Even if you haven't dived into paying for lattes using the Starbucks smartphone app or tried to make purchases with the money-alternative bitcoin, chances are you're already participating in the cashless economy. Consumers made only 27 percent of all purchases in stores using cash in 2012, according to Javelin Strategy & Research, based in Pleasanton, Calif. And collectively, we spent $20 billion last year using mobile apps and browsers, the research and consulting firm found.

"Mobile payment has changed people's lives," said Jim Bruene, founder of The Finovate Group, which offered a glimpse of the financial and banking innovations ushering us into the cashless economy at its show FinovateFall2013 New York on Tuesday and Wednesday. (It was at one of Finovate's spring shows that the personal financial planning site Mint.com put itself on the map). Here are some new technologies that may change the way you handle your money in the increasingly cashless society of the future.

By Elaine Pofeldt, Special to CNBC.comPosted 17 Sept. 2013

Summary: Cash is going the way of the dinosaur as mobile technologies—like those unveiled at FinovateFall 2013—help you become a (virtual) money manager.


"One needs to consider that the Greek economy is not a production-based economy. We are dependent on 52 percent of imports as far as our food requirements are concerned. We're dependent on almost 80 percent of all our energy requirements being imported … so we don't have the luxury, if you will, of even considering a national currency. It will be a complete nightmare for eight-to-12 months," he said.

Nevertheless, one expert said that, while many banks and analysts now believe Greece is more likely than not to exit from the euro zone, it is in fact on the right track after the resignations of conservative opposition leader Antonis Samaras and Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis.

Read More Greece's 'nays' have it--how markets will react

"If that's a sign that the Greeks are more willing to take a multiparty approach, and willing to find some consensus, then that could be what it takes to keep Greece within the euro zone, which would also be in line with the wishes of the Greek people," Elsa Lignos, senior currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets, said in another "Squawk on the Street" interview.

Samaras resigned shortly after the referendum's result was determined on Sunday and Varoufakis followed suit on Monday.

Ian Bremmer, Eurasia Group president, also said he does not believe Greece is close to exiting the euro zone yet.

"Greece is a little bit like the NBA. It's not worth watching until the last five minutes of the game," Bremmer said in a CNBC "Fast Money Halftime Report" interview. "But, when I think about the problems Europe is experiencing ... both domestically and internationally, Europe just looks troubled."

Read MoreGreek banks to remain closed: Bank Association

Bremmer added that, while some euro zone economies have improved slightly, the political situation will continue to weigh on the region.

"The politics around Europe have never looked so bad," he said. "As a consequence, you're going to see continued skepticism about long-term investments in Europe, and you're also going to see a lot of infighting."

Summary: Athens Chamber of Commerce President Constantine Michalos discusses the country's biggest fear after the referendum.


SAN FRANCISCO — YouTube generates billions of dollars a year running ads in its vast repository of music, video game and how-to videos. Now the video site and its parent company, Google, are hoping users will be willing to pay for the privilege to watch the same videos without ads.

During a Wednesday event, YouTube executives introduced YouTube Red, a long-anticipated subscription service that will cost $10 a month for the same videos ad-free. The company simultaneously announced YouTube Originals, a slate of original programming that will be available only on the paid service.

“People are embracing paid subscriptions for ad-free content at an incredible pace,” said Robert Kyncl, the chief business officer at YouTube, who introduced the product on a stage at the YouTube Space in Los Angeles, a center where people who post on YouTube can get make and edit videos on professional equipment free.

Kyncl also gave some updates on the company’s ad business, noting that the number of advertisers running campaigns on YouTube is up 40 percent over the last year and that the top 100 advertisers have increased spending by 60 percent.

Google continues to make the most of its revenue from advertising on its search engine, but it is now hoping to use its fast-expanding catalog of YouTube videos and music services to start bringing in subscription revenue as well. The service, which begins next week, will work across the original YouTube as well as YouTube’s gaming app, its forthcoming music app and Google’s Google Play music service.

YouTube has become one of Google’s big growth drivers, generating $5 billion to $10 billion in revenue, according to the best guesses of analysts. The research service eMarketer predicts YouTube will generate $9.5 billion in ad revenue for Google this year.

Whatever the number, YouTube is the most popular video service in a world where people are spending less time watching television and more watching tablets and mobile phones. Americans are projected to spend four hours and 11 minutes watching television this year, down 11 minutes from last year, according to eMarketer.

But the time they spend watching video on digital screens is expected to rise 10 minutes, to one hour and 34 minutes, this year.

YouTube executives said they were introducing a subscription service in part to give a new revenue stream to the Internet-famous “creators,” the most popular of which already make millions of dollars a year in advertising revenue.

For now, the paid site will mostly be the same service as the current, ad-supported version of YouTube. There will be some extra features like the ability to download videos so subscribers can watch them offline. Subscribers can also watch the videos while they are using other applications like email.

And starting next year, creators will begin adding extra context — YouTube Originals — that will over time create a two-tiered system where fans can pay for the extra content.

On Wednesday, YouTube announced a handful of new productions, including “Scare PewDiePie,” a reality series made by Maker Studios and the producers of The Walking Dead, the popular television show about a zombie apocalypse. The series will star PewDiePie, a Swedish YouTube star whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, and show him encountering “terrifying situations inspired by his favorite video games.”

In addition to YouTube originals, the service will include a roster of programming from big media companies like 21st Century Fox, NBCUniversal and Time Warner that are already on the ad-supported version of YouTube. The media companies will get about 55 percent of the revenue from the service, said executives who had knowledge of the terms.

Some media executives, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that they felt pressured to participate in the new service. The executives said YouTube had implied that if they didn’t provide content for subscribers, there was a chance their ad-supported content would not be available on YouTube in the United States.

“We’ve made a lot of progress and have worked closely and collaboratively with our creators large and small,” said a YouTube spokesman in an emailed statement. “It is precisely because of this work that we have the signed agreements with the overwhelming majority of our partners, representing over 98 percent of the content watched on YouTube. We look forward to continuing this work for YouTube Red.”

(STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS.)

This new YouTube service comes as a number of media companies are unveiling their own subscription streaming services on the Internet.

Media executives said the revenue they will receive from the service is not likely to make much difference to their bottom lines, but they are eager to support the idea of more people paying for their content.

But it is what they deliver to YouTube that will make the difference for the new subscription service.

“In general, it certainly seems like consumers are much more comfortable paying for subscription video, but content is key so we’ll have to see how they execute on it,” said Ben Schachter, an analyst with Macquarie Securities.

Summary: The site and its parent, Google, are hoping users will be willing to pay for the privilege to watch videos without ads.


Fortune’s curated selection of tech stories from the last 24 hours. Sign up to get the round-up delivered to you each and every day.

* The Verge gives at a long look at Research in Motion’s rise and decline: how it was built and how former co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie lost their way. Also, the company’s ailing BlackBerry PlayBook tablet received a software update that finally brought native apps to access email, calendar, address book and BlackBerry Messenger functions. (The Verge and CNNMoney)

* Dell’s fiscal fourth quarter earnings came in below analyst predictions: an 18% drop in net income to $764 million on revenues of $16 billion. (The New York Times)

* Comcast CMCSA is working on a new subscription video-on-demand competitor, named “Streampix,” intended to go up against Netflix NFLX . But the streaming service will only be available to those who also subscribe to Comcast cable. (Variety)

* Netflix inked a deal with The Weinstein Company. Translation: film titles like The Artist, Sarah’s Key, and The Intouchables, are coming to Netflix Instant. (Techcrunch)

* Tech entrepreneurs are getting younger and younger. Venture capitalists like Andreessen Horowitz now say they’re funding startups with 18 or 19-year-old founders. (Reuters)

* According to the analytics firm Distimo, many app makers are apparently making more money from their apps in Amazon’s Appstore than they are via Google’s Android Market. (GigaOm)

* Is Amazon’s rewards program, Amazon Prime, profitable? Probably not. But it is a vital part of the company’s long-term strategy. (Fortune)

* As reported yesterday, Barnes & Noble BKS released a $199 version of its recently introduced Nook Tablet with 8 gigabytes of storage, arguably to better combat Amazon’s Kindle Fire. (Barnes and Noble)

Don’t miss the latest tech news. Sign up now to get Today in Tech emailed every morning.

Summary: Fortune's curated selection of tech stories from the last 24 hours. Sign up to get the round-up delivered to you each and every day. * The Verge gives at a long look at Research in Motion's rise and decline: how it was built and how former co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie lost their way. Also, the company's ailing…


"Over time, there can be supply constraints, they can run out of labor, their costs can become too high, or there can be other, competitive problems, like congestion or pollution," said Harrison. "But getting data on that across different cities or a uniform global data set on that—it doesn't exist."

Still, local governments, businesses, urban planners and policymakers are scrambling to figure out how to manage the looming surge in growth. While the evolution of emerging megacities is unpredictable and complex, there are some common attributes that economically successful cities share, such as economic strength, human capital, financial maturity and global appeal.

