Google’s code of conduct encourages employees to not be evil and speak up when they see something they think isn’t right. They’re speaking up now.Roughly 1,400 employees have signed a letter demanding transparency around the tech giant’s return to China, The New York Times reported (pdf) on Thursday (Aug. 16).Google pulled out of China in 2010 because of the country’s censorship policies, but has been gradually forging a path back to the nation that boasts more than 750 million internet users. The Intercept revealed earlier this month that Google was secretly building a version of its search product that would comply with the strict censorship laws in China, removing banned sites from search results and even blacklisting certain words and phrases. The project, codenamed Dragonfly, was expected to launch in a matter of weeks, according to the publication.Most Google employees first learned of the project through the news reports.Employees protested in a letter that urged Google to take ethical responsibility seriously, and start a dialogue to help staffers understand the global implications of their work.“We urgently need more transparency, a seat at the table, and a commitment to clear and open processes,” said the letter, which has been making the rounds on Google’s internal communication systems. “Google employees need to know what we’re building.”CEO Sundar Pichai, who is leading the effort in China, addressed Dragonfly during an internal meeting on Thursday. He told employees Google was not close to launching a search engine in the country and was “exploring many options,” according to CNBC.The letter called for more than that—for “leadership to work with employees to implement concrete transparency and oversight processes.”“We’ve always had confidential projects as a company,” Pichai told employees, according to an excerpt from the transcript of the meeting provided to Quartz. “I think what happened when the company was smaller, you had a higher chance of knowing about it. The company has obviously scaled up a lot more. We are as a company, I think, more committed to transparency than probably any company in the world and our intent is to be that way.”The full text of the employee letter was published by the Times (pdf).Update (12:30pm EST): This post was updated with an excerpt of the transcript of the Aug. 16 meeting.

Vladimir Putin has accused the British of blaming “all their mortal sins” on Russia, saying undue accusations have been placed at Moscow’s door for everything from Brexit to the Skripal poisoning and the downing of MH17.The Russian president dismissed suggestions that Russian hackers had been interfering in state affairs, claiming this was “not in line with our policy”.“They now blame Russia for Brexit ... again, tosh. We have nothing to do with it whatsoever. This is the inner matter of the UK,” Putin said.“And I guess we can suspect that those who wanted the UK to leave the EU are Russian agents,” he added, noting that the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, was among those campaigning to leave the European Union.“If they want to worsen their relationships with Russia they can blame all their mortal sins on us and this is actually the case nowadays,” Putin said. “Brexit, and Catalonia and the Skripal case, God knows what – and this plane again.”Putin’s comments to the heads of international news agencies on the margins of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, follow a statement by Johnson backing international demands for Russia to be held accountable for the fate of MH17, the Malaysian Airlines flight downed over war-torn eastern Ukraine nearly four years ago killing all 298 people on board. The Netherlands and Australia said they were holding Moscow legally responsible after international investigators concluded the missile that hit the flight Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur came from a Russian military unit. In a statement, Johnson said the incident, which claimed the lives of 10 British nationals, was “an egregious example of the Kremlin’s disregard for innocent life”. “The Kremlin believes it can act with impunity,” he said. “The Russian government must now answer for its actions in relation to the downing of MH17. “The UK fully supports Australia and the Netherlands in their request to the Russian Federation to accept state responsibility, and to cooperate with them in their efforts to deliver justice for the victims of this tragedy. “Instead of seeking to undermine the investigation through the deluge of disinformation we have seen from Russia about MH17 in the past, the Russian Federation must fulfil its obligations under UN security council resolution 2166 to provide any requested assistance to the investigation. “To do otherwise would be a violation of the UN’s resolution, and to deny the families the justice they seek for their loved ones.” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the MH17 findings, saying Russia had been barred from taking part in the investigation and did not trust its results.The Russian defence ministry said the missile “more than likely” came from Ukrainian arsenals. Topics Vladimir Putin Russia Boris Johnson Foreign policy Brexit news

Last year, appeals judges at the court overturned a war-crimes conviction for Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former vice president of the Democratic Republic of Congo. And this year, a former president of Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo, and one of his aides, were acquitted of crimes against humanity.Burundi and the Philippines, outraged over Ms. Bensouda’s investigations of their leaders, have quit the court. And the United States, which is not a member of the court, revoked Ms. Bensouda’s visa a few months ago over her effort to investigate allegations of war crimes committed in Afghanistan — including any that may have been perpetrated by American forces.“The past few months, and even last year, have been filled with disappointments and setbacks for the I.C.C.,” said Amal Nassar, The Hague representative for the International Federation for Human Rights, a Paris-based advocacy group.Still, Ms. Nassar expressed hope that the guilty verdict in Mr. Ntaganda’s case, should it stand up on appeal, “somehow restores hope and confidence in the court.”Known for his pencil mustache and luxury lifestyle, Mr. Ntaganda was the chief of military operations for the Union of Congolese Patriots, a rebel group, and its armed faction, the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo, in a conflict over control of land, trading routes and gold mines. Civilians were caught in the middle.Mr. Ntaganda was first indicted in 2006 but only stood trial years later, after turning himself in at the United States Embassy in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, in March 2013. Experts suspect that he surrendered because he feared for his life: There had been a split in the latest rebel group he had formed, M23, and it appeared that he had lost the support of his Rwandan backers.During the trial, Mr. Ntaganda told the court that he was “not a criminal” but a “trained officer” who always protected civilians.

