-1975, echoed the assertion that this aspect of the built environment hasn’t been widely considered. “So many Americans grew up playing on this stuff, and it’s a part of Americana, but nobody was documenting it, nobody was collecting it,” she told Hyperallergic. So why should we care about the playground? As Burkhalter argues in The Playground Project, playgrounds are a meeting point of both modernism and a distinctly 20th-century perspective on childhood. From boxer, sculptor, and Princeton University professor Joseph Brown’s spiderweb structures of ropes and springs that encouraged collaborative play, to the interconnected orbs made from recycled materials by Group Ludic in France, playgrounds were also a global movement in radically rethinking public space. Many playground designers were inspired by sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Although none of the New York City playgrounds he started designing in the 1930s were realized — due in large part to Parks Commissioner Robert Moses who preferred his own repeating metal bar-based playgrounds — Noguchi’s concepts of sculptural environments influenced later figures like Richard Dattner. Dattner’s five 1960s to ’70s playgrounds, built in a post-Moses New York, endure with their interactive landscapes in Central Park, albeit renovated for a newly litigious age. Burkhalter notes that they’ve “lost much of their original idiosyncrasy when they were adapted to meet contemporary security standards; for example, tactile sand was replaced by a soft plastic surface.” Landscape architect M. Paul Friedberg was likewise inspired by Noguchi in erecting playgrounds with the New York Housing Authority, such as the rambling hills of stone and concrete at the Jacob Riis Houses and a climbable sculpture at the Carver Houses in Spanish Harlem, rather than the originally planned untouchable piece of art. Noguchi finally had his first American playground completed in 1976 with “Playscapes” in Atlanta, commissioned by the High Museum of Art. This collaboration between institutions and artists was essential for making art playgrounds a reality, with groups such as Creative Playthings involving artists like Danish sculptor Egon Möller-Nielsen in the 1950s to produce playground sculptures available to order from catalogues, even coordinating a play sculpture competition with the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 1954. Richard W. Crawford, Philadelphia’s Commissioner of Recreation, led the installation of several play sculptures by Möller-Nielsen and others in his city. Even the much smaller municipality of my hometown, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, commissioned architect Bruce Goff to build the recently restored 1963 “Play Tower,” based on the idea of a Möbius strip, with an accompanying climbable sculpture alongside. Children were encouraged to run up and down the stairs of the Space Age-styled tower, making as much noise as possible to rattle its steel cage. “The abstract playground sculptures fit the mood of the age, which wanted to promote creativity in children,” Burkhalter writes. “The supply grew, and soon it was good form for city governments to install playground sculptures, even if mass production led to more and more banal designs.” Playgrounds today don’t have that same freedom of experimentation, especially since the 1981 publication of the US Consumer Safety Commission’s Guidelines for Playground Safety. Yet there is a recent revival of interest in art playgrounds. Last year’s The Brutalist Playground at the Royal Institute of British Architects involved a playscape designed by Assemble and artist Simon Terrill that celebrated the postwar playground landscape. And an adventure playground recently had a successful Kickstarter campaign to be constructed in New York. None of these individual projects is quite like what happened in the mid-20th century, when the playground, from Japan to Stockholm, was reborn as a place of artistic experimentation. Children in some ways have different lives today, often much more structured after-school activities, with free time frequently filled with passive activities on digital devices. Still, the innovative ideas presented in The Playground Project respond to the universal enthusiasm in children for play, and show that even just a well-placed corner filled with sand, or a sculpture you can crawl into rather than keep behind barriers can make public space an active part of children’s lives. The Playground Project is out now from JRP-Ringier. The Playground Project continues at Kunsthalle Zürich (Limmatstrasse 270, Zürich, Switzerland) through May 15.

https://hyperallergic.com/295172/the-forgotten-artistic-playgrounds-of-the-20th-century/

Hyperallergic

2017-07-13 00:00:00

2017

7.0

13

NHL's Mark Giordano: I've Never Seen Brian McGrattan Lose a Fight

If you're gonna pick a fight with a hockey player, STAY AWAY FROM BRIAN MCGRATTAN ... so says Calgary Flames captain Mark Giordano. We were talking to Mark about which hockey player would have the best shot at success in the UFC -- and without hesitation, Giordano brought up the legendary enforcer. "I've never seen him lose a fight," Mark explained. McGrattan -- 6'4", 235 lbs -- had a helluva fight record during his time in the NHL ... and is said to have not lost a single scrap during the 2013-2014 season despite playing in 76 games. Here are some highlights. Enjoy the violence.

