To Artfully Capture Memories, Try These Cameras

Abstract: CAMERA phones are terrific for documentation, capturing those spur of the moment snapshots of your pals downing sushi, your child finding a turtle in the driveway or even the damage someone did sideswiping your car. But the images you get probably are not frame quality. If you want to take pictures free of visual artifacts and blur, the kind you would be proud to print and hang on your wall, you need a “real” camera, which is the right tool for artfully memorializing occasions, not just documenting them. But no need to be intimidated. Despite the extra buttons and dials, and catalogs of lenses and accessories, even the highest of high-end professional cameras include automatic settings that make them as easy to use as a point and shoot. Or a camera phone. THE KEEP-IT-SIMPLE PHOTOGRAPHER Most point-and-shoot cameras share a problem with phone cameras — the tiny light sensor used to keep the camera compact takes poor low-light photos. So while a phone or an inexpensive camera can do a decent job in bright daylight, your photos will be blighted with speckles at dusk and dawn, when natural light is most flattering. But that isn’t so much a problem for the Canon S100, thanks to its 1 1/7 -inch CMOS light sensor and a lens that gathers a lot of light. That lens zooms from the equivalent of 24mm wide angle to 120mm, a five times optical magnification. And the zoom works when shooting video as well, so the compact S100 gets quality shots in settings that other pocket cameras cannot. The fully automatic camera has special settings for portraits, landscapes, night scenes and such, but it can also be controlled manually with a handy ring around the lens. Its GPS setting can note where and when a photo was taken. Those features eat a lot of battery power, so you’ll need a spare. The S100 also eats a fair amount of cash at $430, nearly double the average cost of pocket cameras. THE ADVENTURE PHOTOGRAPHER Ruggedized cameras like the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS3 are made to take the kind of punishment that surfers, climbers and adventure cyclists mete out. The $380 compact camera can go 40 feet underwater, withstand a 6-foot drop and work in 14-degree temperatures. Its recessed lens packs a 4.6X optical zoom, taking your shots from the equivalent of a 28mm wide angle to 128mm telephoto. The DMC-TS3 can take full 1080p video with image stabilization and other still camera automatic adjustments, like recognizing when you are recording faces. Its LED flash can also be used to light your videos. A built-in GPS function logs where your photos were taken and even records barometric pressure. The TS3 comes in orange, silver, blue and red. The Nikon AW100, also priced at $380, adds a nice feature for taking cold-weather photos. It can be set to change functions with a shake of the camera, so there is no struggle pressing small buttons with gloved hands, or worse, mittens. THE HOBBYIST PHOTOGRAPHER When you want a camera that can capture that split second the bat hits the ball, or if you’re tired of having to say “hold it, smile!,” it’s time to move up to a single-lens reflex camera. S.L.R.’s and digital S.L.R.’s snap the shot the instant you press the shutter button without the lag of point-and-shoots and phone cameras. It once took a lot of sophistication to operate a D.S.L.R., but they now come with automatic settings as well as advanced manual controls. The Nikon D5100 has more capability than an entry level S.L.R. and, at $850 (body only), it costs considerably less than an enthusiast S.L.R. It’s a camera that an intermediate photographer can grow in to. The D5100’s showpiece is image quality, and with good reason. It uses the same 23.6 by 15.6mm CMOS light sensor as its big brother, the D7000 ($1,200, body only), yet it has the automatic modes you would find on a point-and-shoot camera. You will also find nearly professional quality predictive focusing, so the auto focus adjusts to where a moving object is going to be when the shutter snaps, rather than where the object was when you hit the button. This allows for crisp, continuous four-frames-per-second shooting. And the D5100 has a hinged LCD screen that swings out so you can photograph from unusual angles without crawling or carrying a ladder. THE TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHER For travelers who wish for a camera with S.L.R. features and point-and-shoot size, mirrorless cameras come close. The cameras, which are smaller because they do not have a mirror system, look like retro rangefinders but perform like modern S.L.R.’s. At 4.3 by 2.5 by 1.3 inches, weighing 7.6 ounces without a lens, the Olympus E-PM1 is among the smallest and easiest to use. Because its lens can be changed, the E-PM1 ($450) can take anything from the equivalent of a 24mm wide angle to a 150mm to 600mm zoom. The flash is a clip-on accessory, which is included with the camera. THE ASPIRING PRO PHOTOGRAPHER Canon’s EOS-1 Dx (price unavailable) will not be available until March, but it will make its debut with a new 18 megapixel, 24mm by 36mm full-frame sensor with improved low-light capability thanks to a new Digic 5+ processor. A new automatic sensor also cleans the lens by rolling dust off with a wavelike motion. But the camera’s most notable feature is a shooting speed of up to 14 frames per second, demanded by pro sports photographers (and a few Little League parents). Like a built-in users’ manual, a feature guide explains everything in the menu. If an i.o.u. in a stocking won’t do, there is the long-on-the-market but still excellent Nikon D3x to consider ($8,000, body only).


Lackluster Trading Debut for Agricultural Bank of China

Abstract: HONG KONG — Shares of Agricultural Bank of China got off to a muted start on their first day of trading in Shanghai on Thursday, in a closely watched initial public offering that has become a barometer of market appetite for giant stock market listings in general, for bank shares in particular and for all of China. After raising $19.2 billion in one of the world’s biggest I.P.O.’s, Agricultural Bank closed at 2.70 renminbi, or 40 U.S. cents, up 0.8 percent. Although they outperformed the overall Shanghai market, which fell 1.9 percent, the rise was far below the rally of at least 5 percent that the market had expected and a far cry from the jumps that have been common for trading debuts in China. The first-day gain was also by far the smallest of any of the nine other Chinese banks that have staged stock market listings in mainland China and Hong Kong over the past half-decade, according to Thomson Reuters data. “The performance was disappointing,” said Francis Lun, general manager at Fulbright Securities in Hong Kong. “Investors will be lucky to come out of this even.” The bank’s shares were to begin trading in Hong Kong on Friday, and Mr. Lun said he thought gains would be similarly subdued. The Hong Kong shares were priced at 3.20 Hong Kong dollars, or 41 U.S. cents. Despite the lackluster debut in Shanghai, Agricultural Bank, a behemoth that has 320 million retail customers in China, may yet enter the record books as the world’s biggest I.P.O. if solid demand allows the bank to issue more shares in coming weeks. Agricultural Bank’s I.P.O. coincides with a bevy of stock offerings by other Chinese lenders, which are seeking to strengthen their capital in preparation for possible defaults on some of the loans they extended during a lending frenzy that was designed to prop up economic growth last year. The overall market environment also is hardly conducive for offerings: the Shanghai stock market has plunged about 25 percent since the start of this year as investors worried about the pace of economic growth and the policy measures that Beijing may still implement to cool the economy. Stock markets elsewhere in the world also have sagged amid nervousness over government debt levels in Greece and other European countries. Agricultural Bank is the last of several large Chinese lenders to brave the stock market and has undergone years of preparation and restructuring before its listing. Widely considered the weakest of the nation’s financial giants, Agricultural Bank is more focused than its peers on lending in rural areas and smaller cities. Although its management argues that this will allow it to benefit from efforts by Beijing to galvanize growth in the country’s less developed interior, many observers caution that its sprawling operations and its network of nearly 24,000 branches make the bank more inefficient and less transparent than its peers. Many analysts believe that the burst of bank lending mandated by Beijing last year may ultimately lead to rising bad loans for the Chinese banking sector as a whole. Fitch Ratings warned in a report on Wednesday that Chinese banks were increasingly engaging in complex transactions that disguised the size and nature of their lending, obscuring hundreds of billions of dollars in loans and possibly even masking a coming wave of bad real estate and infrastructure loans. Still, shares in large Chinese offerings like those of Agricultural Bank have become a must-have for international investors who want to have exposure to the booming Chinese economy. Agricultural Bank secured numerous high-profile “cornerstone” investors, including sovereign investment funds from the Middle East, which helped ensure that the huge offering got off the ground despite the dismal market environment. If Agricultural Bank decides to exercise an “over-allotment” option and issues up to 15 percent more shares, its I.P.O. could end up topping that of Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, another state-controlled Chinese bank, which raised $21.9 billion in October 2006. Whether in the next few weeks is an open question. “Agricultural Bank does not inspire much confidence, and the retail response to the offering has not been overwhelming,” said Mr. Lun of Fulbright Securities.

Initial Public Offerings
Banks and Banking
China


World Bank Offers Aid to Egypt and Tunisia

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The World Bank said Tuesday it was willing to provide up to $6 billion to support political and economic change in Egypt and Tunisia and to help them weather declines in tourism and other industries. The money is intended to seed a broader package of international support for the two countries’ postrevolution governments. The World Bank wanted “to help the people there and seize the opportunities of historic change to modernize their economies and build more open and inclusive societies,” said the agency’s president, Robert B. Zoellick. Both Egypt and Tunisia are short on cash after their political upheavals, and the problems are unlikely to subside anytime soon. Tourists have yet to return in significant numbers to either country. The World Bank has projected that economic activity in the Middle East and North Africa will expand by 3.6 percent this year, down from an earlier forecast of 5 percent because of the political turmoil. But the agency said that political reforms often produce economic rebounds. To encourage reforms, the World Bank said it was willing to give Egypt up to $1 billion in each of the next two years if the government met certain goals, which were still being negotiated, to become more transparent and inclusive. They would be the first World Bank grants to Egypt since President Hosni Mubarak was forced from power. The bank said it would also make $2.5 billion available in loans for development projects in Egypt, including financing for private businesses. Last month, the agency announced that it would give Tunisia $500 million in exchange for reforms, including an overhaul of the government’s procurement process. That money is part of a broader $1.2 billion international aid package for the country. The bank’s announcement on Tuesday adds up to $1 billion in new support. Egypt and Tunisia will seek additional help at a meeting of leaders from the Group of Eight nations starting Thursday in Deauville, France. “What we need is cash,” Tunisia’s finance minister, Jaloul Ayed, told The Associated Press. “Securing prosperity is the best way to consolidate democracy.” President Obama has proposed $2 billion in American aid for Egypt that would be divided between loan guarantees for American businesses and partial debt forgiveness for the Egyptian government, which owes the United States about $3 billion. European governments are moving to let the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which was created to finance projects in Eastern Europe, operate in North Africa.


