Of course, as with all things fashion, there are many nuances to getting the trainer look just right. "Turning up the hem of trousers up to show the ankles is always the best way to style a flat shoe," Rochell explains, before adding that “leather sneaker styles will always look a little sleeker.”

Cameron’s Chuck Taylor’s might benefit from a spin in the washing machine, but her simple, white model certainly chimes with the uniform of fashion editors and designers, alike. And bonus: are probably comfortable, too.

Summary: Last night Samantha Cameron accompanied sister Emily Sheffield to the People, Places & Things charity gala at Wyndham’s Theatre.


Where do monsters hide out in the modern world? In “The Brotherhood of the Wheel” (Tor, 381 pages, $27.99), R.S. Belcher’s answer is “on the road.” The freeways and byways of America: That’s where people can vanish unnoticed, turn inexplicably into “missing persons.”

Many such cases, we know, are the work of serial killers, ordinary evil human beings. Mr. Belcher suggests that they may be organized into clubs, with secret signs...

Summary: Tom Shippey reviews “The Brotherhood of the Wheel” by R.S. Belcher; and “HEX” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt.


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Welcome to the 2016 NFL season!

A brand new campaign is set to kick off its preseason schedule in a couple weeks, but teams have begun training camps and all the talk of offseason moves have us craving football.

SEE MORE: Check out this QB's gorgeous mansion

If you look across the landscape, there's the sure-fire Super Bowl contenders (Arizona, Carolina, Green Bay, New England, Pittsburgh) and plenty of other interesting clubs who have enough talent to make some real noise come January.

Making predictions this early is a fool's game, but that's not what we're doing (those will come at a later date). This first edition of power rankings is simply a primer for what's to come.

Here is a list that illustrates which teams enter camp in good standing -- and which ones are probably wondering how they'll piece together the next couple months.

NFL Power Rankings - Training Camp

The Browns added Robert Griffin III into the mix to be the primary shotcaller in the post-Johnny Manziel era, and beginning Week 5, Josh Gordon will presumably be back on the field. It's a new era in Cleveland with former baseball exec Paul DePodesta in charge, but it may be a while until they actually bear the fruits of this rebuild.

(Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images/Getty Images)

After an unsuccessful run in Philadelphia, Chip Kelly was brought in to help transform the 49ers. Despite efforts to move him, QB Colin Kaepernick could theoretically thrive in Kelly's fast-paced system -- but talent elsewhere is tough to come by.

(Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Tennessee added DeMarco Murray to its backfield and drafted OT Jack Conklin to help both Murray and Marcus Mariota, so there should be some improvements -- but the Titans are still ways away from competing.

(Photo by Jon Durr/Getty Images)

The Chargers added Joey Bosa to their defensive corps through the draft, but it will still be hard for them to score -- Melvin Gordon, after a subpar rookie campaign, is recovering from microfracture surgery.

Calvin Johnson is no longer in the mix for Matthew Stafford, which means Golden Tate will need to step up big time if they hope to avoid a huge tail-off in the passing game.

(Photo by Jon Durr/Getty Images)

Adam Gase will have some shiny new toys on both sides of the ball: Arian Foster and Mario Williams were both brought in via free agency, and Laremy Tunsil was drafted in the first round to beef up the offensive line. But Miami won't be able to take the next step until Ryan Tannehill proves he's a legitimate starting NFL quarterback.

(Al Diaz/Miami Herald/TNS via Getty Images)

Nick Fairley and Roman Harper have been added to help out a woeful defense, but Drew Brees doesn't have much to work with on his side of the ball.

(Photo by Mike Windle/Getty Images for Verizon)

Assuming Mike Wallace eventually passes his conditioning test, he should help Joe Flacco's passing game. Steve Smith and Justin Forsett returning will also help, but with Flacco just eight months removed from tearing his ACL, we're tempering our expectations on this Ravens team.

A full season of Todd Gurley being the premiere Rams back is intimidating, but banking on first-year quarterback Jared Goff to come out strong right out of the gate may be asking a bit ambitious.

(Photo by Leon Bennett/Getty Images)

Second-year QB Jameis Winston looks to be in the best shape of his life, and his connection with WR Mike Evans should only strengthen as they gain experience together. Tampa Bay seems to be building an encouraging team.

(Photo by Jon Durr/Getty Images)

After missing his rookie season, WR Kevin White is healthy and should help form a dynamic receiving duo with Alshon Jeffery. Chicago lost Matt Forte and Martellus Bennett, however -- not to mention Adam Gase, who took the Dolphins' head coaching job.

Philadelphia selected Carson Wentz with the second overall pick in the draft, so it seems to only be a matter of time before Sam Bradford is supplanted under center.

The Falcons are returning much of the same roster that finished 2-7 last year, sans Roddy White and Jake Long. The team added Mo Sanu at a hefty price to replace White's spot on the depth chart, but there's not much about this Atlanta team that gets us excited.

In typical Rex Ryan fashion, the Bills will likely talk a big game all season long -- especially with the Patriots vulnerable without Tom Brady until Week 5, and the Jets going up against a brutally tough schedule. But does Buffalo have the talent to make the playoffs?

The Jags, at times, looked much better than their 5-11 record last year, and could compete for a potential playoff spot this season. With Blake Bortles able to utilize T.J. Yeldon, Denard Robinson, Allen Hurns and Allen Robinson on offense -- and with some infusion of young talent on defense -- Jacksonville should be fun to watch.

(Photo by Don Juan Moore/Getty Images)

Washington added Josh Norman to help its subpar defensive unit, and the team should have every chance to compete in a wide-open NFC East. Kirk Cousins, playing on a franchise tag, will have everything to prove entering free agency.

While the Raiders certainly have the pieces to finally piece together a good-to-very-good season, we're not going all-in on this bunch just yet. Though if Amari Cooper avoids a sophomore slump, Oakland should be extremely dangerous on offense -- with incredible potential on the other side of the ball, too.

If NFL games were 50 minutes long instead of 60, last year's Giants would have had one of the best records in the league -- and Tom Coughlin would likely still be the head coach. Bob McAdoo is in charge now, and Victor Cruz could finally make his return to the field this season, flanking Odell Beckham in his third season. The defensive additions of Janoris Jenkins and Olivier Vernon should make an immediate impact.

(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Tony Romo is 36, but a fully healthy season from him could mean the difference between a division title and last year's four-win campaign. Ezekiel Elliott should contribute mightily right away, giving Dallas a great chance in a division that's completely up for grabs.

(Photo by Jon Durr/Getty Images)

Adding Brock Osweiler is a major gamble, but could pay huge dividends if he can play an adequate enough quarterback to give Houston some sort of offense beyond DeAndre Hopkins' playmaking ability. J.J. Watt may miss the early portion of the season, but with so many versatile athletes on both sides of the ball, Houston should compete with the Colts for the division.

(AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

Andrew Luck's injury derailed Indy's 2015 campaign, but after the front office finally decided to invest in his offensive line, a healthy year could put the Colts right back in contention to go deep into the playoffs.

The Chiefs are returning much of the same squad as last year, and are largely banking on Travis Kelce and Jeremy Maclin to carry their passing game. Jamaal Charles remains one of the best backs in the NFL, but his health -- and Andy Reid's willingness to give him the ball enough -- could get in the way of his success.

The Jets finally got their man in Ryan Fitzpatrick, who enjoyed the most success of his career as a Jet last season. With Brandon Marshall, Eric Decker and Matt Forte headlining the offense -- while Sheldon Richardson, Muhammad Wilkerson and Darrelle Revis hold down the other side of the ball -- the Jets could be contenders again after missing out on the playoffs last season despite winning 10 games.

(Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)

If it weren't for an embarrassing missed field goal, the Vikings would've made it to the second round of the postseason last year. With most of the squad returning, the defense still sturdy and QB Teddy Bridgewater a year more mature, Minnesota should be in contention for the postseason once again.

(Photo by Jon Durr/Getty Images)

Marshawn Lynch is retired, but rookie Thomas Rawls ran for 830 yards as a rookie. He should return from injury in time for camp, so Seattle hopes to maintain their strength in that department. Russell Okung and Bruce Irvin are also both out of the picture, but the Seahawks sturdy defensive foundation remains. The pressure will likely again fall on Russell Wilson to excel with limited weaponry at his disposal -- but he's surprised us in that regard before.

At full strength, the Steelers are among the league's best. But with Martavis Bryant out all this season while suspended, and Le'Veon Bell possibly banned until Week 5, Pittsburgh is missing two of its three best playmakers. Still, the team should probably be headed for the postseason -- but can't seem to get out of their own way.

The Bengals looked to finally be on their way toward a deep postseason run last year until a Andy Dalton injury derailed that thought. With much of the same core in tact, 2016 should deliver more of the same pre-Dalton injury results.

Peyton Manning is happy in retirement, and the Broncos are moving forward with Mark Sanchez as their starting quarterback. Considering how mediocre Manning was last year while banged up, though, Sanchez may not be as bad as some think -- and Denver's defense is still among the league's best.

After more than a year, the Deflategate saga came to an end earlier this month when it was announced that Tom Brady would have to serve his four-game suspension this season. A quarter-season with Jimmy Garoppolo sets them a hair behind the eight-ball, but we're never ones to doubt Bill Belichick.

After a disappointing 2015 campaign relative to their standards, the Packers are looking to bounce back with a dominant year with Jordy Nelson eyeing a return from a torn ACL. Eddie Lacy was instructed to get in better shape for this season, and if his conditioning has improved, Green Bay could be in the hunt for the NFL's best record.

It's easy to forget, but the Panthers enjoyed their run to the Super Bowl last season without top receiver Kelvin Benjamin. They lost Josh Norman to Washington, but a strong defensive foundation -- and meaningful game experience -- should have the Panthers in contention for a deep playoff run again this season.

Most of last season's impact players are back for 2016, and the team added Chandler Jones, Robert Mathis and Robert Nkemdiche on the defensive end. If Carson Palmer can maintain last season's output at age 36, there's reason to believe the Cardinals can be football's best team in 2016.

Follow AOL Sports on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

More from AOL.com: Report: Tom Jackson may bolt ESPN Some NFL season tickets come with a price -- before the price Remembering how Donald Trump helped crash an entire football league

Summary: Welcome to the 2016 NFL season! Well, almost.


