Finance minister George Osborne says Britain will have to raise taxes and cut spending to deal with the economic challenge posed after Britons voted to leave the European Union.

"We are absolutely going to have to provide fiscal security to people, we are going to have to show the country and the world that the government can live within its means," he told BBC radio on Tuesday.

The chancellor said it was key that Britain provided fiscal stability in the wake of the decision to exit the EU which has seen sterling plunge and markets tumble.

"We are in a prolonged period of economic adjustment in the UK, we are adjusting to life outside the EU and it will not be as economically rosy as life inside the EU," he said.

"I think we can provide a clear plan."

Asked if that plan meant tax rises and spending cuts, he said: "Yes, absolutely. But that decision will come under a new prime minister - it's obviously not possible while the Conservative Party is having a leadership contest."

Osborne accepted that his prominent role in the Remain campaign has ended his chances of a move to Number 10 and conceded that the pro-EU push "did not get it all right".

He appeared to hint that he could support Theresa May - who backed Remain but did not play a prominent role in the campaign.

Asked if someone from the pro-EU side could win, Osborne told BBC Radio 4: "Absolutely.

"I am not backing any candidate at the moment but of course I was full-throttled in arguing for remaining in the EU and because half my party wanted to leave the EU I don't think I can be the person who can bring the party together."

He said the best PM would be "the candidate who is able now to articulate the clearest, crispest version of what relationship we are seeking - which in my view involves the best possible terms of trade for services and goods."

Asked if he would continue to serve as a minister after David Cameron goes, Osborne said it was "absolutely a decision for the next prime minister".

Summary: Chancellor George Osborne says Britain's taxes will rise and spending will be cut after the Brexit vote.


Actress Elizabeth Peña died of cardiopulmonary arrest, with complications related to alcohol abuse as a contributing cause, according to her death certificate.

Peña suffered from "cirrhosis of the liver due to alcohol," according to the death certificate obtained by TMZ and verified by the Los Angeles Department of Public Health's Office of Vital Statistics.

Peña had cirrhosis for "months" before her death, according to her document.

Also contributing to Peña's immediate cause of death, "cardiopulmonary arrest," were "acute gastrointestinal bleeding" and "cardiogenic shock," both listed on the death certificate as conditions she had for hours before her death.

'Modern Family' Actress Elizabeth Peña Dies at 55

Stars React to Elizabeth Peña's Death

Peña died Oct. 14 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She was 55.

Peña's manager, Gina Rugolo, who had said at the time that Peña died of natural causes, and Peña's family did not immediately respond today to ABC News' request for comment.

Over her four-decade career, the versatile actress shifted between dramatic roles in such films as "Lone Star" and "La Bamba," and comedic parts in TV shows like "Modern Family" and "American Dad."

In a tribute to his aunt, Peña's nephew, Mario-Francisco Robles, wrote in Latino Review, "Tonight, my family is heartbroken. There's now a void that will never be filled. All we can do now is remember your sharp sense of humor, your endless hunger for life, and your never ending pursuit of happiness."

Peña is survived by her husband, Hans Rolla, two children, her mother and sister.

Summary: Pena had "cirrhosis of the liver due to alcohol," her death certificate said.


In the wake of its all-white slate of acting nominees this year and revelations over its stunning lack of diversity overall, the Academy is inviting a record number of film industry professionals to join its ranks.

The Oscar-granting organization has issued 683 invitations to prospective new members this year, with 46% being women and 41% being people of color, the Academy said Wednesday.

Some of the actors invited to join were among those many believed should have received acting nominations in January, including Michael B. Jordan, the breakout star of "Creed," and Idris Elba, the critically acclaimed lead in "Beasts of No Nation."

The Academy also elected actors John Boyega from "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," Luis Guzman from "Carlito's Way," Regina King from "Ray," Michelle Rodriguez from "Girlfight," Freida Pinto from "Slumdog Millionaire," O'Shea (Ice Cube) Jackson from "Ride Along" and Gabrielle Union from "Top Five."

Protesters want America to 'tune out the Oscars'

Musicians courted to join include Mary J. Blige, Will.i.am and the Wu-Tang Clan's de-facto leader Fitzgerald (RZA) Diggs.

"This class continues our long-term commitment to welcoming extraordinary talent reflective of those working in film today. We encourage the larger creative community to open its doors wider, and create opportunities for anyone interested in working in this incredible and storied industry," Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs said in a statement Wednesday.

If all the invited new members actually join, the Academy's overall makeup will shift from 92% white to 89% white and from 75% male to 73% male.

The Academy says 283 people in the new class are considered international members representing 59 countries.

Hollywood's casting blitz: It's all about diversity

It was last January that the Academy generated a firestorm of controversy by nominating only white actors in its major acting categories for the second year in a row.

Mexican director Alejandro G. Iñárritu was the only non-white nominee for best director in a field with no women.

Top films featuring black protagonists such as "Straight Outta Compton," "Concussion," "Creed" and "Beasts Of No Nation" were shut out of the best film category.

The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite began trending, and influential director Spike Lee along with married A-list actors Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith stated publicly that they wouldn't attend the show out of protest.

Academy adds 3 minority governors in diversity response

The Academy quickly vowed reform, pledging to double its female and minority membership by 2020.

Summary: The Academy is inviting a record number of film industry professionals to join its ranks to address its lack of diversity.


GAINESVILLE, Fla., Nov. 22— C. C. Beck, a comic book artist who created the character Captain Marvel, died today at Shands Hospital in Gainesville after a long illness. He was 79 years old.

Mr. Beck was born in Zumbrota, Minn. He started his career as an artist in Chicago and went to New York when his publisher, Fawcett, moved there from the Midwest in 1939.

The strip created by Mr. Beck was a whimsical serial about Billy Batson, a 15-year-old newsboy who transformed himself into the superhero Captain Marvel when he spoke the magic word ''Shazam.'' In the 1940's, Captain Marvel Comics sold more than one million copies a month, the most successful comic book in history.

Mr. Beck moved to the Miami area in the early 1940's. He stopped drawing Captain Marvel in the early 1950's when Fawcett shut down its comics operation.

Surviving are a daughter, Gladys McGuire, of Gainesville; a son, Charles, of Bartow, Fla.; a brother, Willis, of Minneapolis; eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Summary: LEAD: C. C. Beck, a comic book artist who created the character Captain Marvel, died today at Shands Hospital in Gainesville after a long illness. He was 79 years old.


07/08/2016 AT 11:30 PM EDT

are back to their Instagram PDA.

In the latest lovey-dovey photo, which the model shared on Friday, the couple shared a playful kiss during which Hadid, 21, awkwardly yet adorably flattened Malik's nose. "Squish ya," she captioned the selfie.

It's been a while since Hadid and Malik, 23, have gushed about each other on social media. To be specific, it had been seven weeks since Gigi last posted a photo of her and the former One Direction band member.

During that seven-week hiatus, Zigi

after seven months of dating. However, the breakup in June lasted only a week when they were

during a New York City outing.

Instagram seems to be the preferred platform for Zigi as they

with a post in December 2015 and

as a couple at the

Summary: The couple briefly split earlier this month after seven months of dating


HRH The Duchess of Cornwall with George's Marvellous Medicine Machine #UnexpectedCity https://t.co/P7Aea1r1s6 pic.twitter.com/RQie3Bawn7

The Duchess is now in Cardiff meeting children taking part in a poetry workshop. #roalddahl100wales #TRHinWales pic.twitter.com/dFSfuFUC0n

TRHâs popped into Sblash, the local fish & chip shop for a taste of some of Aberdaronâs finest fish & chips! pic.twitter.com/c302uj69Oi

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Summary: "What I love about her is her passion for literacy and she shares that with Roald," Liccy Dahl tells PEOPLE


Jul 8, 2016 11:40 AM EDT U.S.

RICHMOND, Va. -- The pendant around Patrick Lawson's neck reads "all things are possible." That's the hope that has kept him going since his 2-year-old daughter was placed on life support after choking on a popcorn kernel in May.

Doctors at a Virginia hospital say they're certain Mirranda Grace Lawson won't recover, and they want to perform a test they believe will confirm she's brain dead. The hospital and experts say the test is harmless. But Lawson and his wife have refused, saying they worry the test will harm the girl. They believe she'll open her big blue eyes again one day.

"We feel that God has told us that it's his will that she is going to awaken," Patrick Lawson said. "She has something to do in this world."

Before May 11, Mirranda Lawson was an outgoing, bubbly toddler with a smile that stopped passers-by, Patrick Lawson said. On his wife's birthday, Patrick Lawson took a day off from work to spend time with his family at their home on a small farm in Fauquier County. The toddler somehow got her hand in a bag of popcorn they were eating and choked, he said. The kernel obstructed her airway and she went into cardiac arrest. Her father performed CPR until paramedics arrived and intubated the child.

After doctors with the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System informed the Lawsons that Mirranda was likely brain dead, the family went to court to block the hospital from conducting the so-called apnea test. It involves taking the toddler off the ventilator briefly to see if her brain tries to tell the body to breathe on its own.

In a handwritten note to doctors, the Lawsons expressed opposition to the test. They cited their Christian faith and said removing her from life support would be "murder."

The Richmond Circuit Court ruled against the Lawsons last month, but allowed them to pay a $30,000 bond barring the hospital from conducting the test while the family appeals to the Virginia Supreme Court.

VCU Health System is now seeking court permission to conduct the test soon, arguing hospital resources are limited.

VCU Medical Center's Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, or PICU, has just 14 beds and providing care for Mirranda Lawson costs nearly $10,000 a day, the hospital says.

"Having one of the PICU beds and all the human resources that entails, occupied by Mirranda, who has likely been dead for weeks, jeopardizes the care of critically ill children that VCU Health System is being forced to turn away," a health system attorney wrote.

Such cases are exceedingly rare, said Arthur Caplan, of the division of medical ethics at New York University's School of Medicine. But legal fights over children on life support have erupted in other states as far off as California.

Hospitals typically don't even ask before performing such routine tests, Caplan said.

"You'd have chaos if doctors were asking permission to do every test relative to the determination of death," he said.

