The Bloomberg Tower at 731 Lexington Avenue, with an upscale residential portion called One Beacon Court, is transforming the commerce of a neighborhood.

The district was once known for its battling department stores, Bloomingdale's and Alexander's. But Alexander's closed in 1992 and the area was dominated for years by the store's gloomy facade until the building was demolished in 1999.

That was followed by years of construction, when shoppers wandered along 59th Street from the Plaza Hotel, at the southeast corner of Central Park, to Bloomingdale's, three blocks to the east, but not much farther.

But with the opening in 2004 of the 1.4-million-square-foot glass skyscraper that houses the headquarters of Bloomberg L.P., the financial news company, and an office for Citigroup, on the full block where Alexander's once stood, a series of new retail outlets, from clothing shops to banks, is rejuvenating a slightly down-at-the-heel neighborhood.

The developer, Vornado Realty Trust, one of the nation's largest owners and managers of commercial real estate, has "changed a neighborhood that was somewhat of a lackluster market to more of an upscale market," said Gary Trock, a senior vice president at CB Richard Ellis and a prominent retail real estate broker. Vornado declined to be quoted for this article.

Vornado handpicked the tower's retail tenants and included the first large national chains to have stores in the neighborhood: Home Depot, the apparel store H&M and the Container Store, which sells storage and organization products.

Vornado also installed two banks, Bank of America and Wachovia, on the Third Avenue side of its skyscraper. The latest incarnation of the renowned restaurant Le Cirque is in a ground-floor location on the tower's motor court, an atrium between two connected towers where pedestrians and automobiles can move between 58th and 59th Streets.

But commercial brokers said Vornado did not stop there. The developer also acquired buildings around the Bloomberg Tower to export its retail flavor to an even larger swath of the neighborhood.

"It was a strategy by Vornado to master plan not only the block that the Bloomberg building sits on, but the neighborhood to some degree," said Josh N. Kuriloff, an executive vice president at Cushman & Wakefield. "They did this with a keen eye toward architecture. They, in my opinion, single-handedly and dramatically increased the value of the neighborhood."

Thus, Vornado built 715 Lexington Avenue, which is architecturally similar to the Bloomberg Tower and has 23,000 square feet of retail space housing the clothing store New York & Company and Zales Jewelers. Just south of that store on Lexington, a space is being renovated for the cosmetics retailer Sephora.

In 2005, Vornado also built the gleaming low building south of the tower at 968 Third Avenue, which houses a pharmacy.

Besides buildings with retail space, Vornado also owns the Architecture and Design Building at 150 East 58th Street, across 58th Street from the Bloomberg Tower. The A & D building is an integral part of a neighborhood long known as a shopping mecca for the interior design trade.

"Vornado is a smart landlord and a knowledgeable landlord, and they decided to go on a shopping spree and ended up buying as much as they could within the marketplace," Mr. Trock said.

Other real estate owners and retailers in the neighborhood are also upgrading their properties. The UJA-Federation of New York is doing a $95 million gut renovation of the building that houses its main offices at 130 East 59th Street. The clothing stores Gap and Banana Republic have leased space in the building for many years, and there will be 85,000 square feet of office space to lease. They are part of a row of apparel retailers along Lexington Avenue that includes Levi's, Nine West, Diesel, Zara and Kenneth Cole, among others.

While Lexington Avenue was always a lively shopping strip, perhaps the biggest renaissance in the area attributed to the Bloomberg Tower has been along Third Avenue.

"The true value was added on the Third Avenue corridor, because that was a less active zone originally," said Gene Spiegelman, an executive director at Cushman & Wakefield.

The potential of the avenue has not escaped real estate developers. In recent years, the developer Donald Zucker constructed a residential building at 997 Third Avenue, cater-corner to the northeast of the Bloomberg Tower, and, in December 2004, leased almost 20,000 square feet of retail space to the clothing store Urban Outfitters.

A tattered old building immediately to the south at 59th Street and Third Avenue, which once had a Pax Wholesome Foods, Dunkin' Donuts and newsstand, will soon be torn down and replaced with a glass-encased North Fork Bank, and will have 6,400 square feet of space and a storage basement, brokers said.

The retail renaissance is not confined to the blocks immediately around the tower, said Scott I. Edlitz, managing principal of ZE Realty, who is marketing 2,500 square feet of retail space in the Urban Outfitters building. Mr. Edlitz said he believed that apparel tenants were displacing the more traditional furniture and home décor vendors in the area.

Mr. Edlitz said rents were increasing because big clothing retailers were "entering the market and pushing the furniture tenants, who typically need more space, further south and east."

Some business owners, especially those who cater to the interior design industry and have showrooms on the street, said they had picked up a few clients among residents of One Beacon Court in the Bloomberg Tower, which has 105 apartments, ranging in price from just under $2 million to $27.5 million.

"Our problem was all the construction, and that's over," said Jahanshah Nazmiyal, owner of Rug & Kilim, which sells antique and decorative carpets at 204 East 59th Street.

Other retailers east of Third Avenue, an area that has traditionally had more service-oriented retailing, like restaurants, locksmiths, dry cleaners, cocktail lounges and delicatessens, said they were feeling the pinch of the Bloomberg Tower, either in the form of rising retail rents or more competition for the potential customers in the office tower and in One Beacon Court.

"I used to be the only baby store," said Stuart Sherman, president of Go To Baby at 315 East 57th off Second Avenue. "Then three years ago, two more opened. Now there's a total of five. With more traffic comes more competition, so it probably evens out."

A version of this article appears in print on , on page C9 of the New York edition with the headline: A Tower Goes Up, and a Neighborhood Perks Up. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

Summary: The Bloomberg Tower at 731 Lexington Avenue is transforming the commerce of a neighborhood.


CHICAGO, Feb. 28— Richard M. Daley, son of the political boss who ruled this city for 21 years, won the Democratic mayoral primary tonight in the most racially divided vote here since black candidates began running for City Hall in the 1970's.

In losing, Acting Mayor Eugene Sawyer became the first black incumbent of a major city to be ousted by a white challenger.

With 72 percent of the 2,911 precincts reporting, Mr. Daley had 415,867 votes to Mr. Sawyer's 227,319. The pattern of vote-reporting indicated that Mr. Daley's final lead would be about 12 percentage points. 'Tired of Name-Calling'

''The people of Chicago are tired of the name-calling and the bickering,'' Mr. Daley, 46 years old, roared over the jubilant thunder of his supporters at the Fairmont Hotel here. ''They want our leaders to lower their voices and raise their sights.''

In his concession speech Mayor Sawyer, 54, said, ''Our struggle is not over,'' and urged Chicagoans to ''work to end racism, sexism and anti-Semitism.''

The racial voting pattern was demonstrated by a New York Times/ WBBM-TV poll of 2,114 voters showing that Mr. Daley, the Cook County State's Attorney, won 91 percent of the white vote, while taking only 5 percent of the black vote.

Mr. Sawyer took 94 percent of the black vote but only 8 percent of the white vote. These findings were subject to a margin of sampling error of plus or minus two percentage points.

The late Harold Washington, the city's first black mayor, triumphed in 1983 and 1987 with a large and unified black vote and about one-fifth of the white votes. Black Vote Off Sharply

The number of whites and blacks in Chicago, the nation's third-largest city, with 3 million people, is roughly equal. But whites outnumber blacks among registered voters.

The total vote was about 200,000 less than that of two years ago, down in both black and white neighborhoods but off much more sharply in black areas.

On April 4 Mr. Daley will face Timothy C. Evans, a black Alderman who has launched an independent bid, and the winner of the Republican primary, where Dr. Herb Sohn, a urologist, and Edward R. Vrdolyak, a former mayoral candidate who waged a write-in campaign, were locked in a close race. With about three-fourths of the precincts reporting, Mr. Vrdolyak led Mr. Sohn in unofficial tallies, but the outcome remained in doubt because of uncertainties and disputes over write-in votes. Democrats have held City Hall in Chicago for more than six decades. Racial Tensions Below Surface

Mr. Sawyer was chosen Acting Mayor by a majority of white aldermen and a handful of black City Councilmen in a stormy session Dec. 2, 1987.

His alliance with white aldermen angered many blacks, and while he made great strides to win their support, some lingering bitterness may have helped doom his chances.

In the campaign, Mr. Daley and Mr. Sawyer largely avoided personal attacks and repeatedly called for racial harmony. But in this city, often regarded as the most residentially segregated in the country, racial tensions were never far below the surface, and charges of racism on both sides flared repeatedly in the final weeks of the campaign.

The Sawyer campaign not only suffered losses in black turnout but also failed to do as well as Mr. Washington had done among whites. Three-fourths of the whites who voted for Mr. Washington went for Mr. Daley today. Jewish and Hispanic voters, two other groups from which Mr. Sawyer had hoped to win support, went against him solidly. Among Jews, Mr. Daley got 83 percent of the votes, against 15 percent for Mr. Sawyer. Among Hispanic voters, Mr. Daley led 84 percent to 15 percent. 'Mutiny in Our Community'

In the last weeks of the campaign, Mr. Sawyer campaigned at the side of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who lives here. In numerous political rallies Mr. Jackson, the former Presidential candidate, led crowds of blacks in chanting, ''Keep the keys,'' a reference to black control of City Hall. Tonight he exhorted blacks to get out and vote, complaining, ''We have a mutiny in our community.''

