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Total 100 articles, created at 2016-07-25 18:01 1 Florida shooting: 2 confirmed killed, 14-17 injured at Club Blu nightclub in Ft. Myers — RT (4.17/5) America At least two people have been killed and as many as 17 injured in a shooting at a nightclub in Fort Myers in western Florida. The incident took place during a ‘teen night’, with a local hospital stating that one of those hurt is only 12 years old. 2016-07-25 15:57 4KB www.rt.com 2 Verizon to acquire Yahoo in $4.8bn deal — RT Business (3.12/5) America’s telecommunications company Verizon announced on Monday it has finalized the acquisition of Yahoo’s core business for $4.8 billion. 2016-07-25 18:01 2KB www.rt.com 3 De Lima: Sona speech shows ‘vintage Duterte’
(2.15/5) SENATOR Leila de Lima only had positive words for President Rodrigo Duterte after he delivered his first State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday, saying that what Filipinos witnessed was the kind 2016-07-25 18:01 2KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 4 A Different View of the Democratic National Convention Photos (2.08/5) Photographs in and around Philadelphia before and during the 2016 Democratic National Convention. 2016-07-25 16:07 1KB abcnews.go.com 5 UK-Ireland border checks won’t return after Brexit, says May on first visit to Belfast as PM — (1.02/5) RT UK Prime Minister Theresa May has ruled out the return of border checks between the UK and the Republic of Ireland, an EU member state, despite Britain’s vote to leave the bloc. 2016-07-25 18:01 2KB www.rt.com 6 In super-rich divorce cases, I find myself cheering for Team Gold Digger Ansbach puts Europe's bravest politician under pressure (0.06/5) The law can, and should, recognise that women’s access to work and the financial rewards that come with it is not the same as men’s. 2016-07-25 15:30 12KB www.newstatesman.com
7 Why Jeremy Corbyn would fit into the BBC's The Secret Agent The £7m fingers: how Jeff Beck became a guitar hero by saying no (0.02/5) The BBC's new Joseph Conrad adaptation is wonderful, and more pertinent than I'd expected. Plus: Fleabag reviewed. 2016-07-25 15:30 20KB www.newstatesman.com 8 Australia steps closer to Guantanamo-like indefinite detention for terrorists — RT News (0.01/5) The Australian government has called on lawmakers to speed up the adoption of new legislation enabling courts to prolong the imprisonment of convicted terrorists indefinitely after they serve the terms they are sentenced to. 2016-07-25 18:01 4KB www.rt.com 9 Olympic hoodoo still haunts hosts Brazil Soccer fans of a certain age will always remember Falcao at the World Cup in 1982 and his starring role alongside Zico, Socrates and Cerezo in one of the greatest Brazil sides of all time. 2016-07-25 18:01 4KB www.timeslive.co.za 10 Rio mayor on Australian criticism of Olympic village — RT Sport Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes hit back at criticism from the Australian Olympic team, which has refused to move into the Olympic Village. 2016-07-25 18:01 2KB www.rt.com 11 DA seeks legal opinion on Gordhan’s request for extension on SAA’s financials The Democratic Alliance said on Monday that it wants “legal opinion regarding Parliament’s authority in law to grant an extension delaying the deadline for the tabling of the SAA annual financial statements (AFS)”. 2016-07-25 18:01 1KB www.timeslive.co.za 12 Lindsay Lohan accuses her Russian millionaire fiancé of trying to kill her Police were reportedly called to Lindsay Lohan's home in Knightsbridge, London on Sunday night, after neighbours heard her calling for help and yelling at her fiancé Egor Tarabasov, who she has been dating for seven months. 2016-07-25 18:01 2KB www.timeslive.co.za 13 Pearl Thusi's camp denies she 'bought her own engagement ring' Representatives for Pearl Thusi have laughed off suggestions that the star bought her own 2016-07-25 18:01 1KB www.timeslive.co.za
14 'Joburg’s advertising spend nearly tripled in an election year': DA The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday claimed the City of Joburg “nearly tripled its advertising spend in an election year”. 2016-07-25 18:01 2KB www.timeslive.co.za 15 Train derails in dazzling Chicago lightning storm (PHOTOS, VIDEO) — RT Viral Video has emerged of a train derailing during a spectacular display of lightning in Chicago. The train canopy can be seen engulfed in sparks as several carriages come off the tracks during an intense storm. 2016-07-25 18:01 1KB www.rt.com 16 SABC to look into complaints over Khanyi, Somizi and Ntombi's show The under-fire SABC has assured Metro FM listeners that their complaints about the new mid-morning show, Whose Show Is It Anyway, will be evaluated. 2016-07-25 18:01 2KB www.timeslive.co.za 17 Clinton camp head alleges Russian hack & release of DNC emails to aid Trump, cites ‘press & experts' — RT America After Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager alleged that Russians “stole and released” the DNC emails to help elect her opponent, Donald Trump’s son said that if a Republican told “lie after lie” like the Democrats, “they would bring out the electric chair.” 2016-07-25 18:01 4KB www.rt.com 18 RAF kidnap-plotters seen in ‘dry run’ days before attempt — RT UK Two men who tried to abduct an RAF serviceman at knifepoint while he was out jogging close to his base in Norfolk may have been seen conducting a reconnaissance mission days earlier. 2016-07-25 18:01 2KB www.rt.com 19 Man Utd coach Mourinho imposes ban on app — RT Sport New Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has laid down the law to his players, banning them from playing Pokemon Go for two days before a match. 2016-07-25 18:01 1KB www.rt.com 20 India wants to create state oil company bigger than Chevron and Rosneft — RT Business The Indian government is planning to unite 13 state oil firms to create a giant corporation, the Economic Times reports. The revenue of the new company would exceed that of Chevron, and its market value will be bigger than Russia's Rosneft. 2016-07-25 18:01 1KB www.rt.com
21 French interior minister to sue Nice policewoman over claims of flawed security on Bastille Day — RT News Bernard Cazeneuve may sue police officer Sandra Bertin after she claimed that the Bastille Day celebrations in Nice were severely mismanaged by the government. Cazeneuve called her statement an “unworthy accusation” and “useless speculation.” 2016-07-25 18:01 4KB www.rt.com 22 ‘ANC campaign now all-out racial mobilisation’: DA The Democratic Alliance (DA) invoked Nelson Mandela’s name on Wednesday‚ saying President Jacob “Zuma will not distract us from realising Madiba’s vision for a united South Africa”. 2016-07-25 18:01 2KB www.timeslive.co.za 23 Parliament hopes CCMA ruling will ‘close chapter of negative engagement’ with Nehawu Parliament said it had been vindicated by the Council for Conciliation‚ Mediation and Arbitration’s (CCMA) dismissal of the National Education Health and Workers’ Union’s (Nehawu) “application in relation to the payment of bonuses in 2015”. 2016-07-25 18:01 3KB www.timeslive.co.za 24 DA picket to get Jackson Mthembu ‘to walk the talk’ on SABC The Democratic Alliance (DA) wants Jackson Mthembu “to walk the talk” and call “an urgent meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Communications to consider the ongoing crisis at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)”. 2016-07-25 18:01 2KB www.timeslive.co.za 25 Presidency still mum on woman’s Zuma blessee claims The Presidency is yet to comment on pictures circulating on social media purporting to show President Jacob Zuma with a young women to whom he is more than just a “blesser”. 2016-07-25 18:01 2KB www.timeslive.co.za 26 Robredo backs Duterte’s stand on housing, war on drugs VICE President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo said that she was “encouraged” by the plans presented by President Duterte for the country, particularly in the issue of housing as they share the 2016-07-25 18:01 2KB newsinfo.inquirer.net
27 Jazz up your day with Cherry Mobile Flare J2 In the same innovative spirit of the first Flare phones, Cherry Mobile’s newest entry, Flare J2, improves the overall mobile experience with an enhanced Flare J2 smart phone, which promises to 2016-07-25 18:01 2KB technology.inquirer.net 28 Henton gets job done in Aces’ first win After failing to lead Alaska in its opener against Meralco last Sunday, LaDontae Henton was motivated to prove that the Aces didn't make the wrong choice on entrusting him the reins of the 2016-07-25 18:01 2KB sports.inquirer.net 29 ‘CHR more embolded with Duterte’s promised rule of law’ Chairperson Jose Luis "Chito" Gascon on Monday said the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is even more "emboldened" to do its mandate with the statement of President 2016-07-25 18:01 2KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 30 Ferrer shakes off early struggles, plays hero late in Tanduay win Kevin Ferrer shook off the cobwebs and found his old form late, saving Tanduay in his debut game on Monday. Missing his first six three-point attempts, the former UST standout mustered enough 2016-07-25 18:01 3KB sports.inquirer.net 31 Tenorio says Kings import Brownlee will only get better Forced to find a replacement import after Paul Harris sustained a hand injury, Ginebra coach Tim Cone has been bracing for the worst when he got Justin Brownlee last week. And his fears 2016-07-25 18:01 3KB sports.inquirer.net 32 Duterte cooperating with militants will help bring peace—Ocampo President Duterte’s willingness to cooperate with militant groups will bear good fruit in the peace and order situation of the country, said former Bayan Muna representative Satur 2016-07-25 18:01 2KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 33 Ferrer, Celda save the day as Tanduay beats Cafe France anew Tanduay continues to own Cafe France's number. Kevin Ferrer nailed the go-ahead three with 39.2 seconds to go, while Reden Celda had the game-saving block as the Rhum Masters gutted out a 2016-07-25 18:01 2KB sports.inquirer.net
34 NPA rebel killed in Quezon clash LUCENA CITY, Quezon -- A suspected communist rebel was killed in a clash with Army soldiers in Lopez town in Quezon province on Monday, a military official said. Col. Lenard Agustin, commander 2016-07-25 18:01 1KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 35 Group welcomes Duterte’s vow for full RH law implementation A GROUP that advances women's rights welcomed President Duterte’s announcement on the full implementation of the Republic Act 10354 or the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2016-07-25 18:01 2KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 36 Duterte hits ‘melodramatic’ Inquirer front page photo President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday downplayed a viral photo of a wife of a slain alleged drug pusher cradling the body of her husband, a photo of which was published in the Inquirer on 2016-07-25 18:01 2KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 37 How Sania Mirza gets her make-up done... while sleeping! Indian tennis star Sania Mirza, who is one of India's most stylish sports stars recently showed us all how she keeps her appearance so fine 2016-07-25 17:43 1KB www.mid-day.com 38 Brave Chennai man risks life to save woman from being raped How many times have you stopped by to help someone? Not much? This story of this courageous Chennai man who fought men trying to rape a girl will inspire you! 2016-07-25 17:40 1KB www.mid- day.com 39 Canara Bank Q1 profit slips 52% to Rs 229 cr State-run lender Canara Bank on Monday reported 52.1 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 228.9 crore in the first quarter ended June as it parked a higher share towards contingencies for bad loans 2016-07-25 17:28 1KB www.mid-day.com 40 Defence Minister should apprise LS on missing AN-32 plane Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge today sought a statement from Defence Minister Manohar Parikkar on the fate of the Indian Air Force AN-32 aircraft which went missing over Bay of Bengal with 29 defence personnel on board four days ago 2016-07-25 17:26 2KB www.mid-day.com 41 Oldest elephant in Kerala set to enter Guinness At 86, Dakshayani shows no signs of ageing and looks absolutely fit as she gets all set to enter the Guinness World Records as the oldest living elephant 2016-07-25 17:25 2KB www.mid-day.com 42 Marcia Fudge To Replace Wasserman As Chair Of DNC Convention In the wake of Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz stepping down, Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge will serve as the permanent chair of the Democratic National Convention set to 2016-07-25 16:32 2KB dailycaller.com 43 Media Matters Attacks DCNF In Defense Of Clinton Foundation A liberal advocacy group run by one of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's closest allies launched an attack against The Daily Caller News Foundation's reporting on the Clinton Foundat 2016-07-25 16:32 6KB dailycaller.com 44 UPDATE: Hugo, Colorado Does NOT Have THC In Their Water Hugo, Colo., town officials lifted the water advisory they put in place Thursday after the latest tests showed no THC (a chemical compound in marijuana) present in the water supply. An emergency 2016-07-25 16:32 3KB dailycaller.com 45 Lindsay Lohan Gets In Fight With Fiance Police Are Called Police kicked down Lindsay Lohan's front door after she accused her fiancé of trying to strangle her during an argument. [caption id="attachment_5109915" align="alignnone" width="640"] (Photo: Re 2016-07-25 16:45 2KB dailycaller.com 46 After playing anti-Semitism card against Trump, Wasserman Schultz sunk by aides’ anti- Bernie emails Sanders and his backers have wanted Wasserman Schultz to go, claiming that instead of playing referee, Wasserman Schultz and her team were using the powers of the DNC to help Hillary Clinton. 2016-07-25 16:29 4KB www.jpost.com 47 Donald Trump brings home his dark vision of America at the Republican convention Caitlyn Jenner: “It was easy to come out as trans. It was harder to come out as Republican” The Presidential nominee pledged: "Safety must be restored. " 2016-07-25 15:31 9KB www.newstatesman.com 48 Breaking News English Lesson English News Lessons: Free 26-Page lesson plan / 2-page mini- lesson - Plagiarism - Handouts, online activities, speed reading, dictation, mp3... current events. 2016-07-25 16:01 1KB www.breakingnewsenglish.com 49 Here's Ashwini Ponappa's idea of a 'Happy Sunday' The women's doubles player posted a picture on social networking website Twitter which shows her along with her family smiling all the way 2016-07-25 16:14 1KB www.mid-day.com 50 VFW motorcycle ride honors Korean vet and his cause Veterans congregate and leave on motorcycles from the Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention at the Charlotte Convention Center Saturday for a ceremony for Garland Denny at VFW Post 5464 in Monroe. The Korean War veteran who died at age 84 in October worked for a decade to get a... 2016-07-25 16:11 2KB www.charlotteobserver.com 51 Summer camp is giving new meaning to hanging out Caroline Calouche's summer camp is giving new meaning to hanging out. Eighteen kids age six to 11 practice aerial arts during Calouche's Cirque Camp. 2016-07-25 16:11 1KB www.charlotteobserver.com 52 Amazon fills the void and cuts waste by testing tighter-fit boxes Amazon, as one of the world’s leading ecommerce companies, is responsible for much of the world’s waste packaging but the company is looking to combat this by using technology to better locate smaller boxes capable of accommodating specific orders. 2016-07-25 16:12 1KB www.thedrum.com 53 Does Yahoo’s Tumblr ‘screw up’ augur the end of another digital bubble? The Drum's digital editor Ronan Shields points out how Yahoo's dramatic Tumblr write down is indicative of a major correction in the industry's ad tech sector. 2016-07-25 16:12 5KB www.thedrum.com 54 Man killed and two people injured in Surrey pool party shooting A man is killed and two people are injured in a shooting at a pool party at Headley, Surrey. 2016-07-25 16:09 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 55 Giant miner puppet walks through Cornwall A 10-metre high giant puppet of a Cornish tin miner begins its 130- mile journey. 2016-07-25 16:09 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 56 Stephen Port: More poison charges for serial killings suspect A man accused of murdering four men in east London is also charged with poisoning, rape and sexual assault. 2016-07-25 16:09 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 57 Durham Cathedral Lego model's final brick added The final brick of Lego is added to a model replica of Durham Cathedral, three years after work on it started. 2016-07-25 16:10 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 58 Teenage girl arrested at school on 'nightmare' police treatment A teenage girl who was arrested at school over claims of bullying describes her treatment by police as a "nightmare". 2016-07-25 16:10 3KB www.bbc.co.uk 59 Damien Nettles: The boy who disappeared Twenty years after a 16-year-old boy vanished on a night out in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, the BBC has spent months reinvestigating the case. 2016-07-25 16:09 21KB www.bbc.co.uk 60 Munich shootings: Who were the victims? Who were the victims of the mass shooting in Munich carried out by David Ali Sonboly? 2016-07-25 16:09 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 61 Entertainment week in pictures: 16 A look at some of the events in the world of entertainment and arts over the past week, including Steven Spielberg receiving a gold Blue Peter badge and Michelle Obama's Carpool Karaoke. 2016-07-25 16:09 2KB www.bbc.co.uk
62 Dover delays: Motorists find ways to cope with queuing As motorists continue to face a long wait on their journey through Kent, how have people coped with being stuck in their cars for hours. 2016-07-25 16:09 5KB www.bbc.co.uk 63 Brexit: Sturgeon sets out key Scottish interests that 'must be protected' Scotland's first minister Nicola Sturgeon outlines her next steps in securing Scotland's position in Europe, a month on from the Brexit vote. 2016-07-25 16:09 3KB www.bbc.co.uk 64 BBC News Channel Britain's most-watched news channel, delivering breaking news and analysis all day, every day. 2016-07-25 16:09 679Bytes www.bbc.co.uk 65 Tim Kaine: The Spanish-speaking, anti- abortion Democratic senator Hillary Clinton has chosen Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as her vice- presidential running mate in her bid for the White House. 2016-07-25 16:09 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 66 German prosecutors consider legal action against the spread of misinformation on Twitter Following a mass shooting in Munich on Friday (22 July) German prosecutors say they are considering taking legal action against people who set out to spread false information on social media in times of crisis. 2016-07-25 16:10 1KB www.thedrum.com 67 Instagram is reportedly letting Taylor Swift test a tool that could see celebrities block abusive comments Instagram is reportedly allowing Taylor Swift and other high profile figures on Instagram test a tool that 2016-07-25 16:10 2KB www.thedrum.com 68 HooplaHa-Only Good News signs on as content partner for Roker Media's Live Streaming Network Roker Media has set its sights on livestreaming and today announced a partnership with HooplaHa-Only Good News to feature HooplaHa’s Happy Hour programming as part of its Live Streaming Network (LSN). In June, Roker Media announced that, in conjunction with Brave Ventures, it... 2016-07-25 16:10 1KB www.thedrum.com
69 Facebook and Twitter help smash Rio terror plot in ‘Operation Hashtag’ Facebook and Twitter have been actively providing intelligence on suspected terrorists to Brazilian authorities, a judge has revealed, following the arrest of 12 suspected Islamist militants last week. 2016-07-25 16:10 1KB www.thedrum.com 70 GroupM backs off from exclusive ad deal with YouTube in Australia GroupM is backing off from a deal it made with YouTube in Australia around its Google Preferred service, in which agencies can book the top five per cent of its premium content upfront. 2016-07-25 16:10 1KB www.thedrum.com 71 How Omelet encouraged Hitman players to assassinate its ad stars Gary Busey and Garry Cole Hitman, a video game tasking players with creatively assassinating awful people and slipping away from the scene unseen, has heralded a new, and bizarre, level of marketing integration with the launch of downloadable content calling for the murder of notorious actor Gary Busey. 2016-07-25 16:09 4KB www.thedrum.com 72 Self-Driving Trucks: What Could Make Automation Safe for You Video Self-driving truck mounted attenuators are creating an extra layer of safety for road workers and save lives. 2016-07-25 16:09 3KB abcnews.go.com 73 Guardian News and Media will allow advertisers to tap into trending topics in real- time with new programmatic offering Guardian News and Media (GNM) will now let advertisers target its most engaged users at scale by identifying popular content on the site, and then offering brands the ability to message them, via its new programmatic offering Pulse. 2016-07-25 16:09 2KB www.thedrum.com 74 Anti-Corbyn billionaire urges rebel MPs to split Labour & form new party — RT UK Billionaire Labour donor Assem Allam has encouraged MPs opposed to party leader Jeremy Corbyn to defect and start a new party, after saying he will not support the embattled Labour chief or his leadership rival Owen Smith. 2016-07-25 15:57 4KB www.rt.com
75 RT documentary meets victims & executioners of deadly US attacks in Pakistan — RT News Drone strikes have become as easy as a video game, with deadly attacks launched by the simple touch of a joystick. RT's documentary 'Game of Drones' includes emotional accounts from those on either side of the attacks - both victims and executioners. 2016-07-25 15:57 4KB www.rt.com 76 Jerika Bolen's painful decision to celebrate and then end her life Share Let friends in your social network know what you are reading about A link has been sent to your friend's email address... 2016-07-25 16:00 2KB rssfeeds.usatoday.com 77 Fur flies over New Zealand cat ban Environmental concerns mean that a new housing estate is banning buyers from owning felines. 2016-07-25 15:38 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 78 Moscow plans Pokemon Go-style app to 'catch' historic figures Moscovites will soon be able to "catch" Russia's historic personalities and take a selfie with them using an app like Pokemon Go, authorities say. 2016-07-25 15:38 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 79 China shuts several online news sites for independent reporting China shuts down several online news operations for publishing independent reports instead of official statements, local media say. 2016-07-25 15:38 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 80 Yahoo Reports First Quarter 2016 Results "I'm pleased that we delivered Q1 results in line with our expectations. Our 2016 plan is off to a solid start as... 2016-07-25 15:58 23KB investor.yahoo.net 81 Turkey coup attempt: 'Arrest warrants issued' for journalists Turkey's authorities issue detention warrants for 42 journalists, local media say, as part of an investigation into a failed coup earlier this month. 2016-07-25 15:38 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 82 Bangladesh factory boy's killing: Police arrest official Bangladeshi police say they have arrested an official at a spinning mill where a 10-year-old boy was killed after other workers pumped air into his body. 2016-07-25 15:38 1KB www.bbc.co.uk
83 Star Trek knocks Pets from US box office top spot Star Trek Beyond has topped the US box office after taking $59.9m (£45.6m) on its opening weekend, knocking The Secret Life of Pets off the number one spot. 2016-07-25 15:39 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 84 Got beef? How one man faced down a 'noodle cartel' How one man faced the wrath of a "cartel" in Shanghai - and became a social media hero - by opening a noodle shop too close to existing ones. 2016-07-25 15:39 4KB www.bbc.co.uk 85 Bollywood's Salman Khan freed in poaching case A court in India acquits Bollywood star Salman Khan of shooting and killing endangered animals two decades ago. 2016-07-25 15:39 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 86 Koffi Olomide case: Zambia gig cancelled after 'assault' Organisers in Zambia cancel a planned concert by one of Africa's biggest musicians, Koffi Olomide, in a row over an alleged assault on one of his dancers. 2016-07-25 15:39 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 87 New Zealand aims to become predator-free by 2050 Prime Minister John Key wants possums, stoats and rats eradicated to protect native wildlife. 2016-07-25 15:40 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 88 Could trade deal with China help Britain avoid post-Brexit abyss? — RT UK The UK has broached the topic of an ambitious free trade agreement with China in a bid to take advantage of post-Brexit “opportunities,” Chancellor Philip Hammond has revealed. 2016-07-25 15:57 2KB www.rt.com 89 Fitch confirms Russia's low investment grade rating with negative outlook — RT Business The Fitch international credit rating agency has left Russia's issuer default ratings at the lowest investment grade at 'BBB-', affirming a negative outlook. 2016-07-25 15:57 1KB www.rt.com 90 Police and sheriff's officers surprise campers in Clover Thirteen officers from the Clover Police Department and three deputies with the York County Sheriff's Office made a surprise visit to the D2 Football and Cheerleading Camp in Clover on Friday. Camp organizers invited the officers in the wake of national turmoil surrounding law enforcement. The officers... 2016-07-25 15:42 3KB www.heraldonline.com 91 Man found shot dead A man was found shot dead inside a DeKalb County apartment Sunday. 2016-07-25 15:55 878Bytes www.ajc.com 92 The Broadcast airs fury of soulful vocals, rhythms in Rhythm & Brews, LEAF Downtown KMorgan 1340 posts 2016-07-25 15:53 8KB www.thetribunepapers.com 93 Homes: What you can buy for $4 million From a sprawling mountain getaway in Colorado to a luxe condo on the lake in Chicago, these upscale abodes offer the good life 2016-07-25 15:52 6KB www.cbsnews.com 94 MLB Baseball Box Scores MIAMI -- Speed kills, and whether it was Jose Fernandez's 99-mph fastballs or Giancarlo Stanton's 100-plus-mph line... 2016-07-25 15:52 5KB scoresandstats.newyork.cbslocal.com 95 Eye Opener: DNC chairwoman ousted An email scandal sparks a big shakeup in the Democratic Party, as Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigns. Also, dangerous and deadly wildfires explode overnight in California, forcing thousands to evacuate. All that and all that matters in today's Eye Opener... 2016-07-25 15:52 1KB www.cbsnews.com 96 Judge Gives Lawyer Jail Time For BLACK LIVES MATTER PIN A municipal court judge in Ohio ordered his bailiff to take a black attorney into custody and sentenced her to five days in jail because she refused to remove a Black Lives Matter pin in the judge's c 2016-07-25 15:48 4KB dailycaller.com 97 Donald Trump Real Estate Empire Suffers YUGE 2016 SWOON The value of Donald Trump's various luxury real estate ventures is suffering because of his presidential run, according to a Yahoo Finance analysis of national real estate prices. [feature] The 2016-07-25 15:47 4KB dailycaller.com
98 Panel to probe video controversy of AAP MP Mann Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Monday set up a nine member panel to probe the breach of security by AAP lawmaker Bhagwant Mann and 2016-07-25 15:40 2KB www.mid-day.com 99 Probing the cosmos: Is anybody out there? From a remote valley in Northern California, Jill Tarter is listening to the universe. 2016-07-25 15:35 6KB rss.cnn.com 100 Shuttle Endeavour lands at California air base Space shuttle Endeavour landed safely Sunday afternoon at California's Edwards Air Force Base after NASA waved off two opportunities for a Florida landing because of poor weather. 2016-07-25 15:35 3KB rss.cnn.com Articles
Total 100 articles, created at 2016-07-25 18:01
1 Florida shooting: 2 confirmed killed, 14-17 injured at Club Blu nightclub in Ft. Myers — RT America (4.17/5) The shooting took place at Club Blu in the early hours of Monday morning, according to Capt. Jim Mulligan of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. He said that two people have been killed, while as many as 17 people have been injured. Fort Myers Police Department (FMPD) reported that 14 to 16 people were injured. The victims have not been identified by the authorities, while the FMPD says it is not sure of exactly how many people were injured, as not everyone who was hurt was taken to hospital by ambulance. “The numbers, they’re sort of fluctuating. We have multiple hospitals calling in. We’re trying to confirm. So, 15 to 17. We do have two confirmed dead,” Capt. Mulligan said, as cited by Wink News. “Officers arrived on scene. Found multiple people suffering from various levels of gunshot wounds. EMS was called, multiple units responded [and] helped triage [and] transport multiple people from the scene,” he added. Lee Memorial hospital, which is treating 16 victims from the shootings, says that the youngest person is just 12 years old, while the oldest is 27. Four people still remain in hospital, while one is in a critical condition and another is in a serious condition. The scene has been described as “a mad house” and there have been reports of gunshots as people were exiting the nightclub, according to Wink News , a television station based in Fort Myers. Another witness says that she heard around 30 gunshots from the scene and believes that these came from a number of weapons. Police say that the scene is still active and they are searching for suspects in two locations in the city. A total of three people have been detained in connection with the nightclub shooting, while police say they are trying to determine a motive for the shooting in the parking lot. Officers at the scene said the condition of those who have suffered gunshot wounds is ranging from minor to life threatening, according to WPTV. Onlookers said they could see people screaming, while others were being taken away in ambulances. One man said one of his friends was at the club when the shooting took place. “I called and couldn’t get a hold of them, I rushed to Blu scared when I arrived I got one of them and he said that the shooter took off and the cops where chasing him,” he wrote on Facebook, as cited by Wink News. “It was a mad house people were running everywhere. All people were saying was their friends’ names to see if they’re okay — a lot of phone calls to parents,” he wrote. “But it was one of the scariest sights to just see people come pouring out like that.” Syreeta Gary said that her daughter was caught up in the shooting which took place in the parking lot outside the club. She described how the girl was forced to run for her life, while one of her friends was shot in the leg. “I just thank God that my daughter is OK because she could have been shot. Her dodging bullets and running and ducking between cars is ridiculous that these kids have to go through this and they can’t enjoy themselves because you have other people there who have criminal minds and they just want to terrorize things.” A poster on Twitter shows that the nightclub was hosting a ‘Swimsuit Glow Party’, while those attending did not need ID to gain entry. The shootings in Fort Myers come six weeks after 49 people were killed when a gunman opened fire at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando on June 12, causing the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history. The nightclub, which was frequented by members of Orlando’s LGBT community, was targeted by Omar Mateen, who had pledged allegiance to the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL). Florida Nightclub Shooting, Multiple Dead, Many Wounded dailycaller.com
Florida nightclub shooting: Two dead and 16 injured in Fort Myers bbc.co.uk
2 dead, up to 17 injured in Florida nightclub shooting,... ajc.com 2 killed in Florida nightclub shooting mid-day.com 2016-07-25 15:57 www.rt.com
2 2 Verizon to acquire Yahoo in $4.8bn deal — RT Business (3.12/5) Under the deal which doubles Verizon's digital advertising business, the company gets Yahoo's search, mail, and content businesses. Yahoo will be merged with Verizon's AOL unit. "Just over a year ago we acquired AOL to enhance our strategy of providing a cross-screen connection for consumers, creators and advertisers," said Verizon chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam, adding "the acquisition of Yahoo will put Verizon in a highly competitive position as a top global mobile media company, and help accelerate our revenue stream in digital advertising. " Yahoo is keeping its 15 percent stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba and Yahoo Japan, which have a combined value of $40 billion. Yahoo initially wanted to spin off its Alibaba stake, but later rejected the idea fearing a hefty tax bill. The company will also retain its cash, non-core patents, convertible notes, and other minority investments. READ MORE: Zero dollars + compromise: Yahoo settles lawsuit over email privacy "The sale of our operating business, which effectively separates our Asian asset equity stakes, is an important step in our plan to unlock shareholder value for Yahoo," CEO Marissa Mayer said in a statement. With the acquisition deal, Yahoo which was founded in 1994, will change its name and become a publicly-traded investment company. At the height of the dot-com boom the Silicon Valley web pioneer had a market capitalization of $128 billion, more than double that of media giant Walt Disney. Once one of the leading internet media businesses, Yahoo has been struggling in the face of stiff competition from rivals like Google and Facebook. In February, the company formally launched the process of auctioning off its search and advertising business, saying it would fire 15 percent of the workforce. Last week, Yahoo reported its quarterly earnings, again missing Wall Street estimates. Revenue fell 19 percent in the second quarter to $1.31 billion which was the company’s sixth decline in the past seven periods. In the company’s last quarterly release, CEO Mayer said its board had made “great progress on strategic alternatives.” Mayer was hired from Google as Yahoo's CEO in 2012 to turn around the internet giant’s crippled business.
Verizon to acquire Yahoo for USD 4.83 bn mid-day.com
Done deal: Verizon acquires Yahoo for $4.83bn thedrum.com Verizon to acquire Yahoo's operating business investor.yahoo.net 2016-07-25 18:01 www.rt.com
3 3 De Lima: Sona speech shows ‘vintage Duterte’ (2.15/5) SENATOR Leila de Lima only had positive words for President Rodrigo Duterte after he delivered his first State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday, saying that what Filipinos witnessed was the kind of speech expected from the firebrand chief executive. De Lima said that Duterte’s first Sona more or less depicted the true state of the nation. “Vintage Duterte talaga yung speech: mix of serious stuff, light stuff, jokes, kapilyohan, merong wit. That is vintage Duterte. It’s the first Sona of that kind that he was able to depict of portray the real state of the nation in his own style na kinukuwento lang ang experience niya as a mayor and what the ordinary people would love to hear,” De Lima said. When asked if she would oppose the proposals of the President such as the push for a shift to federal type of government and seeking emergency powers to ease traffic congestion in Metro Manila, the senator said it would depend on the nuances of the proposals. “The Senate and the House of Representatives are co-equal naman. Our mindset is not obstructionist. So whenever we clash, whenever we criticize, it is a constructive type criticism. It’s not for the sake of clashing with the executive department. It depends on the specific proposals,” she said. “The devil is on the details, but we are open depending on the exact appearance of the proposal,” the senator added. Duterte and De Lima had several exchanges in past over the new administration’s declaration against illegal drugs and criminality, as the latter called for a Senate probe that will investigate the alleged extrajudicial killings. But everything seems well between the two as Duterte approached De Lima before he ascended toward the rostrum and deliver his Sona. De Lima admitted that she was surprised and flattered when the President stopped and shook her hand before climbing to the rostrum. Militant lawmakers laud Duterte for ‘heartfelt’ Sona newsinfo.inquirer.net
Poe: Duterte should have also used Sona to promote FOI bill newsinfo.inquirer.net
So where’s the ‘heart-wrenching’ part in Duterte’s Sona? newsinfo.inquirer.net WATCH: Duterte’s first Sona newsinfo.inquirer.net
Duterte sets sights on future without blaming past admin newsinfo.inquirer.net
Duterte’s first Sona draws cheers, jeers from netizens technology.inquirer.net 2016-07-25 18:01 Aries Joseph newsinfo.inquirer.net
4 A Different View of the Democratic National Convention Photos (2.08/5) Peter DaSilva is photographing people around Philadelphia during the Democratic National Convention this week and asking them what they think is the best thing about their candidate. Local Philadelphia Falun Dafa practitioners stretch against in front of Independence Hall on the morning before the start of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 24, 2016.
