was floored when she and her husband, Bobby, learned two years ago that the thyroid cancer they thought he had beaten in 2009 had returned – and moved to his lungs.

"I was hysterically crying," the former

tells PEOPLE. "I was scared to death."

When Bobby, 69, was first diagnosed with thyroid cancer, he had his thyroid removed and underwent a radioactive iodine treatment. "The radioactive iodine usually kills off whatever undetectable cancer cells are left in your body after surgery," he says. "We thought it was cured – and it usually is in about 93 percent of cases. But I wasn't able to absorb the radioactive iodine. So it came back."

Bobby says he had no symptoms the first time he was diagnosed – or the second. He found out that the thyroid cancer had spread to his lungs at a routine checkup at the Princeton Longevity Center.

"If it wasn't for that routine checkup, it could have been too late by the time we would have found it," says Jill.

Even though she was upset, Jill, 51, says she sprang into action to try to find the best treatments for Bobby. "I wanted to do everything I could to help him," she says.

Working the phones and researching the best treatments available led them to David Pfister, a top oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York, Dr. Keith Bible, a top oncologist at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and then to Dr. Richard Lazzaro at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital, a leader in the field of robotic thoracic surgery.

"Dr. Lazzaro immediately did a biopsy and diagnosed that it was not lung cancer but that it was thyroid cancer in the lung, based on the pathology report," says Jill.

After regularly scanning the tumors in Bobby's lungs for more than two years to see if they had grown, and getting a fourth opinion at the Mayo Clinic in April, Lazzaro removed them using the da Vinci Robotic System, a minimally invasive option for major surgery.

"What Dr. Lazzaro does is amazing," says Bobby. "He sits at one end of the room at what looks like an Xbox, controlling a robot that does the surgery. So instead of making these huge incisions, which leaves you with all these scars and all the things that go with a big surgery, they go in with these tiny little tubes which are cameras and tools that remove the tumor."

Within hours of the surgery, he says he was surprised that he was able to get up out of bed. "I stayed in the hospital for three days, but I was walking around that same night of the surgery, not like in the old days when you had a long recuperation and major scarring," says Bobby. "It's a big difference."

After Bobby's tumors were removed, Jill immediately had samples of the cancerous tissue sent to billionaire

whom she had seen on CBS's

talking about the cutting-edge, high-speed tumor genome sequencing machines he has developed at his company, Nantworks, which try to pinpoint genetic mutations to battle a patient's particular cancer.

"Nobody is doing what he is doing," says Jill. "We reached out to him and he took Bobby's case. We are very lucky."

She and Bobby are awaiting the results of those tests. "I am very hopeful that he can help me," says Bobby.

In the meantime, he and Jill have teamed up with the

which is honoring Bobby at a benefit on July 11 in Bridgehampton, New York, called "A Hamptons Happening."

Bobby and Jill hope to raise $1 million for a new grant for research into targeted therapies for thyroid cancer research at the benefit.

"It's actually a very exciting time for cancer research," says Bobby. "There are a lot of new developments. The way of looking at cancer treatment is really changing. Before, if you had prostate cancer, they treated that. If you had breast cancer, they treated that."

He continues, "Now they are treating cancer in a whole different way. It's not where you have it but what kind of cancer you have – targeted therapy. I have thyroid cancer, and it could be anywhere. In my case, it moved to my lungs. But it is still thyroid cancer. They treat thyroid cancer differently than lung cancer. That's why this is so important."

He says he is beyond appreciative of all that Jill has done to help him beat cancer. "Jill got a group of doctors together who are like the A-team," he says. "She really looked into everything and did so much research. It's good I have Jill on my side."

Says Jill, "When it comes to a cancer diagnosis, some people don't want to tell anybody. They feel if they don't tell anybody, it's going to go away. Like if you don't talk about it, it doesn't exist.

"But Bobby and I want to talk about it," says Jill, who has a lead role in the upcoming TV horror movie,

"We are willing to share our story in the hope that it will help someone else," she says.

Beyond the "tremendous strides" the medical community is making with cancer treatments, Bobby says there is another big factor when it comes to fighting cancer.

"It's all about your outlook," he says. "Many of my doctors tell me that a large percentage of the way you heal and feel is your attitude.

"You have to have a positive attitude. I have always been very optimistic and my doctors feel that has been a tremendous benefit to me."

to support the campaign by buying tickets to the event or by making a donation through the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation.

Summary: The former Real Housewife of New York star's husband, Bobby Zarin, is battling cancer once again


A year after little-known Irish woman Stephanie Roche finished as runner-up in FIFA’s goal of the year , there may be another unlikely bolter for the Puskas award in 2015.

Birtalan Botond plays in the Hungarian second division for Bekescsaba when he scored a goal that needs to be seen to be believed.

With his team 2-1 down, Botond made a late run to the edge of the box as a cross came in, slightly behind him.

It was then that the 25-year-old produced one for the ages, swinging his right leg behind him to pull off an inch perfect back-heel scorpion kick that lobbed the keeper and crossed the line off the underside of the cross bar.

The jaw-dropping goal fittingly earned his side a point.

Botond’s effort will surely be amongst the FIFA Puskas award nominees at the end of the year.

If by some miracle it’s not, then fans are in for treat because there will have to be some outrageous goals for the Hungarian to miss out.

Do you have any news photos or videos?


Anthony Mackie (left) and Chris Evans

08/15/2015 AT 05:35 PM EDT

joke around, but when it comes to touting the newest installment in the

franchise, Chris Evans and Anthony Mackie will go to the ends of the earth to promote it.

Before jumping on a plane to Germany to finish shooting scenes for the franchise's third film, Mackie (who plays The Falcon) and Evans (who plays Captain America) surprised fans at Disney's D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, on Saturday.

"I'm so happy to be here," Evans said after being introduced on stage by costar Mackie. "I'm a big, big, big Disney fan."

Before Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige showed a new clip from the film (which Evans called "so good!"), the duo joked about their devotion to all things Disneyland.Â

In fact, Evans hilariously revealed that when he's not saving the world on the big screen, his spare time is occupied "on YouTube watching other people's experiences in Disneyland."Â

"Then we go back in our trailer and sing the theme song for

(We can only hope that last bit is true.)

, which boasts a high-profile ensemble cast that includes

, Jeremy Renner, Paul Rudd and Elizabeth Olsen, is slated to hit theaters on May 6, 2016.

Summary: Chris Evans and Anthony Mackie surprise fans at Disney's D23 Expo on Saturday


U.S. markets were thrown for another roller-coaster ride Wednesday as investors reacted to the ongoing negotiations between Greece and other euro zone countries.

The Dow Jones dropped 100 points before regaining about 50 points in Wednesday's trading session. Nevertheless, Hedge Fund Manager David Tepper told CNBC on Tuesday that the markets would survive in spite of Greece's situation. "A deal would be good for the markets, but I think the markets could survive even if it goes the other way," he said.

Other market experts, including Holland & Co. Chairman Mike Holland, agree with Tepper's assessment. "He's a bad person to vote against," he said on CNBC's "Power Lunch" on Wednesday. "He's been very successful, and he is actually reflecting what the markets are saying. When Greek news got ugly in the last several days, the Greek market went down, but the European markets shrugged it off, [as did] markets in Asia."

Read MoreGreek deal odds 'reasonably good': Deutsche Bank co-CEO

Others, however, believe that forgiving Greece's debt could set off a dangerous precedent. "The big deal, and why we saw the volatility in the equities markets … is that, if Greece is allowed to get a haircut, we've already been told by lesser countries within the European Union [they'd want a haircut, too]," Ben Willis, senior floor broker at Princeton Securities Group, said in the same interview.

Nevertheless, Willis added he believed that Greece's exit would have a minimal effect on the EU. "If we put in the perspective of the United States, we'd be talking about Rhode Island leaving the U.S. It's not a big deal." He also said Greece should and will leave the EU.

Summary: While markets will pull through it, the Greek crisis could set off a dangerous precedent, according to one expert.


Expect your Google search results to get a bit more mobile friendly starting Tuesday.

Google's changing its search algorithms Tuesday to favor sites that work well on smartphones. That's great for mobile users, but bad for websites that haven't updated to correspond with the exploding number of mobile web users.

The web giant's new algorithm will determine whether or not a site is mobile friendly. If it isn't, the site won't appear prominently in search results.

Read MoreHow this man is profiting from 'mobilegeddon'

The change could push website owners to upgrade their sites since so many searches happen on mobile device rather than desktop computers.


Stress—gaaaaaaaah! It's everywhere these days. And nowhere do we get more stressed out than at work.

Forty percent of American workers say their job is very or extremely stressful, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Well, job site CareerCast is out with its annual list of the 10 most stressful and 10 least stressful jobs for 2014.

"We look at things like: Is it a job in which your own life is at risk or the lives of others?" said Tony Lee, publisher of CareerCast.com and JobsRated.com.

In all, there are 11 different criteria that determine the most and least stressful jobs. But, it's not just dangerous jobs or jobs with great physical demands. Some jobs also make the list because there are constant deadlines, responsibility for others or the job involves a lot of work in the public eye, he said. They also factor in job outlook, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. If the outlook is weak, that adds to the stress level.

The good news is that stress levels seem to be on the decline from a year ago.

"That's primarily due to economic conditions. As the country continues to recover, stress levels continue to fall, the hiring outlook improves a little, workload improves a little and overall job stress improves a little," Lee said.

So, did your job make the list? Click ahead for the 10 most stressful jobs for 2014.

By CNBC's Cindy Perman Posted 7 Jan. 2014

Summary: Think your job is stressful? Take a number. Here are the 10 most stressful jobs of 2014.


Four "diamond-dusted" portraits of the Queen by Andy Warhol have been acquired by the Royal Collection and are to go on display to mark the diamond jubilee.

