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We should take concerns about the health of liberal democracy seriously

This post is part of Polyarchy, an independent blog produced by the political reform program at New America, a Washington think tank devoted to developing new ideas and new voices. Imagine you are an otherwise healthy 30-something who starts feeling weird. You are sometimes short of breath. You get migraines. Your feet start to swell a little. But otherwise, everything seems fine. You go to the doctor. The doctor runs some tests. She tells you, It's probably nothing, but these could be signs of a coming heart attack. You push for more certainty, but the doctor tells you she's not sure. The human body is a complex system. You're young and otherwise pretty healthy. There could be plenty of other explanations for what you're feeling. But it is a little worrying. So just to be on the safe side, maybe you should reduce the stress in your life and eat a healthier diet. What would you do? If you're a sensible person, you'd probably err on the side of precaution. Sure, it might be nothing to worry about, and the likelihood of a heart attack in your 30s might be low. But even a low chance is a low chance of something possibly fatal. Why take a chance, especially when the recommendations — less stress, healthier diet — are good for you either way? I offer this parable as a way of thinking about the debate that's emerged over the past two weeks in response to Amanda Taub's New York Times article profiling new findings by Roberto Stefan Foa and Yascha Mounk — findings that raise alarms about the fact that younger people have, over time, become less and less likely to say in surveys that it is "essential" to live in a democracy. Rather than share the sense of alarm, however, several critics have jumped on Foa and Mounk for misinterpreting the data and generating unnecessary panic. Political scientist Erik Voeten, for example, argued that their analysis is misleading: "The article by Mounk and Foa does document some small shifts in opinion on related issues. But these aren't nearly as dramatic as the New York Times graph suggests." Similarly, Wonkblog's Jeff Guo reanalyzed the data and argued that it is "far less alarming than it seems." Foa and Mounk have responded, drawing on more analysis from their forthcoming Journal of Democracy article, which also documents increasing support among young people for "a strong leader" and rising support for extremism. Voeten, however, remains unimpressed, and now has more charts here suggesting the shifts are far less significant than Foa and Mounk make them out to be. "And," he argues, "it's dangerous too to tell the world that people are now ready to accept nondemocratic governance." For those who want to argue over how to interpret the data, you should follow the hyperlinks above. There are very reasonable points of disagreement. I don't have much to add to that debate here, other than to observe that it's very rare that data is unambiguous about important societal shifts before those shifts actually occur. When the data is unambiguous, it is almost always too late to do anything. The only sure sign of having a heart attack is, well, having a heart attack. Similarly, the only sure sign of a democratic collapse is, well, a democratic collapse. And whatever you think of the data analysis, there is also a mounting series of actual real-world election results that are hard to explain if support for liberal democracy is thriving. In deciding how seriously to take these findings, it's also worth asking what we would do differently if we took Foa and Mounk's findings seriously. How would we collectively respond? And what would be the consequences? For one, we'd probably invest in a lot more civic education, so that the next generation learns the basics of liberal democracy and understands why it's a better system than authoritarian rule. This seems like a good idea regardless. Similarly, we might collectively invest considerable resources in making a strong public case for liberal democracy. We might also try to figure out ways to make our public institutions do more outreach to citizens to make sure they feel engaged in their democracy, and think hard about building up intermediary institutions that help people feel as though their voices are represented and taken seriously. Again, these seem like things we should be doing regardless, like reducing stress or improving the health of our diets. In my heart attack parable, if the doctor had told you that the only way to prevent a future heart attack would be to give up your job and your social life and spend the next year on strict bed rest eating only kale and chia seed salads, you might want to be a little more certain that you really were at high risk for a heart attack. After all, taking the risk seriously would impose a heavy cost on you. Other recent crises offer some examples of cases where key decision-makers did ignore warning signs, because taking those signs seriously would have imposed significant costs on them. For example, in the housing bubble of the mid-2000s, warnings were ignored because the financial industry had staked considerable investments and product lines on the myth that housing values would go up forever. To admit that housing was overvalued and that securitized mortgages were riskier than advertised would have cost investment banks dearly. But eventually, reality caught up with them, and the resulting damage was far worse than it would have been if we had paid attention to the early warning signs. Similarly, many carbon-intensive industries and fossil fuel producers pushed back on findings of climate change because taking those findings seriously would force significant changes in their industries. As a result, these industries funded doubt and uncertainty. The problem has since gotten much worse, and it has become harder to take effective action. The early scientists may have been alarmist. But we'd be in much better shape if we had listened to them. I would be more comforted if I could be certain that Voeten is right and Foa and Mounk are wrong. Maybe there is indeed nothing to worry about. But given the risks, as well as the recent string of election results, I'd rather err on the side of caution. Like the threat of a heart attack, the threat of autocracy or military rule replacing liberal democracy is pretty serious, and very difficult to recover from. I don't want to take a chance. Especially when the preventive medicine consists of things we should probably be doing anyway.

Colts GM Ryan Grigson says Andrew Luck's contract makes it difficult to build the team

The Indianapolis Colts made Andrew Luck the highest-paid player in NFL history this offseason with a five-year, $122-million contract with $89 million guaranteed. However, they're already finding that Luck's contract is inhibiting their ability to address weaknesses on other parts of the roster, particularly on defense. On Friday, Colts GM Ryan Grigson, who is under fire for the Colts 1-3 start, said that it's difficult to build up the team's defense with Luck making so much money. According to Keefer, Grigson did point out that the Colts still have young talent they're hoping to develop on defense. However, blaming Luck's contract — which the Colts gave him — for having a weak defense (30th in defensive DVOA) is not accurate. As others have pointed out, last year's Denver Broncos paid Peyton Manning $15 million in base salary while also boasting an elite defense. Luck also takes up $18.4 million against the salary cap this year, less than $1 million more than Manning did a year ago ($17.5 million). Much of this comes from drafting successfully, which the Colts have not done as well as elite teams like the Broncos or the Patriots, for instance. Now, with the Colts handcuffed to Luck's contract, drafting is going to become especially important, as will the use of whatever money they have in free agency. It's certainly possible to build a good defense with a high-paid quarterback, but if the Colts felt that paying Luck such a high sum of money would be difficult, perhaps they should have reconsidered what the final numbers. The highest-paid player on all 32 NFL teams

Trump denies report he ordered Mueller fired

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump denied a report on Friday that he had ordered Special Counsel Robert Mueller fired last June, calling it “fake news”. The New York Times reported on Thursday that Trump backed down from his order after the White House counsel threatened to resign rather than follow his directive, citing four people told of the matter. “Fake news, folks, fake news,” Trump told reporters in Davos, when asked about the report. Reporting by Steve Holland

France's Sarkozy reveals his 'Passions' but insists no come-back on cards

PARIS (Reuters) - Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy published a new memoir on Thursday but was quick to dismiss speculation he might return to politics to rescue his old center-right party, which has shed support since President Emmanuel Macron stormed to power. Entitled “Passions”, the autobiography documents Sarkozy’s rise to power, while hurling barbs at some of his former allies, including his prime minister Francois Fillon. During his time in office from 2007-2012, Sarkozy earned the nickname “President Bling-Bling” for his brash style and close association with tycoons and celebrities. While at the Elysee, he met and married former model Carla Bruni. “Passions” is released as France’s center-right fights for survival two years after President Emmanuel Macron’s election win dynamited the political landscape. Sarkozy’s old party, Les Republicains, is locked in infighting and struggling to find direction, squeezed by Macron’s centrist party and the far right. “The book is a political one, it does not announce my return,” Sarkozy told magazine Le Point. “I neither want nor can get involved in a partisan debate. That would sew confusion and division. There is no need for that. It would be misplaced.” Nonetheless, each new appearance by the last unifying figure of the French right is closely followed - fearfully by those wary of the return of a big-name rival, and hopefully by those who long for Sarkozy’s political reincarnation. Sarkozy has retired twice from politics: the first time after he lost his re-election bid in 2012. He returned to lead his party in 2014 only to quit again after he failed to win his party’s ticket to run for president in 2017. Les Republicains are again without a leader after Laurent Wauquiez stepped down following the party’s dismal showing in May’s European election. Even if Sarkozy were to return to frontline politics, he would struggle to put to one side multiple investigations, including into the financing of his re-election bid. This month he learnt he must stand trial on charges of corruption and influence peddling in relation to allegations that he offered a judge a promotion in return for information on a parallel investigation. Sarkozy has denied any wrongdoing. Reporting by Simon Carraud; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Luke Baker and Hugh Lawson

Paris Hilton: Woman In Black For Uncle Monty's Funeral

Paris Hilton arrived at LAX Wednesday dressed to pay her last respects to her uncle Monty Brinson. Paris flew in from Switzerland especially for the funeral of Brinson, who used to be married to her aunt Kim Richards. Monty died Sunday after a long battle with cancer ... and the loss is obviously hitting Paris hard. She posted a picture collage with Monty calling him an "incredible man with such a huge heart." R.I.P.

ECB's Coeure: If we decide to cut rates, we'd have to consider tiering

BERLIN, June 17 (Reuters) - ECB board member Benoit Coeure said in an interview published on Monday that if the ECB decided cutting rates was the best option, it would have to consider what effect negative rates would have on banks and whether tiering was needed. A so-called tiered deposit rate would mean banks are exempted in part from paying the ECB’s 0.40 percent annual charge on their excess reserves, boosting their profits as they struggle with an unexpected growth slowdown “We would have to consider whether a tiering system is needed,” Coeure said in an interview with the Financial Times. “Today the prevailing view in the Governing Council is that it is not, but we also agree that it deserves further reflection.” Reporting by Michelle Martin Editing by Tassilo Hummel

Venezuela detains six military, police officials: family members, activists

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan authorities have arrested six members of the country’s military and police forces over the weekend, according to relatives of the detainees and human rights activists, as President Nicolas Maduro seeks to weed out dissent. Air Force Brigade General Miguel Sisco Mora was arrested Friday afternoon in a parking lot in Guatire, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of the capital Caracas, his daughter Stephanie Sisco said. Navy Corvette Captain Rafael Costa was detained on Friday in nearby Guarenas, according to his wife Waleska Perez. “We demand that the government provide us with information about his whereabouts,” Stephanie Sisco wrote on Twitter on Saturday. The arrests come nearly two months after a failed uprising against Maduro called by opposition leader Juan Guaido, the head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly who in January invoked the constitution to assume a rival interim presidency and has called on the armed forces to join his cause. They also come on the heels of a visit to Venezuela by U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, who on Friday called on Maduro to release prisoners arrested for peacefully protesting. Maduro, whose 2018 re-election has been widely denounced as illegitimate, said he would take the U.N.’s concerns seriously. Human rights group Penal Forum had previously said that two retired Air Force colonels had been arrested in Caracas on Friday afternoon while two high ranking officials from Venezuela’s CICPC forensic police unit were arrested in Guatire, according to human rights lawyer Tamara Suju. Neither Venezuela’s Information Ministry nor the Chief Prosecutor’s office responded to requests for comment on the six detentions on Sunday. According to Penal Forum, some 700 people are detained for political reasons in Venezuela, including about 100 members of the military. Maduro’s government has denied it holds political prisoners, and frequently accuses the opposition of fomenting violence. Maduro refers to Guaido as a puppet of the United States seeking to oust him in a coup. Reporting by Vivian Sequera; Writing by Luc Cohen; Editing by Phil Berlowitz

You Can Trick Your Brain Into Being More Focused

If only every day could be like this. You can’t put your finger on why: Maybe you had just the right amount of sleep. Maybe the stars are somehow aligned in your favor. Whatever the reason, you’re cooking on gas. Hours fly by like minutes, you’re feeling great, and before you know it it’s 5:30 pm and your to-do list is done. This feeling of ‘flow’ or being ‘in the zone’ is something that most of us have experienced at some point or other—although not as often as we might like. It’s a mental state that elite athletes seem to have at their beck and call. For us mere mortals, though, it hardly ever shows up when we need it. Since the psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi first described the zone (which he called ‘flow’) in 1975, neuroscientists have been trying to figure out what it is and how to make it show up on demand. Yet as they close in on the secrets of the zone, another truth has emerged: What we think of as the zone is actually one of many mental states that a person can be in, each of which works for a particular kind of thinking. Here’s how to master not just one of them, but several. The Flow ZoneTo understand when other states might work better, it makes sense to first consider what we know about this, the original ‘zone.' One thing we definitely know is that it feels great: Csíkszentmihályi describes it as the ‘optimal experience’ in which we can achieve true happiness. One explanation for why it happens—and why it feels so good—is that it represents a perfect match between activity in brain networks involved in attention and the reward circuitry, which process pleasure. When different networks synchronize their activity—like two pendulums swinging in time—it makes the business of thinking run a little more smoothly, which explains why this particular zone feels effortless when you’re in it. Even Csíkszentmihályi admits, however, that it’s not easy to achieve. “Flow is difficult to maintain for any length of time without at least momentary interruptions,” he wrote—and that was in the 1970s, before smartphones came along and took what was left of our attention span. So how best to get into the flow? One suggestion is that, rather than screwing up your eyes and trying to force yourself to concentrate, it might work better to do the opposite: Take your foot off the mental gas a little. This finding came out of brain imaging experiments by cognitive neuroscientists Mike Esterman and Joe DeGutis of the Boston Attention and Learning Lab in Massachusetts. They measured activity in the default mode network (DMN) a collection of brain regions that gear up when we are not thinking of anything in particular. They compared this to activity in the dorsal attention network, which keeps us focused on one thing, and watched how the two fluctuated over time when people were asked to do a boring, repetitive task. Surprisingly, they found that the best way to sustain concentration wasn’t to cut out DMN activity altogether, but to allow it to carry on as a low-level background hum. In real terms, that means keeping your mind on a long leash: letting it wander a little, before gently bringing it back to heel. "If you're devoting all of your resources to a task you will likely be fighting your natural tendency to mind wander. This could actually make sustaining attention more effortful and challenging. If you try too hard you ay actually perform worse work over time," DeGutis says. No matter how much you love your work, paying attention for long periods is hard mental work. By relaxing a little, it makes it easier to find the crucial balance of effort and enjoyment that nudges us into the flow. Rather than trying so hard that we set ourselves up to fail, the solution could simply be to stop beating ourselves up. More from Tonic: The Slow ZoneTime doesn’t only fly when you’re in the flow. It also flies when a deadline is heading your way and you haven’t quite hit your stride. If time is running short and the flow feels a million miles away, all is not lost. You still have time to master the slow zone. For better or worse, strong emotions distract us from the passage of time, giving the illusion that it is zipping past unusually quickly. If it’s too difficult to take the emotion out of the equation (that deadline is coming whether you like it or not), the next best thing is to change the way your brain processes the passage of time, to mentally buy yourself a little more. It sounds too good to be true, but Marc Wittmann, a psychologist at the Institute for Frontier Areas in Psychology and Mental Health in Freiburg, Germany, and author of Felt Time, has a couple of suggestions on how it could be done. Wittmann believes that our brains count time by tuning into the rhythms of the body—the regular ticks of our heartbeat, breathing and so on. He calls this ‘body time’ and points to a region of the brain called the insula, which keeps track of our physical and emotional state, as key to this process. “My idea is that you are attending to yourself, to your bodily self, your mental self and that is how you attend to time,” Wittman says. In theory, then, if you can change the information that the insula receives, you might be able to control how you perceive time. One thing Wittman suggests is to speed up your bodily signals by exercising. When you stop, the body’s signals will gradually slow down to baseline, slowing your perception of time as it does so. “Say I go jogging for an hour and then I’m calm down but still feel very active," Wittman says. "I feel that everything is happening much slower because my body is much more activated and I feel myself much more intensely." Another option is to direct your attention to the here and now, purposefully focusing on the fine details of your surroundings, thoughts or your mental state. A 10-minute mindfulness meditation will help haul your focus back to the here and now and, by slowing your breathing rate, will also slow down your body signals. Both should make time slow to a much more manageable speed. Wittman’s experiments suggest that expert meditators are able to stretch their perception of a moment by 25 percent, which makes all that sitting around seem well worth the investment of time, no matter how little you have to play with. The 'Zoned Out' ZoneGiven all the effort we spend trying to get into the zone it might seem strange to actively try to stay out of it. But there are some mental skills that work better when you’re just a little bit away with the fairies. Creativity is one of them. Research by Evangelia Chrysikou at the University of Kansas has found that using brain stimulation to temporarily reduce activity in part of the prefrontal cortex (the region of the brain behind the forehead), increased the number of creative uses for everyday objects that people were able to come up with. This works because the job of the prefrontal cortex is to narrow down the possible thoughts and behaviors that are suitable in any given situation. This is a crucial mental shortcut because it vastly reduces the time we need to make decisions about what to do or say next. The downside—at least for our creative juices—is that it also reduces the scope of our ideas, making blue sky thinking that much more difficult. So ideally, the right zone to come up with new ideas is one in which activity in the prefrontal cortex is dialled down a little—a state known as transient hypofrontality. “It’s about using the right tool for the right task. If you want to look for ideas then hypofrontal zoning out will help you,” Chrysikou says. There is more than one way to reduce activity in the prefrontal cortex. Tiredness works particularly well, so working when you are naturally at your least alert (morning for night owls, late in the day for morning folk and after lunch for just about everybody) is definitely worth a try. A boozy drink does something similar, according to actual studies on drunk students. And if all else fails, sitting in a quiet and/or dark room can’t help but set the mind wandering to who knows where. However you manage it, it’s worth remembering that while mindfulness is all the rage at the moment, when you want to think creatively, mindlessness is a much better tool for the job. Go on, zone out—your brain will thank you. But remember to come back into the room at some point to make sure that your ideas aren't too bonkers. "To decide which idea works best, prefrontal involvement is necessary," Chrysikou says. The Cramming ZoneThere’s nothing like a deadline to focus the mind. It’s almost what the fight/flight response was designed for: A short burst of adrenaline narrows focus to help you ignore everything except the life-and-death task at hand. The trouble is, if a period of stress goes on too long, or happens too often, the whole system breaks down, focus scatters, and takes your ability to concentrate with it. This is partly because high doses of stress hormones, particularly noradrenaline, interferes with focus by binding to sites in the prefrontal cortex, stopping it from working effectively. Another job of the prefrontal cortex is to help us resist impulses that aren’t necessarily helpful for our long-term goals, which explains why stress can leave you mainlining down tea and biscuits when you should be doing some work. So, what to do when you are stressed and distracted but need to focus now? One option is—strangely—to make whatever you are doing more difficult to concentrate on. According to load theory, the brainchild of psychologist Nilli Lavie at University College London, the brain only has a limited amount of processing power to use on making sense of the world around us. Her experiments have shown that if you add deliberate distractions to what you are trying to concentrate on (flashing images, colorful borders, background noise) it can actually help you focus. This is because processing these distractions uses up the brain’s processing power, leaving no room to process either external distractions—or your own internal excuses. This post is partially adapted from My Plastic Brain: One woman’s yearlong journey to discover if science can improve her mind (Prometheus Books, 2018). Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of Tonic delivered to your inbox weekly.

