He says he does notÂ aspire to much, just the right to own an apartment or a small store, something he can one day pass on to his children.

But his seemingly modest goal may never be realised, not necessarily because of financial constraints, but because the Lebanese government deems it illegal.

Abu Umar is a Palestinian refugee and amendments to a Lebanese property law in 2002 forbid the acquisition of real estate by non-Lebanese persons âwho do not possess citizenship issued by a state recognised by Lebanon.â

Palestinian refugees are not specifically mentioned, but the aim is widely acknowledged to be to prevent the permanent settlement of about 390,000 Palestinians in Lebanon.

Half of these refugees live in squalid conditions in 12 camps throughout the country with no medical, social or educational services from the Lebanese government.

âBecause nobody has recognised our country as Palestine why should I pay the price as a Palestinian refugee?â Abu Umar said in an interview at his home in the Shatila refugee camp.

âSo if they recognise our government, will I then have the right to own the roof over my head?â

"If they recognise our government, will I then have the right to own the roof over my head?â Abu Umar,Palestinian refugee in LebanonLong denied many civil rights including the right to work in dozens of professions, Palestinians received another blow when Beirutâs Parliament withdrew draft legislation that would have overturned the ban on refugees owning property in Lebanon.

"If they recognise our government, will I then have the right to own the roof over my head?â

Abu Umar,Palestinian refugee in Lebanon

The measure was withdrawn before it got a chance to be debated in the House.Â

The draft legislation had been presented by 10 MPs in early October and coincided with a campaign spearheaded by the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), aimed at amending what it deemed the âdiscriminatory and racistâ measures of the property law.

President Emile Lahoud and Speaker Nabih Berri did not support the bill on the grounds that it would âtrigger strifeâ among the Lebanese.

Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said the time was not right to grant Palestinian refugees such rights but that the âunjustâ ban would one day be lifted.

âWe wonder when the time is going to be right,â DFLP member Suhail Natur said in a telephone interview.

Refugees enjoy even fewer rightsdespite continuous campaigningâIt was the wrong time to adopt this law from the very beginning against the human rights of Palestinians and all the time since has been valid to correct this mistake.â

Refugees enjoy even fewer rightsdespite continuous campaigning

The law meant those Palestinians who owned property before 2002 were not able to pass on their homes to their children.

The law also left all those who had bought property, but not registered it, in limbo. Many either registered their property under Lebanese names throughÂ bribes or, like Abu Umar, sold to Lebanese at low prices.

âIâd bought an apartment for $120,000,â he said. âBut I hadnât registered it yet. I thought I had plenty of time to do that. The property was jointly owned byÂ two partners, one of whom had financial problems and the bank was seizing his assets.â

Abu Umar said that rather than risk the bank seizing the apartment he took what he could get for it.

âI was forced to sell the apartment to the other partner for $35,000. I didnât even have the option of selling it to somebody else,â he said, âbecause by law it wasnât mine to sell.â

âThis law has created many problems,â said Natur.

âOn the one hand there are those who began to pay instalments on houses and now they donât have the right to register their property. There are others who registered their properties under the old law but have since died, and their heirs cannot re-register the properties.â

Abu Umar and Natur are among a number of Palestinian activists and their Lebanese supporters who are continuing the struggle to amend the law.

âIt was the wrong time to adopt this law from the very beginning against the human rights of Palestinians and all the time since has been valid to correct this mistakeâ Suhail Natur,DFLP spokesmanA petition circulated within Lebanonâs Palestinian community has collected thousands of signatures and activists are hopeful that the 10 MPs will table their proposal again soon.

âIt was the wrong time to adopt this law from the very beginning against the human rights of Palestinians and all the time since has been valid to correct this mistakeâ

âThere is an expectation that in addition to fruitful Palestinian lobbying there needs to be some change in Arab attitudes toward Lebanon and action from international human rights groups to pressure Parliament to adopt an amendment to this discriminatory measure,â Natur said.

âPalestinians and those who support human rights for the Palestinians expect a correction of the mistake done by the law - to allow Palestinians to own property like any other Arab foreigner in Lebanon,â he added.

âAt the very minimum we hope they will treat us like foreigners,â Abu Umar said. âA foreigner is permitted to own 5000 square metres. âI just want about 118 square metres, the size of a small apartment.â

Abu Umar said that in addition to the MPs, the activists would also approach leaders from across the countryâs patchwork mix of religious communities because âthe right to pass on property to our children is acknowledged in the major religions of the country.â

For economic,Â demographic and diplomatic reasons, Beirut refuses to consider permanently settling the refugees, fearing it would further alter the delicate religious makeup of the country.

âAll of our endeavours and actions are geared toward achieving the right of return. An apartment wonât prevent me from returning to Palestineâ Abu Umar,Palestinian refugeeThe Lebanese Parliament also initially passed the property law on the grounds that it wants to protect the right of Palestinian refugees to return eventually to their homes, which they fled after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

âAll of our endeavours and actions are geared toward achieving the right of return. An apartment wonât prevent me from returning to Palestineâ

But Natur and Abu Umar said the property law created an artificial link between the two issues.

âOne of the reasons that led to this law was a belief that if Palestinians owned property in Lebanon they would let go of their right of return. This is not true,â Abu Umar said.

âAll of our endeavours and actions are geared toward achieving the right of return. An apartment wonât prevent me from returning to Palestine,â he said.

And as for permanent settlement, âI donât think there is a Palestinian who would like to relinquish his national identity or his right of return.â

âThis propaganda seeks to blacken our image,â he said. âThere is no legal basis for any linkage between the two issues of owning a home and the permanent settlement of Palestinians in Lebanon.

Implantation is conditioned on obtaining Lebanese citizenship, on naturalization. It doesnât mean ownership of real estate property.â

âEveryone in the Lebanese political arena says they are for Palestinian national rights, our right to have an independent state and our right of return,â Natur said.

âBut at the same time they are against any human rights for the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon,â he added. âThe Lebanese political arena has to do away with the slogan âWith Palestine, against the Palestinians."

Summary: Abu Umar is a humble man with relatively humble ambitions.


Danny Ortiz #68 of the Pittsburgh Pirates in action

03/07/2016 AT 11:55 PM EST

A good Samaritan's quick reflexes – and sizable forearm – saved the face of a young baseball fan at a training game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Atlanta Braves on Saturday.

Pirates outfielder Danny Ortiz lost the grip on his bat during a swinging strike, sending the bat whizzing into the seats behind the Braves' dugout,

reports. With violent force, the bat flew on a direct path towards the face of a boy who was too distracted by his smartphone to notice what was about to befall him.

A quick-thinking adult fan seated next to the boy stuck his arm in front of the boy's face, deflecting the bat and preventing what would likely have been a serious injury.

Christopher Horner, a photographer for the

captured the harrowing moment in a series of photographs that serve as a good reminder that it's always a good idea to look up once in a while.

@BiertempfelTrib The two frames showing just how close the bat was to the boy's head. pic.twitter.com/7VwnfWp8L1

The frames were then turned into a pretty epic gif.

UPDATE with more photos: Fan saves boy's face from flying baseball bat, via @BiertempfelTrib https://t.co/10MwcI8gYq pic.twitter.com/z3559tcgLK

The photos even caught the attention of Ortiz's wife. "I went home and my wife said to me, 'You almost killed that kid!' " the outfielder told the paper. "I saw the picture. It was crazy. That guy took [a blow] for the kid. The father, or whoever he was, he protected that kid."

Summary: One man's quick reflexes – and sizable forearm – saved the face of a young baseball fan on Saturday.


That may remain Burger King's biggest dilemma. So many of us have "always" been McDonald's guys. Why buy a Big King when you can buy a Big Mac? The King is about 30 cents cheaper, but will McDonald's feel threatened by this latest Big Mac attack?

"We're focused on our business and our customers," a McDonald's spokesman told us. The company recently dropped Heinz from markets where it was still using the ketchup after the CEO of Burger King left to become the CEO of Heinz.

Nielsen tells us that Burger King spends about one-fourth of what McDonald's spends on advertising, and Burger King tells CNBC that it does not plan to air commercials for the Big King.

Instead, it's counting on PR stunts, like a report in TMZ this week that the company offered to buy Elvis Presley's home in Beverly Hills. Get it? The King? Burger King? While the company tells us the offer was legitimate, management couldn't have it their way.

The bid was reportedly rejected for being way too low, a mere $3.69 million.

That figure is no fluke. The Big King is selling for $3.69.

—By CNBC's Jane Wells; Follow her on Twitter: @janewells

Summary: Burger King has released a burger called the Big King that looks almost identical to McDonald's Big Mac. How does it stack up?  Find out.


Man found stranded on island

04/19/2016 AT 08:20 PM EDT

was out on the sea filming last November when they came across a man on a largely deserted Australian island.

The dramatic moment was captured on camera by the crew and aired on the network last week.

"He had said his last prayer," Stephen Shearman, the director of the episode

. "He was prepared to die and meet his maker."

According to Shearman, the team was trying to solve the mystery of six men who died in a plane crash near to the Gulf of Carpenaria.

But instead, they encountered the man, who they later found out was named Tremine, after they moved from their original shoot location were the water was too choppy.

The crew saw a blue Esky, or cooler box, and said that

might appear – a joke in reference to the 2000 movie,

Just then, Shearman said, "this guy with no clothes was running out of the cave, waving his arms out."

Tremine, a roofer from Borroloola, Australia, told the crew he was out fishing when he decided to leave his boat to go find better oysters.

"He had tried to walk back, got beaten by the sun, and made his way back to the beach," Shearman told Inside Edition. "Meanwhile, he had suffered from sunstroke and was unable to go any further. He then spent that first night on the beach, and the next morning he tried again, but the sun had gotten to be too much for him, and at this point, he is now trapped."

The experienced fisherman has no family and children so no one knew he was missing. He had been stranded without supplies for about 60 hours.

On board was the crew's guide for the day, Ashley, who the news outlet says knew Tremine from Borroloola.

