CAIRO, Jan. 6— The Israel Ambassador to Egypt met here today with the Egyptian Minister of State for Culture and Information, Mansour Hassan, to discuss an order issued here last night prohibiting reporters of The Jerusalem Post from working in Egypt.

The ban was issued after the English-language newspaper printed a report by its Arab affairs editor, Anan Safadi, asserting that President Anwar el-Sadat was involved in a power struggle with Vice President Hosni Mubarak and that a Government shuffle was imminent.

''We cannot accept any attempts to distort the facts of Egyptian life,'' the Egyptian information official said in a statement published in all Cairo's Arabic and foreign language dailies.

The Israeli Ambassador, Eliahu Ben Elissar, and Mr. Hassan denied The Jerusalem Post's report, which the Egyptian papers called ''lies and baseless allegations.'' Talks Called 'Constructive'

An Israeli Embassy spokesman described the hourlong meeting between Mr. Ben Elissar and Mr. Hassan, convened at Egypt's reguest, as ''warm, friendly, and constructive.'' He said that Mr. Hassan had stressed ''Egypt's disappointment with the story.''

Both Mr. Ben Elissar and Mr. Hassan, he said, ''agreed on the right ways to handle this issue, with the aim of lifting the prohibition imposed on the journalists.''

Reached for comment after the meeting, Mr. Hassan said no reporters from the Israeli paper would be allowed to enter Egypt ''until they convince us they are ready to comply with our regulations.''


Any Mozart discovery is automatically important. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was, after all, one of the supreme musical minds. Thus the newly discovered symphony in F major, even though it is a juvenile work, will add to the picture of the young composer's development.

When Mozart wrote this symphony he was in London with his sister, Nannerl. She was almost as talented a keyboard player as he was, and Leopold, their father, made a European tour with both prodigies. In England, young Mozart attracted the attention of King George III, and played for him, which meant that all society's doors were open to the Mozart family.

Among the musicians resident in England was Johann Christian Bach, the youngest surviving son of the great Johann Sebastian. Johann Christian was known as ''the London Bach,'' and was immensely successful there as keyboard virtuoso and composer. The famous Bach took a keen interest in the young Mozart. It is not known if Bach ever gave any lessons to Wolfgang, but it is a matter of record that the master and the child improvised together on the clavier, and that the two developed a warm personal relationship. Scholars have demonstrated that Mozart's earliest concertos and symphonies were strongly influenced by the music of Johann Christian Bach. Written in 'Galant' Style

Judging from photographs of the violin part of the newly discovered symphony, it is written in the then standard ''galant'' style. The galant style was a breakaway from the contrapuntal style of Baroque music. It was characterized by graceful, Italian-derived melodies, relatively simple accompaniments, and harmonies that seldom departed from the home key. It was music intended to please, and it never struck very deep; rather, it was graceful, light and entertaining.

Johann Christian Bach was one of the early exponents of the galant style, and the youthful Mozart symphony is in that manner. Thus still another Johann Christian Bach influence on the young Mozart has come to life. The existence of the symphony up to now has been known only by a few measures. Several fragments have come down among the manuscripts of Mozart's father. The Breitkopf publishing firm, established in 1719, listed the music as ''lost.'' Mozart a Late Developer

It might be mentioned that Mozart, one of the greatest musical prodigies in history (his only two rivals could have been Mendelssohn and Saint-Saens) was a surprisingly late developer. Mendelssohn, for instance, composed his great Octet at 16 and his greater ''Midsummers Night Dream'' Overture at 17. Mozart at that age had nothing comparable to show. It was not until Mozart was 21, in 1777, that he composed the E flat Piano Concerto (K. 271) and that started Mozart writing masterpiece after masterpiece.


The question, with its combination of pride and insecurity, sounds like Mayor Koch's ''How am I doing?'' ''So,'' asks Dave Winfield, ''can I play?'' To date, the answer is a resounding 'yes.' Going into last night's game against Seattle, which the Yankees won, 7-5, Winfield, the latest of the Yankees' million-dollar free agents, was leading the team in several offensive categories, had excelled defensively in left field and as a recent substitute in center field, and was the team's most consistent performer.

After pressing in spring training, something he did not admit until the exhibition season was over, Winfield has settled into his niche on the Yankees as well, or better, than any of the free agents who preceded him. With reporters, fans and possibly even his teammates watching for him to fail, Winfield has proved himself a player of unusual skill and pleasant disposition.

''I started off on the right foot,'' he said. ''Even if I only do one or two things every day, it's better than having a big game once every two weeks. In spring training nobody knew what I could do. They saw flashes and they assumed that the scouting reports were right, that I was inconsistent. No way. Heck, I can play.'' Statistics Tell the Tale

Winfield's judgment of himself is supported by statistics. He has hit safely in 26 of the 32 games he has played. He is leading the Yankees in batting (.345), runs scored (17), hits (39), runs batted in (22) and doubles (9). He is among the league leaders in nine offensive categories.

Often his accomplishments are inconspicuous, but no less valuable to the team. Against the Oakland A's last Thursday night, Winfield's scarifice fly drove in the tiebreaking run in the eighth inning of a 9-5 victory. In Seattle last weekend, he scored from first base on Reggie Jackson's double to shallow right field. In the only game he has not started this year, two weeks ago in Oakland, he drove in a run with a pinch single.

Last month, on the day he hit his first home run as a Yankee, he also made a superb diving catch in left field with the bases loaded and the Tigers threatening to take the lead.

Winfield has been pleased with his swing all season. ''My average doesn't reflect how well I've been hitting the ball,'' he said on one of those nights when hard shots produced outs and bloops produced singles. ''In the long run, I'll get both. Getting on base is the name of the game.''

When Winfield arrived in New York, he made the switch from right field, his position in San Diego, to left field without complaint, even though he is acknowledged as a better defensive player than Jackson. Last week, with Jerry Mumphrey out of the lineup with a leg injury, Winfield filled in adequately in center field.

''I don't like it all the time,'' he said of his temporary position, ''but when it helps, it's logical, and I can play it.'' He's Enjoying Himself

In addition to skill and steadiness, Winfield, at age 29, exudes a child-like joy in playing and in his own celebrity. He has a contagious, gap-toothed smile, like Magic Johnson's, that television camera men have learned to zoom in on after he reaches base on a hit or makes an especially satisfying catch.

''Hey,'' Winfield said. ''I'm having a good time.'' He even seems to enjoy the constant jokes, some of them caustic, about his lucrative contract, which is for 10 years and worth more than $20 million. At a recent road game, he noted a sign in the outfield bleachers that read, ''Hey Dave, can you spare a dime?'' and laughed heartily.

He carries a cardboard sign that says ''Press Conference Here,'' and feigns disappointment when he is not in enough demand to warrant hanging it at his locker. Two weeks ago, when Billy Martin, the A's manager, said that Winfield had ''the softest bat I've ever seen for a guy 6-8,'' Winfield could hardly wait to respond, then complained that the verbal skirmish was not reported in every hamlet in America.

Although Winfield's good nature has not been tested by a personal slump, he has not sulked after Yankee losses. After a dispiriting defeat in Oakland, he was one of only a few New York players who signed autographs on the way to the bus. As Winfield climbed aboard, he recognized the driver from his National League visits to San Francisco. ''You do both sides of the Bay, huh?'' Winfield asked the surprised and flattered man.

The demands on his time are prodigious. Before Friday night's rained-out game against Seattle, Winfield conducted several lengthy interviews, taped a television commercial for a telethon for the Roberto Clemente Sports City in Puerto Rico, and posed for photographs with the four children of a slain New York City policeman.

Finally, with the sky darkening and only a few minutes of fielding practice left, Winfield grabbed his glove and said, ''I'll see everybody when I get back,'' and trotted out to center field, smiling all the way.


EDINBURGH, Aug. 29— The 35th Edinburgh Festival, an ever-expanding celebration of the arts, will come to a close Saturday, more successful than many of its predecessors by statistical, if not artistic, measures.

Begun in 1947 as a self-described ''gesture of cultural defiance in a world made weary by war, misery and destruction,'' the festival has since grown to a three-week-long cultural institution far broader in scope than its founders imagined.

This year, the official festival is offering 164 performances - largely of opera, theater and music - and appears likely to sell about 80 percent of the 171,811 tickets available. Some 100,000 visitors are expected to elbow their way through this crowded Scottish city where nearly all shop windows are designed to capitalize on their arrival.

But perhaps most imposing has been the growth in the panoply of related events that swirl around the official festival, notably a ''fringe festival,'' a collection of 454 companies, 739 shows and 8,868 often bizarre performances.

Among the most talked-about such occurrences this year have been a production of ''2001'' performed in the back of a Hillman Avenger automobile to an audience of two per performance, a revue put on in a hotel's checked baggage room and Acme Acting, which performs an individually selected production at the customer's choice of location.

''Demand and supply are rarely so directly related in the arts,'' said Alistair Moffat, the administrator of the Festival Fringe Society, which publishes a program but does not regulate the fringe productions.

The vibrance of the fringe had to some extent overshadowed the official festival, which does not seek a place on the international artistic cutting edge, but rather tries to attract visitors, bring world-renowned culture to Scots and help develop local artistic talents. Critics Are Unhappy

This year, critics were unhappy at the number of conventional productions, such as Brahms's First Symphony and ''The Barber of Seville,'' although paradoxically the Cologne Opera Company's production received one of the best reviews.

But the 1981 festival generated a measure of cultural controversy as well. Perhaps the most discussion was over Bach's St. Matthew's Passion by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado, which opened the festival. The performance, including six soloists and a large chorus, ran against modern trends for the piece toward smallness, but twice played to full houses.

Other official productions also received mostly mixed reviews. One of the eagerly awaited events is the premiere Tuesday of ''On the Razzle,'' a new play by Tom Stoppard, whose ''Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'' was discovered among the offerings of the 1966 fringe. Heavily Theater-Oriented

This year's festival was the most heavily theater-oriented ever. Before the arrival of John Drummond, who is running his third festival, directors have been principally from musical backgrounds. The first director was Rudolf Bing.

However, the theater presentations this year were accorded fair to poor reviews, particularly ''As You Like It'' by the Birmingham Repertory Theater, which one critic called ''a pageant not a play.'' Leonard Bernstein's ''Candide,'' also by the Birmingham company, received only fair notices.