How to watch the Google I/O keynote live

Google I/O, the company's big developer conference, kicks off today (May 18). It's a showcase for its newest updates on Android, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and more. (And a chance to bury last year's less-successful launches.) It should be interesting. Here's how you can watch it: With Google, on its YouTube livestream. With Google, on its YouTube livestream in virtual reality, if you have one of its Cardboard devices. VR you ready? Watch the #io16 keynote live on @YouTube 360 this Wed 10AM PT. https://t.co/eZ3yrQCfK0 pic.twitter.com/h5ppO9sVWe Or, best of all, with Recode! Join us at 10 am PT, 1 pm ET, 6 pm in London and 1 am (May 19) in Hong Kong for the keynote kick-off with our liveblog, where we pledge to be entertaining and insightful. And follow our coverage throughout the week for an insider's look at the search giant's next big steps. This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

China is dismissing unfavorable media reports as fake because that's what Trump does

China is dismissing unfavorable media reports as fake news because that’s what Trump does China is dismissing unfavorable media reports as fake news because that’s what Trump does In his short political career, Donald Trump has made a habit of dismissing unfavorable media reports as “fake news.” Now it seems Beijing is taking a page from his playbook, using the term to attempt to discredit foreign media reports on Thursday that claimed a prominent human rights lawyer was tortured in government custody. Experts told VICE News that Chinese state media’s adoption of the term appears to directly borrow from the U.S. president. Referring to the state-run Xinhua news agency report, Zhang Baohui, a political scientist at Hong Kong’s Lingnan University, said that “Xinhua’s usage of this term should be attributed to Trump.” China is just the latest country to adopt Trump’s favorite buzzword to discredit unfavorable reports; Russia and Iran have also begun using the term to dismiss critical coverage. The term “is obviously spreading among countries,” said Zhang. In his short political career, Donald Trump has made a habit of dismissing unfavorable media reports as “fake news.” Now it seems Beijing is taking a page from his playbook, using the term to attempt to discredit foreign media reports on Thursday that claimed a prominent human rights lawyer was tortured in government custody. Experts told VICE News that Chinese state media’s adoption of the term appears to directly borrow from the U.S. president. Referring to the state-run Xinhua news agency report, Zhang Baohui, a political scientist at Hong Kong’s Lingnan University, said that “Xinhua’s usage of this term should be attributed to Trump.” China is just the latest country to adopt Trump’s favorite buzzword to discredit unfavorable reports; Russia and Iran have also begun using the term to dismiss critical coverage. The term “is obviously spreading among countries,” said Zhang. Xinhua, the mouthpiece for the ruling Communist Party, published an article Thursday describing international media reports on the alleged torture of Chinese attorney Xie Yang as “nothing but cleverly orchestrated lies.” “The stories were essentially fake news,” read the article. Fake news – false online reports presented as legitimate news stories – emerged as an issue during last year’s U.S. presidential election, and the rise of deliberately misleading stories is increasingly proving to be a problem in several other countries. But the term has been gradually debased as it is used more and more by political actors seeking to discredit critical coverage or deflect uncomfortable realities. Trump has been the most high-profile adopter of the term, regularly wielding it as an insult to bash any journalism that paints his administration in an unflattering light. The most recent claim of “fake news” from the Chinese centers around the story of Xie, a 45-year-old attorney who has represented clients in many politically sensitive cases. He was detained in the Chinese province of Hunan in July 2015 at the start of an ongoing crackdown on human rights lawyers and activists, and has yet to be released. Late last year reports emerged, sourced to transcripts of interviews with Xie’s lawyers, alleging that he had been subjected to threats and violence in custody – with the aim of forcing him to confess to political crimes. Xie’s claims were reported by outlets such as the The New York Times – regularly accused by Trump of peddling “fake news” – and The Guardian, which said that while the allegations could not be verified, they were consistent with previously documented abuses in custody. The Xinhua article Thursday reported that an “independent team” set up by officials to investigate the torture reports had interviewed Xie and his fellow inmates and established that the alleged abuses did not happen. It claimed the torture allegations had been cooked up by Jiang Tianyong, another prominent human rights lawyer who has been detained since visiting Xie’s relatives in November, and who it said had encouraged Xie’s wife to publicize the claims. The torture claims were designed “to cater to the tastes of Western institutions and media organizations, and to use public opinion to pressure police and smear the Chinese government,” Xinhua said. Human rights groups say that confessions to political crimes made by detained activists in China are typically made under duress. Experts contacted by VICE News said that while Chinese state media had long accused Western news outlets of bias against China, the use of the term “fake news” was a recent development. “I would argue that their use of this term seems to be influenced by Trump’s use of the term to discredit major Western media outlets,” said Patrick Poon, a Hong Kong-based researcher for Amnesty International. According to the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, Xie has been indicted on charges of “inciting subversion of state power,” and “disrupting court order.” Xie’s lawyer, Chen Jiangang, told Reuters Thursday that his client’s account of torture was genuine, saying that Xie had made the same claims to him.

“Elizabeth Warren called me!” is turning into a Twitter meme

Elizabeth Warren is giving people a new reason to pick up their phones when a call comes in from an unknown number: She might be on the line. It’s a way for the Massachusetts Democrat to thank her backers. It’s also a savvy political strategy to highlight and spread her grassroots support. Warren ignited a viral moment over the weekend when she replied to a tweet from comedian Ashley Nicole Black asking whether the 2020 candidate, whose 2020 mantra is that she “has a plan for that,” has a plan for her love life. “DM me and let’s figure this out,” Warren, seemingly out of nowhere, replied. I am deceased. And ready to welcome new love in my life. And then get our new pres elected. #shehasaplan pic.twitter.com/3n44dpnPnJ Warren apparently followed up with a phone call, Black said Monday on Twitter. “Guess who’s crying and shaking and just talked to Elizabeth Warren on the phone?!?!?” she wrote. Black isn’t the only one Warren is calling — she’s making a habit of dialing many of her supporters, and “Elizabeth Warren called me” is turning into a meme. Do a quick scan of Twitter and for months, Warren supporters have been popping up expressing their joy and surprise that they’ve received a call from the senator herself. AM I DEAD. DID I DIE. UPDATE: I JUST TALKED TO ELIZABETH WARREN ON THE PHONE https://t.co/nUqJ5rvVy5 ELIZABETH WARREN CALLED ME AND I MISSED THE CALLSHE LEFT ME A VERY NICE VOICEMAIL, SHE IS THE REAL DEAL This strategy isn’t totally new. In February, Warren announced that she would swear off high-dollar fundraisers and phone calls with wealthy donors during the 2020 Democratic primary. In a Medium post announcing the decision, she said she wanted to make sure “everybody who supports my campaign is treated equally, regardless of how much they can afford to give.” Some critics emerged, arguing that such a maneuver was a risky disarmament against a well-funded Republican machine. Some suggested it might be a way for her to explain lower-than-expected fundraising. The New York Times reported that the decision was controversial even within her campaign. But Warren has stuck with it. What Warren is doing here is pretty straightforward: When a small-dollar donor gives money to her campaign through her website, they’re asked for some basic information, including their name, address, and phone number. That information comes in and her campaign picks out donors for her to call and thank. Her campaign has put out videos of her making the calls, of which it says she has made hundreds. She generally calls in the evenings, though sometimes it’s at other times of the day, and speaks with people for a few minutes. For most candidates, “call time” means calling wealthy donors and asking for money. Not me. I’m spending “call time” thanking small-dollar, grassroots donors who give what they can. Chip in what you can, and you might get a call from me to say thank you. Link in bio. A post shared by Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethwarren) on Apr 29, 2019 at 6:51am PDT What makes this feel more organic and effective is the declarations of the people she’s calling announcing what’s happened and expressing their excitement. A lot of them are doing it on social media, and chances are those people are also telling their family and friends about getting a call from Liz. “It’s guerrilla marketing in a way — the humblebragging from supporters about getting a call feels organic and lends credibility to her claim that she’s prioritizing grassroots supporters. It emphasizes her relatability and down-to-earth nature, and generates viral moments,” Amanda Litman, the co-founder of Run for Something, an organization that supports young candidates running for office, told me. One person wrote a diary post for Daily Kos talking about the Warren call experience. Litman added that beyond the candidate, and sometimes even more so, the best messengers to most voters are their friends and family. “[Warren] is arming folks with personal anecdotes to convince friends and family, and social media lets those moments spread far and wide,” she said. A Democratic strategist working for a rival 2020 Democratic campaign concurred. “It’s super savvy and a clever way of turning the fundraising process, which justifiably seems cold and cynical to most voters, into a way to showcase her authenticity and the grassroots energy behind her campaign,” the strategist said in an email. Idk if y’all heard but Elizabeth Warren called me today to thank me for supporting her campaign and my WHOLE LIFE WAS MADE! @ewarren you are the absolute COOLEST! pic.twitter.com/9ODwffMG9A Oh my god. Elizabeth Warren called me to thank me for donating to her campaign a whole month ago and I just found out I missed her call. I just listened to her voicemail right now. WHYYYY. Please call me back @ewarren! I’m gonna donate again tomorrow OMG. I was in meeting this morning when @ewarren called & left this message to thank me for contributing to her campaign. I'm in shock. Thanks for the call, Senator, and #ImAllIn. #LetsDoThis. #Warren2020. pic.twitter.com/w6ylSZcnCQ Warren’s calls have also gotten others online wondering why they haven’t received a call. And it could be inspiring FOMO and getting others to donate in hopes of hearing from the senator. She called me. It was such a shock! But completely fun and genuine Wait, why hasn't @SenWarren called me yet? I'm a COMPLETE MESS. 13-40s: my crush hasn’t called me 40+: neither my crush nor Elizabeth Warren has called me This is also a way for Warren to remind people about her commitment to steering clear of high-dollar fundraisers and calls to major donors. She has staked much of her career — and her campaign — on casting herself as being on the side of the little guy and up against Wall Street, big money, and corporate interests. She’s hosting “pop-up” meetings where a select group of supporters in certain areas get invited to meet her in small settings. She’s done those events in places such as Denver, Brooklyn and Harlem, and Alabama. Those pop-up gatherings, along with the calls, reiterate her no-big-money point. “It’s definitely cheesy, but in a way that feels true to her and that over the long haul will absolutely pay off,” Litman said. Since announcing her presidential bid, Warren has rolled out a litany of policy proposals on a wide range of issues, including abortion, tech consolidation, agriculture reform, opioids, and the revolving door at the Pentagon. She is outpacing her fellow 2020 contenders in terms of policy. And in calls with supporters, she appears to be reminding them of it. (When supporters don’t pick up, she leaves a message.) And I thought this day couldn't get any better! I had a great convo w/ @ewarren about abortion rights, gerrymandering & the stacking of state legislatures n AL, GA, etc. She LISTENED to me talk about how I feel helpless as a CA voter to help my sisters in other states... On the phone with Elizabeth Warren who called to thank us for our campaign support, AND, we talked a few minutes about child care policy. VERY IMPRESSED WITH HER. pic.twitter.com/Qe6MzKfIhg Jessica Ellis, a Los Angeles-based writer whom Warren called on Monday, told me that Warren thanked her for her support and discussed her proposed wealth tax, which would put a small tax on Americans with a net worth of more than $50 million. She also talked about her student debt plan, which would cancel debt for millions of Americans and invest in debt-free college. (She says she would pay for that with the wealth tax.) “She emphasized that she really, truly believed she could win, and that if she does, she knows she can address our worst problems,” Ellis said. Ellis told Warren she first saw her on The Daily Show in 2009, years before she was elected to the Senate, when Ellis was watching with her mother. “We both said, ‘That woman needs to be president,’” Ellis said. “She laughed and told me to send my mom her best.” update: it wasn’t

Hudson's Bay's chairman's buyout bid pits retail versus real estate

(Reuters) - The success of Hudson’s Bay Co Executive Chairman Richard Baker’s $1.3 billion bid to take the department store operator private hinges on whether an independent valuator will view the company more as a retailer and less as a real estate owner, corporate governance experts and analysts said. Much of Hudson’s Bay’s value is locked up in its real estate. Were the company to sell off some of its properties to raise cash, it could fetch more than what Baker offered, but would then be forced to pay rent to run some of its stores. Baker’s buyout consortium, which already owns 57% of Hudson’s Bay, has made a C$9.45 per share offer for the remainder of the Canadian company, a 48% premium to where the stock was trading before the announcement. However, some of the minority shareholders, including hedge fund Land & Buildings Investment Management LLC, say they value the company’s assets at between C$28 and C$33 per share. Hudson’s Bay shares ended trading on Friday at C$9.73, above the C$9.45 offer price, as investors bet on a sweetened bid. The big valuation gap is due to disagreements over how much of Hudson’s Bay’s prime real estate can be divested while keeping it operational. Selling off property raises cash but also makes it more financially burdensome for the company to rent the space for the stores it operates. As a result, it would likely close stores, and its retail footprint would begin to shrink. “There is judgment to be exercised on the valuation, which can always be challenging,” said Catherine McCall, the executive director of the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance, an organization representing institutional shareholders in Canadian public companies. Hudson’s Bay operates 39 stores under its Saks Fifth Avenue brand, 133 stores under its Saks OFF 5th brand, more than 40 stores under the Lord + Taylor banner, 90 Hudson’s Bay department stores, as well as 37 stores in Canada which the company plans to close this year under the Home Outfitters brand. Hudson’s Bay’s trophy asset is the Saks Fifth Avenue building in Manhattan, which this year completed a $250 million renovation. Hudson’s Bay’s most recent public estimate for the value of its real estate was in September 2018, when CEO Helena Foulkes pegged it at $28 per share. Baker has offered about a third of that because he argues that the company would have to all but liquidate to achieve all the real estate value. Toronto-Dominion Bank, which has been hired by a Hudson’s Bay board committee to independently evaluate the take-private deal, will recommend whether the company should accept the offer as fair, or reject it and try to negotiate further. The board committee excludes representatives of Baker’s buyout consortium and is granted power to prevent any deal, even if the prospective acquirers otherwise control the company. In an illustration of this, a special board committee sank the hopes of Nordstrom Inc’s founding family group last year to take the U.S. department store operator private, after it rejected their $8.4 billion offer. The methodology Toronto-Dominion Bank uses to value the bid for Hudson’s Bay will be key to the outcome and will be scrutinized heavily by shareholders. The bank will likely be assessing how comparable companies’ shares trade, research similar deals and consider how much a financial buyer like a private equity firm would pay, said Andrey Golubov, a professor of finance at the University of Toronto. “It’s not done just to justify the offer. That said, valuation is not a science,” Golubov said. Hudson’s Bay declined to comment, as did a spokesman for Baker’s buyout consortium. Spokespeople for TD Bank did not respond to requests for comment. Sale lease-back arrangements in which retailers sell their properties and become tenants in their stores have become increasingly popular in the last few years as the downturn in brick-and-mortar retail brought about by the rise of internet shopping has put pressure on retailers to raise cash. However, some retailers resist them because they view the rent obligation as burdensome, a stance that often attracts investor criticism. Macy’s Inc for example, another department store operator, was pressured by hedge fund Starboard Value LP three years ago to do more to cash out on its real estate. Even if Toronto-Dominion Bank blesses an offer from Baker’s consortium and the board committee negotiating a deal approves it, the acquisition still faces some hurdles. A majority of the shareholders who are not affiliated with the buyout consortium have to vote for it, accounting for about 21.5 percent of the company’s shareholder base. Opponents could still challenge the deal in court when the company seeks approval for it before a judge under the Canada Business Corporations Act. But successful legal challenges of deals that have followed the process for management buyouts outlined by the Ontario Securities Commission, as Hudson’s Bay is seeking to do, are rare. “Most of these deals get done once they get board approval and a transaction agreement gets signed,” said Jeremy Fraiberg, chair of the mergers and acquisitions group at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli and Harry Brumpton in New YorkEditing by Greg Roumeliotis and Cynthia Osterman

Joakim Noah's Victoria Secret Model GF Lais Ribeiro Rocks Thong Bikini In Malibu

Joakim Noah's model girlfriend Lais Ribeiro was so damn hot in her thong bikini in Malibu this weekend -- we barely noticed the beach was littered with a ton of HUGE stars!! Seriously ... everyone from John McEnroe to Kenny Chesney and Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber were hanging out at Laird Hamilton's pad for a Sunday funday. But, all eyes were on Joakim and Lais ... for obvious reasons. Joakim was waived by the Knicks last month -- and while they lost to the Washington Wizards that day, Noah was having a much better time. Lais is one of the top lingerie models in the world and will be walking in the Victoria's Secret fashion show later this week. She famously rocked the $2 MILLION fantasy bra at the 2017 show in China -- which Joakim could easily afford, considering he's made more than $121 MILLION playing pro basketball. Unclear how long Joakim and Lais have been an item -- but they were reportedly spotted out clubbing back in September and have grown closer ever since. In fact, they spent Halloween together and even had themed costumes -- he was Aquaman and she was Storm. Cute!

Jermaine Jackson Rips Quincy Jones For Scrubbing Michael's Name From Show

Jermaine Jackson is slamming Quincy Jones for removing Michael Jackson references from his orchestral show in London ... Jermaine thinks Quincy's caving to outside pressure. We got Jermaine at LAX and asked him about Quincy's decision to scrub all references to the King of Pop from his upcoming concert across the pond ... and Michael's big bro had a very stern message for the legendary producer. Quincy's orchestral show at The O2 arena in London next month was originally billed as a live performance of 3 classic MJ albums -- "Off the Wall," "Thriller" and "Bad" -- but now Quincy is calling it a "soundtrack of the 80s." As you know ... Quincy produced Michael's 3 biggest albums, and the 2 will forever be linked. Jermaine tells us it's grossly unfair for Quincy to try and distance himself from Michael. So far, Quincy isn't saying what prompted the change ... but there's been a lot of media pressure in the UK to mute Michael in the wake of "Leaving Neverland." Jermaine feels Quincy is listening to the wrong voices. BTW, the movement fizzled in the U.S. Check out our clip ... Jermaine demands Quincy to brush up on his history.

UK PM May presses on with bid to get Brexit deal through parliament: spokesman

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May is pressing on with efforts to get her Brexit deal approved by parliament, meeting Conservative colleagues and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, her spokesman said on Thursday. May, who has offered to quit in return for the support of Conservative lawmakers for her deal, is focused on getting it through parliament, the spokesman said, adding that she continued to believe her agreement was the best available. Reporting by William James, writing by Elizabeth Piper, Editing by Kylie MacLellan

Nancy Pelosi says a Clinton landslide could put the House in play. The math backs her up.