Mr. Sawyer's strong showing among black voters illustrated a remarkable political comeback by the former Alderman, who had taken the oath of office surrounded by armed guards at a stormy City Council session while protesters chanted, ''Uncle Tom Sawyer, Uncle Tom Sawyer.''

But some of Mr. Evans's backers, who remained bitter toward Mr. Sawyer for his alliance with ethnic white aldermen that night, may have denied the Mayor a crucial edge by staying home from the polls. Remembrance of 'Da Mare'

And Mr. Sawyer, who also needed to attract Mayor Washington's white supporters, most of them residents of the relatively affluent lakefront wards, and many of them Jewish, was surely hurt when he hesitated last year before discharging an aide who had delivered a series of anti-Semitic speeches to black audiences.

Richard Michael Daley, given to giggles, malapropisms and hometown boosterism, inspires deja vu in Chicagoans who remember his father, Richard J. Daley, whose clipped speech and use of words like ''dees'' and ''dems'' earned him the sobriquet ''Da Mare.''

But demeanor aside, allies and critics alike see important differences between father and son. His supporters contend that Mr. Daley has no desire to run the city with the autocratic, Irish, old-boy network that characterized the seemingly omnipotent Democratic machine - and could not do so even if he wished. The courts have outlawed much of the patronage that fueled the machine, and the city's black electorate, which has grown larger and more assertive, now insists on a fair slice of the bureaucratic pie. 'Common Man' Image

Critics see differences in ability as well. The elder Daley, they say, was mentally as sharp as a stockyard meat hook and potentially nearly as painful to his foes.

''People accused old man Daley of a lot of things,'' said Don Rose, a top adviser to the Evans campaign. ''But no one ever accused him of being dumb.''

The younger Daley is not as politically ruthless as his father; nor, the critics contend, is he as smart. A graduate of DePaul University Law School, the younger Daley flunked the bar examination twice before passing on a third try.

In eight years as a county prosecutor, he has not tried a single case. Indeed, the Sawyer campaign sought to capitalize on misgivings about Daley's intellect in advertisements that showed the candidate fumbling with crayon-scrawled notecards that read, among other things, ''My name is Richie.''

Mr. Daley has brushed aside such criticisms, even predicting that his ''common man'' image could help him in working-class wards, sometime described here as the Bungalow Belt.

He conceded that when he ran for State's Attorney, ''I had my skeptics.'' But he eventually won praise for his stewardship of the prosecutor's office, earning an endorsement for re-election from Mayor Washington in 1987.

In this campaign, Mr. Daley sounded the themes of law and order and the need for reform of the city's troubled school system.He has promised to hire minorities at City Hall at levels established under Mayor Washington and in nearly every campaign appearance has called for racial harmony.

Photos of Richard M. Daley (AP) (pg. A1); Carol Freeman receiving her ballot at a polling place in Chicago as she prepared to vote (NYT/Jonathan Kirn) (pg. A21)

Summary: LEAD: Richard M. Daley, son of the political boss who ruled this city for 21 years, won the Democratic mayoral primary tonight in the most racially divided vote here since black candidates began running for City Hall in the 1970's.


An Indian woman who was allegedly raped by an Uber taxi driver is considering the possibility of taking the tech firm to court in the U.S., according to British daily the Guardian.

Authorities in the Indian capital banned the taxi service in December, when the woman accused Uber driver Shiv Kumar Yadav, 32, of attacking her. Yadav pleaded not guilty to charges of rape, kidnapping and criminal intimidation.

As the criminal trial unfolds, the victim is reported to have approached Douglas Wigdor, a high-profile American lawyer who represented Nafissatou Diallo, the New York City hotel maid who accused the former International Monetary Fund managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault. Prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office went on to drop all charges against Strauss-Kahn, while a civil suit was settled out of court.

“I can confirm that I have been retained by the young lady who was raped by an Uber driver in Delhi, India, last December,” Wigdor told the Guardian, which said he was looking at the possibility of the New Delhi woman suing Uber for negligence in an American court. “Having met extensively with her and her family while in Delhi, I can only compliment them for their bravery and fortitude during this very difficult time. We will use all of our resources to vindicate my client’s rights, hold those responsible for their actions and ensure that this doesn’t happen again.”

Summary: The 26-year-old alleged victim is apparently to be represented by Douglas Wigdor.


The House voted late Wednesday night to approve a measure to bar the government from paying federal contractors that discriminate based on gender identity or sexual orientation.

Members erupted into cheers Wednesday night after the measure, sponsored by Rep. Sean Maloney (D-N.Y.), was approved 223-195. The Wednesday vote was the second in less than a week on an issue that divides Republicans as a party and is proving equally contentious among GOP lawmakers in the House.

While last week’s vote was an amendment to a defense spending bill, the measure was considered last night as an amendment to the energy and water spending bill, which is expected to clear the House later today.

And while the result was encouraging for civil rights’ advocates, did you happen to catch House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) explanation for the strange congressional developments?

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney’s (D-N.Y.) amendment nullifies the anti-LGBT provision and protects the White House’s anti-discrimination policy. That’s the measure that passed last night.

The argument is pretty ridiculous on its face. As

, the Speaker of the House “believes that states should decide whether the federal government should allow federal contractors to use federal tax dollars to engage in anti-LGBTQ discrimination when working on federal projects overseen by federal agencies. And this man is the intellectual leader of the Republican Party.”

Speaker of the House Paul D. Ryan (R-Wisc.) told reporters on Tuesday that the breakdown last week was the result of confusion about the amendment and a fear that the issue could undermine support for the overall bill. “A lot of folks didn’t know what they were voting on,” Ryan said.

Funny, Ryan seemed to think it was pretty clear last week.

Summary: Last week's pro-discrimination vote led to "chaos" on the House floor. Members re-fought the same argument last night, this time with a very different result.


Sousse, Tunisia - Omar Abbouda was 27 years old when he joined Jabhat al-Nusra (al-Nusra Front) to fight against the Syrian regime. Last year, he was killed in the battlefield.

"I have only learned about his travel to Syria through one of his friends," Alhadi Abbouda, Omar's father, told Al Jazeera. "He [Omar's friend] told me Omar had gone 'to do God's will and to protect those being exterminated by Bashar al-Assad," added Alhadi, who remained in touch with his son while the latter was in Syria.

Alhadi said that his son, who dropped out of his secondary education due to poor academic performance, was not particularly religious.

Thousands of young men from across Tunisia have left their home country in this way, with Sousse providing perhaps up to 1,000 of them.

Tunisia has, by some estimates, provided the largest number of foreign fighters in Syria. According to official numbers, up to April 2014, 3,000 Tunisians have joined the battlefield in Syria and Iraq. Other more recent estimates put the number at 2,500.

Some, like Omar, die there; others return. The vast majority, however, disappear.

RELATED: The rival ideological narrative in Tunisia

The touristy charm of this Tunisian city hides another, more menacing reality: The town visited by a million tourists a year, is also a source of fighters going into Syria and Iraq.

A visitor to Sousse often hears stories about youths who joined the "jihad" in Iraq and, more commonly, Syria. There are a few who are stopped before being able to leave, and perhaps end up detained, but most leave.

Within Sousse, specific neighbourhoods like Al Qalaa Al Kubra ("The Grand Castle"), Al Riyadh, Al Shabab and Hamam Soussa serve as recruitment hotpots for the stream of potential fighters.

Outside of the town quarters, districts like Herkalion, Sidi Abdelhamid and the Nafidha Housing Development fulfil a similar purpose.

These neighbourhoods have been flashpoints for violence between Islamist youth and the state authorities, witnessing events such as the storming of the South Sousse police station in 2012, in which two young Salafists were killed, and a suicide bombing last year. The public's attention has been fixated on the activities of Tunisian fighters abroad.

Anise would always claim to be in a better place than we are; he would only come back if he achieved the aim of toppling Bashar al Assad, or perhaps of dying as a martyr so that he could secure absolution for his family.

Residents of these neighbourhoods share stories of how groups of six or seven youth go missing from a specific neighbourhood mosque once in a while. Days later, their families discover that they have gone to Syria or to Iraq.

Such incidents revealed what one analyst described as "a ready-made network" of young men spread across Tunisian cities that leaders of "jihadist" groups can rely on in their foreign battles.

The target, added the analyst, is always the young and born-again Muslim men, or even in some cases, those who are not religiously observant.

And the method is "religious rhetoric that combined sermonising with stories of the suffering of Muslims around the world" via the internet.

Noureddine Belaid, a legal expert, recounts the story of his 29-year-old brother Anise, who joined The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the Syrian city of Raqqa in June.

"My brother's social circle was not exceptional. Most of his friends were not religious," said Belaid who added that his younger brother did not step outside the house for a single day, and that he must have been influenced through the internet. "Right before he left, he was glued to his computer screen."

The most common trajectory is for these young men to fly straight from Tunisia to Turkey, a country to which they can travel visa-free, before entering Syrian or Iraqi territory.

Some others also spend periods of time undergoing military training in Libya before continuing their journeys on to Syria and Iraq.

Most of the stories recounted by the town residents suggest that these youth fund their own journeys. What they cannot afford with personal funds, they either borrow or take from their families.