Ed Rendell: DNC had thumb on scale for Hillary Clinton, but too 'ineffectual' to matter washingtontimes.com
Protesters Flood Philadelphia Ahead Of Democratic National Convention wp.me 2016-07-25 16:07 ABC News abcnews.go.com
5 UK-Ireland border checks won’t return after Brexit, says May on first visit to Belfast as PM — RT UK (1.02/5) The PM will reassure Northern Irish First Minister Arlene Foster on a visit to Belfast on Monday as part of a broader pledge to bolster the “ bonds ” between the nations of the UK. May’s visit comes as regional politicians and interest groups prepare a legal challenge against the British government in the event it fails to protect the Good Friday Agreement and the peace process when Britain leaves the EU. Speaking ahead of the final leg of a trip to all four parts of the UK, May said she would work to ensure Northern Ireland remains a part of the country. The PM underscored her commitment to the Good Friday Agreement, which is credited with bringing an end to the 30-year period known as ‘The Troubles’ by establishing a power-sharing assembly to govern Northern Ireland. May is said to support Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny’s position that border checks will not be reinstated between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. “ I have been clear that we will make a success of the UK’s departure from the European Union. That means it must work for Northern Ireland too, including in relation to the border with the Republic ,” May said. “ We will engage with all of Northern Ireland’s political parties as we prepare for that negotiation .” Customs controls existed on the border from its establishment in 1923 until 1993, when they were abolished as part of a wider agreement to remove borders within the European Community. During her visit to Northern Ireland May will face calls from senior politicians, including a former minister of Sinn Fein and leaders of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), to ensure the peace process is protected in the event of Brexit. The group, which includes former Sinn Fein minister John O’Dowd and SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, have warned the PM they will seek a judicial review if she “ fails to commit to comply with the UK’s constitutional and legal obligations in deciding whether and when to trigger Article 50 ” and formalize Britain’s exit from the EU “ These obligations include safeguarding the unique requirements of Northern Ireland constitutional law and statute, in particular the statutory recognition of the Belfast-Good Friday Agreement, and satisfying the requirements of EU law incorporated into the law of Northern Ireland by the European Communities Act 1972, ” they said.
Theresa May on NI post-Brexit: 'No-one wants return to borders of the past' bbc.co.uk 2016-07-25 18:01 www.rt.com
6 In super-rich divorce cases, I find myself cheering for Team Gold Digger Ansbach puts Europe's bravest politician under pressure (0.06/5) Being female is an expensive business. It’s not just that the lipstick and high heels don’t come for free. Financially you are hobbled from the day you are born. There’s no way of putting an exact figure on how much being a woman costs. There are various ways in which people have tried, estimating gender pay gaps , comparing pensions and savings , even checking how much more parents spend on presents for sons than for daughters. But so much of this is unquantifiable. What’s the cost of your time, your emotional labour, all those things you do or don’t do because the world belongs to men and you are not one of them? How does the impact of your sex intersect with your class, your race and your location? It’s impossible to get a precise figure for how much each of us is really owed. Still, since no one’s offering us any actual compensation, I suppose we don’t have to anyway. At primary school in the 1980s we used to sing a song called “ Supermum ”. Vastly inferior to Billy Connolly’s “ Supergran ”, it was a study in patriarchal passive aggression: “Supermum, you’re wonderful, but very underpaid. Supermum, you’re cook and cleaner, handyman and maid. If you put in a bill, for all the work you do, There’d be an awful lot of wages due.” Ha! How better to indoctrinate little girls into the ways of the patriarchy than by piling on the insincere praise? It’s not as though “Supermum” ever would ask for payment for her labours; indeed, that she doesn’t is the whole point. While we might occasionally see articles which fancifully estimate what the yearly salary of a stay-at-home wife and mother should be ( £159,137 , apparently), these are meant to be all the reward a woman needs. You don’t need the actual money, just someone to tell you (ideally via the medium of song) that your labour could be considered economically valuable. It could be, but it isn’t. Soz about that. This is the world we live in and those are the rules. I do not expect it to change in my lifetime, nor in that of my children. In order for women to gain equal access to material resources we would need to revolutionise the way we see men and women, work and care. Right now we just tinker around the edges and have done so for millennia. As a feminist, I believe in a fair redistribution of resources. I believe justice should be for everyone, or else it is no justice at all. However, these are ideals. When it comes to practicalities, I increasingly find myself thinking “sod this, why should women be reasonable? Let’s just that accept the patriarchy’s here to stay and find ways to milk it for every penny its got.” Take, for instance, the current situation with divorce settlements in the UK. A recent Telegraph report claims that “ rich wives are being told to get a job as judges clamp down on ‘meal ticket’ divorces ”. I can see why one might want to make a feminist argument in favour of such a course of action. If, as feminists have argued, women are not objects but agents in their own right, why should wealthy ex-wives expect to remain kept women for the rest of their lives? If we are more than wives and mothers, but people in our own right, why should it be assumed we deserve compensation at all? Besides, given all the deprivations women face globally, is whether or not the ex-wife of a billionaire can afford one fur coat or twenty really a feminist priority? I get this, I really do. Even so, there is some part of me that desperately wants these women to be permitted to bleed their ex-husbands dry. Oh, I know how unfair that sounds. But life’s not fair, is it? That’s what women are told, every minute of every day. Why shouldn’t the unfairness work in just one woman’s favour every once in a while? Perhaps I shouldn’t be admitting to this. Feminism, we tell ourselves, is about justice. We don’t want dominance, just equality. Nothing wrong with that. But here’s the thing: we’re not getting equality, not at all. Progress is not linear. There is no “right side of history.” Constant vigilance is required to defend gains already made. All battles we have won – on abortion, education, maternity leave, equal pay - may yet be lost again. While it is comforting to imagine a world in which women are seen as every bit as human as men, it’s not something any of us can count on. “Come the revolution…”, we say, never having to finish the sentence because we can rest assured it will never come. Given that this is the case, I feel more than a little irritation at reading that “the current expectation in divorces heard across the country appears to be that wives should only receive support for such a period of time which, it is felt, allows them to retrain, if necessary, and find work rather than remain dependent on their ex-husband into the future”. It suggests that there is, in theory, a level playing field to which both ex-husband and ex-wife may eventually return. There is no acknowledgement of the fact that women who give up years of their lives for partners and children never get them back. No amount of “retraining” will give a woman the world she would have had if she’d happened to have been born male. And of course, the law cannot compensate a woman for this particular injustice. But what it can do is recognise that women’s access to work and the financial rewards that come with it is not the same as men’s. It has been suggested that ex-wives with children over the age of seven “ should be expected to work for a living ”. I’ve been back in paid employment before any of my children reached the age of one. To spend seven years at home with them would have been a luxury indeed. Even so, I suspect that only a man could believe that once one’s children reach the age of seven, the job prospects and earning potential of the primary carer could ever be the same as those of her – because it is likely to be her – ex-partner. The school day finishes at three and holidays are long. Childcare providers do not accept children who are sick, and can of course fall ill themselves. It’s not that mothers should be seen as “natural” carers, but that as long as the bulk of that responsibility falls on women, it’s unfair to ignore the consequences. In an ideal world of course a woman should not remain financially dependent on a man with whom she once had a relationship. This world is not, however, ideal, and if our aim is to make it so, why should women always have to be the ones to give things up first? Why do the girls have to share the Wendy house while the boys still get to keep the whole playground to themselves? Why do we have to hand over the meagre spoils that come with being female with no binding promise of the wealth awarded to males in return? Why are women told that equality will be achieved by women simply acting as though we already have it? I’m sorry, but I think this is what’s technically known as a bit of a swizz. The world will not be changed by one very wealthy man being forced to share his money with his ex-wife. As a redistribution programme, it’s pretty limited, to say the least. But there are times when to me, women getting “their share” seems less a battle over lofty ideals, more a street level scrap. Why should women be honourable when that there is no honour in men’s sexism? Why should we play nicely all the time? Men owe us long before they even set eyes on us. For that reason, I’ll always take a guilty feminist pleasure in cheering on Team Gold Digger. Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, is supposed to be on holiday. Two separate attacks have put an end to that. The first, a mass shooting in Munich , was at first widely believed to be a terrorist attack, but later turned out to be the actions of a loner obsessed with US high school shootings. The second, where a man blew himself up in the town of Ansbach, caused less physical damage - three were seriously injured, but none killed. Nevertheless, this event may prove to affect even more people's lives. Because that man had come to Germany claiming to be a Syrian refugee. The attack came hours after a Syrian refugee murdered a pregnant Polish woman, a co-woker in a snack bar, in Reutlingen. All eyes will now be on Merkel who, more than any other European politician, is held responsible for Syrian refugees in Europe. In 2015, when other European states were erecting barriers to keep out the million migrants and refugees marching north, Merkel kept Germany's borders open. The country has resettled 41,899 Syrians since 2013, according to the UNHCR, of which 20,067 came on humanitarian grounds and 21,832 through private sponsorship. That is twice as much as the UK has pledged to resettle by 2020. The actual number of Syrians in Germany is far higher - 90 per cent of the 102,400 Syrians applying for EU asylum in the first quarter of 2016 were registered there. Merkel is the bravest of Europe's politicians. Contrary to some assertions on the right, she did not invent the refugee crisis. Five years of brutal war in Syria did that. Merkel was simply the first of the continent's most prominent leaders to stop ignoring it. If Germany had not absorbed so many refugees, they would still be in central Europe and the Balkans, and we would be seeing even more pictures of starved children in informal camps than we do today. Equally, the problems facing Merkel now are not hers alone. These are the problems facing all of Europe's major states, whether or not they recognise them. Take the failed Syrian asylum seeker of Ansbach (his application was rejected but he could not be deported back to a warzone). In Germany, his application could at least be considered, and rejected. Europe as a whole has not invested in the processing centres required to determine who is a Syrian civilian, who might be a Syrian combatant and who is simply taking advantage of the black market in Syrian passports to masquerade as a refugee. Secondly, there is the subject of trauma. The Munich shooter appears to have had no links to Islamic State or Syria, but his act underlines the fact you do not need a grand political narrative to inflict hurt on others. Syrians who have experienced unspeakable violence either in their homeland or en route to Europe are left psychologically damaged. That is not to suggest they will turn to violence. But it is still safer to offer such people therapy than leave them to drift around Europe, unmonitored and unsupported, as other countries seem willing to do. Third, there is the question of lawlessness. Syrians have been blamed for everything from the Cologne attacks in January to creeping Islamist radicalisation. But apart from the fact that these reports can turn out to be overblown ( two of the 58 men arrested over Cologne were Syrians ), it is unclear what the alternative would be. Policies that force Syrians underground have already greatly empowered Europe's network of human traffickers and thugs. So far, Merkel seems to be standing her ground. Her home affairs spokesman, Stephan Mayer, told the BBC that Germany had room to improve on its asylum policy, but stressed each attack was different. He said: "Horrible things take place in Syria. And it is the biggest humanitarian catastrophe, so it is completely wrong to blame Angela Merkel, or her refugee policies, for these incidents. " Many will do, all the same. The Nice attack showed the threat posed by lone actors – we should brace ourselves for more Ansbach puts Europe's bravest politician under pressure newstatesman.com
Cabinet audit: what does the appointment of Sajid Javid as Communities Secretary mean for policy? Ansbach puts Europe's bravest politician under pressure newstatesman.com Donald Trump has set a star-studded trap for Hillary Clinton Ansbach puts Europe's bravest politician under pressure newstatesman.com
What we know about Labour's £3 supporters - and whether they'll help Jeremy Corbyn again Ansbach puts Europe's bravest politician under pressure newstatesman.com How Jeremy Corbyn plans to use the leadership race to bring the rebels back into line Ansbach puts Europe's bravest politician under pressure newstatesman.com
We spoke to someone behind the scenes on Nick Clegg’s Carly Rae Jepson video Ansbach puts Europe's bravest politician under pressure newstatesman.com 2016-07-25 15:30 Robert Tombs www.newstatesman.com
7 Why Jeremy Corbyn would fit into the BBC's The Secret Agent The £7m fingers: how Jeff Beck became a guitar hero by saying no (0.02/5) Into this febrile summer, the BBC has quietly dropped Tony Marchant’s adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novel The Secret Agent (Sundays, 9pm), starring Toby Jones as Verloc – who works both as a spy for the Russian embassy and as an informer for Chief Inspector Heat of Scotland Yard – and Vicky McClure as Winnie, his pragmatic wife. You can see why this one was commissioned: the dread word “relevance” must surely have passed more than a few editorial lips; for here, among other things, is a political extremist who likes to wear the 19th-century version of a suicide vest (the Professor, played by Ian Hart). Events have since taken the idea of pertinence to a whole new level. When the anarchists meet up in the seedy Soho shop of which Verloc is proprietor, and start shouting their various versions of political purity in pseudo Russian accents, I can’t help but think of one Jezza Corbyn. Truly, he would fit right in. In fact, dear old chuckle-poo that he is, he’d probably be the fun one. Still, it’s rather good. I’m unsure about the casting of McClure; the flat delivery that works so well in Line of Duty seems mostly not to match her corset – though it serves her better when she’s coolly handling the dildos that Verloc sells to his customers. Everything else is pretty stellar. Stephen Graham is on great form as Heat, and it is happy-making that my beloved David Dawson is playing Vladimir, the Russian agent provocateur who, hell- bent on waking the liberal English from their complacent slumber in the matter of London’s wannabe revolutionaries, has decreed that Verloc must bomb the Greenwich Observatory, or be exposed to his anarchist friends for what he really is. I only wonder about tone. How will Marchant convey Conrad’s irony as the plot descends into melodrama? Or is that where McClure’s voice, uninflected, deadpan, comes into its own? Meanwhile, on BBC3 – by which I mean, on your laptop – there is Fleabag (21 July, 9pm), a series written by and starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge ( Broadchurch , Crashing ). It’s a version of her very rude one-woman show of a few years ago, and already everyone’s comparing it with Lena Dunham’s Girls , though it has nothing whatsoever to do with female friendship: Fleabag is a lone wolf, and perhaps a lonely one, too, given how horrible she is. Not that her being horrible is a problem for me. I don’t need characters – no, not even female characters! – to be likeable, and it irks me that so many people claim only to be able to identify with, and by extension to enjoy watching or reading about, those who are. Why, then, do I feel so resistant to Fleabag, with her season ticket to a series of feminist lectures (“Women Speak”), her bossy sister and her ghastly stepmother? The problem, I think, is that her bad behaviour feels ersatz, a put-on job by a writer so desperate to shock that she throws an anal sex gag into her opening scene. She’s so mean, I just can’t believe in her, for all that Waller-Bridge tries to intimate that her up-for-it attitude – to pretty much everything bar kindness and the occasional early night – is born of grief (a dead mother) and the refusal of her newly married father to show her the merest flicker of warmth. (When she pitches up at his house in the small hours he makes her wait on the doorstep while he gets her a taxi.) I should be pleased that her self-love seems to outweigh her self-loathing; I wish that had been the case for me when I was younger. But the spite that accompanies it soon cancels the feeling out. Sometimes her antics did chime with me, as they would for pretty much any woman: the pretence, when a boy calls up late at night wanting to come over, that, no, she’s not remotely in bed; the horror when, having flirted on a bus with a good-looking guy, he suddenly smiles and shows a set of incisors that wouldn’t look shabby on a fully grown beaver. Yet in the end, her mean side seems to be a by-product of a certain kind of privilege. Fleabag really doesn’t give a toss, and that goes not only for hapless blokes on buses, but also for the audience to which, eyebrow raised, she occasionally likes to speak directly. Michelangelo and Da Vinci loathed each other. Ingres sneered at his chief rival, Delacroix. Picasso and Matisse all but ignored each other for 50 years: a bit longer than Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. Even now, Beck – who is one of the top three guitarists in the world and no longer needs to concern himself with Clapton – finds it hard to listen to other guitarists. His internet radio is tuned to Kurdish music. Onstage, he plays out old rivalries with high camp, welcoming other axe heroes with a touching-the-hem-of-your- garment gesture and mumbling into the microphone, “I might as well f*** off, then.” In 2010, Beck chopped off the tip of his left index finger while making a stew. It was hastily reattached but he took no chances, insuring his fingers and thumbs for £7m. That his brokers felt that there was £7m worth of music left in them is not insignificant – though for many, he will always be associated with a 1967 pop song for which he claims to have received “40 quid” in royalties. He has likened “Hi Ho Silver Lining” to having a pink toilet seat hung around your neck for the rest of your life. According to rock lore, Beck’s journey has been marked by strange choices, leading him away from fame and fortune. Like a musical Forrest Gump, he was present at many of music’s big moments but remains at the edge of the photograph. He replaced Clapton in the Yardbirds on the recommendation of his childhood friend Jimmy Page but was kicked out for bad behaviour. (He is thought to have been the model for Nigel Tufnel in This Is Spinal Tap .) Pink Floyd wanted him to replace Syd Barrett but they never got up the nerve to ask him. The Rolling Stones wanted him, but he turned down the offer at the last minute. Beck formed a band with an unknown singer called Rod Stewart but quit just three weeks before they were scheduled to play at Woodstock. Stewart went on to form the Faces, while Page was ascending into the stratosphere with Led Zeppelin. Stevie Wonder wrote “Superstition” for Beck but decided to keep it. Was it bad luck or self-sabotage, or simply that the music he really wanted to play was never going to make him famous? Clapton has said that the only reason Beck was never a megastar was that he never wanted to be one. “He deliberately carved that image,” he told Rolling Stone in 2010. “He likes to be left alone. He wants to be underneath the car, working on the engines.” Quite literally. He has restored 14 vintage automobiles “from the ground up” at his house in East Sussex and produced a book about them, Beck01 , published this month. This is perhaps not as strange as it seems. Much of what Beck has done with his instrument resulted from a kind of musical mechanics, a private process of tinkering, test-driving and refinement. Years ago, while listening to Bulgarian choral music – presumably because he couldn’t bear to listen to guitars – he started playing a tune with his tremolo. Pulling the whammy bar high off the body, he divined notes from an invisible scale in mid-air. The ghost voice, more like a theremin than a Strat, appears on the 1989 song “Where Were You” (“Some people say it’s not real playing but you try,” he says). This and other tricks punctuate his music with moments of cosmic tenderness. On message boards, men analyse his work and, he tells me, “They say, ‘What string is he using? That’s what I need, because that’s what gives Jeff the sound!’ No it bloody isn’t! ” At the age of 72, on the eve of his 17th album’s release, he says that the “guitar nerd image” has finally got to go. There’s little chance of that. A man on a galloping horse would be hard pressed to pull Beck out of a line-up with Ronnie Wood, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards – they all have feathered hair, eternally dark, and a weather-beaten urchin face. For many years, he has worn stage outfits of an athletic style: white, nimble boxing boots laced to the calf, skinny nylon track pants and sleeveless tops, leaving a sinewy arm free to arc down on the strings like a flesh-and-bone whammy bar. Today, at his management office in Kensington, his hair is a couple of shades lighter and his nose is comfortably bulb-like. He tells me that he might need to rethink the stage outfits. All of his clothes are designed by Hilary Wili; she did the costumes for Downton Abbey but, Beck says, “She still finds time to stitch me something.” He does not have the sunken cheeks or “keyhole face” of his Stones peers – a result, he guesses, of a teenage lust for sweets and the lack of dentistry to support it. But he is so much a specimen of that generation that he even has the middle name to prove it: Arnold. He, Jagger, Richards and Page were born within 11 months of each other towards the end the Second World War, and baby Clapton came five weeks before VE Day. According to Google Maps, you could drive from the family homes of Mick and Keith in Dartford to Clapton’s in Ripley, via Jimmy’s in Epsom and Jeff’s in Wallington, in an hour and 50 minutes. Suburbia, war stories, flannel trousers and a childhood conversion after hearing Bill Haley or Les Paul on the wireless: the background that gave birth to the British blues boom is well known. This was a musical ground zero for the sons of insurance clerks and factory workers; they may have heard guitars but they couldn’t see any, so they made them – Brian May (of Feltham, Middlesex) from a fireplace, Beck from cigar boxes. It was just another project alongside the boy-sized spaceship that he was constructing from the bashed-out insides of 400 Oxo tins. Hearing Les Paul for the first time or watching the Sputnik – it was all the same thing. “Any information about guitars was so scarce. I remember getting a bus when I was 15 and going eight miles just to look at this guy’s catalogue of Fender,” he says. “He wouldn’t even let me in the house. He came all the way down to the garden gate and said, ‘Here you are, don’t dog-ear it,’ and held it out to me.” After botched attempts at making your own instruments came guitars on hire purchase. “Don’t talk to me about hire purchase! There was this guy, he wasn’t old enough to be my dad but he offered to be my guarantor. He said, ‘I’ll tell them I’m your stepfather.’ Within a month, they’d sussed out he was nothing to do with me whatsoever and they snatched the guitar back. My dad went along and explained that we couldn’t afford it – so they waived the rest of the payments and I got the guitar.” His father walked three miles to the station every day and three miles back. “All his life was cricket,” Beck says. His mother hoped to refine his musical tastes. “She kept telling me how nice the boy down the road was, who plays the marvellous piano. He came in the house once and played Moonlight Sonata and my mum nearly collapsed with delight. I thought, ‘Get that bastard out of there.’” Like many of his contemporaries, Beck went from grammar school to art college. His sister had introduced him to Jimmy Page as a teenager. Page recommended Beck to the Yardbirds because he didn’t want to give up his own lucrative career as a session musician – the idea of the guitar hero as solipsistic soloing genius was still a few months away from being invented. It was two years before the “Clapton is God” graffito appeared around London. Clapton was a blues purist, Beck a wizard with tone and tricks. They could probably have coexisted in moody rivalry but someone arrived in London “with 14-foot hair and playing the guitar with his teeth” and ruined it for both of them. Clapton walked offstage when Hendrix played with him at Regent Street Polytechnic. “Jimi steamrollered right through my life,” says Beck. While Clapton was an “ogre” in his mind – he rolls up imaginary sleeves and prepares to punch – Hendrix was direct creative competition, which was far worse. “It wasn’t the muso thing that got me recognition in the beginning. It was doing ‘Wild Thing’,” he says. “I had to stop that because Jimi came along. I was doing all sorts of weird things, detuning the strings, using a repeat echo, and I thought, ‘I can’t do that any more.’ I had to jump out of one bus and get on another. That’s what I’ve been doing ever since.” The first bus he jumped – or was thrown – off was the “converted school bus” that carried the Yardbirds around the US on the TV presenter Dick Clark’s 1966 package tour. “Lots of racial animosity,” he recalls. “A couple of black acts on the bus that hated the sight of us, didn’t like us playing the blues because it was their music. Twenty hours a time on the road; we’ve come 3,000 miles to play three songs a night and then it’s back in the misery box. By the time I got to Amarillo, I’d thrown my towel in. “I was in love with someone back here, too, so it didn’t take me much to get back to England. But then, sitting by the pool for a day, I thought, ‘I wish I hadn’t done this! She doesn’t want me here! And I don’t want to be here!’ At least I got to say to Eric, ‘ Na-na-na-na-na – I went to America before you.’” *** Beck tells his story in the way that is most amusing to him. He recently said that his temper results from a bang on the head he received when his headmaster ran him over. Yet the decisions he made were the result of serious soul-searching. In the mid-1970s, he was flown to Rotterdam to discuss the possibility of joining the Stones. “I’d been there two days and I hadn’t seen a Stone, and I thought, ‘Right, I’m witnessing what it’s like to be a Stone – not playing, and having single malt whiskies.’” He decided to get away under the cover of night. Down the corridor, from Keith Richards’s room, Betty Wright’s song “Clean Up Woman” was emanating from a little Dansette automatic-replay record player. He entered the room and hovered over the sleeping figure of Keith and lifted the arm off the record. He left the Stones with a note slipped under someone’s door. “They were living the rock lifestyle of all rock lifestyles. I don’t think anyone will ever be like that again,” he says. “But I wouldn’t have been my own master. And that would be my whole being truncated. I thought, ‘Now you’ve made your choice. You will go down that path and you will stick to it.’ “I dearly wanted to tell them how grateful I was,” he adds, of the men he has seen countless times over the past 45 years. “Maybe another time.” The truth was, Beck had already had two experiences that would shape his musical life. His group had been on tour with the Mahavishnu Orchestra, the shape-shifting jazz-rock tribe fronted by John McLaughlin, Yorkshire’s boy wonder who’d trained with Miles Davis. The two bands had a block booking on American Airlines, taking up the whole front of the plane, and it was joyous, he says, because they were all Monty Python fans. “It was the refinement of McLaughlin that presented a way out for me,” Beck says. “Arriving at the soundcheck and watching him and the sax player trading solos, I thought, ‘This is me.’ He has such knowledge of scales, and he tells the story within the scale. Playing with McLaughlin, and then the Stones – dang, dang, dang – can you imagine?” Although he reels off the rock’n’roll anecdotes like Johnny Rotten or Wilko Johnson, when he talks about music he changes. “Mahavishnu's drummer Billy Cobham was the best I’d ever heard. Not loud , that’s not the secret – powerful as hell when he wanted to be – but 90 per cent of the time he was just dancing with the drums, you know? Just like a butterfly, all over them.” His second revelation came when he was booked to work with George Martin, who produced Blow by Blow , the 1975 album that showed off the full range of his jazz sensibilities and made him a tax exile into the bargain. Martin “was a massive pair of wings. Just knowing that somebody with such sensitive ears was approving of what was going on, you were flying. I can’t explain the joy. I found it almost impossible to deliver what he was looking for every day. I would feel the cut-off point, thinking, ‘I don’t know anything else I can impress him with.’ The band were looking at each other with new- found love for music, but with us playing.” Martin encouraged Beck to play the piano, picking out skeletal melodies unhampered by style and padding. Beck finds fast playing physically upsetting. “It sounds impressive but it doesn’t mean a thing.” Blow by Blow paid for his 16th-century farmhouse in Wadhurst, East Sussex, in 1976. He moved there with his girlfriend at the time, the model Celia Hammond, and Hammond’s rescued stray cats had the run of the 80 acre park. They split up some years later – her animal trust is still run from the town; he is the patron of one in Tunbridge Wells. He had been married at the age of 19 to Patricia Brown from Crawley. The couple’s first possession for their marital home was an Afghan hound; the fees from Beck’s band the Nightshift scarcely covered the dog food. The future Julia Carling was another girlfriend: she left college to live with him at 18 in the early 1980s but later said that, despite the age gap, he needed someone to mother him. He still lives in Wadhurst, with his wife since 2005, Sandra Cash, his sheepdogs Wilf and Paddy, a ewe called Bubba and a crow called Dave. He has been a vegetarian for 47 years. I ask him about the old beef with Clapton. “Eric wanted to be the underdog,” he summarises, “the back-room boy, and I turned out to be that person, while he was like: ‘LAAAAAYLA!’” Were their temperaments too similar? “The approach to playing maybe so,” he says, “but outside that, one of my touchstones is humour. I have to have people around who are of a certain strain of humour. I can’t deal with people who have no humour. I’m not saying he doesn’t. . .” On 10 August, Beck will play the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, covering 50 years of guitar music in two hours. He asked Clapton to play but he is suffering from the nerve condition peripheral neuropathy. Beck is worried about him; he says that he googled it and sent Clapton a list of websites offering treatment. In technique and innovation, the two haven’t really been competitors for years. In 2007, Beck did a run of gigs at Ronnie Scott’s in London with one of his best discoveries, Tal Wilkenfeld, an Australian bass prodigy who turned heads because of her prodigious capabilities and possibly because she was a 20-year-old woman in the male-dominated world of instrumental jazz. In 2010, his album Emotion & Commotion included a version of “Nessun Dorma”, which won him his eighth Grammy. His new one, Loud Hailer , features the guitar playing of Carmen Vandenberg and the voice of Rosie Bones, Bill Oddie’s daughter. The girls wrote the songs with him in front of a fire with a crate of Prosecco. After our interview, they’re coming to the office for a meeting, with another crate of Prosecco. “The right time to record is when you’re not quite ahead of yourself,” he says. “You’re probing and you’re treading carefully and it sounds that way, like you’re telling a story. If you flash, people’s ears clam up.” Of the top three guitarists in the world, Beck is OK playing with John McLaughlin (“I’ve done John”), although he has turned down an invitation to appear with McLaughlin’s “butterfly” drummer Billy Cobham (“I’m not up to that standard”). However, he is not sure that he can go to see the third player in the Planet Earth axe triumvirate, Pat Metheny, when he appears at Ronnie Scott’s the week we speak. “They asked me if I wanted to go,” he says. “But I don’t know if I can see any other guitarists. It might just send me a curve ball. Maybe I’ll go. Or here’s what I’ll do. I’ll sit in Bar Italia across the way, getting plastered, and you can tell me how it was.” “Loud Hailer” is released by ATCO Records
Why is BBC Radio Cumbria talking about 1974? The £7m fingers: how Jeff Beck became a guitar hero by saying no newstatesman.com
An Amazonian tribe is challenging scientific assumptions about our musical preferences The £7m fingers: how Jeff Beck became a guitar hero by saying no newstatesman.com 2016-07-25 15:30 Robert Tombs www.newstatesman.com
8 8 Australia steps closer to Guantanamo-like indefinite detention for terrorists — RT News (0.01/5) The new measure would only apply to very-high-risk offenders. The fifth tranche of the counter-terrorism legislation is now going to be reintroduced to the Australian parliament. The new bill initiated by the ruling Coalition will also introduce a new regime of juvenile control for children as young as 14, and create a new offence of ‘advocacy of genocide’. Following the recent terrorist attacks in Europe, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has urged state and territory leaders to promote indefinite imprisonment for those terrorist convicts who are likely to lapse into their old ways. “There has been an increase in the frequency and the severity of terrorist attacks globally, and particularly in Western nations such as ours,” Turnbull acknowledged. “In the wake of Orlando, Nice and other terrorist incidents… we cannot for a moment be complacent.” Last December, Australia’s Director-General of Security Duncan Lewis briefed state leaders on the issue of the new anti-terrorist legislature at Turnbull's first Council of Australian Governments meeting. The officials agreed on the idea in general and in April this year, they endorsed the next step of the draft bill. “This system will enable a continuing period of imprisonment for high-risk terrorist offenders,” Turnbull said. “It will be supervised by the courts similarly to the arrangements that apply in a number of our jurisdictions for sex offenders and extremely violent individuals.” “They are people who would be assessed to pose a continuing and serious risk to community safety,” ABC News quotes federal Attorney-General George Brandis as saying. The law already applies to certain sex offenders that in some states remain in custody even after having served their term, failing to provide conclusive evidence of reformation. “I make no apology for the government taking the view that if a person, having served a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime, shows every indication of a willingness to repeat that crime, to reoffend as soon as they are released, they should remain behind bars,” Brandis said, refusing to draw parallels with known convicts currently serving prison terms. “I am not going to talk about individual cases for obvious reasons,” he said. The senator explained the necessity of lowering the juvenile control age from 16 to 14, using the tragic example of a shooting last year in the western Sydney suburb of Parramatta. “The age of criminal responsibility is below the age of 16 in all states and, therefore, we’ve decided to introduce as special regime of juvenile control orders for people between the ages of 14 to 17,” Brandis said. The senator conceded that in some cases terrorists could be subject to control orders and instead of a staying in jail could be obliged to carry a tracking device, report to police on a regular basis and be banned from using the internet. Australian authorities are well aware of the risk that keeping terrorist convicts behind bars once their prison terms have expired might provoke extremist sympathizers nationwide. “These are all fine judgments that have to be taken into account but always subject to getting the right balance between two very, very important considerations — one is community safety and the other is the rights of the individual,” Brandis said. At the same time, the president of the Law Council of Australia, Stuart Clark, warned the government against making snap decisions. “The appropriate balance must be struck between ensuring national security on one hand and safeguarding the fundamental legal rights that are central to our democracy on the other,” Clark said. 6.1 earthquake hits off southern Australia — RT News rt.com 2016-07-25 18:01 www.rt.com
9 Olympic hoodoo still haunts hosts Brazil Their heartbreaking 3-2 defeat by Italy in the second group stage that cost them a semi-final spot was unforgettable and the tournament etched Falcao's name in the history books. But when he looks back on the great moments of his career, another less heralded occasion still warms his heart. The 1972 Munich Olympics was a disappointment for Brazil's players but losses to Denmark and Iran, sandwiching a draw against Hungary, tell only half the story. The Olympics, Falcao told Reuters, was something special. "It was a unique moment," he said in a telephone interview earlier this month just before returning for a third stint as manager of Internacional where he started his playing career. "The Olympics is grander than the World Cup because you are alongside the greatest athletes of all the world's sports. In football, it's just footballers. "Even though football usually gets all the headlines the Olympics is unique because of that rubbing of shoulders in the Olympic village. "Everyone walked about and everyone could see everyone else, we sat together in the cafeteria, we swapped keyrings with other athletes, it really was beautiful. " Falcao need not feel bad about Brazil's awful campaign in Munich since their failure to win a soccer gold is a regular sob story even in the modern era where top professionals compete. Until 1992, the Olympic soccer tournament was for amateurs and most of the 1972 team were teenagers. Future AS Roma great Falcao, who would win Serie A, two Italian cups and a European Cup runners-up medal, was just 18 years old. Since professionals under the age of 23 were admitted, Brazil have still struggled. They have been in the tournament 12 times, losing three finals including at London 2012. The list of players who have tried and failed to win Olympic gold reads like an all-time greatest Brazil team. As well as Falcao they include Junior (1976), Dunga (1984), Taffarel and Romario (1988), Roberto Carlos and Ronaldo (1996), Lucio and Ronaldinho (2000), Thiago Silva and Marcelo (2008). The Olympic gold medal is the only international title Brazil have not won and they are desperate to finally break that hoodoo in front of their own fans next month. They have senior team captain Neymar among their three-over age players and can also count on a host of other big names including Neymar's Barcelona team mate Rafinha, Marquinhos from Paris St-Germain and Felipe Anderson of Lazio. Santos' Gabriel Barbosa and 19-year old Gabriel Jesus, who have both been linked with Europe's big clubs, will play alongside Neymar up front. Brazil open their campaign against South Africa in Brasilia, before playing Iraq at the same venue and Denmark in Salvador. Falcao said the pressure this year will be twice as great in front of a home crowd. Brazil have shown psychological frailties in recent years, notably in the 7-1 collapse against Germany in the World Cup semi-final in 2014, but the man known as the 'King of Rome' said the key will be making the pressure work in their favour. "It is the only title we haven't won so the press talk about it every day and that creates a pressure," said Falcao. "But I think the pressure, if they learn how to work with it, can be positive rather than negative. The advantage is that the Olympic team now are all highly professional, they all play in difficult leagues and they are as good as the others. "We are one of the favourites, as we always are. " (Editing by Ken Ferris)
2016-07-25 18:01 REUTERS www.timeslive.co.za
10 10 Rio mayor on Australian criticism of Olympic village — RT Sport Australian team boss Kitty Chiller has blasted officials at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games for failing to provide adequate living accommodation for her athletes. Chiller told event organizers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that problems with “blocked toilets, leaking pipes and exposed wiring” meant it was unsafe for athletes to move into the buildings. Paes hit back at Chiller by saying the Village is better than Sydney's was for the 2000 Games and that he would put “a kangaroo jumping outside” to “make them feel at home.” In a statement on the Australian Olympic website Chiller said: “Due to a variety of problems in the Village, including gas, electricity and plumbing, I have decided that no Australian team member will move into our allocated building. “Problems include blocked toilets, leaking pipes, exposed wiring, darkened stairwells where no lighting has been installed and dirty floors in need of a massive clean.” Over 1,000 cleaners and extra maintenance staff have been deployed to fix the problems but the faults, particularly the plumbing issues, have not been resolved. Australian staff members have been staying in hotels close to the village ahead of the arrival of their first athletes on Monday. Alternative accommodation for team members arriving early this week has been arranged. The $1.5 billion, 31-building village, which will house 18,000 athletes and officials during the Games, has tennis courts, football pitches and seven swimming pools. Chiller claimed the New Zealand and Great Britain Olympic teams were experiencing similar problems with their accommodation, although Team GB officials refused to criticize Rio officials. "We are confident that our accommodation is ready to receive athletes and will be to the highest standards within the Village," Team GB communications director Scott Field said. "Whilst we have encountered some maintenance difficulties, this is not uncommon with new built structures of this type and we have been working hard to overcome them. " Rio 2016 organizers refused to comment, but one official told Reuters they were aware of problems and were working hard to resolve them. "There are lights, beds, air conditioning, but we still lack a few details," the source said on condition of anonymity. "There really are last-minute details to finish, but it will be done this week. " The Games are now less than two weeks away, with the Opening Ceremony scheduled to take place on Friday, August 5.