Urban "agglomerations"—the sprawling population concentrations that spill over beyond political boundaries—are more difficult to manage when multiple, regional governments are involved with no clear overall authority.

That's one reason the most competitive cities will be those with strong institutions—from government to businesses to cultural groups—that can help foster growth and address problems that arise, according to the authors of the Citibank report. "A city's ability to tax, plan, legislate and enforce laws and its willingness to be held accountable by its citizens requires strong institutions," they said.

Nowhere is that more evident in the developing world than in China, where a historic migration set in motion three decades ago is expected to add dozens of new megacities over the next 30 years.

"China is in a unique position in that it has a strong enough government that it can just do what needs to be done," said Harrison. "It's good at planning. If it sees a problem, it will solve it."

But even in China, new arrivals from rural areas don't pay attention to political lines drawn on a map or follow the wishes of city planners. And efforts to keep them back on the farm—from China's hukou household registration system to investments in upgrading rural services—hasn't stopped the ongoing wave of urban immigration.

(Read more: And the most expensive city to live and work in is...)

Summary: A historic migration is under way as the world's booming population moves to cities in search of opportunity. The trend should change society by 2039.


Instead of the lumbering bear walking on plush green grass, the California Water Foundation proposes a camel standing on sand. But all kidding aside, no one should be fooled by the tongue-in-cheek approach to the ongoing drought, said Andrew Fahlund, deputy director of CWF.

"The flag is jarring, and we meant it to be that way, and a reminder of how serious the situation is," he said.

Fahlund argued that the state's growing use of dwindling groundwater supplies is as severe as the drought itself.

"We depend on groundwater for about 40 percent of our needs in good years," he explained. "Now it's up to more than 60 percent because of the drought. We can't keep using it at that rate."

Read MoreDrought-shaming: There's an app for that

Just this past weekend, the state legislature voted to approve measures to regulate the pumping of groundwater. They are the first such rules in California's history. The bills target areas where groundwater wells are in danger of being overused.

The legislation gives local land planners two years to create a groundwater sustainability agency, which in turn has up to five years to develop a plan for managing wells and pumping. Those plans can include installing meters and charging fees to curb excessive use.

The measures go to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature. He has 30 days to sign or veto them. Brown has yet to say what he will do.

Summary: A tongue-in-cheek effort to replace the bear on California's state flag with a camel is really meant to show just how serious the drought has become.


White walls, grey floor, bright lights. Dark, matt rectangles of grey and black are spaced generously around the walls. People drift in, mostly wearing black and grey too, the clerical garb of the art world: curator drag, artists in uniform, critics' clobber. The only colour comes from someone's bright scarf and the artist's red lipstick. White rooms and stark silhouettes. The whole situation feels pared down.

Too much of my life has been spent lurking in places like this, waiting for something to happen. Too many decades in galleries in a dozen countries. The chat is the same in any language. Only the light fittings change. There's never anywhere to sit.

For a moment I think I'm onstage and about to perform in some rigorous, squeaky-shoed modern dance piece I haven't prepared for. Where's the choreographer? It's an art opening, for Silke Otto-Knapp's Monday or Tuesday (the title comes from a 1922 book of short stories by Virginia Woolf) at Camden Arts Centre.

Here's where the paintings come in, with their monochrome panoramas dotted with little inlets and islands, approximations of Fogo Island, Newfoundland, where Silke Otto-Knapp has spent several residencies, and the view from Edvard Munch's Norwegian country cabin at Aasgaardstrand, which she has also visited. There are other echoes that come directly from Munch's paintings, including a moon whose reflection in the water is like a lolling tongue. It's just a motif, says Otto-Knapp.

It is night on the tree-fringed deck built outside the dancer Anna Halprin's mountain home near San Francisco, where so many dancers have come to rehearse and develop their works. Halprin's permanent outdoor stage is an outlined parallelogram receding into the trees. There's a moon seen through branches. Otto-Knapp has painted Halprin's stage several times. The paintings might be seen as a scenography, waiting for a performance.

There are ghosts of other dances too, including a series of etchings and monoprints based on Yvonne Rainer's 1966 Three Seascapes, and paintings derived from the 1923 Ballet Russes performance of Stravinsky's Les noces, choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska. The stage, the set and the lighting are more significant than the dance itself, of which we see little. The scene is faded, greyed and distant, as if seen from afar or from long ago. Or like one of those scenes in a movie, where black and white suddenly fills with colour and life, and the action commences.

And here's dancer Trisha Brown (though you wouldn't know it was her unless you were told), lying on some vacant floor, one leg raised. It could be almost anyone, the face turned away, the knee bent and the foot erect, pointing like a signal. The image has a washed-out quality. As though the dancer were dissolving.

Other paintings are a bitter black, with branches like runnels of light running through them. Some are like looking at a photographic negative (there are constant plays of negative and positive), or a Polaroid whose development has been arrested. Some of Otto-Knapp's seascapes have the strange, filtered day-for-night of old movies.

These tenebrous images are fugitive things, and looking at them often requires a kind of night vision. The expanses of white wall between the paintings make you night-blind as you move from one to the next. Each time you have to readjust. In some of the lighter, greyer paintings there are areas of unaccountable gloom, as if a shadow has fallen across the painting, or there is a mist between you and the picture's surface.

Otto-Knapp's works are made with black and grey watercolour on primed canvas. Unlike working on paper, where watercolour soaks in and allows for very little erasure, the primed surface means that what goes on can be wiped away. This is largely how the artist goes about making her landscapes and islands, dancers and stages. She describes her process as being a bit like washing dishes. Whole landscapes, forests, figures, skies, days and nights can be swiped away, made and remade as she goes.

Much has been made recently of Christopher Wool's solvent-abused paintings (shown a few years ago at Camden, and the subject of a recent and much-hyped and applauded show at New York's Guggenheim Museum), in which traces of removed paint often constitute much of the imagery – reminding one of washed-off graffiti on urban streets; Edinburgh painter Callum Innes has made erasure a keystone of his process for decades. Anyone who has made mono-prints, working on a sheet of glass or metal, or has worked with charcoal and a putty rubber, knows how rubbing out can carve areas of light out of darkness. Putting paint on and taking it off again are basic to the business.

There is no real surface to Otto-Knapp's paintings, no pigment buildup, no lumps. It's all in one same thin skin. There's no distinction between making and unmaking an image, which appears in degrees of transparency and opacity. Light is an underlying given, something revealed rather than added. Like a dance, there is a sense that everything is transitional, that what we are seeing is a temporary state of arrest. Yet the paintings do not feel in any way provisional. The material limitations she has set herself have opened up a territory of possibility.

Otto-Knapp has also designed a number of costumes for dancers, based on 1960s dresses by Yves Saint Laurent, which will be worn in a performance in the gallery by dancer/choreographer Flora Wiegmann. But we're all dancers here. Looking is a performance. One of the pleasures of exhibitions is watching other people look, step back, move around. Background and foreground constantly reverse themselves as we shift our attention. Nowadays to paint dancers and landscapes could be seen as somehow quaint. We're all dancers really, always in a landscape. We're always here, however we dress.

Summary: Monday or Tuesday, the artist's new show at Camden Arts Centre in London, uses fading and erasure to bring us a twilight world in perpetual transition, writes Adrian Searle


It wasn’t something Dr. Emilie Voest and his colleagues expected to see, but in their labs, they found a disturbing connection between fatty acids and their effect on chemotherapy drugs. Fatty acids—the good fats found in fish like mackerel, salmon and sardines—turn out to work against chemotherapy agents in cancer patients, according to research published Thursday.

Voest, medical director of the Netherlands Cancer Institute, stumbled upon this in 2011 when he found that certain stem cells in mice with cancer that he was studying also produced fatty acids — and that these fats neutralized the effects of chemotherapy. Would the same occur in cancer patients, he wondered, who took fish oil supplements or ate fatty fish?

MORE: Omega 3s Reality Check: Are We Over-Exaggerating Their Benefits?

In a series of experiments described in JAMA Oncology, he and his team established that after getting fish oil supplements from commercially available brands, mice showed higher blood levels of the fatty acids for several hours. The same happened when healthy volunteers took one of two doses of fish oil supplements from three popular brands. Even at the lower dose, which was the recommended daily amount of fish oil of 10 ml (about two teaspoons), levels of fatty acids in the blood of the volunteers doubled on average after several hours.

In mice with tumors who were also given chemotherapy, the fish oil supplements suppressed the anti-tumor effects of the chemotherapy; “You lose at least half the effect of the chemotherapy” because of the fish oil, says Voest.