https://www.tmz.com/2017/07/13/mark-giordano-brian-mcgratten-nhl-fight/

TMZ

2018-01-23 00:00:00

2018

1.0

23

Greg Torode, Philip Wen

As U.S. goes quiet on close naval patrols, China speaks out

HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) - While the Pentagon plays down patrols close to Chinese-controlled reefs and islands in the South China Sea, Beijing is sounding the alarm about them, seeking to justify what experts say will be an even greater presence in the disputed region. Chinese officials publicized the latest U.S. “freedom of navigation patrol”, protesting the deployment last week of the destroyer USS Hopper to within 12 nautical miles of Scarborough Shoal, an atoll west of the Philippines which Beijing disputes with Manila. It was the second time in recent months that confirmation of a patrol came from Beijing, not Washington, which had previously announced or leaked details. Bonnie Glaser, a security expert at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said while the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump had a policy of keeping the patrols regular but low key, China was willing to publicly exploit them to further their military ends. “It is difficult to conclude otherwise,” she said. “Even as it pushes ahead with these (patrols), I don’t think the Trump administration has really come to terms with what it will tolerate from China in the South China Sea, and what it simply won’t accept, and Beijing seems to grasp this.” In official statements, Chinese foreign ministry official Lu Kang said China would take “necessary measures to firmly safeguard its sovereignty” in the resource-rich sea. Some regional diplomats and security analysts believe that will involve increased Chinese deployments and the quicker militarization of China’s expanded facilities across the Spratlys archipelago. While U.S. officials did not target China in their comments, couching freedom-of-navigation patrols as a “routine” assertions of international law, Beijing was quick to cast Washington as the provocateur. The Communist Party’s official People’s Daily newspaper on Monday accused the U.S. of upsetting recent peace and co-operation and “wantonly provoking trouble”, saying China had must now strengthen its presence in the strategic waterway. In recent years, China has built up several reefs and islets into large-scale airstrips and bases as it seeks to assert and enforce its claims to much of the sea, through which some $3 trillion in trade passes annually. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan, hold rival claims. Chinese coastguard and People’s Liberation Army navy ships patrol vast swathes of the South China Sea, routinely shadowing U.S. and other international naval deployments, regional naval officers say. Zhang Baohui, a mainland security analyst at Hong Kong’s Lingnan University, told Reuters he believed Beijing was rattled by Trump’s sharpening Asia strategy and they might be tempted to react in the South China Sea, even after months of relative calm. “We can perhaps expect the Chinese to push ahead with militarization as retaliation,” he said. A new U.S. national defense strategy unveiled last week stressed the need to counter the rising authoritarian powers of China and Russia, outlining a need to better support allies and newer partners against coercion. While most analysts and regional envoys believe China remains keen to avoid an actual conflict with the significantly more powerful U.S. navy in the South China Sea, it is working to close the gap. China has added bunkers, hangars and advanced radars on its new runways in the Spratlys, although it has not fully equipped them with the advanced surface-to-air and anti-ship missiles they use to protect the Paracels grouping further north. Similarly, Beijing has yet to land jet fighters in the Spratlys - test flights some experts are expecting this year. The latest patrol was at least the fifth such patrol under the Trump administration and the first to Scarborough - one of the more contentious features in the region. Scarborough, once a U.S. bombing range, was blockaded by the Chinese in 2012, prompting the Philippines to launch its successful legal case in the Hague against China’s excessive territorial claims. China allowed Filipino fishermen back to Scarborough’s rich waters last year, but it remains a potential flashpoint as both sides claim sovereignty and China maintains a steady presence of ships nearby. While experts and regional envoys expect China to ramp up operations from the Spratlys, none expect it to build on Scarborough - something widely believed to be a red line that would provoke the United States, given its long-standing security treaty with the Philippines. Shi Yinhong, who heads the Center for American Studies at Beijing’s Renmin University, said China had “lived with” U.S. patrols for several years but the key facts on the ground remained in China’s favor and broader tensions had “improved remarkably”. “These islands, especially those with reclaimed land and military capability already deployed, they’re still in Chinese hands,” Shi, who has advised the Chinese government on diplomacy, told Reuters. “I don’t think Trump has the stomach and the guts to change this fundamental status quo.” (This story has been refiled to correct typo in paragraph 5) Reporting By Greg Torode in Hong Kong and Philip Wen in Beijing; Editing by Lincoln Feast