2016-07-25 18:01 www.rt.com
11 DA seeks legal opinion on Gordhan’s request for extension on SAA’s financials When the 2017 Hyundai Genesis G80 goes on sale this fall it will do so as a car with more passenger space than a Mercedes E Class, more horsepower than a Cadillac CTS and with a raft of active safety systems as standard that even Volvo S90 drivers are offered as...
2016-07-25 18:01 TMG Digital www.timeslive.co.za
12 Lindsay Lohan accuses her Russian millionaire fiancé of trying to kill her In a clip shared by The Sun, Lindsay is heard shouting out her full name and address in an attempt to get help, followed by screams of: "Please, please, please. He just strangled me. He almost killed me. " Shortly after, she's heard yelling at Egor: "Everybody will know. Get out of my house. Do it, I dare you again. You're f*cking crazy, you sick f*ck. You need help... I'm done. I don't love you anymore. You tried to kill me. " According to several reports, police smashed her front door open, before finding that the couple had already left the house. No arrests have been made, and police managed to trace Lindsay and Egor down to ensure they were both safe. The incident came just a few hours after Lindsay accused Egor of cheating with a "Russian hooker" at a nightclub during a Twitter rant. She shared - and then deleted - an image of Egor and a woman at a club, followed by the woman's contact details. Lindsay also posted a photo of herself with Egor's face scribbled out. However, things got even more cryptic when the former child star tweeted an image of herself wearing a fake baby bump, taken from her 2009 film, Labor Pains. 'Lindsay Lohan Labour Pains trailer - I am pregnant!!' she wrote, leaving confused fans as to whether they should question her whether she was sober, or if they should offer their congratulations.
2016-07-25 18:01 Sefiso Hlongwane www.timeslive.co.za
13 Pearl Thusi's camp denies she 'bought her own engagement ring' The actress and TV personality sparked fresh engagement rumours last month after wearing what looked like an engagement ring at the SA Music Awards. Although she refused to confirm if it was an engagement ring, Pearl did say that it may have been bought for her by someone special in her life. Now, according to Sunday Sun, the star has been accused of buying and wearing the ring in an attempt to drum up attention. The source, said to be a friend of Pearl's rumoured bae Robert Marawa, said that Robert had not bought the ring and that the sports presenter had told friends that he understood Pearl had bought the ring to be a ploy to "create hype for her brand or to chase other guys away. " But Pearl's camp has denied the purchase, calling the reports "laughable and untrue. " "It is sad that people feel the need to bring down and destroy the very talent that provides exposure and great platforms to other artists," Pearl Thusi's publicist Sarit Reouveni Tomlinson said in a statement to TMG Entertainment.
2016-07-25 18:01 TMG Entertainment www.timeslive.co.za
14 'Joburg’s advertising spend nearly tripled in an election year': DA The party’s mayoral candidate‚ Herman Mashaba‚ said the city had forked out R62-million between May 2015 and April 2016 compared to just R26- million in the previous financial year. This‚ Mashaba alleged‚ was “irrefutable evidence of the ANC-run City of Joburg’s abuse of public resources to promote the ruling party and their mayoral candidate‚ Parks Tau ahead of the upcoming election”. It said this was revealed in “data commissioned from Nielsen”. “It is utterly disgraceful for Tau to think that he can get away with using the people’s money is such a shameless‚ self-serving manner‚” said Mashaba. “Tau’s administration has spent tens of millions of rand promoting his campaign with pointless billboards‚ radio‚ television and newspaper adverts that cast him and his administration in a misleadingly positive light. “Most tellingly‚ the city spent R 10 815 911 in April‚ 2016 and R15 502 739 in May‚ 2016. A total of R 26 318 650 over these two months‚ which amounts to more than the advertising spend for the entire 2014-2015 financial year.” Last week‚ the City of Joburg urged the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to dismiss the DA’s “false and mischievous allegations of misappropriation of public funds to campaign for the African National Congress (ANC)”. http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2016/07/21/Dismiss- DA%E2%80%99s-dated-advert-complaint%E2%80%9A-City-of-Joburg- urges-IEC The advertisements saying “the City of Johannesburg is in good hands” were aimed at investors not voters‚ and the campaign was launched “long before the date of the local government elections was announced”‚ the city argued. Mashaba on Monday attacked the mayor’s spokesperson‚ Phindile Chauke‚ for going “so far as to say that the advert in question was ‘standard and annual communication of success and achievements’ of the City of Joburg”. “This specific advert and the tripling of advertising expenditure by the city highlights that it had nothing to do with the ‘ordinary course of business’‚ but everything to do with spreading misinformation to promote Tau and the ANC administration in Joburg ahead of the August elections. “Regardless of the ANC’s desperate and unlawful attempts to influence the elections‚ the people of Johannesburg will not be fooled.”
2016-07-25 18:01 TMG Digital www.timeslive.co.za
15 Train derails in dazzling Chicago lightning storm (PHOTOS, VIDEO) — RT Viral As the camera pans to the collapsed section of the canopy, a woman’s voice can be heard yelling, “It’s off the tracks!” The section runs alongside a pedestrian ramp on Chicago’s West Side. The incident occurred on Sunday with no injuries reported and the city’s transit authority was able to resume normal services with the use of only one track. Lightning was not to blame for the derailment. Instead it was caused by debris on the track from the storm. The city’s iconic skyline was captured on camera during the lightning storm, with residents producing some breathtaking images. The storms came following a heatwave in the city, with temperatures in the triple digits Fahrenheit.
2016-07-25 18:01 www.rt.com
16 SABC to look into complaints over Khanyi, Somizi and Ntombi's show The 8-10AM show, which recently debuted and is presented by Ntombi Ngcobo, Khanyi Mbau and Somizi Mhlongo, has seen relentless bashing from Metro FM listeners on social media platforms. Some fans have said on Twitter that Mhlongo is more suited for the graveyard shift, whereas some said the trio is too loud to be listened to in the morning. Other fans even tweeted that they will be migrating to other radio stations. SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said management will have to look at exactly what is not working. "The show has been on air for just one week, and I think most of the negative comments about the show have been emotional. "Obviously management would have to do a thorough evaluation of exactly what it is about the show that is causing the outcry, but they cannot just base their findings only on the audience's reaction. But we're aware of the negative comments about the show. " Kganyago promised: "There will be many factors taken into consideration by management, including the public opinion that the show is too crowded. " However, he warned the SABC would need more scientific research into why the public feels the show is not working as well as evaluations of other factors. "A lot goes into making a show, and we feel that a week is not enough time to determine exactly what is not working," he said. While Mhlongo and Ngcobo have been mum about the reaction, Mbau seems to be taking it in her stride. She tweeted that things will get better and promised they will improve. When Sowetan called her, Mbau referred questions about Metro FM to Kganyago, while Mhlongo said he did not take kindly to being called on weekends. Ngcobo did not respond to requests for comment. This article first appeared in Sowetan.
2016-07-25 18:01 Karabo Disetlhe www.timeslive.co.za
17 Clinton camp head alleges Russian hack & release of DNC emails to aid Trump, cites ‘press & experts' — RT America Nearly 20,000 emails and over 8,000 attachments from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) were released by WikiLeaks on Friday. Many of the emails indicated that top DNC officials were hostile to the Bernie Sanders campaign. Clinton Campaign Manager Robby Mook has voiced a theory of who is behind the leaks and hacks. “Experts are telling us that Russian state actors broke into the DNC, stole these emails, and other experts are now saying that the Russians are releasing these emails for the purpose of actually helping Donald Trump,” he told CNN's ‘State Of The Union’ on Sunday. “ I don't think it's coincidental that these emails were released on the eve of our [Democratic National] Convention here. And that's disturbing.” “I think we also need to be concerned that we also saw last week at the Republican Convention that Trump and his allies made changes to the Republican platform to make it more pro-Russian and we saw him talking how NATO shouldn't necessarily intervene to defend our Eastern European allies if they are attacked by Russia. When you pull all this together, it's a disturbing picture, ” Mook said. When CNN's Jake Tapper wondered what evidence Mook had that the “ Russians were behind this in terms of the hacking or the timing by WikiLeaks, ” the Clinton staffer replied, " Well, we need the experts speak on this. It's been reported on in the press that the hackers that got into the DNC are very likely to be working in coordination with Russia. “They [the emails] are being released at this time to create maximum damage to Hillary Clinton to help Donald Trump," Mook added. "You're basically suggesting that the Russians hacked into the DNC and now are releasing these files through WikiLeaks to help elect Donald Trump," Tapper intervened. "This isn't my assertion. There are a number of experts asserting this," Mook replied. Donald Trump Jr. has slammed the Russian involvement theory, saying that Clinton campaigners “w ill say anything to be able to win.” “I mean this is time and time again, lie after lie. You notice he [Mook] won’t say, ‘Well, I say this.’ We hear ‘experts’. His house cat at home once said this is what’s happening with the Russians. It’s disgusting. It’s so phony. “I can’t think of bigger lies, but that exactly goes to show you what the DNC and what the Clinton camp will do. They will lie and do anything to win. You hear it with the DNC where they’re leaking emails about Bernie Sanders and his Jewish heritage, to be able to try to destroy him in the South. It’s a rigged system. It’s disgusting and the people who should be fed up because when I heard it, I certainly was. I don’t mind a fair fight, but these lies and the perpetuating of that kind nonsense to try to gain political capital is just outrageous and he should be ashamed of himself. If a Republican did that they would be calling for people to bring out the electric chair,” Trump Jr. told Tapper. READ MORE: Trump slams DNC for ‘vicious plan to destroy’ Bernie exposed in WikiLeaks emails Trump Snr. has also piled in on the DNC, saying that the “Leaked e-mails of DNC show plans to destroy Bernie Sanders. Mock his heritage and much more. On-line from Wikileakes [sic], really vicious. RIGGED. " “The Wikileaks e-mail release today was so bad to Sanders that it will make it impossible for him to support her, unless he is a fraud!” Trump added in another tweet. The leaked emails, released Friday, cover a period from January 2015 to May 2016 and purportedly come from the accounts of seven major figures in the DNC. Many of the emails relate to Bernie Sanders and dealing with the fallout of many Democrats opposing Hillary Clinton and calling the system “rigged.” One email , for instance, indicates that the DNC was in close contact with news websites on articles related to the Democratic Party.
2016-07-25 18:01 www.rt.com
18 RAF kidnap-plotters seen in ‘dry run’ days before attempt — RT UK A villager told ITV Anglia he saw men of Middle Eastern appearance in a green Ford Galaxy speeding away from RAF Marham three days before the attack last Wednesday. The vehicle had been traveling so fast that it nearly crashed into him on July 17, he said. “They nearly ran me off the road. If I had not taken emergency avoiding action, there would have been an accident. “That is why I particularly noted it. It looked suspicious. They were certainly in a hurry to get out of the way. They were drawing a lot of attention to themselves due to the manner of their driving.” The unnamed serviceman targeted in the attack, who is in his late 20s and is believed to be a non-commissioned officer in the RAF Regiment, told police two men tried to bundle him into a dark-coloured people carrier that may have been a Ford Galaxy. He told police one of the men grabbed his wrist and shoulder and tried to force him into the car, but he fought back and knocked him to the ground. The second man who had a “military-style” knife with a 3-inch black blade then approached him before going to help his friend. The serviceman, who was not wearing armed services clothing, fled while the two men drove off in the opposite direction. Detectives believe the suspects may have been waiting for a victim, as the incident happened on a popular running route for personnel from the base. The base is home to Tornado GR4 bombers flying missions against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in the Middle East. Norfolk police say it is “increasingly likely” the two men involved in the attempted abduction were part of a larger team. “While the victim only witnessed two attackers, there may have been more than two people in the vehicle and given the nature of the attack, it is likely they were part of a larger team,” Detective Superintendent Paul Durham told the Independent. “This is important because I do not want to deter any potential witnesses from coming forward. It is the vehicle we are interested in, regardless of the number of people seen inside.” Police are appealing to anyone who saw anything suspicious in the Marham or King’s Lynn area around the time of the assault. Detectives have yet to establish whether the motive was terrorism or another crime.
2016-07-25 18:01 www.rt.com
19 Man Utd coach Mourinho imposes ban on app — RT Sport The 53-year-old has insisted his squad remains fully focused on tactics during the build-up to a game. United are in China at the moment as part of their preparations for the upcoming Premier League season. "Jose loves having a great relationship with his players and staff, and thinks it's great for them to chill and relax away from training and games,” Dailystar reports a club source as saying. "He's still finding his way around Old Trafford and treading carefully. "The only thing he has picked up on which he's told the lads of is his concern about Pokemon. "He says for 48 hours before a match he wants the guys to leave it alone and concentrate on the tactics he and his staff have been working on in the days before. " Players across the United squad have latched onto the new Pokemon Go craze, which involves collecting hundreds of the classic characters from global locations. Mourinho's crackdown on the game can be seen as a sign that he wants to stamp his authority on a squad that has massively underperformed since Sir Alex Ferguson's departure. Former boss Louis van Gaal was also widely criticized for some of his 'old school' methods, but Mourinho's successes with the likes of Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Porto suggest the United players would be wise to be more receptive to his wishes.
2016-07-25 18:01 www.rt.com
20 India wants to create state oil company bigger than Chevron and Rosneft — RT Business According to the media , the new oil major will be the biggest company in India in terms of turnover, net profit, capital expenditure and market capitalization. The largest piece in the mega-merger is the country’s oil producer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). The other companies are the country’s biggest refiner and fuel retailer Indian Oil Corporation, as well as Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum, GAIL, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL), Chennai Petroleum, Numaligarh Refinery and Oil India. The six biggest companies from the list have a market cap of $77 billion. In comparison, the market value of Russia's Rosneft is $55 billion. India was considering the merger in 2005, but gave up the idea, as it was decided the big united company may harm competition in country’s energy sector. In May, ONGC bought a 15 percent stake in Rosneft’s Indian subsidiary Vankorneft for $1.27 billion. In the fall, Rosneft is expected to close the deal with other Indian companies - Oil India, Indian Oil and Bharat Petroresources - for the acquisition of a 29.9 percent stake in TAAS- Yuryakh that explores and produces oil and gas in Siberia. The deal also includes the sale of a 23.9 percent stake in Vankorneft and could be worth $5 billion.
2016-07-25 18:01 www.rt.com
21 French interior minister to sue Nice policewoman over claims of flawed security on Bastille Day — RT News The minister’s office pledged “transparency and truth” in the probe into why the terrorist Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel was able to slam the truck through the crowd, driving at 90kph and killing 84. Sandra Bertin, a local police officer and also the head of the Center for Urban Supervision in Nice [Centre de supervision urbain, CSU, in French], as well as secretary-general of a Nice public servants union, told about the blood-chilling carnage in an interview for Journal du Dimanche. “I will remember this time for the rest of my life: 10:33pm,” Bertin said. “It [the truck] was going at 90kph without lights, and it wasn’t possible to hear it due to all the noise. “The truck dodged the municipal police barrier. The team couldn’t stop it. You can’t burst the tires of a 19-tonner with a revolver. Then other municipal police in plainclothes in the crowd were confronted with it,” she said. The problem was the light weapons provided for those police officers, she added. “If they’d been armed like our national police colleagues, just as they demanded [from the French Interior Ministry], they could have stopped it. Finally the truck came to where the national police officers were who shot and neutralized it.” Bertin also said that she didn’t see the national police officers on the CCTV footage when the massacre began. This point is in line with Cazeneuve’s statements on Thursday that it was lightly-armed local police who guarded the entrance to a pedestrian zone on the embankment when the attack started. The next day Sandra Bertin was put on the phone to the Interior Ministry, when according to her, a “hurried person” asked about the whereabouts of local municipal police officers at the event, national police officers and the locations of barriers. Bertin, in her turn, said that she would only describe the things she saw. The woman was "asked to send her report… but in modifiable form.” “I was harassed for an hour. I was ordered to include the specific positions of the national police, who I hadn’t seen on the screens,” she said. But Bertin also sent a non-modifiable.pdf version. A few days later, “the antiterrorist branch ordered me to erase the film of six cameras that I mentioned in my report that had captured the massacre … to prevent them being seen by the public,” Bertin said. “It will be very useful if Madame Sandra Bertin could be questioned by the investigators and could give them the names and positions of the people she is accusing, the emails she is talking about and their contents,” Cazeneuve said in a statement following the publication of Bertin's interview. He added that “unworthy accusations” constitute “the virulent polemic that certain elected representatives in Nice have wanted to encourage and feed every day since the terrible July 14 attack.” Bertin’s statement has been supported by Nice Mayor Christiane Estrosi, who posted on Twitter, “I don’t accept it that Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve insults the elected [officials]. We demand answers and the truth.” On Friday, Nice authorities refused to delete the footage, after having received an official request from SDAT anti-terrorist body. The letter didn’t outline the reason to destroy the images. An official with the national police told AP that the request had been motivated by concern that the images could leak and be used for jihadist propaganda. The truck attack on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice saw 84 killed and hundreds injured. Four men and a woman are currently under investigation for their alleged complicity in the massacre, with no direct connection with Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) established as of now. 2016-07-25 18:01 www.rt.com
22 ‘ANC campaign now all-out racial mobilisation’: DA Opposition leader Mmusi Maimane said the African National Congress’ (ANC) “election campaign‚ as evidenced by the comments made by Zuma last week and today‚ has now descended into all-out racial mobilisation”. “This must be seen for what it is: a last-ditch‚ desperate attempt to cling onto power at all costs‚ because the party faces losing major metros to the DA on 3 August 2016‚” he added. Zuma was quoted as telling supporters in Tembisa on Wednesday: “Where does a black man get the nerve to team up with oppressors of his people‚ even to an extent where he decides to lead them? When you see the DA‚ just know that they are our oppressors.” Maimane said this type of comment showed that the “ANC has effectively thrown in the towel on competing on different plans for local government”. “Jacob Zuma’s remarks today have left me‚ as I am sure many other proud South Africans‚ saddened and deeply concerned‚” he said‚ adding that they are “an affront to so many South Africans‚ including those within the ANC itself‚ who fought and died for a free South Africa; one that belongs to all who live in it”. “My commitment to South Africans today in the face of this dangerous rhetoric by the President is that the DA will never give up on realising Madiba’s vision for our country.”
2016-07-25 18:01 TMG Digital www.timeslive.co.za
23 Parliament hopes CCMA ruling will ‘close chapter of negative engagement’ with Nehawu The union had‚ in May‚ threatened to strike if Parliament’s presiding officers do not meets its demands on the payment of bonuses and what the union claims were the “unilateral” reductions in the performance ratings of some employees. In a statement on Monday‚ Parliament said the CCMA’s award stated “it is the legislative duty of the Secretary to Parliament to ensure that the resources of [Parliament] are used efficiently”. “In this regard the fact that [Parliament] as an institution had not achieved its overall targets which [it] found irreconcilable with performance achievements of 91 [percent] of its individual employees‚” the statement further quoted. The CCMA appeared to have accepted Parliament’s argument that the “review of the performance scores was a fair measure and done in accordance with its policies as a result of inconsistency between the performance of the institution based on audited results by the Auditor- General and the individual scores of the employees”. Parliament also noted that the CCMA found there was no “no evidence that [Parliament] had acted irrationally‚ capriciously or arbitrarily‚ with bias‚ malice or fraud or had failed to apply its mind or unfairly discriminated against the applicants when the scores were adjusted in order to achieve the approval of the Secretary to Parliament”. “The ruling by (the) CCMA is a thorough vindication of the position of Parliament in its submissions and public pronouncements. Parliament’s management acted in good faith in its engagement with employee issues. It also exposes the unreasonableness of the local branch of Nehawu and those that joined in the unfair condemnation of Parliament‚” it continued. “Parliament hopes that this ruling will close the current chapter of negative engagement and help solidify a commitment to work together in transforming the institution to offer an even more efficient support service to Parliament in discharging its constitutional responsibility.” The legislature has been beset with Nehawu actions‚ including what it alleged involved “targeted media” being “primed and invited into an internal meeting” which was disrupted in June. The union also occupied the chambers of the Parliament during an unprotected strike of nearly four weeks late last year. The union had said it intended “to begin…rolling mass action” in June‚ and the strike could extend beyond Parliament to the provincial legislatures.
2016-07-25 18:01 TMG Digital www.timeslive.co.za
24 DA picket to get Jackson Mthembu ‘to walk the talk’ on SABC The party on Tuesday said that while Mthembu‚ the African National Congress (ANC) chief whip in the National Assembly‚ “has been saying one thing to the media‚ he has done nothing to fix the situation where it matters most: in Parliament”. The DA said it had requested a special meeting “to discuss and find solutions for the governance crisis at the SABC caused by COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng”‚ but “this was turned down as not being urgent”. It said its chief whip‚ John Steenhuisen‚ “asked for Jackson Mthembu to support the meeting of the committee‚” but this too “has fallen on deaf ears”. This prompted the opposition party to plan a picket in Plein Street outside Parliament on Tuesday. “The truth is that the ANC simply doesn’t care. Motsoeneng has overseen the degradation of media freedom at the SABC and has consistently and without due regard for the law attempted to capture the public broadcaster to protect the ANC and President (Jacob) Zuma‚” the DA said. Earlier this month‚ Mthembu‚ who also heads the ANC’s sub-committee on communications‚ had appeared to depart from the ruling party’s defence of the embattled broadcaster when he told journalists that the ruling party was distancing itself from the SABC policy banning the coverage of violent protests. Objections to this policy resulted in the suspensions of the “SABC 8”‚ four of whom - journalists Jacques Steenkamp‚ Krivani Pillay‚ Foeta Krige and Suna Venter – were notified by email late on Monday afternoon that they had been dismissed. This was confirmed by trade union Solidarity‚ which is representing them. Said the DA’s Phumzile Van Damme on Monday: “It would appear that the SABC staffers were fired for slighting…Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s fragile ego by allegedly ‘undermining the SABC and the authority of its management’. “It is clear that the wrecking ball that is Hlaudi Motsoeneng is going to continue smashing through the integrity of our country’s public broadcaster and do so‚ with the tacit support of the African National Congress (ANC).” The party will be calling “for the reinstatement of these SABC staffers…and for Parliament’s intervention in the ongoing crisis at the SABC”.
2016-07-25 18:01 TMG Digital www.timeslive.co.za
25 Presidency still mum on woman’s Zuma blessee claims “Okay cool?” asked Floyd Shivambu. “What kind of Grand Fathers and Fathers kiss their Grand Daughters & Daughters like this? Perverts??” That was the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) deputy president’s response to the series of selfies that circulated on social media on Tuesday and Wednesday‚ posted by a 19-year-old “Lindokuhle Dlamini”. Shivambu also seemed to suggest that more revelations were to follow. The Facebook page on which the selfies purporting to show the pair kissing were posted – with with a caption reading that Zuma “is not just a blesser‚ we are inlove” - was reportedly deleted. Some media outlets like the Citizen said they had been contacted by readers to say the woman is actually Zuma’s daughter. That prompted Shivambu’s question about the nature of the kissing. He later referenced the sexual harassment case against African National Congress leader in the Western Cape Marius Fransman‚ when he quoted Scapegoat @AndiMakinana’s tweet: “WC ANCYL to Fransman: Being between the sheets with a 20 year old lady while married is not ... ideal values ANC would like to project. " Shivambu said: “Well‚ they do it all the time and one‚ whom they all learn from‚ will be exposed very soon. Watch the space!” The Presidency indicated on Wednesday that it would investigate the claims before commenting‚ and calls on Thursday morning went unanswered.
2016-07-25 18:01 TMG Digital www.timeslive.co.za
26 Robredo backs Duterte’s stand on housing, war on drugs VICE President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo said that she was “encouraged” by the plans presented by President Duterte for the country, particularly in the issue of housing as they share the same vision. In an interview after Duterte delivered his first State of the Nation Address (Sona), Robredo said that she was elated after learning that they share the same thrust of shunning the demolition of shanties without ensuring proper relocation facilities for the urban poor. “Masayang-masaya tayo kasi in-outline ni Pangulo yung direksyon na patutunguhan ng ating gobyerno. Yung kanyang mga minention, specific na mahahalaga para sa kanya lalong lalo na sakin yung sa HUDCC, sinabi niya yung kanyang direksyon. Yun din yung ating direksyon, na walang demolisyon hanggang walang relokasyon – na hindi magrerelocate hanggang hindi maayos yung utilities,” Robredo said. The vice president, who was appointed by Duterte as his administration’s housing czar, said that she also backs some plans of the President which include the streamlining of the government bureaucracy and to cut down red tape. Meanwhile, Robredo said that she supports the relentless campaign of the Duterte administration to stamp out criminality, drugs and corruption but it should be grounded on the rule of law. “Masaya tayo na all-out yung kampanya patungkol doon. Sabi niya magiging relentless saka sustained yung kampanya, yun yung dapat. Sa atin lang, nabuhayan din tayo ng loob. Na-reiterate ng ating pangulo na sa pagtulak ng drive na ito, yung rule of law pa rin ang mananaig,” she said. 2016-07-25 18:01 Aries Joseph newsinfo.inquirer.net
27 Jazz up your day with Cherry Mobile Flare J2 In the same innovative spirit of the first Flare phones, Cherry Mobile’s newest entry, Flare J2, improves the overall mobile experience with an enhanced Flare J2 smart phone, which promises to “Jazz Up Your Day.” Like its predecessors, the Cherry Mobile Flare J2 displays a distinct flair for design and is power-packed with numerous functions. It becomes the perfect everyday tool and accessory for tech-savvy consumers. Perfectly complementing the millennial lifestyle, this affordable Flare smart phone offers yuppies and on-the-go go- getters the same impressive, modern specs and design details of its higher spec phones, but at a more budget-friendly price. From Flare J1, this new incarnation promises brighter, clearer and more crisp viewing, allowing you to take better photos and videos. Complementing this upgrade is the 13MP camera. Enjoy watching in HD as well on your phone’s generous 5” HD IPS Screen. Compact and powerful, this quad-core phone operates on Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and boasts 1GB of RAM. For your convenience, the Flare J2 is also designed to be OTG capable and 3G-ready, and comes with a premium-built casing, available in lustrous gold and rose gold. At P2,999, this chic and cool smartphone comes to you at an unbeatable price. ADVT. Learn more about the Cherry Mobile Flare Series as well as catch up on the latest news and promos from the brand through our official website , Facebook , Instagram , Youtube and Twitter . To get a more personal experience of the products, visit Cherry Mobile stores and kiosks nationwide.
2016-07-25 18:01 INQUIRER.net technology.inquirer.net
28 Henton gets job done in Aces’ first win After failing to lead Alaska in its opener against Meralco last Sunday, LaDontae Henton was motivated to prove that the Aces didn’t make the wrong choice on entrusting him the reins of the team in the 2016 PBA Governors’ Cup. And the next time he got a chance, he truly showed his worth. The 24-year-old forward led the Aces to a 109-100 victory over Ginebra in overtime on Sunday as he led his squad with 29 points, nine rebounds, and zero turnovers. “Knowing we lost our first one, I came here to help this team win and I wasn’t able to do that. I came in and tried to be more focused, did everything I could for my team to win,” he said. Also pushing him was the raucous 11,565 crowd attendance which was treated to a pair of classic games inside the Big Dome. “It was great. I love the atmosphere. The college atmosphere in America is really great so I love playing in an atmosphere like that. I wish it’s like that every game,” he said. Henton, though, made it clear that the huge victory was a statement game of sorts as he slowly gets in the groove of the Aces’ system. “It takes some adjustment, but I’m learning quickly and we watch film together all the time. Coach Alex is a great guy to learn from. He’s easy going and hard nosed coach,” he said. “Ginebra was a great team and it was competitive. It was a hard fought game and I’m glad we pulled it out.” Alaska faces TNT next this Friday.
2016-07-25 18:01 Randolph B sports.inquirer.net
29 ‘CHR more embolded with Duterte’s promised rule of law’ Chairperson Jose Luis “Chito” Gascon on Monday said the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is even more “emboldened” to do its mandate with the statement of President Rodrigo Duterte to hold accountable police officials who violate the rights even of suspected criminals. In an interview after Duterte’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) at the House of Representatives, Gascon lauded Duterte for calling on the National Police Commission (Napolcom) to investigate errant police officials. “We are emboldened by his statement today. He said police authorities must always act within the law, and if there are abuses found, then the Napolcom has been called upon to ensure administrative cases would be undertaken,” Gascon said. “So we are going to cooperate with the justice sector, the Department of Justice, the police, the Department of Interior and Local Government in ensuring human rights and the rule of law will always be upheld,” he added. As to the statement of Duterte that human rights should not be treated as a shield for drug pushers to continue their crime, Gascon said human rights are not a “shield to damage the country” but a “shield to protect against abuse of authority.” READ: Duterte: Don’t use human rights as excuse to destroy PH “We welcomed over-all the statements made for and about human rights made by the president himself. We look at it as an affirmation of human rights and a directive against any abuse of authority by law enforcement,” Gascon said. Gascon vowed to fulfill his mandate of monitoring reports of human-rights violations amid a spate of summary killings of suspected criminals at the height of Duterte’s war on drugs. “We’ll do our responsibility and monitor all actions and ensure these are compliant with human rights standards and if there are violations, we call them out,” Gascon said. TVJ RELATED STORIES Baguilat lauds Duterte but slams cops over rash of killings Duterte vows to continue killing criminals ‘in accordance with law’ 2016-07-25 18:01 Marc Jayson newsinfo.inquirer.net
30 Ferrer shakes off early struggles, plays hero late in Tanduay win Kevin Ferrer shook off the cobwebs and found his old form late, saving Tanduay in his debut game on Monday. Missing his first six three- point attempts, the former UST standout mustered enough courage and heaved one last shot, this time drilling an all-important trey to push the Rhum Masters up, 75-74, past Cafe France with 39.2 seconds left which would eventually be the game-winning basket. “Binigyan lang ako ng tiwala ni coach at ng teammates ko,” said Ferrer as he announced his arrival in style. “Nagtiwala din ako sa sarili ko kasi kung di ko itinira yun, walang mangyayari. Keep on trying lang naman eh.” The Gilas cadet finished with nine points and five rebounds in his first game in a Rhum Masters uniform. Coming from a two-month layoff, Ferrer admitted he missed the grind of playing in a competitive setting. “Two months na akong puro weights lang. Ang hirap kasi walang laro. Basta tumawag lang ako sa agent ko na gusto ko maglaro and Tanduay ang nag-respond,” he said. And Ferrer’s adjustment to his new team wasn’t a difficult one either, with him being familiar with some of the players in the Tanduay lineup. “Winelcome naman ako sa team nila. Sabi rin ni coach, gawin ko lang yung laro ko and wala namang problema sa kanila,” he said. Tanduay coach Lawrence Chongson is more than satisfied with the way his new acquisition delivered for his team, as he said that based on this first game, Ferrer can help Tanduay reach heights it has never been in. “Performance-wise, he made that game-winning three. That alone, sulit na ang pagkuha namin sa kanya. But kinuha naman namin sya di lang para sa Cafe France. Ang ultimate goal pa rin namin is to make it to the Finals and hopefully, we can bring him along pa with our system.” The Rhum Masters now sit at fourth place, just behind the theee-team tie at first with Cafe France, Racal, and Phoenix in the race for the top two in the 2016 PBA D-League Foundation Cup. Ferrer, though, doesn’t want to get too ahead of himself as his focus remains on helping Tanduay to sustain its winning ways. “Mahirap magsabi na ako yung last piece para sa Tanduay,” he said. “Gagawin ko lang yung best ko para manalo yung team kasi 100-percent akong committed sa kanila.”
