Pool, Getty Images

 Who's got two thumbs and a Secret Service-approved phone to tweet from?

 On arriving in Washington on Thursday ahead of his inauguration, Donald Trump handed in his Android device in exchange for an unidentified locked-down phone, according to the Associated Press.

 The phone comes with a new number that is known only to a limited number of people. This marks a big change for Trump, who's frequently on the line with friends, business contacts, reporters, foreign leaders and politicians.

 Larry Johnson, who worked at the Secret Service from 1982 to 2006, said a smartphone given to a president would have extremely limited uses. "It's not really good for much," he said.

 It's possible Trump's Twitter account would be operated from another phone, said Johnson, who now works as an executive at cybersecurity company CyberSponse.

 But that's not where the phone's limitations would end. "You can't make a phone call, because it's too easy to be intercepted," Johnson said. "I can scare you with how easy it is."

 The Secret Service declined to comment for this story.

 Now playing: Watch this: Trump trades in Android for a mystery phone

 Barack Obama was the first president to use a mobile device approved by security agencies because of hacking concerns. Initially he had a heavily modified BlackBerry and later switched to another phone that had most features disabled. He was not known to use it for making or receiving calls, but it was one of few devices that had access to the @POTUS Twitter account.

 Trump said earlier this week that he will keep using his existing Twitter account to communicate on social media, in addition the the @POTUS account.

 Originally published Jan. 20, 2017 3:24 a.m. PT

 Update, 10:50 a.m. PT: Added comment from retired Secret Service agent Larry Johnson.

 What does a Trump presidency mean for tech? Some say it might not be as bad you think. Others say his potential influence on the industry is "alarming."

 Life, disrupted: In Europe, millions of refugees are still searching for a safe place to settle. Tech should be part of the solution. But is it? CNET investigates. ||||| WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump arrived in Washington the day before his inauguration as the nation’s 45th president in a swirl of cinematic pageantry but facing serious questions about whether his chaotic transition has left critical parts of the government dangerously short-handed.

 Mr. Trump will be sworn in at noon Eastern time on Friday, but his team was still scrambling to fill key administration posts when he got here on Thursday, announcing last-minute plans to retain 50 essential State Department and national security officials currently working in the Obama administration to ensure “continuity of government,” according to Sean Spicer, the incoming White House press secretary.

 The furious final staff preparations included designating Thomas A. Shannon Jr., an Obama appointee, as the acting secretary of state, pending the expected confirmation of Rex W. Tillerson.

 As of Thursday, only two of Mr. Trump’s 15 cabinet nominees — John F. Kelly, to head the Department of Homeland Security, and his nominee for defense secretary, Gen. James N. Mattis — had been approved by congressional committees and were close to assuming their posts.

 In all, Mr. Trump has named only 29 of his 660 executive department appointments, according to the Partnership for Public Service, which has been tracking the process. That is a pace far slower than recent predecessors, falling far short of the schedule originally outlined by Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who was Mr. Trump’s transition director before Mr. Trump ousted him 10 weeks ago.

 None of this seemed to bother Mr. Trump. After arriving from New York, the president-elect trod solemnly down red-carpeted stairs from a government plane at Joint Base Andrews with his wife, Melania, then sped off to deliver a speech at a reception held at his ornate new hotel near the White House. There, he declared, with typical bluster, that his cabinet nominees had “by far the highest I.Q. of any cabinet assembled.”

 Later, he laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery and attended his Lincoln Memorial inaugural concert, saying that one had never been held there before even though many similar events have taken place in front of the iconic seated statue of the 16th president.

 “Tomorrow seems to be the big one,” Mr. Trump told a black-tie dinner crowd at Washington’s stately Union Station on Thursday night, referring to his inauguration. In off-the-cuff remarks, he teased his incoming chief of staff, Reince Priebus, for having a difficult-to-pronounce name, and chided fund-raisers who did not contribute to his campaign until after he won. He also described his political opponents as “going crazy” over his cabinet selections.

 Mr. Trump campaigned on a platform of shaking up Washington, but his pomp-and-circumstance arrival began with two jarring concessions to a city he may not inhabit full time: This week, he was forced to abandon his cherished “Trump” 757 for an Air Force jet, and, according to people close to the transition, he has traded in his Android phone for a secure, encrypted device approved by the Secret Service with a new number that few people possess.

 The official rationale was security. But some of Mr. Trump’s new aides, who have often been blindsided when a reporter, outside adviser or officeseeker dialed the president-elect directly, expressed relief. Several of them, however, expect the new president to satisfy his compulsion for continuous communication by calling outsiders and by tramping from office to office in search of gossip and sounding boards.

 Mr. Trump’s management style places unique strains on his top advisers, including Mr. Priebus, who is stepping into what is traditionally a gatekeeper’s post that has involved restricting the flow of people and paper to the Oval Office.

 Mr. Priebus is navigating a West Wing crowded with powerful figures in their own right, including the president-elect’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who will always outweigh anyone else regardless of title; the chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon; the counselor Kellyanne Conway; Vice President-elect Mike Pence; and the economic adviser Gary Cohn, the blunt former Goldman Sachs executive who is rising fast in Mr. Trump’s circle.

 In a conference call with incoming staff this week, Mr. Priebus informed midlevel aides that they should avoid interacting with Mr. Trump without his permission, that they were prohibited from talking to the news media, and that they should carefully restrict their social media posts, according to two people with knowledge of the call.

 On Thursday, aides released names of more than a dozen appointments to the White House staff. Most of them had worked for Mr. Priebus at the R.N.C. Mr. Trump also named a friend, Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets, to be ambassador to Britain.

 Thursday’s hires notwithstanding, the halting pace of transition has alarmed senior Obama administration officials and some Republican lawmakers, who have repeatedly complained about the Trump team’s unwillingness to coordinate transition planning with them.

 Since his election on Nov. 8, Mr. Trump has had little interest in the minutiae of his transition, saying it was “bad karma” to get too involved, according to a person who spoke with him at the time. At one point, he wanted to halt the planning altogether, out of superstition, the person said.

 “In 21 years of covering the State Department and in eight years of serving there, I’ve seen rocky transitions and experienced what feels like a hostile takeover, but I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Strobe Talbott, the president of the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank, and a former journalist and Bill Clinton administration official.

 For weeks, transition officials and people close to the process have suggested that the delays are the fault of Mr. Christie, accusing him of botching the preparations during seven months of transition preparation.

 But copies of Mr. Christie’s plan, some of which were reviewed by The New York Times, were circulated in weekly installments to the transition team before his ouster and were discussed at weekly meetings. They revealed thorough blueprints on a range of core planning issues, from the pace of the transition to what the president-elect’s daily schedule should look like, even 100-day and 200-day plans of action.

 Each sheet detailing the “landing teams” arriving at agencies had a notation on which advisers had weighed in on the selections.

 On the list the day of the election was a Senate nomination and confirmation plan, a first-100-days agenda to take to Congress, members of landing teams and their status and interest in jobs at key departments, and a suggested schedule for Mr. Trump that included the presidential daily briefing each day and key meetings.

 The work was not fully completed; some pages, such as the landing team list for the Small Business Administration, were half-filled and had no input from senior advisers. The work was hobbled by the concern that most Republican policy officials had about working for their nominee.

 And Mr. Christie’s decision to put some of his own top allies on lists for prime jobs did not wear well with Mr. Trump’s team.

 Still, there was thought put into the transition and what would come next, including a draft of dozens of executive orders and recommendations for a communications plan to avoid “idle” time in the president-elect’s schedule that the news media would use to describe him as unfocused. There were proposed themes for each week, to lend a “cadence” to the transition.

 The suggested schedule called for completing cabinet appointments by the first week of December, taking care of the under secretaries and deputies the second week, and naming ambassadors by the third week, just before the holidays. ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — A few hours after President-elect Donald Trump was briefed by intelligence officials about Russian meddling in the election, an Associated Press reporter called his cellphone seeking an interview.

 The call went to voicemail and the reporter did not leave a message. About an hour later, Trump called back.

 It's hard to imagine many politicians — particularly one about to become president of the United States — calling back an unknown number on their cellphone.

 With Trump, it's simply how business gets done, whether he's fielding calls from real estate partners and longtime friends or foreign leaders and congressional lawmakers in the weeks after the election.

 But as Trump prepares to take the oath of office Friday, the future of his ever-present Android smartphone is now a matter of national security. On Thursday, he told a friend that he had given up his phone, as security agencies had urged him to do. It was unclear whether he was following the lead of President Barack Obama, the nation's first cellphone-toting president, who exchanged his personal device for a Blackberry heavily modified for security purposes.

 The friend who spoke with Trump spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity in order to disclose the private conversation.

 The presidency has long been a lonely, isolating office, with security concerns keeping the commander in chief at a distance from the public. Under Obama, worries about cyber intrusions — particularly by foreign governments — pulled the president's technology deeper into the security bubble as well. Many of the functions on Obama's Blackberry were blocked and only a handful of people had his phone number or email address.

 Trump doesn't email, but he uses his phone to tweet — something he's made clear he plans to continue in office. He's known to make calls early in the morning and late at night, often seeking input from multiple sources when making a decision. Sometimes he leaves a voicemail.

 Christopher Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax and a friend of the president-elect, described Trump's phone etiquette, as "just like one of his speeches, it's very stream of consciousness."

 Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., called Trump "amazingly accessible," saying the president-elect picks up his phone even when he doesn't know who is calling.

 "My phone says, No Caller ID, so I'm not saying that it has anything to do with me," Corker said. "Nobody knows who it is that's calling when I'm calling."

 Foreign leaders and diplomats took advantage of Trump's accessibility in the days after his election as they scrambled to find ways to reach him. Some called into Trump Tower hoping to be transferred to the president-elect's office. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull got Trump's cellphone number from the golfer Greg Norman.