The screenprints, which are from the US artist's Royal Edition, are sprinkled with fine particles of crushed glass which sparkle in the light like diamonds.

The 100cm x 80cm brightly coloured images, from the 14th set in a special edition of 30, will now go on display at Windsor Castle as part of an exhibition entitled The Queen: Portraits of a Monarch.

The exhibition, which opens on 23 November, features a selection of commissioned and formal portraits that highlight the many ways the Queen has been represented in different media throughout her reign, and celebrating both the jubilee and the anniversary of the coronation.

Warhol, who once said: "I want to be as famous as the Queen of England," created the images in 1985 as part of his largest portfolio of screen prints on paper, Reigning Queens, which also included prints of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen Margrethe of Denmark and Queen Ntombi of Swaziland.

As in many of his other famous works, Warhol used an earlier photograph to create his portrait. The photograph of the Queen was taken in April 1975 by the Reading-based photographer Peter Grugeon, and released for official use during the silver jubilee.

The Queen: Portraits of a Monarch runs from 23 November 2012 to 9 June 2013

Summary: Four screenprints of monarch featuring fine glass particles to go on display in Windsor Castle to mark diamond jubilee


Unlike photo-sharing app makers and Web-based business software developers, who constantly have to put resources into tracking and beating back the new competition, companies in the chip market can focus their investments on products and listen to the demands of their customers.

"Over the long term, that's what creates competitive moats," said John Pitzer, an equity analyst covering semiconductor companies for Credit Suisse in New York. "In all of tech, they tend to have the highest barriers to entry."

Silicon Laboratories hasn't seen a direct correlation in its recent stock performance—it's up only 8 percent in the past year—but smart investors are finding plenty of opportunity in these chip companies. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX), consisting of 30 chip-related stocks, has jumped 27 percent in the past year, through Aug. 6, topping the 12.5 percent gain in the Standard & Poor's 500 and 23 percent Nasdaq 100 return. This year, the semi index is up 12.5 percent versus an S&P 500 return of 3 percent and Nasdaq 100 gain of 7 percent. The SOX members are benefiting from a spate of acquisitions in the market, which is leaving fewer players to compete for the pool of available dollars. The most recent was Applied Materials' agreement last year to buy Tokyo Electron for more than $9 billion, a deal that's yet to close.

Read MoreMeet the 2014 CNBC RQ 50

Lam, a major equipment supplier to chipmakers and No. 16 on the CNBC RQ 50 list, has been a recent winner, with its stock up 40 percent in the past 12 months, through Aug. 6. The Fremont, California-based company sells to the likes of Samsung and TSMC and is profiting from surging demand for chips in all sorts of mobile devices. In June industry group Semi forecast that semiconductor fab-equipment spending would jump 24 percent this year, to $35.7 billion, and another 11 percent in 2015 to near-record levels.

Ruben Roy, a semiconductor analyst at Piper Jaffray in New York, calls Lam his favorite stock in the semiconductor equipment market.

"They're a share taker," said Roy, who has an $80 price target on the stock, approximately 15 percent above its current share price. "From a pure R&D perspective, they've probably done the best job over the past five years."

Lam CFO Doug Bettinger said the company's R&D expertise comes from close interactions with its customers and research institutions, which are critical to meet the engineering challenges of building more sophisticated features onto smaller chips. Lam signed an agreement in June with Imec, a nanoelectronics research center in Belgium, expanding an R&D partnership that includes sharing of tools and resources for the development of integrated circuit technology.

"We spend a lot of time talking with our counterparts at a customer level, trying to understand what they're going to need in three years and how can we work together with them to anticipate what's going to be needed," Bettinger said. "There are only so many dollars you can spend to do all the development you need to do and still meet the financial model for your investors," he said.

—By CNBC's Ari Levy. Follow him on Twitter: @levynews

Summary: As the silicon chip nears its theoretical limit of productivity, semiconductor companies are in an R&D arms race to drive chip innovation.


* Contracts need to be more diverse, transparent

* Infrastructure for south will be economic priority

* Efforts underway to resolve tensions in ruling party

BISSAU, May 5 (Reuters) - Guinea Bissau is reviewing contracts signed by previous governments as the West African country seeks to ensure miners have sufficient means to kick-start its $2 billion economy, its prime minister told Reuters.

Domingos Simoes Pereira, elected at polls a year ago that sealed a transition back to democracy after a 2012 coup, said the review was also aimed at diversifying investment in services such as maritime transport and telecoms, dominated by former colonial power Portugal.

Fishing and timber contracts would also be analysed to ensure sustainability for resources, he said.

Most of Guinea-Bissau's roughly $250 million in exports come from fish and cashew nuts, though the government aims to develop its bauxite and phosphate sectors.

The government wants to encourage investment as the country of 1.7 million people seeks to shed its image as a cocaine transit point between South America and Europe.

"Today, we want to bring clarity to all contracts that risk posing problems," the prime minister said in an interview.

"For some, there will be audits, for others an inspection by the finance ministry will be enough," he added.

The prime minister wants to ensure that contracts ensure a fair return for the country and that the companies awarded them have the means to invest properly.

Russian miner Poto has suspended its extraction of heavy mineral sands from Varela on the north coast of Bissau amid a dispute over tax payments and environmental damage.

Canada's GB Minerals operates the fledgling Farim phosphate mine in the north, while miner Bauxite Angola has a bauxite project in the southeast at Boe.

Guinea-Bissau's main port is operated by Portugal's Tertir Group and its main telecoms company is controlled by Portugal Telecom. The main port in the capital Bissau is small and some cargoes can only be delivered at high tide.

"I had a meeting with Portugal's prime minister and I explained simply that we need to open these sectors to competition," Pereira said.

Economic growth this year is expected to nearly double from 2014 to 4.7 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund. Donors pledged more than 1 billion euros at a conference in Brussels in March to support a 10-year development programme aimed at giving Guinea Bissau a fresh start.

Pereira said the government will prioritise improving infrastructure in the south, reviving a deep sea port project at Buba and a railway linking it to a bauxite mine in Boe.

Since Guinea-Bissau won independence in 1974, no elected government or president has completed a mandate, sapping economic development.

While confidence in institutions is growing, diplomatic and political sources express concerns about tensions between Simoes Pereira and President Jose Mario Vaz, former rivals for the PAIGC party leadership in 2014.

Unlike many African countries where the president is supreme, the semi-presidential Portuguese system leaves considerable overlap in their duties.

"Certain officials have expressed their concern about the coordination difficulties that exist between us. Yes, discussions are happening," said Pereira, seated beneath a framed photograph of Vaz in his office.

He said that the PAIGC, which fought for independence against Portugal between 1960-1974, planned a party convention this year to address tensions.

(Editing by Daniel Flynn and Keith Weir)

Summary: BISSAU, May 5- Guinea Bissau is reviewing contracts signed by previous governments as the West African country seeks to ensure miners have sufficient means to kick-start its $2 billion economy, its prime minister told Reuters. Domingos Simoes Pereira, elected at polls a year ago that sealed a transition back to democracy after a 2012 coup, said the review was...


(James Saft is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own)

Aug 12 (Reuters) - Deciding if you want to bet on Alphabet is essentially a choice on what you want to back: Sergey Brin and Larry Page or human nature.

Brin and Page have changed the world and created a cash flow behemoth in Google. Human nature, on the other hand, has created every other conglomerate, which, with the possible exception of Berkshire Hathaway, have a general record of capital misallocation and underperformance.

Alphabet, of course, is the new holding company Brin and Page have created, and will head, which will comprise both Google and their far-flung and growing list of other companies working on everything from longevity to contact lenses that can measure blood glucose in diabetics.

This isn't so much Google, or Alphabet, becoming a conglomerate as codifying how its collection of companies and investments will be managed. The new structure offers certain advantages, freeing the co-founders to concentrate on 'moonshot' efforts while cleaning up lines should it want debt finance.

None of this should be a surprise. Page and Brin have always been upfront about not managing for shareholder value maximization. And last year they created an additional class of shares, one which, as it has no voting rights, will allow them to raise capital and reward executives but lose control over the direction of the company at a slower pace.

So, then, a conglomerate, with all that implies, and one with multiple share classes insulating the founders from the will of shareholders. What, as they say, could possibly go wrong?

Investors in publicly traded companies have a hugely diverging set of options these days, few of them particularly satisfying from a shareholder's point of view. On the one hand you have far too many companies which are giving financial engineering, usually via share buybacks, precedence over investment in their core franchise. That's problematic because investors risk seeing that franchise hollowed out over time as manager prioritize making quarter-by-quarter increases in earnings, even illusory ones, over building.

On the other hand you have the mad builders, of which Alphabet nee Google is a prime example. My reservation isn't whether the core cash flow machine Google, which produces some $20 billion annually in operating cash, is fairly priced.

Instead it is who gets a shot at the fruits of those profits, and how. To want to buy Alphabet, and clearly many do, you have got to be willing to give up a lot of customary protection in exchange for access to their world-changing genius.

While quite a few technology companies such as Alibaba and Facebook have dual or multiple share structures, the man making the most convincing, at least to the market, argument for the conglomerate is Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway is just that, and has a long record of success.

Buffett stands in contrast to Brin and Page, offering discipline and patience as a capital allocator where they offer inspiration and 'moonshots'. Warren, after all, would never try to tell you that Dairy Queen will help you live to 150, only that it is a business which can be profitable over the long term if managed well.

So both companies are votes on exceptionalism, Buffett's or Alphabet's.

The rules which make the exceptions in conglomerates and multi-share class companies meaningful, however, are not encouraging.

Conglomerates as a group trade at a structural discount to intrinsic value, a phenomenon which has gone on so long it even has a name, the 'conglomerate discount'. This discount in 2012 stood at about 10 percent, according to Boston Consulting, a bit less than the 14 percent or so average since 1990.