"He was used to him going away and not getting in touch," said Shearman. "It was quite a shock when we discovered this semi-naked guy coming out of the cave, and it was his friend. He was completely dumbfounded."

After the miraculous discovery, the crew brought him back to their lodge before Tremine returned home the following day.

Shearman says they have kept in touch since then and "apart from a bruised pride, he was back to normal."

Summary: "I've made a lot of shows involving survival, but to see it first hand and to see the real shocking powers of what three days without water can do was really sobering," director Stephen Shearman told Inside Edition


But more than any other factor, the state program for buying out tobacco farmers speeded the shift away from the crop. When the payments began in 2001, more than 1,000 farmers grew tobacco in Maryland. Today, that number is about 150.

The state used part of the money from the settlement of states' lawsuits against the tobacco industry for medical expenses linked to smoking to finance the program. It guarantees former tobacco farmers income for a decade, based on their crop volume from 1996 to 1998. In exchange, the farmers agreed to continue using their land for agriculture for a decade and to never again grow tobacco for human consumption.

Mr. Prouty, whose farm sits along the expansive Patuxent River (named for an Indian word thought to mean "place where tobacco grows") takes pride in keeping his barns looking good and functioning. He uses other barns on his farm for storing hay and farm equipment and has added a greenhouse to one. But with tobacco farming fading so quickly, he worries about the fate of the old barns on other farms.

"Tobacco barns that aren't maintained almost like a house that's not maintained can deteriorate very rapidly" said Mr. Prouty, 49. "And if we wait 5 or 10 years and say, 'We really ought to do something to save some of these barns,' a lot of them would be at a point where it's already too late. In 15 or 20 years, maybe there'd be virtually nothing left to even remind you that tobacco-growing ever once was."

The airy barns with thin gaps between boards and long vertical slats that open to allow a cross breeze had been built for slowly air-curing tobacco. Unless their owners find alternative uses, many of the estimated 5,000 barns will very likely disappear. Thus, much of the preservation effort focuses on helping farmers find new uses for old farms, like growing flowers, nursery plants, Christmas trees, soy, produce, or grapes for wines.

Some former tobacco farmers, like Joseph Wood, have turned their farms into tourist destinations. Dozens of farmers have stopped by Mr. Wood's place in St. Mary's County to get a look at his fledgling agri-tourism business.

Mr. Wood strolled through a 19th-century barn with hand-hewn wooden supports where he and his father and his grandfather used to hang tobacco. He has converted the barn to a petting zoo. On one wall, farm tools like a sickle and a knife for cutting tobacco from stalks hang like a museum display beneath a sign that reads, "The Good Old Days." Not far away, a sign of the times reads, "No smoking."

Outside, on fields where tobacco used to grow, children frolic in the maze Mr. Wood carved from a cornfield, take hay rides through the farmlands, and, around Halloween, head for the pumpkin patch and screech in the haunted house, which is inside another old tobacco barn.

Nearby, a shop built to resemble an old barn sells apples, which Mr. Wood now grows, along with produce, gourmet pies and freshly cut mums.

"Everything you see out here in the fields used to be tobacco," Mr. Wood said. "We knew we had to do something different and do it quickly because the tobacco settlement payment would run out in 10 years."

Kirk E. Ranzetta, a historian who is writing a book about the architecture of St. Mary's County, views the barns as vital links to the past, replete with lessons plantation owners as well as sharecroppers and slaves who worked the fields.

"The tobacco barns have become an important statement about what that culture was all about," Mr. Ranzetta said. "They have a story to tell about the past, from the 17th century on, and provide a wonderful window into that lifestyle."

Preservationists and farmers from five counties in Southern Maryland plan a meeting in November to try to find ways to save the old barns.

The national trust's "Barn Again!" program provides technical and financial aid for adapting historic barns for agricultural use. And some federal lawmakers, including Senator Paul S. Sarbanes, a Maryland Democrat, are pushing for $10 million in federal financing for a nationwide program to preserve historic barns. (Congress created the program two years ago but has yet to finance it.)

Not so long ago, the barns seemed a permanent part of the landscape, said Cathy Hardy, a historic preservation planner for Charles County.

"At first," Ms. Hardy said, "the thought of preserving them seemed a little funny. But now, at a time when things look more and more the same, you really cherish the things that make your area unique."

Summary: National Trust for Historic Preservation in late May placed southern Maryland tobacco barns on list of most endangered historic places; tobacco farming is fast fading from region amid state buy-out program and declining demand; National Trust provides technical and financial assistance for adapting historic barns for agricultural use; Sen Paul S Sarbanes and other federal lawmakers are pushing for $10 million in federal financing for national program to preserve historic barns; photos (M)


WHILE the birds, squirrels and rabbits may add to the charm of warm- weather living, other types of wildlife assuredly do not. That is especially true when the weather gets colder and the family wants to spend time indoors - and so do the mice and the rats.

Although rodents in the New York area do not spread any diseases to speak of, according to Alan Bauerman of the New York State Health Department, no one wants them around. ''They're a symbol of decay,'' he said, but he added that a rat bite is usually no more dangerous than a cat's scratch, although either can lead to a infection and fever.

Pest-control specialists say that keeping rodents out is easier than getting rid of them. ''The most important aspect of keeping rodents away is cleaning up,'' said James Caslick, a senior research associate in the department of natural resources at Cornell University. ''Keep the lids on the garbage cans - keep things they like to eat inaccessible to them.''

Also important, Dr. Bauerman said, is making a house impenetrable to the tiny animals.

''A half-inch opening is big enough for a rat to gnaw at and enlarge,'' he said. Dr. Bauerman, who is assistant director of the Health Department's bureau of community sanitation and food protection, recommended using mortar, concrete or a coarse wire mesh to plug all holes in the foundation that are less than four feet from the ground. ''You can also take a tin can, cut it open and flatten it over the opening,'' he said.

If rodents do invade, the specialists say, the best baits are the anticoagulants - D-Con is a common brand found in supermarkets - which were introduced about 15 years ago.

The baits, which are usually mixed with grain or oatmeal, thin out the rodent's blood and prevent it from clotting, so that the animal bleeds to death if it gets a scratch or cut. Because the mixture doesn't have an objectionable taste and the symptoms come on gradually, the animal does not associate them with the poison.

Anticoagulants are, like other poisons, also toxic to children and pets. The effects can be overcome by a massive injection of vitamin K. ''That's a major step up from the old kinds of poisons, where there was no antidote,'' Dr. Caslick said.

To keep pets and children away from the poison, exterminators (or pest control operators, as they prefer to be called) use tunnel-like bait stations, small enough to accommodate only a mouse. These generally are not sold to consumers, however.

Conventional snap traps baited with sweets for mice and sausage for rats can be just as effective as the poisonous baits, Dr. Caslick said, but need to be checked daily.

Because exterminators use stronger anticoagulants and safer traps than are found in supermarkets, many people prefer to have a professional deal with rodents. The charge is generally $35 to $40 an hour.

All exterminators must hold state licenses, and many also belong to state branches of the National Pest Control Association. In New York City, signs of rat infestation should be reported to the City Health Department's rat-control program at 285- 9503.

A 22-page booklet, ''Rat and Mouse Control,'' is available from the Cornell University Extension Service for $1.50. Write to Distribution Center, 7 Research Park, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. 14850, and request information book No. 163.


05/26/2016 AT 10:20 AM EDT

On Tuesday, two men – including the former producer for the forthcoming HBO drama series

– were arrested on drug charges related to

, a married Long Island doctor who died in the doorway of a Manhattan apartment building last October, PEOPLE confirms.

According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice obtained by PEOPLE, HBO producer Marc Henry Johnson, 51, and James Holder, 60, both face federal drug and conspiracy charges related to Cerveny's death.

Investigators claim Cerveny, a 38-year-old mother of three, was found unresponsive in Holder's apartment building on the morning of Oct. 4, 2015. The night before her death, investigators allege Cerveny and Johnson spent the night in various New York City bars where they allegedly drank and snorted cocaine.

The Department of Justice's statement alleges Holder sold cocaine out of his Chelsea apartment for more than a decade. In addition to being friends, Holder also allegedly sold cocaine to Johnson, who, along with actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, produced the pilot episode for the impending HBO series

, which stars James Franco and focuses on the rise of New York's porn industry during the 1970s.

At around 4:30 a.m. the morning of Oct. 4, 2015, Cerveny and Johnson went to Holder's home, where police claim the doctor overdosed, the statement claims.

Investigators say video surveillance footage shows Johnson and Holder dragging Cerveny's unconscious body into the building's first-floor vestibule.

Police say Holder then left the building, carrying an unspecified object as he walked away. Meanwhile, Johnson called 911 and asked for an ambulance. According to the DOJ's statement, Johnson refused to provide his name to the 911 operator and would not describe the nature of his relationship with Cerveny.

Johnson and Holder both appeared in federal court in Manhattan on Wednesday for a preliminary hearing.

"Drugs destroy lives and communities," the statement quotes U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara as saying. "The charges unsealed today against James Holder and Marc Henry Johnson are a reminder of that. And the work of the DEA, NYPD, and State Police in this investigation is also a reminder of law enforcement's commitment to stem the distribution of dangerous drugs in our communities."

Both men are being held on unspecified bail amounts. It was unclear Wednesday whether either defendant has retained an attorney who could comment on their behalf.

Summary: Detectives claim that Kiersten Cerveny and Marc Henry Johnson spent the evening of Oct. 3, 2015, in various New York City bars drinking and snorting cocaine


Blake Shelton found a silver lining in his divorce from his country star wife Miranda Lambert ... it did wonders for his waist!

The 'Voice' star was chatting Wednesday with Blair Garner on the "America's Morning Show" when his dramatic weight loss became a topic of conversation.

Shelton says he didn't actively diet or hit the gym ... it's all about the stress of getting unhitched.

So more than half of people who get married should be real thin, right?

