A two-year FBI investigation into kickbacks and corruption at the highest levels of US college basketball has borne fruit. Ten people, including ex-National Basketball Association (NBA) star Chuck Person and a senior executive at Adidas, are facing federal charges including bribery and fraud, US federal authorities said this morning.“The picture painted by the charges brought today is not a pretty one,” Joon H. Kim, acting US attorney of New York’s southern district at a press conference in Manhattan. “Coaches at some of the nation’s top programs soliciting and accepting cash bribes. Managers and financial advisers circling blue-chip prospects like coyotes. And employees of one of the world’s largest sportswear companies secretly funneling cash to the families of high school recruits.” The complaint (pdf) doesn’t name the company, but two of the people charged are Adidas employees.The case has cast a harsh light on brands’ involvement in college athletics, where students are not paid to play but can generate millions in revenue for schools and brands alike. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)’s total revenue in 2014 was nearly $1 billion.In one example detailed in the complaint, four of the defendants allegedly worked together to funnel $100,000 from the unnamed large sportswear company to the family of a high-school player. In return the player committed to play at an NCAA Division I university whose athletic programs are sponsored by the company. In another example, the company allegedly paid a high-school player $150,000 in exchange for a commitment to sign with with the company after the player left college basketball and became a professional athlete.Kim named four assistant coaches who were charged: Person, at Auburn University; Lamont Evans of Oklahoma State University; Emanuel Richardson of Arizona University; and Anthony Bland of the University of Southern California. As listed by USA Today, other people named in the court documents include:James Gatto (director of global sports marketing at Adidas), Merl Code (recently left Nike for Adidas), Christian Dawkins (NBA agent who was recently fired from ASM Sports for charging approximately $42,000 in Uber charges on a player’s credit card), Jonathan Brad Augustine (president of The League Initiative and program director of the Adidas-sponsored 1 Family AAU program), Munish Sood (a financial adviser), and Rishan Michel (former NBA official who founded Thompson Bespoke Clothing line).In a statement to the press, Adidas said it was aware that an employee had been arrested and would cooperate fully with authorities “to understand more.”

The saga of the Salisbury nerve agent poisonings is long, twisty and dark, but when the book or film comes out, the story of the Russian lingerie model, the rat poison and the Italian restaurant may emerge as one of the more bizarre subplots.At the centre is Anna Shapiro, a Russian-born model who has claimed that she and her husband, Alex King, were targeted by Moscow at the weekend a few metres from the bench where the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, collapsed after being poisoned with the nerve agent novichok.On the fringes of this is Edward Davenport, nicknamed “Fast Eddy”, a man famed for throwing risqué parties at a central London mansion frequented by rock gods and movie stars – and for being jailed for fraud.Trying to get to the bottom of it all is the Wiltshire police force, a restaurant chain that stated it did not use the rat poison strychnine at its Salisbury branch, and the good people of the city who could really do without more talk of Russian spies and poisonings.The tale began to unravel on Wednesday when police sources suggested that one line of inquiry could be that a hoax had taken place. The Sun, which published Shapiro’s claims, put out a statement distancing itself from her. Its original story about her claims is currently unavailable on the Sun’s website “for legal reasons”. A Sun spokesperson said: “Like any newspaper, we were keen to talk to those at the centre of the incident and in this case chose to give Ms Shapiro the opportunity to share with the public her version of events.”The spokesperson added: “Given recent tragic events in Salisbury, the reporting of an event requiring the evacuation of bars and restaurants … and that requires tests for the presence of novichok, is of obvious public interest.”Was she paid for her story? The spokesperson said such information would not be released.Back to the verifiable facts. A major incident was declared on Sunday evening in Salisbury after two people apparently fell ill at the Prezzo restaurant on the High Street. Streets were sealed off and experts in protective clothing rushed in to help. Police quickly downgraded the incident and made it clear that novichok was not involved but two people, a 42-year-old man and 30-year-old woman, were taken to hospital.The story may have faded – there have been other false alarms since the Skripal attack in March – but one witness revealed that she had been sitting next to the woman, whom she described as a “beautiful blonde girl”, a Russian. Reporters’ ears pricked up.On Tuesday evening Wiltshire police put out a statement saying they did not believe a crime had been committed, while admitting they had not yet established exactly what had happened. But they made it clear they were not linking the Prezzo incident to the poisonings of the Skripals and the Salisbury couple Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess, all of which have been blamed on Moscow.And then the next day the Sun hit the newsstands with a front page story in which Shapiro claimed she and her husband were the couple who had fallen ill in Prezzo in Salisbury and had been targeted by the Russians. She claimed her father was a Russian general and she had angered Moscow by turning her back on her homeland. Besides which, they thought she was a spy.The Sun suggested that King was fighting for his life and strychnine – rat poison – might have been to blame.On Wednesday afternoon, however, Salisbury district hospital confirmed both patients had been discharged. A spokeswoman said: “Both patients are now medically fit and there is no need for them to be in hospital.”Whether it all turns out to be a hoax or not, one thing is clear: Shapiro (apparently also known as Anna Webb or Chana Shapiro) is not shy of publicity. On her Twitter account she describes herself as a “London model living life to the max. Passion for travel, culture and healthy living”. Her Instagram account features images of her posing on beaches and yachts. But there is also a more serious side. Her interests according to her LinkedIn profile include the UN and Chatham House, the international affairs thinktank.She also has interesting friends. On Facebook there is a picture purporting to be her with “Fast Eddie” Davenport on a four-poster bed. She is in her underwear while Davenport and another man are in their pyjamas.There is another link with Davenport. Shapiro and King are listed as directors at Gem Locations UK, which offers “a wide range of services such as hospitality, entertainment, event management, location scouting and concierge”. The correspondence address for the company is 32 Portland Place, a mansion house in central London.Shapiro was not to be found on Wednesday but Davenport was at his London home – 32 Portland Place – working out in the basement gym. Like the police he seemed sceptical at Shapiro’s claims. “I’m not really convinced that she has got anything to do with [Vladimir] Putin, put it that way.” He said King was his friend but added: “I’ve never heard him talking about Putin before. I know Alex extremely well, but I haven’t seen a lot of him since he got together with the Russian girl.”Davenport explained the pair used to live nearby but had moved out some years ago. He described King as a “fun guy” who in 2006 won a £100,000 bet to get into a royal premiere. King did win the bet for getting into a screening of The History Boys and reportedly shook hands with Prince Charles.Clearly Davenport and King are skilful at garnering publicity. When the Independent newspaper was invited into Davenport’s mansion 10 years ago, King was Davenport’s press representative. King showed the Independent pictures of Davenport “cosying up” to well-known figures, including a government spin doctor and a rapper.There is yet another twist. On Saturday morning, the day before the Prezzo incident, a man seeming to claim to be Shapiro’s father, Aleksandr Shapiro, posted on Facebook that he was searching for his daughter. “I want to ask ... where and with whom is my daughter,” he wrote, adding that he believed Anna was being held against her will, and that he had gone to the police.According to data that had previously been public on his profile, Aleksandr Shapiro is 47 and lives in Nizhny Novgorod, an industrial city on the Volga river 250 miles east of Moscow. Anna Shapiro told the Sun she was born in the city.It may read like a stage farce but the story of Salisbury’s troubles is no laughing matter. Prezzo felt it had to put out a statement in response to the Sun’s mention of strychnine.A Prezzo spokesman said: “We wish to confirm that the chemical strychnine is not used in Prezzo in Salisbury. This has been verified through independent technical support. We have been informed that Wiltshire police are not linking the event on Sunday evening to the recent nerve agent poisonings in Salisbury and Amesbury and have made no suggestion that the illness was a result of anything present in our restaurant.”Prezzo announced that it would re-open from midday on Thursday. A spokesman said on Wednesday: “Wiltshire police have confirmed we can re-open. Our team have been readying the restaurant this evening and we will be open for business as usual from midday tomorrow.” Topics Novichok poisonings Russia Sergei Skripal Police Espionage Europe Social media news

When the “State of the Union” host, Jake Tapper, noted that Mr. Giuliani had previously told ABC News that Mr. Trump had suggested that Mr. Comey give Mr. Flynn a break, Mr. Giuliani insisted he had never made that comment.“That’s crazy. I have never said that,” Mr. Giuliani said. “I have always said the president denies it. Look, it’d be easier for me if the president did say that. Jay and I could defend that,” he said, referring to Jay Sekulow, another of the president’s lawyers.Last month, when pressed on ABC News by George Stephanopoulos about whether Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey he hoped he could see his way to ending the Flynn case, Mr. Giuliani interrupted him to say that Mr. Trump did not say that.“What he said to him was, ‘Can you give him a break?’” Mr. Giuliani said in that interview.In a letter that Mr. Trump’s previous lead lawyer, John Dowd, wrote to the office of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, the president’s legal team pointed out that Mr. Comey had never mentioned his memory of their February 2017 conversation about Mr. Flynn in previous testimony before Congress, and recalled it only after Mr. Trump fired him in May 2017.In his memo, Mr. Comey wrote that Mr. Trump had told him, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.”

(Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the constitutionality of two California laws restricting the ability of people to buy and carry firearms, rejecting appeals by gun rights advocates. FILE PHOTO: A Browning gun is surrendered during a gun buyback event at Los Angeles Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California May 31, 2014. REUTERS/Kevork Djansezian The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected challenges to Unsafe Handgun Act requirements that new semiautomatic pistols have chamber load indicators and magazine detachment mechanisms, both meant to limit accidental discharges, and microstamp their makes, models and serial numbers onto fired shell casings. A different panel of the same court upheld a 2015 amendment to California’s Gun-Free School Zone Act that forbade concealed carry permit holders from possessing firearms on school grounds, while letting retired police and other “peace” officers do so. Gun rights advocates said the handgun law violated their Second Amendment rights, and that both laws violated their Fourteenth Amendment equal protection rights. Lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The office of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, which defended the laws, did not immediately respond to a similar request. California has some of the nation’s most restrictive gun laws. Becerra was among 19 state attorneys general this week to call on the Trump administration to block a private company’s planned online release of 3-D printed gun blueprints. In the Unsafe Handgun Act decision, Circuit Judge Margaret McKeown wrote for a 2-1 majority that requiring new handguns to contain “modern technology” did not impose a substantial burden on gun buyers, and reasonably related to California’s interests in protecting public safety and tracing bullets at crime scenes. Circuit Judge Jay Bybee dissented on the microstamping provision, saying in a 51-page opinion the plaintiffs’ Second Amendment claims should be taken “seriously.” He said California’s “restrictive testing protocol” had since 2013 barred commercial sales of new handguns, allowing sales only of guns grandfathered from microstamping, and it was premature to say microstamping reasonably fit with California’s interest in solving handgun crimes. In the 3-0 schools decision, Circuit Judge John Owens said California could rationally decide that retired peace officers could have firearms on school grounds for self-protection, based on their prior exposure to crime, and protect public safety. He rejected a claim that the 2015 amendment was enacted to favor “politically powerful” retired officers and harm “politically unpopular” concealed carry permit holders. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Richard ChangOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Citizens of India’s northeastern states have been protesting vigorously against a proposed new citizenship regime that they claim will “destroy their culture” in the region. The protests have been diverse and dramatic—petitions, hunger strikes, effigy-burning, and a rebel militant group threatening to end talks with the Indian state.The source of their anger is the citizenship amendment bill, first tabled in the lower house of the Indian parliament in 2016. It is set to change the Citizenship Act of 1955, which has formed the basis of India’s citizenship regime since it gained independence from the British empire in 1947. The amendment seeks to allow select “persecuted minorities” (Hindus, Christians, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhist, and Jains) from the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan citizenship status in India after six years of residency. Other groups must wait 11 years to become naturalised citizens.In the northeastern states, the fear is that this amendment would legitimise the migration of Hindus from neighbouring Bangladesh in particular, potentially affecting the demographic make-up of the region.The bill will change the character of citizenship for India as a whole.When the bill’s parliamentary committee began touring the northeast in May, protests grew steadily larger, stronger, and more widespread. As almost 99% of their boundaries are international borders, the citizens of these states have been quick to point out that they would be the first “victims” of the new amendment if it makes it easier for minority immigrants to travel across the border, settle in, and become full citizens. The complaints are loudest in the state of Assam which has waged a four-decade struggle against the Indian state to prevent what some there call “unchecked infiltration” from neighbouring Bangladesh.The committee’s decision to visit the northeast—and the media coverage of the protests—have framed this as a northeastern issue, not a national concern. But in fact, the citizenship amendment bill will change the character of citizenship not just for this region, but for India as a whole.When India achieved independence, its citizenship regime was established on the basis of jus soli (birth within a territory), meaning that people were members of the political community regardless of their religion or ethnicity. While the mistrust of Muslims has persisted into present-day India, particularly in the recent years with growing Hindu right-wing populism, the law has so far upheld the secular, non-religious character of the Indian state. The citizenship amendment bill would fundamentally alter this basic tenet, shifting the basis of citizenship towards jus sanguinis (by right of blood).But as historians such as Joya Chatterji and Ornit Shani have documented, there have been frequent challenges to the principle of citizenship by birth, especially in the period immediately after the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947.In contrast to Muslims, Hindus were from the start considered “natural citizens” of India. Muslim citizens of pre-independence India were ostensibly given a choice between the two countries, but in practice, they were subjected to arbitrary processes to “prove” their loyalty to the Indian state. Similar demands were not made of Hindu citizens crossing the border from newly-formed Pakistan back into India.Regardless of which states or regions would be most affected by a sizeable influx of migrants, the bill changes the character of Indian citizenship and the basis on which it is granted, moving from secular to overtly favouring specific groups, particularly Hindus. It opens the door for the creation of second-class citizenship for non-Hindus and most of all Muslims, not just in the extra-legal practices of discrimination and violence that exist today, but in the law.The bill also leaves out Muslim minorities in Pakistan, such as Shias and Ahmadis.Given that India repeatedly fails its own minorities, perhaps it’s not surprising that it is only prepared to offer refuge and asylum on the basis of ethnicity, not humanitarian need. It’s no coincidence that this amendment was introduced by the ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), led by prime minister Narendra Modi, which has an abysmal track record in protecting India’s minorities, whether they are Muslims, Christians, or Dalits. Nor has it shown any inclination to help rehabilitate south Asia’s largest persecuted minority, the Rohingya.Furthermore, the bill also leaves out Muslim minorities in Pakistan, such as Shias and Ahmadis. There is also speculation about whether the bill is a means to appease India’s Hindu diaspora abroad—an important funding base for the ruling party.Even the relatively hardline BJP is not immune to public resistance. The protests in the northeast prompted India’s government to backtrack and table discussions to address what it euphemistically referred to as “people’s concerns.” But by framing the amendment as a regional issue, the government has managed to confine public opposition to the people of the northeast. Because the region is already marginalised in Indian politics, the rest of the country is often apathetic about its concerns, which rarely become pan-Indian ones.Still, that the citizens of the northeast are protesting so vehemently—whatever their precise grievances—is currently the only sign of dissent. Unless it feels the heat of visible and vocal public outrage, the Indian state is likely to continue its slide towards becoming a very different, less inclusive, and increasingly more unjust country.Saba Sharma, PhD candidate in Geography, University of Cambridge. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. We welcome your comments at ideas.india@qz.com.

Apple said today that it would delay the launch of its HomePod smart speaker device until early 2018, saying in a statement that “we need more time” to complete the product. The HomePod was announced back in June at Apple’s WWDC keynote, and the original plan was to get the device on store shelves in time for the holiday season.You can take Apple’s decision to push off the release in a couple of different ways. Below, Harry McCracken gives the optimistic take, while Mark Sullivan provides a more cynical view.Better Right Than FirstHarry McCracken: Whenever I hear about a tech company postponing a product’s launch on the grounds that it isn’t ready yet, a little voice in the back of my head stands up and cheers. The history of consumer technology abounds with examples of stuff that came out on time, more or less, but was rife with bugs or otherwise unsatisfying. That wastes everybody’s time. Tech companies that admit they misjudged their timetable may suffer momentary embarrassment and mess up their short-term financial projections, but they do it in the interest of serving customers.You don’t have to delve very far into Apple history to find evidence of the wisdom of punting on a launch until the product is ready. Last year, the company’s AirPod wireless earbuds were originally due to ship in October—but when the month was almost over, the company said, as it has with HomePod, that it needed “a little more time” to finish up work on them. There were multiple theories about the reason for the delay, all involving the challenges of making the tiny stick-like headphones work reliably. But when AirPods finally did show up in December, they worked well—and people snapped them up so enthusiastically that Apple coudn’t keep them in stock.The Early Announcement Blows UpMark Sullivan: I fully agree that it’s in Apple’s interest to release a complete, polished HomePod. After all, if the thing underwhelms the first customers who buy it, it may not get another chance. And we are talking about a platform war here.The term “smart speaker” is misleading for this category, because the devices are really vehicles for the natural language personal digital assistants (such as Alexa and Siri) we’ve grown accustomed to relying on. Sure, these assistants can play music, but their biggest job is enabling us to control lots of other connected devices in the home using our voice. The number of controllable devices will continue to increase over time. So the decision to buy a smart speaker could lead you to buy other products that play well with that same platform and respond to the same assistant–in this case, Siri. There’s more at stake than the one-off sale of a single device.And that’s part of the reason I believe Apple announced the HomePod so long before it was a finished product. Knowing that consumers now have multiple options when it comes to smart speakers, and that many of them would buy them during the holiday season, it may have sought to delay those buying decisions until it had its own smart speaker on the market. Consumers who were all set to buy an Amazon Echo or Google Home (and later, perhaps, other products that speak the same language) might have put off doing so until they could see what Apple had to offer.I’m not sure Apple could have foreseen back in June that it would have to delay the product into next year. The company may have been able to release a basic, first-generation smart speaker–like the first versions of Amazon Echo and Google Home. But those companies released a whole new generation of smart speakers (and variations on smart speakers) this fall in anticipation of the holiday shopping season. They also introduced a new generation of features, like voice support for multiple accounts and more advanced connected home control features. Apple may have decided it needs more time to build those features into HomePod.Amazon, Google, and Microsoft/Harman Kardon also released new products (the Amazon Echo 2, Google Home Max, and Invoke, respectively) this fall that, like the HomePod, emphasize high-quality audio, an area where Apple was clearly poised to be ahead of the competition as of its announcement last summer.Still In SuspenseHM: My own advice to people who have been coveting a HomePod is to bide their time until it’s available before buying any product in its category. Put a raincheck under the Christmas tree if necessary! I suspect that Apple has enough of a critical mass of patient fans that missing this holiday season won’t cede the market to the Echo 2 or Home Max or some other high-end smart speaker.For me, the aspect of the delay that’s most intriguing is that it means we’ll end the year without a fully formed sense of exactly what HomePod is. Back at WWDC, Apple’s explanation of the new device during the keynote and a listening session for journalists had a willfully incomplete feel to them: The company pitched the speaker as a Sonos-esque music machine tied to the Apple Music service and didn’t address the other potential implications of turning Siri into an ambient household presence. I even witnessed an Apple exec respond to reporters’ questions about HomePod’s capabilities by smiling enigmatically and saying there was more news to come.At the time, I figured that Apple was holding back some nifty features to show off at a HomePod-centric event later in the year, just to whip up fresh excitement at an opportune time. The company may well hold such an event next year. But until it explains this new product in detail, the HomePod isn’t just late: It’s also a tad mysterious.