 Trump's accessibility can create headaches for his aides, who can't always control who he's speaking to or what he's saying. After actress Meryl Streep blasted Trump during a Golden Globes speech earlier this month, a New York Times reporter called the president-elect at midnight to get a response. Trump's criticism of Streep dominated the news the following day, overshadowing his team's planned agenda.

 For Obama, getting to use a Blackberry in office was considered a victory. He later switched to an iPhone that allowed him to send and receive email from a limited group of people, surf websites and read the news.

 But Obama wasn't known to use his cellphone to make or receive telephone calls, according to individuals familiar with his technology use. Even senior government officials didn't have the number and instead reached the president through the White House switchboard.

 The president also used the switchboard to place his calls, said the individuals, who weren't authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.

 Obama had a phone in his control that he used to tweet, one of the only devices with access to the official presidential Twitter feed due to hacking concerns. But Obama rarely hit "send" on a tweet himself, and never without coordinating it with his staff, the individuals said.

 If Trump does get rid of his cellphone, it could end up with a home not far from the White House.

 Curators at the Newseum, which chronicles the First Amendment and the evolution of electronic communication, reached out to Trump's campaign in November about the prospect of acquiring his Android phone. They haven't heard back, said Carrie Christoffersen, the museum's curator of collections.

 ___

 AP writers Julie Bykowicz, Josh Lederman and Ben Nuckols contributed to this report.

 ___

 Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC |||||

Write a summary.

– Well, it appears the Secret Service has pried Donald Trump's beloved Android phone from his tweeting fingers. An unidentified friend of Trump's tells the AP the new president handed over his phone Thursday on the advice of security advisers. The New York Times reports Trump's Android was replaced by an encrypted device that received Secret Service approval. Barack Obama, the first president to use a mobile device in office, started with a "heavily modified" Blackberry before moving to a mostly disabled iPhone. The devices were used to check email and news sites but rarely—if ever—for phone calls. This is all likely to cramp Trump's style. A Republican senator says the president was known for answering his phone even if he didn't recognize the number. He would even call back strange numbers that didn't leave a message. A former Secret Service agent tells Cnet Trump is unlikely to be able to use his new device for phone calls because they are way too easy to intercept. Trump's aides—some of whom are excited journalists and others won't have direct access to him—say he's likely to instead go office to office in person to get his "gossip" fix. It's possible he'll still be able to tweet. The Newseum in Washington DC has asked Trump about getting his Android to put on display.


Article:
For fans of Boy Meets World, Danielle Fishel will always be one-half of beloved TV couple Cory and Topanga. But in real life, the actress is happily in love with new husband Tim Belusko. The couple said "I do" on Saturday, Oct. 19, in downtown L.A. — and Us Weekly has exclusive photos from the blushing bride's big day!

 PHOTOS: 2013 celebrity weddings

 Fishel, 32, walked down the aisle at L.A.'s Vibiana in a white-lace strapless gown with a flared skirt. Her long hair fell in waves around her shoulders, and she carried a bouquet of dark purple flowers. Large floral arrangements adorned the candlelit altar, too.

 As previously reported, the star's bridesmaids donned midnight blue dresses, which tied in with the overall color theme. "I think it's perfect for a this-time-of-year wedding," she previously gushed to Us. "It's going to be really fun! I'm really excited about it."

 PHOTOS: The Boy Meets World cast, then and now

 After the ceremony, Fishel and Belusko's loved ones headed to a courtyard for cocktails. Among those in attendance? Her Boy Meets World costar Ben Savage, whom she jokingly calls her "first husband."

 PHOTOS: Famous wedding dresses from TV and film

 "[Tim] knows that Ben and I have been together for a long time as an on-screen couple," the bride explained to Us, "and to a certain extent when you've been with someone for 20 years like that, it's impossible to have none of that rub off a little bit in person."

 That said, Fishel is happily committed to her new, "second" husband. "10/19/13 was one of the most amazing days of my life," she tweeted one day after the wedding. "The love in the room was palpable and overwhelming in the best way possible."

 Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox!

 Want stories like these delivered straight to your phone? Download the Us Weekly iPhone app now! ||||| Newlywed actress Danielle Fishel has lashed out at online critics who poked fun at her weight following the release of photos from her wedding day.

 The “Boy Meets World” star married her longtime beau Tim Belusko in front of 200 guests, including her onscreen husband Ben Savage, at the Vibiana cathedral in Los Angeles on Saturday.

 The 32-year-old happily gave fans a glimpse of her big day by publishing a picture in a US Weekly, but

 the snap sparked a round of vile abuse from detractors on Twitter.

 Hitting back while on honeymoon, Fishel takes to the site to write, “You know what makes dealing with rude comments easy? Love & happiness. I’ll just keep being the happiest me & you keep being the rudest you.

 “Ppl (people) saying I was FAT @ my wedding: u r the worst kind of ppl on the PLANET. I weigh 107 pounds & am 5’1″. YOU are the reason anorexia exists

 “I hope you’ll look at your own miserable lives and learn to stop judging others on their weight and looks. Love and happiness wins again. Side note, I plan on coming home from this honeymoon weighing 299 pounds.” |||||Summary:

– Danielle Fishel, better known to people of a certain age as Topanga from Boy Meets World, got married Saturday and released a picture to Us. And because we live in an age of Internet trolls, she was immediately hit with cruel comments about her weight, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. But Fishel was quick to hit back at the critics, tweeting from her honeymoon: You know what makes dealing with rude comments easy? Love & happiness. I’ll just keep being the happiest me & you keep being the rudest you. Ppl saying I was FAT @ my wedding: u r the worst kind of ppl on the PLANET. I weigh 107 pounds & am 5’1″. YOU are the reason anorexia exists. I hope you’ll look at your own miserable lives and learn to stop judging others on their weight and looks. Love and happiness wins again. And the kicker: "Side note, I plan on coming home from this honeymoon weighing 299 pounds."


Write an article based on this summary:

– Shia LaBeouf's latest bizarre misdeed: a drunken brawl at a London bar last night, TMZ reports. In video obtained by the gossip site, LaBeouf yells, "What are you saying about my girl's mom? Are you f---ing kidding me bro?" and then headbutts the guy who angered him. But in another video from after the incident, an apparently quite drunk LaBeouf rambles on in what seems to be a remorseful tone. "I'm not trying to have, like, any more problems, you know what I'm saying?" he says as the video starts. "I'm really just trying to make peace." (Another recent and similarly crazy celebrity bar brawl story: Trace Adkins fights ... a Trace Adkins impersonator.)

Shia LaBeouf Headbutts Guy in London Bar Brawl

 Shia LaBeouf -- Headbutts Guy in London Bar Brawl

 EXCLUSIVE

 just headbutted a guy in a bar after what sounds like a nuclear argument over his girlfriend's mom ... and TMZ has the video.Atinto the clip, you see Shia (wearing a white cap) headbutt a bald guy.Shia screams at the guy, "What are you saying about my girl's mom? Are you f**king kidding me bro?"You hear a girl -- presumably the girl Shia was with -- screaming his name in a plea for him to stop.The fight went down at a pub called Hobgoblin in South London Thursday night -- in a pretty rough part of town.

 Shia knows the pub well ... he was in a fight at the same joint in November, 2012. And his bar fight history doesn't end there ... he also got his ass whooped on the street outside a Vancouver bar in 2011. ||||| Shia LaBeouf Drunken Apology After Bar Fight

 Shia LaBeouf's Drunken Apology After Bar Fight

 EXCLUSIVE

 was conciliatory and remorseful after he headbutted a guy in a London pub, claiming he's just like the next guy with faults and all, adding, "I'm super normal."LaBeouf got into a nuclear argument with the other bar patron Thursday night in the London pub, Hobgoblin.After the fight, LaBeouf reiterates the fight was over his girl's mom. You hear him say he gets angry when "people s**t on my girl's mom."LaBeouf, who appears drunk, rambles on about himself with a woman in the pub -- saying how "normal" he is.It's the new normal. |||||


News article:

Almost half of the edible seafood in the United States goes to waste as result of inefficiencies and consumer refuse, according to new research .

 The study, published in the journal Global Environmental Change , suggests that consumers discard 1.3 billion pounds annually, fishers throw away 570 million pounds when they catch the wrong species and 330 pounds are lost during distribution. The total edible seafood supply is about 4.7 billion pounds per year.

 U.S. dietary guidelines recommend that most Americans increase their seafood intake. The wasted fish contains enough protein to meet the requirements of more than 10 million people each year, according to the study.

 “If we’re told to eat significantly more seafood but the supply is severely threatened, it is critical and urgent to reduce waste of seafood,” study leader David Love, a Johns Hopkins University researcher, said in a statement.

 The news follows recent attention by the public and policymakers to the scale of food waste in the U.S. Last week, the federal government announced plans to cut food waste in half by 2030.

 “Let’s feed people, not landfills,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said in a statement.

 Read More: Should I Eat Salmon? ||||| This image shows from sea to table to trash how seafood is wasted. Credit: Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future As much as 47 percent of the edible U.S. seafood supply is lost each year, mainly from consumer waste, new research from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) suggests.

 The findings, published in the November issue of Global Environmental Change, come as food waste in general has been in the spotlight and concerns have been raised about the sustainability of the world's seafood resources. In the U.S. and around the world, people are being advised to eat more seafood, but overfishing, climate change, pollution, habitat destruction and the use of fish for other purposes besides human consumption threaten the global seafood supply.