Among the most controversial of Mr. Drummond's decisions was the inclusion of three foreign-language plays. The National Theater of Rumania's ''The Girl From Andros,'' a comedy written by Terrence in Greek in 166 B.C., was much criticized, but Jean Racine's ''Britannicus'' played to large and enthusiastic audiences.

As for music, the festival featured a variety of well-known groups and performers, such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the violinist Yehudi Menuhin and the pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy. Perhaps the most praised performance was the premiere by the BBC Symphony Orchestra of John Tavener's ''Akhmatova Requiem,'' a celebration of the Russian poet, described by The Sunday Times as ''affecting and astonishing.'' Mr. Drummond was the narrator. Military Tattoo on Hand

In addition to the official and fringe festivals, Edinburgh in late August becomes the setting for a variety of related events, including a military tattoo, performed at night against a backdrop of Edinburgh Castle above the city. Although derided by serious arts lovers, the event is a bigger draw than the official festival, selling a quarter-million tickets.

Also under way are several special art exhibitions aimed almost exclusively at local residents, and a film festival, which this year is shorter than usual but which still includes 40 new feature films and a screening of the 1927 production of ''Napoleon,'' a day-long event.

In addition to ticket sales, the festival is paid for by $1.5 million in local grants and $300,000 from corporate sponsors who have been increasingly sought. The festival's organizers contend that the cash benefit of the festival to the city is $7 million to $30 million.

Illustrations: Photo of Leo Nucci


Although a fake takeover bid recently led to a spike in Avon AVP stock, the longtime cosmetics powerhouse built by millions of local “Avon ladies” has been slowly declining. After years as the top global direct sales company, Avon slipped out of that spot in 2014. The company’s revenue declined 20% last year to $8.85 billion, from a peak of $11.1 billion in 2011, and after a lengthy probe into corruption in its China operations, Avon agreed to pay a $135 million settlement.

So, are we looking at the end of the era in which women purchased beauty products from friends and neighbors who sold door-to-door? Not necessarily. There are a number of young, upstart companies that are trying to succeed using the Avon model—albeit with modern twists such as selling via social media.

“The idea of women sharing something they’re passionate about with other women works better than ever before,” says Jessica Herrin, founder of Stella & Dot, which just launched Ever Skincare, a new line of direct-sales skin care. “Social selling has the person-to-person feel of the past but leverages social media and mobile technology to make it more flexible and lucrative for women.”

Here’s how three relative newcomers to the direct-sales category are looking to become the next “company for women.”

Not just a direct-sales player, Beautycounter calls itself a “direct retail” company because its products are available through a network of nearly 8,000 consultants, as well as via its website and strategic partnerships with companies like JCrew and Goop. “We looked at how consumers are shopping and where the world is going, and consumers demand to shop through multiple channels,” says Gregg Renfrew, founder and CEO of Beautycounter.

Renfrew says that Beautycounter’s emphasis on healthy ingredients is unique and allows the company to go after consumers who are dissatisfied with traditional products. Beautycounter has banned almost 1,600 allowed ingredients from its skincare and cosmetics. “U.S. companies are allowed to use products that are risky and have been banned in the EU,” Renfrew says. “Beautycounter is a contemporary concept in an industry that is slow to change. Our omnichannel sales model and product strategy of avoiding questionable ingredients set us apart from more traditional companies such as Avon.”

After launching in March 2013, Beautycounter has sold more than 1 million product units, say Renfrew, who attributes the growth to an increase in health-conscious consumers.

New consultants can get started selling Beautycounter products for as little as $85. As for how much they earn, “it depends on how they build their business and what they put into it,” Renfrew says. “We have people earning $50 a month and some earning tens of thousands a month.”

Created with the company’s patent-pending LSR10 complex, Ever’s products promise results within 30 days and are developed “without the risk of potentially toxic ingredients,” Herrin says. “Social media works for our specialists because they can share their own before and after pics and their friends see them.”

After launching her first successful business (WeddingChannel.com), Herrin says she regularly fielded questions from other women about how to start a business. But she didn’t feel like she had an easy system to share. That’s why she launched Ever as a direct-sales company. “I wanted to democratize entrepreneurship with a kit that’s designed to make it easy for women to start a business,” she says. “We do the distribution, product design and development, and marketing, and our specialists really have all they need to start in their kit.”

Additionally, Herrin sees a chance to capture some of the market once held by traditional direct-sales cosmetics companies. She says the company offers a unique blend of “high tech and high touch,” using social media and speedy delivery to keep customers coming back.

Ever’s starting kits cost as little as $79, and specialists earn 15% to 35% commission on product sales. While the line just launched officially in late May, it grew to more than 1,000 specialists and more than $1 million in sales during its two-month beta phase. “We’re really thrilled with the specialists’ earnings per hour,” Herrin says. “They are earning close to $100 per hour doing skincare socials in person and online.”

Dr. Katie Rodan and Dr. Kathy Fields, the dermatologists who invented acne treatment Proactiv, launched Rodan & Fields in 2008 in an attempt to do for anti-aging products what Proactiv did for acne-fighters. Last year, the company’s sales reached more than $320 million.

The company’s products are sold directly by its 75,000 consultants, mostly women, located across the country. These sellers get started by purchasing a business kit ranging from $45 to about $1,000, depending on the number of products included. While some consultants join to get discounts on skin care products and just earn a few thousand dollars each year, the company says top sellers “earn six figures or more” per year.

Summary: With the "company for women" struggling, these three startups are hoping to take a big bite of the direct-sales beauty market.


It’s good to be on the Fortune 500, great to be a repeat performer, but even better to have made a big leap since last year. These 15 companies have risen more spots in the last year than any of the rest. They’re the hottest companies of the 2015 Fortune 500, and some of them you know—Facebook, Salesforce—but some of them you may not.

This Michigan wholesale food distributor had a banner year, moving up an astounding 452 spots in rank, from the 800s to the 300s. With $7.91 billion in 2014 revenue, the company is No. 359 this year.

Courtesy of NGL Energy Partners

NGL provides a wide range of energy services, including marketing, storage, and distribution of crude oil—and this year it jumped a wide range of slots on our Fortune 500. The Tulsa-based company shot up 257 slots, from No. 566 to No. 299, thanks to $9.70 billion in 2014 revenue.

This manufacturer of packaging materials, based out of Lake Forest, Ill., is the third-biggest producer of freesheet in North America. (What is freesheet? Paper that is less than 10% groundwood pulp.) PCA’s strong performance over the last year rocketed it 189 slots from No. 640 to No. 451. It took in $5.85 billion in 2014 revenue.

Chances are good that you’ve seen the name Arris on a handset or perhaps a speakerphone device in a corporate conference room. The telecommunications company makes phone and video products for homes and businesses, and it’s up 152 slots this year, from No. 644 to No. 492, with $5.32 billion in annual revenue.

Gilead is a biotechnology company that develops and sells commercial pharmaceuticals. Gilead sat out a recent M&A frenzy in the pharma space, but continues to grow: This year it jumps 132 spots, from No. 250 to No. 118. It had $24.90 billion in revenue last year—the largest of any of the 15 companies on this shortlist.

Trinity is an industrial company with diverse holdings—it has its hands in energy, transportation, construction, and other sectors. The Dallas-based company leapt 126 slots on this year’s list, moving from No. 559 to No. 433 thanks to $6.17 billion in annual revenue.

This Louisiana oil and gas company (not to be confused with popular Murphy Oil Soap, a Colgate-Palmolive household cleaner) chugged from No. 470 to No. 350 this year, a 120-slot rise. It had $8.26 billion in 2014 revenue.

You may not be familiar with this Medford, Oregon-headquartered auto dealership, but it’s the seventh largest in the U.S. It sold enough cars to drive up 120 slots, from No. 602 to No. 482 this year. Lithia had $5.40 billion in revenue last year.

Based in Oklahoma, Devon is one of the largest producers of natural gas in the world, and it thrived in 2014, bringing in $19.57 billion in revenue last year and moving up 118 slots from No. 270 to No. 152.

Photograph by Brittany McLaren for Fortune

Business is good at the cloud computing giant Marc Benioff built to help businesses manage their customers. Salesforce jumped up 116 slots in rank, from No. 599 to No. 483, and had $5.37 billion in annual revenue.

Don’t say the USB stick is dead yet. This Boise, Idaho maker of semiconductors and flash memory drives did so well in 2014 ($16.36 billion in revenue) that it rose 112 slots from No. 302 on last year’s list to No. 190 on this year’s ranking. Those are hot wires.

Courtesy of Pioneer Natural Resources

Things are good for yet another oil and gas player: This independent one, based in Irving, Tx., is up 109 slots, moving from No. 609 into the Fortune 500 (barely) at No. 496, courtesy of $5.30 billion in revenue.

Courtesy of Advance Auto Parts

Here’s a business you might know by its ubiquitous radio ads. Advance Auto Parts sells (what else?) auto parts, and it sold enough of them in 2014 to bring in $9.84 billion in revenue and leap 108 spots, from No. 402 to No. 294.

To think that just two years ago Facebook made its Fortune 500 debut, when CEO Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t even 30 yet. Last year, its second year on the list, Facebook clocked in at No. 341. This year it reached No. 242, a leap of 99 slots. It had $12.47 billion in revenue. Do you “like” that?

Molina, which offers government-based healthcare programs and is based in Long Beach, California, had a big year, climbing 92 slots on the Fortune 500, from the bottom of the 300s (No. 393) to the top (No. 301 this year) with $9.67 billion in revenue.

Summary: These Fortune 500 companies have risen the most in the last year.


A Cuban honour guard prepares the Cuban flag for Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, centre right, before he raising over their new embassy in Washington, DC. (AAP)

US Secretary of State John Kerry says the United States wants to be "good neighbours" to Cuba, but has cautioned the road to full relations remains "long and complex."

Speaking Spanish alongside his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez only hours after diplomatic ties were restored on Monday following a five-decade hiatus, Kerry said Washington "welcomes this new beginning in its relationship with the people and government of Cuba."

The secretary added "this milestone does not signify an end to the many differences that still separate our governments.

