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Ricky Martin has been engaged to artist Jwan Yosef since last year, and he’s finally spoken on his upcoming wedding.
The singer, who will be starring in American Crime Story: Versace alongside Darren Criss, Penelope Cruz and Édgar Ramirez, previously announced his engagement on The Ellen DeGeneres Show last November.
Speaking to Ocean Drive, Martin stated they’ve been planning the wedding while he was filming Versace, doing his residency in Vegas and recording music, before adding that it’s “super overwhelming.”
“We want to do it right, hopefully next spring. We’ll do the three-day event as I call it. And we still don’t know where we will do it, Los Angeles, Puerto Rico or in Sweden, where my fiance is from, or in Spain, where I am also from.”
Since much of Jwan’s family come from Syria, the couple are being careful with the location of their wedding, meaning the US might be ruled out.
Martin said: “We have to deal with the fact that most of my fiance’s family is from Syria. So maybe they won’t be able to come into this country. So we might consider doing it in Stockholm or in Spain. We don’t know yet, but it’s going to be a great event.”
The couple are fathers to nine-year-old twin boys Matteo and Valentino and have plans to share their wedding with the world.
“People will be talking about it. We’re a modern family, and I think people need to see, and I want to normalise the beauty of our family. That’s why I’m making it public and I am going to share my wedding with the world.”
Earlier this week, the singer was spotted helping the locals of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Irma claimed the lives of 34 people and destroyed much of the island.
Martin took to Instagram to share images of his efforts and urged his followers to donate money to help the island.
He wrote: “It’s incredibly intense what Puerto Rico is going through at the moment. It will take a long time for my island to go back to what it was. The governor of Puerto Rico Ricardo Rossello said it will cost approximately 90 billion dollars to rebuild the island.
“We need more help. Thousands of families lost EVERYTHING….. but their smiles and love for life is intact. We are optimistic. Everything is going to be ok and my island will shine again. But we need to work….. a lot.”
Martin will star as Antonio D’Amico, Versace’s longterm partner, in American Crime Story: Versace, hitting screens in early 2018.
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Manscaping is on the rise in Britain, according to very important new research – but a lot of us don’t know how to do it right.
85% of British men have said that they shave or trim more than just their facial hair.
When asked which parts of their body they like to keep tidy, 73% said that they like a well-maintained groin. 72% said a cleanly-shaven chest is important, with another 63% said it’s important to keep their rear tidy.
The men surveyed gave a variety of reasons for getting rid of their body hair, with many doing it to feel more comfortable (43%), while others do so at the request of their partners (34%).
Even though so many of us manscape, surprisingly few of us know how to do it properly. In fact, 67% of men said that they don’t know the correct way to shave their body, with 65% being embarrassed to ask. The most common issues they experienced were shaving rash, followed by nicks and cuts and ingrown hairs.
Well, there’s no need to worry, because rugby legend Ben Cohen is on hand to show us how to properly manscape. He has teamed up with Wilkinson Sword, who commissioned the research, to teach men how to properly groom themselves with a handy YouTube guide.
Ben has said of the collaboration: “Manscaping can be a minefield if you are not a guru with your groomer, so to help guys master their shaving skills, I have teamed up with Wilkinson Sword & the London School of Barbering to unveil the Manscaping Master of Arts (MA), helping guys to be fully qualified master of the manscape.”
Rachel Witter from the London School of Barbering comments: “We think the Manscaping MA is much needed to provide support and expert guidance to men on the ‘manscaping’ minefield. The trend is also continuing to grow, with more men taking pride in their appearance; which now goes far beyond a simple haircut and beard trim. The London School of Barbering is also considering introducing a ‘mancaping’ module onto one of our current courses to help address men’s grooming needs.”
Check out Ben’s handy guide to downstairs hair removal below: |
A police officer suffering from PTSD due to the Pulse massacre has been fired.
Omar Delgado, 45, was dismissed from from the Eatonville police force last week just six months before he could collect his full pension. He claims it was done because he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Delgado was one of the first to respond to the Pusle nightclub massacre, which left 49 people dead, and was credited with saving a man named Angel Colon after he had been shot six times.
He returned to patrol duty for several months after the shooting, but later withdrew and has been working a desk job for the last eight months.
However, the Eatonville Town Council voted unanimously to pay him $1,200 before taxes in accrued sick time and designated December 31 his last day of work.
The married father of three said the reality of his dismissal only hit him when watching a local news story about it with his daughter.
Speaking to NBC News, he said: “My mouth dropped, and she asked me why am I not going to be a police officer anymore. I had to tell her it was because I’m sick. It’s a challenge to try and explain something like that to a 9-year-old and a 10-year-old.”
Since the shooting, Delgado has regularly woken up screaming after having the same nightmare about the massacre ,and even with medication, he can only sleep between three and five hours each night.
He’s also had trouble visiting public places such as bars, restaurants or anywhere with crowds and lives in constant fear that an event similar to the Pulse shooting will occur again.
“I just don’t live my life the way I did before what happened at Pulse. I feel bad, and I can see myself deteriorating away because I don’t do the things I enjoyed doing before. I’d rather be home – I’d rather stay in my room.”
After learning of his dismissal, Delgado revealed he’s received support from friends, family and community members.
A GoFundMe account that was created on his behalf has amassed over $35,000 and, though he’s grateful for the support, he wishes he still had his job.
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He might have been pictured smooching 13 Reasons Why star Brandon Flynn in New York recently, but Sam Smith has admitted he feels “behind” his peers when it comes to dating.
The 25-year-old singer, who’s currently battling for a fourth week atop the UK Top 40 chart with comeback single ‘Too Good at Goodbyes’, told Billboard that growing up as “the only gay guy” in his village couple before suddenly being propelled to global super-stardom meant that finding love hadn’t been easy.
“I do feel I’m a bit behind in my relationships,” Sam confessed. “I wish I’d been in a long-term relationship by this age. But then, I didn’t move to London until I was 19. I’d grown up in an area where I was the only gay guy in school, the only gay guy in my village.
“I’d definitely be emotionally richer now if I’d had a long-term relationship, but if it wasn’t easy while I was growing up, it’s hardly going to be any easier for me now, is it?”
Sam, whose set to release his eagerly-anticipated second studio album The Thrill of It All on November 3, also revealed that he’s recently become more comfortable with the idea of fame.
“I’m convinced it’s how you hold yourself,” he said. “If you don’t act famous, you won’t feel it, and you won’t draw the attention. When I go to a gay club now, it’s mostly fine because I’m there to have a good time like everyone else.
“If I end up really drunk and someone comes up to me, I’m always polite.”
There is one fan request he won’t grant in the clubs, however: taking a picture.
“Because I’m drunk, and I’ll look awful. Who wants a bad picture of themselves out there in the world?”
We couldn’t agree more Sam.
The October issue of Attitude featuring Sam’s world exclusive interview with Elton John is out now. Buy in print, subscribe or download.
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Canadian actor-musician Hershey Felder stars in this solo ‘play with music’ that takes us through the great composers life while interspersed with some of his classic work – ‘Swan Lake’, ‘The Nutcracker’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’ to name just a few. This bio-drama is an eclectic mix of music, lecture and political comment that entertains for the most part but at times leaves us wondering why there isn’t an interval.
Felder is an incredibly talented pianist and his piano playing is the strongest aspect of this production. It evokes memories of Christmas, falling in love, pain and sadness, feelings of summer and winter. It really does have the power to transport you somewhere else aided by some rather heavy handed video imagery. I often wished for more playing and less talking with highlights being Felder playing for minutes on end with no interruption.
Spending the most part as Tchaikovsky while sometimes slipping into his Canadian self, Felder is not the most natural or instinctive actor. Large parts of the dialogue are not engaging enough however he is aided by a fascinating subject living an eventful life. A life which included – a failed marriage, blackmail over his tortured homosexuality, numerous infatuations (including rather alarmingly his twelve year old nephew) and a rather mysterious death. He slips out of character to make a comment on the current attitudes towards homosexuality in Russia. Although surprising, it once again is interesting enough to rouse our outrage and horror that this is happening in 2017.
Nine days after conducting his sixth symphony, he was found dead aged 53. It is sad that such a gifted artist lived in such fear and anguish over his sexuality but as Felder points out, has that much changed? Russia’s attitudes towards homosexuality, the degrading postal vote in Australia over marriage equality, reported gay concentration camps in Chechnya, the alarming gay crack-down in Azerbaijan would all suggest otherwise. We are implored by Felder to be alert and vigilant.
Despite not always hitting the mark this production makes an important political comment and Felder’s piano playing has the power to transport us and make us forget it all, even if just for a few fleeting minutes.
Rating: 3/5
Our Great Tchaikovsky plays at The Other Palace theatre until October 22. For more great deals on tickets and shows visit tickets.attitude.co.uk
Words by Matthew Hyde
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Male model Danny Blake at D1 Models is the star of Attitude’s exclusive shoot with Palm Angels.
Palm Angels is a Milan-based label which taps into a relaxed, streetwear-inspired aesthetic. The collection is full of bold prints and urban fonts, carefully embroidered motifs and burnished studding lend texture to the collection, while expert Italian tailoring imbues these pieces with a refined sensibility.
The editorial below was shot by Elliott Morgan and styled by our Junior Fashion Editor Nick Byam.
Check out the Spring Summer collection and Danny in all his glory below.
All clothing available at palmangels.com or at harveynichols.com
Photography Elliott Morgan
Fashion: Nick Byam
Grooming: Eliot McQueen
Fashion assisted by Callum Pease |
Riverdale just keeps getting better and better.
The glossy teen drama has become one of the most talked about TV shows since it debuted last year, and the second season hasn’t disappointed either.
In the mid-season finale of the hit show, Sheriff Keller – played by actor Martin Cummins, 48, – stripped down and showed off his surprisingly impressive physique.
Take a look below:
Meanwhile, actor Casey Cott, who plays Kevin, opened up about his character getting a love interest in the new season of the show.
Cott spoke to Teen Vogue about the upcoming season, stating that it “gets pretty weird,” but teased that Kevin will get a more long-term romance this year.
“The love interests Kevin has in season two are different. I think what’s cool about Kevin in season two is we kind of explore many different kinds of love interests, the same way that high schoolers do.”
He added: “Some are people you just meet, but are quick; sometimes you find a long-lasting relationship. We kind of delved into a few different kinds of relationships in season two. I think a bigger, more long-term relationship is coming for Kevin very soon.”
New episodes of Riverdale stream every Tuesday in the UK on Netflix. |
Bermuda is set to become the first country to abolish same-sex marriage.
The North Atlantic British island territory legalised same-sex marriage just six months ago, but the Bermuda Assembly introduced a new bill over the weekend that replaces same-sex marriages with partnerships.
The bill, named the Domestic Partnership Act 2017, was approved with 24 votes for and 10 against in the Bermuda House. The partnerships introduced with the bill offer the same rights as opposite-sex marriage, just without the title.
Previously, same-sex marriage gave gay couples a right to marry, but failed to grant them the same rights as heterosexual couples. It’s believed that the bill will not roll back same-sex marriages that had taken place during the six months it was legal.
Progressive Labour Party MP Lawrence Scott was one of the many to speak in favour of the bill.
He said: “As it stands now, they [The LGBT community] can have the name marriage but without the benefits. But after this bill passes, they have the benefits and just not the name marriage. The benefits are what they really want.”
The move has been condemned by the Human Rights Commission and the Rainbow Alliance of Bermuda who called it a “removal of rights” for LGBT couples.
Same-sex marriage passed in Bermuda in May after Bermudian native Winston Godwin and Canadian fiance Greg DeRoche fought several court battles.
The bill still needs to be passed by the 11 members of the Bermuda Senate and then signed into law by the island’s governor. However, this process could take several months and if Senate members disagree with the ruling, they can send it back to the Assembly.
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RuPaul’s Drag Race and America’s Next Top Model will crossover next year for the first time ever.
Tyra Banks has returned to host the 24th cycle of America’s Next Top Model, taking over from this year’s host Rita Ora.
A new challenge in the upcoming season will see show contestants get paired with Drag Race stars Katya, Valentina and Manila Luzon for a special photoshoot.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly about working with the queens, Banks said: “They’re so friggin’ gorgeous and can pose their asses off.”
“That’s a difficult model to be in a shot with… Not all of my models prevailed. Valentina killed it. I’m sitting there editing film and I’m like, can I get a shot of my girls looking at least half as good as Valentina?”
She continued: “Something popped into my head: princesses and queens! I told my team, ‘Okay, give me a photoshoot with that theme, but with our girls and the drag queens!'”
In addition, Banks has also brought back members of the America’s Next Top Model cast for the new season. Previous judges Nigel Barker, Drew Elliott, Ashley Graham and third cycle winner Eva Marcille will return.
The new season will also see a number of new changes, including no age limit for contestants.
America’s Next Top Model will return January 2018.
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It seems like every classic TV show is being revived right now. First we had Heroes, then Will & Grace and Twin Peaks. Some have been more well received than others, leaving us wondering whether some shows should just stay gone.
That is not the case with Murder, She Wrote – the greatest series in the history of television, which should’ve never went off the air to begin with. The exploits of successful author and amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher delighted audiences the world over from 1984-1996, with four TV movies following from 1997 to 2003.
Luckily for us, Dame Angela Lansbury has revealed that she believes the show will return for one final murder mystery.
Speaking to The Sunday Post earlier this month, the 91-year-old screen legend said: “There have been some two-hour specials since we stopped in 1996. And I wouldn’t be surprised if we got together just one more time.”
She also said that she was “amazed” at the success of Murder, She Wrote, which was one of the top 10 shows on US TV for the majority of its run. “I never believed it would run for 12 years,” she said.
Dame Angela became incredibly attached to Jessica Fletcher, along with millions of fans. “I was in genuine tears doing my last scene,” she said. So were we, girl …
“Jessica Fletcher had become so much a part of my life, it was difficult to come to terms with it being all over.”
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Colton Haynes has opened up about his life before coming out.
The Teen Wolf actor, who came out last year, had a sit down with Real Housewives creator Andy Cohen for his SiriusXM radio show this week.
During the in-depth interview nothing was off the table, and Colton revealed some pretty intimate details about his life before he came out publicly.
Speaking about his struggle with keeping his sexuality secret, the hunk explained that his management tried to force him to date women.
“Management tried to set me up with girls – I almost fainted because I wasn’t being myself – I was with my management team and with a team of people that just literally told me I couldn’t be this way, they tried to set me up with girls. It was like a Tab Hunter situation.
Haynes also described having a mental breakdown due to having to suppress his sexual orientation, and that led directly to his departure from Teen Wolf: “I literally couldn’t go to work because I would faint, or I would start sweating and shaking.
“It really was hard … I was so tired of not being myself,” he added.
After years of struggling with mental health issues, the Scream Queens star said that coming out publicly back in May 2016 had left him “happier than I’ve ever been, and healthier than I’ve ever been.”
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Bromans star Brandon Myers has opened up about his biggest talent.
The reality hunk is currently starring in the smash hit ITV2 show, which sees eight 21st century lads transported back to the Roman Empire to see if they can cut it as gladiators.
In an interview with The Sun, Myers teased that all the other guys on the show have been “mesmerised” by his manhood.
“When I was showering I think everyone was jaw-droppingly jealous. The girls were jealous. All the boys were mesmerised. Wowed by it. It was the talk of Ancient Rome,” he said.
“My briefs didn’t really fit.”
“I call it my other leg a lot,” said the star, who claimed to have a nine-and-a-half-inch package. “It is my other leg. I’d like to give it quite a cool name.”
He’s so proud of his todger that he insisted that he wants a “penis competition” with fellow well endowed reality star, Chris Hughes.
“There should be a poll on Twitter. If there was a poll, I would win,” he joked.
Someone get on it, pronto.
Bromans continues this week on ITV2
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They might be busy enjoying their honeymoon in northern Spain, but Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black have still found the time to share their stunning wedding day video.
The A-list couple, who tied the knot at Bovey Castle in Devon in May, wax lyrical about their love for each other in a gorgeous short that provides an intimate look at their big day, and which will help raise money for LGBT+ causes.
“When Tom and I met four years ago, I knew instantly I was in trouble,” says Dustin, 43, as the video shows the pair preparing for their nuptials.
“I knew I’d met my match; I knew I’d met someone who would inspire; somebody I could admire, and somebody who would naturally be my best friend.
The Oscar-winning screenwriter adds: “It didn’t hurt that he was incredibly cute, and charismatic, and didn’t let me get away with a thing.”
Tom, who won gold in the 10m platform final at the World Aquatics Championships in Budapest last month, adds: “Within the first few minutes of conversation with Lance thing suddenly massively changed for me: I fell in love.
“Every single part of him, the he thinks, the way he acts, and everything he does, just makes me fall in love with him every single day more and more.
The 23-year-old Olympic diver adds: “Lance is one of the most complicated creatures on the planet – but that is why I love him… Above all, he makes me feel safe.
“When I’m with him, I feel like I can take on the world.”
Sharing the video on his official Facebook page, Tom paid tribute to the LGBT+ activists of previous generations who helped make marriage equality a reality in the UK.
Our honeymoon feels like the perfect time to finally share our magical day,” he wrote.
“We know our wedding was only possible thanks to the brave work of countless people for generations before us, so in that tradition, we will donate any revenue from this video to the ‘LGBT+ Switchboard’ and ‘It Gets Better’ in hopes of making things even better for future generations.
Check out Tom and Dustin’s wedding video below:
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Sun’s out, bums out, as the saying goes. Right?!
Well it’s close enough, and to celebrate the arrival of summer (all three days of it, we imagine), we thought we’d share an exclusive new picture from our sizzling Summer issue – available to download and in shops now.
This month sees two Olympic swimming stars strip off and open up for a thirst-quenching shoot and interview, as Team GB’s Adam Peaty reveals the reality of life as a world record holder and Tonga’s Amini Fonua explains how he reconciles his sexuality with representing a country where it remains illegal to be gay.
There’s plenty of swimwear-clad sexiness to accompany our chats with both stars, and here’s a little taste of what Amini’s shoot has to offer…
Definitely worthy of a medal, we’d say.
You can see Amini’s full shoot and interview in the July issue of Attitude – out now. Buy in print, subscribe or download.
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Broadway Bares came back with a bang last week.
While the main event isn’t set to take place until June 18th, an array of dancers descended on Fire Island last week to bring back Broadway Bares: Fire Island.
The one-night only event managed to raise a record breaking $56,533 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS over two performances at Whyte Hall’s Brandon Fradd Theater.
We’ve found some of the best pictures of the event for those who couldn’t be there, and we’re eagerly awaiting the big showcase this weekend – so keep an eye out for that too. |
A Liverpool church is offering to ‘cure’ homosexuality with an intensive prayer session that requires people to go three days without food or water.
The horrifying practices at The Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministry in Anfield were uncovered in an investigation by the Liverpool Echo.
A reporter for the paper uncovered the ‘gay cure’ therapy after he posed as someone who was questioning their sexuality. Upon going to the church, he was taken to see a man who called himself Brother Michael, who told the man that being gay is wrong, arguing that notable people only come out for the fame. “You need to realise this is a deceit of Satan,” Brother Michael said. “How many people are coming out except the singers, the boxers, the sportsmen? The actors that are coming out to say they are feeling this.
“Their reward is the celebrity. That is what you are following in. So many people now want to do it for publicity.
“I thank God that you have come to where you think you will get help and I know you are going to get the help.”
The reporter was told to starve himself for 24 hours (without medical supervision) before beginning an intensive prayer session with the church.
He was invited to participate in a three-day residence programme, which included praying sessions that lasted up to three hours, with no eating or drinking permitted until the third day. The reporter was told that the therapy would ‘humble his soul’, and that the practice would ‘allow him to marry and have children.’
Experts told the paper that the recommended practice was “dangerous” and “extremely concerning”. So-called ‘conversion therapy’ is still a controversial issue. Earlier this year the Church of England bishops voted to back a ban on gay ‘cure’ therapy.
Dr Desmond Sanusi, the pastor of The Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministry, disputed the Echo’s findings and claimed that the church does not discriminate based on sexuality. He also said that Brother Michael was not under his instruction.
However, Sanusi seemed to confirm that the practice has been in place for many years. “If you come to the church to come and pray to come and know god better you are welcome. We don’t discriminate against people,” he said.
“It’s been running for over 20 years and nobody has dropped dead.”
Dr Louise Theodosiou, consultant psychiatrist from the Royal College of Psychiatrists, warned of the hugely detrimental effects of this kind of practice.
She said: “If a person doesn’t eat for 24 hours, while that wouldn’t lead to a significant deterioration in your brain function, you certainly wouldn’t be functioning at your normal rate of mental agility or acuity. It would be dangerous, for example, for them to drive.
“I think it’s extremely concerning to be told to fast for three days. I don’t think it would be advisable for anybody to not have water for three days.
“You can imagine a person would be extremely thirsty after that length of time so there may be a situation where you exacerbate underlying health conditions and then overload your fluids in your desperation to relieve your thirst.
“Hypothetically, if someone was to become very dehydrated there’s a theoretical risk that it could trigger cardiac arrhythmia, it’s not a common thing by any means but it’s certainly a risk.”
Listen to audio from one of the sessions below: |
Upcoming romantic drama Call Me By Your Name is already generating plenty of buzz for its searing portrayal of young gay love, but there’s one scene in particular that’s garnering a few headlines of its own.
The eagerly-anticipated film adaptation of André Aciman’s 2007 novel tells the story of 17-year-old high school student Elio (Timothée Chalamet), who falls in love with 24-year-old graduate student Oliver (Armie Hammer) in Italy during the summer of 1983 – and fans of the book will be pleased to know that an infamous scene featuring an encounter with a piece of fruit will be making it onto the big screen.
We’d hate to ruin the surprise, but let’s just say it involves doing things with a peach that you wouldn’t want your mother to see.
As it turns out, however, the juicy enouncter almost didn’t make it into the movie – until Timothée Chalamet and director Luca Guadagnino decided to work out the, erm, exact mechanics at home themselves.
“I was tempted to remove it from the script,” Guadagnino reveals in the latest issue of OUT Magazine. “In the book, it is so strong and explicit that I thought it was a metaphor, something that couldn’t exist in real life.
“I was struggling with the possibility that you can masturbate yourself with such a fruit,” he explained. “So I grabbed a peach and I tried, and I have to say—it works.”
However, it turns out it wasn’t only the director who’d decided to do some fruit-based homework in their own time.
“I went to Timothée and said, ‘We shoot the scene, because I tried it and it worked’, Guadagnino recalled.
“And he said, ‘I tried, too, and I already knew it worked.'”
Well, if there’s one thing we love, it’s an actor who commits to the role. Peach, anyone?
Call Me By Your Name hits cinemas on 27 October in the UK and 24 November in the US.
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It’s been revealed that a man who deliberately infected lovers with HIV later taunted his victims with text messages and phone calls.
Hairdresser Daryll Rowe, 26, is currently on trial for meeting men on Grindr and sabotaging condoms to infect them with HIV.
A court was told that Rowe allegedly sent a text to a victim saying: “Maybe you have the fever. I came inside you and I have HIV LOL. Oops!”
The court also heard that Rowe called one of his victims and laughed while revealing his positive status.
He allegedly said: “I ripped the condom. You’re so stupid, you didn’t even know.”
Rowe has been charged with infecting four men with HIV and attempted to infect another six between October 2015 and December 2016.
According to the Guardian, Prosecutor Carolina Carberry QC, explained that Rowe was “diagnosed with HIV in Edinburgh in April 2015.”
“With full knowledge, putting others at risk, he embarked on what was a cynical and deliberate campaign to infect other men with the HIV virus. Unfortunately for some of the men he met, his campaign was successful.”
She continued: “He had numerous, casual sexual relationships with men he met via Grindr [and] he deceived each of those men into believing he was HIV negative. Many of them were sent abusive and mocking messages.”
All of Rowe’s alleged victims were granted lifetime anonymity by judge Christine Hensen, who also gave victims the option to give evidence from behind a screen so they won’t have to face Rowe in court.
The trial continues.
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Gay drama Call Me By Your Name has earned three nominations at the 75th Golden Globe Awards.
The film, based on André Aciman’s 2007 novel of the same name, tells the story of 17-year-old high school student Elio (Timothée Chalamet), who falls in love with 24-year-old graduate student Oliver (Armie Hammer) in Italy during the summer of 1983.
Call Me By Your Name has been nominated for Best Motion Picture, while Timothée Chalamet has been nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, and Armie Hammer for ‘Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role’.
The critically acclaimed movie broke this year’s record for the highest per-theatre average opening over the Thanksgiving weekend in the US, when it grossed a massive $101,219.
Other nominations include Erick McCormack for his role in the new series of Will & Grace.
Take a look at the full nominations below
Best Motion Picture (Drama)
Call Me By Your Name
Dunkirk
The Post
The Shape Of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama)
Jessica Chastain, Molly’s Game
Sally Hawkins, The Shape Of Water
Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Meryl Streep, The Post
Michelle Williams, All The Money In The World
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama)
Timothée Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name
Daniel Day-Lawis, Phantom Thread
Tom Hanks, The Post
Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.
Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy)
The Disaster Artist
Get Out
The Greatest Showman
I, Tonya
Lady Bird
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy)
Judi Dench, Victoria & Abdul
Helen Mirren, The Leisure Seeker
Margot Robbie, I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
Emma Stone, Battle Of The Sexes
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy)
Steve Carell, Battle Of The Sexes
Ansel Elgort, Baby Driver
James Franco, The Disaster Artist
Hugh Jackman, The Greatest Showman
Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out
Best Motion Picture (Animated)
The Boss Baby
The Breadwinner
Coco
Ferdinand
Loving Vincent
Best Motion Picture (Foreign Language)
A Fantastic Woman, Chile
First They Killed My Father, Cambodia
In The Fade, Germany/France
Loveless, Russia
The Square, Sweden/Germany/France
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture
Mary J. Blige, Mudbound
Hong Chau, Downsizing
Allison Janney, I, Tonya
Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
Octavia Spencer, The Shape Of Water
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture
Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project
Armie Hammer, Call Me By Your Name
Richard Jenkins, The Shape Of Water
Christopher Plummer, All The Money In The World
Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Director (Motion Picture)
Guillermo Del Toro, The Shape Of Water
Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
Ridley Scott, All The Money In The World
Steven Spielberg, The Post
Best Screenplay (Motion Picture)
Guillermo Del Toro, Vanessa Taylor, The Shape Of Water
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
Liz Hannah, Josh Singer, The Post
Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Aaron Sorkin, Molly’s Game
Best Original Score (Motion Picture)
Carter Burwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Alexander Desplat, The Shape Of Water
Jonny Greenwood, Phantom Thread
John Williams, The Post
Hans Zimmer, Dunkirk
Best Original Song (Motion Picture)
‘Home’, Ferdinand
‘Mighty River’, Mudbound
‘Remember Me’, Coco
‘The Star’, The Star
‘This Is Me’, The Greatest Showman
Best Television Series (Drama)
The Crown, Netflix
Game Of Thrones, HBO
The Handmaid’s Tale, Hulu
Stranger Things, Netflix
This Is Us, NBC
Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series (Drama)
Caitron Balfe, Outlander
Claire Foy, The Crown
Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Deuce
Katherine Langford, 13 Reasons Why
Elisabeth Moss, The Handmaid’s Tale
Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series (Drama)
Jason Bateman, Ozark
Sterling K. Brown, This Is Us
Freddie Highmore, The Good Doctor
Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul
Liev Schreiber, Ray Donovan
Best Television Series (Musical or Comedy)
Black-ish, ABC
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Amazon
Master Of None, Netflix
Smilf, Showtime
Will & Grace, NBC
Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series (Musical or Comedy)
Pamela Adlon, Better Things
Alison Brie, Glow
Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Issa Rae, Insecure
Frankie Shaw, Smilf
Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series (Musical or Comedy)
Anthony Anderson, Black-ish
Aziz Ansari, Master Of None
Kevin Bacon, I Love Dick
William H. Macy, Shameless
Eric McCormack, Will & Grace
Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Big Little Lies
Fargo
Feud: Bette And Joan
The Sinner
Top Of The Lake: China Girl
Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Jessica Biel, The Sinner
Nicole Kidman, Big Little Lies
Jessica Lange, Feud: Bette And Joan
Susan Sarandon, Feud: Bette And Joan
Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Robert De Niro, The Wizard Of Lies
Jude Law, The Young Pope
Kyle MacLachlan, Twin Peaks
Ewan McGregor, Fargo
Geoffrey Rush, Genius
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Laura Dern, Big Little Lies
Ann Dowd, The Handmaid’s Tale
Chrissy Metz, This Is Us
Michelle Pfeiffer, The Wizard Of Lies
Shailene Woodley, Big Little Lies
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
David Harbour, Stranger Things
Alfred Molina, Feud: Bette And Joan
Christian Slater, Mr. Robot
Alexander Skarsgard, Big Little Lies
David Thewlis, Fargo
Find out who wins at the 75th Golden Globe Awards on January 8, 2018.
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A gay man was refused entry into Australia by border force agents after they allegedly found PrEP and sex toys in his suitcase.
The unnamed man was forced against his will to board a flight to Japan after he was accused of going to Australia to engage in sex work.
He had been living in Australia for over two years when he took a week-long trip to Japan to extend his tourist visa. He returned to Australia in hope of applying for a partner visa with his boyfriend.
Before he was able to go through immigration, he was reportedly stopped by Australian Border Force (ABF) agents and asked to open his suitcase.
In it, agents allegedly found HIV preventative PrEP tablets and several sex toys. While it’s legal to bring PrEP and sex toys into the country, the man was detained.
According to reports, ABF agents went through his phone after they found text messages that allegedly proved he was planning to engage in paid sex work in Australia.
His boyfriend had limited communication with him, and has claimed the man wasn’t allowed access to a lawyer. His boyfriend however, worked with lawyers to apply for a substantive visa.
After he had reportedly signed the form, Border Force cut off all communication between the two men. The next time they heard from each other was when he was at the airport and forced onto a flight to Japan.
Speaking to the Star Observer, the man’s boyfriend said: “ABF has not provided us any official statements.”
“Any time we’ve made an enquiry they’ve shut us down in the name of the Privacy Act. My understanding is he was intercepted at Cairns. We suspect that there may have been some level of profiling about him being visibly gay.”
“We believe they discovered his PrEP and sex toys in his luggage, and that exacerbated the profile they’d formed.”
He was planning on living in Sydney in New South Wales. While sex work has been decriminalised since 1995, engaging in paid work could have violated the visa he was entering Australia with.
More stories:
Mark Foster breaks silence over cruising claims: ‘I’m no bloody angel’
Tom Daley’s ‘head still turns for girls’, says Dustin Lance Black |
A gay couple have broken up after seven years together.
Why is this newsworthy? The couple aren’t high-profile and there’s nothing particularly dramatic about how Blake and Jeremy went their separate ways, so why should we care?
Because rather than act like civilised people and simply change their relationship status or delete all traces of one another from social media, ‘Blaremy’ have written, recorded, and filmed a video to a rap that explains their reasons for breaking up.
The song is a lyrical history of the couple’s time together: from meeting in a fraternity at Arizona state, they bought their first house at 19 and worked together in real estate fom there. However, after seven years together the couple are drifting apart and want different things from their lives.
Set to the tune of Biz Markie’s ‘Just a Friend’, the song includes lyrical gems like: “You wanna travel the world and have brunch in Brussels/I wanna settle down and put together some puzzles.”
The former couple remain close friends, so the breakup obviously wasn’t that bad. After all, Blake says he’d give Jeremy “five stars if you were my UBER driver”.
We wish Blaremy all the best, but maybe don’t show any potential conquests this video. It may not have the desired effect.
Watch the breakup video below, and let us know if you manage to make it to the end: |
13 Reasons Why star Tommy Dorfman is renowned for wearing eye-catching outfits on the red carpet, and it was his clothing – or rather lack of – which was once again capturing the attention of fans over the weekend.
Tommy, who plays gay high school student Ryan Shaver in Netflix’s hit teen drama series, gave his Instagram followers one big reason to be grateful they follow him after sharing a cheeky video of himself in the bathroom wearing nothing more than a pair of small and skimpy tightie-whities.
The 25-year-old actor, who is expected to reprise his role on 13 Reasons when the show returns to screens in 2018, captioned the revealing clip “wrap’d”.
New Yorker Tommy, who married his husband Peter Zurkuhlen last year, previously told Attitude how he had turned his life around in recent years after battles with drug addiction left him in rehab at the age of just 20.
“I really thought: ‘I’m chic and I do drugs and I probably won’t live past 25’,” he admitted. “That was kind of the mindset I had in my early 20s.
“I think I knew for years I was gonna have to get sober. There is no way I could maintain what was going on in my life without dying.
“I met Peter, my husband, six months before I got sober and he was the first person who didn’t judge me for what I was doing, but just asked me about it.”