Suit by Protest Groups on Spying Is Dismissed

Abstract: A federal judge in Washington State has dismissed a lawsuit that accused a civilian intelligence analyst working for the military of breaking the law by using a fake name to infiltrate antiwar groups and trying to thwart protests by sharing information he collected with the Army, law enforcement agencies and private security firms. Plaintiffs in the case , which was filed in 2010, contended that the actions of the analyst, John J. Towery, had deterred their free speech and led to their arrests, violating First and Fourth Amendment rights as well as statutes forbidding military surveillance of civilian groups. The judge, Ronald B. Leighton of Federal District Court in Tacoma, did not issue a written opinion to accompany an order issued on Wednesday that granted summary judgment motions filed on behalf of Mr. Towery, his former supervisor at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Thomas Rudd, and several police officials. Mr. Towery’s motion did not deny that he had infiltrated groups using the name John Jacob, but it stated that his actions did not break the law. The covert scrutiny was warranted, the motion said, because it was intended to keep track of criminal behavior associated with protests, which sometimes became confrontational and turbulent, and because Mr. Towery had not intended to chill free speech. The plaintiffs lacked evidence that he had been spurred by a desire to curb expressive activities, the motion added. “Absolutely this is a vindication that Mr. Towery was acting lawfully,” one of his lawyers, Thomas M. Brennan, said. “He was acting with a legitimate interest to preserve the safety of the personnel and equipment of Joint Base Lewis-McChord.” Lawyers for the plaintiffs said that they planned to appeal. “This ruling did irreparable harm to the Constitution, and we cannot allow it to stand,” one lawyer, Lawrence A. Hildes, said. “The court essentially granted the military the right to spy on nonviolent political activists with impunity.” The case had attracted significant attention because it had progressed further than previous lawsuits that included allegations of military spying. A trial had been scheduled for later this summer. Mr. Towery began spying in 2007 on a group called Port Militarization Resistance , which was formed to disrupt military shipments from ports in Olympia and Tacoma. Protesters figured out Mr. Towery’s real identity in 2009 after filing a series of public information requests; additional requests yielded a trove of documents that provided the basis for the lawsuit. Mr. Towery attended meetings of Port Militarization Resistance and Students for a Democratic Society, the lawsuit said, then gave information about members of the groups to the Army and police agencies. As a result, the suit said, law enforcement officials compiled lists of license plates belonging to protesters and placed a surveillance camera on a pole outside a house where activists lived. Mr. Rudd composed detailed reports on activist groups that were circulated to people with military email addresses, police officials and people identified as contractors, documents showed. Documents also showed that another defendant, Chris Adamson , a member of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, who had directed some of Mr. Towery’s activities, had identified some protesters as “domestic terrorists” and included their names, photographs and biographical information in a database created by a counterterrorism and intelligence-sharing office in Washington State known as a fusion center . Mr. Towery’s lawyers had said that their client, who worked with the base force protection agency, had gathered information about protest groups not as a military employee, but as a volunteer working for Mr. Adamson. Many of the court documents were filed under seal. But plaintiffs pointed to unsealed sections of a deposition where Mr. Towery said that he had been paid by the Army for time spent attending certain activist meetings. At one point, plaintiffs said, Mr. Towery’s monitoring went beyond attending meetings, asserting in their lawsuit that he had gained access to a shared online database used by lawyers and people facing trial after being arrested during a protest, unlawfully obtained confidential material and turned it over to prosecutors, causing a mistrial. The cases were later dismissed because of prosecutorial misconduct, the plaintiffs added. Mr. Towery’s lawyers countered that he was allowed access to the database, which was not protected by a password or restricted to defendants or their lawyers. Therefore, they added, he had broken no laws. “There is no reasonable expectation of privacy when a plaintiff willingly shares information with third parties,” they wrote. “Even if the third party is a government informant.”

Lawsuits
Freedom of speech
Students for a Democratic Society
John J Towery
Civil Unrest
Corporate espionage
Washington
Government Surveillance
US Military


At Olympus, Scandal and Rising Calls for a Purge

Abstract: From the board room to the trading floor, Olympus struggled on Tuesday to contain a crisis that erupted after its admission that it had used $1 billion in payments to cover up losses on investments. The company’s stock fell 29 percent on Tuesday, and 20 percent more in trading on Wednesday in Japan, to hit a new low. Shareholders said they were worried that the company could be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange , which could threaten access to financing. Since mid-October, the company’s market value has plunged by 70 percent. Southeastern Asset Management, the American owner of the second-biggest stake in Olympus, also demanded an extraordinary meeting of shareholders to call for a clean sweep of the board of directors and the firing of top executives. External investigations of the company’s handling of the merger payments and losses are under way in Japan and in the United States, where the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Securities and Exchange Commission are looking at the fees, according to people briefed on the matter. With broad investigations still open, it was likely that not just investors, but suppliers and customers, would reconsider doing business with Olympus. The crisis at Olympus, which has a multibillion-dollar global business making digital cameras and medical equipment, began in mid-October, when the board fired the British chief executive and president, Michael C. Woodford. The company’s chairman, Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, blamed a culture clash, but Mr. Woodford, a 30-year Olympus employee, said he was fired after trying to force an investigation into a series of acquisitions made before he was appointed chief in September. Less than two weeks after Mr. Woodford was fired, Mr. Kikukawa resigned. On Tuesday, an outside committee appointed by Olympus concluded that more than $1 billion in merger payouts had been used to hide years of losses on investments, perhaps dating to the 1990s. The company’s new president, Shuichi Takayama, acknowledged “inappropriate dealings,” but said that no money had flowed out of the company. Hisashi Mori, an executive vice president, had been fired over his involvement in the cover-up, and Hideo Yamada, the corporate auditor, offered his resignation, Mr. Takayama said. In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Woodford said that despite the public admission of mishandling, he was not feeling vindicated because Olympus was still being run by a board of insiders. Mr. Kikukawa and Mr. Mori — as well as Mr. Woodford himself — remain as directors. “I feel very worried the company still has those individuals at the helm,” he said in a phone interview from London. The American stakeholder calling for the extraordinary shareholder meeting, Southeastern Asset Management, also said Olympus still needed an overhaul. Josh Shores, a senior analyst and principal for Southeastern, said Mr. Kikukawa “is definitely in the thick of it. If Kikukawa is still there, he is still exerting massive influence.” Southeastern also suggested that it did not believe the entire story behind the hidden investment losses had surfaced, saying the company needed to explain the details “as soon as possible.” Southeastern, which holds an approximately 5 percent stake in Olympus, is an investment firm based in Memphis. It has been managing funds invested in the company since 2004. Olympus, which is based in Tokyo, had denied any wrongdoing over the deals, made from 2006 to 2008. The admission on Tuesday was a “change of gears” for investors, Mr. Shores said. It was “something that could negatively impact the value of the medical business,” for example, where Olympus Medical has a 70 percent market share globally in flexible endoscopes, he said. “This has been a question about what happened to some of that cash flow, and all of a sudden the core medical franchise is at risk of being negatively impacted,” he said. “You are at the point where damage is likely to be done.” When asked whether he thought Olympus could survive the scandal, he said: “Keep in mind before all of this happened, the stock was 2,500 yen a share. We still thought it was cheap.” The only thing that needs to be changed, he said, is the people running it and an accounting of where the money went. Mr. Woodford, too, said Olympus still had value. “It’s a good business. You can rebuild the company,” he said. The developments cast a harsh light on Olympus’s auditors, which have signed off on financial statements that may now be suspect. The auditors, KPMG and Ernst & Young ShinNihon, have not been accused of knowingly signing inaccurate statements. KPMG was Olympus’s auditor for years until it had a falling out with management in 2009. A year earlier, KPMG had advised Olympus against awarding unusual fees to an obscure brokerage firm that advised on a deal. Cash payouts were preferable, the auditor said, but the financial adviser “strongly resisted the cash payment on the grounds that this will crystallize an immediate tax liability,” according to a document provided to The New York Times by Mr. Woodford. A spokesman for the American arm of Ernst & Young, which replaced KPMG in 2009, did not respond to a request for comment. For now, Olympus is still a client. The payments in question involved $687 million in fees Olympus paid to an obscure financial adviser over its acquisition of the British medical equipment maker Gyrus in 2008. That fee amounted to roughly a third of the $2 billion acquisition price, a fee amount more than 30 times the norm.