"But it does reflect the reality that the Cold War ended long ago, that the interests of both countries are better served by engagement than by estrangement," he insisted at a packed press conference at the State Department.

Those differences were immediately laid bare when Rodriguez swiftly demanded an end to the US economic blockade of the communist-run Caribbean island and the return of territory used as a US military base and jail in southern Guantanamo Bay.

"Totally lifting the blockade, the return of the illegally occupied territory of Guantanamo, as well as the full respect for Cuban sovereignty and the compensation to our people for human and economic damages, are crucial to be able to move towards the normalisation of relations," Rodriguez said.

General view of the US Interests Section building in Havana, Cuba. (AAP)

Kerry said President Barack Obama's administration wants to lift the economic embargo imposed on the communist-run Caribbean island in 1962, and he hoped it would be "soon."

The American diplomat, who met earlier with Rodriguez, stressed that "at this time, there is no intention to alter the existing lease treaty" on Guantanamo Bay, also home to a US military prison.

"But we understand that Cuba has strong feelings about it," Kerry said, as he confirmed he would visit Havana on August 14.

He will be the first US secretary of state to visit Cuba since 1945. And on a day of history, Rodriguez was the first Cuban foreign minister to be welcomed to the State Department since 1958.

"Make no mistake, the process of fully normalising relations between the United States and Cuba will be long and complex," Kerry cautioned, adding the US would not be "overflowing with expressions of optimism."

"Along the way, there are sure to be bumps in the road and moments of frustration. Patience will be required."

The Cuban flag was proudly flying over Havana's newly restored embassy in Washington on Monday for the first time in 54 years after the two bitter adversaries agreed in December to normalise ties.

The Cuban banner first took its place in the columned marble entrance hall to the State Department, hoisted before dawn between the flags of Croatia and Cyprus.

It was then raised at the Cuban embassy in Washington, which until Monday had been operating as an interests section.

It will not be raised at the newly-restored US embassy in Havana, however, until Kerry's visit next month.

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Summary: The Cuban flag has been raised over Havana's embassy in Washington as the countries resume diplomatic ties.


Nick Gordon with mother Michelle Gordon

08/04/2015 AT 09:10 AM EDT

's funeral services, but his mother tells PEOPLE he chose to pay his respects to his late girlfriend in another way.

"Nick went to the beach with me on Friday during the services," Michelle Gordon tells PEOPLE of their excursion to Daytona Beach, Florida. "He said the beach was always their favorite place to go, so he decided that he would honor her at a place that they both loved."

Gordon, 25, was not welcome at her services as he faces a $40 million

filed by Bobbi Kristina's conservators. The suit contends that Gordon manipulated his girlfriend and transferred a "large portion" of her funds into an account he solely controlled.

on July 26, nearly six months after she was found

inside the Atlanta-area home they shared. (Although the pair called themselves husband and wife on social media, they were never married.)

Nick Gordon and Bobbi Kristina Brown

to Bobbi Kristina's father, Bobby Brown, and aunt Pat Houston pleading with them to allow him to attend the funeral.

"I loved Krissi with all my heart and I am destroyed that she is gone and I need to say goodbye," he wrote. "I'm begging you both to please put your differences aside and allow me this chance. Krissi loved me very much and she would want me there. Please consider this?"

Although Gordon was not present at

, it was not drama-free. During the private gathering in Georgia Saturday, Bobbi Kristina's aunt Leolah Brown reportedly shouted at Pat Houston, who is married to Whitney Houston's brother Gary and plays a large role in overseeing the late singer's estate. After the funeral, Leolah told reporters that Bobbi Kristina's mother, Whitney, will "haunt" Pat from the grave and that "this has only just begun."

Summary: Nick Gordon was not present at Bobbi Kristina Brown's funeral services as he faces a $40 million civil lawsuit


Nicole Wallace (left) and Sherri Shepherd

08/13/2015 AT 09:00 PM EDT

has revealed that when she got fired from

in July, she found out just like everyone else did – by reading about it in the press.

"They never called me," Wallace admitted to

on Thursday when asked what ABC had told her about her termination.

Wallace explained that the night

had run a story on her firing, ABC summoned her agent and offered her a contributor role.

The former co-host also shared that the network offered her a role at ABC News, but she turned both down when she realized there was no room for negotiation.

"I felt like if it had been two days a week or enough time to have more of a presence, I'd consider it," Wallace said in regards to the contributor role. "They weren't interested in negotiating with me. It didn't make sense for me."

While Wallace was cordial about moving on, another former co-host spoke up about the network's decision to get rid of her.

, who spent seven seasons on the show before leaving last August, tells PEOPLE that she was "disappointed" about Wallace's exit.

"She's a good friend of mine. I think you need someone like Nicole Wallace sitting there who is passionate about politics but knows she has to fight," she said.

"That's the thing about sitting at the table at

," she added. "It's so important it's political season. You need someone at the table who is going to break that political structure and what it means for us, so I am very disappointed."

is set to take Wallace's place as the resident conservative next season.

"I think she'll be great," Wallace told

. "The one thing I think that is the most important to your success is the support of executives you work for, and she has that."

Summary: Nicolle Wallace said that she discovered she'd been fired from reading about it in the press


08/16/2015 AT 09:55 AM EDT

An Indonesian plane and the 54 people on-board went missing Sunday afternoon, shortly before it was scheduled to land,

Officials are working to confirm witness accounts that it has crashed,

The Trigana Air Service flight departed from Jayapura at 2:22 p.m. local time, according to CNN, and was bound for Oksibil – but officials lost contact with it at about 2:55 p.m. local time.

The plane was carrying 44 adults, five children and five crew, according to CNN.

It made no distress call, a Transportation Ministry spokesperson told CNN, and there is not yet confirmation that the plane had crashed.

But police are working to verify witness reports that the plane, a ATR 42-300 twin turboprop, went down in the valley outside the Oksibil airport, according to

The search will resume Monday morning,

Weather is suspected as a major element in the disappearance, a Trigana Air executive

"We strongly suspect it's a weather issue," director of operations Beni Sumaryanto said. "It is not overcapacity, as the plane could take 50 passengers."

This is Trigana's 11th lost aircraft since 1991, according to

, and it has been on the European Union's

Summary: Weather is believed to have played a role, one airline executive said


The first of the newer taxes is the 3.8 percent net investment income tax, which couples earning more than $250,000 and individuals earning over $200,000 have to pay. They owe the tax on either their net investment income or their earned income over the threshold, whichever is less.

Then there is the 0.9 percent Medicare tax, which applies to couples earning over $250,000 and single filers earning more than $200,000.

These are taxes on the wealthy, no question. The Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, has studied who is paying the tax, and found that the top 1 percent provide 86 percent of the payments.(Tweet This)

"It's about as progressive a tax as you could find," said Robert McIntyre, director of Citizens for Tax Justice, a tax advocacy group. That organization estimated that together, the taxes brought in roughly $27 billion in 2013, a drop in the bucket compared to the $1.6 trillion the IRS reported in gross individual tax withholding and payments in fiscal 2014. (Tweet This)

Neither tax is likely to reach deep into the middle class anytime soon. McIntyre estimated that if the taxes now mainly hit the top 2 percent of earners, they may over time reach the top 4 percent. In addition, the taxes are marginal, applying only above the income thresholds. But particularly in areas of the country where wages are higher, the shift will be felt over time.

Read MoreHere's who's stuck with the biggest tax bills

"It may be years before we see an inflation problem with this. But if you are on the cusp, say you made $249,999, you want to keep your eye on what can happen next year," said Jackie Perlman, principal tax research analyst at H&R Block's Tax Institute.

Summary: The Affordable Care Act taxes are aimed squarely at top earners, but they are not indexed for inflation.


The internal debate at Facebook over the company's advertising strategy—fewer, more tailored, higher-quality ads versus more ads in general—is a debate about the nature and economics of mobile advertising itself. What ads should a mobile user see that don't agitate the user while they scroll through a small screen but also ensure impressions for the advertiser?

"There is an inherent problem with being able to target on mobile. It's very hard to do, because you can't 'cookie' the user through their mobile device," said James Curran, CEO of advertising technology company STAQ. "The big thing is targeting. It all goes down to targeting. That is the big, big, big thing."

And that's why Facebook is the one to watch, maybe even more so than Google. Which Internet firm has the ability to target advertising best? The way Facebook has its advertising arranged now, it's entirely likely that as people scroll through more content on Facebook, the "organic content" that people end up seeing on the News Feed is more ads. That advertising strategy on the whole has "really fueled [Facebook's] growth in a good way, and we feel very confident that this is the right path going forward," Zuckerberg told analysts last quarter.

"Very few companies have the ability to target user demographics with the accuracy that Facebook has," Curran said. "I think that they are just going to be ahead of the pack for a long time."

Summary: The biggest fight inside Facebook underlies the biggest fault line for social media giants: pushing more ads without pushing away users.


O.J. Simpson poses with the Heisman Trophy at New York's Downtown Athletic Club in December 1968

09/03/2015 AT 10:00 AM EDT

Los Angeles prosecutors have charged a man in connection with the theft of O.J. Simpson's 1968 Heisman Trophy more than 20 years ago.

Lewis Eugene Starks Jr., 56, is charged with one felony count of receiving stolen property, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. Starks plead not guilty Wednesday afternoon. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for September 15.

The trophy, along with Simpson's jersey and a plaque, were in a display case at the University of Southern California's Heritage Hall when they vanished on July 28, 1994. Simpson was awaiting trial at the time for the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend Ron Goldman. He was later acquitted of murder charges, but was found liable for their deaths in subsequent a civil trial. His personal Heisman Trophy – awarded to college football's most outstanding player – was seized under the $33.5 million judgment, and auctioned in 1999 for $230,000.

Prosecutors say Starks, who was arrested on Monday, allegedly tried to sell the Heisman late last year, even though it was widely known to be stolen. It was found in Starks possession, prosecutors say.

The Heisman was given to Simpson in 1968 for his prowess as a running back at USC, before he started his Hall of Fame career in the National Football League.

Starks is being held on $20,000 bail. If convicted, Starks faces up to six years in prison.

Summary: He allegedly tried to sell trophy even though it was widely known it had been stolen


At least ten people have died and eight are missing after a South Korean fishing charter boat capsized, the coastguard says, while three survived after clinging to the wreckage for 10 hours.

