Like a kid cleaned up for the first day of school, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players came to Jordan Hall on Sunday for their season opener pristinely uniformed, musically speaking, via the second of Johann Christian Bach’s Op. 11 Quintets. The youngest of Johann Sebastian’s sons cultivated a confident, teacher’s-pet musical style: lively, unceasing balance, urbane Classical symmetries buffed to a self-possessed shine. The performance — by flutist Elizabeth Rowe, oboist John Ferrillo, violinist Malcolm Lowe, violist Steven Ansell, and cellist Jules Eskin, with John Gibbons on harpsichord — was equally unruffled. It primed an eclectic program full of opportunities to compare ideas of musical order.

Walter Piston’s Three Pieces for Flute, Clarinet, and Bassoon — Rowe joined by William Hudgins and Richard Svoboda, respectively — was, on the surface, more barbed. But its orderly underpinnings were merely playing debonair hide-and-seek: Cubist melodic lines eventually refracted into coordination, competing tonalities clashing then gracefully interlocking. The finale was especially nimble, a twittering rush, a flock of birds suddenly turning on a dime.

In Paul Hindemith’s Sonata for double bass and piano, intricate musical logic was subsumed into the nature of its featured instrument. In a performance that grew more confident as it went, bassist Edwin Barker and pianist Randall Hodgkinson wove Hindemith’s twisty lyricism into a mood congruent with the bass’s sound: grand but pleasantly diffuse, deceptively soft-spoken, rumbling with eloquence.

“Shamu” and “Clinical,” two recent pieces by Boston-based Jeremy Flower — with James Sommerville on horn, joined by Flower on piano and laptop — borrowed its order from pop and electronica, structures taking their cues from diatonic loops and steady, repeated grooves. Sommerville’s unadorned melody in “Shamu” was sampled and stacked into clustered clouds, the gradual accumulation ending just as it was getting interesting. “Clinical” traversed a fuller arc, a series of loops layered in and out, all subtly shifting, but all locked to the same, steady grid. Sommerville pealed more soft lines with burnished warmth; Flower’s gently rocking harmonies and methodical, analog synthesized percussion waxed and waned. “Clinical” made its rounds with cool detachment before simply fading out.

No such placidity marked Beethoven’s String Trio in G (Op. 9, No. 1). The wryly pugnacious reading by Lowe, Ansell, and Eskin epitomized the young Beethoven’s bristling buoyancy, confidently filling the forms, expressively bursting at the seams. It was Viennese Classicism pressing its nose against the window, eyeing an untamed Romantic wilderness, itching to go outside and get dirty.

Summary: Sunday’s program at Jordan Hall showed disparate views of order.


Daisy Ridley and John Boyega in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

Christmastime is traditionally a big movie-going time. If you’re planning a trip to the theater, check out reviews of some of the films recently released and opening on Christmas Day.

Check your local theater listings to see what’s playing near you.

“Concussion” has the sober, patient earnestness of a lawyer preparing a major case — it’s a dramatization of true events and occasionally hoked up in the finest Hollywood tradition, but it wants to stir you into being convinced instead of the other way around. Partly that’s because the case it’s making is tantamount to heresy in many, if not most, corners of America: that football can cause long-term degenerative brain injury and you’d have to be nuts to let your kids play it at any age.

Caustic ‘Big Short’ is long on wit

Thanks to “Anchorman” (2004) auteur Adam McKay’s caustic comedy “The Big Short,” the events of the great economic meltdown of 2008 are beginning to make sense. Sure, a number of features and documentaries have been made about it. But they did not have a guest appearance from Margot Robbie, Leo DiCaprio’s trophy wife from “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013), explaining how mortgage bonds work while lolling in a bubble bath.

In ‘Carol,’ standout performers include the director

Interviews with actors, character bios, interesting facts about the movie, and a lightsaber explained.

A film that unfolds in a haze of romantic and sexual tension, “Carol” is about loving someone you’re not supposed to in a society so repressed it can’t even tell you why. It’s about passion under heavy manners, about the swooning first love a young woman might feel for an older woman, and while the attraction is physical, that’s hardly all it is.

Lawrence is driven to succeed in ‘Joy’

There’s about 30 minutes in the middle of “Joy” where the movie finally and fully lives up to its title. The rest is, for better and for worse, a David O. Russell family reunion, as noisy and fractious as “The Fighter,” “American Hustle,” and “Silver Linings Playbook,” only with less reason to be so.

Lots of surf and turf action in ‘Point Break’ remake

What direction to take in a “Point Break” update? The movie could try validating itself by embracing the bonkers quality of the original and shooting for something even more ludicrous. (Good luck.) It could try a more grounded approach, as remakes always seem to these days. Or maybe it could just give the action a cutting-edge makeover and hang loose about any further tweaking. Director Ericson Core (“Invincible”) apparently opted to check off all of the above.

Tarantino goes west with crazy ‘Hateful Eight’

From left: Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Bruce Dern in “The Hateful Eight.”

Leave it to Quentin Tarantino to bury a plea for interracial brotherhood way, way down inside a bloody, nearly three-hour revenge western. But this director has long been American cinema’s imp of the perverse, hasn’t he? Like Scorsese’s bratty kid brother, he has veins made of pure celluloid, and he spreads his geek-boy movie love across the screen in wild, anarchic daubs of action-painting.

Launch of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” takes the faithful full circle.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is vinyl. While George Lucas embraced the digital revolution for the second “Star Wars” trilogy the new film consciously embraces the funky, handmade garage aesthetic of 1977’s “Star Wars.” J.J. Abrams has cast three key actors from those original films, John Williams is back with the theme music, and it uses old-fashioned screen wipes. The effect is like pulling a cherished old record album from the shelf and cueing up the needle. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is analog. You can touch it. It feels good. — Ty Burr

Wahlberg and Ferrell face off over family in the predictable “Daddy’s Home.”

Will Ferrell (left) and Mark Wahlberg in “Daddy’s Home.”

Consider it a predictable movie with flashes of unpredictability, one that actually coaxes some early laughs with, yes, scatological wit, then makes us groan when it shamefully takes the low road back to poopville a bit later on. Oh, the things that a dad — or would-be dad — has to deal with. — Tom Russo

Caustic “Big Short” is long on wit

Thanks to “Anchorman” (2004) auteur Adam McKay’s caustic comedy “The Big Short,” the events of the great economic meltdown of 2008 are beginning to make sense. Sure, a number of features and documentaries have been made about it. But they did not have a guest appearance from Margot Robbie, Leo DiCaprio’s trophy wife from “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013), explaining the meaning of “tranches” while lolling in a bubble bath. — Peter Keough

Fey and Poehler party down in “Sisters”

“Sisters” is a reminder that we generally love Tina Fey and Amy Poehler for everything except their movies. A sloppy, raunchy, underwritten, poorly assembled mishmash of sentiment and gross-out gags strung along an insultingly thin premise, the comedy still has a few moments that can make you laugh hard enough to shoot soda out your nose. — Ty Burr

Bryan Cranston puts the swagger in “Trumbo”

There are other actors in the movie, but most of them fade into the upholstery under the combined assault of Bryan Cranston and Trumbo. It’s a fun movie and an overbearing one, patly written and crowded with enjoyable faces. It offers useful and still-necessary moral lessons about remaining true to one’s conscience in times of fear and stupidity (i.e., now), but it’s a rollicking good show. — Ty Burr

“Danish Girl” looks great but lacks real emotion

Inside the Danish painter Einar Wegener (1882-1931) lived a woman who called herself Lili Elbe. Somewhere inside “The Danish Girl,” the movie based on the story of Einar and Lili, lives a messier and far more vibrant film — one able to convey raw emotions rather than decorous production values. — Ty Burr

Saoirse Ronan shines in “Brooklyn”

Saoirse Ronan stars as Eilis Lacey, who gets a job in a Brooklyn Heights department store after arriving in the US from County Wexford.

Brooklyn is much more than a place in “Brooklyn,” John Crowley’s shimmering and softened film adaptation of Colm Toíbín’s 2009 novel. To an Irish girl coming across the ocean, the New York borough is an unknown, a blank space for reinvention — or perhaps simply invention, since Eilis Lacey is something of a blank space herself. But it’s 1951 and there’s nothing for her in County Wexford, so she goes along with her family’s decision to ship her off to the States. Perhaps the place name will come to mean something to her, or she to it. — Ty Burr

The battle’s lost in this “Macbeth”

The fundamental problem with this “Macbeth” is that it insists on reducing the mystery of motivation to the pop psychology of a magazine article. Shakespeare’s plays endure not because he answers questions, but because he raises questions that have no answers. — Peter Keough

Pixar’s ‘The Good Dinosaur’ lives in a Disney world

In the 20 years since Pixar released “Toy Story,” the animation studio has never released an outright mediocre feature. That unbeaten streak has been broken. Five months after the astounding achievement of “Inside Out” there arrives “The Good Dinosaur.” — Mark Feeney

“Hunger Games” series comes to a violent end

Whatever wild light Lawrence brings to her other movies — such as (one hopes) the upcoming “Joy” — she keeps it well under a bushel in the “Hunger Games” films. Katniss is a Joan of Arc for a generation of reluctant warriors, and “Mockingjay — Part 2” is a war movie for those distrustful of any and all leaders, especially the ones trying to sell you on a future. — Ty Burr

Superb “Spotlight” doesn’t turn journalists into heroes

One of the reasons that “Spotlight” is so deeply, absurdly satisfying is that it doesn’t turn journalists into heroes. It just lets them do their jobs, as tedious and critical as those are, with a realism that grips an audience almost in spite of itself. — Ty Burr

Summary: Christmastime is traditionally a big movie-going time. From “Star Wars” to “Joy,” check out what’s at the box office this holiday.


01/18/2016 AT 04:40 PM EST

The perfect hideout for a princess is...

The actor spoke about how he and

wound up lending their home to

in 1995 during an appearance on

earlier this month and again on

this week while promoting his latest film,

"It was a series of things, I did a movie called

that there was a royal premiere of in London and sat between Lady Di and Prince Charles which was an interesting experience,"

star said, laughing. "Things weren't going well."

