Facebook/Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand
The ongoing effort to remove and relocate all 137 tigers from Wat Pa Luangta Maha Bua Yannasampanno, more commonly known as Thailand's "Tiger Temple," just took its most heartbreaking turn yet. Dodo Shows Faith = Restored Couple Meets A Beach Dog In Mexico Who Changes Their Life In the midst of tiger mistreatment and wildlife trafficking allegations, 40 dead tiger cubs (estimated to be 1 or 2 days old when they died) were found in a freezer at the temple on Wednesday, BBC News reports. Photos of the saddening discovery have started to spread on social media. WARNING: The following images contain graphic content. The antlers of a deer, cow horn and the body of a deceased bearcat were also discovered along with the bodies of the tiger cubs. In response to this recent discovery, the Tiger Temple re-posted a statement made on Facebook from March, which claims a former veterinarian at the temple asked that deceased tiger cubs be preserved, rather than cremated, as policy. "As [it] happens in life, cubs do occasionally die for various reasons, most often when a new mother lacks the experience to properly care for them," the Facebook post reads. "We have documented all the deaths from 2010 and have photographic evidence of them still being within the temple." The temple also claims in the post that it has never forced its tigers to breed. Documentation of the tiger cubs' birth and deaths allegedly shows they were never on sale in the black market, representatives of the temple told the New York Times. Tigers are an endangered species and their estimated global total in the wild stands at 3,200, with a jarring 7,000 estimated to be in captivity in China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). Tiger farming in these countries is a "major concern" Shruti Suresh, EIA Wildlife Campaigner, told The Dodo in a statement. "Several of these facilities are implicated in tiger trafficking. If we are to save the last remaining wild tigers, we need to end all trade in all tiger parts and products urgently and this includes ending trade in captive tiger specimens," Suresh said.Meredith Ferrel
Last Wednesday, someone abandoned a cat in Brooklyn, New York. He was unceremoniously left alone on Nostrand Avenue. Next to him was his litter box and other cat supplies. He was crying. Dodo Shows Foster Diaries This Pregnant Pittie Foster Story Is The Happiest Thing Ever A photo of Nostrand taken by Meredith Ferrel, who first spotted him on the street. | Meredith Ferrel A photo of the heartbreaking display was shared on the Flatbush Area Team for Cats' (FAT Cats) Facebook page, calling for his immediate capture - which wasn't easy. Shortly after being spotted, Nostrand, as he was later named, disappeared when he was scared away by a street sweeper. "We are a very close-knit community and people often post if they see an animal distressed or in need of assistance," Elizabeth Champ, one of the founders of FAT Cats, a Brooklyn-based group of trap, neuter and return advocates, told The Dodo. Champ said that as soon as she heard about Nostrand, she immediately went on the hunt for him, as did many other members of the neighborhood. Meredith Ferrel "We would like to thank our neighbors, many of whom took time out of their day to look for this poor cat," FAT Cats wrote on Facebook last Wednesday, the same day his photo was posted on Facebook. "Due to today's heat and the amount of construction and noise on Nostrand Ave. today, it's our belief that he is hiding somewhere until things get quieter and cooler." After days of searching, aided by rescue groups and concerned neighbors alike, Nostrand turned up in the backyard of Brooklyn local and retired cat rescuer Karen Oh on Sunday morning. Karen Oh and Nostrand | FAT Cats "We immediately brought him to get vetted, and screened for a microchip," the rescue wrote on Facebook. "No microchip, but we are happy to say he is a healthy 1-year-old male." Champ said that Nostrand was a "dream" during his initial visit to the Prospect Park Animal Clinic, where he was examined. Nostrand at the vet's office | FAT Cats "[He] didn't even mind having blood drawn for testing," she said. "Unfortunately, many male cats get dumped when they mature because there are not enough low-cost spay/neuter resources in NYC," Champ added. "People can't afford to get them fixed, so they often dump them and get another cat." Luckily for Nostrand, he's now in the safe care of FAT Cats and is due for a neuter appointment soon. Then, he'll be on the search for his forever home, thanks to the impressive community dedicated to saving him. FAT Cats All cats are, of course, special and idiosyncratic in their own subtle ways - but this cat's most unique trait is highly visible. It's right there on her chest. Meet Zoe. She lives in the Netherlands with her mom, Joanne Smienk, who adopted her, along with her sister Izzy, back in September. These British shorthair mixes are now just shy of 1 year old. Dodo Shows Odd Couples Kitten Isn't Sure About His Pittie Brother At First "When I first met Zoe, I immediately saw the heart on her chest and was very surprised to find out that no one had noticed it before," Smienk tells The Dodo. "I melted instantly, of course." She had initially planned to adopt just one kitten, but when she saw how close Izzy and Zoe were and how they always roamed around together, she just couldn't resist taking them both home. Smienk documents the cats' adventures on Instagram, where Zoe gets tons of attention for the striking heart on her chest. All the most-liked photos on the account show the heart, Smienk says. But despite all the attention she gets for her glamorous markings, Zoe doesn't always enjoy being the center of attention. "In real life, she is fairly shy. Eventually she does come around when people come over, and they find her and her heart very adorable, but Izzy usually gets more attention," Smienk says. "Or rather, Izzy takes more of the attention." Sometimes, Zoe prefers to just camouflage herself completely. But even though she's shy, Zoe is definitely the more curious of the two. "She is always looking around for new things to explore," Smienk says. "Her curiosity has already caused her to fall in the (full) bathtub four times." Smienk always likes to joke that Zoe aspires to be a Care Bear when she grows up. The one with the heart, obviously. After all, Zoe's worn her heart on her chest ever since she was a tiny kitten. Oh, and if you're wondering what Zoe's heart looks like when she walks, this video will show you: Now, all we have to do is wait for an exclusive line of Zoe-themed Valentine's Day cards ... The person who found Fergie wasn't sure what kind of animal what she was, but nonetheless took her to a local veterinarian, Rachel Parker, founder of Greener Pastures Sanctuary, a farm animal rescue, told The Dodo. A friend of Parker's ended up taking Fergie home and hand-raising the young fox herself, but in the end, didn't have enough space to keep her permanently. "Considered a 'pest' animal in Australia, it was virtually impossible to find somewhere for Fergie to live out her days," Parker said, noting that foxes are invasive in Australia and threaten local wildlife. "After seeking permission [from our local shire ranger] to keep her, we were able to build a big enclosure for her and give her a home." Since Fergie was the only fox at the sanctuary, Parker said, she began to grow worried that she would be lonely without the company of a close friend - and that's when she decided to introduce Faith, a rescue dog, to the 7-month-old fox. Alfeiya the dog was lying injured in a schoolyard in Bulgaria when students began pelting her with rocks. That's when 16-year-old Anita Valkova knew she had to step in. "A group of kids were throwing stones at her and when I saw this little pooch all covered in blood, I knew I had to take action," Valkova wrote in a post on Reddit. Even though she was scared of dogs, Valkova knew she couldn't leave Alfeiya to suffer, and so she swallowed her fear and stepped up to help. Valkova's family was skeptical and didn't think she should get involved, but she knew she had to try. She waited in the cold by Alfeiya's side for two hours before her dad arrived. Because of the dog's condition, her dad didn't want her getting in the car, and so with the help of a friend, Valkova carried Alfeiya to the vet to get the help she so desperately needed. Once at the vet, Alfeiya was cleaned, fed and given antibiotics for her wounds. She was suffering from demodectic mange, but otherwise, she seemed OK. The next day, Valkova's mother came to see the dog, and with the help of the vets, Valkova was able to convince her to welcome Alfeiya into their family. Valkova was still a little unsure of Alfeiya at first, having always been scared of dogs, and wasn't sure how the pup would react to her new home. "I gave her a bath, we were both very scared, she of the water and I of her biting me. After I dried her fur she got her claim on my bed," Valkova wrote. Before long, everyone realized that Alfeiya was just a gigantic sweetheart, and only wanted to be loved. She enjoyed every first she got with her new family, like her first toy ... ... her first car ride ... ... and her first time making a gigantic mess. When she first met Alfeiya, Valkova wasn't sure what to expect, but she soon learned that she had nothing to be afraid of. Now the pair are best friends, and Alfeiya will always love the girl who saved her life. "She's my little baby," Valkova wrote. "I think I'm spoiling her a bit too much." If you'd like to adopt a dog of your own, you can check out Adopt-a-Pet.com to get started. People will never fully understand what Harambe - a Western lowland gorilla who lived at the Cincinnati Zoo - was thinking when a small boy fell into his enclosure on Saturday. But many are mourning Harambe, and questioning whether zoo officials really needed to shoot him to save the boy. Two past incidents where a child fell into the animal's enclosure show gorillas actually coming to the rescue of the children in peril. "We know of two cases, Jersey Zoo in the U.K. and a zoo in Chicago, where a person falling into a gorilla enclosure was actually saved by a gorilla," Gisela Kaplan, an adjunct professor at the Center for Neuroscience and Animal Behavior at the University of New England in Australia, told The Dodo. "These events shed a light on gorilla behavior even in captivity." When a 5-year-old boy fell into the enclosure of a gorilla named Jambo at the Jersey Zoo (now Durrell Wildlife Park) in 1986, the boy lost consciousness. Jambo stood between the boy and the other gorillas; the action was interpreted as a gesture to protect him from harm. Then, Jambo stood over him, stroking him until he regained consciousness, at which point Jambo retreated. No one was harmed. Dodo Shows Adopt Me! Scared Little Dog Is So Full Of Joy Now And Looking For A Family The Chicago incident occurred at the Brookfield Zoo in 1996. A 3-year-old boy fell into Binti Jua's enclosure and she protected him, while carrying her own baby on her back. But Jambo and Binti Jua became famous for their benevolent acts. And now their stories are resurfacing in light of the tragedy at the Cincinnati Zoo, making people wonder whether Harambe's fate could have been otherwise. Many who have pored over the spotty footage have pointed out that Harambe didn't seem to be aggressive. "He pulled the child through the water of the moat, held his hand, apparently gently, stood him up and examined his clothing," Ian Redmond, a founder of the the Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP-UNEP) and advisor to the Born Free Foundation, said. "My immediate response to the killing of Harambe, the Cincinnati Zoo gorilla, is a deep sense of regret ... It's clear that the child was understandably frightened and the gorilla understandably stressed but ... Harambe did not attack the child." Still, because the video does not show the whole incident, Redmond said he was "not in a position to make a definitive judgement." Kaplan urged a thorough investigation of the incident, to see why Harambe had to die. (The Cincinnati police announced Tuesday that they will be investigating the incident.) "Since the tragedy has happened, the zoo should be pressured into reviewing and publicly explaining its safety standards for people and children, and enclosures," Kaplan said. "[The zoo] should be asked to explain and show what its protocols are in dealing with animals in emergency situations such as this was, and be questioned on its ethical standards." Kaplan pointed out that gorillas can get through crisis situations unharmed. "Many other positive inducements [methods] can be used," she said. "Then there are negative inducements such as restraints (nets), tasers, pepper sprays - another zoo had successfully used fire hoses to contain their animal." But the zoo stands by its decision. "We are heartbroken about losing Harambe, but a child's life was in danger and a quick decision had to be made by our Dangerous Animal Response Team," Zoo Director Thane Maynard said in a statement. "Our first response was to call the gorillas out of the exhibit. The two females complied, but Harambe did not. It is important to note that with the child still in the exhibit, tranquilizing the 450-pound gorilla was not an option. Tranquilizers do not take effect for several minutes and the child was in imminent danger. On top of that, the impact from the dart could agitate the animal and cause the situation to get much worse." Elephants are regarded as one of the most intelligent animals on the planet - but here's a story that suggests they're among the wisest, too. On Saturday, staff at the Bumi Hills Safari Lodge in Zimbabwe were surprised to discover a wild bull elephant had limped in from the surrounding bush to hold vigil outside a house there. Nick Milne, who manages the lodge's wildlife conservation foundation, arrived shortly after to assess the situation. "We have elephants in the area, but mostly cows and calves. To have a bull walk up to a house is something that just does not happen," Milne told The Dodo. "So, I went to take a look, and it seemed like there was something seriously wrong with him. He wasn't able to move very well." Bumi Hills Foundation Bumi Hills' in-house veterinarian was gone for the weekend, so Milne called up another specialist, about 200 miles away, who volunteered to fly in to help. Incredibly, in the six hours it took for medical care to arrive, the elephant continued to linger nearby, quenching his thirst with water offered to him in a bucket. Dodo Shows Little But Fierce Pocket-Sized Kitten Grows Up To Be A Wild Woman Bumi Hills Foundation "Generally, elephants we see are very aggressive or skittish. Obviously, they can get shot by hunters, so that behavior is natural," said Milne. "This elephant was very relaxed and very calm. He was unconcerned about us getting close." Milne began to suspect that this animal's appearance outside the house was more than just coincidence. Bumi Hills Foundation After tranquilizing the elephant, the team who came to his rescue discovered a deep wound on his shoulder - an injury, said Milne, that appeared to be from a poacher's bullet. Unfortunately, they were unable to find any shell fragments inside, so its exact cause remains something of mystery. Despite being about a month old, the wound wasn't badly infected, and the vet was able to complete the treatment in about an hour. Bumi Hills Foundation Although it's unclear whether that wound was caused by humans, Milne spotted another older injury that indicated this animal had survived an earlier attempt on his life - two healed bullet holes piercing through one of his ears. "We have a big poaching problem in the area," Milne said. "We're losing a substantial number of elephants to poaching. It's a serious issue." Bumi Hills Foundation Before reversing the effects of the tranquilizer, rescuers fitted the elephant with a radio collar to track his movements as he continues to heal. Bumi Hills Foundation It's still too early to tell if the elephant, who has since been named Ben, will make a complete recovery, though Milne is optimistic. On Tuesday, Ben was seen still on the grounds of Bumi Hills, eating and drinking normally. Best of all, his limp appeared to be improving, and the wound was healing well. Bumi Hills Foundation In most cases, a wrong turn amounts to little more than an inconvenience - but in this instance it saved a life. On Sunday, Lorraine Culloch and her partner, Mike Roberts, were on their way home after photographing orcas off the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland, when the car's navigation system sent them turning down the wrong road toward the inlet of a nearby river. That's when Culloch spotted something in the distance - a dolphin stranded in the shallows. Lorraine Culloch Instead of simply turning the car around and continuing on their way, Culloch and Roberts did the opposite: They walked out to see if the animal was still alive. She was - though judging from the blisters on her skin from being out of water, it wasn't clear how much longer she'd last. "We called the police, the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) and the SSPCA," Culloch told The Dodo. "They came and took charge." Dodo Shows Foster Diaries Scared Pittie Gets So Happy When He Meets This Guy And His Pack Of Dogs Lorraine Culloch Culloch stayed by the dolphin's side as the rescue workers set about keeping her comfortable. Since the water was much too shallow during low tide to try to move her, they used towels to keep her skin moist. "The dolphin seemed aware that we were there to help," said Culloch. "She was very calm the whole time." Scottish Marine Animal Strandings Scheme Though Culloch and the other rescuers were swift to act to keep the dolphin alive, returning her to the sea would take much longer yet. Given that the inlet was virtually impassable, they would have to wait nearly half a day for the tide to rise. "We were there for 10 hours, until a little after 4 in the morning," Culloch said. That's when the time finally came. Lorraine Culloch In the wee hours of the morning, while Culloch looked on, the rescue team lifted the dolphin back out to deeper water. At first, the animal seemed disoriented, but soon corrected course. "When she regained her strength, she swam away out of the bay," said Culloch. "She was swimming strong. That was a good sign." Lorraine Culloch The Stratford Festival is making musical theatre history this summer. For the first time since it premiered off-Broadway in 1975, one of the most successful musicals of all time, A Chorus Line, will be performed with choreography different from the moves established by its legendary director and choreographer, Michael Bennett. It has been tightly controlled by Bennetts estate since his death from AIDS in 1987. Because of the nature of the material it dramatizes the audition of 17 dancers for roles in the chorus of a Broadway production the work of the choreographer and director overlap; rechoreographing inherently means reconceiving the show. So how did it happen that this first new look at A Chorus Line is happening at one of Canadas flagship theatre institutions? The answer comes down to the architecture of Stratfords Festival Theatre, and the talents and persuasive powers of director and choreographer Donna Feore. I first came to Stratford in 1990 as a performer in Guys and Dolls and when I walked on the Festival stage I said to myself, A Chorus Line would be so brilliant here, says Feore. Famously, that stage is built in a thrust configuration meaning that the audience surrounds it on three sides rather than the more traditional proscenium arch, where the audience faces the action head on. The Festival Theatre is Stratfords signature site for large-scale productions of plays and musicals, including Feores recent successes as director and choreographer of The Sound of Music, Crazy for You, Fiddler on the Roof and Oklahoma! But when it comes to the musical in question, theres the whole thing about the line. Bennett conceived A Chorus Line as a proscenium staging, first at the Public Theater off-Broadway and then at Broadways Shubert Theatre. As Helen Epstein recounts in her biography of the shows famous producer, Joseph Papp, Bennett rejected Papps original pitch to stage the show in Lincoln Centers thrust-style Vivian Beaumont Theater. Its a chorus line, not a chorus curve, huffed Bennett. One of the most recognizable images in the show is those 17 hoofers standing in a row, facing the audience as the unseen director Zach barks instructions at them over a sound system. And it is that linear, end-on staging that Bennetts lawyer, collaborator, friend and now executor John Breglio has protected fiercely for nearly 30 years. A Chorus Line is one of the truly organic musicals that was created as one piece . . . we dont like to have it pulled apart and that goes for the design as well, explains Breglio. As artistic director Antoni Cimolino recounts, the Stratford Festival has tried numerous times to get the rights to A Chorus Line but has always fallen foul of the prescribed production not fitting its stage. When Feore finally made a pitch to Breglio, it landed at the right time. I was open to it because (the shows) been done so many times now, all over North America, Europe and beyond, he says. There literally isnt a day when A Chorus Line isnt being done somewhere in the world. Breglio and the shows original co-choeographer, Bob Avian, came to Stratford last summer to see Feores Sound of Music and lengthy discussions ensued. She assured me it would be done differently but that shed respect the material. Feore agreed to Breglios two central stipulations: that the line somehow still be part of the show and that the mirrors in the showstopper number The Music and the Mirror would also feature. A deal was struck. For Cimolino, getting the rights is a victory not only for his institution but for the material itself. Its important to respect the concerns that creators and their friends, family and other executors have I get that but at a certain point your baby has got to walk on its own and survive. . . . The point is to give the work new life and new perspectives for today. Thats not optional; its our responsibility. For Feore, the terrifying and totally thrilling prospect of restaging this contemporary classic has been full of discoveries, including that the Festival Theatre, as she suspected, makes a ready home for the show. Designer Tanya (Moiseiwitsch) built the space for the soliloquy and this show is one soliloquy after another. As Zach (played here by Juan Chioran) peppers the dancers with questions, the show turns into a series of flashbacks of pivotal moments from their upbringings and careers, recounted through monologue, song and dance. Via staging and lighting effects, Feore says she has found a way to isolate these moments onstage in a way thats impossible in the linear format. That said, purists need not fear. For theatre people of Feores (and this writers) generation, A Chorus Line has the status of a near-sacred text and she knows better than to mess with its opening moments, as we hear a voice shout out Five, six, seven, eight, horns blast a fanfare and the action opens in the middle of a maximum-energy group number. That first count of six is iconic! exclaims Feore. If you yell, Five, six, seven, eight to a dancer they will automatically do that first count of six. That choreography will be reassuringly familiar, she says. Another crucial choice is to keep the show set in its original time period rather than update it. We are 100 per cent in the 1970s, says Feore. I love that my older audience get the Jill St. John jokes, but kids who dont know the material seem to love it too because, well, puberty hasnt changed too much in forty-something years. Cimolino says that, during the preview period, audiences were buzzing. The piece still has the power to provoke, he says. Its documentary examination of a dancers life still not only rings true but presses our buttons. Breglio says hes looking forward to seeing what this beloved piece looks like through new eyes and in this environment: There are very rare human beings who are director/choreographers. Donna is one of them. And (Stratford) is extraordinary, from the physical plant to the sophisticated audience. Its a first-class place. The combination was ideal. A Chorus Line: The Making of a Meta-Musical The once-in-a-lifetime talent behind A Chorus Line was born Michael Bennett diFiglia in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1943. He left high school before graduation to join a European tour of the musical West Side Story, and danced in Broadway chorus lines for over 10 years before starting to work as a director and choreographer, building a reputation as an innovator with a keen commercial sense. Through his own instincts, and in conversations with fellow dancers, he developed an idea to document their experiences: what it was like to live the itinerant life of a chorus dancer or what the business calls a gypsy. In early 1974, he brought together several dozen dancers to a number of late-night meetings where he put them through some dance choreography, then invited them to share their personal stories over food and drink. Very early on, all guards were dropped, because the minute people started talking about their childhood or what they went through, of course you would identify with something, recalls Nicholas Dante, one of the shows co-writers, in Kenneth Turans book about Joe Papp. Those conversations became the seed material of A Chorus Line, though, as John Breglio recalls, early on, Michael didnt know if it was a musical or a documentary film. No one knew what it was, not even Joe. Bennett gave all the workshop participants a dollar and asked them to sign away the rights to the material they shared, says Breglio, but when (the show) became a sensation he voluntarily gave a portion of the money back to those original creators. This method of making plays out of the personal experience and testimony of artists was growing in popularity throughout theatre communities in the 1970s, but part of Bennetts unique contribution was applying this technique to musicals, and constructing a story that took audiences behind the glitz and glamour of Broadway. Sources: Helen Epstein, Joe Papp: An American Life; Kenneth Turan and Joseph Papp, Free for All: Joe Papp, the Public, and the Greatest Theater Story Ever Told; John Breglio, I Wanna Be a Producer How to Make a Killing on Broadway . . . Or Get Killed Correction Note, June 1, 2016: This article has been changed from a previous version that contained an incorrect photo. SHARE: Health Canada is warning doctors to make sure their patients understand the risks of Essure, tiny metal coils implanted in a womans Fallopian tubes as a form of permanent birth control. An advisory known as a Dear Healthcare Professional Letter, posted on a government website Tuesday, urges doctors, hospitals and clinics, as well as the public, to be aware of the numerous reported complications. Health-care providers are advised that: manufacturer Bayer Healthcare LLC will create a black box warning label and Bayer and Health Canada are developing a patient information checklist to ensure women are aware of Essures risks. It also states some patients may not have been adequately informed of the risks of Essure at the time of their procedure. These include menstrual bleeding, unintended pregnancy, chronic pain, perforation and migration of device, allergy and sensitivity or immune-type reactions. Some complications may be considered serious, some of which have led to surgery, including hysterectomy for removal, the letter says. The Essure permanent birth control system, approved for sale in Canada in 2001, is the subject of a potential class-action lawsuit involving 184 women against Bayer, a global pharmaceutical company. The lawsuit is led by Merchant Law Group, based in Saskatchewan, where the procedure is most popular. The coils are inserted through the cervix and work by forming a tissue blockage in the Fallopian tubes. About 8,000 devices were sold in Canada between 2002 and 2014, according to a summary of the safety review. Bayer has said 750,000 women, mostly in the U.S., have Essure. Bayer Inc., the companys Canadian division, said it worked with Health Canada to update the label and create the checklist. No form of birth control is without risk and appropriate for every woman. It is imperative that women consult with their healthcare professionals before making any contraceptive choice, to fully understand both the risks and determine the best option to meet their needs, Bayer said in a statement. The device is marketed as less invasive than laparoscopic tubal ligation, or a woman having her tubes tied. Essure does not require a general anesthetic, just a visit to a doctors office. In response to thousands of complaints filed at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a huge increase in social media activity, Health Canada ordered a safety review of Essure last fall. A summary of the review appeared last week on the Health Canada website. The safety review was also prompted by a 2015 study conducted by Cornell University-affiliated doctors and published in the British Medical Journal. The study suggested Essure patients had a 10-fold higher risk of reoperation than laparoscopic surgery (2.4 per cent compared to 0.2 per cent) in the first year after having Essure inserted. Bayer claims that its device is more than 99 per cent effective, about the same as tubal ligation. The BMJ study also found the rates of unintended pregnancy were similar. Toni Provost, who lives in Regina, Sask., and who is involved with the class-action suit, said the increased warning and monitoring recommended by Health Canada do not go far enough. The best case would be to get it off the market, said Provost, 34, who became pregnant two years after receiving Essure in 2012. I am hopeful they will, if enough women come forward. Provost said she was not informed of Essures risks, and discovered her pregnancy during an ultrasound in 2014 for heavy and irregular menstrual bleeding. She told the Star she was worried that the coils, which doctors told her had migrated, could harm the baby. Her son turned one this year and she has since had Essure removed, along with her Fallopian tubes. A similar review at the FDA that concluded this year ordered a black box warning label, patient checklist and a new clinical trial to examine long-term risks. Health Canada has asked Bayer to submit the results of that trial. This safety review found that there are risks associated with the use of Essure that need to be better communicated and further monitored, the safety review summary said. The FDA has received 9,900 self-reported complaints of side-effects through its Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience database. Health Canada has received 18, though 10 of those mentioned the need for surgery. Monitoring of medical devices on the market is dependent on reporting to the manufacturer and to the health regulator, Health Canadas letter states. Bayer declined to say specifically how many complaints the company had received or how many it disclosed to Health Canada. All adverse event data received by Bayer are analyzed and we work closely with the regulatory authorities across the world to monitor the safety profile of Essure. We take these reports seriously, a statement said. SHARE: After little more than six months in office, Fisheries Minister Hunter Tootoo has resigned from cabinet and is leaving the Liberal caucus to seek help for addiction problems, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Tuesday. Trudeau said in a statement that Tootoo is taking time to seek treatment for addiction issues. CTV News reported Tuesday night that sources said there had been an incident at the Liberal convention last weekend in Winnipeg that was serious enough that Tootoo would be leaving caucus. He is the first minister to resign from Trudeau's cabinet. Tootoo the first northerner to take on the role of fisheries minister and the second to play a role in cabinet also issued a brief statement saying he was stepping down so as not to distract from the important work of his colleagues, asking for privacy at this time. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday. He was absent from the Commons for a vote on the governments assisted-dying bill. Dominic LeBlanc, the governments House leader, will assume Tootoos cabinet responsibilities. We were quite proud that he was put into cabinet, said Nunavut Premier Peter Taptuna, who worked alongside Tootoo for five years in the Nunavut legislature. This (his resignation) is news to me, he told the Star Tuesday. If its not going to work for him, I think itd probably be better for him to step down, his uncle, Barney Tootoo, said from Iqaluit. The nature of his addiction was not specified. A senior government official would not answer questions about his resignation but said it was Tootoos choice to quit caucus. In other cases where MPs have confronted issues that could be embarrassing to a government they have remained in caucus or temporarily stepped aside. Liberal MP Seamus ORegan recently stayed with his caucus while he entered a rehab program and confronted what he later said was alcoholism. New Democrat MP Romeo Saganash briefly took leave from his duties in the last Parliament after an incident where he left a flight due to intoxication, but remained part of caucus. Conservative MP Peter Goldring, arrested after he was pulled over and failed to offer a blood sample, sat as an independent while his case made its way through the courts, and returned to the Tory caucus after he was acquitted. Tootoo, 52, was first elected as the MLA for Iqaluit Centre in 1999, where he served for 14 years and was Speaker of the legislative assembly until 2013. He also held a number of cabinet positions in the territorial government. Tootoo was born in Rankin Inlet in 1963 and immediately had to fight for his life. I was medevaced (airlifted) out, Tootoo said last year. I was in an incubator for the first three months of my life, so I am told. After overcoming this struggle, Tootoo went on to live in various parts of Canada, including Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan before making his way back to the North in the early 1990s. In November, a month after Tootoo defeated former Conservative cabinet minister Leona Aglukkaq to claim the federal riding of Nunavut, he said he hoped to transfer his political experience to a national scale. I think that it is going to be very beneficial to me as we move forward, he said. With files from Tonda MacCharles and The Canadian Press SHARE: Washington (United States) (AFP) - Gary Johnson, the former Republican governor of New Mexico, on Sunday won the presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party, a sliver group hoping to make an outsized impact in this election year. Johnson came within a half-point of scoring an outright first-ballot victory at the party's nominating convention in Orlando, Florida; a second ballot put him over the top, with 56 percent. "I tell the truth, I am not a liar," Johnson told the group, insisting that his frank approach would appeal to disaffected voters and help the long-marginal Libertarians achieve "major-party status." As a Libertarian, Johnson advocates eliminating the income tax and abolishing the Internal Revenue Service. A self-made businessman who worked as New Mexico governor to lower taxes and reduce bureaucracy, he pushed for the legalization of marijuana. In 2012, he was the Libertarian candidate, garnering 1.2 million votes, the party's best showing ever. In at least two recent national polls, Johnson scored 10 percent in hypothetical three-way contests against Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. The Libertarians -- whose central goal was pithily described by one delegate in Orlando as "minimum government, maximum freedom" -- hope to tap into widespread discontent this year with the major-party choices. Johnson ramped up criticism of one of those choices, the Republican Trump, telling reporters Sunday that the real estate developer was a "racist" because of his description of Mexican immigrants as rapists. - 'Best of both worlds' - In an interview earlier this month with AFP, Johnson described Trump and Clinton as "the two most polarizing figures in American politics today." He added, "I'm more liberal than Hillary on social issues, and I'm more conservative on fiscal issues than Ted Cruz was," said Johnson, referring to the Texas senator who quit the Republican race early this month. Story continues That, Johnson said, made him "the best of both worlds." The Libertarians' convention drew far closer media attention than usual, and Johnson told the group that "millions of people are going to be trying to understand what it is to be a Libertarian." One chart displayed at the convention showed web searches for the party quintupling after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee. In balloting carried out on plain index cards, Johnson beat out contenders including Austin Petersen, a businessman and political commentator, and John McAfee, the founder of the antivirus software company who once fled Belize after police sought to question him in a murder case. The Libertarian convention was to vote separately for its vice presidential nominee. Johnson said Sunday that the party needed to nominate William Weld, a former Republican governor of Massachusetts, to serve as his running mate, although Weld, a recent convert to Libertarianism, received a cool welcome from many delegates. "Bill Weld was my role model," Johnson said. He told delegates and reporters that he did not think he could be elected president without Weld as his running mate. American political conventions have long been colorful affairs and this has been no exception. One delegate serenaded the group with a harmonica tune, offering to make it the party's "semi-official" theme song. Another suggested the party adopt Dobby, a "house elf" from the Harry Potter series, as its official mascot. FORT MCMURRAY, ALTA. Henry Velasquez wants to return to the place where his home once stood someday, but not yet. Residents are being allowed to return in stages this week, a month after a voracious wildfire destroyed 10 per cent of Fort McMurray in northern Alberta and forced the evacuation of the entire city. But Velasquez, a chemical engineer, will be hanging back in Calgary with his wife, Olga and son Tomas, 3. Hes just not ready for the emotional punch of seeing whats left of their townhouse in the Stone Creek neighbourhood at the north end of town. In July or August, hell re-evaluate, he said. I just want to go there before they start the demolition of everything, because I just want to see where my house is, see if there is at least one memory that I could rescue from what we have, he said through tears. The most simple, the most small thing that I could recover from that, it will be such a treasure for me and my wife. Among the first to return on June 1, the first day of the staged re-entry operation, will be residents from Fort McMurrays Lower Townsite, downtown and nearby surrounding communities. People who used to call the citys south-central and hardest-hit neighbourhoods home will have to wait until Saturday. In Ian Seggies apartment in the Timberlea neighbourhood, theres still a bag of trash waiting to be taken out and a pot of soup ready to be heated on the stove. The eerie part for me is that everything is frozen in time, he said from Calgary, where hes been staying since May 3, when more than 80,000 people were ordered out of the city. Officials have warned returning residents that it wont be business as usual in Fort McMurray. Theyve been advised to bring with them two weeks worth of food, water and prescription medication as crews continue to work to get basic services restored. The first of the former residents will arrive by car as commercial air service to the citys airport is on hold until at least June 10. Seggie made arrangements with an Edmonton grocery store to have perishable food prefrozen. He plans to pick it up on his way to Fort McMurray and load it into coolers. He doesnt know whether hell stay once he goes up on Thursday. If the air quality goes to crap, Im not sticking around, he said. I need to get back and get my place dealt with, just to have a look and search things out. And if I stay, I stay. Kevin Lewis is anxious to get back into his apartment in Thickwood, a relatively undamaged neighbourhood thats slated to reopen on Friday. Lewis has been unable to run his transportation brokerage business since the evacuation and he figures hes lost some $40,000 over the last month. I definitely need to get to work, Lewis said from Lac La Biche, Alta., a small town southeast of Fort McMurray thats taken in thousands of evacuees. Lewis knows its a possibility that smoke damage may have rendered his place uninhabitable. If its not really livable there yet, I could at least be able to grab my computers and Ill be able to work. Jim Mandeville, senior project manager with Mississauga-based FirstOnSite Restoration, has been in Fort McMurray since May 8 to help critical businesses such as banks, grocery stores and pharmacies get running again. Dozens of FirstOnSite workers have been working long days disposing of spoiled food, cleaning ventilation systems and removing smoky odours from upholstery and carpets. Mandeville said provincial and municipal officials arent underplaying how challenging it will be for residents to return. When they say to bring 14 days worth of food and water, they mean it. And when they say people with respiratory conditions shouldnt come up here, they mean it and they have a really good reason why, he said. It is not a clean, safe, normal environment that youre walking into. At a press conference Wednesday, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said its critical for her to be in Fort McMurray when the first evacuees return because the city will not be the same one they left. Its not like, OK, youre home. See ya. Bye bye, she said. Were still with them and I think its really important that they hear that from us. Looking forward, Notley believes the wildfire has underlined the need for a national discussion on disaster mitigation. Notley also said shes already asked that the subject be added to the agenda for Julys premiers meeting and although federal disaster relief is already in place, there may be room for more help from Ottawa on relief efforts. Read more about: SHARE: Tracey Leigh wanted out of her neighbourhood to prevent her family from being sucked into a spiral of violence. On Wednesday, however, the violence caught up with them before they could act. Nathan Leigh, who turned 20 on May 16, was riding his bike in a parking lot behind the Toronto Community Housing row house on Orpington Cres., where he lived with his mom, grandmother and teenage sister, when he was shot multiple times in broad daylight. He was still fighting for his life at Sunnybrook Hospital Wednesday evening. They say there are seven entrance wounds, and hes on a ventilator and hes on heavy meds, said his aunt, Diane Ravat, after visiting him in hospital. He was shot in the lungs. Tracey was on the phone with her son moments before the shooting, around 9:30 a.m. Im outside, Im coming just now, he told his mom. Then she heard the gunshots. When she ran to the parking lot, she saw a crowd of people. Who got shot? she asked, before seeing her son on the floor. His face was covered in blood and he was gasping for air. His eyes were open. I dont know if he heard me when I said, Moms here, moms here. The ambulance is coming. According to his family and neighbours, Nathan is a homebody who likes video games, basketball and rap, and doesnt run with a bad crowd, his mom said at the hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery. He was outside at the wrong time. It doesnt make sense to me. Nathan had asked her to move their family out of Orpington Cres. because of violence in the area, she said. The shooting occurred about a 10-minute walk northwest of where Candice Rochelle Bobb 35 years old and pregnant was shot and killed on the night of May 15. Her baby survived. Last summer, 14-year-old girl Lecent Ross was fatally shot in nearby Jamestown. The Leigh family has lived there for almost 12 years but Tracey Leigh applied to move them out of the TCH row house just south of Kendleton Dr. two years ago at her sons urging, she told the Star. After they applied to transfer, they were told there is a long wait list, according to Tracey. Nathans aunt Diane told her nephew repeatedly to keep his head down and avoid trouble. Dont play into the tough guy routine, she urged him. In that area, all they want to do is kill each other over what? Honest, over what? she said. There have been 68 shootings causing death or injury this year, according to Toronto Police. Of those, 19 were fatal. Before the shooting, Nathan was thinking of registering for classes this fall to finish high school, his family said. Gerry Luongo, a neighbour, says he sometimes worked with Nathan, selling scrap metal. He dresses like a thug, but hes a good kid, he said. I almost called him this morning to come and help. Toronto Police said they suspect there were at least two gunmen involved, who fled in a blue Nissan Versa. We are outraged and disgusted that this can happen right across from a school at 9:30 in the morning, said superintendent Ron Taverner. Several nearby schools including Greenholme Junior Middle School, West Humber Collegiate, and Henry Carr Catholic Secondary School were initially ordered to hold-and-secure as police began their investigation. Kim George, a 39-year-old early childhood education worker, lives a few doors up from where Leigh was shot. She was stunned when she learned about the daytime shooting and that her neighbour, who she had seen the day before, was fighting for his life. The shots were fired around the same time as Georges 12-year-old son leaves home to take the school bus. Its scary, George said. Ill have to tell him to be more careful and walk with someone. With files from Brennan Doherty and Nick Westoll SHARE: Who could kill a man for a truck? Only a lunatic, Mark Smichs lawyer argues. Only someone who had something flip inside them in the moment, like a mad man, would be capable of such a heinous and despicable crime, lawyer Thomas Dungey said in his closing arguments Wednesday. Dungey argued that the Crowns theory that Mark Smich and Dellen Millard had spent more than a year planning to murder a man for a truck defies logic. He said there is proof only that the pair was planning to steal a truck and that something went wrong. A lunatic is exactly how Smich, 28, has described Millard, 30, the night of May 6, 2013 when the pair went for a test drive of the pickup truck Ancaster father Tim Bosma was selling online, as part of their mission to scope out a truck to steal. Bosma was killed that night, shot in his truck and then incinerated in Millards animal cremator outside his air hangar at the Waterloo Region airport. Smich and Millard, on trial for Bosmas first-degree murder, point the finger at each other, and insist a murder was not part of the plan. Smich has testified that something had come over Millard that night. Smich maintains he had been following in Millards SUV at the time Bosma was shot in the pickup truck, and insists he was shocked to discover the 32-year-old dad slumped over the dashboard. He insists he had no idea Millard brought a gun. Millards lawyers argued in their own closing arguments that Smich was desperate for the red Cadillac Millard had promised him in exchange for his help stealing a truck, and that he was the one who whipped out a gun on the highway during the test drive a lethal attempt to turn it into a robbery. But Dungey dismissed that scenario and called the Cadillac a red herring. He said Smich had no motive to kill. The then-25-year-old was a drug dealer and a petty thief and had participated in thefts with Millard for a bit of cash and that this, to him, was no different. He was going to get paid a couple hundred dollars (for helping with the theft), Dungey said. On the other hand, Dungey described Millard as a manipulative and cold-hearted millionaire who always got what he wanted. And who made no secret of the fact that he wanted a truck. Hes an arrogant elitist, in my opinion, Dungey said. He highlighted Millards actions after Bosma was killed: moving evidence around at night and lying about the origins of the truck that had appeared in his hangar overnight. Are these the actions of a man whos innocent? Or a man who is delusional ... who thinks he can get away with anything? Dungey asked. Similarly, Dungey said the jailhouse letters Millard secretly sent to his girlfriend Christina Noudga explicitly show his attempts to get friends to change their stories and to frame Mark Smich. These give us a glimpse into Millards demonic mind, Dungey argued. Who tampers with witnesses except someone whos guilty? Since the letters were seized by police, Millard had to come up with a new story, Dungey said, suggesting the scenario he has presented in this trial was just another fabricated story that he hoped would exonerate him. According to the story Millards lawyers presented, Smich got out of the truck after accidentally shooting Bosma during a holdup in the truck on the highway, and followed in Millards GMC Yukon to the air hangar. If Smich had truly been the shooter, Dungey argued, he would have transferred gunshot residue or blood or DNA with him into the GMC Yukon. But none was found. He acknowledged his client an unemployed drug dealer and aspiring rapper with a criminal record was no boy scout. But hes not twisted and demented as I say Mr. Millard is, Dungey argued. Smich was an accessory after the fact to the murder, Dungey argued. He helped Millard destroy evidence, including stripping and washing Bosmas truck. But that, I suggest, is all he is guilty of, he said. When it comes to the murder of Tim Bosma, Mark Smich is not guilty. The Crown will be up Thursday to deliver its closing arguments in the trial. Read more about: SHARE: If the Trudeaus welcome a bouncing new addition to their lovely family next February, then Canadas prime minister will at least have something to show for his G7 mission to Japan last week. As has been over-documented, Justin and Sophie Gregoire took a snog-shack step-out from formalities to celebrate their 11th wedding anniversary. The traditional anniversary gift for Year 11 is steel. A samurai sword would doubtless have been too kitschy for the occasion. Jewelry is more customary. That the Trudeaus still adore and crave each other is obvious. Justins hand-lock on Sophies curvy bum cover photo of Vogue last January spoke volumes about their relationship. Good on them for exhibiting enduring connubial passion in an era when the thrill is typically gone-gone-gone for so many marriages before they even get to cotton (Year 2). Four in 10 Canadian marriages now end in divorce. Justins parents, Pierre and Margaret, technically remained yoked for 13 years but that union was scandalously kaput long before legally uncoupling. In a post-metrosexual world, and apart from a few cranky commentators, Justin Trudeau was generally applauded for his 24-hour romantic interlude at a posh Japanese inn on his own dime. Although the couples anniversary was actually this past Saturday, when the whole travelling circus was back in Canada. Hey, I totally understand exploiting a work road trip when the logistics make it possible, though in my business those accommodating-perk days are long over. Its the in-the-vault details of that sojourn to Japan which vexed. The PMO would not disclose how many staff Trudeau had in tow but lets just say he wasnt travelling light. That information and the cost of the entire junket should certainly be in the public domain, without having to access a freedom-of-information paper chase. While the honeymoon between Trudeaus appears to be endless, the honeymoon between prime minister and Canadians has entered its end-of-days phase, despite gaudy favourability ratings. The country caught a gander of the Sun Kings less salubrious side with that flying elbow in Parliament accidental contact, to be sure and his bossy-boots F-bombing to bring opposition MPs to heel for a vote. Frankly, the NDP freakout was far worse than the offence. Trudeau, with his majority mandate blue skies for four years has little to worry his pretty head over on the domestic front, even if the crush subsides. And hes gained some credibility chops internationally in these few short months, albeit hes still not a man of much substance. But his take-the-lead posture against governments negotiating ransoms for nationals abducted by terrorist groups found traction with the G7 gang in Japan although Im skeptical about the value of that formal agreement, since governments have frequently given the perception of keeping their hands clean while utilizing intermediaries, Canada no exception. A Japanese journalist was executed by ISIS last year; images of another, Jumpei Yasuda, emerged on Monday, in which he holds a sign reading: Please help me and This is the last chance. Trudeau has walked through that valley of death too, with the gruesome beheading a month ago of Canadian hostage John Ridsdel by the Philippine militant gang, Abu Sayyaf, which has pledged its troth to ISIS. Another Canadian is still being held for ransom lucre. On the terrorism file, its difficult to hold Trudeau accountable for a maddened world, except to point out again that this PM recalled Canadas fighter-jet contribution to the coalition military campaign against ISIS, while deploying an expanded training and tactical element. There is reproachable inconsistency, however hypocrisy, lets call it by its rightful name in a story dug out this with week by John Ivison of the National Post. Via an Access to Information inquiry, Ivison discovered that Trudeau, before he became Liberal leader, while he was a very vocal critic of the Conservative governments temporary foreign worker program made two applications to bring foreign nannies into the country to look after his own children. Trudeaus deputy director of communications confirmed to Ivison that the PM and his wife had submitted one successful application to the temporary foreign worker program for a caregiver, with that individual leaving the Trudeaus employ before Justin became party leader (2013); the couples second application was withdrawn. Sophie Trudeau is a stay-at-home mom of three young children, yet she apparently still needs two live-in nannies to get through the day. Ill give her a mulligan on that one because she does have a full schedule and a heap o requests. Further, spouses are expected to accompany their leader husbands on foreign gigs for all those hand-holding photo ops. The original controversy erupted just after the election, when it emerged nanny-times-two were on the public payroll. Although the Trudeaus can damn well afford to pay their own nannies, its not unreasonable for taxpayers to pick up the tab. Its part and parcel of living at 24 Sussex. But the optics were crummy. A fart in a mitten, perhaps. (Or fart in a midden, as a reader insists). But the revelation Trudeau went dipping into the temporary foreign program whilst simultaneously slamming then-PM Stephen Harper for expanding it critics argue quite convincingly that live-in caregivers from places such as the Philippines are not uniquely qualified for the work; rather, theyll toil for less pay than Canadians stinks a whole lot more. Once upon a time couple of years ago, actually Trudeau described the flood of temporary hirelings coming into the country to labour on the cheap as vulnerable workers, whose presence contributed to driving down Canadian wages and displacing the domestic pool of job-seekers. He was right. He was also sanctimoniously deceitful. Does that matter? No longer a moral hitch, since Trudeau has evidently had a change of heart on the nanny front. They shop Canadian now for the kids minders. Three kids, two nannies, one enviously swell marriage. But the idolatry is not goof-proof. Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Read more about: SHARE: Toronto Fire Services made history this month when, for the first time on record, the top three students in its graduating class were women. Its a change thats indicative of a growing trend; not only are more women pursuing a career in firefighting, theyre also finding places at the top of the ladder in roles like divisional and deputy chief. Whytney Hooker finished first in the class. Before she began getting serious about firefighting, she owned a painting company and worked for the city. I knew at about 13 that I wanted to work in emergency services, but it took until I was about 25 for me to actually pursue it, the 30-year-old said. Hooker said she wasnt sure initially if she would be strong enough to do the work, but support from friends and family helped her follow her dream. Often that encouragement came from men, even the guys in her class. I think that theres a total change in the generation thats coming in for firefighting and the mentality that women shouldnt be here has more or less been phased out, she said. It seems like a very inclusive job to be in. According to Scott Eyers, who leads the TFS training department, drastic change has come to firefighting even over the course of his career starting with the most basic a move from using the term fireman to firefighter to taking on more systemic problems. For many years, firefighting was pretty white, Anglo-Saxon and male-dominated, he said. Theres no doubt about it, in the early 90s this was a tough job, a tough environment for women. Past black marks against fire services in Canada include the entire female staff of Richmond, B.C., leaving in the late 1990s after enduring sexual harassment to Brenda Seymour, the lone female member of the Spaniards Bay volunteer fire brigade in Newfoundland who reported being intimidated and undermined because of her sex this year. Eyers estimates that in the past women made up only five per cent of the force, but since 2013 thats jumped to between 15 per cent and 20 per cent. TFS is reaping the rewards. Just being a female, sometimes when they go to a call people are more at ease, especially if its a medical call and its a woman who needs help, he said. The women weve hired in the past few years are going a long way and its definitely improving the overall makeup of our team. Katherine Shirriff finished second in the class just half a mark below Hooker and narrowly beat out graduate No. 3, Annemieke Struyk. She studied kinesiology at Laurier University, but ended up applying to become a firefighter through the newly created Firefighter Career Access Program, which allows candidates without formal fire education to qualify and compete for the hiring process through which theyll eventually get their training. I love being hands on, she said, explaining that so far shes worked three busy shifts, including attending a two-alarm fire. Shirriff said one of the best parts of the job is working alongside others who are helping her get used to her new role. The team is like a second family. Theyre your brothers and sisters, she said. According to Eyers, one of the biggest obstacles blocking women from becoming firefighters is doubting they can do the job. I dont think there are too many 8-year-old girls who want to be a firefighter when they grow up, he said. For example, my wife is a strong woman, but she doesnt think she could do the job. He said every time a woman joins the force they act as a role model to future female firefighters a role that both Hooker and Shirriff say theyre excited to take on. If theres a way that we can grow an interest and plant a seed in girls that this is something they might like to do when theyre older, were happy to be there, Shirriff said. SHARE: Of 32 female members of the Israeli parliament, 28 say they have been sexually harassed or assaulted, and at least two say those experiences occurred in the Knesset itself, according to a new survey by an Israeli television channel. The survey comes two weeks after 17 members of the Assemblee nationale, the French parliament, signed a column denouncing widespread sexual harassment and impunity in their workplace. In December, the Israeli interior minister and vice-premier, Silvan Shalom, resigned after almost a dozen women, including former employees of his, came forward with allegations of sexual harassment or assault. The survey gave the lawmakers a chance to speak publicly about the perils of being a woman in Israeli politics. Even today, the fact that Im a single woman in the Knesset puts me in unpleasant situations, said Merav Ben Ari, a Knesset member from Kulanu, a centrist political party. Sometimes people make comments. . . . I dont want to elaborate, but there was a situation recently in the Knesset, and I took care of it. Other Knesset members spoke of harassment at different times in their careers or in their childhoods. Rachel Azaria, also of Kulanu, recounted experiences of her time as a Jerusalem city council member. There was an incident that repeated itself in the planning and building committee, of which I was a member, Azaria said. Another city councilor would make remarks of a sexual nature regarding things that I said, and the whole room would burst out laughing. I consulted with the legal adviser and other officials, and they all said there was nothing to be done. It interfered with my ability to function, and I was very distressed. In 2007, Moshe Katsav, who was Israeli president at the time, was charged with raping two women when he was a cabinet minister in the late 1990s, as well as sexual assault against two of his female staffers as president. The Israeli military, too, is plagued by allegations of sexual harassment. It has launched about 250 related investigations over the past two years. SHARE: LUCKNOW, INDIAEvery day as Kamla dug through the mud and moulded bricks for north Indian kiln, her two hungry children would cry out to her for food. The 200 rupees ($3) she made for producing 1,000 bricks at a time wasnt nearly enough to feed her family, and her daughter died of malnutrition before she turned 4. Kamlas story, told to one of the many charities fighting forced labour in India, is common enough to explain how slavery persists in the country despite rapid development that has helped make India the worlds fastest-growing economy. On Tuesday, the South Asian democracy topped a global slavery index counting some 18.35 million modern slaves or 40 per cent of a global total of 45.8 million. The report, released by The Walk Free Foundation, included children and adults forced into labour, often unpaid or to pay off a debt, as well as child brides, child soldiers and migrant workers in 167 countries. These poor and deprived people are forced to leave their homes because of poverty. This is clear reflection of the failure of the welfare state, said Lenin Rghuvanshi of the Peoples Vigilance Committee on Human Rights, the charity which put together a December report based on testimony from 450 people rescued from slavery and bonded labour in India last year, including Kamla. Bonded labour is a contemporary type of slavery, he said. The government, which is supposed to provide them basic necessities, has failed them. Officials with the Indian Labour Ministry declined to comment on the slavery index report, which showed China a distant second with some 3.39 million modern slaves counted. Chinas foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment. North Korea was found to have the highest per capita rate of modern slavery, with 4.37 per cent of its population affected. The problem of slavery in India including child marriage and bonded labour has long been a challenge and cause for shame. Just last week, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee lambasted Indias record on human rights, asking how India could have so many slaves. I mean, seriously, do they have just zero prosecution abilities, zero law enforcement? I mean, how could this happen? Its on that scale, its pretty incredible, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee said. Many had seen the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize for childrens rights activist Kailash Satyarthi, who was awarded along with Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, as a sign that India would be forced to better protect its 1.25 billion citizens from abuse. But child labour, the trafficking of sex workers, and bonded labour remains widespread, despite Indias rapid economic growth over the past decade. Laws meant to keep children in school and out of the workplace are routinely flouted, as millions are forced into difficult and sometimes toxic jobs including rolling cigarettes, blowing glass in factories, mining in stone quarries or dyeing leather in tanneries. Some activists blamed the government for maintaining a top-down economy where illegal labour can still flourish because of high unemployment and abject poverty in the countryside. While the official jobless rate has hovered around 10 per cent since 1983, some economists say that counting only the number of people actively looking for work ignores the masses who have only part-time jobs or who have simply given up. The laws are there, but there is no political will on the part of the government to implement them, peace activist Swami Agnivesh said. The government cant afford to annoy rural rich as well as the urban rich who are exploiting the situation. Amid the rising criticism, the Indian government on Monday published draft legislation to curb human trafficking without punishing its victims. At present the law says the trafficked and the trafficker are both criminals and they both go to jail. Now, we are saying the victim will not go to jail, said Maneka Gandhi, the governments minister for women and child development, according to Press Trust of India. Still, some activists said the situation was improving in India, thanks to public awareness, legal reforms and police-backed raids on factories employing workers illegally. We get 20 complaints per day from family members and public in general reporting labour abuse a sign that awareness of the problem was growing, said Ramesh Senger from Satyarthis Save the Childhood Movement. He noted that Indias carpet industry used to employ 300,000 trafficked children just a decade ago, but that the number has come down to an estimated 5,000-10,000. Meanwhile, the number of children forced to work making plastic bangles in parts of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh is now negligible, whereas thousands worked in the industry 10 years ago. Indias garment industry hub in the capital has also eliminated child labour, Sanger noted as an example of how police-backed raids can make a difference. We rescued nearly 400 children in the area between 2012-2014, he said. The garments industry in the area no longer employs child labour. But for those still mired in forced labour, the scourge cant be ended soon enough. And with little recourse against abusive employers, they can only hope to be rescued by a charity intervening. Radha, kidnapped from her family by a woman from her village and forced into bonded labour at a brick kiln near Varanasi, told the Peoples Vigilance Committee on Human Rights she was raped daily by the factorys owner when she was not cooking and cleaning for him, and then was beaten when she tried to object. I was so scared, she said. Im still in pain from the rapes. Read more about: SHARE: WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALANDStuart Cleary set out in late 2014 to paddle solo from Australia to New Zealand. But in the end, it was his homemade kayak that completed the 2,000-kilometre journey on its own. Just hours into the trip, Cleary ran into equipment problems. Later, his kayak started taking on water, and he was forced to abandon the vessel before being rescued at sea. Eighteen months later, the kayak has washed up on a New Zealand beach close to where Cleary had intended to make landfall. Nathan Marshall said he was taking his dogs for a run on Muriwai Beach near Auckland on Wednesday morning when he found the barnacle-encrusted kayak. He approached it cautiously. I thought there was going to be a body, he said by phone. Instead, he found a vessel that was stained and battered but remarkably intact considering its odyssey. Inside the cabin were remnants of the failed voyage: rusted cans of food, a radio, a waterlogged first-aid kit. Marshall posted a message seeking information about the vessel on a community Facebook page and within a few hours was talking to Cleary in Australia. Its just incredible, just unbelievable, Cleary said by phone from his Gold Coast home. It seems like the kayak had a mind of its own. If only Id known that it knew the way. Cleary, 54, a former oil-field diver, had spent four years training and preparing for his voyage. He designed and built the 6-meter kayak, using a wooden mould that he covered in high-grade foam and layered with fiberglass. He included a cabin that was just long enough for him to sleep in. Cleary initially had wanted to circumnavigate the Tasman Sea, but changed his plans due to the weather. And nobody had ever completed a solo, unassisted kayak crossing from Australia to New Zealand. He left in December 2014 from the town of Ballina in New South Wales with food to last 70 days, hoping to reach land within a month. But 12 hours later, Clearys GPS device started failing. Then it was his steering rudder. He turned back to the Australian coast, only to get hit by heavy seas. At one point, he opened the hatch and a wave crashed in. Everything went pear-shaped, he said. When rescuers arrived, the waves were too large for them to tow or retrieve the kayak, so they abandoned it. Cleary said he figured it would wash up in Australia or circle about and sink in the notoriously rough Tasman Sea. There are storms and wind and waves, he said. Theres a collision of weather systems it turns into a massive cacophony of weather directions. Six months after the rescue, Cleary tossed out the trolley hed used for transporting the kayak, giving up hope that hed ever see it again. But on Wednesday, the kayak was found washed ashore just 25 kilometres from the entrance to Aucklands Manukau Harbour, where Cleary was initially headed. I think its pretty crazy that it turns up right next to where there is beach access instead of smashing on the rocks, said Marshall, a builder, who hauled the kayak to his farm with the help of some rangers. Cleary said he plans to visit the farm later this week, although this time hell be travelling to New Zealand by plane. He said the kayak will likely need to be thrown away, but first he wants to see if theres anything he can learn from the damage it sustained. Thats because hes considering making a second crossing attempt. It feels like unfinished business, Cleary said. Particularly now that the bloody kayak beat me there. SHARE: TOKYODonald Trump appears to be finding some friends in North Korea. The presumptive U.S. Republican presidential nominee has been getting good press this week in the Norths carefully controlled media, first in an opinion piece that praised him as wise and full of foresight and then Wednesday in the official mouthpiece of the ruling Workers Party itself. Both articles noted how his suggestions he would be willing to meet leader Kim Jong Un and wants to rethink and possibly withdraw U.S. troops from South Korea have created a Trump Shock in Seoul. The state-run DPRK Today in Pyongyang started off the Trump praise on Tuesday by juxtaposing the wise Trump with what it called dull Hillary describing leading Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton by only her first name. The presidential candidate who U.S. citizens should vote for is not dull Hillary, who says she would pursue an Iran-type model to solve the Korean Peninsulas nuclear problems, but Trump, who said he would solve problems by directly talking with North Korea, said the column attributed to a China-based scholar. In the lengthy column, Trump is described as a wise politician and presidential candidate with foresight for his comments about the U.S. potentially withdrawing its troops from South Korea if Seoul doesnt bear the costs. It also noted his public willingness to directly talk with the North Korean leadership if he becomes president. Trump told The New York Times in March that South Korea and Japan should pay much more for the U.S. troops based in their countries about 28,000 in South Korea and around 50,000 in Japan. In a more recent interview with the Reuters news agency, Trump said he was willing to meet with Kim. I would speak to him, I would have no problem speaking to him, he said. The removal of U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula and direct talks with a U.S. president dovetail nicely with objectives Pyongyang has held for years though undoubtedly for different reasons than the American real estate magnate. The North wants the U.S. troops to leave because it sees them as a direct threat to the regimes security and has long wanted talks with Washington, ostensibly toward a peace treaty to end the 1950-53 Korean War, that would boost its international status and acknowledge that North Korea is a nuclear state. There are many positive aspects to take away from Trumps inflammatory campaign promises, the writer says in the DPRK Today column, pointing out Trumps indications that Seoul should pay 100 per cent of the cost for the American troops stationed in the South and, if not, Washington should pull them out. Yes, go away, now! it says. Who knew that the Yankee Go Home slogan we shouted so enthusiastically could come true so easily like this? The day that the Yankee Go Home slogan becomes reality would be the day of unification. The Korean War that solidified the division of North and South Korea ended in an armistice, not a full peace treaty. The DPRK Today website is considered to be a propaganda outlet aimed at readers outside the North, though its position within the government is not clear. While not as colourful or overtly supportive as the DPRK Today column, the ruling partys official Rodong Sinmun editorial said the emergence of Trump is causing anxiety in South Korea because of his comments about the potential U.S. troop withdrawal. It said the South Korean government should stop living as a servant of foreign forces and come back to the side of the Korean nation, but didnt comment directly on Trump as a candidate. Read more about: SHARE: WASHINGTONSeven years ago, newly elected U.S. President Barack Obama came to a blighted stretch of northern Indiana and predicted a tough but certain recovery if the country embraced his approach to re-juicing the economy. He returns Wednesday seeking credit for having lifted the U.S. out of the doldrums with policies Democrats are now rallying behind as they work to elect his replacement. Obamas appearance his eighth in Indiana since being elected could be viewed as an early foray into the 2016 campaign. In excerpts of his remarks released before his speech, Obama cast the election as a choice between the paths that Democrats and Republicans want to take on the economy. If what you really care about in this election is your pocketbook, if what youre concerned about is who will look out for the interests of working people and grow the middle class, then the debate isnt even close, Obama said. In Elkhart, a town of about 50,000 not far from South Bend, Obama will encounter a community whose experience during his presidency has mirrored the countrys broader economic revival: uneven and bumpy, with both winners and losers. Though the job market has picked up and Elkharts housing crisis has ebbed, the area has fallen short in its aspirations to diversify beyond its reliance on the niche recreational vehicle industry. On the campaign trail, Donald Trump has hammered Obama over free trade policies that Trump blames for air conditioning manufacturer Carrier Corp.s decision to ship 1,400 jobs from Indianapolis to Mexico. To Obama, who has often held up Elkhart as a microcosm of the U.S., those lingering challenges arent enough to forestall a planned victory lap on the economy. Arguing that his controversial $840 billion (U.S.) stimulus package was ultimately vindicated, Obama will call on the next president to be willing to spend big to enable further economic growth despite the objections of small-government conservatives. If we get cynical and just vote our fears, or dont vote at all, we wont build on the progress weve started, Obama planned to say. Obama and his aides have long signalled frustration that as the economy has improved, the publics perception of his decision-making hasnt tracked the same trajectory. The White House sees his opponents begrudging refusal to give credit where due as a symptom of their decision early on to reflexively oppose all of his ideas. Elkhart County Commissioner Mike Yoder, a Republican, paused for 15 seconds and laughed when asked whether Obama deserved any credit for the recovery. He said government plays a role, but that politicians must be cautious not to overinflate their contribution. At the bottom of the day, I think most elected officials and Im guessing the president would say this himself that it is the local communities and the local businesses and workers that really are the major reason that a community will turn around, Yoder said. In Elkhart, where unemployment hit 19.6 per cent at its peak during the recession, joblessness has dropped precipitously to about 4 per cent lower than the national average. The foreclosure rate, too, has diminished, and manufacturing has picked up. Still, it is places like Elkhart that illustrate just how stubborn opposition to the president can be especially in conservative stretches of the Midwest. Though Obama won Indiana in 2008 in a shocking victory, he lost the traditionally Republican state decisively in 2012. In late April, ahead of Indianas primaries, just 42 per cent of Indiana adults in an NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll said they approved of the job Obamas doing. Thats lower than his approval in the country as a whole. A few weeks later, 51 per cent in an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll said they approve, in line with other recent surveys. Indianas Republican governor, Mike Pence, said Wednesday that Elkhart had rebounded in spite of Obamas policies and that those policies inflicted onerous federal burdens on Indiana. There are many reasons for the remarkable economic recovery that has been created in Indiana but I believe most of the credit belongs to the hard-working people of this community and the state, Pence wrote in an editorial in the Elkhart Truth. Neither Pence nor his re-election opponent, Democrat John Gregg, planned to attend Obamas speech. For Democrats, Obamas renewed popularity nationally is enough that the party is firmly embracing his policies in the presidential election, especially on the economy. Hillary Clinton has proposed steps that build directly on Obamas actions while Bernie Sanders has praised his accomplishments. The notable exception is free trade, where both Clinton and Sanders say they disagree with Obama. SHARE: Fixed-income investors may want to diversify into international corporate bond exchange traded funds that have large Eurozone exposure as the European Central Bank expands its bond purchasing program to include corporate debt. The ECB will be hoarding euro-denominated investment-grade bonds with maturities of over six months and up to 30 years from companies incorporated within the Eurozone, reports Gavin Jackson for the Financial Times. Related: ECB Policy Keeps Pressure on Europe, International Bond ETF Yields The ECB has said it will be market neutral in in purchases, and negative-yielding bonds may be included as long as the yield is above the central banks -0.4% deposit rates. Belgium, Germany, Spain, Finland, France and Italy central banks will acquire corporate debt through both primary and secondary markets. While the ECB has not explicitly stated how much they are going to acquire, analysts project asset purchases to be between five and ten billion euros per month. At the March meeting, ECB President Mario Draghi announced the bond purchasing program will increase to 80 billion from 60 billion. Looking ahead, Eurozone bond yields will likely go even lower due to the increased buying pressure. While there are no Europe-focused speculative-grade debt ETFs on the market, U.S. investors can still gain exposure to European bonds through international bond ETFs with heavy tilts toward European countries. For example, the PowerShares International Corporate Bond Portfolio (PICB) and SPDR Barclays International Corporate Bond ETF (IBND) . Trending on ETF Trends Smart Beta and Fixed Income Meet With These New ETFs Manage Volatility, Generate Income with Muni Bond ETFs Bond ETFs to Hedge Against Inflationary Pressures Rising Foreign Demand Could Support Corporate Bond ETFs Wall Street Eyes Junk Bond ETF for Easy Liquidity The funds also include a heavy tilt toward European bonds. For instance, PICB holds 23.1% U.K., 18.8 France, 8.9% Germany, 6.9% Italy, 6.2% Netherlands, 4.7% Spain, 3.5% Switzerland and 2.7% Sweden. Story continues IBND includes 15.0% France, 12.6% U.K., 10.9% Germany, 7.7% Netherlands, 7.2% Italy, 5.3% Spain, 5.0% Switzerland, 3.0% Sweden, 2.2% Belgium, 0.6% Denmark, 0.6% Norway and 0.2% Portugal. Additionally, with yields falling, Eurozone investors may turn to riskier speculative-grade debt to meet their income needs, bolstering the high-yield market. U.S. investors can also gain exposure to speculative-grade European corporate debt through international ETF options as well. Related: High-Yield International Bond ETFs Attractive in Global Low-Rate Environment For instance, the VanEck Vectors International High Yield Bond ETF (IHY) includes a 15.6% exposure to U.K., 9.0% Italy, 6.0% Germany, 6.7% France, 3.8% Luxembourg, 2.4% Spain, 1.4% Liechtenstein, 1.4% Switzerland and 1.9% Netherlands. The SPDR Barclays International High Yield Bond ETF (IJNK) top European country weights include U.K. 16.5%, Italy 13.6%, France 9.9%, Germany 8.9%, Luxembourg 8.3% and Netherlands 4.1%. Top country holdings in the iShares International High Yield Bond ETF (HYXU) include Italy 22.5%, Germany 13.6%, U.K. 15.9%, France 9.8%, Luxembourg 5.3% and Spain 5.2%. For more information on the fixed-income market, visit our bond ETFs category. A Saudi scholar issued a fatwa against using another persons Wi-Fi without permission, since theft cannot be tolerated in Islam. Taking advantage of the Wi-Fi service illegally or without the knowledge of other beneficiaries or providers is not allowed, said Ali Al Hakami, a member of the high scholars commission, a senior religious body which advises the Saudi king. Any provider or user who pays money for the Wi-Fi service should be consulted before using it. When the Wi-Fi service is open such as in parks, malls, cafeterias, hotels and government departments, then there is no problem since it is meant to be used by the people or clients. The rather banal ruling follows a similar edict in April from Dubais Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department, which responded to a question submitted online regarding the use of a neighbours Internet. There is nothing wrong in using the line if your neighbours allow you to do so, but if theyd dont allow you, you may not use it, it ordered. That a conservative Islamic jurist would weigh in on such an amusingly uncontroversial matter shouldnt be such a such a surprise. Fatwas get issued on all and sundry things. Sometimes, they can be quite harmless, such as when a religious watchdog in the United Arab Emirates banned travelling to Mars. In other instances, they reflect patriarchal, conservative norms or even outright misogyny: In Indonesia, clerics issued a fatwa against certain emoticons that could be seen as LGBT-friendly; Daesh, also known as the Islamic State group or ISIS, during the early stages of its insurgency in Syria, declared that women should not be allowed to sit in chairs. The Wi-Fi fatwa is far less provocative, although the need for it confused some commentators. Why not just encourage people to put passwords on their private Internet? We do not need a religious edict to pinpoint such basic things, a Saudi blogger noted, according to the Gulf Times. Private property should remain private, especially (since) the owner paid money for the services. Nobody should just take advantage. Read more about: SHARE: SiriusXM satellite radio has suspended conservative talk show host Glenn Beck for comments he made last week which have been interpreted as potentially advocating the harm of presumptive Republican presidential nominee and real estate mogul Donald Trump. During a May 25 interview on The Glenn Beck Program, Beck agreed with a comment made by New York Times bestselling thriller author Brad Thor: I am about to suggest something very bad, Thor said. . . . With the feckless, spineless Congress we have, who will stand in the way of Donald Trump overstepping his constitutional authority as president? If Congress wont remove him from office, what patriot will step up and do that if, if, he oversteps his mandate as president, his constitutional-granted authority, I should say, as president, Thor said, according to CNN. If he oversteps that, how do we get him out of office? And I dont think there is a legal means available. I think it will be a terrible, terrible position the American people will be in to get Trump out of office because you wont be able to do it through Congress. I would agree with you on that, Beck responded. The comments may be reasonably construed by some to have been advocating harm against an individual currently running for office, SiriusXM said in a statement, Associated Press reported. Some have taken Thors quote as a call for the assassination of Trump. Drudge Report ran a headline about the incident, which included the phrase taking out Trump, CNN reported. As a result, SirusXM has suspended Beck for a week. On Twitter, Thor wrote that he was misinterpreted and that his quotes were taken out of context. Thor tweeted: A) I didnt call for his assassination B) President-elect Trump? Youre not very well informed, are you? He repeated this in a statement to The Associated Press on Tuesday. (Beck and I) were discussing a speculative future America under a dictator, Thor said. Safeguarding the Republic against a dictatorship is a topic of conversation that dates back to the Founders. If we had to unseat a president without the backing of the Congress, we would need a patriot along the lines of George Washington to lead the country from tyranny back to liberty. Beck hasnt responded to the situation, but his shows general manager Dom Theodore wrote in a statement posted to Becks website: As every listener of the show knows, Glenn has never and will never advocate violence. It wasnt long ago that he was criticized by some for advocating peace during the Bundy Ranch saga. Glenn is a firm believer in Martin Luther Kings approach to affecting change, not Malcolm Xs This isnt the first time the two have discussed an attempt on Trumps life. During a segment of The Glenn Beck Program earlier this month, after calling Black Lives Matter supporters morons, Thor said, there will be unprecedented assassination attempts against Trump. There are going to be attempts on his life, Thor said. I pray to God it doesnt happen, but the way this country is right now, I dont know how it doesnt happen. Beck responded, I hope not. While he has never advocated violence, the conservative host has recently been vocal about his staunch opposition to Trump. I am the only one practically . . . in radio . . . who comes out and tells you what all of us know off-air, Beck said in January. Im telling you right now, this is a gigantic mistake. If this country chooses Donald Trump, you are going to end up, I truly believe, with a monster much, much worse than anything that Barack Obama could have dreamt. Susan Wright, a columnist for Red State, opined that the quote has been misinterpreted and SiriusXM was pressured to suspend Beck following social media outrage. She wrote: How much of that social media outrage by the gilded toads tadpoles had an effect on the decision by SiriusXM and their actions against Beck? No idea, but Im willing to bet they had at least some part in creating the mountain out of that particular molehill. This is the point where I ask if theres anyone else who gets the slightest sense of unease with punishing journalists, writers, pundits, or talk show hosts over what amounts to perceived threats, when the evidence at hand is ambiguous, at best? As of now, it is unclear if Becks show will return. SiriusXM says it is evaluating his programs place in its lineup. Read more about: SHARE: The Conservative Party of Canada doesnt like women, as proved by their latest flailing attempts to prove that they do, or did, or will one day. Interim party leader Rona Ambrose made two more of her peculiar anti-women speeches at the partys equally peculiar convention last week. Im all for eccentricity in public life it at least makes tasty lumps in the pale porridge that is the Conservative Party but to actually have a Sarnia MP appear onstage as the Grim Reaper, complete with scythe, was office-party bad. Then an Alberta MP named Arnold Kenneth the Page Viersen, a rural anti-abortionist who recites wheat rhymes in the Commons, attempted to rap, a performance so badly judged it was hard not to see it as racist, but then weve all been to terrible wedding dinners, the poor creature was making an effort. You cannot rhyme Muskoka with Lee Iacocca, you cannot make former justice minister rhyme with anything. It was everyones embarrassing nephew from that side of the family making a speech, and then came Ambrose. Flashback to 1952. After comparing Sophie Gregoire Trudeau and Laureen Harper modest lady-wise, Ambrose suggested Justin Trudeau was the first female prime minister. What fascinated me was the sight of a woman in 2016 insulting a man by calling him a woman. Female has always been a pejorative as indeed has the word woman try saying silly woman and note that it isnt the silly that stings but what a lack of self-knowledge on Ambroses part. People hate what they hate in themselves. I do understand the source of this. Being born female has throughout history been a bad career move for babies but I take Tina Feys advice: move over, under and through the obstacles. And that is why I dress the same way Ambrose dressed for her speech, like a head waiter. She was wearing a fabulous white tuxedo jacket and leather pants, although I disagreed with the on-trend fringed stiletto sandals that looked strangely like hooves. I own tuxedo jackets and dresses, and theyre wonderful for their purpose, which is to look like a man, admittedly one who forgot his pants. In these garments, Ambrose and I can pass. The clothes were emblematic. Somethings going on up top, somethings down below and the Conservatives are at a loss about gender. I doubt they will be allowed to become as toxic as the Republicans on the subject of womens bodies abortion rights are here to stay but they dont like women working, double-incoming, daycaring, living life in the modern age. How they wish they could stop us in our tracks. I hope the Conservatives have realized the train wreck of trying to paint Prime Minister Trudeau as effeminate. He is a traditional man, hard as that may be for Harper Conservatives to understand. I love traditional men, and by that I mean men who love being fathers, who are comfortable with women, who like to see their partners succeed, who like women who dress as they please and behave as they like. The Wildrose Party MPs who refused to stand when Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne was introduced in the Alberta Legislature and then mocked her to her face? They did it partly because she was a woman. It was a tactical error, an interesting confluence of things, as Wynne said later. It was a woman premier in Alberta. Im there as a woman, were talking about climate change. And I think the attack, the viciousness of the attack, had a particular quality to it. One of those MLAs, Derek Fildebrandt, later praised a social media comment referring to Wynne as Mr. Wynne or whatever the hell she identifies as. Wynne is openly gay. Fildebrandt apologized and was briefly suspended by Wildrose, which quietly gave him a Mason jar of kettle corn and a pony. Fildebrandt is not of our time. Only eight years ago, his LinkedIn profile says, he was president of the Reagan-Goldwater Society at Carleton. Who are these elderly young men and why are they so testy? Do they still Like Ike? A goat ate their bloomers off the backyard clothesline in 1909, as insult generator Erlich Bachman from Silicon Valley would say, and theyre still mad about it. I dont know where the Conservatives find these people. Ambrose must know this cohort is going nowhere. If Hillary Clinton is elected U.S. president, its going to be as bad for women as it was for black Americans after Obama took office. I do wish Canada would not partake. SHARE: Saying the right thing isnt enough. Its vital that the Liberal government in Ottawa does whats best for democracy and lets Canadians vote on electoral reform. Thats the best way to gauge public support for whatever is put forward to replace the so-called first-past-the-post election system in use since Confederation. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet ministers have steadfastly resisted calls for a referendum. They havent entirely rejected the idea but insist there are all sorts of other ways to assess Canadians views. They were at it again at a Liberal policy convention over the weekend, with the prime minister telling reporters that our approach is to listen to Canadians, to consult with Canadians, as we talk about the values that underpin our electoral process. It was meant to be a heartening assurance. But the best way to consult is to put electoral reform to a national vote. And thats not what the government has resolved to do. In an interview with the Stars Alex Boutilier, Minister of Democratic Institutions Maryam Monsef further elaborated on Ottawas pledge to heed the public. Canadians can rest assured that unless we have their broad buy-in, were not moving forward with any changes, she said. Those are comforting words. But it is unclear how, exactly, the buy-in of Canadians is to be assessed. A digital portal is to be set up soon to canvass online opinion. And the government has suggested that all MPs conduct town hall meetings in their riding on electoral reform. Some indication of how thats likely to go is evident in the Ottawa-area riding of Liberal MP Karen McCrimmon. According to a community media outlet, she held a town hall at the end of April attended by about 125 people. More than two-thirds of the group agreed, by a show of hands, that change is needed. People were asked to place stickers on boards ranking various democratic values and the result of an unscientific local mail survey was also released. The outcome of all this was dutifully shared with Monsefs office. With all due respect to McCrimmon and her constituents in Kanata-Carleton, gatherings like that are hardly the best way to gauge broad buy-in by voters. Minister Monsef says she has not been persuaded that a referendum is the best tool that we can use in the 21st century. But its ludicrous to suggest town halls as a substitute. Replacing the traditional first-past-the-post system with some other way of ranking or allocating ballots would be a profound change at the very core of Canadian democracy. It may prove to be a change for the better. But it mustnt be treated as simply another piece of government legislation. Broad buy-in is, indeed, necessary for such a shift. And if that isnt possible through an agreement among major parties in the House of Commons, it should be determined in a referendum. Its the only way to guarantee that electoral reform has democratic legitimacy. SHARE: Re: Too much trust in old nuclear plants, May 30 Re Too much trust in old nuclear plants, May 30 I read with interest the Ontario Clean Air Alliance (OCAA) opinion piece about Pickering Nuclear. The only fact in the article that I was able to verify is that Stairway to Heaven was released by Led Zeppelin in 1971. The six nuclear units at Pickering were built to very robust standards and are operating safely, to the highest performance standards. The electricity from the six operating units provides about 13 per cent of Ontarios annual demand, is free of greenhouse gas emissions and comes at a cost lower than almost all other sources of energy. Continued operations will save Ontario customers $600 million and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by eight million tonnes over the 2020-to-2024 period. Both Pickering and Darlington nuclear stations enjoy strong community support, and a recent survey indicated 85 per cent of those polled supported the continued operations of the Pickering station. Ontario relies on nuclear power to provide 60 per cent of its electricity generation. The plants at Darlington, Pickering and Bruce have excellent performance and safety records. Nuclear is Ontarios best option for cost-effective, GHG emissions-free, reliable, base-load generation and have been a critical resource in ensuring clean air for Ontarians. We look forward to our nuclear fleet continuing to be part of the solution in the battle against climate change. Jeffrey Lyash, president and CEO Ontario Power Generation, Toronto Jack Gibbons opinion piece is a clarion call to do the right thing, as other jurisdictions are doing: close and dismantle old, worn-out and inefficient nuclear power plants. Gibbons is a highly experienced expert in this matter. Let us not dither; a nuclear disaster could hit the GTA at any time. Fred Brailey, Orangeville Mondays anti-Pickering Nuclear Station Extension editorial diatribe by the Ontario Clean Air Alliance (OCAA) is typical of their dreamweaver-like campaigns heavy with the spectre of environmental disaster and fast and loose with the facts. The Pickering Nuclear Station is licensed and its operations, including emergency preparedness, are overseen by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), an independent regulator. The CNSC has 70 years of experience and is highly regarded internationally. Additionally, the Pickering Nuclear Station, owned by Ontario Power Generation (OPG), a provincial Crown corporation, routinely provides information and consults with local communities about the plants operations. When the province approved OPGs plan to pursue the continued operation of Pickering beyond 2020 to 2024, it noted that final approval would be required from the CNSC. Pickering would continue to employ over 4,500 people in Durham region and 8 million tonnes of greenhouse gases would be avoided. Yes, extending the operation of the Pickering Station is about clean air. The OCAA claims that cheap, low-carbon electricity imports from Quebec offer a superior option, but those claims have been disproven by a number of highly credible analyses, including Ontarios Independent Electricity System Operator. Billions of dollars would need to be invested to build and improve the transmission interties and transmission lines in Ontario and Quebec. Ontario currently exports low-carbon nuclear power to help Quebec meet its winter peak and refill its reservoirs. Even if Quebec could supply, large-scale electricity imports would mean tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars flowing out of Ontario. The only real alternative to base-load 24/7 nuclear in Ontario is fossil fuel generation, and we believe the OCAA knows that. Less nuclear generation in Ontario would mean dramatic increases in greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution at a time when the entire world is transitioning to a lower carbon environment. Don MacKinnon, President of the Power Workers Union, Toronto SHARE: Manhattan's biggest rental building, Sky, towers over the city's far west side. At 71 stories, Sky features 1,175 studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units and is located on West 42nd Street, just feet from the Hudson River. Ask any New Yorker and you'll hear complaints that his or her rent is too high. That's because the average rental costs roughly $4,100 a month in Manhattan, according to an April 2016 report from Douglas Elliman, a real estate brokerage firm. Manhattan's vacancy rate stands at just 2.4%. In Sky, developed by The Moinian Group, prices run about $3,000 for a studio and upwards of $7,000 for a two-bedroom unit. "If you're a renter, it's not easy. If you're a landlord, you can't complain," said Mitchell Moinian, senior vice president of The Moinian Group. "Rents are definitely high." Moinian said part of the reason rents have risen stems from stricter lending requirements put in place by banks since the financial crisis, which has pushed more people into the rental market. Sky was built like a condo building, Moinian said, boasting top-notch finishes in each unit, including quartz countertops, porcelain tiled bathrooms and floor to ceiling windows with breathtaking views of the Hudson River. "There's been a new trend, which we've definitely taken advantage of here, which is building a certain type of rental product that is premium or superior to your typical rental product," he added. Moinian said this strategy helps cater to people who aren't sure if they should rent or buy. Outside of the apartment, but still within the building, residents enjoy 70,000 square feet of amenity space including three swimming pools, a Life Time Fitness (LTM) gym, a sauna and nail salon. But even amid the glitz and glamour of Sky, the developers recognize New York City's growing affordability crisis. To that end, 20% of the units will be rented to lower-income households in exchange for tax incentives from the city for the developer. "We're honored to say we've done that," Moinian said. "In this building alone, we were able to deliver hundreds of affordable units in one building." Last week Alphabet (GOOGL) was on the winning side of a large legal battle with Oracle (ORCL) that could have cost the search giant almost $10 billion. Now Oracle is back in court Tuesday to fight another tech company, this time the former Hewlett-Packard. This time it's Oracle that's playing defense. HP is seeking $3 billion in damages from its partner-turned-competitor. The issue is Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems in 2010. Partly because of the purchase, HPE alleges Oracle helped to drive the drop in sales of the old Hewlett-Packard's Itanium products. Oracle disputed the allegation, saying Itanium sales fell from $3.1 billion in 2011 to $876 million in 2015 for other reasons. Another part of the battle is Mark Hurd, now the co-CEO of Oracle. He previously served as the CEO of the old Hewlett-Packard before he was asked by the board to resign. Oracle didn't waste any time snapping up Hurd, making him the co-president of the company. Hewlett said Hurd possessed insider knowledge giving Oracle an edge. Oracle said it will stop creating certain software for Hewlett's Itanium systems. Hewlett filed a lawsuit in response and, in 2012, the legal system agreed: Oracle needed to keep producing the systems. The new trial will look at whether any company has violated its previous agreements and if either is entitled to damages. Since the original lawsuit, Hewlett-Packard split into Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) and HP Inc. (HPQ) . Oracle closed at $40.20 Tuesday, up 0.3%. If we've learned anything in the auto industry over the past few years, it's that the big players aren't the only ones running the show now. Tech players including Alphabet and Tesla (TSLA) are emerging as legitimate players in the business. Another, lesser-known company is now popping up on the map: Zoox. The autonomous-driving startup is looking to raise up to $252 million and could be valued at more than $1 billion. Not much is known about the company, but it was only one of two startups to have a license for operating autonomous vehicles in California. Now that General Motors (GM) has acquired the other, Cruise Automation, it's the only startup with one. Although tech companies and automakers are racing toward the finish line -- or starting line? -- for introducing autonomous driving to the masses, there is skepticism about the technology, especially from consumers. But over time, the companies are banking on a more accepting environment, both from customers and regulators. Scratch Turkey off the list of countries where PayPal (PYPL) operates. Beginning June 6, customers will no longer be able to access the service unless it is to withdraw money to deposit into their bank. Of course, PayPal didn't make the move simply because it doesn't like Turkey. The company says a new policy from the country's financial regulator, BDDK, is preventing the company from obtaining the proper license. The policy required PayPal to open an IT center in Turkey, something PayPal doesn't "consider doable," according to CNET. Either comply, build the IT infrastructure and operate or get out. For now at least, PayPal is leaving. PayPal closed at $37.79 Tuesday, down 0.8%. This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned. Shares of Restoration Hardware (RH) have been destroyed. With the stock down 69% from its 52-week high, is there any restoration ahead? We'll find out when the company reports first-quarter earnings on June 9. I have little confidence the stock can rebound anytime soon. At the end of March, Restoration Hardware reported fiscal fourth-quarter results that were in line with previously lowered guidance. The company preannounced sharply lower results on Feb. 24 and blamed the slowdown on weakness in the oil patch, higher expenses, shipping delays and a pull back in purchases by high-end consumers. In my opinion, those excuses don't hold water. First, I doubt weakness in the oil patch was much of a factor. CEO Gary Friedman told investors that weakness in the South American oil markets has affected Florida and specifically hurt the Miami furniture market. According to Friedman, energy-related pressures accounted for a 6% reduction in company revenue by March 2016. Out of 86 stores the company only has six stores in Florida. It has one in Louisiana and six in Texas. Even if you add the two stores in oil-rich Canada, that's only 15 stores, or 17% of the store base. Second, the company has been closing smaller stores and opening larger flagship locations. I think that strategy has been a failure. You would think same-store sales would be growing faster than sales, because all those new large stores would drive lots of customer traffic. That's not the case. Total retail sales growth has been either in line with or below comp-store sales for the last couple of quarters. It seems customer don't care how big the stores are. Third, margins are a mess. In fiscal 2015, sales were up 13% and gross margins were 36.5%. But when sales slowed to mid-single digits in fiscal 2016, gross margins fell 177 basis points and operating margins declined 44 basis points. Expenses rose 134 points as the company lost operating leverage. Management blames supply chain issues for the margin mess, since its new "Modern" furniture collection hasn't shipped on time. The delay in getting the Modern assortment into the stores has weighed on sales growth, too. But, management admitted approximately 70% of the collection is in stock. Fourth, the company blamed the sales slowdown on the lack of high-end buyers. It doesn't look like competitor Ethan Allen (ETH) has had any problems selling furniture. Back on April 25, ETH reported same-store sales of 18.6% and a 10% increase in revenue. The stock took off. Ethan Allen is probably taking market share from RH. Fifth, the first half could continue to be under pressure. On the last conference call, management said it was spending $22 million to accommodate customers who have been inconvenienced by the delivery delays of the Modern collection. That adds up to over 22 cents per share in earnings. The company said earnings would be under pressure all the first quarter. That means second-quarter numbers are probably too high as well. For the first quarter, the consensus is looking for earnings per share of 5 cents and revenue of $452.87 million. Analyst models assume the first quarter will be the bottom and business will steadily improve each quarter. But wouldn't that be hard because sales are under pressure from the oil patch? I don't think Restoration Hardware is a broken company; it's just a broken stock. Management has to get growth back on track before the stock can move higher. This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned. Philips Lighting has shone brightly since its IPO on May 27 but analysts at Jefferies have warned it looks set to fade. Unconditional dealings in the Philips' spinoff began yesterday in Amsterdam after the IPO of about 25% of the group and the stock by Tuesday's close had risen to euro 22.30 from an IPO price of euro 20.00. But, initiating coverage, Jefferies slapped an underperform tag on the stock and set a price target of just euro 17.00. "The dominant profit producer (Lamps) is in structural decline, LED lamps are inherently more competitive and Home (which is loss-making) is too small to matter. The key to the investment case is therefore Professional, which is 37% of sales but much less profitable than leading peers. We are sceptical about the turnaround prospects," Jefferies said. The analysts noted that the company's professional unit - its second largest - commands lower margins than its peers, or 5% compared with about 14% for Acuity (AYI) . Their target valuation for Philips Lighting is euro 4 billion ($4.5 billion), including debt, which equates to a price tag euro 2.5 billion for the stock, or euro 17.00 per share. That's almost 24% below Tuesday's close. One of Alibaba's (BABA) biggest shareholders, Softbank, said on Wednesday in Tokyo that it will sell at least $7.9 billion of its shares in the Chinese e-commerce giant to reduce its debt. Alibaba's shares fell 2.7% in after-hours trading on Tuesday and were down 2.7% in pre-market trading on Wednesday. The stock had closed in New York at $81.91 on Tuesday. Softbank, the Japanese telecom investor which owns most of Sprint (S) , held 32.2% of Alibaba's issued and outstanding shares at the end of March. The sale will bring the stake to about 28%. Softbank has agreed with Alibaba not to transfer any further shares for a six-month period. The telecom said the transaction was "driven purely by [Softbank's] capital structure and de-leveraging objectives." The sale will allow Softbank to build up a liquidity cushion and improve the company's debt-to-earnings ratio. In a statement Softbank's chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son said that there would be a continued partnership between the two companies. "This investment has been phenomenally successful, and over the past 16 years, we have built a close relationship, working together on many exciting projects. In that time, we have not sold any Alibaba shares," he said. Softbank was up 0.4% in trading in Tokyo on Wednesday. Alibaba on Tuesday said the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating its accounting practices. It said it was cooperating with regulators and noted that it was told the review wasn't an indication it had violated securities law. Germany's foreign minister has said that the European Union may consider easing sanctions on Russia later this year before the peace plan for eastern Ukraine is fully implemented. Frank-Walter Steinmeier told foreign journalists on Tuesday that the EU should be "smart" about dealing with the sanctions. "To me, 'smart' means that if there is truly substantial progress - and currently there is no such progress, yet - we should consider easing sanctions, step-by-step," he said. Steinmeier is part of Germany's Social Democratic party, which form a junior partner in Angela Merkel's coalition government. The Social Democratic Party has historically pushed for closer ties with Russia. The EU imposed sanctions on Russia's energy, financial and defense sector after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine two years ago. Until now, officials from the European Council and the European Commission have said that the sanctions would only be lifted if all conditions of the so-called Minsk ceasefire agreement were met. "Whether my proposal becomes reality depends on how talks over the next month with our European partners go. The signals coming from European capitals are very different: the ones from Budapest are different than those from London," Steinmeier said. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker plans to meet President Vladimir Putin in June in Russia. Juncker suggested closer trade ties with Russia in a letter to Putin sent in November. However, Poland's Deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymanski told Reuters that sanctions should not be eased until the peace agreement has been fully implemented. Szymanski said, "The European Union's authority ... in the future depends on the successful influencing Russia through sanctions." The EU seems likely to extend sanctions on Russia when they expire at the end of June. But EU officials have signaled that the extension may be short term. RATINGS CHANGES Lands' End (LE) was downgraded to sell at TheStreet Ratings. You can view the full analysis from the report here: LE. Nabors (NBR) was downgraded to neutral at Credit Suisse. Spot drilling rates will likely fall, given excess supply, Credit Suisse said. Nike (NKE) was downgraded to neutral from buy at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch. $60 price target. The company is losing market share and orders have peaked, analysts said. Nike (NKE) was downgraded to equal weight at Morgan Stanley. $60 price target. Growth headwinds are building, Morgan Stanley said. Qualcomm (QCOM) was upgraded to buy at TheStreet Ratings. You can view the full analysis from the report here: QCOM. Sony undefined was downgraded to hold at TheStreet Ratings. You can view the full analysis from the report here: SNE. Whole Foods (WFM) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse. $40 price target. The valuation is more attractive, as the stock is down 50% from its peak, Credit Suisse said. This article was written by a staff member of TheStreet. Investors in UnitedHealth Group (UNH) shouldn't be too concerned about its latest plans to pull out of its Affordable Care Act exchange in California, as it's departing from a money-losing market. Meanwhile, the company is focusing more closely on its Optum healthcare technology segment, which continues to fuel growth. Though the nation's largest health insurer said in April that it would quit offering ACA plans in a majority of its 34 Obamacare exchange marketplaces by 2017, its plans to pull out of California, as noted by multiple financial media outlets on Wednesday, were not detailed. Shares of UnitedHealth added less than 1% in afternoon trading to $134.55, assigning the Minnetonka, Minn.-based company a market capitalization of about $128 billion. UnitedHealth's management team has always been one of the better operators in the health insurance space and so the moves come as little surprise, according to Morningstar analyst Vishnu Lekraj. Insurers aren't forced by any government entity to get involved with the public exchange market, and so it would be a disservice to investors to continue to participate in a market that doesn't have the economics to generate a certain level of return, the analyst said. "A company will only participate in a market that will provide satisfactory return," Lekraj said. "If a public exchange starts to return a good level of profitability they're going to be more than happy to get involved." There are a few key variables that motivate insurers to either get involved or leave a public exchange market, Lekraj said. Companies like UnitedHealth look at the ability to raise premiums, which is contingent on approval by the insurance commissioner within a given market; the membership density of the exchange and the ability to discount pricing in certain regions; and the overall makeup and demography of the exchange market itself. Ahead of Cigna's (CI) $44 billion pending merger with Anthem undefined and Aetna's (AET) pending $37 billion deal for Humana (HUM) , UnitedHealth represents the largest health insurer in the nation. The pair of deals remain under review by the Department of Justice, and if successfully completed, would reduce the number of major health insurance providers in the U.S. to three, from five. In light of continued antitrust hurdles, the health insurers have likely shown less willingness to exit their public exchange markets to avoid adding any additional uncertainty into the equation, noted Lekraj. Humana management in May did hint that it might exit some of its Obamacare individual products, though those comments could be irrelevant if and when it's purchased by Aetna. Meanwhile Anthem indicated in April that it remains cautiously optimistic about its Obamacare health exchanges, with no plans to add to or exit any of its 14 Obamacare exchanges. As its peers continue to work to complete the pending megadeals, UnitedHealth can sit on the sidelines to see how pricing shakes out in respect to the ACA exchange marketplaces, while continue to focus on building up its Optum business, noted Lekraj. UnitedHealth in April beat earnings estimates after momentum within its healthcare technology business, Optum, helped outweigh pressure facing its exchange business. The company built up Optum last year partly via M&A, completing its $12.8 billion deal for Catamaran in March 2015 and subsequently merging it with OptumRX, its pharmacy benefits management business. The OptusRx unit also bought AxelaCare from Haverst Partners for an undisclosed price last year. Additionally, TheStreet reported on Tuesday that even as the federal government threatens additional regulation aimed at pharmacy benefit managers, UnitedHealth as well as PBM peers CVS (CVS) and Express Scripts (ESRX) haven't suffered. UnitedHealth is the third largest PBM behind CVS and Express Scripts, which gives them a significant advantage over other insurers. Credit Suisse has bumped up its rating on Whole Foods Market's (WFM) stock, raising its outlook from neutral to outperform, signaling optimism for the specialty grocer's future. "My background checks with Whole Foods indicates that the [grocery] prices have come down, they're much more competitive," said Jim Cramer, founder of TheStreet and manager of the Action Alerts PLUS Portfolio. The Credit Suisse analysts behind the Wednesday report cited the price cutting as a positive sign. Reducing prices, they said, will help Whole Foods tackle its "biggest problem: high prices and a poor overall value perception." The price-slashing alongside cutting costs -- setting a goal of $300 million in operating expenses over two years -- and investing in technology bode well, the note read, with the analysts adding the factors suggest Whole Foods is "on the offensive." Prices are becoming more important, according to the report, as middle-income shoppers and Millennials are driving consumer growth and a health-focused lifestyle becomes more commonplace. Cramer also said Whole Foods is well-positioned when compared with its competitors. "Don't forget Fresh Market went private; they're not going to be that aggressive," Cramer said. "Fairway, bankrupt. Trader Joe's, I think, is a little more soft underbelly than people realize. Kroger (KR) , I think, has stalled because they made an acquisition of Roundy's." Credit Suisse in its report also noted the new expansion of Whole Foods' 365 by Whole Foods Market stores, which sell 365, Whole Foods' store brand, and target more cost-conscious consumers. The first such location opened on May 25 in Los Angeles. The analysts said the new 365 stores would let Whole Foods "reach markets where demographic constraints make its core stores uneconomical." "I think Whole Foods is back. This is an attractive venture point, exactly as Credit Suisse said," Cramer concluded. Although smartphone sales may be slowing for companies like Apple (AAPL) and Samsung, there are some companies that are benefiting. One of those companies is China-based Xiaomi. Coincidentally, one company that hasn't had any luck in the smartphone biz is Microsoft (MSFT) -- remember it's partial acquisition of Nokia? -- but that doesn't mean the tech giant is going to stop trying. Instead, it sold some 1,500 patents to Xiaomi as the two companies start a long-term partnership. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. It will allow Xiaomi to install Microsoft software, like Office and Skype, on its devices. Although Xiaomi has shown strong growth in China, it has struggled internationally. Part of that struggle was related to weak patent protection. The deal is thought to help the company on that front. Given that Microsoft is one of the largest tech companies in the world is also a powerful ally to have in its corner. Conversely, Microsoft is hoping this will be a way to get involved in the smartphone market in a way that it has largely struggled to do. Shares of Microsoft closed at $52.85 Wednesday, down 0.3%. Encryption has taken center stage this year, as government agencies tussle with corporate behemoths on where to draw the line. Apple and the FBI have stolen most of the headlines, but others, like WhatsApp (a Facebook (FB) property), have had their fair share of headlines too. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg respects his users' privacy, publicly supporting Apple in its battle against the FBI and even allowing his company's Internet service to be banned in certain countries for refusing the government access to its users' private information. But he's not stopping there. Zuck is working on encrypting its Messenger app too. The Messenger app is used my almost 1 billion users, who will at some point this summer have the option to allow the service to be encrypted, increasing the services' security and privacy. The move would block both Facebook and authorities from viewing the user's texts. However, the decision to add the extra layer isn't quite as black-and-white as some would think. It will be optional for users, in part because allowing for the encryption will reduce the app's ability to learn certain features about the user. This will reduce the Messenger bots' ability to showcase some of its features. Shares of Facebook closed at $118.78 Wednesday, down 0.03%. Mark your calendars: June 13, 10:00 a.m. PT. Apple's sent out its invites for this year's Worldwide Developers Conference. The top-secret tech company isn't exactly an open book when it comes to discussing what's on tap. That kind of news is saved for the actual events. However, it's expected that the company will show off iOS 10 and a new OS X upgrade. This seems sort of obvious, given that it is a developer conference after all, so it only makes sense to see some new software come our way. There's also speculation Apple could overhaul the displays for its laptops, introduce new features for the computer and maybe even some new processors. There's also talk about an overhauled App Store, and maybe even some tweaks to Apple Music. Investors looking for the famous "one more thing" will probably have to wait until the fall to see any new significant hardware. In less than two weeks, we'll find out for sure though. Shares of Apple closed at $98.46 Wednesday, down 1.4%. Apple and Facebook are both holdings in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells AAPL or FB? Learn more now. This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned. Some hiking experience needed, walking over loose ground, climbing and descending on smaller steep passages. Secure step, a good feeling for balance and no fear of altitude. Walking distances of up to around 12 km, climbing of up to 500 m, walking times up to 4-6 hrs during a full day. For details, see section in main text. The tour is normally guided either by German volcanologist Dr. Tom Pfeiffer or photographer and amateur geologist Tobias Schorr. Both have been traveling on the Greek volcanic areas (Methana, Milos, Santorini, Nisyros) for more than 20 years and know the islands better than even most local people do.Tom completed his PhD studies on the topic of the great Minoan eruption of Santorini. He made the important discovery of a 3600-year-old olive tree buried alive in the pumice deposit that now can be seen in the small geological museum in Perissa.This allowed the most precise dating of one of the most significant natural event in the Bronze age (to 1613+-13 years BC) so far.His colleague Tobias, with whom Tom alternates on this tour, is a true specialist for Greece in general, boasting in-depth knowledge about its culture, history, people, flora, fauna and of course geology. He is known for his good eye and discoveries of rare minerals, plants, animals, or hidden archeological artifacts during the various excursions. The tour starts and ends on Santorini. Participants usually arrange their own arrival to the island where we pick you up. On request, we can include your flight to Santorini or help finding the best connection/fare. Note: If trips on small boat trips are for you, we recommend to add one day to the itinerary for tour with our small boat around the caldera. This results in the following 9-days itinerary: Whole-day hike: visit a Medieval village with its Venetian castle, climb Profitis Ilias Mountain (556m),, descend to the black-sand beach of Perissa.In the evening, we meet for a group dinner in a beach tavern.See also: photos from this excursion in May 2019 Visit the excavated ruins of the Minoan town covered by volcanic ash, then visit theand its outstanding. In the afternoon, we follow aaround the impressive northern caldera reaching theSee also: photos from this excursion in April 2019 Whole-day boat trip to the volcano, visit of the active craters of, warm volcanic springs (bathing) and extended lunch break onSee also: photos from this excursion in May 2019 Hike (3-4 hours total) along the spectacular southern caldera, observation of the spectacular pumice deposits from the past explosions of the volcano, visit to an abandoned quarry with prehistoric settlement remains, pick-nick lunch & swim break. Optional hike (2-3 hours) back along the beach and through pumice canyons and fields (or transfer by minibus).See also: photos from this excursion in April 2019 This walking tour for a small group (6-12 participants) explores the fascinating natural and cultural history of the volcanic island of Santorini. The program is a series of excursions with focus on Santorini's outstanding, text-book quality volcanic and geologic features, as well as its natural beauty and cultural history. "Hi Tom, Thanks again for the super week on Santorini! It really was the experience I expected and I would heartily recommend your trip to anyone interested in combining a holiday on the Greek islands with geologically fascinating day walks. Well done!" (B. Davenport, Bremen) Half-day boat trip (private small boat) inside the caldera, likely to become an unforgettable highlight of the tour. After a lunch- and swimming stop on Thirasia island we sail slowly along Santorini's spectacular inner caldera cliffs and return to our hotel for a free afternoon (see photos taken during these trips). In the evening group dinner in a nearby beach tavern. Note: If trips on small boat trips are for you, we recommend to add one day to the itinerary for tour with our small boat around the caldera. This results in the following 9-days itinerary: Whole-day walk to the Profitis Ilias Mountain, the highest peak of the island group (556m). From there we hike along an ancient trail to the impressive ruins of the ancient Greek town of Thera, excavated around 1900. On our way a coffee break in the medieval town of Pirgos with its Venetian castle, lunch snack under the shadow of trees next to the ancient Greek theatre. The excursion ends in Perissa with its famous black-sand beach on the early afternoon. The rest of day can be spent on the beach (with bus or taxi transfer back to the hotel arranged, or facultative hike back along the coast and through impressive pumice canyons).See also: photos from this excursion in May 2019 This day is planned for the case that a tour could not be done due to weather conditions or other problems. This day can be used for exploring the island yourself. There is the bus stop in front of the hotel, so you can get easily to Thira and from there to all villages on the island. Also it is possible that Tom Pfeiffer offers an optional tour. Short walk to and visit of the nearby Minoan excavations (if reopened by the time of the tour), coffee/ swim break on the beach of Akrotiri. Local bus transfer to the capital Fira, visit to the outstanding archeological museum, extended lunch break at free disposal (opportunity to buy souvenirs, send postcards etc.).After lunch, we visit an excellent exposition of replica of the world-famous wall paintings of Akrotiri in the conference centre of Fira. We continue in afternoon to hike along the spectacular cliffs of the northern part of the caldera to the picturesque town of Oia. Visit to the remnants of a Venetian castle, eroded stratovolcanoes, tuff rings, ancient graves and observation of fossil stromatolites. Dinner in Oia, famous for its brilliant sunsets. Taxi or bus transfer back to Akrotiri.See also: photos from this excursion in April 2019 Whole-day boat trip (from the beach below the hotel) to visit the historic volcanic islands of Palea and Nea Kameni (explosion craters, lava flows and bizarre lava domes, fumaroles, sulphur deposits,). Short hike to the summit craters of the volcano. Extensive lunch and swimming break.Evening lunch free.See also: photos from this excursion in May 2019 Hike (3-4 hours total) along the spectacular southern caldera, observation of the spectacular pumice deposits from the past explosions of the volcano, visit to an abandoned quarry with prehistoric settlement remains, pick-nick lunch & swim break. Optional hike (2-3 hours) back along the beach and through pumice canyons and fields (or transfer by minibus).See also: photos from this excursion in April 2019 Today will be a whole-day walk at relaxed pace, following remote trails on the scenic southern peninsula. We observe the, a typical cross-section of a small volcano (cinder cone, crater with dike and lava-lake), marine fossils, dramatic faults and otherillustrating how this island was formed.There will be anin a small tavern on the way, and possibilities for swim breaks on beautiful beaches.See also: photos from this excursion in April 2019. Discounts: Returning customers receive 5% (or 8% - if you have been on at least 3 trips with us) discount on the base tour price. Group booking discount: If at least 4 people together book this trip, 5% (additional) discount is given, combineable to a maximum of 10%. "Thanks for making our visit a great experience" (Larray & Linda from Oregon about the tour on Santorini) Feedback from our guests The small group, guided by Tobias Schorr The cinder cone and red beach at Acrotiri. Often, we receive very nice cards or other small signs of appreciation after a tour has ended. Here's an example from our recent tour tour on Santorini in May 2019. More photos of the tour you can find here Tour Photos. "outstanding tour with a wonderful guide" (Fascination Volcano tour on Santorini (June 2012) "Dear tom, Thanks a lot for great cooperation : travel agent called us to say guests had an outstanding tour with a wonderful guide J All the best." Olivier Jeannier Agent de voyages Sales & Operations Specialtours & Groups Tourisme Pour Tous Myriam from France about our recent tour on Santorini Les ponces de l'eruption Minoenne Chevre sur Palea Kameni Le groupe avec des amis "Bonjour de France, enfin du soleil ici pas le meme que celui de Santorin bien sur, mais c'est toujours agreable. Le retour en France a ete difficile apres avoir vecu une semaine hors du commun dans un decor extraordinaire. Je remercie Tobias et toi pour votre facon de partager votre passion et de nous faire entrer dans cet univers decale avec la vie "normale" de tous les jours. J'ai apprecie la decouverte geologique de l'ile, l'initiation a la comprehension de la formation de l'ile et des volcans, les rencontres avec des gens simples mais de caractere de Santorin. Le temps s'est arrete pendant une semaine et je garde des souvenirs d'odeurs, de couleurs, de plats partages avec le groupe.j'ai revu les photos prises pendant le voyage, les couleurs et les paysages etaient tellement extraordinaires que les resultats sont surprenants meme avec mon simple appareil photo. J'aimerais envoyer les photos de groupe prises dans la taverne de nicolas a "yurgos", peux-tu m'envoyer leur adresse?Egalement j'aimerais commander le livre de Walter Friedrich, mais je n'ai pas note l'editeur.Merci pour ces renseignements. Bonne continuation dans tes voyages ps: quelques photos jointes... Myriam" (Myriam T., Orleans) Margrit from Potsdam about the Faszination Volcano tour on Santorini (Oct 09) "Hallo Tom, wieder einmal war es sehr schon auf Santorin und ich mochte mich fur alles bedanken. Die Organisation, unser Hotel und die vielen neuen Eindrucke, welche du uns vermittelt hast sind kaum in Worte zu fassen. Vor allem aber danke, dass ich noch so kurzfristig teilnehmen konnte. Eure Touren sind schon etwas Besonderes und mit viel Esprit, sehr personlichen Einsatz, so dass man sich sofort wohlfuhlt und immer gern wiederkommt. Herzliche Grue, Margrit" (Margrit from Potsdam, Faszination Volcano tour) Gudrun from Dresden about the "Fascination Volcano" Tour in October 2009 "Hallo Tom, nochmals vielen herzlichen Dank an Dich und die anderen fur die schone gemeinsame Woche mit dem gelungenen Mix aus Natur und Kultur, Sonne, buntem Stein und blauem Meer, Wandern und Neues Lernen, ein bisschen Anstrengung und Genuss! ... Weiterhin viel Gluck bei allen Euren Unternehmungen und herzliche Grue - Gudrun" Sandra from California about the "Fascination Volcano" tour on Santorini: "...Somehow I missed Tobias'link to photos and, fortunately, saw it through your note. Just finished looking at each image. Now, I"m exhausted! Stunning, and brings back keen memories, indeed. A whirling, dizzying journey to a version of Santorini unknown to most travelers. From moment we dropped luggage at Aktori to wine-tasting, to walk between villages, to our magical boat trips, to trek around caldera ledge, to climb up limestone mt., to smoking sulpher, to ancient city of Thira, to dreamy soups, best goat cheese, limpets and baklava...on and on. Tom and Tobias, our intrepid, ever-onward guides are a terrific team. Such compatibility among group of 17--wondrous again. How lucky was that?? Crazily, I just returned from 12 days in China...thus, a combo Greece/China 5-week adventure to savor and treasure. From yogurt, white villages & volcanoes to noodles, mountain temples & cave grottos. All intrigue and mystery and contrasts galore... Best hugs, Sandie" Valerie's feedback from the trip on Santorini, May 2009 "Dear Tom & Tobias. Thank you for our remarkable trek in Santorini and Methana--for the beautiful memories and breathtaking photos. ... Coming home to Tobias'pictures gave me time to slow down and appreciate the remarkable experience we had. I braved edges with Tom's help, jumped on boats with swirling seas (Daphne said I landed, elephant like, on poor Steve flattening him). ... The views took my breath away. ... Remember the oasis where we drank fresh squeezed orange juice and cake? I doubt whether juice will ever taste that good again. ... Little did I know that a bonus to our trip was the leader's desire for good food--and wine-- at the end of the day. I have new appreciation for magma, volcanic bombs, the beauty of the caldera, smoking sulphur, adjectives that describe volcanic formations and olive trees found preserved in volcanic ash. Thank you Tom and Tobias for a remarkable experience, and for your good choice in participants. It was a great group. Valerie" (Fascination Volcano, Santorini tour) "... This was one of those wonderful adventures that we loved at the time, but loved even more as we looked back at all of the places we'd been, the lovely people we met, the great bond we developed. And......a birthday - high atop a volcano - that I will remember forever! ...Many hugs, Daphne" (D. Lewis, Washington, Santorini tour) "Hi Tom, This trip had everything! It was so much better than the standard tourist trip to Santorini (we felt so superior the folks who arrived on the 10 story floating skyscrapers and who apparently devoted their time on the island to shopping!). The hikes were good exercise, but with your encouragement to the less athletic among us, not too tough. We got to see so many parts of the island that most visitors don't get to see. And our reward for energetic hiking was delicious food, and lots of it. I appreciated that we got to eat a whole variety of local foods and wines which do not appear on the conventional menus of Greek restaurants in the U.S. I ate like a champ but didn't gain any weight! I particularly appreciated the interpretation of the geology that you provided. On the way to the airport, you asked what was my favorite thing we did. I liked all the hikes, and especially the accomplishment of doing so much in a short time, but the big thrill, I think, was visiting the small geology museum in Perissa and seeing the critically significant preserved olive tree that you discovered and having you tell us about the find. Thanks for a really wonderful experience!" (Linda K, Olympia (WS), Santorini May 09) Auch uber die Organisation muss ich Dir noch nachtraglich ein grosses Lob aussprechen!!!!! Irgendwann werde ich wieder eine Reise mit Deiner Organisation durchfuhren. Ich habe ja Einiges lesen konnen ( sites internet). Ich wunsche Dir eine schone Adventszeit sowie naturlich auch vielleicht ruhige Weihnachten und einen tollen Rutsch ins Jahr 2009, sowie weiterhin viel Erfolg auf Deinen Reisen. Und vielleicht irgendwann einmal wieder ?! Alles Liebe und Gute Uta" ( "Hallo, Tom Zuerst vielen Dank fur die tollen Photos, ich zeigte sie auch Helene und wir schwelgten wieder in Erinnerungen an unsere gemeinsamen Ferien. Es war eine wirkliche lehrreiche und zur gleichen Zeit auch sportliche Reise gewesen. Vor allem wurden auch unsere grauen Zellen aktiviert........Irgendwann werde ich wieder eine Reise mit Deiner Organisation durchfuhren. Ich habe ja Einiges lesen konnen ( sites internet). Ich wunsche Dir eine schone Adventszeit sowie naturlich auch vielleicht ruhige Weihnachten und einen tollen Rutsch ins Jahr 2009, sowie weiterhin viel Erfolg auf Deinen Reisen.Und vielleicht irgendwann einmal wieder ?! Alles Liebe und Gute Uta" ( Fasination Vulkan, Santorin - Okt. 08) "Tom, I'm thinking you might be on your way to Krakatau now -- I hope you all have a great trip. We had such an excellent time on our Santorini tour and I keep going back to your web site to figure out which volcano tour I want to try next... " (Jill, USA) this great week in Santorini. Thanks for your competency, your kindness, your support in all situation. Thanks for the ouzo, the orange juice, the wine ...Keep in touch, Marie-Paule ( Thanks again, Tom, forThanks for your competency, your kindness, your support in all situation. Thanks for the ouzo, the orange juice, the wine ...Keep in touch, Marie-Paule ( Fascination Volcano , Santorini) One of the participants sent us this nice spostcard she made herself. Sacred Sites in Greece 2007 tour - hand-made postcard. Merci pour les photos de Santorin qui sont magnifiques! Et encore felicitations pour l'organisation de ce voyage. Quand on revoit les photos et le film qu'a fait Yvon, on se rend compte qu'on a non seulement bien vu l'aspect Geologie de cette ile, mais aussi l'aspect humain... Bonne continuation (les Suisses disent "bonne suite") und alles gute. Nathalie et Yvon" ( "Un tres grand merci, Tom. Quel plaisir de revivre ces moments fabuleux grace a tes photos ! J'espere que ton periple italo-sicilien se deroule aussi bien que le notre et je te redis ma reconnaissance pour la qualite de l'organisation et les commentaires dont tu nous a fait beneficier. Cordialement, Genevieve" ( "Bonsoir Tom,Merci pour les photos de Santorin qui sont magnifiques! Et encore. Quand on revoit les photos et le film qu'a fait Yvon, on se rend compte qu'on a non seulement... Bonne continuation (les Suisses disent "bonne suite")und alles gute. Nathalie et Yvon" ( Santorini tour, Sep. 2006)"Un, Tom. Quel plaisir de revivre ces moments fabuleux grace a tes photos ! J'espere que ton periple italo-sicilien se deroule aussi bien que le notre et je te redis ma reconnaissance pour laet les commentaires dont tu nous a fait beneficier. Cordialement, Genevieve" ( Santorini tour, Sep. 2006) Pirgos village on (Greek Easter) Good Friday (21 April 2006) "Hi Tom, Now that we are back home, I wanted to thank you for your patience in showing us so many different aspects of Santorini: the history of volcanic eruptions and geology, local wine and food, Easter pageants, great walks and views, ancient excavations, etc. We enjoyed our stay very much! ... please give our regards to Koula and her family. We really appreciated that they invited us to share their fabulous Easter meal with them. It was very kind of Tobias to meet us for an evening on such short notice. ... Viele herzliche Gruesse Ursula and Bill" (May 2006, Ursula & Bill from Canada) just a note to thank you for a great tour in October, it was great fun and I learned much, the food and company were excellent, the whole experience was fantastic. I see I even made it to the picture gallery! I have been busy with the thin sections, and have attached a few photos for you to look at. As is often the case ones that you expect to be good are disappointing, e.g. Cape Riva Ignimbrite, while Dacite, which looks to be just glass, shows a lot of structure, flow aligned crystals and good zoned feldspar and pyroxene. The sale of slides seems to be going well and I have stared a 'shop'on ebay "Hi Tom,just a note toI see I even made it to the picture gallery! I have been busy with the thin sections, and have attached a few photos for you to look at. As is often the case ones that you expect to be good are disappointing, e.g. Cape Riva Ignimbrite, while Dacite, which looks to be just glass, shows a lot of structure, flow aligned crystals and good zoned feldspar and pyroxene. The sale of slides seems to be going well and I have stared a 'shop'on ebay http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Geosec-Slides which is difficult to keep stocked as they sell so quickly. The fund for future collecting expeditions is growing nicely! ... Once again thanks for October, send my regards to your Mother, and have a happy Christmas. Rob" (UK, Dec. 2005) Some nice words from a mixed group on Santorini ... (French, English, German speaking) "Thank you Tom for a wonderful week of discovery & wonderful surprises! Judith." Lunch break on the volcano of Santorini (1) Lunch break on the volcano of Santorini (2) Many thanks for a wonderful trip to Santorini, it was great! Hope things go well at the conference. Well, I said I would send you the octopus photos so here they are, hope they don't clog your mailbox I have no zip function on this computer! All the best Ann" (Newcastle, UK) "Dear TomHope things go well at the conference. Well, I said I would send you the octopus photos so here they are, hope they don't clog your mailbox I have no zip function on this computer!All the bestAnn" (Newcastle, UK) "Hi Tom, Thanks again for the super week on Santorini! It really was the experience I expected and I would heartily recommend your trip to anyone interested in combining a holiday on the Greek islands with geologically fascinating day walks. Well done!" (Bob Davenport, Germany) "I am so pleased to tell you about Tom's Santorini tours! My preference for travel is to be "as close to the ground" as possible. By that I mean I avoid tourist areas and really look for unusual or cultural/educational experiences. Tom's tours are both intimate and professional. Tom is an expert in not only volcanic activity past and present, but he is also an expert on Greek life and culture. He knows the people, and they love him. Because Tom has lived in Greece for several months of the year for several years, he is well known and appreciated by the locals. This appreciation for Tom and the people he brings on his tours is rewarded by the community with absolute joy in service. For example, the last night of the tour we had a meal at a taverna on a beach. The restaurant gave us each a choice of anything on the menu. We were treated to amazing traditional Greek food, from small fish to hardbread, feta and olives, and amazing desserts. All of this was served in casual fashion on a makeshift outdoor patio almost in the sea! (not quite) My favourite day was the trip to the volcano. We boarded a small boat and were transported to the volcano by the most humerous and typically Greek character, Sostas. Sostas is a friend of Tom's and can be seen on the Discovery show featuring Tom and Sostas and this tour. We landed on the volcano and Tom explained its history and answered any questions we had. We then swam in the volcanic waters at Sostas's house as Sostas prepared a traditional fish soup, hardbread, feta made from the goats that wander around the hills surrounding Sosta's property, olives, ect. An absolutely marvelous day. I must point out local tours to the volcano generally involve large boats with hoards of tourists who are dropped off and picked up with no explanation of the volcanic activity or history. Tom ensures a personal and educational cultural experience." (Shelly Logan, Canada) Based on satellite images, wind data, and ground reports from PVMBG, the Darwin VAAC reported that during 6-8 and 10-12 April ash plumes from Tengger Caldera's Bromo cone rose to an altitude of 3 km (10,000 ft) a.s.l. and drifted SW, WSW, and W. ... Based on satellite images, wind data, and ground reports from PVMBG, the Darwin VAAC reported that during 13 and 17-18 April ash plumes from Tengger Caldera's Bromo cone rose to altitudes of 3-3.3 km (10,000-11,000 ft) a.s.l. and drifted W, NE, and E. ... Based on satellite images and wind data, the Darwin VAAC reported that on 20 April ash plumes from Tengger Caldera's Bromo cone rose to an altitude of 3 km (10,000 ft) a.s.l. and drifted S and almost 20 km NW. On 26 April another ash plume rose to the same altitude and drifted W. ... Based on satellite images and wind data, the Darwin VAAC reported that during 27-28 April ash plumes from Tengger Caldera's Bromo cone rose to altitudes of 3-3.6 km (10,000-12,000 ft) a.s.l. and drifted NW, W, SW, and SE. ... Based on satellite images and wind data, the Darwin VAAC reported that during 23-24 May ash plumes from Tengger Caldera's Bromo cone rose to an altitude of 3 km (10,000 ft) a.s.l. and drifted as far as 75 km NE ... Ash emissions from the volcano were reported earlier today by Darwin VAAC. Based on satellite observations, a plume of light ash is drifting 50 km to the NE at approx. 