Another day brings another new electric automaker. Call them “Tesla rivals.” Maybe, if you’re feeling especially bold, “Tesla killers.” All of these new ambitious ventures demonstrate the growing interest in electric transportation. But they also reveal a collective amnesia about just how difficult it really is to build a new automotive startup from scratch.

The newest one comes courtesy of a Reuters report, which describes a brand-new, Shanghai-based startup called NextEV backed by a group of Chinese Internet entrepreneurs. The company says it will launch an electric supercar in 2016.

Investors in NextEV reportedly include Hillhouse Capital, which also backed Uber, and Chinese Internet giant Tencent. The company appears to have hired executives from Ford F , Tesla TSLA , and BMW BAMXY .

And that’s just the latest company aiming to compete on some level with Tesla. A couple of months ago the new “Tesla rival” was Faraday Future, a startup based in Gardena, Calif. That company was reportedly founded last year, and already has 200 employees—including some from Tesla. The plan is to launch their first electric car in 2017. It’s unclear who’s funding the venture.

At one point battery startup Boston Power was also dubbed a Tesla rival, largely due to its plans to build a sizable battery factory and partner with Chinese automakers to build a low-cost electric car. Boston Power was originally founded in the U.S., but moved to China in 2011 when the funding for battery tech in the U.S. got difficult.

Boston Power has been funded by GSR Ventures, a venture firm that funds businesses to grow in China. Boston Power chairman Sonny Wu (who’s also a managing partner with GSR Venures) told the Wall Street Journal at the time of the last funding round that the firm funded the company because “somebody” had to compete with Elon Musk.

Last year Bay Area startup Renovo Motors emerged from stealth after four years in development with a really high-end electric supercar called the “Renovo Coupe.” With Silicon Valley backers, and the use of lithium-ion batteries, it’s like a racing-version of a budding Tesla.

There’s also Fisker Automotive, which despite it’s spectacular crash and burn two years ago, still has plans to re-launch under its new owner Chinese auto-parts giant Wanxiang. The company has plans to build a factory in Moreno Valley, Calif. that will employ 150 workers. Another 240 people work at the company’s headquarters in Costa Mesa, Fisker says.

There are a variety of reasons why this group of new startups is attempting to follow in the footsteps of Tesla and tempt fate by launching an electric car out of an independent car company.

Many of these startups have no doubt been encouraged by the successes of Tesla. The company has made its founder and early employees wealthy, and its Model S sedan has been so well-received that it aced its Consumer Reports rating.

But launching a new car requires, on the very low end, hundreds of millions of dollars. On the higher end, it requires more than a billion dollars. The business is naturally at odds with the type of financing a tech startup can raise. That’s partly why Tesla made it through the hard times, because Musk already had money to support the company when it needed it.

The list of car companies that haven’t worked in only the past few years include Aptera, Coda Automotive, Think Automotive, Wheego, and Fisker. (Am I forgetting anything?)

Tesla’s success overshadows that the company spent over a decade beating all odds. The company almost died several times. It almost sold to Google GOOG during hard times two years ago. It almost went out of business as it was preparing to produce its first vehicle, the Roadster.

Tesla will also likely go through some hard times ahead. It continues to borrow and raise money to get its next cars, the Model X and Model 3, out the door and its massive Gigafactory battery factory up and running. Tesla is still operating like a startup and taking on the risks of a startup. When Tesla hits some hurdles, which is no doubt will, will it scare off some of these eager startups?

Meanwhile, it’s not surprising that new electric car startups would emerge out of China. China is very interested in building domestic electric car tech, offering support for battery and auto companies that are willing to build factories in China. The country also discourages vehicles that burn gasoline in certain regions, and is trying to cut down on car driving to reduce its infamously bad air pollutions.

As the country did with solar panels, China is willing to heavily over-support domestic technology and markets that it wants to get into. This leads to a constant boom and bust cycle. There will likely be a bunch of Chinese electric car startups that will gain fame and potentially crash and burn.

Reuters reports that the Chinese government has recently decided to encourage investment in the sector from non-automotive companies. The Chinese Internet investors in NextEV are just one group backing a new electric car startup, says Reuters.

Alibaba and Xiaomi Technology are also considering investments in electric car companies, according to the report. Encouraging specifically non-automotive companies to invest in the sector will likely only heighten this boom and bust cycle.

Chinese Internet companies could also partly be interested in backing electric car startups as a way to try to compete with electric car tech that Apple and Google are reportedly building. If you believe the reports, Apple is aggressively developing an electric car with the project name Titan.

But overall, the trend of new entrepreneurs and investors becoming interested in electric car tech shows how the tide around electric transportation could slowly be turning. Electric cars make up only a fraction of cars sold in the U.S., but that’s ever so slowly starting to change. In certain countries, like Norway, electric cars make up an already large portion of new cars sold.

When better and cheaper electric cars hit the market, more people will no doubt buy them. The reality is that there really are no Tesla competitors currently out there. The technology is at its very earliest stage, and is being pushed forward by Tesla.

Real electric car competition will eventually be a very good thing. It will mean consumers and companies have embraced electric cars as a thriving and substantial market.

But it could very well take a big auto maker with deep pockets to fund cars that could truly rival Tesla. The big auto companies just have to take the market seriously enough.

To learn more about Tesla watch this Fortune video:

Sign up for Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter about the business of technology.

Summary: New electric car startups are coming out of the woodwork led by entrepreneurs and backed by investors.


Good evening from Cleveland, where Donald Trump arrived in style Wednesday as his helicopter airlifted him downtown to be greeted by running mate Mike Pence after returning from a two-night stay in New York. In all the time Trump had been gone, political media has obsessed over Melania Trump’s apparently plagiarized paragraph in her speech to the Republican National Convention. It should have been a one-day story, or even just in the press for a few hours. But the Trump campaign’s inability to admit error ensured it had at least a three-day lifespan. Finally they admitted the obvious Wednesday afternoon, that portions of the speech had been lifted from Michelle Obama’s, saying an aide was responsible. This comes after a series of denials and lies from the campaign and Republican surrogates that nothing was wrong, as Republican Party officials shook their heads at the Trump campaign’s hard-headedness.

The highlight of Wednesday night is set to be twin speeches in primetime from Eric Trump, who will deliver a personal testimonial about his dad, and Mike Pence, who will use the opportunity to introduce himself to the American people. An unabashed conservative, Pence had most recently been in the news before his selection for a controversial religious freedom law in his home state of Indiana viewed as anti-LGBT. His speech will offer him the opportunity to try to move past that troubling time. All eyes will also be on Ted Cruz Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich will have his opportunity to show why he should have been selected as Trump’s running mate.

Third Eye Blind trolls Republicans. A Trump advisor calls for Obama’s death. And Trump courts billionaires.

Read some of the best from the convention below and check Time.com for updates all night:

Trump Staffer Takes Responsibility for Melania Trump’s Plagiarized Speech Adds Mrs. Trump has long admired Mrs. Obama [TIME]

The Evolution of Trump Campaign Responses to Melania Trump’s Plagiarized Speech Campaign turns minor flap into three-day news story [TIME]

A Witness to the Characters, Chaos and Colors at the Republican Convention Photographer Landon Nordeman brings his trademark style to Cleveland [TIME]

Caitlyn Jenner Tells GOP Gathering Why She’s a Republican Even as GOP platform shifts rightward [TIME]

Ben Carson: Ted Cruz Has a ‘Responsibility’ to Endorse Donald Trump Blames teleprompter for ‘Lucifer’ digression in interview with TIME’s Tessa Berenson

Protest Erupts Over Flag-Burning Outside Republican Convention Most at the event were against it [TIME]

“That was pretty well-orchestrated.” — Ted Cruz to supporters in Cleveland after Trump’s plane flew past during his thank you address. Many in the audience booed the fly-over.

Cruz Walks Tightrope Between Trump and 2020 [CNN]

Ben Carson: Ted Cruz Has a ‘Responsibility’ to Endorse Donald Trump [TIME]

Trump Vets Adviser: Clinton “Should Be Put In The Firing Line And Shot For Treason” [BuzzFeed]

Eric Trump Says He’s Using ‘Zero’ Help for His Republican Convention Speech [TIME]

Third Eye Blind Trolls Republicans at Cleveland Show [TIME]

Summary: Morning Must Reads: July 20


Ethiopia has declared two days of national mourning for 208 people killed in cross-border cattle raids during which the government says more than 100 children were also kidnapped.Â

Parliament said in a statement carried by state media that flags would be flown at half-mast across the country, and in its foreign missions, from Wednesday.

It gave no further information about the missing children.Â

The raids last week happened in three districts of Gambela, in the country's west, when attackers from neighbouring South Sudan crossed into Ethiopia.Â

Gambela straddles the border of the two nations and is home to more than 280,000 South Sudanese refugees fleeing a civil war that has raged for more than two years, forcing at least one million people from their homes.Â

READ MORE: Ethiopia attack - 200 people dead, 100 children missing

Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said on Monday that his government was working with the government in South Sudan to hunt down the attackers.Â

The attackers were not South Sudanese government forces or rebels, according toÂ Hailemariam.

"The atrocities committed by armed militants from South Sudan's Murle tribe claimed the lives of 208 mothers and children. They also abducted 102 children," he said, giving a lower figure for the kidnappings than the 108 previously given by government officials.

Ethiopia's Information Minister Getachew RedaÂ told Al Jazeera on Sunday that the army had killed at least 60 of the attackers, and that the government was willing to pursue more across the border.

Cross-border cattle raids, often involving Murle tribesmen from South Sudan's Upper Nile and Jonglei regions, are not uncommon in the area.Â Previous attacks, however, were much smaller in scale.

Follow Hamza Mohamed on Twitter: @Hamza_Africa

Summary: Addis Ababa declares state of mourning for Gambela victims, gives no new information on fate of 100 kidnapped children.