Summary: Blake Shelton found a silver lining in his divorce from his country star wife Miranda Lambert ... it did wonders for his waist! The…


Moms make us who we are, literally. This is something I have always been proud of. My mother, Judi Bender, is one of the most gracious, supportive and strong women I have met in my 26 years, and I am lucky enough to share 50 percent of my genetic makeup with her. Jackpot!

So when the dermatology company

offered me a chance to transform into Judi Bender (and for a good cause), I was instantly on board.

In February, Galderma launched the

. MomGenes is a project created to start an optimistic dialogue about aging: According to results of a nationwide mother-daughter survey commissioned by Galderma, 82 percent of moms hope facial aging is easier for their daughters, but more than half never talk about it together.

MomGenes is a way to start this dialogue so daughters can learn easy ways to protect their skin for the future and embrace the beauty of aging like their mothers.

To help women worldwide celebrate their "mom genes," Galderma is encouraging ladies to recreate a favorite photo of their mom and share it on

. For each photo posted, Galderma will donate $5 to the

, a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering the mother-daughter relationship through hands-on volunteerism.

For my MomGenes transformation, which can be seen in the video above, the crew at Galderma gave me a totally makeover, working off a photo of my mom at 27 as a bridesmaid in her sister's wedding.

The photo is classic Judi: an unabashed smile and a whole lot of hair, which I was lucky enough to inherit. She looks good!

But that's not a surprise to me. My mom always looks good, to the point where she radiates good. To help transform me into this beaming beacon of kindness, Galderma went all out with the makeup, hair and wardrobe.

The makeup portion was the first and the lengthiest part of the process, mostly due to my so-pale-it-glows winter skin tone. While my mom has fairer skin, she also has the coveted ability to get a tan. I am a burn-first-and-then-burn-some-more type of broad. To rectify this, my makeup artist loaded on bronzer to match my mom's golden glow. The other thing Judi had me beat on? Brows. Apparently having loooong brows was a trend when my mom was 27, so a few extra hairs needed to be penciled in.

Next up, hair! My lob allows me to fall asleep with my wet hair, wake up, do nothing to it and still be deemed socially acceptable. I love it ... except for right here. The hairdresser did wave wonders to the hair I had, but because of the length, we could not achieve the full-out Farrah Fawcett splendor that Judi accomplished.

The final step was to change into an outfit selected to match my mom's look – complete with keyhole magenta top and hair flower – and recreate my mom's pose for a photographer.

Courtesy Kelli Bender and Galderma

Galderma did it. The final side-by-side presents a strong case that my mom and I are probably related. People are 50/50 about whether my mom and I look alike, so I was happy to see an obvious resemblance when the makeover was complete. My mom adored the result as well. As her only child, aside from a very possessive cat, I think this picture firmly places me in the favorite kid position. Take that, Perri the cat!

On a more serious note, while my mom received a new photo to frame from this project, I learned an important lesson: I want to age like my mom. She is beautiful inside and out, in a way that always makes me feel lucky to be her daughter. If I look anything like her 30 years from now, I will be ecstatic. But, more important, I want to grow up to resemble the woman my mom is today – confident, dedicated, loving, altruistic. And if that happens, it won't just be from Judi's mom genes, but all the mom work she's put in.

Summary: Which one is the real Judi Bender?


Turns out Kylie Jenner's door isn't open.

The reality star isn't taking her new romance with rapper PARTYNEXTDOOR seriously because she's still not over her former flame, ET is reporting.

Jenner called it quits with rapper Tyga last month.

"She's still a little sore from Tyga -- he was her first real love," an insider told the news outlet.

SEE IT: Kylie Jenner and rapper PARTYNEXTDOOR go on a date

The 18-year-old lip kit mogul is seeing green after photos surfaced of the "Rack City" performer hanging out with lingerie model Demi Rose at the Cannes Film Festival.

"Kylie is livid about Tyga's behavior at Cannes," a source told ET. "This is the exact reason they broke up. He was constantly texting girls and lying to her about it. That girl, Demi Rose, was texting him during their entire relationship. So, when she saw pics of them together, she was livid."

As far as her new romance with PARTYNEXTDOOR, Kylie is "just living her life right now and having fun."

The youngest Kardashian has been linked to the 22-year-old Canadian rapper, whose real name is Jahron Anthony Brathwaite, since late May. He's currently signed to Drake's OVO Sound record label.

Summary: The reality star isn't taking her new romance with rapper PARTYNEXTDOOR seriously.


‘We are animals in a world no one knows’

In February 1965, LIFE magazine published an extraordinary photo essay on two New York City heroin addicts, John and Karen. Photographed by Bill Eppridge, the pictures — and the accompanying article, reported and written by LIFE associate editor James Mills — were part of a two-part series on narcotics in the United States. A sensitive, clear-eyed and harrowing chronicle of, as LIFE phrased it, “two lives lost to heroin,” Eppridge’s pictures shocked the magazine’s readers and brought the sordid, grim reality of addiction into countless American living rooms.

To this day, Eppridge’s photo essay remains among the most admired and, for some, among the most controversial that LIFE ever published. His pictures and Mills’ reporting, meanwhile, formed the basis for the 1971 movie, Panic in Needle Park, which starred Al Pacino and Kitty Winn as addicts whose lives spin inexorably out of control.

Here, on the heels of the sobering news that heroin-related deaths quadrupled in the U.S. in the last three years, LIFE.com presents Eppridge’s “Needle Park” photo essay in its entirety, as it appeared in LIFE — a portrait of two young people who have become, as they themselves put it, “animals in a world no one knows.”

[See more of Bill Eppridge’s work.]

Summary: In the wake of the news that heroin deaths in the U.S. quadrupled during the last three years, LIFE.com presents a seminal 1965 photo essay on heroin addiction.


LOWER MANHATTAN (WPIX) -- A massive crane collapsed onto a row of cars in TriBeCa Friday morning, killing one person and injuring three others.

Reports of the fallen crane at 40 Worth St., near Church Street, came in at 8:24 a.m. The collapse happened at the height of the snowy morning commute in lower Manhattan. The crane also damaged four buildings, including the New York Law building, as it smashed down onto the narrow TriBeCa street.

See more from the scene:

1 killed, 3 injured after massive crane crashes onto cars

Debris and a mangled crane lie in the street in New Yorkâs Tribeca neighborhood in Lower Manhattan following a deadly collapse on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Colleen Long)

Emergency personnel work at the scene of a fatal crane collapse in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan in New York on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

A collapsed crane lies on the street on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, in New York. The crane landed across an intersection and stretched much of a block in the Tribeca neighborhood, about 10 blocks north of the World Trade Center. There was damage to the roof of a nearby building, and debris littered the street. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

In this photo provided by the FDNY, debris and a mangled crane lie in the street in New Yorkâs Tribeca neighborhood following a deadly collapse on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. (FDNY via AP)

NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 05: Emergency workers converge at the scene of a collapsed crane in a roadway in lower Manhattan Friday morning on February 5, 2016 in New York City. The accident killed at least one person andÃinjured at least two the New York City Fire Department said. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

This photo courtesy of Paul Leys shows a crane collapse in Lower Manhattan on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016 in New York. The accident was reported around early Friday in the Tribeca neighborhood. The crane landed across several parked cars, smashing their roofs. (Paul Leys via AP) NO SALES

The cabin of a collapsed crane, background left, lies upside down with its treads in the air on Worth St. in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan in New York on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Emergency personnel work at the scene of a fatal crane collapse in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan in New York on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

In this photo provided by the FDNY, firefighters respond to the scene of a crane collapse on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. The crane landed across an intersection and stretched much of a block in the Tribeca neighborhood, about 10 blocks north of the World Trade Center. (FDNY via AP) (FDNY via AP)

Emergency workers gather at the scene of a crane collapse in the Tribeca section of Manhattan in New York on Friday, Feb.5, 2016. The crane landed across several parked cars, smashing their roofs.(AP Photo/Colleen Long))

The cabin of a collapsed crane lies upside down with its treads in the air on Worth St. in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan in New York on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Debris and a mangled crane lie in the street in New Yorkâs Tribeca neighborhood in Lower Manhattan following a deadly collapse on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Colleen Long)

Emergency workers gather at the scene of a crane collapse in the Tribeca section of Manhattan in New York on Friday, Feb.5, 2016. The crane landed across several parked cars, smashing their roofs.(AP Photo/Colleen Long)

#FDNY on scene of crane collapse at 40 Worth St & W Bdwy in Manhattan. 1 fatality confirmed, 2 serious https://t.co/M7NP9heiyq

@Traffic4NY a crane fell on west broadway & worth St in TriBeCa the block is closed down https://t.co/Ipn7WHk3Ce

#BREAKING video of TriBeCa #cranecollapse on 40 Worth St. #pix11news @breaking911 https://t.co/ETuQQeAM9d

Due to a construction accident, expect traffic delays & emergency personnel near West Broadway and Worth St in Manhattan.

Crane falls in TriBeCa: Authorities say at least 1 trapped in car. https://t.co/TQ7iEciMN2 (Photo: Sean Campbell) https://t.co/9AgQnKKrpy

David Wichs, 38, of the Upper West Side, was walking down Worth Street when the crane killed him. Three others were injured by the falling debris.

"I was walking my children to school when we heard a noise, it sounded like an earthquake," a woman told PIX11.

"We had seen the crane the night before as kind of dangling already," said the witness, whose worries prompted her to avoid the block she normally takes with her kids in the morning. "I'm not lucky, I am aware. I look at things. I look up."

The two seriously injured people were rushed to New York Presbyterian Hospital and Bellevue Hospital, respectively. Another person suffered minor injuries.

"I lost it, I absolutely lost it," said witness Sara Holoubek, on her reaction to the collapse. She had an incredibly close call.

Jaime Gee, who works on the corner of Worth Street and Broadway, said: "It looked scary from day one. Watching them hauling the cooling towers with these tiny cables was nerve wrecking [sic]. It was just a matter of time before it came down."

"This was a company who was putting their crane into a secure position the way we would have wanted them to," said Mayor de Blasio, who noted that the safety protocol had been mandated after two deadly crane collapses in 2008.