That's because conglomerates have a poor track record of capital allocation, being prone to supporting executives' dreams of empire rather than taking a gimlet-eyed view of return on equity.

A 2012 study by Institutional Shareholder Services, funded by the Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute, found that tightly controlled companies - especially those with multiple share classes - generally underperform over the longer term. (http://irrcinstitute.org/projects.php?project=61)

All of this is as unshocking as it gets. Human nature argues that Alphabet, and perhaps even Berkshire Hathaway, will be likely to fall prey to the same shareholder-damaging behavior that undermines the groups of which they are emblematic.

Some might conceivably feel they just can't afford not to be exposed to Alphabet.

I myself am glad they are doing this investing, some of which may lead to exciting or even world-changing businesses. I am gladder still they are doing it with someone else's money. (At the time of publication James Saft did not own any direct investments in securities mentioned in this article. He may be an owner indirectly as an investor in a fund. You can email him at jamessaftzjamessaft.com and find more columns at http://blogs.reuters.com/james-saft)

Summary: Aug 12- Deciding if you want to bet on Alphabet is essentially a choice on what you want to back: Sergey Brin and Larry Page or human nature. Brin and Page have changed the world and created a cash flow behemoth in Google. Human nature, on the other hand, has created every other conglomerate, which, with the possible exception of Berkshire Hathaway, have a general record...


On Tuesday, the world's largest indexing firm, MSCI, will rule whether shares in mainland China should be included in the firm's global indexing scheme, which is used by fund managers and ETF providers the world over.

It could mean billions of dollars would come out of other emerging market countries like Brazil and South Africa and flow into mainland China.

There are three main classifications of Chinese stocks: 1) A-shares, which are mainland China stocks, 2) H-shares, which are Chinese companies that trade on the Hong Kong exchange, and 3) N-shares, Chinese companies that list on the U.S. markets.

While H-shares and N-shares are widely available to outside investors, the A-shares are not. But that is changing.

Why is this a big deal? It's simple: indexers rule the world. Many investors are increasingly investing through indices, most of which are used in the 1,600 ETFs that are traded every day in the U.S.

Adding more China stocks to indexes essentially forces investors to hold more exposure to China.

There's a larger political and economic issue at stake: China wants to become a bigger part of global trade. A key component of that is to become a bigger part of the global stock trading market.

By all accounts, China is slowly accomplishing that goal. Mainland China (the Shenzen and Shanghai exchanges) has the second-largest stock market by market capitalization, while Hong Kong is third:

Stock market capitalization by country (in trillions)U.S. $24.8China 9.7Hong Kong 5.2Japan 5.0UK 3.8France 2.1Canada 2.0Germany 1.9Source: Bloomberg

But China has had problems getting to "the next level." The problems are twofold:

1) China itself has restricted ownership of A-shares by foreigners. However, the government has begun allowing more access to the mainland market. Last November, for example, a trading link was established between the Hong-Kong Exchange and the Shanghai Exchange that allowed foreign investors to buy mainland shares through registered broker dealers, though this, too, is subject to a quota.

2) Indexers—including MSCI and its main competitor, FTSE—have until recently considered the A-shares ineligible for inclusion in their indexes because of those restrictions and, to a lesser extent, over concern about government control of some of the largest enterprises.

The key is that MSCI must be comfortable that there are enough A- shares available to foreign investors to replicate their indices, and that may be a problem. After all, they can't reweight the indices and then discover that the people using the indices (ETFs, for example) can't buy enough stock to cover demand.

One way to deal with this issue is a gradual roll out of, say 5 percent of the listings by market weight initially, then adding more in the coming years. They could, for example, just include a few large companies initially.

One thing's for sure: there is clearly momentum to bring mainland China into the international fold.

Just a couple weeks ago, MSCI's competitor, FTSE, added China A-shares to its core benchmarks.

This is getting a bit more publicity than usual because of the enormous out-performance of China's mainland market this year.

China markets this year Shanghai, up 58%Shenzhen, up 112%

Those are eye-popping numbers, and we have seen much higher levels of money flowing into the few ETFs that have access to China A-shares, including the X-trackers CSI 300 A-Shares ETF (ASHR), which launched in 2013.

Let's look at the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, which is the index used for the largest emerging market ETF, the iShares Emerging Market ETF (EEM).

There's over $1.5 trillion indexed to this alone.

Right now, about 23 percent is pegged to China, all represented by stocks that are listed in Hong Kong.

MSCI Emerging Markets Index (weighting)China 23%South Korea 14%Taiwan 13%South Africa 7%India 7%Brazil 5%Mexico 5%Russia 4%Other 20%

However, the market for mainland China stocks is far larger than Hong Kong--adding even modest amounts of mainland shares could push China's percentage over 30 percent. Some estimate that if China was fully weighted in the index, it could represent 60 percent of the entire EEM!

Which would probably be fine with China.

The next step would be to include more of China in broader, global indices. For example, the MSCI All Countries World Index has a minuscule weighting to China:

MSCI All Countries World Index (weighting)U.S. 50%Japan 8%UK 6%Germany 3%China 2%Source: ETFdb.com

Note the disparity: the U.S. has 50 percent of the weighting, and China has only 2 percent, despite the fact that China is roughly 15 percent of global GDP.

One final point: China is also set to announce an additional Shenzhen-Hong Kong stock link to complement the existing Shanghai-Hong Kong link. If that happens, it will make it even easier to own mainland China shares, and MSCI could accelerate the integration of China into the global markets.

Get ready to own more of China!

Summary: MSCI may add China to global indices


"As large-scale retailers, the move by those companies to try to thwart Apple Pay will have a small impact on its ramp, but ultimately it will be consumers who will decide the fate of Apple Pay," said Brian Blair, managing director at Rosenblatt Securities.

MCX, which won't be available until 2015, is developing CurrentC, an app that scans the bar code of the product and links payment through the customer's debit card, according to MCX's website, thus bypassing fees associated with credit cards.

Apple Pay has teamed up with credit cards as its form of payment, MasterCard being one of them.

CurrentC will also keep track of customer habits and apply coupons, loyalty programs and membership accounts, while Apple Pay promises anonymity.

Blair is not surprised rivals are popping up to oppose Apple Pay. He says, "If it is safe, and secure and consumers demand it, more and more retailers, including CVS and Rite Aid, will need to support it. However, given that it's only a couple weeks old, it makes sense that some companies are going to see an opportunity to compete with it and try to introduce their own solution."

The MCX consortium has a broad list of major retailers already on board, including Old Navy, Bed Bath and Beyond and Sunoco and is at 110,000 locations.

"We think consumers should have the ability to pay any way they want," said Ed McLaughlin, chief emerging payments officer at MasterCard. "Apple Pay is the most convenient, most secure, and what's best for consumers," Mr. McLaughlin of MasterCard said. "That's what will win out in the end."

Apple didn't return calls for comment.

Summary: What does the future of Apple Pay look like as rivals threaten to steal customers?


Some international human rights groups, meanwhile, have called on Western leaders to condemn Saudi Arabia's record of crushing dissent and depriving women and foreign workers of rights instead of praising its late king.

Read MoreIt's downhill for US after Saudi king dies: Experts

Salman takes charge in Saudi Arabia at a time of deep uncertainty in the kingdom, surrounded by a region in tumult and nervous about both Iranian influence and the spread of Islamist militants.

The kingdom's role in orchestrating Arab support for joint action with Western countries against the Islamic State group has won praise in Washington, while its role as biggest oil exporter is particularly important at this time of market instability.

Saudi jets have bombed IS targets in Syria, its top clerics have issued repeated denunciations of the militant group despite similarities between its ideology and Wahhabism, and the police have detained thousands of militant suspects in the past decade.

Salman pledged on Friday to maintain the kingdom's policies and kept most of Abdullah's cabinet, including the oil, finance and foreign affairs ministers, in place.

Read MoreAlwaleed: No more $100 oil, but we won't blink

Summary: U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to meet its new King Salman after the death of his predecessor Abdullah on Friday.


10/14/2015 AT 07:35 AM EDT

The death on Sunday of a 19-month-old boy has been ruled a homicide by investigators on Long Island, who've filed a formal murder charge against the child's mother's boyfriend.

Officials confirm to PEOPLE that Lord Pardo of Uniondale, New York, is facing a single second-degree murder charge stemming from the suspicious death of Mason Robinson, his girlfriend's young son.

Police did not detail the specific allegations against Pardo and refused to provide any information about the toddler's injuries or how they may have been sustained.

Pardo was not represented by an attorney during his arraignment Tuesday, but entered a not guilty plea.

He is being held on $20,000,000 bond and is due back in court for a hearing Thursday.

Summary: An autopsy revealed 19-month-old's death was intentional homicide


In the 1850s, a New York publisher announced that newspapers were dead: he had seen a telegraph in action. In fact, the immediacy of the telegraph made people much hungrier for news from hundreds of miles away, and proved a major catalyst in the growth of newspapers.

The telegraph story is told by Arthur Sulzberger Jr, the publisher of the New York Times, in a new book called Designing Media. His interlocutor is Bill Moggridge, the man who designed the first laptop in 1980, went on to found IDEO, the largest design firm in the world, and is currently the director of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York. Sulzberger is one of 37 people that Moggridge interviews in the book, from editors and TV producers to the founders of Wikipedia, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. It's a veritable Who's Who of the people who have revolutionised media in the last decade.

Reading the interviews (excerpts of which you can also download and watch on video), I had one question at the front of my mind: what, exactly, is the relationship between design and the media revolution we are experiencing? Or, to put it another way, why is this book – which contains many fascinating insights into the way media work, some of them design-related but most of them not – entitled Designing Media? I didn't find the explanation in the book, so I called up Moggridge to ask him. His answer was simple: because media is a form of design. In fact, he argued, everything is a form of design.