Nancy Pelosi is getting visions of reclaiming her House gavel. In an interview published by Politico on Thursday, the House minority leader said she is becoming increasingly optimistic that the Democratic Party might take back the House of Representatives in November. They’ll need to flip 30 seats controlled by the Republicans to do so. “I thought in December I would’ve told you we’d win 20 seats, left to our own devices,” Pelosi said in an interview with Politico’s Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer. “(But) seeing the behavior of the [GOP] presidential candidates right after that when the debates [happened], I became even more optimistic because they were so pathetic. … Since then, I think anything is possible.” Most observers think Democrats are unlikely to flip the House. But Pelosi suggested a Hillary Clinton landslide might carry House Democrats to power with her. “If Hillary were to win 54-46, oh my God. It’s all over. If it's 53-47, and I think that’s in the realm of possibility ... that’s a big deal,” Pelosi told Politico. “Five or more [percentage points] is a big deal.” Pelosi’s projections might sound optimistic, but they’re not that far outside the mainstream. Last month, I spoke to Geoffrey Skelley, a political analyst at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, who offered a similar theory. Clinton’s lead over Donald Trump has narrowed from late August from 8 points to around 3 points, so a 5-point win seems increasingly unlikely. But if Clinton can somehow reopen her big lead, the House really might be on the table. Here’s why. Get a district to vote for your party’s presidential nominee and your party will also probably win its House seat. That’s not an ironclad rule, but it’s a pretty good indicator — in 2012, only 6 percent of districts that voted for Barack Obama voted a Republican into the House. This is the key to understanding why Skelley thinks a 6-point Clinton win could put the House in play. That kind of national victory would likely mean 50 House districts currently controlled by Republicans would vote for Clinton — therefore suggesting they have a good shot of also going blue at the House level. Of course, a Clinton win in these 50 districts wouldn’t guarantee House Democrats will pick up all of those seats. (Many are held by powerful or longstanding Republican incumbents who are well-funded and enjoy good reputations at home.) But it does mean that Democrats could lose 40 percent of the House races in districts won by Clinton and still take back control of the House. Right now Clinton isn’t projected to win by nearly that much. Averages of all the major polling firms compiled by both RealClearPolitics and the Huffington Post currently put Her lead right around the 3-point mark; she’d need that to come up to where it was after the Democratic convention, which is unlikely but not impossible. "A 6-point lead would help create the conditions for Clinton to pull the Democrats over the finish line to take the House," Skelley says. "It doesn’t mean they would, of course, but it begins looking really possible." How does Skelley figure that a 6-point Clinton win would have Democrats winning 50 GOP-controlled House districts? His model begins by assuming that the distribution of the national popular vote margin to the congressional districts will be exactly the same in 2016 as it was in 2012. This may be best illustrated by an example: In 2012, Obama won the popular vote total by 4 percentage points. In Skelley’s model, a 4-point Clinton win would mean she’d also win and lose every congressional district by the exact same amount Obama did. (Of course, this is bound to be wrong in some places — the distribution of Clinton’s vote share certainly won’t be an exact replica of Obama’s. But since there’s no way of knowing exactly how the popular vote will vary by House district from 2012, it’s a useful gauge of what might happen.) This is why a 4-point Clinton win probably wouldn’t flip the House. Obama’s 4-point win over Romney gave him victories in just 28 congressional seats currently controlled by Republicans. That wouldn’t be enough — remember, Democrats need a full 30 to take back the House. But what happens if Clinton expands on Obama’s national vote margin? Since Skelley’s model assumes the national vote share will be evenly distributed, every additional point in the national vote total translates into an additional point for each congressional district. House seats where Democrats tied or lost in 2012 become places where they win at the presidential level in 2016. If Clinton wins by 5 points, according to Skelley, she’d be projected to win in 39 House seats now run by Republicans. That would theoretically put the House in play but would give Democrats very little margin for error. But if she wins by a full 6 points, then 50 seats slide over to the Democratic column — at least at the presidential level, and maybe for the House as well. Now, Skelley isn’t the only close election watcher who is suggesting the House really might be in play. Princeton professor and election guru Sam Wang tried to take another stab at this question by looking at the margin by which Democrats would need to win the popular vote to win the House and then trying to figure out where the popular vote currently appears to be headed. What he found should encourage Democrats. With the exception of just two elections, he found that Democrats have always won back the House when they’ve won the "two-party vote" (voting that excludes third parties): Data from mid-August suggested that they’re on track to do just that. Wang looked at results from something called the "generic ballot" — it asks voters to pick between the two parties, regardless of candidates — as well as the national presidential polling. "If the election were held today, House Democratic candidates would win the popular vote by 5 to 8 percent," Wang said. "Judging from the last few cycles, that level of public opinion appears to be right on the edge of being enough to give Democrats control of the House." Still, many of the current projections don’t have the Democrats riding a massive blue wave. The widely respected Cook Political Report, for instance, thinks the party is only on track to nab an additional 16 seats. The Cook Political Report thinks only 33 seats are vulnerable at all, meaning Democrats would have to win 90 percent of all of the competitive races to pull this off. In late August, Emory professor Alan Abramowitz released a model for predicting House races based on the "fundamentals" of the race, including the popularity of the two parties and the number of seats at stake. He found that Democrats only have a 15 percent chance of taking back the House. Similarly, the New York Times’s Nate Cohn argues that there just don’t seem to be enough gettable seats for Democrats. He notes that Democrats’ ability to win back the House in 2006 was made possible by the fact that 21 Republican seats were held in Democratic-leaning districts during that election. There are just nine such seats this year. "If Democrats are going to retake the House anytime soon, November would probably be their best shot," Cohn said in a story last week, "and as of now it’s not happening." There’s an elephant-size question hanging over all the analyses of whether a Trump implosion could give Democrats the House: What happens to "ticket splitting?" Ticket splitting refers to the voters who back different parties for Congress and the presidency in the same trip to the polls. In 2012, only a record-low 8 percent of voters did so. If that number goes up in 2016 amid a Clinton landslide, it could give congressional Republicans a buffer from a Trump catastrophe. (Current polling suggests Republican congressional candidates are much more popular than Trump, but it’s unclear how many of the party’s typical voters will actually show up on Election Day.) This is why the X-factor of Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson makes these kinds of projections much more difficult. Clinton’s lead over Trump in most polls puts her about 6 points ahead, but that’s in part because of how weak Trump is — she’s normally polling around the 47 or 48 percent mark, and he’s closer to 41 or 42 percent. If Johnson gets in the neighborhood of 5 percent of the national vote, do his supporters vote for congressional Democrats? Or will they vote Republican down ballot — and make Clinton's big national lead less crucial? This is why Skelley thinks Clinton herself probably needs to win more than 50 percent of the vote to pull Democrats over the finish line. If, for instance, she’s just beating Trump by 48 to 42, then congressional Democrats might need Johnson voters to go blue down ballot, which seems unlikely. "If she’s only winning barely over 50 percent of the vote, I think it’s difficult to say with confidence that she’ll pull a lot of Democrats with her," Skelley said. "I think she needs to really win the popular vote by more than that." It’s a colossal understatement to say that the stakes are pretty darn high when it comes to control of the House. If Democrats also go on to win the Senate, winning the House would open the doors for a raft of legislative priorities over climate change, immigration, and a range of other long-held blue sky policy goals for the party. So far, most chatter around a Clinton presidency involves big plans like infrastructure reform and new Supreme Court appointments. Sweeping Congress and the presidency would transform those ambitions into a wholly different kind. But there’s another, and perhaps equally important, reason this fight is so crucial: It may be Democrats’ last shot at the House for a very, very long time. New York magazine’s Ed Kilgore explains: If Democrats do fall short of what they need to regain control of the House even as Hillary Clinton becomes president, prospects for further gains in the near term will probably not be good. The party controlling the White House almost always loses House seats in midterms (1998 and 2002 were the rare exceptions), and 2018 would be a third-term midterm for Democrats, making the odds of an anti–White House trend even stronger. Beyond that, Democrats have a well-known midterm turnout problem associated with their heavy reliance on parts of the electorate — notably young people and minorities — that rarely turn out proportionately in nonpresidential elections. As for 2020, it’s worth noting that Democrats gained only eight House seats when President Obama was reelected in 2012. Many Democrats have certainly come to despise Trump over the course of a bitter and long campaign. But if he can blunder his way into giving them control of the House of Representatives far earlier than anyone thought possible, maybe they can come to forgive him.

The government official in charge of ethics just harshly condemned Trump’s plan

The nonpartisan director of the federal Office of Government Ethics ripped into President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for his businesses in an unusually public and blisteringly critical speech Wednesday afternoon. Walter Shaub went so far as to say that Trump’s conflicts of interest put democracy at risk, break with decades of tradition, and call into doubt whether Trump’s own patriotism stands up to history. Trump’s plan to step back from his businesses day to day is “meaningless from a conflict of interest perspective,” Shaub said in his remarks at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “Every president in modern times has taken the strong medicine of divestiture,” Shaub said. Trump’s plan “does not comport with the traditions of the presidency over the past 40 years.” The president-elect announced Wednesday morning that he would hand management of the Trump Organization over to his adult sons and the company’s chief financial officer. He promised to insulate himself from his businesses by donating the profits from foreign stays at his hotel to the federal government and limiting the information he received about his profits and losses. Shaub called the structure “perplexing.” Trump will still know where his business interests lie. He made clear that he plans to return to his company after his presidency. Ethics experts have long contended that the only real solution is a blind trust: Trump should sell his properties and allow someone else to invest the proceeds from the sale so that he doesn’t know what he owns. Trump’s lawyer said a blind trust would, essentially, be too difficult and expensive, since it would require Trump to sell large amounts of real estate. “The president is now entering a world of public service,” Shaub said. “He’s going to be asking his own appointees to make sacrifices. He’s going to be asking our men and women in uniform to risk their lives in conflicts around the world. So no, I don’t think divestiture is too high a price to pay to be president of the United States of America.” The Office of Government Ethics has hammered out hundreds, if not thousands, of divestiture agreements involving federal officials. They have had to “divest assets, break open trusts, and dissolve businesses,” Shaub said, and taking those steps can be expensive and painful. But, Shaub said, “their basic patriotism usually prevails as they agree to set aside their personal interests to serve their country’s interests.” When officials were reluctant to take the required steps, the ethics office’s demands were backed up by “the unwavering example of presidents who resolved their own conflicts of interest.” Presidents in the past didn’t just set an example for the rest of their administration, Shaub said. They helped the American system of government set an example for the world on avoiding corruption. The Office of Government Ethics is charged with ensuring there are no conflicts of interest. Its employees search through thousands of pages of financial disclosures and reach agreements with would-be Cabinet nominees, as well as lower-level officials, stating the steps they’ll take to make sure their private investments and public duties don’t conflict. It’s a relatively obscure, generally apolitical agency, and Shaub — who was a career public servant in the office before being appointed by President Obama in 2013 to his first five-year term as director — is far from a public figure. His decision to make a public speech criticizing the incoming president-elect was highly unusual. But emails between the Trump transition team and the ethics office showed that Trump has had little regard for the office’s work since he came into office. For 10 days after the election, offers of assistance and guidance on ensuring an ethical transition were rebuffed. Nor did Trump’s lawyers run their plans past Shaub. If they had, he said, he would have told them it was very possible for the president to sell his real estate assets, and that other officials in the past have done so. As for Trump’s other justification — that the president “can’t have a conflict of interest” — that’s nonsense, Shaub said. “A conflict of interest is anything that creates an incentive to put your own interest before the interests of the people you serve,” Shaub said, quoting a Supreme Court decision from 1961 that called conflicts of interest “an evil which endangers the very fabric of democratic society.” If anything, Shaub said, it’s more important for presidents to avoid conflicts of interest: “The potential for corruption only grows with the increase in power.”

Mark Zuckerberg’s WSJ op-ed was a message to would-be regulators: Hands off our ad business

The threat of government regulation has been looming over Facebook like a dark storm cloud for more than a year now, and it feels like it may finally be starting to rain. Last week, we learned that the FTC is considering slapping Facebook with a reported “record-setting” fine for abusing its users’ data and privacy. This week, two more things happened that make it seem like that cloud will be staying around for a while. The first was an op-ed by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg that was published late on Thursday in the Wall Street Journal. Titled “The Facts About Facebook,” the op-ed laid out why Facebook sells ads (“to offer services for free”); why Facebook uses peoples’ personal data to target them with those ads (people “prefer more relevant ads”); and added a friendly reminder that “we don’t sell people’s data.” Zuckerberg also pointed out that Facebook’s free service is great for users because it helps them “stay connected to those they care about and to express themselves,” and it’s also great for small businesses. “Most couldn’t afford to buy TV ads or billboards, but now they have access to tools that only big companies could use before,” he wrote. In other words, Facebook provides an invaluable service to the world, and its advertising business is necessary to keep that going. If you’ve followed Facebook or Zuckerberg at all over the past few years, you’ve probably already heard most of this stuff. So why is Zuckerberg announcing it in a fancy WSJ opinion piece? There are a lot of people who want to regulate Facebook. And regulators, both in the United States and in Europe, probably read the Journal. That likely includes politicians who want to pass laws that would limit Facebook’s ad business, or regulators like those who work at the FTC. Zuckerberg is bringing his argument for why Facebook doesn’t need to be babysat — “we give people complete control” — to a news outlet that should reach the people who might disagree. But while Zuckerberg’s focus in his WSJ piece is on Facebook’s data and advertising business, the New York Times reminded everyone that this isn’t the only kind of regulation Facebook should be concerned about. In a story published Friday, the Times reported that Facebook is planning to combine the technology for all three of its standalone messaging apps: Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. That would enable an Instagram user, for example, to send and receive messages to people using WhatsApp, something that isn’t currently possible. Setting aside the technical challenges of connecting different apps with different features — WhatsApp only requires your phone number, for example, while Instagram allows you to have an anonymous account — the move would create one giant Facebook messaging ecosystem. Each of those services has more than a billion users. There are a lot of people who already think Facebook is a monopoly. This move won’t change their opinion. “This is why there should have been far more scrutiny during Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp which now clearly seem like horizontal mergers that should have triggered antitrust scrutiny,” tweeted Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democratic congressman from California. “Imagine how different the world would be if Facebook had to compete with Instagram and WhatsApp. That would have encouraged real competition that would have promoted privacy and benefited consumers.” Could the FTC try and break up Facebook? It certainly feels possible. But as The Verge’s Casey Newton pointed out Friday in his daily newsletter, Facebook may beat them to the punch. “If the Federal Trade Commission ever planned to compel Facebook to spin out WhatsApp and Instagram — a big if, I know — you can imagine the company explaining that there was no longer such a thing as ‘WhatsApp’ or ‘Instagram,’” Newton wrote. Maybe something for Zuckerberg to explain in his next op-ed. This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Girl Scouts Are Training the Next Generation of Female Hackers

In the past, Girl Scouts have been rewarded with badges for mastering skills like first aid, painting, and jewelry making. Now, in a partnership with security firm Palo Alto Networks, they'll be able to earn badges in cybersecurity, too. Scouts in kindergarten and first grade, known as Daisies, will be taught the basics of data privacy and online safety, while older Scouts up to grade 12 will be introduced to coding, firewalls, and how to become a "white hat hacker" (coder-slang for a hacker who uses her skills for good, not evil). "At Girl Scouts of the USA, we recognize that in our increasingly tech-driven world, future generations must possess the skills to navigate the complexities and inherent challenges of the cyber realm," Girl Scouts CEO Sylvia Acevedo said in a press release. With this partnership, Girl Scouts hopes to introduce girls to computer and internet literacy and provide access to a demographic that is often left out of the burgeoning field. According to a recent study, women are grossly underrepresented in the global cybersecurity industry, making up only 11 percent of the workforce. Furthermore, the Computing Technology Industry association reports that 69 percent of women who have not pursued careers in information technology attribute their choice to not knowing what opportunities are available to them. "It is our hope that our collaboration will serve to cultivate our troops' budding interest in cyber security by providing access to invaluable knowledge that may otherwise not be available to girls," said Acevedo. While there have been past cyber-related programs at the local level (like the Game Design badge available to LA-based Scouts), the organization's new commitment to cyber security education means that all 1.8 million Girl Scouts across the country will have access to learning these skills and, of course, earning the badges to prove it.

An Animated Masterpiece by the Unsung Co-Founder of Studio Ghibli

Before 2016, Isao Takahata’s Only Yesterday was considered the “lost” Ghibli film. Advertise on Hyperallergic with Nectar Ads One day, Hayao Miyazaki will die, and with him so will the renowned animation studio he co-founded, Studio Ghibli. When that day eventually arrives, countless images will play out in the minds of animation fans worldwide. Totoro, up in the sky, his mouth wide open, soaring while carrying a tiny umbrella; Ran, riding a giant snow-white wolf into battle, protecting the only life she’s ever known; little Chihiro trying so diligently to clean a “stink spirit” inside the strangest and most fascinating bathhouse imaginable. I’ll be thinking of those too. I’ll also be thinking of a moment that I feel like I’m watching for the first time every time I see it. A little girl and boy stand on the edge of a street, alone together. Their cheeks, once pale and white, now resemble the inside of a grapefruit. The boy, nervous yet determined, asks whether she prefers her days sunny or cloudy. Her answer excites the boy. They trade smiles and then he runs off. Overjoyed, he tosses a baseball in the air. The girl runs in the opposite direction; with nothing to throw, she climbs an invisible set of stairs and then launches herself skyward. The scene is in Isao Takahata’s 1991 masterpiece Only Yesterday, which screened at the French Institute Alliance Française’s Animation First film festival on January 26th, handpicked by this year’s guest of honor, Kirikou and The Sorceress director Michel Ocelot. Ocelot selected the film in part because it is one of his favorite films by Takahata, but the screening also honors the life and career of Takahata, who passed away in April 2018. Only Yesterday follows Takeo, a single woman in her late 20s, living and working in Tokyo, where she has spent her entire life. Taking a vacation from her office job and Tokyo itself, she heads to northern Japan to assist her brother-in-law in harvesting safflowers. On her journey to the countryside, she thinks back to her childhood, specifically when she was 10 years old. She thinks of her friends, her family, and her struggles with both, along with the most evil of all school subjects: math. Carrying around her fifth-grade self, Takeo ponders about her current situation, and she wonders if she let that down that spunky and ambitious 10-year-old girl. Takahata shifts between the two timelines, each one with its own unique look. In the present, the animation is sharper, more detailed, more … present. When the story shifts to the past, the animation is simpler, washed out, the edges of the frame seemingly fading away. These segments are made to resemble memories, dissolving moments in time. When the film released in 1991, it was an outlier, because it told what is still an unconventional story when it comes to feature-length animation. Only Yesterday is about an adult woman making adult decisions, something much bigger and scarier than any energy ball thrown at Goku. The festival featured the English dub, produced by GKIDS and released in 2016, with Daisy Ridley as Takeo and Dev Patel as Toshino, an organic farmer who develops feelings for Takeo. Their performances are filled with warmth and charm, successfully selling the chemistry the two develop upon their first meeting. Before GKIDS obtained the US distribution rights to the Ghibli library from Disney, it was difficult to see Only Yesterday at home through legitimate means, let alone on the big screen. Before 2016, this film was considered the “lost” Ghibli film. Today, and hopefully for a long time to come, it will be seen for what it actually is, a masterpiece crafted by a master of the form.