The 9.77-tonne Dolphin went missing off the southwest coast near the island of Chuja on Saturday night and its wreckage was found Sunday morning.

The three survivors have been rescued and flown by helicopter to a hospital on Jeju island south of Chuja.

"It has been determined that 21 people were on board the ill-fated boat, with three having been rescued, 10 found dead and eight missing," Lee Pyung-hyun, chief of the Jeju coast guard, was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying.

More than 50 naval and coastguard vessels, as well as a Lynx helicopter and a P-3C maritime patrol plane, were searching for the missing.

One survivor said the boat capsized "in an instant" before many passengers were swept away by strong waves.

"I was sleeping when the boat's engine went off and the captain told us to get out and water started to fill the boat," the 38-year-old surnamed Park told Yonhap.

Park said he and other survivors climbed on top of a floating piece of the boat and held on for more than 10 hours before being rescued.

They praised the courage of the boat captain Kim Cheol-Soo, who was among the dead.

"Hold my hand!" a survivor called Lee quoted Kim as saying as the captain extended an arm from the top of the capsized boat.

"Our boat is connected to the coast guard, so they will come rescue us. Don't worry. They'll be here soon," the 46-year-old captain told passengers, trying to lift their spirits as they clung desperately to the boat.

Lee and the other two were saved early Sunday after hanging on to the boat for more than 10 hours, crying out for help and encouraging each other to hold on for just a little longer, Yonhap reported.

In contrast to the fishing boat skipper, the captain involved in South Korea's Sewol ferry disaster last year was among the first to abandon ship.

More than 300 people - mainly schoolgirls - died when the ferry went down in April 2014.

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Summary: The survivors of a South Korean fishing boat accident have praised the captain, who died as he encouraged them to cling to the capsized boat.


NEW YORK, Aug. 11, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With back-to school spending heating up, Tenet Partners, a leading brand innovation and marketing firm, today released its ranking of the Top 20 Most Powerful "Back-to-School" Retail Brands. Barnes and Noble claims the top position, with Target and Walmart rounding out the Top 3 companies.

The Top 20 Most Powerful "Back-to-School" Retail Brands are ranked by a unique, quantiative measure called BrandPower as measured through Tenet's CoreBrand Index. The CoreBrand Index, a landmark study conducted continuously since 1990, is based upon an annual U.S. survey of approximately ten thousand consumer opinion elites and business-decision makers. Tapping the CoreBrand Index, the BrandPower score is a weighted composite of two key metrics that contribute to a brand's ability to drive long-term growth: Familiarity and Favorability. Familiarity measures awareness of the brand. Favorability is the perception of the brand (among those who are well aware of it), and is based upon three attributes that tie directly to future business performance: Overall Reputation, Perception of Management, and Investment Potential.

Despite the threat of online shopping taking over physical stores, the BrandPower of big-box retailers has been on the rise. Average Familiarity and Favorability has steadily increased year-over-year since 2011. A collective focus on digital and omnichannel innovation have allowed these traditional big box stores to reimagine their customers' path to purchase. By offering new conveniences and incentives to shop both in-store and online, they have been able to remain competitive, while also alluring a key demographic: Millennials. Walmart (#3) has acquired more than a dozen technology companies in the past year, many of which have contributed to major improvements and changes to its e-commerce properties. According to the company's 2015 annual report, e-commerce sales rose faster than the market globally last year at approximately 22 percent. In addition, the company launched an online price-matching service last year. To gear up for back-to-school, the company took online prices to all-time low, and is offering free shipping to student dormitories on all orders over $35.

Commenting on the Top 20 Most Powerful "Back-to-School" Retail Brands, Steve Makadok, Partner of Tenet's CoreBrand Analytics practice, said: "While big box retailers demonstrate the biggest gains on BrandPower, the key to their staying power will be continued innovations in digital and the omnichannel brand experience. Brands falling out of favor with consumers and investors are struggling to keep pace with the change in retail. These brands would benefit from a renewed focus in three key areas: customer experience, product and brand innovation, as well as improvements across channels, including digital and mobile."

Click here to view the Top 20 Most Powerful "Back-to-School" Retail Brands of 2015.

A company's BrandPower score is determined by a survey of approximately ten thousand influential people on two key brand metrics: Familiarity and Favorability. This carefully screened audience, representing opinion elites/business decision-makers at the top 20 percent of American corporations are polled on the following:

Familiarity - Respondents are considered to be familiar with a brand if they state that they know more than just the company name. Familiarity scores can range from 0 to 100.

Favorability - Respondents familiar with a corporation are then asked about three dimensions that together, form a Favorability score, also on a scale of 0 to 100.

BrandPower is calculated as a function of Familiarity and Favorability, enabling easy comparision among competitors, against industry averages and agains world-class brands.

The starting point for determining the Top 20 Most Powerful "Back-to-School" Retail Brands is the CoreBrand Index (CBI) - a quantitative database based on a continuous benchmark tracking survey of nearly 1,000 companies across 50 industries. The study has been in the field continuously since 1990.

Formed from the merger of Brandlogic and CoreBrand, Tenet Partners is a brand innovation and marketing consultancy that helps companies create brand value and unearth business opportunities by putting customers at the center of their business strategies. For more information, visit www.tenetpartners.com.

CONTACT: Lindsay Beltzer Manager, Marketing Communications Tenet Partners + 1 212 329-3034 lbeltzer@tenetpartners.comSource:Tenet Partners(CoreBrand/Core Brand)

Summary: NEW YORK, Aug. 11, 2015-- With back-to school spending heating up, Tenet Partners, a leading brand innovation and marketing firm, today released its ranking of the Top 20 Most Powerful "Back-to-School" Retail Brands. Barnes and Noble claims the top position, with Target and Walmart rounding out the Top 3 companies. Barnes& Noble leads as the #1 Most Powerful "...


CAMBRIDGE — “Ghost Quartet” unfolds with a subtly seductive allure. A theatricalized performance of the chamber music ensemble’s self-titled release, the show, playing at Oberon through Saturday, is a collection of story-songs full of humor with a dash of horror, told by characters that emerge sharply into focus before fading again into the background.

Atmosphere and some stunning vocal and musical talents create an enchanting concert-musical. Members of the Ghost Quartet are positioned in the audience, which sits in a U facing the stage and central playing area. On the stage, Brittain Ashford and Gelsey Bell deliver some breathtaking harmonies as well as spine-tingling interpretations of songs, with Ashford’s lush alto brimming with personality and Bell’s clear soprano ringing out with emotion and power.

Composer-lyricist and text writer Dave Malloy plays the piano, keyboard, ukulele, and percussion, while Brent Arnold sits at the opposite corner of the room on the cello, guitar, dulcimer, and the truly haunting two-stringed erhu.

Malloy offers up nearly two dozen songs, helpfully introducing the title and the track number for each one, and while references to ghosts, Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, “The Twilight Zone,” Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman,” and Grimms’ Fairy Tales all appear, you will also hear riffs from “Frozen” and Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods,” among others. Two of the most evocative moments come with Malloy’s nod to Thelonius Monk’s “Ruby My Dear” and Bell’s a cappella performance of “The Wind & Rain,” described as a 17th-century English murder ballad.

In between the songs are mini-stories that set the tone for the music to come, introduce the array of odd characters who populate the story-songs, or invite us into moments between the characters. Always the tone — among the performers and within the music — is one of unaffected sincerity. An awkward pas de deux between Malloy and Ashford is heartbreaking in its simplicity.

Director Annie Tippe keeps the stories flowing with a stylish grace and an ease of movement that is so unpretentious you may find yourself eager to take up a percussion instrument if it’s offered, or tilt a glass of whiskey (or cider) poured for everyone as the ensemble sings a tune about four different kinds of the liquor.

“Ghost Quartet,” with its tight harmonies, compelling characters, and rich musicianship, draws us into a cozy world to explore our fascination with and connection to otherworldly spirits for a uniquely thrilling evening.

Music, lyrics, and text by Dave Malloy.

Developed and arranged by Ghost Quartet.

At Oberon, Cambridge, through Saturday.

Summary: The song cycle, from the Ghost Quartet’s self-titled release, is by turns humorous and haunting.


She also added both of L Brands' stores, Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works, were doing very well.

Joseph Feldman, senior managing director of Telsey Advisory Group, a New York City-based management consulting firm, concurred with Dunn by also naming Macy's as one of his season's winners because of how well it's doing in the apparel and jewelry categories.

Feldman also named Swedish retailer H&M and electronics retailer Best Buy as winners in an interview with CNBC.

Read MoreAmerican Apparel shares rise on confirmed bid

Dunn added that consumers shopping on Saturday, or during "Super Saturday," won out because of the amazing deals they found. "Saturday was the busiest day of the season," she said.

Read More Shoppers to splash $690K a minute on Christmas Day

The biggest losers this season were low-end shopping malls, said Dunn. "There doesn't seem to be much shopping going on at the low-end malls I went to," said Dunn. "This weekend the lower-end consumer showed up, but it's definitely not going to be as merry a Christmas for that lower-end consumer. "

Other losers included specialty apparel retailers, said Feldman. "The side that has not been great is that specialty apparel retailer, like those teen retailers in the mall," he said. "That's where you've seen a bit of pressure."

—CNBC's Uptin Saiidi contributed to this article.

Summary: Experts Liz Dunn and Joseph Feldman named their retail winners and losers of the holiday season, with Macy's and Best Buy taking top honors.


Nespresso had been the first major coffee company to re-enter South Sudan in 2011. The company and its partner TechnoServe have been working hard to revive high-quality coffee production in South Sudan through the implementation of the Nespresso AAA Sustainable Quality™ Program.

“We are really proud to partner with Nespresso in South Sudan to work with the communities to start rebuilding the coffee industry there,“ says Paul Stewart, regional director coffee initiative for TechnoServe. “We are really starting with nothing, so we need to help farmers make the first steps to develop their coffee industry. Over the last year, we have accomplished many firsts in the history of South Sudan.”

The following are nine firsts achieved by Nespresso and TechnoServe in South Sudan in their efforts to revive high-quality coffee production:

First coffee cooperatives registered in South SudanThe project supported the organisation and registration of three coffee cooperatives in the region of Yei, the first of their kind in South Sudan.