 "If we're told to eat significantly more seafood but the supply is severely threatened, it is critical and urgent to reduce waste of seafood," says study leader David Love, PhD, a researcher with the Public Health and Sustainable Aquaculture project at the CLF and an assistant scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

 The new study analyzed the food waste issue by focusing on the amount of seafood lost annually at each stage of the food supply chain and at the consumer level.

 After compiling data from many sources, the researchers estimated the U.S. edible seafood supply at approximately 4.7 billion pounds per year, which includes domestic and imported products minus any exported products. Some of the edible seafood supply is wasted as it moves through the supply chain from hook or net to plate. They found that the amount wasted each year is roughly 2.3 billion pounds. Of that waste, they say that 330 million pounds are lost in distribution and retail, 573 million pounds are lost when commercial fishers catch the wrong species of fish and then discard it (a concept called bycatch) and a staggering 1.3 billion pounds are lost at the consumer level.

 The researchers found the greatest portion of seafood loss occurred at the level of consumers (51 to 63 percent of waste). Sixteen to 32 percent of waste is due to bycatch, while 13 to 16 percent is lost in distribution and retail operations. To illustrate the magnitude of the loss, the authors estimate this lost seafood could contain enough protein to fulfill the annual requirements for as many as 10 million men or 12 million women; and there is enough seafood lost to close 36 percent of the gap between current seafood consumption and the levels recommended by the 2010 U.S. Dietary Guidelines.

 The 2010 U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommended increasing seafood consumption to eight ounces per person per week and consuming a variety of seafood in place of some meat and poultry. Yet achieving those levels would require doubling the U.S. seafood supply, the researchers say.

 Waste reduction has the potential to support increased seafood consumption without further stressing aquatic resources, says Roni Neff, PhD, director of the Food System Sustainability & Public Health Program at CLF and an assistant professor with the Bloomberg School of Public Health. She says that while a portion of the loss could be recovered for human consumption, "we do not intend to suggest that all of it could or should become food for humans."

 "It would generally be preferable for the fish that becomes bycatch to be left alive in the water rather than eaten, and due to seafood's short shelf life, it may be particularly challenging compared to other food items to get the remaining seafood eaten or frozen before it decays," she says. Instead, focusing on prevention strategies involving governments, businesses and consumers can reduce seafood loss and create a more efficient and sustainable seafood system.

 The researchers offer several approaches to reduce seafood waste along the food chain from catch to consumer. Suggestions range from limiting the percent of bycatch that can be caught at the production level to packaging seafood into smaller portion sizes at the processing level to encouraging consumer purchases of frozen seafood. Some loss is unavoidable, but the researchers hope these estimates and suggestions will help stimulate dialogue about the significance and magnitude of seafood loss.

 Explore further: Rethinking fish farming to offset its public health and environmental risks

 More information: "Wasted seafood in the United States: Quantifying loss from production to consumption and moving toward solutions" was written by Dave C. Love, Jillian P. Fry, Michael C. Milli and Roni A. Neff. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378015300340

  |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– US consumers throw out or otherwise waste 1.3 billion pounds of edible seafood every year—that's more than a quarter of the country's annual supply, according to a press release from John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. Those numbers come from a new study published in Global Environmental Change that found up to 47% of the US' edible seafood supply goes uneaten every year. Some of that is the fault of fishermen catching the wrong species or product lost during distribution and retail. But the majority of the waste—51% to 63%—is squarely the fault of consumers. The 2.3 billion pounds of edible seafood that goes uneaten is enough protein to sustain more than 10 million people for a year. The findings are especially important now, with experts encouraging US residents to eat more seafood in lieu of chicken, beef, or other meats, according to the researchers. Unfortunately, a number of factors—including overfishing and climate change—are destroying the world's seafood supply. "If we're told to eat significantly more seafood but the supply is severely threatened, it is critical and urgent to reduce waste of seafood," the study leader says in the press release. Researchers suggest packaging seafood in smaller portions or encouraging consumers to buy frozen seafood. Time reports the new study fits with the federal government's plan—announced last week—to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030. “Let's feed people, not landfills,” the EPA said at the time.


Article:
Photo

 With 1.39 billion active users worldwide, Facebook’s social network is the closest thing we have to a universal communication platform. And people post — or try to post — just about everything you can imagine.

 On Monday, the company clarified its community standards to give its users more guidance about what types of posts are not allowed on the service.

 Facebook walks a delicate line when it tries to ban violent or offensive content without suppressing the free sharing of information that it says it wants to encourage. Its audience is vast, with a huge variance in age, cultural values and laws across the globe. Yet despite its published guidelines, the reasoning behind Facebook’s decisions to block or allow content are often opaque and inconsistent.

 For example, the company flip-flopped repeatedly on whether to allow beheading videos on the service before recently deciding to ban them. In December, it blocked a page in Russia that was promoting an antigovernment protest, then allowed copycat pages to stay up. And in October, it created an exception to its requirement that people use their real names on the service when it allowed San Francisco’s drag queens to use their stage names while continuing to crack down on others using false names.

 “We’re trying to strike the balance based on the way our community works,” Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management, said in an interview. “The landscape is complicated.”

 The company hopes that more specific explanation of its rules will take some of the mystery out of what it will and will not allow.

 Terrorist organizations like the Islamic State have long been banned from the service. But supporting or praising groups involved in “violent, criminal or hateful behavior” is also banned, the updated rules say.

 Threatening people with physical or financial harm, or bullying them by posting items intended to degrade or shame them, is also prohibited. So is anything that encourages suicide or eating disorders.

 Facebook has always banned pornography and most other nudity, but it is now diving into the nuances. “We remove photographs of people displaying genitals or focusing in on fully exposed buttocks,” it says. It also restricts some images of female breasts if the nipple shows, “but we always allow photos of women actively engaged in breast-feeding or showing breasts with post-mastectomy scarring.” Photos of paintings, sculptures and other art that depicts nude figures are also fine.

 The company is for the first time explicitly banning content promoting sexual violence or exploitation, including so-called revenge porn, which it defines as intimate images “shared in revenge or without permission from the people in the images.” (Twitter has also updated its rules to forbid revenge porn.)

 One thing that has not changed: Facebook has no plans to automatically scan for and remove potentially offensive content, Ms. Bickert said.

 Facebook will still rely on users to report violations of the standards. Ms. Bickert said that the company had review teams working at all hours of the day around the globe, and that every report was examined by one of them before a decision was made.

 The process can take time — typically 48 hours on matters of safety, she said. That may not be fast enough for some people in an era where graphic content can go viral in minutes. Twitter, which is a much more public forum, has come under fire from women’s advocates and antiterror groups for not responding quickly enough to reports of abusive or violent tweets.

 But Facebook wants to take into account the full context of a post, Ms. Bickert said. For example, a victim of a violent attack might post images on Facebook as a way of raising public awareness. “Sometimes the best way to share information about atrocities in the world is Facebook,” she said. “We recognize that is a very challenging issue.”

 Facebook’s rulings can also be appealed. “If a person’s account is suspended, those appeals are read by real people who can look into the specifics,” she said.

 Ms. Bickert said that clarifying its rules helped not only Facebook users but also the people who reviewed possible violations to decide what was permissible. “We can only do this if we have objective rules,” she said.

 Governments also ask Facebook to take down posts. In conjunction with the updated community standards, the company published on Monday its latest transparency report, which discloses country-by-country information on government requests for user data and the removal of content.

 In the report, Facebook says that in the second half of 2014, it restricted 9,707 pieces of content for violating local laws, up 11 percent from the first half of the year. Of those, India requested the most takedowns, with 5,832, and Turkey was not far behind with 3,624. No content was restricted in the United States based on government requests.

 The number of government requests for account data increased slightly, to 35,051, compared with 34,946 in the first half. The United States was at the top of the list, making 14,274 requests for information on 21,731 Facebook accounts, with the company agreeing to turn over information in 79 percent of the cases.

 “As difficult questions arise about the limits of what people can share, we have a single guiding principle: We want to give the most voice to the most people,” Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder and chief executive, wrote in a post that accompanied the report.

 “Some people say we should ignore government orders requiring us to restrict people’s voice, even if that means the whole service would be blocked in those countries. I don’t think that’s right,” he said. “I believe we have a responsibility to the millions of people in these countries who rely on Facebook to stay in touch with their friends and family every day. If we ignored a lawful government order and then we were blocked, all of these people’s voices would be muted, and whatever content the government believed was illegal would be blocked anyway.”

 “It’s tempting to think of free expression and having a voice as black and white — either you have it or you don’t,” Mr. Zuckerberg said. “But giving people a voice, like most things in our society, is something that we must make incremental progress towards.” ||||| By Monika Bickert, Head of Global Policy Management, and Chris Sonderby, Deputy General Counsel

 Every day, people around the world use Facebook to connect with family and friends, share information and express themselves. The conversations that happen here mirror the diversity of the more than one billion people who use Facebook, with people discussing everything from pets to politics. Our goal is to give people a place to share and connect freely and openly, in a safe and secure environment.

 We have a set of Community Standards that are designed to help people understand what is acceptable to share on Facebook. These standards are designed to create an environment where people feel motivated and empowered to treat each other with empathy and respect.

 Today we are providing more detail and clarity on what is and is not allowed. For example, what exactly do we mean by nudity, or what do we mean by hate speech? While our policies and standards themselves are not changing, we have heard from people that it would be helpful to provide more clarity and examples, so we are doing so with today’s update.

 There are also times when we may have to remove or restrict access to content because it violates a law in a particular country, even though it doesn’t violate our Community Standards. We report the number of government requests to restrict content for contravening local law in our Global Government Requests Report, which we are also releasing today. We challenge requests that appear to be unreasonable or overbroad. And if a country requests that we remove content because it is illegal in that country, we will not necessarily remove it from Facebook entirely, but may restrict access to it in the country where it is illegal.