To be honest, I suspected he would say that. Most people may still think that "design" refers to manufactured objects – chairs, telephones and cars – but designers have become far more expansive in their worldview. They now design customer experience and services, from internet banking systems to patient flow in a hospital. Businesses are rapidly latching on to the notion of "design thinking" – the idea that the creative problem-solving used by designers can be applied outside of traditional design – as a means of becoming more effective. Moggridge himself is a paragon of the designer dissolving the boundaries of his discipline. He is the godfather of interaction design, which started out as the design of electronic interfaces but now refers to the design of any form of user experience, from navigating a BlackBerry to paying at a checkout.

From there, it takes no great leap of imagination to understand media as design. After all, many of the new media moguls are software designers. Indeed, Chad Hurley, the founder of YouTube, started out as a graphic designer (probably the only graphic designer in history to become a billionaire). I buy the argument that design thought processes can be applied to almost anything – whether that means we call those things "design" is a semantic discussion we'll save for another time. But I find it easier to understand the argument in relation to new media rather than traditional media. It doesn't seem far fetched at all to describe social networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, and user-generated content sites such as Wikipedia and YouTube as forms of design.

Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales actually describes what he does as "community design". It sounds like a form of social engineering, but what he means by the phrase is that Wikipedia is not just an anarchic piece of crowd-sourcing: it's a carefully designed eco-system. If people are going to work on an encyclopedia for free, you have to create the conditions in which they're willing to do so, by giving them recognition and not profiting from their labour. It was important to Wales to make Wikipedia an open system, and so it was designed around the principle that most people are honest and well-intentioned, rather than making it a closed shop to exclude the few bad apples who want to write false or slanderous entries – in truth, he tried the closed system first with Nupedia and it failed. Yet, while it's true that anyone can write or edit an entry on Wikipedia, everything there is carefully monitored. It's often described as "democratic", but Wales himself thinks of it more as a monarchy, with the writers overseen by moderators who are in turn overseen by the king – King Jimbo, as he's known. So the design aspect isn't just how the website looks, it's how users create the content.

Immediately you can see how different design rules suggest different ideologies. Like Wales, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is also fixated on the idea of openness. He fervently believes that designing a platform for people to share personal information helps make the world a more open place. And he found that making things human – "just seeing someone's face" – works best. It could have all looked like email, with its Spartan text-only interface that betrays its origins in the military. But it doesn't. It's designed to make people feel more present, and engaged with a community rather than an individual. Moggridge is right to suggest that the secret to Zuckerberg's success – you may have seen him on the cover of Time this month – lies in having designed a social network where there is no layer of technology getting in people's way.

However, here's the question. We all know that the media are in a turbulent state of flux, but in what way does reading the situation as "design" help? Is it just semantics, down to the fact that the word "design" is just so malleable? Paola Antonelli, senior design curator at New York's Museum of Modern Art, doesn't think so. She recently predicted in the Economist that in the near future designers would be involved in everything from science to politics. She sees design as the uber-profession, with a skill-set that transcends all boundaries. "For a simple reason: one of design's most fundamental tasks is to help people deal with change," she says.

The design world is in confident mood, but for these predictions to come true the rest of the world needs to buy into the argument. If I was Arthur Sulzberger Jr, I'd be thinking about how designers could get me out of a massive dilemma that was costing my company hundreds of millions of dollars a year. There's only one reason why newspapers haven't yet gone the way of the telegraph and that's because they still make about 20 times more advertising revenue than websites. If you were to grant Sulzberger just one wish, I have no doubt that he would reply: I wish someone would design a way for us to make as much advertising revenue from the website as we used to make from the newspaper. Banner ads? Forget it. The fact that you can't give over most of a webpage to an ad the way you could a printed page is simply because we've all been conditioned by the early days of the web when everything was free. There's a design challenge that everyone's trying to crack.

Summary: Justin McGuirk: We can see design thinking at work in web phenomena such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, but the predicament of printed news remains an unsolved problem


12/21/2015 AT 07:35 AM EST

host Anthony Cumia was arrested and charged this weekend in Hempstead, New York, after he allegedly assaulted a woman in his home.

, police say Cumia, 54, was arrested Saturday after a 26-year-old woman contacted authorities. A police spokesperson

that Cumia "got into an argument with an individual that stemmed into this physical violence."

He was arraigned Sunday on a charge of second-degree strangulation and released without bail but with an order to stay away from the woman.

Cumia's attorney, Alan Schwarz, told

that Cumia "emphatically denies the allegations." He is due back in court in January.

, Cumia appeared in a Periscope livestream on Saturday where a woman claimed she had her hand broken by the radio host and was waiting for cops to arrive.

In 2014, Cumia was fired from SiriusXM after

against a a black woman whom he claimed punched him in the face. In the series of tweets, Cumia called the woman various obscenities as well as a "savage," and claimed he was "preyed upon" by black people because he is white. Cumia later deleted the tweets,

called "racially charged" and "hate-filled," according to

Summary: Cumia's lawyer says his client denies the allegations


To make good use of the $1 billion-plus of federal research money it receives every year, Boston’s Longwood Medical Area had better make lots of scientific discoveries in 2016. Meanwhile, its teaching hospitals will continue to try out cutting-edge procedures, erect new buildings, and compete for each other’s patients, while wrestling with unwieldy electronic health records that make some doctors’ blood boil.

Next year will also hold big changes and challenges in Longwood leadership positions. Here are three worth watching:

The search for a new leader at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health began last summer, after dean Julio Frenk announced he was moving to Miami.

Drew Gilpin Faust, the president of Harvard University, put academic dean David Hunter in charge on a temporary basis. A group of 13 Harvard faculty is advising her in the search for a permanent leader, but the decision is ultimately up to Faust. That decision is likely to take place this year, though no firm deadline has been announced.

The hire will be an important one. The dean has power to set priorities for the school and to pick which professors get hired. He or she will also inherit unfinished business Frenk left behind: to raise lots of money for a new building, or at least for major renovations to the school’s aging infrastructure.

To pick a new leader, Faust has to first figure out where the public health field is going, and which challenge the school should focus on: The genetics revolution? Health care reform? Climate change? The possibilities are vast, because the public health umbrella is huge: The school’s 475-person faculty includes biologists, physicists, lawyers, economists, journalists, and experts in global health.

Who will it be? The search committee is tight-lipped, but two names that have come up as potential internal candidates are Hunter, the acting dean, and Dr. Howard Koh, a former assistant secretary for health for the US Department of Health and Human Services, who returned to the school as a professor in 2014.

As if one search weren’t enough, Faust also needs to find someone to lead Harvard Medical School, where Dr. Jeffrey S. Flier plans to step down from the dean’s post on July 31.

On the one hand, it’s an incredibly high-profile job, as the Harvard name has international fame and the school is ranked number one in the country. But the dean’s power is limited: The school directly employs only 151 tenured or tenure-track faculty, in 10 basic science departments.

The other 11,000-plus Harvard Medical School faculty, who train students in clinical skills, don’t actually work for Harvard — they work directly for 16 affiliated hospitals and clinics, which Harvard doesn’t own. Flier said he has spent 30 to 40 percent of his time as dean trying to build relationships with and coordinate that sprawling network of hospitals.

Despite its prestige, Harvard Medical School is also struggling financially: It saw deficits of over $40 million in fiscal years 2013 and 2014. In addition to figuring out how to balance the budget, the next dean will have to finish implementing a new curriculum that was launched last fall.

Faust is still setting up an advisory committeeto guide her in the search for Flier’s replacement, according to university spokesman Jeff Neal.

A cardiologist by training, Dr. Betsy Nabel is juggling two prominent and challenging roles.

Since 2010, she has been the president of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a 793-bed facility that ranks in the nation’s top 10 hospitals.

Meanwhile, Nabel is in the spotlight as the first-ever chief health and medical adviser to the National Football League.

As president, she is dealing with a complicated, costly transition to new electronic medical records supplied by Epic Systems Inc. At a town hall-style meeting this month, Nabel fielded complaints from staff about technical frustrations with the software.

She also faces contentious contract negotiations with the union that represents 3,200 nurses.

In the NFL role, which Nabel took on in February, she has been offering advice on what kind of medical research to support and how to keep players healthy and safe. That role is likely to gain more scrutiny now, after the Christmas Day release of “Concussion,” a blockbuster movie that portrays how dementia, depression, and suicide have plagued former players suffering from a degenerative brain disease.

If these two roles weren’t enough, Nabel took on an appointment earlier this month as a board member of the hot biotech company Moderna Therapeutics, which raised a whopping $450 million from investors in 2015.

Her challenge will be to bring credibility to the NFL job and prove to her 16,000 employees and their patients that she can tend to the hospital’s troubles while taking on this national role.

Summary: Next year will hold big changes and challenges in Longwood Medical Area leadership positions.


01/12/2016 AT 03:45 PM EST

's family and friends gathered at Crustacean in Beverly Hills Monday night to celebrate her life.

Bobby Brown, Macy Gray, Mary Wilson and more performed while

emceed the evening, hosted by Howard Grossman at one of Cole's favorite restaurants.

Vivien Best; Inset: Tristan Fewings / Getty

"The mood was not somber, but an evening celebrating Natalie Cole's life and her music," says a source.

Cole's son Robert Yancy also attended the event, and his grand-uncle Freddy Cole ended the evening with a performance of "It's Easy to Remember (But So Hard to Forget)."

Mary Wilson of The Supremes, Quincy Jones, and Freda Payne

Others who attended included Quincy Jones, Diane Warren, Johnny Gill, Freda Payne, Eddie Levert and Keith Washington.

"I feel so blessed to have called you my friend, and my buddy, and many times my confidante," Smokey Robinson said at Cole's funeral Monday morning. "You are so real and down-to-Earth. Now I have to say you're so real and up in heaven."

