Josie Canseco got one thing from her father: a desire to swing for the fences on social media.

The 18-year-old daughter of the controversial slugger was arrested near Los Angeles early Tuesday, according to multiple reports.

According to TMZ, Josie was arrested on a DUI charge in Hollywood at about 1 a.m. after police saw her car hit a curb and she subsequently failed a field sobriety test, law enforcement sources said.

The TMZ report also said police suspect Canseco was under the influence of drugs, not alcohol, at the time of her arrest.

After being released from jail, the model had some explosive words for the “haters.”

In other recent news, Jose is not happy that you keep making fun of him.

A ball bounced on my head a million years ago.Find something else to make fun of me about .Time for new material guys. Plenty to pick from

— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) March 24, 2015

Summary: Josie Canseco got one thing from her father: a desire to swing for the fences on social media. The 18-year-old daughter of the controversial slugger was arrested near Los Angeles early Tuesday, acc…


Some 90 per cent of the cocaine currently consumed by Americans is thought to come across Mexico’s frontier. Run by a computer-literate management, the frontier cartels kill reporters, women, magistrates and police – anyone who dares to obstruct their business. The total of those murdered in Mexico in 2015 alone reached 7,428. Grillo, a British-born resident of Mexico City, portrays a nation that has lost its moral bearings.

In Brazil, as elsewhere in Latin America, one can pass from enclaves of immense wealth to utter desolation in a matter of seconds. In the hills above Rio de Janeiro lie the drug-blighted shack dumps known as favelas. Grillo’s investigations into the cokehead brokers, dealers and professional killers who manage the supply and demand of cocaine involves him in a degree of danger. On at least one occasion he is mistaken for a US government nark; El Narco, his exposé of Mexican drug trafficking, was no less harum-scarum.

Though Gangster Warlords lacks the locker-room snooping and legwork that made El Narco such a visceral masterwork, it remains an absorbing work of reportage. Throughout, Grillo turns an appalled eye on the methods used to grow, stock, transport and protect shipments of narcotics. In order to understand cocaine, he intimates, you have to understand Mexico. Corrupt Mexican policemen are now mixed up in the transborder drug killings which, says Grillo, have become increasingly lurid. Bodies are no longer quietly dumped in the desert; they are displayed for all to see, and in some cases flayed or decapitated.

Summary: In May 2010 a state of emergency was declared in the Jamaican capital of Kingston.


The last CEO of Merrill Lynch had an imperial style that worked superbly in good times, but the sudden announcement of a $4.5 billion write-down punctured the myth of Stan O’Neal’s infallibility, and ultimately led to his fall.

Every CEO has his own management style, which tends to evolve from his personality. At Merrill Lynch, Stan O’Neal’s style grew out of his self-confidence. Not only had he proven himself to be smarter than his rivals for the top job earlier in the decade, O’Neal was more ruthless. After becoming CEO in 2002, he systematically eliminated any executive who had enough experience to challenge him, or marginalized him in such a way that the executive left. Few people who reported to him in his early years as CEO were surprised to learn that O’Neal’s favorite TV show was The Sopranos.

O’Neal’s imperial style worked superbly in good times. Merrill’s four-year run of healthy profits from 2003 to 2007 only served to reinforce the notion that the CEO was the all-knowing master and commander of Merrill Lynch.

But the sudden announcement of a $4.5 billion write-down on its assets in the first week of October punctured the myth of O’Neal’s infallibility. On the morning of Friday, October 5, the firm’s top finance people and O’Neal huddled to go over the final language that would be part of the earnings warning sent out just after 9 a.m. The finance group, headed by CFO Jeff Edwards, had come up with the $4.5 billion number for the write-down on the firm’s CDO portfolio. Once the language was in place, the group dispersed, in the belief that the work was done.

But after a subsequent discussion involving Gary Carlin, who headed Merrill’s internal controls, Edwards and the investor relations people decided to err on the side of caution and tell investors that the CDO write-downs related to an “incremental” impact in the quarter. At 9:06 a.m., the announcement went out on the wires. Sometime around 9:07 a.m., O’Neal called Eric Heaton, the treasurer, and screamed at him, demanding to know who had inserted the word “incremental” in the release. Normally a man of calm and businesslike demeanor, O’Neal laced his tirade with derivatives of the word “fuck,” which seemed out of character. Then the CEO turned his fury on Edwards, unleashing another fusillade of f-bombs on the CFO, whom he blamed for adding the word “incremental.” The earnings warning was supposed to let investors know that Merrill Lynch was on top of its problems, O’Neal hollered. Using a qualifier like “incremental” suggested that the firm didn’t even know how bad its problems were.

In the days following the announcement, he was no longer the same old Stan, the intimidating but decisive leader who had righted a listing ship after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Subordinates who used to fear his displeasure now looked on as their cold-eyed, conﬁdent CEO moved around his ofﬁces tentatively, as if he’d been temporarily stunned in the boxing ring by a punch to the head. O’Neal was still standing, but his bell had been rung.

Days later, on October 18, O’Neal did something highly unusual: He asked [Greg] Fleming for help. Even as Fleming had ascended the management ladder under O’Neal’s rule, becoming president of investment banking in 2003, then co-president of the entire ﬁrm in 2007, he was never part of O’Neal’s inner circle. O’Neal asked Fleming if he still had a good relationship with Ken Thompson, chief executive of Wachovia Bank in Charlotte. “Yes,” said Fleming.

For more than a decade, like its crosstown competitor, BofA, Wachovia had been a serial acquirer of other banks. Merrill Lynch was Wachovia’s primary advisor. In most of those deals, Fleming had been Merrill’s lead banker, working with Thompson and other Wachovia executives to bring complicated transactions to fruition. Thompson had taken a liking to Fleming.

“I want you to ask Ken if he’d be interested in a strategic combination between our companies,” O’Neal said. A few weeks earlier, when O’Neal met with BofA’s Ken Lewis, Merrill’s problems seemed manageable and so O’Neal didn’t see any pressing need to move forward in that direction. But now that the blinders had been removed and O’Neal had developed an understanding of the magnitude of the problems facing Merrill, biding his time was no longer an option. He had to make a move, and quickly. Fleming said he’d get on it. Over the next two days, Fleming spoke with Thompson and the chief ﬁnancial ofﬁcer of Wachovia, Tom Wurtz. He explained Merrill’s situation, which was not yet desperate, but distressed. Thompson was keenly interested, and said he’d bring the matter to the attention of his board. After all, the chance to acquire Merrill Lynch, one of the premier brands in ﬁnancial services around the globe, was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Thompson said.

The Merrill Lynch board of directors meeting convened at the St. Regis Hotel in Midtown Manhattan that afternoon. O’Neal now made his case to the directors. The problems on Merrill’s balance sheet could get far worse, and there was no way to quantify the potential losses at the moment, he said. He had lived through the Long Term Capital Management crisis in 1998, and once liquidity dries up, Merrill Lynch could get into deep trouble in almost no time. Given this situation, it was only prudent for the firm to look at potential partners, O’Neal explained. That’s why he had reached out to Wachovia. “Stan, this is a great franchise, an iconic brand,” said board member Alberto Cribiore. “It’s as famous as Coca-Cola. We don’t want to be sitting with a bank in Charlotte.”

“I don’t like to make decisions with my back against the wall,” declared board member Armando Codina. “What has taken place with Wachovia?” “It was just a phone call, just a feeler,” O’Neal said, before indicating that it was Fleming who was the primary contact with the Charlotte bank.

Codina turned to Fleming and demanded to know what had transpired. “It was just a casual call,” Fleming replied. “Nothing’s really happened.” “Do you think I was born on a banana boat?” Codina said with a snarl. “Do you take me for a fool? Tell me what has happened.” “It was only three conversations,” said Fleming, ﬂustered by the attack. “I made that phone call at the request of the CEO, who works for you. Talk to him if you’ve got a problem. What would you like me to do when I get a request from my chief executive officer, ignore him?” O’Neal sat mute, a few feet away, as Fleming defended himself. It was but the latest example of why the CEO inspired so little loyalty in the company.

Later that evening, the outside directors voted to retain their own legal counsel, Robert Joffe of Cravath, Swaine & Moore. To anyone familiar with the world of corporate governance, a board’s decision to retain its own attorney, separate from the company’s general counsel, is a sign of trouble. It would be akin to a wife, following a disagreement with her husband, hiring a lawyer to represent her interests. Even if the word “divorce” is never uttered, the act of hiring an independent lawyer represents an irreparable breach of trust in the relationship.

The next day, the board reconvened at Merrill Lynch headquarters downtown. During various meetings, board members were accompanied by Joffe, a top ranked securities lawyer who had represented boards of directors in numerous corporate battles over the previous two decades. Finally, around 2:00 p.m., O’Neal returned to the boardroom. He ascended the stairs from the executive ﬂoor up to the “chairmen’s gallery” on thirty-three, where portraits of his nine predecessors hung on the walls. Then he entered the boardroom. Joffe, the outside counsel, was sitting in his seat—the power seat—in the middle of one side of a long table. As Joffe stood up to excuse himself, Codina invited O’Neal to return to his usual spot at the table.

“No, I can see that it’s been taken by someone else,” said O’Neal as he plopped himself down in the chair closest to the door. The previous evening, he had used scare tactics with the board, trying to paint the worst portrait imaginable of Merrill’s ﬁnancial condition in order to compel them to follow. By now the board, which had been taken over by Cribiore, had become satisﬁed that Merrill Lynch’s position was not so dire. Cribiore announced that he’d conducted his own investigation and concluded that Merrill Lynch could work its way through the problem with the right leadership. What’s more, Cribiore had swung Ann Reese and Codina around to his view. “How do you know we won’t be back here in February and the Federal Reserve has lowered rates and the value of the assets will come back?” Cribiore asked.

“Maybe that’s true,” said O’Neal, “but I don’t care to run a business where I have to depend on outside events for things to work out.” Codina and Reese insisted that Merrill’s problems could be solved. O’Neal, who no longer saw eye to eye with either one, despite having appointed them to the board, got fed up with his decisions being questioned. “Well, if you’re not going to listen to me, maybe I’m not the right person to lead this company,” he said in an insolent tone. That was it, as far as Codina was concerned. O’Neal’s arrogance appalled him.