 Billions of pieces of content are shared on Facebook every day. We hope these two updates help provide more clarity about the standards we have, whether they are our own Community Standards or those imposed by different laws around the world.

 More Detailed Community Standards

 The updated Community Standards are broken into four sections:

 Helping to keep you safe

 Encouraging respectful behavior

 Keeping your account and personal information secure

 Protecting your intellectual property

 In particular, we’ve provided more guidance on policies related to self-injury, dangerous organizations, bullying and harassment, criminal activity, sexual violence and exploitation, nudity, hate speech, and violence and graphic content. While some of this guidance is new, it is consistent with how we’ve applied our standards in the past.

 It’s a challenge to maintain one set of standards that meets the needs of a diverse global community. For one thing, people from different backgrounds may have different ideas about what’s appropriate to share — a video posted as a joke by one person might be upsetting to someone else, but it may not violate our standards.

 This is particularly challenging for issues such as hate speech. Hate speech has always been banned on Facebook, and in our new Community Standards, we explain our efforts to keep our community free from this kind of abusive language. We understand that many countries have concerns about hate speech in their communities, so we regularly talk to governments, community members, academics and other experts from around the globe to ensure that we are in the best position possible to recognize and remove such speech from our community. We know that our policies won’t perfectly address every piece of content, especially where we have limited context, but we evaluate reported content seriously and do our best to get it right.

 If people believe Pages, profiles or individual pieces of content violate our Community Standards, they can report it to us by clicking the “Report” link at the top, right-hand corner. Our reviewers look to the person reporting the content for information about why they think the content violates our standards. People can also unfollow, block or hide content and people they don’t want to see, or reach out to people who post things that they don’t like or disagree with.

 While the Community Standards outline Facebook’s expectations when it comes to what content is or is not acceptable in our community, countries have local laws that prohibit some forms of content. In some countries, for example, it is against the law to share content regarded as being blasphemous. While blasphemy is not a violation of the Community Standards, we will still evaluate the reported content and restrict it in that country if we conclude it violates local law.

 Countries contact us to let us know when content may be in violation of local laws and we compile these requests into a public report called the Global Government Requests Report.

 Global Government Requests Report

 The Global Government Requests Report, which covers the second half of 2014, includes information about the government requests we received for content removal and account data as well as national security requests under the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and through National Security Letters.

 Overall, we continue to see an increase in government requests for data and content restrictions. The amount of content restricted for violating local law increased by 11% over the previous half, to 9,707 pieces of content restricted, up from 8,774. We saw a rise in content restriction requests from countries like Turkey and Russia, and declines in places like Pakistan.

 The number of government requests for account data remained relatively flat, with a slight increase to 35,051 from 34,946. There was an increase in data requests from certain governments such as India, and decline in requests from countries such as the United States and Germany.

 We publish this information because we want people to know the extent and nature of the requests we receive from governments and the policies we have in place to process them.

 Moving forward, we will continue to scrutinize each government request and push back when we find deficiencies. We will also continue to push governments around the world to reform their surveillance practices in a way that maintains the safety and security of their people while ensuring their rights and freedoms are protected. ||||| This is a set of web collections curated by Mark Graham using the Archive-IT service of the Internet Archive. They include web captures of the ISKME.org website as well as captures from sites hosted by IGC.org.These web captures are available to the general public.For more information about this collection please feel free to contact Mark via Send Mail |||||Summary:

– When it comes to rules about posts on Facebook, there's a fair bit of subtlety. Rather than electronically identifying offensive images, for instance, the company says it has actual human beings assess context, the New York Times reports. Today, the site is posting a more thorough explanation of its policies, which also address matters ranging from hate speech and nudity to issues of intellectual property. It encourages users to flag content that concerns them. Among its examples: Nudity: Genitals are a no-no. But while, for example, some images of breasts won't be tolerated, pictures of breastfeeding or mastectomy scars are allowed, as is artwork showing nudes, a spokeswoman tells the paper. Violence: The site has gone back and forth on beheading videos, finally settling on a ban, the Times reports. But images of violence may be allowed if they're aimed at sharing "information about atrocities in the world." Hate speech: Race-, gender-, and religion-based attacks won't be tolerated, the site says. But "people can use Facebook to challenge ideas, institutions, and practices," the site notes. "Such discussion can promote debate and greater understanding." International differences: The laws of different countries can change what's acceptable where. Facebook points to its Global Government Requests Report as a source of information on how official policies affect content and privacy. In the second half of 2014, the site notes, 9,707 pieces of content were restricted by governments, up 11% from the first half of the year. The site offers a clickable map showing different countries' records. Click for the full policy page.


Previous record-holder Frank Giannino Jr. helped hold the finish-line banner at New York City Hall. After Pete Kostelnick ran through it, Giannino presented a gold baton to him, a symbolic passing of the record. Photo: Courtesy of Hoka One One, Justin Britton

 When Pete Kostelnick set out from San Francisco on Sept. 12, his goal was to break a record that had withstood every challenge for 36 years.

 To do it, he hoped to run at least 70 miles a day for more than two months to New York City, a feat of physical and mental endurance that some believed was nearly impossible.

 But on Monday, Oct. 24, Kostelnick not only broke the record, he crushed it by roughly 4 days.

 Kostelnick, 29, jogged onto the steps of New York City Hall late Monday afternoon in 42 days, 6 hours and 30 minutes, beating the mark of 46 days, eight hours and 36 minutes set in 1980 by Frank Giannino Jr. For the new record Kostelnick averaged just over 72 miles per day, covering a total of 3,067 miles.

 Accompanied by a small group of runners who escorted him through the streets of Manhattan, Kostelnick looked almost fresh in his bright blue shirt, sunglasses and backward baseball cap as he finished off an 87-mile last leg that began at midnight. He finished his run at City Hall, the same location where Giannino finished his run decades ago.

 After climbing the steps, accompanied by his wife, Nikki, they shared a kiss and a long, emotional hug.

 “I am not running back!” Kostelnick said to those who had gathered.

 “I think it was more mentally and emotionally challenging then physical,” he added. “Everyone who came out was incredible. That’s what got me through this run, meeting so many awesome people across this country. I couldn’t have done it without them … It was an incredible journey.”

 Giannino, who was there to see the record-breaking finish among a crowd of Kostelnick’s family, friends and runners, had known for weeks that his record would fall.

 “He’s at the top of his game,” Giannino said on Monday. “He has this thing completely measured.”

 Giannino, in fact, helped hold the finish-line banner. After Kostelnick ran through it, he presented a gold baton to him, a symbolic passing of the record.

 “Congratulations, brother!” Giannino said as he handed it over.

 The run didn’t start out smooth for Kostelnick, a financial planner originally from Iowa. After six days, he needed to take a rest day because of problems with his ankles and shin. But after that, Kostelnick got back on the road and kept churning. As time went on, he said he felt stronger and stronger.

 RELATED: Strava Data for Pete Kostelnick’s Record Run

 Five years ago, Kostelnick first started thinking about going after the record when he met standout ultra runner Marshall Ulrich at a race in Colorado and they talked about Ulrich’s cross-country run. Kostelnick said recently that he knew he wasn’t ready to attempt it then, but he kept the idea in the back of his mind.

 This year—after winning the Badwater Ultramarathon for a second straight year—he felt he was ready.

 Ulrich didn’t know who Kostelnick was when he first met him. “I didn’t know him from Adam,” Ulrich said—but he followed his running progress with interest the last couple of years.

 Now Ulrich, who ran across the U.S. himself in 52 days back in 2008 at the age of 57, says it’s hard to explain how amazing Kostelnick’s feat is.

 “I’m in awe of it,” he said. “It almost makes me speechless.”

 The fact Kostelnick chose to run essentially the same route that Giannino had run in 1980 is also impressive. Ulrich explained that route is longer and more difficult—because of crossings through the Sierra and Rockies—than a more southerly route.

 Ulrich also said he thought someone might come along to beat Giannino’s record, but he never believed anyone could shatter it the way Kostelnick did.

 “I’ll tell you what, this is probably, at least in my book, the most significant running feat that has taken place in probably the last three decades,” he said. “The combination of physical and mental challenges to run more than 3,000 miles is a high hurdle.

 “The big question was: Did he have the mental prowess overall? And he’s proven over and over that he does,” Ulrich said.

 Nikki Kostelnick hadn’t seen her husband since August. But she was there to greet him at City Hall on Monday. She’d stay in contact with him, making phone calls along the way, but it was hard to connect because of Kostelnick’s running and sleeping schedule.

 Just before Kostelnick finished, she said Pete had been feeling “pretty rough” and “ready to be done.” But she said she always knew he could break the record once he started.

 “Once he gets into his rhythm, he has no problems,” she said.

 At the moment, Nikki says her husband is not going to be running anywhere for a while. “I’m going to force him to rest,” she said. “He needs to take at least a month off.”

 RELATED: Strava HeatMap Tracking of Kostelnick’s Record Run ||||| For the comic character Pheidippides, see the Clouds

 Pheidippides (Greek: Φειδιππίδης) or Philippides (Φιλιππίδης) is the central figure in the story that inspired a modern sporting event, the marathon race. Pheidippides is said to have run from Marathon to Athens to deliver news of a military victory against the Persians at the Battle of Marathon.

 Story [ edit ]

 Luc-Olivier Merson, 1869 Painting of Pheidippides as he gave word of the Greek victory over Persia at the Battle of Marathon to the people of Athens.