VCU doctors say the ventilator and medicines are the only things keeping Mirranda Lawson's heart and lungs functioning. One of the girl's doctors said in court that it would be "astounding" if she were able to breathe without the machine. The hospital says in court documents that "all clinical tests conducted on Mirranda have been consistent with brain death." The hospital also says that Virginia law indicates doctors could conclude the girl is brain dead without further testing, but that it is complying with national guidelines by pursuing the apnea test "to give the parents absolute confirmation."

But Patrick Lawson said he believes Mirranda is improving. He said her heart rate and blood pressure respond to her favorite music and her family's voices, but the hospital said it can't disclose any details about that because of privacy laws. They want her doctors to give her a portable ventilator and feeding tube so she can be transferred to another hospital or cared for at home.

"Why not see what can happen?" said Alexandra Snyder, executive director of the Life Legal Defense Foundation, a California-based group assisting the Lawsons' attorney.

Throughout the apnea test, Mirranda would continue to receive oxygen and be put back on the ventilator at the first sign of any brain stem activity, VCU Health System said in court filings.

David Magnus, of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics, said temporarily taking the child off the ventilator to perform the test shouldn't cause any problems.

"It's hard to see what grounds the family would have to object unless they simply don't want to hear the bad news that their loved one has passed away," Magnus said.

A VCU spokesman said other agencies and hospitals have reviewed Mirranda's case and either couldn't support her intensive care needs or said they wouldn't do anything different than what's being done.

"This is a difficult situation," spokesman Michael Porter said in an email. "Mirranda's medical team and everyone involved want the best for Mirranda and her family."

Patrick Lawson says he just wants to give his daughter more time.

"She was always very strong and determined," he said. "She's proving them all wrong."

Summary: Doctors are seeking court permission to perform a test to confirm the 2-year-old is brain dead, but her parents want to give her more time to wake up


Financial software company Intuit dropped a bomb while reporting its latest quarterly numbers Thursday: It will be selling off Quicken, its original accounting product, along with QuickBase and Demandforce.

The divestment will help Intuit “focus on and invest in businesses that strengthen the ecosystem and align with two strategic goals: to be the operating system behind small business success, and to do the nations’ taxes in the U.S. and Canada,” the company said in a statement.

Quicken, a pioneer in desktop accounting software, was once Intuit’s core product. It came out in 1984 and even beat out Microsoft’s competitor, Microsoft Money, which was also introduced in the 1980s.

QuickBase and Demandforce are part of Intuit’s multitude of software tools for businesses. Intuit acquired Demandforce only three years ago, for $423.5 million.

Intuit will retain TurboTax, among other software products.

With the sale, Intuit said its revenue for the 2016 fiscal year would drop by about $250 million and that its profits, excluding certain costs and gains, would be 10 cents per share. Intuit’s shares INTU fell 2.9% in after hours trading to $99.90.

For more about companies selling big pieces of their business, watch this Fortune video:

Summary: The financial software company will also part with Demandforce and QuickBase.


A former Vanderbilt University football player convicted of raping an unconscious woman with his teammates in 2013 is facing a minimum of 15 years in prison at his sentencing heari...

The U.S. Department of Justice says two more Tennessee residents have been sentenced in a human trafficking case in New Orleans.

A court has upheld the first-degree murder convictions of a woman serving at least 51 years in prison for the 2011 smothering deaths of her infant twins.

A man charged with shooting three people and then running over and killing a Memphis police officer is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing.

Authorities say a man accused of killing a woman and injuring a police officer and two others when he shot at passing cars along a Tennessee highway has been indicted on charges in...

Authorities say a veteran Metro Nashville police officer has been suspended for posting a Black Panthers photo as the profile picture on his personal Facebook page.

Keeping the lines of communication open between parents and teachers can be a challenge, especially in this era of crowded classrooms and time-crunched families.

A Tennessee police detective charged with lying in court about a sexual assault case wants the local prosecutor taken off the case, saying there is a conflict of interest.

A Tennessee woman charged with stabbing her four children to death will undergo a mental health evaluation to determine if she can face the upcoming legal proceedings against her.

Black Lives Matter protesters laid siege to a number of cities over the weekend including my hometown: Memphis, Tennessee.

Summary: Tennessee news, local news, news articles, national news. FOXNews.com features local news and national news articles. Plus exclusive Tennessee news video clips.


DETROIT — Despite praising automakers for recent gains in fuel economy, two federal agencies said on Monday that surging consumer demand for pickups and sport utility vehicles made it unlikely that the industry could meet the government’s ambitious projections a decade from now.

If fuel prices remain low, and trucks continue to outsell cars, the industry will probably not meet the goal of 54.5 miles per gallon as a fleetwide average by 2025, but will probably come in at only about 50 miles a gallon, according to a report by the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The report issued on Monday was termed a draft by administration officials, and included input from the California Air Resources Board, as well as the two federal agencies.

That lower fuel economy number would translate into higher levels of carbon dioxide emissions, which environmentalists say would make global climate change worse and undercut efforts to curtail greenhouse gases agreed to by the Obama administration in last year’s Paris climate accord.

The report’s release kicks off a lengthy review period for the nation’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy program, and sets up a battle between car companies and environmental groups to influence the final mileage rules. Automakers want lower requirements, while clean-air advocates are pushing for big reductions in vehicle emissions.

“The 54.5 miles-per-gallon average is at risk,” said Daniel Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign in Washington. “Rather than weaken the projections, the regulators should be tightening the standards for larger vehicles.”

But automakers say a fair analysis of market conditions is required to set realistic mileage projections for coming years.

“Getting the midterm review analysis right is crucial for everyone,” said Gloria Bergquist, an official with the Alliance for Automotive Manufacturers, which represents a dozen carmakers including General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler.

Federal officials said that the midterm review released on Monday was primarily a factual tool to help set final CAFE rules for 2022 to 2025. After a public comment period, the government is expected to complete those mileage standards by early 2018.

The agencies said the automakers had exceeded the initial forecasts for fuel-economy improvements set when the latest CAFE rules were set four years ago.

“Automakers are developing more technologies to improve fuel economy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions than we thought possible a few years ago,” said Janet McCabe, a senior E.P.A. official.

When the CAFE rules were adopted in 2012, the government set 36.6 miles per gallon as the projection for 2017 model-year vehicles. The industry is on track to meet that number using a complex formula that sets specific mileage standards for vehicles of various sizes.

Companies can also improve their CAFE score with credits for technology such as electric cars.

But the government’s projection of a 54.5 miles-per-gallon average in 2025 is in jeopardy because of a marked shift in demand toward heavier vehicles with lower mileage standards.

When the forecast was made four years ago, regulators expected that cars would account for about two-thirds of overall vehicles sales in the United States in 2015.

Low gas prices, however, have contributed to increasing demand for lower-mileage models such as pickups and S.U.V.s. In the first six months of this year, for example, trucks and S.U.V.s accounted for 58 percent of all vehicles sales in the United States.

The industry successfully lobbied four years ago for the current midterm review period.

Ms. Bergquist, of the auto alliance, said that auto companies would incur extra costs if the mileage rules were set too high. “Excessive regulatory costs could impact both consumers and the employees who produce these vehicles,” she said.

Environmental groups vowed to push for the highest possible mileage standards during the public comment period leading up to the final rules.

“The national fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards are a vital program to cut oil use and reduce the risk of climate change,” said David Cooke of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Obama administration officials said the projections of 54.5 miles per gallon outlined in 2012 were based on different market conditions than those existing today.

The officials also said, however, that technological innovations had consistently increased mileage in large and small vehicles. The broadest gains have been in gasoline-powered models, which have benefited from more efficient engines and transmissions, lighter materials and more aerodynamic designs.

A version of this article appears in print on July 19, 2016, on page B2 of the New York edition with the headline: Fuel Targets Threatened by Demand for Big Autos. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

Summary: Two federal agencies said in a report that it was unlikely the industry could meet the government’s ambitious projections a decade from now.


“I have seen my death!” Anna Bertha Röntgen is said to have exclaimed upon seeing the first X-ray photograph ever made – an image of the bones in her hand. It was her husband, German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen, who discovered X-rays in 1895.

The news that someone had found a way of peering through human skin and flesh to look at the skeleton beneath, without so much as touching the subject, was an international sensation. Soon, X-ray photographs revealing bones and even the shadowy impression of internal organs were being published in newspapers around the world.

And it wasn’t long before the fantasy of X-rays entered popular culture. “Around her ribs, those beauteous twenty-four, Her flesh a halo makes, misty in line, Her noseless, eyeless face looks into mine. And I but whisper, ‘Sweetheart, Je t’adore’,” read the lines in one poem published in Life magazine a year after Röntgen’s discovery. X-rays were both sexy and seen as a sort of superpower – an idea eventually made immortal by the 1940s writers of Superman comics. They gave their hero – what else – X-ray vision.

But all the while people hoped that the wonder of X-rays could be theirs to play with. The technology was most commonly imagined as a form of X-ray specs that could see through walls. But has anyone ever made it a reality? Long the subject of science fiction, it might now be close to becoming reality.

In the months and years after Rontgen made his discovery, there was no shortage of brainstorming around what X-rays might allow people to do. To take one example, in 1896 a magazine in Dundee reported on the musings of the local chief constable who was considering how X-rays might be adapted “for detective purposes”. A handheld X-ray device similar to a pair of binoculars could, the magazine suggested, be used to spy into rooms where “shebeeners” – those who sold alcohol without a licence – were plying their trade.

One exhibition promised visitors the ability to ‘see through a sheet of metal’ or ‘count the coins within your purse’

“There’s a lot of X-ray fiction around at that time,” says Keith Williams, a senior lecturer in English at the University of Dundee. “And one article about electric waves actually ends with the scientific journalist speculating about the possibility of being able to see through walls into the most intimate spaces and people’s most private actions.”

There were also some more fanciful public demonstrations of X-rays. One exhibition promised visitors the ability to “see through a sheet of metal” or “count the coins within your purse”.