The summer solstice is June 20, the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. But do the extra hours of sunshine make you happier?

In general, people are more cheerful in the summertime, according to Philip Gehrman, associate director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program at the University of Pennsylvania. Light serves as the strongest cue to regulate circadian rhythms, which include the sleep cycle, hormonal fluctuations and body temperature and follow a roughly 24-hour pattern.

“People tend to feel better in summer months,” Gehrman said. “There’s a slight elevation in our mood. More positive emotions are reported.”

But the effect isn’t uniform—circadian rhythms vary from person to person, so the amount and timing of sunlight means different things to different people, said Dr. Irina V. Zhdanova, a neuroscience professor at Boston University. For example, morning sunlight can irritate people who wake up late. On the other hand, for people who rise early, morning sunlight can have a positive effect, but sunlight may irritate them in the evening.

It’s similar to meal habits, Zhdanova said.

“Some like three meals a day, others like 10 small meals a day,” Zhdanova said. “Sometimes sunlight is good and uplifting during a certain time of the day, while for others, it’s neither uplifting or positive and can induce mild irritation.”

The extra sunlight also entrains the circadian rhythm, a process in which the internal biological clock aligns itself to external cues, like the light-dark cycle. Now that the days are longer, in general, the circadian rhythm is entrained much better, Zhdanova said. In other words, the circadian rhythm is better aligned with natural sunlight and darkness, which can affect people’s sleep and moods.

However, Gehrman said, it is unclear whether elevated moods come from more entrained circadian rhythms and better sleep, or if the happiness boost is directly attributable to the sunlight.

On the flip side, experiencing less sunlight in the winter can pose a challenge, said Frank Scheer, director of the Medical Chronobiology Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

“The lengthening or shortening of the light period during the day does have a clear effect,” Scheer said. “In wintertime, when the days are shorter, we are more likely to wake up when it’s still dark outside and before the circadian system stimulates wakefulness and improved mood.”

So, enjoy the longest day of the year while it lasts—the days will start getting shorter again from here.

Summary: The first day of summer brings extra sunlight


It looks like 2007 may retain its crown after all. 2015 was a record year for announced deals. Then the calendar flipped and those transactions began falling apart. Now the value of announced deals last year is on the cusp of falling below 2007’s level, the previous peak.

So far, acquirers have withdrawn 909 deals announced world-wide last year valued at $782.8 billion, including six deals valued at more than $30 billion. That brought...

Summary: MoneyBeat: Canceled deals put M&A record at risk


It was the most significant news conference in Baltimore in decades. Marilyn Mosby, the Baltimore City state’s attorney, stood on the steps of the city’s War Memorial Building on May 1, 2015, and announced that the six officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray, a black man who died in police custody, would be criminally charged, including one with second-degree murder.

That day, National Guard troops were still roaming the streets following riots not seen in this majority black city in half-a-century. Officials had struggled to maintain order in the days following Gray’s death. Businesses had been looted and set on fire. Police officers had been injured. But with one news conference, Mosby did what other officials could not: Give black residents who routinely complained of discrimination from law enforcement the hope that justice may be coming.

On Wednesday, that hope vanished. The Freddie Gray trials resulted in zero convictions more than a year after Mosby’s dramatic announcement of charges. Three officers have been acquitted, and the charges pending against three other officers were dropped this week.

For Mosby, the lack of any guilty verdicts comes after a dramatic rise that made her a national figure and a symbol of the Black Lives Matter movement. But her future in the city now is uncertain. While she still appears to have the support of black communities who cheered her decision to criminally charge Baltimore police, her critics said that coming away empty-handed proves she was too inexperienced for the job and rushed to judgment in charging the officers.

“There’s a vulnerability there, and it could play out in the next election,” said John Bullock, a Towson University political science professor. “Clearly she’s young and that was questioned by some. But at the same time, others will say that she did her best, she brought charges, and due to the justice system working the way it has, they didn’t get justice.”

MORE Inside the Fight to Change Baltimore’s Police Department One Year After Freddie Gray

There have been calls for Mosby to resign over her handling of the trials. A law professor has filed a complaint against Mosby in an attempt to get her disbarred in Maryland, and five of the officers charged have sued Mosby, alleging they were falsely arrested and imprisoned. In an interview with Baltimore’s WJZ, Mosby adamantly refused to step down.

“What I can say is that I was elected by the people of Baltimore City, and there’s no way—absolutely no way—that I will ever resign,” she said.

Mosby was elected state’s attorney in 2014 at age 34, becoming the youngest big-city top prosecutor in the U.S. After just months on the job, Gray died in police custody from a severe spinal injury after being arrested by Baltimore police, pushing Mosby into the national spotlight. Within weeks, her office had issued unprecedented criminal charges against the six officers involved in Gray’s arrest.

The charges quickly made Mosby a divisive figure, praised by black communities but criticized by police for appearing to side with protesters, especially after her statement that she had heard demonstrators’ calls of “no justice, no peace.”

Even with the lack of convictions, however, Mosby does not appear to have lost the support of black residents still angry over Gray’s fatal arrest. During Mosby’s brief remarks Wednesday in Sandtown-Winchester, the predominantly black neighborhood where Gray was arrested, the state’s attorney received vocal support from many nearby while Gray’s step-father said the family stands by her.

Baltimore political experts said they still expect Mosby to run for re-election in 2018, but she may be challenged in ways she wasn’t two years ago.

“I think she still has a future, but it’s not as bright,” said Matthew Crenson, a Johns Hopkins University political science professor, adding that it would be a “stretch” for Mosby to run for mayor or statewide office. “She has very little of a constituency outside of Baltimore.”

David Jaros, a University of Baltimore law professor, said Mosby’s political future may not hinge on the outcome of the Gray cases.

“Baltimore is struggling with a variety of issues that urban America is struggling with,” he says. “And her future may be shaped by what happens in Baltimore” regardless of the Freddie Gray cases.

Mosby reached the state’s attorney’s office in part because she was able to get support from across the city in both white and black neighborhoods, said Bullock of Towson University. But after the trials, that will likely be much more difficult. “The question is whether neighborhoods that don’t look like Sandtown will still be responsive to her message,” he said. “But I believe her core supporters will be there.”

Summary: Marilyn Mosby faces an uncertain future


Pigeon racing champion Eamon Kelly, 52, from Didcot, has reportedly admitted cheating in this year's race from Tarbes in France to his home town.

He allegedly registered 14 birds for the race, then kept them in his loft while sending another set out to France.

A former member of the National Flying Club and friend of Eamon Kelly Ron Cook said: "There will be high level meetings over the next few days – where all the evidence will be examined.

"Until such time before the matter goes before the national flying club committee there is no more comment”

When contacted by the BBC Eamon's partner said he was “distraught”.

Summary: News, sport, travel and weather updates from across Oxfordshire.


Boeing Co. is finalizing a new deal to sell its single-aisle jets to United Continental Holdings Inc. that would enable the U.S. aerospace giant to block smaller rivals Bombardier Inc. and Embraer SA, from gaining a coveted spot in the airline’s fleet, according to people familiar with the negotiations.

United is expected to order 25 Boeing 737s in the newest deal, the people said, after an earlier deal in January to buy 40 737-700s....

Summary: United Continental is finalizing a second deal with Boeing for new single-aisle jets that would enable the U.S. aerospace giant to block two smaller rivals from gaining a coveted spot in the airline’s fleet.


We have a great lineup for today’s special Brainstorm Tech episode of Fortune Live, hosted this week by Aaron Task straight from Aspen, Colo.

First up, we bring you some footage from our main stage at the event. Fortune’s Michal Lev-Ram caught up with Disney DIS CEO Bob Iger and found out more about Disney’s new theme park in Shanghai. Apparently the turkey legs at the park are all the rage! Then, Intel INTC CEO Brian Krzanich tells Fortune’s Adam Lashinsky about his scheduled dinner with Donald Trump that never came to be. Tune in to check out the conversations!

Next, we move away from the main stage as Aaron catches up with Tom Farley, president of the NYSE. He tells a little more about Line, today’s blockbuster IPO, and what he anticipates for IPOs for the rest of 2016.

Fortune‘s Erin Griffith sits down with Jeffrey Siminoff, Twitter‘s vice president of diversity and inclusion, and asks him about the controversy surrounding Twitter’s TWTR announcement of his role at the company.

Then, Ellevest CEO and co-founder Sallie Krawcheck and Aaron get a chance to catch up and talk about her new company, which serves as an investment platform specifically targeting women.

Hyatt H CEO Mark Hoplamazian and Fortune‘s Susie Gharib discuss what the company has learned from Airbnb. His answers may surprise you, so tune in to find out!

And from the other side of the conversation, Brian Chesky, Airbnb‘s founder and CEO, talks from the main stage about what the company’s offering for its business clientele. If you missed what he had to say at the event, you can watch the highlights right here.

We catch up with Jason Robins, founder and CEO of DraftKings, and discuss how the company’s been dealing with the lawsuits and regulations in recent months.

We close our show with a quick recap of some of our favorite highlights from the event in Aspen. Hope you enjoy!

You can go to fortune.com/fortunelive to watch the full show and individual segments on demand after the show concludes.

Summary: We've got a spec-tech-tacular show today! Tune in at 11 am EST.


“On the Silver Globe,” a sprawling, unfinished work by the Polish director Andrzej Zulawski, takes place on the surface of a distant planet, populated by giant crowlike creatures and the descendants of stranded astronauts from Earth. It also seems to arise from a parallel universe, a cinematic cosmos whose precise coordinates are hard to specify. Zulawski, who began shooting with the support of the Polish government, was ordered to cease production in 1977, a fact referred to in voice-over that was added 10 years later, when the filmmaker patched together a final version of what he referred to as his “murdered” masterwork.