Thousands of women, children and men have taken cover underground in unfinished basements, bunkers and tunnels to survive the Syrian government’s bombing campaign on the rebel-held district of Eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of Damascus. Food is scarce, privacy and hygiene nearly absent. Bathrooms are typically a corner of the room, roped off with curtains.The...

Good morning.(Want to get California Today by email? Here’s the sign-up.)President Trump has taken one of his strongest shots yet at California, as the White House on Thursday unveiled its proposal to throttle back President Barack Obama’s regulations on planet-warming vehicle tailpipe pollution — including a plan to revoke California’s right to set its own standard.The administration’s proposal, jointly published by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department, would roll back a 2012 rule that required automakers to nearly double the fuel economy of passenger vehicles to an average of about 54 miles per gallon by 2025. It would halt requirements that automakers build cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars, including hybrids and electric vehicles.The new proposal would freeze the increase of average fuel economy standards after 2021 at about 37 miles per gallon, while challenging a legal waiver — granted to California under the 1970 Clean Air Act and now followed by 13 other states — that lets those states set more stringent pollution standards than the federal government’s.Gov. Jerry Brown did not mince words in his response: “For Trump to now destroy a law first enacted at the request of Ronald Reagan five decades ago is a betrayal and an assault on the health of Americans everywhere,” he said.Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced that he would lead a 19-state lawsuit against the proposal once it was finalized.Speaking of the wildfires now ripping through Northern California, and noting the scientific conclusions that a hotter, drier planet caused by climate change can worsen such fires, Mr. Becerra said, “The pollution we’re all seeing, and certainly here in Los Angeles, that pollution is fueling the death and destruction we’re seeing here in California.”Once filed, such a lawsuit could drag on for years. If the states win, it could split the national auto market in two — an outcome that automakers have called a worst-case scenario.In hopes of avoiding that end, William Wehrum, the top clean air official at the E.P.A., said he still would like to find a way to broker a deal with California over the rule before it is finalized, probably this year or early next year.California Online(Please note: We regularly highlight articles on news sites that have limited access for nonsubscribers.)ImageCalifornia is home to 400,000 electric vehicles — more than any other state — in part because of its size and its Zero-Emissions Vehicle program.CreditJason Henry for The New York Times• Mr. Trump’s rollback of auto emissions rules could upend California’s electric car industry. [McClatchy]• California will also join a lawsuit against the Trump administration to block the release of blueprints for 3-D printed guns. [The Los Angeles Times]• Of the 81 candidates Mr. Obama endorsed for the midterm elections, 10 were California Democrats. [CALmatters]• The Mendocino Complex Fires have burned more than 110,000 acres and are still growing. New evacuation orders have been issued as the blazes resist containment. [San Francisco Chronicle]ImageApple became worth more than $1 trillion on Thursday, its shares climbing 3 percent to end the day at $207.39.CreditJason Henry for The New York Times• Two decades ago, Apple was on the brink of bankruptcy. Now it’s the first publicly traded American company to be worth more than $1 trillion. [The New York Times]• How much is that, exactly? You’d need dozens of major companies — or entire industries — to match Apple’s market value. Take a look with this interactive. [The New York Times]• A donation from a prominent L.A. politician has roiled U.S.C., which had hired him as a professor and awarded him a scholarship. Now the university has started an investigation and referred the case to federal prosecutors. [The Los Angeles Times]• The killing of Nia Wilson at a BART station last month “brings into brutal focus multiple American crises,” a New Yorker writer notes. [The New Yorker]• “They do not like Californians.” Some fleeing their expensive home state have met resistance from their new neighbors in the Pacific Northwest. [SFGate]• Blaze Bernstein, the Orange County college student who was found stabbed to death earlier this year, was targeted by a former classmate for being gay, prosecutors said. The suspect will now face hate crime charges. [Orange County Register]• A Salinas-based produce company has been linked to tainted bagged salad mixes that have sickened people at McDonald’s restaurants and grocery stores across the country. [The Los Angeles Times]• San Francisco health officials will now track electric scooter injuries. [The New York Times]• The selection of Klaus Biesenbach as the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles drew fanfare from some, but it also raised questions about the museum’s commitment to diversity. [The New York Times]ImageA Marine training at Camp Pendleton in July.CreditMike Blake/Reuters• “I think I’m just really grateful to be alive.” A former Marine officer spent time at Camp Pendleton and was deployed to Australia and East Asia before settling in San Francisco. Now he wrestles with ambivalence for never having seen combat while serving. [The New York Times]• Los Angeles could become the largest American city to ban selling fur. A new proposal is pushing City Hall to take a stand against animal cruelty. [The Los Angeles Times]• Los Alamos, a tiny town in the Santa Ynez Valley, might be the best place to go wine tasting in California. [Travel + Leisure]And Finally …ImageCelia Corona rescued an injured cat in Redding last week.CreditJosh Edelson/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesEvacuation orders in parts of Redding have been lifted, and residents are finally returning home even as the Carr Fire continues to rage in Northern California. Human evacuees crowded into shelters, but several locations did not accept their four-legged companions.One animal shelter, in a strip mall outside Redding, opened its doors to pets that had been left behind. Its population surged: The Haven Humane Society became home to 600 dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, box turtles and one tortoise, according to The Guardian.“It’s been heartbreaking and overwhelmingly joyful,” a volunteer at the shelter told The Guardian. “People lose everything, but then their animals are here still.”And some animals banded together. Grass Valley firefighters discovered a chicken and a cat huddled together on a porch. Both were treated for burns, but the new friends are expected to make full recoveries.California Today goes live at 6 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: [email protected] Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.

The Resistance Now is a weekly update on the people, action and ideas driving the protest movement in the US. If you’re not already receiving it by email, subscribe.A group of religious figures in Indiana are hoping to launch a gun buyback program in Indianapolis in a bid to curb the city’s rising gun violence.Rev David W Greene Sr and Rev Wayne L Moore, president of the Baptist Ministers Alliance, met with Indianapolis police last week to try to sell the program, which could see people rewarded with iPads if they turn in a gun.“There’s some urgency given the statistics we have at the moment,” Greene told the Indianapolis Star. “We’re trying to get it as soon as possible.”There have been record numbers of “criminal homicides” in Indianapolis in each of the last three years, the Star reported.One sticking point is likely to be that buyback programs have little history of success – with people using the opportunity to turn in old weapons that are not being used to commit crime.Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, the state legislature sent nine new gun-control bills to Governor Jerry Brown on Wednesday.“Among the legislation waiting approval by Brown are proposals to lift the age for buying rifles and shotguns from 18 to 21, and to prohibit the purchase of more than one long gun a month,” the Los Angeles Times reported.Seventy people were arrested on Capitol Hill on Tuesday as the first day of the hearings on supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh got under way.While Cory Booker was busy launching his 2020 presidential campaign, protesters had gathered in a bid to resist Kavanaugh, who they fear could be a vote in reversing Roe v Wade abortion rights.As activists heckled Kavanaugh, Democrat Dianne Feinstein apologized to Kavanaugh for their behavior, which seemed rather ill-judged.Bernie Sanders and the California Democrat Ro Khanna introduced their Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies act – AKA the Bezos Act – this week.The snappily named legislation would “end taxpayer subsidization of corporations’ low wages”, the pair said, by placing a tax on large companies which is equal to the value of the public subsidies that the company’s workers receive.“We do not believe that taxpayers should have to expend huge sums of money subsidizing profitable corporations owned by some of the wealthiest people in this country. That’s what a rigged economy is about,” Sanders said.(The subheading above is also an acronym, by the way – just a bad one.) Topics US gun control The Resistance Now Brett Kavanaugh US supreme court US economy features