In reality, though, early experiments with X-rays were confined to medical and scientific applications. Practitioners delighted in producing photographs of complete animal skeletons or tweaking the technique to create sharper X-ray images.

Rontgen himself had been experimenting with a Crookes tube – a scientific instrument which accelerates electrons into a beam known as a cathode ray. A tiny portion of the energy from this process is released as photons. In the electromagnetic spectrum, it’s the wavelength of photonic waves that defines whether they are, for example, radio waves, visible light waves or – as in this case – X-rays. A fluorescent screen revealed that Rontgen’s rays were passing through some materials, like muscle, but not others – such as bone.

Although the harmful effects of frequent exposure to X-rays were soon discovered, the exciting promise of X-ray vision never really went away. X-ray specs, a novelty item often sold via boys’ comic books and magazines, were first patented in 1906. The glasses don’t use X-rays at all, of course. Instead they create a sort of double vision illusion in which the overlapping of objects suggests – not very convincingly – that they have been penetrated to reveal an internal structure.

But in 1998 the promise of X-ray specs took an unexpected technological twist. Sony had been marketing a new range of camcorders with night-vision capabilities – a function the company branded “NightShot”. A few enthusiasts claimed that under special circumstances it was possible to see through people’s clothes to an extent. It was erroneously rumoured at the time that Sony had to recall some of the models in an effort to tackle bad press;in reality the firm just made some modifications to the cameras’ design.

You can see through bushes and stuff but there’s not a whole lot more beyond that – Vince Houghton, International Spy Museum

But night-vision equipment continued to be the subject of hobbyists’ experiments. One YouTuber has uploaded what appears to be a demonstration of how a Sony camera released in 2002 can be quickly modified with some tape and an infrared filter to achieve the desired “X-ray effect”. The video shows how the cover of a book – and even his wife’s bra (which she declined to demonstrate herself) – can be seen through his black t-shirt. “There ya go,” he says, “X-ray vision”.

Night vision works by detecting infrared light, which humans can’t normally see, and converting this energy into visible light waves.

It might just be that the clothing used in this example reveals more when viewed in infrared, suggests Alistair Brown, product manager at British night vision and thermal imaging firm Thermoteknix. This, he adds, could make it look, “very different from broadband visible wavelengths used by our eyes”.

Vince Houghton, an ex-US army soldier and historian at the International Spy Museum in Washington DC, frequently used night vision and thermal imaging technologies in the army. But he says the “X-ray” capabilities are strictly limited.

“You can see through bushes and stuff but there’s not a whole lot more beyond that,” he comments. “If you have a solid structure it’s very difficult to see through with infrared.”

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a need for this technology. Houghton gives the example of a hostage situation.

“If you can see inside when you decide to finally breach, you know where the bad guys are,” he says.

Has anyone come up with a device that can do this? The answer, surprisingly, is yes. While X-rays remain impractical for anyone but specialists to play with, military contractors have long been experimenting with them. So much so that the idea once posited by Dundee’s 19th Century chief constable has finally come to fruition.

A much cheaper and safer technology offering X-ray specs-like capabilities is one you already have in your home – wi-fi

“The early experiments with this were these huge bulky machines that were not tactically useful if you’re thinking about a military or police operation,” explains Houghton. But now police and military personnel have the option to buy a MINI Z X-ray gun – a handheld, “easy to use” X-ray device that can peer into vehicles, rooms, bags and packages.

“As an operator scans a target, an image appears in real-time on the system’s dedicated tablet,” boasts manufacturer American Science and Engineering on their website. There is also a web page where anyone can try a virtual demo of the system.

Still, the MINI Z isn’t available to the average consumer and it costs $50,000. What’s more, there have been some concerns that increasing use of X-ray devices by law enforcement might carry health risks to the general public. Similar concerns have been levelled at millimetre-wave scanners – which use microwaves – now installed at many airports. These have faced the added criticism that they are an invasion of privacy, given that operators of some devices are able to see through people’s clothes. To combat such fears, US regulation now prohibits the rendering of detailed images.

However, a much cheaper and safer technology offering x-ray specs-like capabilities is one you already have in your home – wi-fi.

Last year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published a video that shows how a custom-built wi-fi transmitter can be used to create a rough image of someone – through a solid wall.

“When you send a wireless signal, it reflects off everything and those reflections come back to you,” explains Dina Katabi. Computer software is able to analyse signal reflections and produce an image of the object from which they have emanated.

It’s possible, of course, that military and intelligence agency personnel are already using advanced versions of this technology for surveillance purposes

“We can image how people move about a space, where they sit, how they walk around and also detect falls – which is a big thing for older people,” adds Katabi.

For Houghton, the technology has a range of potential uses.

“I know for a fact that some of this technology is already being used for building inspection,” he says. “You have the ability to check out wiring and structure.”

It’s possible, of course, that military and intelligence agency personnel are already using advanced versions of this technology for surveillance purposes.

“Anything that you’re seeing in the public news is 10 years behind what the intelligence agencies are probably using,” says Houghton.

He adds that this effectively means we’ve probably come full circle on the century-long dream of X-ray specs. If smart glasses do one day become popular, it’s not hard to imagine future, miniaturised versions of these technologies getting built in to wearable devices.

What was once a foolish notion in the pages of a comic book may soon become a reality. Even Superman would be amazed.

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Summary: The discovery of X-rays at the end of the 19th century led to fantasies of glasses that could see through walls – and clothes. But have those ideas now become reality?


I read Franklin Medhurst’s poignant letter with interest and much sadness (16 June). I am an immigrant, of German and Italian nationalities. I grew up in the heart of the EU, as the daughter of EU civil servants. At school, I saw a harmonious mingling of cultures and languages and was taught many subjects in mixed nationality groups in a foreign language (English). When I came to the UK to study, I fell in love – with a man and with Yorkshire – and have stayed ever since. I have made the UK my home. My British husband and I have two tri-nationality (Italian, German, British) daughters. I have worked and paid taxes as an employee and I now run my own business helping improve children’s mental health. I contribute to society and have always felt welcome here – until now. The growing wave of angry xenophobia is saddening and maddening.

A UK that votes leave is not the UK that I have made my home over the past 26 years. Voting leave is tantamount to saying: “I’m happy to risk destabilising the longest period of peace Europe has known.” It means weakening Europe, and the world, to the threat posed by Putin and by terrorists. I have never felt less welcome here and more frightened. Voting leave is not a mistake that can be undone at the next general election. It is a decision that will have a potentially devastating impact for generations to come. But most of all, voting leave will mean leaving a piece of humanity behind.Frederika RobertsDoncaster

• Like many others I share the sentiments of Franklin Medhurst (Report, 17 June) and his understanding about Britain’s relationship with our neighbours across the Channel. We must absolutely not go back to a Europe of competing nations and empires but should maintain that essential forum of the EU to resolve any differences, for all its current shortcomings. Reading the press and talking to people, there is a clear view that older citizens will vote to leave the EU. Well, I’m 78 years old and will be voting to remain both for the reasons that Mr Medhurst so passionately argued and because the future of this country is not for the elderly but for the young to decide, and most of the young citizens I have talked to have been in favour of remaining. They feel both British and European, as I do.

When the Brexit camp talk about “Give us back our Britain”, what precise model do they have in mind from some past golden age, because as far as I am concerned a vibrant multicultural Britain is far preferable to most of what went before. Certainly, immigration is an issue, but this can be dealt with best from within the EU.David BishopWybunbury, Cheshire

• I was just a little too young to serve in the armed forces during the war, and in any case was in a reserved occupation as an aircraft apprentice. But I share Franklin Medhurst’s view on the peace and stability the EU has brought to the continent. How different the world would have been had something similar to the EU been created post-1918. However, one point Mr Medhurst did not include in his letter was the contribution of many other nationalities to the cause, for example the Polish fighter pilots in the Battle of Britain. The Polish plumbers and builders that are supposed to be such a threat to our way of life today are their descendants. What I do not understand is why older people are in favour of Brexit, according to the polls. Surely they, like Mr Medhurst and myself, should be the ones to remember all this.Frank JacksonHarlow, Essex

• My father fought and died in the second world war. He was killed by a German sniper in a tiny hamlet near Vire in Normandy on 3 August 1944. He was buried in Bayeux. I and my family make frequent visits to the cemetery there. A stark reminder of the horrors of war. To leave the EU would be to betray the legacy of those who gave their lives to secure our freedom. I do not want my father’s sacrifice (he was a volunteer) to be sullied by the likes of Michael Gove, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage. A motley crew of self-serving individuals who are deluding themselves and the public as to what would happen should Britain vote to leave the EU. United we stand. Divided we fall. A cliche, but true in this context.Michele Holmes (aged 73)Wroxham, Norfolk

• Unlike Mr Medhurst, I am young and have never fought in a war. Some would argue I’ve never fought for anything, probably owing largely to the sacrifices made by men of Mr Medhurst’s generation. Yet, I am fighting now. Fighting to persuade whomever I can that leaving Europe is the right choice. Aside from the world wars, there were other European conflicts of the 20th century; countries which fought for independence and political ideals, only now to see the fruits of those struggles usurped by masters of a different kind. What about the peoples of countries conquered during the second world war, people who now only see their former conquerors gain at their expense?

Yes, the EU has prevented conflict and created a stability of some kind, but at what cost? Its expanding borders and powers are now increasing the threat of bloc-style conflict with other world powers. As a boy Europe offered the excitement of having such diversity on one’s doorstep. Over the last few decades that diversity has been increasingly eroded by centralised European power; a power that increasingly disrespects the histories, cultures and attitudes of individual member states.Paul O’SullivanBristol

• When I voted in 1945 to help bring in a landslide Labour government, we all believed in a better world. We thought that we had fought for it every day of the last six years. The bombing had laid bare the squalor in which many of us lived. The strange idea of a free health service was put through by a determined Welshman, Aneurin Bevan. It had nothing to do with the rest of Europe, then or now. It is a national treasure and depends entirely on the government of the day. As Jeremy Corbyn says, we should be leading Europe instead of leaving it.Anne Horatia PiperWytham, Oxfordshire

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

Summary: Letters: I contribute to society and have always felt welcome here – until now. The growing wave of xenophobia is saddening and maddening


In his first campaign appearance since a crucial loss in New York’s primary, Bernie Sanders on Thursday dialed back his rhetoric on Hillary Clinton – only to ramp it back up later in the day.