The Office of Emergency Management tweeted to expect traffic due to a "construction accident."

When it fell, the crane was being placed in a safe position as a precaution because of high winds, according to Mayor Bill de Bill Blasio. The crane belongs to the Bay Crane company but was being operated by Galasso, a construction company based in Maspeth.

"This was a company who was putting their crane into a secure position the way we would have wanted them to," said de Blasio, who noted that the safety protocol had been mandated after two deadly crane collapses in 2008.

PIX11 reached out to a representative of Bay Crane Friday morning, who said no immediate statement. The company, which was founded in 1939, has offices in Long Island City as well as Hicksville, on Long Island.

The type of crane is a crawler, and had a boom length of 565 feet -- the maximum allowed, and a capacity of 330 tons. The company had recently asked for an extension in order to access the rooftops, according to city officials.

At 6:20 a.m. Thursday, Department of Buildings representatives inspected the crane. Workers were using the crane to replace generators and air conditioning units at 60 Hudson St., the former Western Union Building.

According to a Con Edison spokesperson, crews responded to reports of a gas odor just before 9 a.m.

A Con Edison representative said they hadn't found any leaks inside the buildings, but had isolated a pipe below street level. They were at the scene, "sweeping" affected buildings on Worth Street every 15 minutes. The impact of the falling crane also broke a water main. They expect the leaks will be resolved by early afternoon.

The collapse has prompted the closures of Worth Street between Church and Hudson streets, Greenwich Street at Battery Place and West Broadway at Canal Street. Subway service also was impacted in the neighborhood.

De Blasio warned residents and people working near the scene that access to the buildings would likely be disrupted for the next several days as the investigation and repairs continue.

Residents or workers in the area may enter the buildings "at the appropriate time" with the escort of the NYPD, de Blasio said.

This is a developing story, check back for updates.

More from AOL.com: After outcry, retired Ohio cop gets to buy police dog for $1 New Jersey man arrested after drone crashes into Empire State Building 2 charged with murder after teen girls found slain at Montecito Heights Park

Summary: A crane collapsed onto cars in front of a building in TriBeCa Friday morning, killing one person and injuring at least three others.


Mark Kram, one of Sports Illustrated's most lyrical writers of the 1960's and 70's and the author of a recent book about the tormented relationship between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, died yesterday in Washington. He was 69.

The cause was apparently a heart attack, said Mark Kram Jr., one of his sons.

Mr. Kram signed a contract with HarperCollins Publishers last month to write a book about Mike Tyson and had returned Sunday from five days in Memphis, where Tyson was knocked out by Lennox Lewis on Saturday night.

''He wanted to write a book that would have been a meditation on fear, but I thought it would be more interesting to use Tyson as the vehicle to talk about fear and its components,'' said Dave Hirshey, the executive editor of HarperCollins, which published Mr. Kram's Ali-Frazier book, ''Ghosts of Manila.''

Mr. Kram revisited boxing territory familiar from his years of covering the sport for Sports Illustrated. But while still an admirer of Ali's boxing skills, he portrayed him as less of a political and social force than others have.

''I saw a quote in a magazine that said Ali was second only to Martin Luther King in his social influence,'' Mr. Kram said in an interview with The New York Times last year. ''I said, 'What did he do?' I tried to figure it out. And it was nothing. He was about the Muslims and he was about himself. But this image was so imbedded in the public consciousness that he's some sort of saint that it's hard to disabuse people of it.''

Mr. Kram grew up in Baltimore and was a three-sport athlete in high school. His minor league baseball career ended when he was beaned by a pitch in a game in Burlington, N.C. He attended the University of Georgia for a few weeks, ''but was home by Thanksgiving,'' Mark Jr. said.

Mr. Kram is also survived by his wife, Rene, five other children and six grandchildren.

Mr. Kram's writing was largely self-taught. ''I always wanted to write like Edward Hopper painted,'' he was quoted as saying in ''The Franchise,'' a history of Sports Illustrated. He was known to be a brooding writer who nonetheless wrote some of the most literary and incisive articles about boxing of his era.

He was dismissed from the magazine in 1977, then wrote for Playboy, GQ and Esquire.

Although he was initially dismissive of writing ''Ghosts of Manila,'' the book reinvigorated his life and career, Mark Jr. said. Last week in Memphis, his son said: ''He had some wonderful ideas about Tyson. He wanted to use Memphis as the big tent to tell the story. I'll always wonder what he would say.''


Los Angeles eye surgeon Robert K. Maloney was shocked when he bumped into a former patient who was wearing glasses.

"I was horrified," says Dr. Maloney, who had performed Lasik surgery on the man to correct his farsightedness. "I went up to him gingerly and asked, 'Is everything OK?'"

The patient, Steve Wallace, says, yes, his vision is fine -- he just likes wearing glasses. "It's a fashion statement," says the 66-year-old owner of Wally's, a Los Angeles wine store. "It's my signature." People "come up to me and ask, 'Where did you get your glasses?'"

Lasik surgery, a common procedure to correct vision defects by reshaping the cornea with a laser, was supposed to make spectacles unnecessary for many people. In a Botox era obsessed with youth and physical perfection, the surgery wasn't seen as just corrective, but also cosmetic: Ditching the four-eyes look was part of the payoff.

But amid a push by glasses makers, as well as fashion designers with their own eyewear lines, nonprescription glasses have become a hot accessory. Earlier this year, designers including Michael Kors and Carmen Marc Valvo featured models wearing bold rectangular glasses in their runway shows. "I cannot recall ever seeing models in specs on major runways before this year," says David Wolfe, a fashion-industry consultant who has tracked the trade for decades.

Designers have never been shy about outfitting models with scarves, shoes and bags from their collections. But "they never made passes at models with glasses," says Mr. Wolfe, who needs glasses to see and is a big fan of the trend.

The LensCrafters chain, once known for dowdy ads touting discounts and quick service, now uses supermodels like Heidi Klum to hawk its wares in fashion magazines like Vogue. It has redecorated stores with chandeliers, flowers and leather benches to make shopping for glasses seem less medical. Another addition: full-length mirrors to let customers check out their complete look.

Ads in magazines ranging from GQ to New York are no longer limited to designer sunglasses. Prada and Gucci are among the brands featuring models posed wearing retro-looking rectangular frames (think Buddy Holly). High-end eyewear brand Oliver Peoples now releases four collections a year, up from two two years ago, hoping customers will want to change frames as often as they, perhaps, switch handbags.

All this appears to be working. While trade groups and retailers say they don't track sales of non-Rx glasses specifically, upscale eyewear retailer Morgenthal Frederics estimates sales of glasses with nonprescription lenses at its seven stores are expected to rise 50%, to 500 pairs this year, compared with 2005.

Eyewear boutique Robert Marc, with eight stores in Manhattan and one in Boston, says that in the past two years, it has seen a fivefold increase in requests for glasses from people who don't actually need them to see.

Luxottica Group SpA, owner of more than 6,000 eyewear stores world-wide, including LensCrafters and Pearle Vision stores, says U.S. store managers have reported steady increases in sales like these. Buyers are quite frank about not needing a prescription, particularly in cities like New York and Los Angeles and mainly among artists, architects and other creative types.

Even clothing stores such as American Apparel are selling retro nonprescription glasses. Creative director Iris Alonzo says three years ago, its eyewear collection was 90% sunglasses and 10% vintage nonprescription glasses. Today, it's 60/40.

"We started out selling a few frames, telling customers they could have the frame filled with their prescription," she says. "When sales started going up, we realized that half the people buying them don't even need a prescription."

Lasik surgery itself is suffering a slowdown amid the weaker economy. Volumes peaked in 2000 at about 1.4 million procedures, according to research firm Market Scope LLC, which expects a 17% decline this year. At the same time, the Food and Drug Administration is taking a closer look at complaints from a number of patients who experienced aftereffects including blurred vision. (See related article.)

None of that matters to Lauren Messiah, a nearsighted 27-year-old Web site marketer in Los Angeles who wears contact lenses -- and then wears fake eyeglasses at the same time. Earlier this year, after noticing models wearing glasses during runway shows in New York and Los Angeles, she bought several pairs of inexpensive nonprescription glasses in different colors. Wearing glasses helps her look more like "boss lady" in meetings, she says, and it's cheaper than buying loads of designer prescription frames.

On top of that, having a selection of frames on hand makes it easier for her to match her outfit. "If I got blue cat-eyed glasses, well, I can't wear blue cat-eyed glasses every day," she says.

Sometimes, putting on unneeded glasses isn't about fashion at all. Dr. Maloney, the Los Angeles surgeon, notes that some patients keep wearing glasses after Lasik surgery because they're part of a person's established look. Dr. Maloney says that in 1999, he performed Lasik on Drew Carey, the comedian and new host of "The Price Is Right" on CBS. But Mr. Carey kept wearing his signature glasses on TV or whenever he's in character.

Mr. Carey didn't reply to requests for comment.

Ocular fashion statements aren't always cheap. Jeffrey Brody had successful Lasik surgery three years ago, but he couldn't resist buying a $400 pair of trendy nonprescription glasses from a Robert Marc store in New York last fall. "They dress up what you're wearing and finish off a look," says Mr. Brody, a director of business development for a New York rug company. He just bought two more pairs for spring.

Morgan Cullen, a 27-year-old fashion model and aspiring actress, wears nonprescription black rectangular Lacoste glasses in her portfolio to broaden her career prospects. "Uneducated people think models are dumb," says Ms. Cullen, who has 20/20 vision and whose father is an optometrist. Glasses, she says, "make people take you more seriously."

Write to Ray A. Smith at ray.smith@wsj.com

Summary: Lasik surgery was supposed to make spectacles unnecessary. But a push by glasses makers and fashion designers is turning nonprescription glasses into a hot accessory, including on the runways of designers like Michael Kors.


updated 06/10/2016 AT 04:15 PM EDT

•originally published 06/10/2016 AT 12:30 PM EDT

CMT officially added season 5 of

to their broadcast network and Hulu on Thursday – just under a month after its abrupt cancellation in May.