At the time – 1991 – Diana and

were just a year away from separating. They eventually

Kurt Russell meets Princess Diana at the Backdraft premiere

Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy

Russell continued, explaining that Diana had told him about the stress she felt dealing with the paparazzi, and so he offered up his Colorado ranch as a "nice getaway."

"Years later [Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson], who Goldie knows, worked it out," Russell said. "I guess Diana wanted to go with the boys and so they were welcome, and they came and stayed for 10 days at the ranch, and they had a good time."

The 1995 trip to the 70-acre Old Snowmass estate was

dragging their mother on a white water rafting trip.

At the time, Hawn's publicist denied that the royal family was staying on the grounds but the boys were spotted enjoying the great outdoors in Aspen and the surrounding areas.

While Russell and Hawn weren't at the property during Diana's stay, star said at least one person got to bond with the princess.

"Our housekeeper Bonnie became very close with her and every Christmas she'd get a nice Christmas card from Diana," he said.

Summary: The late princess wanted an escape from the paparazzi


01/22/2016 AT 01:00 PM EST

You'll never lack for a ready and willing babysitter, we're sure.

One Direction fans have already taken over the Internet, putting all chill aside to freak out over the newest member of their fandom with the hashtag #WelcomeBabyTomlinson.

And as always, they've had some wonderful things to say.

Louis Tomlinson and Briana Jungwirth, a Los Angeles-based stylist, welcomed their first child on Thursday in Los Angeles, a source close to Jungwirth confirms to PEOPLE exclusively.

Summary: Yep, they're freaking out


After Western sanctions began shutting down sales of high-tech internet equipment to Russia’s military and security forces, employees at technology giant Cisco Systems Inc. altered sales records and booked deals under a false customer name, according to internal company documents. The intent, according to a confidential source with deep knowledge of Cisco’s Moscow operations, was to dodge the sanctions by masking the true customers behind more innocuous-sounding straw buyers.

In at least one case, the source said, Cisco employees succeeded in actually providing equipment — including sophisticated internet switches — to the feared FSB, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB.

Top officials at Cisco, one of America’s most prestigious and innovative companies, valued at more than $151 billion, vehemently denied the allegations. Cisco did not violate sanctions or attempt to do so, they said.

Cisco officials didn’t dispute the authenticity of the internal emails and spreadsheets obtained by BuzzFeed News. Instead, speaking on condition of anonymity in lengthy phone briefings, the Cisco officials acknowledged that the buyer name on some accounts was incorrect but said those were innocent and harmless errors. When records were changed, they said, the intent was only to be more accurate, not to conceal the real buyer.

In the case of the alleged FSB deal, officials said the equipment had not gone to the security service but to a civilian ministry. Cisco is “in complete compliance with the US and EU sanctions on Russia,” spokesperson Nigel Glennie said in a brief written statement.

A Russian military parade last year in Red Square. Pavel Golovkin / AP

Still, once sanctions were imposed, top Cisco management tried hard, internal emails show, to find a legal way to keep some products flowing to Russia — even though doing so posed a “risk to our brand and reputation,” as a Cisco vice president put it.

Russia and the West are locked in their most hostile standoff since the Cold War. And Cisco’s Moscow office is reeling from an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission into allegations of a massive kickback scheme first revealed by BuzzFeed News last year.

According to the new allegations, which also concern the same Moscow office, employees tried a number of tactics to escape the sanctions, imposed by the United States and the European Union last year after Russia annexed Crimea and fomented conflict in eastern Ukraine. The sanctions prohibit Western companies from selling “dual-use technology” — civilian technology that could also have military applications — to “military end-users.” Much of Cisco’s equipment is deemed dual use, and in early October the company canceled deals worth $1.7 million.

In one case, the source said, Cisco canceled a deal to sell an internet network to the FSB. Employees then replaced it, he said, with two similar deals to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation — but the true end user remained the security service.

The source said that the Chamber of Commerce was sometimes used as a ghost buyer to facilitate other sales to agencies that could not buy Cisco equipment legally. Internal company records indicate that Cisco booked at least seven deals over six months to sell a total of more than $500,000 worth of equipment such as routers, switches, and servers to the chamber.

“This is strange,” Olga Litvinenko, the chamber’s spokesperson, wrote in an email to BuzzFeed News. The chamber, she said, made no major purchases of technology from Cisco — nor did it make purchases on behalf of other companies or agencies. “We are not a commercial organization which purchases big things, we do not purchase anything besides office supplies,” she wrote.

Cisco officials said that because of an issue with its sales-tracking software, some deals recorded as being for Chamber of Commerce were, in fact, for the Russian government’s Ministry of Industry and Trade. But, Cisco officials said, the chamber deals did not send equipment to the FSB or other banned agencies.

In other cases, employees changed the name of the customer from the Ministry of Defense or the Russian space agency to a company. The purpose, according to the source, was to hide the true buyer. (Because of its close connection to the Russian military, some sales to the space agency were barred under the sanctions.)

Cisco officials said the changes simply made the records more precise. They also said one of those deals did not go through, proving the system worked, and the other was approved as legal.

In the company’s Moscow office, according to the source and two former Cisco executives, some employees engaged in various deceptive practices. One reason, they said, is that Cisco puts tremendous pressure on sales officials in Russia to conclude deals. “Cisco is a tough company,” the source said. “If you don’t sell, get out.”

For years, Cisco’s Moscow office deployed kickbacks to win business, according to the two former executives. In 2013, a whistleblower approached the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a source close to the investigation, alleging a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and prompting an investigation by U.S. authorities. Cisco disclosed in federal filings that it had been asked by the SEC and Justice Department to investigate the allegations itself. But BuzzFeed News was the first to publicly detail how the alleged kickback scheme worked. BuzzFeed News has since learned that federal agents are interviewing high-level current and former Cisco officials. The Justice Department and the SEC declined to comment.

Even before the current sanctions, according to one of the former Cisco executives, employees in the Moscow office sometimes concealed sensitive buyers behind innocent-sounding straw purchasers. Some sales to the Russian military required special permission from the U.S. State Department. So, he said, the sales team would relabel the end user as a “military hospital,” which would draw less scrutiny. “We used this account for accounts that would need State Department certificates,” he said.

A corporate official in San Jose, California, said he was unfamiliar with this alleged practice: “We don’t have any information, zero, about the types of allegations that you’re bringing.”

After the sanctions were imposed, salespeople came under pressure not only because they needed to make money, according to the source, but also because their Russian government customers insisted on obtaining Cisco’s computer equipment. “The ministries,” he said, “they can’t understand how they cannot get this equipment. ‘Find a way we can get this shipment. We need this.’ So the sales guy needs a scheme to sell there.”

A rocket in the Russian space program. Dmitry Lovetsky / AP

One Cisco sales account manager’s name is on all of the deals recounted in this story. Reached by phone on several occasions, he offered scant information, declined to discuss the deals in detail, and always hung up hastily. The source said this deal manager did not act alone but is part of a sales team that handles the military and intelligence accounts, he said.

Indeed, the source and the two former Cisco executives said that the company’s salespeople often attempt to game Cisco’s compliance system in Russia, which they said is flawed and pro-forma.

“Management understands that corruption exists,” said the source, “but they can’t check this stuff. Cisco can’t stop it. If they remove the corruption to stop it, business will stop.” One of the former Cisco executives said it’s been that way for years and that the company’s oversight efforts in Russia are outmaneuvered. “Auditors are like blind people,” he said. “They can’t go in and check” agencies such as the FSB or the defense ministry.

Cisco says its methods work. “We have a sterling 30 year record of compliance with export and sanctions rules around the world,” Cisco spokesman Glennie wrote in his statement.

Cisco officials said the company can track equipment because users provide certificates that establish they are not military and because customers make service requests when they need help, allowing Cisco to know who is using its products.

The company also said it lowered quotas for salespeople in Russia after sanctions, reducing the pressure to sell.

Last year, after Russian forces annexed Crimea amid international outcries, and eastern Ukraine collapsed into war, sales officials at Cisco continued to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of high tech equipment to Russia’s military and security agencies, according to the internal sales records reviewed by BuzzFeed News. No sanctions had been imposed yet, and those deals were legal. “We sell to those we are allowed to sell to,” a company official said.

In late June 2014 the company had an agreement to sell equipment including servers and processors to the training academy of the FSB. Russian President Vladimir Putin himself was an agent in the KGB, the FSB’s Soviet predecessor. The FSB has helped solidify Putin’s power and is thought to play a crucial role in Russia’s covert operations in Ukraine.

As with almost all its deals in Russia, Cisco did not sell directly to the end user but instead to an intermediary company called a “partner.” In this case, the partner was Terminal Mospromstroi, referred to throughout Cisco’s internal records as PIK Terminal. That company, according to Cisco’s internal records, would then supply the equipment to the FSB academy. Indeed, PIK Terminal states on its web site that it has a subcontract to sell equipment to the FSB academy.

According to Cisco records, the IT giant would get paid $105,129.92.

But doing business with the FSB was about to get a lot more complicated. On July 17, Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 was shot out of the sky, scattering almost 300 bodies across rural Ukraine. Evidence piled up that Russian-backed rebels had fired the fatal missile. By the end of the month, the U.S. and Europe tried to isolate the Putin regime by ratcheting up sanctions, including restrictions on “dual-use” technology to Russian “military end-users.”

In September, the European Union screwed the sanctions even tighter. For Cisco, the European action was key because the company’s sales to Russia are routed through a Netherlands subsidiary, making them subject to EU sanctions.

In early October, a month after the tough new European sanctions were announced, Cisco canceled a slew of deals with buyers such as the Ministry of Defense, the border guards, and the Tactical Missiles Corporation.

Also canceled was the order to the FSB academy, according to internal Cisco records, the source, and the Cisco officials.

But internal company records show that on Oct. 17, there were two new Cisco deals, in which many details matched the forbidden FSB transaction. It was the same Cisco account manager. The intermediary was the same: PIK Terminal. The email address for the billing payment was the same. The list of equipment was similar, though some items were ordered in larger quantities and the total price was higher.