Saeed al-Masri rushed to the site of the bombing in the town of Saqba, in the rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghouta.When the volunteer rescue worker arrived in the ambulance he realised it was his street that had been bombed. Then he realised it was his home. His three-month-old son, Yehya, was inside along with his wife.“I cannot describe the scene,” he said in a phone interview with the Guardian about the incident earlier this month. “I have seen many children under the rubble, but I had been waiting for my boy for four years.” The couple had waited a long time for another child, their two daughters having died shortly after birth. Unthinking, he ran into his house, climbed the stairs and found his baby bleeding with cuts from shattered glass. His wife was screaming.Yehya, whose name means “to live”, was taken to the medical centre and Masri went back to the scene to help the other wounded residents. Masri is a volunteer with the White Helmets, a group that conducts search and rescue operations in the rubble after the Syrian government and its allies conduct airstrikes and bombings in opposition-held areas. With cameras mounted on their helmets, they have documented countless moments of heartbreak and distress across the country. Nearly 400,000 civilians have been under siege in eastern Ghouta since 2013. The region, once the breadbasket of nearby Damascus, witnessed the worst chemical atrocity of the seven-year war when more than 1,000 people were killed when Bashar al-Assad’s forces bombed it with sarin gas. Violence has escalated in the area over the past three months as the government reportedly prepares for a ground assault on the enclave. More than 500 people have been killed in eastern Ghouta over the last eight days, prompting worldwide condemnation of what the UN secretary general, António Guterres, described as hell on earth.The scale of the violence has left first responders struggling to cope. Masri and others like him live with the knowledge that their homes might be levelled any day. “My family is at home, but at each second I expect there to be an airstrike; that my wife, my child, my father, my mother might die,” he said.Ten White Helmet volunteers have been killed in Syria over the past month, including two in eastern Ghouta. Half of them were killed in what are known as “double-tap” strikes, in which a plane bombs an area and then returns to attack it again after rescue workers have arrived. Eight volunteers have been wounded in Ghouta, including two in an alleged chlorine attack on Sunday night.The group, also known as the Syrian Civil Defence, has been subjected to online smear campaigns conducted by internet trolls and conspiracy theorists who accuse them of being stage actors affiliated with al-Qaida. But they have continued to operate in areas outside government control, rescuing people trapped under the rubble after government airstrikes. “All the volunteers in Ghouta have been mobilised and are working every day, and yet we cannot keep up with the shelling, which is hysterical and is happening with all manner of weapons,” said Mounir Mustafa, the organisation’s deputy chief. “The regime is using double-tap strikes which is leading to the wounding and killing of the volunteers.” Human rights groups have repeatedly condemned the double-tap strategy and its use to cause maximum casualties, but for Masri and his baby, who survived the bombing with stitches to his face, the international community has offered little, if any help. “We’ve talked a lot and nobody has responded to us,” he said. “The screens show everything [that is happening here]. But unfortunately nobody is helping.”A UN security council resolution demanding a 30-day ceasefire across the country was passed unanimously on Saturday, but the Assad and his patrons, Russian and Iran, have continued the onslaught under the guise of fighting terrorists. More than two dozen people were killed in the first 36 hours that followed the passing of the resolution, which was supposed to go into effect without delay.Instead, in a sign of Moscow’s primacy in Syrian affairs, Vladimir Putin essentially replaced the resolution with his own proposal for a “humanitarian pause” in the fighting every day from 9am to 2pm.The announcement by Russia’s defense minister demonstrated how little the international community can, or is willing, to do to alleviate Syria’s misery. Even the Russian move, however, did not halt the violence.“The Syrian regime and its Russian allies are continuing to try and destroy this society,” said another rescue worker. “After the [UN] agreement, they used weapons that had not been used in past days. They used chlorine, they used phosphorus, there were new massacres, there were children and women that the civil defence could not rescue from under the rubble. There is blood and body parts in the street.“I cannot say anything except damn the whole world, and damn everything. God is with us, and he is the protector,” he said. Topics Syria Bashar al-Assad Middle East and North Africa Vladimir Putin Russia Iran features

India’s solar power sector is staring at yet another policy intervention that could put the viability of projects in the country under question.The Narendra Modi government is expected to impose an anti-dumping duty (ADD) on imported solar panels in order to boost sales of locally made ones. This is bound to increase the costs of setting up power plants as 89% of the solar panels used in India are imported, mostly from China, Taiwan, and Malaysia whose products are around 10% cheaper than locally made ones.“If the anti-dumping duty is imposed—which is likely, very strongly likely—then it will make life easier for domestic producers (of solar panels),” said Amit Kumar, a partner at consulting firm PwC, who focuses on the renewables sector. An ADD of, say, 25% will allow a similar hike in prices of local products, too, bringing down the homegrown firms’ losses, Kumar added.But that’s bad news for India’s solar power producers.In the last few months, activity in India’s solar energy sector has stalled. The industry is struggling with rising solar panel prices and flat power demand, while, on its part, the government hasn’t held auctions for solar projects. The sector is lagging India’s target of installing 100 gigawatts (GW, or 1,000 megawatts) of plants by 2022.The ADD is likely to make projects even less viable. Developers are already being forced to quote low tariffs to win the few available projects, risking low returns, and an increase in costs due to the duties would add even more pressure.In July, the India Solar Manufacturers Association (ISMA), a group of firms that make solar modules, filed a petition with the government to probe solar cell and module imports. Typically, the government takes around a year to act—impose duties if necessary—on such pleas. It may also choose to impose a provisional duty while the probe is on. In the past, such provisional duties have been brought in around seven months after a petition is filed, according to renewable energy consultancy firm Bridge to India (BTI). This year, such an intervention may already be around the corner.“(There) is a very strong buzz in the industry that a duty announcement is about to come anytime now,” BTI said in a Nov. 15 report (pdf). “The government is under pressure about the poor state of manufacturing…If DGAD (Directorate General of Anti-Dumping & Allied Duty) and the ministry of finance are sympathetic to the case, it is certainly possible that a provisional or anti-dumping duty may be imposed imminently.”A hefty ADD could potentially leave power producers without enough buyers. “If the duty is very sharp, the tariff will go up very sharply and…the discoms (distribution companies) will not buy the power. Then the solar sector will come down dramatically,” said Sunil Jain, CEO of Hero Future Energies, a renewable power producer with 500 MW of installed capacity. It is unclear whether the discoms have the appetite for expensive power, PwC’s Kumar added.As of Sept. 30, around 10,842 MW of solar projects were in the pipeline, according to BTI, and they could be jeopardised by the provisional duty or ADD. Even projects yet to be auctioned and assigned to power producers—around 2,655 MW as per BTI’s estimates—could be hit.