Plenty of programs, products, and health startups are aimed at lowering the rates of chronic disease—and now CVS Health is hoping to tackle the issue where Americans least expect it: while shopping for toothpaste and toilet paper. The company is currently testing a retail concept dubbed HealthHub. It’s a new kind of healthcare destination that blends the convenience of the pharmacy chain with the ease and familiarity of a neighborhood community center. It’s piloting three HealthHubs, all in Houston.The HealthHub locations might look like a normal CVS Health, but 20% of the store now offers a broader range of healthcare services, like one-on-one nutritionist counseling and workout classes. There are new product categories, including fitness products (like say, a yoga mat) and an expanded homeopathy category for sleep, anxiety, or memory improvement. In addition, it carries durable medical equipment (wheelchairs and monitors) and supplies for those suffering from conditions such as sleep apnea and diabetes.[Photo: courtesy of CVS Health]These are all items CVS Health has never carried before. Many of them feature an overhead digital screen that highlights the product’s use and efficacy. For those who want to learn more, “learning tables” display multiple iPads where they can discover more about their healthcare needs.“We are a nonintrusive part of millions of people’s daily lives and so when we interact with them in a healthcare setting, they are already thinking about their health,” explains Alan Lotvin, EVP chief transformation officer for CVS Health, describing the company’s prime positioning.By delivering more services–which address both the medical contributors of a condition as well as social determinants–CVS Health can help people manage the small daily decisions. Those, in turn, add to up a larger influence on managing chronic disease.Roughly 70% of diseases in the U.S. are chronic and lifestyle-driven, according to the CDC, and nearly half of the population has one or more chronic health conditions, such as diabetes, asthma, heart disease, obesity, or cancer.It’s an expensive issue: 86% of annual healthcare costs in the U.S. are driven by chronic disease. Meanwhile, U.S. healthcare expenditures tripled in the last 50 years, from 5% of gross domestic product in 1960 to 17.9% in 2017.The Geek Squad for healthcareEach HealthHub houses a MinuteClinic inside the facility. MinuteClinics are staffed by board-certified nurse practitioners who provide treatments, health screenings, and vaccinations. There are a roughly 1,000 MinuteClinics out of 8,500 stores that CVS Health operates. However, the MinuteClinics found in a HealthHub offer a more comprehensive service, such as more staffed personnel who can answer medical questions as well as nurse practitioners who can do thorough examinations.There’s even something called the the “pharmacists panel,” in which pharmacists spend a considerable amount of time talking to patients about their lifestyle, medications they’re taking, and what exercises they should be doing.In addition, a concierge service will schedule free home delivery or set up a monthly shipment of medications sectioned into pouches. They’ll also educate customers on new service offerings and help them navigate in-store services, and even go over their health insurance benefits. It’s a white-glove touch that ensures the community is set up for success.“We refer to this care concierge as the Geek Squad for healthcare,” jokes Kevin Hourican, president of CVS Pharmacy.[Animation: CVS Health]Wellness, which “means lots of different things for different people,” notes Lotvin, is thoroughly ingrained in the program. The $4.2 trillion wellness industry spans multiple categories including fitness, nutrition, mind-body health, and even beauty.HealthHub narrowed the category down to physical health, emotional health, financial resources, and social connectedness. The team worked with the Harvard School of Public Health to map out a holistic approach to wellness that would resonate with their consumers, many of them middle-age or senior citizens.For some, it’s an annual diabetic exam or eye exam “right then and there,” notes Hourican. Others are more interested in a nutrition lecture series or a stress-reducing mindfulness class. A senior technology day guides customers through all the questions their grandchildren can’t be bothered to answer. All programs are conducted in designated “wellness rooms” private from the shopping public.Unsurprisingly, the yoga classes have proven most popular.“We’re doing yoga classes for people who’ve never done yoga before,” says Lotvin of the senior citizen clientele, many of whom live isolated lives. At hubs they socialize, exercise, and gain more knowledge about their bodies.So far, 75% of clients who come in for one service end up signing up for another.“It’s really meant to be a community resource,” says Lotvin. “We want to be a deeper, more relevant part of people’s everyday lives and community, and that means a place where they can learn new things.”A healthcare helperDespite all these healthcare services, CVS Health says it in no way wants to replace the role of primary care doctor. Instead, the retailer views itself as complementary to more traditional medical services already available within a community. HealthHub might come in handy in evenings and weekends, when doctors offices are closed, or when a customer might need a non-emergency medical test.In many ways, HealthHub just adds medical availability and access in the local market, explains Lotvin. CVS Health found that 50% of clients who visited a MinuteClinic don’t have a primary care doctor. And of those, half don’t want one. “This is a way for those people to begin to get really good solid primary care.”Should a HealthHub nurse practitioner notice a client needs more medical attention or an advanced test, he or she will refer them to a local doctor or specialist. It’s a strategy that has worked well for MinuteClinic (not to mention, eased doctors’ fears they might steal clients). In the last year, MinuteClinic referred 3.4 million primary care patients to local doctors.“What we’re seeing with big integrated health systems is that they are looking for more efficient ways to deliver primary care,” says Lotvin. “You don’t need a physician to titrate someone’s blood pressure medications. Working in collaboration with a nurse practitioner who puts everything into the electronic medical record is very efficient.”[Photo: courtesy of CVS Health]A recent research report found that America will experience physician shortages in both primary and specialty care in the coming years. It’s estimated we might be short over 120,000 physicians by the end of the next decade. As such, the medical community looks for new, innovative ways to spread care in affordable, accessible manners.In the last year, CVS Health rolled out several new healthcare developments meant to better engage its community base. It now, for example, offers virtual health appointments that allow patients to use telehealth for minor illnesses (such as coughs or colds), injuries, and skin conditions. The company “crushed” first-quarter expectations, with its stock price jumping 4%.“We’re trying to build the first consumer-centric healthcare company,” stresses Lotvin. “We want to use technologies to bring more services into people’s communities. And we define community as in your hands, in the store, and in your home.”The start of something big?CVS Health intends to expand the HealthHub concept to more big cities, although the company hasn’t yet announced specifics. It’s currently focused on Houston, which has one of the highest rates of uninsured residents in a major U.S. city.The next hubs will target areas with a high prevalence of chronic disease such as an over-penetration of diabetic residents. While the program generally caters to an older demographic, CVS Health will consider catering to other vulnerable groups. It might build a different sort of store in an area that’s heavily populated by millennials, who are quickly moving away from primary care doctors.[Animation: CVS Health]CVS Health believes HealthHub can help shift the tide of American health, reimagining where people turn to for care. Already, the company is seeing progress: A customer recently came into a HealthHub complaining she suddenly wasn’t feeling well. After just a few minutes of discussing her symptoms with a nurse practitioner, an ambulance was called. The patient wasn’t properly taking her medication, and after testing her blood sugars and taking her vitals, the staff realized they were imminently dealing with a stroke situation.“It’s one example but a pretty significant one,” says Hourican. “And it’s not the only one. Success stories like this are coming through frequently.” As CVS Health gathers more data on customer preferences and program efficacy, it plans to further tweak the program for those living in direct proximity to these HealthHubs “that have a significant need for help on their path to better health.”

Appleis reportedly talking to movie theater chainsto try and get its Apple TV Plus movies shown in theaters a few weeks before they hit the streaming service. CNET reports: Apple's apparently hoping to attract established directors and producers to the $5-a-month service, and avoid creating industry tension like Netflix -- Martin Scorcese's The Irishman won't be playing in several theater chains because Netflix wouldn't agree to the usual three-month delay between the movie's theatrical debut and its arrival on streaming. The strategy Apple reportedly is taking mirrors that of Amazon, which gave the Oscar-winning Manchester by the Sea a three-month theatrical run in 2016, the Wall Street Journal noted. Sofia Coppola's On the Rocks, which stars Rashida Jones and Bill Murray, is one of Apple's first major theatrical releases. It could premiere at the Cannes Film Festival prior to its mid-2020 release, according to the Journal. The Cupertino, California, company also reportedly talked about giving The Elephant Queen, a Chiwetel Ejiofor-narrated documentary about an elephant mother leading her herd across Africa, a theatrical release so it's eligible for awards consideration. It's due to be available on Apple TV Plus at launch on Nov. 1.

Michael Cohen on Wednesday delivered a sharp warning to Donald Trump and the Republican party that the president faces legal and political peril on at least two fronts.First, the Trump-Russia investigation.Cohen became the first Trump associate to allege that, in 2016, Trump knew in advance that his eldest son, Donald Jr, was meeting Russians promising dirt on Hillary Clinton – and that WikiLeaks would be releasing emails stolen from Democrats by Russian operatives.Moreover, Cohen hinted that Robert Mueller, the special counsel currently wrapping up a two-year inquiry into whether Trump’s team coordinated with Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, may have proof.Cohen was asked by Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Florida Democrat forced to resign as party chairwoman over the WikiLeaks disclosures, how they could corroborate his explosive allegations, which are based on remarks he says he overheard in Trump’s office.“I suspect that the special counsel’s office and other government agencies have the information you’re seeking,” Cohen said. Trump denied both allegations in his written answers to questions from Mueller.Cohen also reiterated that Trump lied repeatedly to the American public during the 2016 campaign by saying he had no dealings with Russia. In fact, Cohen has told prosecutors, Trump was keenly pursuing a lucrative tower in Moscow until June 2016.Trump’s former fixer cautioned that he could not prove the “collusion” with Moscow that the president vehemently denies. Still there was, Cohen said, “something odd” about the affectionate back-and-forth Trump had with Vladimir Putin in public remarks over the years.“There are just so many dots that seem to lead in the same direction,” he said.The extent to which Mueller’s findings will be made public is unclear. Justice department policy is that a sitting president may not be charged with crimes. But Democrats have vowed to get their hands on the full report – and launch impeachment proceedings if necessary.Second, Cohen continues to implicate Trump in a criminal conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws – and on Wednesday dragged Donald Jr in as well.Cohen released copies of cheques signed by both Trumps that, he said, were reimbursements for payments he made to buy the silence of Stormy Daniels, a pornographic actor who alleged she had an affair with Trump.Federal prosecutors in New York allege the payments amounted to an illegal scheme, using undisclosed funds to protect Trump’s presidential campaign. Cohen, who is due to go to prison in May for three years, pleaded guilty to involvement in the scheme – and alleged that Trump directed him to commit the campaign finance crime.That could leave the elder Trump vulnerable to prosecution on charges in his native New York when he leaves office, according to legal analysts. And Cohen’s testimony on Wednesday indicated that Donald Jr could face similar jeopardy more immediately.Charging documents in Cohen’s case said two senior people in the Trump Organization – identified only as “executive 1” and “executive 2” for the time being – were also involved in executing the illegal scheme.Executive 1 is understood to be Allen Weisselberg, the Trumps’ longtime chief financial officer, who has been granted immunity to help prosecutors in their investigation. Executive 2 authorised Weisselberg to make a payment to Daniels, the prosecutors said.Donald Jr had posted 30 tweets or retweets about Cohen’s testimony by lunchtime on Wednesday. Many of them championed the Republican congressmen who were loyally striving to criticize Cohen and save their leader.None, though, addressed the allegation about his own involvement. But one of the reimbursement cheques produced by Cohen offered a clue. It bore the signatures of two executives: Weisselberg and Donald John Trump Jr.Further dangers may await the Trumps down the road. Cohen said on Wednesday that he was unable to discuss his final contact with Trump last year, because that was being investigated by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.His questioner, the Democratic congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, tried again. Was Cohen aware of any further illegal activity or wrongdoing by Trump that had not yet been discussed?“Yes,” said Cohen. “And again, those are part of the investigation that’s currently being looked at by the southern district of New York.” Topics Michael Cohen Donald Trump Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr Russia Europe Trump administration analysis