First coffee wet mills in South SudanCoffee processing businesses, known as wet mills, which transform the cherries picked by farmers into exportable coffee beans, are essential to produce high-quality coffee. During 2013, the project supported each of the cooperatives to construct a mill.

First fully washed coffee ever produced in South SudanCooperative leaders were supported to write a business plan, and staff were trained and coached during the harvest season on how to operate the new coffee wet mills. Previously, coffee was only processed with the dry method.

First ever phytosanitary certificate for South SudanThe project supported the Ministry of Agriculture to create a template phytosanitary certificate – a document required for the international trade of agricultural produce. The first phytosanitary certificate was issued by the Ministry of Agriculture for the first shipment of coffee, which was exported to Nespresso in July 2013.

First coffee ever exported from South SudanA shipment of 1.8 metric tonnes parchment coffee air-freighted to Nespresso in 2013 was the first export of coffee from South Sudan. The first export by land of coffee from South Sudan took place in July 2014 when 10 tonnes of parchment coffee was transported to Uganda, also destined for Nespresso.

First ever non-oil export from South Sudan to EuropeAn official in the Ministry of Agriculture reported that the shipment of coffee to Nespresso in 2013 was the first ever non-oil export from South Sudan to Europe.

First exporter identified and trainedA local South Sudanese company was identified to provide the service of exporting coffee from South Sudan to Uganda. The company imports packaged food products from Uganda and therefore had the relevant experience for handling coffee and dealing with customs requirements.

First coffee export tax revenues to governmentThe county government in Yei collected export tax revenue from the coffee export in 2014, the first time the tax has been collected on coffee.

First legal processing and export of foreign coffee through UgandaWhile coffee has long been smuggled from the Democratic Republic of Congo into Uganda for re-export, this was the first legal importation of coffee into Uganda.

In the coming years, Nespresso and TechnoServe will continue to support the three coffee cooperatives by providing coaching on coffee quality and business skills, and develop the marketing channels for coffee.

Summary: The South Sudan is the world’s youngest nation – and also one of the poorest. In an effort to revive the production of high-quality coffee in the country, Nespresso worked with local farmers to achieve a series of firsts


"I'm fed up with the Jewish conversation just being about Israel or antisemitism," says Raymond Simonson, sitting in a meeting room with floor-to-ceiling windows, overlooking Finchley Road in northwest London. "I want to talk about Curb Your Enthusiasm instead, and the paintings of Chagall, the music of Amy Winehouse and Woody Allen films."

With thick glasses, substantial sideburns and a brown tweed jacket that give him the look of someone fresh from a Woody Allen film set, Simonson is the chief executive of a new multimillion pound complex that aims to provide a home for all of the above.

Hovering like a low-slung liner, its long ribbons of windows separated by crisp bands of white concrete, JW3 (a riff on its home in NW3) declares itself to be "a new postcode for Jewish life" – with not a Torah or menorah in sight. Set to open at the end of September after 10 years in the making, it is the brainchild of Vivien Duffield, whose Clore Duffield Foundation stumped up £40m of the £50m project cost. It was inspired by her visit to the vast Jewish Community Centre (JCC) in New York, a multi-storey beacon of Jewish culture in Manhattan that made her wonder why London didn't have the same.

"If you go to the States, Jewish stuff is loud and proud," says Simonson. "But over here it's completely different. Indoors, we might shout at each other around the dinner table, smash glasses at our weddings and do boisterous dancing, but outside you keep your head down. Of course we know why it's like that in Europe – my mum escaped Nazi-occupied France – but we shouldn't still be scared of that shadow."

While New York's look-at-me JCC seems like a slick private club, complete with a flashy sixth-floor swimming pool, London's version speaks more softly. Set back from the roaring six-lane traffic on Finchley Road on a sloping site, accessed from a bridge that crosses a large sunken courtyard, its four storeys only read as two from street level. Designed by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, purveyors of inoffensive modernism-lite, it is dressed in understated beige, brick and reconstituted stone. It is trying to be the Savile Row to the loud Wall Street pinstripe – but it comes off looking a bit M&S.

"We knew we couldn't just plonk the JCC down here," says Nick Viner, JW3's outgoing CEO who has steered the project since the beginning. He cites Hugh Casson's Ismaili Centre in South Kensington and Denys Lasdun's Royal College of Physicians by Regent's Park as projects he was keen to emulate. Both contain a series of auditoriums and rooms arranged around large public levels and atriums. Both are also wrapped in fortified shells, standing like cultural castles ready to defend against an oncoming siege.

By contrast, Viner wanted JW3 to have "an open civic quality, not look like an exclusive club," though this is not particularly evident from the street. The bridge, accessed through a big metal gate, reinforces the sense of a secure site, while a giant glass fence marches along the pavement, allowing passers-by to look down on activities in the sunken piazza – an us-and-them relationship with unfortunate connotations of a zoo enclosure. The whole thing is towered over by a nine-storey block of swish apartments, a necessary planning condition, replacing the same number of homes that were on the site before.

The fact that the building looks like an embassy should not come as a surprise: it is intended as something of a Jewish cultural ambassador. Within its relatively small footprint, it somehow contains a 270-seat auditorium, a 60-seat cinema, a restaurant and bar, a demonstration kitchen, dance studios, classrooms and medical clinics. This leisure sandwich is even topped off by a penthouse nursery with a ziggurat of ball pools and sandpits on its own roof terrace. It is the kind of ambitious hybrid offspring that might be produced if an academy school had a lovechild with the Barbican.

"We would like to be mentioned in the same sentence as the Barbican," confirms Viner, "along with the Southbank Centre, or the Roundhouse or Rich Mix." With the Camden Arts Centre across the road, he hopes JW3 will lead to an "emerging arts hub" in this corner of Hampstead.

The bar is set high, and with 1,300 events scheduled for the opening three months, the programming team has a lot to live up to. Simonson points out that this only equates to two events per day in each space – "we wanted to start light" – but the calendar is already brimming with celebrity appearances, from evenings with Kevin Spacey and Nicholas Hytner to Ruby Wax and Zoë Wanamaker. The courtyard will become a mini-farm in the opening weeks and an ice rink over the winter, while upstairs in the classrooms there are courses on Hebrew lettering and henna body-painting, kosher cooking classes and lessons in Krav Maga – the lethal martial art taught to the Israeli Defence Force. But not everything is on-theme: "If you come for watercolour classes, it's not Jewish watercolours," says Simonson. "We won't make you sit there and paint gefilte fish."

Being in Hampstead, the centre has a guaranteed catchment and builds on a strong history of cultural life in the area. It is just down the road from the home of Habonim, AKA the "Socialist Zionist Culturally Jewish youth movement," a group where Mike Leigh, Sacha Baron Cohen and David Baddiel started out telling jokes. In their honour, JW3 will host a Jewish comedy club called HavaNaGiggle, plus a comedy class for pensioners – "standup for the sit-down age group" as Simonson has christened it.

JW3 is at pains to point out that it is not a religious centre. It may have the largest Shabbat-compliant lift outside Israel – programmed to function automatically on a Saturday, stopping at every floor – but there is nothing expressly Jewish about the building. "I hope people that might never think of going to a synagogue will come here," says Simonson, adding that the programme should appeal to the new kind of "three-days-a-year Jew".

"That used to mean going to the synagogue on our three holiest days," he says, "but now there is a generation that might go to the Jewish Film festival, Jewish Book Week and Limmud, a sort of Jewish Edinburgh festival. The idea of JW3 is to have this festival 52 weeks a year, open to everyone." With an energetic director at the helm, and a long list of wealthy benefactors, the centre has every hope of adding another dimension to London's vibrant cultural life – just as long as it can lure people past the fences and across the bridge.

Summary: From kosher cooking to evenings with Kevin Spacey, JW3 focuses on Jewish culture without being expressly Jewish. And it is an ambitious space – once you get past the fortifications, writes Oliver Wainwright


Major Aereo investor Diller told CNBC that "We did try, but it's over now."

Diller said the service would have offered consumers an "alternative to the bundle."

"It's not a big [financial] loss for us, but I do believe blocking this technology is a big loss for consumers, and beyond that I only salute Chet Kanojia and his band of Aereo'lers for fighting the good fight," he said.

The court said the service constitutes a public performance of copyrighted content. For the networks, the victory protects the estimated $3 billion in so-called re-transmission fees that broadcasters get from cable and satellite TV systems.

Justice Stephen Breyer said in the majority opinion that the ruling should not spell trouble for cloud-based content services in which personal files—including TV shows and music—are stored remotely on the Internet on servers from companies such as Google, Microsoft, DropBox and Box.

Aereo had argued that cloud services use the Internet in the same way as it does to store and transfer copyrighted content.

"It seems like there's a little bit of opening up [in the ruling] of what could happen to new technologies, but this is going to need a much more detailed read to find out those implications," Rich Greenfield, media and technology analyst at BTIG, told CNBC. "I think the immediate implication for Aereo is, is there going to be a way for them to get compulsory licenses to survive, or do they simply disappear?"

The case came before the court when Walt Disney's ABC network, CBS, Comcast's NBCUniversal and Twenty-First Century Fox appealed a decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in April 2013 that denied their request to shut Aereo down while litigation moved forward.

Aereo, backed by Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp, charged users a low monthly fee to watch live or recorded broadcast TV channels on computers or mobile devices. Aereo did not pay the broadcasters.

Last week, Kanojia told CNBC his company charges for technology, not TV content, and therefore is not infringing on copyrights.

Read MoreThis Supreme Court decision could alter TV forever

Summary: The U.S. Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision and ruled 6-to-3 that the TV startup Aereo violated copyright law.


Verizon and Sprint's charges will amount to $90 million and $68 million, respectively, under the agreement. At least $120 million will go to reimbursing consumers hit with the charges.

Investigations revealed that Verizon and Sprint charged customers millions of dollars for premium third-party text message services. The companies typically levied fees of about $10 per month for the services, the FCC said.

Read MoreFCC gets first bid to delay net neutrality

Verizon and Sprint both kept at least 30 percent of the unauthorized fees they billed. Many consumers complained that they had been denied refunds for the charges, the FCC said.