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southchinasea-china/as-u-s-goes-quiet-on-close-naval-patrols-china-speaks-out-idUSKBN1FC0JK

World News

Reuters

2016-04-21 16:00:02

2016

4.0

21

Dylan Matthews

This chart shows just how skewed our autism funding priorities are

One point that autistic people like myself have been hammering since the rise of the autism rights movement is that charities devoted to the condition focus on the wrong thing. There's a huge emphasis on preventing or even "curing" autism, even though we're nowhere near being able to do either, and many autistic people resent the idea that their psychological differences are in need of "curing." And a new report finds that this problem isn't going away. In fact, it's getting worse. The report found that autism funding in 2011 and 2012 was heavily tilted toward researching the underlying biology and risk factors contributing to autism, and away from ways to help actual autistic people. A mere 7 percent went to researching services for autistic people, and 1 percent to researching the needs of autistic adults: The report was issued by the Office of Autism Research Coordination (OARC) and the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), a branch of the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that coordinates federal autism policy. They included not just funding from federal agencies (the National Institutes of Health being the biggest, but the CDC, EPA, National Science Foundation, and more as well) but from private organizations like the Simons Foundation and Autism Speaks. The government and foundations spent about $300 million on autism research in 2011, and $332 million in 2012, with about 78 percent coming from the federal government and the rest from private foundations. Jus 30 percent — $100 million — went to biology in 2012, and another 17 percent to risk factors. The trendlines are concerning as well. While research into the biology of autism has been shooting up… …services research remains far behind: It's hard to know what's worse: If services research suddenly jumped in 2010 only to fall far and quickly in 2011 and 2012 (as the original data suggests) or if it's always been considerably below other priorities (as adjusted data, correcting for exaggerated 2010 figures, shows). The original data is screwy because OARC started counting non-research projects, like teacher training and professional education, in the research analysis. Without that creative accounting, services research spending was always low. The relatively high funding of "treatment" research is encouraging until you dig deeper. A third of treatment funding went to "development of animal models that can be used for understanding molecular and neural pathways that can be targeted by interventions"; this is much closer to core biological research than research into services. Only 10 percent of treatment funding went to evaluating the effectiveness of community-based services in assisting autistic people. If anything, the numbers are worse if you just limit yourself to NIH. As the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, a leading autism rights group, notes, "In 2012, services-research was 1.82% of the NIH investment while research on adults reached a historic low of 0.9% – less than one percent." In a statement, Ari Ne'eman, president of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, declared that the numbers "show a shocking lack of interest in aligning scientific investment in autism research to the priorities of the most important stakeholders: autistic people ourselves." Of course, there's nothing wrong with learning more about the biology of autism, and there's nothing wrong with trying to figure out how to treat or reverse its more debilitating effects (like self-harm) and co-morbid conditions (autists are at elevated risk of epilepsy, for example). In a perfect world, there'd be plenty of funding for each of these areas. But given the government and foundations' limited budgets, many autism advocates have argued that this funding would be better spent researching how to help autistic people alive now. That could bring more immediate, tangible benefits to people on the autism spectrum.

https://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11464144/autism-funding-services-biology

Vox

2017-11-27 00:00:00

2017

11.0

27

Ray Allen Accuser Thinks NBA Star Wants Him Dead, Ray Says He's 'Deranged'