Olympus Corp
Stocks and Bonds
Securities and Commodities Violations
Appointments and Executive Changes
Tokyo Stock Exchange
Southeastern Asset Management


Alexander Semin Is Helping Capitals Carry On Without Ovechkin

Abstract: ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Good as Alex Ovechkin is, he is not scoring much. At the moment, Ovechkin, the N.H.L.’s reigning most valuable player, is not even playing, because he is in Russia with his ill grandfather. And yet the Washington Capitals are doing just fine because of another left wing from that country, Alexander Semin. With 8 goals and 16 points through nine games, Semin is not only leading the Capitals in scoring — he entered Thursday atop the N.H.L., tied for the most goals and 1 point ahead of Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin in that category. “Right now,” Capitals forward David Steckel said, “he’s carrying this team.” It is the sort of output many expected to see from Semin ever since Washington picked him in the first round of the 2002 draft. He netted 38 goals in 2006-07, then dropped off to 26 last season, when he had an ankle injury and missed 19 games. Why is the player some call “The Other Alex” off to such a great start? “I have no idea, really. I just go out there and play. It’s impossible to describe why it’s going the right way,” he said through a Russian reporter who informally serves as Semin’s interpreter. “I don’t think this question should be directed to me.” In truth, Semin prefers not to deal with reporters much at all, which might be one reason he isn’t particularly well known outside N.H.L. circles. He steadfastly turns down requests to do interviews in English, professing not to be able to communicate well enough. Approached by an Associated Press reporter after a recent practice, Semin winked and grinned and said clearly, “I don’t speak English.” Later, his English also seemed fine as he rebuffed a member of the Capitals’ public relations staff who tried to persuade Semin to talk. “He understands more than he lets on,” said Capitals General Manager George McPhee, who signed Semin to a $9.2 million, two-year contract extension that runs through next season. “Every once in a while, he’ll blurt out a sentence in English. Like yesterday, he’s the one who yelled down the hall to the rest of the players, ‘We have a meeting in two minutes!’ He knows what’s going on.” Still, Semin leaves it to others to explain his progress. McPhee, Coach Bruce Boudreau and teammates point to two main factors: Semin is healthy, and, at 24, he is growing up. “It’s maturation. That’s the big key, right there,” Boudreau said. “His responsibility on the ice. His work ethic. All of those things.” Semin now shows up for optional skating sessions, for example. “That wouldn’t have happened a year ago, I don’t think,” Boudreau said. It’s not merely that Semin tied a franchise record for points through nine games, which is a good thing for the Capitals, considering Ovechkin put the puck in the net in only one game this season. It’s also that Semin is cutting down on no-excuse penalties, with only four minutes in the box so far. And he’s making a real effort to help out at the defensive end. In Tuesday night’s game against the Nashville Predators — which Ovechkin missed — Semin was on the ice for nearly seven minutes during penalty kills, more than all but one teammate. On each of Nashville’s first three power plays, Semin helped eat time by making a steal, converting one into a pretty pass that set up a short-handed goal by Steckel. “Phenomenal,” Steckel said. “When you play with him, you get a lot of good passes.” Then, eight seconds into a Capitals power play in the third period, Semin took a pass from Nicklas Backstrom and powered a wrister over goalie Dan Ellis’s left shoulder and just under the crossbar with such velocity that the puck snapped right back onto the ice. Semin stood there, motionless, staring at the puck. Only when his teammates skated over to hug him and smack him on the back did he smile. “It’s kind of depressing,” Washington forward Matt Bradley said good-naturedly, “knowing I’ll never be able to do half the moves he does.” Ellis said: “He’s got a world-class shot, he’s got a great set of hands, he works really well, he’s got teammates that play well with him, and he’s in a system he can exploit.”

Ovechkin Alexander
Malkin Evgeni
Washington Capitals
Hockey Ice


Text of President Obama’s Remarks on Syria

Abstract: Following is the text of President Obama’s address on Saturday, as provided by the White House, saying he would seek Congressional authorization for a strike on Syria: Good afternoon, everybody. Ten days ago, the world watched in horror as men, women and children were massacred in Syria in the worst chemical weapons attack of the 21st century. Yesterday the United States presented a powerful case that the Syrian government was responsible for this attack on its own people. Our intelligence shows the Assad regime and its forces preparing to use chemical weapons, launching rockets in the highly populated suburbs of Damascus, and acknowledging that a chemical weapons attack took place. And all of this corroborates what the world can plainly see -- hospitals overflowing with victims; terrible images of the dead. All told, well over 1,000 people were murdered. Several hundred of them were children -- young girls and boys gassed to death by their own government. This attack is an assault on human dignity. It also presents a serious danger to our national security. It risks making a mockery of the global prohibition on the use of chemical weapons. It endangers our friends and our partners along Syria’s borders, including Israel, Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq. It could lead to escalating use of chemical weapons, or their proliferation to terrorist groups who would do our people harm. In a world with many dangers, this menace must be confronted. Now, after careful deliberation, I have decided that the United States should take military action against Syrian regime targets. This would not be an open-ended intervention. We would not put boots on the ground. Instead, our action would be designed to be limited in duration and scope. But I’m confident we can hold the Assad regime accountable for their use of chemical weapons, deter this kind of behavior, and degrade their capacity to carry it out. Our military has positioned assets in the region. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has informed me that we are prepared to strike whenever we choose. Moreover, the Chairman has indicated to me that our capacity to execute this mission is not time-sensitive; it will be effective tomorrow, or next week, or one month from now. And I’m prepared to give that order. But having made my decision as Commander-in-Chief based on what I am convinced is our national security interests, I’m also mindful that I’m the President of the world’s oldest constitutional democracy. I’ve long believed that our power is rooted not just in our military might, but in our example as a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. And that’s why I’ve made a second decision: I will seek authorization for the use of force from the American people’s representatives in Congress. Over the last several days, we’ve heard from members of Congress who want their voices to be heard. I absolutely agree. So this morning, I spoke with all four congressional leaders, and they’ve agreed to schedule a debate and then a vote as soon as Congress comes back into session. In the coming days, my administration stands ready to provide every member with the information they need to understand what happened in Syria and why it has such profound implications for America’s national security. And all of us should be accountable as we move forward, and that can only be accomplished with a vote. I’m confident in the case our government has made without waiting for U.N. inspectors. I’m comfortable going forward without the approval of a United Nations Security Council that, so far, has been completely paralyzed and unwilling to hold Assad accountable. As a consequence, many people have advised against taking this decision to Congress, and undoubtedly, they were impacted by what we saw happen in the United Kingdom this week when the Parliament of our closest ally failed to pass a resolution with a similar goal, even as the Prime Minister supported taking action. Yet, while I believe I have the authority to carry out this military action without specific congressional authorization, I know that the country will be stronger if we take this course, and our actions will be even more effective. We should have this debate, because the issues are too big for business as usual. And this morning, John Boehner, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell agreed that this is the right thing to do for our democracy. A country faces few decisions as grave as using military force, even when that force is limited. I respect the views of those who call for caution, particularly as our country emerges from a time of war that I was elected in part to end. But if we really do want to turn away from taking appropriate action in the face of such an unspeakable outrage, then we must acknowledge the costs of doing nothing. Here’s my question for every member of Congress and every member of the global community: What message will we send if a dictator can gas hundreds of children to death in plain sight and pay no price? What’s the purpose of the international system that we’ve built if a prohibition on the use of chemical weapons that has been agreed to by the governments of 98 percent of the world’s people and approved overwhelmingly by the Congress of the United States is not enforced? Make no mistake -- this has implications beyond chemical warfare. If we won’t enforce accountability in the face of this heinous act, what does it say about our resolve to stand up to others who flout fundamental international rules? To governments who would choose to build nuclear arms? To terrorist who would spread biological weapons? To armies who carry out genocide? We cannot raise our children in a world where we will not follow through on the things we say, the accords we sign, the values that define us. So just as I will take this case to Congress, I will also deliver this message to the world. While the U.N. investigation has some time to report on its findings, we will insist that an atrocity committed with chemical weapons is not simply investigated, it must be confronted. I don’t expect every nation to agree with the decision we have made. Privately we’ve heard many expressions of support from our friends. But I will ask those who care about the writ of the international community to stand publicly behind our action. And finally, let me say this to the American people: I know well that we are weary of war. We’ve ended one war in Iraq. We’re ending another in Afghanistan. And the American people have the good sense to know we cannot resolve the underlying conflict in Syria with our military. In that part of the world, there are ancient sectarian differences, and the hopes of the Arab Spring have unleashed forces of change that are going to take many years to resolve. And that’s why we’re not contemplating putting our troops in the middle of someone else’s war. Instead, we’ll continue to support the Syrian people through our pressure on the Assad regime, our commitment to the opposition, our care for the displaced, and our pursuit of a political resolution that achieves a government that respects the dignity of its people. But we are the United States of America, and we cannot and must not turn a blind eye to what happened in Damascus. Out of the ashes of world war, we built an international order and enforced the rules that gave it meaning. And we did so because we believe that the rights of individuals to live in peace and dignity depends on the responsibilities of nations. We aren’t perfect, but this nation more than any other has been willing to meet those responsibilities. So to all members of Congress of both parties, I ask you to take this vote for our national security. I am looking forward to the debate. And in doing so, I ask you, members of Congress, to consider that some things are more important than partisan differences or the politics of the moment. Ultimately, this is not about who occupies this office at any given time; it’s about who we are as a country. I believe that the people’s representatives must be invested in what America does abroad, and now is the time to show the world that America keeps our commitments. We do what we say. And we lead with the belief that right makes might -- not the other way around. We all know there are no easy options. But I wasn’t elected to avoid hard decisions. And neither were the members of the House and the Senate. I’ve told you what I believe, that our security and our values demand that we cannot turn away from the massacre of countless civilians with chemical weapons. And our democracy is stronger when the President and the people’s representatives stand together. I’m ready to act in the face of this outrage. Today I’m asking Congress to send a message to the world that we are ready to move forward together as one nation. Thanks very much.