Bobby Brown and David Foster

at the age of 65 from

brought on by idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension, a rare lung disease.

Summary: Bobby Brown, Dianne Warren, Macy Gray and more honor the late singer Monday night in Beverly Hills


Holly Robinson Peete and Rodney Peete

03/11/2016 AT 10:45 AM EST

brought their family closer together.

"The autism dropped us to our knees in a way that made us very real and connected to a community that we didn't know that we would be connected with," Holly says in an exclusive sneak peek at Saturday's

Her husband, 49, adds that their son RJ, now 18, "taught everybody patience."

"He's taught everybody tolerance. I think he's

, and that's what every one of our kids has," says the father of four.

The Peete family is poised to debut their new series

, which shows their children coming into adulthood.

"You get to see through RJ's journey, something I've never seen, which is just him finding his way into the world," says Holly, 51.

airs Saturdays (10 p.m. ET) and

premieres March 19 at 9 p.m. ET, both on OWN.

Summary: The stars appear on Saturday's Oprah: Where Are They Now?


Scott Parilla and Noelis Bayanilla

03/17/2016 AT 12:45 PM EDT

A convicted rapist has allegedly been tied through DNA evidence to the 1989 cold case murder and attempted rape in New York City of 17-year-old Noelis Bayanilla, PEOPLE confirms.

An NYPD spokesman tells PEOPLE that Scott Parilla, 46, was charged on Monday, soon before he was scheduled to be released from Riker's Island jail, where he spent a year on a petit larceny conviction.

Bayanilla died on Aug. 8, 1989, after being thrown from the roof of a building in the Fordham section of the Bronx, according to police. When officers responded to the scene, they found Bayanilla lying on the ground behind an apartment building, screaming in pain, police said.

By the time she was taken to the emergency room, she had lost her ability to speak before she died, police said.

After being charged Monday, Parilla was transported to Bellevue Hospital Center for a psychiatric evaluation.

Parilla had long been a suspect in the girl's killing, but investigators weren't able to allegedly connect him to the murder until recent advancements in forensic testing revealed that decades-old DNA evidence collected from beneath Bayanilla's fingernails belonged to Parilla.

Parilla pleaded guilty in 1996 to attempted murder charges in a separate case. In 2003, DNA evidence led to his conviction for the 1993 rapes of two teenage girls.

It was unclear Thursday if Parilla has an attorney or if he's entered a plea.

Summary: Noelis Bayanilla died two days after being pushed off a building's roof


"People forget that just because they didn't win the jackpot, there are a multitude of other tickets that are winners. So if you look at any given drawing there are hundreds of thousands of winning tickets, and they range from a dollar, two dollars, to as much as five or six million," says LottoLotto CEO Brett Jacobson, who co-founded the company with one of Farmville's creators. "This is a great way for people to remember to check their tickets."

LottoLotto doesn't charge for the app, which has been downloaded 25,000 times. The company makes money by charging retailers a monthly fee to promote their shops as a place to buy, and cash in tickets. Jacobson says they have contracts and deals in the works with about 87,000 stores, to pay between $20 and $99 a month.

Retailers are eager to pay because while they don't make money on selling the tickets, they're a valuable driver of traffic to drive other product sales, he adds.

The company's on track for $1.9 million in revenue in October, with $1.55 million in profits, and Jacobson says he is about to close a funding round at a $100 million valuation.

Yet, LottoLotto isn't the only app to help collect lottery winnings—there's another called ScanMyLotto.

Read MoreThink mobile sales are hot now? Wait for Christmas

Another lottery app takes an entirely different focus: Lottolishus is focused on lottery pools. It helps build and manage lottery pools, to increase your chances of winning. For $4 a week for Megamillions or $6 a week for Powerball, players buy into a pool. The app aims to leverage social networks to grow the pool by encouraging users to invite friends on Facebook and Twitter to buy in, too.

"On average, 30 percent of our Powerball players and 70 percent of our Mega Millions players will win something every draw," says CEO David Hardcastle. "Our goal is to have a million players in the pool as quickly as possible. With a worldwide market of more than $300 billion in lottery play, we just need a small percentage to hit our goal."

Hardcastle won't reveal how many users he has so far, just saying that the company started seeding the pool at the end of June, and that they are "growing at a very rapid pace."

Summary: Several new apps such as LottoLotto help lottery ticket holders keep track of winnings and reduce the number of unclaimed tickets.


Affymetrix Inc. said Monday that its board is recommending shareholders reject a $17-a-share buyout bid from newly formed investment firm Origin Technologies Corp. and press forward with a plan to be purchased by Waltham’s Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. for $14 a share.

In a statement, Affymetrix, a Santa Clara, Calif., company that makes genetic testing equipment, said Origin’s bid was inferior to Thermo’s, valued at $1.3 billion, because “the board found the risks to initiating and consummating a potential transaction with Origin outweighed the potential benefit.”

Origin, a Palo Alto, Calif., holding company owned by former Affymetrix executives, is backed by a private equity firm with ties to the Chinese government. Affymetrix executives earlier described Origin as a “shell entity.”

The recommendation of the Affymetrix board will be presented to company shareholders at a special meeting scheduled for Thursday.

Summary: Affymetrix’s board is recommending shareholders reject a $17-a-share buyout bid from a newly formed investment firm and press forward with a plan to be purchased by Waltham’s Thermo Fisher Scientific  for $14 a share.


The father and son bond during their time together. (Raising My Rainbow)

A Californian father has shown the world how he spends special bonding time with his “gender creative” son – by letting the youngster give him makeovers.

Dad Matt Duron said the important thing about bonding time isn’t what you do, but that you actually do something at all.

When he and his wife Lori Duron first noticed their son CJ’s preference for stereotypical ‘girly’ things like dresses and make-up, they thought he might be gay, but their son has since made it clear it was his gender, not his sexuality that was in question, the parents wrote on their blog last week.

Since then, they have supported and advocated for CJ, who they say is “gender creative”.

“I want him to know that even though I’m not interested in make-up or fashion, I will play along as long as I get to sit and talk with him,” Mr Duron wrote.

The family have become advocates for other families with 'gender creative' children. (Raising My Rainbow)

The special bonding time between the pair have brought them closer. (Raising My Rainbow)

“While he’s doing my makeup, he talks about everything. From what’s going on at school to which eye shadow brings out my blue eyes.”

The couple uses their ‘Raising My Rainbow’ blog to connect other families in similar situations.

Ms Duron noted the biggest challenge that they’ve faced comes from parents and other adults who don’t understand.

“Kids just kind of just accept it, ask a question or two or move on once they have an answer, but adults can be really tough to deal with,” she told Good Morning America.

In the post about make-up, titled ‘Real dad lets their sons do their makeup’, Mr Duron said CJ first asked him about the makeover sessions two years ago.


The Panama Papers have blown a lid on the shady world of offshore tax havens. The money trail involves some of the world's most rich and powerful people. Here is why it matters.

What are the Panama Papers?

One of the world's biggest ever data leaks, revealing how scores of the world's rich and powerful park their cash offshore using the services of financial firm Mossack Fonesca.

A Panama-based firm that helps clients buy shelf companies around the world. It is a worldwide operation with offices in 42 countries. For more than 40 years it has worked with thousands of clients to discreetly register more than 200,000 shelf companies in tax-lax countries around the world.

Shelf companies most often exist on paper only, with no office or employees. They are used for no other reason than to occupy a bank account or hold an asset.

While not illegal, the purpose of a shelf company is to give anonymity, minimise a client's tax obligations in their home country, and often to launder money.

Relatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were named in the leaks. (AAP)

Associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin, football superstar Lionel Messi, relatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, members of the Chinese Communist Party elite, the president of Ukraine, the king of Saudi Arabia, and the prime ministers of Iceland and Pakistan.

The holdings of almost 30 billionaires on the Forbes Rich list have been revealed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. (AAP)

The papers also expose at least 33 people and companies blacklisted by the US government due to evidence of criminality, including "doing business with Mexican drug lords, terrorist organizations like Hezbollah or rogue nations like North Korea and Iran".

More than 800 Australian clients are also now being investigated by the Australian Tax Office as a result of the leak.

Just how big is the leak?

The leak yielded 11.5 million documents and 2.6 terabytes of information drawn from Mossack Fonseca’s internal database. The data dates from 1975 to the end of last year.

The leaks are bigger than that headed by privacy activist Edward Snowden. (AAP)

It is larger than the US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks in 2010, and the secret intelligence documents given to journalists by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013.

The leak has been described as "a never-before-seen view inside the offshore tax haven world."

It shines a light on an often opaque world open to abuse by criminals and those who want to cheat the system.

Between $21 trillion to $32 trillion of individual private wealth is held in tax havens around the world, according to the Tax Justice Network, money which could be used by governments to fund social services in a post-GFC economic climate.

"These findings show how deeply ingrained harmful practices and criminality are in the offshore world," University of California economist Gabriel Zucman told AFP.


04/27/2016 AT 12:00 AM EDT

won four of the states voting in Tuesday's "Acela Primary," while Vermont Senator

won the remaining one state.

, Clinton won 64 percent of the vote in Maryland, 60 percent in Delaware, 56 percent in Pennsylvania and 50 percent in Connecticut. Sanders pulled ahead in Rhode Island, where he won 55 percent of the vote.

2,383 delegates are needed for either Clinton or Sanders to clinch the Democratic nomination. Going into Tuesday's primaries, the

, Clinton had secured 1,944 delegates, including superdelegates, while Sanders had earned total 1,192 delegates. A total of 384 pledged delegates were at stake in Tuesday's primaries.

Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton

After her wins in Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania had been confirmed, Clinton took the stage at her Philadelphia headquarters and spoke of the necessity to unite the Democratic party, stopping only occasionally to chuckle as her words were drowned out by supporters chanting her name.