Enlarge this image Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh prepares to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday on the third day of his Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh prepares to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday on the third day of his Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Updated at 10:55 p.m. ETSupreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh weathered another long day of questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday.He was pressed once again for his views on presidential power.Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., sought a promise from Kavanaugh that he would be willing to serve as a check on the president who nominated him."Give us some reassurance about your commitment to the democratic institutions in this country, in the face of a president who seems prepared to cast them aside," Durbin said. "Whether it's voter suppression, the role of the media — case after case, we hear this president willing to walk away from the rule of law in this country." Analysis Kavanaugh's Confirmation Hearings: What's Wrong With This Picture? "No one is above the law," Kavanaugh replied. "I've made clear in my writings that a court order that requires a president to do something or prohibits a president from doing something under the Constitution or laws of the United States is the final word in our system."Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, complained that the Supreme Court had been unduly deferential to President Trump this summer when it upheld his travel ban, despite what she called the administration's "obviously bogus" justification. She pressed Kavanaugh on when the high court should question a president's national security claims. Politics Kavanaugh Hearings, Day 2: More Protests As Senators Press On Precedent "National security is not a blank check for the president," Kavanaugh said, pointing to a number of cases in which the court had overruled the administration. "Even in the context of wartime, the courts are not silenced. Civil liberties are not silent."Kavanaugh told lawmakers he is so committed to judicial independence, he stopped voting in national elections after he became a judge.Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., again asked Kavanaugh if he'd ever spoken with anyone at the law firm of Trump's personal attorney Marc Kasowitz about special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, renewing a line of questioning she'd opened Wednesday night. Politics Kavanaugh Defends Controversial Abortion, Gun-Control Dissents "The answer is no," Kavanaugh said.As he's done throughout the hearing, Kavanaugh declined to answer a series of questions from Harris about issues that might come before the high court, including abortion, same-sex marriage and immigration.The White House issued a statement late Thursday praising Kavanaugh."Through long hours and days of questioning, Judge Kavanaugh consistently reinforced his firm belief in the bedrock principles of judicial independence and the rule of law," deputy press secretary Raj Shah said in the statement.Kavanaugh was asked repeatedly during the televised hearing about whether he would support opening the Supreme Court to TV cameras. He promised to keep an open mind, but said he would also want to consider the views of the eight current justices.Thursday's session began with Democrats on the committee in open revolt over the handling of documents from Kavanaugh's tenure in the George W. Bush White House.Some documents have been withheld altogether. Others have been provided to the committee on "confidential" terms, meaning senators can see them but they can't be made public.Democrats object that the confidential label has been applied to a wide swath of records, many of which contain no personal or sensitive information. They also complain that classification decisions were made by former President Bush's attorney, William Burck, a former deputy of Kavanaugh's. Politics Kavanaugh Hearings, Day 1: Protesters Focus On Roe; Attempted Handshake Goes Viral Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., released some of the confidential documents Thursday morning. Hirono also released "confidential" documents, drawing a stern rebuke from Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who called them "irresponsible and outrageous.""This is no different from the senator deciding to release classified information," Cornyn said Thursday morning. "No senator deserves to sit on this committee, or serve in the Senate, in my view, if they decide to be a law unto themselves and willingly flout the rules of the Senate and the determination of confidentiality and classification."Read the documents released by Sen. Hirono here and the documents released by Sen. Leahy here. Politics Kavanaugh Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings Off To A Raucous Start For all the theatrics on both sides, the debate over documents fizzled by Thursday afternoon, once it became clear their release had been authorized by Bush's attorney overnight."We cleared the documents last night shortly after Senator Booker's staff asked us to," Burck said in a statement. "In fact, we have said yes to every request made by the Senate Democrats to make documents public."And an aide to Grassley told NPR that "counsels for the senators who requested waivers last night/this morning for particular documents were notified that their requests had been honored beginning at around 3:50 this morning."But a spokesperson for Hirono said the senator was not informed that the documents released by her office Thursday morning had been approved to be made public. Politics Kavanaugh Confirmation Hearings To Focus On 6 Hot-Button Issues It is not clear whether Booker knew the documents he released had already been approved before his statements Thursday morning at the beginning of the hearing — when he said that his decision to release the documents was a form of civil disobedience and that he was aware he was risking expulsion from the Senate for making the documents public."Cory said this morning that he was releasing committee confidential documents, and that's exactly what he's done," Booker spokeswoman Kristin Lynch said in an email to NPR. "Last night, he was admonished by Republicans for breaking the rules when he read from committee confidential documents. Cory and Senate Democrats were able to shame the committee into agreeing to make last night's documents publicly available, and Cory publicly released those documents as well as other committee confidential documents today. And he'll keep releasing them because Republicans are hiding Brett Kavanaugh's record from the American people." Enlarge this image Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. — sitting next to Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. — questions Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday. Jacquelyn Martin/AP hide caption toggle caption Jacquelyn Martin/AP Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. — sitting next to Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. — questions Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday. Jacquelyn Martin/AP The documents released by Booker include a batch of emails concerning racial profiling, affirmative action and other race-conscious government programs. Politics Brett Kavanaugh Investigated A President, Then Voiced Concerns About Doing Just That In a 2002 email, Kavanaugh wrote that security procedures adopted in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks should ultimately be race-neutral, though he acknowledged that developing such procedures could take time. Others in the White House suggested racial profiling might be legally justified if it enhanced security.In a 2001 email, Kavanaugh addressed a legal challenge to an affirmative action program within the Department of Transportation."The fundamental problem in this case is that these DOT regulations use a lot of legalisms and disguises to mask what in reality is a naked racial set-aside," he wrote.Kavanaugh had sidestepped questions from Booker on Wednesday night about the circumstances in which government can and cannot use race-conscious measures to address past discrimination.He conceded that hopes he expressed nearly two decades ago for a color-blind society have not been fulfilled."We see on an all-too-common basis that racism still exists in the United States of America," Kavanaugh said. "Our long march to racial equality is not over."Separately, The New York Times reported on leaked emails from the "confidential" file. One is an email drafted by Kavanaugh in 2003, in which he questioned whether the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion should be described as "settled law of the land."Pressed on that email by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on Thursday, Kavanaugh explained he was simply summarizing views of legal scholars and not offering his own view.On Wednesday, Kavanaugh said he understands the weight that many people attach to Roe. But he declined to say whether that case was properly decided. Law Who Is Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump's Pick For The Supreme Court? Throughout the hearing, Kavanaugh has avoided commenting on Trump's behavior, despite urging from Senate Democrats."I'm not going to get within three zip codes of a political controversy," he said Thursday, when Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., asked him about Trump's attacks on judges, including Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg."I've spoken about my respect and appreciation for the eight justices on the Supreme Court," Kavanaugh said. "I know they're all dedicated public servants who have given a great deal to this country."Barring surprises, Kavanaugh appears likely to win confirmation in time to take his place alongside those eight justices when the Supreme Court begins its fall term next month.Not seeing the video? Click here.

Mr. Kavanaugh defended the statement he made in the email, and said “the broader point was simply that it was overstating something about legal scholars.”“I’m always concerned about accuracy, and I thought it was not an accurate description of all legal scholars,” he said, adding later that Roe v. Wade is “an important precedent. It has been reaffirmed many times.” He declined to comment directly on Ms. Feinstein’s questions as to whether it is “correct law.”NARAL Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights lobby, jumped on the release immediately: “Brett Kavanaugh’s emails are rock solid evidence that he has been hiding his true beliefs and if he is given a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court, he will gut Roe v. Wade, criminalize abortion, and punish women. Everything he said yesterday in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about ‘settled law’ was nothing but a show to mislead the Senate.”A tantalizing moment on Wednesday came when Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, asked Judge Kavanaugh whether he had meetings with Manuel Miranda, a former Senate Republican aide who was caught stealing files from the computers of Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats, including Mr. Leahy.Judge Kavanaugh denied ever knowingly receiving stolen material when he was a White House aide tasked with getting President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees confirmed.On Thursday, questioning Judge Kavanaugh a second time, Mr. Leahy described and put up on posters several emails about his interactions with Mr. Miranda, indicating that he had received permission from the committee chairman around 3 a.m. to disclose them. They included a March 2003 email from Mr. Miranda to Judge Kavanaugh that included several pages of Democratic talking points, marked “not for distribution,” and another to Judge Kavanaugh from a Republican Senate staff member whose subject line “spying” and which referred to “a mole for us on the left.”