Recalling the moment he realised his husband helped him realise he needed to seek treatment, Tommy said: “We were in a cab and I’d missed the flight I was supposed to be on and I was just empty and he asked me ‘Why do you keep doing this if you’re not happy? I’d get it if you’re having a lot of fun, but you’re not having fun.’
“I was like ‘I know but I can’t stop’. Three weeks later I went to rehab… We met in November 2012 and I got sober in June 2013.”
You can still read Tommy’d full interview in the June issue of Attitude, available to download now.
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Two gay students have spoken out after discovering that their inspirational coming out quotes were removed from their high school yearbooks.
Joey Slivinski and Thomas Swartz, who attend Kearny High School, Missouri, were shocked to find that quotes alluding to their sexuality had been censored by the school after being deemed ‘offensive’.
Joey had written underneath his senior yearbook picture: ‘Of course I dress well. I didn’t spend all that time in the closet for nothing’.
Meanwhile, Thomas wrote: ‘If Harry Potter taught us anything, it’s that no one should have to live in the closet’.
However, the pair eventually discovered that the book marking their treasured high school years would feature a blank space under both their names after the school decided that the quotes could “offend” and pulled them with no prior warning.
“I went to find my quote in the yearbook but, nothing was there,” Joey told KCTV5 News.
“It was a blank picture under my name,” Thomas said.
“They need to know what they did is wrong. I want to be able to tell other people my story about what happened.”
In a written statement, Kearny High School Dave Schwarzenbach said: “In an effort to protect our students, quotes that could potentially offend another student or groups of students are not published. It is the school’s practice to err on the side of caution.
Doing so in this case had the unintentional consequence of offending the very students the practice was designed to protect.
“We sincerely apologize to those students.”
Meanwhile, Joey and Thomas say they are making stickers featuring their censored quotes with their friends can add below their pictures.
“I’m proud to be from Kearney and I’m proud to be who I am. I’m just disappointed at what happened,” said Joey.
More stories:
Aaron Carter reveals the male celeb he’d love to go on a date with
Mark Gatiss: ‘The LGBT community should care more about ISIS than pronoun debates’ |
Saudi Arabia has announced that it will allow cinemas to open in the kingdom for the first time in decades as part of social and economic reforms undertaken by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
"Commercial cinemas will be allowed to operate in the kingdom as of early 2018, for the first time in more than 35 years," the culture and information ministry announced in a statement on Monday.
It said that the government would begin issuing cinema licenses immediately and that the first movie houses would be open by March.
The move is part of Salman's Vision 2030, a program aimed at liberalizing the socially conservative kingdom.
"This marks a watershed moment in the development of the cultural economy in the kingdom," the information minister Awwad Alawwad said in the statement.
As recently as January, the country's top cleric, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Al Aziz al-Shaikh, reportedly warned that cinemas breed "depravity" and corrupt the morals of the people.
As Bloomberg reports: "The kingdom hasn't had public cinemas since the early 1980s, when the U.S. box office was dominated by films including E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and the Star Wars movie Return of the Jedi. After militants besieged the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 1979, most forms of public entertainment were banned and clerics were given more control over schools, courts and social life."
In September, Saudi Arabia took the dramatic step of announcing women will soon be allowed to drive, an offense in the past that had caused women to lose their jobs and be banned for years from traveling. |
President Trump has formally told NASA to send U.S. astronauts back to the moon.
"The directive I'm signing today will refocus America's space program on human exploration and discovery," he said.
Standing at the president's side as he signed "Space Policy Directive 1" on Monday was Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt, one of the last two humans to ever walk on the moon, in a mission that took place 45 years ago this week.
Since that time, no human has ventured out beyond low-Earth orbit. NASA doesn't even have its own space vehicle, having retired the space shuttles in 2011. Americans currently ride up to the International Space Station in Russian capsules, though private space taxis are expected to start ferrying them up as soon as next year.
For now, the ultimate goal for human exploration in space remains Mars.
"This time, we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint, we will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars and, perhaps someday, to many worlds beyond," Trump said.
Exactly how to get to Mars, however, is subject to debate within the space community.
Many see the moon as the best stepping stone, including Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla., who is Trump's pick to head NASA.
The general moon-first approach being taken by the Trump administration was clearly articulated by Vice President Pence at a meeting of the National Space Council in October.
That's why John Logsdon, a space historian at The George Washington University, says Monday's announcement is not a surprise. "Now the question is whether the White House will propose and the Congress appropriate the funds needed to turn the words into reality," Logsdon says.
Indeed, actually getting the funding to achieve presidents' ambitious space goals is a perennial problem for NASA.
Returning astronauts to the moon had been the plan under President George W. Bush, who called for building a moon base and establishing an extended human presence there. But when a blue-ribbon committee reviewed human spaceflight in 2009, it said there was a mismatch between the scope of the program and the money available to support it: that exploring beyond low-Earth orbit wasn't going to be viable without billions of dollars more in funding.
What's more, many worried that NASA would get bogged down in the gray lunar dust and fail to move on toward the Red Planet.
That's part of why the Obama administration shifted the focus from the moon to a "flexible path" that would target new destinations, such as an asteroid, to get astronauts farther out into deep space.
But the asteroid mission proved more difficult than expected. Eventually, NASA proposed having a robot haul a boulder from an asteroid and put it in orbit around the moon, where astronauts would rendezvous with the space rock. The so-called Asteroid Redirect Mission didn't receive very enthusiastic reviews from the space community or Congress, and this year it got the ax.
NASA has recently been working on plans for something called the Deep Space Gateway, an outpost in orbit around the moon.
And at the behest of Congress, the space agency has been building a giant new rocket and a deep space capsule. The vehicle is supposed to have its first test flight in 2019, when it will send an uncrewed capsule up to orbit the moon before returning to Earth.
Officials in the Trump administration asked NASA to consider putting humans on that flight, but NASA ultimately decided against it after a review. The first mission with a crew on that NASA spacecraft isn't supposed to happen until 2022.
The company SpaceX is also constructing a large rocket and has announced that it intends to launch the first private mission to the moon in 2018. SpaceX says it has paying customers for a trip in an automated capsule that wouldn't land, but would loop around the moon and then return.
SpaceX also has contracts with NASA to bring astronauts up to the International Space Station and is scheduled to start doing that next year as well. The company has already been hauling cargo to and from the station for NASA.
Boeing also has a space transportation system in the works, and its first flight with NASA astronauts on board is planned for 2018.
If those companies' efforts pan out, their space taxis will be the first vehicles to carry up astronauts from U.S. soil since the retirement of the space shuttles. |
Once upon a time, there was a group of conservative intellectuals who were agnostic about Donald trump.
They were not "Never Trumpers," but they weren't Trump superfans either.
They thought Trumpism might offer something new for the GOP. Since Trump wasn't tied to the orthodoxies of either party he could, theoretically, offer a more populist path toward the future for Republicans.
Conservative writer Henry Olsen, at the Ethics and Public Policy Center looked to the tax plan to reflect this new vision, but it wasn't there.
For now, Olsen said, "Trumpian populism remains a tantalizing promise for people who are interested in it."
Olsen expected the tax plan to include some of Trump's populist campaign promises — that the rich would pay more, the forgotten working class would pay less, and special interest loopholes like the carried-interest provision for hedge-fund managers would be gone.
But the tax bill ended up instead being traditionally Republican in its focus on cutting taxes for the well-to-do but barely touching the working class and not helping the middle class to a significant degree.
"That's not what Trump promised," Olsen said. "And it's not what Trump's voters thought they were getting."
Whatever happened to Ivanka Trump's child-care tax credit?
One of the biggest disappointments for conservatives who believed that Trump could have offered a new, more reform-minded populist economics was the failure of the expanded, child-care tax credit offered by Republican Sens. Mike Lee and Marco Rubio.
It was an actual populist idea, geared to the working class, because it was refundable against payroll taxes. But not only did the Republican leadership oppose it, they made sure it failed by requiring it to get 60 votes, unlike other amendments.
Not populist but very conservative
The tax bill might not be the kind of populist piece of legislation Trump promised during the campaign, but it does have a lot in it to make conservatives happy. Obamacare is unraveled; there are more tax breaks for people who home school their kids or send them to religious schools, and there are tax hikes for graduate students, university endowments and voters in high-tax states. In other words — Democrats.
Maybe economic policy isn't the point of Trumpism at all
Maybe the most important thing Trump offers his supporters isn't economic policy or any policy at all — it's his racially charged Twitter feed and the cultural grievances it directs at immigrants, Muslims and millionaire black athletes.
Sure, Trump's followers like the idea of having fewer tax brackets, said conservative Ben Domenech, the publisher of the Federalist.com, but, "What gets them riled up and active is the embrace of the culture-war issues — that Trump has shown himself perfectly happy to fight in a way that Republicans in a lot of other positions have been unwilling to traditionally."
There have always been two parts to the Republican party's message: conservative social issues for its white, blue collar, evangelical base (think school prayer, abortion, gay marriage, immigration and crime) and a supply-side, trickle-down economic message for the rich and corporations. Trump has taken this two-pronged approach and put it on steroids.
His tax bill is much more tilted to the wealthy than the tax bills of Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush. And his white-identity politics is much more raw and more central to his persona.
It's as if the Chamber of Commerce, Wall Street and the wealthy get the policy, while Trump's blue-collar base gets the Twitter feed.
What happens to this tension over time?
In the long run, Olsen doesn't think this Trumpist combination of trickle-down economics and white-identity polices offers a viable path for the GOP.
He's not even sure its sustainable for Trump. And he disagrees that the basis of Trump's appeal was racial.
"There is a lingering discontent in the country that is much more than racial resentment," Olsen said. "The working-class voters who voted for Obama and then for Trump were not motivated only by race."
Olsen said voters generally give their presidential choice a long leash. But if the person doesn't deliver on what they really want in the end, voters will turn against him. And then, the culture wars on Twitter won't be enough.
But, in the short term, this tax bill just might be the kind of win Trump and his party need.
To the extent it has any impact at all, in the first year or two, it will probably be a positive one for most people. Their taxes will go down, and they'll be able to keep more of their own money.
That's because the tax bill is front loaded. The goodies come first. The regressive, non-populist part of the bill, where taxes for the middle class actually go up — kicks in later, well after the next election cycle. |
In 2001, not long after Oklahoma had adopted one of the nation's first universal pre-K programs, researchers from Georgetown University began tracking kids who came out of the program in Tulsa, documenting their academic progress over time.
In a new report published in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management today, researchers were able to show that Tulsa's pre-K program has significant, positive effects on students' outcomes and well-being through middle school.
The program, which serves seven out of 10 4-year-olds in Tulsa, has attracted lots of national attention over the years because of the on-going debate over the benefits of preschool and whether those benefits are long-lasting. William Gormley, a professor of public policy at Georgetown and one of the lead researchers, says the Tulsa findings offer convincing and compelling evidence that they are.
Here's our conversation, edited for length:
Why is this study a big deal?
Because it's the first long-term study of a universal pre-K program that shows how kids benefit.
Four-year-olds were more likely to do well in reading, math and science as they moved up in grade. They were less likely to be held back or need special education, less likely to need remediation and more likely to enroll in gifted or honors programs.
We hypothesize that a key reason for this is that elementary and middle school teachers have ratcheted up the academic rigor and quality of instruction because these kids were much better prepared [compared to students who weren't enrolled in preschool]. Classroom instruction then becomes more stimulating and beneficial to students.
Teachers tell us they can spot a pre-K alumnus a mile away because that child is better prepared to learn.
What exactly did you measure?
We decided to look at a wide range of potential outcomes that the school district had good data on, deep into the middle school years. They included standardized test scores, letter grades, attendance, special education placement, whether students were in honors courses or gifted programs, suspension and retention rates.
In earlier findings, the kids in your study were also more likely to be engaged in class, less timid, more confident, with one glaring exception: black boys. By middle school, they're not doing as well as their white or Latino peers.
The results for African-American kids are not as promising in the long term as the results for members of other ethnic and racial groups. Other research, including studies of Head Start, reached similar conclusions. But one big important finding for all kids in Tulsa's pre-K program, including black students, is that they were less likely to be retained in grade.
That's a really big, important finding because retention is closely associated with negative outcomes like weak academic performance, dropping out of school, higher crime rates, and lower earnings later in life.
Still, Hispanic kids do benefit more in the longer run compared to black children. For example, the principal beneficiaries of pre-K were English language learners. Their reading gains, in particular, were phenomenal after only nine months of being in Tulsa's pre-K program.
You say that one major factor in kids' overall success is that the Tulsa program is of really "high quality." How do you define high quality?
There are two different ways to measure pre-K quality. The first way is to focus on the education level [of preschool teachers] and student-teacher ratios in the classroom. Those things look very good in the Tulsa program. Every teacher has at least a bachelors degree and is early childhood-certified. They get paid the same as a regular [elementary school] teacher.
But the proof in the pudding is to see what's going on inside classrooms. In Tulsa, the legal requirement is that you have one teacher for every 10 students in the classroom.
What about funding?
We estimate that the cost of full-day pre-K in Tulsa is $10,000 per student. The latest data shows that the long-term benefits of the Tulsa program exceed the short-term costs by at least two to one in current dollars.
In other words, taxpayers should be reassured that their investment in universal pre-K is paying off. But can a high-quality program somehow "inoculate" children from academic failure?
Well, that's a tough question.
A lot of students, especially disadvantaged students, suffer from low self-esteem. They do not think of themselves as being successful. That's when a high-quality pre-K can be enormously important.
We don't necessarily know what's going on inside children's heads to account for their success. We don't know what's going on inside individual elementary and middle school classrooms that help sustain these successes. What we do know is that Tulsa's pre-K program is producing lasting dividends for students down the road.
Is Oklahoma's universal preschool program a model for the nation?
Yes, because Oklahoma has demonstrated a very strong commitment to pre-K over two decades. It has enormous public support so it would be hard to terminate it because ordinary folks know the program is doing wonderful things for their kids.
Will your findings from Tulsa change the national debate about the long-term benefits of preschool, both real and perceived?
There's been enormous interest in the Tulsa pre-K program for the past decade. That's because it was adopted by a very poor state, a rather conservative state and it continues to produce positive outcomes for kids.
The Tulsa findings highlight the importance of quality, the importance of recruiting and retaining really good teachers. They've been trained extremely well. They've been allowed to devote more time to literacy, math and science.
Whether that will continue is uncertain because the state of Oklahoma has [recently] chosen to underfund K-12 education and that's regrettable.
It means that unless Oklahoma chooses to invest more in education, some of these significant gains will dissipate.
As for our research, our next study will look at the impact of Tulsa's preschool program on high school students' performance. |
Spending your own money on health care might mean that you'll be more frugal with it. That's the theory behind health savings accounts, a decades-old GOP concept that's sparking renewed interest on Capitol Hill as Republican lawmakers look for ways to replace the Affordable Care Act.
HSAs are like personal savings accounts — with a difference. As with a retirement account, money put into an HSA can be invested, and any growth in the fund accumulates tax-free. Withdrawals can be made at any time, and they are tax-free, too — but the money can only be used to pay for certain medical expenses, such as health insurance deductibles, or for copays for hospital care or a visit to the doctor.
Currently, HSAs are only available to people who have high-deductible health plans, meaning they usually pay a few thousand dollars for medical care each year before their insurance kicks in to pay its share. While HSA participation is growing, only about 20 million people out of the 176 million who have health insurance participate in these savings accounts, according to a 2015 report by the Association of Health Insurance Plans.
Why don't more people who are eligible for HSAs have them? For one thing, not everyone has money to contribute upfront. But psychologists and behavioral economists point out that even many people who have the extra cash on hand confront big psychological barriers to saving.
"How we think and feel is directly tied to our ability to make 'good' financial decisions," says Alycia DeGraff, a board member and secretary of the Financial Therapy Association. DeGraff says when faced with financial decisions about the future, many people simply get stressed-out.
"These stressors can become so overwhelming that ... we can become debilitated and ignore the situation all together," she says. "Or we can practice any kind of defense mechanism — entitlement, suppression, overcompensation, isolation, etc. — to try and deal with [it]."
This may explain, at least in part, why middle-class Americans are pretty bad at saving money in general. Only about half of us have money in any sort of retirement account. And those of us who are parents have only saved, on average, enough to pay for about one year at an in-state college for our kids.
Saving money is hard. It means setting aside what we want now for something we think we'll want or need later. And we live in a culture that offers a lot of pretty, shiny, things to buy RIGHT NOW.
Plus, we all pretend we won't get old or sick.
"People are predictably irrational," says Dr. Mitesh Patel, especially when it comes to money. He's a behavioral economist, physician and assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine.
But many of us really hate to lose money, Patel says, which is what makes the concept of HSAs is so appealing.
For example he and his colleagues published a study last year in the Annals of Internal Medicine on what motivates people to lose weight, and found that the way a financial incentive was framed made all the difference.
The researchers observed three groups of people for 13 weeks. They told one group to walk 7,000 steps a day. About 30 percent of the group did so. Meanwhile, people assigned to the second group were told they'd be paid $1.40 every day they walked 7,000 steps. About 35 percent of the second group did so.
Here's the kicker: Each person in the third group was paid $42 upfront and was docked $1.40 each time they failed to meet their goal. Forty-five percent of that group met the assigned goal, Patel says. People hate to lose money.
Another way to encourage more saving might be to make HSAs operate more like the 401(k)s that required people who didn't want to participate to actively opt out of the plan — rather than requiring people who want to contribute to opt in. "This creates a path of least resistance," Patel says.
Of course, setting up and overseeing such a plan would likely cost the government some money, he notes.
People with HSAs do use less health care than those without such plans, a recent study from the Employee Benefits Research Institute suggests. But it's unclear whether they actually improve their health. Prescription drug costs went down for people enrolled in HSAs in the EBRI study, but emergency room visits went up — particularly for lower-income families.
Then there's the issue of figuring out how much you, as an individual or a family, would need to save for health care — it's not easy to find out the average price for a medical test or procedure in your town, let alone how much that price varies from doctor to doctor or hospital to hospital.
"If you want to save for a house, you can pretty much figure out the math," Patel says. "But if you go to a doctor, they don't give you a menu for prices."
To really increase their health savings — or any savings — we'd all need to change our mindset, says Degraff, the financial therapist.
"People would have to first take a dose of reality and get real about their future selves," she says. Naturally, we thing our future selves will be "better, healthier, more financially secure," she adds. But, for many of us, health and income eventually decline with age. We need to save more now for later.
HSAs can be useful, Degraff notes, but only for those who have enough cash to pay their day-to-day expenses — plus a little left over.
"A lot of people don't even have a regular emergency fund savings," DeGraff says, "especially those that are already struggling to pay for health insurance." |
People across the country move to the desert because of the warm winter weather. Desert conditions also bring major auto companies looking to test out brand new cars.
KJZZ’s Casey Kuhn (@CaseyAtTheDesk) reports how Arizona’s test tracks are a major part of the car business. |
A jittery group of middle schoolers are about to start their first day of classes since September, when Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico and totally disrupted the island's school system.
The vast majority of the island's public schools — more than 98 percent — are open for at least part of the day, according to Puerto Rico's Department of Education.
But a small number of schools in Puerto Rico are still not holding classes. Before today, that included the students of Liberata Iraldo. The middle school building they usually attend is being used as a shelter for people who lost their homes in the storm.
Because of that, these students, dressed in their pale yellow and blue school uniforms, are about to start class at a nearby high school — Pedro Falu Orellano-- in Rio Grande, east of San Juan. The relocation has upset some parents, but the plan is moving ahead because it's not clear where the people living in the shelter will go next.
The last several weeks have been tough, with so many kids stuck at home until now. Many students say they've been bored, reading and playing. The area is still without power. It's not clear why it took more than two months to determine a relocation plan.
Eleven-year-old Angelisbeth Maldonado says she hopes there will never be another hurricane. "I don't like going to new schools and learning lost material will be difficult," she says.
Her family learned she would be starting school at this new location just the day before. It's supposed to be temporary. Nearly 500 students are being relocated from the middle school.
Less than a mile from the high school, mother Nadgie De Jesus is rallying with several dozen other parents, students and teachers in front of the middle school-turned-shelter. She's frustrated that her daughter's school is one of just three on the island still being used to house storm refugees. And she refuses to send her to the high school because she thinks it's unsafe.
"We need our school back, that's why we're here," she says. Her daughter, Kaylani, says she feels sad and misses her science and music classes. "I want to see my school again," she says.
Puerto Rico's Secretary of Education, Julia Keleher, says that they are trying to find solutions for schools across the island that have not yet been able to open.
Keleher says she's not completely happy with the quality of education some students are receiving, "but," she says "schools are open and there is teaching and learning that's happening."
At this new location, the middle and high school students will not overlap in hours, in order to avoid conflict, says regional director Sol Iris Ortiz Bruno.
"After carefully analyzing all factors to be considered, like adequate space, reasonable distance and school security, it is clear that Pedro Falu [high school] is the best choice," Bruno said in a statement. "Once all the refugees at the Liberata Hiraldo School are removed, both schools will return to regular operations."
Middle school teacher Noelanie Fuentes says she keeps hearing different dates about when the school will stop functioning as a shelter – the latest word is Dec. 15. She worries where the people sheltering there will go next.
"I don't want them to be thrown out on the street with nowhere to go," Fuentes says. In addition to three shelters-turned-schools, there are currently about three dozen other shelters operating in Puerto Rico.
The shelter at Liberata Iraldo middle school is hosting nearly 50 people — many sleeping in the classrooms. Stephanie Garcia is one of them, sheltering with her husband and four-year-old son.
The family came here after floodwaters destroyed their home, she says, and looters made off with their remaining possessions. They lost their car, too – which meant her husband lost his job.
"We have coped with living in these conditions, for the moment at least," she says. Their clothing dries on a line stretching across the classroom, where desks sit in a corner. They pushed several cots together to make a bed.
Garcia says that as a mother, she understands why parents want their middle school reopened. She says her family is happy to relocate – they just don't have anywhere to go. |
Throughout history, being on the receiving end of anything involving cavitation, a miniscule underwater implosion, has been bad news. Millions of years before humans discovered cavitation — and promptly began avoiding it, given its tendency to chew up machinery — the phenomenon has provided the shockwave and awe behind a punch so ridiculously violent that it's made the mantis shrimp a honey badger-esque Internet mascot.
Now, a slew of companies are co-opting the phenomenon behind the ocean's most powerful punch to process food and beverages from yogurt to beer.
Cavitation is when low pressure in a liquid produces a bubble that rapidly collapses, and heats up to 20,000 Kelvin — hotter than the sun's surface. This usually releases a flash of light called sonoluminescence, which physicists still don't understand. Some physicists even theorize that cavitation bubbles could get hot enough to power nuclear fusion.
Mantis shrimp's club-like appendages generate these bubbles by punching with the acceleration of a .22 caliber bullet. When they hit their prey's shell, they create a low-pressure area, vaporizing water and forming a cavitation bubble that collapses with a shockwave with up to 280 percent of the force of the original punch. Pistol shrimp, the world's loudest animal, snap their claws so quickly that they create a low-pressure jet that causes cavitation bubbles, stunning prey.
We humans are newcomers to cavitation. We never properly observed it until 1895, on torpedo boat propellers. And, save for using cavitation to reduce drag on torpedoes, engineers have generally designed equipment to avoid it like the plague.
According to Doug Mancosky, chief science officer of Hydro Dynamics, which designs cavitation technology, when 15 years ago he started trying convince biofuel and petroleum manufacturers that cavitation could be used to refine their products, they thought he was crazy. Now, his company is at the forefront of a burgeoning sector of firms selling cavitation technology to food and beverage manufacturers.
Their first foray into the food market, in 2013, was when Hydro Dynamics discovered that cavitation could simplify egg pasteurization. According to Mancosky, their tech, which uses a hole-filled rotor (picture the inside of a washing machine) to generate cavitation bubbles, could heat from within the liquid. "The surfaces of our devices actually stay cooler than the liquid flowing through it" so eggs couldn't harden like they did on hot industrial equipment. And since companies could tune the intensity of cavitation, they could pasteurize and mix eggs without breaking apart too many proteins in them.
Since then, Hydro Dynamics and their licensees have branched out into processing pet food and dairy products — such as making fluffier, aerated yogurt products and milk. More recently, they've begun using cavitation bubbles to unravel and condense proteins in low-fat whey drinks to a size where they produce a richer, fat-like mouthfeel. They aren't alone in the dairy market, though. Among others, Yoplait and Valio have also patented in-house methods of using cavitation to process dairy products in recent years.
However, since 2015 — when an Italian National Research Council team published pioneering research on using cavitation to brew beer — cavitation has been making the most waves in the beverage industry.
According to one scientist from that research team, Francesco Meneguzzi, they found that cavitation processed and converted more of the starch in barley to brewable sugars — without having to germinate it first — in less time, at lower temperatures. It also reduced volatile gases, broke apart gluten, and punctured microbes' membranes, sterilizing wort, the sugary liquid fermented into beer. They could skip boiling the wort, reducing energy consumption by 40 percent. MIT's Technology Review hailed the team's innovation, and since then, cavitation has become a burgeoning fascination of craft brewers.
Hydro Dynamics, for example, found that as cavitation bubbles formed and collapsed, they pushed and pulled wort through hops "like a plunger," Mancosky says, improving flavor extraction. Two years later, they have partnerships with a slew of craft breweries, including Anchor Brewing and Cabarrus.
"One application leads to another," Mancosky says. Cabarrus, which makes a beer infused with cold brew coffee, asked him if they could use cavitation to extract more flavor from coffee. "We said 'Yeah, it should help, the same way it helps extract more flavor from hops. They fired it up, and next thing you know, they're able to reduce their cold brewing time by 80 percent." Afterwards, working with Anchor Brewing on their blackberry ale, Hydro Dynamics demonstrated that cavitation could also more effectively extract flavor from fruit.
The transition to using cavitation technology has posed some technical challenges for brewers, though. As Anchor Brewmaster Scott Ungermann tells NPR, "cavitation can drive extraction of undesirable flavors as well as the ones that we are looking for ... with so many other variables it is very difficult to dial in exactly the flavor profile."
Ryan Cottongim of Witches Brew, another craft brewer that works with Hydro Dynamics, seconds Ungermann's sentiments, saying that trying to integrate new technology while trying to keep brews consistent has been difficult. Moreover, while Cottingham has enjoyed more efficiently extracting extra hop flavor, "at some point you hit that saturation point where you're not going to get any more from this."
Nevertheless, cavitation's alcoholic applications go even further. It can age liquor and wines by acting a catalyst. Cavitation can effectively accelerate barrel aging by extracting flavor from charred wood chips — while using the char as a carbon filter to trap impurities.
In the past two years, Hydro Dynamics has sold equipment to several wineries and distilleries for aging. And, two companies, Cavitation Technologies and Sonn Beverage Systems, are targeting consumers with household devices that age wine and spirits.
Sonn, however, uses ultrasound cavitation, a method of generating cavitation with soundwaves most well known for its use in breaking up kidney stones. Sonn CEO Denis Londry tells NPR they opted for ultrasound because "unlike other ways of generating cavitation, nothing is pressurized." The whole thing can be an open container with few moving parts — suitable for a countertop, if not a winery.
Much like Hydro Dynamics has, Londry says Sonn is also aiming to expand into the tea and coffee markets — both of which are markets eager to improve their flavor extraction technology. In fact, one cavitation technology firm confirmed to NPR that they're testing cold brewing equipment with one of the world's largest coffee chains.
But the edible applications of cavitation don't stop there. The same phenomenon behind the most powerful punch makes for a better blender, catalyzes sought-after reactions, and can "neutralize a large spectrum of spoiling and harmful microbes," such as bacteria and waterborne viruses, according to Meneguzzo, "much more effectively and efficiently than most other technologies."
After millions of years of punctuating the most destructive attacks the ocean has ever seen, the cavitation bubble has a bright future in making humans' food and drinks safer and tastier. |
The off-Broadway hit “Spamilton,” which spoofs Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton,” is closing in New York, but there is a U.S. tour in the works, and plans for a possible run in London.
Here & Now‘s Robin Young talks backstage, with the show’s creator, Gerard Alessandrini (@ForbiddenGerard). |
Lyft is unveiling a new education program for drivers, offering access to discounted GED and college courses online. The move is an interesting experiment in the gig economy, where a growing class of workers receive zero benefits from a boss and yet competition for their time is fierce.
Many Lyft drivers see their work for the company as a stopgap measure, a flexible way to make money while they try to build a career.
Shanae Watkins, a driver based in Baltimore, would like to become a social worker. She is currently working on her bachelor's in psychology through online classes. "It's better that way with my kids," she says. "I can drive or study while still being present at home when they need me."
Watkins drives for Uber, Lyft, GrubHub and Amazon Flex and, she says, she does not have loyalty to any specific gig company.
"I turn on the apps and see where the demand is," she says. But, she says, if one of them offered help with the cost of school, that could move her to shift her loyalties.
That is the bet that Lyft is making in this new pilot program with Guild Education. The Denver-based startup connects workers to courses provided by nonprofit online schools.
Lyft drivers will receive tuition discounts ranging from 5 percent to 20 percent and, according to the company, the average driver working with Guild to earn a degree can save up to $4,220 per year.
Drivers can take English as a second language and GED courses, as well as earn an associates, bachelor's or master's degree online in subjects including IT, nursing, social work, occupational therapy and business.
Lyft would not disclose how much the program will cost the company. According to a Lyft survey of drivers to be published next month, 47 percent do not have a college degree.
Gabe Cohen, general manager for Lyft in Denver, says internal surveys show that drivers want to earn degrees. This move serves that goal, as well as the startup's business interests.
"It is important that drivers feel loyalty to Lyft," Cohen says.
There is fierce competition for drivers in the ride-hailing industry. Companies pour money into marketing budgets, placing ads on billboards and popular radio stations in an effort to recruit.
This new education benefit could be a more effective tool and even prompt the largest ride-hailing company, Uber, to do the same. In response to pressure from drivers who pointed out that Lyft offered in-app tipping, Uber started offering the feature this summer.
To qualify, a driver must have completed 10 rides for Lyft in the current or previous quarter, and then 10 rides per month.
"It is a low bar," says Zoe Weintraub, who directs sales and corporate partnerships at Guild.
Turnover among the hourly workforce is notoriously high. Lyft is the first company in the gig economy to offer these education benefits to its drivers.
Guild's other clients include the fast-food chain Chipotle which, Weintraub says, has seen a clear benefit to retention: 98 percent of the employees who enrolled in its education programs stayed with the company over a 90-day period.
David Weil, dean at Brandeis University's Heller School of Social Policy and Management, is not impressed. Weil, who was in charge of investigating companies that misclassify workers under the Obama administration, describes the move by Lyft as strategic, but not generous.
Lyft and Uber are fighting in courts against claims that drivers are employees entitled to benefits like paid sick leave and health care.
"The ride-hailing companies can't erase the fact that their business models are having drivers do all sorts of things an employee would do," Weil says. To offer training is "really nice" but it doesn't mean Lyft should "be rewarded by having the other responsibilities removed," he says.
Lyft audited the pilot program to assess if it exposes the company to new legal claims that workers are employees, not independent contractors. A spokesperson says in-house lawyers determined it does not because only benefits that serve as compensation — such as paying a health care premium or matching a 401(k) — could put the "independent contractor" status in jeopardy. |
It's the stuff of spy novels. North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un's older half-brother Kim Jong Nam died mysteriously at the Kuala Lumpur airport, and both South Korean and Malaysian media report it was likely some sort of poison attack.
Several questions surround his suspicious death, but perhaps the biggest is: Who would want Kim Jong Nam dead?
The eldest Kim brother has led a quiet existence outside North Korea for decades, except for making headlines when he tried to enter Japan in 2001 on a fake passport. He later said he was trying to go to Tokyo Disneyland.
That Kim has remained out of the limelight is rather remarkable given he's the son of Kim Jong Il, North Korea's notorious former dictator.
"You would live anonymously too if people were gunning for you," says Michael Madden, a visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies who runs the site North Korean Leadership Watch.
"Kim Jong Nam has lived a very leisurely life, primarily in a condo that the Kim family owns in Macau," Madden says. Kim is widely known for his love of gambling and clubs. Madden also says Kim Jong Nam manages the family's personal fortune overseas, which includes homes in Singapore, Beijing and Paris.
Kim's fate took a turn Monday morning, while he was in transit at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Something caused Kim's sudden death.
Malaysian media are showing closed-circuit camera images in which two women cover a traveler's face with cloth. Police say emergency responders rushed the man, whose travel documents identified him as "Kim Chol," to the hospital, but he died en route.
"It probably is the strangest story that I have encountered about North Korean elites and the Kim family and Kim family politics," Madden says.
In South Korea Tuesday, Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee confirmed the identity of the dead traveler.
"The government is certain that the murdered individual is Kim Jong Nam. We have not confirmed the exact cause of death," Jeong said.
Kim could have died of natural causes, given his sedentary lifestyle and the family's reported issues with gout and high blood pressure. But if he was killed, theories run the gamut as to why.