Alhadi said that he had no idea who recruited and financed the groups of Soussa youth who travel abroad to join ISIL and other groups. "All I know is that my son Omar financed himself, never asking for financial support."

Belaid's brother, Anise, who worked as a taxi driver, was able to finance his own travels, too, and left in a group of young men who came from across Tunisia.

"Nobody from our district, Al Qalaa Al Kubra, was in that group," explained Belaid, but "he did call us from the Turkish border, telling us he was on his way to Syria".

The Sousse volunteers, a majority of whom are between 20 and 30 years of age, tend to come from the city's working class districts, areas known not only for their poverty, but for their educational deprivation, social marginalisation but most importantly, lack of any religious education institutions.

"Anise never had friends who went to seminaries; he only did primary level, and so his motivations were not ideological, as far as I can tell."

The lawyer said that another possible motivation for his brother's departure was "perhaps some financial incentive provided by some group or another".

Many of the volunteers are also former convicts. There are, of course, exceptions, of the wealthy and educated youth joining "jihadists".

More surprising is the number of youth from Sousse who have been able to return to the country and evade prosecution by the authorities.

Representatives of the local authorities - the general commissioner and the state's regional governor - both declined to speak to Al Jazeera, because "They are not authorised to speak to the media."

Some analysts blamed the government for ignoring the social root causes for this "youth migration into Jihad land".

The poverty rate in Tunisia has for long been underestimated. According to a study by the national statistics institute, it was 15.5 percent in 2010.

Political and economic uncertainty following the 2011 popular uprising has taken a toll on the employment situation and led to a decline in tourism earnings.

For its part, the government says it has done much to stop the flow of young men going to Syria and Iraq.

The interior ministry said last February that it has stopped a further 8,000 others from travelling abroad - officials also speak of 400 who returned, some of whom are in prison, others under judicial supervision.

Belaid spoke of the last time his younger brother had sent them photos home: He was standing with a group made up of various Arab and non-Arab nationalities, on Eid al-Adha.

They were all tearing up their passports. Anise wanted, he said, "to reassure us that he was fine and that trying to persuade him to come back would be futile.

"My brother would always claim to be in a better place than we are; he would only come back if he achieved the aim of toppling Bashar al-Assad, or perhaps of dying as a martyr so that he could secure absolution for his family."

Summary: Tunisian town that attracts a million tourists a year has become supplier of self-declared 'jihadists'.


WASHINGTON—The head of U.S. armed forces in the Middle East told Congress on Tuesday that the U.S. will need to employ more military resources to take back key areas of Iraq and Syria, adding he recently made recommendations for that phase of the fight against Islamic State militants.

Gen. Lloyd Austin, chief of U.S. Central Command, declined to give details of the recommendations made to top Pentagon officials, such as whether he is seeking more troops. But he said the U.S. would continue to support indigenous forces...

Summary: The head of U.S. armed forces in the Middle East, Gen. Lloyd Austin, told Congress on Tuesday that the U.S. will need to employ more military resources to take back key areas of Iraq and Syria, adding he recently made recommendations for that phase of the fight against Islamic State militants.


CHICAGO — In a previous life, Jeurys Familia must have been a magician. Called on to protect a one-run lead in Tuesday’s 2-1 Mets win over the Chicago Cubs, he turned frayed nerves and agony into exhilaration.

He walked the first two batters he faced. The next batter, Javier Baez, beat out a bunt. The novice third baseman Jose Reyes, who scooped up the ball and threw it to first, said later that he should have let it roll to see if it would go foul. Familia remained unfazed.

“I just try to believe and think I can do it,” Familia said. “I talk to myself.”

Familia coaxed a ground ball out of Matt Szczur that first baseman James Loney fielded and threw home to get a forceout. Then Familia got the Cubs slugger Kris Bryant to hit into a game-ending double play.

Reacting to his improbable save, Familia screamed on the mound, clenched his fists and bounced up and down.

“I don’t feel nerves anymore, like when I first started closing,” Familia said. “What I try to do is find myself and trust in what I can do.”

Familia’s adventurous ninth inning, in the end, protected the work of his teammates Noah Syndergaard and Rene Rivera.

Rivera, a defense-first backup catcher, is not expected to produce much offense. He has proved useful to the Mets because of his strong throwing arm and his rapport with the pitching staff. Although his .190 batting average entering Tuesday’s game was unsightly, he was behind the plate because Syndergaard was on the mound.

At the plate, Rivera delivered three singles, including a go-ahead single with two outs in the top of the ninth inning on a 97-mile-per-hour fastball from Cubs reliever Hector Rondon.

“I just was trying to put the ball in play,” Rivera said.

Syndergaard allowed only an unearned run over five and two-thirds innings and recorded eight strikeouts while Jake Arrieta, the Cubs’ ace, gave up one run over an efficient seven innings, with eight strikeouts.

Every Syndergaard start this month has been accompanied by some caution. He has been pitching with a small bone spur in the back of his elbow, and he left his start on July 8 early with arm fatigue, a likely byproduct of a large workload.

The Mets placed him last in their rotation coming out of last week’s All-Star break to give him as much rest as possible. On Tuesday, in his first start in 11 days, Syndergaard looked mostly like himself again. His command was not sharp, but he escaped jams, including one with the bases loaded in the second inning.

Although Syndergaard labored at times during his start, the results were encouraging for the Mets. His velocity was normal in the first inning, when he fired 98- to 100-m.p.h. fastballs. His fastball was still lively when he faced his final two batters in the sixth inning, clocking 96 to 98 m.p.h. He left the game after 105 pitches and reported no issues.

“My arm felt really loose and fluid even later in the game,” Syndergaard said.

The defense behind Syndergaard was uneven. The first two Cubs of the game reached base on playable balls, but Syndergaard escaped thanks to a strikeout, a flyout and a groundout. The first run scored when Rivera threw wildly to third base after a Syndergaard wild pitch, allowing Willson Contreras to race home.

The Mets’ outfield arrangement was unusual. The team believes Yoenis Cespedes has been affected by the running required in center field, so it has played him in left since he returned from a right quadriceps strain. But with the right-handed Arrieta on the mound, the Mets wanted more left-handed batters in the lineup.

That meant Michael Conforto, just back from the minor leagues, had to play right field for the first time in the majors.

The Mets also want to try Conforto in center field but want to ease him into it. So Mets Manager Terry Collins asked the usual right fielder, Curtis Granderson, to play center for the first time this season, and only the third time since the start of last season.

“Wherever they put me — catch, short, outfield — I’ll play all of them,” Granderson said.

Conforto teamed up with Rivera to save a run for Syndergaard in the fourth inning. With Arrieta on base after a double, Tommy La Stella singled to right. Conforto fired a throw home, and Rivera’s nifty tag nabbed Arrieta at the plate. Arrieta was originally ruled safe, but a replay review overturned the call.

The Mets tied the score in the sixth inning when Reyes tripled and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Granderson. That set the stage for Rivera’s big hit — and Familia’s roller-coaster ninth.

At one point, Familia threw nine straight balls. He stopped to calm himself. He had saved 48 consecutive regular-season games dating to last season. He had been there before.

“Throw my sinker down and make sure they make contact and get a ground ball and believe in myself,” he said.

A version of this article appears in print on July 20, 2016, on page B9 of the New York edition with the headline: Familia Wiggles Free From a Jam in the Ninth. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

Summary: Called on to protect a one-run lead, Familia loaded the bases in the ninth inning with no outs, but then got two ground balls to close out a win for the Mets.


The owner of an Indian restaurant was sentenced to prison on Monday after being found guilty for causing the death of a customer who had a severe peanut allergy.

In 2014, Paul Wilson suffered an allergic reaction to a chicken tikka masala — which had the words “no nuts” written on the lid of the container — that he ordered to go from Indian Garden restaurant in North Yorkshire. On eating the curry, the 38-year-old went into anaphylactic shock and was found dead in his home.

According to the New York Times, restaurateur Mohammed Zaman, 52, received a six year sentence, marking the first time someone has been convicted of manslaughter over the sale of food in Britain.

Prosecutors said Zaman, who owns six restaurants, was nearly £300,000 (about $434,000) in debt, causing him to cut corners by replacing almond powder in his recipes with a cheaper ground nut mixture, prosecutors said. Another customer had also suffered from an allergic reaction three weeks before Wilson’s death. Prosecutors said that like Wilson, she was assured that her meal did not contain nuts.

Summary: He served an allergic customer a curry that contained peanuts


July 25 (Reuters) - A Florida man pleaded guilty on Monday to working with another man to illegally funnel $80,000 in foreign contributions to U.S. President Barack Obama's joint fundraising committee in 2012 so that a foreign national could attend a campaign event.

William Argeros, 57, pleaded guilty in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, to charges that he knowingly and willfully made foreign contributions and donations and made a false declaration to a federal grand jury, prosecutors said.

SEE ALSO: 19 dead, dozens wounded in Tokyo knife attack

U.S. law prohibits contributions from foreign nationals to candidates or fundraising committees in federal elections.

A lawyer for Argeros did not respond to a request for comment. The Tampa, Florida, resident is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 9.

The proceedings came a month after an earlier guilty plea in the case by Bilal Shehu, a New Jersey limousine driver to whom prosecutors said Argeros facilitated the transferring of $80,000 from a foreign source.