From speeches by political figures to anti-war protests and climate marches, Glastonbury has been long known for its roots in activism and a strong political undercurrent. This year, the inspiration for some of the most potent political messaging was one looming theme: the prospect of a Boris Johnson premiership.As the late-night venue Shangri-La prepared to open on Thursday night, the familiar face of the Conservative leadership frontrunner was seen around the site. Alongside the subversive mock-advertisements with anti-capitalist slogans and climate change warnings, a Stanley Donwood print featuring the Uxbridge and South Ruislip MP sat proudly centre stage.“Unwanted: dead or alive – Boris ‘the’ Johnson,” the header on the print read. “52 years old, 5’ 9”, pale complexion, British-American, bellowing voice, annoying hair … stupid arse.”“People want them and they’re starting to print them out and put them up off their own back,” said Kaye Dunnings, the creative director of Shangri-La. “People feel now that they can be openly political and provocative – and that clear messaging works.”The posters, which were originally made during the 2016 Tory leadership race, are just one of several anti-Johnson statements made by artists and musicians at the festival.As the main stages opened on Friday, Glastonbury’s first headliner Stormzy was set to become the first black British solo artist to top the bill on the Pyramid stage, bringing grime to a mass audience.The last time Stormzy played the festival in 2017, the rapper whose real name is Michael Omari demanded the government was “held accountable” for the Grenfell fire. His first No 1 song, Vossi Bop, which topped the charts in May, included the lyrics “Fuck the government and fuck Boris” and the BBC was expected to broadcast an uncensored live feed of his set on Friday night.As well as the surreal takedowns of the politician who is favourite to become the next prime minister, there was disparaging work with a musical edge.Jonny Banger, a fashion designer who operates under the moniker of Sports Banger, hosts a “Mega Rave” on Saturday at the Stonebridge Bar, where 300 anti-Johnson T-shirts will be given away for free.Accompanied by the caption “Bumboys, hot totty and piccaninnies: Boris Johnson’s long record of sexist, homophobic and racist comments”, Wright is also selling his anti-Boris T-shirts for £15 online.Banger – whose bootleg fashion label uses well-known logos such as the Nike swoosh and combines them with others, such as the NHS logo, said: “I’ve never really seen myself as doing political T-shirts. But it got to the point where I was so angry and wanted to use the T-shirts to say something. He’s vile. He can’t answer a straight question. This country is built on class and favour rather than merit, and he’s pushing that narrative again. The T-shirts are born out of frustration.”In what was described by an audience member as a “very brave” move on Friday, Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative MP for Richmond Park and former London mayoral candidate, appeared on stage at Glastonbury’s Speaker’s Forum. to boos. Members of the audience unveiled a banner reading: “Tory policy kills. Don’t greenwash the lives lost to austerity.”Goldsmith, who is supporting the Uxbridge MP in the leadership race, said he would not be going to any anti-Johnson raves. “I can imagine what happens there and I’m not sure I would be the most welcome guest,” he said.As the festival gates opened on Wednesday, attendees were welcomed with new work from the anti-Brexit artists Cold War Steve and Led By Donkeys, who collaborated on a billboard that overlooked the entire festival site. A Johnson tweet from July 2017 – which read “There’s no plan for no deal, because we’re going to get a great deal” – was placed next to Cold War Steve’s signature surreal photoshopped images of politicians and pop culture figures juxtaposed with the EastEnders actor Steve McFadden.For Jane Tapp, a lecturer from Nottingham, Glastonbury has always been about politics, as well as music. “Some people who wouldn’t usually bother about politics might see something here that gets them interested,” she said.Paul Scotting, also a Nottingham-based lecturer, said the reaction to Johnson’s political rise risked trivialising him. “It’s a really bad situation and he’s dangerous,” he said. “We all do it, but that’s where he got where he is – by being a joke.”Justine and Mike Duffy, at Glastonbury for the first time with their daughters, were less critical. “There are a lot of children around and people are here to forget about all of that,” said Justine, a teaching assistant from Manchester. While Mike, who works in sales, said Johnson would not be his first choice for prime minister, he said he didn’t support the “character assassination” of him.“I think he could lose interest very quickly when the going gets tough,” he said. “Being mayor of London is a different proposition from being head of state.”Earlier this week, footage emerged of Johnson at the festival in 2000, where he took part in a walkabout tour with Billy Bragg, performed part of the Iliad and said there were lots of “natural Tories” at the festival who had a “strong libertarian ideology”. Topics Glastonbury 2019 Boris Johnson Festivals Glastonbury festival Music festivals news

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh joined all or most of the majority opinion.In a concurring opinion, Justice Kavanaugh wrote that the question before the court was a narrow one.He said it was beyond dispute that the government can deport immigrants convicted of some crimes and that it can detain them during deportation proceedings.The question the court decided, he wrote, was merely whether “the executive branch’s mandatory duty to detain a particular noncitizen when the noncitizen is released from criminal custody remains mandatory if the executive branch fails to immediately detain the noncitizen when the noncitizen is released from criminal custody.”It would be odd, he wrote, for that requirement to change, for example, “if the executive branch fails to immediately detain the noncitizen because of resource constraints or because the executive branch cannot immediately locate and apprehend the individual in question.”In dissent, Justice Breyer wrote that the case was neither narrow nor technical.“Under the government’s view,” he wrote, “the aliens subject to detention without a bail hearing may have been released from criminal custody years earlier, and may have established families and put down roots in a community.”“These aliens,” Justice Breyer wrote, “may then be detained for months, sometimes years, without the possibility of release; they may have been convicted of only minor crimes — for example, minor drug offenses, or crimes of ‘moral turpitude’ such as illegally downloading music or possessing stolen bus transfers; and they sometimes may be innocent spouses or children of a suspect person.”Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined the dissent in the case, Nielsen v. Preap, No. 16-1363.

A US school named Haight after a governor who espoused racist views is changing its name to Love Elementary. Haight Elementary in Alameda, near San Francisco, was named after Henry Huntly Haight, who in 1867 said allowing Asian Americans and African Americans to vote would "corrupt" political power.The school let the community choose a new name and settled on Love, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.This week, the school board approved the name change by five votes to zero.In his 1867 gubernatorial inauguration speech for California governor, Haight spoke out against giving Asian Americans and African Americans the right to vote "upon a conviction of the evils which would result to the whole country from corrupting the source of political power with elements so impure".He also referred to Asians as a "servile, effeminate and inferior race" and claimed giving them the vote would "pollute and desecrate" the democratic "heritage" of white Americans. Why the fuss over Confederate statues? US students topple Confederate monument Alameda Unified School District Superintendent Sean McPhetridge said Haight's views and name have no place at an elementary school."We must remember and learn our history," Mr McPhetridge said. "Everybody understood that the name could not stand. Haight could not stand. Love prevailed."The name will be scrapped from signs, stationery and the building itself.The move comes against the backdrop of a national debate around Confederate monuments. Last week, a school board in California voted to begin the process of renaming the Dixie School District because of its Confederate connotation.