MORE: Fish Oil Fail: Omega-3s May Not Protect Brain Health After All

He stresses that there’s still a lot about the connection between fish oil and chemotherapy drugs that isn’t known. The effect seems to be limited to certain cytotoxic chemotherapy agents that work by damaging the DNA of tumor cells; some more targeted chemo agents won’t be as affected by the fatty acids. Voest also notes that fish oil supplements, because they aren’t regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, vary widely on how much fatty acids they contain. What’s more, the content of fish oil can change from pill to pill or drop to drop.

“I don’t want patients who had chemotherapy in the past and it didn’t work to think that it was their fault because they took fish oil,” he says. “Obviously there is a balance between how sensitive a tumor is to chemo v the resistance-causing effect of fatty acids.”

MORE: Omega-3 Supplements Don’t Lower Heart Disease Risk After All

In his studies, Voest also analyzed the effects of fish oil from eating fish among healthy volunteers without cancer; mackerel and herring — even at servings slightly smaller than a deck of cards — were two that contributed to the biggest peaks in fatty acid levels in the blood several hours later. Salmon and tuna only led to negligible blips in this particular study.

The one thing Voest and his team could not do was test the effects of fish oil on cancer patients. Because mouse studies showed that fish oil could compromise the effects of chemotherapy, he says it was “unethical in our view to demonstrate that chemo combined with fish oil was less effective than chemo alone,” he says, since some patients may be receiving an intentionally inferior therapy.

“These authors went beyond theory and showed with animal data that there may be an impact,” says Dr. Don Dizon, co-director of gynecologic oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and a spokesperson for the American Society of Clinical Oncology, who was not involved in the research. “And in the absence of human data, we need to take this quite seriously and discuss these results with our patients.”

With most supplements, Dizon says, it’s difficult to counsel patients since there isn’t even data from animal studies to guide doctors, as there now is with fish oil. Dizon says he advises patients getting chemo to avoid taking antioxidants, for example, but only because in theory, chemotherapy causes oxidative stress and the supplements may counter that effect. “But I have absolutely no data to support that.”

But between the animal studies and the tests on healthy human volunteers, he’s more comfortable advising patients about fish oil. “I think I will be using this clinically, and discussing it with my patients,” says Dizon, especially since he relies on a DNA-damaging chemotherapy agents to treat the cancers he sees. Voest also says he’s advising patients to avoid taking fish oil or eating large amounts of fish on the day before, the day of and the day after receiving chemo. That may be difficult for some, especially since cancer websites advise patients to take fish oil as a way to reduce side effects from chemotherapy. But, as Voest says, “now we know why.” It may be that the fish oil is hampering the anti-cancer effects of the drugs instead of mitigating their adverse effects.

Voest is planning on studying the biological link between fatty acids and chemotherapy drugs more carefully. He’s also launching a clinical trial to see if a compound that inhibits the function of fatty acids might work to improve chemotherapy’s effect in patients taking fish oil and getting chemo.

Summary: “You lose at least half the effect of the chemotherapy” because of the fish oil, the scientist says


12/31/2015 AT 05:40 PM EST

is opening up about her painful experience being bullied as a child.

"I was teased for how I looked," the actress, 40, told

in an interview set to air this weekend. "In part, yeah, because I was quite stocky as a child. And I was very much teased for that."

This isn't the first time Winslet has opened up about being bullied. While appearing on

, she said she never received "positive reinforcement" about her body while growing up.

"When I grew up, I never heard positive reinforcement about body image from any female in my life," Winslet admitted. "I only heard negatives. That's very damaging because then you're programmed as a young woman to immediately scrutinize yourself and how you look."

Now as an adult, she has cultivated a

and made it her mission to help others

after being bullied as a kid.

"You know, we walk down red carpets. You know, it's part of the job," she told

. "But I think I feel very strongly that it's important to also say to young girls that we don't look like that all the time."

In fact, Winslet even admits to dropping off her kids at school in a less-than-fashionable wardrobe.

"I even do the school run in my dressing gown, bathrobe," she added, laughing. "And pajamas. Yup, absolutely."

Summary: "I was quite stocky as a child. And I was very much teased for that," said Winslet


If you find yourself hitting the snooze button every morning, don’t blame yourself. Your work schedule could be to blame.

A growing field of research now shows that, for many of us, our work schedules are wildly out of sync with our natural body clocks — and experts are urging employers to take notice.

Sleep is a “strategic resource” that most companies are ignoring, according to a white paper by Christopher Barnes, a management professor at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business in the US.

Night owls behave more unethically in the morning than at night

When work schedules are aligned with people’s natural sleep patterns, they produce higher quality and more innovative work because they are more focused, less stressed and generally healthier, he wrote. The opposite is also true – when employees are sleep deprived they are more likely to make major mistakes and suffer from workplace injuries. His research has even shown that night owls behave more unethically in the morning than at night and that early birds were more unethical at night.

But it’s not just about the amount of sleep you get. Whether you can be productive at 8am depends on circadian rhythm. Every organism from primitive bacteria to human beings have a biologically determined, internal body clock, said Till Roenneberg, a professor of chronobiology at the Institute of Medical Psychology at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich. And that clock can vary greatly depending the person.

“It’s like feet,” said Roenneberg. “Some people are born with big feet and some with small feet, but most people are somewhere in the middle.”

According to Roenneberg the problem is that our lives typically don’t take into account circadian rhythms as they might have when we spent more time outdoors in natural light. Many companies start the work day at 8am or 9am, putting their work schedules at odds with their employees’ body clock.

That mismatch, along with the pressure to be productive and be available to respond to email or take calls at all hours of the day and night, mean that many people suffer from what he calls “social jetlag”. In other words, their bodies are always in the wrong time zone. He estimates that more than 70% of people get up earlier than they should if the goal is to be well rested and perform their best.

The mismatch between people’s internal clocks and the schedule they have to follow to get on in life starts in adolescence, said Paul Kelley at the University of Oxford’s Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute in the UK. Kelley said that most people’s body clocks start moving forward around puberty. By the time they reach high school or secondary school, teenagers are getting up, on average, three hours earlier than they should because of early school start times in some cases as early as 7:30am. The result: chronic sleep deprivation, that hurts their ability to focus and could lead to longer term health problems like obesity and diabetes, he said. Because of a major public health push, some school districts in the US and the UK are moving school start times later.

The bias towards early birds is one reason flexible working time policies backfire

As people age, their body clocks start to shift back to an earlier wake time, but Kelley said that most of the working population is still getting up too early. He believes that the ideal work day should start at 10am.

It’s not rational to start the work day at 8am, he said. But that flies in the face of stereotypes at the office, where early birds are more likely to be seen as more diligent and conscientious, while those who keep later hours are viewed as loafers. But, argued Kelley, “circadian rhythms are controlled by biology, not by custom”.

Barnes believes that the bias towards early birds is one of the reasons why flexible working time policies can often backfire. Barnes studied the flexible working policies using a sample of employees from a variety of companies, and discovered that people who choose earlier start times were often perceived as better workers and received higher performance ratings — even if they worked the same number of hours. That bias prevents “the ideal of matching each employee’s start time with his or her circadian process”, he said in an email.

Using his research on chronotypes (a term which describes whether a person is an early bird or a night owl), Roenneberg conducted experiments at a Volkswagen car plant and ThyssenKrup's European steel factory both in Germany. He adjusted worker shifts to match their body clocks, giving later risers afternoon and evening shifts and early risers morning shifts. In both cases he found that workers who adjusted their work schedule to their individual biological clocks were more productive, healthier and less tired both at work and in their free time.

If you stop focusing on time, you have to decide what results you are paying people for

Ryan Olson, a scientist at the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences in the US, found the same true for office workers. “With technology today there is no reason to have a rigid schedule,” he said.

Olson helped conduct a year-long study of American employees at an international information technology firm. Before the study, employees were expected to be in the office by about 8am or 9am, but were also expected to take calls with colleagues around the world in the middle of the night. To prevent the early bird bias, employees in the study were given the freedom to work more flexible schedules as long as they produced certain results, such as successfully delivering code to teammates or finished projects to customers.

“If you stop focusing on time, you have to decide what results you are paying people for,” he said.

The three-month programme that Olson worked on included training that taught workers to stop judging colleagues on how they spent their time and promoted activities that allowed them prioritise personal time. In the study employees were encouraged to do things like run errands or attend events at their child’s school in the middle of the day. The programme was intended to help people better balance their work and home lives, but it also gave people an extra hour of sleep for the week, which adds up to about a week’s worth of sleep a year. Olson said that the benefit of extra sleep has lasted a year after the study started and the company is working on which changes to implement for the long haul.

“There is an old saying that sleep is for the weak,” said Olson. But now, “I do feel like there is a shift happening where people realise it doesn’t help to have shortened sleep. Sleep is a topic that companies want to hear about.”

Summary: Not all of us are suited to early starts – and by adjusting our working schedules to match our sleep patterns, we could be a lot more productive, research suggests.


The country's leaders made their appeal for assistance on ThursdayÂ afterÂ rebels captured the town ofÂ Birao on Monday.