Trump warned NATO allies U.S. would go it alone if they did not spend: sources

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump told NATO allies in a closed-door meeting on Thursday that governments needed to raise spending to 2 percent of economic output by January next year or the United States would go its own way, two people familiar with the discussions told Reuters. The ultimatum was delivered in a session at the NATO summit, the sources said. “He said they must raise spending by January 2019 or the United States would go it alone,” one person said. However, he did not directly threaten to withdraw formally from NATO, the people said. Reporting by Robin Emmott and Sabine Siebold; Editing by Alissa de Carbonnel

Paradise, California, wildfire: why the fire threat to California is only growing

PARADISE, CALIFORNIA — Brook Jenkins moved to the town of Paradise to escape a rough neighborhood in nearby Chico and raise her three children in an idyllic small town, filled with trees. Paradise isn’t next to a forest; it’s in a forest. Trees run between houses like gargantuan picket fences. “It was peaceful up there,” Jenkins said. “It was beautiful.” Yet those elegant towering Gray pines, cottonwoods, and walnut trees that drew people to Paradise also posed an immense risk of catching on fire. Six years of drought, including the driest period in California history, collided with bark beetle infestations that started spreading in rapidly in 2010, killing off scores of the state’s iconic giants. There are now more than 129 million dead trees in California sprinkled through forests like the one in Paradise, ready to burn like matchsticks. And with more people living closer to this dry timber, the likelihood that someone, or something, will spark a fire has grown steadily higher. Residents lived uneasily for years knowing that a massive conflagration was possible. Some even recalled seeing flames inch perilously close to the town in years past. “We prepared for it, but we never thought it was going to happen,” Jenkins said. When the Camp Fire, named after Camp Creek Road where the blaze began, tore through the town on November 8, it filled the quiet streets with cacophony. The flames roared, tree trunks burst, and propane tanks exploded as the fire swiftly gained ground. By the time the fire passed, almost all of Paradise, once home to 26,000 people, was obliterated. Around Butte County, upward of 52,000 people have been forced to evacuate due to the Camp Fire. The vast blaze has already made its mark as the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in state history, having killed at least 77 people, left 993 missing, and burned through 10,360 residences and 150,000 acres. People in nearby towns saw the fire risks too, and grew concerned that they were getting worse as seasons got warmer and drier in recent years. “You have an instinct that something is not right,” said Theresa Squires, who fled with her dog Carob from Magalia, a town of 11,000 people in the path of the fire. “It doesn’t feel normal and hasn’t for a long time.” She recalled being unnerved when she first visited Magalia in 2011 and saw so many dry pine trees so close to homes. “I was just saying the day before [the Camp Fire] that this is a scary situation to be in, and lo and behold,” Squires said. It’s tempting to treat the Camp Fire as an anomaly, a one-off, worst-case scenario disaster. As Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said on Twitter after visiting the area this week, “Every time I come to California I say this is the worst fire I’ve seen. Once again this is the absolute worst. Worse than any war zone I saw in Iraq.” The fact is, climate and forest science tells us that massive wildfires like this are likely to become more destructive as average temperatures rise and populations grow, putting people and fuel into closer contact. We can do many things to reduce these risks. However, the Camp Fire is a stark vision of a future where we do nothing. I drove to Paradise on Thursday, venturing into ever thicker and more ominous smoke that shrouded the highway. When I arrived, I was struck that there was scarcely any sound at all, not even from leaves rustling. Bits of ash flurries drifted from charred tree branches. Dust coated every surface. Pockets in the ground were still smoldering and billowing smoke. The carcasses of cars, paint scorched off and tires melted, were scattered along the streets. The homes in Paradise are now almost all flattened save for their brick chimneys stubbornly standing firm. Only a handful of people were on my street, mainly searchers in white Tyvek suits, prodding among the wreckage aided by cadaver dogs. They are combing house by burned-out house for human remains. The swift winds that at one point advanced the flames at a rate of one football field per second have now died down. Firefighters have taken advantage of the lull to cut firebreaks in dry forests and pile up soil to control the blaze. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reports that the Camp Fire is 45 percent contained and expects to reach 100 percent by the end of the month. But even a week after the fire passed, the panicked early moments when the flames roared in remain vivid for Paradise residents like Jenkins. On the morning of November 8, Jenkins watched as the sky turned orange, and embers and ash fluttered around her house in Paradise. She rushed to get back to the elementary school where she had just dropped off two of her children. By the time she returned home, the Camp Fire had spread around her house. “Within 30 minutes altogether, it was surrounding us,” Jenkins said. “We didn’t have time to get anything.” She and her husband piled their three children, their relatives who lived with them, and all their dogs and cats into three cars and started heading away from the flames and toward Chico, about 20 miles away. The journey took more than three hours, the narrow highways choked with people like her fleeing the roaring fire. Trees ignited and fell along the roads. Traffic stopped. Jenkins was separated from her children, who were riding in a different car with relatives further behind. With cars at a standstill and the fire encroaching, Jenkins left her car to gather her stranded children on foot. When she returned to her car, she saw flames inching toward her back bumper. She said she’s grateful to be alive and wants all her friends and family to know she, her husband, her brother, her sister, and her mother-in-law, and her three children are safe. For now, she is now staying with her family in a motel in Red Bluff, about 40 miles northwest of Chico. But the home and the life she built in Paradise is gone. What’s next is uncertain. “I just don’t know where we’re going to go, what we’re going to do,” she said. Some of the people fleeing the flames found shelter with friends and family. Others are staying in evacuation centers in the nearby city of Chico. And others still are sleeping in their cars or camping in tent cities that have organically emerged in the miasma of the inferno. Down in Chico, the city of roses, the air smells dry, dusty, and oddly sweet. The smoke has bathed the city in a sunset glow even in the middle of the afternoon. Local children ride Razor scooters wearing N95 respirators. A makeshift bazaar has taken root on the edge of a Chico Walmart parking lot where volunteers distribute food, clothing, respirators, and toiletries to what’s become a de facto refugee camp. Dozens of people have camped out in their cars while others have pitched tents on the grass shoulder. The site emerged organically, but that’s also led to some frustration, according to Guido Barbero, a Chico resident who is coordinating volunteers at the site. Various city officials and local law enforcement have promised more formal leadership and another site to shelter evacuees. However, in the week since the Camp Fire ignited, the Walmart camp has only grown. Now they have word that they must clear out the site by Tuesday. Where the evacuees will go remains uncertain. “It’s really the lack of information” that’s hampering relief, Barbero said. At the same time, the ingredients for an unprecedented fire have been brewing for years, so better planning and coordination for a relief effort should have been in place to deal with the fallout. “This was going to happen sooner or later,” Barbero said. “This was not a surprise to us.” While the campsite has been overwhelmed by donations of clothes, food, and supplies, some of the evacuees are growing concerned about health issues. Over the din of portable generators, coughing echoes throughout the camp as the omnipresent wildfire smoke in the air exacerbates health issues like asthma. The air quality here is some of the worst in the world, earning a rating of “hazardous.” Other residents complained about theft and poor sanitation. Temperatures are also dropping as the city heads further into winter. The strip of dried grass where people have pitched their tents is prone to flooding, and rain is expected next week. Some health issues are also emerging in some of the formal evacuation sites. One shelter in Chico reported a norovirus outbreak. Meanwhile, across town at Bidwell Junior High School, Red Cross volunteers are moving cots into a gymnasium to give the 65 evacuees there more space. Katherine Grochowski, the shelter supervisor, said the site also has too many donations of food and clothing. “Cash is the best thing to give,” she said. Grochowski, who has been working in relief efforts for 19 years, said the recent spate of fires and storms across the United States “seems like one disaster after another” but added that relief organizations are getting plenty of firsthand experience, helping them get better at responding to calamities. But on the question of whether people afflicted by a disaster should relocate or rebuild, Grochowski choked up and recalled her own brush with disaster, a tornado that struck her hometown of Owensboro, Kentucky. Some people moved away, but others were adamant about restoring what they lost in the storm, an attitude she found inspiring. People all over the world have a sense of place and belonging with their homes, no matter the risks, according to Grochowski. And she couldn’t imagine moving away herself after a disaster. Chico city manager Mark Orme agreed. “The optimal solution here is to get people back home as soon as possible,” he said. Even though the climate is changing — warming up the air, drying out the trees, and increasing the severity of droughts, thereby fueling massive fires— Orme believes that it is possible to prepare for these risks. That can range from fireproof construction to strategically removing fire-prone trees. But he acknowledged that it’s hard to prepare for an unprecedented disaster like the Camp Fire, and rebuilding to mitigate the next wildfire will take towns like Paradise, Magalia, and Concow into uncharted territory with untested solutions. “You obviously never expect the largest of disasters in State of California history to happen on your doorstep,” he said. Right now, the City of Chico is trying to restore a sense of normalcy for evacuees. Chico officials even hosted a town council meeting for Paradise officials, allowing them to use the chambers to discuss the minutiae of running a city, with the added challenge that most of the city is gone. “I was amazed at the pride and passion of that community,” Orme said.

Wells Fargo to pay $575 million in settlement with U.S. states

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) will pay $575 million to settle claims made by U.S. states, the latest settlement as the bank works to resolve lingering investigations and legal battles stemming from its sales-practices scandal and to remove a punitive asset cap. Two years ago, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $190 million to settle federal government claims that the bank created phony customer accounts. Since then, the bank has racked up over $2 billion in penalties as other issues were discovered across most of its business lines. Friday’s settlement resolves claims by all 50 states and the District of Columbia related to the accounts, as well as claims that the bank improperly referred and charged customers for a number of financial products like auto and life insurance. “Instead of safeguarding its customers Wells Fargo exploited them,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “This is an incredible breach of trust that threatens not only the customer who depended on Wells Fargo, but confidence in our banking system.” The settlement, confirmed by Wells Fargo and the offices of various state attorneys general, was first reported earlier by Reuters. Wells Fargo has been seeking a fresh start after revelations that its employees opened potentially millions of unauthorized accounts tangled the nation’s fourth-largest bank in fierce investor and regulatory scrutiny for the past two years. Over the summer, Wells Fargo launched a marketing campaign saying the bank had been “re-established” this year, but Wells Fargo continued to attract fresh headlines about the customer abuses of the past. The bank has been working to resolve ongoing investigations and legal battles as it tries to gain approval from the Federal Reserve to lift its cap on assets. This year, the bank has settled claims with the New York attorney general, a class of investors and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, but the bank still has a number of probes looming over its bottom line. Wells Fargo still faces probes by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Justice and the Department of Labor, according to its most recent securities filing. (This story was refiled to delete the superfluous word “Fells” in paragraph 2) Reporting By Imani Moise in New York and Patrick Rucker in Raleigh, North Carolina; editing by Jonathan Oatis

'Bendy Bone,' Today's Comic by Paige Mehrer

Check out more of Paige Mehrer's work on her Tumblr and website.

Factbox: Investments by automakers in the U.S. and China since Trump came to power

(Reuters) - Major automakers have announced a slew of investments in the United States since President Donald Trump took office in January 2017 and exerted pressure on the industry to create more U.S. jobs. China is also attracting much investment, with companies keen to increase their share of the world’s largest car market and keep up with the country’s push toward electric vehicles. Following are summaries of investments and restructuring efforts made by major automakers in the United States and China since 2017. Some did not respond to requests for information or only provided details for one country. Toyota Motor Corp has pledged to invest almost $13 billion in the United States between 2017 and 2021 to boost manufacturing capacity and jobs. This includes $1.6 billion for a vehicle assembly plant in Alabama jointly run with Mazda Motor Corp and $238 million in manufacturing capacity in Kentucky to assemble 112,000 gasoline-electric hybrid models a year. Toyota’s Kentucky plant has also gained $1.3 billion in investment to boost its competitiveness. FCA in January 2017 said it would invest $1 billion in truck and SUV manufacturing facilities in Michigan and Ohio, creating 2,000 U.S. jobs. It described the plan as a move to solidify the United States as its global manufacturing hub for Jeep products. In February this year, it announced additional investment of $4.5 billion in production facilities in Michigan, to produce more SUVs and trucks and create nearly 6,500 jobs. General Motors Co in November 2018 announced a sweeping restructuring program that aims to cut production of slow-selling models and slash its North American workforce so resources can be shifted to electric and autonomous vehicles. GM put four U.S. factories and one Canadian plant on notice for potential closure. It noted in late April that it has invested $4.3 billion in U.S. manufacturing operations since 2017.  Ford Motor Co in 2017 said it would invest $2.95 billion in manufacturing facilities in Kentucky and Michigan. Those plans included $900 million for its Kentucky truck plant to secure 1,000 hourly jobs and produce the redesigned Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs. This year, Ford said it will invest an additional $1.2 billion in manufacturing facilities in Michigan and Illinois to expand production capacity and add new jobs. In 2017, Hyundai Motor Group, which includes Hyundai Motor Co, Kia Motors Corp and parts suppliers, said it planned to lift U.S. investment by 50% over five years to $3.1 billion. An executive said at that time the group was considering a new U.S. factory to build high-margin, high-demand models such as a U.S.-specific sport utility vehicle and a Genesis premium vehicle. In January this year, Volkswagen AG said it planned to invest $800 million to build what it called a new generation of electric vehicles at its Chattanooga plant in Tennessee. The first electric car from the plant is slated to roll off the production line in 2022. Honda Motor Co said in 2017 it would invest a combined $352 million in manufacturing facilities located in Alabama and Ohio that would support production of the redesigned Accord car and create jobs. It also said it would spend $124 million on an advanced wind tunnel facility in Ohio. Although not formally announced, the Japanese automaker has confirmed information from sources that is investing in capacity in Tianjin and Guangzhou to produce 240,000 more vehicles annually. The size of the investment is not known. The company’s China unit did not respond to a Reuters request for information. No major additional investment in China manufacturing capacity since the Detroit automaker announced it had earmarked $12 billion to expand production between 2014 and 2017. Ford said in 2017 it would invest in its joint-venture manufacturing facilities in China to support production of five vehicles, including a Lincoln premium SUV and the company’s first global all-electric small SUV. The investment amount was not disclosed. In 2018, Ford said it would invest in joint-venture manufacturing facilities in Chongqing to produce vehicles including the redesigned Escort and Focus models. It also said it would be investing to assemble the redesigned Explorer SUV but did not disclose where it will be made. This year the U.S. automaker announced plans to produce three Lincoln models in China by 2021, instead of bringing in those models from North America. Hit by a downturn in sales, Hyundai said in April it was suspending production at one of its five plants in China. Kia is also looking at suspending production at a China plant, a source familiar with the matter has said. Volkswagen Group in 2018 opened three factories – in Qingdao, Foshan and Tianjin – to produce more SUVs and electric cars as well as other vehicles. The German group, which produces and sells vehicles in China through its Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda brands, also broke ground for its electric-car factory in Shanghai, which will start e-car production in 2020. Through 2022, Volkswagen Group and its joint-venture partners will invest around 15 billion euros in e-mobility, autonomous driving and other areas. This includes R&D spending on new technologies. In June 2017, it announced a 50-50 joint venture with Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co, its third partnership with a Chinese automaker, to design, produce and market electric cars. Honda’s joint venture with Dongfeng Motor Group in December 2016 announced it would build a 3 billion yuan ($435 million) assembly plant in Wuhan capable of producing 120,000 vehicles a year. The plant opened in April this year. ($1 = 6.9063 Chinese yuan) Reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu in Beijing; Additional reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in Seoul; Editing by Edwina Gibbs

Teen prisoners rioted and lit British Columbia's ‘super jail’ on fire this week

A six-hour riot that started with a fire and devolved into a rampage through a youth "super jail" in British Columbia this week has confirmed long-held fears over what would happen when the province closed down other prisons and consolidated the inmates — some from rival gangs — into one place. It was Tuesday evening when a group of teen boys gathered together inside the youth jail in Burnaby and lit a fire by heating up a piece of paper in the toaster. The mayhem escalated quickly from there, with the kids, who used masks to hide their identities from the security cameras, smashing windows and furniture, fashioning weapons out of table legs, and barricading doors. They destroyed the microwaves and dishwasher, and broke the sprinklers. After they ruined one room and started a flood, they rammed their way into another and continued their rampage. By 2:30 am, officers with the federal police force and 19 firefighters had arrived and the situation was contained. Somehow no one was seriously injured, although there was immense damage to the facility. An outbreak of violence of this kind in prisons is rare in Canada, and even less so in youth jails. But correctional workers and youth advocates have, for years, warned that something like this would happen in Burnaby as the BC provincial government closed down the youth jail in the capital of Victoria and started pooling inmates from all over the province to save money. Inevitably, rival gang members came under one roof. This new "super-jail" has become a hotbed for violence and acts of aggression. A six-hour riot that started with a fire and devolved into a rampage through a youth "super jail" in British Columbia this week has confirmed long-held fears over what would happen when the province closed down other prisons and consolidated the inmates — some from rival gangs — into one place. It was Tuesday evening when a group of teen boys gathered together inside the youth jail in Burnaby and lit a fire by heating up a piece of paper in the toaster. The mayhem escalated quickly from there, with the kids, who used masks to hide their identities from the security cameras, smashing windows and furniture, fashioning weapons out of table legs, and barricading doors. They destroyed the microwaves and dishwasher, and broke the sprinklers. After they ruined one room and started a flood, they rammed their way into another and continued their rampage. By 2:30 am, officers with the federal police force and 19 firefighters had arrived and the situation was contained. Somehow no one was seriously injured, although there was immense damage to the facility. An outbreak of violence of this kind in prisons is rare in Canada, and even less so in youth jails. But correctional workers and youth advocates have, for years, warned that something like this would happen in Burnaby as the BC provincial government closed down the youth jail in the capital of Victoria and started pooling inmates from all over the province to save money. Inevitably, rival gang members came under one roof. This new "super-jail" has become a hotbed for violence and acts of aggression. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, BC's representative for children and youth, told VICE News she has been calling on the province to immediately reopen other youth jails to ease tensions at the Burnaby Youth Custody Center. It's believed that the group of young men involved in the riots were associated with the rival gangs from Surrey and Prince George, but further details haven't been made public. Turpel-Lafond says the incident has all the hallmarks of gang-related violence. "My eye will be strongly fixed on what's going on with the young people and whether this is a pattern, and what's going to be done to prevent this from happening again," she said. The Burnaby jail was already grappling with rampant violence. Over the last five years, assaults among the young inmates has doubled, even though fewer people were being held there. Last November, a teen in the jail launched a lawsuit against the province alleging that he was kept in solitary confinement, and accuses the guards of negligence and false imprisonment. Burnaby Youth Custody Services Centre (Photo via Government of BC) Turpel-Lafond added that, before the other jails were shuttered, it was possible to send young offenders to facilities where they would least likely experience violence. This is of great concern when many of the inmates are affiliated with one of the province's gangs. "If we knew a young person or their parent ran a street-level gang here, or if they were going to be a target by virtue of who they were, care was taken to decide on where they should be located. Now, we don't have those options," she said. Dean Purdy, the head of correctional and sheriff services for the BC Government Employees Union, said in an interview that there has also been a spike in violence against the guards who work there. Right before the riot broke out, he says the staff there could sense something was about to happen, so they hid in the secure office. Riot at Burnaby youth detention centre causes extensive damage — CBC British Columbia (@cbcnewsbc)July 21, 2016 "There have been several assaults on correctional officers over the last few months, and all the anecdotal info from our staff is that tensions are very high inside. It's getting very difficult to manage the inmates," Purdy said. "And there's very little repercussions when inmates exhibit poor behavior." Staff Sergeant Lindsey Houghton, with the provincial anti-gang unit, told The Province on Wednesday that the force has been looking into gang activity in youth jails for many years. "This is nothing new and people should not be surprised at it," said Houghton, who added that the notorious Red Scorpions gang — responsible for one of the province's worst gang-related murders in 2007 — was founded in the Burnaby jail. However, the head of programs for the Burnaby youth jail put out a statement on Thursday that said the closure of the Victoria jail was not to blame for the riot and that the impetus for the incident was "a room search earlier in the day, which resulted in a loss of privileges." Purdy added that the inmates responsible for the violence have been separated from the general prison population, and an internal investigation is pending. Earlier this year, BC's premier announced $23 million in new funding to fight the gang wars in Surrey, which is plagued with frequent shootings and kids as young as 12 joining the drug trade. Follow Rachel Browne on Twitter: @rp_browne

Video of Deontay Wilder Squaring Off with Contender in Hotel Lobby

Deontay Wilder was still ready to swing hours after defending his belt -- getting in the middle of a hotel brawl involving heavyweight contender Dominic Breazeale ... and TMZ Sports got video of the melee. The chaos erupted in the lobby of the Westin in Birmingham, Alabama ... just across the street from the arena, where hours earlier Wilder scored a 5th round KO of Gerald Washington. In the video, you can see Wilder give someone a huge shove. Breazeale doesn't appear to be the one who received the blow. The champ mentioned in a post-fight news conference he had beef with Breazeale -- who had fought on the undercard -- and it appears it all came to a head when their entourages met in the lobby. Cops reportedly broke up the fight after it spilled into the hotel parking lot. Neither Wilder or Breazeale was arrested, but Dominic made it clear on social media ... this feud is just getting started.