On Thursday, October 25, Stan O’Neal was in a no-man’s-land. He wasn’t sure if his board still wanted him, or if he wanted to stay on and fight through the big turnaround challenge that lay ahead. Sensing O’Neal’s isolation, Larry Fink, chief executive of BlackRock, the huge asset management group that was 49 percent owned by Merrill Lynch, invited him out to dinner that evening.

O’Neal was grateful for the dinner invitation and met with Fink at Sistina, a high-end Italian eatery on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, favored by the Wall Street elite. Midway through the meal, O’Neal received a call from Fleming.

“Stan, look at your BlackBerry,” said Fleming. O’Neal checked his messages and saw one from a reporter at The New York Times, who said the paper was planning to run a story the next day describing his overtures to Wachovia. Did Merrill Lynch have any comment? “I’ve got to go,” said O’Neal to Fink as he stood up and walked out of the restaurant.

O’Neal spoke to his head of public relations, Jason Wright, but both men knew there was nothing they could do to kill the story, especially since it was accurate. O’Neal wondered who would have leaked the news, since the disclosure of the Wachovia overture was certain to damage him irreparably. It could have been Fleming, Cribiore, or even Fink, each of whom stood to gain from his ouster. Or it could have been Bob McCann, the ambitious head of Merrill’s private client business, who had run afoul of O’Neal in the past.

That evening O’Neal called Armando Codina, who made it clear that the revelation of the talks with Wachovia had undermined O’Neal’s position. Codina and Cribiore pointed out that despite his vaunted executive skills, O’Neal’s credibility in the marketplace was now gone. No one would invest billions of dollars in Merrill Lynch while he was still running the place. One by one throughout a long, arduous call, most of the directors came to agree with Codina and Cribiore and recommended a change in leadership at Merrill Lynch. Finally, in a show of unanimity, board members Carol Christ, Judith Jonas, and Virgis Colbert joined Codina and voted to remove Stan O’Neal. In just six months, O’Neal had gone from being arguably the most successful CEO in the ninety-three-year history of Merrill Lynch to the ﬁrst one ever pushed out by a hostile board vote.

–Adapted from Crash of the Titans, Greed, Hubris, the Fall of Merrill Lynch, and the Near-Collapse of Bank of America, by Greg Farrell. Reprinted with permission, Copyright 2010, Random House.

Summary: The last CEO of Merrill Lynch had an imperial style that worked superbly in good times, but the sudden announcement of a $4.5 billion write-down punctured the myth of Stan O’Neal’s infallibility, and ultimately led to his fall. By Greg Farrell, contributor Every CEO has his own management style, which tends to evolve from his…


School may be the last thing on the minds of American kids during summer vacation, but retailers are busy gearing up for the back-to-school season, traditionally the second-busiest time of the year for the industry after the December holidays. They have no choice, given changes in shopping habits in recent years.

According to a recent Rubicon Project (RUBI) survey of 1,500 of parents of both school-aged children and college-bound students, more than one-third of these consumers have already started to make purchases ahead of the new school year. A survey released last year by the National Retail Federation (NRF) found that 20 percent of respondents planned to shop at least two months before school starts. And a 2016 NRF report found more people were increasingly "strategically delaying" back-to-school shopping to get the best deals.

Walmart (WMT), the world's largest retailer, is trying to counter that trend by giving consumers its best deals throughout the season, according to spokeswoman Molly Blakeman. The chain began offering back-to-school deals this week, including 300 "classroom items" for under a buck, 600 for under $2 and more than 1,000 for less than $3.

Staples (SPLS) is advertising back-to-school deals on its website, backed with what it calls its "110 percent price match guarantee," and Macy's (M) is touting its fashions aimed at school-aged consumers, vowing that "shopping becomes elementary with a little help from Macy's!"

According to retail expert Howard Davidowitz, these merchants are offering deals to consumers now so they can better manage inventory during what he expects to be a "very promotional" season.

"If they have less of inventory, they will be in less of a panic to liquidate that inventory," said Davidowitz, the chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, a New York-based retail consulting and investment banking firm. He added that he thought it was "the right thing to do."

Walmart, Macy's and Staples, are each counting on a strong back-to-school seasons to prove to Wall Street that they can overcome the stagnant growth that has sent shares of many retail chains tumbling in recent months.

Though Walmart's decision to raise workers' wages is hurting its quarterly profits, Wall Street was heartened that the retailer posted an unexpected 1 percent revenue gain in its latest quarter and forecast that sales at existing stores, also called same-store sales, would rise in the current period.

Macy's, which recently announced that CEO Terry Lundgren would retire in 2017, isn't as fortunate. It recently reported its steepest decline in same-store sales since 2009. And Staples is regrouping in the wake of the federal government's decision to block its $6.3 billion merger with Office Depot (ODP) on antitrust grounds.

Each of these chains has a foe in Amazon (AMZN), which was the preferred vendor for both tech purchases and school supplies in the Rubicon Project Survey. The e-commerce giant has gained more financial flexibility in recent months, thanks to the ongoing success of its cloud-computing business.

The Rubicon Project poll conducted last month found that parents of college freshman plan to spend more than $1,000 on back-to-school merchandise, more than double what their counterparts with younger children plan to spend. The survey found 55 percent of parents of school-age children plan to spend more on seasonal merchandise this year, and 28 percent said they planned to spend less.

Parents of college freshman were more in a spending mode, with 74 percent saying they planned on shelling out more money than they did last year.

If current trends are any indication, parents won't have to wait for summer vacation to near its end to land some good deals.

© 2016 CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved.

Summary: Some of the nation's biggest retailers aren't waiting to start tempting parents with offers they can't refuse


Randy Travis and Mary Davis-Travis

03/29/2016 AT 06:00 PM EDT

with a vocabulary limited mostly these days to "yes" and "no." But on Tuesday, he haltingly coaxed out two more words – "thank you" – as he accepted country music's highest honor: a place in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Struggling to say more, the 56-year-old artist finally motioned

, Mary Davis-Travis, to take over what she herself called the "daunting task of being the voice of this man who so eloquently put words to melody to make beautiful music."

The poignant moment capped the announcement of the Hall's 2016 class, which also includes two other Nashville music legends:

, the platinum-selling fiddler and singer best known for "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," and producer and label owner Fred Foster, who was instrumental in the careers of Roy Orbison, Dolly Parton, and

The announcement took place in the rotunda of Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the home of the 127 plaques that honor Hall of Fame members. Travis was the last to be introduced, and he entered the room gingerly on the arms of his wife and longtime producer Kyle Lehning. In her introductory remarks, Hall of Fame member Brenda Lee let the crowd of a few hundred dignitaries and reporters know that walking has been a hard-won victory in Travis' long road to recovery.

Charlie Daniels, Randy Travis and Fred Foster

Travis' groundbreaking career accomplishments over the course of three decades can be measured in his 16 No. 1 singles (including such classics as "On the Other Hand," "Forever and Ever, Amen," and "I Told You So"), as well as his multiple CMA, ACM, and Grammy awards.

But these days, his wife says, his accomplishments are measured in "what I call giant baby steps."

"It's the little things – the little word, the extra sound, the extra lap we make in rehab," she said, speaking after the announcement with Travis seated by her side. "It's certainly put life in perspective as far as what we need to focus on."

Music, she added, "has been a huge part of the rehabilitation process. Music comes easier to him, as far as singing songs." Last month, in fact, Travis honored a friend's longtime request to sing "Amazing Grace" at his funeral. "I don't know that he thought he was ready for it," Davis-Travis said, "but he sang through all four verses. It was beautiful."

The couple, who reside in Texas, were surprised with the news of his Hall of Fame election during a Nashville visit last month. "I just lost it," Davis-Travis said. Communicating with a gentle nod and a smile, Travis acknowledged he had tears, as well.

During the announcement, he softly sniffled through most of his wife's remarks as she thanked "all the people ... that gave him a chance, that helped him along the way, that believed in him." Among those she included by name was Elizabeth (Lib) Hatcher, Travis' former wife and former manager.

Davis-Travis' description of her husband as being "honored beyond words" took on special meaning as he stood silently beside her in front of the crowd. Later, she said his goal is still to return to the stage one day or "at least to be able to communicate with his fans again."

In the meantime, his body of work continues to speak volumes for him. "I don't think he understands how important he has been to country music," Davis-Travis said. "It's that humility that's in Randy that doesn't allow him to think he made that big of a difference. When fans come over and talk to him and want his autograph, I say, 'Honey, they love you so much.' And he's like, I don't get it. Maybe now that he's in the Hall of Fame, he'll get it."

Travis, Daniels and Foster will be formally inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in a ceremony to be held this fall in the museumâs CMA Theater.

Summary: Travis, Charlie Daniels and Fred Foster are announced as 2016 inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame


It’s becoming a summer ritual for Starbucks sbux : price hikes on many of its most popular drinks.

The café giant on Tuesday raised the price of some items as much as 30 cents as it contends with rising coffee costs. The company also recently gave its employees a raise.

In what Starbucks is calling “a small price adjustment” at its U.S. stores, customers will see increases of 10 to 20 cents on select sizes of brewed coffee as of Tuesday, as well as a 10- to 30-cent jump for espresso beverages and tea lattes. Starbucks said that on the whole, the average spending by a customer per visit will rise 1% and noted that prices on 65% of its beverages have not changed. This is the third year in a row Starbucks has raised prices.

“Pricing is continually evaluated on a product-by-product and market-by-market basis in our stores in order to balance business needs while continuing to provide value to our loyal customers,” Starbucks said in a statement. The company tried to play down the increases by pointing to the bargains customers can get from its loyalty program.

The increases were announced a day after Starbucks said it would give U.S. store employees and managers a raise that will boost compensation by as much as 5% to 15% starting this fall. That decision has come amid rising wages across the restaurant and retail industries at companies from McDonald’s mcd to Walmart wmt as talent becomes scarcer and pressure to improve customer service increases.

The jumps also come as Starbucks and its competitors like Dunkin’ Brands’ dunk Dunkin’ Donuts chain face higher coffee costs: American consumption is expected to rise 1.5% this year alone, reported Bloomberg. Coffee has also reached peak popularity in China, Japan, and India. The high demand is leading to higher prices for beans. The price for arabica-coffee futures was up 20% in June, marking the biggest monthly gain since February 2014, Fortune recently reported.