It is that version — 150 minutes of passionate and complicated science fiction, interspersed with documentary footage of ordinary Poles going about terrestrial business in the final days of Communism — that reaches North America in a digital restoration on Friday. (An excellent account of the film’s curious history, by the critic Zach Lewis, can be found at the website mubi.com).

To say that “On the Silver Globe” is unlike anything else being released this summer is a drastic understatement. Zulawski, who died in February, was one of the last great renegades of European art cinema, a wildly inventive, madly ambitious artist who infused his films with the spirit of experimental theater, avant-garde literature and speculative philosophy. He also filled them with sex, absurdity and flights of melodramatic emotion.

“On the Silver Globe” is based on parts of a trilogy of novels by the director’s great-uncle Jerzy Zulawski, an early-20th-century writer and thinker. It is thick with incident and dense with sometimes murky ideas about the fate of mankind, the nature of love and the contradictory human desires for power and freedom. The extraordinary opening shot, of a horseman galloping through a snowy, mountainous landscape, evokes westerns and samurai movies. The horseman arrives at a decrepit cluster of buildings — they look like 19th-century factories or government offices — where two astronauts await him. They have been on this planet a long time, and the nature of their mission takes a while to emerge.

If, that is, it ever does. A chronologically fragmented narrative takes shape, one that spans generations of human habitation on this strange and hostile world. Later scenes take place in caves and on a windswept seashore. An earlier group of space travelers from Earth settled and bred there. Later generations would fight wars with the bird-creatures and also have sex with them, begetting a hybrid species and further conflict.

All of this is conveyed in phantasmagoric, low-tech compositions and long following shots of people expostulating on matters that are not always clear, even to them. A certain amount of work is required to stitch together a sense of the plot, but as is often the case in Zulawski’s films, the story is less the point than an excuse, a loose temporal conceit holding together flights of visual invention, verbal extravagance and male and female nudity.

That “On the Silver Globe” does not really hold together is surely the fault of the long-gone government that prevented its completion. The most intriguing thing about watching it now may be the daydream it provokes of an alternative history. Imagine if Zulawski, who returned from exile in the West to undertake this project, had brought it to full fruition. What would the critics have thought? What would its legacy have been? What wonderful hybrid monsters in our midst would claim it as an ancestor?

“On the Silver Globe” is not rated. It is in Polish, with English subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 46 minutes.

Writers Andrzej Zulawski, Jerzy Zulawski

Stars Andrzej Seweryn, Jerzy Trela, Grazyna Dylag, Waldemar Kownacki, Iwona Bielska

A version of this review appears in print on July 29, 2016, on page C12 of the New York edition with the headline: A Thwarted Sci-Fi Masterwork From a Renegade Polish Director. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

Summary: To say that this sprawling, unfinished film by a renegade Polish director is unlike anything else being released this summer is a drastic understatement.


They process language differently According to a 2008 study of young learners at Northwestern University, girls and boys process language differently. The study revealed that, when learning language, girls’ brains show greater activity in the areas used for language encoding.

Boys’ brains, on the other hand, show activity in the areas associated with visual and aural functions. This means that while girls can process an abstract piece of language more efficiently, boys need some sensory reinforcement to process the data.

For males, the most effective way to study language is to learn visually (seeing a written word or illustration) as well as orally (through listening and repetition).

They use more study strategies According to the language journal Porta Linguarum, studies from Europe, East Asia, and Latin America have all concluded that female foreign language learners tend to use more varied study methods than their male peers.

Female learners engage more skills (speaking, reading, etc) and elements of language (vocabulary, pronunciation, etc), than males, who tend to stick with only a handful of study methods.

A variety of review methods and subjects helps language learners build their skills holistically while preventing boredom.

For learners who may be stuck in a rut, there’s no shortage of language study apps, workbooks, podcasts and websites, all targeting different skills.

They converse more Language learning site Busuu has reported that female users of the site are four times more likely to chat with native speakers of their target language.

This finding reinforces the popular notion among linguists that women are socially conditioned to build connections through talk, and are therefore more used to asking questions and propelling conversation.

Making connections with native speakers of a language helps learners practise listening and speaking skills, improve pronunciation, reinforce grammar and vocabulary, and pick up colloquialisms.

The social connections and friendships that can stem from conversation are also motivators in language study.

Of course, this is a very broad diagnosis of male and female habits, and there are certainly many timid females or sociable males who are exceptions to the rule.

For learners who are timid about face-to-face conversation, online forums (like Busuu) are a low-risk way to socialise.

They are more motivated in school According to the Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics, girls tend to be more motivated to study languages than their male classmates. Studies in Canada, the UK, and Hungary all show that female students are more likely to continue their foreign language studies in school, even when the language class isn’t mandatory.

The rationale behind this pattern is highly disputed among linguists. Some theorise that both girls and boys perceive language study as a female domain.

Some claim that, since language teachers are typically women, girls in the classroom can connect to their instructor as a role model.

Again, these findings are broad trends with many individual exceptions. When it comes to language learning, particularly with adults, motivation can take many forms.

Learn a foreign language for free: top five resources

Foreign languages: how to memorise vocabulary

Foreign languages: the 10 easiest to learn

How to avoid embarrassing foreign language faux pas

Summary: It's dangerous to proclaim any characteristic as sweepingly male or female,   but is there any truth behind this theory, asks Anne Merritt


Some planes may not be immediately available for action though, being tied up in other engagements, or in other cases being repaired and upgraded. Here's how these planes break down in terms of availability.

• Fraser Nelson: Strikes in Syria are meaningless if we keep slashing our military

The Ministry of Defence can be coy about exact figures for security reasons, so figures like how many unmanned aerial "Reaper" drones there are rough estimates. However, some are already conducting strikes in Iraq and surveillance operations in Syria, so they're already proving their use.

Despite the number of Eurofighters available for use, and their capability for air-to-ground warfare, they wouldn't be quite as useful as the other types of aircraft.

Justin Bronk, a research analyst at RUSI, explains: "The Typhoon would be less flexible than the tornado because it can't use the brimstone missile, which is both extremely accurate and has low collateral."

If Britain started air strikes on Isil in Syria, Bronk suggests it would expand where its existing airplanes were operating - looking at Tornado aircraft and Reaper drones - rather than devoting scores of new aircraft."

"It would be a huge change for the RAF at the moment to significantly uplift what they're doing in the region."

The figures show that Britain has around 126 Eurofighter Typhoons in operation, with 40 of those available to be called up swiftly. 32 of those are based in the UK for domestic defence, while 4 of them are patrolling the Falklands, and a further 4 helping Nato's air-policing mission over the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The Ministry of Defence has paid for 160 Typhoons in total, so it has yet to get its hands on estimated 40 more planes.

What about the numbers of Panavia Tornado aircraft? The figures suggest Britain has around 104 of these planes, which it first used to back in the 1991 Gulf War. Some of them are now based in Cyprus, being used to conduct strikes on Isil extremists in Iraq.

The Tornado fleet at RAF Marham, including those employed on operations overseas are organised in an aircraft pool from which air craft can be drawn, rather than permanently allotted to specific squadrons

If Britain decided to devote less manpower, it could use its fleet of Reaper drones to carry out air strikes on Isil in Syria. RUSI estimates we have around 12 of the drones, with 6 quickly availiable at any moment.

Here is a longer list of the RAF's range of airpower, as released by ministers in a parliamentary answer back in 2012 .

Summary: Britain could carry out air strikes in Syria - but with what aircraft?


It is a stunning fact — the biggest social revolution of our lifetime — that far more women than men are now receiving what is in theory an elite academic education. When I was at university 20 years ago, the figures were almost exactly the other way round, with the ratio 60:40 in favour of males. Far more female graduates are coming out of our universities than male graduates — and, in 30 years' time, when these people reach the peak of their careers, the entire management structure of Britain will have been transformed and feminised.

Speaking as an ardent feminist, I expect that this will have many wonderful results: a culture that is more feng shui and emotionally literate and altogether nicer, and an economy that benefits from unleashing the phenomenal energy and talents of British women who are — if GCSEs, A-levels and university entrance results mean anything — currently giving the male sex a good old intellectual thrashing.

Obviously a neanderthal corner of my heart worries about some aspects of the coming feminisation. Will we all become even more namby-pamby, elf-n-safety-conscious, regulation-prone and generally incapable of beating the Australians at anything than we already are? Hmm? And even if the feminist revolution is good and unstoppable (and it is both), we should perhaps consider some of the downsides — and the most interesting is that greater equality between the sexes is actually leading to greater division between the classes. Here's how.

Since the emergence of our species, it has been a brutally sexist feature of romance that women on the whole — and I stress on the whole — will want to mate/procreate with men who are either on a par with themselves, or their superior, in socio-economic and intellectual attainment. A recent study shows that if a man's IQ rises by 16 points, his chances of marrying increase by 35 per cent; if a woman's IQ rises by 16 points, her chances of getting hitched decline by the same amount.

Now look at those university entrance figures again, feed in that basic human prejudice, and some recent social phenomena become intelligible. If you have a sudden surge in the number of highly educated women — more women than men — then it is not surprising that you have a fair few Bridget Jones-type characters who are having a tough job finding Mr Darcy. It is a gloomy truth that 40 per cent of female graduates born in 1970 are likely to enter their forties childless.

As a result of the same instinct — female desire to procreate with their intellectual equals — the huge increase in female university enrolments is leading to a rise in what the sociologists call assortative mating. A snappier word for it is homogamy. The more middle-class graduates we create, the more they seem to settle down with other middle-class graduates, very largely because of the feminine romantic imperative already described. The result is that the expansion of university education has actually been accompanied by a decline in social mobility, and that is because these massive enrolments have been overwhelmingly middle-class.