Prosecutors said Shehu, a Paramus, New Jersey resident, then provided the money to Obama's joint fundraising committee so that a foreign national could attend a campaign event on Oct. 8, 2012, in San Francisco.

See photos of Obama through the years:

Barack Obama - general through the years

President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House, Thursday, June 25, 2015, in Washington, after the Supreme Court upheld the subsidies for customers in states that do not operate their own exchanges under President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama waves as he finished speaking at the Annual Meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in San Francisco, Friday, June 19, 2015. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama arrives at San Francisco International Airport on Friday, June 19, 2015, in San Francisco. Obama is scheduled to attend the Annual Meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and two fundraising events on Friday. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

President Barack Obama pauses as he sits on stage as Attorney General Loretta Lynch speaks during her investiture ceremony, Wednesday, June 17, 2015, at the Warner Theatre in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama smiles as he makes a visit to the Congressional baseball game at Nationals Park, on Thursday, June 11, 2015, in Washington (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

US President Barack Obama stands left as German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks in Kruen, near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, southern Germany, Sunday, June 7, 2015, before attending the G-7 summit in Schloss Elmau hotel. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama waves to members of the media as he walks to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Saturday, June 6, 2015, to head to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., on his way to Germany to attend the G-7 summit. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

President Barack Obama smiles during an event with Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative fellows, Monday, June 1, 2015, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Barack Obama waves as he boards Air Force One before his departure from Westchester County Airport in White Plains, New York, Wednesday, May 20, 2015. Obama had traveled to New York to attend a private democratic fundraiser and was returning to Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama listens during his meeting with Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Thursday, May 21, 2015. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama and Ensign Taylor Teryle Tennyson strike a pose after he received his diploma and commission at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy graduation, Wednesday, May 20, 2015, in New London, Conn. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 08: U.S. President Barack Obama walks across the South Lawn before departing the White House on Marine One April 8, 2015 in Washington, DC. Obama is traveling to Jamaica and will then attend the Summit of the Americas meetings in Panama. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

President Barack Obama looks down at his notes during a bilateral meeting with Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller at the Jamaica House, Thursday, April 9, 2015, in Kingston, Jamaica. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

US President Barack Obama makes his way to board Air Force One under a rainbow upon departure from Kingston, Jamaica on April 9, 2015. Obama is heading to Panama to attend the Summit of the Americas. (Photo by Mandel Ngan, AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 02: U.S. President Barack Obama walks from the Oval Office to the Rose Garden to deliver remarks on negotiations with Iran over their nuclear program on April 2, 2015 in Washington, DC. In exchange for Iran's agreement to curb their country's nuclear proliferation, the United States would lift some of the crippling sanctions imposed. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

BOSTON - MARCH 30: President Barack Obama speaks during a formal ceremony to dedicate the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Boston on March 30, 2015. (Photo by Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, USA - MARCH 23: President Barack Obama speaks to gathered business leaders at the SelectUSA Summit at the Gaylord National Hotel at the National Harbor in Washington, USA on March 23, 2015. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

COLLEGE PARK, MD - MARCH 21: (AFP OUT) President Barack Obama (C) sits with his brother-in-law Craig Robinson (R), his nephew Avery Robinson (2-L) and daughter Malia (L) while attending the Green Bay versus Princeton women's college basketball game in the first round of the NCAA tournament, March 21, 2015 in College Park, Maryland. President Barack Obama's niece Leslie Robinson plays for Princeton. (Photo by MIchael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)

US President Barack Obama speaks during the second-annual White House Student Film Festival in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, March 20, 2015. The event features the winning short films created by students highlighting the idea of service and helping the community. AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 19: U.S. President Barack Obama signs an Executive Order, titled 'Planning for Sustainability in the Next Decade' in the Oval Office of the White House on March 19, 2015 in Washington, D.C. The order will cut the Federal Government's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 40 percent from 2008 levels over the next decade. (Photo by Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty Images)

President Barack Obama speaks at Boise State University on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2015, in Boise, Idaho. (AP Photo/Otto Kitsinger)

President Barack Obama greets people in the tarmac as hr arrives on Air Force One at Gowen Field Air National Guard Base?, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015, in Boise , Idaho, en route to Boise State University where he will discuss the themes in his State of the Union address. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama speaks at Boise State University, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015, in Boise, Idaho, about the themes in his State of the Union address. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama visits with 3-5 year-olds at the Community Children's Center in Lawrence, Kansas, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015, before speaking about the themes in his State of the Union address. Akira Cooper is at right. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama greets visitors who gathered to watch the departure of Air Force One, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015, at Forbes Field in Topeka, Kansas, en route to Washington. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

President Barack Obama greets people after speaking at the University of Kansas Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015, in Lawrence, Kansas. Obama was speaking about the themes in his State of the Union address. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

President Barack Obama speaks during a visit to the University of Kansas Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015, in Lawrence, Kansas. Obama was speaking about the themes in his State of the Union address. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

US President Barack Obama signs an executive order promoting private sector cybersecurity information sharing after speaking at the White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California on February 13, 2015. AFP PHOTO/NICHOLAS KAMM (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

FILE - In this March 22, 2012, file photo, President Barack Obama arrives at the TransCanada Stillwater Pipe Yard in Cushing, Okla. The GOP-controlled House and Senate will likely put pressure on the White House to approve TransCanadaâs Keystone XL Pipeline in 2015. If Congress manages to push through policy changes, such as lower taxes for medical device makers and lighter regulations for coal, it could lift stocks in the health and energy industries, market strategists say. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 12: U.S. President Barack Obama walks toward Marine One before departing the White House, March 12, 2015 in Washington, DC. President Obama is traveling to Los Angles, California to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live television show, and attend a DNC roundtable. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

US President Barack Obama delivers remarks during the National League of Cities annual Congressional City Conference in Washington, DC, March 9, 2015. AFP PHOTO/JIM WATSON (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

US President Barack Obama (R) hugs US Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, one of the original marchers at Selma, during an event marking the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, March 7, 2015. The Obamas traveled to Selma to commemorate Bloody Sunday, when civil rights marchers attempting to walk to the Alabama capital of Montgomery to end voting discrimination against African Americans, clashed with police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

US President Barack Obama walks off Air Force One on February 14, 2015 as he arrives in Palm Springs, California where he will spend the Presidents Day weekend. AFP PHOTO/NICHOLAS KAMM (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

President Barack Obama is silhouetted as he speaks at the TransCanada Stillwater Pipe Yard in Cushing, Okla., Thursday, March, 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

With oil pump jacks as a backdrop, President Barack Obama waves to the crowd prior to speaking at an oil and gas field on federal lands Wednesday, March 21, 2012, in Maljamar, NM. The president is defending his energy agenda this week, traveling Wednesday to a solar panel plant in Nevada, but also the site of a future oil pipeline in Oklahoma. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

President Barack Obama speaks after touring Sempra's Copper Mountain Solar 1 facility, Wednesday, March 21, 2012, in Boulder City, Nev. The president is defending his energy agenda this week, traveling Wednesday not only to the solar panel plant in Nevada, but also later to oil and gas fields in New Mexico and the site of a future oil pipeline in Oklahoma. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

President Barack Obama steps to the podium to speak in the White House's Brady Briefing Room after signing the payroll tax cut extension, Friday, Dec. 23, 2011, in Washington. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the 71st General Assembly of the Union for Reform Judaism, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, in National Harbor, Md. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama speaks to troops at Fort Bragg, N.C., Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

President Barack Obama speaks about the economy at Osawatomie High School, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011, in Osawatomie, Kan. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., addresses a rally in Columbia, S.C., Friday, Jan. 25, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., listens to Christina Stewart during a roundtable discussion on women's issues in a Charleston, S.C., deli Friday, Jan. 25, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks at a rally at Lander University as supporters hold up large cardboard numbers that spell "08" in Greenwood, S.C., Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

In announcing both guilty pleas, prosecutors have not specifically identified the foreign source of the money or the foreign national.

But the cases came after a Republican congressman in 2013 called for investigations into the purchases by Shehu's family of two $40,000 tickets for a San Francisco fundraiser, one of which was used by now-Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.

At the October 2012 event, Rama, the Albanian Socialist Party leader, was photographed with Obama.

U.S. Representative Dana Rohrabacher of California at the time contended the photo was then used for "deceitful" purposes by Rama to imply a relationship with Obama during Albania's own election, which brought him into leadership.

Prosecutors have said that the foreign national in the case was denied entry to the campaign event but was allowed to be photographed with Obama.

Prosecutors said no one on the joint election committee has been accused of any wrongdoing and that it had cooperated fully in the investigation. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Bill Rigby)

More from AOL.com: Forget 2016 -- the 2020 election just kicked off Tim Kaine: 5 things you need to know about Hillary Clinton's VP nominee Democrat Clinton picks Kaine as vice presidential running mate

Summary: A Florida man pleaded guilty on Monday to helping another man illegally funnel $80,000 to Obama's fundraising committee in 2012.


Brexit is a turning point in the history of western democracy. Never before has such a drastic decision been taken through so primitive a procedure – a one-round referendum based on a simple majority. Never before has the fate of a country – of an entire continent, in fact – been changed by the single swing of such a blunt axe, wielded by disenchanted and poorly informed citizens.