"We will unify our party to win this election ... so we can build an America where we lift each other up instead of tearing each other down," Clinton said. "There's much more that unites us than divides us."

's recent accusations that she has been playing the "woman card."

"Well, if fighting for women's healthcare and paid family leave and equal pay is playing the 'woman's card,' then deal me in!" she triumphantly said.

Although Sanders showed no sign of giving up after Tuesday's results, pundits have

to the former Secretary of State last week.

"With her New York win, Hillary Clinton's support among superdelegates puts her on a solid track to clinch the Democratic nomination outright before the national convention," according to the

, "even before results are known from the California primary, which Bernie Sanders was counting on winning to stand a chance."

Summary: Bernie Sanders won 55 percent of the vote in the Rhode Island primary on Tuesday night


05/03/2016 AT 02:55 PM EDT

isn't all glitz and glamour!

shared an important step of her Met-prep on Instagram: gliding a little deodorant over

"No chafe," she captioned the video, adding the hilarious (and honest) hashtag: "#NoThighGapNoProblem"

The comedian attended the Met Gala for the first time Monday night, wearing a red, floor-length

with a high slit and chain elements to match the event's Manus x Machina theme.

of their hair and makeup squads ahead of the Gala, Schumer went for something more delicious – a cookie.

"Met prep," she casually captioned the

A photo posted by @amyschumer on May 2, 2016 at 10:16am PDT

Schumer isn't afraid to talk about the body image topics that others often avoid. She

for including her in a

the magazine created in collaboration with Lane Bryant.

"Young girls seeing my body type thinking that is plus size? What are your thoughts? Mine are not cool glamour not glamourous."

And she's happy to make fun of herself (her body especially) in the name of comedy – Schumer

wearing just a T-shirt, with her naked crotch on fire.

"I begged Annie to photograph me with no underwear on in just a T-shirt," Schumer told Vanity Fair. "I explained to her how important it was to me and she finally agreed. I felt powerful and beautiful. She understood once we shot it. Or maybe she ran to the bathroom to throw up. It was one of the most meaningful moments of my life."

Summary: The comedian is relatably honest about her body: "#NoThighGapNoProblem"


Cole Swindell has rocketed to the top of the country charts thanks to a smooth, good-guy charm and a knack for bland, amiable everyman tunes. In a post-Florida Georgia Line world, that’s enough to make him a star. His second crowd-pleasing album barely extends beyond territory he staked out on his successful bro-and-a-brew debut. He already has a major hit with the well-intentioned but vague title track, a sentimental ode to his late father overloaded with clichés. Like other heart-tugging ballads “Stars” and “Remember Boys,” it’s kitsch country devoid of observed detail and emotional truth. The slick production throughout lacks definition — guitars hardly bite — and the formulaic lyrics scream calculation (especially “Up” and “Middle of a Memory”). The best song, “Flatliner,” with Dierks Bentley, actually kicks up dust with a dueling guitar dynamic. Unfortunately, the rest of the tracks translate to country equivalents of a McDonald’s shake: They’re mostly artificial, but go down easy.

Cole Swindell performs at the Xfinity Center on Aug. 5.

Summary: A charming performer with a knack for everyman tunes, Cole Swindell sticks to tried and true modes and cliches on his second album.


05/14/2016 AT 01:00 PM EDT

finale Saturday night, to perform his new single

Timberlake's headline performance of the tune was the first time in the global competition's 61-year-history that a non-contestant has been lined-up to sing on the

"It's crazy, right?" the 35-year-old singer told reporters of the honor, prior to his performance. "It's a crazy competition. "I'm actually looking forward to how big it is."

Leading up to the big night, Timberlake teased his Instagram followers with shots of the entertainer and his band.

The 61st annual Eurovision competition, which was held in Stockholm, Sweden, celebrated the theme of "Come Together" this year.

Timberlake's song "Can't Stop the Feeling" appears on the soundtrack for upcoming animated film

. Earlier in the week, Timberlake was at the

to promote the film, surprising audiences at a screening with "

's "True Colors" alongside costar

he was excited to see the film with 13-month-old son

"I've heard different actors that are parents who've done animated films, I've seen them say 'I want to do a movie that my kid can go see, that we can go see together,'" he said. "I was always like, 'Yeah, whatever. I get it.' And now I get it."

Eurovision is the world's largest non-sporting live TV event, launching the careers of

. The competition is Europe's most watched live entertainment program.

This was the first year Eurovision was broadcast live across the U.S., via

Summary: The singer sang his new tune on the 2016 Eurovision finale


As I spoke on more than 50 campuses during the past several years, it became clear that a career in sports is the top aspiration of thousands of young people across the country. Working in sports is also a significant aspiration for people currently holding jobs in other sectors.

Working for a league, team, conference, university, players association, sports television, marketing, sponsorship, public relations, apps for the internet, financial planning and agentry -- these are all exciting for anyone who loves sports. Our field needs a new generation of ethical, skilled sports professionals.

How does someone prepare to break into a hyper-competitive field? Here are some tips:

1. Have internal clarity. Be introspective and understand what it is that will fulfill you in life. Is it short-term financial gain, long-term financial security? Family and friends, geographical location, spiritual faith, high profile and recognition, autonomy, belief in the value of your work? Prioritize what is critical to your happiness and it will help you evaluate your options.

2. Study psychology. An understanding of human behavior is essential to navigate your journey through sports. Develop listening skills -- the ability to draw out another human being and understand their deepest hopes and dreams and greatest anxieties and fears. Put yourself into the heart, and mind of other people and see the world the way they see it.

This will help you craft strategies that are essential in knowing what an employer or client truly wants or needs. It will also help you in recruiting, negotiating, marketing, damage control and every other skill set.

3. Study business. Understanding the structure and profit potential of a business, how free enterprise works, the ability to conceptualize methods of improving cash flow is essential to any area of sports. Develop specific skills like analysis, business plans, advertising and branding principles.

Employers are not looking for someone that can recite the stats of the 1982 Super Bowl, but rather someone that brings specific skills to an area.

4. Get an internship. Getting inside an organization and learning how it works offers invaluable experience. Research the options and the potential employers to help you craft a plan to stand out.

I receive thousands of resumes a year. They all look similar. A young attorney sent a copy of Sports Illustrated to the office as his resume. It looked like Sports Illustrated, same type font, and pictures. Only this one had a picture of the lawyer and me on the cover, and every article stressed how our firm was enhanced by hiring him. It was clever, demonstrating research and mastery of visual presentation, so we hired him.

My current assistant sent a dummied-up bottle of Diet Dr Pepper (my drink) with a picture of him and me on the bottle. On the back were ingredients: "Innovative -- 100%, Passionate -- 100%." He demonstrated all the skills we value in his creative resume.

Once you get the internship, make yourself irreplaceable. Arrive early, stay late and initiate plans and concepts that enhance the business. Stand out.

5. Develop your network and brand. Make sure that every single person you know is aware that you are looking for a career in sports. Get on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and reach out to as many people in sports as you can. Go to seminars and network.

I created the Steinberg Agent Academy to train young sports professionals. The next boot camps are May 21 in Newport Beach, June 25 in Dallas, July 16 in Ann Arbor and August 13 in New York. If you're on campus, volunteer to escort interesting speakers. Ask people for their cards, follow up and send actual written notes.

Don't fear rejection -- you just need one opening. Relationships matter. Write an article on the area of sports you are interested in and post it. Demonstrate a niche or expertise. You have to exercise the initiative and be fearless. Be kind to your future self -- do the things today that plant seeds and may not come to fruition for some time. Radiate enthusiasm and passion.

It's never too early to start to try and make your dreams come true. This is a field for the best and the brightest, who will bring ethics and creativity to the world of sports.

-- Leigh Steinberg has represented many of the most successful athletes and coaches in football, basketball, baseball, hockey, boxing and golf, including the first overall pick in the NFL draft an unprecedented eight times, among more than 60 first-round selections. His clients have included Hall of Fame quarterbacks Steve Young, Troy Aikman and Warren Moon, and he served as the inspiration for the movie "Jerry Maguire." Follow him on Twitter @leighsteinberg.

More Leigh Steinberg: -- 12 Essential Steps Of Win-Win Negotiations -- How Agents Prepare Players For NFL Draft -- Why Football Will Be Better With Less Contact At Practice

Baseball, Basketball, Football, Hockey, Leigh Steinberg, Sports Agents

Summary: Agent Leigh Steinberg offers tips to get a job in the sports industry.


Bernie Sanders may not win the Democratic nomination, but he appears to be winning the hearts and minds of the next generation. A poll out this spring found 51% of Americans ages 18 to 29 do not support capitalism. Only 42% do.

That’s a remarkable finding, given the era in which these young people grew up. As World Bank president Jim Yong Kim told the Shared Value Leadership Summit recently, nearly half the world lived in poverty a quarter-century ago. Today it’s less than 10%. The reason? Not the World Bank, not government aid, not NGOs. Rather, it’s an extraordinary triumph of capitalism. If members of the next generation want to change the world, their own history should prove that private property, free markets, and the pursuit of profit are the most powerful tools they have for doing so.

Moreover, while China is the engine behind that striking transformation, the leadership role of the U.S. can’t be understated. Who would have guessed at the turn of the century that American business would remain as dominant as it is in 2016? Sure, dozens of Chinese state-owned behemoths have joined the global corporate aristocracy in the past two decades. But it’s still mostly American companies—including new tech giants like Amazon amzn , Alphabet googl , and Apple aapl ; old stalwarts like GE ge and IBM ibm ; and a host of innovative startups, from Airbnb to Uber—that are paving the path to a new industrial revolution. When business leaders from around the world set out to understand the future of business, they don’t start in China. The U.S. is still their first stop.