10,000 ft (3 km) altitude. ... Based on satellite images, wind data, and information from PVMBG, the Darwin VAAC reported that during 28-31 May ash plumes from Tengger Caldera's Bromo cone rose to an altitude of 2.4 km (8,000 ft) a.s.l. and drifted as far as 55 km NW, SW, S, and NNE. ... The activity of the volcano remains low. Sporadic, relatively weak ash emissions continue to occur from time to time and a weak glow is visible sometimes at night. ... Based on satellite images, wind data, and information from PVMBG, the Darwin VAAC reported that during 1-3 June ash plumes from Tengger Caldera's Bromo cone rose to an altitude of 3 km (10,000 ft) a.s.l. and drifted as far as 65 km N and NW. ... Our expedition leader Andi currently on location reported that the volcano's activity has been increased since 4 days ago, with visible activity consisting of mild phreatic explosions and strong steaming.The volcano observatory has been registering continuous tremor as well. Small ballistic ejecta (bombs) can be seen from the rim of the crater. Background: Gunung Bromo (Mount Bromo) volcano is a small, but active volcanic cinder cone on the Indonesian island of Java. Bromo is located in the center of the Sandsea Caldera, itself only a portion of the larger Tengger Caldera. The Sandsea caldera formed around 8,000 years ago, in what must have been a massive eruption. Subsequent volcanic activity formed the cluster of cinder cones in the caldera's center, including Bromo. The historical record indicates eruptions of Bromo every few years since 1804, and geologic evidence indicates eruptions at least several hundred years earlier. The most recent eruption occured in 2004 , and tragically killed two tourists. The image above shows most of the Sandsea Caldera, along with Gunung Bromo and the older volcanoes on the caldera floor. A small plume of steam is visible rising out of Mt. Bromo. Space Imaging's IKONOS satellite, capable of 4-meter per-pixel color imagery, and 1-meter per-pixel resolution panchromatic imagery, acquired the data on July 8, 2001. Kilauea volcano Updated: Oct 25, 2022 22:21 GMT - refresh Shield volcano 1277 m (4,190 ft) Hawai'i, 19.41N / -155.29W Current status: erupting (4 out of 5) Last update: 19 Oct 2022 (Smithsonian / USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report) Haleamaumau crater in the center of the Kilauea caldera - the heart of Kilauea volcano Kilauea is the youngest and most active Hawaiian shield volcano, located on the southern part of the Island of Hawai'i, known as Big Island. Hawai'i is the southernmost and largest of the island chain, which owes its existence to the very active Hawaiian hot spot. Kilauea volcano is near-constantly erupting from vents either on its summit (caldera) or on the rift zones. At present, Kilauea volcano is still having one of the most long-lived eruptions known on earth, which started in 1983 on the eastern rift zone and has mainly been concentrated at the Pu'u 'O'o vent. Latest nearby earthquakes Time Mag. / Depth Distance/Location Thursday, October 20, 2022 GMT (1 quake) Oct 20, 2022 1:57 am (GMT -10) (Oct 20, 2022 11:57 GMT) 1.8 1.6 km 37 km (23 mi) 24 Km E of Honaunau-Napoopoo, Hawaii Monday, October 17, 2022 GMT (1 quake) Oct 16, 2022 7:36 pm (GMT -10) (Oct 17, 2022 05:36 GMT) 3.1 0.5 km 35 km (22 mi) 40 mi southwest of Hilo, Hawaii County, USA Dominantly effusive since 1790, but ~60% explosive over past ~2500 years.Near-continuous eruptions. Since 1960: 1961 (4x), 1962, 1963 (2x), 1965 (2x), 1967-68, 1968 (2x), 1969, 1969-74, 1971 (2x), 1973 (2x), 1974 (3x), 1975, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982 (2x), 1983-2018 (incl. 1986, 1992, 1997, 2007, 2011 (3x)), 2018 (lower east rift zone in Leilani subdivision), 2020 (Dec) - ongoing The contrast between unspoiled rain-forest, coconut palm beaches, primitive culture and moon-like landscapes surrounding lava-spitting volcanoes could not be bigger: join us on an expedition to the two most active volcanoes of Vanuatu: Ambrym and Yasur. FOOD INDUSTRY General Mills recalls flour over E. coli scare General Mills on Tuesday issued a voluntary recall of about 10 million pounds of flour, saying it was working with health officials to investigate an outbreak of E. coli that had sickened 38 people in 20 states. The bacteria strain behind the outbreak has not been found in any of General Mills Gold Medal, Wondra and Signature Kitchens flour or its manufacturing plant, the company said in a statement. Consumers have not contacted it directly to report any illnesses, the company added. Out of an abundance of caution, a voluntary recall is being made, the company said. U.S. and state health authorities are investigating an outbreak of E. coli O121 from Dec. 21 to May 3, General Mills said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that about half of the 38 sickened people reported cooking with flour before becoming ill, General Mills said. About half of this group reported using a General Mills brand, a company spokesman said. Reuters TECHNOLOGY Internet giants take aim at terrorists U.S. Internet giants Facebook, Twitter, Google and Microsoft pledged to tackle online hate speech in less than 24 hours as part of a joint commitment with the European Union to halt the use of social media by terrorists. In a joint statement Tuesday, the companies and the European Commission said they want to ensure such activity by Internet users is expeditiously reviewed by online intermediaries and social media platforms, upon receipt of a valid notification, in an appropriate time-frame. The code of conduct comes in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels by the Islamic State, which has used the Web and social media to spread its message. The companies said it will be a challenge to strike a balance between freedom of expression and hate speech on the online platforms. We remain committed to letting the tweets flow, said Karen White, Twitters public-policy chief for Europe. However, there is a clear distinction between freedom of expression and conduct that incites violence and hate. Bloomberg News Also in Business A former Barclays director has been arrested on charges he illegally fed stock tips to a New York plumber in exchange for cash and home renovations. Steven McClatchey, 58, was freed on bail after an initial appearance in federal court in Manhattan. His attorney declined to comment. Prosecutors said McClatchey used inside information about mergers and acquisitions to tip his friend, Gary Pusey, 47. The government said that Pusey made about $76,000. Pusey pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud. Prosecutors said McClatchey and Pusey owned boats docked at a Long Island marina. They said the men spent most Saturdays on their boats, at the marina, or playing pool and watching sports. From news services Coming Today From news services ECONOMY Feds beige book shows modest growth The U.S. economy expanded at a modest pace across most of the country since mid-April, causing the labor market to tighten as employers continued adding jobs and nudging wages higher, a Federal Reserve report showed. Employment grew modestly since the last report, but tight labor markets were widely noted, according to the Feds latest beige book, an economic survey published eight times a year. Wages grew modestly, and price pressures grew slightly in most districts. Among the Feds 12 districts, Chicago and Kansas City reported slowing growth, while Dallas said the economy grew marginally. New York reported activity as generally flat. Other districts reported modest or moderate growth. Several districts reported rising demand for high-skilled workers. Atlanta and Richmond noted that low-skilled positions were also getting harder to fill. Bloomberg News COURT BATTLE Redstone grandchild joins Viacom fight A granddaughter of Sumner Redstone has hired the lawyer who represented the media moguls former girlfriend and said she plans to join Viacoms directors in their legal battle for control of the media company. The legal fight started with a dispute between Redstone, 93, and his former girlfriend Manuela Herzer. It has since turned into a battle between Redstone; his daughter, Shari Redstone, and members of Viacoms board. Last month, Sumner Redstone removed Viacom chief executive Philippe Dauman and board member George Abrams from their roles in his trust and family company National Amusements. My experience is the same as the Viacom directors, Keryn Redstone, Sharis niece, said Wednesday through her lawyer, Pierce ODonnell. Shari will not let us see Sumner. She said she last saw her grandfather for 15 minutes on Valentines Day, when he sat lifeless and flanked by his nurses and caretaker, [and] he seemed unaware of his surroundings. Bloomberg News Also in Business Dell shareholders who thought they were fleeced by the deal that took the computer maker private in 2013 have scored a rare legal victory. Investors in Dell deserved almost $4 a share more than they received from the management-led buyout, a Delaware judge ruled Tuesday. The impact will be limited, however, because he disqualified about 29 million of the 34 million shares in the suit on procedural grounds. Disgruntled shareholders had sought as much as $28 a share, more than double the $13.88 that company founder Michael Dell and buyout firm Silver Lake Partners paid out in the deal. Delaware Chancery Court Judge Travis Laster settled instead on $17.62 for the stock. From news services Coming Today Three leaders in commercial space flight, Elon Musk of SpaceX, Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin, and Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic, discuss the path to making commercial spaceflight a reality. (Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post) Three leaders in commercial space flight, Elon Musk of SpaceX, Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin, and Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic, discuss the path to making commercial spaceflight a reality. (Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post) Its such a nice spacecraft, so shiny and new, it seems a shame to crash it. But thats what Blue Origin may very well do on the next flight for the rocket it calls New Shepard. Jeff Bezos space company plans another test launch of the vehicle soon. And since the rocket is under development the company is taking pains to expand the envelope, putting additional stresses to see how it performs under less than ideal circumstances. This time that means trying to land the unmanned capsule with a parachute that fails on purpose. Thatll allow the company to demonstrate its ability to safely handle that failure scenario, Bezos wrote in an email to subscribers. It promises to be an exciting demonstration. And it comes at an exciting time. Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, has said the U.S. has entered into a golden age of space exploration. There are more vehicles designed for human space travel than any time in the last 40 years, analysts say. And while the industry casts its eyes toward a chimerical futurewhere humans have colonized Mars and the moon and have stretched out by the thousands in the cosmosthere are some historic milestones just around the corner that may very well come true. In a tour of his facility this spring, Bezos said that paying passengers should be able to climb aboard New Shepard to take a jaunt to suborbital space. Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic is also in the testing phase of its new SpaceShipTwo, also designed to give space tourists the feeling of weightlessness of space and give them astounding views of the Earth from space. Boeing, the aerospace giant, and SpaceX, the upstart founded by tech billionaire Elon Musk, are slated to start flying NASA astronauts to the International Space Station by late 2017 or early 2018. Theyll fly in new spacecraftBoeings Starliner and SpaceXs Dragonthat in many ways resemble the capsules flown during the Apollo era, but are far more advanced. There is also a sporty little spaceplane called the Dream Chaser under development by the Sierra Neveda Corp., to take cargo to the space station; a monster rocket known as the Space Launch System being built by Boeing, and others, for NASA; a new deep space capsule called Orion that Lockheed Martin is building for NASA; and a replacement for the workhorse Atlas V rocket called Vulcan thats under development by the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing For years, people have waited for the moment when the commercialization of space really happened, when there was a self-sustaining economy, and not just one propped up by the government. This may or may not be that moment. Its still too early to tell for sure, analysts say. For all the historic achievements, there have been slow starts and setbacks. SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket blew up last year incinerating hundreds of pounds of cargo headed for the International Space Station. Virgin Galactics SpaceShipTwo came apart in the middle of a test flight in 2014, killing the co-pilot. And it wasnt until just recently that Blue Origin had a successful flight that reached the edge of space. Its not the first time this has happened, and part of me is jaded. Efforts to create activity in commercial space has been around for a long time, said Roger Launius, the associate director for collections and curatorial affairs at the National Air and Space Museum. Theres been an incremental expansion of technology, which I think has made it more readily available to pursue than it might have been in the past. Many in the industry are also heartened by the fact that it has pulled off some feats once thought impossible, and is thinking big. SpaceX has begun to make the landing of rockets seem routine. Blue Origin has also had a string of launches and landings of the same rocket, a key to ultimately lowering the cost of space flight, and opening it up to the masses. Musk has even vowed to land an unmanned spacecraft on Mars as early as 2018, and is developing a new Falcon Heavy rocket designed for the moon and Mars. Meanwhile, all the grandiose talk of democratizing space has been backed up by significant private investment, which for years stayed away from an industry long seen as exceedingly risky. The surge in new money been led by the billionaires. Musk has invested $100 million of his own money; Branson and Bezos have said theyve put in about $500 million each. But Google and the investment giant Fidelity also pumped a $1 billion into SpaceX. The commercialization of space is being taken more seriously because people have a business track record and are entering the space industry and making things happen and being disruptive, said Phil Smith, a senior space analyst at the Tauri Group. Based on the Jojo Moyes novel of the same name, "Me Before You" is about a directionless young woman who works as caretaker for a disabled man. Despite their vastly different lives, they fall for one another. ( / Warner Bros. Pictures) The film version of Jojo Moyess best-selling novel Me Before You hit theaters June 3. The movie, which stars Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) and Sam Claflin (The Hunger Games), tells the heart-rending tale of Louisa and Will. Shes been hired to care for the wealthy playboy, now confined to a wheelchair after an accident. Can she convince him that he has something to live for? In a phone interview, Moyes talked about turning her book into a film and why she describes herself as a quietly feminist writer. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. How did you come up with the premise of Me Before You? I heard a news story when I was driving my children home about a young rugby player. Hed had an accident and was a quadriplegic, and he was not prepared to live the life that had been presented to him. His parents were taking him to a place in Switzerland where people can go for assisted suicides. As a parent, I was profoundly shocked. I couldnt imagine how a parent could do that. As I read more about it, though, it wasnt quite as black and white. What was fascinating to me was what it might be like to be his mother or his lover or anyone trying to change his mind. At the same time, two relatives of mine were in 24-hour care, so I was dealing with these questions myself: How do I give someone hope and dignity and a quality of life? I had to write this book. Despite its serious topic, the novel is funny, too. This is one of the reasons I think MGM wanted me to stay involved in the film. There are such tricky moral issues in this story, so theres an especially fine balance between tragedy and comedy. Ive written 13 books now, and one of the things Ive learned is people will take an awful lot of sadness if you can be funny as well. Louisa is a terrific character intelligent, funny and likable. What inspired you to create her? I liked the idea of juxtaposing someone with mental ambition who is trapped in his body against someone who was physically well, but just not living the kind of life she could lead. But it was important to me that he just didnt rescue her that she gave him something valuable as well. I have a quietly feminist bent as a writer. I always try to think of how my daughter would respond to what Im writing, how it would affect how she thinks. Louisa just plopped into my lap, fully formed, with the personality she has. This made it easy to write jokes Louisa was a joy to write. When I was drafting the screenplay, I caught myself cutting too many of Louisas funny lines and so Id go back and put them back in I didnt want Will to have all the funny lines. Was it challenging to write the screenplay for your own book? It was difficult, but really, really interesting. I loved the collaborative quality of it, though not all writers feel this way. It was wonderful being on set with the actors and the director, seeing which lines were working. It was the most invigorating experience Ive had in years. The director and I had the same vision for the film, so that made it easier, Im sure. And it is hard when you have to cut a lot of material there are definitely things Ill miss from the book. But they were all joint decisions. HANDOUT IMAGE: The author Jojo Moyes (credit: Stine Heilmann, 2014) ***ONE TIME USE ONLY. NOT FOR RESALE (Stine Heilmann, 2014/Stine Heilmann, 2014) Which scene from the book did you cut that youll miss most? We had to lose the maze scene, when Louisa recalls a sexual assault when she was younger. Its interesting how people react to that part of the book. Often when you read about rape in fiction, its the defining event. I knew lots of girls who had similar events happen to them, and they tucked it away and moved on. We almost know before Louisa knows how much thats affecting her. The scene is very opaque in the book, but putting it on film gave it far more weight than it has in the book and it was changing the mood of the story. We tried for six months to make that scene. It was a useful experience to learn you cannot translate some things into film. The ending without giving anything away is unusual for a commercial book and movie. How have people responded to it? I didnt want a typical sentimental Hollywood ending. After the London previews in early May, I was getting tweets from all these teenage girls who were going into the movie looking wonderful, and then sending me photos on their way out, with mascara down their faces. And I thought, this is the best news ever. Carole Burns is the author of The Missing Woman and Other Stories. Astronauts inflated a new experimental room attached to the International Space Station on Saturday. The room is a early attempt at creating moon or Mars habitats and orbiting tourist hotels. (NASA via AP) NASA inflated a new experimental room at the International Space Station on Saturday, producing the worlds first pump-it-up compartment for astronauts. The operation took much longer than expected, stretching over three days in all. But victory, when it came, was sweet. A significant milestone has been accomplished, Bigelow Aerospace, the inflatable chambers creator, cheered via Twitter. Astronaut Jeffrey Williams spent seven hours Saturday opening and closing an air valve to expand the compartment. Enough air finally seeped inside so that the puffy white pod could stretch to its full 13 feet in length and 10 feet in diameter the volume equivalent to a small bedroom. Internal air tanks provided the final pressurization to complete the job. Williams and his five crewmates will have to wait a week before venturing inside. NASA wants to make certain the chamber is airtight before opening the door. These images show the inflation of the experimental room on Saturday. (NASA via AP) It was NASAs second shot at inflating the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, named for the aerospace company that built it. The room is an early attempt at Mars habitats and orbiting tourist hotels. BEAM barely expanded during Thursdays inflation attempt. Experts believe the soft-sided compartment was packed up tight for so long before last months launch that the fabric layers had trouble unfolding. Pressure inside the chamber was relieved Friday to ease the friction among the multiple layers. That apparently did the trick. The cubicle swelled an additional six feet in length Saturday, looking more and more like a giant beach ball with every pulse of air. In all, Williams opened the valve 25 times Saturday for a total of 2 minutes worth of air flowing from the space station into the chamber. Popping noises could be heard as pressure built up inside BEAM it sounded like popcorn in a frying pan. Officials said it was the sound of internal straps releasing as the pod swelled in both length and girth. NASA insisted on taking it slow to avoid a sudden pressurization of BEAM that could stress the connecting parts of the space station. Bigelow Aerospace created this first inflatable room ever built for astronauts and sold it to NASA for $17.8 million. Founder Robert Bigelow is working on a pair of private inflatable space stations that could fly in a few years. He sees inflatables as the spaceflights future. Because expandable spacecraft can be compressed for launch, the rockets can carry more cargo, yet space travelers can still enjoy lots of room. The standard aluminum rooms that make up the space station which are like fancy cans can never be larger than what fits into a rocket. BEAM empty except for sensors will remain attached to the orbiting lab for two years as engineers measure temperature, radiation levels and resistance to space debris impacts. It will be off limits most of the time to astronauts, given its experimental status. SpaceX delivered BEAM early last month, and it was installed on the outside of the 250-mile-high outpost. The following review appears in The Washington Posts 2016 Fall Dining Guide. Japanese octopus with spicy citrus juice, yellow peppers and pickled shallots at Conosci. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post) Conosci EXCELLENT I dont keep secrets, at least when it comes to restaurants. But if I did, Id keep for myself this hushed and handsome dining room and its fish-focused menu, the most intimate of chef Michael Schlows five Washington establishments. Looking for romance on the cheap? Conosci obliges, with a six-course tasting menu for $45, staged in a space with its own cocktail cart and what looks like gold leaf on the walls. Angling to splurge? Conosci, reached through the neighboring Alta Strada via a blue velvet curtain, is happy to help, with a $135-per-person treasure chest of indulgences running to scallop tartare on a puree of huitlacoche, Mexicos truffle, and Bing cherries stuffed with foie gras terrine. Then again, a diner can also order a la carte. In that case, ask for whatever oysters are being perfectly shucked; risotto swirled with sweet crab and gilded with sea urchin; maybe a fan of tender duck with grilled kumquats. (Chef Michael Zentner accords meat the same respect as seafood.) The name asks Do you know? in Italian. Well, now you do. Previous: Compass Rose | Next: The Dabney 3 stars Conosci: 465 K St. NW. 202-629-4662. conoscidc.com . Prices: Tasting menus $45-$135. Sound check: 70 decibels / Conversation is easy. -- The following review was originally published June 1, 2016. Conosci review: Michael Schlows crudo concept is a hidden gem Michael Schlow maintains three restaurants at home in Boston, but he could just as easily be identified as a Washington chef these days. Since 2014, when he opened Tico, a whimsical Latin American small-plates destination on 14th Street NW, the chef has gone on to make the District a more enticing place to eat, with a retro supper club in Dupont Circle (the Riggsby) and a neighborhood Italian joint (Alta Strada) in Mount Vernon Triangle. At the rate hes going, the mayor ought to give Schlow a key to the city. His latest contribution to the scene, the fish-focused Conosci, is his most personal expression yet. I opened it for selfish reasons, says Schlow of the 30-seat crudo bar (pronounced ka-no-shi) that shares an address with Alta Strada and made its debut in April. The guy loves raw fish and the interaction that happens when someone behind the counter is feeding someone an arms reach away. Chef Michael Schlow prepares dishes for customers at the bar of Conosci. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post) But even from the distance of a table, Conosci feels intimate, like grazing at a small cocktail party where the hosts happen to be stylish friends. The walls around the counter are lit by votives whose backdrop appears to be gold leaf; early evenings might find Pink Martini on the soundtrack. The mood is reinforced by the likes of sweet shrimp carpaccio served with lardo toast. The venue, previously occupied by the Japanese restaurant Kushi, plays to Washingtons love of insider information with a name that asks Do you know? in Italian. To access the oasis, diners announce themselves at the host stand at Alta Strada, after which theyre led to a blue velvet curtain that parts to reveal a short dark hall leading to the restaurant-within-a-restaurant. In comparison to the Italian eatery, boisterous and casual, Conosci is hushed and romantic. Score another hit for Edit Lab at Streetsense, the Washington designers, and Schlows wife, Adrienne, whose black-and-white paintings are as pleasing as her husbands cooking. Originally, the owner wanted to call the place Gemma, Italian for precious stone, but the name was taken. The gist of the idea is retained in teal bar stools, walls the color of eggplant and multiple small chandeliers. The menu, just a dozen or so dishes long, is introduced by a server who can describe the food so vividly, you figure she plans to don a toque and head to the open kitchen as soon as shes done taking your order. In actuality, executive chef Michael Zentner, also from Boston, is likely to be fussing over your meal. Schlows team recruited staff from among the more hospitable waiters at his other Washington restaurants. The cherry picking has paid off. Dewy cubes of red snapper splashed with what Peruvians know as tigers milk make a rousing ceviche, its marinade of lime, chilies and fish juice as fierce and balanced as any Ive had in Lima. A lacy sail of crisp bread gives the appetizer both height and crunch. American red snapper ceviche with tiny tomatoes, chilies and leche de tigre at Conosci. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post) Small chandeliers light the cozy dining room at Conosci. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post) Three bites of hamachi let you pretend youre at an expense-account retreat, gilded as the fish is with glinting caviar and custardy monkfish liver. Tying the treats together is a liquid stripe billed as miracle sauce. Suffice it to say, the grace note coaxed from soy sauce, Thai basil, sriracha, rice vinegar and other enhancers does wonders for whatever it touches. Im a sucker for spice, says Schlow, whose miracle sauce serves as Exhibit A. Octopus is sliced into white coins and gathered in a puddle of citrus juices and cooked yellow peppers, a tad sweet for my taste. The presentation a bowl set within a bowl of ice almost makes up for it. Like his peers, Schlow is upping his plateware game, having shopped at the revered Korin Japanese Trading Company in New York for Conoscis sleek settings. Crudo is the thrust, but theres more than fish and seafood to occupy a diners fork. Any meal is better with the addition of market veggies, one night a hedge of crisp snap peas, radishes and fresh mint formed into a half circle and kept in place with snap pea puree on its plate. Adding intrigue to each bite are crisp walnuts and salty pecorino. Another category edges into entree territory with compositions including a roseate fan of thinly sliced duck set off with grilled kumquats and a swab of creamy onion sauce. A garnish draws the most attention, though. What looks like a chocolate truffle in the presentation is a ball of foie gras coated in crispy rice. Risotto swirled with sweet crab and finished with sea urchin is an indulgence hiding a surprise: minced Fresno chilies swirled into the creamy grains of arborio rice. Consider yourself warned: The bowl packs heat. The small bar cart at Conosci. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post) Eric Di Nardo prepares drinks at Conosci. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post) Conoscis autonomy from Alta Strada extends to the beverages. Select one of the signature drinks in the new place and its assembled from a nearby bar cart by your server. One of a handful of refreshments, a combination of cachaca, yuzu, lime and lemon grass is designed to flatter the kitchens ocean-based handiwork. The small kitchen leaves little room for making desserts, which goes against Schlows inclination to please. The compromise is a single gratis treat, an idea inspired by one of Schlows trips to Italy, where he recalls ending a meal simply and gloriously with cherries on ice. At Conosci, spring found a complimentary shot glass of chocolate ganache topped with salted caramel and piped buttercream: two spoonfuls make a sweet impression. Future visits might conclude with compressed watermelon zapped with chili vinegar. The beguiling food and chic environs suggest a trust fund must be footing the bill. But Conosci makes itself approachable with a $45 tasting menu of six courses, a bargain considering that the average cost for small plates here is $14. On the flip side, you can shell out $135 a person for up to 15 dishes selected by the chef, which underscores the beauty of this restaurant: You can make it a quick bite or a full-blown celebration. Theres no sign outside announcing Conosci, by the way. You have to know its inside another restaurant. Right now, it feels like a secret. As much as Id like it to stay that way, my job is to share, not withhold, such good news. You know that part of your vacation where you hold your breath and hope for the best? It used to happen just before the plane landed, in that precarious moment between heaven and earth. But lately, its been taking place on terra firma, when you arrive at the airport and youre confronted by a Transportation Security Administration screening. For good reason. A few months ago, the TSA announced that screening with a full-body scanner would no longer be optional for some passengers, meaning theres a better chance than ever youll be forced through one of the machines. What the agency euphemistically calls a random and unpredictable security screening adds an aspect of fear and uncertainty to an already fear-inducing and uncertain process. And then there are the long lines, which have been blamed on cutbacks related to the TSAs PreCheck program. The agency assigned to protect Americas transportation systems incorrectly predicted that more passengers would sign up for its trusted traveler program, so it cut staffing by 10 percent. The result? Record lines. The TSA says its taking steps to reduce the wait times. [Where banned TSA items go] The coping mechanisms have evolved in the past few months, so if youre a frequent air traveler, you probably already know a lot of the following strategies, at least subconsciously. But with the summer travel season about to get underway, you may find yourself face to face with a TSA agent, unsure what to do. Travelers can avoid that fate with a little planning and a few insider strategies. First, give yourself time. Lots of time. Josh Nathan, a professor at the Art Institute of Colorado, allows himself three hours to get through the TSA screening in Denver. Thats no typographical error. Its advice he would pass along to anyone whos thinking of flying this summer. Plan for three hours, and be delighted if you make it to your airplane, he says, adding, If that departs on time, you feel like you won an unpublicized lottery. Why so long? Nathan reports that the Denver TSA, once one of the most efficient of the agencys operations, has randomly closed checkpoints. A few weeks ago, the airport made headlines when TSA wait times exceeded one hour. To calm angry passengers, airport staff reportedly handed out bottled water, parceled out candies and brought in therapy dogs to soothe frayed nerves. There are shortcuts, but theyll cost you. Sonita Lontoh, a San Francisco technology executive and frequent flier, recommends paying $100 for a five-year membership in the Global Entry program, which also gives you TSA PreCheck eligibility. And the PreCheck lines, which allow you to get screened without removing the computer from your bag, taking off your shoes or passing through a full-body scanner, are significantly shorter. [TSA says most airport security lines werent so bad over Memorial Day weekend] Its much faster, she says. For example, on a recent flight from Orlando, the difference between using the TSA PreCheck lane and the regular lane was more than an hour. How does she know? A colleague without PreCheck went through the regular line, and she didnt see her until shortly before their flight began boarding. There are other ways to cut the line. In Orlando, for example, you can also use Clear, a private biometric screening system. It costs about $15 a month to belong to Clear, which can be used at a number of airports in cities including San Francisco, Dallas and Baltimore (but not Washington). Neither Clear nor Global Entry are practical solutions for infrequent travelers, though. What you wear this summer matters, says Katelyn OShaughnessy, a travel agent from Venice, Calif., who has advised countless clients on how to handle the TSA. With the agency beefing up security in the wake of various terrorist threats, you dont want to wear anything that could slow down the process. Dont wear shirts or pants with extraneous pockets, buttons, zippers, or anything with sequined bling on it, she says. These items tend to appear suspicious on the scanner, which is programmed to flag anything out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, its possible to follow all of this advice and still fall afoul of the TSAs random and unpredictable security. Kimberly Marcus, an educational consultant from Alfred, N.Y., thought she had done everything right when she showed up for her recent flight at the Tri-Cities Regional Airport in Blountville, Tenn. But an alarm sounded when she stepped through the scanner, and an agent ordered her to submit to an enhanced pat-down. [Huge bonuses and forced transfers were downfall of top TSA official Kelly Hoggan] An agent felt up my leg until she met resistance, she says. Several times. The agent also felt across the front of me with her fingertips. This routine is not at all routine or acceptable to me, and I found what would be sexual assault in other contexts to be very disturbing and upsetting. And thats the problem with the TSA this summer. The expert advice works, but not every time. Which is to say, you can show up three hours early and still miss your plane. Trusted traveler programs dont always send you to the front of the line, and you could still get a once-over by an agent and a possible delay. You can wear all the right clothes and still set off alarms. Of course, nothing can prepare you for a prison-style pat-down at the hands of a TSA agent. And nothing can guarantee youll avoid it, either. But if you take a few precautions, you can come close. Dont forget to breathe. Elliott is a consumer advocate, journalist and co-founder of the advocacy group Travelers United. Email him at chris@elliott.org. More from Travel: What the TSAs new body-scanner rules mean for you Dont mind the wet nose: TSA enlists more dogs to screen passengers Travelers are less certain about the airport screening experience than theyve been in years Read past Navigator columns here THE DISTRICT Man arrested after Georgetown gunre A man who was arrested after police said several gunshots were fired along the waterfront in Georgetown on Sunday night had just been ordered off a boat after an argument, according to an arrest affidavit filed in court. A witness told police the man shot a .38-caliber revolver three times in the air, and another person said the shots were aimed at people on the boat, the affidavit says. No one was injured. The suspect was identified as Dontrell Taylor, 35, of Southeast Washington. He is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon and unlawful possession of a firearm. A court hearing is scheduled for Thursday. Peter Hermann MARYLAND Slain woman is identified Police in Prince Georges County have identified a woman whose bludgeoned body was found in the laundry room of an apartment complex in Adelphi. Police were summoned by a neighbor Sunday morning to an apartment complex in the 7400 block of 18th Avenue. When they arrived, police found the body of a woman identified Tuesday as Ashley Solano, 29. Police had said the victim suffered trauma; she was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said the killing does not appear to be random. Dana Hedgpeth Ex-Baltimore mayor wont seek recount Former Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon announced Tuesday she will not seek a recount in Aprils Democratic mayoral primary that awarded state Sen. Catherine E. Pugh the partys nomination. Dixon said she will continue to press for answers over election irregularities that caused the state to decertify the results and investigate. As a result, Dixon said, an additional 555 provisional ballots were uncovered. While the city Board of Elections has re-certified the election results and I have decided not to seek a recount, the questions surrounding this election must be answered, Dixon said in a statement. The irregularities in this election are not acceptable, she said. This process is not over until we can assure every Baltimore citizen that their vote will be counted not just in this election but in future elections as well. Dixon had until Tuesday to seek a recount. Anyone may still challenge the election results in court. Baltimore Sun VIRGINIA School board denied in transgender case A federal appeals court that sided with a transgender teen in his lawsuit against a Virginia school board has denied the boards request to rehear the case before a full panel of judges. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in April ruled that a lawsuit filed by transgender teen Gavin Grimm, who sued the Gloucester County School Board after it passed a policy banning him from the boys bathroom, could move forward. The initial decision by a three-judge panel last month was the first time a federal appeals court had weighed in on the question of whether bathroom restrictions constitute a violation of Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination at schools that receive federal funds. It is being closely watched nationwide as battles over the rights of transgender students head to court. The school board in May requested a rehearing of the case before a full panel of judges, arguing that the case warranted a second look because it has national implications. On Tuesday, the court denied the petition after no judge requested a poll to see whether a majority of his or her colleagues wanted to move forward. Plans to end a decades-old policy of concealing the first-semester grades of freshman at Johns Hopkins University from graduate school admissions officers and future employers are drawing outrage from students. Hopkins has been one of the few schools nationwide that cover the grades of their newest students, shielding them on transcripts and keeping them out of grade-point averages as the freshmen make the transition to college. But as nearby Goucher College considers joining the small club, Hopkins is planning to get out. The policy change, which the university says was decided by a committee, is scheduled to go into effect in 2017. Current students will not be affected theyve been through their first semester, and their grades are to remain covered. Still, two dozen student groups have united in opposition to the change. Students say the universitys mental health services are inadequate to meet the needs of those who will be stressed out by the change. They say the practice helps protect students who struggle to adjust to the demands of college. Students held a demonstration this month outside an academic council meeting, demanded the university reverse its decision and apologize for not including more students in the process. A lot of kids come here from private schools, said Chase Alston, a rising senior from Waldorf, Md., studying public health. Theyre better equipped to handle coming to school. Students from marginalized populations, they may need more time to figure out what resources work for them and what study habits work for them. A few schools including Swarthmore in Pennsylvania, Wellesley and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have similar grading practices. Wellesley, a womens college in Massachusetts, started a four-year pilot of what it calls shadow grades in 2014. Lee Cuba, a sociology professor who worked to develop the policy, said the university wanted to ease students into their college careers. We were interested in trying to focus students attention on academic engagement instead of academic achievement, Cuba said. It was an attempt to say its important to work, but its important to make friends, get into Boston, explore extracurricular interests, exercise. It was a sense that this can be a very stressful time. Officials at Goucher College have been weighing whether to get rid of freshman-year grades. Spokeswoman Kathy Michel declined to comment on the discussion, but said a decision would come in the next few months. Hopkins administrators say covered grades might give students a chance to goof off, put off learning good study skills, or cram difficult courses into their first semester. The students who we attract to Hopkins are highly accomplished and academically strong, but we do recognize that they need support in transitioning to the Hopkins environment, said Kevin Shollenberger, the vice provost for student affairs. We feel that the best way to help them transition is to give them the study skills that help them do well here. Were concerned that the covered grades may delay them in seeking that type of help. Hopkins began covering grades in 1971. Under the policy, first semester freshman year grades appear on transcripts as S for satisfactory or U for unsatisfactory. Students are informed of the actual letter grades, but theyre hidden from future employers and graduate school admissions officers. The policy applies to all students even those who earned straight As. Exceptions may be made for students applying for scholarships or internships. Hopkins officials acknowledge that the practice puts some students at a disadvantage, as some graduate school admissions officers or employers may frown on it. Beverly Wendland, dean of the universitys Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, said the decision was made by a committee of faculty in 2011, after years of deliberation. The university held off on making the change until it could put in place programs to help students transition into college life. Administrators have boosted staff at the mental health counseling center, which has seen a rise in the number of students seeking services in recent years, as have many colleges. But Wendland said they could have involved students in the discussion more. I have to acknowledge that they have a point, Wendland said. Current students will not be affected by the change. The change applies only to students who enter Johns Hopkins in the fall 2017 semester or later, university spokesman Dennis OShea wrote in an email. The current policy will continue to apply permanently to covered grades already received by the rising senior, junior, and sophomore classes, he said. Members of the freshman class entering this August will likewise receive grades in the fall 2016 semester that will remain covered both while they are students and after they graduate. At Wellesley, which has covered grades for three years, about 90 percent of students surveyed said it helped their transition to college. I think its a statement to refocus on what college is really about, he said. And thats about risk-taking and exploration, and its not about getting good grades all the time. Charlotte Green, the president of the student government association at Hopkins, said many students primary concern was that they learned about the policy change through a campus-wide email. She said the student government association was not consulted. I knew this was probably going to happen eventually, but I was upset about the lack of communication, Green said. She said an student government association survey of students showed that about 70 percent opposed the change. Green started as a pre-med major but realized in her first semester it wasnt a good fit. She said covered grades gave her flexibility to discover what she really wanted to do. Many students come in as pre-med and realize its not for them during the first semester, Green said. We were able to experiment with what we wanted during that period. Michael Reilly is executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. First-semester performance, he said, might not matter as much as students think. I think most grad schools and employers look at progress, he said. It might look bad if those students did poorly their first year, but I would look and see if that student did better over time. A group of students who call their effort #ReCoverHopkins outlined their concerns with the change in a 27-page report. Among their complaints: their mental health issues are not taken seriously, and the environment at Hopkins is cutthroat. Erica Taicz, one of the organizers behind #ReCoverHopkins, said administrators and some parents whove laughed at their concerns just dont understand. Ive heard a lot of feedback from parents and the administration that kind of makes it feel like we are just trying to be coddled, and its not it at all, Taicz said. Im paying so much, I expect to be able to be critical of that service when it doesnt support me. Im paying to have a support network, academically and mentally. I cant be expected to do well in class if Im depressed and have anxiety. If the school is worsening my anxiety, thats their problem and they need to be held accountable for that. THE DISTRICT Men plead not guilty in shooting death Three District men pleaded not guilty Wednesday in the Aug. 15 shooting death of an American University alumnus near the Shaw-Howard University Metro station. Marcus King, 20, Andrew Dudley, 20, and Christopher Proctor, 26, all of Northwest Washington, were charged with more than 60 counts in the death of Cleveland native Matthew Shlonsky, a financial analyst and a 2014 American graduate. Authorities say that Shlonsky had emerged from an Uber ride in the afternoon near the bustling intersection of Seventh and S streets NW when he was caught in the crossfire between the men. The three were charged with second-degree murder while armed, assault with a dangerous weapon and charges involving injuries to two other adults and three children during the crime spree, which also included the theft of a vehicle that police say was used in the Shlonsky shooting. Keith L. Alexander MARYLAND Police identify shooting victim, 23 Police have identified the victim of a fatal shooting reported Tuesday night in the Capitol Heights area of Prince Georges County. At about 9 p.m. Tuesday, officers were called to the 800 block of Kayak Avenue, Prince Georges police said in a statement. When they arrived, officers found 23-year-old Darryl Antjuan Walker of Walker Mill Road in Capitol Heights inside a car, suffering from gunshot wounds, according to the statement. Walker was pronounced dead at the scene. Detectives are working to identify a motive and a suspect, police said. Anyone with information can call the Homicide Unit at 301-772-4925 or go to pgcrimesolvers.com and submit a tip online. Justin Wm. Moyer ATV rider tries to taunt officer Authorities in Prince Georges County are seeking information on a man seen speeding and doing tricks on an all-terrain vehicle in front of a police officer. A video shows the rider as he appears to try to taunt the officer while speeding down a county road. At one point, the driver pops wheelies, stands on the seat and waves his arms in the air as he drives without hands and yells at the officer. Police said they did not know when the video was taken or where the man was riding. They said their officer did not take the video. The video was posted on Twitter by an account called Chief Rosa. Police did confirm that it is an authentic video and that an investigation is underway. On Wednesday, Officer Tyler Hunter, a spokesman for the countys police department, said the incident is something we are actively investigating for traffic and criminal violations. The video is available on WUSA 9s website. Prince Georges police are asking anyone with information to contact them at 866-411-TIPS. Dana Hedgpeth VIRGINIA Driver faces murder charge in mans death A Springfield man is facing a murder charge after the death of a pedestrian he allegedly struck while repeatedly ramming his Hummer into a Virginia diner last month, police said. Samuel Ovie Abutoh, 59, ended the incident by dousing himself with a liquid and then lighting himself on fire, police said. Fairfax County police have not indicated what prompted the incident at the McLean Silver Diner on May 4. Abutoh was transferred from the District to the Fairfax County jail on Tuesday and was served warrants for second-degree murder, felony destruction of property and arson. He had been charged with malicious wounding. The charges were upgraded after the May 17 death of Andrew Sheren, 74, of McLean, from injuries sustained in the incident. Abutoh allegedly struck Sheren as he was entering the Silver Diner. Police said Abutoh intentionally drove his SUV into the diner. Four people were injured in the incident. The Maryland Correctional Institution in Jessup. Prison advocates have hailed the major changes in Marylands criminal justice law. (Patrick Semansky/AP) About 1,600 prisoners serving long sentences in Maryland will become eligible for early release in October 2017, just as the state does away with mandatory minimum prison time for newly convicted, nonviolent drug offenders. Taken together, advocates said, the changes put Maryland at the forefront of states that are adopting major criminal-justice reform. No longer will a person convicted of possession with intent to distribute even a small amount of drugs face an automatic prison sentence of 10 years. And hundreds of nonviolent offenders who have been given severe penalties over the past three decades will be able to appeal to a judge to get out years ahead of schedule. But the states decision to jettison mandatory minimum sentences almost did not happen. The provision was not included in the sweeping criminal-justice legislation submitted to the General Assembly late last year, in part because of strong opposition from law enforcement and key Republicans. The Maryland Correctional Institution for Women is the state's only prison for women. (Andre Chung/For The Washington Post) It was added after two freshman lawmakers a Democrat and a Republican brokered a deal that also includes stricter penalties for certain violent crimes. No state has gone as far as Maryland in recent memory, said Gregory Newburn, the director of state policy at Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a national advocacy group. At the bill-signing last month, Gov. Larry Hogan (R) called the legislation the largest, most comprehensive criminal-justice reform in Maryland in a generation. A national shift The original focus of the Justice Reinvestment Act, suggested by Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) and embraced by Hogan, was to figure out a way to reduce the states prison population and costs and help offenders reenter society. Deliberations turned into a discussion about whether the states approach to crime, particularly to nonviolent drug offenders, was fair and whether there was a better way to deal with those offenders, many of whom are drug users themselves. [Obama commutes federal prison sentences of 58 nonviolent drug offenders] I think the message all across the country is you cant jail your way out of the drug problems that people have, said Paul DeWolfe, the head of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender and a member of a state panel that made recommendations about the legislation to the General Assembly. Its an enormous waste of resources. Efforts to reduce state prison populations have been embraced in red and blue states across the country in recent years, as policymakers shift their focus from long sentences a remnant of the decades-old War on Drugs to treatment. Its a mix of fiscal realities and understanding what the research says, said Ram Subramanian, who recently worked on a study about criminal justice reform at the Vera Institute of Justice. It has brought about significant reform on the state level that we hope will be translated on the federal level at some point. Congress, too, has considered easing sentencing guidelines but so far has failed to act. Last month, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) signed a bill that allows the states parole board to release nonviolent drug offenders who have served at least half their sentences. Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) approved a measure that gives judges more discretion in the sentencing of nonviolent offenders. In addition to the mandatory minimum repeal, Marylands Justice Reinvestment Act eliminates disparities in penalties for offenses involving crack and powder cocaine; makes it easier to have drug-possession and dozens of other convictions expunged; allows a judge to order a drug assessment for accused nonviolent drug offenders and requires the state to provide treatment; reduces the age for geriatric parole eligibility from 65 to 60; and offers drug offenders the same number of credits to reduce their sentences that are given to other nonviolent offenders. Last-minute amendments to the bill increased the maximum sentence for second-degree murder from 30 years to 40 years, and boosted penalties for drug gangs and racketeering and for causing the death of a child as a result of child abuse. Maryland should save at least $80.5 million over the next 10 years as a result of the changes, and reduce its prison population by 1,194 beds, researchers said. Those numbers do not include changes in prison population as a result of eliminating mandatory minimums, since judges will still be able to impose long sentences if they choose. [Landmark criminal justice bill delayed as its impact is questioned] DeWolfe said his Public Defenders office is in the process of combing through records to identify the 1,600 inmates who would be eligible to appeal their sentences when that portion of the bill takes effect in October 2017. Those prisoners will have until October 2018 to file a motion for a judge to consider a lesser sentence. Making the deal The legislation considered by the General Assembly this year was based on recommendations by the states Justice Reinvestment Coordinating Council, which spent months last year examining data from the Pew Charitable Trust about who is in prison, how long they are there and why they are there. The data also looked at what changes could drive the states cost down. The panel which included defense lawyers, advocates, state prosecutors, lawmakers and law enforcement officials could not agree on whether to include a mandatory minimums repeal in its proposal to the legislature. Sen. Michael J. Hough (R-Frederick), who has worked on criminal justice reform in the past, told his colleagues on the commission that pushing too far could thwart the whole package. Others agreed. Dont shoot for the moon, Baltimore County States Attorney Scott Shellenberger (D) said during the debate. Be happy we made it to California. But Del. Erek L. Barron (D-Prince Georges), an African American lawmaker and former prosecutor who also has done defense work, argued that it was imperative for the legislature to address the blatantly failed policy that has resulted in African Americans making up 87 percent of the inmates serving mandatory minimums. The panel decided to include the mandatory minimum repeal, along with a proposal to increase penalties for second-degree murder, as non-consensus items in its report. Mandatory minimums were not part of the Justice Reinvestment Act, which passed the Senate by a large margin. The Senate did, however, increase the penalty for second-degree murder. In the House, The push for a mandatory-minimum repeal was stronger, fueled by lawmakers such as Barron, who called the mandatory sentences a symbol of unfairness in the criminal justice system. Barron joined with Del. Brett R. Wilson (R-Washington County) to offer what many called the Barron-Wilson amendment. It added the repeal to the House bill, at the same time increasing the penalty for violent gang activity. The freshman lawmakers had strong support from the 45-member Legislative Black Caucus, which declared it would not support the Justice Reinvestment Act unless the legislation included the repeal. With the 90-day session drawing to a close, the House and Senate were at a standoff over the different versions of the bill. Christopher Shank, a top aide to Hogan who had chaired the Justice Reinvestment panel, tried to mediate, shuttling between groups of senators and delegates over a period of six hours one Saturday to iron out differences. Eventually, the two chambers agreed on a version in which both the repeal of mandatory minimums and the stiffer penalties for second-degree murder and violent gang activity survived. Even skeptics such as Shellenberger, the Baltimore County prosecutor, who said the elimination of mandatory minimums will make it harder to reach plea deals, applauded the bills shifting of resources from incarceration to drug and mental health treatment. If we can get to the root of the problem and solve the problem, . . . maybe we have done the right thing for the future of the criminal justice system, Shellenberger said. Looking to jails Almost as soon as Hogan signed the bill into law, the advocates who had push for it announced their next target: pretrial reform. They said that one-third of Marylanders who are behind bars are in jails, rather than prisons, and they are urging the state to turn its attention to changes in how people are held before trial including the bail system. According to the Pretrial Justice Institute, defendants of color are given higher bail amounts and are detained more often than white defendants. The institute says that more than 60 percent of the people in jails across the country have not been convicted of a crime but are awaiting trial in jail because they cannot afford the cash bail. Our leaders have to keep in mind that the justice reinvestment effort only applies to prisoners, said Toni Holness, the public policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland. Theres a huge chunk of our incarcerated population that has gone unaddressed. This Hooters restaurant, on Rockville Pike in Montgomery County, served beer and whiskey to a customer late last year who drove off and ran over a police officer. (Dan Morse/The Washington Post) A Hooters restaurant faces the possible loss of its alcohol license for allegedly over-serving a drunk customer before he drove off and fatally struck a Montgomery County police officer north of Washington late last year, alcohol regulators wrote in documents mailed to the restaurant this week. Representatives from Hooters are due at a show-cause hearing, now set for June 16, before the Montgomery County Board of License Commissioners. You are being charged with allowing a person to be served and/or consume alcoholic beverages past the point of intoxication on Dec. 3, 2015, Kathie Durbin, chief of licensure, regulation and education for the countys liquor control department, wrote in a Tuesday letter to the Hooters licensees. A spokeswoman for the Hooters chain declined to comment Wednesday, saying Hooters had not yet received the notice from the liquor board. Luis Reluzco (right) has pleaded guilty in the drunk-driving death of Officer Noah Leotta (left). (Courtesy of Montgomery County Police) After leaving the Hooters on Dec. 3, the customer, Luis Reluzco, 47, drove north on Rockville Pike. At the time, the officer Noah Leotta, 24 had pulled over a different vehicle on Rockville Pike and gotten out of his police car. Leotta was working on a special holiday task force designed to find drunk drivers. Reluzcos SUV struck Leottas police car and then hit Leotta, who died a week later at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda. Reluzco was tested and found to have a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.22. The legal limit is 0.08. Reluzco has pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter in the case and is awaiting sentencing. [Man pleads guilty in death of Officer Noah Leotta] Over the past two years, according to Montgomery alcohol regulators, about 12 establishments have been cited for over-serving intoxicated patrons. Of those, three have had their liquor licenses revoked, Durbin said. Two others had their licenses suspended. The fines levied in the cases generally ranged from $1,000 to $10,000, Durbin said. Establishing that a bar has violated liquor regulations by serving a drunk person can be difficult, Durbin said. Many times, intoxicated people are good at disguising their condition, and restaurant and bar workers say they didnt know the person was drunk, Durbin said. She said some people who have been drinking for many years may have learned to mask their inebriation at least outwardly and appear to function normally. Thats become an issue, Durbin said. It can also be difficult to establish that employees at bars and restaurants saw someone drinking alcohol, she said, adding that even bar tabs can be inconclusive because a customer may have been buying drinks for others. Its a difficult case to make, Durbin said. But its not impossible. A robbery occurred Tuesday afternoon in the Tenleytown area of upper Northwest Washington and at least one suspect was taken into custody at nearby Woodrow Wilson High School, police said. The robbery was reported just before 3 p.m. in the 4500 block of Wisconsin Avenue NW, said officer Hugh Carew, a D.C. police spokesman. He said two people were arrested, a man and a teenager. At least one of them was picked up in the school, Carew said. He said there was no indication that any weapon was involved in the incident. A school system spokeswoman said neither victim nor suspects were Wilson students. She said she understood that police brought them there for security reasons. Nonstudents would not have been able to enter on their own,she said. Mervyn Jay Downes III of Caroline County, Md., was charged with slitting the throats of three goats at a state park on Maryland's Eastern Shore. One of the animals survived. (Courtesy of Maryland Natural Resources Police) The discovery of three goats with their throats slit at an arboretum in Tuckahoe State Park, a quiet site along Marylands Eastern Shore, has rattled those who go there to camp and walk. It made people uneasy, said Candy Thomson, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Its in a nice, quiet part of the Eastern Shore. It is a bucolic and rural area, so this was just something so weird. The department has arrested and charged a 21-year-old Caroline County man in the incident. Mervyn Jay Downes III turned himself in to authorities late Friday after officers searched his home and car in Ridgely, Md., and found a rifle and knives, officials said. Police said that evidence linking him to the crimes was also found, but they would not detail what those items included. The incidents with the goats began this spring. On April 8, officers were called to the arboretum after visitors found two dead goats. Then, on May 2, officers returned after another goat was found by police. That goat survived, officials said. The goats were part of a herd living at the parks Adkins Arboretum. They are on display, and people often watch them and take pictures, Thomson said. She said that Downes lives not far from the arboretum, on a road next to the park. Police said they think that a knife or other sharp object was used to harm the goats but didnt provide a possible motive. Downes was charged with three counts of aggravated animal cruelty in connection with the mutilation and death of two of the goats and in the maiming of the third, according to the states Natural Resources Police. He also faces charges of trespassing in a state park after-hours and of property destruction. He is scheduled for a hearing in July. If convicted, he could be fined a maximum of $5,000 and sentenced to as many as three years in prison. Police said that Downes was charged in December with multiple counts of illegal deer hunting. He pleaded guilty to one charge and was given probation before judgment and fined $1,500, all of it suspended. He was on probation until Sept. 3, according to police. Three District men pleaded not guilty Wednesday in the Aug. 15 shooting death of an American University alumnus near the Shaw-Howard University Metro station. Marcus King, 20, of Northwest Washington, Andrew Dudley, 20, of Northeast Washington, and Christopher Proctor, 26, of Northwest Washington, were charged with more than 60 counts in the death of Cleveland native Matthew Shlonsky, a financial analyst and a 2014 American graduate. Authorities say that Shlonsky had emerged from an Uber ride in the afternoon near the bustling Seventh and S streets NW when he was caught in the crossfire between the men. The three were charged with second-degree murder while armed, assault with a dangerous weapon, and charges involving injuries to two other adults and three children during the crime spree, which also included the theft of a vehicle that police say was used in the Shlonsky shooting. [Details of the fatal shooting from lead homicide detective on the case] King, who was the first arrested in the shooting days later, told police that he fired a .40-caliber gun at three men in a Chrysler. But he said he did so only after they opened fire on him from the cars sunroof as he was walking. Police said 18 shell casings were scattered on the sidewalk and grass. According to testimony at a previous hearing, King told detectives that the shooting began after the men pulled up next to King and asked him why he was looking inside the car. King told authorities that each of the trio had a gun and that as the car pulled away the men shot at him. He told detectives he then ran into the middle of Seventh Street and returned fire at the speeding Chrysler. Authorities are also considering that the men inside the Chrysler did not fire an actual shotgun. When police found the Chrysler, they found a CO2 cartridge often used in air guns inside. At the hearing in D.C. Superior Court, the three men, wearing orange D.C. jail jumpsuits, stood next to their attorneys. Dozens of family members of the men filled the courtroom. A trial date was scheduled for Jan. 17. Attorneys for the men have indicated they may request that their cases be tried separately, a decision that Judge Robert E. Morin, who is overseeing the trial, would have to make. Separately, Dudley is also charged in a home burglary that occurred three days before the shooting in the 4200 block of Argyle Terrace NW. Prim Smatsorabudh was a voracious buyer of high-end handbags, authorities say: Givenchy, Fendi, Chanel. At one point, she was T.J. Maxx's biggest online customer in the world. She was also prone to making returns over $1 million to that store alone. Federal prosecutors in Virginia say it was all part of a lucrative scam. Smatsorabudh returned fake bags she bought from overseas, they allege, then sold the real products on eBay and Instagram. Smatsorabudh, 41, of Arlington appeared in court Wednesday; a judge agreed that the Thai immigrant is a flight risk and ordered her held at least until a potential custodian can be found. She came to the United States on a student visa in 2010, Department of Homeland Security Special Agent William Corcoran testified, although he indicated that she had entered and exited the country previously. He did not say which school she attended but said she withdrew in May. Corcoran said federal authorities began investigating Smatsorabudh in 2015 after T.J. Maxx flagged the high volume of returns and started monitoring her, putting over 200 bags she returned in a warehouse for inspection. All of the bags examined by representatives from luxury brands have been deemed counterfeits, Corcoran testified. Smatsorabudh dealt directly with counterfeit bag-sellers in China, demanding high-quality fakes, according to an affidavit from Corcoran. It is terribly FAKe dont send me celine from this factory again or I will stop buying from you, she wrote one dealer. Another she criticized for cheap material, saying, It looks like the real Chanel when you look from very far. But when you touch the leather. You can tell its fake bag. Authorities found 572 handbags in her apartment. Officials say they nabbed Smatsorabudh by buying one of her bags on eBay a red Celine bag for $2,575 and having T.J. Maxx verify that it came from their store. Defense attorney Nina Ginsberg questioned how many of the 800 bags involved in the case were actually confirmed fakes. We have to wait and see how many of these handbags they can prove are counterfeit, she said after court. These items were accepted and returned as genuine for a long time. I have a feeling that the processes at T.J. Maxx are not as thorough as Agent Corcoran made them out to be. Corcoran testified that he was not very familiar with how T.J. Maxx dealt with returns and verified a bags authenticity, and he could not say how many of the bags in Smatsorabudhs apartment were real. But pointing to the large number of shipments of bags from China and Hong Kong to the apartment, he said, I do know that the genuine handbags are made in Italy, not in China. Corcoran said Smatsorabudh also violated the terms of her visa by working at the Beddow School, a Montessori school in Fort Washington. Trudy Beddow, founder of the school, said Smatsorabudh taught primary school for the past year but is no longer working there. Smatsorabudh, who is charged with wire fraud, has been held in jail since her arrest last week. Ginsberg said her client has applied for asylum and is therefore not currently at risk of deportation. Prosecutors noted that Smatsorabudh has been arrested four times and once pleaded guilty to theft but has not served jail time. Rachel Griffin, the songwriter behind the #imnotshamed hashtag, wrote a full-length musical, We Have Apples, to fight the stigma surrounding mental health. (McKenna Ewen/The Washington Post) Rachel Griffin, the songwriter behind the #imnotshamed hashtag, wrote a full-length musical, We Have Apples, to fight the stigma surrounding mental health. (McKenna Ewen/The Washington Post) Even as people with mental illness reveal their struggles to strangers on the Internet, theyre reluctant to divulge them at work. Their fears are founded; stereotypes of those with mental illness as unreliable, less competent and even dangerous abound in the workplace. I am constantly amazed at how widespread the fear of people with mental illnesses is and the false association with violence and dangerousness, said Jennifer Mathis, the director of programs at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. The Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990 made it illegal to discriminate against an employee with a mental-health issue and required reasonable accommodations be made for those who disclose. But there remains a high level of bias in the workplace, according to a 2011 study led by Boston University professor Zlatka Russinova. [The stigma of mental illness is under attack by sufferers, who are coming out publicly and defiantly] The study found that many people who revealed their mental illness at work reported experiencing prejudice and discrimination afterward. These reactions threatened not only their professional confidence but their sense of worthwhileness as a person as well, the studys authors wrote. Katherine Switz, a Harvard Business School graduate who has been hospitalized twice because of her bipolar disorder, said she never even considered disclosing her mental-health condition to her bosses at GE and McKinsey. While hospitalized for what she told them was a health issue, Switz said she realized she didnt know any people who were successfully coping with mental illness who could provide her hope. She decided that if she couldnt find the courage to speak out, nothing would change. So Switz joined a small vanguard of people who are leading efforts to lift the stigma of mental illness in the workplace. In 2013, she founded the Stability Network, an advocacy group that highlights successful working individuals who also live with a mental illness. Now she sees firsthand how much the stigma persists. I have had an extremely difficult time finding leaders to join the Stability Network and step forward to share their stories, she said. Often, people only share their story with their first name, or their name and not their title, or not their employer. That is why we Stability Leaders are trying to be open about every aspect of ourselves. Other efforts are cropping up. Patrick Corrigan, one of the countrys leading researchers of mental-health stigma who runs the National Consortium on Stigma and Empowerment, has developed a program called Hope, Open, Proud that includes a manual to help people decide whether and how to come out to their employers, friends and family. The New York City chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) held a forum in April with 12 chief executives of major corporations, such as Ernst and Young and Liberty Bank, to discuss how they can support employees with mental-health issues. The committee looked at successful anti-stigma campaigns in other countries as well as U.S. efforts around HIV/AIDS before concluding that federal intervention is necessary to reduce the stigma around mental illness. Mathis said she used to encourage people not to disclose in the workplace because the risk was too high and their livelihoods were at stake. While she still believes those risks exist, she now thinks that the new openness may be what is needed to make meaningful changes on the ground. Ive grown to appreciate the other side, which is that until and unless a lot of people are public about having a psychiatric disability, the prejudice will continue, she said. The Virginia Supreme Court next month will hear a legal challenge to Gov. Terry McAuliffes order restoring the voting rights of more than 200,000 felons. The court will take up the lawsuit, filed by state Republicans, on July 19 in Richmond during a special session scheduled to accommodate this and other cases. The decision came in response to Republicans request for an accelerated timeline. They would like the court to issue a ruling well ahead of the November general election. In their lawsuit, House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford), Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. (R-James City) and four voters argued that McAuliffe (D) could not legally restore rights to nearly a quarter-million felons with one sweeping executive order. Until now, governors restored voting rights to felons on a case-by-case basis. We are pleased the Supreme Court recognizes the urgency of our challenge to Governor McAuliffes unprecedented and unconstitutional expansion of executive power, Howell said in a statement. Republicans want the court to cancel the registrations of all felons who have signed up to vote since McAuliffes April 22 order. As of Tuesday, that number was 5,816, according to the state Department of Elections. [In Virginia, felon voting rights mean simpler path to gun ownership] Republican leaders have accused McAuliffe of trying to add potential voters to the rolls to bolster the presidential bid of his friend Hillary Clinton. McAuliffe framed the order as a removal of the last vestige of laws such as poll taxes and literacy tests that disproportionately affected the voting rights of African Americans. One in 4 African Americans in Virginia had been banned from voting because of laws restricting the rights of those with convictions. McAuliffes executive order restores voting rights to all felons who have completed their sentences and have been released from supervised probation or parole. It also allows ex-felons to serve on juries, run for public office and apply for restoration of their gun rights. Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) has said the state constitution empowers the governor to restore rights en masse. If the state Supreme Court disagrees, Herring said, McAuliffe will simply issue individual restoration orders to hundreds of thousands of felons. WATERLOO, ON--(Marketwired - June 01, 2016) - D2L, a global learning technology leader, is proud to announce that New Mexico has chosen its Brightspace platform for statewide deployment. Sixty-five school districts, charter schools, and state agencies across the state will use the Brightspace learning management system (LMS) for both online and traditional classroom learning. New Mexico will manage the LMS centrally, which will help the state reduce the academic gap, increase graduation rates, and better prepare students for college and the workplace at scale in hopes of fostering the thriving economy. New Mexico initiated a competitive review of its LMS and selected Brightspace: the easy, flexible, and smart learning platform created by D2L. State leaders were particularly interested in the focus on personalized learning by Brightspace, which allows students at any skill level to progress at a rate that is tailored for them. The platform's powerful and flexible feature set, including support for third-party learning tools, robust administrative features, and the use of learning analytics to improve student outcomes, made Brightspace the ideal choice. "In New Mexico there is an academic gap between rural and urban communities -- students in some areas have access to a wider menu of course options, while others leave school ill-equipped for college," explained Amy Jaramillo, executive director of IDEAL New Mexico, who served on the RFP evaluation committee during the selection process. "With Brightspace's personalized learning tools and analytics deployed and managed at a state level, we can support educators in preparing students for both higher education and a career. Even more promising, the reporting and analytics integrated into the platform let us uncover macro trends and identify areas that need improvement before students are impacted -- not after." D2L's track record of innovation, which was a central element in New Mexico's selection of Brightspace, has been widely recognized. In March, Fast Company Ranked D2L #6 on the Most Innovative Companies of 2016 List in the Data Science Category, amongst Google, IBM, Spotify, Costco, and Blue Cross Blue Shield. eLearning Magazine also recently rated D2L as #1 in Adaptive Learning. "It has been an honor to work with New Mexico's leaders through this selection process, and we are excited that Brightspace will support educators throughout the state in improving the educational outcomes and the lives of students," said John Baker, CEO of D2L. "We created Brightspace with the goal of making learning experiences better -- improving educational outcomes, increasing graduation rates and retention, and inspiring students to help them reach their full potential in life. We look forward to working with the great educators throughout the state of New Mexico to deliver on that goal for students." Unlike a traditional LMS, Brightspace was created with the modern learner in mind. Highlights include: Mobile and Video Content that allows students to access learning from anywhere and on any device, while providing more authentic ways of delivering students feedback Game-Based Learning to engage students with new methods of teaching and learning by issuing trophies, encouraging competition with leaderboards, building game boards with various learning activities, and unlocking levels as learners demonstrate mastery of topics Learning Analytics to help keep students on track for success Personalized Learning which recognizes not all students start at the same level and that we need to adapt learning pathways, support individuals with different learning and assessment activities, and provide enrichment and remediation wherever needed To learn more about Brightspace, visit http://www.d2l.com/products/learning-environment/. ABOUT BRIGHTSPACE D2L's Brightspace is an online learning platform that helps schools and institutions deliver personalized learning experiences to people anywhere in the world. Created for the digital learner, Brightspace is cloud-based, runs on mobile devices, and offers rich multimedia to increase engagement, productivity and knowledge retention. The platform makes it easy to design courses, create content, and grade assignments, giving instructors more time to focus on what's most important -- greater teaching and learning. At the same time, analytics reports track and deliver insights into the performance levels of departments, courses, or individuals. Brightspace was recently named the #1 LMS in Higher Ed by Ovum Research, and #1 in Adaptive Learning by eLearning Magazine. ABOUT D2L D2L is the software leader that makes learning experiences better. The company's cloud-based platform, Brightspace, is easy to use, flexible, and smart. With Brightspace, organizations can personalize the experience for every learner to deliver real results. The company is a world leader in learning analytics: its platform predicts learner performance so that organizations can take action in real-time to keep learners on track. Brightspace is used by learners in higher education, K-12, and the enterprise sector, including the Fortune 1000. D2L has operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Brazil, and Singapore. www.d2l.com 2016 D2L Corporation. The D2L family of companies includes D2L Corporation, D2L Ltd, D2L Australia Pty Ltd, D2L Europe Ltd, D2L Asia Pte Ltd, and D2L Brasil Solucoes de Tecnologia para Educacao Ltda. All D2L marks are trademarks of D2L Corporation. Please visit D2L.com/trademarks for a list of D2L marks. Students and others marched in Rockville in 2014 in support of closing the achievement gap in Montgomery County. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) SOMETHING REMARKABLE is happening in Montgomery County. The biggest and most politically powerful union, which represents some 12,000 public school teachers, is positioning itself as a responsible partner rather than an antagonist in its dealings with local elected officials. If it continues, the shift will represent an evolution in the political culture of one of the regions biggest and most diverse localities a traditionally labor-friendly jurisdiction of 1 million people where profound demographic change is driving a rethinking of settled assumptions. Among those assumptions is the idea that the teachers union could intimidate politicians to the extent that it would dun candidates for public office for campaign contributions yes, you read that right an upside-down practice unknown in the rest of the United States. A correlate of that assumption in recent years has been that in the unions worldview, compromise was a zero-sum game. Union officials representing teachers and other school employees are engaged in talks with the countys Board of Education over previously signed contracts. Remarkably, the union has agreed to repurpose some funds previously earmarked for large wage increases; instead of 8 percent pay hikes in the coming year, most teachers would receive a still-generous 4.5 percent raise. The schools would use the freed-up funds to hire additional staff and reduce class sizes, which have crept higher since the recession. The unions concession came with prodding from the County Council, which demanded it in return for increasing school funding beyond the state-mandated formula. Union officials were also mindful that under state law, the Board of Education could have and would have imposed the concession had it not been offered. For students, the deals benefits will accrue quickly in terms of enriched educational programs and smaller class sizes, especially in poor and heavily minority schools. In an elementary school with a large component of low-income children, class sizes in the third grade would shrink to 26 kids from 28. Smaller class sizes, it is hoped, will help shrink the achievement gap that bedevils a school system, one of the nations 20 largest, in which a majority of students are minorities. The question now is how the union concessions will be received by 34,000 county employees, two-thirds of whom work in the schools. There are rumblings of dissent from some teachers and principals, though they are generally better-paid than their counterparts in nearby suburban systems. One idea is to put the agreement to a vote of rank-and-file members. That would be largely symbolic because the deal, once approved by the Board of Education, could not be undone. Still, it would provide a measure of whether teachers are on board with what their leaders and county officials are selling as a new partnership. Lets hope they are. Like private-sector workers, teachers and other public employees saw wages stagnate during the recession. Since then, pay for most has grown much faster than that of federal or state employees, to say nothing of wages in most companies. Thats good; teachers are key to the success of children and the community. Its also good if, for the sake of better educational outcomes, theyre willing to accept a healthy wage hike rather than an supersized one. YES, IT is going to be like this, Donald Trump said during a news conference Tuesday, after a reporter asked if he would be as hostile to legitimate scrutiny once elected as he is now. His honesty offered a bracing counterpoint to the pusillanimous Republican leaders who continue to insist that the reality-television star would be different once in office. Mr. Trump savagely attacked the dishonest media for asking honest questions, at one point calling a reporter sleazy. He suggested that recent political reporting is libelous and therefore not protected by the First Amendment, and he continued his assault on the federal judge overseeing one of the lawsuits against Trump University. The threats and personal insults show little regard for democratic accountability, the legitimate role of a free press in a free society and the importance of an independent judiciary. This is not the first time that Mr. Trump has attempted to chill press coverage by waving the term libel. In a March interview with The Post, Mr. Trump insisted he would loosen libel laws so that journalists could be attacked more easily. On Tuesday, his anger was directed at questions about his donation drive for veterans charities how much he raised, how much he disbursed, and to whom that he and his campaign have struggled to answer. These are legitimate questions. Mr. Trumps over-the-top response shows he does not have the restraint, the openness or the values every modern president has shared. Mr. Trump demonstrated the same disrespect for constitutional norms when he attacked a federal judge over the weekend. He called Judge Gonzalo Curiel a hater. He labeled the Indiana-born jurist a Mexican, once again proving an ability to offend and prevaricate simultaneously. If he is willing now to bully a judge overseeing a case involving his business, what respect for the separation of powers can we expect if he is president? Yes, it is going to be like this. Republican leaders are telling us, and perhaps themselves, that their nominee would become more reasonable if handed control of the Justice Department, the FBI, the U.S. military and the nuclear codes. I think Donald Trump will understand when hes sworn in the limits of his authority, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday in an interview with Hugh Hewitt. Hell have a White House counsel. There will be others who point out theres certain things you can do and you cant do. And its not quite like, you know, making a speech before a big audience and entertaining people. And I think hes a smart guy, and I think hes going to figure that out. So Im not worried about it. There you have it. You can believe Mr. McConnell, who posits that Mr. Trump will allow himself to be reined in by his White House counsel. Or you can believe Mr. Trump, who is telling us frankly: Yes, it is going to be like this. Acapulco Mexico violence business cartels The idyllic Pacific coast town of Acapulco in Mexicos Guerrero state once welcomed Hollywood stars and honeymooners, but the city has suffered a wave of bloody violence in recent years, as cartels and criminal groups battle for control. Since 2012, Acapulco, which has been called Guerrero's Iraq, has been the most violent city in Mexico, and among the most violent cities in the world, with homicide rates above 100 per 100,000 people each year. In 2015, Acapulco, home to about 800,000 people, saw 1,170 killings. In the first three months of this year, there were 205 homicides in March alone, the city had 98 of Guerreros 182 homicides. These numbers are down from violent peaks reached in 2012 the city had about 100 homicides a month that year but the intensity of the bloodshed stands out, and appears to be closely linked to the fragmentation of Mexicos criminal organizations. Violence in the southwest coastal area is the result of the some of the shifting cartel dynamics that we've seen among the major players ... dating back four or five years when we saw the takedown of the major figures of the Beltran Leyva Organization, David Shirk, professor at the University of Sand Diego, told Business Insider. The Beltran Leyva Organization, or BLO, partnered with El Chapo Guzmans Sinaloa cartel and controlled parts of central and southwestern Mexico. In the late 2000s, the BLO started fighting with the Sinaloa cartel and faced increased pressure from the Mexican government. Acapulco Mexico beach soldiers homicides violence Story continues The fragmentation effect that followed from that led to the splintering of the remnants of the Beltran Leyva Organization into various regional players, Shirk, the director of USDs Justice in Mexico program, said. "So it's a lot of those smaller groups along with the Sinaloa cartel that are in conflict in that area," Mike Vigil, a former chief of international operations for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, told Business Insider. Acapulco Mexico map The BLO, backed by the powerful and violent Jalisco New Generation Cartel, has tried to reassert control in Acapulco since late last year, clashing with local groups like the Independent Cartel of Acapulco (CIDA), according to The Associated Press. CIDA is one of three criminal groups operating in the city, and one of eight present in Guerrero, according to government reports seen by El Universal. The CIDA is believed to be responsible for recent violence that has gained international attention, in particular for multiple attacks on federal police stationed in the heart of Acapulco on April 24. The attacks were suspected to be retaliation for the capture of a CIDA leader the day before. The violence has also likely been exacerbated by recent political shifts. Guerreros governor, Hector Astudillo, took office in late October. Instability caused by criminal groups jockeying to make deals or gain influence with the new government has likely added to the bloodshed, Vigil noted. In the first 100 days of Astudillo's term, there reportedly were 734 homicides. Its a no-win situation for local governments and politicians, Vigil said, as they frequently become targets regardless of their stances toward criminal groups. Why anyone would want to be a politician in Mexico is beyond me, Vigil added. 'For the majority, its hell' As cartel clashes have intensified, the violence has filtered out of the poor neighborhoods surrounding the city, spilling into tourist areas. In a trend that has further hurt Acapulcos tourism industry, assassins used Jet Skis to approach targets on the citys beaches. As the violence spreads, beach-goers have started carrying small tote bags with weapons for protection. Acapulco Mexico beach vendor business Criminal groups in the city have turned more to localized crimes like kidnapping and extortion to create revenue, but Acapulcos location as Guerrero's coastal outlet indicates why its a prized possession for big cartels like CJNG. Acapulco is the state of Guerrero, and Guerrero is a major heroin-producing state, and right now heroin is a very lucrative market because we're suffering from an epidemic here in the United States, Vigil told Business Insider. So there's a different groups that are battling out for control of ... heroin production in the state of Guerrero, Vigil added. Astudillo, Guerrero's governor, has even suggested legalizing medicinal-opium cultivation as a way to reduce violence. In addition to drug production, Guerrero also offers traffickers access to smuggling routes throughout central Mexico and along the Pacific coast. "If you're trying to move product from anywhere from out of Mexico, into Mexico, or vice versa these areas are logistically strategic, both for legitimate and illicit businesses," Shirk said. Mexico police Guerrero Ayotzinapa violence protest Extortion, and violence related to it, has even made its way to the citys schools. In late 2014, schools were hit with extortion fees for each student and each teacher. In a two-month period at the end of that year, 21 teachers were killed. In response, the local government stationed soldiers at schools. Students see troops as something they like, something to admire. The girls even start to call them their boyfriends, a teacher told news site Animal Politico late last year. But in reality, in terms of security, nothing has changed. In that regard, conditions in Acapulco may mirror those in Mexico as a whole, which has seen a rise in homicides over the last year. "It's the same problem in Guerrero, the same problem in Tamaulipas, in Michoacan," security analyst Alejandro Hope told the AP, referring to states where homicides have jumped. Acapulco Mexico homicide murder killing "Suddenly there's an emergency, they send troops to where the problem is and in the short term crime drops. But then there is an emergency somewhere else, and then the troops have to leave, and they have not developed local law-enforcement capacity," Hope added. In the near term, violence in Acapulco is likely to continue unabated, said Vigil, who has spoken with sources in Mexicos federal-police force. Acapulco is the synthesis of the national tragedy, Abel Barrera, director of the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center, told Macleans last year. For a few, its paradise. For the majority, its hell. NOW WATCH: Federal agents found one of the longest US-Mexico drug tunnels hidden under a dumpster More From Business Insider ITS BEEN six years since regional leaders learned, in the aftermath of Metros most lethal accident, that the transit systems safety oversight body was a toothless phantom underfunded, ineffective and impotent. In those six years, the drumbeat of mishaps, maintenance disasters and quotidian delays has mounted while safety has continued to deteriorate along with ridership and passenger confidence. Now, after unprecedented intervention by federal transit regulators, who are providing the safety oversight that was so glaringly lacking, and threats from the U.S. transportation secretary himself, leaders in Maryland, Virginia and the District have finally stirred from their long and irresponsible slumber. They have produced a plan, in the form of coordinated legislation, to set up a functioning commission to oversee safety in the rail-transit system. Unfortunately, the plan has a fatal flaw. The commission would be broadly endowed with investigative and regulatory powers, invested with the authority to issue subpoenas, rejigger Metros budget to prioritize safety and slap the agency with warnings and fines if it fails to comply with corrective orders. That sounds promising, almost as if Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and District Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) were dead serious about reestablishing trust and accountability in a transit system on whose shoulders the economy of the nations capital depends. So why would they at the same time subvert that same project by carving out a zone of secrecy in which to shroud the new safety commissions work, including investigations it would conduct of incidents that could affect and imperil hundreds or thousands of passengers? In an agency whose shortcomings of accountability are so glaringly obvious, why would the workings of the agencys oversight body be encumbered, by design, by a similar absence of accountability? Its doubtful there is any surer way to accelerate the loss of public confidence in an agency already reeling from it. Yet that is precisely what Ms. Bowser, Mr. McAuliffe and Mr. Hogan are proposing. They would establish the Metrorail Safety Commission, at an annual cost of about $6 million that, at any rate, is what the Federal Transit Administration currently spends in its role of direct safety oversight of Metro. And, then, according to the legislation drafted for approval, they would exempt the commission from the two states and the Districts open-meetings and freedom-of-information laws. Moreover, according to the legislation, the commission may withhold from public view the contents of any investigation report it might produce, even after submitting it to the mayor and two governors. It seems to have slipped the minds of the measures authors that Metro is a public agency, funded by taxpayer dollars, serving a broad constituency of citizens who are entitled to know how their safety has been assured, or not. It is simply untenable that Metrorail, already the subject of intense scrutiny, should have its safety overseers granted a cloak of invisibility. ISRAELI PRIME Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces what looks to him like a serious diplomatic threat: that Western powers, including the United States, will soon launch a multilateral effort to formulate a plan for Palestinian statehood. France is convening a meeting of foreign ministers this week to discuss a possible Middle East peace conference. President Obama is said to be weighing whether to support a U.N. Security Council resolution later this year spelling out terms for a two-state solution. Israel has long opposed any such international initiative, worrying that it would produce results it found unacceptable. Several months ago, Mr. Netanyahu embarked on a political project that looked as though it could head off the outside intervention. The result, after several twists and turns, has been to make it more likely. Mr. Netanyahu tried to strengthen and moderate his fragile right-wing coalition by striking a deal with the leader of the left-wing Labor Party; as part of the bargain, his government would have stopped supporting settlement expansion in most of the West Bank and embraced an Egyptian offer to broker talks with the Palestinians. Then the prime minister abruptly switched course. Talks with Labor were suspended, and on Monday, the parliament ratified his appointment of Avigdor Lieberman, a hard-line nationalist with an abysmal international reputation, as defense minister. Mr. Liebermans party will join the government coalition, while Labor will remain in the opposition. Its leader, Isaac Herzog, bitterly accused Mr. Netanyahu of losing his nerve at the moment of truth. That may not be entirely fair. Mr. Herzog ran into considerable opposition to the proposed merger from his own party, and Mr. Netanyahu faced a rebellion from the right. As David Makovsky and Dennis Ross of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy observed, the episode served to demonstrate how deeply polarized Israel has become. Israeli officials argue that the new coalition is more flexible on a Palestinian state and that Mr. Netanyahu is still interested in bringing Mr. Herzog into the government. But negative international reaction has been as swift as it was predictable. Mr. Lieberman is well-known for belligerent rhetoric and radical proposals. He recently clashed with military leaders after they prosecuted a soldier who shot dead a wounded and disarmed Palestinian militant. The defense minister he pushed out, Moshe Yaalon, said in departing that extremist and dangerous forces have taken over Israel. In what looked like an effort to mitigate the diplomatic damage, both Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Lieberman made statements this week in support of a Palestinian state. They hinted that they were interested in reviving the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, under which dozens of Arab and Muslim countries pledged to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel if it struck a comprehensive peace settlement with the Palestinians. Such rhetorical gestures are unlikely to reduce the international pressure unless accompanied by actions. Mr. Netanyahu may protest, with some reason, that Palestinian leaders have been uncompromising. But to stop the internationalization of the peace process, his government will have to show that it is willing to facilitate rather than foreclose a future Palestinian state. The partial settlement freeze Mr. Netanyahu discussed with Mr. Herzog would be a good start. U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to the media at Trump Tower in Manhattan about money he listed as being donated to veterans groups. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) Hong Kong television commentator Wu Jun observed recently that despite Donald Trumps anti-Beijing rhetoric, he could in fact be the best president for China. The Chinese analyst is right: A Trump presidency could open the way for Chinas strategic dominance in Asia and elsewhere. Wus comment was focused on Trumps mercantilist style, evoking a world in which Trump and President Xi Jinping, two big guys, might sit around a table at Mar-a-Lago and cut deals without worrying about human rights. The Republican Party is more practical and Trump is a businessman who puts his commercial interests above everything else, Wu said . But theres a deeper, more dangerous way in which Trump might be an enabler for Chinese ascendancy. His policies would play into Chinas narrative about the world and undermine the foundations of U.S. power in Asia, even as they are bolstering a rising China. Lets start with the impact of a Trump presidency on the Muslim world. A South Asian chief executive of a global company put it bluntly: There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, and they wont forget what Trump said about banning Muslim immigrants to the United States. He predicted that Muslims would turn away from a Trump-led United States not just Iraqis and Syrians, but Malaysians and Indonesians, too. The beneficiary of this global rebalancing would be China, he warned. President Obama recently noted the national-security damage caused by Trumps comments. Isolating or disparaging Muslims, suggesting that they should be treated differently when it comes to entering this country that is not just a betrayal of our values, thats not just a betrayal of who we are, it would alienate the very communities at home and abroad who are our most important partners in the fight against violent extremism, Obama said in a graduation speech at Rutgers University. President Obama delivered the commencement address for Rutgers University on Sunday, May 15. (Thomas Johnson/The Washington Post) Trumps America First policies would reinforce the drift away from U.S. global leadership in ways that would benefit China. The most obvious example is Trumps disparagement of the trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (though hes hardly the only miscreant here). As the Wall Street Journal noted, citing the views of Singapores prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, An American failure to ratify TPP would bring about the very thing critics of the trade deal complain about: a more empowered China and bad terms for U.S. goods and services. New Zealands prime minister, John Key, described the risk for the United States of the TPPs collapse, in a comment cited by the U.S. trade representatives office: If [the United States] abdicates leadership in the region, that role will get filled. It has to. In the end, these economies arent going to stand still. China has already started creating its own network for economic and political influence, anticipating the retreat of U.S. power. In some eerie ways, these Chinese plans are reminiscent of the institutions through which the United States established its dominance in the post-1945 world. As an alternative to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Beijing proposes the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. According to a Brookings Institution study, within five years, it could be lending $20 billion annually for regional development, roughly equivalent to what the U.S.-led World Bank lends. China has its own version of the Marshall Plan, too, to supplant a waning American vision of internationalism. Beijings blueprint for land and maritime dominance has the unlikely moniker One Belt, One Road. It envisions transportation and infrastructure networks stretching from China by land to Moscow and Rotterdam, and by sea across Southeast Asia and along the African coasts, notes the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Chinas global ambition has its hubristic side; The Posts Simon Denyer recently chronicled the empty cities in western China that have been built in overeager anticipation of a new Silk Road. But China is big and rich enough to make mistakes. Says Stanford professor Francis Fukuyama, If One Belt, One Road meets Chinese planners expectations, the whole of Eurasia, from Indonesia to Poland, will be transformed in the coming generation. China speaks the language that, in the U.S. age of expansion, was known as manifest destiny. This outward-looking vision of development and trade creates its own momentum. It becomes a focal point for private lenders and equity markets. Trumps call to Make America Great Again is incoherent because it is accompanied by inward-looking, reactive policies. Like Trumps own businesses, its more a franchising operation than a plan for real investment and growth. Trump may indeed have a formula for greatness but the winner in this story would likely be Beijing. 1 of 10 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad 10 celebrities who say theyll leave the U.S. if Donald Trump is elected president View Photos From Jon Stewart to Cher, some said theyd move to Canada, but some preferred another planet. Caption From Jon Stewart to Cher, some said theyd move to Canada, but some preferred another planet. Jon Stewart After the Emmy Awards in September, Stewart was asked whether hed consider returning to "The Daily Show" if Donald Trump is elected president in 2016. I would consider getting in a rocket and going to another planet because clearly this planet has gone bonkers," he said. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Wait 1 second to continue. Read more from David Ignatiuss archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. Lori Gruen is a philosophy professor and the coordinator of animal studies at Wesleyan University and was editor of the anthology The Ethics of Captivity. The death of Harambe, the endangered lowland gorilla shot at the Cincinnati Zoo after a 4-year-old crawled through a barrier and fell into his enclosure, was a deeply traumatizing event for the child, for the surviving gorillas, for the witnesses, for the animal care staff and for those of us sensitive to the plight of captive animals. In the wake of such a tragedy, it seems someone must be blamed, but the fingers are being pointed in the wrong direction. The real culprits are zoos. Many in the animal protection community suggest that Harambe wasnt a threat to the boy. Gorillas tend not to be aggressive, and if Harambe wanted to hurt the child, the 450-pound gorilla could have done so immediately, not after interacting with this curious creature for 10 minutes. But these people werent on the scene. Did members of the gorilla care staff do enough to try to separate Harambe from the child? If they could lure the female gorillas away, why not Harambe? Some activists are calling the killing of Harambe an act of cowardice by incompetent zoo employees. But members of the zoo care staff, and those who raised Harambe from infancy at another zoo, are devastated by what happened. Some staff may have argued against the hasty decision. We dont yet know. Others are arguing that the boys mother is to blame. How could she let her child fall into a wild-animal enclosure? Why didnt she have control over her son? How long did she let her child wander unsupervised such that he had time to get through the barriers? In a post on social media, a woman who identified herself as the childs mother didnt express remorse for the death of Harambe, just praise to God and thanks to zoo authorities for saving her son. Some people are suggesting that she be deemed legally negligent and charged with causing the death of an endangered animal. But she is just one among millions of mothers who bring their children to zoos. This was a terrible accident, but she is not alone in teaching children to view wild animals as amusement. For me, the real question is not who to blame, but why anyone was in a situation in which they had to make a choice between the life of a human child and the life of an endangered teenage gorilla in the first place. Keeping wild animals in captivity is fraught with problems. This tragic choice arose only because we keep animals in zoos. Though killing is less common at U.S. zoos compared with the regular practice of culling at European ones, zoos are nonetheless places that cause death. Harambes life was cut short intentionally and directly, but for many zoo animals, simply being in captivity shortens their lives. We know this is true for whales in SeaWorld. Elephants, too, die prematurely in zoos. So why have zoos? One of the reasons often given is that zoos protect and conserve endangered wild animals. A few zoos do fund conservation efforts the Cincinnati Zoo is one of them. These efforts are laudable, and I would hope that in light of the tragedy the Cincinnati Zoo will spend more to help protect lowland gorillas. Their habitat, as is true for so many wild animals, is under threat. But captive animals, especially large mammals born in captivity, like Harambe, cannot be returned to the wild. These sensitive, smart, long-lived gorillas are destined to remain confined, never to experience the freedom of the wild. They are, at best, symbols meant to represent their wild counterparts. But these symbols are distortions, created in an effort to amuse zoo-goers. Zoos warp our understanding of these wonderful beings and perpetuate the notion that they are here for our purposes. If we really need someone to blame, maybe we should look at our society, which supports these types of institutions of captivity. If zoos were more like sanctuaries, places where captive animals can live out their lives free from screaming crowds and dangers not of their own making, no one would have had to decide to kill Harambe. Sanctuaries are places where the well-being of animals is of primary concern and animals are treated with respect. Four-year-olds and their families could see gorillas in Imax theaters, where their curiosity could be safely satisfied and gorillas could live with dignity, in peace. THE FEDERAL government gives billions of dollars based on the number of low-income students in local school districts for a simple reason: to help overcome the disadvantages poor children face in learning. But connecting those dollars to those children is anything but simple. School districts have found ways to game the system, using the federal funds not to help poor children but to spend less of their own money. Education Secretary John B. King Jr. is trying to fix that. Controversy has long surrounded the supplement, not supplant provision of the Title I program started under the landmark Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. A 1969 report from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. found flagrant misuses; regulators and school districts have struggled with cumbersome requirements. In the Every Student Succeeds Act, the latest renewal of the law, Congress in a rare display of bipartisanship retained supplement, not supplant but freed districts of what was seen as the most cumbersome requirement. The goodwill that accompanied that effort quickly dissipated as the Education Department began to draft regulations on how provisions of the law were to be put in place. Under the departments proposal, school districts would have to show that state and local per-pupil funding in Title I schools was at least equal to the average per-pupil spending in non-Title I schools. Studies have shown that districts with high levels of poverty receive less per pupil in state and local funds than districts with low levels of poverty. Poor families dont have the clout of their wealthy counterparts to influence how money is allocated; and more experienced, better-paid teachers tend to work in the wealthier districts. So Mr. King is right about poor students getting the short end of the stick and the need for equity in funding. Whether he is on solid legal ground with the draft regulations is open to some question. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) has accused the administration of overreach. He said the proposal would circumvent the law passed by Congress by requiring inclusion of teacher salaries, a conclusion that has been backed up by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. What happens next depends on the final language of the regulations, expected for release this summer. Congressional action is possible; so are lawsuits by states and local school districts. There is no question, as critics of the regulations have argued, that the proposal would cause disruption in the way that many schools do business. But it also is true, as a coalition of civil rights groups pointed out in a letter urging Mr. King not to back down, that the process of moving from inequity to equity or from injustice to justice has never been without disruption. Exhibitor Alexander Ganyushkin presents a prototype robot named Adam at the Innorobo European summit, dedicated to the service robotics industry, in Aubervilliers, France, last week. (Francois Mori/Associated Press) The robots are coming but not in numbers that would imperil most Americans jobs. Few subjects have inspired as much hype as robots. Consider some sample headlines: Robots and Computers Could Take Half Our Jobs Within the Next 20 years, Robots Could Put Humans Out of Work by 2045, Why the Highest-Paid Doctors Are the Most Vulnerable to Automation. Heres why you should be skeptical, at least in the near term. First, theres little evidence that robots have yet had much effect on job creation in the current recovery. Since a low point of payroll jobs in February 2010, the economy has added 14 million jobs. These figures surely obscure countless thousands of jobs lost to automation, but thats a normal part of a dynamic economy. Second, the actual number of robots doesnt suggest a huge impact either. In 2014, American firms installed 26,200 industrial robots, according to the International Federation of Robotics. Thats tiny compared with present payroll employment of 144 million, including 12 million manufacturing jobs. Even making generous assumptions about robots in stores or service jobs, the total remains modest. (In 2014, the U.S. industrial robotics market was the third largest, ranking behind China with 57,096 installations and Japan with 29,300.) Finally, robots arent new. In his monumental study of U.S. innovation (The Rise and Fall of American Growth), economist Robert Gordon notes that General Motors introduced industrial robots in 1961. By the mid-1990s, robots were welding automobile parts and replacing workers in the lung-killing environment of the automotive paint shop, he writes. But the adoption of robots outside the manufacturing and wholesaling sectors will be a long and gradual process. The alarmist headlines at the start of this column appeared in various publications and are quoted in an essay by Richard Freeman, a Harvard labor economist. As he notes, most economists (including Freeman) doubt the gloomy predictions of mass unemployment. True, robots enjoy some advantages over humans; they can work 24 hours a day and dont have fringe benefits. Still, the economists have history on their side. Its all happened before. There is no conceptual difference between robots and earlier labor-saving technologies, including the switch from steam power to electricity and the adoption of the assembly line. Although innovation hurts some industries and workers, it helps others by inspiring new products or reducing prices. Low prices spurred demand for both the Model T and smartphones. Meanwhile, new satellite industries arise say, cybersecurity now. Finally, theres inertia. Some innovation occurs slowly, because it encounters practical problems. Take driverless vehicles self-propelled robots which have received huge publicity. They are unlikely to become widespread soon. Dozens of regulatory issues need to be settled. Nor is it clear what the demand for driverless vehicles will be. Consider. An opinion survey by Brandon Schoettle and Michael Sivak at the University of Michigan found that only 16 percent of respondents wanted self-driving vehicles; 39 percent preferred partially self-driving and 46 percent wanted no self-driving features. Safety is one anxiety. Cost may be another. Presumably, car prices would be higher, reflecting the costs of software, sensors and electronics. Will drivers pay the premium, especially when todays cars last longer than ever? (The average age of todays vehicles is 11 years, up from five years in 1969, reports the Transportation Department). All these factors argue against the doomsday specter of robots creating mass unemployment. Of course, dramatic increases in the minimum wage will quicken the pace of automation. More jobs will be lost. Still, the real problem, suggests Harvards Freeman, is not jobs, but wages. The added competition from robots will depress workers wages and salaries. This could happen, but its an open question and overlooks an important countervailing force. As baby boomers age and retire, growth in the labor force is slowing. Workers may become scarce, pushing up their wages. One of Ford Motor Company's original factories in Dearborn, Mich., still produces the F-150 truck. The assembly line remains, but the process has come a long way. (Jayne Orenstein/The Washington Post) Read more from Robert Samuelsons archive. Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, is founder of the nonprofit Carter Center. It is disturbing that some human rights and public health organizations are advocating the full legalization of the sex trade, including its most abusive aspects. I agree with Amnesty International, UNAIDS and other groups that say that those who sell sex acts should not be arrested or prosecuted, but I cannot support proposals to decriminalize buyers and pimps. Some assert that this profession can be empowering and that legalizing and regulating all aspects of prostitution will mitigate the harm that accompanies it. But I cannot accept a policy prescription that codifies such a pernicious form of violence against women. Normalizing the act of buying sex also debases men by assuming that they are entitled to access womens bodies for sexual gratification. If paying for sex is normalized, then every young boy will learn that women and girls are commodities to be bought and sold. There is a much better policy option. In my 2014 book A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence and Power, I described the approach known as the Nordic model, which is consistent with advancing human rights and healthy societies. Pioneered in Sweden and adopted most recently in Canada and France, this strategy involves decriminalizing prostituted women and offering them housing, job training and other services. Instead of penalizing the victims, however, the approach treats purchasing and profiting from sex acts as serious crimes. Another key component is public education about the inherent harms of prostitution for those whose bodies are sold. In Sweden, demand for prostitution has fallen dramatically under this model. Conversely, Germany and New Zealand, which have legalized all aspects of prostitution, have seen an increase in sex trafficking and demand for sexual services. Critics of the Nordic model assert that mature adults should be free to exchange money for sex. This argument ignores the power imbalance that defines the vast majority of sex-for-cash transactions, and it demeans the beauty of sexual relations when both parties are respected. Sex between people who experience mutual enjoyment is a wonderful part of life. But when one party has power over another to demand sexual access, mutuality is extinguished, and the act becomes an expression of domination. As author and prostitution survivor Rachel Moran explained in her book, Paid For, once money has exchanged hands, a woman must deliver whatever service the customer demands. In May 2015, when the Carter Center held a global summit to end sexual exploitation, sex-trade survivors, including Moran, described their painful journeys through exploitation. They told of the abuse they suffered abuse that should be understood as torture. They expressed their determination to speak not only for themselves but also for those who are either too traumatized to come forward or who perished as a result of homicide, suicide, drug abuse or disease. They compare their movement to the abolition of slavery, an institution that once also seemed like a permanent fixture in society. Prostitution is not the oldest profession, as the saying goes; its the oldest oppression. Those survivors told us that they once believed that selling sex was their choice but that this attitude was a requirement for survival that only once they were fully free from the fetters of the trade were they able to fully understand their lack of choice. If full legalization is adopted, it will not be the empowered sex worker who will be the norm it will be the millions of women and girls needed to fill the supply of bodies that an unlimited market of consumers will demand. Where do we think these young girls in the sex trade will come from? (Most victims are girls, though some boys are exploited, too.) It is simply naive to oppose sex trafficking of children and women and at the same time support decriminalizing the buyers who create the demand and the pimps who profit from the supply of girls and women. I believe it is better to help women and girls avoid a life of prostitution and to deter men from buying sex acts. We must not abandon the equal dignity of each human being by simply regulating a form of abuse. There is a better way. On Memorial Day weekend, members of my family gathered at the grave of my father, William Andrew White, who died on May 20, 1966. We gathered to celebrate his life 50 years after his death. My parents raised 18 children. My father served in World War I. Six of my brothers served in World War II, five in the Navy and one in the Army. Those brothers, who served on different ships, saw battles from Iwo Jima to Okinawa. Thankfully, my brothers all came home safe, unlike some of the sons who grew up in our neighborhood in the District. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is not a war hero because he was captured. There are thousands of men and women who have been captured in wartime. As commander in chief, would Mr. Trump refuse to award a medal to a returning prisoner of war because he or she had been captured? All of my brothers served in the military, as did my husband, my nephews, a niece and brothers-in-law. They served in World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm. As we gathered at Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday, the last of the six brothers who served in World War II was with us, and at age 91, he could still recall all of the battles that his ship participated in and he was proud of his service. It is too bad Mr. Trump could not match that. Sara White Ruschaupt, Ashburn Hillary Clintons campaign hopes that there are many more national-security-minded Republicans and independents who would vote for her, even grudgingly, rather than see Donald Trump win the White House. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post) Retired Army Col. Peter Mansoor plans to vote for Hillary Clinton for president this year, but not because the longtime Republican and former top aide to then-Gen. David Petraeus has had a political conversion. He just thinks Republican Donald Trump is too dangerous to be president. It will be the first Democratic presidential candidate Ive voted for in my adult life, said Mansoor, a professor of military history at Ohio State University. Clintons campaign hopes that there are many more national-security-minded Republicans and independents who would vote for her, even grudgingly, rather than see Trump win the White House. Those voters are an important part of the audience for her case that she is fit to be commander in chief and that Trump is not. Clinton has begun making that argument more forcefully as her long primary battle grinds to a close. She will deliver what her campaign calls a major foreign policy address in California on Thursday, focused both on her ideas and leadership credentials and on what she will describe as the threat Trump poses to national security. Clinton will rebuke the fear, bigotry and misplaced defeatism that Trump has been selling to the American people, an aide said. She will make the affirmative case for the exceptional role America has played and must continue to play in order to keep our country safe and our economy growing. The aide spoke on the condition of anonymity to outline the plan for the speech, which has not been previously reported. The address will expand on themes Clinton sketched in a CNN interview in May, when she flatly said Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, is not qualified to be president. She ticked through positions the businessman has taken during a campaign few thought he could win. Among them: an apparent willingness to back out of the NATO alliance; a suggestion that the U.S. defense burden would be lightened if Japan and other nations acquired nuclear weapons; and his pledge to bar foreign Muslims from entering the United States. I know how hard this job is, and I know that we need steadiness, as well as strength and smarts in it, and I have concluded that he is not qualified to be president of the United States, Clinton said. The speech Thursday in San Diego marks a turning point toward an argument that, by design, has not been as large a part of the primary campaign as Democrats expect it to be in the general election campaign. Although Clinton cast herself as by far the more experienced and qualified person to be commander in chief when campaigning against her rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders, she often tried not to feed liberal suspicions that she is a hawk. Clintons campaign celebrates each high-profile rejection of Trump by fellow Republicans and implicitly invites their support, but is leery of open courtship. Neither Mansoor nor several other Republicans opposing Trump said they have been contacted about supporting Clinton, although some plan to support her. I would support a random name in the phone book over Trump, said Philip Zelikow, a University of Virginia history professor who was a State Department official in the George W. Bush administration. National-security issues offer Clinton a way to play up her experience in contrast to Trump and appeal to people who probably would not vote for her otherwise, Clinton backers said. These include moderate Republicans and independents, but also suburban women turned off by Clinton but unwilling to support Trump, and some white men. 1 of 46 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad Clinton on the campaign trail View Photos The former secretary of state visits key states in her quest to become the Democratic nominee for president. Caption The former secretary of state, senator and first lady is the Democratic nominee for president. July 31, 2016 Hillary Clinton is seen aboard the campaign bus in Cleveland on the third day of a bus tour through Pennsylvania and Ohio. Melina Mara/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue. Although Sanders is running close to Clinton in California, she is expected to clinch the nomination even if she loses the June 7 primary there. As in most of the country, the Democratic campaign in California has focused largely on domestic economic issues, but the states defense industry and military bases lend a backdrop for her speech. The most recent Washington Post/ABC News poll in May showed Americans are largely split over whether Clinton or Trump would handle national-security issues better. Slightly more said Clinton (47 percent) would do more to make the country safer and more secure than Trump (44 percent), but the difference is within the margin of error. Among Democrats, 84 percent say Clinton would do more to make the country safer and a similar 83 percent of Republicans say the same for Trump. Independents shift toward Trump: 50 percent of them say that Trump would make the country safer and more secure; 39 percent say Clinton would. Emily Guskin contributed to this report. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), joined by her top lieutenants, during a news conference on Capitol Hill on May 11. (Andrew Harnik/AP) Vice President Biden stood on a stage at a Democratic retreat in Baltimore in late January and made a bold prediction: Democrats could win back control of the House of Representatives this year. Its been a tough last couple of cycles, he said. But we should get up, man! Theres a real shot here. Just a handful of the lawmakers clapped. Biden continued: Im confident well win back the Senate, and I think we can make great inroads and maybe win back the House when no one expects it now. Nobody applauded, because nobody believed him. If youd have polled the members and asked: Do we have a chance even an outside chance to get the majority back? At that point, the overwhelming majority would have said no, said Rep. Denny Heck (D-Wash.), who is in charge of recruiting new Democratic candidates. I dont think that is the case now. Some Republicans in Congress could be at risk of losing seats, in part because of the party's controversial presidential candidate Donald Trump. These are some the Republicans who are feeling the "Trump effect" the most. (Deirdra O'Regan/The Washington Post) Facing a 30-seat deficit, Democrats have dramatically improved their odds of retaking the House since Bidens remarks. Republicans are on the verge of formally nominating Donald Trump, a presidential candidate who remains deeply unpopular among minorities, women and younger voters just the kind of voters Democrats need to win House seats in swing districts. Democrats have scrambled to convince enough credible, well-funded candidates to enter key races that could flip control of the chamber and time is fast running out to recruit more. Party leaders in Washington had so written off the idea of retaking the majority that a Majority Project launched last fall was aimed at elections in 2022 after the next round of congressional redistricting. Trumps rise to presumptive GOP nominee sparked a scramble in recent months to recruit Democratic candidates, even in some Republican-leaning districts. Donald Trump has been our best recruiting tool, said Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.), who helps the party woo new House candidates. [Can Trump become so unpopular that Democrats could take back the House?] Democratic consultants think that Trumps rise has, broadly speaking, tilted the House battlefield in their favor by firming up candidates chances in competitive districts, allowing resources to be focused on more marginal seats. Trump, they say, has accelerated the partys demographic pivot into more affluent, better educated, suburban districts. But there are gaping holes that could cost them gains. Its unlikely that Democrats win back the House, but we cant completely rule it out, said Nathan Gonzales, editor of the Rothenberg & Gonzales political report. Donald Trump puts enough volatility into the national political environment that we have to keep an open mind to lots of different scenarios. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) boasted recently to The Washington Post that if the election were held today, We would win. (Andrew Harnik/AP) Takeover idea gains momentum Gonzales anticipates that Democrats will gain at least 10 more seats, but he said that picking up the 30 needed for the majority will be a challenge. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) boasted recently that she thinks she could reclaim the speakers gavel. If the election were held today, she said, We would win. We would pick up more than the 20, we could get to the 30. But its not today. Republicans, who enjoy a 246-to-188 edge over Democrats, disagree. Katie Martin, communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee, called talk of a House flip a far-fetched fantasy. Here in the real world, she said, a combination of their recruiting failures in races across the country and their own presidential candidates abysmal favorability ratings ensure that Democrats chances of winning the majority this year are as laughable as they were in 2012 and 2014. In the Orlando area, Democrats are touting Val Demings, a former police chief who is poised to win a safe Democratic seat. But in a neighboring district, the party has not found a challenger for John L. Mica, who represents a district with a fast-growing Latino population and where President Obama tied with Mitt Romney in 2012. The party has until a June 24 filing deadline to find a candidate. [These new polls should make Democrats feel good about winning the Senate] In Colorado, Democrats convinced popular former state senator Gail Schwartz to challenge Republican Rep. Scott R. Tipton in the states rural western district. But next door in Arizona, Democrats are not mounting a strong challenge to Republican Rep. Martha McSally, who won her district two years ago by just 167 votes but has amassed a nearly $2 million war chest. In Minnesota, the retirement of Republican Rep. John Kline has increased the likelihood of a Democratic pickup. But in Illinois, the party could not nail down quality recruits in two rural districts along the Mississippi River ahead of a November filing deadline. And there are problems: Rep. Mark Takai (D-Hawaii) recently announced his retirement due to declining health. Former Democratic congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa has announced plans to run, but the retirement sets up a potentially competitive race in a previously safe district. Actress Melissa Gilbert, who was challenging Rep. Mike Bishop (R-Mich.), also withdrew for health reasons last week, forcing a last-minute scramble for a new candidate that will not be resolved until August because of state ballot laws. It wasnt until late March when David Wasserman, a congressional race forecaster with the nonpartisan Cook Political Report who declared that it was difficult to be definitive about ruling out a Democratic takeover that party regulars began to take the prospect seriously. Trumps primary victories also helped Democrats convince candidates to run who might have taken a pass. As winter turned to spring, party strategists held late-night meetings at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee headquarters in Washington, poring over polls, turnout models and scenarios that they could use to convince top-tier candidates to run. They gamed out potential outcomes and how they could benefit Democratic candidates, including a contested convention or a prolonged fight between Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.). A sudden comeback by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), though, would have caused at least some contenders to reconsider running. Worst-case scenario In Colorado, Democrats had been trying to convince Schwartz to run for six years, but she repeatedly rebuffed the overtures, citing her work in the state Senate and a desire to stay close to her family. But as Trumps campaign took off, friends encouraged her to run. She said her husband, the family gatekeeper, had been reluctant in the past but encouraged her to run this year in part because of Trump. He recognized that we all have a responsibility to do the most that we can and really saw that we would always regret not taking a run at this seat when we could have a really strong challenge, she said. Tipton, her opponent, is aligned with the Trump ticket, she said. It would be a worst-case scenario to see someone like Donald Trump be our president. More importantly, its the worst scenario for our region and state to have representation aligned with that ideology. Minnesota state Sen. Terri Bonoff, who decided against previous runs for the suburban Minneapolis seat held by Republican Erik Paulsen, jumped in after Democratic Party consultants showed her internal polling giving Hillary Clinton a 22-point edge over Trump in the district. Bonoff said she opted to run this year partly after watching the Republican presidential debates. Trump and other GOP candidates insulted women, they insulted immigrants, they talked about building walls and they were competing over who had more credibility in the war of insults, she said. That really concerned me. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, shied away from Pelosis optimism about reclaiming the majority. But he said that the party would be in a strong position to take advantage of a wave if it happens. The DCCC recently announced that it raised $8.6 million in April, compared with the NRCCs $5.4 million. In the first quarter, the DCCC was narrowly outraised by the NRCC. The House Majority PAC, a pro-Democratic super PAC, also announced Friday that it raised a record $12.8 million. But the super PAC is likely to face strong competition from Republican groups, many of which plan to concentrate spending on congressional races. [Trump once revealed his income tax returns. They showed he didnt pay a cent.] Privately, some Democrats say the party waited too long to find potential candidates. All year, party leaders have been saying, Were going to win the White House, win back the Senate and make gains in the House. Its hard to recruit candidates when you wont even suggest publicly that you can win, said one party operative, who requested anonymity in order to speak frankly about strategy. If Democrats get to the majority, they are going to have to rely on candidates such as Tony Ventrella, who plans to refuse the partys financial support. The 71-year-old challenger begins his race against Rep. Dave Reichert in Washingtons solidly Republican 8th Congressional District with enviable name recognition: He spent 27 years on Seattle television stations as a popular sportscaster. But Ventrella said he will only accept financial contributions from individual donors. He thinks that free publicity because of his name recognition will be key to his victory. What you need is three Seahawk players to tweet that youre a good guy, he said. Maybe five or six. If [Seahawks player] Richard Sherman can tweet to his million followers that Tony is okay, then Im in. Thats all I need. Kelsey Snell and Paul Kane contributed to this report. Hillary Clinton is seen aboard the campaign bus in Cleveland on the third day of a bus tour through Pennsylvania and Ohio. July 31, 2016 Hillary Clinton is seen aboard the campaign bus in Cleveland on the third day of a bus tour through Pennsylvania and Ohio. Melina Mara/The Washington Post The former secretary of state, senator and first lady is the Democratic nominee for president. The former secretary of state visits key states in her quest to become the Democratic nominee for president. The former secretary of state visits key states in her quest to become the Democratic nominee for president. Even as Sen. Bernie Sanders continues to insist he can win the Democratic nomination, several prominent liberals have lined up behind front-runner Hillary Clinton in recent days signaling that the time is now to begin unifying the party to take on Republican Donald Trump. In endorsements of Clinton this week, California Gov. Jerry Brown and an influential environmental group, the NRDC Action Fund, argued that Democrats must stop fighting one another over their partys nomination. Brown wrote in an open letter that Clinton offers the best chance to defeat Trumps dangerous candidacy, while the fund, a political affiliate of the Natural Resources Defense Council, wrote that liberal groups must rally around Clinton because Trumps policies would take us back 100 years. Both efforts seemed aimed at bolstering Clinton in California, an enormous liberal state that Clinton could lose Tuesday even as she is expected to effectively clinch the nomination in other states. They also reflected how damaging it could be to Clinton to kick off her battle against Trump with such a symbolic defeat. This is no time for Democrats to keep fighting each other, Brown said in a message addressed to California Democrats and independents who will vote in next weeks primary. The general election has already begun. [Jerry Brown praises Sanders on his way to lukewarm endorsement of Clinton] Speaking in D.C. on May 24, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), slammed GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, saying the "central question" of the 2016 election is "whether this country works for billionaires like Trump and their big-bank friends or whether this country works for everyone else. " (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post) Perhaps the biggest sign that a new effort is underway among liberals to begin healing fissures within the party comes from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the heroine of the left. Although Warren still has not endorsed Clinton and remains the lone Democratic woman in the Senate not to do so she has stepped up her attacks on Trump, and her advisers have begun communicating regularly with the Clinton campaign. We are in regular contact with her team and are very excited about the prominent role she has taken in defining whats at stake in the election, said Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon. Both sides continued to insist that there is no formal coordination and most likely no endorsement by Warren until after the last round of primaries. The effort is a delicate one given the ardor of Sanderss most steadfast fans and their insistence that he can still win the nomination. Sanders is already preparing supporters to reject any pronouncements of Clinton as the partys presumptive nominee Tuesday, when primary results in New Jersey are expected to bring her total of pledged delegates (those won in nominating contests) and superdelegates (party leaders and elected officials who may back the candidate of their choosing) past the 2,383 she needs to secure the nomination. At a rally in Santa Cruz, Calif., on Tuesday, Sanders warned that the media is expected to declare the primary process is over, Secretary Clinton has won. His statement was met with boos. That is factually incorrect. Its just not factually correct, the senator from Vermont said, predicting that he would win California and some other states Tuesday and head into the convention with enough momentum to flip the allegiances of superdelegates who have announced support for Clinton. [Sanders: No one will have majority of real delegates on June 7] Voting will also take place Tuesday in Montana, New Mexico and both Dakotas. Clinton leads in all delegates 2,312 to Sanderss 1,545, according to a tally by the Associated Press although that number includes support from a large majority of superdelegates who are free to switch their allegiance at any time, for instance if Sanders pulls ahead in pledged delegates. Clinton leads among pledged delegates 1,769 to 1,501, meaning it is possible, if entirely unlikely, for Sanders to overtake her with landslide victories Tuesday, when 475 pledged delegates are at stake in California alone. Although Clinton and her advisers remain confident about her prospects for securing the nomination, they have grown increasingly antsy about California. The former first lady canceled an event in New Jersey on Thursday to head to the West Coast sooner. She announced a five-day schedule chock full of campaign stops throughout the state, from Northern to Southern California, including a national-security speech in San Diego aimed at strengthening her position against Trump. [Clinton plans national security case against Trump in California speech] During an interview Tuesday with MSNBC, Clinton did not give any hint of nerves over the outcome of Californias primary, though. Im feeling very positive about my campaign in California, she said. We are working really hard. Democrats had largely accepted that Sanders was unlikely to concede the race until after the last votes are counted June 14, when the final nominating contest will take place in the District of Columbia. But the latest rumblings among progressives this week reflect a new level of worry about Clintons weaknesses heading into the fall and the need for her to shore up her support in the partys liberal wing starting now. There are two clear messages: one, that we need to work together, and two, that Hillary Clinton will move forward a populist, progressive agenda, said Mo Elleithee, a former Democratic National Committee official and a former Clinton aide. Its reassuring them that their message and their goal will be heard. He added: Do folks want to be responsible for putting Donald Trump in the White House? Because it could happen. The challenge is one that former Vermont governor and presidential contender Howard Dean knows well. He recalled coming to his own recognition of the need to unify after he lost the Democratic nomination in 2004 and spoke to former vice president Al Gore. After my ranting and raving, he just said: Look, its not about you. Its about the country, Dean recalled. Thats where Jerry Brown is its where most of us are. Dean, who supports Clinton, said that there has been a ferment of calls for unity among progressives so early because of the mathematical near-impossibility that Sanders could overtake Clinton. And, he added, unification will take time. They are going to have to get to a place where Hillary Clinton is the candidate that they are going to support, having supported somebody else in a contested, occasionally bitter primary, Dean said. And thats a hard thing to do, to climb down from your position. It takes time. Its a challenge that Brown, who competed against Bill Clinton in the 1992 Democratic primary, also knows well. Browns support for Hillary Clinton this week follows decades of sometimes acid criticism of both Bill and Hillary Clinton including one zinger in which he called Bill Clinton the prince of sleaze. In a debate in 1992, Brown raised the issue of Hillary Clintons ethics, accusing the then-Arkansas governor of funneling money to his wifes law firm for state business. Bill Clinton famously replied that Brown was not worth being on the same platform as my wife. More than 20 years later, Brown is finally standing with Hillary Clinton, lending the weight of his liberal credentials to her cause. Its not like hes a longtime Clintonite, Elleithee said. This is a guy who is a hero to many progressives, and the fact that he came out and said it is time for us to focus . . . that was a very strong signal to Sanders. Still, even in his endorsement, Brown signaled the challenge Clinton faces with liberals. The open letter was lukewarm in its praise for her, and while Brown laid out his reasons for his vote, he did not expressly urge California Democrats to vote for her. Brown also praised Sanders on his way to calling Clinton qualified and capable. Anne Gearan and John Wagner in Washington and David Weigel in Santa Cruz contributed to this report. Correction: An earlier version of this report misstated the name of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he had given away all the money he had raised four months earlier for veterans and at the same time bitterly attacked the news media for pressing him to explain what he had done with the money. Instead of being like, Thank you very much, Mr. Trump or Trump did a good job, everyones saying, Who got it, who got it, who got it? Trump said in a news conference here at Trump Tower. And you make me look very bad. I have never received such bad publicity for doing such a good job. Trump also labeled the news media dishonest and unfair and called ABC News reporter Tom Llamas a sleaze. Trump was so bothered, in fact, that he stepped on his own good news interrupting his recitation of $5.6 million in donations to veterans to complain again about the media. I didnt want to have credit, Trump said at one point. What I got was worse than credit, because they were questioning me. The day was a strange, curdled end for an episode that had begun as a stunning success for Trump. On the night of the Jan. 28 fundraiser, Trump was at the top of his political game. With his celebrity boldness, he managed to upstage both the rest of the GOP field and a powerful television network by skipping a Fox News Channel debate and doing a televised fundraiser of his own. By Tuesday, however, the fundraiser had morphed into an uncomfortable test of Trumps competence and temperament. [Heres how we found out about Donald Trumps phantom $1 million donation to vets] Trump faced prosaic tasks, where celebrity and showmanship were of little help. Could he handle the task of moving money from donors to worthy recipients? And could he handle public questioning about how he did it? If Trump becomes president, is this what its going to be like? a reporter asked toward the end of the unhappy news conference. Yes, it is, Trump said. Trumps presumptive opponent in the general election, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, attacked Trump on Tuesday afternoon while borrowing one of his trademark tactics, the phone-in TV interview. 1 of 14 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad These Republicans refuse to vote for Donald Trump View Photos And theyll tell you why. Caption And theyll tell you why. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell General Powell said at a meeting of the Long Island Association that he would be voting for Hillary Clinton, a spokeswoman confirmed Oct. 25. Powell added in an interview that he picked Clinton because I think shes qualified, and the other gentleman is not qualified. Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue. Hes bragged for months about raising $6 million for veterans and donating a million dollars himself. But it took a reporter to shame him into actually making his contribution and getting the money to veterans, Clinton told CNN. Look, Im glad he finally did, but I dont know that he should get much credit for that. In all, Trump on Tuesday listed donations to 41 veterans charities, including at least a dozen gifts he had not previously disclosed. On the night of the fundraiser, Trump said the total had cracked $6 million. On Tuesday, he said the real total had been $5.6 million $4.6 million from other donors and $1 million from his own pocket. The same list also made clear that Trump had cut many of these checks only after he came under intense media scrutiny. Trump gave his own $1 million gift on May 23, after a Washington Post article questioned his handling of the money. Previously, Trumps campaign manager said falsely that the money had already been spent. Many of the new gifts disclosed by Trump on Tuesday were originally from other donors, who had entrusted funds to the Donald J. Trump Foundation on the promise that Trump would then give them away. The Associated Press found that many of those checks were dated May 24. On Tuesday, Trump said he had waited four months to give these last donations because he needed time to scrutinize the recipients. Its called vetting, he said. We vet the vets. But that vetting missed major questions about at least one charity on Trumps list. The Foundation for American Veterans got $75,000 from Trump despite its F rating from a charity watchdog, which noted that it spent only a fraction of its donations on veterans and the rest on overhead and fundraising. The group was also the subject of an alert from the Better Business Bureau earlier this year. The warning cited a pattern and high volume of complaints and customer reviews that alleged customers received a high volume of what they consider to be harassing phone calls from the groups solicitors. The Better Business Bureau said the group had blamed the problem on its telemarketer. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks did not respond to questions about what Trumps team had done to vet the group or whether its vetting had turned up these concerns. The Foundation for American Veterans did not respond to calls and email messages Tuesday. Several other groups that received Trumps donations said they werent asked for detailed financial statements or other documents as part of Trumps vetting process. I dont have to go out and scratch for every single dollar for a promise that I make to a wounded veteran, said Andrew Biggio, whose Boston-based charity helps provide cars to veterans families and remodel homes to accommodate those with disabilities. Biggio served in Iraq with the son of one of Trumps bodyguards. Trump gave his group $75,000. Its the biggest weve ever gotten. The biggest donation weve ever gotten [before] was $15,000. And usually our donations are like $20 per person. Among the other groups that received new donations from Trump were: The Armed Services YMCA, which provides activities for children of military families. Connected Warriors, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based group that offers free yoga classes to veterans. The Mission Continues, which encourages volunteerism among veterans. Americas VetDogs, which provides veterans with trained guide dogs and service dogs. During the news conference, Trump said the groups names but little about their work. What he did say, again and again, was how unhappy he was to be there, answering questions about the gifts. The presumptive Republican nominee also hurled insults at reporters in the audience, whom he accused of liberal bias and of attempting to diminish his efforts. Youre a sleaze because you know the facts, and you know the facts well, Trump said in one instance, pointing at Llamas. By law, nonprofit charities such as Trumps foundation are not supposed to participate in political campaigns. However, Trump described the nonprofits gifts at what was clearly a campaign event. As he bashed his political rivals and talked up his poll numbers, Trump spoke from a lectern decorated with a sign that said Make America Great Again the slogan of his presidential campaign. Tax-law experts said that, even if the Internal Revenue Service were to find fault with the arrangement, it might be 2018 before the agency took action. Im going to continue to attack the press. Look, I find the press to be extremely dishonest. I find the political press to be unbelievably dishonest. I will say that, Trump said in ending the news conference, still angry. Okay. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. DelReal reported from Washington. Alice Crites, Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Thomas M. Gibbons-Neff in Washington contributed to this report. Donald Trump is being sued by former customers of Trump University. Here's everything you need to know about the ill-fated business venture. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post) Donald Trump is being sued by former customers of Trump University. Here's everything you need to know about the ill-fated business venture. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post) Donald Trump was personally involved in devising the marketing strategy for Trump University, even vetting potential ads, according to newly disclosed sworn testimony from the companys top executive taken as part of an ongoing lawsuit. In the testimony, part of a trove of records made public as a result of a federal judges Friday order, the executive said that the real estate mogul was involved in discussions and signed off any time we had a new ad. Mr. Trump understandably is protective of his brand and very protective of his image and how hes portrayed, Michael Sexton, Trump Universitys president, said in the 2012 deposition. And he wanted to see how his brand and image were portrayed in Trump University marketing materials. And he had very good and substantive input as well. The order Friday from U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel came in response to a request by The Washington Post, which argued that the public had an interest in learning about a business run by a potential president. Lawyers for Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, opposed the release, arguing that the records contained trade secrets. The records released Tuesday include documents from employees who described Trump University as a scam, as well as internal company manuals, called playbooks, which show that instructors were advised to aggressively steer prospective customers toward the most expensive courses. The playbooks advised staff members to collect personalized information about participants to help close sales. One example: Are they a single parent of three children that may need money for food? People attend a 2009 seminar in Arlington, Va., taught by professors of Trump University. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) [Read unsealed deposition in the class-action lawsuit against Trump University] Trump Universitys marketing tactics have been at the center of a case in which former students allege they were defrauded by the company. Among their allegations: that they were misled by ads featuring Trump claiming that he was overseeing the curriculum and that the faculty would be hand-picked by me. Trump has rejected the fraud allegations and has said the company provided a valuable service. A Trump lawyer, Jill A. Martin, predicted Tuesday that the company will prevail when the case goes to trial, which is expected to happen in late November. Much of the newly unsealed evidence, she said, demonstrates the high level of satisfaction from students, and that Trump University taught valuable real estate information. Tuesdays release included a number of glowing reviews from customers. Trump University is some of the best money I ever invested! one customer wrote. Trumps exact role in his for-profit educational venture has been a key point of contention. Previously reported testimony from the lawsuit suggested that Trump was not deeply involved in the substance of the courses. Sexton testified in a separate deposition that Trump did not personally select instructors for the marquee sessions. And Trump, in a sworn deposition, was unable to recall the names of key faculty members. Even so, according to the newly disclosed testimony from Sexton, the company was eager to leverage Trumps growing celebrity status stemming from his hit reality-television show, The Apprentice. Sexton said that, during the part of the year when the NBC show was airing, ads typically carried slogans related to the program, such as: I want you to be my Apprentice. 1 of 14 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad These Republicans refuse to vote for Donald Trump View Photos And theyll tell you why. Caption And theyll tell you why. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell General Powell said at a meeting of the Long Island Association that he would be voting for Hillary Clinton, a spokeswoman confirmed Oct. 25. Powell added in an interview that he picked Clinton because I think shes qualified, and the other gentleman is not qualified. Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue. Sexton testified that Trumps role as chairman of Trump University was purposely highlighted in advertising, as was a picture of the moguls signature. But he said one potential ad theme built around the idea of teaching students to invest like a billionaire was rejected. It wasnt accessible to people, Sexton said. People didnt necessarily walk around wanting to be a billionaire. Theyd be very happy to be a millionaire. . . . I think our feeling was that it was almost overwhelming, daunting, you know; thats not going to happen. [Read the unsealed 2009 Trump University playbook.] The records were unsealed as Trump continued to attack Curiel, the judge overseeing the case. He has previously said Curiel, who is Hispanic, may be biased because of Trumps proposal for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Friday, Trump described the Indiana-born jurist as Mexican. In an appearance Tuesday, Trump said Curiel was very bad. Asked why he would risk antagonizing the person presiding over the litigation, he responded: Because I dont care. I have a judge whos very, very unfair. He knows hes unfair. And Ill win the Trump University case. Trump University was started in 2004 as a business offering courses in entrepreneurship under the Trump brand. Trump gave his consent and became a 93 percent owner of the enterprise, according to Sextons newly unsealed deposition. Trump was the centerpiece of the companys advertising pitches. Trump University will deliver the experience, knowledge and wisdom of Donald Trump himself, according to marketing materials distributed to potential customers. In a promotional video, Trump declared that at Trump University, we teach success. Thats what its all about success. He described the faculty as the best of the best, with instructors handpicked by me. In addition to the class-action lawsuits being considered by Curiel, Trump University faces a separate $40 million fraud case in New York, filed by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. A New York judge recently ruled that the case should go to trial; Trump has appealed the ruling, a process that is expected to last several months. The documents unsealed by the federal judge in the class-action case include a contract with a Trump University speaker showing that a portion of the speakers compensation was based on signing up seminar participants to buy more Trump University products. While in training, speakers were expected to hit a certain sales rate in order to be retained by the program, according to the contract. One former Trump University staffer, Ronald Schnackenberg, wrote in a formal statement unsealed Tuesday that he quit the program in 2007 after working there for less than a year, deciding that it was engaging in misleading, fraudulent and dishonest practices. His statement said he was reprimanded by Trump University for not working harder to sell a $35,000 program to a couple who could not afford it and would have had to use disability pay and a loan taken out against equity in their apartment to pay for it. He said another salesperson talked the couple into paying for the seminar after he refused. I was disgusted by this conduct and decided to resign, he wrote. Schnackenberg wrote that he never saw Trump in seven months, and he concluded that the program was not intended to teach about real estate but instead that it preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money. [Donald Trump billed his University as a road to riches, but critics call it a fraud] The newly disclosed documents also include a series of annual behind-the-scenes strategy manuals intended to guide Trump University employees. Known as playbooks, the documents instruct staff in the minutiae of setting up and running free introductory courses, but emphasize that participants should be pressed to sign up for additional, pricey classes. One of the playbooks, first revealed earlier this year by Politico, suggested methods of luring attendees to buy a $1,495 ticket to a three-day workshop, described to those at the free sessions as all you need to start getting rich. However, the playbooks urged the sales team to push further, suggesting that those who paid $1,495 be encouraged to upgrade to classes with a mentor that could cost between $9,995 and $34,995. The playbooks instructed staff to have students fill out forms detailing their personal assets, ostensibly to provide targeted recommendations for investment. The playbooks, however, said the real purpose was to determine which students were good targets for the most expensive programs. rosalind.helderman @washpost.com Alice Crites contributed to this report. Residents sit outside a damaged building in the Damascus suburb of Darayya on May 23, 2016. The rebel-held city has lived under a punishing government blockade for more than three years. (Fadi Dirani/AFP/Getty Images) An aid convoy carrying medical supplies for besieged Syrian civilians entered a Damascus suburb for the first time since 2012, the United Nations and local activists said Wednesday, after Russia, a key ally of the Syrian government, announced a 48-hour cease-fire in the area. The convoy, which included trucks from the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, brought medicine, vaccines and baby milk to the rebel-held city of Darayya on the outskirts of the Syrian capital. Darayya residents have lived under a punishing government blockade for more than three years. An aid convoy dispatched in May was turned away by Syrian security forces at the last checkpoint, the ICRC and the United Nations said. First humanitarian aid to reach people of #Daraya, the ICRCs Syria office posted on Twitter on Wednesday. The organization also posted a photograph showing its vehicles driving on parched land next to bombed-out buildings. Weve just entered the city, the tweet said. [How the Syrian revolt went so tragically wrong] The delivery comes after a push by world powers for wider humanitarian access in Syria, where regime forces and other armed groups have besieged civilian populations, causing severe shortages of food and other essentials. The United Nations says more than 11 million Syrians have been displaced in the years-long conflict and 400,000 have been killed . Russias intervention on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad last fall prompted the ongoing diplomatic efforts to end the war, including a cessation of hostilities between rebel groups and regime forces that went into effect earlier this year. That cease-fire largely broke down in April, and humanitarian agencies have struggled to deliver even basic supplies to civilians in need. [Airstrikes kill dozens near hospital in Syria as violence escalates] Wednesday marked the deadline for aid deliveries to areas deemed hard-to-reach by the International Syria Support Group, a cluster of nations spearheading the diplomatic efforts to end the conflict. The group said this month that if the deadline was not met, the World Food Program would begin airdrops of humanitarian supplies, including in Darayya. Also Wednesday, the U.N. humanitarian coordination office said it delivered food items to the Damascus suburb of Moadamiya, which is also under siege. Elsewhere, however, deliveries of aid continue to be rejected, delayed or tampered with leaving the most vulnerable communities still in need, Ashley Proud, Mercy Corps humanitarian director for Syria, said Wednesday. The continued failure to allow for the delivery of life-saving aid to innocent civilians is shameful, Proud said. On Wednesday, the Local Council of Darayya issued a statement on the convoys arrival. A U.N. medical aid convoy has just entered the besieged city of #Daraya, the council posted on its Facebook page. The convoy does not contain any food supply whatsoever. Zakaria Zakaria in Istanbul contributed to this report. Read more: Airstrike destroys Syrian hospital amid fears of catastrophic turn in fighting Humanitarian aid situation in Syria deteriorating, United Nations warns Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world Recovered debris of the EgyptAir jet that crashed in the Mediterranean Sea is seen in this handout image released May 21, by Egypt's military. (Reuters) French officials confirmed Wednesday that signals have been detected from one of the flight recorders from EgyptAir Flight 804, which crashed en route from Paris to Cairo last month. A French vessel, the Laplace, picked up the signals in the course of an ongoing search in the eastern Mediterranean. Egyptian officials first reported that the signals had been detected earlier in the day. A signal from a tag of a flight recorder was able to be detected, Remi Jouty, the head of Frances Bureau of Investigation and Analysis (BEA), said in a statement. Because the flight originated at Paris, French officials have been assisting in the Egyptian-led investigation. The planes flight recorders, commonly known as black boxes, are crucial in determining the cause of the crash. The devices record both the various instrument readings and the voice communications of the cockpit crew, providing key information leading up to the crash. Alseamar, the French company that supplied the search ship, said in a statement Wednesday that "less than 24 hours were necessary" for the Laplace to find signals emitted from one of the black box's detectors. 1 of 22 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad Possible debris from EgyptAir flight recovered in the Mediterranean View Photos Egypts military spokesman posted what he said were the first images of debris, including parts of the aircraft exterior. Caption Egypts military spokesman posted what he said were the first images of debris, including parts of the aircraft exterior. May 21, 2016 Recovered debris possibly from the EgyptAir plane that crashed in the Mediterranean Sea. Egyptian Military via Reuters Wait 1 second to continue. Time was running short to locate the black boxes: They emit signals underwater for up to 30 days following a crash. Once the locator beacons go silent, they are much harder to find in the depths of the sea. A second French ship, equipped to retrieve objects from the sea, is joining the search. Stephane Barthe, a spokesman for the BEA, cautioned against offering any explanation at this time. Its way too early to offer an interpretation of any kind, he told The Washington Post. The plane, an Airbus A320 carrying 66 passengers and crew members, vanished from radar screens shortly after entering Egyptian airspace early on the morning of May 20. Weather conditions were clear throughout the flight, and the pilots had not reported any passenger disturbances as they flew across Central Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. At approximately 2:30 a.m., the aircraft disappeared from radar screens. 1 of 15 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad Relatives of the victims of Flight 804 gather in Cairo View Photos Coptic Christians grieve during prayers for the victims of the crashed EgyptAir plane. Caption Coptic Christians grieve during prayers for the victims of the crashed EgyptAir plane. May 22, 2016 At Al-Boutrossiya Church, the main Coptic cathedral complex in Cairo, a Coptic Christian grieves during prayers for the victims of Thursday's crash of EgyptAir Flight 804. Amr Nabil/Associated Press Wait 1 second to continue. Radar data, communications and pieces of wreckage that search crews have been recovering suggest a rapid loss of control, as well as the possible presence of smoke in the aircrafts lavatories and avionics bay. If the crash was due to mechanical failure, the planes pilots appear to have never issued a distress call. Sherif Fathy, Egypts aviation minister, said last month that terrorism was a more likely cause for the planes disappearance. But at present, no terrorist group has claimed responsibility including, notably, the Islamic State, which conducted a broadcast shortly after the crash. The Islamic State did claim responsibility for another recent Egyptian aviation disaster: the downing of a Russian passenger plane bound for St. Petersburg from the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh last October, which killed all 224 aboard. Read more Remains from EgyptAir wreckage examined amid conflict over initial findings EgyptAir plane made sudden swerves before vanishing over Mediterranean What we know about EgyptAir Flight 804 Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world * Najib says FDI in Malaysia has been going up by 22 pct annually * Malaysia stock market worst performer in Southeast Asia * Amnesty's Salil Shetty says rights issues a concern By Praveen Menon and Joseph Sipalan KUALA LUMPUR, June 1 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Wednesday that investor confidence in Malaysia is high and blamed the rising "noise levels" for a negative perception of the country, where a state-owned fund is at the centre of graft probes across the world. Malaysia's economy and markets have been rattled by a slowdown in China, slumping oil prices and a burgeoning financial scandal around 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), whose advisory board Najib had chaired. Companies and banks linked to 1MDB are being investigated for money-laundering in at least six countries, a big embarrassment for Najib who welcomed hundreds of business and political leaders to Kuala Lumpur for the World Economic Forum on ASEAN 2016. "The fact that foreign direct investment (FDI) has been going up in Malaysia by 22 percent per annum means that there is general confidence in Malaysia," Najib told an audience at WEF in Kuala Lumpur. "The problem is of perception and the problem is of noise levels outside. The noise level is rather high, I admit it, but it belies the strong fundamentals and commitment of the Malaysian government," he said. He did not directly refer to 1MDB or the financial scandal, which has deepened in recent weeks. Last week, Singapore shut down BSI bank's unit in the city-state and Swiss authorities began criminal proceedings against the Swiss bank in connection with money-laundering and corruption investigations into 1MDB in the two countries. Najib said some of the factors affecting the economy are beyond Malaysia's control, adding that a 1 percent drop in growth in China leads to a 0.4 pct slowdown in the Malaysian economy and a $1 drop in price of oil leads to 450 million ringgit ($108.6 million) in losses to Malaysia's revenue. Story continues "I believe we should concentrate on strengthening the fundamentals first. We should not be over reactive to short term conditions because we believe there will be some correction in the market," he said. Malaysian stocks have performed poorly this year in comparison to its neighbours in Southeast Asia. The FTSE KLCI index has lost 4.0 percent this year, versus a 10 percent gain in neighbouring Thailand, a 5 percent gain in Indonesia, and a 4.3 percent gain in the MSCI South East Asia index. RIGHTS ISSUE While Najib has been buffeted by allegations of graft and mismanagement at 1MDB, he has cracked down on dissenters within his party and outside, using a colonial-era Sedition Act and other security laws. Salil Shetty, Amnesty International's Secretary General who is also a co-chair at WEF, told Reuters in an interview freedom rights in Malaysia have declined significantly over the last 18 months. "The Prime Minister came to power here talking about pluralism and diversity and promised to get rid of the Sedition act," he said. "And now post-election, where they had a challenging outcome, and the 1MDB scandal, there's been a real constriction of freedom of expression and we are very concerned about that." The 1MDB scandal and its impact will loom over the WEF meetings, he added. "Certainly in terms of the impact it (1MDB scandal) has had in terms of them (government) crushing voices of dissent or any critical voices asking question on where is the money, etc, is a matter of concern," Shetty said. Najib has denied reports that $681 million that was transferred to his personal bank account came indirectly from 1MDB. His attorney general said the money was a donation from the Saudi royal family and most of it was returned. Last month, the government said it could impose a three-year travel ban on its citizens who discredit or ridicule the government. ($1 = 4.1430 ringgit) (Reporting by Praveen Menon. Editing by Bill Tarrant) Fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces fire a mortar shell toward positions held by Islamic State fighters in the northern province of Raqqa, Syria, May 27, 2016. (Rodi Said/Reuters) A U.S.-backed force of Kurds and Arabs advanced toward an important Islamic State transit town in Syria on Wednesday, brushing aside Turkish opposition to the involvement of Kurds in operations to recapture the strategically vital area. U.S. commandos are accompanying the Kurdish and Arab Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as they push north toward Manbij, backed by intense U.S. airstrikes, as part of an offensive aimed at recapturing the town in Aleppo province, said Col. Chris Garver, a U.S. military spokesman. Manbij lies on the main route used by foreign fighters traveling across the Turkish border to join the Islamic State in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the extremist groups self-proclaimed caliphate. Capturing Manbij would sever the vital supply route, cut off militant fighters and further squeeze the Islamic State in Raqqa, Garver said. [Offensive in Syria targets Islamic States capital] But the offensive also risks incurring the wrath of Turkey, which reiterated this week its opposition to using the SDF to take control of the predominantly Arab area. The SDF is dominated by the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units, or YPG, which has ties to the militant Turkish Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. The PKK is designated a terrorist organization by both the United States and Turkey. An American fighter, battling alongside the Syrian Democratic Forces, holds a U.S. flag as he stands with SDF members in the northern province of Raqqa, Syria, May 27, 2016. (Rodi Said/Reuters) The Kurdish organization has declared an autonomous region in the part of northeastern Syria it already controls, and Turkey fears that its continued advance westward into Arab areas of Syria will further expand the Kurdish region emerging along the Turkish border and encourage Kurdish separatist sentiments inside Turkey. Pentagon officials said that the SDF fighters advancing on Manbij are predominantly Arab and that the YPG has agreed not to retain control of the town after it is captured but rather to hand over its administration to local Arabs. Garver put the percentage of Arabs in the advancing force at 80 to 90 percent. But SDF units fighting elsewhere are overwhelmingly Kurdish. One U.S. official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the issue, said that overall, Kurds are the main fighting force in the SDF. We shouldnt be under any illusions about that. [The new coalition to destroy the Islamic State] Despite Pentagon claims that Turkey has consented to the operation, the Turks are not happy about it, the official added. Turkish officials did not respond to requests for comment. The offensive signals the abandonment, at least for now, of a long-standing U.S.-Turkish plan to coordinate on efforts to reconquer the Islamic State-held pocket of territory in Syrias Aleppo province, known as the Manbij pocket, using vetted Free Syrian Army rebel groups. Those efforts have stalled since the Islamic State repelled a rebel offensive in March aimed at recapturing areas of the province that border Turkey. The Islamic State subsequently has not only pushed the rebels back from the areas they have taken but also has captured new territories that were formerly under rebel control. These gains have left the U.S.- and Turkish-backed groups battling for their survival and in no position to launch any new offensives against the al-Qaeda offshoot, which is also known as ISIS and ISIL. [ISIS fighters try to sell sex slaves online] Instead, the United States has decided to back the Kurdish-led assault on the Manbij area. We have bitten the bullet on the Kurds, said the U.S. official. The Manbij operation comes as part of a broader effort to squeeze the Islamic State in Raqqa. It began last week with a push by the SDF to capture villages in the mostly desert area immediately north of the city. Those forces have advanced several miles, and the operation is ongoing, Garver said. The Raqqa offensive also claimed its first U.S. casualty over the weekend. One of the 300 U.S. Special Operations forces working alongside Kurdish and Arab fighters in northeastern Syria was injured north of Raqqa over the weekend, the Pentagon said Tuesday. DeYoung reported from Washington. Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify that Col. Chris Garver did not describe the force advancing on Manbij as Kurdish-led. Read more: Aid convoy reaches Damascus suburb for the first time since 2012, U.N. says The last remaining Pentagon-trained rebel group in Syria is now in jeopardy First images emerge of U.S. Special Operations forces in the fight to retake Raqqa Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world A 7-year-old boy has been reported missing for two days after his parents left him near the mountain range of Nanae-cho, Hokkaido in northern Japan on Saturday, according to the Hokkaido Prefectural Police. Over 150 members of the local police and fire departments, along with rescue teams, have been searching for Yamato Tanooka after his parents left him in the mountain range "as punishment," CNN reports. The location where the young boy was abandoned is home to wild bears. Authorities received an emergency call from his parents at around 6 p.m. Saturday. At first, police were told that the boy had gone missing during a day trip to the area with his parents and sister to collect wild vegetables. However, his parents later reportedly admitted they had left their son alone in the mountains to punish him for throwing stones at passing cars and people while on their way home. "I was not able to ask for [a search] with a reason of punishment," the father told TV Asahi. "I thought it might be taken as a domestic violence." The parents also reportedly confessed they had initially stalled in reporting their son missing due to the reasons behind his disappearance. According to the police, the parents quickly drove back to where they had left the child, but he was no longer there. The long day is ending for Donald Trump with a pint of vanilla Haagen-Dazs ice cream. Were settling in for a late-night chat at his Beverly Hills house, a 10,400-square-foot Colonial mansion directly across from the Beverly Hills Hotel. Hes here for the final presidential primary, a California coronation of sorts, after rallies in Orange County (where violence broke out and seven people were arrested). He is, as he has been for much of our conversation - and perhaps much of the last year - marveling at his own campaign. You looked outside before, you see whats going on, he boasts about the police surrounding his house, and the Secret Service detail cramming his garage and snaking around the pool at the center of the front drive. And hes just returned from a big donor fundraiser in Brentwood for the Republican Party at the home of Tom Barrack, the investor and former Miramax co-owner. There had to be over a thousand policeman. They had a neighborhood roped off, four or five blocks away from this beautiful house. Machine guns all over the place. One thing to understand about Trump is that, rather unexpectedly, hes neither angry nor combative. He may be the most threatening and frightening and menacing presidential candidate in modern life, and yet, in person hes almost soothing. His extreme self-satisfaction rubs off. Hes a New Yorker who actually might be more at home in California (in fact, he says he usually comes to his home here - two buildings on Rodeo Drive - only once a year). Life is sunny. Trump is an optimist - at least about himself. Hes in easy and relaxed form campaigning here in these final days before the June 7 California primary, even with Hillary Clintons biggest backers and a city that is about half Latino surrounding him. Earlier in the day, Id met with Trump at a taping of ABCs Jimmy Kimmel Live! at the El Capitan Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, where he was the single guest for the evening (musicians The Weeknd and Belly canceled upon learning of his appearance). Have you ever seen anything like this? he asked. He meant this, the Trump phenomenon. Circumventing any chance that I might dampen the sentiment, he quickly answered his own question: No one ever has. Story continues His son-in-law, New York Observer owner Jared Kushner, married to his daughter Ivanka and also a real estate scion - but clearly a more modest and tempered fellow, a wisp next to his beefsteak father-in-law - offered that they may have reached 100 percent name recognition. In other words, Trump could be the most famous man in the world right now. I may be, says Trump, almost philosophically, and referencing the many people who have told him theyve never seen anything like this. Bill O'Reilly said in his lifetime this is the greatest phenomenon hes ever seen. That notion is whats at the center of this improbable campaign, its own brilliant success. Its its main subject - the one you cant argue with. You can argue about issues, but you cant argue with success. Hence, to Trump, youre really foolish to argue with the Trump campaign. Ive spent $50 million of my own money to go through the primaries. Other people spent $230 million and they came in last. You know what Im saying? And this provides him the reason to talk endlessly and repetitively about the phenomenon of the campaign. That phenomenon is, of course, Trump himself, about whom Trump spends a lot of time talking in the third person. You can try, but its hard to resist this admiration for himself. The certainty of it, the enthusiasm for it and the lack of not just doubt, but of any negativity. Its all upbeat and positive. The dark, scary, virulent heart of American politics is having the best time anyone has ever had. Read More: Media Goes Too Easy on Donald Trump (Guest Column) Trump at a May 25 rally in Anaheim. Violent clashes between protesters and police followed him through California. If onstage he calls people names, more privately he has only good, embracing things to say about almost everybody. (For most public people I know, it is the opposite.) He loves everybody. Genuinely seems to love everybody - at least everybody whos rich and successful (he doesnt really talk about anyone who isnt). Expressing love for everybody, for most of us, would clearly seem to be an act. But with Trump, its the name-calling and bluster that might be the act. I offer that there are quite a number of people in New York, some we know in common, who are puzzled that the generous, eager-to-be-liked and liking-everyone-in-return Donald has morphed into a snarling and reactionary public enemy, at least a liberal enemy. This, I suggest, might be a source of the continuing dialectic - or to some, wishful thinking - that he does not necessarily believe what he says. I might detect the most mild sort of annoyance here. Trump says its that he just never talked about his beliefs in the past - after all, he wasnt a politician. Who thought this was going to happen? But his larger point seems to be that such a topic - what he says - is a silly thing to focus on. The point is not about politics, or policies, but about how people, about how many people, have responded to him. Its too big to ignore the bigness. You heard Jimmy announce tonight that I have the most votes in the history of the Republican Party, he says by way of explanation for the larger issues at hand - i.e., him. In a way, what this evenings Kimmel show was about was treating Trumps positions as though they are, well, Trumps positions, qualitatively different than other politicians positions. In fact, you might logically see the Kimmel show as a devastating attack on Trumps views and claims. Kimmel flat out doesnt believe him. That recording of the PR person alleged to be Trump sounding like a PR person? Trump: It didnt sound like me. Kimmel: No. Sounded like you. (An exchange repeated similarly several times, with no rancor from either Trump or Kimmel.) And oh, says Kimmel, remember when you liked Hillary? Trump: I just said I like her. I say I like everybody. And there was Kimmel, at every opportunity, happily mocking Trump, the overexposed media whore. The effect is not only not damaging, its fun-loving, comic, even joyous. Kimmel is tickled to have such a good sport to poke fun at, and Trump is tickled that Kimmel is tickled. Everybodys in on it. There are no phonies here. Or everybody here is honest about being a phony. Nobody is taking anyone very seriously - forget what might be at stake in a presidential election. If Trump is the subject of the conversation, then Trump is happy. If Kimmel has Trump as a guest, hes happy. Everybodys happy. (Trump has a staffer take a picture of another picture of Trump when he was previously on the Kimmel show thats now hanging on the studio wall.) Read More: Why Bernie Sanders Is the Best Candidate for Senior Citizens (Guest Column) It is this media frisson that, with countless other professional and amateur analyzers, Im trying to plumb. Surely a big part of the answer lies in the nature of Trumps performance, an unself-consciousness so extreme that he has passed through hurdles of humiliation that would have destroyed nearly all others to emerge as though free of a private self. Trump is only fully alive in public. But another aspect is that, differentiating himself from every other candidate, he has a long, intimate relationship with nearly every significant player in the media and, indeed, lavishes copious praise on almost all of them. He may know few people in Washington, and care about them less, but he knows his moguls and where they rank on the modern suck-up-to list. On Murdoch: Rupert is a tremendous guy. I think Rupert [who for several years lived in the Trump building on 59th and Park Avenue in Manhattan] is one of the people I really respect and like. And I think Rupert respects what Ive done. But what about Murdochs grumpy Trump tweets? When I got into the world of politics, that was a different realm for me and maybe he felt differently. But I think he respects what Ive done and hes a tremendous guy and I think we have a very good relationship. On Redstone: Sumner, well, hes had a good run. Good run. Terrible it comes to this, but a good run. Hed give me anything. Loved me. On Leslie Moonves: Great guy. The greatest. Were on the same page. We think alike. These are the bulls of his real party. The party whips, to strain this metaphor, are the news heads: Roger Ailes at Fox News, Jeff Zucker at CNN (who previously at NBC bought The Apprentice and launched Trump as a national TV star) and Andy Lack, now the head of NBC News. Despite his tweets about the dishonest media, Trump is lavish in his praise of all of them. I ask him to rate them. Thats an unfair question, he says, making a rare grab for politesse. I know Jeff very well. I know Roger very well. And, less well, but I think Andy has done a very good job. Read More: Which Is Worse That Donald Trump Lies So Much, or That Hes So Bad at Lying? (Guest Column) Among his frequent media and now political confidants is WME co-CEO Ari Emanuel - whose brother, Rahm, the mayor of Chicago, was once Obamas chief of staff - whom Trump says has offered to take charge of the Trump celebratory convention film. Emanuel and Trump, while at seeming odds politically, might in fact be even better united in a kind of hyper salesmanship. Hes a very good friend of mine, says Trump. He calls me a lot. I call him a lot and we talk. Hes very political. Even though hes not political, hes political. He gets it. Youre shocked to hear that, right? [About the movie.] But yeah, I might do something with Ari. Does he represent you? Sanders called a Trump win a real danger to the entire world on May 27. Trump will turn 70 on June 14, but he shows no sign of fatigue even as our conversation drifts toward 11 p.m. Hes been at this since either 4 a.m. or 6 a.m. (he offers different times at different moments). Today, Im up at six in the morning, Im meeting some of the biggest people in the world. I then had to give a speech to a big group, then I had to give a speech at 12 to [Dole Food mogul] David Murdock, [real estate magnate] Donald Bren, tremendous guys. Then I had to drive to Anaheim and give a speech in front of thousands of people. Then I came back and did more meetings, then I did a fundraiser tonight, then I did Kimmel. And now you. Youre not a two-minute interview guy. He hands me a water bottle from the refrigerator (it only contains water and about a dozen pints of ice cream), and we walk through the dark house decorated with hotel-like furniture (a four-star rather than a five-star hotel lobby). He reclines, still in his standard boxy suit, tie slightly loosened, with his Haagen-Dazs on an overstuffed couch in the living room (he asks me not to put my water bottle on the fabric-covered ottoman). Read More: Critic: Hillary Clinton Needs to Tap Into Warren Beattys Bulworth If theres any pattern to his conversation, its that hes vague on all subjects outside himself, his campaign and the media. Everything else is mere distraction. But I press him about Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley billionaire who, earlier in the day, has admitted to funding the $140 million Hulk Hogan lawsuit against Gawker. Thiel also is his most prominent Silicon Valley backer and will go to the convention in July as a pledged delegate. But Trump needs reminding who he is, and then concludes he must be a friend of his son-in-law Jared. (Wow, I love him! So he funded it for Hulk Hogan? You think Hulk Hogan would have enough money, but he probably doesnt.) Indeed, Trump doesnt appear to be interested in Silicon Valley, except to roll off his numbers on each social media platform. (On Facebook, I have close to 8 million people. On Twitter, I have 8.5 million. On Instagram, I have over a million people. Im inching on 20 million people. I have friends, somebody thats a great writer, where they write a book and call me up and say, 'Can you do me a favor, can you tweet it? Can you, I interject, tweet my book, please? I will!) Finishing his pint, he reflects again on the remarkableness of the campaign, asking his traveling staffers, Corey Lewandowski and press secretary Hope Hicks, as well as his son-in-law, to confirm again how remarkable it is. Lewandowski recites the latest polls (as of press time, they show Trump inching to within a few percentage points of Clinton in a head-to-head matchup), and Trump, with something beyond confidence, seems to declare de facto victory. I broach his problems with women and Hispanics and the common wisdom that hell have to do at least as well with these groups as Mitt Romney did in 2012. The pivot is the word more politico pros are using to refer to his expected turn to the center. Unless, I offer, you think you can remake the electoral math. He says he absolutely can. So no pivot. Itll be different math than theyve ever seen. He is, he says, bigger than anything anyone has ever seen. I have a much bigger base than Romney. Romney was a stiff! And hell be bigger with the people hes bigger with, but also hell be bigger with women and Hispanics and blacks, too. He believes, no matter what positions he holds or slurs he has made, that he is irresistible. Read More: The Donald Trump Conversation: Murdoch, Ailes, NBC and the Rush of Being TVs Ratings Machine I ask if he sees himself as having similarities with leaders of the growing anti-immigrant (some would say outright racist) European nativist movements, like Marine Le Pen in France and Matteo Salvini in Italy, whom The Wall Street Journal reported Trump had met with and endorsed in Philadelphia. (Matteo, I wish you become the next Italian premier soon, Trump was quoted as saying.) In fact, he insists he didnt meet Salvini. I didnt want to meet him. And, in sum, he doesnt particularly see similarities - or at least isnt interested in them - between those movements and the anti-immigrant nationalism he is promoting in this country. And Brexit? Your position? I ask. Huh? Brexit. Hmm. The Brits leaving the EU, I prompt, realizing that his lack of familiarity with one of the most pressing issues in Europe is for him no concern nor liability at all. Oh yeah, I think they should leave. It is hard not to feel that Trump understands himself, and that were all in on this kind of spectacular joke. His shamelessness is just so shameless. So how much, I ask - quite thinking he will get the nuance here - is the Trump brand based on exaggeration? He responds, with perfect literalness, none at all. I try again. He must understand. How could he not? Youve talked about negotiation, which is about compromise and about establishing positions that you can walk back from. How much about being a successful person involves well, bullshitting? How much of success is playing games? If he does understand, hes definitely not taking this bait. I try again: How much are you a salesman? Salesman, in the Trump worldview, is hardly a bad word, and he is quite willing to accept it, although, curiously, he doesnt want to be thought of that way when it comes to real estate. But as a politician, hes OK as a salesman. Read More: The Political Conventions Will Be Summers Must-See TV (Guest Column) Trump says hes reading Edward Kleins book Unlikeable: The Problem With Hillary. In this, he sees himself - and becomes almost eloquent in talking about himself - as a sort of performer and voter whisperer. He is, he takes obvious pride in saying, the only politician who doesnt regularly use a teleprompter. With a prompter, he says, you cant work the crowd. You cant feel it. You got to look at them in the eye. Have you ever seen me speak in front of a large group of people? Have you ever watched? He reflects on the lack of self-consciousness thats necessary to make spontaneous utterances before a crowd. He cites a well-known actor (whose name he asks me not to use, I dont want to hurt anybody), who had wanted to run for office but, without a script, was a blithering idiot. Trump was never fed lines on The Apprentice, he says. It was all him: You have to have a natural ability. I ask if hell use a teleprompter for his acceptance speech at the convention and, almost sorrowfully, he says he probably will. I find myself urging him not to, precisely for the theater of it all. The spontaneity. Who would want to miss that? Let Trump be Trump. Very interesting. What hes saying is very interesting, he notes to Lewandowski. Read More: Before Running for President, Donald Trumps First Gamble Was Building Trump Tower Hes punted on Hillary as a topic since we started our conversation, as though to talk about her was not to talk about him. If in public he needs to treat her as his cause, in private he doesnt want her taking up his time. But I sneak it back. Did you ever vote for Bill? I ask, thinking that both men have as much in common as they have that separates them. Lets see did I ever? Eh, I dont want to say who I voted for. Indeed. These two '80s guys were undoubtedly once quite in sync. The anti-Christ Trump, the Trump of bizarre, outre, impractical and reactionary policies that most reasonable people yet believe will lead to an astounding defeat in November, is really hard to summon from Trump in person. He deflects that person, or, even, dissembles about what that person might have said (as much, he dissembles for conservatives about what the more liberal Trump might have said), and is impatient that anyone might want to focus on that version of Trump. It does then feel that the policies, such as they are, and the slurs, are not him. They are just a means to the end - to the phenomenon. To the center of attention. The biggest thing that has ever happened in politics. In America. The biggest thing is the theme. Its what he always wants to come back to. Bigness is unavoidable and inevitable. Bigness always wins. Before Trump trundles off to bed - actually, before that, never too tired, he plans to watch himself on Kimmel - I ask that de rigeur presidential question, which does not seem yet to have been asked of him. What books are you reading? He knows hes caught (its a question that all politicians are prepped on, but who among his not-bookish coterie would have prepped him even with the standard GOP politician answer: the Bible?). But he goes for it. Im reading the Ed Klein book on Hillary Clinton - a particular hatchet job, which at the very least has certainly been digested for him. And Im reading the book on Richard Nixon that was, well, Ill get you the exact information on it. Im reading a book that Ive read before, its one of my favorite books, All Quiet on the Western Front, which is one of the greatest books of all time. And one I suspect hes suddenly remembering from high school. But what the hell. Donald Trump simply believes he is a unique individual, one whose singular conviction that he is special makes him appealing. And pay no attention to everything else. A version of this story first appeared in the June 10 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe. Presidential Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders recently sat down with Univision anchor Leon Krauze in California to discuss everything from Hillary Clinton, to U.S. foreign policy in Latin America. When probed by Krauze about the issues that surround Latin America in relation to the violence plaguing Central America, Sanders admitted he wasnt as familiar with the region to make an educated statement.Look, youre asking me questions about the impact on Central America, which honestly I should know more than I do know, he said. You are asking me questions about Latin America that I am very interested in but right now Im running for president of the United States, he continued when asked about the prominence of left wing politics in Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela. Instead of answering directly on those issues, he focused on what he plans to do if elected leader of America. He mentioned wanting to create a slew of progressive initiatives like raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and making health care available for all. Will Bernies lack of knowledge on Latin America affect his campaign, which is largely dependent on the Latino vote? Festival season is upon us, and Europe has some of the most exciting music on offer. From trance to pop via heavy metal, there's a stage for everyone's musical tastes this summer. Electronic/dance/techno Tomorrowland (July 22 - 24, Boom, Belgium): A globally-recognized music festival that takes place in the aptly-named town of Boom. The festival has won Best Music Event at the International Dance Awards for the past five years consecutively. Creamfields (August 25 - 28, Daresbury, Cheshire, UK): One of the most prestigious electronic festivals in the world that attracts world-famous headliners. This year the festival will introduce a new "Steel Yard" superstructure with a capacity of 20,000. Chill and ambient A Summer's Tale (August 10 - 13, Luhmuhlen, Germany): A Summer's Tale strives to be "much more than just an ordinary open air festival." Its diverse, multi-genre program includes performances from Sigur Ros and Fat Freddy's Drop. Obonjan Festival (28 July - 6 September, Obonjan, Croatia): Art, ecology and well-being accompany the musical lineup for this chilled-out festival on a Croatian island for six weeks of live music, talks, DJ sets and workshops. Rock & metal Rock am Ring & Rock im Park (June 5 - 7, Mendig and Nuremberg, Germany): Two simultaneous sister-festivals held in different regions of Germany. This year artists include Birdy Nam Nam, Black Sabbath, Biffy Clyro, Deftones, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Panic! At the Disco, Rudimental, We are Scientists and more... Isle of Wight Festival (June 9-12, Isle of Wight, UK): One of Britain's biggest festivals that takes over a large part of the island. The Who, Queen, Faithless and Stereophonics will be onstage for the 2016 edition. Hellfest Open Air (June 17 - 19, Clisson, France): Heavy metal, hard rock, punk and hardcore music are on the menu for this popular French festival. More than 160 bands perform on Hellfest's 6 stages. Story continues Broad spectrum Primavera Sound (June 1 - 5, Barcelona Spain): Based in Barcelona, Primavera Sound features a variety of artists, from dance to pop and rock. This year, Radiohead, LCD Soundsystem and PJ Harvey are on the lineup. Glastonbury Festival (June 22 - 26, Near Pilton, UK): Adele, Coldplay, Cyndi Lauper and Bastille are among the highlights for the internationally-renown multi-genre music festival this year. Exit Festival (July 7 - 10, Novi Sad, Serbia): An award-winning festival held inside a fortress. Originally founded as part of a student movement for democracy. George Clinton and David Guetta feature on this year's lineup. From Cosmopolitan 1. Therapy doesn't look at all like what you see on TV. I do have a couch, but people don't lie down on it. And we're not looking at inkblots or doing free association for an hour. People generally come to me with something they want to work through, and we talk about whatever they're going through and how it's changed since our last session. There are also a number of movies where therapists start dating their clients, which is totally unethical! I'd also never share my own problems with a patient or negotiate the doctor-patient boundaries. 2. Choose your degree and career path very carefully. There's plenty you can do with just a master's: research, teaching, and offer psychological evaluation, but only under the supervision of a licensed clinical psychologist. The PhD gives you more options, like becoming a professor or opening a private practice. To be a psychiatrist, which is similar but focuses more on neurological factors for mental health and involves prescribing medication, you have to go to medical school. I decided to get my PhD in psychology mainly because I wanted to go into academia, but then I had kids, so I decided to go into private practice instead. I have a lot more flexibility in my schedule than university psychologists, but I'm not making as much money as I could have if I had gone into academia. 3. It takes a decade before you'll actually see any patients one-on-one. You have to log four years of undergrad, five years of a doctoral program, a one-year internship, the time it takes to write a dissertation, and 2,000 hours of practice while being supervised by a licensed psychologist. I obviously knew that it would take that long, but I don't think I was prepared to be training for so long. For one thing, it's a big financial sacrifice. I held several teaching assistantships during grad school, which covered the cost of tuition and offset my living expenses. There's also no good time to have kids during that period. My husband and I decided to have our first baby after my pre-doctoral internship, and I completed my dissertation while she was an infant. Story continues 4. The client has to be in charge of the session. I specialize in clients who have depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorders; new mothers struggling with things like postpartum depression or depression during pregnancy; and LGBT clients, including quite a few transgender adolescents who are going through their transition. I practice psychotherapy, but I don't use a manual or a rigid structure to determine what we do in each session. My job is to help clients move through their own problems, at their own pace. 5. It takes multiple sessions to build trust. You can't be impatient in this career, because people aren't going to have breakthroughs right away. Especially in the very first session, when I'm asking a lot of questions and doing assessment, I try not to push any boundaries. Trust is an ongoing process, which is partly a byproduct of time. I can tell when a patient is developing trust when they start sharing more details or expressing deeper emotions. 6. People communicate a lot without words. My job is to listen, but people express themselves in lots of ways besides words - body posture, tone of voice, tension in their body. I rely on this a lot when I'm working with a parent and a teen, or a married couple, where I can watch their body language and tone of voice as they respond to each other. They might be saying one thing verbally, but their body language says something completely different. 7. There are times when you'll feel helpless that you can't help someone. Sometimes people start to feel better very quickly, and sometimes it takes a very long time. It's heartbreaking to hear someone tell me, "It still hurts so much," when they come in for their session. If I could wave a magic wand to take the pain away, I would, but that's not how therapy works. I can provide tools, resources, and compassion, but that's all I can do. I've learned over the years that the best thing I can do is to say, "I hear that you're suffering, I'm listening, and I'm committed to working with you." 8. Patients will break up with you. Sometimes when I work with teenagers, I get the feeling that their parents want them to be here, but they don't want to be here. If the child isn't invested, then it's not going to work. So sometimes I have to have a conversation with the parents where I say, "I don't think your child wants to be here," or they say, "I don't think this is working out." I don't take that personally. I am not the best psychologist for every client. I even tell clients that if they feel another therapist is a better fit for them, they should go see that person, because I want them to end up where they'll be most successful. 9. It takes a few years for your client base to grow organically. Private practice can be very slow when you first start out. I live in the same town where I went to graduate school, so some of my professors refer clients to me, but even then it took several years until I had a steady flow of referrals. One thing that helped was posting a profile on the Psychology Today website, where people can search for psychologists by specialty. Over the years, I've also developed referrals through primary care doctors, psychiatrists, and other physicians who have gotten to know my practice through patients we share. 10. You'll have to resist the urge to "psychologize" your loved ones. My husband is also a psychologist, and when my oldest daughter was growing up, she would constantly say, "Don't psychologize me!" My daughter will still bristle any time I say, "How are you feeling about this?" There's nothing wrong with being available to your friends and family, but people do tend to roll their eyes if they think you're using their psychology powers on them. 11. You have to practice what you preach. I focus a lot with my clients on self-care: Do you have time for yourself? Are you taking care of yourself? Sometimes I need to remind myself to fill my own emotional tank. I make sure to do things outside of work - spending time with family and friends, going for walks, having hobbies, readings things that aren't psychology journals. Not only is it crucial for my own well-being, but I can be more available to my patients when I practice what I preach. 12. Never tell strangers what you do for a living. I've made the mistake of telling someone next to me on a plane that I'm a psychologist. The next thing I know, they're dumping all their problems on me or asking advice about some kind of delicate situation. And it's like, "Darn, I really wanted to take a nap on this flight!" Now, I try to avoid those conversations by putting on headphones as soon as I get on the flight. Otherwise, I give them my phone number and tell them to make an appointment. Jill Kuhn, PhD, is a psychologist in Fort Collins, Colorado. Follow Arielle on Twitter. And the award for not shooting an unarmed black person goes to ... these 40 officers with the Philadelphia Police Department. A report published by the Associated Press Tuesday revealed that a growing number of U.S. law enforcement agencies are rewarding officers for showing restraint in the line of duty and the Philadelphia PD is one of them. The City of Brotherly Love has a police force of about 6,600 sworn members, a few dozen of whom have earned a "medal of tactical de-escalation," as it has become known, since December. They've done so by following a simple set of criteria: not shooting, clubbing or using other forms of lethal or excessive force against the city's citizens. The award does not come with any monetary bonus or other on-the-job perks, a Philadelphia police spokesperson told Mic on Tuesday. Officials established the medal after a federal probe into the city's police practices recommended they do so in 2013, according to AP. Police officers walk along Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadephia . It's quickly becoming trendy to reward police officers for showing restraint: The Los Angeles Police Department recently created a "Preservation of Life" award for officers who decline to use lethal force in the line of duty. And, later this year, the U.S. Department of Justice will for the first time recognize officers who de-escalate otherwise tense situations in the field as part of the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service in Community Policing initiative. Police killed as many as 1,186 people in 2015, according to tabulations by news outlets and grassroots groups, including the Washington Post, the Guardian and killedbypolice.net. Na tio nal attention to officers' professional conduct has grown largely due to police-involved deaths in communities of color over the last few years, including the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the fatal arrest of Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York. Story continues President Barack Obama greets a Los Angeles police officer after the officer received the Medal of Valor in Washington, D . C . But de-escalation is not universally popular among police groups. Law enforcement think tanks have found officers receive far less de-escalation training than they do in firearms and self-defense tactics. De-escalation, which can include avoiding heated confrontations and maintaining distance in tense situations, has not won favor with many police union groups. Rich Roberts, a spokesman for the International Union of Police Associations, told AP that de-escalation techniques are kosher, as long as they don't impair an officer's ability to use split-second force tactics when other efforts don't work. The LAPD union, however, panned the Preservation of Life initiative last November. "This award will prioritize the lives of suspected criminals over the lives of LAPD officers and goes against the core foundation of an officer's training," the union said on its website. Will President Barack Obama be remembered as a "deporter in chief," or as a president who took a bold stand on behalf of undocumented immigrants? Much of the answer to that question hinges on a single Supreme Court ruling expected to arrive this month. For most of his tenure, Obama has deported undocumented immigrants at a ferocious pace. Fusion reports that since taking office in 2009, he's overseen the deportation of over 2.5 million people a 23% increase since George W. Bush's presidency, and a statistic that makes him the most aggressive deporter in U.S. history. But there are two major exceptions to Obama's proclivity for expelling undocumented immigrants from the United States. The first was an executive action that he took in 2012 that established the program Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which offered temporary protection to over 1 million young people who entered the country illegally as children. The second exception came in the fall of 2014, when Obama announced new programs also authorized through executive action that expanded DACA and inaugurated the program Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, or DAPA. DAPA offers deportation relief to undocumented immigrants who are parents of U.S. citizens or permanent residents and allows them to apply for work permits, assuming they meet a few conditions. Collectively, the programs shield over 4 million individuals from deportation. But Obama's 2014 programs haven't been allowed to go into full effect. Soon after they were announced, Texas and 25 other states sued the Obama administration over the policies, arguing that they represented an abuse of executive authority. The programs were blocked by a federal judge in Texas and a federal divided appeals court upheld his ruling. Now the Supreme Court is expected to weigh in on the matter and their ruling will play a key role in shaping Obama's complex legacy on the issue of immigration. Story continues Source: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP What's the case all about? There are number of legal principles at play in the case, but the states are suing the Obama administration primarily based on the idea that the White House lacks the authority to unilaterally change immigration enforcement in such a sweeping manner. As the Council on Foreign Relations explains, the states argue that "while the president does have some discretion in how he enforces the law, including the power to defer deportation on a case-by-case basis, he does not have broad powers to grant legal status and work authorization to whole categories of people." The states suing the White House say the programs would require them to spend millions of dollars on public benefits provided to residents with legal status, and that Congress must have a say in the matter. The Obama administration and its allies believe that the executive branch is well within its rights, and carrying on with a well-established tradition of overseeing immigration enforcement on its own terms. As Richard Lugar, a former Republican senator from Indiana, argued in a New York Times op-ed in April, the executive branch has long been given a great deal of latitude in dealing with enforcement of immigration law, both by Congress and the Supreme Court: Congress has repeatedly granted the executive branch broad power in enforcing immigration laws. The 2002 law creating the Department of Homeland Security explicitly said the executive should set "national immigration enforcement policies and priorities." The Supreme Court has recognized the leeway Congress gives the executive branch in deportations. In a 2012 majority opinion written by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the court noted that "a principal feature of the removal system is the broad discretion exercised by immigration officials," including the decision "whether it makes sense to pursue removal at all." What's the Supreme Court going to do about it? It's difficult to foresee how the Supreme Court will rule. During oral arguments in April, the Obama administration faced a very tough line of questioning from the high court's justices. CNN reported at the time that Justices John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy Republican-appointed justices who joined three liberal justices in the last high-profile immigration case showed signs of skepticism of the legality of the programs: Roberts also seemed concerned with the scope of the government's argument defending Obama's moves. "Under your argument, could the President grant deferred removal to every unlawful -- unlawfully present alien in the United States right now?" he asked Solicitor General Donald Verrilli. At one point, Justice Anthony Kennedy suggested that the president might have strayed into Congress' territory. "It's as if -- that the President is setting the policy and Congress is executing it," he said. "That's just upside down." Due to the fact that that the court has eight justices conservative Justice Antonin Scalia died in February, and Senate Republicans have refused to consider Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland the court could possibly split 4-4. In that case, the lower court's ruling would be upheld, and Obama's programs would be blocked. But the Supreme Court's ruling wouldn't necessarily be the final word on the programs. Even if the programs are upheld, they could be undone by a future president with tremendous ease just as executive actions can be undertaken without Congress, they can be dismantled without them too. Should Donald Trump be elected president, there's little doubt that he'd quickly unravel the programs the same way they came into being with the stroke of a pen. After a two model-year break, Hondas unique Ridgeline pickup returns as a 2017 model. Most obviously, it now looks more like a traditional truck; for example, the truck bed, instead of tapering downward toward the tailgate like it did before, is now a lot lower near the cab, making it easier to load from the side. The bed is also an important four inches longer and a half-inch wider, making it considerably more useful. But the bed is shallow, so you'll need to brush up on your knot-tying techniques for taller items. Honda pleased many weekend warriors with the 2005 introduction of its previous Ridgeline, which was considered a smaller, lighter pickup than its work-bred competitors. Rather than following the decades-old formula of body-on-frame design and a live rear axle, the Ridgeline used unit-body construction and an independent rear suspensionborrowing underpinnings from the mild-mannered Honda Pilot SUV. Despite that seemingly sound logic, the unconventionally-styled first-generation Ridgeline wasnt a sales success. Maybe it just wasn't "trucky" enough. Maybe the design was too weird. Undaunted, Honda has pressed forward with their second-generation pickup truck. The base, two-wheel-drive 2017 Honda Ridgeline starts at $29,475. While most trucks offer a variety of body styles, you can only get a Ridgeline as a four-door crew-cab. Driving Impressions Despite the new look, the 2017 Honda Ridgeline retains some of the key ingredients that made this svelte truck so appealingsuch as the innovative tailgate that can swing open like a door, or flip down in normal fashion. All Ridgelines also get a handy, lockable trunk-like cargo space beneath the bed floor. The independent suspension that makes the trunk space possible also contributes to a much more comfortable ride and better handling than all conventional trucks. It drives very much like a contemporary SUV rather than an antiquated load hauleras the Ridgeline's basic platform is still shared with the Honda Pilot and Acura MDX. The interior is very quiet, even on an extended highway cruise. Story continues The standard engine is a 3.5-liter V6 that puts out 280 hp (a 30-hp bump from the last version). It runs through a six-speed automatic transmission. And for the first time, the Ridgeline will be available with front-wheel drive, along with the usual all-wheel drive. EPA fuel economy figures show 18 mpg city and 25 mpg highway for AWD models. This improvement was important, as the previous Ridgeline was really thirsty for its size and horsepower. Honda claims the Ridgeline outpaces traditional midsized trucks in towing capacity and cargo hauling, but like the first generation, towing is limited to 5,000 pounds. Competitors like the Chevrolet Colorado (nearly 7,000 pounds) and the Toyota Tacoma (6,400 pounds) have greater towing capacities. The 2017 Honda Ridgeline has some off-roading capability, but it wouldn't be wise to take this truck on a day of serious boulder hopping. This is where the independent suspension will fall short compared to traditional pickup trucks. Advanced safety equipment like blind-spot monitoring and forward collision warning with automatic braking are optional, but only on the two top trim levels. Inside the Cabin Inside, you'll find relatively comfortable seats and lots of handy bins and trays to hold stuff, including storage under the rear seat. All in all, it's a lot nicer in here than inside a Tacoma or Colorado. The layout of the 2017 Honda Ridgeline feels like a Pilot with a bed rather than a third-row seat. And all models come with keyless push-button start and a rear-view camera. Higher-end models get an 8-inch touch-screen infotainment system with navigation and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility. However, about that 8-inch screen: Its a poorly-designed touch-screen thats frustrating to use. There are no conventional knobs or buttons for the radio. It's just a sleek-looking pane of glass that reflects glare, the screen layout isn't intuitive, and the controls are hard to tab with your fingers as you roll down the road. We didnt like this arrangement in the Honda Pilot, and we dont like it here. Lower trim lines have a 5-inch screen thats easier to use, with more traditional knobs and buttons. CR's Take The new Honda Ridgeline has real appeal, thanks to its supple ride, relatively responsive handling, punchy engine, and a cabin and bed that are full of clever tricks. Whether it appeals to truck traditionalists more than the first one did is a big question. Just maybe it has moved ever cautiously toward the mainstream enough to broaden its appearance and utility to attract a larger audience. Likely it will attract current Honda owners who realize they need a larger space to tow their jet-skis, or to bring home their weekend's haul of antiquing. Check back with us once we finish putting it through the entire battery of Consumer Reports' tests. More from Consumer Reports: 5 least reliable cars from Consumer Reports' survey Best Used Cars for $25,000 and Less Which Car Brands make the Best Vehicles Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website. Copyright 2006-2016 Consumers Union of U.S. At least 26 women have come forward with allegations they were sexually assaulted at Schlossgrabenfest, a 400,000-attendee music festival near Darmstadt, Germany, which ran from Thursday to Sunday, CNN reported. Authorities arrested three Pakistani men in connection with the assaults, but told CNN as many as 10 suspects are sought in the crimes. According to the Local, in 2015 only one sexual crime was reported at the festival and involved exhibitionism. "Up until this year we have had no cases of sexual assault where men surround women, like we have this year," a Darmstadt police representative told the paper. Source: Boris Roessler/Getty Images A of recent mass sexual assaults in Germany has resulted in a backlash against some of the more than 1.1 million foreign nationals after authorities tied the crimes to immigrant men. On New Year's Eve, a large group of about 1,000 men were reported responsible for a rash of sexual assaults in the city of Cologne. Authorities later concluded the perpetrators were a largely of Moroccan and Algerian origin, according to Der Spiegel, with most of the suspects being either undocumented immigrants or recent asylum seekers. In January, an anti-Islam protest in Cologne turned violent, with authorities shooting water cannons at a group of 1,700 people who fought back with firecrackers and bottles. According to the Local, there have been only a handful of arrests in the Cologne incident and no successful prosecutions. However, a group of Syrian refugees made headlines during the New Year's Eve incident by rescuing and forming a circle around a U.S. student being assaulted by several men. Forty dead tiger cubs were found in the freezer at a Buddhist temple in Thailand two days after officials began work to relocate living tigers from the property. The temple, officially known as Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua but nicknamed Tiger Temple, is a popular tourist destination where travelers can take photographs with tigers. But ongoing accusations that it was involved in wildlife trafficking and abuse caused officials to begin a raid on the temple on Monday in an effort to evacuate and relocate 137 tigers, the BBC reports. When the dead cubs were discovered, officials said they would be bringing additional charges against the temple. Its unclear how the cubs died or why they were in the freezer, but in a post on its Facebook page, the temple explained, In the past, as per Buddhist customs, [dead] tiger cubs were cremated. In 2010, the ex-vet of Tiger Temple changed this policy. Instead of cremation, the deceased cubs were preserved in jars or kept frozen. The temple says cubs often die of natural causes, and denied selling cubs and other wrongdoing. An official from Thailands Department of National Parks speculated to Reuters that They must be of some value for the temple to keep them But for what is beyond me. [Reuters] VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Jun 1, 2016) - Nevada Copper Corp. (NCU.TO) ("Nevada Copper" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on the potential to develop solar energy generation at its 100% owned Pumpkin Hollow Copper Development Property (the "Project"). On May 23, 2016, the City of Yerington ("City") City Council unanimously approved zoning for the majority of Nevada Copper Lands ("Nevada Copper Lands") in a newly created industrial district, M-2 - Special Industrial District. This new zoning designation includes not only mining, which was previously allowed, but also explicitly allows for solar energy generation and energy storage. For our proposed copper mining operation, a solar development at Pumpkin Hollow provides substantial direct benefits in lowered or shared electrical infrastructure costs. Tim Dyhr, the Vice President, Environment and External Relations commented: "The zoning assures that Nevada Copper can move forward with both a mine and solar energy generation and storage development at the Project as soon as funding is available. The Company continues to engage a number of entities, including active discussions with NV Energy, to determine the best path forward for coordinated mine development including solar energy generation, transmission and onsite energy storage." The Company has completed the previously-announced study ("Study") with NV Energy, a unit of Berkshire Hathaway Energy ("NV Energy"), to examine solar energy generation at Pumpkin Hollow in conjunction with our proposed Project. The study has shown that Pumpkin Hollow has immediate solar potential on the Project lands that can be further expanded in the future. As a result of the positive outcome of the Study, Nevada Copper and NV Energy are discussing a strategic alliance to develop both near term development and long term expansion of solar opportunities in the future. The following are key developments: The Study has identified approximately 800-900 acres of land with high solar irradiation (6.5-7.0 kW-hr/square meter/day) and 100-120 mW of solar generation capacity that are immediately available and ideally suited for solar generation facilities. There are ideal slopes, soil, geotechnical, surface hydrology and constructability conditions for installation of solar arrays in these areas; The M-2 zoning designation explicitly includes both the mining uses contemplated at Pumpkin Hollow and also permits "commercial solar energy conversion systems and energy storage systems". There are an additional 1,000 + acres zoned M-2 that can be developed for solar energy generation in the future, that represents an additional ~150 mW of solar generation capacity and a long term total of ~250 mW. Upon completion of mining an additional 500-1,000 acres of mine facilities could be converted to solar generation; Solar generation could provide power to the grid, augment power supply to the mine and offset potential peak demand charges; The Company can co-develop electrical distribution and transmission infrastructure to lower and share capital costs between the mine and solar generation, adding value to both the mine and solar projects. Story continues Dyhr added: "There are often significant barriers to solar development by land use and environmental constraints here in the western U.S. Pumpkin Hollow has none. To have a site with at least 100 mW of potential and future for 200-250 mW of generation capacity is an exceptional opportunity." The Company continues to have discussions with a number of companies that may be interested in a full range of solar and energy development opportunities at Pumpkin Hollow, including solar energy generation, energy storage, power management and onsite industrial uses linked to solar power generation. Pumpkin Hollow Project The Pumpkin Hollow copper development is located entirely on private land close to infrastructure with all required power and water supplies secured. With the project entirely on private land, all required Nevada permits for construction and mine operations are in hand (no federal permits are required). With many analysts forecasting improving copper markets over the next few years, the Company's Pumpkin Hollow Copper Project represents an attractive, "shovel-ready", fully-permitted copper project located in an ideal mine-friendly location. NEVADA COPPER CORP. Giulio T. Bonifacio, President & CEO We seek safe harbor. Beirut (AFP) - A humanitarian aid convoy on Wednesday entered the rebel-held Syrian town of Daraya, the Red Cross said, in the first such delivery since a regime siege began in 2012. But the opposition said only medical supplies were in the delivery and British charity Save the Children said it was "shocking and completely unacceptable" that it excluded desperately needed food. Last month the United Nations warned if it did not see improvement on aid access to besieged areas by June 1, it would task the World Food Programme to carry out air drops of assistance in Syria. The International Committee of the Red Cross said both United Nations and Syrian Arab Red Crescent staff were involved in Wednesday's delivery. Daraya was one of the first towns in Syria to erupt in demonstrations against the government in 2012, and one of the first to be placed under a strict regime siege in late 2012. An estimated 8,000 people live in the town, which lies just a 15-minutes drive southwest of Damascus. Despite intensifying appeals from its residents, the United Nations and rights groups, Syria's government had so far repeatedly refused to allow aid into the town. On May 12, a five-truck aid convoy waiting on Daraya's outskirts was denied permission to enter in a dramatic 11th-hour rejection. "The last time, people were filling the streets waiting for the aid to come in," activist Shadi Matar told AFP from inside Daraya. "This time, there was no one. They were afraid the regime will shell them and they know the convoy only holds medical aid," he said. According to the UN, a total of 592,000 people live under siege in Syria -- the majority besieged by regime forces -- and another four million live in hard-to-reach areas. Peace talks to end Syria's five-year war stalled in April after the opposition walked out over escalating violence and lack of humanitarian access. - 'Not enough' - Daraya's local council said the convoy included only "medical supplies," but no food for the town's starving people. Story continues "Clearly the regime is trying to diffuse pressure but clearly one convoy that carries only medical supplies is not enough," a spokeswoman for Syria's main opposition group said. "We need to see substantial change in strategy and an end to the starvation strategy," Basma Kodmani said. The head of Save the Children in Syria said it was "shocking and completely unacceptable that the trucks are prevented from bringing any food". "The international community... must step up pressure on the parties to the conflict to allow full and sustained humanitarian aid," she said. Bissan Fakih, a spokeswoman for advocacy group The Syria Campaign, said people in Daraya would only breathe a sigh of relief when they received food. "The aid convoy was only able to go in today because world powers threatened airdrops if there was to be no access by land. "The members of the International Syria Support Group need to keep up the pressure," she said, referring to nations led by the United States and Russia pushing for peace talks to end the five-year conflict. "If they look away, there will be starvation." Earlier on Wednesday, Russia announced that a local truce would be observed for 48 hours in Daraya to ensure that aid could be delivered safely. The temporary freezes on fighting have been introduced in Daraya and elsewhere as a way to reinforce a broader ceasefire brokered by Russia and the US for swathes of Syrian territory. More than 280,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011, and millions have been forced to flee their homes. New Delhi, June 1 (ANI): Veteran actor Razak Khan, who was well-known for his comic timing, passed away on Wednesday afternoon following a cardiac arrest. The actor was rushed to the Holy Family hospital in Bandra, but the doctors declared him brought dead. The funeral will be held at Narialwadi Kabaristan, Byculla, after 4 p.m. tomorrow. Razak Khan had played comic roles in around a 100 movies in the past 25 years. His brother Shehzad Khan made the announcement in a Facebook post on Wednesday morning triggering a wave of condolences on social networking sites. Khan suffered a massive heart attack around 12.30 a.m. on Wednesday and was rushed to Holy Family Hospital, Bandra, where he was pronounced dead on admission. His son, Asad, who is working in Croatia, is expected to reach here later on Wednesday and the funeral shall be performed at the Nariyalwadi Cemetery, Byculla on Thursday afternoon. Tall, thin and lanky, with a hippie style haircut, Razak Khan was first seen in Roop Ki Rani, Choron Ka Raja in 1993, and later appeared in comic roles in many movies. More than his real name, his screen character names Lucky Chikna, Keshav, Manikchand, Fainku, Babu Bisleri, Popatwala became his trademark as he enacted memorable comic scenes besides some of the biggest actors. Among his notable roles were in movies like Kyaa Kool Hain Hum series, don Kabiras sidekick in Baadshah, Raja Hindustani, Hello Brother, Hera Pheri, Phir Hera Pheri, Bhagam Bhaag, Ankhiyon Se Goli Mare, Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya, Loha and Ishq. (Additional inputs: IANS) PARIS, June 1 (Reuters) - Archer Daniels Midland Co appointed Pierre Duprat as president of its business in Europe, Middle East and Africa and India, the U.S. agribusiness group said in a statement on Wednesday. Previously, Duprat served as director of international business development for ADM's corn processing unit. Before joining ADM, Duprat spent more than 20 years with French sugar, ethanol and starch marker Tereos, where he last served as CEO of its cereal transformation division. ADM made several acquisitions in EMEA in the past year, including a corn wet mill in Morocco and Belgian vegetable oil distributor AOR, as it sought to expand into higher-margin products including food-grade oils and sweeteners. Duprat will continue to serve as president, ADM Corn EMEA and Asia, the company said. His predecessor as president of ADM's EMEA business, Joe Taets, will return to the United States and continue to lead ADM's Agricultural Services business unit. (Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide, editing by David Evans) The first wave of residents returned to Albertas Fort McMurray on Wednesday, June 1, following a devastating wildfire last month that saw the citys entire population evacuated. Some residents returned to find their homes intact, though covered by ash. Others, however, wont be so lucky. The video above shows several neighborhoods of Fort McMurray: 0-30 Athabasca 30-102 Beacon Hill 102-107 Forest with city in background 107-230 Centennial Trailer Park 230-346 Dickinsfield 346-end downtown Fort McMurray looking over Beacon Hill Credit: Jordan Redshaw/Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo NAIROBI (Reuters) - Egypt has become embroiled in a dispute with African diplomats after they accused an Egyptian official of referring to "dogs and slaves" in remarks about sub-Saharan Africa at a United Nations conference in Nairobi. The diplomats sent a formal complaint to Kenya's foreign ministry after the alleged remark at the U.N. Environmental Assembly last week, Yvonne Khamati, chairwoman of the African Diplomatic Corps Technical Committee, said on Tuesday. Egypt's foreign ministry said it had no evidence of any such remarks by a Cairo official and would investigate, adding that it rejected "flimsy accusations against the Egyptian state and people that cast doubt on its African identity." Khamati, a Kenyan diplomat who wrote the letter, said the remark was made following a disagreement on resolutions involving Gaza. "During our consultations with Egypt, the head of the Egyptian delegation and current President of AMCEN dismissed our concerns by informing that they would speak in their sovereign capacity and to that extent, referred to Sub-Saharan Africa as DOGS AND SLAVES, in Arabic," said the letter dated May 29. The term AMCEN in the letter, which has been circulated widely on social media, refers to the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment. In its statement, the Egyptian foreign ministry said: "It is completely unacceptable to make the mistake of generalising and making flimsy accusations against the Egyptian state and people that cast doubt on its African identity." It asked Cairo's embassy in Nairobi to "a strongly worded statement ... expressing Egypts rejection and censure for this breach of authority" by Khamati and demanded to see the official minutes of the meeting. The incident looked likely to add to tensions Egypt has had with its sub-Saharan neighbours, with which it has been at odds in the past over how River Nile waters should be shared by the countries it passes through. (Reporting by George Obulutsa in Nairobi and Lin Noueihed in Cairo; Editing by Tom Heneghan) By Jonathan Stempel June 1 (Reuters) - American International Group Inc failed to persuade a California judge to dismiss a lawsuit by Pacific Investment Management Co that accuses AIG of lying about its subprime mortgage exposure prior to the 2008 financial crisis. Judge Thierry Patrick Colaw of Orange County Superior Court, in a decision dated Tuesday, rejected AIG's argument that Pimco, a unit of German insurer Allianz SE, waited too long to sue over the alleged deception. But the judge said AIG can appeal immediately, noting that federal courts in comparable cases have reached differing conclusions over the proper time limit. Pimco is seeking to recoup losses allegedly suffered by more than 60 funds, including its flagship Pimco Total Return , over securities purchased between 2006 and 2008. Newport Beach, California-based Pimco sued AIG last year after opting out of a $970.5-million class-action settlement between the insurer and other investors. AIG had been accused of misleading investors about its exposure to subprime mortgages and credit default swaps, culminating in $182.3 billion of federal bailouts. Some plaintiffs opt out of class-action settlements when they hope to recover more by suing on their own. Pimco has about $1.5 trillion of assets under management. AIG spokesman Jon Diat in a statement said the New York-based company disagreed with Colaw's decision and will argue on appeal that "the more recent and better-reasoned decisions of the federal courts of appeal should be followed." Pimco declined to comment on Colaw's decision. AIG had brought related litigation in U.S. District Court in Manhattan seeking to thwart Pimco's federal securities law claim. A judge there ruled on April 18 that letting the California court handle the case was better than "piecemeal" litigation. The case is Pacific Investment Management Co et al v. American International Group Inc, California Superior Court, Orange County, No. 30-2015-00779738-CU-SL-CXC. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler) By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) - American International Group Inc (AIG.N) failed to persuade a California judge to dismiss a lawsuit by Pacific Investment Management Co that accuses AIG of lying about its subprime mortgage exposure prior to the 2008 financial crisis. Judge Thierry Patrick Colaw of Orange County Superior Court, in a decision dated Tuesday, rejected AIG's argument that Pimco, a unit of German insurer Allianz SE (ALVG.DE), waited too long to sue over the alleged deception. But the judge said AIG can appeal immediately, noting that federal courts in comparable cases have reached differing conclusions over the proper time limit. Pimco is seeking to recoup losses allegedly suffered by more than 60 funds, including its flagship Pimco Total Return (PTTRX.O), over securities purchased between 2006 and 2008. Newport Beach, California-based Pimco sued AIG last year after opting out of a $970.5-million class-action settlement between the insurer and other investors. AIG had been accused of misleading investors about its exposure to subprime mortgages and credit default swaps, culminating in $182.3 billion of federal bailouts. Some plaintiffs opt out of class-action settlements when they hope to recover more by suing on their own. Pimco has about $1.5 trillion of assets under management. AIG spokesman Jon Diat in a statement said the New York-based company disagreed with Colaw's decision and will argue on appeal that "the more recent and better-reasoned decisions of the federal courts of appeal should be followed." Pimco declined to comment on Colaw's decision. AIG had brought related litigation in U.S. District Court in Manhattan seeking to thwart Pimco's federal securities law claim. A judge there ruled on April 18 that letting the California court handle the case was better than "piecemeal" litigation. The case is Pacific Investment Management Co et al v. American International Group Inc, California Superior Court, Orange County, No. 30-2015-00779738-CU-SL-CXC. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler) The future of the Air Forces bomber and fighter fleet may not involve human pilots. A pair of experts argue in Defense One that the new B-21 bomber, also known as the Long Range-Strike Bomber, should be designed with an unmanned option that can be used as soon as the plane is operational. Related: The F-35s Billion-Dollar Brain Fails an IQ Test The next-generation aircraft is supposed to enter service, with a crew, sometime in the mid-2020s. The Pentagon has indicated it could fly without pilots on board one day, but doesnt seem to be in hurry to make that option a reality, a delay the experts call a grave mistake. Designing an unmanned version of the plane, which is currently estimated to cost more than $100 billion over its lifetime, would increase the U.S. militarys operational flexibility, providing much-needed endurance and persistence at only a marginal increase in cost, the analysts from the Center for a New American Security write. They contend that a pilotless plane might fare better against new air defenses being developed by China, Russia and Iran. An uninhabited B-21 could have much greater refueled endurance and persistence than it could with people onboard, enabling it to conduct ultra-long missions for example, loitering in or near enemy territory until a target presents itself, they wrote. Untethered from pilot endurance limits, a B-21 could stay aloft for days with aerial refueling, and could marshal many more sorties in an extended campaign, they added. Related: How the Air Force Is Stopping Hackers and Lawmakers from Leaking B-21 Secrets The B-21 isnt the only next-generation aircraft that could be unmanned. Many experts, including Senate Armed Services Committee chair John McCain (R-AZ), believe that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is the last hurrah for manned attack jets. We think that the Navy should be looking at drones to replace manned aircraft. I believe that the F-35 is the last manned fighter aircraft," McCain told National Journal last year. Story continues "The F-35 should be, and almost certainly will be, the last manned strike-fighter aircraft the Department of the Navy will ever buy or fly, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said in a 2015 speech. Of course, a big concern with developing unmanned aircraft is that it could get very expensive. Take the F-35. Years of delays have driven the programs price tag to nearly $400 billion. Now imagine if the Pentagon had also tried to develop an unmanned option, too; costs would have likely risen even higher, perhaps substantially so. On the other hand, the CNAS experts argue that many existing human-inhabited aircraft already have sophisticated autopilot features, which are steadily expanding to a broader range of functions. Related: How the Air Forces New Planes Could Bankrupt the Pentagon Even so, defense contractors are still trying to come up with autonomous technology that is mature and reliable. Theres another issue as well: The Air Force is run by a bunch of people used to flying planes, and the move to unmanned aircraft could create a culture clash between fighter jocks and tech geeks. To their credit, service officials have acknowledged the eventual need for an uninhabited option. But their lack of urgency is consistent with a general lethargy about such systems outside of reconnaissance and counterterrorism-strike missions, the experts note. For the good of the joint force, the Air Force must move beyond this reluctance. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: Air Products and Chemicals Inc. APD will introduce and display its new continuous dew point monitoring system, along with its existing range of industrial gases, equipment and technology solutions for powder metallurgy and additive production at Powdermet 2016 in Boston, MA, from Jun 67. With the introduction of this system, the company continues with its goal of helping metal processors improve quality and reduce costs. Dew point measures the moisture composition in a furnace atmosphere and can widely differ from a fairly wet, oxidizing atmosphere in the pre-heat zone to a dry atmosphere in the hot and cooling zones. In order to get the optimum delubrication and consistency of the sintered product, it is important to maintain appropriate atmospheric conditions in each furnace zone. Manually monitoring the atmospheric conditions can be erroneous. Therefore, Air Products has provided a solution with a system to measure and control the same. The system also allows the sensors to self-clean, preventing any impact on accuracy. It enables manufacturers to comply with CQI-9 and NADCAP requirements, and lets operators plan ahead of their furnace shutdowns. Manufacturers can visit Air Products booth at the event and discuss individual operational problems with the representatives. The companys technical experts will help producers with problems related to applications and processes, including powder production, sintering, heat treating and additive manufacturing. Air Products conducts the research and development for metal processing in its Allentown, PA laboratory. The company also tests for customer operational problems by simulating and troubleshooting at this facility. Air Products recently featured its range of industrial gases and technologies to help steelmakers reduce costs at AISTech 2016 in Pittsburg, PA. The company also introduced a new business unit to help hydrogen producers increase productivity and reliability at their own plants. Story continues Air Products saw higher profits in the second quarter of fiscal 2016 (ended Mar 31, 2016), backed by restructuring and self-help measures. Adjusted earnings of $1.82 per share for the quarter beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate, while revenues of $2,271.2 million missed the same. The company reported double-digit EPS growth for the seventh consecutive quarter. Air Products expects earnings from continuing operations in the third quarter of fiscal 2016 to be higher than the prior-year quarter by 13%16%. The company raised its earnings guidance for fiscal 2016 from $7.25$7.50 to $7.40$7.55 per share. However, it lowered its capital expenditure guidance by $0.1 billion to $1.2 billion. Air Products currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked companies in the chemical space include Innophos Holdings Inc IPHS, Albemarle Corporation ALB and BASF SE BASFY, all sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report BASF SE (BASFY): Free Stock Analysis Report AIR PRODS & CHE (APD): Free Stock Analysis Report ALBEMARLE CORP (ALB): Free Stock Analysis Report INNOPHOS HLDGS (IPHS): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Beirut (AFP) - At least 42 civilians including five children were killed in regime, Russian and US-led coalition air strikes in northern Syria on Wednesday, a monitor said. Regime air strikes killed 15 civilians in Idlib province, while Russian and regime air strikes killed at least 11 civilians in neighbouring Aleppo province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Seven of those died in regime raids on a bus on the Castello road, a key supply route for the rebels out of the divided provincial capital of Aleppo city, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said. Air strikes by the US-led coalition killed a further six civilians in Aleppo's Manbij town and 10 in Raqa city in the province of the same name, both held by the Islamic State jihadist group, he said. The international coalition fighting IS on Wednesday said it had conducted 18 air strikes near Manbij, which is located some 20 miles (30 kilometres) west of the Euphrates river. Last week, a US-backed Kurdish and Arab alliance launched an assault on IS north of their de facto Syria capital Raqa, seizing dozens of villages in the north of the Raqa province. At least 280,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since the Syria war started with the brutal repression of anti-government protests in 2011. By Tim Hepher HAMBURG, May 31 (Reuters) - The crash of a missing EgyptAir jet has strengthened the case for "black boxes" that can pop out of an aircraft before an accident, removing the need for challenging searches on the seabed, Airbus' most senior engineer said on Tuesday. Investigators are searching in some of the deepest waters of the Mediterranean for flight recorders from an EgyptAir Airbus A320 which crashed on May 19, killing 66 people. The jet's flight recorders or "black boxes" are designed to emit acoustic signals for 30 days after a crash, giving search teams fewer than three weeks to spot them in waters up to 9,840-feet (3,000-meters) deep, which is on the edge of their range. "If we have a deployable recorder it will be much easier to find," Airbus Executive Vice President for Engineering Charles Champion told a media event. "We have been working on that and this only reinforces our overall approach." Ejectable or "deployable" recorders would separate from the tail during a crash and float, emitting a distress signal. Recommended by investigators after an Air France A330 jet crashed in 2009, the idea came to the fore after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 in March 2014. The United Nations' aviation agency, the International Civil Aviation Organization, has called for key data to be recoverable in a "timely manner" on airplanes delivered after 2021. But it will be left to airlines and manufacturers to decide how to meet the goal, whether through deployable recorders or other technology such as new homing methods or data streaming. Deployable recorders have long been used in the military. But some in the industry have expressed doubts about their safe use on civil airliners, saying they could be deployed accidentally and introduce new risks. Airbus said last year it was talking to regulators about adding deployable devices to its two largest models of jets. U.S. planemaker Boeing is more sceptical, citing instances where they have failed on warplanes. Story continues A series of accidents over water including the Egyptair disaster and wider safety issues are likely to be discussed at a meeting of global airlines in Dublin this week. Teams are racing against the clock to find the EgyptAir black boxes, partly because rules that would extend the duration and range of their acoustic pingers do not take effect until 2018. (Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) By Abdirahman Hussein, Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber crashed his vehicle into a gate outside a hotel frequented by lawmakers in the centre of the Somali capital Mogadishu on Wednesday and the attack was followed by gunfire, killing at least 10 people, police said. Al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab militants quickly claimed responsibility for the attack at the Hotel Ambassador and one police offcer said some fighters might be inside the hotel. Colonel Ali Mohamed, a Mogadishu police officer, said the hotel on Maka Al Mukaram Road was hit by a car bomb that rammed its gate. "We believe there are some fighters in the hotel but we are not sure. So far we have confirmed three people died and a dozen others injured," Major Ibrahim Hassan, a second police officer told Reuters. Police later said there were 10 people killed and the toll was likely to rise further. Maka Al Mukaram is a major street lined with hotels, restaurants and banks in the heart of the capital that links another major artery, K4, to the presidential palace. In February, at least nine people were killed when al Shabaab fighters set off a car bomb at the gate of a popular park near a hotel in the capital. In January, an attack on a beach-front restaurant killed at least 17 people.[nL8N16556F][nL8N156092] Al Shabaab, which seeks to topple Somalia's government, was driven out of Mogadishu by the African Union force AMISOM in 2011, and last year was ousted from strongholds elsewhere in the south by AMISOM and the Somali National Army. In other incidents, Somali security forces killed 17 al Shabaab fighters including the head of their intelligence unit and a man suspected of orchestrating a deadly attack on a Kenyan university in 2015, government officials said. In one incident, Mogadishu municipality spokesman Abdifatah Omar said, security forces killed a man known only as Daud who headed al Shabaab's intelligence wing, known as Amniyat. Omar did not say when he was killed or give other details. In the second incident, Abdirashid Hassan Abdi, the semi-autonomous Jubbaland regions security minister said its forces had killed 16 al Shabaab fighters in Bulagadud, some 30 km to the north of the Indian Ocean port of Kismayu. Among the dead, he said, was Mohamud Ali Dulyadeyn, suspected to have been the mastermind of an April 2015 attack on Garissa University that killed 148 people, the worst such assault in Kenya in almost 20 years. [nL6N0WZ08E] Four of those killed were al Shabaab officials, he added. "We also seized this car which belonged to Dulyadeyn. The four al Shabaab officials including Dulyadeyn were responsible for masterminding explosions." Al Shabaab, which aims to impose its own strict version of Islamic law across Somalia, had no immediate comment on the killings. (Additional reporting by Feisal Omar in Mogadishu; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Richard Balmforth) BERLIN, June 1 (Reuters) - German discounter Aldi is in the middle of a major family feud that could threaten the entire empire, the reclusive heir to part of the business has warned in his first ever interview. German brothers Karl and Theodor Albrecht pioneered the discount store concept, setting up two sister businesses serving north and south Germany in 1962 and then expanding to much of Europe as well as the United States and Australia. Theodor Albrecht Jr. is the heir to the Aldi North business, which runs discount stores in countries including Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain as well as the more upmarket Trader Joe's in the United States. In an interview with the Handelsblatt daily, Albrecht, Germany's second-richest man since the death of his father in 2010, said a legal battle with Babette, the widow of his late brother Berthold, was becoming a burden for the company. "My brother would turn in his grave if he knew what was going on," he told the newspaper. The paper said Babette succeeded via court action in installing two of her daughters to lead a foundation that controls Berthold's 19.5 percent stake in Aldi Nord, which has a say in strategic decisions along with two other foundations. Albrecht told Handelsblatt that the daughters could now block key company decisions, such as foreign expansion plans, leading to uncertainty at a time when competitors like Lidl are expanding and modernising their stores. Albrecht said the Aldi store network in France urgently needed upgrading as well as those in Denmark, while plans to modernise the chain in Germany have already been agreed. Handelsblatt said Babette and her five daughters reject the accusation and court documents show they have yet to block a major decision. Aldi has not opened stores in any new countries in recent years, although it is growing fast in the United States, both under the Aldi banner and Trader Joe's, while German rival Lidl is preparing to enter the U.S. market in 2018. For the original story click here: [https://global.handelsblatt.com/breaking/exclusive-aldi-heir-theo-albrecht-jr-warns-family-spat-threatening-retail-chain ] (Reporting by Emma Thomasson; editing by Adrian Croft) New details are emerging about the Houston shooting rampage on Sunday that left two dead including the gunman, who police identified Tuesday as Dionisio Garza III of California. On Wednesday, Garza, who served in the army and was discharged in 2013, drove from his home in California, where he lives with his sister, and arrived in Houston on Saturday, where he visited with friends, Lt. John McGalin of the Houston Police Department said at a press conference Tuesday. After that, police believe Garza, who apparently suffered from PTSD, intentionally turned off his phone and "deliberately went off the radar at 4 o'clock," McGalin said. The 25-year-old broke into a tire shop, where he appeared to spend the night, with friends and family unable to reach him, he said. The next morning, he emerged from the tire shop, which surprised employees at a nearby car wash off Memorial Drive, where he shot Eugene Linsomb, a longtime customer, in the neck, McGalin said. Linscomb was sitting in his Mercedes talking to the owner of the Memorial Hand Car Wash when a bare-chested Garza approached him, saying "That man's the devil," according to the Houston Chronicle. Garza told the car wash owners, "Y'all calm down. I'm not going to kill y'all, y'all are Christians," before they fled for safety, the Chronicle reports. Screaming about Jews and homosexuals, Garza retreated and came back an AR-15 assault rifle, yelling that the world was coming to an end, the Chronicle reports. He began shooting at passing cars and then at police cars that rushed to the scene after residents called 911 at 10:15 a.m. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. Residents barricaded themselves in their homes while passersby ducked for cover as Garga began shooting indiscriminately, striking a gas line at the Conoco gas station at Wycliffe and Memorial Drive, which erupted in flames. At that point, SWAT teams and snipers began to arrive on the scene. Some officers hunkered down in nearby homes. At 11:10 a.m., "the threat was eliminated," when a sniper fired four rounds at Garza, including the one that killed him, said McGalin. Besides allegedly gunning down two random people, Garza injured six others. "We donat know why he picked the location he picked," said McGalin. "It seems to be random." He said police believe he may have picked that particular location because of its "tactical advantage" over other areas. While police initially believed that John Wilson was a second shooter, McGalin clarified that he is a local resident who came to help. Garza shot him in the leg, but he is expected to survive, said McGalin who added that Wilson should have "stayed inside." Garza, according to McGalin, "had been suffering from some depression, I guess you would say." He appeared to be someone in a "mental health crisis at this point," he said. After leaving the military, Garza worked at various jobs, but seemed to be depressed, said McGalin. "His family said he wasnat feeling right and left to come and hang out with his friends and try to find work here." As far as police can tell, there are "no links to terrorism or anything like that," McGalin said. Police do not believe this was a hate crime, he added. In April, the state of Mississippi did something unusual. It made the definition of man and woman a matter of law: Male (man) or female (woman) refer to an individuals immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy and genetics at time of birth. The Magnolia state is not alone in grappling with the meaning of gender and sex. This spring, after North Carolinas legislature ordered public agencies and local school boards to allow people to use only public bathrooms that correspond to their biological sex at birth, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it is suing the state. A similar bathroom bill was passed and vetoed earlier this spring in South Dakota. And the people of Washington will vote on a bathrooms ballot initiative in November. America is experiencing a period of profound gender anxiety. Mainstream understandings of gender are changing, which may be why Mississippi legislators felt the need to codify concepts that have always seemed culturally implicit. Perhaps because the stakes are so basic, both sides tend to draw the other as caricatures: Those opposed to transgender bathroom rights are obvious bigots; those who support them want to allow men in womens bathrooms and enable other predatory behavior. Recommended: The Seven Broken Guardrails of Democracy Bigotryfear or animus toward transgender peopleis undoubtedly part of the outcry over bathrooms. But thats not a sufficient explanation. To some Americans, maleness and femaleness is a basic, absolute part of what makes us human, a fact that undergirds their faith, sense of self, and daily life. To others, gender is mutable, ambiguous, and ultimately chosen. American culture has been shifting in this direction for some time, pushed along by academic gender theorists, the sexual revolution, and the gay-rights movement. But even as feminists argued for decades that gender is socially constructed and multi-formed, and increasing numbers of people became open about being gay, lesbian, or bisexual, most Americans remained comfortable with the notion that some people are men and some people are women. All of a sudden, a different consensus seems to have emerged. Story continues Culture can be selectively avoided, but the law cannot. Although some states have long protected transgender peoples access to public spaces, like bathrooms, those laws have been scattershotroughly half the country does not have them. Until very recently, the federal government has not definitively protected transgender rights. Now, state governments that formerly did not concern themselves with these issues are being forced to confront them. And so are their people. In some sense, Americas new wave of gender anxiety began with something very straight: marriage. Although recent debates have focused on trans people and bathrooms, they were enabled by the U.S. Supreme Courts decision to legalize gay marriage in the summer of 2015. The strategy behind the same-sex-marriage campaign has been well-documented: LGBT advocates purposefully tried to make gay marriage seem as disconnected from sex as possible by putting older lesbians on ads and focusing on love over sexual freedom. Yet, some gender bending is implicit: Married to a person of the same sex, men and women have to define and reinvent how they relate to one another. Recommended: What's a Republican Woman to Do? So long as its just been an institution thats made up of a man and a woman, a husband and a wife, [marriage] has had a kind of stabilizing effect, said Katherine Franke, a law and gender-studies professor at Columbia University. Allowing gay people to get married is destabilizing a gender binary, she said. I think its very unsettling to people, so it makes absolute sense to me that the next place they would go with that anxiety is targeting transgender people. At first, legislators focused on giving legal cover to business owners, government officials, and clergy who did not want to participate in same-sex-marriage ceremonies. These kinds of exemption bills, ostensibly created to protect religious conscience, are still being debated in statehouses around the country. They are a clear, direct reaction to the Supreme Courts same-sex marriage decision. But why did bathrooms come next? These bills seem to be about something slightly different. Theyre not objections to what people dohaving gay sex, for example, or getting married to a person of the same sex. Theyre objections to what people are, which isnt tied to any particular act. It doesnt really matter who transgender people have sex with, or if they have sex at all. What matters is their status: If a person is designated a boy or girl at birth, the objectors say, thats what determines his or her gender for life. There are a number of possible answers to the question, why bathrooms? This is one of the last remaining gendered spaces in public life, where women and men are divided and body parts exposed. And transgender people consistently struggle with bathroom accesswhich can lead to higher rates of attempted suicidemaking this a key issue for advocates. Recommended: The Art of the Swindle But theres also a more complicated explanation: Non-traditional notions of gender have finally become widespread enough to foment a sustained backlash. For a long time, the federal government hung back on creating firm protections for transgender people. But it has taken this question up in fits and starts over the last several years, recently making an unambiguous stand. The Justice Department maintains North Carolinas bathroom law qualifies as sex discrimination under Title VII and Title IX of the Civil Rights Act. United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch compared the legislation to Jim Crow in a recent press conference: State-sanctioned discrimination never looks good in hindsight, she said. As the federal government takes steps to create protections for transgender peoplewhich, quietly, it hasstates will have less of a say in questions like where transgender people can use the bathroom. In one sense, these legal protections are everything. Comprehensive legislation would outlaw discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations and provide protections in arenas such as health care. The law is essential for making sure transgender people can move through the world free from violence and harassment, and mitigating the side effects of extreme marginalization, including significantly higher rates of depression and suicide. But its also curious that these questions are being hashed out via lawsuits and legislation. This is a very recent dynamic, where legislatures feel they need to define what it is to be a man and what it is to be a woman, Franke said. The law is an imperfect tool for shaping culturea back-up cudgel for times when softer methods of persuasion dont work. The fact that legislators in overreach-hating, small-government-loving states like Mississippi and North Carolina have resorted to the law to protect their notions of gender shows the depth of their panic about these ambient cultural shifts. Politicians are taking note. In the dying days of his campaign, Ted Cruz picked transgender bathroom accessnot the economy, not the fight against ISIS, not abortionas his last hope to win conservatives away from Donald Trump. He stumped hard on the issue in the days before the Indiana primary, proclaiming the country had gone stark raving nuts. The law is a back-up cudgel for times when softer methods of persuasion dont work. It didnt work. Trumpwho has said he would let Caitlyn Jenner, the transgender former Olympic athlete, use any bathroom in Trump Towerbeat him by a wide margin. Yet, Trumps own rhetoric often emphasizes his masculinity and stresses the importance of traditional gender roles. Gender is becoming a new litmus test in the culture wars. Thats one reason its so important to understand why, exactly, the specter of men in womens bathrooms causes such anxietyto understand its parts, beyond simple hatred. Progressives may believe attitudes on gender and sexuality will go the way of race, with history neatly arcing toward acceptance, aided by generational replacement and a bit of federal strong-arming. But just as that story doesnt really capture the evolution of race relations in the United States, so the progressive narrative might not hold true on gender. While these bathroom bills may be a temporary flare-up, the divisions underlying them are foundational, and unlikely to be resolved by the Supreme Court or the Justice Department. One word that consistently shows up in legislation about bathrooms and same-sex-wedding vendors is religion. These bills claim to protect people with sincerely held religious beliefs about the nature of men and women. Some opponents of gay marriagelargely conservative Christiansfear being legally compelled to participate in these ceremonies, with which they disagree. The exemption language tends to echo that in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a federal law thats been emulated by many states, which was designed to protect Americans from being forced to violate their religious beliefs. Many publications have started using scare quotes or so-called when they write about these putatively religious claims, implying skepticism that refusal to serve LGBT people in any context is a matter of conviction rather than bigotry. The two motivationsconviction and bigotryare difficult to tease apart. Particularly in the United States, a country that remains more religious that its Western peers, faith and culture are in a feedback loop, complementing, responding, and reacting to one another. This is especially true when it comes to trans people in public bathrooms. Wisdom from the Bible can be brought to bear on any question, but on this issue, the ideas at stake are foundational. They are part of the way of reading the Bible, going back to Genesis said R. Marie Griffith, a professor of religion and politics at Washington University in St. Louis. Theres this belief that God created man, and out of man, he created woman. And these are really crystal-clear categories. Theres something very deep and fundamental about that for the Christians who have a way of thinking about the Bible as the word of God. The idea that someone might not identify with the gender that corresponds to the sex assigned to them at birth directly contradicts those categories. Anything that challenges that idea, of the clarity of gender, is really suspect. Its anxiety-producing, and it makes people angry, Griffiths said. Some Christian leaders have tried to wrestle thoughtfully with this challenge to their beliefs on gender. Russell Moore, who leads the Southern Baptist Conventions political arm, responded to Caitlin Jenners Vanity Fair cover with empathy, writing, We do not see our transgendered neighbors as freaks to be despised. They feel alienated from their identities as men or women In a fallen universe, all of us are alienated, in some way, from who we were designed to be. To Moore, gender is part of how humans are created by God, and it is not our role to change that. Many others share Moores belief, but without the same degree of empathy. Christians are used to being challenged on the truth of the Bible; after all, a core component of the faith is sharing the good news of Jesus with those who dont yet know him. But challenges to the Bibles description of gender attack something basic. And in some communities, these challenges are relatively new. This may be why the language of the bathroom backlash hasnt been overtly religious. It has been the language of self-evident truthgender difference as a fact that requires not faith, but logic, to understand. The bathroom backlash hasnt been overtly religious. It has been argued in the language of self-evident truth. Its common sense, said Vicki Wilson, a parent who is part of a lawsuit against an Illinois school district that has let a transgender student use the girls locker and restrooms. All children must be protected and respected, and having common sense, reasonable boundaries in these private, intimate spaces is protected by law, she said. Under an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education that took effect in January, Township High School District 211 agreed to let Student A, as the transgender child is called in the legal proceedings, have access to girls facilities. Student A is to use a private changing station behind a curtain, and any other girls in the school are also allowed to use these stations. The other girls can also request further accommodation, like changing in a single-stall facility or getting their own schedule for using the bathroom. With this new policy, the lawsuit claims, the 14-to-17-year-old girls at William Fremd High School experience embarrassment, humiliation, anxiety, fear, apprehension, stress, degradation, and loss of dignity because they will have to use the locker room and restroom with a biological male. They dont want this person to see them without their clothes on, and they dont want to have to look. They are afraid of having to attend to their most personal needs, especially during a time when their body is undergoing often embarrassing changes as they transition from childhood to adulthoodtheir periods, in other words. According to the filing, some girls avoid going to the bathroom to avoid sharing it with the transgender student, thus risking certain health problems; they wear their gym clothes under their regular clothes so they never have to be naked at school; or theyre late for class because of the time they spend looking for an empty restroom. As much as anything, this is an issue of body parts. If Student A has a penis, as the filing seems to imply, the girls may be uncomfortable for reasons similar to those that led Student A to ask to use the girls facilities. But more broadly, this is also a question about gender roles. In a recent PRRI / The Atlantic poll, 42 percent of Americans said they believe society is becoming too soft and feminine. Thirty-nine percent said they believe society is better off when men and women stick to the jobs and tasks they are naturally suited for, including 44 percent of Republicans and 58 percent of white evangelical Protestants. These numbers suggest nervousness about fluid gender identitiesand that America isnt even close to a consensus that men and women should choose the way they act. Its no accident that the bathroom backlash has been framed in terms of sexual violence. If menthe putatively stronger, more powerful, and more physically intimidating sexare allowed in womens bathrooms, the argument goes, women will be in danger of sexual assault. What were looking at is a sex panic, said Franke, the Columbia professor. Bathroom-based fear, particularly framed in the context of the safety of women, is not new. One of the arguments against the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment is that it would require the dismantling of sex-segregated bathrooms, and that would be horrible both with respect to the privacy of women and the safety of women, she said. If transgender people are able to use the bathroom of their choice, that suggests women are perfectly safe when former men, or women who have masculine characteristics, enter their intimate spaces. Part of the threat here is that women are saying they do not need protection from men. That has long been a source of anger for men and women who believe in this notion of female submission to male authority, said Griffiths. At least in part, men who are supporting this are reasserting a protective role. Queer sex acts can be private. Queer gender expression requires acknowledgement and acceptance. In situations like the high-school bathroom, further work-arounds might be possible. The parents in the Illinois lawsuit, for example, say they support the possibility of an alternate arrangement for Student A, such as providing a single-stall restroom. (Although according to the lawsuit, Student A was dissatisfied with this original arrangement.) Arguably, this is as much a problem of school set-up as gender. What we have to do in the schools is to increase privacy for all students, said Mara Keisling, the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. School lockers rooms arent being built anymore with wide-open dressing rooms and wide-open locker rooms. Nobody likes that. Nobody feels comfortable getting naked in front of strangersespecially teenagers. But theres also a tension inherent in this conflict. Student A perceives herself to be female. The girls do not agree. Wilson said she empathizes with Student As feelings of discomfort, but kids should have a right to choose when they are seen in a state of undress by the opposite sex, whether or not that child identifies as the opposite sex, she said. Many of us raise our kids to have modesty, and somebody else shouldnt be able to come in and decide what your modesty should entail. That should be a personal decision. Although this particular case is a legal dispute over rightswhether one students claim of sex discrimination should trump other students claims of a privacy violationits evidence that a cultural truce over gender expression might not be possible. Queer sex acts can be private. Queer gender expression requires acknowledgement and acceptance. Trans people ask to be recognized as their chosen gender in everyday interactions. Going to the bathroom may be the most obvious, because parts are exposed and people may feel vulnerable. But these interactions include everything from securing IDs to seeking medical help to interacting with employers or salespeople or friends. Being seen is not primarily a matter of legal rights. Its cultural: the composite of a thousand moments of locking eyes with someone in a restroom mirror and feeling fear, or not. Can Americans live divided on issues of gender expression? On most political issues in the United States, theres an acceptable band of opinion. Progressives and conservatives might disagree on topics like taxes, military spending, or entitlement reform, but opponents dont typically see each other as hateful for their views. Debates over identity, however, are not this straightforward. They are personal, and carry a moral valence. While there is arguably still an acceptable band of racism in America, it has shifted. Those who believe it is right to enslave other humans as chattel or send black people to the back of the bus are a tiny minority, and most everywhere, those views are roundly shamed and condemned. Categorically denying someones personhood on the basis of race is no longer acceptable in mainstream American culture. For people who are trans, or who express their gender in non-stereotypical ways, gender is part of their personhood. When the parents and kids of William Fremd High School tell a student who identifies as female that she is a biological male, that is a denial of who she says she is. Many Americans think its fine for trans people to express their gender however they want. But as the bathroom controversies have shown, many others do not. For some, this may reflect some combination of fear or lack of knowledge. Ignorance isnt always bigotry, said Keisling. I dont think everybody is a hateful bigot. But I wish they would go out and meet some trans people and understand that were spectacular, and not a threat, and I wish politicians would leave our children alone. And its true: Exposure and education may change peoples views on bathroom access. This is largely what happened with people who are lesbian, gay, and bisexual, said Brian Powell, a professor at the University of Indianaas more Americans met gay people, gay people became more accepted. Regarding transgender issues, were still at a really early stage on this, and in a very early stage of where its going to go, he said. Right now, [people] have a visceral reaction. This is not unlike peoples views about same-sex marriage from 10 or 15 years ago. Yet, its not clear that T will go the same way as L, G, and B. Transgender people make up a tiny portion of the American populationthe numbers alone will make it harder for people to resolve these issues by education and exposure alone. Meanwhile, many Americans believe in the firmness of gender as a matter of conviction. They dont see male and female as socially constructed, mutable categories, perhaps because God created them, or perhaps simply because that is what they believe. It will never be possible to completely disentangle conviction and bigotrybelief shapes prejudice, and prejudice shapes belief. But parents like those concerned about the girls locker rooms at William Fremd High School seem unlikely to change their views any time soon. And though their kids generation will likely be, on average, much more open to fluid gender expression than their parents, the lawsuit suggests that some of these beliefs are being passed to the next generation. Gender is not going to disappear. Its part of how people navigate the world, a shorthand for understanding others, a set of cues for reading and placing them and interpreting them. It is central to how people understand themselves, whether theyre conservative Christians or choosing to transition. Calls for pluralism fail to take this seriouslyhow deeply gender shapes people, and how viscerally both camps feel about its (im)mutability. Fights over bathrooms may seem trivial, but they are the logical meeting ground for this battle over the definition of gender, sitting between two irreconcilable camps on what it means to be a person. Read more from The Atlantic: This article was originally published on The Atlantic. If you're comparison shopping flights for you summer vacation, take note: Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines and JetBlue were named as the airlines with the best customer service in the industry. These rankings are based on the 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings, an annual customer experience ranking of companies using the opinions of 10,000 consumers in the U.S. This is the seventh year of the survey, which is conducted by Temkin Group, a research and consulting firm. The survey asks consumers about their experiences with different companies and ranks them based on three main elements how successful consumers are at doing what they set out to do with the brand, how easy/difficult it is to work with the brand, and how consumers feel about their experience with each brand. Southwest has earned the top spot every year since the report was first issued in 2011, except in 2015 when JetBlue overtook the leading position. Southwest is back on top again in the airlines category this year, coming in at 52nd place overall out of the almost 300 companies ranked in 20 different industries. While Southwest earned a 67% approval rating that caused it to lead the nine airlines that were ranked, Spirit Airlines made the bottom of the list, with only a 40% approval rating. Paul Berry, a Spirit Airlines spokesman, said the carrier felt the survey didn't have enough criteria to rank the airlines fairly because it treated every airline the same when they each have different value propositions. "They certainly didn't ask the question on their survey about what customers say over and over is most important in choosing an airline, which is price," Berry said. "If that's the case, we win every time. But we get it and we are certainly doing some things currently that will hopefully improve our rankings in the future." Here is how each airline included in the survey ranked. 1. Southwest Airlines: 67% 2. Alaska Airlines: 62% 2. JetBlue Airlines: 62% 4. Delta Airlines: 59% Story continues 5. Virgin America: 55% 6. American Airlines: 52% 7. United Airlines: 51% 8. US Airways: 48% 9. Spirit Airlines: 40% Whichever airline you prefer to fly with, flights can get expensive. You can cut back on some of the extra fees with airline credit cards and even get rewards points that help you pay for your next flight (you can check out our independent ranking of the best airline credit cards on the market here). But keep in mind that, while these credit cards offer some perks you may enjoy, getting into credit card debt to save on checking a suitcase simply isn't worth it. (You can see how paying your credit cards off in full each month helps your credit score by reviewing your free credit report summary for free each month on Credit.com.) More from Credit.com Kurdish People's Protection Units syria US-backed forces are finally moving toward Raqqa, ISIS' de facto capital in Syria. But the plan to retake the city and surrounding areas from the militants is burdened by a potentially fatal flaw: The alliance that is leading the effort on the ground, the Syrian Democratic Forces, is dominated by Kurdish fighters with the People's Protection Units, also known as the YPG. Raqqa's population is mostly Arab, and residents of the city are wary of a Kurdish force potentially moving in to control it. "People don't want the SDF to control the city because in general most of the people of Raqqa are not welcoming the YPG," Abu Ibrahim al-Raqqawi, an activist with the group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, told Business Insider. "They say, 'At least if we stay under ISIS control and we keep our mouths closed and don't do anything bad, at least we can stay in our homes.' If the YPG controls our city, we cannot go back," said Raqqawi, who uses a pseudonym. Raqqawi noted that the YPG had been accused of exiling Arabs from their homes in towns the Kurdish fighters had liberated from ISIS, which is also known as the Islamic State, ISIL, or Daesh. But others say these concerns are overblown. "I was in Tal Abyad (part of Raqqa province) today and yesterday, and Arabs tell me a different story," Wladimir van Wilgenburg, an analyst with The Jamestown Foundation who has been traveling with Kurdish forces, told Business Insider. "According to people I spoke to," he added, "people of Raqqa don't care so much who liberates the city. As long as the city is not controlled by ISIS, and they'd rather have it as fast as possible." So far, the SDF is focusing on territory surrounding Raqqa rather than on the city itself. Before the alliance can move in on the city, however, it will need a proper contingent of Arab fighters. It's unclear where the appropriate number of fighters will come from or how long it will take to amass them, but the US recently dispatched special-operations forces to the area to recruit and train Arab fighters. Story continues But the SDF might be Kurdish-dominated by design, as Sam Heller, a writer and analyst on Syria, said on Twitter. He pointed out that the "Arab, Raqqa-native component of the SDF seems to be too small and fragmented" to retake the city and that the YPG wants to keep that Arab force small and under its tutelage. Raqqawi said Raqqa residents wanted fighters associated with the Free Syrian Army, a coalition group of rebels that aims to topple to government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. "Most of the FSA is from the Syrian revolution," Raqqawi said. Raqqa residents want the FSA "to be part of this they don't want foreigners to control them," he continued, adding that Raqqa residents wouldn't consider the city "liberated" if it were done at the hands of Kurdish fighters. "We can say 'controlling the city,'" Raqqawi said. "So people are saying, 'ISIS is controlling us,' or 'SDF is controlling us.' They are all foreigners, they are not from the city. People of Raqqa get tired of this." syria Ryan Crocker, a career US ambassador who has worked across the Middle East including as the ambassador to Syria, told Business Insider that involving Kurdish forces in an offensive against Raqqa would be "dangerously counterproductive." "Your average Sunni Arab would find it hard to choose between domination by Islamic State and domination by the Kurds," Crocker said. "The only way forward, in my view, is to increase a coherent, multifaceted effort to reach out to and work with the Sunni Arab forces that are not affiliated with Islamic State or with [Jabhat] al-Nusra," Al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria. He later added: "Islamic State isn't going to be defeated by the Kurds. As a matter of fact, the Kurds will be a pretty good recruiting tool for them." A Kurdish offensive on Raqqa could encourage some Sunni Arabs in the city to align with ISIS, which markets itself as a protector of Sunnis. "People are going to the side of ISIS because they are thinking, 'At least they are Sunni Arabs,'" Raqqawi said. Regardless of the ethnic and sectarian dynamics at play, the YPG have proved to be one of the most effective fighting forces against ISIS, and the US is short on other options for partnerships. Crocker suggested groups like Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Islam, but both have been associated with extremism. Still, "we need to rethink" working with them, Crocker said. "Neither of those two groups are going for a caliphate," he said, referring to the territory ISIS holds in Iraq and Syria. "Neither of them have a terror track record. Basically, I think the litmus test should be, if they'll work with us, we'll work with them." Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and an expert on Al Qaeda and its affiliates, cautioned against this kind of litmus test. "Both Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Islam are extremist organizations," he told Business Insider in an email. "Ahrar al-Sham's propaganda is openly jihadist. No one could possibly think it is anything but an extremist group." Joscelyn noted that Jaish al-Islam had cooperated with Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra at times as well. And regardless of whether it's officially affiliated with either group, Joscelyn said, "Jaish al-Islam advocates an extremist version of Sunni Islam and is not moderate in any reasonable sense of the word." NOW WATCH: Heres the $5.3 million mansion the Obamas will reportedly live in after the White House More From Business Insider He's ba-ack! On Tuesday, May 31, Simon Cowell returned to the judges table this time for America's Got Talent's season 11 premiere. PHOTOS: Biggest Costar Feuds Ever! These Celebrities Cant Stand Each Other Off-Screen ICYMI, Howard Stern (rather suddenly) departed the hit show after four seasons of appraising the performers, and now Cowell who also happens to have created the show has taken the shock jock's place. The American Idol alum joins mainstay judges Howie Mandel, Mel B and Heidi Klum, along with host Nick Cannon. Ventriloquist Paul Zerdin won season 10 and snapped up the $1 million prize before heading to Las Vegas, where he headlined at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino. Read on for Us Weekly's minute-by-minute updates as the blunt Cowell weighed in on the showbiz hopefuls! (Start at the bottom of this post if you want to read it in chronological order.) PHOTOS: Unlikely Celebrity Couples 9:59 p.m. ET: 13-Year-Old Laura Belts Out Some Opera It's not over until the teenager sings or something like that. Thirteen-year-old Laura blew all the judges away as she belted out a few minutes' worth of opera. When she finished, she was in tears (of relief), and all four judges were on their feet. Heidi called her gift "unbelievable," and Simon revealed he didn't think she was going to be able talk, let alone sing. He said he had never heard anything like it in all of his years. "What made it even better is that you are such a sweet person, so humble," Cowell said. Howie agreed it was amazing, and Mel B then hit the Golden Buzzer to secure Laura's fate. (The Golden Buzzer works!) 9:45 p.m. ET: Everyone Is Forced to Watch Grossest Magic Show Ever Umm. Well, a man did some tricks involving putting a meat hook in his nose and out his mouth and that was just the beginning. Heidi couldn't handle the ick factor, but the other three judges said yes. No comment. PHOTOS: Stars They're Just Like Us! Story continues 9:36 p.m. ET: Simon Calls Performer Who Doesn't Say a Word "Brilliant" It was one of the stranger acts to perform on the show, but perhaps one of the best. While the genius behind the routine never spoke a word (not even his name!), his performance did all the talking. With his mouth covered in duct tape, he began by "singing" "Endless Love" via puppets made out of oven mitts. Then he transitioned to "Lady in Red" with his very own lady which, honestly, you have to see in order to appreciate. All of the judges loved it, but Simon was totally gaga, calling it "simple, clever, unique, funny and brilliant." Seriously, Simon's sweet streak has to run out soon, right? 9:30 p.m. ET: Charlie and Rose Aren't Good But Simon Loves Them Anyway They met at bereavement counseling. They started flirting and got kicked out of the group. Then they got married. Then they performed at America's Got Talent. They were terrible, but it hardly mattered because they were so charming. Simon called it "one of the worst acts" he'd ever seen, but admitted he couldn't take his eyes off them. Simon questioned whether he should go with his head or his heart and he went with his heart, giving them the third yes they needed to go through. (Heidi said no; Mel and Howie said yes.) There was no doubt about it: Simon was being nice! PHOTOS: Reality TV's Breakout Stars 9:18 p.m. ET: Simon Invites a Contestant to Live With Him Not sure he had a chance to run this invitation by Lauren Silverman first, but in a moment of unbridled joy, Simon invited a contestant to come and live with him. After Hara performed a routine involving lots of fancy animated graphics and magic (some of which was undoubtedly lost over the broadcast compared to seeing it live), Simon said it made him so happy he "just didn't want it to end." The judge then proceeded to invite the Japanese native to "come back and live with me." For the record, the other judges were equally impressed though none of them offered to be Hara's new roommates and he went through to the next round with flying colors. 