Exclusive: Britain's financial heartland unbowed as Brexit risks deepen

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s financial services industry has emerged largely unscathed so far from the build-up to Brexit, with about 2,000 roles expected to have moved or been created overseas even as the risk of a disorderly exit grows, a new Reuters survey showed. Many bankers and politicians predicted Britain’s vote to leave the European Union in a 2016 referendum would prompt a mass exodus of jobs and business and deal a crippling blow to London’s position in global finance. But the number of jobs UK-based financial institutions say they actually expect to shift overseas has fallen steeply from the 5,766 predicted to move in the event of a no-deal Brexit in the last survey in September. This new estimate is about a fifth of the 10,000 flagged in the first survey in September 2017. A no-deal Brexit would mean Britain leaving the European Union without an agreement on trade. Currently, the UK is on track for such a scenario because a deal giving London and Brussels a 21-month transition period to negotiate a trading relationship is at risk of collapse. Most bankers, however, are confident a compromise will be hammered out. They are waiting to see what will be agreed and what the relationship will be, before making any final decisions about relocations. The survey results are based on answers from 132 of the biggest or most internationally-focused banks, insurers, asset managers, private equity firms and exchanges to a survey conducted between Jan. 3 and Jan. 28. The jobs are equivalent to 0.5 percent of the 400,000 people who work in financial services in London. Meanwhile, top investment banks plan to hire far more people in London than anywhere else in Europe, indicating they expect Britain will remain their main regional hub, at least in the short term, a separate Reuters survey showed. “It will be a slow burn. We won’t know what the full impact will look like for at least 10 years,” said Catherine McGuinness, the de facto political leader of the municipal body that helps to run London’s financial district, known as the City. “But the City is always changing and it will find a way to thrive.” Bankers’ sanguine outlook comes even as the United Kingdom is on course to leave the EU in 52 days without a divorce deal, a step that could send shockwaves through financial markets. British lawmakers last week instructed Prime Minister Theresa May to renegotiate a Brexit divorce deal, a move that is fiercely opposed by other members of the bloc, meaning there is likely to be weeks of political brinkmanship. The survey findings suggest London, which has the largest number of banks and the largest commercial insurance market in the European Union, is likely to remain the region’s center of international finance. The decision to leave the EU has jolted London’s finance industry, which has been a critical artery for the flow of money around the world for centuries.  Banks and insurers in Britain currently enjoy largely unfettered access to customers across the bloc in most financial activities. Elements long taken for granted, such as the right to buy and sell products in a single market, are suddenly in flux. Under a worst-case no-deal scenario, consultants Oliver Wyman predicted as many as 75,000 jobs could go, while the London Stock Exchange suggested two years ago that figure could be as high as 232,000. The future of London as Europe’s financial center is one of the most important outcomes in the Brexit talks because it is Britain’s largest export sector and biggest source of corporate tax revenue. Large investment banks are expected to have moved about 890 jobs, just under half the number expected by end-March, according to interviews with more than two dozen industry sources. Bank of America is moving about 200 employees to Paris by the end of February, according to sources. The bank declined to comment. But many other finance companies are holding off staff moves until the political situation becomes clearer. HSBC, which has publicly said up to 1,000 jobs could move to Paris, has so far not moved any staff, according to a source at the bank. Royal Bank of Scotland, which said it could move 150 employees to Amsterdam, also has not moved any employees, a source at the bank said. Under the terms of the current divorce deal, only a basic level of access to the bloc’s markets will be maintained after Brexit, but if Britain decides to leave the EU next month without a trade deal this would mean no transition period to lessen the turmoil. A senior executive at one U.S. investment bank said they would have to potentially double or triple the number of staff moved overseas if Britain leaves the EU without a trade deal. So far, the executive added, the impact of Brexit had been much less than expected and was less of a concern than the slowing economy in China and political upheaval in the United States. “It’s a real pain in the arse, but it’s a technical problem, it’s solvable,” the executive said. Ninety of the companies that responded said they would have to move staff or restructure their businesses because of Brexit, although only 59 specified numbers. The rest said it would have no impact or they were still deciding what to do or they declined to comment. For the first time since Reuters started surveying City financiers on their job plans, a handful said there was a possibility Brexit might not happen at all because of the lack of agreement within British politics over how an exit can be engineered. But the companies said they would not reverse the job moves if Britain were to remain in the EU. “The issue of political risk has become a really significant issue,” McGuinness said. “Even if you turned Brexit back, which I can’t see happening, I think we have damaged our international image and we are going to have to work very hard to regain it.” Additional reporting by Sinead Cruise and Jonathan Saul in London, Noor Zainab Hussain and Arathy S Nair in Bangalore and Suzanne Barlyn in New York. Editing by Carmel Crimmins

Nebraska Is Probably Regretting Letting Go of Football Championship Subdivision-Bound Bo Pelini Right Now

Just over two years ago, Nebraska fired head coach Bo Pelini after a 9-3 season and a season-ending win over rival Iowa, which included an impressive fourth quarter comeback. Delusional in their abilities, the Cornhuskers thought they were better than 9-3, so they fired a coach who had previously brought them to the Big Ten Championship Game and probably would again. The past two years haven't been kind to Nebraska, which has gone 14-10 under new coach Mike Riley and is coming off a 40-10 shellacking to Iowa. The Huskers went 9-3 (!!!), but they didn't beat anyone with a pulse, supposedly the knock on Pelini from the fan base (though it wasn't very true). Meanwhile, as Nebraska prepares for its second-tier bowl game, Bo Pelini—still a very good coach—is headed to the Football Championship Subdivision title game with his new yet hometown team, Youngstown State. They got there with this catch on the last play of the game: With a championship berth wrapped up, what's Pelini's message to Nebraska? We can only guess that it's something along the lines of, "Fuck you, fans. Fuck all of you." Yes, Pelini was rough around the edges, which is probably part of why he was fired from Nebraska, in addition to the perennial nine-win seasons. He seemingly never looked happy, and in addition to "fuck you fans," said things like "they want to fire me, go ahead." One game, he swung his hat at an official, and afterward he said he was reacting to a "chickenshit call." Most coaches will apologize for behavior like that; Pelini simply said the opposing coach was acting worse than him. He even called a meeting with his former players after he was fired in which he called the athletic director "a total pussy." Things, uh, haven't changed at Youngstown State. Pelini is who he is, and he's never going to change. He didn't fit in at Nebraska, and that's why a move all the way down to FCS Youngstown State was probably a good thing—he got to go back to his hometown, to a place that appreciated him. He should certainly be more sensitive with his words, but there's no evidence that Pelini is a terrible person of any sort; he's just kind of a hot head. There is evidence, however, that he is a very good football coach, and there are a lot of Power Five teams that could use him right about now. Pelini's coaching acumen has been verified once again this season, and as Nebraska gets set for a mediocre bowl game, Pelini will be playing for a national title. Perhaps in public, Pelini won't say anything about the Huskers' fall and his subsequent rise, but in private, we know what he's saying, while laughing all the way to the title game: "Fuck you, fans. Fuck all of you."

On Black Friday, more U.S. shoppers chose the computer over the mall

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday kickoff of the U.S. holiday shopping season showed the increasing preference for online purchases, as more Americans opted to stay home and use their smartphones while sales and traffic at brick-and-mortar stores declined. The ongoing shift to online shopping has forced retailers across the country to invest heavily in boosting their e-commerce businesses, and also highlights the impact of early holiday promotions and year-round deals on consumer spending. The weekend also redefined the importance of Black Friday. For the past few years, Black Friday was believed to be waning in importance, but it is now turning into a day when shoppers do not necessarily flock to stores but spend heavily online. Bill Park, a partner at Deloitte & Touche LP, said online sales are starting to complement in-store shopping over the weekend, and for shoppers and retailers the two platforms are starting to converge. This is happening more and more as retailers like Walmart Inc and Amazon.com Inc sell both online and through stores, making winning the transaction more important than where it occurs, retail consultants and analysts said. Online sales rose more than 23 percent, crossing $6 billion on Black Friday, according to data from Adobe Analytics, which tracks transactions at 80 of the top 100 U.S. retailers. On Thanksgiving, it estimated sales grew 28 percent to $3.7 billion. Preliminary data from analytics firm RetailNext showed net sales at brick-and-mortar stores fell 4 to 7 percent over the two days, while traffic fell 5 to 9 percent, continuing the trend of recent years. No data was yet available for actual spending in stores. In 2017, brick-and-mortar sales were down 8.9 percent for the weekend year-over-year, and shopper traffic fell 4.4 percent. In 2016, store sales were down 4.2 percent and traffic was down 4.4 percent, according to RetailNext. The decrease in store foot traffic is a little greater than it has been in years past, though still within expectations, RetailNext spokesperson Ray Hartjen said. Data from retail research firm ShopperTrak also showed that visits to stores fell a combined 1 percent during Thanksgiving and Black Friday compared with the same days in 2017. Brian Field, senior director of advisory services at ShopperTrak, said online sales have eroded traffic from retailers over the years, “but what we have noticed is that the decline is starting to flatten out ... Overall its been consistent with where it’s been over the last few years.” In 2017, visits to physical stores on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday were down 1.6 percent, according to the firm. “This decline feels pretty good to me. I think retail is in for a good season,” Field said. Retail consultants have said spending patterns over the weekend are not as indicative of the entire season as they were a few years ago the tendency now is to spread shopping over November and December. The National Retail Federation forecast U.S. holiday retail sales in November and December will increase between 4.3 and 4.8 percent over 2017, for a total of $717.45 billion to $720.89 billion. That compares with an average annual increase of 3.9 percent over the past five years. Reporting by Nandita Bose and Melissa Fares in New York, Editing by Gary McWilliams and Leslie Adler

Libya's Haftar rules out Tripoli ceasefire, dismisses U.N.-led talks: newspaper

PARIS (Reuters) - Libyan eastern commander Khalifa Haftar has ruled out a ceasefire in the battle for Tripoli and accused the United Nations of seeking to partition Libya, according to an interview published by French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche. Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) began an offensive in early April to take Tripoli from fighters loyal to Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA) which has the backing of the United Nations. The LNA, which is allied to a parallel government in the east, has not been able to breach the southern defenses of Tripoli. The fighting has killed at least 510 people, forced 75,000 out of their homes and trapped thousands of migrants in detention centers. “Of course, the political solution is still the goal. But to get back to politics, we must first finish with militias,” Haftar told the newspaper. Haftar also said the head of U.N. mission to Libya, Ghassan Salame, was no longer impartial. “Partition of Libya is maybe what our adversaries want. This is maybe what Ghassan Salame also wants.” The flare-up in the conflict in Libya - which has been gripped by anarchy since Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in 2011 - began in early April, when the LNA advanced on the capital. Even though France and other Western countries officially back the Libyan government, some have supported Haftar as they see him as a bulwark against Islamist militias in the country. Macron had asked Haftar in a meeting held in Paris this week to make a public step toward a ceasefire, without much luck, a French official told Reuters. Reporting by Inti Landauro; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky

Republicans totally outsmarted the mainstream media on Obamacare repeal

The long-awaited Senate health care reform bill drops Thursday, and it will be a front-page story in every newspaper in America. Over the next week, this document will be parsed to death by pundits on both sides. It will trigger countless editorials and, quite possibly, foment public protests. There’s no exaggerating it: This is the biggest legislative event of 2017 so far, inaugurating the final stretch of debate over a law poised to achieve one of the GOP’s dearest priorities: repealing and replacing Obamacare. But even though the effort has been going on for weeks, the bill release Thursday will be the first time much of the media has treated it like an urgent news event. For the past few weeks, Senate Republicans have been drafting the bill in secret. Knowing that they only need their own side’s votes to pass the bill, they have shut out both the Democrats and the American people from the lawmaking process. Now, there will be only be a brief period for bipartisan discussion before a vote next week. Compared to the drawn-out discussion over Obamacare in 2009, this effort to repeal it is as rushed and furtive as it gets. It’s the legislative equivalent of throwing sunglasses on a Hollywood starlet and dashing her past the paparazzi line. And while the debate over Obamacare was a prominent news story for weeks, the process of drafting the bill that Senate Republicans call the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 has successfully flown under the radar. In the past week, many critics have asked why the press has gone along with GOP’s unprecedented opaqueness. But has it really? Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan blamed editors and televisions producers for downplaying the matter. Where was the wall-to-wall coverage on CNN? Where were the bold New York Times headlines? The New Republic’s Brian Beutler argued that the lack of emphasis on health care reform in recent weeks reflects the media’s bias toward newness and action. Reporters, unfortunately, are not accustomed to writing about the absence of action. “By withholding details, [Republicans] limit the range of reportorial inquiry to questions about the process itself,” Beutler writes. “Have you seen the bill yet? No. Will you withhold support for the bill unless it runs through an open process? I am very dismayed about the process.” These are both fair critiques, but the blame doesn’t entirely lie with the media. Sullivan concedes that sites like Politico and the Hill have vigorously covered the matter, and both the Washington Post and the New York Times have written about this topic “almost daily.” Is it their fault that Americans didn’t care or pay attention? As my colleague Jeff Stein reported, even liberals have been hard pressed to gin up outrage over the Senate bill. “We literally don’t have enough information to motivate people,” one activist told him recently. It is easy to rally people around specific, upsetting provisions in a piece of legislation. It’s much more difficult to organize a protest around unprecedented norm-breaking and lack of good faith. This, in part, is the media’s job: to warn the public of problems coming down the pike — and to make sure that people pay attention. But news judgment has become devalued in the Trump era. If editors plastered their front page every day with headlines asking “Where’s the bill?” Fox News pundits would accuse them of partisanship. They’d run the risk of further losing credibility among a large swath of Americans. The danger of living in a time when people choose their own news is that it becomes difficult to mark the evaporation of democratic ideals. The power of the press comes from its ability to motivate public concern, and this may be one of the clearest examples yet of the erosion of the press as an institution. The media has said “this is not normal” a thousand times since Tuesday, but it has been no match for the GOP’s savvy strategy of legislative secrecy. The watchdog is barking, but few are listening.

Kylie Jenner and Jordyn Woods on Speaking Terms, Say Hello Inside Nightclub

Kylie Jenner's drama with Jordyn Woods is far enough behind them for them to say hello to each other in public -- but Tristan Thompson is STILL on their no-fly zone. Kylie, Jordyn and Tristan were all partying Friday night at Bootsy Bellows, and people inside the nightclub tell us Kylie and Jordyn spoke with each other briefly inside the VIP area. We're told Kylie was inside for about half an hour, and Jordyn was there for about 20 minutes ... and in that small window, KJ went down from her top-level section to say hi to JW, who was in a lower section. The former BFFs flashed smiles as they said hello, and we're told their interaction wasn't awkward at all. As one source put it, the "good vibes" were flowing. Kylie and Jordyn weren't alone, there were some mutual friends around to help break the ice. As you know ... Kylie and Jordyn's super close friendship ended back in February after Jordyn hooked up with Tristan at a house party. In the fallout, Khloe broke up with her baby daddy once again, and Jordyn was kicked out of Kylie's guest house. So, all eyes were on Kylie and Jordyn as they made their way to Bootsy Bellows for the birthday bash of their longtime pal, Stassie Karanikolaou ... and things got even more interesting when Tristan popped up. Tristan -- who was rolling with Drake, NBA baller Jordan Clarkson and Shaq's son, Shareef O'Neal -- walked up to Kylie and Kendall's section ... but we're told Kylie didn't talk to him, only Kendall did. Our sources say TT and Jordyn didn't communicate either. By all accounts, Kylie's peace summit with Jordyn went well and it seems like they're getting more comfortable being around each other. They say time heals all wounds ... it's been about 6 months for the ex-friends.