 The first recorded account showing a courier running from Marathon to Athens to announce victory is from within Lucian's prose on the first use of the word "joy" as a greeting in A Slip of the Tongue in Greeting.[1]

 ... Philippides, the one who acted as courier, is said to have used it first in our sense when he brought the news of victory from Marathon and addressed the magistrates in session when they were anxious how the battle had ended ; "Joy to you, we've won" he said, and there and then he died, breathing his last breath with the words "Joy to you". – Lucian translated by K.Kilburn.[2]

 ... The modern use of the word dates back to Philippides the dispatch-runner. Bringing the news of the victory at Marathon, he found the archons seated, in suspense regarding the issue of the battle. 'Joy, we win!' he said, and died upon his message, breathing his last in the word Joy ... – Lucian Pro lapsu inter salutandum (translated by F.G. and H.W. Fowler, 1905)[3]

 The traditional story relates that Pheidippides (530–490 BC), an Athenian herald or hemerodrome[1] (translated as "day-runner" (Kyle 2007),[4] "courier" (Larcher 1806),[5][6] "professional-running courier" (Sears 2003)[1] or "day-long runner" (Miller 2006)[7]), was sent to Sparta to request help when the Persians landed at Marathon, Greece. He ran about 240 km (150 mi) in two days. He then ran the 40 km (25 mi) from the battlefield near Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory over Persia in the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) with the word νικῶμεν (nikomen[8] "We win!"), as stated by Lucian chairete, nikomen ("hail, we are the winners")[9] and then collapsed and died.

 Most accounts incorrectly attribute this story to the historian Herodotus, who wrote the history of the Persian Wars in his Histories (composed about 440 BC). However, Magill and Moose (2003) suggest that the story is likely a "romantic invention." They point out that Lucian is the only classical source with all the elements of the story known in modern culture as the "Marathon story of Pheidippides": a messenger running from the fields of Marathon to announce victory, then dying on completion of his mission.[10]

 Robert Browning gave a version of the traditional story in his 1879 poem Pheidippides.

 So, when Persia was dust, all cried, "To Acropolis!

 Run, Pheidippides, one race more! the meed is thy due!

 Athens is saved, thank Pan, go shout!" He flung down his shield

 Ran like fire once more: and the space 'twixt the fennel-field

 And Athens was stubble again, a field which a fire runs through,

 Till in he broke: "Rejoice, we conquer!" Like wine through clay,

 Joy in his blood bursting his heart, - the bliss!

 ("Fennel-field" is a reference to the Greek word for fennel, marathon, the origin of the name of the battlefield.)

 This poem inspired Baron Pierre de Coubertin and other founders of the modern Olympic Games to invent a running race of 42 km called the marathon.

 In any case, no such story appears in Herodotus. The relevant passage of Herodotus (Histories, Book VI, 105...106 →[11]) is:

 Before they left the city, the Athenian generals sent off a message to Sparta. The messenger was an Athenian named Pheidippides, a professional long-distance runner. According to the account he gave the Athenians on his return, Pheidippides met the god Pan on Mount Parthenium, above Tegea. Pan, he said, called him by name and told him to ask the Athenians why they paid him no attention, in spite of his friendliness towards them and the fact that he had often been useful to them in the past, and would be so again in the future. The Athenians believed Pheidippides's story, and when their affairs were once more in a prosperous state, they built a shrine to Pan under the Acropolis, and from the time his message was received they held an annual ceremony, with a torch-race and sacrifices, to court his protection.

 On the occasion of which I speak - when Pheidippides, that is, was sent on his mission by the Athenian commanders and said that he saw Pan - he reached Sparta the day after he left Athens and delivered his message to the Spartan government. "Men of Sparta" (the message ran), "the Athenians ask you to help them, and not to stand by while the most ancient city of Greece is crushed and subdued by a foreign invader; for even now Eretria has been enslaved, and Greece is the weaker by the loss of one fine city." The Spartans, though moved by the appeal, and willing to send help to Athens, were unable to send it promptly because they did not wish to break their law. It was the ninth day of the month, and they said they could not take the field until the moon was full. So they waited for the full moon, and meanwhile Hippias, the son of Pisistratus, guided the Persians to Marathon.

 The significance of this story is to be understood in the light of the legend that the god Pan returned the favor by fighting with the Athenian troops and against the Persians at Marathon. This was important because Pan, in addition to his other powers, had the capacity to instill an irrational, blind fear that paralysed the mind and suspended all sense of judgment—panic.

 Herodotus, writing about 30 to 40 years after the events he describes, did, according to Miller (2006) in fact base his version of the battle on eyewitness accounts,[7] so it seems altogether likely that Pheidippides was an actual historical figure, although the same source claims the classical author did not ever in fact mention a Marathon-Athens runner in any of his writings. Whether the story is true or not, it has no connection with the Battle of Marathon itself, and Herodotus's silence on the subject of a herald running from Marathon to Athens suggests strongly that no such event occurred.

 The first known written account of a run from Marathon to Athens occurs in the works of the Greek writer Plutarch (46–120), in his essay On the Glory of Athens. Plutarch attributes the run to a herald called either Thersippus or Eukles. Lucian, a century later, credits one "Philippides." It seems likely that in the 500 years between Herodotus's time and Plutarch's, the story of Pheidippides had become muddled with that of the Battle of Marathon (particularly the story of the Athenian forces making the march from Marathon to Athens in order to intercept the Persian ships headed there), and some fanciful writer had invented the story of the run from Marathon to Athens.

 Modern times [ edit ]

 Monument in Sparta with names of Spartathlon winners

 Spartathlon [ edit ]

 Based on this account, British RAF Wing Commander John Foden and four other RAF officers travelled to Greece in 1982 on an official expedition to test whether it was possible to cover the nearly 250 kilometres in a day and a half. Three runners were successful in completing the distance: John Foden (37:37), John Scholtens (34:30) and John McCarthy (39:00).

 Since 1983, it has been an annual footrace from Athens to Sparta, known as the Spartathlon, celebrating Pheidippides's at least semi-historical run across 246 km of Greek countryside.

 Course records

 References [ edit ]

 Sources [ edit ]

 Aubrey de Sélincourt and A. R. Burn. Herodotus - The Histories. Penguin Classics, 1954, 1972.

 Further reading [ edit ] ||||| Though it's an election year, only one person can truly say they've run the country, and his name is Pete Kostelnick.

 Kostelnick, a 29-year-old from Nebraska, became the fastest person to run the width of the United States on Monday, when he completed his 3,100-mile run from San Francisco to New York City in 42 days, 8 hours and 34 minutes.

 Kostelnick's run is still waiting to be verified by the Guinness Book of World Records, but current record-holder Frank Giannino, who did the California-to-New York run in 46 days in 1980, was on hand Monday and greeted Kostelnick by saying, "Congratulations, brother."

 Kostelnick said he fell twice during his journey and went through eight pairs of sneakers, and though he's not quite a modern-day Forrest Gump, he said he was occasionally joined by fans.

 "Awesome people ... they drove 10 hours to run with me for 5 miles," Kostelnick said of his supporters.

 Though a two-time winner of the Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135-mile race that starts in California's Death Valley, Kostelnick took up running a few years ago in an attempt to lose weight.

 After he'd canvassed the country, Kostelnick said he wanted two things: to spend time with his wife, Nikki, and drink a beer. ||||| “Run, Pete, run!”

 Manhattan celebrated its very own Forrest Gump on Monday, when 29-year-old Pete Kostelnick reached City Hall, landing in the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest man to ever run across the country.

 Just like Tom Hanks’ beloved character in the 1994 classic “Forrest Gump,’’ Kostelnick started on one end of the US — on the steps of San Francisco’s City Hall on Sept. 12, his birthday — and just kept running.

 By the time he hit the Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge on Monday, exactly 42 days and about 2,900 miles later, he had gathered a mob of 10 fans who started running with him.

 As with Hanks’ character, when Kostelnick stopped for a minute, such as to retrieve a dropped water bottle, the crowd stopped. When he moved, they all did.

 The group gathered steam as it ran south of West 125th Street and along Central Park, growing to about 25 people.

 As Kostelnick neared Midtown, several men in business suits joined his journey, running for several blocks with him.

 Bystanders chanted, “Run, Pete, run!” and “Forrest Gump!”

 The fleet-footed financial researcher, an Iowa native who now lives in Nebraska, said he had been to Manhattan before and felt right at home running on Sixth Avenue — because he had once chased a bus along the street on foot.

 When Kostelnick reached City Hall at around 5:45 p.m. — after 42 days, 6 hours, 34 minutes and 6 seconds on the road — he had shattered the previous record of 46 days.

 As he crossed the line marking the end of his odyssey, Kostelnick quipped, “Well, I’m definitely not going to run back.

 “All I want is a beer and my wife,” he said.

 By Kostelnick’s own admission, he hardly began as a running prodigy.

 ‘I would run 72 miles a day. So I’d break it up into 18 holes of golf, and every four miles was another hole.’

 He dipped his feet into the sport initially to lose weight but found that not only did he like to run — he was pretty good at it.

 He swiftly conquered the marathon and found his true calling was super-long-distance ultrarunning.

 One of the first races Kostelnick entered as an ultrarunner was the RAGRBRAI fund ride across Iowa — for bikes.

 He ran 423 miles in seven days, finishing ahead of some cyclists.

 He has since won the prestigious Badwater135 Ultramarathon two years in a row, setting the course record in 2016, and ran 163.68 miles in 24 hours in 2015.

 Kostelnick then set his sights on running across country — and shattering the Guinness record while he was at it.

 His route had spanned the altitudes of the Rockies, the windswept mid-American plains and the severe ups and downs of the Poconos before he hit the mean streets of Manhattan.

 He ran at a consistent nine minutes per mile, occasionally walking up hills or slowing toward the end of the day to let his muscles cool down.

 Kostelnick said he passed the time by thinking about sports and numbers.

 “I would run 72 miles a day. So I’d break it up into 18 holes of golf, and every four miles was another hole,” he told a Post reporter who ran with him his first five days and then his final three.