It is one of the sad failures of this Government that relatively few bright children from poor backgrounds have been encouraged to go to university, partly because of weaknesses in primary and secondary education, partly because of the withdrawal of the ladder of opportunity provided by academic selection. Once they have failed to go to university, the boom in the number of middle-class female students only intensifies their disadvantages.

Let's put it bluntly: nice female middle-class graduates are either becoming permanent Bridget Joneses, or marrying nice male graduates, and they seem on the whole to be turning up their nice graduate noses at male non-graduates. And when the nice middle-class graduate couples get together, they have the double income to buy the houses and push the prices up — and make life even tougher for the non-graduates.

The result is that we have widening social divisions, and two particularly miserable groups: the female graduates who think men are all useless because they can't find a graduate husband, and the male non-graduates who feel increasingly trampled on by the feminist revolution, and resentful of all these hoity-toity female graduates who won't give them the time of day.

What is the answer, my friends? I don't know. We could try fiscal incentives for heterogamy. We could have plotlines in soap operas, in which double first girls regularly marry illiterate brickies.

But the only long-term solution for the "uselessness" of young men, as complained of by my twentysomething colleagues, is to get serious with the education of males in primary schools. And if the Equal Opportunities Commission wants to say something sensible for a change, it should start campaigning for more male teachers.

Summary: If the feminist revolution is good and unstoppable (and it is both), we should perhaps consider some of the downsides, muses Boris Johnson.


On weekend mornings, James Conelly heads down the street to the nearest, cheapest provider of coffee—his office.

The 28-year old data analyst lives less than a half-mile from his work in Mountain View, Calif., thanks to a $300 monthly housing stipend from his employer, Addepar Inc. Companies such as Addepar and Facebook Inc. are offering rent subsidies, house-hunting services and down-payment help for employees willing to live close...

Summary: Companies are offering rent subsidies, house-hunting services and down-payment help for employees willing to live close to the office. And, managers say, these employees often work late and stay with the company longer.


Portraits, from gritty Lucian Freuds to the fatuous kitsch perpetrated by street artists, are such a constant presence in our visual landscape that it's hard to remember that the genre's history is far from continuous. For centuries, throughout the ancient world—in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece—human beings were depicted according to strict, near-abstract conventions, except for a short-lived period of relative naturalism during the reign of the renegade monotheist pharaoh, Akhenaten. The Romans, of course, excelled at memorial portraits, sculpting heads uncannily like people we still encounter on present-day Italian streets and, in the further reaches of the Empire, painting those astonishing, liquid-eyed face-panels for Roman-era Egyptian mummies.

Medieval manuscripts sometimes include images of donors, but essentially as emblems of kingship or duchesshood rather than as reports on the particularities of recognizable persons. Aristocrats, in the Middle Ages, are depicted no more specifically than peasants performing labors appropriate to the seasons; they're just better dressed. It's not until the Renaissance that we again find representations as sharply characterized as those of ancient Rome, evidence not only of what the 19th-century Swiss cultural historian Jacob Burckhardt called "the revival of antiquity," in his seminal work "The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy," but also of, in Burckhardt's terms, "the development of the individual" and "the awakening of personality."

These new attitudes come to life in the delectable survey "The Renaissance Portrait: From Donatello to Bellini," a collaboration between the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. More than 150 paintings, sculptures, reliefs and drawings trace the development of the likeness, mainly during the 15th century, from stylized profile images, inspired by antique medals, to three-quarter views of convincing personages who turn easily in space and coolly appraise us. It's a stunning show, with a checklist that reads like the iconic collection of an ideal museum of the quattrocento, plus compelling works by less familiar Italian artists and a few splendid Netherlandish portraits for comparison.

Organized both chronologically and thematically, the exhibition begins with a Donatello "speaking reliquary" (c. 1425): a gilded bronze bust designed to house a skull fragment of St. Rossore, the image denoting the type of relic enclosed. Somehow, Donatello transforms a traditional devotional form into a potent evocation of an individual, pointing the way to the vividly personal paintings and sculptures of demure women and powerful men in subsequent galleries.

The Donatello bust is accompanied by early quattrocento paintings of male profiles by Masaccio, Paolo Uccello and (probably) Domenico Veneziano, all of them with red cappucci—long-tailed hoods—piled on their heads. Despite their robust modeling, they seem schematic, as do many of the images of young blondes that follow, paintings by such masters as Filippo Lippi, Sandro Botticelli and the Pollaiuolo brothers, and suave marble busts by Desiderio da Settignano and Andrea del Verrocchio. So it's no surprise to learn that the men may be posthumous portraits, made as symbols as much as truthful likenesses, or that the women, with their elaborate hairstyles, opulent jewelry and piquant profiles, are better interpreted as idealized embodiments of modesty and chastity than as accurate records of particular people.

Yet as we move through the exhibition, we are increasingly surrounded by specific individuals with particular attributes. Portraits of the Medici and their associates announce what Burckhardt called "the modern idea of fame," a concept further explored, later on, in medals, busts, drawings and paintings of assorted (mostly male) notables, from clerics to humanist poets to merchants. Some are corpulent and jowly, others are lean and bony, still others have impressive noses or stubborn chins; all have had their most distinctive features emphasized, as if to ensure immediate recognition or confirm relationships. We note, for example, the long, narrow d'Este face, captured by Pisanello in his portraits of Leonello, the marquess of Ferrara, in a Rogier van der Weyden portrait of Leonello's "natural son." We see how the erudite, hard-bitten humanist-warrior-duke of Urbino, Federigo da Montefeltro, and his small, blond son Guidalbaldo share an overbite and a sturdy chin.

The Medici section includes multiple versions of Botticelli's commemorative portrait of Giuliano de' Medici, Lorenzo il Magnifico's brother, murdered in 1478 in the "Pazzi Conspiracy." Supporters of the family commissioned images of the long-nosed, dark-haired young man with downcast eyes as signs of solidarity and loyalty. Lorenzo himself appears many times, in different mediums, most unforgettably in a fierce death mask. (The identification of the subject of a fresh little drawing by Leonardo da Vinci is disputed.)

We can learn a lot about the conventions and the development of Renaissance portraiture from this absorbing exhibition. We can compare drawings, sometimes made from life, with finished paintings or medallions. We can measure Benedetto da Maiano's preparatory terra-cotta bust of the tough-minded Florentine banker Filippo Strozzi against the finished marble version (both 1475). Mostly, we can revel in such superb works as Giovanni Bellini's 1515 "Fra Teodoro of Urbino as St. Dominic," a sympathetic portrait of an elderly ascetic, holding a lily, that prefigures the entire Pre-Raphaelite movement. There's Antonello da Messina's skeptical young man with thick curling hair and a black cappuccio (1478) and Laurana's nuanced marble of the introspective bluestocking Beatrice of Aragon (c. 1474-75). And much more. These glimpses into history, these interesting faces, gorgeous clothes and richly worked jewelry, come to us via incisive drawing, subtle modeling, glorious color and seductive surfaces. That's a lot.

Ms. Wilkin writes about art for the Journal.

Summary: For centuries up until the Renaissance, portraits adhered to strict, near abstract conventions that smoothed over individual attributes.


MEXICO CITY—Mexican economic growth faces headwinds from global market volatility, government spending cuts and higher local interest rates, although the country is fairly well equipped to handle shocks such as lower oil prices and higher U.S. interest rates, Moody’s Investors Service said Wednesday.

“Gross capital flows to emerging markets have started to revert in 2016; although the trend change has been gradual in the case of Mexico, external volatility continues to weigh on growth,” the ratings company said in a report.

A flexible exchange rate, foreign reserves around $177 billion and a recently renewed flexible credit line with the International Monetary Fund leave Mexico relatively well positioned to manage external shocks, Moody’s added.

Moody’s rates Mexico A3, a notch higher than Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s, but changed the outlook to negative at the end of March after the slump in oil prices cut into government revenue and strained the finances of state oil company Petróleos Mexicanos.

Moody’s forecasts that the Mexican economy will expand 2.5% this year, and is now slightly more optimistic than the consensus which foresees 2.3% growth, according to the latest central-bank survey of private economists.

“When we started the year at 2.5%, we looked conservative,” said Moody’s senior analyst Jaime Reusche. “We’re maybe a bit higher now. We expect some kind of pickup in the manufacturing sector, while services could lose some momentum.”

Gross domestic product contracted 0.3% in the second quarter from the first, although output rose 2.4% from a year earlier, according to preliminary data from the National Statistics Institute.

Consumption has been the main driver, supported by wage and job growth, while manufacturing has lagged on sluggish external demand despite the weaker peso making Mexican exports cheaper.

Moody’s concern with slower growth is that it could limit the government’s ability to reduce fiscal deficits. In the case of Mexico, the benefits of government spending cuts to reduce borrowing slightly outweigh the negative impact on growth, Mr. Reusche said.

Fitch Ratings last week affirmed Mexico’s sovereign rating at triple-B-plus, citing the country’s diversified economic base and “track record of disciplined economic policies.”

Fitch expects the economy to grow 2.4% this year, speeding up to 3% on average in 2017 and 2018 thanks to a competitive peso, improved external conditions and some positive impact from recent overhauls such as the opening of the energy sector to private investment.

Write to Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com

Summary: Mexican economic growth faces headwinds from global market volatility, government spending cuts and higher local interest rates, although the country is fairly well equipped to handle shocks, Moody’s Investors Service said Wednesday.


With a little bit of chaos and a last-minute sprint on preparations, Rio de Janeiro was ready on Friday to revel in a moment seven years in the making: the opening of the Olympic Games.

At an evening ceremony in the famed Maracana soccer stadium, Brazil will declare open the 31st Summer Olympic Games and the first ever in South America. They will run until Aug. 21.