CAR officials said the rebels attacked fromÂ Sudan, leading toÂ fearsÂ thatÂ the long-running conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region could further de-stabilise the region.

Francois Bozize,Â the president of the CAR, on Wednesday cut short his visitÂ to an Africa-China summit in Beijing to deal with the threat posed by the rebels, who are demanding he agrees to talks on power sharing.

TheÂ UFDR, the anti-Bozize rebel coalition which has claimed the capture of Birao,Â said it was waiting to see whether the government would launch a counterattack to try to retake the town, or agree to talks.

"We'll be staying in Birao," UFDR spokesmanÂ captain Abakar Sabone told Reuters by telephone, "what we want is a round table to discuss sharing power, without exclusions."

The CAR, a former French colony and one of the poorest nations on earth, has accused neighbour Sudan of arming and directing the rebels.

The Sudanese government on Wednesday rejected the accusation.

The CAR government said that France andÂ regional allies like Chad, which has also accused Khartoum of backing rebel incursions from Darfur, had offered their support.

But Cyriaque Gonda, theÂ president'sÂ spokesman said that the CARÂ government wanted "concrete aid" from the international community.

"Concretely, we want the positioning of (international peacekeeping) troops in the region," Gonda said.

The UN has already begun an emergency aid service to the rebel-held town where UN representatives and members of international aid organisation have now begun planning their response to the crisis.

Gonda declined to say what action the government intended to take against the rebels in Birao, which is located in a remote, rugged region of bush and marshland more than 800 km (500 miles) northeast of Bangui, the capital.

Summary: The Central African Republic has urged the international community to sending peacekeeping troops to its remote northeast region bordering Sudan, where rebels have seized a major town.


Textiles, clothing and footwear sales volumes jumped 3.8 percent in November from October, the ONS said.

That helped offset a fall of 3.1 percent in department stores sales and weaker fuel sales.

(Read more: UK retail: Gooddata, grim prognosis)

At the same time, a record amount of goods were bought on line, accounting for 11.9 percent of all retail sales, excluding fuel.

Earlier this month, the British Retail Consortium, an industry group, said sales in November made a slow start to the month but picked up as the colder weather prompted consumers to shop for warmer clothes.

(Read more: Online sales 'to hit£5 billion' this Christmas)

On Wednesday, another survey, by the Confederation of British Industry, suggested retail sales rebounded in December as shoppers started splashing out for the Christmas holidays after a weak November and October.

Consumer spending has been under pressure for years as inflation outstripped wage growth.

Data earlier this week showed wages rose less than 1 percent in the three months to October, compared with the same period last year, well short of inflation of 2.1 percent in November.

Yet demand from British consumers remains the main driver of the country's economy. Household consumption contributed 0.5 percentage points to Britain's economic growth of 0.8 percent in the third quarter.

Earlier this week, Dixons Retail, Europe's No. 2 electricals retailer, said it more than doubled its underlying profit over the past six months, helped by demand in Britain for tablet computers.

(Read more: UK retailer Tesco launches cut-price tablet)

Summary: British retail sales rose last month recovering from a fall in October, helped by shoppers buying warm clothes.


Daenerys Targaryen added another spectacular feat to her legendary history on Sunday night's

. She not only escaped her Dothraki captors, but also

– literally – with an epic fire-goddess scene that reminded everyone the Mother of Dragons is not to be trifled with.

While fans have assumed Dany would somehow eventually escape her confinement at Vaes Dothrak, the most common prediction was that Ser Jorah and Daario Naharis would simply smuggle her out, or that Drogon would swoop down to torch her enemies like at the end of season 5. But showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss concocted a far more clever, shocking, and character-driven twist.

excitedly describes the scene to

: "It's so exciting, very tingly-making. Every season I get at least one spine-chilling moment. I just stand up and I go, 'I'm hearing what you're all saying, but funny thing, I'm going to kill you all. I forgot that I have an ace in my back pocket and now I win.'"

It's long been assumed Dany is fireproof through some magical Targaryen bond with her dragons. We saw in the pilot that she walks into a scalding bath; later, she declares, "He was no dragon; fire cannot kill a dragon," after her brother perishes; and eventually, she emerges Unburnt from her dragons' birth. (In George R.R. Martin's novels, however, Dany's fire-immunity was apparently a one-time thing, the author has suggested.) In a way, being fireproof has been Dany's covert superpower since the show launched.

"That's what's most fun about this," Weiss says. "You know from the first season that, as you say, it's her 'superpower,' but this is not really that type of story. It's almost like the revelation she had when Jorah and Daario come to the rescue. She's like, 'Wait, I can do something none of these people can do and now that these two people can help me, I can use that to my advantage.' It's a very simple solution, a plan where you can use three people to take out dozens in a very dramatic way by just lighting things on fire and standing there."

And by taking out the Dothraki leadership and showing her power to their followers, the queen of Meereen potentially gains an even larger army. "She realizes that this is the missing piece," Clarke says. "The Dothraki are the missing piece of her crew - she's seemingly indestructible having Dothraki on her side."

But before any assumptions are made about Clarke's participation in the scene, there's something the actress wants everybody to know. "I'd like to remind people the last time I took my clothes off was season 3," she says. "That was awhile ago. It's now season 6. But this is all me, all proud, all strong. I'm just feeling genuinely happy I said 'Yes.' That ain't no body double!"

The production took pains to shoot Clarke's portion of the scene on a private "closed set" in Belfast, while the rest of the sequence with the Dothraki actors was shot at the Vaes Dothrak village set constructed in the desert in Spain. Clarke said the set-up was preferable to, for instance, when Dany's clothes were scorched off at the end of season 1. "Taking off my clothes is not the easiest thing, but with the magic of the effects, I don't have to do a season 1 and go on a cliff and do it," she notes. "I'm in control of it."

After seeing the sequence cut together a couple months ago, Benioff said: "Emilia absolutely crushed it. It's one of those weird scenes because it was half shot in Spain, half in Belfast. But largely due to her performance, it works brilliantly."

It's easy to understand why Clarke is being proactive and open about her feelings about the scene. Thrones actress Oona Chaplin once claimed an actress on the hit show didn't like doing nude scenes (which some outlets just assumed was Clarke). Then last year a tabloid report claimed Clarke said she didn't like doing sex scenes – which Clarke took to Instagram to correct.

"It's difficult to be misquoted and it's nice to have something like Instagram to say the truth," Clarke says. "How many times has [Daario actor]

been asked about the fact he's taken his clothes off a bunch? Is that even a discussion? No. So I'm doing it this year and people can talk about it and I'm ready to answer any questions about it, basically."

airs Sundays (9 p.m. ET) on HBO.

Summary: "Taking off my clothes is not the easiest thing, but with the magic of the effects, I don't have to do a season 1 and go on a cliff and do it," Clarke revealed


Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck

05/16/2016 AT 01:30 PM EDT

After spending some time together as a family in

, the two returned to London, where they've been spotted enjoying local activities with their three children, Violet, 10, Seraphina, 7, and Samuel, 4.

Last week, Affleck, 43, and Garner, 44, stepped out with their brood in Westbourne Grove for an afternoon exploring the city. On Thursday, the family was seen going into various shops together. At one point, they stopped in a children's store, where they purchased a stuffed teddy bear.

"Ben and Jen were pretty quiet and just browsed the shelves for 20 minutes with the kids," an onlooker tells PEOPLE.

That same day, the family was spotted grabbing a bite to eat at the popular café Granger and Co. An onlooker told PEOPLE the former couple did their best to go unnoticed while eating, with Affleck keeping his head down as they sat inside.

"It [was] a typical family meal with Ben and Jen fussing over the kids," says a witness.

After eating, the family continued their afternoon stroll together, popping into a few more shops.

Affleck and Garner plan to stay a month together in London (with tutors for the kids) while the actor films

"They are enjoying showing the kids London," a source close to the family told PEOPLE.

as they continue to spend time together. A source told PEOPLE they "appeared affectionate" while at dinner in Paris.

Summary: The family was seen going into various shops together during an afternoon outing


05/16/2016 AT 08:45 PM EDT

You may have heard that

– but did you know that the billionaire businessman was also the "real-life inspiration" for Marvel superhero Iron Man?

So said Trump's "publicist," Joey Pepperoni, anyway, in Saturday's

spoof poking fun of the presumptive GOP nominee for

to then-PEOPLE reporter Sue Carswell.

got in on the Trump bashing, too, hopping on a call with "Barron McJohnington" (a play on John Miller and John Barron, the two names Trump reportedly used when posing as his own publicist) on Friday's

"I don't like the lies you're telling about Donald Trump, who's my incredibly successful boss and definitely a different guy than me," McJohnington told Colbert before claiming Trump used to have sex with Jessica Rabbit.

couldn't resist getting a dig in either, extending an open invitation for "John Miller" to stop by the show and enjoy some of his favorite things: "overcooked steaks, low-grade pornographic magazines and a hand mirror."

