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Summary: AOL.com Father's Day 2016 Sweepstakes Official Rules; AOL.com Father's Day 2016 Sweepstakes Official Rules


Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign manager was arrested in Florida on Tuesday and charged with simple battery, police records show.

The report from the Jupiter Police Department said Corey Lewandowski was charged for intentionally grabbing and bruising the arm of Michelle Fields, a former reporter for the conservative news outlet Breitbart, against her will at a Trump campaign event on March 8.

“Mr. Lewandowski is absolutely innocent of this charge,” Trump said in a statement. “He will enter a plea of not guilty and looks forward to his day in court. He is completely confident that he will be exonerated.”

Police released CCTV footage of the incident, which Lewandowski has denied took place:

@MichelleFields you are totally delusional. I never touched you. As a matter of fact, I have never even met you.

— Corey Lewandowski (@CLewandowski_) March 11, 2016

Summary: Police have released CCTV footage of the incident.


The NYPD went on a taxi ticketing blitz outside a mosque on the Upper West Side while drivers were inside reciting Ramadan prayers Friday, The Post learned.

At least one officer handed out nearly 100 tickets on the streets surrounding the Islamic Cultural Center on Riverside Drive near West 72nd Street, said cabby Mohammad Zaman.

“This is a special prayer time, a time for religion. We double-park here every Friday and they [allow it], but today they gave us all tickets, almost 100 cabs,” he said.

Zaman, who has been attending services at the mosque for nine years, was slapped with a dreaded orange envelope that held a $115 greeting for double parking.

“This has never happened before,” he said.

“I can’t help but to think they are being prejudiced. They don’t understand. We have to be here.”

His ticket incorrectly listed the violation date as Saturday, June 27, he said. The wrong date on the ticket could get him off the hook.

Ramadan this year is observed from June 17 through July 17.

A volunteer at the mosque said cops used to cut cabbies a break.

But this year, “maybe three or four times [this month] I’ve seen them go down the line giving tickets to cabs, and [they’re] getting strict again,” the volunteer said.

An NYPD spokesman said that while individual precincts may make accommodations in extenuating circumstances, such as the Ramadan observation, double parking is never authorized, citing, for example, the need for emergency vehicles to navigate the roads.

A source at the 20th Precinct, which covers the mosque, said he wasn’t aware of an organized ticket blitz.

He added that cops at the precinct have a good relationship with the mosque.

“It is mandatory in our religion to come to the mosque every Friday. It’s our duty. Other places they are OK with double parking — people do it everywhere here — but now they won’t let us? Most of us only come for one hour,” said cabby Mohammad Choudhury.

Driver MD Shomuz, who has been going to the mosque for six years, said, “No one has been given tickets before, but today everyone got one.”

“It’s frustrating, but what can I do?” he said.

Summary: The NYPD went on a taxi ticketing blitz outside a mosque on the Upper West Side while drivers were inside reciting Ramadan prayers Friday, The Post learned. At least one officer handed out nearly 1…


Before you go, we thought you'd like these...

Swiffer makes quick and easy cleaning tools, but they're also quick to cost you money. The Sweeper pads and WetJet cleaning fluid refills aren't cheap, but there are ways to replace them and tidy up your home for less.

Every box of sweeper pads can cost you $6, but you can buy one item and never have to purchase the refill pads ever again. That's right, all you need is a chenille sock, which you can buy from a dollar store. It fits perfectly over the sweeper's head and makes an instant, washable Swiffer static cloth.

The refill bottles of WetJet cleaning solution may be tempting to buy since they're difficult to refill yourself, but here's a trick to help you save. Just bring a little water to a boil and dip the empty bottle in it just deep enough so that the cap is submerged.

After 30 seconds to a minute, the cap should be easy to twist off and you can fill the bottle with a homemade cleaning solution of your choice. Follow these tips and you can enjoy the ease and convenience of the Swiffer without the pricey upkeep.

Summary: Swiffer Sweepers are convenient, but the pad refills can cost a pretty penny over time. Here's an easy way to save on the popular cleaning item.


is still livin' the dream -- hitting the Hollywood club scene ... AGAIN ... after a day of partying like a champion.

We know Manziel got off to an early start on Sunday -- kickin' his night off at a bar in Hermosa Beach.

But after that, Manziel moved the party to West Hollywood ... where the Heisman winner and a bunch of his friends rolled into Greystone Manor nightclub like he owned the place.

We're told Johnny Football had a blast inside the club -- and at one point, he threw up the ol' "Hook 'em Horns" sign.

Eventually, Manziel and his party crew left the place ... but unlike last time, he wasn't flanked by two smokin' hot chicks.

Hey, can't win 'em all.

Summary: Johnny Manziel is still livin' the dream -- hitting the Hollywood club scene ... AGAIN ... after a day of partying like a champion. We know Manziel got…


ORLANDO, Fla. -- The parents of a Nebraska toddler killed by an alligator at Walt Disney World say they're devastated by the loss of their son, whose death prompted the entertainment giant to add gator warnings at the resort.

A statement by Matt and Melissa Graves of Omaha, Nebraska, said words can't express the shock and grief their family is enduring.

"We are devastated and ask for privacy during this extremely difficult time," said the statement, released by a family friend Thursday.

The brief statement also thanked authorities in Orlando, Florida, for their assistance after the gator grabbed 2-year-old Lane Graves from shallow water in a lake at a Disney hotel Tuesday.

An animal described as being as long as 7 feet snatched the little boy as he waded in shallow water around nightfall Tuesday. The beach, located at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa across a lake from the Magic Kingdom, had "no swimming" signs but no warning about alligators.

The company said it will now add gator warnings. No time frame was announced immediately, and the resort's beaches remain closed.

A statement by Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Wahler said the company also was conducting a "swift and thorough review of all of our processes and protocols."

While it's an unwritten rule for Florida residents to keep small children away from ponds and lakes in a state with an alligator population estimated at more than 1 million, many out-of-state visitors aren't aware of threat posed by the reptiles.

Kadie Whalen of Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, said her three young children and niece were playing on a resort beach at the water's edge four years ago when the beady eyes of a 7-foot gator appeared in a lake just a few feet away. She screamed and everyone scattered.

No one was hurt, but after her experience, this week's fatal alligator attack didn't surprise her.

"We knew that Disney was aware that this was a problem, and yet they encourage people to be there," Whalen said Thursday in a telephone interview.

State wildlife officials say they receive nearly 16,000 alligator-related complaints a year. Last year, they removed more than 7,500 gators deemed to be a nuisance.

Depending on the size of an alligator, the state may send out a trapper, as what happened after the gator grabbed the boy at Disney's Seven Seas Lagoon. Officials said five alligators were removed from the lake during the search for the child, whose body was found in the water Wednesday.

Summary: Alligator attack victim's death prompts Walt Disney World to make changes at resort


Federal regulators are cracking down on advisers who profit from providing venal advice to retirement savers with new rules that demand that the industry adhere to a so-called fiduciary standard. Officials estimate that imposing this standard, which requires advisers to act in the client's best interest, will ultimately save American consumers $17 billion annually lost to conflicts of interest -- in other words, where the adviser pockets the profit instead of you.

While consumer advocates lauded the soon-to-be-enacted rules on Wednesday, some acknowledged that the battle may not be over. Financial services companies, complaining that the rules are overly burdensome, have threatened to sue. In the past, they've also persuaded members of Congress to throw language into pending legislation to derail the rules.

"The industry complaining about unnecessary and burdensome regulations is like an NBA player complaining about getting called for a foul," says Scott Puritz, managing director of Rebalance IRA. "Sports fans want officiating to be fair and even-handed; retirement savers need the entire personal finance industry to be guided by a level playing field of rules and pro-consumer protections."

Largely technical in nature, the new fiduciary standard rules are designed to reduce invisible conflicts of interest that arise because of the way some advisers are compensated. Simply put, high commissions paid on some financial products encourage advisers to sell -- and sometimes churn -- these products. These rules will require all advisers to adhere to a higher standard when selling products and to warn customers with a disclosure statement what their conflicts of interest may be.

That said, the rules will not be fully enacted until 2018 -- assuming that they survive any potential challenges in the court system.

"These are a step in the right direction, but consumer self-defense is very important," says Liz Davidson, author of "What Your Financial Advisor Isn't Telling You."

What should you do to protect yourself from retirement rip-offs?

Don't buy from the bank:

In explaining the need for the rules, Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez cited a couple who had been talked into pulling $600,000 out of Vanguard mutual funds to invest in annuities sold through their bank. The annuities charged exorbitant fees and performed far less well than the mutual funds that they abandoned. This rotten advice would arguably prove illegal under current law, which bans advisers from peddling investments that are "unsuitable" for their clients. It would be even more illegal under a fiduciary standard. Still, as a practical matter, bankers are notorious for selling high-cost investments of dubious value. Your bank is a good place to open a checking account -- and, maybe even to get a credit card. It's a rotten place to buy investments.

Beware advisers buying meals. In recent months, postcards inviting consumers to learn about retirement investments at hosted meals have become so common that financial advisers at the Tarbox Group in Newport Beach decided they had to be proactive. They asked clients who got the postcards to bring them in so they could look up the background of the advisers hosting the seminars together. The result? "About half of them have bankruptcies or disclosure events," says Mark Wilson, chief investment officer at the Tarbox Group.