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An Ohio mother has received probation after the state accused her of starving her two month old by only feeding him water.

The 24-year-old, named Ashley Cheatham, pleaded guilty to infliction of great bodily injury to a child. According to the Fifth Circuit Solicitor's Office, Cheatham received three years probation and a suspended ten year sentence.

SEE ALSO: How the Unabomber avoided police for 18 years

Before the trial, Cheatham served eight months in jail. The judge disagreed with the solicitor's request for more jail time.

Cheatham had brought her newborn son to the emergency room due to seizures. Doctors discovered he also had life-threateningly low levels of glucose and sodium.

The mother claimed to not have money to feed the newborn. The solicitor's office said that she had nine vouchers for formula.

She said she only gave the baby water for five days while she ate: "oodles and noodles, onion rings, chicken tenders, hotdogs, bologna sandwiches, corn, rice, okra, tomatoes, chicken tenders smothered in gravy, bake (sic) chicken, fry (sic) chicken, and grits and bacon."

More from AOL.com: Details of Florida shooting emerge Visit to safety park turned deadly California GOP staffers sick with norovirus are stuck in Ohio hotel

Summary: An Ohio mother claimed to feed her newborn only water for five days because she did not have food to feed him.


Australia won't be ready for a referendum on indigenous inclusion in the constitution by next May, says Mick Gooda.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner told the Garma Festival in Arnhem Land on Saturday the process needed to slow down.

"I'm the one who was out there saying we've got to push. Our first round of consultations tells us we've got to ease up a bit," he said.

"I don't think we're going to get anywhere near the 27th of May next year as the date for the referendum, although there was some symmetry, being 50 years after the 1967 referendum.

"We've got to get it right, we can't focus on getting it right now."

He echoed Cape York leader Noel Pearson's call to use constitutional recognition as a "hook" on which to hang other progressions like treaties or settlements, but said multiple discussions could be had at the same time, and that one didn't cancel out the other.

The Recognise movement has had to operate in an unprecedented atmosphere of political upheaval over the past four years, said Tanya Hosch, outgoing campaign director.

"We've had so many reasons to lack faith, to lose hope, to feel defeated, to be pushed and pulled and try to protect some basic rights, and yet we're asking people to come together in a magnanimous way to work with every side of politics in the country, because that's what's required, to find something we all agree on," she said.

"I refuse to think we can't have constitutional change, that we can't have settlements and agreements."

Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion didn't rule out the talk of a settlement, saying he was in talks with different indigenous groups.

"The recognitions of individual nations are part of the respect we need to show our first Australians," he told reporters.

When asked if constitutional recognition could still happen, Senator Scullion said he was "very optimistic".

Labor senator Pat Dodson said the matter wasn't exclusively an indigenous concern, but included all Australians.

"It's not some concession to the natives," he said.

"It is about this nation coming to terms with its dark, desperate and miserable history and yet being able to celebrate ... the British tradition, the multiculturalism and the indigenous heritage, and to intertwine that in a way that gives this civil state we call Australia a new identity, a new capacity to do things differently."

Summary: Noel Pearson says constitutional recognition of Aboriginal people and a treaty aren't mutually exclusive.


"She's been removed from the action and danger for a long time," Simone told Newsarama. "With this relaunch she is still very much Barbara but she can reclaim part of her history and legacy with modern stories - in her own book and elsewhere - drawn by some wonderful artists."

Batgirl 1 will launch this September.

Eventually all of DC Universe's 52 comic book series will go back to square one, with new, modern storylines, in an attempt to reignite reader interest in the genre.

Summary: Fans of the Batgirl comics have been stunned by a decision by owners DC Comics   to give the lead character Barbara Gordon the use of her legs 20 years after   she was paralysed.


Renting a vacation home may be cheaper and provide more space and privacy than the typical hotel room, but some travelers still hold back for fear of falling victim to the phenomenon industry insiders call SNAD: significantly not as described. You know, the property that looks like a slice of paradise in the photos, but when you get there, it's all leaky roof, blocked views and bad plumbing.

Now, hospitality companies are trying to find ways to make booking a vacation rental less mysterious and more reliable, to compete more directly with the familiar brand-name hotel experience. The industry is also betting that the often lower cost of staying in a vacation home will hold particular appeal as the economy heads south.

Homeaway Inc., the world's largest vacation rental booking company by the number of properties listed, is moving to increase reliable user reviews on its Web sites, so potential renters can have more confidence in their choices. Tripadvisor, a unit of Expedia Inc. EXPE -4.05 % that is the market leader in hotel user reviews, plans to add vacation-rental reviews to its site by the end of the year.

Other companies are trying to make the experience of renting a home more like staying in a hotel. Last month, three rental booking companies -- Mountain Reservations, Rooster.com and Mexican Destinations -- joined their inventory and launched the booking Web site VacationRoost.com. The site says customers will get "hotel-like amenities" such as check-in, cleaning services, 24/7 service and maintenance, and the ability to book a rental with a credit card. Late last year, Group RCI, a vacation-rental and time-share-swapping company owned by Wyndham Worldwide, WYN -1.95 % entered the U.S. market with Endless Vacation Rentals. The company says it offers 24-hour help over the telephone, full refunds on canceled reservations, and free over-the-phone concierge service in multiple languages.

While the major online travel agencies like Expedia, Travelocity.com LP and Orbitz Worldwide Inc. haven't become the go-to places for vacation rentals, they are taking bigger steps into the market and boosting the number of properties they list. Travelocity.com says it has about 1,000 condos, bed-and-breakfasts and vacation-rental properties on its site today, compared with about 200 in 2006.

Hotels.com, owned by Expedia, says it has thousands of condos and B&Bs on the Web site today, one-third more of the condo offerings and double the B&B offerings it had about 18 months ago. In August, Orbitz inked a deal to list rental inventory from Zonder.com, a small online booking company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, that lists only professionally managed rentals.

While some travelers swear by the roomier set up, kitchen access and often homey feeling of vacation rentals, only about 10% of Americans booked a vacation rental sometime in the past two years, according to data in a forthcoming report from PhoCusWright Inc.

PhoCusWright asked more than 8,000 Americans who had traveled in the past year and who had shopped online at least once what held them back from booking a vacation rental. Many simply didn't ever think of it or didn't have enough information about the property, assumed rentals only made sense to book for long, group trips and worried they wouldn't have access to hotel-like services. The overall concern was "basically it's not branded, and it's not a hotel," says Douglas Quinby, senior research director at PhoCusWright.

Executives in the vacation-rental business say that potential renters also fear horror stories like that of Ronit Schlam. Ms. Schlam found a good deal on Craigslist.com for a last-minute Labor Day weekend rental on Fire Island, a busy summer spot popular with city-weary New Yorkers. On the telephone, Ms. Schlam says, the property's owner "seemed nice ... she sounded like a normal person," so Ms. Schlam deposited money directly into the owner's bank account.

The 34-year-old, who works in arts management, showed up at the property with a friend to find that "the windows hadn't been opened in who knows how long. ... The sink was filled, overflowing with greasy dishes that had been sitting there for days. ... There were dirty diapers in garbage cans," says Ms. Schlam.

That Friday afternoon, the property's owner said all maids had "left the island," but promised she would send a maid Saturday morning. In the end, Ms. Schlam and her friend spent a few hours cleaning in an effort to enjoy their weekend. A maid never showed up.

While stories like these can send folks running for the nearest Marriott, they don't happen often. In PhoCusWright's research, 89% of people who stayed in a vacation rental said that they would rent one again within the next three years. Even Ms. Schlam says she might try a vacation rental again, but she would be "a lot more careful."

The vacation-rental marketplace is highly diverse, which can compound traveler confusion and trepidation. Travelers can rent directly from private owners (say, a person offering one cabin in Maine) or large property-management companies like Fort Walton Beach, Fla.-based ResortQuest International Inc., which manages thousands of vacation rentals that all have on-site, 24-hour assistance.

Travelers wanting a hotel-like online booking experience should probably stick with companies that list professionally managed properties. Those properties are more likely to keep real-time availability calendars online and to accept credit cards.

With a professionally managed rental, an owner is "not just leaving a key behind a rock," says Julian Castelli, chief executive of VacationRoost.com, the listing company launched last month, with about 100,000 properties. He says properties are professionally cleaned, and "there is always someone in town" to fix problems.

One disadvantage of booking only professionally managed properties is that travelers don't have access to an enormous segment of the vacation-rental inventory. PhoCusWright estimates that owner rentals comprise about 56% of U.S. inventory. More importantly, rent-by-owner properties can be less expensive because customers aren't paying a commission to a professional manager. "If you are willing to do the hard work, you can find a less expensive property" by booking a property rented by its owner, Mr. Castelli says.

Big companies are aiming to bring more rent-by-owner properties into their networks -- and trying to make those properties easier to book. In Sept., Orbitz said it will list rent-by-owner properties on Cheaptickets.com via a partnership with Vast, a classified ad-like listing site, expanding a previous agreement to list Vast properties on the Orbitz's site Away.com. Homeaway, which lists both professionally managed and rental-by-owner properties, is working to encourage more of the properties listed on their Web sites to take credit cards. The company plans to launch a new online payment system, currently being tested, that allows travelers to pay by credit card or with Paypal, but with extras for vacation rental transactions, like breaking out deposit amounts from rental charges or extra cleaning fees.

Many rental companies are trying to allay traveler misgivings by introducing more objective user reviews. But many have found that encouraging more user reviews -- a resource that has become a powerful tool for choosing one hotel over another -- is complicated. Until recently, user reviews on most vacation-rental Web sites were censored and unfavorable ones often deleted, since most listing services don't want to upset the property owners who pay them fees.

For example, Homeaway, which lists about 300,000 rent-by-owner and professionally managed vacation properties on several sites, allows owners or managers to approve reviews before they are posted on Vrbo.com (Vacation Rentals by Owner). Homeaway says reviews are objective on its other sites, such as Homeaway.com, CyberRentals.com and GreatRentals.com. Homeaway says it will take down a negative review on its objective Web sites only if the reviewer uses foul language or hasn't actually stayed in the property.