"CMT heard the fans. The wave of love and appreciation they have unleashed for

has been overwhelming," said CMT President Brian Philips in a statement. "

is a perfect addition to our evolving lineup of big music specials, documentaries, and original series. We see our fans and ourselves in this show and we will treasure it like no other network.

Craig Erwich, Hulu's Senior Vice President and Head of Content, added, "

has long been a fan-favorite show on Hulu and we are so proud to continue to make new episodes available for fans to stream the day after they air. We look forward to bringing even more episodes of this acclaimed series to its passionate and devoted audience."

Fans are surely breathing a sigh of relief after the season 4's finale left a few loose ends that need to be tied up, including whether

's character, Juliette Barnes, will return to Music City.

's stars Charles Eston, who plays Deacon Claybourne, shared new details regarding the show's return.

"We actually have a whole new writing staff that is something that happened near the very end of this last season before ABC made their decision," he told SiriusXM The Highway's Jessica Wade on Friday. "We have new showrunners and a new writing staff and they are absolutely going to be hitting it hard and quick, I have no idea of the schedule but I know they have a lot of great ideas up their sleeve and places to take these characters, I can't wait to find out where they are."

Another performer who confirmed he would be set to return is star

"I would love to come back as Will Lexington, or rather pick up where we left off," he told PEOPLE on Thursday before the CMT pickup became official.

After describing the show's ABC finale "bittersweet" and his

"inspirational," the 35-year-old singer-songwriter said that "this job was far and away the most special job that I've had in my career. I've made very close friends, we've had incredible adventures and journeys, we've gone on tours across the United States with the music. I'm playing at the Grand Ole Opry this Saturday, and I've had the honor and pleasure to play there many times in the past. It's been an incredible journey, so saying goodbye to it is gonna be hard."

And, indeed, now Carmack will be saying hello as

finds its new home on CMT later this year.

Summary: "CMT heard the fans. The wave of love and appreciation they have unleashed for Nashville has been overwhelming," said CMT President Brian Philips


Before you go, we thought you'd like these...

It's that time of year again when wedding season is upon us. And chances are if you're getting hitched this season, you want something that will make a big impression on your guests. The easiest way to stun? An alternative wedding. It's both noteworthy and niche, a combination that's sure to make jaws drop.

So if you're a boho bride or looking for something more circus chic, scroll through at the 5 most incredible weddings that are anything but expected.

5 incredible wedding ideas for the alternative bride

Alternative wedding inspiration from Bergreen Photography showcases two different interpretations of Stevie Nicks’ song, Leather and Lace. Julia from l’Relyea Events developed a design incorporating leather, lace and the 1970s bohemian vibe the song embraces.

The theme of this breathtaking styled wedding shoot from Custom by Nicole Photography is a dramatic and romantic interpretation of an old world circus! Instead of exploring the playful side of the circus theme, the team of vendors wanted to provide inspiration to brides looking for a sophisticated wedding that’s a little different than the norm.

Lindsey and Nate are from Huntsville, and they decided to elope in Chicago. To avoid the stress of planning a more traditional wedding, they opted to have a pop up wedding with their closest family and friends! Their ceremony was in the public gardens of the Art Institute of Chicago, officiated by one of Lindsey’s friends. Elizabeth Nord Photography captured their sweet, intimate elopement!

Andrea and Mike’s DIY summer wedding was filled with incredible details like giant round balloons with glimmering tassels, gold glittery table numbers, beautiful, vibrant flowers, and lovely watercolor signage! The venue only added to the charm of their celebration – a multipurpose cultural arts center in Chicago with over 250,000 square feet of curated hallways, rooftops and coves featuring emerging and established artistic talent from the city and worldwide. Laura Witherow Photography captured their day!

Megan and Mike brought their love of travel and their devotion to their families together to create a memorable wedding day full of vintage travel-themed details and personal family touches. Their incredibly special day was beautifully captured by Marissa Moss Photography!

With a simple arbor, glimmering sunlight, gold-accented florals, and the beauty of nature as their backdrop, the couple found their ideal setting in a place of simple and elegant rustic beauty. Nhiya Kaye Photography captured these beautiful moments!

Summary: From boho bride to circus chic, explore wedding inspiration for the alternative couple from Artfully Wed.


It’s already strongly rumored that Facebook is about to unveil a big chatbot push for Messenger at its F8 developer conference this week, and now there’s evidence.

As TechRadar and Engadget have spotted, the latest update to Facebook Messenger includes a new category in its search function.

The category was once called “Businesses,” but now it’s “Bots and Businesses.” There you go.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

The combination makes sense, as chatbots will generally be deployed by businesses that want to give a quasi-human touch to their automated customer services functions.

Companies such as Lyft, Uber and KLM are already working with Facebook to use bots for communicating with customers. Facebook is expected to now release tools so more businesses can do the same.

Microsoft is also bullish on the future of bots, and is releasing similar tools to help developers achieve this dream.

Will it work, or will it be a nightmare? Here’s Fortune‘s Andrew Nusca and Robert Hackett debating that very question:

Summary: The latest version of the messaging tool includes a special section for chatbots in its search function, ahead of this week's expected push.


Pop star Madonna's teenage son Rocco appeared to spend some time at her London home Sunday — three weeks after a United Kingdom High Court judge urged the singer and her ex-husband Guy Ritchie to put an end to their drawn-out custody battle.

The 15-year-old boy was photographed being dropped off by his father outside the Material Girl's house, according to TMZ.

Approximately two hours later, Rocco was spotted leaving the home with a friend while holding a skateboard.

It's unknown if Madonna and Ritchie have made any progress on a custody agreement since last month's High Court hearing. The singer was not pictured in any of the photographs of Rocco on Sunday.

Madonna has been fighting to bring her son home ever since he left her "Rebel Heart" tour in December to move in with his father in England.

That same month, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Deborah Kaplan ordered Rocco to return back to his mother's New York City home by January, but he instead continued to live with his director father and, with both parents' permission, enrolled in school in London amid the legal battle.

At last month's High Court hearing, Justice Alistair MacDonald tried to push the custody battle forward by imploring Rocco's parents to come to a deal before reluctantly setting a June 1 hearing date in New York in case one cannot be reached.

"Summer does not last forever," MacDonald said at the time. "The boy very quickly becomes the man. It would be a very great tragedy for Rocco if any more of the precious and fast receding days of his childhood were to be taken up by this dispute."

"Far better for each of his parents to spend that time enjoying, in turn, the company of the mature, articulate and reflective young man who is their son and a very great credit to them both."

Madonna, who was seen arriving in London several days ago, tweeted last Wednesday that "good things are coming."

Summary: Madonna's teenage son Rocco appeared to spend some time at her London home Sunday.


Beats cut the cord on its hottest selling headphones Wednesday with the launch of its latest product, the Solo2 Wireless, a pair of brightly colored cans that can wirelessly stream music and calls from any device.

“We’re taking the most popular headphone in the world and adding wireless Bluetooth functionality to it,” said Beats President Luke Wood in a statement Wednesday. The headphones can pick up signals from up to 30 feet away, while control buttons embedded on side of the ear cup allow the listener to skip songs, adjust the volume and answer phone calls. The Solo2 Wireless will go on sale at Apple’s online store later this month for $299.99.

The announcement marks the first product launch by Beats since Apple acquired the company for $3 billion, capturing the biggest player in the premium headphone market. However, it’s likely that the Solo2 Wireless was in development before Apple bought the company.

Summary: The Solo 2 Wireless headphones can stream audio from up to 30 feet away


While it’s much too early to make any final assessments, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is having one heck of a year so far. The video game arm of the Hollywood studio is attached to three of the year’s best selling video games—including the current industry leader.

This year’s list of best selling games, based on six months worth of sales figures compiled by The NPD Group, is full of surprises. Lego (another Warner Bros. property), which had two games in the mid-year standings last year, is nowhere to be seen. But two titles that were already solid performers last year at this time—Grand Theft Auto V and Minecraft—are showing no signs of weakening, an incredible run in an industry where interest in a game typically falls off after a month or two.

Perhaps the biggest surprise, though, is the game topping the mid-year list. Mortal Kombat has been around for some 25 years —and while there is still a strong fan base for the game, it wasn’t expected to be the best-selling title in the first half of the year. But by upping the gore in the game’s fatalities, Mortal Kombat X had the best launch in the history of the franchise—and that created buzz that kept sales strong.

Also somewhat surprising is the high rank of Batman: Arkham City, which was only released last month, but still managed to claim the number six spot. The sales come despite the suspension of sales of the PC version of the game, which was riddled with bugs.

Rankings for this mid-year list were taken from sales figures from January through the end of June, the most recent reporting period for The NPD Group. (Due to agreements with publishers, NPD does not publicly release hard sales numbers. The data also does not include hard figures for digital sales directly from game platforms like the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.)

The best selling games of the first half of 2015 are as follows:

So what’s missing? Not a lot, actually. There haven’t been a lot of surprise failures so far this year. Sony’s The Order: 1886 underperformed and was a critical dud, but since it was a single platform game, it was unlikely to make this list either way. Nintendo’s Splatoon sold more than 1 million copies in less than a month, but (again) was a single platform game—and a new IP—meaning the odds it could crack the top 10 were slim.

That run of good luck by publishers is likely to change during the holiday season, though. With so many big games scheduled to come out this year, some are bound to get caught in the blast zone.

Among the releases due this holiday are Halo 5: Guardians, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Fallout 4, Star Wars: Battlefront, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Guitar Hero Live and Rock Band 4. That’s a lot of AAA titles (games which have the largest development and promotional budgets), and given the evolving buying habits of gamers, it’s virtually impossible that they’ll all meet sales expectations.

Five years ago, it might have been different. Gamers bought more titles per year, devouring them and moving on to something else. But as publishers have added more and more downloadable content (DLC) offerings, they’ve been able to keep players hooked for longer periods and increase their profit growth.