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Donald Trump attacked James Comey as a “weak and untruthful slime ball” on Friday after the fired former FBI director castigated him as an unethical liar and likened him to a mob moss in a searing new memoir. The president fired Comey last May while his agency was investigating potential collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia in the 2016 U.S. election in a move that led the Justice Department to appoint Special Counsel Robert Mueller to take over a probe that has hung over his presidency. “This president is unethical, and untethered to truth and institutional values,” Comey said in the book due out Tuesday, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters. Trump has often publicly criticized Comey since firing him, but escalated his attacks in response to the book. “It was my great honor to fire James Comey!” Trump said in one of a series of scorching Twitter messages, adding that Comey - now one of the Republican president’s fiercest critics - had been a terrible FBI director. The tirade followed news accounts of Comey’s book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership,” which paints a deeply unflattering picture of Trump, comparing him to a mob boss who stresses personal loyalty over the law and has little regard for morality or truth. Mueller is looking into whether Trump has sought to obstruct the Russia probe, and Comey could be a key witness on that front. Comey last year accused Trump of pressuring him to pledge loyalty and end a probe involving former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s contacts with Moscow. “James Comey is a proven LEAKER & LIAR,” Trump wrote. Trump accused Comey of lying to Congress, but did not specify was he was referring to, and said the former FBI chief should be prosecuted for leaking classified information. Related CoverageTrump's 'slime ball' tweet sparks rush to online dictionaryHighlights from former FBI Director James Comey's new bookTrump has denied any collusion and has called Mueller’s investigation a witch hunt. Comey is conducting a series of media interviews before the book’s official release. Copies of the book were obtained by news outlets on Thursday. The interviews are Comey’s first public comments since he testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee last June, when he accused Trump of firing him to undermine the FBI’s Russia investigation. Just days after Trump fired Comey, the president said he did it because of “this Russia thing.” Trump has launched a series of attacks since last year against U.S. law enforcement leaders and institutions as the Russia probe pressed forward, in addition to Comey and Mueller. “People will rot in hell for besmirching the reputation the integrity and the professional history of these two men,” Democratic U.S. Representative Jim Himes said on CNN, referring to Comey and Mueller, himself a former FBI director. In an offshoot of the Mueller probe, Trump’s longtime personal lawyer’s office and home were raided by the Federal Bureau on Investigation on Monday. In an interview broadcast on Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Comey discussed his initial encounters last year with Trump, who took office on Jan. 20, 2017. He described Trump as volatile, defensive and concerned more about his own image than about whether Russia meddled in the presidential election. A combination of file photos show U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House in Washington, DC, U.S. April 9, 2018 and former FBI Director James Comey on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 8, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria, Jonathan Ernst/File Photos American intelligence agencies last year said Russia interfered in the election through a campaign of propaganda and hacking in a scheme to sow discord in the United States and help get Trump elected. Moscow has denied meddling. Comey said he cautioned Trump against ordering an investigation into a salacious intelligence dossier alleging an 2013 encounter involving prostitutes in Moscow. The dossier was compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele about Trump’s ties to Russia and included an allegation that involved prostitutes urinating on one another in a hotel room while Trump watched. Trump denied the allegations and said he might want the FBI to investigate allegations in the dossier to prove they were untrue, Comey told ABC. “I said to him, ‘Sir that’s up to you but you want to be careful about that because it might create a narrative that we’re investigating you personally and, second, it’s very difficult to prove something didn’t happen,’” Comey said. Asked to describe that Jan. 6, 2017 meeting two weeks before Trump took office, Comey said: “Really weird. It was almost an out-of-body experience for me.” Comey was asked if he believed the dossier’s allegations. “I honestly never thought these words would come out of my mouth, but I don’t know whether the current president of the United States was with prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow in 2013,” Comey told ABC. “It’s possible, but I don’t know.” Comey said the dossier’s allegations had not been verified by the time he left the FBI. Before Trump and Comey met alone, U.S. intelligence chiefs briefed Trump and his advisers about the Russian election meddling. What struck him most, Comey told ABC, was that the conversation moved straight into a public relations mode, what they could say and how they could position Trump. A copy of former FBI director James Comey's book "A Higher Loyalty" is seen in New York City, New York, U.S. April 13, 2018. REUTERS/Soren Larson“No one, to my recollection, asked, ‘So what’s coming next from the Russians, how might we stop it, what’s the future look like?’” Comey said. (GRAPHIC: Major milestones in the Mueller probe - tmsnrt.rs/2GTgtnX) Reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington and Angela Moore in New York; Additional reporting by Justin Mitchell in Washington; Editing by Frances Kerry and Will DunhamOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

EU institutions must review the way they treat staff who claim they have been sexually harassed, a senior commission official has said during a debate held in the wake of the revelations about the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.Cecilia Malmström, a Swedish commissioner with responsibility for human resources, told the debate in Strasbourg that more must be done to address allegations of sexual abuse within the European parliament and commission. Her comments come after at least two staff members claimed they had been raped and other claims of sexual harassment emerged this week.“Workplaces all over the world, including in the European Union and the institutions must look at how we address this,” she said. “Do we do enough?”The debate about sexual violence heard claims that the parliamentary authorities had sought to play down allegations of sexual abuse in the past. These claims were swiftly denied.Anonymous victims of sexual harassment within the European commission and the parliament have suggested through the media in recent days that they have struggled to have their voices heard. The Politico website claims to have heard more than 30 unverified allegations of rape, assault and harassment connected to the parliament in the past week, after it set up a confidential whistleblowing portal.One of the complainants, an MEP’s assistant who requested anonymity, told Politico she had informed senior parliamentary officers that a member of staff had raped her in 2016, only to be discouraged from approaching the police.“If there are formal procedures, I don’t know what they are. I felt completely lost,” she said.Catherine Bearder, a Liberal Democrat MEP who sits on the committee that investigates harrassment complaints involving colleagues in the parliament, told the debate that the body regularly had cases to deal with, but none of the 10 reported to it since 2014 had been of a sexual nature. She added, however, that she believed women were fearful of coming forward with the most serious accusations.“All forms of harassment are wrong and must be stopped but sexual harassment is particularly pernicious,” she said. “Coming forward is very distressing for the victims. Disclosure is a professional and financial risk for the victims.“They often don’t come forward and their cases go unreported. So we don’t see the full extent of the problem. This isn’t acceptable.“We must get better. Better at preventing harassment in the first place by introducing mandatory MEP training. Better at encouraging the victims to come forward by providing guarantees they will not lose their job. And better at acting swiftly once the investigation has been completed. With sanctions imposed against accused MEPs.”The fact that MEPs have immunity from prosecution up until the chamber votes to lift it represents a further complication for alleged victims of sexual harassment.The president of the European parliament, Antonio Tajani, said earlier this week that no formal allegations of sexual harassment had been made against those who work in the chamber, only for contradictory details to emerge and clarifications to follow.A spokesman said on Wednesday that while no formal allegations of sexual abuse had been made to the two advisory committees formed to deal with accusations, “cases of rape or sexual harassment have been reported” to senior personnel and “sanctions and disciplinary measures taken”.MEPs, who are due to vote on a resolution on the subject on Thursday, debated ways to put an end to all forms of sexual harassment. Some shared their own experiences.“I was 19 years old at university, he was a like-minded professor about 70 years old, an intellectual comrade,” the Italian MEP Eleonora Forenza said.Terry Reintke, a Green MEP, said: “Me too, I have been sexually harassed just like millions of other women in the European Union … I think it is about time that we very clearly say that we should not be ashamed but that the perpetrators should be ashamed.”The leader of the Tory MEPs, Ashley Fox, has fallen foul of a group of five female MEPs who are demanding an external investigation into allegations of sexual harassment in the parliament. He was accused of “mansplaining” when he said those responding to an email from the group seeking support for their initiative earlier this week need not reply to everyone on the distribution list, suggesting their responses amounted to spam.Soroya Post, a Swedish MEP, wrote back: “It is amazing that in 2017 we can still see such examples of mansplaining. Times have changed and we will not be dictated by your demands Mr Fox.“The power of visibility that the issue of sexual harassment and assault is gaining right now cannot be underestimated or diminished. We will make our voices louder on this issue which has been silenced for too long to the detriment of all of us.“Martin Luther King Jr said: ‘The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort or convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.’ You Mr Fox could clearly heed his advice.” Topics Sexual harassment European Union Europe news

Suppose you are an astronaut out in space. You have nothing with you except your wits and ... a fire extinguisher? Why a fire extinguisher? Because that's what Sandra Bullock's character has in the movie Gravity. Because a fire extinguisher shoots out gas (normally to put out a fire), it can also be used to produce thrust and help you maneuver in space. But would this really work? That is what the MythBusters, for whom I'm a science consultant, set out to test in a recent episode.The MythBusters started by trying to create a similar situation on the surface of the Earth. They used a leaf blower to fashion a one-person hovercraft (it's not too hard to build one yourself). They let it loose on an ice rink, which pretty much eliminated the frictional force. Then they used a fire extinguisher for thrust and tried maneuvering around on the ice.It turned out that the fire extinguisher wasn't so great for controlling the motion of the hovercraft. No one could avoid the obstacles set up on the ice. The problems with the fire extinguisher thruster are twofold: First, it doesn't push that hard on the hovercraft. So you would need to generate thrust for a significant amount of time to get a noticeable change in motion. Second, the way force changes the motion of an object doesn't agree with our basic intuitions about force. It's this second part that makes it difficult to fly a fire extinguisher in space.We can get a good model of how forces make things move by reviewing your entire life. Yes, let's do it right now. For just about every event that you have observed, forces seem to obey the following rule:If you push something, it moves in the direction of the push. If you stop pushing on it, it stops moving.That force model seems to work just about all the time. One case where it doesn't work is with the hovercraft on the ice. In this case, the hovercraft is given a push to get it moving. After that, the person stops pushing—but the hovercraft JUST KEEPS MOVING! I honestly think that's why humans like ice. Things on ice don't follow our normal force models.Since this model of "force equals motion" doesn't work on ice, it clearly isn't the best model. Here, I can describe a better force model with three gifs.Let's take a low-friction (almost frictionless) cart and push with a constant force. Here is what happens.In case you can't tell, the cart is increasing in speed. Honestly, it's difficult for humans to detect changes in speed. Usually we just break motions into three categories: not moving, slow, fast. But trust me. This cart is increasing in speed. So if you push on an object with a force in the same direction that the object is moving, it will speed up.Here is that same cart, but now the fan is pushing in the opposite direction. I have to give the cart a push, and then this happens.In this case, the backwards force makes the cart slow down. It slows down so much that it eventually stops. Once it stops, the cart starts moving back to the right and speeds up—since it's now a forwards force.I couldn't do this with the cart, so I used a yo-yo instead. Here is a top view of a yo-yo moving in a circle.The force on the yo-yo is from the string and it is always pulling in a direction perpendicular to the motion of the yo-yo. This means the yo-yo constantly changes direction even though it's mostly moving at the same speed. What happens when I let go of the string? With no more sideways force, the yo-yo goes back to moving in a straight line at a constant speed (mostly constant).What do all three of these cases have in common? The force always changes the motion of the object. It either makes it speed up, slow down, or change direction. Of course this is one of the fundamental models in physics—that the total force on an object is proportional to the rate of change of the velocity.So, why do humans get this so wrong? We aren't so bad at making models, but we do have trouble seeing friction as a force. Since friction is just about everywhere, we think that pushing with a constant force makes something move at a constant speed. In fact, there is zero net force in this case. The force of you pushing balances out the frictional force to make essentially no force. No force means no change in motion. But still, it's caused by the always-present friction.OK, I get it. You weren't able to be on set when the MythBusters tested their hovercraft with the fire extinguisher. Don't worry, I wasn't able to be there either. But I have the next best thing—a fire extinguisher simulator. Yes. I made this for you.Here's how it works. When you click the Run button, the big disk starts moving to the right. There is a constant force from the fire extinguisher that pushes in the direction of the arrow. You can use the mouse to move that arrow in whatever direction you think is the best. Now, can you avoid that wall? Here is your chance.I guess I have a few more comments on this program.Remember, the arrow is the direction of the force. It's not the direction you would point the fire extinguisher.You can look at the code if it makes you happy. Warning: I get confused when adding buttons and mouse interactions and stuff.The pause and reset buttons should work.Nothing in the code prevents you from just going through the wall. There is no wall, there is no spoon. It's just there for decorations.No, you can't turn the fire extinguisher off. It stays on for 20 seconds.You can see that it's not impossible to avoid the wall, but it's not trivial either. Just imagine if the hovercraft was also spinning. This would be crazy hard. You could change the rotational rate of the hovercraft with a fire extinguisher thrust that was not directed at the center of mass. This would then exert an external torque AND an external force. Coding that would be a bit more difficult, though, so I left that part out.Messenger lets you unsend now. Why don't all apps?This birdlike robot uses thrusters to float on two legsA new Chrome extension will detect unsafe passwordsThe Social Network was more right than anyone realizedMicromobility: prose and poetry of the scooter-faithful👀 Looking for the latest gadgets? Check out our latest buying guides and best deals all year round📩 Want more? Sign up for our daily newsletter and never miss our latest and greatest stories