Clinton’s rout in New York Tuesday all-but-crushed any remaining hope for Sanders to find a viable path to the Democratic presidential nomination, and many party members hoped the underdog would now ease off Clinton to avoid harming her general election prospects.

Morning Joe, 4/21/16, 8:51 AM ET

The New York Times’ Anand Giridharadas wonders if the support for Bernie Sanders will endure beyond the results of the presidential election.

Sanders took the day off Wednesday to “

in the weeks ahead,” according to a top aide.

His appearance at a rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania Thursday morning offered the first glimpse into what he had decided.

While most of speech remained intact, Sanders dropped the most aggressive portions, which mocked Clinton for her lucrative paid speeches to large banks like Goldman Sachs. He didn’t go after her super PACs, nor contributions to her campaign from wealthy donors.

Sanders mentioned Clinton only a handful of times, in each to point out differences between their policy records. He drew contrasts with her record on the minimum wage, Social Security, fracking, trade, and the Iraq War, but didn’t dwell on them.

But any sighs of relief from anxious Democrats were quickly proven premature.

RELATED: Team Sanders’ delegate strategy, under the microscope

Just a few hours later, at a rally in Reading, Pennsylvania, rhetoric on Clinton’s transcripts and super PACs were back.

“When I talk about difference between Secretary Clinton and myself, one of the major differences is precisely how we raise money for our campaigns,” Sanders said. He noted Clinton has “several super PACs” that take money from Wall Street, and suggested that she herself “represent[s] Wall Street” and “the billionaire class.”

“In addition to that, as you know, Secretary Clinton has given speeches on Wall Street for $225,000 a speech. Not a bad day’s work,” he said, winding the crowd up for what has reliably become one of his best applause lines.

Sanders noted that Clinton has said she would release transcripts of those speeches if “other people will do the same.” So he said he was going to release the transcripts of his own speeches to Wall Street right then and there. “Here you are – you got it?” he said as he waved his empty hands and the audience cheered.

He even added a new shot at Clinton on her support for a proposed tax on soda. “Frankly, I am very surprised that Secretary Clinton would support this regressive tax after pledging not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000. This proposal clearly violates her pledge,” he said. ”A tax on soda and juice drinks would disproportionately increase taxes on low-income families in Philadelphia.”

Asked why the transcript portion of his speech did not appear in the morning, only to return in the afternoon, Sanders spokesperson Michael Briggs replied, “no reason.”

Summary: Sanders dropped the toughest portion of his stump speech Thursday, but it made an appearance again a few hours later.


Bathurst murder victim Reginald Mullaly.

The sister of a homeless NSW man found stabbed to death under a bridge has made an emotional plea for help to find her brother's killer.

The body of Reginald Mullaly, 69, was discovered in a makeshift shelter on the Great Western Highway at Bathurst in the state's west in September 2015.

Police have been unable to track down his killer.

His sister Dawn Brodie on Wednesday appealed for anyone with information to come forward.

"You are not dobbing in a mate, you are helping me find out what happened to my brother," she said.

"I miss him every day and I talk to him every day."

Police say two of Mr Mullaly's acquaintances were the first to find his body.

They've urged anonymous callers who tipped off police through Crimestoppers in September and October to again make contact with detectives.

"The information we received from these people have helped the investigation greatly, and we simply need to talk to them again," detective chief inspector Colin Cracknell said.

A post-mortem revealed Mr Mullaly died from a stab wound to his chest and that he suffered several "unexplained injuries".

He had $30,000 in his bank account before being murdered, something police believe may have been a factor in his death.

Summary: The sister of a homeless man found stabbed to death in Bathurst last year has made a public appeal for information.


By Radhika Sanghani, Thursday 3 September 2015

According to the transgender actress and campaigner Laverne Cox, who was nominated for an Emmy for her role in the Netflix series Orange is the New Black, âMost men who are attracted to and date transgender women are probably stigmatised more than trans women are.â The UKâs first ever trans-themed sitcom, the BBCâs Boy Meets Girl, explores precisely these issues. The show tells the story of a trans woman starting a relationship with a younger man and how their community deals with their unusual romance. We spoke to three couples to find out how challenging it is for trans people and their partners to come out. These are their stories.

Civil servant Jacqui Gavin, 47, and consultant Stephen Gavin, 60, have been together for 23 years

âMy first wife died of multiple sclerosis back in 1992,â says Stephen. âA few months later, some friends invited me to a party and I saw this stunning woman. I couldnât understand why she was so quiet and shy given the way she looked. We started chatting and got on very well. âAt that point I didnât know Jacqui was trans. I didnât call her until a few months later, because I was still grieving, and we had our first date. Thatâs when she told me about her past. She was very upfront. I was fortunate because Iâd already met Jacqui the woman.â The fact that Stephen had met Jacqui post-transition without any knowledge of her past meant he had already started to fall for her. âI suppose I did have a preconception of what trans people would be like, and would look like,â he says. âBut she didnât fit into any of that.â

âOf course you worry what people think. But you realise people who are worth a damn, donât give a damnâ

Jacqui transitioned in 1983, aged 15, after moving out of her family home in Scotland. âI left because of difficulties being bullied at school. I was living in London waiting on tables. I remember putting on make-up and just feeling like me. âBut then, at 16, I had to return home because my mum was ill. I had to âdetransitionâ which was hard. I joined the RAF. One day they found a bra and knickers in my bag. I could have said they were a girlfriendâs but I didnât want to lie. âI was called in for a meeting with my supervisors who were furious. They were going to demote me - but I decided to just leave instead.â Jacqui began gender reassignment surgery and, aged 20, started modelling. She had a successful career but after a tabloid âoutedâ her a year later (her clients hadnât known she was trans), she says, âI was dropped like a stone because I wasnât seen as a woman anymore.â A few years later, she met Steve. And in 1995, the couple wed. âIt was tough to find somewhere to get married,â says Jacqui. âThe Gender Recognition Act didnât come in until 2004 so we couldnât do it in the UK. We ended up going to the Caribbean.â

Steve says he didnât experience much stigma â to his surprise, even his traditional Catholic father accepted Jacquiâs past immediately. By this point heâd already known her for two years and said, âAs far as Iâm concerned, Jacqui is and always will be the most beautiful daughter-in-law.â But, in 1995, newspapers got hold of their wedding photos and connected them to Jacquiâs modelling career. âIt was everywhere,â says Steve. âAll over the media. Back then it was probably still seen as, âAre you gay?â People think youâre going out with a bloke. âOf course you worry about what people think. But then you find out that people who are worth a damn, donât give a damn.â

Filmmaker Lewis Hancox, 26 and illustrator Sophie Moore, 33, met three and a half years ago

âI was only about four or five when I started saying to my mum I was a boy,â says Lewis, who transitioned from female to male at 18. âWe didnât even know what being transgender was back then, especially in the small town where I lived up North. âI have always fancied girls, and before transitioning I was labelled gay. But I never liked to refer to myself as gay. I went along with it, but it never felt right. When I realised I was trans it all made sense. Since then Iâve only ever identified as a straight guy.â Lewis first told his story back in 2012, on the Channel 4 documentary My Transsexual Summer. It's how he met his girlfriend of three and a half years, Sophie. âI didnât know much about being transgender,â says Sophie. âIâd never been aware really that it could go the other way - that a female could transition to a male. So when I saw the trailer for the show I was really interested.

âWhen I watched it, I wondered how would I feel if I met a trans guy. Would I date someone like that? I was looking at Lewis - who to me looked like any other man - and thought, âWhy not?â I was actually quite enamoured by him so I added him on Facebook. There was no intention or anything, but we ended up talking every single day for two months.â The couple then met up in London and for Lewis, âThat was it.â He knew he wanted to be with her. For Sophie it took a little bit longer. âPeople tend to assume Iâm gay because Iâm a bit of a tomboy. But I have always only ever been into guys and I have never been with a trans guy before. I remember saying to Lewis, âIt might take me some getting used toâ. My only concern was the sexual side of things.â Lewis explains, âThings do change down below and grow to become more male with the testosterone. I also had surgery to neaten and rewire the area. âNow itâs not necessarily big enough for penetrative sex but there are lots of other things in the bedroom I can do. It looks natural to me, and we donât see it like I was ever a woman.â

âI'd never been with a trans guy before. My only concern was the sexual side of thingsâ

Sophie adds, âFor me it ended up being a case of nothing mattered because of how I felt about him emotionally.â The couple had support from their friends and family. âMy mum had questions but she was mainly just curious,â explains Sophie. âMy family donât have an issue with it and Iâve never had any negative remarks.â But, says Lewis, âGay guys come up to me in clubs in Brighton, where everyone knows me, and they say, âI find you attractive. Does that mean Iâm straight?â They say it as though itâs a massive compliment that they might fancy me, but it feels like an insult.â Sophie agrees. âIt pisses me off. Itâs incredibly offensive. I've also had straight people applauding me for going out with Lewis. They mean well and I know itâs a positive thing theyâre trying to say but it can come across as really insulting.â

Freelance artist Sophie Green, 40, and marketing professional, Thom Shannon, 33, have been a couple for 11 years

âThe first time I met Sophie she was a woman. Then, the next morning when I saw her with her friends, sheâd gone back to being a man,â says Thom. âBut I quite liked her either way. I asked a mutual friend about her and they said she was engaged to a woman, so I thought that was it. But a few months later it all changed.â âI was in a relationship, which was kind of going South when we first met, and it broke down,â explains Sophie. âI was at the beginning of my transition and I didnât know who I was. Itâs partly why we broke up. âThom and I became friends and stayed that way for a couple of years but, as I got more together, I started to see how good he was for me. I gave him a chance and we hit it off. Thom supported me through the whole transition. We kind of worked it out together really.â

âMy parents were confused â the first time they met Sophie she was a boyâ

Thom was 21 at that point and had previously identified as gay. âI was still figuring out what I wanted. Now I refuse to identify as anything.â He currently considers himself to be in a heterosexual relationship. âIâm pretty relaxed about my sexuality and, because I knew Sophie as her old identity, I knew everything from the start so her transition was never an issue for me. âMy parents were confused though â the first time they met Sophie she was living as a boy and they were worried about explaining her transition to the family. But they get on well now, and we havenât really had any negativity - apart from a few comments on the street.