The biggest difference: The end user listed in Cisco records was no longer the FSB Academy. Instead, it was the Russian Chamber of Commerce, an innocuous civilian organization meant to represent the interests of Russian companies. The source said that’s exactly why the chamber was listed as the end user — because it has no military purpose that could draw the attention of Western authorities.

Cisco records show that these two Chamber of Commerce deals went forward, with at least $142,000 worth of equipment shipped out late last year and early this year. The shipment included sophisticated switches and accessories in amounts identical to those in the original FSB deal.

The FSB did not respond to a request for comment.

After BuzzFeed News provided Cisco with internal identification numbers for the original FSB deal and one of the alleged replacement Chamber deals, company officials said that the chamber deal had been named in error in its sales tracking system. But they said the shipment did not go to the FSB.

Instead, the company said the equipment went to an entirely different agency, the Ministry of Industry and Trade. This ministry, they said, was sometimes mistakenly labeled “Chamber of Commerce” because of an “issue” with the sales-tracking software Cisco uses. Cisco said that issue dated back to 2013 and that it fixed it in December 2014.

“This wasn’t done as Chamber of Commerce because of some nefarious plot,” an official told BuzzFeed News. “I agree it is confusing about the names. But it never had anything to do with sanctions, and it never resulted in a violation of sanctions.”

When given the identification number for the second Chamber of Commerce deal that allegedly replaced the FSB deal, Cisco declined to further comment on those transactions. A company spokesperson said company officials had been cooperative and that its conversations with BuzzFeed News had reached an “unproductive pattern.”

The middleman on both the FSB deal and the two Chamber of Commerce deals was PIK Terminal. A PIK Terminal project manager on the FSB deal told BuzzFeed News that the equipment from the Chamber of Commerce deals was installed at the Ministry of Trade and Industry. She also said that in the second week of May — after BuzzFeed News had already asked Cisco for its explanation of these transactions — someone from Cisco asked her to send a letter certifying that the purported Chamber of Commerce equipment was really for the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

When told of the PIK Terminal interview, Cisco officials in San Jose said they were surprised. They acknowledged that Cisco had reached out to PIK Terminal to get to the bottom of BuzzFeed News’ questions, but said they had no idea who at the company would have asked for the letter. Still, they said, it was not a concern because the letter would merely state where the equipment had actually ended up.

More broadly, documents show that the Chamber of Commerce was listed as a customer regularly. The source with deep knowledge of Cisco’s Moscow operation says that’s because Moscow salespeople used the organization as an unwitting straw buyer not just for the FSB transaction but also for others. “Banned accounts are routed through the Chamber of Commerce,” the source said. “The Chamber of Commerce is used as a big fake customer.”

But Cisco officials said that the sales records glitch had accidentally and harmlessly listed the Chamber of Commerce as a customer in a number of cases, even though the real customer was the Ministry of Industry and Trade. That ministry, the company said, has no military functions and is not subject to sanctions.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade, contacted last week for comment, did not respond.

BuzzFeed News reviewed several sets of internal Cisco sales records that contain the Chamber of Commerce name. One set listed $500,000 in bookings with the Chamber of Commerce. In total these are made up of seven deals that go through various middlemen. The records don’t make clear who the ultimate customers were.

But in a separate sales tracking system, some “Chamber of Commerce” deals appeared to have customers linked to the military. In one case, the end user was the company Concern Agat, a conglomerate that makes naval equipment. In another, it was Concern Vega, a firm that makes radar and intelligence equipment and that was established by presidential decree under Putin. The source said the chamber’s name was added to these accounts give those military companies a civilian veneer.

Cisco said those particular deals did not go through. And in any case, the company said, it has received “end user certificates” from both Agat and Vega stating that the technology would not be used for military purposes, and that the Dutch authorities have allowed other deals with these companies to go through. “They do make military items but not solely,” said a company official.

Concern Agat and Concern Vega did not respond to emails and phone calls.

As for the Chamber of Commerce, not only did it find it “strange” that it was listed as a substantial customer of Cisco, but “we are not a structure that sells or buys goods, commodities or technologies,” spokesperson Litvinenko said. “Our members do, but we have absolutely no control of their commercial activities.”

While some Moscow salespeople reacted to sanctions imposed last year by allegedly altering records and changing transactions, top Cisco managers were trying to figure out a legal end run.

In an Oct. 8, 2014, email obtained by BuzzFeed News, Jonathan Sparrow, the vice president of Cisco’s Russian office, discussed European sanctions and said “The profitability impact is significant.” Sparrow wondered in the email if there would be legal ways of completing deals for “our long standing and loyal customers,” whose deals had been cancelled by Dutch export officials because of sanctions.

The email chain suggests looking at whether it would be legal to set up a “US supply lane” to ship Cisco “dual-use” technology directly from the United States to Russia, bypassing the Dutch export restrictions.

“While risk to our brand and reputation does exist,” Sparrow wrote, “it appears minimal.”

Cisco said there was no intent to evade sanctions but that the Dutch authorities had effectively blocked all the company’s sales to Russia. The problem, Cisco said, was that in Russia it does not sell directly to customers but rather to middlemen who supply the customers. The Dutch, Cisco said, initially barred all sales that went through middlemen, even those that the company believed were perfectly legal.

A spokesperson for the Dutch government declined to discuss Cisco specifically, but confirmed in an email that initial efforts to impose sanctions “led to a build-up of stopped shipments” and may have delayed even some legal transactions. “At some point some exporters may have experienced this as total prohibition,” wrote Sietze Vermeulen, the spokesperson for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation.

So Cisco started looking for another route.

Cisco declined a request to interview Sparrow, the executive who had written about a “risk to our brand and reputation.” But a top official said: “From what I can tell, he was saying, ‘If we do this someone could potentially write a story saying you changed your logistics because of the sanctions.’”

While executives were scrambling for legal workarounds, Cisco salespeople allegedly tried other tactics to get deals through. As the source put it, they replaced the names of government organizations with “special names that are not banned.”

Here is one example of a change: On Sept. 28, 2014, an internal sales-tracking system showed that a sales account manager was working on a deal with the “Ministry of Defense.” The equipment was specifically for a project called Kadetskiy Korpus, a military academy based in St. Petersburg, and it carried an initial price tag of $289,000.

On Oct. 9, Cisco canceled all its “Ministry of Defense” orders because of the sanctions, according to Cisco emails. After all, there could be no clearer example of a military end user.

But the very next month, on Nov. 12, there was suddenly a name change to the deal under the Ministry of Defense account name. The account was now labeled with a new name, “Slavyanka JSC.”

Slavyanka is a corporation owned by the Ministry of Defense, and it specializes in military housing.

Here is the proposed deal as it was listed in September and then in December, in Cisco’s sales-tracking records.

Excerpted from documents provided to BuzzFeed News.

The source said the name was changed to try to evade the scrutiny of export officials in the Netherlands and compliance officials within Cisco. “This,” said the source, “is pure fraud.”

Cisco officials said the name was changed solely to be more accurate, not to try to conceal the connection to the Ministry of Defense. They said that the internal sales-tracking system in which the name was changed is merely the equivalent of a salesperson’s notes rather than legally binding documents. But even in that system, they said, the renamed Slavyanka deal remained categorized as part of a Ministry of Defense “hierarchy.” Finally, they noted that a simple Google search shows that Slavyanka is owned by the defense ministry — “so there is no secrecy,” said a Cisco official.

Still, one Cisco official acknowledged that if the deal had remained labeled as Ministry of Defense, Cisco itself would have nixed it right away, without bothering to send it to Dutch regulators to see if they would approve it.

In the end, Cisco officials said, they did submit the renamed Slavyanka deal to the Dutch authorities, who blocked it. Cisco insisted that the whole incident proves that its export compliance system works.

Russian President Vladimir Putin at an aerospace show in 2009. Natalia Kolesnikova / AFP / Getty Images

In a similar case, September records reviewed by BuzzFeed News list some deals under the account name of “Federal Space Agency.” The notes say the Cisco technology would be for the use of something called the Vostochny Cosmodrome. That’s one of Putin’s pet projects, a spaceport under construction in eastern Russia.

But the next month, internal records show, Cisco was specifically told that some of its deals with the space agency were cancelled. Roscosmos, as the space agency is known in Russia, had been banned from receiving “dual-use” technology by European sanctions.

By late October, several accounts that had been for the “Federal Space Agency” in Cisco records now had a new name. They were labeled Tsenki FGUP, which is a state-run company that provides launch services to the Russian space program. Here is what the same deal looked like before and after.

Excerpted from documents provided to BuzzFeed News.

The source said, “The logic behind what they are doing is moving the orders to what is allowed. If the ‘Federal Space Agency’ is banned they will move it to ‘Tsenki.’”

Cisco insisted that the name change to Tsenki never was intended to conceal anything. The company said it was always clear that the buyer was the federal space agency, and that Tsenki is a well-known arm of that agency. And as for the Tsenki deal, Cisco said the Dutch export authorities later approved it.

Dutch authorities declined to comment on specific deals.

Russian sales make up just a tiny piece of Cisco’s operations, but on Feb. 27, Sparrow, the VP of Cisco in Russia, wrote in a mass email to his employees that he had discussed Russian operations with Cisco’s CEO John Chambers. “It was with great pride that I told John of the great resiliency and fortitude you have shown over the last 6 months,” he told his employees.

Chambers, 65, announced on May 4 that he was stepping down as Cisco’s chief executive, following a lengthy search for his successor.

Additional reporting by Jeremy Singer-Vine, Talal Ansari, and Kendall Taggart.

Summary: The intent was to dodge sanctions and provide equipment to Vladimir Putin’s military and security services, a source says. Cisco strongly denies it violated sanctions or attempted to do so. A BuzzF...


Drivers in low-income and minority communities in Massachusetts could face higher auto insurance costs if a long-running incentive program for insurance companies is scaled back, the Massachusetts attorney general’s office and some insurers warn.

The incentive program is designed to encourage insurance companies to offer coverage in underserved communities such as Chelsea, Lowell, East Boston, Springfield, and Brockton, as well as to riskier drivers. But an industry group is now calling for that program to be reduced by more than 20 percent statewide, arguing that it is not as necessary in a competitive market.