Over the weekend, Starbucks was forced to announce some of the price increases earlier than planned after the cash registers at many of its restaurants started charging customers the higher prices prematurely.

Customer don’t appear to be balking at its higher prices: U.S. comparable sales for Starbucks have risen consistently in recent quarters.

Summary: Blame pricier beans.


also land some of Hollywood's biggest names in the courtroom? It's possible.

released video footage to her Snapchat of an alleged phone call between the rapper and Swift discussing his song "Famous." In the video, Swift can reportedly be heard approving the West lyrics: "For all my Southside n----- that know me best / I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex."

Swift originally released a statement about the track, saying the rapper "did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his single 'Famous' on her Twitter account." She also added that she was "never made aware of the actual lyrics, 'I made that bitch famous.'"

After Kardashian West released the phone call recording, Swift

that the call was "secretly" recorded.

Multiple sources confirm to PEOPLE that West recorded the conversation from Los Angeles and that the rapper did not tell Swift at the start of the conversation that he was recording. If that is the case, he may have violated California's "two-party consent" law.

The two-party consent law makes it a felony to record or eavesdrop on any confidential communication – namely, a phone call – without the consent of all those involved, Gregory G. Brown, Esq. of Irvine-based business, family and trial law firm Brown & Charbonneau, LLP tells PEOPLE.

"Kim does have exposure for what she did. It could be argued that she 'aided and abetted' or 'advised and encouraged' the crime. If so, she can be treated as a principle in the case," Brown added. "In addition, she could be liable under Penal Code 637, for willfully disclosing the contents of a private phone call without permission from all parties. This carries up to one year in prison and up to $5,000 fine."

Brown notes that, as he said earlier, Kardashian West could also be exposed to an invasion of privacy suit but would have a defense there that it's newsworthy.

As Swift likely had a reasonable expectation that the call would be private, West would also be in violation of the wiretapping law.

"It's a crime to do that, and the potential punishment is $2,500 dollars per violation and up to a year in prison," Brown says, adding, "There are also civil damages that you can get, which is $3,000 or three times the actual damages."

Kanye West and Taylor Swift in February 2015

And Swift has taken action – in February, she threatened West with criminal prosecution for recording her without her knowledge, and demanded he destroy any video, PEOPLE confirms. The singer still has the right to file a lawsuit against the couple.

In addition, Brown says, "Taylor might have a claim of invasion of privacy if she thought this was a confidential communication between her and Kanye."

Multiple insiders also say that West always records his entire album-creation process for his archives and he is not afraid of any impending litigation. After he

for the song, the rapper tweeted, "Can somebody sue me already #I'llwait."

From left: Taylor Swift, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West in 2015

in the 2014 drama surrounding Los Angeles Clippers owner

, who was banned from the NBA for life after his private conversation during which he

was leaked. Lawyers argued, at the time, that Sterling had consented to the recording.

The new clips from Swift and West's conversation were released following Kardashian West's

cover interview where she claimed the phone call existed. Swift has never denied the existence of the phone call, and her rep released a statement to

saying the singer heard "Famous" "for the first time when everyone else did and was humiliated."

Summary: If Kanye West's "Famous" conversation with Taylor Swift was recorded in California, he and wife Kim Kardashian West could face some legal drama


The OurMine hacking team may be best known for embarrassing figures such as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, but now it is claiming another high-profile victim: Pokémon Go.

The hit game appears to have suffered two spates of outages over the weekend. A group calling itself PoodleCorp claimed responsibility for the first, on Saturday. It’s particularly hard to verify this one—not only does this group not have much of a track record, but the “attack” coincided with the release of Pokémon Go in 26 more countries.

The kind of attacks being referred to here are called distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, where the hackers commandeer networks of computers to flood the target’s servers with connection requests until they freeze up.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

The effect is pretty similar to, say, hordes of users overwhelming the servers of a game whose makers didn’t anticipate the level of demand. And we already know that the Pokémon Go craze has led to instability in the system—in fact, server capacity issues are delaying the game’s Japanese launch.

Casting doubt on the claim that attacks were responsible for Saturday’s problems, the game’s maintainers tweeted early Sunday that they had figured out the cause of the “server problems.”

The issues causing the server problems have been identified. Trainers should once again be able to search for Pokémon in the real world.

— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) July 17, 2016

However, an unofficial Pokémon Go server status site shows there were intermittent but serious outages throughout Sunday. After the announcement of Pokémon Go‘s availability in Canada on Sunday, it was reported that the game’s systems were overloaded, leaving hopeful players struggling to register an account.

And that’s where OurMine may come in. This group has more of a track record, having previously hacked the social media accounts of high-profile tech execs, and it claimed responsibility for Sunday’s Pokémon Go attack on its website.

OurMine pitches itself as an “elite hacker group” that performs vulnerability assessment for companies—that is, they figure out where the flaws in companies’ defenses lie, then recommend how to fix them. “We have no bad intentions and only care about the security and privacy of your accounts and networks,” their website reads. A spokesperson for OurMine told Fortune that the group does not request money from its targets.

Before Sunday’s “attack” began, OurMine said it would make Pokémon Go inaccessible to its users until the proprietors (former Google subsidiary Niantic Labs and the Nintendo-backed Pokémon Company) contact OurMine “to teach them how to protect it!”

OurMine’s representative said it stopped its attack against the game’s servers on Monday morning. Will the group resume the attack? “We don’t know, but I think no,” the spokesperson said.

For more on the game, watch:

The representative said neither Niantic nor the Pokémon Co. had “yet” been in touch to take OurMine up on its offer of a security lesson. The rep added that it was not known whether an attack was really responsible for the earlier outages on the weekend, “but I think it wasn’t PoodleCorp, because the servers were down before their tweet.”

Fortune has asked the Pokémon Co. for its take on the weekend’s outages, but had not heard back at the time of writing.

Meanwhile, shaky servers aren’t the only security-related worry for Pokémon Go fans. It also emerged last week that a malicious app claiming to be associated with the game had made its way into the Google Play store.

Summary: Two hacking groups have claimed responsibility for disrupting Pokémon Go on the weekend, though one claim is more plausible than the other.


LONDON—U. K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry underlined their commitment to the so-called special relationship between their two countries, as the U.K. seeks to reassure allies it will remain an engaged world power following its decision to withdraw from the European Union.

Mr. Kerry said the ties between the U.S. and Britain were “special and unbreakable” and that no shift in administration would undermine that relationship. He also said the U.S. hopes for the exit from the EU to be...

Summary: U. K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry underlined their commitment to the so-called special relationship between their two countries.


Tech companies and retailers seem convinced that you’d rather wave your smartphone at a store register than pull out a debit card, credit card, or cash. Apple made a big splash when it unveiled its mobile-payment system, Apple Pay, in 2014. Now Samsung has announced that its newest phones will come with proprietary payment software. And a consortium of stores that includes CVS, Target, and Wal-Mart also plans to roll out a payment app in 2015.

Mobile payment is super-hot—except with consumers. While about half of mobile users are comfortable using their phones for banking, only 13% have used their devices to pay at a restaurant or store, the Federal Reserve found. Just a third feel mobile payments are safe.

Over the next few years, though, you’re likely to see a shift: While in 2014 consumers made $4 billion of in-store purchases via mobile devices, Forrester Research expects that by 2019 that figure will swell to $34 billion. So is now the time to ditch your old-fashioned wallet for a newfangled digital version? Here’s some help with the decision.

Pro: Mobile payment is easy to use

The mobile-payment options available today basically all work the same way, says Ron Shevlin, research director with banking consulting firm Cornerstone Advisors. You enter your credit card or debit card info into an app ahead of time. Then, at a store, you launch the app and have the cashier scan it, or you tap your phone on the pad. The phone is a proxy for your card. “It’s just different ways of executing the transaction,” Shevlin says.

Some retailers, such as Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts, have their own apps. Other systems let you pay at multiple retailers; Google Wallet and Apple Pay, which come on Android devices and recent iPhones, respectively, are the biggest of this kind. Apple has made the process particularly seamless: At a store, the phone wakes up automatically, and you simply wave or tap it at the register, then approve a purchase with your thumbprint.

Pro: It’s safer than plastic

Despite consumers’ fears, paying with a mobile device may actually be safer than using a credit card, says Bryan Yeager, an analyst who covers emerging digital trends for eMarketer. Most apps generate a unique bar code for each transaction instead of sending card digits into the ether. Apple Pay doesn’t store your credit card info at all; your device is linked to your card with a special code. At the register, the phone sends a one-time-use security code, or “token,” to the merchant that would be meaningless to hackers; you authorize the purchase via fingerprint, which provides extra protection.

Still, no system is perfect, and some mobile-payment apps are relatively untested. Fortunately, all credit and debit fraud protections do apply to mobile transactions.

Con: You can’t use it everywhere

The biggest problem with mobile-payment apps: You can’t count on being able to use them. Which system you have access to depends on what phone you have, and you’re also limited by what stores will accept.

Apple Pay and Google Wallet are the most widely accepted right now. Theoretically you can use either at any retailer equipped with the latest contactless credit card terminal. By October, most stores will have to update their machines anyway in order to be compatible with new chip-enabled credit cards. So many stores will also buy terminals with the contactless technology. But just because a retailer can accept mobile payment doesn’t mean it will. With plans to launch their own payment system, Wal-Mart, CVS, and Target are among the large retailers blocking Apple Pay and Google Wallet on their terminals.

Verdict: Hang on a bit

Within three years “we’re expecting a few major players to take large parts of the market,” says Mary Monahan, research director of mobile for Javelin Strategy & Research. For now, however, there’s too much fragmentation for mobile payment to practically replace cash, credit, and debit. And other than earning you cool cred, there’s no advantage to rushing in. Paying with your phone is no faster or easier than using a card—though eventually mobile-pay providers may use rewards to motivate you. “Retailers seem to think that if you just offer mobile capability, people will use it,” Shevlin notes, “but they’re going to need to give consumers a real benefit.”

Read next: Apple Pay Is Creaming Walmart in the Mobile Payment Wars

Summary: The latest payment apps promise to replace your billfold—but you might want to hold the phone.