Some believe Kim was punished for skimming from the family fortune he handled, or that he was the scapegoat in a power play by elites wanting to get back into leader Kim Jong Un's good graces. But they're all just guesses, says Madden.
"Nobody knows, and I don't think we will know the full story about the death of Kim Jong Nam for many years," he says.
As with so much about North Korea, even a man's demise is dressed in mystery.
Haeryun Kang contributed to this post from Seoul. Chan Kok Leong contributed to this post from Kuala Lumpur. |
Updated at 11:20 a.m. ET
New York City police say the suspect in Monday morning's explosion in a subway station tunnel near Times Square was wearing an improvised explosive device and that he suffered burns after it was detonated. Three other people sustained minor injuries.
"It was an effectively low-tech device," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during a news conference hours later near the site of the blast, calling the news of an explosion "very disturbing."
New York City Police Department Commissioner James P. O'Neill identified the suspect as 27-year-old Akayed Ullah. O'Neill said the device detonated in a below-ground walkway connecting the stations at Times Square and the Port Authority. Ullah was found in the walkway, and the incident was captured on surveillance video.
"Preliminary investigation at the scene indicates this individual was wearing an improvised low-tech explosive device attached to his body," O'Neill said. "He intentionally detonated that device."
The incident forced officials to close the area to trains on some of New York City's most vital subway lines. Shortly before 11 a.m., the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority said that while the A, C, and E trains were still bypassing the 42nd Street Port Authority stop, a number of other trains — including the 1, 2, and 3 and the N, Q, and R, had resumed making station stops at the Times Square 42nd Street station.
The explosive device was based on a pipe bomb and was attached to the suspect's body with Velcro and zip ties, according to NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller. He said that bomb technicians and the FBI are examining the device to learn more about it.
Ullah suffered burns to his hands and abdomen and was taken into custody, according to the police commissioner. The suspect was transported to Bellevue Hospital.
"This was an attempted terrorist attack," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said. "Thank God the perpetrator did not achieve his ultimate goals. Thank God our first responders were there so quickly, to address the situation."
The mayor added that "at this point in time, all we know of is one individual" carrying out what he called a failed attack. He said there was "no credible and specific threat directed at New York City right now."
Calling a bomb in a crowded subway "one of our worst nightmares," Cuomo said that the reality of what had occurred turned out to be better than what had been first feared. The injuries seem to have been minor, he said.
Ending his remarks, Cuomo said, "Let's go back to work. We're not going to allow them to disrupt us, that's exactly what they want. And that is exactly what they're not going to get."
New York City Fire Department Commissioner Daniel Nigro said the three other people injured were suffering from ringing in the ears and headaches, due to their proximity to the blast in an enclosed corridor. He said all three had taken themselves to nearby hospitals.
Police initially said the suspect was the only person injured when device detonated. But the New York City Fire Department later provided an update to confirm the additional injuries.
Around 7:20 a.m. ET, police said they responded to reports of a blast at 42nd Street and 8th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.
After the explosion, subway trains were bypassing the Port Authority and adjacent Times Square stations, police said. The Port Authority bus terminal was temporarily closed and later reopened, although Greyhound and airport service remained suspended.
President Trump "has been briefed on the explosion in New York City," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said via a tweet.
This is a breaking news story. As often happens in situations like these, some information reported early may turn out to be inaccurate. We'll move quickly to correct the record and we'll only point to the best information we have at the time. |
It's a typical hectic morning at Michele Comisky's house in Vienna, Va., when she gets a knock on her front door.
"Hi, how are you?" Comisky says as she greets Keisha Herbin Smith, a research assistant at Georgetown University. "Come on in."
Comisky, 39, leads Herbin Smith into her kitchen.
"Which one isn't feeling good?" asks Herbin Smith, glancing at Comisky's children. "That one," Comisky says, pointing to her 8-year-old son, Jackson.
Jackson has an ear infection. So he just started 10 days of antibiotics to kill the strain of bacteria that's giving him an earache. That's why Herbin Smith's here.
"What time did he take his antibiotic?" Herbin Smith asks.
He asks because the antibiotics won't just wipe out the bad bacteria. They could also disrupt the good bacteria in Jackson's body, which can lead to stomach problems, including severe diarrhea.
Herbin Smith had rushed to Comisky's house to deliver a special yogurt drink that scientists are testing in hopes of preventing those serious problems.
"We want him to take the first yogurt within 24 hours of taking his first antibiotic," she says.
The yogurt contains a probiotic — a living strain of bacteria that researchers think could help prevent diarrhea and other complications of the antibiotic.
Some previous research has hinted that probiotics could help, and some doctors already are recommending probiotics to parents of children taking antibiotics.
But researchers hope the new yogurt study will provide clearer evidence as to whether that's a good idea. It's the first large, carefully designed test of a probiotic to get reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration, says Dr. Daniel Merenstein, who is leading the study. He's the director of research programs in the department of family medicine at Georgetown University.
"The problem with a lot of probiotic research is that they haven't always been the best of studies," Merenstein says. "Many are done by industry. Many were done in other countries. We're looking to see if it actually prevents diarrhea in kids."
Merenstein's study is part of an explosion of interest in research on the microbiome — the billions of friendly bacteria, yeast and other microorganisms that live in the human body. There's mounting evidence these microbes play important roles in human health.
In addition to helping prevent diarrhea in children taking antibiotics, there is some evidence that probiotics could help prevent complications from antibiotics in adults as well, and might help prevent gastrointestinal infections that sometimes occur when people travel to other countries. Other people have suggested probiotics might help treat vaginal infections in women, or possibly alleviate colic in infants or perhaps prevent eczema in some babies. Probiotics are also being looked at as a possibility to prevent a serious condition in newborn babies — necrotizing enterocolitis.
Some researchers even argue there's enough evidence to recommend that healthy adults take a probiotic regularly to help maintain their health.
"I think there's a generic benefit in ingesting high numbers of safe, live bacteria every day," says Colin Hill, a professor of microbiology at University College Cork in Ireland. "If I had my way, there would be a recommended daily allowance of bacteria."
But many scientists question whether there's enough evidence to support that suggestion or the many claims some companies are making about the alleged benefits probiotics. Some products are being promoted to help prevent obesity, heart disease and even alleviate mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.
"The marketing of every claim under the sun with every product under the sun is definitely questionable," says Linda Duffy, a program director at the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. "There's not much in the way a magic bullet anywhere."
The net benefit of probiotic use with certain conditions "is looking very, very promising," she says. But there are still a lot of unanswered questions.
While probiotics are probably safe for most otherwise healthy people, Duffy and others note that the products could pose some risk for people with weakened immune systems, such as those infected with the AIDS virus or for people undergoing cancer chemotherapy.
Another caution is that probiotics are not regulated as closely as prescription and over-the-counter medications. So there's no guarantee that what's on the label is actually in the bottle — or that whatever organisms were originally in the bottle are still alive. There are also concerns about potentially dangerous contaminants in products that could pose a risk even to healthy people.
"Are there contaminants out there? Are there adulterated products? Are there marketed products without the appropriate claims? Absolutely," Duffy says. "Like anything, you have to be a wise consumer."
For his part, Merenstein hopes his study will provide strong new evidence that probiotics provide benefits for children taking antibiotics.
In the study, 300 children will drink specially made strawberry yogurt. Half will drink yogurt that contains a probiotic called bifidobacteria. The researchers will then compare the incidence of diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems in the two groups of kids.
In addition, the researchers are gathering fecal samples from the children to try to determine exactly how probiotics might work.
"One of our goals is to show that taking a probiotic will get your microbiome back to what it was before you started the antibiotic — and/or protect you from the changes," Merenstein says.
So, back at Comisky's house, Jackson takes his first gulp of Merenstein's special yogurt.
"All right, here you go — you can drink it right out of here," Comisky says as she takes a bottle out of the refrigerator, opens the cap and hands it to her son.
"Is it good?" she asks.
"Yeah," says Jackson, as he gulps down the yogurt and declares: "Done!"
It will take years for Merenstein's team to gather and analyze the results of the study. So it will be a while before they can say for sure whether this particular probiotic treatment works or not. |
Russian intelligence officials made repeated contact with members of President Trump's campaign staff, according to new reports that cite anonymous U.S. officials. American agencies were concerned about the contacts but haven't seen proof of collusion between the campaign and the Russian security apparatus, the reports say.
Law enforcement and intelligence agencies intercepted the calls at the same time as they investigated Russia's attempts to tamper with the presidential election, according to The New York Times, which first reported the contacts.
According to CNN, "The communications were intercepted during routine intelligence collection targeting Russian officials and other Russian nationals known to U.S. intelligence."
Both CNN and the Times cite multiple current and former U.S. officials as the sources for their stories.
Reporter Matt Apuzzo, part of the Times team that broke the story, tells NPR's Morning Edition that while officials said they haven't seen proof of collusion — "just the flurry of contacts was enough, and the timing of the contacts, was enough to get them very concerned."
U.S. agencies are still working to determine the reasons behind the contacts, officials tell both news outlets.
President Trump called the reports "conspiracy theories" early Wednesday, in response to the stories:
"The fake news media is going crazy with their conspiracy theories and blind hatred," the president wrote. He then added that MSNBC and CNN are "unwatchable," while the Fox News program Fox & Friends "is great."
The Kremlin had a similar response, with Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying, "Let us not believe in what media say, for nowadays it is very difficult to tell actual news from fake ones."
That's according to state-run Tass media, which adds that Peskov also criticized the use of anonymous sources by the media.
Allegations about Trump's involvement with Russia have ranged from reports last month of a dossier that alleged collusion between the then-candidate and Russian President Vladimir Putin to a public call from the candidate himself last July, when he urged Russian agents to "find" Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's emails and release them.
The FBI has been investigating contacts between Trump aides and Russia; in Congress, there are also calls for public investigations. Last month, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence announced it would investigate allegations that Russia meddled in the U.S. elections.
But there is resistance among Republicans in Congress to go after one of their own, particularly as the new president is settling into the White House.
Republican Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, who's on the House Judiciary Committee, tells Morning Edition, "I don't think we need an independent investigation here, I think we need to let the Intelligence and the Judiciary committees do their work."
That work, he said, includes receiving classified briefings about the new allegations. Johnson also raised questions about leaks in the government — particularly of information that's drawn from surveillance that swept up the communications of U.S. citizens.
"There are some serious legal implications here," Johnson said, "but it has nothing to do with partisan politics. I mean, the leak of highly classified information by what is apparent here — a number of individuals inside our intelligence community — is the illegal act that I think we need to review."
Johnson also faulted intelligence agencies for not doing more to protect the identity of Americans — such as former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn — whose communications with a foreign national were monitored.
New reports of contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia follow the exit of a third member of Donald Trump's inner circle in the past 12 months amid allegations of inappropriate contact with the country:
Michael Flynn resigned as national security adviser this week over the handling of his contacts with Russia's ambassador to the U.S.;
Paul Manafort, resigned as Trump's campaign chairman last August amid reports of his attempts to align Trump's policies with Russian interests;
Carter Page removed himself as a foreign policy adviser last September, as reports emerged about a visit to Russia and other potential contacts.
Manafort and Flynn were among the senior Trump team members who were "regularly communicating with Russian nationals," CNN reports.
In an interview with the Times, Manafort called the officials' account "absurd" and said he had never had anything to do with Putin's government.
Manafort told the newspaper, "It's not like these people wear badges that say, 'I'm a Russian intelligence officer.'" |
Good morning, here are our early stories:
-- Firefighters Lose Ground On Largest Of California Fires.
-- The Crazy, Unbelievable Alabama Senate Race Careens To An End.
-- The Myth Of Trump's Economic Populism, As Proven By The Tax Bill.
-- Bitcoin Futures Surge In First Day Of Trading.
-- Simeon Booker, Dean Of Washington's Black Press Corps, Dies At 99.
And here are more early headlines:
Pence Won't Meet Palestinian Leader On Visit. (CNN)
Netanyahu Predicts E.U. Will Also Recognize Jerusalem. (BBC)
Venezuela Blocks Opposition From Future Presidential Election. (Time)
Nobel Prizes Presented In Stockholm. (Deutsche Welle)
Saudi Arabia To Lift Decades-Old Ban On Movies. (AP)
Golden Globe Nominations Coming Today. (AFP)
Idaho Man Rams Courthouse, Mad At Court System. (Idaho Statesman) |
The ruling party of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has won more than 90 percent of the country's mayoral races, after the opposition boycotted the election. Maduro said parties that sat out Sunday's vote will be barred from next year's presidential election.
Maduro's United Socialist Party of Venezuela won more than 300 of the 335 mayoral offices.
"We have obtained a big victory!" Maduro said in a speech in the capital's Bolívar Plaza late Sunday. "A popular, democratic, free, sovereign victory of an independent country!"
"The imperialists have tried to set fire to Venezuela to take our riches," Maduro said.
"We've defeated the American imperialists with our votes, our ideas, truths, reason and popular will," he told the crowd, which chanted, "Go Home, Donald Trump."
About half of eligible voters cast ballots in Sunday's races.
After casting his ballot, Maduro announced: "A party that has not participated today cannot participate anymore."
"They will disappear from the political map," he said of the opposition parties that boycotted Sunday's vote.
After the opposition unexpectedly lost most of the regional races in October, it cried foul. An alliance of parties have labeled Maduro a dictator and refused to participate in the mayoral races.
As The Associated Press reports:
"The elections played out as Venezuelans struggle with triple-digit inflation, shortages of food and medicine, and charges that Maduro's government has undermined democracy by imprisoning dissidents and usurping the powers of the opposition-controlled National Assembly. "... The struggles have caused the president's approval rating to plunge, although the opposition has been largely unable to capitalize on Maduro's unpopularity."
In July, Maduro called a referendum on rewriting the country's constitution to give him near-dictatorial powers. The referendum easily passed despite an unofficial vote held earlier by the opposition that overwhelmingly rejected the changes. Washington responded to the vote with a new round of sanctions on Maduro, freezing his U.S. assets and prohibiting U.S. citizens from having any dealings with him. |
Four Syracuse-area churches are joining together to open their doors to undocumented immigrants and refugees who fear federal immigration actions. Father Fred Daley of All Saints Roman Catholic Church says policy changes have not been made to help immigrants, regardless of their status. He also blames Washington with spreading false fears and stereotypes.
“The president and his administration continually connect immigration and crime. Yet the American Immigration Council innumerable studies have confirmed that immigrants, including undocumented immigrants, are less likely to commit serious crime or be behind bars than the native born.”
Plymouth Church in Syracuse has a long history of offering sanctuary. Church Moderator Abby Hind says the congregation will take on even legal challenges.
“As part of the new sanctuary coalition, we join those who will open up our congregation and communities as sanctuary spaces for those targeted by hate, and work alongside our friends, families, and neighbors to ensure dignity and human rights of all people.”
Other members of the CNY Interfaith Sanctuary Coalition are Saint Lucy’s Roman Catholic Church and University United Methodist Church. They’ve agreed to educate themselves about immigration issues … and advocate for reform. Congregation members will also accompany people to hearings and create sanctuary residences if needed. Father Daley notes the history of this cause.
“The Underground Railroad came into being to help slaves flee the south, and find sanctuary in many congregations. Most recently in the 1980's, refugees fleeing from civil wars in Central America were offered sanctuary by over 500 congregations throughout the country.”
Faith communities have also opened their doors to conscientious objectors who had been drafted for the Vietnam War, and to members of the LBGTQ community who have also sought safe haven.
Father Daley says this new coalition could grow … and was modeled after similar partnerships in other cities.
Coalition members have committed themselves to the following principles: |
Lawmakers in Iowa began debating a bill Tuesday to dramatically change how public sector unions negotiate their contracts, part of a wave of legislation in statehouses across the country to roll back union rights.
The bill, similar to a 2011 law in Wisconsin, is high on the state's legislative agenda and comes as Republicans control both chambers of the state Legislature and the governor's mansion for the first time in nearly 20 years.
About 180,000 state and local government workers would be prohibited from negotiating over issues including health insurance, seniority and extra pay. The legislation also leaves in place a provision that prevents workers from going on strike. And it includes provisions that would make it more difficult for unions to collect dues.
Public safety employees, such as law enforcement officers, would be exempt from certain provisions of the bill. Critics say exempting public safety workers divides unions.
Ahead of hearings on the leglslation, teachers, teamsters, firefighters and other union members demonstrated at the Iowa Capitol Monday night, breaking into chants of "Kill the bill."
"Enough of these misguided politicians and their billionaire buddies trying to take our voice and our rights!" shouted Becky Pringle, of the National Education Association, to the crowd from atop a folding chair.
The state's Democrats are trying to slow down debate on the measure, which is expected to last several days.
"This is a major change and policy shift," said state Sen. Nate Boulton, a Democrat. "It is disappointing that we had no voice in this process."
Republicans countered that they were ending a period of deadlock and divided government in Iowa by acting on their priorities.
"Normally the frustration I hear from folks at home is that we don't get anything done," said state Rep. Steve Holt, a Republican. "So we are acting decisively on a bill that I think is great for Iowa and great for efficient government."
More than 1,100 people signed up to speak against the bill, but only 33 got the chance. State correctional officer Lindsey Herron said she left her previous job, which paid well, for the better benefits that state employees receive.
If the bill becomes law, the risks of working in a prison are "no longer worth it," said Herron. "You may think that's fine until those offenders end up living next door to your family and they learn nothing in prison because they no longer have professional educated staff working there."
Herron said she was upset about voting for Republican candidates last fall. "If this bill passes, don't think in 2018 I'm going to forget what you've done to my family."
Just four people spoke in favor of the bill, including representatives of the Iowa chapter of Americans for Prosperity, the nonprofit political advocacy group funded by conservative donors David and Charles Koch. |
Screenwriter Scott Frank has written movies in a all kinds of genres, including crime noir (Get Shorty), thriller (Malice) and action/adventure (The Wolverine). But despite his extensive list of credits, he always felt there was one genre missing.
"I wanted to write a Western at some point in my career," he says. "I kept putting it off and putting it off, because they were very difficult economically to make in Hollywood."
Now, he finally has a Western on his resume. Godless, which Frank wrote and directed, is a seven-part Netflix mini-series set in 1880s New Mexico. It takes place in a small town that is run by women because most of the men have died in a mining accident.
Frank says he went into the project determined to have fun, and to embrace "every single cliché" he could think of. "From the breaking of horses, to train robberies, to the two guys facing each other in the street — all of that stuff. Why not find a way to put them all in here and see if I can't do it some sort of different way?"
Interview Highlights
On the real historical accounts that inspired Godless and its characters
Mimi [Munson] has been my researcher for the last 17 years. And I told Mimi, "I'm thinking about writing a Western. I don't know what it's about." ... She said she had been doing a little research about mining towns in the Southwest. ... She said that all throughout the Southwest, there were several towns ... where all the men would die in a single day in an accident and the women would be left behind, stranded. They would either leave or they would try and make a go of it. All of a sudden, I had part of my movie. ... (It was not going to be a series back then, it was just going to be a film.) ...
She [also] went to the university research library at UCLA and collected all these letters. They wouldn't let her Xerox them, so she actually had to hand copy all of these letters — about 100 of them. A lot of them were oral histories, in effect, written by these women. And it was spectacular for me because I not only got ideas for characters — like the prostitute who's the richest woman in town, for example — but I also got to hear how people spoke, which was hugely important to me, because I didn't want to write a lot of, "I reckon I'll rustle up a bunch of grub," type stuff.
On deciding to open the mini-series with a very violent massacre
Even during shooting that sequence, I would joke between setups or after certain takes, I would say, "And the sound you now hear is the sound of a million television sets all turning off." Because I knew that we were playing with fire, and I knew it was humming a very specific key that isn't necessarily the entire show.
But from a storytelling standpoint, I felt it was the exact right way to open because you want to know that's hanging over all of the proceedings. ... The trick was to not sort of marinate in it for too long and to have it play more like an introductory grace note .
On learning to write Western dialogue
The fun thing about dialogue is when you can make it so singular, when you realize, "Oh, that's really a person. That person is talking in a way that other people aren't talking, and yet it doesn't feel self-conscious." ...
Western dialogue is really tricky. I was very worried about catching the ear and figuring out how to write it. So I read tons of Western novels where they had great dialogue to see how they did it. ... I was really looking for telling phrases — phrases that described things that I hadn't heard before — that I could use. ... How people talked about horses, "tireless," "sure-footed" and "mean," you know? I had never heard anyone describe a horse that way. ...
Studying other authors to see how they were specific and deciding how were we going to be specific in this story, and sort of learning, catching it and then making it your own.
On filming in New Mexico
We shot all over the place. We shot on reservations; we shot in national parks; we shot in a ski resort at one point. We were shooting all over the state, everywhere. ... Wherever you look, it's beautiful, and the sky is like ... their ocean. ... No matter when you look up, it's always changing, which is both good and bad for when you're shooting. But it's always beautiful. ...
The trick is shooting in places that no one has shot before, that not everyone has shot in. We would go scouting and we'd hear, "Yeah, Magnificent Seven shot here," and, "True Grit shot here." And you'd look at the buildings, or the background and you'd go, "Oh, I remember that. I've seen that." ... What you're really looking for as a filmmaker is something that people haven't seen before, and something that seems different.
Lauren Krenzel and Heidi Saman produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Nicole Cohen adapted it for the Web.
Copyright 2017 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air
TERRY GROSS, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. One of my favorite movies of the year which I just finished watching is actually not technically a movie. It's a seven-part series on Netflix, a Western called "Godless."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "GODLESS")
JEFF DANIELS: (As Frank Griffin) God - what God? Mister, you clearly don't know where you are. Look around. There ain't higher-up around here to watch over you and your young'uns. This here's the paradise of the locust, the lizard, the snake. It's land of the blade and the rifle. It's godless country.
GROSS: That's Jeff Daniels as Frank Griffin, an outlaw obsessed with vengeance and willing to kill any person and destroy any town that stands in his way. The person he's obsessed with is Roy Goode, an orphan who Frank took into his gang and thought of as a son until Roy broke away and turned against him. My guest Scott Frank created, wrote and directed all seven episodes of "Godless." His film screenwriting credits include the adaptations of two Elmore Leonard novels, "Get Shorty" and "Out Of Sight," and the Philip K. Dick novel "The Minority Report."
"Godless" has everything fans of Westerns love, but the story is pretty unconventional. It's set in the 1980s in La Belle, a New Mexican town run by women because most of the men died in a mining accident. The widow serving as the mayor dresses in men's clothes and has a lover who is also a woman. One of the storylines involves an interracial romance. Another woman on a ranch on the outskirts of town has a son who's half Native American. This woman is a great shot with a rifle.
Let's hear another scene from "Godless." In the first episode, we see the men and women of another town singing a hymn in church when Frank, the villain, rides into the church on his horse, joining in the singing and stopping at the altar to deliver a menacing sermon while astride his horse.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "GODLESS")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) Still all my song shall be nearer...
DANIELS: (As Frank Griffin, singing) My God to thee - nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee.
Folks, how 'bout it? Y'all been baptized? Y'all wash your bodies once a week? Have you committed adultery, Ma'am? Have you betrayed your brother, Sir? Do you preside in your family as servant of God? Y'all know I don't want to ever come back here and burn this house of the Lord down to the ground, so let's all bow our heads and pray that Roy Goode don't never show up here but that if he does, none of you well-meaning souls take him in unless you want to suffer like our Lord Jesus suffered for all of us. Amen.
GROSS: Wow (laughter). Scott Frank, welcome to FRESH AIR. I love that scene. It's such a violation. This villain rides into the church on his horse and, on his horse, goes to the altar...
SCOTT FRANK: Everything is wrong.
GROSS: ...Basically starts threatening everybody that they might die if they do the wrong thing. It is all so wrong. And how did that image come to you of your villain riding to the altar of the church on his horse?
FRANK: You know, it just seemed like the natural thing that Frank would do. And I knew that later there were going to be other scenes of people riding their horses into various structures. And I thought it might be a nice, fun little setup for me. And he is, as you say, violating everything. And so I really wanted to set that up right away. And it says everything about him. And you sort of synopsize what the kind of central battle is in that one moment. And it just seemed right. It just seemed right to have him keep going and ride right on in.
GROSS: I'm so glad you made a Western because I'm a real fan of Westerns. And this Western is, like, so good. Why did you want to make a Western? And this is a major commitment. We're talking about - like, you've basically made seven movies here because there are seven episodes.
FRANK: The start and genesis for this project was I just wanted to do something different. You know, I've always tried different genres as a writer. And I hadn't yet directed anything when I wrote this. And so I knew I wanted to write a Western at some point in my career. I just wanted to try it. It seemed impossible to me. It seemed impossible to do a new Western. The problem was nobody wanted to watch one. So I kept putting it off and putting it off because they were just - there were very difficult economically to make in Hollywood. They don't, as they say, travel. They don't do well overseas. And the way, you know, anyone determines what they're going to make from a business standpoint is how well it does over there versus over here. So I put it off. And finally I couldn't anymore. I just really wanted to write a Western.
And I have to tell you about a woman named Mimi Munson, who's instrumental in all of this. Mimi's been my researcher for the last 17 years. And I told Mimi I'm thinking about writing a Western. I don't know what it's about. And she did two things that were - three things, actually, that sort of changed my life and made this happen. One, she gave me about 20 of what she felt were the best Western novels to read and had me read all of them.
Then she said she'd been doing a little research about mining towns in the Southwest. And I said to myself, mining - you mean the guys in the - with the black faces. I'm not so sure. And I kind of looked at all of her research. And I told her, you know, all the sooty looking guys, and they're down there in the dark. I don't know that I want to write about that world. And Mimi said to me, oh, no, I'm not talking about the men. I'm talking about the women. And she said that all throughout the Southwest, there were several towns, from Dawes (ph), Colo., - was one I remember offhand - where all the men would die in a single day in an accident. And the women would be left behind, stranded. And they would either leave, or they would try and make a go of it. And all of a sudden, I had part of my movie. And again, it was not going to be a series back then. It was just going to be a film. And so this is around 2000, 2001. And so suddenly I had this place that I could write about that was very clear. And I had a group of people that I could write about.
And then the third thing she did was she went to the university research library at UCLA and collected all these letters. And they wouldn't let her Xerox them. So she actually had a hand-copy all of these letters, about a hundred of them. And a lot of them were oral histories in effect and written by these women. And it was spectacular for me because I not only got ideas for characters, like the prostitute who's the richest woman in town, for example. But also I got to hear how people spoke, which was hugely important to me because I didn't want to write a lot of, I-reckon-I'll-rustle-up-a-bunch-of-grub-type stuff.
GROSS: So the main town in "Godless" is called La Belle. And this is a town where all the men died. It's a mining town. And all the men or most of the men have died in a mining accident. So it's basically a town of widows with a few older men. And one of the widows played by Merritt Wever who our listeners might know from "Nurse Jackie" - she plays Mary Agnes, who's a widow of the late mayor of La Belle.
And now that she is no longer a wife, she's given up a lot of, like, quote, "womanly" kinds of things. She dresses in men's clothes, a cowboy hat. She carries a rifle, and she's a good shot. And there's a scene in "Godless" that's kind of like, what if "The Magnificent Seven" were women...
(LAUGHTER)
GROSS: ...And they were protecting a town? Were you thinking of "The Magnificent Seven" at all?
FRANK: I was thinking about so many Westerns...
GROSS: So many movies (laughter).
FRANK: I'm sure that was one of them. And I'm sure now that you've said that, someone is about to do "The Magnificent Seven" with women.
GROSS: (Laughter).
FRANK: I'm sure that will be happening shortly. But yeah, there were lots of things that - lots of movies and conventions. I really set out - one thing because I was just going to have fun - and I thought, you know, I love the Western so much. Why not embrace every single cliche I can think of from, you know, the breaking of horses to the train robberies to the two guys facing each other in the street - all of that stuff? The mysterious loner - why not find a way to put them all in here and see if I can do it in some sort of different way?
GROSS: Well, another example of that - I mean, Sergio Leone in his westerns is famous, among other things, for those iconic close-ups of faces. And you have, like, a couple other shots, one with the hero of (laughter) the series and one with the heroine. And I can't say I've seen that Sergio Leone shot on a woman's face before.
FRANK: And he was probably the single biggest influence for me. I probably stole more from him than, say, John Ford (laughter). Those movies were a huge part of my childhood. And later, when Clint Eastwood began directing, obviously he was hugely influenced by him as well, but - movies like "High Plains Drifter" and certainly "Unforgiven," which is I think a masterpiece.
GROSS: Yes.
FRANK: But I watched all those movies over and over. And the language and the rhythm - he's not afraid to slow down to make everything take longer. And yet I was never bored in those movies even when I was very young. I was riveted because of the composition, because of those close-ups - were so powerful. And they were always really well-scored as well. And I was very mindful of that.
The problem today is that the close-up is probably the most overused shot. So you know, you have to be careful how you use it. And luckily, if you're outside in a place like New Mexico, you can do a close-up but shoot it with a wide-angle lens. And you have not only their face but all this beautiful information and vista behind them.
GROSS: But did you think to yourself, I'm going to do that really macho Sergio Leone iconic close-up, but it's going to be with a woman?
FRANK: Yes, yes. All the time, they're shot - the way they look down the rifle, the way the camera looks up the rifle towards them, they're all shots that are normally used with men. And I don't know that I said, now I'm going to do it with a woman so much as that's who the character was, and that's the shot that was right for that particular character.
GROSS: So a good Western needs a good villain. And, boy, did you create one...
(LAUGHTER)
GROSS: ...In a character that's played by Jeff Daniels, Frank Griffin. So what were your ingredients to creating a great villain?
FRANK: Well, I think you want a great villain who means well (laughter), who believes they're doing a good thing. I'm more interested in that person than the person who wants to, you know, destroy the world - but somebody who actually thinks they're doing good, who thinks they're doing the Lord's work, who believes that he's creating a family for someone, who believes that he's been a good father and who feels betrayed because he has always felt that he's done right by the people around him.
And a big theme for me has always been, you know, the family you choose versus the family you're born into. And Frank, you know, pretty much expresses that. So that's the first place for me to start - is, how can he be in the gray area? He's sort of not all bad and not all good.
GROSS: In the first episode, Frank has been shot in the arm. And he gets his arm amputated of course without any kind of anesthesia. We don't see it, but we hear him. And he's a pretty stoic guy. We hear him cry out in pain. And for the rest of the series, he's, you know, on his horse with one arm. Why did he have to be, like, a one-armed bad guy? Is that - is there, like, a history of that in Western literature?
FRANK: No, although there might be (laughter). I haven't read a lot of it, of - read a lot of that or seen it a lot, let's say. But he felt more powerful being that way. He felt more powerful by overcoming all of that. It seemed to me that he was a stronger, more frightening man not because he was missing a limb but because of how he thought about that missing limb. I mean, he carries it with him. That arm is on his saddle right above his rifle. There it is. He takes his...
GROSS: Yeah. There's just a - he wraps up his arm in, like, a blanket or a cloth - yeah, puts it on his saddlebag and (laughter)...
FRANK: And continues to carry it with him. So that's a very - I thought that just made for a very particular kind of guy. And...
GROSS: Well, I kept wondering, why is he doing that? Why did you have him do that?
FRANK: Because he's nuts (laughter)...
GROSS: Yeah, OK - good answer (laughter).
FRANK: ...Is my easy answer. But I think that it's just such a scary idea. And so visually, I thought it would be (laughter) just - you know, just this side of funny. And I think it's OK to go there. And he will do anything. And he'll ride his horse into a church. He'll carry his arm with him. And there's a big, you know, theme throughout the story that anything can happen to anyone at any time, and that was sort of the beginnings of that.
GROSS: One of the first things we see in "Godless" is an entire small settlement that has been massacred. We see their bodies. We see the dead horses. We see overturned wagons. And we know right from the start that part of the series is going to be who did this, and why? And what's going to happen to them? Will there be justice? And everything kind of rolls out from there.
It's quite a dramatic way to start. And I have to say, it kind of hooked me. But I also know it could also turn people off who might think, like, wow, this is just going to be really violent and bloody; I don't want to see it. So it was a kind of major choice to make. So I'm interested in that choice.
FRANK: Yes, and I was very worried always, even during shooting that sequence. I would joke, you know, between setups or after certain takes. I would say, and the sound you now hear is the sound of a million television sets all turning off.
GROSS: (Laughter).
FRANK: Because I just - I knew that we were playing with fire, and I knew it was humming a very specific key that isn't necessarily the entire show. But from a storytelling standpoint, it - I felt it was the exact right way to open because you want to know that's hanging over all of the proceedings.
You know La Belle could look like that at some point. And you know that what happened here was real and awful and terrible. And the trick was to not sort of marinate in it for too long and to have it play more like an introductory grace note, (laughter) say, than really kind of linger in it.