As Oliver pointed out, Trump's publicist stunt

have made headlines in 2016. The mogul confessed to posing as John Miller to Carswell in 1991.

The real story, Oliver said, is that present-day Trump lied about it.

"He said that he was sorry that he made the call, that was a joke that went awry," Carswell told

on Saturday, adding, "It shows he's a liar right now. And that distresses me."

She's not the only one.

Late-night spoofs aside, some political commentators say Trump's publicist charade – and his failure to come clean about it last week – is cause for concern.

's John Cassidy says it speaks to questions about whether Trump has the "character and judgement" to be president.

's Amanda Marcotte argues the stunt is "the scandal we've all been waiting for, one that confirms he is the monster you thought."

's Eugene Robinson writes that Trump's "opponents in the primaries were right to call him a con artist, a narcissist and a pathological liar. Just ask 'John Miller.' "

But according to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, "a story of 30 years ago and whether Donald Trump impersonated someone or not, that he denies, is really not the most important thing for us to talk about."

And senior Republican strategist Kevin Sheridan told the

show Saturday that Trump's phony phone call is unlikely to hurt his campaign.

"He didn't need to lie about it he could have just admitted it â¦ most people already knew," said Sheridan.

But, he added, "It doesn't seem to matter to his voters."

Summary: Donald Trump's rivals "were right to call him a con artist, a narcissist and a pathological liar. Just ask 'John Miller,' " writes a Washington Post columnist


That, however, was postponed after then-Chief Executive John Menzer had a stroke and stepped down.

Bain Capital and Blackstone currently own 93 percent of the company as Michaels Holdings, which was formed following the reorganization of Michaels into a holding company structure in July 2013.

Read MoreBuckle up! IPO roller coaster is about to begin

The two private equity firms will own about 80 percent of the company after the IPO, if underwriters do not exercise their option.

Michaels said in April it was hit by a security breach of customer payment cards and about 400,000 cards were potentially affected by the breach, which occurred between June 26, 2013, and February 27, 2014.

Michaels, which has about $3.7 billion in debt as of May, said it plans to use the proceeds from the offering to redeem $466 million of Holdco notes, issued in July 2013.

The company is expected to debut on the Nasdaq on Friday under the symbol "MIK."

JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs were lead underwriters to the offering.

Summary: Michaels said it had raised about $472.6 million in its initial public offering after pricing shares at $17, the lower end of an expected range.


Imagine you’re approaching an intersection when the light starts to turn yellow. Do you chance it and speed ahead or patiently wait for the light to turn green?

New research from the University of Turku, in Finland, suggests some young adults who push the pedal to the floor may be learning more from the experience than those who don’t.

In the study, the brains of young men (ages 18 and 19) were monitored in the lab as they traveled through a driving video game. Researchers found those who sped through the “light” in the game processed information faster and activated their brains more than those who played it safe.

But does this mean those savvy risk-takers will be smarter adults? Not quite.

Marisa Silveri is a neuroscientist who teaches psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, she says this Finnish study is a new, perhaps more positive twist on the risk-taking teen brain. Teenagers, developmentally prone to more risky behavior on their way out of the proverbial nest, have often been cited for risking binge drinking and crashing cars, too. But here, the researchers are seeing something else: risky behavior can also challenge and help develop the brain.

“It’s possible what the researchers are seeing is the brain getting better at weighing risks and outcomes,” says Silveri, who did not participate in the research, but studies changing teenage brains in her own lab.

As the teenage brain grows, more “white matter” forms, connecting different parts of the brain. This myelin tissue acts like insulation. Just like a well-built house is more efficient, when there’s more of the connective insulation wrapping around cells in the brain, impulse control sharpens. Interestingly, white matter in female brains isn’t tied to regulating impulsivity in the same way, however.

In this study, the “riskier” young men had much more white matter than their more cautious counterparts (London cabbies, who have to keep track of a dizzying maze of streets, are known to have a whole lot of myelin in their heads too).

“White matter can be the difference between a healthy and not healthy risk-taker,” Silveri says.

It’s still hard to know exactly how playing a video game in a lab room really translates to weighing those kinds of risks in real life. For that, researchers will need to do more long-term studies of the thinking, healthy brain anticipating real-world challenges.

But I’ll let you weigh the risks of that.

Check out GE CEO Jeff Immelt’s thoughts on risk-taking here:

Subscribe to Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the business of technology.

Summary: White matter insulates the brain and promotes smarter risk taking over time.


Kelly Ripa received a warm welcome back from fans upon her return to "Live with Kelly and Michael."

The TV host's opening monologue earned overwhelmingly positive reviews from viewers on Tuesday, with many complimenting her class and professionalism as she addressed the drama surrounding co-host Michael Strahan’s recently announced move to “Good Morning America” for the first time.

"She handled the issue gracefully, professionally, and kindly,” said Nicole Collins, 37, of Port Jefferson. “It felt like she was supportive. She was upset but (coming out here) showed she did what professional people do.”

Billy Cash of Shiloh, Ga., echoed these sentiments, adding Ripa handled her come back well considering she was kept in the dark about Strahan’s departure until right before it was announced to the public.

“She was awesome,” Cash, 55, said. “The way Kelly was broadsided — and I’ve been in business for 30 years so I know about broadsiding — was hard. But she’s a total pro.”

Ripa’s return was well-received by guests on Tuesday’s episode as well, with singer Jackie Evancho telling the Daily News that the monologue was “perfect for the situation.”

"It went over really well,” Evancho said. “People are happy she's back. She's really glad to be back. There was no tension (between them). I think they're just glad to be back to normal."

“Blindspot” and “Thor” actress Jaimie Alexander, meanwhile, said she was thrilled to see Ripa team up with Strahan once again.

"She's always a bright light so it's great she's back,” she said. “They're great."

Ripa made her return to “Live” after missing the past four episodes following the news of Strahan’s leaving.

The 45-year-old TV host threw a “fit” after only learning the news moments before it was announced to the world, sources told the Daily News last week.

She called in "sick" the next day, before taking off the rest of the week for a so-called previously scheduled vacation.

Ripa vaguely addressed the situation at the onset of Tuesday's episode, standing in front of the crowd and serving up an energetic yet carefully worded explanation of what had transpired.

"I first want to honestly, sincerely thank you for welcoming me back to the show," Ripa began the episode. "The love, the show of support through this bizarre time has been really overwhelming. I needed a couple of days ... after 26 years with this company, I've earned it."

"We are family. Apologies have been made," she continued. "The best thing to come out of all of this, you guys, is that our parent company has assured me that 'Live!' is a priority ... There is a commitment to this show and the people that work here."

The speech won over the majority of viewers — but not everyone was sold.

"I thought it was a little long," said Louise Johnson of Guilford, Conn. “What she was trying to get across that she was OK with it. His leaving. It was a big deal for her for him to leave. She was so responsible for his career."

Strahan is expected to host his final episode of “Live” in May before beginning his full-time “GMA” gig in September.

Summary: Kelly Ripa got a warm welcome back from fans upon her return to "Live with Kelly and Michael."


(CBS News) Amid a recession, the birth rate in the United States has been falling - but not for all women.

U.S. birth rates declined about 16 percent among women ages 15 to 24 between 2007 and 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Similarly, among women 25 to 29 rates went down more than 8 percent, and among women 30 to 39 rates decreased about 4 percent.

But, when it came to women aged 40 to 44, rates rose more than 6 percent during this time. These trends continue a pattern among women of starting their families later than their mothers did that's been underway for decades, according to Elizabeth Gregory, director of women's studies at the University of Houston and research fellow on the Council on Contemporary Families. In 1970 the average age at first birth was 21, today it's over 25.

Almost 40 percent of all U.S. babies in 2010 were born to women over 30, and almost 15 percent - 1 in 7 - were born to women 35 and over. One in four first births were to women 30 and over, and one in 12 were to women over 35.

Though women evidently see virtues in delay, that hasn't been the case with public perception. Instead of clear analysis, there's a lot of misinformation, both about why women are delaying and what the effects of fertility are for individual families and for society at large.

Gregory, author of "Ready: Why Women Are Embracing the New Later Motherhood," breaks down seven common myths about late motherhood.

Summary: Researcher Elizabeth Gregory says that delaying pregnancy may have financial, emotional benefits and health risks are overblown


Not all new skyscrapers make news. But the birth of the Chrysler Building, in 1928, immediately commanded attention, as TIME reported:

Walter Percy Chrysler has just gained the head of the third greatest motor company by the Chrysler-Dodge merger. He is less individualistic than Mr. Ford, yet is mighty proud of his success and reputation. Last week he started selling mortgage bonds (through S. W. Strauss & Co.) on what will be the tallest building—in Manhattan or the world. It will contain 68 stories, and be 808 ft. high. It will, of course, be called the Chrysler Building and is Mr. Chrysler’s personal venture.