2016-07-25 18:01 Randolph B sports.inquirer.net
31 Tenorio says Kings import Brownlee will only get better Forced to find a replacement import after Paul Harris sustained a hand injury, Ginebra coach Tim Cone has been bracing for the worst when he got Justin Brownlee last week. And his fears materialized in the Gin Kings’ game against Alaska on Sunday. The 28-year-old forward suffered from cramps as early as the third quarter, something that Cone has been anticipating in the buildup to this game, bared LA Tenorio. “Nag-a-adjust pa siya sa system, but more sa weather eh,” he said. “Medyo hindi siya sanay kaya third quarter pa lang nagka-cramps na. Nung practice pa lang, nagka-cramps na sya. Kaya siya labas-pasok kasi alam ni coach Tim na kakapusin.” Logging in 29 minutes, Brownlee finished with respectable numbers of 31 points and 13 rebounds. What worked to his disadvantage, though, was his cramps which left him off the court in the crucial stages of the game which Ginebra lost, 109-100 in overtime. Arriving to the country last Thursday, Tenorio shared that it has been a mad dash for Brownlee to adapt to his new team. “Naghahabol talaga siya at hindi sya nakakatulog, so nakakaawa talaga,” he said. Despite the circumstances that put both parties in this position, Tenorio acknowledged the great attitude displayed by Brownlee, as the team sees a lot of potential with this new recruit. “Very positive yung nakita namin sa kanya offensively and defensively. Tingin namin, makuha lang nya talaga yung laro dito sa PBA, at the same time yung second wind niya at conditioning niya, I think we’ll be in a good shape with him. Hopefully, makapag-adjust sya kaagad,” he said. Looking back to the close game against Alaska, Tenorio rued the poor free throw shooting the Gin Kings had in the game, going 15-of-29 from the charity stripe. None were bigger than the pair of shots Joe Devance muffed with 1:08 left in the clock which would have pushed Ginebra’s lead up to four. Instead, two misses led to a head-scratching foul from Devance on RJ Jazul on the other end, tying the game at 94 and eventually, the overtime defeat. “Sayang,” Tenorio quipped. “I think the story of the game is yung missed free throws namin. Kahit kalahati lang sana na-shoot namin doon, naging iba yung tema ng laro eh. But ganun talaga, we just have to get back to the basics ulit.”
2016-07-25 18:01 Randolph B sports.inquirer.net
32 Duterte cooperating with militants will help bring peace—Ocampo President Duterte’s willingness to cooperate with militant groups will bear good fruit in the peace and order situation of the country, said former Bayan Muna representative Satur Ocampo. “[A]ng diwa ngayon ay ‘yung kasiglahan na bukas-palad na nag-aanyaya si President Duterte na lumapit kami dito ngayon sa pagpapahayag at makinig sa kanyang sasabihin at pakikinggan din niya ‘yung mga ihahaing mga kahilingan (The essence here is the President Duterte is generously inviting us to listen to what he will say and what he wants)… National, regions, sectoral,” the former Bayan rep. said. Duterte, according to Ocampo, is the first President to acknowledge communists and defended them to “have their reasons.” READ: Duterte announces unilateral ceasefire with communist rebels Ocampo said the militant group is in all-out support to Duterte as long as he is committed to pursue the change he promised. “[T]itingnan naming kung hindi magbabago ang kanyang posisyon sa mga nauuna niyang pangako na makikipagtulungan sa kabila para sa pagbabago (We will see if he will alter his position on his earlier promise with helping the others towards change),” the 77-year-old leader said. Land owners, entrepreneurs, and foreigners are the conservatives opposed to the change the President wants, which arouse conflicts, Ocampo added. People’s Agenda for Change include the social and economic reform agenda in peace talks. “Inaasahan na seryosong gagampanan ng gobyerno at NDF ang tungkulin, masusing pag-aaralan ang situwasyon (We are counting on the government and NDF to perform their duties, scrupulously study the situation),” he added. Kirsten Jamilla, INQUIRER.net trainee/JE
2016-07-25 18:01 INQUIRER.net newsinfo.inquirer.net
33 Ferrer, Celda save the day as Tanduay beats Cafe France anew Tanduay continues to own Cafe France’s number. Kevin Ferrer nailed the go- ahead three with 39.2 seconds to go, while Reden Celda had the game-saving block as the Rhum Masters gutted out a 75-74 thriller over the Bakers for its fourth straight win in the 2016 PBA D-League Foundation Cup Monday at Ynares Sports Arena. “Sana lagi na lang ganun, na matatalo namin sila,” said coach Lawrence Chongson. “It’s one of those games where we got lucky. You really need to bring your A-game and a little bit of luck to beat this team.” After Tanduay fired a 12-0 run to hold a 72-60 lead in the fourth, Cafe France answered back with a 14-0 tear of its own to grab a 74-72 lead with 49.8 seconds left in the clock. But the debuting Ferrer had other plans, drilling a booming three from the left wing to push his team ahead as the Rhum Masters’ defense held on, capped off by Celda’s huge block in the clutch on JK Casino. Celda caught fire for Tanduay in the payoff period, pouring nine of his 17 points in that frame alone. “He kept us in there,” said Chongson of his playmaker. “We were down but siguro maganda ang gising nya ngayong araw.” Ferrer’s game-winner was his lone conversion from beyond the arc in seven tries. He finished with nine markers and five rebounds. Rudy Lingganay and Jovet Mendoza both wound up with nine points each. Tanduay stayed in the hunt for the final two spots with its 7-3 card, closely behind Cafe France, Racal, and Phoenix which are in a three-way logjam for first at 7-2. Mon Abundo topped the Bakers with 18 points, six rebounds, and four assists, while Rod Ebondo had 13 markers in the defeat. The scores: TANDUAY 75 – Celda 17, Ferrer 9, Lingganay 9, Mendoza 9, Acuna 8, Alolino 7, Javillonar 7, Santos 5, Eguilos 2, Tagarda 2, Belencion 0, Gotladera 0, Javelona 0, Stevens 0. CAFE FRANCE 74 – Abundo 18, Ebondo 13, Cruz 10, Opiso 8, Parala 8, Zamar 7, Jeruta 4, Casino 3, Custodio 2, Arim 1, Manlangit 0. Quarters: 15-18, 32-38, 52-52, 75-74.
2016-07-25 18:01 Randolph B sports.inquirer.net
34 NPA rebel killed in Quezon clash LUCENA CITY, Quezon — A suspected communist rebel was killed in a clash with Army soldiers in Lopez town in Quezon province on Monday, a military official said. Col. Lenard Agustin, commander of the Philippine Army’s 201st Infantry Brigade operating in Quezon, said soldiers tasked to secure a telecommunication tower and power transmission lines in the town chanced upon a band of New People’s Army rebels, led by one Joseph de los Santos, alias Ka Ken and Ka Bingot, in Barangay De La Paz at 5:30 a.m. After a 30-minute gunfight, the rebels retreated and left the body of one of their companions. Agustin said the slain rebel had yet to be identified as of Monday afternoon. Soldiers also recovered an M-16 rifle and a shotgun from the encounter scene. SFM
2016-07-25 18:01 Delfin T newsinfo.inquirer.net
35 Group welcomes Duterte’s vow for full RH law implementation A GROUP that advances women’s rights welcomed President Duterte’s announcement on the full implementation of the Republic Act 10354 or the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 (RH Law). Atty. Clara Rita Padilla, executive director of the non-government organization EnGendeRights, in a statement said it is about time that the RH Law be fully implemented. The President, in his first State of the Nation Address (Sona) announced that the RH Law must be implemented to curb the population growth and assist the poor in family planning. “The implementation of the Reproductive Health Law must be put in full force and effect so that couples especially the poor will have freedom of informed choice on the number and spacing of children,” Duterte said. The RH Law guarantees universal access to methods of contraception, fertility control, sexual education and maternal care. “We really need the provisions of the RH Law to be implemented fully. We badly need the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) should implement a comprehensive sexuality education curriculum from elementary through college,” Padilla said. She noted that one out of every 10 adolescent women aged 15-19 is already a mother and there are 25 new HIV cases a day while the unintended pregnancy is high with three in ten births unwanted or mistimed and only 38 percent of women aged 15-49 use modern contraceptives. Due to high unintended pregnancy, she said “high incidence of rape with one woman raped every 71 minutes, unavailability of emergency contraception, lack of access to safe and legal abortion and even lack of access to humane, nonjudgmental, compassionate post-abortion care, we have three women dying every day from complications from unsafe abortion.” “That’s why we are hopeful that under President Duterte’s administration, we will have access to the full range of comprehensive methods including emergency contraception, comprehensive sexuality education, and access to humane, nonjudgmental, and compassionate post-abortion care,” she added.
2016-07-25 18:01 Tetch Torres newsinfo.inquirer.net
36 Duterte hits ‘melodramatic’ Inquirer front page photo President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday downplayed a viral photo of a wife of a slain alleged drug pusher cradling the body of her husband, a photo of which was published in the Inquirer on Sunday. During his State of the Nation Address (Sona) at the House of Representatives, Duterte told the drug pushers and users not to cling to the church and human rights groups to hide from their liability. “Kung ayaw niyo mamatay, ayaw niyo masaktan, huwag kayo umasa sa mga pari at human rights. Hindi makakapigil ng kamatayan yan (If you don’t want to die and get hurt, don’t pin your hopes on priests and human rights [groups]. They can’t stop death),” Duterte said. Duterte called out the attention of the Inquirer for publishing the photo showing the wife of a slain alleged drug pusher cradling her husband, which he downplayed as too “dramatic.” The photo published in the banner of the Inquirer on Sunday showed Jennelyn Olaires weeping while hugging her husband Michael Siaron, a pedicab driver and alleged drug pusher shot and killed by motorcyle-riding men in Pasay City. READ: Church: Thou shall not kill Duterte said the couple was portrayed as Michaelangelo’s Pieta. “Nakabulagta (The body was sprawled), you are portrayed in a broadsheet, mother cradling the dead, like mother and Jesus Christ, Pieta. Anong nangyayari, nagdadramahan tayo dito (What is happening, we just dramatize here)?” Duterte said. Duterte said the drug pushers could only blame themselves for being slain for their drug-related activities. READ: Duterte: No stopping war vs drugs “He who is the cause of the cause is the cause of them all,” Duterte said. RAM
2016-07-25 18:01 Marc Jayson newsinfo.inquirer.net
37 How Sania Mirza gets her make-up done... while sleeping! Indian tennis star Sania Mirza, who is one of India's most stylish sports stars recently showed us all how she keeps her appearance so fine. Want to know her secret? Well, its sleep! Sania Mirza posted a picture of her getting her make up done by an artist, while she is sleeping! Yes, you read that correct. The women's doubles number one player who juggles between hectic practice sessions, shoots, events and gymming shows us how to balance it all and make optimum use of time for a quick nap. This picture on her instagram account perfectly describes it. She went on to write: When you have 15 hour days with practice,shoot,gym and then attending an event all on 3 hours of sleep then that's how your make up artist has to work!! Catching some #promiseyouiamnotdead Sania Mirza will be part of the Indian contingent for the upcoming Rio 2016 Olympics.
2016-07-25 17:43 By mid www.mid-day.com
38 Brave Chennai man risks life to save woman from being raped How many times have you stopped by to help someone? Not much? This story of this courageous Chennai man who fought men trying to rape a girl will inspire you! Vasanth Paul, who was returning home after watching Rajinikanth's 'Kabali', said that he took a detour at Alandur, to avoid poor roads. He then heard a faint voice calling out for help. Initially he thought it to be an animal, but then he realised that someone was calling out for help. He posted on Facebook about his incident. The incident took place in Alandur area of Chennai on Friday night where three men were trying to undress a woman in a desolated patch of land. Vasanth spotted the guys and the girl who was screaming for help and without caring for his own safety or any repercussions, he intervened. The men then tried to strangle him but Vasanth bravely held on his own. He sustained injuries in the ordeal. Luckily, an auto driver came just in time and together they were able to save the girl. The auto driver and Vasanth thrashed the men but they still fled. In his Facebook post, Vasanth concludes with a hard-hitting message. "Don't be afraid to face a situation, just because you're alone. If the cause is right, the world would join you right away. " The police are now investigating the matter but no case has been filed as of now.
2016-07-25 17:40 By mid www.mid-day.com
39 Canara Bank Q1 profit slips 52% to Rs 229 cr New Delhi: State-run lender Canara Bank on Monday reported 52.1 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 228.9 crore in the first quarter ended June as it parked a higher share towards contingencies for bad loans. The Bengaluru-headquartered bank's net profit in same quarter of the previous fiscal stood at Rs 478.84 crore, Canara Bank said in a regulatory filing to BSE. The bank's provisions and contingencies rose to Rs1,492.92 crore in the April-June quarter from Rs 1,359.73 crore in the same period a year ago. Total income during the quarter under review declined to Rs 11,786.3 crore, from Rs 12,252.64 crore a year ago. Bank's asset quality deteriorated further as gross non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans stood at 9.71 per cent of gross advances in the first quarter of 2016-17 against 3.98 per cent in the same period of FY2015-16. Net NPAs too slipped to 6.69 per cent of net advances as against 2.74 per cent a year ago. However, shares of Canara Bank closed at 253.70 per unit up 5.31 per cent on the BSE.
2016-07-25 17:28 By PTI www.mid-day.com
40 Defence Minister should apprise LS on missing AN-32 plane New Delhi : Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge today sought a statement from Defence Minister Manohar Parikkar on the fate of the Indian Air Force AN-32 aircraft which went missing over Bay of Bengal with 29 defence personnel on board four days ago. "It is an important matter. Entire country is watching... Defence Minister should have spoken in Parliament because families are concerned," Kharge said in the Lok Sabha. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the Government, Defence Ministry and Air Force were working to locate the aircraft and rescue the people. "Entire country is concerned... I will convey yourmessage to the Defence Minister," Kumar said. The AN-32 plane, with 29 personnel on board including four officers, went missing on Friday over the Bay of Bengal on its way from near Chennai to Port Blair. Raising the matter during zero hour, Kharge said the Defence Minister should apprise the House as to what steps are being taken to locate the aircraft and whose mistake it was that the aircraft went out of radar coverage. As several other members, including Deepender Singh Hooda (Cong) and Anurag Thakur (BJP), sought to speak on the issue, Speaker disallowed them saying everyone was equally concerned and there was no need for everyone to speak.
2016-07-25 17:26 By PTI www.mid-day.com
41 Oldest elephant in Kerala set to enter Guinness Thiruvananthapuram : At 86, Dakshayani shows no signs of ageing and looks absolutely fit as she gets all set to enter the Guinness World Records as the oldest living elephant. The Travancore Devasom Board (TDB) - the owner of the elephant - has already written to the Guinness authorities staking claim to Dakshayani being the oldest living elephant in the world. The TDB owns 1,250 temples in south Kerala districts, including the famed Sabarimala temple. They have 33 elephants which take part in the festivals of their temples. Addressing reporters here on Monday TDB president Prayar Gopalakrishnan said that records available with them, including of the Kerala Forest Department, show that Dakshayani is the oldest. "As a first step to enter the Guinness, we are honouring her on Wednesday, and we will be working towards this. On the day a special postal cover of Dakshayani from the Kerala Circle Postal Service would be issued," added the TDB president. As per the TDB, the oldest living elephant, which was 85 years old, died in 2003 in Taiwan. "Dakshayani and another elephant, are the only ones of the 10 that have been there with the TDB since its inception in 1949, which are alive now. She was gifted to the TDB by the erstwhile Travancore Royal family," said the TDB president. He also said on the same day three mahouts who tended to Dakshayani and are now retired would be honoured, along with the two mahouts who take care of her presently. "On the same day we will bring out a directory of the 33 elephants that are owned by us and would include the entire history of every elephant," said Gopalakrishnan, and added that nowadays there are scientific ways to determine the age of an elephant.
2016-07-25 17:25 By IANS www.mid-day.com
42 Marcia Fudge To Replace Wasserman As Chair Of DNC Convention In the wake of Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz stepping down, Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge will serve as the permanent chair of the Democratic National Convention set to take place in Philadelphia, Pa., July 25-28. The DNC rules committee decided Saturday Fudge would take over following a massive leak of nearly 20,000 DNC emails attempting to derail former Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders’s campaign in favor of presumed nominee Hillary Clinton. Wasserman Schultz was removed from her speaking roles last-minute and announced Sunday afternoon she plans to resign as DNC chair at the close of the convention Thursday. Clinton thanked Wasserman Schultz for her work in helping Clinton on her road to securing the nomination following the announcement. “I am grateful to Debbie for getting the Democratic Party to this year’s historic convention in Philadelphia, and I know that this week’s events will be a success thanks to her hard work and leadership,” Clinton said in a statement, according to CNN. The relationship between Sanders and Wasserman Schultz has been contentious throughout the primary process. The Sanders camp alleged she was giving Clinton an edge by giving the former secretary of state access to donor lists, and scheduling debates at times that would have given Sanders limited exposure. Sanders had called on her to step down earlier in the day during an appearance on CNN, saying, “We need a party that reaches out to working people and young people, and I don’t think her leadership style is doing that.” Wasserman Schultz asserted she will continue her work in helping get Clinton elected in November. “I’ve been proud to serve as the first woman nominated by a sitting president as chair of the Democratic National Committee and I am confident that the strong team in place will lead our party effectively through this election to elect Hillary Clinton as our 45th president,” she said in a statement. Follow Juliegrace Brufke on Twitter Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].
2016-07-25 16:32 dailycaller.com
43 Media Matters Attacks DCNF In Defense Of Clinton Foundation A liberal advocacy group run by one of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s closest allies launched an attack against The Daily Caller News Foundation’s reporting on the Clinton Foundation’s long history of abusing federal and state charitable tax laws and regulations. Media Matters for America (MMA) claimed in a Friday post that TheDCNF’s July 18 story detailing the Clinton Foundation’s failure to use non-profit good governance rules and practices contained seven “crippling factual errors.” The group then offered readers “facts” to refute TheDCNF’s reporting. MMA’s facts fell far short of giving readers the whole story. MMA criticized TheDCNF’s reporting that the Clinton Foundation’s “insular board of directors is unusually small, ranging from only two to no more than five members, all of whom are among President Bill and Hillary Clinton’s closest and richest friends. “The ‘good governance’ movement in the nonprofit field has been gathering strength for two decades, but it clearly has yet to reach the Clinton Foundation. Most foundation boards have on average 15 members, according to a 2015 survey by Boardsource, a national organization working to strengthen nonprofit board leadership.” In response, MMA claimed “the Clinton Foundation website lists 10 members of its board of directors: Bruce Lindsey, Chelsea Clinton, Bill Clinton, Frank Giustra, Rolando Gonzalez-Bunster, Eric Goosby, Hadeel Ibrahim, Lisa Jackson , Cheryl Mills, and Cheryl Saban.” That’s true for 2013 and thereafter, but the Clinton Foundation was organized in 1997 and in the years since, the board of directors has averaged 3.6 members, according to the group’s Internal Revenue Service tax returns. There were only two board members in 1998, 2010 and 2011, and only three in 2006, 2008 and 2009. In no year prior to 2013 were there more than five board members. It should be noted that inaccurate numbers on a website are a mistake. Inaccurate numbers on a non-profit tax return can be a serious violation of law and regulation. MMA criticized TheDCNF’s report that “Clinton Foundation officials have ignored virtually all of the “best practices” urged by good governance organizations for public charities.” In its attempted refutation, MMA said the “Charity accountability group CharityWatch gave the Clinton Foundation an ‘A’ rating and listed it as one of its ‘top-rated’ organizations in measures of transparency, governance, privacy and fiscal responsibility.” That’s true, but MMA failed to note that Charity Watch’s ratings do not follow Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), or rules for reporting financial information on the IRS Form 990, according to multiple non-profit good governance experts. MMA could also have told readers that Charity Navigator, one of CharityWatch’s non-profit rating competitors, had the Clinton Foundation on its watch list until December 2015, due to concerns about its financial reporting. Because Charity Navigator has yet to receive clean tax returns for the past four years, the Clinton Foundation remains “unrated.” The group criticized TheDCNF’s reporting that “arms-length, independent boards also are considered the essential first step in good governance. The Independent Sector, a non-partisan good governance organization for nonprofits and foundations urge the creation of independent boards and said they should be in the majority.” That’s wrong, according to MMA, because the Clinton Foundation’s 2014 federal tax return claims “that 10 of 12 voting members — more than 80 percent — are independent.” Relying on one year of Clinton Foundation tax returns misleads readers about all the other years of the non-profit’s history. Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, for example, was one of the original two members of the Clinton Foundation board of directors in 1998. He was on the board for 14 of its 19 years, or 74 percent of its history. The reason for McAuliffe’s longevity on the Clinton Foundation board may have something to do with the $1.35 million he put up in 1999 to guarantee a mortgage so the Clintons could buy the house in Chappagua, N. Y., they have owned ever since. The New York home is where Clinton’s private email server was located for much of her tenure as secretary of state. The deal was not illegal, but many government ethics and transparency advocates were outraged. “It’s just plain wrong. It’s dangerous. It’s inappropriate. This is a financial favor worth over a million dollars to the president,” Democracy 21’s Fred Wertheimer told The Washington Post. Media Matters for America was founded by David Brock, one of Clinton’s most devoted fans, in 2004 for the purpose of “comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U. S. media,” according to MMA’s website. Brock and his MMA workers are frequent media combatants on Clinton’s behalf. He founded the American Bridge Super PAC and was a director of the Priorities USA Super PAC that devotes its resources to independent campaigns on behalf of Clinton. Brock was also among the prime movers in the creation of the Democracy Alliance dark money fundraising operation for liberal advocacy groups. Brock’s intense advocacy for Clinton became so extreme, The Hill reported earlier this year, that “Clinton donors, fundraisers and operatives have told The Hill that the concerns about Brock’s comments, particularly some of his attacks on Bernie Sanders, stretch all the way to the top of Clinton’s political machinery.” At one point, Clinton campaign chief John Podesta even tweeted to Brock telling him to “chill out.” Follow Mark on Twitter Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].
2016-07-25 16:32 dailycaller.com
44 UPDATE: Hugo, Colorado Does NOT Have THC In Their Water Hugo, Colo., town officials lifted the water advisory they put in place Thursday after the latest tests showed no THC (a chemical compound in marijuana) present in the water supply. An emergency message went out to Hugo residents Thursday, as well as a tweet from the Lincoln County sheriff department, telling people to stay away from the possibly THC-laden water. But now, after multiple tests have come back clean, the sheriff’s department says it believes it got false positives the first time and the water is safe to use, according to The Durango Herald. “The Colorado Bureau of Investigation has just reached out to us and advised that samples taken from Well #1 and throughout town are NEGATIVE for THC. We are happy to report that the WATER ADVISORY is cancelled immediately. Please resume any and all water activities. The criminal investigation regarding the tampering and forced entry at Hugo Well #1 will continue by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office,” a Lincoln County sheriff department Facebook post reads. According to The Durango Herald, the Lincoln County sheriff’s department is reaching out to the maker of the test kits to find out why they came back positive. Initial reports said that six of 10 wells had tested positive for THC contamination. The Lincoln County sheriff’s department had also reported a break-in at one of the well sites, and according to its Facebook post, that investigation will continue. “The criminal investigation regarding the tampering and forced entry at Hugo Well #1 will continue by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.” While there was panic from some upon hearing the news, others were quick to point out that marijuana is not soluble in water and there was never any reason to be concerned about adverse health effects. “The one thing that bothers me about this story from a scientific perspective is that THC is so insoluble in water,” Joseph Evans, a former scientist at the Environmental Protection Agency, told The Denver Post . “I can’t even fathom the idea that THC would be in water at any type of solubility to create any kind of health hazard.” Follow Craig Boudreau on Twitter . Send tips to craig@ dailycallernewsfoundation.org . Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].
2016-07-25 16:32 dailycaller.com
45 Lindsay Lohan Gets In Fight With Fiance Police Are Called Police kicked down Lindsay Lohan’s front door after she accused her fiancé of trying to strangle her during an argument. (Photo: Reuters) The 30-year-old actress was with Egor Tarabasov on the balcony of her Knightsbridge apartment when neighbors heard her calls for help and notified the police. (RELATED: Lindsay Lohan Gets Engaged) Video captures a fight between Lindsay Lohan and her fiance, we pray she's ok! pic.twitter.com/fQG2yduF2M — Shady Music Facts (@TheShadyFacts) July 25, 2016 “Please, please, please,” Lohan says in a video obtained by a neighbor. “He just strangled me. He almost killed me. Everybody will know. Get out of my house.” PICS: Police Kick Down Lindsay Lohan’s Door After Star Screams That Her Fiance Is ‘Trying… https://t.co/dqv7WJHnHb pic.twitter.com/kjiggRg8e8 — Funso Adekitan (@funsoadekitan) July 25, 2016 “Do it. I dare you again. You’re fucking crazy. You sick fuck. You need help. It’s my house, get out.” A photo posted by Lindsay Lohan (@lindsaylohan) on Feb 22, 2016 at 7:02am PST However, when the authorities arrived, the couple had already left the scene and no arrests were made. (RELATED: Lindsay Lohan Showed Her Fans EVERYTHING When She Posted This Bikini Photo) “Police were called to an address in Knightsbridge, SW7 on Saturday, 23 July at 05:10 hours following a report of a woman in distress,” a police spokesman confirmed to the Daily Mail Monday. “Officers attended and following concerns for the welfare of the occupants inside they forced entry into the address.” “There was no one inside but enquiries were made and the occupants were traced and found to be safe and well. No offences. No arrests.” A photo posted by Lindsay Lohan (@lindsaylohan) on Jul 23, 2016 at 10:54am PDT The incident comes just days after Lohan accused Tarabasov of cheating on her with a Russian prostitute. (SLIDESHOW: 16 Times Lindsay Lohan Showed Her Fans Everything In A Bikini) The couple got engaged in May after five months of dating. A photo posted by Lindsay Lohan (@lindsaylohan) on Jul 18, 2016 at 7:26pm PDT
2016-07-25 16:45 Entertainment Editor dailycaller.com
46 After playing anti-Semitism card against Trump, Wasserman Schultz sunk by aides’ anti-Bernie emails NEW YORK — Just last week Debbie Wasserman Schultz was playing the anti-Semitism card against Donald Trump. But in a startling turnaround, on the eve of her own party’s convention, it’s the South Florida congresswoman who is out as chair of the Democratic National Committee — over a Jewish-related controversy of her own. At issue is a May 5 email leaked Friday by Wikileaks, in which Brad Marshall, the DNC’s chief financial officer, suggested that the party should “get someone to ask” about “his” religious beliefs. “It might [make] no difference, but for KY and WVA can we get someone to ask his belief,” the message says, presumably referring to Kentucky and West Virginia. “Does he believe in a God? He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I think I read he is an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist.” Be the first to know - Join our Facebook page. The email was sent to several top DNC officials — CEO Amy Dacey, communications director Luis Miranda and deputy communications director Mark Paustenbach. Marshall followed up two minutes later with this short message: “It’s these [sic] Jesus thing.” Dacey’s response: “AMEN.” For months, Sanders and his backers have wanted Wasserman Schultz to go, claiming that instead of playing referee, Wasserman Schultz and her team were using the powers of the DNC to help Hillary Clinton. The emails not only backed up these claims, raising the specter of angry Sanders voters refusing to get behind Clinton. They also undercut ongoing Democratic efforts to paint Trump as the one running a campaign aimed at dividing America along racial and religious lines. For most of the GOP primary, this line of attack was focused on Trump’s comments about Mexicans and Muslims, as well as his support among white nationalists. But in recent weeks — after the Trump campaign lifted an image from an alt-right feed with a six-point star and a pile of cash — Democrats, including Wasserman Schultz, have stepped up their focus on the issue of anti-Semitism. Last week, during the GOP convention, Wasserman Schultz used a briefing with reporters to claim that the Republican gathering had brought to the fore an “anti-Semitic environment that Donald Trump embraces” and that the “anti-Semitism that is threaded throughout the Republican Party of late goes straight to the feet of Donald Trump.” After being pressed by JTA, Wasserman Schultz later backtracked, clarifying that she wasn’t pointing a finger at the Republican Party or her Republican colleagues in Congress, but rather Trump and his campaign officials. Still, tough words. Well, suddenly it was Wasserman Schultz’s outfit under scrutiny — not a renegade campaign, but the Democratic Party itself. And this wasn’t a few inexperienced low-level staffers conspiring to schedule debates on the weekend to limit Sanders’ exposure. It was a circle of top officials kicking around the idea of playing the (Jewish) atheist card against Sanders. (Sanders has, in fact, denied being an atheist — not sure it makes a difference, unless ignorant plus offensive is better/worse than just plain old offensive.) It is worth noting that whatever role Wasserman Schultz played in boosting the Clinton campaign from her DNC post, she was not on the email chain about Sanders’ religion. Nor is there any evidence that she knew about the emails or that anyone at the DNC acted on them. As for those actually involved in the email: Marshall, the DNC official who wrote the email, issued an apology on Facebook this weekend, prior to Wasserman Schultz’s resignation. “I deeply regret that my insensitive, emotional emails would cause embarrassment to the DNC, the Chairwoman, and all of the staffers who worked hard to make the primary a fair and open process,” he wrote. “The comments expressed do not reflect my beliefs, nor do they reflect the beliefs of the DNC and its employees. I apologize to those I offended.” Dacey, the DNC’s CEO who answered with an all-caps amen, has yet to comment. Still unclear: whether Marshall’s and Dacey’s emails will cost them their jobs, or just Wasserman Schultz’s.
2016-07-25 16:29 www.jpost.com
47 47 Donald Trump brings home his dark vision of America at the Republican convention Caitlyn Jenner: “It was easy to come out as trans. It was harder to come out as Republican” Donald Trump brought home the Republican convention Thursday night with a dark vision of contemporary America – a darkness he claimed only his leadership could lift. It was a lengthy, tightly-scripted speech framed around polarities – insiders and outsiders, criminals and victims, the United States and the rest of the world – and infused with righteous anger. And yet against the darkness, he offered not lightness but “greatness” – a bombastic, personalistic vision of how through sheer force of will he could right the American ship before it plunged irretrievably into the depths. “I alone can solve,” he famously tweeted earlier in the campaign. This was the 80-minute version. Any presidential challenger, of course, has to lay out a set of problems they believe need fixing and a case for why their leadership might make a difference. It was the breathtaking scale and intensity of Trump’s diagnosis, and the lack of optimistic alternative to counterbalance it, that was notable compared to other acceptance speeches. He portrayed the United States as a country riddled with crime and corruption, a “rigged system” in which politicians like Hillary Clinton can evade justice, while police officers trying to protect its citizens become targets; a fearful country, its economy sluggish, its infrastructure crumbling, its security an illusion, and its international stature in freefall For a candidate who has mocked the soaring rhetoric of President Obama (the “hopey-changey stuff,” as Sarah Palin once called it), it was perhaps not surprising that Trump’s speech would be short on uplift. It was at least more disciplined than his other campaign speeches, if in keeping with their tone and content – the much-maligned teleprompter rolling a script to which he largely stuck. (“He sounds presidential,” a lady behind me remarked, though his press conference Friday morning marked a reversion to free- wheeling form). It was short on substance too, though acceptance speeches aren’t designed to be policy laundry lists like a State of the Union. Still, there were few specifics, beyond a pledge to revise tax laws which inhibit religious groups from political advocacy, and a newfound concern with student loans. It was daughter Ivanka’s speech that had the greater substantive heft, promising her father would push for new labour laws to help working mothers, and for affordable childcare in the US. Neither are traditional Republican positions, but the crowd seemed on board for anything Trump might offer. He even had them cheering for LGBTQ rights, after recalling the tragedy in Florida last month, and the need to protect gay Americans from a “hateful foreign ideology” in radical Islam. “It is so nice as a Republican to hear you cheering for what I just said,” he commended the delegates in an unscripted moment. But whether they had really embraced this unexpected message – or if it was the anti-terror chaser that really got them on their feet – remains to be seen. In either case, it was a rare grace note in an otherwise bruising speech. Presenting himself repeatedly as the candidate of “law and order,” Trump evoked Richard Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign. At a time when American cities were erupting in race riots and protests over the Vietnam War, Nixon had pitched himself as the face of stability and security. Likewise Trump has reacted to the simmering racial tensions and terrorist attacks this summer with a hard-line stance on “lawlessness.” “Safety must be restored,” Trump said, in one of the eerier lines he delivered. Yet in his convention speech, Nixon had balanced his tough talk with a positive message – speaking of love, courage, and lighting a “lamp of hope” in partnership with the American people. Trump channeled another president in his speech, too, when he promised to give voice to “the forgotten men and women of our country” – drawing on the language of Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt had promised to aid “the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid” during the 1932 campaign. But Roosevelt’s solution to the forgotten man’s distress was economic internationalism – tearing down tariff walls and trading freely with the world – which the Republican Party then opposed. Trump’s solution is the protectionist policies Roosevelt had railed against. Trump’s economic and security philosophy is encapsulated in another, more notorious phrase associated with that era: “America First.” A rallying cry for isolationists seeking to avoid US entanglement in World War II, it acquired an anti-Semitic taint. But Trump has employed it nonetheless, capturing as it does his core argument that America must do more to protect its own citizens against threats from within and without – from illegal immigrants, from radicalized Islamic terrorists, from the downsides of free international trade. Little wonder that former George W. Bush staffer Nicolle Wallace announced that the Republican party she knew “died in this room tonight.” In embracing elements of isolationism, protectionism, and nativism, however, it is perhaps truer to say that Trump’s Republican party reverted to an earlier form. Often disconcerting, at times mesmerizing, the question remains how effective this speech will be. The delegates responded enthusiastically to Trump’s fierce rhetoric, but many prominent Republicans had stayed away from the convention altogether. Combined with Senator Ted Cruz’s non- endorsement, Trump goes into the general election campaign without a fully united party behind him. For both partisans and the public, Trump’s speech offered a cast of villains to rally against, but no positive, unifying vision to rally behind – beyond the much-touted yet elusive “greatness,” of course. In a typical election year, that would seem a critical flaw in a campaign – but Trump loves to confound the naysayers. As his convention speech showed, he thinks the formula that got him this far - showcasing his fame and fanning Americans’ fears – can land him in the White House. On Tuesday, American reality star Caitlyn Jenner reiterated her support for the Republican Party at an event in Cleveland. During the Q&A session organised by American Unity Fund, a conservative LGBT activist group, Jenner said: “It was easy to come out as trans. It was harder to come out as Republican.” Great Q&A this morning with @MargaretHoover at @AmericanUnity #BigTentBrunch #GOPinCLE pic.twitter.com/FXkVZwRCVA — Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) 20 July 2016 Jenner’s endorsement comes despite anti-LGBT amendments made last week to the draft Republican manifesto. The Republican Party is also credited with a wave of proposed bills across the US that would ban transgender people from using toilet facilities for the gender with which they identify; such legislation passed in North Carolina. “I get it, the Democratic Party does a better job when it comes to the LGBT community, and Obama has been very good from that standpoint,” Jenner said. “Our best hope to get back to a constitutional government…is in the Republican Party.” Earlier in the nomination process, Jenner had said that she would like to serve as a “trans ambassador” in a Ted Cruz administration. The idea came after the reality star uploaded a video of her using a women’s restroom in Trump Tower. “Thank you Donald. I really appreciate it,” said Jenner. “And by the way Ted, nobody got molested.” Cruz, however, fired back at the remark. “Frankly, the concern is not the Caitlyn Jenners of the world. But if the law is such that any man if he feels like it can go in a women’s restroom and you can’t ask him to leave, that opens the door for predators.” On Tuesday night, another former Republican presidential candidate, Ben Carson, labelled the transgender community, "the height of absurdity". He compared being transgender to one day deciding to change race. Jenner’s remarks have been welcomed by socially liberal Republicans. However, others have already voiced their opposition, pointing to the anti- transgender sentiment that is rife in the party: True, but Caitlyn Jenner is standing on the shoulders of activists, LGBTQ blood & sweat and Democratic actions. https://t.co/WdG9KIXQAf — Jillian Hurley (@BeautyBind) 21 July 2016 You had a great opportunity @caitlyn_jenner to help so many in the LGBT community and you have betrayed us. — Jacob Gardner (@ThatBoyJacob) 20 July 2016 Jenner has often been criticised for being “out of touch” with the issues faced by transgender people; a criticism initiated by her appearance on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine last year. The Republican Convention concluded with Trump accepting the presidential candidacy on Thursday evening.