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is Scott Frank. He wrote and directed all seven episodes of the new Netflix series "Godless." We're going to take a short break and then be right back. This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. And if you're just joining us, my guest is Scott Frank. And he wrote and directed the new seven-part Netflix series "Godless." It's a Western that I have to say is really terrific.
So "Godless" is a Western. Westerns have to have great dialogue. It's just - it's not going to be good without the great dialogue. And it has to be kind of, like, snappy and both dark and threatening and kind of witty at the same time. And you adapted two Elmore Leonard books into screenplays, "Out of Sight" and "Get Shorty." And he's just, like, a master of that kind of, like, snappy dialogue 'cause he's writing about, like, small-time criminals. So are there things you learned from working with Leonard - with Elmore Leonard material that you were able to apply to writing this?
FRANK: Oh, absolutely. And he wrote a ton of Westerns as well. He began by writing Westerns...
GROSS: Oh, right. That's right.
FRANK: ...Yeah, short stories for magazines and so on. And then "Hombre" was a great Western. "Three-ten To Yuma" was one of his. And so he - and they're all great reads. They're all just terrific to read. And yeah, you do - you learn a lot because there's such specificity to his dialogue. You know, the fun thing about dialogue is when you can make it so singular, when you realize, oh, that's really a person. That person is talking in a way that other people aren't talking, and yet it doesn't feel self-conscious.
And Western dialogue is really tricky. And I was very worried about catching the ear and figuring out how to write it. So I read tons of Western novels where they had great dialogue to see how they did it. Thomas Berger - you know, "Little Big Man" has spectacular dialogue in it. And there are great lines in "Hondo." And I was really looking for telling phrases, phrases that describe things that I hadn't heard before that I could use.
GROSS: What's an example?
FRANK: Same with the letters, where how people talked about horses - tireless, sure-footed and mean. You know, I'd never heard anyone describe a horse that way. Someone being called a dead gun - I'd never heard that before. And you get people describing their rifles. You know, a rifle can be mighty comprehensive in a situation like that - and so studying other authors to see how they were specific and, you know, deciding how are we going to be specific in this story and sort of - kind of learning, catching it and then making it your own.
GROSS: Like a lot of great Westerns, there's some incredible panoramic vistas. And you shot in New Mexico. And there's great shots of just, like, you know, desert and mountains. And some of it is kind of reminiscent of the Monument Valley that John Ford shot his Westerns in.
FRANK: We shot all over the place. We shot in - on reservations. We shot in national parks. We shot in a ski resort at one point. We were shooting all over the state, everywhere. And the easy thing is that wherever you look, it's beautiful. And the sky is, like - that's their ocean, you know? In New Mexico, it's just so pretty. No matter when you look up, it's always changing, which is both good and bad for when you're shooting, but it's always beautiful.
And the challenge is just what time you're going to shoot, just to watch, you know, for the light, when the light's coming and where it's going to be because you can lose the landscape, too, very quickly. And the weather is tricky. For many months, we were shooting in what they call monsoon season. And you lose, you know, hours and hours to lightning and rain that's just - and wind that you can't shoot in. But it is gorgeous.
The trick is shooting in places that no one has shot before, that not everyone has shot in. We would go scouting, and you would hear, yeah, "Magnificent Seven" shot here, and "True Grit" shot here. And you'd look at the buildings or the background. You'd go, oh, I remember that. I've seen that. I've seen that. And so you're trying to push. And the location scouts are trying to make it easy for us - you know, easy access. And you can park the vehicles over here, and you can get in and out. But what you're really looking for as a filmmaker is something that people haven't seen before and something that seems different.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "GODLESS")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS #1: (As character) The Trinidad girl...
GROSS: My guest is Scott Frank, the writer and director of the 7-part Netflix western series "Godless." After a break, we'll talk about horses, the church and a beautiful poem. I'm Terry Gross. And this is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "GODLESS")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS #1: (As character, singing) The Trinidad girl is a haughty thing. If she kisses at all, it's on the wing.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS #2: (As character, singing) The Catskill girl is the one to collar - kisses you good for half a dollar.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS #1: (As character, singing) The E-Town girl gives a kiss so sweet.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESSES: (As characters, singing) The poets all fall down at her feet.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS #2: (As character, singing) There's the Red River girls, all two for a song...
UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESSES: (As characters, singing) ...Kissing for meal tickets all day long. But don't forget; the girls of La Belle won't kiss even mama for fear she'll tell.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Yeah, yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESSES: (As characters, singing) The Beaumont girls from way down South shall kiss the gold out of your mouth. The Sedona girls...
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross back with Scott Frank, the creator, writer and director of "Godless," a seven-part Western series on Netflix. Frank also wrote the screen adaptations of the Elmore Leonard novels "Get Shorty" and "Out Of Sight" and the Philip K. Dick story "The Minority Report."
"Godless" is set in the 1980s in a fictional frontier mining town in New Mexico called La Belle. The town is run by women because most of the men died in a mining accident. The main villain, Frank Griffin, is looking for Roy Goode, an orphan who Frank took into his gang and thought of as a son. But after Roy became an adult, he broke away. Frank is looking for him and willing to destroy any person, any town that harbors Roy or stands in Frank's way, and Roy may be in La Belle. The townspeople of La Belle are building a church and have been waiting a long time for their first pastor to arrive.
I have to ask you about the church. I'll remind people the series is called "Godless" because it seems like at times God must be absent with what's going on. But you could tell how important the church is in people's lives. So I guess I'm wondering what religion means to you in terms of this story and also in terms of your life.
FRANK: I think in terms of the story, I felt that it wasn't that - necessarily that God wasn't present for these people. It's that you can't count on God and that Frank calls out the Norwegian settlers in saying, you know, there's no point in counting on God. He's not here. He's not going to look out for you. And that's the truth. There's no God here. And it doesn't necessarily mean that you can't believe in God. But people were using religion even then and forming their religious beliefs for all sorts of reasons - some to rationalize bad behavior, some to help them through the incredible struggle that they were going through in order to move West and then civilize wherever it was they ended up.
And there were stories in all directions at that time. There - you know, the Mountain Meadows massacre, which Frank references was, you know, based on a wagon train from Arkansas that was trying to make its way through Utah and was massacred by some Mormon settlers disguised as Paiutes. And they stole all their belongings. And the way Frank tells it is, I believe, close to what happened.
And so those were men of religion behaving badly. And I was very inspired by - when I was reading Sally Denton's book, mountain - "American Massacre," I was reading about all the men who led that massacre and various quotes they had. And Frank came from that for me because there was - they were using religion in a way that I felt was destructive and, again, to sort of rationalize their own bad behavior, whereas the priest who shows up at La Belle has come just to bring comfort to these poor souls. That's all he wants to do. And he does show up late, but he shows up. And so I think that that for me was - I didn't want to say that all religion is bad. But I did want to say that men use religion in different ways, and they sometimes use it in bad ways.
GROSS: Did writing "Godless" your religious or non-religious life at all?
FRANK: I have never really been particularly religious. I'm fascinated by the stories that come from religion and by the rituals of religion and the beauty and the art that's all come from religion. But I believe that we all have a spiritual side. But I don't necessarily believe that it's tethered to a god.
GROSS: So there's a poem that the preacher reads after he shows up. And it's a beautiful poem. I expected him to be reading from a Bible. And I thought, like, gee, that's not from the Bible, I don't think (laughter). Scott, where does that poem come from?
FRANK: It comes from a Jewish poet in either late-11th century or early 12th century named Yehuda Halevi. And I hope I'm saying that right. And I had stumbled across that poem a year or two after I had completed the feature script for "Godless." And I had been trying to get it made and was having trouble getting it made as a movie. And I just thought, if I ever go back into the script, this would be a great thing to have in the story.
And what I'd really written down on a card was, tis a fearful thing to love what death can touch. That phrase itself was enough for me. And I thought maybe I'll put it on a headstone. I'm not sure how I'm going to use it. But it's such a beautiful phrase. I need to put it somewhere in the story. It just seems so right.
Cut to many years later, and I'm now turning the story into a miniseries. And I'm still not sure where I'm going to use it. But now I've unearthed the entire poem, which is easy to find. And I'm trying to figure out where I'm going to put it. And I realize that I want to use it for one of the funerals that are in the story later in the day. But I don't want anyone to know about it because it's such a powerful poem. Every time I read it, I would get incredibly emotional.
GROSS: It's just such a beautiful poem, yes.
FRANK: It's gorgeous. It's just - it's perfect. And it's one of the best poems about grief and faith and love that I had ever seen. And it's short and just so powerful. So I didn't want to put it in the script because I was worried it would lose all its power once it dropped into the script.
GROSS: You didn't want the actors to see it.
FRANK: I didn't want them to see it. So about a week before we were going to shoot that scene, I called the actor who plays the pastor to the set and gave him the poem. He had never seen it. He'd auditioned with the shorter version of the scene. And so I gave him the poem. And I talked to him about how he might read it and the tone of it and how the scene was going to lay out and how I was going introduce him into the scene and so on. And I said, you know, it would be great if you became really, really familiar with it. And I also showed him a variety of notebooks. And I wanted him to pick one that felt natural to him because I wanted to show that this clearly was not the Bible. And by the way, Frank, who's supposedly quoting the Bible, is never quoting the Bible. These are all made-up things...
GROSS: (Laughter).
FRANK: ...Or bastardized quotes from other religions and so on. But it's never the Bible. And yet he's always holding the Bible and referencing the Bible. I wanted it to be clear that this was its own thing. And so I wanted him to have a notebook. And the poem would be written by hand inside the pages of this notebook. So he picked a notebook. And I had him write it down in that and to practice it for a week.
So for many of the actors in the scene, it was their last day of shooting. And they were already raw. (Laughter) And they'd been shooting for quite some time. And just before we started shooting the scene, I got them all together. And I - you know, I said it's our last day, and it's - and I know it's - you know, everybody's going to be so sad. And I said I'm not very good at saying goodbye, so you might not see me at the end of the day - just casually dropping this. And by the end of the conversation, everybody - they were all in tears. Everybody was in tears. And I thought, OK, good.
GROSS: (Laughter).
FRANK: And so then we brought everybody to the set. And then this young pastor walks up. And instead of just saying something brief and the scene ends, he begins to recite this poem. And everybody - crew members, actors, (laughter) everybody - just started falling apart as he was reading this poem. And so much of what you see in the scene is from that first take of him just reading that lovely beautiful poem that Yehuda Halevi had written, you know, back in 10-whatever-it-was when he wrote those words.
GROSS: It's a beautiful poem. I want to play the scene where the preacher reads it.
FRANK: OK.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "GODLESS")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Tis a fearful thing to love what death can touch - a fearful thing to love, to hope, to dream, to be - to be and, oh, to lose - a thing for fools, this, and a holy thing - a holy thing to love, for your life has lived in me. Your laugh once lifted me. Your word was a gift to me. To remember this brings painful joy. Tis a human thing, love - a holy thing to love what death has touched.
GROSS: So that's a poem read out loud in the Netflix series "Godless," the new seven-part Western series written and directed by my guest, Scott Frank. We'll be right back. This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE LUKAS FRANK'S "SHAME")
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. And if you're just joining us, my guest is Scott Frank. He wrote and directed all seven episodes of the new Netflix Western series "Godless." He also wrote the screenplays for "Get Shorty" and "Out Of Sight."
You had to work with a lot of horses for "Godless." And some of the horses are supposed to be unbroken. And they get broken. They get broken in so that people can ride them. Had you worked with horses before? Had you ever, like, rode a horse before?
FRANK: Yeah. I rode a lot as a kid. I hadn't - had ridden a lot of horses as a kid Western mostly. I hadn't ridden much as an adult - a little bit. My kids had ridden a little bit. But I - and I rode with them once in a while. But I stopped. And when I started to do - but I'd always liked horses. And I always loved being around them. I was always very comfortable around horses.
But I learned when I started doing "Godless" that I knew nothing about horses (laughter), that I really knew nothing. And Rusty Hendrickson, who's a wrangler who just retired from the business, was, like, a legend and had done everything from "Dances With Wolves" to, say, "Django," you know? He'd been doing all kinds of movies forever. And he said to me very early on, they're not going to do what you want them to do. We're going to train them, and you're not going to get it all in one take. You're going to have to get pieces, and you're going to have to put together these pieces. And you're going to have to sort of chase them a little bit.
Roy - Jack O'Connell spent a lot of time early on working with the wranglers and stunt men to become a better rider. And he was a natural rider. He could already ride a bit. But he's laying - when he lays down those horses in the first episode, he's really doing that. Jeff Daniels as well was a pretty decent rider. And he lays down the horse. He fell a lot. He actually fell a few times and really hurt his arm - broke his wrist and dislocated his wrist rather and broke his hand. And you know - and also he's riding in a full gallop with his hand tucked behind his back and trying to stay...
GROSS: Oh, right because he's supposed to have an amputated arm in the series.
FRANK: ...And staying balanced. And even when he has two arms before when you're flashing back, it's still - he's riding with 40 people behind him. And at one point, his horse veered left and was going to leave him behind (laughter). And Jeff was falling to the right when buried in the gang of men - in the 30, 35 men. There are wranglers and stunt guys that are playing members of the gang, and he has a guy assigned directly to him. And Jeff's - I'm watching on the monitor as Jeff is about to fall off the horse. And out of nowhere, a wrangler rams into his horse on purpose and catches him...
GROSS: Wow.
FRANK: ...And grabs hold of Jeff and slows down both their horses and pulls Jeff off his horse. It was - my career was flashing before my eyes. Forget Jeff. Me - I was - (laughter) thought, oh, my God, if I lose Jeff Daniels, that's the end of that. Jeff of course was thinking about falling off the horse in front of 40 people and getting run over by all 40 people.
GROSS: Oh, gosh.
FRANK: Yeah. So it's all - I'm joking about it now, but it's very scary. And we were really lucky. Even though we had 40 horses going all the time, very, very little - that was the biggest thing that happened. We were - because Rusty is kind of amazing, and Jeff Dashnaw, the stunt coordinator - all his guys - such good riders. And so I kept waiting for something awful to happen, and nothing ever did just very luckily. But it's difficult.
GROSS: Thank goodness, yeah.
FRANK: And you have horses riding into hotels, too, riding up the stairs.
GROSS: Right, I know.
(LAUGHTER)
FRANK: Yeah, and they have to learn how to do that.
GROSS: So it has to be strong. It has to be able to withstand the weight of the horse.
FRANK: Well, we built the hotel just - the hallways are just a little bit wider than you would notice. And you know, the doorways are just a little bit higher. But we would - we were practicing for months before with a staircase we built outside. And the thing about horses is they can ride up the stairs no problem. They can do it really easily.
It's going down. They can't go down, so - because they can't see where their feet are going. So we - after the horse would go up the stairs, in the hotel would be, like, a pit crew that would come in and put down these planks over the stairs so - like gangways from a ship so that the horses could be led back down.
GROSS: So in doing a Western, you're describing characters. You're portraying characters who are very strong. I mean, they're gunfighters. They're defending themselves with guns. They're riding horses. They're living in very harsh circumstances in small settlements. People are dying all the time of many different causes. And you've described yourself as somebody who's been a bit of a coward. That's how you've described yourself in a couple of ways. You've said that you were - felt cowardly about, like, standing up to, like, directors and producers when you wanted to defend your script.
(LAUGHTER)
GROSS: And they were saying, no, make this change; make that change - and that you also described in a talk that you gave that your father was a pilot who owned a Cessna, and he would take you with him. And when you were 13 and flying with him, he would say, so if I had a heart attack now, where would you land the plane?
FRANK: (Laughter) Yep.
GROSS: And you said, OK, so it's a good idea to always be looking for a safe space. But this was kind of traumatizing for you as a sensitive 13-year-old. So as somebody who felt kind of traumatized by the sense of, say - it's an emergency and you had to crash-land, where would you do it? - and not feeling, like, tough enough sometimes to stand up to producers to defend your script, what was it like for you to write about, you know, all these really toughened, hardened people?
FRANK: It was about growing up, finally. And I think - I don't even know if it was traumatic, you know, with my dad in that situation so much as it just made me always think about playing it safe. And I think for a large part of my career, I played it very safe. I was making decisions based on - you know, I wanted to make sure everybody was happy. Did I leave a job where everybody - I'd left everybody happy? And sometimes, everybody else was happy, but I might not have been. And I can't blame people for taking advantage of me.
I've worked for some pretty great filmmakers over the years and pretty great producers and - but it was my own failure of nerve that sort of defined my career for a long time. And I was doing quite well, you know? I have a nice body of work, but I wasn't completely happy with the work. I couldn't locate myself enough in the work. I could see scripts that I had written that were certainly good enough to get made and even good enough to get talked about, say. But I had never really done anything just for myself. I didn't even know what that felt like. And I was always looking for the safe place to land.
And so with - you know, I learned a lot on "A Walk Among The Tombstones" when I made that film because I was again being so careful, and I was again hedging all the way through it. And it was Steven Soderbergh again - who, you know, I've known and worked with for many years - who came into the cutting room, and he said to me - when he looked at the first cut and he said, you know, this is very insecurely cut. He said, you're covering yourself all the time. He said, you clearly have rules for yourself, but then you shoot a lot that's sort of just in case - just in case nobody likes this or likes that. And we went through the whole film, and recut it and took out all of that.
And I realized that - and there are many flaws with that film. But I - what was good for me in that was I understood that I'd been making everything so complicated, that I'd been sort of, you know, twisting myself into a pretzel to keep everybody happy and also somehow keep me happy, and nobody was happy. So I went and made a pilot called "Hoke" that never saw the light of day. It didn't get picked up. But I made it with Steven Meizler, my cinematographer on "Godless." And I had taken Steven's advice to heart about simpler is better.
The art of simplifying is what makes things elegant and more interesting, and having rules for myself that I just really keep, even if it means coming into the cutting room and realizing, OK, I made a mistake - but at least, on the set, I'm - all my choices are coming from - are all sourced to these rules I have for myself that are not about protecting myself. They're about, this is what the show is. There's a confidence that comes through. And so when it came to making "Godless," I was going to make damn sure that I would make the show for me and no one was telling me I had to do otherwise.
Casey Silver, my producer and friend of 30 years, was saying, you need to do that. And any time I would think about not doing that, he was there to knock me on the head. Is that what you want? Make sure that's what you want. And so it was a great lesson for me, and it took me a long time. I've been doing this 33 years - took me quite a long time to figure it out. And the process of "Godless" was difficult because it was a difficult production, but it was also magical for me, and life-changing and the single best experience I've ever had because I finally understood what it felt like to be an artist and not to be somebody who's just pleasing everyone else.
GROSS: My guest is Scott Frank. He wrote and directed the new Western series "Godless." All seven episodes are available for viewing on Netflix. This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to my interview with Scott Frank, the writer and director of the seven-part Netflix Western series "Godless."
You've said that you're really interested in the families you're born into and the families you create. And there's a lot of both in "Godless." Why is that an important theme for you?
FRANK: Because there's a great - I think it's a Buddhist quote, which is, love never comes from guilt or obligation. And our families are complicated. The families we're born into are complicated. And there's this Hollywood notion that family is everything. And family can be everything, and family is a very powerful part of our lives, both for good and for bad, to be honest. And as we get older, as we decide who we are as we individuate or whatever you want to call it, as we try to live our own lives and become our own people, sometimes what we need is a slightly different family, and we need to choose accordingly.
We need to understand what's not so good for us versus what we might need now as we become adults and as we as we grow up, as we shed those habits that we had that we were taught, those ways of thinking that are just sort of programmed ways of thinking, and now we want to get out of our own way. Sometimes that involves choosing a different family. And sometimes, as in the case of this story, you're being chosen by a family. And that's also an interesting predicament.
GROSS: As a father, are you hoping that your children choose your family in addition to being born into it?
FRANK: Yes (laughter). Yes. You hope that you pay attention as a parent to your kids, as to who they are as people because they're born that way. They are born who they are, and you can't - the best way to send them running for the hills is to try to turn - try and turn them into yourself, to try and turn them into something you think they should be rather than help them, you know, feel good about what they already are. And that's hard to do.
GROSS: So since "Godless" is a Western, and since I love Westerns and you love Westerns, I'm going to ask you to describe what you love about Westerns that led you to make one.
FRANK: Well, where do we begin? I think what I really love about the genre more than anything is that it's - it makes you feel small. You feel so small. It's man in this world where everything around him makes him feel smaller. You - the landscape, the weather, all of it - the circumstances - it all seems insurmountable. You are trying to do something - even just trying to travel 10 miles can be difficult, but you are always reminded of just how insignificant you are.
And creating a world - creating stories in worlds like that, where morality is sort of - is - dovetails with just fundamental notions of survival - rules are all sort of created out of these notions of, how do we survive in this place, and how can we all last? And how do we trust one another, and do we trust one another?
All those kinds of things - those gray-area character ideas - are in the Western. And coupled with that is this incredibly - for me - beautiful aesthetic - just the - when a Western is well-shot, you can't stop looking. You want to - you can stay in a scene or a composition forever. And you have this gorgeous aesthetic often coupled to this very dark morality tale, and that just appeals to me.
GROSS: Scott Frank, congratulations on "Godless," and thank you so much for talking with us.
FRANK: Thank you so much for having me.
GROSS: Scott Frank created, wrote and directed the seven-part Netflix Western series "Godless." All of the episodes are available for viewing. Tomorrow on FRESH AIR...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RANKY TANKY")
RANKY TANKY: (Singing) Who is the greatest? We are the greatest. Are you sure? Yeah. Positive? Yeah. Definitive? Yeah. All right, all right.
GROSS: My guests will be three members of the band Ranky Tanky, which performs contemporary versions of songs from the Gullah tradition of the Georgia and South Carolina Sea Islands, music linked to West Africa. They'll perform in the studio. I hope you'll join us.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RANKY TANKY")
RANKY TANKY: (Singing) Old lady come from Booster, had two hens and a rooster. Rooster died, the old lady cried. Now she don't eat eggs like she used to. Oh, Ma, you look so - oh, Pa, you look so - I said, who been here since I've been gone? Two little boys with the blue caps on. Leaning on a hickory stick, Papa going to slap them good. Slap. Pain my head, ranky tanky. Pain in my heart, ranky tanky. Pain in my feet, ranky tanky. Pain all over me, ranky tanky. Pain in my head, ranky tanky. Pain in my heart, ranky tanky. Pain in my feet, ranky tanky. Pain all over me.
GROSS: FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our associate producer of digital media is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. I'm Terry Gross.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RANKY TANKY")
RANKY TANKY: (Singing) Oh, Ma, you look so - oh, Pa, you look so - I said, who been here since I've been gone? Two little boys with the blue caps on. Leaning on a hickory stick, Papa going to slap them good. Slap. Pain my head, ranky tanky. Pain in my heart, ranky tanky. Pain in my feet, ranky tanky. Pain all over me, ranky tanky. Pain in my head, ranky tanky. Pain in my heart, ranky tanky. Pain in my feet, ranky tanky. Pain all over me. Old lady come from Booster, had two hens and a rooster. Rooster died, the old lady cried. Now she don't eat eggs like she used to. Old lady come from Booster... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. |
President Trump is the latest in a succession of U.S. presidents pledging unbreakable support for Israel. Last year, for instance, the US signed a $38-Billion military aid package with the Israelis even as Washington pressed Israel to make peace with the Palestinians. As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump signaled an intent to bolster Israel in even more demonstrative ways. But lately, in the early days of the Trump administration, the language of support has become somewhat less robust.
President Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House for the first time today at Noon. The two leaders will hold a joint press conference which can be heard live on WAER. NPR journalists who cover politics, the Middle East and national security will be live-annotating their remarks.
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After her glorious Grammy sweep on Sunday night, Adele woke up to a #BoycottAdele hashtag, with many Beyoncé fans questioning her "unfair" win over their idol. But calls for a boycott are scarcely new for Adele. Last year, after she endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, Trump supporters launched a similar hashtag. Buffeted by the competitive politics of the right and left, the English singer will likely think longingly back to the uncomplicated very first #BoycottAdele hashtag that trended briefly in 2015 after the release of her hit single "Hello."
It had nothing to do with politics and everything to do with tea.
The millions of fans who have watched the music video of "Hello" know that a steaming cup of tea has a central role to play in providing succor to the singer's lovesick heart.
Artfully stained with sepia and loss, the retro video opens with a deeply depressed Adele walking into a shut-up house enrobed in dustcovers. Outside, it's wickedly cold and blustery. Inside (her broken heart) the temperature's pretty tundra-like too. So while she lavishly mourns the loss of her coffee-drinking lover in song, Adele does what the English do when things look bleak. She pops the kettle on. There's a delicately patterned china cup and saucer waiting to be filled. So far, so good.
Then, the singer does something absolutely shocking. She pours hot water into the cup and then pops in a tea bag. Instead of the other way around, of course. This casual switching of steps was an outrage and nothing short of tea treason. British twitter sputtered with indignation.
How reassuringly English. A country that has fought two opium wars with China to protect its precious tea supply takes the beverage very seriously.
Ask the man who is the au currant hero, George Orwell. He may have fought totalitarianism all his life, but when it came to making a pot of tea, it was his way or the highway. His popular essay, "A nice cup of tea," is an 11-point disquisition on how to achieve just that. Orwell would have been horrified by Adele's – and the modern streamlined style of – tea-making. Not merely by the presence of a teabag but by the absence of a teapot. "If the tea is not loose in the pot it never infuses properly," he declaimed. In order to get a good infusion, one "should take the teapot to the kettle, and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours."
As for that other great anti-totalitarian Brit, John Lennon, he could imagine a world without heaven and religion, but not without tea – brewed the right way, of course. A few years ago, his widow, Yoko Ono, wrote a piece for The New York Times called "The Tea Maker," in which she affectionately recalled their midnight tea-making kitchen trysts. "Yoko, Yoko, you're supposed to first put the tea bags in, and then the hot water," John would admonish her. And so Ono allowed him to make the tea his way. But, for tea purists, there's an unfortunate twist to this story. As Ono tells it:
One night, however, John said: "I was talking to Aunt Mimi this afternoon and she says you are supposed to put the hot water in first. Then the tea bag. I could swear she taught me to put the tea bag in first, but ..." "So all this time, we were doing it wrong?" "Yeah ..." We both cracked up...
So Adele should take heart. She has the great Beatle on her side. But though once a committed tea drinker, Adele has given up her 10-cups-a-day habit. Not because of the tea trolls but because of the pounds she was putting on from the heavily sugared cups.
Meanwhile, her "Hello" video has launched a range of "Hello, it's tea" merchandise and several cheeky parodies, including changing the soulful line of Lionel Richie's 1983 hit, "Hello," to "Hello, is it tea you're looking for?" In another very funny send-up, an English radio presenter rewrote the lyrics to make tea the star. So instead of belting out "Hello from the other side," we have:
Where the hell's my cup of tea? My ginger nut needs dunking see Have you even turned the kettle on? I should have had it by now But all my biscuits are gone I love tea It's me and tea.
On Sunday night, after an awkward, overwrought but sincere-sounding acceptance speech in which she nervously lavished praise on Beyoncé, Adele accidentally broke her trophy in half. As if it were a ginger nut biscuit she was dying to dunk into a cup of tea. With all of those boycott hashtags, she could certainly do with a cuppa.
Nina Martyris is a journalist based in Knoxville, Tenn. |
With the end of the year coming, tax experts are advising clients how to maximize their deductions — and there could be big changes coming with the pending tax law.
Here & Now‘s Robin Young discusses the report with CBS News’ Jill Schlesinger (@jillonmoney), host of “Jill on Money” and the podcast “Better Off.” |
As Gambia's new president Adama Barrow settles into his new role, he is also taking steps to resuscitate international ties cut off by his predecessor Yahya Jammeh, including membership to the International Criminal Court and the Commonwealth of Nations.
The tiny West African nation has now formally informed the United Nations that it is reversing its request to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, made by Jammeh last October.
The new government issued a statement announcing its reversal on state television, Reuters reported. "As a new government that has committed itself to the promotion of human rights ... we reaffirm The Gambia's commitment to the principles enshrined in the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court," the government said.
Jammeh's withdrawal from the ICC had not yet taken hold — according to the terms of the Rome Statute, a state's withdrawal goes into effect a year after initial notification.
At the time, Gambia had accused the court of being biased against Africans, with one government minister going so far as to describe it as the "International Caucasian Court," as The Two-Way reported. Gambia, like South Africa and Burundi, accused the court of ignoring crimes of non-African nations and took steps to withdraw late last year. Here's more from our previous reporting:
"Every person tried by the ICC since the treaty creating it was adopted in 1998 has been African. "Other war crimes trials have been carried out by ad hoc tribunals created after a specific conflict, such as those created for Yugoslavia and Cambodia, or for the Nuremberg trials conducted after World War II."
Clément Capo-Chichi, Africa regional coordinator with the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, told The Associated Press that the move is a "crucial victory for victims of grave crimes and the rule of law."
Barrow's road to the presidency was extremely tumultuous. In December's presidential election he defeated Jammeh, the leader of Gambia for 22 years. But then Jammeh refused to step down, eventually resulting in West African military troops crossing Gambia's borders. After Barrow was sworn into office in neighboring Senegal, Jammeh eventually succumbed to massive international pressure and left the country.
He fled to Equatorial Guinea – incidentally, a country that is not a member state of the ICC.
Now, the new Gambian government is also receiving high-profile diplomatic visits and pledges of international support.
U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson paid Barrow a visit Tuesday, which the BBC describes as "the first to the Gambia by a British foreign secretary." On the agenda: Gambia's request to rejoin the Commonwealth of Nations, an international organization comprised of 52 nations that were once British colonies.
The former leader pulled Gambia out of the Commonwealth in 2013, according to a statement from the organization. Now, a Commonwealth spokesperson said it welcomed the move: "We looked forward to the country's eventual return because it was part of our very close knit family and our doors have always remained open."
The European Union has also declared a "new chapter of relations with The Gambia." It froze assistance nearly three years ago, according to the BBC. But last week, EU Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica traveled to Gambia and announced a $79 million package of immediate support.
Jammeh had a dismal human rights record. Barrow appears to be taking steps to change that pattern. As Reuters reported, "police opened their first investigation on Monday into unresolved deaths and disappearances under Jammeh."
In a recent press conference, Barrow also stated that he intends to convene a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address human rights violations of his predecessor.
He was also candid about the scope of obstacles he faces: "There was a government here for 22 years. 22 years is a long time. And we are able to change the government after 22 years, so obviously there will be a lot of challenges. To look at all the system, and make a complete overhaul. I think that is a big challenge to my new government." |
The nominees for the 2018 Golden Globe Awards were announced early Monday morning in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Guillermo del Toro's fantasy The Shape of Water — a dreamy love story between a mute janitor in a government lab and an amphibian man in tank — snagged the most motion picture nominations, with seven. Upcoming Pentagon Papers drama The Post and the darkly comic Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri got six apiece.
In television, the domestic melodrama Big Little Lies led the pack with six nominations, followed by Feud: Bette and Joan, Fargo, The Handmaid's Tale and This Is Us. HBO, Netflix and FX productions got the most TV nominations.
Both Big Little Lies and The Handmaid's Tale took home multiple awards at September's Emmy Awards.
The big winner at the 2017 Globes was La La Land, which took seven, including best motion picture, comedy or musical. But the night's final award went to Barry Jenkins' Moonlight, which won for best motion picture, drama.
Last year's ceremony was notable for other reasons, including a marked increase in diversity among the nominees and Meryl Streep's calling out President Trump for mocking a disabled reporter.
This year's awards — the 75th annual — will be hosted by Seth Myers and broadcast live on NBC on January 7.