But this is just the latest in a series of worrying blows to the health of democracy. On the surface, everything still seems fine. A few years ago, the World Values Survey, a large-scale international research project, asked more than 73,000 people in 57 countries if they believed democracy was a good way to govern a country – and nearly 92% said yes. But that same survey found that in the past 10 years, around the world, there has been a considerable increase in calls for a strong leader “who does not have to bother with parliament and elections” – and that trust in governments and political parties has reached a historical low. It would appear that people like the idea of democracy but loathe the reality.

Trust in the institutions of democracy is also visibly declining. In the past five years, the European Union’s official research bureau found that less than 30% of Europeans had faith in their national parliaments and governments – some of the lowest figures in years, and an indication that almost three-quarters of people distrust their countries’ most important political institutions. Everywhere in the west, political parties – the key players in our democracies – are among the least trusted institutions in society. Although a certain scepticism is an essential component of citizenship in a free society, we are justified in asking how widespread this distrust might be and at what point healthy scepticism tips over into outright aversion.

There is something explosive about an era in which interest in politics grows while faith in politics declines. What does it mean for the stability of a country if more and more people warily keep track of the activities of an authority that they increasingly distrust? How much derision can a system endure, especially now that everyone can share their deeply felt opinions online?

Fifty years ago, we lived in a world of greater political apathy and yet greater trust in politics. Now there is both passion and distrust. These are turbulent times, as the events of the past week demonstrate all too clearly. And yet, for all this turbulence, there has been little reflection on the tools that our democracies use. It is still a heresy to ask whether elections, in their current form, are a badly outmoded technology for converting the collective will of the people into governments and policies.

We discuss and debate the outcome of a referendum without discussing its principles. This should be surprising. In a referendum, we ask people directly what they think when they have not been obliged to think – although they have certainly been bombarded by every conceivable form of manipulation in the months leading up to the vote. But the problem is not confined to referendums: in an election, you may cast your vote, but you are also casting it away for the next few years. This system of delegation to an elected representative may have been necessary in the past – when communication was slow and information was limited – but it is completely out of touch with the way citizens interact with each other today. Even in the 18th century, Jean-Jacques Rousseau had already observed that elections alone were no guarantee of liberty: “The people of England deceive themselves when they fancy they are free; they are so, in fact, only during the election of members of parliament: for, as soon as a new one is elected, they are again in chains, and are nothing.”

Referendums and elections are both arcane instruments of public deliberation. If we refuse to update our democratic technology, we may find the system is beyond repair; 2016 already risks becoming the worst year for democracy since 1933. We may find, even after the folly of Brexit, that Donald Trump wins the American presidency later this year. But this may have less to do with Trump himself, or the oddities of the American political system, than with a dangerous road that all western democracies have taken: reducing democracy to voting.

Isn’t it bizarre that voting, our highest civic duty, boils down to an individual action performed in the silence of the voting booth? Is this really the place where we turn individual gut feelings into shared priorities? Is it really where the common good and the long term are best served?

By refusing to change procedures, we have made political turmoil and instability defining features of western democracy. Last weekend Spain had to hold its second general election in six months, after the first run did not deliver a government. A few weeks ago, Austria almost elected its first extreme rightwing president, while a Dutch referendum in April voted down a trade agreement between Ukraine and the EU. My country, Belgium, became the laughing stock of Europe a few years earlier, when it failed to form a government for 541 days. But nobody is laughing now that it seems that many western democracies are in the process of turning “Belgian”.

Countless western societies are currently afflicted by what we might call “democratic fatigue syndrome”. Symptoms may include referendum fever, declining party membership, and low voter turnout. Or government impotence and political paralysis – under relentless media scrutiny, widespread public distrust, and populist upheavals.

But democratic fatigue syndrome is not so much caused by the people, the politicians or the parties – it is caused by the procedure. Democracy is not the problem. Voting is the problem. Where is the reasoned voice of the people in all this? Where do citizens get the chance to obtain the best possible information, engage with each other and decide collectively upon their future? Where do citizens get a chance to shape the fate of their communities? Not in the voting booth, for sure.

The words “election” and “democracy” have become synonymous. We have convinced ourselves that the only way to choose a representative is through the ballot box. After all, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 states as much: “The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.”

The words “this will shall be expressed” are typical of our way of thinking about democracy: when we say “democracy”, we only mean “elections”. But isn’t it remarkable that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights contains such a precise definition of how the will of the people must be expressed? Why should such a concise text about basic rights, which is fewer than 2,000 words long, pay particular attention to the practical execution of one of these rights? It is as if the people who compiled the declaration back in 1948 had come to see the specific method as a basic right, as if the procedure was in itself sacred.

It would appear that the fundamental cause of democratic fatigue syndrome lies in the fact that we have all become electoral fundamentalists, venerating elections but despising the people who are elected.

Electoral fundamentalism is an unshakeable belief in the idea that democracy is inconceivable without elections and elections are a necessary and fundamental precondition when speaking of democracy. Electoral fundamentalists refuse to regard elections as a means of taking part in democracy, seeing them instead as an end in themselves, as a doctrine with an intrinsic, inalienable value.

This blind faith in the ballot box as the ultimate base on which popular sovereignty rests can be seen most vividly of all in international diplomacy. When western donor countries hope that countries ravaged by conflict – such as Congo, Iraq or Afghanistan – will become democracies, what they really mean is this: they must hold elections, preferably on the western model, with voting booths, ballot papers and ballot boxes; with parties, campaigns and coalitions; with lists of candidates, polling stations and sealing wax, just like we do. And then they will receive money from us.

Local democratic and proto-democratic institutions (village meetings, traditional conflict mediation or ancient jurisprudence) stand no chance. These things may have their value in encouraging a peaceful and collective discussion, but the money will be shut off unless our own tried-and-tested recipe is adhered to.

If you look at the recommendations of western donors, it is as if democracy is a kind of export product, off the peg, in handy packaging, ready for dispatch. “Free and fair elections” become an Ikea kit for democracy – to be assembled by the recipient, with or without the help of the instructions enclosed. And if the resulting piece of furniture is lopsided, uncomfortable to sit on or falls apart? Then it’s the fault of the customer.

That elections can have all kinds of outcomes in states that are fragile, including violence, ethnic tensions, criminality and corruption, seems of secondary importance. That elections do not automatically foster democracy, but may instead prevent or destroy it, is conveniently forgotten. We insist that in every country in the world people must traipse off to the polling stations. Our electoral fundamentalism really does take the form of a new, global evangelism. Elections are the sacraments of that new faith, a ritual regarded as a vital necessity in which the form is more important than the content.

This single-minded focus on elections is actually rather odd. During the past 3,000 years, people have been experimenting with democracy and only in the last 200 have they practised it exclusively by holding elections. Yet we regard elections as the only valid method. Why? Force of habit is at play here, of course, but there is a more simple cause, based on the fact that elections have worked pretty well over the past two centuries. Despite a number of notoriously bad outcomes, they have very often made democracy possible.

Elections are the fossil fuel of politics. Once they gave democracy a huge boost, now they cause colossal problems

However, elections originated in a completely different context from the one that they function in today. When the supporters of the American and French revolutions proposed elections as a way of learning “the will of the people”, there were no political parties, no laws regarding universal franchise, no commercial mass media, and no internet. The forerunners of our representative democracy had no idea that any of these things would come into existence.

Elections are the fossil fuel of politics. Whereas once they gave democracy a huge boost, much as oil did for our economies, it now turns out they cause colossal problems of their own. If we don’t urgently reconsider the nature of our democratic fuel, a systemic crisis awaits. If we obstinately hold on to a notion of democracy that reduces its meaning to voting in elections and referendums, at a time of economic malaise, we will undermine the democratic process.

In the years after the second world war, western democracies were dominated by large mass parties, and they held the structures of the state in their hands. Through a network of intermediary organisations, such as unions, corporations and party media, they succeeded in being close to the lives of individual citizens. This resulted in an extremely stable system, with great party loyalty and predictable voting behaviour.

This changed in the 1980s and 1990s, when discourse was increasingly shaped by the free market. Party newspapers disappeared or were bought up by media concerns, commercial broadcasters entered the field and even public broadcasters increasingly adopted market thinking. Viewing, reading and listening figures became hugely important – they were the daily share price index of public opinion. Commercial mass media emerged as the most important builders of social consensus, and organised civil society lost ground. The consequences were predictable, as citizens became consumers and elections hazardous.

Parties began to see themselves less as intermediaries between people and power, and instead settled into the fringes of the state apparatus. To retain their places there, they had to turn to the voter every few years to top up their legitimacy. Elections became a battle fought out in the media for the favour of voters. The passions aroused among the populace diverted attention from a far more fundamental emotion, an increasing irritation with anything and everything pertaining to politics.

In 2004, the British sociologist Colin Crouch came up with the term “post-democracy” to describe this new order:

The Italy of Silvio Berlusconi came closest to fitting this definition of the post-democratic state but elsewhere too we have seen processes that tend in that direction. Since the end of the 20th century, citizens have started looking like their 19th-century predecessors. Because civil society has become weaker, a gulf has opened up again between the state and the individual.

After the rise of the political parties, the introduction of universal suffrage, the rise and fall of organised civil society and the dominance of commercial media, another factor has now been added: social media.