2016-07-25 15:31 Robert Tombs www.newstatesman.com
48 Breaking News English Lesson An employee of the Trump Organisation has admitted plagiarism in helping to write Melania Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention. Mrs Trump was speaking at the convention to support her husband Donald becoming the Republican nominee in the race to be President of the USA in November. She made a speech about how great she thought her husband was. Unfortunately, many journalists recognised several lines from the speech. They were identical to lines in a speech given by Michelle Obama in 2008 about her husband Barack. Newspapers have been full of stories in recent days about how Donald Trump's organisation allowed Mrs Trump to make a speech that was plagiarised. Plagiarism is copying the work of other people without saying you are copying it. Students are taught from a very young age not to copy because it is stealing. Students who copy the work of others usually receive an F-grade for their work. Schools often expel students for plagiarism. Dr Alex Goodall, a university examination expert, said: "Melania's speech offers us a graphic example of plagiarism in action, from the highest levels of American politics. " Writing expert Dr Declan Kavanagh said that because of the plagiarism, people will not trust or believe her words. Donald Trump said the story was "good news" because the speech, "got more publicity than any [speech] in the history of politics".
2016-07-25 16:01 www.breakingnewsenglish.com
49 Here's Ashwini Ponappa's idea of a 'Happy Sunday' Indian female badminton star Ashwini Ponappa has her set of ideas and things that make for a happy Sunday. The women's doubles player posted a picture on social networking website Twitter which shows her along with her family smiling all the way. Ponappa went on to caption the photo writing: My Sunday couldn't have started any better. Happy people+happy Doggie =A happy Sunday Ashwini Ponappa will join her partner Jwala Gutta for the upcoming Rio 2016 Olympics beginning next month.
2016-07-25 16:14 By mid www.mid-day.com
50 50 VFW motorcycle ride honors Korean vet and his cause Charlotte firefighters gave American flight 1961 from Baltimore a water cannon salute Friday. Among the passengers were members of the NC Air National Guard returning from Qatar after a 6-month deployment. WBTV meteorologist Al Conklin with The Charlotte Observer weather forecast for July 22, 2016. Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry said he understands the NBA decision to pull the league's all-star game from Charlotte, where he grew up. The move was made in response to state's adoption of policy deemed to be LGBTQ. He comments were made at the American Century Championship golf tournament. While temperatures climb to record highs this week, Kenny Short works to keep Latta Equestrian Center's horses safe and comfortable. Short is the barn manager for the Huntersville riding complex and is responsible for maintaining the horses' health, while offering up to seven trail rides a day for visitors. The nurse from Pennsylvania gave CPR to the most injured of the two teens from Charlotte. WBTV meteorologist Al Conklin with The Charlotte Observer weather forecast for July 20, 2016. New security buildings, enhanced procedures highlight changes at stadium Charlotte City Council is considering a change to the city's tree-save regulations that would prevent them from being used to subdivide small lots in existing neighborhoods, like these on Wonderwood Drive in Cotswold. WBTV meteorologist Al Conklin with The Charlotte Observer weather forecast for July 15, 2016. Artist Todd Andrews talks about sculpture created for Carolina Panthers owner and presented on his 80th birthday
2016-07-25 16:11 www.charlotteobserver.com
51 Summer camp is giving new meaning to hanging out It started last week, with a blind taste test of Duke’s vs. Hellmann’s as part of a gathering by Charlotte’s Piedmont Culinary Guild, a collection of chefs, farmers and food folk at Small City Farm. From The New York Times, fashion's maritime moment with Charlotte Di Carcaci. Charlotte art patron and former teacher shows and talks about of her favorite dresses. The Piedmont Culinary Guild tastes mater sammiches at Small City Farm. Moultrie Ball, who's been with NewSpring Church for about four years, shares his thoughts about founding pastor Perry Noble being asked to resign. Chief Kerr Putney talks about how Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is different and improving in recruiting good officers. Joe Clifford, the newly elected head pastor of Myers Park Presbyterian Church, shares his journey of faith. Video: A visit to Burlington Athletic Park in Burlington, N. C., home of the Rookie League’s Burlington Royals minor league baseball team. Caroline Aufgebauer has a hearing disability, but that did not stop her from performing well on a national Spanish exam. She has developed her own learning methods and now speaks three languages.
2016-07-25 16:11 www.charlotteobserver.com
52 Amazon fills the void and cuts waste by testing tighter-fit boxes Amazon, as one of the world’s leading ecommerce companies, is responsible for much of the world’s waste packaging but the company is looking to combat this by using technology to better locate smaller boxes capable of accommodating specific orders. The retailer is currently testing software called Box on Demand that promises to provide packaging appropriate for orders. The company will use machinery that "creates the perfect packaging for your products, reducing the empty space (air) in each shipment. This reduces the need for void fill and improves the protection of contents for each package". Amazon is set to test the process for 20 months in distribution warehouses across Europe so do not expect these tight fit boxes to appear anytime soon. Box On Demand made 4.5m customised boxes in 2015, it claims to have had an average void saving (the empty waste space within boxes) of 60 per cent.
2016-07-25 16:12 www.thedrum.com
53 Does Yahoo’s Tumblr ‘screw up’ augur the end of another digital bubble? The Drum's digital editor Ronan Shields points out how Yahoo's dramatic Tumblr write down is indicative of a major correction in the industry's ad tech sector. Perhaps the most shocking element of yesterday’s Yahoo revelations was the debilitating effects of its Tumblr write down on its overall financial performance? Despite annual increases in its search, mobile, and MAVENs revenue during the second quarter (which amounted to $1.3bn) of this year, a downgrade in the valuation of Tumblr (to the tune of $482m) meant its overall losses widened to $440m , compared to just $20m 12 months beforehand. A promise to ‘not screw it up’ unfulfilled This is quite damning, especially given the initial promise of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer to “not screw it up” when first purchasing the picture blogging service back in 2013, as her rapid acquisition strategy gathered pace in the early days of her four-year (and counting) time at the helm of Yahoo. Activist investors had been drawing question marks under the purchase of Tumblr as far back as 2014, although Mayer was quick to highlight favorable statistics, claiming that advertisers were lagging behind consumer usage of the picture blogging service. So why is Tumblr underperforming? "Because its [Tumblr inventory] is growing so quickly, it’s outpacing demand and it’s causing this monetization shortfall," the chief executive explained on the company’s subsequent quarterly earnings call. "We’re seeing twice as many Tumblr users engaging with ads compared to last year,” she added. The fact that Yahoo began selling ads through Facebook’s Audience Network during the quarter in concern here could account to the financial underperformance of Yahoo’s Tumblr unit. However, regardless of which, Yahoo saw a 15 per cent annual decline in its price-per-ad during the quarter – a truly concerning KPI. Do Yahoo’s other purchases signify the end of a five-year ad tech bubble? Of course, this is widely expected to be the last quarterly earnings call Yahoo has as a publicly listed company, with several outfits touted as potential suitors, including everyone from U. S. telcos, to private equity funds. Many had expected that last night’s call would help bring some resolution to this ongoing saga (it did not). However, I’d argue that it does bring into question Yahoo’s other ad tech acquisitions under Mayer’s hegemony (literally dozens surpassing $2bn in value) over a four-year period. In particular, I’d shine a light on the 2014 $640m purchase of ad tech outfit BrightRoll - the brand that now houses its collective ad tech stack, with one senior level source in the ad tech industry telling me that this was an ‘insane valuation’. The source went on to claim the BrightRoll exit was an incredibly good one (for the sellers that is), given that its offering is essentially a media business, i.e. the popular theory that most ad tech businesses are essentially ad networks, even though that term fell out of favor long ago. A quick look at the ad tech exits The first generation of ad tech outfits, or programmatic players, came about in the 2008/09 era (when funding was hard to come by) and many of this generation of companies have since ‘exited’ (e.g. listed publicly, or been acquired, similarly to BrightRoll). Incidentally, there is also a rumor in ad tech circles that Yahoo was also in the market for one of said companies that later chose to list publicly offering a price tag that was much higher than its eventual valuation on the stock market. Last week ad tech outfit OpenX published an analysis demonstrating that the average life of an ad tech outfit is six years old. It could be argued that the first generation of such ad tech companies (for the main part) have exited via way of a direct sale, with the minority exiting via way of an initial public offering (IPO), with many of the latter not performing so well, as evidenced in the chart below. Either way, this means the first generation of ad tech outfits are either off the market, or statistically likely to sell. End of the ‘ad tech gold rush’ One well place ad tech source told me that Yahoo's BrightRoll purchase was indicative of the overvaluations that typified the ‘ad tech gold rush’, and that similar to the downfall of the stock prices of ad tech companies that have IPO’d, a major correction in the market is likely to occur. Those ad tech companies that do achieve earn outs that number in the hundreds of millions, will have to show true differentiation. Differentiation is key If we take the analysis of Luma Partners into consideration, i.e. that the number of ad tech companies on the market will shrink from thousands to hundreds within years, then the market dynamics of over-supply, plus lack of differentiated tech will like the drive price of any exit south. High profile downgrades like Yahoo’s Tumblr faux pas are unlikely to buoy valuations, and surely won’t help Yahoo’s own negotiation position in its ongoing sales meetings. What’s clear is that as we assign the era of ‘programmatic 1.0’ to history, and move into the next differentiation will be key to survival in the ad tech space, not just success.
2016-07-25 16:12 www.thedrum.com
54 Man killed and two people injured in Surrey pool party shooting One man has been killed and two people injured in a shooting at a pool party in Surrey. The man in his 30s was found with a gunshot wound at an address in Headley, near Epsom, shortly after 02:30 BST, police said. A woman was shot in the leg and taken to hospital while another man was treated for minor shoulder wounds. Police said the victims had been visitors at a large party at a house in the village. An advert for a "Big Mansion Pool Party" at a "Posh Location in the Hills" was posted on Instagram. Mole Valley District Council confirmed it had issued a music licence for the party. Neighbours said the house on Church Lane had been rented out for parties before. Julie Ho-a-shoo, who runs the Headley village shop, told BBC Surrey she noticed a knife on the edge of the road and alerted police. She said there was loud music until about 02:30. "They were partying really hard and loud. There was complete devastation. It looks like everyone had used our front drive as a toilet. " Parish councillor David Preedy said the house had been rented out for a noisy party last year and alerted police when he heard a "repeat was being organised". "I walked up at 8pm and there were people assembling. They weren't people from the community. I could hear music was being played but I couldn't see much as the place has an enclosed garden. "I called the police and asked them to patrol and make organisers know they should be considerate neighbours. "I am sure people will be shocked and very worried. " A police spokesman said the man who died was discovered by police and ambulance crews. A post-mortem examination is due to take place.
2016-07-25 16:09 www.bbc.co.uk
55 Giant miner puppet walks through Cornwall A giant puppet of a Cornish miner has taken its first steps on a 130-mile journey. The 10-metre (32.8ft) Man Engine will travel across the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site to mark the 10th year of its Unesco heritage status. The puppet is the same height as a double decker bus when in "crawling" mode but more than twice that height when standing. It was launched in Tavistock and will reach west Cornwall on 6 August. More updates on the giant puppet, and other Devon and Cornwall news here The machine is the brainchild of Will Coleman, founder of Golden Tree Productions, and is named after a mechanism used to move miners up and down to working levels.
2016-07-25 16:09 www.bbc.co.uk
56 Stephen Port: More poison charges for serial killings suspect A man accused of murdering four men in east London has also been charged with poisoning, rape and sexual assault. Stephen Port was charged with four counts of murder last year but the new allegations relate to eight living complainants. The 41-year-old from Barking denied the charges during a pre trial hearing at the Old Bailey. He allegedly met the four murder victims on the internet between June 2014 and September 2015. It is alleged he then invited them to his flat on Cooke Street where he is said to have poisoned them with the psychoactive drug GHB. Mr Port faces 29 charges in total and is set to stand trial on 4 October. He was originally charged with four counts of murder and four of administering a poison, but at the Old Bailey on Monday prosecutors added six more counts of administering a poison, seven charges of rape and four of sexual assault. Mr Port now also faces four alternative charges of manslaughter. These are alleged to have occurred between 2011 and 2015. Some of the charges relate to the deaths of: The deaths were not initially linked but after further investigation they were referred to the Metropolitan Police homicide and major crime command in October last year. The force has referred its handling of the case to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
2016-07-25 16:09 www.bbc.co.uk
57 Durham Cathedral Lego model's final brick added A 300,000 brick Lego model of Durham Cathedral has been completed, three years after work on it began. The creation stands 5ft 6in (1.7m) high, is 12ft 6in (3.84m) long and 5ft (1.53m) wide. It was built following donations by visitors, who paid £1 for each brick. The model raised funds for a new £10.9m permanent exhibition of cathedral artefacts called Open Treasure, which is expected to attract 120,000 people a year. See a 360 degree view of the model here . Work started on the replica on 11 July 2013, which tells the story of Durham Cathedral and its place in the development of Christianity in the North East. The cathedral said it is the first large-scale Lego model to have been built by the public, with visitors from as far as Alaska taking part.
2016-07-25 16:10 www.bbc.co.uk
58 Teenage girl arrested at school on 'nightmare' police treatment A teenage girl who was arrested at school over claims of bullying has described her treatment by police as a "nightmare". Emma Raymond, 16, from Nottingham, said she was held in custody for more than eight hours after being arrested in the middle of a lesson. After questioning, Emma was charged with harassment, but the case was later dropped. Nottinghamshire Police said it had received a complaint about the arrest. "It's the worst thing I've ever experienced," Emma, who has waived her legal right to anonymity, told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme. She was arrested in January, when two police officers arrived at her school in response to claims she had bullied another teenage girl. "I didn't get to say anything," Emma said. "The next thing I knew they were putting me back in the back of their police car. "Other kids saw what happened. Everyone was talking about it - I could tell by the looks people gave me. It felt like everyone was judging me. " Emma said the arresting officers had refused to let her make a phone call on the way to the police station: "I just wanted to speak to my parents. They were treating me like a murderer. " When she arrived in the custody area, "men in cells were either side of me, banging and swearing", she said. "None of it made sense. I knew it wasn't true. " Police visited Emma's home and confiscated her tablet and laptop computer, which contained her GCSE coursework, she said. "I didn't get it back until end of March, about a week before my deadlines," she said. "It was a nightmare. I feel like it's affected my GCSEs. I don't trust the police at all, not one bit. " Emma's father, Carl, said police had accused her of being the "ringleader of a hate campaign" against the other girl. "I'm so frustrated and angry that it happened," he added. "They could have dealt with it so differently, just come round the house. Sources: Gov.uk and lawstuff "She's had her DNA taken, finger prints, a mug shot. At no time was Emma's wellbeing, age and care taken into consideration. " In the year to March 2015, 94,960 people aged 10 to 17 were arrested in England and Wales, according to the Ministry of Justice. Sources: Get Safe Online and Bullying UK "Being in custody can be extremely distressing and traumatic," said Shauneen Lambe, director of the legal charity Just for Kids. "You should only want to put children through it if it's absolutely necessary. It doesn't sound like that was the case for Emma. " Nottinghamshire Police said it had received a complaint, adding it "would be inappropriate for the force to comment further" at this point. The Victoria Derbyshire programme is broadcast on weekdays from 09:00- 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel.
2016-07-25 16:10 www.bbc.co.uk
59 Damien Nettles: The boy who disappeared Twenty years after a 16-year-old boy vanished on a night out in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, the BBC has spent months reinvestigating the case. Can the web of rumours around the disappearance of Damien Nettles ever be unpicked, asks Bronagh Munro. It was a Saturday, and Damien Nettles had arranged to go to a house party. Before he left the house he called his new girlfriend in Suffolk to tell her he was missing her. And just after 19:00 on 2 November 1996 he left the family home and headed out into Cowes. Unsolved: The Boy Who Disappeared - BBC reporters Bronagh Munro and Alys Harte have been investigating the disappearance of Damien Nettles on the Isle of Wight in November 1996. The evidence is showcased in a series of digital videos, available on BBC Three to stream and download. Watch all eight episodes on iPlayer He had successfully negotiated with his mum, Valerie, to stay out until midnight, an extra couple of hours beyond his usual curfew. It was the last time Valerie would ever see her loving, larger-than-life son. He was wearing blue jeans and a black fleece - he didn't take a bag or any other belongings. When I first spoke to Valerie Nettles, her sadness and frustration made a big impact. She is a fighter who admits she cannot move on with her own life until she finds the answers to what happened to her son. The family moved to Dallas in 2001, making it tougher still to keep the search going. Valerie faces an uphill battle - Damien's case is almost 20 years old and she is frustrated with the police. The loss of evidence and the failure to retain records has hampered the case - she is exhausted. Damien's father, Edward, dropped him at his best friend Chris Boon's house around 19:30. Along with Chris's brother Davey, they headed to a fairly low-key house party in East Cowes. There were three couples at the house and Damien was the only one on his own. Chris Boon says he thought Damien wanted to leave because he was bored. His brother Davey thinks Damien might have been leaving to buy cannabis, as his regular dealer had been letting him down since the summer. Damien and Chris left the party at roughly 21:30. They used the small ferry to travel back across to West Cowes, stopping to buy cider along the way. Damien was carrying a black camera that he had taken with him from the party. It has never been found. A 2007 Hampshire Police internal review document gives an almost minute-by-minute account of Damien's activities in Cowes right up to when he is last spotted on a street CCTV camera. The report says that from 21:30 until his disappearance at 00:06, Damien spent those final few hours going from pub to pub in Cowes High Street trying to get in. Damien was 6ft 4in and stood a good chance. His best friend Chris was much smaller and not so lucky. Chris was often left outside. Damien was going in and out of the pubs looking for his older sister, Sarah, recalls Chris. A statement from a witness at the time confirmed this. But Valerie says Damien knew Sarah was not going to be on the island. She was in Portsmouth. Was Damien just using her as an excuse to get into the pub? Was he looking for something else, or someone? Is there something yet to be discovered about Damien's movements that night which could reveal a possible motive or an opportunity for what happened to Damien? Around 22:00, CCTV showed Damien walking into Yorkies chip shop, picking up a salt cellar, setting it down, then leaving. By 22:30, Chris Boon was cold and wet and wanted to go home. He persuaded Damien to come with him. The boys walked out of town towards home parting company at the steps of Northwood Park. "I went straight home," Chris recalls now. "I was 100% sure that Damien had headed up through the park towards home. " But in Damien's head the night was not over. Instead of walking the 20 minutes to his home, he turned around and headed back to Cowes High Street. He was last seen just after midnight. Damien was picked up on the chip shop CCTV footage for the second time. Multiple witnesses from the evening claim he appeared heavily intoxicated, or looked "spaced out". At 23:15 a witness says they saw Damien trying car door handles on a blue Ford Fiesta, in the car park of the Harbour Lights pub. This behaviour, Valerie says, "was completely out of character". Damien was next spotted at a bus stop near the Co-op. He climbed on to the bus to speak to the driver, tried to take his photo and then got off again, thanking the driver. Minutes later - at 11:59 and in the same location - another witness, a foster carer waiting to pick up a child off the bus, was in his car. He described Damien as: "A miserable figure, huddled eating chips. " This foster carer told police the person was approximately 6ft and fitted Damien's description, and was carrying a camera. He said the teenager walked towards him in his car, and that he "looked drugged, and seemed to bank heavily into the car". The teenager said twice to him: "They are watching us. " After that, the boy wiped rain off his car window and walked off towards the Pier View public house, on the High Street. Minutes later Damien was caught on street CCTV and then vanished. After being spotted all over the High Street for nearly three hours, he simply disappeared. Why was he not caught on the remaining cameras on the High Street? Damien had two possible routes home - through the park or along the seafront. His mother is convinced he would not have taken the coastal path. "It was a nasty night and dark and unfriendly along the seafront. That walk would not have appealed to him. " The only road he could have gone up, and away from the High Street and the cameras, was Sun Hill. Retracing this route in November, there are few tourists and the streets on a Friday and Saturday night are quiet, eerily so. You can hear people's conversations in their homes from the street. Noise travels. All of the streets and side roads are overlooked by windows. If something did happen to Damien that night, how was it not seen or heard? It was Damien's nine-year-old sister, Melissa, who first noticed that his bed had not been slept in. The family called Chris Boon's house but Damien wasn't there. Valerie began to worry. Going through his list of friends they grew more and more uneasy as the hours passed. The family searched for Damien. Valerie went to the police station to report him missing at 15:00 on that Sunday - 3 November 1996. According to the Nettles family, in the days following the disappearance, it was them and their friends and not the police who went door-to-door looking for information. And it was Dr Corran Laurens, a friend of Valerie's, and not the police, who found the images of Damien on a local businessman's CCTV camera. Laurens was a town councillor back in 1996. She had a son around the same age as Damien. "The police wouldn't do anything so I took it upon myself to walk down the street asking left and right to see if anyone had seen him. The man in the chip shop just told me that he had this little camera above the door and that I was welcome to have a look. " On the chip shop CCTV, Damien appears "out of it" and struggles to understand what he is being asked and finally settles on buying a bag of chips after being prompted by the counter assistant. He paid and left the shop. Five men were also filmed in the chip shop with Damien. Their conversation with Damien appears friendly and police ruled them out of their inquires. But the police failed to identify and speak to all of these men until many years after Damien vanished, and only after an internal review highlighted the fact that this action had not been completed. Damien's family were finally told that the men were in the military. These men could have held crucial information about what was happening in Cowes that night, and who else was on the High Street. Laurens believed the initial investigation by the police was only in one direction. "The whole time, the police insisted that he must have gone into the water, but I never believed that. "The police were awful, at one stage they called Valerie and I 'hysterical women'. "We pushed and pulled with them - it was almost as though everything closed ranks. It was almost as though it wasn't good for Cowes for this to happen. " It was a long time before police entertained the possibility that Damien might have been killed, rather than drowning, says Laurens. "They kept trying to justify their actions - or inactions - to Valerie but really, they did nothing.' The family realised Damien might have been caught by the CCTV cameras on Cowes High Street. They checked with the local business association, who owned the cameras. Police were informed and Valerie was shown the footage, and the last moment a camera caught Damien - just after midnight, alone, walking up the middle of a deserted street, eating chips. But before then, Valerie says, the police had tracked the wrong person. She helped them find him on the tapes. "It was the last time I ever saw my son alive. " The police later lost the footage. Valerie complained to the Independent Police Complaints Commission in 2005 about the loss, and how Damien's case had been handled. Valerie was told that the officer who lost the tape had already been dealt with. The town of Cowes sits right on the edge of the Solent. At points, the High Street where Damien was last seen is less than 10 seconds' walk from the water's edge. It's one of the busiest waterways in the UK, with a complex tidal system. It was easy to assume at the time that Damien had simply fallen into the sea. But his family refused to accept this theory. Local sailors and fishermen repeat the same line: "The sea gives back what it takes away. " Damien's father Edward approached the harbour master. "We got the charts out," says the then-Harbour Master Captain Henry Wrigley, "and I calculated for them the tidal movements, tidal sets and rate, as well as the possibilities in case he had slipped into the water. The Solent is complicated but it is also well charted. "I am certain that had he gone into the water that night, he would have been returned to the land. "When the water is cold, it does take longer for the body to come back to the surface - you may find them two or three days later, so we remained observant for quite some time after. " A thorough search was undertaken with boats, Wrigley says. "We searched and searched. We did everything that was physically possible. " So, if Damien didn't go in the sea, what happened to him? His family are convinced that he did not run away. And all the ferries to the mainland had stopped for the evening anyway. It appeared that Damien was a happy, content boy who loved life. Abbie Scott (nee Mabey) had been in a relationship with Damien for 18 months up until July 1996. They were very close. "He was a big gentle giant. I can't imagine why anyone would want to hurt him. " Just before they separated though, Abbie did notice Damien starting to change. "I saw flickers of someone else. He was hanging around with a different group of people who were a little bit older than him. There were obviously some things he was keeping to himself. It could have been drugs. I don't know. " Gemma Nunn, Damien's girlfriend, who he had been dating since August 1996, says police did not probe this potential aspect of his life. "At no stage did they ask me questions about Damien taking drugs or Damien getting into trouble or talking about something bad happening to Damien. " Valerie has saved the thousands of emails passed between the Nettles family, police, and witnesses over the past two decades. The emails are an unofficial chronology of everything that has happened in relation to Damien's case. Valerie is bitter about what she sees as a bungled police inquiry. "They were very brusque. Now they have apologised to us and admitted that something sinister happened. " Speaking off the record, many ex-cops who worked the beat in Cowes back in the 1990s say they did everything they could after Damien disappeared. Operation Ridgewood commenced immediately. An incident room was set up with a team of dedicated officers, searches were carried out, and people of interest were spoken to. But evidence from this time was not retained by the police, and Valerie believes this has hampered the case. Crucial records, including the log of calls made to police that night are gone, police notebooks were not retained, and even details of which officers were on duty that night have now been lost. It wasn't until March 2002, when the investigation was handed to Hampshire Constabulary's major crime department, that the details gathered in Damien's case were put on to the Holmes computer system. It was around this time that an informant claims he went to police to tell them what happened to Damien. This person was an associate of local drug dealer Nicky McNamara in the 1990s. Feeling his words hadn't been acted on, eight years later he made contact with Valerie. He told the Nettles family that Damien had been killed by McNamara during an argument over cannabis. McNamara had thrown a punch in anger, but had not intended to kill Damien. Damien's body had been hidden in a well-known drugs den in Cowes, said the informant, where it had been kept for up to three weeks. The body was then buried near a cycle path on the island, in a sail bag. Valerie took the information to the police. This development in 2010 and the appointment of a new senior investigating officer brought renewed energy to the case and a spate of arrests and searches followed soon after. All of those arrested had links to the drugs scene back in 1996 and to one man - Nicky McNamara. In the same year, the police searched the marshland along the cycle path from Cowes to Newport. But the police told Valerie the informant could not be trusted and was not passing on reliable details. They had previously searched based on his information but he had changed his story, claiming instead that Damien was buried in a wooded copse in Gurnard, beside another unused cycle path. He told us the same story when we knocked on his door. After weeks of cat and mouse I finally got to speak to the informant. He said: "It was a punch thrown in anger. McNamara never meant to kill Damien, it was a beating that went wrong. " He took me to where he had been told Damien was buried. We used a cadaver dog to search the spot but nothing was found. Over the years various people have made approaches to the family with a series of tales about what might have happened to Damien. Many of these people provided information that wasted police time. There were even rumours - circulating in 1999 - that Damien had come to harm at the hands of a notorious paedophile. Police investigated the claim but found the man had left the island months prior to Damien's disappearance. In 2002 another convicted paedophile made an admission about being involved in a murder on the Isle of Wight in the mid-1990s. Police searched a field but nothing was found, and it was later established that the abuser was lying. There were even more nebulous rumours - that there had been fights on the slipway in Cowes that involved Damien. Nothing was substantiated. A boy from Damien's circle of friends who fell into the drugs scene later told medical staff that Damien had been the victim of a sexual attack and that he had been buried near to Northwood House. He later denied saying it. Yet another rumour suggested that Damien could have been beaten up because he had tried to stop one of this friends from being abused. Over the two decades there has been layer upon layer of rumour and theory and none of it has stacked up. But one rumour refuses to go away, and that takes us back to Nicky McNamara, and the story of a fight that led to Damien's death. Police first investigated the possibility of McNamara's involvement between 2002-05. And found nothing. But it is this rumour that has persisted. Even now there are a number of people that insist that McNamara was responsible for Damien's death. With each source the precise circumstances, the location and the motive differ, but the accused person remains constant. It was alleged that Damien had angered McNamara in some way and that a beating had resulted in his death. But again the reason Damien angered McNamara was never consistent. Lynn Hammond is a local councillor and friend of the Nettles family. "I was told that Damien was killed in a local chalet, his body was wrapped in black plastic bags, taken to a drugs house were he was kept for up to three weeks. His body was then put in a sail bag and buried in a wooded area. " Source: UK Missing Persons Bureau But could Damien's world really have collided with that of one of the Isle of Wight's most renowned drug dealers. Former policemen attest to the volume of drugs circulating in the 1990s. The Golden Hill Fort was a notorious open air party venue, and impromptu raves were organised by locals. In 1996, heroin was starting to take hold. Bunny Iles was McNamara's best friend. Back then McNamara and he were part of a group of about a dozen people who were dealing drugs in some of the pubs on the High Street and in a number of party houses all over Cowes. One of them was above a butcher's shop. The family were told by someone that on the night he disappeared, Damien had been shouting up to this flat. It was alleged that Bunny Iles had sold Damien drugs. But in a recent meeting with Valerie, he strenuously denied this. He did admit being arrested and having his house searched in relation to Damien's case but denied having anything to do with his disappearance. He also denies that Nicky McNamara could have killed Damien. No-one can question McNamara now. He died of a heroin overdose in 2002, in the home of his alleged partner Shirley Barrett. It was known locally as the "house of death". It was only after his death that the rumour of his involvement in Damien's death began to surface. The suggestion was that he made a confession to somebody before he died. Shirley Barrett denies he confessed to her. Valerie says that the impetus for what little movement there has been in the case came from a private detective, Ivor Edwards. After making contact with the family in 2007, he found new witnesses that police later spoke to, says Valerie. But Edwards says the police weren't enthusiastic about his involvement. "They sent a police constable to see me and basically said we really don't want you investigating this case. " Edwards spent the next five years knocking on doors, finding witnesses who said Nicky McNamara was involved in Damien's death. His leads helped us speak to a local resident who claimed he had seen Nicky McNamara pinning a young boy up against a wall on Bars Hill, in Cowes, around the time Damien disappeared. This man only spoke to the police in 2005. He told them he couldn't be sure when the incident had happened. He believed another man, Daniel Spencer, was looking on at the incident. But the witness told police he couldn't be sure. We were also able to track down and speak to Spencer, who denied having any information about Damien's disappearance. He also denied any knowledge of the alleged incident on Bars Hill. Hampshire Constabulary have apologised for the original loss of the CCTV evidence. They say 1,134 people have been involved in the investigation either as investigators, witnesses, or people of interest. They have taken 357 witness statements. "Hampshire Constabulary continues to take action to keep the case open for any new leads. A decision was made in 2013 for the files on Damien Nettles to remain with the force's Major Crime Team for ongoing regular checks. This move followed an extensive review of all information gathered by police during enquiries into Damien's disappearance in November 1996. " The case is still open and for Valerie and the rest of the Nettles family the relentless search continues. "Finding his body or what's left of it, it would be a gift. And it might not end, you know, the distress, but if I could place him somewhere, instead of thinking of every awful thing that might of happened to him and wondering if he cried for us. " A man travelled 200 miles from London through Manchester and out to the moors where he lay down and died. In his pockets there was no identification - only a return train ticket, some cash and a medicine bottle. He had died from strychnine poisoning. Why did he come to this place to die? And who was he? Body on the Moor Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook
2016-07-25 16:09 www.bbc.co.uk
60 Munich shootings: Who were the victims? Nine people were killed by David Ali Sonboly in Friday's attack in Munich, before the teenage gunman turned the weapon on himself. Seven of those who died were teenagers; the youngest were just 14 years old. More than 30 other people were injured, German police said. Officials said Sonboly had set up a fake Facebook account in May and sent a message luring victims to a branch of McDonald's with the promise of free food. German media reports have said those who died were all Munich residents. Many of them were from families with origins outside Germany. Hussein Daitzik (or Huseyin Dayicik), a 17-year-old of Greek origin, was said to have been shot dead as he tried to protect his sister from the shots. A Greek Muslim lawmaker has said the Daitzik family comes from the Muslim minority in Western Thrace, in northern Greece. German TV said Hussein was born and lived in Munich. A New York Times reporter met the boy's father, Souleyman, outside one of the city's hospitals as he searched for his son. He told her Hussein and his sister had gone to the shopping mall together but had become separated after the shooting started. His daughter managed to escape from the gunfire and was rescued by the emergency services and taken to hospital, suffering trauma. Hussein's death was confirmed later. Guilliano Kollman , 18 or 19, reportedly died outside the McDonald's where the shooting started. "He was a funny guy, a normal guy. No-one had anything against him," one friend was quoted as saying. Dijamant Zabergja , 20 or 21, the son of a police officer of Kosovo Albanian heritage, was also shot dead. His father, Naim, visited the scene on Saturday, carrying flowers and a photograph of his son. The dead were also reported to include: The BBC has not received authorisation to publish any pictures of those killed, other thanDijamant Zabergja.