The completed building surpassed expectations, measuring 1,046 ft. and change.

“A great gesture towards a fortune built by automobiles is the Chrysler Building,” TIME reported shortly after it officially opened to the public 85 years ago, on May 27, 1930. “Oldtime Manhattanites recalled last week that 50 years ago its site was a goat pasture.”

Its opening ceremony drew the presence of many of New York City’s dignitaries—including Alfred Emanuel Smith, whose corporation was at that very moment constructing the Empire State Building, which would shortly knock the Chrysler from its place of honor.

Summary: The building opened to the public 85 years ago, on May 27, 1930


Breathe easy, America. Before you judge Donald Trump's proposed Muslim ban too harshly, consider this: It will not apply to Muslims who are, A. Donald Trump's friends, and B. rich. Feel better?

The Republican presidential candidate, with a totally straight face, told MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Wednesday that he has "a lot of friends that are Muslim," who are "very rich," and he would make "exceptions" to let them in the country.

"I have, actually, believe it or not, I have a lot of friends that are Muslim, and they call me," Trump said. "In most cases, they're very rich Muslim."

"But do they get into the country?" Matthews asked.

"Oh, they'll come in," Trump responded.

"How do you let them in?" Matthews replied.

"They'll come in," Trump said. "And you'll have exceptions."

So there you have it.

In early December, Trump's campaign issued a statement saying the GOP presidential frontrunner had called for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on," CNN reported. The move came shortly after a terrorist attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, where two shooters killed 14 people before they were killed by police.

Aside from the dubious claim that Trump has Muslim friends, his open willingness to make exceptions for them — whoever they are — to his own proposed Islamophobic laws certainly bears well for America's future legal integrity.

See you in November, folks.

Muslim people react to Trump:

Donald Trump says proposed Muslim ban will not apply to his rich friends

Gihan Nagui, a 27-year-old Egyptian Muslim marketing and research manager, poses for a photograph at her apartment in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015. âIt doesnât upset me that much that he said this. It is when I see thereâs a mass following that supports his idiotic rambling that worries me,â said Nagui reacting to Donald Trump's speech. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Ahmed Samra, a 27-year-old Egyptian Muslim political analyst poses for a photograph at his apartment in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015. âDonald Tumpâs comments will only amplify the feelings of the Muslim population -- marginalized and demonized. His bigotry will only succeed in empowering the very radical groups he fears while alienating the entire Muslim community, which pays the highest price in fighting this evil,â said Samra reacting to Donald Trump's speech. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Feras Ali Abou Ghaben, a 30-year-old Palestinian American Muslim stock broker, poses for a photograph at an apartment in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2015. "Donald Trump's speech reminded me of Hitler. Trump has managed to gain votes through hate speech. I do not see anyone doing anything about it and that scares me. What terrified me even more was the applause that came after his speech," said Abou Ghaben. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Kim El Narsh, a 28-year-old Egyptian Muslim entrepreneur, poses for a photograph in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015. âI think Donald Trump is an ignorant human who should not be allowed to run as president. He does not stand for what the U.S. stands for. How can he run for president when he does not respect what the founding fathers stood for. If Trump became president of the United States there would be a huge possibility it will become a non-United States of America,â said El Narsh reacting to Trump's speech. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Lana Karim, a 25-year-old Egyptian Muslim marketing and sales manager, poses for a photograph in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015. In response to Donald Trump's call on Monday for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States", Karim says, âWhen we look at the history of the U.S. we find that it is a country that was made up of migrants from all walks of life. It is really sad to see that someone whoâs extremely educated can think this way, let alone have the audacity to say a statement like that. Donald Trumpâs statement set our worlds back one hundred years in terms of social acceptance and diversity.â (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Aasim Salman, 47, owner of a coffee shop, speaks to the Associated Press about comments by U.S. Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump, in Baghdad, Iraq on Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015. "I visited the coffee shops in the U.S. and saw many Americans sitting there, smiling and laughing. I donât see any difference between us, why does Trump want to divide us?" he asked. "Iâm confident the American people will punish him and not vote for him at all. This would bring American back to past centuries when the U.S. suffered from racial discrimination." (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

Pakistani Naqash Bhatti talks to The Associated Press in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015. Bhatti said, "I thinkÂ the demand to ban the entry of Muslims into the United States makes no sense.Â Better sense mustÂ prevail ifÂ the world has to win the war against terrorism." Pakistani Muslims condemned Trump for calling for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States." (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Z.A. Qureshi, a professor at the International Relations department at the private Preston university talks to the Associated Press in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015. Qureshi said Donald Trump has âmade an irresponsible statementâ and âI am shocked and amazed to know that a presidential candidate can go to such an extent for political gains.â Pakistani Muslims condemned Trump for calling for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States." (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Thamer Gharaib, 50, speaks to the Associated Press about comments by U.S. Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump, in Baghdad, Iraq on Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015. âI am a businessman, I import goods from America to Iraq and I have plans to enter the U.S. market, but what happens when the President of the greatest and most powerful nation in the world thinks this way?" he asks. "I would tell him not to manipulate the feelings of the people just to win. The blood of the innocent is more important than winning.â (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

Sadia Hafeez, a university student in Islamabad, Pakistan, told the Associated Press :"Donald Trump is pitching non-Muslims against Muslims for political reasons," Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015. Pakistani Muslims condemned Trump for calling for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States." (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Keysar Trad, chairman of the Sydney-based Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, poses for a photo in front of his home in Sydney, Australia, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015. "Donald Trumpâs statement is a desperate statement by a desperate man who knows that heâs clutching at straws and has no chance of winning the election," said Trad. "So heâs trying to win it off the back of the Islamophobia industry." U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump has called for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," immigrants and visitors alike, because of what he describes as hatred among "large segments of the Muslim population" toward Americans. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith)

Dr. Heval Mohamed Kelli is photographed at Emory University where he was recently awarded a four-year fellowship in cardiology Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015, in Atlanta. Kelli was 17 when his family, Kurdish refugees from Syria, came to metro Atlanta in 2001, exactly two weeks after the terrorist attacks in New York. Now the 32-year-old physician is working to give back to his adopted home. Most Sundays he works at a clinic which provides free medical services to low-income patients just a block from the small apartment he lived in when his family arrived 14 years ago. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

In this Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015 photo, Sam Obeidi, 58, left, and Mousa Obeidi, 90, pose for a photo in their art gallery in Anchorage, Alaska. Mousa says he was the first Muslim in Alaska when he arrived in 1964, and his son, Sam, helps new immigrants to Anchorage integrate into the American way of of life. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)

Abdul Karim Ali stands in front of his natural body care products booth at the CW Bill Young VA Medical Center in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015. Ali became a Muslim in 1975 and says the religion has inspired him to serve his community in various ways, including participation in an interfaith council, local politics and a neighborhood watch group. (AP Photo/Tamara Lush)

Sally Baraka poses for a photo in Philadelphia on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015. As a Muslim and Arab-American, Baraka calls herself "a devout Philadelphian" who is an ambassador to her city, her country and her faith. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Farris Barakat looks over the railing inside the future home of the Light House project in downtown Raleigh, N.C., on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015. The house belonged to his brother, Deah, who was gunned down in February with his wife and her sister. "Deah" is Arabic for "light," and the family hopes the center will help Americans understand that Islam is compatible with the nation's values. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

Farris Barakat stands in front of the Light House in downtown Raleigh, N.C., on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015. The house belonged to his brother, Deah, who was gunned down in February along with his wife and her sister. This act of brutality set the older brother on a new path. He left his job as a business manager with a local courier service and began renovating the property his brother owned. "Our community _ our Muslim community _ doesn't really do too much ... outreach work" _ and that will be part of the Light House's aim, says Barakat, whose parents are from Syria but who was born in Raleigh. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

In this Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015 photo, Abe Mashhour, head basketball coach at Schoolcraft College, directs a practice session in Livonia, Mich. Mashhour came to the U.S. from Lebanon at the age of 4 - the youngest child of nine to escape that nation's civil war. His family moved to Dearborn, Mich., which has a large and longstanding Arab-American community. As a Muslim, he says, "my faith is the center of who I am and what I was taught by my parents," and considers himself "very blessed and fortunate to grow up in this country." (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Summary: The Republican presidential candidate told MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Wednesday that he has 'a lot of friends that are Muslim.'


Dangerous flooding and severe weather conditions have forced hundreds to evacuate their homes across Australia’s east coast, with poor weather conditions set to continue into Monday.

On Saturday weather warnings were issued from the Gold Coast in Queensland down to southern New South Wales, as an intense low pressure system created gale force winds and high rainfall that battered the east coast.

Conditions did not ease and continued into Sunday. The New South Wales State Emergency Service issued a number of evacuation warnings as a result of flooding.

Related: Share your photos of wild weather from Australia's east coast low

The heavy rainfall and gale-force winds led to widespread power outrages, blocked roads and damages to homes from falling trees.