Without futher ado, the nominees are:
Best Motion Picture – Drama
Call Me By Your Name
Dunkirk
The Post
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical
The Disaster Artist
Get Out
The Greatest Showman
Lady Bird
I, Tonya
Best Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama
Jessica Chastain, Molly's Game
Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water
Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Meryl Streep, The Post
Michelle Williams, All the Money in the World
Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama
Timothée Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name
Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread
Tom Hanks, The Post
Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, ESQ
Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
Mary J. Blige, Mudbound
Hong Chau, Downsizing
Allison Janney, I, Tonya
Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water
Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project
Armie Hammer, Call Me By Your Name
Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water
Christopher Plummer, All The Money In The World
Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Actress in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy
Judi Dench, Victoria & Abdul
Helen Mirren, The Leisure Seeker
Margot Robbie, I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
Emma Stone, Battle of the Sexes
Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
Steve Carell, Battle Of The Sexes
Ansel Elgort, Baby Driver
James Franco, The Disaster Artist
Hugh Jackman, The Greatest Showman
Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out
Best Director – Motion Picture
Guillermo Del Toro, The Shape of Water
Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
Ridley Scott, All The Money In The World
Steven Spielberg, The Post
Best Screenplay – Motion Picture
Guillermo Del Toro, Vanessa Taylor, The Shape of Water
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
Liz Hannah, Josh Singer, The Post
Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Aaron Sorkin, Molly's Game
Best Animated Feature Film
The Boss Baby
The Breadwinner
Coco
Ferdinand
Loving Vincent
Best Foreign Language Film
Fantastic Woman
First They Killed My Father
In the Fade
Loveless
The Square
Best TV Comedy Series
black-ish
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Master of None
SMILF
Will & Grace
Best Television Drama Series
The Crown
The Handmaid's Tale
This Is Us
Stranger Things
Game of Thrones
Best Limited TV Series or Movie
Big Little Lies
Fargo
Feud: Bette and Joan
The Sinner
Top of the Lake: China Girl
Best Actress in a TV Comedy or Musical
Pamela Adlon, Better Things
Alison Brie, GLOW
Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Issa Rae, Insecure
Frankie Shaw, SMILF
Best Actor in a TV Comedy or Musical
Anthony Anderson, black-ish
Aziz Ansari, Master of None
Kevin Bacon, I Love Dick
William H. Macy, Shameless
Eric McCormack, Will & Grace
Best Actress in a TV Drama
Caitriona Balfe, Outlander
Claire Foy, The Crown
Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Deuce
Katherine Langford, 13 Reasons Why
Elisabeth Moss, The Handmaid's Tale
Best Actor in a TV Drama
Jason Bateman, Ozark
Sterling K. Brown, This Is Us
Freddie Highmore, The Good Doctor
Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul
Liev Schreiber, Ray Donovan
Best Actress in a Limited TV Series or Movie
Jessica Biel, The Sinner
Nicole Kidman, Big Little Lies
Jessica Lange, Feud: Bette and Joan
Susan Sarandon, Feud: Bette and Joan
Reese Witherspoon, Big Little Lies
Best Actor in a Limited TV Series or Movie
Robert De Niro, The Wizard of Lies
Jude Law, The Young Pope
Kyle MacLachlan, Twin Peaks
Ewan McGregor, Fargo
Geoffrey Rush, Genius
Best Supporting Actress, Television
Laura Dern, Big Little Lies
Ann Dowd, The Handmaid's Tale
Chrissy Metz, This Is Us
Michelle Pfeiffer, The Wizard of Lies
Shailene Woodley, Big Little Lies
Best Supporting Actor, Television
David Harbour, Stranger Things
Alfred Molina, Feud: Bette and Joan
Christian Slater, Mr. Robot
Alexander Skarsgård, Big Little Lies
David Thewlis, Fargo
Best Original Score – Motion Picture
Carter Burwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Alexandre Desplat, The Shape of Water
Jonny Greenwood, Phantom Thread
John Williams, The Post
Hans Zimmer, Dunkirk
Best Original Song – Motion Picture
"Home," Ferdinand
"Mighty River," Mudbound
"Remember Me," Coco
"The Star," The Star
"This Is Me," The Greatest Showman
NPR's Bill Chappell contributed to this report. |
On their first day of trading, bitcoin futures surged past $18,000, adding to a streak for the digital currency that began the year at just $1,000 and has nearly tripled in value over the past month alone.
Reuters reports that bitcoin futures, traded through the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), saw January contracts, which opened at $15,460 in New York on Sunday evening, leap to a high of $17,170 during Asian hours.
Trading, which began at 6 p.m. ET (5 p.m. CT), was so intense that halts designed to cool volatility were triggered twice on the CBOE.
The halts are "not surprising based on the volatility of the underlying [asset]. The futures are behaving as expected and designed," Tom Lehrkinder, senior analyst at consulting firm Tabb Group, was quoted by CNBC as saying.
Coindesk writes: "In all, the tumultuous start is perhaps a fitting start to the trading of the new contracts. CBOE's is the first to be traded on a major regulated exchange in the U.S., and it's set to be followed next week by CME Group, which has announced that it will launch its own products on Dec. 18."
The surge in bitcoin futures, the first of which expire in January, adds to the frenzy for the digital currency that was introduced in 2009 and has seen its value skyrocket in recent months.
But it has also contributed to concern that bitcoin, which is not backed by any country's central bank, is a speculative bubble that could burst if investors get nervous and begin selling.
As NPR's Bill Chappell wrote last month:
"Bitcoin's rise has been both meteoric and volatile, with surges in valuation often being driven by positive reports about its status. Earlier this year, for instance, Japan recognized bitcoin as an official method of payment. "... Another factor has been the move to split the original bitcoin segment into two currencies: bitcoin classic and bitcoin cash. That change, which became official in August, has allowed large trades in the currency to occur more frequently, while also promising to bolster its infrastructure."
"This is kind of the classic bubble psychology," Timothy Lee, a senior tech reporter with Ars Technica, tells NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. "People hear about it and they say, 'Oh, maybe I should get in because this is an opportunity.' Then the cycle repeats. The price goes up some more, and so it gets more coverage."
The Associated Press writes "[the] rocketing level of appreciation smells a lot like an irrational investor mania to many economists and financial pros, the kind that sent prices for unprofitable startup internet companies soaring in the dot-com boom. Those prices eventually came crashing down."
According to The Financial Times, in Japan, investors were buying bitcoin with a leverage up to 15 times their cash deposit. However, "Yuzo Kano, bitFlyer's chief executive, said in an interview with the Financial Times that the liquidity on his Tokyo-based exchange — which has an 80 per cent share of bitcoin trading in Japan and 20-30 per cent of the global market — was deep enough to handle even the biggest market movements." |
Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill (@JohnHMerrill) talks with Here & Now‘s Jeremy Hobson about his support for Roy Moore, who is running for a seat in the U.S. Senate and battling accusations of sexual misconduct with teenage girls when he was in his 30s.
Interview Highlights
On what kind of turnout he’s expecting
“Our original projections had been up to 25 percent, and then because of some of the things that happened, and people being less inclined to be enthusiastic about the race, we had lower debt expectation. But now, it seems like the enthusiasm has returned and I expect that we’re going to have 25 percent or higher.”
On voting for Roy Moore
“I’m voting for the Republican nominee who is Judge Roy Moore. And I had stated on numerous occasions, both publicly and privately, that unless the charges that had been alleged by the women that came forward and brought those charges were proven to be true, that I would continue to support the Republican nominee who happens to be Judge Roy Moore.
“I have not examined the evidence any more than you have or any more than most of your listeners would have. And of course that’s not what the most important thing is when it comes to me or my position. The most important thing to me is that I’m in a position to make sure that we have safe and secure and fair elections and that everyone knows that when their ballot is cast, it will be cast for the candidate of their choice. And we want to make sure that everybody’s got confidence in the elections process, not who I choose to vote for, who I don’t choose to vote for, because everybody’s vote counts the same.”
On Roy Moore’s past, and being removed from the bench as a judge
“I have seen Judge Moore in the role as chief justice of the Supreme Court [of Alabama], as well as circuit court judge in Etowah County. And the things that have been introduced here in our state, and also introduced nationally, are things that I have found to be very, very unlike any behavior that I’ve ever known Judge Moore to exhibit. Judge Moore is recognized as a very controversial figure, in our state as well as throughout the nation. And there’s an unbelievable amount of evidence to support that. If people have studied the positions that he’s taken when he was removed from the court in 2003 and when he was removed from the court more recently in 2011, 2012 you would see that he is a very controversial figure. There’s no doubt about that.”
On the most important issues for Republicans in Alabama
“We want to make sure that we have someone that will hold the integrity of the Constitution of the United States. We want to make sure that we have someone that will support the issues that are very important to the people of the state of Alabama, which include but are not limited to the right to keep and bear arms, the right to life, the right to have independent decision making, at the state level. Things that are so very important to so many Republicans who believe that the less governance that we have the better off that we are. And we believe, as Republicans, that individuals who have that type of conservative philosophy are more suited to represent our state in Washington than those that don’t have those type of philosophies.” |
Like it or not conference realignment is a part of big time college athletics. In 2013 conference realignment sent ripples through the Big East as Syracuse, Connecticut and other schools parted ways with the conference.
Leaving a conference after so many years had schools like Syracuse and Connecticut wondering what life after the Big East would look like. WAER's Nate Dickinson examines the success and struggles for the two programs so far. |
It takes courage to confront a bully, to talk openly about the pain they can inflict. Maybe that's why star athletes, celebrities and thousands of other people are embracing Keaton Jones, a student in Tennessee who talks about bullies that persecute him at school, in a video that went viral over the weekend.
Keaton Jones' story spread online and across the nation, with his sister, Lakyn Jones, acting as his representative and fielding thousands of offers of support. It all started with a video that their mother, Kimberly Jones, posted on Facebook, of her son tearfully describing the hurt and frustration he felt after being bullied at school.
The video had been recorded in Kimberly Jones' car, reportedly after she picked her son up from school because he was too worried about being abused to go to lunch with his classmates. After it was posted on Facebook, it spread quickly on Twitter.
In the video, Keaton Jones asked, "Just out of curiosity, why do they bully? What the point of it? Why do you find joy in taking innocent people, and finding a way to be mean to them? It's not OK."
After describing the treatment he has received — being called names and insulted, having milk poured on him, and other things — Jones clearly became increasingly emotional. He also said he doesn't want anyone else to be bullied, either.
"It's not OK," Jones said. "People that are different don't need to be criticized about it. It's not their fault. But if you are made fun of, just don't let it bother you. Just stay strong, I guess."
Lasting just over a minute, the video ends with a tearful Keaton Jones saying, "It's hard, but it'll probably get better one day."
Lakyn Jones said that her brother attends Horace Maynard Middle School, in Maynardville, Tenn. — about 10 miles northeast of Knoxville.
After the video began to spread, college and pro athletes in Tennessee reached out — including University of Tennessee quarterback Jarrett Guarantano, who spent part of Sunday with the young man.
"So I got the chance to spend the day with my new best bud Keaton," Guarantano said via Twitter. "It was unbelievable to get to know him and realize that we have a lot in common. This dude is very special and has changed my life forever. Now I have the little brother I always wanted! God bless you my man."
As attention spread, so did interest in Keaton Jones' family — and on Monday morning, reports began to emerge that Kimberly Jones had posted multiple images of Confederate flags on her Facebook account.
After those images triggered speculation and criticism, Lakyn Jones wrote on Twitter Monday, "My family will continue to support each other. You all can hate and tweet all you want but our faith cant be shaken."
By the time that news broke, a Go Fund Me campaign that was started by a man named Joseph Lam in the name of Keaton Jones and his mother had raised more than $58,000. In an update, Lam wrote, "As many of you know I paused the donations as well as the comments. As I sit back and read these comments and watched the video again I feel I have to make this update. THIS IS NOT ABOUT THE MOM!! However passing judgement on her before you know her is a form of bullying."
Saying that Keaton Jones has "a heart of gold," Lam said he was in discussions with Go Fund Me about how to proceed. He would like for the money to go toward Keaton's education, he said.
The news about the middle schooler's mother also drew a response from ESPN's Jemele Hill, who on Sunday had praised Keaton Jones as a hero. She also invited him to visit ESPN as her guest.
As reports concerning images on Kimberly Jones' Facebook account began to make the rounds, Hill wrote, "I've seen her posts and if true, I'd say there's potential for a great, teachable moment here. My offer for Keaton to visit ESPN stands, because what happened to him was cruel. That said, this is a stark example of selective empathy."
The Tennessee Titans' Delanie Walker and the Nashville Predators' P.K. Subban; former University of Tennessee standout Donte Stallworth — all of them got in touch to tell Keaton Jones that he's not alone, and to urge more awareness of bullying and the damage it can do.
"This brought tears to my eyes," Stallworth wrote of Jones' video. "We've gotta do better as humans! Thank you to all who work on anti-bullying campaigns."
Walker offered the young man and his family tickets to see the Titans play on New Year's Eve. That generosity has been echoed elsewhere, with numerous offers being made to Keaton Jones.
NBA star LeBron James tweeted,"Damn right! Bullies are straight up wack, corny, cowards, chumps, etc, etc! Keaton keep your head up buddy and push forward! You're the best."
Gal Gadot, who plays Wonder Woman, wrote, " Different is special. You're beautiful Keaton. Inside and out. #IStandWithKeaton"
Actor Chris Evans invited Keaton Jones and his mother to attend the Avengers: Infinity War premiere next year. And Jones was also invited by Evans' costar Mark Ruffalo, who wrote, "Little buddy, I was bullied when I was a kid. You are right #ItGetsBetter! You are my own personal super hero. Protect Yo Heart. You got a pal in the Hulk."
Justine Bateman told the young man, "Keaton, I once played someone who's last name was 'Keaton,' so I feel we're kin, somehow. I think you're a babe. Those guys don't know what they're talking about. ;)"
Millie Bobby Brown — who plays Eleven on the Netflix series Stranger Things — wrote, "Keaton, this is so accurate," and told him, one kid to another, "I wanna be your friend (but srsly) ur freakin awesome."
Lakyn Jones told her, "Millie, you've made his night! He loves stranger things and you!"
She later added, "Thank you again! He screamed when he saw you tweeted me!"
Another thank you went to Bernice King — Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter. Responding to her words of encouragement, Lakyn Jones wrote that it's "overwhelming for me but he's so happy about the awareness it's bringing."
In a more blanket reply, Jones wrote, "Seeing my brother's face all over the internet and people giving him support is the most amazing feeling in the world."
Tennessee's two senators, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, also tweeted their support, with Alexander writing, "Thank you #KeatonJones for sharing your story and bringing awareness to the serious problem of bullying in our schools. There is no place for that, and as Tennesseans, we must work together to prevent bullying and harassment of all our students." |
The last time China pressured Hong Kong to scrap its curriculum in favor of one developed by China's Communist Party-led government, tens of thousands marched through the city chanting, "Down with national education!"
It was the summer of 2012, and the movement to stop Hong Kong's government from introducing China's national education into city schools launched the careers of activists like Joshua Wong, who later became an international celebrity for standing up to Beijing. After protesters besieged government headquarters for 10 straight days, officials backed down.
Now the government has returned with a scaled-back plan to change how history is taught in Hong Kong's secondary schools. Teachers, parents and legislators are worried about the changes.
The new proposed curriculum for city schools is missing key parts of modern Chinese history, like Hong Kong's 1967 pro-Communist riots against British rulers and the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, when Chinese troops killed hundreds of unarmed pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing.
"These are crucial parts of history being taken out," says secondary school history teacher Cheung Siu-Chung. "Teachers are asking what the rationale is behind this, and our own deputy secretary of education said these parts of history are trivial and aren't even worth mentioning. She literally said that."
The new proposed history curriculum for Hong Kong would go into effect in two years. It would require Hong Kong schools to spend more time teaching students about China's modern history — from the Communist revolution in 1949 through its transformation to an authoritarian, capitalist powerhouse today.
The proposed curriculum carefully removes or skims over events deemed sensitive by China's Communist Party, like Mao Zedong's failed political campaigns that left tens of millions dead, as well as uprisings like Tiananmen, leaving it to teachers to decide whether they'll have time to teach these events.
"My only concern is that teachers are very busy in Hong Kong, they have so little teaching time and so much work, so that would be a potential problem," says Hong Kong legislator Alvin Yeung Ngok Kiu.
"I don't mind students being taught development and constructions and achievements that modern China has achieved. It's fine. Economically, they have done a great job," Yeung says. "But on the other hand, I expect the students to be taught what happened in the Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen Square in 1989, so that students have a full picture of what happened."
Fellow Hong Kong legislator Tanya Chan says the struggle over education in Hong Kong is the latest battle with China over how the city is governed.
"We can see this kind of confrontation will get worse and worse," she says. "But of course at the same time, if we feel more and more vulnerable, then the control from the Chinese government over us will become stronger and stronger."
On a weekday afternoon in the Hong Kong neighborhood of Mong Kok, uniformed students stream out of schools for a half-hour of freedom before heading to nighttime cram schools. Timothy Ng is among them. The 17-year-old says history is one of his least favorite classes – too much focus on regurgitation of facts, he complains.
He says he learned more about China in literature class when he read George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984.
"It's a good reflection of the modern society we have today," he says,
"especially in the Chinese context, where you can see the government is a totalitarian one, and it wants the ability to implement education that is confining our thoughts over some topics."
Fellow student Matthew Chu says he and his class were on the verge of a history lesson last year when other students began handing out pamphlets.
"They gave some information — about how Hong Kong should be separated from China — in front of our school and give to our students," remembers Chu. "Then the teacher called them to go into a room and talk."
When they came out, the students had been disciplined. And that, says Chu, was the last he and his classmates heard about Hong Kong independence at school.
He says it was one of the best history lessons he's had.
NPR Shanghai bureau assistant Yuhan Xu (@Yuhan_Xu) contributed research to this story. |
The largest and most destructive of the wildfires in California continued to burn its way up the coast on Sunday, becoming the fifth-largest in the state's history and sparking new evacuations in towns as far north as Santa Barbara.
By late Sunday afternoon, the Thomas Fire had destroyed 790 homes and other structures and left 90,000 homes and businesses without electricity. It has grown to about 230,000 acres – or 360 square miles. The fire is spreading so rapidly that containment on Sunday was downgraded from 15 percent to just 10 percent.
More than 4,000 firefighters were engaged in the effort to contain the flames. Although the Thomas Fire is still raging, most of the smaller fires are being gradually brought under control, officials said.
Jonathan Bastian of member station KCRW says that strong and unpredictable winds have kept fire crews scrambling to stay ahead of the Thomas Fire. Crews were using water-dropping planes and helicopters to battle the fires.
"The air quality remains so bad that schools and colleges have canceled classes," Jonathan reports. "In downtown Santa Barbara, a layer of white ash has descended over a city famous for its pristine beaches."
Chris Harvey of Cal Fire, says he is hopeful that the high winds could die down soon, giving firefighters the upper hand.
"They're expected to die down a little bit moving into Tuesday and Wednesday," he says. "So, we're hoping for a break from the wind."
Sunday brought mandatory evacuations for the Central Coast areas of Carpinteria, Summerland, Montecito and Santa Barbara – some of which have not been affected by wildfires in decades.
The biggest concern is for Carpinteria, where the fire was moving west above the city in an area of very dry vegetation that hasn't burned in about 100 years, Steve Swindle, a spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department was quoted by The Los Angeles Times as saying.
The Associated Press reports that officials "handed out masks to residents who stayed behind in Montecito, the wealthy hillside enclave that's home to celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bridges and Rob Lowe."
"This is a menacing fire, certainly, but we have a lot of people working very diligently to bring it under control," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told an evening news conference, according to Reuters.
About 5,000 residents were under evacuation orders in the area and 15,000 homes were threatened.
KPCC reports that University of California, Santa Barbara, announced Sunday afternoon that it would postpone final exams due to the fires.
In an email to students from Chancellor Henry T. Yang, he said the campus would remain open, but he encouraged all students who want to leave to do so.
Gov. Jerry Brown warned on Saturday that the long-running drought in California that has quite literally added fuel to the fire, had extended fire season.
"This is the new normal," Brown said as he surveyed damage from the Thomas Fire. "We're about ready to have firefighting at Christmas. This is very odd and unusual." |
Noted aviator and actor Harrison Ford flew his private plane over a jet airliner on the ground at a Southern California airport Monday. It's not the first time the Star Wars and Indiana Jones star has had problems landing.
The 74-year-old Ford was instructed to land on a runway at Orange County's John Wayne Airport but mistakenly landed on a parallel taxiway, passing over a Boeing 737 carrying 110 passengers and six crew members.
On a recording, Ford asked air traffic controllers, "Was that airliner meant to be underneath me?" according to NBC News, which first reported the incident.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the pilot heard and read back the correct landing instructions, according to The Associated Press. Gregor did not confirm it was Ford who was piloting the plane, a single-engine Aviat Husky. The AP reports that he didn't say how close Ford's plane came to hitting the jet on the ground.
No one was injured and the jet, American Airlines Flight 1456, took off for Dallas shortly after without incident.
The FAA is now investigating, which "could result in a simple warning letter to a suspension of Ford's pilot's license," NBC reports.
Ford collects vintage planes and has been flying for decades. According to NPR's Russell Lewis, Ford is "a highly-skilled and highly-rated pilot. He's qualified to fly single and twin engine planes, sea planes, helicopters and he's also an instrument-rated pilot." In 2015, Ford said he owned "eight or nine various types of airplanes," according to NTSB documents posted on AirSafe.com.
Ford reported on a medical certificate application that he had logged at least 5,200 flight hours, according to the NTSB.
He was a 2008 honoree and received the Legends Aviation Legacy Award from Kiddie Hawk Air Academy, and subsequently had an award named after him.
Ford was seriously injured in March 2015 when he crash-landed a restored World War II-era trainer plane on a golf course near the Santa Monica Airport shortly after takeoff. A National Transportation Safety Board report found the crash was caused by a loose engine part.
In 2000, Ford's plane "departed" a runway in Lincoln, Neb., because of a gust of wind, according to AirSafe.com. He was flying a Beechcraft Bonanza which "sustained minor damage," though Ford and his passenger were not injured.
And in 1999 he crash-landed a helicopter during a training flight in Ventura County, near Los Angeles, according to the AP. "Although the helicopter rolled over on its left side, neither Ford or the instructor were injured," AirSafe.com notes. |
Firefighters made progress over the weekend in their effort to contain most of the fires in Southern California, but the Thomas Fire continues to grow. Now the fifth-largest in modern California history, the Thomas Fire began in Ventura County and has since crossed into Santa Barbara County, where it threatens the coast.
Here & Now‘s Robin Young speaks with Lance Orozco (@KCLUNEWS), news director at KCLU, about the latest. |
There's an experiment underway at a few top universities around the world to make some master's degrees out there more affordable.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for example, says the class of 2018 can get a master's degree in supply chain management for more than $20,000 off from the university's normal price, which runs upwards of $67,000 for the current year academic year.
But it's not as simple as sending in a coupon with your tuition bill.
It's called a "MicroMasters." MIT, Columbia University, the University of Michigan and the Rochester Institute of Technology are among a dozen or so universities globally that are giving this online program a shot.
It's not a full degree, but a sort of certificate, and can be a step toward a degree.
There are things in it for students, and for the school.
What's in it for students: cost
Let's take Danaka Porter as an example. She's a 31-year-old business consultant from Vancouver, British Columbia, and says a master's degree was exactly what she needed to boost her career.
"I found that people were a little bit more respected, I guess, once they had their master's because it was like they had taken that next step to go a little bit further," she says.
But she couldn't afford to stop working and become a full-time student again. She owns a house, she says, and "I have bills, and all of that stuff that doesn't stop because I wanted to go to school."
When a friend told that MIT was piloting its first partially online master's degree in supply chain management, she signed up.
The tuition for a year in the master's of supply chain management costs $67,938. Her MicroMasters certification, though, is just $1,350.
It's called a MicroMasters because it isn't a full degree, just a step toward one, though Porter says the coursework is just as rigorous as if she were on MIT's campus in Cambridge.
"It requires a lot of effort and if you don't have a background in math, engineering or supply chain it's not a breeze. Like, we do have people that fail," she says.
Even if she passes the certification, Porter will still need to complete a semester "in residence" at full cost if she wants to finish her graduate degree. It's part of what MIT calls the "blended" program — online and on-campus.
Getting accepted is no easy task. MIT says it expects to admit 40 students a year into the blended program.
Some top schools from around the world are on board with MIT.
There's user experience research and design from the University of Michigan; entrepreneurship from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore; and artificial intelligence from Columbia University, among others.
Even if students don't go for a full master's, the online course work can make them more appealing to employers.
Industry leaders who say they can't find enough qualified candidates are looking for very specific skills like the ones being taught. GE, Walmart, IBM and Volvo have recognized MicroMasters and are encouraging their employees and job applicants to take these courses.
Some students who are enrolled in MIT's on-campus program wish these online courses had been available to them before spending big on their degrees.
"If this was an option, I think I would have considered it," says Veronica Stolear, a graduate student at MIT from Caracas, Venezuela. She quit her job in the oil industry to earn her master's in supply chain management. Ultimately, though, she thinks her on-campus experience will pay off.
"The in-campus program is more expensive, but you're getting also the experience of living in Boston, interacting with people from MIT that might not be in supply chain but might be in like the business school and like other types of departments," she says.
What's in it for schools: getting the best applicants
You might be wondering what MIT gets out this arrangement.
Admissions officers here say they'll weigh applicants' performance in these online courses.
Anant Agarwal, an MIT professor and CEO of the online-learning platform edX that makes these online courses possible, sees it all as a way to filter the applicant pool.
"When you get applications from people all over the world, it's often a crap-shoot," he says. "You don't know the veracity of the recommendation letters or the grades. And so you're taking a bet very often."
And Agarwal says that should give MIT and other institutions a better sense of how students will perform — if they're lucky enough to get in. |
They say opposites attract. But these days, maybe not so much.
A growing number of singles are adding a clause to their online dating profiles telling either Trump haters or Trump supporters — depending on their political preference — that they need not apply.
"This was like a deal breaker for me," says 50-year-old Elizabeth Jagosz from the Detroit area. "If you are Trump supporter, I'm not even going to consider meeting you for coffee."
It's not just an issue of party politics, Jagosz says. It's about core values. Love, she says, cannot conquer all.
"If you don't care about a person who says you can grab women by the pussy and that's OK — I don't wanna date you if you think that behavior's OK," Jagosz says. "If that's not a deal breaker for you, then you and I have nothing to talk about."
As another single put it in her profile, "Red hats need not apply."
But the people wearing those red hats — the ones stamped with "Make America Great Again" — have been feeling the same way.
This lack of desire from liberals and conservatives to date each other is what David Goss says prompted him to launch TrumpSingles.com.
"Yeah, it's both ways," Goss says. "You know, like a liberal doesn't want to date a Nazi. And a republican doesn't want to date, well, a whiny snowflake, and that's what they're viewing each other as."
TrumpSingles.com is a kind of safe space for Trump supporters who say they're sick of the "lefties" refusing to even give them a chance.
"[The liberals] are just repeating this left echo chamber of 'Oh, you must be a racist; oh, you must be a homophobe; oh, you must be a misogynist,' " Goss says. "They're judging the people based on who they voted for without actually getting to know them."
Helen Fisher, the chief scientific adviser to the Internet dating website Match.com, says new research from the website shows both liberals and conservatives are moving away from the center of the political spectrum.
"There's a real distinct difference that we're seeing today, and all singles are becoming more rigid in their views," she says.
The data also shows that singles are more likely now to shun those who are at the other end of the political spectrum. And liberals are more likely to spurn conservatives than the other way around.
"I think it's very natural to the human animal to bring it into the idea of 'OK, you like this person, well, you must be like that person then,' " Fisher says. "America is taking this very, very personally. No question about it."
Looking back now, it seems almost unfathomable that even two opposing campaign advisers could cross the aisle and then actually walk down the aisle as James Carville and Mary Matalin did in 1993.
As Carville famously put it once, "You can love the sinner and hate the sin."
The couple says their secret to survival and harmony at home is simply agreeing to disagree.
But today, singles seem to be saying they just can't do that.
"I mean, I wish I could just go out and tell everyone to knock it off and be cool with each other, but it's just not going to work that way," Goss says.
His Trump Singles dating site is up to 35,000 members. LiberalHearts.com, founded by Salvatore Prano, is up to nearly 50,000.
"There's more activity now than ever," Prano says. "I knew liberals would only find comfort in each other's arms."
But there is one other option for lonely liberals. Single Joe Goldman founded MapleMatch.com, a dating site that helps Americans find Canadians "to save them from the unfathomable horror of a Trump presidency." Goldman became his own first client.
"I can't tell you the sinking feeling I felt [after the election]," he says. "That's not the country I want to live in. So why not consider places that might be more in line with my values, like Canada."
It may be better than the alternative. According to the new Match.com survey, a growing number of liberals today are simply choosing to not date at all. |
With the Trump administration vowing to tighten rules for skilled workers entering the United States, India's software services companies are worried. Indian IT giants outsource tens of thousands of tech specialists to the United States each year, and limiting the visa program that brings them in could disrupt their multibillion-dollar industry.
Congress and the White House have targeted what is arguably the most coveted of U.S. visas: the H1-B. It's "a kind of temporary work visa that allows professionals from other countries to work in the United States for a designated U.S. employer," explains Stephen Yale-Loehr, a Cornell University immigration law professor.
Yale-Loehr says that with the economy picking up, the program is in particularly big demand. Last year, U.S. companies that sought to bring highly skilled workers to the U.S. filed 236,000 petitions that went into a lottery for just 85,000 H1-B visas, the legal cap. The bulk of the winners: Indian computer specialists, many of them graduates of U.S. universities.
Yale-Loehr says that places like Europe and Australia have special visas to attract such talent, but that the United States doesn't.
"We have to shoehorn high-tech workers into categories like the H1-B, and it's getting more difficult every year," he says.
For many H1-B holders, the temporary work visa — issued for a maximum of six years-- has been a stepping stone to obtaining a green card. That grants permanent residence in the U.S., and in turn provides a path to citizenship.
But newly introduced legislation in Congress and drafts of executive orders reportedly circulating in the Trump White House would tighten the H1-B program.
Indian software services firms last year earned 60 percent of their $108 billion in export revenues from the U.S. Their executives will travel to Washington this month to lobby against measures that take aim at one of India's most successful industries.
One bill proposes more than doubling the minimum wage of H1-B holders, which by law is set at $60,000. Critics argue the H1-B has been misused to displace American workers, and that there has been an incentive to prefer Indian IT workers because they are cheaper.
Shailesh Chitnis, with the data mining and analysis company Compile, says that while the median salary for all H1-B holders is $71,000, most but not all Indian outsourcers pay below that. If they had to double salaries, Chitnis says, Indian IT companies would have to change their 20-year-old business model.
"Because these organizations are not going to be bringing in people at $120,000 to fill those jobs — it would simply be too expensive," he says. "They'll have to look at some other alternatives."
But Shevendra Singh with India's National Association of Software Services Companies, or NASSCOM, refutes allegations that Indian companies are dislocating American workers or supplying low-paid labor. Singh says there is demand in the U.S. for Indian technical talent because of a severe shortage of qualified Americans with degrees in science, technology, engineering and math.
"The crux of the issue is the STEM skill shortage in the U.S.," Singh says.
In its 2012 report, the U.S. president's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology found that "fewer than 40-percent of students who enter college intending to major in a STEM field complete a STEM degree." The council concluded that in the next decade, economic forecasts point to a need to produce "approximately 1 million more college graduates in STEM fields than expected under current assumptions."
R. Chandrashekhar, president of NASSCOM, says that if the skills aren't available in the U.S. — and companies can't bring workers in — the jobs either won't get done or they will go out of the country and be done remotely.
"Talent has become more important than investment or trade," he says. "And those who consciously cut themselves off from the global supply chains of talent are depriving themselves of a good thing."
Chandrashekhar notes that the intermingling of American and Indian ingenuity helped build Silicon Valley, and says protectionist impulses could weaken the United States, and what makes it unique.
"America is No. 1," Chandrashekhar says. "What has really helped them to rise, absolutely, to the top, is that they have attracted talent from across the world. ... It would be really a pity if that was reversed without thinking it through."
Immigration expert Yale-Loehr, co-author of a 21-volume treatise on immigration law, agrees that the United States faces a crisis in maintaining its innovative and competitive edge, and says it should be inviting more, not less, IT talent to its shores.
"In a globalized economy, the best and the brightest want to work in the best places — and if they're unable work in the United States, or it takes too long or is too difficult, they'll find a place in Canada or Europe or India where their talents can be appreciated," he says.
If implemented, Yale-Loehr says the draft executive order would initiate a review of the H1-B program but likely have no direct, immediate impact.
However, he says "it sends a strong signal that we no longer like foreign workers — we're all about only U.S. workers."
That, Yale-Loehr says, is eventually going to hurt the U.S.
Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
In India, tech companies are worried that the Trump administration is preparing to limit visas for foreign skilled workers. A huge number of those visas called H-1Bs are held by Indians, but Congress and the White House say the program could be a threat to American jobs. From New Delhi, NPR's Julie McCarthy has more.
JULIE MCCARTHY, BYLINE: In the alphabet soup of U.S. visas, the H-1B is arguably the most coveted.
STHEPHEN YALE-LOEHR: An H-1B visa is a kind of temporary work visa that allows professionals from other countries to work in the United States for a designated U.S. employer.
MCCARTHY: Cornell immigration law professor Stephen Yale-Loehr says the program is in big demand. Last year, U.S. companies that sought to bring high-skilled workers to the states filed 236,000 petitions that went to a lottery that drew just 85,000 H-1B visas. The bulk of the winners - Indian computer specialists, many graduates from U.S. universities. Yale-Loehr says places like Europe and Australia have special visas to attract such talent.
YALE-LOEHR: We don't, and so we have to shoehorn those high-tech workers into existing categories like the H-1B. And it's getting more difficult every year.
KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:
Newly introduced legislation in Congress and drafts of executive orders reportedly circulating in the Trump White House would tighten the H-1B program. The stakes are high for Indian IT firms. Using H-1Bs, they earn tens of billions of dollars each year outsourcing tech talent to the U.S. One bill proposes doubling the minimum wage of H-1B holders.