That move could push more drivers into what’s known as the high-risk pool, which is the insurer of last resort for those who can’t get commercial coverage, according to the office of Attorney General Maura Healey. The change could affect bad drivers —as well as good drivers who live in poor and minority communities that insurers rate as risky because there are higher rates of accidents and fraud.

Being pushed into the high-risk pool would mean fewer choices, higher premiums, and more fees.

“These credits [encouraging companies to offer coverage] play an important role in providing low-income residents with greater access to auto insurance products,” said Jillian Fennimore, a spokeswoman for Healey. “They also incentivize insurers to do business in diverse communities across Massachusetts.”

The Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurers, which manages the high-risk pool, began reviewing the credit system last year as part of its routine examination of the automobile market and those it insured.

Plymouth Rock Assurance Corp., the state’s sixth-largest auto insurer and one of the few companies opposing the reduction of the credit, took the unusual step of asking the Massachusetts Commissioner of Insurance to schedule a hearing on the plan, which was held Thursday.

The company said robust incentives for insurers are still necessary if the state wants to make sure that drivers in some low-income communities aren’t overly represented in the high-risk insurance pool, where the average premium can be at least 70 percent more expensive.

The average annual premium for a driver statewide was $992 in 2013, the most recent year available, compared to $1,707 for drivers in the Massachusetts Auto Insurance Plan, as the high-risk pool is known. Policies in the high-risk pool also don’t include benefits available in commercial markets, such as accident forgiveness and roadside assistance, and can have higher late payment fees.

Under the current system, “companies have an incentive to actively compete for that business,” said Paula Gold, an attorney for Plymouth Rock, helping lower the cost of insurance for consumers. “Credits are beneficial to consumers, and, in fact, the consumers who may most need it in this state.”

The incentive plan essentially gives insurance companies credit for voluntarily selling policies to about 430,000 drivers who are considered higher-risk because they live in urban areas and are more likely to have their vehicle damaged, or have more speeding tickets, more accidents, or a history of failing to pay premiums. By covering drivers voluntarily, these insurers shrink the size of high-risk pool and hence are allowed to use the credits to reduce the number of drivers they would otherwise be required to take from the high-risk pool.

The new proposal, which would take effect in April, reduces the number of drivers that insurance companies could count for credit to about 332,000, a 23 percent decrease.

To some insurers, the incentive plan is outdated and unnecessary since the state deregulated the auto insurance market eight years ago. More insurance companies sell auto policies in the state, because they can now set their own prices, and more are willing to write policies in low-income communities, they argue.

In the past decade, the number of drivers unable to get insurance on the commercial market has shrunk from 6.5 percent of the more than 4 million Massachusetts drivers to less than 2 percent. Now, just 68,000 automobiles are insured in that high-risk pool, according to the Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurers, a group made up of insurance companies and agents that manages the program.

Insurance companies share these higher-risk drivers, each insuring a percentage of the pool based on how much business they do in Massachusetts.

Natalie Hubley, president of Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurers, declined to comment. But members of her group have said there’s less need for the incentives because more buyers can buy insurance on the competitive market, as evidenced by the shrinking high-risk pool.

Advocates of the change expect it to have little impact on consumers because the high-risk pool has continued to shrink, despite smaller reductions in credits in the past. Insurance companies have many reasons to offer urban drivers with good driving records insurance without extra incentives, said Owen Gallagher, an Boston insurance attorney who also runs a website called agencychecklists.com, which tracks state insurance trends.

As insurance companies struggle with low interest rates and volatile financial markets that narrow returns on their investments, writing more policies to safer drivers can help them boost earnings, Gallagher said.

It’s uncertain how much of a role credits play in encouraging insurance companies sell auto policies in these underserved communities, he said.

“The question is how far will they continue going into these markets if the credits are reduced,” Gallagher said.

Summary: Drivers in low-income and minority communities in Massachusetts could face higher auto insurance costs if an incentive program for companies is scaled back.


FRANKFURT— Adidas AG shareholders are getting vocal about their discontent with the company’s performance.

Shares in the German sports brand fell roughly 40% last year after two profit warnings within 10 months. Chief Executive Herbert Hainer has taken some steps to reverse the decline at the company he has led since 2001, but a growing number of investors and analysts say Adidas must do more.

“We have no trust in the management anymore,” said Ingo Speich, a fund manager in Frankfurt at Union Investment, one of Adidas’s largest and most outspoken shareholders, with a stake of roughly 1.2%. “We want Hainer to leave the company.”

Adidas “categorically rejects” criticism from Mr. Speich and Union Investment, a spokeswoman said. Adidas “is and will remain a healthy growth company,” she added.

Group sales at Adidas rose 6% last year, adjusted for currency fluctuations, but the company’s performance in the U.S. and Russia—two of its largest markets—is sliding fast. Those troubles are part of the reason the world’s second-largest sporting-goods company last summer cut its 2014 profit goal almost 30%, to €650 million ($737 million), which it achieved.

Shareholders last fall began pressing Mr. Hainer to accelerate a turnaround. They argued he should have reacted faster to sliding sales at the TaylorMade golf division and the collapse of Russian demand.

Adidas’s management “deserves a yellow card but not yet a red one,” said Stefan Grüner-Bauknecht, a fund manager at Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, a large Adidas investor. A yellow card is a referee’s warning in a soccer game, and a red card sends a player off the field.

Mr. Grüner-Bauknecht blamed Adidas’s slide on a mix of poor judgment and bad luck, particularly in the collapse of the Russian ruble.

Adidas shares have risen almost 11% this year after the company met its reduced 2014 financial targets and in expectation of a new five-year strategy that the company plans to announce next month. But its share price is still almost 25% below its level one year ago, while Germany’s broader DAX index is up roughly 20% over the period.

“I am currently not happy about what we have seen so far” from Adidas, said Daniela Bergdolt, a lawyer at DSW, a shareholder association that represents German stockowners. Ms. Bergdolt stopped short of calling for Mr. Hainer’s ouster. “I think he has done some good things, but he has to react to this situation.…He has to take action.”

Many Adidas investors also hold stakes in larger U.S. rival Nike Inc., said Cedric Rossi, an analyst at investment bank Bryan Garnier. Nike shares are up more than 30% over the past 12 months.

“It’s easy for [investors] to compare the performance of both groups, and the conclusion is easy to make,” Mr. Rossi said.

Adidas’s struggling U.S. business has been a strong focus of investor dissatisfaction. Adidas last fall fell behind Baltimore-based Under Armour Inc. to the No. 3 spot among U.S. sports brands, and Adidas’s North American sales dropped 10% in euro terms in the first nine months of 2014.

Adidas’s board decided last March to extend Mr. Hainer’s contract by two years, to 2017. The company said the extension offered time to find a successor before Mr. Hainer’s planned retirement.

“The Adidas Group has made excellent progress in the past 13 years under the leadership of Herbert Hainer,” Igor Landau, Adidas’s supervisory board chairman, said in March.

Mr. Hainer is the longest-serving chief executive ever among companies in Germany’s blue-chip DAX index. Between 2001 and 2013, company earnings quadrupled, and in several years it reported growth of as much as 20%.

Investors’ outspokenness could add to pressure on Mr. Hainer, who has so far weathered criticism. Adidas is widely held, and all its shares trade openly. Its largest shareholder, Thornburg Investment Management Inc., holds roughly 4.8% of the company.

Adidas is now preparing a new five-year strategy that will be presented by the end of March.

The company plans next month to release more details of its 2014 earnings, which it outlined in January. Its long-troubled Reebok unit, purchased in 2006, posted 5% sales growth last year, adjusted for currency fluctuations.

Analysts remain cautious. J.P. Morgan recently cut its forecast for Adidas’s results this year, saying that the continued devaluation of the Russian ruble would hurt profits. It also said it feared the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the euro would “more than offset” lower commodity prices.

— Juliet Samuel contributed to this article.

Write to Ellen Emmerentze Jervell at ellen.jervell@wsj.com

Summary: Adidas AG shareholders are getting vocal about their discontent with the company’s performance, with some calling for the ouster of longtime Chief Executive Herbert Hainer.


Mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik has opened a lawsuit against Norway over his current prison conditions with a Nazi salute, confirming fears he would use the occasion to grandstand his extremist views.

Breivik, 37, is serving a maximum 21-year sentence for killing eight people in a bomb attack outside a government building in Oslo in July 2011, then murdering another 69 people – most of them teenagers – in a rampage at a Labour Youth camp on the island of Utoya.

Breivik was photographed extending his right arm in the infamous salute after filing into the makeshift courtroom in Skien Prison, 130km southwest of Oslo, yesterday.

Despite the theatrical entrance, his lawyer Oystein Storrvik insisted the lawsuit, which contends his prison isolation constitutes "inhuman" treatment, was necessary because his client would likely be spending the rest of his life behind bars.

"This case is about something much more than what many people think, just a lawsuit brought to allow Breivik back into the spotlight to explain himself," Mr Storrvik said.

"This case is simply about his detention conditions for the rest of his life.”

The 37-year-old is suing the state for breaching two clauses of the European Convention on Human Rights, one which prohibits "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment", and one which guarantees the right of respect for "private and family life" and "correspondence".

In opening remarks, lawyer Mr Storrvik stressed the frequent use of handcuffs and hundreds of strip-searches his client had been subjected to in the Ila prison near Oslo where he was held until September 2013.

He also highlighted the fact that since his arrest on July 22, 2011, Breivik has been held apart from the rest of the prison population and his contacts with the outside world strictly controlled.

Anders Behring Breivik gestures as he enters a courtroom in Skien, Norway. (AAP)

Prison officials currently censor his mail to prevent him from establishing an "extremist network", according to authorities, and his rare visits are almost exclusively with professionals behind a glass partition.

The only exception in five years was a five-minute meeting in 2013 with his mother during which they hugged, shortly before she died from cancer, Mr Storrvik told the court.

He argued that Breivik is suffering "clear damage" from this isolation, citing memory loss and an inability to focus on his studies.

Breivik’s prison sentence faces a possible extension if he is still considered a danger to society.