Flood evacuation notices were issue across NSW in areas including Lismore, the Cooks River, the Georges River, parts of the NSW north coast and Fingal Head. Later in the day low-lying parts of Sydney’s southwest were also told to leave, including Chipping Norton, Milperra, Lansvale and Carramar, as the Georges River rose.

Residents were told to gather medicines, pack clothing and try to turn off power and gas.

The severe weather conditions crept right across Sydney’s suburbs, with storm tidal waters coming dangerously close to houses on the northern Sydney suburb of Narrabeen, where a caravan park and some houses were evacuated.

Timelapse of the last 48hrs at #Narrabeen @UNSWEngineering @abcnews @Channel7 pic.twitter.com/J6Vn8Saob6

The CBD of Lismore on the NSW north coast was also issued with an evacuation order by the SES, as floodwaters continued to rise.

This is the middle of Lismore. Flood levels right up to the top of signs. Incredible sight @abcnews #NSWFloods pic.twitter.com/kUkGFXhnBG

Poor weather conditions are set to continue into Monday in New South Wales and Tasmania, with the latest Australian Bureau of Meteorology forecast indicating there will be “high to very high chance of rain heavy at times in the far southeast” and “Strong to gale force east to northeast winds on the south coast.”

Heavy rain and strong northeast winds affected much of Tasmania on Sunday, particularly in the north, with wind gusts of up to 90km/h and up to 120mm of rain.

The severe weather was expected to continue on Monday and possibly extend into Tuesday, and the Tasmania SES urged residents to avoid damaging surf on coastal beaches.

NSW State Emergency Service acting deputy commissioner Mark Morrow said on Sunday in a press conference that conditions were likely to remain poor.

“I can’t tell you whether it will get beyond the predictions that we have got at the moment but certainly the Bureau is continuing to work very closely with our deputy incident controllers in order to make informed decisions particularly in those areas where lots of Sydney residents live on the other side of a river system which potentially cuts them off from the metropolitan area,” he said.

“But it’s a good idea now to think about work from home or talk to your boss about other arrangements.”

NSW police confirmed one person was charged with drink driving. Police alleged the driver had ignored road closures and driven into floodwaters in southern NSW.

Related: Wild weather: flood warnings as east coast low sweeps down – live updates

NSW police also urged visitors to Sydney to delay attending the Vivid festival and Sydney Harbour due to the serious weather risks that remained.

Destination NSW chief executive and Vivid Sydney executive producer Sandra Chipchase said: “Vivid Sydney’s priority is always the safety of its patrons and with this in mind, we need to close some of the festival precincts and light installations this Sunday night and we encourage visitors to postpone their trip until the weather improves.

“We want to thank Vivid Sydney fans for their patience and understanding as we continue to manage the impact of this weekend’s extreme weather.”

• 70-90mm rain across Sydney with 115mm recorded at Ingleburn• 154mm rain at Robertson in Illawarra region• 12-metre waves recorded at Botany Bay• Dangerous five-to-seven metre waves predicted along NSW coast• Destructive winds gusting up to 125km/h forecast• About 500 people across state ordered to leave homes• Power out to at least 86,000 homes and businesses across the state, with 60,000 affected in Illawarra region

Summary: Evacuation notices issued across New South Wales as east coast low pressure cell leaves Queensland and passes down the coast


It looks like the American Idol alums want contestant La'Porsha Renae to have "a moment" just like they did! The Mississippi native has been a stand-out in the final season of the hit reality competition series, and now the show's past winners and finalists have cast their votes for her to win.

Season 1 winner Kelly Clarkson, who earlier in the season served as a guest judge, praised La'Porsha on Twitter on Wednesday evening, writing, "Yes ma'am @laporsharenae you are right! A woman started it and a woman's gonna finish it!! Can't wait to watch you win!! #youareblessed."

RELATED: WATCH: La'Porsha Renae Dedicates Song to Her Daughter in Final Performance Night

The original Idol put her voting where her mouth was, writing, "I have never voted for anyone on @AmericanIdol not even 4 myself BUT I will be voting for @laporsharenae tonight. I need her future record!"

See photos from the emotional first night of the "American Idol" finale:

Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, more 'American Idol' alums vote for La'Porsha Renae to win

HOLLYWOOD, CA - APRIL 6: (L-R) Host Ryan Seacrest and contestants Dalton Rapattoni, La' Porsha Renae and Trent Harmon speak onstage at FOX's American Idol Season 15 on April 6, 2016 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Photo by FOX via Getty Images)

HOLLYWOOD, CA - APRIL 6: Contestant La'Porsha Renae performs onstage at FOX's American Idol Season 15 on April 6, 2016 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Photo by FOX via Getty Images)

HOLLYWOOD, CA - APRIL 6: Contestant Dalton Rapattoni performs onstage at FOX's American Idol Season 15 on April 6, 2016 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Photo by FOX via Getty Images)

HOLLYWOOD, CA - APRIL 6: Contestant Trent Harmon performs onstage at FOX's American Idol Season 15 on April 6, 2016 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Photo by FOX via Getty Images)

HOLLYWOOD, CA - APRIL 6: (L-R) Contestants Trent Harmon, La' Porsha Renae and Dalton Rapattoni onstage at FOX's American Idol Season 15 on April 6, 2016 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Photo by FOX via Getty Images)

HOLLYWOOD, CA - APRIL 6: (L-R) Contestants Trent Harmon, La' Porsha Renae and Dalton Rapattoni onstage at FOX's American Idol Season 15 on April 6, 2016 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Photo by FOX via Getty Images)

HOLLYWOOD, CA - APRIL 6: (L-R) Contestant Trent Harmon and eliminated contestant Dalton Rapattoni onstage at FOX's American Idol Season 15 on April 6, 2016 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Photo by FOX via Getty Images)

HOLLYWOOD, CA - APRIL 6: Judge Jennifer Lopez greets fans at FOX's American Idol Season 15 on April 6, 2016 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Photo by FOX via Getty Images)

HOLLYWOOD, CA - APRIL 6: Judge Keith Urban greets fans at FOX's American Idol Season 15 on April 6, 2016 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Photo by FOX via Getty Images)

HOLLYWOOD, CA - APRIL 6: Contestant La'Porsha Renae performs onstage at FOX's American Idol Season 15 on April 6, 2016 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Photo by FOX via Getty Images)

HOLLYWOOD, CA - APRIL 6: Contestant Trent Harmon performs onstage at FOX's American Idol Season 15 on April 6, 2016 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Photo by FOX via Getty Images)

HOLLYWOOD, CA - APRIL 6: Host Ryan Seacrest speaks onstage at FOX's American Idol Season 15 on April 6, 2016 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Photo by FOX via Getty Images)

HOLLYWOOD, CA - APRIL 6: (L-R) Host Ryan Seacrest and the top 2 contestants La' Porsha Renae and Trent Harmon speak onstage at FOX's American Idol Season 15 on April 6, 2016 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Photo by FOX via Getty Images)

HOLLYWOOD, CA - APRIL 6: (L-R) Top 2 contestants La' Porsha Renae and Trent Harmon speak onstage at FOX's American Idol Season 15 on April 6, 2016 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Photo by FOX via Getty Images)

HOLLYWOOD, CA - APRIL 6: (L-R) Contestants Dalton Rapattoni, La' Porsha Renae and Trent Harmon speak onstage at FOX's American Idol Season 15 on April 6, 2016 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Photo by FOX via Getty Images)

HOLLYWOOD, CA - APRIL 6: (L-R) The top two contestants Trent Harmon and La' Porsha Renae pose at FOX's American Idol Season 15 on April 6, 2016 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. (Photo by FOX via Getty Images)

Season 2 winner Ruben Studdard followed suit, tweeting, "Ok well I haven't voted for a idol contestant since my sis @TasiasWord [Fantasia]. Well tonight @laporsharenae just moved me to vote. #IdolFarewell."

Jennifer Hudson, who was shockingly eliminated early in Season 3, also Instagrammed a photo of her calling in to vote, though she didn't clarify for whom she cast the vote.

MORE: Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul's Most Love-Hate Moments from 'American Idol'

"My first time voting for a contestant since I don't know when !!!! Gotta support !!!!" she captioned the pic.

Season 6 contestant Melina Doolittle also tweeted her support of the artist, writing, "Listen, if @kelly_clarkson wants her as a bookend, who am I to deny that? Y'all. I can't deal. La. Flipping. Porsha. #SingHEFFA Are you kidding me?! #IdolFinale #IdolTop2... Freak. LaPorsha just sang the living daylights out of that! Shoot y'all. I packed my shoes so I didn't break the hotel tv but... #IdolFinale."

As for La'Porsha, the Top 2 finalist seemed incredibly moved by her celebrity support. After dedicating her rendition of "Diamonds" to her young daughter in Wednesday night's show, she responded to Clarkson's tweet, writing, "Thank you so much!! I'm balling like a baby! Feeling so blessed! #IdolFinale."