President TrumpDonald John TrumpDemocrats request testimony from Trump's former Russia adviser Trump adviser: 'He should stop saying things that are untrue' US moves British ISIS suspects from Syria amid Turkish invasion MORE on Sunday promised a “very big trade deal” with a post-Brexit United Kingdom after meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit.Trump also described Johnson as “the right man for the job” to deliver Brexit in remarks to reporters following the leaders' breakfast meeting at the summit Biarritz, France.The face-to-face meeting marked the first between the two since Johnson took over as U.K. prime minister from Theresa May in July. Johnson has said he plans to withdraw the U.K. from the European Union by the deadline at the end of October, but it remains unclear exactly how it will happen.Both leaders on Sunday expressed optimism about the prospect of a bilateral trade deal between the United States and U.K. post-Brexit, though Johnson acknowledged there would be “tough talks” ahead.“We're having very good trade talks between the U.K. and ourselves. We're going to do a very big trade deal — bigger than we've ever had with the U.K.,” Trump told reporters.“At some point, they won't have the obstacle of — they won't have the anchor around their ankle because that's what they had,” Trump said, referring to the EU. “So, we're going to have some very good trade talks and big numbers.”Trump predicted the two countries would be able to agree to a deal on trade “pretty quickly.” Johnson said he wouldn’t “dissent” from Trump’s remarks but noted that trade negotiations in the past have proved difficult.“I have memories of American trade negotiations in the past, and I have a formidable respect for U.S. trade negotiations. And I know that there will be some tough talks ahead because, at the moment, you know, we still don't — I don’t think we sell a single joint of British lamb to the United States. We don't sell any beef. We don't sell any pork pies,” Johnson said.“And there are clearly huge opportunities for the U.K. to penetrate the American market in the way that we currently don't. And we're very interested to talk about that with you,” he said.In a joint statement following the meeting Sunday, Trump and Johnson said they directed their governments to launch a “Special Relationship Economic Working Group” to develop principles for increased bilateral cooperation for the two countries on economic issues.Trump is also meeting with other world leaders one-on-one Sunday, including Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Canadian Prime Minister Justin TrudeauJustin Pierre James TrudeauThe Hill's Morning Report - Dems to hit gas on impeachment Greta Thunberg: I don't understand why 'grown-ups' mock 'acting on the science' Thunberg leads climate change strike in Montreal MORE.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese e-commerce sites have removed Dolce & Gabbana products amid a spiralling backlash against an advertising campaign that was decried as racist by celebrities and on social media. The ads - released earlier this week to drum up interest in a Shanghai fashion show the Italian brand later canceled - featured a Chinese woman struggling to eat spaghetti and pizza with chopsticks, sparking criticism from consumers. The blunder was compounded when screenshots were circulated online of a private Instagram conversation, in which the brand’s designer Stefano Gabbana makes a reference to “China Ignorant Dirty Smelling Mafia” and uses the smiling poo emoji to describe the country. The brand said Gabbana’s account had been hacked. Amid calls for a boycott, the furore threatened to grow into a big setback for one of Italy’s best-known fashion brands in a crucial market, where rivals from Louis Vuitton of LVMH to Kering’s Gucci are vying to expand. Chinese customers account for more than a third of spending on luxury products worldwide, and are increasingly shopping for these in their home market rather than on overseas trips. China’s Kaola, an e-commerce platform belonging to China’s NetEase Inc confirmed it had removed Dolce & Gabbana products while luxury goods retailer Secoo said it removed the brand’s listings on Wednesday evening. On Yoox Net-A-Porter - owned by Cartier parent Richemont and a leading online high-end retailer - the label’s wares were no longer available on its platforms within China. The company declined to comment. Checks done by Reuters on Thursday morning also showed pages that previously linked to Dolce & Gabbana items on the e-commerce sites hosted by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and JD.com Inc were no longer available and searches for the brand returned no products. Alibaba and JD.com did not respond to requests for comment, and Dolce & Gabbana did not comment on the retailers’ moves. After its China missteps quickly went viral on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform, it apologised in a statement on the site. Celebrities including “Memoirs of a Geisha” movie star Zhang Ziyi criticized the brand, while singer Wang Junkai said he had terminated an agreement to be the brand’s ambassador. An airport duty fee shop in the southern Chinese city of Haikou said on Weibo it had removed all Dolce & Gabbana products from its shelves. The Communist Party Youth League, the youth wing of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, said on Weibo “we welcome foreign companies to invest and develop in China ... companies working in the country should respect China and Chinese people”. The gaffe is not the first by Dolce & Gabbana in China, even as it pushes to increase its appeal there. It came under fire on social media last year for another series of ads showing the grungy side of Chinese life. The unlisted firm does not publish earnings or disclose how much revenue it derives from China. Other uproars have come and gone in China without appearing to cause lasting damage, including at brands like Kering’s Balenciaga, which apologised in April amid a backlash over how some Chinese customers had been treated in Paris. But there was an increased chance such controversies could affect sales as buyers became more discerning about brands, some analysts said. FILE PHOTO: People walk past a Dolce & Gabbana store at a shopping complex in Shanghai, China November 22, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo“It’s a different market now – Chinese customers are more savvy, and there’s so much more choice,” said Sindy Liu, a London-based luxury marketing consultant. “A lot of western brands don’t really understand China that well when it comes to cultural sensitivities. But most brands are quite careful, they don’t do things that are humorous.” Controversial comments by designers can be devastating for luxury brands. In one of the worst fallouts from in the fashion world, Christian Dior, now fully part of LVMH, fired designer John Galliano in 2011 after a video of him surfaced hurling anti-Semitic abuse at people in a bar in Paris. Reporting by Pei Li and Cate Cadell in Beijing; Additional reporting by Sarah White in Paris and Claudia Cristoferi in Milan, Editing by Himani SarkarOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The lessons of the second world war risk being forgotten because of the rise of “extreme” rightwing leaders such as Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, the mayor of London has said.Before events to mark the start of the conflict 80 years ago, when Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, Sadiq Khan has branded Trump as “the global poster boy for white nationalism”, whose example is being followed by too many leaders across Europe, including Johnson.Writing in the Observer, Khan says Johnson and the Brexit party leader Nigel Farage are promoting similar far-right thinking in this country, and showing contempt for the European Union, which was established to prevent another world war after up to 85 million people died between 1939 and 1945.“The impact can also be seen in the UK, where the outsize influence of Nigel Farage and his Brexit party has pushed the Conservative party under Boris Johnson to become ever more rightwing and intolerant,” he says.Referring to Johnson’s decision last week to shut down parliament for five weeks before the 31 October Brexit deadline, Khan says: “Just last week we saw the disdain Boris Johnson has for parliament and our democracy.” The London mayor’s intervention is the latest in his extraordinary feud with the US president, whose language he compared to that of a “20th-century fascist” in the run-up to Trump’s state visit to the UK in June.Trump responded before landing in the UK on Air Force One with a vitriolic counter-tirade, accusing Khan of being a “stone-cold loser” who “by all accounts has done a terrible job as mayor of London [and] has been foolishly ‘nasty’ to the visiting president of the United States”. Trump also said the mayor should concentrate on tackling crime in London, rather than attacking the leader of the United States.Khan, who this weekend is visiting Gdansk – where some of the first shots of the war were fired – and the Polish capital, Warsaw, adds: “While I am not saying that we are reliving the 1930s or that another conflict is inevitable, alarm bells should be sounding. However, if we act now we can ensure another path is taken.”He says Poland faces “similar threats” under the ruling rightwing Law and Justice party, which “has allowed ‘LGBTQ+ free zones’ to be declared in more than 30 towns and cities.” In a “particularly worrying development,” he says, “the Polish government – at a time when antisemitism is on the rise – recently sought to make it a criminal offence, carrying jail time, to accuse the nation of complicity in Nazi war crimes.”Trump has regularly questioned the value of Nato and voiced strong support for Johnson’s determination that the UK should turn its back on the EU, saying he believes the new UK leader will be a “great” prime minister who will chart the country on a new course of independence and economic success.The president had been due to attend an anniversary event in Warsaw this weekend to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the war’s outbreak, but cancelled last week, citing concerns over Hurricane Dorian, a category 4 storm that is barrelling towards Florida. Mike Pence, the vice-president, will attend in his place. Topics Sadiq Khan The Observer Boris Johnson Donald Trump Second world war US politics Brexit Foreign policy news