The Nazi salute appears to confirm the belief that he has radicalised in prison, having recently described himself as a "militant nationalist".

In a letter to AFP dated October 27, 2014, Breivik said he had pledged his "allegiance to national socialism".

On several occasions during his 2012 trial, he made a variation of the Nazi salute by holding his closed right fist to his heart and then extending his arm.

The proceedings of Breivik’s lawsuit will last until Friday.

They are being broadcast on Norwegian television, though Breivik's own testimony on Wednesday morning will not be aired out of respect for the victims.


03/20/2016 AT 10:40 AM EDT

. Forget "Eye of the Tiger." Luna Lovegood turns to Disney heroes for her motivational beats.

Evanna Lynch, who played Lovegood in the last four

films, is hitting the pavement on Sunday in the New York City Half Marathon to raise awareness for

. So what's on the Ravenclaw's playlist?

"When the running gets tough, that's when I need to put on my Disney soundtracks," the actress tells PEOPLE. "The ones where they defy the odds."

Any princess in particular? "Mulan, because she had to fight a war and pretend she was a man," says Lynch, 24. "It's so inspiring, so motivating. You picture her jumping across the logs, getting in banging shape."

And the actress is getting in banging shape all while adhering to a vegan diet. Lynch, who is a passionate animal-rights activist, has been a vegan for over a year. However she was missing some favorite foods, like ice cream. Until recently.

"The ice cream is something I find hard to replace. But the Ben & Jerry's vegan flavors are amazing. They nailed it," she says.

"In my head, it's 'I'm allowed to eat all this ice cream now. Because I'm running so much.'" However, she has one caveat, "It's

Summary: Harry Potter's Evanna Lynch says she listens to Mulan's soundtrack while running


Jesse Tyler Ferguson in Fully Committed

By Chancellor Agard and Jessica Fecteau

04/28/2016 AT 12:00 PM EDT

has a lot on his plate!

star, 40, takes on more than 40 roles in his new one-man Broadway show,

, directed by Jason Moore (

). He plays Sam, a reservation-line receptionist in a high-end New York City restaurantâas well as the table-demanding socialites and celebrities, chef, servers, and more.

He tells PEOPLE his favorite character changes from day to day as he gets more comfortable playing the roles, but they tend to be the nastier ones. There's Mrs. C-Bag, who is "very entitled and demanding" and says some awful things to Sam when they can't find her reservation, and the French maÃ®tre d' with a "bombastic" personality who also says really terrible things, but behind people's backs.

"It's fun to find the humor in bad behavior," he says. "I'm a pretty nice person in real life, so I have a lot of fun playing the really terrible people."

Memorizing his lines for the roles proved tricky because as soon as he would finish learning one draft of the script, he'd receive a new one with new lines, more jokes and even new characters sometimes.

"I've really been juggling different versions of the play," he says. "So I've been wandering around New York and Los Angeles, wherever I've been living, looking like a crazy person mumbling to myself."

is playing on Broadway through July 24.

Summary: Fully Committed is playing on Broadway through July 24


Australian Islamic State terrorist Neil Prakash has been killed in a US air strike in Iraq.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was yesterday informed the ISIL recruiter had been killed in a targeted air strike on Mosul in Iraq on April 29.

The US government also said that the sister of Farhad Jabar, Shadi Jabar Khalil Mohammad and her Sudanese husband, were killed in an air strike on Al Bab in Syria on April 22.

The former student, aged in her 20s, lived with her family in Parramatta but fled the day before her 15-year-old brother was killed outside NSW Police headquarters after shooting dead police employee Curtis Cheng in October 2015.

Prakash, 24, was rumoured to have been killed in January but the reports were never confirmed.

The former Melbourne rapper was reportedly a senior Australian ISIL member, recruiter and attack facilitator, allegedly responsible for directing lone wolf attacks, including inside Australia.

Farhad Jabar was shot dead by police after shooting Curtis Cheng in 2015.

In 2014 Numan Haider was shot dead in a Melbourne police station after stabbing two officers.

Prakash was linked to Numan Haider, who was shot dead after stabbing two police officers from the Joint Counter Terrorism team outside a Melbourne police station in September 2014.

Prakash was also linked to a failed Anzac Day plot last month.

He had converted to Islam less than 18 months before he left Australia for Syria and renamed himself Abu Khaled al-Cambodi, in recognition of his Cambodian and Fijian heritage.

Once in Syria he quickly rose through up the ISIL ranks and began featuring in propaganda videos that encouraged other Australians to join the terrorist group.

Summary: Australian Islamic State recruit Neil Prakash has been killed in a US air strike in Iraq.


FRANKFURT— Adidas AG said Wednesday it is actively seeking a buyer for parts of its golf unit, after years of slumping sales.

The German sportswear maker said a strategic review finished in March convinced its executive board that it should divest its Taylormade-Adidas Golf, Adams and Ashworth golf brands. These brands largely produce golf hardware. The company would continue to focus on golf apparel and footwear through its Adidas Golf brand, it said.

Taylormade-Adidas Golf, which Adidas bought along with Salomon in 1997, used to be one of the company’s top performing business units and is still the market-leading golf brand.

Ashworth was bought by Adidas for $72.8 million in 2008, and Adams Golf for $70 million in 2012.

But in 2014, its golfing adventure came to an abrupt halt. Adidas had pushed too many products into the market and failed to notice how consumers’ interest in the sport was waning.

When numbers turned red, Adidas Chief Executive Herbert Hainer said he would introduce a restructuring program to improve the business’ profitability. The program did, however, prove to be pricey, and although the golf business seemed to be recovering, its sales were still far below the level they were at three years ago.

In 2012, Taylormade-Adidas Golf capped a successful year with revenue of €1.4 billion ($1.6 billion). Last year, it had slumped to €903 million.

In mid-2015 Adidas announced it was “looking at future options for the golf business.” It hired Guggenheim Partners LLC to help.

Adidas published preliminary first-quarter earnings and raised its guidance for 2016 on April 27. Wednesday, it also published regional figures, which showed that sales in North America had been rising 20%, compared with the same period a year earlier.

“I am particularly pleased with our strong development in North America,” said Adidas Chief Executive Herbert Hainer. “This shows that our focus on this important market is paying off.”

NPD Group analyst Matt Powell said Adidas’s sales in the U.S. rose more than 50% in March. The company did particularly well in the lifestyle running, classics and casual footwear categories, Mr. Powell said.

Natasha Cazin, an analyst at Euromonitor, called Adidas’s recent strategic moves in the U.S. “encouraging.”

“Regardless, the company still needs to keep its eye on the ball, particularly in China and Western Europe, where its rival Nike has stolen market share,” she said.

Sales rose in all other regions too, including Russia, where they were up 2% despite the current turbulent macroeconomic environment in the country.

In the first quarter of 2016, Taylormade-Adidas Golf revenue was down 1%.

A final decision on the golf divestiture, including the detailed terms of a potential agreement, is still subject to approval by the supervisory board, the company said Wednesday.

— Natascha Divac and Natalie Schwab contributed to this article.

Write to Ellen Emmerentze Jervell at ellen.jervell@wsj.com

Summary: German sportswear maker Adidas said it is actively seeking a buyer for parts of its golf unit, after years of slumping sales.


Prince Harry (left), and the young prince with his brother, Prince William, and parents Princess Diana and Prince Charles. (AAP file images)

Young royal Prince Harry has spoken about the strong influence of his late mother, Princess Diana, on his life, as well as his charity work and desire for children in an interview with People magazine.

Prince Harry said his mother – who died when he was 12 years old – has had a profound impact on his life.

"All I want to do is make my mother incredibly proud, that's all I've ever wanted to do," he said in the exclusive interview.

Diana's legacy motivated him to do charity work, he said, before leaving Kensington Palace for the Invictus Games in Florida and for a polo event to promote his own charity, Sentebale.

"When she died, there was a gaping hole, not just for us but also for a huge amount of people across the world. If I can try and fill a very small part of that, then job done," he said.

Prince Harry is an ambassador for the Invictus Games, which uses rehabilitative sports to inspire wounded, injured and sick service people.

He has also co-founded the Sentebale charity with Prince Seesio of Lesotho, which is aimed at helping vulnerable children affected by poverty and Lesotho's HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The royal bachelor also spoke about his niece and nephew, Charlotte and George, and how he wants to have children but is in "no rush".

Prince Harry played in the Sentebale charity match in Florida. (AAP)

READ MORE: Princess Charlotte celebrates birthday with gifts from around the world

Speaking at a fundraising polo event – the Sentebale Royal Salute Polo Cup – in Wellington, Florida, Prinen Harry explained the charity’s goal to provide one million hours of support to children and young people with HIV/AIDS in Lesotho.

“ Lesotho has the second highest rate of HIV in the world - HIV remains the number one cause of death amongst adolescents in Africa," he said.

The royal bachelor spoke about his niece, Charlotte, and nephew, George. (AAP)

"Sentebale's goal is to provide one million hours of support to children and young people living with HIV and AIDS across the region by 2020.

"That’s an ambitious goal, but the scale of the challenge demands bold action."

READ MORE: Princess Kate attends playground opening and reveals Charlotte and George have a royal hamster


Gov. George E. Pataki declared yesterday that the killers of Jonathan M. Levin should face execution, and hinted that he might intervene if the Manhattan District Attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, declined to seek the death penalty.

''I believe that they should face the death penalty, those people who killed Jonathan Levin,'' Mr. Pataki said. Noting that Mr. Levin, a popular teacher at Taft High School in the Bronx, was apparently killed during a robbery, he said, ''It clearly meets the statutory criteria for the death penalty.''

Even as the Governor was calling for execution, lawyers for one of the accused, a former student of Mr. Levin's, said he and the teacher had been close, with Mr. Levin acting as a mentor to the younger man and encouraging him in his writing efforts.

At a news conference after a grand jury indicted the former student, Corey Arthur, and Montoun T. Hart in the killing, Mr. Arthur's lawyers attacked the prosecutors' account of the crime, offering what could be a preview of their defense strategy. Besides emphasizing the close relationship of Mr. Arthur and Mr. Levin, the lawyers contended that the prosecution case was flawed because it relied heavily on the account of Mr. Hart.