When Abigail Edgecliffe-Johnson goes to meet with male investors, they often compliment her business and offer to mentor her. But they don’t offer to invest.

“The word on the street is men get funded on potential and women get funded on progress,” said Ms. Edgecliffe-Johnson, 39 years old, founder of RaceYa, a startup that makes educational toy cars. “There’s a problem with that because it’s very hard to get progress without...

Summary: A new report finds that New York City has a growing number of women-founded startups, and they receive a higher percentage of venture capital than those in other major cities. But the firms founded by women lag behind male startups in the total amount of investment received.


Carlin Isles knew his speed would get him to the Olympic Games. He just always thought he’d be sprinting on the track rather than the rugby pitch.

Mr. Isles, 26 years old, smashed records in the 100-, 200- and 400-meter distances while attending Jackson High School in Massillon, Ohio. He went on to play football and compete in track and field for Ashland University, a Division II school in Ohio where he still holds the school’s indoor 60-meter dash record of 6.68 seconds. By 2012, Mr. Isles was ranked 36th nationally in the 100, with a personal best of 10.13 seconds. He was fast, but not fast enough for the London Olympics in 2012.

Before Olympic trials that year, he turned to Google for new workout ideas and discovered rugby. “Speed is speed,” he says. “This looked like a sport I could excel in.”

To learn the rules of the game, Mr. Isles trained with the Gentlemen of Aspen Rugby Football Club in Aspen, Colo. He played wing, a position that requires good ball-handling, speed and quick decision-making. In October 2012, less than 12 weeks after his first time picking up a rugby ball, he made his debut for the U.S. men’s sevens rugby team against New Zealand’s national team, known as the All Blacks, and scored one minute into the game. Announcers called Mr. Isles “rugby’s fastest man.”

Rugby makes its return to the Olympics this summer in Rio de Janeiro, after a 92-year hiatus—in the pared-down, speedier form of the game known as “sevens,” rather than the traditional form, which features 15 players a side.

Earlier this year, Mr. Isles attempted to resurrect his sprinting career, with hopes of becoming one of the few athletes to compete in two Olympic sports. In March, at the U.S.A. Indoor Track & Field Championships in Portland, Ore., he finished the 60-meter final in fifth place with a time of 6.67 seconds. But Team USA rugby coach Mike Friday told him he had to choose.

Mr. Isles chose rugby. He says he has never been fitter, doubling up on cardio and weights like never before. USA Rugby announced its 12-man Olympic roster Monday. Men’s rugby begins in Rio on Aug. 9.

Rugby sevens is played over two seven-minute halves, with a two-minute halftime. Though much shorter than an 80-minute rugby union game, the play tends to be a bit more explosive, its proponents say.

“Sevens is a whole-body sport,” says Brian Green, head athletic trainer for the U.S. men’s team. “It involves a mixture of physical confrontations and sprinting and changing direction”—as regular rugby does, too, of course. Mr. Isles trains with the team five days a week at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif.

Workouts are broken up to address attack and defense, as well as technical aspects of tackling and rucking, which occurs when players close in around the ball on the ground and use their feet to try to win or keep possession of the ball. Yaka Yards, high-intensity sessions combining strongman drills with sprints and heavy contact, are core to training.

“It’s kind of like wrestling meets combat conditioning,” Mr. Isles says. “It pushes you mentally and physically. It really breaks you down.” For 60 to 90 minutes, the coaches will yell out drills which the players perform for two, three or five minutes in between scrimmaging sessions. “The idea is to make us play at fatigue,” he says.

One minute Mr. Isles might find himself doing back flips, the next bear crawls down the field. One section of circuits is often modeled after CrossFit, with exercises such as step-ups, medicine-ball tosses and squats.

Mr. Isles hits the gym three days a week to work on strength and explosive power. He might run pulling a weighted sled or repeatedly swing a sledgehammer overhead against an oversize tire, or do one-arm push-ups while balancing his feet on a stability ball.

He does a daily circuit of what are known as prehab exercises, which prevent injuries by correcting muscle imbalances and optimizing muscle efficiency. He runs through exercises that activate his glute muscles, such as a bridge, where he lies on his back on the floor, knees bent, and thrusts his hips into the air, then slowly brings them down again. Or he might try to close his eyes while balancing on one leg while standing on a squishy foam board.

Mr. Isles wakes up and eats two eggs, oatmeal and fruit. He eats the same breakfast a second time after his morning workout and adds a protein shake. Lunch is usually a turkey burger (hold the bun) and vegetables with a protein shake. He sometimes drinks Red Bull, which is one of his sponsors.

He has tried to eliminate bread and refined carbohydrates from his diet this year. He consults a nutritionist. Almonds are his go-to snack, and dinner is either steak or chicken with brown rice and grilled vegetables. His favorite splurge is a cheeseburger and fries.

Write to Jen Murphy at workout@wsj.com

Summary: Sprinter Carlin Isles, fast enough to qualify for the Olympic trials in track and field, heads to Rio to compete in rugby’s return to the Games after 92 years.


Late-night TV host Samantha Bee offered a special Full Frontal episode Wednesday night in honor of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

As Bee and her staff are making their way from New York to the RNC (on a bus, the failed 2012 Republican candidate Herman Cain’s bus, to be exact), this episode focused on stops in the swing state of Pennsylvania. Scandal’s Tony Goldwyn (who plays the president) drove the bus and was on hand to give Bee a pep talk.

After stopping in Altoona, Penn. at an establishment that claims to be America’s oldest gas station, Bee talked to one man who noted the state’s political divide while pointing out that there are Hillary Clinton supporters in that area. “You are a battleground state for the first time since Gettysburg. You are the belle of the ball. Let me spin you!” Bee told the young man, enthusiastically, before taking his hand and twirling him around.

At a county fair near the Mason-Dixon line though, a Full Frontal correspondent seemed to be overwhelmed by Donald Trump supporters, as interviewee after interviewee pledged their support for the GOP nominee over Clinton.

READ: Watch Samantha Bee Mock Pretty Much Everything about the RNC

One man who said he is voting for Trump said: “I don’t really see him as a racist, in my point of view, just because of people I know that consider themselves racist.” Even the one Democrat the show spoke to at the fair (an older woman whose husband said he votes Republican) said she refuses to vote for Clinton.

Meanwhile, some people at the fair took issue with the fact that Clinton is a woman. One man told Full Frontal that he didn’t think it would be a good idea to have a woman in the White House, and his female companion actually agreed with him wholeheartedly. The woman, who said she regularly faces misogyny in her job as a professional truck mechanic, still did not support the idea that a woman could hold her own in the White House.

“We don’t need a woman as the president,” she told Full Frontal. “We really don’t. We’re too dramatic!”

As the show neared Cleveland, Bee stopped in Beaver County, Penn. to talk to a local Republican politician about his reluctant support for Trump. State Representative Jim Christiana told Bee that, while he prefers a bipartisan approach to politics, he has to listen to his constituents and support Trump’s bid. She asked him o say Donald Trump’s name out loud without looking sad. It took him a few tries.

“So, we’re stuck with this s–t sandwich, let’s eat it,” Bee said, offering her own summary of Christiana’s comments.

“I think that’s a fair characterization,” he said.

The next episode of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee will air on TBS on Monday, July 25—the first day of the Democratic National Convention.

Summary: It wasn't pretty.


Consumer-electronics makers once seemed light years ahead of the computer industry in creating products that were easy to use. Nothing could be more plug-and-play, for instance, than attaching a CD player to a stereo receiver with a set of cables. By contrast, high-tech companies often inflicted horrors on consumers wanting to do simple tasks like connecting a new printer to a PC.

Today the tables have been turned. Home-entertainment systems come with controls that resemble airplane instrument panels, while the computer...

Summary: Consumer-electronics makers once seemed light years ahead of the computer industry in creating products that were easy to use. But today the tables have been turned as the computer industry has gotten better at making products that are both more functional and friendlier to use than those from an earlier era.


One of the assumptions that my friends, who earn more money than me while still living paycheck to paycheck, make about my frugal habits is that they are too busy to actually make these lifestyle changes themselves.

This total garbage assumption keeps so many people poor. Many of my friends insist that I have to be totally wasting my life scrimping all the time. This just isn’t true. In fact, I have a lot more free time than any of my friends who argue that every financial tweak costs them too much of their precious time. With very few exceptions, I also have more savings. Here’s how I keep a tight budget on a tight schedule.

To quote Asiz Ansari: “Every toothbrush I bought on a hunch has been fine. I’ve never been disappointed in a toothbrush. Why waste my time trying to find the best? Have you ever run into someone with no teeth and asked, ‘What happened?’ And they replied, ‘Bought the wrong toothbrush. Should have done more research.'”

I spent an hour researching a car part for my Volvo. If I bought this part refurbished locally, it would have cost me $765. I found a brand-new, aftermarket version for $45 online that had stellar reviews. I saved $720 by spending one hour of my life exploring my options. I would not spend this amount of my time researching the shovel I just bought at my local hardware store for $70. I bought the shovel based entirely on the fact that there was just one model to choose from.

Part of saving money is stripping away the marketing message that you need to buy the best of everything or suffer dire consequences.

Read More: Double Coupons – They Could Cost You!

There are so many money-saving activities out there that it’s easy for me to screw up my schedule by trying to do them all. While I am always trying to level up on my savings game, when I am crushed for time, I focus on making the things I must do more financially sustainable.

For example I have to weed my garden or risk the wrath of the Los Angeles Fire Department. Since many of the weeds in my garden are edible, I am saving money and time on growing vegetables by eating my weeds. If this sounds disgusting, please note that Chef Magnus Nilsson of Fäviken Magasinet, one of the world’s most acclaimed restaurants, serves an entire menu of foraged foods. In fact, Nilsson would probably be distraught by the fact that I am composting probably delicious moss and pine resin. As much as I hate weeding, eating my plant enemies provides a primal and peculiar satisfaction, which makes all the kneeling in the dirt worthwhile.

As much as I wanted to harvest the green walnuts that grow on wild trees around my neighborhood, I missed my window of opportunity. The nuts are already too mature to make the pickled walnut recipe I wanted to make for holiday gifts this year. Alas, I just didn’t have the free time last month to work on my new hobby of preparing wildcrafted food.