TMZ Sports has obtained court documents filed by the man who claims he's being stalked by Ray Allen -- and he believes the NBA star is out to kill him. But Ray says the accuser is just a "deranged individual" who's obsessed with him -- and the allegations are as bogus as it gets. Bryant K. Coleman filed the petition for a temporary restraining order against Allen on Nov. 6 -- a petition that was granted by a Florida judge. In the docs, Coleman claims Allen called him on the phone on Sept. 9 -- after their alleged 3-year relationship had ended -- and said he wanted to "ensure that I went away and never opened my mouth again." "He said he wanted me to get what I deserved." Coleman says Allen has "repeatedly spied on me by sending his associates to follow me in my community." One incident allegedly took place in a Publix market on Oct. 10 where Coleman says a man approached him and told him to "watch your back." Coleman also claims he received a phone call from someone threatening to strangle him -- and he believes the caller was Ray Allen. In the docs, Coleman says Allen was recently seen in public with 2 armed men and believes the ex-NBA star may be planning a "more direct attack." One interesting note -- in Coleman's petition, he lists Allen's aliases ... and wrote, "Jesus Shuttlesworth" -- the name of Allen's character in the movie "He Got Game." We spoke with Allen's attorney, David Markus, who tells TMZ Sports, "As with everything else related to Briant or Bryant Coleman, his petition for a restraining order was filled with lies, falsehoods and fantasies." "He is a seriously deranged individual who Ray Allen has never met, never spoken with directly or threatened in any way. Coleman is the stalker here who is obsessed with Ray." "Ray wants nothing to do with him and is exploring all legal options to stop him from continuing to harass and threaten him, his family and friends"

https://www.tmz.com/2017/11/27/ray-allen-accuser-judge-restraining-order/

TMZ

2016-02-24 15:10:00

2016

2.0

24

VICE Staff

Ellen Page and Ian Daniel Learn How Difficult It Is to Come Out in Japan on the First Episode of 'GAYCATION'

On February 29, VICE will launch our new TV channel, VICELAND—a 24-hour cable channel featuring hundreds of hours of programming. Today we're bringing you the first episode of GAYCATION, a new show starring actress Ellen Page and her friend Ian Daniel, officially premiering Wednesday, March 2 on VICELAND. GAYCATION follows Ellen and Ian as they set off to explore LGBT cultures around the world. From Japan to Brazil to Jamaica to the USA, the two meet some fascinating people during their travels and hear their stories. In the first episode of the series, Ellen and Ian head to Japan, where same-sex marriage is still not legal and same-sex couples often bear a social stigma. However, certain cities have begun to recognize same-sex partnerships and the LGBT community continues to thrive in the country's vibrant culture and nightlife. Ellen and Ian find out what it's really like to identify as LGBT in Japan and meet some of the people struggling to find their voice in a country that refuses to give them equal rights under the law. Check out the first episode of GAYCATION and stay tuned for new episodes airing on VICELAND Wednesdays at 10 PM. Visit our website and find out about all the ways that you can watch our new VICELAND shows.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3bjmb9/gaycation-japan-ellen-page-viceland