Rarely does an ancient Greek portmanteau word spark a Twitterstorm. But that’s what happened when the former director of the CIA John Brennan took to Twitter and accused Donald Trump of running a “kakistocracy”. This tweet sparked a 13,700% increase in people looking up the word using the online version of the Merriam Webster dictionary. These curious souls would have found a terse definition: “Government by the worst people.”The first recorded use of kakistocracy was in a sermon, delivered in 1644 by Paul Gosnold. His audience was the “King’s parliament” assembled in Oxford during the English civil war to support the monarchist cause. Gosnold warned of the dire consequences if “our well-temperd Monarchy” descended “into a mad kinde of Kakistocracy”. The term lay fallow for nearly 200 years, until it was revived by the 19th-century English satirist Thomas Love Peacock. In The Misfortunes of Elfin, he mocks the “agrestic kakistocracy” of his time, which treated “treading on old foot-paths, picking up dead wood, and moving on the face of the earth within sound of the whirr of a partridge” as “heinous sins”.The word soon found fertile soil in the United States, where in 1838, William Harper, a US senator and defender of slavery, claimed that anarchy was a kind of kakistocracy. Decades later, in 1876, the American poet James Russell Lowell asked: “Is ours a ‘government of the people by the people for the people,’ or a Kakistocracy rather, for the benefit of knaves at the cost of fools?”The term was not just limited to the US. In an account of his travels to Australia, the English writer John Martineau, describes the remarkably poor quality of government there. In the 1869 publication Letters from Australia, he documents the poor quality civil service, the self-serving politicians and the remarkably coarse political debate. He wonders whether these new colonies would become a kakistocracy.Early users of the term often counterpose it against aristocracy. For them, aristocracy was government by the most excellent in skills, knowledge and virtue. In contrast, kakistocracy was government by the unskilled, unknowledgeable and unvirtuous. The word was often used to castigate some of the less savoury forces unleashed by the rise of democracy. It helped to describe the anxieties about the disorder created when “the worst” took over. Often the word was all about preserving the privileges of those assumed to be “the best” (upper-class white men). But behind it was that old conservative idea that democratic revolutions don’t necessarily unleash the best in human nature, they can also unleash the worst.But it has been the election of Donald Trump to the US presidency that has driven a wider revival of use of the word. On the eve of Trump’s inauguration, the economist Paul Krugman warned: “What we’re looking at, all too obviously, is an American kakistocracy.” Six months into the presidency, the political scientist Norm Ornstein documented how constant waves of scandals around the White House led him to conclude that “kakistocracy is back, and we are experiencing it firsthand in America”.Brennan is the only the most recent in a long line of people to dust off the term to describe what he sees as a incompetent and unethical regime. During its 450-year history, kakistocracy has mainly been used by conservatives to convey their anxieties about what happens when tradition and order are upended. Today, it is being claimed by people from across the political spectrum to describe the wicked disorder that can result when expertise and ethical judgment are aggressively and systematically pushed aside.• André Spicer is professor of organisational behaviour at the Cass Business School at City, University of London. He is the author of the book Business Bullshit Topics Donald Trump Opinion Trump administration US politics Language Politics past comment

Kyna Hamill aimed to shed light on a long-hidden history, detailing the racist origins of a popular Christmas carol. Instead the university lecturer ended up the target of rightwing trolling, after her academic research on Jingle Bells was twisted into an example of liberal overreach.Hate-filled emails flooded her inbox, Hamill of Boston University told the Guardian. “I was told that I was trying to ruin Christmas for children who weren’t allowed to sing the song any more and that I was ruining the Jingle Bell festival in our town.”Hamill had probed the origins of the popular carol, hoping to settle a friendly rivalry between Medford, Massachusetts, and Savannah, Georgia, over where Jingle Bells was written.About two years ago she stumbled across a rather different story. The song, initially known as One Horse Open Sleigh, was first performed in blackface in a minstrel show in Boston in September 1857, she discovered. Hamill published the findings in a peer-reviewed paper in September, noting that during the past 160 years the song had become an example of music whose “blackface and racist origins have been subtly and systematically removed from its history”.The song was written by James Pierpont, who badly needed work after failing at several other professional ventures. “Pierpont capitalized on minstrel music and entered upon a ‘safe’ ground for satirizing black participation in northern winter activities,” she wrote. Last year she detailed her findings to local media, yielding a front page story in the Boston Globe and no backlash.This year, however, was a different story. “Newest Christmas controversy has social justice warriors claiming this classic holiday carol is racist,” a Fox News host told viewers earlier this month. Breitbart warned that Hamill was urging people to “shun the jaunty tune”.Hamill said much reporting of her research was incorrect and laden with “all sorts of absolutely absurd” accusations. “It was obviously an easy way to bait and politicise Christmas,” she said. “Which seems to be what extreme political outlets want to do.” She had never said that Jingle Bells was now racist nor had she sought to discourage people from singing the tune, she pointed out.Still, the backlash was fierce. Her name soon became a hashtag on Twitter, racking up tweets as users opined on her findings. Hundreds of hate-laced emails filled her inbox. Others tried to reach her by phone or through social media.She replied to a few of the emails, at times receiving an apology. “Despite the fact that a lot of the hate mail was really horrible, people just want to communicate and they’re stuck in this echo chamber,” she said. “So I think people just want to be heard and nobody seems to be listening any more.”Ironically the controversy has sent interest in her research on Jingle Bells soaring, placing it currently among the most-read articles on Cambridge University Press. “If anything, this irresponsible reporting has drawn more attention to an academic article that would usually just sit in a journal that very few would read,” she said.Days into the backlash, she had no regrets about publishing the work. “I was doing what an academic does,” said Hamill. “I was trying to do the best research that I could and write it up. I did not have an agenda for Christmas, that’s for sure.” Topics Christmas news