Organizers are hoping the start of the Games will erase months of bad publicity for Rio - from polluted water to faulty plumbing at the athletes village to worries about the Zika virus - all against the backdrop of a brutal economic downturn.

SEE MORE: Everything you need to know about the Summer Olympics

Security challenges in the sprawling beachside city are at the forefront of many people's mind, not only because of Rio's decades-old reputation for violent street crime, but also after a spate of deadly attacks at big and small celebrations from Europe to the United States.

With many of the Games' 11,000 athletes and dozens of heads of state in attendance, the first major test of preparedness comes at Maracana, where the biggest security operation of the Games will be deployed.

Some 50,000 spectators are expected while more than 3 billion people tune in around the world as Brazil hosts its second major sporting event in two years, after the 2014 soccer World Cup.

"I think it's going to be great," said Braulio Ferreira, 38, who runs a small shop in the Jardim Botanico neighborhood, near the lagoon where rowing and canoeing races will be held. "Like the World Cup, it'll be great to throw a good party and mix with the people from all over."

Like many in Rio, however, Ferreira said citizens had not received benefits like better transport and sanitation promised in the Olympic bid: "It cost a lot of money, but I don't see much of the legacy that was promised."

Brazil's political crisis could crash the party as interim President Michel Temer opens the Games. In a bitterly divided country, protesters are encouraging spectators to boo Temer, who took over after the Senate voted to subject leftist President Dilma Rousseff to an impeachment hearing this month.

Brazil won its bid for the Games back in 2009, when the economy was booming and Rio's coffers swelled with royalties from its offshore oil.

The economy is now on track for its worst recession in a century and Rousseff is expected to be permanently ousted this month.

In what organizers have called a low-tech ceremony constrained by the dire economy, Brazil will showcase its natural treasures and the cultural riches created by one of the world's most diverse nations.

Samba, Carnival and the famously fun Brazilian spirit are expected to play heavily into the three-hour ceremony, as will a call to save the planet from climate change.

One of the most anticipated moments will be seeing which famous Brazilian will light the Olympic cauldron. The odds-on favorite is soccer legend Pele.

Spokesmen for Pele said he had received the green light from his sponsors and doctor, but the 75-year-old was waiting to see if he felt well enough.

Before the ceremony, the Olympic torch will travel to some of the most well-known landmarks of the "marvelous city" - from the Christ the Redeemer statue atop the lush green mountains to the striking Pao de Acucar or Sugar Loaf rock formation on Guanabara Bay.

GREAT MOMENTS FROM THE SUMMER OLYMPICS:

Great moments from the Summer Olympics

Mary Lou Retton at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Calif., Aug. 1, 1984. (AP Photo)

Mildred Didrikson of Dallas, Texas at the Olympic Stadium Los Angeles July 31, 1932 when she sent the javelin soaring 143 feet 4 inches to better by more than 11 feet the former mark held by E. Braumiller of Germany. (AP Photo)

Babe Didrikson, second from right, leads her USA teammate, Evelyne Hall, right, over the last hurdle to win the women's 80-meter hurdles at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, August 4, 1932. Didrikson's time of 11.7 seconds set a world and Olympic record. (AP Photo)

Alice Coachman of Tuskegee about to snap the tape to win the 100 meter run in the Woman's National AAU Track and Field championships, Aug. 5, 1946. Coming up a close second, left, is Stella Walsh, running for the Polish-Olympic WAC, Cleveland. (AP Photo)

High jumper Dick Fosbury of the United States is shown in October 1968, debuting his celebrated "Fosbury Flop," during the Summer Olympics in Mexico City. "The Flop" revolutionized high jumping, and Fosbury went on to win the gold medal with a leap of 7 feet and 4 and 1/4 inches. (AP Photo)

Bob Beamon astonished the world in October1968 when he leaped 29 feet 2-1/2 in., about two feet more than the existing long jump record, to capture a gold medal in the Olympic Games in Mexico City.(AP PHOTO)

Bob Beamon of El Paso, Texas digs his feet into the sand pit after a record-shattering long jump of 8.90 meters on his first attempt in the Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City, Friday Oct. 18, 1968. (AP PHOTO)

Bob Beamon is shown in his record-breaking long jump that won him a gold medal on October 18, 1968 during the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. (AP Photo)

Heavyweight boxer George Foreman is seen during his bout with Russia's Iones Chepulis during their Olympic finals in Mexico City, Oct. 27, 1968. Foreman captured the gold medal. (AP Photo)

American heavyweight boxer George Foreman of Pleasanton, California, waves an American flag after winning the Olympic gold medal at the Mexico City games on Oct. 27, 1968. Foreman won by a technical knockout in the second round against Iones Chepulis of Russia. (AP Photo/Kurt Strumpf)

Winners of the heavyweight division of Olympic boxing, (from left to right) silver medalist Ionas Chepulis of Russia, American gold medalist George Foreman, and joint bronze medalists, Giorgio Bambini of Italy and Joaquin Rocha of Mexico are seen in the ring after medal presentations, October 27, 1968 at the Olympic Games in Mexico City. (AP Photo)

Ulrike Meyfarth, 16, of West Germany goes over the bar at 1.92 meters to win the world record and win a gold medal in the 1972 Olympic Games women's high jump event at the Munich Olympic Stadium, Sept. 4, 1972. (AP Photo)

Smiling happily is Ulrike Meyfarth, 16, of West Germany after winning the gold medal in the high jump for women in the 1972 Munich Olympics. She jumped 1.92 metres, setting a new Olympic record. (AP Photo)

Nadia Comaneci from Romania performs an excellent balanced jump on the horse vault during compulsory events and optional exercises, July 18,1976 in Montreal at the Summer Olympic Games. (AP Photo)

Romania's top gymnast Nadia Comaneci performs on the balance beam on July 18, 1976 during the Summer Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada. (AP Photo)

Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci, 14, performs a flip on the balance beam en route to a gold medal in the event during the Olympic Games in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on July 22, 1976. (AP Photo/Stephanie Maze)

Romania's Nadia Comaneci, 14, performs her part of the balance beam routine Thursday July 23, 1976 in Olympic competition in Montreal. This multiple exposure study points out the grace of her movements, leading to a gold medal and a perfect score in the event. (AP Photo/Suzanne Vlamis)

Sugar Ray Leonard in action against Ulrich Beyer July 27,1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Leonard later won the Gold Medal in the light Welterweight class (140 lbs). (AP Photo)

American boxer Sugar Ray Leonard raises his arms in victory after defeating Ulrich Beyer of East Germany to qualify for the final bout, at the XXI Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada, on July 27, 1976. (AP Photo)

Sugar Ray Leonard of Palmer Park, Md., right, throws a right at Kazmier Szczerba of Poland during the light welterweight boxing match at the XXI Summer Olympic Games in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on July 29, 1976. Leonard won the match. (AP Photo)

Soviet world champion gymnast Aleksandr Dityatin swings up during his performance on the horizontal bars that earned him a 9.95 score during men's team gymnastics event Thursday, July 24, 1980 at the Moscow Olympics. The Soviet, 22, became the first man ever to score a perfect ten for the vault and won the gold medal in the all-around category of the event. (AP Photo)

Alexander Dityatin of USSR performs on the rings during the apparatus final of the Olympics, July 25, 1980 in Moscow. He took the gold medal with a score of 19.875. (AP Photo/Maze)

Joan Benoit shown running at the Olympic women's marathon in Los Angeles. She won the gold medal. (AP Photo/Ron Heflin)

Freeport, Maine's Joan Benoit, carries an American flag after finishing the first-ever women's marathon in the 1984 Summer Games August 5, 1984 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The 27-year-old Benoit finished the 26-mile, 385-yard distance in 2.24:52. (AP Photo/Sadayuki Mikami)

U.S. runner Joan Benoit of Freeport, Maine, waves the American flag on Aug 5, 1984 after her gold medal win in the women's marathon that concluded in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. (AP Photo/Lennox McLendon)

U.S. runner Joan Benoit of Freeport, Maine, waves the American flag on Aug 5, 1984 after her gold medal win in the women's marathon that concluded in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. (AP Photo/Lennox McLendon)

Romania's Ecaterina Szabo, who is a favorite for a gold medal at the Summer Olympics, is pictured at Stadtallendorf on July 5, 1984, during her team's gymnastic contest vs. West Germany. (AP Photo/Kurt Strumpf)

Romania's Ecaterina Szabo, is shown July 30, 1984 during balance beam where she finished second to teamate Simona Pakea at the 1984 summer Olympics in Los Angeles. (AP Photo)

Mary Lou Retton of team USA is shown during her perfect performance in the floor exercise in the Olympic individual all-around finals in Los Angeles, Calif., on Aug. 3, 1984 during the Summer Olympics. Retton edged out Ecaterina Szabo of Romania for the gold medal. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)

Mary Lou Retton of Fairmount, Va. leaps in the air after scoring a perfect 10 on the vault in her final routine to win the women's all-around gymnastics gold medal at the Olympics in Los Angeles, Calif., Friday, Aug. 4, 1984. (AP Photo)

Mary Lou Retton, foreground, with her gold medal and Ecaterina Szabo with her silver medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Calif., Aug. 5, 1984. (AP Photo)

Mary Lou Retton celebrates her balance beam score at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles on Aug. 3, 1984. Retton, 16, became the first American woman ever to win an individual Olympic gold medal in gymnastics. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)

American gymnast Mary Lou Retton on the uneven bars at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Calif., Aug. 5, 1984. (AP Photo)

American gymnast Mary Lou Retton celebrates after a victory at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Calif., Aug.12, 1984. (AP Poto)

Mary Lou Retton of the USA beams after winning the gold medal in Olympics individual all-around gymnastics competition Aug. 3, 1984. (AP Photo)

American gymnast Mary Lou Retton celebrates after a victory at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Calif., Aug.12, 1984. (AP Poto)

Mary Lou Retton, of the U.S.A., performs on the balance beam during the women's gymnastics individual all-around finals at the XXIII Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Calif., on Aug. 3, 1984. (AP Photo/Suzanne Vlamis)

American gymnast Mary Lou Retton during her balance beam routine at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Calif., Aug. 3, 1984. (AP Photo)

USA's Michael Jordan sails high above teammate Magic Johnson knocking away a shot during the first half of their preliminary round basketball game with Croatia at the Summer Olympics in Barcelona Monday, July 27, 1992. (AP Photo/Susan Ragan)

The USA's Magic Johnson drives the court against Croatia's Drazen Petrovic during the First half of their preliminary round basketball game at the XXV Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Monday, July 27, 1992. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke)

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Summary: With a little last-minute sprint on preparations, Rio was ready on Friday to revel in a moment seven years in the making: the opening of the Olympics.