If your adviser can't keep his own finances in order well enough to stay out of bankruptcy, it's a clear warning sign. So too are "disclosure events" -- financial speak for when an adviser is sued by a client or is sanctioned for bad behavior by regulators. The meal itself should make you suspicious, Wilson adds. The idea is to work on psychological cues that make us feel like we need to reciprocate when someone gives us something. At the very least, look up an advisers background here before you attend a seminar.

Stick to what you understand. Good investments are straightforward. Buy stocks and you're buying a piece of a public company, expecting to share in its future profits. Buy bonds and you have an I.O.U. from a company, government or agency. Buy a certificate of deposit and you have a government-guaranteed savings account. Buy a Real Estate Investment Trust and you have a piece of a commercial real estate enterprise that will pass a portion of its profits on to you each year. Mutual funds are simply investment pools that own investments like these and it should be easy to see what's inside the pool. Simple, right? If someone is trying to sell you an investment that can't be easily explained like these, watch out.

"You should never buy an investment that you can't explain to a friend or family member," says Davidson. "You need to know what it is; what you paid for it; and understand how it fits into your personal financial strategy."

Read.The new fiduciary rules will require anyone who sells retirement products to spell out any potential conflicts of interest. But like the disclosure statements you get with your checking account, it would not be surprising if the important details are buried deep in the fine print. This is your money. Read it. And don't let anyone rush you through the process, saying it's "just legalese." If they give you a disclosure statement, you need to know what it says.

Likewise, if someone tries to sell you an annuity or "a private offering," ask for the paperwork. It will be long. It will be boring. And it will spell out just how much your funds can be put at risk. Unless you have money to lose, you need to battle your way through the fine print to make informed investment decisions.

Ask. The new rules won't go into full effect until 2018. In the meantime, if you don't understand an investment or know how your financial adviser is compensated, ask. A good financial adviser will take whatever time is necessary to educate you about the right investments for you and what makes them appropriate. Good advisers will also not hesitate to explain how they are paid.

"We talk to people all the time who don't know what they are paying for investment advice and they think it's impolite to ask," says Davidson. "Really? Would you go to the store and not ask what the products cost? You should be comfortable discussing these things with your advisers. You have to. It's your money and nobody cares about it more than you."

© 2016 CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved.

Summary: New rules should help shield retirement savers from conflicted advice -- follow these tips for extra protection


Every four years, by journalistic if not political tradition, the presidential election must be accompanied by a "revolution." So what transformed politics this time around? The rise of the Web log, or blog. The commentary of bloggers -- individuals or groups posting daily, hourly or second-by-second observations of and opinions on the campaign on their own Web sites -- helped shape the 2004 race. The Op-Ed page asked bloggers from all points on the political spectrum to say what they thought was the most important event or moment of the campaign that, we hope, comes to an end today.

John Kerry has been surprisingly successful running as a hawkish fighter against terrorism. Given this strategy, the most important moment of the campaign was President Bush's failure in the first debate to take Mr. Kerry's embarrassing vote against the 1991 gulf war and hang it firmly around his neck. Something like: "Mr. Kerry, you say you want an international coalition. In 1991, we had an international coalition. You say you want United Nations support. We had United Nations support. Saddam had invaded a neighbor, unprovoked, across an internationally recognized border. And yet even then you voted against using force. Al Gore voted for the war. But you did not. If you wouldn't use force then" etc., etc. It writes itself!

Mr. Bush might also have pointed out that without the 1991 war, the inspection regime Mr. Kerry later valued so highly wouldn't have been installed. And if we hadn't dismantled Saddam Hussein's nuclear program in 1991, he might have been able to build the bomb. (Mr. Bush finally brought up the 1991 vote in the third debate, but still didn't make a big enough deal of it.)

I'm for John Kerry, but George Bush let him skate past his biggest vulnerability and get back into the race.

An important event in the 2004 campaign was the Democratic convention. My analysis of the convention, written just hours after it ended, still holds true: "In addition to the mistake Kerry made by placing too much emphasis on Vietnam, which will give extra importance to the opposition of Kerry by vet groups, he also messed up by not addressing his two-decade-long Senate record. Not only can Bush-Cheney now point out the record of votes Kerry didn't take the opportunity to explain or defend, but they can show that Kerry is trying to hide his Senate record."

The convention set the stage for the advertisements from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and the Bush-Cheney attack on Mr. Kerry's voting record. The convention produced little momentum for Mr. Kerry, and it wasn't until his strong debate performance on Sept. 30 that he finally got back into the running. If he loses, much of the blame can be traced back to that one week in July.

JOHN HINDERAKER and SCOTT JOHNSON, www.powerlineblog.com:

The most important event of the campaign was the exposure of documents cited by "60 Minutes" in its report on President Bush's Air National Guard service as fraudulent. We participated in this exposure by asking our readers for information relevant to the documents' authenticity, and then by organizing and disseminating the information we received on topics like the typewriters of the early 1970's and arcane points of military protocol in the same era.

We posted our observations about the "60 Minutes" documents on the morning of Sept. 9, the day after Dan Rather's report was broadcast. We updated the posting through the day as new information came in from readers. Within 12 hours, more than 500 other Web sites had linked to ours, millions of people were aware of the serious questions that had been raised about CBS's documents, and CBS News executives were on the defensive.

When it became clear within a few days that the documents were indeed fake, it was widely recognized that journalism had changed forever. Never again will the mainstream news media be able to dictate the flow of information to the American people.

I was all set to vote for George Bush even after finding out that he wouldn't let me marry Mary Cheney if I wanted to. And when he made the pronunciation of "Lambeau Field" a campaign issue? It seemed fair. After all, he's proved that not knowing the names of foreign leaders is much less important than correctly pronouncing the homes of popular sports teams. Of course, he totally sold me with the debates: any man who explains a mystery bulge as bad tailoring is more than confident enough to take on the Euroweenies. But in the end, with the fate of the free world at stake and all, I've got to go with the guy who would admit that sending thousands of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians to their deaths to protect us from imaginary weapons was, in fact, a mistake.

"The terrorists laughed at the suffering of children, who'd gone for days without water, food or sleep, said a survivor of the Russian school seized by what A.P. calls 'rebels."'

That's how I started a Sept. 3 post on the Beslan massacre that killed at least 331 hostages. On Sept. 14, I linked to an Israeli newspaper article translated by another blogger about a 74-year-old teacher who died with his students: "The terrorist allowed the teacher to wet one of the bibs of the children and pass it around to dampen the mouths of the little ones who were choking from thirst."

The children wore bibs. The Beslan massacre was a brutal reminder of the ruthlessness of 21st century terrorists. I'm into nuance -- till terrorists shoot fleeing children in the back. Then I want a stubborn, single-minded president who's at war with evildoers. They're at war with us.

There was no single moment when America came to know for sure that Saddam Hussein didn't have weapons of mass destruction. Yet after the C.I.A.'s top weapons inspector, David Kay, told Congress in October 2003 that his team had failed to find any illegal weapons, the widespread conviction that we would find the weapons stockpiles disintegrated. From that point on, George Bush became profoundly vulnerable and a Democratic victory today became a serious possibility.

John Kerry has not been able to capitalize on this vulnerability fully and effectively because he shared George Bush's mistaken belief. Yet imagine for a moment that Mr. Kay had found abundant stockpiles of outlawed weapons in Iraq. Would Mr. Kerry be able to insist that Mr. Bush started "the wrong war in the wrong place and at the wrong time"? Would he be able to insist that alliances are a powerful weapon in the war on terrorism rather than a dangerous restraint on American power?

I don't hold it against George Bush that he was wrong about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, since Bill Clinton and John Kerry were just as wrong. But if Mr. Bush had been right about Iraq, it would have counted strongly in his favor and I would probably be voting for him today instead of John Kerry.

One of the most important events in the campaign occurred in September during the visit to the United States of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi of Iraq.

Until then, while I was leaning toward George Bush (despite my anger over Abu Ghraib), I remained open to the possibility of voting for John Kerry. But, as I wrote that day, I found the Kerry campaign's handling of Mr. Allawi's visit disgraceful. Joe Lockhart, a Kerry adviser, denigrated Mr. Allawi as a "puppet." And Mr. Kerry himself all but called Mr. Allawi a liar during a press conference. I had hoped that instead of such sniping from the sidelines, Mr. Kerry would deign to attend Mr. Allawi's moving address to a joint session of Congress and even seek a private meeting with him. Mr. Kerry could have assured Mr. Allawi that whoever won in November, America would stand shoulder to shoulder with Iraq.

Summary: Op-Ed page asks bloggers from all points on political spectrum to say what they think was most important event or moment of presidential campaign; those responding are Mickey Kaus, Lorie Byrd, John Hinderaker and Scott Johnson, Ana Marie Cox, Joanne Jacobs, David Adesnik, Greg Djerejian, Ann Althouse, Kevin Drum, Tom Burka, J Bradford Delong and Glenn Reynolds; drawing (L)


Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who frequently criticizes U.S. foreign policy under President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has praised former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s ruthlessness.