Women’s March Draws ‘Duty-Bound’ From Wall Street

Abstract: Hillary Ripley was on a stair climber at her Brooklyn gym when her 16-year-old daughter texted. A women’s march was being organized in Washington, the teenager wrote, to protest the incoming administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump and to speak up for gender equality. Ms. Ripley hopped off the machine and began searching for a bus-charter company. “I think about markets,” said Ms. Ripley, a longtime investor-relations professional who has worked in both banks and private equity firms. “It occurred to me immediately that there was going to be a tremendous demand for buses .” She contacted US Coachways, got a quote for a 55-seat bus ($3,050 for a day trip) and began querying neighborhood friends to gauge whether she could recruit enough would-be marchers to break even. The seats quickly filled. Across town at home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Alexandra Lebenthal, the chief executive of a stock and bond broker, was also making plans to travel to Washington. “I never have done anything like this in my life before, and I just feel like it’s a time when everybody has to stand up for what they believe in,” Ms. Lebenthal, who was a Hillary Clinton supporter, said. It is an unusual stance for a woman working in the cutthroat world of finance. Wall Street women — though often tough, tenacious and outspoken — are not a crowd accustomed to street protest. They are professionals in trading, public relations, marketing, deal-making, investing and the law. They keep punishing schedules, fear losing business by offending their clients and often feel that in an industry still overwhelmingly populated by men, the less attention drawn to their sex, the better. And many of them are employed by financial companies whose share prices have surged since Mr. Trump’s election, a move that could sweeten their compensation. But the inauguration of Mr. Trump has prompted a striking number of Wall Street women to overcome their worries about demonstrating in public. Based on interviews with numerous women from banks, hedge funds, other asset managers, financial law practices and private equity firms, it appears that dozens of industry women in New York, and perhaps significantly more, intend to make the trek to Washington to participate in the march on Saturday. Some are driving, embarking in the wee hours to make it in time for a 10 a.m. rally. Some grabbed early Amtrak reservations before many of the trains sold out or, in one woman’s case, put 70,000 frequent-flier miles toward a ticket. Others, including a group of high-ranking women from Bank of America, are traveling by charter bus. Many describe it as a signal moment in politics, women’s rights and American history. “I’m not a frequent demonstration participant,” said Jodi Schwartz, a corporate tax lawyer at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, a firm in Midtown Manhattan known for advising companies and banks on mergers and acquisitions. Making time within a cramped schedule to attend the protest rather than taking the simpler route of writing a check to support the cause, Ms. Schwartz said, took some effort. But, she added, “as soon as I heard about this, I knew I was going to go because of my level of horror at the way folks are talking about women’s issues postelection.” Ms. Schwartz cited a post she had seen on social media stating that 56 new legislative measures curbing women’s access to abortion had recently been announced. (The statistic, published by Naral Pro-Choice America , counted abortion bans and other restrictions on the procedure during 2016.) The political climate, she said, is now “letting the cap off a lot of, I think, bubbling caldrons of anti-feminist activity.” As a relatively affluent woman with the resources to maintain access to insurance and other services, Ms. Schwartz added, she felt “duty-bound” to go and speak for others who “might not have health care or might not have access to abortions.” Ms. Schwartz’s concerns about the threats to gender equality, abortion rights and other freedoms appear to be widely held among her peers. Image Making signs for the women’s march at Ms. Ripley’s Brooklyn home. She booked a charter bus to travel from New York to Washington for the event. Credit Sasha Maslov for The New York Times Many of the women interviewed said they were disgusted by Mr. Trump’s comments, including his suggestion of prohibiting Muslims from entering the United States, his mocking of a disabled reporter and the crass language he used to describe grabbing women’s genitals during a 2005 taping of “Access Hollywood” that surfaced in early October. Some spoke, too, of concerns that what little progress they had seen on issues of fairness and diversity on Wall Street in recent years would be unwound in Mr. Trump’s America. Most said they had supported Mrs. Clinton for president. At a gathering at her home on Tuesday, Ms. Ripley watched as her daughter, Hawthorne, and a group of friends also attending the weekend march made signs for the event. One of them read, “Leaders Lead. (Twits Tweet.)” Each participant was paying $80 for a seat on the bus, snacks, beverages and other supplies for the trip. The group planned to leave from a Brooklyn parking lot at 4:45 a.m. on Saturday. Yet some Wall Street women said they were avoiding the march because they feared a backlash from colleagues, superiors or clients who were either fans of Mr. Trump’s or critics of public activism. A 37-year-old woman who runs a portfolio at a hedge fund based in New York said she worried that ill-timed social-media pictures from the march could hurt her reputation in the business community. Some managers at private equity firms and banks said they were torn between urging would-be marchers to take caution to avoid angering Trump supporters in the client base and encouraging free expression, regardless of the professional consequences. Ms. Lebenthal, who runs one of the largest woman-owned brokerages on Wall Street, said she was unmoved by client concerns. “I have friends that voted for Trump,” she said. “I have a major issue with that, but it’s their right. And I wouldn’t stop doing business with that person if they voted for Trump.” As for clients who reconsider doing business with Ms. Lebenthal because of her involvement in the women’s march, she said, “If that happens, it happens.”

Women's rights,Feminism
Banking and Finance
Alexandra Lebenthal
Donald Trump
US Politics
Civil Unrest


Caltech Scores First Conference Victory Since 1985

Abstract: The California Institute of Technology men’s basketball team won a conference game Tuesday night for the first time since 1985, breaking a losing streak believed to have stretched to 310 games. The team’s 46-45 home victory over Occidental, in the final game of the season, was the first Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory for Caltech since a 1-point win over La Verne more than 26 years ago, before any of the current players were born. Ryan Elmquist scored the winning point by making the first of two free throws with three seconds left. He missed the second, and Occidental’s desperation shot from halfcourt was off target, sending students and fans in the small Braun Athletic Center gym onto the court for a celebration of hugs and whoops. “Tonight’s win is a testament to the hard work each member of this team, the alumni and the supporters have put into this program,” Coach Oliver Eslinger said after the game, according to the athletic department’s Web site . “I hope that everyone who has participated in Caltech men’s basketball is able to celebrate a little bit tonight.” Caltech scored the final 9 points in front of an announced crowd of 387. “It felt like a championship atmosphere,” Eslinger, 35, said in a phone interview Wednesday. He said he could not fall asleep until nearly 5 a.m., and spent the early part of Wednesday going through all the congratulatory messages. “The alums I’m getting e-mails from — it’s slowing down my computer, there are so many,” Eslinger said. Eslinger and the Caltech team, profiled in December by The New York Times , thought this would be the season the streak would end. It had been 14 years since the Beavers won three games in a season, yet they won four nonconference games in December and early January. “It’s not if we’re going to win,” the freshman guard Mike Paluchniak said in December. “It’s how many we’re going to win.” Once conference play began, however, Caltech found itself in its usual place — on the wrong end of the score, if only barely. It lost an overtime game to Redlands on Jan. 12. It lost by 2 points at Whittier on Jan. 29, followed by a 1-point home loss to La Verne. When Caltech played at Occidental on Jan. 26, the Beavers lost, 53-43. Eslinger, a former assistant at M.I.T., brought a doctorate in counseling and sports psychology three seasons ago to Caltech, home of 32 Nobel prizes and an undergraduate population of about 950. He also brought an unusual emphasis on recruiting basketball players. The team he inherited had only five players with high school basketball experience. Now, he recruits basketball players who happen to be among the nation’s top academic minds. “We want to win with the smartest students in the world,” Eslinger said in December. Caltech finished the season 5-20, 1-13 in conference. The basketball team has not had a winning season since 1954. Occidental finished 12-13, 6-8 in the conference. Attention may now shift to the school’s baseball team, which has lost 412 consecutive conference games since 1988, and 170 consecutive games over all, dating to 2003.