Young Americans can be forgiven for focusing on the system’s warts. The financial crisis of 2008 taught them that blind pursuit of profit can have catastrophic consequences for society. And they’ve seen bad actors—drug company Valeant vrx is the latest poster boy—milking the system for private gain at public expense. Moreover, globalization and winner-take-most dynamics have contributed to inequality in the U.S. and hollowed out the middle class.

The incendiary rhetoric of Sanders, Clinton, and Trump, however, has painted the system’s failures as a failed system—and they have a responsibility to know better.

At Fortune, we celebrate business successes while shining a bright light on the lapses. In our June 1 magazine issue, we look at one of the more pronounced trends of recent years: the retreat from public equity markets. While public markets offer broader access and better transparency, they’ve come under attack for creating an unhealthy focus on quarterly earnings and short-term profits to the detriment of long-term value and job creation. Many public companies—Dell is a prominent example—are happily retreating to private equity, where they feel they can better retool their companies for the future. In the meantime, many startups—which once viewed the IPO as their threshold of success—are delaying listing in public markets.

We suspect this trend will turn. It’s encouraging to hear BlackRock blk CEO Larry Fink—whose company’s $4 trillion of assets under management make it the 800-pound gorilla in public markets—decry the short-term focus of many investors and call on companies to lay out a “strategic framework for long-term value creation.” It’s also encouraging to see companies represented at the previously mentioned Shared Value Leadership Summit discuss how they can put the profit motive to work to solve social problems. Capitalism—that is, open, transparent, American-style capitalism—is still the best bet we have for building a broadly prosperous world. But it can, and should, do better.

A version of this article appears in the June 1, 2016 issue of Fortune with the headline “No Time for Socialists.”

Summary: Capitalism isn’t the problem—Sanders, Clinton and Trump ought to know better than to pretend it is.


IF the Jets need a new coach, it must be a new year.

Just when Bill Parcells thought he had all his Jets in a row, he discovered that his coach was missing. And with Al Groh suddenly transferring to the University of Virginia, the Jets need a new coach. Or is that where you came in?

If you're counting, the Jets' next coach will be their seventh since Joe (Must Go) Walton departed, beginning with Bruce Coslet's arrival in 1990 through Pete Carroll, Rich Kotite, Parcells himself, Bill Belichick (for 24 hours) and Groh.

And that next coach could be Parcells himself. Then again, it could be somebody else. Or almost anybody else.

Only a week ago, satisfied that Groh did ''a good job'' despite missing the playoffs with a 9-7 record, Parcells seemed to be leaning toward remaining as the Jets' director of football operations, perhaps for another three years.

But now, as that director of football operations, he's responsible for selecting Groh's successor.

Among some of Parcells's confidants, the feeling yesterday was that not even Parcells knew yet what he was going to do but that he was pondering six scenarios:

*He returns as coach at age 59 as a favor to Woody Johnson, the Jets' owner, and remains as director of football operations.

*He remains as director of football operations, if not as president in a realigned Jets' hierarchy, and names a new coach.

*He selects the new coach from the Jets staff, possibly Maurice Carthon, the assistant head coach and running backs coach. Parcells has been grooming Carthon to be a head coach eventually. Although Carthon has never been a coordinator, he's a quiet-leader type. His appointment would be popular with the players. The offensive coordinator, Dan Henning, might also be a candidate.

*He imports an established coach now at liberty: Dick Vermeil, who retired a year ago after guiding the St. Louis Rams to the Super Bowl XXXIV title, or Marty Schottenheimer, once the the Kansas City Chiefs' coach.

*He pursues an established coach with another National Football League franchise, possibly the Jacksonville Jaguars' Tom Coughlin, once a Parcells assistant with the Giants. But the price for Coughlin would be high, similar to the draft choices the Jets extracted from the Patriots for Belichick (or that the Patriots extracted from the Jets for Parcells in 1997).

*He walks away from the Jets when his contract expires on Jan. 31, but with Groh gone, that's doubtful. His conscience wouldn't let him leave Johnson all alone in the N.F.L. jungle when he needs Parcells more than ever.

The guess (and the hope) here is that Parcells will stay as the Jets' major-domo and the coach will be Carthon, once the Giants fullback whose blocking helped open all those holes for Joe Morris to run through on their Super Bowl XXI team.

Parcells is expected to make his personal decision -- coaching or staying in the front office -- before he meets tomorrow with Johnson, who surely would prefer that Parcells return as coach. Johnson wanted Parcells to return after Belichick's desertion a year ago, but Parcells, saying he didn't have the energy to coach, convinced Johnson, who had just bought the team, that Groh was the better choice.

But now Groh is gone after getting an offer from his alma mater, Virginia, that he couldn't refuse.

Most football coaches are transients, whether in the pros or in college. They move every few years, not always by choice. Groh simply did what Parcells did in coming to the Jets: he got a better offer and he took it. Groh got a seven-year contract starting at $765,000 this year, including the tangential income (TV, radio, camps) that college coaches get.

Groh's four-year Jets contract was for $3.2 million. His Virginia contract will add up to more than $5 million over seven years with less stress.

It's not as if Groh left for a Renegade State football factory. Virginia wants to win, but with class, typified by Coach George Welsh's long tenure there before his recent retirement. Groh knows Virginia, where he earned a degree in 1967 in commerce as a defensive end and lacrosse player. He later was on the football coaching staff there.

Groh's son Mike, a Virginia quarterback, was on the Jets' staff and will be on the Virginia staff.

In a way, Groh did what Ray Perkins did in 1982 when he suddenly resigned as Giants coach to return to his alma mater, the University of Alabama, to succeed Bear Bryant. George Young, then the Giants general manager, named Parcells, then a Giants assistant, to be the Giants head coach, effective in 1983.

That's how the Parcells legend began. And now he's got to do what Young did: name a coach to replace a coach who went back to college. The difference is, Bill Parcells could name himself.

Photo: Bill Parcells, Jets coach No. 4 since 1990, must now choose No. 7. (Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times)


Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman could sue Netflix and Univision to stop their plans to make a television series about his life.

The American TV streaming giant and Spanish-language broadcaster announced joint plans this month for a series on Mexico's most infamous criminal, due to air next year.

But Guzman's lawyers, who are helping their client fight extradition to the United States, said the companies needed to negotiate with "El Chapo" first.

"Mr Guzman isn't dead, he isn't a personality in the public domain. He's alive. He has to grant them the rights (to his story). We could sue them because they don't have authorisation for a series or a movie," lawyer Andres Granados told Mexican radio network Formula.

"He has told us that if they already have this project, we can negotiate with them so it doesn't go to waste and we don't wear ourselves out with a lawsuit. But as of today they have not approached us."

Granados said any such negotiations would have to cover not only the rights to Guzman's name but also the content of the series, since his client is facing a potential trial in the United States and does not want his image stained there.

The History Channel has also announced plans for an original drama series on Guzman's life.

Ironically, it was Guzman's desire to see his life story on screen that seems to have led to his capture.

Guzman, the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, escaped from a maximum-security prison in July 2015 - his second dramatic jailbreak - and spent six months on the run, to the deep embarrassment of the Mexican government.

He was rearrested in January after a high-profile manhunt that ended with Hollywood star Sean Penn and US-Mexican TV actress Kate del Castillo inadvertently leading the authorities to his hideout.

Del Castillo said the drug boss agreed to the meeting, which Penn wrote about in Rolling Stone magazine, because he wanted to discuss making a film about his life.

Guzman is wanted in Texas and California on charges including homicide, drug trafficking and money laundering.

His legal team is currently working on appealing the Mexican government's decision last week to approve his extradition to the United States.

Summary: Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman could sue Netflix and Univision to stop their plans to make a television series about his life, his lawyers said Thursday.


One of the strongest parts of Walt Disney Corp.—in addition to its powerful hold on Hollywood through Lucasfilm, Pixar, and Marvel—is the sports network, ESPN. It makes up a huge proportion of Disney’s $200 billion market value, and when it reports what investors see as weak results, it doesn’t just hurt Disney’s share price, it takes the rest of the TV-related market down with it. But there are those who think the weakness has only just begun for ESPN.

Hedge fund manager and analyst Eric Jackson is one of those who thinks ESPN has further to fall when it comes to subscriber and revenue numbers. In a recent installment of his email newsletter, Jackson looked at the steady decline in users who pay for ESPN and the impact on Disney’s bottom line.

Jackson points out that based on the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, ESPN’s subscriber base peaked at 99 million in 2013. According to Nielsen, the current number is about 92 million. That drop in subs has meant a substantial corresponding fall in ESPN’s profitability, since it is getting less in affiliate fees from cable companies and satellite broadcasters.

The sports broadcasting giant added a new network called SEC Network last year, which focuses on college sports in the Southeastern Conference, but the overall trend for viewership remains down, as cord cutting by millennials continues to accelerate.

Analysts like SNL Kagan believe that ESPN gets about $6.60 for every core ESPN subscriber, and anywhere from 22 to 83 cents for each subscriber to its other networks, such as ESPN 2 and the SEC Network. The loss of 7 million or so subscribers since 2013 means that ESPN is now getting $650 million less in affiliate revenues, Jackson says—the majority of which is pure profit. The company is also estimated to be making about $250 million less in advertising because of its shrinking reach.

In other words, ESPN is generating close to $1 billion less than it did two years ago. SEC Network has helped defray that somewhat, but not by a huge amount. And the sports network is crucial to Disney’s bottom line—the media networks unit had operating income of $7.3 billion last year, the bulk of which was generated by ESPN, and that unit accounted for more than 55% of Disney’s operating income last year.

Did ESPN or Disney see the cord-cutting decline coming? It doesn’t look that way, despite predictions from a number of market watchers that it was a sizable risk. The sports network reportedly spent $125 million or so on a revamp of the Sports Center set, which seems like an odd investment if you think your viewership is going to fall. Former Grantland editor Bill Simmons also said on a recent podcast that he never heard ESPN executives talking about their concerns about cord cutting until last year.