"I believe in transparency and truth in advertising on our site," says Brian Sharples, chief executive of Homeaway. "But I just feel we have to give properties some protection, especially the ma-and-pa places that only have a few guests a year and could be sunk by one bad review."

TripAdvisor is heading into vacation-rental user reviews via its purchase in August of FlipKey Inc., a small Web Site with technology that aims to encourage and organize user reviews and then facilitate booking. With FlipKey, Trip Advisor aims to eventually bring both professionally managed and owner rentals onto Tripadvisor.com for review, says Chief Executive Steve Kaufer.

Flipkey Chief Executive T.J. Mahony says that only people who have stayed at a property can comment (unlike with hotel reviews on TripAdvisor) because reviews are solicited by an email using booking records. "One of our mantras," to property managers, "are negative reviews are a good thing," because it creates trust with travelers, Mr. Mahony says.

Write to Sarah Nassauer at sarah.nassauer@wsj.com.

Summary: Hospitality companies are trying to find ways to make booking a vacation-home rental less mysterious and more reliable.


Mexperience.com has a cost of living guide updated annually. The Mexican peso has fallen against the pound and dollar in the last couple of years making it even cheaper.

An important consideration for older people moving abroad is the cost and quality of medical treatment. Apart from private health care, Mexico has two main systems – Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS) and Seguro Popular.

With IMSS you pay an annual contribution based on your age: 6,150 pesos (£240) for those aged over 60 up to 6,500 pesos (£260) for those over 80. IMSS can decline coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Seguro Popular, however, is free for over 60s and must cover all patients, regardless of age or pre-existing conditions. But you have to use drugs, doctors and hospitals on their approved list.

Newcomers can apply for a temporary residence visa which is valid for four years, renewed annually. After that time you must apply for a permanent residence visa.

You must show you can support yourself. At the moment you need to prove you have an income of 21,912 pesos (£840) a month for a temporary visa and 36,520 pesos (£1,400) for a permanent visa (see chapalalaw.com).

Summary: A warm climate and low cost of living are two of the main reasons that Brits are flocking overseas.


HONG KONG — A political candidate in Hong Kong has been barred from running for office, after government officials said Saturday that his support for the territory’s independence from China made it impossible for him to uphold the legal duties of a lawmaker.

The government previously said candidates for the legislative election in September must declare that they recognize Hong Kong as an “inalienable part” of China or face disqualification.

The candidate who was disqualified, Chan Ho-tin of the Hong Kong National Party, signed a pledge to uphold the Basic Law, the mini-constitution that has governed Hong Kong since the former British colony was returned to Chinese control in 1997.

But he refused to answer an election official’s follow-up questions about whether he would continue to push for Hong Kong’s independence from China. In a reply, posted online, he questioned whether the official had the right to ask such questions.

“The political views I hold and advocate are a matter solely for consideration by the voters,” Mr. Chan wrote in a letter on Tuesday.

In a statement released on Saturday, the government said a person who “advocates or promotes the independence” of Hong Kong “cannot possibly uphold the Basic Law or fulfill his duties as a legislator.”

Mr. Chan was running to represent the New Territories West district, a large expanse that includes outlying islands and parts of Hong Kong close to the mainland city of Shenzhen.

The Hong Kong National Party wrote in a statement that it was “truly proud” to be the “first party to be barred from a democratic election by the Communist colonial government of Hong Kong.”

A small number of independence activists have grown increasingly vocal in the two years since the Umbrella Movement protests, when thousands of people occupied key roadways for more than two months to push for a greater say in nominating candidates for the chief executive, Hong Kong’s top political office.

Under the terms of its return to Chinese control, Hong Kong is allowed to maintain a highly autonomous political and legal system. But many people here have grown worried about the possibility of a premature decline of the “one country, two systems” model and the erosion of the civil rights enjoyed by Hong Kong residents.

The government said the election pledge, announced just weeks ago, was meant to ensure that a candidate for office would be able to meet the requirements of the job, including swearing to uphold the Basic Law.

But some people questioned whether it was a sign of increasing influence from China’s central government, which has harshly prosecuted advocates of independence in the western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang.

Some political analysts also question whether such efforts to control pro-independence sentiments might only increase public support for them.

A poll released one week ago by the Chinese University of Hong Kong found that 17 percent of respondents somewhat or strongly supported Hong Kong independence after 2047, when the “one country, two systems” policy expires, while 58 percent were somewhat or strongly against independence.

Follow Austin Ramzy on Twitter @austinramzy.

A version of this article appears in print on July 31, 2016, on page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Hong Kong Bars Activist From Election. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

Summary: Officials said Saturday that the candidate’s support for independence from China made it impossible for him to uphold the legal duties of a lawmaker.


This column recently predicted that Russia would disclose hacked emails just before the presidential election as an “October surprise.” The first surprise came early, with last week’s release of emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee, whose chairman resigned for rigging the primaries in Hillary Clinton ’s favor.

Expect more surprises before the election. Vladimir Putin has an unprecedented trove of hacked communications at his fingertips—and shows canny timing on when to hit “send.” Moscow has an ambitious strategy for information war that goes beyond affecting a presidential election. Israeli analyst Dima Adamsky wrote last year that the Russian “information struggle” entails “technological and psychological components designed to manipulate the adversary’s picture of reality, misinform it, and eventually interfere with the decision-making process of individuals, organizations, governments, and societies.”

Security experts believe Russia hacked all 63,000 of Mrs. Clinton’s emails as secretary of state, including the 33,000 emails she destroyed, and that Russia supplemented this information by later hacking the Clinton Foundation and the State Department. That would mean Mr. Putin has a trifecta of sources to identify suspicious links between Mrs. Clinton and multi-million dollar donors to her foundation, including authoritarian governments and crony capitalists, and favors granted by the Clinton State Department.

According to Mr. Adamsky, Russia’s goal is to cause “disillusionment and discontent with the government and disorganization of the state and military command and control and management functions.” It’s hard to imagine anything more disillusioning to Americans than the release by Russia of incriminating emails Mrs. Clinton had refused to disclose even under U.S. court order.

In a paper entitled “The Anatomy of Russian Information Warfare” written in 2014, Polish analyst Jolanta Darczewska traced Russian information warfare theory to Stalin ’s spetspropaganda (special propaganda) program in the 1940s. In recent years Mr. Putin, a KGB veteran, extended infowar to include “information manipulation,” which includes “using authentic information in a way that gives rise to false implications,” disinformation, fabricating information and blackmail.

Russia attacked Estonian government websites and hacked Ukraine’s election commission days before a vote. A German investigator last year concluded there was no evidence behind the WikiLeaks claim that the National Security Agency eavesdropped on Chancellor Angela Merkel ’s mobile phone. It was likely disinformation to drive a wedge between the U.S. and Germany. Russia’s information manipulation is intended both to embarrass people and to inhibit honest communications by demonstrating that governments can’t protect confidential communications.

Liberals who long treated Edward Snowden and Julian Assange as heroes are now offended that WikiLeaks distributed the Russian hacks of the DNC. Journalist Franklin Foer complained in Slate last week that the “breathtaking transgression of privacy” of Democratic Party officials will have a “chilling effect” undermining the ability “to communicate honestly.” That was the exact purpose of the hacks of hundreds of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables distributed by WikiLeaks in 2011 through the New York Times and London’s Guardian.

“It is not our goal to achieve a more transparent society,” Mr. Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, told Time in 2010. Instead, the objective is to force U.S. officials to “lock down internally and to balkanize” so they will “cease to be as efficient as they were.”

What can be done about infowar? Donald Trump was criticized last week for encouraging Russia to disclose Mrs. Clinton’s emails, but making them public would be the best way to deprive Mr. Putin of the advantage he gains by holding them. A U.S. ally that spies on Washington as much as Washington spies on it, such as Israel or France, would do Americans a favor by making public its copy of Mrs. Clinton’s emails. Otherwise, Moscow can drip the emails out on its schedule with its spin—or hold them back as blackmail against Mrs. Clinton should she reach the White House. American voters should know what Mr. Putin knows.

The Obama administration has been passive in response to Russia’s infowar—even reluctant to admit its existence officially. Washington’s best deterrence would be to reply in kind. The U.S. could hack and release Mr. Putin’s bank accounts detailing how rich he has become in office. U.S. prosecutors could use hacked information to indict Putin business cronies and deny visas to their associates and relatives.

Despite Russia’s audacious hacking, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper last week would only go as far as to concede: “It’s fair to say Vladimir Putin feels like he is fighting a low-level, asymmetric war with the U.S.” Because of the Obama administration’s failure to fight back, Mr. Putin is enjoying many victories.

Summary: Information Age columnist L. Gordon Crovitz writes about the cyberwar between the U.S. and Russia: The DNC leaks were another Russian victory as the U.S. fails to fight back.


It had been clear since the end of last season that Arsenal needed a new top-class central defender, but Wenger has so far only signed 20-year-old Rob Holding from Bolton Wanderers and midfielder Granit Xhaka.

Currently, Holding, who made 26 appearances for Bolton in the Championship, and Calum Chambers, who started only two Premier League games last season, are the only fully-fit central defenders Wenger has to call on. Midfielder Francis Coquelin has been practising as an emergency centre-back in training.

Summary: Arsenal will formalise their interest in Shkodran Mustafi by making a bid for the Valencia player in a desperate effort to solve the defensive crisis that has hit the club on the eve of the new Premier League season.


Activist investor Marcato Capital Management LP is pushing Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. to return $4.5 billion to investors over the next three years in a bid to boost the tire giant’s flagging stock price.

In a letter to the Goodyear’s board Tuesday, the activist hedge fund says it is “impressed” by Goodyear’s management and recent performance, but lamented its languishing stock. The company’s shares are down 15% this year, even...

Activist investor Marcato Capital Management LP is pushing Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. to return $4.5 billion to investors over the next three years in a bid to boost the tire giant’s flagging stock price.

In a letter to the Goodyear’s board Tuesday, the activist hedge fund says it is “impressed” by Goodyear’s management and recent performance, but lamented its languishing stock. The company’s shares are down 15% this year, even as rising truck and SUV sales and falling gas prices lifts demand for its tires.

“We believe if the company targets this magnitude of capital return, it would create significant shareholder value, and we would not be surprised to see the share price increase by as much as 50%-100% as a result,” Marcato’s Richard “Mick” McGuire wrote in the letter, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

A spokesman for Goodyear said the company wouldn’t comment on its plans before its Sept. 15 investor day in Boston.