Travel

Vice

2016-08-20 13:00:06

2016

8.0

20

Peter Suderman

The new Ben-Hur remake strips an iconic story of its style, message, and purpose

There aren’t many surprises in the new Ben-Hur. It’s a noisy, dull, thoroughly soulless affair built on banal dialogue, flat acting, and slapdash computer-generated imagery that barely looks better than your average Playstation game. It does nothing that its source material — namely the 1959 MGM epic Ben-Hur and the 1880 Lew Wallace novel it was based on — didn’t do better, and does lots of things worse. In other words, it’s almost exactly the movie you’d expect from the director of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Rating The most baffling thing about the new Ben-Hur is why it was made at all. Why remake one of Hollywood’s most enduring and iconic productions? And why remake it with director Timur Bekmambetov at the helm? The result is a remake with no guiding principle beyond mere existence. Remakes, as a category, don’t always have the best reputation, and are frequently derided as signs of Hollywood’s creative bankruptcy. That’s not totally unfair — especially given how many turn out like this year’s Ben-Hur. But the best remakes show us how cinematic do-overs can work, and in some cases even improve on their originals, by expanding on the ideas of their source material. The key to a successful remake is making it relevant and accessible to new and different audiences. Take a movie like The Thing, John Carpenter’s 1982 sci-fi/horror classic. It’s based on science fiction writer John W. Campbell’s 1938 novella Who Goes There?, as well as on the 1951 Howard Hawks film version The Thing From Another World. All three versions share the same core premise: While isolated in icy Antarctica, a group of men encounter an alien creature that can take the form of any creature it kills. But Carpenter’s outrageously gory film emphasizes the physical horror of the creature’s violence, as well as the psychological terror and trauma of not knowing who might be an enemy in disguise. It wasn’t just a modernized treatment of the Howard Hawks version; it was very, very much a John Carpenter film. The same goes for most successful remakes. In contrast to, say, the joyless recent remakes of The Day the Earth Stood Still and Total Recall — both of which seem to have been made simply for the sake of rolling out a new film with a familiar name — successful cinematic updates tend to be driven by exceptional filmmakers and strong visions more than by the legacy of the original properties. Think of movies like the Coen brothers’ quirky, existentialist version of True Grit; Steven Soderbergh’s jazzy new-Hollywood-royalty riff on Ocean’s Eleven; Brian de Palma’s hyper-stylish, hyper-violent Scarface; Martin Scorsese’s Boston crime take on The Departed; John Carpenter’s grim, urban reimagining of Rio Bravo or Assault on Precinct 13; or Terry Gilliam’s knotty, fatalistic sci-fi film 12 Monkeys. Some of those films drew on source material that was relatively unknown to American audiences: The Departed was based on the 2002 Hong Kong police thriller Infernal Affairs, and 12 Monkeys was inspired by the 1962 silent short film "La Jetée." The others were based on American films that would have been somewhat better known. But regardless of their predecessors' profiles, these new versions weren’t content to just repeat the formula that had worked before. Instead, they were made by directors with strong, consistent visions who wanted to put their own unique stamp on the material. That even goes for something like Steven Spielberg’s 2005 War of the Worlds remake. With its history, name recognition, and opportunities for massive special effects set pieces, it’s the sort of film you can easily imagine being adapted just for the sake of adapting it. But with its focus on failed fathers and broken families, dangerous radicals and social breakdown, human weakness and alien inscrutability, the version we got was recognizably Spielbergian. It was the product of a filmmaker’s distinctive taste and vision, a movie that works on its own terms, not as a faint reflection of the original. The 1959 version of Ben-Hur was itself a remake of a well-known 1925 silent film, which was itself a defining epic of the silent era and which followed a previous 1907 short film adaption. The first feature’s $3.9 million budget made it the most expensive silent film ever produced, and its climactic chariot race set a new standard for action scenes. When William Wyler, who worked on the set of the silent version, was brought on to direct the 1959 remake, his aim was to create a new epic on a scale that had never been accomplished before. Once again, the film boasted a record-breaking budget — some $15.9 million — which funded a mammoth production effort. Wyler shot for six days a week for almost