Ultimately, though, that has impacted the total number of games sold per year.

Summary: Familiar names and surprise entries lead the pack among game sales this year.


Thanks to Hulu, Oculus Rift users now have access to more video content on the high-end virtual reality headsets.

The streaming service—which is a joint venture of Comcast, Walt Disney, and 21st Century Fox—announced this week that the Hulu VR app that launched earlier this year is now available for Oculus Rift. The announcement means that Hulu’s entire two-dimensional library of content will be available for Rift users in a VR format—that includes the entire series of Seinfeld as well as any number of current series—but Hulu also said its VR app includes more than 30 pieces of original VR content that is available for free whether users have a Hulu subscription or not.

Included in the app is a VR experience built around the Syfy channel series 12 Monkeys—for which Hulu has the exclusive streaming rights—including “real time rendered environments and animations” that are the product of Hulu’s collaboration with the show’s executive producer and production designer. Hulu also noted in its announcement that the streaming service recently partnered with Live Nation to build virtual reality experiences around concerts that will be available through the app.

Hulu’s VR app launched in March for the Samsung Gear VR, which is powered by Facebook-owned Oculus, but the streaming service said this week that Rift will allow for “a polished, sharper and highly responsive viewing experience.”

In other virtual reality news, Comcast Ventures—the media giant’s private venture capital arm—recently led a nearly $7 million funding round for VR firm Felix & Paul Studios, which makes cinematic content for virtual reality platforms. Felix & Paul has a multi-year agreement with Oculus to make VR content.

Summary: Including the entire library, plus original VR content.


China’s Anbang Insurance Group plans to convert as much as three-quarters of the rooms at New York’s landmark Waldorf Astoria hotel into apartments, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The insurer, which bought the hotel from Hilton Worldwide Holdings in 2014 for $1.95 billion, plans to close the Waldorf for up to three years starting next spring, the report said.

“We have not finalized any plans in terms of the scope, nature and details of the renovation project or the exact timing and duration of the hotel’s closure. We are currently developing conceptual plans and will share additional details once those plans are finalized,” a U.S.-based spokesman for Anbang said.

It plans to convert as many as 1,100 of the hotel’s 1,413 rooms into condominiums, according to the Journal. When the hotel reopens, it will have 300 to 500 guest rooms.

The plan also calls for the hotel to cut hundreds of jobs, according to the report.

Summary: About three-quarters of the rooms will be converted to apartments.


06/28/2016 AT 12:55 PM EDT

A private funeral for actor

was held on Friday, PEOPLE confirms.

star was memorialized by loved ones at the service, held at an undisclosed location, five days after he was

outside his home in Studio City, California.

The 27-year-old actor died of "blunt traumatic asphyxia," Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter of the Los Angeles County coroner's office confirmed to PEOPLE, after his car rolled backward down his driveway and pinned the actor to his front gate.

A police investigation into the circumstances of Yelchin's death is ongoing, and toxicology tests are expected to be available in 6-8 weeks.

whether his 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee – which had been part of a recall by car manufacturer Fiat Chrysler – had a gearshift design that made it difficult for drivers to determine whether the car was in "neutral" or "park" modes.

Yelchin's friends and costars have

in a series of social media statements.

each posted tributes to Instagram, where they also credited Rihanna for helping them cope with the lose. The singer's new single "Sledgehammer" will serve as the theme song for

"After such an unimaginably sad week for our star trek family – @badgalriri brings some light into the darkness," Quinto, 39, wrote on Monday.

Saldana wrote, "Thank you @badgalriri, for a beautiful song during one of the most difficult times for our StarTrek family. We know Anton would be proud."

, who worked with Yelchin in the 2002 miniseries

, "He was a lovely young man. He was a gentleman."

"Your sudden and unexpected departure has left us all broken hearted," Saldana previously

. "I woke up today feeling absolute gratitude that I had you as a friend and colleague. Your life has been cut short, but I will always tell everyone about you. You were kind, present, old souled, curious, brilliant, funny, humble, honest, and undeniably talent."

"All love and strength to his family at this impossible time of grief," Quinto also wrote on Instagram. "One of the most open and intellectually curious people I have ever had the pleasure to know. So enormously talented and generous of heart. Wise beyond his years. And gone before his time."

Summary: The service comes less than a week after the 27-year-old actor was found dead following a car accident outside his California home


To win the first season of

, Monica Carlson bounced, whacked and body-slammed her way over the competition. And then the real work began, as her prize was returning as a Gladiators pro. "The minute I won I was working out twice a dayâdouble what I normally did," says Carlson, a former hairstylist and mom of twins Ellee and Emma, 8. She relied on a DVD called Xflowsion, combining yoga, martial arts and dance. (She's since been in a commercial for the video.) Her diet became "protein, protein, protein," says the 5'7", 135 lb. Carlson. "I love cookies, but I cut out sweets and ate fruit." She put on five pounds of muscle and toned once-soft areas that "I figured I'd have to live with." Now home, "I'm back to being a wife and mom." And she's cut down the gym time. "Your body," she concedes, "definitely needs a break."

Summary: How a 32-Year-Old Oregon Hairdresserâand Mother of TwinsâBecame An American Gladiator (the Short Answer: Fewer Cookies, a Little Spandex and Lots of Sweat)


Disgraced Democrat John Edwards was spotted enjoying a lunch date with his reported new girlfriend — 35-year-old single mom Danielle King.

The 60-year-old attorney, who is said to have kicked baby mama Rielle Hunter to the curb over her recent tell-all book about their steamy, extramarital affair, was seen leaving upscale restaurant Panzanella, near his home in Chapel Hill, NC, on Oct. 18.

According to the National Enquirer magazine, he and the blonde have been secretly dating for about a year.

King, who is a bit more than half Edwards’ age, wore a figure-hugging gray dress and heels for the liaison, while Edwards kept it casual in a polo shirt and jeans.

The new love interest works as a clinical coordinator at Duke University’s Cancer Care Research Program, the Enquirer said. King is said to have gotten close to Edwards and his two young children, and has become a fixture at the family’s idyllic, rural mansion.

King has even posted a picture of herself and Edwards’ son Jack on her Facebook profile page on the teen’s birthday.

“Happy Birthday, bud. I love you so so so so so much,” she wrote in the caption. “Thank you for being you and making my world, and everyone else’s, a better place.”

Although they are living together, the two arrived at the Italian eatery separately and were careful not to get too touchy-feely while enjoying their meal.

Onlookers said the two were “very smiley” and “engrossed in conversation” during lunch.

“They gazed into each other’s eyes as if they were the only two people on the planet,” one witness told the magazine.

Afterwards, Edwards bid Danielle goodbye and popped by a nearby supermarket to stock up on groceries.

The apparent romance suggests that his scandalous relationship with Hunter, who ruined his political career when their affair emerged after she gave birth to his daughter Frances Quinn, is firmly in the past.

Edwards, a former Democratic vice-presidential candidate, reportedly paid his paramour Hunter to live in a separate Chapel Hill home while he was running for office in 2008.

When his wife, Elizabeth, died in 2010 after a battle with breast cancer, Edwards had Hunter move into his family home.

Their relationship ended after her book about the torrid affair. But Hunter had second thoughts after publishing the tome.

“Instead of apologizing when I should have, I went on to hurt more people by writing a book,” she wrote in a blog post.

Summary: Disgraced Democrat John Edwards was spotted enjoying a lunch date with his reported new girlfriend — 35-year-old single mom Danielle King. The 60-year-old attorney, who is said to have kicked baby…


A major problem a self-employed individual can face is a large tax bill. This happens when someone doesn't send enough payments each quarter. Not only will you face a large self-employment tax, but you'll be required to pay underpayment penalties and interest on that amount. If you owe more than $1,000 in taxes on April 15, these penalties will kick in and will tack a sizable amount of money onto your bill.

To avoid these penalties, the IRS expects you to estimate how much you'll owe at the end of the year and pay a fourth of it at intervals it designates. Those dates are generally Jan. 15, April 15, June 15 and Sept. 15.

Don't be afraid to ask for help in compiling your taxes. Sophisticated tax software can walk you through the steps of filling out the paperwork. However, a qualified tax professional will better be able to advise you on deductions you might not realize you qualify to claim. The cost of having your taxes prepared is deductible, as well, whether you purchase software or make an appointment with a professional tax preparer each year.

Summary: Don't get hit with IRS penalties this year -- make sure you file your taxes correctly by following these tips


For months, Bernie Sanders has been pointing to polls that show him performing better in general match-ups against Republicans than Hillary Clinton.

For Sanders, the numbers offer a bold rebuke to skeptics who say that a wild-haired democratic socialist could not win in November. As he’s slipped farther behind in the primary, Sanders has made the polling argument time and again, even arguing that Democratic superdelegates should overlook Clinton’s lead in pledged delegates and raw votes to choose him.

“The Democrats want to see the strongest candidate possible take on Trump or some other Republican,” Sanders told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Thursday evening. “At this point, according to the polls, that is me.”

The Vermont Senator beats Republican frontrunner Donald Trump by 14 points while Clinton is ahead of Trump by just 9 points, according to the HuffPost Pollster’s average of polls testing which candidates voters would support in the general election. Sanders beats Texas Sen. Ted Cruz by 13 points while Clinton only beats Cruz by 4 points.

The numbers are accurate, but both Democratic and Republican pollsters say that they don’t mean as much as Sanders says they do.

To be sure, Clinton also makes the case that she would be a stronger candidate in a general election due to her experience and ability to compromise. But Sanders’ emphasis on the polls is misguided, experts say.

General election polls taken months before voting day have a history of being wrong. According to data compiled by FiveThirtyEight, general election polls taken a year in advance have been inaccurate by more than 5 percentage points in the last 10 out of 14 elections for which there is data.

Even polls six months out are inaccurate, too. For example, at this point in the 2000 election, late April polls showed then-Gov. George W. Bush with a strong national lead of five points over then-Vice President Al Gore. Bush lost the popular vote to Gore by half a percentage point that November.