9:02 p.m. ET: Simon's Son and Baby Mama Came to Set A Spice Girls drag group was the first dud of the night. While the five performers clearly couldn't really sing or dance, Simon thought they were still "better than the original" and declared, "This is what the girls could have been like if they could sing." To be fair, though, he was laughing, so it was hard to take him too seriously. More importantly, however: In the midst of a montage showing the judges goofing off backstage, Simon could be seen hanging out on a sofa with his baby mama, Lauren Silverman, as their son, Eric, milled about nearby. Eventually, Eric curled up between his parents, and Simon seemed perfectly happy with that. Also, in case you hadn't seen any pics recently, Simon's son is super cute. PHOTOS: 2015's Babies of the Year 8:44 p.m. ET: Linkin Bridge Is Not What They Seem Though the four members of Linkin Bridge were rather soft-spoken (and dressed like hip-hop artists), they dazzled with their a cappella version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," which Simon called "sensational." They, too, flew through with four yeses and then the group members all broke down in tears. PHOTOS: American Idol Winners 8:35 p.m. ET: Simon Calls One Contestant a Witch (But It's a Compliment!) Though it would be hard to beat the dancing dog, a clairvoyant named Amelie managed to do so. As her partner (who she is dating, just for the record) pulled random items out of people's handbags, a blindfolded Amelie guessed details, such as the exact number of the shade of Heidi's lipstick, and the expiration date on Howie's eyedrops. How said it was the "most amazing thing" he'd ever seen, while Mel said she felt like she was in the Twilight Zone. Heidi called it "absolutely incredible," and Simon said there was only explanation and that the explanation was that Amelie was "a witch." Needless to say, this pair sailed through, too. 8:28 p.m. ET: Simon Wishes His Dog Could Dance Jose Fuentes danced with his partner, Carrie (who happened to be a dog). Heidi got bored after the first 15 seconds, but Simon admitted he wished his dog could do that. Simon, Mel and Howie all gave the dancing duo yeses, which put them through, despite Heidi's no. More importantly, however, Simon seemed to actually be nice? PHOTOS: Celebrity Kids Just Like Us! 8:16 p.m. ET: Introducing the Golden Buzzer (Also, Simon Cowell Is Back) Two major changes were highlighted from minute one: First, Simon Cowell has taken Howard Stern's place (but you knew that already). Second, there's a thing called the Golden Buzzer. By pushing it, a judge can send an act straight through to the live shows but each judge can only call upon this magic button once this season, so they can't just go crazy or anything. In other news, Simon didn't bother to shower or shave (OK, he may have showered) before showing up to work. Also, the first victim of the season err, we mean contestant performed. He was Nate, a 6-year-old comedian who stole all of the judges' hearts (even Simon's) and sailed through with four yeses. Tell Us: What did you think of Simon as a judge? America's Got Talent airs on NBC Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET. From Popular Mechanics On May 31st-exactly 100 years ago-the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet met for battle in the North Sea off the coast of Denmark. Over the course of a day and a night, 250 ships (151 of them British, the other 99 German) exchanged fire and performed a complex set of maneuvers in the Battle of Jutland, World War I's first and only major naval altercation. By the time it was over, more than 7,000 were dead and over 20 ships went down. This is how it played out. This fantastic and fantastically in-depth video narrated by Nick Jellicoe-whose grandfather was a British Admiral that fought in the battle-details every twist and turn in the clash between the navies, which contained its fair share of twists, turns, and impressive maneuvering given the limitations of the time, which included commands issued with flags and signal lamps. Ultimately neither force was able to complete defeat its opponent, and the battle was celebrated as a victory by Germany-which did inflicted more damage to the British fleet than it absorbed, despite a smaller size-even though the conflict ultimately left the British in control of the area. Today, in a world of aircraft carriers and submarines, naval warfare has permanently changed, but the Battle of Jutland stands a reminder of what it was like just a century before. Source: Nick Jellicoe via Popular Science envy concept, bored sad woman in front of computer Leases can be chock full of fine print, but a move by one Salt Lake City apartment complex may have apartment dwellers reading their next one very carefully before signing on the dotted line. City Park Apartments presented tenants with a Facebook Addendum late last week that requires them to like the building on the popular social media site within five days or otherwise be considered in breach of their lease, KSL-TV reports. The addendum, which was taped to residents doors, also reportedly includes a release that would allow the complex to post pictures of tenants and their visitors on their pageand a clause that prevents residents from posting anything negative about the community on any public forums or pages. (Editors note: A law firm representing City Park said the complex has sent an update to residents that they will not be in violation of their lease if they opt not to sign the addendum.) It was brought to KSLs attention by a tenant who considered the addendum outrageous and a violation of my privacy. The law firm representing City Park Apartments told Credit.com in an email that the complex, as part of opening its pool and an anticipated pool party desired to provide some protection to its residents and its owners from usage of photos on its Facebook page from all community events. The Facebook addendum was provided to them to assist in that protection, the firm wrote. That addendum went beyond the request and intent of City Park Apartments, and was not carefully reviewed to ensure that it met with their needs and requests. At no time was any resident in jeopardy of eviction or action from City Park for failure to sign the addendum or friend City Park Apartments. City Park has not implemented the addendum nor is it requiring its residents to execute it. The firm did not respond immediately to follow-up questions from Credit.com regarding what protections, specifically, were being referenced. City Park Apartments Facebook page, which boosts a 1.1. star rating, is currently riddled with reviews from people calling the complex out on the policy. Story continues This is one of the most absurd requirements I have EVER heard, one Facebook user wrote. Facebook did not immediately respond to questions about whether it had any policies pertaining to this type of situation. Attorney Zachary Myers told KSL, however, that the City Park Apartments addendum had a few potential broader issues. The biggest issue that I have with it is that it seems to be discriminatory against elderly individuals and disabled individuals who are unable to utilize an online presence such as Facebook, he said. Attention, apartment shoppers Myers also told KSL that the complex may not be able to require tenants who already signed a lease to put their John Hancock on the add-on. Once you do sign the addendum, however, you could be legally beholden to the terms, he saida comment that underscores the importance of not blindly signing anything your landlordor companies in generalput in front of you. Youll want to be aware of any clauses that you may not agree with. And, of course, if youre in the market for a new apartment, you should check your credit. Most landlords pull a version of your credit report when deciding who to rent to, and you dont want any errors or surprises to cause you to miss out on a lease that aligns with what youre looking for in an apartment. (You can see where your credit currently stands by pulling your reports for free each year at AnnualCreditReport.com and viewing your credit scores for free each month on Credit.com.) This article was written by Jeanine Skowronski and originally published on Credit.com. More from Credit.com: The post Apartment Complex Orders Tenants to Like Its Facebook Page, or Else appeared first on Real Estate News and Advice - realtor.com. Related Articles Josh Harris Apollo The big banks' pain is private equity's gain. Regulators have forced banks to cut back on lending in the wake of the financial crisis a bid to stop the biggest lenders from inflating another credit bubble. The banks have to face more frequent reviews on leveraged lending and could be fined or face other sanctions if their activity is considered risky. That's creating an opportunity for alternative lenders, like private-equity firm Apollo Global Management, to fill that vacuum. The firm's credit business has $124 billion in assets under management, and was a major driver of its 23% compound annual growth rate from 2005 to 2016. Apollo cofounder Josh Harris said at a Deutsche Bank conference on Tuesday: Most of the growth in the credit business today is just taking advantage of in essence forced sellers, banks that are depressing market prices, and creating an arbitrage for us and our investors. That is going to go on for a while. I do think we benefit from regulation, and we are going to keep on filling the role of banks to provide capital. To be sure, even as they beef up their credit arms to help midsize companies fund deals, the alternative lenders are still a relatively tiny group, with just $500 billion in assets, compared with nearly $120 trillion in global banking assets. But to Apollo, that's just an opportunity to grow the business. a NOW WATCH: Here are all the big banks that paid Hillary Clinton for speeches in 2013 More From Business Insider An archaeologist thinks he has found the tomb of Aristotle at Stagira, an ancient city where the Greek philosopher lived for much of his life. But several other archaeologists say there is hardly enough evidence to link the tomb to Aristotle, and there's probably no way to confirm it either way. Even so, historical records do support the idea that Aristotle could be buried in the area. Konstantinos Sismanidis, the archaeologist who discovered the tomb in question, has told media outlets that he cannot be certain that the structure is Aristotle's tomb. [Bones with Names: Long-Dead Bodies Archaeologists Have Identified] Aristotle's ashes Now retired, Sismanidis announced the possible discovery of Aristotle's tomb in a paper presented recently at the Aristotle 2,400 Years World Congress, which marks 2,400 years since Aristotle's birth. The tomb, he said, is a small building with an altar and marble floor, and this building is located next to a larger, semicircular structure that could have functioned as a gathering place for the people of the city. "It's a public building, and it was constructed at the period of Alexander the Great," Sismanidis wrote in the summary of his presentation. Aristotle who taught and wrote on a wide range of subjects, including logic, metaphysics, ethics, poetry and biology was a tutor to Alexander. Though ancient records say Aristotle died on the island of Euboea in 322 B.C., Sismanidis noted that Arabic copies of a text written by a historian named Ptolemy (who lived from A.D. 90 to 168) say Aristotle's ashes were brought to Stagira (also spelled Stageira), where they were interred in a building constructed in his honor. No human remains or inscriptions mentioning Aristotle were discovered in the tomb at Stagira. Sismanidis first uncovered the building in 1996, and he has excavated at Stagira for more than 20 years. He plans to publish his findings this fall in a multivolume book, according to news reports. Story continues Skeptical reaction Since the announcement last week, media outlets all over the world have reported on the discovery of the supposed tomb. However, many of the archaeologists Live Science contacted expressed doubts about the discovery. "I would be skeptical, especially after the so-called discovery of Alexander's tomb at Amphipolis," said R. Angus Smith, a professor at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, who excavates in Greece. "It would be lovely if true, but I have not seen evidence to convince me of the connection." In September 2014, some media outlets and archaeologists speculated that a tomb found at Amphipolis in Macedonia (a historical region of Greece; not to be confused with the modern country of Macedonia) belonged to Alexander himself. However, further investigation revealed evidence, including an inscription, that the tomb likely belonged to the Macedonian king's friend, Hephaestion. [Photos: Mysterious Ancient Tomb in Amphipolis] "That the tomb found by Sismanidis at Stagira is that of Aristotle is a plausible suggestion but not a provable one, as the Greek archaeologist himself admits," said Jerome Pollitt, a professor of art history at Yale University. "Barring the discovery of an inscription, that state of affairs is unlikely to change." Spencer Pope, a classical archaeologist at McMaster University in Ontario, commented that "while the tomb at Stagira dates to the time of Aristotle and has a seemingly commensurable monumentality with the ancient philosopher, further evidence linking it with a specific historical figure would be needed for a convincing attribution." Perhaps the strongest reaction against Sismanidis' claim came from Edith Hall, a professor at the Centre for Hellenic Studies at King's College London. "Call me a cynic, but has archaeologist Kostas Sismanidis really found a single shred of evidence that the tomb excavated in ancient Stageira long ago in 1996 houses the remains of Aristotle?" she wrote in a post on her blog. "Releasing the information in the 2,400th anniversary year of Aristotle's birth strikes me as a little too much of a coincidence," she added. Sismanidis is not the first archaeologist who has claimed to have found Aristotle's tomb, Hall noted. In 1891, Charles Waldstein, an archaeologist at the American School of Archaeology of Athens, excavated a tomb at the site of Eretria that he claimed was Aristotle's. Waldstein claimed to have found writing instruments. "Waldstein's 'tomb of Aristotle' is much nearer [to] the place where the actual ancient sources said the philosopher died," Hall wrote. Voice of support Although most archaeologists Live Science contacted were skeptical of Sismanidis' claim, one researcher did voice support. "It is most likely his [Aristotle's] tomb," said Elizabeth Kosmetatou, a professor of ancient history at the University of Illinois. Kosmetatou told Live Science that she has heard that the structure uncovered by Sismanidis contains roof tiles stamped with Greek letters showing that they were produced at a royal workshop for pottery in Pella, the capital of ancient Macedonia. Those letters would indicate that the tomb and semicircular structure were public buildings that may have been financed by the city or the Kingdom of Macedonia. Ptolemy claimed that Aristotle's tomb became a focal point for the city of Stagira, meaning that public gatherings likely would have taken place there, Kosmetatou said. The semicircular structure beside the tomb would have been a good place for such meetings or other public events, she noted. "He's probably reliable," Kosmetatou said of the ancient historian, adding that just because Ptolemy's account survives only in Arabic doesn't mean it isn't accurate. Still, Kosmetatou said there is no way to be sure that Aristotle's tomb has been discovered. "We don't have the time machine to go there," she said. Original article on Live Science. Editor's Recommendations Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. SYDNEY, June 1 (Reuters) - Australian penny stock Rox Resources, backed by mining major Teck Resources of Canada, said it has discovered one of the world's largest zinc deposits in northern Australia, although any decision to mine is years away. The discovery comes seven months after Chinese conglomerate MMG Ltd shut the nearby exhausted Century zinc mine, once the world's third-biggest, leaving a hole in global supplies of the metal chiefly used to galvanise steel. The lode, named Teena, holds 14.2 billion pounds of zinc, as well as 2.1 billion pounds of lead, making it around the same size as the Century deposit. Teena is located eight kms (5 miles) from the Glencore -owned McArthur River zinc mine. Rox's stock more than doubled on Wednesday on news of the find to just under three Australian cents a share, giving it a market value of A$34.2 million ($24.8 million), although it would likely be a decade before a mine is built, if at all. "We've established that a significant resource is there and now we need to conduct more drilling and metallurgical work, which will not happen overnight," Rox managing director Ian Mulholland said. "Realistically, we are still anywhere between five and 10 years away from production," Mulholland said. Shares in Metalicity Ltd, another Australian penny stock sitting on a potentially big zinc mine, known as Admiral Bay, have more than tripled so far this year to 7.5 Australian cents. "Investors in small miners are hungry to allocate cash even in companies like Rox that have a long way to go," said Keith Goode, an analyst for Eagle Mining Research. "Teena is not a mine yet and will require huge amounts of capital and development work without any guarantees." The latest find is 49 percent owned by Rox and 51 percent by Teck, which also runs the world's second-biggest operating zinc mine, Red Dog in Canada. Teck holds an option to increase its stake to 70 percent by spending a further A$1.15 million on exploration having already spent A$13.85 million. Los Angeles (AFP) - US authorities filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to seize $275,000 worth of life insurance money linked to the man behind the San Bernardino attack that left 14 people dead. The suit filed in federal court in Los Angeles states that Syed Rizwan Farook had obtained two life insurance policies in 2012 and 2013, after he had become radicalized and had initiated plans to carry out terrorist attacks. Farook and his wife died in a shootout with police following the December 2 assault in San Bernardino, California. The insurance policies, one worth $250,000 and the second $25,000, named Farook's mother Rafia Farook as the primary beneficiary. But authorities said that given the nature of the San Bernardino assault and the fact that Farook had been plotting terror attacks when he took out the policies, the money was subject to forfeiture by the government. "Terrorists must not be permitted to provide for their designated beneficiaries through their crimes," federal prosecutor Eileen Decker said in a statement. "My office intends to explore every legal option available to us to ensure these funds are made available to the victims of this horrific crime. "We will continue to use every tool available to seek justice on behalf of the victims of the San Bernardino terrorist attacks." The San Bernardino carnage was the deadliest terror attack on US soil since the September 11, 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. By Brendan O'Brien (Reuters) - A baby suffering from a birth defect caused by the Zika virus was born on Tuesday in New Jersey to a woman visiting from Honduras who is infected with virus after she was bitten by a mosquito early on in her pregnancy, media reported. The baby girl is suffering from severe microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems, after she was delivered through cesarean section at Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, New Jersey, the news website NorthJersey.com reported. U.S. health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly. The World Health Organization has said there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can also cause Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that causes temporary paralysis in adults. The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last fall in Brazil, which has now confirmed more than 1,300 cases of microcephaly that it considers to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. The unidentified premature newborn also suffers from intestinal and visual issues, Manny Alvarez, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Hackensack, told NorthJersey.com. "You could see the pain in her heart," Alvarez said of the mother, the website reported. Hospital officials were not available for comment. The unidentified 31-year-old mother was staying with relatives after she arrived in the United States more than a month ago from Honduras, where she was bitten by a mosquito, Alvarez said. Zika is carried by mosquitoes, which transmit the virus to humans. A small number of cases of sexual transmission have been reported in the United States and elsewhere. A case of suspected transmission through a blood transfusion in Brazil has raised questions about other ways that Zika may spread. In January, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that a U.S. woman who had lived in Brazil gave birth to a microcephalic baby in Hawaii. The Zika outbreak is affecting large parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, with Brazil the hardest hit. Honduras is the Central American country with the highest number of Zika cases, with 19,000 infections, and at least 238 pregnant women infected. It has also detected at least 78 Guillain-Barre cases. There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika, which is a close cousin of dengue and chikungunya and causes mild fever, rash and red eyes. An estimated 80 percent of people infected have no symptoms, making it difficult for pregnant women to know whether they have been infected. (Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Robert Birsel) A woman infected with the Zika virus gave birth to a baby in New Jersey who doctors say was born with microcephaly. The mother traveled to the U.S. from Honduras for treatment after experiencing Zika-like symptoms, the Associated Press reports. She was diagnosed with the disease, and ultrasound testing last week revealed the baby would be born with microcephaly, a birth defect characterized by an abnormally small head, which has been linked to Zika. The baby has not been diagnosed with the Zika virus, but appears to be completely Zika-affected, a doctor said. In January, a baby infected with Zika was born with microcephaly in Hawaii. A wave of Zika cases and a spike in babies born with microcephaly in Brazil have prompted some health experts to call for the summer Olympics to be relocated from Rio de Janeiro. [AP] A baby girl with Zika virusrelated microcephaly was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, on Tuesday, May 31. According to the Associated Press, the 31-year-old mother knew she had the virus and traveled to the U.S. from Honduras in hopes of receiving better medical care. A team of doctors at Hackensack University Medical Center performed an emergency C-section to deliver the newborn at 36 weeks after an ultrasound confirmed low birth weight and severe microcephaly, which means that her brain is not fully developed. Celebrity Health Scares It was very sad for us to see a baby born with such a condition, Dr. Abdulla Al-Kahn, director of maternal and fetal medicine at Hackensack University Medical Center, told the AP, adding that the prognosis for babies born with microcephaly is generally very poor. Manny Alvarez, chairman of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science at the hospital, said the child has intestinal and visual issues. The baby apparently had been not developing properly over the last month or so, Dr. Alvarez told Fox News. "This patient came in on Friday for the first time ... and my team decided that it was appropriate now to deliver the baby." PHOTOS: Famous Celebrity Pregnancies: Baby Bump Hall of Fame In January, a baby with brain damage born in Hawaii became the first case linked to the Zika virus in the U.S. The mother had lived in Brazil. Zika is transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito but can also be spread through sexual intercourse and blood transfusions. REYNOSA, Mexico A Mexican Navy helicopter pursues two SUVs carrying armed suspects through the outskirts of Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas. Schools and local businesses are placed on lockdown as marines arrive to secure the area. Finally cornered in a public plaza, the eight suspects abandon their vehicles and take aim at the chopper with automatic weapons. The marines aboard quickly return fire, killing eight gunmen. Such a dramatic showdown would make headlines almost anywhere else in Mexico, yet in Tamaulipas state, which lies across from southeast Texas on the countrys oil-rich Gulf Coast, it was just another April afternoon. The Tamaulipas Coordination Group, a joint security body composed of local and federal forces, released a single official statement to confirm the incident took place. In recent years, Tamaulipas has earned a bloody reputation as one of Mexicos deadliest and most politically opaque states, where information regarding law enforcement and military operations is closely guarded and the media is cowed by threats from organized crime. Tamaulipas is one of 14 Mexican states set to hold local and gubernatorial elections on June 5 and one of five in which the National Electoral Institute, the countrys independent electoral authority, has issued warnings for the possibility of violence and fraud. And with good reason. Ahead of the last gubernatorial race in 2010, front-runner Rodolfo Torre was shot dead in an ambush by masked gunmen on the eve of his probable victory. The motive for the hit has never been determined. In many ways, Tamaulipas is a microcosm of the challenges facing Mexicos troubled democracy, which finally emerged from one-party rule in 2000. In 2012, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the countrys former ruling dynasty, returned to the presidency following 12 years of governance by the National Action Party (PAN). When President Enrique Pena Nieto took office, he vowed to turn the page on a bloody chapter of Mexican history dominated by drug violence. Few states offer a more damning example of the failure of consecutive administrations to tame the mayhem than Tamaulipas. The result of this years gubernatorial race may be historic: The PANs Francisco Cabeza de Vaca, a senator and former mayor of Reynosa, is polling ahead of Baltazar Hinojosa of the PRI, which has governed the state uninterrupted for more than 80 years. Allegations of high-level corruption among the incumbent party in Tamaulipas are rife. Two former recent governors, Tomas Yarrington and Eugenio Hernandez, have been indicted by the U.S. Justice Department for laundering money from the cartels, while two other officials are officially under investigation in Mexico. All four remain fugitives. There are few states in Mexico where corruption is believed to be so widespread and the ties between leading public servants and organized crime so deeply rooted, Jesus Cantu, a political analyst at the Technological Institute of Monterrey, told Foreign Policy. The dominance of a single party and a mafia-style approach to politics has prevented the emergence of strong institutions compatible with democracy. Like many Mexican border states, Tamaulipas has a long and storied history of organized crime. As early as the 1940s, legendary gangster Juan Nepomuceno Guerra led a criminal dynasty dedicated to drug trafficking, gambling, and other rackets. According to Carlos Flores, an expert on Tamaulipas at the Center for Investigations and Superior Studies in Social Anthropology in Mexico City, the lack of transparency in state politics due to one-party rule led to a symbiotic relationship between public officials and organized crime. There are many cases over the years of relatives and business associates of gangsters holding public office at a time when a single party allocated municipal and congressional seats, he told Foreign Policy. In few places in Mexico is the evidence so clear. In the 1980s, Juan Guerras nephew, Juan Garcia Abrego, forged ties with Colombian drug traffickers and founded the Gulf Cartel, which, according to the U.S. government, trafficked billions of dollars of cocaine across the Mexican border every year. At the same time, Mexico was rapidly democratizing on the back of landmark electoral reforms, and local politics became more competitive. Several parties, notably the PAN, began to win municipalities in Tamaulipas. Today, you have a problem with disorganized crime and decentralized corruption, Jesus Cantu said. As politics has become more competitive, the cartels have begun to compete more fiercely for protection. Crucial to the current violence was a 2007 split between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, the formers highly trained armed wing, which produced an ongoing fight for territorial control. In 2014, President Pena Nieto launched Plan Tamaulipas, the latest of several federal interventions involving the military and federal police. Yet the insecurity continues. In recent years, several well-known businessmen in the state have been kidnapped by the gangs, a number of them murdered despite the payment of ransom. In 2010, the corpses of 72 undocumented migrants were found in a mass grave in the rural municipality of San Fernando. The victims were kidnapped from a passenger bus as they headed to the U.S. border and executed after they allegedly refused to pay protection money. The man tipped to finally defeat the PRI in Tamaulipas, Cabeza de Vaca, has promised increased investment in education and job creation and greater coordination with federal authorities as a way out of the crisis. Yet both Cabeza de Vaca and his rival, the PRIs Hinojosa, have accused each other of complicity with the mafias. Hinojosa has repeatedly cited a 30-year-old incident when Cabeza de Vaca, then 19, was arrested in Texas on firearms charges. On May 7, the PRI suspended three of its municipal candidates on allegations that they had been bribed by organized crime to defect to the PAN. Cabeza de Vaca and the partys national leadership deny the claims. The cynicism of the PRI knows no limits, PAN national chairman Ricardo Anaya said in a statement following the allegations. If any party has historically been linked to organized crime in Tamaulipas, its the PRI. Concrete evidence of criminal influence via campaign donations in Mexican elections is scarce, yet transparency regarding the source of funds is near-nonexistent. Edgardo Buscaglia, a senior research scholar in law and economics at Columbia University who has observed elections in several Mexican states, said evidence of vote buying in rural communities in Tamaulipas and intimidation of the electorate by organized crime groups is commonplace. Elections in Mexico are extremely competitive nowadays, but the institutions responsible for adjudicating them are weak, he said. It leaves the door open for organized crime to capture the process. Many residents of Tamaulipas said they see little difference between the parties competing in the state. Ill vote on June 5 because I believe in exercising my right to do so, but I dont think that anything will change in a hurry, said Felipe Cortes, a restaurant owner and father of three in Reynosa, declining to name which party he favored. The challenges for whoever wins are too great. The June 5 state-level elections will be a litmus test for the strength of Mexican democracy as the country heads to a presidential election in 2018, yet few are likely to be as controversial as the race in Tamaulipas. Right now, Mexico is a democracy without the rule of law, political analyst Jesus Cantu said. The result, in states like Tamaulipas that are particularly vulnerable to corruption, has been chaos. Photo credit: RAUL LLAMAS/AFP/Getty Images Basic income is a simple, futuristic idea: give everyone a salary, no matter if they have a job or not, and people will do meaningful, impactful work and poverty will be abolished. Sound utopian? It's about to get a test run, right here in the US of A. Y Combinator, a tech hub for young companies, is launching a pilot program that will grant a basic income to 100 Oakland residents for between six months to a year. Elizabeth Rhodes, the project's newly appointed research director for the project, told Motherboard that the tentative plan is to give participants between $1,000 and $2,000 a month. The goal is simply to see what will happen if they'll be happier, better off and more financially stable. "In our pilot, the income will be unconditional; we're going to give it to participants for the duration of the study, no matter what," Y Combinator wrote on its company blog on Tuesday. "People will be able to volunteer, work, not work, move to another country anything. We hope basic income promotes freedom, and we want to see how people experience that freedom." Though basic income is popular among Silicon Valley futurists lately, the idea is hundreds of years old, and has been championed throughout history by people like Bertrand Russell and Martin Luther King Jr., who saw it as an ultimate solution to poverty. Martin Luther King Jr. saw basic income as an ultimate solution to poverty. Modern techies have a particular interest in basic income, because they're part of the reason we're going to need it. Robot automation of the American workforce is projected to cause massive unemployment: Most estimates say that about 45% of all jobs are at risk in the next two decades. "Although basic income seems fiscally challenging today, in a world where technology replaces existing jobs and basic income becomes necessary, technological improvements should generate an abundance of resources and the cost of living should fall dramatically," the blog post by Y Combinator read. Story continues So why do they want to run a small program for just a hundred people? Because no one knows what basic income will do to us. Revolution, or destruction? While basic income advocates day that a universal salary would bring about a creative renaissance and free the people of the world from wage slavery, some argue that if you take away the profit motive, people will simply stop working. It's an identical thesis to the age-old argument that welfare makes people lazy. The issue is, there's no respectable research that proves the thesis one way or the other. And YC isn't the only group that wants to test the hypothesis. Source: Getty Images GiveDirectly, a charity that gives direct cash transfers to individuals in Kenya and Uganda, is raising $30 million so that it can test an unprecedented 10-year program with 6,000 Kenyans. Finland could pass their own national basic income in an upcoming vote, and another pilot project in Germany similar to YC is going to give 26 people $1,100 every month. All of these people want to put basic income to the test. Because what people need before advocating for basic income never mind proposing real legislation is to know that it works, without disrupting the economy and creating widespread atrophy in the workforce. With every test, we get closer and closer to that truth. Bear tries to break into cars, internet cant stop giggling Bear tries to break into cars, internet cant stop giggling According to WJLA News in Gainesville, Virginia, a black bear has been spotted trying to break into cars at a local elementary school. The ABC affiliate says the bear has shown up for several days in a row, where apparently hes on the prowl for snacks in vehicles in the school parking lot. Oh Mr. Bear, what a smarty pants you are. Anyone whos ever spent five minutes in the company of little kids knows that they never go anywhere without snacks. The cars in that parking lot are basically Cheerios on wheels. (You know were right.) If Mr. Bear is lucky, hell stumble upon an SUV with a juice box under the front seat. Officials at Tyler Elementary School arent crazy about a bear roaming around on school grounds, even if said bear is a genius opportunist. They sent a letter home to parents letting them know about the criminal wild animal and asking them not to feed the bear if they see it hanging around. WJLA News picked up the story (because bears) and tweeted it. Since then, the internet cannot stop laughing. Twitter users just cant bear it. (Come on. You know you laughed or was that an eyeroll?) Heres the original tweet: #BREAKING: Bear trying to break into cars at Tyler Elementary School. ABC7News (@ABC7News) May 31, 2016 And here are a few of our favorite witty responses: RT @ABC7News #BREAKING: Bear trying to break into cars at Tyler Elementary School pic.twitter.com/xeDZpFIilL Lincoln Hamilton (@LHamiltonPP) May 31, 2016 Were pretty sure this type of thing is why the internet was invented in the first place. Is it wrong that were sort of hoping the bear sticks around as long as people are tweeting about it? *blushing emoji* The post Bear tries to break into cars, internet cant stop giggling appeared first on HelloGiggles. Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f102357%2fbears It's 2016, and bears have more than human enemies to face they now have social media. Earlier today, ABC7 reported that an unspecified number of bears were trying to break into parked cars at Tyler Elementary School in Gainesville, Virginia. This isn't the first time there have been multiple bear sightings this week but people on social media responded with alarm, confusion, and bear-appropriate GIFs. As Twitter does. SEE ALSO: GoPro shows man tickling bear because sports are no longer enough A letter sent by school officials to parents this week advised parents of the bear sightings. Bears are indigenous to the Gainesville community and do not impose immediate harm until approached. Twitter responded to the sudden outbreak of crime among bears with a series of hilarious puns, GIFS, and emoji. Read, and bear with me. Police are encouraging everyone to keep food out of their cars. Bears: they just want to snack like the rest of us. PARIS (Reuters) - Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens reached her first grand slam quarter-final when she outpaced American 15th seed Madison Keys 7-6(4) 6-3 at the French Open on Wednesday. World number 58 Bertens often had the extra shot against Keys, setting up a meeting with Swiss eighth seed Timea Bacsinszky for a place in the last four. In a match that should have started on Monday but was delayed following two days of rain at Roland Garros, Bertens broke to lead 3-2 in the opening set. Keys broke back to force a tiebreak but she could not prevent Bertens, who won the Nuremberg claycourt tournament last month, from claiming the set after the Dutchwoman produced some stunning angled winners. Bertens stole her opponent's serve again in the fourth game of the second set and held throughout, ending the contest on the first match point with a backhand passing shot. Bertens said that although she felt a little sore because of the heavy balls, she adapted well to the heavy conditions on another gloomy day. "It's really different. I think I feel it already a little bit in my shoulder. The balls are much heavier than the other days," she told reporters. "Also my shots were not like they would have been if the sun was out but I think still I did a pretty good job today." (Reporting by Julien Pretot,; Editing by Pritha Sarkar) looking into house at night Think it cant happen to you? More than 1.7 million burglaries strike U.S. homes every year, with the bad guys stealing an average of $1,600 in electronics, jewelry, and other possessions you hold dear. Yes, security systems are important in thwarting thieves, but they dont cover everything. You still need to be aware of your homes weak spots that criminals case out from afar. Check out these danger zones where a few simple changes will safeguard your home and everything in itincluding you! Your homes exterior appearance An unmowed lawn in summertime. A walkway covered in pristine snow. A driveway devoid of vehicles. Letters overflowing from the mailbox. The first thing burglars hunt for is a house that looks vulnerable from the street, says Paul Cromwell, a professor of public affairs at the University of South Florida, who interviewed scores of burglars for his book Breaking and Entering. If your home appears to be empty, theyll consider it a target. Have a trusted friend or neighbor collect your mail and maintain your homes exterior while youre away. Keep mum about your vacation on social media until your safe return (no emoji-laden Finally, leaving for two weeks in Hawaii!!! posts on Facebook, please). When you purchase expensive items or receive them as gifts, avoid leaving the evidencesuch as the box for your laptop or 90-inch LED-screen TVout in the open in your garbage area (where documents of interest to identity thieves should be shredded before being tossed). Trim shrubbery so it looks neat and hovers below your windows so it cant serve as a burglars hiding place or makeshift stepladder. Make sure the exterior is free of tools, which should be locked safely away. Doors Ideally, your doors should be constructed of solid-core metal, devoid of those lovely glass panes that can be easily brokenand equipped with sturdy double locks. Standard locks can be opened with a credit card, says Cromwell. You need a deadbolt lock that extends at least an inch and a half into the door frame, because youd practically have to kick down the door to get in. Story continues Consider a smart lock that enables you to open doors using a mobile device, keypad, or finger scan. And get a store-bought patio-door lock to replace the flimsy (and yes, breakable) broomstick that youve wedged into your patio-door track. Make sure garage doorsand any entryways from the garage to the houseremain tightly locked. (And hide the cord that extends from the garage openers overhead cable, as burglars can yank it down to open the garage door.) Pay extra attention to securing doors that are below ground level. Thieves just love walk-out basements, says Scott Decker, a professor of criminology at Arizona State University in Phoenix and the co-author of Burglars on the Job. Theyre out of sight, muffle the sounds of break-ins, and often offer convenient spots where criminals can stash items, making off with them all at once. Windows Hang drapes or blinds in your windows to deter thieves from seeing what kind of loot lies inside. Near entryways, consider glass coated with a film that makes it difficult to break. Get storm windows, advises Decker. Shattering two panes of glass not only makes it more difficult to get in, but creates more noise that will prompt neighbors to call the police. Get deadbolt locks for your windows to complement the ones on your doors. And note that security grates or bars on windows can be a mixed blessing. Though they may deter thieves, they can pose a safety hazard if a fire or other emergency is blocking other exits in your homeand you cant find the grate key in your scramble to escape. Plus, theyre unattractive to buyers, who may wonder if the neighborhood is really that bad. Lights Install motion-detecting lights all around your house, and make sure you can adjust the sensitivity so they wont flip on (and freak you out) when a tree branch rustles in the wind. With compact fluorescent bulbs, these lights wont use too much extra energy. And note that while a security lighting system is important, theres actually less risk to your home at night. Nearly 70% of burglaries are committed during the daytime, when thieves know people arent around, says Cromwell. Lights can help, but you need to make sure you complete the full spectrum of safety measures in order to ward off thieves. Alarms If you do have an alarm system, you should post the alarm companys logo on your lawn and/or entrance. Generic alarm signs from hardware stores do nothing to deter experienced thieves, says Cromwell. Make sure you keep the system on at all timesa precaution many homeowners neglect to take. Also note that a dog can serve as a secondary (but not a substitute) alarm. My 15-pound, white bichon frise may look harmless, jokes Cromwell. But his bark is so loud that it can raise an alarm by attracting the attention of my neighbors down the street. The post Beware These Danger Zones That an Alarm System Wont Cover appeared first on Real Estate News and Advice - realtor.com. Related Articles Former President Bill Clinton campaigns for his wife, Hillary Clinton, at Edison High School in Edison, N.J., on May 27, 2016. (Photo: Dennis Van Tine/MediaPunch/IPX) CRANFORD, N.J. President Bill Clinton dismissed presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trumps policies as divisive and ineffective at a Wednesday campaign event for his wife, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton. Speaking at Union County College, Bill Clinton also said white, non-college-educated Americans who are widely seen as a core part of Trumps base need to be brought along to the future. Clinton began making his case by identifying a reason why this has been such a crazy political year. All over the world there is stagnant economic growth, stagnant incomes, rising inequality and deep arguments over what to do about our increasing diversity, Clinton said. This years election has delivered many surprises, including Trumps emergence from the GOP field. Clintons wife, who was initially viewed as the inevitable Democratic nominee, has also faced an unexpectedly strong primary challenge from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Though Clinton attributed these unexpected results to tension and difficult economic realities in his speech, he argued that America remains the best positioned country for the future. He also presented a prescription for how to take advantage of that positioning. To do it, we have to build a future that is inclusive not divisive a future which has not only higher incomes but more upward mobility and less inequality, and one which recognizes our diversity because its the only way to honor our common humanity, Clinton said. Clinton criticized two of the most controversial elements of Trumps platform: building a massive wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, and barring Muslim tourists and immigrants from entering the country. Though he took care not to name Trump, Clinton argued that these policies are misguided. We have been told over and over again in this election we ought to build a wall against Mexico, we ought to stop the Muslims from coming in, we want to do all this stuff, Clinton said as the crowd booed Trumps ideas. Let me tell you, all those people who want to do that and one in particular forget what the real security challenges we face are. Story continues Clinton went on to cite the December 2015 shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., as proof that fortified borders and immigration bans cant prevent terrorism. In the San Bernardino attack, a married couple opened fire at a holiday party for county workers, leaving 14 people dead and 22 injured. Clinton blamed online content for radicalizing the shooters. The last serious terrorist incident in the United States occurred in San Bernardino, Calif. Those people were converted over the internet, Clinton said. You can build all the walls you want. You can build them all across Canada; they got a bunch of foreigners in Canada. You could build a seawall in the Atlantic and a seawall in the Pacific. . And then you could send the Navy to the Gulf of Mexico to block anybody else, and put all the planes in the Air Force up. You could not keep out the social media. Clinton said he is really proud his wife has argued we need all people of all faiths, including Muslims who love freedom and hate terror, to help us improve the American idea. He went on to take a shot at Trumps slogan, Make America Great Again. Shes got the best vision: an inclusive, nondivisive America an America that is oriented towards our future greatness, not trying to reclaim a past that is past and gone, Clinton said, adding, And it wasnt so great for some people anyway. Somebody said theyre going to make America great again. They need to talk to the people for whom it wasnt so great. Clinton suggested that white, non-college educated Americans are the ones who want to reclaim the past. That group is widely seen as a crucial part of Trumps base of support. We all need to recognize that white, non-college-educated Americans have seen great drops in their income, have seen great increases in their unemployment rate, have seen drops in their life expectancy, and they need to be brought along to the future. But they cant live under the illusion that you can reclaim a past which is just that past. This country is always about the future, Clinton said. After his speech, Clinton greeted supporters along a rope line. Yahoo News asked if he read a column that was published by one of his former advisers, Doug Schoen, in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday evening. Clinton said he had not seen Schoens article. In his column, Schoen argued there is now more than a theoretical chance that Hillary Clinton may not be the Democratic nominee for president. It would be highly improbable for Sanders to perform well enough in the final June 7 state primaries to overcome Hillary Clintons pledged delegate lead. However, Schoen argued that a win by Sanders in California could lead delegates to back rule changes at the Democratic convention that would allow another nominee to emerge. The former president did not respond as Yahoo News explained the article to him. He also ignored a question from another reporter about whether Hillary Clinton could indeed lose in California. The RealClearPolitics poll average now shows Clinton with a more than 8-point lead over Sanders in the Golden State. On Tuesday, in addition to California, Democrats will vote in five other states, including New Jersey. The days contests are the final ones on the Democratic calendar other than the June 14 District of Columbia primary. BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. BMRN announced that it has withdrawn a Marketing Authorisation Application (MAA) for Kyndrisa (drisapersen) from the EU, following discussions with the European Medicines Agencys (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), which hinted at the issuance of a negative opinion. The company was seeking an approval for Kyndrisa for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), amenable to exon 51 skipping. BioMarin said that it will also discontinue the development of the three follow-on products of Kyndrisa BMN 044, BMN 045, and BMN 053 which are currently being evaluated in phase II studies for specific forms of DMD. Nevertheless, the company intends to work on the development of a transition plan for the patients who are currently being treated with these candidates. Meanwhile, the company stated that it will continue to develop next generation oligonucleotides for the treatment of DMD. Despite the fact that a MAA was withdrawn from the EU, BioMarin continues to expect to achieve break-even or better results in 2017. We remind investors that in Jan 2016, the FDA issued a Complete Response Letter (CRL) related to the companys New Drug Application (NDA) for Kyndrisa for the same indication. The agency rejected the application, citing that Kyndrisa had failed to meet the standard of substantial evidence of effectiveness in treating DMD. DMD, a devastating and debilitating disease, is estimated to affect nearly 1 in every 3,5005,000 boys born across the world, indicating significant unmet need for treatments in this space. We note that Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. SRPT is also looking to get its DMD drug approved. Last week, the company announced that the FDA has extended the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) date for its DMD candidate, eteplirsen, which was scheduled for May 26. The agency reported that it intends to come up with a decision as early as possible. Currently, BioMarin carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Bristol-Myers Squibb Company BMY and ANI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ANIP are a couple of better-ranked stocks in the health care sector, both sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report BRISTOL-MYERS (BMY): Free Stock Analysis Report BIOMARIN PHARMA (BMRN): Free Stock Analysis Report SAREPTA THERAP (SRPT): Free Stock Analysis Report ANI PHARMACEUT (ANIP): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research BMW is refreshing its baby Gran Turismo family car to bring its exterior in line with the rest of the current 3 Series range while significantly improving the interior so that it feels as comfortable as it is practical. When the car goes on sale this summer, it will be available in three upgraded levels of trim -- Sport; Luxury; and M Sport -- plus a choice of three gasoline and five diesel engines. Depending on engine selection, the car can also be specified with all-wheel drive and an eight-speed Steptronic automatic transmission, meaning that regardless of trim level, when all powertrain options are taken into consideration there are essentially 18 different models in the range to chose from. And although the engines are all better and more efficient; regardless of the number of driven wheels or whether the transmission is manual or automatic, the GT's never had a powertrain issue. When the BMW 3 Series Gran Turismo debuted three years ago, it was an attempt to be the automotive equivalent of a Swiss Army Knife -- a single car that met a host of different and often contrasting transportation needs. By making the vehicle 200mm longer than a standard 3 Series and by raising the roofline the car offers the lines and driving poise of a coupe, the practicality of a four-door sedan and a luggage capacity greater than that of the BMW 3 Series Touring station wagon. Yet it felt a little lacking in luxury considering its premium standing and the amount of interior space that comes from elevating the driving position. And seeing as the car has been a hit with families, particularly in the US and China and that for most owners it's been their first experience with the BMW brand, the company has been wise to rectify this perceived shortcoming. The cabin now has more wood, chrome trim and leather options and, significantly, the BMW Navigation System professional, a piece of equipment only available in the company's full size' cars until now, is now an option. In terms of standard equipment, regardless of trim level, all GTs will now come with automatic climate control, LED headlamps and fog lamps, a smartphone hands-free kit, a full HD color display with iDrive Controller, USB ports and Bluetooth for audio streaming. Boeing 737 MAX 9 The 737 is Boeing's bread-and-butter product. Over the past five decades, it has become the best-selling airliner of all time with more than 13,300 jets ordered in the model's history. But now, industry sources tell Reuters that Boeing may be ready to make significant changes to the 737 in order to fill a gaping hole in its product lineup left by the defunct 757. The rumored plan would call for a new version of the 737 nicknamed the "MAX 10," or the "Mad MAX." A Boeing representative declined to comment on the existence of the rumored jet. All of this stems from a decision the company made in 2004. In that year, Boeing discontinued the medium-range, twin-engine 757 after more than 20 years in production. A decade later, the aging but versatile 757 has now become a highly coveted asset for its operators. Unfortunately, airlines simply have not been able to find a new aircraft capable of delivering the range, performance, and profitability of the 757. Airbus' and Boeing's current offerings the A321neoLR and the 737 MAX 9 are widely seen as partial replacements for the 757, but are models adapted from smaller aircraft. Frantz Yvelin, CEO of boutique airline La Compagnie and a Boeing 757 operator, told Business Insider earlier this year that he believed Boeing made a "major mistake" when it put the plane out to pasture. Boeing's problems are compounded by the fact that the Airbus A321neo has outsold the 737 MAX 9 5-to-1. Although the company does not publicly break down the sales of the individual MAX variants, data from Flightglobal indicates that Boeing has sold only 224 MAX 9s. According to Airbus, it has 1,117 orders for the rival A321neo. Icelandair Boeing 757-200 As a result, Boeing is looking to close the performance and sales gaps between its MAX 9 and the Airbus by stretching the 737's airframe and bolting on larger engines. According to Reuters, Boeing is considering a plan to stretch the MAX 9's airframe so that its maximum seating capacity can match that of the A321neo's 240 seats. Story continues To compensate for the larger airframe, Boeing is reportedly planning to replace the plane's CFM LEAP 1B engines with the A321neo's more powerful LEAP 1A engines. Because there is a direct correlation between the diameter of a turbofan engine's fan blades and the amount of thrust the engine can produce, the more powerful 1A engine's fan blades have a diameter of 78 inches nine more than the 1B. Airbus A321neo WIZZ AIR Thus, this move will likely involve a redesign of the 737's landing gear. That's because the 737 was designed in the 1960s to be powered by Pratt & Whitney's JT8D engine with a much more compact fan diameter of 49 inches. Since then, Boeing has been bolting on larger and larger engines on the 737, but the under-wing space has not changed. The 737 has essentially maxed out on the engine size that can fit under its wings. As a result, Boeing will have to raise and relocate the plane's landing gear. Industry experts believe that the modification will likely cost Boeing up to $2 billion, according to Reuters. As steep as this price may be for Boeing, it is likely to be much less steep than building a new 757 replacement from scratch. NOW WATCH: Here's what happened when I took a 500 MPH ride in a real fighter jet More From Business Insider GABORONE (Reuters) - Botswana is battling to repair its troubled 600 megawatt (MW)power station before a surge in power demand during the approaching winter season, its power supplier said on Wednesday. Built by China National Electric Engineering Company at a cost of $970 million, the power station was commissioned in 2012, but has often broken down due, leading to reliance on diesel generators and imports from neighbouring South Africa. In a statement, Botswana Power Corporation said demand is expected to rise from the current 530 MW to a projected 669 MW during the winter season, which runs between June and August. Only two units of the four units were operational producing 260 MW, the company said, adding that it was hoping to have all the units restored at the earliest possible time. The power utility projects it would import 190 MW. Botswana's power generation stands at 479 MW. Botswana is currently weighing an option to sell the troubled 600 MW power plant back to its Chinese developers, but a decision has not yet been taken. (Writing by Zandi Shabalala; Editing by James Macharia) DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish manufacturing activity grew at the slowest rate in almost three years in May, a survey showed on Wednesday, as fears about Britain's EU referendum weighed on the euro zone's fastest-growing economy. The Investec Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 51.5 in May from 52.6 in April. It remained above the 50 line that separates growth from contraction for a 36th month. The report's authors said that at least some of the poor performance in the sector was related to the June 23 referendum on Britain's place in the European Union and Sterling's recent weakness. "With momentum appearing to be building behind the 'Remain' campaign, sterling has recently begun to strengthen against the single currency, which augurs well for the near-term outlook for many Irish exporters," said Philip O'Sullivan, chief economist at Investec Ireland. "Assuming that our base case that UK voters choose to remain in the EU comes to pass, we suspect that conditions for Irish manufacturing firms should pick up in Q3 and beyond," he said. New export orders contracted after 34 months of consecutive growth, the survey found. Britain is Ireland's largest trading partner, with 1.2 billion euros worth of goods and services traded each week. Investec said around one-seventh of Irish merchandise exports go to Britain. The survey also showed pressure on margins, with input prices increasing while output prices continued to fall. The Irish economy outperformed the rest of the euro zone for the second time last year, with gross domestic product growing by 7.8 percent. The government has forecast growth of 4.9 percent this year. But the country was subject to months of political uncertainty after an inconclusive general election on Feb 26. before Prime Minister Enda Kenny was re-elected as head of a minority government earlier this month. (Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Hugh Lawson) The 2016 GOP Convention is officially less than one month away, but Donald Trump is still surprising us. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter columnist Michael Wolff, Trump waxed on his friendships ("Rupert Murdoch is a tremendous guy") and his voting record (did he ever vote for Bill Clinton? "I don't want to say."). While Trump makes even more headlines for his veteran's groups donations and gorilla death stance, here are the key revelations from his The Hollywood Reporter sit-down. He only visits his California home once a year but the freezer is still stocked. Trump's Beverly Hills mansion is an impressive colonial-style home, ranking in at 10,400-square feet across two buildings. He only visits it once a year. The media mogul was at the home, which is across from the Beverly Hills Hotel, to attend rallies ahead of California's primary. And, despite the fact that he gets so little use of it, himself, Trump had the fridge stocked with his favorites, according to Wolff: vanilla Haagen-Dazs ice cream and water bottles. He's currently reading a book about Hillary Clinton. Trump read a book about " Crooked Hillary?" Don't scoff it's happening! The businessman told Wolff that he's currently reading a book about the Democratic frontrunner by author Ed Klein likely his most recent on Clinton, 2015's Unlikeable: The Problem with Hillary. "And I'm reading the book on Richard Nixon that was, well, I'll get you the exact information on it," Trump revealed of what else is on his bookshelf. "I'm reading a book that I've read before, it's one of my favorite books, All Quiet on the Western Front, which is one of the greatest books of all time." Brexit? 'Huh?' 5 Head-Scratching Things We Learned From Donald Trump's Latest Interview| 2016 Presidential Elections, politics, Donald Trump He might use a teleprompter during the GOP convention but he's not happy about it. Trump told The Hollywood Reporter that he's proud of the fact that he rarely relies on a teleprompter a skill that helps him work the crowd. "You got to look at them in the eye. Have you ever seen me speak in front of a large group of people? Have you ever watched?" Trump asked Wolff, noting of his previous time on television, "You have to have a natural ability." He acquiesced, however, that he will likely have to use a teleprompter at his acceptance speech at this summer's GOP Convention in Cleveland. He's not exactly well-versed on the "Brexit" "And Brexit? Your position?" Wolff asked. "Huh?" Trump retorted. "The Brits leaving the EU," Wolff eventually explained, finally prompting, "Oh yeah, I think they should leave." Brexit is shorthand for the U.K. leaving the European Union, a decision that will be made during June 23's referendum. He doesn't necessarily know who Peter Thiel is but he loves him. Wolff said that Trump needed to be reminded who Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley billionaire who backed Hulk Hogan's Gawker lawsuit, was before ultimately deciding that their connection was his daughter Ivanka Trump's husband Jared Kushner. "Wow, I love him! So he funded it for Hulk Hogan? You think Hulk Hogan would have enough money, but he probably doesn't," Trump commented, before bragging about his social media prowess. By Alastair Macdonald BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Dawn, Friday, June 24. The votes are in. The British have spoken in their EU membership referendum and they want out. It is a scenario European leaders are now planning for in earnest while praying it never happens. Secret meetings in Brussels and across Europe reveal huge uncertainty, officials and diplomats familiar with the proceedings say, over what would follow a vote that British Prime Minister David Cameron calls a "leap in the dark" -- and also no little concern about what happens if Britain stays on. This is a rough roadmap to Europe after June 23, based on conversations with many diplomats and officials, few of whom speak of it in public for fear of inflaming debate in Britain: DAY 1 - FRIDAY, JUNE 24 - THE THREE R'S - OR MORE Polls close at 10 p.m.. No mainstream exit polls are planned but overnight counts should give a result by around the time the midsummer sun is coming up over Brussels. Aside from the result itself, there are already several big imponderables. Cameron says he will notify the EU "immediately" if Britain is leaving. But he may take at least a few days. If he has lost he will be under huge pressure from his divided Conservative party to resign. He might also be, even if he wins. Money markets will be volatile. The Bank of England and European Central Bank, with global allies, are assumed to have contingency plans to deal with a "Brexit shock" to sterling. Expect joint statements from EU founders Germany and France and from EU institutions. Look for a mantra of Three Rs: Regret - at losing nearly a fifth of the EU economy and more of its military and global clout; Respect - for the will of the British people; and Resolve - to forge ahead with European integration. "The show must go on," one senior EU official said. There may be a fourth message. Call it Reprisal, perhaps, though Britons should not take it personally; warnings of woe for those leaving will aim to discourage others from following suit. "Don't try this at home," was how one senior EU diplomat summed up the idea. There may be an element of spite, too. Some Europeans, sotto voce, may also feel Relief. Some in France fret at British blocking of federalist ideas and fear a British vote to remain could unleash a new push for a free-market EU. DAY 3 - SUNDAY, JUNE 26 - RALLYING ROUND THE EU FLAG After a Brexit vote, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will chair an emergency meeting of the executive's "college" of 28 commissioners, including Britain's Jonathan Hill, officials say. The Commission will be responsible for negotiating the divorce settlement between London and Brussels. EU officials insist there is no "Plan B" in place for Brexit. But, recalling the same denials during last summer's narrowly avoided Grexit during the Greek debt crisis, one speaks of a "Room B", where a fire-fighting team of EU lawyers and experts will be ready. "The idea is to have everything ready for Monday," the EU official said. The start of a new week on global financial markets will see investors and voters demanding answers on where Britain and the EU are heading. Expect both to offer assurances of orderly talks, while nothing changes immediately, for firms or citizens. DAY 5 - TUESDAY, JUNE 28 - "DAVID, ARE YOU LEAVING NOW?" A 24-hour EU summit is scheduled. After a Brexit vote, his political career may be over but Cameron would likely stay on at least until his deeply divided party elects a successor. He would be expected to appear for dinner in Brussels. Big question - would he notify summit chair Donald Tusk that he is triggering Article 50 of the EU, the legal basis for Britain to leave the Union? In London, pro-Brexit would-be successors may try to play for time. Until Britain declares its hand, the EU would stall, though many would be impatient to make clear there will be no new talks to try and keep it in. If Cameron secures a referendum win, the summit will discuss quickly enacting the reform package he won in March to give Britain a special deal to stem EU immigration. DAY 6 - WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29 - "PLEASE WAIT OUTSIDE, DAVID." Day Two of the summit and, if it is to be Brexit, leaders of the 27 other states will confer without Cameron in the room - a pattern Britons will have to get used to. Article 50 sets a two-year limit on divorce talks. The EU must fill a Britain-sized hole in its budget and reassure millions of EU citizens living in Britain and Britons on the continent of their future rights. EU leaders, notably Germany and France, may push for a quick show of unity on more integration. Divisions between Berlin and Paris on managing the euro zone probably rule out a big move on that front before both hold elections in 2017. Closer EU defence cooperation, without sceptical Britain, may be revived. A major EU security policy review is already on the summit agenda. Other initiatives, aimed at blunting Marine Le Pen's far-right, eurosceptic bid for the French presidency in 2017, could include a push to stimulate job creation, especially among the young. "Brexit or not, we have to think about what comes next," French Finance Minister Michel Sapin told Reuters. "France will speak. Germany expects us to. We'll need to ... work together and not alienate the others from a Franco-German initiative." The Council of EU leaders must give the executive Commission a negotiating mandate. Some in Britain see exit discussions lasting longer than two years. But an extension requires an EU unanimity that few in Brussels expect. Some suggest talks with Britain on its future trade terms can run in parallel to the exit talks. Juncker, who spoke to reporters over lunch in Paris on Tuesday, ruled that out: "After the two years, we'll negotiate relations with a blank slate," he said. FROM DAY 7 - NOTHING (AND EVERYTHING) CHANGES; HELLO ESTONIA After a Brexit vote, all EU laws apply in Britain until two years after London starts the process to leave. Then none would apply. Meanwhile, British lawmakers sit in the EU parliament, Hill in the Commission, thousands of Britons would go on working as EU civil servants and British ministers sit in EU councils. But they will have no real voice and Britain plans to renounce its EU presidency in the second half of 2017; Estonia would come forward to start its first stint in the chair six months early. Some also see heavy pressure to exclude British MEPs from a say on EU laws and to deprive Hill, a Cameron appointee, of his sensitive portfolio overseeing financial services regulation. Whatever the referendum's outcome, a host of other EU plans, shelved for fear of alienating British voters, will come out of cold storage, including energy-saving rules to limit the power of toasters and kettles. Dealing with the fallout from a Swiss referendum on EU migration and a Dutch rejection of the EU trade deal with Ukraine will get back on track, as will a review of the EU's seven-year budget. If Britain votes to stay in, some, notably in France, fear a new British-led push to free up EU markets and rein in regulation. Others doubt that Cameron, if he survives at all, would have much appetite for deeper EU engagement amid post-referendum Conservative blood-letting. A post-Brexit relationship between Britain and the EU is the great unknown. Many EU leaders, wary of eurosceptic voters at home, are determined Britain cannot have access to EU trade and financial markets if it wants to keep out EU workers. "All four freedoms, or none," is how EU officials refer to free movement of goods, services, capital and labour in the EU treaty. Others put it more even starkly: "Out means out." New trade barriers would hurt both sides' economies. But the EU fears a political "domino effect" would cost more long-term. Brexit would "break a taboo", Juncker says: "If others open the door, inspired by the British model, we'll see a stream of referendums, depriving the European project of all credibility." END OF THE ROAD? Leaders have much else on their plates to distract them from negotiating with Britain, including Russia, the euro, jobs and refugees. London may have other priorities, too, not least the likelihood europhile Scotland would bid again to break away. There is a "Brussels consensus" that Britain would face a chilly future, cast out after two years to perhaps talk its way back later into some kind of trade access in return for many of the things -- notably free migration from inside the bloc and contributions to the EU budget -- which Brexit voters want to end. But cautious diplomats do not rule out surprise turns. EU law may seem clear but EU leaders, German Chancellor Angela Merkel included, are loath to see Britain go and may yet seek a way to keep it in, whatever the vote on June 23. "Will Merkel really shut the door?" a senior EU diplomat said. "It may seem clear-cut in Brussels. But in politics, never say never." (Additional reporting by Paul Taylor, Ingrid Melander, Emmanuel Jarry and Elizabeth Pineau in Paris; Editing by Peter Graff) Stanford Business School graduate student Chika Okoro came across casting calls for the female actresses for Straight Outta Compton and saw they were ranked into four categories. The most desirable A-girls were described as Beyonce-like, while the last D-girls were "African-American, poor, not in good shape must have a darker skin tone." What Okoro had just come across was colorism, or "the discrimination of those with a darker skin tone, typically amongst individuals within the same racial or ethnic group," as she said in her TEDxStanford talk. It's systematic to and perpetuated by the media, and it sets damaging and unattainable beauty standards to younger generations. Okoro called colorism "just as sinister and subtle as racism." Source: TEDx Talks/YouTube Colorism is seen in photoshopped magazine covers, beauty products and movies, where there's a lack of darker-skinned actors. When trying to join an elite club, fraternity or sorority, people often have to pass tests that are dripping in colorism. The pencil test is when a pencil can pass through soft, silky hair. The brown paper bag test is when someone's skin tone is lighter than a standard brown paper bag. When she was younger, Okoro would always hear, "You're so pretty for a dark-skinned girl." Source: SEYLLOU DIALLO/Getty Images The roots of colorism dates back to the days of American slavery and slave masters who would give preferential treatment to children of mixed race. That racial hierarchy continues to this day. It also isn't just in the United States: In Asia, skin-lightening products have created a multi-billion dollar industry, proving that lighter skin is considered better when it comes to romantic and career pursuits. Even Okoro wondered about her own intentions when it came to beauty products made to mimic Anglo features, such as her extensions. But, as beauty standards are constructed, they can be deconstructed as well and that's up to those in the media and consumers of the media. Story continues "We don't have to passively accept what society tells us is beautiful we can question it and we can challenge the status quo because when we do we get one step closer to broadening the standard of beauty," she said. Buyers beware. Home sellers may be using surveillance cameras to record potential buyers. Surprise, home buyers: You might be on hidden camera. You may believe youre having private discussions about the merits of a homeowners wallpaper, the ugly, orange tiles in the bathrooms, or the to-die-for bay windows as you tour a residence. But what people often dont realize is that those surveillance cameras in the hallways may be turned on, according to Bankrate.com. And that smiling teddy bear in the corner? He may be taping everything you say. Even the not-so-neurotic sellers often want to know exactly who wants to buy their homes, what they dont like about them, and just how far theyve fallen in love with the residences (useful information when it comes to negotiations), say real estate agents. And what better way to find out than to play Big Brother? Its not unusual to see a camera at the edge of a playroom, says Atlanta real estate agent Jen Engel. But people dont realize theyre on. Engel once represented a seller who used a nanny cam to record everything potential buyers said about the sellers home. Engel learned of it after the property sold. They want to know what people dont like, says Engel. They want to know if theres an issue theyre not being told about. The cameras are most likely legal, although the laws can vary by state, says Indiana University law professor Fred Cate. Its against the law to record someone on audio or video if theyre in a situation in which they have a reasonable expectation of privacy, [such as in] a changing room or a locker room or a bathroom, says Cate, author of Privacy in the Information Age. But when youre in somebody elses house with a real estate agent, its a little harder to argue you really have an expectation of privacy. For sellers, getting that honest (if ethically murky) feedback can inspire them to make changessuch as replacing that 70s kitchen flooring or putting in new carpeting. Story continues It can also be valuable during negotiations to know just how much buyers want the homeand how much they said theyd be willing to pay for those properties when they thought no one else was listening. Thats why Houston Realtor Greg Nino cautions his Re/Max Compass clients to play their hands close their vests and not say anything that could potentially be used against themfrom commenting on the family pictures on the wall to gushing about how they finally found their dream home. Ive had sellers actually go and spy on buyers to see if they are the kind of people they want living in their house, Janine Acquafredda, a Brooklyn, NYbased associate broker at House-N-Key Realty, told Bankrate.com. But Boston real estate broker Douglas Bray of Century 21 Cityside doubts thats common. Whats important is if someone is financially qualified and capable of purchasing the home, he says. Of course, sellers may simply feel nervous about having strangers in their home, amid their possessions, and want some measure of security. If the home has precious works of art [or other valuables], then by all means, I think cameras are an important part of the home-selling process, Bray told realtor.com. But its important that people be told there are cameras present. Thats just useful in making everyone feel comfortable. The post Buyers Beware: You May Be Under Surveillance appeared first on Real Estate News and Advice - realtor.com. Related Articles TLC has renewed the popular docuseries "Cake Boss" for an eighth and ninth season, with a total of 30 more episodes, Multichannel reports. "Cake Boss" follows pastry chef Buddy Valastro and his team including his four sisters, two brothers-in-law and cousins, as they run the family bakery. The show has a large, engaged fan base around the world, and will be returning on TLC in the US as well as on Discovery Networks International channels in over 220 countries. Alongside "Cake Boss," Buddy Valastro will also star as host and judge of Brazil's "Kitchen Wars," a competition to find the country's most talented amateur cook. He has signed for 13 hour-long episodes, set to debut June 28 on TV Record and July 1 on Discovery Home & Health Brazil. When a Pennsylvania District Judge ruled on May 24 that entertainer Bill Cosby will stand trial on sexual assault criminal charges, it was a huge legal blow to the 78-year-old comedian. But the day-to-day fall-out from the case had long since taken a toll, a source close to the Cosby family tells PEOPLE. "He doesn't have his life anymore," the source says. "He has not lost his sense of humor and he has not become morose. But he is somber and there's been a physical toll - his walking is halting and he can seem downtrodden." While Camille Cosby, 71, continues to stand by her husband of 51 years even as more than 50 women have accused him of sexually assaulting and/or drugging them over the years, the ongoing ordeal has not been easy. "Of course it's very painful for Camille to go through this," says the source. "They have been married for over 50 years and she loves hima For both of them, it's a nightmare every day." For more on Andrea Constand, the woman at the center of the criminal case against Bill Cosby, pick up PEOPLE on stands Friday Camille Cosby Determined to Stand By Husband After Judge Orders Trial on Criminal Sexual Assault Charges| Crime & Courts, Sexual Assault/Rape, True Crime, Bill Cosby The nightmare won't be over any time soon. With Cosby facing criminal charges and a trial for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, 43, while she was a Temple University employee in 2004, the case will certainly drag on for the foreseeable future. Cosby and his attorneys have steadfastly denied the allegations from Constand, insisting the sexual contact was consensual, as well as those leveled by dozens more accusers. (While Cosby is fighting other civil cases involving similar accusations, he has only been charged criminally in Constand's case.) New revelations came to light on May 20 when a federal judge unsealed Cosby's depositions in Constand's civil suit, which he settled with her in late 2006. The depositions, which now are apart of a defamation lawsuit filed against Cosby by seven women claiming he drugged and sexually assaulted them, include his admission that he gave quaaludes to women and had sex with at least two teenaged girls. As long as the legal case continues to play out, Cosby is expected to remain largely out of the public eye and, to his disappointment, off the stage. "One of his greatest joys is performing and he can't do that or play an arena anymore," the source tells PEOPLE. "That's been taken away from him." The Gilded Age mansions of the East Coast owe their existence to moguls who amassed fortunes by forging steel, running railroads, or spanning the country with telegraph and later telephone wires. But as you move west, youll find equally impressive estates that owe their existence to different engines of wealthnamely cattle and oil. Such is the case with this 13,457-square-foot mansion on the market for $3.5 million in Wichita, KS. The propertywith 17 bedrooms, 16 bathrooms, and three half-baths spread out over the Richardsonian Romanesquestyle main house and carriage housewas constructed from 1886 to 1888 by Burton Harvey Campbell, known locally as Barbecue Campbell. Campbell made his first fortune in lumber on the East Coast, but he eventually moved west and became a major figure in the cattle trade. Campbell catle better exterior After visiting castles in Scotland, he wanted a home that reflected the structures hed seen, explains listing agent Marilyn Hoffman. So he commissioned a Boston architect to build a castle on 2 acres on the banks of the Little Arkansas River. Campbell Castle was passed on to other owners after Campbells death in the early 1900s, even serving as a high school for a time, before the current owners bought it in 1994 and began a $2 million restoration, Hoffman explains. Campbell castle interior Today the home is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is like going back in time, Hoffman says. Original floors made of walnut, maple, and Canadian mahogany have been restored. Fireplaces that date hundreds of years, shipped in during the original construction, are placed throughout the house as is original stained glass. But the home also includes modern amenities such as air conditioning, six whirlpool tubs, and a two-car garage. Campbell castle master bath The main house is 10,457 square feet with 13 bedrooms and 15.5 bathrooms. It has a basement apartment that can be used for live-in staff. Theres also a four-bedroom carriage house, where the owners live. The owners had operated the main house as a bed-and-breakfast for 13 years while also renting it out for special events, including parties for hundreds of guests, Hoffman says. A new owner could again operate it as a B&B and special events venue. Story continues The home would also make a perfect corporate headquarters, Hoffman says, or simply a luxurious home for someone who wants to live as original owner Campbell once did. And if they do, they should be sure to hold a barbecue or two in his honor. The post Campbell Castle in Wichita: Just the Place for a Little Upscale Barbecue appeared first on Real Estate News and Advice - realtor.com. Related Articles Ottawa (AFP) - Canada has added a powerful synthetic opioid police describe as 10,000 times stronger than morphine to its list of controlled substances, the health ministry announced Wednesday. The ban of W-18 follows the first reported overdose death from the drug in Canada last month. It makes the production, possession and trafficking of W-18 illegal. "Evidence shows that W-18 has been used recreationally in Europe and Canada over the past two years," Health Canada said in a statement. "It has been found in samples seized by Canadian law enforcement that were made to appear like legitimate prescription tablets, such as oxycodone." Developed in the 1980s as a potential pain reliever, W-18 was never marketed commercially and has no legitimate use, the ministry said. The drug can cause serious injury and death if abused. A 35-year-old man who overdosed in March had taken W-18 mixed with heroin and other narcotics, the authorities confirmed last month. In April, Canadian police announced the seizure of four kilograms of W-18 in Edmonton, Alberta. Pills containing the opioid turned up a month later in a Kelowna, British Columbia drug bust. By David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada on Wednesday pressed China about a Canadian citizen charged with spying and also raised the need to improve human rights around the world, Foreign Minister Stephane Dion said. Dion, part of the new Liberal government led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said that while Canada wanted closer trade ties with China, it would not hesitate to speak out on sensitive matters. In January, China indicted Canadian citizen Kevin Garratt on charges of spying and stealing state secrets. He was detained in August 2014 near China's sensitive border with North Korea. "The case ... of Mr Garratt has been raised by the prime minister and by myself," Dion told reporters after talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. "We never miss an opportunity to raise human rights, but the details should not be revealed publicly for the sake of Mr. Garratt. It's something the two governments will have to work together (on)," he said. Canada wanted to improve human rights globally and therefore had to talk to China, which has a sixth of the world's population, Dion said. A Trudeau spokesman declined to answer when asked about the prime minister's talks with Wang on Garratt. Wang did not mention the Garratt case but said through an interpreter that it was "normal and natural for our two countries to disagree on some issues." He did, however, criticize a female Canadian reporter who had asked about human rights problems in China, accusing her of displaying an unacceptable arrogance. Trudeau wants closer trading ties with China and other fast-developing nations to help boost a sluggish Canadian economy. Wang said he had told Dion that China wanted to speed up the process of starting talks on a free trade deal. Dion stressed the need for closer ties but did not mention free trade. Speaking on condition of anonymity, sources in Ottawa said Trudeau plans to visit China for a week in the run-up to a Sept. 4-5 Group of 20 Summit in Hangzhou. Details of the trip have not been finalized. The Liberals took power last November after defeating the Conservatives, who had an uneven relationship with China. Wang hailed Trudeau's victory, noting that his father - former Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau - was in office when Canada established diplomatic relations with China in 1970. The Conservatives complained about China's human rights record, accused Chinese hackers of cyber espionage and curbed investment by state-owned enterprises in the energy sector. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Alan Crosby) Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook attends a session during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland January 20, 2016. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich/Files Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg says that Peter Thiel will stay on Facebook's board. Thiel, Facebook's longest-serving board member, recently revealed that he has been funding lawsuits against Gawker, including one by Hulk Hogan that resulted in a $140 million jury verdict against the publication. Thiel's actions could be seen to contradict Facebook's past defenses of free speech, as Business Insider's Matt Rosoff and others have written. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post and is an investor in Business Insider, also criticized Thiel's actions. But Facebook demurred. "Peter did what he did on his own," Sandberg said. "We didn't know about it." She continued to say that Thiel's strong views make him a valuable board member. "We have very different board members with very different thoughts," she said. "Those people make good board members because they have strong views that they're not afraid to show ..." She also said that CEO Mark Zuckerberg won't publicly address Thiel's actions, even though he did publicly denounce the words of board member Marc Andreessen earlier this year. The difference: Andreessen looked like he was speaking for Facebook in commenting on its Free Basics program in India, while Thiel's actions aren't related to Facebook. NOW WATCH: I found 9 years' worth of messages hidden in my secret Facebook inbox More From Business Insider By Leah Schnurr OTTAWA, June 1 (Reuters) - Even with some parts of the Canadian economy operating near capacity, economists say business investment is unlikely to pick up soon because many companies are wary about the outlook for growth. Canadian business investment fell again in the first quarter, gross domestic product data released on Tuesday showed, the fifth straight quarterly decline, which weighed on economic growth. The business investment decline, heavily influenced by the oil price slump, contributed to Canada's slip into a mild recession last year. Stronger business investment, along with a pick up in exports, is key to the central bank's outlook. Weak global and Canadian growth expectations mean businesses do not need to invest as much in expanding their operations as they might have otherwise, said Eric Lascelles, chief economist at RBC Global Asset Management. Additionally, there has been a shift toward risk aversion and away from investing for growth, he said. "Sometimes that means leaving something on the table in terms of growth opportunities and I think that is still very much central to business decision making around the world right now," Lascelles said. The Bank of Canada said in April it expects business fixed investment will take 0.8 percentage points off economic growth this year before contributing modestly in 2017. It more recently noted investment and intentions remain disappointing. Lascelles expects the bank may have to lower that forecast, possibly in its next monetary policy report in July. The bank had highlighted that some sectors, such as wood products and transportation equipment, are operating at capacity utilization rates that are close to historical highs, suggesting they will need to invest in factories and equipment as demand increases. But companies may wait to see that the demand is there first, given the risk that the U.S. economy does not rebound from a weak first quarter as strongly as anticipated. Story continues That means any bump up in spending in the near-term may be modest, if it comes at all. "Autos are running flat out and the problem with that is it doesn't look as though there's any more investment coming on that front," said Benjamin Reitzes, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, pointing to a fourth-quarter capacity utilization rate of 97.8 percent for the transportation sector. "That high number does not portend new investment, unfortunately." While there may be some bright spots outside the energy sector, the drag from the commodity slump is going to be a bigger weight on overall business investment, said Bill Adams, senior international economist for PNC Financial Services Group. (Reporting by Leah Schnurr; Editing by David Gregorio) OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Cabinet minister Hunter Tootoo, who was in charge of fisheries, oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, resigned on Tuesday to seek treatment for addiction issues. Tootoo, 52, became the first minister to quit Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Cabinet since his Liberal government took power last autumn. Tootoo, a member of Parliament for the sparsely populated northern territory of Nunavut, said he resigned his Cabinet post and would also be stepping down as a member of the Liberal caucus "in order to not distract from the important work of my colleagues." "I have decided to seek treatment for addiction issues and ask for privacy at this time," Tootoo said in a statement. He did not specify the type of addiction. Trudeau said in a brief statement announcing the resignation that Dominic Leblanc would assume Tootoo's responsibilities while maintaining his role as government house leader. (Reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Writing and additional reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Calgary; Editing by Peter Cooney) A screenwriter and comic book creator from a prominent Canadian family was charged on Tuesday in the murder of his girlfriend, whose body was found mutilated and drained of blood in the couple's West Hollywood apartment, PEOPLE confirms. Blake Leibel, 35, pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, mayhem, aggravated mayhem and torture, his publicist tells PEOPLE. He was charged in connection with the death of 30-year-old Iana Kasian, who died between May 23 and May 26, authorities say. "This is a serious matter," Leibel's attorney Alaleh Kamran said in a statement. "Mr. Leibel's defense team requests that the public and media respect his right to a fair hearing in court." The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced the charges in a statement on Tuesday, noting that Leibel faces the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole. "Kasian was tortured and mutilated before she was killed and all of her blood was drained from her body," Deputy District Attorney Tannaz Mokayef said. Canadian Heir Charged with Torture and Murder of Girlfriend in West Hollywood: 'All of Her Blood Was Drained from Her Body'| Crime & Courts, Death, Murder, True Crime, True Crime Kasian's mother reported her missing last month, prompting Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies to go to the couple's apartment on May 26 where they found Kasian unresponsive in a bedroom, suffering blunt force trauma injuries to the head, according to a police statement. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. Sheriff's homicide Lt. Dave Coleman told reporters then that Leibel was inside the apartment at the time, KTLA reports. "He had barricaded himself in the apartment, had placed furniture and bedding all around a to prevent us from entering," Coleman said. Authorities said that the couple have a child together, but the baby was with a family friend at the time, according to KTLA. Leibel is being held without bail and is schedule to appear in court on June 14, Bragman says. Less than a week before the body was found, Leibel was arrested for sexual assault, Mokayef told the Los Angeles Times. He was arrested on May 20 and later released on $100,000 bail, jail records confirm. Leibel is the son of Lorne Leibel, a prominent real estate developer in Toronto and former Olympic athlete he competed in sailing in the 1976 Olympics, according to the Times. Leibel moved to California in 2004 and received $1.7 million in monthly allowances from his family over eight years, the Times reports. By Rod Nickel WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - The Western Canadian province of Saskatchewan, hit hard by weak crude oil and potash prices, expects a C$434 million ($331.68 million) deficit in 2016-17, the government said on Wednesday as it released the year's budget. Premier Brad Wall's right-leaning Saskatchewan Party government plans to spend C$14.5 billion on revenue of C$14 billion in Canada's biggest canola- and wheat-growing province. Both figures are up 1 percent for the year that began April 1. "There are years when unforeseen events drops in the price of oil or potash, or costly natural disasters make it prudent to run a manageable deficit rather than implement severe cuts to programs and services or increase the tax burden," Finance Minister Kevin Doherty said in a statement. "This is one of those years." For fiscal 2015-16, which ended March 31, Saskatchewan ran a C$427 million deficit, its first in two decades. The Sask Party government plans to return to a surplus in 2017-18. Wall, the province's charismatic premier since 2007, led his Sask Party to its third straight election victory in April. Saskatchewan's real gross domestic product will grow 0.4 percent in 2016, the third-slowest among the 10 provinces, due to its ties to the slumping energy sector, according to a TD Economics forecast in April. Saskatchewan estimated the price of West Texas Intermediate oil would average $40.50 per barrel in 2016, down from $48.79 last year. Production is expected to fall 7 percent to 164.5 million barrels, the government said. The province forecast average potash prices of $205.10 per tonne in 2016, down sharply from $274.85 last year. Production is likely to be flat, it added. Saskatchewan is working on revising its complex potash royalty formula by the end of 2016. The province is the home of Potash Corp of Saskatchewan. Rivals Mosaic Co and Agrium Inc also operate potash mines there. Revenue from non-renewable resources, which includes oil and potash, is forecast to fall 19 percent in 2016/17 to C$1.5 billion, the lowest in 13 years. Saskatchewan, with a population 1.1 million, expects total public debt to climb to C$14.8 billion, up C$1.2 billion, by the end of the fiscal year on March 31, 2017. Neighboring province Manitoba on Tuesday forecast a C$911-million deficit for this year. ($1 = 1.3085 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Editing by Richard Chang) Mogadishu (AFP) - Gunmen holed up in a central Mogadishu hotel for more than 12 hours killed at least 10 people in the latest attack in Somalia by the Al-Qaeda group, the Shabaab. A huge car bomb that tore the front off the six-storey Ambassador Hotel in the heart of the capital signalled the start of the assault on Wednesday evening, with shooting continuing until Thursday morning when Somalia's security minister declared the attack over. "All the gunmen were killed by the security forces," said security minister Abdirizak Omar Mohamed. "More than 10 people are so far confirmed dead and many others are wounded," he told reporters, adding that rescuers were searching the badly-damaged building for survivors and bodies. The toll is expected to rise as rescue and recovery efforts continue Thursday. Medical sources said that around 40 people were so far known to be injured. As Mohamed spoke, the bodies of three suspected attackers were displayed in the dirt outside the hotel. The Shabaab was quick to claim responsibility for the attack and has regularly in the past targeted hotels popular with government officials and wealthy Somalis. - Attacks expected to escalate - The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which protects the internationally-backed government and fights the Shabaab, said two parliamentarians were among the dead. Witnesses said the initial explosion, believed to be the result of a suicide car bomber ramming a vehicle into the hotel, was large by Mogadishu standards. Smoke rose from burning cars and debris was strewn across Maka al-Mukarama, the capital's usually busy main street. Mohamed Elmi, who was nearby at the time, said the blast "destroyed the whole area." After the blast an unknown number of gunmen then entered the hotel. Gunfire continued throughout the night and could still be heard at dawn on Thursday. - US-backed raid on Kenya mastermind - The Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda group, lost its foothold in the capital in 2011 but continues its battle to overthrow the Somali government and launches regular attacks on military, government and civilian targets in Mogadishu and elsewhere. Story continues Violence is expected to increase with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan next week, a time when Shabaab traditionally ups the tempo of its attacks. Also on Wednesday, Somali special forces backed by US troops claimed to have killed Mohamed Mohamud Ali -- also known as Dulyadin and Kuno -- the suspected organiser of an attack on a university in Garissa, Kenya, in April 2015 that killed 148 people, mostly students. The Garissa attack was the deadliest in Kenya since the Al-Qaeda bombing of the US embassy in 1998 and was carried out by four gunmen, all of whom died. "Sixteen armed men, four of them senior commanders including Mohamed Mohamud Ali... were killed by the Somali commandos and the special forces of Jubaland," said Abdirashid Janan, security minister for Jubaland, a federal state in southern Somalia. "US forces supported this Somali-led operation in an advise-and-assist role," US defence spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Michelle Baldanza said in a statement, saying that "the operation may have resulted in the death" of Ali. The US also said it had killed a senior Shabaab planner, Abdullahi Haji Da'ud, in a drone strike on May 27, the latest in an increasing number of air strikes and US-led or US-backed raids in Somalia targeting Shabaab leaders and recruits. "Da'ud was one of Shabaab's most senior military planners and served as a principal coordinator of militia attacks in Somalia, Kenya, and Uganda," said Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook. He said Da'ud was "presumed killed". By Karl Plume June 1 (Reuters) - U.S. agricultural trader Cargill Inc said Wednesday it has signed an agreement to acquire Five Star Custom Foods, Ltd, a Texas-based company specializing in cooked protein products, soups and sauces for restaurants and food processors. Cargill did not disclose terms of the deal, but said it expected the transaction to be finalized this summer after a regulatory review. The 151-year-old grain trader has recently been refocusing its operations by exiting lower-margin businesses and expanding deeper into higher-margin endeavors, like food ingredients and aquaculture, to capitalize on consumer trends such as simpler ingredient labels. The company sold its U.S. pork business last year. The Five Star acquisition includes facilities in Fort Worth, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee, that currently produce products including meat toppings for pizza, pulled pork and chili. "Adding Five Star Custom Foods to Cargill's protein business will provide us with new capabilities we currently do not have, while allowing us to be more nimble in our ability to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers and consumers," Brian Sikes, vice president of Cargill's protein businesses, said in a statement. Cargill bought a ground beef plant in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in 2012 and owns a cattle feed yard in nearby Bovina, Texas. It also operates beef and turkey processing facilities in the state and a food distribution center in San Antonio, which will complement the Five Star acquisition, Cargill spokesman Mike Martin said. (Reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago, editing by G Crosse) (Photo: Instagram) Star Wars Carrie Fisher has had a lot of fun over the years describing just how awful her ridiculously revealing slave bikini costume was in 1983s Return of the Jedi. If you stood behind me, you could see straight to Florida, she told Star Wars Insider magazine in 2003. Youll have to ask Boba Fett about that. In a 1999 Newsweek piece, she described the outfit as what supermodels will eventually wear in the seventh ring of hell and said, I wasnt quite girl-next-door material; I was the girl-next-dogstar, the one in the titanium thong. Fisher in Return of the Jedi (Everett) Apparently her feelings arent all bad though, because Fisher and her constant companion Gary the French bulldog took some time out to visit Madame Tussauds in London, where theres a re-creation of Jabba the Hutts throne room, including a remarkable likeness of Princess Leia in her skimpy slave getup. (Fisher, whose character Leia got a promotion to General in The Force Awakens, will next appear in 2017s Episode VIII.) The result? Some tongue-wagging from Gary and a couple priceless new photos. As one Twitter user tweeted back at Fisher, #stillahottie. Inspector Koh (Shane Mardjuki in The Hush. (Mediacorp Channel 5) Marcus Goh is a Singapore television scriptwriter. Hes also a Transformers enthusiast and avid pop culture scholar. He Tweets/Instagrams at Optimarcus and writes at marcusgohmarcusgoh.com. The views expressed are his own. The Hush is Channel 5s latest drama is about the upheaval in the lives of residents after the death of a stranger in the swimming pool. The repercussions of the mystery are felt by every single person in the condominium, which shares the same name as the title of the show. The mystery serves as a catalyst for the unravelling of the lives of the people in the condominium itself, said executive producer and creator of the series Lee Thean-jeen, 47, who also wrote and directed several episodes in the 13-episode drama. Lee was the executive producer of the popular legal drama The Pupil, as well as its spinoff, Code of Law. Adam (Awad Salim) in The Hush. (Mediacorp Channel 5) From the hush to dialogue Its not uncommon in Western dramas, said Lee of the premise of the show. But what I wanted to do was to explore such a situation in a Singaporean, an Asian context. Would people become pantang or be worried about the price of their units? Or would they be concerned about who the boy was? We wanted to ask the question, what would happen in Singapore, and to delve into it in a very local context. The Hush sees a large array of Singaporean characters that come from all walks of life lawyers, students, civil servants, teachers. The only link that they have is that they stay in the same condominium. A lot of local dramas revolve around people living in HDB flats, and we thought it would be interesting to have a peep into the lives of condominium dwellers, as theyre of a slightly different profile, said Lee. While the show is classified as drama, it also has elements of a mystery, a thriller, and plenty of character drama in it. But is it based on Lees personal experiences? Story continues Every show is biographical in some way, whether it be emotionally or narratively, shared Lee. Nelson (Remesh Panicker) in The Hush. (Mediacorp Channel 5) Developing characters for The Hush The show took a little over six months to develop and write, and three months to shoot. We had five writers on board, said Lee. The characters were already fairly developed, so it was a matter of developing the character arcs. We explored the less conventional kind of relationships on the show. But there were no issues with censorship. The relationships are unconventional but not controversial. For example, Thomas (Tay Ping Hui) and Valerie (Carmen Soo) Teo discuss a divorce in their very first episode. They have two schooling children, one of whom is in his PSLE year. Nelson (Remesh Panicker) has to deal with a recently deceased wife, and struggles with his relationship with Luisa (Cassandra Jean Spykerman), a domestic helper who took care of his wife in her final days. Nelson has a lot of layers to him, said Lee. He goes through many different emotions, since his wife just passed away. But his son is also part o the management committee of the condominium. As the show progresses, we also see Luisa go from being just a maid to a very riveting character. When pressed for a favourite character to write, Lee picked the boy who died in the pool, Zulkifi (Shaquille Daniel). Hes one of the more intriguing characters for me, especially when it comes to fleshing him out and revealing who he was. Theres a lot mystery surrounding the character and what he was doing. Tony Eusoff as Daud in The Hush. (Mediacorp Channel 5) Challenges of the show This is the largest ensemble of characters Ive ever had on the show, said Lee. The challenge was trying to meld the different story arcs to maintain a consistent tone. But the sprawling cast wasnt the biggest challenge on the The Hush. It was the weather. When we conceptualised the show, much of it was set around the swimming pool. But we shot it at the beginning of the year, when the weather was crazy. Within one scene, we would have bright sunlight, cloudy weather, heavy storms with lightning and thunder. Then when we wrap, it would be sunny again. Lee, however, is no stranger to challenging shoots. The challenges are what inspire me to keep going. Every show has got its own unique challenges. While other shows like "Code of Law or Zero Calling fell into their own definitive genres, The Hush combined elements from different genres. Lee Thean-jeen, executive producer of "The Hush. (Mediacorp Channel 5) No stranger to the industry Lee is the managing director of Weiyu Films, a production studio. He recently won a Platinum Remy at the Worldfest Houston International Film Festival 2016 for last years horror film, Bring Back the Dead, and a Gold Remy for Zero Calling. Zero Calling is a thriller which sees an average Joe co-erced into doing an anonymous callers bidding in order to protect those around him. Bring Back the Dead saw its first US screening at the festival. It was interesting to see the responses of an American audience to what is essentially Asian horror. Were exploring the possibility of a theatrical release in the US, but nothing is confirmed yet. Lees mastery of a broad range of genres speaks to his continuing creativity in the production industry. After all, life is a neverending source of inspiration. The Hush airs every Monday, 10pm, on Channel 5. - By James Li Charles de Vaulx (Trades, Portfolio) (Trades, Portfolio), portfolio manager of the International Valuations Advisors (IVA) Fund, invested in two major stocks May 31: Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and Hyundai Motor Co. (005380.KS). The manager of Sofire Fund Ltd., which won aFund of the Yeara in the global equity category in 2005 and in 2006, Charles de Vaulx (Trades, Portfolio), joined the IVA Fund in May 2008 as portfolio manager and chief information officer. According to his May 27, semiannual report, de Vaulx chooses stocks to buy using a apreservation of capitala approach: the manager targets company stocks that trade at areasonable discountsa to the companyas intrinsic value at the time of investment. Additionally, de Vaulx prefers companies that have good balance sheets so the fund does not suffer in case the valuations are inaccurate. The global banks industry presents a twofold view to the portfolio manager of IVA Funds. Although many Chinese banks are trading at low P/B ratios, de Vaulx chose not to invest in them, citing beliefs of acredit overextensiona in China. European banks, according to de Vaulx, are not well capitalized and are likely riskier than U.S. banks like Bank of America. Incorporated in Delaware July 31, 1998, Bank of America provides customers with banking and other financial services. Compared to its competitors in the global banking industry, Bank of America has a relatively high financial strength and low profitability. Although it has low ROE and ROA, Bank of America has a lower P/B ratio than its competition, suggesting that it is undervalued compared to competing firms. With a three-year EPS growth of 255, Bank of America has a higher three-year EPS growth than 99% of firms in the global banking industry. 1038128122.png Despite having a slightly higher trailing-12-month P/E ratio than JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Bank of America has a P/E ratio in the bottom 19% of global banking companies. The Peter Lynch chart suggests that Bank of Americaas stock price is undervalued based on its earnings line. Story continues 1464804957308.png 11449055.png The top 10 holdings of both IVA funds, Worldwide and International, include Hyundai Motor Co., a South Korean motor manufacturing and financing company incorporated Dec. 29, 1967. In his May letter, de Vaulx explains why he invests mostly in awell-capitalized and well-manageda stocks. The IVA Fund manager especially prefers two South Korean stocks, including Hyundai, because they still offer large discounts despite questionable corporate governance, according to the letter. With a financial strength of 7, Hyundai has a healthy financial outlook. Although it has a declining gross margin, the South Korean motor company has an operating margin that is expanding and higher than 65% of companies in the global automobile manufacturers industry. Among competing firms in its sector, Hyundai has the lowest valuation ratios, which are currently near five-year lows. The firm also has a dividend yield higher than 92% of global auto manufacturers industry. 1464807962371.png 1464808040474.png 1464808058610.png View Charles de Vaulx (Trades, Portfolio)as other top 10 holdings here. For the latest guru buys, go here. You can always customize your list of gurus using the personalized gurus tab. Looking for more good stocks in the auto business? Find them using the All-In-One Guru Screener, a comprehensive tool that allows you to find similar stocks. Start a free seven-day trial of Premium Membership to GuruFocus. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Algiers (AFP) - The leader of the Western Sahara's Polisario Front, Mohamed Abdelaziz, who died on Tuesday, will be buried on Saturday in a Polisario-controlled part of the former Spanish colony, an official told AFP. "On Friday the population will take a final look at its leader and the burial will take place on Saturday at Bir Lahlou in the liberated territories," said Mohamed Keddad of the movement's Committee on Foreign Affairs. Abdelaziz had been secretary general of the group for most of its decades-long struggle to win independence, but succumbed to a "long illness," said Brahim Ghali, another Polisario official. His body will be displayed on Friday in a camp for Sahrawi refugees in Tindouf, 1800 kilometres (1120 miles) south-west of the Algerian capital Algiers, to allow delegations and foreign dignitaries to pay homage. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called Abdelaziz "a central figure in the search for a solution to the Western Sahara conflict," in a message of condolence to the Polisario which was published by Algeria's APS news agency. An "important delegation" from Algeria would be at the ceremony, said Ghali. Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika decreed eight days of mourning and opened a meeting of the Council of Ministers on Tuesday with a minute of silence in homage to Abdelaziz, according to state television. Abdelaziz, who was in his late 60s, had led the Algeria-backed Polisario since 1976, three years after the group was founded to struggle for independence for the territory, which was annexed by Morocco in 1975. Local Sahrawi people are campaigning for the right to self-determination, but Morocco considers the territory to be part of the kingdom and insists its sovereignty cannot be challenged. Keddad said Abdelaziz would be the first leader to be buried in Polisario-controlled parts of the territory, which are separated from Moroccan-administered areas by a 2200-kilometre sand wall and minefield created by Rabat in the 1980s. The other tombs there belong to those "who fell in the fields of honour," said Keddad. Abdelaziz's successor will be selected at an extraordinary conference within 40 days. The president of the Sahrawi National Council, Khatri Addouh, will lead the group in the interim, according to Polisario sources. China's foreign minister berated a Canadian journalist on Wednesday for questioning Beijing's human rights record, saying she had "no right to speak" about the issue. The remarks by Wang Yi came after the reporter asked Canadian Foreign Minister Stephane Dion about what was being done to push China on human rights and its holding of a Canadian man on espionage charges. "Your question is full of prejudice and arrogance," Wang told a press briefing in Ottawa where he stood beside Dion. "This is totally unacceptable". "The people that know the most about human rights in China is not you, it's only the Chinese people. You don't have the right to speak," he added according to a video posted online by Canadian broadcaster CBC. "Don't ask these kinds of irresponsible questions again". China often condemns other countries for criticising its record on human rights, but usually refrains from doing so in such direct terms at press conferences overseas. In contrast, Chinese President Xi Jinping last year admitted the country had "room for improvement" on human rights after being asked a similar question by a British journalist while on a visit to London. Wang's Canadian visit -- where he also met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau -- was portrayed in local media as an attempt to improve relations as Ottawa presses for a free-trade deal with the world's second-largest economy. Ties have been strained by the detention of Canadian citizen Kevin Garratt in 2014 on espionage charges. He previously ran a Christian-themed coffee shop near the North Korean border. Beijing announced in January he had been formally charged, after his wife who was also detained was released on bail. Aside from the outburst, Wang reiterated China's standard line on the South China Sea, where it has overlapping claims with several Southeast Asian neighbours. Speaking after incoming Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte recently heaped praise on Xi, Wang said that "the door of dialogue between China and the Philippines is always open." Story continues Ties soured under outgoing President Benigno Aquino, whose government sued Beijing before a UN-backed tribunal over its claims in the South China Sea. With a ruling expected in the coming weeks, the Philippines' response will probably be left to Duterte, who takes office on June 30. In contrast to Aquino, Duterte has said he is willing to engage China in bilateral talks on the issue. However, he has also played to nationalist sentiments by saying he would ride a jet ski to plant a Philippine flag on disputed islands in the sea. Beijing (AFP) - Activity in Chinese factories expanded for the third straight month in May, official data showed, a further sign of stabilisation in the world's second largest economy after a period of slow growth. The official Purchasing Manager's Index (PMI), which tracks activities in the country's factories and workshops, came in at 50.1 on Wednesday, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Any reading above 50 signals expanding activity, while anything below indicates shrinkage. The figure was unchanged from April and just below the March figure of 50.2, but beat economists' median expectations of 50 in a survey by Bloomberg News. Investors watch the figure closely as the first available indicator each month of the health of the world's second biggest economy. China's economy is a vital driver of global expansion. But it grew only 6.9 percent last year, its weakest rate in a quarter of a century. The key manufacturing sector has been struggling for months in the face of sagging global demand for Chinese products. Analysts with ANZ Research said the results were lifted by property investment and fiscal policies and ruled out any imminent "broad-based monetary policy easing" as China's leaders "do not welcome property-led growth" in the first quarter. Real estate spending can boost manufacturing by increasing demand for furniture, appliances and household goods. A recent private survey showed that new home prices rose at their fastest pace in more than two years in May, surging more than 10 percent year on year. "What is worth paying attention to is that the growth rate of raw material prices declined, showing that market demand remained rather weak and the foundation for manufacturing growth is still unstable," NBS analyst Zhao Qinghe said in a statement, referring to the May figure. China's economy is "operating steadily" now but is "lacking any upward momentum", Tao Dong of Credit Suisse told Bloomberg News, adding that the economy "will wane again in the summer", which will be a "key test" for the central bank to keep policies stable. Story continues - Elusive rebound - The signs were less positive from the private Caixin Purchasing Managers' Index, which puts a greater emphasis on smaller firms. That figure came in at 49.2, meeting economists' expectations of a fractional decline from 49.4 in April, the Chinese financial magazine said in a joint statement with data compiler Markit. Manufacturers continued to shed jobs as weak demand and a drop in new orders weighed on the figures, it said. "Overall, China's economy has not been able to sustain the recovery it had in the first quarter and is in the process of bottoming out," Zhao Zhengsheng, director of Macro economic Analysis at CEBM Group said. "The government still needs to make full use of proactive fiscal policy measures accompanied by a prudent monetary policy to prevent the economy from slowing further." While Beijing policies have managed to keep growth stable, a "significant rebound is proving elusive", Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said, adding that it has become likelier that "growth could merely hold steady this year". Investors were unimpressed with the figures as stocks edged down slightly on Wednesday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closing down 0.11 percent. BEIJING (Reuters) - One Chinese United Nations peacekeeper has been killed, and four injured, after an attack in Mali, China's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, calling for an investigation into the incident to bring the perpetrators to justice. Soldiers of a United Nations peacekeeping mission have been stationed in northern Mali, along with French forces, for three years since separatists joined jihadists to seize the region from the government in Bamako. The militants have staged several high profile attacks in the past year, not only in Mali but also in neighboring Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. A peace accord signed last year was meant to bring stability to the region, but attacks against the U.N. mission, Malian military and civilians are still frequent. In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China urged the Mali government and the United Nations to investigate the attack and bring the perpetrators to justice. "This is a grave and intolerable crime. China strongly condemns it," Hua told a daily news briefing, describing the incident as a terrorist attack on the U.N. peacekeeping mission. She did not say who China thought was behind the attack. China now has more than 2,400 peacekeepers in Mali and other African countries, she said, adding that the country would continue to positively contribute to U.N. peacekeeping missions to help ensure peace and stability in Africa. China will contribute a tenth of the budget for U.N. peacekeeping operations between 2016 and 2018, slightly behind the United States, the U.N.'s peacekeeping chief told the country's official Xinhua news agency on Sunday. Five U.N. peacekeepers from Togo were also killed and one person was seriously injured in an ambush in central Mali on Sunday. (Reporting by Michael Martina; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) China is actively building out the European portion of its ambitious new Silk Road plan, with port deals from Greece to the Netherlands, railroad investments in Greece, Serbia, and Hungary, as well as a handful of historic, high-profile state visits this spring by President Xi Jinping. Beijings multibillion-dollar plans to build overland and maritime links across Central and South Asia whether that means huge investments in Pakistan or gas pipeline deals in places like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan grab the lions share of attention. But the ultimate prize in the Silk Road plan also known in China as the One Belt, One Road initiative is someplace else: Europe. Thats true both because Europe represents a bigger and richer market than the relatively poor countries that dot the steppe, and because Beijings ambitions arent purely commercial. It is not an economic project, it is a geopolitical project and it is very strategic, said Nadege Rolland, an analyst at the National Bureau for Asian Research, a think tank. As it has across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, China is trying to parlay its economic heft into bigger diplomatic influence in Europe, especially in cash-strapped states in the east and southeast. That task is made easier thanks to the increasing weight and reach of Chinese state-owned companies. Beijing began encouraging consolidation among competing firms last year as a way of trying to deal with overcapacity in Chinese industry, where having several giant firms in the same sector was leading to inefficiencies. The resulting mergers created giants like such as CRRC Corporation, formerly a pair of railroad equipment makers and now the worlds second-biggest industrial company, and COSCO, cobbled together from a pair of state-owned shipping firms and now the worlds fourth-largest shipping company. Story continues Both of those mega-firms are active in Chinas recent European investments: COSCO is snapping up stakes in ports, while CRRC is working to build new rail lines in Eastern Europe. Another state-owned giant, ChemChina, has been on a European buying spree in the last year, gobbling up agricultural firms, tire makers, and machine tool manufacturers. And their state-backed involvement makes clear that more is at stake than the financial bottom line. Most Chinese foreign direct investments are not normal foreign direct investments, said Philippe Le Corre of the Brookings Institution, co-author of the recently published book Chinas Offensive in Europe. With a few exceptions, they just happen to have the whole Chinese state behind them. One of the unstated purposes of Chinas entire Silk Road program is to buy political goodwill from countries along the way. Decades ago, Chinese investment in Africa often brought support from those countries for Chinese positions in the United Nations. Chinese investments in Afghanistan, for instance, have recently translated into Kabuls support for Chinas territorial positions in the South China Sea disputes. In Europe, Chinas investment push has indeed led to a few diplomatic victories. Fueled by big investments in the energy sector, Xi received red-carpet treatment from British leaders on a state visit last year, and China considers the U.K. its best friend in the West. Several of Europes biggest countries, including the U.K., France, Germany, and Italy, supported Chinas creation of a new international development bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, despite heated objections from the United States. China is perhaps making its biggest inroads on Europes periphery. It has created a new grouping, known as the 16+1, of the 16 Central and Eastern European countries including some inside and some outside the European Union. The informal club has responded to Chinese infrastructure investment with closer ties and a more compliant approach to issues that are prickly for Beijing, especially human rights. The Czech Republic, for example, once outspoken on the subject of Tibetan independence, now hews closer to Beijings line regarding its continued control of the Himalayan nation. Beijing hailed Slovenia as one of a group of 40 countries China says back its position on the disputes in the South China Sea; plenty of other countries on that list, from Afghanistan to Mozambique to Venezuela, have also been on the receiving end of Chinas economic largesse. But China is also encountering plenty of pushback and not just in Europe. In Central Asia, Beijing is a preferred partner for the regions many autocratic governments who welcome Chinas non-interference in their affairs. But Chinas growing footprint there has received a much cooler reception from the local population. Kazakhstan, which has inked $50 billion worth of deals with China, has been wracked since April by protests over the fears the government will open the country up to large-scale Chinese purchases of land. In neighboring Kyrgyzstan, mounting public pressure caused the government to abandon plans to offer mining concessions to Chinese firms in lieu of paying back $1 billion in loans. In Europe, Chinas geopolitical ambitions have run into growing opposition, both in the street and among some governments. Protesters defaced Chinese flags in the Czech Republic during Xis visit this spring, for example. And earlier this month, the European Parliament recommended against granting China market economy status, a label Beijing craves and which it believes it is entitled to 15 years after joining the World Trade Organization. The EU reticence is driven, in part, by concerns of continued unfair Chinese competition, including dumping the detritus of its industrial overcapacity in Europe, which makes life more difficult for struggling European firms. Europe has also begun to push back against Chinas territorial ambitions in the South China Sea. Slovenia made clear, in contrast to Beijings public pronouncements, that it does not take sides on the dispute. In April, France signed a $40 billion deal to build advanced new submarines for Australia, prompted by French concerns about Chinese military expansion in the Western Pacific. More recently, Britain urged all countries including China to respect an upcoming ruling by an international arbitration panel on the South China Seas imbroglio; Beijing has attacked the tribunals legitimacy and vowed to ignore whatever ruling it hands down. Those setbacks suggest theres a limit to the leverage that Chinese investment can buy in Europe, despite the regions continued economic woes, said Le Corre. The European part of One Belt, One Road will not be a walk in the park, he said. Its not that simple to say, China is going to come and rescue Europe. I dont think theres appetite for this. Photo credit: MICHAL CIZEK/AFP/Getty Reid Standish contributed to this article. PureWow There are countless news reports detailing what King Charles III plans to do with Queen Elizabeths belongings and pets. But you should know theres a totally valid reason why hes getting rid of some of her racehorses. Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images This week, the royal family announced that King Charles will auction 14 of his mothers racehorses that were passed down to him. According to Hello! magazine, the animals will be sold at Tattersalls auction house in Newmarket. Per the outlet, this in By Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - China hopes all parties on the Korean peninsula will remain calm and exercise restraint, President Xi Jinping told a senior visiting North Korean envoy on Wednesday, after the isolated state rattled nerves with a failed missile test. The rare meeting in Beijing between Xi and one of North Korea's highest-profile officials, career diplomat Ri Su Yong, follows a flurry of weapons tests in the run-up to the first congress in 36 years of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party in May, when young leader Kim Jong Un consolidated his control. China is reclusive North Korea's only major ally but has been angered by its nuclear and missile programs. China signed up to harsh new U.N. sanctions against North Korea in March in response to its fourth nuclear test in January and a satellite launch in February. Xi told Ri that China attached great store to the friendly relationship between the two countries, and was willing to work with North Korea to consolidate that friendship, China's Foreign Ministry said. "China's position on the peninsula issue is clear and consistent. We hope all sides remain calm and exercise restraint, increase communication and dialogue and maintain regional peace and stability," the ministry cited Xi as saying. There was no direct mention of Tuesday's failed missile test, the latest in a string of unsuccessful ballistic missile tests by North Korea. Ri passed on a verbal message to Xi from Kim, the ministry said, in which Kim expressed a desire to work hard with China to maintain peace and stability on the peninsula and across northeast Asia. Xi welcomed Ri's visit to report on the North Korean party congress, which Xi said showed the importance Kim attached to ties with China, the ministry added. Xi said he hoped North Korea could achieve even greater achievements in improving its economy and people's livelihoods, the ministry said. Kim has yet to visit China since assuming office after his father died in 2011. Chinese state television showed pictures of the two men meeting in Beijing's Great Hall of the People. The United States plans to use high-level Sino-U.S. talks in Beijing next week to discuss ways to bring greater pressure to bear on North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday. But China has been reluctant to take tougher action, such as completely shutting its border with North Korea, for fear that North Korea could collapse in chaos. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel) By Lauren Hirsch and Denny Thomas June 1 (Reuters) - Chinese food and industrial conglomerate Xiwang Group Company Ltd is in advanced talks to buy Iovate Health Sciences International Inc, the Canadian owner of nutrition supplement MuscleTech, according to people familiar with the matter. Iovate is the latest Canadian vitamin maker to attract Chinese interest, as growing awareness of health and wellness issues among Chinese consumers, combined with a lack of confidence in China's safety standards, spurs the country's companies to look overseas for nutritional supplement assets. Canada has some of the most stringent safety standards for nutrition supplements in the world, making its companies coveted among peers for the popularity of their brands. Canadian vitamin maker Jamieson Laboratories, owned by private equity firm CCMP Capital Advisors LP, has also attracted interest from Chinese buyers, Reuters previously reported. Xiwang, which is controlled by Chinese Communist Party insider Wang Yong, has so far prevailed in an auction for Iovate and is negotiating a price of more than $700 million, the people said this week. Privately held Iovate has around $70 million in 12-month earnings before interest, tax, and depreciation, the people added, asking not to be identified because the negotiations are confidential. There is no certainty that Xiwang will reach an agreement with Iovate, or that any deal would clear all regulatory hurdles, the people cautioned. Xiwang and Iovate did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Xiwang's bid follows a string of Chinese acquisition efforts overseas, after the government encouraged outbound corporate investment in light of slowing domestic growth. Last year, Chinese companies scored a record $104 billion of foreign deals, nearly double that of 2014, according to Thomson Reuters data. Headquartered in Oakville, Ontario, Iovate's nutrition supplement brands include MuscleTech, Six Star Pro Nutrition, Purely Inspired and Hydroxycut. It has partnerships with major North American retailers, such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc and Sam's Club. Story continues Iovate was founded in 1995 as a direct-to-consumer mail order business. In 2010, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission charged Iovate with deceptive health claims about its products. Iovate subsequently settled that charge. Founded in 1986, Xiwang is active in beverage, food, steel logistics and several other industries, according to its website. Its chairman Yong is Communist Party secretary in the village of Xiwang in China's eastern Shandong province, where Xiwang is based. Xiwang Foodstuff Co Ltd, in which Xiwang has a nearly 35 percent stake, specializes in processing and distributing corn oil and products, and has a nearly $1 billion market capitalization. It could not be immediately determined whether the acquisition of Iovate would come through Xiwang Foodstuff, Xiwang Group, or another affiliated entity. (Reporting by Lauren Hirsch in New York and Denny Thomas in Hong Kong; Additional reporting by Carol Zhong in Hong Kong and Greg Roumeliotis and Gui Qing Koh in New York; Editing by Tom Brown) A Chinese peacekeeper and three civilians working for the UN's Mali mission have become the latest casualties of the troubled outfit, the UN and China's foreign ministry said Wednesday. The last month alone has seen three attacks on members of the mission, known as MINUSMA, fuelling concern over its future with 65 killed in under three years. It is the deadliest active deployment for UN peacekeepers. Al-Qaeda's North African affiliate AQIM claimed responsibility for the latest attacks on Tuesday, the US monitoring SITE said. The MINUSMA camp was targeted in a mortar or rocket assault, a statement from the mission said, during which "a peacekeeper was killed and three peacekeepers seriously wounded." A second armed attack on a UN de-mining unit killed "two security guards and an international expert", said the same statement. It was "the first time a Chinese UN peacekeeper has been killed in the north," an African military source told AFP, adding that of the civilians killed one was French and the two others Malian. The three peacekeepers seriously wounded were all Chinese, the source added. The deaths bring to 12 the number of peacekeepers killed in Mali in May alone, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. In other attacks, five Togolese peacekeepers were killed in an ambush by unidentified gunmen in the centre of the country on May 29. Five Chadians died on May 19 when their vehicle hit a landmine and then came under fire by Islamist group Ansar Dine. Dujarric said Ban was "outraged" by Tuesday's attacks and intended to present the Security Council with proposals "to strengthen the mission's posture and capabilities." The Security Council condemned the attacks "in the strongest terms". - 'Outrageous crime' - Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the Chinese peacekeeper was killed in a "terrorist attack". Story continues "This is a grave and outrageous crime, China strongly condemns it, we call for the UN and Mali to carry out a thorough investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice," she told a press conference on Wednesday in Beijing. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb meanwhile said that fighters from its "al-Murabitoun battalion engaged in a clash with 'crusader occupation forces'," referring to the UN mission in Mali, SITE said. Al-Murabitoun, led by one-eyed Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, has claimed responsibility for several spectacular and bloody attacks in sub-Saharan Africa. MINUSMA chief Mahamat Saleh Annadif called on the Malian government to track down the attackers and bring them to justice. "These crimes can no longer be tolerated," he said. Northern Mali has been the scene of repeated attacks since it fell under the control of three radical Islamist groups, including AQIM, in 2012. The rebels were largely ousted by an ongoing French-led military operation launched in January 2013, but they have continued to mount attacks on security forces from desert hideouts. Dujarric said that MINUSMA, which deployed in mid-2013, needed to be "adequately equipped" to operate in Mali. But he poured cold water on suggestions that an intervention brigade like that deployed as part of the UN mission in Democratic Republic of Congo would protect the peacekeepers. "The threat that we are facing from terrorist groups in Mali is different from what we are seeing in DRC," he said. A Chinese teenager hid in the cargo hold of an Emirates airliner during a nine-hour flight to Dubai where he hoped to make a fortune, describing the journey as "comfortable", reports said Wednesday. The 16-year-old stowaway was found after the flight from Shanghai landed in Dubai on Friday, the English-language daily 7Days reported citing police. "He told us that the bags section in the plane had been comfortable," said Dubai's assistant police chief for ports and airports, General Ahmed bin Thani. "He planned to come to Dubai after hearing about the lifestyle, and he was looking to make money," he added. Speaking through a translator, the stowaway from Bazhong in southwest China said he heard an online rumour that "even beggars" can make good money in Dubai, the paper said citing Chinese media. It was unclear how the teenager, who remains in custody in the Gulf emirate, got into the cargo hold, which is usually pressurised and temperature-controlled, unlike wheel wells where stowaways risk death due to freezing temperatures and a lack of oxygen. From Country Living You watch them on your TV screens, you obsessively read about their upcoming projects online-but have you ever stopped to wonder how the duo behind HGTV's Fixer Upper first met? Before Chip and Joanna Gaines became the design powerhouse we know and love today, they were two ordinary college students just trying to discover their passions. While Chip started flipping houses as a student at Baylor University, Joanna majored in communications, with dreams of becoming a broadcast journalist. And while you probably know the couple share the same alma mater by now, you may be surprised to learn they didn't actually meet at Baylor. Instead, it was a side job that brought them together. Through high school and college, Joanna worked at her dad's Firestone Tire store in Waco, Texas. It was during this time that she had her first TV stint, appearing in commercials for the business. "Her dad made the mistake of putting a pic of the family behind the counter at his shop," Chip explained to PopSugar. "I knew I'd marry her one day just by the picture on the wall." He then frequented the shop, making any excuse to stop by, in hopes of meeting Joanna. "My buddies used to always joke that no one could get their brakes done as often as I got my brakes done," Chip told KWTX. By the time he saw Joanna working in the office in 2001, Chip had the perfect pick-up line prepared to impress his future wife: "Hey, you're the girl from the commercials." And yes, it worked. See the commercial that started their relationship below: Chip and Joanna pretty much have opposite personalities, so it makes sense that they each approached the relationship differently at first. While Chip fell head-over-heels before even meeting Joanna, she was more guarded at the beginning of their relationship. Chip even jokingly described his now-wife as a "cyborg" to US Weekly, explaining that he was the first to really fall in love in the relationship. Despite their differences, the couple recognized their shared values, such as religion, early on. Story continues "When I learned how to embrace Joanna for who she is and really support her all the way, I feel like that was a real lightbulb moment for me in my relationship with her," Chip told Jefferson Bethke. "As I really enveloped this concept of I'm going to support her, and love her, and fight for her regardless, I feel like that opened [her] heart to be able to reciprocate." It was Chip's sincerity that eventually won Joanna over. "At first, I couldn't believe how kind Chip was-he had kind eyes, and made me laugh a lot," Joanna told PopSugar. "I knew he was the one because I knew I could trust him." After dating for a little over a year, Chip and Joanna were married on March 31, 2003. They soon combined forces-Chip's renovating skills with Joanna's eye for design-to become the team that consistently wows us today. Chip and Joanna started flipping houses together within a month of their wedding and later began to focus on renovations, due to the changing housing market. At first, it took a whole lot of trial and error to get things right. One of their earliest "fixer uppers" was their first house together, as a newlywed couple. The couple has now been married for 13 years and have four wonderful children, Drake, Ella, Duke, and Emmie. And while Chip and Joanna's stunning makeovers may have caught your eye at first, it's their strong family values that have turned them into a well-known household name. See how Chip and Joanna describe their own love story: Follow Country Living on Pinterest. Cincinnati police have opened an investigation into the family of the boy who fell into the gorilla pit at the Cincinnati Zoo over the weekend, according to a tweeted press release from the department. The statement made clear that the office is not looking into "the operation or safety of the Cincinnati Zoo," and will only be "reviewing the facts and circumstances that led" to the incident. A rep for the family tells PEOPLE that the family has not been charged at this time. CPD statement on Cincinnati Zoo incident: We are closely reviewing the facts of the case. Updates will be provided. pic.twitter.com/8FkPKYliYC a Cincinnati Police (@CincinnatiPD) May 31, 2016 In a later tweet, the Cincinnati Police Department clarified that the boy was actually 3-years-old, despite various reports that he was four. On Saturday, the toddler fell into the moat at the Gorilla World exhibit and was, according to bystanders, dragged around by the 400-pound gorilla Harambe. The incident lasted about 10 minutes before zoo officials decided to shoot and kill the endangered silverback. Age of child verified... The child involved in this incident is three years old. a Cincinnati Police (@CincinnatiPD) May 31, 2016 The controversial event quickly put the parents of the boy in the center of a media storm, with many accusing the parents of negligence while others put the blame on the zoo for not having tight enough safety gates that would have prevented the boy from falling in. "After the review, we will determine if charges need to be brought forward," police spokeswoman Tiffaney Hardy told CNN. "If it is determined charges need to be brought forward, we would then discuss it with the Hamilton County prosecutor's office." On Tuesday, a Cincinnati parent, whose child attends the daycare where Michelle Gregg works, defended Gregg whose son is at the center of the incident saying that what happened was an accident and that she feels confident leaving her children under Gregg's supervision. "I really feel bad for her and what happened," the mother named Airy told PEOPLE. "All the negativity I see online that's not her. She's not a neglectful woman. She's caring. It's not about her not paying attention or not caring. Things happen." Reporting by LE DATTA GRIMES Cobalt International Energy, Inc. CIE announced the appointment of a new CEO with effect from Jul 2, 2016. The new incumbent Timothy J. Cutt has been appointed as both Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a Class I member of the board of directors. He was handed over the baton from the outgoing CEO Joseph H. Bryant who has resigned with effect from Jun 1, 2016. For the interim one month period prior to Timothy J. Cutt assuming the mantle, the company has made some temporary appointments. During this time, William P. Utt, the companys lead independent director, has been appointed as Interim Chairman of the board of directors and Van P. Whitfield, the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, has been appointed as Interim Chief Executive Officer. In our opinion, Cutts appointment is a sound choice, given his profound experience in the exploration space over the years. Earlier, he served as President, Petroleum of BHP Billiton Limited BHP and was accountable for its global oil and gas business from Jul 2013 to Mar 2016. Apart from that, Cutt held positions in engineering, operations and senior management for 25 years with energy majors like ExxonMobil Corporation XOM. Headquartered in Houston, TX, Cobalt International Energy is an independent exploration and production company active in the deepwater U.S. Gulf of Mexico and offshore West Africa. The company was formed in 2005. The company holds lease interests in over 230 deepwater blocks in the Inboard Lower Tertiary and Miocene plays. To date, the company has drilled seven exploratory wells, three appraisal wells and four development wells in the northern pre-salt Kwanza Basin offshore Angola, and one exploratory well in the pre-salt deepwater region offshore Gabon. Of these wells, 13 have been successful in finding pre-salt hydrocarbons. Cobalt International currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Investors interested in the space can focus on a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock like CVR Refining, LP CVRR. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report BHP BILLITN LTD (BHP): Free Stock Analysis Report EXXON MOBIL CRP (XOM): Free Stock Analysis Report COBALT INTL EGY (CIE): Free Stock Analysis Report CVR REFINING LP (CVRR): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. By Peter Apps Its the near future, and North Koreas regime is on the brink of collapse. As rumors swirl of palace coups, forces on both sides of the worlds most militarized border are on heightened alert. The U.S. military faces a much bigger problem. Somewhere in the Pacific, a North Korean submarine is believed to be carrying nuclear warheads and the missiles to deliver them. And nobody knows where it is. It sounds like the plot of a Hunt for Red October-style technothriller. But if Pyongyangs technicians continue at their current pace, experts say it is becoming ever more likely. One thing is certain: North Korea is plowing considerable resources into building its nuclear capability. And it is clearly making progress even if Tuesdays failed missile test shows it still has a long way to go. Japanese officials said what appeared to be a conventional Musudan rocket, which theoretically has the ability to reach Japan and the U.S. territory and military base of Guam, exploded either as or shortly after it left its launcher. North Korea is estimated to have some 20 to 30 of the missiles first deployed in 2007, but yet to be launched successfully. What North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wants, most analysts believe, is simple a rocket that can fire a nuclear warhead at least to regional targets. His ultimate ambition, however, is to be able to hit U.S. cities on the West Coast, most likely from a submarine that could hide itself at sea. North Korea has been steadily improving its rockets which can also carry conventional explosives for decades. It detonated its first nuclear device in 2006 but most experts believe it has yet to build one small enough to be placed on a missile. Having the credible ability to do all of that and get the missiles to sea could take well over a decade, perhaps considerably more. Once it happens, however, it will be a strategic game changer. At worst, U.S. cities on the West Coast would have to deal with the prospect, however remote, that they might be struck by a North Korean atomic weapon. At the very least, a North Korea armed with nuclear submarines would hugely complicate the calculus for any U.S. president handling a crisis on the Korean peninsula itself. That, of course, is exactly the plan. The fact that Pyongyang has conducted so many tests this year, some experts believe, suggests Kim is pushing his scientists harder than ever to deliver working rockets and warheads. North Korea is believed to have tagged the expertise of Russian Cold War-era scientists, and while its capabilities on both fronts lag well behind established nuclear states such as Russia and China, it is already believed to be well ahead of Iran. In April, South Korean and U.S. officials said a North Korean submarine successfully launched a ballistic missile that traveled some 18 miles -- a major step forward. Technical experts say TV footage appeared to show a solid fuel rocket successfully launching from underwater, essentially the same system used by Western forces to achieve the same goal. When she testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in April, the incoming head of the U.S. Northern Command responsible for defending the mainland United States delivered a stark warning. "The North Korean threat is real," U.S. Air Force General Lori Robinson previously head of U.S. air forces in the Pacific told lawmakers. "For now, it's a medium range but they are trying very hard to be able to hit the homeland." Its impossible to know exactly how much money and expertise the North Koreans are expending. The scale of the effort, however, is seen as large in many ways, the same level of commitment the United States gave to the Manhattan Project to build the worlds first atomic bomb during World War Two. Pyongyangs reason is clear: building that kind of credible ability to strike is seen as central to the long-term survival of the Kim dynasty and its ruling party. Earlier this month, at the first meeting of its ruling party in 36 years, Kim said North Korea was a responsible nuclear weapons state and would never use its weapons unless it were threatened. That seemed a clear warning to outside powers, particularly Washington, to steer clear of any attempts to destabilize or attack the regime. Getting a submarine-based deterrent would be a very big deal and not just because it might allow the North Koreans to move the launch point much closer to the target. Submarines are central to what nuclear weapons states call a second strike capability, the ability to launch missiles even in the aftermath of an overwhelming and perhaps surprise preemptive attack. The United States, Russia, Britain and France all retain what they call a continuous at sea deterrent, at least one submarine offshore at all times ready to fight back even if the homeland and all other military forces are completely taken out. Israel is also believed to have the ability to mount nuclear cruise missiles on its Dolphin-class conventional submarines, while China is now moving quickly towards new ballistic missile submarines for its own at sea deterrent. This technology isnt new the United States and Russia developed it in the late 1950s based in part on plans originally developed to hit Nazi German U-boats in the dying days of World War Two. There is no good reason it should not eventually work for North Korea, too. If and when it does, Pyongyang is likely to try to keep its submarines very close to its coastsand its home defenses--at first. Still, once the first nuclear-armed submarine exists, Japan and the United States might feel political pressure to destroy it. That would come with considerable risks. The North is known to have huge volumes of conventional artillery based along the South Korean border, much of it in range of Seoul and its 10 million residents. The risk of those weapons inflicting massive casualties is one of the key factors that has deterred multiple U.S. administrations from considering the kind of preemptive strike on Pyongyangs weapons programs that the United States has threatened against Iran. The Korean War frozen by its 1953 cease-fire but never otherwise resolved may not be over yet. (Peter Apps is Reuters global affairs columnist, writing about international affairs, globalization, conflict and other issues. He is also founder and executive director of the Project for Study of the 21st Century; PS21; a non-national, non-partisan, non-ideological think tank operating in London, New York and Washington. Before that, he spent 12 years as a reporter for Reuters covering defense, political risk and emerging markets. Since 2016, he has also been an officer in the British Army Reserve. Follow Peter Apps on Twitter.) A congressional committee has launched an investigation into the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's handling of the heist of more than $80 million from accounts it maintains for the central bank of Bangladesh, CNBC has learned. In a letter to New York Fed President William Dudley on Tuesday, House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, asked for "all documents and communications" related to the cyberheist from the Bank of Bangladesh account. The committee also wants to know what oversight the Fed has conducted of the SWIFT system, an international electronic messaging system used by banks worldwide to authorize billions of dollars a day in money transfers. The House committee is requesting a briefing by the New York Fed on the status of its investigations, and "all documents or communications related to any review conducted by the NY Fed of its own information technology." The committee said its jurisdiction over the matter stems from its oversight of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Federal Information Security Management act of 2014, which created an overall effort to protect government information. "In light of the recent cyber attacks on our global financial systems, the Committee believes it is imperative to receive information from the NY Fed about its response, its oversight of SWIFT, the status of the investigation, and any remedial steps taken to address vulnerabilities," Smith wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by CNBC. "The question of bringing those responsible to justice is an important one. To date, investigators have not publicly announced significant progress." Although officials at the New York Fed have been careful to distance themselves from any electronic security problems related to SWIFT or its customers, the House committee asserts that the New York Fed has a role in overseeing the Belgium based consortium. SWIFT, formally known as the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, has struggled to push the normally secretive international banks it works with to begin sharing information on the unprecedented wave of cyberattacks targeting the global financial community. In May it urged its customers around the world to tell SWIFT if they see cyberattacks or fraud. In a statement, the consortium said the Bangladesh hack was part of an ongoing campaign by unknown attackers, an effort SWIFT called a wide and "highly adaptive campaign targeting banks." Story continues Traditionally, global central banks have operated with a high degree of secrecy and reluctance to share information, given the sensitive nature of their operations. In April, a New York Fed official told CNBC that the Fed itself is not even required to report thefts from its accounts. "I am not aware of any laws or regulations that require public disclosure, certainly by the Fed," the official said. The House committee requested documents be produced by noon on June 14. More From CNBC By Dustin Volz WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. congressional committee has launched a probe into the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's handling of the cyber theft of $81 million from one of its accounts held by the central bank of Bangladesh, according to a letter seen by Reuters. The letter, addressed to New York Fed President William Dudley and sent Tuesday from the House of Representatives' Science Committee, requests "all documents and communications" connected to the February heist, the bank's oversight of the global financial network SWIFT and the status of any reviews related to the Fed's information technology conducted since the attack occurred. The letter follows similar probes launched last month by Tom Carper, the Senate Homeland Security Committee's top Democrat, and Representative Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat. The latest inquiry comes as policymakers, regulators and financial institutions around the world increase scrutiny into the heist and related attacks on banks in Vietnam and Ecuador, in which hackers sent fraudulent transaction messages across the SWIFT. "In light of the recent cyber attacks on our global financial systems, the Committee believes it is imperative to receive information from the NY Fed about its response, its oversight of SWIFT, the status of the investigation, and any remedial steps taken to address vulnerabilities," states the letter, signed by House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican. A New York Fed spokeswoman said it intended to respond to the new request for information. The bank has so far denied responsibility for the Bangladesh Bank intrusion. The letter said it was "deeply troubling" that cyber security experts believe more attacks will be uncovered as banks review their security systems, and that Bangladesh Bank's systems appeared to be the "weak link" in the February attack. SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, last week urged banks to bolster their security, saying it was aware of multiple attacks. Banks around the world rely on SWIFT to issue payment instructions to each other. The committee requested a response from the New York Fed by June 14. (Reporting by Dustin Volz in Washington, additional reporting by Jonathan Spicer in New York, editing by G Crosse) ROSEVILLE, CA--(Marketwired - June 01, 2016) - Sunworks, Inc. (SUNW), a leading provider of solar power solutions, today announced the opening of its Southern Oregon Office, signaling a strategic expansion of the Company's geographic reach. Sunworks is now providing high efficiency, low cost solar solutions to homes and businesses in the region, establishing itself as a driver of sustainability throughout yet another high-growth market. Sunworks is a natural fit for the region, having established a strong track record throughout California and Nevada. With an abundance of opportunities for large scale projects in Southern Oregon, the opportunity to expand into the high growth market aligns with Sunworks' strategic growth plan. Solarpowerrocks.com ranks Oregon as the fifth-most solar friendly state in the US. Sunworks has always placed an emphasis in promoting education within the marketplace, providing accurate and informative solar proposals for customers spanning commercial, residential, and agricultural sectors. The Company will utilize its ability to offer premium systems at a low price point together with generous state incentives to support its business in the new market. As a designated Oregon Energy Trade Ally, taking advantage of all incentives such as federal tax credits, accelerated depreciation and the Oregon Energy Trust, Sunworks is well-positioned to quickly establish itself as the premium local solar integrator. "We look forward to providing our widely-recognized solar expertise to save homeowners and businesses millions of dollars in energy costs while creating valuable jobs at the local level," said Kirk Short, V.P. of Commercial Solar at Sunworks, Inc. "Economics are the driving factor behind establishing a presence in Southern Oregon, creating significant opportunity for Sunworks," said Jim Nelson, CEO of Sunworks, Inc. "We believe customers deserve the best service, products, prices, and warranties that the industry has to offer, all of which Sunworks can provide to businesses and homeowners. The customer-centric Sunworks Advantage is a value ingrained into the way we conduct business, further establishing ourselves as a premier solar provider in the region. Opportunities to add value to the customer will be the driving factor for Sunworks as we continue to expand our footprint nationally." Story continues About Sunworks, Inc. Sunworks, (formerly known as Solar3D) a leading provider of solar power solutions, is focused on the design, installation and management of solar power systems for commercial, agricultural and residential customers. Sunworks is one of the fastest growing solar systems providers in the western United States, delivering 2.5 kilowatt to multi-megawatt commercial systems. The Company's mission is to further the widespread adoption of solar power by deploying affordable, state-of-the-art systems and developing breakthrough new solar technologies. The Company's focus is on putting the customer first, providing the best value systems in the industry, and delivering on what is promised. To learn more about Sunworks, visit our website at http://sunworksusa.com/. Safe Harbor Statement Matters discussed in this press release contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this press release, the words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "may," "intend," "expect" and similar expressions identify such forward-looking statements. Actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those contemplated, expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained herein. These forward-looking statements are based largely on the expectations of the Company and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. These risks include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties associated with: the impact of economic, competitive and other factors affecting the Company and its operations, markets, products, and prospects for sales, failure to commercialize our technology, failure of technology to perform as expected, failure to earn profit or revenue, higher costs than expected, persistent operating losses, ownership dilution, inability to repay debt, failure of acquired businesses to perform as expected, the impact on the national and local economies resulting from terrorist actions, and U.S. actions subsequently; and other factors detailed in reports filed by the Company. This is not a story about Brazil, but it could have been. At the starting gun a 2007 Cape Town conference of education experts Brazil and Poland were neck and neck in a race for open education, for a new world in which textbooks grow, change and dont need to be rebought every year. Nine years later, Brazil is not considered a world leader when it comes to digital textbooks and open licenses for academic resources. Poland is a different story. The Eastern European nation is now home to the first national open-textbook program in the world. Now, Poland isnt exactly seen as a bastion of forward thinkers, or of progressive education. But ironically, thats part of the reason the country has made such great leaps and bounds here: The educational system hasnt worked. About half the students in Poland have tutors outside of classes to augment the education they get in public schools, says Alek Tarkowski, an educational activist with the Centrum Cyfrowe Projekt. Radical dysfunction, in turn, allowed the Polish government the momentum to combine several progressive education programs digital textbooks for students, public funding for textbooks and open licenses on educational materials that let creative teachers remix their lessons. It began in earnest in 2011, when Poland decided to bring in an online open-textbook option. That struggled to catch on, so two years later there was a new model: a publicly funded textbook for first-graders, this time on regular paper. The nations textbook industry kicked back mightily against government-provided textbooks, arguing that their free-market rights were under attack, as schools would be pressured to choose the government version of the book, Tarkowski says. But the progressives have won a measured victory, at least for now: While older grades still see parents paying between $66 and $132 annually per child for textbooks, textbooks are now publicly funded for elementary and middle school. Story continues This might surprise those whove been following Polish politics: The very-right-wing Law and Justice party, which won a parliamentary majority in 2015, isnt what anyone thinks of when discussing traditionally lefty programs like open access to educational materials and creative commons licensing. We were very lucky that Alek in particular had very strong ties with the previous government and was able to work with them very closely on the development of the program, says Melissa Hagemann of Open Society Foundations, which has supported some of Polands initiatives. When the new government came in, it wasnt a problem partly because the initiatives are guaranteed funding until 2020. But how will the textbook content fare under a right-wing government? Tarkowski says the program may tie in with some near-and-dear Law and Justice issues and that the partys patriotic values could seep into government-created textbooks as the program progresses. The new government is big on nationalism, Tarkowski explains. They really want to shift the books children read to be more aligned with conservative, patriotic, traditional values, he says. Tarkowski says it doesnt much matter right now: As supporters of openness, were basically agnostic to it. Even aside from shifting political winds, there are limits to the revolution open textbooks can work in Poland. With open textbooks and digital textbooks all mashed up, the problem of Polish schools not always having decent digital access could be a serious impediment. And one of the selling points for open-education resources that they can be shared globally doesnt hold in Poland, since nobody outside the country is going to produce Polish-language resources. However, the open-access movement is thriving across the world: in South Africa, Hong Kong and (of course) Canada, where British Columbia has been working on its open-education movement for more than a decade, with millions put toward creating 140 open textbooks aimed at postsecondary students at universities and in trade schools. [Open education] is not a trend or a phenomenon, Amanda Coolidge, a senior manager at Canadian open textbook project BCcampus, says. Its a movement. The next step after open textbooks may be even more drastic: no textbooks at all. While the open-textbook movement has been great for introducing innovative policies into Polish schools, Tarkowski believes its possible to move beyond the concept altogether: Children sitting in rows, rote-learning content from a single textbook its very 19th century, he says. But now were in the postindustrial age. As Poland creaks into the future, he posits, itll need to train creative minds, and thats where creativity with the source material comes in. You can cut things out, create your own version and share it with others, he says. It becomes a living textbook. It becomes a bridge between the old model and the new. Related Articles Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f102382%2fkatebeckinsalebodyshaming Can a movie about a tragedy really be great without huge boobs? That is an actual quandary allegedly faced by director and explosion enthusiast Michael Bay back when he cast Kate Beckinsale in Pearl Harbor. You know, one of those movies about a real attack and the resulting loss of life. SEE ALSO: Amy Schumer reminds body shamers that she's a Greek goddess Beckinsale discussed how she didn't "fit the type of actress Michael Bay had met before, on The Graham Norton Show. I think he was baffled by me because my boobs werent bigger than my head and I wasnt blonde, she continued. Beckinsale herself was baffled when Bay made demands that seemed to go against what the character she was playing would actually do. Id just had my daughter and had lost weight, but I was told that if I got the part, Id have to work out. And I just didnt understand why a 1940s nurse would do that. But despite wanting her to be hotter, Bay didn't want an actress that was too hot. Back in 2001, he told Movieline he "didn't want someone who was too beautiful. Women feel disturbed when they see someone's too pretty. He went on to cite Kate Winslet in as an example of the look he was going for, "When you look at Titanic, Kate Winslet is pretty, but not overwhelmingly beautiful. That makes it work better for women. Makes sense "not overwhelmingly beautiful" is most people's go-to description of Winslet. On The Graham Norton Show, Beckinsale recalled what it was like to promote Pearl Harbor with Bay making those comments. "When he was asked about me, hed say, Kate wasnt so attractive that she would alienate the female audience. He kept saying it everywhere we went and we went to a lot of places! You may wonder, in that case, what Bay said about the physical attractiveness of Beckinsale's co-stars, Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett. Beckinsale recalls nothing: "He said, "'I have worked with Ben before and I love him, and Josh is so manly and a wonderful actor. Don't worry, Bay, you're not too attractive to be a male director in Hollywood! By Ned Parker ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - For at least a decade, Iraqi business mogul Khamis Khanjar has bankrolled Sunni politicians and fighters alike. Now, he wants to use his multi-million dollar fortune to create an autonomous region for Iraq's Sunnis. Khanjar's emergence from backroom deal-maker to would-be Sunni champion is just one sign of Iraq's continued political drift. Efforts by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to reconcile Iraq's Sunni and Shi'ites have mostly foundered, despite increased U.S. engagement in Iraq. Shi'ite parties and militias are often more focused on their own internal power struggles than brokering a political compromise with Sunnis. Sunni tribes tell security officials and politicians they are at the mercy of both Sunni extremist group Islamic State and Shi'ite militias. Dubai-based Khanjar says he offers an alternative: a federation in which Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds could all run their own parts of the country without formally breaking it up. A Sunni federal region would win billions in investments from Gulf Arab states and Turkey, Khanjar and partners in his alliance said. Last week, Khanjar, a native of the embattled Sunni city of Falluja, announced in a televised address that he was forming a delegation to investigate "extrajudicial killing," the "demolishing and looting of property" and other alleged human rights violations by Shi'ite militia there. "The Iraqi government is granting a political cover to militias and consistently denies the systematic violations of human rights" Khanjar said. The government has consistently denied any involvement by state forces in killings or abductions and said it actively works to arrest criminal gangs behind such actions. Over the past year, the six-foot-tall tycoon, flanked by a gaggle of aides and British private security contractors, has made a series of trips to northern Iraq. He limits himself to Kurdistan, because, he says, his life is in danger from Islamic State and Iranian-backed forces in other parts of the country. He is also paying $65,000 a month to a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm run by former Clinton White House officials to promote his cause in the United States. Iraq's ruling Shi'ite leaders deride him as a destabilizing opportunist. Jabbar al-Abadi, a member of parliament from the Prime Minister's Dawa party, described Khanjar's push for Sunni autonomy as "an invitation to tear Iraq apart." Sunni rivals of Khanjar describe him as a self-promoter and accuse him of putting his desire for power above Iraq's stability. Khanjar's advantage is his checkbook, which has helped bankroll political coalitions, finance tribal uprisings and fuel nationwide protests. Sunni and Shi'ite politicians alike have tried to woo him at one time or another, including some who despise him. Former U.S. diplomats say that Khanjar's sizeable fortune and close ties with Gulf States and Turkey allow him to be a secret and enduring force in Iraq's politics. "Khanjar will play any side so as to gain advantage for himself," one former U.S. official said. "Question is: does he really want to influence his country for the best, or is he just protecting and expanding his business networks? Or is it all just a game for a guy who is a billionaire?" That matters because over the past decade, assassinations by Islamic State and Shi'ite militias, and political infighting have severely winnowed the pool of budding Sunni politicians. Ex-U.S. diplomat Ali Khedery, who worked in Baghdad from 2003 to 2010, said "Khanjar is one of the very few Sunni figures with vision, intellect, and money, who is left standing, although he is far from perfect in a country wracked by violence, sectarianism and corruption." Khanjar's history is controversial. Former Sunni guerrillas in Iraq say he helped fund the anti-U.S. insurgency that began soon after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Later, they say, he backed the 2006 pro-American Sunni tribal uprising that helped destroy Islamic State's original incarnation, Al Qaeda in Iraq. In 2010, Khanjar says he helped found one of the two main political lists in Iraq's national elections. Three years later, he helped finance nationwide Sunni protests against Baghdad. Ezzat Shabandar, a Shiite politician, who negotiated with Khanjar during the 2010 Iraqi government formation process, described the tycoon as the man the Shi'ite parties had to talk with earlier this decade. "He had power and wealth," Shabandar said, though cautioned that the emergence of Islamic State meant it would be harder for Khanjar to be an unrivaled "strongman" for Sunnis today. Khanjar's net worth is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. His assets include manufacturing, banking, financial services and commercial and residential real estate across the Middle East, Europe and North Africa. Detractors from former insurgents to Iraqi intelligence officers say his family built its fortune by setting up front companies for members of Saddam Hussein's regime in the 1990s. They accuse Khanjar of seizing his partners' assets for himself after the 2003 invasion, accusations he denies. Asked his worth, Khanjar laughed and answered: "God has been very good to me." PANDORA'S BOX? Earlier this year, Khanjar flew into Iraqi Kurdistan to inspect some of the 14 schools and three clinics he funds for the one million Sunnis who have settled there after being displaced from their homes across Iraq. Dressed elegantly in a dark suit, he was greeted by dozens of Sunni children in matching blue and white uniforms. The children dutifully recited poems praising him as their rescuer from Iraq's sectarian conflict. Khanjar smiled, folded his hands and addressed them. Iraq's Sunnis must fight both Islamic State terrorists and Iraqi government-backed Shi'ite militias, he said. "We are heading towards a borderless, bloody Sunnistan if there is no immediate action by the Iraqi government to address Sunni rights," he told Reuters later. "Once we cross the threshold, no wise men myself or any other can close Pandora's box." Khanjar argues that a federal region modeled on Iraq's nearly independent Kurdish territory will grant Sunnis rights and help them to fight Islamic State. The Iraqi constitution allows the country's provinces to create a federal region. Sunni provinces have attempted to do so twice but were rebuffed by former Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Abadi, who took over two years ago, has endorsed the principle of greater local governance. But he has been reluctant to address the campaign for a broader Sunni region. To push his case, Khanjar has recruited powerful Sunni political allies, including the former governor of Mosul, Atheel al-Nujaifi, and ex-finance minister Rafaa al-Issawi. U.S. officials viewed Issawi as a leading Sunni moderate before former Prime Minister Maliki issued a controversial arrest warrant against him for terrorism in December 2012. But Khanjar and his allies complain that they have been frozen out by the Obama administration. They say U.S. officials do not believe their complaints that the Iraqi government is failing to reconcile with Sunnis or to address abuses carried out by the Shi'ite militia forces. They say the U.S. government has refused to issue visas for Issawi and Nujaifi to travel to the United States after the two visited Washington last spring and criticized the Iraqi government. U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Stuart Jones, denied that there was a deliberate policy to keep the men out but declined to elaborate on why their visas had been refused. Jones said it was against policy to speak about individual visa cases. "The US embassy has no interest in silencing Iraqi voices in Washington DC or anywhere else," Jones said. "Nor do we have that capacity." U.S. officials declined to speak publicly about Khanjar. Seeking to address the impasse with the United States, Khanjar has deployed his wealth in Washington. In September 2015, he hired the Glover Park Group, a lobbying firm run by former Clinton White House and Democrat campaign officials. This winter, he opened an office in Washington. And his current media point man is the former spokesman of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power. "We have great relations with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey," Khanjar said, while emphasizing he was an Iraqi patriot. "We want to leverage these relationships." Nujaifi, the former Mosul governor, says he is focused on securing the support of Turkey for the Sunni federal project. The pair are also building their own paramilitary forces to fight Islamic State. Nujaifi says his force now includes 4,000 men from Nineveh province who have been trained by Turkey. Khanjar says he has funded 2,400 men now fighting Islamic State just outside Falluja. He claims to have another 4,000 recruits who are ready for training. Khanjar insists he is trying to save his country for its sake, not his. "Anyone would like to see his country stable and secure," he said. "If it was stable and secure, I would never have thought of going into politics." (Additional reporting by Stephen Kalin and Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad; Edited by Simon Robinson and David Rohde) As the divorce battle between Amber Heard, 30, and Johnny Depp, 52, continues, new court documents reveal just how much the actress made last year. According to court papers obtained by PEOPLE, Heard earned a total of $259,876 in 2015 from projects such as The Danish Girl, which paid her $31,112 and Paranoia for which she earned $45,314. She also received paychecks from high-end companies Tiffany ($120,000) and Bulgari ($50,000). But the papers also show Heard's long list of expenses including agent fees, auto payments and union dues. After all is said and done, the actress took home a total of $51,461 last year. In a request for a restraining order filed on May 27, Heard asked for spousal support in the amount of $50,000 a month along with protection for her dog Pistol and sole access to the downtown L.A. home where she and Depp have lived since getting married. She was granted the restraining order and sole access to the apartment, but a judge declined to order any temporary spousal support pending the next hearing, or to order Depp to stay away from Pistol. Depp, who has asked a judge to deny, Heard's request for spousal support, was ranked last year by Forbes as the 12th-highest paid actor for bringing in $30 million a and that wasn't even his most lucrative year to date. The actor earned $100 million in 2010. While married to Heard, Depp starred in the action-packed farce Mordecai and the crime biopic Black Mass. For his portrayal of Whitey Bulger in Black Mass, Depp earned an estimated 20 million. Meanwhile, Heard also took home residual fees for her film Machete Kills ($2,390) and acquired $2,472 from The Rum Diary, the film that introduced her to Depp. The formerly sharp line dividing television cinematography from feature film visuals continues to blur. Technology is certainly a factor, but the trend is also driven by new players and attitudes in TV production. Theres a lot of groundbreaking cinematography in television, says Michael Goi, DP on American Horror Story: Hotel. With new companies like Netflix and Amazon producing edgy material, theres an openness on the part of the audience to seeing things in ways they havent before. And that drives openness on the part of producers and studios. Goi shot Hotel on film, using hand-cranked cameras for scenes depicting silent-era Hollywood. Another throwback getting Emmy buzz is Foxs The X-Files. The original show made television imagery darker and creepier in the early 1990s. DP Joel Ransom returned for the six-episode season 10. Lana and Lilly Wachowski brought along Oscar-winning DP John Toll, who lensed their features Cloud Atlas and Jupiter Ascending, on another journey: their ambitious Sense8. In the Netflix sci-fi series, eight characters live in different cities around the world. That required a lot of flexibility, says Toll, who shot in 4K using Sony F55 cameras. It became a very fluid, spontaneous style out of necessity. HBOs Game of Thrones has rewritten the manual for multi-location shoots. This year, Emmy voters will consider the team camerawork of Anette Haellmigk, Fabian Wagner, Jonathan Freeman, Gregory Middleton and P.J. Dillon. Tech tricks also improve the art. On Netflixs Bloodline, DP Jaime Reynoso avoided traditional TV coverage and added cinematic traits by using Hawk 1.3x anamorphic lenses, adding a subtler squeeze than 2x anamorphic. Similarly, Peter Menzies Jr. shot three-quarters of Historys Roots miniseries remake using the Hawk 1.3s, prizing the resulting background separation and depth of field. A glance at the original 1977 mini on ABC illustrates how high the bar has been raised for TV cinematography. Story continues DP David Klein uses specially adapted Canon Cinema Primes on Showtimes Homeland, and Manuel Billeter uses Panavision PVintage glass, which mimics the flavor of older lenses, on Netflixs Jessica Jones. Michael McDonough, on AMCs Fear the Walking Dead, uses Hawks Vintage 74 glass. Other productions getting a look from ATAS members: USAs Mr. Robot, shot by Tod Campbell; FXs The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, lensed by Nelson Cragg; and Netflixs Master of None, shot by Mark Schwartzbard. Not to mention HBOs Vinyl, with period cinematography by Reed Morano and David Franco; and Foxs Empire, shot by Paul Sommers. I dont think that television cinematography, as good as it is right now, has even reached the artistic heights it is capable of, Goi says. I think weve only seen the tip of the iceberg. Pictured: Sense8 Related stories Creative Arts Contenders for Editing Know How to Create Rhythm for Action, Suspense and Resolution Creative Arts Emmy Contenders for Hair and Makeup Change Faces to Serve the Story Creative Arts Emmy Contenders for Sound Contribute at Least Half the Meaning of Each Story Whether a show takes you into a kitschy horror universe or on a journey through the most controversial and tragic parts of American history, hair and makeup teams must fashion the masks actors use to take us on the journey. This year that often meant delving deep into realistic looks or striking an exaggerated pose. Roots, shown on History, HBOs All the Way, Cinemaxs The Knick and PBS Mercy Street each take us to a real place that has been documented. The inspiration started there. We shaved [Bryan Cranstons] hair every day because he has a great head of hair but (President) Lyndon Johnsons hair was thinning and he had a bald spot, and thats a big part of the look of LBJ, says Anne Morgan, hair department head for All the Way. Mens hair was also a consideration on Mercy Street and The Knick. The era of both shows demanded certain looks; facial hair in particular held a lot of meaning. Youre better off if an actor can grow his own beard because of HD, which can show lots of flaws, says Ashley Fetterman, makeup head for Mercy Street. With Bravos Odd Mom Out, Foxs Last Man on Earth, USAs Mr. Robot, Starzs Ash vs. Evil Dead and FXs American Horror Story: Hotel, different worlds use elements of realism but exaggerate or intensify their looks. The latter two pull furthest away from what you might see on the street. We were having a bit of fun with it because its based on horror films from the 1980s, says Jane OKane, makeup designer on Ash. We pushed it with blood because that was expected. Other makeup artists reached for new versions of familiar, if unreal, characters. With Lady Gaga, we wanted a version of old Hollywood glamour but a new take on a vampire, says Eryn Krueger Mekash, makeup department head for Hotel. Her eyebrows were bleached out and that make her look otherworldly. Pictured above: Bryan Cranston as LBJ in All the Way Related stories Creative Arts Contenders for Editing Know How to Create Rhythm for Action, Suspense and Resolution Story continues Creative Arts Emmy Contenders for Sound Contribute at Least Half the Meaning of Each Story Creative Arts Emmy Visual Effects Contenders Wow Viewers With Mind-Bending Images As the golden age of television continues, so does an era of spectacular visual effects for the small screen aimed at creating a theatrical-level experience. From shows like Syfys Childhoods End and Foxs The X-Files that deal in science fiction, to AMCs more subtle Better Call Saul, powerful vfx are among the tools for capturing an audience in a sea of programming. For Amazons The Man in the High Castle, effects were used to drape swastikas across urban buildings. We had to think about what the Nazis would do if they were in New York, says Dan Percival, helmer of the series. The tallest, most impressive structures you see are ones they added to put their stamp on the city. Series like Netflixs Daredevil and Starzs Black Sails also deal in augmented realities as they traverse New York and New Providence Island so superheroes and pirates can wage their wars. HBOs Game of Thrones, Syfys Childhoods End and Foxs The X-Files all deliver journeys into total fantasy as they create dragons, aliens and spaceships. I knew there would be a lot of pressure on that opening shot, says William Powloski, vfx supervisor on The X-Files, of an alien spacecraft crash scene. And creator Chris Carter is very sensitive to the look of visual effects. Powloski also worked on a four-and-a-half minute vfx shot in AMCs Better Call Saul that was based in part on the opening sequence of Orson Welles Touch of Evil, in which Charlton Heston crosses the U.S.-Mexico border. In our shot, a truck comes across the border and people pass in front of the camera that are used as wipes, says Powloski. We also had to add trucks and border structures. Much of what we did is invisible. With the exception of a tweet from Guillermo del Toro, not a lot of people talked about it, which is a big compliment. Pictured above: The X-Files Related stories Creative Arts Contenders for Editing Know How to Create Rhythm for Action, Suspense and Resolution Story continues Creative Arts Emmy Contenders for Hair and Makeup Change Faces to Serve the Story Creative Arts Emmy Contenders for Sound Contribute at Least Half the Meaning of Each Story By Jake Spring BEIJING (Reuters) - In China's booming sport utility vehicle (SUV) market, many automakers are selling cars without electronic stability control (ESC) as a standard feature, potentially putting lives at risk from rollover accidents. SUV sales topped 6 million in China last year, a jump of more than 50 percent in an overall market that grew less than 5 percent, as drivers sought more room for their money. As China's economy weakens, price-conscious drivers have shifted from foreign brands to cheaper domestic SUVs. To make the sale, many automakers and dealers only offer ESC as an extra, more expensive, option. SUVs have a higher centre of gravity putting them more at risk of rolling over. ESC counteracts that, quickly reorienting a skidding vehicle to stop it from rolling. A study published by Annals of Advances in Automotive Medicine found vehicles with ESC are two-thirds less likely to flip. There is no legal requirement in China for ESC, and German parts maker Bosch [ROBG.UL] says 43 percent of SUVs do not come equipped with this technology. Industry experts note that China, the world's biggest autos market, similarly doesn't legally require anti-lock brakes, and other developing markets including India and Mexico do not require air bags. In 2007, following a series of SUV rollovers, the United States ordered ESC to be compulsory in all passenger vehicles. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSTA) estimated the change saved more than 2,200 lives over a three year period. "ESC saves lives," said Chris Harrison, head of China R&D at Continental AG (CONG.DE), another German car parts and technology firm. China's Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, generally responsible for regulating the autos industry, did not respond to faxed questions about whether there are plans to make ESC compulsory. TOP-10 Among the 10 best-selling SUVs in China last year, seven did not have ESC as a standard feature. Those included cars made by Great Wall Motor , Chongqing Changan Automobile , Anhui Jianghuai Automobile (JAC) and Chery Automobile [CHERY.UL], according to company representatives and officially published specifications. Story continues The three foreign models in the top-10 are universally equipped with the safety feature, but some cheaper foreign SUVs also do not have ESC as standard in China. BYD Co Ltd (1211.HK), Guangzhou Automobile Group (2238.HK) and Geely said some of their models do not have stability control as standard, but it is often available on higher cost packages. Most of the automakers said their SUVs complied with regulations and reflected consumer demand. A spokesman for Chery said that with this year's model all its Tiggo SUVs come with ESC. JAC and Guangzhou Auto said sales of SUVs without ESC are very low and were part of a pricing strategy to attract customers. Geely said the majority of its third-generation vehicles have ESC. Great Wall, Changan and BYD declined to comment. CRASH DATA It's hard to gauge whether the lack of ESC in so many SUVs sold in China has contributed to more fatalities. In the United States, detailed information on every fatal road crash is made publicly available, but in China, crash records and data are often considered state secrets. The World Health Organization estimates China's overall traffic fatalities could be four times the official figure. The Ministry of Public Security records only fatal rollover crashes on highways and does not break those down for sedans and SUVs. Its latest available data logged 630 rollovers and 403 deaths on Chinese highways in 2014. In one instance in 2012, a Sante Fe SUV made by Hawtai Motor skidded on a highway at 110 kms per hour (68 mph), crashed through the barrier and rolled three times, killing a passenger and injuring two others, according to documents provided by a car industry researcher. The vehicle did not have stability control fitted. Last year, a Sportage SUV made by South Korea's Kia Motors and not equipped with ESC skidded and flipped over at 60 kph (37 mph) in snowy conditions, killing one occupant. Both Hawtai and Kia said their cars comply with all legal requirements and some of their SUV models do have ESC. Hawtai acknowledged that cars without ESC are less safe, but even those with the safety feature are "not 100 percent safe" because of road conditions and driver habits. CALCULATED RISK? BAIC Motor Corp's (1985.HK) Huansu SUVs, among China's 2015 top-10, did not offer ESC before last November, according to BAIC dealers and specifications on the automaker's website. BAIC sold 181,100 Huansu SUVs last year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, with a starting price of just 51,800 yuan (5,466). In November, BAIC launched its Huansu S6, with ESC optional on cheaper packages, but standard on all but one priced above 96,800 yuan. Buyers appear either unaware of the risks or of the option to pay more for the safety feature. "You must give up something if you want a car at that price, so I sacrifice ESC," said Xu Zhou, a Huansu S3 driver in China's southern Hunan province. "If a car has ESC, that's great, but if not, you have to be more careful when you drive." Another Huansu owner told Reuters he didn't know about ESC when he bought the car, and would buy an SUV with stabilisation technology next time. A spokeswoman for BAIC Huansu said ESC could be offered in the S2 and S3 SUV models at their next redesign as "this option is more and more important." With China's SUV market now so competitive, automakers may look to emphasise safety features such as ESC as a way to differentiate, said Chen Liming, a Bosch regional president overseeing the China electronic stability programme. "People are willing to buy safety products," Chen said. (Reporting by Jake Spring and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Norihiko Shirouzu and Ian Geoghegan) Washington (AFP) - Newly unsealed court documents in a case against White House hopeful Donald Trump's "university" reveal allegations that the now-defunct business preyed on the uneducated and misled consumers with aggressive marketing that amounted to fraud. Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton pounced on the news to argue that Trump is a fraud who is "trying to scam America." The most damning revelations came from former staffers of the profit-driven operation that launched in 2004 and closed in 2010, triggering lawsuits that may well see the presumptive Republican presidential nominee dragged into court. "While Trump University claimed it wanted to help consumers make money in real estate, in fact Trump University was only interested in selling every person the most expensive seminars they possibly could," former Trump University staffer Ronald Schnackenberg wrote in a statement unsealed Tuesday. The business offered several courses in entrepreneurship, under the famous Trump brand. But Schnackenberg described how he quit his sales manager job in 2007 after coming to believe that "Trump University was engaging in misleading, fraudulent and dishonest conduct," echoing arguments laid out by plaintiffs who are former "students" who claim they were scammed. Another former employee, Jason Nicholas, acknowledged that the seminars were taught by "unqualified people posing as Donald Trump's 'right-hand men.'" Nicholas said those staff "were teaching methods that were unethical, and they had had little to no experience flipping properties or doing real estate deals." "It was a facade, a total lie," he testified. The court also unsealed internal company manuals, called "playbooks," detailing sales techniques for steering prospective students to the most expensive courses and programs, which ran as high as $35,000 for supposedly revealing Trump's wealth-generating secrets. Story continues "Let them know that you've found an answer to their problems and a way for them to change their lifestyle," read the playbook, which even suggested the best chair arrangements and specified the ideal room temperature for luring customers. "Retention starts here," the manual added. "Be sure to congratulate the buyer, shake hands, and make eye contact," it explained, telling the marketers that they are "not doing any favor by letting someone use lack of money as an excuse" not to sign up. A Trump spokeswoman told AFP that the newly released documents have "no bearing on the merits of Trump University's case." They instead demonstrate "the high level of satisfaction from students" who participated. - 'Trying to scam America' - The class action suit and fresh release of documents come as the 2016 presidential race shapes up to be a contest between Trump and his likely Democratic opponent, Clinton. The two have already pivoted toward their election matchup, and the former secretary of state wasted no time Wednesday laying into Trump over the revelations. "His own employees testified that Trump U -- you can't make this up -- that Trump U was a fraudulent scheme where Donald Trump enriched himself at the expense of hard-working people," Clinton told supporters at a rally in Newark, New Jersey. She noted that the marketers encouraged potential customers to "max out their credit cards, empty their retirement savings (and) destroy their financial futures." "This is just more evidence that Donald Trump himself is a fraud," Clinton said. "He is trying to scam America." In a tweet late Wednesday, Clinton said: "Trump University students entrusted Trump with their futures, and he scammed them. He'd do the same to our country." Trump has steadfastly defended the operation, claiming that thousands of students gave his courses and instructors "rave reviews." And he has repeatedly attacked the judge handling the case, Gonzalo Curiel. "Very unfair. An Obama pick. Totally biased -- hates Trump," the real estate tycoon tweeted Tuesday, days after he described the judge as "Mexican." Curiel was born in the US state of Indiana. Vote Vets Action Fund, a liberal dark money nonprofit thats raised millions to ostensibly advance pro-veteran causes, is prohibited from engaging in politics as its primary purpose. But the group nevertheless spent more than half the money it raised in fiscal year 2014 on direct or indirect political campaign activities, according to new tax filings reviewed by the Center for Public Integrity. Such activity is legal because Vote Vets Action Funds campaign spending made up less than half the groups overall expenditures for fiscal year 2014. It reported spending a total of about $7.6 million during the period that included the 2014 election, making the political spending only about 41 percent of total spending. The group spent more than it took in, leaving it with net assets of $1.5 million at the end of 2014. The law requires that a majority spent be used on issue advocacy, which VoteVets does by a healthy margin. We will always abide by the law, said Eric Schmeltzer, a spokesman for Vote Vets Action Fund, in an email to the Center for Public Integrity. Vote Vets Action Fund, which does not disclose its donors, is already establishing itself as a significant force during the 2016 election cycle. This story is part of Politics. Campaign donations, lobbying and influence in government and reports on the special interests that are funding elections and buying power. Click here to read more stories in this topic. Don't miss another Politics investigation: Sign up for the Center for Public Integrity's Watchdog email. The nonprofit has so far reported spending more than $623,000 to support U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate against incumbent Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., according to reports filed with the FEC. With control of the Senate at stake this cycle, the race is viewed as one of the most competitive for Democrats. So far, Vote Vets has spent more than any other outside group on the Illinois Senate race, according to data available via the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan nonprofit that tracks election spending. Story continues Duckworth is an Iraq War veteran who piloted Black Hawk helicopters. She's also a former assistant secretary of veterans affairs. The Vote Vets Action Fund ad in support of Duckworth opens with a shot of a helicopter. Youve got to be a special kind of person to fly of these, the voiceover, by a veteran, says. Thats Tammy Duckworth. Vote Vets Action Fund reported making nearly $2.4 million worth of independent expenditures supporting Democratic candidates during the 2014 election cycle, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., ranked among its targets. Vote Vets Action Fund is organized as a nonprofit under Section 501(c)(4) of the tax code, which requires that it spend the majority of its resources on activities to improve social welfare. The groups website describes its mission as using public issue campaigns to give a voice to veterans. The IRS code also permits the group to keep its donors anonymous. But an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity of tax filings available via CitizenAudit.org and other public records has identified some of Vote Vets Action Funds donors in recent years, notably labor unions. In 2013, the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada reported giving Vote Vets Action Fund $500,000, according to the unions own tax filing. America Votes, another liberal dark money group with ties to Hillary Clintons presidential campaign, reported giving Vote Vets Action Fund $55,000 during the 2014 fiscal year, the Center for Public Integrity reported last week. The American Federation of Government Employees reported giving Vote Vets Action Fund $96,000 in 2015, according to a filing with the U.S. Department of Labor. In all, Vote Vets Action Fund in 2014 raised more than $5.5 million from 52 contributors, none of whom it identified voluntarily. Its two largest donors who gave $805,000 and $735,000 respectively provided more than one-fourth of the groups income in fiscal 2014, tax filings indicate. Last week, in response to questions regarding the America Votes contribution, Schmeltzer, the Vote Vets Action Fund spokesman, told the Center for Public Integrity that the nonprofit uses a majority of its funds for issue advocacy and does not voluntarily disclose donors because the law does not require disclosure of peoples identities. We maintain that privacy for individuals, Schmeltzer said. This story is part of Politics. Campaign donations, lobbying and influence in government and reports on the special interests that are funding elections and buying power. Click here to read more stories in this topic. Related stories Copyright 2016 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C. Some prominent Republicans see David French, writer and war veteran, as a third-party alternative to Donald Trump. Right now, most people dont know who French is; the top Wikipedia hit for his name is a dead Canadian playwright. But his past writing for the conservative National Review shows some positions that could hurt him with women voters. First, French holds views about feminism that could anger some women voters. In November 2014, he took aim at modern feminism, calling it appalling stupidity backed by hysterical rage. French also wrotes that feminism is less a true womens movement than the public face of hysterical leftist intolerancecombined, of course, with utterly bizarre (and bizarrely stupid) ideas. He outlines a few examples, including an episode in which some women defended Lena Dunham over a passage in her book where she describes examining her baby sisters vagina when she was 7-years-old and later, bribing her sister with candy for kisses. French calls this an extended period of grotesque sexualized conduct and says it is conduct that would lead the Left to write any conservative woman out of respectable society. French has also written about what he deems the high cost of sexual license. In a May 2016 column, he linked to a story by a recent female Middlebury graduate discussing her unsatisfying experience in the college hookup culture. He outlined some of the authors findings in her piece, namely that many people she talked to were unhappy with a sexual culture that does not promote monogamy. Indulging in sexual desire without considering the underlying virtue of the relationship or the morality of the desire itself is a recipe for human sufferingleading to the paradox where many of the most sexually-active people are the most heartbroken and most lonely, he wrote. For those who understand biblical truth, the notion of slavery to sin is hardly newand it turns out that redefining sin as freedom doesnt make the slavery or sorrow any less real. Story continues Then theres Frenchs own relationship with his wife. In an article in National Review about marriage, Kathryn Jean Lopez paraphrased passages from the book French and his wife Nancy wrote about long-distance strains on relationships. Before French left for Iraq, he and his wife devised rules for their separation: she could not have phone conversations with men, or meaningful e-mail exchanges about politics or any other subject. She could also not go on Facebook, where she might talk to the ghosts of boyfriends past. At one point while David was overseas, Nancy began emailing with another man about questions of faith. David asked her to end the correspondence because, as he wrote in his book, the most intimate conversations a person has are about life and faith and spiritual and emotional intimacy frequently leads to physical intimacy. French, a veteran, also does not believe women should be allowed in military combat positions. In September 2015, he supported the Marine Corps position that women should be barred from infantry, machine-gunners and fire-support reconnaissance units. If you integrate infantry units by gender, more Americans will die, and our enemy will have a better chance to prevail on the battlefield, French wrote, citing a Marine Corps study that found all-male infantry units out-performed mixed gender ones, and that women were injured more often than men. Will we have to endure the broken bodies of men and women who could have been saved, of breaches in lines that never should have opened, before we acknowledge reality? French wrote. Men are stronger than women, and in ground combat, that strength is the difference between life and death, victory and defeat. Three months after French wrote this column, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter overruled the Marines and said that women will be allowed in all combat positions in the U.S. military. On the heels of the news that Jen Lilley is leaving her Days of Our Lives role of scheme queen Theresa Donovan comes word that the also-exiting Kate Mansi has been recast as troubled ingenue Abigail DiMera: Marci Miller will make her debut as Chads bride this fall, Soap Opera Digest reports. RELATEDReport: Days of Our Lives Jen Lilley Leaving the Role of Theresa Though a soap rookie, the actress has appeared in a bunch of short films and stars in the upcoming Children of the Corn: Runaway and Death Race 2050, Roger Cormans upgrade of his 1975 cult classic, Death Race 2000, with Malcolm McDowell and Manu Bennett (Arrow). RELATEDGeneral Hospitals Kirsten Storms Explains Break From Maxie Role In announcing her departure on Instagram back in January, Mansi a TV newbie when she was cast as Jack and Jennifers daughter on Days in 2011 wrote that the timing was right for [her] to set sail from Salem. Already, she has landed a lead in the thriller Boyfriend Killer, opposite her onetime Days castmate Patrick Muldoon, who played Austin. RELATEDGeneral Hospitals Tyler Christopher Replaced as Nikolas by Nick Stabile Miller inherits a juicy storyline in which newlywed Abigail has lost her marbles after being tormented by her ex, Ben, aka the Necktie Killer. NBC could not be reached for comment. What do you think, Days fans? Will you be able to accept someone new playing Abigail opposite Billy Flynns Chad? Hit the comments. Related stories Fall TV Poll: Which New Shows Are You Most Looking Forward To? Fall TV's First Scoops: A Grey's Baby, Vampire Diaries' New Big Bad and More Early Intel From 18 Returning Series Grimm Season 6: Renard (Kinda) Saved Nick's Life! -- What Happens Next? Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f102480%2f4c60d43009c849eeb85a16fc9b690627 So, this is it folks. It's been saaah cool sipping on a flat white or the macchiato willy-nilly, but now there's a coffee out there that could signal the irreversible decline of our once productive and healthy societies. SEE ALSO: Discover the world's most Instagrammed coffee In what might be the worst trend since chopping boards for plates or fry baskets for chips (which have been slowly chipping away at our souls for years), deconstructed coffee is here to destroy us once and for all. Imagine this: Waiting 20 minutes for a single cup of coffee, only to find that it's been deconstructed into beakers of milk, hot water and an espresso shot. God help us all. That's what happened to writer Jamila Rizvi, who was served one at an unknown cafe in Australia's so-called coffee capital Melbourne, voicing her shock and displeasure on Facebook Tuesday. Rizvi told Mashable Australia via email she didn't want to reveal where the cafe was, but ordered a flat white, which she admits she did so without seeing the menu first. "Sorry Melbourne but no. No no no no no," she wrote. "Hipsterism has gone too far when your coffee comes deconstructed ... I wanted a coffee. Not a science experiment. I prefer to drink my beverages out of crockery and not beakers." Rizvi also foresaw the bleak future of the brew, in which we'd likely be eating beans out of a hat sometime soon. "Next stage? I'll just get a chopping board with a bunch of actual coffee beans and an upside down hat on it," she wrote. "This must stop, dear Melbourne. This must stop." Priced at A$4.50 (US$3.27), the deconstructed coffee was on par with normal prices, but was a bamboozling way to serve it, said Rizvi. "I love Melbourne, especially its coffee culture, but this was a pretty confusing way to be served a coffee," she said. Melbourne, please save yourself from your impending doom. UPDATE: June 1, 2016, 1:48 p.m. AEST Added quotes from Jamila Rizvi. Donald Trump Donald Trump has made some out-of-the-mainstream comments about American foreign policy, and US allies have noticed. After a week in which world leaders gathered at the G-7 summit in Japan, America's allies in Asia might feel particularly uneasy. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, has said he is open to talking to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, insisted that countries like South Korea and Japan need to pay the US for security, and suggested that South Korea and Japan should obtain nuclear weapons to manage threats from North Korea and China. "South Koreans have not been able to figure out what Donald Trump really intends to do regarding South Korea, but he's issued a number of statements," David Straub, the associate director of the Korea Program at Stanford University, told Business Insider. He continued: All the statements made about the Korean Peninsula have deeply concerned the people and I think the government of South Korea because they make no sense to South Koreans. They don't fit into the context of any known American analysis of the situation on the Korean Peninsula or any existing American policy concept toward the Korean Peninsula. Straub characterized South Koreans as "totally confused" and "deeply concerned" about Trump's recent statements, explaining that the South Korean news media had been reporting "fairly extensively" on Trump. "Donald Trump's emergence as the presumptive Republican nominee has a lot of people throughout the world very concerned that the American people are not very smart and that our political system is about to collapse," Straub said, adding that many South Koreans regarded Trump's comments as "indicating some fundamental American weakness." Geopolitical expert Ian Bremmer told Business Insider that while much of what Trump says is "completely impractical," it fits comfortably in his wheelhouse as a tough dealmaker. But Bremmer agreed that it was unsettling to US allies. Story continues "The South Koreans are now competing with the Mexicans over who is more freaked out over a potential Trump presidency," Bremmer, the president of the political-risk firm Eurasia Group, said in an email. And while Trump's policies on Asia could work to his advantage, Bremmer said "what's much more likely is that American allies of all stripes will get unnerved and hedge their policies away from the Americans." This could then weaken American alliances and other international institutions. Straub predicted that if Trump were in charge of diplomacy, South Korea could pivot to China as leaders there lose faith in the US. "Every time you have something like the Wall Street financial crisis or a political campaign such as we have now, it tends to make South Koreans think they should be more on the side of the Chinese," Straub said. Donald Trump South Korea isn't alone in its concerns about Trump. The New York Times reported last month that world leaders gathered at the G-7 summit in Japan asked President Barack Obama anxious questions about the chances of Trump winning the presidency. The Times reported: Mr. Obamas Japanese hosts are particularly alarmed at the prospect of a Trump presidency because the real estate developer has been bashing Japan for decades. Mr. Trump's criticisms have a distinctly 1980s flavor, when Japanese cars were flooding American markets and Japanese businesses were buying premier American properties like Rockefeller Center in New York. Top Japanese officials visiting Washington, D.C., recently have expressed "anxieties" about Trump's recent remarks on foreign policy, according to The Times. And Reuters reported earlier this year that foreign diplomats were "expressing alarm" to US officials about what they perceive as xenophobic statements from Trump. One official told Reuters that "as the [Trump] rhetoric has continued, and in some cases amped up, so, too, have concerns by certain leaders around the world." India, South Korea, Japan, and Mexico are on the list of countries whose diplomats have complained about Trump, officials told Reuters. These officials also noted that it was highly unusual for foreign diplomats to weigh in on candidates during a presidential election. And it's not just Asian officials who are concerned. Trump has said NATO is "obsolete," worrying America's allies in Europe. "European diplomats are constantly asking about Trump's rise with disbelief and, now, growing panic," a senior NATO official told Reuters. The official added: "With the EU facing an existential crisis, there's more than the usual anxiety about the US turning inward when Europe needs US support more than ever." Even North Korea has taken note of South Korea's reaction to Trump's pronouncements. The Hermit Kingdom's state media reported recently that Trump's comments have created a "Trump Shock" in the South Korean capital of Seoul, according to the Associated Press. The outlet, DPRK Today, also praised Trump as a "wise politician and presidential candidate with foresight." NOW WATCH: FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Why I won't vote for Donald Trump More From Business Insider Over the past one week, though defense primes smarted under market depreciations, it did not stop them from picking up big ticket programs from the Pentagons funding list. To that effect, Boeing BA secured a major contract from the U.S. Air Force yesterday. Yet, its share price was down last week and 2.38% yesterday. This was because the company announced yet another delay to its KC-46 military tanker program late last Friday. Among the other important headlines last week, Raytheon RTN, Lockheed Martin LMT and L-3 Communications Holdings LLL won important contracts. (Read Defense Stock Roundup for May 24, 2016 here.) Recap of the Weeks Most Important Stories 1. Boeing secured a big contract from the Pentagons daily funding session yesterday. The company has been awarded a $3.2 billion contract modification to a previously awarded contract for Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) tailkits, the Pentagon said. Boeing will provide JDAM strap-on inertial guidance kits with the capability of receiving guidance updates from Global Positioning Systems or GPS to boost weapon accuracy for conventional inventory bombs. The original contract was awarded on Oct 30, 2014, for a maximum value of $1.7 billion. However, this was boosted by $1.4 billion due to warfighter demand and to replenish depleted inventories, per the Defense Department. Work under the contract will be carried out at St. Louis, MI, and is slated to be complete by Sep 29, 2020. This contract also involves foreign military sales (FMS). Boeing shares however declined on Tuesday following the announcement late last week that there will be a delay in the delivery of new KC-46 tankers to the U.S. Air Force. Boeing was expected to deliver 18 KC-46 tankers by Aug 2017. But as things stand now, Boeing is likely to miss the deadline and may have to incur additional charges to the $1.3 billion already taken on its largest military program. The Air Force said that the first few KC-46 tankers are now due to arrive in late summer or early autumn of 2017 and all 18 are expected to be delivered by Jan 2018. 2. Lockheed Martin Corp. has won a contract from the U.S. Navy to build the guidance and control systems for the MK 48 Mod 7 torpedoes. The contract has a potential value of $424.7 million, if all options are exercised. Per the contract, Lockheed Martin will supply MK-48 common broadband advanced sonar system upgrade kits as well as MK 48 heavyweight torpedo guidance and control sections to the Navy. The latest contract is part of a five-year initiative to grow the inventory of the MK 48 Mod 7 heavyweight torpedoes for the submarine fleet. Over the next five years, the company may receive production orders for another 250 torpedoes from the Navy to be used as anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare weapons by all classes of submarines. 3. Raytheon Co.s Integrated Defense Systems division has won a contract from the U.S. Navy for the production of Aegis Weapon System AN/SPY-1D(V) Radar Transmitter Group, Missile Fire Control System MK 99 equipment, and associated engineering services. This contract falls under an FMS program that includes purchases for South Korea and Japan apart from purchases for the U.S. Navy. Work under this contract is expected to be completed by Oct 2022. 4. L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace LLC, a subsidiary of L-3 Communications Holdings Inc., recently received a contract from the U.S. Navy for logistics services for the C-12 utility lift aircraft. The contract is valued at $302.2 million and will run through Jul 2021. Per the contract, the company will be responsible for post-production services, full aircraft maintenance, logistics support and the supply of materials for Marine Corps Reserve C-12 and US Navy TC-12B trainer aircraft. Modeled on Beechcraft Super King Air and Beechcraft 1900, C-12 Huron is the military version of an executive passenger and transport aircraft. It is mainly used by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps for a wide array of functions including range clearance, embassy support, medical evacuation, VIP transport, and passenger and light cargo transport. 5. Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. HII has nabbed a contract from the U.S. Navy for advance planning of the detail design and production of the fiscal 2018 nuclear powered aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise (CVN 80). The contract, valued at $152 million, entails Huntington Ingalls to carry out research and development, integrated designing, engineering, and purchase of long lead-time materials. The Enterprise (CVN 80), Gerald R. Ford class third aircraft carrier, bears the name of the Navys first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise (CVN 65). Once it enters service, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Nimitz-class ship, will be retired from service. Performance Almost all the major defense stocks ended in the red last week. Lockheed Martin depreciated the most followed by Boeing. In the past six months, however, the picture is somewhat mixed. Northrop Grumman remained in the leading position while Boeing was the biggest loser. The following table shows the price movement of the major defense players over the past five trading days and during the last six months. Story continues Company Last Week Last 6 months LMT -1.29% 8.83% BA -1.06% -13.12% GD -0.76% -2.82% RTN -0.29% 5.36% NOC -0.94% 14.02% COL -0.52% -4.08% TXT -0.57% -10.80% LLL -0.82% 12.83% Whats Next in the Defense World? Lockheed Martin Chairman, President and CEO Marillyn Hewson will present at the Bernstein 32nd Annual Strategic Decisions Conference 2016 on Jun 1. Northrop Grumman will attend the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference 2016 on Jun 3. Boeing will attend the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference on Jun 2, 2016. Boeing as well as Rockwell Collins COL will also attend the Deutsche Bank Global Industrials and Materials Summit on Jun 8. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report BOEING CO (BA): Free Stock Analysis Report LOCKHEED MARTIN (LMT): Free Stock Analysis Report ROCKWELL COLLIN (COL): Free Stock Analysis Report RAYTHEON CO (RTN): Free Stock Analysis Report L-3 COMM HLDGS (LLL): Free Stock Analysis Report HUNTINGTON INGL (HII): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Shares of Demandware (DWRE) soared nearly 56 percent Wednesday after Salesforce.com (CRM) agreed to buy the website design software maker for $2.8 billion in cash. The deal values Demandware at $75 a share, and represents a more than 56 percent premium over Tuesday's closing price of $47.99. Demandware was trading at $74.81 per share Wednesday. The acquisition is Salesforce's largest to date, topping its $2.5 billion purchase of marketing software maker ExactTarget in 2013. "With Demandware, Salesforce will be well positioned to deliver the future of commerce as part of our Customer Success Platform and create yet another billion dollar cloud," Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in a statement. In an interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer on " Squawk on the Street ", Benioff spoke about the competitive M&A landscape. "We're not winning every deal. This is just a deal we're actually able to get done. We're excited that we can actually get Demandware. And its tough to get deals done in this environment because everybody's positioning for growth for next year. I'm thrilled we got Demandware." The deal, slated to close in July, is expected to increase Salesforce's 2017 revenue by about $100 million to $120 million, but reduce adjusted earnings per share by 7 cents. Following the acquisition, Mizuho analyst Abhey Lamba downgraded Demandware stock to Neutral, predicting no other bidders will emerge. Lamba did raise his price target on the stock to $75 from $55. In a note to investors, Lamba said "as we expected, Demandware proved out to be a good strategic asset with Salesforce.com extending its reach into the e-commerce space." Demandware stock, up nine days in a row, hit a 52-week high in its best day of trading ever. Before Wednesday, Demandware shares were down 11 percent for the year, while Salesforce had gained 7 percent. Salesforce shares were down 0.3 percent Wednesday at $83.45. More From CNBC TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - June 01, 2016) - NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES Titan Medical Inc. ("Titan") (TMD.TO)(TITXF) today announced that it has entered into an agreement (the "Subscription Agreement") for an equity investment from Shanghai Jugu Equity Investment Fund Co. Ltd. ("Shanghai Jugu"). Under the terms of the agreement, Shanghai Jugu will subscribe for and purchase U.S. $16,000,000 worth of Common Shares of Titan under a private placement, at a subscription price of CDN $0.746 per share. The shares will be issued pursuant to an exemption from prospectus requirements and will be subject to resale restrictions for a period of 4 months following closing of the private placement under Ontario securities laws. The Subscription Agreement provides that the Private Placement may be completed in two separate closings: (1) at the first closing, expected to take place by June 30, 2016, ("First Closing") the parties will complete the issuance and purchase of 16,377,568 Titan Shares and (2) at a second closing ("Second Closing"), to occur following clearance by the TSX of a Personal Information Form (the "PIF") to be submitted by Shanghai Jugu, the parties will complete the issuance and purchase of 11,506,350 Titan Shares. The Second Closing will be conditional upon clearance of the PIF by the TSX. The proceeds will be used for the ongoing development and commercialization of Titan's SPORT Surgical System. "We are very pleased that Shanghai Jugu has recognized Titan as a valuable investment opportunity," commented Reiza Rayman, President of Titan Medical Inc. "This is an indication of emerging market interest in our technology and the value that it can bring to healthcare." John Hargrove, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Titan Medical Inc., commented, "The SPORT Surgical System is expected to provide value clinically, financially, and operationally. As such, new markets that were not previously served can be addressed with our technology." Story continues About Titan Medical Inc. Titan Medical Inc. is a Canadian public company focused on the design and development of a robotic surgical system for application in minimally invasive surgery ("MIS"). The Company's SPORT Surgical System, currently under development, includes a surgeon-controlled robotic platform that incorporates a 3D high-definition vision system and multi-articulating instruments for performing MIS procedures through a single incision. The surgical system also includes a surgeon workstation that provides a surgeon with an advanced ergonomic interface to the robotic platform for controlling the instruments and provides a 3D high-definition endoscopic view of inside a patient's body. The SPORT Surgical System is designed to enable surgeons to perform a broad set of surgical procedures for general abdominal, gynecologic, and urologic indications. For more information, visit the Company's website at www.titanmedicalinc.com. About Shanghai JuGu Equity Investment Fund Co. Ltd. section. Shanghai JuGu, founded in 2008, is a private equity fund providing private equity, venture capital and other related financial services. Having registered capital of 100 million yuan and accumulated financial assets under management of more than 2 billion yuan, Shanghai JuGu funds is dedicated to wealth management, inductrial investment, small and micro loans and advisory services. Shanghai JuGu's head office is located in Pudong New District, Shanghai, China Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains "forward-looking statements" which reflect the current expectations of management of the Company's future growth, results of operations, performance and business prospects and opportunities. Wherever possible, words such as "may", "would", "could", "will", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "expect", "intend", "estimate", "potential for" and similar expressions have been used to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements reflect management's current beliefs with respect to future events and are based on information currently available to management. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors could cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, those listed in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's Annual Information Form dated March 30, 2016 (which may be viewed at www.sedar.com). Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward looking statements prove incorrect, actual results, performance or achievements may vary materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in this news release. These factors should be considered carefully, and prospective investors should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements. Although the forward-looking statements contained in the news release are based upon what management currently believes to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure prospective investors that actual results, performance or achievements will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. The Paris agreement of December 2015 raised new hopes that the worst effects of climate change might yet be averted. This agreement, whose signatories have agreed to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a voluntary basis, marks the first major international pact to combat climate change since the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. In contrast to Kyoto, however, whose signatories accounted for only about 14 percent of global emissions, the countries that signed the Paris deal account for a whopping 96 percent. Of course, the outstanding question is whether the agreement will actually be implemented. As its critics are quick to point out, the Paris climate pact is a soft law that lacks the legal clout to impose sanctions and penalties, but rather attempts to change behavior through norm-building and consensus. And past attempts by individual nations to control greenhouse gas emissions have produced scant results. Low-cost, effective ways of lowering emissions already exist. A universal carbon tax, which would raise the cost of producing emissions, could push countries toward this goal without major economic disruptions by making the development and adoption of green energy sources, such as wind and solar, as cheap or cheaper than fossil fuels. But as William Nordhaus, one of the worlds leading economic thinkers on climate change, has argued, most governments lack the political will to do so. In the United States, for example, lack of political will has forced policymakers to choose from a number of second best policies. Pressure from large domestic energy companies, anti-tax groups and climate change deniers including many in Congress has forced the executive branch to tax carbon indirectly or to subsidize wind and solar power. Unfortunately, such measures do little to discourage the continued use of fossil fuels. Pointing to the susceptibility of democratic governments to interest groups that have an economic stake in maintaining the status quo, environmental ethicist Dale Jamieson questions whether democracy is up to the challenge of climate change at all. Scientist James Lovelock is similarly pessimistic, noting that human inertia is so great that, barring a catastrophic event, the best democratic governments can do is to adapt to climate change i.e., building sea walls around vulnerable cities. Lovelock argues that, to make the hard decisions needed to deal effectively with climate change, it may be eventually be necessary to put democracy on hold, opting instead for some kind of environmental authoritarianism. Story continues But is it really necessary to choose between democracy and saving the planet? A comprehensive review of various countries progress towards environmental sustainability suggests otherwise. In fact, the case against democracy as a vehicle for environmental sustainability may be grossly overstated, based less on the actions of the worlds democracies as a whole than on the failures of a conspicuous few. Two data sets can help us identify the impact of democracy on climate change: The Economist Intelligence Units (EIU) Democracy Index 2015 and the World Energy Councils Energy Trilemma Index. The Democracy Index divides 167 countries into four main groups: full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes, and authoritarian regimes. The countries are ranked best (Norway) to worst (North Korea). The Energy Trilemma Index ranks 130 countries in terms of their progress in three key energy performance measures: energy security (the availability of reliable supplies of energy), energy equity (the domestic price of energy) and environmental sustainability (the effect of the countrys energy sources on greenhouse gas emissions). Based on these measures, countries are ranked from best (Switzerland) to worst (South Africa). In 2015, the twenty countries grouped by the EIU as democracies had an average ranking of 34.2 on the energy sustainability index, while the 27 authoritarian regimes for which climate data existed scored much worse, with an average ranking of 85.6. In the two intermediate regime types, environmental sustainability fell off with democracy, with flawed democracies having an average ranking of 62.9 compared to hybrid countries at 67.5. The bad reputation of democracies in combatting climate change likely reflects the extremely low environmental sustainability scores of several of the more prominent members of this group, namely Canada (71), the United States (95), and Australia (110). As the name Energy Trilemma suggests, countries are forced to make trade-offs between energy security, energy equity, and environmental sustainability when determining their energy policies. For instance, a country that prioritizes energy equity might opt to import cheap fossil fuels at the expense of energy security and environmental sustainability until it can develop low-cost green domestic energy sources. Thus, the Energy Trilemma Index can provide insights not just into a countrys performance, but also into its priorities. As it turns out, countries that prioritized environmental sustainability ranked considerably higher on democracy than those that didnt (75.4 vs. 103.5). These countries also had somewhat lower average per capita income ($25,015 vs. $37,095), demonstrating that taking action against climate change is far from a luxury that only the richest nations can afford. As these patterns clearly show, democracies are much more likely than authoritarian regimes to give environmental sustainability priority over either energy security or affordable energy supplies. This fact appears counter-intuitive, given that an often-cited flaw of democracy is that politicians are forced to make short-run decisions based on the election cycle. However, the effects of climate change, in the form of more severe storms, damaging droughts, falling agricultural yields, and increased flooding of coastal areas, are already being felt. And voters whose lives and livelihoods are increasingly impacted by climate change are beginning to demand immediate action, effectively forcing politicians to take a longer-run view. As a result, democratic governments become more likely to comply with global agreements that set specific targets for carbon reduction. Nevertheless, as noted above, several of the more prominent democracies in particular, Canada, the United States, and Australia have failed to adopt a national strategy for combatting climate change. The governments of these countries have not only come under pressure from their domestic fossil fuel industries, but from other constituencies that oppose changing the status quo, due in particular to the perception that environmentalism comes at the expense of jobs and low energy prices. In the U.S., a long-term campaign of disinformation funded by the fossil fuel sector has given rise to a large group of climate-change naysayers, although their numbers may be shrinking. Even in these countries, however, democracy is at work subtly prodding the government toward greater environmental responsibility. For now, this work is taking place at the provincial, state, and municipal levels. British Columbia has imposed a carbon tax, California has initiated a cap-and-trade carbon plan, and Melbourne has set a goal of zero net emissions by 2020. In most cases where local action has taken place, the effects of climate change have already begun to affect peoples lives. Once the consequences of climate change begin to be felt in other parts of these countries, it is reasonable to expect movements of this sort to gain momentum. Public concerns about the effects of climate change are unlikely to have the same force in authoritarian regimes as in democracies for two basic reasons. Authoritarian regimes almost invariably prioritize energy security and equity over environmental sustainability, since rising fuel prices risk social unrest. This overarching concern with keeping energy prices low encourages increased usage of fossil fuels and a bias against green technologies. At the same time, authoritarian governments control information through state dominance of the media and access to official data. For example, China recently reported a sizable drop in coal consumption to placate citizens concerns about the countrys choking air pollution. According to the New York Times, however, Chinese coal consumption during the period of supposed reduction actually rose by 600 million tons, an increase equal to 70 percent of annual coal usage in the United States. Even as Chinese greenhouse gas emissions from coal grew, a Pew Research report noted the number of Chinese who expressed serious concern about global warming fell from 41 percent in 2010 to just 18 percent in 2015. The only explanation for the drop the reports author could suggest was a relative lack of public discussion of climate change. Fortunately, one of democracys greatest advantages is the ability of a free press to facilitate the dissemination of information and knowledge. Journalists have already begun to press home the direct link between human-induced climate change and weather-driven events, such as Californias record drought and the increased number and intensity of Australian bushfires. As voters become better informed, so too will democratic governments adopt better policies to promote climate stability. In the photo, activists dressed as polar bears join others to hold up a giant red banner during a demonstration against climate change near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on December 12, 2015. Photo credit: ALAIN JOCARD/AFP/Getty Images DNC Donald Trump The Democratic National Committee is trolling Donald Trump over his refusal to release his tax returns. The committee on Wednesday launched a new micro website called "taxesbytrump.com," which purports to show the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's tax records. Business Insider viewed the site ahead of its launch. But whenever users attempt to click on a large red "see returns" box, it zips away from the cursor, a reference to the public's inability to view Trump's actual tax information. In a statement accompanying the site's release, Mark Paustenbach, the DNC's national press secretary, criticized Trump for requesting tax information from charities he vetted for donations while refusing to release his own tax records. "It's more than ironic that Trump needs to see a group's tax records before supporting their efforts but is unwilling to show his own tax records before asking the American people to support his own bid for the White House," Paustenbach told Business Insider. "Donald Trump is the standard-bearer for a double standard, and his standard for 'deal-making' has no place in the White House," he added. Despite repeated calls over the past several months, Trump hasn't yielded to decades of precedent for presidential nominees, citing legal advice to wait until the IRS finishes an audit of his records. Many high-profile Republicans figures have already called on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to release his returns, a tradition that lends insight into a candidate's personal finances and tax history. In an interview promoting his newly released memoir, "The Long Game," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pointed out that Trump was the only major candidate in decades who hadn't released his tax returns. "For the last 30 or 40 years, every candidate for president has released their tax returns, and I think Donald Trump should as well," McConnell told Business Insider on Tuesday. Story continues NOW WATCH: How Donald Trump used bankruptcy to stay rich More From Business Insider Los Angeles (AFP) - Actress Amber Heard filed a police statement Tuesday accusing her estranged husband Johnny Depp of domestic violence, saying she had endured "years of physical and psychological" abuse. Heard's attorneys said in a statement that the actress had refused to file a police report after a May 21 argument with Depp that left a bruise on her face out of concern for his career and to protect her privacy. "Johnny's team has forced Amber to give a statement to the LAPD to set the record straight as to the true facts, as she cannot continue to leave herself open to the vicious false and malicious allegations that have infected the media," the statement by attorneys Samantha Spector and Joseph Koenig said. "Amber has suffered through years of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of Johnny," they added. "Amber can no longer endure the relentless attacks and outright lies launched against her character in the court of public opinion since the tragic events of May 21." Depp's representatives could not be immediately reached for comment and a spokesman at the Los Angeles police department declined comment, saying that an investigation was underway. Heard, 30, filed for divorce from Depp, 52, last week and subsequently obtained a restraining order that requires the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star to stay away from her. She appeared in a Los Angeles court on Friday with a black eye that she said was the result of Depp hurling a cell phone at her face during the May 21 incident. Heard and Depp met on the set of the 2011 film "The Rum Diary," when the actor was still in a relationship with French actress Vanessa Paradis, mother of his son Jack and daughter Lily-Rose. They married in February last year. Depp's former partner Paradis and their daughter Lily-Rose rushed to his defense over the weekend, describing him as a gentle person. "My dad is the sweetest most loving person I know, he's been nothing but a wonderful father to my little brother and I, and everyone who knows him would say the same," the 17-year-old said in a message posted on Instagram. Paradis for her part described her former partner as "a sensitive, loving and loved person," in a letter posted by the celebrity website TMZ. A representative for Depp told the media last week that he would not respond "to any of the salacious false stories, gossip, misinformation and lies about his personal life. Hopefully, the dissolution of this short marriage will be resolved quickly." Colombian rock band Diamante Electrico rocked a packed house Tuesday night (May 31) during their intimate concert at The Mint. The Latin Grammy-winning trio -- lead vocalist and bass player Juan Galeano, Andee Zeta on the drums and guitarist Daniel Alvarez -- kicked off their four-year anniversary celebration in Los Angeles playing some of their hit songs like "Las horas," "Duele como yo," "Nos rompemos igual," "Kamikase" and their newest single "Placebo," which had the crowd singing along and rocking on the dance floor. [[{"fid":"615270","view_mode":"media_original","type":"media","attributes":{"height":1963,"width":1240,"alt":"Diamante Electrico perform at The Mint in Los Angeles on May 31, 2016.","class":"media-element file-media-original"}}]] Rafael Marquez Diamante Electrico, who in March opened for the The Rolling Stones in Colombia, also sang their Spanish-language version of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Up Around the Bend" which will be part of the multilingual tribute album Quiero Creedence featuring covers by Juan Gabriel, El Tri, Bunbury, Juanes, Ozomatli, among others. The up-and-coming rockeros embarked on their U.S./Mexico tour at the end of May, taking their powerful and energetic showcase to cities like Guadalajara, Monterrey and Tijuana. L.A. and San Diego are their only two stops in the U.S. Following their Latin Grammy win for Best Rock Album in 2015, Diamante Electrico went on to produce a new album due in September, which they finished recording in Bogota before going on this tour. "We thought we should do a new record after the Grammy because each one of us were in different stages in our life personally and spiritually, so we want to show that in this new record which we titled La Gran Oscilacion," Galeano told Billboard. [[{"fid":"615269","view_mode":"media_original","type":"media","attributes":{"height":1503,"width":1240,"alt":"Diamante Electrico perform at The Mint in Los Angeles on May 31, 2016.","class":"media-element file-media-original"}}]] Rafael Marquez Last week we warned you about the dangers of black salve the natural, over-the-counter skin cancer remedy that can lead to disfiguring, disastrous results, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. And this week, we bring you a highly disturbing visual that appears to support those findings. While the video of a woman whose nose appeared to rot from the salve was first posted to Worlds Greatest Medical on YouTube last year, its receiving attention anew after being featured in the British tabloid Daily Star. The woman smeared black salve an ointment which burns skin tissue onto her hooter and forehead in a bid to cure her skin cancer, the story notes. But the remedy allegedly rotted the womans skin instead. On the YouTube post, which has been viewed more than 3.6 million times, the woman, who also smeared some of the salve onto another self-diagnosed spot on her forehead, explained her situation. I have a diagnosed basal cell spot on tip of nose, opted out of Mohs surgery to go the natural route, after much research on the web, she wrote, and then shared details of her black scab. The eschar is still attached to my nose, but its loose enough that tonight, I could pull the top part away enough to see that my worst fear/outcome is going to be my reality. I can see my nose cartilage underneath the eschar, and I can even pull air through the top/front area of my nose if I completely clog my nostrils. The disturbing scabs this woman says the black salve caused on her nose and forehead. (Photo: YouTube) Black salve, which refers to a family of ointments containing corrosive ingredients such as zinc chloride and sanguinarine (derived from the bloodroot plant Sanguinaria canadensis), can eliminate the top layer of skin. The study of its possible results, which was published in the May issue of the dermatology journal, not only found that people are using it without their doctors approval, but that it also brings on numerous possible side effects such as infection, extensive scarring, and disfigurement and that it can further complicate skin cancer. Story continues Basically, its a skin poison, Doris Day, MD, a dermatologist and clinical associate professor of dermatology at the New York University Langone Medical Centers, told Yahoo Beauty regarding the salve last week. It just attacks and destroys living tissue and creates a scar. Its killing the skin locally. Its something the woman in the video apparently found out the hard way. Understandably, as you can imagine, she wrote, I am sickened and freaked out by my personal revelation tonight that the salve went completely through my nose down to my nasal passages. Related: All Sunscreens Are Not Created Equal: Check This Guide Before You Step Outside Lets keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Beauty on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. On Saturday, the fashion jet set took their seats at the Niteroi Contemporary Art Museum in Rio for the spectacular Louis Vuitton Cruise 2017 show and yesterday evening Dior got off to a slightly less sunny but no less spectacular start for their Cruise offering. The French fashion house set the collection against the Baroque backdrop of Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, one of England's grandest stately homes and the birthplace of Winston Churchill. Unhindered by the dismal weather and torrential rain, Dior brought back the magnificence of earlier shows held at the same venue. In 1954, Christian Dior first unveiled a collection in Blenheim after his client, the tenth Duchess of Marlborough, invited him to stage a show at her residence. Then, a few years later, in 1958, a year after the designer's death, Dior's protege, Yves Saint Laurent also put on a show in the famous palace. Continuing on from the palatial theme of the Dior Resort show at Palais Bulles outside Cannes in May 2015, this year attendees hopped aboard the Diorient Express, departing from London Victoria. The grand train was replete with Dior porters, sumptuous decor including Dior china and a lavish lunch (which may have been necessary to soak up any hangovers from Monday night's pre-show party at the Lady Dior pop-up pub in Mayfair). Photo: Getty Yesterday's show coincides with the opening of a new Dior flagship in London, set across four floors and designed under the direction of architect Peter Marino, opening on New Bond Street on Friday. And that's not the only news from the Parisian house this week just hours before the show they announced Bella Hadid as a new ambassador for Dior beauty. The young supermodel later hit the catwalk at Blenheim, making her Dior debut. Like the AW16 collection, the Cruise line was designed by a studio team headed up by Serge Ruffieux and Lucie Meier, but Diors lack of an official Creative Director, since Raf Simons' departure last October, did not significantly squash the magnitude and noise surrounding the show. Social media was alight with posts from the day, from the tour of the new superstore first thing on Tuesday morning, to the party at Loulou's that went on until the early hours of this morning. Story continues But what about the show? And, more importantly, what about the collection itself? Befitting of an English palace, the pieces centred on quintessentially British garms, inspired by "not only the post-war high society's wardrobes, but also the restlessness and wanderlust that characterised the period: the urge to travel, to discover the new." Also influenced by national style icons like Edith Sitwell, there were cinched jackets, structured white shirts, equestrian scenes knitted into pictorial jacquards, cropped leather flares, country floral dresses, printed silk skirts and plenty of rustic tweed as stars including Alexa Chung, The Weeknd, Emma Roberts, Kiernan Shipka and Sai Bennett looked on from the front row. Though the wearable collection introduced a slighter looser silhouette than we might expect from Dior, were the designs eclipsed by the grandeur and ceremony of the day? We think so. While we still wait to see who will succeed Simons (will it be Valentino's Maria Chiuri Grazia? Will it be Erdem Moralioglu?), though it's perhaps evident that houses cannot excel without a star designer, Dior still know how to put on a bloody good show. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here? The Danish Designer We Can't Get Enough Of Can The Hijab Actually Be Relatable To All Women? Indian Designer Dedicates Sari Collection To Trans Community Star Wars stand-alone movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will undergo several weeks worth of additional shooting, sources have confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. Much of the cast and director Gareth Edwards will regroup in mid-June for another round of shooting. The move is happening after execs screened the film and felt it was tonally off with what a classic Star Wars movie should feel like. The pic has not yet been tested before audiences, but one source describes the cut as having the feel of a war movie. The goal of the reshoots will be to lighten the mood, bring some levity into the story and restore a sense of fun to the adventure. Rogue One focuses on the fabled mission hinted at in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, that of a group of rebels stealing the plans to the Death Star. The plans later end up in the hands of Princess Leia, who transfers them to R2-D2. This is the closest thing to a prequel ever, a source tells THR. This takes place just before A New Hope and leads up to the 10 minutes before that classic film begins. You have to match the tone! And while its not confirmed, some suggest that the new shooting could pave the way for an appearance of Han Solo as played by Alden Ehrenreich. The actor only recently nabbed the role of the spice smuggler and was not involved in Rogue Ones principal photography, which ran from last August to February. Disney re-introduced audiences to Star Wars with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which garnered excellent reviews and grossed over $2 billion worldwide, becoming the third-highest-grossing movie of all time. Sources say that while Edwards first cut was a solid showing, it didnt measure up to the bar set in terms of four-quadrant appeal. Anything less than extraordinary wont do, says a studio insider. Reshoots or additional shooting are practically a given in this decade of tentpole comic book, fantasy and sci-fi moviemaking. The films are massive productions, filled with so much green-screen and fit together in a way that, more often than not, demands for shooting to fill in holes or clarify plots. Even acting deals have the shoots in mind when contracts call for run of show appearances, which include not just shooting anytime during production but even during postproduction, say several agency sources. Story continues The New York Post first reported about the Star Wars reshoots. Read More: Rogue One: 5 Things to Know About the Chinese Supporting Stars Watch the 'Rogue One trailer Star Wars standalone movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will undergo several weeks' worth of additional shooting, sources have confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. Much of the cast and director Gareth Edwards will regroup in mid-June for a round of shooting. The move is happening after execs screened the movie and felt it was tonally off with what a "classic" Star Wars movie should feel like. The film has not yet been tested before audiences but one source describes the cut as having the feel of a war movie. The goal of the reshoots will be to lighten the mood, bring some levity into the story and restore a sense of fun to the adventure. Rogue One focuses on the fabled mission hinted in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, that of a group of rebels stealing that plans to the Death Star. The plans later end up in the hands of Princess Leia who transfers them to R2-D2. Read More: 'Rogue One': Mads Mikkelsen Teases Important Details About His 'Star Wars' Character "This is the closest thing to a prequel ever," a source tells THR. "This takes place just before A New Hope and leads up to the 10 minutes before that classic films begins. You have to match the tone!" And while it's not confirmed, some suggest that the new shooting could pave the way for an appearance of Han Solo as played by Alden Ehrenreich. The actor only recently nabbed the role of the spice smuggler and was not involved in Rogue One's principal photography, which ran from August 2015 to February 2016. Disney re-introduced audiences to Star Wars with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which garnered excellent reviews and grossed over $2 billion worldwide, becoming the third highest grossing movie of all time. Sources say that while Evans's first cut was a solid showing, it didn't measure up to the bar set in terms of four-quadrant appeal. "Anything less than extraordinary won't do," says a studio insider. Story continues Reshoots or additional shooting is practically a given in this decade of massive tentpole comic book, fantasy, sci-fi moviemaking. The movies are massive productions, filled with so much green-screen, and fit together in a way that, more often than not, demands for shooting to fill in holes or clarify plots. Even acting deals have the shoots in mind when contracts call for "run of show" appearances, which include not just shooting anytime during production but even during post-production, say several agency sources. NY Post first reported about the Star Wars re-shoots. Read More: 'Rogue One': 5 Things to Know About the Chinese Supporting Stars Got some empty shelf space and spending cash crying out to be consumed by something nerdy? Well, prepare for some seriously frivolous spending, because Disney has just launched their own line of high-end, super-accurate Star Wars replica props. In the past, these kind of props would have come from a third party, and may have lacked somewhat in accuracy department, but these collectibles are being made by the PropShop at Pinewood Studios, which created all the real props for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. You can get a look at the props and learn how theyre being made in the video above. Scroll on down for some more detailed pics. Related Links: gammasquadstarwarsprops2 Lucasfilm/Disney Darth Vaders melted helmet is obviously the crown jewel of the collection, and comes with an appropriately kingly price tag a whopping $3,500. gammasquadstarwarsprops3 Lucasfilm/Disney Meanwhile, Kylo Rens helmet is a more reasonable $2,000. gammasquadstarwarsprops4 Lucasfilm/Disney Chewbaccas Bowcaster. Dont carry this one around outside the house unless you want trouble. $2,500. gammasquadstarwarsprops5 Lucasfilm/Disney Reys lightsaber hilt. Sadly it doesnt come with the blade, because, uh, those dont actually exist. Still cool though! $1,250. You can check out more pieces from the Star Wars Collectibles: Ultimate Studio Edition collection right here. If youre thinking of buying, youre going to want to get on it quick, because some of the pieces (including the melted Vader helmet) are extremely limited editions. (via io9) WASHINGTON, DC --(Marketwired - June 01, 2016) - Under the leadership of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) President Baltimore (MD) Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, a delegation from USCM traveled to Cuba last week and met with Cuban government officials and community leaders in an effort to forge a new bond between U.S. cities and the island nation. Over the course of four days, Rawlings-Blake, USCM Vice President Oklahoma City (OK) Mayor Mick Cornett, USCM Second Vice President New Orleans (LA) Mayor Mitch Landrieu, and USCM CEO & Executive Director Tom Cochran worked to learn about the changes that have occurred in Cuba since USCM last visited in 1978. While the mayors were in Cuba, their Cuban counterparts at the municipal and provincial levels urged them to call on Congress to remove the obstacles of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. "We are greatly encouraged by our visit and thank the Cuban government for inviting us," said Mayor Rawlings-Blake. "This mission marks the first step towards determining how we can collaborate with our counterparts in Cuba to strengthen the economic vitality of both of our nations. We look forward to sharing what we have learned with our fellow mayors and brainstorming with them on how we can continue to support the evolution of our relationship with the Cuban people and government." While in Cuba, the delegation met with the Honorable Gustavo Machin, the Deputy Director of the North American Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Dr. Gustavo Cobreiro Suarez, rector of the University of Havana; and provincial and municipal leaders in the Cuban National Assembly. The mayors also visited some of Cuba's most important political, technological, and cultural sites, including the National Arts School, the Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, the Latin American School of Medicine, and Mariel Port. The agenda featured cultural exchanges with a diverse group of local experts and academics, who provided the delegation with details about the history of Cuba and the changes currently underway on the island. "We were honored to be invited by the Cuban government and appreciate the warm hospitality that they showed us throughout our visit," said Mayor Cornett. "It is our sincere hope that the dialogue that began this week will continue and we can move ahead in new and productive ways that allow us to enhance business opportunities benefiting the people of both countries." "The City of New Orleans and Cuba share cultural and commercial connections that date back to our City's founding in 1718," said Mayor Landrieu. "And as the United States continues to increase diplomatic relations with Cuba, this mission was highly instructive as we gained a better understanding of what opportunities exist in Cuba today. There's no doubt that there is great promise for both countries, and for New Orleans in particular, through potential trade relations and cultural exchanges. We are committed to finding common ground that will help open a new path forward that brings our two nations together. We are duly optimistic for what the future holds." "This trip marked the first official mission of the U.S. Conference of Mayors since 1978," said Tom Cochran. "The Conference has long been committed to creating and sustaining relationships with our international colleagues and Cuba is no exception to that rule. We look forward to removing the obstacles of the embargo as President Obama articulated during his visit to Cuba earlier this year." About The United States Conference of Mayors -- The U.S. Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are nearly 1,400 such cities in the country today, and each city is represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the mayor. Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/usmayors, or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/usmayors. CHICAGO (AP) -- The Los Angeles Dodgers are bringing back 19-year-old left-hander Julio Urias from the minors to start this weekend against Atlanta. Urias will replace left-hander Alex Wood, who was placed on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday with elbow soreness. Urias lasted 2 2/3 innings in his major league debut Friday at the New York Mets, allowing three runs, five hits and four walks. He became the first teenage pitcher to start in the majors since Seattle's Felix Hernandez in 2005. Urias was optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City a day later. Wood (1-4, 3.99 ERA) experienced triceps soreness after allowing two runs and seven hits while striking out seven in five innings in Monday's 2-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs. What day Urias will start is uncertain because of more rotation questions. Right-hander Kenta Maeda was being treated for swelling in his right hand Tuesday, putting his Thursday start in jeopardy. In California, historically an overwhelmingly blue state, some conservatives dream of somewhere away from liberals' political correctness, Bernie Sanders and Hilary Clinton voters' ridicule and college students' demands for cushy safe spaces. What might a place like that look like? Well, a safe space. On Tuesday, Tracey Lindsey told San Francisco radio station KALW that she and about 11 other Donald Trump supporters have carved out what she calls a "safe space for them to talk" by way of regular meetings. Lindsey said it's become a necessity after she and others have been on the receiving end of anti-Trump hate. "We've had people ... say 'fuck you,'" she said, adding that the expletive has also been scrawled on her vehicle next to her Trump bumper sticker. "They put dog poop in bags, next to the windshield wiper, near the bumper sticker," Lindsey said. Mark Barnes, who attends the meetings with Lindsey, told the station that he needs the space because he's hard-pressed to find someone who shares his political opinions in his hometown of Martinez. "I kind of feel all alone, as a matter a fact," he said. Trump supporters run away from a protest outside a Trump rally in California T supporters may be feeling attacked for their beliefs, but over the course of the presumptive Republican nominee's campaign for the nomination and ultimately the presidency, it's been his opponents who have had to watch their backs. Protesters at Trump rallies have been kicked, punched and otherwise assaulted, with people of color being predominantly targeted. So while vandalism is no joke, and a "fuck you" is always a bummer, a little (albeit literal) shit-slinging might be preferable to a beatdown. Libya Oil Fire Libya has been the big supply "wild card" this year. Over a million barrels a day have been shut in amid political and security challenges over the past 12 months, keeping production stagnated at about 400,000 barrels a day. But after the establishment of the UN-backed unity government in late December, some investors started gearing up for the return of a substantial number of Libyan barrels to the market. Analysts and geopolitical watchers believe it's highly unlikely that Libya will see a serious spike in production, however, given that the country's thorny security situation has been further complicated by a lack of a strong government and the proliferation of armed groups, including ISIS. "Libya's political, security and financial challenges continue to worsen, with no clear path to recovery," a Morgan Stanley team led by Haythem Rashed wrote in a recent note to clients. "Even with the recent positive meeting between the two rival [National Oil Corporations] in Vienna earlier this month, and the international community's efforts to help establish the new Government of National Accord, we see a number of risks that would likely prevent or derail any significant production recovery," the team argued. As for these key risks, the Morgan Stanley team writes that they are as follows: More ISIS aka the Islamic State, ISIL, or Daesh attacks on oil infrastructure. Little political progress due to the various, splintered factions in power. Altercations between the Petroleum Facilities Guard blockading important oil export terminals in the country's oil "crescent" and General Khalifa Haftar's forces, who have been moving towards that area, according to the Morgan Stanley team. Screen Shot 2016 05 31 at 2.12.14 PM Things have been chaotic in Libya since Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011, as two rival governments and numerous armed groups have been competing for power. Story continues Delegates from the various Libyan factions signed a deal this past December to form a national unity government headed by Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj but the other two administrations in the country were "reluctant to acknowledge its authority." Sarraj and some of his deputies arrived in Tripoli, Libya, in March. But, eastern militia leaders are still not keen on supporting the government. In a note to clients, however, the RBC Capital Markets team led by Helima Croft said that "even if the competing governments came together, the expanding presence of Islamic State in the country represents a direct threat to the energy sector." "The group's operational base is in Sirte," the RBC team continued, "which is in the immediate vicinity of the most critical eastern oil facilities, and it has already sabotaged the energy infrastructure and killed oil workers." Screen Shot 2016 05 31 at 2.59.06 PM Croft argued in particular that there's a key difference between ISIS' strategy in Libya and its strategy in Syria. As she told Business Insider in an interview last Tuesday: In the case of Libya, their tactics have evolved. Because what we saw in Syria and northern Iraq was that they really tried to incorporate [the infrastructure] as part of their economic infrastructure. Meanwhile, in Libya, they're not going to operate Ra's Lanuf ... I think they want to ensure that the UN-backed government that's now in Tripoli operating off a naval base that if they ever were to get real legs and [would be] able to establish control over the entire country, that they wouldn't be able to use oil money to build up the state apparatus and push them out. ... ISIS thrives in failed states. [They] don't want Libya normalizing. In short, don't count on Libya's oil coming back on the market anytime soon. NOW WATCH: Adam Savage reveals why he and 'MythBusters' cohost Jamie Hyneman won't be working together anymore More From Business Insider Bangkok (AFP) - Thai wildlife officials have discovered dozens of dead cubs inside a freezer at a controversial "tiger temple" that has been locked in a long-running dispute with authorities and animal rights groups, police said Wednesday. Wildlife officials found the tiger cubs during a continuing operation to remove dozens of adult cats from the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua temple in the western province of Kanchanaburi. "We found 40 tiger cubs today. They were aged about one or two days when they died but we don't quite know yet how long they have been dead," police colonel Bandith Meungsukhum, a local officer, told AFP. Adisorn Noochdumrong, the deputy head of Thailand's parks department, said they would file charges against the temple for keeping the carcasses without permission. "A keeper said he was told to place the carcasses when they died in cold storage," he told AFP. The temple has long proved a hit among mainly foreign visitors who flock there to be photographed -- for a fee -- next to the scores of exotic feline pets. Wildlife officials say the whole complex is illegal and have battled the monks for years to try and close it down. The dispute has been complicated by the fact that secular Thai authorities are often reluctant to intervene in the affairs of the clergy. This week officials were granted a court order to seize the cats and have so far removed around 45 adults. Animals rights groups and conservationists have accused the temple of complicity in the hugely lucrative black-market wildlife trade, making tens of thousands of dollars by selling off older cats and animal parts for use in Chinese medicine. Last year one of the temple vets turned whistleblower, handing authorities three microchips he said were inside a trio of tigers who had disappeared. It has never been fully established what happened to those tigers. - 'Preserved and frozen' - Wildlife officials have also discovered during previous raids dozens of hornbills, jackals and Asian bears that were being kept at the sanctuary without permits. Story continues The temple has always denied trafficking allegations. In a statement posted on its Facebook page, the temple said it was common for cubs to be stillborn or die shortly after birth. The temple said it used to cremate dead cubs but the policy was changed in 2010. "Instead of cremation, the deceased cubs were preserved in jars or kept frozen," the statement added, without elaborating on why the policy was changed. The temple also denied selling cubs, saying such rumours were from people who have "jumped to conclusions". Photographs from the scene on Wednesday showed the cubs laid out on a blanket alongside the body of a bearcat, some deer horns and nearly two dozen containers. Thai newspaper Khaosod, which had a reporter at the scene, said the containers had animal parts and intestines inside them. Edwin Wiek, a Thailand-based conservationist who has campaigned for the temple's closure and whose veterinary staff have accompanied wildlife officials this week in the operation to remove the cats, said the cubs might have been kept to make religious charms. "The key thing is these tigers are illegal under Thai law," he said. Moves to confront the monks and confiscate the tigers have been staggered over recent months. There are now believed to be around 100 tigers remaining at the temple. For years the government has been seemingly powerless to resolve the issue, partly for fear of being seen to confront the clergy and also because officials readily admit they have nowhere else to put such a large number of tigers. Person Hand With Magnifying Glass Over Luxury House Once you make an offer on a home and its accepted, theres a period lasting a few weeks before you close the deal. During this window of time, buyers are often told to do their due diligence on the home they soon hope to own. But just what is due diligence, anyway? In the world of real estate transactions, due diligence is a fancy term for do your homework. Before buying a property, you should fully investigate it for potential problems that could cost major money to fix after youve moved in. Due diligence in residential real estate means [making sure] youre getting the asset youre paying for, says Larry Anweiler, an Arizona real estate broker who teaches real estate at Kaplan University. Think of this as your last opportunity to kick the tires, turn on and off all the lightsand generally make sure youre not getting a lemon. And if you do find flaws, youve got time to negotiate with the seller, who could help you fix them or lower the home price. Or, if the seller refuses, you are free to walk away from the dealand as long as youve placed some contingencies in your contract, you wont have to forfeit that hefty deposit. Due diligence is definitely worth taking seriously, so heres a checklist of what youll want to scrutinize before closing the deal. A home inspection Most home buyers hire a home inspector to scrutinize the house top to bottom, looking for problems that could cost the buyer major money to fix. The inspector is looking for a crumbling foundation, faulty HVAC systems, termites, leaking roof, and other potential big-ticket problems. You should also hire a separate professional to test for biotoxins, including mold, radon, and asbestos. These hazards are typically not checked by a home inspector and are expensive to fix. You should also check for larger neighborhood issues that could have an impact, like whether your home lies in a flood zone or near some environmental hazard. These can all be reasons to reopen negotiations with the seller and, if youre not satisfied, prompt you to walk. Story continues A title search Before you can take title to the homea fancy way of saying you establish legal ownership of the property thats entered into public recordyoull want to do a title search to make sure you can indeed do that, free and clear. For instance, what if the previous owners long-lost brother shows up claiming he owns the property, or a creditor has placed a lien on the home due to unpaid debts, or there are unresolved boundary disputes with a neighbor? Such problems can be costly to address, and a title search will bring them to light so you can broach these issues with the seller before you inherit a problem you dont want to have. Condo or HOA rules If youre buying a condo or property within a homeowners association, youll want to thoroughly review its declaration of covenants, conditions, and restrictions, or CC&Rs. Basically this is the list of rules and regulations, as well as fines for infractions. Some can be quite strict, reserving veto power over the color you paint your home or the number or type of vehicles you can have in front of your house (RVs are sometimes banned). Given these are rules youll be living under for the foreseeable future, its wise to review them and make sure youre on boardand if not, you can back out with your deposit in hand. More from realtor.com : The Features That Help a Home Sell Fastest The post What Is Due Diligence? Find Out What to Do Before Buying a Home appeared first on Real Estate News and Advice - realtor.com. Related Articles Johnson at the MTV Movie Awards. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for MTV) Hollywoods unstoppable force and immovable object is Dwayne the Rock Johnson, the wrestler turned actor who returns to theaters later this month alongside Kevin Hart in the eagerly anticipated action-comedy Central Intelligence. Its merely the first in an enormously long line of projects (including this Julys second season of HBOs Ballers) set to keep the superstar in the spotlight for years to come. While Johnson cannily uses Twitter and Instagram to keep fans up-to-date about his plans, the recent barrage of announcements about his upcoming roles has been nothing short of overwhelming which is why weve compiled a rundown of the all the would-be blockbusters the Rock is presently cooking for audiences. Moana. (Photo: Disney) Moana Johnson may boast a larger-than-life physique, but hell assume even grander form in Moana, an animated Disney release in which he voices Maui, a demigod who aids heroine Moana (AuliI Cravalho) in her search for a fabled island. As the below video of Johnson performing a traditional Maori Haka suggests, hell be bringing his trademark intensity to his vocal performance. (Release date: Nov. 23) Johnson in Fast 8. (Instagram) Fast 8 (and possibly a franchise spinoff, and/or Fast 9 and Fast 10) Johnson provided afterburner-grade electricity to the Fast and the Furious franchise when he joined in 2011 with Fast Five. Hell again return to the fold for next Aprils Fast 8, in which he reprises his role as DSA agent Hobbs. Last week, the actor posted a first photo of himself from the set via Instagram (sporting a badass biker look). The message that accompanied it made clear that he has additional plans for Hobbs possibly in a spinoff film, or future Fast installments. (Release date: April 14, 2017) Story continues The Baywatch cast. (Instagram) Baywatch For months, Johnson has been posting photos and updates about Baywatch, an action-comedy adaptation of the popular 90s drama that will co-star Zac Efron and feature cameos from original stars David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson. Having just wrapped principal photography, and set for May 2017, it should be one of next summers earliest (and possibly biggest) hits. (Release date: May 19, 2017) Jumanji Later this fall, Johnson will begin production on a reboot of Jumanji, the Robin Williams-headlined 1995 fantasy adventure about a board game whose jungle creatures come to lethal life. Bad Teachers Jake Kasdan will be directing, and (as-yet-unconfirmed) rumors indicate that Johnson will be joined by his Central Intelligence co-star Kevin Hart. (Release date: December 2017) Journey 3: From the Earth to the Moon and Journey 4 After assuming the reins of the Journey franchise from original star Brendan Fraser, Johnson has now set his sights on making two more sequels, which early reports imply may be filmed at the same time. While little fresh news has leaked about these projects, Journey 3 in which Johnson and co-star Josh Hutcherson will travel to the moon is slated to be directed by Brad Peyton (Journey 2, San Andreas). (Release date: TBA) San Andreas 2 The 2015 original grossed $473 million worldwide, so its no shock that Johnson will return to combat more natural disasters in San Andreas 2. In this bigger sequel (also from director Brad Peyton), the focus will be on the Pacific Oceans Ring of Fire, a location thats supposedly home to 90 percent of the worlds quakes all of which Johnson will undoubtedly punch to death. (Release date: TBA) Doc Savage Two days ago, Johnson officially confirmed (through Instagram) that hell be starring in Doc Savage, an adaptation of the tales about the 1930s pulp hero (known as The Man of Bronze) directed by The Nice Guys Shane Black. A genius scientist-explorer-hero whos the perfect human specimen, it should further establish Johnson as modern blockbuster cinemas preeminent he-man. (Release date: TBA) Shazam! Rather than playing one of DC Comics famed heroes, Johnson will instead transform into Black Adam a villainous anti-hero in 2019s superhero face-off Shazam! While no firm production date has been announced, the film is slated for a 2019 release (after DCs Justice League), and will be penned by Goosebumps scribe Darren Lemke. (Release date: TBA) Rampage Having already proved adept at dealing with crumbling cities in San Andreas, Johnson will again try to save metropolises from disaster this time, at the hands of gigantic monsters (a gorilla, lizard and wolf) in an adaptation of Bally Midways beloved 80s arcade game. Production is planned for later this year and will be overseen by Johnsons San Andreas director Brad Peyton and writer Carlton Cuse (Lost), whos working on the script with Ryan Condal. (Release date: TBA) The Janson Directive Robert Ludlums Jason Bourne novels have already been turned into a lucrative movie series, and now theyll be tied into a greater Ludlum Cinematic Universe beginning with The Janson Directive, which will star Johnson as a private security expert whos framed for murder. If its a success, it could potentially lead to future films in which Johnsons character crosses paths with Damons Bourne an idea that, in terms of box-office potential, boggles the mind. (Release date: TBA) Big Trouble in Little China John Carpenter and Kurt Russells 1986 martial-arts action-comedy classic is enjoying its 30th anniversary this summer, and itll soon get the remake treatment courtesy of Johnson, whos been talking about launching a do-over for years. In a recent interview with Fandango, Johnson made it clear that its still one of his top priorities, stating Thats happening, man! Thats happening, thats happening. And again, thats one of those things where you gotta take really good care of it. (Release date: TBA) Jungle Cruise Disney will try to duplicate Pirates of the Caribbeans success by turning yet another theme-park ride Disneylands original Jungle Cruise into a multi-film franchise, this time with Johnson as its headliner. Early word is that the project (which will be written by Focuss John Requa and Glenn Ficarra) will hark back to period classics like 1951s The African Queen, albeit presumably with far more muscles than Humphrey Bogart ever had. (Release date: TBA) Skyscraper Apparently conceived in the same vein as Die Hard and The Towering Inferno, Skyscraper will send Johnson to China, where he embarks on an action saga set in a towering metropolitan high-rise. Legendary won a bidding war for the film (to the tune of at least $3 million for the script alone), which will be written and directed by Johnsons Central Intelligence helmer Rawson Marshall Thurber. (Release date: TBA) Alpha Squad Seven Little is currently known about this upcoming film, except that itll be a Guardians of the Galaxy-style adventure thatll be led by both Johnson and an as-yet-unnamed co-star. DreamWorks won a bidding war for the project, and is eyeing it as a potential out-of-this-world franchise. (Release date: TBA) Seal Team 666 There have been scant reports about Seal Team 666 since it was first announced back in November 2013. Nonetheless, the film which would star Johnson as a military commando whose squad finds itself battling unholy demons sounds like the sort of all-out action extravaganza with which the star has made his A-list name. (Release date: TBA) Often times its not too difficult to spot an e-bike. Many modern commuter e-bikes are fairly obvious in their battery-powered intentions, in fact, some even store said batteries on a rear luggage rack or within bulky chassis components. Of course, they workoften times quite wellbut they leave a bit to be desired from a design standpoint. For those of discerning aesthetics, San Franciscos Faraday Bikes builds some of the prettiest pedal-assist bicycles around, beginning originally with the elegant Porteur (above) and now a new step-through Cortland bicycle. By the companys own admission, they dont build the fastest e-bikes or those with the most range; instead, their e-bikes are built to be enjoyed, deliver many smiles per hour, and look great in the process. RELATED: Check Out Ford Motor Companys Edgy New e-Bike Named after British physicist Michael Faraday, the company began in earnest in 2011 designing an e-bike for competition in Portlands Oregon Manifest bicycle design contest. With the help of a highly successful Kickstarter campaign, which raised over $175,000 worth of funding, the firm kicked off production of the sleek Porteur e-bike. Earlier this year, a second round of successful Kickstarter fundraising has resulted in the debut of the step-through Cortland, which is expected to reach customers towards the end of summer 2016. Like the looks? The performance is quite eye-catching too. Both the Porteur and Cortland cleanly integrate their Panasonic lithium-ion battery packs into their bike frames, leaving little hint that theyre e-bikes at all. Both weigh in at a relatively lightweight 39 pounds and both provide 20 miles of pedal-assisted riding range, courtesy of a 250 watt front hub motor. RELATED: The Bolt M-1 Blends Motorcycle and e-Bike in One! To get going, riders need only start pedaling and then select the level of assist the bike provides (enabled, disabled, or Boost), via the handlebar-mounted thumb switch. Hold on though, smiles are bound to follow. Story continues A number of different accessories are available for each bike, including front and rear luggage racks, a Brooks leather saddle, bamboo fenders, and eventually a GPS tracker and auxiliary battery pack that doubles range all while looking like a leather satchel. Different hubs and gearing help delineate the four models, with the top-of-the-line Porteur and Cortland models ($3,499) featuring slick Shimano Alfine eight-speed hubs and carbon drive belts, while the less-expensive Porteur S ($2,499) features a Sturmey Archer five-speed chain drive setup and the Cortland S ($2,499) boasts a Shimano Altus 8-speed chain drive. RELATED: The Specialized Turbo S is Like Biking with Supermans Legs By Matt Siegel, Jeremy Wagstaff and Eric Auchard (Reuters) - More than 18 months after Apple Pay took the United States by storm, the smartphone giant has made only a small dent in the global payments market, snagged by technical challenges, low consumer take-up and resistance from banks. The service is available in six countries and among a limited range of banks, though in recent weeks Apple has added four banks to its sole Singapore partner American Express; Australia and New Zealand Banking Group in Australia; and Canada's five big banks. Apple Pay usage totaled $10.9 billion last year, the vast majority of that in the United States. That is less than the annual volume of transactions in Kenya, a mobile payments pioneer, according to research firm Timetric. And its global turnover is a drop in the bucket in China, where Internet giants Alibaba and Tencent dominate the world's biggest mobile payments market - with an estimated $1 trillion worth of mobile transactions last year, according to iResearch data. Anecdotal evidence from Britain, China and Australia suggests Apple Pay is popular with core Apple followers, but the quality of service, and interest in it, varies significantly. To use Apple Pay, consumers tap their iPhone over payment terminals to buy coffee, train tickets and other services. It can be also used at vending machines that accept contactless payments. Apple Pay transactions were a fraction of the $84.5 billion in iPhone sales for the six months to March, which accounted for two-thirds of Apple's total revenue. TECH HITCHES In Australia, where Apple Pay launched a month ago, payment machines supported by one mid-sized bank reported frequent failures. "Bendigo Bank is experiencing some unforeseen technical issues in accepting Apple Pay payments at selected merchant terminals," a spokeswoman for the bank told Reuters, adding that a lack of wider industry engagement in launching the service limited the lead time in testing the new technology. Apple Vice President Jennifer Bailey said such experiences were premature and not representative. "Like any set of major technology changes, it takes time," she said. "We want to move as quickly as possible, we push it as quickly as possible." Facing a slowing smartphone business, Apple has taken on the payments market hoping to add ways to make its devices more appealing, and more revenue streams. Apple takes a cut of up to 15 cents in the United States on every $100 spent. While it has long mastered the supply chain for its mobile devices, the payments ecosystem has proved harder to control, and banks in other countries have reportedly negotiated lower transaction fees, contributing to its slow global roll-out. Apple nearly doubled its R&D spending to more than $8 billion in 2013-15 as it pushed out a wave of new products including Apple Watch and Apple Pay, as well as upgrades to existing hardware devices and new services. RESISTANCE Apple has leveraged its huge U.S. user base to push Pay, but has met resistance in Australia, Britain and Canada where banks are building their own products. "Payments in general is such a complicated system with so many incumbent providers that revolutionary change like this was not going to happen very quickly," said Joshua Gilbert, an analyst at First Annapolis Consulting. The upshot: Apple has rolled out Pay in a dribble, adding countries and partners where it can - Hong Kong is expected to be added next - resulting in an uneven banking landscape with users and retail staff not always sure what will work and how. In Britain, for example, $14 billion was spent via contactless cards last year, according to Windsor Holden, a Juniper Research analyst. That makes it harder to persuade people to take the extra step on their smartphone for the same checkout convenience. "You have over 86 million contactless cards in circulation, you have to persuade Britons to register their cards to the (Apple Pay) service when they can already use them to make a contactless payment," Holden said. In Australia, where more than 60 percent of all card transactions are through contactless cards, reception has also been muted. A spokesman for one large retailer said he had seen "very little uptake of the payment option" in his sector. He didn't want to be named as he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Diego Machuca, 32, banks with Apple Pay-holdout Commonwealth Bank, has an iPhone and is already "largely cashless". He says Apple Pay is appealing, but he wouldn't switch banks just to access that one feature. "Not over that. There's too much work involved just for tap-and-go," he told Reuters. Three months after the China launch, users on online forums complained that using Apple Pay, even at popular fast-food outlets, was not as seamless as local services such as WeChat, Tencent's messaging and mobile commerce phenomenon. Nonetheless, Apple's approach has spurred development in several markets where the mobile payments industry had previously not taken hold - giving it the jump on rivals Google's Android Pay and Samsung Pay. Android Pay only launched in the United States in March and in Britain last month for use on the latest model Android phones. Samsung Pay is available in three markets; China, South Korea and the United States. (Reporting by Matt Siegel in SYDNEY, Jeremy Wagstaff in SINGAPORE, Eric Auchard in LONDON and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Ian Geoghegan) 2000 - 2022 24 .- . focus-news.net, () . 24 . 24 . . 24 . In the early days of the social web, putting someone's name in multiple parentheses was meant to give that person a cute virtual hug. Today, it's something far more sinister. Neo-Nazis, anti-Semites and white nationalists have begun using three sets of parentheses encasing a Jewish surname for instance, (((Fleishman))) to identify and target Jews for harassment on blogs and major social media sites like Twitter. As one white supremacist , "It's closed captioning for the Jew-blind." Jonathan Weisman, deputy Washington editor for the New York Times, wrote about his experience as a victim of this harassment in a May 26 story. "Hello ((Weisman))" it began after Weisman tweeted a Washington Post article about Donald Trump titled "This Is How Fascism Comes to America." Weisman asked his harasser, @CyberTrump, to explain the symbol. "It's a dog whistle, fool," the user responded. "Belling the cat for my fellow goyim." With the parentheses, @CyberTrump had alerted an army of trolls. The attacks that followed were sudden and unremitting. "The anti-Semitic hate, much of it from self-identified Donald J. Trump supporters, hasn't stopped since," Weisman wrote. The origins of the symbol ((())) can be traced to a hardcore, right-wing podcast called The Daily Shoah in 2014. It's known as an "echo" in the anti-Semitic corners of the alt-right a new, young, amorphous conservative movement that comprises trolls fluent in internet culture, free speech activists warring against political correctness and earnest white nationalists. Some use the symbol to mock Jews; others seek to expose supposed Jewish collusion in controlling media or politics. All use it to put a target on their heads. To the public, the symbol is not easily searchable on most sites and social networks; search engines strip punctuation from results. This means that trolls committed to uncovering, labeling and harassing Jewish users can do so in relative obscurity: No one can search those threats to find who's sending them. Story continues (((Echoes))), Exposed: The Secret Symbol Neo-Nazis Use to Target Jews Online The origin of (((echoes))) The symbol comes from right-wing blog the Right Stuff, whose podcast The Daily Shoah featured a segment called "Merchant Minute" that gave Jewish names a cartoonish "echo" sound effect when uttered. The "parenthesis meme," as Right Stuff editors call it, is a visual pun. In Right Stuff propaganda, you'll often read that Jewish names "echo." According to the blog's lexicon page, "all Jewish surnames echo throughout history." In other words, the supposed damage caused by Jewish people reverberates from decade to decade. In an email, the editors of the Right Stuff said it is also intended as a critique of "Jewish power." They explained further: "The inner parenthesis represent the Jews' subversion of the home [and] destruction of the family through mass-media degeneracy. The next [parenthesis] represents the destruction of the nation through mass immigration, and the outer [parenthesis] represents international Jewry and world Zionism." What ((())) looks like in action A 'Right Stuff' blog post about "deranged creature" Amy Schumer L Here's how Twitter users deployed ((())) to single out Jewish member of the staff: Source: Twitter We got off easy just a flood of memes in our timelines, a few "kike" insults hurled our way. Other Jewish writers have faced more serious attacks: death threats, anti-Semitic cartoons, images of concentration camp ovens and executed Jews, threatening emails, even home phone calls. "With the cat belled, the horde was unleashed," Weisman wrote of his experience. One tweet he received included a photo of the gates of Auschwitz with the "Arbeit Macht Frei" slogan of the Nazi death camp replaced with "Machen Amerika Great," a clumsy translation of Trump's slogan, "Make America Great Again." "I get plenty of anti-Semitic things, but this was different," said Michael, a Jewish journalist who was targeted by right-wing trolls in 2015 following a story he wrote that was critical of the GOP. (Michael asked Mic to use only his first name to protect his family.) "[The echo] is a way of bringing attention to people who are Jewish intimidating," Michael said. "They try to threaten." Michael received "awful cartoons," animated GIFs of Hitler with the caption "Don't you miss me?" and photos of Nazis killing Jews in Eastern Europe. Trolls threatened him: "'When the time comes, the Jews are going to be in trouble, lined up,'" Michael recalls. "That kind of tone. Random shit by people thinking it's funny Jews were being targeted." Michael said he blocked about 100 accounts during the onslaught. Hate speech and the election In a phone call, Oren Segal, director of the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism, said he's seen a "spike in hate speech and the harassment of journalists, in particular Jewish journalists" this election cycle. According to Segal and other social-justice advocates who keep tabs on racist groups and hate speech, the jingoism of Trump's presidential campaign has fueled this sort of harassment. Trump's xenophobic and Islamophobic rhetoric and policy proposals have resonated with the rebellious, belligerent, flag-waving alt-right "They've been on a tear," Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center said in a phone call. "You can't publish something about Trump right now and have any inclination of being Jewish without being trolled to hell." Don't trigger Mr Trump (((Rosenberg))) It might cause him to fire up the ovens #OvenWorthy https://twitter.com/jonrosenberg/status/698740454158966784 ... Beirich called for Trump to denounce the anti-Semitic harassment conducted in his name. "This is the most racist invective that's been directly involved in a presidential campaign in the last 16 years," she said. "It's frightening how cavalier Trump has been about these people." How have these trolls been able to hide harassment in plain sight? Partially because the ((())) symbol is difficult, if not impossible, for ordinary users to search for. When you try using Twitter's search engine with the query "((()))", you get the following: Source: Twitter If you try to search for "(((Last Name)))," Twitter's search engine strips the results of the parentheses, yielding every single result for the last name, the sheer size of which obscures instances of the symbol being used. Try searching for random combinations of parentheses on Twitter, Reddit or Google. Try searching Google for "site:twitter.com '((('" or a similar query. Try looking for (((Mic))) in a Google search. The results drop the parentheses from the search. Filtering is possible using the app TweetDeck, which has the ability to mute punctuation like parentheses. But the larger issue is the Twitter community's ability to identify and police hate speech. Singling out a particular method of harassment is more difficult when Twitter has to rely on users reporting single tweets, rather than being able to search for everyone who's using the construction. A spotlight on ((())) would let users and Twitter developers shut down the problem much faster. Twitter needs better tools to curb hate speech On Tuesday, Twitter, Facebook, Google and Microsoft partnered with the European Union to crack down on online hate speech, pledging to delete offensive comments on their respective platforms in under 24 hours. Asked about users targeting Jewish people, a Twitter representative directed Mic to a statement by Karen White, Twitter's head of public policy for Europe: "Hateful conduct has no place on Twitter and we will continue to tackle this issue head on alongside our partners in industry and civil society," she said. Twitter Rules, an extension of the company's Terms of Service, forbid its users from "incit[ing] or engag[ing] in the targeted abuse or harassment of others." Users are required to agree to these rules when they sign up for the social media site. At the same time, Twitter also pledged to protect free speech on its network. "We remain committed to letting the tweets flow," White said. "However, there is a clear distinction between freedom of expression and conduct that incites violence and hate." Twitter declined to address why the symbol is unsearchable on its platform, if a hate-speech filter would detect it or if the company plans to categorize the symbol as hate speech at all Users wary of the social network silencing unpopular views responded by launching the hashtag #IStandWithHateSpeech, which began to trend Tuesday night. "[Social justice warriors] are infecting society with their made-up terms," one user wrote. Twitter European VP Bruce Daisley Coded hate speech like ((())) may not be searchable, but it is public; tweets containing it can be reported to Twitter for abuse and shut down. This will not stop abusers from simply creating new accounts, and it will not stop other users from swarming on victims once they've been identified using the ((())) symbol a method of abuse known as "dogpiling." In 2014, the group Women, Action and the Media reviewed hundreds of Twitter harassment reports and recommended several measures to help curb the problem. To address dogpiling, WAM recommended that Twitter grant users the ability to report multiple accounts at once and to filter abusive content from their timelines. Twitter now lets users flag multiple tweets in one report. Whether they know it or not, Neo-Nazis on Twitter have discovered a brilliant loophole a code that's difficult to filter whose meaning incites waves of hate before the target realizes what's happening. Jewish writers can report those tweets all they want, but the damage ((())) sets into motion may only be beginning. Cairo (AFP) - Three leading figures in Egypt's journalists' union will stand trial for allegedly harbouring two fugitive colleagues, a lawyer and prosecution officials said, drawing condemnation from rights groups. Egyptian Journalists Syndicate president Yahiya Kallash, secretary general Gamal Abd el-Rahim and freedoms committee chief Khaled Elbalshy were charged with aiding fugitives after two reporters sought by police staged a sit-in at the union's offices, Elbalshy's lawyer said Tuesday. The three, who were released late Monday after more than 24 hours in detention, are also under investigation for "publishing false news", Karim Abdelrady said. The first trial hearing is scheduled for Saturday, according to the lawyer and prosecution officials who requested anonymity. "The message is that no one is too big to be detained, nor too big to be silenced," Abdelrady said. The EU said the indictments of the union members was "a worrying development". "It reflects broader limitations on freedom of expression and press freedom in Egypt," an EU spokesperson said in an emailed statement. Rights activists accuse Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of running an ultra-authoritarian regime that has violently suppressed all opposition since toppling Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013. In an unprecedented crackdown on the press, police on May 1 raided the journalists syndicate to arrest two reporters for opposition website Babawet Yanayer, Amr Badr and Mahmud al-Sakka, who are accused of inciting demonstrations. Union chief Kallash had denounced their arrests, telling a news conference earlier this month that Sisi's government was "escalating the war against journalism and journalists". Reacting to Kallash's arrest Monday, Amnesty International accused the authorities of "the most brazen attack on the media the country witnessed in decades". The case "signals a dangerous escalation of the Egyptian authorities' draconian clampdown on freedom of expression," said Amnesty's Magdalena Mughrabi. CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt opened its border with Gaza for the second time in a month on Wednesday, giving Palestinians a four-day respite from a closure stemming from friction between Cairo and the enclave's Islamist rulers. Egypt's shuttering of Rafah and destruction of cross-border smuggling tunnels, along with tight restrictions imposed by Israel along its own frontier with Gaza, have deepened economic misery for many of the 1.9 million Palestinians in the enclave. The crossing will be open for four days starting Wednesday and busses will transport Palestinians on either side of the border, an Egyptian border official said. It will close again on Friday and reopen on Saturday and Sunday, the official added. The crossing will open for humanitarian cases, medical patients, and students. Egypt has kept its border with the Gaza Strip largely closed since Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood was ousted as president three years ago. Egyptian officials view Gaza's governing Hamas group as a threat, accusing it of supporting an Islamist insurgency in the Sinai peninsula bordering the Palestinian territory. Hamas denies the allegation. Some 30,000 Gazans are on a waiting list to cross at Rafah. Only a few thousand, including patients, students and holders of residency permits in third countries, are likely to do so in the coming four days. Israel said in May that it planned to reopen a second border point for commercial traffic into Gaza, a step toward gradually easing the blockade it imposed since 2007. Israel says its blockade prevents the movement of militants and stops construction materials that could be used by Hamas to make bunkers and tunnels. Palestinians there say they are under siege and are unable to rebuild homes destroyed by Israeli bombing in a 2014 war. (Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein) The news that a French Navy vessel has probably found the black boxes from EgyptAir Flight 804 brought huge relief Wednesday to Egyptian and French officials, who have led a frantic search for devices seen as crucial in determining whether a terrorist attack brought down the plane on its way from Paris to Cairo last month. But leaving aside that relief, the two-week hunt for the flight-data and voice recorders has prompted another reaction: renewed calls to update the way airplanes gather and transmit information, and move past an aging black-box system that was introduced in the 1960sdecades before real-time data streaming became a ubiquitous part of life. Despite the costly and complicated effort involved in recovering black boxes, the debate over how to upgrade or replace the recording devices has dragged on for years. Governments, airlines and pilots have all resisted changes. Airlines argue it would cost too much, and pilots say it could be an invasion of their privacy. Since airplanes criss-cross the planet, aviation officials from around the world all need to agree on new technology. That is obviously a very complex process, said Anthony Philbin, a spokesman for the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the United Nations agency that sets global aviation regulations. Philbin said that since 191 governments make decisions through ICAO, and our agencys role is to support them in achieving consensus, getting there can be a very lengthy process. Even so, experts believe changes are years or even decades overdue, and that recent plane crashes have made that painfully clear. For one thing, the hunt for black boxes is a race against time, since batteries on the devices last only 30 days. After that, the flight-data and voice recorders (which are in fact orange, not black) fall silent, making any efforts to find them hugely difficult, especially when planes fall to the bottom of the ocean, as is the case with Egyptair Flight 804. French officials, whose specialized deepwater vessels are key to the EgyptAir search, already have bitter experience with the limitations of black boxes. In 2011, after a 23-month hunt that cost millions, French ships finally uncovered the black boxes of Air France Flight 447, which plunged into the Atlantic Ocean en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, 2009, killing all 228 people on board. And despite an international hunt, the black boxes are still missing from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March of 2014, leaving its disappearance and the deaths of the 239 people on board one of aviations most confounding mysteries. In an era when everything from share prices to weather forecasts are transmitted in real time, such mysteries are unnecessary, aviation experts said. Indeed, the 2009 Air France crash pushed governments to suggest several changes. Those included designing data-recorders that eject automatically if the plane crashes and can float on the ocean surface, easily detectable from the air. Another fix was to transmit data from the locator beaconsthe pings heard this week by the French vesselat lower frequencies, allowing ships to detect the sound from further away. Aviation experts and governments have also argued since 2009 to lengthen the battery life on black boxes. The battery situation is pretty scandalous, Jean-Paul Troadec, who led investigation into the Air France disaster as head of Frances BEA air accident investigation authority, told Reuters last week. It hardly costs anything to install new batteries. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has issued new regulations requiring black box batteries to last 90 days. Yet that rule will come into effect only in 2019, and will affect thousands of planes that operate mainly in Europe. An EASA official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told TIME this week that the organization had delayed enforcement for 30 months, because it affects thousands of airplanes and helicopters, giving time for equipment suppliers to prepare for the significant increase in demand. In March, the U.N. agency ICAO issued new regulations that will slowly roll out between now and 2021. Those will require airplanes to transmit their location once a minute in distress circumstances, and to extend the voice recordings from the cockpit to 25 hours so that they cover all phases of flight for all types of operations. The black boxes currently record only the last two hours of the flightmaking it hard to determine whether a crisis occurred earlier in the journey. None of that will help investigators determine what doomed EgyptAir Flight 804. (Adds Houlihan Lokey confirmation of departure in paragraph 3) By Michael Flaherty NEW YORK, June 1 (Reuters) - Elliott Management, the $27 billion hedge fund, has hired a Houlihan Lokey banker as part of its activist team, as the group expands its reach across a broad range of sectors. Geoffrey Sorbello, a Houlihan director who specializes in shareholder activism, contested M&A and proxy contests, joined New York-based Elliott on Tuesday, according to an email seen by Reuters. Elliott declined to comment. A Houlihan spokesman confirmed Sorbello's departure but would not discuss further details, in accord with bank policy. Sorbello will remain based in New York and report to Jesse Cohn, Elliott's senior portfolio manager, according to a person familiar with the matter. Cohn has played a major role in the hedge fund's activist campaigns in the technology sector, including via its stake in Qlik Technologies, which prompted the data analytics company to put itself up for sale. Elliott's hiring of Sorbello, who previously worked at proxy solicitation firm Okapi Partners and proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), shows how the hedge fund is seeking to strengthen its activist strategy, which comprises a relatively small portion of the massive hedge fund's market activity. While the bulk of Elliott's activism has focused on the tech space lately, Elliott has broadened its reach across multiple sectors, including oil and gas, retail and other industries. Ares Capital Corp agreed to buy smaller rival American Capital Ltd on May 23 for $3.4 billion, after Elliott took a large stake in ACAS and pushed it to ditch a spin-out plan and instead explore a sale. The current auction of outdoor retailer Cabela's was the result of an Elliott campaign. Elliott's three largest equity holdings are data storage company EMC Corp, which is in the process of being bought by Dell Inc, oil company Hess Corp and aluminum maker Alcoa Inc, according to a quarterly filing. Story continues Elliott is among the largest and most active hedge funds in the activist arena - part of a growing crowd of investors pushing for leadership and strategy changes across Corporate America. Last year saw more than 500 activist campaigns, the most ever recorded, according to Thomson Reuters data. The wash of campaigns has led to several high profile moves among activist advisers in the last few years, including where advisers moved to investment banks tasked with defending dissident investors, or, as in Sorbello's case, advisers moving to an internal role at an activist. (Reporting by Michael Flaherty; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Phil Berlowitz) American Horror Story star Finn Wittrock said people on the street often call him fing evil because of the characters that he has played on the hit FX show. I used to be offended when people would come up to me and say literally, I was meeting a director the other day at a restaurant and tried to put on a good show and be professional, and this waitress comes up and says, You are so fking evil!' Wittrock told TheWrap. I was like, could you please give this poor person some context of what you are talking about? In Season 5, American Horror Story: Hotel, Wittrock starred as both model Tristan Duffy and legend Rudolph Valentino. In the previous season, Wittrock played a twisted freak named Dandy Mott. See Video: 'American Horror Story' Star Finn Wittrock Praises Lady Gaga as 'Unstoppable Workhorse' Theres everything you could ask for theres blood, theres really scary stuff, theres naked people, theres some great actors and actresses its definitely a show that you have to expect the unexpected, he said. Theres all these shows that are all self-contained they are 10 episodes and thats it. And Ryan Murphy was really kind of the first to really do that. And another plus is that the cast on the series is extremely close. Wittrock admitted he was tight with Denis OHare and Lady Gaga, whom he praised during his interview. Also Read: 'American Horror Story' Star Finn Wittrock Says Season 6 'Might Be a Little More Claustrophobic' This season was a lot of Denis OHare, Lady Gaga, he added. Shes amazing. Everywhere you turn, theres another amazingly talented person. Watch the video above. Related stories from TheWrap: 'AHS' Star Finn Wittrock Reveals Emmy Nomination Secret Weapon: 'I'll Just Have to Wear Something Awesome' Emmy Contender Finn Wittrock on Playing 'American Horror Story' Psycho: 'Just Find That Little Demon Inside.. And Let It Rip' (Video) Lady Gaga to Return for 'American Horror Story' Season 6 Italian integrated oil and gas company Eni (Milan Stock Exchange: ENI-IT) is continuing to explore for oil, but is not taking big risks, its CEO said Tuesday. Instead it is focusing on areas it knows very well, Claudio Descalzi said in an interview with CNBC's " Closing Bell ." "If you want to keep your costs down, you must explore and explore and get good results, and then you can start developing." Since Descalzi took the helm two years ago, oil has had a rough ride. The challenge was changing the company's culture while continuing to do business, he said. "You have to transform your company. You have to do things differently, but you have to continue and progress and invest," said Descalzi. "So you have to reduce costs but without cutting production, without changing your business model." He believes fundamentals are now driving the price of oil, which he predicts will go back higher by the end of the year. "Higher means $55, $60, something around there," he said. U.S. crude (New York Mercantile Exchange: @CL.1) closed 0.47 percent lower, or 23 cents, at $49.10 a barrel Tuesday after the UAE oil minister said he was happy with the oil market and noted that oil prices had been correcting higher. Brent crude oil futures (Intercontinental Exchange Europe: @LCO.1) were down 9 cents at $49.67. Reuters contributed to this report. More From CNBC BRUSSELS, June 1 (Reuters) - The European Commission proposed on Wednesday to extend its investment scheme beyond the initially planned three years and increase the amount of money available for small and medium-sized companies because of large demand. The aim of the investment scheme, launched in the middle of 2015, is to use 21 billion euros of EU money to attract 15 times more of private funds over three years for investment in European infrastructure, energy and research and development. The plan is attractive because the EU provides a first loss guarantee, reducing the risk for private investors. One year into to project, managed by the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI) and the European Investment Bank, the Commission said it was firmly on track to generate the expected flows. "The European Fund for Strategic Investments is creating jobs and triggering investments in the real economy every day. That is why we propose to extend it beyond 2018," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said in a statement. The Commission did not say for how long it would extend the scheme, saying it would make concrete proposals "in the autumn" nor how much more money would be allotted to help finance small and medium sized companies. The EU executive arm will also consider the leveraging model of the investment plan for financing projects in developing third countries, it said. (Reporting By Jan Strupczewski) By Gabriela Baczynska BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union put more pressure on Poland's euroskeptic government on Wednesday to scrap changes to its supreme court, in a test of the EU's power to impose democratic standards on ex-communist members in the east. The European Commission's decision to issue a formal complaint to Warsaw, a step in the EU's new and untried Rule of Law process, prompted Poland's justice minister to denounce a "one-sided opinion showing a distorted image". The warning was announced by the EU's main negotiator, Frans Timmermans, the deputy head of the European Commission. It comes after months of fruitless diplomacy since Poland's Law and Justice (PiS) party won elections in October and imposed changes on the Constitutional Court and the Polish public broadcaster. "Despite our best efforts, until now we have not been able yet to find solutions," Timmermans told reporters. He stressed dialogue would go on and would not speculate on penalties for Poland. It is by far the biggest of the former Soviet satellites that joined the EU a decade ago and a powerful player in the 28-nation bloc, which is bracing for upheaval if Britain votes to leave in a referendum this month. Under a procedure adopted two years ago after a frustrating battle between the EU and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Poland has two weeks to respond to the formal "opinion". If more talks fail, the commission can recommend its own solution and set a deadline to implement it. Deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymanski said Poland was ready for discussion of "anti-crisis scenarios" to ease EU concern that an increase in the number of judges needed for a ruling, a rejection of pending judicial nominees and other government decisions have undermined the court's independence. But, Szymanski said, the government would not agree to measures that would disappoint its supporters in parliament: "(They) must be in line with the parliamentary majority's expectations," he said. "That is the most important thing." European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters in Brussels: "Democracy is more than a parliamentary majority. It's also about civil society." EU DILEMMAS More deadlock could trigger the "nuclear option" of fellow EU states launching a suspension procedure. Warsaw could lose its voting rights in the Union and possibly suffer other penalties, such as a loss of grants and subsidies. However, Orban for one has already said he would veto the unanimity required for that under Article 7 of the EU treaty. And EU leaders are loath to deepen an east-west split created by the refusal of Poland, Hungary and others to take in large numbers of refugees to ease the migration crisis in the bloc. That may leave the EU again assailed by rights activists, who complain that it has failed to uphold aspects of European democratic values, and at the same criticized by increasingly vocal eurosceptic movements for meddling in national affairs. Viviane Reding, a former EU justice commissioner who battled with Orban, approved of her successors' move to enforce the rules. All states had signed treaties whose fundamental values were "indivisible," she said. "When one member state disrespects them, this concerns us all," she told Reuters. EU leaders recognize, however, that the treaties give them few powers over each other unless the decisions are unanimous. As a result, senior officials in Brussels, when pressed on what may happen next in Poland, stress the role of Poles themselves. "The solution is in their hands," said Reding, now a member of the European Parliament. "The solution is in Poland." (Additional reporting by Adrian Krajewski and Wiktor Szary; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Larry King) Brussels (Belgium) (AFP) - The European Union on Wednesday formally warned Poland's rightwing government to roll back its overhaul of the top Polish court and remove a "systemic threat" to the rule of law, or risk sanctions. The unprecedented warning is part of a drawn-out procedure which could eventually see Warsaw have its voting rights suspended in the European council of ministers, the EU's most important decision-making body. "We have decided to send a rule-of-law opinion to the Polish authorities," European Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans told a press conference in Brussels. "Despite our best efforts we have not been able to find a solution to the main issues that concern us," Timmermans said following five months of talks with the Polish government. The concerns focus on the overhaul of the constitutional court by the Polish government. Poland's deputy foreign minister Konrad Szymanski told the PAP news agency that the commission's written opinion "brings nothing new" because the government knew it was coming. Timmermans said the commission sent the warning to "frame the debate" toward solutions "so that there is no longer a systemic threat to the rule of law in Poland." Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party plunged the country into a political crisis in December, just weeks after winning power, when it pushed through legislation that has paralysed the constitutional court by modifying its decision-making rules. In January, the Commission, the EU executive, launched a probe to see if the changes violated EU democracy rules and merited punitive measures. Timmermans did not mention the threat of sanctions, but they are a last resort in a procedure that was introduced in 2014 and has never been used against any of the 28 EU member states. Poland's regional ally Hungary is likely to torpedo any possible sanctions, which would require the unanimous approval of all 28 EU members. Story continues Poland now has two weeks to respond to the warning. If it fails to satisfy EU concerns, the Commission could recommend that Warsaw solve the problems identified within a fixed time limit. - 'Process of dialogue' - Timmermans, a former Dutch foreign minister, played down the confrontation between Brussels and Warsaw which has also flared over Poland's rejection of refugees under an EU-wide plan to tackle Europe's migrant crisis. "I still see us in a process of dialogue, a constructive dialogue," Timmermans said. Szymanski, the deputy foreign minister, took a conciliatory line. "We are ready for consultations..., but that does not mean that we can agree to any specific solution (that is proposed)," the Polish official said. "Such solutions must be in line with the expectations of the parliamentary majority in the Polish parliament," he said. Following talks in Warsaw a week ago with Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, Timmermans said he was confident of eventually finding "a sustainable solution" to the issue. Szydlo had also sounded upbeat after accusing Brussels of violating Poland's sovereignty and vowing that Warsaw would never bow to any EU ultimatum on the Constitutional Tribunal. Beata Mazurek, spokesperson for the PiS parliamentary group, told Polish media that the commission "is trying to interfere a little in Poland's internal affairs." But Timmermans said: "The commission does not intend and does not wish to involve itself in a political debate in Poland. Political issues in Poland are the business of politicians in Poland, not of the European commission." By Robin Emmott BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union must prolong its sanctions on Russia this month because the crisis in Ukraine is far from being resolved despite a Franco-German push to implement a peace deal, Ukraine's new Europe minister said on Wednesday. After briefing NATO envoys in Brussels on the violence in eastern Ukraine, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said 14 Ukrainian soldiers were killed over the past week and shellings by Russian-backed rebels were intensifying. "Sanctions must be prolonged because Russia is not delivering," said Klympush-Tsintsadze, who in April became new Ukrainian premier Volodymyr Groysman's minister for EU and NATO ties, one of five deputy prime minister posts. "When Europe stands united, that is the only language Russia understands," she told Reuters in an interview. Europe and the United States have linked any softening of the economic sanctions on implementation of a peace deal signed in Minsk in February 2015, which calls for a full ceasefire in the rebel-held areas of Donetsk and Luhansk. EU leaders must decide at a June 28-29 summit whether to extend sanctions on Russia's financial, defense and energy sectors over what the West says is Moscow's support for separatists in the conflict that has killed more than 9,000 people since April 2014. The Kremlin denies any direct support for the rebels and last month returned to Kiev jailed Ukrainian military pilot Nadezhda Savchenko in a prisoner exchange welcomed by Western politicians. Some EU countries, including Greece, Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria believe the West's sanctions on Russia, Europe's main energy supplier, are counterproductive for both sides. Seeking dialogue, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will go to Russia this month and is likely to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. But that is a visit Klympush-Tsintsadze said that "no Ukrainians are happy about". International OSCE monitors in eastern Ukraine observed a high number of ceasefire violations in their latest weekly report on May 30, which included reports of shelling near two kindergartens and the explosion of an anti-tank mine. Russia blames Ukraine's military for breaking the ceasefire and wants to see local elections held in eastern Ukraine, something France and Germany have also been trying to help formalize as a potential breakthrough on the peace process. Klympush-Tsintsadze said Ukraine was discussing whether an armed OSCE police mission could play a role in eastern Ukraine to monitor elections if violence dropped, but that no Russian officials could be part of such a mission. "It would need Russian approval, but I don't think any Russians could be included because then the mission would no longer be neutral. We need people to monitor that militants have been disarmed and that Russian troops have left." (Reporting by Robin Emmott; Editing by Alison Williams) * Glyphosate widely used in farming pesticides * Debate focuses on scientific evidence over health risks By Alissa de Carbonnel BRUSSELS, June 1 (Reuters) - The European Commission will propose a temporary 12 to 18 month extension of EU authorisation for the weed killer glyphosate, used in Monsanto's Roundup, to allow time for a new scientific study into fears it may cause cancer. After failing to win support for an initial proposal for a 15-year approval, the EU executive proposed the compromise to avoid a six-month phase-out period when the current licence lapses at the end of June. The proposal will be put to a vote by experts from the 28 EU nations on Monday. "The ball is now in the member state court," the EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis, said. The compromise could enable member states that opposed licence renewal, such as France, to change their position, EU sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. If the new proposal fails to win support from the 28 EU nations, it will go to an appeal committee vote, although the compromise says the Commission can take a decision regardless of what emerges from the committee. Andriukaitis said he hoped a study by the European Union's Agency for Chemical Products (ECHA) would allay health concerns following a transatlantic row over whether glyphosate may cause cancer. "Under the EU law, the last word belongs to the ECHA," Andriukaitis told reporters in Brussels. Contradictory findings on the carcinogenic risks of glyphosate by scientific bodies and public campaigning by citizens' groups and non-governmental organisations have thrust glyphosate into the centre of a dispute among EU and U.S. politicians, regulators and researchers. In May, German chemicals group Bayer offered $62 billion to buy U.S. seeds company Monsanto, despite German resistance to glyphosate and Monsanto's genetically modified seeds. Experts from the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) said last month glyphosate was unlikely to pose a risk to humans exposed to it through food. It is mostly used on crops. Story continues The finding matches that of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), an independent agency funded by the European Union, but runs counter to a March 2015 study by the WHO's Lyon-based International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). That agency said glyphosate was probably able to cause cancer in humans and classified it as a 'Group 2A' carcinogen. It said it assessed whether the substance can cause cancer in any way - regardless of real-life conditions on typical levels of human exposure or consumption. (Editing by Barbara Lewis and Adrian Croft) Like airline food and all-inclusive hotels, the reputation of airport hotels hasn't always been the greatest. After all, such hotels were built out of necessity as a place for weary business travelers and budget-conscious families, not a place to be thoroughly enjoyed or take comfort. But while that image may have held true a few decades ago, it's a far cry from some of the airport hotels welcoming travelers today. Designed with road warriors in mind, today's airport hotels offer expansive rooms with plush beds and city views, restaurants you actually want to dine in and modern art decorating the walls. [See: The 50 Best Hotels in the USA 2016.] The best place to see the notable difference between the airport hotels of yesteryear and the innovative properties of the future is at many of Hilton's updated properties, such as outposts in Amsterdam and Frankfurt, Germany. As soon as you enter the property, you're welcomed with floor-to-ceiling glass windows, colorful art installations and welcoming desk attendants. Even better, there's an elegance, a comfort and an identity that was sorely lacking in airport hotels for years. For Hilton, it isn't just about refashioning the look or updating the beds -- it's about changing the entire perception of the airport stay experience. "People nowadays are not just buying a bed at the airport anymore; people enjoy staying at an airport hotel which contributes to their well-being, to their success and to a memorable travel experience," says Charles Muller, general manager at the Hilton Frankfurt Hotel. "In the same way that leisure and business travelers seek certain amenities at a 'downtown' hotel, there's now a greater understanding and appreciation for what airport hotels can offer in comfort, amenities, services and food," he adds. This is most apparent at many of Hilton's newest and largest airport properties, such the Hilton Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, which recently opened in 2015. The hotel features a beautiful exterior with patterned windows that reflect and absorb the sunlight, a bar and restaurant and, most notably, a spa. Story continues "This property [the Hilton Amsterdam Airport Schiphol] is actually home to Western Europe's first eforea Spa [Hilton Worldwide's global spa concept], which offers experiences that pay homage to wellness practices from Europe, Asia, the Pacific, Middle East, Africa and the Americas," Muller says. [Read: 10 Top Historic Hotels Across the U.S.] No longer simply a place to sleep, these hotels are being constructed to rival hotels in major city centers. How they're doing that is simple: They're treating each hotel like a separate resort, giving it a unique style, a fresh look and a local touch that was missing from airport hotels of the past. When you enter the Hilton Frankfurt hotel, for example, the look is entirely different than the Hilton Schiphol or the Hilton Beijing. Not only does the design reflect the location, so does the food. "Many of the culinary offerings at hotels within Hilton's airport portfolio are deeply connected to their respective local destinations. Chefs at Hilton airport hotels from Mumbaito Mexicoto the East Midlands source a variety of their kitchen ingredients from local markets," Muller says. "Here at Hilton Frankfurt Airport we have chosen the bread theme in our RISE restaurant, as it is an essential part of the culture and daily life in Germany," he adds. With more than 60 airport properties around the world, Hilton is adapting and changing each property to meet the demands of the guests, the marketplace and, of course, the location. And their future, which is ever-changing, continues to focus on updating and revolutionizing the airport hotel concept. "With the opening of each of new property, it is Hilton's goal to continue its pioneering legacy in the airport hotel sector and challenge the perception of what an airport hotel can be for business and leisure travelers alike," Muller adds. Hilton, of course, isn't the only hotel brand revolutionizing and revitalizing airport hotels. Starwood Hotels & Resorts have been appealing to travelers with their unique and innovative Aloft properties, which are designed with frequent international travelers in mind. Their properties, which span the globe from Montreal to Bogota, feature 24-hour delis (known as Re:Fuel) for those travelers flying in and out at odd hours; social lounges with multiple charging stations (for different adapters); indoor and outdoor pools and even a pet-friendly program for those traveling alongside their furry friends. [Read: 10 Hotels Targeting Millennials.] While airport hotels still have a long way to go to cater to the ever-changing demands of travelers today, one thing is for sure: Hilton and Starwood are making it easier than ever for travelers to actually enjoy staying at airport hotels again. ET has exclusively obtained never-before-seen text messages that a source says are between Amber Heard and a man purported to be Johnny Depps assistant, Stephen Deuters, that date back to before the estranged couple was married and long before other alleged incidents Heard previously detailed in court records claiming that Depp was physically abusive with her. The text exchange, which the source says is from May 2014, begins with a message from Stephen who is apologizing on behalf of a man, purportedly to be Depp. Think hes just texted you. Hes incredibly apologetic and knows that he has done wrong, Stephens alleged text reads. He wants to get better now. Hes been very explicit about that this morning. Feel like were at a critical juncture. WATCH: Newly Released Photos of Amber Heard and Reports From Her Friends Detail Another Alleged Violent Incident With Johnny Depp The recipient of the text, which ETs source says is Heard, responds, Yes but I dont know how to be around him after what he did to me yesterday. I dont know if I can stay with him. Stephen purportedly answers, He wants to see you so much. Hes distraught. WATCH: Amber Heards Monthly Expenses Revealed in Court Docs Amid Johnny Depp Divorce Dispute Heard texts back, Obviously he has no idea what he did or the extent that he did it. If someone was truly honest with him about how bad it really was, hed be appalled. Im sad that he doesnt have a better way to really know the severity of his actions yesterday, she continues. Unfortunately for me, I remember in full detail everything that happened. EXCLUSIVE: Johnny Depp Punched Wall During Argument With Amber Heard, Leading to Injury That Halted 'Pirates, Sources Say Stephen allegedly reiterates that the man purported to be Depp has no recollection of the events that occurred. He was appalled, Stephen writes. When I told him he kicked you, he cried. It was disgusting. And he knows it. Story continues Hes a little lost boy. And needs all the help he can get, Stephen allegedly continues. He is so very sorry, as he should be. Heard responds, Hes done this many times before. Tokyo, the island, London (remember that?!), and I always stay. Always believe hes going to get betterAnd then every 3 or so month [sic], Im in the exact same position. ET has reached out to Depps rep and Deuters in regard to these texts. ETONLINE ETONLINE ETONLINE ETONLINE After filing for divorce from Depp following 15 months of marriage, Heard filed and was granted a temporary domestic violence restraining order against the 52-year-old actor. In the 30-year-old actress court filing, she claims that there was one severe incident in December 2015 when I truly feared for my life. Heard also says that during the entirety of their relationship, Depp had been verbally and physically abusive to her. Depps divorce attorney, Laura Wasser, said in court documents that Heard is attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse. Depp is currently on tour in Europe with his band, Hollywood Vampires, and a number of his friends and family, including daughter Lily-Rose and reportedly her mother, Depps ex, Vanessa Paradis, have come forward to say that he never exhibited any abusive behavior towards them. WATCH: Amber Heards Lawyers Speak Out on Actress Domestic Violence Claims Against Johnny Depp 'Shes the Victim My dad is the sweetest most loving person I know, hes been nothing but a wonderful father to my little brother and I, and everyone who knows him would say the same, Depps daughter wrote in an Instagram caption. Paradis also penned a letter in support of her ex. To whom it may concern, Johnny Depp is the father of my two children, Paradis note, which was obtained by TMZ, began. He is a sensitive, loving and loved person, and I believe with all my heart that these recent allegations being made are outrageous. Related Articles By Sumeet Chatterjee, Lisa Jucca and Saeed Azhar HONG KONG/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Regulators in Hong Kong and Singapore have asked banks doing business there to disclose if they have dealings with entities and individuals named in the leaked 'Panama Papers', which contained details on thousands of shell firms, people familiar with the requests said. The leaked documents from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca, which contained information on 214,000 offshore companies, revealed that Hong Kong was the most active center in the world for the creation of shell firms, which have many legitimate purposes but can also be used to hide assets and avoid taxes. According to two sources familiar with the situation, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) sent letters to the banks in April. The two central banks did not set a firm deadline for a reply, the sources said. One source, who had seen the letter sent to Hong Kong banks, said the request asked about their dealings with a list of between 16 and 18 names. The sources did not disclose which banks were written to nor the names on the lists. Bankers operating in Hong Kong have told Reuters that the Panama Papers have triggered a massive compliance exercise there, with banks carefully combing through their accounts to ensure there are no problems. HKMA said in a statement that it regularly collects information from banks on various issues or risks relating to anti-money laundering or counter-financing of terrorism, but it could not discuss details of its dealings. Singapore's tax authority is checking on local taxpayers identified in the leaked 'Panama Papers' for any non-compliance with local tax laws, the ministry of finance and MAS said in a statement late on Wednesday. "Banks and company service providers (CSPs) have been asked to ascertain that their customers are using offshore vehicles strictly for legitimate purposes. If there are any grounds for suspicion, they are required to file suspicious transaction reports and step up monitoring of these transactions or arrangements." The statement said the MAS and Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority are also conducting checks to ensure that the intermediaries under their supervision have acted in compliance with their anti-money laundering obligations. Reuters contacted several large banks operating under MAS and HKMA jurisdiction, but they declined to comment when asked if they had received letters. According to the two sources, HKMA and MAS were trying to ascertain whether banks operating in their jurisdictions carried out due diligence and checked the source of funding when dealing with clients named in the Panama Papers, they said. One source said some banks in Singapore had already responded to the MAS request. The leak has put tax avoidance at the top of the global agenda by showing the extent to which tax havens have been used by politicians and business people around the world. Besides Hong Kong, Singapore and China were among the busiest office for Mossack Fonseca, which worked with more than 2,200 banks, law firms, corporate secretaries and other middlemen in the territory. A portion of the leaked data released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists showed 51,295 offshore entities and 25,982 individuals linked to Hong Kong, and 4,188 entities and 33,290 individuals linked to China. Some of the individuals in China routed their money through Hong Kong. Mossack Fonseca's list of clients includes senior political figures such as Chinese President Xi Jinping's brother-in-law. Appearing on the list is not evidence of any wrongdoing. None has made any comment. The requests by HKMA and MAS follow a series of measures taken by regulators in different parts of the world to crack down on irregularities by financial firms and undisclosed offshore wealth. New York state's financial regulator last month told 13 foreign banks doing business there to hand over details about their dealings with a law firm in Panama that helped set up thousands of shell companies. Many global private banks have put Asia at the center of their growth strategy, hiring thousands of people and tapping new customer segments in a region expected soon to boast more billionaires than the United States. Hong Kong and Singapore are two of the biggest centers for offshore wealth management in the region, which with 4.7 million individuals owning $1 million or more in liquid assets is the largest and fastest growing wealth region. In a sign of regulatory crackdown against breaches of anti-money laundering rules, Singapore last week moved to shut Swiss bank BSI's operations there over its dealings with scandal-hit Malaysian fund 1MDB. (Additional reporting by Clare Baldwin and Saikat Chatterjee; Editing by Will Waterman) Washington (AFP) - The family of a toddler who fell into a gorilla exhibit in Ohio -- facing a torrent of criticism after zookeepers were forced to shoot the rare animal -- suggested Wednesday well-wishers should donate to the Cincinnati Zoo. Images of the three-year-old boy trapped in the enclosure with the 400-pound silverback have resonated around the United States and beyond, even reaching the White House press briefing room. In the statement, the family offered their thanks to zookeepers for saving their child and said he is doing well following "a checkup by his doctor." "Some have offered money to the family, which we do not want and will not accept. If anyone wishes to make a gift, we recommend a donation to the Cincinnati Zoo in Harambe's name," the statement said. The family has not been officially identified and a spokesperson said the parents had no plans to participate in interviews. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, asked about the gorilla incident, called it a "tragedy" and said it was not clear there was any role for federal officials to play in the aftermath. The Saturday incident, captured on smartphone video, has ignited a furious debate over the actions of zoo officials and the child's mother. She has alternately faced criticism and received support from well-wishers -- with much of the debate taking place online. One petition on change.org is asking officials to hold the parents "accountable for the lack of supervision and negligence that caused Harambe to lose his life." The petition had more than 450,000 supporters by midday Wednesday. The Cincinnati police say they are investigating the parents to see if criminal charges are warranted. - Questions about security - The zoo is facing scrutiny, as well. There has been criticism of zookeepers' decision to shoot the endangered animal instead of tranquilizing it. "Gorillas are gentle, nurturing animals who attack only when provoked, and experts report that Harambe was likely trying to protect this child," Brittany Peet of PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said in a statement. Story continues Asked to comment on Tuesday -- as footage of the drama ran on a loop on US television networks -- Donald Trump said it appeared officials had no choice but to shoot the gorilla. "I think it's a very tough call," said the Republican White House hopeful. Cellphone video of the incident showed the gorilla handling the child in an erratic manner -- sometimes seemingly tenderly, other times roughly dragging him through knee-deep water. Zoo officials have said that they could not take the risk that the gorilla might hurt the child in agitation, if hit with tranquilizer darts. "This is an animal (that) with one hand, I have seen take a coconut and crush it," zoo director Thane Maynard said. The zoo is also facing questions about the enclosure's security, since the toddler crawled through an exhibit barrier and fell into a moat. "The failure of the Cincinnati Zoo to adequately construct this enclosure to protect both the public and the animal held prisoner there is a clear and fatal violation of the Animal Welfare Act," said Michael Budkie, the head of the organization Stop Animal Exploitation Now, in a letter to the Department of Agriculture. The group, which claims the zoo has had other violations, wants federal authorities to investigate the facility. The boy was first identified as being four years old, but a family spokesperson confirms that he is three. A federal prosecutor announced Wednesday that authorities will not bring civil rights charges against Minneapolis police officers who shot an unarmed black man last year, the Associated Press reported. On Nov. 15, an officer shot 24-year-old Jamar Clark in the city, sparking large protests that included the occupation of the Minneapolis Police Department's fourth precinct headquarters and the at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airport. BREAKING: U.S. attorney says no civil rights charges against Minneapolis officers in shooting of black man. Clark, who had bee n arres ted i n connection to a domestic disturbance call, refused orders to take his hands out of his pockets, according to an investigation by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Authorities said a struggle between Clark and the officer led to the shooting. Clark died in the hospital the following day. Protesters have since questioned authorities' narrative in light of conflicting witness accounts suggesting that Clark may have been handcuffed when Officer Mark Ringgenberg shot him, according to the AP. Activists had called on authorities to release video surveillance of the area. Ringgenberg and a second officer, Dustin Schwarze, had been placed on leave while the department investigated the shooting. In March, the Hennepin County prosecutor declined to file criminal charges against the officers, citing forensic evidence that casts doubts over a belief that Clark posed them no threat. Mayor Betsy Hodges then requested a federal civil rights investigation. In addition to the weeks-long occupation of a north-side city police station, the protests at the nearby Mall of America and Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airport, several activists were injured when a group of white supremacists opened fire on a gathering of Clark supporters. The assailants were later arrested and charged by local authorities. Composer Thomas Newman laughs when recalling an email he received from producer Lindsey Collins three years ago, asking him to consider scoring a movie she and director Andrew Stanton were working on. Its about a fish, she wrote. Newman took the job. After all, his first collaboration with Stanton, Finding Nemo, hooked them three Oscar nominations. Another four noms came for their work on 2008s Wall-E. Both pictures earned Stanton the Oscar for best animated feature. The pair reunited for Disney/Pixar sequel Finding Dory, set for release June 17. Stanton can be forgiven if he waxes poetic about the composer. Hes the De Niro to my Scorsese. Hes my muse, Stanton says, during a break in recording Newmans 83-piece orchestra at the Sony scoring stage. While writing Nemo, Stanton listened only to the scores of his collaborator, who had also worked on such films as American Beauty and The Shawshank Redemption. I knew what his music would do in spots that might seem innocuous or benign on the page. There are complexities of emotion that can only be captured and expressed with music. Stanton says Newman has brought a maturity to his projects. While other musicians have about four or five flavors, he can just keep finding shadings within shadings. Some of the characters from Nemo return to the new film, but dont expect the Dory score to be a rehash of the 2003 original. The film centers on the Blue Tang (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres), whos still plagued by short-term memory loss as she goes in search of her parents. Shes aided by clownfish Marlin (Albert Brooks) and some new friends, including an octopus (Ed ONeill), a beluga whale (Ty Burrell), and a whale shark (Kaitlin Olson). There are a couple of moments [that reprise themes from the first film] but not a lot, Newman says. This is way more Dorys movie. What is similar about the two tales is Newmans signature wide-ranging palette of musical colors. The big orchestra and small choir, recorded in February and March, were the final touches of a six-month creative process that began with the conductors experiments using a core group of key players (drums, guitars, woodwinds, sound design, and programming wizards) and continued in Newmans Pacific Palisades studio as he took those ideas and expanded them into a score. Story continues Stanton calls his meetings with Newman therapeutic. Tom cant go forward unless he really, really understands [the story]. If what he should be doing in a scene is not obvious, it forces me to explain out loud what my intentions are. Were always chasing adjectives, finding the right way to describe things. The final mix a blend of unusual acoustic and synth-generated sounds with traditional orchestra is warm and magical, with moods that range from eerie to menacing to propulsive to touching. Animation, Newman concedes, is more difficult to score than live action because every second is just so much change, and the moods typically dont last long. But, he adds, theres feeling in the movie that allows for feeling in the music. All of us can strongly identify with these characters. All of them are deeply flawed. Dory has issues that make her stumble, but that doesnt stop her. This movie is so deep, as was Nemo, in terms of themes: loss of family, fear about being a good parent. Huge issues come up again in Finding Dory. How does Newman musicalize such issues? You underline them, he says, because theyre real: fear, regret, self-doubt. In terms of storytelling, they all need to be addressed in a certain way. It boils down to scoring a movie its moving when it should be, its funny when it should be. You just hope you can sharpen the focus of the drama. Related stories 'Roots' Composer Blended Themes for Miniseries Reboot's Four Directors Edinburgh Film Festival Chief Mark Adams Unveils 70th Edition Dory Looks for Her Parents in Emotional New 'Finding Dory' Trailer Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fstory%2fthumbnail%2f10312%2f73b7c59b47f742349bc39132dcadde4a Disney, you've made us squee yet again. The company's interactive team has retold the classic Finding Nemo with emoji and it is downright adorable. In an impressive move, Disney has used smartphone features to tell the movie's story. The brightness bar and those irritating three dots when someone is about to write a message have cameo roles, as Nemo and Dory make their way to Sydney, Australia. This creative take on Finding Nemo follows Disney's other "told by emoji" videos, which include Star Wars, Aladdin and Frozen. More please. A dog says 'Coca Cola' like a human and it's super impressive Hand in blender prank is hilarious but cruel joke More failed 'Star Wars' auditions, from Matthew McConaughey to Jon Hamm Taste the fiery, slow motion rainbow with the Slo Mo Guys Sickhouse, a horror movie starring digital celeb Andrea Russett based on 10-second video snippets posted to Snapchat, is now available for purchase another test of whether social followers will become paying customers. The 68-minute feature-length version of the movie, produced by Indigenous Media, launched Wednesday on Vimeo. The film is based on footage shot on iPhones over five days, from April 29-May 3, and unfolded as live 10-sec snaps sent out via Russetts Snapchat account (@andwizzle), without any warning to fans that it was a scripted movie and not real life. The story followed Russett and her friends including her fictional cousin, Taylour (played by actress Laine Neil) who decide to take a trip into the woods to explore the Sickhouse, a mysterious cabin outside of L.A. with a dark past once inhabited by a former Hollywood producer and his ailing wife. Russett (2.5 million YouTube subs) and actor Sean ODonnell (1 million Instagram followers) starred in the project; the cast also includes actor Lukas Gage and popular YouTuber Jc Caylen. Sickhouse was written and directed by filmmaker Hannah Macpherson (with some improvisation by the actors). The location of the Sickhouse was a ranch out near Calabasas, Calif. Russett conceded that she was initially worried about hoodwinking fans some of whom were concerned enough for her safety that they were contemplating calling the police. I had a big, big concern about that, but we went about it in a way that we werent completely trying to trick people. We wanted people to understand, it was a movie and that they were along for the ride, said Russett, who is repped by WME and affiliated with Fullscreen. She added, You can only do something like that once, but its definitely worth exploring doing other movies on social platforms. The final Snapchat post for Sickhouse revealed that the sequence was all a movie project, which Russett further explained in a YouTube video May 4. Story continues On Snapchat, the Sickhouse clips were viewed over 100 million times, but those vanished within 24 hours of their posting. Indigenous Media is hoping fans will fork over $5.99 on Vimeo to watch the directors cut of the movie, which includes substantial additional footage that wasnt posted on Snapchat. Jake Avnet, Indigenous Medias chief operating officer, said the concept of using Snapchat was to create an authentic and organic feel, as a way of stealth-marketing the movie. In order to make the storyline more believable, producers created an online mythology for Sickhouse, with a website and a Facebook page detailing the fake history of the house. At one point during the filming, several fans of Andreas created fake Twitter accounts for her cousin in the movie, Taylour, with one of the accounts, @SweetBaBayTay, garnering more than 4,000 followers in just a few days. We love the idea of creating premium content on new platforms, Avnet said. We think there are these great opportunities to tell these rich, quality stories natively on these platforms. What we want to do is figure out how to repackage them for other platforms. Were not interested in making content that runs once and doesnt appear anywhere else. Avnet declined to reveal the budget for Sickhouse, but said it was in line with an indie film. This didnt cost $100 million, he said, noting that it was shot entirely on iPhones. Related stories Is Viacom Ad Sales Chief Moving to Snapchat? Depends Who You Ask Snapchat May Already Be Bigger Than Twitter, Leaked Data Suggests 'X-Men: Apocalypse': Snapchat Ads Offer Movie-Ticket Purchasing for First Time Fort McMurray (Canada) (AFP) - The first convoys of weary, anxious residents returned to wildfire-ravaged Fort McMurray on Wednesday, a month after they were forced to flee the Canadian oil city due to the inferno. Physically exhausted and worried about what had become of their homes, the returnees were welcomed by a giant Canadian flag tied to the ladders of two firetrucks and billboards that read "Together we will rebuild" and "We are here, we are strong." "To the people of Fort McMurray heading home -- we will be with you every step of the way," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a Twitter message. By midday 7,500 people -- about half the number expected -- had returned in an initial wave, their vehicles packed with food, water, gasoline and other necessities, after being told to expect supply shortages. The rest of the nearly 100,000 forced to evacuate the city and surrounding villages on May 3 are scheduled to follow in staggered caravans over the next two weeks, officials said. "You have shown tremendous courage in the most difficult of circumstances, and you will need every ounce of that courage in the days to come because the road ahead is still a long one," Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said. "Today is not the end of the story," she told a televised press conference. "It is not a return to normal life and it is not yet a celebration. There is still a lot of work to recover and rebuild (the city)." Abandoning hotels, campsites and emergency shelters that housed them over the last month, the first returnees took to the road starting as early as 5 am (1100 GMT), as soon as police brought down barricades, an AFP journalist witnessed. Police monitored traffic flows and ambulances were put on standby along the mostly barren 500-kilometer (310-mile) highway from the provincial capital Edmonton to Fort McMurray. As they trickled back, returnees found a devastated community that will take years to rebuild, littered with burnt-out dwellings and surrounded by scorched forests. Story continues Streets normally lined with pickup trucks are now eerily quiet. Lights shine from unoccupied homes after electricity was restored. The downtown was unscathed and most city services have been restored, except potable water. Most stores have restocked. Three hard-hit neighborhoods, however, have been fenced off by a 30-kilometer (19-mile) enclosure. The few homes undamaged by the fires there were deemed unsafe for habitation this week after tests of air, soil and ash revealed chemical and heavy metal contamination. On the edge of seared trailer park, a deer was spotted just after dawn prancing back into the blackened forest. Elsewhere, a man carried boxes and luggage from his truck into his undamaged home, while a few blocks away another man inspected a charred shed in his backyard. The flames had miraculously stopped a few feet from his house. The fire continues to burn but has moved away from populated areas, and grew only minimally in the last few days to more than 580,000 hectares (1.4 million acres). Some 1,700 firefighters, including teams from South Africa and the United States, continue to battle the blaze, assisted by water bombers and heavy equipment. Smoke has largely dissipated in the city, raising local air quality to safe levels. But Fort McMurray returnees were urged to wear rubber boots, masks and clothing that covers arms and legs when cleaning up to avoid coming into contact with contaminated ashes. People with respiratory problems, the elderly and children under seven years old were asked to delay returning until at least June 21, when the local hospital will be fully operational. Fort McMurray experienced rapid growth in recent decades as oil sands production to the north expanded, attracting workers from across Canada and around the world. But it fell on hard times last year due to the oil rout, when prices tumbled from $100 to less than $50. Area oil sands facilities are scheduled to bring production back online by week's end. Companies have reported no damage to oil sands infrastructure, but were forced to cut production by 1.2 billion barrels per day after evacuating workers as a precaution. Canada is the world's fifth largest petroleum producer. The water in Flint, Michigan, may not be ready to drink, but one prominent scientist is now saying it is clean enough for bathing and hand-washing. Marc Edwards, a professor of Engineering at Virginia Tech whose testing was among the earliest indicators of the growing crisis in the municipal water supply, now says that lead levels have fallen to a point where the water can be handled and used as normal for all but personal consumption. "We're seeing some very, very encouraging results," Edwards said at a press conference Tuesday, the Guardian reported. "Many parents were deciding not to allow their children to take baths or shower or even wash their hands, they were so afraid," he added to the newspaper in a phone interview. More good news: Edwards said he expected lead to be down to levels safe enough to drink within six months. Source: Mic/AP However, the science-supported incremental win hasn't stopped officials from touting a robust victory from the recovery effort some even boldly drinking from the tap themselves. Rick Snyder, the state's Republican governor who has taken the lion's share of criticism for the crisis, drank water in the city on a visit in April, and vowed to drink it exclusively at his home and office, the Detroit Free Press reported. When President Obama visited in May, he too drank from a glass of H2O while urging all children in the city to be tested for lead contamination. Source: Carolyn Kaster/AP As Mic previously reported, the city of Flint has become a byword for municipal blight since local officials rerouted the municipal water supply away from Detroit to the Flint River in 2014. The corrosive water leeched lead from the city's pipes, precipitating the current crisis. Lets be clear: There are no excuses for the incompetence that Americans routinely experience from the federal government. There is no excuse for any American missing his plane because the TSA cannot do its job. There is no excuse for a single veteran to be denied critical care because of long wait times. There is no excuse for the IRS not answering your phone call. There is no excuse for allowing tens of thousands of Central Americans to cross our southern border illegally. There is no excuse at all for ineptness on such a grand scale. But, there may be a cure. As Americans flock to vote for a change in Washington, what they may actually want is a country that works. Where the programs administered by the feds are efficient and where taxpayer dollars are not incinerated through stupidity. Where the roads are passable and the streets are safe, where kids learn the basics in school and jobs are plentiful. These are the things that people gripe about, not which bathrooms transgenders use in North Carolina. Most peoples needs are not impossible, but the government all too often fails to deliver. Related: Obamas Failure in Syria Now Extends to Turkey This is Donald Trumps platform: Making America Great Again. A lot of people would settle for: Making America Work Again. When President Obama took office, many worried about the unprecedented lack of private enterprise experience in his administration. This was an ideological issue, reflecting concern that an Obama White House would tilt towards big-government solutions. It was also a nuts and bolts issue; a lack of management expertise heralded administrative failures, critics charged. Both of those concerns have been realized. It takes some time before incompetence at the head of a large organization much less a sprawling enterprise like the federal government, with its 2.7 million employees trickles down. In 2014, Republicans delivered a crushing rebuke to the president, spurred mainly by White House goofs: the collapse of security at our border, the ill-considered swap of deserter Bowie Bergdahl for five Taliban leaders, the bungled handling of the Ebola outbreak, the inadequate response to ISIS, the IRS scandal and ongoing VA problems. Angered by so many examples of utter incompetence, Obamas approval ratings had swooned; riding the tide, Republicans took over the Senate. Story continues Ironically, the GOP victory may have been the best thing that could have happened to President Obama. It allowed him to shirk responsibility for all kinds of problems, by blaming Republican obstructionism. Too many black kids in jail? If only the GOP would pass criminal justice reform. Too long a wait in airport security lines? Not able to get your IRS phone calls answered? Thank the Republican penny-pinchers in Congress. Deportations too high? If only we could pass immigration reform. Related: Outrage of the Day: EPA Pays Child Molester $55K to Retire Obamas White House doesnt have the management expertise to run a Dunkin Donuts franchise, much less the vast unmonitored spread of federal bureaucracy. Even so, at every turn, Obama adds to the federal to-do list. More job training programs, more healthcare departments, programs to train doctors, more prisoner rehabilitation efforts, more environmental monitoring, increased oversight of labor practicesand the list goes on. An alarming data point: no one knows how many federal agencies there are; estimates range from 60 to 430. Donald Trump supporters hope he can do better. They cite his business success as proof that he has the ability to run an organization. People hope he will hire smart, capable managers to fill in the multiple blanks in his portfolio. As he rolls out his national campaign, he needs to make that case by bringing on recognized, thoughtful executives and leaders who can reassure voters that The Donald is not flying solo. People like Mitch Daniels come to mind. Daniels, the former governor of Indiana and current head of Perdue University, has made a career of fixing what is broken, standing for conservative principles while also managing progress. His success as a governor began when he fixed the interminable and unpleasant experience most people in his state encountered when visiting the DMV. When people used to ask Daniels on how he balanced the budget, and about his other achievements as governor, he would say, Its not rocket science. Hes right. Related: Obamacare: Costs Go Up, Insurers Drop Out and Consumers Get Screwed For instance, do we not seriously imagine that todays computer algorithms could significantly enhance the efficiency of the TSA? That the known travel patterns of most Americans could qualify them for TSA PreCheck? The agency bemoans the disappointing rate of PreCheck sign-ups; only 2.7 million have signed up, instead of the hoped-for 25 million. There are reasons for that not enough places where travelers can apply, lengthy waits for appointments, weeks of processing time and excessive fees for membership, for starters. Also, the agency relied on word-of-mouth to advertise the program. In other words, people will miss flights this summer because of bad management. It is a real problem, impacting real peoples lives. Thats what politicians should aim to fix. Hillary Clinton gets that. She tells voters shes going to make daycare affordable for young families. But, like so many nostrums from the left, there is a yawning chasm between good intentions and reality. Specifically, Hillary wants to limit outlays for child care to 10 percent of a familys income, using an unspecified combination of subsidies and tax credits. On the other hand, she is advocating the RAISE initiative, which aims to hike pay for childcare workers. Surely those two ambitions collide. Related: Six Years and $17 Billion Wasted in Afghanistan with Nothing to Show for It Republicans start at a disadvantage. Their support comes from more educated voters, who understand that the government is not one giant ATM. They have to sell voters on their ability to do better with less. Its not an easy pitch. But it can be made. And, by the way, it is what nearly every business executive has had to do in recent years. In 2012, Mitt Romney was intimidated into ignoring his main appeal to voters his impressive resume of management expertise and accomplishment in both the private and public spheres. Democrats attacked his business career, making it out to be something shameful, and Romney didnt punch back. That will not be the case with Donald Trump. His credentials are not as impressive as were Romneys, but he has done a far better job of selling them to GOP voters. Now he has to convince the nation. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: SAN FRANCISCO, May 31 (Reuters) - A former chief officer of Calpers, the nation's largest public pension fund, was sentenced by a federal judge in San Francisco on Tuesday to 4-1/2 years in prison on a bribery conviction. Federico Buenrostro, who served as chief executive officer of the California Public Employees' Retirement System from 2002 to 2008, had admitted to accepting gifts, travel and other benefits totaling approximately $200,000. The president of the Calpers Board of Administration, Rob Feckner, in a statement on Tuesday expressed relief that "this saga has now come to an end. We are stewards of a sacred trust, and it must never be compromised for personal gain." The public pension fund has incorporated a number of critical measures since 2009 to strengthen internal controls and risk management, improved accountability, and increased openness and transparency. "This chapter in our history is now behind us, and Calpers has emerged a stronger, more dynamic organization," Calpers CEO Anne Stausboll said in a statement. Prosecutors said Buenrostro was involved in a scheme with Alfred J. Villalobos, a former member of the pension fund's board, who later worked as a placement agent that solicited investments by public pension funds. In 2014, Buenrostro pleaded guilty to bribery and fraud as part of a federal conspiracy case. Villalobos, who also faced federal corruption charges, died in 2015. (Reporting by Robin Respaut; Editing by Leslie Adler) sheila bair Sheila Bair led the FDIC under two US presidents. She was named the second-most powerful woman by Forbes in 2008 and 2009, and currently serves as the president of Washington College. Now, she is adding to her resume: Bair is joining startup blooom as its first advisory board member. Robo-adviser blooom identifies and then improves any problems with your 401(k) or other employer-sponsored retirement account, such as high fees or incorrect asset allocation. "Bair has decided to join blooom as the first advisory board member, and we see that as a big endorsement of what we're trying to achieve," blooom president and ex-Goldman Sachs banker Greg Smith tells Business Insider. "She's uniquely on the side of the consumer, and I think she believes our type of innovation bringing fiduciary advice to millions of Americans is a great model. We're really grateful that she saw the promise in what we're doing." Here's how blooom works: For $99 a month if you have more than $500,000 in your account, $19 for accounts between $20,000 and $500,000, and $5 if you have less than $20,000, it will determine the most advantageous mix of available investments for you, adjust your 401(k) appropriately, and monitor and rebalance it every 90 days. "I am very glad that blooom is doing its part to restore the good name of innovation and financial services by serving an overlooked segment of retirement savers," Bair said in a press release. "Blooom is an incredible tool that brings transparent pricing and un-conflicted advice to the millions of Americans who now, more than ever, need help keeping their costs low and choosing appropriate investments." The Kansas-City based company has grown from 100 users in October 2014 to 3,300 today, and raised $4 million in Series A funding in October 2015. NOW WATCH: These businesses profit off your laziness More From Business Insider (TULSA, Okla.) A former Oklahoma volunteer sheriffs deputy who said he mistook his handgun for his stun gun when he fatally shot an unarmed suspect last year was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison. A judge gave Robert Bates, 74, the maximum penalty recommended by jurors who last month convicted the wealthy insurance executive of second-degree manslaughter. Bates fatally shot Eric Harris while working with Tulsa County sheriffs deputies last year during an illegal gun sales sting. Harris, who had run from deputies, was restrained and unarmed when he was shot. Harris was black and Bates is white, but Harris family has said they dont believe race played a role. The shooting, which was captured on video, sparked several investigations. Among other things, the investigations revealed an internal memo questioning Bates qualifications as a volunteer deputy and showed that Bates, a close friend of the sheriffs, had donated thousands of dollars in cash, vehicles and equipment to the sheriffs office. After being sentenced, Bates was led away by deputies. His family members shouted, We love you! We love you! as he left court. Judge Bill Musseman said handing down the prison sentence was a legitimate and moral consequence of Bates actions. He said he took into account Bates failing health and dozens of letters written by members of the community asking for leniency from the court. Bates was given credit for the time he has served since being convicted. He must serve nine months of probation after his release. Defense attorney Clark Brewster said they are planning an appeal. Im confident well get a new audience through the appellate courts, and youll be interviewing me about the reversal, Brewster told reporters after the sentencing. Bates defense attorneys argued at trial that methamphetamine found in Harris system, along with his cardiac health, caused his death. Defense attorneys called the killing an excusable homicide. Story continues But prosecutors told jurors that Bates was guilty of culpable negligence when he shot Harris. One deputy testified that Bates apparently dozed off minutes before Harris fled from deputies. Following the shooting, an outside consultant hired to review the sheriffs office determined that the agency suffered from a system-wide failure of leadership and supervision and had been in a perceptible decline for more than a decade. The reserve deputy program was later suspended. Weeks after Harris was killed, an internal sheriffs office memo from 2009 was released by an attorney for Harris family that alleged superiors knew Bates didnt have enough training but pressured others to look the other way because of his relationship with the sheriff and the agency. A grand jury also investigated the agency and indicted the longtime sheriff, Stanley Glanz, in September, accusing him of failing to release the 2009 memo. He resigned on Nov. 1. The new sheriff, who was sworn into office last month, has detailed plans to reform and revive the reserve deputyprogram. Glanz was among dozens of people who wrote letters of support for Bates ahead of Tuesdays sentencing. Glanz wrote that he didnt believe his longtime friend was a threat or a danger to anyone and should not be placed in an overcrowded state prison system. This is a terrible injustice for a man that made a terrible mistake in a split second, Glanz wrote in the letter submitted to the court. Has Forum Energy Technologies Found a Winning Formula? (Continued from Prior Part) Forum Energy Technologies returns and key drivers Oilfield equipment and services (or OFS) companies like Forum Energy Technologies (FET) are affected by rig counts and energy prices. In the past one year, the West Texas Intermediate (or WTI) crude oil price has dropped ~19%. Forum Energy Technologies one-year returns of -26.5% have been on par with the industry ETF OIH with returns of -26%. The Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) has produced a -15.6% return. Forum Energy Technologies has underperformed the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which has returned -1% during the same period. SPY provides investors exposure to the broader market through investing in the S&P 500 Index. On the other hand, FET outperformed the US rig count, which fell 54% in one year. FETs peer Superior Energy Services (SPN) has also underperformed FET, producing a -32% one-year return, net of dividends. Whats the correlation between FET and crude oil prices? The correlation coefficient between Forum Energy Technologies stock price and crude oil prices from May 2015 to the present is 0.67, which indicates a relatively strong degree of correlation between crude oil prices and Forum Energy Technologies stock prices. Analyzing FETs underperformance and its strategies In its 1Q16 conference call, Forum Energy Technologies anticipated lower revenue following concerns about further upstream industry activity declines in North America. It had negative operating and net margins in 1Q16. However, FETs newly added completion segment can boost its revenue stream going forward. FET expects to expand its product offering in the midstream and downstream sector, which has done relatively well. The company has liquidity of over $300 million with which it plans to make acquisitions. It also plans to increase its foothold in the Middle East, which is a steady energy market. So, despite challenges, Forum Energy Technologies could deliver a steady performance in the medium-to-long term. Browse this series on Market Realist: Four workers were killed and 10 others injured in a collapse Wednesday at a subway construction site near the South Korean capital Seoul, the fire department said. The victims were doing welding work 15 meters underground when an explosion -- possibly of an oxygen tank -- caused the surrounding structure to cave in on top of them. Four workers were killed, while the injured, some of them with severe burns, were rushed to nearby hospitals for treatment, a fire department spokesman told AFP. The accident occurred around 7:20 am (2220 GMT Tuesday) in the city of Namyangju, east of Seoul, The precise cause of the accident is still under investigation. More than 300 possibly as many as 400 Fox film and TV employees have accepted buyout offers, part of an effort announced in February to save $250 million. The company declined to comment. But its believed to not be planning layoffs at this point. Fox has about 20,000 global employees. Fox Consumer Products president Jeffrey Godsick left last month to become EVP Worldwide Partnerships for the Sony Motion Picture Group. Fox Searchlights Claudia Lewis left in February. Fox Broadcasting marketing EVP Laurel Bernard also accepted a buyout. In a February 1 announcement of the buyout plan, Fox said that it wants to ensure our organization remains agile and structured to fully capture the many opportunities ahead of us. The company told Wall Street that it always looks for ways to control costs. But CEO James Murdoch also acknowledged in a call with analysts that at the end of 2015 continued currency movement against us and disappointing commercial results from the film business are simply too significant for us to hit its financial targets for the fiscal year that ends this month. The company made offers to virtually all employees in Foxs film and TV divisions who had been at the company for at least 15 years. In a note to staffers in February, Fox film boss Jim Gianopulos said that those with extended tenure would be offered an enhanced benefit package if they elect to voluntarily resign from the company effective at the end of May 2016. Variety first reported the number of layoffs. Related stories James Murdoch: "Incremental" TV Channels At Risk As Competition Grows Chip Smith, Former Al Gore Aide, Named EVP Public Affairs At 21st Century Fox Fox's James Murdoch Says Planned Hulu Service Can Boost Audience And Ads Paris (AFP) - France voiced "serious concern" Wednesday over threats made against Agence France-Presse's Burundi correspondent, accused by authorities in Bujumbura of inciting violence in his coverage of the African country's crisis. The French foreign ministry also called for Bujumbura to ensure the respect of press freedom after the threats against Esdras Ndikumana, journalist for AFP and Radio France Internationale (RFI). Ndikumana, who was tortured in August 2015 by security forces, was targeted Tuesday by threats on social media after being accused by Bujumbura of "promoting crime and violence" in his coverage. "France expresses its serious concern following statements by Burundian authorities accusing (Ndikumana) of incitement to violence," said French foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal. "We condemn the threats made against him, notably on social media. It is essential that journalists are able to exercise their profession in total independence and security," he added. He added that Paris "calls for commitments announced in February by Burundian authorities to resolve the crisis to be fully implemented, including the reopening of all independent media." On Tuesday AFP's Global News Director Michele Leridon said the agency "deems unacceptable these personal attacks on its correspondent Esdras Ndikumana, which target and imperil a journalist providing irreproachable coverage of news in Burundi under very difficult circumstances." Ndikumana, who won the French Diplomatic Press Association Prize last year and is considered one of the best specialists on the region, fled Burundi last year but continues to cover the country's crisis from abroad. RFI said in a statement that it was "outraged and concerned" that its Burundi correspondent had been accused "without any basis". The station added that the threats faced by Ndikumana were "unacceptable". Story continues Burundi has been plunged into a deep crisis since President Pierre Nkurunziza announced in April 2015 that he was running for a third term. He was re-elected last July. Marked by assassinations on both sides, attacks against the police and summary executions, the violence has left more than 500 people dead and forced more than 270,000 Burundians to flee the country, according to the UN. Burundi's government has silenced independent journalists at home and regularly lashes out at the international media, accusing the press of being part of a "conspiracy" to overthrow it. Ndikumana, who began working as Bujumbura correspondent for AFP in 2001 and for RFI in 2002, fled the country last August after being arrested by the security services. He was beaten and tortured in detention. RFI, AFP and Ndikumana have filed a criminal complaint over his mistreatment. So far, the complaint has not led to an investigation. Berlin (AFP) - French industrial giant DCNS is seeking a possible tie-up in its submarine activities with German rival ThyssenKrupp, one of its directors said in comments to German newspapers on Wednesday. "It's not perhaps the best moment just now for such discussions, but once the German side has overcome its disappointment, we'd be ready" to talk, DCNS' head of strategy, Andreas Loewenstein said. DCNS recently beat ThyssenKrupp in a bid for a 34-billion-euro ($38-billion) contract in Australia. His comments were reported by a number of German newspapers after a meeting with their correspondents in France. Loewenstein argued that a tie-up between the two European groups was necessary to retain the industry in Europe as new rivals emerge from China, South Korea and India. The two sides had entertained the possibility of joining forces in the past, without any concrete plans materialising. "The day after such a decision (on the Australian contract) may not be ideal to start discussing a project like this," a spokesman for DCNS told AFP. The daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), without revealing any sources, suggested the German government was annoyed that the Australian tender was "too vaguely" formulated and discriminated against bids from ThyssenKrupp and Japan's Mitsubishi. Paris (AFP) - A French lawmaker on Thursday denied accusations he had sexually harassed 13 women, describing some of the alleged incidents as mere "games of seduction". Ecologist lawmaker Denis Baupin was forced to step down as deputy speaker of parliament after the allegations emerged in early May, triggering an outpouring of anger over often inappropriate behaviour by male politicians. "I maintain that I have never committed sexual harassment or sexual abuse in my whole life," Baupin said in an interview with L'Obs news weekly. He suggested the women accusing him may have had political motivations. "I am not the DSK of the Greens," Baupin said, referring to former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn whose career imploded over accusations of sexual assault which were eventually settled in a civil suit. Initially eight woman accused Baupin of harassment, but a French investigation into the charges has turned up 13 accusers, with some of the alleged crimes dating back to the nineties. The statute of limitations on sexual harassment charges is three years in France. One of Baupin's accusers, a spokeswoman for his ecologist EELV party, said he made an aggressive pass at her in October 2011 outside a party meeting. "Denis Baupin appeared in the corridor outside... He pinned me against the wall with his chest and tried to kiss me. I pushed him away vigorously," Sandrine Rousseau alleged. Baupin said it was impossible to prove this did not happen but that the charge was riddled with "improbabilities". A female lawmaker, Isabelle Attard, said she received near-daily lewd text messages from Baupin. Baupin said the messages were merely compliments and an attempt at seduction. "They were games of seduction," he said. A spokeswoman for feminist group Osez le Feminisme told AFP that Baupin's response was typical of a man who thinks his actions can be excused as bumbling or over-eager flirting. "It is what we say about a man who can't take 'no' for an answer. And not being able to hear 'no' to sexual advances is already an act of harassment," said the spokeswoman Marie Allibert. PARIS, June 1 (Reuters) - French tax authorities are seeking 356 million euros ($397.37 million) in unpaid taxes from Booking.com, a unit of Priceline Group, according to a filing by the parent company to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "In December 2015, the French tax authorities issued Booking.com assessments for approximately 356 million euros, the majority of which would represent penalties and interest," Priceline Group said in a filing dated May 4 and seen by Reuters on Wednesday. "The company believes that Booking.com has been, and continues to be, in compliance with French tax law, and the company intends to contest the assessments," it added. ($1 = 0.8959 euros) (Reporting by Yann Le Guernigou; writing by Michel Rose; Editing by Richard Lough) By Lin Noueihed and Chine Labbe CAIRO/PARIS (Reuters) - A French search vessel has picked up signals from one of the black boxes of EgyptAir flight MS804, Egyptian and French investigators said, a potential breakthrough in efforts to uncover why it plummeted into the Mediterranean last month. Search teams are working against the clock to recover the two flight recorders that will offer vital clues to the fate of the plane that crashed en route from Paris to Cairo on May 19 killing all 66 people on board. Without the black boxes, say investigators and aviation disaster experts, there is not enough information to determine what went wrong or whether the plane was brought down deliberately. The recorders are designed to emit acoustic signals for 30 days after a crash, giving search teams fewer than three weeks to spot them in waters up to 9,840-feet (3,000 meters) deep, which is on the edge of their range. The Egyptian investigation committee said on Wednesday that the search was intensifying ahead of the arrival of another vessel, the John Lethbridge, from Mauritius-based company Deep Ocean Search to help retrieve the devices. That ship is expected to arrive within a week, it said. "Search equipment aboard French naval vessel Laplace ... has detected signals from the seabed of the search area, which likely belong to one of the data boxes," the Egyptian committee said in its statement. France's aviation accident bureau BEA confirmed that the signal had come from one of the recorders. The Laplace has equipment from ALSEAMAR, a subsidiary of French industrial group Alcen, which can pick up black box pinger signals over long distances up to 5 km (3 miles) and was contracted by the Egyptian investigators last week. Egyptian investigators have said that the EgyptAir plane did not show any technical problems before taking off and the pilot made no distress call to air traffic control. There has been no claim of responsibility for the crash. The jet transmitted a series of messages in the minutes before it crashed showing a rise in temperature at the co-pilot's window and smoke on board, but investigators say these shed little light on the cause. There are also conflicting reports of the plane's last moments as it crossed from Greek to Egyptian airspace. The head of Egypt's air navigation has told Reuters the plane disappeared suddenly from the radar while at a cruising altitude of about 37,000 feet. That conflicts with the account given on the day of the crash by the Greek defense minister, who said the plane swerved and dropped to 15,000 feet before disappearing from radar. The air disaster is the latest in a series for Egypt, complicating its efforts to restore tourism, which has suffered since the 2011 uprising ushered in a period of instability. In March, a man wearing a fake suicide belt hijacked an EgyptAir flight. In late October, a Russian plane carrying holidaymakers from a Red Sea resort crashed in Sinai. Islamic State said it downed the plane with a bomb. Britain and Russia suspended flights to Sharm al-Sheikh pending improvements to security. (Writing by Lin Noueihed; Editing by Alison Williams) London (AFP) - A coroner on Wednesday ordered a re-examination of the deaths of 21 people in the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings, one of Britain's worst ever terror attacks, after claims that police failed to act on two warnings. Coroner Louise Hunt ordered new inquests for the victims killed in the twin attacks, which were widely blamed on the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) paramilitary group, although it never formally claimed responsibility. She said there was evidence that police missed two warnings about the November 21, 1974 attack, which left 182 people injured -- one 11 days before, and another on the day of the bombings itself. The attack on two pubs in Britain's second biggest city came at the height of the IRA's bloody campaign to end British rule in the province of Northern Ireland. "I have serious concerns that advanced notice of the bombs may have been available to the police and that they failed to take the necessary steps to protect life," Hunt said. She cited the two potential warnings, saying that "it is only in respect of that issue that I consider there is sufficient reason to resume an inquest to investigate the circumstances of these deaths". Some relatives have claimed police were protecting an informant within the IRA, but Hunt said this was unfounded. She also said the emergency services' response was not a contributing factor towards the deaths. Julie Hambleton, whose 18-year-old sister Maxine died in the attacks, welcomed the decision to resume the inquests. "All we want is to be heard so we can get the truth, justice and accountability," she told reporters outside the coroners' court. She also urged the "cowards" responsible to give themselves up, saying: "If you have any level of humanity, any moral compass, then by rights you should come forward." - Miscarriage of justice - The original inquests -- judicial fact-finding investigations that do not apportion blame -- were halted by a police probe that led to six men being wrongly jailed for the bombings in 1975. Story continues The conviction of the so-called Birmingham Six was ruled unsafe by the Court of Appeal in 1991 and they were freed, after what is seen as one of Britain's greatest miscarriages of justice. No one has since been convicted, but the police investigation remains open. One of the Birmingham Six, Paddy Hill, said the new inquests were "the first step" but said he was "very sceptical" that the whole truth would emerge. Dave Thompson, chief constable of West Midlands Police, said the failure to catch the bombers and the wrongful conviction of the Birmingham Six was "the most serious failing in this force's history". "I hope the new inquest provides answers to families," he said, adding that the police force would "assist the process now under way". However, he warned against any hopes of imminent prosecutions in the case. "Since 2012 and directly as a result of the campaign by families of those who died we have carefully reassessed the opportunities to bring the people responsible to justice," he said. "Despite an intense scrutiny we have not been able to see, at this time, a prospect of doing this." An estimated 3,500 people, the vast majority of them in Northern Ireland, were killed during three decades of violence on both sides that was largely ended by the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement. Kit Harington wants to be known for more than his looks. The Game of Thrones star admits in a new interview with The Sunday Times that at times, he feels as though he's valued only for his appearance. "I like to think of myself as more than a head of hair or a set of looks. It's demeaning. Yes, in some ways you could argue I've been employed for a look I have," he tells the U.K. publication. "But there's a sexism that happens towards men." EXCLUSIVE: Emilia Clarke Talks 'Game of Thrones' Nudity, Strong Women & Balancing Her Love Life The 29-year-old actor, who plays Jon Snow on the hit fantasy drama, has faced some social media backlash over the comments from some who feel he is equating gender issues in a very male-dominated industry. "There's definitely a sexism in our industry that happens towards women," he acknowledges, adding, "and there is towards men as well." WATCH: 'Game of Thrones' Star Kit Harington Says He Revealed Jon Snow's Fate to Get Out of a Speeding Ticket "At some points during photo shoots when I'm asked to strip down, I felt that," Harington continues. "If I felt I was being employed just for my looks, I'd stop acting." The popular HBO series has come under fire for sexism in the past, including the lack of balance of male and female nudity, and has seemingly been trying to balance that with the inclusion of full-frontal male nudity in the current season. WATCH: Kit Harington and Rose Leslie Show Off Major PDA During Shopping Triple Harington's co-star Emilia Clarke -- who has done a number of nude scenes on the show herself -- is among the voices who think the stripping down should be more balanced between the genders. "Damn straight," she told ET's Leanne Aguilera, addressing the gender nudity disparity on the show. "Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa) hasn't been around for a while, so yes." Story continues Watch the video below for more. Related Articles GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), a division of General Electric Company GE, recently announced the delivery of The Boeing Companys BA new leased Boeing 787-9 aircraft to Air Canada. This new leased Boeing 787-9 aircraft is powered by General Electrics GEnx engines. The details of this purchase-and-leaseback deal were kept under wraps. As part of Air Canadas deal with Boeing, a second new 787-9 aircraft is scheduled to be delivered in June. The company had placed a total order of 37 Boeing 787 aircraft out of which the current delivery is the 20th to join its fleet. Founded in 1937, Air Canada is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. It is the largest domestic and international airline in the country serving over 200 airports across six continents. The airline recorded passenger revenues of approximately CA$13.8 billion in 2015. Till 2015, Air Canada was among the top 20 largest airlines in the world, serving over 41 million customers. GECAS owns or services a fleet exceeding 2,000 aircraft in operation. Also, it provides loans collateralized on an additional 380 aircraft. The company provides its services to more than 270 customers across 80 countries from a network of 26 offices. Air Canada too has been a long-time customer of GECAS. General Electric, the parent firm of GECAS, has been manufacturing new-age jet engines that are in high demand among aircraft manufacturers, namely the GEnx, GE90-115B engines and Leap-X. General Electric carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A couple of better-ranked stocks in the industry include Honeywell International Inc. HON and Koninklijke KPN N.V. KKPNF. Both these companies carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report BOEING CO (BA): Free Stock Analysis Report HONEYWELL INTL (HON): Free Stock Analysis Report GENL ELECTRIC (GE): Free Stock Analysis Report KONIN KPN NV (KKPNF): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. General Dynamics Corporations GD unit, National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. (NASSCO), has won an undefinitized contract from the U.S. Navy for the procurement of long lead time material and engineering support for the Expeditionary Mobile Base 5. The contract has a potential value of $106.2 million. Contract work is expected to be complete by Mar 2017. Per the deal, General Dynamics will procure ship sets of purchase specifications, supporting integrated propulsion, main diesel generator engines, propeller and shafting, integrated bridge electronics, centrifugal pumps, fuel and lube oil purifiers, and steering gear components. Based in the San Diego industrial area, NASSCO has been designing and building ships since 1960. It focuses on designing and building supplementary and support ships for the U.S. Navy, as well as oil tankers and dry cargo carriers for the commercial markets. NASSCO also specializes in providing repair services for the Navys global force. In Mar, 16, NASSCO has jointly won another contract from the U.S. Navy to provide support services for amphibious warfare and surface combatant ships home-ported in the Port of San Diego. The indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract has a total potential value of $1.32 billion. The contract was also awarded to BAE Systems Plc BAESY and Continental Maritime of San Diego. General Dynamics has maintained a longstanding strategic alliance with the U.S. Department of Defense. The company is known for maintaining product and service standards, as well as timely deliveries. Zacks Rank & Key Picks Currently General Dynamics carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A couple of better-ranked stocks in the same space are HEICO Corporation HEI and CAE Inc. CAE, both carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report GENL DYNAMICS (GD): Free Stock Analysis Report BAE SYSTEMS-ADR (BAESY): Free Stock Analysis Report HEICO CORP (HEI): Free Stock Analysis Report CAE INC (CAE): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research By Tom Polansek CHICAGO (Reuters) - Flour produced at a General Mills Inc plant in Kansas City, Missouri, was probably the source of an E.Coli outbreak that has sickened 38 people across 20 states, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday. Ten people have been hospitalized in the outbreak, the CDC said. General Mills said the strain of E.coli behind the illnesses had not been found in any of its flour products or in the manufacturing facility. The Kansas City plant was open and running on Wednesday, and the company was continuing to investigate, company spokesman Mike Siemienas said. On Tuesday General Mills said it voluntarily recalled about 10 million pounds of flour "out of an abundance of caution," following reports of E.coli O121 among consumers. Investigations by federal, state and local health officials indicated that flour used by ill people or in restaurants where sick people were exposed to raw dough was produced at the Kansas City facility during the same week in November 2015, according to the CDC. The flour that General Mills recalled was produced in the facility during that time frame and sold nationwide, the CDC said. People sickened in the outbreak, which began in December, range in age from 1 to 95, according to the CDC. The agency's investigation is ongoing. (Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Leslie Adler) BERLIN (Reuters) - A boom in residential building and higher state spending on roads will boost German construction sales by 3.5 percent this year, lifting it to its highest level in nearly 20 years, the HDB construction industry association said on Wednesday. The booming construction sector has become one of the main growth drivers in Europe's biggest economy as a slowdown in emerging markets such as China weighs on exports. In the first three months of 2016, construction investment was one of the biggest contributors to German growth. "Construction will contribute to a stabilisation of the overall economic upswing which is under pressure from a struggling world economy and slackening exports," HDB president Thomas Bauer said. The association expects nominal sales to increase by 3.5 percent to 104.7 billion euros (80.57 billion pounds) this year, the highest level since 1997. In real terms, revenues are expected to rise by 2.0 percent. In January, HDB had forecasted nominal sales growth of 3.0 percent. Nearly 300,000 new homes will be built this year, but this is still not sufficient to meet demand in light of rising numbers of migrants and a growing urban population, Bauer said. In the medium term, some 400,000 flats need to be built annually to avert housing shortages in cities, he added. Even before the refugee numbers started to increase last summer, there was an estimated lack of 800,000 affordable flats in urban areas. With demand outstripping supply, property prices and rents have soared in cities like Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. In addition, record-low borrowing costs have encouraged many Germans to overcome their aversion to buying their own flats and houses, with some also regarding property as an attractive investment. The government has decided to increase its spending on social housing and introduce special tax incentives for private sector investors who build flats in urban areas. Both measures are expected to give the sector an additional push this year. (Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Madeline Chambers) Berlin (AFP) - Germany expects up to 100,000 undocumented migrants to leave the country in 2016, a number Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere Wednesday hailed as high but insufficient after last year's record influx. "If the current trend continues then we will reach a total of between 90,000 and 100,000 deportations and voluntary returns," de Maiziere told reporters. "That is good but not good enough. That is why we must continue to work to ensure that those who must leave our country actually do so." Between January and April of this year, 20,000 foreign nationals without permission to stay in Germany returned to their countries of origin voluntarily under government programmes. Those totals marked a strong increase from 2015, when 37,220 returns were recorded during the year as a whole, and 13,574 in 2014. German authorities said 9,280 were deported during the first four months of 2016, compared to 22,369 in all of 2015 and 13,851 in 2014. De Maiziere did not provide a breakdown of the migrants' countries of origin. Germany has said it aims to speed up the returns of people not granted asylum after the arrival of nearly 1.1 million people fleeing war and poverty in 2015. In particular it has aimed to streamline processing of asylum applications and classified several Balkan states as safe countries of origin to accelerate expulsions. It has also moved to place certain North African countries on the same list. Germany recorded a steep decline in asylum-seeker arrivals in April, according to official data last month, after the closure of the popular route used by migrants through the Balkans. About 16,000 migrants arrived in April, down almost a quarter from 20,000 in March, and nearly a 90-percent plunge from December, when 120,000 arrivals were recorded. By Madeline Chambers BERLIN (Reuters) - Three Pakistani men seeking asylum in Germany are being investigated after dozens of women said they were sexually harassed at a music festival over the weekend, prosecutors said. The accusations follow mass sexual attacks on women at New Year's Eve in Cologne which fueled a backlash against Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door migrant policy. After the festival in the western city of Darmstadt, which attracted 300,000-400,000 people over four days, 26 women made complaints of harassment and there are officially 18 injured parties, a spokeswoman for prosecutors said on Wednesday. "The women complained that they were surrounded by small groups of men who then touched them inappropriately," a police spokesman said. In Cologne at New Year, hundreds of women said they were groped, attacked and robbed outside the train station. Police said the suspects were mainly of North African and Arab appearance. The police chief was forced to resign over the incident. The events in Darmstadt do not seem to be on the same scale but, following several complaints of sexual harassment at a parade in Berlin in May, they could compound fears about the integration of migrants and worsen social tensions. There have been 449 assaults on migrant shelters so far this year, according to the interior minister. Prosecutors said three men between 28 and 31, all asylum seekers originally from Pakistan, were arrested at the weekend and released and are now under investigation. Two or three other men who were with them at the time have yet to be identified, prosecutors said. Despite a fall in her own and her conservative party's popularity, Merkel has said that, even with hindsight, she would allow people in humanitarian need to enter Germany again, as she did last year. "I recommend anyone who is fearful to take the opportunity to personally get to know someone who has fled to us. These are people who have experienced and suffered a lot and have their worries and hopes just as much as we do," Merkel told Bunte magazine. (Editing by Robin Pomeroy) By Andreas Rinke and Arno Schuetze BERLIN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany is trying to coordinate an alternative offer for industrial robot maker Kuka (KU2G.DE) following Chinese home appliance maker Midea Group Co Ltd's 4.5 billion euro takeover bid, Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said. Kuka is the latest and biggest German industrial technology group to be targeted by a Chinese buyer as the world's second-largest economy makes the transition from a low-cost manufacturer into a high-tech industrial hub. "There are efforts to formulate an alternative offer. Whether that materializes, we will see," Gabriel told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday. Government sources have said Berlin would examine how critical Kuka's technology is for the digitization of industry, an economic priority for Chancellor Angela Merkel's government. Citing government and industry sources, Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported earlier on Wednesday that Gabriel wanted to forge an alliance of German or European firms to prevent a sale to the Chinese company. But Gabriel may face an uphill battle in convincing German companies that rely on the Chinese market for customers to try to snatch Kuka from its suitor. Also, Midea will not be able to control Kuka fully anyway unless unlisted mechanical engineering group Voith and another investor, Loh, sell their stakes, totaling just over 35 percent of Kuka's capital, or strike an agreement with the Chinese firm. Voith CEO Hubert Lienhard has criticized as premature Kuka management's positive stance towards Midea's bid. The Sueddeutsche Zeitung said Gabriel had proposed the idea of an alliance to a number of companies, including carmakers. One banker familiar with the sector said big industry players in Europe would not be lured into a rival bid as the price was too high and the path to control of Kuka unclear. Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that German industrial group Siemens (SIEGn.DE) had considered a counterbid for Kuka but quickly dismissed the idea as too expensive. Story continues Chief Executive Joe Kaeser told investors on Wednesday that digitization would continue to be an area of focus in any takeovers by Siemens but said he was unlikely to agree any mega-deals. Daimler (DAIGn.DE) Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said on Wednesday he personally did not see any risks from a Chinese purchase of Kuka, considering previous takeovers by Chinese buyers had not had any negative effects. China's Shanghai Electric has in the past also considered buying Kuka but shied away from making a move, two people said. Another banker said Swiss engineering group ABB (ABBN.S) could be interested in Kuka in principle but that the price is now too high. Shanghai Electric was not immediately available for comment. ABB declined to comment. Despite its concerns about losing German technology to China, the ruling coalition of Merkel's conservatives and Gabriel's Social Democrats (SPD) usually does not like to meddle in takeovers. (Additional reporting by Paul Carsten, John Miller, Markus Wacket and Georgina Prodhan; Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Madeline Chambers, Richard Balmforth and Alexandra Hudson) Abidjan (AFP) - Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama met his counterpart in Ivory Coast on Tuesday even as the two oil-producers bicker over a maritime border key to drilling. The border cuts through offshore oil fields that both nations are eager to exploit, but there are claims the boundary has not been properly demarcated. The disputed area is believed to hold the biggest hydrocarbon resources discovered in west Africa for the last decade. Several oil companies including France's Total, Russia's Lukoil and the UK's Tullow Oil have reported significant finds in recent years. Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara welcomed Mahama, his wife, and officials when his plane landed in the economic capital Abidjan. The trip, described as an "official visit," is expected to last two days. There was no official word from either camp on whether the leaders would engage in talks to resolve their disagreement over the boundary. The two-year-old dispute came to a head in September 2014 when Ghana decided to file a suit against Ivory Coast under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea after months of talks failed. In April 2015, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, Germany, ordered Ghana to limit its activity in the area until a ruling is handed down. Ivory Coast had wanted the suspension of all ongoing oil exploration and exploitation by Ghana. The court, however, said that would cause "considerable financial loss to Ghana." A final ruling on the issue is expected in late 2017, and both parties were ordered to cooperate until then as part of the arbitration process. In September 2015, Ivory Coast concluded an agreement with the US oil company Anadarko to explore for oil in the disputed waters. Both Ghana and Ivory Coast have denied that the lawsuit signalled a change in relations between the two countries, which are west Africa's second- and third-largest economies respectively. Story continues Ghana, a major producer of gold and cocoa, began commercial oil production in 2010 from the Jubilee oil field along its western border, which produces 100,000 barrels per day. Lukoil and its US partner Vanco are running the offshore sites. Commercial oil revenue has boosted the country's economy since then. With a modest output of 40,000 barrels per day, Ivory Coast is looking to hike its existing offshore oil production. The country is the world's largest producer of cocoa, but also wants to encourage a revival of its mining and agriculture sectors after a decade of conflict. Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f102540%2f7734baee5ba84e28a0a37ef9fee23249 Money, power, success. These are the three things that will fade into irrelevance once you've sunk your teeth into an awe-inspiring Nutella dessert kebab, which is currently attracting plenty of attention Down Under. SEE ALSO: South Korea claims it has ice cream that will cure hangovers It's actually called the "Tellabab" named so because it's from the Tella Balls Dessert Bar in Sydney, Australia and well, it's a kebab. As for what's in it, it's a doughnut pita bread, filled with milk and white chocolate shavings (off a freakin' rotisserie), strawberries, banana, whipped cream and finished off with "lashings" of Nutella. Heavy breathing ensues. This what the Nutella kebab looks like: The chocolate shavings come off an actual rotisserie. Like a real kebab. Here is another angle of the Nutella kebab. And another one. Last one, we promise. Such dessert kebab creations are popular in the United Arab Emirates under the moniker of a chocolate shawarma, cafe owner Aki Daikos told Good Food. However he believes it's the first time that such a creation has been sold Down Under. What have you done to us. VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 1, 2016 / Golden Predator Mining Corp. (GPY.V) (the "Company") announces that it has entered into an agreement with William M. Sheriff, Chairman, for the assignment of two Option to Purchase Agreements to acquire up to 10,312,154 shares of the Company from Till Capital Ltd. at a price of $0.15 per share. The Option to Purchase Agreements were entered into between Till Capital, a Bermuda company, and Mr. Sheriff in September of 2015 and are being assigned to the Company for nominal consideration. The shares that the Company may acquire under the option to purchase agreements represent 16.2% of the current issued and outstanding shares. Upon exercise of the options in full, the Company will return the shares to treasury for cancellation, following which a total of 53,359,061 shares will remain issued and outstanding, assuming no warrants or options are exercised prior to the completion of the transaction. "This assignment of my personal options to Golden Predator, when viewed in light of the current trading price of the shares, is clearly a benefit to all shareholders. Retiring 16.2% of the Company's stock at a fraction of the current market value allows the Company to be in a much stronger financial position overall," said William M. Sheriff. "Our shareholders have been extremely patient and supportive in a difficult market and my action in assigning the options fully considers the strength of the Company as a whole. I am grateful to be in a position to share what amounts in essence to a dividend with all the shareholders of Golden Predator." The Board considered the transaction and determined that the acquisition and exercise of the option, and the subsequent cancellation of the shares, are in the best interests of the Company and provide a benefit to all shareholders. The Board of Directors of Golden Predator has approved payment of the exercise price in the amount of $1,546,823 to Till Capital to acquire the shares for cancellation. Completion of the assignment of Option to Purchase Agreements to the Company is subject to final acceptance of the TSXV. Story continues The Option to Purchase Agreements were entered into between Till Capital and Mr. Sheriff as part of a separation agreement. Under the terms of the Option to Purchase Agreements, the options could be exercised at any time up to March 1, 2017, provided that Till Capital has the right to accelerate the expiry date of the options if the 10-day volume-weighted average price of the Company's shares is at least $0.25 per share. This condition has now been satisfied and Till has accelerated the expiry date of the options to June 26, 2016. Golden Predator intends to exercise the options prior to the expiry date. Golden Predator Mining Corp. Golden Predator Mining Corp., a Canadian gold mineral exploration company, is focused on advancing the 3 Aces Project and Brewery Creek project in Canada's North. The Company has undertaken a bulk sampling at the 3 Aces project, focused on high grade native gold bearing quartz veins, to define the distribution and grade of gold in the veins. The Company's Brewery Creek Project is a past producing heap leach gold mine. For additional information: Janet Lee-Sheriff Chief Executive Officer (214) 304-9552 info@goldenpredator.com www.goldenpredator.com Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. This press release contains forward-looking information that involves various risks and uncertainties regarding future events. Such forward-looking information can include without limitation statements based on current expectations and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. The exercise of the option requires final stock exchange approval and assumes the exercise will proceed as planned, which cannot be guaranteed. These and all subsequent written and oral forward-looking information are based on estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking information should circumstances or management's estimates or opinions change. SOURCE: Golden Predator Mining Corp. Google Taking a Number of Initiatives to Grow Its Ad Business (Continued from Prior Part) Google working on its mobile UX News reading is one activity that helps Google (GOOG) increase its user engagement. However, user engagement can actually take a hit if the news link takes too long time to open, especially in regions like emerging markets (EEM) where Internet speeds are slow. Google (GOOG) is working to improve its user experience (or UX) on mobile. It launched the Accelerated Mobile Pages (or AMP) product in early 2015 to provide users with an efficient reading experience of content from third-party providers. Google claims that these pages load four times faster and use 10 times less data than traditional pages. The content loads on the Google search page itself rather than Google redirecting the user to third-party website. This initiative from Google is similar to Facebooks (FB) Instant Articles and Apple (AAPL) News. Facebook and Apple also offer similar features Facebooks Instant Article feature allows users to read articles within Facebooks News Feed itself. Apple also unveiled its News app at the Worldwide Developers Conference in 2015, which offers news content from more than 50 publications on consumers Apple devices. Some of the notable news sources include The New York Times (NYT), Walt Disneys (DIS) ESPN, CNN, and Time magazine. This new feature is a win-win for users, publishers, and Facebook. For users, the faster access to articles should improve their user experience. For publishers, their revenue potential will increase as networks such as Google Search and Facebook gives them access to a large audience. Finally, the company keeps a cut of ad revenues if publishers use its ad network platform to serve ads. These initiatives from these players underscore the movement of ad dollars to mobile devices. According to a report from eMarketer and as the chart above shows, US digital ad spending on mobile could grow from $19 billion in 2014 to $65 billion in 2019 at a compound annual growth rate of 19%. Story continues Continue to Next Part Browse this series on Market Realist: Alphabet's Key Strategies for Non-Advertising Business Growth (Continued from Prior Part) Google provides users with a variety of payment methods In the previous part of the series, we discussed how Google (GOOG) hasnt been able to monetize Google Play effectively. However, the company is now trying to make the payment process on Google Play seamless. Google mentioned that users can now select credit cards, PayPal (PYPL), Google Play Credit, or carrier billings to purchase content from Google Play. With regards to carrier billing, Google has partnered with US telecommunications providers such as Verizon Communications (VZ) and Sprint (S) so that they can charge users for app and content purchases from Google Play by directly billing them to their accounts. Google is also looking for partnerships in emerging markets (EEM), where this sort of billing process could become even more popular since credit card penetration in these regions is still low. Google launched Android Pay app last year Another initiative that Google took a few months back was to launch the mobile payment app Android Pay on Google Play. Android Pay is an NFC (near field communication) technologybased payment feature. Google launched its revamped Android Pay mobile payment service at its I/O conference last year. During this event, Google announced that it wouldnt charge any fees to bank issuers for mobile transactions through Android Pay. The mobile payments market has huge growth potential. According to an eMarketer report and as the chart above shows, US mobile payment transactions have more than doubled in just a year, from $3.7 billion in 2014 to $8.7 billion in 2015. The report also mentions that 2016 will be a significant growth year for mobile payments transactions, which will more than triple from 2015 to 2016. In the next part of this series, well discuss how Google is taking on Amazon in the e-commerce space. Continue to Next Part Browse this series on Market Realist: June 1 (Reuters) - Sumner Redstone's granddaughter Keryn said on Wednesday she plans to support the independent directors of Viacom Inc to help free the 93-year-old media mogul from the "clutches" of his daughter, Shari. The independent directors have questioned Sumner Redstone's mental competence, and said they will legally contest any move by his purported representatives to remove them from Viacom's board. "I will soon be announcing legal steps to join with the Viacom directors in our common cause to liberate my grandfather from Shari's clutches and protect my fellow trust beneficiaries and myself from her machinations," Keryn Redstone said in a statement issued by attorney Pierce O'Donnell, who also represents Sumner Redstone's ex-girlfriend Manuela Herzer. Herzer had challenged Redstone's mental competence after she was ejected from his mansion last October. She had sought to be reinstated as his designated healthcare agent, but a Los Angeles judge dismissed that case in May. Herzer's lawyers have said she planned to appeal the decision. Keryn Redstone, who supported Herzer's lawsuit, said she had been prevented from seeing her grandfather by her aunt, Shari Redstone, who is vice chair of Viacom's board. A spokeswoman for Shari Redstone had no comment. She had previously denied allegations that she was manipulating her father. "Shari has made it abundantly clear that she has no desire to manage Viacom nor chair its board," she said in a statement on Tuesday. Sumner Redstone, in a statement issued last week by his spokesman, said he was considering replacing Viacom's chief executive, Philippe Dauman, and its board of directors. Legal experts said Dauman and the directors would face a tough legal battle to prevent their ouster because Redstone's National Amusements Inc (NAI) had the ability to immediately remove Viacom's board at any time under Delaware law. NAI controls 80 percent of the voting shares in Viacom and CBS Corp. Earlier in May, Redstone ejected Dauman and a Viacom board member from the seven-person trust that will control the voting shares after Redstone's exit. (Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Tiffany Wu) Great Plains EnergyInc. GXP announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Westar EnergyInc. WR. The transaction has an estimated value of $8.6 billion and is anticipated to close in the spring of 2017, subject to regulatory approvals. Under the terms of the agreement, Westars shareholders will receive $60 a share, consisting of $51 in cash and $9 in Great Plains Energy stock. Also, Great Plains Energy will assume Westar's debt of around $3.6 billion. Once the transaction is closed, Westar will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Great Plains Energy. To finance the deal, Great Plains Energy has secured nearly $8.0 billion of debt. It has also secured a $750 million preferred convertible equity commitment. Apart from that, the company plans to issue long-term financing, consisting of a combination of equity, equity-linked securities and debt, prior to closing of the transaction. Upon closing of the transaction, Great Plains Energy will be able to cater to more than 1.5 million customers in Kansas and Missouri with a generation capacity of nearly 13,000 megawatts and gain access to around 10,000 miles of transmission lines and over 51,000 miles of distribution lines. The latest acquisition is expected to be a major consolidation in this sector, resulting in more controlled costs and consumer rates. Great Plains Energy also expects anticipated savings from the deal to help lower future rate increase requests. Clearly, the addition of Westars generation fleet will increase the diversity and sustainability of Great Plains Energys generation portfolio, giving it the capability to meet over 45% of the combined utilitys retail customer demand with clean energy. In a similar move, Dominion Resources Inc. D, a leading producer and transporter of energy, recently entered into a $4.4 billion merger deal with Questar Corporation STR in a bid to expand its geographical presence. Currently, Great Plains Energy carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report DOMINION RES VA (D): Free Stock Analysis Report WESTAR ENERGY (WR): Free Stock Analysis Report GREAT PLAINS EN (GXP): Free Stock Analysis Report QUESTAR (STR): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research From Popular Mechanics California City was a grandiose vision that never amounted to much. Almost all that's left of a colossal vision to challenge Los Angeles primacy is a ghost of grid, roads leading to nowhere and signifying the failed dreams of a generation past. A big bunch of nothing that's still California's third largest city by area. Nathan K. Mendelsohn was a New York sociologist who moved out West in the 1950's to test out his community development theories, and to cash in on the California real estate boom. Any land in California felt like it was magic, and Mendelsohn saw no reason he couldn't create a massive city out of thin air if he wanted. He shipped in water from New York to fill a man-made 105,218 square meter lake complete with waterfalls, bused and flew up interested buyers from L.A. A few bought into his vision, more didn't. Mendelsohn planned out an entire metropolis without figuring out a reason it needed to exist. Industry wasn't interested in moving into the middle of what felt like nowhere. Crucial amenities, like telephone wires, failed to manifest. Although the novelty of the isolation appealed to those who did move to California City, like using CB radios to ask if anyone else in town needed food when going to the grocery store, it wore off. People still live in California City, a few over 14,000. They make up only a fraction of the space Mendelsohn initially envisioned, a small community in the Central region of California's Kern county. That leaves a whole lot of wide open roads. Source: NOWNESS via Digg By Andrew Mambondiyani CHIPINGE, Zimbabwe (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Several rivers pass from Zimbabwe's lush Eastern highlands through the lowlands of drought-hit Chipinge, Mutare and Chimanimani districts. But while river water is plentiful, hard-up farmers have no way to get enough of it to their fields. "We did not harvest anything in the past two seasons," said Amon Vhumbu, the traditional leader of a small, isolated village in Chipinge district, where many fields have been left barren by drought, despite a river flowing nearby. "As you can see, without irrigation our hopes of a good crop yield have now become unrealistic," he said. But a project to build dams and irrigation systems to bring water to parched fields is set to help and could protect at least some families against the more frequent droughts climate change is bringing in southern Africa. The Enhancing Nutrition, Stepping Up Resilience and Enterprise (ENSURE) program, a $55 million effort led by charity World Vision and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), aims to address some of the causes underlying chronic food security and malnutrition in Zimbabwes Manicaland and Masvingo provinces, where stunting rates among children are 34 and 31 per cent respectively. In Birirano, in Chipinge district, ENSURE has built a new dam and irrigation system that is expected to start functioning in June, in time for planting of winter crops. The system uses pipes to carry water from the dam to the fields. With this and 10 similar projects already running in Chimanimani, Chipinge and Buhera districts, the program plans to irrigate more than 100 hectares (about 250 acres) of farmland. Forty hectares are already receiving water. Ultimately, the program aims to bring 154 hectares of farmland under irrigation by 2018, according to Richard Ndou, the deputy chief of party for World Vision Zimbabwe. Turning to irrigation is crucial as rain-fed agriculture becomes increasingly unreliable, said Freeman Mavhiza, the Chipinge assistant district administrator. "The irrigation projects are community driven and for years to come many people will benefit from these projects," he said. TAPPING THE POTENTIAL Zimbabwe's current El Nino-induced drought is one of the most devastating in recent history, leaving up to 4.5 million in need of food aid, officials say. And the country still hasn't recovered from a previous serious drought that hit the 2014-15 farming season. Some of the worst-affected districts are in Manicaland province where, according to provincial administrator Fungai Mbetsa, up to 85,000 households are receiving government food assistance. And that figure, he said, is far below the actual number of food insecure households in the province. Government efforts to put more people on the food assistance program are hamstrung by lack of financial resources. "What we are giving people is not enough," Mbetsa said. But many of these districts lie along the Save River valley, an area with lots of potential for irrigation. Building dams and irrigation systems is helping villagers tap into that potential, said Thabisani Moyo, a food security specialist with USAID. The ENSURE program shows them how to build and fix dams and irrigation schemes, and provides materials and technical support, he said. Villagers who work on constructing the systems get 50 kg (110 lb) of sorghum every month for their labor. So far 2,334 people have received such payments. "Because of these irrigation schemes we are going to see a reduction in the number of people needing aid," Moyo said. ENOUGH WATER? Not everyone is persuaded the irrigation push will work effectively to combat food insecurity. The area covered by irrigation is still small, and critics point out that recurrent droughts could diminish water levels in the dams so much that the irrigation systems become useless. But Manicaland provincial administrator Mbetsa said most of the dams get water from rivers that are unaffected by drought. "We have perennial rivers in the Eastern Highlands passing through drought regions and this water can be harnessed for irrigation," Mbetsa said. "Water harvesting is key to sustaining communities in the dry areas." During a tour of the some of the projects in May, Stephanie Funk, the USAID director in Zimbabwe, said the effort needs to expand to reach many more of the countrys increasingly drought-hit farmers. "The drought will continue probably throughout the whole next year," Funk said. "More assistance is needed, not only from us but other donors and the government." (Reporting by Andrew Mambondiyani; editing by Jumana Farouky and Laurie Goering :; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, women's rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit http://news.trust.org/climate) DAKAR (Reuters) - Guinea has reached the end of active Ebola virus transmission, the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday, the second such declaration from the country at the epicenter of the world's worst outbreak of the disease. The proclamation was made because the person with Guinea's last confirmed case tested negative for the second time more than 42 days ago. Guinea will now enter a 90-day period of heightened surveillance to make sure of the identification of any new cases before they spread to others. In the most recent outbreak, seven confirmed and three possible cases of the virus surfaced between March 17 and April 6. At least five people died. [nL5N16U5XW] Another three cases were recorded in neighbouring Liberia in a woman who had travelled from Guinea and her two children. The flare-up seems to have occurred after a person came into contact with infected body fluid from an Ebola survivor, WHO said. Since the virus can remain active in certain body fluids for months, the WHO cautions the risk of outbreaks remain. However, WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said on Tuesday that the organisation was confident that affected countries were prepared and could deal with flare-ups efficiently. Guinea is believed to be where the world's worst Ebola outbreak occurred, spanning three countries primarily and killing 11,310 people. It first declared itself free of transmission in December. [nL8N14I0X3] (Reporting and writing by Makini Brice; Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva) A gun found in the car that took Troy Ave to the hospital after a shooting at New York City's Irving Plaza has been matched to the bullet that killed the rapper's friend and bodyguard Ronald McPhatter, DNAinfo New York reports. Rapper Troy Ave Arrested for Fatal Shooting at T.I. Show Following the shooting, Troy Ave real name Roland Collins was driven to the emergency room at NYU Langone Hospital, where New York Police Department officers kept the car from leaving. After obtaining a warrant, investigators uncovered a secret compartment in the vehicle, which held three handguns, including the one that killed McPhatter. Detectives plan to perform DNA tests on the guns to determine who had handled them. The latest developments in the case come after Collins pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and criminal possession of a firearm at a hearing Monday at Manhattan Criminal Court. His charges, however, could be upgraded if tests determine his gun was responsible for McPhatter's death. Two members of the hip-hop community have already voiced their support for Troy Ave: Meek Mill and longtime proponent, 50 Cent. On Instagram, both posted pictures of the MC showing up to court in a wheelchair with his leg in a cast. "Self Defense that's more like it now," 50 Cent wrote. "Hold ya head TROY. See how the story change." The shooting took place at T.I.'s New York concert May 25th, and left four injured, including Troy Ave. McPhatter was the only fatality. The incident reportedly occurred after a set from rapper Maino, with whom Troy Ave had reportedly been beefing (though according to DNAinfo, other sources said the fight started when Troy Ave saw a music writer who'd been critical of him). The gunshots occurred in the green room above the stage, and surveillance video from the incident showed Troy Ave emerging backstage and opening fire. Initial reports claimed that Troy Ave shot both himself and McPhatter, but one of the rapper's lawyers denied the allegation, saying the video released by the NYPD did not show what happened before or after the incident. "The scientific evidence will show he didn't shoot himself," he added. Story continues Despite not having a criminal record, the judge who oversaw Monday's hearing denied Troy Ave's request of a $50,000 bail, instead opting to keep him in custody without bail until his trial ends. Related Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f102372%2fdonaldtrumpsign Construction signs: They tell you what lanes to avoid, what speed to travel at, and who to vote for in the 2016 presidential election. Along Interstate 30 in West Dallas, Texas on Tuesday, motorists were confronted with a highly opinionated construction sign. No, the sign wasn't opining about the best exit signs to follow. It wanted you to know that Donald Trump "is a shape-shifting lizard." SEE ALSO: Even Stephen Hawking can't explain Trump's popularity A sign farther along the highway encouraged drivers to instead vote for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Later, a sign took a more bipartisan approach and let everyone know, "Work is canceled, go back home. The Texas Department of Transportation said two of the three signs were not in use, but they are password protected. Construction signs are a favorite target of hackers, and this isn't the first time they've been victimized this season. Signs posted to Interstate 15 in Coronas, California encouraged innocent voters to back Donald Trump. It is unclear how these signs will affect Trump's popularity with one of the most important demographics this election lizard people. Does Halliburton's Share Price Rally Indicate Recovery? (Continued from Prior Part) Halliburtons returns and key drivers Oilfield equipment and services (or OFS) companies such as Halliburton (HAL) are affected by rig counts and energy prices. In the past year, West Texas Intermediate (or WTI) crude oils price has fallen ~19%. Halliburton saw one-year returns of -11% net of dividends. This was better than the VanEck Vectors Oil Services ETFs (OIH) -27% during the same period. HAL makes up 16.9% of OIH. The Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE), the broader energy industry ETF, produced a return of -15.4%. HAL significantly outperformed the US rig count, which fell 55% in one year. However, Halliburton underperformed the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which returned -1% during the same period. HALs smaller market capitalization peer Patterson-UTI Energy (PTEN) underperformed HAL, producing a -14% one-year return net of dividends. How related are Halliburtons and crude oils prices? The correlation coefficient between Halliburtons stock price and crude oils price from May 2015 to the present is 0.59. This indicates a relatively strong degree of correlation between crude oils price and Halliburtons price. Analyzing HALs performance and strategies Ongoing energy market uncertainty in North America remains Halliburtons primary concern. Weak well completion activity in some of HALs international operations, including Angola, Australia, and the North Sea, could add to the companys problems. Halliburton incurred losses at the operating level, given its negative EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) and negative cash flow from operations in 1Q16. Halliburtons capex for 2016 has been significantly lower than it was in 2015, reflecting energy market volatility. In the next four quarters, Halliburtons earnings could fall. On the other hand, steady upstream activity in the Middle East and expected recovery in North America once the rig count stabilizes could drive Halliburtons performance in 2016. The fact that HAL provides technology and integrated project management as well as information solutions throughout the world has helped it to weather the industry downturn better than many other OFS companies. Story continues Despite its challenges, Halliburton can likely be expected to perform steadily in the medium to long term. Browse this series on Market Realist: I solemnly swear that I ate everything I could. Witches and wizardssome in robes and others in standard muggle clothingare waving their wands, muttering incantations, and managing all kinds of mischief. It smells like a mix of baked goods and sunscreen. The sound of a familiar score is deafening in the best wayand there's a line down the street of people waiting for mugs of frothy, golden Butterbeer. There's only one way to truly describe it: There is magic in the air. I'm at Universal Orlando Resort's Wizarding World of Harry Potter, smack in the middle of Hogsmeade's High Street, and Hogwarts Castlea replica of the architectural icon from all of the Harry Potter filmsis looming over me in the distance. It's 90 degrees, but the pointy, thatched roofs all around me are dusted with glittering, fake snow, giving the village its Christmas-card look. This place has the hustle and bustle of a theme park, but everyone here is staring upwards, in absolute awe of their surroundings. The level of detail is so perfect that it's enough to bring mea Harry Potter obsessiveto tears. Every summer, I reread all seven Harry Potter books and rewatch all eight Harry Potter movies. It started in 2002 when I was 18: I was, admittedly, a little old to join Potter mania. I read the first four books in quick succession and then started waiting, like all other rabid fans, for the next book and movie to come out. I attended every midnight book release party and every opening-night movie screening. Photo credit: Courtesy of Universal Studios Orlando Resort The rest of the Delish team knows the power of Harry Potter. Our copycat Butterbeer video (and its boozy cousin) racked up more than 6 million views last fall, whichat the timemade it our most popular video by a long shot. So my boss suggested I go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort to turn up other magical delights. With the announcement of a new play and book coming this summer (Harry Potter and The Cursed Child) and a new Rowling film (Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them ) opening this winter, Harry Potter mania is about to reach another high. It seemed like the perfect time to explore the two areas of the Wizarding WorldHogsmeade and Diagon Alley, located within Universal's two theme parkswith an eye toward identifying (and consuming) the most delicious eats and sweets I could find. Story continues Photo credit: COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL STUDIOS ORLANDO RESORT The Three Broomsticks That is how I found myself in Hogsmeadelocated at Universal Orlando Resort's Islands of Adventure theme parkunder a sweltering sun, surrounded by the aforementioned witches and wizards, and yes, some muggles. Despite the heat, I'm here to eat and the best place to get a good meal in Hogsmeade is The Three Broomsticks pub. This is the site of many Harry, Hermione, and Ron hijinks, and it's everything Rowling describes: "extremely crowded, noisy, warm and smoky." (Minus the smoke, of coursethis is 2016 in a family theme park.) Worn wooden beams soar over weathered walls, and there are antlers, portraits of wizarding history, and assorted unidentifiable knickknacks all over the place. Looking at the menu, I'm immediately in awe of The Great Feasta massive platter of rotisserie smoked chicken legs, spareribs, corn on the cob, and roasted potatoes. It's enough to feed a family of four, and was actually designed with family-style dining in mind, according to Universal Orlando Resort Corporate Executive Chef Steven Jayson. Hogwarts students all share ridiculously over-the-top platters of food when eating in The Great Hall, and this dish is an homage to that style of eating. I sneak a few bites of each portion of the platterthe chicken is actually perfectly cooked, bursting with herbs, and instantly comforting. The potatoes are nicely seasoned, the ribs are not the saucy KC-variety I'm used to, but I'm not mad about it, and the corn is wonderfully bright and tastes fresh. It is, however, 9:30 in the morning, so I actually focus more on the Traditional English Breakfast. If you've ever been to England, you'll know that this is the real thingeggs, sausage, black pudding, bacon, baked beans, grilled tomato, sauteed mushrooms, and potatoes. The grilled tomato bursts over the sausages and eggs when I dig in, and I struggle to remember that I am not even IN the U.K. It's all part of the magic, chef Jayons says. "We wanted to immerse our guests into what it was really like for these [characters]," he says. "What would they really eat?" They did their research: the culinary team traveled to England to research authentic British pub fare, and ran everything by Rowling herself to figure out how they could bring the right food back to the States.They settled on authenticity above anything else, which explains The Three Broomsticks distinctive lack of traditional theme park food. Beyond this classic breakfast, the menu is full of English favorites like Porridge (one of Mrs. Weasley's standard breakfast foods), a Smoked Salmon Breakfast, and a Pancake Breakfast to Shepherd's Pie, Fish and Chips, Cornish Pasties (pastry filled with ground beef, veggies, and potatoes), and Smoked Turkey Legs. By the end of it, I start to feel like an inflated Aunt Marge. Back outside, I check out the food carts that dot the high street. They're stocked with ice-cold Pumpkin Juice, Gillywater (aka bottled water), and other assorted snacks and sweets, but I'm most intrigued by a huge barrel that is pouring Butterbeer for a long line of eager guests. I decide my time has come to sample the famous beverage as well so instead of cooking in the sun, (pro tip: skip the line at the two kiosks outside and head inside to AC and ausuallymuch shorter line at The Hog's Head) I seek refuge in the dingy bar next door to The Three Broomsticks. The Hog's Head "It was not at all like The Three Broomsticks, whose large bar game an impression of gleaming warmth and cleanliness. The Hog's Head bar comprised one small, dingy, and very dirty room that smelled strongly of something that might have been goats."Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix Thankfully the place didn't smell like goats. But The Hog's Head does give off a darker, dirtier vibe than The Three Broomsticks. It's predictably packed, probably because it's the only place in Hogsmeade where you can get actual beer and alcohol, along with more kid-friendly counterparts. I order one of everything (except the non-magical stuff, like Boddington's and Guinness). I decide to start with the main attraction, Butterbeer, which is available in two varietiescold or frozen (I'm told they also serve a warm version of Butterbeer, but only when Florida weather requires it ... which is almost never). The cold version (my personal favorite) has a cream soda-like texture and is topped with a white, frothy head that is incredibly addictive. When the liquid passes through the foam, the flavors combine to create something that is super smooth and easy to drinkit has that butterscotch taste without being overly sweet. (The books describes Butterbeer as "a little bit like less-sickly butterscotch"and they nailed it.) The frozen version, on the other hand, is served with a straw so that you can mix the foam and slushie portion together to get both flavors in each sip. I could polish a cold version off at an alarming rate, but I control myself in order to try the other beverages on offerpumpkin juice, pumpkin fizz and Hog's Head Brew. The Pumpkin Juice, which comes on tap or bottled (so you can take it home), tastes like fall in a glass, while the Pumpkin fizz is a carbonated version of the juiceit tastes like pumpkin pie soda. (I actually preferred the fizzy version.) Finally, for the hard stuff, the exclusive-to-Hogsmeade Hog's Head Brew delivers a classic Irish red beer, not too hoppy, and not too heavy, perfect for those who need a REAL drink after a day in the park. I need to walk all this off so I head outside and duck into Honeydukes Sweets Shop. The tiny space is filled with towering shelves of every colorful candy or sweet ever mentioned in the Potterverse. Huge towers dispense the dreaded Bertie Bott's Ever Flavour Beans, and a bakery case features goodies like Butterber Fudge and Pumpkin Pasties. I grab a bunch to try later, but recognize I can't eat another thing at this moment. I feel like a regular Moaning Myrtlewailing about my body's current state. I decide a ride on the Hogwarts Express is the break my belly needs. Photo credit: Courtesy of Universal Studios Orlando Resort The newest area of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is located at Islands of Adventure's sister park, Universal Studios Florida, less than a mile away from Hogsmeade. Guests have the chance to ride the famed Hogwarts Express between them, and I was freaking out with excitement. The 5-minute ride is so wonderful that I basically screw professional decorum and allow myself to go full-on fan girl. (Insider tip: It's worth riding the train both ways to get the full experience. You get to enter Platform 9 in King's Cross station, which any HP-obsessive won't want to miss.) Leaky Cauldron After exploring the main thoroughfare of Diagon Alleyfull of fun shops like Ollivander's wand shop, Flourish & Blotts bookstore, Quality Quidditch Supplies, the Magical Menagerie, and a fire-breathing dragon perched atop Gringotts bankI'm finally feeling hungry again. My destination is the Leaky Cauldron. Described in the books as "a tiny, grubby-looking pub ... dark and shabby," it's the literal entrance to the magical street (you tap a brick wall with your wand) and where Harry first meets his nemesis Voldemort. So as a fan, I have extremely high hopes. Photo credit: KATHRYN WIRSING This Leaky Cauldron exudes that vibe with a little more elegance. Cathedral-high ceilings with wooden beams, long communal wooden tables, huge candelabrasthis place is much more impressive than the books can even describe. I settle at a long table in the corner and am in awe of the plates that have appeared before me. If The Three Broomsticks was meant to emulate The Great Hall of Hogwarts, the Leaky Cauldron is more a classic British pub, according to Chef Jayson. The signature dish is The Ploughman's Platter, an enormous plate of English cheese, crusty bread, oven-roasted tomatoes, cornichon pickles, scotch eggs, green salad, and apple and beet salad. The platter is meant to be shared, but I refuse: the scotch eggs are all mine. I move on to the Fish and Chips, which hold their own to the version I ate in actual London: the cod and chips were perfectly crispy and the tarter sauce had a great bite. Next was a platter of Mini Piescottage (beef, vegetables, potato crust) and fisherman (salmon, shrimp, cod, potato crust). The cottage version was actually one of my favorite menu items of the tripI would definitely have devoured a whole one given the option. The meal continues with a Beef, Lamb and Guinness Stew that's served in the cutest mini bread bowl ever and is loaded with carrots, potatoes, and gravy. Yes, it's weird to be eating all this heavy pub grub when you're wearing a tank top and sandals and it's 90 degrees outside, but the food is so authentic, it doesn't faze me at all. Photo credit: KATHRYN WIRSING Plus, there are still sausages to try. There's a Bangers and Mash plate and a Banger Sandwich: the first is English sausages served on fluffy mashed potatoes, the latter served in a crusty bagel. Finally, there is the Toad in the Hole, an English sausage baked into Yorkshire pudding with onion gravy, peas, and tomatoes. It's an odd-looking dish, but Chef Jayson assures me it's incredibly British, the kind of dish I imagine Ron Weasley would scarf down with abandon. For dessert there is to-die-for Sticky Toffee Pudding with an incredible butterscotch sauce, Chocolate and Butterbeer Potted Cream, and a parfait-like dish called Cranachan that features fresh raspberries, jam and custard. I take small bites of each dessert despite the fact that my stomach is nearing Dudley Dursley levels. The Leaky Cauldron also pours the requisite Butterbeers and pumpkin juice, but you can also find inventive drinks like Tongue Tying Lemon Squash, Otter's Fizzy Orange Juice and Fishy Green Ale, and draught beers Wizard's Brew and Dragon Scale. I take sips of each one because I'm a completist and a glutton. The Fishy Green Ale has little bubble-tea-like balls that release a burst of fruity flavor when you bite into them (It's my favorite of these beverages). I stumble back out into the sunlight, woozy and so full. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a brilliantly orange and purple shop. The building's most notable feature, however, is a 20-foot high replica of a red-headed man who is constantly putting on and taking off his cap. I need to go in. Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes Photo credit: KATHRYN WIRSING The eponymous shop of Fred and George Weasley is mostly a joke shop with signature items like a stuffed version of the Pygmy Puff that Ginny Weasley affectionately named Arnold, Decoy Detonators, Sneakoscopes, Extendable Ears, and more. This place is an explosion of color and noise, worthy of the mayhem the Weasley twins were known for. However, there are also finds worthy of Delishspecifically, the famous Skiving Snackboxes. The box is filled with an assortment of sweets developed to help Hogwarts students get out of class. They don't actually cause any ailmentsbut they're delish, nonetheless. My favorite was the Nosebleed Nougatmilk chocolate, pistachios, and white pearls, kind of a Three Musketeers on steroidsbut there was also Puking Pastilles (super-sticky green and purple sweets that are pretty inoffensive), Fainting Fancies (half lemon, half orange sugary gummies), and Fever Fudge (vanilla fudge with red hot candies sprinkled throughout). I quickly make myself feel actually sick by trying all these sweets, but it's all in the name of research. A quick hug of a stuffed Pygmy Puff makes me feel better instantly and I'm back on the prowl, thankful that I reserve a separate chamber in my stomach for ice cream. I've saved the best for last. Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry stays at the Leaky Cauldron prior to term. He spends every day sitting outside in the sun, eating ice creams at Florean Fortescue's, occasionally getting hep from the man himself on his homework. Ever since reading that passage, I thought that sounded like an amazing way to spend an afternoon, homework excluded, so I ignored the voice in my head saying you've had enough for one day, and decide to try as many flavors as possible. Photo credit: Kathryn Wirsing The interior of the tiny shop is packed, but I manage to sneak a peek and it's a delightbright colors and a baked-good-meets-icy-goodies smell. The hum of the freezers and the happy chatter of the crowd creates a feeling of not-unpleasant madness. I gather up as many flavors as I can and take them outside for an epic tasting. The soft-serve flavors here look insane in the best way. They all have a vanilla base, but then flavored syrups are added to create pretty lines in the ice cream. My favorite: the Earl Grey & Lavender. I am not a tea person AT ALL, but the ice cream was so light and fresh tasting, that it was a blessing after some of the heavier flavors I scarfed down. Butterbeer was everything I've already waxed poetic aboutit's like licking the foam out of the bottom of the glass. And the Salted Caramel Blondie is a brownie, chocolate chip cookie, and an Oreo with salted caramel drizzle. In short, it's everything you could want in a dessert. After the ice cream binge has concluded I'm fairly convinced I've been hit by a stupefy charm, because I CAN NOT MOVE. Dusk is setting in behind Gringotts Bank, the crowd is miraculously thinning, and the dragon gives another one of it's trusty roars. I am seriously ready for a four-poster bed in my very own Gryffindor common room. The level of detail, love, and deliciousness in this place is totally overwhelming, especially as I head out toward King's Cross Station. I know it will take actual magic to make me ever want to eat againbut for now, all was well. Follow Delish on Instagram. PIN IT FOR LATER: You Might Also Like Matthew Lewis will never forget where he was when he learned of Alan Rickman's death in January. The 26-year-old actor, best known for playing Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter franchise, opened up with FAULT Magazine recently about the fateful day he heard that his former co-star had died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 69. In a strange twist of fate, Lewis happened to be touring the sets of the forthcoming Harry Potter prequel, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, when he found out. WATCH: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and J.K. Rowling Mourn the Loss of Alan Rickman "[A producer] was taking me around the studio when the news came through. We were both just completely stunned," Lewis recalled. "But also, to be in the studio when that came through, suddenly every room that I went into, every corridor that I walked down on, I suddenly remembered a story or an image of Alan." However, being surrounded by memories of the late actor actually helped Lewis deal with the news. "It got a bit odd. It was quite surreal. But also, powerfully moving as well. It was quite nice to be there. All those happy memories came flooding back and I got quite nostalgic actually," he shared. WATCH: Alan Rickman: From 'Die Hard' to 'Harry Potter,' A Look Back at His Most Memorable Roles Lewis shared a tribute to Rickman when he died five months ago, posting a photo of the two of them to Instagram, which he captioned, "I was at Leavesden Studios today when I heard the news. As I walked through the canteen I thought of Alan queuing up for his lunch with us mere mortals." "I recalled the trailer in which he offered me some of the greatest advice I ever received about this mad profession we shared," Lewis continued in the caption. "Being back in those corridors made me remember a lot of things and I will treasure those memories all my life. He inspired my career more than he ever knew and I'll miss him." Story continues WATCH: Helen Mirren Shares What She Misses About Alan Rickman Rickman's passing hit Hollywood hard and elicited an outpouring of condolences and memories from his friends and colleagues in the days after his death. Speaking with ET in February, Rickman's Eye in the Sky co-star Helen Mirren shared her fond memories of the veteran thespian. "He was the best person to go out to dinner with," Mirren recalled. "He was very generous. He always insisted on paying the bill, he was just entertaining and fun and funny and loved going out to dinner and chatting. He loved that." For more on the life and legacy of the celebrated Harry Potter star, check out the video below. Related Articles Clare before her weight loss. (Photo: SWNS) A mother who weighed 280 pounds has lost a quarter of her body weight after her boyfriend broke up with her for being overweight, MetroUK reports. Clare Johnson had been warned that she would need brain surgery if she didnt slim down after doctors diagnosed her with a rare neurological condition called idiopathic intracranial hypertension, which puts pressure on the brain. The condition caused Johnson to stay in bed with severe migraines for days on end leading her to put on excessive amounts of weight. She was finally motivated to shed the pounds after splitting from her boyfriend last December and is now totally unrecognizable. The mom of two dropped from a size 20 to a size 6 after losing 100 pounds! Photo: SWNS Johnson, 31, from Staffordshire, England, told MetroUK, I was really low at the time and I was gutted when I got dumped. But now I get a few glances in the street from men, which doesnt interest me as Ive now found love. She now cooks healthy food with the help of daughters Danica, 12, and Millie, 10 and a check up is expected to reveal that her brain condition is in remission. Photo: SWNS My neurosurgeon said I had to lose weight or have brain surgery to drain fluid away and reduce the pressure on my brain, Johnson told MetroUK. I would wake up feeling awful and stay in bed sometimes to try and cope with the pain. I didnt binge eat at all, I just got fat due to the lack of movement, and then when Adrian broke up with me I was devastated. Describing her incredible weight loss, she added, I joined Slimming World and Elite Fitness in March last year, and when I could see it was working I just carried on going. Slimming World is a UK-based weight-loss support organization. Related: 10 Tips for Losing Weight (From People Whove Done It) Photo: SWNS I never really liked exercise and thought I couldnt do it. The feeling that I could do something that I never thought I could achieve spurred me on and I kept at it, Johnson said. Now Im quite addicted to exercise and go to the gym three or four times a week. Story continues When I was told to lose weight I thought there was no chance I could do it, but I did and so can others. Just keep trying and those small steps will add up to a massive change. Get inspired with more weight loss wins! Lets keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Beauty on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Have a beauty story youd like to share with us? Email ybeautystories@yahoo.com. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., May 5, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Via Dave Lutz at JonesTrading, here's a super-quick guide to what traders are talking about right now: Good Morning! Markets are starting June in cautious mood, with US futures off 40bp - a combo of weaker global PMIs, Lower Commodity prices, OECD warning on Growth, and Brexit angst growing. Nothing but Red in Europe, with the DAX off nearly 1% as Miners are getting smoked across Europe and London Glencore, Rio and Anglo all off 3%+ in London hitting the FTSE for 75bp. Financials across the continent are seeing heavy profit-taking, with the EU Fin index off 2.2%. Volumes are pacing average. Asian readings on manufacturing and services sectors were generally disappointing, and the Yen stronger as Abe delays sales tax hike (as expected), hitting Nikkei for 1.6%. Aussie got whacked for 1% as commodity names got hit, while Shanghai closed almost flat. With the $ retreating, most EM Asian markets closed higher. The DXY is retreating from 9week peaks, and we have a continued bid into Havens the German 10YY down to 12bp, while US 10YY takes out yesterdays lows to yield 1.82%. Fed Funds for a June hike are retreating fast, as Sterling one-month hedging costs hit highest levels in over seven years BREXIT a key geo-political risk that could cause the Fed to wait until July. Aussie GDP better has A$ in rally mode, hitting the Greenback to yesterdays lows. Despite this tailwind for commodities, Metals are getting smoked, led by a 1.5% drop in Copper While the Crude complex drops over 1% into OPEC tomorrow as little change is expected. Natty is adding very small to yesterdays rally, confounding the growing short-base, while softs are all off small. Ahead of us today, Automakers will report May vehicle sales at 9:45 we get Markit US Manufacturing PMI, just ahead of the official ISM Manufacturing read at 10, along with Construction Spending. At 2pm, the Fed Releases Beige Book. After the close, we get that API data for Crude, Gasoline and Distillates at 4:30 (Crude supplies seen dropping 2.5M, with 745k coming out of Cushing according to Bloomberg). OPEC and ECB tomorrow, ahead of US Jobs on Friday continue to dominate traders thoughts. Quiet down in Washington, as the House and Senate are in recess. At 9am, the National Academy of Sciences begins 2-day meeting on biotechnology trends. Story continues NOW WATCH: The one thing you can add to coffee for even more energy in the morning More From Business Insider rogue-one-a-star-wars-story-felicity-jones_Disney-brightened Disney Earlier this week, many Bothans died to bring us a rumor that there would be a few weeks of reshoots on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (first trailer here) because Disney executives were allegedly unhappy with the tone of Gareth Edwards New Hope prequel. To be fair, reshoots were already scheduled in advance for this June with Rogue One still set to open this December 16th as expected and Star Wars: The Force Awakens also underwent three weeks of reshoots. Now The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, and other sources confirm the Rogue One reshoots and explain Disneys motivation for them, which boils down to both the tone of the film and a potential cameo (more on that in a moment). Contrary to all of my theories, they arent adding three weeks worth of lovingly slow panning shots of Ben Mendelsohns fancy capes. Reportedly, Disney executives thought Rogue One was lacking the edge that Force Awakens had, and was tonally off with what a classic Star Wars movie should feel like. Sources told The Hollywood Reporter the current cut of Rogue One is like a war movie (um, yeah, theyre at war) and Disney wants to broaden the appeal. The goal of the reshoots will be to lighten the mood, bring some levity into the story and restore a sense of fun to the adventure. [] This is the closest thing to a prequel ever, a source tells THR. This takes place just before A New Hope and leads up to the 10 minutes before that classic film begins. You have to match the tone! Geez, now we know what happens after the ending of Rogue One. Thanks for the spoilers! Im never reading a source again. (Yes, this is sarcasm.) Writers for The Hollywood Reporter and Variety are also weighing in on Twitter, saying pretty much the same thing: ROGUE ONE, according to one of my guys, as prequel-ly as a prequel can get, leading up to 10 minutes before A NEW HOPE begins.Tone matters. Borys Kit (@Borys_Kit) June 1, 2016 Yes, there will be more shooting for ROGUE ONE. The first cut was pretty serious. The new stuff to inject fun, "classic" #StarWars feel. Borys Kit (@Borys_Kit) June 1, 2016 Sources say reshoots are expected on ROGUE 1; nothing to worry about, most of the shoot will involve the cameo of a very important character Justin Kroll (@krolljvar) May 31, 2016 As the last of those tweets references, another theory going around quite a bit is that the reshoots will add a cameo by Alden Ehrenreich as a young Han Solo. Will a quick cameo by Han Solo interject enough fun to turn this war movie into a four quadrant adventure? Would that it were so simple. (Via The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, and CBM) * Hikma to replace Inmarsat in FTSE 100 * Metro Bank, CYBG, CMC Markets to be added in FTSE 250 * Jimmy Choo, Melrose, Ophir Energy to leave FTSE 250 By Atul Prakash LONDON, June 1 (Reuters) - Hikma Pharmaceuticals will be promoted to Britain's blue chip FTSE 100 equity index following a sharp rally in its shares since March, while satellite firm Inmarsat will drop out of the index. The London Stock Exchange Group said on Wednesday that the changes will take effect on June 20. Getting into the FTSE 100 can often fuel further demand for a company's shares, since funds that track the FTSE or invest in the index can then add that stock to their portfolio, while the inverse is true if a company falls out of the FTSE 100. Shares in Hikma, which reiterated its guidance for 2016 last month and said it continued to expect full year group revenue in the range of $2.0 billion to $2.1 billion, have surged 45 percent since mid-March. On the other hand, Inmarsat has fallen 37 percent since early February as the company is facing tough trading conditions in its maritime and government markets businesses. A slowdown in the global economy has hit its shipping-related operations, one of the main engines for cash flow in the satellite communications group. The rankings are decided on the basis of market capitalizations. Companies with the lowest market cap in the FTSE 100 drop into the FTSE 250 mid-cap index, and vice versa. The companies joining the mid-cap index included Metro Bank , CYBG, whose brands include Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank, and CMC Markets. Shares in the three companies have climbed between 10 percent and 30 percent since the start of April. Other companies to be promoted to the FTSE 250 index are Countryside Properties, Hill & Smith Holdings, Smurfit Kappa Group and Ascential. The companies being demoted to the FTSE small cap index are: Jimmy Choo, Highbridge Multi-Strategy Fund , Interserve, Lookers, Melrose Industries, Northgate and Ophir Energy , the Stock Exchange Group said in a statement. (Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Vikram Subhedar) As polls show tightening in California in her race for the Democratic nomination against Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton has sharpened her attacks on Donald Trump. At an appearance at Rutgers University on Wednesday, where she was joined by rocker Jon Bon Jovi, Clinton said that Trump is trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump U. His own employees testified his own employees testified that Trump U you cant make this up that Trump U was a fraudulent scheme where Donald Trump enriched himself at the expense of hard-working people, Clinton said. Clinton is taking on a line of attack akin to that of Marco Rubio during the Republican primary, in which he brought up the Trump University litigation and called Trump a con artist. But Trump went on to win anyway, and Rubio recently indicated that he would back him. If anything, Clintons attack could help assuage concerns over how she would take on Trump in a general election, and that she would be the stronger candidate to do so. A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll shows that Clinton led Sanders by just two points, 49% to 47%, in the California primary. Although it is likely that she will capture enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination by Tuesday, a loss in California would be an inauspicious end to primary season. Sanders also may be emboldened to take his fight to the convention in July, which he has already committed to do. On Tuesday, a trove of documents was made public in a federal court in California, including Trump University playbooks, as part of a class action suit against the venture, in which a former student characterizes Trump U as a scam. The playbooks gave instructions to course organizers on how to set up introductory sessions and seminars, how to sell real-estate course retreats for as high as $34,995, and how to persuade prospective students to put tuition on their credit cards even if they are reluctant to go into debt. One of the details in the documents showed that instructors were to play the OJays For the Love of Money, used in the show Trump hosted, The Apprentice. Story continues The organizers also wanted to draw on the success of the NBC series by running ads that said, I want you to be my apprentice. In an unsealed 2012 deposition, Michael Sexton, a former president of Trump University, said that the thinking was, theres millions of dollars in advertisement for The Apprentice TV show. If were in The Apprentice TV show season, it will be top of mind for people. He also said that got the idea to approach Trump about the idea for Trump University during the first season of the show, when he thought that from a branding standpoint, it would be a very, very effective way to connect with people. Trump has insisted that he will win the case and that students were highly satisfied. His campaign released a video in which former students praise the classes and real estate education they got from it. Crooked Hillary Clinton is a fraud who has put the public and country at risk by her illegal and very stupid use of e-mails, Trump tweeted on Wednesday. He is being represented in the California case by Dan Petrocelli of OMelveny & Myers. Petrocelli has a history of donating to Democrats, and gave $2,700 to Clintons presidential campaign in January, according to Federal Election Commission records. Clintons campaign also tweeted out links to a flurry of stories about the documents, in an effort to convey a negative out of one of Trumps perceived strengths, his business acumen. Clinton told the crowd in New Jersey that the documents were just more evidence that Donald Trump himself is a fraud. The Democratic National Committee also hammered Trump over Trump U. On a press call, Kevin de Leon, president pro tem of the California state senate, called him a con artist who is only out for himself. The judge in the case, Gonzalo P. Curiel, wrote that a factor in their release was that Trump has become the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential race, and has placed the integrity of these court proceedings at issue. On Friday, when Trump was appearing at a rally in San Diego, called Curiel a hater of Donald Trump and someone who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great. I think thats fine. On Twitter, Trump also complained that the judge is totally biased against me. Clinton is returning to California on Thursday, to give a national security speech in San Diego, and is scheduled to remain in the state until at least Monday. That evening, her campaign is staging a fundraising concert at the Greek Theater featuring Ricky Martin, Christina Aguilera, Andra Day, John Legend and Stevie Wonder. Related stories WME: We're Not Doing Trump's Convention Film SiriusXM Suspends Glenn Beck Over Guest's Anti-Donald Trump Comments California Governor Jerry Brown Endorses Hillary Clinton Hillary Clinton Hillary Clinton's campaign launched an all-out assault against Donald Trump on Wednesday over Trump University, the controversial for-profit school that has come under increased fire for its programs. The assault came on several fronts from Clinton and her campaign by email, on Twitter, and at a rally in New Jersey. Clinton's attacks came the day after hundreds of pages of internal documents were released in connection with an ongoing lawsuit against the now defunct program on real estate and investing. The documents include sales and marketing "playbooks" from 2007 through 2010 that advised instructors on how to sell the courses to students. "Trump and his employees took advantage of vulnerable Americans, encouraging them to max out their credit cards, empty their retirement savings, destroy their financial futures, all while making promises they knew were false from the beginning," Clinton said at a Newark rally, according to CNN reporter Dan Merica. "This is just more evidence that Donald Trump himself is a fraud. He is trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump U," she said. Meanwhile, Clinton's press shop sent out several emails about Trump University on Wednesday, highlighting news stories about the document dump. The articles from Reuters, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post had unflattering headlines, like "Trump University told students how to 'cash in' on housing crash" and "Former Trump University Workers Call the School a 'Lie' and a 'Scheme' in Testimony." The Clinton campaign has also been using Republican politicians' own words to make a point about how prominent members of the party have criticized Trump over the school. Clinton's campaign Twitter account on Wednesday retweeted a March tweet from 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney that called Trump a "phony" and a "fraud." Story continues "Here's what I know," Romney tweeted on March 3, the day he gave a high-profile speech coming out against Trump's candidacy. "Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University." Romney is still speaking out against Trump, but another prominent Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has come around to supporting Trump since dropping out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Clinton's campaign press secretary, Brian Fallon, also on Wednesday resurfaced a February tweet from Rubio that he posted while he was still battling Trump for the nomination. "Trump University duped everyday Americans and Donald Trump made millions off of it," Rubio tweeted, with a link to his website. Fallon also cited an old tweet from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, another former Trump rival who hasn't said yet whether he'll support the real-estate mogul's White House bid: The Trump campaign launched a counterattack of its own with a video of former Trump University students speaking out in support of the program. Trump remains enmeshed in multiple lawsuits filed by former students of Trump University and faces a third fraud suit from New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, which likely won't go to trial until after the November election. The suits accuse Trump of defrauding thousands of students with worthless classes on real estate and investing. Abby Jackson contributed to this report. NOW WATCH: Trump continues walking back his stance that transgender people can use whichever bathroom they want More From Business Insider From Popular Mechanics You never know what will turn up on eBay. Volunteers from the National Museum of Computing in Bletchley Park, England, found the keyboard of a Lorenz machine-a cipher system used to create encrypted Nazi messages during WWII-for sale on eBay for 9.50 GBP, or less than 15 bucks. When a museum volunteer traveled to Essex to inspect the hardware, he found the keyboard in its original casing, out in a shed, buried under a pile of rubbish. The volunteer gladly paid 10 GBP for the keyboard and went on his way. The "teleprinter" looks like a typewriter, and it was used to enter messages in plain German before the Lorenz cipher machine itself used 12 individual wheels to encrypt the message. Three Lorenz machines-larger and more intricate than the Enigma machines-were used by the German high command to send classified messages during World War II, including personal messages from Hitler to his generals. British codebreaker and mathematician William "Bill" Tutte was able to envision the structure of a Lorenz machine without ever seeing one, allowing the Allies to decipher top-secret Nazi communications and gain a significant advantage over Germany in the war. Finding the teleprinter brings the Museum of Computing one step closer to having a complete, functioning Lorenz machine. According to the BBC, the Museum is only missing one last component before they can recreate the process of encoding a German message: the electric motor that drives the gears on the Lorenz machine. The museum is asking the public to keep an eye out for the motor, possibly for sale on eBay, and is considering building one to run the machine in the meantime. Source: British National Museum of Computing via BBC The show must go on and it has for actor Johnny Depp, who has continued to tour with his band the Hollywood Vampires despite the shocking domestic abuse allegations levied against him by wife Amber Heard last week. (In a response to Heard's claim, Depp's divorce attorney, Laura Wasser, said in court documents that "Amber is attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse.") While Depp is known best as an Oscar-nominated actor, famous for his turns in both serious dramas like Black Mass as well as franchise films like Pirates of the Caribbean, he's spent much of the last year playing guitar with the recently formed supergroup. The Hollywood Vampires, which consists of Alice Cooper and Aerosmith's Joe Perry, as well as Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum, were formed in 2015. Releasing their first album in September 2015 an impressive record that featured guest appearances by everyone from Paul McCartney to Dave Grohl the group announced their tour soon after, taking them from Los Angeles' The Roxy to Brazil. The band's current European tour recently made stops in Portugal, Germany and Sweden. Here's everything else you need to know about the band while they continue their tour, amid Depp's divorce proceedings. How they met Depp and Cooper first met in 2011 while the actor was filming Dark Shadows, according to Rolling Stone. The musician invited Depp to join him for a performance at London's 100 Club, which eventually led to jam sessions and, even further, dreams of creating an album. Perry was staying on Cooper's estate at the time, so he was a natural addition. "Joe would come down and start playing, and I went, 'There's the band, right there,' " Cooper told Rolling Stone. "We've got two guitar players that sing, now we need a drummer and a bass player, and then everybody started emerging. We just rocked it." What their name means Cooper was a member of the first iteration of the Hollywood Vampires, a drinking club founded at the upstairs bar of the Roxy in 1972. "To join the club, one simply had to out drink all of the members," Cooper said in a press release last year. "I would walk in on a typical night and John Lennon, Harry Nilsson, Keith Moon who would usually be in a costume like a maid or a chauffeurBernie Taupin, Jim Morrison and Mickey Dolenz would be there. The next week might be Bernie Taupin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Mickey Dolenz." Eventually, the group was bequeathed a special plaque at the bar according to Rolling Stone, which read "The Lair of the Hollywood Vampires." What they play While the Hollywood Vampires is not strictly a cover group, the band's album mostly includes tributes to famous tunes of the past, like "My Generation" by The Who and "Manic Depression" by Jimi Hendrix. Homeland is nearing a renewal for Season 7 and Season 8, Showtime CEO David Nevins told reporters on Wednesday. Were just about done with a deal with Fox 21 for Homeland for three more years starting for season six, he said on a conference call. The hit series will also move from its regular fall premiere date to a winter debut scheduled for January 2017 in its upcoming sixth season. Season 6 will begin production in New York this August, once again starring Claire Danes, Rupert Friend, F. Murray Abraham and Mandy Patinkin. Speaking to reporters, Nevins indicated that the series could run for many more seasons to come. Homeland is a show thats constantly reinventing itself, Nevins said. Its not on a straight character trajectory path. Its changing season to season. More than most, its a show that has an open-ended expiration date because of the subject matter. After she thwarted a terrorist attack in Berlin, season six picks up several months later and finds Carrie Mathison (Danes) back on American soil, living in Brooklyn, NY. She has begun working at a foundation whose efforts are to provide aid to Muslims living in the United States. Season six will tackle the after effects of the U.S. presidential election, with the entire season taking place between election day and the inauguration. Its a strange, transitional time in the halls of government filled with anxiety and different competing interests, where a very fragile and complex transfer of power takes place between the outgoing president and the incoming president-elect. Homeland was developed for American television by Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon, and is based on the original Israeli series Prisoners of War by Gideon Raff. Along with Gansa and Gordon, the executive producers for season six will be Chip Johannessen, Lesli Linka Glatter, Patrick Harbinson, Michael Klick, Gideon Raff, Avi Nir and Ran Telem. We are proud that Homeland has been so consistently recognized for its excellence with awards and critical acclaim, but we are in awe of how the series fearlessly mines the geopolitics of our complicated world and translates that into compelling human drama, Nevins said in a statement released by the network. Under Alex Gansas brilliant leadership, Homeland has shown an uncanny ability to reinvent itself which makes us supremely confident that this show will remain as distinctive, relevant and cutting edge as anything on television for as long as these producers want to continue. Story continues Related stories Showtime Boss David Nevins on HBO, 'Homeland's' Future & 'Twin Peaks' 'Shameless,' 'The Affair,' 'Masters of Sex' Season Premiere Dates Set at Showtime Showtime Orders Comedy Pilot 'White Famous' from Jamie Foxx and 'Californication' Creator Key Events in the Consumer Sector in the Fourth Week of May (Continued from Prior Part) Price movement Hormel Foods (HRL) fell by 0.23% and closed at $34.78 per share at the end of the fourth week of May 2016. The stocks weekly, monthly, and YTD (year-to-date) price movements were -0.23%, -10.2%, and -11.4%, respectively. This means that Hormel Foods is trading 7.9% below its 20-day moving average, 12.7% below its 50-day moving average, and 6.1% below its 200-day moving average. Related ETFs and peers The Fidelity MSCI Consumer Staples ETF (FSTA) invests 0.63% of its holdings in Hormel Foods. FSTA tracks a market-cap-weighted index of stocks in the US consumer staples sector. FSTAs YTD price movement was 4.7% as of May 27, 2016. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) invests 0.07% of its holdings in Hormel Foods. SPY tracks a market-cap-weighted index of US large and mid-cap stocks selected by the S&P Committee. The market caps of Hormel Foods competitors are as follows: Tyson Foods (TSN) $24.1 billion ConAgra Foods (CAG) $19.8 billion Hormel Foods purchased Justins LLC Hormel Foods purchased Justins LLC from private equity firm VMG Partners. Justins LLC makes natural and high-quality nut butter, nut butter snacks, and organic peanut butter cups. This transaction will provide Hormel Foods an established customer base and product portfolio. Performance in fiscal 2Q16 Hormel Foods reported fiscal 2Q16 net sales of $2.30 billiona rise of 0.92% compared to net sales of $2.27 billion in fiscal 2Q15. The sales from Hormel Foods grocery products and refrigerated foods segments rose by 1.1% and 6.8%, respectively. The sales from its Jennie-O Turkey, specialty foods, international, and other segments fell by 3.5%, 5.2%, and 17.2%, respectively, in fiscal 2Q16compared to fiscal 2Q15. The companys cost of products sold as a percentage of net sales fell by 3.4% and its operating income rose by 16.6% in fiscal 2Q16compared to the same period the previous year. The company reported a goodwill repair charge of $0.99 million in fiscal 2Q16. Story continues Its net income and EPS (earnings per share) rose to $215.4 million and $0.40, respectively, in fiscal 2Q16compared to $180.2 million and $0.33, respectively, in fiscal 2Q15. Hormels cash and cash equivalents and inventories rose by 9.4% and 3.4%, respectively, in fiscal 2Q16compared to fiscal 4Q15. Its current ratio rose to 2.1x and its debt-to-equity ratio fell to 0.42x in fiscal 2Q16compared to 1.7x and 0.53x, respectively, in fiscal 4Q15. Quarterly dividend Hormel Foods declared a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share on its common stock. The dividend will be paid on August 15, 2016, to shareholders of record at the close of business on July 18, 2016. Projections Hormel Foods expects EPS of $1.56$1.60 per share for fiscal 2016based on its 2Q16 results and growth expectations for the second half of the year. It expects a rise in earnings from refrigerated foods and grocery products, Jennie-O Turkey, and specialty foods. In the next part, well take a look at TreeHouse Foods (THS). Continue to Next Part Browse this series on Market Realist: Women are struggling to break into company boardrooms and get a seat at the table. In the United States, women account for just 12% of boardroom membership, severely below many European countries, according to a report by PwC. Deb Henretta, senior advisor at SSA & Company, told Yahoo Finances Seana Smith that it's time to take action to ensure women are in top leadership positions. First, set clear and measurable goals, which include looking beyond the typical CEO role for potential board members. If you have a goal that you encourage companies to achieve, I think we'll start to see more progress, said Henretta. We're going to have to look a little bit harder and look for women that are running large profitable businesses within companies or having leadership roles within those companies, but not necessarily having the CEO title. Henretta also said its important for companies to encourage the movement and progression of women, extend maternity and paternity leave and incorporate flexible work schedules. And it's in a company's best interest to have women in c-level positions. According to a study by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, which included 21,980 firms from 91 countries, gender diversity in high leadership roles results in improved firm performance. In an effort to address the lack of women in leadership positions, some countries have introduced mandated quotas for female boardroom membership. In 2003, Norway was the first in Europe to legislate boardroom quotas, followed by Spain and Iceland. In 2011, a bill was passed in France requiring 40% female directorship by 2016. And so far it looks like the mandate is working. PwC found that the largest increases were observed in countries with specific targets for female board membership. Norway is the worldwide leader with 39% of female boardroom representation, followed by Finland (30%), France (26%), Germany (17%) and the United Kingdom (17%). Story continues The success overseas highlights the fact that while theres progress being made in the US, more needs to be done. Weve nearly doubled the number of women board members over the past decade, but that progress just isnt fast enough. We need to see more women get onto boards because the boardroom is where important critical decisions like strategy and succession planning are being made, said Henretta. And if companies are searching for the appropriate actions to take, Henretta said there are some big corporations that are setting a great example. Netflix (NFLX) recently extended its maternity and paternity leaves Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) [has a] Women's Leadership Initiative where they're taking steps to try to internally promote women and to get them ready for increasing levels of responsibility. BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian police secured a fenced-in migrant processing center near the Serbian border on Wednesday to block about 300 protesting migrants from marching to Budapest, police said in a statement. A Syrian chosen as spokesman for the protest gave a petition to officials at the camp in the town of Kiskunhalas, it said, and then urged the migrants to march to the Hungarian capital, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) to the north. A video posted on the news website index.hu showed dozens of people chanting "freedom, freedom!" behind a high wire fence while dozens of police vehicles and officers with dogs patrolled the area to secure the perimeter of the camp. "About 300 of the 484 detained migrants protested against closed quarters and slow processing of their cases," said the statement. "Police have deployed significant force to secure the processing center and the surrounding area and will stop migrants from leaving the premises of the center." The camp is closed because it houses migrants who have been expelled from Hungary legally but have not yet been deported. Police spoke with the migrants and a conflict was unlikely, Gyorgy Bakondi, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's national security advisor, told public television M1. Hungary was on the main overland route that about a million migrants took last year from the Middle East to Western Europe. Budapest diverted that traffic with a razor wire fence along its southern border with Serbia and Croatia. The flow has since slowed but thousands have still managed to make it through this year, keeping the issue in the public eye as Orban prepares a referendum in which he will ask voters to reject an EU plan to re-distribute migrants. Thousands of migrants camped out in front of a central Budapest train station for weeks last August before a large group of them decided to march for the Austrian border, forcing Hungary to abandon its efforts to process their claims and elevating tensions about the migrant crisis across Europe. (Reporting by Marton Dunai; Editing by Tom Heneghan) Will IAMGOLD Continue to Be a High-Leverage Play on Gold Prices? (Continued from Prior Part) Challenges at the Westwood mine IAMGOLDs (IAG) Westwood project is located in southwest Quebec, Canada. This site started production in 1Q13. It achieved commercial production in 2014, producing 70,000 ounces in the first two quarters of the year. However, the mine has encountered three rock bursts so far. The workers at the site were safely evacuated after the rock bursts, but the full cause is not yet known. Ongoing concerns While the company remains confident regarding the prospects of Westwood, any such event in the future could lead to safety hazards as well as the loss of partial or full production. Also, to ensure stability at the mine, the company might have to spend much more than it has budgeted for. This could lower the potential returns from the project. Westwood mine remains key In the face of issues at the companys other mines as discussed in the previous part, its Westwood mine remains key to increasing production while reducing costs. While Westwood has the potential to turn investor interest toward IAG in the future, the company needs to demonstrate a robust ramp-up and consistent stability at the site. Until then, the risks related to another potential rock burst, cost overruns, and production halts are far too great to be ignored. IAGs peer Eldorado Gold (EGO) is also facing issues regarding its mines in Greece, while New Golds (NGD) capital expenditure requirements for its key Rainy River project are creeping higher. Investors looking to invest in gold may also want to look at leveraged ETFs such as the Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Bull 3X ETF (JNUG) and the Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull 3X ETF (NUGT). Continue to Next Part Browse this series on Market Realist: A Closer Look at French Giant Totals Strategy and Performance (Continued from Prior Part) Impact of the Total, Oil Search, and InterOil deal In the previous part, we studied the deal between Total (TOT), Oil Search, and InterOil. In this part, well analyze the impact of the deal. After the acquisition, Totals interest in PRL 15 will rise to 62% from the current 40%. Plus, Oil Searchs stake will increase from 22.8% to 37.4%. Oil Searchs acquisition of InterOil (IOC) is expected to close in 3Q16. Total (TOT) plans to focus on the Papua LNG project in terms of lowering capex, reducing operating cost, fast-tracking the project, and making optimum utilization of resources. The Papua LNG is expected to come online by early next decade, when a robust demand for gas is anticipated. Total (TOT) also plans to synergize the Papua LNG and PNG LNG projects to maximize returns to its stakeholders. A word from management The deal is in line with Totals (TOT) objective to focus on gas and LNG projects in its upstream portfolio. Gas currently accounts for 48% of TOTs production mix. According to Totals management, Following our entry into PRL 15 in 2014, this agreement between Total and Oil Search demonstrates Totals strong commitment to the development of PNGs gas resources. In line with our strategy to hold significant interest when we are operator, we will increase our operated interest to a more material level to drive the future development of the Papua LNG project, a low-cost onshore LNG project close to Asian markets. For global stock exposure, you could consider the Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT). This ETF has TOT in its portfolio. VT also contains Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) and Chevron (CVX) in its portfolio. In the next part, we will analyze Totals stock performance. Continue to Next Part Browse this series on Market Realist: NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Indian government has said a company acquiring mining rights from another firm will be charged 80 percent of royalty as premium if the acreage was originally obtained without bidding. The 80 percent charge will be on top of royalty that the new mining lease holder will pay to the state, the government said in an order on Wednesday. "When a mine is auctioned an additional premium has to be paid on royalty. This premium has been imposed using the same analogy," Mines Secretary Balvinder Kumar told Reuters. India last month approved an amendment to the mining law, allowing the transfer of mines rights, mainly aimed at helping companies sell limestone mining licences along with their cement plants. However, the government had not notified charges to be paid by the acquirer of the mining lease on top of royalty to the state government. India has auctioned six mines and is likely to put up another 50-60 mines for bidding this year, Kumar said at an industry event. (Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu) Ahmedabad (India) (AFP) - An Indian court convicted two dozen Hindus on Thursday over a massacre during religious riots 14 years ago when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was chief minister of Gujarat state. Sixty-nine Muslims were hacked and burnt to death as they sheltered at a residential complex in the city of Ahmedabad, in one of the single worst massacres of the week-long violence. The riots that left more than 1,000 people dead in total have long dogged Modi who was accused by human rights groups of turning a blind eye to the violence as head of Gujarat. But the latest verdicts are unlikely to have an impact on the Hindu nationalist premier who was cleared in 2012 by a Supreme Court-ordered investigation of any wrongdoing. Celebrations erupted in the courtroom in Ahmedabad amid tight security after the verdicts were read out, but some victims and their families were left disappointed. Judge PB Desai found 11 of the Hindus guilty of murder and 13 of lesser charges, with all of them set to be sentenced on Monday. But Desai acquitted another 36 people for lack of evidence including a former local police inspector on negligence charges and a local organiser of Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The judge also stated the massacre was a spontaneous attack, not a pre-planned criminal conspiracy against the Muslim minority as victims have alleged. "I am happy 24 accused were convicted but sad that 36 others have been acquitted. This is incomplete justice and I will fight till the end," Zakia Jafri, whose husband was killed in the massacre, told reporters. More than 300 witnesses gave evidence during the years-long trial that began in 2009 but was delayed by legal challenges and several of the original accused died. Prosecutors had been seeking life in prison for all of the accused after a rampaging mob stormed the Gulbarg Society complex, killing the Muslims who were hiding there. - Pleas for help - Among those killed was former opposition Congress party lawmaker Ehsan Jafri whose wife, Zakia, claims that he repeatedly called police for help but none came. Story continues Zakia is fighting a separate legal battle demanding that Modi and others be held responsible for failing to stop the riots. The violence was triggered by the death of 59 Hindu pilgrims in a train fire on February 27, 2002 that was initially blamed on Muslims. Hindus bent on revenge rampaged through Muslim neighbourhoods in some of India's worst religious riots since independence from Britain and partition in 1947. More than 100 people have already been convicted over the riots, including one of Modi's former state ministers who was jailed for instigating some of the killings. Rupa Mody, whose teenage son went missing during the massacre and whose body was never found, said she was left disappointed. "After such a long wait I feel this is half justice. I am sad that after 14 years of struggle 36 accused are free. We will continue our struggle and challenge the acquittals," she told AFP. The trial into the massacre only began after the Supreme Court ordered in 2009 a reinvestigation into some of the worst incidents of the riots. But one year later the same court issued a stay on any final verdict from the trial after a petition was filed seeking a probe into whether Modi and others played a role in the violence. The court only lifted its order last year when a lower court upheld a rejection of the petition. By Rajendra Jadhav MUMBAI (Reuters) - The area under guar seed production in India, the biggest producer of the tiny seed used to extract shale gas in fracturing, could drop 20 percent in the coming sowing season due to falling global oil prices. "Guar seed farmers are unhappy. They are likely to shift to pulses. We could see as high as 15-20 percent reduction in guar seed area," said K N Rahiman, chief research officer at Ruchi Soya, a leading guar gum exporter. Guar seed prices have fallen to the lowest level in five years after the U.S. shale gas producers cut guar gum purchases due to lower oil prices. Guar seed prices have fallen 41 percent in a year to 3,100 rupees per 100 kg, while the prices of pulses such as red gram have nearly doubled over the same period. "At the current price guar is not profitable. Pulses, paddy are giving better returns," said Balbir Arniawali, a farmer from Sirsa district of northern state of Haryana. Arniawali has not sold last year's harvest, hoping prices will recover, and has scaled back planting to 15 acres this year from 25 last year. Planting starts in June with the arrival of monsoon rains. Guar gum is extracted from the seeds and used to thicken the slurry of water, sand and chemicals pumped into wells during the hydraulic fracturing, and tap oil and gas. India, which produces 80 percent of the world's guar gum, saw exports from April to February fall 48 percent to 329,070 tonnes from a year ago. The United States, whose shale gas surge has transformed it from the world's leading gas importer to a budding exporter, is the biggest importer of Indian guar gum. More than half of India's guar gum processing plants are now closed and nearly half of the guar gum from last year's crop remains unsold, said a gum exporter based in Bikaner in north-western state of Rajasthan, the country's biggest producer. (Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Michael Perry) India's Tata Steel on Wednesday completed the part-sale of its European assets, safeguarding 4,800 jobs, but thousands more are threatened with no buyer found for the rest of the business. Tata Steel UK announced completion of the sale of its European piping business to Greybull Capital, a British-based family investment firm for an undisclosed sum. The deal, hailed by Tata, the British government and unions, means the return of the British Steel brand for the first time since 1999. "From today the Long Products Europe business... will trade under the name of British Steel," Tata Steel UK said in a statement. "All together the business employs 4,800 people -- 4,400 in the UK and 400 in France. The sale follows an accelerated process of negotiations between Tata Steel UK and Greybull Capital." Britain's government has been racing to find a buyer for Tata's UK assets -- and save around 16,000 jobs -- after the company's shock announcement in March that it was selling because of a global oversupply of steel, cheap imports into Europe, high costs and currency volatility. Tata Steel in April said it had agreed to sell its Long Products Europe (LPE) division, whose chief asset is the Scunthorpe works in northern England, to Greybull Capital. Long products are items such as steel pipes that are sold by length. Tata is still looking for a buyer for the rest of its British assets, including the Port Talbot steelworks on the south Wales coast, Britain's biggest steel plant, which employs 4,000 workers. "The sales process for the wider UK business is continuing," Tata told AFP in an emailed statement Wednesday. "Although we have been clear that the process needs to be time bound -- to avoid uncertainty for employees and customers -- we have not set a deadline on when it needs to conclude." Tata Steel last month said it had selected seven bidders as potential buyers of its remaining loss-making UK activities. Story continues Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative government has meanwhile said it would contribute hundreds of millions of pounds to any potential deal and take a 25 percent stake in the assets. - 'Long and proud history' - Tata on Wednesday said it would "not be commenting on the agreed price with Greybull". It had been widely reported that LPE was sold for a nominal 1 ($1.40, 1.3 euros), while Greybull said it would arrange a 400-million investment and financing package as part of the deal. The UK assets formerly belonged to Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus, which Tata bought for $13 billion in 2007 -- at the height of Chinese steel demand and before the global financial crisis. Corus had been formed through the merger of British Steel and Koninklijke Hoogovens in 1999. "The name British Steel has a long and proud history and... (the Greybull deal) underlines the government's belief that there really is a viable, sustainable future for world-class steelmaking in this country," Britain's Business Secretary Sajid Javid said in a statement Wednesday. Len McCluskey, general secretary of Britain's biggest union Unite, said the "first day of trading for British Steel is testament to the skills of the workforce and their union representatives who have worked hard to secure the future of Tata Steel's former long products division". From a rich beginning, Britain's steel industry has dwindled after losing foreign and domestic share to cheaper rivals. It accounted for 40 percent of the world's steel production in 1875 thanks to huge factory output in England's northern city Sheffield. Since the mid-20th century, Britain's steel industry has been nationalised and privatised on various occasions. What's Kept Payment Processors Strong among Financials in 2016? (Continued from Prior Part) E-commerce Visa (V) is thriving in the e-commerce space. Its e-commerce growth continues to be in the mid-teens compared to its single-digit growth in the physical world. The company saw 25% of spending occur through online transactions in fiscal 2Q16. Its investing more resources in technology upgrades to cater to increased spending through online transactions. Payment processors (DIA) are deploying more of their resources to e-commerce and wearable technologybased solutions. American Express (AXP) is spending its total allocated resources on the following: 30% on card member acquisition 30% on card member engagement, expansion of merchant coverage, lending on charges, and international lending 30% on other initiatives such as brand, service, technology, control, and compliance 10% on digital spending and its loyalty coalition business International revenue In the March quarter, Visa signed a memorandum of understanding with China UnionPay, wherein the companies would collaborate on payment security, innovation, and financial inclusion. Visa is also helping the Chinese government in its efforts to reduce poverty and promote financial inclusiveness. Visa announced a partnership with the China Foundation for Development of Financial Education and the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation. Visa also signed a cooperation plan with the China National Tourism Administration. Internationally, Banco do Brasil, the oldest and largest bank in South America, renewed a multiyear credit agreement with the company. In India, SBI Card, the State Bank of Indias credit card venture, renewed a multiyear credit card agreement with Visa. Revenue momentum for MasterCard (MA) is expected to continue in the current year, led by growth in Europe and Asia. MasterCard is also pushing for cost control in order to improve its margins. The companys main competitive advantages are accessibility, convenience, and security. Its brand name, product range, and track record of secure transaction processing give it an edge over new players. Story continues In the United States, MasterCard has confirmed its partnership with General Motors (GM). It will integrate digital enablement systems into GMs OnStar platform. MasterCard has also entered into a new partnership with Coin, a consumer electronics and financial software company. This marks a big move toward wearable payment systems. In the final part of our series, well see what earnings could be like for payment processors in 2016. Continue to Next Part Browse this series on Market Realist: Sometimes all it takes is an intricate, custom tattoo to cheer up a child... an airbrushed one That's just what 25-year-old New Zealand artist Benjamin Lloyd is providing. He's been traveling to hospitals and health centers to temporarily tat up young children. Why, you ask? To boost kids' confidence, of course. Lloyd had previously airbrushed the children of friends and family using non-toxic ink, the Bay of Plenty Times reports. He decided to post an image to Facebook saying that if it received 50 likes, he'd go to the Starship Children's Hospital in Auckland to tattoo its patients. Lloyd ended up getting 50 likes in 30 seconds, with the post currently boasting 469,000 likes and more than 250,000 shares. Impressive numbers for a man whose only mission was to put smiles on kid's faces. Source: Facebook But it didn't just stop at Starship. Comments like "Wish you were in America! We have a children's hospital with so many kiddos that cannot leave their hospital floor," and "Love love love this. From a parent who spent 6 months at Cincinnati children's hospital with my son before he passed. This is a great thing you do" led Lloyd to set up a donation website so that he could travel and "spread the love." Hospitals have been known to host similar activities like face painting. But Lloyd's work is a unique form of creative expression. On May 31, 2016, we issued an updated research report on Plainsboro, NJ-based Integra LifeSciences Holdings Corporation IART one of the leading regenerative medicine manufacturers in the world. The company develops, manufactures and markets cost-effective surgical implants and medical instruments. Integra commenced 2016 on a mixed note. While earnings missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate, revenues were ahead of the same in the first quarter. Moreover, the strong year-over-year improvement in revenues is indicative of the company's healthy growth via organic and inorganic means across all its segments. However, foreign exchange headwinds continue to pose a threat to the stock. Despite a challenging foreign exchange scenario, the company witnessed strong 8.5% revenue growth at constant exchange rate or CER in the Specialty Surgical Solution business in first-quarter 2016. This was largely driven by higher sales in its dural repair franchise, which grew in low teens year over year on increased volumes stemming from new customer wins for both DuraGen and DuraSeal. Additionally, Integra is successfully emerging through certain key developments on the overseas front. In the first quarter, despite challenges in Brazil and Mexico, the companys international business grew 7% organically with high-teen growth in the Asia Pacific on strong performance in China, Japan and Korea. Integra also witnessed considerable progress in its Specialty Surgical Solutions business on account of the French medical device line, MicroFrances buyout and nice uptake of MAYFIELD 2 cranial stabilization device in the Asia Pacific. Integra is currently running its business per a three-pillar strategy optimize, execute and accelerate growth. According to management, these three pillars support the companys strategic initiatives to optimize its infrastructure, deliver its commitments through improved planning and communication, and grow by introducing new products through internal development, geographic expansion and strategic acquisitions. Story continues On the flip side, many of Integras manufacturing, development or research facilities are vulnerable to natural disasters or unwanted events, which depending on the extent of their severity, might force the company to cease the development and manufacturing of some or all of its products. Moreover, it faces tough competition in the surgical implants and medical instruments market. Further, consolidation trends in the industry could lead to intense pricing pressure and competition for Integra. Integra currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Key Sector Picks Some better-ranked stocks in the medical sector are Retrophin, Inc. RTRX, Neogenomics Inc. NEO and ANI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ANIP. All the three stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report INTEGRA LIFESCI (IART): Free Stock Analysis Report RETROPHIN INC (RTRX): Free Stock Analysis Report NEOGENOMICS INC (NEO): Free Stock Analysis Report ANI PHARMACEUT (ANIP): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. DUBLIN (Reuters) - Malaysia Airlines is considering whether to add new long-range narrowbody aircraft to its fleet, outgoing CEO Christoph Mueller said on Wednesday, with details of the expansion plan due to be revealed later this summer. "We are currently looking into whether we source some long-range narrowbody aircraft," Mueller told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the annual International Air Transport Association meeting in Dublin. Mueller was hired last year to lead a restructuring process at Malaysia Airlines as the carrier tries to recover from the loss of two jets in separate incidents in 2014, but he quit unexpectedly in April and will leave the job in September. "The progress on the restructuring plan enables us to now think about growth scenarios as of 2018, and how that will be reflected in the strategic fleet plan will be disclosed over the summer," he said. The CEO declined to provide further details on which specific aircraft were being considered by the carrier. "We cannot say, that would affect my negotiations," he said. Long-range narrowbody aircraft currently on the market include the Airbus A321neo or the Boeing 737 MAX. Malaysia Airlines narrowbody fleet is currently made up of 56 Boeing 737s, according to fleet-tracking website airfleets.net. (Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by Adrian Croft) Investors brace for May auto sales as OPEC gets ready to hold its meeting in Vienna. Here are some of the other stories Yahoo Finance is keeping an eye on today. All eyes on OPEC Members of OPEC are expected to stand pat on their no-cut stance at their meeting in Vienna this week. This view was reinforced when the UAE energy chief said global oil markets are self-correcting. How will this impact the outlook for oil? Teslas curveball Tesla CEO Elon Musk says Model 3 owners will not be able to charge their vehicles for free at supercharging stations. But how much extra will Model 3 owners have to pay? Fight for higher pay, benefits States and cities across the country are fighting over pay and benefit rules. State legislatures are stopping cities from raising wages and mandating benefits. Why are states handcuffing cities on how business is done? By Thomas Wilson and Emi Emoto TOKYO (Reuters) - Emojis of a cuddly brown bear and his flatulent rabbit girlfriend Cony are met with investor scepticism as the company behind Line, the popular Japanese messaging app, prepares to kick off what's touted to be the world's biggest IPO this year. Line Corp [IPO-LINE.T] will likely raise between $2 billion (1.4 billion pounds) and $3 billion in a dual Tokyo-New York listing set for July, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. But the Tokyo-headquartered company has missed a trick by delaying the IPO until now, said some fund managers, pointing to Line's diminishing growth prospects in a Japanese market crowded with messaging platforms. In 2014, South Korea's Naver Corp , Line's parent, said a dual initial public offering would raise up to 2 trillion yen ($18 billion), predicting it would give Line worldwide recognition and improve its access to venture capital. But Line put that plan on ice last August, with its CEO saying the company would wait until its earnings and market conditions improve. "Line itself is already a pretty big company," said Mitsushige Akino, executive officer at Ichiyoshi Asset Management, which manages assets worth 140 billion yen ($1.3 billion). "Depending on its future strategy, it's hard to anticipate the fast pace of growth that it's had until now." Asked about the timing of the IPO, Tokyo-based Line spokeswoman Icho Saito said the information was from third-party sources and she was therefore unable to comment. The company had not yet made any official announcements, she added. A Naver spokesperson declined to comment, as IPO details were not finalised. With 68 million users, Line's eponymous free-of-charge messaging app is the most popular in Japan. The company makes money from selling electronic stickers, or emojis, as well as tokens for use in in-app games. It also charges for services like music streaming. But in a domestic market beset by weak growth and a shrinking population, Line has hunted overseas for new markets. Despite establishing itself as the top messaging app by number of users in Taiwan and Thailand, Line has been unable to break into the global premier league of messaging apps dominated by the likes of WhatsApp and Facebook (FB.O) Messenger. Story continues SHOW ON THE ROAD Line will launch a management roadshow for its IPO on June 10, with orders from institutional investors expected in the week of June 13, a person involved in the deal said. The IPO is set to be priced either the same week or early the following week, a separate person briefed on the matter said. But other details of the listing remained unclear, notably whether or not Naver would sell its entire stake in the company, or whether new shares would be issued. Regardless of the structure of the listing, the total amount could be smaller than that expected possible two years ago. "The timing's bad," said Hiroyuki Nakai, chief strategist at Tokai Tokyo Research Center. "It would have been better to list when it was growing. They procrastinated and procrastinated, delayed and delayed, and in that time the market has become saturated." The decision to proceed with the IPO follows shortly after Japan's regulators last month found that Line had broken rules over the use of a type of token in a popular online game. Naver, South Korea's largest web portal operator, owns 100 percent of Line. The messaging app debuted in 2011 as NHN Japan, and changed its name to Line Corp in 2013. Line, operated separately from Naver, is the South Korean company's biggest growth driver. On Wednesday, Naver shares closed 4.6 percent lower, compared to a 0.7 percent drop in the wider market (.KS11), as reported valuations for Line fell short of expectations, analysts in Seoul said. Line's IPO is set to be Japan's largest since the $12 billion partial privatisation of Japan Post and its banking and insurance divisions in November. The IPO, Japan's biggest in nearly three decades, was well-received, with the listing wildly popular among individual investors and more than five times oversubscribed. Line Corp has hired Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Nomura to manage its IPO. (Reporting by Thomas Wilson and Emi Emoto in TOKYO; Additional reporting by Robert Hartley at IFR in HONG KONG, Yoshiyuki Osada in TOKYO and Joyce Lee in SEOUL; Editing by Ryan Woo) By Thomas Wilson and Emi Emoto TOKYO (Reuters) - Emojis of a cuddly brown bear and his flatulent rabbit girlfriend Cony are met with investor scepticism as the company behind Line, the popular Japanese messaging app, prepares to kick off what's touted to be the world's biggest IPO this year. Line Corp [IPO-LINE.T] will likely raise between $2 billion and $3 billion in a dual Tokyo-New York listing set for July, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. But the Tokyo-headquartered company has missed a trick by delaying the IPO until now, said some fund managers, pointing to Line's diminishing growth prospects in a Japanese market crowded with messaging platforms. In 2014, South Korea's Naver Corp, Line's parent, said a dual initial public offering would raise up to 2 trillion yen ($18 billion), predicting it would give Line worldwide recognition and improve its access to venture capital. But Line put that plan on ice last August, with its CEO saying the company would wait until its earnings and market conditions improve. "Line itself is already a pretty big company," said Mitsushige Akino, executive officer at Ichiyoshi Asset Management, which manages assets worth 140 billion yen ($1.3 billion). "Depending on its future strategy, it's hard to anticipate the fast pace of growth that it's had until now." Asked about the timing of the IPO, Tokyo-based Line spokeswoman Icho Saito said the information was from third-party sources and she was therefore unable to comment. The company had not yet made any official announcements, she added. A Naver spokesperson declined to comment, as IPO details were not finalised. With 68 million users, Line's eponymous free-of-charge messaging app is the most popular in Japan. The company makes money from selling electronic stickers, or emojis, as well as tokens for use in in-app games. It also charges for services like music streaming. But in a domestic market beset by weak growth and a shrinking population, Line has hunted overseas for new markets. Despite establishing itself as the top messaging app by number of users in Taiwan and Thailand, Line has been unable to break into the global premier league of messaging apps dominated by the likes of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. SHOW ON THE ROAD Line will launch a management roadshow for its IPO on June 10, with orders from institutional investors expected in the week of June 13, a person involved in the deal said. The IPO is set to be priced either the same week or early the following week, a separate person briefed on the matter said. But other details of the listing remained unclear, notably whether or not Naver would sell its entire stake in the company, or whether new shares would be issued. Regardless of the structure of the listing, the total amount could be smaller than that expected possible two years ago. "The timing's bad," said Hiroyuki Nakai, chief strategist at Tokai Tokyo Research Center. "It would have been better to list when it was growing. They procrastinated and procrastinated, delayed and delayed, and in that time the market has become saturated." The decision to proceed with the IPO follows shortly after Japan's regulators last month found that Line had broken rules over the use of a type of token in a popular online game. Naver, South Korea's largest web portal operator, owns 100 percent of Line. The messaging app debuted in 2011 as NHN Japan, and changed its name to Line Corp in 2013. Line, operated separately from Naver, is the South Korean company's biggest growth driver. On Wednesday, Naver shares closed 4.6 percent lower, compared to a 0.7 percent drop in the wider market, as reported valuations for Line fell short of expectations, analysts in Seoul said. Line's IPO is set to be Japan's largest since the $12 billion partial privatization of Japan Post and its banking and insurance divisions in November. The IPO, Japan's biggest in nearly three decades, was well-received, with the listing wildly popular among individual investors and more than five times oversubscribed. Line Corp has hired Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Nomura to manage its IPO. (Reporting by Thomas Wilson and Emi Emoto in TOKYO; Additional reporting by Robert Hartley at IFR in HONG KONG, Yoshiyuki Osada in TOKYO and Joyce Lee in SEOUL; Editing by Ryan Woo) By Shadia Nasralla and Alex Lawler VIENNA (Reuters) - OPEC is set for another showdown between rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran when it meets on Thursday, with Riyadh trying to revive coordinated action and set a formal oil output target but Tehran rejecting the idea. Tensions between the Sunni-led kingdom and the Shia Islamic Republic have been the highlights of several previous OPEC meetings, including in December 2015 when the group failed to agree on a formal output target for the first time in years. Several OPEC sources said Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies would propose to set a new collective ceiling in an attempt to repair OPEC's waning importance and end a market-share battle that has sapped prices and cut investment. "The Gulf Cooperation Council is looking for coordinated action at the meeting," a senior OPEC source said, referring to a group combining OPEC's biggest producer Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Any agreement between Riyadh and Tehran would be seen as a big surprise by the market, which in the past two years has grown increasingly used to clashes between the political foes as they fight proxy wars in Syria and Yemen. Saudi Arabia effectively scuppered plans for a global production freeze - aimed at stabilising oil markets - in April. It said then that it would join the deal, which would also have involved non-OPEC Russia, only if Iran agreed to freeze output. Tehran has been the main stumbling block for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to agree on output policy over the past year as the country boosted supplies despite calls from other members for a production freeze. Tehran argues it should be allowed to raise production to levels seen before the imposition of now-ended Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme. Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said Tehran would not support any new collective output ceiling and wanted the debate to focus on the more radical idea of individual country production quotas. Story continues "An output ceiling has no benefit to us," Zanganeh told reporters upon arriving in Vienna late on Wednesday and before seeing any fellow OPEC ministers. COUNTRY QUOTAS New Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih was the first OPEC minister to arrive in Vienna this week, signalling he takes the organisation seriously despite fears among fellow members that Riyadh is no longer keen to have OPEC set output. At its previous meeting in December 2015, OPEC failed to set any production policy including a formal output ceiling, effectively allowing its 13 members to pump at will in an already oversupplied market. As a result, prices crashed to $27 per barrel in January, their lowest in over a decade, but have since recovered to around $50 (34.7) due to global supply outages. Those include declining output from U.S. shale producers badly hit by low prices but also forest fires in Canada, militant attacks on pipelines in OPEC member Nigeria and declining output in Venezuela, also a member of the group. Until December 2015, OPEC had a ceiling of 30 million barrels per day (bpd) - in place since December 2011, although it effectively abandoned individual production quotas years ago. OPEC currently produces around 32.5 million bpd. Any ceiling below that number would represent an effective cut. "One of our main ideas (is) to have a country quota. But I don't believe at this meeting we can reach agreement for this," Zanganeh said, adding that Iran was producing 3.8 million bpd and would soon reach pre-sanctions levels of 4 million bpd. Should OPEC fail to agree any policy on Thursday, it would again convince the market that its main members could try to raise supplies further to gain market share despite low prices. UAE Oil Minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui said oil markets were still not close to rebalancing due to a severe glut and a further price correction was possible. The Venezuelan energy minister also warned that supply outages have propped up prices in recent months but a global oil glut might build up again when missing barrels return. "More than 3 million barrels are out of the market. When those circumstances are removed from the market, what's going to happen?" Eulogio Del Pino told reporters in Vienna. (Additional reporting by Rania El Gamal and Reem Shamseddine in Vienna and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin in Dubai; Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Dale Hudson) Stockholm (AFP) - Iran's foreign minister said on Wednesday that Tehran had no intention of leaving Iraq and criticised "arrogant" Saudi Arabia for accusing it of stoking sectarian violence. "We will leave Iraq whenever Iraq asks us to. And we will help Iraq to confront terrorism, as long as Iraq wants us to," Mohammad Javad Zarif said at a press conference in Stockholm during a European tour to attract investors. On Sunday, Saudi Arabia accused Iran of sowing "sedition and division" in Iraq and sending in Shiite militias, and urged Tehran to "stop intervening" in the affairs of its neighbours. But Zarif, whose Shiite-dominated country is an arch rival of Saudi Arabia, bristled at the remarks by the Sunni-led kingdom's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir. "It's an absurd statement, it's an arrogant statement. Nobody should arrogate themselves to talk on behalf of other countries," he said in English. Tehran and Riyadh, a traditional ally of Washington, are at odds over a raft of regional issues, notably the conflicts in Syria and Yemen in which they support opposing sides. Iran has advisors on the ground in Iraq and also in Syria to help the military in both countries battle armed groups fighting the national governments. Saudi Arabia is also taking part in a US-led coalition targeting the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. Without naming names, Zarif warned countries which consider groups such as IS and the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Nusra Front as "leverages that can be used for political gains". "That's the worst miscalculation anybody has made in our region," he said. "I believe the sooner Saudi Arabia comes to understand that ISIS is first and foremost a threat against them, then, anybody else, the sooner we are able to confront this total menace for all of us, not only in the region but in the world," Zarif added, using another acronym for the Islamic State group. Near Fallujah (Iraq) (AFP) - Iraqi forces stalled at the fringes of Fallujah, slowed in their advance Wednesday by concerns over the fate of trapped civilians and resistance from the Islamic State group. Fighting also raged hundreds of kilometres (miles) further up the Euphrates Valley in Syria, as US-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters opened a new front against the jihadists in the strategic Manbij pocket on the Turkish border. After a week of shaping operations aimed at sealing the siege of Fallujah, which lies just 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad, elite forces launched a new, more aggressive phase on Monday morning. But they have so far been unable to reach the city centre and battle IS fighters in the streets of one of their historical strongholds. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said concern for the estimated 50,000 civilians the United Nations has said IS was using as human shields was slowing progress. "It would've been possible to end the battle quickly if protecting civilians wasn't one of the foundations of our plan," he told commanders in comments broadcast by state television. Iraq's parliament speaker, Salim al-Juburi, held talks with officials from Anbar province, where Fallujah is located, as well as commanders and tribal leaders on the humanitarian issue. He discussed "ways of rescuing the families being held hostage and opening safe corridors for them," his office said in a statement. Inside Fallujah, trapped residents were under increasing pressure from worsening shortages and nervous IS fighters preparing for a desperate holdout. No aid has reached Fallujah since September last year and residents have been living on dates, dirty water from the Euphrates and animal feed. - Heavy toll - The Norwegian Refugee Council said another 300 families managed to flee areas around Fallujah in the past 24 hours, bringing to about 5,000 the number of people who escaped since the start of the operation. Story continues Commanders said another factor slowing the operation is the resistance they are meeting from jihadists fighters. A police colonel on the outskirts of Fallujah said "every time our forces try to push in, they encounter really tough defence systems set up by Daesh". The closest Iraqi forces have come to moving into the centre is from the south, where they entered a suburb of Fallujah but were pinned back by a massive counterattack on Tuesday. Iraqi commanders say they have killed dozens of IS fighters since the start of the operation on May 22-23 but have been coy about releasing their own casualty figures. Yet the number of coffins being sent back to some of Iraq's southern provinces and of burials reported in the Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf suggest that the anti-IS camp is also paying a heavy price. "Since the start of the operation, we have received about 70 martyrs, probably a bit more," said a member of the security forces posted outside Najaf's Valley of Peace, the world's largest cemetery, where many from Iraq's Shiite majority bury their dead. Officials in Basra said the southern province had lost 26 fighters from the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force alone. An official in Najaf province, who did not want his name to be published, confirmed 12 deaths from the province. Medics also reported many wounded from the battle for Fallujah. Since Monday, just two of the capital's hospitals received 97. - Syria offensive - Many Iraqi officers expect IS to put up more of a fight for Fallujah than some of the other cities they have lost in Iraq, such as Tikrit and Ramadi. Fallujah is one of only two major cities they still control in the country -- the other being Mosul -- and it looms large in modern jihadist mythology. IS has been on the back foot in Iraq, losing much of the territory it seized in 2014. But it has also come under growing pressure in the Syrian part of the "caliphate" it proclaimed two years ago. A US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters launched an offensive against IS-held territory along the Turkish border that is seen as a main entry point for foreign fighters. The advance brought the Syrian Democratic Forces to within 18 kilometres (11 miles) of Manbij, a strategic town held by IS since 2014 which was hit by intensive US-led coalition air strikes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The Pentagon has deployed more than 200 special forces alongside the SDF, a Kurdish-led alliance in which it has been trying to boost the Arab element. "Over the past 24 hours, the SDF have seized control of nine villages... west of the Euphrates," the Observatory said. The US-led coalition against IS supports the operations in Fallujah and in Manbij, where it said its aircraft carried out 18 air strikes over the same period. By Maher Nazeh SOUTHERN OUTSKIRTS OF FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq has delayed its assault on the city of Falluja because of fears for the safety of civilians, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Wednesday, as his forces halted at the city's edge in the face of ferocious resistance from Islamic State fighters. Abadi's decision to halt, two days after elite Iraqi troops poured into the city's rural southern outskirts, postpones what was expected to be one of the biggest battles ever fought against Islamic State. The government, backed by world powers including the United States and Iran, has vowed to win back the first major Iraqi city that fell to the group in 2014. "It would have been possible to end the battle quickly if protecting civilians wasn't among our priorities," Abadi told military commanders at the operations room near the frontline in footage broadcast on state television. "Thank God, our units are at the outskirts of Falluja and victory is within reach." Falluja has been a bastion of the Sunni insurgency that fought both the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the Shi'ite-led Baghdad government. Islamic State fighters raised their flag there in 2014 before sweeping through much of Iraq's north and west. Abadi first announced plans to assault Falluja 10 days ago. But with 50,000 civilians still believed trapped inside the city, the United Nations has warned that militants are holding hundreds of families in the center as human shields. After heavy resistance from Islamic State fighters, the troops have not moved over the past 48 hours, keeping their positions in Falluja's mainly rural southern suburb of Naimiya, according to a Reuters TV crew reporting from the area. Explosions from shelling and air strikes as well as heavy gunfire could be heard on Wednesday morning in the city that lies 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad. Falluja is the second-largest Iraqi city still under control of the Sunni militants, after Mosul, their de facto capital in the north that had a pre-war population of about 2 million. Abadi's initial decision to assault Falluja appears to have gone against the plans of his U.S. allies, who would prefer the government concentrate on Mosul, rather than risk getting bogged down in a potentially drawn out fight for a smaller, potentially hostile Sunni Muslim stronghold like Falluja. "You do not need Falluja in order to get Mosul," a spokesman for a U.S.-led anti-IS coalition, U.S. Army Colonel Steve Warren, said in a phone interview ten days ago when the government first announced its plans to recapture Falluja. However, Falluja is Islamic State's closest bastion to Baghdad, believed to be the base from which militants have staged a campaign of suicide bombings in the capital that has increased pressure on Abadi to act to improve security. BAGHDAD BOMBS PRESSURE ABADI Abadi, a member of Iraq's Shi'ite majority, is trying to hold a ruling coalition together in the face of public protests against an entrenched political class. He has called for politicians to set aside differences and rally behind the army during the Falluja offensive. Falluja would be the third major city in Iraq recaptured by the government after former dictator Saddam Hussein's home town Tikrit and Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's vast western Anbar province. Falluja lies in Anbar on the highway from Baghdad to Ramadi, and capturing it would give the government control of the main population centers of the fertile Euphrates River valley west of the capital for the first time in two years. The United States is leading a coalition conducting air strikes in support of the Iraqi government offensive, and says it is having success in rolling back Islamic State both in Iraq and in Syria. Shi'ite militia groups backed by Iran are also taking part in the offensive against Islamic State, but say they are holding back from participating in the main assault on Falluja to avoid inflaming sectarian tension. "EXTREME VIOLENCE" Although most of Falluja's population is believed to have fled during six months of siege, 50,000 people are still thought to be trapped inside with limited access to food, water or healthcare. The United Nations' children's agency on Wednesday said at least 20,000 children remain in Falluja. "We are concerned over the protection of children in the face of extreme violence," UNICEF Representative in Iraq Peter Hawkins said in a statement. "Children face the risk of forced recruitment into the fighting" inside the besieged city, and "separation from their families" if they manage to leave, he added. The World Food Programme said the humanitarian situation in the city was worsening as family food stocks were depleting, pushing prices to a level few can afford. "The city is inaccessible for assistance and market distribution systems remain offline," the WFP said. "The only food available does not come from the markets, but from the stocks that some families still have in their homes." (writing by Maher Chmaytelli and Peter Millership; editing by Peter Graff) By Maher Nazeh and Phil Stewart SOUTHERN OUTSKIRTS OF FALLUJA, Iraq/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Islamic State insurgents faced major assaults on two fronts in both Iraq and Syria on Wednesday in what could prove to be some of the biggest operations to roll back their caliphate since they proclaimed it in 2014. In Syria, U.S.-backed militia with thousands of Arab and Kurdish fighters were reported to have captured villages near the strategically-important Turkish border after launching a major operation to cut off Islamic State's last access route to the outside world. In Iraq, Prime Minister Haider Abadi ordered his troops to slow an advance at the gates of Falluja, Islamic State's closest redoubt to the capital Baghdad, to limit harm to civilians, two days after the army poured into rural areas on the city's outskirts. Both operations are unfolding with the support of a U.S.-led coalition that has been targeting the ultra-hardline Sunni Muslim militants, who proclaimed a caliphate to rule over all Muslims from territory in the two neighboring countries. The Syrian operation includes American special forces operating in advisory roles on the ground. In Iraq, the U.S.-led coalition has provided air support to government forces who are also assisted by Iranian-backed Shi'ite militia. While there is no indication that the two advances were deliberately timed to coincide, they show how a variety of enemies of Islamic State have been mobilizing in recent months in what Washington and other world powers hope will be a decisive year of battle to destroy the group's pseudo-state. "LAST FUNNEL" The Syrian operation, which began on Tuesday after weeks of preparations, aims to drive Islamic State from the last stretch of the frontier with Turkey it controls. "It's significant in that it's their last remaining funnel" to Europe, a U.S. military official told Reuters. Islamic State has used the border for years to receive material and recruits from the outside world, and, more recently, to send militants back to Europe to carry out attacks. An 80-km stretch of terrain north of the town of Manbij is the only part of the Turkish frontier still accessible to the militants after advances by Kurdish fighters and President Bashar al-Assad's government elsewhere. A small number of U.S. special operations forces will support the push on the ground to capture the "Manbij pocket", acting as advisers some distance back from the front lines, U.S. officials said, discussing the plans on condition of anonymity. "They'll be as close as they need to be for the (Syrian fighters) to complete the operation. But they will not engage in direct combat," the first official said. The operation will also count on air power from the U.S.-led coalition, which pounded Islamic State positions near Manbij with 18 strikes on Tuesday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that reports on the conflict there with a network of sources on the ground, said Islamic State had been pushed out of 16 villages near Manbij. U.S.-led air strikes in support of the ground operation had killed 15 civilians including three children near Manbij in the last 24 hours, the Observatory said. The assault is being carried out by an alliance known as the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), which is composed of a powerful Kurdish militia called the YPG, and Arab combatants that have allied themselves with it. The group, set up last year, is the main ground force to receive U.S. backing in Syria, where Washington opposes Assad's government and has had difficulty finding capable allies on the ground in the past. U.S. officials stressed that most of the fighting near Manbij would be carried out by Arabs, an emphasis apparently aimed at Turkey, which considers the Kurdish YPG to be foes. "After they take Manbij, the agreement is the YPG will not be staying ... So you'll have Syrian Arabs occupying traditional Syrian Arab land," the first U.S. official said. However, the Observatory described much of the fighting so far as carried out by Kurds. The operation is taking place ahead of an eventual push by the U.S.-backed Syrian forces toward Raqqa, Islamic State's de facto Syrian capital, which, alongside Iraq's northern city of Mosul is one of two main objectives to bring down the caliphate. U.S. President Barack Obama has authorized about 300 U.S. special operations forces to operate on the ground inside Syria to help coordinate with local forces. In a reminder of the risks, one U.S. service member was injured north of Raqqa over the weekend, the Pentagon said. A five-year-long, multi-sided civil war in Syria, in which global powers back enemy sides, has made it impossible to coordinate a single campaign against Islamic State there. The U.S.-backed advance comes some weeks after Assad government troops, with Russian and Iranian support, recaptured the ancient city of Palmyra from Islamic State. FALLUJA PAUSE In Iraq, where Abadi's Shi'ite-led government enjoys military backing both from the United States and Washington's regional adversary Iran, the decision to pause at the gates of Falluja postpones for now what is expected to be one of the biggest battles ever fought against Islamic State. "It would have been possible to end the battle quickly if protecting civilians wasn't among our priorities," Abadi told military commanders at the operations room near the front line in footage broadcast on state television. "Thank God, our units are at the outskirts of Falluja and victory is within reach." Falluja has been a bastion of the Sunni Muslim insurgency against both the Shi'ite-led Baghdad government and U.S. troops, who fought the biggest battles of their 2003-2011 occupation there. Islamic State fighters, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh, raised their flag in the city in 2014 before sweeping through Iraq's north and west. Abadi first announced plans to assault Falluja 10 days ago. But with 50,000 civilians still believed trapped inside the city, the United Nations has warned that militants are holding hundreds of families in the center as human shields. After heavy resistance from Islamic State, the troops have not moved over the past 48 hours, keeping positions in Falluja's mainly rural southern suburb of Naimiya, according to a Reuters TV crew reporting from the area. Explosions from shelling and air strikes as well as heavy gunfire could be heard on Wednesday morning in the city that lies 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad. Falluja is the second-largest Iraqi city still under control of the Sunni militants after Mosul. Abadi's initial decision to assault Falluja seems to have gone against the plans of his U.S. allies, who would prefer the government concentrate on Mosul. "You do not need Falluja in order to get Mosul," a spokesman for a U.S.-led anti-IS coalition, U.S. Army Colonel Steve Warren, said in a phone interview 10 days ago when the government first announced its plans to recapture Falluja. However, Falluja is Islamic State's closest bastion to Baghdad and is believed to be the base from which militants have staged a campaign of suicide bombings in the capital, increasing pressure on Abadi to act to improve security. FLEEING CIVILIANS SCREENED Although most of Falluja's population is believed to have fled during six months of siege, 50,000 people are still thought to be trapped inside with little food. "The city is inaccessible for assistance and market distribution systems remain offline," the United Nations' World Food Programme said. "The only food available does not come from the markets, but from the stocks that some families still have in their homes." The military has been detaining men and boys older than 12 who leave the city, to screen them for Islamic State fighters. "Don't treat us like we are Daesh," said 54-year-old Mahdi Fayyadh, among hundreds of families who escaped the city and were now taking shelter in a school. Fayyadh, who lost a leg to diabetes while under Islamic State's rule due to a lack of medication, said he fled the city with 11 family members after the assault began. Relatives helped him walk on crutches until they reached army lines, when the other men in the group were taken away. "I already lost a leg," Fayyadh said, a battered pair of crutches leaning against his shoulder. "I ask all the good people to not treat us like they (the militants) treated us." U.S. officials caution that territorial gains will not spell the end of Islamic State, which has established itself outside of its self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria, spreading to Libya, Afghanistan and beyond. "It would be premature to say that the gains in Syria, even if theyre sustained, will spell defeat for ISIL, any more than the pummeling of al Qaeda in Pakistan has meant the end of that group, said one of the U.S. officials. (Additional reporting by John Davison in Beirut, Maher Chmaytelli and Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Mark Heinrich) (Adds more quotes, details) By Ange Aboa ABIDJAN, June 1 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast will propose tax breaks to locally based cocoa grinders ranging from 40 to 70 CFA francs ($0.07 to $0.12) per kilogram of beans as it seeks to boost processing capacity, a senior finance ministry official said on Wednesday. The West African nation is the world's top cocoa producer as well as the leading processor of cocoa beans and is aiming to grind half of its production domestically by 2020. It currently processes around a third of its output. "What we're going to do is propose 40 to 70 CFA francs per kilo to the different grinders based upon their installed grinding capacity," the official, who works on the ministry's cocoa portfolio and who declined to be named, told Reuters. He said the government had already approved the measure and must now discuss the tax breaks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Ivory Coast is currently subject to an IMF programme. The official said the marketing board, the Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC), would also reserve 60 percent of the April-to-September mid-crop harvest for grinders, up from 50 percent currently. The CCC will also propose a system of forward sales reserved for grinders. The government scrapped a 20-year-old regime of tax breaks for processors at the start of the 2012/13 season. Companies have been in talks with the CCC for the last two years to settle on a new scheme that would reward firms that grind locally. "We estimate the investments required to increase capacity from 30-35 percent to 50 percent of production between 2016 and 2020 at 500 billion CFA francs," the finance ministry official said. "The companies already present in the country are ready to do it and new ones are also interested, but they are waiting for the tax framework to be made known." The government of President Alassane Ouattara, which has overseen a rapid economic recovery in the wake of a decade of turmoil that ended with a civil war in 2011, is seeking to create jobs and add value to its leading export. Story continues Ivory Coast's 12 local grinders possess installed processing capacity of 720,000 tonnes annually, but most facilities run at 60 to 80 percent of capacity. Swiss firm Barry Callebaut, Singapore's Olam International, U.S.-based Cargill and France's Cemoi are the largest bean processors based in Ivory Coast. ($1 = 587.2500 CFA francs) (Editing by Joe Bavier and Susan Thomas) ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara has taken a step towards drawing up a new constitution and scrapping a nationality clause which helped drag his West African nation into a decade-long crisis and bedevilled his own initial bids for the presidency. The presidential office, in a statement late on Tuesday, announced the appointment of a 10-member experts panel, including Justice Minister Sansan Kambile along with legal experts and law professors, to draft a new national charter. The new constitution would go to a public referendum for approval, Ouattara's office said. Ouattara pledged during his campaign for re-election last year to scrap a nationality clause which helped lead the world's top cocoa grower and French-speaking West Africa's largest economy into prolonged crisis. The current charter, ratified in 2000 in the wake of a military coup, states presidential candidates must prove both their parents are natural-born Ivorians. They must also have never claimed citizenship of another country. Ivory Coast has long been a magnet for immigrants from neighbouring countries and the clause became a symbol of exclusion, particularly of northerners whose family ties often cross into neighbouring Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea. Ivorian nationality became a burning political issue at the heart of a 2002-2003 civil war that divided the country in two for eight years. Ouattara himself was barred from seeking the presidency over what opponents said were his foreign origins before he finally won election in 2010. However, his victory sparked a second brief civil conflict that killed more than 3,000 people. The statement said Ouattara would hold consultations with opposition figures, traditional chiefs, religious leaders and members of civil society groups. "The results of these consultations will be transmitted to the Experts Committee with the aim of proposing to the President of the Republic a text to submit to referendum in order to give Ivory Coast a new constitution," the statement said. Ouattara is also believed to be seeking to create the new post of vice-president to take over and complete the president's term if he were incapacitated or died in office. Currently, the speaker of parliament is second in line to the presidency, but the constitution states that new elections must be organised within 90 days, a time frame critics say is unworkable. (Reporting by Joe Bavier; Editing by Richard Balmforth) The ASA sees what you did there, Jack Wills, and it is not pleased. The Advertising Standards Authority, the independent organization which regulates ads across all U.K. media, is banning the "Fabulously British" retailer's Midnight Mischief underwear campaign for its use of double entendres as well as the "irresponsible" and "sexualized" photos of models in their skivvies. Read More: Megan Fox Is Moving Because Her Unborn Baby Says So The campaign was part of a direct-order catalog mailed to customers in February of this year. Of the nearly 3 million people that received the catalog, only one person complained. The complainant argued that the images as well as the accompanying text were too sexual for a younger audience - that is, should they get their hands on it. "Although we understood that Jack Wills' target audience was 18- to 24-year olds, and that the catalogue was sent to an adult, we considered that younger teens might have access to the ad either directly or indirectly, and that the images were likely to appeal to those readers because they portrayed a lifestyle to which they might aspire," reads the statement on the ASA's website. Read More: Lenny Letter Partners With Fab for Illustrated Collection The organization also posted the retailer's response to the upheld ruling, which they refute. "[Jack Wills] said the catalogue was addressed and sent to the complainant, not her children, and was delivered in a sealed, opaque paper envelope," they noted, and adding, "Jack Wills did not consider the claims 'Pure and comfortable cottons, or flirty delicate laces; whatever your choice, you can be sure it's what's underneath that counts ' and 'A favourite tee and your boxers, or a lounge short and bra; this is loungewear made for the morning after the night before' to be sexually suggestive or inappropriate because they accompanied images of the group of friends having fun together." Story continues Jack Wills was the subject of another ASA controversy in 2011, again for an "inappropriate" catalog. Tom Ford and Miu Miu have also been targeted for sexually inappropriate advertisements in the past few years, while Gucci and Saint Laurent have been banned for "unhealthily thin" models. If the ASA thinks the Jack Wills ad is bad, we can only imagine how they would react to anything Calvin Klein has done. New York (AFP) - Correction officers beat and kicked a defenseless inmate in the head "like an animal," a prosecutor said Wednesday, summing up his arguments in a two-month trial spotlighting abuse at a notorious New York jail. Nine officers went on trial in March accused of the savage beating of Jahmal Lightfoot, at the time a 27-year-old inmate convicted of armed robbery, and the cover-up of his night-time assault on July 11, 2012. The jury is expected to begin deliberations Thursday in a verdict to be closely watched given long-running allegations of systemic violence at Rikers Island, one of the largest municipal jails in America. Elected Democratic officials have called for the complex, which houses thousands of inmates, to be shut down, amid a national campaign against police brutality and demands for criminal justice reform. The defendants, all former or current correction officers, face prison terms if convicted of a raft of charges that include attempted gang assault, falsifying records and official misconduct. They have pleaded not guilty. "The crime is horrific, it's brutal, it's savage. They treat him like an animal," said assistant Bronx district attorney Lawrence Piergrossi on Wednesday at the Bronx Supreme Court. "They never thought in a million years that they would be here when they schemed and planned this cover-up." "Your job is to find them guilty," he told the jury who will be instructed by Judge Steven Barrett on Thursday. - Kicked and punched - Piergrossi spent more than three hours making a painstaking summation of the assault and alleged cover-up, and sought to demolish attempts by the defense to pick holes in the prosecution and question the credibility of Lightfoot and other witnesses called to the stand. Lawyers for the nine defendants declined to present any witnesses, arguing that the prosecution failed to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. Prosecutors say Eliseo Perez, an assistant chief of security, wanted to make an example out of Lightfoot, ordering officers to "kick his fucking teeth in" in response to yet another inmate slashing at a time of record violence at Rikers Island that made officers look bad. Story continues Perez colluded with Gerald Vaughn, a captain, and subordinate officers carried out the assault, Piergrossi said. They allegedly threw Lightfoot to the ground in a search pen shielded from surveillance cameras and where no one could witness the assault. Piergrossi read Wednesday from Lightfoot's testimony, given over five days during the trial. "I was getting kicked and punched all in my face, my eyes, my nose, my mouth," he said, quoting Lightfoot. Officers pinned him down, holding his arms over his head and keeping his legs locked down, he said. "Every time I tried to open my eyes I was getting kicked or swung at," read Piergrossi. "It happened six minutes and 45 seconds after chief Perez ordered them to kick his teeth out," the prosecutor added. - Blood - By the time Lightfoot saw a doctor, his eyes were swollen shut, he had trouble breathing and blood was coming out of his nose and mouth, said Piergrossi. The jury was shown a picture of his battered face, with huge bruises under his eyes -- taken at the hospital the next day. One of the defendants was allegedly grazed in the assault. But the prosecution said the officers concocted the story and planted a piece of metal on Lightfoot detached from a piece of their kit to justify their beating. Piergrossi disputed the idea that Lightfoot attacked the officer and called the injury "a scratch" that would have been impossible to inflict under the circumstances described. A jury will determine the guilt or innocence of six defendants. The other three have opted for the judge to reach a verdict. A tenth defendant will be tried separately. In 2014, a US federal investigation uncovered what prosecutors called a "pervasive and deep-seated culture of violence" at Rikers Island and called the facility a "broken institution" for teenage inmates. TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese manufacturing activity contracted at the fastest pace in more than three years in May as new orders slumped, a private survey showed on Wednesday, highlighting renewed weakness in the economy and adding pressure on the government and central bank. The Markit/Nikkei Final Japan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) fell to 47.7 in May on a seasonally adjusted basis, which was slightly above a preliminary reading of 47.6 but below a final 48.2 in April. The index remained below the 50 threshold that separates contraction from expansion for the third month and showed that activity shrank at the fastest pace since January 2013. The aftermath of earthquakes in southern Japan in April may still be weighing heavily on some producers, a statement from Markit said, but it noted foreign demand also contracted sharply. The index for new orders fell to 44.7, which was revised up from a preliminary 44.1 but still showed the fastest decline since December 2012. In April the index for new orders was 45.0. Export orders also fell at a faster pace than in April. Some of the respondents to the survey mentioned the impact of a stronger yen and tougher international competition. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to announce a delay to next year's proposed sales tax hike to prevent a further blow to the economy, when he speaks to members of the media on Wednesday. Some economists say such a decision would be an indication that three years of Abe's reflationary policies have failed to fundamentally strengthen the economy and shift growth into a higher gear. (Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Kim Coghill) Japan's military joined the search for a seven-year-old boy missing in the country's north since his parents said they abandoned him in a bear-inhabited mountain forest, officials said. A total of 75 personnel from the Ground Self-Defence Force -- Japan's army -- joined some 130 fire rescuers, police officers and volunteers to look for the boy, rescuer Satoshi Saito told AFP by telephone. Yamato Tanooka has been missing since Saturday after his parents said they made him get out their car on a mountain road as punishment for misbehaving. He is reportedly without food or water. Rescuers have admitted it is a frustratingly difficult task to find the vanished boy due to a lack of evidence found so far of his presence in the rugged mountainous area on the wild bear-inhabited island of Hokkaido. The boy's parents originally told police their son had got lost while they were out hiking to gather wild vegetables -- but later admitted they were angry and tried to punish him because he had thrown stones at cars and people. The local town of Nanae requested military support after rescuers and police officers had already scoured the area for four days, with heavy rains at times hampering the search. "We asked the SDF to go into places which people can't easily access such as deep crevasses along creeks," town spokesman Mitsuru Wakayama told AFP. "We have already covered the same areas over and over again," he said, but added that it is hard to imagine even a lost adult being able to travel over such an extensive area on foot. "We have not taken such a long time before to find signs of a person in distress," he said. The parents told police they abandoned Yamato on a road, bounded on both sides by thick mountain forests, but quickly returned to find him missing. On the northern side of the road where the boy is believed to have been abandoned is a slope of Mount Komagadake, which rises to an altitude of 1,131 metres (3,710 feet). "The military personnel will scour the mountain slope," said Saito, the rescuer. "Unless he started climbing the mountain, he would have hit a main road after walking for two-three kilometres (1.2-1.9 miles) in any other direction," Saito said earlier. By Taiga Uranaka and Ritsuko Shimizu TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese convenience store chain operator Lawson Inc expects its overseas business to turn profitable in the next business year, led by growth in China, where it entered 20 years ago but has been struggling so far. Sadanobu Takemasu, who became president and chief operating officer on Wednesday, also said in an interview with Reuters the company would accelerate overseas store openings this business year. The bulk of the expansion would come in and around Shanghai, where he expects the number of stores to double to 1,000 over the next three years. Lawson opened its first store in China in 1996, but it has not been able to transplant its success in Japan. Lawson convenience stores in China currently number around 690. "We have finally topped 500 stores in Shanghai area. In convenience store business, once you pass that scale, things start to change, including relationship with suppliers and property developers," he said. Lawson has previously forecast an operating loss of 2.9 billion yen ($26.4 million) for its overseas operations in this business year ending in February 2017. Lawson lags far behind its rivals overseas. There are over 40,000 Seven-Eleven stores globally outside Japan. FamilyMart Co has about 5,900 stores overseas, including 3,000 in Taiwan. Lawson has only 790 stores outside Japan. In addition to China, it has stores in Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Hawaii. Takemasu said the company is looking for opportunities to enter other southeast Asian countries, such as Vietnam and Malaysia. He also said the company is studying possibilities of opening stores in Europe and the mainland United States, though it has no specific plan at this moment. Takemasu, 46, began his career at Mitsubishi Corp , which owns over one-third of the company. Asked about consumer sentiment in Japan, Takemasu said he "cannot take an optimistic view" towards consumer spending, citing uncertainty surrounding the economy. Story continues Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to announce later on Wednesday his decision to delay a national sales tax hike originally planned for next April by 2-1/2 years. The delay comes as scepticism grows about the government's three-year campaign to revive the economy, with recent data showing retail sales fell in April for the second consecutive month. Amid tepid consumer spending, however, the convenience store industry is bucking the overall trend. Lawson's same-store sales in April rose 1.5 percent from a year earlier. "Convenience store sales are not so sensitive to overall economic trends," Takemasu said. (Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Muralikumar Anantharaman) New York (AFP) - Rap mogul Jay Z has hit back in a new song against a conservative commentator who criticized his drug-dealing past. The hip-hop star includes a recording from Tomi Lahren, a host on pundit Glenn Beck's network TheBlaze who had attacked Jay Z's wife Beyonce over her performance at this year's Super Bowl. The host had accused Beyonce of using the top television event to promote the militant Black Panther movement in her performance of "Formation," whose video takes aim at police brutality. "Your husband was a drug dealer for 14 years / He sold crack cocaine," Lahren says to discredit Beyonce in a snippet sampled into "Drug Dealers Anonymous," a collaboration between Jay Z and rapper Pusha T that came out Tuesday evening. Jay Z then offers his own take on the 14-year period that apparently refers to the time before he switched to music in his mid-20s, boasting about how much wealth he has amassed. "Fourteen-year drug dealer and still counting / Who deserves the Medal of Freedom is my accountant," he raps, speaking of avoiding taxes. Born in Brooklyn as Shawn Carter, Jay Z spoke of his drug-dealing as a formative youth experience in his 2010 autobiography "Decoded." He goes into greater detail in "Drug Dealers Anonymous," describing his forays into narcotics in Virginia. "Life made me ambidextrous / Countin' with my right / Whippin' white with my left wrist," he raps in reference to cash and cocaine. Lahren replied sarcastically to the song on Twitter, writing: "Always wanted to be on a track with two drug dealers. Thanks." Referring to one of Jay Z's best-known songs, she added in another tweet: "I've got 99 problems but trust me, being on your rap ain't one." Jay Z, one of the top-selling rappers of all time who has built a business empire that includes the Tidal streaming service, is estimated with Beyonce to be worth $1 billion. Tuesday's song release was the second in as many weeks by Jay Z, who had been quiet on the musical front for the past two years. In a remix last week of "All the Way Up" by New York rappers Remy Ma and Fat Joe, Jay Z boasted about the money earned by Beyonce's latest album "Lemonade," in which she hinted that he had been unfaithful to her. Stocks (^DJI, ^GSPC, ^IXIC) are trying to pare early losses after a better-than-expected ISM Manufacturing report beat expectations. Consumer staples are (XLP) in the lead while telecom (IYZ) is the most in the red. Keith Bliss of Cuttone & Co. joins us live from the New York Stock Exchange. To discuss the other big stories of the day, Alexis Christoforous is joined by Yahoo Finance editor-in-chief Andy Serwer and Yahoo Finance's Justine Underhill. Jeff Bezos explains why Amazon doesn't sell some Google and Apple products You can buy a lot of items on Amazon, but two items you cant purchase are an Apple TV or Google Chromecast. Amazons CEO Jeff Bezos says its because of a lack of acceptable business terms. Its believed that Apple takes a 30% cut on anything sold within its apps, and Amazon didnt want to share its Prime Video sales with Apple. Tenants reportedly required to "Like" a Facebook page Apartment tenants in Salt Lake City came home to a shocking notice on their doors last week. The management company of City Park Apartments had posted a mandatory "Facebook Addendum," which reportedly required tenants to "like" the apartment's Facebook page. It also contained a release that would have given the company permission to post pictures of the residents as well as their visitors. A law firm representing the company has since said that tenants will not be in violation of their leases if they don't sign it. Are millennials bad for business? Are millennials bad for business? That's what some companies are telling the Dallas Federal Reserve as part of its monthly manufacturing survey. They're concerned about new overtime laws that will expand rights of salaried employees. One respondent said, "The younger workers are often off task, engaged on social media, on the internet, texting on phones and other unproductive activities." Get the Latest Market Data and News with the Yahoo Finance App The Hague (AFP) - A Malian jihadist will go on trial in August for attacks on the World Heritage site of Timbuktu that triggered a global outcry, the International Criminal Court said Wednesday. Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi will appear before judges on August 22 for a hearing which is likely to last a few days with the tribunal hoping "to complete the trial in a single week," The Hague-based court said in a statement. Mahdi has made clear "his wish to plead guilty" to a single charge of jointly ordering or carrying out the 2012 destruction of nine mausoleums and a section of Timbuktu's famous Sidi Yahia mosque which dates back to the 15th and 16th centuries, the ICC said. It will be the first time a defendant has pleaded guilty before the ICC, which was set up in 2002 to try the world's worst crimes. It is also the first case before the tribunal to arise out of recent conflict in Mali and to involve an Islamic jihadist. Mahdi, who is aged around 40, said he was "a Muslim who believes in justice," his defence lawyer Mohamed Aouini told a hearing last week. "He wants to be truthful to himself and he wants to admit the acts that he has committed. And he wants to ask at the same time for pardon from the people of Timbuktu and the Malian people," Aouini said. "He regrets all the actions that he has committed." ICC prosecutors say Mahdi was a leader of Ansar Dine, a mainly Tuareg group that controlled areas of Mali's northern desert together with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and a third local group in early 2012. Founded between the 5th and the 12th centuries by Tuareg tribes, the fabled city -- which lies around a thousand kilometres (600 miles) from Mali's capital Bamako -- has been dubbed the "Pearl of the Desert" and "the city of 333 saints" for the Muslim sages who are buried there. It was added to the list of UNESCO world heritage sites in 1988. Story continues - 'World felt the loss' - Although it was revered as a centre of Islamic learning during its golden age in the 15th and 16th centuries, the site is viewed as idolatrous by the jihadists. For centuries people, would ask the Muslim saints buried in the tombs to intervene in marriages, to send rain, and prevent famines. During the 2012 attack, jihadists desecrated the centuries-old shrines using pickaxes and chisels. Chief ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has said the loss of the shrines "was felt by the whole of humanity, and at the expense of future generations". Reconstruction of some of the shrines began in March 2014, relying heavily on traditional methods and employing local masons, and work on the site finished in July 2015. Mali's north has seen repeated violence since it fell under the control of Tuareg-led rebels who allied with jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda in 2012. The Islamists were largely ousted by an ongoing French-led military operation launched in January 2013, but they have since carried out sporadic attacks on security forces from desert hideouts. The show must go on. Johnny Depp took the stage with his band the Hollywood Vampires in Denmark on Wednesday, amid domestic violence allegations made by his estranged wife Amber Heard. The actor looked relaxed as he performed alongside fellow band members Alice Cooper and Joe Perry on the fourth stop on their European tour. Fans swiftly took to social media, posting numerous snaps of the actor rocking out on stage at the FAngslet venue in Horsens, which once served as a state penitentiary. "Look where I am," one user wrote alongside a shot of Depp onstage. Oh look where I am #hollywoodvampires #johnnydepp #concert #tagsforlikes #like4like A photo posted by Clara Buan (@claraabuan) on Jun 1, 2016 at 1:26pm PDT Dinamarca / Denmark 01.06.2016 #Hollywoodvampires #johnnydepp #johnchristopherdepp #depphead #thehollywoodvampires #alicecooper #joePerry A photo posted by John Christopher Depp ll (@centraljohndepp) on Jun 1, 2016 at 1:29pm PDT Another fan praised Depp for his impressive guitar playing skills. "I almost like him more playing guitar then when he's acting," they wrote. I almost like him more playing guitar then when he is acting #hollywoodvampires #grAnalund #joeperry #alicecooper #johnnydepp A video posted by J.O.H.N.N.Y D.E.P.P (@deppdelicious) on Jun 1, 2016 at 12:46pm PDT Guitar solo #johnnydepp #alicecooper #joeperry #hollywoodvampires #grAnalund A video posted by J.O.H.N.N.Y D.E.P.P (@deppdelicious) on Jun 1, 2016 at 12:37pm PDT The performance comes as new photos and more shocking details about his marriage to Heard continue to unfold. Heard was granted a temporary restraining order against Depp on May 27. In the court filing, the actress claims Depp was abusive to her throughout their relationship. For much more about Depp and Amber's toxic marriage and explosive divorce, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday Johnny Depp Performs in Denmark with Band Amid Amber Heard Abuse Allegations| Couples, Divorced, Movie News, Amber Heard, Johnny Depp New photos published in this week's PEOPLE cover story show Heard with facial injuries that allegedly resulted from a December 2015 altercation with Depp that she cited in her court filing. A rep for Depp has not responded to PEOPLE's requests for comment regarding the photos. The actor's divorce attorney Laura Wasser, however, said in court documents that Heard is "attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse." When we recently spoke to Veep creator Armando Iannucci about televisions greatest a-hole, Jonah Ryan, the former showrunner of HBOs acclaimed comedy revealed that actor Timothy Simons has his own political ambitions. That was one of the aspects that made him so perfect for the character that was originally supposed to be a short, fat chain-smoker, and so its fitting that the shows fifth season has Jonah running for Congress in his home state of New Hampshire. Of course, its even more fitting that Granite State voters also think that Jonah is a massive tool, so its just another reminder that Veep is wonderful and hilarious. And because Veeps creative minds love to keep piling on poor Jonah, they even gave him a real campaign website that is sure to confuse New Hampshires voters that do not have cable. At Jonah Ryan for Congress, you can check out all three of the characters terrible campaign ads, as well as a gallery of the candidate on the campaign trail and photos from his childhood. Theres even this gem, which makes up for the lack of Simons in front of the portrait painted by his mother. Related Links: Timothy Simons middle finger Jonah Ryan for Congress The real question is whether or not Breakfast with Jonah will really happen on December 18, because itd be great to pour maple syrup on his head. Just a dream of mine, I suppose. ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- Pro wrestling star Jimmy ''Superfly'' Snuka is mentally incompetent to stand trial in the death of his girlfriend more than three decades ago, a judge ruled Wednesday. Lehigh County Judge Kelly Banach ruled from the bench after a four-day hearing on whether Snuka should face trial on murder and manslaughter charges. Snuka, 73, took the stand last month and often seemed confused as he was questioned by the judge. ''I don't believe he's faking it,'' Banach said Wednesday. Snuka, a native of Fiji who lives in Waterford Township, New Jersey, was charged last year in the death of 23-year-old Nancy Argentino, whose body was found in their Whitehall Township hotel room. Snuka pleaded not guilty and was released on bail. His mental fitness will be re-evaluated in six months. The defense argued that Snuka suffers from dementia, partly due to the head trauma he suffered over a long career in the ring. A prosecution expert said Snuka's brain shows normal signs of aging and suggested he might be feigning symptoms. Questioned by the judge last month, the high-flying wrestler didn't know his age or the year, couldn't remember the name of his lawyer or identify the current U.S. president or any presidential candidates, and seemed befuddled about the reason he was in court. The judge said Wednesday she doesn't think that Snuka is ''smart enough'' to fake illness, characterizing the wrestler as ''vacant'' and ''leadable.'' ''Unfortunately justice suffers when it's delayed,'' Banach said. ''Justice suffers after 30 years because everything decays.'' Snuka had been at a World Wrestling Federation taping at the Allentown Fairgrounds in May 1983, and told police shortly after Argentino's death that he had returned to their Whitehall Township hotel room to find her unresponsive in bed. She was pronounced dead at a hospital several hours later. Story continues An autopsy determined she died of traumatic brain injuries and had more than three dozen cuts and bruises, and it concluded her injuries were consistent with being hit with a stationary object. But the probe went cold, and Snuka continued his high-profile pro wrestling career. Prosecutors reopened the investigation after a 2013 report in The Morning Call newspaper raised questions about the case. He was charged in September. His attorney has called Argentino's death an ''unfortunate accident.'' Photos appearing to show the leader of Iran's powerful Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, liaising with Iraqi authorities near Baghdad have prompted speculation and concern over the role Iran and its proxies intend to play in driving ISIS out of Mosul and Fallujah. Soleimani's presence in Iraq amid two major counter-ISIS offensives in Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad, and in Mosul, further north has unnerved those familiar with Iran's campaign to cultivate influence in the region through Shiite proxy militias, whose presence in Sunni-majority areas could provoke sectarian violence. "I can't emphasize enough how alarmed I am over these photos of Soleimani," Ali Khedery, the longest continuously serving US official in Iraq, told Business Insider in an interview. "Iran has a formal campaign of cultivating Shiite proxies, and those proxies have now been put on the Iraqi government's payroll in the form of the PMU." The PMU, or Popular Mobilization Units (Hashid Shaabi), is a state-sponsored umbrella organization of predominantly Shiite militias. Critics say that they have contributed to, rather than eased, the kind of sectarian tensions that made Mosul and Fallujah susceptible to an ISIS takeover in the first place. Story continues Iraq security forces Iraqi officials deny that the PMU is supported by Iran, but Soleimani's presence in Iraq suggests that Tehran is likely playing a significant military role there and that the US is letting it happen. Michael Weiss, coauthor of the book "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror," tweeted that Soleimani's "presence is clearly tolerated" in Iraq. "And he looks quite relaxed." The PMU's deputy chair, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis a US-designated terrorist also arrived in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Arimiyah on Tuesday to oversee operations in western Fallujah, according to the Institute for the Study of War. "What worries me most is the fact that Washington hasn't learned the lessons of the pre-surge era in Iraq," Khedery added, referring to the 2007 increase in US troops deployed to Baghdad and Al-Anbar Province. The surge coincided with a new counterinsurgency strategy implemented by Gen. David Petraeus. It aimed at building long-term relationships with the local Iraqi population and security forces instead of focusing on killing Sunni insurgents, which had created a cycle of alienation and mistrust. falluja "You cannot defeat a radical Sunni extremist group like ISIS with radical Shiite extremists," said Khedery, who served as a special assistant to five US ambassadors and as a senior adviser to three heads of US Central Command. "It will only push more Sunnis into ISIS's hands. You need another tribal awakening that will allow moderate Sunni Arabs to retake their own areas." US officials seem to be aware of the problem one official told The Daily Beast's Nancy Youssef earlier this month that "Sunnis see ISIS as their protection their wall against Shia revenge." The New York Times reported last week that US officials are worried about the role Iran will play in recapturing Fallujah. But because the PMUs have been one of the most effective forces fighting ISIS in Iraq, the Obama administration has not seriously challenged Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's decision to allow the units' Shiite militias to help drive ISIS out of its strongholds. Iraqi and Western officials have insisted that the PMUs have taken only a secondary role in anti-ISIS operations. fallujah Khedery, for his part, predicted that Washington's tolerance for the militias will ultimately be the fatal flaw in its plans to defeat the Sunni extremists. "What bothers me enormously is how shortsighted US policy continues to be with regard to Iraq," Khedery said. "The Obama administration is willing to provide Soleimani [and his proxies] with virtually unending support for the sake of the anti-ISIS campaign." "We will thus win the battle, but we will certainly lose the war," Khedery added. "The US is unwittingly priming the Middle East for endless sectarian war, and that will certainly haunt the world for decades to come." A 'prototype' for Mosul Still, many experts agree that, currently, the main forces attacking ISIS in Fallujah are not the PMUs but Iraq's multiethnic counterterrorism units, which are being assisted by local tribal communities. The offensive is a "prototype" for the kind of cooperation between local and government forces against ISIS that helped drive ISIS out of Ramadi last year, according to Ahmed Rushdi, a political analyst and director of the House of Iraqi Expertise Foundation. "What is happening now in Falluja is paving the way for what will happen in Mosul on a much larger scale," Rushdi told Al Jazeera on Monday. The Iraqis had slowly been recapturing territory from ISIS around Mosul, which fell to the jihadists in 2014, before the government announced a new offensive on Fallujah last week. Saad al-Muttalibi, an adviser to the Iraqi Council of Ministers, agreed. "All of the PMUs have been ordered not to enter Falluja," he told Al Jazeera. "Only the Iraqi Special Forces have entered the city. The PMUs are controlling the outskirts of Falluja." Members of the Hashid Shaabi Shi'ite milita gather in the west of Samarra, in the desert of Anbar, as they prepare to depart for Mosul to fight against Islamic State, March 1, 2016. REUTERS/Stringer Still, Shiite forces within the PMU have been accused of attacking civilians in territory they have recaptured from ISIS. Reports have emerged that 17 civilians were killed by PMU fighters in the Garma district on the outskirts of Fallujah last week. Many Shiite forces believe that civilians in ISIS-held territory are sympathetic to the jihadists, even though Iraqi security forces helped nearly 800 civilians flee Fallujah late last week. President Barack Obama has said repeatedly that he intends to "tighten the noose" around ISIS by training and supporting the Iraqi army. But, ultimately, few believe that that will be enough to halt ISIS's momentum in the country, which continues to be driven in large part by Baghdad's political instability, financial struggles, and the perception that Abadi a member of Iraq's Shiite majority is beholden to Iran. "Abadi was and is a weak compromise candidate heavily influenced by Iran and its proxies," Michael Pregent, a former embedded adviser with a Peshmerga battalion operating in Mosul and former US Defense Department adviser, told Business Insider earlier this month. "The US has no leverage in Baghdad," Pregent added, "which has long since been ceded to Tehran." NOW WATCH: The US Army is sending Apache attack helicopters to fight ISIS in Iraq More From Business Insider (Reuters) - The Department of Justice said on Wednesday that a U.S. district court and Native American Enterprises LLC have resolved a litigation following which the Kansas-based company will stop manufacture or distribution of food and other meat products. The DOJ filed a complaint in U.S. district court in Kansas on March 21 at the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, alleging that the company's refried beans and sauces have been prepared, packed under insanitary conditions. The insanitary conditions include the presence of Listeria monocytogenes in NAE's facility and insanitary employee practices. The FDA inspected NAE's facility in August and observed rain water leaking through the roof in the packaging room, directly above where the refried beans were packed, a complaint filed by the regulator on the matter said. The court and Native American Enterprises agreed to a consent decree of permanent injunction against the company, its vice president and part-owner, William McGreevy, and production manager Robert Conner. (http://1.usa.gov/1P6bk4V) (Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru) Kawasaki Announces Plans to Scrap W800 It's the hipster bike that never made it to the States, the modern Bonneville that many felt was more authentic than the actual Bonneville: the Kawasaki W800. And after more than 50 years, the retro air-cooled twin W series is set to be retired. Kawasaki Motors Europe announced Wednesday that a final edition series of the motorcycle will be made available before European Union regulation makes it obsolete at the start of 2017. Kawasaki W800 Final Edition The W800 traces its history back to the original W series that first emerged from the Kawasaki factory in Akashi, Japan, in the mid 1960s. The air-cooled 4-stroke vertical twin displaces 773cc and keeps things ultra-retro by maintaining a drum brake on the rear. Kawasaki first introduced the the W1 the W800's "grandfather" in 1966, which, incidentally, is the same year the Japanese brand first set up shop in the United States. The 650cc W1 produced a powerful-for-the-time 50 hp. And it was a hit particularly in the American market, where it helped set the foundations for the brand in the United States. READ MORE: Not For America: Bikes We Want Now | RideApart Kawasaki W800 Final Edition More than 30 years later in 1998 Kawasaki introduced the W650, which echoed the styling of the W1 and was embraced by a number of new fans. Ultimately, Kawasaki released the W800 in 2011. Though, strangely, the bike has stayed somewhat under the radar amid the recent retro craze. One wonders if Kawasaki really knew how to capitalize on the W800's potential. At motorcycle shows it was often shuffled off into a corner, separate from the rest of the brand's lineup. For some unknown reason, the bike was also kept out of the American market. Kawasaki W800 Final Edition It's interesting to ponder what could have been, but now we'll never know. The W800 is being discontinued, since the current machine will not meet future European motorcycle regulations. Its never easy to say goodbye to an old friend, especially one as iconic as the W800," said Morihiro Ikoma, corporate planning director for Kawasaki Motors Europe. "Paying homage to the W series with this Final Edition is therefore a truly fitting end to a long and successful line of machines. Story continues Learn more about Chris and the rest of RideApart's excellent staff here: The RideApart Team Follow RideApart on Facebook and Twitter, along with @RideApart on Instagram. Author Jenny Deason Copeland has announced a speaking engagement ahead of the launch of her book, Tiananmen West: Why Nixon Ordered the Kent State Massacre. The talk deals with research behind the conspiracy theories that surround the shooting of unarmed students on May 4, 1970 WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI / ACCESSWIRE / May 31, 2016 / New author talk has been announced by Jenny Deason Copeland, the author of the upcoming book, Tiananmen West: Why Nixon Ordered the Kent State Massacre, at MENSA Annual Gathering in San Diego. The talk will focus on her book, which documents the research done while investigating conspiracy theories surrounding the Kent State massacre in an effort to find motives and proof. More information can be found at: http://crazyredheadpublishing.com. The MENSA Annual Gathering starts in San Diego on June 29, 2016. The Tiananmen West talk is scheduled for July 1, 2016 at 10:30 AM PDT. This will be held at 500 Hotel Circle N, San Diego, CA. This event will focus on the amount of research that has gone into the book across nearly three decades of work. This includes Freedom of Information Act requests in 1992 and 1994 that received unwelcome attention and threatened the lives of the author's children. The Kent State Massacre occurred on May 4, 1970, at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, and involved the shooting of unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard. It's reported that 67 shots were fired over a period of 13 seconds, resulting in four deaths and nine people being injured. Following on from the shooting, a large national response ensued, with four million students striking and hundreds of universities closing across America. Some of the students who were shot had been protesting the Cambodian Campaign, announced by President Nixon on April 30. Others were not at the protest, and had been observing from a distance. A number of conspiracy theories surround the episode, with some believing the shooting was ordered and some suggesting the guardsmen themselves could have been shot at and were simply retaliating. Jenny Deason Copeland details her theory that Nixon was in direct control of the event and the research she used to shed light on that theory in her book, which forms the backbone of the two author events. Story continues For more information about us, please visit http://www.crazyredheadpublishing.com Contact Info: Name: Jenny Deason Copeland Organization: Crazy Red Head Publishing Address: 3900 Walnut Lake Rd, West Bloomfield, MI 48323 Phone: 248-227-5508 SOURCE: Crazy Red Head Publishing The luxury housing market is expanding to playhouses. Parents are now spending big money for customized, high-end playhouses for their children that have features ranging from kids-sized kitchens to media rooms. Despite the price tag, La Petite Maison interior designer Michelle Pollak says the demand for the playhouses has been consistent. Our demand has stayed very steady ever since we began this business. We usually do anywhere from Id say six to ten a year, a very, very small niche because they obviously take a lot of time to produce, Pollak told the FOX Business Networks Maria Bartiromo. But because of the amount of work involved for each one they have limited production. Theyre all hand built, by Alan [builder Alan Mowrer] himself, and designed. So even if the demand were more than 10 a year, we just couldnt fulfill it. We actually intentionally keep it small demand, said Pollak. Although the company delivers across the country, Pollak said they do see more demand from certain areas. It tends to be hit or miss, definitely concentrated on the west and the east coast, New York and California primarily, Texas is big and then we get these surprise requests from literally the middle of nowhere, Pollak said. Pollak then discussed some of the more unique requests they have received. When we first started doing this we got requests of course for running water, play kitchens, media rooms and we thought that was over the top. And then as time went on and we got more requests for things such as hurricane-proof houses, houses built on earthquake-proof foundations, which of course we have to contract out, said Pollak. Related Articles Actress Amber Heard, the estranged wife of Hollywood star Johnny Depp, is accusing her husband of domestic violence amid a bitter divorce battle. The Zombieland actress appeared in Los Angeles Superior Court with a bruised face last Friday, when she was granted a temporary restraining order against Depp. Her lawyers say the actress received the bruises during a fight at home with the Oscar-nominated actor, and that Heard has suffered through years of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of her husband. Depp has not commented publicly, but his lawyers have argued that Heard is attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse. This weeks People cover story includes new photos of Heards face after the alleged assault. Heres what to know about the dispute. The alleged attack Heard says Depp threw a cell phone at her face, hitting her cheek and right eye during an attack at their Hollywood home on May 21, according to the Associated Press, which cited her sworn declaration in court. She also said her husband was drunk and high when he allegedly pulled her hair, screamed at her and repeatedly hit her and violently grabbed her face during the incident. Heard and her lawyers say the incident is one of many, and that she was subjected to excessive emotional, verbal and physical abuse during the entirety of the couples 15-month marriage. The alleged abuse, Heard said, included angry, hostile, humiliating and threatening assaults to me whenever I questioned his authority or disagreed with him. I live in fear that Johnny will return to [our house] unannounced to terrorize me, physically and emotionally, she added. Depps defense According to court documents cited by People, Depps attorney Laura Waser says Heard is attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse. Story continues Depps representative has publicly commented on their divorce but not the abuse allegations. Given the brevity of this marriage and the most recent and tragic loss of his mother, Johnny will not respond to any of the salacious false stories, gossip, misinformation and lies about his personal life, a representative said in a May 26 statement, after news broke of their impending divorce, but before her abuse allegations became public. Hopefully the dissolution of this short marriage will be resolved quickly. Heards lead attorney Samantha Spector and her co-counsel Joseph Koenig said in a joint statement that Heards actions are not motivated by money. Amber is a brave and financially independent woman who is showing the courage of her convictions by doing the right thing against Johnnys relentless army of lawyers and surrogate, the statement said. Amber is the victim. Amber is a hero. Their relationship The couple met on set while they were shooting the 2011 film The Rum Diary, People reports. Heard, now 30, and Depp, 52, tied the knot in February 2015, the magazine reports in its new cover story. The two made headlines in April when they both appeared in an apology video filmed for the government of Australia. Heard faced criminal charges there after flying the couples two dogs into the country without proper permission. Australia ended up dropping charges of illegal importation after Heard pleaded guilty to improperly bringing the animals into the country. Heard filed for divorce on May 23, citing irreconcilable differences, her legal team told TIME. The filing came two days after the alleged abuse incident. When Jessica Piha, the director of communications for home improvement site Porch.com, bid on a single-family home in the Seattle area, she knew hers wasn't the highest offer presented to the seller. She'd offered to pay around 25 percent more than the asking price, but in a hot housing market like Seattle, other buyers were offering as much as 75 percent more than the asking price, sometimes without financing or inspection contingencies. "I knew that to be competitive I had to be able to leverage what I had -- and that was flexibility," Piha says. [See: 12 Home Improvement Shortcuts That Are a Bad Idea .] The current owners of the home were building a new property, so they wanted to close on their current home sale and lease it back from Piha. That way, they could continue living in the home for a few weeks while the new property was completed. Piha allowed them to lease back the property for free until May 15, and that flexibility got her the house she wanted. "I waived utilities, rent, everything," she says. "The only thing I required them to have was renter's insurance," she adds. Piha stayed in her apartment a few weeks longer and, fortunately, the previous owners moved out ahead of schedule and she was able to take possession of her new home. This type of arrangement is called a sale-leaseback or a post-closing possession agreement depending on where you live (for instance, you might hear sale-leaseback in the Southeast or Northwest, while you might hear post-possession in the Northeast). "The seller has sold the property, and they remain in the house for X amount of time so they can figure out their next move or close on their next house," explains Janine Acquafredda, associate broker with House-N-Key, Realty in Brooklyn, New York. "It's very common, but it's not going to work for everybody," she says. Often, she says, those willing to agree to this arrangement are first-time homebuyers who can simply stay in their rental a little longer like Piha did. Another situation where this might work is if the buyers are real estate investors who plan to rent out the property anyway. Story continues While Piha's sale-leaseback went smoothly, that's not always the case. What happens if the condition of the property changes between closing and actual possession? Or what if the sellers' new home takes longer than expected? These are just a few of the potential problems that can arise, so Bruce Ailion, a real estate broker and attorney with Re/Max Town and Country in Atlanta, recommends that buyers and sellers who want to go this route work with a real estate attorney or agent who's familiar with these types of transactions. "An owner may think they'll put a for-sale-by-owner [sign] up, have somebody in January who wants to buy now and move in in June, but I would definitely have someone who knows what they're doing draft or review the agreement," Ailion says. [See: The 20 Best Affordable Places to Live in the U.S.] Piha didn't charge her sellers rent, but buyers can include rental fees and a security deposit in their agreement. However, if buyers get too demanding, it may scare off the sellers. Ailion points to a deal that fell apart after the buyer requested $50,000 in an escrow account in case the seller (a senior partner at a major law firm) damaged the property during the two weeks it was leased. "That's totally unreasonable," he says. "Yes, they could take the appliances and they could take the mirrors and mark up the walls on their way out ... but the seller was offended and didn't want to put up the money," he adds. According to Ailion, $5,000 would have been more reasonable, and in the unlikely event that damage exceeded that amount, the new seller could have sued the previous owner for additional damage. Ailion says it's more common to charge rent that roughly covers the carry costs (mortgage, utilities, condo or homeowners' association fees, etc.) for the new homeowner. And if the seller stays beyond the agreed upon occupancy date, the agreement might charge a daily rate of, say, 150 percent of the daily rate for each extra day, incentivizing the previous owners to move out. For a longer-term lease, for instance, if the owners need to access their home equity, sell the property to an investor and lease it back, the new owners would likely charge higher rent. To avoid delays with possession, Acquafredda suggests that buyers considering a post-closing possession understand the sellers' situation. Do the sellers have a new home picked out or are they still looking? Are they planning to build or renovate and if so, what's the timeline? "If they're relying on the purchase of a home, make sure their financing is qualified to buy the home," she says. Ailion says buyers and sellers need to be comfortable with a little uncertainty, and the longer the timeline before the new buyer takes possession, the more uncertainty. "Both parties are taking some risk that it will work out the way they planned," he says. "People's circumstances may change over that time." [See: The Best Apps for House Hunting.] While a post-closing possession agreement has its potential pitfalls, Piha feels it was worth it for her. "I was willing to do whatever it took to make the sellers pick me," she says. More From US News & World Report When Jessica Piha, the director of communications for home improvement site Porch.com, bid on a single-family home in the Seattle area, she knew hers wasn't the highest offer presented to the seller. She'd offered to pay around 25 percent more than the asking price, but in a hot housing market like Seattle, other buyers were offering as much as 75 percent more than the asking price, sometimes without financing or inspection contingencies. "I knew that to be competitive I had to be able to leverage what I had -- and that was flexibility," Piha says. [See: 12 Home Improvement Shortcuts That Are a Bad Idea .] The current owners of the home were building a new property, so they wanted to close on their current home sale and lease it back from Piha. That way, they could continue living in the home for a few weeks while the new property was completed. Piha allowed them to lease back the property for free until May 15, and that flexibility got her the house she wanted. "I waived utilities, rent, everything," she says. "The only thing I required them to have was renter's insurance," she adds. Piha stayed in her apartment a few weeks longer and, fortunately, the previous owners moved out ahead of schedule and she was able to take possession of her new home. This type of arrangement is called a sale-leaseback or a post-closing possession agreement depending on where you live (for instance, you might hear sale-leaseback in the Southeast or Northwest, while you might hear post-possession in the Northeast). "The seller has sold the property, and they remain in the house for X amount of time so they can figure out their next move or close on their next house," explains Janine Acquafredda, associate broker with House-N-Key, Realty in Brooklyn, New York. "It's very common, but it's not going to work for everybody," she says. Often, she says, those willing to agree to this arrangement are first-time homebuyers who can simply stay in their rental a little longer like Piha did. Another situation where this might work is if the buyers are real estate investors who plan to rent out the property anyway. Story continues While Piha's sale-leaseback went smoothly, that's not always the case. What happens if the condition of the property changes between closing and actual possession? Or what if the sellers' new home takes longer than expected? These are just a few of the potential problems that can arise, so Bruce Ailion, a real estate broker and attorney with Re/Max Town and Country in Atlanta, recommends that buyers and sellers who want to go this route work with a real estate attorney or agent who's familiar with these types of transactions. "An owner may think they'll put a for-sale-by-owner [sign] up, have somebody in January who wants to buy now and move in in June, but I would definitely have someone who knows what they're doing draft or review the agreement," Ailion says. [See: The 20 Best Affordable Places to Live in the U.S.] Piha didn't charge her sellers rent, but buyers can include rental fees and a security deposit in their agreement. However, if buyers get too demanding, it may scare off the sellers. Ailion points to a deal that fell apart after the buyer requested $50,000 in an escrow account in case the seller (a senior partner at a major law firm) damaged the property during the two weeks it was leased. "That's totally unreasonable," he says. "Yes, they could take the appliances and they could take the mirrors and mark up the walls on their way out ... but the seller was offended and didn't want to put up the money," he adds. According to Ailion, $5,000 would have been more reasonable, and in the unlikely event that damage exceeded that amount, the new seller could have sued the previous owner for additional damage. Ailion says it's more common to charge rent that roughly covers the carry costs (mortgage, utilities, condo or homeowners' association fees, etc.) for the new homeowner. And if the seller stays beyond the agreed upon occupancy date, the agreement might charge a daily rate of, say, 150 percent of the daily rate for each extra day, incentivizing the previous owners to move out. For a longer-term lease, for instance, if the owners need to access their home equity, sell the property to an investor and lease it back, the new owners would likely charge higher rent. To avoid delays with possession, Acquafredda suggests that buyers considering a post-closing possession understand the sellers' situation. Do the sellers have a new home picked out or are they still looking? Are they planning to build or renovate and if so, what's the timeline? "If they're relying on the purchase of a home, make sure their financing is qualified to buy the home," she says. Ailion says buyers and sellers need to be comfortable with a little uncertainty, and the longer the timeline before the new buyer takes possession, the more uncertainty. "Both parties are taking some risk that it will work out the way they planned," he says. "People's circumstances may change over that time." [See: The Best Apps for House Hunting.] While a post-closing possession agreement has its potential pitfalls, Piha feels it was worth it for her. "I was willing to do whatever it took to make the sellers pick me," she says. Susan Johnston Taylor contributes to the money section of USNews.com. Her articles on business and personal finance have also appeared in or on The Boston Globe, Learnvest.com, Entrepreneur.com and FastCompany.com. You can find her on Twitter @UrbanMuseWriter. Torrential downpours hit parts of central and northern France on Tuesday, May 31, triggering flooding and widespread weather warnings. The departments of Loiret and Seine-et-Marne, to the south and east of Paris, respectively, were placed on red alert on Wednesday by Meteo France due to the dangers posed by flooding. These videos show pathways and houses partially submerged in Argenton-sur-Creuse, Centre, France, and a car battling the flooding on route D2020 near Salbris. Credit: Twitter/FloC36 New Discovery Area Includes the Highest Grades Found To Date That Are Coincident With the Strongest and Most Discrete SkyTEM Conductive Zones VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 1, 2016 / Noram Ventures Inc. (TSX-V: NRM; Frankfurt: N7R) ("Noram" or the "Company") is pleased to provide the latest exploration results and a project update on the Company's Jumbo flake-graphite property, located in the Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia (see Figure 1). "These latest results from Jumbo are very encouraging as we expect the project to play an integral role in realizing our plan of becoming a force in the Green Energy Revolution through the development of lithium and graphite deposits, as part of our near term strategy to build a multi-national lithium-graphite dominant industrial minerals company to produce and sell lithium and graphite into the markets of Europe, North America and Asia," said Mark Ireton, CEO & President. Project Highlights: a large, 15,048 hectare (150.48 square kilometer) property comprised of 26 mineral tenures; conductive features delineated in an airborne SkyTEM (Time Domain Electromagnetic) survey are consistently associated with a graphitic horizon throughout the Property; appears that all the SkyTEM-indicated conductors, with a cumulative length of roughly 50 kilometers of conductive horizon, may be related to a single continuous complexly folded graphitic sequence; initial metallurgical testing (SGS Lakefield) of a 10kg sample from the Property's Big Flake area returned a head-grade of 3.81% graphite with a total of 45.5% reporting to or above the large flake (+80 mesh) category at an average purity grade of 96.0% graphitic carbon; latest surface rock sampling program returned up to 16.6% graphitic carbon in one selected sample* from the new discovery area; the new discovery area includes the highest grades found to date that are coincident with the strongest and most discrete SkyTEM conductive zones. Story continues * Note: the high-grade sample result is not necessarily representative of the mineralization hosted on the Property. The latest exploration work consisted of further prospecting and rock sampling over roughly 6,000 hectares of the Property. The program focused largely in the areas of the strongest and most discrete conductive zones as defined in the airborne SkyTEM survey completed in 2012 (see Figure 2). A total of 84 selected rock grab samples were collected and sent to ALS Minerals in North Vancouver, BC for graphite analyses using a LECO process. Graphite mineralization was encountered in all conductive zones sampled with sample assay values ranging from a low of 0.24% graphitic carbon (Sample 626429 - grab of massive skarn pyrite with trace flake graphite bedrock location above Branch 1 Road) to a high of 16.6% graphitic carbon (Sample 626421 - grab of high grade subcrop dark grey black massive flake graphite location Branch 67 Road). For further clarification, all rock sample locations and graphite contents are plotted in Figure 3. As previously reported, it appears that all the SkyTEM-indicated conductors, which have a total length of approximately 50 kilometers, may be related to a single continuous complexly folded graphitic sequence. This conductive horizon has the potential to host significant concentrations of graphite and very little of the total strike length has been tested to date. Based on all results to date, further drilling is recommended in the South Limb area and the Branch 1 and upper Branch 67 areas where significant graphite mineralization was observed in the latest sampling program (see Figure 4). Several other strong and well defined conductive features should also be drill tested to maximize coverage. Detailed structural geological mapping would logically be conducted in these selected areas prior to drilling to determine optimum dip angles and practical collar locations. A total of 3,000 meters of core drilling is recommended in 20 to 25 holes. This program is has been estimated to cost approximately $700,000. For more information visit the Jumbo page of the Noram website. Gordon Allen, B.Sc., P.Geo., and independent Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical content of this news release on behalf of the Company. About Noram Ventures Inc. Noram Ventures Inc. (TSX-V: NRM Frankfurt: N7R) is a Canadian based junior exploration company, with a goal of becoming a force in the Green Energy Revolution through the development of lithium and graphite deposits and becoming a low-cost supplier for the burgeoning lithium battery industry. The Company's primary business focus since formation has been the exploration of mineral projects that include the Clayton Valley lithium project in Nevada and the Jumbo graphite property in British Columbia. Noram's long term strategy is to build a multi-national lithium-graphite dominant industrial minerals company to produce and sell lithium and graphite into the markets of Europe, North America and Asia. For further information, please visit www.noramventures.com. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS s/ "Mark Ireton" President & Director Direct: (604) 761-9994 This news release contains projections and forward-looking information that involve various risks and uncertainties regarding future events. Such forward-looking information can include without limitation statements based on current expectations involving a number of risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance of the Company. The following are important factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements; the uncertainty of future profitability; and the uncertainty of access to additional capital. These risks and uncertainties could cause actual results and the Company's plans and objectives to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information. Actual results and future events could differ materially from anticipated in such information. These and all subsequent written and oral forward-looking information are based on estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made and expressed qualified in their entirety by this notice. The Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking information should circumstance or management's estimates or opinions change. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Noram Ventures Inc. Mogadishu (AFP) - A senior Shabaab commander suspected of organising the 2015 attack on Kenya's Garissa University has been killed in a special forces raid in southern Somalia, a local official said Wednesday, as the Al-Qaeda-linked group launched a deadly assault on a top Mogadishu hotel. At least 10 people, including two lawmakers, were killed in the car bomb and gun attack at the Ambassador Hotel, according to medical and security sources, while dozens more were injured. Fighting between Somali security forces and Shabaab Islamists at the hotel raged into the evening, some five hours after the attack began. In the coastal Somali town of Kismayo meanwhile, a local security official said the suspected architect of the bloodbath in Garissa had been killed in a raid in southwestern Somalia in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday. "Sixteen armed men, four of them senior commanders including Mohamed Mohamud Ali known as Dulyadin... were killed by the Somali commandos and the special forces of the Jubaland," said Abdirashid Janan, minister of state security for Jubaland, an autonomous region in southern Somalia. Local officials paraded the bodies of the four suspected commanders in the streets of Kismayo. The April 2, 2015 assault at Garissa University College, 365 kilometres (225 miles) northeast of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, left 148 people dead, 142 of them students. They were slain in their dormitories or rounded up and executed in a hall of residence. The operation was carried out by four gunmen from the Shabaab, Al-Qaeda's East Africa branch. It was Kenya's bloodiest terror attack since Al-Qaeda bombed the US embassy in Nairobi in 1998, killing 213 people. Last July, the Kenyan government said that Dulyadin -- also known by the aliases of Kuno and Gamadhere -- had been killed in a US drone strike, but it swiftly backtracked on the claim. There was no immediate confirmation of Dulyadin's death from Kenyan authorities. "It happened in an area which is not under our control," Kenyan military spokesman David Obonyo told AFP late Wednesday. Story continues - US drone strike - Separately Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said a senior Shabaab military commander, Abdullahi Haji Da'ud, was "presumed killed" following a US air strike on May 27. "Da'ud was one of Shabaab's most senior military planners and served as a principal coordinator of (the group's) militia attacks in Somalia, Kenya, and Uganda," Cook told reporters in San Diego. Shabaab fighters were chased out of Mogadishu in 2011 but the group remains a dangerous threat. It has vowed to overthrow the internationally-backed government in Somalia, which is being buttressed by a continent of some 22,000 troops from the African Union. It has frequently carried out attacks in neighbouring Kenya and vowed retribution against "Western crusaders" who it says are guilty of offences against Muslims in Somalia. - 'Burned bodies' - The Shabaab group was quick to claim Wednesday's assault on the Ambassador Hotel. "The attack was started with a heavy explosion and members from the Mujahedeen fighters stormed the building," it said in a statement. "A VBIED (vehicle-borne improvised explosive device) exploded at the Ambassador Hotel, Makkah Almukarramah street," a security source told AFP. "According to latest information received there was a follow-up complex attack and the hotel was penetrated and an ongoing fire fight is in progress," the security source added. Witnesses described scenes of carnage. "I was a few metres (yards) away from the hotel when the blast occurred. It was a very heavy one and it destroyed the whole area. I saw the dead bodies of seven people, most of them burned," Mohamed Elmi said. Another witness, Ibrahim Sheikh Nur, said he saw "several dead bodies outside the hotel". "The security forces are now inside and the whole area is cordoned off." ALGIERS (Reuters) - The long-standing leader of Western Sahara's independence movement, Mohamed Abdelaziz, died on Tuesday after more three decades of war and diplomatic struggle for the disputed territory with Morocco. Abdelaziz, 68, the Polisario Front's secretary general and president of its self-declared Sahrawi Republic, had suffered from a long illness, the movement's Sahara Press Service and Algeria's state news agency said. His death came at a sensitive time for the Western Sahara dispute. Morocco earlier this year expelled part of a United Nations peace-keeping mission from the territory following a disagreement with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Ban's press office issued a statement expressing his sadness at the death of Abdelaziz, whom he met earlier this year during a visit to the region. "Mr. Abdelaziz was a central figure in the search for a resolution of the Western Sahara conflict," the statement said. Morocco took over most of the territory in 1975 from colonial power Spain, but the Polisario Front began a guerrilla war for Abdelaziz's Sahrawi people, saying the desert region in northwest Africa belonged to them. Polisario has been based in Algeria since a U.N. ceasefire in 1991 halted the conflict. But a dispute over a referendum on the area's future has left it in a deadlock for years. Algeria's government declared eight days of mourning after Abdelaziz's death was announced. Polisario rules state that the movement's assembly president takes over for 40 days after which an extraordinary session will be held to choose a new leader. Abdelaziz, who lived in the Sahrawi refugee camp in southern Algeria, had led the Polisario though a period of struggle and into the U.N.-backed truce. Since 1991, the dispute has been frozen over how to hold the referendum. Many younger Sahrawi are demanding progress after years in the camps in the Tindouf region of Algeria, exerting a pressure that the Polisario's new leadership will have to manage. Polisario representatives say Morocco put the ceasefire at risk by expelling U.N. staffers and trying to scuttle the referendum, including on the question of independence. Morocco has offered an autonomy plan as the only way forward. The U.N. statement said Ban wanted to help the parties "to achieve a mutually acceptable political solution, which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara." During his recent visit to the region, Ban infuriated Morocco by referring publicly to the "occupation" of Western Sahara. (Reporting by Patrick Markey; Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau in New York; Editing by Gareth Jones and Leslie Adler) For Immediate Release Chicago, IL June 01, 2016 Zacks Equity Research highlights Lear Corporation (LEA) as the Bull of the Day and Macys (M) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL), Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) and Amazon.com (AMZN). Here is a synopsis of all five stocks: Bull of the Day : Auto parts industry continues to benefit from surging auto sales, which are currently running at a decade high, thanks to still low gas prices and easily available credit. Lear Corporation (LEA) reported excellent quarterly results, sending estimates higher and the stock to a Zack Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Based in Southfield, MI, Lear is a leading global supplier of automotive seating and electrical systems. The company employs about 136,000 employees in its 240 locations worldwide. Solid First Quarter Results and Improved Guidance The company reported its Q1 results on April 27. Adjusted earnings for the quarter came in at $3.40 per share, up from $2.28 in the year-ago quarter. Earnings were also significantly ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.83. Revenues increased 8% year over year to $4.66 billion beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $4.64 billion. For the current year, the management expects adjusted net income to be between $900 and $940 million, significantly up from the prior guidance of between $720 and $755 million. They expect sales to be between $18.5 and $19.0 billion. This outlook represents seventh consecutive year of higher sales and earnings. Earlier this year, the company increased its dividend by 20% to $0.30 a share. They also continue to return capital to shareholders via buybacks. Last year, they returned $566 million to shareholders via repurchases and dividends. Soaring Estimates After excellent results and upgraded guidance, analysts have raised estimates for the company. Zacks Consensus Estimates for the current and the next year are now $12.99 per share and $13.90 per share respectively, up from $12.45 and $13.62, before the results. Story continues Bear of the Day: Despite low gas prices and improving labor market, consumers remain reluctant to spend much. Further, their rising preference for online shopping is adding to the headwinds for traditional department store operators like Macys (M). The company reported its worst quarterly results since 2009 and also slashed guidance for the current year, sending shares sharply lower after the report. About the Company Based in Cincinnati, Ohio with a corporate office in New York, Macy) is the biggest department store chain in the country. The company operates approximately 870 stores under the names of Macys, Bloomingdales, Bloomingdales Outlet, Macys Backstage and Bluemercury. Weak Results and Downgraded Guidance The company reported its Q1 results on May 11. Adjusted earnings of $0.40 per share were slightly ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.35. However sales of $5,771 million fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $5,955 million. Sales declined 5.6% from the same quarter year ago. Shares plunged about 13% after the results release. The management expects same-store sales to decline about 4% this year, compared with a 2.5% decline last year, and adjusted earnings for the year to be between $3.15 and $3.40 per share. Falling Estimates Analysts have slashed their estimates for the company after weak results. Zacks Consensus Estimates for the current and next fiscal year have fallen to $3.25 per share and $3.38 per share from $3.83 and $3.96 respectively, before the results. Additional content: Alphabet (GOOGL) Selling Robotics Division to Toyota Per reports from Tech Insider on Friday, Alphabet Inc. ( GOOGL) is selling its robotics division Boston Dynamics to Toyota Research Institute, a division of Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp. (TM). The financials of the deal have not been disclosed yet, but according to Tech Insider sources, its almost finalized. According to an earlier report from Bloomberg in March, Amazon.com ( AMZN) and Toyota Research Institute were the potential buyers. Google acquired Boston Dynamics in late 2013 as a part of its robotics division, Replicant, which makes humanoid and animal-like mobile robots customized for military purposes. The primary architect of Replicant was Android founder Andy Rubin under whose leadership eight robotics-related companies were bought by Google in 2013. Under Rubin, the division was preparing for its first consumer product launch in 2020. However, the process was obstructed with Rubins departure in 2014. Additional issues cropped up when the Boston Dynamics team started facing problems working with Google robotic engineers in Tokyo and California while developing a new range of products including the "low-cost quadruped robot. With all these, Google executives became skeptical about the revenue-generating capacity of Boston Dynamics. They also feared that humanoids could take human jobs. In December, after its reorganization into Alphabet, Google announced the decision to fold Replicant into Google X hardware lab. Boston Dynamics was not made a part of this fold and instead put up for sale. One of Tech Insiders sources called this deal a friendly buyout considering Boston Dynamics long-time relationship with the Toyota Research Institute. The deal appears to be a win-win situation for both Google and Toyota. Google will be able to cull what appears to be a problematic and non-revenue generating operation while Toyota Research Institute will be in a position to use Boston Dynamics expertise for developing robots for industrial or personal use. At present, Google has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Get todays Zacks #1 Stock of the Day with your free subscription to Profit from the Pros newsletter: About the Bull and Bear of the Day Every day, the analysts at Zacks Equity Research select two stocks that are likely to outperform (Bull) or underperform (Bear) the markets over the next 3-6 months. About the Analyst Blog Updated throughout every trading day, the Analyst Blog provides analysis from Zacks Equity Research about the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. About Zacks Equity Research Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term. Continuous analyst coverage is provided for a universe of 1,150 publicly traded stocks. Our analysts are organized by industry which gives them keen insights to developments that affect company profits and stock performance. Recommendations and target prices are six-month time horizons. Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Click here to subscribe to this free newsletter today. About Zacks Zacks.com is a property of Zacks Investment Research, Inc., which was formed in 1978. The later formation of the Zacks Rank, a proprietary stock picking system; continues to outperform the market by nearly a 3 to 1 margin. The best way to unlock the profitable stock recommendations and market insights of Zacks Investment Research is through our free daily email newsletter; Profit from the Pros. In short, it's your steady flow of Profitable ideas GUARANTEED to be worth your time! Register for your free subscription to Profit from the Pros. Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zacksresearch Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Zacks-Investment-Research/57553657748?ref=ts Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates. Media Contact Zacks Investment Research 800-767-3771 ext. 9339 support@zacks.com https://www.zacks.com Zacks.com provides investment resources and informs you of these resources, which you may choose to use in making your own investment decisions. Zacks is providing information on this resource to you subject to the Zacks "Terms and Conditions of Service" disclaimer. www.zacks.com/disclaimer . Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report LEAR CORPORATN (LEA): Free Stock Analysis Report MACYS INC (M): Free Stock Analysis Report ALPHABET INC-A (GOOGL): Free Stock Analysis Report TOYOTA MOTOR CP (TM): Free Stock Analysis Report AMAZON.COM INC (AMZN): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Baghdad (AFP) - At least 20,000 children are trapped in jihadist bastion Fallujah under siege by Iraqi forces and face shortages and forced recruitment as fighters, the UN Children's Fund said on Wednesday. "UNICEF estimates that at least 20,000 children remain trapped in the city," the agency's Iraq representative Peter Hawkins said. The few residents who have managed to flee the Fallujah area since Iraqi forces launched an offensive against the Islamic State group on May 22-23 speak of severe shortages of food and drinking water. The few hundred families who have escaped IS territory were camped out on the outskirts and residents reached by phone inside the city spoke of even worse conditions. "Children face the risk of forced recruitment into the fighting, strict procedures for security screening and separation from their families," Hawkins said. "Children who are recruited see their lives and futures jeopardised as they are forced to carry and use arms, fighting in an adult war." UNICEF renewed calls for safe corridors to be opened to allow Fallujah's civilian population to escape. The United Nations has accused IS of using the civilian population as human shields as it prepares to mount a desperate defence of one of its most emblematic bastions. Hard of hearing for years, Harvey Lillard finally brought his problem to a doc he saw nearly every day. Little did the African-American janitor know that hed soon be the poster boy for a budding new health profession. At work in the Ryan Building of Davenport, Iowa, back in 1895, Lillard unburdened himself to Daniel David Palmer, a hands-on magnetic healer who ran a practice on the premises. Lillard explained that 17 years earlier, hed stooped down to pick up a heavy item and felt something pop in his neck. Ever since, he told Palmer, hed been deaf. What followed was the first professional chiropractic adjustment, and Lillard proclaimed he could once again hear the ticking of clocks. A self-taught practitioner with an interest in human anatomy, Palmer wondered about the power of the spine and the possible restriction of brain waves. With this notion in mind, he examined Lillard and found that he had a vertebra that was out of whack. He gently applied pressure to it, performing the first professional chiropractic adjustment, and Lillard proclaimed he could once again hear the ticking of clocks. Variations of the story exist, but did the first chiropractic maneuver really cure deafness? I have my doubts, says Roger Hynes, associate professor of clinical sciences at Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport and president of the Association for the History of Chiropractic. But, he adds, there are examples of vertebrogenic hearing deficits being improved by chiropractic. William Lauretti, a spokesperson for the American Chiropractic Association and associate professor of chiropractic clinical sciences at New York Chiropractic College, says there isnt really an anatomical explanation for a pop in the neck causing hearing loss, but notes that Lillard may have had congestion in his sinuses or some snapping in the Eustachian tube. Lillard told Palmer he could hear again, and whether it was true or just something Lillard said to get Palmer to stop pushing on his neck is a discrepancy lost to the annals of time, Lauretti says. We really dont know, but thats how the story goes, he adds. Story continues While most regard Palmer as the first professional chiropractor, accounts of hands-on healing like this date back to ancient Greece. But that didnt prevent the Iowa healer from becoming the target of ridicule, or legal woes. Like showmen selling miracle cures or Louis Pasteur peddling germ theory, Palmer was considered a classic quack par excellence, writes Rose Shapiro in Suckers: How Alternative Medicine Makes Fools of Us All. Daniel david palmer Daniel David Palmer Source: Public Domain But Charles Darwins theory of evolution was similarly touted as ridiculous fiction, says Hynes, noting how health-related fields often get labeled as quackery when theyre new. A lot of people were very skeptical of [Palmers] claims, says Lauretti, perhaps because early chiropractors tended to boast of heroic results. But medicine of that era was admittedly hard to stomach: Gunshot wounds were often treated with leeches, and sterilization simply wasnt done. President James Garfield might have survived his assassination, in fact, had doctors not rummaged around his wound with unwashed fingers. The environment was brutal, Lauretti says, and it wasnt until the late 19th to early 20th century just as chiropractic was getting started that medicine began being regulated and licensed. Indeed, chiropractic offered a kinder, gentler health care, Lauretti says. Palmer opened his first chiropractic school in 1898 and lived to see many more open before his death in 1913. From the beginning, they were progressive, promoting hands-on healing and welcoming significant numbers of women to their classrooms females were often banned, either formally or informally, from medical schools well into the 1900s, Lauretti notes. But once medicine started being regulated, early chiropractors, including Palmer, were often arrested for not having licenses to practice health care. The legal challenge? Demonstrating that what you were practicing was not medicine, Lauretti says, explaining how early chiropractors distanced themselves from the medical community in order to stay out of jail. Arrests and jail time didnt help their reputation, but as chiropractic began to be regulated itself, that threat and disrepute faded. A bit. Today, its protected as a profession, but we still tend to butt heads with the medical mainstream, Lauretti says. Modern chiropractors treat everything from headaches and back pain to mental illness, and Hynes says studies have shown it helps reduce health care costs. For Lauretti, the most rewarding aspect of his work is helping his patients lead happy, healthy lives, ridding them of discomfort from lower back pain with hands-on therapies, as opposed to risky surgeries or highly addictive painkillers. As for those who remain skeptical of the field, Hynes and Lauretti wish more people would, like Lillard, give chiropractic a fair crack. Related Articles Kathmandu (AFP) - A wild leopard sparked alarm in Nepal's capital on Wednesday after it spent hours wandering through a residential neighbourhood before being sedated and captured. A Kathmandu resident alerted police around dawn after he spotted the big cat in the compound of his house. Police called in zoo and wildlife officials who tracked the animal as it clambered over rooftops and padded through backyards, while local residents watched from their balconies. "They were able to tranquilise it and it has been transported to the zoo now. No one was injured," Hem Bahadur Thapa of the city police told AFP. Nepal's common leopards are usually found in the southern plains and in forested hill regions, but they have recently strayed into human settlements due to a loss of habitat. In two separate incidents in January, officials were called in to catch leopards which had wandered into densely-populated Kathmandu neighbourhoods. In 2012, a leopard is suspected to have killed more than a dozen people in the country's remote western region before hunters shot it dead. Nepal is also home to snow leopards, which are found in the mountains and are listed as "endangered" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Bill Weld Libertarian vice-presidential nominee Bill Weld on Wednesday suggested that Donald Trump's plan to deport the millions of immigrants living in the country illegally was reminiscent of "Anne Frank hiding in the attic." Weld, the former Massachusetts governor, made headlines last week when he said Trump's deportation plan was reminiscent of "Kristallnacht," or the "Night of Broken Glass" in Nazi Germany. Weld defended the comments as "completely appropriate" during a Wednesday MSNBC interview. "They would be hiding in attics to not get found and sent back to Mexico," Weld said. "It would remind me of Anne Frank hiding in the attic." He also made mention of Trump's plan to build a massive border wall along the US-Mexico border, a proposition Trump has championed along the campaign trail. "Building a huge wall is evocative of the most famous wall, the Berlin Wall, which was a badge of shame and stain on the Soviet Union and helped to bring the end of the Cold War," he said "I think Mr. Trump is on the wrong side of history in these issues." Last week, Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson said he "absolutely" stood by Weld's analogy. "In New Mexico here, is my door going to be knocked down because I'm going to get checked for papers?" Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico, asked rhetorically of CNN's Jake Tapper. Watch Weld's remarks below: NOW WATCH: The real story behind Trump's taco bowl tweet More From Business Insider From Cosmopolitan Katrina Lake ditched plans to attend med school to instead pursue business. Then she left a successful career in venture capital to attend business school with the ambition of starting her own company. Lake founded Stitch Fix out of her apartment while still in school. The company is both an e-commerce site and a personal shopping service. Clients are paired with personal stylists to fulfill their fashion needs, such as a dress for a special occasion, a suit for work, or a new trend piece. Clients fill out surveys about their style preferences, budgets, and body types, which stylists then use to select five garments ("fixes") from the Stitch Fix inventory of curated fashion. Clients pay a $20 styling fee, buy the clothes they like, and return the rest. Lake, 33, now oversees five distribution centers, four office spaces, and thousands of stylists working across the country to ship out millions of fixes to clients. There were three powerful women who let me know that anything was possible. My great-grandmother and her sister both lost their husbands early in life. They had five kids between the two of them. They combined their households - one went to work, one stayed home to raise the children - to get through a tough situation. My grandmother grew up in war-torn Japan during World War II. She dreamed of being an American. She encouraged her two daughters, one of whom is my mom, to move to the U.S. and pursue a life here, and then she moved herself here too even though she didn't know any English. Because of the influence of these women, I've always looked at challenges as an adventure. I grew up in San Francisco until I was about 15, then I finished high school in Minneapolis. I came back to the Bay Area to go to Stanford, where I majored in economics and also took all the pre-med requirements. As graduation neared in 2005, I realized I didn't want to be a doctor. I just didn't love the environment [of hospitals and labs]. It wasn't as collaborative or intellectually stimulating as school, where you're constantly working with other people. Story continues When it came time to look for jobs, I focused instead on business. As an economics major, consulting was a familiar career track, and I knew it would expose me to different industries and give me a lot of general business knowledge. I ended up at the Parthenon Group, which does strategy consulting. It was the analytical work that I loved in a team environment that I craved. I worked with clients like IHOP, Applebee's, and eBay, and got lots of exposure to retail and restaurants, which became the two industries I was most interested in. I realized that if I had a vision, I could just create a company myself. After two years, I wanted to find a company really doing something innovative with technology and the customer experience in retail. My observations were that going to Macy's today is exactly the same as it was in 1970. I wanted to be a part of the company creating the vision of what the future Macy's would look like. When I couldn't find that, I ended up taking a job at a venture capital fund, which gave me exposure to the business world on a different level. After meeting hundreds of entrepreneurs over two years, I discovered not all of them [looked like] Mark Zuckerberg, sitting around coding in their hoodies. I realized that if I had a vision, I could just create a company myself. I decided business school would be a great next step in giving me the opportunity to [learn how to start a business] and also give me a backup plan. My goal was to have a company off the ground by the time I graduated. But the worst-case scenario was I would have an MBA and a lot of opportunities ahead of me. I ended up at Harvard after being waitlisted. I had some scholarship money and mostly student loans to pay for it all. Harvard had a program where they would subsidize students to work at small companies over the summer. I sent out my pitch to a handful of businesses telling them what my interests were and what I could do for them, and I ended up at Polyvore in San Francisco. This is where I met Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, who was then the CEO. I think I underestimated how big of an impact working for a powerful woman would have on me. I wasn't thinking, Oh, I could really use a female role model in my life. But just watching her inspired me. She was the first woman [executive] I met who had her own authentic leadership style not modeled after a man's. It was my first exposure to seeing how there is more than one way to be successful. I've always enjoyed shopping and loved fashion, but my interest as an entrepreneur was definitely more about the opportunities I saw to change the future of retail. My sister was a buyer in New York, and she knew my body and my style, and she could find me things I loved. I thought, What if everybody had access to this kind of experience? There was innovation [in retail] around getting things to people cheapest and fastest. But when you're going on a date next Friday, you're looking for the thing that looks best and makes you feel the most confident. I started testing the concept [my second year at Harvard]. I had a credit card with a $6,000 limit. I would buy clothes at boutiques around Boston, then bring them to people's houses, mostly friends of friends. I intentionally sought out people outside of HBS to create a more diverse sample group. I'd watch them try on the clothes, ask them questions, and have them fill out a survey, gathering as much data as I could. I focused on their feedback on the clothes - the fit, the colors, the textures, their style preference. I sold clothes at cost, so I wasn't making any money, but I was gathering critical information I would use to pitch the business to investors. Any time my credit card hit $6,000 or I was coming up on a 14- or 30-day return, I'd return whatever clothes I didn't sell back to the boutiques. By collecting this data over the course of several months, I was able to understand how Stitch Fix would work. Can you style for somebody without knowing them really well? Are people going to be comfortable seeing brands they're not familiar with? How many items are people comfortable trying on at once? I was in no way a data scientist, but I was able to gather enough data to [feel confident] that this business model would work. It was also really important for me to prove to myself that I could follow through on this and that it was something I wanted to dedicate my life to. The next step was trying to get funding. In January 2011, I stacked my classes in one-half of the week so I could spend a lot of time in California. I'd go to coffee with Sukhinder, and she introduced me to investors and potential advisors. I was [also] proactive about building my own network. I stayed with friends and used student loans to finance the travel. On Valentine's Day 2011, I received a term sheet [an intention to invest] from Steve Anderson, who was the first to invest in Instagram and one of the first to invest in Twitter. He invested $750,000, which is what I used to start the business. I launched in April 2011, shipping fixes out of my apartment in Cambridge. I bought inventory just like any other retailer - buying at wholesale and selling at retail. I went to trade shows and started to build relationships with brands. I started charging clients a $20 styling fee. My first 29 clients were friends and family; the next 35 were friends and family; the next 110 were [their] friends and family. For the first two years, we built organically - people telling other people, writing blogs about it, and sharing it on social media. I graduated in May and moved the company to a 1,100-square-foot office in San Francisco in June. San Francisco is one of the best places to attract both retail and tech talent. We had a team of about five in the beginning who I hired off Craigslist. Everyone played a role in early marketing, our blog, social media, customer service, and operations. Fundamentally what we're offering is personalization. The stylists look at the data we gather from the surveys clients fill out and any feedback they've given on previous fixes, and then they compare it to data from clients who are similar in size and style. Our data can say, for example, this client has a 50 percent chance of keeping this denim. It helps stylists make informed decisions, but ultimately the stylist retains her creative vision. She has a better understanding of what her clients will like than an algorithm. It's not just about convenience. They're happier in their clothes. By the end of 2012, I couldn't raise money to grow the business. I went out and demonstrated our success, showed that we had tens of thousands of customers and a waitlist, and we just needed more capital. It was a good story. But investors thought it was too small. They didn't like that we bought inventory [directly from brands] rather than buying on consignment. [Any clothing that didn't sell was a business loss.] I think because [the majority of] venture investors are men, there weren't a lot of people who felt passionate about what we were doing. At the start of 2013, we were eight weeks away from not making payroll. I knew that if the business didn't work, I could move on. I had signed myself up for that. I was in my late 20s in a rental apartment. I didn't care about eating cheap food for a while. But we had [about] 20 employees at this point. There were people on the team with mortgages and kids, who were sacrificing so much. It was really hard to not feel the weight of people's families on your shoulders when you're struggling to raise money. Steve Anderson, our initial investor who sits on the board [and is therefore privy to the company's financials], came to me and said, "I don't want you to worry." He invested enough to keep us [growing]. As we continued to grow, more investors came on. In five years, we've grown to more than 4,000 employees and we're shipping out millions of fixes. When the business really works is when we hear clients say, "I've never had jeans that fit me until I got a pair from Stitch Fix." We'll also hear, "I would never have tried this dress on in a store." It's not just about convenience. They're happier in their clothes. We're so close to the customer. We get to hear how somebody met their husband for the first time, or how a scarf we sold them helped a friend who had cancer. I have had one client for three years now and have styled her through two pregnancies. I feel like I know her very well. I have had another client for almost two years who wanted something special for her husband's return home after serving in the Marines. She let me know that she loved the dresses that I chose for her to welcome him home. Being able to be so connected to the impact we have on our clients' lives provides endless motivation. Get That Life is a weekly series that reveals how successful, talented, creative women got to where they are now. Check back each Monday for the latest interview. Follow Heather on Twitter. In the wake of last week's shooting at a T.I. show at New York's Irving Plaza that left one dead and three others wounded, concert promoter Live Nation has canceled or postponed six upcoming New York shows, including performances by YG, Joey Bada$$ and Mac Miller. Gun in Car Carrying Troy Ave Matches Bullet From Shooting "In light of last week's tragic event, we are acting with an overabundance of caution and coordinating a going forward strategy with the New York Police Department that may also include a curfew," a spokesperson for Irving Plaza and Gramercy Theatre tells Rolling Stone. "Because these discussions with New York Police Department are ongoing, we will be postponing a few of our upcoming shows." The six shows were to be split evenly between Irving Plaza and Gramercy Theatre. Joey Bada$$ was scheduled to play Irving Plaza Thursday night, with Mac Miller set to appear Friday and Vince Staples scheduled for Saturday. At Gramercy, Guns N' Roses cover band Appetite for Destruction was scheduled for Friday night, with Canadian rock duo Black Pistol Fire appearing Saturday and YG set to perform Monday night. On Wednesday, Joey Bada$$ tweeted, and quickly deleted, that the New York Police Department had cancelled his Thursday show at Irving Plaza. The cancellations and postponements are a joint effort by the NYPD and the two participating venues. An NYPD representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reps for Joey Bada$$, Mac Miller, YG and Appetite for Destruction declined to comment. A rep for Vince Staples did not immediately return a request for comment. Sources tell Rolling Stone that multiple acts are in negotiations to perform at an alternate venue this weekend, with Black Pistol Fire already rescheduling their show. "We are a rock duo from Texas who just want to play and have a good time," the group tells Rolling Stone. "We love the Gramercy but are happy to play anywhere and look forward to having our fans come out this Saturday night to Saint Vitus in Brooklyn." Story continues While four of the six affected acts are hip-hop artists, it appears that the the NYPD and Live Nation's decision was based on who was performing this weekend, regardless of genre. It is unclear if Live Nation will cancel any further shows. New York rapper Troy Ave was formally charged with attempted murder and criminal possession of a weapon Monday night following the Irving Plaza shooting. The rapper born Roland Collins pleaded not guilty to all charges at a hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court. Troy Ave's charges could be upgraded if ballistic tests determine his firearm was responsible for the death of his bodyguard Ronald McPhatter. According to the New York Daily News, the shooting took place after rapper Maino's set at the Irving Plaza concert. Maino and Troy Ave had reportedly been beefing, and the gunshots occurred in the green room above the stage area, with surveillance video from the incident showing Troy Ave emerging backstage and opening fire. Troy Ave's lawyer stressed that the rapper's actions were in self-defense, as he and McPhatter were first shot by an unnamed assailant. That assailant dropped the gun in the backstage area, the defense said, at which point Troy Ave picked up the weapon and opened fire on the initial shooter. A gun found in the car that took Troy Ave to the hospital after a shooting at New York City's Irving Plaza has been matched to the bullet that killed the rapper's friend and bodyguard Ronald McPhatter, DNAinfo New York reports. Related By Andrea Shalal BERLIN, June 1 (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp aims to sweeten Sikorsky's bid to build 50 helicopters for Poland if Warsaw scraps a $3 billion plan to buy the helicopters from Airbus Group SE, a senior Lockheed executive told Reuters on Wednesday. Steve O'Bryan, head of business development for Lockheed's mission systems and training business, which includes Sikorsky, said a new bid would include weapons, combat training and pricing in the Polish currency, all elements that were not included in Sikorsky's original bid. He said Lockheed's acquisition of Sikorsky last year provided opportunities to strengthen the proposal. "We're better together," O'Bryan told Reuters in an interview, underscoring the benefit of bidding as a newly joined unit. As well as boosting Poland's defence industry, buying Sikorsky helicopters could further strengthen Warsaw's ties with Washington, already its closest ally, and could help secure U.S. backing for Poland's demands for a stronger NATO presence on the alliance's eastern flank. Lockheed officials have said they are standing by to work with the new Polish government if it decides to cancel the Airbus order placed by the previous government, and even have pre-built Black Hawk helicopters on hand if needed. Earlier this year, a Polish deputy defence minister said the deal with Airbus was likely to be scrapped. Members of the new government have said they would rather see the deal awarded to a company that builds the helicopters locally. Both Sikorsky and AgustaWestland, a unit of Italy's Leonardo, formerly known as Finmecccanica SpA, have facilities in Poland. Airbus would source work on its helicopters in Poland, but Polish officials have said the aircraft would mostly be built in France. Lockheed will also display a Black Hawk helicopter built in Poland during large-scale bilateral U.S.-Polish military exercises planned in Poland next month, company officials said. Other Black Hawk helicopters will fly in the exercise, company officials said. This will take place shortly before a NATO summit in Warsaw in July, where Poland is expected to seek a greater allied presence on its territory. Story continues O'Bryan said it was increasingly important for weapons makers to involve local industry, ensure some technology transfer and help build lasting domestic industries when competing for large arms sales today, unlike the shorter term "offset programs" favoured in the past. Poland's previous centrist government, beaten by the eurosceptic Law and Justice (PiS) party in elections last October, agreed a provisional deal with Airbus for 50 EC-725 Caracal multi-purpose helicopters. But the negotiations have dragged on, and Polish media have reported the government may scrap all but a few of the orders. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Ruth Pitchford) It was 100 years ago today that the Senate voted to confirm attorney Louis Brandeis to the Supreme Court, ending an ugly and hard-fought fight over his nomination. Brandeis Brandeis is a mostly revered figure now, but the debate over his nomination by President Woodrow Wilson included contested political and religious factors. Louis Dembitz Brandeis was born in Louisville, Ky., on Nov. 13, 1856; his parents were Jewish immigrants from Prague. He graduated from Harvard Law School with record-setting grades, becoming a prominent Boston attorney. Brandeis and his law partner Samuel Warren articulated the right to privacy in a legandary 1890 Harvard Law Review article. The success of his practice allowed Brandeis to become involved in public-interest cases, earning him the name the peoples lawyer. It also was Brandies who came up with the Brandeis Brief, a Supreme Court argument still used today that evaluates cases using expert testimony including economic and social evidence, as well as legal precedents. In 1908, Brandeis agreed to represent Florence Kelley and Josephine Goldmark (his sister-in-law) in a case about the constitutionality of limiting labor hours for female laundry workers. He won his case in front of the Supreme Court by citing non-legal data in a 113-page brief. Brandeis became associated with President Woodrow Wilson during the 1912 presidential campaign, an equally bitter battle between Wilson, former President Theodore Roosevelt and the incumbent President William Howard Taft. Brandeis accepted Wilsons nomination to the Court four year later, knowing it would be a difficult fight. Not only was Brandeis associated with Wilsons belief that public policy shouldnt be driven by Big Business, Brandeis was also Jewish in an era when that fact alone would marshal considerable opposition to his nomination to the Supreme Court. The Wall Street Journal and New York Times led the press opposition to Brandeis, calling him a radical. Among the Republicans who opposed his nomination were Taft, Henry Cabot Lodge and Elihu Root. Taft called the Brandeis nomination an evil and a disgrace. Six former presidents of the American Bar Association also opposed Brandeis. Story continues In response to the outcry, the Senate held the first-ever Judiciary Hearing on a Supreme Court nomination. During the nomination fight, Brandies wrote his friend, the legal scholar and Harvard Law School dean, Roscoe Pound, about the uproar over his nomination. I doubted very much whether I ought to accept, but the opposition has removed my doubts, Brandeis said in February 1916. The nomination process took four months, and while Brandeis wasnt required to attend the hearings, it set a precedent. In the end, the Senate approved Brandeis by a 47 to 22 vote on June 1, 1916. Brandeis stayed on the court until his retirement on February 13, 1939. In May 1916, the New York Times issued a stinging editorial about the impending confirmation of Brandeis. The Supreme Court, by its very nature, must be a conservative body; it is the conservator of our institutions, it protects the people against the errors of their legislative servants, it is the defender of the Constitution itself. To place upon the Supreme Bench judges who hold a different view of the function of the court, to supplant conservatism by radicalism, would be to undo the work of John Marshall and strip the Constitution of its defenses, it said. But on Brandeis retirement in 1939, the Times did an about face on Brandeis. The retirement of Justice Brandeis takes from the bench of the Supreme Court one of the great judges of our times, it said, lauding Brandeis as a Justice who has regarded the Constitution as no iron straitjacket, but a garment that must fit each generation. Brandeis died on October 5, 1941 at the age of 84. More Historical Stories From Constitution Daily 50 interesting facts about Abraham Lincolns life 10 fascinating birthday facts about President John F. Kennedy A future American presidents deadly duel After getting a glimpse of Harry Potter's family, it's time to meet the Granger-Weasleys. Another batch of new cast photos show Harry's pals Ron Weasley (Paul Thornley) and Hermione Granger (Noma Dumezweni) along with their daughter Rose Granger-Weasley (Cherrelle Skeete) in the London stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The photos, released on Pottermore, reveal the characters in full costume with wands in their hands. The Magic Is Back: New Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Cast Photos Feature First Look at Hermione and Ron's Family| Harry Potter, Movie News, J.K. Rowling Loyal Potterheads know that Ron and Hermione have another son, Hugo, but he isn't old enough yet to attend Hogwarts during the play's first act. But while the youngest child of the family will remain a mystery for now, author J.K. Rowling spilled a few details about Rose, saying she strongly takes after her mother. The Magic Is Back: New Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Cast Photos Feature First Look at Hermione and Ron's Family| Harry Potter, Movie News, J.K. Rowling aRose is ambitious, obviously her mum is Hermione so sheas got a lot to live up to. I think they're quite similar in the fact they put a lot of pressure on themselves. And she just wants to do the right thing," Rowling said. Rowling also shared that she is thrilled to see English actress Dumezweni bring the brainy wizard to life on stage. "I saw Noma workshop the part and when John Tiffany told me he'd cast her, I was overjoyed," the author said. "She gets Hermione inside out." The Magic Is Back: New Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Cast Photos Feature First Look at Hermione and Ron's Family| Harry Potter, Movie News, J.K. Rowling As for Ron, Rowling said the character is very much the same as the one Harry Potter fans grew to love. "Ron in his forties isn't very different from Ron in his teens, except that his feet hurt a bit more," Rowling noted. "Paul's so funny and brilliant in the role." The two-part play, which is based on a new original story by Rowling, catches up with Harry, Ron and Hermione as adults before shifting the focus to Harry's youngest son Albus Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Cast Photos Feature First Look at Hermione and Ron's Family" data-ad-channel="Brightcove" data-ad-subchannel="" data-auto-play="no"> And stay tuned Pottermore teased the arrival of two more character photos to be released in the next few days. Previews of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child begin at the Palace Theatre on June 7. Scholastic will release the script book of the play on July 31. CarWale Team With the mounting pressure from the NGT (National Green Tribunal) to ban large capacity diesel cars across major cities, Mahindra may introduce the petrol variants of the XUV500 and Scorpio later this year. The company has confirmed its intentions of moving away from the diesel-only approach for the entire line up. In an interview recently, to another publication, Pawan Goenka, executive director Mahindra & Mahindra said, Despite being a diesel player, we had a feeling that a diesel-only approach may not be good enough. Now, we will launch the Scorpio and XUV500 in petrol this year and in future all vehicles will have both options. The Supreme Court in the last December banned the sale of 2000cc and above diesel cars in Delhi and a similar ruling has been implemented in Kerala recently. Further, NGT has recently proposed a similar ban in 11 more cities, though that has been put on hold for now with intervention from the Central Government. Mahindra, at the moment, is heavily dependent on the high capacity diesel engines for its SUV range. Although, they recently introduced a sub-2.0-litre diesel engine in Delhi for the Scorpio and the XUV500, it is not a permanent solution. A new petrol engine that can power the large SUVs, will certainly give Mahindra an edge, allowing them to offer cars across the country. We are waiting for the companys response on the capacity and other details, but the rumours suggest that it will be a 2.2-litre petrol unit initially for the XUV500 and Scorpio, with smaller 1.6-litre engine option for rest of the range coming next year. The new petrol engines should also power the India-bound Ssangyong range at the time of the launch. Source: ET Auto For more news,reviews,videos and information about cars, visit CarWale.com. Check On-Road Prices | Find New Cars | Upcoming Cars | Compare Cars | Dealer Locator Students line the hallways soaked in fake blood as police scream, "I'm going to kill everybody! Nobody's getting out of here!" Teachers hide with their students behind displaced desks as they stare at the door in silence, waiting for a gunman to enter. It all happens fast, and at times the students aren't even told what's happening other than a routine lockdown. The Associated Press recently reported two-thirds of schools in the United States now practice active-shooter drills, attempting to educate teachers and students on what to do if an armed assailant enters their schools. It's essentially the 2016 version of the 1950s "duck and cover" drills though the threat of a shooting in the United States is far more realistic today than an atom bomb. Students at San Marcos High School in north San Diego County in an active-shooter drill. So, to make it realistic, some districts ask for students to volunteer as dead bodies. Various law enforcement groups participate, bringing real guns into the schools and firing fake rounds to simulate the noise of bullets ringing through the halls. Government Accountability Office investigators "said one district noted 'the difficulty of striking a balance between providing knowledge and inciting fear, particularly at schools with younger children,'" the Associated Press reported. In a country that saw 25 elementary and secondary school shootings between 2000 and 2013, according to the AP, there's no denying schools face a growing threat of violence on their campuses. However, as a preschool teacher noted in an essay for the Washington Post, "Instead of controlling guns and inconveniencing those who would use them, we are rounding up and silencing a generation of schoolchildren, and terrifying those who care for them." The FBI practices an active-shooter drill in Salisbury, Maryland. "Our principal had announced we were going to have a lockdown," Lauren Marionneaux, a student at Jewett Middle Academy in Florida, told ABC News. "We actually thought someone was going to come in here and kill us." Malaysia has sacked 15 Immigration Department officers and suspended 14 others after an investigation found personnel had colluded with criminal syndicates to manipulate systems tracking entry and exit, the government has said. The subterfuge was centred at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and had begun in 2010, the department's director-general, Sakib Kusmi, was quoted saying on Tuesday by state-run Bernama news agency. Around two dozen other department staff have faced administrative action or were under observation, 63 have been transferred, and criminal charges could be forthcoming, he said. "The syndicates hacked or breached our system with the help of the involved immigration officers," he said, adding that the activity allowed the criminal networks to manipulate information on who entered or left the country. No details on the syndicates, or other specifics on the nature or scope of the sabotage, were mentioned in Bernama's report. But last week Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi said about 100 people, including both immigration officers and criminal syndicate members, were under investigation by authorities over the security breaches. The punishments were meted out since February, said Sakib, who added that the immigration department would implement a large-scale transfer of personnel at KLIA to guard against a recurrence. By Rozanna Latiff and Emily Chow KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Authorities in Malaysia have uncovered an immigration racket involving the sabotage of a computerised passport-screening system at its main international airport, police said on Wednesday, raising worries about human-trafficking and security. The immigration department fired 15 officials on Tuesday, took disciplinary action against 22 and said it was investigating more in connection with the security breach at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, which could have been going on for years. Police said arrests were imminent. "We have identified the suspects. We are still investigating but we will make arrests soon," deputy police chief Noor Rashid Ibrahim told reporters on Wednesday. International and domestic syndicates were involved, Noor Rashid said, and he suggested the motive was human trafficking. "The syndicates overseas collaborate with the syndicates here. These overseas syndicates their responsibility is to bring the man over and collect payments, while the syndicates here, their job is to accept. These are the ones that tried to penetrate the system," he said. Authorities said last week the airport's passport-verification system was deliberately disrupted at certain times of the day, possibly since 2010, raising suspicion people were being smuggled through immigration when it was down. The revelations come after the auditor-general said in a report tabled in parliament two weeks ago that the immigration system was not functioning satisfactorily. Human rights groups have questioned Malaysia's efforts to combat human trafficking after the discovery of mass graves of suspected migrants near the border with Thailand last year. Malaysia has an estimated two million illegal migrant laborers, many of whom work in the electronics, palm oil and construction sectors. The immigration system breach has also raised concern about security. Authorities in the Muslim-majority country have arrested about 170 people since the beginning of last year for suspected militant activity. Last month, Malaysia deported three foreign suspected militants and arrested 14 Malaysians on suspicion of links to Islamic State, including an aircraft technician. In March, deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said police had foiled an Islamic State plot to kidnap Prime Minister Najib Razak and other senior ministers last year. Opposition lawmaker R. Sivarasa said the sabotage warranted a major criminal investigation and called for the police and the anti-corruption commission to look into it. (Reporting by Rozanna Latiff and Emily Chow; Writing by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Robert Birsel) ODG One of the big complaints people have about the current crop of virtual reality glasses, like Oculus for instance, is that the resolution can be disappointing. When you walk around in Oculus virtual world, it feels completely immersive, but still a bit cartoonish. If you look closely, you can literally make out the pixels. Jules Urbach, the CEO of $300 million VR pioneer OTOY, has run into this problem over and over again. OTOY makes a suite of software that powers VR experiences, and the company has worked with heavyweights from Facebook's Oculus to HBO and Jon Stewart (who are working with OTOYs platform on Stewarts latest venture). OTOY has won an Academy Award for its software, and has built an advisory board full of big names like Alphabet executive chairman Eric Schmidt, Javascript creator Brendan Eich, and Hollywood power broker Ari Emanuel. But even with a wealth of hardware partners over the years, Urbach says hed never tried a pair of consumer VR glasses that could effectively trick his brain until he began working with Osterhout Design Group (ODG). ODG has previously made military night-vision goggles, and enterprise-focused glasses that overlay digital objects onto the real world. But now the company is partnering with OTOY, and will break into the consumer AR/VR market with a model of glasses codenamed Project Horizon. The glasses work by using a pair of micro OLED displays to reflect images into your eyes at 120 frames-per-second. And the quality blew Urbach away, he tells Business Insider. When I saw this resolution, it was one of these life-changing things where I said, Wow this is the first time Im seeing a screen beamed into my eyes where I cannot tell where the pixels begin and end' I have better than 20/20 vision, and for me to see that is remarkable. I put it on my moms head and even she was like, Its like magic. You just cannot tell it is digitally played on a bunch of pixels. Story continues jules urbach While Urbach points out that Project Horizon will feature a higher resolution than virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift, the new glasses are best compared to upcoming augmented-reality devices like Microsoft's Hololens glasses and the mysterious Google-backed Magic Leap. Urbach says he felt like he was jumping ahead two generations in glasses, and describes the mixture of this new hardware and OTOYs suite of VR software as a very powerful combination. One limitation, however, is the field-of-view of the glasses, which ODG describes as "over 50 degrees" (far from the 110-degree field-of-view found on the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive). That field of view is likely closer to augmented-reality competitors like Microsoft's Hololens, which Microsoft says is like standing two feet away from a 15-inch monitor. ODG says the field-of-view for Project Horizon will be comparable to the best seats in an IMAX theater. While high-end virtual reality headsets feature positional tracking thanks to included infrared tracking cameras, there's no word yet on whether Project Horizon will feature positional tracking (which would sense if you lean forward to look at something closer up) or simply rotational tracking (which senses when you look down, around, or behind you). And the question remains as to what the primary use will be for Project Horizon, as it's extremely hard to do both AR and VR without compromising the other. In both its specs and form factor, Project Horizon appears to be targeting existing augmented-reality devices like Microsoft's Hololens and Magic Leap. But if the goal is to also compete with high-end virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR, the limited field-of-view and lack of true positional tracking would make it no match for the high-end VR experiences that exist today. The resolution may be better, but that's only one piece of the equation, and it sounds like it would only beat the Rift and Vive in certain circumstances, like watching content within a virtual movie theater, where field-of-view and positional tracking are arguably less important. ODG says the goal is to create a mobile, completely untethered device that is capable of both AR and VR. So what will the glasses be best for? Urbach describes three uses he's particularly excited about: You could replace your PC monitor with a holographic layer in front of you. You can absolutely see every piece of text, Urbach says. You could feel like you are going to the movies. We have been testing taking raw frames from our movie studio partners, he says. Even taking the same frames projected into IMAX screens ... Watching those in the glasses is like being in the movie theater. For the first time I think you could disrupt those types of experiences. You could overlay images onto the real world in a way that didnt appear ghost-like. We have the ability to do true opacity matching, he says. Following the roadmap of ODGs earlier product launches, it will likely take these glasses at least a year to hit the consumer market. ODG says a price point has not yet been worked out, though it probably will be significantly cheaper than the $2,750 its enterprise model runs. NOW WATCH: This smart earpiece translates languages as they are spoken More From Business Insider In the decades since her death in 1962, Marilyn Monroe has remained a sex symbol, an icon of her era, a money-maker and one of the most recognizable faces in the world. But even nowon what would have been her 90th birthdaysome aspects of her personality remain less well-known. Despite her immense fame, Monroes sexuality, feminism and political beliefs often get short shrift, argues historian Lois Banner, author of the 2012 biography Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox. The question of the relationship between Marilyn Monroe and feminism is a hard one to answerthough Banner has looked at the star through a feminist lens, she is quick to point out that Monroes life ended before the movement had a chance to go mainstream. Monroes left-leaning politics, however, are much more clear. Those beliefs were a product of her time, Banner says: being born in 1926 meant that she was a child during the Great Depression. Because her mother could not care for her, she spent her California youth bouncing between homes. There was always the dry bread, the army cot by the water heater, the monthly visit from the county social worker who inspected the soles of her shoes and patted the top of her head and went away, as TIME put it in a 1956 cover story. (How did I get through it? Monroe wondered aloud to the magazines reporter.) Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter Though some of the caretaker families were terrible to her, Banner says that she did find one familythe Bolanderswhom Monroe particularly liked. There, her foster father worked delivering mail in Watts, a largely African-American neighborhood. As a result of her own poverty and her close contact with people of other races, Monroe grew up with progressive views on race and what Banner calls a populist vision of equality for all classes. Story continues Her background peeked through in her film roles, as she was often cast as a working girl. The most extreme example: Clash by Night, in which Monroe plays a fish-cannery employee who bounces around in a succession of slacks, bathing suits and sweaters, per TIMEs original review. On the set of 1950s All About Eve, she was once warned not to be seen by studio executives reading radical books (the book that prompted the warning: the autobiography of muckraker Lincoln Steffens). Even as Monroe stepped out in public in glamorous evening gowns, she favored blue jeans and flat shoes at home. She will say that she only likes fancy clothes when she dresses up, so you can kind of see [her populism] in what she wears, Banner says. MORE: Read Marilyn Monroes Obituary From 1962 In 1956, when she married the playwright Arthur Miller, her working-class roots blossomed into full-on political fervor. In 1960, she became a founding member of the Hollywood branch of the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy; that same year, as she kept a home in Roxbury, Conn., she was elected as an alternate delegate to the states Democratic caucus. She did not hide her pro-Castro views on Cuba or her support for the then-burgeoning civil rights movement. What really made her really openly political was the marriage to Arthur Miller, Banner says. He was the great love of her life. Broadway was not affected by McCarthyism and anti-Communist investigations to the same extent as the movie business, but Miller was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee shortly before their marriage. Monroe was never called on, which Banner believes was because the anti-Communist Congressmen thought she was just a dumb blonde. (In fact, some historians have theorized that Miller saw Monroe as a political shield.) Read TIMEs full 1956 Marilyn Monroe cover story, here in the TIME Vault: Marilyn Monroe So why isnt Marilyn Monroes political side a greater part of her legend? Perhaps its because fans dont want to know that part, Banner says, or perhaps its just because theres so much to say about her that its easy to skip one aspect or another. When you put it all together, [her political side] is pretty substantial. But in most of the biographies, including mine, it comes out as salt scattered on the biography, because one gets so fascinated by her psychological makeup, she says. But the political involvements are no less real. Mark Cuban Amazon Exclusives Mark Cuban has made a number of investments through his hit reality show "Shark Tank," where he appears as an investor. He's also seen how a "Shark Tank" appearance could instantly boost the sales of the companies he invests in. But it looks like Cuban believes Amazon is the better platform to promote and sustain the sales of his portfolio companies. It's why he's bringing some of his "Shark Tank" companies to Amazon Exclusives, a site dedicated to products sold exclusively on Amazon. Amazon is the best in the world in online transactions, Cuban said in a statement. According to Amazon, Cuban is bringing more than 100 items from about 20 of his portfolio companies, including the ones that previously appeared on "Shark Tank," such as Tower Paddle Boards and Nuts 'n More. The products will be showcased under a section called "The Mark Cuban Collection" on Amazon Exclusives, but will be available on Amazon's main website as well. Cuban's move also suggests more companies are seeing Amazon Exclusives as a viable platform for growing their businesses. Launched last year, Exclusives is a third party marketplace where sellers can sell their products exclusively on Amazon for added exposure and access to Amazon Prime's two-day shipping. Amazon takes a cut of their sales in return. Cuban cited the "back-end support" and logistics that Amazon offers for customers as big benefits. Amazon also shared updated numbers for its Exclusives service. Since last year, it's added 20,000 items, 60 of which went on to become one of the best sellers on Amazon's main site. Sales from the Exclusives store has passed $50 million in 2015, and it's been growing 15% a month since the start of the year, Amazon added. NOW WATCH: Watch never-before-seen footage of SpaceX's most impressive rocket landing to date More From Business Insider donald trump The 2016 general election is potentially shaping up to feature gender gaps that would prove unprecedented in recent memory, according to a new survey released Wednesday. The Quinnipiac University poll found Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential frontrunner, leading Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, by 4 points among likely voters nationwide. But the gaps were far wider among male and female voters, potentially setting the stage for what Quinnipiac billed as a "titanic clash of the sexes." Fifty-one percent of male voters who were polled preferred Trump, while only 35% said they would back Clinton. But Trump's support among female voters is even lower than Clinton's deficit among male voters. In that result, 54% of female voters reported they would support the former secretary of state, compared with only 30% who said they would support Trump. That's a 40-point swing between male and female voters. For perspective, Gallup reported a 20-point swing between male and female voters in the 2012 election between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney. The president won among women by 12 points, while Romney won among men by 8 points. "This is a very tight race that will divide Democrats and Republicans, the young and the old, white, black and Hispanic voters and husbands and wives in the months ahead," Quinnipiac University Poll assistant director Tim Malloy wrote in a press release. Trump continues to maintain low levels of popularity among female voters, who in recent presidential elections have voted at a higher rate than men. Throughout the Republican primary, Trump consistently garnered the lowest favorability ratings among female voters of any major 2016 presidential candidate. Trump has tried to undermine Clinton's support with women by highlighting the decades-old marital infidelities of her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Democrats have fired back by unleashing a torrent of old press reports highlighting Trump's numerous inflammatory statements about women. Story continues Last month, a super PAC backing Hillary Clinton released its first set of anti-Trump ads. One of the ads prominently depicted women reading the real-estate magnate's statements about women. NOW WATCH: 'Youre a sleaze!': Here are all the insults Trump hurled at the press during a bizarre press conference More From Business Insider Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a supporter of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, said the United States cannot handle four more years of Obama-like policies. In an interview on the FOX Business Networks Cavuto Coast-to-Coast, the Republican senator from Kentucky, explained that while he doesnt see eye-to-eye with Trump on every political issue, he believes a vote for Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton is a vote for a four-year extension of President Barack Obamas leadership style. If [Trump] simply went into the Oval Office after he was sworn in and began to undo the executive orders and regulatory pronouncements that have slowed this economy, that would be the beginning step in the right direction, McConnell said. The senator went on to explain that Americas recovery from the Great Recession hasnt measured up to other recovery periods in the nations history since World War II. He said the trend is generally the deeper the recession, the quicker the snapback. That has not happened this time, he said. The middle class is shrinking. This is the worst recovery after a recession since World War II. The number of people on food stamps is at a record level. The labor force participation rate is back at a level it was during the Carter administration. The labor force participation rate, according to the Labor Department, fell to 62.8% from 63% in April from March as the unemployment rate steadied at 5% and the economy added 160,000 jobs. Fresh data on the state of the labor market will be released on Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists expect to see 162,000 new jobs created in May with the unemployment rate ticking down to 4.9%. McConnell said its unnecessary regulations that have weighed on the U.S. economy, preventing it from seeing a higher rate of growth. The Commerce Department reported last week that in the first quarter, the economy grew at an annualized rate of 0.8%, a slightly faster pace than an initial reading of 0.5% showed. Story continues In his view, the 2016 election is about making a choice of two unpopular candidates. You might fanaticize about somebody else. You may have supported somebody else in the primary, but this is your choice. [A third-party candidate] will not succeed, and will only help elect Hillary Clinton. I would not want on my conscience, as a conservative leader in the country, that I did anything that made it more likely we have four more years like the last eight, McConnell said. During the interview on Wednesday, the senator also discussed his new book The Long Game, his decision to support Barry Goldwater in 1964 but not cast his vote for the candidate due to his view on civil rights, his battle with Polio, and how he decided to get into a political career. Related Articles Janna Jihad Ayyad is only 10 years old, but she's already carved out quite a career for herself. Ayyad, who lives in Nabi Saleh, a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank, considers herself a journalist and she's taken on the task of reporting on the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Ayyad told Al Jazeera that she became interested in reporting on the conflict after two family members in her village a cousin and an uncle were killed. She decided to become a journalist at age 7, using her mother's iPhone to capture videos of protests near her home, eventually extending her coverage to include other conflict-related violence and marches outside of her village, in places like Jerusalem and Jordan, to name a few. Her Facebook page, where she shares her videos, has more than 90,000 likes. Ayyad hopes to study journalism at Harvard one day. "I am proud of my daughter because as a child, she tells her message to the world. She shares her fears, what she feels, and the problems of attending school," Nawal Tamimi, Ayyad's mother, told Al Jazeera. "But I am scared for her, when the army comes in the middle of the night and tear-gases our house, and we wake up in smokeThey attack our people who demonstrate against the settlers and the Israeli occupation." While reporting on such a heavy conflict might seem odd for a child, Ayyad told Al Jazeera that there's one advantage she has over professional reporters. "The soldiers catch the big journalists and take their cameras," she said. And she feels a responsibility to her community, as well. "Not a lot of journalists are sending our message from Palestine to the world, so I thought, 'Why not send my messageand show them what is happening in my village,'" Ayyad told Al Jazeera. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here? Warning: Donald Trump Is Coming To The UK 6 Stunning Photos From The First Miss Trans Israel Pageant Make Sure You Know This New EasyJet Rule Before You Fly During a visit to Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday, New Girl actress Megan Fox currently pregnant with her third child made some bold comments about her unborn babys powers of communication. You dont hear an audible voice, but I feel like you receive messages from the child if youre open to it, she said. Fox says her unborn child is sharing that it wants to be raised somewhere else so the actress is moving her family to another home in Los Angeles, she told the baffled talk show host. She also said the child is telling her its going to be a super genius along the lines of German engineer Wernher von Braun or technology visionary Elon Musk. I know it sounds crazy, like Im a lunatic but Ive made some really good decisions based on what I think, you know, the higher self is telling me to do, so now I just go along with it, she said. Fox is going to have a full house: her other two children are three and two. See the full clip, below. BERLIN, June 1 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel sees no reason at all now to roll back sanctions against Russia in the Ukraine crisis, a government spokeswoman said on Wednesday. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Tuesday some EU states were sceptical about extending sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis and it was unclear if the 28-nation bloc would decide to renew them. "I can only tell you that the Chancellor is in talks with the Foreign Minister and that both agree that the Minsk peace process needs to be continued and the chancellor currently sees no reason at all for rolling back the sanctions," government spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz told a regular news conference. A Foreign Ministry spokesman added Steinmeier's comments were not inconsistent with the government's stance in the Ukraine crisis and the final declaration of G7 leaders in Japan. (Reporting by Matthias Sobolewski; Writing by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Madeline Chambers) BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel sees no reason at all now to roll back sanctions against Russia in the Ukraine crisis, a government spokeswoman said on Wednesday. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Tuesday some EU states were skeptical about extending sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis and it was unclear if the 28-nation bloc would decide to renew them. "I can only tell you that the Chancellor is in talks with the Foreign Minister and that both agree that the Minsk peace process needs to be continued and the chancellor currently sees no reason at all for rolling back the sanctions," government spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz told a regular news conference. A Foreign Ministry spokesman added Steinmeier's comments were not inconsistent with the government's stance in the Ukraine crisis and the final declaration of G7 leaders in Japan. (Reporting by Matthias Sobolewski; Writing by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Madeline Chambers) SINGAPORE, June 1 (Reuters) - Software maker Microsoft Corp is selling about 1,500 of its patents to Chinese device maker Xiaomi, a rare departure for the U.S. company and part of what the two companies say is the start of a long-term partnership. The deal, announced on Wednesday, also includes a patent cross-licensing arrangement and a commitment by Xiaomi to install copies of Microsoft software, including Office and Skype, on its phones and tablets. Both companies declined to discuss financial terms of the deal. "This is a very big collaboration agreement between the two companies," Wang Xiang, senior vice president at Xiaomi, said by telephone ahead of the deal. Analysts said Xiaomi's ambitions to be a major player outside China were hampered by weak patent protection and a fear of a prolonged legal battle. "This deal might just give them enough of a patent trove to move to Western markets," said Sameer Singh, a UK-based analyst. "Their position in China has been under constant attack from even lower-end Android vendors, so moving overseas is now a necessity." Shipments of Xiaomi phones fell 9 percent year-on-year in China in the first quarter, according to Strategy Analytics, and its market share dipped to 12 percent from 13 percent, squeezed not only by Huawei and Samsung Electronics but also smaller contenders including Oppo and Vivo. Wang said the acquisition of Microsoft patents, which included voice communications, multimedia and cloud computing, on top of some 3,700 patents the Chinese company filed last year, were "an important step forwards to support our expansion internationally." Xiaomi launched its first U.S. device earlier this month, a TV set-top box it developed in cooperation with Alphabet Inc's Google, which owns the Android operating system it and most Xiaomi devices run on. Xiaomi has also launched a tablet which runs a version of Microsoft's Windows operating system. Jonathan Tinter, corporate vice president at Microsoft, said the company was keen to tap into Xiaomi's young, affluent and educated users by having its products pre-installed on their devices. He declined to go into detail about the patent deals, but said the overall deal was something "we do only with a few strategic partners." Microsoft has cut licensing deals with many Android device makers over the years, but has had less luck with Chinese manufacturers. Florian Mueller, a patents expert who consulted for Microsoft in the past, said it was rare for Microsoft to actually sell its patents, adding "it's possible Microsoft found it easier to impose its Android patent tax on Xiaomi as part of a broader deal that also involved a transfer of patents." (Reporting by Jeremy Wagstaff; Editing by Ian Geoghegan) SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Software maker Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) is selling about 1,500 of its patents to Chinese device maker Xiaomi [XTC.UL], a rare departure for the U.S. company and part of what the two companies say is the start of a long-term partnership. The deal, announced on Wednesday, also includes a patent cross-licensing arrangement and a commitment by Xiaomi to install copies of Microsoft software, including Office and Skype, on its phones and tablets. Both companies declined to discuss financial terms of the deal. "This is a very big collaboration agreement between the two companies," Wang Xiang, senior vice president at Xiaomi, said by telephone ahead of the deal. Analysts said Xiaomi's ambitions to be a major player outside China were hampered by weak patent protection and a fear of a prolonged legal battle. "This deal might just give them enough of a patent trove to move to Western markets," said Sameer Singh, a UK-based analyst. "Their position in China has been under constant attack from even lower-end Android vendors, so moving overseas is now a necessity." Shipments of Xiaomi phones fell 9 percent year-on-year in China in the first quarter, according to Strategy Analytics, and its market share dipped to 12 percent from 13 percent, squeezed not only by Huawei [HWT.UL] and Samsung Electronics but also smaller contenders including Oppo and Vivo. Wang said the acquisition of Microsoft patents, which included voice communications, multimedia and cloud computing, on top of some 3,700 patents the Chinese company filed last year, were "an important step forwards to support our expansion internationally." Xiaomi launched its first U.S. device earlier this month, a TV set-top box it developed in cooperation with Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google, which owns the Android operating system it and most Xiaomi devices run on. Xiaomi has also launched a tablet which runs a version of Microsoft's Windows operating system. Jonathan Tinter, corporate vice president at Microsoft, said the company was keen to tap into Xiaomi's young, affluent and educated users by having its products pre-installed on their devices. He declined to go into detail about the patent deals, but said the overall deal was something "we do only with a few strategic partners." Story continues Microsoft has cut licensing deals with many Android device makers over the years, but has had less luck with Chinese manufacturers. Florian Mueller, a patents expert who consulted for Microsoft in the past, said it was rare for Microsoft to actually sell its patents, adding "it's possible Microsoft found it easier to impose its Android patent tax on Xiaomi as part of a broader deal that also involved a transfer of patents." (Reporting by Jeremy Wagstaff; Editing by Ian Geoghegan) Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter at the Dubai Film Festival in December, Netflix's Ted Sarandos said he wanted to create a "really great scripted series about contemporary life in the Middle East." With the SVOD giant launching around the entire globe - including the Arab world - just weeks later, the Middle East's first and only talent agency now wants to help Sarandos achieve that goal. Amr Koura first set up Creative Arab Talent in Cairo just over two years ago, launching the Hollywood-style 10 percent agency model in a market not used to industry middlemen. Having overcome a few hurdles, most notably convincing talent not used to having an agent to sign up and overcoming derailing attempts by local producers who preferred to deal directly with the stars, the company now has a 30-strong roster, mostly Egyptian actors and actresses. "We have a waiting list of about 50," he tells The Hollywood Reporter. "We're in a unique position because we're the only people in town - we created a business that didn't exist." Koura says that when Netflix first started looking into prospect of working with talent in the Middle East a year ago the first thing they asked was: Who are the agents? "And they realized there weren't any," he says. "So they met with producers and were quite disappointed with the approach because producers have their own way of doing stuff, and Netflix require certain standards." As well as a four-agent-strong office in Cairo and another set to launch in Abu Dhabi, Koura is, as the proverb goes, taking Mohammed to the mountain by setting up shop in Los Angeles. Read More: Ted Sarandos Talks Netflix's Middle East Launch, Plans for Localized Scripted Series Opening Wednesday, Creative Arab Talent's Hollywood office will start with just one producer, but a triple-pronged set of ambitions. "I know this will be a difficult thing, but I want to try to take our talent into the American market or international media scene," Koura says, adding that he also wants to be the Middle East point of contact when Hollywood stars come to the region, something he says there is a "growing demand" for. Story continues "Thirdly, I want to create content projects, either joint ventures or creating something in the Middle East in collaboration with one of the studios," he says, pointing to similar deals being done by the likes of Universal and Disney in Turkey. "Like any agency, we package projects and because we have access to all the top regional talent we can package writers and directors, and stuff that would give them the standards they are looking for rather than just dealing with a producer who does it his way," Koura explains. The past few years have seen a moderate number of figures from the Middle East make a name for themselves in Hollywood circles. Palestinian actor Ali Suliman found roles in Body of Lies, Kingdom and Lone Survivor, while Egyptian star Amr Waked had a major part in Luc Besson's Lucy and a recurring role in Netflix's Marco Polo. Behind the camera, Saudi helmer Haifaa Al-Mansour (Wadjda) is currently finishing A Storm in the Stars with Elle Fanning and Maisie Williams, while double Oscar-nominee Hany Abu Assad (Omar, Paradise Now) is lined up to direct The Mountain Between Us, with Idris Elba attached. Elsewhere, Oscar nominee Naji Abi Nowar (Theeb) and rising Emirati talent Majid Al-Ansari (Zinzana) have both been picked up by UTA. Koura says he expects there to be a lot of collaborations with the main Hollywood agencies and has lined up meetings with the likes of UTA and CAA, alongside Netflix, around the L.A. launch of Creative Arab Talent. "I really want to keep [Middle East talent] constantly in the minds of Hollywood," he says. "What I heard every time I met people before I started was that they'd love to have Arab talent, but 'we don't know who to talk to.' I want to be the guy they can talk to. I'm trying to establish a trust base, and being in L.A. will help me do that." Read More: Netflix Acquires 'Rattle The Cage' in First Major Arabic Pickup TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's military on Wednesday joined the search for a seven-year-old boy abandoned in a dense northern forest by his parents as punishment for being naughty. Seventy five members of the Self-Defence Forces joined 200 police and civilians beating their way through thick brush in the mountainous forest on Hokkaido island. A local hunter was also added to the search for Yamato Tanooka after fresh bear tracks were found in the area where he vanished on Saturday, Jiji news agency said. The boy's parents first said he disappeared while they foraged for edible plants, but later told police they had left him by the road to discipline him after he threw stones at people and cars. They said when they drove back a few minutes later the boy had disappeared. The area is so remote that residents of the region say they rarely go through it. Despite the larger search party no leads turned up on Wednesday, with many worrying the boy might not have survived heavy rains which fell on Tuesday night. He was last seen wearing a t-shirt and jeans in an area where the overnight temperatures can fall as low as 7 Celsius (45 Fahrenheit). The search has gripped Japan, with news programs offering hourly updates, and thousands have taken to the internet to both pray for the boy's survival and excoriate his parents for what is seen as neglect. "If I was a small child in this situation I would either run after the car or wait there until they came back. I just hope he is safely found," one person wrote. (Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Michael Perry) Mitch McConnell Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday called for a cease-fire of sorts between Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans. During a Tuesday interview with Business Insider to promote his newly released memoir, "The Long Game," the Senate majority leader said it was time for Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, to stop focusing on "score settling." "Well it's pretty clear he's going to be the nominee, and I would think the better path to take would be to unify the party rather than settling grudges or old scores," he said. "I hope Trump will go in a different direction." "He's not a dumb guy, he's a smart guy," McConnell continued. "He's earned the nomination. Now's the time to put the party together, and I would put aside all the score settling with people who competed with him for the nomination or said things." This past week on the campaign trail, Trump has made it abundantly clear that he is not ready to put behind past grievances with fellow Republicans. Trump took aim last week alone at Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney, former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, and Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mexico, among others. "We have to get your governor to get going she's got to do a better job, OK?" Trump said during a rally in New Mexico. Martinez has yet to endorse him. "Your governor has got to do a better job ... She's not doing the job. Hey, maybe I'll run for governor of New Mexico I'll get this place going. She's not doing the job. We got to get her moving. Come on. Let's go, governor." Donald Trump San Diego Republicans have taken notice at Trump's apparent refusal to drop the friendly-fire insults. Yet during a news conference on Tuesday, Trump signaled that he would continue to be harsh toward the prominent Republicans who have refused to back his candidacy. Story continues "The real story is how fast we're getting together," Trump said. "Now, if I have a Republican that is not on my side, Im not going to why should I be particularly nice to that person?" "If I have a person that's not going to support me, I have no obligation," he continued. "Politically, I might be right, I might be wrong, but that's who I am." During his interview with Business Insider, McConnell also warned the Republicans who remain steadfastly against Trump's candidacy of the potential perils of mounting a third-party effort. The Senate majority leader also called on Trump to release his tax returns, something the mogul has refused to do. NOW WATCH: 'Youre a sleaze!': Here are all the insults Trump hurled at the press during a bizarre press conference More From Business Insider Japan's Mitsubishi Materials said on Wednesday it signed its first compensation settlements with Chinese wartime forced labourers, beginning a project to reach deals with more than 3,000 ex-workers or their descendants. Under the landmark deal, the Tokyo-based smelter and raw materials company said it reached settlements with three former Chinese labourers compelled to work during World War II at mines in Japan, including a payment of 100,000 yuan ($15,000) each. Japanese atrocities in China during the war years remain a source of periodic tension between the two countries, which have often struggled to overcome the legacy of the conflict. Tens of thousands of Chinese were forcibly sent to Japan to work in factories and mines during World War II to fill a manpower shortage arising from Japan's massive military mobilisation as it invaded China and countries in Southeast Asia. At a signing ceremony in Beijing, Mitsubishi Materials "expressed its sincere apologies regarding its historical responsibility to the former labourers". They accepted the apologies, the company said in a statement. The three were among 3,765 Chinese forced labourers who were known to have served in 10 mines operated by Mitsubishi Mining, its wartime predecessor, the company said. The settlements have won endorsements from several Chinese groups which support the former labourers and their family members, it said. As a part of the initial agreements, the company said it would set up a fund in China to support activities such as locating other former workers or surviving families. The company also said it would build memorials at places and mines where the labourers were put to work. - 'Responsible attitude' - The deal is one of the biggest of its kind to be reached by a Japanese company, public broadcaster NHK reported, citing a lawyer representing the workers. Wednesday's settlement was initially not widely reported in China, with the China News Service carrying a one-paragraph article online. Story continues Asked about the deal at a regular briefing in Beijing, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the government was aware of it. "The forced recruitment of slave labour was a great crime committed by Japan," she said. "We hope that Japan will take a responsible attitude toward history." The Japanese government reached a series of official reparations deals with countries it colonised or invaded during the first half of the 20th century. It also invested heavily in many of them in the decades after the war as well as providing development assistance in the form of low-interest yen loans. Mitsubishi Materials last year made a landmark apology to US prisoners of war forced to work in its mines during the war, seven decades after the conflict came to an end. The Japanese government officially apologised to former American POWs five years before that. The sprawling conglomerate, which makes everything from cement to electronics, forced about 900 US POWs to labour at four mines in Japan. Thousands of other US prisoners were pushed into slave labour at Japanese firms during the war. (Adds background on hedge funds) May 31 (Reuters) - Three of the hedge fund industry's most closely followed managers reported mixed returns in May, underscoring just how tough it has become to pick winners. David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital dipped 1.9 percent in May, leaving the fund up 1.1 percent for the year so far. Daniel Loeb's Third Point Partners fund gained 1.7 percent in May and is up 1.5 percent for the year. Barry Rosenstein's Jana Partners fund gained 2.4 percent in May, but is nursing a 4.7 percent loss for the year. The funds do not release their numbers publicly but a source who invests with them shared the data with Reuters. Most hedge funds are losing money this year, according to Hedge Fund Research, which also reported that investors have pulled out more than $15 billion in the first months of 2016, marking the worst performance since the financial crisis. (Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Boston and Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler) This picture is worth four words all in caps: ARE YOU KIDDING ME? The look on Koto Nadamuras face when she learned she had given birth to a boy and not the girl she had been expecting for nine months was perfectly captured by her birth photographer. Australian shooter Jes Jackson has documented plenty of births, but she doesnt expect to ever capture another image like Nadamuras look of utter shock. Read: Days Before He Turns 69, Rolling Stones Guitarist Ronnie Wood's Wife Gives Birth to Twins I knew I had managed to capture the image, Jackson told InsideEdition.com. But with all the excitement, laugher and cheering, she worried it might not have been in focus. It was the first photo she opened when she began editing her collection of images from the event. "I was so relieved to see how amazing it was, she said. I knew it would make people laugh and make an awesome 'caption this' shot." Nadamura and her husband, Sina Niakansafy, had been told they were having a girl. They had plenty of pink shower gifts. They had picked out the name Hinata. Early in Nadamuras labor, her midwife had told a story about another client who had been told she was carrying a girl, only to deliver a boy. Read: Grandmother Gives Birth to Own Granddaughter 7 Years After Going Through Menopause "Ha, ha, ha," laughed Nadamura, her husband, their family and Jackson. So when the doctor said Its a boy, everyone thought he was making a joke. He wasnt. The excitement in the room and the cheering in Japanese coming from Kotos mom is a moment I will never forget, Jackson said. Watch: Why a Court Battle is Looming for Couple Who Streamed Son's Birth on Facebook Related Articles: By Hugh Bronstein and Maximiliano Rizzi BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Monsanto Co, eager to get royalties from growers in Argentina on genetically modified soybeans, said on Wednesday it was still trying to resolve a dispute with the government over inspections, while an agricultural ministry source said a deal may be reached in the coming days. Monsanto and the government have been at loggerheads over the company's request that Argentine exporters inspect soybean shipments to ensure growers pay royalties. The country's government has decreed it must approve such inspections. Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, then said it would suspend future soybean technologies in Argentina, a move that could limit output of the country's main cash crop. "Monsanto and industry stakeholders continue to engage in positive dialogue with the government of Argentina," the company said in a statement from Buenos Aires, adding that the government should have "a predictable business environment that recognizes intellectual property protection." A source at the Agricultural Ministry said there would likely be advances at the talks soon. "Though there is an advanced dialogue and good will from both sides, we can't get ahead of ourselves. I think in the coming days there will be something concrete," the source said. Argentina, the world's No. 1 exporter of soymeal livestock feed, relies heavily on Monsanto's genetic technology to produce soybeans. During the negotiations the government has contended Monsanto has failed to submit a proposal for an inspection system. The company said it was waiting for the government to outline its inspection requirements. Soy farming has spread rapidly across Argentina's Pampas agricultural belt over the last 20 years, thanks largely to the country's embrace of genetically modified seeds. The technology makes soy plants resistant to glyphosate herbicide, which kills most weeds that grow in Argentina. Argentine growers do not yet have the company's new "Xtend" technology, aimed at increasing soy yields and controlling glyphosate-resistant broad leaf weeds. Farmers have urged the government to make a deal with the company though they object to private exporters playing an enforcement role. Monsanto has pressured shipping companies to notify it when crops grown with its technology are slated for export without documentation that farmers have paid royalties. Argentina, the world's third biggest exporter of raw soybeans, is expected by the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange to harvest a 56-million-tonne crop this year. The estimate was cut from a previous forecast of 60 million tonnes due to floods that hit key farm areas in April. (Reporting by Hugh Bronstein and Maximiliano Rizzi; writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by David Gregorio) BUENOS AIRES, June 1 (Reuters) - An official from Monsanto Co and an Argentine Agricultural Ministry source said on Wednesday that no final deal had been reached in a disagreement over inspections of genetically-modified soybeans. Monsanto had asked Argentine exporters to inspect soybean shipments to ensure growers had paid royalties for using the company's products, but the Argentine government said such inspections must first be approved by the government. A Monsanto official in Buenos Aires said no deal has been reached, but that conversations between the two sides are constructive. A source at the Agricultural Ministry said there would likely be advances at the talks in the coming days. (Reporting by Hugh Bronstein and Maximiliano Rizzi; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb) More than 2,000 Indians contracted HIV over a 17-month period after receiving blood transfusions, data from the national AIDS body showed Wednesday. In response to a Right to Information request filed by Mumbai-based activist Chetan Kothari, the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) said 2,234 people had been infected between October 2014 and March 2016. The reply, which was shared with AFP Wednesday, was sent to Kothari last month after he asked for data for that particular time period. "I wanted to know what is the government doing to ensure people have access to safe blood," Kothari told AFP. "The data shows blood is not being screened for HIV despite so much awareness." Access to safe blood is limited, especially in rural areas, because of a lack of proper screening devices, according to NACO's website. The northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous, topped the list with 361 patients found infected with HIV due to contaminated blood in hospitals, followed by western states of Gujarat and Maharshtra with 292 and 276 respectively. A total of 264 cases were recorded in the capital New Delhi. The government estimates that about 2.5 million Indians are living with HIV/AIDS out of a population of 1.25 billion. A NACO official Wednesday said the data collected was "not scientific" as it was based on subjective responses from patients and reflected less than one percent of total HIV-positive cases. "There are several occasions when patients do not declare the exact reason or means of transmission because of societal pressure or even lack of awareness and sometimes ignorance," the Times of India newspaper quoted the unnamed official as saying. "Therefore, the data cannot be considered 100 percent accurate." In a posting on its website, NACO -- which falls under the health ministry -- said the government was in the process of improving blood safety screenings and introducing technology to ensure zero HIV transmission. Under Indian law, hospitals must screen donors and their donated blood for any kind of infections including HIV, Hepatitis B and C as well as malaria. Wednesday, June 1, 2016 May 2016 marked the third straight month in the green for S&P 500, though markets fell back Tuesday afternoon to close down a tad. But with many more results from economic data due today and through the remainder of the week, markets could shift either up or down, depending. One things were fairly certain of at this time, however, is that whatever moves the market makes are unlikely to be too drastic in either direction. Thats because, even though we await the May jobs report Friday morning, we are unlikely to get a definitive market action until Fed Chair Janet Yellens speech next Monday. Although Q1 earnings season is effectively retired, we did see reports from Michael Kors (KORS) after the bell yesterday and Cracker Barrel (CBRL) this morning. Both companies beat analyst expectations Kors on both top and bottom lines, though revenues are lower year over year, and Cracker Barrel pulled off the coveted beat, raised guidance and an increased dividend. Both stocks are up big in Wednesdays pre-market. Later today we expect May auto sales results. The sector has been one of the few strong narratives in the market so far in 2016, though all major automakers are expected to post lower numbers in the case of Volkswagen (VLKAY), expectations are for sales 18.7 percent down from May 2015. Much of this is still carried over from VWs emissions scandal, which took the Germany-based car maker from the biggest seller to the biggest drop-off in sales. Todays Institute for Supply Management (ISM) and Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) Manufacturing results are also awaited today, not only by investors but by the various presidents of the Federal Reserve. Though U.S. Manufacturing is no longer the economic driving force Services currently is and those ISM and PMI numbers are due out Friday getting both supply and demand results for the month of May are still important puzzle pieces to consider for the health of the U.S. and global economies. Story continues Finally today, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors Beige Book is due to be released this afternoon for the first time since April. This comprehensive study summarizes 12 U.S. districts and their current market conditions. More grist for the mill. As opinions shift in the outlooks of the various markets, its best to track aggregate impressions of these developments as theyre taking place. The Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell) and the Zacks Style Score (Value, Growth, Momentum, or VGM) are excellent meters to utilize changing moods among your most loved (and/or loathed) stocks. Check out your favorite stocks Quote Page on www.zacks.com. Mark Vickery Senior Editor Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report VOLKSWAGEN-ADR (VLKAY): Free Stock Analysis Report CRACKER BARREL (CBRL): Free Stock Analysis Report MICHAEL KORS (KORS): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report It's not just the presidency that's up for grabs in 2016. As presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton duke it out for the White House, Democrats and Republicans will be fighting for control of the Senate the outcome of which will be crucial to the success of the next president. Republicans currently control the chamber and with that control have the power to block President Barack Obama's key initiatives, as well as his Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. Democrats want to win control back, and to do so must net five of the 31 Senate seats on the ballot in 2016. (Only one-third of the Senate comes up for election every two years.) Lucky for Democrats, many of the seats up in 2016 are held by Republicans in states Obama won in his 2012 re-election campaign. That could put the political winds at Democrats' backs especially with an unpopular Trump as the GOP's presidential nominee. Here are the seven seats likely to determine which party controls the Senate, in no particular order: Florida Source: Joe Raedle/Getty Images After his presidential bid came up short, Sen. Marco Rubio is not running for re-election to his Sunshine State Senate seat. That leaves his seat open in one of the largest and more competitive states in the country. Without Rubio on the ballot, five Republicans announced bids to replace him and will face off in an Aug. 30 primary. Candidates include everyone from Rep. David Jolly, a former lobbyist against money in politics, to Carlos Beruff, a wealthy real estate investor who's already of his own money to self-fund his race. However, in recent days, Republican leaders including Trump himself, have sought to convince Rubio to reconsider his exit from the Senate and run for re-election a sign the GOP is worried about the strength of its primary field. On the Democratic side, Reps. Patrick Murphy and Alan Grayson are in a close race as they battle it out for their party's nomination a match-up that's also led to . Story continues Democratic leaders are lining up behind Murphy and against Grayson, a progressive from Orlando who is under an ethics over his management of a hedge fund. Grayson has denied any wrongdoing. Political handicappers rate the race a pure toss-up, and whichever party carries the state in the presidential race is likely to have an advantage in the outcome of the Senate contest. Nevada Source: Jacquelyn Martin/AP Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is calling it quits after more than 30 years in Congress, leaving his Nevada Senate seat open for the first time in decades. Reid's seat is one of the few Democrats are defending in 2016, and a loss here for Democrats would set the party back in its quest for Senate control. Reid has endorsed a potential successor and will campaign for former Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto who is hoping to be the first Latina ever elected to the Senate in a state with a large Hispanic population. She will face Rep. Joe Heck, a veteran who represents a swing House seat in the Las Vegas suburbs. Political handicappers rate the race a toss-up. Wisconsin Source: Scott Bauer/AP Freshman Sen. Ron Johnson is one of the most vulnerable Senators up for re-election in 2016. A wealthy businessman-turned-senator, Johnson is running in a state that's voted for a Democratic presidential nominee every year since 1988. And polling shows Trump unlikely to change that trend. Additionally, Johnson is facing a rematch with the man he ousted six years ago: former Sen. Russ Feingold, a campaign finance reform advocate. Feingold currently leads Johnson in early polls by 5.7 percentage points. Johnson is one of the top fundraisers among the Democratic Senate field, a pace that's likely to increase following an endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders last week. We need to elect leaders who share our values. Split a contribution with @RussFeingold and our campaign: https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/feingold-for-senate?refcode=tw160527 ... Political handicappers currently rate the race a toss-up. Illinois Source: Seth Perlman/AP Illinois is the state most likely to flip party control in 2016, . The seat is currently held by Sen. Mark Kirk, a veteran and also a disabled American following a stroke in January 2012. Kirk is hoping his more moderate profile can help him overcome the political tides in Illinois, a state that hasn't voted for a Republican presidential nominee since 1988. But he faces a top Democratic opponent in Rep. Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran who lost both of her legs in a helicopter crash during her service. And running on the same ticket as Trump in a blue state like Illinois make Kirk's chances look bleak. Political handicappers already rate the race as leaning Democratic. New Hampshire Source: Jim Cole/AP Democrats are heavily targeting the New Hampshire Senate seat currently held by freshman Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte. Obama won the Granite State in both 2008 and 2012, which Democrats say makes it ripe for a pick-up on the Senate level. Democrats recruited Granite State Gov. Maggie Hassan to run against Ayotte. And polling has shown the race between the two female politicians to be close, with Ayotte holding a slight lead. Trump's performance in New Hampshire is likely to play a major role in the outcome of this Senate contest. Polling currently shows Trump running competitive with Clinton in the state. Political handicappers say the race currently tilts Republican. Ohio Source: John Minchillo/AP Freshman Sen. Rob Portman is well-known in Washington, D.C., but less so back home in Ohio a swing state both Clinton and Trump will heavily compete for in November. Democrats are hoping to capitalize on voters' unfamiliarity with Portman and define him as a Trump Republican in the hopes of making Portman unpalatable to the state's swing voters. But Portman, a moderate Republican and one of the GOP's best fundraisers, began spending money early to try and raise his familiarity and popularity among voters in the Buckeye State. And he'll have ample money to spend against his Democratic opponent, former Gov. Ted Strickland, who served in Congress for a decade before serving one term as governor in 2007. Polls currently show the race in a statistical dead heat, though political handicappers give Portman a slight edge. Pennsylvania Source: Matt Rourke/AP Like many others on this list, Sen. Pat Toomey is a Republican facing re-election in a blue state putting him among the ranks of the most vulnerable Senators in 2016. Toomey barely won his seat in 2010 the year in which Republicans were swept into office on the Tea Party wave. In the years since his election, Toomey has sought to moderate his record including introducing gun reform measures but he'll still have to face an increasingly Democratic electorate in the Keystone State. Toomey will face Democratic nominee Katie McGinty, who won a competitive primary for the nomination thanks to the backing of top Democrats in Washington. Political handicappers say the race currently tilts Republican. Gorongosa (Mozambique) (AFP) - Decomposing corpses in the bush, destroyed villages, abductions -- in the central Mozambican district of Gorongosa clashes between the army and rebels have revived the spectre of a civil war that ended 20 years ago. "It has been two months since I have found these bodies and no one has come to remove them," Donca Sabir, a local farmer, told AFP as he contemplated remains barely hidden among shrubs on his land. Wearing scraps of civilian clothes, their trousers often pulled down, and their jaws open in macabre expressions of pain, the skeletal corpses lie just 100 metres (yards) from Mozambique's main north-south road. From the roadside, the smell is strong from the bodies of at least nine men and women. A little further down the road, under a small bridge, local authorities said they recently buried 11 other corpses. But no proper autopsy was conducted, and four skulls and some bones are still visible in the sand. The discovery of bodies in the area last month shocked many in Mozambique and alerted international human rights groups. Local villagers had also earlier reported an unconfirmed mass grave that could contain more than 100 corpses. But in Zone 76, the alleged location of the mass grave, everyone is too scared to speak about it, and the government has dismissed the reports. "The Mozambican government must tell us who are these people, how they died and who left their bodies there," Zenaida Machado, Mozambique researcher for Human Rights Watch, told AFP. "I find it difficult to understand how any investigation can be made without performing an autopsy on the bodies. "It is extremely worrying that instead of taking these reports (of graves) seriously, the first action of the authorities is to deny them." - Old enemies - Ivone Soares, head of the Renamo party in parliament, alleges that Frelimo, the ruling party in power since 1975, has implemented a campaign to eliminate all opposition. Story continues "Death squads terrorise those who criticise the regime... People are abducted and murdered in their homes," she told AFP. The "death squads" are said to patrol in white trucks and target supporters of Renamo -- a movement that operates as both an armed insurgent group and an elected opposition party. Frelimo and Renamo fought a bloody civil war between 1976 and 1992 that claimed one million lives. Since 2013, tensions have risen and Renamo fighters have again taken up arms in a battle that it says is against a Frelimo elite that has enriched itself at the expense of the country. Starting with a low-intensity insurgency, attacks intensified from late last year, forcing thousands of refugees to flee to neighbouring Malawi. In Gorongosa, a local government official insisted that the situation was calm across the region, but declined to go into further details. About 30 kilometres (20 miles) east of Gorongosa, on the small dirt track, 10 armoured army trucks patrol outside the deserted village of Vunduzi, a Renamo stronghold surrounded by corn fields. In the distance stand the lush mountains where Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama is hiding after escaping several assassination attempts. On the side of the road, Joaquim Assais is visibly upset as he contemplates the fate of his village. "My father was sitting there when the army arrived. They tied him, beat him up and burned down the houses," said Assais, who now sleeps with 12 other members of his family under a tree in the bush. At the end of the dirt track, Vunduzi is a ghost town. A few military men patrol the small main square, their Kalashnikov rifles by their sides. Everything is closed, and there is little activity except for one or two banana sellers. In the abandoned village school, a blackboard suggests that the last maths lesson was given on March 16. - 'Both sides kill innocent people' - "It's war here," Siwageros Campira said, pointing to his general store which is riddled with bullets. "When it gets dark, we pack our belongings up and hide in the bush. In recent months, there has been a lot of shooting and many people were captured and killed by soldiers." Villagers say that just to have relatives who are accused of links to Renamo can mean kidnapping and death. In retaliation, Renamo has conducted 18 attacks in the past two weeks on the main road of the country, killing seven people and leaving more than 30 wounded, according to police. "Both sides are killing innocent people, both violate human rights," said Daviz Simango, the mayor of Beira, the main city in the central region. "Like any guerrillas, Renamo know how to blend in with the population and lead a normal life, while armed forces are trying to prevent them from getting supplies to their leader." In the capital Maputo, cautious negotiations resumed last week in a first step to restarting the peace process. In Gorongosa, the locals can only hope for some respite. Maputo (AFP) - Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama, who has been holed up in the forests of central Mozambique, on Wednesday claimed the military had staged a fresh attack against his base. "Last Friday the Frelimo (ruling party) once again tried to attack us," Dhlakama said from Gorongosa forest in a news conference via telephone to journalists gathered at the party headquarters in the capital Maputo. "They (government troops) started firing from far and ... then we let them come close. When they got very close we massacred them " Dhlakama said, without specifying the number of dead or wounded. "But why do they want to kill me?" he asked, making reference to a previous attempt on his life that forced him to retreat to the bush last year. Dhlakama claimed the army had deployed 12 armoured vehicles and troops that he said included "mercenaries" from Angola, China, Tanzania and Zimbabwe near his mountainous base. Last week AFP correspondents reporting from Vunduzi, near Renamo's Satunjira base, saw 10 armoured vehicles and around 30 soldiers. Security spokesman Inacio Dina said the army had not launched any attack on Renamo nor had it hired mercenaries. Instead, he accused Renamo of attacking "civilians, institutions and even the armed forces positions. And the armed forces must respond to protect the population," he told AFP. According to Dina, Renamo fighters have killed seven civilians and wounded 30 in 18 attacks staged over the past two weeks. Most of the attacks have occurred along the main roads in central Mozambique. Government and Renamo late last month appointed teams to prepare for talks between President Filipe Nyusi and Dhlakama, and clear the way for the resumption of peace negotiations that stalled last year. Since 2013, tensions have risen and Renamo fighters have again taken up arms in a battle that it says is against a Frelimo elite that has enriched itself at the expense of the country. The clashes have intensified in recent months following Dhlakama's declaration in December that he would take power in six of the country's 11 provinces. London (AFP) - Rafael Nadal's hopes of challenging for a third Wimbledon title are in doubt after he withdrew from a warm-up tournament at London's Queen's Club on Wednesday due to the wrist injury. The Spaniard -- who won at Queen's in 2008 just weeks before winning his first Wimbledon crown -- withdrew from the French Open last week. "I am very sad that my wrist injury means that I cannot play at The Queens Club this year," Nadal, who turns 30 on Friday, told the tournament website. "It is a tournament and a club that I love. I enjoy playing in front of the British people, and I was looking forward to trying to win the title for a second time," added the 14-time Grand Slam champion. Missing Queen's means Nadal, who won Wimbledon in 2008 and 2010, has almost four weeks for his injury to heal, with the third Grand Slam tournament of the year beginning on June 27. Nadal, who had been bidding for a 10th French Open title, has been plagued by injuries throughout his career, affecting his knees and wrist. Despite his latest setback, the charismatic Spaniard said he will keep playing. "This is a tough moment and the toughest press conference I have ever had to give but it's not the end," he said on quitting the French Open last Friday. * CEO says equity issue would be 'last resort' * Q2 net income C$210 million vs C$404 million * C$183 million set aside for oil and gas loan losses (Recasts, adds CEO comments from conference call) TORONTO, June 1 (Reuters) - National Bank of Canada said on Wednesday it had no plans to raise capital from shareholders after its second-quarter profit nearly halved as clients in the oil and gas industry struggled to repay loans. Canada's sixth-biggest lender raised C$300 million through a share offering last October after its core tier 1 ratio, a key measure of financial strength, fell to the 9.5 percent minimum required by the country's financial regulator. That capital raise helped it improve the ratio to 9.8 percent at the end of April. The bank warned last month that it needed to set aside C$250 million, or C$183 million after tax, to cover bad loans to oil and gas firms, again raising questions about its capital strength. Chief Executive Louis Vachon said on Wednesday the bank had set a target for its core tier 1 ratio to hit 10 percent by the end of 2017 at the latest but was not planning to tap shareholders again to achieve that goal. "At this stage we do not plan (an equity issue)," he told analysts on a conference call. "We think we can do that organically without having to do an equity issue and the equity issue I can assure you would be the very, very last option that we would look at." National Bank said net income fell to C$210 million ($161 million) from C$404 million a year earlier, while earnings per share fell to C$0.52 from C$1.13. Canada's biggest banks, including Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank, have reported increased bad loan provisions in the second quarter to April 30 as the decline in oil prices hit clients in the energy sector. Excluding one-off items, National Bank's earnings per share fell 48 percent to C$0.60, which analysts said was just under the C$0.61 consensus forecast. Smaller rival Laurentian Bank, which has no direct exposure to the oil and gas industry, said its net income before one-off items rose 10 percent to C$46.7 million in the second quarter. "We delivered strong earnings this quarter, as we took advantage of better capital market conditions and continued to benefit from the sustained credit quality of our loan portfolio," Laurentian Chief Executive Francois Desjardins said. ($1 = 1.3075 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Matt Scuffham; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli) BERLIN (Reuters) - NATO members will likely agree during a summit meeting in Warsaw next month to designate cyber as an official operational domain of warfare, along with air, sea, land and space, a senior German defense ministry official said Wednesday. Major General Ludwig Leinhos, who heads the German military's effort to build up a separate cyber command, told a conference at the Berlin air show that he expected all 28 NATO members to agree to the change during the coming Warsaw summit. Leinhos, who previously held a senior job at NATO headquarters, said he also expected NATO members to agree to intensify their efforts in the cyber security arena. The United States announced in 2011 that it viewed cyberspace as an operational domain of war, and said it would respond to hostile attacks in cyberspace as it would to any other threat. Evert Dudok, a senior official with Europe's largest aerospace company Airbus Group SE, called for adoption of Europe-wide or global standards in the cyber arena. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal) poland tank nato strong europe tank challenge leopard 2a5 During NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg's recent visit to Poland, Polish Minister of Defense Antoni Macierewicz announced that NATO would station four battalions in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia on a rotating basis, Newsday reports. The multi-national battalions will be comprised of between 300-800 soldiers each. The Baltics have long been an area of concern for the alliance, as several generals and military analysts have warned that Russian forces could storm Baltic capitals like Riga and Tallinn in as little as 36 hours. Positioning NATO battalions and increasing military exercises in the Baltics and Poland has been identified as part of possible solution to Russia's increasing aggression in eastern Europe. In response to increased NATO drilling earlier this year, Russia announced it would form three new military divisions (up to 10,000 troops in each) on the European border, as well as deploying five strategic nuclear missile regiments on combat duty, Reuters reports. Before the announcement, Poland had asked for a "battalion plus," of NATO troops to bolster their domestic forces as Russia increasingly threatens military action in response to NATO operations. Poland has also sought to spend $33 billion on military modernization by 2022, and to increase the size of their military by 50%. But Macierewicz was clear that such a force would still not be capable of defeating Russia, and would merely increase the likely hood of deterring them in statements he made to DefenseNews. nato exercise us soldiers Story continues "From the military point of view, the problem so far has been that we have almost 100 percent certainty that in a situation of an aggression, NATO would lose the territory under attack and would have to reconquer it later," Macierewicz said. "Thanks to the forward presence [of additional battalions] it would be possible to maintain and defend the territory for a period sufficient for NATO to regroup and eventually repel Russian forces, Macierewicz continued. Stoltenberg explained in a speech at Warsaw University how the upcoming summit was a "critical moment for our Alliance." Stolengberg nato warsaw university "To the east, we see Russias illegal annexation of Crimea, its continuing actions against Ukraine and a significant build-up of its military forces, stretching from the Barents Sea, to the Baltic and the Black Sea, and the eastern Mediterranean, said Stoltenberg. "To carry out NATOs mission in this more dangerous world, we need to strengthen our collective defense, and to project stability beyond our own borders, he concluded. NOW WATCH: Here's the high-tech military equipment Russia could use against the world More From Business Insider Conservative editor Bill Kristol teased the political world when he tweeted over the weekend that hed recruited an impressive candidate with a strong team and a real chance to run as an independent. Who could it be? Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP nominee? Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, a fierce Trump critic? But the potential candidate Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, was revealed to be courting did not measure up as a big political name. The supposed impressive candidate with a real chance is reportedly David French, a conservative lawyer, veteran of the Iraq War, and National Review columnist, as Bloombergs Mark Halperin and John Heilemann reported on Tuesday. Romney, however, seemed to indicate a willingness to be supportive of French. I know David French to be an honorable, intelligent and patriotic person, he tweeted on Tuesday night. I look forward to following what he has to say. French is relatively unknown outside of entrenched conservative circles. His wife, Nancy French, who has ghostwritten for 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin and US Olympian Shawn Johnson, said that her husband is still on the fence about hopping into the race. Hes been trying to get other people to run for a long time, so thats probably why people are considering him, you know, because hes been very adamantly anti-Trump, or at least Never Trump, Never Hillary, she told NBC News on Wednesday. She added: So we just want someone to run. I dont know if itll be him itll be quite jolting to our lives if that is the case. But hed be great. We just dont know if its the right thing for him to do. The Iraq War veteran has limited time to collect the many signatures needed to appear on the ballot in states this fall. One person who Halperin and Heilemann reported was "deeply involved" in the efforts to recruit an independent candidate said that the search was centered on candidates who had one of the following three traits: fame, vast wealth, and experience in elected office. Story continues French has not held elected office and is not of great fame or known to hold vast wealth. All the normal political rules apply, he tweeted on Wednesday. The conventional wisdom has been right. An underdog cant win. Right? Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has ripped into Kristol since the weekend, tweeting that hes a dummy and later calling him a loser at a Tuesday press conference. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also weighed in, telling Business Insider in a Tuesday interview that he hoped that Kristol failed in his attempt because that will help elect Hillary Clinton to the presidency. I like Bill Kristol and I know hes a smart guy, but I hope hes unsuccessful, the Senate majority leader said. NOW WATCH:Youre a sleaze!: Here are all the insults Trump hurled at the press during a bizarre press conference More From Business Insider VIENNA (Reuters) - A building in northern Austria that was due to house dozens of asylum seekers was deliberately set on fire, the Red Cross said on Wednesday, a relatively rare attack on a refugee center in a country that has taken in many migrants. The new wooden building in the town of Altenfelden, near Austria's borders with Germany and the Czech Republic, caught fire overnight. The Red Cross, which owns the building, later said arson was the cause. "It was a shock for us," Red Cross spokesman Stefan Neubauer said, adding that 48 people had been due to move into the building in two weeks' time. "It was an act of vandalism with which we have not been confronted yet." Wooden buildings are being used as a cheaper form of accommodation in Austria, which last year took in 90,000 asylum seekers, more than 1 percent of its population, and has scrambled to house them in decent conditions. Police said two fire sources had been found at the building's external walls, adding that arson was the presumed cause of the blaze. Austria's Interior Ministry said an investigation was under way and referred to a report last month showing a rise in far-right crimes in 2015. "There can be no tolerance for extremist criminal acts," Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said in a statement. "Violence against those seeking protection is not the solution and is a breeding ground for radicalisation." Europe's migration crisis has heightened public concerns about security and jobs, fuelling a rise in support for far-right parties in Austria, Germany and other European countries. Despite the growing popularity in Austria of the anti-immigration Freedom Party, whose presidential candidate Norbert Hofer narrowly lost a run-off election last week, violent attacks on centers for new immigrants are rare. "We want to build a new house on the same site," Neubauer said, estimating the damage at 300,000 euros ($335,190). (Reporting by Kirsti Knolle and Francois Murphy; Editing by Mark Heinrich) (In May 31 item, in first paragraph corrects to "site" from "platform." In 6th paragraph corrects to clarify that NextGen aggregates information from crowdsourcing services rather than running crowdfunding campaigns itself) May 31 (Reuters) - Equity crowdfunding site NextGen Crowdfunding said on Tuesday that investors made more than $1 million in commitments after new U.S. investment regulations took effect two weeks ago. Crowdfunding is an alternative means of funding a project or venture by inviting contributions from a large number of people, often via the internet. The new rules allow anyone to invest in private companies, but just three dozen startups were peddling stakes to the public on nine funding websites, news site Crowdfund Insider said at the time the rules went into force. Many entrepreneurs had predicted more activity in crowdfunding. A new level playing field has emerged for startups and emerging businesses seeking alternative financing, NextGen founder Aubrey Chernick told Reuters in an email. "Entry-level and non-accredited investors can now join accredited investors in supporting early stage companies," he added. NextGen, whose website aggregates information from separate crowdfunding services, says it pulled together information from different platforms to arrive at its estimate of investor commitments. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission drafted regulations for equity crowdfunding after a law passed by the U.S. Congress four years ago that loosened rules restricting investment in private companies to "accredited investors", generally people with a net worth of $1 million or more. (Reporting by Vishal Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan and Clarence Fernandez) If producer Joel Silver's new action-comedy The Nice Guys felt like a throwback to the 1980s, so did his behavior on the recent press tour. Multiple sources report witnessing a loud tantrum Silver threw at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc near Cannes, where the film, starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe, was premiering May 15 before its U.S. debut and a press tour to promote its rollout overseas. Silver, famous for his bad behavior during his 1980s and '90s heyday with the Die Hard and Lethal Weapon films, was seen berating a petite female staffer working on Nice Guys. Why? She had the unfortunate task of informing Silver that his luggage - all 20 pieces of it, says one source - would not be flown on a private jet to the next European tour stop. The staffer was said to be in tears after the encounter and "completely traumatized." For years, Silver had a reputation in Hollywood for his outsized lifestyle and difficult personality. "He's charming, he's funny, he's delightful. But keep your eye on him," director-producer Richard Donner told THR in 2015. "Joel will use you and get everything he can." More recently, Silver has faced tighter financial reins. Read More: The Epic Saga of Joel Silver: Money Struggles, Feuds and (Another) Second Chance Nice Guys reunited Silver with Warner Bros., which was his home base for much of the '80s and 90s. Warners agreed to distribute the $50 million-budgeted film from director Shane Black in North America, where it has grossed just $23.6 million (it has not opened overseas yet). Some have questioned releasing the midbudget, R-rated film in mid-May in the heart of blockbuster season and opposite another R-rated comedy, Neighbors 2. But sources say Silver personally insisted on the May 20 release date. Meanwhile, the Venice Post Office, a local landmark that Silver purchased as the future home of his Silver Pictures, remains boarded up and covered in graffiti. Story continues Silver's reps did not respond to a request for comment. A version of this story first appeared in the June 10 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe. We value your privacy. Focus Taiwan (CNA) uses tracking technologies to provide better reading experiences, but it also respects readers' privacy. Click here to find out more about Focus Taiwan's privacy policy. When you close this window, it means you agree with this policy. (Adds oil spill, background) YENAGOA, Nigeria, June 1 (Reuters) - A Nigerian militant group said on Wednesday that it had blown up two Chevron oil wells in the second such attack in a week on the company's facilities in Nigeria's oil-producing Delta region. An oil spill was seen in waterways and wetlands surrounding the Chevron sites after the attack, according to a Reuters witness and a local official, though the volume spilled could not be immediately determined. The attacks occurred as tensions flared between international oil companies and Niger Delta residents, some of whom are pushing foreign energy companies to leave Africa's largest economy in a bid for greater economic self-reliance. A group calling itself the Niger Delta Avengers said in a post on Twitter that it used "100 Gunboats, 4 Warships and Jet Bombers" to attack Chevron's RMP 23 and 24 wells early on Wednesday morning. It claimed the wells were Chevron's highest-producing in the country. The attacks have reduced Nigeria's total oil output to below that of rival producer Angola, sharply affecting the national budget which relies on oil tax revenue. The Niger Delta Avengers, a relatively new radical group that has claimed responsibility for a number of pipeline bombings in the country this year, had told Chevron and other oil companies to leave Nigeria by the end of May. Last week the group claimed responsibility for blowing up electricity feeds to Chevron's facilities, forcing the company to shutter onshore operations. Attacks carried out by the group since February have cut Nigeria's oil output by at least 300,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) and shuttered two refineries. The group has also attacked facilities owned by Royal Dutch Shell. The wells attacked on Wednesday are in the Dibi field near Warri, about 265 miles (426 kilometers) southeast of Lagos, Nigeria's largest city. Local residents confirmed to Reuters that an attack had taken place. In response to a request for comment, Chevron spokesman Kurt Glaubitz said, "As a matter of long-standing policy, we do not comment on the safety and security of our personnel and operations." Story continues It was not clear what effect the attacks would have on Chevron's daily Nigerian output. Last year Chevron pumped about 224,000 bpd in Nigeria, about 9 percent of the company's global output. Militancy has been rife over the past decade in the Delta, one of the country's poorest areas despite generating 70 percent of state income. (Reporting by Tife Owolabi, Ulf Laessing and Ernest Scheyder; Additional reporting by Anamesere Igboeroteonwu in Onitsha; Writing by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Terry Wade, Toni Reinhold) TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's biggest steelmaker, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp <5401.T>, said on Wednesday there was no truth to reports that it was planning to break up its Brazilian affiliate Usiminas