"For too long, consumers have been charged on their phone bills for things they did not buy," said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a statement.

The agency will also implement consumer protections against cramming. Regulations will require that the wireless carriers no longer charge for third-party messaging services, as well as clearly identify any third-party fees on bills.

Last year, AT&T and T-Mobile agreed to pay $105 million and $90 million, respectively, to settle cramming investigations.

Summary: Verizon and Sprint will pay a combined $158 million to settle allegations of sticking customers with unauthorized charges.


The threat of early elections has driven Australia's ruling conservative government to cater the budget to its core constituencies, small businesses and middle class families with children, at the expense of structural reforms, analysts said.

"It looks like an election budget – the government has substantially spent on this budget and pushed off returning to a surplus into the distance," University of Sydney's lecturer in politics & public policy, Peter Chen, told CNBC. "This is not an economists' budget but a political budget…and all the major provisions are aimed at the coalition's base."

For more than a decade, Australia's economy has been fuelled by a mining boom – but a collapse in commodity prices is slowing economic growth and reducing tax receipts.

However, after last year's disastrously tightfisted budget sent the conservative government's approval ratings sinking to record lows, the ruling party has chosen this year to play for votes. The highlight of this year's spending plans turned out to be spending for its two core constituencies, mainly tax breaks for small businesses and increased childcare subsidies.

"Fiscal policy is, in all honesty, aimed at the individual and the nuclear family, and clearly the government have delivered overnight. A cynical call would be to say, votes don't come cheap," said IG market strategist Evan Lucas in a Wednesday note.

The government is so haunted by last year's debacle that it neglected to come up with any measures to help Australia wean itself off its dependence on commodity exports, critics said.

"This transition from mining to non-mining investment in the economy has been complicated and frankly [last year's] impact on consumer and business confidence was simply diabolical", former Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan told CNBC.

Summary: The threat of early elections has driven Australia’s government to cater the budget to its core constituencies, analysts said.


Victor J. Blue | Bloomberg | Getty Images

People walk past a Shake Shack Inc. restaurant in Philadelphia.

Fitz-Gerald, chief investment strategist at MoneyMorning.com, pointed out that the chain has fewer than 100 stores.

Read MoreBurger chain Shake Shack eyeing chicken

It's a story he said is similar to that of Krispy Kreme, noting that with the first 200 days of trading the two names are tracking very closely.

Ten years later, Krispy Kreme is now only trading at 39 percent of its peak, he said.

"If you're an investor, do you really want to be the last one in the door?"

Fitz-Gerald thinks the technicals on Shake Shack are "reflecting emotion and hope from a consumer that is confusing this with, quite frankly, something like a tech IPO."

He said he also gets concerned when he hears management talking about training people for qualities they can't teach.

Kenny Polcari, director at O'Neil Securities, said on "Closing Bell" that he believes the stock made too much of a move and needs to "settle in" but thinks when it hits closer to the $45 to $50 range it is "probably a good shot."

Read More10 of America's fastest growing restaurants

Disclosures: Polcari, his family and his firm do not own Shake Shack. Fitz-Gerald, his family and his firm do not own Shake Shack.

Summary: Shake Shack has been priced in the nosebleed section for too long now, MoneyMorning.com's Keith Fitz-Gerald said.


The problem is that "Simply American" suggests Almay's beauty products are made domestically, said Bonnie Patten, executive director of Truth in Advertising.org, a nonprofit organization. While a company spokeswoman says nearly 90 percent of Almay products, including makeup remover, are American made, other products are made in China, the Czech Republic, Germany and Canada. Truth In Advertising.org has complained to the Federal Trade Commission and New York Attorney General's Office about what it says are Almay's false claims.

To be fair, the Revlon-owned Almay brand does not appear to have violated labeling requirements, and it is diligent about labeling the origins of its products. Beyond the ad campaign, Almay packaging details which specific countries the products are made including components' origins.

But using a broad definition of "American" can often run the risk of raising red flags.

Blogger Wagner said she recently saw a set of American flags for sale with the label language, "Proudly 'Made in USA,' assembled in China." What does that even mean?

"The Almay Simply American campaign captures the essence of the 'American Beauty Look,' which is simple, luminous and fresh faced," according to Revlon, in a statement emailed to CNBC.com. "Simply American does not imply, nor intend to imply, made in the USA."

But Truth In Advertising.org's Patten argues false-packaging claims hurt the efforts of companies that do make "Made in USA" a top priority. "Patriotism is a great marketing tool," she said. "Consumers are more likely to buy products marketed as made in the U.S. and are willing to spend more money."

Read More'Made in China' becoming increasingly 'Made in USA'

Companies large and small have discovered the potential in showcasing a product's evolution, including its manufacturing origins.

Apple's iPhone is designed by Apple in California, and assembled in China.

Retail catalogs and e-commerce sites feature lengthy product descriptions. Artisanal, one-of-a-kind backpacks and canoes made from regional materials and decades-old craftsmen traditions. Words like "heritage" and "authentic" come up a lot.

Such language in part implies that the goods generate American manufacturing jobs. In recent years, the narrowing labor cost gap between the U.S. and other countries including China, and cheaper energy prices have helped support American manufacturing. Especially after the Great Recession, more Americans began connecting the dots that foreign-made goods—piled high in big box-store carts—equals fewer U.S. jobs.

Summary: With July Fourth near, now is the season for American-made. A look at why "Made in USA" labeling is so complicated.


Concern that Greece is heading towards a default of its debt that could end with the country leaving the euro zone has boosted demand for bonds, which have seen heightened volatility in recent months as investors reassess the outlook for inflation and monetary policy.

Read MoreGreece weighs while traders await Fed

"It would create a great deal of dislocation in the short-run if Greece left the euro zone. It's not an eventuality we would like to see, but at the end of the day Greece is a relatively small economy," John Buckingham, chief investment officer of AFAM Capital, told "Squawk Box" Asia.

The Federal Reserve, meanwhile, is not expected to announce any changes to its monetary policy when it concludes a two-day meeting on Wednesday.

Still, the Fed's post-meeting statement will be scrutinized amid talk that the Fed could lift interest rates in September for the first time since 2006 amid improving economic conditions.

Read MoreGreece defiant, accused of 'breaking all the rules'

On the data front, U.S. housing starts fell in May after a hefty increase the prior month, but a surge in permits for future construction to a near eight-year high suggested the pullback was temporary and pointed to underlying strength in housing.

Groundbreaking dropped 11.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.04 mullion units, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday. That partially reversed April's large gain. April starts were revised up to a 1.17 million-unit rate, the highest since November 2007.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast housing starts falling to a 1.10 million-unit pace last month after a previously reported 1.14 million-unit rate.

That follows Monday's National Association of Home Builders sentiment survey, which showed confidence rising to its highest level in nine months.

Elsewhere, U.S. stock futures pointed to a weak start for Wall Street shares amid jitters over Greece.

—Reuters contributed to this report.

Summary: U.S. Treasurys  were on a firm footing Tuesday as worries about Greece bolstered the market's safe-haven appeal before a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting.


Emilia Clarke and Jason Momoa

10/05/2015 AT 10:15 AM EDT

Holy mother of dragons: Khaleesi and Khal Drogo are back!

reunited in Paris for Fashion Week, and the former onscreen spouses won our hearts, even if they haven't quite conquered Westeros.

She plays Daenerys Targaryen on the HBO series, and his Dothraki warlord died tragically in season 1. But Clarke, 28, and Momoa, 36, left the drama behind to share a series of silly photos Saturday.

"Well I guess the sun rises in the west and sets in the east then huh?" Clarke captioned an

of the two cracking up while hugging.

Meanwhile, Momoa posted picture of Clarke goofily modeling a hat, calling her too "f---ing cute."

"Really sorry I trusted u Thanks for killing me. I'd do it again though. That look my khalessi," he wrote.

last month, racking up 12 awards.

Next up for Momoa? The husband of Lisa Bonet

in Zack Snyder's hotly anticipated

Summary: "Well I guess the sun rises in the west and sets in the east then huh?" Emilia Clarke captioned an Instagram with Jason Momoa


* OPEC says worried about prices, ready to talk to producers

* EIA data shows U.S. crude oil production contracting

NEW YORK, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Oil futures soared on Monday for a third consecutive day, rising more than 8 percent, as a downward revision of U.S. crude production data and OPEC's readiness to talk with other producers helped extend the biggest price surge in 25 years.

U.S. crude oil prices have skyrocketed more than $10 a barrel in three days, erasing the month's declines as a series of relatively small-scale supply disruptions and output risks prompted bearish traders to take profits on short positions, which had been at near record highs a week ago.

On Monday, prices fell initially but reversed course mid-morning to accelerate into the close, extending gains to more than the 20 percent mark that often signals a bull market. Even so, few were prepared to call a definitive end to the slump.

"Sharp gains over the past three trading sessions were driven by a combination of short covering and chart-readers again looking to call a bottom falsely," Citi said in a report, saying that prices may yet test new lows before year's end.

Brent October futures rose $4.10, or 8.2 percent, to settle at $54.15 a barrel, with volumes relatively muted by a British public holiday.

U.S. crude gained $3.98, or 8.8 percent, to settle at $49.20 a barrel, taking three-day gains to 27.5 percent, the most over three days since August 1990. In dollar terms, it is the biggest three-day gain since February 2011.

While some analysts have been warning of a rebound in prices after a one-third slump since late June, most have been shocked by the whiplash of the past few days, and wondered whether it was an overreaction to relatively mild triggers.

On Monday, some cited a commentary in the latest OPEC Bulletin publication suggesting the group may be increasingly willing to talk to other producers about curbing output as a factor, even though it was broadly in line with previous comments. There has been no indication this summer that core Gulf OPEC members are pushing for more talks.

"As the organization has stressed on numerous occasions, it stands ready to talk to all other producers. But this has to be on a level playing field. OPEC will protect its own interests," according to the report.

The rally was also fueled by revised U.S. government figures showing that domestic production in the first half of the year was lower than initially reported. Even so, the data was in line with the overarching narrative of an industry in decline.

The Energy Information Administration said its new survey-based output data showed the United States pumped a hair below 9.3 million barrels per day in June, down by 100,000 bpd from a revised May figure. June figure was also nearly 250,000 bpd below what the EIA had estimated a few weeks ago.