La'Porsha will go up against fellow finalist and Mississippian, Trent Harmon, during Thursday night's two-hour, star-studded finale.

"This is the stuff that they write into movies," Trent told ET. "Two Mississippians make it to the Top 2 of the last season of the greatest singing competition ever. It's kind of freaky."

Summary: Winners Kelly Clarkson and Ruben Studdard, along with Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson, all phoned in to vote for their favorite 'American Idol' finalist.


Last year, Twitter pushed into an entirely new medium by introducing live video broadcasting service Periscope. There was one problem, however: It was a totally separate app from Twitter’s flagship service.

Of course, Periscope still managed to make a splash, partly because it followed on the heels of buzzy rival Meerkat, which had premiered a few weeks earlier. That startup made a big splash at the SxSW tech festival with its service and helped to popularize personal live streaming.

Since then, Periscope has added Android and Web apps for people to broadcast everything from their morning breakfast routine to music shows and sporting events. Users have already created more 100 million video broadcasts, Twitter says.

But this is all about to change, or at least a little bit. On Tuesday, Twitter said that Periscope video streaming would be made available directly in Twitter’s TWTR iOS app. Instead of having to follow links to Periscope’s app to watch a video in a tweet, live streams will now be embedded and autoplay from their Twitter feed.

“Whenever a broadcast is shared on Twitter, you tap the link to open the Periscope app,” Twitter said in a blog post. “Today, we’re replacing those links with the broadcast itself, autoplaying right within the Tweet. And when you tap the video, it goes full-screen and shows Periscope comments and hearts from other viewers. You don’t need the Periscope app or even a Periscope account.”

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The update makes watching Periscope videos far more convenient for Twitter users. It also lays the groundwork for turning Periscope into a more effective broadcasting and marketing machine.

Now, video publishers can show their clips to Twitter users without having to ask them to go to an entirely separate mobile app. Video publishers can also skip having to build an audience in a separate app because their Twitter followers are now also their Periscope audience.

All that’s missing now are the ads, which Twitter will no doubt add to Periscope in the future. For now, brands can use Twitter’s advertising products to promote their Periscope videos to users they target based on interests and keywords, like they already do with more typical tweets.

Twitter could also start to integrate Periscope videos into Moments, its newly introduced attempt at providing feeds focused on the latest news events. It already includes videos, so Periscope streams should fit right in.

WATCH: For more on this related topic see our highly relevant video.

Of course, Twitter is not the only social media company to invest in live video. Meerkat is still around, while Facebook FB added video broadcasting to its Mentions app for celebrities. It is now gradually making Mentions available to more people and brands. Meanwhile, Snapchat focuses on spontaneous, short-form video sharing with friends and even the world at-large.

Twitter says it plans to roll out its Periscope integration with Android and Web in the future. All users still need to use Periscope’s app to create video broadcasts.

Summary: No more having to click through to another app.


About a third of the world’s publicly-traded oil companies are at high risk of going bankrupt this year, according to a new report out Tuesday.

Consulting and audit firm Deloitte put out its findings after closely examining 500 publicly-traded oil and natural gas exploration and production companies worldwide. The threat these companies face is a result of crude prices hovering near 10-year lows, which has already prompted firms to slash their budgets and staff.

The 175 or so companies most at risk have more than $150 billion in debt, according to Reuters’ report on the Deloitte study, and they’re having trouble generating cash given the decreased value of secondary stock offerings and asset sales.

Rumors of impending bankruptcies in the U.S. shale patch have become commonplace in recent weeks. Last week, Chesapeake Energy Corp. chk , one of the U.S.’s biggest shale gas producers, was forced to issue a statement denying it was planning to file for Chapter 11 protection, after its stock fell 50% in a day.

Moreover, while many firms were able to cushion the blow of collapsing prices last year by virtue of having sold their output forward, the forward curve in futures markets this year offers no such comfort. Brief hopes that the world’s largest producers, Russia and Saudi Arabia, would cooperate to cut output and end the glut were dashed early Tuesday after a meeting between their respective ministers ended without a binding agreement.

Despite its doom and gloom, the report offered a silver lining to one segment of the industry: oilfield service providers that supply the workers and equipment needed to drill wells. Because servicers have lower capital costs than producers, there have been fewer bankruptcy filings in their ranks. Only 14 of the 53 energy companies in the United States that filed for bankruptcy last quarter were service providers. Deloitte said that trend is expected to continue—at least in the short term.

Summary: A new report from Deloitte predicts doom and gloom in the oil industry.


Ephemeral messaging app Snapchat does not wait around when ideas aren’t working out: less than two months after opening up a “lens” store, the company said on Wednesday that it’s shuttering it at the end of the week.

Snapchat first rolled out lenses, special effects that let users decorate their photos, in mid-September after acquiring Ukrainian startup Looksery which developed the facial recognition technology powering lenses. According to an update on the company’s website, first reported by TechCrunch, users have until 12:01 a.m. Pacific on Friday to purchase any lenses from the store. After that, they’ll still be able to use lenses they’ve purchased, as well as the rotating 10 free lenses that will be available everyday.

As the Los Angeles-based startup continues to shape its monetization strategy, it has decided to shift its resources to its advertising business and other projects, Snapchat told TechCrunch. A year ago, Snapchat introduced Discover, a separate section in its app where users can view bite-sized content from publishers and brands which is, of course, also filled with ads. Lenses and geofilters (location-specific digital sticker-like decorations users can put on their photos) are another way Snapchat is pulling in revenue by charging brands that wish to sponsor their own. According to a report from the Financial Times in October, Snapchat charges a brand $450,000 to $750,000 per day to sponsor a lens. The company is also reportedly building an application programming interface, or API, to let advertisers more easily purchase ads.

It’s not clear whether the lens store was failing to attract the purchases the company hoped for—the $1 per lens price could have been a problem for the company’s large teenaged user base. But advertising seems to be where Snapchat is finding the most money. In October, the Financial Times reported that the it’s on track to reach its $100 million sales goal for 2015, double its original target for the year. This is in stark contrast with 2014, when Snapchat reportedly lost $128 million on $3 million in sales, according to confidential documents Gawker published in August.

Summary: The ephemeral messaging startup plans to focus its resources instead on its advertising business.


Hulk Hogan is trying to take down Gawker one more time.

After his $140 million legal victory against the gossip website, the famous pro wrestler has filed a second lawsuit over his surreptitiously recorded sex tapes — hitting the site with a new claim for allegedly leaking sealed court documents to the National Enquirer that quoted him making racists remarks.

In a 2007 encounter with his best friend’s wife, Hogan unleashed an ugly tirade about his daughter Brooke’s black boyfriend.

“I mean, I’d rather if she was going to f–k some n—-r, I’d rather have her marry an 8-foot-tall n—-r worth a hundred million dollars! Like a basketball player! I guess we’re all a little racist. F—ing n—-r,” Hogan said, according to a transcript of the recording.

WWE immediately fired Hogan, scrubbing his name from its website and Hall of Fame.

His “income was cut off, his legacy in entertainment was severely damaged (if not completely destroyed), and his global brand was forever tarnished,” the new Florida suit says.

Hogan says Gawker slipped the transcript, which was filed under seal in the then-pending suit between the two parties over a second sex tape with the same woman, Heather Clem. At the time, Clem was married to Hogan’s best friend, radio shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem.

The National Enquirer published the story, which “Gawker had been threatening to release publicly for months,” in July, according to the suit.

Just as the Enquirer posted the damaging transcript online, Gawker CEO Nick Denton wrote a piece on his blog predicting that Hogan’s “real secret” would soon be revealed, the suit says.

Minutes later, Gawker editor A.J. Daulerio tweeted to Hogan “XOXOXO” with a link to the Enquirer posting that included the confidential transcript, according to court papers.

Hogan immediately admitted that he had made the offensive remarks and apologized.

In the new suit, Hogan is also going after a group of Florida residents, including another radio DJ named Mike “Cowhead” Calta, for sending at least one of his secretly recorded sex tapes to Gawker.

Law enforcement officials declined to pursue criminal charges against Calta and others involved in the alleged leak.

Gawker is appealing the $140 million jury verdict over the first sex tape and has denied that it leaked the sealed transcript to the Enquirer.

The new suit is for unspecified money damages.

Gawker Media responded in a statement Monday, “This is getting ridiculous. Hulk Hogan is a litigious celebrity abusing the court system to control his public image and media coverage.”

“As we’ve said before and are happy to say again: Gawker did not leak the information,” the statement said. “It’s time for Hulk Hogan to take responsibility for his own words, because the only person who got Hulk Hogan fired from the WWE is Hulk Hogan.”

Summary: Hulk Hogan is trying to take down Gawker one more time. After his $140 million legal victory against the gossip website, the famous pro wrestler has filed a second lawsuit over his surreptitiously …