2016-07-25 16:09 www.bbc.co.uk
61 Entertainment week in pictures: 16 Michael J Fox surprised Coldplay fans by joining Chris Martin on stage in New Jersey as part of the band's current tour. Fox played the guitar on the songs Earth Angel and Johnny B Goode, as made famous in his film Back to the Future. Campbell's Soup created its very own Spider-Man "Canstruction" at San Diego International Airport ahead of Comic-Con beginning this week. The first pictures of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May filming their new show, The Grand Tour, in Johannesburg were released ahead of the series beginning on Amazon Prime in the autumn. Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, met Martin Clunes and other cast members of ITV drama Doc Martin during a visit to Cornish fishing village Port Isaac where the show is set. Wax was applied to Rodin's famous sculpture Le Penseur - better known as The Thinker - to protect it from weather damage and pollution at the Rodin museum in Paris. The BFG illustrator Quentin Blake created a new image of the Roald Dahl character this week. It was in honour of an exhibition dedicated to the Big Friendly Giant at the House of Illustration in London, as well as a series of free events at St Pancras station to encourage children to get drawing. Californian street artist Plastic Jesus erected a miniature barbed-wire wall around Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame - a reference to the presidential hopeful's suggestion to build a wall between the US and Mexico. The original cast of Red Dwarf were photographed together as an 11th series of the sci-fi comedy was announced. L-R: Danny John-Jules, Chris Barrie Craig Charles and Robert Llewellyn. Michelle Obama appeared on Carpool Karaoke - a feature on James Corden's popular Late Late Show on the US network CBS. The pair sang songs by Stevie Wonder, Beyonce and Missy Elliott - who joined them briefly in the car. Director Steven Spielberg received a gold Blue Peter badge this week from presenter Lindsey Russell. It's the highest honour given by the CBBC children's TV show. Blue Peter only gives a few out each year and says he earned it with his talent, passion and pioneering work. Spielberg said he's "always secretly wanted" one. Photos of Leona Lewis in costume as Grizabella in a new production of Cats were released ahead of the show's opening in New York on 31 July. The singer said: "I am beyond thrilled for my Broadway debut to be in such an iconic show. "
2016-07-25 16:09 www.bbc.co.uk
62 Dover delays: Motorists find ways to cope with queuing Motorists are continuing to face a long wait on their journey through Kent, as a result of delays with French border checks at the Port of Dover, combined with a large volume of summer holiday traffic. Vehicles have been backed up on roads for miles for a second day, with many forced to spend the night in their cars. Families have been running short on food and water - but with a surplus of boredom and frustration. Here's how some of them have been passing the time. Haider told the BBC he has been on the road for nearly 24 hours with his wife and three children. "We left Birmingham at 9am yesterday morning. My little one has just thrown up, he's been feeling car sick for the last couple of hours and he's just thrown up. "But apart from that the other two are OK. The good thing is we've got a seven-seater, and we took a couple of the seats out and put a foam mattress in, so that they could lie down and have a kip. " And Ollie Burridge, who is travelling with his family to Barcelona from South Wales, told the BBC they had been stuck in traffic for 16 hours waiting to board a ferry - which they finally did on Sunday morning. He said that while they were waiting, he and fellow drivers "got out their cars and were chatting". He added: "There were some people playing football on the other side of the carriageway that had been closed. "We got some bats and balls and played a spot of tennis over the central reservation. We made the best of it. " Twitter user Hannah Brisley posted a video, saying that she had thrown food down to people stuck on the motorway, and had been rewarded with a song. Local resident Bronwen Page said on Saturday that she was "utterly disgusted at the response in our county". "I went to my local supermarket and picked up 20 crates of water and handed out the water. " Joerg Walther, who was heading home to Frankfurt, said his family had to eat scones and chocolates they had bought as gifts, but were relieved when a local man came along and handed out pizza and soft drinks. Amy Capron, who was on her way to Dover on Saturday, tweeted a picture of her companion sizzling some sausages in their van, while stuck for hours on the road leading to the port. Another motorist, Jessica, also said on Saturday that the lengthy backlog of vehicles was "an absolute disgrace". "We have a three and four-year-old with us, I'm pregnant as well and still have some morning sickness and with people using the side of the road as a toilet the whole thing is really unpleasant. " Kent County Council staff have been out and about on Sunday, assisting those needing the loo while stuck for hours in their car. There has been some photographic evidence on social media of people having to improvise their toilet facilities on the roads leading into Dover - so those efforts by the council will no doubt come as something of a relief. Dale Savage was caught in Saturday's delays for 12 hours en route to his brother's wedding. He said: "There are a lot of kids here, a lot of young children - a lot of people want to go on their holidays. "There are no real frustrations, the real problem was no-one knew what was going on. " He described a "camping spirit... very much like Glastonbury" but without a band to see at the end of it. However, some spoke of "overheated, glum faces" as the hours wore on and cars failed to move very far. A Twitter user called Graham gave a light-hearted update about how some of the motorists queuing on Sunday were passing the time. Meanwhile the sight of so many queuing motorists led charity workers, more used to dishing out aid overseas, to head south from Slough. Ravi Singh, 46, and two others brought cereal bars and thousands of bottles of water in a van and pick-up truck. The three, volunteering as part of Khalsa Aid, offered their help via police and port authorities. Mr Singh said: "We met a lot of young families with children, mostly people going on holidays, some heading back home to France. "There was just total frustration. People didn't know what was going on. They could see the queues in front. I asked people what time their ferry was and they said they had already missed it. "People were very, very frustrated and pulling their hair out. " The men handed out 5,800 bottles of water on Saturday, and say they are ready to help stranded motorists again on Sunday. Water supplies were also being dropped along the jam of cars by police helicopter on Saturday. Are you travelling to France via Dover? Are you a local resident? How have your plans been affected? Please email [email protected] with your experiences but do not endanger yourself. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways: Or use the form below
2016-07-25 16:09 By Mario www.bbc.co.uk
63 Brexit: Sturgeon sets out key Scottish interests that 'must be protected' Scotland's first minister has outlined her next steps in attempting to secure Scotland's position in Europe, a month on from the Brexit vote. In a speech in Edinburgh, Nicola Sturgeon set out key interests she believes must be protected. She has previously said a second independence vote was "highly likely" but promised to explore other options. The Scottish Conservatives said another "divisive" referendum was not in Scotland's best interests. Scottish voters backed remaining in the EU by a margin of 62% to 38% in June's referendum while the UK as a whole voted by 52% to 48% to leave. In the speech to business leaders, charities and public sector organisations for think tank IPPR Scotland, Ms Sturgeon listed the five key interests she will seek to protect during the coming months' negotiations. She said these are: Ms Sturgeon spoke of the "sinking feeling" she had as the EU referendum result started to come in. She said she felt "contempt" for the Leave campaign, which she said "lied" and "gave succour" to "overt racism" and the far right. And she hit out at former Prime Minister David Cameron for the "reckless" decision to call the vote, as well as the lack of planning for the eventuality of a Brexit vote, calling this "one of the most shameful abdications of responsibility in modern political history". Ms Sturgeon and Mr Cameron's successor Theresa May held a meeting in Edinburgh earlier this month, after which Mrs May said she was "willing to listen to options" on Scotland's future relationship with the EU. But Mrs May appeared unwilling to consider a second referendum on Scottish independence, saying the Scottish people "had their vote" in 2014. Ms Sturgeon also discussed the implications of the Brexit vote at last week's British-Irish Council summit. In her speech, Ms Sturgeon restated her willingness to consider all options. "My task today and tomorrow and throughout the length of the coming negotiations will be to protect Scotland's relationship with and interests in the European Union, and to explore every avenue and every option for doing so," she said. Scottish Conservative finance spokesman Murdo Fraser said the Scottish government was right to examine how best to further the country's interests ahead of the UK beginning Brexit negotiations with the EU. He added: "However, as two million Scots agreed in 2014, leaving the United Kingdom is not in Scotland's interests, and the Scottish government should therefore end its flirtation with yet another divisive referendum on independence. "Its focus as we enter this crucial period should instead be to work with the UK government to get the right deal for families and firms across Scotland. " Scottish Labour's Europe spokesman Lewis Macdonald added: "It is essential that the leaders of all the devolved administrations and the UK government work together in advance of any negotiations with the EU. All sides must put posturing to one side for the sake of the country and act in good faith. "Any of our leaders deliberately placing obstacles in the way of an agreement that maintains our vital relationships with the rest of Britain and the rest of Europe would run counter to the express wishes of the people of Scotland. "
2016-07-25 16:09 www.bbc.co.uk
64 BBC News Channel Britain's most-watched news channel, delivering breaking news and analysis all day, every day. The BBC News Channel is available in the UK only. Don't forget, to watch TV online as it's being broadcast, you still need a TV licence. You can send comments and pictures to the BBC News Channel by texting 61124, or emailing [email protected]
2016-07-25 16:09 www.bbc.co.uk
65 Tim Kaine: The Spanish-speaking, anti- abortion Democratic senator Hillary Clinton has chosen Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as her vice- presidential running mate in her bid for the White House. Serving in Congress since 2012, he was elected after serving as Virginia's governor for four years - a title he won in part by getting support in areas of the state usually dominated by conservatives. As governor, Mr Kaine supported expanding early childhood education, digitising historical records, and smoking bans. While in the Senate, he has served on committees for Armed Services, Aging, Budget and Foreign Relations. He is a former head of the Democratic National Committee. Before Mr Kaine began his career as a lawyer focused on housing rights, he spent a year volunteering alongside Jesuit missionaries in Honduras. There, he became fluent in Spanish - a skill that could help Mrs Clinton's Hispanic outreach. He is popular with the White House, and was on the short list for Barack Obama's running mate in 2008. Bill Clinton was said to push for Mr Kaine's appointment to be Clinton's VP. However, his support for free trade and deregulating local banks make him unpopular with more progressive members of the party. A practising Catholic, he is personally opposed to abortion. While he is committed to the broader tenets of Roe v Wade, including a woman's right to choose, he supports restrictions on certain types of abortion, parental consent laws and "informed consent" practices. Although he has lived in Virginia for most of his adult life, he is originally from Minnesota and was raised in Kansas. He has a Midwestern appeal that Mrs Clinton could rely on to help gain voters in the Rust Belt. Virginia is considered a swing state, and Mr Kaine's popularity could improve Clinton's chances there. Should Mrs Clinton win the election, Virginia's Democratic governor would appoint someone to temporarily fill Mr Kaine's Senate seat, and a special election would be held in 2017.
2016-07-25 16:09 www.bbc.co.uk
66 66 German prosecutors consider legal action against the spread of misinformation on Twitter Following a mass shooting in Munich on Friday (22 July) German prosecutors say they are considering taking legal action against people who set out to spread false information on social media in times of crisis. During the attack by 16-year- old David Ali Sonboly, wildly conflicting reports about the number of gunmen involved provoked further chaos in the city. Comments online led to Munich’s police department sending out a public message urging citizens to “restrain on any speculations,” to help the police in their operation. According to The Times, prosecutors in the country are debating whether to take those who purposefully distributed false information online to court. Less than an hour into the tragedy, some Twitter users were wrongly identifying the then unknown perpetrator via an image of a man dressed in neo-Nazi gear holding a gun, while others were posting images from different attacks from across the world claiming to be on the scene. Both Facebook and Twitter have come under scrutiny for their rolling news coverage during attack and other similar incidents, with some saying the autoplay function on the social networks' video players can turn users into unwitting witnesses. However, both platforms have been praised for their ability to connect people during crises, thanks to features like Safety Check and hashtags designed to help bring people to safety.
2016-07-25 16:10 www.thedrum.com
67 Instagram is reportedly letting Taylor Swift test a tool that could see celebrities block abusive comments Instagram is reportedly allowing Taylor Swift and other high profile figures on Instagram test a tool that "blocks" negative comments. The unprecedented move has seemingly seen the Facebook-owned image sharing site quietly award Swift the power to remove only negative or abusive comments made in response to images she's shared. Swift found herself subject to an online backlash last week following a spat between herself and Kim Kardashian West over a leaked Snapchat video that the musician's team apparently tried to have blocked. The footage showed the 'Shake If Off Singer' approving a line mentioning her in rapper Kayne West's track 'Famous' – something Swift had previously denied. After taking to Twitter and Instagram to give her side of the story the Grammy Award winner received thousands of comments on Twitter and Instagram containing a snake emoji in reference to a tweet posted by Kardashian lamenting the fact that it was 'national snake day' . Now Instagram has let Swift deploy a new measure to censor the abuse. According to the Times the new feature means that rather than having to individuals delete hundreds or thousands of comments, as a regular user would have to, Swift – or whoever is controlling her account is able to remove them en masse immediately. The paper reports that the measure "or a variant of it" may eventually be introduced for other users with a high number of posts, which could potentially mean brands and advertisers could use it. Instagram has yet to confirm whether Swift, who has over 86 million followers, is using the tool, but a source told the Times it was being developed to help famous people with a "high volume of comments" deal with abuse. Users attempting to post any string of emojis underneath Swift's pictures have reported having their comments blocked, with any comment containing more than 26 'special characters' being vetoed . An Instagram spokesman said: “We’re always looking for better ways to help people prevent spammy or inappropriate comments on Instagram.”
2016-07-25 16:10 www.thedrum.com
68 HooplaHa-Only Good News signs on as content partner for Roker Media's Live Streaming Network Roker Media has set its sights on livestreaming and today announced a partnership with HooplaHa- Only Good News to feature HooplaHa’s Happy Hour programming as part of its Live Streaming Network (LSN). In June, Roker Media announced that, in conjunction with Brave Ventures, it would produce the first-ever “Live Fronts,” a Newfronts-like day devoted to monetizing livestreaming. HooplaHa programming on Roker Media’s LSN will kick off in August with “JoyStory,” a program that follows JoyRide cycling instructors Adam Keller and Jared Marinelli as they plan their wedding. Additional programming to follow will feature Virginia Mahoney (founder of Bkind), Francesco Clark (Clark’s Botanicals), (Barbara Reich) Life Organized, and the rescue dogs of Life in the Dog House. “We are always looking for unique and inspiring partners,” said Al Roker, Chairman, Roker Media. "HooplaHa provides access to compelling, uplifting, socially aware content that is also entertaining. We expect to drive a thoughtful and immediate conversation around how to make the world a kinder, more compassionate place by connecting viewers into the HooplaHa programming in real time through YouNow, Periscope, YouTube, and Facebook Live.”
2016-07-25 16:10 www.thedrum.com
69 Facebook and Twitter help smash Rio terror plot in ‘Operation Hashtag’ Facebook and Twitter have been actively providing intelligence on suspected terrorists to Brazilian authorities, a judge has revealed, following the arrest of 12 suspected Islamist militants last week. Operation Hashtag saw both social media firms pass on vital information in relation to the suspects’ online activities according to judge Marcos Josegrei da Silva. Speaking to the Globo Television Network he said: “The companies began to provide data related to the content of the conversations and data about where those conversations were posted.” Josegrei da Silva went on to add that "there is no anonymity for those sorts of activities on the Internet". Online privacy has become a highly charged issue in Brazil in recent weeks following a decision by Brazilian judges to temporarily block Facebook’s Whatsapp messaging service in a bid to force it to hand over information. Neither Facebook nor Twitter have commented publicly on the case but both maintain a ‘zero tolerance’ approach toward terrorism and other crimes, cooperating with government officials where it is deemed to be necessary. All the suspects are alleged to have expressed sympathetic views toward the Islamic State terror organisation and had reportedly discussed attacking the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro which are due to get underway in just two weeks’ time.
2016-07-25 16:10 www.thedrum.com
70 GroupM backs off from exclusive ad deal with YouTube in Australia GroupM is backing off from a deal it made with YouTube in Australia around its Google Preferred service, in which agencies can book the top five per cent of its premium content upfront. The media agency group made the deal with YouTube after it announced Google Preferred at its Brandcast event globally last year. According to The Australian, the two-year deal in Australia is now up and the business has decided not to renew on the same terms. It reports that GroupM has briefed rivals to come up with alternatives for the spend after it found the investment in YouTube to not live up to expectations. GroupM had shifted spend from TV for the deal, despite budgets for YouTube often coming from digital’s pocket. According to the report, spend could be shifted back into Australian TV channel budgets as channels Ten and Seven look to see their guaranteed spend increase, while spend on Channel Nine could decrease. This may come as a blow to YouTube, which had been using the move from TV budgets into the platform as a positive story for investors. Last year the business said it was expanding Preferred out to new markets due to the success it was seeing taking TV budgets.
2016-07-25 16:10 www.thedrum.com
71 How Omelet encouraged Hitman players to assassinate its ad stars Gary Busey and Garry Cole Hitman, a video game tasking players with creatively assassinating awful people and slipping away from the scene unseen, has heralded a new, and bizarre, level of marketing integration with the launch of downloadable content calling for the murder of notorious actor Gary Busey. The mad-as-it-sounds campaign from Omelet LA kicked off earlier this year, to promote the latest installation of the game, running a series of live- action video ads – that could literally be killed. The content brought to life hits fans of the series would be familiar with, giving them the option to choose how the notorious ‘Wolfshark’ kingpin would be dispatched with an interactive ad kill switch on YouTube. Next, Omelet, somehow managed to pit Garry Cole and Gary Busey against each other in a series of political style videos dubbed ‘Choose Your Hit’ - an odd addition to the Hitman lore that asked the public to vote on which Gary (Garry) would eventually become a target in the game - with a twist - each star appealed to voters, claiming they alone should be dispatched. On the less than conventional marketing drive, Jimmy Barker, a senior copywriter at Omelet said the entire Hitman community rallied behind the creative eventually putting Busey behind the crosshairs. The agency, along with Square Enix and IO Interactive, then had to develop a script around the premise, recording countless lines of funny dialogue with the stars to bring to life the mission – that all started as an online ad. The DLC launched last week and is available for seven days only. The writers perhaps get meta claiming Busey went rogue during an ad shoot in fictional Italian coastal town Sapienza – with the client keen to terminate the relationship… permanently. On working with the duo, Barker said: “Both Garys brought a ton of energy and enthusiasm to the project, and, most importantly, they really worked well together and were able to riff a lot, which was great. Finding the right talent to nail the dark humor of the series was critical, so having the skills and comedy craft of two amazing and wildly different acting veterans is a big reason why everything came together as well as it did.” Both actors had previously voiced characters in games before but neither had experienced the rigours of being inserted into a facial capture device while acting the scenes. "Initially, we were nervous that veterans of their caliber might be put off by the premise of competing to be assassinated, but we were dead wrong," continued Barker. "They both loved it and were fully on board, adding a ton of energy and ad-libs that really made this fun the whole way through.” Omelet from the get-go knew that “hardcore Hitman fans would respond to the idea of voting a celebrity target into the game,” which it argued would meld “perfectly with the episodic format”, raising awareness of the side contracts that can pop up from time to time. Barker concluded: “finding the right talent, crafting the mission, and getting everything right takes time. Luckily for us, our partners at Square Enix and IO Interactive are committed to offering their fans unique, unexpected experiences, and it took both of them putting their full weight behind the idea to make this whole crazy thing possible.” Check out the mission as played by YouTuber the RadBrad below.
2016-07-25 16:09 www.thedrum.com
72 Self-Driving Trucks: What Could Make Automation Safe for You Video Transcript for Self-Driving Trucks: What Could Make Automation Safe for You You can imagine being a road construction work there it's five where he sits in the morning. Leadership does almost over you're looking 41 home your fountain. You and for your coworkers standing in front of that for 88000. Pound vehicle traveling 65 plus miles an hour. That driver has dozed off despite being radar aboard the arrow toward the strobe lights everything. Piles from sixty miles plus an hour the 8000 pounds. Actually. Everybody had in the home that morning. That's what we do that try to save their lives. In our development of the TM make tracks over the years we've applied as much technology to the trucks this weekend converting them from being dumb stuff. Smarter they are the last my friends to save lives. The concept. Having an unmanned CMA is something we plane went for some time. The AT and a truck Stanford economist truck map and its anyway. Basically when folks are working on a work zone this is the truck that was designed. To protect their lives the way it's act is a vehicle hits it and in all problems then. Royal parks as we actually developed a system which we call our multi platform application can we have a vehicle control computer. And then we had actuators for the steering the breaking accelerator. And these are essentially motors and they receive input from the vehicle and here in tells it for example on how much to turn this hearing will. Whether it's turns zero laughter right. How much do you engage the break or gays accelerator. And then you have sensor inputs to come from let's say obstacle avoidance or the other GPS sensors and video that are used for automating the vehicle and giving it the autonomous capability. And that's where you're gonna see isn't it a shipping industry drive which we see here in the days of play and now the vehicle is serious now. The break and then and then gas panel are being controlled. Because this evening news and data from the leader of vehicle. And we're sensing like policy goal in the past minute that it is traveling and. And I later follow our operation. Villa and access some actually uses a velocity heading position data from the man's leader vehicle. And transmits that date and packets of information to the unmanned follower vehicle in what we call. And easy grounds and allow that follow are being called to mimic the exact speed heading and direction of the collar vehicle. Where we differ from do go are tasks lie is that. We actually can sol. Something like an autonomous and road crew vehicle that still has human oversight but can contribute in a huge way to reducing fatigue reducing incidents. Is going to be really important step to not only. Making it easier for the public to accept its hottest vehicles but also to help guide legislation on how we're gonna regulate these machines. I honestly seen. A bright future where a lot of unmanned ground vehicle applications for the commercial market as the infrastructure. He pays more. And more road construction is needed a lot of states are starting to recognize the value of these trucks. We're basically pioneering this industry we're making you said the latest cutting edge technology to make it work environments safer place every day. We we feel better and better about what we do. And that's the juice that keeps us going we build these trucks. This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate. 2016-07-25 16:09 ABC News abcnews.go.com
73 Guardian News and Media will allow advertisers to tap into trending topics in real- time with new programmatic offering Guardian News and Media (GNM) will now let advertisers target its most engaged users at scale by identifying popular content on the site, and then offering brands the ability to message them, via its new programmatic offering Pulse. Pulse identifies surging stories using the Guardian’s own real-time data analytics tools. It then overlays audience segments to enable advertisers to reach audiences in line with their brand. Advertisers can also contextually target across the Guardian’s verticals such as travel, finance and life and style for maximum impact. It will mean advertisers on Guardian News and Media will for the first time be able to activate campaigns in real-time on surging content, ensuring they reach engaged audiences with ‘social media speed’. Speaking with The Drum, Fabien Papini, head of programmatic sales, said that advertisers can bid on ad impressions using such technology via private marketplaces (PMPs), via way of the publication’s partnership with Rubicon Project. It’s an offering akin to Mashable’s Velocity, a proprietary technology platform which uses data to identify trends and predict what is going viral next across topics. The publisher uses this to inform decisions about what content should be made and what content is shareable. Mashable then allows brands and agencies including 360i and MEC to licence the tool in order to create targeted campaigns tapping into viral content. Guardian Pulse is available now through the GNM’s commercial teams. It is the latest in a string of announcements from the publisher this year following the launch of new native ad units in June and a review of its digital and direct business announced last month. Each of these are attempts by the publisher to bolster its digital ad offering in order to make up for losses in print advertising as the company hopes the break even at a operating level in three years. Additional reporting by Ronan Shields
2016-07-25 16:09 www.thedrum.com
74 Anti-Corbyn billionaire urges rebel MPs to split Labour & form new party — RT UK Businessman and Hull City football club owner Allam told reporters he had held conversations with several Labour representatives in the House of Commons when Corbyn first won the leadership race in September 2015. Speaking about his meeting with four high-profile politicians, Allam told the Times: “They said, ‘We agree with you, yes he will never win an election, yes he will never be a strong opposition leader — but we want to leave it for a year.’ Their view was, ‘We don’t want to rock the boat.’ I said, ‘You are not doing your party or democracy a favour.’ I have been proved right, unfortunately.” Allam now wants all of those disagreeing with Corbyn to sever ties with the Labour Party entirely and start a new political project. “Now is the time. We missed a year and look at the damage that has happened in that time. At prime minister’s questions they are taking the mickey out of [Corbyn],” he added. The billionaire, who has given more than £500,000 to the party, also refused to support Corbyn’s challenger Owen Smith in his campaign to “keep [the Labour] movement united.” It is believed that of the 184,000 people who have joined Labour as supporters in order to vote in the upcoming leadership election, the majority are Corbyn backers. Their £25 registration fee has put an astounding £4.6 million (US$6 million) into the party’s coffers. Allam’s comments follow a direct appeal by shadow chancellor and Corbyn right-hand man John McDonnell for Labour members to stop aggravating divisions in the party. Interviewed on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, McDonnell turned away from Marr and spoke directly into the camera. “There’s a small group out there that are willing to destroy our party just to remove Jeremy Corbyn. We’ve got to stop them. We’ve got to unite,” he said. However, Labour’s divisions were clear to see in the newspapers as a Labour peer was pitted against a shadow cabinet minister in the Guardian. Labour Lords leader Lady Angela Smith said she had moved from being a Corbyn supporter to backing former frontbencher Owen Smith due to Corbyn’s lack of efficiency. “I think Owen can make that persuasive argument to the public. It is not good having the right values and the right policies – if you can’t articulate and persuade other people,” she said. Lady Smith also claimed Corbyn never attends her meetings with members of different shadow ministries. “He has been leader of the party during that time but there is a role for a leader to praise the team who have done the hard work and heavy lifting on these issues rather than just to claim the credit.” Yet, on the same day, in a piece for the paper’s Sunday edition, the Observer, Shadow Justice Secretary Richard Burgon was quoted as saying that although people feel angry about all Labour’s internal bickering and disagreement, “in our party we settle it through democratic means – no coups, no intimidation, no abuse.” Speaking at Corbyn’s campaign launch in Salford, Burgon told the thousands in attendance: “I am not, and others are not, going to stand by and see every single one of you portrayed as the striking miners were, as thugs, brick-throwers, bullies and misogynists. “It is vitally important that we respect each other with our different views, as we do. But I tell you this, MPs need to respect party members as well. MPs shouldn’t be abused by members of the Labour Party or those who appear to be members of the Labour Party. But honest, decent Labour Party members – the people who made all of these other people MPs – should not be abused or badly treated by MPs.”
2016-07-25 15:57 www.rt.com
75 RT documentary meets victims & executioners of deadly US attacks in Pakistan — RT News Unmanned drones have become the weapons of choice for the governments in their fight against terrorism, but such attacks come at the cost of innocent civilian lives. There have been 400 drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004, killing around 1,000 innocent people, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. But even those lucky enough to survive the attacks are haunted by the deaths of friends and family, and live in fear of the next strike. RT's documentary crew traveled to Pakistan to speak to some of those individuals. “Fear prevails in all Waziristan. Drones have even killed small children, many schools were closed. Children are afraid to go to school,” Malik Jalal, a member of the Peace Committee of North Waziristan, told RT. Jalal says he has been personally targeted by at least four drone strikes since 2010. And although his life has so far been spared, family members and friends have perished. “A relative who lives in the mountains invited me for dinner - I told him by radio that I’d go at 4pm and would chat before dinner. When I was almost a kilometer away, his house was hit by drones,” Jalal said. Speaking of the atrocities committed in his country, the leader of the Movement for Justice party, Imran Khan, called the drone strikes a “total violation of human rights.” “Killing people by these drones, basically sitting on a screen and eliminating people, dehumanizing them, treating them like they're from some other planet...not giving them basic right of proving their innocence. It violates all norms of justice,” he told RT. But even so, Khan says the Pakistani government will do nothing to stop the strikes, so long as it keeps receiving money from the US. “All they see is dollars and if you pay them enough dollars, they are willing to allow Americans to bomb their own country, which is an ally of the US. Pakistan is a US ally on this War on Terror. It's never happened before that a country is bombed by its own ally,” he said. In an effort to understand the other side of the coin, RT's crew traveled to the US to speak to those responsible for the strikes. Sean Westmoreland is also dealing with the after-effects of drone attacks, but for a very different reason. Since serving as a drone communications technician in the Air Force, he has struggled to come to terms with the role he played in the strikes. Describing his “psychological issues” caused by his former job, Westmoreland said he was “broken.” “I wasn't getting the help I needed and I was kind of having a lot of issues back in October, I had slept at [a] bridge a couple of nights and I was seriously planning on jumping...and I decided that I shouldn't do that, I should get help...” he said. But others aren't so quick to regret their role in drone attacks. In fact, some are using their knowledge to further advance drone technology. The deputy director of unmanned aircraft systems at New Mexico State University's Flight Center, Dennis Zaklan, is optimistic about drone advancement, particularly if it keeps US pilots safe. “... When you think about it, the future is unmanned. An F16 can take probably a 15- or 20-degree turn, [but] the problem is the pilot passes out at nine or 10G. So if you take the pilot out, does that make it a better fighter aircraft? Well sure it does! ’Cos now it turns tighter, it goes faster, it does a lot of things better. These are excellent tools...” he said. Still, others in the US are less excited about the capabilities of drones. Speaking from a protest at Creech Drone base, Ann Wright from CodePink – an organization of women campaigning to end US wars and militarism – said the base is “the only place really in the world where you can see drones taking off and landing.” “We know that in this midst of thousands of cars that come in [to the base] every morning and leave, that there are drone pilots that may have just killed somebody, in Afghanistan or Pakistan, may have killed a wedding party or whatever,” she said. You can watch or download 'Game of Drones' on RT's documentary website , rtd.rt.com.
2016-07-25 15:57 www.rt.com
76 Jerika Bolen's painful decision to celebrate and then end her life Share Let friends in your social network know what you are reading about A link has been sent to your friend's email address. A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs Embed Share Jerika Bolen, 14, who was diagnosed with Type 2 Spinal Muscular Atrophy, has decided to go on hospice and live out her final wishes over the summer including having a prom July, 22, 2016, at the Grand Meridian in Appleton, Wis. Damiel Damiani, The (Appleton, Wis.) Post-Crescent Embed Share Jen Bolen begins preparations for her daughter Jerika's prom with the help of family and friends at the Grand Meridian Thursday, July 21, 2016 in Appleton, Wis. The prom runs from 7 p.m. to midnight Friday. Danny Damiani/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin Embed Share The Grand Meridian ballroom, which holds 1,000 people, was packed as well-wishers flooded in throughout the night to celebrate with Jerika Bolen, 14, diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy type 2, at her prom Friday, July 22, in Appleton, Wis. Embed Share Jerika Bolen, 14, who was diagnosed with Type 2 Spinal Muscular Atrophy, has decided to go on hospice and live out her final wishes over the summer including having a prom July, 22, 2016, at the Grand Meridian in Appleton, Wis. Embed Share Jerika Bolen, 14, who was diagnosed with Type 2 Spinal Muscular Atrophy, has decided to go on hospice and live out her final wishes over the summer including having a prom July, 22, 2016, at the Grand Meridian in Appleton, Wis. Embed Share Jerika Bolen, 14, who was diagnosed with Type 2 Spinal Muscular Atrophy, has decided to go on hospice and live out her final wishes over the summer including having a prom July, 22, 2016, at the Grand Meridian in Appleton, Wis.
2016-07-25 16:00 rssfeeds.usatoday.com
77 Fur flies over New Zealand cat ban New Zealanders hoping to move into a new housing estate north of the city of Wellington will have to agree to an unusual condition of purchase - no pet cats. Many cat owners have faced the grisly experience of their feline companion coming home with a gift of a dead bird or animal, and it's for this reason that a new housing development in Kapiti is to completely ban pet cats, Radio New Zealand reports. The homes in question are near to a nature reserve, and it's feared that the location will prove too much temptation for pet cats to hone the hunting skills that domestication has never quite managed to suppress. There's already a fence to keep dogs away from the reserve, but it's not capable of deterring felines, the radio says. Local councillor Guru Nathan told the Newshub website "If cats got into the sanctuary the result would be devastating" to insects, lizards and birds living there. The homes in question are selling for up to NZ$600,000 (US$420,000; £316,000), and estate agent Stuart Whyte says he's "lost a few sales" because of the no cats covenant. "Locals mainly support the idea but the odd person says it's ridiculous, asking how can you police it? " he says. Opposed to the idea is the Feline Rights NZ group, whose secretary Pete Rose tells Newshub that the ban along with the Department of Conservation's trapping of feral cats sets a "disturbing precedent", which might lead to "zealot extremist environmentalists given free rein to engage in trapping". That's an argument with which the council in Wellington is currently grappling. They're sifting through hundreds of responses to its proposed Animals Bylaw, which includes a number of rules to stop cats from killing native wildlife, The Dominion Post says. Among these is a "cat cap", which could limit the number of cats per household to three, or as low as zero in environmentally sensitive areas. This has lead to fears of a "wholesale genocide" of feral animals which made the fur fly among cat lovers, Stuff.co.nz reported in May. Despite the opposition from some quarters, if anybody feels tempted to sneak a cat into the development at Kapiti, estate agent Stuart Whyte says "You're likely to be dobbed in by an environmentally savvy neighbour. " Next story: Chinese woman's book choice brings celebrity status Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.