(Additional reporting by Alex Lawler in London and Keith Wallis; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Steve Orlofsky)

Summary: *OPEC says worried about prices, ready to talk to producers. NEW YORK, Aug 31- Oil futures soared on Monday for a third consecutive day, rising more than 8 percent, as a downward revision of U.S. crude production data and OPEC's readiness to talk with other producers helped extend the biggest price surge in 25 years. U.S. crude gained $3.98, or 8.8 percent, to settle at...


CVS and Gilead didn't immediately respond to requests for more details on the agreement, including whether Gilead offered a discount to the list price of its drugs. At $84,000 for 12 weeks of treatment, Sovaldi set off a storm of controversy when it was approved in December 2013. Harvoni, a combination of Sovaldi and another therapy, was approved in October; it costs $94,500 for 12 weeks of treatment, though some patients are cured in just eight weeks.

Read MoreDrug pricing concerns? Not at Gilead

Express Scripts said it negotiated a "significant discount" with AbbVie on its Viekira Pak, approved in late December.

"Our goal was to create the lowest net-cost solution for the entire population of patients with all genotypes of hepatitis C," CVS' Cramer said in the statement. "When making this decision, we evaluated a wide variety of factors including duration of therapy, relative distribution of genotype and cost of the individual agents in the category as well as the results of a comprehensive clinical review of the different hepatitis C regimens."

Some analysts questioned Express Scripts' decision, noting AbbVie's regimen consists of several pills taken each day, while Harvoni is just one daily pill. Gilead's stock was weighed down on concerns, though, that other pharmacy benefit managers would make similar agreements based on price.

"We view this as positive because it removes near-term uncertainty for many investors who feared CVS would also strike a deal with AbbVie and further put more pressure on Gilead," RBC Capital Markets analyst Michael Yee wrote in a research note Monday.

Summary: Gilead Sciences' hepatitis C drugs, Sovaldi and Harvoni, will get exclusive coverage on several plans from CVS/Caremark.


China is quickly remaking its economy, according to CNBC's Jim Cramer.

"They're changing this economy on the fly," Cramer said on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" Tuesday. "They are making this into an internal consumption economy [from an exporting economy]."

Read MoreIs the era of 7% growth over for China?

Cramer made his remarks after China's fourth-quarter gross domestic product remained at 7.3 percent. "I was looking for 7.1 percent," Cramer said. "You may think that's horrible, but I was afraid it would go to 6 percent. I think the Chinese Communist Party is trying to cut excesses everywhere."

The comments also came after the International Monetary Fund slashed its economic growth outlook from 3.8 percent growth this year and 4 percent growth in 2016, to 3.3 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively.

Read MoreIMF slices global growth forecast for 2015

Nevertheless, Cramer said he believes the Chinese are doing right by their economy as they cut down margins. "I know it doesn't sound rational to try and slow an economy down, but I think the Chinese are doing a lot that's right," he said. "That's why I don't expect to see many of our companies to crater on a so-called Chinese slowdown."

—CNBC's Ansuya Harjani contributed to this report

Summary: CNBC's Jim Cramer said on Tuesday the Chinese are changing their economy into an internal consumption economy.


PHOENIX -- The Diamondbacks did not make the biggest splash at the winter meetings last week. Chicago's teams did that, both the south- and north-siders. New Los Angeles Dodgers' president Andrew Friedman found creative ways to rework his unwieldy roster, also.

But the D-backs were plenty busy in their own way -- sticking to the plan laid out by chief of baseball operations Tony La Russa and general manager Dave Stewart.

The D-backs made three major moves in three days in an attempt to distance themselves from an everything-that-could-go-wrong-did 2014 season.

The winter plan was to add a bat, shed salary and get younger and deeper, and the D-backs made inroads on all of that by announcing the signing of Cuban free agent Yasmany Tomas, trading catcher Miguel Montero to the Cubs and adding four controllable pitching prospects in trades that cost them Montero, Didi Gregorius and Wade Miley.

Still on the radar are a catcher to pair with Tuffy Gosewisch and possibly a left-handed bat in the outfield.

Stewart added to the intrigue Friday when he said that the D-backs have discussed free agent right-handers Max Scherzer and James Shields, the two highest profile pitchers remaining in free agent pool since Jon Lester signed a six-year, $155 million deal with the Cubs.

The D-backs entered the offseason saying high-end starters were off limits, and adding Scherzer or Shields would seem to require them to trade another higher-priced veteran such as Aaron Hill in order to get the payroll relief necessary. Shields is believed to be seeking a deal worth perhaps $20 million a year; Scherzer, much higher.

The D-backs have shown nimbleness by signing Tomas and making four other offseason deals, including one for starter Jeremy Hellickson, so while adding a big-money starter is unlikely, it seems anything is possible. If the D-backs could swing either Scherzer or Shields to put at the top of the rotation, it would seem to signal they have fast-tracked their rebuilding timetable and hope to contend sooner rather than later in the NL West against the likes of the deep-pocket Dodgers and Giants, who have won three of the last five World Series. The Giants are among the teams rumored to have interest in Shields.

If the offseason has shown us one thing, it is that uber competitors La Russa and Stewart are not afraid to make a move and accept some risk.

"It is difficult to go from 98 losses to 98 wins, but I don't think you give in on the potential that sooner rather than later we can be contenders," La Russa said at the winter meetings, giving a general overview of the team's thinking.

"If you have a good talent pool and they play tough and they play well, you win extra games. We have a nice young nucleus. There is a lot to build on. We have some quality veterans. I think what the winter is for is to create as much depth as possible."

The position player group seem set except for catcher, when the D-backs could target former Cubs starter Welington Castillo or free agents such as David Ross or former University of Arizona catcher Nick Hundley. Ross is rumored to be heavily considering the Cubs because of his association with Lester from their days in Boston.

If Tomas sticks at third base, the D-backs could start either Ender Inciarte or David Peralta in the outfield along with A.J. Pollock and Mark Trumbo. First baseman Paul Goldschmidt, Tomas and Trumbo would hit in the middle of the order. Chris Owings should start at one of the middle-infield positions, paired with veteran second baseman Hill or shortstop prospect Nick Ahmed, who is considered a major league-ready defender.

With Miley gone and Patrick Corbin not expected to return until perhaps June, the D-backs will not have a left-hander among the front four in a rotation that includes Josh Collmenter and newcomers Rubby De La Rosa, Hellickson and Allen Webster. Lefties Vidal Nuno, Robbie Ray and Andrew Chafin and righties Chase Anderson, Trevor Cahill, Daniel Hudson and Randall Delgado are in the mix for spots in the rotation. If nothing else, there will be no shortage of competition in March.

De La Rosa and Webster were acquired from Boston in the Miley trade and Ray was added from Detroit in the three-team trade that sent Gregorius to the New York Yankees. With that group and 20-year old Jeferson Mejia, acquired from the Cubs in the Montero deal, the D-backs have a stable of young, highly projectable arms. De La Rosa is under team control for four years, and the others are under control for the full six years. That nucleus does not include top minor league prospects Archie Bradley, Aaron Blair and Braden Shipley, who are likely to comprise three-fifths of the starting rotation at Class AA Mobile next year.

"It's not just adding starting pitching that can give us wins in 2015, but it's building up a group of guys that would be available to pitch that we would control for years beyond 2015," La Russa said.

Follow Jack Magruder on Twitter

Summary: The Diamondbacks' winter master plan was to add a bat, shed salary and get younger and deeper, and they've made inroads in all those areas.


ACTON — In the Acton Plaza Shopping Center, where SUVs and minivans clog the parking lot, “Help Wanted” signs crop up everywhere, from the window of a hamburger spot to the chalkboard of a pet store to the produce section of the Roche Bros. supermarket.

Thirty miles away, in Boston’s Mattapan Square, such signs are hard to find. Some storefronts are vacant, including the McDonald’s that closed over the summer.

“That was a shock for us,” said Patti Powell, a hairstylist who said she has lived in Mattapan all her life. “They were here one day and then, poof, gone just like that.”

Massachusetts’ booming economy is generating the strongest job growth since the late 1990s, but as these starkly different commercial areas show, jobs are not expanding fast enough where they’re needed most. Economists said this mismatch between jobs and job seekers remains one of the most vexing challenges for policy makers hoping to spread the benefits of the recovery and prevent the division between rich and poor from hardening.

In Mattapan and Acton, the gulf is both longstanding and getting wider. In 2000, for example, the median income in Acton was almost $53,000 higher than in Mattapan; in 2013, the gap increased to $64,580, according to the most recent local data from the US Census Bureau.

Poverty in Acton during this period fell by half, to less than 1 percent of families from about 1.7 percent. The share of families living in poverty in Mattapan rose to 16 percent from 14.5 percent.

In Acton, a well-to-do bedroom community, the median household income is $110,000 — more than 60 percent above the state median of about $67,000. Store managers say they struggle to fill job openings.

In urban Mattapan Square, only 20 minutes from downtown Boston, jobs are more scarce. One in eight workers in the neighborhood are unemployed, according to the census data, and the $45,000-a-year median household income is one-third below the state median. While some business owners insist there jobs to be had in the square, few say they are actually hiring.

“The nature of the rebound is so uneven,” said University of Massachusetts Amherst economics professor Robert N. Pollin. “There is employment, and it follows where the market is. And it’s not in working-class communities. It’s starkly concentrated at the top.”

Bridging the gap between places like Mattapan and Acton has been the subject of research and analysis for decades, said Kevin Lang, a professor of labor economics at Boston University. The government has had limited success with efforts to boost business development and employment in struggling commercial districts by creating “empowerment zones” and offering subsidies.

And without a car, it’s almost impossible for someone in Mattapan looking for work to get to a place like Acton, he said. There is no bus service in Acton, a town of 22,000, and the commuter rail is miles from commercial shopping and can cost more than $10 each way.

“That’s hard to fix,” said Lang. “You’re in a vicious circle. No money to afford a car, and without a car you can’t get a job.”

The pathway to a job at a place like Roche Bros. at the Route 111 shopping plaza begins with a part-time job and can often result in a full-time job with benefits, said Jim Lundy, the supermarket’s general manager. Right now, staffing is one of the store’s biggest challenges.