Cuyahoga Falls is a middle-class suburb of industrial Akron, Ohio, a grid of leafy streets and comfortable homes bordered by the river. When Jim Jarmusch was a boy, he knew to steer clear of the water because, while the town might be placid, the Cuyahoga river was toxic. Pickling acids had stained it bright orange. Factory detergents had put a white froth on its surface. In June 1969, a spark from a train set the Cuyahoga alight and the flames jumped as high as a five‑storey building.Fifty years on, Jarmusch remembers it well. “It was not a pleasant thing to happen,” he says with the droll understatement that has become his signature style. “In fact, if you’re looking for a metaphor of modern American life, it doesn’t get more blatant than having your local river catch fire.”As a film-maker, Jarmusch likes to make movies about the world’s little details; about drifters and seekers and the rambling detours that add up to a life. It’s an area of interest that has served him well, from 1984’s meandering, monochrome Stranger Than Paradise through to 2016’s soulful, meditative Paterson. But it’s hard to focus on the small pictures when the big one is so scary: when a river is burning or the whole planet’s aflame. He says: “It’s clear we’re living in an ecological crisis and the situation is getting worse and worse. We’re threatened by the denial of science and by corporate greed. If this is the path that we keep going down, then it is only going to lead to the end of the world.”I first run into Jarmusch on the backstreets of Cannes in May this year, where his latest work, The Dead Don’t Die, opens the film festival as climate crisis protesters gather beside the Palais. A few weeks later I speak to him again on the phone at his house in upstate New York. He explains that while he maintains a bolt-hole in his adopted Manhattan, these days he prefers living out in the Catskills. He shares the house with his partner of four decades, the actor and film-maker Sara Driver. “This is family time,” the 66-year-old says. “I guess you could say I’m up here to recover.”The alternative view is that he’s hiding out in the woods; the silver fox of independent cinema lying low, gone to ground. If the apocalypse is pending, The Dead Don’t Die shows the way it might go, with polar fracking warping the planet’s axis, Trump-supporting racists spinning on their bar-stools, and an army of zombies shuffling up main street. Jarmusch keeps referring to the film as a comedy – pretty funny, plenty of jokes – but his sales patter carries a plaintive note. He knows the film is not as frothy as he meant it to be.He sighs. “The tone is different from what I anticipated. It’s a whole lot darker than I imagined, especially the ending. I try not to analyse these things too much, but that’s reflective of the world we’re in; the looming environmental crisis just became more and more of a cloud. I was working on this film for two years, and during that time it was as if the planet was changing on an almost daily basis.”Small wonder that the finished movie pulls in different directions and seems almost at war with itself. The tale sets forth as a jaunty, knowing deconstruction of the zombie genre, only to be caught in the crossfire of fatalism and despair. “This whole thing’s going to end badly,” warns Adam Driver’s small-town cop as the walking dead descend on Centerville, calling out for coffee and wifi, chardonnay and Xanax. The cast’s an amiable ragbag of Jarmusch’s buddies and collaborators. There’s Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, an undead Iggy Pop. Tom Waits co-stars as Hermit Bob, a rackety old recluse who lives in the forest and survives on squirrels and bugs. He knows what’s coming and accepts it with a shrug. “The world is fucked-up,” he informs us at the end.The film was shot near Jarmusch’s home, around the neighbouring towns of Kingston and Fleischmanns. This ought to have made the production simple, but somehow did not. The schedule was a nightmare; they only had Driver for three weeks. On top of that, it rained constantly. The director came down with the flu and broke a toe on the set. “And then we had to rush to get the thing finished so that we could give it to Cannes.” I have the sense that he’s still trying to figure out what he’s made. “I mean, I wouldn’t have changed the film at all. But I would probably have had more time to think about just what I was doing. It slipped out of my hands like a little child on the riverbank.”As a kid back in Akron, Jarmusch dreamed of slipping away, too. The place was too small, too conservative. Everyone worked for the rubber companies: his dad for BF Goodrich, his uncle for Goodyear, his neighbour for Firestone. His mum, Betty French, had been an arts reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal. She reviewed the young Marlon Brando in the Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire and covered the Hollywood wedding of Bogart and Bacall. But when she got married, she jacked in the day job and tucked herself away in a small upstairs office at home. Jarmusch remembers the sound of her picking away on an old Royal typewriter, turning out freelance articles for a local antiques magazine.He credits his mother for sparking an early interest in art, music and film. But he also drew inspiration from a more lurid source. The “ghost-host” Ghoulardi was a costumed presenter who introduced B-movies on Cleveland’s JWJ-TV station. The Dead Don’t Die contains a Ghoulardi poster in homage.“Well, he was a really important cultural figure,” Jarmusch explains, deadpan. “He had a TV show on Friday nights at 11.30 where he would show sci-fi, horror or monster films – mainly monster films. And he did all kinds of crazy stuff in between. He was this beatnik kind of guy with a goatee, dressed in a white lab coat with a fright wig, dark glasses with one lens missing. He used a lot of hipster catchphrases that were all made up. He’d explode model cars with cherry bombs and he had this early kinescopic effect where he would briefly place himself inside the film he was showing. So yeah, if you ask anyone who grew up in north-eastern Ohio in the 60s, we’re all familiar with Ghoulardi and his influence on us. I think Chrissie Hynde still has her original Ghoulardi T-shirt.”He pauses. “You know who Ghoulardi’s son is, right?” As it happens, I do. Ghoulardi was played by a TV announcer called Ernie Anderson who would later father Paul Thomas Anderson, the director of Magnolia, Boogie Nights and Phantom Thread. “I’ve only met Paul once, and the first thing I said to him was: ‘Your dad was Ghoulardi!’ He kind of rolled his eyes about it, but I mean, come on, that was my young bohemian dream – a weird dad like Ghoulardi.”Except why stop with Ghoulardi? Jarmusch is a pop-culture sponge. He soaks up pretty much everything and likes to quote Joe Strummer’s old motto: “No input, no output.” His films are made up of secondhand odds and sods, twisted to fit his own sensibility, possibly his own image. I tell him that they’re distinctive and stylish, sometimes to a fault.“Well, style is very important,” he says, unperturbed. “It’s what Martin Scorsese says differentiates all film-makers. Style is the important identifier of someone’s personal expression.”Hitchcock once said that drama is life with the dull bits cut out. But Jarmusch’s films seem expressly designed to test that maxim, turn it upside down. They glide over scenes that might form the centrepiece of a more conventional picture and salvage incidentals from the cutting-room floor. On his 1986 breakthrough, Down By Law, he rustled up a jailbreak drama that ignored the jailbreak. On the 1995 western Dead Man, he took a perverse delight in finding the most humdrum locations in Oregon and Arizona. At their best, his pictures are ruminative and poetic all-American stories that move with the unhurried pace of Asian arthouse cinema, or postcards from obscure places, complete with doodled footnotes. Reviewing 1989’s Mystery Train, Roger Ebert wrote: “The best thing about the film is that it takes you to an America you feel you ought to be able to find for yourself if you only knew where to look.”Naturally, Jarmusch says, the films are a reflection of him. “I know I have a laconic approach, time-wise. I know I talk kind of slowly. I probably think kind of slowly. I like slow music. I like slow films. That’s just inherent. Godard said that every film-maker makes the same film over and over. That’s probably true in my case.”Let’s talk about his personal style. That has remained a constant, too. Jarmusch’s hair began to whiten when he was in his mid-teens, round about the time that the Cuyahoga caught fire, with the result that he barely seems to have changed over the ensuing half-century. Compare a picture from the 80s with the Jarmusch of today and it’s hard to spot the difference. He has the same fine, handsome features, the same space-age quiff, the same dark charisma. In photographs, whether intentionally or not, he always appears to be striking a pose. It’s as though he views himself as a frontman for the pictures that he makes.But the suggestion makes him snort. The surest way to prick his aura of pristine cool is to ask about his aura of pristine cool. “I find that a ridiculous idea,” he says. “My personal style, how I look and dress – I don’t consider that to be a part of my art. It reminds me of when I was starting out and people would say: ‘Oh my God, he wears black clothes and dyes his hair white and he makes black-and-white films. What a pretentious asshole.’ Whereas none of these things was related to me. My hair was prematurely white. I started wearing black as a teenager because I liked Zorro and Johnny Cash. And then suddenly in New York it was like: ‘Oh, he’s a hipster.’ That’s just hilarious to me.”He thinks it over. “I mean, I suppose I’ve always thought from when I was a teenager that how you look and how you dress must reflect something about you. But I paid a lot more attention to it back then, when I was in Ohio, than I do now, because I just kind of stuck with it. I haven’t really changed.”When he first landed in New York, he wanted to be a poet or a musician, whichever came easier. More than anything he wanted to immerse himself, reinvent himself, put as much distance as possible between himself and Akron. It’s tempting to compare him to Andy Warhol, another escapee from the rust belt, or F Scott Fitzgerald’s Jay Gatsby, a gorgeous series of successful gestures. Actually, he says, Manhattan at the time wasn’t much prettier than Cuyahoga Falls with its poisonous river. This was 1977, the year of the blackout, the Summer of Sam; graffiti sprayed across the subway cars and the entire city on the verge of bankruptcy. But it was also a good time, a creative seedbed; the streets thrumming to the crosstown traffic of hip-hop and punk-rock.“It was dirty, it was dangerous. It was everything I’d dreamed of. And you’d go out at night, and yes, you’d see Andy Warhol. You’d see Ornette Coleman walking by, carrying a fucking horn case. I met [experimental film-maker] Jack Smith on the street and he was pushing a baby carriage full of garbage for one of his shows. He gave me a business card that said: ‘Jack Smith – exotic theatrical genius.’ I met Nico on the street and she invited me to come and have tea with her at the Chelsea hotel. It was…” He can’t get the words out. “It was magical. It was amazing. It was – wow.”Jarmusch’s early films were about men and women on the move. The fugitives out of Down By Law, the Memphis tourists in Mystery Train, the taxicab passengers from Night on Earth. Recently, though, his protagonists seem to be slowing down, circling towards rest, like the jaded Detroit vampires from Only Lovers Left Alive. In 2016, he ventured out to Paterson, New Jersey, the former home of the poet William Carlos Willams, to make what was arguably his simplest, most personal picture. Paterson spun the tale of a serene, bus-driving poet who folds the creation of great art into his daily routine. Jarmusch shot the film on location. He dragged his camera past the nail bars, pizza joints, factories and the river. Somewhere along the way, it struck him that Paterson, New Jersey, was a lot like Akron, Ohio – and that in making the film he was, in a sense, coming home.Paterson garnered some of the best reviews of the director’s career. It was seen as heartfelt and pure; weightless and transcendent. The Dead Don’t Die has prompted a more sniffy response. But that’s OK, Jarmusch insists. He knows his films have a tendency to split an audience. What some see as beautiful and strange others regard as artificial and contrived. He’s given up worrying about being misunderstood.Jarmusch says: “Here’s the thing: the dilemma for all film-makers. The beauty of cinema is that you’re basically walking into Plato’s cave. You’re going into a darkened room and entering a world you don’t know anything about. You’re going on a journey and you don’t know what to expect.” He pauses. “But if you’ve written the script and raised the money and shot the film and then sat in the editing suite for six months, then you are not going to be able to walk into that world. That experience has been robbed from you. The result is that you can’t see the film that you’ve made. The interpretations of others are more valid than your own.”Besides, he adds, if you stare long and hard enough at anything, you realise that pretty much every element is contradicted by another. That’s true of every movie; it’s true of every person. “Just look at me. I feel very strongly about the state of the planet. I find the actions of Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion to be very moving. But I’m also making a film that’s intended as genre entertainment. I drive a fossil-burning vehicle. I use credit cards and plastic. So what do I do? Is it only black or white? Am I only part of the problem or part of the solution?” He doesn’t know, he’s at a loss. “I’m not for negativity. I’m not a fatalist. I’m for the survival of beauty. I’m for the mystery of life.”I ask if he gets back to Ohio much these days and he says he doesn’t – there’s not much reason to visit. His mother died about a year ago; he had to go back then, to arrange the sale of her house. He adds that he still has a few close friends out in Cleveland, some of whom run the Blue Arrow record store. I ask how he feels about New York and he heaves a sigh. Change is good, by and large. He’s not nostalgic by nature. But it’s not the same place he came to as a weird kid with white hair.“Actually I like it less and less,” he says. “New York gave me so much energy when I was young and I’ve basically been cashing it in ever since. The city is demographically less varied. There are lots of younger people whose values I don’t really understand – I guess they just want to make money and hang out with models. It doesn’t seem to be about expression and art, the way it used to be. Maybe that’s unfair, I don’t know. These days I prefer being out in the woods by myself.”He’s sounding more like Hermit Bob by the second. Next thing we know, he’ll be eating squirrels and bugs. “Yeah well,” he shoots back. “The world is fucked up.”The Dead Don’t Die is released in the UK on Friday1984: Stranger Than Paradise Jarmusch set out his stall with a delightfully lugubrious road movie of sorts, which sent three square pegs (jazz musician John Lurie, drummer turned actor Richard Edson, and Hungarian-born Eszter Balint) rattling across America’s round holes. Shot in black and white on a budget of $125,000,the film won the Caméra d’Or award at Cannes and pointed the way ahead for US independent cinema.1989: Mystery Train The director’s fascination with US pop culture peaked with Mystery Train, a colourful Memphis portmanteau, paradoxically bankrolled with Japanese cash. The film’s winding course leads from the station to the dive bars to the insalubrious lobby of the Arcade hotel, where Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’s night clerk keeps a baleful eye on the foreign tourists.1995: Dead Man The hidebound American western took on a strange and bewitching new form with Dead Man, a tale of manifest destiny turned in on itself, seeing visions on the prairie and sandblasted by Neil Young’s elemental guitar score. Robert Mitchum gave his career swansong as a corroded 19th-century industrialist, while Johnny Depp headlined as wonky William Blake, a runaway accountant with a bullet lodged beside his heart.2014: Only Lovers Left AliveJarmusch confesses that he’s always been more of a vampire man than a zombie fan. He loves their refinement, their beauty, their decadent nocturnal existence. With Only Lovers Left Alive (starring Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston) he laid on a vampire film of his own, gliding around the exotic ruins of Detroit and trailing clouds of glory. Critics, inevitably, were keen to frame it as a thinly-veiled self-portrait.2016: Paterson Each day, Adam Driver’s modest young bus driver sets off on his route. Each day, he writes pure, simple poetry inside his notebook. Paterson tells us that routine is important, that small is beautiful and that the creation of art is as natural as breathing. It’s a film that – to misquote William Blake – sees the world in a bus timetable and heaven in the tatty old streets of a humdrum industrial town. Topics Jim Jarmusch The Observer Zombies interviews