âI think the only problem has been that because Iâd been out as gay before, people who'd known her before she transitioned assumed something about her gender and sexual identity. They still see me as gay even though Iâm in a straight relationship. âI think a lot of guys are worried about being seen as gay if theyâre going out with trans women.â Sophie agrees. âThom was attracted to me as an individual â not as a trans woman. But I certainly think guys who are attracted to trans women get a rough ride. People judge them a lot.â Before her transition, Sophie had always had relationships with women. âThatâs just the way it was. I was trying to conform to a heterosexual male but I was rubbish at it. Iâm more open now. I say Iâm pansexual. If I wasnât with Thom I could be with anyone â their gender wouldnât matter. âItâs been amazing sharing my transition with him. Itâs a strange thing but itâs also wonderful. It was bizarre the first time we made love after my gender transition surgery. But it was good. Sex is a different way around for me now. Itâs kind of fun finding it all out.â âItâs like being teenagers again,â adds Thom.

Boy Meets Girl was Boy Meets Girl was brought about by BBC Writers Room and All About Trans, an On Road Media project that improves understanding and portrayal of transgender people and promotes trans voices in the media.

Find more features at Telegraph.co.uk/in-depth

Summary: Transgender people are still badly stigmatised in the 21st century but, as the UK's first trans-themed TV show begins, we ask if their romantic partners have it even worse.


LIBERTARIAN PARTY Weld Talks Debates And 15% Campaign

Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, the Libertarian Party’s vice presidential nominee, said his ticket remains focused on qualifying for the general-election debates.

“Politically, where we stand, is we have to get into those presidential debates to really stand a chance,” he said in an interview.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released earlier this month had Gary...

Summary: Convention Wire


“The underground Communists’ command headquarters was right in our manor,” he said she told him. “Those words were engraved in my heart.”

On a misty morning, Mr. Liu walked past cafes, bars and design stores lining the streets of Anren, now a tourist destination known as the township of museums, for the Liu family manors and other cultural sites. A luxury hotel has been built for vacationers and parents visiting their children at the Confucius International School, which promises to prepare pupils for top foreign universities and boasts of being housed in a school that Liu Wencai built in 1942, where tuition fees were waived for poor but talented pupils.

Many residents seem to remember Liu Wencai favorably.

“If you ask if people here think Liu Wencai was good, that goes without saying,” said Dai Rongyao, 89, who was selling embroidered handicrafts.

Liu Wencai, born in 1887, amassed huge wealth in the 1920s in the Yangtze River port of Yibin, dominating lucrative businesses including the opium and weapons trades under the wing of his younger brother, Liu Wenhui, a Nationalist warlord.

In 1933, Liu Wenhui retreated to the Tibetan region of Kham, after losing a battle to a warlord nephew, and Liu Wencai returned to his hometown, Anren, and sponsored road, water and electricity projects as well as the school.

In 1942, Liu Wenhui, long at odds with the Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, met with Zhou Enlai and began clandestinely cooperating with his Communists.

In 1946, at the start of the Chinese civil war, Liu Wencai financed a Communist guerrilla force of around 50 people while allowing its command headquarters to be set up in his manor, said Mr. Liu, who said he learned this from a close aide to Liu Wencai who has since died. (A provincial government history says that underground Communists took advantage of Liu Wencai’s conflict with a rival to secure weapons from him.)

Liu Wencai died in October 1949, the same month that Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic. In December, his brother Liu Wenhui openly joined forces with the Communists, and the Nationalists retreated from Sichuan to Taiwan.

The Liu family, like many wealthy Chinese, considered fleeing to Hong Kong, fearing what might happen under the new Communist government, Mr. Liu said. But Liu Wenhui urged them to stay, insisting the family would be treated well as the party’s friend.

Instead, the family’s property was seized and its members attacked in a series of political campaigns. In 1958, local officials eager to demonstrate their fervor for Maoist class struggle presented Liu Wencai as the prototype of the exploiting landlord. His coffin was dug up, and his remains were scattered.

In 1959, the landlord’s residence was turned into a museum, featuring a “water dungeon,” an underground space half-filled with water. A woman who claimed to be the dungeon’s sole survivor described it as filled with human bones.

By the early 1960s, Liu Wencai was nationally notorious as the “chief representative of the landlord class for 3,000 years.” His brother Liu Wenhui, who in 1959 became forestry minister and escaped persecution under Zhou Enlai’s protection, was powerless to reverse the propaganda campaign, though he was secretly upset.

“What the hell are they talking about?” was his private comment on one newspaper article about Liu Wencai, according to his grandson Liu Shizhao.

In 1965, the Sichuan authorities commissioned more than 100 life-size clay sculptures that the museum installed as the Rent Collection Courtyard, which purported to show how Liu Wencai and his lackeys bullied peasants to extract rents.

Replicas of the statues were exhibited in Beijing later that year, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors. In 1966, just before the onset of the Cultural Revolution, a documentary about Liu Wencai was released, and stories of his crimes were subsequently included in textbooks.

Denunciations of the landlord and the evil he ostensibly personified surged during the Cultural Revolution. Family members came under attack. A cousin of Mr. Liu who fled to Xinjiang was murdered along with his wife and children, as were many other people in China branded as “landlords.”

The frenzy subsided only in the 1980s, when liberal voices were tolerated to some extent. In 1988, the provincial authorities admitted that the water dungeon was an invention, and it was drained. But these beginnings of a re-evaluation stalled after the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown as the party tightened its grip, Mr. Liu said.

In the museum, Mr. Liu pointed out items he said never belonged to his family.

A visitor asked, “This is your family?”

“I’m Liu Wencai’s grandson,” Mr. Liu said.

“Can we take a picture with you?” the man shouted excitedly, pointing at his friends.

Mr. Liu became the group’s tour guide, and the man, a railway official from Guizhou who said he had visited the museum on a school tour in the 1970s, was startled when Mr. Liu said that nearly everything on display was fake.

The 1966 film "Rent Collection Courtyard" (in Chinese). Video by Lagen Ecafaya/YouTube

Xiao Shu, the pen name of Chen Min, who in 1999 published “The Truth About Liu Wencai,” a book that was soon banned, said the party would be reluctant to restore to respectability a villain of its own making.

His book was accused of “negating the legitimacy of the new democratic revolution,” when the party persecuted landlords and distributed their property to poor peasants, he said. “This is the basis of the regime’s legitimacy, so they don’t dare face the truth.”

Wu Hongyuan, 60, a retired county propaganda official who served as the museum’s director in the 1990s, said the process of restoring the truth could not be rushed. “The museum is too sensitive, and Liu Wencai is too famous,” he said.

Mr. Wu said he tried to recast the museum to more accurately present Liu Wencai’s life, but anytime he altered something, he said, former underground Communists in Anren would protest to the authorities.

Li Weijia, 98, was one of those protesters.

“He never protected party members!” insisted Mr. Li, in a hospital ward reserved for senior officials in Chengdu. “That’s confusing black and white!’’

At the end of his trip to Anren, Mr. Liu visited Chen Fahong, 86, a former worker in Liu Wencai’s manor.

“We had rice and meat to eat then. He was kind,” Mr. Chen said of Liu Wencai in his modest yard amid onion fields. “After liberation” in 1949, he said, “we had only bran and grass to eat.”

Mr. Liu said that, looking back, the family regretted having trusted the Communists.

He recalled a song sung in his family after Liu Wenhui sided with the Communists, envisioning a paradise under the party’s rule.

“There is a good place beyond the mountains,” it goes. “There, rich and poor are equal.”

Follow Vanessa Piao on Twitter @VanessaPiao.

Get news and analysis from Asia and around the world delivered to your inbox every day with the Today’s Headlines: Asian Morning newsletter. Sign up here.

Summary: Liu Xiaofei has spent the past two decades trying to prove that his paternal grandfather, Liu Wencai, actually aided the Communist forces in Sichuan Province.


Despite repeated German attacks, the bridge – and another nearby – was successfully held by the airborne forces until reinforcements arrived.

After the mission, Mr Anderson spent five weeks laying mines and helping the infantry, before suffering a shrapnel injury.

“It was a mortar or a shell,” he said. “We were holding a position and we were hit. The next thing I remember is waking up in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. It turned out I had been half buried with shrapnel in my leg, and I was pulled out.”

He had joined the Royal Engineers as an apprentice in 1938 – aged just 14 – but later became part of the 591 Parachute Squadron.

Robert Coupe, 88, saw his heaviest fighting during the push on Caen, in the weeks following the landings. Only 18 of his 100-strong infantry unit reached their objective.

He had landed on Sword Beach on the morning of D-Day, and despite the enemy fire, said it was a relief to get ashore.

“We were all so seasick. I didn’t care whether I got shot or not. I just wanted to get off that landing craft and get my feet on the ground. The Navy boys brought us as close to the beach as they could and then we waded to shore with water up to our armpits.”

Once ashore, and with the beachheads secured, Mr Coupe and his unit were given orders to march on German-occupied Caen as part of Operation Charnwood.

“Caen was the key to Normandy. If the Germans broke through at Caen they would have been on the beaches in no time. And they knew that if we punched through them at Caen that would be their lot in France.

Robert Coupe, right, during wartime (Dominic Holden)

On the evening of July 7th the combined divisions secured positions for a three pincer attack on the city with the 3rd Canadian Division attacking from the right, and British 3rd Division from the left. Mr Coupe’s division, the 59th, would be in the centre. As part of the prelude to the assault, a major Allied air attack on the city was launched.