Part of the discrepancy has to do with the early unfamiliarity of the candidates. This year, despite months of frequent coverage on television, social media and the press, Sanders is not as well known as Clinton. A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed that 56% of Americans say they know Clinton “a lot” while just 38% say the same as Sanders. And while Clinton’s negative ratings may be baked-in after decades in the public eye, Sanders has not received that kind of scrutiny.

In politics, familiarity breeds contempt. If Republicans viewed Sanders as the likely Democratic nominee, he would face negative advertising and intense scrutiny of his record, on everything from his honeymoon in the Soviet Union to his large spending programs. Like any less well-known candidate, Sanders’ unfavorable ratings would rise as people became more familiar with him, pollsters say.

For now, Sanders serves as a kind of stand-in for the Democratic Party, a lesser-known candidate whose popularity reflects the overall favorability of the party, says Stan Greenberg, a veteran Democratic pollster. The Democratic Party is viewed more favorably than the Republican Party, with a favorable-unfavorable rating of about 45-47 compared with 31-58 for the Republicans, according to poll averages. That suggests that in a national race between a generic Democrat and a generic Republican, the generic Democrat would win. At this point in the race, that “brand advantage” benefits Sanders.

“He’s kind of a placeholder for Democrats overall. If you have candidate who is pure and you put them against Trump or Cruz” or another Republican, said Greenberg, he or she has the advantage of being a Democrat.

And in the months ahead of a general election, experts say polled opinions are given cheaply. Poll respondents are asked to tell pollsters who they prefer without the burden of making an actual choice, and voters often react by registering their dislike of a candidate. That’s why protest candidates emerge as early frontrunners: Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich in 2011, and Ben Carson last year. That kind of candidate 0ften fades when voters start to buckle down and think in earnest about who they’d actually like to see in the Oval Office.

This year, Clinton has emerged with unusually high unfavorable ratings in the primary. (The most recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found 56% of voters view her negatively, and just 32% hold a positive view.) In head-to-head polls between Clinton and a Republican, pollsters say, a respondent will often simply prefer the “not-Clinton” choice, hurting her in head-to-head match-ups compared with Sanders. Conversely, in a matchup between Sanders and Trump, or Sanders and Cruz, voters may simply prefer the “not-Trump” or “not-Cruz,” benefiting Sanders.

All that makes Clinton look weaker next to Sanders—for now.

“When presented with any plausible choice that seems reasonable, they’re now saying ‘I want to make sure you know, Mr. or Ms. Pollster, if presented with a reasonable choice, I want somebody else’” than Clinton, said Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster. “That expression of ‘I want somebody else’ is not a mature judgment [at this point].”

The head-to-heads may reflect a wide dislike for Clinton at this point in the election. But, “it’s a pretty cheap vote in April compared to when you’re in the ballot box late October or November,” McInturff added.

Sanders’ advisers counter that the polling at this stage is instructive, arguing it shows Clinton’s weaknesses in a general election. Indeed, Clinton receives little support from voters under the age of 30, a fact borne out in primaries across the country as well as recent surveys.

Clinton “has shown no capacity to attract meaningful support from young voters and independents,” said Sanders’ senior strategist Tad Devine in an email. “Bernie has a much better chance of winning back the more traditional base Democratic voters than does Hillary winning indies and young people, and to risk the nomination on her is a real problem for our party.”

And in head-to-heads, Sanders’ advisers say the margin is striking. “Everybody beats Trump, but Bernie really beats him, and does so in key state polling,” Devine said, pointing to Wisconsin. “And Clinton is actually losing to some Republicans other than Trump.”

No matter how the numbers are interpreted, the debate over polling is not just a sideshow.

Clinton has made a forceful case that she is the strongest candidate in a general election against a Republican, resting heavily on her electability as one of the central reasons to pick her as the party’s nominee. “We need a Democratic nominee who will be able to beat the Republicans and get the job done for Americans,” Clinton was telling audiences in New Hampshire in January before voting had even begun.

Her top aides have made the case that the early head-to-head polls that show Sanders leading are not predictive. “These hypotheticals polls among multiple candidates are pretty useless,” Clinton’s strategist and pollster Joel Benenson said in an interview. “There is going to be a contest between two candidates and only two candidates. Anything else is hypothetical and irrelevant.”

Meanwhile, Sanders’ top supporters say that head-to-head polls should play decisive role in the race. Even if Sanders loses the popular vote in the primary to Clinton, Sanders’ backers say, Democratic superdelegates should consider tilting the race toward Sanders if head to-head polls against Republicans remain constant.

“Superdelegates are supposed to make sure we have candidates that can win. … If the assessment is that Bernie can beat these guys pretty good, then they should be thinking long term about the party,” said Rep. Raúl Grijalva. “I think head-to-head polls should be a consideration.”

But even many of Sanders’ most ardent supporters do not believe he’d be the best candidate to face Clinton in a general election. In Wisconsin, where Sanders trounced Clinton by a 14-point margin, a CNN exit poll showed that 54% of voters believed that it was Clinton who had a better chance of beating Donald Trump in November.

If history is a guide, early general election head-to-head polls can only say so much. “Pollster aren’t making predictions. They’re trying to determine the state of the race right now,” said Jennifer Necci Dineen, a pollster and faculty member at the University of Connecticut. “Six months from now is even still a little bit early.”

Summary: The polls aren't as reliable as he says.


The Savoy theatre said Smith was "indisposed".

On Tuesday, it was announced that Barnes would play Fanny Brice due to Smith's "indisposition". The theatre repeated the same announcement on Wednesday afternoon.

Smith has not tweeted since May 10 when she said apologised again to her fans.

"I love you who have my back, beyond belief. Sorry x."

The opening monologue of Baftas host Graham Norton appeared to contain a joke at Smith's expense.

He quipped: "We're all excited for a couple of drinks tonight. Or, as it's known in theatrical circles, a few glasses of 'technical difficulties'."

Summary: Royle Family star Ricky Tomlinson has told Sheridan Smith's critics to


DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte outlined plans on Monday to curb social freedoms and impose more order on this often unruly nation by cracking down on a range of social ills.

Elected a week ago on a tough law-and-order platform, Mr. Duterte told reporters in his home city of Davao that he was declaring a Singapore-style war on antisocial behavior, promising to ban smoking and drinking alcohol in public places, and to crack down on speeding and drunken driving. He pledged to restore the death penalty, which was suspended in 2006, and allow police to shoot on sight people suspected of involvement in organized crime.

Parents who allow their children out after a 10 p.m. curfew will be prosecuted for “negligence” and taxi drivers will be compelled to carry change to stamp out the common practice of overcharging passengers, Mr. Duterte said. He also promised to get tough on noise pollution so that people could get a good night’s sleep.

“These are the things I want to correct right at the beginning,” said Mr. Duterte, who will take office on June 30 after Congress ratifies the election results.

Filipinos elected Mr. Duterte by a large margin, according to unofficial results, handing the 71-year-old a single, six-year term.

While recognizing that some of his objectives, such as shifting the country to a federal system, would take years, he said improving everyday behavior could happen within weeks. Ridding the country of criminals and drug dealers should take less than six months, he said.

“Those who destroy the lives of our children will be destroyed; those who kill our country will be killed—simple as that,” he said, while pledging to restore the death penalty for serious crimes. Local neighborhoods will have armed security teams to maintain order, he said.

Mr. Duterte has already imposed many of his suggested restrictions on Davao, which he has run for three decades as mayor. Though taxi drivers still grumble about the 60 kilometer-an-hour (37-mile-an-hour) speed limit, many citizens in this city of roughly 1.5 million people seem comfortable enough with Mr. Duterte’s rules.

The challenge now for the incoming leader will be to replicate that disciplinary approach at a national level. He will need to depend on police to enforce new rules, but he hasn’t explained how he would ensure compliance across every region.

The president-elect also promised to improve his own behavior, having been heavily criticized during the election campaign for making tasteless jokes and swearing profusely. “I have to get used to being the top honcho,” he said.

Mr. Duterte was due to meet the Chinese, Israeli and Japanese ambassadors Monday, while continuing talks with prospective cabinet members as he assembles his executive team.

On Monday, he invited members of the Communist Party of the Philippines to apply for government posts, a show of faith he said would help end the decades-old Communist insurgency ahead of proposed peace talks.

He promised efficiency in government and an end to the corrupt practice of charging for the timely delivery of official permits, saying he would institute a 72-hour limit for the processing of any official papers. “People are made to wait [for permits] until they die—this has to change,” he said.

Write to Trefor Moss at Trefor.Moss@wsj.com

Summary: The Philippines faces a more disciplined future under its newly elected president, Rodrigo Duterte, who said Monday he would curb various social freedoms to impose more order on this often unruly nation.


Apple Inc. fired a broadside at what remains of the personal-computer industry last week, when marketing chief Phil Schiller claimed the company’s new iPad Pro is aimed at anyone still using an old PC. It is a wonderful notion—imagine iPads raining down on the users of 600 million PCs more than five years old.

Still, it isn’t clear Apple’s iPad Pro can deliver on that promise—at least not yet. For one, it is missing some tools essential to PC-like work, most notably a mouse or a trackpad. Moreover, Apple diminishes the...

Summary: Keywords columnist Christopher Mims talks of Apple’s missed golden opportunity.


Women undergoing in vitro fertilization have long worried that the procedure could raise their risk for breast cancer.

After all, the treatment requires temporarily increasing levels of certain sex hormones to five or 10 times the normal. Two of those hormones, estrogen and progesterone, can affect the course of certain kinds of breast cancer.

A series of studies over the past decade suggested that these former patients may have little to worry about. Experts remained cautious, however, because women who had undergone I.V.F. in the 1980s had not yet reached menopause by the time of the research.

But the largest, most comprehensive study to date, published Tuesday, provides further reassurance: It finds no increased risk among women who have undergone I.V.F.