BBC director general Mark Thompson has announced proposals allowing viewers to permanently download copies of their favourite shows from the archives.

Mr Thompson said the plan - named Project Barcelona - would enable the purchase of programmes to own for a "relatively modest" fee.

He added that the digital archive would stay open for good, and shows would remain available to licence fee payers.

The plans will be put before the BBC Trust later this year.

Mr Thompson, who was speaking at the Royal Television Society (RTS) in London, said that the UK's producers would also need to give their support to the project.

He said that the BBC intended to open up a "digital shop" for programme downloads, but that other existing providers would also be able to buy the content.

Mr Thompson added that more and more programmes from the archive would be added to the service.

He described the scheme as the "digital equivalent" of people buying a DVD of their favourite programme for a permanent collection. Many of the programmes would not have previously been available to own.

The BBC's boss also said that the project would provide a source of income to support independent programme production in the UK, and denied it was a "second licence fee by stealth".

Media commentator Steve Hewlett said: "Other broadcasters could be concerned about the service's impact.

"When it launched, iPlayer was extremely disruptive to emerging paid-for content models because it was free at the point of use. People will be asking whether Project Barcelona will have a similar effect on the market."

Mr Hewlett added: "The BBC's archive programmes - like Fawlty Towers and Doctor Who - already represent a significant commercial revenue stream in the form of DVDs and downloads on services like iTunes.

"If it is going to open up the broader archive, then it would naturally expect people to pay for access."

Project Barcelona is viewed as another part of a strategy to give access to the BBC's programmes, which the corporation has been pursuing for the past decade.

It follows on from the iPlayer and YouView - a free-to-air, web-based service joining the BBC with other providers including Channel 4 and ITV.

Summary: BBC director general Mark Thompson announces proposals to allow viewers to permanently download copies of archived programmes.


HERSHEY, Pa.—This town runs on chocolate.

From the roller coasters at Hershey Park to the butterfly conservatory at Hershey Gardens, Hershey, Pa., was literally built on the generosity of its founder, the iconic chocolatier Milton S. Hershey.

Seven decades after his death at the age of 88, the maker of Hershey’s Kisses and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups still employs 4,500 people in a close-knit community surrounded by farmland. The related entertainment company draws 8,000 more full- and part-time workers into the town of 14,200 people.

No wonder, then, that Hershey residents fret the tap might run dry if Hershey Co. HSY 1.73 % is sold or merges with a suitor such as Mondelez International Inc., MDLZ 0.73 % the Oreo cookie maker that offered on June 30 to buy Hershey for $23 billion. Hershey’s board rejected the bid.

“Who knows what happens to all that if the company is sold? That’s what worries people,” said Ken Rawley, who grew up in Hershey, where his father was a sales and marketing executive at the company. Mr. Rawley has since moved to New York and works for a boat company.

Hershey is a holdout from a bygone American era, when some 2,000 towns sprang up to serve one particular coal mine, textile factory or slaughterhouse. Many have faded as factories moved overseas and technological advancements led to job cuts.

The coal-mining town of Lynch. Ky., built by U.S. Steel X -0.56 % in 1917, saw its population start to plummet in the 1950s from a peak of 10,000 as the industry mechanized. As of the 2010 U.S. census, there were 747 people left in Lynch. Archer Daniels Midland Co. ADM 0.37 % recently left its longtime home of Decatur, Ill. for trendier pastures in Chicago, hurting fancier restaurants and hotels that catered to the commodities giant’s executives and white-collar visitors.

Belgium-based InBev BUD 0.43 % purchased Anheuser Busch in 2008. The beer giant had cut some 2,000 jobs in the St. Louis area—AB’s headquarters—by the end of 2011, and started a yearslong squabble over who would operate a beloved local nature reserve. St. Louis-area residents face another potential blow with Bayer AG BAYRY -1.80 % ’s percolating bid for seed giant Monsanto Co. MON -1.15 % —a major employer and charitable donor that could depart if it gets acquired.

The same fate hasn’t befallen Hershey, where Kisses-shaped lamps burn bright above the downtown intersection of Chocolate and Cocoa Avenues. “Hershey seems as prosperous and welcoming as ever,” said Hardy Green, author of “The Company Town: The Industrial Edens and Satanic Mills That Shaped the American Economy.” He added, “People in the town of Hershey are reluctant to say anything bad about the company because they’re afraid of what will happen.”

Hershey’s resilience is due largely to the unusual strength of Hershey Trust Co., a secretive body of about 10 members that oversees a $12 billion endowment, charitable and entertainment institutions across Hershey, and 81% of the chocolate maker’s voting shares.

Milton Hershey founded the trust over a century ago, mainly to look after the Milton Hershey School for some 2,000 underprivileged children. It still does that, but today the trust also owns a resort and spa, an amusement park and a real-estate company in town.

The trust enjoys an unusual relationship with state leaders. Pennsylvania law requires the state’s attorney general to oversee the trust’s major investment decisions, including a possible sale. Democrat Josh Shapiro and Republican John Rafferty are running for the open state attorney-general seat, and Hershey has become a campaign issue. “I will vigorously protect Hershey’s continued success in Pennsylvania,” Mr. Shapiro said.

The latest offer from Mondelez, formerly Kraft Foods Inc., included concessions to call the combined company Hershey and make the town its chocolate headquarters. That hasn’t stifled concerns in Hershey that jobs would leave.

Mondelez told worried Britons that its acquisition of Cadbury in 2010 would preserve a local factory that had been slated for closure. After inking the deal, Mondelez closed the factory after all.

Hershey Co. has also disappointed its citizenry in the past. A few years ago, Hershey closed its original factory, built under smokestacks that still proclaim the company’s name, indicating to visitors that they’ve come upon “the sweetest place on earth.” A more mechanized facility nearby employs 500 fewer people than the old plant.

John Foley, a Milton Hershey School alumnus who sits on the town’s board of supervisors, said despite downsizing, Hershey residents still see the company as their “golden goose.”

“They should never sell it. Even if the headquarters stayed here, we’d lose our power,” he said.

Brad Reese, the grandson of the creator of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, which Hershey bought in 1963, spent his early years in what he calls “this very insular town.” He swam in the pool at the Hershey-built community center, and drank milk from the Hershey-owned dairy.

“It’s a honey pot,” said Mr. Reese, “the hand that feeds.”

Write to Annie Gasparro at annie.gasparro@wsj.com

Summary: Hershey, Pa., runs on chocolate and has enjoyed many benefits over the years. As a result, residents worry about corporate suitors, such as Mondelez, which offered to buy Hershey Co. in June.


About a dozen university students are refusing to budge from a Sydney College of the Arts building, where they are preparing to spend a second night in protest at planned cuts to courses and staff.

The students have occupied the top floor of the administration building at Callan Park since 2pm on Monday to protest Sydney University's plan to reduce the number of courses on offer and cut staff numbers by more than half.

The university also hopes to close the Callan Park campus in Sydney's inner west.

The students, who plan to stay barricaded inside until the university responds to their demands, have already developed a nifty way of getting supplies.

"We have a bucket people keep sending stuff up with, like cookies, cake and pizza," student and protest organiser Suzy Faiz told AAP on Tuesday.

"It's amazing - getting food delivered through the window."

Despite her light-hearted comments, Ms Faiz and the other students are determined to stay put until the university responds to their grievances.

"Until they're willing to sit down and talk we're not leaving," fellow organiser Dylan Griffiths told AAP.

Sydney University appears unmoved by the protest, saying it "supports students' right to protest peacefully but its plans for changes to the SCA will remain unchanged".

The proposed changes include staff cuts of up to 60 per cent, an end to ceramics, jewellery, and glass classes and studios, and the closure of the Callan Park campus, which is attended by about 700 students.

The announcement came just weeks after the university backed down on plans to merge its visual arts school with a rival campus following student and staff opposition.

Painting and sculpture lecturer Mikala Dwyer said the occupy movement had inspired her and other arts staff.

"It gives me hope, they're really fighting for it," she told AAP.

* SCA dean Colin Rhodes be replaced with a representative SCA staff team

* No cuts to jobs, studios and courses

* SCA not be moved from the Callan Park campus

* The Bachelor of Visual Arts for 2017 be reinstated

* A transparent independent review of Sydney University's financial and constitutional status.

Summary: Sydney University students have spent the night barricaded inside a campus building to protest cuts to Sydney College of the Arts.


Rescuers believe they have found more bodies buried deep in the rubble of the ruined town of Amatrice, five days after a devastating earthquake struck central Italy, killing at least 290 people.

Residents of the hill town estimated that up to 10 people were still missing and emergency services said they had located three corpses in Amatrice's Hotel Roma, which, like much of the historic centre, was wrecked by Wednesday's quake.

Deputy Mayor Gianluca Carloni said his uncle's body had still not been recovered from the hotel, which was particularly busy at this time of year because of a food festival.