So, I am adding “pick walnuts” to my 2017 calendar. By adding reminders to make money-saving moves to my schedule a year in advance, I set myself up for ever-improving financial habits for the future. While I can never do all the aspirational projects I schedule for myself, just creating a plan in advance ensures that I can add at least one new skill to my life each year. I think of it as a wish list with a deadline.

Read More: Things You Might Not Know About Your Local Thrift Store

It does not take me more time to buy a shirt at a thrift store than it does for me to buy a shirt for full price at the mall. In fact, buying used is often quick business because my local thrift stores have customer wish lists. For example, the workers at my neighborhood consignment store know that I am constantly on the hunt for a specific style of discontinued jeans. Whenever a pair in my size shows up, I get a phone call, letting me know they have a pair of jeans on hold for me.

People assume that low cost means poor service. Unlike a lot of retail workers, thrift store clerks often revel in the thrill of the hunt. They love finding the perfect thing, even for other people, so they end up acting like personal shoppers for their favorite customers.

When I lived in Florence, my Italian neighbors told me to wait until November, between tourist seasons, to buy clothes. Everything gets cheaper in November. Hotel and restaurants drop their prices and stores put merchandise on sale. Let me just say that the offseason in Florence is fantastic. The museums emptied out, the lines to my favorite gelato stores got short, and I could walk across the Ponte Vecchio without being part of some tourist’s upskirt panty video. I see no point in ever returning to Florence during the high season.

Even if I lived in Podunk, America and never traveled, I would take advantage of the easier access and the discounts on merchandise, entertainment, and education during Podunk’s offseason.

I start planning for Christmas in January, even though I personally don’t celebrate a winter holiday. This extremely early jump on things gives me plenty of time to make handmade gifts and source inexpensive presents for every occasion for pennies.

This last weekend I attended the baptism of a friend’s baby. I used some of the $100 trade credit I got from a local consignment store to “buy” several sterling silver baby spoons. I gifted one of the spoons to the new kid, and stashed the rest in my silverware drawer where they quietly await future babies. I also bought a scrimshaw pin for my husband as a reward for his especially thrifty behavior this year. Total cost of these gifts: $0. (And I still have trade credit left over)!

Okay, you know, I save enough on cat food and cat litter each year to buy a plane ticket to New York City. So all those people who don’t want to see Hamilton on Broadway can just keep on buying Friskies at full price. Be my guest.

Although there are some coupon queens who still get a thrill from dumpster diving for newspaper inserts, grocery stores make it so easy to get discounts now. Most big grocery chains even have phone apps that give a curated selection of coupons based on previous purchases. One of my store apps actually makes my phone beep when I pass a sale item on my list. Seriously, I just used a coupon to buy grass fed beef at Whole Foods for $5 a pound. Grass. Fed. Beef. Whole. Foods.

One of my friends lives in DC where his favorite brand of Dennison’s Chili is not available. I always send him a flat of cans for his birthday. It does not take me any additional time to buy that chili when it goes on sale, with a coupon, than it does when it’s full price. And, even though my friend knows I always buy his chili at a discount, he doesn’t enjoy his lunches any less.

Mr. Spendypants is saving hundreds of dollars on gas this year by carpooling to work a few days a week. But I save money by carpooling even though I work from home! At least once a week, my awesome neighbor Patria picks me up in her car and we run errands together. Not only does this save me on gas, it turns trips to the post office, the bank, and the pharmacy into a nice afternoon with my friend. Patria started this good habit over a year ago when she realized that she’s much more efficient with her errands when I’m in the car with her to keep her on schedule. She also saves money on gas because she’s incentivized to batch process her errands.

Read More: The 8 Best Ways to Save on Back-to-School Supplies Right NOW

I have many friends who work insane hours so they can make enough money to pay for the entourage…that enables them to work insane hours. I have one friend who hates his job so much that I actually worry about him stroking out from stress. He and his wife both work full time to pay for the maid to clean their house, the gardener to do the yard work, and the full time nanny for their kid. Even though I ran the numbers for him, he still can’t wrap his head around the idea that he could work fewer hours for less money at his dream job, and that would give him enough flexibility that he could take care of his own child, house, and yard, instead of paying outside help.

The concept that working less can mean more money in the bank seems counterintuitive, but how much I spend is as important as how much I earn. If I spend all my money, it doesn’t matter if I make $100 or $1,000,000. I will still have zero savings and possibly less free time.

Alas, Mr. Spendypants threw a spanner into my already maxed-out schedule. He forgot to pay the yearly $30 bribe, ahem, fee to the fire department to avoid the brush clearance inspection. So we were inspected and given a warning. We have just a few days to trim every tree in our yard by 30%. Did I mention that we have 14 trees in our yard? If we miss the deadline for re-inspection, then we will be fined $356 and I will still have to trim every tree in our yard by 30%. So, instead of working for money, for the last two weeks I have been working a volunteer gig as an angry amateur arborist.

If my blog posts stop abruptly, it means that I have fallen off a ladder to my death. Wish me luck.

As my Mormon friend puts it, I did receive a few #tender mercies during the last pay period in the form of three tiny payments. I earned $9.45 from a book sale on half.com, I sold $51.99 in clothing at a consignment store, and I got a whopping $31.13 as the payout for some random, class action lawsuit against Wells Fargo that I don’t remember joining. (I haven’t been a Wells Fargo customer in five years, so thank God I wasn’t waiting around for that check to arrive).

Since Mr. Spendypants and I were out of town for the baptism, he hasn’t balanced his books yet. His savings and expenses for last month will be chronicled as part of my next post.

Amount Left to Go: $21,747.82

Summary: You can still budget if you're busy.


Presumptive nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump each weighed in Sunday on the mass shooting at the gay club Pulse in Orlando, which authorities say claimed at least 50 lives.

The two took contrasting approaches, reflecting starkly different campaigns and personalities.

Clinton offered a subdued response on Sunday morning, calling the attack “devastating news” on Twitter and sending thoughts to those affected. She tweeted the same message in Spanish, as well. The attack took place during a Latin-themed night at the club. In a later statement, she thanked first responders and law enforcement, called for tougher gun control measures, and suggested Americans “redouble our efforts to defend our country from threats at home and abroad.”

RELATED: Orlando Nightclub Shooting: Mass Casualties After Gunman Opens Fire in Gay Club

Trump, however, boasted that he had predicted the attack and thanked supporters for giving him credit for his achievement.

“Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don’t want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance,” Trump tweeted on Sunday morning. “We must be smart!” He posted a similar statement on Facebook.

He kept up the self-proclaimed victory lap in a longer statement that afternoon, again demanding recognition for noticing the threat of Islamic terrorism, which the United States is currently combatting in multiple countries via air strikes, special forces operations, and proxy wars.

“Because our leaders are weak, I said this was going to happen – and it is only going to get worse,” Trump said.

Officials are still investigating the shooter’s motives, but sources told NBC News that attacker Omar Mateen called 911 shortly before the attack to pledge his allegiance to the leader of ISIS.

In his statement, Trump blamed the attack on Muslim immigration to the United States, pointing to reports that the U.S.-born Mateen’s father emigrated from Afghanistan and had expressed support for the Taliban. Trump, who on Twitter reiterated his support for an indefinite ban on Muslim travel to the United States, accused Clinton of planning to “dramatically increase admissions from the Middle East” as president.

Clinton spokeswoman Jen Palmieri responded in a statement that Trump offered “political attacks, weak platitudes and self-congratulations” rather than a “serious response” to terrorism.

Trump also criticized President Obama for not using the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism” in his statements condemning the massacre, saying Obama should “resign” over his refusal to utter the words.

The candidate tweeted out an unsourced report that Mateen had shouted “Allahu Akbar” during the attack, an Arabic phrase meaning “God is the greatest.” As noted by CNN’s Brian Stelter, Trump’s tweet appeared to be copied almost word-for-word from a tweet by Breitbart editor Sebastian Gorka, whom Trump has paid for consulting services.

In between social media posts about the attack, Trump also criticized Clinton for a campaign ad featuring footage of him appearing to mock a disabled New York Times reporter, Serge Kovaleski, at a speech in November. Trump called the ad “false” on Twitter and said he was imitating the reporter “groveling,” not his disability.

Clinton’s afternoon statement called the shooting an “act of terror” and “act of hate” against the LGBT community. She added that the attacks showed the importance of “defeating international terror groups, working with allies and partners to go after them wherever they are, countering their attempts to recruit people here and everywhere, and hardening our defenses at home.” She also repeated a call for stricter oversight of firearms, saying, “weapons of war have no place on our streets. “

Trump was scheduled to deliver a speech outlining his case against Clinton on Monday. In his statement on Sunday, he said he would use his remarks to “further address” the terror attack.

Clinton and Obama announced they would postpone a joint rally scheduled for Wednesday, which would would have been their first campaign appearance together since the president endorsed the presumptive Democratic nominee. Clinton will use a scheduled appearance in Cleveland on Monday to speak about the attack, a campaign official told NBC News.

RELATED: ‘Disgusting, Outrageous Tragedy’: Nation Reacts to Orlando Massacre

Trump has made a point of responding early and flamboyantly to suspected terrorism in the past, often getting ahead of the available information about the incidents. He has credited recent attacks by radicalized Muslims in Paris, Brussels, and San Bernardino with boosting his poll numbers in the Republican primaries.

After a radicalized couple killed 14 people at an office in San Bernardino in December, Trump proposed his indefinite ban on Muslim travel to the United States, which Clinton criticized at the time as “reprehensible, prejudiced, and divisive.” In subsequent days, he repeatedly claimed without evidence that Muslim neighbors and relatives of the shooters had withheld information about explosive devices at their apartment that might have prevented the attack.

This dovetailed with his behavior after the Paris attacks in November, which claimed 130 lives. Within days of the terrorist spree, Trump spread a false rumor that “thousands and thousands” of Muslims publicly celebrated the 9/11 attacks in New Jersey, an inflammatory claim that he attributed to a nonexistent television report.

More recently, after an EgyptAir plane crashed en route from Paris to Cairo in May, Trump immediately labeled the incident a terrorist attack on Twitter and in an appearance at a fundraiser before authorities had reached any conclusions about the cause. Investigations into the crash are ongoing.