“Saddam Hussein was a bad guy, right? … But you know what he did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good,” Trump told a campaign rally Tuesday night in Raleigh, North Carolina. “They didn’t read ’em the rights, they didn’t talk. They were a terrorist, it was over.”

Trump has previously said the world would be “100 percent better” if dictators like Hussein and Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi were still in power. Prior to the U.S. invasion, Iraq was listed by the U.S. as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Jake Sullivan, a Clinton senior policy adviser, said Trump’s “praise for brutal strongmen seemingly knows no bounds.”

Sullivan said such comments “demonstrate how dangerous he would be as Commander-in-Chief and how unworthy he is of the office he seeks.”

Trump’s foreign policy pronouncements have proved controversial, even within the Republican Party. He has said the United States is too fully engaged around the world and has questioned the role of NATO and said the United States has been taken advantage of by nations benefiting from its security cooperation and troop presence. Some critics within the GOP have said his policies suggest an isolationist stance in an increasingly dangerous world.

Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, partners among Republican congressional critics of Obama administration foreign policy, carried out a fact-check on Trump’s national security statements earlier this year at a Capitol Hill hearing.

On April 19, when the Army general selected to lead U.S. forces in South Korea testified before the committee, McCain seized the opportunity to undermine Trump’s suggestion that the U.S. withdraw its forces from the South because Seoul isn’t paying enough to cover the cost of the American military presence.

“Isn’t it the fact that it costs us less to have troops stationed in Korea than in the United States, given the contribution the Republic of Korea makes?” McCain asked Gen. Vincent Brooks.

Yes, Brooks said, telling McCain the South Koreans pay half, or $808 million annually, of the U.S. presence there.

Two days later, Trump’s claim that NATO is irrelevant and ill-suited to fight terrorism came under the microscope. As president, Trump has said he would force member nations to increase their contributions, even if that risked breaking up the 28-country alliance.

In early March, more than 70 conservative national experts, including former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, wrote in an open letter that they have disagreed with one another on a variety of issues but are united in their opposition to a Trump presidency. Chertoff served in President George W. Bush’s administration.

Summary: One Clinton advisor replied that Trump's "praise for brutal strongmen seemingly knows no bounds."


An early look at next year’s favorites:

Hopefully, the Duke haters enjoyed the Blue Devils’ Sweet 16 exit, because the ACC power is a Final Four favorite next year. Coach Mike Krzyzewski has a star-studded recruiting class, headlined by the nation’s top two prospects, Jayson Tatum and Harry Giles. The duo will join a quality nucleus that is expected to feature senior forward Amile Jefferson, sophomore guard Grayson Allen and freshmen guards Luke Kennard and Derryck Thornton.

It will be nearly impossible to make up for the losses of core seniors Daniel Ochefu and Final Four Most Outstanding Player Ryan Arcidiacono, but the Wildcats do return national championship game hero Kris Jenkins, and fellow starters Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson, in addition to blue-chip forward prospect Omari Spellman, and intriguing Fordham transfer Eric Paschall.

The one-and-done parade continues in Lexington, Ky., as John Calipari reloads with another one of his outstanding recruiting classes. While this year’s electric backcourt of Jamal Murray and Tyler Ullis are almost locks to enter the NBA, the Wildcats add two dynamic guards in Malik Monk and De’Aaron Fox, in addition to highly touted forwards Bam Adebayo, Wenyan Gabriel, and Sacha Killeya-Jones.

Tom Izzo has the kind of recruiting class usually reserved for Duke or Kentucky, and the Spartans will return enough veterans, such as Eron Harris and Lourawls Nairn, to show the talented youngsters the way. McDonald’s All-American Miles Bridges will go down as one of the best freshmen ever to play in East Lansing.

Sophomore guard Joel Berry II is a potential All-American, junior forward Isaiah Hicks will emerge as one of the best interior players in the country, and UNC should return six of its top eight players.

Freshman point guard Allonzo Trier’s decision to return could give the Wildcats one of the most well-rounded backcourts in the country, as he will be joined by elite recruits Kobi Simmons and Brooklyn’s Rawle Alkins.

As long as forward Jalen Reynolds returns, the Musketeers shouldn’t miss a beat. Edmond Sumner is a potential breakout star, as gifted athletically as any freshman lead guard in the country, and Trevon Bluiett should take another step forward as one of the Big East’s premier scorers.

Memphis transfer Austin Nichols will help make the Cavaliers’ faithful forget about Anthony Gill. London Perrantes will fill the leadership void left by Malcolm Brogdon and top-50 recruits Kyle Guy and Ty Jerome make an immediate impact in the backcourt.

It would be foolish to pick against Kansas winning a 13th straight Big 12 crown. Bill Self still has veteran guards Devonte’ Graham and Frank Mason III, trustworthy forward Landen Lucas and may land top three prospect Josh Jackson

The Big Three of versatile forward Chris Boucher and potent guards Tyler Dorsey and Dillon Brooks should give Oregon the opportunity to repeat as Pac-12 champions.

Summary: An early look at next year’s favorites: 1. Duke Hopefully, the Duke haters enjoyed the Blue Devils’ Sweet 16 exit, because the ACC power is a Final Four favorite next year. Coach Mike Krzyzewski ha…


The House Select Committee on Benghazi has been running for one year and five months and has spent about

investigating the 2012 attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. While that is a lot, its not nearly as much as some other notable political probes.

Let's start with maybe the most famous — the Watergate Committee. Created to probe President Richard Nixon's cover-up of the Watergate hotel break-ins, the committee's hearings became something of a national spectacle thanks to continuous TV coverage.

Benghazi is just the latest long, pricey government probe

FILE - In this March 15, 1973, file photo President Nixon tells a White House news conference that he will not allow his legal counsel, John Dean, to testify on Capitol Hill in the Watergate investigation and challenged the Senate to test him in the Supreme Court. A feisty Nixon defended his shredded legacy and Watergate-era actions in grand jury testimony that he thought would never come out. On Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011, it did. (AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi, File)

Newsmen wait in line outside the White House press office Tuesday, April 30, 1974 for their copies of the transcript of White House tapes. One of the large volumes is shown being passed over reporters hands. (AP Photo/John Duricka)

H.R. Haldeman, who has recently resigned as White House Chief of Staff, speaks briefly with newsmen as he leaves his more for a drive to the White House, May 3, 1973. Haldeman and another presidential aide, John D. Ehrlichman, who has also resigned, is expected to meet with the prosecutor of the Watergate case and with Senate investigators later in the day. (AP Photo/Charles Harrity)

Washington Post writers Carl Bernstein, left, and Robert Woodward, who pressed the Watergate investigation, are photographed in Washington, D.C., May 7, 1973. It was announced that The Post won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for its stories about the Watergate scandal. (AP Photo)

White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan walks past reporters after he returned to the White House from his trip with President Reagan to Santa Barbara, Calif., Nov. 30, 1986. Regan and the president came back to Washington to the growing crisis over the arms sales to Iran and money transfers to Nicaraguan rebels. (AP Photo/Ira Schwarz)

Special commission chairman, former Senator John Tower, R-Texas, flanked by former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, left, and former senator and Secretary of State Edmund Muskie, right, answers reporters' questions at the White House, Dec. 2, 1986. The commission was established by President Reagan to investigate National Security Council staff operations. (AP Photo/Barry Thumma)

Howard Teicher, director of political-military affairs for the National Security Council, speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 16, 1986 after testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee about the Iran-Contra connection. The White House announced on Tuesday that Teicher is resigning effective in March. (AP Photo/Scott Stewart)

WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 29: In this 29 July 1998 file photo, Linda Tripp talks to reporters outside of the Federal Courthouse 29 July 1998 in Washington, DC, following her eighth day of testimony before the grand jury investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair. Tripp's taped conversations with Lewinsky triggered the sex-and-lies probe dogging US President Bill Clinton. Tripp was fired from her Pentagon job 19 January 2001 after she refused to resign like other political appointees. (Photo credit should read WILLIAM PHILPOTT/AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, : US President Bill Clinton listens to a question about the Monica Lewinsky affair 16 September during a press conference with Czech President Vaclav Havel at the State Department in Washington, DC. Clinton defended his leadership in international affairs despite the probe into his affair with a former subordinate at the White House. (ELECTRONIC IMAGE) AFP PHOTO Stephen JAFFE (Photo credit should read STEPHEN JAFFE/AFP/Getty Images)

Former White House intern, Monica Lewinsky leaves the family home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, May 26, 1998. Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr has requested handwriting and voice samples as well as fingerprints from Lewinsky. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Commissioner Timothy Roemer of the 9-11 Commission gestures during the last two-day public hearing on the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Witnesses are sworn in before the start of the last two-day public hearing of the 9-11 Commission on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 in Washington. Seated at the table from left are Commissioner Jamie Gorelick, Commission Chariman Thomas Kean, and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

UNITED STATES - MARCH 30: President George W. Bush speaks in the press room of the White House on March 30, 2004. He announced that National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice will testify before the 911 commission in an open session, something the administration had previously opposed. The independent commission, created by an act of Congress, has until July 26 to report on U.S. intelligence failures before the Sept. 11 attacks. (Photo by Dennis Brack/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The committee managed to extract key testimonies from several witnesses, including White House counsel John Dean III and Nixon's deputy assistant Alexander Butterfield. Of course, it eventually

, though he was pardoned of all wrongdoing by his successor, Gerald Ford.