Critics say there's an incentive to prefer Indian IT workers because they are cheap. Analyst Shailesh Chitnis says if the median salary for all H-1B holders is $71,000, several - not all - Indian outsourcers pay slightly below that. And if they had to double salaries, he says Indian IT companies would have to change their business model.
SHAILESH CHITNES: These organizations are not going to be bringing in people at $120,000 to fill those jobs. It would simply be too expensive. They'll have to look at some other alternatives.
MCCARTHY: India's IT executives refute allegations that Indians are displacing American workers. There is a demand in the U.S. for Indian technical talent, they argue, because of a severe shortage of Americans with degrees in science, engineering and math. The president of the group representing Indian software services companies, R. Chandrashekhar, says talent has become more important than investment or trade.
R. CHANDRASHEKHAR: And those who consciously cut themselves off from the global supply chains of talent are depriving themselves of a good thing.
MCCARTHY: Chandrashekhar notes that intermingling of American and Indian ingenuity helped build Silicon Valley and says protectionist impulses would weaken the U.S. and what makes it unique.
CHANDRASHEKAR: America is number one. What has really helped them to rise absolutely to the top is that they have attracted talent from across the world, from every corner of the world. And that's what has made them who they are. It would be really a pity if that was reversed without thinking it through.
MCCARTHY: Immigration expert Stephen Yale-Loehr says if implemented, the draft executive order would initiate a review of the H-1B program and likely have no direct immediate impact.
YALE-LOEHR: But it sends a strong signal that we'd no longer like foreign workers. We're all about only U.S. workers. That is eventually going to hurt us.
MCCARTHY: Indian IT executives travel to Washington this month to lobby against the measures that take aim at one of India's most competitive businesses. Julie McCarthy, NPR News, New Delhi. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. |
"Unprecedented" is a term that was thrown around a lot to describe the crazy 2016 presidential election. Now, the Alabama Senate race may be giving that campaign a run for its money.
The appointment of Luther Strange to succeed new Attorney Jeff Sessions had occurred under a cloud of suspicion, with then-Gov. Robert Bentley tapping Strange — the state attorney general who had been investigating Bentley for using his office to cover up an extramarital affair.
Now, the end of the race culminates not in Strange as the GOP nominee but in Roy Moore — easily one of the most controversial figures in Alabama politics even before this race — as the Republican standard-bearer who's been beset by allegations of sexual misconduct and sexual assault.
Moore looked dead in the water when the accusations — which he stringently denies — surfaced a month ago. Multiple women have alleged that, decades ago, he pursued them romantically as teenagers when he was in his thirties, including one woman who said Moore initiated sexual contact with her when she was just 14.
Other recent accusations of sexual misconduct have resulted in three members of Congress resigning last week, with at least two other lawmakers still on the hot set facing allegations and questions. Even if he wins, Moore could face an ethics investigation and calls from within the ranks of Senate Republicans not to seat him.
Nonetheless, Moore's poll numbers appear to have rebounded, and the Republican probably has even a very slight edge heading into Election Day on Tuesday, according to observers in the state. And while national GOP leaders began to abandon him in droves initially, President Trump embraced him last week with a full-on endorsement. The Republican National Committee soon followed, reinstating their financial support for Moore.
A win by Democratic nominee Doug Jones in Alabama — a state that Trump won by almost 30 points just last year — once looked unthinkable. Then, a Moore victory, after multiple women came forward to accuse him of sexual impropriety against them when they were teenagers, similarly seemed impossible.
Polls in the race have been all over the place, with turnout in a special election during the year-end holiday season hard to measure. And add in the latest dose of uncertainty which is nearly impossible to measure or predict: trying to guess whether Republicans will stay home or if enough African-American voters will go to the polls to help Jones.
It's anyone's best guess how this wild ride will end for a seat that's important as Republicans try to pass a tax overhaul and other GOP priorities in a closely-divided Senate with the 2018 midterms less than a year away.
Here are just a few of the factors that have added uncertainty and often flat-out "what in the world is happening" reactions to this race.
How we got here: from one sex scandal to another
This contest wasn't even supposed to have happened until 2018 if not for another sex scandal that prompted its rescheduling. When Bentley stepped down after allegedly using his office to cover up an affair with an aide, new Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey moved up the election to 2017.
After Bentley resigned, his appointment of Strange — who was investigating wrongdoing by the then-governor — became a political hot potato. The appearance of some sort of quid pro quo, even though Strange denied it, was the biggest factor that led to his loss to Moore in the GOP primary runoff, according to multiple Republicans in the state. Not even millions of dollars spent by national GOP groups and a superPAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., could save Strange.
Republicans in Washington, D.C., certainly weren't thrilled that they now had Moore, who had long been a polarizing political figure in the Yellowhammer State, as the GOP nominee. The former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice had been well-known for years for his Christian nationalist stances, including refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument he'd erected in the state judicial building, his hardline comments on same-sex marriage and transgender rights, and more recently his suggestion that the last time America was "great again" was when there was slavery.
Still, even given the amount of political baggage Moore arguably had, most people didn't expect that the general election would turn so, well, strange in the end.
Flood of accusations against Moore
It all started on Nov. 9, when the Washington Post published a bombshell account from Leigh Corfman, who detailed how Moore — then a 32 year-old district attorney — pursued her romantically when she was 14. Corfman said during one meeting Moore removed his clothes and she took off her top and pants, and then Moore "touched her over her bra and underpants, she says, and guided her hand to touch him over his underwear." Corfman said she then asked Moore to take her home, which he did. (She would later appear on NBC's Today to discuss her allegations.)
Corfman's story was only the beginning, as nine women in total came forward saying Moore had pursued them romantically when they were teenagers. Some media outlets even reported that he had been banned from the local mall in Gadsden, Ala., in the late 1970s apparently out of concerns he was paying excessive attention to the teenage girls who worked and hung out there. Moore's campaign quickly took issue with those reports.
Moore and his allies pushed back hard against the flood of accusations against him — but in some surprising and questionable ways. Some even argued that the age gap between Moore and the girls wasn't necessarily wrong.
"Take the Bible. Zachariah and Elizabeth for instance. Zachariah was extremely old to marry Elizabeth and they became the parents of John the Baptist," Alabama State Auditor Jim Zeigler told the Washington Examiner. "Also take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus."
Moore went on Fox News host Sean Hannity's radio show — typically a very friendly venue for Republicans — the next day to rebut the charges further. Instead, he ended up doing more damage. When Hannity asked Moore if he had ever dated 16-, 17- or 18-year-olds, his answer wasn't a flat-out denial initially. Instead, he said "not generally, no" and said that dating a girl in her late teens "would have been out of my customary behavior."
"I don't remember dating any girl without the permission of her mother," Moore also added. Finally, Moore gave a more forceful denial, saying that dating a teenage girl would have been "inappropriate."
As the weeks went on, it seemed clear there was still plenty of doubts in the minds of voters as to the veracity of the accusations. To others, even if they did believe there was some truth to the women's stories, because Moore would vote right on social issues such as abortion, it was worth voting for him anyway.
A focus group done by GOP pollster Frank Luntz recently and aired on VICE News Tonight showed that some conservative Alabama voters thought the women making the accusations were being paid. And others said that even if Moore had tried to date teenage girls decades ago, that was perfectly acceptable at the time anyway.
Moore's Trumpian strategy: Blame Washington and the media
The embattled Moore has appeared infrequently in public since the allegations against him were reported, and when he does, he has refused to take questions from the media about the accusers after that Hannity interview. His campaign has held occasional "press conferences" to try to discredit some of the allegations of the women who had come forward, but even then representatives of the campaign haven't taken questions.
Instead, Moore has embraced a decidedly Trumpian strategy — shift the blame. The D.C. establishment — including both Republicans and Democrats — have long been out to get him, Moore told his supporters. That's why "swamp creature" McConnell had spent so heavily to defeat him in the primary and failed. Now, there was a coordinated effort to make sure he didn't make it to the U.S. Senate, in Moore's view.
"I think they're afraid I'm going to take Alabama values to Washington, and I can't wait," Moore said at the end of a campaign rally last Tuesday alongside former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon. The Brietbart News chief has used his website's considerable influence among conservatives to boost Moore and discredit the accusations against him.
Eventually Trump, too, would buy into that argument, casting doubt on Moore's accusers. "He totally denies it," the president said before leaving the White House for Thanksgiving. And he echoed another refrain Moore has hammered home — these accusations are from 40 years ago, so why would the women be coming forward now?
It wasn't until last week that Trump would remove any doubt that he was 100 percent behind Moore. And while he didn't outright campaign for Moore, he did the closest thing he could — holding a campaign rally Friday night just about 20 miles from the Alabama border in Pensacola, Fla., that falls within the Mobile, Ala., media market.
Trump made only a passing mention of the race, but did seize upon the news of the day that one Moore accuser, Beverly Young Nelson, had admitted to adding an inscription to a yearbook note she claimed proved she knew Moore 40 years ago, something she offered in support of her allegation that Moore sexually assaulted her back then. Amid a fresh round of attacks on her credibility, Nelson maintains that Moore's signature and the personal note written to her in the yearbook were penned by Moore.
Fundamentals favor Jones, but will it matter?
Jones, the former U.S. attorney who once prosecuted KKK members for a high-profile crime against African-Americans during the civil rights movement, has the type of profile that may appeal to some moderate voters and could motivate black voters in the state.
And, as NBC News noted, Jones' campaign has outspent Moore by a 10-1 margin and has an active get-out-the-vote operation. Moore's campaign has been a skeleton operation in the final stretch, with rare appearances and minimal staff.
But, in 2016 Trump's campaign was derided in much the same way, and it was assumed that his controversial remarks, sexual assault allegations and a tape in which he bragged about groping women would be his downfall. That's not to mention the money advantage that Hillary Clinton had over the GOP nominee who had already divided his party.
Sound familiar?
So, to end what's been a tumultuous few political years, perhaps it should be less than surprising that the Alabama Senate race seems headed for a crazy, unbelievable finish. |
After multiple public statements from the White House, there are still numerous unanswered questions surrounding Michael Flynn's Monday-night resignation from his position as national security adviser.
Flynn is under fire for a discussion he had with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak on the day that the U.S. announced sanctions for cyber hacking that took place during the U.S. election.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer characterized the resignation as being about "eroding trust" between President Trump and Flynn, rather than a legal issue, and he said it was Trump's decision to have Flynn step down. House Speaker Paul Ryan also said the resignation was Trump's call. Those accounts contradict earlier remarks from White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, who said the move was Flynn's.
Here are six the questions we still have about the events:
1. What exactly did Flynn say about U.S. sanctions in his call with Kislyak?
Spicer maintained Tuesday that Flynn being asked to step down was about "trust" and that there was "nothing wrong or inappropriate" about Flynn's call with the ambassador. There is a transcript of the call produced by the intelligence community, NPR has confirmed. It shows there was discussion about the sanctions. "Still, current and former administration officials familiar with the call said the transcript was ambiguous enough that Mr. Trump could have justified either firing or retaining Mr. Flynn," the New York Times reported.
Flynn briefed Vice President Pence before Pence made a round of TV appearances Jan. 15 in which he denied Flynn discussed the sanctions in the call. White House press secretary Sean Spicer said on Jan. 13 that Flynn told him the call was to convey Christmas greetings, condolences for a plane crash that killed members of a Russian Military choir, Russian talks about the war in Syria and logistics for a post-inauguration call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In his resignation letter, Flynn apologized for giving the vice president and others "incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian Ambassador."
2. Did Flynn's conversation influence Russia's decision not to retaliate with sanctions of its own?
The Obama administration announced sanctions on Dec. 29 in response to findings that Russia used cyberattacks during the presidential campaign in an effort to assist Trump. The administration expected Russia to retaliate, but it never did. At the time, Trump tweeted glowingly about Putin's decision not to react.
3. Why wait until now to ask for a resignation?
NPR's Carrie Johnson reports that the White House knew Flynn's public statements didn't match what occurred.
Johnson reports that former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, since fired over her stance to not enforce Trump's travel ban, told White House Counsel Donald McGahn about the call's actual contents. Spicer said Tuesday that the Justice Department notified White House counsel on Jan. 26 and that the president was notified immediately.
Spicer said that the White House has been "reviewing and evaluating this issue on a daily basis" for a few weeks and that Flynn has been questioned on multiple occasions.
As the Washington Post notes, though, on Friday Trump gave reporters the impression that he "was not familiar with a Washington Post report that revealed that Flynn had not told the truth about the calls."
4. Who was behind the initial leak?
Who was the first person to share that Flynn had spoken to the Russian ambassador? Trump himself asked Tuesday morning in a tweet, "Why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington?" Spicer echoed concerns about the leak in his briefing.
The Washington Post's Callum Borchers has three theories on "why the Trump White House keeps leaking":
They can't help but gossip,
It's all distraction, getting media to pay attention to "who has power, rather than what the people in power are actually doing," or
Bait for negative coverage so that it can continue to "cast the media as a political opponent."
But it's also possible, if not likely, that the leaks on this issue came from the intelligence community or Justice Department. That could mean that there are people in the government and national-security infrastructure who had genuine concerns about Flynn and how Trump's White House is being run.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., blasted the leaks in a hallway interview on Tuesday, NPR's Susan Davis reports.
"Here's what I know: Gen. Flynn did not break the law talking to the Russia ambassador, in fact that's his job," Nunes said. "Who did break the law is whoever recorded this, unmasked it and leaked it, that is clearly multiple violations."
5. Who will replace Flynn?
Spicer said in a briefing Tuesday afternoon the president is "currently evaluating a group of strong candidates."
Three are thought to be the leading contenders:
Ret. Lt. Gen. Joseph Kellogg , the acting national security adviser, named with Flynn's resignation;
, the acting national security adviser, named with Flynn's resignation; Ret. Vice Adm. Robert Harward , the former deputy director of CENTCOM during the Obama administration. He's a former Navy SEAL who grew up in Iran; and
, the former deputy director of CENTCOM during the Obama administration. He's a former Navy SEAL who grew up in Iran; and Ret. Gen. David Petraeus, the former CIA director in the Obama administration who was sentenced to two years probation and had to pay a $100,000 fine for sharing classified information with a woman he was having an affair with. His probation expires in April.
Also in the running is John Kelly, who was recently confirmed as Trump's homeland security secretary, NPR's Tom Bowman reports.
But, Bowman reports, the smart money is on Harward for now.
6. Will Trump continue to speak with Flynn anyway?
Trump is known to pick up his cell phone. And Flynn is someone who was one of Trump's closest and most trusted national-security advisers during the campaign.
Flynn surely has that number. And there's some precedent for it. Trump has continued communication with other former aides and adviser, including Corey Lewandowski, who was was fired as Trump's campaign manager in June. |
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ORANGE, Calif. -- One of the most athletic players in the class of 2019, four-star guard P.J. Fuller out of Seattle (Wash.) Garfield has seen his recruitment turn into a coast-to-coast affair. Well-known for his ability to play above the rim and finish in transition, Fuller holds offers from Washington, Florida State, UNLV, Arizona, USC, Texas A&M, Tennessee, TCU, Arizona State and others. This summer, he's hoping to show those schools and more a new wrinkle by playing some point guard. “Over the last year, well especially this summer in AAU I’ve started to develop more into a one," Fuller told Rivals.com while competing in the Magic Memorial Day event. "I’ve been facilitating more but also scoring when my coach needs me to score.” Fuller also benefits from playing for former NBA All-Star Brandon Roy on the high school level.
“I’m always trying to pick his brain and he’s always in my ear telling me what I need to do to improve and become a better basketball player. It’s a blessing to be able to be around somebody like that who has gone where I want to go so he’s been really helpful with the process and making decisions. Him just being there is big.”
IN HIS OWN WORDS...
Fuller discussed his relationships with and the draw of programs like Washington, Florida State, TCU, USC and Arizona. Washington- “Coach (Mike) Hopkins is a good coach, he’s a great coach. He’s crazy, but I like that. That’s what a player like me needs, somebody who is going to get into you 24/7 on and off the court making sure you are doing well in the classroom. He’s a good dude and home is always home at the end of the day, so U Dub is an option.” Florida State- “Coach (Leonard) Hamilton is like a father figure to all of his players. I came into contact with Dwayne Bacon and talked to him and asked him what he thought about the program. He said that he really liked it and that coach Hamilton took him in and developed him and treated him like family. He said that they treat all of their players like family and really look out for them.” TCU- “I talk to them a lot, probably one of the schools that I talk to the most with coach (Jamie) Dixon and coach (Corey) Barker. They are both really good coaches and I have a cool relationship with those guys. Coach Barker is a really good guy and he knows my mom really well.” USC- “Coach (Jason) Hart and coach (Andy) Enfield are real good coaches. My brother Kevin Porter Jr. who went to Rainier Beach in Seattle, he’s going there and then J’Raan Brooks who I played with at Garfield is going there so it’s always good to have people around me going to different colleges because I can ask them and get in their ear once they are there and ask them what they think. Kevin, with him going there I wouldn’t say they don’t have a chance at getting me.” Arizona- “The contact really started picking up about two or three weeks ago when everything started to settle and the coaching staff was really in place and doing what they need to be doing. Coach (Danny) Peters has reached out to me and we’ve just been talking and chatting it up a little bit.”
RIVALS' REACTION |
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" " Artist's illustration of a serious dust-up on early Earth SwRI/Marchi
Early in Earth's history, a violent collision with another planetary body created a huge mess, but just how much of a mess has been debated. What we do know, however, is that this cataclysmic collision created the moon and plenty of debris that formed a planet-encompassing disk.
Now, in a December 2017 study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, researchers have simulated this ancient smashup to figure out just how much of the disk debris rained back down on Earth's surface as planetesimals, or small, planet-building celestial objects. This period of disk debris pelting the planet is known as "late accretion." What they found adds to our understanding of how early Earth formed and may have implications for how life emerged from our molten and battered young planet.
Seeding Earth With Rare Elements
During late accretion, differentiated planetesimal-sized chunks of debris with metal cores bombarded Earth's surface. These objects solidified from the debris of the moon-forming collision and so contained a mix of materials, including rare elements such as gold, platinum and iridium. These so-called "siderophile elements" (heavy elements that mix easily with iron) were integrated into our planet's mantle. The fact that we find these elements near Earth's surface is a key piece of evidence that late accretion occurred. Scientists had thought that Earth gained approximately 0.5 percent of its total mass during this time.
" " Just how much mess do planetary collisions like the one pictured leave hanging around space? And what's the ultimate fate of that debris? NASA/JPL-Caltech
"After the formation of the moon, the Earth was fully molten for a while, and it's very likely that these elements were segregated into the core of the Earth," says Simone Marchi, of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), who led the study. "So, under this assumption, there shouldn't be any gold, platinum and other elements left behind in the mantle or the crust of the Earth, but the very fact that we see a significant amount of these elements, that would imply that they were delivered to the Earth via planetesimals."
After carrying out computer simulations on siderophile elements permeating through a young Earth's interior, Marchi's team found that even the materials delivered by planetesimals would have been assimilated in our planet's core over time, removing them from Earth's upper layers. The simulations also predict that substantial quantities of these planetesimals would have been blasted into space after the moon-forming collision, thus preventing them from falling back to Earth's surface at all.
More Planetesimals, More Gold
So how can we explain the abundances of these rare elements that are clearly present today at Earth's surface? To find out, the researchers took a closer look at the process of delivery by these large collisions and tracked the fate of the impactor materials to see how they got mixed into the mantle.
"We then realized that to be able to explain the amount of these elements we see in the mantle, we needed to increase the total mass accreted by the Earth between a factor of two and five," Marchi explains.
In other words, previous estimates of the amount of material delivered to Earth via late accretion are too low. To explain the abundances of rare elements at or near the surface, between 1 and 2.5 percent of Earth's mass must have been delivered by planetesimals after the moon-forming collision.
"In the aftermath of the formation of the moon that was caused by a massive collision, there seems to have been a protracted time of bombardment of the early-Earth," says Marchi. Although this was generally understood to be the case before this research, "what we are saying now is that you need to have a much higher [rate of] bombardment in order to explain the quantity of these elements."
The Question of Life
Marchi provides another way to think about this far higher rate of bombardment during the late accretion period.
"If you were to spread that mass as a layer over the surface of the Earth, you'd get a layer of the order of tens of kilometers," Marchi says. "In this regard, you also get a visual idea that the delivery of this mass is potentially very important for the surface."
These collisions would have had a tremendous impact on Earth's surface, the chemistry of the primordial atmosphere and may have even had a significant role to play in early biology. After all, the oldest record for the origin of life is about 4 billion years ago, and that was around the time when these collisions took place.
"This is important as it would imply that these collisions were really important in the early evolution of the Earth," he concludes. "They were a primary engine, so to speak, that would affect how the surface of the Earth works. This has tremendous implications for early life on Earth." |
" " App developers make it difficult for users to opt-out of sharing their data. Wenjie Dong/Getty Images
Don't have any plans this weekend? Spend some time checking out the latest articles and podcasts from HowStuffWorks. Here are some you may have missed this week.
The Spying
20-year-old Nathan Ruser, an Australian student and analyst at the Institute for United Conflict Analytics, made headlines this week when he tweeted about a heatmap showing Strava-user activity. Strava is a fitness app for cyclists and joggers that tracks the speed and distance of a workout. In places like the continental United States and Western Europe, the map is very bright, but in Iraq and Syria, the only lit areas are the locations of U.S. military bases. What's so concerning to high-ranking officials at the Pentagon and other agencies, is that the map highlights frequently traveled routes inside and outside of buildings. Most everyone assumes that our apps are tracking us 24 hours a day, but even when we're careful, we can still be caught off-guard.
The Supportive
Even though 2017 was the safest year on record for air travel, flying can still be scary. Some passengers quell their flight anxiety with emotional support animals, or ESAs. But after a passenger was mauled by a dog on board a Delta flight, the airline started cracking down on emotional support animals. ESAs are different from service animals. Service animals are trained to do specific tasks for the disabled, and Federal law dictates that they're allowed to go wherever their owner takes them. ESAs are untrained pets whose sole purpose is to provide comfort to their owners. Just about any animal can be an ESA, and it's likely that some travelers are claiming their pets as ESAs to avoid paying the $100-plus pet transportation fee.
The Shining
This week on the Stuff They Don't Want You To Know podcast, a fan asks hosts Ben Bowlin and Matt Frederick "What exactly are 'Ghost Lights'?" Ghost lights are a worldwide phenomenon that go by many names. The lights frequently hover in the middle of the street or over treetops, and the strangest thing about them is that they appear to be sentient, or at least able to move of their own volition. Possible causes for these apparitions range from the mundane to the supernatural. Join Ben and Matt as they check the validity of each theory. |
A green anole lizard (Anolis carolinensis) stands on a green leaf in the early morning sun. Jeff R Clow/Getty Images
Evolution takes time. But just how much time it takes is the issue. How long, for instance, did it take theropod dinosaurs to evolve into modern birds? Tens, if not not hundreds of millions of years. But since the turn of the last century, when American biologist Hermon Bumpus noticed that individual sparrows in a population became larger as the result of one huge snowstorm, scientists have been observing instances of short bursts of evolutionary progress over a significantly brief period of time.
Definitive instances of rapid evolution are tough to come by, though, even in these days of advance genetic testing. But a recent study published in the journal Science finds that, over the course of just a few months, green anole lizards (Anolis carolinensis) living in the area of the Mexico-Texas border evolved a rapid genetic tolerance to cold weather after an unusually frigid winter.
Green anoles are warm-weather reptiles that evolved on the Caribbean island of Cuba. They found their way to the mainland long ago, but a prolonged and extreme cold snap can really put the hurt on a population of anoles. The winter of 2013 did just that. Before that year's famed polar vortex hit, however, the research team collected anoles in August to find out just how cold one of these lizards could get before its motor function was compromised — that is, it couldn't right itself when knocked over.
They collected anoles from five different sites across Texas, and found that when gradually cooled in a chamber in the lab, the individuals from the southernmost site became uncoordinated at around 52 degrees F (11 degrees C), but the ones collected from the northernmost site became unable to right themselves at around 43 degress F (6 degrees C).
Because the scientists already had genetic samples from the lizards in the first study, when, a few months later, temperatures plummeted to lows that hadn't been seen in 15 years, the researchers went out and collected some of the surviving lizards from all five sites. They placed them in the same cooling chambers and found the southernmost anoles exhibited much more cold resistance than the ones that had been collected back in the summer — they could now stand strong in the face of 43 degrees F (6 degrees C) temperatures. What identifies the changes as evolution rather than adaptation? RNA sequencing before and after the cold front also revealed significant differences between individuals from the southern genomic regions before and after the weather event. |
" " A close up of the woks in the robotic kitchen at Spyce in Boston, Massachusetts. Grace Uvezian/Spyce Food Co.
At Spyce, a recently-opened restaurant in Boston, diners can choose from a menu of meals-in-a-bowl that draws upon international influences ranging from Thai to Moroccan cuisine, which they can have customized to their individual tastes with vegetarian, pescatarian, gluten-free and vegan options. But it's not just the quality of the food and the relatively low price — bowls start at $7.50 — that's creating a buzz about the eatery.
At Spyce, diners also can watch as their meals are cooked by a robotic kitchen designed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates. (Here's an article from MIT's website about the restaurant.) After a customer orders a meal via one of the touchscreens mounted on the restaurant tables, the information is relayed to a 14-foot-long (4.27meters), nine-foot-tall (2.74 meters) machine, which retrieves the ingredients for that meal from a refrigerated compartment, feeds them into one of its array of woks, and cooks the mixture for several minutes. Then, a human worker adds cold garnishes such as crumbled goat cheese or pumpkin seeds, and the bowl is handed to the customer.
Here's a video they created that shows how it all works.
Spyce may be at the forefront of a technological revolution that could transform the restaurant business. A 2017 study by the McKinsey Global Institute identified accommodation and food services — that is, hotels and restaurants — as a sector where almost half of the labor time is spent either in operating machinery or performing predictable tasks, the sort of work that robots can do. This 2017 Wall Street Journal article mentions efforts to develop everything from robotic pizza makers and dishwashers to baristas.
Quality and Affordability
But the MIT entrepreneurs behind Spyce weren't focused on transforming the business, so much as they were on finding a way to produce restaurant meals that they and fellow students could afford. "When we were in school, we were looking for a food option that was healthy and delicious but also affordable," explains Spyce co-founder and chief executive Michael Farid. "But we couldn't find anything for less than $10 to $12."
Farid, who earned a master's degree in mechanical engineering in 2016, got the inspiration of using a robot to make the kitchen operation more efficient, and got several other MIT students on board. "The key was whether we could make a robot that makes good food," he explains. "We recognized that quality was the most important thing."
Developing a robot capable of making complex meals was a challenging task, says Braden Knight, the company's chief electrical engineer. Unlike, say, a robot working on an automobile assembly line, a cooking robot has to be able to handle a range of raw materials of varying characteristics and consistency, and do it gently enough so that they don't deteriorate. "Food isn't an easy medium to work with," Knight says. "Every potato is a different size. Kale is particularly tough to work with, because it likes to cling to itself."
Robot-Human Teamwork
The technology is sophisticated enough that each wok is washed robotically after a meal is prepared. But the restaurant also employs a human staff — as many as four workers during lunchtime hours — and they're an essential part of the operation. "The robotic kitchen streamlines our process, and does the repetitive tasks that aren't fun for people to do," Farid says. But he sees the restaurant business as being half about the food, and half about hospitality. "The staff is there to greet customers and help them through the ordering, to put the finishing touches on the food, and hand it to the guest with a smile," he says.
On the opposite coast, a Silicon Valley-based outfit called Bear Robotics has developed a robotic assistant named Penny, which navigates restaurant aisles to deliver food to diners, eliminating the need for waiters and waitresses to balance unwieldy trays. The human staffers still actually lift the menu items from the robot's tray and place them on the table. In this video, Penny manages to bring a bowl of soup without spilling a drop.
Bear Robotics co-founder and chief executive John Ha initially introduced the robot food runner at a Milpitas, Calif. restaurant that he operated until recently, where it served an estimated total 10,000 customers. The technology is now being used at a Mountain View, Calif. pizzeria, and the company is hoping to get it into several more restaurants this year.
Ha says that Penny could help alleviate labor shortages in the restaurant industry, but he emphasizes that it could improve workers' lives by eliminating a grueling, repetitive task and allowing them to concentrate on their interaction with customers. "The hard part of the front side of the restaurant is the food running," he says. "It's really tough work." If waiters and waitresses don't have to rush back and forth between the kitchen and the dining room continually, he says, they're going to be "less tired and more enthusiastic."
Bear Robotics co-founder and chief operating officer Juan Higueros says that such robots could help make restaurants — an industry long plagued by stress, burnout and high turnover — into more humane environments for workers. "Under the current system, the human server has no time to spend with you," he says. "It actually reduces the human touch. But if a robot can take on the monotonous, routine things they have to do, that gives them a lot more time for customers. It amplifies their value."
Ha says that the food-running robot offers another plus for human wait staff. They don't have to split their tips with the machine. In addition, at his restaurant, he observed that customers actually left bigger tips as well. "The reason is not the novelty of the robot," he explains. "It's because the human interaction got better." |
" " The date of the spring equinox also sets the date for several holidays, including Easter and Persian New Year. Robert Kirk/Getty Images
Adios, winter. Spring's almost here — or at least it is for some of us. Above the equator, the first day of the season comes in late March during an event locally known as the spring (or "vernal") equinox. On this momentous occasion, the sun will be positioned directly above the equator, something that only happens twice a year. The 2018 spring equinox is due to arrive on March 20. For your astronomical pleasure, here are five quick facts about it.
1. The Term "Equinox" Means "Equal Night."
Time to talk word origins. Translated from Latin, equinox means "equal night." In that ancient tongue, the words for "even" is "aequi" while "nox" means "night."
On the date of an equinox, daytime and nighttime have similar—but not quite equal—lengths. This has everything to do with the way our planet moves. Earth's axis is tilted at a 23.5-degree angle relative to the plane of its orbit around the sun.
An equinox marks the exact moment when the sun enters an imaginary line in the sky. Picture a giant, invisible ring around the earth that sits directly above the equator. Scientists call this make-believe halo the celestial equator. It's a line the sun only crosses twice a year — on the spring and autumn equinoxes. Due to that solar angle, every region of our planet will experience close to 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness on March 20. (Technically, the daytime is going to last a few minutes longer than the nighttime.)
2. Climate Scientists Recognize a Different "First Day of Spring."
By way of tradition, the March Equinox is celebrated as the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere (and the first day of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere). But did you know that a competing start date exists?
Astronomers define seasons on the basis of earth's position around the sun. According to the astronomical calendar, spring and autumn both begin with an equinox. Conversely, summer and winter start with a solstice. Those are biannual dates on which one hemisphere experiences its shortest day of the year.
So, if we go by the astronomical calendar, the spring of 2018 in the Northern Hemisphere will last from March 20 to the summer solstice on June 21. But climate scientists don't define the seasons this way. They use a different calendar — known as the "meteorological calendar." On it, the year is divided into four seasons lasting three months each, with spring beginning on March 1 and then lasting through April and May. Climate scientists base their calendar on the temperature cycle rather than the astronomical position of the sun — it's easier to calculate statistics and forecast trends using full months and the same dates each year.
3. The Spring Equinox Ushers in the Persian New Year.
"Navroz Mobarak!" The precise moment of the vernal equinox marks the first day of the first month on the Iranian solar calendar. It's also the start of Nowruz, an awesome 13-day celebration sometimes called the Persian New Year. Observed by 300 million people around the world (mainly in central and western Asia), Nowruz is preceded by a flurry of household chores. After the spring cleaning ends, families enjoy decadent meals and sometimes paint eggs that represent fertility. On the last Tuesday before the equinox, there's a ritual in which people jump over bonfires. This symbolizes the feeling of renewal that the new year offers. Another tradition sees children bang on pots and go door-to-door asking for treats. On the last day of the celebration, the family will go for a picnic as it is unlucky to stay home.
4. And Other Holidays Too.
For centuries, practitioners of Shintoism used the solar event as an occasion to honor their forebears. The Japanese government later converted this tradition into secular, national holiday formally known as Vernal Equinox Day in the year 1948. It's still being observed today.
In most denominations of Christianity, Easter is celebrated on the Sunday after the first full moon that follows March 21. What's so special about this date? Well, it marks the so-called ecclesiastical Spring Equinox. Ask any astronomer and they'll tell you that a spring equinox can fall on March 19, 20, or 21. But for simplicity's sake, many church leaders treat March 21 as though it were the designated spring equinox date every year. Easter can fall as early as March 22 or as late as April 25.