The murder of Mr. Levin, son of the Time Warner chairman, Gerald M. Levin, shocked a city whose crime rate has been plummeting. The brutality of the crime, in which prosecutors say the teacher was tormented and killed for $800, seemed particularly outrageous.

In calling for the death penalty, Mr. Pataki, a Republican who made reinstitution of the death penalty a central theme of his 1994 campaign, raised the possibility that he might again clash directly with a New York City prosecutor who has expressed opposition to capital punishment.

Last year, the Governor removed the Bronx District Attorney, Robert T. Johnson, from the prosecution of a man accused of killing a police officer because, Mr. Pataki said, he did not believe Mr. Johnson would consider seeking the death penalty.

Mr. Morgenthau has said that he opposes capital punishment but that he will decide each case individually under the state's death-penalty law. He has formed a committee of senior prosecutors to advise him on cases that could involve the death penalty, but so far has not sought execution in any case.

''If it is a professional judgment based on fair analysis of the facts and the law, then I would not criticize any district attorney,'' Mr. Pataki said. ''If it's based on imposition of a political philosophy -- 'I'm opposed to the death penalty, I'm not going to enforce the law' -- then I would supersede any district attorney.''

While the Governor's right to supersede a district attorney was upheld in the Bronx case, Mr. Pataki could face a formidable battle if he tried to take on Mr. Morgenthau, the longest serving and best known of the city's five district attorneys.

Mr. Morgenthau declined to comment directly on Mr. Pataki's statement last night, saying only, ''My position has always been clear: that we expect to carry out the law and exercise our judgment within the law.''

Mr. Arthur, 19, and Mr. Hart, 25, were arrested last Saturday and indicted yesterday on murder charges by a Manhattan grand jury. Only Mr. Arthur, whom prosecutors have accused of firing the fatal shot into Mr. Levin's head, faces charges of first-degree murder and a possible death sentence. Mr. Hart, 25, has been charged with second-degree murder and faces 25 years to life in prison.

The authorities have said that Mr. Arthur has acknowledged that he was in Mr. Levin's Upper West Side apartment on the day of the murder, but that he asserted that two men he did not know burst in and attacked the victim.

''The relation between Corey Arthur and Mr. Levin is not the relationship that was published in the papers,'' said Anthony Ricco, a lawyer for Mr. Arthur, said outside the courthouse yesterday. ''There is much more of a relationship there and what we have to do is investigate it and corroborate it.''

Mr. Arthur's lawyers attacked the prosecution's assertion that Mr. Arthur proposed the robbery and killed Mr. Levin. They said that Mr. Arthur had a close relationship with Mr. Levin, who was a mentor and coached Mr. Arthur, an aspiring rap musician, on his writing. Mr. Arthur visited Mr. Levin's home regularly, they asserted, and may have been there as recently as two weeks before the killing.

''Mr. Levin really did work with Corey in terms of trying to open up his literary horizons, poetry and reading, buying books for him,'' Mr. Ricco said. ''I think at one point Mr. Levin was talking about publishing poems that Corey had written.''

Mr. Ricco said the defense had asked prosecutors to provide an inventory of all items found in Mr. Levin's apartment. He said investigators would probably find letters and notes written by Mr. Arthur.

Investigators have said that Mr. Arthur used his relationship with Mr. Levin to gain entry to his apartment. Once inside, investigators said, Mr. Arthur and Mr. Hart bound Mr. Levin with duct tape and slashed him with a steak knife to obtain the code to his A.T.M. card. Then, investigators have said, Mr. Arthur shot Mr. Levin in the head.

Yesterday, Mr. Arthur's lawyers scoffed at the account, which they said investigators based on the statements of Mr. Arthur's co-defendant.

''You don't base a case on a statement by Hart and someone in East New York who says where's my $11,000,'' Mr. Ricco said, referring to reward money.

Mr. Ricco said that the forensic evidence would destroy Mr. Hart's account of the crime. Among other things, Mr. Ricco pointed out a deep wound on Mr. Arthur's right hand, which he said could be a defensive wound received as he tried to block a knife thrust. He also raised the possibility that others were involved in the crime.

Mr. Hart's lawyer, David Stern, was present at yesterday's hearing but left without speaking to reporters.

Questioned repeatedly about the nature of Mr. Levin's relationship with their client, Mr. Arthur's lawyers declined to provide details, although they said drugs were not involved.

''It is very possible for people to be longstanding friends and have a relationship without anything seamy going on,'' said George Goltzer, another lawyer for Mr. Arthur. ''We want to find out exactly what the relationship was.''

Asked why Mr. Arthur went to Mr. Levin's apartment on the day of the murder, Mr. Ricco declined to elaborate, saying only: ''It wasn't a good thing. No matter what, it wasn't a good thing.''

''Sometimes relationships can start off wonderful and end up horrible,'' the lawyer said. ''This might be one of those situations.''

Mr. Arthur appeared generally calm during his court appearance, waving briefly and mouthing a greeting to family members. But Mr. Ricco said his client was afraid.

''He is very upset, shaking, crying,'' Mr. Ricco said. ''He has stated that he loved Mr. Levin.''


Wells Fargo wfc plans to announce an investment and strategic partnership tied to roboadviser-type offerings by the end of the second quarter, its wealth management chief said on Tuesday.

Roboadvisers manage client money using algorithms rather than traditional human brokers, and have been popular with investors who want to pay lower fees or prefer digital options.

Wells Fargo’s planned deal will allow it to capture smaller clients who want to manage their own investments, David Carroll, head of wealth and investment management, said at the bank’s investor day.

“We are working hard, fast and furious to adopt [a roboadviser] capability at Wells Fargo,” he said, without providing further details about the partner or size of the deal.

Roboadvisers have lower costs and offer smaller fees than traditional firms partly because they do not have to pay an army of brokers to sell their products.

Summary: Joins Charles Schwabb


Federal MPs won’t stand in the way of legalising same-sex marriage if Australians vote in favour of the proposal in a plebiscite promised by the Coalition should it win another term in government, the industry minister Christopher Pyne says.

Pyne gave the assurance after a heated debate in parliament on Thursday when prime minister Malcolm Turnbull was confronted with concerns a “yes” vote would not be binding.

Related: Eric Abetz uses racist term to describe US supreme court judge in interview

“It will be binding on the party – no politician in their right mind would ... turn around and say ‘we’re not going to implement it’. So the public will get their way,” Pyne told the Nine Network on Friday morning.

Turnbull told the parliament the mechanism for the promised plebiscite was still to be decided by cabinet.

The Liberal MP Warren Entsch wants Turnbull to allow parliament to amend the Marriage Act in this term and keep the change on hold until a majority “yes” vote is assured.

Former Abbott government minister Eric Abetz, who stands by the Coalition’s 2013 election promise not to legalise same-sex marriage, has branded Entsch’s suggestion a political “ambush”.

“When it is held, whatever the decision, whether it is ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to marriage equality, that will be implemented,” Pyne said.

“If the parliament or the government at the time tries not to implement the people’s will in the House of Representatives then woe betide that leader.”

Summary: Industry minister says ‘no politician in their right mind’ would reject vote of people on legalising same-sex marriage


Sometimes it’s difficult to fathom that the world could actually become even more crowded than it is today – especially when elbowing through a teeming Delhi market, hustling across a frenetic Tokyo street crossing or sharing breathing space with sweaty strangers crammed into a London Tube train. Yet our claustrophobia-inducing numbers are only set to grow.

While it is impossible to precisely predict population levels for the coming decades, researchers are certain of one thing: the world is going to become an increasingly crowded place. New estimates issued by the United Nations in July predict that, by 2030, our current 7.3 billion will have increased to 8.4 billion. That figure will rise to 9.7 billion by 2050, and to a mind-boggling 11.2 billion by 2100.

World population could rise to a mind-boggling 11.2 billion by 2100

Yet even today, it’s difficult enough to get away from one another. Drive a few hours outside of New York City or San Francisco, into the Catskill Mountains or Point Reyes National Seashore, and you’ll find crowds of city-dwellers clogging trails and beaches. Even more remote and supposedly idyllic spaces are feeling the crush, too. Backcountry permits for the Grand Tetons in Wyoming sell out months in advance, while Arches National park in Utah had to shut down for several hours last May due to a traffic gridlock.

For those who can afford the luxury of occasionally escaping other members of our own species, doing so often requires getting on a plane and travelling to increasingly far-fetched locales. Yet humanity’s footprint extends even to the most seemingly isolated of places: you’ll find nomadic herders in Mongolia’s Gobi desert, Berbers in the Sahara and camps of scientists in Antarctica.

This begs the question: as the world becomes even more crowded, will it become practically impossible to find a patch of land free from human settlement or presence? Will we eventually overtake all remaining habitable space?

Virtually all population growth between now and the end of the century will be in cities – Joel Cohen, population expert

Taking a stab at answering these questions requires examining what we know about where people will likely base themselves in the future, and what life will be like then. For starters, experts predict that – reflecting current trends – an increasing number of us will live out our lives in cities. As agriculture becomes more efficient, people abandon jobs in that shrinking and difficult sector and instead take up ones in urban manufacturing or service. This has been going on for some decades. In 1930, just 30% of the world’s population lived in cities, compared to about 55% today. By 2050, however, about two-thirds will be based in urban areas.

“Virtually all population growth between now and the end of the century will be in cities,” says Joel Cohen, head of the Laboratory of Populations at Rockefeller University and Columbia University, and author of a book called How many people can the Earth support? “It boils down to more than one million additional people living in cities every five to six days from now until 2100.”

Around half of the world’s population will live in smaller cities of half-a-million to three million residents. The rest will live in megacities, or those that harbour 10 million or more, which will mostly be located in developing and emerging economies such as China, India and Nigeria. Because of governance challenges, however, cities themselves probably won’t exceed far beyond 10 million or so. Instead, mega-regions – places where urban sprawl continues for miles and encompasses a number of cities, as seen today in places like the greater New York City area and China’s Pearl River Delta – will become the norm. Both cities and regions will expand geographically as well as become denser.