Summary: Presumptive presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump each weighed in Sunday on the mass shooting at the gay club Pulse in Orlando.


Anyone booking lodging for summer travel faces endless options: hostels, Airbnb, homestays, budget hotels, bidding on Priceline.com, and more.

Seth Kugel, the Frugal Traveler columnist, answered readers questions about the advantages and disadvantages of each, and issued tips to help you save.

See the conversation on our Facebook page, and catch up on Frugal Traveler columns.

Summary: Seth Kugel, the Frugal Traveler columnist, hosted a live Facebook chat about lodging for summer travel, from hostels to Airbnb. See the conversation.


No matter if we’re talking about banks, airlines, or credit cards, consumers have come to expect that whenever changes are made with fees, it means more money coming out of their pockets.

Occasionally, though, when competition is particularly robust or when the companies realize they’ve overestimated how much they can nickel-and-dime their customers, fees can be scaled back or eliminated altogether. For instance, there’s been a trend in the airline industry–swimming in profits thanks to cheap gas and (yep) high fees–to get rid of fees for services like phone reservations and to restore the old policy of offering passengers free snacks rather than charging for them.

We are apparently now benefiting from a broad if moderate retrenchment of credit card fees as well. According to a new study from CreditCards.com, “Some card issuers have done the remarkable: They eliminated fees.”

A survey of 100 credit cards shows that they collectively charge a total of 593 fees, down from 613 a year ago. And the most commonly eliminated fee is one that’s of particular interest to travelers: the foreign transaction fee. This is a fee that tacks on 3% or so every time an American-issued card is used for a purchase conducted abroad in a foreign currency. For example, if you spend the equivalent of $5,000 on your credit card during a big overseas vacation, you could be charged an extra $150 on top of that for the foreign transaction fee.

There’s no added benefit whatsoever to the cardholder with this fee. Card issuers seem to be grasping that customers view the fee as absurd—and easily avoidable, because some cards have never charged it—so they’re getting on board with its elimination. In the CreditCards.com study, 61 out of 100 cards still have a foreign transaction fee, down from 77 in 2015.

Read Next: The Best Credit Cards for Travel Rewards and Travel Abroad

“I think that’s just competition at work,” Nessa Feddis, a vice president with the American Bankers Association, said in the CreditCards.com report, to explain why foreign transaction fees are disappearing. “Issuers must be getting a response from consumers who feel that’s important. It’s not going to be important to everyone, but it matters to a big segment of consumers, like those who travel abroad.”

The study also points out that the number of fees varies widely from card to card. A couple of cards, both from First Premier Bank, pile on up to 12 fees to customers. The Pentagon Federal Credit Union Promise Visa, on the other hand, doesn’t charge cardholders any at all.

Summary: Why pay an extra 3% when you don't have to?


Jack Davis, the iconic cartoonist who fleshed out the grisly horror titles at the heart of the ‘50s crusade against comics and humored the readers of Mad Magazine, died Wednesday morning.

“There wasn’t anything Jack couldn’t do,” said MAD editor John Ficarra. “Front covers, caricatures, sports scenes, monsters — his comedic range was just incredible. His ability to put energy and motion into his drawings, his use of cross-hatching and brush work, and his bold use of color made him truly one of the greats.”

The Atlanta product started his career incredibly early — even by the standards of the comic industry of 1936 — winning a cartoon contest in “Tip Top Comics” at the age of 12.

Garry Marshall, ‘Happy Days’ creator, dies at 81

His career really took off 13 years later, after he returned from naval service and studied at the Art Students League of New York.

Ensconced in the capital of the industry, he quickly found work freelancing for publisher William Gaines’ EC Comics. “I was about ready to give up, go home to Georgia and be either a forest ranger or a farmer,” Davis told the Wall Street Journal in 2011.

“But I went down to Canal Street and Lafayette, up in an old rickety elevator and through a glass door to Entertaining Comics where (editor) Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines were putting out horror books. They looked at my work and it was horrible and they gave me a job right away!”

His trademark caricature of the gallows humor spewing Crypt Keeper became forever associated with the popular horror line — decades after the publisher dropped the books, pressured by a congressionally backed censorship campaign.

Miss Cleo, iconic TV psychic, dies of cancer at 53

Davis eventually found even greater fame when he started contributing work for another of Gaines’ fledgling publications — a humor magazine called “Mad.” He contributed to the first 30 issues, and then returned in the mid ‘60s and became a mainstay for several decades.

His final cover for the magazine came in 1995, featuring Mad mascot Alfred E. Newman plunging Howard Stern into a toilet bowl.

His wacky doodlings couldn’t be contained on the page: Davis contributed a number of memorable movie posters to cinemas, including “It’s a Mad, Mad World” and Woody Allen’s “Bananas.”

Movie monster makeup master Rick Baker cites Davis’s work as the inspiration for the look of his Frankenstein’s monster.

Broadway impresario James M. Nederlander dead at 94

“RIP Jack Davis, the Maddest of the MAD artists,” tweeted “Gremlins” director Joe Dante. “

Davis’s death marks the end of an era in comic book history: he was the last surviving EC Comics artist.

Summary: Jack Davis, the iconic cartoonist who humored the readers of Mad Magazine, died Wednesday.


Protesters took to Melbourne's CBD earlier today. (Twitter)

Thousands of people have attended rallies in major Australian cities to bring justice to the children abused at Northern Territory’s Don Dale detention centre.

Communities in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Darwin today converged to protest the treatment of children at Don Dale and other youth prisons.

Video footage of a young boy being restrained by guards and repeatedly abused was aired on ABC’s Four Corners earlier this week. The footage caused uproar across the nation, with many calling for the Northern Territory’s government to stand down.

READ MORE: Boy abused in NT detention centre releases letter thanking the public

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has called for a royal commission into the abuse of youths in the NT’s corrections system following the program.

"Like all Australians, we are shocked by the report, by that evidence that was shown on Four Corners last night. Deeply shocked.

We have moved swiftly to get to the bottom of it,” Mr Turnbull said.

A large crowd of people swarmed Melbourne’s State Library at 1pm today.

A number of signs read “Hands off Aboriginal Kids”, and crowds chanted “leave our kids alone”.

Speeches opposing the NT government and its prison systems were widely applauded.

Tweets flowed from the protest throughout the afternoon, with #handsoffAboriginalkids trending.

“Many teary eyes… the whole community is shocked,” one attendee wrote.

“Let’s not pretend the Four Corners story is an NT problem… it’s a national disgrace,” another said.

Communities later moved down Swanston Street to the corner of Bourke Street and Flinders Street, where protests continued.

A group of four youths locked themselves by neck to a wrought iron cage on the tram tracks, halting transport.

Covered in the Indigenous flag, the young people were recorded on video screaming ‘justice’ from the makeshift prison.

At Sydney’s Town Hall, hundreds of people took to the steps of the historic building to make their message clear.

A number of protest signs swaddling the city hall read “Kids Need Nurture Not Torture”.

The police public order squad was seen surrounding the area later in the afternoon. No arrests are believed to have been made.

Brisbane’s CBD was brought to a standstill during the protests. Traffic was stopped as a barrage of protestors flowed through the streets from King George Square.

In Darwin, thousands rallied in the city streets and at Raintree park, with a number of people toting the indigenous flag.

Forrest Place in Perth’s CBD was the centre-point for the city’s rally.

Protesters used megaphones to spread their message.

The ‘emergency rallies’ were announced on Facebook earlier this week, sparking a large amount of interest.

More than 3,000 people clicked ‘attend’ on the Melbourne event.

© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2016


A Blue Mountains teenager missing for nearly two weeks has prompted a police appeal for public help to find him.

Izac Lawrence, 15, last spoke to his parents a week last Tuesday after leaving his home in Katoomba the day before.

He said he was staying with a friend, but it's not known who the friend is or where they live, police say.

The boy, who was officially reported missing on Wednesday morning, is around 168cm tall with a chubby build and short blonde/brown hair.

Summary: Blue Mountains teenager Izac Lawrence has been reported missing after leaving home a week last Monday.


It eventually bloomed at Chatsworth in November 1849, with examples flowering at Kew each year since.

The story will be told in full by Professor Kathy Willis, director of science at Kew, who is to present the BBC Radio 4 series, beginning on July 21.

The programmes will also feature the oldest “resident” of Kew Gardens, thepalm-like cycad, Encephalartos altensteinii, that was brought to the Royal Gardens in 1775 and belongs to a group of plants stretching back around 280 million years; outliving the dinosaurs and predating most mammals.

The series will begin with the work of Carl Linnaeus and the birth of modern botany, right through to the modern day where scientists are working to diversify the British breakfast table with a wider range of cereals.

They will also use Kew’s archive and its world-class collections – including the herbarium of over seven million preserved plant specimens – to tell the story of how modern botany was born around 1759, as Kew was established, and how it has changed the world ever since.

Adrian Washbourne, the series producer, said it would help track how attitudes to plants had come “full circle”, with the people of the 21st century coming to realise the importance of preserving them once again.

Professor Willis said: “It is an absolute privilege to be able to take this journey of discovery and tell the story of people and plants over the past 250 years.

“Britain’s botanical heritage is incredibly rich in compelling, memorable tales of adventure and discovery, politics and conflict, breathtaking beauty and, ultimately, our dependency on plants.

“I hope this series will encourage listeners to look at plants in a new light.”

Gwyneth Williams, controller of Radio 4, added: “This series will mix the latest scientific thinking with historical analysis to capture some of the fascination and magic of plants and our changing relationship with them down the ages.”

Summary: New BBC Radio 4 documentary will tell the story behind the Kew Garden's iconic   Amazonian water lilies


John McDonnell has said Labour needs to “sit up and listen” to complaints about antisemitism in the party, as a senior Jewish MP called for more action to tackle the problem.

The shadow chancellor pledged that the party would root out antisemitism after a series of scandals involving activists and some councillors making offensive comments about Jewish people.

The latest involved the suspension of Khadim Hussain, a Labour councillor and former lord mayor of Bradford, who was put under investigation for sharing a Facebook post that said “your school education system only tells you about Anne Frank and the six million Zionists that were killed by Hitler”. He has now quit the party.