2016-07-25 15:38 By News www.bbc.co.uk
78 Moscow plans Pokemon Go-style app to 'catch' historic figures Moscovites and city guests will soon be able to "catch" Russia's historic personalities and take a selfie with them, the city authorities say. They say an existing app is being updated, and it will work similar to Pokemon Go - a mobile game that blends the real world with computer graphics. The "Discover Moscow. Photo" app will be available in late August. Users will be hunting for 3D virtual doubles of Peter the Great, Alexander Pushkin and even Napoleon among others. Each personality will be placed somewhere in Moscow and geomarked, the Moscow authorities said in a statement (in Russian). They say that "as soon as a user is within the 50-metre (164ft) radius to the required co-ordinate" he or she will be able to see and "fix" a virtual double on camera. The authorities hope the updated app will help increase public interest in Moscow's rich cultural heritage and give users another reason to walk more in the capital.
2016-07-25 15:38 www.bbc.co.uk
79 China shuts several online news sites for independent reporting China has shut down several online news operations amid a crackdown on political and social news reporting, local media report. News services run by some of China's biggest online portals, including Sina, Sohu, NetEase and iFeng, were shut for publishing independent reports instead of official statements, the media said. The sites had seriously violated reporting rules, officials said. China has tightened controls on online communications in recent years. Most Chinese news sites are prohibited from gathering or reporting on political or social issues themselves, and are instead meant to rely on reports published by official media, such as state news agency Xinhua. However, many news organisations had hired investigative journalists to produce their own reports, to cover major social issues and attract more readers and revenue. Now, several major online news columns, such as Sina's News Geek, Sohu's Click Today, and NetEase's Signpost, have all been closed, along with related social media accounts, newspapers Beijing Daily and the Beijing News reported. They had "published large amounts of independently-gathered news reports, in serious violation of the rules", and could also face fines, the newspapers added. News outlets in China operate under tight Communist Party control, with censorship and self-censorship common. Thousands of cyber-police also watch the web and social media, and material deemed politically and socially sensitive is filtered. In February, Chinese President Xi Jinping toured state media outlets, and said journalists must give absolute loyalty to the Communist Party.
2016-07-25 15:38 www.bbc.co.uk
80 Yahoo Reports First Quarter 2016 Results "I'm pleased that we delivered Q1 results in line with our expectations. Our 2016 plan is off to a solid start as we continue to focus on driving efficiency, lowering costs, and improving long-term growth," said , CEO of. "In tandem, we made substantial progress towards potential strategic alternatives for. Our board, our management team, and I are completely aligned on this top priority for shareholders. " Mavens revenue represented 33 percent of traffic-driven revenue in the first quarter of 2015, and increased to 38 percent in the first quarter of 2016. Mobile revenue represented 21 percent of traffic-driven revenue in the first quarter of 2015, and increased to 25 percent in the first quarter of 2016. Gross mobile revenue for the first quarter of 2015 and 2016 was and , respectively. "We delivered financial results at the high end or above our guidance ranges. We also achieved free cash flow of through improved working capital efficiencies, excellent cost controls, reduced capital expenditures and a large tax refund," said , CFO of. "While we remain focused on the strategic alternatives process as a top priority, our employees showed their determination and commitment to by executing on our operating plan. " will live stream a video broadcast of the Company's first quarter 2016 financial results at / today. The live stream will be broadcast from Yahoo's studio and will be available exclusively on Yahoo Finance at finance.yahoo.com. The Company will provide its business outlook for the second quarter and full year of 2016 during the presentation. Supplemental financial information can be accessed through the Company's Investor Relations website at investor.yahoo.net. The video will be archived after the event at investor.yahoo.net and will be available for 90 days following the broadcast. This press release and its attachments include the following financial measures defined as non-GAAP financial measures by the ("SEC"): gross mobile revenue; gross search revenue; revenue ex-TAC; adjusted EBITDA; non-GAAP income from operations; non-GAAP net earnings; non-GAAP net earnings per share - diluted; and free cash flow. Gross mobile revenue is GAAP mobile revenue plus the related revenue share with third parties. Gross search revenue is GAAP search revenue plus the related revenue share with third parties. Revenue ex-TAC is GAAP revenue less cost of revenue - TAC. Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP income from operations, non-GAAP net earnings and non-GAAP net earnings per share - diluted, exclude from the most comparable GAAP financial measures certain gains, losses, and expenses that we do not believe are indicative of ongoing results, and exclude stock-based compensation expense. Adjusted EBITDA also excludes taxes, depreciation, amortization of intangible assets, other expense, net (which includes interest), earnings in equity interests, and net income attributable to noncontrolling interests. Free cash flow is GAAP net cash provided by operating activities (adjusted to include excess tax benefits from stock-based awards), less acquisition of property and equipment, net (i.e., acquisition of property and equipment less proceeds received from disposition of property and equipment) and dividends received from equity investees. These measures may be different than non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies. The presentation of this financial information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"). Explanations of the Company's non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations of these financial measures to the GAAP financial measures the Company considers most comparable are included in the accompanying "Note to Supplemental Financial Data and GAAP to Non-GAAP Reconciliations," "Supplemental Financial Data and GAAP to Non-GAAP Reconciliations," and "GAAP to Non-GAAP Reconciliations. " is a guide to digital information discovery, focused on informing, connecting, and entertaining users through its search, communications, and digital content products. By creating highly personalized experiences, helps users discover the information that matters most to them around the world -- on mobile or desktop. creates value for advertisers with a streamlined, simple advertising technology stack that leverages Yahoo's data, content, and technology to connect advertisers with their target audiences. is headquartered in , and has offices located throughout the , (APAC) and the , and (EMEA) regions. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.net) or the Company's blog (yahoo.tumblr.com). "Ads Sold" consist of display ad impressions for paying advertisers on and Affiliate sites. "Affiliates" refers to the third-party entities that have integrated Yahoo's advertising offerings into their websites or other offerings (those websites and other offerings, "Affiliate sites"). "Alibaba Group" means Alibaba Group Holding Limited. In , Alibaba Group completed its initial public offering of American Depositary Shares ("ADS"), in which was a selling shareholder. "Desktop computer" means a desktop or laptop computer, and "desktop revenue" is revenue generated from search and display ads served on desktop computers and also includes leads, listings and fees revenue and ecommerce revenue allocated to user activity on desktop computers. "Gross mobile revenue," a non-GAAP measure, is GAAP mobile revenue plus the related revenue share with third parties. "Gross search revenue," a non-GAAP measure, is GAAP search revenue plus the related revenue share with third parties. "Mavens revenue" is revenue generated from, without duplication: (i) mobile (as defined below), (ii) video ads and video ad packages, (iii) native ads, and (iv) and Polyvore ads and fees. "Mobile revenue" is revenue generated in connection with user activity on mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, regardless of whether the device is accessing a mobile-optimized service. Mobile revenue is generated primarily from search and display ads. Mobile revenue also includes leads, listings and fees revenue and ecommerce revenue allocated to user activity on mobile devices. "Native revenue" is revenue generated from native ads (search and display) on as well as third-party partner publisher sites and mobile apps. Native ads are visually rich, are positioned as a seamless part of the users' experience, and come in a variety of formats, like text, image, and video. offers native ads through Yahoo Gemini and the BrightRoll Demand-Side Platform (DSP). "Net earnings" means net income (loss) attributable to , and "net earnings per diluted share" means net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders per share - diluted. "Non-Mavens revenue" is revenue generated from search ads and traditional (i.e., non-native, non-video, non- , non-Polyvore) display ads served on desktop computers and also includes leads, listings and fees revenue and ecommerce revenue allocated to user activity on desktop computers. "Non-traffic-driven revenue" is revenue not arising from user activity on or Affiliate sites, and includes royalty revenue, license fee revenue, amortization under the technology and intellectual property license agreement with Alibaba Group through the third quarter of 2015, and all other revenue that is not traffic-driven. "Paid Clicks" are clicks by end-users on sponsored search listings (excluding native ads) on and Affiliate sites. "Price-per-Ad" is defined as display revenue divided by our total number of Ads Sold. "Price-per-Click" is defined as Search click-driven revenue divided by our total number of Paid Clicks. "Search Agreement" refers to the Search and Advertising Services and Sales Agreement between and Microsoft Corporation, as amended. "Search click-driven revenue" is gross search revenue excluding the Microsoft RPS guarantee and search revenue from Yahoo Japan. "TAC" refers to traffic acquisition costs. TAC consists of payments to Affiliates and payments made to companies that direct consumer and business traffic to. "Yahoo," "Company," and "we" refer to and its consolidated subsidiaries. "Yahoo Properties" refers to the online properties and services that provides to users. We periodically review, refine and update our methodologies for monitoring, gathering, and counting number of Ads Sold and Paid Clicks, and for calculating Search click-driven revenue, Price-per-Ad, and Price- per-Click. Additional information about how "Ads Sold," "Paid Clicks," "Price-per-Ad," "Price-per-Click," and "Search click-driven revenue" are defined and calculated is included under the caption "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended , which is on file with the and available on the website at www.sec.gov. This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning expected financial performance and strategic and operational plans (including, without limitation, the quotations from management). Risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from the results predicted, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, risks related to Yahoo's ability to continue to attract and maintain mobile users and grow its mobile revenue; risks related to Yahoo's ability to continue to grow the Mavens revenue; risks related to Yahoo's ability to grow users, user engagement and pageviews; risks related to growing advertiser engagement; risk of potential reduction in spending by, or loss of, advertising customers; risks associated with the Search Agreement with Microsoft Corporation and the Services Agreement with ; risks related to Yahoo's ability to provide innovative search experiences and other products and services that differentiate its services and generate significant traffic; risks associated with Yahoo's ability to manage its operating expenses effectively and improve profitability; risks related to acceptance by users of new products and services; risks related to Yahoo's ability to compete with new or existing competitors; dependence on third parties for technology, services, content, and distribution; risks related to acquiring or developing compelling content; security breaches; interruptions or delays in the provision of Yahoo's services; adverse results in litigation; risks related to Yahoo's ability to recruit and retain key personnel; risks related to possible impairment of goodwill or other assets; risks related to Yahoo's ability to protect its intellectual property and the value of its brands; risks related to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; risks related to joint ventures and the integration of acquisitions; risks related to Yahoo's regulatory environment; risks related to international operations; risks related to the calculation of our key operational metrics; and general economic conditions. With respect to Yahoo's exploration of strategic alternatives, there is no assurance any transaction will be consummated, and the process of exploring strategic alternatives will involve the dedication of significant resources and the incurrence of significant costs and expenses. All information set forth in this press release and its attachments is as of. does not intend, and undertakes no duty, to update this information to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. More information about potential factors that could affect the Company's business and financial results is included under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended , which is on file with the and available on the website at www.sec.gov. Additional information will also be set forth in those sections in Yahoo's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended , which will be filed with the in the second quarter of 2016. !, the family of marks, Flurry and Flurry Analytics, and the associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of is a registered trademark of Other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Note to Supplemental Financial Data and GAAP to Non-GAAP Reconciliations This press release and its attachments include the non-GAAP financial measures of revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs ("revenue ex-TAC"); gross mobile revenue; gross search revenue; adjusted EBITDA; non-GAAP income from operations; non-GAAP net earnings; non-GAAP net earnings per diluted share; and free cash flow, which are reconciled to revenue (in the case of revenue ex-TAC, gross mobile revenue, and gross search revenue); net income (loss) attributable to (in the case of adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP net earnings); income (loss) from operations; net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders per share - diluted; and net cash provided by (used in) operating activities, which we believe are the most comparable GAAP measures. (together with its consolidated subsidiaries, "Yahoo," the "Company," or "we") uses these non-GAAP financial measures for internal managerial purposes and to facilitate period-to- period comparisons. We describe limitations specific to each non-GAAP financial measure below. Management generally compensates for limitations in the use of non-GAAP financial measures by relying on comparable GAAP financial measures and providing investors with a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure or measures. Further, management uses non-GAAP financial measures only in addition to and in conjunction with results presented in accordance with GAAP. We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures reflect additional ways of viewing aspects of our operations that, when viewed with our GAAP results, provide a more complete understanding of factors and trends affecting our business. These non-GAAP measures should be considered as a supplement to, and not as a substitute for, or superior to, revenue, net income (loss) attributable to , income (loss) from operations, net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders per share - diluted, and net cash provided by (used in) operating activities calculated in accordance with GAAP. Revenue ex-TAC is a non-GAAP financial measure defined as GAAP revenue less TAC that has been recorded as a cost of revenue. TAC consists of payments made to Affiliates, and payments made to companies that direct consumer and business traffic to. TAC is recorded either as a reduction of revenue or as cost of revenue. We present revenue ex-TAC to provide investors a metric used by the Company for evaluation and decision-making purposes and to provide investors with comparable revenue numbers when comparing to our historical reported financial information. A limitation of revenue ex-TAC is that it is a measure we defined for internal and investor purposes that may be unique to the Company, and therefore it may not enhance the comparability of our results to those of other companies in our industry who have similar business arrangements but address the impact of TAC differently. Management compensates for these limitations by also relying on the comparable GAAP financial measures of revenue and cost of revenue—TAC. Each of gross mobile revenue and gross search revenue is a non-GAAP financial measure. Gross mobile revenue is defined as GAAP mobile revenue plus the related revenue share with third parties. Gross search revenue is defined as GAAP search revenue plus the related revenue share with third parties. We present these amounts to provide investors with additional metrics used by the Company for evaluation and decision- making purposes and as an indicator of the size of our presence in the relevant business. To this end, gross mobile revenue and gross search revenue report the total receipts generated on and Affiliate sites by the specified relevant business (i.e., mobile or search), before any TAC or other revenue share is paid to the Affiliates and before any revenue share is allocated to Microsoft or other parties. A limitation of these non-GAAP measures is that they include revenue that is recognized by one or more third parties and not by Yahoo; furthermore, they are measures we defined for internal and investor purposes that may be unique to us, and therefore may not enhance the comparability of our results to those of other companies in our industry who have similar business arrangements but address the impact of TAC and revenue sharing differently. Management compensates for these limitations by also relying on the comparable financial measure GAAP revenue. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income (loss) attributable to before taxes, depreciation, amortization of intangible assets, stock-based compensation expense, other expense, net (which includes interest), earnings in equity interests, net income attributable to noncontrolling interests and other gains, losses, and expenses that we do not believe are indicative of our ongoing results. We present adjusted EBITDA because the exclusion of certain gains, losses, and expenses facilitates comparisons of the operating performance of the Company on a period to period basis. Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for results reported under GAAP. These limitations include: adjusted EBITDA does not reflect tax payments and such payments reflect a reduction in cash available to us; adjusted EBITDA does not reflect the periodic costs of certain capitalized tangible and intangible assets used in generating revenues in our businesses; adjusted EBITDA does not include stock-based compensation expense related to the Company's workforce; adjusted EBITDA also excludes other expense, net (which includes interest), earnings in equity interests, net income attributable to noncontrolling interests and other gains, losses, and expenses that we do not believe are indicative of our ongoing results, and these items may represent a reduction or increase in cash available to us; and adjusted EBITDA is a measure that may be unique to the Company, and therefore it may not enhance the comparability of our results to other companies in our industry. Management compensates for these limitations by also relying on the comparable GAAP financial measure of net income (loss) attributable to , which includes taxes, depreciation, amortization, stock-based compensation expense, other expense, net (which includes interest), earnings in equity interests, net income attributable to noncontrolling interests and the other gains, losses and expenses that are excluded from adjusted EBITDA. Non-GAAP income from operations is defined as income (loss) from operations excluding certain gains, losses, and expenses that we do not believe are indicative of our ongoing operating results and further adjusted to exclude stock-based compensation expense. Because of the variety of equity awards used by companies, the varying methodologies for determining stock-based compensation expense, and the subjective assumptions involved in those determinations, we believe excluding stock- based compensation expense enhances the ability of management and investors to understand the impact of stock-based compensation expense on income (loss) from operations. We consider non-GAAP income from operations to be a profitability measure which facilitates the forecasting of our operating results for future periods and allows for the comparison of our results to historical periods. A limitation of non-GAAP income from operations is that it does not include all items that impact our income from operations for the period. Management compensates for this limitation by also relying on the comparable GAAP financial measure of income (loss) from operations which includes the gains, losses, and expenses that are excluded from non-GAAP income from operations. Non-GAAP net earnings is defined as net income (loss) attributable to (which we sometimes refer to as net earnings) excluding certain gains, losses, expenses, and their related tax effects that we do not believe are indicative of our ongoing results and further adjusted to exclude stock- based compensation expense and its related tax effects. Because of the variety of equity awards used by companies, the varying methodologies for determining stock-based compensation expense, and the subjective assumptions involved in those determinations, we believe excluding stock- based compensation expense enhances the ability of management and investors to understand the impact of stock-based compensation expense on net income and net income per share. We consider non-GAAP net earnings and non-GAAP net earnings per diluted share to be profitability measures which facilitate the forecasting of our results for future periods and allow for the comparison of our results to historical periods. A limitation of non-GAAP net earnings and non-GAAP net earnings per diluted share is that they do not include all items that impact our net income and net income per diluted share for the period. Management compensates for this limitation by also relying on the comparable GAAP financial measures of net income (loss) attributable to and net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders per share - diluted, both of which include the gains, losses, expenses and related tax effects that are excluded from non-GAAP net earnings and non-GAAP net earnings per diluted share. Free cash flow is a non-GAAP financial measure defined as net cash provided by (used in) operating activities (adjusted to include excess tax benefits from stock-based awards), less acquisition of property and equipment, net (i.e., acquisition of property and equipment less proceeds received from disposition of property and equipment) and dividends received from equity investees. We consider free cash flow to be a liquidity measure which provides useful information to management and investors about the amount of cash generated by business operations, after deducting our net payments for acquisitions and dispositions of property and equipment, which cash can then be used for strategic opportunities or other business purposes including, among others, investing in the Company's business, making strategic acquisitions, strengthening the balance sheet, and repurchasing stock. A limitation of free cash flow is that it does not represent the total increase or decrease in the cash balance for the period. Management compensates for this limitation by also relying on the net change in cash and cash equivalents as presented in the Company's unaudited condensed consolidated statements of cash flows prepared in accordance with GAAP which incorporates all cash movements during the period.
2016-07-25 15:58 investor.yahoo.net
81 Turkey coup attempt: 'Arrest warrants issued' for journalists Turkey's authorities have issued detention warrants for 42 journalists, local media say, as part of an inquiry into the failed coup on 15 July. Prominent commentator Nazli Ilicak is said to be on the list. Ankara has not publicly commented on the claim. The authorities have already detained or placed under investigation thousands of soldiers, judges and civil servants. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to purge state bodies of the "virus" he says caused the revolt. It is unclear whether any of the journalists on the list have already been detained. The closure of several media outlets was ordered in the days following the attempted coup, but this is the first time that individual journalists have been identified, the BBC's Nick Thorpe in Istanbul reports. The most prominent of the 42 is 72-year-old Nazli Ilicak. She was fired from the pro-government Sabah daily three years ago for criticising government ministers who are under investigation for alleged corruption. The Turkish government accuses cleric Fethullah Gulen of being behind the attempted coup which was led by the army. Mr Gulen, who lives in the US, has strongly denied any involvement. In a separate development on Monday, EU Commission President Jean- Claude Juncker warned that negotiations for Turkey's eventual membership of the EU would be suspended immediately if Ankara went ahead with a proposal to reintroduce the death penalty. On Sunday, tens of thousands of people took part in a pro-democracy rally in Istanbul, condemning the coup attempt. The demonstration was organised by the opposition party CHP but was backed by President Erdogan's AK party, in a rare show of unity. Mr Erdogan launched a widespread crackdown following the failed coup, arresting thousands of service personnel and sacking or suspending thousands of judges, government officials, school teachers and university heads. Human Rights group Amnesty International says it has received credible evidence of detainees being subjected to beatings and torture, including rape, since the coup attempt. Last week, Turkey declared a three-month state of emergency, allowing the president and the government to bypass parliament when drafting new laws and to restrict or suspend rights and freedoms.
2016-07-25 15:38 www.bbc.co.uk
82 Bangladesh factory boy's killing: Police arrest official An official working at a spinning mill in Bangladesh where a boy was allegedly killed on Sunday has been arrested, police say. The 10-year-old boy died in hospital after workers inserted a high-pressure nozzle into his rectum and activated it, local media report. Police are questioning workers and factory staff after Sagar Barman's parents filed a police complaint, an officer in Narayanganj told BBC Bangla. It remains unclear why he was attacked. Last year, a 13-year-old boy was killed in the same way in a vehicle workshop in another part of the country. Two men were sentenced to death over the case, which sparked large protests. Bangladesh boy killings: Six sentenced to death Rakib Hawlader died in August last year after air was pumped into his body in retaliation for leaving his job. His death followed the killing of another teenager, Samiul Alam Rajon, who was beaten to death by a mob after allegedly stealing a bicycle. Four men were sentenced to death over that killing. Child labour is common in Bangladesh, with many children working in garment factories, often in harsh conditions.
2016-07-25 15:38 www.bbc.co.uk
83 Star Trek knocks Pets from US box office top spot Star Trek Beyond has topped the US box office chart after taking $59.9m (£45.6m) on its opening weekend. Last week's number one - The Secret Life of Pets - dropped to number two with takings of $29.3m (£22.3m). Ghostbusters and Lights Out both took $21.6m (£16.4m) - making the two films tied in third place. Ice Age: Collision Course debuted at number five with $21m (£15.9m), considerably lower than the previous films in the children's series. All four of the animated movie's predecessors debuted with at least $40m (£30.4m) on their opening weekends. Star Trek Beyond, which stars Chris Pine and Idris Elba, is the third film in the rebooted franchise. But despite its strong performance in the US over the weekend, it took $15m (£11.4m) less than 2009's Star Trek - the first film in the current series. The film stars Anton Yelchin - who died earlier this year after a car accident in Los Angeles. Hikaru Sulu, the character played by John Cho, is revealed to have a same sex partner in the film - a nod to George Takei, the gay actor who played the character in the original 1960s television series. Other new entries in this week's US top 10 included Indian gangster film Kabali, which took $4.1m (£3.1m) to land at number eight. Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party, a documentary about presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, debuted at number nine after taking $3.7m (£2.8m). Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts , on Instagram , or email [email protected] .
2016-07-25 15:39 www.bbc.co.uk
84 Got beef? How one man faced down a 'noodle cartel' In Shanghai, where you are never far from a good lunch, one man has faced anger and even death threats, by breaking a "treaty" and opening a noodle shop too close to an existing one, as Yvette Tan reports. Xian Guolin used up all his savings and mortgaged his house to open Alilan Beef Noodles on the busy Nanjing Road. It sells the popular "lamian" hand-pulled noodles, served in a hot broth with a shaved beef topping. But within hours of opening the shop, he was facing protests from other noodle- makers demanding he shut down. "The first few days there were almost no customers to be seen," he said on his Weibo page . Like most lamian makers, Mr Xian is a Hui Muslim originally from Gansu, in northwest China. The protesters said Mr Xian had violated the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia treaty, a decades-old agreement between Hui people which prohibits anyone from opening a beef noodle restaurant within 400m of an existing one. The document says this is to promote a "harmonious and stable" noodle market, and that those who do not abide by it will have to face the consequences and accept any financial losses. Ma Jinglong, a protest organiser and Hui Muslim who owns two nearby beef restaurants, told news outlet The Sixth Tone that the treaty "doesn't have any legal standing" but that most Muslim restaurateurs observe it anyway. "I have a big family to support. If one restaurant ignores the treaty, the rules will be broken, and more restaurants will follow suit," he said. When Xian refused to close, the store was surrounded by around 100 people, threatening staff members and stopping customers from coming in. The same group continued to stand in front of the restaurant for weeks, despite police intervention, he says, costing him 4,500 yuan ($670; £510) in lost business every day. "Some held the door and stopped customers from coming in, while others hurled abuse at me and the waiters," said Mr Xian. "They threatened that my relatives would be killed unless I closed the restaurant. " He was offered 300,000 yuan to close the shop, in which he had originally invested 1.5m yuan, but refused. Mr Xian used micro-blogging site Weibo to document the siege, where the hashtag "#BeefNoodleGate" became a trending topic and attracted support high-profile users. It has now had more than 400 million comments, and sparked discussions among netizens if the implementation of the treaty was legal. "This is happening less than one kilometer away from the city government. What can I say? " asked one user. Reflecting the ethnic dimension of the row, one Weibo user asked: "Is this Shanghai or is this Islam territory? " However, some users were positive, with one netizen pointing out that the store had earned itself some free publicity. Shanghai residents soon caught on, with many visiting the store to show their support. Mr Xian posted on Weibo that people had come from as far as Hangzhou and Nanjing - a few hours away by train - to support him, while others posted photos of themselves and the food at the restaurant, calling for others to join them. After 20 days, authorities moved to resolve the situation, culminating in Mr Xian removing the word "beef" from the restaurant name, and agreeing to drop the halal logo, meaning it was technically not in competition with the other Muslim-run outlets. He posted on Weibo afterwards that business was "back to normal", adding that some customers jokingly asked if the beef would be gone from their bowls since it was no longer on the signs. He thanked netizens and "countless kind folks" for supporting the restaurant. However, some pointed out that the actions of the store-owners threatening Mr Xian had gone unpunished, adding that the "noodle gang" had won.
2016-07-25 15:39 www.bbc.co.uk
85 Bollywood's Salman Khan freed in poaching case A court in India has acquitted Bollywood star Salman Khan of shooting and killing endangered animals two decades ago. Khan was accused with seven others of killing a gazelle and two protected antelopes in Rajasthan in 1998. Khan, 50, is one of Bollywood's biggest stars, appearing in more than 80 films. Last month Khan created an uproar when he told reporters that work on his latest Bollywood film was so gruelling that he felt like a "raped woman". The actor had challenged a verdict by a lower court that convicted and sentenced him to one and five years in jail respectively for the two cases of poaching. High Court Judge Nirmaljit Kaur cleared Khan in both cases, ruling that the pellets recovered from the animals were not fired from his gun. "The honourable high court has not agreed to the prosecution evidence or its documents in both the cases. Definitely, it's a good thing that an innocent man has received justice," the actor's lawyer Hastimal Saraswat told NDTV news channel. The actor was not present for the ruling. He was charged with killing two black bucks, a protected antelope species, during a hunting trip in 1998. The original case was filed by the local Bishnoi community, who revere and worship the black bucks. Last year Khan was acquitted after being charged with running over and killing a homeless man in a driving accident. The government has challenged his acquittal in the Supreme Court.
2016-07-25 15:39 www.bbc.co.uk
86 Koffi Olomide case: Zambia gig cancelled after 'assault' Organisers in Zambia have cancelled a planned concert by one of Africa's biggest musicians, Koffi Olomide, in a row over an alleged assault in Kenya. Kenyan authorities deported the Congolese rumba star on Saturday after video footage of him appearing to kick one of his female dancers went viral. The Agriculture and Commercial society of Zambia said the "disappointing" incident was behind its decision. Olomide has denied assault, though he has since apologised for his behaviour. In a post on his official Facebook page on Sunday, the singer apologised to his fans, especially "women and children", asking for forgiveness. "I profoundly regret what happened... it was a moment of madness," Olomide told Congolese national broadcaster RTNC, in an interview attached to the same Facebook post. The star apologised directly to the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo who may have felt "dishonoured by this behaviour". The footage of Friday's incident at Nairobi's international airport sparked outrage on social media. Kenyan authorities deported Olomide, 60, and three of his dancers on Saturday to DR Congo's capital Kinshasa, following a public outcry over the incident. Speaking to BBC Afrique on Friday, he denied kicking anyone and said he had tried to "stop" a "girl who wanted to fight the dancers I came with". The video shown on Kenya's KTN News shows police intervening to stop the apparent attack on the woman. Kenyan Youth and Gender Minister Sicily Kariuki had called for the singer's deportation. "His conduct was an insult to Kenyans and our constitution," she said. "Violence against women and girls cannot be accepted in any shape, form or manner. " The star has been in similar trouble in the past:
2016-07-25 15:39 www.bbc.co.uk
87 87 New Zealand aims to become predator-free by 2050 New Zealand has set a goal of eradicating all non-native predators within 35 years in order to protect the country's indigenous wildlife. The clock is ticking for stoats, rats and possums, as Prime Minister John Key wants "every single part" of New Zealand to be free of the creatures by 2050, the New Zealand Herald reports. Mr Key says the animals kill 25 million native birds each year, and getting rid of them will be "the most ambitious conservation project attempted anywhere in the world". Feral cats are also in the government's sights, but pets - including Mr Key's own moggy, Moonbeam - aren't at risk. Last week, a new housing development in Wellington hit the headlines for its pet cat ban , aimed at protecting wildlife at a nearby nature reserve. The government is set to invest 28m New Zealand dollars (US$19.5m; £15m) in a new company, Predator Free New Zealand Ltd, and wants the private sector to provide financial support. The opposition Green Party has pointed out that one university study found achieving such an aim would cost closer to NZ$9bn (US$6.3bn; £4.8bn). While poison will play a part in some areas, ministers are also banking on technological advances, Radio New Zealand reports. Conservation Minister Maggie Barry says the project will need technology that doesn't yet exist in order to meet its aims, as predator-proof fences won't be suitable for a national solution. It's not just furry predators that are worrying the authorities. A two-year ban on pea farming is being imposed across the North Island's Wairarapa region, after invasive pea weevils were discovered in seeds. Officials say the ban will cut off the food source for weevil larvae, which feed on growing pea pods, in order to get rid of the insects before they can become established in New Zealand. Next story: North Korea's leader loses access to Swiss watches Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter .
2016-07-25 15:40 By News www.bbc.co.uk
88 Could trade deal with China help Britain avoid post-Brexit abyss? — RT UK Hammond suggested leaving the EU would make it “easier” for Britain to pursue deals with countries outside Europe. “The mood music that I have heard here is very much that this will mean more opportunity for countries like China that are outside the European Union to do business with Britain,” Hammond told the BBC after a meeting of the G20 finance ministers. “As Britain leaves the European Union and is not bound by the rules of the European Union, perhaps it will be easier to do deals with Britain in the future.” The chancellor, who campaigned to remain in the EU, indicated he had introduced the issue during the ministerial meeting in the Chinese city of Chengdu. The move is likely to please Brexit supporters, who had seized on the possibility of potential trade deal China, as one of the key arguments during the campaign. Hammond acknowledged “global disappointment” with the Brexit decision, but said what Britain now needs “to do is get on with it in a way that minimizes the economic impact on the UK economy in the short term and maximizes the benefit in the long term.” Earlier this month, Chinese media reported China’s Ministry of Commerce is open to a UK free trade deal. Beijing is one of the UK’s biggest inward investors. Hammond brushed aside concerns that EU member states are in “punishment mode” with Britain and insisted the EU leaders are beginning to understand why Prime Minister Theresa May is waiting to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which would kick off the process of withdrawal from the economic bloc. “If our EU partners respond to such a vision positively, obviously it will be subject to negotiation, but positively, so that there is a sense later this year that we’re all on the same page where we expect to be going, I think that will send a reassuring signal to the business community and to markets,” Hammond told reporters.
2016-07-25 15:57 www.rt.com
89 Fitch confirms Russia's low investment grade rating with negative outlook — RT Business The move came after a review of the sovereign rating criteria last Monday, according to the agency. The issuer default ratings (IDR) indicate an entity's relative vulnerability to default on financial obligations. These include rated entities in different sectors, sovereigns and insurance companies as well as financial and non- financial corporations. READ MORE: VTB blames Fitch inefficiency for ratings cut The same rating had been previously assigned to Turkey, Indonesia, India, Uruguay and South Africa. The agency has also confirmed the country’s long-term senior unsecured local currency bonds at 'BBB-'. The short-term foreign currency IDR has been left at 'F3', with the actual capacity for timely payment of financial commitments valued as adequate. Russia has been assigned a new short-term local currency IDR of 'F3'. Earlier this year, Standard and Poor’s affirmed Russia’s 'BB+' foreign currency and 'BBB-' local currency ratings with a negative outlook. Moody's Investors Service confirmed the country's Ba1 government bond and issuer ratings, assigning a negative rating outlook as well.