Museums across Italy donated proceeds from their ticket sales on Sunday to help the rebuilding effort, while top flight soccer teams held a minute's silence before their weekend matches out of respect for the victims.

Pope Francis led prayers for the dead in his weekly address in St Peter's Square in Rome, saying he wanted to go to the earthquake zone to bring comfort to the survivors.

Priests in the quake zone held their regular Sunday services in large tents.

Amatrice's municipal website said the town had 100 churches, but every one was damaged by the disaster and many would have to be demolished.

With aftershocks continuing to rattle the region, including a magnitude 4.4 quake centred on the nearby city of Ascoli Piceno, residents were still struggling to absorb the disaster.

"It took me 20 years to get my house, and then, in just 10 seconds, it was gone, like so many others," said Ascenzio Attenni, who lived in the hamlet of Sant'Angelo outside Amatrice, where eight people died.

Rescue operations in most of the area were halted two days ago, but teams were still combing Amatrice, which is 105 km east of Rome.

The fire service said it was trying to remove some of the fallen masonry at the Hotel Roma and create a safe path to retrieve the three bodies as soon as possible.

The Civil Protection Department lowered the official death toll on Sunday to 290 from a previously given 291.

Italy has promised to rebuild the shattered communities and has said it will learn from the mistakes following a similar earthquake in the nearby city of L'Aquila in 2009, where much of the centre is still out of bounds.

Summary: Rescuers continue to go through the rubble in Italy, following a massive quake that killed at least 290 people.


One student has been expelled and five more questioned after police swooped on schoolyard last week, Source: Google Street View

A 16-year-old boy has been arrested at his Victorian private school over a drugs investigation.

Bendigo Police arrested the Girton Grammar School student on Friday.

The school, which has annual fees as high as $13,000, was give advance notice by police they would be entering the property to make the arrest.

Do you know more? Email newstips@ninemsn.com.au

The youth was then interviewed and released pending further investigations, a police spokeswoman said.

The teenager has been expelled from the school, headmaster Matthew Maruff confirmed.

Five other students are being questioned by staff about drug use off-campus and have been asked to stay home until the investigation is complete, Mr Maruff added.

Mr Maruff claimed there was no suggestion any drug activity had taken place at the school.

In a statement on the school's website, Mr Maruff said "we are shocked by this incident".

"Girton Grammar School takes a zero tolerance stance when it comes to anything to do with illegal drugs," the statement read.

"We have a duty of care to our students to make sure that school is a safe place to be so any illegal activity of any kind at the school is unacceptable."

Summary: A Victorian private school boy has been arrested and interviewed over an ongoing drugs investigation.


As the first debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton nears, support isn’t traditional. Let’s take a look.

For all the complaints about Obamacare, hospitals don’t want to see it entirely dismantled. The law needs changes, industry executives say, but the kind of do-over Trump has promised is seen as costly and disruptive. Also high on the radar are fast-rising drug costs and a willingness to spend federal dollars to study public health threats like the Zika virus and Ebola, as well as gun violence research, which Congress has refused to fund.

Almost anyone in finance will tell you they feel aggrieved by the Dodd-Frank overhaul following the 2008 financial crisis. They see Clinton as likely to continue the Obama administration’s policies and think Trump is their best chance for rolling back regulations. Republicans also want to defang the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The multibillion-dollar investors in big deals who backed Mitt Romney in the last election now are worried about Clinton eliminating the tax deductibility of interest on corporate debt. Trump, whose businesses carry considerable debt, would be less likely to get rid of this tax benefit.

Both Trump and Clinton have suggested doing away with the favorable tax treatment private equity and hedge fund firms get with their own earnings, called “carried interest.” But there’s a feeling in the industry that Trump might back away from policies that private equity executives oppose.

Business leaders will be training a close eye on the economic policies and plans of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Turns out the free tuition platform championed by Bernie Sanders and largely adopted by Clinton may be popular with parents and students but not so much with this region’s private colleges and universities.

Specialists in the sector say too much money pouring into public colleges could have the unintended impact of crowding out students with lower incomes and test scores. On the other hand, Clinton has pledged to lower interest rates on student loans and increase grants, moves that would help students at private schools too.

The medical schools and research universities in Massachusetts want to see an increase in the $2.5 billion in federal research funds that come here annually, money that Clinton may be more willing to earmark than Trump.

For a crowd that used to steer clear of politics, tech and venture finance folks have been unusually vocal in opposing Trump’s immigration policies. In an arena that’s devoted to innovation and new ideas, limiting who can come into the country and stay here to work and start companies is highly unpopular.

A sector that’s under pressure to embrace women and racial diversity also sees little affinity with conservative social policies.

Clinton also has pledged to invest in digital infrastructure.

Top on their list is funding for the National Institutes of Health, to promote research and development at the region’s hospitals and universities. And unlike their cohorts in finance, this group perennially wants more funding for their regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, to get new drugs through the pipeline faster. Both of those efforts have historically been pushed by Democrats.

Clinton has appeared in campaign ads criticizing the pharmaceutical industry for the high cost of drugs. On the other hand, she says she’d support development of new drugs.

Another big concern is trade deals, and protecting drugs invented in the United States from being copied overseas. In that area, Trump may be more helpful, industry advocates say.

Sources: Industry associations and executives, Globe research

Summary: As the first debate nears, support isn’t traditional.


A composite image of the scroll. (Commons)

An extremely fragile, ancient Hebrew scroll has been digitally unwrapped for the first time, revealing the earliest copy ever found of an Old Testament Bible scripture, researchers said Wednesday.

Known as the En-Gedi scroll, it contains text from the Book of Leviticus, and dates at least to the third or fourth century, possibly earlier, according to the report in the journal Science Advances.

The deciphering of its contents is described in the journal as a "significant discovery in biblical archeology."

The scroll is not the oldest ever found -- that honor belongs to the biblical Dead Sea Scrolls which range from the third century BC to the second century of the common era (AD).

Radiocarbon analysis has shown that the En-Gedi scroll dates to the third or fourth century AD.

Some experts think it is older than that. An analysis of the handwriting style and the way the letters are drawn suggests it could be even older, dating to the second half of the first century or the beginning of the second century AD.

Its contents were long thought to be lost forever, because it was burned in a fire in the 6th century and was impossible to touch without dissolving into chunks of ash.

The scroll was found by archeologists in 1970 at En-Gedi, the site of a large, ancient Jewish community dating from the late eighth century BC.

Its fragments were preserved by the Israel Antiquities Authority for decades.

"Each fragment's main structure, completely burned and crushed, had turned into chunks of charcoal that continued to disintegrate every time they were touched," said the study.

The charred remains of scroll. (Israel Antiques Authority)

So researchers used advanced digital scanning tools to "virtually unwrap" the scroll and see its contents.

A micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) scan was able to pick up traces of metal in the ink.

Before the scroll was virtually unwrapped, experts believed the artifact may have been a Torah scroll.

But a look at the images showed it was the Book of Leviticus, from the third book of the Book of Moses.

This makes it the earliest Pentateuchal book -- relating to the first five books of the Jewish or Christian scriptures -- ever found.

"We were amazed at the quality of the images," said Michael Segal, head of the School of Philosophy and Religions at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

"Much of the text is as readable, or close to as readable as actual unharmed Dead Sea Scrolls or high resolution photographs of them."

The scroll shows 18 lines of text in each column, which were originally 35 lines long.

Like other ancient Hebrew scrolls, it contains only consonants and no vowels.

Symbols for vowels were not introduced in Hebrew until the 9th century.

"We were immediately struck by the fact that in these passages, the En-Gedi Leviticus scroll is identical in all of its details both regarding its letter and section division to what we call the Masoretic text, the authoritative Jewish text until today," said Segal.

The En-Gedi Leviticus scroll "is the most extensive and significant biblical text from antiquity that has come to light" since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, he added.

Researchers hope the techniques developed to read it will be used on other scrolls, including some from the Dead Sea Scroll collection, which have remained undecipherable until now.

"Damage and decay is the natural order of things, but you can see that sometimes you can absolutely pull a text back from the brink of loss,"said co-author Brent Seales, professor and chairman in the department of computer science at the University of Kentucky.

"The En-Gedi scroll is proof positive we can potentially recover whole texts from damaged material, not just a few letters or a speculative word," said Seales.

Summary: An extremely fragile, ancient Hebrew scroll has been digitally unwrapped for the first time, revealing the earliest copy ever found of an Old Testament Bible scripture.


Won by What a Nuisance and presented by Prince Charles the 18 carat gold 1985 Melbourne Cup is up for sale.

Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana were among the 80,000 crowd watching Australia's most famous race when the horse that had just recovered from injury surged ahead to win by a nose at odds of 15/1.

The Melbourne Cup will be auctioned in Sydney by Sotheby's on October 25 with an estimate of $100,000 to $120,000.

Summary: The 1985 Melbourne Cup won by What a Nuisance is going to auction in Sydney.


A woman is under police guard in hospital after a three-car prang in Sydney's inner west.

Crash investigators believe the 34-year-old ploughed into the back of a car travelling in the same direction on Parramatta Road in Camperdown about 1am on Saturday.

She then smashed into a stationary taxi, police believe.

The woman was taken to hospital with minor injuries, where she remains under police guard.

The drivers of the other vehicles were assessed at the scene but did not require further treatment.

Summary: A woman is under police guard after a three-car crash in Sydney.


Donald Trump's allies are struggling to defend his refusal at the final presidential debate to say he will honour the results of the November election should he lose.

Condemnation of his stance has come from Republicans and Democrats alike.

Sean Spicer, the chief strategist of the Republican National Committee, which is supplying much of the Trump campaign's get-out-the-vote and voter outreach efforts, said the national party would "respect the will of the people."