Another big televised spectacle, the investigations into the Iran-Contra affair were taken up jointly by special House and Senate committees. Over 41 days of televised hearings, key players in the scandal offered dramatic testimony about the covert arrangement to sell weapons to Iran and funnel the proceeds to Nicaragua's Contra rebels.

The joint hearings shed plenty of light on the scandal but produced few concrete results. The final report was undercut by a dissenting minority report from some Republican committee members, and most of the convictions associated with the scandal were eventually overturned, vacated or pardoned.

The investigation that almost cost Bill Clinton the presidency originated not in Congress, but from the Justice Department — and it cost about 10 times as much as the Benghazi probe. Independent counsel Kenneth Starr's original investigation of the Whitewater land deal morphed into a broader probe of Clinton's alleged wrongdoings — most famously, his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Starr's report formed the groundwork for Clinton's impeachment in the House. Though he was later acquitted of those charges by the Senate, the scandal continues to dog his career. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Congress commissioned an independent bi-partisan committee to investigate the circumstances that lead up to the attacks. Led by former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, the commission poured through millions of pages of documents and interviewed survivors and high-level officials. The commission's report provided the definitive account of the attacks and also placed some amount of blame on the FBI and CIA for failing to anticipate the hijackings. The report's recommendations have also influenced the federal government's post-9/11 security reforms.

More coverage related to Clinton testifying on Benghazi: Breaking down Benghazi: Here's what happened at the embassy Why you keep seeing Hillary Clinton and Benghazi together Benghazi is just the latest long, pricey government probe

Summary: The House Select Committee on Benghazi has been running for one year and five months and has spent about $4.6 million investigating the 2012 attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. While that i


Patrick McSorley was 12 when a priest named John J. Geoghan took him out for ice cream, offering comfort to a boy whose father had just committed suicide.

Instead, as Mr. McSorley described it years later, Father Geoghan molested him in his car.

Father Geoghan would become a central figure in the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the parishes of Boston. He was defrocked in 1998 and sentenced to prison in 2002 for fondling a 10-year-old boy. And Mr. McSorley would become one of the scandal's most public accusers, appearing at news conferences, demonstrations and court hearings.

But on Monday, after years of struggling with the scars of his ordeal, Mr. McSorley, 29, was found dead in a friend's apartment in Boston's North End. A Police Department spokesman, David Estrada, said the cause of death would not be known until autopsy results were analyzed.

Mr. McSorley was one of the first people to come forward with accusations of abuse, telling his story in January 2002, as the scandal was erupting. He was also one of the younger men to speak publicly about his experience.

''It would usually take people at least until they were in their mid-to-late 30's to come forward,'' said Phil Saviano, founder of the New England chapter of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. ''For a guy at his age to go public about that sort of experience has to take a tremendous amount of courage. I know a lot of survivors who have not had the courage to do that themselves, and someone like Patrick would have been very inspiring to them.''

By all accounts, Mr. McSorley wrestled with demons, even after Mr. Geoghan went to prison, and even after Mr. McSorley and 85 others who said they were molested by Mr. Geoghan shared a $10 million legal settlement in September 2002.

''The money's nothing,'' said William Oberle, a friend of Mr. McSorley who said he was a victim of abuse. ''It doesn't bring closure.''

Last June, Mr. McSorley was found face down and unconscious in the Neponset River after walking with a friend in Pope John Paul II Park in Boston.

Mr. McSorley recovered, and he later said that he did not know how he had ended up in the water but that he had not attempted suicide.

In July, Mr. McSorley was charged with drug possession when, the police said, they found him and some friends in a suburban motel room that contained marijuana, the painkiller fentanyl, hypodermic needles and evidence of heroin use. He pleaded not guilty.

In August, Mr. Geoghan was strangled and beaten in prison; another inmate was charged in the killing.

''I said when Geoghan died, at least he'll never molest another child again,'' Mr. Oberle said. ''But he's still molesting them. He's still affecting these children.''

Alexa MacPherson, a friend who says she too was molested by a priest, said Mr. McSorley, who was helping to raise his 4-year-old son and his girlfriend's younger daughter, spent time in a drug rehabilitation program last fall.

''He wanted to get clean for his son and for himself and just wanted to live a good, normal life,'' Ms. MacPherson said. ''For him, I think, his demons really had a hold on him, and he really didn't know how to shake it.''

Ms. MacPherson said that appearing at news conferences had a ''therapeutic value'' for Mr. McSorley but that he had also tired of it and ''didn't want to be known as just a victim.''

He was still very aware of developments related to the abuse scandal, however, and his lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian, said that Mr. McSorley called him last Friday and requested that the two meet this week because ''he was still interested in being a voice of the victims'' of sexual abuse by clergy members.

Several people who said they were abused said that news related to the scandal often served as a painful reminder of what they had gone through.

''It could be anything,'' Ms. MacPherson said. ''You're just walking down a street and something triggers a memory. Or a certain smell will remind me of something, and I just want to jump out of my skin. I know that Patrick went through a lot of that as well.''

Summary: Patrick McSorley, who was among people to come forward with accusations of sexual abuse by priests, is found dead in friend's apartment on Boston's North End; had charged that Father John J Geoghan had molested him when he was 12 years old; case reviewed; photo of McSorley (M)


Jul 12, 2016 5:29 PM EDT Crimesider

By Crimesider Staff / AP

ST. JOSEPH, Mich. -- A Michigan sheriff pledged Tuesday to review his department's guidelines for transporting suspects charged with violent crimes after an inmate who was cuffed in front rather than behind his back wrested a gun from a deputy and killed two court bailiffs.

Berrien County Sheriff Paul Bailey initially told reporters that Larry Darnell Gordon wasn't handcuffed at all Monday during the brazen courthouse escape attempt. On Tuesday, Bailey revised that account, explaining Gordon was handcuffed in front but that the restraint was not attached to a belly chain, which security experts say is a safer way to restrict movement.

"We're going to look at everything about why this happened and make sure that if there are things we can change so this never happens again, we will," Bailey said. "We'll be working with our chief judge about our protocols at the courthouse."

Gary Klugiewicz, an inmate transport expert with security consultant Vistelar in Wisconsin and a retired Milwaukee County sheriff's captain, said the lack of a transport belt could have played a major role in the fatal shootings.

"Somebody handcuffed in front is totally able to do just about anything if they're not restrained to any type of belt," he said.

Gordon was being moved from a holding cell in an area of the courthouse not open to the public when he disarmed Deputy James Atterberry Jr. during a fight and shot him. He then moved into a public hallway in the courthouse and killed bailiffs Joseph Zangaro, 61, and Ronald Kienzle, 63, both retired police officers, Bailey said.

The detainee also shot a woman in the arm and briefly took hostages before being fatally shot by other bailiffs.

"Those bailiffs were heroes along with all the other officers," Bailey said. "They ran to where shots were being fired. This could have been a lot worse without them being so brave to go into the gunfire and take this person down."

Nathan Hall, a consultant with the National Center for State Courts, which advises court officials on security, said it's best if two deputies transport an inmate. One - armed with a stun gun or baton, but not a firearm - would escort the defendant directly. The second deputy, armed with a gun, would trail at a safe distance.

"That best practice is tailored specifically to the potential for a firearm to be used against that transporting officer," Hall said. "These are best practices. The reality is that that can be expensive. We understand that. However, these instances happen."

Hall said his group also recommends handcuffing from behind.

Klugiewicz said many factors are considered when deciding how to transport an inmate such as whether the charges are violent offenses, whether the defendant has been violent in jail and if the court appearance is a sentencing.

"He's not been combative. He's always been cooperative the entire time he was here," Bailey said of Gordon's time in jail while charges were pending.

Gordon was charged in April with kidnapping, assault with a dangerous weapon and criminal sexual conduct, according to state police records. No other details were immediately available Tuesday.

Gordon was discharged from probation in 2014 after being sentenced for stealing fireworks from a temporary stand, said Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Chris Gautz. He served time in state prison from 1999 to 2002 for fleeing and eluding police.

Coloma Township police Chief Jason Roe told The Associated Press the charges reflect alleged crimes since 2015, but investigators have been probing earlier allegations.

Roe said the investigation began April 20, when officers went to arrest Gordon. He fled and was later caught with the help of a Michigan State Police dog, the chief said.

"It's unfortunate it ended the way it did," Roe said. "We can't prove these allegations true in court."

Zangaro, one of the bailiffs killed, was head of court security. He retired from the Michigan State Police as commander of the Bridgman Post. Kienzle retired as a sergeant in the Benton Township police department after serving in the U.S. Army.

In 2011, Zangaro told The Herald-Palladium newspaper that security staff had a "ton of experience," more than many police departments.

"Probably 90 percent of the people who are here don't want to be," he said of people with business in the courthouse. "They have either a criminal issue, a civil issue or a family issue, and those become very emotionally charged sometimes."

The courthouse was closed Tuesday but was expected to reopen Wednesday.