“I heard the sound of aircraft engines, and 500 Lancaster Bombers flew overhead, dropping 2,600 tons of bombs on Caen,” he recalled. “The sight of them flying into that wall of flak to deliver their loads made the soldiers realise what brave comrades they had working with them. It boosted our morale no end, and from then on any jibes about ‘Brylcreem Boys’ were definitely out.”

As the bombers departed for home, the guns of the offshore fleet opened up, joining the barrage of of 21 regiments of Allied artillery, ranged on German batteries and fortified approaches to Caen.

“The barrage thundered steadily on through the night and around 0500 hours we began to advance through cornfields and orchards towards Caen. The fields were mined," Mr Coupe said. "The Germans were ready for us as they knew we had to come by this route. As we crossed into no-man’s-land the hidden German guns opened up with ferocity. In the waist high cornfield when a soldier fell wounded he disappeared from view and many lads bled to death because medics couldn’t find them. Casualties were heavy, and we on the frontal assault felt we were battling at impregnable forces.”

Despite the losses, by the early hours of the following day, Mr Coupe’s unit had entered the city’s northern suburbs.

“One hundred of us set off but only eighteen of us arrived,” he said. “Our main adversaries in the battle were the 1st and 12th Panzer Divisions and elements of the 21st Panzer Grenadiers. These so called elite troops played every dirty trick in the book, and they knew plenty from their Russian front experiences, fanatical in the extreme and happy to die for Adolf Hitler. They got their death wish in the ruins of Caen.”

He continued: “One SS soldier who was lying seriously wounded in a field hospital was told that he needed a blood transfusion. He asked the doctor ‘is that English blood? If it is I don’t want it’ and when the doctor said ‘yes it is and if you don't have it you will die’, the German replied. ‘Well, I’ll die for the Fuhrer’.”

Mr Coupe, who frequently travels to RAF Brize Norton to attend regular repatriations for soldiers killed in Afghanistan, was wounded later, as the Allied forces engaged in a pincer movement to close the so-called Falaise Gap, and trap the retreating German forces.

He was hit by a bullet which slammed into his helmet knocking him unconscious for three days. He woke up in a Bayeux hospital.

Mr Coupe, from Blackpool, was called up shortly after his 18th birthday and underwent basic training before being posted to the 5th Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment, part of 197 Brigade of the 59th Infantry Division being prepared for the invasion of Europe.

John Salmon, 90, from Liverpool, was a member of the Pioneer Corps who, he said, had “the worst job of all” – to clear the landing areas of obstructions, explosives and defences so that troops and armour could quickly get off the beaches. He said the most unpleasant task of all was to clean out the wreckage of tanks which had been hit and burnt out.

By coincidence, a few days after the landings, Mr Salmon met his brother, who was working for a bakery unit, on the beaches. As a result of this stroke of luck, he was able to provide his platoon with a generous supply of freshly-baked bread.

At 95, Lawrence Taylor is one of the oldest Normandy veterans to travel to France.

As an RAF Halifax pilot, he flew on bombing raids on Caen to assist the advancing Allied ground forces.

Mr Taylor, from Huyton, Merseyside, said: “I’ve always carried a burden of guilt about the bombing of civilians. Despite directing attacks against military targets, we all knew that civilians would be caught in the destruction. This was especially true of Caen.”

In 2011, on a visit to Normandy, he was introduced to a French woman who told him that she had lost both her grandparents in the bombing of the city. She told him that she and her family understood and accepted the inevitability of civilian casualties. He later said: “It was the first time since the war I felt unburdened.”

Stanley Cox, a tank gunner, landed on Gold beach at dawn, in one of the first tanks ashore.

Stan is the veteran in the wheelchair left of the Queen

By nightfall, he and his unit had reached the outskirts of Bayeux, about four miles from the coast.

He said he and his comrades spent “an anxious” night waiting for the 8th Armoured Brigade to catch up.

At 4am the following morning, his tank, commanded by Lt Mike Howden, was sent into Bayeux on a reconnaissance mission, making him one of the first liberators of a major French town.

He said his unit was heavily involved in the fighting in the days after D-Day and it was during a clash at a location known as Hill 103, near Tilly sur Seulles, around eight miles south east of Bayeux, that his tank was hit.

He was severely wounded in the left arm, right buttock and right leg and was evacuated to Gateshead, where he spent nine months in hospital.

He has previously visited Normandy, but missed one recent trip after he broke his hip weeks before he was due to leave.

Hospital staff were surprised to discover that much of the shrapnel from his wound is still in his body.

Mr Cox joined the army in 1943 and completed his basic training in Yorkshire with the infantry but was quickly transferred to the Royal Armoured Corps to train as a gunner on the Centaur tank. The RAC started to receive large numbers of the much more durable American Sherman tank and Mr Cox was switched to this vehicle.

In December 1943, he joined to Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, A Squadron, to start training for the invasion.

Douglas David Render recalls that he was surprised to find himself in Normandy after he was sent to Portsmouth in June 1944 to oversee the loading of tanks onto a landing craft, which sailed while he was on board.

Capt David Render at the Charles de Percy CWGC visiting two SRY graves

“I was ordered to Portsmouth in June ‘44 but had no idea why. I was told to oversee the loading of 16 Cromwell tanks on a landing craft. I could see that Pompey was awash with frantic loading of equipment, men, food and so on onto ships but just did as ordered. The next thing I knew the ship was at sea.”

The landing craft arrived just off Gold beach at early light and the front loading platform was lowered. The first tank drove off but disappeared from sight, sinking with the loss of all crew.

It had vanished into an underwater trench. The ship’s commander then moved the craft to another location on the beach and all the other craft were safely disembarked.

Mr Render, 88, was ordered to join the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry and went into battle as troop leader seven days after D-Day.

Their opponents included the SS Hermann Goring division, who he described as “nasty pieces of work, these b-----s set fire to a church with all the villagers in. How can anyone do that?”

He recalls entering a small church in Normandy and found it filled with flowers, crosses and candles that the Germans had left behind. “I thought it strange that we and them were praying to the same God for victory and safety.”

Mr Render had two tanks blown from under him but remained a troop leader until the end of the war, a rare achievement given that the Sherwoods lost 59 officers from June 1944 to the end of the war.

He had volunteered to join the army on his 18th birthday in 1942 and was sent to the Royal Armoured Corps training centre at Bovington, Dorset, where as a trooper he spent six months on tank training. He said he got fed up of standing sentry duty at the camp gates so applied to become an officer.

Graham Stevenson almost missed the fighting in Normandy after he was punished for answering back to a corporal.

Graham Stevenson, right, with Stan Cox

When he finally rejoined his regiment, 14 days after D Day, he was wounded on his first day in action and repatriated back to Britain.

He had served in a tank squadron for the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry in North Africa having joined up under age.

It meant that when he returned to England, despite being only 19, he was vastly more experienced that many other servicemen, including a new corporal who he told to “get stuffed, or words to that effect”, he recalled.

“It was Sunday morning and I had a hangover and I wasn’t in the mood for some new boys to give me a hard time.”

The incident earned Mr Stevenson, born in Walsall in 1925, seven days in the guardhouse.

As he was being marched off, General Bernard Montgomery drove past him into the camp – to instruct senior officers on the Normandy operation.

By the time Mr Stevenson had served his punishment, the regiment had moved off for D-Day training. He had a few jobs until finally rejoining his unit a fortnight after the landings.

He was wounded on his first day of action when his tank was hit and he was machine gunned in the arm. He spent the next six months in a hospital in Wolverhampton.

Aubrey Sales, 89, from Nottingham, was on board a salvage vessel, the Southampton Salvour, which assisted with the landings.

A gunner in the Defence Equipped Merchant Service (D.E.M.S.), he had joined the ship shortly before D-Day when it was lying in Southampton Water.

Two days before the invasion, the vessel moved downstream and anchored near some landing craft which already had army personnel on board. The crew also noticed a lot of American troops on shore preparing to board vessels.

“All the troop ships were in Southampton, all the Americans, we were all just lying in the Solent until we got the order and we were off. It was a quiet, silent move down the Solent and across the water,” he said.

The Southampton Salvour sailed on June 5th in the early evening, with Mr Sales unaware of where they were heading.

They were then joined by escort ships and the captain revealed that they were making for the Normandy beaches, where a landing was to take place.

Aubrey, in naval uniform, with his brother Eric

The vessel arrived at Arromanches, where divers onboard helped to secure the floating “Mulberry harbours” to the seabed. The crew then had to help LCTs (Landing Craft Tanks) to beach.

“Our job was five miles out, when the LCTs came, we had to beach them. The LCTs weren’t given enough petrol, you see, that’s one reason they had to postpone the first D Day, because the waves took the speed from the LCTs and they used more petrol.

“They only did three to four knots; my ship did 12 knots. We towed them in and up onto the beach with tanks on and men. Back then I didn’t know the beach names.”

Mr Sales recalled that some soldiers would not drive their tanks or lorries over the dead soldiers lying on the beach.

“We did our job that day and we moved on. In those days you just got on with it,” he said.

The veterans have travelled to Normandy on trips supported by the Big Lottery Fund’s Heroes Return scheme.

The charity scheme allows Second World War servicemen to make commemorative visits to the places where they fought and served.

Summary: Among the veterans in Normandy for today's D-Day anniversary is a soldier who   was one of only 18 from his 100-strong unit to reach their objective;   another who almost missed the fighting after being insubordinate to a   superior; a gunner on one of the first tanks ashore; and a paratrooper who   landed into occupied France hours before the seaborne invasion. Here they   tell their stories.


A new security law in Malaysia came into force on Monday, one that critics say gives the government broad, unchecked powers.

It allows for authorities to create a so-called 'security zone' inside which arrests and seizures can happen without warrants.

Some say the government could use this law to ward off political and legal challenges.

But Prime Minister Najib Razak says the security law is crucial for protecting Malaysian citizens.

In a statement, Najib's office said the National Security Council Act has been deliberately misinterpreted.

So, what does this new law mean for Malaysia's democracy?

Eric Paulsen - Executive Director of Lawyers for Liberty.

Clare Rewcastle Brown - Editor of the Sarawak Report.