U.S. June sales a mixed bag for automakers; SUVs, trucks still strong

(Reuters) - Major automakers on Tuesday posted mixed U.S. sales results for June and the second quarter, with demand still fairly strong for SUVs and pickup trucks while passenger car sales continued a long-running decline. In the pickup truck segment, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV’s (FCA) (FCAU.N) (FCHA.MI) Ram outsold General Motors Co’s (GM.N) Chevrolet Silverado in the second quarter. GM reports sales on a quarterly instead of monthly basis. The Silverado has long held second place behind Ford Motor Co’s (F.N) F-Series pickup trucks, with Ram often a distant third. But so far in 2019, FCA’s sales of Ram pickups have outpaced Chevy Silverado sales by more than 40,000 vehicles. FCA, GM and Ford escalated a price war in June over pickup trucks - one of few vehicle market segments offering substantial profits, which matters at a time when overall U.S. new-vehicle sales are expected to fall this year. High interest rates, plus competition from millions of nearly new, off-lease vehicles have translated into fewer consumers splurging on new cars. After a weak start to the year, sales in the last couple of months have been largely flat versus 2018. “The market is not as down as it was to start off the year, which says a lot about market stability,” said George Augustaitis, director of industry analysis at CarGurus Inc, an online marketplace for new and used cars. “At this point, a Fed interest rate cut could be the thing that sparks the industry.” There have been growing expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this year, possibly as soon as at the central bank’s next policy meeting at the end of July, although Fed officials last week pushed back on those expectations. FCA said its sales rose 2% in June, driven by a 56% jump in Ram sales. “This type of year-over-year growth is likely not sustainable in the short term, however, calendar-year-to-date, our pick-up truck sales are up 28%,” FCA U.S. sales chief Reid Bigland said in a statement. “As a result I do feel that double-digit truck growth is achievable well into the future.” GM said second-quarter sales fell 1.5%, with strong sport utility vehicle sales offset by poor performance for its pickup trucks. The No. 1 U.S. automaker said sales of trucks would pick up in the third quarter as both its most popular and most affordable versions of the Silverado will hit dealer showrooms. Ford, which like GM reports sales quarterly, saw its sales fall 4.1% in the second quarter, with retail sales to consumers down more than 8%, according to auto industry data. Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) reported a 3.5% drop in sales for June, led by falling sedan sales. In the last few years, Americans have increasingly shunned passenger cars in favor of larger, more comfortable SUVs and pickup trucks. Nissan Motor Co Ltd’s (7201.T) sales plunged nearly 15%, with huge drops for much of its lineup including the best-selling Rogue SUV. After years of relying on steep discounts to increase U.S. market share, Nissan is trying to pull back so it can sell vehicles more profitably. Billy Hayes, Nissan’s North American vice president for sales, said many of the automaker’s models will be revamped in the next year or two, which will help lift sales. Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS) on Tuesday reported a 1.5% rise in U.S. sales for June, lifted by strong demand for SUVs and trucks. Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru and Nick Carey in Detroit; Editing by James Emmanuel, Matthew Lewisand Leslie Adler

The most revealing Republican ad of the election is an attack ad against Tim Kaine

The Republican Party characterizes itself as the party of the Constitution. But on the eve of the vice presidential debate, it decided to attack Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine for carrying out a constitutional duty. The Republican National Committee debuted a TV ad Monday that attacks Kaine for representing convicted criminals as a civil rights lawyer in Richmond (as well as selectively highlighting his record as governor to make him seem more generous with clemency than he actually was). As the ad’s narration puts it, Kaine “constantly protected the worst kinds of people.” Sure he did. Someone had to. The Constitution says so. Attacking Kaine for fulfilling a constitutional duty isn’t just an expression of hypocrisy, though. The ad — and its bungled rollout — are the clearest sign yet that Republicans who’ve embraced criminal justice reform, and tried to move past racially polarizing “tough on crime” politics, have lost the battle for the soul of their party. “Criminals are bad, and Democrats like criminals” is a well-established genre of Republican attack ad. So it’s no surprise that when the Kaine ad was released on Monday, Roll Call, the outlet that obtained “exclusive” right to the ad, billed it as a “Willie Horton–style” attack. But the conventional wisdom on this type of attack has changed — not least because in 2016, many people understand the racial undertones in portraying Democrats as coddling “criminals.” When the GOP tried a similar attack on Kaine during his 2005 race for Virginia governor, as pointed out by Democratic strategist Mo Elleithee (who worked on Kaine’s campaign), not only did it not work, but it also helped turn voters against his opponent. That put the RNC in an awkward position — and made the ad’s rollout (as Politico noticed) seem somewhere between “bungled” and “unintentionally comical.” The RNC and its communications director Sean Spicer both tweeted out the Roll Call article (with apparent pride). Then, as other Republicans recoiled from the suggestion that a “Willie Horton–style attack” was somehow an okay thing to do, the RNC and Spicer deleted the tweets — and Spicer started demanding that Roll Call issue a correction to change the headline he’d tweeted out himself just hours before. In fairness to the RNC, the anti-Kaine attack ad stays away from the racialized images of “scary black men” that the Horton ad (and its descendants) so freely trafficked in. Most of the criminals featured in the Kaine ad are white. But the reason that “law and order” is such a powerful trope to begin with is because of fears of lawless nonwhites — something the Republican Party’s current presidential nominee understands extremely well. It’s sad to see this. For a few years, it looked like the Republican Party — or at least one wing of it — was beginning to figure out a way to talk about the criminal justice system that avoided racial polarization. Reformers at the state level, and senators like Rand Paul and Mike Lee, talked about the need for criminal justice reform as a fiscal, moral, and, yes, constitutional matter. They deserve a lot of credit for putting reform on the national agenda. They’ve helped bring some of their own party’s skeptics on board — and have helped inspire Democrats to move past their own tough-on-crime traditions. Some have even addressed the right to counsel itself: Republican megadonors Charles and David Koch fund scholarships and training for future public defenders. But it looks like Republican reformers have lost the fight within their own party. The anti-Kaine attack ad might not be as racially grotesque as the Willie Horton ad. But its message is arguably even more horrifying. Instead of attacking a particular clemency policy, it attacks the right to counsel itself. The right to counsel is a constitutional guarantee. Period. It’s right there in the Sixth Amendment (emphasis added): In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. The Supreme Court hasn’t always agreed on the scope of the right to counsel: Only in the mid-20th century did it decide that defendants who couldn’t afford to hire lawyers had the right to public defenders. But the basic fact of it is pretty inviolable. There is no crime so heinous in the US court system that a lawyer is not permitted — even obligated — to speak in its defense. Tim Kaine wasn’t a public defender; he was a civil rights lawyer who often took on appeals for convicted criminals facing the death penalty. (This Newsweek profile of Kaine by Emily Cadei discusses his decision to take on cases like this.) That’s a type of “criminal prosecution.” His clients had the right to counsel. Kaine didn’t have to choose to defend them himself, but someone would end up having to defend them. Kaine decided to be the person who’d fulfill that constitutional duty. And now he’s getting attacked for it. This isn’t the first time that defending “the worst kinds of people” has become a political liability in later life. Earlier this cycle, Hillary Clinton was attacked for representing a rapist early in her own law career. Inevitably, this becomes a factor in judicial appointments themselves. Barack Obama reportedly passed over Judge Jane Kelly of the Eighth Circuit for his latest Supreme Court appointment slot because of the attacks that were already being rolled out against her for representing violent criminals as a public defender. (He went with the centrist, tough-on-crime Merrick Garland instead.) This has real consequences. The Supreme Court hasn’t had a criminal defense lawyer as a member in a quarter-century. Over that time, it’s eroded defendants’ rights — including the right to counsel. Furthermore, when it’s common to attack a politician or judge for once having represented bad people in court, young lawyers who want to be politicians or judges in later life are likely to avoid becoming criminal defenders. They just won’t want to risk it. That deprives defendants of good counsel; it means that politicians and judges don’t understand the criminal justice system from the point of view of the accused; and it makes them all the more likely to demonize lawyers, like Tim Kaine, who choose to step into the role that the Constitution demands. Republican reformers could stop this vicious cycle if they could get their party to stop treating constitutional rights as an election year wedge issue. But as long as the Republican Party, in even-numbered years, attacks people for representing violent criminals in court, it’s not going to be able to pressure its elected officials and its base to support criminal justice reforms in odd-numbered ones. The racial politics of Trumpism are potent, and it’s hard to imagine they’ll be fumigated from the Republican Party even if Trump loses. The criminal justice reform wing of the GOP will be one casualty. The Constitution — or at least the Sixth Amendment — might be another.

Proud Boy John Kinsman: why defendants get makeovers for court

When John Kinsman of the Proud Boys, a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group, appeared in court for a hearing last week, he looked like an entirely different man. (The Proud Boys deny SPLC’s hate group designation and question the legitimacy of the organization.) During a previous court appearance, on October 19, Kinsman had a scraggly beard, long hair, and wore a T-shirt and overalls. Less than a week later, he was unrecognizable in court in a suit, black-rimmed glasses, short slick hair, and a clean-shaven face. Proud Boys member gets makeover for court appearance https://t.co/qSy0aBc9CN pic.twitter.com/5riGKuESns The striking makeover is likely not a coincidence, but speaks to an understanding by Kinsman’s legal team that appearance is currency in the nation’s courtrooms. The likelihood of conviction and the length of a criminal sentence has been linked to how attractive, modest, or even light-complected defendants look. Amber Baylor, associate professor of law at the Texas A&M University School of Law, discussed earlier this year how it’s both “standard” and “good practice” for defense attorneys to spruce up their clients before a court appearance. She also runs the criminal defense clinic at Texas A&M’s law school. “It’s very common to ask your client to get a haircut if they want to, because you think it might help them in their case,” Baylor told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times in March. “Tell them how they may want to sit ... what direction they want to look in, whether or not they want to trim their beard.” Looking a certain way can alter perceptions about defendants. Kinsman, for instance, belongs to the Proud Boys, an organization that Facebook recently banned; regarding the ban, a spokeswoman for the social media company said in a statement, “Our team continues to study trends in organized hate and hate speech and works with partners to better understand hate organizations as they evolve.” And last year, Jason Kessler, who previously attended Proud Boys meetings, helped to organize the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally in which counter protester Heather Heyer was killed. (The Proud Boys deny any involvement with the rally and further deny that Kessler was ever a member of the group.) Kinsman was in court stemming from charges related to a fight with Antifa protesters in New York City on Oct. 12. His charges included attempted assault, riot, and criminal possession of a weapon. #JohnKinsman of the #ProudBoys was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court late last night on charges of Attempted Gang Assault in the Second Degree (a felony) & various misdemeanor charges.He is being held in jail on $25,000 bail. pic.twitter.com/kJ1nWOh0i7 But the Kinsman in court last week (he’s due back December 6) didn’t resemble the public’s general perception of a violent person. His suit covered up his arm tattoos and his shorter hair, shaven face, and glasses made him look socioeconomically privileged. Although people who harbor far-right views transcend class and educational lines, a perception persists that they are “hillbillies.” And the rise of Trump and the growing racial animus linked to his presidency was famously blamed on the “economic anxiety” of his supporters. (Most Trump voters weren’t poor, though.) Kinsman’s suaver look for his court hearing signals that his defense team potentially gave him a makeover to shoot down the idea that he espouses such views. As it is, the Proud Boys deny that they’re really white supremacists, despite their ties to the far right; the fact that Kinsman is married to a black woman has repeatedly come up on social media and in the press. Proud Boys supporters have used a picture of the couple to shoot down accusations of racism. Kinsman’s black wife, biracial kids, and clean-shaven face could all serve to distract from allegations that he’s a dangerous participant of the far right movement, most recently accused of body slamming, punching and stomping on an Antifa member, according to the New York Post. Kinsman is hardly the first defendant to overhaul his appearance; it’s a common courtroom tactic, particularly in high-profile cases. Jodi Arias, repeatedly portrayed in the press as sexually alluring, appeared in court for the murder of her former boyfriend Travis Alexander with brown hair, glasses, and modest clothing — a complete departure from the blonde-haired and bikini-clad photos of Arias that circulated in the media before the 2013 murder trial, which even Trump weighed in on. The following year, Eric Millerberg, a white supremacist charged with murdering a teen babysitter, got a makeover before appearing in a Utah court. Associated with the racist skinhead movement where members typically shave their heads, Millerberg grew out his hair, shaved his overgrown beard, and got glasses. But for defendants who aren’t involved in high-profile cases or don’t have the funds for a makeover, there’s no opportunity for a full appearance overhaul. This is especially the case with defendants with prominent tattoos. Some of these individuals wear makeup to cover up their body art, but hiring a professional to do so can get expensive, up to $125 daily. And courts don’t always pay the fees associated with tattoos, even if they may prejudice a jury against a defendant. In March, a Texas man named Joseph Tejeda, charged with capital murder, asked the 105th District Court to help him remove or cover up his face tattoos. There have been several other cases in which tattoo removal or cover-up for defendants similarly became an issue. The requests demonstrate the significance of appearance in a courtroom. And while some defendants will be able to transform themselves, as Kinsman has done, those without means will be forced to appear in court in ways that may expose them to jury bias and prevent them from getting a fair trial. Want more stories from The Goods by Vox? Sign up for our newsletter here.

This Small City is the Most Exciting Place to Party in the UK Right Now

This post appeared originally on THUMP UK.Let's try an unusual opening gambit: at the weekends, I'm a bit like Cormac McCarthy protagonist, Llewelyn Moss. He's a fictional welder and I'm a real writer, but we're both on the hunt. He's looking for antelope and I'm after the sesh. Out on our own at the dead of night, the pair of us stumble upon the site of a crime. In his case it's a drug deal gone horribly wrong. In my case, it's an amazing club in Manchester that no one seems to know about. Let me set the scene. I'm a million miles away from the parched Texan borderlands, deep into Shameless territory. I can't see through the fog and there's no one about to guide me. Eventually, somehow, I make my way to a bar, where I find the last man standing. He must be the bartender. I reveal my weapon of choice. He looks panicked, and I wonder if he's trying to plead with me like Moss' victim does. Actually he's just telling me it's a cash-only bar. Out there on the dancefloor, I can feel eyes burning into me. Is it Anton Chigurh? No, it's just a mate of mine, and they'd rather get back to watching Sega Bodega than hear me try and continue the analogy. It collapses, and we're left in a venue named after a very, very different novel—D.M. Thomas' Freudian erotic fantasy, The White Hotel. The smog I lost myself in—brightly hued and eerily reminiscent of Ann Veronica Janssens' yellowbluepink installation—was pumping out of what can only be described as a smoke machine on steroids. Pretty much everything here at the Salford space is off-balance; from the under-floor bar to the, shall we say, minimal approach to toilet facilities. With just two stalls to go around as many as 300 punters, it's no surprise that promoters like Manchester institution HomoElectric advise male dancers to "go outside for a wee, festival styleee." The White Hotel's been garnering a cult following for some time now, and like nearby club Hidden, it still gives the city's Uber drivers a headache. Both clubs turned disused warehouse spaces into venues bringing Konspiracy-era illicitness to a tired Manchester clubbing scene, ravaged by years of gentrification and disputes with local councils over noise. The location is key—the borough is distant from Manchester's densely populated city centre. Salford council also enforce slightly looser licensing laws than other parts of Manchester due to its physical position. Sitting out there in a kind of no-man's land means that just as the Northern Quarter's Stevenson Square turns into a glorified Instagram opportunity, Salford's nightlife is kicking into fifth gear. Despite both spaces being tucked away down dank alleys, trouble in the surrounding streets is rare. DJ Black Eyes, who throws an annual 12 hour rave at the White Hotel puts this down to the club's proximity to HM Prison Manchester, a high-security male prison better known as Strangeways. "You'd have to be completely stupid to cause trouble," he tells me. That leads to what Jamie Bull of HomoElectric describes as a clubbing environment with "fewer rules." Bull's venture, a gritty-but-glam club night that's taken place in some of the city's most iconic lofts, basements, and dilapidated mansions over the last two decades, now divides itself between the two Salford sites. The appeal is simple; they allow for a more relaxed crowd. "It's the crowd that don't get dressed up to the nines, it's dressed down for dancing, getting sweaty," he explains over Skype. "Being on the outskirts gives you permission to do that." Christian Wood is another cult Manchester figure with a predilection for nights out in the area. Known to most as Il Bosco, the man behind esteemed imprint Red Laser Records, Wood's played both clubs, and likens what's going on in Salford today to what was going on during the heydays of rave back in 1991/92. "It takes balls and foresight to open something like The White Hotel or Hidden, and you can tell from the very act of opening there that the vibe is gonna be leftfield and underground," he tells me. "Plus that dystopian walk up to the door offers its own kind of theater which adds to the feel." Officially opening two years ago now, there's rumors that the genesis of The White Hotel emerged during illegal raves thrown at Strangeway Studios and the Bunker. The Hotel's owner Ben Ward declined to speak to THUMP, sending us in the direction of the venue's managing partner, the novelist Austin Collings. When asked how the spaces manages to stay commercially viable, he is Collings is refreshingly honest. "You know when venues and people play the not-for-profit card—but we all know it is really because the next time you see these people they're doused in the latest David Beckham fragrance and they're 33 sheets to the wind on Tesco's Finest Brut—well TWH doesn't even pretend it's not for profit. We are purposefully sinking ourselves into debt and destruction." An admirable business plan, for sure. While we're not entirely sure that that's the most sustainable approach to business, it is one that the city's promoters certainly appreciate. "The people that run these venues have got the right attitude," Bull says. "They're fellow clubbers, music lovers themselves. It's done with some heart and some passion." DJ Black Eyes shares the sentiment: "Ben (Ward) is one of the most genuine people I know. You can tell he really enjoys owning the place—he'll go round and talk to people, he'll talk to people in the club, he'll talk to the promoters. I've never seen that anywhere else." The five-strong team behind Hidden are dedicated to providing a personal touch, too. We meet at their office one afternoon in June, and director Nickos Arnaoutis immediately begins by singing the praises of Mohammed, the club's airport transfer diver. "Me and Kris (Arnaoutis' brother and a fellow director) used to get lifts home off him after a night out and he'd always be wearing a suit, he'd be well spoken. We needed a driver so I said, 'would you be up for picking DJs up from the airport for us, representing Hidden?' And he goes so far above and beyond that he'll research the artist a week before, see where they've played, see a bit about them, and he'll be like, 'hello sir, how was it in Berlin?' DJs love it." The venue, which is an ever-growing network of 600-capacity spaces and artist studios has been lovingly cleaned up but retains its industrial feel. Much like The White Hotel, Hidden was a personal and financial sacrifice since opening in August 2015. With a high-risk booking strategy focused on long-term growth, the club's bookers, Jay Smith and Anton Stevens, found things initially tough. "You just have to grin and bear it because there is an end-point where, because of the value that you're adding to these people, word kind of spreads and people start seeing that you're doing a good thing," explains Stevens. "We could have gone for certain DJs who we knew would have filled the venue but me and Anton stuck to our guns," Smith says. They wanted DJs who might not be massive ticket-sellers, but who'd bring a decent crowd to a new space. They were also helped by engineering a deal with Manchester nightlife mammoths the Warehouse Project, an arrangement that might just have saved Hidden being obliterated by the all-mighty promotion outfit. Stevens, who worked at the superclub before joining the Hidden team recalls, "what we did was from the start tell the Warehouse Project what was happening, which they really respected. In the past you'd have a battle between Warehouse Project and Sankeys but the Warehouse Project have actually opened a few avenues for us." Salford's illicit spirit isn't consigned to the two clubs, however. "About two weeks ago I pulled off the most audacious rave Manchester has seen since the early 90s," Il Bosco confesses. "We had to load a canal boat with the sound system and sail it down the canal to Pomona Island. 400 people turned up and four days later it was still going." What makes this even more extraordinary is that Pomona is situated a stone's throw away from Salford Quays, home to Manchester's Media City, where the BBC, ITV and Salford University all have sites. While Il Bosco's event was lucky to avoid being shut down by overzealous officers of the law, the continued blurring of the lines of legality are, in part at least, down to the council's belief in the positive impact clubs can have on communities. Hidden's venue manager Martin Moffat explains that, "councils in different cities have different approaches so we are really lucky. Although in Salford they do make you work for it, as long as you show them that you are working with them then they encourage it, which is refreshing." Before I leave Hidden, the guys are keen to tell me another anecdote. "Marcellus Pittman literally canceled his flight just to sit drinking one night," Moffat starts. "He was on the phone to his mates in Detroit like Moodymann and stuff, saying, 'guys I've found the sickest venue and you all need to get over here,' and we were like, he's on the phone to Moodymann, is this real, it's like 6 in the morning," Smith continues. "He called it the new Paradise," Arnaoutis concludes proudly. Wood is more cautious about hailing Salford a new clubbing mecca. "The Red Laser crew spent a weekend at Griessmuehle in Berlin," he tells me. "That's fucking crazy unique and shows even though we are heading in the right direction with clubs like Hidden and The White Hotel leading the way we have a long way to go to match the experiences you get in places like Berlin." While he's probably right, it feels good a new chapter is Manchester's rich clubbing history is well under way. Let's just hope it hasn't been written by Cormac McCarthy. There's a few great nights happening at both venues soon. On the 8th of July there's a day and night party kicking off at Hidden. HomoElectric will be back there on the 26th of August too. That same night sees Lost Control's 12 Hours of Rave bash taking place at The White Hotel. Looking further into the future, the Red Laser squad's Manctaloween party's taking over Atama on the 28th of October. Oh, and Il Bosco's Bridge Theory 12" is out now. Phew!