Experts said attention on courthouse security has intensified since 2005, when Brian Nichols overpowered a deputy escorting him to court for his rape trial, took her gun and fatally shot the presiding judge and court reporter and then killed a sheriff's deputy outside the building. He stole a car and drove to an affluent Atlanta neighborhood, where he shot and killed an off-duty federal agent.

Summary: A Michigan sheriff pledged Tuesday to review his department's guidelines for transporting suspects after an inmate wrested a gun away from a deputy and killed two bailiffs


Common sense dictates that getting poison ivy on your eyes isn't exactly a great idea.

But on Sunday morning, 17-year-old Lauren Petrozza of Newington, Connecticut shared a picture of her 21-year-old sister Emily on Twitter that will burn that lesson into your brain forever.

For reference, here's a before photo of Emily before she suffered the horrific allergic reaction (pictured below on the left, with Lauren on the right):

And here she is after:

By Wednesday morning, Emily had achieved internet fame, with the initial photos being retweeted over 33,000 times and liked over 58,000 times, and outlets like Buzzfeed, Yahoo and NBC all reporting on her story.

"40K people are laughing at my sister," Lauren posted Tuesday morning.

Emily is reportedly taking the incident like a trooper, finding the humor in the painful situation.

"I want people to know I'm not mad at my sister for posting the picture in the first place. We always joke around with each other and neither of us ever expected it to turn out like this," Emily told WTIC.

By Tuesday night, Emily was reportedly doing much better after taking medication for two days, and can now "actually open" her eyes.

Emily, who says she believes she got the poison ivy in her eyes by rubbing them either after fishing or taking care of feral cats, hopes that this incident serves as a lesson to others to always wash your hands after coming indoors from doing activities outside.

As for Lauren? She seems to be enjoying her and her sister's newfound fame immensely.

See the funniest social media reactions to Emily's story:

Woman's horrific reaction to getting poison ivy on her eyes goes viral

@lauren_petrozza @emtots SHE LOOKS LIKE THE SNAPCHAT FILGER JEJEJD

@lauren_petrozza @emtots @NiCKYNOViELLi same same but different 😂😩 https://t.co/jZ6aOmmv0K

@lauren_petrozza girl take some Benadryl

More from AOL.com: Erin Andrews stuns at the 2016 CMT Music Awards as host in a series of sexy looks Snoop Dogg shows importance of male role models in episode 4 of 'Coach Snoop' Lilly Singh's "bawse" Smashbox collab will change your beauty routine for good

Summary: 'Don't get poison ivy on your eyes. This is MISERABLE.'


A new type of savings vehicle for the first time offers the disabled and their families the benefits of tax-free growth.

Called 529 ABLE plans, the state-sponsored accounts, authorized by Congress in late 2014, resemble 529 college plans. In addition to offering tax-free growth, 529 ABLE plans will allow people with disabilities to save as much as $100,000 and still qualify for benefits including Medicaid and Supplemental Security...

Summary: 529 ABLE beneficiaries will still qualify for supplemental security income.


Baijiu, a potent Chinese spirit with a notoriously hard-to-like taste, has been called everything from “liquid razorblades” to “the sweat of Satan.”

Now, the clear, powerful (up to 120 proof) sip that has a kind of licorice-meets-soy-sauce flavor even fans admit isn’t for everyone, is the new darling of the New York cocktail scene.

Though little known in the U.S. until recently, the spirit, which is made from grains such as sorghum, has a history going back several centuries in China. And by virtue of China’s huge population and tradition of alcohol-fueled banquet celebrations, baijiu has become the world’s biggest-selling style of booze, generating $23 billion in sales annually.

But as much as the Chinese love their baijiu, sales have started to slow, stemming from a government crackdown on corruption and waste that has put a curb on lavish state functions and on presenting bottles to public officials. That is prompting baijiu producers to consider new markets, say spirits industry insiders.

New York is a natural market, industry insiders add. Not only is it home to a sizable Asian population already familiar with baijiu, it is also one of the focal points of the craft-cocktail movement. Daring mixologists throughout the city are forever in search of the next “it” spirit that can transform their drinks and drive patrons to their bars.

Those patrons are starting to make their way to Lumos NYC, a five-month-old Greenwich Village watering hole that touts itself as the city’s first “baijiu bar.” It features the spirit in a variety of cocktails, priced starting at $15, from the autumn-inspired Falling South to the almost milkshake-like Sesame Colada. Additional offerings include house-infused baijius—in $12 shots or shareable $90 9-ounce bottles—in such flavors as prune, fig and Szechuan pepper.

Lumos isn’t the only nightspot that has hopped on the baijiu bandwagon. Many trendy or Asian-themed bars and restaurants have put at least one baijiu-based cocktail on their drink list.

On the Upper West Side, RedFarm, a restaurant that brings a modern twist to Chinese cuisine, offers a Marco Polo cocktail that mixes baijiu with cherry tomatoes, basil and vinegar, among other ingredients. On the Lower East Side, Fung Tu, a restaurant with a similar approach, serves a Baijiu Bijou, a play on the classic Bijou cocktail.

And in Brooklyn’s Carroll Gardens, the JakeWalk, a craft cocktail bar, recently added Shaolin Land, a complex drink that combines baijiu with other exotic spirits, including an Italian myrtle berry liqueur, as part of a fall menu revamp.

“It is quite a ride,” says bar manager Jesse Taylor of the oddball $13 cocktail, noting it was a surprising best-seller on a recent weekend. Like other mixologists, Mr. Taylor says he is trying to find ways to build on baijiu’s bold strengths, but make the spirit more palatable—something that can be achieved within the context of a cocktail.

For those who prefer their baijiu straight, some bartenders are happy to oblige. Orson Salicetti, Lumos’s co-founder and chief mixologist, charges $32 for a 1-ounce pour of Kweichow Moutai, a high-end baijiu that might be considered the Chinese equivalent of Johnnie Walker Blue, the Scotch that routinely goes for $200 a bottle.

Mr. Salicetti says he has plenty of customers who are willing to pay for a pour, though less-expensive baijius are on the menu. The veteran bartender describes his burgeoning base as a mix of young professionals, artists and spirits geeks, with a large concentration of Chinese-Americans who are eager to embrace their heritage but in a more style-conscious manner. Lumos’s darkish décor might be described as part vintage Shanghai opium den and part jazz club.

In case patrons forget the baijiu connection, there is always the distinctive scent of the spirit—a bit mushroom-y, as Mr. Salicetti describes it—wafting throughout the bar. “It is a very aromatic spirit,” he says.

Ultimately, what happens with baijiu in the Big Apple may be about more than cocktails. The spirit seems to tap into a certain hipster ethos, say fans.

It is old yet strangely new. And it is popular yet not quite for everyone. In other words, it may be the perfect New York party sip, says artist Bradley Theodore, who is a regular at Lumos. The fact it packs a big boozy punch doesn’t hurt, either, Mr. Theodore adds.

“I think it will become the Asian tequila,” he says.

Write to Charles Passy at cpassy@marketwatch.com

Summary: Baijiu is making a name for itself in New York’s cocktail scene, with bars, such as Lumos in Greenwich Village, featuring the potent Chinese spirit on their menus.


An EgyptAir flight en route from Paris to Cairo fell out of the sky over the Mediterranean Sea early Thursday with 66 people onboard, and Egyptian officials said terrorism was the more likely culprit than technical problems.

EgyptAir retracted its announcement that debris from Flight MS804 was found during search operations in the Mediterranean near the Greek island of Karpathos. "We stand corrected on that," the airline told CNN, saying initial information from "official channels" was incorrect.

LIVE BLOG: The latest updates from EgyptAir Flight 804 Crash Investigation

The jetliner was carrying 66 people when it left Charles de Gaulle Airport at 11:09 p.m. Wednesday Paris time (5:09 p.m. ET), and it vanished shortly before it was due to arrive in Egypt. The Greek defense minister said radar indicated that the plane made two sharp turns and dropped more than 25,000 feet.

French President Francois Hollande said earlier at a news conference that the plane had crashed, but he said it was too soon to speculate as to the cause.

"No hypothesis can be ruled out," he said.

Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy also stressed that he would not speculate about what happened, but when pressed by reporters, he said the possibility of a terrorist attack was stronger than that of a technical failure.

He shied away from using the term "crash," however, saying he would use the term "missing" until wreckage was found in order to be "practical."

A senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with the United States' capabilities in the region told NBC News that infrared and multi-spectral imagers suggest that an explosion occurred on the flight. He reaffirmed that a cause of the crash remains unknown, and Egyptian officials have not commented on any possible blast.

Egyptian and Greek authorities are searching for the plane, which was flying at nearly 37,000 feet when it disappeared from radar with about a half-hour left of a 3½-hour flight.

Almost immediately after entering Egyptian airspace, the plane swerved sharply and then lost altitude before it dropped off radar, Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said at a news conference.

At 37,000 feet, the plane "executed a turn of 90 degrees left and then a turn of 360 degrees toward the right, dropping from 37,000 to 15,000 feet, and then the picture we had was lost at about 10,000 feet."

When the plane vanished, it was about 175 miles from Egypt's coast, according to officials. Radar showed no adverse weather in the area at the time the jet disappeared.

There were 56 passengers — including three children — along with seven crew members and three "security" personnel on board the Airbus A320, EgyptAir said. The airline initially had said 69 people were on board, but it later revised the figure.