At the beginning of the 21st century, citizens could follow the political theatre, minute by minute, on radio, television or the internet, but today they can respond to it from second to second and mobilise others. The culture of immediate reporting now has instant feedback, resulting in even more of a cacophony. The work of the public figure, and especially the elected politician, is not made easier by any of this. He or she can immediately see whether new proposals appeal to the citizen, and indeed just how many people the citizen can whip up. New technology gives people a voice, but the nature of this new political involvement makes the electoral system creak at the joints all the more.

Commercial and social media also reinforce one another – picking up each other’s news and bouncing it back to create an atmosphere of perpetual mudslinging. Tough competition, loss of advertising revenue and falling sales prompt the media to produce increasingly vehement reports about increasingly exaggerated conflicts. For radio and television, national politics has become a daily soap opera, and while editors determine to some extent the framing, the script and the typecasting, politicians, with varying degrees of success, try to slant things this way or that. The most popular politicians are those who succeed in altering the script and reframing the debate – in other words, those who can bend the media to their will.

This collective hysteria has made election fever permanent and has serious consequences for the workings of democracy. Efficiency suffers under the electoral calculus, legitimacy under the continual need to distinguish oneself, while time and again, the electoral system ensures that the long term and the common interest lose out to the short term and party interests. Elections were once invented to make democracy possible, but in these circumstances they seem to be a hindrance.

Since we have reduced democracy to selecting representatives, and reduced representative democracy to mean simply voting, a valuable system is now mired in deep difficulties. Winning the next election has become more important than fulfilling the promises made in the last. Making the best of the system we have is becoming increasingly difficult.

What kind of democracy is appropriate to an era of fast, decentralised communication? How should the government deal with all those articulate citizens who stand shouting from the sidelines?

For the media, politics is now a soap opera. The most popular politicians are those who succeed in altering the script

Imagine having to develop a system today that would express the will of the people. Would it really be a good idea to have them all queue up at polling stations every four or five years with a bit of card in their hands and go into a dark booth to put a mark next to names on a list, names of people about whom restless reporting had been going on for months in a commercial environment that profits from restlessness?

People care deeply about their communities and want to be heard. But a much better way to let the people speak than through a referendum is to return to the central principle of Athenian democracy: drafting by lot, or sortition as it is presently called. In ancient Athens, the large majority of public functions were assigned by lot. Renaissance states such as Venice and Florence worked on the same basis and experienced centuries of political stability. With sortition, you do not ask everyone to vote on an issue few people really understand, but you draft a random sample of the population and make sure they come to the grips with the subject matter in order to take a sensible decision. A cross-section of society that is informed can act more coherently than an entire society that is uninformed.

Experiments with sortition have been successfully applied in the US, Australia, and the Netherlands. The most innovative country so far is certainly Ireland. In December 2012, a constitutional convention began work in order to revise several articles of the constitution of Ireland. Its members were not just a committee of MPs working behind closed doors, but a mixture of elected politicians and ordinary people: 33 elected politicians and 66 citizens, drafted by lot, from both Ireland and Northern Ireland. This group met one weekend per month for more than a year.

An independent research bureau put together the random group of 66 citizens, taking account of age, sex and place of birth. The diversity this produced was helpful when it came to discussing such subjects as same-sex marriage, the rights of women or the ban on blasphemy in the current constitution. However, they did not do all this alone: participants listened to experts and received input from other citizens (more than a thousand contributions came in on the subject of gay marriage). The decisions made by the convention did not have the force of law; the recommendations first had to be passed by the two chambers of the Irish parliament, then by the government and then in a referendum.

By talking to a diverse cross-section of Irish society, politicians could get further than they could have by just talking to each other. By exchanging views with elected officials, citizens could give much more relevant input than they could have in an election or a referendum.

What if this procedure had been applied in the UK last week? What if a random sample of citizens had a chance to learn from experts, listen to proposals, talk to each other and engage with politicians? What if a mixed group of elected and drafted citizens had thought the matter through? What if the rest of society could have had a chance to follow and contribute to their deliberations? What if the proposal this group would have come up with had been subjected to public scrutiny? Do we think a similarly reckless decision would have been taken?

Sortition could provide a remedy to the democratic fatigue syndrome that we see everywhere today. The drawing of lots is not a miracle cure any more than elections ever were, but it can help correct a number of the faults in the current system. The risk of corruption is reduced, election fever abates and attention to the common good increases. Voting on the basis of gut feeling is replaced by sensible deliberation, as those who have been drafted are exposed to expert opinion, objective information and public debate. Citizens chosen by lot may not have the expertise of professional politicians, but they add something vital to the process: freedom. After all, they don’t need to be elected or re-elected.

Juries for criminal trials that are chosen by lot prove that people generally take their task extremely seriously. The fear of a chamber that behaves recklessly or irresponsibly is unfounded. If we agree that 12 people can decide in good faith about the freedom or imprisonment of a fellow citizen, then we can be confident that a number of them can and will serve the interests of the community in a responsible manner.

If many countries rely on the principle of sortition in the criminal justice system, why not rely on it in the legislative system? We already use a lottery like this every day, but we use it in the worst possible form: public opinion polling. As the American political scientist James Fishkin famously remarked: “In a poll, we ask people what they think when they don’t think. It would be more interesting to ask what they think after they had a chance to think.”

Democracy is not, by definition, government by the best, elected or not. It flourishes precisely by allowing a diversity of voices to be heard. It is all about having an equal say, an equal right to determine what political action is taken.

In order to keep democracy alive, we will have to learn that democracy cannot be reduced to voting alone. Elections and referendums become dangerously outmoded tools if they are not enriched with more sensible forms of citizens’ participation. Structured deliberation with a random sample of citizens promises to generate a more vital, dynamic and inclusive form of democracy. In Utrecht, the fourth city of the Netherlands, the city council now drafts by lot 150 citizens to co-create its sustainable energy plan. These processes may become a permanent feature of any modern democracy.

The most common argument against sortition is the supposed incompetence of the those who have not been elected. A body of elected representatives undoubtedly has more technical competencies than a body chosen by lot. But what is the use of a parliament full of highly educated lawyers if few of them know the price of bread?

Besides, the elected do not know everything. They need staff and researchers to fill the gaps in their expertise. In much the same way, a representative body chosen by lot would not stand alone. It could invite experts, rely on professionals to moderate debates and put questions to citizens. Legislation could arise from the interaction between it and an elected chamber.

The arguments put forward against sortition are often identical to the reasons once put forward for not allowing peasants, workers or women to vote. Then, too, opponents claimed it would mark the end of democracy. Do we think Brexit might still have been possible if citizens had been truly invited to express their grievances and search for solutions together with those they had voted for?

If David Cameron had opted for the genuine participation of citizens, he would have obtained a much clearer view of what people really wanted, a powerful list of shared priorities, an agenda for further negotiations, and created much less distrust between the masses and the ruling class. On top of that, he would have gained global admiration for daring to tackle a complex challenge by an innovative process that values people’s voices instead of counting their votes. He could have set a new standard for democracy, rather than serving as its gravedigger.

This is an edited extract from Against Elections: The Case for Democracy (The Bodley Head, 2016, translated by Liz Waters)

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Summary: The Long Read: Our voting system worked well for decades, but now it is broken. There is a better way to give voice to the people


The Summer Olympic Games serve as a grand podium for the belief that a nation’s best athletes can bolster its sense of pride and honor for another four years—setting the stage for real-world superheroes who defy the odds and challenge the capabilities of the human body. It’s a tradition the globe is unlikely to kick.

But 80 years ago, when the Summer Olympics opened on Aug. 1, 1936, in Berlin, that creed nearly crumbled. That year, it became increasingly clear that Germany only wanted to see its superheroes in one light: the stars of the Aryan race, superior for their genetic makeup rather than their athleticism, says Barbara Burstin, history lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University.

“It provided Hitler with a showcase,” Burstin says. “It was a propaganda bonanza for him.”

Adolf Hilter, who had effectively become Germany’s dictator in 1933, had instituted an “Aryans-only” policy throughout all German athletic organizations, sparking global outrage, especially among American athletes. Only one German-Jewish athlete was permitted to play in the games—fencer Helene Mayer—because only her father was Jewish. Even her position wasn’t guaranteed; TIME reported in 1935 that Charles Hitchcock Sherrill, a U.S. member of the International Olympic Committee, had traveled to Germany prior to the Olympics to ensure Mayer would receive her rightful spot on the team.

Some athletes and Olympics organizers in the United States and Europe considered pulling out of the Olympics altogether to compete elsewhere. The debate on whether to pull out on the American end was particularly heated, as the boycott began with the U.S. team. Avery Brundage, then the president of the American Olympic Committee, opposed a boycott, arguing that “the Olympic Games belong to the athletes and not to the politicians.”

Some academics, including Burstin, now believe that Brundage was complicit in the Nazi’s anti-Semitism in the Olympics, and that he even attempted to paint American Jews as unpatriotic and misguided for supporting a boycott. Meanwhile, the Nazis, seeing the negative reaction to what was supposed to be a great moment for Germany, temporarily took down anti-Jewish propaganda and did what they could to clean up Germany’s image prior to the games. In the end, the U.S. would send several Jewish athletes to the games, and many journalists covered the games with a degree of positivity, with TIME reporting in 1936 that most newspapers focused on “the ceremonious procession” of the Olympics’ first modern Torch Relay rather than “other doings in Berlin.”