"I cannot speak for what he thinks," Spicer said.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said "Mr Trump is doing the party and the country a great disservice" by suggesting the election is rigged, while Arionza Senator Jeff Flake called the New York billionaire's statements "beyond the pale".

After spending the past few weeks claiming without evidence that the November election will be "rigged" in favour of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Trump was asked directly by Fox News anchor and debate moderator Chris Wallace if he would concede should he lose.

"I will look at it at the time," Trump said. When pressed moments later, Trump added: "What I'm saying is that I will tell you at the time. I will keep you in suspense."

Clinton called Trump's comments "horrifying".

Billionaire Mark Cuban, one of Clinton's top supporters, called Trump's words "a slap in the face of every American in the history of this country, the constitution and our democracy".

"That's what we're proud of," he said. "So, for him to question that, that's disqualifying."

Trump's remarkable comments came just hours after his running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, said on CNN "that we'll certainly accept the outcome of this election".

Trump's daughter Ivanka, arguably his most influential adviser, also said earlier on Wednesday her father would "do the right thing" when she was asked if he would concede after a defeat.

The debate answer left his own team scrambling in the aftermath. Kellyanne Conway, his campaign manager, at first responded to questions about the comment by saying he "would accept the results because he'll win the election".

"So, you know, absent widespread fraud and irregularities, then, we'll see," Conway said. "What he's saying is we have to see what happens."

She later rejected the outcry over Trump's comment, saying it's "not fair" to suggest Trump is undermining the prospects of a peaceful transfer of power.

"You've got to listen to everything he said," she argued.

"Al Gore did not accept the results of the elections and he said he would. He actually conceded to George W. Bush on election night in 2000 and then called and retracted his concession."

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, another of Trump's top allies, said the Republican nominee had good reason to be suspicious about potential fraud.

"There are indications of a lot of fraud around by the Clintons," Giuliani said.

Summary: Condemnation of Donald Trump's refusal to say whether he'll honour November's election result should he lose, has come from Republicans and Democrats alike.


A disagreement between two respected Canadian academics is raising some fundamental questions about when a disputed scientific issue has been studied long enough.

The debate centers on whether it’s still valid — or even ethical — to do research on products called nosodes, which are marketed as homeopathic “vaccines.”

Homeopathy is a controversial arm of complementary medicine. It is based on the belief that conditions can be cured or prevented by giving a person a substance that induces the same symptoms, but in highly diluted form. Though it has hordes of adherents, homeopathy is dismissed as quackery by traditional medicine.

Dr. Mark Loeb, an infectious diseases researcher at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, is seeking volunteers for a study that he thinks will show nosodes don’t activate an immune response and therefore cannot protect against diseases.

Tim Caulfield, a professor of health law and policy at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and a zealous debunker of quack science, argues there’s no need to run such a study. Science already knows the answer, said Caulfield, whose most recent book — on the impact of celebrity culture on health — is entitled, “Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?”

“It is com-pleeeeeeeete scientific nonsense,” Caulfield said of homeopathy, drawing out the word for added emphasis. “There is no need to study it . . . I don’t need to run a physics experiment to demonstrate that flying carpets don’t fly.”

The alternative medicine system, devised in the late 18th century in Germany, is based on two theories scientists insist simply cannot work. One is the notion that “like cures like” and the other is that diluting a substance actually increases its potency.

Even the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health — the part of the National Institutes of Health expressly charged with researching alternative medicine — appears skeptical about homeopathy.

“A number of the key concepts of homeopathy are not consistent with fundamental concepts of chemistry and physics,” the center’s website notes. “For example, it is not possible to explain in scientific terms how a remedy containing little or no active ingredient can have any effect.”

And yet Americans spent nearly $3 billion on homeopathic remedies and $170 million on visits to homeopaths in 2007, according to the National Health Interview Survey, a regular survey of the American public’s health conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics. The 2012 survey estimated that 5 million adults and 1 million children used homeopathy in the previous year.

In both the United States and Canada, homeopathic remedies are sold with the acceptance of the federal drug regulatory agencies.

In the US, manufacturers of homeopathic remedies are allowed to make health claims on their labels — even though the Food and Drug Administration does not require them to submit proof that the products can meet those claims.

In Canada, homeopathic remedies are licensed as natural health products. After taking a great deal of criticism over its handling of the products, Health Canada changed its rules regarding nosodes last year, requiring makers of the products to make clear they are not vaccines, should not be viewed as alternatives to vaccination, and haven’t been proven to prevent infection. The new labeling rules went into effect in July.

Critics on both sides of the border think the regulatory agencies should go further. And Loeb is hoping to provide solid evidence to make that case.

His plan is to test whether nosodes activate the immune system to protect against the diseases they purport to fend off.

He and colleagues will randomly assign about 150 people aged 18 to 24 to one of three groups. One group will get fake nosodes plus the two booster vaccines people in this age group are supposed to get. The second will get fake nosodes and fake vaccines — sterile saline solution. The third will get commercially sold nosodes and fake vaccinations.

That means researchers will be testing whether the immune system is stimulated by vaccines versus placebo versus nosodes.

The purpose of giving each group both vaccines and nosodes (real or fake) is to ensure no one knows who gets what while the study is underway. Randomized trials that are double-blinded — neither recipients nor researchers know — produce the best quality evidence.

The researchers will draw blood samples from the recipients before they receive their therapy and again three weeks later. They will be looking to see if volunteers produce increased levels of antibodies, T-cells, and B-cells — key players in an immune response.

“Of course our hypothesis will be that [nosodes] will be no different than placebo,” Loeb said.

But Caulfield argued that people who believe in homeopathy will not be dissuaded, even by a well-done study. Further, he said the fact that a reputable university is studying nosodes will add to their cachet among people who believe they work.

“The concern is that just by running the trial you are legitimizing it,” he said, pointing to the fact that someone on Twitter sent him a link to McMaster’s advertisement that it was looking for volunteers as proof homeopathy isn’t, as Caulfield had denounced it, bunk.

When he learned that Loeb — who has a reputation for doing terrific research — was leading the study, he reached out and the two men spoke.

Both described a civil conversation. But they didn’t change each others’ minds.

“This invites an interesting debate about how we — the scientific community, the research community, the academic community — should respond to pseudoscience,” Caulfield said afterward.

“Do we legitimize it by doing research on it? Or do we — as I think we should do — speak in one voice, one clear voice, and say: This is scientific bunk.”

Further, Caulfield argued that conducting the study may be unethical. His rationale: Research ethics require that there is what’s known as equipoise — scientific uncertainty — if a question is to be studied. There is no scientific uncertainty about nosodes, he insisted.

Loeb said he could find no previous study looking at whether nosodes triggered an immune response. And his arguments satisfied McMaster’s Institutional Review Board, which approved the study.

Dr. Ross Upshur, an ethicist and a professor at the University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health, disagreed with Caulfield on the issue of the study’s ethics, but agreed that regardless of the outcome of the study, it would not change the thinking of people who believe nosodes work.

Would he have approved the study if he had been on the McMaster review board? Upshur, who has conducted research with both Loeb and Caulfield in the past, said he could argue both sides of this debate, but said if pressed to make a call, he probably would have argued that the study wasn’t worth doing.

Dr. Peter Palese, a renowned influenza researcher at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in Manhattan, also understands Caulfield’s concern. He calls homeopathy “hogwash.” But Palese noted that Loeb conducts first-rate research, and there has been little of that done on homeopathy.

“If a guy like Mark Loeb does it, it is a service to the rest of us,” he said.

Summary: Academics are arguging over whether a disputed scientific issue has been studied long enough.


SA MINISTERS POSSIBLY IN LINE TO BE THE STATE'S NEXT PREMIER:

* Deputy Premier John Rau - current attorney-general who has pushed through some significant law reforms.

* Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis - has returned the budget to surplus but remains under pressure to create jobs and ease the cost of living.

* Education Minister Susan Close - has been charged with sorting out the child protection mess that resulted in a royal commission.

* Health Minister Jack Snelling - has introduced the controversial Transforming Health agenda and is also working to get the much-delayed new Royal Adelaide Hospital open.

* Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan - a relative newcomer who has perfomed well so far.

* Correctional Services Minister Peter Malinauskas - the former union boss who helped deliver the premier's job to Jay Weatherill.

Summary: South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill says his deputy and five other ministers could easily replace him when his time as leader is up.


A New York City police sergeant was fatally shot and another was wounded on Friday in a shootout on the streets of the Bronx that also resulted in the death of the suspect, a man who had just broken into the apartment of his estranged wife.

The officers were responding to a call about the break-in and encountered the suspect's vehicle, when the man opened fire.

Officials say an exchange of gunfire resulted with the suspect being pronounced dead at the scene while the officers were taken to the hospital.

Sergeant Paul Tuozzolo, a 19-year veteran of the force and father of two young children, was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The wounded officer, Emmanuel Kwo, was shot in the leg and was in a stable condition.

"The city is in mourning and the family of the NYPD is in mourning," Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

The dead suspect, identified as Manuel Rosales, had a record of at least 17 prior arrests, O'Neill said.

He had forced his way into the home of his 29-year-old estranged wife while their three-year-old son was present.

A 13-year-old child and a 50-year-old woman were also at the home.

Summary: A man has killed a policeman and injured another in New York City before being killed himself after a shootout.


A dangerous murderer with a broken ankle is wanted by police after breaking parole in Victoria.

John Douglas Hartwick, 65, was released from prison on November 1 after serving time for murder and broke his parole conditions by failing a drug test.

Police say the Norlane man has a history of violent offending and has prior convictions for armed robbery, assault, firearms and drug offences.

Despite his broken ankle and moon boot, Detective Superindent Peter De Santo warned members of the public that the "career criminal" is dangerous and should not be approached.

Summary: Fugitive Taskforce detectives are appealing for public assistance to locate a Victorian parole breaker with a history of violent offending.