The passengers included 30 Egyptian nationals, along with citizens from 11 other countries, among them Canada, France, Britain , Belgium and Iraq.

Britain's Foreign Office told NBC News that it was "in urgent contact with local authorities in Paris and Cairo," and the French Foreign Affairs Ministry opened a crisis hotline.

RELATED: Latest Updates From the EgyptAir Flight 804 Crash Investigation

Egyptian and Greek authorities were focusing search efforts in the Mediterranean Sea, with assists from other nations. The Greek military confirmed that one of its frigates and two of its aircraft were involved in a search about 130 nautical miles south-southeast of the island of Karpathos.

The U.S. Navy also said that — at the request of the Greek government — one of its P-3 aircraft had joined the search.

Greek air traffic controllers had a normal interaction with the pilot as he flew above the island of Kea, according to the head of the country's civil aviation authority.

Kostas Lyntzerikos told NBC News that he plane exited Greek airspace at 3:26 a.m. local time (8:26 p.m. ET Wednesday) and disappeared from radar screens two minutes later — at which point controllers notified Egyptian authorities.

The Paris prosecutor's office confirmed that it had opened an investigation. France's aviation authority, the BEA, said it was in contact with Egyptian authorities and was taking part in the investigation.

The British Air Accidents Investigation Branch, meanwhile, said it had offered to assist Egypt's authorities, as well.

Airbus — the maker of the plane — said the plane was made in 2003 and delivered to EgyptAir in 2008, adding that the aircraft had accumulated about 48,000 flight hours. EgyptAir said the pilot had 6,275 flying hours, while the co-pilot had 2,766.

Authorities stressed the need to protect relatives of the passengers, and the names of the passengers and the crew have not been publicly released.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault met with families who gathered at the Paris airport and told reporters theat it was clearly an emotional time.

He, too, urged a halt to speculation out of respect for the families, saying that supporting them was the first "priority."

Anguished relatives also gathered at the Cairo airport. The Associated Press reported that doctors were brought in after distressed family members collapsed.

While there was no immediate indication of whether terrorism was involved, Egyptian aviation security has been under scrutiny since a passenger jet crashed after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh airport in October.

ISIS claimed responsibility for downing the Metrojet plane, and the incident raised questions about how any potential explosives could have been smuggled on board and whether there were security failings on Egypt's end.

Analysts were cautious, but they said terrorism could not be ruled out.

"The current indications are leaning toward some sort of abrupt incident, as opposed to some sort of gradual malfunction," said Daniel Nisman, a security analyst at the Levantine Group.

Nisman pointed to the altitude of the plane — which he said suggested that there had not been an attempt to descend because of, say, a loss of cabin pressure or engine failure.

RELATED: Airbus 320 Has 'Excellent Safety Record'

"It doesn't exhibit the normal features of something accidental," he said. "Nothing should be ruled out — but that also means that malicious intent shouldn't be ruled out, either."

"If — and totally if — it was malicious intent then it could be that it was done in order to send some sort of a message," Nisman added, noting that Egypt has been a focus of ISIS propaganda.

Pointing to the Metrojet crash, Nisman said "you also have precedent, unfortunately," for Egypt's being a target.

Still, Nisman added, if a security lapse was to blame, it's "not necessarily" Egypt's fault. "It could mean a security lapse in Europe — which is not good," he said.

Summary: An EgyptAir flight with 66 people on board crashed while en route from Paris to Cairo on Thursday, the French president confirmed.


By the end of this year, General Motors will have more than 12 million connected cars on the road around the world. That’s a potentially huge cybersecurity hole if hackers ever found and chose to exploit any systems connected to the Internet.

Meanwhile, earlier this month General Motors quietly launched a program to connect the company with white hat hackers. Hackers who find security bugs or vulnerabilities can inform GM through a secure website portal hosted by HackerOne, a venture-backed security startup based in San Francisco.

The new portal is accessible through GM and from HackerOne’s directory.

“We’re putting a lot of technology into our cars,” says GM cybersecurity chief Jeff Massimilla. “There’s a responsibility obviously to put an appropriate level of security with those technologies.”

For now, white hat hackers (or researchers as they’re sometimes called) who notify GM of a potential security flaw will not be rewarded, but that could change, Massimilla says.

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There are multiple entry points for hackers to gain remote access to a connected car, including through in-car entertainment, navigation, and advanced driver assistance systems.

White hat hackers Charlie Miller and Chris Valesek (now security lead at Uber Advanced Technologies Center) demonstrated in 2015 just how easy it is to hack a vehicle when they remotely took control of a Jeep Cherokee. The Jeep Cherokee hacking not only showed the weaknesses behind the SUV’s digital defenses, but also raised questions about what, if anything, other connected car manufacturers are doing to protect their vehicles.

A week later, hacker Samy Kamkar posted a video on YouTube that described a security flaw found in a mobile app for General Motors’ OnStar vehicle communications system. Kamkar built a device that could intercept communications between the OnStar RemoteLink mobile app and the OnStar service, allowing him to locate, unlock, and remote-start vehicles. The device could also give an attacker a car’s location, make, and model, as well as the power to unlock and remote-start the car.

GM fixed the problem after Kamkar reached out to the automaker.

WATCH IT: General Motors CEO Mary Barra talks about rebuilding consumer trust

“There wasn’t one single event that prompted this action,”Massimilla says. “We have been maturing our cybersecurity program within GM for sometime now. And as we’ve matured, we have had some interaction with researchers.”

GM’s contact with researchers has been positive so far, Massimilla added. “We just wanted to make it easier to interact with them.” GM isn’t the first major automaker to launch such a program. The considerably smaller all-electric automaker Tesla Motors has a bug bounty program, which issues rewards between $1,000 and $10,000.

Summary: The automaker is partnering with HackerOne to identify its security problems.


A man who armed himself with a gun and stole motorcycles from two riders, causing them lasting trauma, has been jailed in Perth for seven years.

Dylan May and Matthew Smith were enjoying some off-road motorbike riding when they were confronted and threatened by Bobby Punevski at Lakelands in October 2014.

Punevski, 38, fired a shot in the air, pointed the weapon at the pair then ordered them to put the motorcycles on the tray of his ute, and also stole a helmet and money.

He then fired a shot into the engine block of Mr May's car before speeding away.

A jury found Punevski guilty earlier this year of two counts of aggravated armed robbery and he was sentenced in the West Australian Supreme Court on Thursday.

Justice Bruno Fiannaca said the victims had been traumatised by the terrifying ordeal and had believed they were going to be killed.

"Mr May said that when the incident happened he felt scared and worried. He thought he was going to die," Justice Fiannaca said.

"He said he was very angry at the time because when the gun was pointed at him and was fired in the air, his whole life flashed before his eyes and he felt like he was going to cry.

"He said that he could not stop shaking and he went into shock because he was worried that you would come back after you left and that you would try to kill him."

Justice Fiannaca said Mr Smith described it as the "most terrifying experience of his life".

"He says that still to this day thinking or talking about the incident makes him sick in the stomach and causes his heart rate to rise," he said.

Punevski will be eligible for parole.

Summary: A gunman who threatened two motorbike riders before robbing them has been jailed in WA for seven years.


The longest animal is the bootlace worm, Lineus longissimus; it reaches lengths of 60 metres (that’s just under 200 feet). You could drape a bootlace worm from one end of an Olympic swimming pool to the other and still have yards of it to spare. It’s almost twice as long as a blue whale, and a third longer than the longest lion’s mane jellyfish, the previous record holder.

Like other jellyfish – and despite having a bell which can exceed seven feet in diameter – the lion’s mane (Cyanea capillata) is technically a form of plankton. Plankton is simply defined as living marine organisms that drift in the sea.

The barnacle has the longest penis relative to body size: they can be seven times longer than their body. Other well-endowed species are the nine-banded armadillo (two thirds of its body length) and the blue whale, whose penis, despite a relatively modest proportion in comparison to size, is still the biggest physical organ of all, averaging between six to 10 feet in length and 18 inches in girth.

The longest-lived men on Earth are in the highlands of Sardinia. Of the 1.6 million Sardinians, there are at least 220 who have reached 100, twice the typical ratio. Five of the world’s 40 oldest people live on the island. The centenarian men are mostly shepherds, and claim their long life comes from their diet: pecorino cheese, which is high in Omega-3 fatty acids and “black” Cannonau wine, which contains higher levels of antioxidants than any other wine.

In the Okinawa islands, between Japan and Taiwan, there are more than 400 centenarians and the average lifespan is 86 for women. They also cite diet: they eat a lot of tofu, use small plates so tend to eat smaller amounts and grow their own food.

Other factors are social: they are all part of a group of friends of the same age, called a moai, a mutual support network that provides financial, emotional, and social help throughout life.

Nor do they have a word for retirement: instead they talk of ikigai – a reason for getting up in the morning, which might be fishing, your grandchildren or a love of watching birds in flight.

The longest place name in Europe is on Anglesey: Llanfairpwllgwyngyll-gogerychwyrndrobwll-llantysiliogogogoch. It was cooked up as a publicity stunt in 1860 when the village of Llanfair (which means St Mary’s church) opened the island’s first railway station. Local businessmen came up with the idea of creating the longest station sign in Britain, made up of the existing names of the village, a nearby hamlet and a local whirlpool.