Labour has repeatedly said there is no place for antisemitism in the party and launched a number of investigations into the conduct of individuals. However, Louise Ellman, one of Labour’s most senior Jewish MPs, said on Sunday there had not been enough action to tackle the problem

Speaking on Sky News’s Murnaghan, she said: “I am very concerned about antisemitism in the Labour party. Most members of the Labour party are not antisemitic but some are and some are being allowed to get away with posting antisemitic comments in their tweets and on their websites.

“I have raised this in parliamentary meetings and the leader has spoken out clearly. He says that he is against antisemitism. But it is not just about words. There has got to be some action and we haven’t seen enough of that.”

McDonnell, who said last week he wanted those with antisemitic views to be expelled from Labour, said in an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday: “As soon as Jewish people start telling us there is antisemitism in our party, we’ve got to sit up and listen.

Related: What Labour needs to win in local polls to give heart to Corbyn

“That is why I said last week, if there are people who have expressed antisemitic views, there is no role for them in our party and I would like them out of our party for life. I believe we should take the advice of the British Board of Deputies and our other Jewish friends and say how shall we tackle this problem. It is a societal problem. If it has infected any of our Labour party, we have got to root it out and I am not having it within our party.”

Asked about the case of a former Labour parliamentary candidate, Vicki Kirby, who was readmitted after being suspended over offensive comments about Jews, McDonnell said: “That is unacceptable. You can be a critic of the Israeli state but you must not allow that in any way to be used by antisemites. You’ve got to root that out and we will.”

Several other senior figures in the party have called for more action on the issue. Lord Levy, who was Labour’s chief fundraiser under Tony Blair, warned he may quit the party if it did not do more to confront anti-semitism. Chris Bryant, the shadow leader of the House of Commons, has said the issue of antisemitism threatened to destroy Labour values.

Summary: Shadow chancellor pledges to root out any prejudice in party against Jews following scandals involving activists and councillors


The war of words between Apple Inc. and the government continued Sunday as FBI Director James Comey said forcing Apple to help unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters is no big deal.

"We don't want to break anyone's encryption or set a master key loose on the land," Comey said in a statement Sunday night, insisting that vital decisions involving safety from terrorists shouldn't be left in the hands of "corporations that sell stuff for a living."

Read reaction to the battle between Apple and the FBI on social media:

FBI fires back at Apple: 'We don't want to break anyone's encryption'

This is the most important tech case in a decade. Silence means @google picked a side, but it's not the public's. https://t.co/mi5irJcr25

I stand with Apple on privacy and FBI demand. It's not just marketing for @tim_cook and wasn't for Jobs. https://t.co/cZ1DOEs2RA

4/5 But that’s wholly different than requiring companies to enable hacking of customer devices & data. Could be a troubling precedent

Apple has no problem trying to gather every bit of our personal data for marketing but obligated to protect privacy of dead mass murderers?

Any communications/tech CEO that isn't standing with Apple against the FBI is basically admitting that they've already been compromised.

Journalists: Crucial details in the @FBI v. #Apple case are being obscured by officials. Skepticism here is fair: https://t.co/lEVEvOxcNm

.@FBI “We want to get inside the iPhone no matter what.” @tim_cook “Not a chance.” FBI: “What if we made an album?” Tim: “I’m listening…”

Refusing access to #FBI shows terrorists they can get around FBI. Let's be clear: Apple is doing a service for our adversaries! #AppleVsFBI

"A man who is willing to trade security for liberty deserves neither." - Benjamin Franklin #AppleVsFBI #currentevents

The @FBI is creating a world where citizens rely on #Apple to defend their rights, rather than the other way around. https://t.co/vdjB6CuB7k

#AppleVsFBI is so much bigger than people realize. Keeping a close eye on this one

Speech can only be free when it is protected. —@mcuban #AppleVsFBI https://t.co/m41wKR31ET https://t.co/ng71CmYjeS

#Apple #AppleVsFBI Thanks @tim_cook for taking a stand https://t.co/tgWprQESyK https://t.co/qmFhovqIOl

I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery. Way to go #Apple. Born free staying free. #AppleVsFBI

Steve Jobs would've literally laughed in the FBI's face about them wanting Apple to create a backdoor to hack into a phone. #AppleVsFBI

Every candidate needs a mandatory 1 day crash course on encryption before poisoning public understanding of issue #GOPTownHall #AppleVsFBI

Keeping us safe by chipping away at our ability to preserve our right to privacy is the first step toward not being safe. @FBI #AppleVsFBI

So the company that put an entire U2 album onto my iPhone without asking is now all about privacy? #AppleVsFBI

There are no exceptions, we should never go down the slope of sacrificing privacy for the sake of security. #AppleVsFBI

Apple is right -- no matter how justified it may seem, turning over that data would set a terrible precedence. #ApplevsFBI

Thank you Tim Cook for making public a conflict that every citizen of the U.S. should be paying attention to. #AppleVsFBI

We should be less worried about apple and more worried about how the FBI can't get passed a locked iPhone #AppleVsFBI

A federal judge last week ordered Apple to help investigators gain access to encrypted data on the iPhone 5c used by Syed Rizwan Farook, who with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, on Dec. 2.

Not even Apple can decrypt the encrypted iPhone, according to the company. What investigators want it to do is help them figure out Farook's password so they can simply unlock the phone — but they fear that it has a common feature that wipes the data completely after a certain number of failed password entries.

Apple said it wouldn't comply, arguing that helping the government unlock an encrypted phone would sabotage the entire point of encryption and endanger the privacy of millions of its customers.

Since then, the company and federal authorities have lobbed strongly worded statements at each other. Here's how the battle has played out:

WEDNESDAY: Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook says the order would force the company "to build a backdoor to the iPhone" and that "no reasonable person would find that acceptable."

THURSDAY: Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai weighs in on Apple's side, tweeting that helping the FBI try to get into the Farook's phone would sabotage the security of "tens of millions of American citizens."

FRIDAY: Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump adds his 2 cents' worth, calling for a boycott of Apple unless it helps the FBI.

FRIDAY: Prosecutors file a motion seeking to force Apple's compliance, writing in court documents that Apple shouldn't be allowed to "design and market its products to allow technology, rather than the law, to control access to data" found by a court to be important to an critical investigation.

SATURDAY: The FBI lays out in a statement more detail on why it needs Apple's help. It says that investigators were able to gain access to data Farook backed up to his iCloud account -- but that Farook stopped backing up his phone in October, well before the December shootings. "Since the iCloud backup does not contain everything on an iPhone," they said, investigators' "objective was, and still is, to extract as much evidence as possible from the phone."

READ MORE: Why Are Apple and the FBI Battling Over an iPhone?

: Comey tries to downplay the dispute, arguing in his new statement that no precedent would be set if Apple would just go along.

"I hope folks will take a deep breath and stop saying the world is ending, but instead use that breath to talk to each other," he said.

"Although this case is about the innocents attacked in San Bernardino, it does highlight that we have awesome new technology that creates a serious tension between two values we all treasure — privacy and safety," he said, adding:

"We simply want the chance, with a search warrant, to try to guess the terrorist's passcode without the phone essentially self-destructing and without it taking a decade to guess correctly."

Summary: The war of words between Apple Inc. and the government continued Sunday as FBI Director James Comey spoke out.


Marseille soap, or Savon de Marseille, is as French as wine and cheese, with a history that dates from the Middle Ages. Frenchwomen swear by the crude square blocks, which they use as a natural skin cleanser and, in a pinch, as anything from a toothpaste substitute to a moth repellent.

In recent years, though, cheap Chinese and Turkish knockoffs have been flooding the market, and the soapmakers of Marseille are rallying to protect their product’s reputation. They banded together recently to ask the French government to grant them a label of authenticity, to distinguish the genuine stuff from the imitators.

And that is where the trouble really began.

The original Marseille soap had a specific olive-oil-based recipe that was considered so sacred that Louis XIV protected it with a royal edict. But a battle has erupted between two soapmaking factions over exactly what the modern rules should be for what constitutes a true Marseille soap.

On one side are the soapmasters, based mainly in the Mediterranean port that gave the soap its name. They say that the label of authenticity should go only to products made strictly by the original Louis XIV-approved recipe. It’s quite a process, involving heating a mix of soda ash, seawater and olive oil in large caldrons for several days, and then cooling it in open pits. The finished soap is dun-green and odorless.

On the other side are a group of 12 large companies, including L’Occitane, a global chain retailer of body and fragrance products. They want the government to certify their recipe, which allows the use of cheaper vegetable oils along with additives and perfumes to produce scented soap bars in a rainbow of colors.

“The ancient recipe is outmoded,” said Emilie Grangeon, the general secretary of the Association of Makers of Savon de Marseille, which represents the companies. “We should be able to improve the quality.”

Each side is refusing to talk to the other, while trying to convince the government that its recipe should win. The government, for its part, is using its own time-tested method to delay a decision: It has set up an investigative panel that is to deliver a recommendation in September.

Summary: Soapmakers want the government to protect their storied product from foreign imitations — if only they could agree on how to make the genuine article.


PARIS—The largest buyer of made-in-Bangladesh clothes is trying to turn a pattern on its head: Cheap clothing shouldn't come at the expense of a living wage.

Swedish bargain fashion giant Hennes & Mauritz AB on Monday unveiled a plan to ensure that workers making its clothing are paid wages that cover their cost of living.

Summary: H&M on Monday unveiled a plan to ensure that workers making its clothing are paid wages that cover their cost of living.


British refugee worker Jim Marshall stayed in the city to help its desperate residents during the bloody siege of Sarajevo 15 years ago. He documented the daily destruction he saw. Now he has photographed Sarajevo again to show how the city has transformed itself.

The Unis towers, now named the Unitic Business Centre, in 1996 and today

Summary: Jim Marshall's pictures of Sarajevo 15 years ago and today show how the city   has changed.


Good PTs will use a thorough set of notes to inform your training (PIC: Alamy)

Good form is important in everything from squats to sled pushes - it stops you getting injured, lets you move more efficiently and ensures that you get results rather than rotator-cuff surgery. And, though it’s technically possible that you’re doing every exercise perfectly with no feedback after a single demonstration, it’s not likely. If your trainer lets you bounce bench-press reps off your chest or only go halfway down in a squat, it’s cause for concern.