Though Hitler’s attempt to see Aryan athletes triumph was not a complete success—most famously due to the medal sweep brought by U.S. track star Jesse Owens—German athletes did walk away with the most Olympic medals. Some thought the games showed Germany had successfully crawled out of the economic ditch it had fallen into post-WWI, and had ultimately acted as a great host.

And so those Olympics would have repercussions that went far beyond the world of sports.

“It kind of dulled the opposition to [Hitler] that clearly had been quite evident up to 1936,” Burstin says. “A lot of people felt he was clearly heading in the wrong direction, and by going to the Olympics we gave him the opportunity to appear sane, rational and tolerant.”

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Behind the scenes, however, the Olympics presented hardly a pause in the terrible progress of Nazism.

As Jesse Owens was running to victory, two Jewish runners for the U.S. team, Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, had been pulled by their coach from the 4×100 meter relay the day before the event, in what was believed by Glickman to be an attempt to not embarrass Germany. And after the games, William E. Dodd, then the U.S. ambassador to Germany, said Jews awaited the restoration of anti-Semitic Nazi actions “with fear and trembling,” according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The head of the Olympic village, Captain Wolfgang Furstner, killed himself two days after the games upon his dismissal from military service due to his Jewish ancestry.

Many Jewish athletes who either competed in the Olympics prior to 1936 or the 1936 Olympics itself would die in concentration camps during the Holocaust. Among them were Ilja Szraibman, a Polish swimmer and Roman Kantor, a Polish fencer, both of whom competed in 1936 and later died in Majdanek. Notably, Alfred Nakache, a French swimmer who competed in the 1936 games, would also compete in the 1948 Olympic Games in London after surviving Auschwitz.

Several aspects of the 1936 games still exist today, says David Clay Large, author of Nazi Games: The Olympics of 1936. The Berlin Olympics were the first to host the torch relay and the first to be broadcast on television—and some of its deeper-seated elements have continued as well.

“Those games really set the stage for the Olympics as we know them today,” Large says. “That injection of politics and extreme nationalism, that’s continued. There’s no question that nationalism is a very fundamental part of it all.”

Summary: As Hitler rose to power in Germany and barred Jewish athletes from competing in the summer games, many considered skipping the Olympics


“I thought of him much more as a colleague” than a student, said Laurence Tribe, a law professor at Harvard for whom Mr. Obama worked. “I didn’t think of him as someone to send out on mechanical tasks of digging out all the cases.” Other students could do that, Professor Tribe added.

Mr. Obama’s campaign promotes accomplishments from his days in the Illinois Senate: He successfully championed campaign finance and racial profiling laws, as well as child care subsidies and tax credits for the working poor. But “he didn’t participate in rank-and-file things,” said John Corrigan, a former consultant to the State Senate’s Democratic caucus. “He was destined for something bigger than potholes.”

And in the United States Senate, Mr. Obama leads a subcommittee on European affairs, but he has not held any oversight hearings to investigate foreign policy issues, just a few to discuss nominations.

The McCain campaign has seized on this pattern, mocking its opponent as a self-consumed star, even suggesting that he has a messianic complex.

Mr. Obama has heard the accusations before. Long before the presidential race, some around him seemed to resent his ability to galvanize a following. “Bluebooking is not important for celebrities,” fellow students joked about him in the law review parody, referring to the tedious process of checking citations.

As for the messiah accusation, Michael Madigan, the speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives and a Democrat, once publicly called Mr. Obama the same thing.

If there is one quality that those closest to Mr. Obama marvel at, it is his emotional control. This is partly a matter of temperament, they say, partly an effort by Mr. Obama to step away from his own feelings so he can make dispassionate judgments. “He doesn’t allow himself the luxury of any distraction,” said Valerie Jarrett, a close adviser. “He is able to use his disciplined mind to not get caught up in the emotional swirl.”

In 2006, Mr. Obama backed Alexi Giannoulias, a 29-year-old friend from the basketball court, for Illinois treasurer. Opponents accused Mr. Giannoulias of corruption, citing thin evidence: a loan his family’s bank made to a convicted felon. After Mr. Giannoulias worsened the situation by calling the felon a nice guy, Mr. Obama told him to fix his campaign or get out of the race.

“I was almost crying,” said Mr. Giannoulias, who eventually won. “He was almost upset at how thin-skinned I was.”

It is not that Mr. Obama does not experience emotion, friends say. But he detaches and observes, revealing more in his books than he does in the moment. “He has the qualities of a writer,” Mr. Axelrod said. “I get the sense that he’s participating in these things but also watching them.”

Mr. Obama watches no one more avidly than himself. During the primary season, supporters who complimented him on debate appearances found that he often disagreed. “I wasn’t great nor was I wonderful,” Mr. Obama responded last spring at a fund-raiser in Seattle. Then came his usual refrain: “I have to get better, and I will do better,” he said, according to Michael Parham, a donor.

As a campaigner, Mr. Obama had to learn to sometimes let simple emotion rule. When Mr. Axelrod first devised “Yes We Can” as a slogan during Mr. Obama’s Senate campaign, the candidate resisted: it was a little corny for his taste. “That’s where the high-minded and big-thinking Barack came in,” said Peter Giangreco, a consultant to the Obama campaign. “His initial instincts were off from where regular people’s were.”

While he speeds along rope lines, Mr. Obama sometimes connects better one on one. In spare moments, he will surprise supporters — a doorman who scraped together a small contribution, an elderly woman he had heard enjoyed his memoir — with an out-of-the blue phone call. Waiting backstage to speak to 20,000 people in Seattle in February, Mr. Obama grew so absorbed in talking to a retired Michigan couple that he had to be reminded not to miss his entrance cue.

Once in a very long while, Mr. Obama will relax his guard completely. Two years ago at a party celebrating the publication of his second book, “The Audacity of Hope,” the new senator rose to say a few words, recalled Ms. Jarrett. As he talked about what his new job in Washington had cost his wife and two daughters, tears began to course down his face, leaving him unable to continue.

Michelle Obama rescued him with a kiss, and after a moment, everyone started to applaud.

Mr. Obama is often called a perpetual outsider — racially, geographically, politically. But his story is more complicated than that. “He’s been an outsider at Columbia and Harvard,” said Matthew McGuire, a friend. “He was an outsider but within the ultimate insider clubs.”

Within those and other powerful institutions, Mr. Obama has always appointed himself critic. After being elected the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, Mr. Obama gave a speech to black students and alumni that was rousing, some recall it nearly two decades later. “Don’t let Harvard change you,” went the refrain. As a community organizer, he led Chicago residents to challenge the local authorities. In the Illinois Senate, Mr. Obama was not only a reformer who pushed for tighter campaign finance rules, but also an everyday skeptic who often pointed out hilarities and hypocrisies to colleagues.

Despite the speed of his rise, Mr. Obama often talks of politics as a closed system, one stacked against outsiders who lack powerful patrons or fat donor bases.

These sorts of criticisms have become the cornerstone of his political identity. Changing government, making it more responsive to citizens’ needs, has been the promise of every campaign he has ever run. Today, despite the millions of people and dollars devoted to his election, Mr. Obama insists, improbably enough, that he is still the same advocate for the poor he was 20 years ago on the streets of Chicago.

“All the time, he says, let’s keep in mind that this is not about Barack Obama,” said Ms. Jarrett, an adviser. “He still sees himself as the community organizer.”

But after he accepts his party’s nomination on Thursday night, it will be hard to call Mr. Obama anything but the establishment. As head of his party, he will preside over everything he says he objects to about politics: the artifice, the influence of special interests, the partisanship. If he wins the presidency, there will be no more rungs on the ladder for Mr. Obama to climb, only re-election. The system he says is broken will become his.

Even those closest to him are not quite sure how he would make the transformation.

“That’s uncomfortable,” said Mr. Axelrod, about the prospect of Mr. Obama’s becoming the ultimate insider. “You need to accept that role to a degree if you’re the nominee or the president.”

And yet, Mr. Axelrod said, “I don’t think that’s a role he wants to play. His idea is that you should always be challenging the institution.”

A picture caption on Thursday with the continuation of an article about Senator Barack Obama’s life and career referred incorrectly to a stick from his grandmother’s village in Kenya that he displays in his office. It is a leopard-beating stick, not a tiger-beating stick. (There are, of course, no tigers in Africa.)

A version of this article appears in print on , on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: For a New Political Age, a Self-Made Man. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

Summary: Even before he entered public life, Barack Obama began honing his political, mental and emotional skills.


player is in the dog business ... but

ain't fightin' em ... he's sellin' em ... telling

he's a professional puppy breeder now.

The NFL superstar posted pics this weekend -- showing off his American Bully (American Bulldog / American Pit Bull Terrier mix) with her brand new litter of pups ... 11 in total.

So, when we ran into D-Jack in L.A. this weekend -- we had to ask what he was planning to do with the lil' guys. Turns out, the Redskins WR is now in the breeding biz.

No word on how or where or who will be getting the doggies -- but they're pretty damn adorable.