5. Earth's Wobbling Will Affect Future Equinoxes.
Like a spinning top, our home planet wobbles slightly on its axis. Today, the axis points towards the famous "north star," Polaris. But 12,000 years from now, it will shift away from Polaris and aim itself at a different star: Vega. This whole cycle will then repeat itself over the course of 26,000 years.
Gravitational forces exerted by the sun and moon are the main reason why planet Earth wobbles, and as it wobbles, the sun's relationship with the zodiac calendar changes. During the vernal equinox, the sun crosses in front of the constellation Pisces. Or at least that's true these days. Prior to the year 68 B.C.E., the sun used to line up with Aires — another constellation — on the spring equinox. By 2567, the sun will line up with the constellation Aquarius. |
A study found different countries had different definitions of personal space. Nisian Hughes/Getty Images
If you like to stand close to folks when you talk to them, you'll love Argentina. The South American country is filled with "close-talkers" -- people who stand 2.5 feet (0.76 meters) away from strangers when chatting. If you prefer more personal space, make your way to Romania instead. There, residents like to stand a spacious 4.5 feet (1.4 meters) away from strangers.
This info on personal "bubbles" comes from a study of preferred interpersonal distances recently published in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. While this issue of personal space in different countries has been examined before, the authors of this study used a much larger data set (nearly 9,000 people living in 42 countries) than was used in previous studies. Participants were shown a picture with two figures representing two people and a line with some distances marked off in between them. The subjects were asked how close should the two figures stand together if they are strangers versus close friends versus colleagues (acquaintances). The subjects were to assume that they were one of the two figures.
The scientists found that residents of Argentina, Peru and Bulgaria stand the closest to strangers, while those from Romania, Hungary and Saudi Arabia want the most space. Americans were somewhere in the middle.
This graph shows the personal distances of people from various countries in the study. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology
The researchers also studied the personal bubbles we draw between ourselves and family and friends. We're all fine with our family and friends standing closer to us than strangers — no surprise there. And our general bubble size with our friends stays consistent. That is, if we like more personal space, we'll keep our friends farther away than those who are fine with less personal space.
But intriguingly, things change when it comes to close friends or loved ones. The Romanians who like a lot of personal space between themselves and both strangers and colleagues like their intimate relations to be fairly close to them — about 1.5 feet (0.45 meters). That's closer than almost any other group studied. And the Norwegians, whose preference for stranger-distance is somewhere in the middle of the 42 countries studied, want their close friends to be closer to them than any other group (about 1.3 feet or 0.4 meters).
Scientists say it appears temperature has something to do with personal space. Those living in colder climates often prefer to be quite near to their friends, perhaps as a way to stay warm. And those residing in warm climates often stand closer to strangers; at least one past study showed when it's warm, people move in closer to one another. |
Workers hired to build stadiums and other structures in preparation for the FIFA 2017 Confederations Cup and 2018 World Cup in Moscow face exploitation and labor abuses, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.
Russian workers, many of whom migrated internally, and migrant workers from neighboring countries both reported unpaid or delayed wages, work in conditions as cold as -25° C, and the failure of their employers to provide work contracts required for legal employment, the watch dog said.
“FIFA’s promise to make human rights a centerpiece of its global operations has been put to the test in Russia, and FIFA is coming up short,” said Jane Buchanan, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Construction workers on World Cup stadiums face exploitation and abuse, and FIFA has not yet shown that it can effectively monitor, prevent, and remedy these issues.”
Human Rights Watch also said that workers were hesitant to speak about abuses, fearing reprisals from their employers.
Additionally, the international rights group said one of their researchers was detained, questioned, threatened, and eventually released without charges by Russian authorities while trying to interview construction workers outside the World Cup stadium in April.
Though FIFA documented a system coordinated with Russian authorities to monitor working conditions, Human Rights Watch stressed that the system was not made public, and that it only covered the construction of stadiums and no other World Cup infrastructure construction.
Russia will host eight international soccer teams, including its own at the Confederations Cup from June 17 to July 2. One year later, Moscow will host the World Cup, the world’s premier football tournament. |
Workers hired to build stadiums and other structures in preparation for the FIFA 2017 Confederations Cup and 2018 World Cup in Moscow face exploitation and labor abuses, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.
Russian workers, many of whom migrated internally, and migrant workers from neighboring countries both reported unpaid or delayed wages, work in conditions as cold as -25° C, and the failure of their employers to provide work contracts required for legal employment, the watch dog said.
“FIFA’s promise to make human rights a centerpiece of its global operations has been put to the test in Russia, and FIFA is coming up short,” said Jane Buchanan, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Construction workers on World Cup stadiums face exploitation and abuse, and FIFA has not yet shown that it can effectively monitor, prevent, and remedy these issues.”
Human Rights Watch also said that workers were hesitant to speak about abuses, fearing reprisals from their employers.
Additionally, the international rights group said one of their researchers was detained, questioned, threatened, and eventually released without charges by Russian authorities while trying to interview construction workers outside the World Cup stadium in April.
Though FIFA documented a system coordinated with Russian authorities to monitor working conditions, Human Rights Watch stressed that the system was not made public, and that it only covered the construction of stadiums and no other World Cup infrastructure construction.
Russia will host eight international soccer teams, including its own at the Confederations Cup from June 17 to July 2. One year later, Moscow will host the World Cup, the world’s premier football tournament. |
A U.S. federal judge who temporarily halted the enforcement of President Donald Trump’s entry ban ruled Monday that the case challenging the ban itself will move forward, while another federal judge issued a new injunction to keep the ban from being implemented in the state of Virginia.
District Court Judge James Robart ruled earlier this month that people from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Sudan who have valid visas to enter the U.S. may do so, and the nation’s refugee admissions program can continue, all while courts consider whether Trump’s executive order is legal.
Since that ruling, the government appealed to a three-judge panel at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld Robart’s decision to pause enforcement of the ban.
The higher court has 25 circuit judges, and one of them asked last week that the entire group vote on whether to have an 11-member panel re-hear the arguments about whether the temporary enforcement suspension should remain in place. The two sides in the case are due to submit their briefs to that court by Thursday.
The Justice Department asked Judge Robart on Monday to not go any further in considering the overall legality of Trump’s order until the 9th Circuit makes its decision, but Robart denied the request.
The state of Washington, which along with Minnesota is leading the legal challenge, argued holding hearings on the constitutionality of Trump’s order in the lower court will not interfere with the appeal happening at the 9th circuit.
The Trump administration says it is within its authority to institute the ban, citing the need to protect the nation’s security. It has also rejected criticisms that the ban, which involves majority-Muslim countries, is a ban on Muslims entering the U.S.
During Trump’s campaign, he originally proposed not allowing Muslims into the country, but later altered the plan to instead target nations with links to terrorism.
District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema cited those statements in her ruling Monday in Virginia that imposed a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of the entry ban portion of the executive order. It does not apply to the refugee program.
“The question is whether the EO (executive order) was animated by national security concerns at all, as opposed to the impermissible motive of, in the context of entry, disfavoring one religious group and, in the area of refugees, favoring another religious group,” Brinkema wrote.
The U.S. Constitution forbids the government from establishing an official religion or taking actions that promote or inhibit religion. Trump’s order specified that refugees who are a religious minority in their country and facing persecution would still be eligible for admission to the U.S.
“Although there is no interest more weighty than a bona fide national security concern, the defendants have presented no evidence to support their contention that the EO is necessary to national security,” Brinkema said in ruling against Trump.
Virginia based its case on the impacts of the ban on its state universities and community colleges, saying students were withdrawing applications, schools would lose tuition money and that Virginia students studying abroad could face inflamed anti-American sentiment.
Brinkema cited a state university official who said the ban affected international travel for at least 350 students at five of the state’s biggest schools. |
Five hundred U.S. troops began to arrive in a Romanian Black Sea port with tanks and hardware to bolster defense in this East European NATO nation.
The U.S. Embassy said the “Fighting Eagles,” 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, will be stationed in the Mihail Kogalniceanu air base in eastern Romania, on a rotational basis.
U.S. Ambassador Hans G. Klemm said Tuesday the development underscored that “the strong U.S.-Romania strategic partnership exists in both word and deed.”
He said the presence “expands our capacity … in maintaining peace and security in southeastern Europe and the Black Sea region.”
NATO’s ties with Moscow deteriorated after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and supported a pro-Russian insurgency. NATO since has increased military exercises in Eastern Europe to reassure allies. |
Russian lawmakers on Tuesday mounted a fierce defense of U.S. President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, who resigned following reports that he misled White House officials about his contacts with Russia.
Michael Flynn resigned Monday night, conceding that he gave “incomplete information” about his calls with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S.
A U.S. official told The Associated Press that Flynn was in frequent contact with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak on the day the Obama administration imposed sanctions on Russia after U.S. intelligence reported that Russia had interfered with the U.S. elections. The Kremlin has confirmed that Flynn has been in contact with Kislyak but denied that they talked about lifting sanctions.
Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the foreign affairs committee at the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, said in a post on Facebook that firing a national security adviser for his contacts with Russia is “not just paranoia but something even worse.”
Kosachev also expressed frustration with the Trump administration.
“Either Trump hasn’t found the necessary independence and he’s been driven into a corner … or Russophobia has permeated the new administration from top to bottom.”
Kosachev’s counterpart at the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, Alexei Pushkov, tweeted shortly after the announcement that “it was not Flynn who was targeted but relations with Russia.”
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on Flynn’s resignation, saying that “it’s none of our business.” Asked if Moscow still hopes that relations with the U.S. are going to improve, he said it is “too early to say” since “Trump’s team has not been shaped yet.”
The Kremlin earlier said that it was not expecting a breakthrough before the two presidents meet in person.
Fyodor Lukyanov, chair of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policies, a group of Russian foreign policy experts, told the RIA Novosti news agency that it is not yet clear whether Flynn’s departure could influence bilateral ties.
“There’s nothing to influence yet, there are no relations as such. Our countries have relations shaped by the former administration which were awful, and Trump was going to change that,” he said. “But who he is going to change it with – Flynn, or not him, [Secretary of State Rex] Tillerson – it is not clear right now.” |
Before Burning Man and Bonnaroo, Coachella and Lollapalooza, Glastonbury and Governors Island, there was Monterey Pop.
Fifty years ago this week, the three-day concert south of San Francisco became the centerpiece of the “Summer of Love” and paved the way for today’s popular festivals. The Monterey International Pop Festival created the template for giving emerging artists exposure alongside blockbuster bands while showcasing different genres of music in outdoor settings.
John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas came up with the idea for three days of music with proceeds going to charitable causes. He brought in Grammy-winning record producer Lou Adler, promoter Alan Pariser and publicist Derek Taylor, who worked with the Beatles.
The festival was planned in just seven weeks with the goal of validating rock music as an art form in the same way that jazz and folk were regarded in 1967.
“The focus was the music and how to present it in the best possible way,” Adler said recently at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. “The byproduct of that was the feeling that took place in Monterey – love and flowers.”
Organizers sought out the best musicians, sound and lighting systems and food “lift the level of what rock ‘n’ roll should be,” Adler said.
They signed on Jefferson Airplane, The Who, the Grateful Dead, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Simon & Garfunkel, Big Brother and the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin, Otis Redding, Ravi Shankar, and The Mamas & the Papas.
“We sort of had our pick,” Adler recalled, noting no one booked acts that far out at the time.
It was Shankar’s introduction to an American audience, and the Indian sitar player was the only one who got paid, Adler said. He received $3,000, while the others had their flights and hotels comped.
“Everybody just wanted to play, and that’s why they signed on,” Adler said.
Below the single stage that hosted 32 acts was a 24-hour cafe serving the artists steak and lobster. The organizers also set up a first-aid clinic for concertgoers and help for drug-related problems.
“If the artist is happy and the audience is comfortable, then that’s a start,” Adler said. “If the audience can give back to the performer, then that’s a chemistry that is hard to beat.”
Adler’s favorite performance was by soul singer Redding, who died six months later in a plane crash.
Redding was backed by Booker T. and the MGs. Bandleader Booker T. Jones was 22 and “an innocent guy” at the time, he recalled.
“There we were in our green mohair suits and ties and our white shirts and there was everybody else with long hair and smoking,” Jones said by phone from his Nevada home. “I had never smoked stuff before. There’s all this stuff in the air. I got the contact high.”
Jones and his band were escorted to the show by the Hells Angels motorcycle gang.
“I remember the music impressing me,” he said. “We’d only been doing R&B. I learned to love rock ‘n’ roll during that time.”
Backstage, the era’s peace and love vibe didn’t extend to Hendrix and Pete Townshend of The Who. Both were known for destroying guitars and amplifiers.
Adler recalled that neither wanted the other to perform first, so Phillips flipped a coin. The Who won.
“Hendrix jumped up on a table and said, ‘OK, you little (expletive),’” Adler recalled. “‘No matter what you do, I’ll do something that burns you.’”
Aware that The Who planned an explosive finale, Hendrix capped his set with a version of “Wild Thing,” kneeling over his guitar and setting it on fire before smashing it repeatedly and tossing the remains into the crowd.
Not all the biggest names of the day played Monterey. The list of cancellations and no shows was equally impressive, including the Rolling Stones (Mick Jagger and Keith Richards couldn’t get work visas because of drug arrests), the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Kinks and Bob Dylan.
Two years later, Adler got a call asking if he wanted to help put together Woodstock on a farm in upstate New York. He declined.
Held at the Monterey County Fairgrounds, attendance numbers vary from 25,000 to 90,000 people, easily tripling the county’s population. It was a one-time-only event because by the next year, things had changed. Adler cites money issues and “angry people who didn’t like that hippies were in their town.”
The festival is featured at the Grammy Museum in a new exhibit called “Music, Love and Flowers 1967” that runs through Oct. 22.
Monterey Pop spawned an eponymous nonprofit foundation that donates to musical and humanitarian efforts in the names of the festival’s original performers. Its money comes from video and audio profits generated by the festival.
The festival’s golden anniversary will be celebrated June 16-18 at the Monterey Fairgrounds. The lineup includes three acts that played the original: Eric Burdon and the Animals, Booker T. Stax Revue and Phil Lesh. Others artists include Leon Bridges, Gary Clark Jr., The Head and the Heart, Jack Johnson and Norah Jones (Shankar’s daughter).
Three-day tickets cost from $295 to $695 for a VIP package.
The original prices ranged from $3 to $6.50.
Fifty years later, Adler is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, having worked with some of music’s biggest names. Today, the white-haired, beret-wearing 83-year-old is best known as Jack Nicholson’s seatmate at Los Angeles Lakers games.
He regularly attends Coachella in the Southern California desert, still imbued with the easygoing spirit of Monterey.
“I couldn’t have asked for more,” Adler said. “We’re still talking about it.” |
Skopje sends foreign minister to Athens for talks to end long-standing row between neighbouring states over Macedonia name
This article titled “Macedonia and Greece appear close to settling 27-year dispute over name” was written by Helena Smith in Athens, for The Guardian on Tuesday 13th June 2017 15.44 UTC
FYR Macedonia is poised to dispatch its foreign minister to Greece as speculation mounts that the two countries are moving towards settlement of the name dispute that has kept them at loggerheads for the past 27 years.
Signalling that a compromise is in the offing, Zoran Zaev, the Balkan state’s new Social Democrat leader, used his first official trip to Brussels on Monday to announce that a solution was possible. “I know that if we have friendly relations and a good approach then a solution is feasible,” he told reporters before talks between Macedonia’s foreign minister, Nikola Dimitrov, and his Greek counterpart, Nikos Kotzias, in Athens on Wednesday.
Zaev, whose investiture two weeks ago followed prolonged political turmoil in the former Yugoslav republic, said he wanted the small but strategic nation to join Nato and the EU “in the shortest possible time”. Macedonia, he suggested, could participate in both under the provisional name it currently uses at the UN – FYROM or the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. “We will try all possible measures to move Macedonia to membership,” said the pro-European prime minister standing alongside Nato’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg.
The quest comes amid accusations of Russian interference across the Balkan region. The FYR Macedonian government claims the meddling has made membership more vital. Stoltenberg underscored that position, saying Nato’s mission was to support all aspiring countries. “We want to see your country as part of a stable, democratic and prosperous region,” he said.
The long-running name row has been the single biggest impediment to Macedonia’s integration with the west. Greece, which vetoed the country joining Nato in 2008, has argued vehemently that its northern neighbour’s nomenclature conceals territorial ambitions over the eponymous Greek province that lies directly to the republic’s south. In nearly three decades of often bitter public exchanges, Athens has frequently accused the country of indulging in cultural theft, saying the predominantly Slavic state has deliberately appropriated symbols and heroic personalities from ancient Greek history to buttress its claim to the name.
But Zaev, who formed a government in coalition with parties representing the nation’s large ethnic Albanian minority, has taken a much more conciliatory approach. Last week the centre-left politician criticised his rightwing predecessor, Nikola Grueski, accusing him of provocations during the decade he held office by pushing ahead with a controversial statue and monument-building campaign that named a slew of public edifices after Alexander the Great.
In a television interview the new prime minister said the politics of antagonising Athens would be terminated immediately. “I can only say that the era of monuments, renaming of highways, airports, sports halls and stadiums with historical names ends,” said the leader whose lividly scarred forehead is testimony to the civil unrest that has gripped the mini-state. “We shall generate a politics of joint European future.” Zaev was injured when, in an orgy of violence, a pro-Grueski mob stormed parliament in April.
Any potential name change would be put to public plebiscite for approval. Mooted name changes have included adding geographic qualifiers such as “upper”, “new” or “northern” Macedonia.
In what was seen by Athens as a major compromise, Greece announced in 2007 that it would give its consent to a composite name in which the word Macedonia could feature. At the time the compromise was supported by Panos Kammenos, the leader of the small nationalist Independent Greeks party currently in power with prime minister Alexis Tsipras’s leftist Syriza party.
Since then, emotions have abated as a sense of realpolitik in both countries has taken root. While Zaev believes membership of Euro-Atlantic bodies will help stabilise his ethnically fractious nation, debt-stricken Greece also sees a solution as bolstering its crisis-wracked economy in the Balkan peninsular.
“It is very important that Greece settles this dispute if it is to play an important role in the Balkans,” said Dimitris Keridis, professor of political science at Athens’s Panteion University. “Our neighbour is suffering from very deep internal divisions with the new government believing that the only way to stabilise it is to make the country part of the Euro-Atlantic architecture,” he told the Guardian. “Clearly it is willing to reach a compromise with Greece to achieve this, a compromise that after years of being able to hide behind Grueski’s intransigence is going to put Greek diplomacy on the spot.”
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 |
There is a window of opportunity for Greece to achieve an agreement with its creditors, EU financial affairs chief Pierre Moscovici told Euronews’ Greek service in Brussels on Monday, following the presentation of the European Commission’s winter forecasts for the period 2016-2018.
“Just as Greek authorities are assuming their responsibilities, Greece’s partners must also assume theirs,” he said.
Concerning the International Monetary Fund’s role in the Greek program, the Commissioner said it is a “valuable partner” with whom the European Commission wants to work with. |
Skopje sends foreign minister to Athens for talks to end long-standing row between neighbouring states over Macedonia name
This article titled “Macedonia and Greece appear close to settling 27-year dispute over name” was written by Helena Smith in Athens, for The Guardian on Tuesday 13th June 2017 15.44 UTC
FYR Macedonia is poised to dispatch its foreign minister to Greece as speculation mounts that the two countries are moving towards settlement of the name dispute that has kept them at loggerheads for the past 27 years.
Signalling that a compromise is in the offing, Zoran Zaev, the Balkan state’s new Social Democrat leader, used his first official trip to Brussels on Monday to announce that a solution was possible. “I know that if we have friendly relations and a good approach then a solution is feasible,” he told reporters before talks between Macedonia’s foreign minister, Nikola Dimitrov, and his Greek counterpart, Nikos Kotzias, in Athens on Wednesday.
Zaev, whose investiture two weeks ago followed prolonged political turmoil in the former Yugoslav republic, said he wanted the small but strategic nation to join Nato and the EU “in the shortest possible time”. Macedonia, he suggested, could participate in both under the provisional name it currently uses at the UN – FYROM or the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. “We will try all possible measures to move Macedonia to membership,” said the pro-European prime minister standing alongside Nato’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg.
The quest comes amid accusations of Russian interference across the Balkan region. The FYR Macedonian government claims the meddling has made membership more vital. Stoltenberg underscored that position, saying Nato’s mission was to support all aspiring countries. “We want to see your country as part of a stable, democratic and prosperous region,” he said.
The long-running name row has been the single biggest impediment to Macedonia’s integration with the west. Greece, which vetoed the country joining Nato in 2008, has argued vehemently that its northern neighbour’s nomenclature conceals territorial ambitions over the eponymous Greek province that lies directly to the republic’s south. In nearly three decades of often bitter public exchanges, Athens has frequently accused the country of indulging in cultural theft, saying the predominantly Slavic state has deliberately appropriated symbols and heroic personalities from ancient Greek history to buttress its claim to the name.
But Zaev, who formed a government in coalition with parties representing the nation’s large ethnic Albanian minority, has taken a much more conciliatory approach. Last week the centre-left politician criticised his rightwing predecessor, Nikola Grueski, accusing him of provocations during the decade he held office by pushing ahead with a controversial statue and monument-building campaign that named a slew of public edifices after Alexander the Great.
In a television interview the new prime minister said the politics of antagonising Athens would be terminated immediately. “I can only say that the era of monuments, renaming of highways, airports, sports halls and stadiums with historical names ends,” said the leader whose lividly scarred forehead is testimony to the civil unrest that has gripped the mini-state. “We shall generate a politics of joint European future.” Zaev was injured when, in an orgy of violence, a pro-Grueski mob stormed parliament in April.
Any potential name change would be put to public plebiscite for approval. Mooted name changes have included adding geographic qualifiers such as “upper”, “new” or “northern” Macedonia.
In what was seen by Athens as a major compromise, Greece announced in 2007 that it would give its consent to a composite name in which the word Macedonia could feature. At the time the compromise was supported by Panos Kammenos, the leader of the small nationalist Independent Greeks party currently in power with prime minister Alexis Tsipras’s leftist Syriza party.
Since then, emotions have abated as a sense of realpolitik in both countries has taken root. While Zaev believes membership of Euro-Atlantic bodies will help stabilise his ethnically fractious nation, debt-stricken Greece also sees a solution as bolstering its crisis-wracked economy in the Balkan peninsular.
“It is very important that Greece settles this dispute if it is to play an important role in the Balkans,” said Dimitris Keridis, professor of political science at Athens’s Panteion University. “Our neighbour is suffering from very deep internal divisions with the new government believing that the only way to stabilise it is to make the country part of the Euro-Atlantic architecture,” he told the Guardian. “Clearly it is willing to reach a compromise with Greece to achieve this, a compromise that after years of being able to hide behind Grueski’s intransigence is going to put Greek diplomacy on the spot.”
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 |
Model
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Veloster XG EX FX G M Q30 Q50 Q60 Q70 QX30 QX50 QX70 Daily F-Pace F-type S-Type X-Type XE XF XJ XJS XK Cherokee Commander Compass Grand Cherokee Patriot Renegade Wrangler Carens Carnival Ceed Cerato Clarus Joice Magentis Mentor Niro Opirus Optima Picanto Pride Rio Sephia Shuma Sorento Soul Sportage Venga X-Bow 110 111 112 2100-serie Kalina Niva Priora Samara Aventador Diablo Gallardo Huracán Murciélago Dedra Delta Flavia Kappa Lybra Musa Phedra Thema Thesis Voyager Ypsilon Zeta Defender Discovery Discovery Sport Freelander Range Rover Range Rover Evoque Range Rover Sport CV9 CT GS IS LS NX RC RX SC Elise Esprit Europa Evora Exige 3200 GT Coupé Ghibli GranCabrio GranTurismo Levante Quattroporte Spyder 57 62 121 2 3 323 5 6 626 CX-3 CX-5 CX-7 CX-9 Demio MPV MX-3 MX-5 MX-6 Premacy RX-7 RX-8 Tribute Xedos 6 Xedos 9 12C 540 540/570/650/675 570 650 675 MP4-12C P1 190-serie 200-serie A-klasse AMG GT B-klasse C-klasse Citan CL-klasse CLA-klasse CLC-klasse CLK-klasse CLS-klasse E-klasse G-klasse GL-klasse GLA-klasse GLC-klasse GLE-klasse GLK-klasse GLS-klasse M-klasse R-klasse S-klasse SL-klasse SLC-klasse SLK-klasse SLR McLaren SLS AMG Sprinter V-klasse Vaneo Viano Vito F TF ZR ZS ZT 1000 Cabrio Clubman Countryman Coupé Mini Paceman Roadster ASX Carisma Colt Eclipse Galant Grandis i-MiEV L200 Lancer Outlander Outlander Sport Pajero Pajero Pinin Pajero Sport Space Runner Space Star Space Wagon 3 Wheeler 4/4 Aero Plus 4 Roadster 100 NX 200 SX 300 ZX 350Z 370Z Almera Almera Tino Bluebird Cube Evalia GT-R Juke Leaf Maxima Micra Murano Note NV200 NV400 Pathfinder Patrol Pixo Primastar Primera Pulsar Qashqai Serena Sunny Terrano X-Trail Adam Agila Ampera Antara Ascona Astra Calibra Cascada Combo Corsa Crossland X Frontera GT Insignia Kadett Karl Manta Meriva Mokka Monza Movano Omega Rekord Senator Signum Sintra Speedster Tigra Tour Vectra Vivaro Zafira 1007 106 107 108 2008 205 206 207 208 3008 306 307 308 309 4007 405 406 407 5008 508 605 607 806 807 Bipper Expert Ion Partner RCZ Traveller 718 911 918 924 928 944 968 Boxster Cayenne Cayman Macan Panamera 19 21 4 5 Avantime Captur Clio Espace Fluence Kadjar Kangoo Koleos Laguna Master Mégane Modus Nevada Safrane Scénic Talisman Trafic Twingo Twizy Vel Satis Wind Zoe Dawn Ghost Phantom Wraith 100-serie 200-serie 25 400-serie 45 600-serie 75 800-serie Mini Tourer 9-3 9-4X 9-5 9-7X 900 9000 99 Alhambra Altea Arosa Ateca Cordoba Exeo Ibiza Leon Marbella Mii Toledo 100-serie Citigo Fabia Favorit Felicia Kodiaq Octavia Rapid Roomster Superb Yeti city-coupé crossblade forfour fortwo roadster Actyon Korando Kyron Musso Rexton Rodius Tivoli BRZ Forester Impreza Justy Legacy Levorg Mini Jumbo Outback SVX Trezia Tribeca Vivio WRX XV Alto Baleno Celerio Grand Vitara Ignis Jimny Kizashi Liana S-Cross Samurai Splash Swift SX4 Vitara Wagon R+ Model 3 Model S Model X Roadster Auris Avensis Avensis Verso Aygo C-HR Camry Carina Celica Corolla Corolla Verso Funcruiser GT86 Hilux iQ Land Cruiser Land Cruiser 100 Land Cruiser V8 MR2 Paseo Picnic Previa Prius Prius+ RAV4 Starlet Urban Cruiser Verso Verso-S Yaris Yaris Verso Amarok Beetle Bora Caddy CC Corrado Crafter Eos Fox Golf Golf Plus Golf Sportsvan Jetta Lupo New Beetle Passat Phaeton Polo Santana Scirocco Sharan Tiguan Touareg Touran Transporter Up Vento XL1 240 340 360 440 460 480 740 760 780 850 940 960 C30 C70 S40 S60 S70 S80 S90 V40 V50 V60 V70 V90 XC40 XC60 XC70 XC90 |
Model
Model 124 124 Spider 500 595 Punto 145 146 147 155 156 159 164 166 33 4C 75 8C 8C Competizione Brera Giulia Giulietta GT GTV MiTo Spider Stelvio Cygnet DB11 DB7 DB9 DBS Rapide Vanquish Vantage 100 80 90 A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 Cabriolet Coupé Q2 Q3 Q5 Q7 R8 TT Arnage Bentayga Continental Flying Spur Mulsanne 1-serie 2-serie 2-serie Tourer 3-serie 3-serie GT 4-serie 5-serie 5-serie GT 6-serie 6-serie GT 7-serie 8-serie i3 i8 X1 X3 X4 X5 X6 Z3 Z4 Z8 Chiron Veyron ATS BLS CT6 CTS Escalade Seville SRX STS XLR XT5 Alero Aveo Blazer Camaro Captiva Corvette Cruze Epica Evanda HHR Kalos Lacetti Matiz Nubira Orlando Spark Tacuma Trax Volt 300C 300M Crossfire Grand Voyager Neon New Yorker PT Cruiser Sebring Stratus Viper Vision Voyager 2CV Berlingo BX C-Crosser C-Zero C1 C2 C3 C3 Picasso C4 C4 Aircross C4 Cactus C4 Picasso C5 C6 C8 CX DS DS3 DS4 DS5 Evasion Jumper Jumpy Nemo Saxo Xantia XM Xsara Xsara Picasso Dokker Duster Lodgy Logan Sandero Espero Evanda Kalos Lacetti Lanos Leganza Matiz Nexia Nubira Tacuma Applause Charade Copen Cuore Feroza Materia Move Rocky Sirion Terios Trevis Valéra Young RV Avenger Caliber Journey Nitro Viper D8 D8 GTO 3 4 5 7 348 360 456 458 488 550 575M 599 612 812 California Enzo F12 F355 F430 FF GTC4 LaFerrari 124 124 Spider 500 500L 500X 600 Barchetta Brava Bravo Cinquecento Coupé Croma Doblò Ducato Fiorino Fullback Idea Marea Multipla Palio Panda Punto Qubo Scudo Sedici Seicento Stilo Strada Talento Tempra Tipo Ulysse Uno Karma B-MAX C-MAX EcoSport Edge Escort Fiesta Focus Focus C-MAX Fusion Galaxy Ka Ka+ Kuga Mondeo Mustang Puma Ranger S-MAX Scorpio Sierra Tourneo Connect Tourneo Courier Tourneo Custom Transit Transit Connect Transit Courier Transit Custom Accord Civic CR-V CR-Z FR-V HR-V Insight Jazz Legend Logo NSX S2000 Stream H1 H2 H3 Accent Atos Coupé Elantra Genesis Getz Grandeur H300 i10 i20 i30 i40 Ioniq ix20 ix35 Kona Matrix Santa Fe Scoupé Sonata Terracan Trajet Tucson Veloster XG EX FX G M Q30 Q50 Q60 Q70 QX30 QX50 QX70 Daily F-Pace F-type S-Type X-Type XE XF XJ XJS XK Cherokee Commander Compass Grand Cherokee Patriot Renegade Wrangler Carens Carnival Ceed Cerato Joice Magentis Mentor Niro Opirus Optima Picanto Pride Rio Sephia Shuma Sorento Soul Sportage Stonic Venga X-Bow 110 111 112 2100-serie Kalina Niva Priora Samara Aventador Diablo Gallardo Huracán Murciélago Delta Flavia Kappa Lybra Musa Phedra Thema Thesis Voyager Ypsilon Defender Discovery Discovery Sport Freelander Range Rover Range Rover Evoque Range Rover Sport Range Rover Velar CV9 CT GS IS LS NX RC RX SC Elise Esprit Europa Evora Exige 3200 GT Coupé Ghibli GranCabrio GranTurismo Levante Quattroporte Spyder 57 62 121 2 3 323 5 6 626 CX-3 CX-5 CX-7 CX-9 Demio MPV MX-3 MX-5 Premacy RX-8 Tribute Xedos 6 Xedos 9 12C 540 540/570/650/675 570 650 675 MP4-12C P1 190-serie 200-serie A-klasse AMG GT B-klasse C-klasse Citan CL-klasse CLA-klasse CLC-klasse CLK-klasse CLS-klasse E-klasse G-klasse GL-klasse GLA-klasse GLC-klasse GLE-klasse GLK-klasse GLS-klasse M-klasse R-klasse S-klasse SL-klasse SLC-klasse SLK-klasse SLR McLaren SLS AMG Sprinter V-klasse Vaneo Viano Vito F TF ZR ZS ZT 1000 Cabrio Clubman Countryman Coupé Mini Paceman Roadster ASX Carisma Colt Galant Grandis i-MiEV L200 Lancer Outlander Outlander Sport Pajero Pajero Pinin Pajero Sport Space Star Space Wagon 3 Wheeler 4/4 Aero Plus 4 Roadster 100 NX 300 ZX 350Z 370Z Almera Almera Tino Cube Evalia GT-R Juke Leaf Micra Murano Note NV200 NV300 NV400 Pathfinder Patrol Pixo Primastar Primera Pulsar Qashqai Terrano X-Trail Adam Agila Ampera Ampera-e Antara Ascona Astra Calibra Cascada Combo Corsa Crossland Crossland X Frontera Grandland GT Insignia Kadett Karl Manta Meriva Mokka Monza Movano Omega Rekord Senator Signum Speedster Tigra Tour Vectra Vivaro Zafira 1007 106 107 108 2008 205 206 207 208 3008 306 307 308 309 4007 405 406 407 5008 508 605 607 806 807 Bipper Expert Ion Partner RCZ Traveller 718 911 918 924 928 944 968 Boxster Cayenne Cayman Macan Panamera 4 5 Avantime Captur Clio Espace Fluence Kadjar Kangoo Koleos Laguna Master Mégane Modus Safrane Scénic Talisman Trafic Twingo Twizy Vel Satis Wind Zoe Dawn Ghost Phantom Wraith 100-serie 200-serie 25 400-serie 45 600-serie 75 800-serie Mini Tourer 9-3 9-4X 9-5 9-7X 900 9000 99 Alhambra Altea Arona Arosa Ateca Cordoba Exeo Ibiza Leon Marbella Mii Toledo 100-serie Citigo Fabia Favorit Felicia Karoq Kodiaq Octavia Rapid Roomster Superb Yeti city-coupé crossblade forfour fortwo roadster Actyon Korando Kyron Musso Rexton Rodius Tivoli BRZ Forester Impreza Justy Legacy Levorg Mini Jumbo Outback SVX Trezia Tribeca Vivio WRX XV Alto Baleno Celerio Grand Vitara Ignis Jimny Kizashi Liana S-Cross Splash Swift SX4 Vitara Wagon R+ Model 3 Model S Model X Roadster Auris Avensis Avensis Verso Aygo C-HR Camry Celica Corolla Corolla Verso Funcruiser GT86 Hilux iQ Land Cruiser Land Cruiser V8 MR2 Previa Prius Prius+ RAV4 Starlet Urban Cruiser Verso Verso-S Yaris Yaris Verso Amarok Arteon Beetle Bora Caddy CC Corrado Crafter Eos Fox Golf Golf Plus Golf Sportsvan Jetta Lupo New Beetle Passat Phaeton Polo Santana Scirocco Sharan Tiguan Touareg Touran Transporter Up Vento XL1 240 340 360 440 460 480 740 760 780 850 940 960 C30 C70 S40 S60 S70 S80 S90 V40 V50 V60 V70 V90 XC40 XC60 XC70 XC90 |