Mr. McGuire, a protégé of well-known activist investor William Ackman, founded Marcato in 2010. The San Francisco firm first invested in Goodyear in early 2014 and held a 1.9% stake in the company as of June 30, down from 3.8% in September. The fund is down 2.7% this year after rising more than 10% in July, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Tuesday’s letter isn’t a threatening missive and doesn’t push for performance improvements or board changes, like typical activist letters. Rather, it includes a long list of topics Marcato wants the company to address at its investor day next month.

Among other things, the firm calls for Goodyear to implement specific margin targets and provide investors with more data on how the company has handled raw material costs. Marcato said it believes both measures will boost investor confidence.

“A series of fundamental misunderstandings about the company pervade the investor and analyst community,” Mr. McGuire wrote.

The most specific request points to an analyst’s report speculating the company could return about $3 billion to shareholders by 2019. In the letter, Mr. McGuire said he believes that underestimates Goodyear’s profitability and cash flow and suggested it could return as much as $4.5 billion.

Goodyear’s market value currently stands at around $7.3 billion.

Through June, Goodyear had repurchased $563 million of the $1.1 billion it said it would buy back by the end of this year.

The Akron, Ohio-based company has been working to paying down debt, and Chief Financial Officer Laura Thompson last month said the company is evaluating what to do with its cash in the coming years.

The company has pledged to release new long-term plans and address stock buybacks at the September investor day.

Marcato has pushed for stock buybacks and other capital-allocation changes at companies including famed auction house Sotheby’s and Bank of New York Mellon Corp. , its two largest investments. The firm recently disclosed new stakes in restaurant chain Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. and crane maker Terex Corp.

Write to David Benoit at david.benoit@wsj.com and Rob Copeland at rob.copeland@wsj.com

Summary: Activist investor Marcato Capital Management is pushing Goodyear Tire to return $4.5 billion to investors over the next three years in a bid to boost its flagging stock price.


The 2015 Women’s World Cup kicked off in Canada over the weekend, and USA—considered by many as the favorite to win the tournament outright—has its first match on Monday, June 8, versus Australia. It’s become standard for fans to find it costly, complicated, or both to watch major sporting events like the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament, the Mayweather-Pacquaio boxing match, and last summer’s Men’s World Cup in Brazil, and the women’s tournament is no exception. We’re here to help sort out the options and point out that much of the Women’s World Cup can be viewed without spending a dime.

FOX Sports has the English-language rights to broadcast the tournament in the U.S. A total of 16 matches will be aired on plain old FOX, including the tournament championship match, the third-place match, and half of the quarterfinals and semifinals. The FOX network is free if you have an HDTV antenna or a pay TV package that includes the big networks. For instance, the Sweden-Nigeria matchup at 4 p.m. ET on Monday, June 8, is being broadcast on FOX, as are Team USA’s matches against Sweden on Friday, June 12, and versus Nigeria on Tuesday, June 16.

However, most other matches, including USA’s June 8 showdown against Australia, are being broadcast on the FOX cable channel FS1, and a few are on FS2, another pay channel. If you’re a subscriber to a traditional pay TV package, all you have to do to watch is tune in to the right channel.

If you clicked on this story, though, let’s assume you’re not a pay TV subscriber, and that you’re looking for some other way to watch—without paying a cable bill, of course. Here are the options:

Streaming Download the FOX Sports Go app and you can stream Women’s World Cup action live. The only catch is a rather big one: You must have a pay TV subscription to use the app. Nonsubscribers have the option of paying for a different app, Fox Soccer2Go, which costs $19.99 per month or $100 for a year. The women’s tournament championship is scheduled for Sunday, July 5, so you should only need to pay for one month to catch the entire World Cup. Note that if you don’t cancel, you’ll keep getting charged month after month.

Streaming Pay TV Package Perhaps the arrival of the Women’s World Cup is all the justification you need to sign up for PlayStation Vue, the cloud-based service from Sony that allows subscribers to stream dozens of pay TV channels without a cable bill, through a game console system. Unlike Sling TV, the Dish Network’s $20 streaming service that includes ESPN and other pay TV channels but doesn’t come with FOX pay channels or any major networks, PlayStation Vue packages have most of the networks (including FOX) and sports pay TV channels like NBC Sports and FOX Sports.

The price of such a package starts at around $50 a month. But if you live in Chicago, New York City, or Philadelphia, you can test out the service with a free seven-day trial. Speaking of which, for the time being, the service is only available in Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia. Here’s the list of channels you’ll get with a package in New York City.

Watch in Spanish Telemundo, a free over-the-air station in much of the country, is broadcasting 10 World Cup matches in Spanish—including the June 9 Colombia-Mexico match and the June 10 and France vs. Colombia on June 13. Most other matches can be viewed with Spanish commentary via NBC Universo, a pay TV channel, or the NBC Deportes website or app. CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story stated that viewers needed to sign in with a pay TV account to stream via NBCDeportes.com. But it looks like this step is unnecessary in some instances. We were able to successfully stream the Sweden-Nigeria match on the site in a web browser (in Spanish) on Monday afternoon without signing in or providing proof of a pay TV subscription.

Listen on Satellite Radio There will be no traditional radio broadcast of the tournament in the U.S., but Sirius XM subscribers will be able to listen to channel 94 to follow all of USA’s matches with live play-by-play simulcasts of the FOX Sports broadcasts.

Summary: It's easy to watch most Team USA matches free.


The idea of legalising drugs and selling them in a controlled way, advocated on Thursday by Bob Ainsworth, a former Home Office minister, has been roundly condemned. I am minded to condemn it roundly, too – but not in order to belittle or ridicule Mr Ainsworth. His was a thoughtful and important contribution to a necessary debate. But he is wrong.

Drug dealers and, indeed, drug users are criminals. We have criminality in this and other ways not because we have unduly stringent policies against crime, but because they are not stringent enough. This also means that, were we to legalise drugs as Mr Ainsworth suggests, we would still have problems with criminality. These would not just be in continued illegal drug dealing (which Mr Ainsworth accepts will happen) but in other fields of criminality to which former drug dealers would shift their attentions.

In other words, if you seek to undermine what Mr Ainsworth correctly calls the "gangsters" by reducing their ability to make money from drugs, they will simply find another commodity to exploit. Nature abhors a vacuum, and criminals used to idling for a living on a huge income are not suddenly going to get jobs stacking shelves in Tesco.

I am far from sure, however, that there would be much reduction in the scope for illegal drug dealing. Were legalisation ever to happen, drugs would have to be sold on the same basis as alcohol and tobacco. They would need to carry VAT and excise duty. Given the damage done by drugs in terms of health and consequent criminality – such as addicts mugging and burgling to afford their fix, which would not change – there is a strong case for setting excise duty at a higher rate than on booze and fags (and you can bet that the drinks and tobacco industries would make that case powerfully). Therefore, the newly legalised drugs would be expensive, allowing plenty of scope for illegal traffickers and dealers to undercut them – at which point we would be back not quite where we started.

I say "not quite" because the other effects of legalisation would be to encourage people who don't use drugs to have a dabble; and to encourage those who use so-called "soft" drugs (though the psychotic effects of cannabis seem to me to render it anything but "soft") to try something a bit more serious. So as well as having gangsters still operating, we shall have additional burdens on the NHS, more families wrecked by drug abuse, and probably more crime to feed the habit.

The real reason why the likes of Mr Ainsworth call for legalisation is that they know the alternative is, as I mentioned earlier, for the forces of law and order to get really nasty with users and dealers. This pass was sold over 40 years ago, when the authorities stopped prosecuting the use of cannabis. Somebody needs to go back and look at this policy – though not Ken Clarke, the Justice Secretary, who cannot get people out of prison quickly enough. As I say, we have a serious problem with drugs in this country because we do not punish drugs crime severely enough. Legalisation is not the answer, but getting nasty might just be.

Old lags confirm that drugs circulate freely in most prisons, and that the authorities turn a blind eye to them in the interests of a quiet life. That alone illustrates the moral failure of our drugs policy, and perhaps helps one understand why the Ainsworths of this world feel that we might as well give up and legalise these killer substances. Theirs is a counsel of despair, however. The liberal society has failed. If we want to deal seriously with the drugs menace, we must start by admitting that, and reversing its odious doctrines.

Summary: There is a strong case for setting excise duty at a higher rate than on booze   and fags, argues Simon Heffer.


The animal spotted in Paso Robles was found near the Salinas River and a hot spring, a watery habitat that in some ways resembles the regions where capybaras live in South America, Mr Tognazzini said.

A capybara can hold its breath under water for up to five minutes, and spends much of its roughly four-year lifespan near the water, he said.

The latest spotting of the capybara comes two years after another sighting of the animal a mile away.

A man was feeding his horses alfalfa hay when a strange animal approached and scared off the horses to take the feed, Mr Tognazzini said. When the animal chased after the man's dog, he shot at it with a shotgun and scared it off, he said.

An examination of the footprints later revealed it was a capybara weighing between 100 lbs and 120 lbs, he said.

Officials believe that was the same animal last seen at the waste-water treatment facility in Paso Robles, and that there are no other capybaras in the area.

In California, the capybara cannot be held as a pet without a special permit, which is normally given only to zoos or individuals who exhibit wild animals and know how to care for them.

Summary: A giant South American rodent weighing at least 100 lbs has been spotted at a California waste-water treatment facility, but has since disappeared in the brush


Author J.K. Rowling blasted a store owner who refused to sell wands to Harry Potter fans because they aren't "real wizards."

Richard Carter, who owns the Mystical Moments shop in Huddersfield, England, said his wands are to be used for casting spells, good luck charms and healing, The Independent reports.

"If I had someone come in wanting a wand just because they liked Harry Potter, I would not sell them one, no matter how much they were offering," Carter told the British news outlet.

When Rowling heard of the bizarre story, she took to Twitter to cast a spell of reality aimed at the quirky shopkeeper.

Sequel to ‘Fantastic Beasts’ gets a release date

“Oh yeah? Well, I don’t think they’re real wands.”

Carter carves his "real" wands out of oak, cherry, mahogany and yew woods.