The world title, however, goes to Bangkok in Thailand, which in 1782 was given a ceremonial name: Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit.

Summary: A quietly intriguing column from the brains behind QI. This week: QI goes long


The P-8s will protect the UK’s fleet of nuclear submarines and new aircraft carriers when they come into service.

Mr Fallon announced the forthcoming order on a visit to a US military base in Jacksonville where America operates its own P-8s from.

He also met with RAF personnel serving on US P-8s, as part of “Project Seedcorn”, a programme where British servicemen operate American aircraft to maintain skills that would otherwise have been lost with the cancellation of the Nimrod programme.

The Defence Secretary said: “This new fleet of maritime patrol aircraft will help to protect our nuclear submarines and I intend to begin ordering them this summer.

“We can make this investment because we are increasing defence spending every year of this decade. That enables us to meet the NATO 2pc commitment and keep Britain safe.”

Plans to order P-8s were revealed in November’s review of the UK’s defence and security needs and capabilities.

Although the decision was welcomed, as it meant Britain would be better able to protect itself from the increasing threat posed by Russian submarines, which have been probing around the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarine base at Faslane, the fact that the jets were ordered from Boeing did attract criticism from some.

Summary: Britain will order the first of a new generation of spy planes from Boeing in the next few months as it beefs up its maritime surveillance capabilities.


Disregard today’s column. It won’t impress you.

There’s no way around that, not when you factor in how little practice I have at this sort of thing and how much more articulate my fellow columnists are. Also, I went to bed the other night with the sniffles and woke up to a spotty Internet connection and then there’s the matter of my right pinkie, which I’m pretty sure I sprained over the weekend when I lifted an unusually large martini. So on top of my hangover, I feel a stabbing every time I type a semicolon or a “p,” which is a real problem (ouch!), because you can’t exactly write your way around an entire consonant, unless maybe it’s “z.”

Are your expectations sufficiently lowered?

Then I’m ready for my first presidential debate.

The buildup to the one on Wednesday night has been a laughable comedy of tactical self-effacement, with each candidate setting his own bar so low that an arthritic earthworm could clear it.

And while that’s not wholly unusual, it’s surreally at odds with the way the rest of the campaign is being waged. According to the candidates and their teams, this is the most important election in a generation, a crossroads for an exceptional nation whose destiny depends on the selection of a leader with heroic skill and judgment. Just don’t hold out for one who can speak coherently about sequestration or make a subject and a verb agree.

Most days, we’re regaled with President Obama’s boldness in going after Osama bin Laden, his prescience in bailing out the auto industry and his dexterity with a golf club, a basketball, fatherhood or a tune.

But for the last week, we’ve been told that the thought of sharing a stage with that fearsome oratorical beast otherwise known as Mitt Romney has him trembling in his leather oxfords. If he hops away with even three of his four limbs, it’ll be a miracle.

“Governor Romney, he’s a good debater,” Obama said to voters in Nevada on Sunday night. “I’m just O.K.” He sounded like a host inviting people over for dinner and warning them that the arugula would probably be wilted and the steak overcooked to the texture of jerky and they’d be wise to stop first at McDonald’s, so long as they don’t tell Michelle.

And his put-on pessimism was a pale echo of the Romney gilding and Obama gutting done by the president’s allies, who have been unusually generous with reminiscences of the way Obama patronizingly told Hillary Clinton she was “likable enough” during a debate four years ago.

They’ve also volunteered that he tends toward unwieldy answers but, on the flip side, isn’t comfortable with pithy zingers. That leaves him searching between the too-long and the too-short for the just right, a tentative Goldilocks yanked into a gunfight at the so-so corral.

Jay Carney recently told reporters aboard Air Force One that Obama prevailed in 2008 “in spite of his debate performance.” David Axelrod noted in a memo that “five out of the last six challengers were perceived to win the first debate against an incumbent president” and garlanded Romney with adjectives like “disciplined,” “poised,” “smart.” David Plouffe maintained that Romney has “prepared more than any candidate in history.” Any candidate? In all of history? That Plouffe: a farsighted strategist with a political nanny cam on the full sweep of time.

Meanwhile, Beth Myers, a senior adviser to Romney, confined her assessments to the last half-century or so when she wrote that Obama “is widely regarded as one of the most talented political communicators in modern history.” This nonetheless sent Bill Clinton into an emotional tailspin — had she failed to catch his oratorical cartwheels in Charlotte? — and cast Romney as the shaky debater daunted by a rival’s greatness and likely to tumble into a dark sea of split infinitives and weird rich-guy remarks. (“Mr. President, I’ll bet you the contents of my Cayman Islands account...”)

The Obama camp’s assertions of Romney’s advantage rest on two inarguable realities. One, Romney has indeed been better on the debate stage than on the stump, in many interviews or at the London Olympics. He’s like a Chippendale end table that doesn’t quite go in the den or the family room, but there is that one far corner of the living room where he more or less fits and occasionally gleams.

Two, Romney has had more practice than Obama: some 35 debates over the last two election cycles to Obama’s 20-odd. But the Obama camp conveniently overlooks whom Romney got all that practice against, an all-star lineup that included Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann and of course Rick Perry, whose advisers had to beat back reports that he was on pain pills. They presented sleep apnea as an alternate explanation.

I’m guessing he had the sniffles, too. They’re hell on a debate performance — or, trust me, a column.

A version of this op-ed appears in print on October 2, 2012, on page A31 of the New York edition with the headline: Trembling Before Mitt. Today's Paper|Subscribe

Summary: In advance of the first presidential debate, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney try on the unfamiliar garb of exaggerated humility.


The study determined that the average income of a working-class household was £23,000 a year compared with £33,000 for middle-class homes.

Rent and mortgage payments were, however, virtually the same between working-class households (£366) and their middle class counterparts (£334).

To be upper middle class, the study estimated that a household must have an income of almost £52,000 a year.

Those in this class spent twice as much on entertaining and going out and were more likely to employ home help such as a cleaner or a gardener.

Sue Hayward, a personal finance expert, said: "It's amazing to see how close the earning and spending patterns of these people claiming to be working and middle class are.

"I know class divides have moved in different times, but this shows the gap is shrinking. This research will drive home to people that if they really want to get their hands on the luxuries the true middle classes are enjoying then they need to save money where they can, and look at better ways of managing their money and not relying on credit cards to see them through."

Richard Mason, managing director of insurance and home services at moneysupermarket.com, said: "With the credit crunch taking hold and the housing market faltering, it's worrying to see that so many people are spending and borrowing beyond their means to try and keep up with the lifestyles of others.

"Consumers need to take immediate stock of their household budgets to identify the pressure points and seek money saving opportunities."

The poll also disclosed a significant degree of "reverse snobbery", with 25 per cent of those who identified themselves as working class actually earning £50,000 or more.

The study found that Cardiff had the highest number of aspirational class climbers, followed by Leicester and Newcastle.

Summary: Millions of Britons who consider themselves middle class are less well off than they think, and are keeping up appearances by depending on loans and credit cards, research suggests.


Snapchat succumbed yesterday to a wave of online outrage about a filter that smacked of anti-Asian racism (a yellow face with closed, slanted eyes). It seems a good moment to wonder if the same outrage will ever be directed at those who are blocking Chinese investment overseas.

It may be easier to illustrate the problem in three cases where U.S. interests aren’t directly affected. Today, Australia moved to block a Chinese consortium of state and private interests taking a controlling stake in the country’s largest electricity network over national security concerns.

Last week, the U.K.’s new Prime Minister slammed the brakes on a project to build the country’s first new nuclear power station in 40 years due to China having a minority stake in it (although one suspects that London is more concerned about wriggling out of a ludicrously high power-purchase contract it has already signed with the lead partner, France’s EDF).

The national security risk may be clear, given widespread evidence of Beijing’s formidable and growing cyberwarfare capabilities. China General Nuclear Power, the company investing in the Hinkley Point power station, is already mired in an industrial espionage scandal in the U.S.. But one reflects a legitimate desire for a reliable yield in a world of low returns, and the other an important (if arguably misguided) learning experience in the country’s search for a long-term low-carbon energy future.

But, either way, how credible is the threat of China abusing the leverage it gets through such investments? It is a country that guarantees its internal stability by exporting to the rest of the world. Breaching the trust of its trading partners would quickly prove counterproductive. The example of Vladimir Putin and his use of the gas weapon in Europe makes this only too clear.

Even where there is no national security interest and no direct line back to politicians back in Beijing, as in the acquisition of German robot maker Kuka AG kukay by China’s Midea Group, western politicians continue to resist Chinese investment much more stiffly than that of other countries. Security concerns matter, obviously. But when domestic business isn’t investing despite five years of pleading from governments and central banks, you’re allowed to wonder whether it makes sense to be so sniffy about foreigners who are.

Summary: Can Beijing afford to do what the West fears?


Dry-bulk carrier Genco Shipping and Trading Ltd., which exited bankruptcy two years ago, is negotiating with lenders as it struggles to stay in compliance with its loan agreements.