Enlarge this image Some Central American migrants start their journey through Mexico at the Guatemalan border town of Gracias a Dios. Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR hide caption toggle caption Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR Some Central American migrants start their journey through Mexico at the Guatemalan border town of Gracias a Dios. Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR Mario Garcia sits in the doorway of his tire shop in Gracias a Dios, Guatemala, a short distance from the border with Mexico, watching the unfettered flow of migrants headed north. By his estimate, up to 1,000 migrants cross over into Carmen Xhan, Mexico, every day."This is an open border," Garcia says, with a knowing smile. "There's no immigration control on this side or the other side. Anyone can go across freely."The migrant trail that begins in Central America and ends in the United States must cross the Guatemala-Mexico border — where immigration control is light to nonexistent. More and more migrants are choosing to start their journey up through Mexico in the remote, hilly village of Gracias a Dios — Spanish for "Thanks to God."In recent months, Gracias a Dios has become a trafficker's boomtown, and what happens here helps explain the recent surge of migrants entering the United States. Enlarge this image Dalila, from La Democracia, Guatemala, sits on a motorcycle in a small town near the border with Mexico. She plans to leave later this month for the United States with her 5-year-old daughter. Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR hide caption toggle caption Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR Dalila, from La Democracia, Guatemala, sits on a motorcycle in a small town near the border with Mexico. She plans to leave later this month for the United States with her 5-year-old daughter. Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR A well-established network of coyotes, or human smugglers, is taking advantage of lax border controls and Mexico's fleet of commercial express buses, according to interviews with migrants, Guatemalan border residents and U.S. immigration authorities. That means the journeys have become quicker and safer, which spurs even more illegal immigration.Smugglers are billing these routes as a less arduous alternative to the massive, highly publicized caravans of migrants plodding north on foot. Politics Kirstjen Nielsen Leaves Homeland Security Post As Border Crossings Surge "There's some opportunity to provide a smoother, faster, more well-planned movement than just starting out walking and taking a 30- to 45-day journey through all the different countries and across all the different borders," said Derek Benner, executive associate director of Homeland Security Investigations.The mayor of Gracias a Dios, Marvin Hernandez, explains that the village came into being nearly a century ago when a family fleeing the Mexican Revolution settled just across the border in Guatemala. Enlarge this image A road stretches along the border with Mexico between La Mesilla and Gracias a Dios, two border towns in Guatemala that are both being used officially and unofficially to pass between the two countries. Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR hide caption toggle caption Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR A road stretches along the border with Mexico between La Mesilla and Gracias a Dios, two border towns in Guatemala that are both being used officially and unofficially to pass between the two countries. Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR "They said, '¡Gracias a Dios!' and it stuck," Hernandez recounts. "Now the migrants crossing in the other direction are saying it."Hernandez says he noticed about two years ago that more travelers were passing through the town, population 750."Since then, it's increased a lot," he says. Enlarge this image Roughly 150 adults and children are gathered at a stash house, waiting around for their trip northward. John Burnett/NPR hide caption toggle caption John Burnett/NPR Roughly 150 adults and children are gathered at a stash house, waiting around for their trip northward. John Burnett/NPR Hernandez built a restaurant, Comedor Azteca, with money he earned when he worked as a cook in Virginia in the early 2000s. "The migrants come in and eat a meal before they cross," he says. "It's good for my business."Day and night, buses arrive here from the state capital of Huehuetenango and unload families from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and the interior of Guatemala.Some of them assemble at a run-down, aqua-colored stash house in the center of town, behind a soccer field and next to a Jehovah's Witness kingdom hall. On a recent afternoon, about 150 adults and kids were waiting around for their trip northward — spilling out the front door, sitting under trees and lounging on the grass. Enlarge this image Juan, from El Salvador, was resting in a guesthouse in Gracias a Dios before beginning the trek through Mexico with his friend. Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR hide caption toggle caption Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR Juan, from El Salvador, was resting in a guesthouse in Gracias a Dios before beginning the trek through Mexico with his friend. Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR They scattered when a reporter approached. Then a heavyset, scowling man bolted out of the stash house, waved his arms and yelled, "This is private property! Get lost!"Migrants who cross at Gracias a Dios typically pay coyotes to arrange transport all the way to the U.S.-Mexico border — 1,800 miles away. The going price is $5,000 to $7,000 for a package deal for an adult and a child.Passenger vans and other vehicles pick them up in Gracias a Dios and carry them to the city of Comitán, an hour inside Mexico. Several local observers, including Gracias a Dios' mayor, say the migrants breeze through a Mexican federal checkpoint, just south of Comitán, because the coyote pays off immigration officials. Enlarge this image Morning on the Río Azul in Guatemala just south of the border with Mexico. Minimal police presence in the countryside between interior parts of Chiapas, Mexico, and Guatemala allows for relatively easy passage across the border. Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR hide caption toggle caption Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR Morning on the Río Azul in Guatemala just south of the border with Mexico. Minimal police presence in the countryside between interior parts of Chiapas, Mexico, and Guatemala allows for relatively easy passage across the border. Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR In Comitán, the migrants board tourist buses to Mexico City. There, they transfer to express buses that speed to places near the U.S.-Mexico border like Ciudad Juárez, where they wade across the shallow Rio Grande and surrender to the Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas.If there are no delays, the trip can take as little as three days.Julio, who declined to give his last name because he plans to cross into the U.S. illegally, traveled from El Salvador's capital, San Salvador, to Gracias a Dios to avoid the caravans and take the bus route instead. Enlarge this image Julio is traveling with his friend Juan. They made the choice to leave El Salvador together, as opposed to in a caravan, after seeing in the news negative treatment and attitudes toward caravans. Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR hide caption toggle caption Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR Julio is traveling with his friend Juan. They made the choice to leave El Salvador together, as opposed to in a caravan, after seeing in the news negative treatment and attitudes toward caravans. Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR "Big caravan, big crime, big problems," he says, standing outside a boarding house across the soccer field from the stash house. "I'll cross with two or three other people, and we'll get where we're going and try not to attract attention."Julio knows he needs to sneak into the U.S. undetected by the Border Patrol because adult migrants who are caught traveling alone are typically detained and put on a fast track to deportation.Many migrants are also aware that if they bring a child with them, they won't be detained — the so-called "catch and release" policy that infuriates President Trump. If migrant families ask for asylum and pass a credible-fear interview, immigration agents usually release them into the U.S. with a notice to appear in immigration court, because detaining families is difficult under current U.S. policies. Enlarge this image Javier is staying in a guesthouse in Gracias a Dios with his wife and three children. He was waiting for a smuggler to help them cross into Mexico. He and his family recently fled El Salvador, where, Javier says, the violence was inescapable and jobs nonexistent. Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR hide caption toggle caption Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR Javier is staying in a guesthouse in Gracias a Dios with his wife and three children. He was waiting for a smuggler to help them cross into Mexico. He and his family recently fled El Salvador, where, Javier says, the violence was inescapable and jobs nonexistent. Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR That is Javier's plan. He's also from San Salvador and staying in the same rooming house as Julio. He declined to give his full name because he plans to cross into the U.S. with his wife and three kids.Asked why his family was making the trip north, Javier says, "President Trump has to defend his nation, but the United States for us is like a mother, a mother who looks out for these small countries that we come from."Trump is contending with an increase in unauthorized border crossings, which officials said were on pace to hit more than 100,000 last month, the highest level in more than a decade. On Sunday, Trump announced that Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, whom he reportedly clashed with over the surge, would leave her post.In late March, Trump threatened to close the U.S.-Mexico border if Mexico didn't act to stop the flow of migrants.Within days, Trump backed off that threat and then made a new one. He gave Mexico a "one-year warning" to address the migrants and drugs crossing the border or he would slap tariffs on car imports from Mexico. Enlarge this image Dusk settles on the border between Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico. U.S. officials estimate they apprehended more than 100,000 people crossing the U.S. Southern border last month — the most in more than a decade. Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR hide caption toggle caption Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR Dusk settles on the border between Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico. U.S. officials estimate they apprehended more than 100,000 people crossing the U.S. Southern border last month — the most in more than a decade. Celia Talbot Tobin for NPR Trump also credited Mexico for doing more to address immigration. On Friday, he tweeted: "Mexico, for the first time in decades, is meaningfully apprehending illegals at THEIR Southern Border, before the long march up to the U.S. This is great and the way it should be. The big flow will stop."But there is no evidence of that in places like Gracias a Dios, where the flow of immigrants continues to grow. The majority of them are families and unaccompanied children from Central America, which represents a historic shift in immigration. National A Surge Of Migrants Strains Border Patrol As El Paso Becomes Latest Hot Spot It used to be that the Border Patrol mostly apprehended Mexican men crossing into the U.S. to find work. On warm nights, in plazas across Mexico, mariachis still sing sad songs of the exodus of their countrymen who went to el Norte to pursue their dreams."I swam the Rio Grande, ignoring the dangers. La migra turned me away, and I found myself in Nogales. I went to another border crossing, and they pushed me to Juárez," say the lyrics to the famous migrant ballad Los Mandados.But all that has changed. The Border Patrol now apprehends more Central American families.But why now? Why the current surge of migrants?"Social media has motivated lots of people, hasn't it? It's saying if you don't go to the U.S. now, you might not be able to go tomorrow," says Olinto Laparra, a prominent businessman in the region of Gracias a Dios. He says he knows lots of people who've left for the U.S. lately.While he's talking, he steers his pickup to avoid giant potholes that pock the highway that hugs the rugged Guatemala-Mexico border."How do you like our roads?" Laparra asks sarcastically. "Look at our sad reality."He blames state and federal leaders in Guatemala for stealing money they're supposed to use to maintain highways and bring services to remote villages. He says it's all part of a corrupt system that perpetuates poverty and allows rampant gang violence, and that is what's driving Guatemalans out of their homeland."Mr. Trump can close the border whenever he wants to," Laparra concludes, "but the people will keep crossing. They have a lot of desire to overcome and get ahead."