 For the past six weeks, Kostelnick and his crew assumed a workmanlike approach, but with no allowed vacation or sick days.

 Kostelnick would typically rise at 3 a.m., consume a breakfast of plain oatmeal and milk and a protein-powder shake. He would then hit the pavement at 3:30 a.m., run about 40 miles, and then eat a second breakfast, this time high-protein and high-fat, usually including eggs, bacon and different carbs such as mashed potatoes or lasagna.

 Kostelnick would then cover another 30 miles before stopping for the night around 6:30 or 7 p.m. and inhaling dinner. It usually included a meat such as steak or meatloaf, a carb including mashed potatoes or pasta and a possible legume and protein shake.

 He allowed himself only two 15-minute breaks during his long stretches — to eat.

 He estimates that he consumed roughly 15,000 calories per day — including 12 cans of Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew and A&W Root Beer. He also guzzled water and Gatorade.

 Kostelnick also burned a lot of rubber, going through eight pairs of running shoes.

 At night, he would get a massage from professional masseuse, chef and RV driver Cinder Wolff, then enter a fitful sleep interrupted by bouts of hunger and restless legs.

 Kostelnick’s veteran race crew of Dean Hart and Chuck Dale tracked his mileage and caloric intake while driving ahead of him and stopping either every mile or at every turn in order to ensure the runner stayed on course.

 His data was confirmed by several GPS devices, a detailed physical mileage log kept by his crew and a Bible-thick stack of witness testimonials.

 He sported two GPS watches and one satellite tracker at all times. The detailed recording was necessary to satisfy not just the Guinness Record organization but also legions of doubters.

 The former record holder, Frank Giannino, who ran a similar route cross country in 46 days in 1980, said he was happy to see his achievement beaten by “an athlete at the top of his running game.”

 “Records are meant to be broken,” he said.

 In a testament to Kostelnick’s running prowess and mental perseverance, several all-time endurance athletes, including “Running Man” author Charlie Engle, have attempted a record crossing and failed.

 Kostelnick said he was secretly hoping actor Hanks would show up at City Hall in Manhattan to cheer his feat.

 As a consolation, he already has another trip planned — but it doesn’t involve running.

 Kostelnick said he wants to drive the course next time — because he didn’t get to enjoy any of the sights.

 “I eat, run, sleep,” he said. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Philippides, who? Pete Kostelnick has just made the Greek legend's marathon race look like a quaint sprint. Keeping an average pace of 73 miles per day, the Nebraska ultrarunner, 29, landed at New York City Hall on Monday having raced 3,100 miles from San Francisco in just 42 days, six hours, and 34 minutes, reports the New York Post. He smashed the previous record time for the trek, set by Frank Giannino in 1980, by four days, though Guinness World Records has yet to confirm the time. Kostelnick, who started running several years ago to lose weight, fell twice, per ESPN, but the only real casualties were the eight pairs of shoes he burned through running 15 hours per day, starting at 3:30am, with two 15-minute breaks. A financial planner and two-time winner of the 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathon, per Competitor, Kostelnick drew comparisons to Forrest Gump, not only because of his Bubba Gump hat. Like the fictional character, he was joined by fans—"awesome people ... [who] drove 10 hours to run with me for 5 miles," he says. When he reached Manhattan on Monday to chants of "run, Pete, run," a crowd of 25 was running with him, including men in business suits. "As with [Tom] Hanks' character, when Kostelnick stopped for a minute, such as to retrieve a dropped water bottle, the crowd stopped. When he moved, they all did," per the Post. "Well, I'm definitely not going to run back," Kostelnick said at the finish line. "All I want is a beer and my wife." (A runner just set an Appalachian Trail record.)


Veteran pilot tested to the limit of endurance on record-breaking solar-powered flight across the Pacific, on the eighth leg of round-the-world journey

 A solar plane attempting the world’s first flight around the globe has landed in Hawaii, after breaking the record for the longest non-stop solo flight in history.

 Solar Impulse 2, piloted by the Swiss pilot André Borschberg, took off from Nagoya in Japan at 3am on Monday, for the five-day crossing of the Pacific Ocean, the riskiest leg of its journey.

 At 72 hours into the eighth leg of its 22,000-mile circumnavigation, Borschberg broke the endurance record for a solo flight.

 “The next leg is what I call the moment of truth,” he told the Guardian before departing. “The first time we fly many days, many nights with a solar-powered airplane, the first time that we fly over the ocean, the first time that one pilot flies alone for so long. We are exploring new territories.”

 Borschberg is sharing the round-the-world attempt, completing alternate legs with his co-pilot Bertrand Piccard, who will now fly the single-seater plane on a 100-hour leg to Phoenix, Arizona, in the US.

 Saving power is key to the journey’s success, as the plane – fitted with 17,000 photovoltaic solar cells – must reach heights of 9,000 metres during the day so that it can glide through the night. At top speed, it reaches 87mph.

 “There’s a lot of uncertainty at the end; we cannot know everything,” said Piccard, before the flight took off on Monday.

 During the 5,079-mile leg, Borschberg has spent about four days, 21 hours and 51 minutes in the air and throughout the journey has only been able to rest in 20-minute intervals.

 The 62-year-old veteran pilot and engineer has had to endure temperatures close to 37C (100F) in the cockpit. He said that yoga had been a “huge support” for sustaining a positive mindset and helped to keep him alert. Tweeting throughout the journey, Borschberg said on Thursday that the fourth day of this leg had been tough, after he “climbed the equivalent altitude of Mount Everest four times”.

 The historic journey has been set back multiple times since first taking off from Abu Dhabi in March.

 André Borschberg (@andreborschberg) During the fourth day I felt very tired, having climbed the equivalent altitude of Mount Everest four times pic.twitter.com/N6Wk1vi9ok

 It had been stalled in Nagoya for weeks due to bad weather, waiting for a suitable five-day window of clear weather to complete the journey. The original flight was diverted from China in June.

 On the most recent leg, there were concerns that Borschberg would have problems crossing a cold-weather front before Hawaii, ahead of the home straight over the Pacific archipelago. ||||| Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| CLOSE The Solar Impulse 2 landed in Hawaii Friday, successfully completing a world record-setting 4,000 mile solar powered flight. Jasper Colt, USA TODAY

 The Solar Impulse 2, a sun-powered airplane, circles the Kalaeloa Airport, on July 3, 2015, in Kapolei, Hawaii. (Photo: Marco Garcia, AP)

 The record-setting flight of the sun-powered Solar Impulse 2 landed in Hawaii on Friday after the longest, most dangerous leg of its around-the-world journey.

 The plane landed around noon ET at Hawaii's Kalaeloa Airport after an arduous five-day, non-stop flight, according to Solar Impulse's website, which live streamed the event.

 The completed 4,000-mile leg from Nagoya, Japan, to Hawaii was not only the world's longest solar-powered flight both by time and distance, it also set the record for longest solo flight by time.

 "Just landed in #Hawaii with @solarimpulse! For @bertrandpiccard and I, it's a dream coming true," pilot André Borschberg upon his successful landing.

 Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard have been alternating the long solo flights aboard the plane. The flight from Japan to Hawaii was the eighth of 13 legs.

 Borschberg had been stuck in the cramped cockpit of the plane since taking off early Monday in Japan. He was unable to stand and his only rest was the occasional 20-minute nap.

 The Solar Impulse 2 approaches Hawaii with Andre Borschberg at the controls, near Kalaeloa Airport, O'ahu, Hawaii, on July 3, 2015. (Photo: Solar Impulse)

 "It is delicate to maintain a balance between my energy and the energy of the aircraft," pilot André Borschberg tweeted early Friday. His only rest the past five days has been occasional 20-minute naps. As the flight neared its destination, the Solar Impulse team tweeted images and videos of the plane over Hawaii. Earlier Friday, founder of Virgin Group Richard Branson congratulated the Solar Impulse team on Twitter for beating Virgin's record non-stop solo flight without refueling. In a tweet Thursday, Borschberg reported on the challenges of the flight. "I'm fighting, it's difficult. ... Managing energy level is not easy. I have to find a hole in the cold front." Unlike the first several legs of the flight, which were over land in Asia, this leg was more dangerous because there would be no place to land if something went wrong above the vast Pacific Ocean. Bad weather delayed the trip to Hawaii for weeks. The plane must find clear skies during the day to receive as much solar energy as possible. At night, running on batteries fueled during the day, the plane descends to a lower altitude and slows speed to conserve energy. Part of the plane's mission is to raise awareness about climate change, showcasing what can be done using nothing but renewable energy. "The most important thing isn't to make world records," Piccard told USA TODAY in an interview last month. "It's to show what we can do with clean technologies," he said, ones that could simultaneously reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and stimulate economic growth. "We will never improve the situation if we continue to speak of climate change as a big and expensive problem, or by asking people to reduce their lifestyle to protect nature," he said. The mission began March 9 with a flight from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to Muscat, Oman. Pilots Borschberg and Piccard have alternated the legs of the journey. The plane's mission control is in Monaco, where a team of meteorologists, flight engineers and other experts closely track and monitor the weather and flight conditions. From Hawaii, the plane will continue the ocean crossing to Phoenix as weather permits. From there, Solar Impulse will land at a location in the Midwest, then in New York City. It will undertake two final flights over the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea before landing back at Abu Dhabi. Contributing: Doyle Rice

 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1LZ4mxU ||||| Story highlights Solar Impulse 2 has touched down in Hawaii after a flight lasting nearly five days

 The solar-powered aircraft had been in the air since taking off from Japan on Sunday

 (CNN) After nearly 118 grueling, consecutive hours over the Pacific Ocean, the sun-powered Solar Impulse 2 is back on land -- and freshly stamped into aviation record books.