FCC probes whether Sinclair misled agency during failed Tribune deal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Shares in Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc fell by 1.6% after the U.S. Federal Communications Commission disclosed it has opened an investigation into whether the company misled the agency in its failed effort to win approval for a $3.9 billion bid to purchase Tribune Media Co. In a June 25 letter to Sinclair posted Wednesday on the FCC’s website, the government agency’s media bureau directed Sinclair to answer a series of questions by July 9. On Thursday, the letter had been removed from the FCC’s website. The FCC did not explain why the letter had been removed but in a statement Thursday said the “Media Bureau is in the process of resolving an outstanding issue regarding Sinclair’s conduct as part of the last year’s FCC’s review of its proposed merger with Tribune. The Bureau believes that delaying consideration of this matter would not be in anyone’s interest.” Sinclair said Thursday “this is part of an ongoing discussion initiated by Sinclair to work with the FCC to respond to certain allegations raised” last year by the FCC when it referred the issue for a hearing. Sinclair could face fines from the FCC. In 2017, the FCC fined Sinclair $13.38 million for failing to disclose that programing on local TV stations that looked like news stories was sponsored by a cancer institute. FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, said Thursday that “any settlement negotiated behind closed doors will leave us with more questions than answers about one of the nation’s largest broadcasters. The FCC should hold a hearing in public on these questions and do it now.” Tribune terminated the sale of 42 TV stations in 33 markets to Sinclair, which has 192 stations, in August. A month earlier the FCC referred the deal for a hearing, questioning Sinclair’s candor over the planned sale of some stations and suggesting Sinclair would effectively retain control over them. An administrative judge in March dropped plans for a hearing into allegations that Sinclair may have misled regulators. Judge Jane Halprin added however that the allegations “are extremely serious charges that reasonably warrant a thorough examination.” U.S. President Donald Trump backed the deal and its collapse potentially ended Sinclair’s hopes of building a national conservative-leaning TV powerhouse that might have rivaled Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s Fox News. Nexstar Media Group Inc said in December it will buy Tribune in a $4.1 billion deal that would make it the largest regional U.S. TV station operator. The deal is still under review by the Justice Department and the FCC. In May, Walt Disney Co said it would sell its interests in 21 regional sports networks and Fox College Sports to Sinclair for $9.6 billion. Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Lisa Shumaker

Forget Facebook, Amazon or Google. Up-and-coming top tech talent is opting for startups.

Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google — the aptly named FANG companies — are coming under increased scrutiny for their total market dominance. In their respective but more frequently overlapping areas of focus, these giants have collected enough information to hold an alarming amount of global influence. Chief among that, and perhaps most concerning, is the amount of data collected on us, the everyday users. Well past their inflection points, and with every single usage, these companies are woven deeper into the fabric of our lives. Some might even say more emphatically that they have become our everyday lives. Longtime technology follower David Kirkpatrick went as far as to say that the big breakthrough industries of the future will be characterized by meaningful barriers to entry — best-placed for those who own the most data. Groundbreaking innovations that fall within AI — like autonomous cars and specific advances like augmented reality — require significant capital and data, priming those markets for domination by an established core with deep pockets. Implicit in that is the limited space for startups to gain a footing in the market. Just as these juggernauts draw customers with less and less effort, the tipping-point status of their services makes not joining the Big Four feel like being left out, and they will win the war for talent. However, that is not what the view looks like from my position as CEO of a company whose charge is to find and place engineers, designers, product managers and data analysts at technology growth companies — startup tech companies in particular. I am happy to report that “talent” remains liquid. A flight to the top at the world’s most established technology companies is no longer the most sought-after route. This is indeed a different world from even a decade ago, when brilliant MBAs and engineers were often choosing between and opting for Google over Goldman. At that time, this was the ultimate indication of a changing of the guard. So what is giving the rest of the employer world a fighting chance? A smart man once said it’s hard to scale “special.” Keeping your mojo decades post-launch is no small feat, and while these companies have had tremendous impact on a global scale, they are now well past their teenage years and contain more layers. When engineers talk about what they look for in an employer, they often choose the opportunity to be a big fish (hero) in a small shop with grand ambition, over a small fish in a big shop that has already made its mark (a contributor). At the same time, transparency also becomes a challenge in a company of great size. Public-company transparency is one thing, but the transparency that many talented technology executives seek pertains to operations and leadership. They desire the enterprise-wide view that the startup environment provides, and many of them want to have a hand in driving a company’s broader development. The millennial and iGen crowd will soon be a majority in the workforce, and these generations crave a part in the next big thing. The disconnect is that FANG companies are the current big thing. Millennials and iGen believe in the art of the possible and embrace socially-minded missions. This is not to suggest that Google became evil or less socially conscious when, in 2015, it dropped “Don't be evil“ from its core values, but it did create a space for others to carry the torch. Young companies, with founders almost always still in tow, are as passionate a group as you can find. They tell the story of the mission — always prospective at this point in their life cycle — in such an effective way that VCs swoon and new talent wants to walk through fire. Most important is the evolution of the rest of the employer community outside of the obvious technology companies like Netflix or Cisco. Simply stated — by so many we can’t accurately attribute — every company is tech-centric. Technology is now a non-negotiable for enduring success. With these “tech-peripherals” — from giants of the oil industry to health insurers using data analytics to forecast patients most at risk — there are more ways to make a difference with technology than ever before. Engineering, data, design and product talent will always be coveted by companies across tech — the giants and the comers, and increasingly, the tech-peripherals. Make no mistake about it — it is a competitive battle. The FANG companies may very well receive continued criticism from regulators over their growing influence, but from where we sit, the future of innovation remains open to new breeds. How do we know this? Today, very little talent walks in our door and says, "Can you get me a job at Google?” Rather, they say “Can you get me into the next Google?” David Saad is co-founder and CEO of SingleSprout, a specialized search firm focused on hiring engineering and product talent at tech companies. Reach him @singlesproutnyc. This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Facebook tells conservatives it may revamp its approach to Trending Topics

Facebook told a group of influential conservatives that it's considering revamping how it identifies Trending Topics in the wake of the recent controversy over alleged bias. The social network previously disclosed the websites and 1,000 media outlets it uses to corroborate reporting — a list with some notable omissions. "There are some fairly prominent conservative news sites that weren't listed there," said Rob Bluey, editor in chief of the Daily Signal, the Heritage Foundation's news organization. "They did talk about revamping Trending Topics." Bluey suggested prominent conservative sites to include among those that Facebook's algorithm scours for topics of interest or for vetting stories — including Conservative Review, Newsmax, the Federalist and Townhall, as well as his own. The social network did not respond to a request seeking comment. Facebook has emerged as a powerful platform for news organizations, with more than one-third of 18- to 29-year-olds identifying social networks as their primary source for learning about the 2016 election, according to Pew Research. "I told Mark and some of the other executives that the Daily Signal wouldn't be possible without Facebook," Bluey said. "We launched two years ago, and Facebook is one of the platforms we use to reach our audience." Bluey said he emerged from the meeting convinced that Zuckerberg is committed to ensuring that Facebook is a platform where everyone has a voice. "They assured us they’re not out to get conservatives in any way," Bluey said. "We don't have to worry about somebody sitting in a back office, secretly taking down conservative pages." This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Turkey's Death Metal Scene Thrives Despite Government Repression

It's never been easy to be a metalhead in Turkey, where they're forced to exist under the ominous glare of a conservative culture and a state riddled with authoritarian tendencies. A lack of venues has plagued the country's DIY music scenes even in its biggest cities, and the few that do open their doors to metal music often have terrible sound systems. But these setbacks haven't stopped a vibrant underground metal scene from flourishing in Turkey, where a handful of active groups are playing killer black and death metal. Turkey is firmly under the control of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose AK Parti party has led the country for a decade and a half, dominating the political arena; they've become known for their violent repression of the country's Kurdish population, and lack of hesitation to jail dissidents on the flimsiest of charges (including actual elected members of parliament). Now, a critical election is approaching, one that Erdoğan called over a year early. If elected again, he will preside over a newly-installed presidential system designed to grant him even more power, and the suffocating chokehold he has over the country will remain for years to come. Add all that to a Turkish lira that has been plummeting rapidly this year, and you get an atmosphere that feels mildly apocalyptic—something that has bled into its underground metal scene. Despite its authoritarian government, Turkey is no Turkmenistan or North Korea, and there is still just enough freedom and space for underground scenes to thrive. The vitality of the underground metal scene was no more evident than at a recent festival in Ankara that brought 14 bands to the stage over the course of two days. Hundreds of metalheads came out, many traveling from cultural capital Istanbul. Showcased were among some of the country's best active metal units, who delivered passionate and thunderous performances in a basement rock bar where the stage was buttressed with a row of barrels that seemed to encourage stage-diving and crowd surfing. Not every band featured below appeared at the festival that weekend, but all are among the most important and exciting of their kind active today. Though opportunities to play are indeed few and far between, this hasn't thwarted Turkey's underground metal groups from cultivating a rich scene. They rage on. Perhaps the most brutal performance of the weekend came from Engulfed, an Istanbul death metal quartet that formed in 2010. Hot off 2017's debut LP, Engulfed in Obscurity, the band ripped through an airtight set and sounded like a pack of speed-addled rhinos pounding down a dusty road. Vocalist/bassist Serkan elaborately described the band's sound as, “the noise you hear while being dragged inside a dark tunnel, when everything positive in the universe is annihilated within eternal darkness, while taking pleasure in suffering and when everything sacred is being mercilessly destroyed.” The band's usually frenetic pace is punctuated by slow, grim breakdowns laced with demonically appealing leads. Serkan cites visa problems as being one of the major inhibitors of the scene, preventing Turkish band from showcasing their sound abroad (Turks have to apply for Schengen visas to visit Europe; the application fees are expensive and arbitrary rejections are common.) Nevertheless, he appreciates the close-knit ties that bind the scene together and keep them motivated. “The numbers are small, but we have a metal scene composed of friends that are totally connected and look out for one another,” Serkan says. Another powerfully talented Istanbul death metal outdit, Diabolizer, shares two members with Engulfed but opts to take more of a gratuitous, exuberant approach that doesn't lack in brutality. Their most recent effort is 2016's bruiser Apokalypse EP. Defiant, cackling melodic guitar parts dance effortlessly around a bottomless pit of doom. Headbangers in Ankara and Istanbul have been fortunate enough to catch the dazzling Diabolizer on stage at recent shows this year. Perhaps the most eagerly-awaited band of the festival was Burial Invocation, which was formed in 2008 with roots in both Istanbul and Ankara. The four-piece's hotly anticipated debut full-length, Abiogenesis, is slated to come out later this year and blends savage vocals with manic drum work and impressive guitar trickery slathered in alternating dollops of brutality and melodic brilliance. European metalheads will be fortunate to catch the band across a number of countries on their tour of the continent in September and October of this year. “In my opinion, being a metalhead in Turkey is great; there are a number of great albums that will be released soon and some fantastic shows coming up,” says guitarist Cihan. “There are both new and old bands, the attendance at shows is good, and they are more soulful and fun than the underground shows I've seen in Europe." Laying down a raw, sharp blend of death metal that blends power and precision, Hellsodomy (which also shares members with Engulfed and toured Europe together last year) is yet another mainstay of Turkey's underground metal scene. Their 2016 eight-song full length, Chaostorm, is a barrage of throat-shredding vocals, skull-pounding drums, and razor-sharp solos. “There has been an increase in the attendance of shows, at every show there are people we haven't seen before. Though in a city of 15 million, the number of people coming out to a show is around 150. In a country with 81 provinces, we can only play in five,” guitarist Yunus says. On the positive side, “we've created this fantastic world within our own realm and are working to take things to the next level." Described by vocalist Çağatay as “twisted, malignant metal” that will appeal to fans of black, death and thrash metal, Persecutory formed in Istanbul in 2014. After a year and a half hiatus, they roared back to the stage with an intense, memorable performance at the Ankara festival. Their debut LP, Towards an Ultimate Extinction, wastes no time descending into pure chaos and mayhem, laying the foundation for an absolutely catastrophic sound formed around Çagatay's anguished, searing vocals. “Being a metalhead is not a hobby for me, it's an identity,” Çağatay says, adding that many people in the scene end up losing interest entirely and then chastise active metalheads for their ongoing commitment. “Apart from three or four small bars that we've played at, venue owners don't take metal shows seriously and do not want to host them,” he adds. Sarinvomit's sound is as vile and dark as its name implies. Sharing vocalists with Persecutory, this Istanbul unit is hot off the release of their debut, Malignant Thermonuclear Supremacy, a throttling, crackbrained blend of extreme metal. Here, bloodthirsty vocals, battleaxe guitars, and blastbeats that make even the listener's wrists feel sore converge in a truly punishing fashion. Long-running scene stalwarts Decaying Purity have been at it since 2005, enduring a number of lineup changes while amassing several releases and appearing at various festivals across Europe. The band, which describes its sound as “sickeningly brutal death metal punishment,” most recently released Malignant Resurrection of the Fallen Souls, a raging beast of an affair with filthy, venomous vocals and the impressive riff-repertoire of co-founder Mustafa, who also plays in Engulfed and Diabolizer. A new recording is reportedly in the works. Paul Benjamin Osterlund is a writer based in Istanbul; follow him on Twitter.

Trash Geyser Spews Garbage In Yellowstone National Park

Geyser eruptions are known as one of the most beautiful events to occur in nature. Not anymore! On September 15, Yellowstone Park’s Ear Spring geyser erupted, belching not just rocks and scalding hot water into the air, but dozens of pieces of human trash that were cooked for decades in incredibly hot water. Nice! The National Park Service shared a picture of some of the artifacts recovered, which it claims are “clearly historic” and may end up in Yellowstone’s archives. The picture clearly shows a baby pacifier, a Solo Jazz cup, a plastic spoon, and some sort of tablet-like electronic device destroyed beyond recognition. There also seems to be a large slab of concrete or a cinder block. “Foreign objects can damage hot springs and geysers,” representatives from the National Park Service said in a Facebook post. “You can help by never throwing anything into Yellowstone's thermal features!” You would think it goes without saying, but yes, please do not hurl your trash into a scalding hot spring in the largest National Park in the country. If you’re thinking “Maybe I’ll throw just a little trash into the geyser,” No. Do not throw even a little trash into the geyser. The National Park Service shared a photo of several dozen coins that were thrown into the geyer and were consequently scorched beyond recognition. Throwing your currency into a geyser will not bring you good luck. Do not throw your coins into a geyser. If you would like to behold the mighty geyser sputtering human trash through the air, a video of the eruption is included below. Abandon hope all ye who enter here.

Lindsay Lohan's Beach Birthday Celebration Begins Early in Greece

Lindsay Lohan's getting the party started a little early for her birthday ... hitting the beach at one of her favorite spots in Greece. The soon-to-be 31-year-old arrived in Mykonos Thursday and enjoyed a boat ride and a refreshing dip in the sea. Even though the celebration has begun, her bday's not actually until Sunday. What's interesting -- Lindsay's rocking a green emerald ring ... very similar to her old engagement ring. Don't be fooled, though -- we're told she just loves emeralds, and it's actually part of her new jewelry line ... aptly called Lohan by Lindsay Lohan. Happy early birthday, Whatsyourname!