eight months on a sprawling set, creating 100,000 costumes and more than a million different props in the process. There were more than 350 speaking parts in the movie, and thousands of extras. The script ran some 230 pages, and the final cut of the movie was more than three and a half hours long. Visually, the film is just as extravagant. It features two iconic action set pieces—an ancient naval battle and a grueling, deadly chariot race, both of which hold up today. The entire film was shot on bulky cameras using a process that gave the film an unusually wide 2.76:1 aspect ratio. (For comparison, most movies are displayed in either 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 aspect ratios.) The ultra-widescreen format paid off during the famed chariot race sequence, allowing Wyler to easily capture multiple four-horse chariots side by side. Wyler’s Ben-Hur is far from perfect and hasn’t worn entirely well with age: It’s too long and too slow, too insistent on capturing its dialogue in medium shots that box its actors into the movie’s stage-like sets, too invested in Charlton Heston’s hammy performance. But it is a movie that more than justifies its own existence on scale and spectacle alone. It achieves — sometimes overachieves — the epic greatness to which it aspired. The new version, by contrast, lacks the scale of a typical episode of Game of Thrones. It was made for a reported $100 million, making its budget smaller than Wyler's, which, adjusted for inflation, was equal to about $131 million in today's dollars. Indeed, the remake is smaller and less spectacular in just about every way. The 2016 Ben-Hur is directed by Timur Bekmambetov, a Kazakh filmmaker who, in addition to helming a movie about the slave-freeing president who fought a secret army of vampires, also directed the 2008 comic book adaptation Wanted. Bekmambetov's Ben-Hur is far shorter than Wyler’s epic, clocking in under two hours, but thanks to its bland lead actors — anchored by Jack Huston in the title role — and pedestrian dialogue, it still manages to drag on far too long. Ben-Hur’s action scenes are hectic and graceless digital-era creations, a blur of ugly pixels scattered haphazardly onto the screen. Even when Bekmambetov replicates the major set pieces from Wyler’s 1959 production, it just ends up reminding viewers how much better the originals were. The final chariot race borrows the same basic elements, but adds nothing except an occasional GoPro shot to suggest an on-the-ground perspective. The whole sequence suffers from overreliance on computer-generated imagery — which is good for the horses, which in Wyler’s version were cruelly forced to run over tripwires. But the thousands of extras and most of the racetrack set are now computer-generated too, giving the entire sequence a sense of weightless unreality. The new version bungles the story’s religious aspects as well. The 1880 Lew Wallace novel was subtitled A Tale of the Christ, and occurs in parallel to the biblical story of Jesus. Previous adaptations have always served as conversion stories pitched to the faithful. (The 1925 version was advertised as "The Picture Every Christian Should See!") Bekmambetov’s remake doesn’t completely excise the story’s religiosity (though it does skip the nativity scene that opened previous versions). But it certainly muddles the material, portraying Jesus as a kind of hot Mediterranean guru of peace and love. Played by a tanned and buff Rodrigo Santoro, he’s the sort of hunky, hippie male model type you can imagine on a romance novel cover, whose most profound idea is that "love is our true nature." The character of Jesus is barely an afterthought in this Ben-Hur, and Bekmambetov’s normally hyperactive direction grows tepid and dull every time he appears onscreen. As a director, Bekmambetov appears unfamiliar with the concept or experience of emotions, and can’t manage to drum up a modicum of sentimentality. He stages Jesus’s crucifixion with all the feeling of a laundry detergent commercial and none of the despair that comes from not being able to remove those blue stains. There are ways to update Ben-Hur for a modern audience: The sprawling story could be clipped and converted into a short and bloody B-movie, or reworked as an anguished period drama — perhaps with some of the homoerotic subtext brought to the fore in ways that wouldn’t have been allowed in 1959. It could be overhauled as a brooding critique of conversion stories, or it could stay true to form as an extravagant Christian epic about both violence and forgiveness. But Bekmambetov went none of these routes. He seems to have had no animating idea other than a movie with a clunky CGI chariot race, which might as well be called Ben-Hur. The result is a passion play without any passion, an epic without any scale, a remake that has no idea why it was made.