"I had never done woodwork prior to this. I just asked my spirit guides to show me what to do," he told the UK's the Examiner in July. “I find the guides by going into a meditative state and no one can come (to my) workshop in my garden when I’m making them."

Carter explained to his local paper, the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, that the magical wands are not to be used as toys.

J.K. Rowling says stories about Harry Potter are ‘done’

"I have nothing against Harry Potter and actually liked the films. The wands I make, though, whether you believe it or not, are real and spiritual."

Adding, "If a Harry Potter fan came to the shop, whether they would be able to buy a wand would depend on why they want one. If for a toy, then no, but if they had watched Harry Potter and been inspired to start their own spiritual journey, then yes.”


Syria's government has been accused of holding up delivery of UN aid that was supposed to move unhindered under a US-Russian peace deal.

"The government, I repeat the government, was expected to provide ... permits, authorisations," United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffande Mistura told reporters in Geneva. They "have not been received", he added.

The lack of permission was "a very major disappointment" even for Syria's ally Russia, de Mistura said.

The reduction in violence since the US-Russia agreement came into force at sunset on Monday had been substantial, but expecting a "cessation of hostilities" was perhaps ambitious after a war of five years, he said.

His humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said there had been no reports of civilian killings in the past 24 hours and attacks on schools and hospitals had stopped.

Egeland said aid convoys could reach besieged zones such as Moadamiyah, al Waer and Douma by the end of the week if the permits were issued, which would be simple to do.

"Can well-fed grown men please stop putting political, bureaucratic and procedural road blocks for brave humanitarian workers that are willing to go to serve women, children, wounded civilians in besieged and crossfire areas?" Egeland said.

The permits are needed for aid to reach most besieged areas in Syria, but not for the trucks waiting to cross the Turkish border and head to eastern Aleppo, the biggest flashpoint of recent fighting.

De Mistura and Egeland said that delay was caused by lack of guarantees from all sides of safe and secure access for the convoy.

He said he hoped aid could go to Aleppo on Friday, but first all fighting forces had to disengage from the Castello Road supply route.

Castello Road has special status under the US-Russia agreement and the United States and Russia are expected to manage a demilitarisation of the route, allowing new checkpoints to ensure the flow of aid, de Mistura said.

Summary: The US and Russia have agreed to extend the Syrian ceasefire by 48 hours.


After a film festival screening earlier this year of Netflix's new documentary

, its star, Daisy Coleman, learned just how much it resonates with teenagers.

The screening was for an audience of 600 high school students in Toronto, she says. Afterward: There was a line of boys and girls out the door of the theater, wanting to talk about it.

"And it was just so powerful knowing that so many people were affected by this," Coleman tells PEOPLE, "and so many people actually took this home with them and learned from this."

That's the kind of conversation starter that

– a film about sexual assault and an Internet culture that amplifies the trauma of victims – has already been, its filmmakers tell PEOPLE. And that's the kind of conversation they hope to keep going after the documentary debuted Friday.

The film follows several teenage girls, but twines itself around two: Coleman, whose 2012 alleged sexual assault in Maryville, Missouri, made national news when it was not prosecuted; and Audrie Pott,

"We're at a tipping point," says Bonni Cohen, who directed

with husband Jon Shenk, spending more than a year with Coleman in 2014 and 2015.

Cohen says there are solutions for the problems highlighted in the documentary – and for the particular behaviors, and perspectives, that feed them.

For example, the documentary takes an exacting look at the way communities are fractured by sexual assault allegations; and how, with the aid of the Internet and social media, those communities can turn on the victims and their families. (Both Pott's assault and Coleman's alleged assault were captured on film or in photos and later viewed by others.)

"I'm hoping, we're both hoping, that the film can be a catalyst for that kind of change and those kinds of conversations," Cohen says. "We've seen it in our own living room when our kids and their friends watch the film and the discussions that ensued were just incredible."

"They're all really kind of desperate for what the parameters are for the use of social media and the way they want to treat each other," she says. "We're actually pretty optimistic that change is around the corner."

Cohen says she and Shenk were drawn to the stories of Coleman and Pott: Even though the two lived across the country form each other, their assault cases had many similarities and occurred within eight months of each other.

Coleman also tried to kill herself after her alleged assault, like Pott, but was unsuccessful. She tells PEOPLE that the chance to be a voice for Pott's story was a key reason she participated in the documentary. Shenk says Pott's death "haunts" the story, and the filmmakers spent time with her family and friends to capture who she was.

The film treats its subject matter directly, using police interrogation footage as well as interviews with many of the people involved in each case, but is not graphic, often making thoughtful elisions around the trauma. In one notable example, it uses animation to depict Pott's sexual assailants, who were required to be anonymously interviewed for the film as part of

The film also recreates real-time social media and text exchanges, to evoke the perspective of the teenagers at the time.

"We found that even though it's really difficult viewing, that the kids really appreciate that they recognize their culture in this film and the way that social media's portrayed," Cohen says. "The way the conversation's happening is very frank, it's very direct, and it's very emotional. The storytelling for them is very important."

Shenk says the filmmakers hope they can "help provide a framework" for conversation and education on sexual assault.

To that end, he and Cohen have partnered with multiple organizations including the non-profit Futures Without Violence, which developed discussion guides for the film. Netflix, in conjunction with distributor Film Sprout, is also hosting hundreds of community screenings around the country this fall and winter.

Coleman – when she isn't taking classes as a college sophomore or working on her tattoo apprenticeship – is also working in advocacy. She says that whatever pain she experienced as a result of social media, it has also helped connect her with other assault survivors.

"It's almost as if we have this whole little army of people just working together," she says.

Shenk says he's seen powerful reactions from the boys and men who view the film as well: "I get a lot of, 'This is the last film i wanted to see today but now that I've seen it, I cannot wait to have everybody I know see it. ' "

is out now on Netflix.

Summary: The Audrie & Daisy documentary filmmakers tell PEOPLE they hope it keeps a conversation going around sexual assault and social media


A shipment of acid that leaked at Melbourne Airport has been cleared.

Eight people were hospitalised after hydrofluoric acid cartons in the freight area of the airport began leaking on Wednesday morning.

Ambulance Victoria said one person came into contact with the chemical and all eight were later sent home.

Airport and MFB firefighters moved the containers to hazmat drums.

No flights or terminals had been affected by the spill, an airport spokesman said.

Worksafe Victoria and the EPA were notified.

Hydrofluoric acid is used for cleaning, metal treatment or car detailing, and in strong concentrations can cause severe burns to skin and airways.

It can even lead to blindness and death.

Summary: A chemical spill at Melbourne Airport has seen eight people taken to hospital in a stable condition.


CAMBRIDGE — Nessan Bermingham has the kind of problem most executives wouldn’t mind tackling: His fledgling biotech company is expanding so fast that it’s practically outgrown a new headquarters before the place is even finished.

On a recent walk-through of the 65,000-square-foot space on Erie Street, the Intellia Therapeutics Inc. chief executive — his black attire offset by a white hard hat — asked his deputies to figure out how to shoehorn more scientists and equipment into a drug-screening lab under construction. Every square foot counts.

“We’re talking about scaling up,” said Bermingham, 43, speaking with a lilt imported from his native County Cork in Ireland.

Intellia is one of a trio of startups working locally in the biotech niche known as CRISPR-Cas9. The gene-editing technology was discovered just four years ago, but already it’s sparked a frenzied competition to develop the first of potentially thousands of treatments for genetic disorders.

Senior operations director Chris Maciejczak led his colleagues on a tour as workers installed ceilings and shelves ahead of a scheduled Dec. 1 move-in date. “This room was designed 15 months ago and we’ve already maxed it out,” he said, citing a surge in hiring and an acceleration of the company’s drug discovery experiments. “We’re going to have to move a few benches around and get some additional [DNA] sequencers in here.”

Speed is the new watchword in the global biotech hub of Cambridge. Drug development historically has been a slow process – it often takes more than a decade to bring a medicine from lab to marketplace. But that’s changing, thanks to new machines that can screen drug targets faster and an entrepreneurial environment that’s more akin to high-tech than Big Pharma.

Intellia had two employees, Bermingham and an assistant, when Atlas Venture launched it in the firm’s Cambridge “seed space” in the winter of 2013. Since then, it has grown to nearly 100 workers across three sites, and its staff could double by the end of next year.

“I was employee number 15,” said Jessica Seitzer, the company’s group leader for screening. “Everything after that was a blur.”

The company has struck high-profile collaboration deals with Swiss drug giant Novartis AG and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Tarrytown, N.Y. It raised $108 million in an initial public offering in May. Its scientists are working feverishly on gene-editing treatments for everything from the hepatitis B virus to a rare form of blindness. If all goes well, it could move its earliest drug candidates into clinical trials within 18 to 24 months.

“It’s a very, very fast start,” said Atlas partner Jean-François Formela, who has worked with Bermingham for 15 years and sits on Intellia’s board. “Nessan is high drive, high energy, an entrepreneur with an acute understanding of what it takes to build a company. And that’s one of the factors behind how this company has come together so fast.”

Intellia’s leading rivals, Editas Medicine and Crispr Therapeutics Inc., completed their own IPOs this year — Crispr’s just last week — underscoring the heightened interest of investors. The companies are in a race to develop the first treatment based on gene editing. Toward the end of the tour of Intellia’s new workspace, Bermingham posed a question that emphasized the urgency: “How long it is going to take to get this [site] up and running?”

About an hour later, more than 40 scientists and researchers gathered for a “scientific chat” around a cramped bank of desks in the overcrowded office Intellia now operates out of 130 Brookline St., just a few blocks away from the new headquarters.

Nessan Bermingham, chief executive of Intellia Therapeutics, started the business with one other employee in 2013. The startup now has about 100 workers.

The goal of the session was to keep up with the steady stream of scientific literature in the young field of gene editing, in which researchers use a tool that serves as a kind of molecular scissors to cut defective mutations out of genetic material and replace them with healthy cells. Their aim is to come up with what Formela calls a “permanent rewriting of genetic sequence.” CRISPR-Cas9, the tool being deployed by Intellia and its competitors, is thought to be the fastest and most accurate way to do this.

“I want to provide everyone with a overview on gene repair,” said senior scientist Jonathan Preall, who led the chat as he ran through slides describing new developments in the field. “It helps us to understand the type of repair strategies that are available to us.”