Exclusive: China shuns U.S. request for talks on airline website dispute over Taiwan

BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China has rejected U.S. requests for talks over how U.S. airlines and their websites refer to Chinese-claimed Taiwan, according to sources, including a U.S. official, adding to tensions in a relationship already frayed by a major trade dispute. China has demanded that foreign firms, and airlines in particular, begin referring to Taiwan as Chinese territory on their websites, along with Hong Kong and Macau, a move described by the White House in May as “Orwellian nonsense”. Numerous non-U.S. carriers, such as Air Canada, Lufthansa and British Airways have already made changes to their websites, according to Reuters checks. But several U.S. companies, including Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, were among carriers that sought extensions to a May 25 deadline to make the changes. The final deadline is July 25. In late May, the U.S. State Department presented China’s Foreign Ministry with a diplomatic note requesting consultations on the matter, but the ministry has since refused it, two sources briefed on the situation told Reuters. “This has definitely become a foreign policy issue,” one of the sources said on condition of anonymity, noting that the U.S. government did not view it as a technical matter for bilateral aviation cooperation. The spat had become “another grain of sand in the wound” amid escalating trade tensions, a second source said, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on billions of dollars worth of Chinese imports to punish Beijing for intellectual property abuses. An official with the State Department confirmed to Reuters that China had rejected its request for talks on June 25, adding that it was “disappointed” and had maintained close communication with the airlines but had not told them how to respond to Beijing’s demands. “U.S. airlines should not be forced to comply with this order,” the State Department official said. “We have called on China to stop threatening and coercing American companies and citizens.” Chinese companies are free to operate their websites without political interference in the United States, the official added. China’s rebuff has left the U.S. government weighing its next move. The White House convened a staff-level meeting on the issue on Wednesday, but it is not clear what it plans to do. Taiwan is China’s most sensitive territorial issue. Beijing considers the self-ruled, democratic island a wayward province. Hong Kong and Macau are former European colonies that are now part of China but run largely autonomously. Armed by the United States, Taiwan has always been a major source of tension between Beijing and Washington, but it has been an increasingly contentious issue since Trump took office. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang, asked about the rejection of discussing the issue with the United States, reiterated that Taiwan was an inseparable part of China and that this was the consensus of the international community. Foreign companies in China must respect China’s law and the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, he told a daily news briefing on Thursday. Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrew H.C. Lee, said China’s demands over the issue “have reached new levels of hysteria”. “Taiwan is grateful to the efforts of like-minded countries that have chosen to take a stand against Chinese bullying of private enterprises,” he said. The companies have little incentive to defy Chinese regulations, but compliance could put them at odds with U.S. foreign policy. Delta’s chief executive, Ed Bastian, said at a forum in Washington on Wednesday that the airline was working with the U.S. government but would not say whether it would comply. “We’re working with the U.S. authorities on the topic and we’ll stay close to our U.S. government,” Bastian said, calling it a “good plan of action”. The chief executive of United Airlines, Oscar Munoz, told Reuters in Washington on June 7 that the website issue was a “government-to-government diplomatic issue and again we’ll see what comes out of that and we’ll react accordingly”. Asked if he would defer to the White House, Munoz said that “I fly to both places and I am deferential to our customers, and again this is not something I am going to solve”. American Airlines said in early June that it had not made changes on its website, and that it was following the direction of the U.S. government. It is unclear how China might seek to punish airlines that do not comply. But in December it changed rules governing foreign airlines operating in the country, including adding a clause that regulators could change a company’s permit if it did not meet “the demand of public interest”. Reporting by Matthew Miller and Michael Martina in BEIJING, Brenda Goh in SHANGHAI, Jess Macy Yu in TAIPEI and David Shepardson in WASHINGTON; Editing by Tony Munroe, Philip McClellan and Nick Macfie

Germany seeking EU summit decision on going carbon neutral by 2050-official

BERLIN, June 19 (Reuters) - Germany is aiming to get European Union leaders to agree to make the bloc carbon neutral by 2050 at this week’s summit, a government official said on Wednesday. Divisions remain among the bloc’s 28 governments over the long-term net-zero emissions target, with many concerned a steeper pace of reductions could hurt competitiveness and cost jobs in high-employment sectors. (Reporting by Andreas Rinke Writing by Michelle Martin Editing by Thomas Escritt)

Mass protests have erupted in Poland

Thousands of Poles took to the streets in mass demonstrations Thursday, after the president signed into law a new measure tightening the nationalist ruling party’s grip on the Supreme Court. Protesters gathered in front of Warsaw’s presidential palace and in more than 20 other cities and towns, chanting “Free courts” and “Shame.” Some held pens, a dig at President Andrzej Duda's willingness to sign off on the controversial amendment. Police used pepper spray on demonstrators who wrote slogans on the pavement in Warsaw. The new law is the latest in a series of judicial reforms by Poland’s nationalist government, which have sparked concerns over the independence of the judiciary and brought Warsaw into a tense standoff with Brussels. The amendment will effectively allow the nationalist Law and Justice-led government to choose the next Supreme Court chief. The measure follows reforms earlier this month that critics – including the court’s chief justice – labeled a “purge.” The government’s controversial move to lower the retirement age for the court’s judges to 65 from 70 forced about a third of them from the bench, and sparked widespread protests. Critics, including the European Union, said the move would result in the court being stacked with judges subservient to the government. READ: Poland’s nationalist government is cracking down on protesters – unless they’re far-right Thousands of Poles took to the streets in mass demonstrations Thursday, after the president signed into law a new measure tightening the nationalist ruling party’s grip on the Supreme Court. Protesters gathered in front of Warsaw’s presidential palace and in more than 20 other cities and towns, chanting “Free courts” and “Shame.” Some held pens, a dig at President Andrzej Duda's willingness to sign off on the controversial amendment. Police used pepper spray on demonstrators who wrote slogans on the pavement in Warsaw. The new law is the latest in a series of judicial reforms by Poland’s nationalist government, which have sparked concerns over the independence of the judiciary and brought Warsaw into a tense standoff with Brussels. The amendment will effectively allow the nationalist Law and Justice-led government to choose the next Supreme Court chief. The measure follows reforms earlier this month that critics – including the court’s chief justice – labeled a “purge.” The government’s controversial move to lower the retirement age for the court’s judges to 65 from 70 forced about a third of them from the bench, and sparked widespread protests. Critics, including the European Union, said the move would result in the court being stacked with judges subservient to the government. READ: Poland’s nationalist government is cracking down on protesters – unless they’re far-right Since coming into power in 2015, the Law and Justice party has set about rapidly reshaping Poland in line with its nationalist agenda, promoting traditional conservative values over those of the country’s liberal elite, and working to wrest power from Brussels to restore national control over the country’s affairs. One report by pro-democracy think tank Freedom House said Law and Justice had transformed the Polish landscape “at breakneck speed, and in violation of the country’s own laws.” Among other changes to Poland’s institutions, Law and Justice has removed dozens of judges from the country’s courts and tribunals. The party, which has long demonized the judiciary, says its overhauls are necessary to make the courts more efficient, and to uproot the legacy of Poland’s Communist past. “Without reforms, we cannot rebuild the Polish state so that it serves its citizens,” said party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski. The moves have brought Poland into a confrontation with the European Union, which trained the most powerful political weapon in its arsenal on Warsaw in December when it invoked, for the first time in its history, Article 7 of its founding treaty over Poland’s judicial reforms. Under that process, considered the EU’s “nuclear option,” Poland faces being stripped of its voting rights in the EU. But that would require unanimous approval by other member states, and Hungary, governed by another nationalist and euroskeptic party, has vowed to block any such move. READ: How Poland’s populist government let far-right extremism explode into the mainstream The EU’s highest court, the European Court of Justice, delivered a fresh indictment on the Polish legal system Wednesday when it ruled that Ireland could refuse to hand over an alleged drug dealer to Poland, if its judiciary determines he would not receive a fair trial there. Ireland’s High Court had expressed reservations that the case could be compromised by the situation in Poland, and that the ruling will give other EU countries a legal basis to reject Polish extradition requests in the future. Cover image: The "Chain of Light" near the Presidential Palace in Warsaw on July 26, 2018. Photo by Maciej Luczniewski/NurPhoto via Getty Images.

How the Clinton campaign is making #ThatMexicanThing a thing, explained

Sen. Tim Kaine made a point during the vice presidential debate of reminding the American public of that time Donald Trump called Mexican immigrants rapists and drug dealers. “He started his campaign with a speech where he called Mexicans rapists and criminals,” Kaine said, listing Trump’s most controversial campaign statements. “I cannot imagine how Gov. Pence can defend Donald Trump.” At first, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence responded with a laugh and a shrug — a seemingly implicit defense of Trump implying Kaine’s attack was unfounded (despite the fact that Trump really has said these things). But Pence’s initial lack of response didn’t stop Kaine. He used the same line four times Tuesday night. And by the fourth time, Pence had had enough. “Senator, you whipped out that Mexican thing again,” Pence retorted. “There are criminal aliens who have come into this country illegally, who are perpetrating violence. He also said, ‘and many of them are good people.’ Sen. Kaine, you keep leaving them out of your quote.” “That Mexican thing” was an unusually inarticulate moment for Pence that night, and Twitter noticed. Soon the hashtag #ThatMexicanThing was trending on Twitter. Figuring out what to do for lunch. Might do #thatMexicanthing on the corner. As Univision’s Jorge Ramos pointed out, it is an even more unfortunate turn of phrase for the vice president of a candidate that has had an extremely difficult time energizing the Latino vote: First Trump calls Mexicans "rapists". Now Pence says #ThatMexicanThing Question: Is that a creative strategy to win the Latino vote? Hillary Clinton supporters used it to express “things” Mexican immigrants actually do — work hard, play by the rules, pay taxes, participate in civic life as Americans, and so on. #ThatMexicanThing where undocumented immigrants pay more taxes than @realDonaldTrump does. #VPDebate #thatmexicanthing is my mom who immigrated to this country, pays her taxes and put two kids through college while managing a business ❤️ Look at me, I'm #ThatMexicanThing that has served in the military and graduated college. #NeverTrumpPence As Republican strategist Ana Navarro notes, Pence’s offhand remark has become a rallying cry for Mexican Americans to highlight their life experiences in the United States, in the face of Trump and Pence’s immigration-skeptical policy proposals. Latino Twitter abuzz. #ThatMexicanThing now a hashtag Mexican-Americans using to share stories on American dream/work ethic/sacrifices made. https://t.co/HgrfWJrpD9 The Clinton campaign also seized on it quickly: www.thatMexicanthing.com now redirects to Hillary Clinton’s campaign website, and Clinton’s campaign is doing its darnedest to make the hashtag #ThatMexicanThing the takeaway from Tuesday’s debate. It’s an illustration of just how savvy campaigns can be in the face of a losing performance, but it is also a reflection of what Kaine was trying do all night: sink Pence down to Trump’s level. If the Clinton campaign succeeds in elevating this debate moment, Kaine’s otherwise damaging interruptions will not have been enacted in vain. Kaine’s strategy was to make Pence defend Trump. It didn’t play out like he hoped, unless this works. Kaine’s finest moments in the debate were when he listed Trump’s most reprehensible campaign moments — but a lot of them were undermined by his overeagerness to jump into the role of attack dog. He interrupted Pence often, interjecting with Trump’s past transgressions. It gave Republicans fodder for a simple post-debate attack video, creating a supercut of all the times Kaine jumped in on Pence’s time. This allowed Republicans to create space for the argument that there’s nothing sexist about the way Trump interrupted Clinton last week at the first debate since her running mate used the same tactic. But Pence’s inarticulate moment also highlighted the fact that he had no intention of defending Trump. One of the few times he tried to became a memeable moment, which the Clinton campaign has been quick to co-opt. Pence’s retort didn’t age well overnight, as media outlets begin to pick up on it on Wednesday and the Clinton campaign continues to push it as Tuesday’s takeaway. Ultimately, Pence’s remark may not matter in the grand scheme of the election, as vice presidential debates so often don’t, but it undermines a real opportunity for the Trump campaign — a potentially positive news cycle for the first time in more than a week.

Virgin Atlantic uniform: flight attendants no longer have to wear makeup

Virgin Atlantic is no longer requiring women flight attendants to wear makeup — and, for the first time, they’ll be offered pants as part of their default uniform. In the past, the airline’s standards for women who worked on board were fairly stringent: The airline reportedly has a style guide for flight attendants that includes instructions on what types of makeup they are and aren’t allowed to wear, and women were only provided trousers for their uniforms upon request. The airline is framing the move as a push toward gender equality in a line of work that remains heavily divided along gender lines: Most pilots are still men and most flight attendants are still women. “Not only do the new guidelines offer an increased level of comfort, they also provide our team with more choice on how they want to express themselves at work,” Virgin Atlantic executive VP Mark Anderson told CNN in a statement. “Our world-famous red uniform is something all of us at Virgin Atlantic are incredibly proud of. As an airline, we have always stood out from the crowd and done things differently to the rest of the industry. We want our uniform to truly reflect who we are as individuals while maintaining that famous Virgin Atlantic style.” While the new guidelines allow crew members to opt out of wearing makeup, those who choose to do so will still have to adhere to Virgin’s style guide. The new guidelines also underscore how strictly flight attendants’ appearances are enforced to this day — and the extent to which the aviation industry continues to play into outdated gender stereotypes. It’s worth noting that although flight attendants in general are expected to adhere to rigid gender norms, there is a rich history of queer flight attendants — last year, Virgin offered its first-ever Pride flight to New York City, which was entirely staffed by LGBT employees — but the industry continues to uphold rigid gender norms. As gender sociologist Lisa Wade has noted, the first flight attendants were men, and early airlines often had bans on hiring women. But the profession quickly became dominated by women, who were expected to play the role of cheerful domestic worker and sexpot to appeal to largely male travelers. A post shared by Virgin Atlantic (@virginatlantic) on Oct 30, 2018 at 11:36am PDT Even today, the overwhelming majority of flight attendants are women, and most airlines, especially those that provide luxury services, still require their cabin crews to adhere to strict dress codes. In a 2018 interview with Town and Country, an Emirates flight attendant revealed that the airline has rules for what colors of nail polish employees are allowed to wear, as well as guidelines for lipstick — which is required — eye makeup, jewelry, and hair styles. Cosmopolitan compiled a list of different airlines’ requirements, which range from standard things like customer service to more outlandish rules like how much flight attendants can weigh, what range their body mass index should fall into, and how long their nails should be. American Airlines reportedly requires cabin crew members to “cut or otherwise remove” “noticeable hair in nostrils and/in on ears or underarms.” JetBlue employees are allowed to put their hair in ponytails, but they “should be no higher than the tops of the ears and no longer than the tops of the shoulders.” The list goes on and on. Virgin’s relaxed rules could be a sign of broader change. The airline called the move a “significant change for the aviation industry,” something that would normally sound like brand-speak, but in this case seems to be true.

IEA concerned about Middle East tensions, stands ready to act

DUBLIN (Reuters) - The International Energy Agency (IEA) is very concerned about the impact that tensions in the Middle East may have on global energy security and will act if there is any physical disruption to supplies, its executive director said on Monday. Oil prices rose on Monday, extending large gains last week that were prompted by tensions between the United States and Iran, although concerns about the possibility of weakening demand kept a lid on gains. Strong growth in the price of U.S. shale oil has also contained stronger increases, the IEA’s Fatih Birol added on Monday. “We are monitoring the situation very closely and are very worried. In case of physical disruption, we are ready to act in an appropriate way,” Birol told a news conference at the IEA’s annual energy efficiency conference in Dublin. Last week, benchmark Brent crude climbed 5% and U.S. crude < CLc1> surged 10% after Iran shot down a U.S. drone on Thursday in the Gulf, adding to strains stoked by attacks on oil tankers in the area in May and June that Washington has blamed on Iran. Iran denies any role in the tanker attacks. Birol said earlier this month that the attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman, which stoked concern of reduced flows of crude on one of the world’s key shipping routes, threatened global energy security. However on Monday he cited the strength of U.S. shale oil prices for supporting the market, similar to the buffer it provided through U.S. sanctions imposed on oil exporters Iran and Venezuela. “This would definitely have bad implications for the global economy but despite those attacks, we have not seen a major impact on the prices and the main reason is United States shale oil prices are growing so strongly that there is a lot of oil in the markets now,” he said. “It provides a ceiling on the price hikes which is very good news for consumers around the world.” Reporting by Padraic Halpin, editing by Louise Heavens

NYPD Honcho Insulted by 'Hamilton' Star Lin-Manuel Miranda Celebrating Obama's Controversial Prisoner Release

Lin-Manuel Miranda's vowing to return to "Hamilton" in honor of President Obama commuting the sentence of Oscar Lopez Rivera -- who was convicted for conspiracy against the U.S. government -- and some cops are outraged. Miranda said he'd be honored to play Alexander Hamilton if Rivera goes to see the play in Chicago after his release in May. Rivera has been serving a 70 year sentence since the '80s for involvement in the FALN -- a Puerto Rican liberation organization that conducted fatal bombings in NYC and an attack on NYPD headquarters. The argument for Rivera's release has been that he was never convicted of killing anyone, and only for seditious conspiracy, but a high-ranking member of NYPD tells TMZ, "It's a slap in the face of every hard working NYPD officer that the President would commute the sentence of a terrorist, and for [Miranda] to honor a terrorist is appalling." Miranda, who quit "Hamilton" last summer, is of Puerto Rican descent and tweeted Obama to thank him for shortening Rivera's sentence before leaving the White House.

How one woman used fashion to reclaim her Muslim American identity

Startup co-founder, fashionista, skateboarder, NASA technical engineer, and mipster. Layla Shaikley doesn’t just embody the new term, which means “Muslim hipster” — she helped coin it. “The mainstream view is so misrepresentative of so many young Muslim Americans,” she says. “They were generally represented in one way, instead of an amalgamation of many identities.” To young Muslim Americans like her who grew up without role models in the media, Shaikley says, “Nothing represents you right now, which is why you have to take control of our narrative and make something that represents you.” So Shaikley got some friends together and filmed a video. “Somewhere in America #MIPSTERZ” shows her skating alongside her friends in the streets of New York City. Dressed in their mipster best, they vogue for the camera, ride motorcycles, and lounge on fire escape stairwells. US Olympiad Ibtihaj Muhammad pulls off her fencing mask, revealing her hijab underneath. In the background, Jay Z’s “Somewhere in America” plays. Two years — and one viral rise in popularity — later, Shaikley is at the forefront of a mipster cultural movement she helped create. In the latest installment of Vox’s The Secret Life of Muslims, Layla Shaikley opens up about the surprising new places #MIPSTERZ life has taken her.

Catholic leaders in Texas name around 300 priests accused of abuse

(Reuters) - Roman Catholic leaders in Texas on Thursday identified around 300 priests and others accused of sexually abusing children. It was one of the largest groups of names disclosed by the church as it faces U.S. state and federal investigations into its handling of decades of allegations of sexual misconduct by priests. The names were posted online by the state’s 15 Catholic dioceses and follow an August grand jury report in Pennsylvania detailing seven decades of abuse of thousands of children by more than 300 priests. “The Bishops of Texas have decided to release the names of these priests at this time because it is right and just and to offer healing and hope to those who have suffered,” said Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of the Galveston-Houston diocese, who is also president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. In the months after the Pennsylvania report, dozens of other dioceses around the United States have released the names of hundreds of priests and others accused of abuse. Some states have opened their own investigations into the church. Texas’ Catholic dioceses have been in the spotlight since November when authorities searched the offices of the archdiocese of Galveston-Houston looking for documents related to a priest charged in September with sex crimes. About 30 percent of Texas’ population, or 8.5 million people, identify as Catholics, one of the highest rates for any U.S. state, according to the USCCB. Some of the 15 Texas dioceses listed priests accused of abuse going back as far as the 1940s. Others like Laredo only went back to 2000, when it was created, and listed no names. It was not clear whether the release of names would result in prosecutors bringing charges. The majority of the priests identified in Texas have died, as is the case in most dioceses around the country. Reporting by Andrew Hay in New Mexico; editing by Darren Schuettler