Consider: does your trainer just count the reps as you do a set, or do they give little cues (‘Knees out, elbows up!’) as you lift? The answer should be the latter.

This is a tricky one: some gyms have rules about trainers giving nutritional advice, and a smattering actively discourage it. But what you eat is so crucial to progress in any direction that, if your trainer never even asks what you had for breakfast, there’s a chance they aren’t completely invested in your success.

FYI, the correct answer is ‘scrambled eggs and coffee’, not ‘an energy drink and an almond croissant.’

You should be able to take simple nutritional advice from your PT (PIC: Alamy)

Okay: there are legitimate uses for a Bosu - aka that half-gym ball thing - but not enough to justify their incredible overuse in most gyms. If your trainer has you doing curls or overhead presses while you wobble around atop one, it’s a warning sign. They might tell you that it works your stabiliser muscles, but all it really does is reduce the amount of weight you can lift, and therefore the effectiveness of whatever move you’re doing.

Injury rehab? Fine. Proprioception? Okay? Balance? Maybe. Anything else on a Bosu? Proceed with care.

Classic time-wasting. Yes, a warmup is key, but if you’re trotting obediently along at a conversational pace for a third of your session, then consider what you’re paying for.

Trainers can be valuable during a cardio workout – if they’re managing your sprint intervals, say, or providing tips on how to do a proper ‘pull’ on the rowing machine – but if you’re just talking about your weekend while you jog, then you’ve just paid the best part of fifty quid for someone to faintly disapprove of your taste in films.

Among trainers, this is known as the ‘Any A-Hole’ phenomenon: any arsehole, it’s widely acknowledged, can make you tired and sore (do 500 burpees!), but not too many of them can make you better.

Whether you’re aiming to lose fat or build muscle, a proper programme should also include structural work (probably to correct the horrible desk-bound slump you’ve been cultivating for a decade) and some recovery days. Yes, you may love the heady endorphin rush/post-beasting smugness of a tough day in the gym, but if every workout leaves you in pieces then at least ask what the point of it all is.

Note: your trainer should still smash you pretty regularly.

White Goodman knew how to smash a session in Dodgeball

Let’s be clear: hiring a trainer solely because they have a rippling six-pack and polo-shirt-filling arms is a terrible idea, since plenty of first-day-on-the-job school leavers have a fast metabolism, good genetics and absolutely no idea how to get results for anyone else.

On the flipside, some of the best trainers around are people who’ve overcome bad genes and worse athleticism via hard work and attention to detail, and they might be carrying around a bit of extra chub alongside all their hard-earned knowledge. But the fact remains: you wouldn’t hire a plumber who didn’t have a working toilet.

If your trainer’s fat, eats terribly and can’t beat you in a chin-up contest, you should probably look elsewhere.

Goodman became less effective as a PT after rediscovering the allure of pizza and crisps

Joel Snape is the acting editor of Men's Fitness. You can follow him on Twitter.

Summary: A knowledgeable and effective personal trainer is a powerful thing - but not   all are as authoritative as they claim. Joel Snape explains how you   can tell a tell a gem from a dud in seven easy steps


SUNGAI LABI, Malaysia—This rice-growing village in Sarawak, like many in this rural state critical to national politics, is attracting government largess as Prime Minister Najib Razak faces the toughest fight of his political career.

A state legislative vote here on Saturday is Mr. Najib’s first electoral test since a scandal erupted last summer surrounding a Malaysian development fund he founded that has sparked opposition demands for him to resign.

The leader has left little to chance, pledging on recent visits to Sarawak to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in government funds toward the state and even holding his cabinet meeting there this week as ministers campaigned for local candidates allied to his United Malays National Organization.

Sarawak’s vote, the only state election this year, comes as Mr. Najib is also under pressure from slowing economic growth due to lower oil prices that led him to slash budgets on ministries by up to half this year. But not in Sarawak. This swath of jungle, rivers and oil fields on western Borneo island that is crucial to his ruling coalition is the beneficiary of a spending surge.

To be sure, ramping up spending before elections has been a fact of political life in Malaysia for decades. But the stakes today are greater for Mr. Najib and his governing UMNO coalition after its near-loss in the 2013 election and the other pressures they now face.

Malaysia’s Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections, an independent election watchdog, this week accused Mr. Najib and his deputy prime minister of vote buying and breaching election laws in Sarawak. “It is unfettered political financing where state and federal funds are audaciously used to finance candidates’ winning,” said the group, known in Malay as Bersih.

Neither Mr. Najib nor his deputy responded to requests for comment and both haven’t responded to that allegation.

“I anticipate that the government will throw away a lot of money in the elections,” said Faisal S. Hazis, head of the Center for Asian Studies at the National University of Malaysia. “This is a common feature in Malaysian elections including Sarawak.”

In an October budget speech, Mr. Najib’s government pledged to build a $4.2 billion pan-Borneo highway through Sarawak. It has begun to upgrade airports, build new housing and implement other projects to improve the lives of Sarawak’s 2.7 million residents.

During Mr. Najib’s recent visits he was seen distributing checks to mosques and churches during a ceremony surrounded by political allies, in a typically Malaysian hands-on style of campaigning. He didn’t say why he presented the checks.

Two charities associated with 1Malaysia Development Bhd, or 1MDB, the national investment fund at the center of the scandal, have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on projects in Sarawak since 2013, say two people close to the charities.

One of them, Yayasan 1MDB, backed a Malaysian social-development program that recently funded 12 rooftop solar panels in Sungai Labi to power a television and fans in the village community hall here, replacing expensive and smelly diesel generators.

“We don’t feel so hot anymore,’’ said village representative Som Batu.

That development program, iM Sarawak, has made 1,400 investments in Sarawak ranging from rural firefighting systems to a Real Madrid soccer camp since it was formed in 2013. Such projects are consistent with its social-development mission. But some foreign diplomats and analysts say iM Sarawak was created to help sway the 2016 state election.

iM Sarawak said it doesn’t disclose details of its funding and declined to comment further.

Yayasan also is sponsoring 150 imams and village officials from Sarawak for a Muslim Haj pilgrimage estimated to cost nearly $400,000. Yayasan, which didn’t reply to a request for comment, has previously sponsored such trips for officials in other states. Mr. Najib said recently the Haj trip was intended to reward these people for their good work and leadership.

“The Haj pilgrimage is definitely a form of vote-buying,” Mr. Faisal said.

1MDB didn’t respond to a request for comment. Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said this week that the money given to Sarawak wasn’t a form of vote-buying.

The Wall Street Journal, citing Malaysian and global investigations, has reported how investigators have found about $1 billion was transferred to Mr. Najib’s personal bank accounts, the majority originating from 1MDB and moving via a web of intermediary entities. The fund is under investigation by authorities in Malaysia and in at least six other countries.

Mr. Najib, who headed 1MDB’s board of advisers until it was dissolved this week, has denied wrongdoing or taking money for personal gain. 1MDB has denied wrongdoing or giving any money to Mr. Najib and said it was cooperating with probes. Malaysia’s attorney general in January said much of the money was a legal political donation from the Saudi royal family and that most of that was returned. He cleared Mr. Najib of wrongdoing.

Many of Mr. Najib’s opponents say his strategy in Sarawak echoes the 2013 general election. The Wall Street Journal has reported that 1MDB indirectly supported his campaign with donations that funded projects he was able to tout during the campaign. The leader has denied any funds were improperly used. 1MDB hasn’t commented on the report.

Sarawak, whose steaming jungle interior is cut by rivers and speckled with tiny communities, is unique among Malaysia’s 13 states. Its indigenous Dayak people have a history as headhunters. It is the only Christian-majority state in Muslim-majority Malaysia.

And it was ruled for more than a century until 1946 by a dynastic monarchy of English adventurers known as the White Rajahs. Portraits of James and Charles Brooke, two White Rajahs, recently hung in the cluster of wooden homes in Sungai Labi village alongside Malaysia’s current leaders.

Sarawak provides Mr. Najib’s coalition with nearly a fifth of its 133 parliamentary seats. Without votes from Sarawak and a neighboring state, the coalition would have lost its parliamentary majority in 2013 for the first time. The next general election is expected in 2018.

The Malaysian leader recently said he wants a strong electoral victory in Sarawak. Risk consultancy firm Eurasia Group predicts that very result due in part to a weak and divided opposition.

—Celine Fernandez in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this article.

Summary: The state of Sarawak, a swath of jungle, rivers and oil fields, is attracting government largess as Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak, embroiled in the 1MDB scandal, faces the toughest fight of his political career.


1. The Clutch | Kate Spade New York x Everpurse Quentin Stripe Wristlet Pouch

You’ll find an imperative inscribed on the edge of this clutch: “Just Charge It.” The breeziness of this dictate is apt. Using this bag to refuel an iPhone (5 through 6s) is especially easy. Simply slide the device into the bag’s hard-plastic charging dock. Even neater, refueling the clutch’s hidden battery doesn’t require fiddling with cables. Just place the bag on the included induction-charging plate, whose light changes from blue to green when the battery is fully topped off. This clutch’s preppy stripes will jolt your look with ladylike energy, too. $198, katespade.com

2. THE TOTE | Tyler Alexandra x EmPOWERED2 Caroline Tote Bag

This carry-all—created by the daughter of famed designer Perry Ellis—is roomy enough to store all your high- and low-tech essentials, from wafer-thin tablets to fluffy cashmere mittens. Its suede-lined interior includes a laptop pocket, credit-card slots and a spot for a 3,000-mAh battery, into which you can plug all makes of smartphone. Packing minimalists need not fear the massive 16-by-12-inch model shown here; this model is also available in two smaller sizes. $2,695, Tyler Alexandra, 212-956-7287

3. THE WALLET | Mighty Purse Zipper Wallet by HButler

At first glance, this looks like any other Saffiano-leather wallet. It has the requisite credit-card slots (eight in total), two billfold sections and a spot for loose change. But it also houses a detachable compartment with a 4,000-mAh battery for replenishing depleted smartphones. Bonus: a detachable wrist strap lets you charge and carry on the run. Choose from six colors, ranging from a demure gray or tan to this peppy cherry. $100, hbutler.co

Summary: Top off your smartphone’s battery while toting your belongings with a fashion-forward charging purse, wallet or tote bag from Kate Spade, Tyler Alexandra and HButler.