Basketball
California Institute of Technology


Social Media’s Globe-Shaking Power

Abstract: As the technology industry came to grips in the last week with the reality of a presidential election that did not go its way, many in Silicon Valley landed on the idea that widespread misinformation spread online was a primary factor in the race’s outcome. On Monday, both Google and Facebook altered their advertising policies to explicitly prohibit sites that traffic in fake news from making money off lies. That’s very likely a worthwhile fix, even if it comes too late. The internet has loosened our collective grasp on the truth , and efforts to fight that dismaying trend are obviously worth pursuing. Yet it would be a mistake to end this investigation at fake news. In fact, the dangers posed by fake news are just a symptom of a deeper truth now dawning on the world: With billions of people glued to Facebook, WhatsApp, WeChat, Instagram, Twitter, Weibo and other popular services, social media has become an increasingly powerful cultural and political force, to the point that its effects are now beginning to alter the course of global events. The election of Donald J. Trump is perhaps the starkest illustration yet that across the planet, social networks are helping to fundamentally rewire human society. They have subsumed and gutted mainstream media. They have undone traditional political advantages like fund-raising and access to advertising. And they are destabilizing and replacing old-line institutions and established ways of doing things, including political parties, transnational organizations and longstanding, unspoken social prohibitions against blatant expressions of racism and xenophobia. Most important, because these services allow people to communicate with one another more freely, they are helping to create surprisingly influential social organizations among once-marginalized groups. These ad hoc social movements range widely in form, from “alt-right” white supremacists in the United States to Brexiters in Britain to ISIS in the Middle East to the hacker collectives of Eastern Europe and Russia. But each in its own way is now wielding previously unthinkable power, resulting in unpredictable, sometimes destabilizing geopolitical spasms. “You now have billions of people on the internet, and most of them are not that happy with the status quo,” said Ian Bremmer, the president of the Eurasia Group, a research firm that forecasts global risks. “They think their local government is authoritarian. They think they’re on the wrong side of the establishment. They’re aggrieved by identity politics and a hollowed-out middle class.” Many factors accounted for Mr. Trump’s win: middle-class economic anxiety in the industrial Midwest; an inchoate desire for some kind of change in the national direction; and some mix of latent racism, xenophobia and sexism across the electorate. But as even Mr. Trump acknowledged in an interview with “60 Minutes” aired Sunday, social media played a determining role in the race. In the past, Mr. Bremmer said, the concerns of Mr. Trump’s supporters might have been ignored, and his candidacy would almost certainly have foundered. After all, he was universally written off by just about every mainstream pundit, and he faced disadvantages in money, organization and access to traditional political expertise. Yet by putting out a message that resonated with people online, Mr. Trump hacked through every established political order. “Through this new technology, people are now empowered to express their grievances and to follow people they see as echoing their grievances,” Mr. Bremmer said. “If it wasn’t for social media, I don’t see Trump winning.” For people who like an orderly, predictable world, this is the scariest thing about Facebook; not that it may be full of lies (a problem that could potentially be fixed), but that its scope gives it real power to change history in bold, unpredictable ways. But that’s where we are. It’s time to start recognizing that social networks actually are becoming the world-shattering forces that their boosters long promised they would be — and to be unnerved, rather than exhilarated, by the huge social changes they could uncork. This should come as no surprise. In a way, we are now living through a kind of bizarro version of the utopia that some in tech once envisioned would be unleashed by social media. Over much of the last decade, we have seen progressive social movements powered by the web spring up across the world. There was the Green Revolution in Iran and the Arab Spring in the Middle East and North Africa. In the United States, we saw the Occupy Wall Street movement and the #BlackLivesMatter protests. Social networks also played a role in electoral politics — first in the ultimately unsuccessful candidacy of Howard Dean in 2003, and then in the election of the first African-American president in 2008. Yet now those movements look like the prelude to a wider, tech-powered crackup in the global order. In Britain this year, organizing on Facebook played a major role in the once-unthinkable push to get the country to leave the European Union. In the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, a firebrand mayor who was vastly outspent by opponents, managed to marshal a huge army of online supporters to help him win the presidency. The Islamic State has used social networks to recruit jihadists from around the world to fight in Iraq and Syria, as well as to inspire terrorist attacks overseas. And in the United States, both Bernie Sanders, a socialist who ran for president as a Democrat, and Mr. Trump, who was once reviled by most members of the party he now leads, relied on online movements to shatter the political status quo. Why is this all happening now? Clay Shirky, a professor at New York University who has studied the effects of social networks, suggested a few reasons. One is the ubiquity of Facebook, which has reached a truly epic scale. Last month the company reported that about 1.8 billion people now log on to the service every month. Because social networks feed off the various permutations of interactions among people, they become strikingly more powerful as they grow. With about a quarter of the world’s population now on Facebook, the possibilities are staggering. “When the technology gets boring, that’s when the crazy social effects get interesting,” Mr. Shirky said. One of those social effects is what Mr. Shirky calls the “shifting of the Overton Window ,” a term coined by the researcher Joseph P. Overton to describe the range of subjects that the mainstream media deems publicly acceptable to discuss. From about the early 1980s until the very recent past, it was usually considered unwise for politicians to court views deemed by most of society to be out of the mainstream, things like overt calls to racial bias (there were exceptions, of course, like the Willie Horton ad ). But the internet shifted that window. “White ethnonationalism was kept at bay because of pluralistic ignorance,” Mr. Shirky said. “Every person who was sitting in their basement yelling at the TV about immigrants or was willing to say white Christians were more American than other kinds of Americans — they didn’t know how many others shared their views.” Thanks to the internet, now each person with once-maligned views can see that he’s not alone. And when these people find one another, they can do things — create memes, publications and entire online worlds that bolster their worldview, and then break into the mainstream. The groups also become ready targets for political figures like Mr. Trump, who recognize their energy and enthusiasm and tap into it for real-world victories. Mr. Shirky notes that the Overton Window isn’t just shifting on the right. We see it happening on the left, too. Mr. Sanders campaigned on an anti-Wall Street platform that would have been unthinkable for a Democrat just a decade ago. Now, after Hillary Clinton’s loss, the way forward for Democrats will very likely be determined as much by collectives on Facebook as by elites in Washington — and, as a result, we’re likely to see more unlikely candidates and policy positions than we would have in the past. The upshot is further unforeseen events. “We’re absolutely going to get more of these insurgent candidates, and more crazy social effects,” Mr. Shirky said. Mr. Trump is just the tip of the iceberg. Prepare for interesting times.

Donald Trump
Social Media
Rumors and Misinformation
News media,journalism
2016 Presidential Election
Brexit
Facebook
Google


Build Your Own Computer

Abstract: Q. I have seen advertisements for those do-it-yourself computer kits for kids, but what can these machines actually do? Do they run Windows? A. The computer’s abilities depend on the type of build-your-own system kit you have. Some computer kits intended to teach children (and other newcomers) the basics of hardware and software run on their own customized operating systems — which are often variations of the free, open-source Linux code. Raspberry Pi and Kano are two popular computer kits that provide beginners with the bare-bones components like low-cost motherboards and wireless-networking dongles . These computer boards can be connected to existing monitors and keyboards, or used with new equipment. The very basic Raspberry Pi Zero board starts at $5 , but you can find kits on the higher end that include a keyboard and screen for less than $300, like the Kano Computer Kit Bundle . Both Raspberry Pi and Kano computers use their own operating systems, but you can also experiment. The officially supported system for the Raspberry Pi is called Raspbian , and it is based on Debian , which has Linux roots and is versatile enough to run on other hardware , too. The Raspberry Pi — which started out in 2012 as a low-cost bare-bones motherboard meant to teach computer fundamentals — can also run other operating systems , including a special version of Ubuntu Linux . The full consumer desktop edition of Windows 10 is not available for the Raspberry Pi, but the version of Windows 10 designed for the Internet of Things (called Windows 10 IoT Core ) works on recent versions of the tiny computer. It even has Microsoft’s support . Kano computer kits actually use a Raspberry Pi motherboard but include other components like a keyboard, speaker and cables in the box; a version of the kit that includes a screen is also available. Kano computers come with the Kano OS , another Linux variation (and one that can also be used on stand-alone Raspberry Pi computers ). On the Kano OS, users can learn how to write code in Python and JavaScript and make their own games, among other things. Kano computer kits can be bought at Barnes & Noble bookstores and Toys “R” Us stores. Like the Raspberry Pi, Kano kits are also available for sale online. If you are looking to build a more traditional computer — like one that runs the full Windows system or has customized hardware for intensive video game play — you can find kits for those online as well, but they usually cost at least a few hundred dollars more. Newegg is one site that sells several do-it-yourself PC kits . If you want to run Windows instead of one of the many free, open-source systems out there, be sure to factor in the cost of buying the software .

Computers and the Internet
Tech Industry
DIY


The Boom and Crash Cycle of I.P.O.’s

Abstract: THE global market for initial public offerings of stock, which was hot in late 2010, has cooled. In just a few months, the market has gone from raising record amounts of money to reaching a 10-year high in the number of proposed offerings withdrawn because there was no market. During this year’s second quarter, 98 offerings — which had been projected to raise $21 billion — were withdrawn, according to calculations by Dealogic. The number of canceled offerings was the highest since 129 proposed offerings were canceled in the fourth quarter of 2000, as it became clear that the technology bubble had burst. The recent boom in initial public offerings was spread much wider than the one that ended in 2000. The earlier boom was concentrated in the United States, but the latest included many more companies from booming developing markets, particularly in China. In the fourth quarter of 1999, the total amount raised by I.P.O.’s hit $66.1 billion, which was then the highest level ever. More than three-quarters of that was raised in the American market and most of it was for technology companies. In the final quarter of 2010, $127 billion was raised and less than one-quarter of that was raised by offerings in the United States. In the latest quarter, the total raised was about half the level of the fourth quarter of 2010, although the decline in the number of completed offerings, to 406 from 516, was not as sharp. As can be seen from the accompanying graphic, the market for initial public offerings virtually collapsed in 2002 and 2003, but then began to recover as stock markets rose and many countries reported strong growth. Thanks to strong volumes of foreign offerings, the I.P.O. market had become strong before the financial crisis killed the market in 2008 and 2009. The volume of withdrawn offerings provides a clear indication of rapid changes in markets. Those are deals that underwriters thought they could sell. They went to the expense of preparing offering documents but then were unable to sell, at least at prices acceptable to the companies. The failed offerings cover the spectrum, both geographically and in the nature of the business. In June, three proposed I.P.O.’s that had been expected to yield more than $1 billion each were withdrawn. One was a Hong Kong company that mines iron ore in Australia, another a French company that makes glass containers and the third an Indian company that builds and leases communications towers for cellular telephone service providers. Unlike the collapse of the market in 2000, the latest decline does not follow a widespread collapse in the prices of previously hot new offerings. During the final three months of 2010, when the total amount raised by new offerings set a record, Dealogic counted nine offerings that doubled in price on the first day of trading. This week, all of those stocks were still trading above the offering price, although only two — Youku.com , a Chinese Internet television company, and TPK Holding, a Taiwanese maker of screens for smartphones and other devices — traded for more than they did on the first day.