https://www.vox.com/2016/8/20/12547768/ben-hur-remake-fail

Vox

2017-11-04 00:45:12

2017

11.0

4

Emily Todd VanDerWerff

Stranger Things season 2 review: bigger, weirder, and — eventually — better

At once better and worse than its first season, Stranger Things 2 is good enough to suggest the breakout Netflix series isn’t a one-trick pony, while still falling into many of the pitfalls that made season one diminish a bit in the memory the further one got from it. It takes a long time to get where it’s going, it makes some bafflingly strange choices on the way there, and it still feels like a show that’s set in “the ’80s!” instead of the 1980s. But when it works, it works. I’m powerless to resist it. You probably are too. In some ways, the series is trapped by elements entirely beyond its control. The first season became a phenomenon entirely by word of mouth and gentle nudging by the Netflix algorithm. Before you knew it, think pieces rained from the skies, catalogs to the show’s ’80s movie references popped up on every website in existence (including this one), and merchandise filled Hot Topics across our great nation. It’s the kind of overexposure that’s dangerous to any TV show, much less one as unassuming as Stranger Things — a good show, but not a perfect one. The hype machine quickly put a spotlight on its (mostly forgivable) flaws; I kept finding myself taking the opposite position of people in arguments about how it was great and how it was overrated. And yet somewhere in the intersection between its synth-heavy score, its pitch-perfect casting, and its “always October” aesthetic, the show’s biggest moments and best characters had a tendency to stick in the memory. It was deeply flawed but hard to shake, the kind of TV show you could love in spite of its worst moments, which was appropriate for a series about kids approaching adolescence. Season two is, in the grand tradition of sequels, even more than season one. Sometimes, that’s good. Sometimes, that’s very bad. But to tell you more about it, I’m going to have to spoil everything. (If you’re not quite ready for that, check out our spoiler-free rundown of what to expect.) Season one of Stranger Things had a reasonably involving opening, a solid climax, and then a bunch of other stuff in the middle. There were moments in that long midsection that worked beautifully — like Joyce (Winona Ryder) communicating with her missing son via Christmas lights — but so many other storylines seemed to exist solely to keep the plot from advancing too quickly. (I see you, Joyce’s ex-husband who just showed up to run out the clock.) Season two has much less of a problem with this. Since series creators the Duffer brothers know what an incredible ensemble cast they have (about which more in a bit), they feel more comfortable splitting up the characters and filling episodes with multiple storylines. The cross-cutting between the stories can sometimes feel a little arbitrary, but it’s still exciting when 15 different things are happening at once and all of them are bad. Even better, there’s more attention paid to the idea of each installment of the show as an episode of television than there was in season one. The season’s boldest conceit is its seventh episode, which seems to exist solely as a test of whether young Millie Bobby Brown, who plays the telekinetic badass Eleven, is as good of an actress as she seems to be. (Good news: She is!) It sends her off on a quest of her own, expanding the show’s backstory just a bit by introducing some of the previous kids with psychic powers experimented upon in the lab where Eleven grew up. And it doesn’t feature any of the other regulars at all. But more importantly, the Duffers know when to bring their many splintered storylines and characters back together. The season’s final two episodes are a long process of reweaving everything that’s been frayed, and when the season’s coda (which takes place during a Christmas season that seems to exist in the middle of summer) unfurls at a school dance, there’s a distinct sense of time having passed, lessons having been learned, and kids growing up. You can quibble with how this arc gets where it’s going — I’m about to! — but as a piece of television storytelling, as opposed to the fabled “eight-hour movie,” this is a much stronger feat than season one. The Eleven-centric hour may be structurally daring. It may be a great showcase for Brown. It may be proof that Stranger Things can do standalone episodes, despite its streaming origins. It’s just not very good. The story tells us nothing new about Eleven, and it has her decide to return to Hawkins, Indiana, to save her friends via a plot device that could have occurred literally anywhere on the globe. It’s intriguing to see her meet up with Eight (Linnea Berthelsen), her older predecessor, whose psychic power is making people see whatever she wants them to see, but the show doesn’t do anything with it except offer a riff on crime movies. I think the point is to show Eleven building confidence, or at least maturing into the kind of person who will make the selfless decision to go back to Hawkins, but the show doesn’t earn this story beat anywhere other than on its surface. This is the basic problem that plagues season two, especially its first half. It has all of the right ideas, but its execution often ends up shooting those ideas in the foot. Stranding Eleven from the rest of the cast (save her eventual adopted father, Chief Hopper, played by David Harbour) to let her take time to rebuild her psyche after all the trauma she’s faced is a great idea. But because the story can’t find much to do except have her argue with Hopper a bunch of times, it feels like it’s running in place, while the other characters could really use a superpowered telekinetic girl. Eleven’s major bit of character development — meeting her biological mother — is therefore delayed. It feels like she’s been sent to her own storyline not to develop her character, but because having her on the side of the other heroes wouldn’t make it a fair fight. A similar thing unfolds in the season’s single worst storyline, which follows Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Steve (Joe Keery) as they attempt to atone for the death of Nancy’s friend Barb, who became an internet cause célèbre based on how little the show seemed to care that she got lost in the parallel dimension known as the Upside Down. These scenes — ostensibly taking place a year later — feel like they’re responding to online criticism, not an organic character journey, and they always bog the show down. Thus, the show is better at macro plotting, but still not terribly great at micro plotting. It moves in fits and starts, able to suddenly, wondrously impress with a gigantic moment, and then frustrate when it cuts corners to get characters exactly where it