Fun Fact -- Jackson hit up a charity kickball game in L.A. over the weekend too ... and found time to hang with his "homies"

For the record, Kendall's 18 and single ... and DeSean seems to have all of the qualities the women in that family seem to dig. Pro athlete, famous ... and you know ... that other thing ... rich.

Summary: Another ex-Philadelphia Eagles player is in the dog business ... but DeSean Jackson ain't fightin' em ... he's sellin' em ... telling TMZ Sports he's a…


However, humans can only benefit from the anti-ageing chemical if they possess the right sort of bacteria in their gut. The microbes are needed to convert the fruit's raw ingredient into urolithin A.

Researchers investigating the molecule fed it to nematodes and found it increased their eight-to-10-day lifespan by more than 45 per cent.

The scientists have already set up a company, Amazentis, to exploit the discovery, and early clinical trials testing finely calibrated doses of the molecule in human patients are under way in a number of European hospitals.

Lead researcher Professor Johan Auwerx, from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, in Switzerland, said: "We believe this research is a milestone in current anti-ageing efforts, and illustrates the opportunity of rigorously tested nutritional bioactive agents that we consider to have outstanding potential for human health."

The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, focused on mitochondria - tiny rod-like "power plants" in cells that play a vital role in turning food into energy.

Over time, mitochondria become worn out and damaged, mitophagy becomes less efficient and cells end up cluttered with old, poorly functioning mitochondria.

This harms the health of many organs and tissues and weakens muscles.

The build-up of dysfunctional mitochondria is associated with many conditions of ageing, such as Parkinson's disease.

A host of other health benefits have already been linked to pomegranates with varying degrees of evidence.

The fruit is packed with antioxidants and is said to reduce the risk of heart disease, fight inflammation and arthritis, improve memory, boost exercise performance, and combat prostate cancer.

Summary: Pomegranates slow down the ageing process by prompting cells to recycle and rebuild themselves, a study shows.


Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? If you know the answer to that question, you’ll want to watch this video by YouTube impressionist and voice over artist Brock Baker.

Baker uses his impressive panoply of skills to give the kids—or at least the now-grown kids of the ’90s—what they want: a video featuring his takes on all the most beloved Nickelodeon cartoons of that decade. In the video, Baker tackles more than 20 favorite characters in just four and a half minutes, including the stars of The Wild Thornberrys, Spongebob Squarepants, Rocko’s Modern Life, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters (remember that one?), CatDog and the cast of Doug (skipping Doug himself, for some reason that goes unexplained). He does a great rendition of Grandpa Phil from Hey Arnold! and perfectly captures Ren and Stimpy, even diving into the “Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy” songbook.

Let Baker guide you on a journey down memory lane and perhaps even inspire a few additions to your Netflix queue.

Summary: Ren! Stimpy! Doug! CatDog! Nigel Thornberry!


"It's a Beautiful Day" to be

The singer will release his first movie,

, in theaters on Sept. 27.

While the documentary-style concert film will feature show-stopping performances from the Grammy winner's most recent world tour, it will also highlight his hard-working road crew and and the sacrifices they make to put on the show.

is just the latest career feat for the 40-year-old Canadian crooner, who has two sons –

, who turns 3 this month, and

, 6 months – with wife

, 29. He's gearing up to release his first-ever fragrance, as well as his highly anticipated eighth studio album, before year's end.

On Tuesday, PEOPLE caught up with Bublé, who opened up about his new movie and album, the pressures touring put on his family life – and how he's recovered from recent vocal cord surgery.

What I do can't be done alone, obviously, and to me the most interesting part of this whole story is that it isn't done alone: You see so many of these concert documentaries, and they're really fluff pieces where you basically interview the people they're paying, and they tell you how amazing the artist is and how wonderful and beautiful and how much they've given to charity. I didn't want a fluff piece.

To me, it was done to capture me mid-performance, in my element, at my best – but not to tell that story solely. It takes so many people: It takes an army; it takes a village to bring together a tour like this, to make it move from city to city.

The sacrifices that are made by the musicians and crew are incredible. And for me, it was this wonderful opportunity to tell the story and share the story of the unsung heroes in this business.

My one crew manager: Throughout the tour we knew things at home weren't as good as they could've been, and we never pressed him on it, but you're on the road; you talk. And I didn't know until I got the DVD and I watched the first edited version, and they're interviewing him, and he said that he called his wife, and she told him that she couldn't do it anymore and she couldn't do it alone, and he said that she thought that she was kidding; she said that she wasn't. And she left.

This happened while we were out on this tour, show No. 148. And they're divorced. They'd been together, 15 years. And it shook me. Because I hadn't been there. Even though I was there and I was his friend, I hadn't been aware of what he was going through, and this is one of the sacrifices of being on the road: It's hard.

It's very tough. There's talk so much about how women are forced to try to find balance in their professional life and their family life, and the truth is, it's not said enough about men: Men have the same issue. I know I do. I'm really lucky that my wife and I have decided to try and support each other in that way, and as we speak, I'm [working], but I fly back Sunday, and right now my wife is making a movie.

I'll fly back, and for the three weeks that she's making a movie, I'm the babysitter, I'm Mr. Mom or whatever you call it

. So it allows us both to be fulfilled within our professional lives, but at the same time, we feel like we haven't lost control of the balance. At the end of the day, what defines us is the fact that we are parents, that we're brothers and sisters and mom and dads and sons and daughtersânot what we do.

I wish it wasnât a struggle, but it is a struggle to find a balance. I'll never find it perfectly, but I will do my damnedest to find it as best I can.

You can imagine not knowing and worrying, before. But the moment that I woke up from the surgery, the doctor told me that it wasn't as invasive as he'd first thought and that everything was completely fine and better than expected. That was a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders. It's funny because it's now been a couple of months, and I don't even think about it. Sometimes I forget I even had it done; I feel so much stronger than I did then.

You know, I think that I've shown great growth within my originals and my writing. I obviously have been so lucky, man. I've had great success. I just felt â¦ It's easy to rest on your laurels when you've had success – it's easier to take the easy road. But I felt like I could do better than that, and I wanted to challenge myself. So I set a higher mark for myself.

I really wanted the opportunity to take control, and I felt that I could just do that by bringing together the gentlemen that I've played with onstage for the last 15 years. Musically speaking, no one understands me like they do, and I felt like they could bring my vision into reality, so for the first time, I produced my own record with these guys.

Every artist that you speak to about their new record is going to say it's the best record they've ever had. But you really can't believe the bulls--- that comes out of their mouths. But I believe when you hear my record, you'll understand that actions do speak louder than words.

will show in theaters across the country.

for a list of showtimes and to pre-order tickets.

Summary: The singer's new movie, Michael Bublé: Tour Stop 148, hits theaters Sept. 27


Blue Apron Inc. is assembling the ingredients for a multibillion-dollar valuation.

The New York-based startup, which ships boxes of premeasured ingredients to home cooks, is in talks to raise money from investors at a valuation of around $2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

The company is seeking to raise more than $100 million, one of the people said, but the deal hasn’t been finalized. It raised $50 million from investors in April 2014 at a $500 million valuation.

The deal would vault Blue Apron into the ranks of the most highly valued private New York startups, a group that includes WeWork Cos., a provider of shared office space, and eyeglass maker Warby Parker. WeWork has been valued at around $5 billion, and Warby Parker was valued at around $1.2 billion in a recent funding round, according to the Journal.

A number of meal-kit startups have launched over the last three years. Plated, HelloFresh and Marley Spoon are among the companies competing with Blue Apron for the dining dollars of American consumers.

Blue Apron sends more than two million meals to customers around the country each month, up from a million in November, according to a company spokeswoman. That translates to about $20 million in monthly sales at a cost of about $10 a meal.

Its most popular plan costs $59.94 a week. For that price, customers get a refrigerated box filled with ingredients for three different dinners for two. The recipes often include unusual ingredients that aren’t easy to find, especially outside oflarge cities.

This week’s menu, for example, includes a vegetable bibimbap with asparagus, shiitake mushrooms and fried eggs. Every ingredient for the meals is premeasured, down to the last teaspoon of gochugaru, Korean chili flakes.

Blue Apron, with warehouses in Jersey City, N.J., Richmond, Va., and Dallas filled with perishable food, is a somewhat unusual investment for venture-capital firms, which have for years professed an aversion to capital-intensive businesses. It employs 1,400 nationwide and about 120 in New York.

But Blue Apron has deep ties to the venture community. Its co-founder and chief executive, Matt Salzberg, worked at venture-capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners before striking out on his own.

Bessemer later invested in Blue Apron’s first fundraising round.

“We all knew that moving onions around would be more complicated than moving ones and zeros,” said Bessemer partner Kent Bennett. But the firm, which also led the company’s two subsequent investment rounds, was attracted to Blue Apron’s ability to cut out many of the costs supermarkets and restaurant chains must bear. Investors also liked the company’s subscription business model.

“They don’t have to maintain a 30,000 square refrigerated retail location and parking lot,” Mr. Bennett said. “They are cutting out the distributor, the food waste, the retail overhead, and they are cutting out the working capital of needing to have a seven-day supply of lemons.”

Write to Yuliya Chernova at yuliya.chernova@wsj.com and Telis Demos at telis.demos@wsj.com

Summary: New York-based meal-delivery startup Blue Apron Inc. is in talks to raise money from investors at a valuation of around $2 billion.