Key Democratic and Republican lawmakers left their meetings with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Friday expressing confidence that he will cooperate with their ongoing antitrust investigation and that he understands the "gravity" of the issues facing his company.Zuckerberg, clad in a dark suit and tie, met privately with the bipartisan House lawmakers leading an antitrust probe into Big Tech, as well as the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, which has been focusing on issues around social media and election interference.The lawmakers' satisfaction marked a notable turnaround since the last time Zuckerberg embarked on a major visit to Washington in April 2018, when congressional leaders publicly lambasted him during two days of fiery hearings on Capitol Hill.Zuckerberg swung through a series of meetings in the House on Friday after huddling with several of his top critics in the Senate and President TrumpDonald John TrumpDemocrats request testimony from Trump's former Russia adviser Trump adviser: 'He should stop saying things that are untrue' US moves British ISIS suspects from Syria amid Turkish invasion MORE on Thursday.The tech executive spent the week discussing election security, privacy and market dominance issues behind closed doors for his first publicly known visit to D.C. since the post-Cambridge Analytica congressional hearings last year.On Friday, Rep. David Cicilline (R.I.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel, told reporters that Zuckerberg "made a commitment to cooperate with the investigation" during their sit-down, which included Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and staffers."I look forward to his cooperation," Cicilline said, noting the investigation will include "document requests, requests for information, participation in a number of different ways.""I take him at his word," added the Rhode Island Democrat, who has largely led the efforts into investigating the digital marketplace.Nadler's office did not immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment.Earlier in the day, Zuckerberg met with three powerful lawmakers, including the top Republican involved in the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust investigation, in a separate closed-door meeting.Zuckerberg sat down with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee Doug CollinsDouglas (Doug) Allen CollinsUS, UK sign agreement allowing British authorities to quickly obtain data from tech giants Joe Lieberman's son running for Senate in Georgia GOP rep: Pelosi would allow floor vote if this were a 'true' impeachment inquiry MORE (R-Ga.) behind closed doors, sources confirmed.McCarthy told reporters the meeting was "great," but declined to elaborate.Walden, who is helping guide the efforts to draw up federal privacy legislation in the House, said the conversation was "positive and robust."Collins said he discussed the antitrust investigation with Zuckerberg, emphasizing the tech CEO seemed "appreciative" that Collins and other members of the committee are working to get "information" rather than "coming at it from an angle of, 'Here's what we have to solve.' ""He wants to have his company be in business and do the things that they want to do, but he's also very sensitive to the notions of privacy and bias and other things that people have concerns about," Collins told reporters. "They're open to that because they're in the marketplace and they see those pressures. " Collins said Facebook has "always been very cooperative in questions we've had before."Just last week, Collins, Nadler and Cicilline signed onto a slew of document requests to Facebook and other top tech companies. The bipartisan antitrust leaders are seeking documents that could be used to determine whether large tech corporations have used their dominant market positions to quash competitors.Cicilline said he didn't discuss the specific document requests with Zuckerberg.Zuckerberg's charm offensive throughout the week comes as the government has ratcheted up its investigations into Facebook's size and market power.Facebook has also spent over a year facing aggressive scrutiny over a barrage of privacy scandals, how it handles extremist content, the platform's failure to stave off election interference, and much more.Rep. Adam SchiffAdam Bennett SchiffDemocrats request testimony from Trump's former Russia adviser Pence open to releasing transcripts of call with Ukraine Democrats plow ahead as Trump seeks to hobble impeachment effort MORE (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, met with Zuckerberg in the Capitol on Friday to discuss election interference on Facebook. After their meeting, Schiff said he believes Zuckerberg "appreciates the gravity" of the concerns around deepfakes — manipulated video footage that can make it appear as though people said or did things they did not. Schiff and other intelligence lawmakers have been pushing Facebook and other social media companies to do more on deepfakes, which can be used to spread disinformation around certain political candidates. "I wanted to raise my profound concern about the issue of deepfake technology and how it might be used to disrupt our election," Schiff told reporters. "They are very aware of the threat that it poses. They are in the process of developing what I hope will be very strong policies on this." The issue of deepfakes clamored into the spotlight earlier this year when Facebook declined to take down a user-posted video of Speaker Nancy PelosiNancy PelosiDemocrats request testimony from Trump's former Russia adviser Trey Gowdy joins Trump's legal team Tillis says impeachment is 'a waste of resources' MORE (D-Calif.) that was slowed down and edited to make it appear as though she was slurring her words. The hundreds of comments on the video indicated viewers thought the video showed Pelosi in real time. Shortly after, President Trump also shared a video to Twitter that was edited to make it seem like Pelosi was stumbling over her words.The videos of Pelosi were not deepfakes, as they did not edit the content of her remarks, but they reignited a larger conversation about how social media companies deal with manipulated footage, something that is expected to play a growing role in the upcoming presidential election.Zuckerberg continually declined to answer questions as a throng of reporters followed him from meeting to meeting on Capitol Hill this week.While the effort to reach out to lawmakers appeared to work with some members, at least one senator — Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) — left his sit-down with Zuckerberg unconvinced."There’s a lot of words that emanate from Facebook," Hawley told reporters after meeting with Zuckerberg for over an hour on Wednesday. "The company talks a lot. I’d like to see some action."Zuckerberg's visit comes as the company is facing antitrust probes from both the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice, as well as the House, while lawmakers in both chambers mull legislation that could curtail how Facebook collects and uses data.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil’s far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro said on Monday he would stick to his hardline agenda on guns, crime and graft in the second round of the election on Oct. 28, alarming senior statesmen and human rights advocates alike. Bolsonaro, a former Army captain and veteran lawmaker, nearly won the presidency outright on Sunday, taking 46 percent of votes against leftist Fernando Haddad’s 29 percent, part of a swing to the right in Latin America’s largest nation. As neither candidate won an outright majority, Bolsonaro will face Haddad, the former mayor of Sao Paulo representing the Workers Party (PT), in the second-round vote. Some Bolsonaro supporters called on him to moderate his message to ensure victory, but the candidate said he would not ease up on an anti-establishment message that has resonated with voters. The world’s fifth-most populous country has been roiled by years of rising crime, recession and graft scandals. “I can’t turn into a Little ‘Peace and Love’ Jair, which would be betraying who I am,” Bolsonaro said in a radio interview. “I have to keep being the same person.” His words were a thinly veiled swipe at former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who dropped his fiery leftist rhetoric to win the presidency in 2002, dubbing himself the “Peace and Love” candidate. Lula, who founded the Workers Party and was president until 2010, is serving 12 years in prison for a bribery conviction. Reflecting confidence that he will win the second round, Bolsonaro said he had already begun talks with other lawmakers in Congress to build an eventual governing coalition. That raised expectations of swift, market-friendly reforms. Brazil's benchmark Bovespa stock index .BVSP jumped 4.0 percent on Monday, led by double-digit gains in state-led oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4.SA) and state power companies which Bolsonaro advisers have said they will privatize. Related CoverageBrazil presidential candidate Bolsonaro says he poses no threat of coupBrazil's Haddad says presidential runoff will pit neo-liberalism against social gainsMarkets have cheered Bolsonaro’s advance toward the presidency since his recent conversion to free-market ideas under the tutelage of University of Chicago-trained economist Paulo Guedes. Signs that Bolsonaro could win enough support in Congress to push through his agenda added to enthusiasm. “Part of the market’s excitement comes from the renovation in Congress. Regardless of party, that provides hope,” said Pablo Syper, head of trading at Mirae Asset Global Investments. Bolsonaro’s popularity surged as exasperated Brazilians decided he represents the best chance to turn back a wave of violent crime and dismantle what prosecutors call the world’s largest political graft scheme. But his track record of fiery anti-democratic rhetoric, calls for police to kill as many criminals as possible and offensive comments on women and minorities have alarmed former presidents and observers across the political spectrum. Bolsonaro said in a TV Globo interview on Monday night that he posed “no threat of a coup” and that he was seeking to win office by the ballot only. Former Ceara Governor Ciro Gomes, who split with the PT and garnered 12 percent of first-round votes with his center-left presidential campaign, stopped short of endorsing Haddad for the second round but said he would “fight to defend democracy.” Asked whom he would endorse, Gomes referred to the slogan of anti-Bolsonaro protesters in recent weeks: “Not him, certainly.” With the field reduced to two candidates, some analysts see Haddad as the natural inheritor of many of the centrist votes that will be up for grabs, but the scale of Bolsonaro’s first-round success means that Haddad will have little room for maneuver. Jair Bolsonaro, far-right lawmaker and presidential candidate of the Social Liberal Party (PSL), arrives to cast his vote in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil October 7, 2018. REUTERS/Pilar OlivaresPolitical analysts said that to have a chance of winning the runoff, Haddad would need to move quickly to the center, distance himself from his political mentor, former President Lula, and denounce the corruption that flourished during his party’s 2003-2016 run in government.. However, one of his first moves on Monday was to fly to the southern city of Curitiba for a meeting with Lula in his prison cell, a weekly encounter that Haddad is authorized to make as a member of the former president’s legal team. At a news conference afterward, Haddad cast the second round as pitting Bolsonaro’s “neoliberalism” against the social programs that the PT has promoted. Allies recognized the uphill battle he faces. “It’s a tough situation, but God is with us. He better be, because just us isn’t enough,” joked Gilberto Carvalho, a former PT minister and senior party member. Brazil’s next Congress was also elected on Sunday, and in a seismic shift, Bolsonaro’s Social Liberal Party (PSL) was set to become the second-largest force in the legislature. The party would still need alliances to push Bolsonaro’s socially conservative policies and free-market reforms through Congress which was even more deeply fragmented after Sunday’s election. Thirty parties won seats in the lower house, up from 25 represented there before the vote. The acting president of the PSL, Luciano Bivar, told Reuters he expected to attract lawmakers converting from other parties, expanding the PSL’s ranks to overtake the PT as the largest party in the lower house. Slideshow (9 Images)“We’re going to have a huge caucus, perfectly governable, to pass the bills that the society is demanding — to conclude the reforms that are under way,” Bivar said, referring to stalled efforts to trim public pensions and close a budget deficit. Congressman Onyx Lorenzoni, the main political adviser to Bolsonaro, said his team was targeting individual lawmakers in parties opposed to the PT, including those in parties whose leaders do not yet support the right-winger. “We’ll speak with anybody who wishes to talk with us now, which is interesting because many of them did not want to have a dialogue with us before the first-round vote,” Lorenzoni said. Polling, issues and leading candidates in Brazil's election: tmsnrt.rs/2Ixe0NI Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter and Pedro Foneseca in Rio de JaneiroAdditional reporting and writing by Brad Brooks and Brad Haynes in Sao Paulo, Ricardo Brito and Lisandra Paraguassu in Brasilia, Claudia Violante in Sao Paulo; Editing by Daniel Flynn, Frances Kerry and Cynthia OstermanOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - The jury in the bank and tax fraud trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort ended its first day of deliberations on Thursday without reaching a verdict but with several questions, including how to define “reasonable doubt.” Defense attorneys Brian Ketcham, Kevin Downing, Richard Westling and Thomas Zehnle leave the U.S. District Courthouse following the first day of jury deliberations in former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's trial on bank and tax fraud charges stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S., August 16, 2018. REUTERS/Chris WattieThe six men and six women considered the charges against Manafort for around seven hours in the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia. They will resume deliberations Friday morning. The case is the first to go to trial stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. election, although the charges largely predate Manafort’s five months working on Trump’s campaign, including three as chairman. Before wrapping up their work for the day, the jurors asked U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis their first questions, including the definition of “reasonable doubt.” In a criminal case the jury must find a defendant guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt.” “The government is not required to prove beyond all possible doubt,” Ellis said, responding to a note from the jury with the questions. Ellis added that reasonable doubt was “doubt based on reason.” The other questions delved into details of the case. One involved the government’s requirement for taxpayers filing a report regarding the existence of a foreign bank account. Manafort is charged with failing to file reports of his overseas accounts to U.S. authorities for four years. Another question centered on the definition of a “shelf company,” a term referring to a type of inactive company, and legal filing requirements “related to income”. The last question involved how the list of exhibits matched the indictment. Defense lawyers saw the questions as a positive sign. “Overall, a very good day for Mr. Manafort,” Manafort lawyer Kevin Downing said at a bank of TV cameras outside the courthouse. Peter Carr, a spokesman for the prosecution, declined comment. Jury consultant Roy Futterman cautioned not to read too much into the jurors’ first note. “It’s not surprising the defense is given some hope by these questions because it sounds like they’re questioning some fundamental things,” Futterman said. “It would be a mistake to think this is a sign one way or the other.” Manafort faces five counts of filing false tax returns, four counts of failing to disclose his offshore bank accounts, and nine counts of bank fraud. If convicted on all the charges, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. Prosecutors offered evidence that Manafort hid $16 million earned as a political consultant for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine in overseas bank accounts, and used it to pay U.S. vendors for cars, clothes, and real estate without declaring the income on his tax returns. And when the work in Ukraine dried up, Manafort lied to banks to get more than $20 million in loans to maintain his upscale lifestyle, prosecutors showed during two-weeks of testimony. Closing arguments took place on Wednesday. The defense called no witnesses, arguing that prosecutors failed to prove their case. Manafort’s lawyers have pinned the blame on Rick Gates, his former protege, and others who handled his financial affairs. Gates was indicted by Mueller but pleaded guilty and testified for the prosecution. The jurors asked whether someone is required to file the report if they own less than 50 percent of the account, do not have signature authority but control disbursement of funds. Ellis read the jury the law, which requires U.S. taxpayers with at least $10,000 in a foreign bank account to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, known as a FBAR, to the Treasury Department. Despite having millions stashed in 31 overseas bank accounts, Manafort did not file FBARs between 2011 and 2014, prosecutors contend. During the trial Manafort’s lawyers raised questions about whether the law was applicable to Manafort. The jury’s question about shelf companies is likely related to Gates’ testimony. Gates spoke about shelf companies in Cyprus, entities he said he had been used by Ukrainian businessmen who made payments to Manafort. Ellis told the jurors to rely on their recollection when it came to the shelf companies. Slideshow (9 Images)As a general rule of thumb, jurors are thought to want to wrap up their work by the end of the day on Fridays. As they were waiting to be called into the courtroom to hear the answers to their questions, however, the jurors could be heard laughing, a sign they may not be in rush to complete their work, Futterman, the jury consultant, said. “If they’re all getting along well and laughing, you may be in for the long haul waiting for this deliberation to end.” Reporting by Nathan Layne and Karen Freifeld; Additional reporting by Amanda Becker and Sarah N. Lynch; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Grant McCoolOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