Intellia employees, from senior executives to junior research technicians, listened intently.

Wearing a black T-shirt, Bermingham was the most casually dressed person in the room. The molecular scientist and former venture capitalist sat curled up in the window sill, his feet propped on a radiator, typing away on a laptop. He alternately conducted online searches for the scientific papers Preall referenced and answered a flood of e-mails about Intellia.

Waiting until others had asked their questions, he piped in with one of his own — what’s the potential for viruses to integrate into host genomes during gene therapy tests?It sounded like the kind of question only a molecular scientist would ask, even one whose days at the lab bench might be in past.

“They won’t let me anywhere near the lab here,” Bermingham joked.

Summary: Intellia Therapeutics Inc. is one of a trio of local startups working on a type of gene-editing technology that could lead to cures for genetic disorders.


People will be pondering the causes and consequences of last week’s election for some time to come. But an upcoming documentary might shed light on what was going on in voters’ minds as they went to the polls.

In Jeff Deutchman’s collaborative documentary “11/8/16” (a follow-up to his similar project “11/4/08”), more than 50 notable filmmakers reported on voters and candidates from diverse various class, ethnic, and religious groups and a variety of political leanings as they made their way to the polls on Election Day. Among the directors participating are Lena Dunham (“Girls”), Oscar-winner Daniel Junge (“Saving Face”), Kris Swanberg (“Unexpected”), David Lowery (“Pete’s Dragon”), and Eugene Jarecki (“Why We Fight”).

You might have already watched some of this material on Election Day on the live-streaming app Periscope, but it will also be available in documentary form early next year from the independent film and music distribution company The Orchard.

For more information go to www.theorchard.com.

Black lives mattered to the voters of two critics groups awarding prizes to documentaries this month.

On Nov. 3 at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards (of which I am a voting member), Ezra Edelman’s five-part, 467-minute “O.J.: Made in America,” an epic film about the life, times, and trials of O.J. Simpson, took the prize for best documentary (theatrical feature), best sports documentary, and best limited series. Ava DuVernay’s “13th,” about the unintended consequences of the 13th Amendment that freed the slaves — in particular a penal system that subjects African-Americans to virtual involuntary servitude — won in the TV/streaming category for both documentary and director, as well as taking the award for best political documentary.

Both “O.J.” and “13th” also fared well with the Independent Documentary Association Awards nominations, announced on Nov. 1. Both were nominated for best feature, as was Raoul Peck’s “I Am Not Your Negro,” an adaptation of James Baldwin’s unfinished book about the lives and assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. Peck’s film was also nominated for best writing.

The IDA documentary award winners will be announced on Dec. 9.

For more information about the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards go to www.criticschoice.com/documentary-awards; for the IDA go www.documentary.org/awards2016/nominees.

For some, it is 13 acres of decades-old debris. But for Rosamond Purcell, an old Maine junkyard is a field of wonders — a glimpse into beauty, transience, and the mutability of all definitions and forms. Molly Bernstein’s documentary “An Art That Nature Makes: The Work of Rosamond Purcell” explores the work and vision of the Boston-based artist who photographs preserved biological anomalies, ancient decaying books, corroded tools, weather-beaten license plates, and a mind-bending assortment of whatnots.

Her skewed and uncanny pictures blur the realms of the living and the inanimate, the manmade and the natural, the taxonomic and the transcendental. They are like a curiosity shop of arcana that just keeps getting weirder and more ineffable the further in you go. Reminiscent of artists ranging from Francis Bacon to Hieronymus Bosch, from Jackson Pollock to Joseph Cornell, her work is unique and sublime and the film itself is transformative.

“An Art That Nature Makes” screens on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Brattle Theatre. The director and the artist will be in attendance.

For more information go to www.brattlefilm.org/2016/11/16/an-art-that-nature-makes.

The photos in Max Lewkowicz’s documentary “Underfire: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro” evoke a kind of awe that is different from Rosamond Purcell’s work in “An Art That Nature Makes.” Lewkowicz’s work is more immediate and visceral, but no less profound.

Vaccaro served on the front lines from Normandy to Germany until the war’s end, armed with an M-1 rifle and a pocket-size 35mm camera that he bought for $47. He wanted to be an official war photographer but was told that, although he was old enough to shoot people, he was too young to shoot pictures. In a way, it was to his advantage to remain in the field, because he was allowed an intimacy with his fellow soldiers that his portable camera was ready to record. And so he captured war at its worst and humanity at its best. And sometimes humanity at its worst. The most horrible picture, he recalls — one he almost didn’t take — was of a young woman armed with a German bazooka known as a Panzerfaust who had been captured by infuriated GIs. She had been raped, murdered, and desecrated with a bayonet.

Other deaths are not so awful. A corpse buried in the snow, spectral and abstract, looks almost serene. Vaccaro succumbed to the temptation to find out who it was. It was a friend. Years later the soldier’s son phoned the photographer after seeing the image in a gallery, and Vaccaro wept.

The documentary traces Vaccaro’s journey across the battlefields he fought on and photographed in Europe, contrasting images of today’s landscapes, green and full of birdsong, with his shots of the devastation six decades before. Also included are comments from other war photographers about the aesthetics and ethics of making beauty from horror and suffering. Vaccaro, who was as adept with his rifle as with his camera, has misgivings, too, and not just about the photographs. “It was necessary for me to be evil for 272 days,” he says. “But not forever.”

“Underfire: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro” premieres on Monday at 8 p.m. on HBO.

For more information go to talk.hbo.com/t5/All-Documentaries/bd-p/all-documentaries.

Summary: An upcoming documentary called “11/8/16” might shed light on what was going on in voters’ minds as they went to the polls


The fish are biting at one prize NSW farm, where 1000kg of barramundi are produced each week.

Nick Arena was awarded NSW farmer of the year on Thursday for his barramundi operation Bobs Farm in Port Stephens, boasting 1440 square metres of tanks which house the tonne of fish.

Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair, who gave Mr Arena the $10,000 cash prize, said the farmer is a leader in the land-based fish production industry.

"He has implemented business monitoring systems to improve the efficiency of his operations, including an alert system which tracks water flow, airflow and power supply, daily water testing, fish behaviour and growth production reports," Mr Blair said on Thursday.

In addition to his fish farm, Mr Arena grows leafy greens and herbs using an integrated hydroponic system which are used in his on-site restaurant Cook-a-Barra.

He also offers daily tours to educate consumers about the pressures of farming and where their food comes from.

"I congratulate Nick on this recognition and wish him the best of luck as he prepares to open his own retail shop to sell his barramundi and vegetables," Mr Blair said.

Summary: A proactive fish farmer has been named NSW farmer of the year in 2016 for his barramundi farm, which produces 1000kg fish each week.


A biotech startup seeded with $225 million from German drug maker Bayer AG and San Francisco-based venture capital firm Versant Ventures will establish a research site — and possibly its headquarters — in the Boston area, its founders said Monday.

BlueRock Therapeutics, which wants to develop stem cell-based treatments for a range of cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, and other diseases, will have research and development sites in Boston, New York, and Toronto.

But the new company, which is searching for a chief executive, has yet to determine where its headquarters will be located. BlueRock could have 20 to 40 researchers in Boston within the next two years, but the scope of their activity and the identities of their academic collaborators aren’t yet being revealed, said Axel Bouchon, head of the Bayer Lifescience Center in Berlin. He said the company should have more details on its Boston operation early next year.

Bouchon said BlueRock will work in Toronto on treatments to regenerate heart muscle, and base in New York its research into treatments for Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative disorders. Scientists in the Boston area could also be working in those and other areas, he said.

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The founders wouldn’t say how ownership of BlueRock will be split between Bayer and Versant, the lead investor in gene-editing startup Crispr Therapeutics. Crispr has research operations and a joint venture with Bayer in Cambridge. But the investment round should give the startup a significant opportunity to develop experimental medicines, they said.

“We want to make sure the scientists can focus on science for three to four years,” Bouchon said.

Summary: A new biotech startup seeded with $225 million from German drug maker Bayer AG and San Francisco-based venture capital firm Versant Ventures will establish a research site -- and possibly its headquarters -- in the Boston area, its founders said Monday.


BERLIN—Angela Merkel had just returned to her apartment here after meeting critics of her policy of welcoming Middle East refugees, when aides phoned her with news of terrorist attacks in Paris.

The German chancellor’s open door for people fleeing war in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere had already weakened her once-unassailable popularity. She knew, says a person familiar with her thinking, that immigration opponents in Germany and Europe would want to link the Islamist terrorist threat with refugees trekking to Europe and would demand a clampdown on the mainly Muslim migrants.

Ms. Merkel ’s response: to double down on her migrant policy. She emphatically reiterated her refugee-friendly stance, amping up the moral rhetoric that is infuriating many supporters and politicians of her conservative party.

“We live based on shared humanity, on charity,” she told Germans the next morning. “We believe in…every individual’s right to pursue happiness,” she said, “and in tolerance.” Catching the terrorists is Europe’s duty “also to the innocent refugees who are fleeing from war and terror,” she said at a world leaders’ summit in Turkey that weekend.

Ms. Merkel ’s insistence that Europe can absorb potentially millions of new residents is vexing her country and continent. Germans are questioning her judgment and her grip on power. Some other European countries bridle at Germany’s leadership, raising fears the crisis could cripple the European Union.

Germany seeks to impose “moral imperialism,” says a senior official from Hungary, one of the EU countries critical of Ms. Merkel’s course. “The Germans think they’re the Americans of Europe.”

The backlash against Ms. Merkel’s pro-refugee policy has become the biggest-yet test of her political skills and of Germany’s leadership in Europe.

Interviews with more than 20 senior officials in Germany and around Europe give an inside look at how Ms. Merkel arrived at this conundrum in handling the crisis, pressing other leaders during recent months to buy into her approach in closed-door meetings, tense phone calls and diplomatic arm-twisting—only to be blindsided by the Nov. 13 Paris attacks that have made her policy an even harder sell. She declined to be interviewed for this article.