needs them to be. One of the five Emmys Stranger Things won for its first season was for casting (for the team of Carmen Cuba, Tara Feldstein, and Chase Paris), and it was well-deserved. In addition to finding five kid actors who can nail every emotional beat, the show’s casting directors also found a bunch of actors to play teenagers (harder than it might seem), as well as an adult cast that blended well-known names (like Ryder) and familiar TV actors who, nonetheless, had never had a break like this (the aforementioned Harbour). If great TV casting often comes down to just finding actors viewers want to see together onscreen, the Stranger Things casting team is one of the best out there. Season two, then, is a dual exercise in finding new actors who will mesh with the old ones (including Sadie Sink as Max, another tween girl to join the central quartet of boys and thus balance things out a bit) as the writers explore just what they have in their original troupe. Every single character gets a moment or two to shine throughout the season — save maybe Cara Buono, sadly wasted as Karen Wheeler, mom to two important characters — and every actor delivers, in ways both big (some of the moments handed to Brown and Harbour) and small (a touching act of kindness from Dyer’s Nancy in the finale). The new actors fit perfectly as well, even when asked to play ridiculous beats like “buff teenage boy turning on frustrated housewife.” Even Sean Astin, who’s handed a character so moldy the writers actually name him “Bob Newby” to point out that you know he’s a walking trope, gets a few moments to surprise and subvert his role as “the guy who dies in the season’s last third.” (He dutifully does so in episode eight of nine.) And Paul Reiser isn’t just playing his corporate stooge from Aliens — he’s playing that guy if he had developed a conscience shortly after that movie’s events. But the really big moments are saved for the returning players — especially Harbour, Brown, and Noah Schnapp as Will Byers (who spent almost all of season one in the Upside Down). Second seasons are often so good because those involved in them now know exactly how to write to their actors’ strengths. The same seems to be true for Stranger Things. Truth be told, Stranger Things 2 blends in many of its movie references with more finesse than the series did in season one. A climactic attempt to drive the malicious “Shadow Monster” out of Will — who’s been infected with some sort of evil virus — lifts heavily from The Exorcist, for instance, but in a way where you’re not doing a mental shot-for-shot comparison to that classic film. Stranger Things gets to the same place but handles things in a different fashion. But the show remains stranded in the ’80s as interpreted through movies and TV shows; it doesn’t capture the ’80s so much as it captures how it felt to watch movies on VHS. This is most evident in its musical choices, which are slightly more adventurous than in season one but still run headlong toward the sorts of songs that play in time-travel movies to indicate the characters have arrived in the ’80s. (Devo’s “Whip It” receives particular abuse.) This might seem weird to say about a show containing monsters from parallel dimensions and telekinetic supergirls, but Stranger Things never feels as if it takes place in a reality that couldn’t be captured on a movie set. That grates, especially in the earlier, slower episodes. Once the plot kicks in, it’s easier to ignore how indebted the series is to its main trio of influences (Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, and Stephen King), but in the long setup period, the game of “spot the pop culture touchstone” feels enervating far more often than it does inspiring, simply because these pop culture touchstones aren’t particularly hard to spot. It’s like solving a Where’s Waldo puzzle that consists of Waldo standing in a field with a handful of other people scattered about, nowhere near him. On the other hand, that’s probably central to the show’s appeal. Its heightened blend of pop culture influences and pulp storytelling tropes reminds me, at times, of Lost, which managed its own blend of Spielberg, Carpenter, and King with more panache (and better disguised its influences beneath its own original ideas). And as with that show, I imagine some of Stranger Things’, “Hey, I recognize that bit!” factor is inherent to the series’ appeal — it’s how the show captures a feeling of nostalgia for a life none of us could possibly have lived. If there’s a place where Stranger Things 2 is likely to lose points in the eyes of its most diehard fans, it’s in the way the second season tries desperately to repeat many of the most memorable elements of season one. Will, once again, is almost lost to his loved ones. He once again communicates through an unlikely means (a series of crayon drawings, as opposed to season one’s Christmas lights). Once again, there’s a strange visitor from another world who becomes attached to a particular food item (instead of Eleven and Eggos, it’s a larval monster that loves Three Musketeers bars — and, yes, the series gets way out ahead of your, “Hey, isn’t that just E.T.?” thoughts). The character beats and moments in the season’s final episodes keep the show from feeling like it’s running around endless iterations of the same ideas. They remind us that, yes, this is a show full of engaging characters, that knows how to tell a compelling story, that can craft immensely exciting cinematic moments. But it’s also a show that seems worried about moving too far past season one, about leaving behind elements of the story it probably should ditch for fear that the audience might turn on it. That sort of transition often plagues shows that blew up in season one and enter their second seasons unsure of what made them blow up. (For another example, look over at NBC’s This Is Us.) It’s, of course, also true of movie sequels, especially the ones that drag elements from their predecessors into a new scenario wholesale. I always point to Home Alone 2, which had Kevin McCallister meet a new seemingly menacing old person whom he befriends later on, simply because he had done so in the first. Stranger Things hasn’t yet fallen into the Home Alone 2 trap. But it’s telling that the most exciting moments of season two are the ones when the characters evolve and change, and when the world around them does too. When the season ends with an epilogue promising that the battle against the shadow monster isn’t over, it’s not hard to wish the show could find some new beast to battle. We’ve been here. TV is all about going to the place that’s next. Stranger Things 2 is streaming on Netflix.

https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/10/27/16548566/stranger-things-season-2-review-spoilers

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