Initial Public Offerings
Computers and the Internet


Russia Tries, Once Again, to Rein in Vodka Habit

Abstract: MYTISHCHI, Russia — It was late on a Monday afternoon at the drunk tank in this Moscow suburb, but it could have been any day, at any hour, at any similar facility across this land. People would come. They always do. Such is Russia ’s ruinous penchant for the bottle — and the challenge facing a new government policy to curb it. First to be escorted in by police officers was a construction worker named Damir M. Askerkhanov, who said he had been bingeing on vodka and beer — “This is my very own holiday!” — before he was found stumbling about in the cold. At 23, he admitted that he had already been picked up intoxicated twice recently. “Only even drunker,” he said. Sergey A. Yurovsky, 36, who is studying to be a government clerk, arrived next, mumbling and getting tangled up in his sweater when he was asked to take it off for a brief medical exam. After he was moved to a room to sober up, and dozed off, officers showed up with Larisa V. Lobachyova, 53, whose hair was matted with dirt from a fall. “It is this way all the time,” said Inspector Igor I. Poludnitsyn, who has supervised the drunk tank for seven years. “It is our national calamity.” Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev , has been voicing that sentiment a lot lately, declaring that the government must do something about the country’s status as a world leader in alcohol consumption. The Kremlin has already vanquished one vice this year, casino gambling , which it all but banned in July . But drinking — vodka in particular — is another thing entirely. It is a mainstay of Russian life, both a beloved social lubricant and a ready means for escaping everyday hardship. Mr. Medvedev is seeking steeper penalties on the sale of alcohol to minors, as well as a crackdown on beer, which has grown more popular among young people. Beer sales at kiosks would be banned, as would large beer containers. The government may seek more control over the market for vodka, still the most common alcoholic beverage. His plan, though, follows a long line of failed anti-alcohol campaigns here, going back centuries. The most notable was pressed by Mikhail S. Gorbachev , the last Soviet leader, who in the mid-1980s ordered shelves emptied of vodka and historic vineyards razed. Those measures succeeded at first, resulting in a nationwide bout of temperance that even increased life expectancy. But they also touched off a severe public backlash that damaged the standing of Mr. Gorbachev and the Communist Party, and he eventually relented. In recent years, as Russia has rebounded and engaged more with the world, alcohol has hindered its development. Foreign companies that operate here are particularly aware of the toll as they grapple with lower productivity. Russians consume roughly 4.75 gallons of pure alcohol a person annually, more than double the level that the World Health Organization considers a health threat . The consumption figure for the United States is about 2.3 gallons . The country will have difficulty resolving its demographic crisis — its population is predicted to drop nearly 20 percent by 2050 — if it does not confront its alcohol problem. Life expectancy for Russian men is now 60 years, in part because of alcoholism . Researchers studying mortality in three industrial cities in Siberia in the 1990s found that in several years, alcohol was the cause of more than half of all deaths of people ages 15 to 54, often from accidents, violence or alcohol poisoning, according to a report this year in The Lancet, a London-based medical publication. The Public Chamber, a Kremlin advisory panel, has asserted that roughly 500,000 people die annually in Russia from causes directly related to or aggravated by alcohol. “No matter what people say about it being too deep-rooted in our culture, about it being practically impossible to fight alcoholism in Russia,” Mr. Medvedev said in August, “we must recognize that other countries, and you know them yourselves, have been successful in their efforts to address this issue.” Several experts said they doubted that the government would accomplish much unless its plan was drastically strengthened. They said the most important step would be to raise vodka prices significantly through heavier taxation and the closing of unlicensed distilleries. A half liter of vodka now costs as little as $2. They pointed out that in other countries, like France, people drink heavily, but mostly wine and beer, which are seen as less harmful. The trouble here is hard liquor . In Mytishchi, with a population of 170,000, Inspector Poludnitsyn said it was clear that more limits were needed. The drunk tank typically receives a dozen or so people a day, and many more on paydays and weekends. “It is not a fight that can be waged in a single year,” he said. “It has to be waged over time, over decades.” Drinking has increased sharply since the Soviet Union’s fall in 1991, though heavily intoxicated people have been somewhat less visible on the streets in recent years, in part because the police do a better job of whisking them away. Dr. Aleksandr V. Nemtsov of the Moscow Psychiatric Research Institute, one of Russia’s leading alcohol experts, said that little would change unless the Kremlin got serious about shutting down unlicensed distillers, which produce half the vodka consumed in the country and usually are protected by corrupt officials. “The government does not want to deprive poor people of cheap vodka,” Dr. Nemtsov said. “Because it is better for them when people are drunk. You probably know that Catherine the Great said it is easier to rule a drunk public. That is the root of the evil.” He said it would be foolish to constrain beer sales. Given that people are unlikely to spurn alcohol altogether, the government should prefer that they drink beer, he said. Viktor F. Zvagelsky, a member of Parliament from the governing party, disagreed, saying that young people who started with beer would move up to vodka. He said the support of Mr. Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin would help overcome the alcohol industry’s opposition to more restrictions. Brewers, many owned by foreign conglomerates, have for years blocked attempts in Parliament to apply the same rules to beer as vodka, such as limits on advertising or when and where it can be sold, he said. “The lobbying by the beer industry has been very strong,” he said. Outmoded ways of addressing the problem were evident at the drunk tank in Mytishchi. After they sobered up, those who had been brought in were written up: they were told that before being released, they would have to pay a fine. The amount was 100 rubles, $3.50, just as it has been since Soviet times.

Alcohol Abuse
Russia
Medvedev Dmitri A
Alcoholic Beverages
Vodka
Gorbachev Mikhail S
Putin Vladimir V


New York Court of Appeals to Hear Atlantic Yards Appeal

Abstract: New York’s highest court has agreed to hear a case challenging the state’s use of eminent domain on behalf of the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. The decision by the top court, the Court of Appeals, to hear arguments in October came as something of a surprise to the project’s developer, Bruce C. Ratner, who had expected a clear path after a lower court rejected the case in a unanimous decision in May. The Court of Appeals’ involvement , announced on Monday, is the latest hurdle to Mr. Ratner’s plans to build a $772 million basketball arena, the centerpiece of the project. The developer and his bankers intend to sell about $650 million in bonds for the arena in late September. Both sides expressed confidence that they would prevail. The project’s supporters said the lower court’s decision would most likely be affirmed because it was both unanimous and emphatic in upholding the state’s right to condemn the property. But opponents contended that the Court of Appeals seemed to recognize that constitutional issues were at stake. Matthew Brinckerhoff, a lawyer for the project’s opponents who filed the suit, said the court had an opportunity “to continue its proud tradition of interpreting this state’s Constitution in a manner that affords more protection to individual rights and liberties.” Mr. Ratner must finance the project and begin construction by Dec. 31 to qualify for tax-exempt status, which would save him millions of dollars in borrowing costs. Most analysts say it is unlikely that conventional bonds would sell in the current market. “I certainly don’t envy anyone who has to raise capital in the current environment,” said Robert White of Real Capital Analytics, a research firm. The arena, which would be home to the Nets, is one element of an ambitious plan that would include more than 6,000 apartments, about 40 percent of which would be set aside for low-, moderate- and middle-income tenants. Last week, the state gave tentative approval to a plan that extends both the time Mr. Ratner has to build the project and the payment schedule for land owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The Empire State Development Corporation said it would hold public hearings on the revised plans on July 29 and 30 at the New York City College of Technology in Brooklyn. The corporation is expected to give final approval in September. Landowners and the group Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn challenged the state’s plan to use eminent domain to acquire private property at Atlantic Yards on behalf of Mr. Ratner, who has received more than $300 million in cash subsidies and tax breaks. The Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court dismissed the suit, saying, in part, that the public would benefit from the affordable housing at Atlantic Yards. The landowners appealed. State officials asked the Court of Appeals to reject the appeal, saying the project had received state and city approval. The state said in a letter that further litigation “will likely adversely affect the pricing and marketability of any tax-exempt bond financing that is concluded.” On Tuesday, the developer and his bankers expressed confidence. A spokesman for Mr. Ratner, Joe DePlasco, said, “We intend to be in construction before the end of the year.”