At home, Ms. Merkel’s defenders say she has shown mettle in insisting on a common European solution. “This is real leadership—to have the confidence to say, ‘We can do this,’ ” says Jürgen Hardt, a foreign-policy specialist in her conservative parliamentary group. “It’s a sign of political strength to be able to hold one’s own despite populist pressure.”

Her open-door policy has won U.S. praise. Secretary of State John Kerry said in Berlin this fall: “Germany has set a remarkable example for its willingness to step up and deal with this challenge.”

EU countries such as France, Spain and the Netherlands have gone along with Germany’s proposals. But they’ve done so with little enthusiasm. Other European governments are fighting to halt her strategy of spreading the refugees around Europe through national quotas.

At a European summit on Dec. 17, Ms. Merkel is set to press again for at least some other European countries to help Germany take in Syrian refugees from Turkish camps, a proposal aimed at replacing migrants’ dangerous trek to Europe with controlled, legal transit. So far, she has little support.

In Germany, her approval ratings have dropped in recent months, although the latest polls suggest she may have halted the decline. “She has decided for personal reasons that she wants a different Germany,” Bavarian state premier Horst Seehofer said on a call this fall with senior conservatives in his state, according to a participant.

The backlash is forcing Ms. Merkel to offer concessions. She is trying to slow the immigrant flow into Europe without reversing her openness message, which polls show has divided German opinion. She is determined to prevent closure of Europe’s borders by barbed-wire fences and the danger, she believes, of violent conflict.

“Either we get this under control,” says a German official close to her, “or Europe explodes.”

Ms. Merkel, a 61-year-old former physicist who became chancellor 10 years ago, owes much of her political success to a hard-learned lesson: Don’t challenge Germans with radical change.

Yet she has also long believed Germany can’t cocoon itself. Crises abroad, from the eurozone’s near-collapse to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, have led her to embrace greater German leadership in Europe despite compatriots’ misgivings. Now the formerly calming figure nicknamed “Mutti,” or “Mom,” is exhorting her reluctant nation to absorb much of the greatest migration wave in Europe since World War II.

Her aides say cold reality is dictating her steps. This summer, the sheer numbers crossing into Europe were undermining a rule that refugees must seek asylum in the first EU country they reach. Italy and Greece, where most landed, couldn’t absorb the numbers. The rest of Europe offered little help. Encouraged by Ms. Merkel, the EU Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, proposed spreading 40,000 refugees around the region.

But EU leaders could only agree to collect voluntary offers to take people from Italy and Greece. Generosity proved limited. Hungary’s offer was zero.

Ms. Merkel’s stance was evolving when she took questions at a televised July forum. A 14-year-old Palestinian from Lebanon, living in Germany, told the chancellor of her dream of finishing her German education and of the fear of deportation while her family’s asylum claim was processed. Ms. Merkel replied that she was working to speed up the bureaucracy but that sometimes the decision would be “no.”

“You know, there are thousands and thousands in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon,” Ms. Merkel said. “And if we say ‘you can all come,’ and ‘you can all come from Africa,’ ” she said, “we cannot handle that.” The girl began crying. The chancellor froze midsentence. Her awkward attempt to comfort the girl went viral.

Her tone would soon change. In the chancellery, worries were growing about Germany’s media image. Ordinary Germans were helping refugees, but extremists were setting fire to housing for asylum-seekers. When Ms. Merkel visited one home for refugees in August, protesters called her a traitor to the fatherland.

At a news conference days later, she expressed pride that Syrians and others wanted into Germany. “The world sees Germany as a land of hope and of opportunities,” she said, and the numbers shouldn’t frighten Germans: “We can handle this.”

Her handling of an emergency days later became a watershed.

In early September, thousands of migrants were stuck in Hungary, whose government had stopped them from boarding trains to Austria. Hungary’s premier, Viktor Orban, saw them as illegal immigrants and their odyssey as a national-security problem, aides say.

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann was upset by Hungary’s rough police treatment of the refugees, Austrian officials say, and appalled when Hungary misled refugees onto a train to a detention camp. Such tactics “awaken memories of the darkest times of our continent,” Mr. Faymann told a German magazine. Mr. Orban protested publicly at being compared with the Austrian-born Hitler. Both leaders declined to be interviewed.

When refugees marched from Budapest Sept. 4, paralyzing Hungary’s main highway to Austria, Mr. Orban phoned Vienna. Mr. Faymann wouldn’t take his calls, aides to each say. Mr. Orban convened his national-security cabinet and decided to bus the migrants to the border. “If Austria wants them, they can have them,” Mr. Orban said, according to a person present.

Hungary’s foreign minister told his shocked Austrian counterpart the news at an EU meeting that day. Austrian officials, unprepared for mass arrivals, urgently sought German help.

The emergency caught Ms. Merkel on a day of party events in Essen and Cologne. In a volley of phone calls, she and Mr. Faymann shared a calculus, say aides to each: Only force could halt the migrants at the border; inaction could result in exhausted refugees dying on the highway.

Ms. Merkel made a snap decision that sent shock waves around Europe: Throw Germany’s doors open. Bypassing Europe’s asylum rules and skeptical members of her government, she ordered trains to carry the migrants to Munich.

Her aides couldn’t reach her coalition partner, Bavaria’s premier Mr. Seehofer. He, like Mr. Orban, wanted to stop the migrants; the two men became Ms. Merkel’s most outspoken adversaries. Mr. Seehofer declined to be interviewed.

As Germans greeted refugees in Munich with sweets, toys and hugs, Mr. Orban told Ms. Merkel by phone her decision undermined the fight against illegal immigration and lured migrants to Europe, aides to each say. He lambasted German and Austrian volunteers who drove into Hungary to give Syrians a lift: “Legally they are human traffickers. Is that what you want?”

He told her Hungary was fencing off its southern border. If all EU countries did the same, he said, the crisis would end. “The Hungarian solution,” he said, “is the only solution.”

Ms. Merkel replied that if Europe wanted a wall, it would have to be high and defended with violence against civilians, and Greece could hardly wall the Aegean Sea. A fence might work for Hungary, she told Mr. Orban, but she sought answers for all Europe.

Following lobbying by Ms. Merkel, the EU Commission announced it wanted 160,000 refugees distributed around Europe by mandatory quotas. Hungary and other eastern countries were opposed. Hungarian, Slovakian and Romanian officials publicly or privately said they had failed to integrate Roma minorities for centuries and that Muslim immigrants would be comparably hard to absorb. Slovakia said it would accept only Christians.

EU authorities further angered eastern countries by switching the quota debate from leaders’ summits, where decisions require unanimity, to a meeting of interior ministers who imposed quotas by majority vote. On paper, Germany had won, but other countries are doing little to implement the unpopular agreement.

Backlash built against Ms. Merkel at home, where pro-refugee euphoria faded while as many as 10,000 arrived daily. Local governments struggled to house and feed them. In overstretched Bavaria, Mr. Seehofer threatened to sue the federal government unless Ms. Merkel set a cap on arrivals.

She dismissed the demand. “If we have to start apologizing now for showing a friendly face in emergencies,” she told reporters, “then this is not my country.”

She knew she had to convince voters the situation wasn’t out of control. Immersing herself in the logistics of accommodating migrants, she learned details about heated tents and housing containers. She tightened rules on asylum-seekers’ benefits. She pushed for EU migrant-processing centers in Greece and Italy to block bogus asylum claimants.

She courted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom she had long mistrusted but whose help she needed to reduce the migrant flow. Mr. Erdogan’s demands, EU officials say, included money for refugee camps, visa-free European travel for Turks, revitalizing stalled talks on EU membership and regular summits with EU leaders.

Visiting Istanbul in October, Ms. Merkel told him she was willing to talk about everything. One problem: Her party opposes Turkey’s joining the EU.

A spokesman for Mr. Erdogan didn’t respond to inquiries. “We evaluated burden-sharing,” Mr. Erdogan said after meeting the chancellor.

Meanwhile, Balkan countries struggled with the buildup of migrants south of Hungary, whose anti-migrant fence created bottlenecks elsewhere. And many governments criticized Greece for waving migrants through.

At a summit of countries along the Balkan migration trail, called at Ms. Merkel’s behest, leaders warned they would build fences if Germany closed its border. Ms. Merkel said that, having grown up in communist East Germany, she opposed walling off countries but that there might be no alternative unless Greece and others helped manage the flow.

Under German pressure, the Balkan countries agreed to put up 100,000 people until the EU could find long-term homes. By November, far more were entering Europe. Germany alone expects to receive a million asylum-seekers this year.

The Paris attacks have made Ms. Merkel’s remedies harder to sell. Eastern European leaders are still balking at taking Muslim refugees, although the EU quota decision is binding. Mr. Orban blames Germany’s open-door policy for admitting terrorists. “We are monitoring every Muslim in our territory,” Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico said publicly after visiting the French embassy there following the Paris attacks. He declined to comment.

In Germany, pressure on the chancellor is mounting inside her coalition. At their Nov. 19 party congress, Mr. Seehofer’s Bavarian conservatives voted to cap migration. Ms. Merkel told the congress turning refugees away was unworkable: “Isolation is not a solution in the 21st century.” Applause was sparse.

“You know we’re unrelenting,” Mr. Seehofer replied. “You haven’t heard the last of this.” He earned a thunderous ovation.

—Valentina Pop in Brussels and Margit Feher in Budapest contributed to this article.

Write to Marcus Walker at marcus.walker@wsj.com and Anton Troianovski at anton.troianovski@wsj.com

Summary: The backlash against German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s pro-refugee policy has become the biggest test yet of her political skills and of Germany’s leadership in Europe.


Australian Federal Police are worried beauticians are unwittingly buying beauty products that contain a substance used to manufacture the drug fantasy.

Criminals are illegally importing gammabutyrolactone from China by packaging it as beauty products.

The drug metabolises in the body as gamma-hydroxybutyrate and can cause an abrupt loss of consciousness, memory loss, breathing difficulties, coma and death.

Authorities made four seizures last month, each containing five litres of the drug in packaging purporting to be gel used to remove make-up glue for fake eyelashes.

"The drug is being unwittingly purchased by the legitimate beauty industry, potentially putting the health of consumers at risk," Acting Assistant Commissioner Chris Sheehan said.

"When ingested, this dangerous substance is capable of ruining lives in a single incident."

He said if beauty salons or members of the public have any concerns or adverse reactions to any product, they should seek immediate medical advice.