消息人士称，这种增强现实眼镜的内部代号为Orion（猎户座），旨在取代智能手机，能让用户接听电话，在一个小显示屏上向用户显示信息，并将其位置实时传输给社交媒体好友和粉丝。另据外媒此前报道，Facebook还在开发一种人工智能语音助手，能让用户通过语音方式向这种眼镜输入信号。此外，该公司还已开始实验一种环形设备，可让用户通过运动传感器输入信息，其内部代号为Agios。Facebook雷德蒙德办公室有数百名员工正在研究增强现实眼镜技术，但据一位参与开发这种设备的人员透露，到目前为止，Facebook一直都难以缩小这款设备的尺寸，因此从形状系数方面来看还无法吸引消费者。由于研制周期较长，因此无法保证这种眼镜将可按时完成或出货。但据一位熟悉这个项目的人士透露，Facebook CEO马克·扎克伯格（Mark Zuckerberg）对增强现实眼镜很有兴趣，并要求硬件负责人安德鲁·博斯沃思（Andrew Bosworth）优先考虑开发这种产品。Facebook拒绝就此消息置评，Luxottica也尚未对相关置评请求作出回应。并非只有Facebook相信增强现实智能眼镜将可成为计算领域中的下一种重大产品，微软已经开发了Hololens 2头盔，“阅后即焚”通信应用Snapchat母公司Snap正在出售智能眼镜，佛罗里达州创业公司Magic Leap则正在出售Magic Leap One AR眼镜。不过，这些设备都没能成为热门产品。据报道，苹果公司也在开发一款类似产品，最早可能在明年上市。Luxottica是雷朋、Oakley和其他一些太阳镜品牌的母公司，该公司此前试验过这项技术，曾在2014年与谷歌合作设计、开发和经销Google Glass设备。