“People can live at much higher population densities – it is possible,” says John Wilmoth, director of the Population Division of the United Nations. “As someone who lives in Manhattan, I have to say that it’s not awful.”

Manhattan’s educational, cultural and employment opportunities – as well as its health care options, safety regulations and relatively efficient infrastructure – all contribute to the high quality of life its residents enjoy. Those are not universal urban guarantees, however, and they do not necessarily develop organically as a city or country grows. As Adrian Raftery, a professor of statistics and sociology at the University of Washington, points out: “Increases in population have to be planned for.”

Much of the future population increase will come from Africa

It takes capable governments and institutions to organise basic amenities such as freshwater, sanitation and waste disposal. “But the problem,” Cohen says, “is that managerial talent is in short supply.” Worryingly, the places that are most in need of such oversight today are also the ones where most of humanity’s growth is projected to occur. Much of the future population increase will come from Africa, which will shoot up from its current one billion people to over four billion by 2100. “The Africa projections are really scary,” says John Bongaarts, vice president and distinguished scholar at the Population Council, a non-profit research organisation based in New York City. “A large proportion will end up in urban slums, which is not a recipe for happy living.”

The problem, he continues, is that Africa’s large cities – and, to some extent, Asia’s as well – are not equipped to absorb all of that population influx.

Indeed, places like Lagos, Dhaka and Mumbai already face tremendous challenges at current levels. “People buy water at great [high] prices from street vendors, human waste is all over the place and garbage is just abandoned – not to even speak of green spaces around the city or quality of habitation,” Cohen says. “I don’t think we are preparing adequately in thinking about the placement and organisation, or the political and environmental security, of growing cities.”

Even in developed countries, however, standards of living will probably not continue to improve at the same rate as in recent years. “We’ve had a few decades of extraordinarily rapid economic growth, with poverty declining in both rich and poor countries,” Bongaarts says. “But this will become much more difficult in the future.”

We have already used up the most productive land, rivers and water

The reasons, he says, are three-fold. Wealthy countries are ageing, meaning their rate of growth and innovation will begin to slow. Secondly, the environmental odds of unencumbered growth are stacked against us: we have already used up the most productive land, dammed the most energetically profitable rivers and tapped into the easiest-to-reach groundwater. Finally, inequality is becoming an increasing problem. While the average American’s median income has not budged much in the past few decades, the top 1% is doing increasingly well. “That phenomenon will continue into the future and in part will be driven by environmental issues,” Bongaarts says.

Climate change is another wild card that could have a significant impact on how both developed and developing urban centres play out in the future. Around 60% of all cities that currently have a million residents or more are at risk of at least one type of major natural disaster, many of them climate-related, and even the most well-organised, highly developed cities have yet to fully plan for these threats. “People oftentimes don’t want to have this discussion because it’s associated with an alarmist view of climate change, but it’s worthwhile to consider what catastrophic climate change would mean for habitable space,” says Michail Fragkias, an applied social scientist at Boise State University.

While the impact of many of these issues could lessen with proper planning, outside of a few progressive nations and cities, there is not much evidence that that is occurring. “No doubt the problems will work themselves out, one way or another,” Cohen says. “But likely at a cost of tremendous and avoidable human suffering.”

Cities, however, are not the only places that will experience future change due to growing populations. Rural and remote places that are not strictly protected will likely see a modest increase in human habitation, too. “With a combination of climate change and technology, it’s not unthinkable that Antarctica might become inhabited, although it’s hard to imagine it being densely populated,” Raftery says. This also means that, for those with the means to do so, finding a quiet corner free from humanity’s mark will become even more challenging. There will simply be too many other people with the same idea in mind.

About 3% of Earth’s total land supports more than half of humanity

None of this, however, means that we will run out of actual space to live. Around half of the world’s land currently holds around 2% of the planet’s population, whereas only about 3% of total land supports more than half of humanity. But a growing population does mean that the number of relatively pristine places left to visit will also likely decrease, thanks to an ever-increasing demand for resources needed to support urban lives. “I’d say there’s no threat of the world’s rainforests all being taken over by cities,” says Karen Seto, a professor of geography and urbanisation at Yale University. “The bigger threat is the indirect impact of urbanisation on those landscapes.” Indeed, cities require wood for creating buildings and furniture, agricultural land for growing food, space to dispose of tonnes of rubbish produced on a daily basis – and much more.

Eventually, world population will likely level off, Wilmoth says. Even with our numbers skyrocketing into the billions, growth throughout this century is actually already slowing, and is projected to continue to do so. Many decades from now, human population might even begin to decline. For the foreseeable future, however, we are headed toward an increasingly crowded Earth – although the conditions of that world are still uncertain.

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Summary: In an increasingly crowded world, will we still be able to find respite from one another? Rachel Nuwer investigates our 11 billion-person future.


Bill Cosby drugged everyone — including the NBC peacock himself — writers of the edgy animated show "Family Guy" joked in a parody of "The Cosby Show" intro.

In Sunday's episode, the Griffin family and friends tune into the popular '80s sitcom, which has been reimagined amid the sexual assault allegations against the 78-year-old comedian.

"We now return to 'The Cosby Show,' knowing what we know now," the TV announcer intones as the show's opening credits begin.

An animated Bill Cosby is then seen dancing to theme music as his female co-stars are introduced one by one, each of them passed out in their chairs.

Toward the end, a clearly dazed Bea Arthur comes stumbling onto the screen without pants on, as Cosby continues dancing. Next, Cosby holds back the ears of the Noid, a former Domino's mascot, as he vomits into a toilet.

The parody ends with the NBC peacock bumbling in, holding a drink in his hand before passing out at Cosby's feet.

"Family Guy's" twisted take comes after more than 50 woman accused Cosby of physically assaulting them — with many contending he doped them before the attacks.

Cosby, who has never been convicted of any crime, has maintained his innocence.

Summary: Bill Cosby drugged everyone — including the NBC peacock himself — writers of the edgy animated show "Family Guy" joked on Sunday.


Vanessa Hudgens has officially copped to defacing a rock in a national forest near Sedona, and now she'll have to dig into her wallet.

Vanessa will pay $1k ... earmarked for a volunteer group called Friends of the Forest which will restore the rock.

Vanessa defaced the rock during a Valentine's Day trip with BF Austin Butler ... a big no-no since there's a federal law prohibiting damage to natural surfaces on US property.

She cooperated with authorities after the backlash leading them to the location on Bell Rock.

Summary: Vanessa Hudgens has officially copped to defacing a rock in a national forest near Sedona, and now she'll have to dig into her wallet. Vanessa will…


Ashly Covington could be the owner of America's most famous hands. She's subbed hers in for those of Charlize Theron and Adriana Lima, and appeared in countless ads for beauty products displaying her manicured, extraordinarily well-formed digits.

"I've had to stick my fingers in model's mouths for countless beauty product shots," Covington, 37, told MailOnline. "Sometimes it's creepy, sometimes it's hilarious."

Covington, who lives in Old Church, Va., frequently flies to New York and Los Angeles (sometimes several times in a week) to take part in photo shoots, where her hands are featured while she keeps the rest of her body out of the frame--frequently via awkward, uncomfortable contortions. It's a job she's been doing for 14 years, and her hard work has won her prominent spots in campaigns for Clinique, Canon, Rolex, and many more.

"I'm always almost wearing gloves and I have to adopt certain habits for everything I do, she told the Mail. "How I open a car door, how I pick up a box, even where my hands swing when I'm walking down the street. I've had accidents with all three of those types of situations that have lost me work in the past!"

Covington, whose grandmother also worked as a hand model in the 1930s (appearing in ads for typewriters), started building a portfolio after graduating from college in Virginia, where she studied theater. She was working as a waitress at the time, but her "hand jobs," as she called them, took her career in a completely new direction. Now, it's not unusual for her to spend the day with a python wrapped around her arm--or sticking it up Andy Samberg's shirt.

Jobs can range anywhere from two to 18 hours, MailOnline reported; one pizza commercial found her and the crew spending the better part of a day perfecting a three-second shot. Sometimes she'll have to hold products for long periods of time without showing signs of strain.

"So in I come, the rest of my body at a bizarre angle so it's hidden out of the way, and then I wait for the crew to call action," said Covington. "Then I smoothly pick up the slice of pizza - again and again - until that cheese stretch is the best cheese stretch in the history of cheese stretches."

Another, for Miller Lite, involved Covington pushing six beer bottles across a table so the labels faced the camera, with her body out of the shot and Covington unable to even see her hands. She got it right in one take.

So aside from hard work, what's her secret? Frequent workouts, for one thing, along with extra-virgin olive oil ("[I] slather it on under my gloves wherever I go") and Pure Harmony soap ("the best soap I have ever found for nourishing my skin and keeping it squeaky clean").

Sounds like a handy thing to have around (sorry, couldn't resist).

Summary: Facebook, Hand Model USASome typically hands-on experience for model Ashly Covington.   Ashly Covington could be the owner of America's most famous hands. She's subbed hers in for tho


When you think of Malibu, you think of Hollywood's rich and famous, of blue waters, sandy beaches and an idyllic lifestyle. Right? Well, partly right. Along with the rich and famous, there is a heavy dose of hippie and surfer culture. And while most of the city is very safe for visitors and locals alike, there are some areas to avoid in Malibu. What follows is a run-down of safe areas and dangerous places in Malibu.

First, some facts and figures. Malibu is a relatively small city with a population of fewer than 15,000, but it receives over a million visitors a year. This isolated city is sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Monica mountains.

Crime rates are relatively low, with the likelihood of someone being the victim of violent crime in Malibu only 1 in 305, compared to the rest of California which is 1 in 178 according to the website,

Compared to the rest of California, then, Malibu is a safe city with fewer dangerous places than most urban areas.

By "safety," I don't just mean crime, but also access to emergency services and the risk of natural disasters. Because of its unique geography, Malibu has a higher risk of natural disasters such as flooding and brushfires. More on this later.

Another critical factor is that there are only three main ways to get in or out of the city: going north on Pacific Coast Highway, south on Pacific Coast Highway, and via the three canyons. In my time as a student at Pepperdine University, I experienced heavy rainfalls that caused all but one entry to be closed, as well as two major fires that drove residents to evacuate.