Azrul Mohd Khalib - Manager of External Relations at the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs.

Summary: Malaysia's controversial new security law comes into effect, giving Prime Minister Najib Razak sweeping powers.


This post has been updated with information on Sling TV’s new deal.

The first game of the 2016 NBA Finals tips off Thursday, June 2 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and ESPN3. And if you don’t want to miss the rematch between Stephen Curry’s Golden State Warriors and LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers, here’s how you can catch the games online.

If you have a cable login (which we assume you’re paying for), you can login in abc.com, or watch via ABC’s iOS or Android app. Did you shell out $9.99 for the NBA League Pass? Sorry, due to broadcasting restrictions you can’t watch the Finals via the service. But there are other options if you don’t have cable:

For more info, check out Cut Cable Today’s full guide. And here are five live streaming sports services every sports fan needs to know about.

Full NBA Finals 2016 Schedule:

Game 1: Thursday, June 2, 9 p.m. on ABC/ESPN3

Game 2: Sunday, June 5, 8 p.m. on ABC/ESPN3

Game 3: Wednesday, June 8, 9 p.m. on ABC/ESPN3

Game 4: Friday, June 10, 9 p.m. on ABC/ESPN3

Game 5: Monday, June 13, 9 p.m. on ABC/ESPN3

Game 6: Thursday, June 16, 9 p.m. on ABC/ESPN3

Game 7: Sunday, June 19, 8 p.m. on ABC/ESPN3

Summary: Don't miss the epic rematch.


An unmanned rocket has blasted off from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia in the US, with a robotic explorer on a mission to investigate the moon dust and atmosphere.

Called The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, or LADEE, the moon-orbiting craft will measure the thin lunar atmosphere.

Scientists want to learn the composition of the moon's ever-so-delicate atmosphere and how it might change over time and whether dust actually levitates from the lunar surface.

Unlike the quick three-day Apollo flights to the moon, the LADEE will take a full month to get there.Â The six-month mission costs $280m.

It will orbit Earth's closest neighbour for a few months, analysing the ever-so-delicate atmosphere and lunar dust.

An Air Force Minotaur rocket, built by Orbital Sciences Corp., is providing the ride.

This will be the first moonshot from Virginia. All but one of NASA's approximately 40 moon missions, including the manned Apollo flights of the late 1960s and early 1970s, originated from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The most recent were the twin Grail spacecraft launched two years ago. The lone exception, Clementine, a military-NASA venture, rocketed away from Southern California in 1994.

The soaring Minotaur rocket should be visible along much of the East Coast as far south as South Carolina, as far north as Maine and as far west as Pittsburgh.

The mission will last six months and end with a suicide plunge into the moon for LADEE, which is about the size of a small car.

Summary: US space agency sends unmanned robotic explorer to study lunar atmosphere and dust as part of its new $280m mission.


Even if you’re rich, wasting money is criminally stupid. Sit down for a minute and think of all the things you could do with the money you waste that would otherwise make life better for someone else. If that doesn’t grab you, then think of what you could do with the money that would make life better for your own future self. Oh, yes, lovely and young as you are today, you are going to have a future self who might very well wish he or she had more money in the bank.

If even that isn’t enough to make you reconsider your ways, think of how hard you worked to earn that money (trust fund babies may leave the room now), and then picture yourself doing that work for free because what you’re essentially doing is throwing hours’ or weeks’ worth of salary right into the trash. Really. Picture yourself putting cash money into a trash bag, and watching it being driven off down the street in a garbage truck. Insane, right?

However, you may not realize how much money you re actually wasting. Here’s five signs you need to curb your spending before you send more cash to the dump:

1. You Buy New Stuff Just Because It’s New

You’re the guy in line at 2 a.m. on the day the new iPhone is being released. But guess what? There’s always going to be a new iPhone coming out. And a fancy new fill-in-the-blank. Commerce is what makes the world go ’round. If companies stopped creating new versions of things to sell, they’d go out of business. However, it doesn’t mean you have to buy into the super-hype and rush to get everything the minute it hits the shelf.

It’s not just electronics. The new car smell is still hanging in the air and you’re at the dealership again looking at next year’s models? Cars depreciate 11% the minute you drive them off the lot, and lose 19% of their value in the first year. You don’t get your money’s worth out of a car until you’ve driven for a while.

2. You Sale Shop for Things You Don’t Need

It’s Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Super Saturday, or Free Shipping Day, and you’re right out there among the rest of them. Fighting your way through the crowds — real or virtual — to get your hands on stuff you never knew you wanted. You hate to miss one of your local department or computer store’s special sales (nearly every weekend), and you never pass up two-for-one coupons for things you don’t even need one of. “But look how much I’m saving!” you say. But look how much you’re saving if you keep your wallet in your pocket.

What’s that you say? You only shop at discount stores, dollar stores, and places with Barn, Depot or Warehouse in their names? Look how much I’m saving! Yep, you’re saving what it would have cost if you’d bought the same things at high-end establishments. But if you don’t need them, then you’re not saving a cent no matter what you paid for them. Plus you’ve got to figure out where to put everything when you get it home. You want to wind up living like someone on Hoarders?

3. You Pay Fees to Use a Credit Card or Checking Account

You’re handing over money to a credit card company so that you can pay interest on the money you owe them? What a deal! There are a few exceptions when the program rewards will more than pay the fee, but generally, paying an annual credit card fee is dumb. There are plenty of credit cards with no annual fee. Get one.

The same applies to having accounts at a bank that charges a monthly checking account fee or a fee to visit a teller instead of an ATM. Do some research and find a bank that will accommodate you with no fees for a minimum deposit you can live with.

4. You Don’t Use Loyalty Cards at the Stores You Shop at Regularly

Rail as you might at the insidiousness of grocery and other stores that extract personal information from you and track your purchases in exchange for giving you discounts, if you regularly shop at a store that offers special pricing to customers in its loyalty program and you don’t take advantage of it, you’re over-spending at that store by 20% or more every time you shop there. Unless you’re in a witness protection program, it’s absolutely worth the savings to give your local supermarket your address and phone number and let them keep tabs on the brand of butter you buy.

5. You Eat Out More Often Than You Eat at Home

If your breakfast comes in a Styrofoam container, your lunch is delivered in a plastic box, and you’re choosing dinner from a menu, you’re spending way more than you have to. You can’t help it if you’re on the road, but otherwise, you can eat as well or better at home for a lot less money, even if you barely cook at all. Tax and tip alone add about 25% to the price you’d pay if you bought the food yourself and just nuked it. If you actually know how to cook, there’s sort of no excuse.

Read next: How Do I Set a Budget I Can Stick To?

More From Len Penzo dot Com:

Summary: Unless you're in a witness protection program, it's worth it to sign up for loyalty programs from merchants you frequent.


Former Republican lieutenant governor Kerry Healey says she can’t vote for Donald Trump.

Putnam Investments chief executive Robert Reynolds, a loyal GOP backer, said he is “focused on the House and Senate campaigns.”

And private equity veteran Scott Sperling, a major Hillary Clinton fund-raiser in 2008 and Mitt Romney supporter in 2012, has not yet embraced a candidate.

“I just don’t see myself being there at this point for either candidate,’’ said Sperling, co-president of Thomas H. Lee Partners in Boston.

For many Republican-leaning business executives in Massachusetts, known in the past for vocal political positions and deep pockets, this is a tortured election season that has them sitting on the sidelines.

“I don’t worry about Donald Trump launching a nuclear missile or wreaking havoc for Wall Street,’’ Sperling said. But he does worry about the Republican nominee’s off-the-cuff remarks.

Doug Clifford, left, argued with Darrell Crate, chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party, right, on the steps of the State House in 2004.

“It’s not my style, and I think it’s one of the things that makes him someone that lots of people can’t support,” said Sperling, who is no fan of the Obama administration’s financial regulations, which he believes Clinton will continue.

It’s a microcosm of the dilemma Republicans around the country have faced: deciding what to do about Trump.

Nationally, Republican figures including former Treasury secretary Henry Paulson and Hewlett-Packard executive Meg Whitman have shifted their support to Clinton in the wake of some of Trump’s controversies. Boston’s largest hedge fund manager, Seth Klarman, who ordinarily supports GOP candidates, also has defected to Clinton.

But for many in this state’s financial sector — who rallied around Romney in the last cycle — there is no appealing choice this year.

Healey, who served as lieutenant governor under Romney and is now president of Babson College in Wellesley, said in an interview that she is leaning toward the Libertarian ticket, which includes former Massachusetts governor William Weld.

“As a lifelong Republican who has deeply conservative values concerning the economy and foreign policy, it is a painful and difficult decision not to support our candidate,’’ she said. “But I cannot vote for Donald Trump.”

Her reasons: “Trump’s arrogant and offensive verbal assaults on veterans and their families, the disabled, women, Hispanics, immigrants, and anyone who dares to question his opinions,” she said, “reveal a deeply flawed personal character.”

She added: “His ignorance of our Constitution is unforgivable in a candidate for president.”

As to whether casting a ballot for Weld is a throw-away vote, Healey said, “It’s the only scenario that seems to offer an alternative to those of us who feel caught in the middle.”

Scott Sperling, Betsy Nabel, and John Fish attended the Brigham and Women's Palm Beach dinner in this file photo.

Others, though, are just avoiding the topic of politics in a particularly divisive year. Privately, a number of Republicans and Democrats in Boston financial circles are predicting that more people will move toward Clinton, casting a ballot, if not writing a check.

Abigail Johnson, chief executive of Fidelity Investments, supported Jeb Bush last fall, but it’s not yet known whom she’ll support next. Construction magnate John Fish wrote checks to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida before the primary. He was unavailable for comment this week.

Better evidence of where the city’sexecutives stand should come later this month, when the next round of fund-raising reports for presidential campaigns and SuperPACs are due at the Federal Election Commission.

Amid the uncertainty, some party stalwarts are standing their ground. Jerry Jordan, a longtime Boston investment executive and GOP donor, was a co-chair of a Trump fund-raiser over the weekend on Cape Cod at the home of billionaire Bill Koch.