Atlantic Yards (Brooklyn)
Eminent Domain
Ratner's
Courts


Jeers Don’t Bother Hope Solo as United States Wins Rio Opener

Abstract: RIO DE JANEIRO — Just nine minutes into the United States women’s soccer team’s Olympic opener Wednesday night, Carli Lloyd headed in an arcing shot that eluded the New Zealand goalkeeper and gave the United States a 1-0 lead. It was an immediate echo from last year’s World Cup final, in which Lloyd scored in the third, fifth and 16th minutes as part of a four-goal onslaught that helped produce a 5-2 victory over Japan, as well as national acclaim and a ticker-tape parade in Manhattan. But on Wednesday, not much happened after Lloyd scored. The Americans dominated play, but except for a nice passing sequence that set up Alex Morgan for the second and final goal of the game early in the second half, they had trouble creating a sustained offense. Instead, what was most notable about the 2-0 victory was the vociferous jeering that the American goalie Hope Solo received when she handled the ball or kicked it. Solo was apparently paying the price for the public comments and Twitter posts she has made in connection with the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which has plagued Brazil. Earlier this year, Solo said she might not take part in the Olympics because of the virus. She ultimately decided that she would, but more recently she put up a couple of Twitter posts that seemed to take a flippant attitude toward the problem. One post showed a picture of Solo in what looked like a beekeeper’s mask. Another showed an assortment of repellents spread out on a bed. And while Solo took a much different tone before Wednesday’s game, expressing sympathy for the people of Brazil and saying she would not want to offend anyone who lives there, the modest-size crowd in the Mineirão in Belo Horizonte let her have it anyway, even eventually yelling “Zika!” when she would kick the ball downfield. Afterward, Solo, who has had a controversial career and is still involved in a domestic violence case, tried to shrug off the treatment she had just received. “They’re having fun,” she told NBC when asked about the fans. “At least it’s loud in the stadium. I’d rather have that than hear a needle drop.” Solo, herself, did not have all that much to do in the game. New Zealand had some corner kicks but never a moment when it had a dangerous shot on net. Instead, Solo spent most of the game observing an American team that took the field with a lot of familiar faces from last year’s World Cup, but with some new players, too — midfielder Allie Long and forward Mallory Pugh, 18. Pugh, however, had trouble generating scoring threats and eventually was replaced up front by another newcomer — Crystal Dunn, who had a more significant impact on the game. Megan Rapinoe, who has yet to play since ripping up her right knee in December, did not get on the field. The veteran Rapinoe is the most creative playmaker on the American team, and her absence seemed to be felt in those extended moments when the United States had trouble launching a coherent attack. At some point, Coach Jill Ellis will presumably need her, but not yet, it appears. Next up for the United States, meanwhile, is a game on Saturday against France, a tough opponent. Then comes their final game of the first round, against Colombia, on Aug. 9, in the Amazon. It’s possible the jeers might follow Solo all the way there. OTHER GROUPS In Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic Stadium, the Brazilian women’s team eased to a 3-0 victory over China. Headers from Monica and Cristiane on each side of a 59th-minute strike by Andressa Alves secured the Brazilians’ win. Image Nilla Fischer (5) scoring the only goal of Sweden’s Group E victory over South Africa at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Credit Patrick Smith/Getty Images Earlier, Sweden edged South Africa, 1-0, in another Group E game, but most of the seats did not appear to be filled. Nilla Fischer scored the only goal of that game. In a Group F game at Arena Corinthians in São Paulo, Janine Beckie of Canada took only 20 seconds to make a mark on her third Summer Games, scoring the fastest goal ever at the Olympics in a 2-0 victory over Australia. It was nine seconds faster than Oribe Peralta’s strike for Mexico in the men’s gold medal match against Brazil four years ago in London. Canada had to play with only 10 women after Shelina Zadorsky was sent off in the 19th minute for dragging down Michelle Heyman as Heyman was headed toward the goal. In a later Group F match, Melanie Behringer scored twice as the three-time bronze medalist Germany routed Zimbabwe, 6-1. (AP)

2016 Summer Olympics
Soccer
Hope Solo
Zika Virus
Carli Lloyd
Alex Morgan


Wizards Surprise the Pacers

Abstract: Bradley Beal scored 14 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, and Trevor Ariza added 22 on Monday night, leading the visiting Washington Wizards past the top-seeded Indiana Pacers, 102-96, for a 1-0 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal series. The Wizards won a second-round game for the first time since 1982 and are 4-0 on the road this year in the playoffs. They ended a 12-game losing streak at Indiana that dated to April 18, 2007, and they did it by leading almost from wire to wire. Washington made a playoff franchise-record 10 3-pointers, on 16 shots from behind the arc.. Ariza was 6 for 6, with five of his 3s coming in the first half. Paul George and George Hill had 18 points each for Indiana. The Wizards trailed only once, 31-30, and took control with a 17-6 run to close the first half that made the score 56-43. Indiana did not get closer than 5 points in the second half. Marcin Gortat contributed 12 points and 15 rebounds for the Wizards, who also got 12 points and 13 rebounds from Drew Gooden and 13 points and 9 assists from John Wall. The Pacers’ David West had the team’s only double-double, with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Indiana has now lost both of its playoff openers and faces another uphill battle after rallying from a three-games-to-two deficit to beat Atlanta in seven games. Game 2 is Wednesday in Indianapolis. SIXER IS ROOKIE OF YEAR Point guard Michael Carter-Williams has something to show for being a bright spot in a dismal season for the Philadelphia 76ers. Carter-Williams won the N.B.A.’s Rookie of the Year award after becoming the third player since the 1950-51 season to lead all rookies in scoring (16.7), rebounding (6.3) and assists (6.2). Oscar Robertson (1960-61) and Alvan Adams (1975-76) were the others. Orlando Magic guard Victor Oladipo finished second to Carter-Williams, who received 104 of 124 first-place votes.

Basketball
Wizards
Pacers
Trevor Ariza
Bradley Beal
Playoffs


Erased iPhone Gets a Mother in Trouble

Abstract: Eileen Lagala, a Staten Island resident for 55 of her 60 years, and a mother of three sons and four daughters, added two new titles in the past year — one when she became a grandmother and the other when she began serving a year’s probation following her guilty plea in criminal court last month. “My best friend said to me, ‘It’s an honor to know the matriarch of a crime family,’ ” she said with a bitter laugh in a recent telephone interview. Her crime, as she told it, began with two sentences she spoke to her son in phone calls that were being recorded on his end, behind bars in jail. Two sentences containing a total of nine words: “What is your password?” and “We wiped your phone out.” She says those last five words were later misunderstood. Her son Anthony Lagala Jr., 28, was arrested with several other people in October 2013 and charged with using a barbershop called Beyond Styles, in the Great Kills section of Staten Island, as a base of operations for selling drugs and guns. The police spent 10 months investigating the barbershop, and undercover officers bought oxycodone, cocaine and guns, including an Uzi, before arresting Mr. Lagala and others. But then something strange happened in the precinct house after Mr. Lagala’s arrest — specifically, in the room where evidence is stored. No one broke into the room, strictly speaking, but a trespasser of sorts, sometime between Oct. 17 and Oct. 25, 2013, managed to erase the contents of Mr. Lagala’s iPhone while it was locked away. The investigation into the erasing led to Ms. Lagala and her son’s girlfriend at the time, Stephanie Gabrielle. Both were charged with tampering with physical evidence and computer trespass by “causing the deletion of the digital contents of said iPhone,” according to the indictment against the women. Ms. Lagala said she couldn’t cause the deletion of the digital contents of her own phone, much less one in some other building. “I don’t know how to change the picture on my Facebook page,” she said. “That’s how much of a computer hacker I am.” She said a friend explained to her later how this sort of thing could have been done. “What do they call it — something in the sky? The iCloud,” she said. It was just days after her son’s arrest, and her house was crowded with relatives and well-wishers, she said. The police had returned several of her son’s belongings to her, but not his phone. “I didn’t know who, if anybody, was using it,” she said. “I didn’t know where it was.” So she wanted to shut off the service. Her son called from Rikers Island. He said the last he saw of his phone, the police were putting it in a plastic bag. “I asked him for the password,” she said. “That was a mistake.” He told her. “I wrote it on a piece of paper and I pushed it on the side and went to another room so I could hear,” she said. “I didn’t care about any stupid phone.” The next day, she said, her son’s girlfriend, Ms. Gabrielle, told her, “The phone is taken care of.” When Ms. Lagala spoke to her son, she told him, “We wiped your phone out.” This week she said that she had simply meant it had been shut off. In November, officers — “like 17 cops,” she said — arrived at her house while she was alone and arrested her. “Computer tampering?” she said. “I just get hysterical.” She said her children make fun of the way she yells at her computer screen. The arrest made her a hero to some. “U go mom,” someone posted online beneath a story about her case. “Mama bear looking out for her cubs no matter what.” Ms. Lagala, who is married to a police officer, said she would “not do something illegal to help someone who did something illegal.” Whatever happened to the phone, it did not affect the case against Mr. Lagala, who pleaded guilty to criminal sale of a controlled substance. The charges against Ms. Gabrielle were dismissed, her lawyer, Joseph Sorrentino, said. It became clear she did not know what had been done to the information on the phone, he said. Ms. Lagala, however, pleaded guilty to trespassing, a misdemeanor. She said the pressure of her son’s fate, and the expense of mounting her own defense, wore her down, and when she realized she would not go to jail, she entered the plea. By the way, she was asked this week, what was the password? She said she couldn’t remember.