“The main takeaway is there’s no evidence of an increased subsequent risk of breast cancer, at least in the first couple decades,” said Dr. Saundra S. Buys, an oncologist at the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah, who was not involved in the new study.

The issue has nagged at specialists in reproductive medicine for some time. In 2008, a retrospective analysis of medical records, which the authors called “preliminary,” found a potential increase in breast cancer among I.V.F. patients older than 40.

Another small study of participants at a treatment center in Israel reported an increased risk of breast cancer among women who start I.V.F. after 30.

Maddeningly, later findings went the other way, seeming to suggest the danger — if there was one — may be greater for younger women.

A study with roughly 21,000 participants, published in 2012, found that women in Western Australia who began I.V.F. at 24 or younger had an increased risk of breast cancer. No such link was found among women in their 30s or 40s.

In 2013, though, researchers published a meta-analysis of eight smaller studies tentatively suggesting that I.V.F. did not seem to raise breast cancer risk over all.

But it did not rule out the possibility that breast cancer might turn up in a bigger group of women tracked more closely for an even longer period. Experts also worried that infertility itself, not only its treatment, might somehow be linked to breast cancer.

Tuesday’s report, published in JAMA, goes a long way toward answering the lingering questions.

The huge study not only found no increased risk among women receiving I.V.F., but also found no greater risk among women who had various types of less intensive treatments to improve fertility.

More than 25,000 Dutch women, with an average age of 32.8 when they started treatment from 1980 to 1995, were followed for a median period of 21 years.

The researchers took into account an exhaustive list of factors linked to higher risk of cancer, including each woman’s age at the time she gave birth to her first child, her overall number of births and the number of I.V.F. attempts.

Because I.V.F. patients tend to have babies later in life than women who do not need assistance, “you have to take that into account,” said Alexandra van den Belt-Dusebout, the study’s first author and an epidemiologist at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam.

More than five million babies have been born worldwide through I.V.F. and other assisted reproduction.

Perhaps the study’s most surprising finding was that breast cancer risk was significantly lower among those women who underwent seven or more cycles of I.V.F., compared with those who received one or two cycles.

“That’s reassuring, because you would think if you did I.V.F. 10 times, your risk would be higher,” said Dr. Owen K. Davis, the president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

The study also showed that women who responded poorly to ovarian stimulation in the first I.V.F. attempt also had decreased breast cancer risk.

Louise M. Stewart, a researcher at the Center for Population Health Research at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, speculated that the finding might explain why women who had I.V.F. at 24 or younger have an increased risk of breast cancer.

“Young women generally respond well to I.V.F. treatment,” said Dr. Stewart, who was the first author on the Australia study. She suggested the “increased risk we observed in young women may be related to their response to I.V.F. treatment.”

Mia Gaudet, the strategic director of breast and gynecologic cancer research at the American Cancer Society, applauded the study for adding a “significant amount of evidence that there is no link between I.V.F. and breast cancer.”

But she warned, “It’s still not conclusive.” For one thing, today’s protocols for I.V.F. differ slightly in the kinds of drugs given and for how long, the researchers noted.

The researchers have recruited an additional 10,000 Dutch women who had the latest I.V.F. regimen and 5,000 who received other fertility treatments. They will be tracking their health, as well.

Also, only 14 percent of participants had reached age 60, so this study cannot say much about postmenopausal breast cancer risk.

“We just may not be seeing breast cancer in these women yet,” Dr. Gaudet said.

A version of this article appears in print on July 20, 2016, on page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: In Vitro Fertilization Is Found to Not Increase Chances of Breast Cancer. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

Summary: The largest study to date shows little evidence of an increased risk in breast cancer among women who have undergone fertility treatments.


We’re now many years removed from the halcyon days of Netflix’s robust movie streaming library. Even still, the company’s digital catalog continues to shrink.

According to a report by AllFlicks, Netflix had 6,494 movies and 1,609 TV shows in its U.S. catalog in January 2014. As of this week, it has 4,335 movies and 1,197 shows. That’s a 33% dip in films and a 26% drop in television shows in a bit more than two years.

Netflix didn’t respond to TIME’s request for comment.

Over the last couple of years Netflix has transformed itself from a repository for Hollywood TV and movies into a major distributor of original programming all its own. As Netflix has beefed up its original offerings, it’s let more non-exclusive content disappear from the service. The company failed to renew its deal with the movie channel Epix last fall, which meant blockbusters like The Wolf of Wall Street and World War Z were no longer available. At the same time, competitors like Hulu and Amazon have been aggressively snapping up the rights to programming, which drives up licensing costs.

Netflix seems comfortable with having a shrinking library. In 2015 Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said the company was no longer interested in licensing shows that weren’t exclusive to the platform. Instead, the company has 600 hours of original programming slated to release this year, and it’s betting that its increasingly sophisticated recommendation algorithms will be able to guide users to content they enjoy, even if there’s less to choose from overall.

Read More: Most Netflix Customers Don’t Realize Prices Will Increase Next Month

So far the plan is working. In the time period of the AllFlicks study, Netflix added nearly 12 million subscribers in the U.S. alone.

Summary: It's not just your imagination


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The popular London designer known for her playful use of color and scale, and for her Royal Mail stamp designa light-hearted wedding cake.

Look as delicious as the food you prepare. One size fits all, with adjustable neck strap and waist ties. Two large front pockets. 100% cotton canvas. Machine wash. Gift box.

Shop the entire Caroline Gardner Collection

The popular London designer known for her playful use of color and scale, and for her Royal Mail stamp designa light-hearted wedding cake.

Look as delicious as the food you prepare. One size fits all, with adjustable neck strap and waist ties. Two large front pockets. 100% cotton canvas. Machine wash. Gift box.

Shop the entire Caroline Gardner Collection

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Summary:
MEET CAROLINE GARDNER

The popular London designer known for her playful use of  color and scale, and for her Royal Mail stamp designa  light-hearted wedding cake.

Look as delicious as the food you prepare. One size fits  all, with adjustable neck strap and waist ties. Two large  front pockets. 100% cotton canvas. Machine wash. Gift box.

Shop the  entire Caroline Gardner Collection


Updated Dec. 22, 2012 12:01 a.m. ET

During the penultimate week of the year—and rumored last week of the world's existence—some of 2012's most buzzy movies were feted, a fake prom was thrown, and there was more eating, drinking, people-watching and red-carpet walking to be done. Events by the numbers:

Models in prom dresses at a soiree for PromGirl.com at the Helen Mills Theater

Types of candy doled out at the party

Attendees at a cocktail party for 'Silver Linings Playbook' at Le Cirque

Money raised at To the Rescue! Gala for the Humane Society of the U.S.

Attendees at a lunch for 'Arbitrage' at Monkey Bar

Attendees at a screening of 'Zero Dark Thirty' hosted by Al Pacino

Summary: A by-the-numbers look at this week's parties.


TIMELINE OF THE OXYGEN MIX-UP AT BANKSTOWN-LIDCOMBE HOSPITAL

January 2014 - Oxygen bottle runs out while baby being resuscitated. Baby transferred to a nearby nursery to continue treatment.

14-15 July 2015 - BOC Limited installs and tests new gas pipes in the hospital's birthing units.

Late June 2016 - Outlet labelled "oxygen" in theatre 8 used to resuscitate baby girl. Newborn suffers suspected brain damage.

23 June 2016 - So-called "root cause analysis" into girl's birth and care.

13 July 2016 - Newborn John Ghanem dies after theatre 8 gas pipes are used to resuscitate him.

14 July 2016 - Paediatrician involved in a clinical review of the cases requests a check of the gas outlet.

21 July 2016 - BOC tests find the outlet is omitting nitrous oxide instead of oxygen and theatre 8 is closed.

- Tests of all outlets in operating theatres and birthing units across South West Sydney Local Health District commences.

22 July 2016 - Baby girl's family is told of the bungle and requests privacy; appointment is made with baby John's family. BOC is contacted and NSW coroner informed.

23 July 2016 - Baby John's family told of incident.

25 July 2016 - BOC informs NSW Health it's commencing its own investigation, and NSW Police visit the unit.

26 July 2016 - Health Minister Jillian Skinner releases details to the public.

2 August 2016 - Hospital engineer who installed the pipes stood down and NSW Health stops using BOC Limited.

25 August 2016 - Final report into investigation due from obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Michael Nicholl

(Source: Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital Medical Gases Incident interim report prepared by NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant)

Summary: Timeline of the oxygen mix-up at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital that led to the death of a newborn baby boy.


The way sport deals with drug cheats needs fundamental reform, according to International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.

More than 100 Russian athletes have been banned from this summer's Games in the wake of a World Anti-Doping Agency report into state-sponsored doping.

Bach said: "We need a full review of the Wada anti-doping system.

"The message is quite clear - we want to keep the cheaters away from the Olympic Games."

He added: "The IOC is calling for a more robust and efficient anti-doping system.

"This requires clear responsibilities, more transparency, more independence and better worldwide harmonisation."

In the wake of its McLaren report into doping in Russia, Wada had recommended all the country's competitors be excluded from Rio 2016, but the IOC devolved responsibility to individual sport's federations.

It then announced that an IOC panel would rule on which Russian athletes could take part in the Games.

More than 250 Russians have so far been cleared by their federations, with weightlifting and athletics the only sports to have imposed a blanket ban on competitors from the country.

Bach said a blanket ban, which he called the "nuclear option" at the Olympic summit on Tuesday, would have brought "death and devastation".

The IOC has faced criticism over its decision not to enforce the Wada-recommended blanket ban, but Bach said the IOC decision sent out a "positive message" to clean athletes.

"If you are clean you can be successful and rewarded," he said.

On Monday, six-time Winter Olympian ice hockey player Hayley Wickenheiser called for a "complete overhaul", when speaking to BBC sports editor Dan Roan.

"I would love to see a completely independent body that takes care of anti-doping," said the Canadian.

She added: "There's too many conflicts of interest that we have within the different bodies."

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Summary: The way sport tackles deals drug cheats needs fundamental reform, according to International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.