Of course, cord cutting could be a cyclical thing, and ESPN may not continue losing millions of subscribers every year. But what if it does? As the range of sporting events that are available from other providers increases, and TV watchers are more interested in a la carte offerings rather than a cable bundle, ESPN’s power will wane. And as its subscriber base dissolves, its affiliates will start to put pressure on the company to cut its fees, which means revenue and earnings could slide south at an even faster rate than the overall subscriber numbers.

There has been some talk of an ESPN over-the-top streaming service, and Disney CEO Bob Iger has said that he believes large numbers of people would pay a significant fee for such a service. But how many? And what kind of monthly fee would be involved? Those are the key factors that would determine whether ESPN could make such an offering fly. And it’s entirely possible that the network could have a successful service, but still not make enough from it to compensate for the drop-off in conventional cable subscribers and affiliate revenue.

The almost certain success of the upcoming Star Wars movie from Lucasfilm and other movie properties could bridge the gap for a while, but there’s no sign that the trend of cord cutting and OTT is going to end anytime soon. If anything, it is accelerating. If you notice investors reacting nervously to Disney results, that’s why.

You can follow Mathew Ingram on Twitter at @mathewi, and read all of his posts here or via his RSS feed. And please subscribe to Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the business of technology.

Summary: The sports broadcasting giant is losing ground, and that has a big impact on its parent company.


In ''Up Against It,'' his unproduced screenplay for the Beatles, Joe Orton tried to combine the irreverent spirit of ''A Hard Day's Night'' and ''Help!'' with his own far more mordant sensibility. Since the playwright's death, the screenplay has remained a tantalizing footnote to Orton's career. Although the film script is not in the same class as his plays, the published version exists for reading and imagining, raising the question of what the movie would have been like.

A partial, unrewarding answer is given by the production that opened last night at the Public Theater, a musical stage adaptation by Tom Ross and Todd Rundgren. Perhaps Richard Lester or members of the Monty Python troupe could have realized the script (with revisions), but not the current collaborators and their director, Kenneth Elliott. Together they have obliterated whatever charm existed in the screenplay. The musical itself is emblematic of one of the evening's several unnecessarily repeated songs, ''When Worlds Collide.'' On stage, everything collides - book, score, direction, performances, even the push-me, pull-you plasterboard scenery.

Because ''Up Against It'' was conceived as a movie musical, there would seem to be a rationale for enlisting someone like Mr. Rundgren, a popular rock composer. Unfortunately, when it came time to create a theatrical score, Mr. Rundgren composed an inferior pastiche of everyone from Brecht and Weill to Gilbert and Sullivan and proves totally unable to transform Orton's wit into lyrics.

One of the most grating songs is the title number, which has the additional misfortune of being sung by the actor with the most unmusical voice, Dan Tubb, in the role that would have been reserved for John Lennon. There is, in fact, only one good song, ''Parallel Lines,'' which, in reprise, is given a plaintive urgency by Philip Casnoff (as Ian McTurk, the Paul McCartney role). In style, ''Parallel Lines'' seems out of context with the rest of the show.

Following the screenplay, the story chronicles the misadventures of three prodigal friends (Orton had eliminated the George Harrison role after the Beatles turned down the script) who are victimized in a flagrant battle between the sexes. They become involved in a plot to assassinate the first female Prime Minister of Britain. Wherever McTurk turns, on land or at sea, he encounters the entire cast.

The book is spotted with rude Orton remarks about Church, State and sex. In response to a statement that a priest has been wrestling with his conscience all afternoon, McTurk asks, ''Who won?'' Such moments are far outweighed by the alterations in the script and by the interruption of Mr. Rundgren's score. The show, which is set in the 1960's, also reaches far afield for anachronistic jokes. (In her acceptance speech, the Prime Minister gushes, ''You like me, you really like me.'') Mistakes are exacerbated in Mr. Elliott's comic strip-style production. Best known for his direction of plays by Charles Busch, he approaches Orton in a similar vein, turning absurdist farce into camp caricature and overplaying the war of genders to the point of misogyny.

One of the pivotal decisions was whether to attempt to imitate the Beatles. The show's response is self-contradictory. The three characters speak in insecure Liverpool accents. Two have Beatle hairdos and mannerisms, while the third, Mr. Casnoff, acts less like a Beatle than like a Rolling Stone. Roger Bart, in the guise of Ringo Starr, is the closest to having a Beatle-mien, but, in common with his colleagues, he is undercut by the circumstances.

The only character to emerge relatively unscathed is Miss Drumgoole, the parlormaid who adores McTurk but whose love remains unrequited until the finale. Alison Fraser plays Miss Drumgoole with a kind of impassioned innocence that is one of the evening's few assets, although in the second act she suffers the indignity of a coarse Spanish number that calls for her to sing to a Yorick-like skull.

Mr. Casnoff carries the primary burden of the score, including the cliched ''If I Have to Be Alone,'' in which he sounds as if he were still trapped in the musical ''Chess.'' Other actors are even less fortunate, including Toni DiBuono as a strident Chief of Police and Mari Nelson as a bimbo.

After John Tillinger's recent authentic revivals of Orton's three full-length comedies, the author seemed to have achieved his proper recognition and respect as a Wilde for our age. The musical at the Public reminds one that Orton is still up against it, even though in this case the opposition is not from philistines but from misguided admirers. 2 Beatles, 1 Stone And No George UP AGAINST IT, music and lyrics by Todd Rundgren; based on a screenplay by Joe Orton; adapted for the stage by Tom Ross; directed by Kenneth Elliott; choreography by Jennifer Muller; set design, B. T. Whitehill; costume design, John Glaser; lighting design, Vivien Leone; sound design, John Kilgore; orchestrations, Doug Katsaros; vocal arrangements, Mr. Rundgren; musical director, Tom Fay; associate producer, Jason Steven Cohen. Presented by Joseph Papp. At the Public Theater/LuEsther Hall, 425 Lafayette Street. Father Brodie and The Old Man...Stephen Temperley Miss Drumgoole...Alison Fraser Ian McTurk...Philip Casnoff The Mayor...Joel McKinnon Miller Christopher Low...Roger Bart Connie Boon...Toni DiBuono Rowena...Mari Nelson Bernard Coates...Tom Aulino The Man in the Hole and Lilly Corbett...Judith Cohen Georgina...Marnie Carmichael Jack Ramsay...Dan Tubb Guard...Scott Carollo Ensemble...Brian Arsenault, Scott Carollo, Mindy Cooper, Dorothy R. Earle, Julia C. Hughes, Gary Mendelson and Jim Newman

Summary: LEAD: In ''Up Against It,'' his unproduced screenplay for the Beatles, Joe Orton tried to combine the irreverent spirit of ''A Hard Day's Night'' and ''Help!'' with his own far more mordant sensibility. Since the playwright's death, the screenplay has remained a tantalizing footnote to Orton's career. Although the film script is not in the same class as his plays, the published version exists for reading and imagining, raising the question of what the movie would have been like.


Donald Trump’s prediction that the U.S. economy was on the verge of a “very massive recession” hit a wall of skepticism on Sunday from economists who questioned the Republican presidential front-runner’s calculations.

In an interview with The Washington Post published on Saturday, the billionaire businessman said a combination of high unemployment and an overvalued stock market had set the stage for another economic slump. He put real unemployment above 20 percent.

“We’re not heading for a recession, massive or minor, and the unemployment rate is not 20 percent,” said Harm Bandholz, chief U.S. economist at UniCredit Research in New York.

The official unemployment rate has declined to 5 percent from a peak of 10 percent in October 2009, according to government statistics. But a different, broader measure of unemployment that includes people who want to work but have given up searching and those working part-time because they cannot find full-time employment is at 9.8 percent.

Coming off a difficult week of campaigning, in which he acknowledged he struggled to articulate his position on abortion among other missteps, Trump’s comments to the Post might be some of his most bearish on the economy and financial markets.

“I think we’re sitting on an economic bubble. A financial bubble,” he said.

Some economists agree the stock market is in a period of overvaluation but do not see that as foretelling a cataclysmic economic downturn originating in the United States.

“Nobody can predict what the stock market is going to do,” said Rajeev Dhawan, director of the Economic Forecasting Center at Georgia State University. “I cannot predict a stock market crash, so I cannot predict a recession. I don’t see any of the reasons for a recession going forward unless there is a huge problem with the market or there is some catastrophic world event which is beyond the scope of economics.”

Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University Channel Islands in Camarillo, put the probability of an imminent recession at less than 10 percent. “If it happens, it would be because of what is happening overseas, especially in China and Europe,” he said.

Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Pennsylvania, said it would take a “total financial meltdown” to trigger a recession.

“We can get by with Europe growing minimally,” he said. “We can get by with China growing modestly because the rest of the U.S. is still solid enough that we can handle weakness in the rest of the world.”

The Democratic National Committee criticized Trump for his remarks, saying they “undermine our economy.”

Trump’s success with voters, despite his sometimes saying things only to contradict them later, has also alarmed many leading figures within his own party. Some of them are openly plotting to try to prevent him from becoming the nominee at the party’s national convention in July.

Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman, said on Sunday that voters were “afraid” of their economic situation, when asked about Trump’s remarks on CNN’s “State of the Union” show.

“When people are afraid and when they’re angry, sometimes people say things that they regret,” he said, apparently referring to Trump’s remarks.

He also played down speculation that party leaders would seek to dislodge Trump by helping someone who is not even a declared candidate prevail at the convention, which becomes governed by complicated voting rules if no candidate arrives with a clear majority.

“I think that our candidate is someone who’s running,” Priebus said, referring to Trump, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Governor John Kasich. The candidates will next face voters on Tuesday in Wisconsin, where recent polls show Cruz holding a small lead over Trump.

Summary: "I think we're sitting on an economic bubble. A financial bubble," he said.