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reportedly launched an investigation to determine whether Amazon controls an inappropriately large share of the retail market.Bloomberg News reported Wednesday that at least three merchants that sell products on Amazon's platform have been contacted by FTC investigators who are reportedly seeking to determine how much of their business relies on Amazon's services.Representatives for Amazon and the FTC declined a request for comment from The Hill. The probe follows a similar investigation launched by regulators in the European Union in July.Members of both parties in Washington have raised alarms about the growing dominance of tech companies in retail and other markets in recent months.Treasury Secretary Steven MnuchinSteven Terner MnuchinOn The Money: Judge tosses Trump lawsuit over NY tax return subpoena | US, Japan sign trade deals | Trump faces narrowing window for trade deals | NBA sparks anger with apology to China US, Chinese officials to meet Thursday for trade talks Tax-return whistleblower in spotlight amid impeachment fight MORE indicated support for the Justice Department's antitrust probe of top tech companies including Amazon earlier this year.“If you look at Amazon, although there’s certain benefits to it, they’ve destroyed the retail industry across the United States, so there’s no question they’ve limited competition,” Mnuchin said in July."There’s areas where they’ve hurt small businesses, so I don’t think this is a one-size-fits-all and I don’t have an opinion going other than I think it’s absolutely right that the attorney general is looking into these issues," he added at the time.A spokesperson for the Free & Fair Markets Initiative, a consumer watchdog focused on Amazon's business practices, applauded news of the probe in a statement on Twitter."It is welcome news to see that regulators are finally getting serious about taking on the unfair advantage Amazon has staked out on its platform," said Robert Engel, the group's spokesman.

On the whole it had been a rather agreeable bank holiday weekend in Biarritz. Some of the assembled world leaders might have been a bit meh and it was always disconcerting coming face to face with someone with an even greater personality disorder than your own but by and large everyone had rubbed along OK.Factor in the great morning swims, the food being better than expected, that he had even managed not to spill any wine on the sofa and this was pretty much how Boris Johnson had always imagined being prime minister would be. Plenty of photo ops, high-level schmoozing and no obligation to do anything much at all. Just fun, fun, fun and endless music for the thirsty narcissistic soul.The beauty of the G7 summit was that it was perfectly tailored to everyone’s needs. Each leader could come away with their own personal wellness experience of what had actually happened without fear of being contradicted. If you wanted it to have been about Iran that was OK. And if you wanted it to have been about marine conservation that was OK too. Much like a Gwyneth Paltrow-curated five-star spiritual retreat on Necker Island, only without the hassle of having to interact with Richard Branson.Still, all good things must come to an end and Johnson was in a hurry to get back to the UK. There was just one problem: he was due to give a press conference and the podium was currently occupied by Donald Trump who had decided to close the G7 with an hour-long, free-association therapy session.Yes, the US president was very much looking forward to hosting next year’s summit at his Miami retreat because everyone would have their own bungalow and there was plenty of parking. Yes, he might invite Vladimir Putin but there again he might not. Yes, he couldn’t see what the problem with the Northern Ireland backstop was because the Republic of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom. He knew that because he had a golf course there. Not that he was obsessed about money and property, but being president had cost him $5bn and he was paid zippo for public speaking. And why didn’t people talk so much about Englandland these days? Boris? Great guy. He didn’t know why he hadn’t been made prime minister six years ago. Possibly because there hadn’t been a vacancy in 2013.Johnson’s irritation at having his plane held up on the runway gradually gave way to a sense of calm. The advantage of being the next guy up after someone who is certifiable is that almost anything he said would sound sane in comparison. Once Trump had finally been dragged off stage there was a 20-minute recovery period for reporters before Boris delivered his own comedown debrief from his Ayahuasca experience. The G7 had marked a huge step forward for the Sumatran tiger, he declared. And he loved the environment so much he was going to give it £10m. Roughly the same amount he’d put aside for alimony.Predictably, no one was much interested in the intensity of the prime minister’s drug-induced hallucinations. What they really wanted to know was what he was intending to do about Brexit. Here Johnson’s zen-like mask of self-realisation began to slip and the furtive, guilty smirk crossed his face. Because the whole point of Brexit was that he didn’t actually have a plan. Other than to gaslight the country with a succession of competing and contradictory visions.On one day a no-deal Brexit might be a million to one shot and on the next it might be the most likely outcome. He might withhold the £39bn or he might hand it over. Whatever it took to get him through the day and to keep everyone guessing. After all, this wasn’t so much about getting Brexit done as keeping him in power for as long as possible. He liked the house, he liked the privilege and he couldn’t bear to be parted from them so soon. And if he didn’t know what he was doing, then none of the other EU leaders would know either. Politics as a form of fetishistic, sexual role play. Only with no safe word.“Pifflepafflewifflewaffle,” Johnson said, as he was asked several times about his willingness to prorogue parliament. Maybe yes, maybe no. He was like the wind. And no he couldn’t imagine why Philip Hammond might have thought No 10 had briefed that he had leaked the no-deal documents. The very idea. Johnson breathed deeply, willing himself to flash back to his altered state of consciousness. One where he was at one with himself and the world.He promised to take just two more questions but only took one. So easy to lose count. Besides, nothing was more important than maintaining the G7 vibe of Club 45-70. And chill. The comedown could wait another day. Topics G7 The politics sketch Boris Johnson Donald Trump Brexit Article 50 European Union Europe comment

I’ve been an Op-Ed columnist at The New York Times since 2017, writing mainly about politics, ideology and gender. These days people on the right and the left both use “liberal” as an epithet, but that’s basically what I am, though the nightmare of Donald Trump’s presidency has radicalized me and pushed me leftward. I’ve written three books, including one, in 2006, about the danger of right-wing populism in its religious fundamentalist guise. (My other two were about the global battle over reproductive rights and, in a brief detour from politics, about an adventurous Russian émigré who helped bring yoga to the West.) I love to travel; a long time ago, after my husband and I eloped, we spent a year backpacking through Asia. Now we live in Brooklyn with our son and daughter.ImageI’ve worked at The Times since 1999 and have been an Op-Ed columnist since 2016. I caught the journalism bug a very long time ago — first as a little kid in the late 1970s who loved reading the Boston Globe sports section and later as a teenager working on my high school and college newspapers. I discovered that when my classmates and I put a complaint in print, for everyone to see, school administrators actually paid attention. I’ve since worked as a metro reporter at The Washington Post and a writer at BusinessWeek magazine. At The Times, I started as a reporter in the business section and have also been a Times Magazine staff writer, the Washington bureau chief and the founding editor of The Upshot.My politics are left of center. But I’m also to the right of many Times readers. I think education reform has accomplished a lot. I think two-parent families are good for society. I think progressives should be realistic about the cultural conservatism that dominates much of this country. Most of all, however, I worry deeply about today’s Republican Party, which has become dangerously extreme. This country faces some huge challenges — inequality, climate change, the rise of China — and they’ll be very hard to solve without having both parties committed to the basic functioning of American democracy.