The company fell out of compliance recently on three loan agreements—a $253 million term loan and two credit facilities of $100 million and $148 million. Lenders of those facilities agreed to waive the violation through May 31.

Genco said it is “considering a range of alternatives to address such issues” and is in discussions with lenders to address “liquidity and covenant compliance issues,” according to documents filed Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The shipping company added that it doesn’t intend to provide updates or details of the discussions.

President John C. Wobensmith said in a statement that Genco faces “a challenging market period,” adding that executives “continue to look at a range of alternatives to strengthen Genco’s financial position.”

Genco, which had been owned by New York shipping tycoon Peter Georgiopoulos, exited chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2014, shedding more than $1.2 billion in debt from its balance sheet through a swap that handed ownership of the company to senior lenders. A year later, Genco formally merged with sister company Baltic Trading Ltd., which had not been part of Genco’s bankruptcy filing.

At the time, Genco was part of a wave of bankruptcy filings by dry-bulk shipping companies that included Excel Maritime, Overseas Shipholding Group, Eagle Bulk Shipping EGLE -7.37 % and TMT Group. The companies had spent heavily around 2008 to grow their fleets and then struggled to meet their debt obligations by 2014.

Excess capacity is still hampering the industry, combined with weak demand for iron ore and coal imports in China, driving down shipping prices. Many shipping companies are again facing distress---even those that already restructured, like Genco.

Earlier this year, Eagle Bulk violated its loan agreements. However, the company was able to negotiate an out-of-court deal and avoided a second bankruptcy filing.

Dry-bulk shipping rates measured by the Baltic Dry Index have recovered in recent weeks since falling to a historic low in February, but at about 700 earlier this month it remains at a depressed level.

In the first quarter, Genco’s revenues fell to $20.9 million from $34.4 million during the same period last year. The company said the decline was due to lower spot market rates for its vessels. Genco logged a net loss of $54.5 million for the quarter, compared with a loss of $79.1 million last year.

Overall, the company has a $561.1 million debt load.

Write to Stephanie Gleason at stephanie.gleason@wsj.com

Summary: Dry-bulk carrier Genco Shipping and Trading is negotiating with its lenders after a loan violation two years after the company exited bankruptcy.


Unless you are Amazon, things have been somewhat bleak for e-commerce startups of late. In January, Gilt sold itself to Saks-owner, Canadian department store chain Hudson’s Bay Co., for $250 million, a small fraction of its previous $1 billion valuation. Home goods site One Kings Lane, also once valued around $1 billion, sold for under $100 million to Bed Bath and Beyond. Add to that online makeup company Birchbox’s struggles, which include layoffs and challenges in raising more venture capital.

So this morning’s news that Wal-Mart is agreeing to pay $3.3 billion in cash and stock to buy Amazon-challenger Jet.com is likely bright news for many who have e-commerce startups. And Wal-Mart paid a premium for the two-year-old startup, which was last valued at $1.35 billion. Wal-Mart was clear that Jet’s value was its e-commerce capabilities, an area where Wal-Mart has been struggling to compete with Amazon. There’s also the talent acquisition of Jet.com founder Marc Lore, who sold his previous company Quidsi to Amazon for $545 million in 2010, and spent two years at the e-commerce giant afterwards.

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Although Amazon has a streak of large e-commerce acquisitions, in 2009 with Zappos and Quidsi’s Diapers.com in 2010, for the past year, there haven’t been any massive M&A for e-commerce startups. Instead, companies like Gilt and OKL have been selling for pennies on the dollar. The reality is that Amazon is a formidable competitor and e-commerce is a fragmented, challenging, and competitive space.

“Amazon has established a bar that everyone in the world of commerce has to meet, ranging to experience of finding produce on site, to delivery, to the back end,” explained Battery Ventures partner Roger Lee a few weeks ago. “Consumers now expect the same experience from every retailer, except many small startups and retailers don’t have as many resources and so they are forced to play in this difficult game.”

Even the fundraising environment for e-commerce companies who are still unprofitable and early stage has been tough of late. According to CB Insights, from January to June of 2016, private e-commerce companies have received close to $4.1 billion in funding, which puts the year on track for the lowest amount of funding since 2013.

Birchbox had trouble raising another round, but eventually was able to secure a loan, with unfavorable terms.

For more on e-commerce, watch:

Lee added that Battery Ventures, which has backed a number of e-commerce companies including Wayfair, Groupon, and Serena & Lily, is being cautious around e-commerce investing. “We are being careful. It is hard to build an e-commerce company right now, and Amazon is an amazing business and Jeff Bezos is a great leader,” he said. “If you are starting a me too e-commerce company whose product overlaps with Amazon, you will have a tough road.”

But the outcome of Jet.com, which very publicly competed against Amazon, could be proof that while Amazon may not pay a premium for a startup, others will. There’s hope that a large corporation, like Wal-Mart, could be willing to use its deep pockets to pay a premium so that it can compete with Amazon.

Summary: Jet's acquisition could be good news for others in e-commerce.


David Davis, the new minister for Brexit, believes it will be possible to secure bilateral trade deals with the rest of the world that are larger than the value of the EU single market within two years. He also believes that tariff-free access to the EU single market can be negotiated for the UK because it is in the self-interest of the UK, and the EU. His preferred model is the recently struck Canadian comprehensive and economic trade agreement (Ceta).

Davis, who was appointed on Wednesday evening in the first round of cabinet appointments to Theresa May’s government, thinks that article 50, the formal process for negotiating the UK’s exit from the EU, should not be triggered until the end of the year.

Discussing the balance of negotiating power between the UK and the EU in the event of Brexit, Davis said in February: “The pressure from European companies for a free trade deal between the UK and the remaining members of the European Union would be huge.

Related: What's the best Brexit Theresa May could get for Britain?

“We have far more to gain than we have to lose, while the opposite is true for the EU. People have spoken, wrongly, about 3.3 million British jobs being ‘linked’ to our membership of the EU. Well there are over 5 million jobs on the continent that are linked to trade with Britain.

“The first few months may be hysterical, but the leaders of France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland and the rest know that the way to lose elections is to destroy your own industries. That is a powerful advantage for us.”

Davis claims that even if the UK were unable to reach a deal, and the trade relationship between the EU and the UK reverted to the terms of the World Trade Organisation, the tariff barriers are relatively small and “almost certainly negotiable down to zero”.

His ambitions, set out in an article for Conservative Home and other lectures, are likely to be regarded as optimistic by trade experts, and by some civil servants in Whitehall. The UK at present does not have the capacity to negotiate trade deals as such deals have for years been conducted at the EU level. Whitehall is scouring business, the European commission, and friendly world powers for trade specialists.

Davis also appears to be opposed to settling for a halfway house as an interim measure in which Britain joins the EEA in the same way as Norway so allowing access to the single market but on condition it retains free movement of labour and capital.

Davis wrote: “The idea that we have to fit our future into some Procrustean bed created for far smaller countries is nonsense.”

But he does state it might be negotiable saying “it does not work for the UK as it stands”. He added: “To make it viable it would need an arbitration court (not the European court of justice), a dispute resolution procedure, and a number of other institutional changes. It would be possible to design and even negotiate such a structure, but it would take much more than two years.”

Related: EU tells Swiss no single market access if no free movement of citizens

Instead Davis argues the Swiss option – European Free Trade Association membership plus a host of bilateral treaties – is the best starting place. But he also acknowledges that in Switzerland problems have developed due to the EU insistence on Switzerland accepting free movement.

He says instead the best model is the Canadian Ceta deal that the EU has just struck. “It eliminates all customs duties, which the EU website excitedly describes as worth €470m (£395m) a year to EU business. A similar deal with Britain would save it five times that on cars alone. This would be a perfectly good starting point for our discussions with the commission.”

He claims the balance of advantage lies with the UK in the negotiations. “If Europe wants to stick to trading on a WTO basis, they are very badly positioned to do so. Everyone knows that the balance of trade is in Europe’s favour.

“We currently import £59bn more from Europe than we export. After Brexit we would be Europe’s largest export market, worth £289bn in 2014, larger than China.”

In his Conservative Home article written only a fortnight ago, he conceded the deals with the EU would be complex, but if the EU slapped tariffs on the UK, a Conservative government could retaliate by putting tariffs on EU products and use the revenue to invest in British industry.

He also insists he does not see independence from the EU as an excuse to worsen working conditions by deregulating labour laws beyond their current state.

Related: UK productivity gap widens to worst level since records began

He claims the single market has held back UK productivity: “In the single market period our exports grew if anything slower than our OECD [Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development] competitors, despite our membership. During the single market period, despite all the costs incurred, the treaties signed, the regulations implemented, despite all the controversies of the European project, our performance in selling to Europe was worse than our competitors outside the EU.”

The first bilateral trade deals should be struck with the US, China, Canada and Hong Kong, followed by Australia, India, and South Korea, he said.

He also favours institutional changes in Whitehall to secure these deals. He writes: “The funding would be available to set up an office in every major commercial centre and capital, completely separate from the Foreign Office, staffed with experts who know the language, the customs and the regulations, and are on hand to help British businesses develop links in the country.”

Summary: Brexit minister says UK can negotiate tariff-free access to EU single market and article 50 should not be triggered until end of year