Drug Abuse
Anthony Lagala Jr.
Eileen Lagala
Cloud computing
NYC
Guns
Staten Island
Computers and the Internet
Tech Industry
Computer security


Glamorous Entrepreneur Takes On Disasters

Abstract: NO, Catherine Hooper did not live through Hurricane Katrina , and while she did see the second plane hit the World Trade Center, she viewed it from the treadmill at her gym, where she was watching television. But Ms. Hooper, a 5-foot-1, 99.6-pound disaster-preparedness entrepreneur in a Christian Dior dress, has had some riveting firsthand experience. She had just moved in with her fiancé when word broke of Bernard L. Madoff’s sweeping Ponzi scheme . Her fiancé was Mr. Madoff’s younger son, Andrew. “Disaster can be a megadisaster like something that affects all of us,” said Ms Hooper, 38, a former partner in the Fifth Avenue fly-fishing store Urban Angler. “But it can also be something that happens in your own world, whether it’s an unexpected death in the family or” — and here she chose a euphemism — “this kind of thing.” For $750, families can hire Ms. Hooper’s new company, Black Umbrella , to help them prepare for whatever kind of disaster might ensue. That basic package includes a sit-down session with a specialist to develop a family communication and reunification plan and four “go cards” — sleek aluminum wallet cards custom engraved with 22 contact numbers in the order in which they should be called. For $1,450, the advanced family-preparedness plan also provides someone to scan critical documents like passports and birth certificates and both store them on an encrypted flash drive and print them out for safekeeping someplace away from the client’s home. Also: one family-disaster practice run overseen by Black Umbrella, and even more go cards. For the people who are either really worried about a disaster or really wealthy (or both), there is the $1,950 plan, with a specialist on call to “run family practices, refresh emergency supplies or replace any family plans to account for evolving circumstances,” according to the company’s Web site. And starting next year, the company will sell its Go Bag, a $250 backpack that turns into a sleeping bag and was designed by the artist Mary Mattingly. Within the panoply of professionals some New York families employ — therapists, sleep consultants, manicurists, home organizers, bicycle-riding tutors — disaster-preparedness specialist is hardly the most indulgent. In fact, given the range of large and small disasters that could happen any given day, from losing your cellphone to that foiled Times Square car bomb , it can seem kind of crazy not to have a plan. Ms. Hooper, a Bryn Mawr graduate who once dreamed of opening a clothing boutique, may be among the more glamorous entrepreneurs in a field associated with camouflage fatigues and Apocalypse-fearing stockpilers. But she is not alone in seeing the business prospects. In Pleasantville, N.Y., a volunteer emergency services worker and a volunteer firefighter have started 1800prepare.com , which sells survival kits ranging from a $6.95 bare-bones version to the $342.95 “Ready to Roll,” which includes waterproof matches, safety goggles and 100 latex gloves. In Putnam County, N.Y., there is Angel Care Safety Training , a company that since 2006 has led emergency-preparedness seminars for businesses, church groups, schools and, in the past year, three Girl Scout troops. Ms. Hooper admits that you could do a lot of this on your own: the contact lists, the scanning, the designated meet-up locations should your house burn down or the Brooklyn Bridge blow up. But will you? Really? “It’s like, ‘Oh, I can change the oil.’ But does the oil ever get changed?” said Rebecca Hansen, 35, who, with her husband, Mike Keaney, recently bought the basic plan. Ms. Hansen and Mr. Keaney had planned to make a plan for years. Certainly before their first child was born. Finally, with the clock ticking toward the arrival of baby No. 2, they sat in the living room of their Staten Island home with Marc Alabanza, a Black Umbrella specialist. They racked their brains and trolled their cellphones for crucial contacts —parents, siblings, the day care center, their trusted cleaning lady — and determined that should Staten Island become inaccessible, they would meet at Ms. Hansen’s boss’s home, in Brooklyn. Ms. Hansen, they decided, should be the family marshal, in charge of calling the shots. “We could do it ourselves,” she said, “but we still hadn’t done it ourselves.” Ms. Hooper has recently begun advertising on the UrbanBaby Web site, but she said most of the 30 clients she had signed up since February — the majority of them families with two children — had come by word of mouth. In the late 1990s, when Ms. Hooper’s plans to buy a boutique fell through, she recovered via a fishing trip to Venezuela, which she found “transformational.” That brought her to Urban Angler, then on East 25th Street, where she quickly smelled potential. “There were all these people in there shopping, and yet it was dirty and kind of had lots of old merchandise around,” she said. “I thought, ‘This is the perfect retail business in need of reform.’ ” Over a decade, she helped catapult the company into a slick operation with a Fifth Avenue address, an outpost in Arlington, Va., and an internationally recognized name. It was through Urban Angler that she met Andrew Madoff, a client who became an investor. In 2008, she took a consulting job at Christian Dior, but she resigned after the news broke of Bernard Madoff’s scheme. “A lot of what I did was represent the brand to their clients,” she said, “and that wasn’t really appropriate for me to be doing.” Ms. Hooper said she had thought about the possibilities of a disaster-preparedness business since Hurricane Katrina, in 2005. Determined to create an emergency plan for her family — she has a 5-year-old daughter with the co-founder of Urban Angler — Ms. Hooper had found the Internet cluttered with a mess of contradictory information. Over the years, she read survivalist books and research papers, networked wherever she could and trolled online “prepper” chat rooms. She grilled dinner companions: Do you have a plan? They didn’t. Nor did Andrew. “He went to work that day thinking it’d be a day like any other, and when he walked out of the office to go talk to his father he had no idea that he was never coming back again,” Ms. Hooper recalled of the Madoff family’s disaster day. “When he said to me, ‘Everything’s at the office and I can’t even get a copy of my insurance policies,’ it made me realize that even someone as bright and talented as this guy didn’t really have this plan in place for what he would do if this kind of explosion happened in his own life.” In December, Dealbreaker.com , which covers Wall Street, announced Black Umbrella’s arrival under the headline, “In The Event Of An Emergency, Let Andy Madoff Lovingly Wrap Your Knick Knacks In Bubble Paper.” Andrew Madoff and his brother, Mark, who were co-directors of trading at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, maintain that they knew nothing about the fraud until their father confessed to them, at which point they turned him in. Andrew Madoff is one of several family members who have agreed to preserve their assets pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed by the court-appointed trustee charged with recovering money for victims of the Ponzi scheme. He has not been charged with any crime. His Black Umbrella business cards say “Director of Operations,” but Ms. Hooper said he mostly helps with administrative tasks like payroll. In a brief interview at the company’s office, on the 21st floor of a skyscraper at 590 Madison Avenue, Mr. Madoff said he hoped his name would not hurt Ms. Hooper’s credibility. “I think that what happened to me illustrated to me how important it is to be prepared for unexpected events,” he said. “I’m just another example.”

Disasters and Emergencies
Hooper Catherine


Ukraine Premier, in White House Visit, Hails Economic Progress

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The prime minister of Ukraine reassured President Obama on Monday that his embattled government was making important progress in overhauling the country’s troubled economy and meeting the terms of a shaky cease-fire with Russia. Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, the prime minister, said he told Mr. Obama that he was tackling corruption in Ukraine’s crucial energy industry and working to increase wages. He also predicted that Parliament would vote this week for constitutional changes to devolve more power to local governments in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists have waged a violent uprising. In an interview, Mr. Yatsenyuk said Mr. Obama had pressed him on whether he would hold together his coalition with President Petro O. Poroshenko. “I said, ‘Mr. President, once Benjamin Franklin said: Hang together or hang separate,’ ” Mr. Yatsenyuk said. “That’s what we are doing with the Ukrainian president. We will stay united.” He pledged that Ukraine would not allow the coalition to fracture the way a previous pro-Western coalition did. The meeting between Mr. Yatsenyuk and Mr. Obama was not on the president’s public schedule and was disclosed only afterward. In a statement issued on Monday evening, the White House said Mr. Obama had dropped by a White House meeting between Mr. Yatsenyuk and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and had offered his “unwavering support” for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression. “The president and vice president commended the government of Ukraine for the steps it has taken to implement its obligations under the Minsk agreements, including the submission to Ukraine’s Parliament of draft constitutional amendments on decentralization,” the White House statement said. “The president and vice president also welcomed the government of Ukraine’s ambitious economic reform agenda.” The constitutional changes may not satisfy Russia, which agreed to pull back military forces as part of the cease-fire negotiated in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, while pushing for more power to be held by regional governors. But Mr. Yatsenyuk said that passing the plan would put the onus on Moscow to fulfill the Minsk accord, which has so far failed to settle the conflict and is widely expected to collapse within months. “They won’t get any chance to blame Ukraine,” he said. Mr. Yatsenyuk said that he did not care whether Russia accepted the decentralization plan, and that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia would not have a veto over Ukraine’s Constitution. “It’s up to Putin to decide whether he wants to escalate the situation or de-escalate the situation,” he said. Mr. Yatsenyuk came to Washington for the second time in about a month in order to attend a business conference co-sponsored by the Commerce Department and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Ukraine’s economy has been battered in part by the war in the country’s east, but also by years of unbridled corruption, and one major question has been whether the new government would be able or willing to fix it. The conference was a chance to convince more than 150 American businesses that it is up to the task. “It’s a classic case of commercial diplomacy,” Penny Pritzker, the commerce secretary, who addressed the gathering along with Mr. Biden, said in a telephone interview. Ms. Pritzker praised the Ukrainian government and Mr. Yatsenyuk in particular for what she said were substantial steps toward a more open, less corrupt economy. “They’ve passed anticorruption reform, they’ve arrested some folks, they’ve begun the deregulation of the natural gas market and dismantling monopolies,” she said. “They seem to be holding themselves to deadlines.” But previous Ukrainian governments have tried and failed, and Ms. Pritzker acknowledged that the task was enormous. “It’s a complicated place,” she said. “We recognize that they have a lot of work to do. But here’s a government that’s committed to taking its economy back.”

Economy
US Politics
Arseniy P Yatsenyuk
Barack Obama
Joe Biden
United States Chamber of Commerce