 Pilot Andre Borschberg landed the plane on the Hawaiian island of Oahu on Friday morning, five days after he took off from Japan -- ending the longest and most dangerous leg in his team's attempt to fly around the world without a drop of fuel.

 The leg -- the eighth of a planned 13 -- set a record for the world's longest nonstop solo flight in terms of time. It also was the longest flight in time and distance (more than 8,200 kilometers, or 5,100 miles) for a plane run only on solar power, organizers said.

 After landing at Oahu's Kalaeloa Airport, Borschberg opened the cockpit door and waved to a cheering crowd.

 Borschberg, having been off his feet for five straight days, didn't attempt to stand until another 50 minutes passed. Someone climbed up to the cabin to give him a leg massage before he finally stepped onto a platform.

 Read More |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– A solar plane made aviation history today, and its historic journey is nowhere near over. The Solar Impulse 2, controlled by Swiss pilot André Borschberg, landed in Hawaii after a five-day, 4,000-mile trip over the Pacific Ocean from Japan, reports USA Today. The feat is just one leg on a planned around-the-world trip, but the non-stop stretch over the Pacific was seen as the most difficult, and dangerous, part of the flight. It set the record for the longest solar-powered flight in terms of both time and distance. Waiting to greet Borschberg at the Kalaeloa Airport were his family and his co-pilot, Bertrand Piccard, who will now fly the plane on its next leg, a 100-hour trip to Phoenix. The 62-year-old Borschberg had to make do with 20-minute naps in the cramped cockpit over his five-day trip, and at times, he sweated through 100-degree temperatures, reports the Guardian. He tweeted along the way, crediting yoga for helping his mental and physical stamina, especially yesterday, when he “climbed the equivalent altitude of Mount Everest four times." CNN explains that the aircraft is covered in 17,000 solar cells, which collect the sun's rays during the day and allow the plane to fly through the night on battery power.


Article:

Image copyright Ritzau Foto Image caption Kim Wall boarded Peter Madsen's submarine Nautilus on 10 August, and then disappeared

 A Danish inventor charged over the death of Swedish journalist Kim Wall has said she died in an accident on his submarine and he "buried" her at sea, Copenhagen police say.

 The court case is being heard behind closed doors but Peter Madsen's explanation of what happened was released after a request from the defence and prosecution.

 Ms Wall was last seen on Mr Madsen's submarine on the night of 10 August.

 The search for her body continues.

 In a statement, Copenhagen police also said that maritime authorities had determined the route the submarine travelled in Koge Bay and the Oresund strait before sinking.

 Mr Madsen, 46, claims that he left her body somewhere in Koge Bay, south of Copenhagen, the police said. A search effort involving divers, helicopters and ships has been under way along the identified route since Friday.

 The Danish inventor has been charged with negligent manslaughter. The police say they cannot release any more information at this time.

 Peter Madsen's lawyer, Betina Hald Engmark, said her client had not admitted any wrongdoing. She said he had given evidence to the police during preliminary questioning and "information from this" had now emerged.

 "My client has not confessed to anything, my client still pleads not guilty to the charges against him," she said.

 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Police believe Mr Madsen deliberately sank the submarine

 Ms Wall, a 30-year-old journalist who wrote for several international publications, was first reported missing by her boyfriend after she failed to return from what should have been a short trip on the UC3 Nautilus submarine.

 She had been researching a feature about Mr Madsen and his 40-tonne submarine, which at one stage was the largest privately-made vessel of its kind.

 Police believe the submarine was deliberately sunk by Mr Madsen, who was rescued before being arrested.

 Mr Madsen initially said he dropped Ms Wall off after dark on 10 August, close to where they had met earlier. But police later said he had given them a new account of events, which was not made public at the time. ||||| Danish police say the freelance Swedish journalist Kim Wall died aboard the do-it-yourself UC3 Nautilus submarine captained by inventor Peter Madsen, who had initially claimed to have dropped her off at the tip of a Copenhagen island. After over a week of denying any role in Wall's disappearance, on Monday he admitted to dumping her body into the ocean.

 Madsen "told police and the court that there was an accident on board the sub that led to the death of Kim Wall, and that he subsequently buried her at sea in an undefined location of the Koge Bay," approximately 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Copenhagen, officers reported in a statement.

 Last week, Danish authorities upgraded an initial charge of involuntary negligent manslaughter against Madsen, who owned and designed the amateur-built submarine - the biggest homemade underwater boat ever when it first took to the seas in 2008. Danish police say Madsen deliberately sank the 18-meter (60-foot) submarine in the Bay of Koge, south of Copenhagen, shortly before his rescue on August 11.

 Wall's family had feared the worst

 The new charge of aggressive manslaughter covers deaths that occur in such instances as a killer's driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs. In Denmark, the crime can lead to a sentence of up to eight years in prison.

 Until Madsen confessed, police from Denmark and Sweden and members of the voluntary Swedish Lifesaving Society had conducted a search of the waters of the Oresund straits between the two countries and parts of their coastlines with dwindling hopes of finding her alive. At one point, chief investigator Jens Moeller Jensen acknowledged that "it is our clear presumption that we are looking for a dead person."

 mkg/msh (AFP, dpa, AP) ||||| “The accused has told police and the court that an accident occurred on board the submarine which caused Kim Wall’s death, and that he subsequently buried her at sea at an unspecified location somewhere in Køge Bay. Copenhagen Police can additionally confirm that the current charges remain in place. No further information will be given with regard to the investigation of the case, since it is being conducted behind closed doors,” the police statement read.

 The information was approved for release by Copenhagen City Court following a request from the prosecution authority, according to the police statement.

 Both Swedish and Danish marine authorities have now mapped out a detailed track of the route taken by the submarine in the Öresund Strait and Køge Bay on the evening of Thursday August 10th, when Madsen’s NC3 Nautilus submarine disappeared, through to it being relocated at 10:14am the following day, police also confirmed.

 The search for Wall’s body by both Danish and Swedish authorities is continuing on Monday.

 Divers from the Danish side of the investigation began on Friday searching along the route mapped by the investigation and will continue with this work today, according to the statement.

 Investigation over the weekend has involved the use of sonar trackers as well as helicopters and boats.

 Freelance journalist Wall vanished after having boarded the 18-metre UC3 Nautilus sub on the evening of August 10th, apparently as part of her work on a feature story about its owner, inventor and entrepreneur Peter Madsen.

 Madsen was brought back alone to a harbour on Copenhagen on Friday after the vessel sank in waters near Køge Bay.

 The submarine owner claimed prior to his arrest that he had been alone on the vessel overnight when it experienced the technical problems that eventually caused it to sink.

 “I was just taking a practice trip, where I was playing with various things on the submarine, when a fault developed,” he told Danish media TV2 shortly after returning to land on Friday August 11th.

 He initially claimed that he had brought Wall back to land at around 10:30pm on the night of her disappearance.

 Broadcaster DR reported on Monday that Madsen told Copenhagen City Court nine days ago that Wall had died on board the Nautilus submarine.

 Madsen provided the court with his explanation on August 12th, according to the report.

 The information was kept behind closed doors by the court until today.

 Madsen’s lawyer Betina Hald Engmark told DR that her client was “relieved” that his explanation had now been made public.

 “That was his wish from the beginning,” Engmark said.

 The lawyer was unable to confirm whether Wall’s family had already been informed of his explanation.

 46-year-old Madsen was accused of causing Wall's death "in an unknown manner" before being remanded in custody for 24 days on August 12th on suspicion of manslaughter.

 The Swede's body was not found inside the submarine after it was raised and brought to Copenhagen for forensic examination.

 Last week, police stated that they would not release details of the evidence found on board the vessel, in order to avoid prejudicing the ongoing investigation.

 But they confirmed on Friday that they did not expect to find Kim Wall alive.

 READ ALSO: Kim Wall presumed dead: Copenhagen Police

 Submarine disappearance timeline: What we know so far

 Thursday August 10th

 7pm: The submarine, crewed by its owner Peter Madsen and a Swedish journalist, sails from the Refshaleøen island harbour near Copenhagen.

 8:30pm: Denmark military authorities receive a message from a cruise ship that observed the submarine sail out of Copenhagen Harbour, according to a DR report.

 Around midnight: “Ferry traffic” sights Nautilus for the last time until the following morning.

 Friday August 11th

 2:30am: The partner of the Swedish woman reports that the craft is missing. Danish authorities begin searching for the submarine.

 10:14am: The submarine is sighted in Køge Bay. Radio contact is made and the owner says he is setting course to Copenhagen, and that the submarine has technical problems. Nautlius sinks shortly afterwards.

 11:00am: The owner is recovered by a private boat, but there is no sign of the second crew member. The owner is sailed to land at Dragør Harbour.

 Afternoon: Police in Sweden state that a missing person alert issued during the morning pertains to the woman on board the submarine and remains in place, reports Swedish news agency TT.

 5:44pm: Copenhagen police announce through a press statement that the owner of the Nautilus has been charged over the woman's death. Police divers have located the sunken submarine but have not yet gained access to it.

 Saturday August 12th

 Afternoon: Madsen is remanded in custody for 24 days by Copenhagen City Court as work to raise the submarine begins and the identity of the woman emerges as journalist Kim Wall, after her family contacts Danish media.

 Sunday August 13th

 The raised submarine is brought to land and police technicians begin their examination, but no body is found on board.

 Monday August 14th

 9:30am: Madsen's lawyer informs media that her client accepts his preliminary detainment on charges of manslaughter.

 2:26pm: Following a forensic examination of the wreck, police announce that they believe the submarine to have been deliberately sunk.