Model
Model 124 124 Spider 500 595 Punto 145 146 147 155 156 159 164 166 33 4C 75 8C 8C Competizione Brera Giulia Giulietta GT GTV MiTo Spider Cygnet DB11 DB7 DB9 DBS Rapide Vanquish Vantage 100 80 90 A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 Cabriolet Coupé Q2 Q3 Q5 Q7 R8 TT Arnage Bentayga Continental Flying Spur Mulsanne 1-serie 2-serie 3-serie 4-serie 5-serie 6-serie 7-serie 8-serie i3 i8 X1 X3 X4 X5 X6 Z3 Z4 Z8 Veyron ATS BLS CT6 CTS Eldorado Escalade Seville SRX STS XLR XT5 Alero Aveo Blazer Camaro Captiva Corvette Cruze Epica Evanda HHR Kalos Lacetti Matiz Nubira Orlando Spark Tacuma Trax Volt 300C 300M Crossfire Grand Voyager Neon New Yorker PT Cruiser Sebring Stratus Viper Vision Voyager 2CV AX Berlingo BX C-Crosser C-Zero C1 C2 C3 C3 Picasso C4 C4 Aircross C4 Cactus C4 Picasso C5 C6 C8 CX DS DS3 DS4 DS5 Evasion Jumper Jumpy Nemo Saxo Xantia XM Xsara Xsara Picasso ZX Dokker Duster Lodgy Logan Sandero Espero Evanda Kalos Lacetti Lanos Leganza Matiz Nexia Nubira Tacuma Applause Charade Copen Cuore Feroza Gran Move Materia Move Rocky Sirion Terios Trevis Valéra Young RV Avenger Caliber Journey Nitro Viper D8 D8 GTO 3 4 5 348 360 456 458 488 550 575M 599 612 California Enzo F12 F355 F430 FF GTC4 124 Spider 500 500L 500X 600 Barchetta Brava Bravo Cinquecento Coupé Croma Doblò Ducato Fiorino Idea Marea Multipla Palio Panda Punto Qubo Scudo Sedici Seicento Stilo Strada Talento Tempra Tipo Ulysse Uno Karma B-MAX C-MAX Cougar EcoSport Edge Escort Expedition Explorer Fiesta Focus Focus C-MAX Fusion Galaxy Ka Ka+ Kuga Mondeo Mustang Orion Puma Ranger S-MAX Scorpio Sierra Taurus Thunderbird Tourneo Tourneo Connect Tourneo Courier Tourneo Custom Transit Transit Connect Transit Courier Transit Custom Windstar Accord Civic Concerto CR-V CR-Z CRX FR-V HR-V Insight Jazz Legend Logo NSX Prelude S2000 Shuttle Stream H1 H2 H3 Accent Atos Coupé Elantra Excel Genesis Getz Grandeur H300 i10 i20 i30 i40 Ioniq ix20 ix35 Lantra Matrix Pony Santa Fe Scoupé Sonata Terracan Trajet Tucson Veloster XG EX FX G M Q30 Q50 Q60 Q70 QX30 QX50 QX70 Daily F-Pace F-type S-Type X-Type XE XF XJ XJS XK Cherokee Commander Compass Grand Cherokee Patriot Renegade Wrangler Carens Carnival Ceed Cerato Clarus Joice Magentis Mentor Niro Opirus Optima Picanto Pride Rio Sephia Shuma Sorento Soul Sportage Venga X-Bow 110 111 112 2100-serie Kalina Niva Priora Samara Aventador Diablo Gallardo Huracán Murciélago Dedra Delta Flavia Kappa Lybra Musa Phedra Thema Thesis Voyager Ypsilon Zeta Defender Discovery Discovery Sport Freelander Range Rover Range Rover Evoque Range Rover Sport CV9 CT GS IS LS NX RC RX SC Elise Esprit Europa Evora Exige 3200 GT Coupé Ghibli GranCabrio GranTurismo Levante Quattroporte Spyder 57 62 121 2 3 323 5 6 626 CX-3 CX-5 CX-7 CX-9 Demio MPV MX-3 MX-5 MX-6 Premacy RX-7 RX-8 Tribute Xedos 6 Xedos 9 12C 540 540/570/650/675 570 650 675 MP4-12C P1 190-serie 200-serie A-klasse AMG GT B-klasse C-klasse Citan CL-klasse CLA-klasse CLC-klasse CLK-klasse CLS-klasse E-klasse G-klasse GL-klasse GLA-klasse GLC-klasse GLE-klasse GLK-klasse GLS-klasse M-klasse R-klasse S-klasse SL-klasse SLC-klasse SLK-klasse SLR McLaren SLS AMG Sprinter V-klasse Vaneo Viano Vito F TF ZR ZS ZT 1000 Cabrio Clubman Countryman Coupé Mini Paceman Roadster ASX Carisma Colt Eclipse Galant Grandis i-MiEV L200 Lancer Outlander Outlander Sport Pajero Pajero Pinin Pajero Sport Space Runner Space Star Space Wagon 3 Wheeler 4/4 Aero Plus 4 Roadster 100 NX 200 SX 300 ZX 350Z 370Z Almera Almera Tino Bluebird Cube Evalia GT-R Juke Leaf Maxima Micra Murano Note NV200 NV400 Pathfinder Patrol Pixo Primastar Primera Pulsar Qashqai Serena Sunny Terrano X-Trail Adam Agila Ampera Antara Ascona Astra Calibra Cascada Combo Corsa Frontera GT Insignia Kadett Karl Manta Meriva Mokka Monza Movano Omega Rekord Senator Signum Sintra Speedster Tigra Tour Vectra Vivaro Zafira 1007 106 107 108 2008 205 206 207 208 3008 306 307 308 309 4007 405 406 407 5008 508 605 607 806 807 Bipper Expert Ion Partner RCZ 718 911 918 924 928 944 968 Boxster Cayenne Cayman Macan Panamera 19 21 4 5 Avantime Captur Clio Espace Fluence Kadjar Kangoo Koleos Laguna Master Mégane Modus Nevada Safrane Scénic Talisman Trafic Twingo Twizy Vel Satis Wind Zoe Dawn Ghost Phantom Wraith 100-serie 200-serie 25 400-serie 45 600-serie 75 800-serie Mini Tourer 9-3 9-4X 9-5 9-7X 900 9000 99 Alhambra Altea Arosa Ateca Cordoba Exeo Ibiza Leon Marbella Mii Toledo 100-serie Citigo Fabia Favorit Felicia Kodiaq Octavia Rapid Roomster Superb Yeti city-coupé crossblade forfour fortwo roadster Actyon Korando Kyron Musso Rexton Rodius Tivoli BRZ Forester Impreza Justy Legacy Levorg Mini Jumbo Outback SVX Trezia Tribeca Vivio WRX XV Alto Baleno Celerio Grand Vitara Ignis Jimny Kizashi Liana S-Cross Samurai Splash Swift SX4 Vitara Wagon R+ Model 3 Model S Model X Roadster Auris Avensis Avensis Verso Aygo C-HR Camry Carina Celica Corolla Corolla Verso Funcruiser GT86 Hilux iQ Land Cruiser Land Cruiser 100 Land Cruiser V8 MR2 Paseo Picnic Previa Prius Prius+ RAV4 Starlet Urban Cruiser Verso Verso-S Yaris Yaris Verso Amarok Beetle Bora Caddy CC Corrado Crafter Eos Fox Golf Golf Plus Golf Sportsvan Jetta Lupo New Beetle Passat Phaeton Polo Santana Scirocco Sharan Tiguan Touareg Touran Transporter Up Vento XL1 240 340 360 440 460 480 740 760 780 850 940 960 C30 C70 S40 S60 S70 S80 S90 V40 V50 V60 V70 V90 XC40 XC60 XC70 XC90 |
अहमदाबाद। पहले चरण के मतदान के बाद गुजरात में चुनावी प्रचार तेज हो गया है। सोमवार को पीएम मोदी ने पाटन की चुनावी रैली के दौरान कांग्रेस पर हमला बोला।
पीएम मोदी ने रैली के दौरान कहा कि पहले चरण में कांग्रेस की हार तय है, इसलिए वे इवीएम का बहाना लेकर आरोप लगा रहे हैं। इसके अलावा उन्होंने गुजरात के गांवों में जाकर लोगों के बीच बच्चों की शिक्षा के प्रति जागरुकता जगाने की बात कही। साथ ही कांग्रेस की कमियों की ओर भी इशारा किया।
पीएम ने कहा, जब हम किसानों के पास गए, कृषि महोत्सव किया, हम अमीरों की मदद के लिए नहीं गए थे। हम गरीबों के बीच गए। दुखद है कि कांग्रेस नेताओं का जन्म सोने के चम्मच के साथ हुआ है, इसलिए वे कभी नहीं समझ पाएंगे कि गरीबी क्या है।
When we went to the farmers, did Krishi Mahotsav, we did not go out helping the rich. We went among the poor. Sadly, Congress leaders born with golden spoons will never understand what poverty is: PM Narendra Modi in Patan #GujaratElection2017 pic.twitter.com/6qW7yoOAAz
During peak summer, I would go to the villages of Gujarat and ask parents to educate their children. Whose children were they? Were they Ambani's children? No. They were children of the poor. We are working for poor: PM Narendra Modi in Patan #GujaratElection2017 pic.twitter.com/4P2K3QoY8y
— ANI (@ANI) 11 December 2017 |
Watch Video : As per reports Virat's wedding was a full on Punjabi Wedding. Here is a clip from his Haldi ceremony. Follow 👉 @InstantBollywood for more updates. . . #instabollywood #instantbollywood #viratkohli #anushkasharma #virushka
A post shared by Instant Bollywood (@instantbollywood) on Dec 11, 2017 at 8:57am PST |
The trades in the NBA have already begun! Blake Griffin got traded off to the Pistons in a huge deal, and Rob and Nick discuss the impacts of that trade and all the other spicy rumors that are going around! What will the Clippers do with Lou Williams and DeAndre Jordan? Will the Cavaliers make a deal? Are the Kawhi Leonard rumors true? And a ton more topics for this trade special! Be sure to subscribe, rate, review the podcast, and to follow us on social media @talkintruehoops! |
Did you know our friend, vitamin E, otherwise known as d-alpha tocopherol, and his buddies, gamma- and beta-tocopherol, and their friends the Tocotrienols, are just WONDERFUL? Great for fighting cancer, helping the immune system, regulating hormone function, and reducing cholesterol and improving cardivascular health! Such a great vitamin, it deserves its own show. It’s mostly in VEGAN stuff! The best sources are sunflower seeds and almonds, but there’s a lot in most nuts and seeds! We talk about the biochemistry of E too. |
Today we breakdown and play tracks from No Shame by Hopsin and Friday On Elm Street by Fabolous and Jadakiss, take a look at the hip hop category Grammy nominations, play a dope new Song of the Week from Lou the Human, and preview some future releases! (Recorded December 9th) |
People are TOO IMPATIENT in their cars. We shout out to Puerto Rico, where we’re very concerned about lives there. Mansfield Hollow Cyclocross is THIS WEEKEND! An update on the people who were injured in the Kalamazoo pickup truck vs. bike accident. Fall riding and rail trails are great! Plus, the ten types of cyclists you’ll find on club rides. |
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia —
Malaysian police arrested a woman Wednesday in connection with the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s half brother.
Police released a statement saying the woman was carrying Vietnamese travel documents when she was arrested at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Kim Jong Nam died Monday after suddenly falling ill at the budget terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport, said a senior Malaysian government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case involves sensitive diplomacy.
Kim, who died on the way to a hospital, told medical workers that he had been attacked with a chemical spray, the official said.
Malaysian officials have provided few other details. Police said an autopsy was planned to determine the cause of death.
Since taking power in late 2011, Kim Jong Un has executed or purged a slew of high-level government officials in what the South Korean government has described as a “reign of terror.”
South Korea’s spy service said Wednesday that North Korea had been trying for five years to kill Kim. But the National Intelligence Service did not definitively say that North Korea was behind the killing, just that it was presumed to be a North Korean operation, according to lawmakers who briefed reporters about the closed door meeting with the spy officials.
The NIS cited Kim Jong Un’s alleged “paranoia” about his half brother. Still, the agency has a history of botching intelligence on North Korea and has long sought to portray the country’s leaders as mentally unstable.
Multiple South Korean media reports, citing unidentified sources, said Kim Jong Nam was killed at the airport by two women believed to be North Korean agents. They fled in a taxi and were being sought by Malaysian police, the reports said.
Police were searching for clues in the closed circuit television footage from the airport, said Selangor police chief Abdul Samah Mat. The airport is in Selangor, near Kuala Lumpur.
According to the Malaysian government official, Kim Jong Nam was in a shopping concourse and had not yet gone through security for a planned flight to Macau when the incident occurred.
Kim was estranged from his half brother, the North Korean leader. Although he had been originally tipped by some outsiders as a possible successor to his late dictator father, Kim Jong Il, others thought that was unlikely because he lived outside the country, including recently in Macau, Singapore and Malaysia.
He reportedly fell further out of favor when he was caught trying to enter Japan on a false passport in 2001, saying he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
A Malaysian police statement confirmed the death of a North Korean man whom it identified from his travel document as Kim Chol, born in Pyongyang on June 10, 1970.
Ken Gause, who is with the CNA think tank in Washington and has studied North Korea’s leadership for 30 years, said Kim Chol was a name that Kim Jong Nam had traveled under. He is believed to have been born May 10, 1971.
While the most likely explanation for the killing was that Kim Jong Un was removing a potential challenger to North Korean leadership within his own family, he could also be sending a warning to North Korean officials to demonstrate the reach of the regime. It follows the defection last year of a senior diplomat from the North Korean Embassy in London who has spoken of his despair at Kim’s purges.
Mark Tokola, vice president of the Korea Economic Institute in Washington and a former deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, said it would be surprising if Kim Jong Nam was not killed on the orders of his half brother, given that North Korean agents have reportedly tried to assassinate Kim Jong Nam in the past.
“It seems probable that the motivation for the murder was a continuing sense of paranoia on the part of Kim Jong Un,” Tokola wrote in a commentary Tuesday. Although there was scant evidence that Kim Jong Nam was plotting against the North Korean leader, he provided an alternative for North Koreans who would want to depose his half brother.
Among Kim Jong Un’s executions and purgings, the most spectacular was the 2013 execution of his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, once considered the country’s second-most powerful man, for what the North alleged was treason.
Gause said Kim Jong Nam had been forthright that he did not have political ambitions, although he was publicly critical of the North Korean regime and his half brother’s legitimacy in the past.
Kim Jong Nam had been less outspoken since 2011, when North Korean assassins reportedly tried to shoot him in Macau, Gause said, though the details of the attempted killing are murky. South Korea also reportedly jailed a North Korean spy in 2012 who admitted to trying to organize a hit-and-run accident targeting Kim Jong Nam in China in 2010.
Despite the attempts on his life, Kim Jong Nam had reportedly traveled to North Korea since then, so it was assumed he was no longer under threat. Kim Jong Nam may have become more vulnerable, as his defender in the North Korean hierarchy, Kim Kyong Hui — Kim Jong Un’s aunt and the wife of his executed uncle — appears to have fallen from favor or died. She has not been seen in public for more than three years, Gause said.
Kim Jong Il had at least three sons with two women, as well as a daughter by a third. Kim Jong Nam was the eldest, followed by Kim Jong Chul, who is a few years older than Kim Jong Un and is known as a playboy who reportedly attended Eric Clapton concerts in London in 2015. It’s unclear what positon he has in the North Korean government.
A younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, was named a member of the Workers’ Party of Korea’s Central Committee during a North Korean party congress last May. She has a position in a propaganda and agitation department and is known as Kim Jong Un’s gatekeeper, Gause said.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
BANGKOK —
A minivan and a pickup truck both packed with passengers collided in eastern Thailand on Monday, killing 25 people in a harrowing reminder of the country’s notoriously dangerous roads.
Police said the minivan driver lost control and ploughed through a central reservation into oncoming traffic in the eastern province of Chonburi. Both vehicles burst into flames.
“Twenty-five people were killed in the road accident,” Police Lieutenant Colonel Wiroj Jamjamras at Ban Bueng provincial police station told AFP, adding two toddlers were among the dead.
“The victims were killed by fire or the impact,” he added.
Wiroj said 15 people were inside the minivan while 12 passengers were packed into the pickup truck.
Two were injured but are expected to survive, he added.
Footage broadcast on Channel 3 showed firefighters tackling the burning, twisted wreckage of the two vehicles.
Despite relatively good infrastructure, Thailand has the world’s second most dangerous roads in terms of per capita deaths, according to data collected by the World Health Organization in a 2015 report.
Fatalities tend to rise in the New Year week and during Songkran, a religious festival in April, when millions of low-paid workers return to the countryside from their city jobs to see family.
Both weeks are dubbed the “Seven Deadly Days” in Thai media, with the government keeping a daily death tally during those two periods to try to encourage better road safety.
As of Sunday—the fourth day of the country’s New Year holiday week—280 people had died on Thailand’s roads, a 10 percent increase on last year.
Some 43 percent of the recorded smashes involved drink-driving and 82 percent involved motorbikes.
© 2017 AFP |
UNITED NATIONS —
Antonio Guterres took the reins of the United Nations on New Year’s Day, promising to be a “bridge-builder” but facing an antagonistic incoming U.S. administration led by Donald Trump who thinks the world body’s 193 member states do nothing except talk and have a good time.
The former Portuguese prime minister and U.N. refugee chief told reporters after being sworn-in as secretary-general on Dec 12 that he will engage all governments — “and, of course, also with the next government of the United States” — and show his willingness to cooperate on “the enormous challenges that we’ll be facing together.”
But Trump, with his “America First” agenda, has shown little interest in multilateralism, which Guterres says is “the cornerstone” of the United Nations.
So as Guterres begins his five-year term facing conflicts from Syria and Yemen to South Sudan and Libya and global crises from terrorism to climate change, U.S. support for the United Nations remains a question mark.
And it matters because the U.S. is a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council and pays 22 percent of the U.N.‘s regular budget and 25 percent of its peacekeeping budget.
Immediately after the United States allowed the Security Council to condemn Israeli settlements in the West Bank on Dec 23 in a stunning rupture with past practice, Trump warned in a tweet: “As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th,” the day he takes office.
Trump followed up three days later with another tweet questioning its effectiveness. “The United Nations has such great potential but right now it is just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. So sad!”
John Bolton, a conservative Republican and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in an interview with The Associated Press that Guterres would be well advised “especially given the incoming Trump administration” to follow the model of his predecessor, Ban Ki-moon, and do what member governments want.
If he tries to follow what Ban’s predecessor, Kofi Annan, did as secretary-general and try to be the world’s top diplomat and what some called “a secular pope,” Bolton said, “I think especially in the Trump administration, he would run into big trouble very quickly.”
Guterres has made clear that his top priority will be preventing crises and promoting peace.
In the first minute after taking over as U.N. chief on Sunday, Guterres issued an “Appeal for Peace.” He urged all people in the world to make a shared New Year’s resolution: “Let us resolve to put peace first.”
“Let us make 2017 a year in which we all — citizens, governments, leaders — strive to overcome our differences,” the new secretary-general said.
He has said there is enormous difficulty in solving conflicts, a lack of “capacity” in the international community to prevent conflicts, and the need to develop “the diplomacy for peace,” which he plans to focus on.
Guterres has said he will also strive to deal with the inequalities that globalization and technological progress have helped deepen, creating joblessness and despair especially among youth.
“Today’s paradox is that despite greater connectivity, societies are becoming more fragmented. More and more people live within their own bubbles, unable to appreciate their links with the whole human family,” he said after his swearing-in.
Guterres said the values enshrined in the U.N. Charter that should define the world that today’s children inherit — peace, justice, respect, human rights, tolerance and solidarity — are threatened, “most often by fear.”
“Our duty to the peoples we serve is to work together to move from fear of each other, to trust in each other, trust in the values that bind us, and trust in the institutions that serve and protect us,” he said. “My contribution to the United Nations will be aimed at inspiring that trust.”
Guterres won the U.N.‘s top job after receiving high marks from almost every diplomat for his performance in the first-ever question-and-answer sessions in the General Assembly for the 13 candidates vying to replace Ban, whose second five-year term ends at midnight on Dec 31.
In an interview during his campaign with three journalists, Guterres said the role of secretary-general should be “an honest broker, a consensus builder” who engages as much as possible, in many circumstances discreetly.
“It’s not just to have a personal agenda, because it would be regrettable or ineffective, or to appear in the limelight. No. On the contrary, it’s to act with humility to try to create the conditions for member states that are the crucial actors in any process to be able to come together and to overcome their differences,” he said.
Whether the Trump administration will join Guterres and U.N. efforts to tackle what he sees as “a multiplication of new conflicts” and the myriad problems on the global agenda remains to be seen.
Trump’s choice as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley who is the governor of South Carolina, has a reputation as a conciliator, which could be very useful especially in dealing with the Security Council and the four other permanent veto-wielding members — Russia, China, Britain and France, all of whom have their own national agendas.
But she will be taking instructions from the president.
Richard Grenell, who served as U.S. spokesman at the U.N. during President George W Bush’s administration and has been working with Trump’s transition team, downplayed the prospect that Trump will withdraw from or even disregard the United Nations.
He said in an AP interview last month that Trump is talking about reforming the U.N. and other international organizations so “they live up to their ideals.”
Guterres also wants to reform the United Nations to make it “nimble, efficient and effective.” He said “it must focus more on delivery and less on process, more on people and less on bureaucracy,” and ensure that the more than 85,000 U.N. staff working in 180 countries are being used effectively.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
TOKYO —
Japan is considering expanding the scope of mandatory labeling of ingredients containing genetically modified crops from the current 33 food items, according to Consumer Affairs Agency sources.
The move is aimed at giving consumers a greater sense of security about the food they buy and eat amid growing imports of genetically modified crops and food products containing them.
In 2015, Japan imported 11.8 million tons of corn and 2.33 million tons of soy from the United States, and over 90% of them were believed to be genetically modified, according to the agriculture ministry.
The government plans to convene a panel of experts on the matter, including people from the food industry and consumer groups, in fiscal 2017, the agency sources said.
Currently eight genetically modified crops are subject to the labeling requirement in Japan. By comparison, the European Union mandates labeling, in principle, of all food products containing genetically modified organisms.
Japan mandates labeling if the three largest ingredients of a food product by weight contain substances from genetically modified crops and account for 5 percent or more of all ingredients.
Labeling is not required for items where genetically modified organisms cannot be detected, such as fermented food.
Some consumer organizations call for mandatory labeling of all food items containing genetically modified organisms. Consumers now eat products without sufficient information about their ingredients, the organizations say.
© KYODO |
ISTANBUL —
The Islamic State group on Monday claimed responsibility for the New Year’s attack at a popular Istanbul nightclub that killed 39 people and wounded scores of others.
Turkish police meanwhile detained eight people in connection with the attack but were still hunting for the gunman who disappeared amid the chaos of the attack.
The IS-linked Aamaq News Agency said the attack was carried out by a “heroic soldier of the caliphate” who attacked the nightclub “where Christians were celebrating their pagan feast.”
It said the man fired an automatic rifle and also detonated hand grenades in “revenge for God’s religion and in response to the orders” of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The group described Turkey as “the servant of the cross” and also suggested it was in retaliation for Turkish military offensives against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.
“We let infidel Turkey know that the blood of Muslims that is being shed by its airstrikes and artillery shelling will turn into fire on its territories,” the statement said.
Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus on Monday confirmed news reports that said eight people were taken into custody but did not provide details, saying a “sensitive” investigation was underway.
Authorities had obtained the fingerprints and a basic description of the gunman and were close to identifying him, Kurtulmus said.
He said the attack in the early hours of 2017 was a message from extremist organizations that they intend to continue to be a “scourge” against Turkey in the new year. Kurtulmus also said it was intended as a response to Turkey’s “successful and determined” military operation against the IS in Syria.
He said Turkey was determined to continue fighting violent groups declaring: “Wherever they may hide in 2017, we will enter their lair… With the will of God, with the support of our people, with all our national capacity, we will bring them to their knees and give them all the necessary response.”
Earlier, Turkish media reports said that Turkish authorities believed the IS group was behind the attack and that the gunman was likely to be either from Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan.
According to the Hurriyet and Karar newspapers, police had also established similarities with the high-casualty suicide bomb and gun attack at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport in June and were investigating whether the same IS cell could have carried out both attacks.
Kyrgyzstan’s Foreign Ministry said it was looking into the media reports.
“We have ordered the consul in Istanbul the check this report that has appeared in the press,” the Interfax news agency quoted ministry spokeswoman Aiymkan Kulukeyeva as saying Monday. “According to preliminary information, this information is doubtful but we are checking all the same.”
The gunman killed a policeman and another man outside the Reina club in the early hours of 2017 before entering and firing with an automatic rifle at an estimated 600 people partying inside.
Nearly two-thirds of the dead in the upscale club, which is frequented by local celebrities, were foreigners, Turkey’s Anadolu Agency said. Many of them hailed from the Middle East.
Citing Justice Ministry officials, Anadolu reported that 38 of the 39 dead have been identified. The report said 11 of them were Turkish nationals, and one was a Turkish-Belgian dual citizen.
The report says seven victims were from Saudi Arabia; three each were from Lebanon and Iraq; two each were from Tunisia, India, Morocco and Jordan. Kuwait, Canada, Israel, Syria and Russia each lost one citizen.
Relatives of the victims and embassy personal were seen walking into an Istanbul morgue to claim the bodies.
Turkish officials haven’t released the names of those identified.
The mass shooting followed more than 30 violent acts over the past year in Turkey, which is a member of the NATO alliance and a partner in the U.S.-led coalition fighting against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.
The country suffered multiple bombings in 2016, including three in Istanbul that authorities blamed on IS, a failed coup attempt in July and renewed conflict with Kurdish rebels in the southeast.
The Islamic State group claims to have cells in the country. Analysts think it was behind suicide bombings last January and March that targeted tourists on Istanbul’s iconic Istiklal Street as well as the attack at Ataturk Airport in June, which killed 45 people. Authorities have said the three suicide bombers in the airport attack were Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and there has been speculation that Akhmed Chatayev, a Chechen extremist known to be a top lieutenant in the IS militant group, may have directed the attack.
In August, Turkey sent troops and tanks into northern Syria, to clear a border area from the IS and also curb the territorial advances of Syrian Kurdish forces in the region. The incursion followed an IS suicide attack on an outdoor wedding party in the city of Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, that killed more than 50 people.
In December, IS released a video purportedly showing the killing of two Turkish soldiers and urged its supporters to “conquer” Istanbul. Turkey’s jets regularly bomb the group in the northern Syrian town of Al-Bab. Turkish authorities haven’t confirmed the authenticity of the video.
Last week, Turkey and Russia brokered a cease-fire for Syria that excludes the IS and other groups considered to be terrorist organizations.
On Monday, Anadolu said more than 100 Islamic State targets in Syria have been hit by Turkey and Russia in separate operations.
Citing the Turkish Chief of General Staff’s office, Anadolu said Turkish jets struck eight IS group targets while tanks and artillery fired upon 103 targets near Al Bab, killing 22 extremists while destroying many structures. The Russian jets also attacked IS targets in Dayr Kak, eight kilometers (five miles) to the southwest of Al Bab.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the attacker left a gun at the club and escaped by “taking advantage of the chaos” that ensued. Some customers reportedly jumped into the waters of the Bosporus to escape the attack.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
Japanese actress Satomi Ishihara poses next to Toyota Motor Corp’s Prius PHV Plug-in-Hybrid vehicle, also known as Prius Prime in the U.S., during an event to mark the launch of the car in Japan, in Tokyo, on Wednesday. |
BAGHDAD —
A suicide car bomb attack in a densely-populated neighborhood of Baghdad on Monday killed at least 32 people and left dozens wounded, police and hospital officials said.
Many of the victims were daily laborers waiting for jobs at an intersection in Sadr City, a sprawling majority Shiite neighborhood in the northeast of the capital that has been repeatedly targeted.
Pictures posted on social media shortly after the explosion showed a huge plume of black smoke billowing into the sky and seriously injured people being evacuated.
According to a police colonel, at least 32 people were killed and 61 wounded in the blast, the second major attack in Baghdad in three days.
At least 27 people were killed by twin explosions in a busy market area in central Baghdad on Saturday, in what was the deadliest such attack in the Iraqi capital in two months.
There was no immediate claim for Monday’s suicide blast but the Islamic State jihadist group has claimed all such attacks recently, including the double bombing on New Year’s Eve.
The caliphate IS proclaimed in 2014 is shrinking steadily and jihadist fighters are defending Mosul, their last major urban stronghold in Iraq.
Observers have voiced fears that the group, once it definitively loses its status as a land-holding force, could increasingly revert to targeting civilians in Iraq’s cities.
© 2017 AFP |
NEW YORK —
Phone records and intercepted calls show that members of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing four current and former U.S. officials.
U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies intercepted the communications around the same time they were discovering evidence that Russia was trying to disrupt the presidential election by hacking into the Democratic National Committee, three of the officials said, according to the Times.
The intelligence agencies then sought to learn whether the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians on the hacking or other efforts to influence the election, the newspaper said.
The officials interviewed in recent weeks said they had seen no evidence of such cooperation so far, it said.
However, the intercepts alarmed U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies, in part because of the amount of contact that was occurring while Trump was speaking glowingly about Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The intercepted calls are different from the wiretapped conversations last year between Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, and Sergei I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States, the Times said.
During those calls, the two men discussed sanctions that the Obama administration imposed on Russia in December. Flynn misled the White House about those calls and was asked to resign on Monday night.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment on the Times story.
The Times reported that the officials said the intercepted communications were not limited to Trump campaign officials, and included other Trump associates.
On the Russian side, the contacts also included members of the Russian government outside the intelligence services, the officials told the Times. All of the current and former officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the continuing investigation is classified, the newspaper reported.
The officials said one of the advisers picked up on the calls was Paul Manafort, who was Trump’s campaign chairman for several months last year and had worked as a political consultant in Russia and Ukraine, the Times said. The officials declined to identify the other Trump associates on the calls.
Manafort, who has not been charged with any crimes, dismissed the accounts of the U.S. officials in a telephone interview with the Times on Tuesday.
Several of Trump’s associates, like Manafort, have done business in Russia. It is not unusual for U.S. businessmen to come in contact with foreign intelligence officials, sometimes unwittingly, in countries like Russia and Ukraine, where the spy services are deeply embedded in society, according to the Times.
Law enforcement officials did not say to what extent the contacts may have been about business, the Times said.
Officials would not disclose many details, including what was discussed on the calls, which Russian intelligence officials were on the calls, and how many of Trump’s advisers were talking to the Russians. It is also unclear whether the conversations had anything to do with Trump himself, the Times said.
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017. |