So even though the crime rate in Malibu is relatively low, the risk of natural disasters is high.

Let's take a closer look at the safe and dangerous places in Malibu.

1. If you're a student, Pepperdine University is one of the safest places to be in Malibu, with burglary being the most frequent offense and very little or no serious crime. Visitors looking for safe places in Malibu can attend lectures, plays and concerts with no fear for their safety.

is one of the natural areas that define why southern California is such a great place to live. You're unlikely to encounter any areas that present a danger from other humans. As a state park, there are plenty of nearby rangers and other resources should you require aid. Just keep an eye out as you hike the trails, don't eat any fish you catch and beware of the wildlife.

3. Malibu Pier is one of the most photographed piers in California. Since most of the beaches in Malibu are privately owned, this pier and Surfrider Beach are excellent safe places in Malibu to enjoy the ocean and beach. And as one of the most tourist-friendly destinations you're likely to visit, it is also one of the safe areas. Malibu crime statistics report few assaults Ð only 6 per cent of the total crimes. To be safe, stay smart and stay with the crowds as you watch surfers from around the world test the breakers.

, northwest of Malibu, is a family-friendly public beach. You'll see frequent sheriff patrols and plenty of young visitors taking advantage of the wide sandy beach, a playground, volleyball courts and the great swimming. Lifeguards add another layer of security, making this the poster child for Malibu as a safe city. As with all public areas, pay attention to where you park and obey the rules.

Despite the fact that this is a safe city in general, there are certain areas to avoid in Malibu.

1. The mountains can be considered dangerous places near Malibu because of the very real threat of brushfires. Many residents of the forested areas of the mountains have to make do with a few narrow roads to reach their houses. If you are in an isolated house and a fire breaks out, it will be difficult for the fire department to get to you.

2. Known as PCH to the locals, the Pacific Coast Highway is a much-loved, wide, winding road that skirts some of the most beautiful scenery on the West Coast of the USA. But it is definitely one of the dangers Malibu visitors must navigate. The curves, speed and possibility that people will be parking and walking along the roadside are a potentially deadly combination. Drivers, beware. If you are an inexperienced driver, this is one of the areas to avoid in Malibu.

3. The Ramirez, Escondido and Corral box canyons above Malibu may be natural gems with wildlife and wildflowers, but they also represent one of the major dangers in Malibu: wildfires. The narrow canyon roads, limited access and the high fuel load of chaparral (a local shrub) add to the danger. If you plan to hike these areas, only light fires in designated safe places.

4. Malibu is essentially a safe city unless you are a homeowner. The majority of crimes committed here are burglary, larceny, auto theft and arson. In general, tourists should keep a close eye on their belongings, park in legal, well-lit and safe areas and not leave valuables in a parked car.

5. Natural disasters are the last threat that visitors should keep in mind. While the threat of a tsunami, an earthquake or a landslide is generally small, it is wise to plan ahead and take reasonable precautions. The city of Malibu has a

with specific articles on how to be prepared for emergencies.

All in all, Malibu is a very safe city, and visitors don't really have anything to worry about. It has clearly earned its reputation as one of the most desirable places in California to live. Beautiful people, stunning views and the siren song of the Pacific are irresistible draws for the crowds who visit. Consider your itinerary carefully, take note of the areas to avoid in Malibu, and maximize your time in the city's many wonderful safe places.

Can't Get Enough? Discover More of Malibu

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Summary: Alamy   When you think of Malibu, you think of Hollywood's rich and famous, of blue waters, sandy beaches and an idyllic lifestyle. Right? Well, partly right. Along with the rich and famou


This summer, a surprising number of adults will be doing something that most people don’t do after their teens: Going to summer camp. A growing number of camps have popped up, catering to grown ups who want to get away, live out their childhood passions or just unplug for a weekend.

Dream-catcher making, pizza-baking, archery and star gazing are just a few of the numerous activities offered at Camp Grounded — a series of weekend summer getaway camps designed for adults. Campers must deposit all their electronic devices (phones, laptops, digital cameras, watches, car keys, iPads) during check-in. The idea is “reconnecting by disconnecting,” a motto of Digital Detox, the nonprofit that runs Camp Grounded. Campers are immersed in workshops (called “play-shops”), talent shows, relaxation time and themed activities. Camp Grounded first took place in June of 2013 and over the past few years the idea has boomed, expanding into several states

Natan Dvir photographed Camp Grounded in 2013 and went back in May 2015 to photograph campers in Mendocino, Calif.; some of Dvir’s shots are featured here. This year Camp Grounded will take place in Mendocino; Cold Spring, N.Y.; Hendersonville, N.C.; and Marble Falls, Texas. For more grownup camp experiences, check out 6 Great Camps for Grownups.

For more Fortune photography, follow us on Instagram at @fortunemag.

Summary: A photographic look at 'Camp Grounded.'


Online personal stylists who use data to predict what items customers will love and buy are all the rage. Where does that leave brick and mortar retailers? Smaller boutiques still have the edge when it comes to the kind of face-to-face customer engagement that leads to deep knowledge. But now large department stores and chains, from Lord & Taylor to Urban Outfitters, are turning to tech startups to help them jump on the data bandwagon in order to make big retail environments seem smaller and more intimate.

Take, for example, the increasing use of beacons, battery-powered broadcasting devices that retailers place in stores in order to message you via Bluetooth on your smartphone. For instance, you might be sent an offer code for 20% off on Calvin Klein sandals as you’re walking through the shoe department at, say, Lord and Taylor. If you’re sufficiently enticed, you show the cashier the code and you get your discount. Consumers must opt in to receive the notifications by downloading an app (either from the retailer or from a third party such as RetailMeNot) that listens for the signals and then transmits them when consumers are nearby.

Swirl, a Boston-based indoor mobile marketing firm that’s venture funded to the tune of $32 million, is a big player in the beacon industry, with clients such as Lord & Taylor, Urban Outfitters and Timberland. Swirl provides the hardware and, more importantly, a platform where retailers can manage campaigns and analyze data in aggregate. In other words, beacons don’t send retailers specific information about individuals, but allow them to discern trends that ultimately make them smarter about marketing. ”

And what about customers? “More than 75% of consumers say they love the idea,” says Rob Murphy, VP Marketing at Swirl. But, he says, “we have to create value in return.” That may come in the form of a discount, a preview of a new arrival, or a style idea in a particular department. He thinks that increased individual customization is the wave of the future. “Mom and pop stores knew everything about you and used that information to provide great customer service,” he says. “We’re going to have that same capability automated on a much bigger level through data.” Business Insider Intelligence reported last August that half of all U.S. top retailers were testing beacons and that 3.5 million beacons would be in installed at retail locations by the end of 2018.

But beacons aren’t the only way that retailers are capturing consumer information. ChargeItSpot, a Philadelphia-based startup, installs phone-charging kiosks at retail locations such as Bloomingdale’s, Bergdorf Goodman, Whole Foods, and Under Armour. When customers enter a store, they place their phones in a secure drawer for charging. “We’re giving consumers something they need and we ask them for some level of reciprocity,” says ChargeItSpot founder Doug Baldasare. That includes opting in to SMS messages from the retailer and/or providing an email address. The kiosks also ask customers to choose a favorite image for an extra level security. “Those images might be nine products on the store’s shelves,” says Baldasare. “By asking consumers which one they like best, stores are building a taste profile on what the person likes and can then market to them accordingly.”

Like Swirl, ChargeItSpot is in the data analytics business, providing its retail clients with information on the shopping habits of consumers. At a large pharmacy chain, for instance, customers who charged their phones are asked for their loyalty card number. “We learned that the vast majority of people who charged were premium customers – people who spend more than $1,000 a year,” says Baldasare. “And once they started charging, they were spending triple the amount of time in the store.” Every trip the customer made back to the kiosk gave the pharmacy an opportunity to deliver another targeted marketing message via the kiosk’s touch screen. The pharmacy can then manage campaigns through a client portal provided by ChargeItSpot.

While consumers appear to be getting more comfortable with sharing personal data, there’s still a fine line between information gathering and stalking. A visit to Zappos to check out Birkenstocks (guilty) will result in Zappos ads lurking on the next few sites you visit, and that can still feel creepy. The key, says Baldasare, is to provide value to customers. Maybe that’s “extra bucks” for using my CVS card; or a Bed Bath & Beyond coupon via text in exchange for providing an email address. Or it could be a free phone charge. “It’s the spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down,” says Baldasare. In the most delightful way? Consumers will be the ultimate judges.

Donna Fenn has been writing about startups and entrepreneurship for more than 30 years. She is the author of two books, a contributing editor at Inc. Magazine and a keynote speaker.

Summary: Retail chains and large department stores are teaming up with tech startups to get consumers' data. So far, they say, customers don't mind.


Zayn Malik and Gigi Hadid

06/12/2016 AT 05:05 PM EDT

It seems pretty clear that

couldn't part for too long.

between the 21-year-old model and the 23-year-old singer, Hadid is publicly showing her support for her back-on boyfriend after Malik canceled his Saturday show at London's Capital Summertime Ball due to anxiety.

The former One Direction singer said on Twitter the "anxiety that has haunted me throughout the last few months around live performances has gotten the better of me" and that "with the magnitude of the event, I have suffered the worst anxiety of my career."

to Malik, Hadid wrote a long message supporting Malik's decision to call off the show.

"Z - I've seen the battles you go through and the way you fight to get to a place that allows you to get up there for your fans," the model wrote. "Your bravery in those times makes me proud, but your honesty last night proved what you're all about, being real. Human recognizes human. You made the best of the situation and have given your fans an opportunity to understand you better as a performer."

"Those who can find compassion now are the ones that deserve to watch you continue to grow," she continued. "We are all here to support you and make each experience easier. Your talent and good heart will never lead you wrong. Love you and so proud of you always :) xG."

After news hit that the couple had split, Hadid

to "her boyfriend" a few days later while speaking to

. The couple were spotted

in New York City a week later.

Summary: Hadid and Malik are back together