“It’s tough,” Lundy said. “And we’re very competitive with wages.”

A daytime cashier can make $9.75 an hour, more than the state’s $9 minimum wage. A meat counter worker can make $10 or more an hour, and drivers for its new delivery service earn $12 and up.

Sandra Clark (left) and her mother, Josette Guerrier own Paradise Hair Salon in Mattapan, where the economic recovery is still weak.

One of the most popular Mattapan spots for decades has been Brothers, a counter service restaurant that serves hearty portions of smoked pork chops, meat loaf and red velvet cake, and has a wall filled with autographed photos of celebrities, from the Supremes’ Mary Wilson to 1980s rappers Run-DMC.

Chris Natale, whose family has run the chain for three generations, said it’s easy to find a job in Mattapan Square. But, he added, he’s not hiring.

Some longtime shop owners also said it’s increasingly difficult to just stay in business, let alone add more employees. Bea Jung, who owns the clothing store J City with her husband, said rent is going up more than $1,500 a month, forcing them to close the business after 30 years.

They will lay off one full-time and one part -time worker when they shut down after the holidays. A giant sign hanging at the storefront says “Everything Must Go” and “God Bless You.” Piled on tables inside the shop are Puma sneakers marked down to $10 from $30, Dickies jumpsuits for $29.99, and T-shirts for $3.99.

The couple had hoped to remain in business another decade before retiring, but working 12 hours a day became too much.

“It’s not busy like it used to be,” Jung said. “The economy’s not so good and we work too hard and make no money.”

In Acton, a 14,000-square-foot CVS recently opened across the street from the Acton Plaza Shopping Center, built from the ground up and offering an astounding selection of hair products, as well as an increasing amount of food. If anything, foot and car traffic has increased, which has been good for the nearby Not Your Average Joe’s restaurant.

Bea Jung, who owns the clothing store J City in Mattapan with her husband, said rent is going up more than $1,500 a month, forcing them to close the business after 30 years.

Adam Rutstein, the general manager, said sales are up and he’s hiring for every restaurant position except host. Filling those jobs is difficult in a town where unemployment was 3.3 percent last month, lower than the state average of 4.6 percent.

“Our talent pool is not Acton, it’s people who need hourly jobs,” he said, “so we have to pull from 20 minutes away.”

Most economists said it’s difficult to justify driving any further than that for a lower-paying retail or service jobs.

So the divide, said Megan Way, an labor economics professor at Babson College, ultimately “keeps people segregated.”

Rutstein, the restaurant manager, said he draws loads of job applicants from nearby towns like Maynard and Framingham, and yet not enough to fill all the open positions.

“The need for workers,” he said, “it’s epidemic.”

Lando’s restaurant in Acton was just one of many places hiring in the town.

Summary: Starkly different employment pictures in Acton and Mattapan show the gap between affluent and poor is widening.


01/08/2016 AT 01:00 AM EST

And the 18-year-old reality star recently added fuel to the fire with a new Snapchat video of her smoking from what resembled a vape.

's daughter flaunted her ability to blow O-rings from her E-cigarette while sitting in the passenger seat with BFF Jordyn Woods.

The clip was uploaded on fan account

including footage of Woods driving and recording videos at the same time.

Use of e-cigarettes reached an all-time high among the middle school and high school student demographics, peaking at 2 million teens, according to the

"We want parents to know that nicotine is dangerous for kids at any age, whether it's an e-cigarette, hookah, cigarette or cigar," said CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden in

. "Adolescence is a critical time for brain development. Nicotine exposure at a young age may cause lasting harm to brain development, promote addiction and lead to sustained tobacco use."

to raise the smoking age to 21 effective Jan. 1.

Summary: The 18-year-old showed off her ability to blow O-rings from what resembled a vape.


Most of the advantages of electric cars are about efficiency. But in the winter, it’s the very inefficiency of your petrol-powered engine block that keeps your keister from freezing, since waste heat from the combustion process is what makes it through your heating system. On a January morning, your electric vehicle has to divert battery-stored energy through heating elements to keep you warm, and that’s power that isn’t driving the wheels. By some estimates, keeping your EV toasty warm can cut its range by 30 percent.

But some scientists are trying to tackle that problem. A trio at Massachusetts Institute of Technology claims to have developed a thin, transparent film that can store solar energy when the sun is shining, and release it as heat on command. That means that you can use this afternoon’s sunshine to defrost tomorrow morning’s windscreen.

According to an MIT statement, the polymer film contains special molecules that are stable in two different states. Solar radiation kicks these molecules into a high-energy “charged” state, thereby storing energy chemically — where it’s stable — rather than thermally, where it would radiate away. When we want that energy back, a small jolt of electricity or heat knocks the molecules back down to their original state, and they release all that stored energy as heat.

The most obvious use, say the researchers, is in automobile window de-icing, where the polymer could be sandwiched between two pieces of glass right along with the safety film — an application that BMW, a sponsor of the project, is particularly interested in. But the polymer may be versatile enough to be used to heat seats and steering wheels, or even let you solar charge your socks before a motorcycle ride, turning on the heat right before you lose feeling in your toes.

If you would like to comment on this or anything else you have seen on BBC Autos, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

Summary: Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology claim to have created an experimental polymer film can store the sun's energy for an on-demand blast of heat.


The Federal Communications Commission’s plan to make it easier for cable TV subscribers to buy their own set-top boxes could not only lead to lower costs for consumers, but also a burst of attractive new offerings.

“It is going to spur innovation, and I think it is a good kick in the posterior for the pay TV companies,” said Mukul Krishna, the senior global director for digital media with Frost & Sullivan in San Antonio, Texas.

On Wednesday, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler unveiled a proposal that would require cable and satellite companies to open up their systems, so that consumer electronics firms could build compatible boxes and sell them directly to consumers. Currently, the overwhelming majority of cable subscribers rent their set-top boxes from the cable companies.

The FCC estimates the average household pays $231 a year in rental fees, up 185 percent over the past 22 years.

Under Wheeler’s plan, which will be put to a vote of the five-person commission on Feb. 18, a consumer could purchase a box that could be used with any cable service. The one-time purchase could save consumers hundreds of dollars. It might also hasten the deployment of new features that complement the changing tastes of TV viewers.

The FCC is working to make it easier to buy cable boxes from firms other than your cable provider.

For instance, few of today’s set-top boxes integrate standard TV networks with Internet video streaming services.

“Consumers today would like to mix live television like CBS and NBC with Netflix and Hulu,” said Ken Plotkin, president of Hauppauge Inc. in Hauppauge, NY., a company that makes cable TV hardware for personal computers. But to watch Internet video, the viewer must usually shift from the cable box to a separate set-top box or to software stored on the TV. Under the FCC plan, a maker of Internet streaming boxes like Apple Inc. or Amazon.com could combine cable TV and online video, for a seamless viewing experience.

Such a service could be a major boon for video producers that target niche audiences, ranging from racial and ethnic minorities to religious groups.

“That kind of stuff tends not to make it to popular ratings-based channels,” said Matthew Zinn, general counsel of the set-top box maker Tivo Inc. in San Jose, Calif.

Instead, it’s mostly streamed over the Internet, where many potential viewers might never see it. Set-top boxes that combine streaming with standard TV could make these shows available to millions more viewers.

Zinn said cable operators have no incentive to help viewers find Internet video streams, which generate no revenue for them. However, if the FCC opens up the set-top box market, manufacturers could offer boxes with advanced user interfaces and personalization features that could detect a user’s tastes and interests and suggest other programs he or she might like, whether from the Internet or cable.

Cable companies aren’t happy about the FCC plan.

“The proposal, like prior federal government technology mandates, would impose costs on consumers, adversely impact the creation of high-quality content, and chill innovation,” said a blog posting by Comcast Corp. senior vice president Mark Hess.

And cable industry analyst Brett Sappington, of Parks Associates in Dallas, said that companies like Tivo already offer third-party cable set-top boxes, but few consumers purchase them.

“Many don’t even consider the option of buying a set-top box somewhere else,” Sappington said.

But Parks Associates estimates a third of US homes with broadband Internet access have purchased Internet video-streaming devices, so a box that could deliver both Internet video and cable TV might find an audience.

Summary: The Federal Communications Commission’s plan to make it easier for cable TV subscribers to buy their own set-top boxes could not only lead to lower costs for consumers, but a burst of attractive new offerings.


02/02/2016 AT 11:20 AM EST

Just one week after losing part of her leg in the 2013

made a promise to herself.

The ballroom dancer from Seattle, Washington, vowed that she would dance again and, in the same breath, that she would one day complete the Boston Marathon.

Now, despite joking that she was "all hyped up on Vicodin" at the time these plans were set, the 35-year-old is making good on the second part of her pledge. Haslet-Davis is training to run the 26.2-mile race this April.

"I have come to tears every time I've really, really thought about what's it going to be like to go down and take that right onto Boylston street – I will be crying," Haslet Davis tells PEOPLE. "I hope I have enough air to cry and run at the same time."

Adrianne Haslet-Davis runs the final blocks of the 2014 Boston Marathon with her brothers

Haslet-Davis and her team will be running the marathon on April 18 to raise money for

, an organization that provides prosthetic limbs to those who can't afford them.

"I want people to see what I'm doing and know they can do it, too," she says. "I'm running this race as a personal triumph, but really, I'm running to prove to amputees that they shouldnât limit themselves just because of a prosthetic."

The professional ballroom dancer and event speaker says that every day since she lost part of her left leg in 2013, she has tried to "just give it a try."

"A lot of people said, 'God, you're not a runner, how are you going to do this?' And I thought there was a time in my life when I wasnât a ballroom dancer either, but I had that dream and I made it come true," she says. "I feel like we can put these limitations on ourselves or we can say, 'Why donât I just give it a try?' and that's been my motto since the marathon."

Adrianne Haslet-Davis dances at the 2015 Boston Marathon finish line

In 2014, Haslet-Davis ran the last few blocks of the marathon with her brothers, and in 2015, she

with her dancer partner. Both moments represented significant milestones, but this year, she says, "is going to mean everything."

Summary: "I hope I have enough air to cry and run at the same time," Adrianne Haslet-Davis tells PEOPLE