2016-07-25 15:57 www.rt.com
90 Police and sheriff's officers surprise campers in Clover York County wants to cut down the giant tree that serves as the city and county's Christmas Tree next to the York County Courthouse, saying it is unsafe and the county has spent almost $10 million on building renovations. Volunteers with the Salkehatchie camp gathered at several Rock Hill homes to repair and fix up homes for people in need this week. Nearly four dozen workers ages 14 and up painted, repaired windows and roofs and held daily devotions at the United Methodist Church camp. Mark Burns of Harvest Praise and Worship Center in Easley delivered the benediction during the Republican National Convention. SC Gov. Nikki Haley in Cleveland visited the SC delegation at the Republican National Convention. Officers from the Rock Hill Police Department and the York County Sheriff's Office met with hundreds of area residents at the "Unity in the Community" event in downtown Rock Hill on Tuesday. York County Councilman Bump Roddey coordinated the meet-and-greet event, which included leaders from an interracial coalition of community and faith leaders. The gathering gave officers and residents the chance to push for togetherness in the wake of recent police shootings in other parts of America. Judge Lewis Daniel Malphrus Jr. ruled probable cause exists to send former Northwestern High School assistant principal Kenneth Andrew Williams to trial for disseminating obscene material to a minor. Williams' defense attorney Twana Burris-Alcide told the judge during a preliminary hearing Tuesday there is not enough evidence for a trial on four of 11 charges brought against the Rock Hill man. Williams, 31, is accused of having sexual relationships with two teenage girls while he was assistant principal. The casket carrying Chuck Mozingo, a Rock Hill firefighter who died last week at age 45, was transported from Bass-Cauthen Funeral Home in Rock Hill to Harmony Baptist Church in Edgemoor, where Mozingo was laid to rest Tuesday with full fire department honors. Rock Hill police and York County sheriff's deputies lined and secured the route while firefighters from multiple agencies saluted and paid their respects to Mozingo along the way. Chuck Mozingo, a 10-year veteran of the Rock Hill Fire Department, died last week after a battle with leukemia. His fellow A-shift firefighters remember the man they called "the gentle giant. " A traveler from the Tega Cay area is the first confirmed case of Zika virus in York County. Authorities discussed the situation Monday during a press conference. Here are excerpts. Organizer Quisha Bankhead, whose grandfather was a homicide victim, coordinated the York March along with other volunteers to focus on stopping violent crime, unifying people, and love for one another.
2016-07-25 15:42 www.heraldonline.com
91 Man found shot dead Just One More Thing... We have sent you a verification email. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your profile. If you do not receive the verification message within a few minutes of signing up, please check your Spam or Junk folder. Close
2016-07-25 15:55 Lauren Foreman www.ajc.com
92 The Broadcast airs fury of soulful vocals, rhythms in Rhythm & Brews, LEAF Downtown Caitlin Krisko gets into the song, with Aaron Austin on lead guitar. Photo by Pete Zamplas. By Pete Zamplas- The Broadcast is surging as the cream of Asheville’s fervent rock music scene and featured act in area festivals, delivering a double whammy to close July at Rhythm & Brews this Thursday then igniting LEAF Downtown on Saturday, July 30. The singer, Caitlin Krisko, channels spectacular range and emotion of balladeer Adele along with gusto of rhythm and blues rockers Susan Tedeschi, Janis Joplin, Heart’s Ann Wilson, and both Graces — Slick of Jefferson Airplane/Starship and Potter. The band made a quantum leap with its newest and second CD (From the Horizon), by landing multi- Grammy winning Jim Scott as producer and sound mixer. Scott knows all about vibrant, soulful female vocals and guitar fueling a hard-driving rock/R&B style. He produced the Tedeschi Trucks Band and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, as well as Tom Petty and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The Broadcast recorded with Scott in November in Santa Clarita, Calif. Their prior CDs are Days Like Dreams in 2010, a live CD in ’12, then Dodge the Arrow in 2013. The Broadcast is (L-R): Lead guitarist Aaron Austin, vocalist Caitlin Krisko, drummer Jaze Uries, bassist E’Lon Jordan-Dunlap, and percussionist Tyler Housholder. Photo by Pete Zamplas. “I love the blues, and ladies rocking their lives like interstellar goddess superstars,” Krisko recently quipped on Facebook. “Susan Tedeschi is so amazing, and inspiring,” she told The Tribune in an interview Saturday that clues one about her own reach. “I love the lasting power she has created for herself. I love how relaxed she is on stage with such a powerful voice, behind that relaxation. She’s such a goddess. Aaron (Austin) said people love an artist because of who they are, and the vibe they put out.” Krisko formed The Broadcast 10 years ago in 2006, when she was 21. The lead guitarist is Aaron Austin. Now, E’Lon Jordan-Dunlap plays bass, Jaze Uries drums and Tyler Housholder is on percussion. They play in Downtown Hendersonville as headliner of Rhythm & Brews on Thursday, July 21, 7-9 p.m. near the Visitor’s Center. The band launched that summer series, in May 2013. Opening acts (5-7 p.m.) are The Carburators, honky tonk based in Flat Rock, and roots singer-songwriter Charlie Tucker. Tucker was musical director for the former Flat Rock Music Festival. The Carburators’ lead guitarist is WTZQ AM 1600 Gen. Mgr. Mark Warwick. A week later The Broadcast helps get the two-day LEAF Downtown in Asheville off to a rousing start, on the main stage 2:15-3:30 p.m. Friday, July 30. “We’re excited to be part of LEAF Downtown,” Krisko said. Featured acts include classic funk band War, the Jon Stickley Trio with newgrass, and electronic rock jam band Papadosio in the pre-party July 29. The Broadcast played yet another free outdoor area series, Asheville’s Downtown After Five, by opening its series in 2014. The band closes the year with 28 European gigs in six countries. The Broadcast was chosen by city officials as Band Ambassador for this year. Many laud the band’s live energy. “Artists are always striving to take it to that ‘holy moment,’ with energy for everyone to capture,” Krisko said. “We’re connecting to the music, and each other.” Austin praises her intensity, to “get in deep” in a song. Drummer Jaze Uries said her “energy translates” from studio to stage, to the band and audience. “You get into that moment,” with extra fervor, he said. Uries lauds the band’s “chemistry.” He acted in the Dirty Dancing film, as drummer of club house band led by Tito (Billy Dee Williams), for scenes filmed in Saluda in May. Krisko looks very natural and fluid with on-stage gestures, and periodic uber-intensive bursts. “I grew up in musical theater,” the Royal Oak, Mich. native noted. “I danced a lot in the Michigan Classic Ballet Co.” At 13, she moved to Manhattan, N. Y., to study right after winning an audition for the elite Professional Performing Arts School. She honed craft amidst “creative people not afraid to express themselves.” Then when in prestigious Broadway conservancy Circle in the Square Theatre School, she shifted aspiration from Broadway to rock heaven. She formed the band in ’06, then moved to Asheville in 2010. “My soul is from Detroit,” Krisko said. “Motown has a profound influence on me. I grew up listening to Aretha Franklin, Mavis Staples, Marvin Gaye and others.” She relaxes at home to CDS of such Motown artists as Stevie Wonder and “Queen of Soul” Franklin. “I’m spinning vinyl of a wide array of artists, from Eric Clapton to (folky) Cat Stevens to (pop-rapper) Drake.” In its CD release party June 11 in The Grey Eagle in Asheville, The Broadcast did cover tributes for three rock icons who died early this year — David Bowie, Prince and The Eagle’s Glenn Frey. The new CD of originals electrifies with sizzler “Steamroller” leading off, “Double Down” next, and “On the Edge” batting cleanup; later with signature classic rock-styled “Every Step,” and funky “Bring it On Home.” Krisko’s vocals are smooth on “Sign it Off,” and soar on slide guitar-spiced “Battle Cry” about bursting through challenges in tough times. She reaches Adele-esque vocal and emotional depth with the bluesy country-pop ballad “Electric Light,” about how “I’ll find my way back to you.” She charges with husky gusto and Reba-like resonance on country-tinged gem ballad “Sirens,” and is gentle in closing ballad and title tract “From the Horizon.” Krisko told The Grey Eagle crowd that “Eyes of a Woman” is “the story of my life.” The character goes “against the grain.” She flies away to “see the world, through the eyes of a woman…She’s so tired of the ‘push and pull’ of this life as a woman.”…You gotta step back, to see what you’ve done wrong.” “Every Step” is “one of the earlier songs Aaron and I co-write,” Krisko said. “It has a CCR vibe.” It is also the self-directed/edited video they entered in Music Video Asheville last year. They used stop-motion animation, with car crashes and other iconic vintage imagery. Krisko said it can take 4.5 hours, to get “15 seconds of footage,” but the result is “magical.” She added that “music is inseparable from the visual.” Krisko is visionary and organized, in managing the band, Austin said. “She’s in control, running the ship.” They credit each band member’s contributions. Austin is creative glue. “Aaron has dedicated enormous energy to The Broadcast,” Krisko said. “He’ll critique us. And I respect his critiques. He’s a dynamic band leader (like a Derek Trucks), who has pushed us to be our best and more authentic.” Austin and Krisko have been a couple for about two years, widening their cultural horizons and songwriting partnership. “We came from very different backgrounds and influences,” she said. “People describe From the Horizon as soul-rock-Americana. I hear my Detroit and his rural Outer Banks backgrounds. It’s like The Eagles with Don Henley from Texas, and Glenn Frey from Detroit. That’s what people are hearing.” She describes Austin as intriguingly “complex,” having “deep emotions.” So does she, on stage. “Singing is a very cathartic, therapeutic experience.” She adds how “music is what you convey about your life.” Yet she wisely offsets intensity of the business with unwinding. “Off stage, I’m much more laid back. I’m the one gardening, doing yoga, taking walks. I’m finding balance.” Two years ago when first widely touring, “I did deeper work on myself off the road, to stay healthy.” Indeed, the singer astutely realizes a holistic approach soothes her personally, and sharpens her creatively. Thus she can broadcast this message, to aspiring performers: “Accolades are really fun and exciting. But those don’t mean anything if you’re not happy on a daily basis, or at least in a good place with yourself.” For more on the band, check TheBroadcastmusic.com. 2016-07-25 15:53 www.thetribunepapers.com
93 Homes: What you can buy for $4 million Buyers with $4 million to spend on a home can buy fairly luxurious properties in just about any market. There's a reason for that: Homes costing $4 million are almost 21.5 times more expensive than the national median home value, which is currently $186,100, according to Zillow . These pricey properties often come with upscale features like luxuriously landscaped grounds, swimming pools, indoor or outdoor sports courts and breathtaking views. But that doesn't mean all $4 million properties are created equal. For example, a three-bedroom condo can eat up your full budget in parts of New York City. A $4 million Chicago abode may come with an impressive Lake Michigan view, but it might still be tiny compared to what you could buy in less expensive markets far from the country's coasts. For the same amount of money, you could spread out on 51 acres in Colorado Springs with your own private hiking trails and views of Pikes Peak or in a 17-bedroom riverfront mansion in Wichita with fairy tale castle-like turrets and elaborately carved fireplaces. Click ahead to see the luxurious pads you can purchase with $4 million in 10 cities across the country. This three-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom condo in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn is for sale for about $4 million. It is priced 4.2 times higher than the area's median home value of $949,300. This penthouse unit, in a building constructed in 1931, is accessed by private elevator and has original wood floors and ceilings, exposed brick walls, built-in shelving, a balcony and a rooftop deck. This six-bedroom, eight-bathroom house in Calabasas, California is listed for sale at about $4 million. It last sold in December 2005 for $2.364 million, about 59 percent the current price. It is priced more than three times higher than the area's median home value of $1,220,700. The home has a refrigerated wine room, home theater with built-in speakers, a saltwater pool and spa, an outdoor kitchen and a one-bedroom guest house. This five-bedroom, 5.5-bathroom home in the Mt. Paran area of Atlanta is listed for $3.9 million. It was built in 2003 and is priced more than four times higher than the area's median home value of $891,800. The home is located on more than 8 acres of land with ponds, fountains, horse stables and pastures, and has a large spiral staircase, several fireplaces, decorative molding and built-in shelving and an office. This five-bedroom, seven-bathroom home in the Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle is for sale for $3.95 million. It last sold in May 1998 for $1.15 million, about 29 percent of the current asking price. It is almost five times more expensive than the area's median home value of $800,700. The house has an attached two-car garage, several patios, a tennis court and a swimming pool. Inside, there's an exercise room/yoga studio, a temperature-controlled wine cellar and several fireplaces. The property also has views of the Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains, according to the listing. This four-bedroom, five-bathroom home in Miami's South-West Coconut Grove neighborhood is listed for sale for $4 million. It last sold in May 2011 for $3.1 million, about 78 percent of the current price. It is about seven times more expensive than the area's median home value of $571,300. The home is located on about an acre of land and is comprised of a main house with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and two half-baths and a one- bedroom, one-bathroom guest house. The home has a fireplace, outdoor fire pit, pool, spa and a covered patio with an outdoor kitchen. This four-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom home near Newport Harbor is for sale for $3.95 million. It's about 10 times more expensive than the area's median home value of $396,300. The home has a fireplace, fenced yard, eight-car garage, hot tub, pool, sauna, tennis court and a view of the water. This four-bedroom, five-bathroom home in Fort Worth's Mira Vista neighborhood is for sale for about $4 million. It is almost 14 times more expensive than the area's median home value of $287,800. The home has an indoor basketball court, several fireplaces, a wine cellar designed to look like a cave, a media room, swimming pool with a waterfall, outdoor kitchen and a three-car garage. This three-bedroom, four-bathroom condo in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago is for sale for $3.95 million. It last sold in July 2006 for $2,425,000, about 61 percent of the current price. The home is more than 13 times more expensive than the area's median home value of $295,200. The unit has views of Lake Michigan and Navy Pier, according to the listing, as well as a wood-paneled library, a movie projector and nine-foot screen in the family room, marble fireplaces and a balcony. It comes with two parking spaces in an attached garage and access to building amenities, including a fitness room. This six-bedroom, 10-bathroom home on 51 acres in the Black Forest area of Colorado Springs is for sale for $4 million. It was built in 2007 and is about 9.5 times more expensive than the area's median home value of $418,900. The home has a heated driveway, two three-car garages, a private bathroom and walk-in closet in each bedroom, five fireplaces, an indoor pool, movie theater, exercise room and a two-story indoor slide. This 17-bedroom, 20-bathroom mansion on the Little Arkansas River is for sale for $3.5 million. It was built in 1886 and costs more than 38 times the area's median home value of $90,400. The home, knowns as the Campbell Castle, was used as a luxury inn until 2013, according to its website. It has several elaborately carved fireplaces, stained glass windows, chandeliers and a large kitchen. Ilyce R. Glink is an award-winning, nationally syndicated columnist, best- selling book author, and radio talk show host who also hosts "Expert Real Estate Tips," a Internet video show. She owns ThinkGlink.com as well as Think Glink Media, a privately held company that provides consulting, content and video services to companies and non-profit organizations.
2016-07-25 15:52 Ilyce Glink www.cbsnews.com
94 MLB Baseball Box Scores MIAMI -- Speed kills, and whether it was Jose Fernandez's 99-mph fastballs or Giancarlo Stanton's 100- plus-mph line drives, the Miami Marlins knocked out the New York Mets on Saturday night. They even boxed in the dugout to celebrate. Fernandez improved his Marlins Park record to 26-1, and Stanton drilled a massive two-run, go-ahead homer to lead Miami to a 7-2 win over New York. The Marlins (53-44), who are second in the National League East, banged out 16 hits and moved 1 1/2 games ahead of the Mets (51-45) in the division race. The Washington Nationals lead the division by 4 1/2 games. "Man, this is so fun to watch," Fernandez said. "I've never been a part of a team like this. "Stanton went 4- for-5 with three RBIs for his first four-hit game since August 8, 2012. One of his crushed line drives, on a single, was clocked at 118 mph. Stanton also has five homers in his past three games against the Mets. His third-inning homer down the left-field line bounced off the scoreboard about 50 feet up. Unimpeded, the ball was projected to have traveled 441 feet. After Stanton returned to the dugout, many of his teammates started playfully punching him. "I wanted to punch him hard, but I was afraid I was going to hurt my hand," Fernandez said. "It's an honor (to play with Stanton). Every time he comes to the plate, you don't know if he's going to hit it 10,000 feet. "The Marlins surely feel honored to play with Fernandez (12-4, 2.54 ERA), who went seven innings, allowing seven hits, two walks and two runs. He struck out six and improved his career home ERA to 1.47. Offensively, Fernandez singled and drove in a run in the second inning and singled and scored a run in the fourth. Losing what was supposed to be a pitching duel was Jacob deGrom (6-5), who lasted just 3 2/3 innings -- the second shortest outing of his career. "I wasn't very good today -- seemingly everything I threw went down the middle, and I paid for it," said deGrom, who allowed five runs, 10 hits and one walk. "It doesn't help when you throw 30 pitches an inning. "Upset with himself, deGrom wasn't in the mood for a question about Stanton. "I saw him hit a ball pretty far over the wall," deGrom said. "I don't know what you want me to say. "In truth, there was little the Mets could say about their performance, and Miami started its barrage early. With none on and two outs in the second inning, the Marlins rallied to score the game's first run. Adeiny Hechavarria doubled off the wall in right-center and scored on a Fernandez single that just got under Jose Reyes' glove at third base. DeGrom got even in the third as his leadoff double down the right-field line led to a two-run rally and a 2-1 Mets' lead. Curtis Granderson singled, Yoenis Cespedes had an opposite-field RBI single and James Loney capped the scoring with a sacrifice fly. Miami regained the lead at 3-2 in the bottom of the third on Stanton's two-run homer. It was his 21st long ball of the season. "That was one of those pretty ones," Marlins manager Don Mattingly said of Stanton's blast. "That was a long one. "Fernandez got his second hit of the night to lead off the fourth, and when he came around to score on another Stanton single, and that was it for deGrom. "Even when I was at the plate," said Fernandez, who is hitting.265 this season, "I was ready to do whatever I could to win the game. "The Marlins then made it 5-2 later in the inning when Derek Dietrich drew a bases-loaded walk off reliever Seth Lugo. Miami's Martin Prado capped the scoring with RBI singles in the fifth and seventh innings. But the offensive damage had been done early, mostly by Stanton. "He's a great player," Mets manager Terry Collins said of Stanton. "He had a rough start (this season). That's part of the game. "But if you make pitches, you can get anyone out. You can put whatever name on it. I saw (Barry) Bonds. I saw them get him out, too. You just have to make better pitches. "NOTES: Marlins OF Ichiro Suzuki grounded out as a pinch hitter in the eighth. He is still four hits shy of 3,000. ... The top four NL teams in the wild-card playoff race -- the Marlins, Mets, St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers -- started Saturday tied in the loss column (44). ... Marlins 1B Justin Bour, who went on the disabled list on July 6 due to an ankle sprain, said he is "1,000 percent" ready in terms of hitting but needs some work on defense and baserunning. Bour, who has 15 homers, should start a minor-league rehab assignment in a couple of days and could return next week. ... Mets 1B Lucas Duda (back) is about two weeks away from a minor-league rehab assignment. ... Mets LHP Steven Matz, who starts against the Marlins on Sunday, is 0-5 with a 4.79 ERA in his past nine outings. Miami will counter with RHP Jose Urena (1-1, 7.52) in the series finale.
2016-07-25 15:52 The Sports scoresandstats.newyork.cbslocal.com
95 Eye Opener: DNC chairwoman ousted |An email scandal sparks a big shakeup in the Democratic Party, as Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigns. Also, dangerous and deadly wildfires explode overnight in California, forcing thousands to evacuate. All that and all that matters in today's Eye Opener. Your world in 90 seconds. Get the Eye Opener delivered straight to your inbox.
2016-07-25 15:52 Eye Opener www.cbsnews.com
96 Judge Gives Lawyer Jail Time For BLACK LIVES MATTER PIN A municipal court judge in Ohio ordered his bailiff to take a black attorney into custody and sentenced her to five days in jail because she refused to remove a Black Lives Matter pin in the judge’s courtroom. The incident occurred on Friday in the Youngstown, Ohio courtroom of Judge Robert Milich, reports local CBS affiliate WKBN-TV . Judge Milich cited the attorney, Andrea Burton, for contempt of court over the button brouhaha. Milich then sentenced Burton to five days in jail. Burton was then released from custody pending her appeal to a higher court — and provided she stops wearing Black Lives Matter pins in Milich’s courtroom. If the appeals court sides with Milich, Burton will have to serve the five-day sentence. Milich said he did not have Burton arrested in his courtroom because of his personal views. “A judge doesn’t support either side,” the municipal court judge told WKBN. “A judge is objective and tries to make sure everyone has an opportunity to have a fair hearing, and it was a situation where it was just in violation of the law.” “There’s a difference between a flag, a pin from your church or the Eagles and having a pin that’s on a political issue,” Milich also told the CBS affiliate. Youngstown’s branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has criticized the judge’s actions, and has urged the national legal office of the NAACP to intervene on Burton’s behalf. “We are monitoring this case very closely as it may violate Attorney Burton’s civil rights,” NAACP Youngstown branch president George Freeman, Jr. said in a statement obtained by WKBN . The NAACP letter compared the Black Lives Matter pin to pins supporting veterans’ organizations, or a Greek festival, or an Italian festival or the YWCA. “We will do all that the NAACP Youngstown can do to ensure that Attorney Burton’s constitutional rights are not being violated,” Freeman also said. A local attorney, Kim F. Akins, also defended Burton. “No one wearing an American flag button, no one wearing a crucifix or a Star of David would be removed, so why this particular statement bothered him so much is bothersome,” Akins told WKBN. Burton obviously supports her choice to wear the Black Lives Matter pin into Milich’s courtroom. “It’s an act of civil disobedience. I understand that,” she said, according to the New York Daily News. “I’m not anti-police. I work with law enforcement and I hold them in the highest regard, and, just to say for the record, I do believe all lives matter. But at this point they don’t all matter equally, and that’s the problem in the justice system.” Mike Brickner, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, said judges have considerable freedom to make reasonable decisions about how people can dress in their courtrooms. “There have been cases in the past when people have been given contempt of court for refusing to comply with a judge’s order to remove an article of clothing that may have a message on it,” Brickner told WKBN. “Many times this has been done to retain the defendant’s right to a fair trial.” Burton was apparently representing a client in Milich’s courtroom when the Friday fracas went down over the Black Lives Matter pin. Burton is a graduate of the University of Akron School of Law. She was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 2012. Her specialty areas appear to be juvenile law and criminal law. She has no prior history of attorney discipline or sanctions. Milich is a 1978 graduate of the University of Akron School of Law. He has been a Youngstown municipal judge since 1998. Burton is black. Milich is white. Follow Eric on Twitter. Like Eric on Facebook. Send story tips to [email protected].
2016-07-25 15:48 Education Editor dailycaller.com
97 Donald Trump Real Estate Empire Suffers YUGE 2016 SWOON The value of Donald Trump’s various luxury real estate ventures is suffering because of his presidential run, according to a Yahoo Finance analysis of national real estate prices. The analysis, conducted by residential real estate company Redfin , shows that the condominium values in several Trump-branded properties have fallen during the otherwise generally steady housing market of 2016. Prior to Trump’s presidential candidacy, Trump properties around the country enjoyed a “Trump premium,” which meant that buyers paid more — sometimes as much as 70 percent more — for condos located in buildings festooned with the Trump name. Trump had bragged about the real estate magic his name generated. In a court deposition, Yahoo Finance notes , he said people paid more for space in Trump buildings because he had starred in “The Apprentice,” an NBC reality show. As of this year, however, the “Trump premium” has mostly vanished in the nine markets and sub-markets Redfin analyzed. “We can no longer attribute any pricing differential to Trump’s name being associated with the properties we studied,” Taylor Marr, a Redfin analyst, told Yahoo Finance . Examples of a Trump-branded real estate slump abound. In Chicago, for example, a 53rd-floor, two-bedroom condo in the Trump International Hotel and Tower — with “breathtaking panoramic views,” “dark walnut floors” and fancy appliances — sold in March 2015 for $1.675 million. The price per square foot was $1,046. A similarly luxurious, 39th- floor condo at 600 N. Fairbanks — approximately 8 blocks east — sold around the same time for $1.4 million, at a price per square foot of $822. Thus, the “Trump premium” was a princely $224 per square foot. In June 2016, however, a 33rd-floor, two-bedroom condo in Chicago’s Trump Tower — with a “dramatic curved living room,” a “master suite with fireplace” and a “large gourmet kitchen” — sold for $1.9 million. The price per square foot was $795. Over at 600 N. Fairbanks, a generally similar luxury condo sold a day later for $1.2 million, at a price per square foot of $781. The 2016 “Trump premium” had dwindled to just $14 per square foot. Also, more owners in Chicago’s Trump Tower appear to be attempting to ditch their Trump condos for other digs this year, Chicago real estate agent Susie Schechtman told Yahoo Finance . (RELATED: Law School Pays To Move Annual Law School Prom From Trump Tower In Chicago) The one place where little to no Trump condo slump is occurring is New York City. True, the median price of Trump properties in the Big Apple is failing to keep up with New York City real estate prices overall. At the same time, though, median values of Trump properties are rising faster than values of similarly luxurious buildings. Also, Trump property rental prices are doing just fine. The Trump luxury hotel business is tending to suffer around the country, according to Yahoo Finance. In August, a three-day stay at one of seven fancypants Trump hotels in the United States can be had at an average rate that is $44 cheaper than the rate at nearby hotels with the identical Hotels.com star ratings. In Las Vegas, for example, you can stay at the Trump International Hotel for the bargain-basement price of just $129 in August. At the Venetian or the Wynn, you’ll pay considerably more. In Toronto, you can stay at the Trump International for $238 per night — $162 less per night than a night at the Four Seasons. The Trump hotel pickings are even better in September, when a three-day stay in a Trump-branded hotel can be yours for a nightly rate $68 lower than the rate at nearby hotels with the identical Hotels.com star ratings. Follow Eric on Twitter. Like Eric on Facebook. Send story tips to [email protected].
2016-07-25 15:47 Education Editor dailycaller.com
98 Panel to probe video controversy of AAP MP Mann New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Monday set up a nine member panel to probe the breach of security by AAP lawmaker Bhagwant Mann and "advised" him not to attend the house till the issue was resolved. Addressing the Lok Sabha as soon as it reassembled after the weekend break, Mahajan said taking audio video footage of security zones in the parliament by Punjab's Sangrur MP Mann on July 21 and putting them on social networking site was improper. It put "security of the parliament in peril", Mahajan added. Mann has been asked to appear before the panel by 10.30 a.m. of July 26 (Tuesday) and make his submission. The Speaker said the panel should submit its report by August 3 and till then Mann was "advised" not to attend the session. Describing parliament as "sanctum sanctorum" of democracy, Mahajan recalled that on December 13, 2001, security personnel had sacrificed their lives protecting the parliament and after that entire security system was reviewed and overhauled. Therefore, the "act of the member" has put the security of the parliament in peril, she said. Mahajan said she had consulted leaders of all political parties and everyone supported her actions on this issue. Mahajan has formed the nine member panel headed by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Kirit Somaiya which includes Anandrao Adsul (Shiv Sena), Meenakshi Lekhi, Satya Pal Singh (both BJP), B Mahtab (Biju Janata Dal), Ratna De Nag (Trinamool) and K. C. Venugopal (Congress) and other members. The panel has also been asked to "suggest remedial measures" so that such episodes are not repeated.
2016-07-25 15:40 By IANS www.mid-day.com
99 Probing the cosmos: Is anybody out there? (CNN) -- From a remote valley in Northern California, Jill Tarter is listening to the universe. Her ears are 42 large and sophisticated radio telescopes, spread across several acres, that scan the cosmos for signals of extraterrestrial origin. If intelligent life forms do exist on other planets, and they try to contact us, Tarter will be among the first to know. Are we citizens of Earth alone in the universe? It's a question that has long fascinated astronomers, sci-fi authors, kids with backyard telescopes and Hollywood executives who churn out spectacles about alien encounters. Polls have found that most Americans believe that some form of life exists beyond our planet. "It's a fundamental question," said Tarter, the real-life inspiration for Jodie Foster's character in the 1997 movie "Contact. " "And it's a question that the person on the street can understand. It's not like a... super-collider or some search for neutrinos buried in the ice. It's, 'Are we alone? How might we find out? What does that tell us about ourselves and our place in the universe?' "We're trying to figure out how the universe began, how galaxies and large- scale structures formed, and where did the origins of life as we know it take place? " Tarter said. "These are all valid questions to ask of the universe. And an equally valid question is whether the same thing that happened here [on Earth] has happened elsewhere. " Watch a preview of CNN's "In Search of Aliens" series » Thanks to advancements in technology, scientists hope to get an answer sooner rather than later. Rovers have snapped photographs of the surface of Mars that show fossil-like shapes. NASA hopes to launch within a decade a Terrestrial Planet Finder, an orbiting observatory that would detect planets around nearby stars and determine whether they could support life. Such developments are catnip to scientists like Geoffrey Marcy, a professor of astronomy at the University of California-Berkeley who has discovered more extrasolar planets than anyone else. "It wasn't more than 13 years ago that we hadn't found any planets around the stars, and most people thought that we never would. So here we are not only having found planets, we are looking for habitable planets, signs of biology on those planets," Marcy told CNN. "It's an extraordinary explosion of a field of science that didn't even exist just a few years ago. " Then there's Tarter, whose quest for signs of extraterrestrial life kept her on the fringes of mainstream science for decades. While pursuing her doctorate at UC-Berkeley, Tarter came across an engineering report that floated the idea of using radio telescopes to listen for broadcasts by alien beings. It became her life's work. In 1984 Tarter founded the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) in California. Using telescopes in Australia, West Virginia and Puerto Rico, she conducted a decade-long scouring of about 750 nearby star systems for extraterrestrial radio signals. None was found, although Tarter had some false alarms. In 1998, she intercepted a mysterious signal that lasted for hours. Tarter got so excited she misread her own computer results: The signal was coming from a NASA observatory spacecraft orbiting the sun. Today, Tarter listens to the heavens with the Allen Telescope Array, a collection of 20-foot-wide telescopes some 300 miles north of San Francisco. The dish-like scopes are a joint effort of SETI and UC-Berkeley's Radio Astronomy Lab and have been funded largely by Microsoft co- founder Paul Allen, who donated more than $25 million to the project. Unlike previously existing radio telescopes, which scan the sky for limited periods of time, the Allen Telescope Array probes the universe round the clock. Each of the 42 scopes is aimed at a different area of the sky, collecting reams of data that are continually studied by computers for unusual patterns. Then the listeners must filter out noise from airplanes and satellites. "We're listening for something that we don't think can be produced by Mother Nature," Tarter said. "We're using the radio frequency, other people are using optical telescopes... and in both cases we're looking for an artificial nature to a signal. "In the case of radio, we're looking for a lot of power being squished into just one channel on the radio dial. In the optical, they're looking for very bright flashes that last a nanosecond... or less, not slow pulsing kinds of things. To date we've never found a natural source that can do that. " Signals that any extraterrestrials might be transmitting for their own use would be difficult to detect, Tarter said. Astronomers are more likely to discover a radio transmission broadcast intentionally at the Earth, she said. Astronomers at SETI, however, are not sending a signal into space in an attempt to communicate with aliens. University of California professor Marcy is skeptical about the existence of intelligent alien life and believes our galaxy's vast distances would make communication between Earth and beings on other planets almost impossible. "The nearest neighbor might be halfway across our galaxy, 50,000 light- years away. Communicating with them will take a hundred thousand years for a round-trip signal," he said. Still, Tarter remains undaunted. The Allen Telescope Array already does in 10 minutes what once took her scientists 10 days. When the project is completed, it will have 350 telescopes that, combined, can survey tens of thousands of star systems. "We can look in more places and more frequencies faster than we ever could. And that will just get better with time. We're doing something now we couldn't do when we started, we couldn't do five years ago," she said. "Think of it as a cosmic haystack. There's a needle in there somewhere. If you pull out a few straws, are you going to get disappointed because you haven't found the needle yet? No. We haven't really begun to explore. " All About Astronomy • UFOs and Alien Abductions • SETI Institute
2016-07-25 15:35 By Brandon rss.cnn.com
100 Shuttle Endeavour lands at California air base (CNN) -- Space shuttle Endeavour landed safely Sunday afternoon at California's Edwards Air Force Base after NASA waved off two opportunities for a Florida landing because of poor weather. The shuttle, steered by commander Christopher Ferguson, landed at 1:25 p.m., ending a mission that lasted more than two weeks. Wind, rain and reports of thunderstorms within 30 miles of the shuttle landing facility at Florida's Kennedy Space Center prompted NASA to cancel the landing attempts there. Those had been scheduled for 1:19 p.m. and 2:54 p.m. ET. After determining Monday's weather forecast at Kennedy Space Center was equally unpromising, flight controllers decided they would try to land the shuttle and its seven astronauts at Edwards AFB, about 100 miles from Los Angeles, California, where Sunday's forecast was sunny. Flight controllers prefer landings at Kennedy Space Center because of cost and schedule. NASA has estimated it costs about $1.7 million to bring a shuttle home to Kennedy Space Center from California. Watch Endeavour's Sunday landing in California » It also takes at least a week to get the shuttle ready for the trip, but schedule is not a major factor for the Endeavour; it is not scheduled to fly again until May. Endeavour's 15-day mission to the international space station began on November 14 and included four spacewalks. During that time, the crew brought key pieces -- including exercise equipment, more sleeping berths and a urine recycling system -- for a project to double the capacity of the station from three in-house astronauts to six. The recycling system was installed to turn urine and sweat from the astronauts into drinking water. Other modules are scheduled to arrive on a February shuttle flight. The goal of expanding the station's capacity to six astronauts is expected to be reached by the summer. The crew also worked on a joint that helps generate power for the space station. Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve Bowen spent hours cleaning and lubricating the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint, which is designed to allow the solar panels on the left side of the station to rotate and track the sun. The astronauts also removed and replaced several trundle bearing assemblies. The mission went according to plan, despite a minor interruption on the first spacewalk when a grease gun in Stefanyshyn-Piper tool's bag leaked, coating everything inside with a film of lubricant. While she was trying to clean it up, the bag -- with $100,000 in tools -- floated away. CNN's Kate Tobin and Miles O'Brien contributed to this report.
2016-07-25 15:35 rss.cnn.com Total 100 articles. Created at 2016-07-25 18:01