 1:53pm: Police announce that they are broadening their search area towards the Swedish coast, are working in cooperation with Swedish authorities and are using aircraft in the search for Wall.

 Thursday August 17th

 Police confirm that they are searching for a “dead person in the area around Køge Bay on both the Danish and Swedish sides”, and that aircraft searches have failed to yield any strong new leads in the search.

 Friday August 18th

 Kim Wall’s family appeal to the public and authorities to help them find closure in the case.

 Monday August 21st

 Madsen told the court that he buried Wall at sea somewhere in the Køge Bay area after she died following an accident on board the submarine, police confirm. |||||
What is a summary?

– The mystery of what happened to a Swedish journalist who vanished after a ride on a Danish inventor's submarine is slowly becoming clearer. Though details are still scarce, Copenhagen police say Peter Madsen, after changing his story, has confessed that Kim Wall died in "an accident" on board his Nautilus sub and that he then "buried her at sea," the BBC reports. Officials have been searching for Wall since her disappearance on Aug. 10, when she boarded Madsen's sub, which then sank off of Denmark's Refshaleoen island. Madsen initially claimed he had dropped Wall off after they'd cruised around for about three hours, but in a police statement cited by the Local, that story has since been modified. "The accused has told police and the court that an accident occurred on board the submarine which caused Kim Wall’s death, and that he subsequently buried her at sea at an unspecified location somewhere in Koge Bay," reads the statement in the closed-door case. Madsen's explanation was released after a defense and prosecution request. Although the statement also notes that "current charges remain in place," it's unclear what those charges are: Deutsche Welle notes that Madsen was originally charged with negligent manslaughter, but it's now reporting a new charge of aggressive manslaughter, which it says can lead to a prison sentence of up to eight years. A search for Wall's body in the newly pinpointed area is now underway.


News article:

The change comes as card fraud has more than doubled in the U.S. over the last 15 years while falling in much of the rest of the world where chip-enabled cards have been in place for much of that time. ||||| Advertisement

 Recently received a new credit card that has a microchip on its front? Wondering about the change?

 Credit cards with security chips are a part of the new card processing system being adopted by the U.S., whereby the card used by a consumer will have a special microchip that will need to be inserted in a reader rather than swiped at a checkout terminal to close a transaction.

 The new credit cards look like any old credit card except that they have a tiny metallic chip on the front. The chip-embedded cards deploy EMV microchips, which is short for Europay, MasterCard and Visa. This system is already in use in several parts of Europe.

 The microchip basically contains a user's payment information, which so far was contained on the magnetic strip. The microchip also gives a novel code which is different for every purchase.

 The transition to chip-enabled credit cards will make life more difficult for criminals as they are more secure than magnetic strip-only cards.

 How? Because the microprocessor in the microchips - which is like a mini computer - adds an additional layer of security for each transaction.

 According to Visa's Stephanie Erickson, Head of Authentication Product Integration, while criminals were able to make counterfeit physical copies of magnetic strip-based cards, the chip-based cards will make the process more difficult. Since the chips contain data relating to a specific purchase, their reproduction is tough.

 "They can't create a counterfeit card which is two-thirds of the fraud we see in the system," says Erickson.

 Moreover, Erickson opines that countries which shifted to this technology within two years of the transition, saw the counterfeit reduce by 60 to 70 percent.

 Some may argue that the unique transaction code generated by the chip every single time the credit card is used may lead to a compromise. However, experts alleviate the fear by assuring that even if the code was gotten hold of by a thief it would be worthless.

 One, however, would still be required to sign even when deploying a chip-based card.

 While the new system promises more safety, a downside of the new microchip-based credit cards is that they take longer to process when compared to the older system. If an old swipe transaction took three to five seconds, then this "dip" method takes between five to ten seconds.

 The increased time for transaction would impact the lines at the checkout and could be a problem especially during high-traffic periods such as Black Friday.

 On Oct. 1, merchants - not card issuers - will be responsible for fraudulent transactions if they don't upgrade their payment terminals.

 © 2016 Tech Times, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. ||||| On Thursday, merchants who cannot process chip-enabled cards could become liable for fraudulent transactions at their stores. MasterCard and Visa set the deadline for the new rules, which are part of their agreements with the retailers and banks that use their networks. American Express will shift liability on Oct. 16.

 Consumers, however, will not be caught in the middle. Federal law requires banks to reimburse consumers for different types of fraud. The only difference is that, come Thursday, banks could go after retailers that have not properly updated their equipment.

 Not everyone will have chip-enabled cards by the deadline. While most customers at the big banks like JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America will receive their cards by the end of the year, some will not get new cards until 2016. Some issuers will also wait until customers’ existing cards are close to expiring.

 Credit and debit cards without chips will continue to work until they expire, or until consumers activate their new cards. And they will still work at payment terminals that have been updated to accommodate chips.

 But new machines will prompt users who swipe a chip card to dip it instead.

 “You should always use the chip device, not the swipe device,” said Ed Mierzwinski, the consumer program director of U.S. PIRG, the federation of state public interest groups. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Credit card purchases are about to get a little slower and a lot more secure. Consumers have been receiving new cards with fraud-prevention chips and on Thursday, a lot more retailers will be asking customers to put their card in a reader instead of swiping it, reports the Los Angeles Times. Oct. 1 is the day that the credit card industry will start shifting liability for fraudulent transactions to issuers and merchants that haven't adopted the new technology, which is already used in much of the rest of the world and is credited with dramatically reducing fraud by making it harder to duplicate cards. Cards without chips will continue to work until they expire, though experts tell the New York Times that consumers who have the choice should always opt to dip a card in a reader instead of swiping it. The chips in the new cards use a system known as EMV, for creators Europay, MasterCard, and Visa. They contain buyer information and add an extra level of security by creating a new code for every purchase, Tech Times explains. In Europe, consumers need to enter a PIN, but US retailers will only require signatures. Around 70% of cards will have chips by the end of this year, according to the LA Times, though the full switch is expected to take years. Retailers worry that the extra few seconds per purchase will slow down businesses at peak times—and that more fraud will now take place online. "It's like closing the front door but leaving the back door open," a National Retail Federation exec tells the New York Times. "The thieves will figure out that the back door is unlocked."


Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff...... ||||| In this July 13, 2018 photo, Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivers remarks in Portland, Maine. President Donald Trump is escalating his attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, suggesting the embattled... (Associated Press)

 In this July 13, 2018 photo, Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivers remarks in Portland, Maine. President Donald Trump is escalating his attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, suggesting the embattled official should have intervened in investigations of two GOP congressmen to help Republicans in... (Associated Press)

 WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump escalated his attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday, suggesting the Department of Justice put Republicans in midterm jeopardy with recent indictments of two GOP congressmen.

 In his latest broadside against the Justice Department's traditional independence, Trump tweeted that "Obama era investigations, of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department."

 He added: "Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff......"

 The president's striking suggestion that the Justice Department consider politics when making decisions showed his disregard for the agency's independence. Trump has frequently suggested he views Justice less as a law enforcement agency and more as a department that is supposed to do his personal and political bidding. Still, investigators are never supposed to take into account the political affiliations of the people they investigate.

 Trump, who did not address the specifics of the charges, did not name the Republicans. But he was apparently referring to the first two Republicans to endorse him in the GOP presidential primaries. Both were indicted on separate charges last month: Rep. Duncan Hunter of California on charges that included spending campaign funds for personal expenses and Rep. Chris Collins of New York on insider trading. Both have proclaimed their innocence.

 The Hunter investigation began in June 2016, according to the indictment. The indictment into Collins lays out behavior from 2017. He was also under investigation by congressional ethics officials.

 Hunter has not exited his race, while Collins ended his re-election bid days after his indictment. Both seats appear likely to remain in GOP hands, but the charges have raised Democratic hopes.

 A spokeswoman for Sessions declined comment, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 Trump did not have any public events Monday. He briefly exited the White House to a waiting motorcade, but then went back inside without going anywhere.

 He has previously pressed Sessions to investigate his perceived enemies and has accused Sessions of failing to take control of the Justice Department. Trump has also repeatedly complained publicly and privately over Sessions' decision to recuse himself from the federal investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia because he'd worked on Trump's campaign.

 Some of the issues Trump has raised have either already been examined or are being investigated.

 The tension between Trump and Sessions boiled over recently with Sessions punching back, saying that he and his department "will not be improperly influenced by political considerations." Still, Sessions has made clear to associates that he has no intention of leaving his job voluntarily despite Trump's constant criticism.

 Allies, including Republican members of Congress, have long advised Trump that firing Sessions — especially before the November midterm elections — would be deeply damaging to the party. But some have indicated that Trump may make a change after the elections.

 "I think there will come a time, sooner rather than later, where it will be time to have a new face and a fresh voice at the Department of Justice," Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told reporters recently.

 --

 Eric Tucker contributed from Washington and Mike Balsamo contributed from New York City. |||||

Write a summary.

– President Trump escalated his attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday, suggesting the Department of Justice put Republicans in midterm jeopardy with recent indictments of two GOP congressmen. Per the AP, Trump tweeted that "Obama era investigations, of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department." He added: "Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff......" The president's striking suggestion that the Justice Department consider politics when making decisions showed his disregard for the agency's independence. Investigators are never supposed to take into account the political affiliations of the people they investigate. Trump, who did not address the specifics of the charges, did not name the Republicans. But he was apparently referring to the first two Republicans to endorse him in the GOP presidential primaries. Both were indicted on separate charges last month: Rep. Duncan Hunter of California on charges that included spending campaign funds for personal expenses and Rep. Chris Collins of New York on insider trading. Both have proclaimed their innocence. A spokeswoman for Sessions declined comment, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump did not have any public events Monday. He briefly exited the White House to a waiting motorcade, but then went back inside without going anywhere.