In the past six months, police have seized 1137 litres of the drug nationally, up from 307 litres in the 2015-2016 financial year.

Summary: The beauty industry has been warned criminals are concealing a substance used to make the drug fantasy in fake eyelash glue removal products.


By MICHAEL SAUL DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU

Wednesday, August 14th 2002, 7:41AM

Mayor Bloomberg - who has enough money to take a vacation anywhere - has decided to spend the summer in the city.

Aides said yesterday they don't expect Bloomberg will take any significant time off until winter at the earliest.

"He is thoroughly enjoying every minute of the job," said Ed Skyler, Bloomberg's press secretary. "If you really love what you're doing, you don't spend your time planning a vacation."

With homes in Bermuda, London and Vail, Colo., and an airplane at his disposal, the world is Bloomberg's playground.

So, why not take a week or two off?

"There have been several issues that he hasn't wanted to divert his attention from," said Skyler, referring to the change in school governance, the appointment of a schools chancellor and the planning of the ceremony marking the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"It's probably a combination of his work ethic as well as timing that is outside of anyone's control," Skyler said.

For the record, the 60-year-old mayor has quietly taken a handful of short weekend trips during his 7 1/2 months in office. He refuses to say when or where he's going on those jaunts.

Bloomberg's predecessor, Rudy Giuliani, set the gold standard for hardworking mayors. Nary a news conference would pass without Giuliani showing up. During his first 30 months in office, he did not take a single vacation, other than a few three-day trips.

Former Mayor Ed Koch toured the world, spending time in Ireland, Spain and other parts of Europe. Ex-Mayor David Dinkins typically spent two weeks of vacation every summer watching the U.S. Open tennis tournament in Flushing, Queens.

Even U.S. Presidents take vacations.

President Bush is in the middle of a month-long break at his ranch in Texas. The nation's commander-in-chief has shown up on the nightly news talking about attacking Iraq before teeing off for a round of golf.

In his book, "Bloomberg by Bloomberg," the mayor described his work ethic: "The more you work, the better you do."

Summary: Mayor Bloomberg - who has enough money to take a vacation anywhere - has decided to spend the summer in the city. Aides said yesterday they don't expect Bloomberg will take any significant time off until winter at the earliest. "He is thoroughly enjoying every minute of the job,"said Ed Skyler, Bloomberg's press secretary. "If you really love what you're doing, you don't spend your time planning


Sunday, November 20th 2005, 2:10AM

BABY BONNETS Late-night talk-show host Conan O'Brien and his wife, Liza Powel O'Brien (l.), welcomed their second child, son Beckett, on Nov. 9.

"Big" Kenny Alphin (of country act Big & Rich) and his wife, Christiev, had their first child, Lincoln William Holiday, on Nov. 2.

Court TV's Ashleigh Banfield and her husband, Howard Gould, welcomed their first child, Jay Fischer, on Oct. 22.

"Baywatch" actress Gena Lee Nolin and her husband, hockey player Cale Hulse, are expecting their first child together.

Bosses at management company The Firm are suing Orlando Bloom, who allegedly left them owing more than $600,000 in unpaid commissions.

WEDDING BELLS Further proof that reality is stranger than fiction: "Laguna Beach" star Talan Torriero, 19, is newly engaged to Paris Hilton's pal (and Rod's daughter) Kimberly Stewart, 26.

DEATHS Giants co-owner Preston Robert Tisch, 79, died of brain cancer on Nov. 15.

"WWE Smackdown!" star Eduardo Gory Guerrero, 38, was found dead in his Minneapolis hotel room on Nov. 13.

David Westheimer, 88, former journalist and author of "Von Ryan's Express," died of heart failure on Nov. 8.

Scarlett Johansson, (l.), 21, on Tuesday.

Joe Eszterhas, 61, on Wednesday.

Colin Hanks, 28, on Thursday.

Barbara and Jenna Bush, 24, on Friday.

Peter Facinelli, 32, on Saturday

Summary: MILESTONES BABY BONNETS Late-night talk-show host Conan O'Brien and his wife, Liza Powel O'Brien (l.), welcomed their second child, son Beckett, on Nov. 9. Â "Big"Kenny Alphin (of country act Big & Rich) and his wife, Christiev, had their first child, Lincoln William Holiday, on Nov. 2. Â Court TV's Ashleigh Banfield and her husband, Howard Gould, welcomed their first child, Jay Fischer, on Oct. 22. Â "Baywatch"actress Gena Lee Nolin and her husband, hockey player Cale


Sunday, December 10th 2000, 2:15AM

Ftatateeta's Toast is not your typical menu item. For starters, how many customers can even pronounce it on first glance, let alone figure out what it might taste like?

But then again, Serendipity 3, where the cream cheese-filled French toast sandwich has been a featured item since the place opened in 1954, is not your typical restaurant. Whimsy rules at this restaurant cum general store. And whether you're looking for a hip fashion accessory for yourself, a fun hostess gift or some satisfying food, you'll find it here, delivered with a slice of humor.

The lighthearted attitude reflects the theater background and mischievous bent of the three founders, roommates who came to New York to try their luck on Broadway. Serendipity 3 turned out to be the long-running hit they were after.

The idea of food as theater is very much in evidence here, with an eclectic setting that pulls together Tiffany lamps, art nouveau mirrors, chairs hanging from the ceiling and a giant clock whose hands are moved at the whim of customers. Everything in the place is for sale.

The lengthy menu offers treats like frozen hot chocolate, caviar burgers and chicken flambe, as well as the expected foot-long hot dogs, chicken salad and a mean bowl of chili. And, of course, there's Ftatateeta's Toast (pronounced fa-ta-ta-tee-ta), long a favorite with Serendipity regulars.

Ftatateeta, in case you were wondering, was Cleopatra's handmaiden, "as given to her by George Bernard Shaw," says Stephen Bruce, the surviving member of the original trio of owners. Why was she chosen to lend her name to a cheesy grilled sandwich that's spiced with rhubarb-ginger jam?

"That's our sense of humor," says Bruce. "It's a kind of fun thing to trip over the name." If it's too much of a mouthful for you, do as the waiters do when they're placing an order in the kitchen. Just ask for "One Fat's Toast." Either way you'll end up with a delicious mouthful.

Serendipity 3, 225 E. 60th St., (212) 838-3531

* The brandy. Brandy adds a subtle note to the richness of the egg-milk mixture, but you can substitute a fruit-flavored liqueur if you wish to add another distinctive layer of flavor to the dish.

* The jam. The spicy, sweet-tart taste of rhubarb-ginger jam adds just the right contrast to the smooth, melted cream cheese, but other jams with a distinctive, somewhat sharp flavor, would work equally well. Fig jam would go beautifully, says Stephen Bruce, as would a fruity raspberry jam. We especially like a heaping tablespoon or two of ModernFare's lemon ginger conserve. Look for these and other choices at your favorite gourmet specialty shop.

* The serving size. Ftatateeta's toast is rich and filling. At Serendipity 3 you get your money's worth with two sandwiches per order, but plan on making this when you have someone to share it with. It's more fun that way.

Pinch of finely grated orange rind

8 slices white bread, crust trimmed to form a uniform edge

1 tablespoon butter (use more if needed)

8-ounce package Philadelphia-style cream cheese, cut into 4 long slices to fit bread

8 heaping tablespoons rhubarb-ginger jam

In a mixing bowl, add cinnamon, nutmeg, orange rind and brandy, beating with a whisk to combine. Whisk in milk.

In a separate bowl, whisk eggs until frothy. Add eggs to the milk mixture and blend well.

Heat a griddle until hot; add butter and melt. Preheat an oven broiler.

Dip bread, a few slices at a time, into the milk mixture and brown slices on one side on the hot griddle. Turn 4 slices of bread over and cover them with the sliced cream cheese. Cover the cream cheese with the remaining 4 slices of bread, browned side facing the cream cheese. When the bottoms of the sandwiches have browned on the griddle, transfer the sandwiches to a broiler, setting them about 3 inches from the flame to brown the top of each sandwich. This will take only a few minutes; watch carefully so that the bread does not burn.

Cut each sandwich in half. Add a large dollop of rhubarb- ginger jam to each half and serve.

Summary: UNEXPECTED EGGS-ELENCE Serendipity 3's French toast/cheese sandwich is gloriously old school BY ISABEL FORGANG Ftatateeta's Toast is not your typical menu item. For starters, how many customers can even pronounce it on first glance, let alone figure out what it might taste like? But then again, Serendipity 3, where the cream cheese-filled French toast sandwich has been a featured item since the place opened in 1954, is not your typical restaurant. Whimsy rules at


Friday, December 6th 1996, 2:01AM

Buy a cuddly teddy bear, and you can help grant a wish to a critically ill child in the metropolitan area this holiday season.

With purchases of $75 or more, Stern's department stores are offering a "Huggable Teddy Bear" for $15, a dollar of which will be donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Greater New York/New Jersey area.

"We're proud to do our part in helping to provide special memories for kids, at a time in their lives when they and their families need a respite from hospital visits and doctors' treatment," said Leonard Marcus, Stern's president and chief operating officer.

In the last year, the foundation granted more than 680 wishes throughout New York, New Jersey, Long Island and the Hudson Valley. The wishes ranging from a trip to Disney World to a new computer averaged about $4,300 each.

The charity was founded 16 years ago, when the Arizona Department of Public Safety fulfilled a big wish for Christopher Greicius, a little boy with cancer. The agency designated him a state trooper with a regulation uniform and allowed him to steer a squad car and take a helicopter ride over headquarters.

Christopher died less than a week later and was buried in his trooper's uniform.

Since that time, terminally ill children all over the country from ages 21/2 to 18 have enjoyed once-in-a-lifetime experiences, from meeting Princess Diana to fishing in the Canadian wilderness.

"The wishes are as wide-ranging as the community we serve," said Greater New York foundation spokesman James Maggio.

Summary: Buy a cuddly teddy bear, and you can help grant a wish to a critically ill child in the metropolitan area this holiday season. With purchases of $75 or more, Stern's department stores are offering a "Huggable Teddy Bear"for $15, a dollar of which will be donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Greater New York/New Jersey area. "We're proud to do our part in helping to provide special memories for kids,