Darrell Crate, an investment executive who formerly oversaw the Massachusetts Republican Party and served as a Romney campaign official, said he is supporting Trump.

“Fundamentally, I’m in the camp of, disruption in government is good. We do need a new path,’’ Crate said in an interview. “It’s very clear that Donald Trump is laying out a different path.”

Summary: For many Republican business executives in Massachusetts, known in the past for their strong political positions and deep pockets, this is a tortured election season that has them sitting on the sidelines.


Writer Tory Newmyer (@torynewmyer) is filling in for Geoff Colvin this week.

Donald Trump on Monday attempted to reset his struggling campaign with a speech outlining his economic agenda. He described a plan that stitches together mostly traditional, supply-side prescriptions — cutting the top individual tax rate to 33 percent and the corporate rate to 15 percent, ending the estate tax, and imposing a moratorium on new regulation — with his protectionist approach to trade that’s had business howling. The address has received mixed reviews. But at least for the Trump campaign, for a moment, the focus was on substance, rather than the candidate’s latest conspiracy theory or salvo in one of his ongoing feuds.

If the Trump campaign’s hope was to stanch the bleeding from the rolling disaster that was last week, the early returns are not particularly encouraging. The newly buttoned-down, on-message Trump survived until 6:45pm, when he suggested via a tweet that Hillary Clinton’s “hacked emails” were responsible for the execution of an Iranian nuclear scientist, citing as evidence that “many people” have said so. Meanwhile, high-profile Republican defections continued to mount. Fifty top Republican national security figures released a letter declaring Trump “would be the most reckless president in American history” and endanger “our country’s national security and well-being.” And Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican from a state where Trump hopes to pick up an electoral vote, published an op-ed announcing she won’t support him. Collins pointed in part to the candidate’s post-primary failure to “focus on jobs and the economy, tone down his rhetoric, develop more thoughtful policies and, yes, apologize for ill-tempered rants.”

Trump so far has ignored the Collins snub. But his campaign released a statement responding to the national security officials’ letter, donning it as a badge of honor. “The names on this letter are the ones the American people should look to for answers on why the world is a mess, and we thank them for coming forward so everyone in this country knows who deserves the blame for making the world such a dangerous place,” his statement read. “They are nothing more than the failed Washington elite looking to hold onto their power, and it’s time they are held accountable for their actions.”

The response feels like a relevant footnote to yesterday’s post in this space. It looked at the New York Times investigation into think tanks courting corporate sponsors and the risk the practice poses for an arguably imperiled expert class. Trump knows he owes his success so far in part to a popular rejection of the Washington establishment. The officials who signed the Monday letter draw their credibility from decades of service at the top levels of government. Trump, who’s never served, hews to a different standard, as he makes clear when he cites the speculation of “many people” as evidence his Democratic opponent’s emails got a scientist killed. Monday’s economic address notwithstanding, that is the candidate he’s been and will continue to be, though his appeal to GOP primary voters doesn’t appear to be translating to a general-election audience.

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Summary: Power Sheet - August 9, 2016


Showtime's Homeland starts filming its sixth season next week in New York. Despite the fact that they have yet to shoot a single frame, stars Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin and showrunner/co-creator Alex Gansa had a lot to talk about when meeting with reporters on Thursday afternoon at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour.

As casting and teased log lines have implied, the sixth season will focus on the election — or rather, its immediate aftermath. It takes place between Election Day and the presidential inauguration. But just because the drama, which tries to keep pace with current events, has cast a woman (Elizabeth Marvel) to play the president elect does not mean that they're sure Hillary Clinton will win in November.

"Every season, when we're developing stories, we're terrified of being counterfactual by the time we air," said Gansa. "This year, we're hedging our bets a little bit. She's a little bit Hillary, a little bit Donald Trump and a little bit Bernie Sanders."

He continued: "If you listen to Donald Trump, there are these people who run the government from administration to administration and they have completely screwed the world up. There is part of that in our president. There is also a little bit of Hillary, in terms of she's a pragmatist and knows Washington from the inside."

'Homeland' Casts Female President for Season 6

Touching on Trump specifically, Gansa noted that one of the many people they've consulted about is general and former NSA head Michael Hayden. Hayden has been outspoken about the potential dangers of a Trump presidency. "I think it's fair to say there's some concern," Gansa offered.

When asked why they chose New York over Washington, D.C., Gansa pointed to it being Danes' primary residence. They both also offered up that it naturally plays into a national security narrative. "The most life-altering, country-changing event in the world happened in New York on Sept. 11," offered Gansa. "We are still dealing with the reaction to that as a country. Someone might argue there was an overreaction in the aftermath. ... Those are the things we're dealing with this season."

The president elect, a junior New York Senator, will be conducting the transition out of her home state.

The biggest question in the aftermath of Homeland's fifth season was the fate of Rupert Friend's character. And, despite Quinn seemingly dying in the last scenes, Friend is still listed as a series regular.

'Homeland' Near Renewal for Seasons 7 and 8, Won't Return Until 2017

"Quinn is alive," said Gansa of the character. "I can say that much, but we really want to be careful about revealing what his condition is. He suffered a major stroke last season. You are going to see a very changed and altered Quinn this year. I think Quinn, this coming season, will really represent a profound and familiar casualty of the war on terror for our audience. What he endured last year is different from what he'll go through this year. This year will be suffused with his daily relationship with Claire's character."

Danes did not talk much about about her character's emotional storylines, but she did touch on her relationship with Patinkin's Saul. "I think that they have diverged," she said. "There has been a split that they've been working on repairing over the course of the last couple of seasons — to varying degrees of success. Saul has committed himself even more to the agency, and Carrie rejects some fundamental principals of it. They are still profoundly bonded."

As Showtime boss David Nevins announced in June, Homeland will get a seventh and eighth season. It could still go on after that — but when asked if he had an idea about an endgame, Gansa offered a shrug.

"I wish," he said. "We really don't. David Nevins says we take the show season by season. We take it episode by episode. Pie in the sky, we would all like to take the show back to Israel for the final season. It would be great to end the run there, but it's a big question if we could ever go back."

Summary: Alex Gansa also notes that, should they be able to, he'd like to see the final season film in Israel.


(WALKERTON, Ind.) — A northern Indiana pizzeria that closed after its owner said his religious beliefs wouldn’t allow him to cater a gay wedding opened Thursday to a full house of friends, regulars and people wanting to show their support.

“It’s a relief to get going again and try to get back to normal,” said Kevin O’Connor, owner of Memories Pizza.

O’Connor closed the shop for eight days after comments by him and his daughter, Crystal, to a local television station supporting a new religious objections law. The law, which has since been revised, sparked a boycott of Indiana.

O’Connor said the criticism hasn’t changed his beliefs. He said gays are welcome in his restaurant in the small, one-traffic-light town of Walkerton, 20 miles southwest of South Bend, but that he would decline to cater a same-sex wedding because it would conflict with his Christian beliefs.

“I’d do the same thing again. It’s my belief. It’s our belief. It’s what we grew up on,” he said. “I’m just sorry it comes to this because neither one of us dislike any of those people. I don’t hold any grudges.”

A crowdfunding campaign started by supporters raised more than $842,000 with donations from 29,160 contributors in 48 hours. O’Connor said he hasn’t received the money yet, but said he plans to give some to charity and use some money to make improvements to the restaurant.

The 61-year-old father of eight who has owned the restaurant for nine years said he never thought about taking the money and retiring.

“I enjoy it. I don’t want to leave here,” he said. “I want this to be something that my daughter can enjoy.”

Crystal O’Connor said the amount of money was overwhelming.

“We were like, ‘Stop! Stop! Stop!'” she said.

“It was really making us uncomfortable,” her father said.

The restaurant reopened about 4 p.m. Thursday. He says that within an hour, all eight tables were filled and six people were waiting for carryout orders. There were no protests as of 7 p.m.

Jeanne and Ken Gumm from outside LaPorte, about 20 miles northwest of Walkerton, said they had been waiting for the pizzeria to reopen so they could show their support.

“We couldn’t wait to get down here,” said Ken Gumm, 66, a tank truck driver. “To us this whole thing isn’t about gay marriage. It’s mostly about freedom of religion.”

Read next: Why Religious Freedom Bills Could Be Great for Gay Rights

Summary: Shop closed after owner said his beliefs wouldn't let him to cater a gay wedding


A large Beverly Hills estate once owned by comedian Danny Thomas is going on the market for $135 million, according to several real-estate agents.

On roughly 2½ acres, the property is in Trousdale Estates, said listing agent Aaron Kirman, president of Aaroe Estates, with the John Aaroe Group. Mr. Kirman declined to discuss the listing price, but said it should be valued substantially higher than the property next door, which he said sold for a Beverly Hills record of $70 million last year to Markus Persson, the Swedish creator of the Minecraft videogame.

This 18,000-square-foot, eight-bedroom, 12-bathroom home is on more than twice as much land and features “360-degree views of all of Los Angeles” amid privacy, due to its position on a promontory, Mr. Kirman said.

Mr. Kirman said the owner, whom he declined to identify, undertook a “down to the studs” renovation. French architect and interior designer Jacques Garcia, who is known for work with the Rothschilds, Versailles and the Louvre, accentuated the Moorish design, added $2.5 million worth of Baccarat chandeliers and designed custom, hand-woven carpets, which will be included in the sale. “The décor has a specific market, but the market that likes it, loves it,” Mr. Kirman said, adding that there “is a market for people who love ornate detail.”

Mr. Thomas bought the property in the late 1960s, according to news reports, and built the house in 1970, according to public records. After his widow died in 2000, the couple’s children, including actress Marlo Thomas, sold the property for $15 million, according to public records.

According to an analysis by Property Shark, no home in Los Angeles County has sold for north of $100 million, though several have tried with asking prices of $125 million to $150 million. Palazzo di Amore, a 25-acre estate in Beverly Hills, is on the market for $195 million.

Write to Katy McLaughlin at katy.mclaughlin@wsj.com

Summary: The Trousdale Estates property includes an 18,000-square-foot Moorish style house